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midnight lasagna
Oct 15, 2016

this pit is full of stat boosters
Fire Emblem is a fantasy strategy role-playing game (SRPG) video game franchise developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo. The series first started on the NES in 1990, and has been going strong for over 30 years with numerous installments for different platforms. Each game features its own unique story, with casts of colourful and varied characters with a rich variety of personalities, stats, and backstories.



Fire Emblem Fates is a game where you walk around in bare feet and can marry your cousin.


What is this?
This is a let's play of Fire Emblem Fates... specifically the Conquest route, one of three split paths the game offers you. Conquest is unique in that it features not only a higher level of difficulty than any other route, but also prevents you from grinding extra experience or gold in optional chapters, requiring a high level of resource optimisation and careful planning... In theory. It's not quite as scary as it sounds! This game gives you a large number of characters, some of which are broken, most of which are good, none of which are completely unuseable. If you were to make a tier list of every character in the entire franchise with tiers ranging from S rank to E, I wouldn't put a single character in this game below C. This game might be tricky but it's possible to make nearly anything work if you really want. That's why I like it so much!

I'll be playing on Lunatic difficulty on Classic mode. This isn't an ironman - if a unit dies I'll reset the chapter. I might even reset a chapter if nobody dies but I think I did a terrible job. Regardless, you'll only be seeing my successful attempts... Unless I fail in a way that's either interesting or embarrassing enough to be funny.


How do Fire Emblem games work?
That's a bit beyond the scope of this Let's Play. If you're reading this, I'm going to assume you're at least a little familiar with Fates, or at least the franchise in general. Lots of other people have LP'd games from this series before, and they'll do a much better job at explaining all the little details (check them out here!). However if you do have no FE experience and want to read along anyway, please feel free to take all comments I make about the game's difficulty at face value and conclude that I'm very smart and good at video games.


Are you going to cover the game's story?
Absolutely not! That's way too much effort, and it's also no secret that this game's plot is... not very good. I love the gameplay side of things but I'll be skipping every cutscene and focusing solely on the strategy parts. If you want to experience the whole package in all its questionable glory, please check out this LP (it never actually got finished but the first two routes are there, which includes Conquest). But as for me, I really don't want to waste time half-heartedly covering a plot I don't care about. There's only so many times you can make a joke out of "wow, Corrin sure is dumb" or "wow, Garon sure is evil!".


What are you covering then?
Gameplay! I'm going to talk through my strategy in each map, give analyses of every unit that joins, and try my best to be at least a little informative and entertaining. Every single unit will get their own analysis that I'll post as they come, all of which I'll make an archive of in the first post. I'm by no means an expert on the game, so if anybody has their own opinions on a character then I'll add them to the archive along with my own. Even if they contradict my own! Especially if they do, actually, it's fun to disagree sometimes. Okay nevermind it turns out it's way too much effort to go back and edit in everyone's comments so they're only a thing for the first few analyses I did. Still though, you should go and read through the comments people have left. It's worth it!


What about spoilers?
I don't really care if you post them. I or anyone else won't have much reason to bring up plot spoilers in the first place, but don't read this LP if you want to remain unspoiled.


What are the rules?
Conquest is all about challenging yourself, so I won't be using all the features the game has. DLC is out of the question! There will be:
- No DLC, free or otherwise.
- No clear bonuses. Those are the free items you get for clearing the game's other routes.
- No online features. So no castle visits to grind resources or buy items normally limited to the other two routes.
- No Einharjar (the weird little card things that let you buy OP units to use in your army).
- No "random" My Castle events that involve talking to units, such as temporary stat boosts or dropped items. The Lottery and Mess Hall however are fair game.

Unless I've forgotten something, everything else is fine!

midnight lasagna fucked around with this message at 18:57 on Dec 2, 2021

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midnight lasagna
Oct 15, 2016

this pit is full of stat boosters
Chapters:
Character Creation & Prologue
Chapter 1: Nohr
Chapter 2: Gift of Ganglari
Chapter 3: Journey Begins
Chapter 4: Hoshido
Chapter 5: Mother
Chapter 6: Embrace The Dark
Chapter 7: A Dragon's Decree (My Castle) (Gameplay)
Chapter 8: Cold Reception (My Castle) (Gameplay)
Paralogue 1: Tragic Start
Chapter 9: Another Trial (My Castle) (Gameplay)
Invasion 1
Chapter 10: Unhappy Reunion
Chapter 11: Rainbow Sage (My Castle) (Gameplay)
Chapter 12: Bitter Intrigue (My Castle) (Gameplay)
Prologue 2: Dragon Blood (My Castle) (Gameplay)
Chapter 13: Uprising (My Castle) (Gameplay)
Chapter 14: Voice of Paradise (My Castle) (Gameplay)
Chapter 15: The Black Pillar (My Castle) (Gameplay)
Chapter 16: Invasion: (My Castle (Gameplay)
Paralogue 20: Ultimate Power: (My Castle) (Gameplay)
Paralogue 22: Abrupt Clash: (My Castle) (Gameplay)
Chapter 17: Den of Betrayal: (My Castle) (Gameplay)
Chapter 18: Black and White: (My Castle) (Gameplay)
Invasion 2
Paralogue 15: Hidden Bravery
Chapter 19: Kitsune Lair: (My Castle) (Gameplay)
Chapter 20: Winds of Change: (My Castle) (Gameplay)
Chapter 21: Eternal Stairway: (My Castle) (Gameplay)
Chapter 22: Sakura: (My Castle) (Gameplay)
Paralogue 3: Surprise Duet
Paralogue 5: Bold Approach
Chapter 23: Possessed: (My Castle) (Gameplay)
Paralogue 4: Fight or Flight
Paralogue 6: Herbal Remedy (My Castle) (Gameplay)
Chapter 24: Hinoka (My Castle) (Gameplay)
Paralogue 19: Great Heroism: (My Castle) (Gameplay)
Paralogue 16: Abducted: (My Castle) (Gameplay)
Chapter 25: Ryoma: (My Castle) (Map Overview) (Gameplay)
Chapter 26: Treason: (My Castle) (Map Overview) (Gameplay)
Invasion 3
Chapter 27: The Empty King: (My Castle) (Gameplay)
Endgame: Night Breaks Through: (Map Overview) (Gameplay)
Epilogue


Unit Analyses:
Generation 1 (Parents)
Corrin
Jakob
Elise
Silas
Arthur
Effie
Odin
Niles
Mozu
Azura
Nyx
Kaze
Laslow
Peri
Charlotte
Benny
Leo
Keaton
Gunter
Felicia
Xander
Shura
Flora
Izana

Generation 2 (Kids)
Kana
Ophelia
Nina
Seigbert
Shigure
Sophie
Dwyer
Midori
Percy
Forrest

midnight lasagna fucked around with this message at 12:09 on Dec 3, 2021

midnight lasagna
Oct 15, 2016

this pit is full of stat boosters

Time to start things off. These first few chapters are mostly just tutorials. I could skip them, but they should pad out the unit analyses a little so I'm not immediately dumping walls and walls of text on you.

The Conquest route itself won't start until Chapter 7, but don't think all these introductory chapters will be easy! Some of them can be a big pain on higher difficulties, at least if you haven't played through them like 50 times before. I'm having fun, I promise.



Gameplaywise, exactly one thing matters here: I made my Corrin a girl. Unlike past FE games, there's no gender essentialism like girls having lower strength but higher speed, and without DLC there's (almost!) no gender locked classes. The one pair of classes that is gender locked does not appear in Conquest.

What does matter here is Corrin's access to supports. Fates is unique in that any unit can use a special item to change their class to match a character they have reached either S or A+ support rank with. With two exceptions, S rank supports are limited to m/f couples, while A+ supports can happen between any two units of the same gender, so long as they can support each other at all. Normally these supports are one per character, but Corrin can make as many A+ supports as they like. A male Corrin can take the class of any boy in the army, while a female Corrin can take the class of any girl. This is actually quite important!



It is Pokemon tradition to name your player character after the game they're in. This game is a bit like Pokemon... maybe. I'd name her Fire Emblem: Conquest if it fit!



Here's the real meat of character creation. Birthday is 31/12, shorthand for "I don't care but 1/1 is not cool enough for me". I'll be using none of the rewards that playing on your birthday can give you, so it doesn't matter.

For my boon I've picked magic, and for bane I've picked res. These are both fairly safe options - if you're being a tryhard, you'll want to make Corrin as effective in combat as possible. Strength and magic increase their killing power, defense helps them not die, and speed does a little of both. Corrin's magic is normally somewhat on the shaky side, but a magic boon provides a massive increase of 20%! Normally I prefer to go all in with a physical attacking Corrin, but this way I can show off their ability to attack with both stats.

Resistance is also a safe choice for a bane. Usually you'll want to go with either skill, luck, res, or maybe one of the attacking stats you don't plan on using. In this case I've gone res, because almost all of its drawbacks are cancelled out by a magic boon - despite what you might think, each boon/bane increases and decreases more than one stat. Clever greatly increases magic while slightly increasing speed and res. Excitable decreases res, and slightly decreases mag and speed. These cancel out to create a Corrin with good magic and slightly bad resistance, with neutral everything else. I'll post a full unit analysis of this Corrin in Chapter 1, where their stats will actually mean something. But for now you can treat this as a "neutral" Corrin, at least until she starts facing magic users and gets a way of attacking with magic herself.

Lastly, I've gone with the Samurai talent. The samurai class tree provides you with many good skills, and is completely inaccessible for Corrin in this route if they don't pick it as their talent! It's not their best available class - cavalier, wyvern rider, dark mage & ninja can all potentially be better, but most of those can also be accessed through A+ or S supports. I want to maximise Corrin's class access for maximum tryhard potential, after all.



Now it's time to force our little mutant homunculus upon the world. I'll try to burn through these beginning few chapters as quickly as possible unless I've got something especially interesting to say!





As such. Did you know it's possible to complete this chapter by doing (almost) literally nothing? Hit end turn on both turns and the map will solve itself. The first enemy will attack you and defeat themselves on enemy phase, and the map will straight up end with zero fanfare if you leave the second two alive. The only consequences are A: Hinoka will complain a little and B: you will deprive yourself of free EXP for literally no reason. Although I'm not sure how you're earning EXP from a dream...



Don't worry, I killed all the dream dudes. In this brural, irrational world, there are no heroes. Good and evil are merely an illusion in Fire Emblem: Conquest!!!


Next time: I get into the actual meat of the game and write some unit analyses.

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?

This should be good. Even in gameplay fates is pretty out there for fire emblem. Conquest gets very complicated very quickly

Cythereal
Nov 8, 2009

I love the potoo,
and the potoo loves you.
I've heard horror stories about this. Will be watching with interest.

Blaze Dragon
Aug 28, 2013
LOWTAX'S SPINE FUND

This should be interesting, I haven't played Conquest but I know the difficulty's relatively high, so it should be fun to watch.

One thing, could you make the images a bit bigger? They're hard to see for my very bad eyes.

midnight lasagna
Oct 15, 2016

this pit is full of stat boosters

FoolyCharged posted:

This should be good. Even in gameplay fates is pretty out there for fire emblem. Conquest gets very complicated very quickly
Oh, it does. On the bright side, having to take notes for my commentary will help me pay attention to the game itself!

Cythereal posted:

I've heard horror stories about this. Will be watching with interest.
If I don't finish this thread with a horror storry screenshot of Xander debuffed to 0 defense I'll be disappointed.

Blaze Dragon posted:

This should be interesting, I haven't played Conquest but I know the difficulty's relatively high, so it should be fun to watch.

One thing, could you make the images a bit bigger? They're hard to see for my very bad eyes.
Oh yeah, sure. 3DS screenshots don't seem to keep quality well with size but I'll do my best. The update I'm about to post will be a trial run, let me know if they look any better!

midnight lasagna
Oct 15, 2016

this pit is full of stat boosters

Time for a real chapter! As in, a chapter that takes place in reality. This is still a chapter you'd have to lose on purpose.



Meet Conquest! In the flesh. Fitful dreams about her true lineage have somehow translated into experience on the battlefield. I wonder if I got any experience from participating in combat with Brum after he ran me over in my nightmares as a child.

Corrin AKA "Conquest" (+mag/-res)
Nohr Princess (HS: Samurai)
A+ Support Classes: Literally any other girl in the cast
Personal Skill: Supportive (+2 damage dealt, -2 damage taken, +10 hit when supporting a lead unit they have at least a C support with)
Growths (With Default Class):
HP: 45% (60)
STR: 45% (60)
MAG: 45% (55)
SKL: 40% (50)
SPD: 45% (55)
LCK: 45% (55)
DEF: 35% (45)
RES: 20% (25)

By picking two boons which almost cancel each other out, I have created the world's most balanced Corrin. Factoring in her class's growth rates, that's over 50% in almost every stat across the board! That certainly is not bad. Although it is quite funny that even with a magic boon she's still got a slightly better strength growth than magic.

If you've ever played a modern FE game, you'll know that your avatar character will always be one of the strongest units there is. Exactly how strong depends on the game, but there is not a single avatar I would call undeserving of an S tier in their respective game. If I had to pick, I'd call Corrin the third strongest avatar out of four. That's pretty good if you're a mole.

What makes Corrin and indeed most avatars good is their versatility. Corrin's stats are good, but they're not amazing, although they will have a monopoly on pretty much all of your EXP until chapter 4, maybe even chapter 7 depending on whether or not you intend to use Kaze. Corrin's true strength comes from their access to nearly every class in the game. Not only can you pick whatever class you'd like for them at the start of the game, you can borrow a huge number of classes from other units via A+ supports! It's a mechanic people sometimes overlook but it really helps you to make some truly devasting Corrins.

Nohr Prince(ess) certainly isn't a bad class either. Solid growths across the board mean they shouldn't have any trouble fitting into whatever class you want them to become later on. It also gives them access to the Nobility skill from level 1, increasing their exp gain by 20%. This isn't quite as OP as Robin's 50% extra exp when paired up, especially considering how little exp Fates awards overleveled units, but it'll make them level up fast and easily able to catch up if they ever fall behind.

Oh and they're also a royal who can use dragon veins and they have a legendary sword etc. etc. etc. I bet Garon bought them a scholarship at Nohr University too.

TLDR;

Pros
  • Perfect availability, there's never a chapter you cannot deploy them in
  • Solid growths unless you pick terrible boons & banes
  • Access to nearly every class in the game with some effort
  • Boosted exp gain and a cool sword only they can use
  • Dragon's blood means they can use dragon veins
  • Personal skill makes them an amazing support unit, they also uniquely benefit from the personal skills of certain other units
Cons
  • Dependent on growths - an unlucky Corrin might end up sucking forever
  • Intrinsic weakness to Wyrmslayers regardless of class
  • Nohr Princess/Noble's lack of a mount and overly balanced stats can be a detriment in the lategame

Rating: *Corrin's victory quote in smash voice* Good

Anyway that's a lot of words, let's give into younger sibling urges and hit our older brother with a stick.



Doesn't seem good, does it? I'll be honest, I think this is a really terrible tutorial - you're teaching the player to attack a unit who could attack back on enemy phase and kill you in return. Xander won't do that, but a newbie might expect other enemies to act like this too. It is at least a fun demonstration of his personal skill if you're paying attention - once you're no longer at full HP he'll get noticeably weaker. In fact, between his chivalry and elbow room skills, there's a lot of damage modifiers going into this simple tutorial battle.



See, one hit and the battle has suddenly shifted in my favour. I never noticed that Xander's got a defense of 1 here... He really is holding back quite a lot. Imagine a cursed used copy of Fates in which Xander was armed with Seigfried and couldn't be harmed in the tutorial.

...no I'm not padding out this pointless update.



That's pretty cool! I don't think there's all that much difference between a bad Corrin and an okay one in the tutorial chapters, but a good Corrin can potentially do some very silly things. We'll see if that happens. Corrin (or Conquest I guess, maybe I should use their actual name) wants def most of all if she's going to maximise her EXP gain in chapter 3. Here's hoping she keeps this up!



I'm going to keep track of my turncount at the end of every chapter. Not because I'm doing any sort of "efficient" run, but just for posterity's sake. And maybe to shame me into not doing things like stalling out the uses of every offensive enemy staff I encounter. It's surprisingly rare that Conquest puts any sort of time pressure on you, even in Lunatic mode, so there's not a lot you cannot defeat by doing the dishonourable thing and turtling. Not that there's anything wrong with that! Turn counts exist only for people on gamefaqs and reddit to argue about.



It's cool, we gained magic and strength in this chapter. That's why I picked a magic boon!


Next time: Strategy?

Blaze Dragon
Aug 28, 2013
LOWTAX'S SPINE FUND

This size is a lot better for my nearly useless eyes, thank you. I feel quality keeps up pretty well here too.

megane
Jun 20, 2008



Obviously her name is Corrin "Conquest" Avatar, like a pro wrestler

theshim
May 1, 2012

You think you can defeat ME, Ephraimcopter?!?

You couldn't even beat Assassincopter!!!

midnight lasagna posted:

What is this?
This is a let's play of Fire Emblem Fates... specifically the Conquest route, one of three split paths the game offers you. Conquest is unique in that it features not only a higher level of difficulty than any other route, but also prevents you from grinding extra experience or gold in optional chapters, requiring a high level of resource optimisation and careful planning... In theory. It's not quite as scary as it sounds! This game gives you a large number of characters, some of which are broken, most of which are good, none of which are completely unuseable. If you were to make a tier list of every character in the entire franchise with tiers ranging from S rank to E, I wouldn't put a single character in this game below C. This game might be tricky but it's possible to make nearly anything work if you really want. That's why I like it so much!
I'll admit, I'm fascinated to see your Nyx writeup if you think no one's that bad in this game.

Following with interest!

Arbite
Nov 4, 2009





Oh God this game. The characters are such monstrous gently caress-ups that people were making Spec Ops: The Line parodies.

*fake edit*

Found one:

midnight lasagna
Oct 15, 2016

this pit is full of stat boosters

Blaze Dragon posted:

This size is a lot better for my nearly useless eyes, thank you. I feel quality keeps up pretty well here too.
Good to know. The screenshot test poster makes them seem a lot bigger than they actually are.

megane posted:

Obviously her name is Corrin "Conquest" Avatar, like a pro wrestler
Sure, why not. I think Corrin's pro-wrestling career would make a better plot than whatever it is I'm currently ignoring!

theshim posted:

I'll admit, I'm fascinated to see your Nyx writeup if you think no one's that bad in this game.

Following with interest!
She's very much pushing the definition of "viable", but I do think she has her uses, even if a lot of them are "pair-up partner". If D tier is for your Wils and your Rebeccas and E tier is for your Sophias and your Lyres then I think Nyx is a C-.

...I don't actually have any plans to use her though.

Arbite posted:

Oh God this game. The characters are such monstrous gently caress-ups that people were making Spec Ops: The Line parodies.

*fake edit*

Found one:

[hella huge image]
And yet despite all the awful decisions you make, somehow you still kill less people than in Birthright. It's all very silly.

midnight lasagna
Oct 15, 2016

this pit is full of stat boosters

Time to receive an evil sword. I don't know if "Ganglari" is some kind of mythological reference but it's one of the most evil sounding words I've ever seen even if it doesn't mean anything. Lots of Gs.



This might be the most impractically designed castle in the world but it sure is cool. Probably very hazardous in the event of a fire, though. And a flood. Unless both happen at the same time?



Finally, some new units! Gunter's lance arm may be rusty, but his sword arm however is fine. I don't see a third arm so his axe arm must have fallen off.



And here we go! Six enemies versus our three, that's perfectly fair. The game gives us a various obvious hint to activate this dragon vein, a thing we learned how to do last chapter. But do we want to?



Here's Gunter, our... jeigan? Kind of? He's a weird one. He won't be sticking around for very long, and the Gunter we do eventually get won't have quite the same stats as this one, so I won't do my analysis just yet. Right now he's bulker and harder hitting than any of our other units, and he moves further too. Gunter's personal skill makes him an excellent support partner for Conquest...

...no that's way too confusing I'm just calling her Corrin

an excellent support partner for Corrin, but it'll be another chapter before we unlock that. Right now his job is to thin out enemies that might overwhelm our squishier units and to tank as many dangerous hits as possible.



And here's Jakob, our other unit. He's a staffbot (if you want), a prepromote (kind of), and even a bit of a jeigan (maybe). There's... a lot to say about this weirdo. So let's say it!

Jakob
Butler (HS: Cavalier)
A+ Support Classes: Gunter (Cavalier), Silas (Cavalier)
Personal Skill: Evasive Partner (Corrin gets +15% avoid and -3 damage taken when supported by Jakob)
Growths (With Default Class):
HP: 50% (50)
STR: 30% (40)
MAG: 15% (25)
SKL: 40% (55)
SPD: 35% (50)
LCK: 45% (55)
DEF: 25% (30)
RES: 25% (35)

Pair-Up Stats (C B A S):
STR, SPD, SKL, STR + SKL

I forgot to mention earlier that which one out of Jakob and Felicia you get is decided by what gender of Corrin you pick. Girls get Jakob, which imo is yet another point in their favour! He's physically stronger and bulkier, while Felicia is more magical and a bit faster. Neither of them excel at combat in their default class, but Jakob can at least take a hit.

What really makes Jakob special is that he is a prepromote... kind of. As far as earning experience is calculated, Jakob is a level 1 unpromoted unit. His level cap is extended to 40 to make up for the fact he cannot promote, but he is still in a promoted class. So he gets to have his cake and eat it too.

As a Butler, he's... pretty good. Healing is never not important, and Butlers are unique in that their staff rank caps at S. As your first healer, Jakob is more likely than anyone else to reach S staves by the end of the game, just because he's around the longest. His combat stats are serviceable, he can tank a hit or two and debuff with his knives at 1-2 range while still dealing damage. Compared to Felicia, he'll heal less HP with staves but do better in combat with knives, at least until you can get your hands on a magic weapon. Instant access to Gentilhomme means he can Protect Girls just by standing next to them, a thing he has to do in order to heal them anyway. This stacks with his personal skill, so a Jakob adjacent to Corrin gives her a whopping 5 less damage taken in combat. It is a perfectly fine strategy to superglue Jakob's butt to Corrin's the entire game to create a main lord who is very hard to take down. When Corrin gets low on HP you can even swap them around to put Jakob in front and let him take advantage of her personal skill instead.

Where things get really interesting is when you start messing around with reclasses. A heart seal can instantly turn Jakob into either a Paladin or a Great Knight, and they have much better bases than Butlers do. If you've played Fire Emblem before then you know that having a promoted mounted unit with inflated stats in the earlygame makes things a lot easier, and unlike most jeigans Jakob will earn exp just as fast as anyone else. His growths, while not great, are good enough, and he really wants to be a physical unit more than a mixed one anyway.

Alternatively, you can creative and marry him to your avatar. He builds support with them incredibly fast, allowing you to reach S rank possibly even before chapter 10 (or chapter 8 if you're willing to build supports via the private quarters!). With a partner seal he can take whatever class Corrin picked as their talent, giving him access to insanely good promoted classes such as Malig Knight or Master Ninja if you want. A Malig Knight Jakob can get the Trample skill at level 15 "umpromoted", giving him an effective +5 damage against all nonmounted units... which is in fact most of them. It's pretty great!

There is, however, a cost to doing all of this. First of all there's a literal cost in that you'll have to buy a heart or a apartner seal, and in doing so you'll deny someone else the chance to do the same until chapter 14 when you unlock the ability to buy more. Secondly, Jakob's growths aren't all that good. He's no jeigan in the true sense, but his massive advantage will eventually peter out towards the mid/late game, leaving you with a unit who took up a large number of resources just to wind up okay. Thirdly, in S supporting Corrin, he'll give them access to the Troubadour class... which sucks. There is no reason to make your Corrin one unless you want to dress them up as a maid, and in doing so you'll have wasted an oppurtunity to give them a much better class. It's not the end of the world, but denying one of your best units an easy reclass option does hurt a little.

All that said, Jakob is still very good. With a little investment he becomes a monstrous semi-prepromote, and if you leave him be he's a perfectly competent support unit. I think he's one of the most unique units to have ever have come out of a Fire Emblem game!

Also he was called "Joker" in Japan. Even Nohrians live in a society.

TLDR;

Pros
  • Good staff utility, competent combat utility in the earlygame
  • A good candidate for using the S rank staff that lets you revive a dead unit
  • Amazing versatility through reclassing, can access powerful classes and skills before anyone else can
  • A great support unit for Corrin and a fast and easy S rank option

Cons
  • Mediocre growths make it easy for him to turn out bad
  • Low magic makes him not the best at healing
  • Accessing his full potential requires a lot of investment which might not pay off late-game

Rating: He's rude to his son, F-



There are two groups of enemies we need to take down. Kaze here is the big one - debuffs from that shurriken can become a pain in the rear end very quickly.



Rinkah is also here, but she's not so bad. Damaging her at all will activate her personal skill, so it's in your best interests not to hurt her until you're ready to take her down.



No idea what that glowing mark on the floor is. It's probably radioactive or something! I'm not touching it.

...triggering this obviously telegraphed tutorial dragon vein will open up a room with 3 entrances and healing tiles inside. The intended strategy is to hole up in there and take advantage of dual attacks while forming chokepoints, but that strategy becomes a little dicier on Lunatic if you don't have a Corrin that can hold out. I'm going to be a little more proactive instead...



Rinkah and Kaze will take their groups in different directions, so by approaching one head-on you can avoid the other for a short while. Doing so can prevent you from being overwhelmed by their numerous 1-2 range weapons.



Gunter can take out these Samurai in a single shot. Seems wasteful, but I'd really like to thin out the opposition. I'm going to let them come to me so I'm not forced to overextend.



Eliminating Kaze is top priority, but he's a team effort to take down. A tag team of Corrin and Gunter could take him, but then his cronies would go after Corrin.


This is... not the best use of potential EXP. But it's safer than sending Corrin out. And you can't level up if you're dead.



I run away to heal, and the enemy splits their forces for me. I don't quite understand why, but I won't complain. This should make Kaze a lot easier to eliminate.



Teamwork defeats Kaze. You'll notice Corrin hasn't yet gotten a single kill. That is... not part of the strategy.



Oh come on >:[



Rudely he decides to throw himself against Gunter on enemy phase. With his last breath he denies me the chance to earn EXP...



It seems Rinkah really likes to split her forces. That's not always a good idea in this game. Now we can take out both of them seperately!



Corrin and Gunter are a deadly combo, not only can Gunter finish her enemies off with dual strikes, he also buffs her accuracy and power considerably.



Okay I changed my mind. You didn't deserve that EXP.




Jakob baits Rinkah over, Corrin and Gunter take the kill with a dual strike.



8 turns. It is possible I did all that running around for no reason. Hopefully I at least showed you an unconventional way to beat this chapter?



So do I! It would make the game a lot easier.


Next time: I continue to show off my skills at Conquest by struggling on chapters that are not even exclusive to Conquest.

Quackles
Aug 11, 2018

Pixels of Light.


Having Felicia join your party first instead of Jakob, or vice versa, is apparently a popular patch for Fates if you're hacking it.
This is both for possible reasons of strategy, and story.

Blaze Dragon
Aug 28, 2013
LOWTAX'S SPINE FUND

midnight lasagna posted:


Time to receive an evil sword. I don't know if "Ganglari" is some kind of mythological reference but it's one of the most evil sounding words I've ever seen even if it doesn't mean anything. Lots of Gs.

According to FE wiki,

FE wiki posted:

Ganglari (or Gangleri) literally means "Wanderer", and is one of the many nicknames borne by Odin.

So it's not an evil name or anything, though it's kind of a random choice for a sword.

midnight lasagna
Oct 15, 2016

this pit is full of stat boosters

Quackles posted:

Having Felicia join your party first instead of Jakob, or vice versa, is apparently a popular patch for Fates if you're hacking it.
This is both for possible reasons of strategy, and story.
I know the gay patch lets you do that, although while I like girl Corrin better I also like Jakob more as a unit. I do wish the game let you choose without hacks though...

Blaze Dragon posted:

According to FE wiki,

So it's not an evil name or anything, though it's kind of a random choice for a sword.
Oh, really? A bit of a strange pull, but Fire Emblem loves those. Considering there's an Odin in this game it'd be hilarious to name one of his tomes Ganglari, but that wouldn't be long enough to activate his personal ability...

midnight lasagna
Oct 15, 2016

this pit is full of stat boosters

As much as I like Conquest, I really don't like the chapters that come before the route split. I'll do my best to power through them... This one especially is miserable.



I can't resist the urge to watch each cutscene just a little so I can get one screenshot to make a silly comment on. I really would like Elise's help, she's a very helpful character. Is it just me or are her arms very long?



New unit time! Or not, that's just Hans. Gunter helpfully points out that defensive pair-ups are now a thing. Most people overlook them in favour of offensive ones (me included!) but unlike in Awakening it's not always best to pair your units up. This chapter however goes by a lot more smoothly when you can stack defensive stats onto your Corrin.



This jerk is Hans. He's not playable, and he never will be. He's already fulfilled his duty in the plot, so now he has to get himself killed... I wish. He'll merely retreat when he's defeated. He will absolutely get himself defeated though.



The objective here is to seize the enemy fortress. There's only one way across the chasm seperating us and the enemy, and it's heavily guarded, so we'll have to dragon vein our way across.



This is the game doing its best to hold up a giant sign saying "don't cross, use a dragon vein, stupid!" There will be many more obvious hints. Hints that I still ignored on my first playthrough, because "caution" doesn't earn you experience points!



Unpairing my units at the end of their turn maximises their killing power. While you can choose your dual attack partner on player phase, you cannot on enemy phase. I'm pretty sure its the unit who's support level is highest you'll join you, but I'm not sure how the game decides when you haven't supported anyone. Anyway, placing Jakob away from Corrin ensures that Gunter will be the one to dual attack with Corrin.



...oh, I think the stat boost Gunter would have given Corrin would have allowed her to kill if I'd have just gone with a defensive pair-up... However, in doing this I have ensured Gunter gets an extra point of lance experience! I planned this all along and I dare you to prove otherwise.



Bulk is nice, but I'm a little worried by that base level speed. I don't want to complain about an almost perfect level but I will.



Here's hint number two. Depending on what type of person you are, you'll think either "oh I should go around then" or "okay boomer, watch me take this fort".



I just posted Jakob's growths last update and I'm still not sure what a Jakob level is "supposed" to look like. The skill stat is actually useful for staff users in this game - you need it to hit offensive staves.



Here is hint number three on what not to do this chapter. Except sometimes... sometimes he doesn't miss. Sometimes he crits. And if you're really lucky and do your best to keep him alive, Hans can go on to kill the chapter's boss. I've even heard that it's possible for him to kill the boss, stand on the seize point and then just... not move, causing the chapter to become unwinnable. Of course you'd have to make all of this happen on purpose, so it would be your own fault if he did softlock you.



I don't actually know what the best strategy for this chapter is, despite how many times I've done it. The bottom path is the most direct path and encounters the least enemies, so I assume it would be the best. I'm pretty set in my ways so it's absolutely possible I've tricked myself out of a really easy solution.



To seize the fortress itself you'll have to get through this absolute jerkwad. Ninjas have naturally high avoid, fortress tiles increase avoid more, and you have no weapons available to gain weapon triangle advantage over him. If you have ever played FE5 or 6 then you don't need to have played this chapter to know what that means.



This chapter isn't even difficult it's just a huge pain in the rear end. High avoid! Two ranged attackers that only Jakob can counterattack! It plays like walking through a swamp.



Speaking of Jakob, I'd rather keep him away from the action if I can. He may not be as weak as Felicia but he's still my most fragile unit, and every bow user has weapon triangle advantage against him.



Meanwhile, Corrin takes a seat on this fort where she's nearly untouchable. Again, she's in no real danger... It just takes forever to take down these enemies. If I were clever I could mop them all up with my three units in attack stance but it's just easier this way.



Now it's safe for him to come back. You'll notice that this Archer can two-shot Jakob. Felicia would die just as fast, but I don't even think she'd be strong enough to finish this guy off like Jakob can.



There we go, that's some speed. Unfortunately Corrin's unbroken magic streak dies here.



Turncounts are literally irrelevant here but years of reading people argue about tier lists and efficiency make me feel bad for wasting time healing wounds like this one. There is of course literally no reason not to. You don't even get to keep this heal staff! It gets replenished in chapter 6.



61% hit, and the poison from his shurriken will make Corrin even weaker on subsequent attacks. The worst part is that this is my best option...



who made this boss



If I engage the boss now then these archers will all aggro on me. Its best to choose your position so they don't try to shoot at you from within the safety of the boss's attack radius.



Meanwhile, reinforcements approach from the south. In every difficulty in every route, reinforcements will never move the instant they appear in Fates. Don't think that means Conquest won't sucker punch you with rude reinforcement traps though, because they will!



I planned for this, and Jakob on a fort has nothing to fear from them. Already he's doing something Felicia can't do - even on a fort I think two of them would be enough to finish her off.



Now that is what I want to see! Despite my huge spiel about the power of reclassed Jakob last update, I don't have any plans for doing that this run. But those plans could change.



15 turns into the chapter, only the boss and the bridge guardians remain. From this side it's much easier to defeat them - two of those archers don't move, and the rest can be lured over to you if you approach them from the south. If you want to maximise your EXP you can take them all out... But I don't want to. If Corrin gets too far ahead of the EXP curve then they'll start to level up a snail's pace, so squeezing out every last drop of EXP isn't really worth it.



Two clean hits will take him down. Gentilehomme provides Corrin with a little extra bulk, so now it's time ro roll the dice.



Roll them over and over... And over. Thankfully, the boss tile isn't a fort, it's an old fort. Those don't provide any healing. I really do just need two hits to kill him.



I guess that's okay.



24 turns! If that boss didn't have so much avoid it would have been less.



I thought I'd watch a little to see if I could find a funny line and then this happened. I straight up do not remember Xander showing up. Whatever happens here is immediately overshadowed by Corrin falling into a hole.


Next time: snow

TheGreatEvilKing
Mar 28, 2016





Hans is a terrible character in every way.

This is also reminding me of my hatred for debuff stacking ninjas.

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?

TheGreatEvilKing posted:

Hans is a terrible character in every way.

This is also reminding me of my hatred for debuff stacking ninjas.

His character is much improved when you internally add John McClane yelling his name every time he appears.

tithin
Nov 14, 2003


[Grandmaster Tactician]



I only ever played the Hoshido version of this and bluntly, by the time I finished the game I was so angry I never played FE Fates again
I'll be curious to see wha the dlc for the third route does, I've heard it's somehow the worst of them

MonstrousMouse
Apr 15, 2014
I played all 3 routes when the game came out, in a row, and I was absolutely sick of it by the end. I came back to Conquest last year, skipping all the cutscenes this time, and suddenly it was a lot better! It might honestly be the most fun FE from a purely gameplay perspective.

OOrochi
Jan 19, 2017

On my honor as the Dawnspear.
Yeah, I'd agree with that. Conquest has some really great maps in it.

midnight lasagna
Oct 15, 2016

this pit is full of stat boosters
Okay maybe replying to everyone who posts is a little unsustainable. Forgive me if I only respond when I've got something to say!


FoolyCharged posted:

His character is much improved when you internally add John McClane yelling his name every time he appears.
And yet it's the other terrible Nohrian villain who looks more like he could have been played by Alan Rickman.

tithin posted:

I only ever played the Hoshido version of this and bluntly, by the time I finished the game I was so angry I never played FE Fates again
I'll be curious to see wha the dlc for the third route does, I've heard it's somehow the worst of them
The DLC route does one thing and that is suck really hard, unfortunately. Plotwise and gameplaywise it's even worse than the other two. There's some fun to be had if you like messing around with grinding and optimising fun unit builds since you've got almost the entire cast available, and some of the exclusive supports are okay, but otherwise it's probably not going to improve your opinion of the game.

MonstrousMouse posted:

I played all 3 routes when the game came out, in a row, and I was absolutely sick of it by the end. I came back to Conquest last year, skipping all the cutscenes this time, and suddenly it was a lot better! It might honestly be the most fun FE from a purely gameplay perspective.
I do like Conquest a lot when you look past all the bad parts. The core gameplay of Fates is great and even Birthright and Revelation are built on top of that. All the game needs is some sort of map save or divine pulse feature to make screwing up in some of the longer chapters less frustrating.

midnight lasagna
Oct 15, 2016

this pit is full of stat boosters

Hoshido! That's not Nohr. I thought I had to purchase that country seperately.



Skipped a cutscene and I woke up in a room with a cool muscular girl who's cooked a delicious meal... Maybe I should skip cutscenes more often, this is a definite improvement on before.

I'm actually surprised that she called this place a Flame Tribe village. Fates is somewhat infamous for its lack of worldbuilding, and the Flame Tribe gets the worst of it. So much so that there's a joke among the fandom that said tribe does not actually exist and Rinkah is just lying or is possibly delusional. But I guess you do visit it at least once, even if you don't see anybody else...



Here is this chapter's map, as well as the basic premise: save a little girl. Somehow the enlarged screenshot combined with Sakura's squint makes her look like an old lady. She's supposed to be like 14 years old, although the localisation aged her up to make it a little less creepy that you can marry her.

If you look on the bottom screen you'll see a lot of terrain and enemies standing on mountains. Those aren't bandits...



They're Faceless. They're big, dumb sacks of meat that have no purpose besides causing carnage and hitting you as hard as possible with physical attacks... okay maybe they are bandits. This jerk comes equipped with two Seal skills, which will each lower a specific stat by 6 points so long as the user survives a round of combat with them. Thankfully it won't move until we approach it.



The only clear condition this map has is to defeat all the enemies, but keeping these two alive long enough to talk to one of them will net us a concoction, an item that is very nice now that Jakob has bailed on us.



Jakob may be gone, but we have two new units to play with! Rinkah won't join us for long in Conquest, and while Kaze will join us eventually, he'll leave for a few chapters when we decide not to side with Hoshido.

Despite her visible muscle definition, Rinkah's usefulness here will mostly be as a pairup partner. Anybody she's paired up with will have a whopping +4 str and +2 def, and her surprisngly mediocre strength and defense values means whoever she supports will be a better tank than she can be herself. Her Fiery Blood personal gives her an extra 4 damage when she's on low HP however, which does help a bit. She also comes with Seal Resistance, a seal skill that provides absolutely no help at all to our party of physical attackers.

Allegedly she was planned to join in Conquest too, possibly at the same time Kaze rejoins. She's a mediocre unit in Birthright and I think she'd be even worse in CQ where her niche of being an axe user and having acceptable bulk means basically nothing, but it would give your units access to the Oni class. Allowing Charlotte to gain access to Death Blow in CQ without having to marry a specific Corrin would have been really, really fun, but it was not meant to be.

Kaze... won't get an analysis just yet since he'll be joining for real later on in the story, with improved base stats to boot. But for now he's a solid unit who can attack from a distance and debuff our enemies. He'll be even more useful in the next chapter if we can get him a good level or two, and the experience points he earns here will carry over to his eventual re-recruitment in CQ proper. So he's useful and deserving of your EXP.



Corrin is the best candidate to visit the village on turn 1 since she cannot access the dragon vein from her starting position, something she wants to do on turn 2. The nice villager gives us a Goddess Icon, which boosts luck by 4. These types of items can boost a unit's stats or be sold for a tidy profit, but their real use is to sit in your convoy forever, gathering dust as you agonise over the oppurtunity cost you'll suffer for making the wrong decision by using or selling them. It is unclear why Intelligent Systems decided to inflict this particular psychological torture upon their fans.



Pairing up two units and seperating them at their destination allows you to cover slightly more ground than they each could on their own. Placing your pair-up partner onto rough terrain and then joining up with them next turn allows you to cross it without dealing with its movement penalty, which is another neat trick.



Activating the dragon veins melts these snow piles... which I'm pretty sure are not just snow, there's definitely some rock in there too. Already the assault on Hoshido has begun, in the form of sabotaging their geography.



This is a rather foreboding little line I must have glossed over before. Maybe it's a hint that it's not always a good idea to activate every dragon vein you see, but I don't think there's ever any case of a royal losing control of the power of dragon veins or suffering dire consequences from activating one.



A side-by-side demonstration of the power girls with abs can fill you with. Rinkah's support turns a rather measly hit into a clean 2HKO.



Or so it would have, were a 90% chance to hit not indeed a 90% chance to hit. Sometimes you forget that big number does not mean success in all cases.

If you're familiar with any fire emblem game from 6 and beyond you'll know that hit rates aren't quite what the game says they are - normally hit rates below 50% are less accurate than they seem, and ones above 50% are more. This isn't quite true in Conquest, where 50% and below hitrates are indeed as displayed. Ones over 50% are more likely to hit, but not as likely as they were in past games. It's all something to do with using two random numbers instead of one. It is Maths.



Meanwhile Hinoka is in no trouble at all. She'll easily demolish any faceless that attacks her, which works fine to keep Sakura safe until they'll start approaching her from a different direction in a few turns.



Kaze dodged both 71% hits aimed against him (most likely closer to 80% actual hit), making up for his earlier failure a little. I guess nobody's hitting today.



Ryoma fears no faceless, and will obliterate any and all units between him and his two sisters. He's either a great help or an EXP thief depending on how you view things.



Kaze's failure to kill this dude prevents Corrin from moving to the fullest extent, leaving her one tile short of the dragon vein on her next turn. Boo!



Incidentally, here's a big gripe I have about the 3DS games: one of these tiles is a Woods tile, the other is not. Without looking at the top left display, could you guess which one is which? Things like this make it much harder to judge the map's terrain at a glance.



Thinking about how you end your turn can help a lot - ending with Rinkah as the lead unit will mean she gets attacked by this Seal Def Faceless instead of Kaze, causing her to lose stats instead of him. Seeing as I'm not using her for combat there's no consequence to her taking a little damage here. It also means that she can take advantage of the +1 movement Kaze gives her at the start of next turn, something he doesn't get as the lead unit himself.



Unfortunately he's still smarting from the Seal Strength jerk from a few turns ago. It takes six turns out waiting before the effects of a seal skill wear off. It sucks!



Kaze's fast attack speed and ability to hit without being counterattacked also let him rack up Dual Guard gauge without fear of reprisal, greatly increasing his survivability. Consistent 1-2 range and high speed can make paired-up units much more defensive than others even if their actual defense stats suck.



The next chapter will require Kaze to tank a lot of mages, so HP and resistance would have been much appreciated... But strength is still perfectly fine.



This guy stepped slightly out of position to assist another Faceless in a dual attack against Ryoma. I've never seen that happen before! Normally they don't move unless you enter their range.



It's fine, Sakura can take one fist to the face. Even if it's a fist the size of her head.



Ryoma dispatches the last of the faceless menacing the sisters for us, but that's irrelevant anyway because now I've got the reward for keeping them alive. With horror Hinoka realises Corrin's true name, which is the name of the game in which her country gets invaded and her family torn apart.



Speaking of, this is the first time she's seen combat all chapter. She only got 22 EXP, lame!



You can melt this mountain but this formation is much safer, it lets you bait them out one-by-one and lets Kaze chip foes for you while Rinkah supports your Corrin. The one downside is the abysmal hitrates you'll face by leaving the mountain intact.



No luck? No res? They'd throw you out of Troubadour school for that.



Hmm! I may have goofed by moving Kaze to chip the boss before checking how far Corrin could move. She's unable to put herself between the boss and Kaze...



Just kidding I am a master tactician.



If you're never punished it's not a misplay!!!



Disregarding that little mishap, I managed to beat the chapter with only a single vulnerary use expended. That's pretty good, and gives me a little more leeway for the next chapter I think.



That's right! Imagine if those miscreants had, I dunno, levelled multiple mountains to the ground using some kind of godly magical power. That really would have been bad for everyone.


Next Time: Purple becomes a colour

rannum
Nov 3, 2012

Excited to see this play out. I always enjoy "high level" FE Play like this; Conquest in particular I've seen several gimmick runs on Lunatic. Regardless of the problems with the game it's definitely offers some interesting mechanics.

Also


I think this is prrrrobably meant to be foreshadowing to Corrin going feral in the next chapter or so. Can't control the power thanks to all the Emotions and so on.



Also possible that at some point in the game's various rewrites and writer hot potato it was meant ot be a bigger plot point but just got scrapped, but I think the Feral Corn is probably more likely.

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?

Hey, there's no agonizing over goddess icons. They get immediately pinned to Arthur's chin. No questions asked.

Bad Video Games
Sep 17, 2017


A few updates late, but here's some thoughts on Felicia:

Feeding some XP to Felicia and then starting a Branch of Fate with female Corrin means Felicia gains more levels when she rejoins. I want to say your second servant gains 10 levels when they rejoin, so Felicia can come in with Tomebreaker right when it's useful. Your Jakob does start Chapter 7 at level 1 though.

Paladin or Great Knight Jakob is good for about 3 chapters, but you should consider Bow Knight Felicia. She will be more relevant in the mid game and can even stay useful well into the late game. Jakob starts out stronger but Felicia will take longer to burn out.

Also, I have opinions on Nyx.

Great LP! I typically only play on Hard because I find the bullshit of Lunatic to be not fun, but one thing I appreciate is that the enemies on both difficulties generally have the same stats. There's just more of them on Lunatic and more skills.

Bad Video Games
Sep 17, 2017


FoolyCharged posted:

Hey, there's no agonizing over goddess icons. They get immediately pinned to Arthur's chin. No questions asked.

Also this. Unless you're one of those godless types who hates justice.

Natural 20
Sep 17, 2007

Wearer of Compasses. Slayer of Gods. Champion of the Colosseum. Heart of the Void.
Saviour of Hallownest.
Lunatic Conquest came within inches of killing Fire Emblem for me. I loved Awakening to absolute pieces but holy poo poo this game was possibly the most oppressive thing I've ever done to myself.

I will respectfully but strongly disagree with the idea of the game being playable with any part of the cast though. From my experience, not playing with the royals led to a final map where I had to make excel spreadsheets charting every single move I made to have a meaningful chance of dealing with it. (In the end I gave up when I realised I was essentially just brute forcing a solution to the map with 20 minutes between each try)

So basically, you complete madman, I will enjoy reading this.

midnight lasagna
Oct 15, 2016

this pit is full of stat boosters

rannum posted:

Excited to see this play out. I always enjoy "high level" FE Play like this; Conquest in particular I've seen several gimmick runs on Lunatic. Regardless of the problems with the game it's definitely offers some interesting mechanics.

Also
[image]

I think this is prrrrobably meant to be foreshadowing to Corrin going feral in the next chapter or so. Can't control the power thanks to all the Emotions and so on.



Also possible that at some point in the game's various rewrites and writer hot potato it was meant ot be a bigger plot point but just got scrapped, but I think the Feral Corn is probably more likely.
Can't guarantee I'll offer "high level" play, but I hope I can at least do a good job of explaining what I am doing. I do like seeing how other people play this game. I'm quite stuck in my ways so sometimes I'll read or watch an LP and discover I've been doing a chapter in completely the wrong way or overlooking a very obvious strat.

...yeah it probably is meant to foreshadow Corrin's dragon rage. I think I got stuck on it being related to dragon veins.

FoolyCharged posted:

Hey, there's no agonizing over goddess icons. They get immediately pinned to Arthur's chin. No questions asked.
That is understandable. I don't have any plans to use him this playthrough though...

Walla posted:

A few updates late, but here's some thoughts on Felicia:

Feeding some XP to Felicia and then starting a Branch of Fate with female Corrin means Felicia gains more levels when she rejoins. I want to say your second servant gains 10 levels when they rejoin, so Felicia can come in with Tomebreaker right when it's useful. Your Jakob does start Chapter 7 at level 1 though.

Paladin or Great Knight Jakob is good for about 3 chapters, but you should consider Bow Knight Felicia. She will be more relevant in the mid game and can even stay useful well into the late game. Jakob starts out stronger but Felicia will take longer to burn out.

Also, I have opinions on Nyx.

Great LP! I typically only play on Hard because I find the bullshit of Lunatic to be not fun, but one thing I appreciate is that the enemies on both difficulties generally have the same stats. There's just more of them on Lunatic and more skills.
I think your second servant joins at level 13 usually, so that would be 12 levels. I didn't realise that's where the EXP went if you swapped your Corrin's gender at a branch of fate though, that's interesting.

Does Bow Knight Felicia really work? I guess she can use both the Shining Bow & the Levin Sword but it's hard to imagine her doing much with her measly strength even at base. Not that I've tried it, I tend to bench her if she's not being used as my premier staff bot.

Am looking forward to your Nyx opinions. I'll be honest, a lot of units in this game I don't have too much experience with, so for some of my analyses I'll be going on what I've heard other people have said before! that's my excuse if it turns out i'm full of poo poo lol

Natural 20 posted:

Lunatic Conquest came within inches of killing Fire Emblem for me. I loved Awakening to absolute pieces but holy poo poo this game was possibly the most oppressive thing I've ever done to myself.

I will respectfully but strongly disagree with the idea of the game being playable with any part of the cast though. From my experience, not playing with the royals led to a final map where I had to make excel spreadsheets charting every single move I made to have a meaningful chance of dealing with it. (In the end I gave up when I realised I was essentially just brute forcing a solution to the map with 20 minutes between each try)

So basically, you complete madman, I will enjoy reading this.
Oh I will make no excuses for the final chapter, it sucks lol. Or well the final map itself can be an interesting challenge and you will have the tools to complete if you haven't burned every single use of your offensive staves... It's just a massive dick move not to let your save before it. There have been playthroughs where I beat chapter 26 and then went "yeah I'm done" and stopped.

midnight lasagna
Oct 15, 2016

this pit is full of stat boosters

Mum.



Spoiler: The entirity of this game's plot is trying to get a guy to sit on this chair.



New party member! It's a Dragon/Water type, weak against Dragon and Fairy with a whole load of resistances. Some people don't like the newer Pokemon designs but I'm fond of this one. It's got that weird otherworldly vibe that Ultra Beasts do.



Just kidding it's Corrin. She has turned into a dragon because she is upset. In this form she has absolutely jacked stats and a 1 range magical weapon that can kill almost anything in one hit. Unfortunately she earns very little EXP in this form so she should only kill enemies that other units can't handle. Would you believe she doesn't get to stay like this forever?

I'm not actually sure how her stats are calculated in this chapter. Her HP is the same as always, I don't know if the others are fixed or based upon her actual stats.



The boss of this chapter is a Purple Guy. His stats are appropriately jacked to rival Corrin's, although they deliberately gave him a crappy sword that lowers his speed and his avoid. He and Ryoma will duel for a few turns until he wins.



This chapter is pretty small, but it's also pretty tricky. It's kind of a puzzle to teach you the game's mechanics. The first time you figure out how to do it on Lunatic it's fun, not so much the second time. Or the third. Or the fourth. Or the... you get the idea.



Here's someone new! It's Sakura, who we saved last chapter. She'd still be here even if we didn't. Obviously we don't get to keep her since she's the princess of a country we're about to betray, but for the one chapter we are allowed to use her she'll be very handy to have around.

Her Bloom Festal allows her to heal a unit from up to 2 tiles away for a small amount, and her personal skill Quiet Strength reduces the damage any ally within 2 tiles takes in combat by 2, which is very helpfully equal to the maximum range of her healing rod. She also comes with Miracle, giving her a luck% chance to survive a lethal hit at 1 HP. There's no consequence to her "dying" here but there's also no reason for her to enter combat in the first place.



Here's another princess that will join our team... eventually. Azura is a Songstress, AKA a dancer. Dancers are a staple of the Fire Emblem series that have been around since FE3's Book 2, and can make one of your units move a second time in a turn. 99% of being a dancer is using that ability, so they're all kind of the same. There are some aspects unique to both Azura and the mechanics of Fates that make her even better than normal, but I'll get into those when I give her a proper analysis when she rejoins the army for real.



There are two types of guy in this chapter, Mercenaries and Dark Mages. Many of the Mercs are carrying Wyrmslayers that will hit Corrin for a nasty amount of effective damage despite her insanely high stats in dragon form. The Dark Mages don't deal any sort of effective damage (this isn't Radiant Dawn), but they do target her lower Resistance stat and they all come with the Malefic Aura skill, reducing the effective resistance of every enemy within 2 tiles by 2 points. Conquest has a lot of little skills like this to punish you for not paying attention.



Rinkah faces weapon triangle disadvantage from every single enemy here, so her first action is to dedicate herself to providing stats to Kaze who faces weapon triangle advantage against each enemy instead. Corrin is too angry to have friends and therefore cannot pair up with anyone right now.



Corrin will earn 1 exp per kill here, but Kaze's still relatively low leveled, so he gets to bait the enemies. He will be our best unit against the mages, and enemy stats are still low enough across the board right now that a single level could significantly improve his usefulness here.



Meanwhile Ryoma and purple cowl man very ineffectively duke it out against one another. Ryoma's scripted to survive for the first 3 turns but once those are up he's highly likely to get himself KO'd. Not that there's any consequence in him doing so.



Now some of the units on the right side are on the move. Their range is short enough that I can have my army move left to deal with the units they engaged last turn while being safely out of reach of these dudes.



bap

I should avoid giving her kills if I can help it but it is very satisfying to KO enemies in one hit like this.



This HP tonic will increase somebody's max HP by 5 for the duration of one chapter. It won't heal them when you use it though. The enemy kindly drops this to make this chapter a little easier for you.



"Breath" is the only weapon type available to Feral Dragons, although I don't understand how that relates to straight up goring suckers with your horns. I don't know if gaining weapon experience in breath will translate to dragonstone EXP for Corrin later...



Azura warns you against letting Corrin fight enemies with Wyrmslayers, but she can tank at least one hit from them. In fact I'm pretty sure this map on lunatic difficulty outright expects her to in at least one situation.



A Kaze who could one-round these mages would make this map much easier. A Kaze who had gained resistance alongside HP could also avoid the 2 hit kill from them... Support from Sakura's personal skill is enough to let him not die, but having her near him isn't always easy to make happen.



I think he's hit his str growth twice in a row, so I shouldn't complain... But he didn't get res which I wanted so I will. Life is unfair and the RNG has it out for me!!!



Oh no, Ryoma!!! (he is fine)

This is so likely to happen it may as well be scripted. Not having to watch him fail to hit the same boss over and over helps save time so honestly I'd rather this happen as soon as it can.



Entering this danger zone will trigger 4 reinforcements in all four corners of the map, putting you on a timer of sorts. There are three Dark Mages to lure, although if you stand on the edge of their radius then only two can attack him that turn.



He actually could have survived all 3 of them. I forgot to take into account his guaranteed dual guard however so I played it safe for no reason.



There is now 1 mage in each corner, and they'll slowly begin to approach us. One single mage doesn't mean much but most of my units can be 2HKO'd by their magic, so I want them gone before they start to group up.



Their reach is marked on the map in bright red. I need to sort out this clogged chokepoint so I have somewhere to escape to before they arrive...



Kaze takes out a mage to allow Corrin to clear the blockage, and then Azura dances Corrin so she may choke the point with her large dragony self. Teamwork!

Both of those Mercs have Wyrmslayers but Corrin can tank one hit and kill in return.



Azura gains a level in the process. Leveling her up is important, but what stats she actually gets doesn't really matter.



Corrin finishes off the slayer duo and marches west to take out an encroaching mage, while Kaze takes over chokepoint duties on the other side.



He still doesn't want resistance.



Sakura's one level this chapter means nothing to me, but I may as well show it off. Her chances of gaining strength aren't all that unlikely, although her magic stat is still much higher. Statwise she's actually pretty amazing, even her bulk is decent once she gets going. A shame we cannot use her!



Aw come on, 1 HP away from a clean kill? Thanks for nothing, Ryoma! Unless...?



...thanks for nothing Ryoma!!!



Purple guy dies and Corrin becomes a little faster and bulkier. Nice.



Mother's death avenged in 10 turns. Yay! Now it's time to ditch this country forever.



Even Corrin's already sick of that song


Next time: Corrin makes a bad decision

midnight lasagna fucked around with this message at 18:29 on Oct 3, 2021

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?

midnight lasagna posted:

That is understandable. I don't have any plans to use Arthur this playthrough though...

Well in such a sad world goddess icons suffer their other clear use: getting pawned off to buy something that's actually useful.

TheGreatEvilKing
Mar 28, 2016





OCEANS GRAY WAVES!

It is eternal.

Bad Video Games
Sep 17, 2017


midnight lasagna posted:

Does Bow Knight Felicia really work? I guess she can use both the Shining Bow & the Levin Sword but it's hard to imagine her doing much with her measly strength even at base. Not that I've tried it, I tend to bench her if she's not being used as my premier staff bot.

Bow Knights are pretty drat busted in this game. Ch. 8 BK Felicia does what Niles does on that map, except better. With a Corrin pair up she can solo the entire map if you wish and it will be a long time before any enemy catches up to her in speed so she will be doubling forever. She puts in more work in Ch. 10 than Jakob does, she makes short work of Cheve and the Opera House and she's your best hope of having Shuriken Breaker for Ninja Cave without reclassing Camilla or pumping more experience than is feasible into someone else. Also her personal skill is even better for Corrin's survivability.

I've never bothered to raise her sword rank since she still dies in 2 hits and I have better uses for Arms Scrolls. Just reclass her in Ch. 8 with a bronze bow and watch her wreck poo poo.

quote:

Am looking forward to your Nyx opinions. I'll be honest, a lot of units in this game I don't have too much experience with, so for some of my analyses I'll be going on what I've heard other people have said before! that's my excuse if it turns out i'm full of poo poo lol

Nyx will never be good. Dark Knight Nyx is useful for all of 3 chapters and makes a good wife glued to Odin or Leo but that's about it. But Nyx can make for a great utility unit, especially if you've already reclassed your first servant. Outlaw Nyx will have similar speed to Niles at the same level which means she can one round every unpaired pegasus in Chapter 10. Adventurer Nyx will give you a powerful staff bot who can kill any flier and will make better use of the Shining Bow than even Niles. It's not a power move, but if you want to use Nyx you can spend the resources to do so. Adventurer Nyx absolutely wants Arms Scrolls, and using her means you might lose out on a Ninja or Bow Knight who can potentially put in more work. But if you need a healer and rescue bot for Ch. 10, it's not a wrong move.

And honestly, I'd almost rather have Outlaw Nyx for Ch. 10 than Archer Mozu, since Nyx will be more immediately useful there.

Quackles
Aug 11, 2018

Pixels of Light.


TheGreatEvilKing posted:

OCEANS GRAY WAVES!

It is eternal.

🎶 Youuuu'we the OwOcean's gway waves... 🎶 :3:

theshim
May 1, 2012

You think you can defeat ME, Ephraimcopter?!?

You couldn't even beat Assassincopter!!!

Quackles posted:

🎶 Youuuu'we the OwOcean's gway waves... 🎶 :3:
get out

Bad Video Games
Sep 17, 2017


fucking love Fiona Apple
Jun 19, 2013

samus comfy so what

I don't like Conquest. Or Fates in general but Conquest is especially an exercise in frustration.

Some good rear end maps (Chapter 10 especially) but having to deal with Shurikens and Swap all the time just isnt for me .

Also worth noting for people who have only played Three Houses (or Echoes) that this is the last Fire Emblem game without a rewind feature. So if you gently caress up and get a unit killed on Classic you have to restart the whole map and that really sucks on some of the later Chapters that are long af and full of strong enemies.

fucking love Fiona Apple fucked around with this message at 02:43 on Oct 3, 2021

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Cythereal
Nov 8, 2009

I love the potoo,
and the potoo loves you.
Fortunately I started the series with Three Houses and don't at present have a 3DS, so unless this or Awakening or what have you gets ported to the Switch I'm in no danger.

I don't even know what's going on in Fates beyond the horror stories, tbh. The only proper LP of it on SA that I can think of that got anywhere was a video LP, which is a format I dislike intensely for a game like this.

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