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LordHippoman
May 30, 2013

I, frankly, want this smug Jagen to be my avatar on all forms of social media immediately.

Miacis posted:

I'm all for keeping the woodcutting occultist in the team for as long as possible. Although there is a possible replacement coming up a bit later if the RNG gods feel merciless.

My last run of FE11 was pretty much "outliers only, kill all the others," so if my reclassing experience is any word of advice (it really isn't), Darros makes a rather competent top-heavy Mercenary/Axe Hero (or a Knight I guess), Draug is an excellent speedy Hunter and Wrys is so utterly outclassed by Lena you might as well make him a bald Mage.

But it's also kinda sad Jagen isn't coming along in his last adventure...

I have been looking for something else for Draug to do, perhaps. Hunter sounds fun.

Also, don't worry, Jagen might not be along for THIS adventure...but he might find his way into another.

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vilkacis
Feb 16, 2011

Ah, Matthis. Please show him whining about being unable to find Lena and following it up by running her through :allears:.

MythosDragon posted:

Now I'm upset that theres no tri-part staffs in Fire Emblem.

Hell, any blunt weapons at all until the clubs in If! (And those were axeually axes anyway.) But yeah, I'd rock the hell out of any kind of stick you can hit people with.


Axe Healer is like the best class Intsys ever made and anyone who objects to this clearly hates fun :colbert:

Miacis posted:

Wrys ... make him a bald Mage

I can get behind this!

Cattail Prophet
Apr 12, 2014

Every chapter of Shadow Dragon actually has the same unit limit: 16. It's just that characters that you recruit during the chapter count towards that limit, so if there's a chapter where you recruit, say, six new characters, you can only bring in ten dudes at the start. This is not the only thing in the game that's governed by the number 16.

Cattail Prophet fucked around with this message at 02:37 on Dec 17, 2016

LordHippoman
May 30, 2013

I, frankly, want this smug Jagen to be my avatar on all forms of social media immediately.

vilkacis posted:

Ah, Matthis. Please show him whining about being unable to find Lena and following it up by running her through :allears:.

I've already recorded this one and I tried this, but that idiot WENT FOR WRYS INSTEAD.

I'm gonna go for it on the Normal Mode run though.


Cattail Prophet posted:

Every chapter of Shadow Dragon actually has the same unit limit: 16. It's just that characters that you recruit curing the chapter count towards that limit, so if there's a chapter where you recruit, say, six new characters, you can only bring in ten dudes at the start. This is not the only thing in the game that's governed by the number 16.

I didn't know that, huh. I'll keep that in mind. That would explain why an upcoming map gives you so few spots.

MythosDragon
Jan 3, 2016

Cattail Prophet posted:

Every chapter of Shadow Dragon actually has the same unit limit: 16. It's just that characters that you recruit curing the chapter count towards that limit, so if there's a chapter where you recruit, say, six new characters, you can only bring in ten dudes at the start. This is not the only thing in the game that's governed by the number 16.

Thats actually really cool.
Is the other thing the age limit of good characters?

Not that this affects me since its like chapter 20 before I have 16 characters.

SonicRulez
Aug 6, 2013

GOTTA GO FIST
Dracoknights are probably my favorite unit. Movement tends to be super important the later you get in Fire Emblem games. Half my team in Awakening was on some kind of flying beast. It's a shame you can't make Draug one, the slow movement hampers Knights in my games. Except Oswin.

FoolyCharged
Oct 11, 2012

Cheating at a raffle? I sentence you to 1 year in jail! No! Two years! Three! Four! Five years! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!
Somebody call for an ant?

SonicRulez posted:

Dracoknights are probably my favorite unit. Movement tends to be super important the later you get in Fire Emblem games. Half my team in Awakening was on some kind of flying beast. It's a shame you can't make Draug one, the slow movement hampers Knights in my games. Except Oswin.

I loved pair up when they introduced it because I could suddenly get their slow buts to the front quickly and easily and knights were suddenly super cool.

LordHippoman
May 30, 2013

I, frankly, want this smug Jagen to be my avatar on all forms of social media immediately.
Chapter 4: Lea: An open area of grassy or arable land. (Battle)



Well, with all the preparation out of the way, it’s time to get to the battle!




: I’m convinced you’re just making up words now.

: Quiet, you clamshank.

: If they think we’ll sit by and let them join forces with the Aurelians, then they have another thing coming. With this ridersbane, I’ll litter the lea with their cavalry!

The game’s nice enough to toss you another hint here. Also, my god, Bentheon’s nose.




Let’s start off our newest mission by letting Dark Mage Cord get the first hit! (castor missed) The pretty formidable Might of “an axe” combined with the low Resistance numbers in Shadow Dragon makes this a pretty huge chunk of damage, more than most of our units are capable of right now.




Julian gets the kill, though, because I want him to get some experience.



Meanwhile, I need to block off the reinforcements that will rush around the lake, so the usual wall of Cavalier strategy is in order.




Ogma and Barst also lend some formidable hands.




Everyone else is just rushing west, and I figure this is a good time to show off the Convoy feature! I can use it to grab a sword from the Convoy, then trade it to Navarl so he doesn’t have to waste Killing Edge.




I mean, I would, if I didn’t forget to put anything in the Convoy :v:




Let’s just forget that happened. I don’t think we’ve heard much about Macedon yet, but we’ll be introduced to them this map.




The Cavaliers in the top left also begin their charge. Thankfully the horsemen and Bentheon stay put.




After seeing Abel take that hit, I thought they might need some healing, so I’m sending Lena to the eastern blockade.

I immediately regret my actions because I need her over on the other side, but it’s too late! Look how well I’m starting this map off!




The armory has nothing of real interest, but I had Cord grab two Steel Lances, since we can’t buy them yet and have a lot of pretty solid Lance wielders...




I say as Abel misses a Javelin again, the irony of my statements entirely lost on me in this post-commentary.



This Hunter just exists to make the choke here a bit more difficult. I’ll have to do some creative shuffling to keep everyone alive up here.




There are bigger problems, though, namely that the cavalry has almost arrived. I’ve marked Matthis, because as you probably guessed, he’s recruitable, and the Armorslayer guy, so I can be more careful with Draug.




This is safely out of either of their ranges, but I’ll be able to catch the first couple guys with a counterattack.




Ogma gets out of here and takes a sip of Barst’s vulnerary, in case that Hunter decides to get cheeky.




Thankfully, Abel’s finished missing.




Barst never started.



As expected, the Cavs attack, and Marth deals some decent chip damage. I want to save some of the Rapier, though, there will be a lot of tougher mounted foes ahead.




Draug gets hit too, but it just benefits him, really.




Evidently this is also the trigger for the Thief and Hunter to the north to come down. I didn’t plan for that, but it should be okay.




Alright. So, the goal here is to talk to Matthis with Lena, but because I moved Lena wrong...that’s gonna take a turn. So the NEW goal is to kill off most of his buddies, then hope he doesn’t kill himself/kill one of my units on the Enemy Phase. Also there’s that thief and hunter slightly off screen.




One square out of Hunter range, Caeda removes the Armorslayer with some extreme prejudice.




Not great.




Better!




I was hoping for a crit here, but Navarre only got the chip damage. I had to bring Julian in to finish up and-




:eyepop:

Thanks, Julian.




Lena moves forward, mostly because she kinda has to. Wrys retreats.






Thankfully, this turn cleaned up the choke point, meaning these guys can start to rejoin the main team.





Matthis you absolute gently caress you ran right past her in your urge to impale a bald man!




He’s okay, folks.




So is he.




Behold as I regret doing the 100% Recruitment Run.




: Lena?! What are you doing on a battlefield?

: I was attacked by bandits in the Teeth while tending to the sick there, and these people saved me. The real question is, what are YOU doing on a battlefield- least of all this one!

: I’m not here by choice, sister of mine. Since you left, Macedon has only gotten worse and worse. They forced me to enlist- you know I hate warfare, but it was into the army or onto the chopping block.

: Shame on you, Matthis. If you’re going to fight, then at least fight for something you believe in. Macedon has done terrible things: marrying their might to Dolhr, helping them torment people…Brother, it’s not too late. You could join Altea’s forces. They’re good people you know. Prince Marth would welcome you. They all would.

I wouldn’t. :colbert:

: …All right, then. If I’m gonna to die, I’d rather die as one of the dashing than one of the dastardly. You know, Lena, you always were the reliable one, and now you’re all grown up…I thought for sure you’d have already settled down with your one true love.

: T-true love? I’ve…I’ve met no such man, Matthis.

: Hmm, is that so? I’ll bet you haven’t…

So one creepy thing about Matthis is that his dialogue, mostly in the sequel, kinda implies he has a crush on his sister. I guess this is the start of another classic Fire Emblem trend. Awkward Incestous Vibes. Which they made into a full game called Fates!

: Well, you just be careful. There are plenty of thieves out there who would steal a girl’s heart.

Thankfully Lena’s got a much better and less disturbing option.







And I think that’s the end of the enemies on this half of the map.




So now we’re headed for the bridge!




...And I should probably talk about Matthis.

I really, really don’t like Matthis. I’m not even really sure why. Maybe it’s his haircut. He’s a very defensively oriented Cavalier, with high HP and Defense growths, and his Strength isn’t too shabby, on par with Abel’s. His Skill is AWFUL, though, as is his Speed, and he’s yet another cavalier hurled at you when we’re about to get three more, one of whom is really good!




Wrys and Lena ran around and patched people up, but I cut it because you don’t want to see that. You probably want to see Wrys get a level though. There it is.




Tragically, this meant the end of Wrys’ Heal stave. Our first weapon break. Farewell, old friend.




Also here’s more matthis i’m sorry



: ACK! Y-you’re Prince Marth! Aieee! S-s-stay your rapier, I beg you!

: …What has gotten into you?

: You mean…you haven’t come to stick me like a pig for fighting under the Macedonian standard?


: Er, no…

: Really?

: Really and truly.

: Oh! Uh, right then… Sorry about that little display. I guess Lena was right. Just goes to show not all princes are cut from the same cloth!

: What do you mean?

: Oh, well, our prince- Prince Michalis of Macedon, that is- he’s strong, and proud…and an utter tyrant. They say he put the soldiers who look the most scared in the front lines on purpose.

: Hmm...Prince Michalis of Macedon.

I like that they foreshadow an upcoming villain here, but we won’t actually get to see Michalis towards near the end of the game! One big issue with Shadow Dragon is that it just doesn’t show its characters enough for you to really get a feel for them.

: Don’t worry, sire, I won’t mistake you for him again! Altean princes I can trust!




I can lure the Archers over, but the Knight is gonna stay put.




They have Steel Bows, which might be bad if you weren’t Draug. As is they get mopped up fast.




...Oh. Already?

Sometimes the RNG really, really hates you. Sometimes Fire Emblem sees you get a really good Julian level up and decides to punish you. Sometimes I need a bit for this LP. In all these situations, you get an empty level. Not a single stat procced, and Castor is just left looking like that. What a shame.




That said, the knight is open now.




PURGED BY an axe



Barst cleaned up the other one, and now there’s just one thing left to do down here.



We’ve got a new friend to meet.




: …Huh? Merric?! Merric, is that you?

: Well, yes, sire, last I looked. Whilst studying magic in Khadein, I caught wind of a war brewing and decided to seek you out.

: I see… Thank you, then. I need friends like you on the battlefield. You will fight with us, of course?

: Of course! ‘Twould be a passing shame if you didn’t get to see me flex a little magic muscle. Wait till I show you my latest: Excalibur!



Merric would be your first magical unit, if you didn’t reclass. And he’s a drat good start. Despite his low starting level, Merric is powerful, holding pretty decent growths nearly across the board and getting early access to a very powerful Tome, the Excalibur, which is a triple damage weapon against fliers. I’ve always used him, so I probably won’t this time, just for variety, unless people really want to see him in action.

You’ll see it in one of the DLC maps anyway.




To lure the Horsemen this way, Matthis makes for fantastic target practice.




drat, only got one.





Well, I can’t complain too much. Bring me another!





Okay, never mind, that’s enough, thanks.

These guys are promoted enemies, so they give a lot of Exp. It’s an easy way to kickstart Merric if you want to use him.







And then there were two.




This poor Cleric is completely helpless. I have to give her a fighting chance, at least…

Devil Axe Time




Darros, you fool!




Thankfully Cain and Julian can mop up while Darros feels sad.





Cain kinda needs some more of these, or Abel’s going to be outdoing him.




Marth can get started on the boss here. Bentheon really isn’t a threat unless you decide to fight him with a mounted unit. Caeda doesn’t count as mounted, by the way.







Although...use the Rapier if you have Marth doing it. That 1 damage is sad.





...Why did I not equip the Rapier? I’m openly questioning you, me from last night, what the hell?




Still, I want to get him just a little lower…




To give our new star reclassed pal the finishing blow.







Thankfully he drops this, It should come in handy on someone like Draug or Abel. Maybe Caeda.

So the maps over, :toot: and

:frogsiren: a r e n a :frogsiren:




Let’s talk about...the Arena.




The Arena is a recurring feature in Fire Emblem games. It was absent for the Gamecube duology and made its comeback here. I could explain it all, but let’s allow our friend the Fightmonger to start off.





Entering the Arena allows you to wager your gold in a simple betting system, double or nothing. The higher the wager, the tougher the foe you’ll be up against.




This is important. You can hit B to cancel a fight, but ONLY after a turn is complete, AKA both units have finished attacking. This is important because a death in the Arena is a real death, meaning you will lose that unit. Losing 900 gold or so is way better than a death, so stay on that B button.




You always strike first in the arena, so mathematically there was no way for Cain to lose here (Unless 100% isn't REALLY 100% and haha that would be ridiculous). Easy money. The arena also provides you with a basic weapon for your class, so you can’t bring the Killing Edge in or anything.




Why, yes, this is potential infinite gold, and more importantly, infinite EXP. The enemies also scale to the challenger’s level. However, you always run the risk of dying, so use of the save points is a great idea.

Some people stay at the Arena for hours to get some maxed out units before the game even really gets started. I’m not going to be doing that, because I don’t want to break the game. Plus it’d be boring. I will use them, though.




Oh, after winning, you can fight again, but since you’re probably low on HP, I wouldn’t do that unless you just didn’t get hit or something. It does allow you to chain more battles in one turn, though.




Healing up injured Arena fighters is also a great way to grind levels on your healers.




This was a B button. When I said you get the first strike, I meant JUST the first strike, no doubles. Also, Navorbop couldn’t double this Pegasus Knight anyway. Retreat and live to fight again.




You do lose the cash, though, but it’s not that bad.




: We’ve saved up 5,000 gold and poured our prayers into every coin. Please, use this money to answer them.

Oh, there was also that other village, but it was so uneventful I missed the Screencap. My bad.




I went ahead and used the Arena to get Cain closer to Abel in levels. I might reclass one of them soon because my god we have so many Cavs.




Banarre also did some grinding here, and even finished with a stylish crit.




That is so not worthy of a stylish crit!

Anyway :toot:




: You’ll find Captain Hardin protecting the king and the lady Nyna at the Northern Fortress, located in Aurelis. When you find him, please be sure to give him this silver sword.




Nice. I guess we’ll have to give that to Captain Hardin next time. I’m sure we’ll love him.




Next time: cavalier cavalier cavalier

Bonus Content!

This was Dark Mage Cord’s debut, although his card is a bit dated now that we’ve reclassed him. So here’s Julian instead.

theshim
May 1, 2012

You think you can defeat ME, Ephraimcopter?!?

You couldn't even beat Assassincopter!!!
I laugh at each and every instance of "an axe". :buddy:

Camel Pimp
May 17, 2008

This poster survived LPing Lunar: Dragon Song. Let's give her a hand.
I played this game right after Fates, and let me tell you, getting an empty level was a pretty loving rude awakening. (And what's better is that Marth got it. He got two over the course of the game. I didn't get very lucky with Marth.) Although I wanna say that the way the RNG worked in the original version meant you couldn't actually get an empty level, or at least it was quite rare. As a matter of fact, how many Fire Emblems let you get an empty level unless you've capped some stats? The 3DS ones don't, and I think I've gotten an empty level once in Sacred Stones, and she had capped speed. (Binding Blade probably lets you get empty levels)

FoolyCharged
Oct 11, 2012

Cheating at a raffle? I sentence you to 1 year in jail! No! Two years! Three! Four! Five years! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!
Somebody call for an ant?

Off the top of my head you can empty level in:
All the gba games
Awakening(although you have to cap drat near everything to have good odds of seeing one)
The ds games
Path of radiance (maybe)

And you cant in the original two games(hardware limitations cause the game to pick from 1 of 10 or so static level ups) and fe10(guarantees at least 1 stat up)

Dunno about the rest of them

RareAcumen
Dec 28, 2012




Wonderslug posted:

Converting an axe-wielder into a book nerd? At last, the cycle is complete.



Virion is a mage, Kellam is a thief, Lon Qu is also some kind of magic user but what is Sully supposed to be? An archer?

chiasaur11
Oct 22, 2012



RareAcumen posted:

Virion is a mage, Kellam is a thief, Lon Qu is also some kind of magic user but what is Sully supposed to be? An archer?

Myrmidon. (Lon'qu's a trickster)

Fun fact: Sully's daughter Kjelle was initially meant to be a myrm before they realized, hey, maybe we should have more than one knight in the game and also we have three myrmidons already.

AradoBalanga
Jan 3, 2013

FoolyCharged posted:

Off the top of my head you can empty level in:
All the gba games
Awakening(although you have to cap drat near everything to have good odds of seeing one)
The ds games
Path of radiance (maybe)

And you cant in the original two games(hardware limitations cause the game to pick from 1 of 10 or so static level ups) and fe10(guarantees at least 1 stat up)

Dunno about the rest of them
I have gotten a few empty levels in Fates. Mostly with Elise, but by then she'd capped everything except HP, Strength, Skill and Defense.

Sjs00
Jun 29, 2013

Yeah Baby Yeah !
I always enjoy our thief friend Julian. He's one of a very few thieves in this game who can actually hold his own reliably.

LordHippoman
May 30, 2013

I, frankly, want this smug Jagen to be my avatar on all forms of social media immediately.

chiasaur11 posted:

Fun fact: Sully's daughter Kjelle was initially meant to be a myrm before they realized, hey, maybe we should have more than one knight in the game and also we have three myrmidons already.

Huh. That's interesting, because I thought "Kjelle" was supposed to be pronounced like "Shelly", and it was like a pun based on her being a knight? Of course they could have just changed the name, or I could be totally wrong.


FoolyCharged posted:

Off the top of my head you can empty level in:
All the gba games
Awakening(although you have to cap drat near everything to have good odds of seeing one)
The ds games
Path of radiance (maybe)

And you cant in the original two games(hardware limitations cause the game to pick from 1 of 10 or so static level ups) and fe10(guarantees at least 1 stat up)

Dunno about the rest of them

I know it's also possible at least in FE4, I don't know about 5, but with all the other poo poo Thracia 776 apparently pulls I'd be baffled if they safeguarded you against empty levels.

Miacis
Oct 9, 2012

Get off my lawn!!
It is absolutely possible to get empty levels in FE4 and FE5. In fact, even with uncapped stats in FE4, it's possible for 100+% growths to not proc if the game runs out of RNs during a fight... which it commonly does during arena matches.

Miacis fucked around with this message at 01:28 on Dec 20, 2016

Rabbi Raccoon
Mar 31, 2009

I stabbed you dude!
It's funny how the Lords in this series end up being either your best character or you're worst. I remember in Artix's LP he ended up with a Hector that only had like, 13 strength. On Hector Hard Mode.

Tae
Oct 24, 2010

Hello? Can you hear me? ...Perhaps if I shout? AAAAAAAAAH!

AradoBalanga posted:

I have gotten a few empty levels in Fates. Mostly with Elise, but by then she'd capped everything except HP, Strength, Skill and Defense.

It's easier to get empty levels in fates because growths in that game are extremely specialized. Generally a character will have like 70-80 in a few stats and 10-20 in others. Which makes missing a stat in those specialized stats even worse.

chiasaur11
Oct 22, 2012



LordHippoman posted:

Huh. That's interesting, because I thought "Kjelle" was supposed to be pronounced like "Shelly", and it was like a pun based on her being a knight? Of course they could have just changed the name, or I could be totally wrong.

You're probably not wrong. 8-4, like girls, loves puns. It's a known fact.

But that's the localized name. In the Japanese release, Kjelle was called "Degel". 8-4 was working with the final version when they made naming decisions, and Kjelle's prior incarnation wouldn't be a factor.

It's mostly just a trivia item for the artbook (which features Kjelle's myrm design) and an explanation why Kjelle is the only kid to get four base classes from her mother.

theshim
May 1, 2012

You think you can defeat ME, Ephraimcopter?!?

You couldn't even beat Assassincopter!!!

AradoBalanga posted:

I have gotten a few empty levels in Fates. Mostly with Elise, but by then she'd capped everything except HP, Strength, Skill and Defense.
I really like the little reactions characters have to levels in Awakening and Fates, and especially that they have a different reaction to a one/zero point level because they rolled poorly versus because they've capped enough stats. Things like that and the lines for buying/selling/forging stuff added a ton of personality.

RareAcumen
Dec 28, 2012




Tae posted:

It's easier to get empty levels in fates because growths in that game are extremely specialized. Generally a character will have like 70-80 in a few stats and 10-20 in others. Which makes missing a stat in those specialized stats even worse.

This would explain my army and it's serious speed problems. It's so weird seeing people go without gaining any HP for five levels. Especially if you bounce between that and Awakening.

Nissin Cup Nudist
Sep 3, 2011

Sleep with one eye open

We're off to Gritty Gritty land




I gave up on Shadow Dragon when I got Merric to level 5 or 6 without a single magic level

MythosDragon
Jan 3, 2016

I tried to remember, but the only detail I remember about my playthroughs of this game are Norne the bow meister and "Flying deathsquad" which are par for the course tbh. I remember what little there is of the plot and characters, but nothing about the actual results of my gameplay.

Blaze Dragon
Aug 28, 2013
LOWTAX'S SPINE FUND

MythosDragon posted:

I tried to remember, but the only detail I remember about my playthroughs of this game are Norne the bow meister and "Flying deathsquad" which are par for the course tbh. I remember what little there is of the plot and characters, but nothing about the actual results of my gameplay.

That's probably because there's absolutely nothing to remember about the plot and characters.

LordHippoman
May 30, 2013

I, frankly, want this smug Jagen to be my avatar on all forms of social media immediately.

Nissin Cup Nudist posted:

I gave up on Shadow Dragon when I got Merric to level 5 or 6 without a single magic level

I haven't been able to read the words "magic level" in two or so years without feeling a deep pain somewhere within my chest.

Rabbi Raccoon posted:

It's funny how the Lords in this series end up being either your best character or you're worst. I remember in Artix's LP he ended up with a Hector that only had like, 13 strength. On Hector Hard Mode.

Marth kinda has this weird issue where he's usually just going to turn out...okay? But you're forced to use him. Thankfully there's nothing like Roy being locked off from promoting until near the end (Marth just doesn't promote and gets to Level 30 instead.). Also, unlike the sequel, you do get his superweapon before the literal last map.


RareAcumen posted:

This would explain my army and it's serious speed problems. It's so weird seeing people go without gaining any HP for five levels. Especially if you bounce between that and Awakening.

I've been playing Awakening while I play this game and it's really night and day sometimes. Both with the levels being different, to the point where it's kinda hard to find a BAD character in Awakening, and the amount of personality/dialogue, like theshim mentioned. I know I harp on it a lot, but yeah, Shadow Dragon's biggest issue really is that it's like the vanilla of Fire Emblems. It's a remake so maybe it's French Vanilla.

LordHippoman
May 30, 2013

I, frankly, want this smug Jagen to be my avatar on all forms of social media immediately.
Chapter 5: The Catastrophic Cavalier Cavalcade (Prep)

Welcome back to Fire Emblem. Last time we arrived in Aurelis and defeated...some guys? I think they were from Macedon? We also got Matthis and everyone was sad.



Much like a lot of the chapters in Shadow Dragon, there’s unfortunately not too much different between this and the preceding chapter. In the original remake in FE3 Chapter 4 was actually cut completely.




I’m gonna be real with you here, map, that looks more like mountains than plains.




(Hint: It involves that guy with the goodass turban)

: but only by some miracle. By the time Marth arrived in Aurelis, much of its territory had already been carved up by Dolhr’s ally Macedon. Still, the king’s younger brother, Hardin, refused to give up without a fight. The people called him Coyote, and he intended to live up to the name.

I’m not entirely sure what coyotes are famous enough for to be a name to live up to. I’ve always just kinda thought of them as shittier wolves?

: Since its founding, Aurelis and the holy kingdom of Archanea shared close ties and months ago Princess Nyna of Archanea had come to Hardin’s aid. By his side, she had called on the people to fight- but few remained to answer. Macedon’s finest soldiers were closing in. Nyna knew they were out of time…

So, for clarification, yeah, Archanea the country and Archanea the continent are separate things. I’m not sure why this decision was made. But Archanea (country) is considered the most important of the kingdoms, so that’s something.



Get familiar with this screen. This is going to be a fairly short Prep update, because I honestly didn’t do much here!




We’re stuck with only 10 units to choose this time, because we’ll be getting a ton of new characters on this map. One of them is even good.

But regardless, I’ll probably bench Darros and sub in someone else, otherwise this layout looks pretty solid.




Hunter Draug was recommended in the thread, so I’m going to try him out a bit this chapter, since it’s not really one that’s great for turtling up. It’s not one that’s great for bows either, but hey...padding the update.




This is yet another “Start in the southeast, go northwest” map, but we’ll have a few other issues to deal with.




There’s a village to the North, but we also get introduced to Macedon’s “gimmick”, flying units. Thankfully there’s just one here, and she’s pretty flimsy.





Also the Pope is in town.




Also a scattershot of additional units near the objective. There’s nothing particularly threatening here except the Thief, who needs to go down before he destroys that village.




Also, I’m just going to spoil it, some new units will join us down here on the first turn, and we’ll have to hold out to the south with them.



This boss has a hilarious forehead and disgusting Defense. Thankfully we have a Mage and that’s a Resistance score of Zero. Also he’s not ranged. Shouldn’t be too bad.

Bonus Content

So, as you might have noticed, the Prep updates can be...a little dry. So I’m choosing these as a spot to add some of the Base Conversations from FE12. This is a little out of order, because technically these take place AFTER the events of this game, but it adds more personality and character to a lot of the units in this game. So I felt like it was a worthy sacrifice.

Something Incredibly Dangerous (Bord/Cord 1)

: Oh! There y’are, Cord.

: What’s it now, Bord?

: Somebody mistook me for you, AGAIN!

: Wha…! Who was it!? I’ll take care of ‘em. Tell me!

: Err… Huh, who was it again?

: Hey! Gimme a break. Man... You're really slow. You're like my complete opposite.

: What!? What about you? Hitting things without caring what happens. Faster doesn't mean better!

: What...! ......Show it. Today, we're gonna prove who's the better one!

: Yeah, bring it! Don't come cryin' to me later!

: Heh, that's MY line, buddy. I'mma force you into an early retirement!

: Did I just... hear something incredibly dangerous...?

And that was when Marth witnessed his first murder.

LordHippoman fucked around with this message at 19:57 on Dec 24, 2016

chiasaur11
Oct 22, 2012



LordHippoman posted:


So, for clarification, yeah, Archanea the country and Archanea the continent are separate things. I’m not sure why this decision was made. But Archanea (country) is considered the most important of the kingdoms, so that’s something.


I dunno why, but it definitely caught on, seeing as 2,000 years later everyone was doing it. Ylisse and Valm didn't even have the excuse of being their continent's premier superpowers (at least, not until Walhart started kicking dudes in the head).

As for other bits, Coyotes do have bit of a reputation for cunning, where wolves are more straightforward. He's even a popular trickster god in some folk traditions and/or webcomics.

MythosDragon
Jan 3, 2016

Its not that farfetched to believe that at one point Archanea had the entire continent under its rule, but then went down roman style. Giant Countries are a bad idea without phones and internet.


I just realized that if chapters were cut, you got less exp, which made the games harder, jesus.

RareAcumen
Dec 28, 2012




LordHippoman posted:

I've been playing Awakening while I play this game and it's really night and day sometimes. Both with the levels being different, to the point where it's kinda hard to find a BAD character in Awakening, and the amount of personality/dialogue, like theshim mentioned. I know I harp on it a lot, but yeah, Shadow Dragon's biggest issue really is that it's like the vanilla of Fire Emblems. It's a remake so maybe it's French Vanilla.

Yeah, looking between the two of them, I hope the next Fire Emblem game ends up more tightly focused than Fates turned out. Less stuff they have to cut out that could go towards the story or maps or what have you. Or interesting characters. I can't believe the rude guys of both kingdoms have no supports at all!

LordHippoman
May 30, 2013

I, frankly, want this smug Jagen to be my avatar on all forms of social media immediately.
It was requested in the thread that there be a sequel to last thread's Christmas picture.





I resolved myself to making sure this year's picture would be of considerably higher quality than the one from two years ago, reflecting improvements I've made from that time. In a way symbolic of the whole LP.





I added antlers.


:frogsiren:Merry Christmas Thread!:frogsiren:

FoolyCharged
Oct 11, 2012

Cheating at a raffle? I sentence you to 1 year in jail! No! Two years! Three! Four! Five years! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!
Somebody call for an ant?

Truly they are works of art. You can just feel marth's dog like disdain for having a hat placed on him and being forced to take a picture

Nuramor
Dec 13, 2012

Most Amewsing Prinny Ever!

Steve looks more like Gray Fox here.

LordHippoman
May 30, 2013

I, frankly, want this smug Jagen to be my avatar on all forms of social media immediately.
Chapter 5: The Catastrophic Cavalier Cavalcade (Battle)

Time to conquer our first kingdom. It’s gonna be great.



You know, Hardin, it would be nice if you showed up on that bottom screen...so I could demonstrate it...no? Okay.





: So it seems. Now, what say you we turn this battle around? I’m going to take my men east to join our might with Marth’s. Together we will retake the castle. Stay here, my lady, and wait for the good news.




Everyone from our usual team is going to advance forward so I can be in a good position to kill whatever enemies come at us. Marth is bait.

More interestingly, though, we have FIVE new characters on the other side of the map in Hardin’s squad.




This is Wolf, and oh boy, I have things to say about Wolf.

Wolf looks like he kinda blows. His stats are worse than most of our unpromoted characters, still at low levels, and there’s nothing really special about his weapon ranks. To actually understand what makes Wolf notable, we have to go to the growth rates. Keep in mind that these are BASE rates, before adding class rates. We’ll use Abel, who is considered a very good unit, as a comparison.

Wolf’s HP: 120 Abel’s HP: 25
Wolf’s Strength: 80 Abel’s Strength: 25
Wolf’s Magic: 5 Abel’s Magic: 5
Wolf’s Skill: 70 Abel’s Skill: 25
Wolf’s Speed: 60 Abel’s Speed: 40
Wolf’s Luck: 50 Abel’s Luck: 25
Wolf’s Defense: 60 Abel’s Defense: 5
Wolf’s Res: 0 Abel’s Res: 5

Wolf has ridiculously good growths in everything that will ever matter for him. He only has 17 levels to use them, but with class growth bonuses, he’ll easily swing nearly full level ups every single time, and sometimes get 2 points of any given stat, which can be done if your growth exceeds 100. That’s so rare it’s usually not worth mentioning, but that’s Wolf for you. A lot of people like to reclass Wolf to a General and have an unkillable wall for a large portion of the game, but I don’t think I’ll use him this run (IS WHAT I WOULD SAY IF I WAS A FOOL WHO DID NOT WANT TO USE WOLF, DEFINITELY IN THE ORIGINAL UPDATE.). There’s already a lot of good units.



For Sedgar, imagine what I just said about Wolf but just cut/paste his name instead. His Strength is lower, his Defense is higher, not a ton of differences otherwise.




Let’s descend from our lofty heights of kickass to...uh...Vyland. Vyland is New Cavalier 1 of 3 for this map, and he’s pretty lovely. He has slightly worse growths than Cain or Abel in almost all areas, and he comes in 4 maps later, at level 1. I don’t know why you’d use him.




Roshea is a little bit better. Very, very slightly. He’s got a naturally great HP growth at 50, like Matthis, and most of his growths are on par with Abel’s, but he has a pretty damning 0% in speed, which can really gently caress him up. Still not worth it if you’ve been using one of the original cavaliers.




: So...Hardin...does he have anything?

: A Steel Sword.

: ...In his possession?

: A Steel Sword.

: ...Can you just say it?

: No.

Hardin, the brother of Duke Aurelis, is pretty solid. His growths aren’t as good as Cain and Abel...who I keep comparing these units to, but seriously, they just gave me THREE MORE CAVS, but he’s got some really hefty bases and comes able to use B-Rank Lances right off the bat. I actually like Hardin quite a bit, and I’d consider him the best of this bunch of Cavaliers by far.




Right now, Sedgar is taking pretty heavy hits from even these standard goons, but with a few more levels, he’ll be a wall.




This Cavalier missing Marth was the harbinger of “A Good Run”. Maybe things will go better this time and I won’t have to ping-pong Lena around the map.




Worth noting is that almost every enemy on this map is going to charge us. Look at all those dimmed red dots on the top screen! Most of them will try to take down your main group, but a few like to divert to Hardin’s squad in the south.




Hunter Draug makes a strong first impression, that’s a nice double. His Strength score is going to up his effective speed too.





Barst disappoints me, which is a very rare occasion, with a miss here.



Marth makes up for it, but it does worry me how he seems to insist on staring into this horse’s eyes as he impales it.




...On a nicer note here’s a level up.




Wiping out Macedon’s first main squad of Cavaliers turns out to be a pretty trivial affair, in no small reason because we can do damage like THIS. Caeda is so, so good in this game.




I forgot to check the other enemy ranges during the fighting, but when the dust settles, Marth’s in position to pull the rest of the enemies. Honestly I couldn’t have planned that better. Mostly because I’m incompetent.




We do have enemies coming in from the west, though, so Cain blocks the bridge while Ogma and Julian back him up. Lena’s on standby for healing, and that’s the end of Team Marth’s turn.




I’ve just got Wolf here in position to waste this Archer’s time and hopefully whittle him down a bit.



There are some enemies coming for Hardin, but thankfully there’s this narrow mountain pass between them and him. Vyland stands as a meatshield for now.




Wolf decides to immediately prove to everyone that he’s loving Wolf by crit-killing this archer. Which I didn’t plan for. So now another Archer can hit him.




Or, they could if he didn’t pull off a sick dodge. He’s trying to impress you all so much.





Vyland holds up okay. Importantly, those archers can’t reach Hardin’s men from there, as the terrain is limiting and archer movement ranges aren’t great.




All the remaining east side enemies also charged us, most notably this old man.




Hardin manages to whiff this, but with that Defense it really doesn’t matter too much if he’s got to soak a hit.




Marth dodges around the Pegasus Knight to chat up the unique portrait guy. He actually will attack you, by the way. It doesn’t make sense in character, but it’s Shadow Dragon.




: Our pleas for peace have failed, and Khadein has been taken over by one of the other pontifices. His name is Gharnef, and he and the many mages who swear allegiance to him have allied themselves with Dolhr. Prince Marth, I ask you now: please lend me your help in thwarting his vile ambitions.

We’ll be hearing a lot more about Khadein, the Pontifices, and especially Gharnef. And then you will question why they made that guy one of the wizard popes.

You can also recruit Wendell with his student, Merric. In which case you get the good line:

: Well, hello, Merric! What a surprise! Good to see you haven’t blown yourself up yet.




Wendell himself has many of the same issues our old friend Jagen does. Namely that his growths and bases are hot flaming garbage. Still, he makes for a pretty good emergency healer or chip damage dealer for a little while. Just don’t make him a long term investment.




Also he can immediately betray and double this poor archer. Which was too funny for me not to do.




Meanwhile, Draug’s newfound bow power means bad news for Peg Knights.



With all of those enemies gone, it’s time to turn our attention to the bridges. This Cavalier has a Javelin, which makes him a little annoying to burn down. I’ve also got to keep the thieves in mind, because they’ll try and take the north bridge to destroy the village.




I sent Julian up there to block while Ogma takes Cain’s place so Lena can patch him up.




Lena’s levels have been disappointing so far. Her Magic usually gets better. This bodes poorly.




It turns out I made a mistake and I’ve dumped Julian in Cavalier range. At least he can take the hit.




In fact, they all went up there. Whoops.




I’ve lost my patience with this Cav. Caeda time. Sorry, one use of the Wing Spear.




One of Abel’s Javelins, along with Julian’s pretty solid damage, is enough to dispatch of the first thief.




Not exactly his ridiculous god-level from last map, but I think it averages out now.




Hardin’s loose now. These enemies will regret their decisions. Especially that archer, he’s just dead.




Cain and Julian have this guy trapped. There’s no escape, rando thief #2.




The enemies closest to the castle have a healer, but it’s not a huge deal. Just take them out before the boss.




The enemies beat Hardin down pretty bad after his reckless charge, so it’s time to get him the hell outta here.




Lena also lends a helping staff.




At some point during the enemy turn that trapped thief charged into someone or jumped off the bridge or something. Regardless, the village is safe and Marth’s going to reap the rewards.




He always looks like that. Or he blinks.

: You know, speakin’ o’ rare sights, I once went to Pyrathi, where I saw me a real live Manakete! Cripes, let me tell you what a shock THAT was! In a blink, this regular old feller turned into an enormous dragon! I mean, I ain’t stupid. I’d heard of the dragonkin before. I’d just always assumed Manaketes looked somethin’ like parakeets. Sheesh…

This NPC is better than 90% of the characters we will recruit.

: …What? Oh, this? I picked this stone up while I was there. Dunno what it is, but how often do you spy a glowin’ red rock, ya know what I’m sayin’ But honestly, it’s been kinda creepin’ me out lately. You want it? Go on ‘n’ take it. Sheesh…

:allears:




We’ll find out what this is for later. It’s useless right now.




I bought some Steel weapons from this armory. I’m not even really sure why, I think I might have a problem.




Ogma gets a lucky dodge on this arrow. Which is good, because-




I forgot the Peg Knight could fly over here. This would have been a very embarrassing death and restart. He at least does take her out on the counter.




Ogma scoots out while Cord does what he does best.



Then he magically retrieves us a key. This could be useful soon. Or we could use Julian.




After that near-death from above, cleaning up the rest of the enemies is smooth sailing.



I want to complain. But it’s defense on Caeda.




There’s an available conversation between Marth and Hardin here. Sadly none of the Wolfguard ever get a line. Not even to let you know they’re called the “Wolfguard”, that’s just from the sequel.




: And I very gratefully accept it. Stories of your exploits travel fast, young prince. I feel as though I’ve gained a thousand allies in one.

Not YET.

: I’ve heard a few stories of you as well, Coyote. It will be an honor to fight alongside such a courageous man.

: I’ve left Princess Nyna someplace safe for now. We need to decide who will command here. I was hoping it would be you.

: Me? But, Sir Hardin, you are far more qualified-

: Tsk, Princess Nyna would not be pleased to hear us nitpicking over who will be listed in the history books. Take command, so we can oust this Macedonian scum and be done with it.

Hypothesis: RPG characters who have cool turbans are universally cool dudes.

: You are sure?

: Make no mistake. Lord Marth. I consider myself an exceptionally good judge of character.




: :ironicat:

: Don’t do that.




The gang’s all here now! Let’s take down the boss.




Merach his some intimidating stats, with a near impenetrable Defense and a 22 Attack stat, which can rip people up. He does have a glaring weakness, though. Zero Resistance and a one range weapon.







I just wanted to see if hitting still got you experience if you didn’t do damage. It does not. But now you know!




Cord sorta takes a cursory glance of his tome before attacking.




That’s the crit animation. It’s...not great. But hey, this is as good as won now.




Give me that hot Speed.




And that’s the end of that.







Well, this could be handy.




Also, I gave Hardin the Silver Sword that old man from last map said we should give him…and he can’t even use it. Hardin has a B in Lances, not Swords! I’m not sure if that’s a weird carry over from the original game or something, or maybe that old guy was just confused.




:toot:




This is apparently Hardin’s brother, although it looks like it could be his grandpa.

: Princess Nyna of Archanea is en route from the fortress. I am sure she will wish to meet you. The battle is not won yet, though: many of the enemy continue to hold out within the castle’s halls. Stay wary.

Next time we spend several months sieging a castle and throwing dead cows over the wall. Hope you’re looking forward to it.




Oh, hey, that’s a thing in this game!

Bonus Content

Out of all the characters we recruited in this update, only Wendell doesn’t have a Cipher card. :smith: But we’ll just go with my favorite.


The Younger Brother of King Aurelis, Hardin

FE12 Spoilers: Yes, there’s a Cipher card for his Dark Emperor form too, but I feel like that might be out of place here.

LordHippoman fucked around with this message at 09:51 on Feb 12, 2017

Rabbi Raccoon
Mar 31, 2009

I stabbed you dude!
I'm gonna go ahead and request you reclass Hardin into a Cleric so he can finish his Minwu cosplay

Blaze Dragon
Aug 28, 2013
LOWTAX'S SPINE FUND

The Silver Sword thing is indeed a weird carry-over from the original game. Weapon Ranks weren't a thing by then, WExp was. As such, Hardin could wield both weapons of his at the same level.

This isn't the case here and I genuinely don't understand why IntSys didn't give you a Silver Lance instead or Hardin a B rank in Swords beyond "it's the first game we can't change anything despite it desperately needing changes" which seems to have been the main philosophy behind this game.

MightyPretenders
Feb 21, 2014

One of the reasons for Wolf and Sedgar's amazing growths, is that the Horseman class has terrible growths. And the horseman class has terrible growths because they wanted an excuse for all the terrible horsemen you fight early on. If you leave Wolf and Sedgar in their base classes (which you'll probably be inclined to do, considering how important MOV is in this game), then they just have great growths, which might make them usable eventually despite their poor bases. But switch them into a class with actual growths and... hoo boy. Can you say 120% - 160% in everything?

As for the terrible mook horseman? Back in the very first Fire Emblem game, there were only a few classes that could promote. They didn't connect Hunter and Horseman until Mystery, so there was no expectation for Horsemen to have promoted-level stats in Dark Dragon.

Camel Pimp
May 17, 2008

This poster survived LPing Lunar: Dragon Song. Let's give her a hand.
When I played this map, I lost Wolf due to some poor positioning on my part, and I was insisting that I was going to play this game without resetting (losing Caeda once broke me of that) so I just accepted it and moved on. I was a bit miffed when I looked up his growth rates. Least I still had Sedger. Although I also lost Hardin in a later map, so that run was not kind to the Wolfguard.

LordHippoman
May 30, 2013

I, frankly, want this smug Jagen to be my avatar on all forms of social media immediately.

Rabbi Raccoon posted:

I'm gonna go ahead and request you reclass Hardin into a Cleric so he can finish his Minwu cosplay

He won't be a very GOOD one, but...he must unlock the secrets of Ultima.


Camel Pimp posted:

Least I still had Sedger. Although I also lost Hardin in a later map, so that run was not kind to the Wolfguard.

Still not as unkind as the sequel was!

Also, MightyPretenders and Blaze Dragon, thanks for the info. It does manage to sorta continually surprise me what things weren't touched at all when they remade this game 20+ years later.

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vilkacis
Feb 16, 2011

The silver sword idiocy is just another thing on the Shadow Dragon Is Kinda poo poo pile. :geno:

Anyway, the turban Hardin is rad, you should use Hardin (cleric or not).

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