#gods did I tell you I love FE5?

[blazerwyvernmaster]

Rating FE4 Maps P2

Girl of The Spirit Forest

YAY, I'm talking about FE4 again!

BTW, if yall just want to rate maps from other games too,

I've played through FE4,FE5,FE7,FE8,Echoes,Three Houses, and I'm playing Engage.

Though it may warrant a new series. ANYWAY!

Story

Unfortunately, in the last chapter, our princess was in another castle. Gandolf took her to Verdane. So that's where our next stop happens to be.

It's probably good to mention that pretty much all the battles in this game are full on wars. And I love it.

Anyway, Eldigan takes a visit to be cool and says he'll protect you from any possible invaders, as that's what buds do. Later on, he will uses his actual fucking demon blade on a regular ass man. And doesn't kill him. God he's cool. It would be a shame if I had to Insert spoiler here.

After that, we learn that Edain is OK! The youngest prince of Verdane, Jamke, saved her behind the back of his two, more evil brothers. And also freed an actual thief. Be tells them to run away, but can't go with them because he has to deal with his father.

In the meantime, you learn about Ayra. She's working for one of the princes of Verdane in order to protect Shannan, her nephew, who is a child. She doesn't seem evil. I wonder what would if you lured her away from the castle and killed that stupid dickbag prince?

Oh, she joins! Which is weird because your kingdom and hers are at war?? But it's fine. I'm sure deciding to have the prince of a warring country in your custody will lead to no problems whatsoever.

Then you kill Gandalf. Fun times.

Manfroy and Sandima talk about the backstory of the Loptyr Cult over the kings dead body. They also talk about finding a lady with the best holy blood.

Edain talks Jamke out of murdering you! Yay! And then Sigurd makes some unwise decisions regarding a mysterious forest lady named Deirdre.

That will not come back to bite him. I'm positive.

Aaaand THATS BASICALLY IT!

Never expect me to make a good story synopsis.

I like the story of this chapter. It gets a lot more interesting since you can already see how things have already started to unfold and change for future events.

Gameplay

While I did wish the game once again explained how castles worked,it's really not hard.

I like how you can figure out how to stack the weapon triangle, terrain, and authority stars with the first few enemies.

I also love the Dew pitfall. It gets Dew some levels... but thieves aren't very useful in this game, so it doesn't matter. It does by Edain some time to escape.

Ayra's recruitment is very stressful and difficult. Not to say that it's a bad thing, but thr safest solution I had was just having Finn hide in the forest and pray she didn't reach him.

The worst part of this chapter is near the end. I know the game wants you to get Deirdre by having Sigurd more through the forest, but there was definitely a way to do it without forcing your entire army to slow down to a crawl. And you have to deal with Jamke too! For me, that meant killing some of his squad, then retreating and praying Edain didn't die while I tried to talk to him. The recruitment on this chapter can be downright frustrating at times.

Also, I like the Lex brave axe secret. It's funny and incredibly random, and it makes him become a god. It's the reason I promote him first.

Eldigan showing up to beat up Elliot with his actual fucking demon blade was cool as hell. And if you're good, you can probably use this opportunity to train Arden, who you definitely parked at the castle at this point.

Anyway, with that all said and done, I think this chapter deserves

7/10

Don't ask what the rating system is based on. Idk either.

[randomnameless]

The more people complain about self inserts in Fire Emblem the more evident it becomes that they're not holding the "not self insert" main characters (in FE games that don't have a self insert) not even halfway to the same standard

Sorry for the late reply anon, I tried to type something, then forgot, then retyped but wasn't satisfied, and they forgot again etc etc

For your answer -

I cannot really say I agree, because while some MC can be irritating and annoying and be seen as the second coming of Jesus in their respective verses (Ike) - the issue is mostly prevalent in recent games with avatars, especially in FE16.

Take Minerva.

She switches side because Marth'n'pals rescue Maria, not because Marth is really really rad. Minerva has strong bonds with the Whitewings, especially Palla.

Palla isn't fridged somewhere to make Minerva support Marth, or tell everyone how much of a great guy he is, Minerva can bounce off Palla, Maria and Michalis.

Sigurd? Is the protagonist of FE4, and how boys does it deserve him. All of his allies die, and I remember pointing it out in my LP, while Seliph and F!Lewyn all put the blame on Sigurd's allies's deaths on Sigurd himself, that's a load of crap. Quan died because Travant attacked, Eldie died because Chagall was a douche. Lewyn would most likely have died due to his uncles, or Arvis invading the land.

Claude (the FE4 one!) was branded a traitor and marked to die the second he went to Orgahill and learnt it wasn't Byron who killed Prince Kurth, but Langobalt'n'Reptor.

Did Briggid join Sigurd's quest because Sigurd is awesome, or because Aidean asked her to help them - and Siggy's group helped her against her former bandit friends?

Seliph is seen by everyone as the messiah - but he feels like he is usurping this role, because he is no Messiah, he just is the "Son of". Nonetheless, if this is the role the people of Jugdral need him to play/embrace, then he will do it. Seliph doesn't trounce people right and left with his awesome weapon, hell, Arvis is the one to give him Tyrfing.

Ephraim? Deconstruct the Chad Lord trope - it is (partly) because he was such a chad that Lyon turned to evil forces in hopes to impress him - post FE8!Ephraim is a mess. The strongest and chadest of all princes to have ever chaded out there couldn't protect his father, his country nor save his best friend.

Funny thing, Ephraim doesn't recruit everyone in FE8; Eirika recruits people too and is closer to the "future lords of Magvel" than Ephraim will ever be (Joshua gets his "true" ending on Erika's route, seeing his mom, and Innes sided with her instead of Leeroying Jenkinsing in Grado with Ephraim).

For all of the orange sucking FE15 had, Alm might be teh Hero (tm) but he is not the alpha and omega of every character - let Mathilda die and Clive will stop worshiping his oranges. No matter how rad he is, if you did not save Tatiana, Zeke won't join. Ditto if you killed Zeke, Tatiana will not join.

Even if Ike is my most disliked Lord (outside of avatars) from the franchise, he is not the everything to his verse (at least in FE9). Jill will ditch the Greil Mercenaries to join the enemy, unless she has a support, not with Ike himself, but with a subhuman or Ike's useless sister.

See where I'm going?

There's no scissors pulled out to sever the bonds existing between characters to insert a "self-insert" character.

Reyson and Leanne love each other, Reyson will rush to her when she is rescued by Naesala, he will not take a backseat for Ike to rush to her when she is saved.

During Rajaion's last moments, the close up is on Ena being by his side. Not Ike.

Rhea being freed from Gritnea? Billy CG. Rhea having her last (unless power of the A Support) moments in the cathedral? In Billy's arms.

What is Seteth, Flayn, Cyril or even Catherine? I don't know.

Ranulf is Skrimir's right hand man. Ranulf isn't put in a freezer for Ike to take his role, until he returns.

Games where the lord isn't a self-insert doesn't pull the awful "alone B4 U" nonsense, Eliwood might have recruited Nino and saved Jaffar, Jaffar's first and most important bond will be to Nino, and Nino will in turn support her uncle Legault.

Tatiana isn’t fridged so Zeke can only side with Alm because Alm is super cool and has warm hands, nope. Zeke will only side with Alm if Tatiana was, lel, de-fridged from Nuibaba’s abode.

I’ve kind of warmed up (a bit) about Billy and what they could have been, but what the game did of them (self-insert + avatar powers being a blackhole warping the narration and its characters) really sucks, and brings down FE16.

I think this ask was sent before the interview were the devs said they didn’t want to give a better ending in Nopes than any you can reach in Houses else the player will feel bad bcs Billy’s the self-insert...

-> here you have your validation. The world, and even the subsequent Fodlan games must accomodate to make Billy, the player’s avatar, the only reason why the world is saved.

it’s the Doylist explanation to all this Watsonian stuff I’ve brough, and it’s terrible.

I really hope IS will drop this “idea” because the avatar with his magic scissors remodeling characters to turn them in S-Support material is awful, and in a series that prided itself on its story+characters, if you remove the characters you’re not left with anything else.

[sireneia-a]

me realizing there’s twenty-one playable child units in fe4 second gen and thus exactly enough to assign each one an arcana in a persona au. you know what this means kids

it’s all under the cut with attempts at explanations. i know this isn’t rlly the most relevant thing to this blog, but i’ve written metas on characters that aren’t actually muses so i’m letting it slide. fe4 spoilers will be briefly touched upon for a few characters. the explanations are specifically for how the arcana are represented in persona, but please keep in mind i’m a persona scrub kdhfkdhfdfkfd so if it ends up being only specific to character arcs from p3, my bad. i’m also sticking to the standard cards and avoiding special ones like aeon. welcome to super self-indulgent hell

i did the order by recruitment order, but here’s a link to just the order of all the characters ( sans explanations ) by the actual tarot in case you just want to see that and be done with it

Seliph: The Fool

Obligatory protagonist role getting this arcana, but the Fool is generally based around one being influenced by others. Considering how Seliph is placed in a role as a liberator as thrust upon him by the people’s expectations due to his lineage, I thought it was fitting. 

Lana: Priestess

Who I imagine would be the party’s initial navigator. Regardless, getting away from the strictly Persona gameplay aspects, the Priestess is an arcana given to quieter characters who have untapped potential. I generally just think Lana has the vibe for this as opposed to an actual reason.

Larcei: Temperance

This is one of the leftover ones admittedly. Temperance deals with an inability to balance one’s various life aspects. Larcei tends to be portrayed in adaptations as struggling between her combat as well as her love life, and she’s typically unlucky in the latter.

Ulster: Star

I love you Ulster, but he ended up also being one of the leftover ones as well. The Star is associated with hope and joy. There’s actually a pretty cool quote about this one in terms of bestowing help to others in their time of need but eventually being doomed to fall. Ulster is depicted as being protective of the others ( namely in Seliph’s childhood friend squad ) and is compassionate as well as a big brother type, thus I thought he matched up enough with the idea of bestowing help unto others.

Diarmuid: Strength

The Strength arcana in the Persona universe typically explores characters who have a strength of heart in order to keep going past hardships. Though almost everyone in gen 2 experiences tragedy and tries to overcome it, Diarmuid’s separation from his mother and then his consequent journey through Yied to reunite with his family stuck out to me. Additionally, he always seemed to have a good head on his shoulders even when given bad news in fe5 should you let Nanna fall in battle before he joins Leif’s party.

Lester: Sun

The Sun arcana directly deals with happiness, typically revolving around characters who are faced with miserable situations yet still try and be optimistic; alternatively, the character has lost their initial happiness. A really cool arcana in terms of character arcs, and Lester got it not because I thought it fit him, but because he was literally my last option and I thought the Sun arcana would fit him more than some other remaining ones, and a lot of the characters at this point I was dead set on keeping them locked in to the ones I chose for them. I initially gave this arcana to Lene. 

I’d love to meet someone whose fav is Lester sdkhkddf I feel so bad that I don’t have a lot in terms of analysis on him.

Julia: Fortune

The one I knew I’d want the most for this arcana right away: the Fortune arcana revolves entirely around fate. The characters usually have to make a large decision and strive to seize their own destiny. Julia and Julius both have their births completely orchestrated for the sole purpose of furthering the Lopt Sect’s goals, their fates determined by their bloodlines. Julia rises up from what originally seemed like a helpless situation to being the one to restore peace to Jugdral herself. I literally can’t imagine anybody else, sans Julius, who could fit this arcana better out of the second gen cast.

Fee: Chariot

The Chariot arcana places an emphasis on striving towards a goal, holding a determined and willful spirit. Fee is another character I knew I instantly wanted for a specific arcana, as she’s fixated on finding her missing father-- especially when you take FE5 canon into mind and make her father Lewyn. She embodies both the arc ( willing to accomplish her goal no matter what ) but also the personality associated with the arcana.

Arthur: Magician

For starters, giving this arcana to an actual mage is so satisfying. In any case, the arcana is associated with somebody who takes more of a secondary role to the protagonist but still has their own ego. Additionally, great tragedy befalls and motivates the character-- though typically it’s romance-related in terms of arcs, but I ended up omitting that for this. Arthur is a character who exudes confidence, something that Fee suspects might not be well-deserved when they bicker, and his call to action revolves around his desire to reunite with his family. He’s aware terrible things befell his mother and sister and is terribly protective of his sister as a result. Tine honestly might get the shortest end of the stick out of the second gen cast in terms of horrible fates.

The LI manga adaptation also depicts Arthur as a shameless flirt that is a bit of a pervert, which also helps just strengthen the tie between him and the typical archetype for the Magician arcana character in the Persona series.

Iuchar: Moon

Even though you can’t recruit both of the Neir brothers in one run, I’m giving them different arcanas since I personally think that their character arcs in-game are different enough to warrant it and it gets me up to my perfect twenty-one number.

The Moon arcana revolves around illusions and typically involves a character seeing reality not as how it is, some going so far as to blame themself for something that isn’t true. My analysis on Iuchar touches upon the idea that he’s putting up his carefree personality as an act to be able to more easily show kindness upon Isaachians without arousing suspicion from his family; additionally, it talks about the idea that Iuchar blames himself for everything his family has done under the Empire and asks for forgiveness sincerely, not understanding how Seliph sees that Iuchar is blameless and that even if he wasn’t, the people love him already. Iuchar simply can’t see that reality. Though him being the actual canonically flirty character is a good argument to assign him the Magician arcana, I ultimately personally see the Moon arcana as more fitting for him.

Iucharba: Death

The Death arcana is about life cycles and predominantly characters undergoing a great change. Iucharba is a character I personally note for not really being taken seriously by his family as noted in this meta and he undergoes a great transformation throughout the events of Genealogy should you recruit him as a result. He begins as a young man allied with the Empire, a man sorely underestimated plenty, and he ends up developing into this character that suddenly is the heir to the Neir bloodline and consequently is now actually in a position of power within Grannvale-- a position he was nowhere near getting before defecting. Also not really necessary for this arcana, but the fact that you can only recruit him at the cost of killing his brother helps put a literal death association.

Patty: Devil

I actually originally had Patty assigned to the Lovers arcana, but I think this is fitting enough too. The Devil arcana typically deals with characters who commit immoral actions and have difficulty telling that what they’re doing is wrong. They’re led by impulse and temptation but they are also typically dedicated to a cause. Patty is a thief who steals to procure funds for the orphans her and her brother look after. Her compassion is her commitment and though she’s aware what she’s doing is shady, she still believes herself to be partly in the right because those she steals from are terrible people as well. She’s a more mature Dew in a sense. She’s not a perfect fit for the Devil arcana, but she fits it the most out of all the second gen.

Leif: Justice

Leif honestly probably could’ve fit a few, but I decided the Justice arcana is most suitable; the characters associated with this arcana typically are concerned with fairness and can be pretty stoic. Leif’s obsessed with enacting vengeance-- a theme that is just a breath away from justice. He’s the character I think of most in Jugdral that cares the most about karma and seeing people get what they deserve. Additionally, he fits the personality trend in how he attempts ( keyword: attempt ) to suppress his feelings.

Nanna: Empress

The Empress arcana is given to elegant women in high positions of authority. They’re typically a little on the cold side but hold compassion ( perhaps in a sort of motherly fashion ) for others underneath all of that. The second gen are almost all royalty or nobility of some degree, but Nanna especially came off as a princess to me the most out of all the characters. Additionally, God her JP voice actress really nails that refined aura. Nanna’s personality in my opinion also matches the trend in how she can be a little curt ( namely to Finn should he be her father as well as to Homer in his recruitment conversation ) but she ultimately is heralded for being kind and supportive by Leif. 

Also gameplay-wise, the Empress personas typically end up having healing skills, and Nanna’s class as troubadour plays into this too. 

Ares: Hierophant

Another character I was certain of what arcana I wished to assign them from the start, though I feel like a lot of people would think of different cards than I did. The Hierophant characters typically are fixated on the past and need to learn how to move on from that. Ares’s arc literally revolves around how he’s obsessed with killing Seliph to enact revenge for ( what he believes to be ) Sigurd killing Eldigan. Even Lene attempts to get Ares to stop being tied down to the past and to accept the present and the future. 

Lene: Lovers

I went into this really wanting Lene to be assigned to the Sun as mentioned previously but ended up changing her to the Lovers which works out too. The Lovers character is usually someone who is popular and they’re tied between two conflicting aspects of themself. Lene is friendly and charismatic both due to her personality as well as her line of work, and her character explores her maturity as Ares’s confidant in opposition to how she’s fixated on finding her mother no matter what-- something that can be interpreted as a childish fantasy that’s hopeless considering how little of information she has to go on. Additionally, the Lovers personas gameplay-wise are usually healers and associated with wind magic, and though that doesn’t quite fit Lene, it coincides with it enough what with her being a support unit primarily and also both her cipher and her heroes art associating breezes with her.

Tine: Judgement

Judgement arcs explore characters realizing their true calling and gaining absolution and acceptance. Tine is initially allied under the Empire due to her connection to the Friege family, and she lived a very stifling existence until she defects. She’s uncertain exactly what she’s doing as well as who’s “right” at the time that she takes to the battlefield but she comes to realize that Seliph’s liberation army has good intentions. The truth that seemed so muddied before becomes so much clearer by the end. She also is another character who asks for forgiveness from Seliph and ends up being wholly surprised by how easily he gives her it. I feel like this implies that desire for absolution her entire life and it’s over the course of the war that she’s able to feel comfortable in her own skin and voice out her own wishes.

Febail: Tower

Ah, yes, the Edge Lord card. Regardless, the Tower arcana deals with bad omens and doom and destruction. The characters associated with this card are typically characters who have fallen from grace. Febail is unknowingly the prince of Jungby, one of the few playable second gen units guaranteed major holy blood, but he lives his life struggling in an orphanage and as a mercenary who will take any job so long as it gives him the money to provide for the other orphans. He loses sight of his own morality, needing to be reprimanded by his sister that his attempt to slay Seliph isn’t actually going to end in his goal of prosperity for the kids. Though all the kids have taken a tumble in life, I genuinely think Febail captures this concept the best.

Ced: Emperor

If there’s literally any character I think could actually translate super well into a Persona verse more seriously beyond just me assigning arcanas, I honestly think it’d be Ced. Anyhow, the Emperor arcana holds characters who desire to control their environment even if fate gives them trouble in attempting to do so, and the characters typically are suffering from a personal issue that they do not know how to tackle. Ced is a mage who goes out of his way to find his father and along the way, brought on by his own conviction, establishes the Magi Squad to try and help the people suffering in Manster from oppression underneath the Empire. That active role reflects the arcana very well in my eyes, and Ced’s personal conflict with Lewyn as a neglectful father as per FE5′s canon seals the deal.

Coirpre: Hermit

Hermit wasn’t my first pick for Coirpre as an individual character, but I gave him it pretty quickly after I thought about the entire second gen cast collectively as opposed to just standalone cases. I think Coirpre would most likely end up as the second, more powerful navigator character to recruit especially with his ties to the Bragi bloodline and the canonical Bragi connection to prophetic truth.

Coirpre doesn’t have the strongest connection to his arcana, but the Hermit arcana characters typically put themselves in situations where they are hiding away from the spotlight and others. As such, these characters are usually more in background or supportive roles in life. Coirpre is a healer in an extremely militant country, a larger anomaly considering the fact that his father is the Shield of Thracia-- a famed general. Coirpre, upon being locked away as a hostage, adamantly requests to be let go because he doesn’t wish for his father to be forced to fight; he seeks a more discreet way to solve the issue befitting of the arcana and ultimately sought out a calmer solution. Judging by his minor involvement in FE5, he also is more neutral typically in terms of alignment, not caring much for whether or not Leif was a runaway prince but also not offering to join him unlike the other FE4 characters who show up in the midquel. Coirpre keeps himself on the down low until he’s freed by the liberation army and realizes his father and he need to take a stance against the Empire more actively.

Altena: Hanged Man

The Hanged Man arcana explores characters who undergo arcs where they are caught between two extremes or two parties in their life. Altena encompasses this idea best in how she is troubled by her loyalty to southern Thracia due to being raised as its princess and her true lineage as Leonster’s princess. She is at odds due to this conflict, what with both parties being at opposite ends of the battlefield from one another and she’s forced to make a choice between her adopted brother and her blood brother.

[ephraim]

your prompt is to info dump about it to me because i know Nothing.

you want me to info dump all of fe4? cuz its a lot theres so much going on in that game

for now im gonna info dump about finn bc? i love him? hes a loyal knight of leonster and servers under quan and ethlyn and hes like. insanely loyal to them and is an amazing knight. plus he gets a brave lance (his personal weapon) very early on in the game! i tried to use him a bit sparringly because he does leave after chapter 3 but god i loved using him!!!!! im a sucker for brave weaponsbut honestly he shines in fe5... like. quan and ethlyn both get murdered by travant, the king of southern thracia (leonster is in northern thracia) while finn isnt there to protect them which. to me that obviously weighs heavily on him. travant also takes their daughter?? anyways. after thracia is besieged finn rescues leif and raises him along with nanna and hes like??? the best dad???? the game literally says finn rarely ate because he gave his food to leif and such like,,, he was/is willing to give Everything to leif and leif even states finn hasnt laughed or cried in Years like... hello? someone please get this man some emotional support. he spends all of fe5 just trying to make sure leif and nanna are okay and live and im just. im love him? id die for him???? hes potentially best dad in the entire series??lewyn meanwhile is just a chaotic dumbass............ sigurd first meets him and lewyn definitely toys with him a bit before joining his army. hes like “hey youre hurting the locals here :/” and sigurd is like “fuck i gotta leave yuore right” and then lewyn is like “wait no?? bc now all the locals who did help you are going to get punished?” and sigurd is all “ah, youre right i must stay” then lewyn is like “youre funny. ill join your army”. he says hes just a bard but he has major holy blood with forseti so WORM... eventually you find out he’s the prince of silesse and he ran away from home because he didnt want to be a prince. eventually he does accept that hes a prince and promises to return to silesse, but he dies along with sigurd’s army at the battle of belhalla, by manfroy :( but this is when it gets like. buck wildduring the second half of the game lewyn is like. still around? even though he died? and hes waaay different? so its like.. uh... hewwo?? but it turns out later in the game that lewyn was resurrected and possessed by the dragon god forseti which explains how hes alive and why hes so. different. his role in gen 2 is basically to guide seliph and also tell him important Lore about the myths of jugdral, which is how seliph pieces together that lewyn is forseti. but still forseti is like a major dick to his kids, like he blatantly disregards the fact their mom died and they hate him?? forseti is. kinda a dick and doesnt get human emotion but i guess i cant blame him considering hes a giant ass dragon godanyways these two are in love btw and thats the tea 

[the-werdna]

Fire Emblem Echoes Journal #1 - Dun dun DUN!

Ah, I see, we’re starting with the Awakening school of story hooks. Flash forward to a big dramatic moment from later, explaining none of it, and then starting with the story proper. I see your game, Intelligent System, I see your game.

Right off the bat I am a huge fan of the full voice acting: it really adds a lot to the game in my opinion. I also appreciate that you can toggle the dialogue between auto-advancing and manual. Its fun stuff.

The art is absolutely gorgeous, being a perfect melding of the styles of the older Fire Emblem games mixed with that of the newer ones. I also love the touch where there is a very slight golden brown tint to everything, giving it the feel of early color film or artwork painted on an aged parchment, further conveying through that art that this is set in a time long before the more recent Fire Emblem games through it having this sense of age. Good stuff.

Now, onto the plot stuff, which I will leave bellow the read more to avoid spoilers.

So, both Alm and Celica have marks now, which was not a detail present in the original game. Now, as a massive Fire Emblem nerd, I know exactly what this mean: both of them come from a bloodline that had made a bloodpact with powerful dragon. We’ve seen this being in Awakening of course with the Brand of the Exalt and the Mark of Grima, but FE4 and FE5 also had this, with there being 12 Divine Dragon blessed bloodlines all with marks (one of those being Naga’s, which was almost certainly identical to the Brand of the Exalt) and another connected to the Shadow Dragon Loptyr. So, Alm and Celica have connections to other dragons. Could this be leading up to confirmation of the long standing fan theory that the gods of Valentia, Mila and Duma, were actually divine dragons? If so, which one are each of them connected to?

And then the fight begins. As soon as the corrupt, blatantly tutorial enemy-type soldier showed up, I put down the game and went “This game’s Jagen is going to show up and save them, isn’t he?”. Then I picked it up and it happened, lol. Predictability aside, I did really enjoy the story telling on this so far. Definitely a bit darker already than other games, in a good way. Fits the more medieval type setting where as the more recent games feel more fantasy instead of medieval with fantasy elements.

Gameplay wise, not much to say on this one. First mission mainly had me ganging up on the weaker units with the everyone except Mycen, as I wanted to give them EXP. 

As for the end of the prologue, I am a fan of how the story is putting a greater focus on Alm and Celica’s relationship. Like, it seems to be one of the big center elements, which I am a huge fan of. It just appeals to the shipper and hopeless romantic in me.

I do have a few minor complaints so far after playing through the prologue. The camera in the 3ed person sections feels a bit wonky and is jarring when it moves. I also think the game field camera is a bit too zoomed out. I would like it if it were zoomed in more, but that also is a minor complaint

Overall, I am really enjoying this one so far. I look forward to continuing to give my thoughts on this as I continue

[randomnameless]

Chapter 10 - Chronos to Miletos!

Welp in the last post i said Seliph ended up in Chronos, but no, he rekt’d Morrigan in Rados (even if i think you’re supposed to seize Chronos last?).

Anyways, after destroying evil people, Seliph meets his half-bro who’s playing the latest trendy game around.

But first, Seliph’s stepdad tries to do something.

Oldvis hasn’t seen Ishtar in ages! Naturally he asks how she’s doing.

kill that, it was just small talk. And, oh, surprise, Oldvis doesn’t care about the child hunts. So yes Amalda, your emperor hasn’t agreed with those things, you were right to trust him!

“i’ll tell him to go to his room and we’ll be over with this”

Oldvis uses the authority card. It’s never a good thing when one uses this card, because it means that, basically, you’re useless.

Daw, Oldvis didn’t want to bang her Julius! What do you mean by “is mine” btw? Your fiancée, your plaything, your tool?

Lil’ dastard. Oldvis pretends to be able to do something, or tries to use his big voice but Julius doesn’t care anymore.

This - Oldvis tried to banish his son, but it didn’t work. The Loptyr Sect prevented Julius from being banished? And banished where? The Empire is everywhere, unless Arvis wanted to send him to Travant. Maybe he wanted to send him to Archanea??

Oldvis looks so feeble here, it hurts. And Julius treats his dad like crap, bad Julius, bad!

:’(

That’s not a way to talk to your dad! Granted, Young!Arvis might also have been as dastardly as that to, say, Reptor so... I can’t say he earned this, but it’s also ironic.

I wonder what must happen in Oldvis’ head, is he really that beaten/broken? later we see that he is not, but here... what happened during those 7 years when Julius turned into Loptyr?

Of course you laugh, Arvis treated you like crap in chapter 5 so now you have your revenge!

Julius doesn’t join Manfroy in his Oldvis bashing. Maybe he doesn’t see the point. and OMG WHY IS HE MENTIONING JULIA???

OMFG NO DO YOU MEAN THIS USELESS CHARACTER WAS ACTUALLY THE PRINCESS OF GRANVALLE??? HOW COME NO ONE RECOGNISED HER??

I guess it was surprising, she only knew her kind and gentle brother and now he wants to kill her!

Finally we learn what happened to Deedee! Granted, Julius’ words here always make me sour.

Deedee accepted her death “to save Julia”?? It’s not like we have a kind of similar scenario in FE5, where a mother has to fight against one of children to protect another, but thanks for Nanna, Eyvel didn’t “accept her death” - and even if she had been able to use a rewarp staff to put her to safety, I doubt she’d have “accepted her death” without trying to help Mareeta. But Jugdral’s best mom has no peers in this world.

Ghoul yourself!

Yep! Do it now, we must do it now before you turn senile and decided to send her against the others, or some other shit plan like that.

Keeping this book under “the strictest lock” is a good plan indeed, if you didn’t knew where she was. 

Julius/Loptyr takes no chances, the Book is locked, yes, but without anyone to wield it then he’s sure he’s going to be fine.

Note how Julius speaks about the avatars of Naga; Seliph isn’t a major blooded Naga peep so he doesn’t count? what about linoan?

Too bad Julius, he failed you. And by sundown, really? Talk about rushing things! Besides, Julius “supposes” he is needed?

Why? He just told you getting rid of Julia is the highest priority!

Julius doesnt’ like peasants, but he doesn’t care much about Seliph. And he is right, Seliph can’t do a thing to him without Julia, the worse he can do is breed with Linoan to bring another major Naga, but bar that he is as relevant as Duke Scipio. Peasants are going to revolt because Seliph is supposedly the true heir of Granvalle, but if he can’t kill Julius, then what?

Julius doesn’t believe Seliph is his older bro - it’s nothing but superstitious nonsense! He cares more about Julia, and dragon-wise/plot-wise, we should do the same but we’re following the adventures of Seliph.

I wonder if a Ced narrative would focus more on recovering Julia if he were to learn that his dad went missing because he had to protect the only person on the continent able to get rid of Loptyr.

A threat? No, he doesn’t. And seriously Julius, I know we’re in a game where sword emblem is broken, and theoretically Seliph could kill you with the Tyrfing, but even with the Tyrfing, and lore-wise, no, he can’t possibly be much a threat.

It’s pretty darn funny that Manfroy’s master plan fails because he believes Seliph is a real treat disregarding Julia completely. Manfroy breaks the 4th wall? Seliph is the Lord thus he must die, Julia is nothing.

Yep. The greater plot, regardless of what F!Lewyn tries to hammer, doesn’t give a fig about Seliph. Loptyr only cares about Julia.

Poor Manfroy.

Go Loptyr goons , defend Miletos!

You have a better idea than the one you just ordered? Oh Julius...

Yay! Kill a rebel!

Yippie!

I know this sounds odd in regards to FE5!Ishtar who’s more nuanced, but bear in mind that her mom escaped death a few turns ago so she’d be more than likely to want to kill some rebels. But sounding so happy about it? A bit Meh.

You have good eyes OIfey!

Poor OIfey has been the one living in exile for 17 years, he was just supposed to assist Sigurd and then he was thrown in this mess. I feel bad for him.

ARDEN WHO??? But note how Oifey mentions his peers, and the young knights of Chalphy so maybe Arden wasn’t a noble to begin with? He had just been a commoner who enrolled?

every last Chalphy face was a firendly one or you had other friends who weren’t from Chalphy?

Seliph comes from everywhere, save from the land he is supposed to inherit.

Oh :’(

Don’t be like that Seliph, do you think Prince Ulster of Verdane has any right, bar his blood, to rule over the barbarians there?

:)

I’m sure some pious citizens would prefer Major Naga Empress on the throne of Granvalle, but this is only food for an AU.

Who? The citizens of Chalpy or the citizens of Granvalle? Because the Granvalle peeps were happy until Julius became mad, hell, some of them don’t even know about the child hunts etc. So you’re actually saying a lot of crap, unless you’re talking about the people of Chalphy, and if Palmark is any indication, they weren’t put to the noose as soon as Siggy kicked the bucket.

Again, we don’t see the common folk of Granvalle in FE5, but if we can compare with the randoms of Thracia, they’re not praying for the second coming of Quan, they just want to get on with their shitty lives without risking to be killed by random brigands etc. But maybe the people of Chalphy believe in Siggy the 2nd, even if, and i never stress it enough, when Siggy and pals died, they died as traitors.

Saying Siggy is a hero means saying Arvis is a dastard, and in the beginning or the Empire, Arvis was well loved, even now, in FE5, Arvis is still loved.

So really meh about this line.

I don’t know if this “fairy tale” is made up by OIfey to cheer Seliph up, or if some diehard Chalpy loyalists really think that, or if Oifey himself sees Seliph as the 2nd coming of Siggy who will avenge his dad and save the world.

Mmh. I’m not convinced.

Granted, everyone hates the child hunts, and they want them to stop. Are they all suddenly calling to the son of a traitor to help them?

Seliph has had enough of the propaganda described by OIfey, and asks about the greater plot. Maybe all the randoms don’t like Arvis, maybe some think he is Loptyr...

maybe those randoms forgot how their dark god instaured a relatively peaceful land for 10 years, or they just slander Oldvis because he is the Emperor and the Empire has turned into a shitty place.

Or maybe the people we liberated couldn’t go all Amalda like “i had faith in Arvis what happened to him” because we’re the LA and Seliph’s n°1 objective is to rekt him, so no one should express sympathy for the man?

“don’t worry, i have a pony now!”

Hahaha - the only one who can rekt the dark God isn’t even a Lord in this damn game

He looks scary?

Mmh... like what? You look into his eyes and you’re charmed or something?

Julius had a group of fangirls! How cute! Granted, i don’t know if what happened to them next could be called cute...

Fig off

What if i sacrifice you?!

Welp, Julius tries to kill the useless man his useless sister married. Kinslaying, again. Hopefully, Ulster dodged.

Seliph wanted to say hello to his brother.

Larcei cut their discussion and Julius grew bored.

what? an useless characted inheriting an useless land married to an useless woman? Ulster’s pretty happy with this life.

He won’t.

Fee finally talks to her trash dad. But trash dad has some kind of draconic circumstances to explain his behaviour.

If i were Fee i’d slap him because she had been the only one to be at her mom’s side when she died

Maybe she really slapped him then! GG Fee!

You were happy seeing him? He who abandonned you all? And returned with another child? you’re a nice person Fee.

:’(

He has never been the kindest person around, but ignoring her completely...

He knows what it is to get shunned by his own Mother though! I miss you Rahna

Constructive behaviour here, but Fee isn’t the adult so i can let it slide.

I had the same reaction. F!Lewyn is really... despicable, regardless of his nature.

Many playthoughs of FE4 came to the same conclusion, so no Fee, even if your mom married Arden, she’d still be dead.

At least he acknowldges it.

??

To this day, I still don’t understand his outburst. Did Erin met F!Lewyn and told him it was A-OK to go and do whatever with Julia to save the world, she wouldn’t tell her kids about it? Or did she know F!Lewyn wasn’t her husband anymore?

He is trying to push her away, because he knows he can’t be her dad anymore or something else? Or because he is just that awful?

The kids? What about the most important one? The one with Major Naga blood? She doesn’t even deserve a mention?

“damn those foot units”

At least we managed to be on time for those repairs to be done.

Onwards to victory

I mean - Onwards to Chalphy!

[randomnameless]

So i finally finished SOV - i mean the main story - and it was...

well at first when i got the game my expectations were rather low even with the good reviews fellow friends gave to the game so i was definitely surprised, in the good way. SOV feels like an old FE, as in it’s kind of subtle about things like humor - eons away from the ham fisted “humour” of Felicia stumbling and dropping plates or something - and characterisation, as in everyone had its own character and wasn’t simply a trope, which i appreciated a lot. Support convos were meaningful, brought backstory (for the ones i did) but not in an infodump way.

So that felt “old” in the good - classical - way, but when a friend who played first FE8 to Fates saw me playing he was like “nah i don’t like this” and well, I can’t really tell him to fig off but the mechanics are, well, not archaic nor outdated, but can be quite frustrating. Maybe it’s just me or I didn’t forge my weapons enough, but Leon/Python by the endgame were locked to perpetual 60ish% of hit and a lot of tiles in the last maps five stupid avoid like +20% which is frustrating. Of course you’re supposed to use mages, because they don’t suffer from the defensive tiles but it’s annoying that you can’t “reliably” destroy things with your mounted archers.

OTOH if 5 range had 100% hit it’d be broken as, idk, a 2 weight tome with 30 might.

But i can understand the “meh” factor coming from those hit rates, mages are paper thin - again it’s good for balance - but for someone who came out of Fates/Awakening it can be disturbing, especially since the speed stat (on the screen) doesnt’ take into account the actual speed you have, as in the tome weights a little bit so in the end you can be doubled.

But I’d say it’s just a habit to take. I was afraid of the hp drain mages had when they use magic but it’s not really that bothering since you end up with a lot of rings, it’s actually more bothersome on healers - Tatiana couldn’t spam fortify she had to be healed because the ring doesn’t recover enough hp - but otherwise it’s cool, besides clerics were actually useful as in they could heal AND fight with Nosferatu, even if Nosfe-tanking isn’t wise because of the low accuracy.

Lack of WTA wasn’t that debilitating, OTOH it felt a bit redundant, i don’t know how to say it but WTA gave more “thrill” or something, here you can send Terror!Kamui in a forest and everyone will miss because of his high avoid and nothing else will make this change (of course in this setting Duma goons are dead). Granted, horseslayers are still a thing to look for (clive learnt it :’( ) and you have skills against certain foes, like the steel lance gives armor slayer or something?

About skills, well they were, imo, well implemented. You can’t double attack with them so they’re not totally broken (save for Alm’s double lion but) and kind of cool.

But what I loved the most was the magic tree, as in everyone learns different magic and not at the same level so it kinds of makes you want to use everyone or at least complementary units, Delthea hits hard and fast, but she doesn’t have the 3 range Thunder spell Mae has (even if Mae doesn’t hit that hard, she doesn’t have Ragnarok but she’s still a super good unit, at least in this run). Sonya doesn’t get Seraphim (i wonder why lol) but she can rewarp, and has Excalibur. The male mages were a kind of letdown though (i was dumb and promoted Kliff to archer, Tobin to mage) even if the Sagittarius spell is rad, they’re nowhere near the level of the priestesses. Even the Saints are all useful, Silque has Warp, Faye has Rescue and Tatiana got Fortify and physic (like Faye), Genny can’t warp but she has Physic, that spell to remove low level monsters and she can summon randoms.

To end this quickly, while the gameplay can be a bit annoying (low hit rates) it’s very fun to play, or at least to test. The map design is meh (endless meadow with some forests and fort) but that’s coming from a “faithfum” remake so it’s to be expected.

Dungeon crawling was - tedious in the last dungeons but wait i still have the optional one damn everyone is hungry - really captivating, you had to watch over your food reserves, find a shrine to save, smash enemies and pots and sometimes hunt for treasure. Honestly, i really liked it. It felt very RPG like!

Naga Mila bless the turnwheel - that thing saved me so many soft resets and I hope it’ll be a staple in the series from now on, maybe pretend that the fire emblem in jugdral was stolen by azel in the prologue and it has this role in jugdral echoes, idk something like that.

Plot wise... well it’s old FE for you, with a compelling story, it isn’t trying too hard like the other 3DS entries and you can feel the lore around like the omnipresence of Mila’s church with people going on pilgrimages or the Duma faithful not being seen as an evil only cult, unlike the Grimleal, but it has normal persons in it - who are eons away from Jedah and his schemes but still part of the religious order like Tatiana (even if quite frankly without her the Faithful would have been an “evil cult” like Loptyr’s one, complete with the guy who tried to stop the evil new leader and was banished (not killed here) in return). Randoms in villages live, they want to fish, to farm, they’re afraid of bandits, they gossip and all...

However, I feel as if the last parts - chapter 4 and 5 - were kind of rushed. Of course chapter 4 has Rudolf’s master plan (tm) so it’s meh in essence, but Celica holds the idiot plot ball even if, well, Jedah is a cunning bastard and her struggles are real, she set on her journey to free Mila so she’ll do anything to save Mila.

Which actually makes me a bit doubtful about chapter 5 where we’re supposed to understand that men don’t need gods/dragons anymore, Clive (or is it Lukas?) tells Alm that without dragons people will starve and all, but he’s all “we will find a way i know it will be hard” like, of course with Duma being mad there is no way things can continue like this, but are people really okay with having to work on a barren land? Isn’t it the problem Zofia had in the beginning of the game, everyone was hungry and then Rigel attacked? It makes me think about FE5 and Dagda, he and Gomez are toiling the barren lands of Thracia and doesn’t bear any fruits, the reason why Gomez returns to banditry, and this is a problem but everything is magically solved when Leif becomes king because in Dagda’s ending we learn that somehow things managed to grow. Yay?

But Valencia will exist by the time Chrom rolls in, so the peasants magically managed to harvest their barren lands without the power of the dragons, yay for them too.

Also Alm wants to kill/seal/put duma to sleep because his power makes people grow mad, but as the narrator put it in the credits (and something Alm forgot) even without Duma people will still thirst for power and do stupid things. Granted it’s not as stupid as burning the only person who loved you into a witch, but it leads you to murder helpless children in a bid to sit on the Zofian throne. So that really made me frown - not in the puzzled way but in the bad way, why is Duma painted as so evil, his power is evil etc? I loved that scene in the temple (Mila vs rudolf) because Mila wasn’t portrayed at sometihng Emmeryn like, she was furious, kind of distrubing/scary and well, you could understand that she will fight/will kill you if she wants, even if she is suposed to be the earth mother, loving etc.

Duma? Nope, nothing to show that he cares or has compassion, he is a dastard who might be mad, only interested with power and turns people into evil people. This is something that distrubs me because Duma isn’t something like Loptyr, evil for the sake of being petty, he was supposed to watch over the humans just like Mila did, hell people were supposed to thrive and be somewhat happy, not crazed. If he is a dastard who only thrives for power and gives powers to people who offer their daughters to be changed into witches, why people worshipped him for hundred of years? We’re not talking about fanatics like Jedah or his army of blue people, but Tatiana, the random villagers, etc...? Heck even Fates tried to paint Anankos as a “good” guy before he turned sour, but nothing for Duma?

:’(

But even if I rant a bit, IMO Echoes is the best 3DS FE, even with its wonky hit rates and rewarping witches. Plot is here, gameplay is fun (i wanted to try to forge so many things) and dungeon crawling is rad. I’d definitely recommend it to friends who can look past the wonky hit rates. It isn’t “classic FE gameplay” but it’s enjoyeable nonetheless, and the voice acting is really good. Usually i wouldn’t care, but this is really nice and i hope it will return.