TearRing Saga! My Blind Playthrough - Finale

[Miacis]

Ah crud, I switched around Runan and Holmes as for where to send Kate and Sasha for a bit more development. She gets a more... definitive end to her storyline on Runan's route (it's really not that much and doesn't even change her Epilogue, but it's just not something most players get). I'm sorry I failed you. :(
If you still have the pre-split save file I guess you can go back and switch them around while you still can, but if not, don't worry about it. Don't burn yourself out when you're getting close to the end.

That Secret Shop is also where Shigen could have recruited Sierra had you not done his dying event. Convenient how they also sell Dark tomes.

Oh, also, you were a bit confused that a Terra crit would only do 37 damage. The thing is, you can't have a Terra AND a crit because Terra is already a crit (that ignores terrain). But the game displays both the Terra line and the critical line even though they're the same thing.

The next maps on Runan's side are some of the hardest in the game, btw. Good luck!

> Wait for turn 10 before ending the next map. I doubt this'll be a problem this time, but you've already surprised me once...

> The boss of the second map is quite hard, but drops his weapon. Also check the skills of the NPCs...

 

Edited March 25, 2017 by Miacis

[BrightBow]

1 hour ago, Miacis said:

That Secret Shop is also where Shigen could have recruited Sierra had you not done his dying event. Convenient how they also sell Dark tomes.

Sierra would be in a different house actually. She would have been in that small house right next to the road.

 

On another note, I still had a save on this chapter, so I just replayed it and can confirm that Zieg does actually move once you reach turn 8. Of course as usual Deltre finished things so fast that the enemy didn't even have time to send in their reinforcements.

Edited March 25, 2017 by BrightBow

[Deltre]

Phew, glad the game didn't screw me out of the Luna sword. I mean, I assume we get her back at some point, but that would have been a bit of a bummer, not gonna lie.

Eh, so far I'm content with Kate's little storyline even if Runan's side is better. Besides, it feels right to

Spoiler

have her be the one to finish off Zieg. I'm starting to think that he's probably just insane, which is pretty interesting to say the least. I wouldn't have guessed that all of his backstory was BS. It's definitely starting to look that way though, and I don't think I fully processed this at the time it was unfolding. I'm sure he has reasons to be like this, but for now I honestly have no idea.

 You guys weren't kidding with this map, it was quite a bit trickier than the ones we've seen so far. I like the premise a lot though, and had a lot of fun playing through it. 

Also part 29 since I've been terrible about updating this for the past few days. Real life strikes again.

Spoiler

 

[BrightBow]

Ernest, the man who can dodge rain vs. Vega, the guy who sucks blood out of tanks. Truly a matchup of epic proportions. This map may make the game look like Advance Wars, but the way Vega is cutting through tanks makes him come across as if he thinks that he is in Metal Gear Rising instead.

But seriously Deltre, nice job with this map. And fast as usual too. Not that missing out on Hagar the Horrible would have been a big loss. And you did things right with Stephanie, btw. So no need to worry about that.

 

For this next map, you may want to stay on the lookout for generic units with skills.

Edited March 27, 2017 by BrightBow

[Deltre]

On 3/27/2017 at 8:06 AM, BrightBow said:

Ernest, the man who can dodge rain vs. Vega, the guy who sucks blood out of tanks. Truly a matchup of epic proportions. This map may make the game look like Advance Wars, but the way Vega is cutting through tanks makes him come across as if he thinks that he is in Metal Gear Rising instead.

But seriously Deltre, nice job with this map. And fast as usual too. Not that missing out on Hagar the Horrible would have been a big loss. And you did things right with Stephanie, btw. So no need to worry about that.

 

For this next map, you may want to stay on the lookout for generic units with skills.

LMAO Vega don't play no games. Even if Shigen is stronger Vega has never let me down and also has 14 DEF for some reason haha.

I was kinda worried about Stephanie, so that's good to know. And thank you, that map was definitely trickier than the rest so far. In the interest of honesty I got blown back (specifically Enteh lol) the first time I played it. I guess that's the power of clever editing :p

Generics with skills sounds awesome actually! I kind of wish there would have been more of them with low-mid tier skills now that you bring it up. 

Edited March 28, 2017 by Deltre

[Deltre]

Julius is really, really insane, not even gonna lie. Fun boss fight, but just an alright map. 

Also Enteh are you even serious right now

[BrightBow]

And you actually got the Canaan Lance. Holy crap. I figured killing him while he is still using that Lance would be pretty much impossible. At least without the Luna Sword.

The generic units with skills I referred to were indeed those NPCs. Their Mug skill makes it essentially impossible to hit Julius while he is still tangling with them. I just wish those guys would actually attack Julius so he doesn't have to kill them one by one. The way it's handled here you just have to wait way too long until they are all dead.

Theodora probably stopped by Narron because he was the one to kill Julius, so that's where the body would be. Nice attention to detail there.

In terms of story, it's definitely kinda dumb how they handled Enteh here. I think I get why the topic of Reevian politics came up so suddenly, they wanted to subvert the glorious liberation scenario: Congrats, you just killed a bunch of soldiers who were already injured and their leader who was going to retreat anyway. All so that you could help the corrupt Reevian nobility back into power. But the thing is, Enteh so far had been solely defined by her relationship with Runan. She was never shown to be concerned with the situation in Reevee and what she can do about it, so this just ends up looking like there is a huge chunk of character development missing for her.

I wonder what's up with the lag though. In my case didn't engage Julius until he broke the Canaan Lance, so I have no idea what was going on there.

Edited March 30, 2017 by BrightBow

[Punished Dayni]

I think the Canann Lance was the cause of the lag, you can see it flashing whenever Julius was on screen and the game always slows down whenever it was on screen. Julius himself would have been terrifying in any game, and I'd be concerned if Julia faced him.

Also, yeah Enteh's arc seems severely rushed there. It really doesn't work as well as it should.

[Deltre]

I have to agree completely with you guys on Enteh's most recent developments. It completely blindsides you with absolutely no buildup whatsoever, so I can't help but be left scratching my head at the whole thing. It couldn't have been that hard to slip in a few dialogue sequences somewhere along the way where she expresses some of these feelings. Doing so would go a long way to make all this feel more natural (even if this plan is still pretty stupid).

Actually, on the whole, I feel like Katri got a lot more screentime in general despite being around for 5 or so chapters less. It's kind of strange really.

The Canaan Spear most likely was the cause of the lagspikes there, but it's still kinda strange considering 1) we fought a Wyvern Lord (Xyon) and 2) we've had glowing weapons of our own for a while now. Not to mention that some of the spell effects are way crazier. That's what I get for trying to record on a machine made from cardboard and wet tissue paper I guess. 

[Miacis]

It might be that we're seeing the first use of the "legendary" weapons that don't just glow, but also have a big flashy FE4/7-like shine before they're used. Then again, when Julius didn't have the initiative, it started lagging as soon as he was on screen, so... *shrug* If it's the weapon, you'll know as soon as you have someone use it.

But congrats on going through these two maps, and snatching the Canaan Spear! It gets a little more into classic endgame difficulty after this. Do know that the town right after Nolzeria is the last pit stop to buy anything, ever.

Also, in the chance that you do Nolzeria super fast and move onto the following map after the next video:
> This is the map for the Silence staff.
> Remember that some non-pirate classes can cross water.
> If you decide that subtlety is an overrated concept, do check enemy inventories before rushing in.

[BrightBow]

5 hours ago, Deltre said:

The Canaan Spear most likely was the cause of the lagspikes there, but it's still kinda strange considering 1) we fought a Wyvern Lord (Xyon) and 2) we've had glowing weapons of our own for a while now. Not to mention that some of the spell effects are way crazier. That's what I get for trying to record on a machine made from cardboard and wet tissue paper I guess. 

Technically Xyon was a regular Wyvern Knight. Wyvern Lord is a class that is exclusive to Julius. (That's probably what grants him these ridiculous speed and skill caps.) Seems still unlikely that the Wyvern Lord class itself would cause lag. All it does is to use a different sprite for it's dragon.

Edited March 31, 2017 by BrightBow

[Deltre]

3 hours ago, BrightBow said:

Technically Xyon was a regular Wyvern Knight. Wyvern Lord is a class that is exclusive to Julius. (That's probably what grants him these ridiculous speed and skill caps.) Seems still unlikely that the Wyvern Lord class itself would cause lag. All it does is to use a different sprite for it's dragon.

I like to think that it's because he's so badass that my emulator can't calculate his stats all at once, so it has to slow down to compensate for the awesomeness overload.

You're almost certainly correct that it's somehow the spear. I knew I shouldn't have used a computer built with aluminum foil and whatever random shit I found in between my couch cushions.

[Deltre]

Part 32 for you all. Sorry about the delay on that, had to re-render the video about 3 times before it stuck. Little did I know that my settings were off so the dimensions kinda suck on this one. 

Everything is starting to come to a head here. I can't imagine there's more than 4 maps left in this game. It's been quite the ride so far, probably my favorite FE to be perfectly honest. If this game were better balanced it would be with no question, but I can look past that for everything else this one brings to the table.

Probably gonna finish in 1 to 2 more parts, if I had to guess. Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself lol but thank you to everyone who's been watching/helping out, it really made this playthrough a lot of fun. More people should play this game. 

 

[BrightBow]

Oh yeah, this is a labyrinth. We totally didn't forget to put a texture on these tiles or anything.

Jokes aside, glad to hear that you are having fun. I think the game has a lot of things about it that are just excellent but there also some pretty grave flaws that I can easily see spoiling the experience for a lot of people. Particular in regards to the interface and those weird control issues.

 

Anyway, I don't think Yuni lowered that bridge with her thieving abilities. She got a Bridge Key from one of those chests, so she probably used that one.

Dealing with this army of Dragon Zombies is far easier then you might think. And pretty hilarious as well. Two words: Friendly Fire. Throw someone with a ton of avoid at them and they will torch each other trying to hit their target. They have negative avoid too, so they can't actually dodge each other's attacks.

I really love that battle in the ruined city. It's an easy map but it has just such a great aesthetic to it.

Anyway Deltre, since the ending isn't all that far off anymore, I wanted to ask if you are also going to take a look into the game's multiplayer mode. I mean, it's not something you can really play through but I'd say that it's pretty interesting nevertheless. It's surprisingly elaborate, completely unlike the various multiplayer modes the Fire Emblem series got over the years. There are a ton of options like which weapons/skills/classes are allowed, how powerful critical hits are or which track you want to use as your player phase theme. There is even an optional rule for the Weapon Triangle.

 

 

Edited April 3, 2017 by BrightBow

[Deltre]

On 4/3/2017 at 4:10 AM, BrightBow said:

Oh yeah, this is a labyrinth. We totally didn't forget to put a texture on these tiles or anything.

Jokes aside, glad to hear that you are having fun. I think the game has a lot of things about it that are just excellent but there also some pretty grave flaws that I can easily see spoiling the experience for a lot of people. Particular in regards to the interface and those weird control issues.

 

Anyway, I don't think Yuni lowered that bridge with her thieving abilities. She got a Bridge Key from one of those chests, so she probably used that one.

Dealing with this army of Dragon Zombies is far easier then you might think. And pretty hilarious as well. Two words: Friendly Fire. Throw someone with a ton of avoid at them and they will torch each other trying to hit their target. They have negative avoid too, so they can't actually dodge each other's attacks.

I really love that battle in the ruined city. It's an easy map but it has just such a great aesthetic to it.

Anyway Deltre, since the ending isn't all that far off anymore, I wanted to ask if you are also going to take a look into the game's multiplayer mode. I mean, it's not something you can really play through but I'd say that it's pretty interesting nevertheless. It's surprisingly elaborate, completely unlike the various multiplayer modes the Fire Emblem series got over the years. There are a ton of options like which weapons/skills/classes are allowed, how powerful critical hits are or which track you want to use as your player phase theme. There is even an optional rule for the Weapon Triangle.

 

 

Honestly, my only major complaints with this game would be the control thing and the strange difficulty curve. Even the most cryptic part (aka Kreiss) could conceivably be discovered if you are really meticulous with searching every area after every battle for events. The second most frustrating thing would probably be re-recruiting Arkis (go figure, the red/green duo bring out the worst in this game) but even that is really only about as bad as getting Douglas in FE6, who you have to recruit to win the game. Just my .02 but this is definitely my new favorite FE. It's like Thracia without the bullshit, basically. 

As much fun as Aura Rain was, I really wish I had the dragons murder each other now lmao. And good catch, I do believe that Juni had a Bridge Key after all. 

Anyways, I not so accidentally went and beat the game. I still have to post the ending + epilogue later (because I literally ran out of space and have to record it separately) but I can confidently say that I love this game. The Final Boss is pretty cool, but the real Final Boss is 

Spoiler

THE GOD DAMNED DOORS IT TOOK ME 8 FUCKING TURNS TO FIGURE THAT OUT MAN

At any rate the epilogue will be up later (probably tonight) with some more in depth thought on the game and all that good stuff. I'll have to check out the VS mode too, since it sounds pretty cool.

[BrightBow]

That's pretty much how my experience with the doors went too. I definitely would have warned you about that but I didn't expect you to play the rest of the maps in one go. Glad that unlike me you still managed to win.

Watching this now I noticed a few hints about the doors being locked from the other side but they are all very minor and easy to miss. Not to mention that hint came two chapters too early in the case of Holmes. And of course the game does have Katarina mention that they will look for another route, so the game is sending mixed signals too. Most important off all: It had never be the case until this point that doors could only get opened from only one side. All in all, this is just really badly communicated.

Btw, despite what it may look like this map does not actually count as an indoor map. Once you are past the stairs you are free to use mounts.
 

Edit: And this is in case you want to know what the Black Rain looks like. I suppose it should be noted that the video uses the old patch, so the quality of the script is pretty poor:

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 5, 2017 by BrightBow

[Miacis]

Oh wow, you managed to salvage that without any casualties. And Mel even got Move too, what the fuck!! Nicely done, and congrats on beating the game! Don't you love how even until the very end, the game keeps throwing curveballs at you? Not just the changing objectives, but that entire final chapter's layout and pacing is so climactic yet unique to the series.

I guess, one penultimate set of remarks before the lengthy epilogue: you mentionned a video or two back that Resshea, Sennet's aunt, looked about his age, and yes she does. In fact, she probably is, being Bahanuk's youngest child, and Sennet being the son of his oldest. Since Resshea's mom was his second marriage, I wouldn't be surprised.

Treasure chests-wise, you didn't actually miss any chests in the Salia Temple map. The chests were only on Runan's side. It did have special squares that'd spawn monsters of every type every 5 turns, but you warp-skipped it all. Also, the real good chests in Runan's last map were in the room with the Dracozombie. There was another Nosferatu tome (do you get that the game wants you to use Sierra yet??), the last Saint's Proof for Rishel, and a Magic Shield. Still nothing you really needed in the end.

And yeah, this is also why Kate is better off on Runan's side. She encounters Zieg either way but this is where she gets to finish him off, and as was pointed out on Youtube, they get one last heart-to-heart.
Speaking of Zieg, even though they kinda backloaded his story a little bit, something I really like is... at the end of the day, Runan and Eugen still don't have an emotional crisis over him. They don't know what his deal is, go "Oh, it was that traitor. Let's try not to recruit guys like that again, shall we?" and then they move on as they should. The game tells the player why Zieg is a tragic figure (and so is Karla), but Runan doesn't get a last minute revelation of it to create artifical conflict that would get in the way of climactic buildup. I'm pointing it out because a lot of JRPGs fall into that trap that the protagonist always learns when he fucked up, angsts over it, but then keeps doing the same thing because he still kinda has to defeat the evil army. So... yeah, kudos for not fucking that one up, TRS.

And now I'm really curious to see your reaction to the last set of revelations in the Epilogue. Next video can't come any sooner.

Edited April 6, 2017 by Miacis

[RJWalker]

Hey, you remember way back when you first met Richard? Remember how he was in conflict with another kingdom and met it's prince that was sort of a good person?

Yeah, the game forgot about that. This game has so many characters, even Kaga forgot about some. I don't even remember his name and I'll have to look it up.

You'll also notice that you didn't get to use any of the super units on Sennet's side such as his adoptive mother and grandfather, Resshea, San's mother, etc. An interesting choice. Not that they'd be necessary in the final chapter but that you don't get to use them at all even though the game makes a point to show off their raw power but it is unexpected.

[Deltre]

This epilogue was waaaaaay longer than I expected haha. It was a pretty satisfying conclusion though, despite the length. This game is absolutely amazing and having actually beaten it now I'm pretty comfortable saying it's the best Fire Emblem of them all. Definitely didn't expect that a few months ago when I started playing!

@BrightBow I'm really glad that I'm not the only one who didn't figure that out immediately. Holmes did say something about it in his last chapter, but still I think they should have made it a liiiiittle more obvious. Good tip on the mounting thing, I wouldn't have expected that, but it's probably because the final map uses the same tileset for every other cave in the game. Thanks Kaga.

@Miacis Yeah, this game definitely does a fantastic job at constantly raising the stakes to keep it interesting, that's for sure. I started to talk about that a little bit, but got cutoff by the ending. You start the game with some pretty standard "take out the corrupt noble" schtick, which quickly escalates and never really lets up until it's time to throw down with God. They even have the good sense to establish the Villain (and actually show him being a dick instead of hearing about it in passing) very early on which a lot of games fail to do correctly. 

That's also a really good point about Eugen and Runan's reaction to Zieg. It would actually ruin the impact of the whole thing a bit if Runan acted at all remorseful for having to take him out, and it would simultaneously lessen the importance of Zieg's relationship with Kate. After all, why should Runan care about Zieg at all? Zieg's relationship was with Kate, not Runan. 

The last minute revelations honestly didn't hit me quite as hard as you might think, sorry to disappoint. I was reasonably surprised at some things, though I called others (I'm looking at you old man). I just wish that some of the things had been better hinted at throughout the course of the main game. Were Emiyu even mentioned until the Epilogue? Part of it was probably the fact that I was pretty tired when I recorded this though, and the Epilogue is a LOT longer than I had expected haha.

@Ranger Jack WalkerI'll be completely honest; I forgot about that entirely. It does sound familiar now that you mention it, but I'd be lying if I said I was keeping that in the back of my mind. Even if there are so many different characters and relationships to keep track of, I still think that it's far more interesting that way. It makes the world really feel alive where a lot of other games just fall short, even when it gets hella confusing sometimes. For example, I didn't even notice that Rishel and Martel were cousins until I went back and rewatched the recording, which makes that whole ending incredibly awkward in hindsight. If only I could have been so ignorant to that other ending. . .

[BrightBow]

I really love the way the ending is done. Making you walk back across the worldmap slowly, watching everyone one by one leave as they go back to their lives and watching your party shrink. I think this is an ending that strongly connects to you as the player, regardless of anything related to the actual story.

And the game actually does remove them from the party. You assumed otherwise but I suppose that just means that the game only removes them after you went to the next tile. I still remember very well how the empty space in the unit list grew larger and larger, so I am very confident about that.

There is another little touch about that ending that I absolutely love but you unfortunately missed: If any of your units are still dead by the end of the game, Holmes will actually go back to the top floor of Morse Tower and you will be given the opportunity to use the remaining charges of the Dakroon to revive them before the ending properly starts. It has no practical purpose since it's the end of the game and all, but I think that makes it's existence all the more meaningful.

 

Anyway Deltre, it was a lot of fun watching you play through this game and to listen to your commentary. The run was moving forward at a really enjoyable pace too, with a 1+ hour video every second day the vast majority of the time. So yeah, thanks for this series.

[RJWalker]

I also really love how the ending is done. The closest we got in Fire Emblem itself was Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn where you get additional conversations with major characters along with their endings but this is above and beyond.

As cheesy as it is, I also love the final scenes with Runan and Holmes on the Sea Lion, sailing away to another adventure. Even after all the dark shit this game has, it ends on a extremely lighthearted and fun "And the adventure continues' sort of way. Nicely done.

Also, the endings all have variations depending on what events you managed to get and how you distributed your units in the route splits. For example, if you took Julia with Holmes' group in the last split so that she goes to Yr to meet Yoda again, she will instead get some rather awkward "not really blood related' teasing with Shigen instead and Holmes calls them freaks or something. As for the other pseudo incest part, if you used Holmes to rescue Plum instead of Bartz, then he wouldn't have his conflicted feelings and would bring his grandfather (I think?) from his village to live with Plum and Lionheart and the whole pseudo incest bit never comes up. Another one is that event with Lyria and Attrom. The event started with the creep offering spiked milk to Juni. You chose to have her refuse which results in Attrom and Lyria's event playing but if Juni had drunk the milk, Xeno would have rescued her and they would get together in the ending. But that prevents Lyria and Attrom from getting together so it's one or the other. 

And as I mentioned in the comments of the video, all the revelations related to Morse and Holmes's dialogue are remnants of when the game used to be Emblem Saga and Morse was likely Gotoh himself. The full extent of how many connections this had to Archanea-Jugdral is not known but once have the knowledge what this game was supposed to be, the plot threads becomes more and more connected.

[Miacis]

@Deltre Hah, no disappointment there. The increasingly baffled realization of just how long the Epilogue truly is more than made up for it. You can tell that they used and improved the FE4 formula of doing epilogues group by group, and through dialogue instead of title cards like most the other games in the franchise. Path of Radiance (and Radiant Dawn, in a way) did the exact same, and it makes sense for how much FE4 inspired the Tellius games. I think it's easily the best way to go about ending a FE game. It shows the connections between characters one last time and how they have evolved, and in the end, isn't that what Fire Emblem is all about...?

It's not just long, it's pretty complex too. Ranger Jack Walker mentioned a couple, but there's way more. Julia and Shigen can have their moment when leaving to Yr, but she is also the one who accompanies Shigen at the end instead of Sierra. If Leonie was rescued while Mintz was in the fort during his recruitment mission, she'd instead go to live at Lionheart's along with Bartz(??!). If you had picked the less difficult Lentzenheimer map, Arkis would have stayed a knight, and Rina would have returned home, sad to be left alone again. I'm pretty sure if you don't complete the Letena event, Kreiss just stays in Razelia with nothing to say, and Rebecca simply fucks off into the Arcana Desert. If you had recruited Lionel, he'd brag about his beautiful wife to Norton because why not. If you got Ruca and completed Raquel's storyline, I imagine she'd have a bit more to say, but I've never actually seen it. If you didn't fully complete Krishna's event in one way or another, she simply returns home alone in Istoria.... this happens right after her talk with Vega if you cloned her. If you purchase 4 Miracle Charms on the way and Maerchen is leveled to 40 and was taught Astra, he reveals himself as Carluon in disguise and then Anna totally marries him.

Oh, oh! One last thing you missed but I really can't blame you considering it was so close to the end... So hey, Narron's dad is a general from Canaan, eh? Did we know any general from Canaan who shared a most distinctive trait with Narron?

Spoiler

Yes, you can be a horrible monster and make Narron commit patricide by sending him against Ernst. I did on my first playthrough, and it absolutely broke my heart when I reached the Epilogue.

That's about it, though. Thanks for the friendly, unique content and... surprisingly competent for a blind playthough wow. That was cool.

[Deltre]

Just for the record, even though I was astonished by how long the ending was I really do like the way the handled it. I love when games let you go back to areas you've been when it's all over, it's very reminiscent of a game like EarthBound that also lets you do that. It's a nice touch. But damn if I wasn't unprepared for all the detail that went into that haha.

Being able to revive your dead party members at the end is an awesome touch. Kind of makes you wonder why you can't do that with the Aum/Valkyrie staves actually. I guess Marth just doesn't care. 

I'd say I'm surprised that there are many variations on the ending, but honestly I'm not. I am glad that I got Lyria/Attrom since that was hilarious. On the other side, I reeeeally wish I had recruited Plum with Holmes. She's literally the most normal character in the game and yet she's probably tied with Kate for worst luck, only for all the wrong reasons. 

I was really racking my brain on who Narron's dad would be. I figured that we'd come across him, but I didn't put the pieces together. Figures his dad would be a total badass. 

Knowing that this game was supposed to be heavily tied to the mainline FE titles makes the final revelations with Law make a lot more sense actually. As it is, some of the information feels like it comes out of nowhere, but in the context of all of FE, I'll bet this would have been huge. In hindsight, he's literally describing 

Spoiler

Medeus and the rebellion that happened before Anri came along.

isn't he? That's really awesome, I wish that this plotline had a fair chance to be explored. The way that this story was going honestly feels a lot more connected than what we got with Awakening to be honest.