And let's move on because this next one is pretty brief.
Chapter 30
Hector promotes! HECTOR SMASH!
After a little while where the restrictive deployment limit stopped being so rough, it's back in full force, as I can bring a whopping ONE person other than Hector to this chapter. I choose Priscilla, I'll have to pass up a lot of treasure Legault could get me but reliable healing/chip damage is better.
They go towards the boss. They kill stuff along the way. Kaim is an annoying tough target, but Hector bashes him with a Silver Axe several times to kill him. The end. Yeah, not the most exciting chapter ever <_<
--
We clasped our hands, our hands in praise of a conquerors right to tyranny
Might be able to finish FE7 off some time today at this rate! Only one chapter that can really trip me up remaining, and that is, of course, the SUPER DUPER UBER DIFFICULT SHOPPING CHAPTER
Chapter 31
Defend, castle, siege, etc. I have a tendency to shut this down early with a quick Denning kill, and I'll probably attempt it again this time.
The people who start in the isolated room are kind of screwed to begin. It's often better to just not deploy anyone there, but I'm going to do it because they can help take out Denning early for me, and I'm sure they can survive the stuff that will be thrown at them. Especially since I just have Hawkeye and Raven run out and lure in Denning on turn 1. Turn 2 will be the boss kill, ending the reinforcements and making this map probably get a little boring since I'll likely rout it before time is up, but oh well, I don't exactly need the EXP at this point beyond what I can get from the enemies already present.
And just as expected, Hawkeye nukes Denning with a critical on turn 2, and then I can just mop stuff up, focusing kills onto units like Raven and Harken who will be potential boss killing candidates (the roughest part of Victory or Death is the reinforcements around the seize point getting to swarm you, so the quicker you can kill Limstella, the better, especially since you're on a timer to unlock 32x).
And then we mop stuff up. Vaida ends up putting in a lot of work and rewards me by growing speed, which is good, because a flying tank is great and it's even better when it has solid offense. I collect treasure because...why not?
--
Mistake you're making - overlooking the fact that we might not want to be saved.
TsunamiXXVIII posted... Oh, g-d, this team...I once tried an Easy Mode run just to see if I could make the worst units usable, and Fiona still completely sucked no matter what I did with her. At least Meg was able to be slightly useful with enough babying.
Fiona's base stats are beyond awful for when you get her and she was almost definitely the worst of those 10 for the majority of the game, but she eventually turns out pretty solid. Earth support + innate Imbue + Sol makes her almost impossible to kill. Not at all worth it though.
(I did Normal mode, for the record...I did Hard mode once in that game and I am not doing it again.)
--
Everyone has a right to sarcasm. It's like murder, except legal. - MYC
Victory or Death. As if every other chapter doesn't already require you to either win or die! I'm on a highly strict turn limit of...20. Not that strict, really. All it gets me is a side quest where I can finally kill Kishuna for good after all the grief he's caused me, and a whole bunch of high leveled Berserkers to gain EXP from.
This is another "wait in certain spots to lure reinforcements" map, so I'm probably going to only really advance up the middle, with the other sides having people only go far enough to recruit Renault/visit the other ruins, just to make things easier. Pent will probably do some Warping this chapter to help eliminate threats since it's not like I'll be needing it after this.
A few turns in, Vaida eats a Killer Lance crit from a Wyvern Knight. She's left with...34 HP. God I love that durability. It lets her mow down an entire army of Wyverns on her own, since they apparently like attacking her more than some of the softer units in their reach. I end up deciding to not even bother with the south eastern village, it's just a Talisman anyway, nothing too exciting. The central village is also pretty pointless. Definitely going to recruit Renault though, because that Fortify staff is nice.
Unfortunately my clever plan to only wait in certain places didn't work out quite so well, as enemies start showing up in large numbers anyway. So now I have a bit of a cluster**** on my hands. The good news is that there's tons of forest terrain for me to take advantage of in the middle of the map, and Merlinus makes a pretty good distraction for absorbing random attacks.
Things get very dicey towards the end but it all goes well enough after a few tries. Florina with the Brave Lance 2RKOs Limstella even with her healing from the gate, and she lands the first hit while Bolting is equipped so there's no counter. Got to love the benefits of having the RNG give her capped strength. Then I just clear out some enemies and Hector is free to march to the gate and seize. I won in 14 turns, so even if the limit had been 15 instead of 20, I still would have prevailed. Hooray!
--
Mistake you're making - overlooking the fact that we might not want to be saved.
This chapter is called The Value of Life. Apparently, the value of life is murder. This is also another chapter where you can see the map during a conversation, so you get to see all the enemies who exist in normal mode and who will have disappeared once the map actually begins, replaced by endless Berserkers. I bring Nils, Raven, Harken and Pent with me.
This is very straightforward. We advance, they advance, we slash them, they swing wildly and usually miss.
Stuff does happen but it's really nothing unexpected. I get bogged down for a while, then eventually break through and Raven cuts Kishuna down to finally get him out of my life.
--
We clasped our hands, our hands in praise of a conquerors right to tyranny
Here we are, at the final chapter of FE7. It's boss rush time! I do hate that Lyn and Eliwood are forced here, given that they are not exactly my best units, but oh well, I can manage.
I set Raven up to get a Hand Axe counter on Uhai, since he's the only guy who won't be doubled (aside from Florina, and that's obviously a bad idea). Then it turns out he does get doubled because I forgot how much he'd be weighed down by it. "Oops". He lives though so it's all good, since I have no lack of healing power with me. I like how the game describes the Rienfleche bow as being "able to strike consecutively". Can you imagine how scary that guy would be if it actually had a Brave weapon effect? Anyway, Uhai dodges some attacks but I surround him so he can't do anything since Nergal wasn't smart enough to give him a Killing Edge like he had back in chapter 19. Athos goes north and kills the sage in Kenneths room to save me from Bolting, then sticks around to deal with the Druid and Kenneth himself. Uhai goes down to Harken right after, then I position myself to deal with Brendan Reed. Shame we never fought the real deal during the game.
After that, Brendan goes down to a Pent assault followed by Hector finishing him. His Warrior buddy gets owned hard by Athos, then Darin comes out and doesn't last too long either. Athos and Hawkeye handle the Jerme/Ursula room quite well, then Hector equips the Swordslayer to take on Lloyd and...eats a critical. He survives with 3 HP and dodges the second attack though so it's okay. That was a bit worrying though. Anyway, he finishes Lloyd off, gets danced and eventually finishes Linus too, after Linus took hits from several others to soften him up. Then Athos went north to clear the path to Nergal while Hawkeye and Harken hang back to defend me from the Generals who show up. Everyone else heads north to help take on Nergal.
In the end, Athos smacks Nergal with Aureola, Raven doubles him with the Regal Blade, Hector doubles with Basilikos but misses one hit, so Pent chips with Fimbulvetr to drop him to 1HP, where Florina pokes him with an Iron Lance for 1 damage to officially kill him. Yay, I beat the main villain. Why do I suspect this isn't the end?
FINAL Pt 2
Oh yeah, because I have to fight a dragon.
I'm not entirely sure why people don't make fun of this thing the way they do the Demon King. Hector walks up and smacks it, gets healed by Physic. Athos hits it with Luna, gets healed by Priscilla, who is rescued out of the way. I had Nils use the crit-boosting dance on Athos but it didn't pan out, and I didn't feel like RNG abusing to rig the potential OHKO either. So Athos countered it on enemy phase, then it was already in range to die if Nils used the attack boosting ring on Athos, but I had Hector bash it and Florina poke it first, just for laughs. Then Athos kills it with Luna. Yay, game over, I win, world is saved, and there's totally not any threats to the future of the continent ever again, and certainly not any that I ****ing agonized over saving, no sir.
FE7 IS COMPLETED!
And now to take a bit of a break before moving on to FE4
--
We clasped our hands, our hands in praise of a conquerors right to tyranny
So on the subject of FE4, I'm curious to know if the people who haven't played it (ie, most people here) would be interested in following this, and thus, how much detail I should go into on the plot. And for those who have played it, pairing suggestions are always welcome.
--
Mistake you're making - overlooking the fact that we might not want to be saved.
I think that people don't mock the Fire Dragon because it is trivialized by Athos instead of being trivialized by Basically Anyone With A S-Rank. That said, the fact that the Demon King has options beyond "stand still and look angry" means that I've never really been sure which one is objectively more difficult. At least they both make FE6's Dark Dragon look like a joke.
I haven't played FE4, but yours won't be the first FE4 playthrough I read along with. Pairing-wise, you should not pair Sylvia so that you get Berserk. Unless you -normally- don't pair Sylvia, in which case you should pair her with Levin.
-- I don't like this duchy. Now, it's an adventurer.
I don't think I've ever actually paired Sylvia, but unfortunately, I'm too big a fan of Holsety to ever stick it on someone who can't use it unless he stands around spamming staffs pointlessly for two chapters solely to have it in the Final and still be worse than the other two candidates would have been.
--
We clasped our hands, our hands in praise of a conquerors right to tyranny
Good old distractions. I've been majorly tempted lately to do another Mass Effect playthrough, but I fear that it might rather significantly distract from my focus on this topic
--
We clasped our hands, our hands in praise of a conquerors right to tyranny
Well that battle on DS:O just RNG screwed me with literally every mute attack hitting all of my spell casters, missing every single critical killing blow that was possible to miss, and enemies critting at just the wrong times.
CLEARLY, THIS IS AN OMEN THAT I NEED TO PLAY FE5, SO LETS DO THIS.
Hey, it's Sety and not-Sety... I mean Asvel! Sety Holsety's some faces in halfway across the map as I get treated to starting within attack range of 4 armors, 4 mages, and 4 soldiers. But you wouldn't know this because it's fog of war.
Did I mention "F*** this game!" yet?
The game then proceeds to defy all of my expectations as none of the mages hit me, I crit kill all of the armor knights, and nobody even gets hurt.
...What the flying s****? FE5 do you want to make up with me for not playing you for several days or something? Well you extended the first olive branch so I'll return the favor and keep playing yo- ...is that a knife I see hidden behind your back, FE5? No? ...Okay I'll trust you I guess.
Sety then proceeds to absolute slaughter all of the enemy reinforcements, leaving me nothing to kill for XP, because hey he has 36 speed and a holy weapon he can do whatever the hell he wants I guess. I proceed to uneventfully clear out the rest of the rooms, rescue all of the civilians, and get all the chests... then escape the level and win.
I'm... incredibly surprised, to say the least. This luck can't seriously last too much longer, surely? Chapter 7 is going to kill someone, I guarantee.
Huh, that's kind of surprising. Chapter 5 is a pain in the ass for me though, but after that it feels like it should be fairly smooth until 8x (because **** 8x)
--
Mistake you're making - overlooking the fact that we might not want to be saved.
From: Panthera | #417 Huh, that's kind of surprising. Chapter 5 is a pain in the ass for me though, but after that it feels like it should be fairly smooth until 8x (because **** 8x)
I've NEVER had an easy time with Chapter 7 so I'm expecting a death there (the one with Shiva and getting surrounded in the mountain path).
Getting Shiva IS a bit of a pain in the ass, but if you stand people around where the boss shows up you can prevent the reinforcements from actually appearing and kill the boss right away, making it super easy. You might even be able to stop the boss himself from appearing, though I don't think I've actually seen it personally.
--
Mistake you're making - overlooking the fact that we might not want to be saved.
From: Panthera | #419 Getting Shiva IS a bit of a pain in the ass, but if you stand people around where the boss shows up you can prevent the reinforcements from actually appearing and kill the boss right away, making it super easy. You might even be able to stop the boss himself from appearing, though I don't think I've actually seen it personally.
...I've never actually done that so thanks for the tip <.<
From: Panthera | #421 The one problem is that on a no restart run, you can't reset to know the exact positioning to stand in to make it all work perfectly <_<
Let's see, probably want to go with fairly standard pairings, unless you want to be absolutely cheesy and do Levn/Tiltyu in order to get Holsety back in Chapter 6. Okay, let's see here...I disagree completely about the "leave Sylvia unpaired" strategy; non-substitutes are always better than substitutes, no exceptions.
Aideen or Edain or however you spell her name should probably be paired Midir. Jamka is okay too, but he doesn't pass Pursuit down to his children so Midir is better for that.
Aira should be paired with Holyn, because that just makes her kids even more awesome. Although it's pretty hard to ruin those two.
Lachesis should be paired with Lex. This is the one pairing that I prefer that nobody else seems to agree with me on, and I suspect it's at least in part because FE5 suggests that Fin or Beowolf is likely the "correct" choice, but look at the facts: the Charisma skill that Lachesis passes down to her children is only useful if they actually stay close to where the action is, so you want them to be durable. Lex's Minor Neir Holy Blood gives them a big boost to Defense, and their HP will be pretty damn good as well. On top of that, Elite makes it easy to level them up, and yes, it applies to staff EXP as well. With all of that staff EXP, I was able to get Nanna all the way through the Arena on Chapter 7 once I got the rest of my team reunited with the Lenster crew, and by the time she finished with that she was already ready to promote. On the same chapter I got her. How is this not awesome? (However, neither Lex nor Lachesis has Pursuit, so it's absolutely vital that Lex gets the Pursuit Ring by the end of Generation 1 so Delmud can have the ability. I find that Nanna lacking Pursuit isn't a huge loss; she's a mounted healer that can actually stay close to the action without dying so actually fighting isn't a huge priority.)
Sylvia should be paired with...probably Claude. I know, we're going to try to avoid needing the Valkyrie Staff, but it's still a good pairing. Sylvia's children are a Dancer and a Priest, so it's not like either one needs combat-focused abilities. (A little tip that I myself only realized close to the end of my last playthrough--her kids tend to get better Magic growths than Strength growths, so don't be afraid to give Leen one of the Magic Swords--after all, I'm sure you're going to have Sylvia pass down both the Knight Ring and the Leg Ring, right? Of course you are.)
Fury should be paired with Levn. Thracia 776 makes this pairing canon, and even if it wasn't, this one just works so well.
Tiltyu should be paired with Azel. By this point, that's practically process of elimination, because all of the other pairings considered to be "good" for her (Lex, Claude, and Levn) have already been used, but none of those three has Pursuit anyway, while Azel does. And Lex isn't even a great choice in the first place in my mind, because both of her kids are mages and having a non-magical father would give them poor Magic growths.
Briggid should be paired with Dew. While children fathered by Dew don't really excel in any one area as far as growth rates go (and actually have very bad HP growths, comparatively speaking), the growth rates are well-balanced, and more importantly, his skill-set is well-suited to Briggid's kids. Dew can actually pass his Sol ability down to Patty, and Bargain allows you to use Ichival/Sleep Sword-abuse the arena more freely. Alternatively, you could pair her with Holyn and simply let Briggid pass down the Bargain Ring to Faval, in which case Aira should probably be paired with Noish.
--
Ulti (in one of his Post-Contest Analyses): God of War turned a 5 hour deadlock into a total laugher Anagram: Oh God, Tidus and Yuna were involved?
From: TsunamiXXVIII | #423 Let's see, probably want to go with fairly standard pairings, unless you want to be absolutely cheesy and do Levn/Tiltyu in order to get Holsety back in Chapter 6.
I always do this <_< Holsety!Arthur is ridiculous, but I think I'll do Fury/Levin this time just to actually have done it once.
I disagree completely about the "leave Sylvia unpaired" strategy; non-substitutes are always better than substitutes, no exceptions.
Sharlow having Elite is pretty nice and the Berserk staff allows for hilarious shenanigans in the final chapter (Berserk the dark warlord with Hell, if you get super lucky he'll hit Julius, and that's pretty funny), but I used to always forget that Sylvia has Prayer, and that means Leen can actually theoretically win arena fights (it will take hours but it will happen) and be able to survive on the front lines so you can be less cautious.
Lachesis should be paired with Lex.
Eh, I like having Pursuit on both her kids because Nanna does provide fairly decent combat, and I've never had much trouble with either lacking durability. Plus the lack of inheritance is a real pain.
A little tip that I myself only realized close to the end of my last playthrough--her kids tend to get better Magic growths than Strength growths, so don't be afraid to give Leen one of the Magic Swords--after all, I'm sure you're going to have Sylvia pass down both the Knight Ring and the Leg Ring, right? Of course you are.)
I doubt I'd bother to give her one, one goes to Patty (so she can avoid death), one will likely go to Fee (especially with a father that gives her a bit of magic growth), the other to...Delmud or Celice or someone that actually sees combat. And Sylvia will pass down the Knight Ring for sure, but the Leg Ring goes to Celice until he promotes. Leen can get the gold to buy one ring easily enough.
Dew can actually pass his Sol ability down to Patty, and Bargain allows you to use Ichival/Sleep Sword-abuse the arena more freely. Alternatively, you could pair her with Holyn and simply let Briggid pass down the Bargain Ring to Faval, in which case Aira should probably be paired with Noish.
Sol really isn't going to be doing much with her offense not being stellar, and it's not like Faval ever needs money (Ichival will never, ever break without using it in every arena, and he can afford a lot of repairs anyway since he'll always clear most, if not all, the arena), and I'm probably giving the Bargain Ring to Aideen this time so her and Lana can not need Dew/Patty to finance them as much.
Fury/Levin, Tiltyu/Azel, and Ayra/Noish are pretty much set in stone for me right now. Still going to think about the other ones for a bit.
--
We clasped our hands, our hands in praise of a conquerors right to tyranny
On to second generation. I guess that since the main appeal of lovers in this generation (other than the bonuses they give by being placed adjacent to each other) is the stat-boosting lover conversations in the final chapter, I should again go by females.
Lana, you should probably not try to pair her up too quickly, because there's a conversation available in Chapter 10 if neither she nor Faval has a lover that results in Lana getting an HP boost. Her Final Chapter conversation gives three points of resistance to her lover and is available with Celice, Skasaher, or Faval. Celice is probably the most likely to be facing mages in the final chapter, but on the other hand, he's got a better Resistance growth than the other two (assuming that neither was fathered by Claude, which they shouldn't be), and Faval is also a Holy Weapon user (and therefore someone who might be involved in major battles), so I guess he's really the best option.
Lakche gives three points of strength to her lover, and the conversation is available with Celice, Johan/Johalva, or Shanan. Johan and Johalva tend to suck no matter what, so I recommend Shanan, even though I've never actually done that pairing. (I intend to on my current playthrough, though.)
Yuria...what to say about Yuria? She doesn't have lover conversations, and she has 0 base points and 0 natural growths with everyone except Celice, with whom she has very high base points but negative growths, and can therefore only fall in love with him through various cheesy methods. If you believe that you should try to pair everyone, feel free to use said cheesy methods to pair her with Celice, or if you object to that (either because it means Celice won't get a lover conversation stat boost or because, well, you know), keep someone else glued to her side from the moment you get her. I would recommend either Arthur, who pre-promotion actually has the same movement range as she does, or Johalva, because Johalva sucks anyway and it's not a huge loss if you scale him back from his maximum movement range a little in order to keep him beside Yuria.
Fee gives three points of skill to her lover, and her conversation is available with Celice, Arthur, and Oifaye. Fee and Arthur have good base points and have a love-boosting conversation, but their vastly different movement rates (pre-promotion) make it unlikely that they'll be staying side-by-side early on. But maybe that's a good thing. Just pair her with whoever--I actually paired her with Delmud last time.
Patty should wait awhile before getting paired up, because she has a conversation with Corpul in Chapter 9 that only triggers if she doesn't have a lover, and another in Chapter 10 with Lester that only triggers if neither has a lover; both result in stat boosts. Her conversation gives 3 points of HP and 3 points of Speed, and is available with Celice, Shanan, or Lester. Because it actually gives boosts to multiple stats, this one might be the best choice for Celice, but unless you keep her close to him for awhile or already paired Shanan off, she'll likely end up with Shanan first. Any of these choices is fine.
Nanna gives +3 HP to Celice or +3 defense to Leaf or Aless in her lover conversation. Given how long the Lenster crew is isolated in Chapter 7, she'll likely have a big advantage with Leaf, but try to hold off long enough to get a conversation in Chapter 10 that boosts her HP.
Damnit, can't fit this in one post.
--
Ulti (in one of his Post-Contest Analyses): God of War turned a 5 hour deadlock into a total laugher Anagram: Oh God, Tidus and Yuna were involved?
Leen doesn't have lover conversations, so just pair her with whoever needs a lover. Aless is the most likely lover for her.
Tinny gives +3 Magic to her lover, and the conversation is available with Celice, Sety, or Leaf. Celice doesn't really need magic, so as much as I love this pairing, it's not good from a gameplay standpoint. Leaf can use anything after he promotes, but Sety is really the best choice. This is also good because Sety joins in a later chapter, and Tinny has a special conversation with her brother Arthur in the final chapter that only triggers if neither has a lover. If you're pairing Fee with someone other than Arthur, it's quite possible that you can actually get this.
Summary: Lana/Faval, Lakche/Shanan, Yuria/Arthur or Yuria/Johalva, Fee/Oifaye or Fee/Arthur, Patty/Celice, Nanna/Leaf, Leen/Aless, Tinny/Sety
--
Ulti (in one of his Post-Contest Analyses): God of War turned a 5 hour deadlock into a total laugher Anagram: Oh God, Tidus and Yuna were involved?
Panthera posted... Sharlow having Elite is pretty nice and the Berserk staff allows for hilarious shenanigans in the final chapter (Berserk the dark warlord with Hell, if you get super lucky he'll hit Julius, and that's pretty funny), but I used to always forget that Sylvia has Prayer, and that means Leen can actually theoretically win arena fights (it will take hours but it will happen) and be able to survive on the front lines so you can be less cautious.
True, true. I guess I do see the value of Sharlow, but I still find that inheritance and the naturally stronger growth rates make non-substitutes better.
I've never had much trouble with either lacking durability. Plus the lack of inheritance is a real pain.
I did, but I suppose I can't disagree about lack of inheritance being a pain. Beowolf's probably best, then, because Fin doesn't give any inheritance either, and besides, it's better to leave him unpaired so he still has all of his equipment when he returns.
I doubt I'd bother to give her one, one goes to Patty (so she can avoid death), one will likely go to Fee (especially with a father that gives her a bit of magic growth), the other to...Delmud or Celice or someone that actually sees combat.
How is Patty any better at using it than Leen? Well, okay, actually, I see the worth in that, because you can steal money without being counterattacked, but then again I had her inheriting the Wind Sword from Dew, so...
And Sylvia will pass down the Knight Ring for sure, but the Leg Ring goes to Celice until he promotes. Leen can get the gold to buy one ring easily enough.
She can? Because she doesn't do well in the arena regardless. It kind of requires her to hit a lot of the villages. Still, I guess I see the worth in giving Celice the Leg Ring prepromotion, though it puts him out of sync with most potential lovers.
Sol really isn't going to be doing much with her offense not being stellar, and it's not like Faval ever needs money (Ichival will never, ever break without using it in every arena, and he can afford a lot of repairs anyway since he'll always clear most, if not all, the arena), and I'm probably giving the Bargain Ring to Aideen this time so her and Lana can not need Dew/Patty to finance them as much.
Yeah, Sol doesn't do much, but given that Patty has to finance anyone who has money troubles (like Sylvia's children), Bargain is still pretty useful. Wait a minute...maybe you should just pair Dew with Sylvia, then. Yeah, that suddenly sounds like a great idea. (And although it wouldn't do much for her, either, Leen would be able to inherit Sol.)
Fury/Levin, Tiltyu/Azel, and Ayra/Noish are pretty much set in stone for me right now. Still going to think about the other ones for a bit.
Well, if Ayra's going to be with Noish, then Briggid absolutely has to be with Holyn--he's probably the best for her, anyway, and the only reason to not pair Briggid with Holyn is if you're pairing him with Ayra. In between getting Luna and being able to use B-ranked swords pre-promotion, Patty actually gains the ability to be a halfway decent fighter, and Holyn also gives absolutely sick growth rates, including the best HP growths of any father. And I still maintain that despite his inability to pass down any weapons to anyone, Lex is too awesome to remain unpaired--best defense growth by far, second-best HP growth for most, and Elite skill. And of the ones you haven't already set in stone, I still say Lachesis is the best option, though I suppose Aideen would also work (again, giving Lex the Pursuit Ring, which he'd pass to Lester.)
--
Ulti (in one of his Post-Contest Analyses): God of War turned a 5 hour deadlock into a total laugher Anagram: Oh God, Tidus and Yuna were involved?
From: TsunamiXXVIII | #427 She can? Because she doesn't do well in the arena regardless. It kind of requires her to hit a lot of the villages. Still, I guess I see the worth in giving Celice the Leg Ring prepromotion, though it puts him out of sync with most potential lovers.
Prayer manipulation lets her do pretty well in the arena, actually. It's tedious as all hell though, it can take like five minutes for her to win a battle, but it happens. Mainly I was thinking that it's a lot easier to have Patty give her money for one ring (or for most of one ring, then village/arena covers the rest) than to have Patty finance both of them (which can really take her away from helping anyone else). As for Celice, I don't care at all about gen 2 pairings so that's no problem.
Yeah, Sol doesn't do much, but given that Patty has to finance anyone who has money troubles (like Sylvia's children), Bargain is still pretty useful. Wait a minute...maybe you should just pair Dew with Sylvia, then. Yeah, that suddenly sounds like a great idea. (And although it wouldn't do much for her, either, Leen would be able to inherit Sol.)
Leen with Sol would actually be atrocious for her, since she could potentially heal herself out of Prayer-based invincibility in arena fights. I'd be more inclined to try out Dew/Brigid to see if it helps Patty manipulate how much money she has at a given moment (if she has 20,000 and her next give target has 30,000 and needs to reach 40,000 for the Elite Ring, she'd still give up all her money needlessly, but with Bargain she could buy a spare Skill Ring, give 10,000 gold to the person, then sell the Skill Ring later and have 10,000 gold still for future giving purposes). But then I give up the Holyn/Brigid pairing that I really like so I don't know, especially since it doesn't really contribute anything else besides an inferior sword skill and giving Faval utterly superfluous Bargain (instead of better skill, which is the only thing he even cares about with Ichival being only 70 hit)
--
We clasped our hands, our hands in praise of a conquerors right to tyranny
Panthera posted... Prayer manipulation lets her do pretty well in the arena, actually. It's tedious as all hell though, it can take like five minutes for her to win a battle, but it happens.
Eh, I've found it to be somewhat unreliable. It works for one battle, but then the next battle it suddenly stops working.
As for Celice, I don't care at all about gen 2 pairings so that's no problem.
Well, as I pointed out before, there are benefits to pairing up the gen 2 characters, starting with the basic lover bonuses and continuing with those last-chapter conversations. Although with Celice being planned to Leg it around, it's probably just best to take a few turns after you get Yuria to set up the square of jealousy and quickly make them lovers--you sacrifice giving Celice a bonus, but it's the easiest way to give Yuria a lover, which will certainly help against Yurius.
Leen with Sol would actually be atrocious for her, since she could potentially heal herself out of Prayer-based invincibility in arena fights.
Ooh. Good point. Forgot about that. Well, I was still looking for someone for you to pair Lex with since you don't want to pair him with Lachesis, and seeing as how Sharlow's Elite is one of the two things people cite when saying why they prefer to leave Sylvia unpaired (well, three things--in addition to Sharlow's Elite and Berserk Staff, people also like Laylea's Charisma skill), giving Sylvia's kids the Elite skill might not be a horrible idea. Also, Prayer/Ambush is a nice combo (Prayer keeps them hanging around at low HP, then Ambush lets them strike first), even though it won't help Leen much because she's still so weak. Might help Corpul post-promotion, though.
I'd be more inclined to try out Dew/Brigid to see if it helps Patty manipulate how much money she has at a given moment (if she has 20,000 and her next give target has 30,000 and needs to reach 40,000 for the Elite Ring, she'd still give up all her money needlessly, but with Bargain she could buy a spare Skill Ring, give 10,000 gold to the person, then sell the Skill Ring later and have 10,000 gold still for future giving purposes).
Yeah, hadn't even considered that aspect for some reason.
But then I give up the Holyn/Brigid pairing that I really like so I don't know, especially since it doesn't really contribute anything else besides an inferior sword skill and giving Faval utterly superfluous Bargain (instead of better skill, which is the only thing he even cares about with Ichival being only 70 hit)
I've never really had much problem with Ichival hitting (aside from that battle with Ishtar right after you get Faval, but that's just because Ishtar dodges everything with Torhammer). Holyn definitely does give a far better Skill growth than any other father, but there are a number of fathers that give Faval a skill growth above 50%, Dew among them.
--
Ulti (in one of his Post-Contest Analyses): God of War turned a 5 hour deadlock into a total laugher Anagram: Oh God, Tidus and Yuna were involved?
From: TsunamiXXVIII | #429 Well, as I pointed out before, there are benefits to pairing up the gen 2 characters, starting with the basic lover bonuses and continuing with those last-chapter conversations. Although with Celice being planned to Leg it around, it's probably just best to take a few turns after you get Yuria to set up the square of jealousy and quickly make them lovers--you sacrifice giving Celice a bonus, but it's the easiest way to give Yuria a lover, which will certainly help against Yurius.
The benefits aren't really big enough to make me want to go out of my way to make it happen. And I don't see how Julia banging someone helps against Julius, it's only +10 accuracy. She's not going to struggle to hit him (at base level, Celice + Delmud + Nanna gives her 176 hit with Narga against his 103 avoid, and she's not hard to get to promotion level, which gives +5 skill, so she'd be up to 83 hit against him even if she never gained a point of it on level up), and he has Awareness/Nihil so the crit doesn't matter.
I've never really had much problem with Ichival hitting (aside from that battle with Ishtar right after you get Faval, but that's just because Ishtar dodges everything with Torhammer). Holyn definitely does give a far better Skill growth than any other father, but there are a number of fathers that give Faval a skill growth above 50%, Dew among them.
I'll be honest, I just find it amusing to see his ridiculous HP growth in action.
From: Xuxon | #430 What, no mention of Lex/Briggid?
Ambush + Sleep Sword is kind of cool but I'm not sure it's enough to sell the pairing, although Elite for Patty is certainly helpful, anything that drags her out of her weak start is nice, but Elite is awesome for everyone anyway.
--
We clasped our hands, our hands in praise of a conquerors right to tyranny
Panthera posted... I'll be honest, I just find it amusing to see his ridiculous HP growth in action.
Agreed. That is absolutely sick.
Ambush + Sleep Sword is kind of cool but I'm not sure it's enough to sell the pairing, although Elite for Patty is certainly helpful, anything that drags her out of her weak start is nice, but Elite is awesome for everyone anyway.
Also, Lex only gives Faval a 35% Skill growth. Only Ardan and Jamka give worse, and only Azel and Claude (neither of whom even make any sense for Briggid) are as bad. (And to think, some people actually consider Jamka a decent option for Briggid...admittedly I never realized it was that bad.)
--
Ulti (in one of his Post-Contest Analyses): God of War turned a 5 hour deadlock into a total laugher Anagram: Oh God, Tidus and Yuna were involved?
Jamka is just the most ****ed over man in the game, really. He has great skills and aside from that crappy skill growth, his stats are quite good. But then he gets stuck in a terrible class that has no mobility and doesn't have canto to at least let him get out of the way (which is why Midir and Lester are actually good, they can use their horses to attack and run away so enemies don't attack them and suicide into better units instead). And then he gets Pursuit from his class so he can't pass it down. It all adds up to make him a unit who struggles to get much done *and* isn't a particularly good father for anyone. What would his best pairing option be, Ayra maybe? Even there he's Noish with slightly better growths and Continue before promotion, but no Critical or sword inheritance, which is a lackluster trade.
--
We clasped our hands, our hands in praise of a conquerors right to tyranny
Well, Skasaher never gets continue unless his father has it, so there's that. You can always have him buy a sword with critical. And Jamka makes an okay father for both bow children (Faval might miss more but he'll take more shots. I think overall that improves his chance of hitting on the more dodgy enemies), though Lester needs the pursuit ring in that case.
Oh right, silly Forrests and their lack of Continue. I guess that helps. A crit-sword is probably not happening though, I rarely find myself having more than one or two of those and they're pretty much restricted to Celice and then either to Delmud (since he's on the front lines anyway for Charisma, he might as well be good at killing) or Fee (because I like Fee and always favour her). Granted she'll probably have an eventually crit-capable Hero Lance instead. I guess if I ever find myself making pairings that give Pursuit to everyone I could do Jamka/Aideen and pass Lester the ring.
--
We clasped our hands, our hands in praise of a conquerors right to tyranny
I just realized I forgot to tag this topic. Of course, we're already past 400 posts, so...
Panthera posted... Jamka is just the most ****ed over man in the game, really. He has great skills and aside from that crappy skill growth, his stats are quite good. But then he gets stuck in a terrible class that has no mobility and doesn't have canto to at least let him get out of the way (which is why Midir and Lester are actually good, they can use their horses to attack and run away so enemies don't attack them and suicide into better units instead). And then he gets Pursuit from his class so he can't pass it down. It all adds up to make him a unit who struggles to get much done *and* isn't a particularly good father for anyone. What would his best pairing option be, Ayra maybe? Even there he's Noish with slightly better growths and Continue before promotion, but no Critical or sword inheritance, which is a lackluster trade.
Poor father, yes. But I find that he's quite good in his own right, comes with a Killer Bow and his skills let him attack multiple times.
Oh right, silly Forrests and their lack of Continue. I guess that helps. A crit-sword is probably not happening though, I rarely find myself having more than one or two of those and they're pretty much restricted to Celice and then either to Delmud (since he's on the front lines anyway for Charisma, he might as well be good at killing) or Fee (because I like Fee and always favour her). Granted she'll probably have an eventually crit-capable Hero Lance instead. I guess if I ever find myself making pairings that give Pursuit to everyone I could do Jamka/Aideen and pass Lester the ring.
Anyway, I favor units, too, but Fee doesn't need a crit-capable sword in this playthrough because she's going to be Levn's daughter and therefore will be able to crit with any weapon. I actually had her sell off a weapon once it became crit-capable because it was superfluous.
I haven't had weapons become crit-capable very often, though. There was a sword, once, and another time there was a steel bow.
--
Ulti (in one of his Post-Contest Analyses): God of War turned a 5 hour deadlock into a total laugher Anagram: Oh God, Tidus and Yuna were involved?
From: TsunamiXXVIII | #436 Poor father, yes. But I find that he's quite good in his own right, comes with a Killer Bow and his skills let him attack multiple times.
I pretty much always give the Killer Bow to Midir, since he'll get to use it so much more often. Jamka does kick a lot of ass on the occasions he can fight though, that's why it's a shame he's stuck being an archer.
Anyway, I favor units, too, but Fee doesn't need a crit-capable sword in this playthrough because she's going to be Levn's daughter and therefore will be able to crit with any weapon. I actually had her sell off a weapon once it became crit-capable because it was superfluous.
Right, Levin!Fee won't need crit weapons. Shows you how I've never done that pairing when I forget what skills she gets <_<
I haven't had weapons become crit-capable very often, though. There was a sword, once, and another time there was a steel bow.
A steel bow? Now that's a strange one. I usually have a Hero Sword go critical sometime late in the game, Hero Lance usually gets it, I've had the first Silver Sword do it once, and I'm pretty sure I've had Holsety break 50 kills a few times, not that it's at all necessary, obviously.
--
Mistake you're making - overlooking the fact that we might not want to be saved.
Panthera posted... From: TsunamiXXVIII | #436 Poor father, yes. But I find that he's quite good in his own right, comes with a Killer Bow and his skills let him attack multiple times. I pretty much always give the Killer Bow to Midir, since he'll get to use it so much more often. Jamka does kick a lot of ass on the occasions he can fight though, that's why it's a shame he's stuck being an archer.
Anyway, I favor units, too, but Fee doesn't need a crit-capable sword in this playthrough because she's going to be Levn's daughter and therefore will be able to crit with any weapon. I actually had her sell off a weapon once it became crit-capable because it was superfluous. Right, Levin!Fee won't need crit weapons. Shows you how I've never done that pairing when I forget what skills she gets <_<
I haven't had weapons become crit-capable very often, though. There was a sword, once, and another time there was a steel bow. A steel bow? Now that's a strange one. I usually have a Hero Sword go critical sometime late in the game, Hero Lance usually gets it, I've had the first Silver Sword do it once, and I'm pretty sure I've had Holsety break 50 kills a few times, not that it's at all necessary, obviously.
Yeah, I forget how that ended up happening; I wasn't even necessarily trying to do it, but it just sort of happened. I guess I was using the Steel Bow instead of the Killer Bow whenever possible because it's both stronger and cheaper to repair (albeit less accurate), and then shortly after conquering the penultimate castle of Chapter 10 I ended up critting with it and suddenly realized that it had racked up 50 kills. This was the run where Midir died early on and I paired Aideen with Jamka, I think, so it probably had been picking up kills for two generations and Lester had the Skill set to be super-useful. The first Silver Sword, I think I came close one time but I suspect it would be a lot easier if Celice saw more combat pre-promotion. The other one that I had go critical was, it was a slim weapon, I think it was a slim lance actually, not a sword; I misspoke earlier. Probably the one that Fury initially has in her inventory, which was then passed down to Fee.
--
Ulti (in one of his Post-Contest Analyses): God of War turned a 5 hour deadlock into a total laugher Anagram: Oh God, Tidus and Yuna were involved?
The time I got the Silver Sword to go critical was when I basically did a pseudo-Sigurd solo, using other units but basically always sending Sigurd forward as much as possible and having him do as much as he could every turn. Then Leg Ring Celice pretty much did the same thing as much as he could. It was pretty funny, I think it was at 100 kills by chapter 8 or so so Celice was just annihilating everything he touched.
--
Mistake you're making - overlooking the fact that we might not want to be saved.
Panthera posted... The time I got the Silver Sword to go critical was when I basically did a pseudo-Sigurd solo, using other units but basically always sending Sigurd forward as much as possible and having him do as much as he could every turn. Then Leg Ring Celice pretty much did the same thing as much as he could. It was pretty funny, I think it was at 100 kills by chapter 8 or so so Celice was just annihilating everything he touched.
Yeah, well, Sigurd is awesome enough to do that; pretty much the only reason to hold him back is because the other units need the EXP more. I guess the big difference is that I never gave Celice the Leg Ring.
--
Ulti (in one of his Post-Contest Analyses): God of War turned a 5 hour deadlock into a total laugher Anagram: Oh God, Tidus and Yuna were involved?
If you give Celice Leg, Elite and a magic sword so he can counter bows/hand axes (he'll 2RKO stuff this way), he can more or less solo chapter 6 and be at promotion level before even touching the chapter 7 arena. Bit too over the top for me to attempt, but it's doable (and the EXP isn't even an argument, the person I saw do it did it in a ranked run and he got the entire 2nd generation to level 30 despite this).
--
Mistake you're making - overlooking the fact that we might not want to be saved.
That is actually a pretty good pairing and it's basically the second place option (ie, had I chosen to not do this set of pairings, I'd have done that one). Lex is good at being the second/third best option for everyone. The ranked run I watched and referenced before used that pairing and it looked pretty spiffy.
--
Mistake you're making - overlooking the fact that we might not want to be saved.
Alright, let's get this underway. I'll probably be breaking chapters into several smaller bits due to the length involved (for those who don't know, FE4 has only 12 total chapters, but they're each the length of 2-5 chapters in other FE games), although the prologue is brief enough for it not to be needed. At least in terms of play time; I kind of have a LOT to say about it as a chapter. I'll also be posting youtube links for music purposes, because this game has a great soundtrack and listening to the music of the chapter I'm on should enhance the reading experience :)
FIRE EMBLEM 4: GENEALOGY OF THE HOLY WAR
Prologue: Birth of the Holy Knight
Up first, some music.
Player phase theme:
Enemy phase theme (AKA the best ****ing enemy phase music in the history of ever):
Alvis' theme (AKA the "try to guess if he's a good guy or bad guy based on the music" theme):
Oh dear, we seem to have four people fighting off a barbarian army. We're outnumbered 8-1. Good thing one of my four is Sigurd! In all honesty, I love this chapter. The overwhelming odds against you when the map begins, coupled with units generally having higher stats than you'd expect from a Fire Emblem prologue (especially HP, which is generally high in this game), really does give a good sense of this being a big, epic battle, and over each of the first two turns, new units arrive to join your army, which is a nice boost to get, especially when the first healer shows up. At the same time, you've got a cutscene of sorts happening on turn 1 enemy phase where a future playable characters gets destroyed by an enemy and the person he was trying to protect is captured. All in all, it really does a great job of communicating the idea that lots of things will happen in this game, and it won't all be right in front of you.
As for the actual combat, Alec manages to get hit by the very first guy he fights. Not used to seeing that much failure so soon. Nothing exciting happens until Azel and Lex join, where we get the amusing conversation where Lex refers to fighting in a war as "Finally a chance to kick some ass". Oddly enough Sigurd manages to get a couple of times on turn 2. I've never seen him actually take this much damage so early in this chapter before, so he slows down his charge a bit so the newly arriving Ethlin can catch up and heal him. And maybe stand next to him to take advantage of the fact that siblings standing beside one another can score critical hits (which usually requires the critical skill or a weapon that has killed 50+ enemies). Noish and Alec head through the middle so they can get a head start on the second wave of enemies that come along once Sigurd seizes the first castle, which happens without fuss. Midir gets the Speed Ring village since bows are a bit heavier than I'd like and he wants to double.
Once you seize, not only do more enemies show up and the bridge to Evans castle gets repaired, Alvis shows up, accompanied of course by his excellent music. This is a great little taste of power; you see this guy show up and suddenly that sense of strength you had for fighting off that army fades as you realize you still have a long ways to go before your troops will be the best. Nice way to get you eager to see just how good you'll get. And of course, with that rather sinister theme and his initial dialogue suggesting he's not impressed by you, you're inclined to think he's a villain, but then he chats with Sigurd and comes across as quite nice, *and* hands over a VERY nice new toy (the Silver Sword), so you get to be confused. People who haven't played the game, make your official guesses now as to what role this guy will play in the story!
--
Mistake you're making - overlooking the fact that we might not want to be saved.
The batch of enemies near the end is a bit of a mess, like it always is. Lots of people get poked down to low health, but smart placement ensures no one is in too serious a predicament. This game has the most insane AI ever, you can usually count on them to try to attack archers at melee range (which means Midir is actually helpful bait in situations where enemy density is too high to wipe out on your turn; if he can take two hits, you can position him so two dudes will attack him instead of attacking a guy they could have combined to kill), but sometimes enemy archers will attack them too. Sometimes enemies will just suicide into the strongest units they can't scratch, often they won't. Saving and reloading the game can actually change what their AI will do. I will never, ever understand FE4 AI fully, but it behaves within acceptable guidelines to let me clear this bunch out.
With the last bunch of enemies dead (besides one archer that I put units around so he can't move or attack), I rush the boss. All mounted units in range besides Ethlin poke at him for EXP purposes (Noish gained as much for chipping the dude as he would for killing another enemy) and then Sigurd kills him and seizes. Ended up finishing in 13 turns, which is actually a decent enough time. I believe 11 is kind of the benchmark for being really good, but I'm not going for speed/efficiency here, I'm being fairly casual, so I'm quite satisfied.
And thus ends one of my favourite intro maps in gaming. It has a great sense of progression, from a few soldiers to a real army, it shows you a hint of what's to come, it establishes an important character for later in the game, it just does everything you'd want a good prologue chapter to do.
--
Mistake you're making - overlooking the fact that we might not want to be saved.
I actually don't care much for the player phase music. It's not bad, but it's in the lower third of the player phase music in the game for me.
Fin could get the speed ring but he'll have the Hero Lance before long, he doubles all axe users prior to getting it (even if they do hit him in return, who cares he has Prayer if he needs it), and I kind of want him to not dominate things TOO hard so he can be strong enough to work in chapter 7, but weak enough that he leaves things with a few HP so Leaf can gobble up that delicious EXP en route to the most broken promotion ever.
--
Mistake you're making - overlooking the fact that we might not want to be saved.
I guess if I were pairing him, but even then, it doesn't make a particularly huge different anyway. And I'd argue that Leaf getting to promote in time for chapter 9 trumps whatever Fin's children could turn out like.
--
We clasped our hands, our hands in praise of a conquerors right to tyranny