LogFAQs > #934794798

Was the spirit forest too much for you? Well, meet one of the reasons no one ever takes the B route in Thracia (poor B routes, no one takes it in Thracia, no one takes it in Binding Blade's western isles, I think later on Sacae is also the B route and it seems like most people don't go there either...will B ever be the best?)

The Bad

4. Thracia 776 Chapter 16B - The Dark Forest

https://www.fireemblemwod.com/fe5/guia/ENG_cap16b.htm

If that looks like a bit of a clusterfuck, it's because this map helpfully explains where the bullshit is.

We've already seen a dark forest from Thracia on the dishonourable mentions list. This forest, despite the name, is not nearly as dark, and yet it manages to be so much worse. Look at that map. Just look at that fucking map! It's just a gigantic ass forest. Your movement is cut down on practically the entire thing. And to top it off, the darker tiles are thickets which you can't walk through, further restricting your movement. The guide posted highlights them to make them easier to see, but in the actual game? They do look different. A little. Not nearly as different as they should though, which can make for some awkward moments where you realize you can't go where you wanted because the game demands you strain your eyes just to play it. And remember, I'm speaking from the experience of playing via methods that are, of course, perfectly legitimate (<_<). Imagine having to look across the room to a TV to tell the difference between the forest tiles and the "forest tile with the brightness turned down 5%" tiles. Probably not fun.

Then that brings us to the issue of the enemies, or lack thereof. Seriously. I know this is supposed to be the super secret back door path through the spooky forest or whatever, but is there really no one out there but a handful of dudes and some reinforcements? There's barely anything to even do on this god damn map. At least Girl of the Spirit Forest had some enemies in it! I guess the enemies that do exist are more impressive than the usual Thracia scrublord fodder, consisting of promoted enemies with nice weaponry, but they're so spread out and so few that it doesn't matter. The only real "threat" is the boss and his Berserk staff. That he has I believe a 20% chance of actually using? What is this game's fixation on forest chapters where the bosses have totally random AI on their status staffs instead of, I don't know, having literally any sort of actual thought put into them? Sometimes he can be a problem, but on average you can just delete him without giving a shit.

Of course, the "highlight" of the map is the warp tiles. These things are...well, Thracia isn't widely played enough for them to be infamous, but they should be. Step on a specific tile that looks identical to any other, and you too can be teleported to another place on the map. Amusingly enough this map at least tries to demonstrate this concept, since the dark mages will use the warp tile near their starting point to teleport over to you, so at least that one you're warned about. The other four though? Nope. Just random patches of forest that send you backwards so you can crawl through the forest of tedium again. I do not understand the point of this. It's neither challenging nor entertaining. It exists solely to annoy you and make you feel like you wasted your time playing this game. And they reuse the damn things later on in the game too!

This map is basically a Revelation style gimmick, except in Revelation the gimmicks are usually creative, or at least unique, even when they're complete shit. This one? The gimmick is just "haha it's really boring haha walk through the woods again loser". You can't even warp skip without losing units because it's an escape map, and in Thracia any unit who is left on the map when Leif escapes is captured, so you have to drag your entire army all the way past (again, the spirit forest never did this to me...)

Up next: Let's talk about how to start something off on the right foot

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Meow!