[Hard] Radiant Dawn Semi-Blind

[Deltre]

What's up everyone, we're back again with another LP. Having finished Path of Radiance pretty recently, what better game to play than the sequel, Radiant Dawn? Normally, I'd talk a little bit about the game first, but honestly, I know very little about this one. I remember getting caught up in the hype for it way back when, but never got my hands on it when it finally came out. By the time I finally got a Wii, well, we all know what happened to the price of this title. 

That said I did get the opportunity to play through Part 1 a long time ago. My memories of most of it are hazy at best, so this is essentially going to be blind for me. So why not play Hard Mode? From what I understand this is actually a mistranslation for Maniac Mode, so things should be getting interesting real quick. As a quick rundown of the changes (as I know them), Hard Mode has:

-No Enemy Range feature

-No Weapon Triangle

-Less EXP in combat

-Less BEXP

-And of course harder enemies

With all that out of the way, the only thing I'd ask of anyone who wants to watch this is that you post no spoilers. This is the last Fire Emblem game I've yet to play and with the rarity of the game I wouldn't be surprised if others didn't know a lot about the game either. Please be considerate of myself and others.

 

[DarkDestr0yer61]

I hope you enjoy, but why Hard mode? I feel like things like no weapon triangle really gimp the overall experience, at least for a first playthrough 

[Interdimensional Observer]

Good luck with this! 

That said, Hard isn't much worse than Normal, all generic enemies get like 2 extra points each I think, maybe a Strike boost to a few foes later on as well. It's the absence of being able to see enemy range which is very annoying and tedious, with no real increase in difficulty resulting from having to count out enemy move.

If you want any gameplay advice, I'll shove it in spoilers and keep it rather general. But I'll respect your blind desires and not offer any for now.

I'm a Tellius devotee, will you emerge from RD with a comparable love for it? If not for the gameplay, then the plot, characters and world? If you don't, I understand.

 

[Deltre]

19 minutes ago, DarkDestr0yer61 said:

I hope you enjoy, but why Hard mode? I feel like things like no weapon triangle really gimp the overall experience, at least for a first playthrough 

I've always tended to enjoy a good challenge, really. FE12 is the only FE I never beat on the max difficulty (though I've been meaning too) so I'm kind of hoping that fundamentals will carry me haha. I just can't get into a game the same way if I'm steamrolling vs. having to put some effort in. I know it's a personal thing, but that's how I've always felt about it. 

Some of the changes are silly though, can't deny that. 

EDIT: @Interdimensional Observer 

I don't mind things like that, it's mostly story that I'm worried about. I had something pretty major spoiled when I was playing PoR so I'm just trying to keep as much new for me as possible. If there's say, a Stefan situation later on I don't mind a heads up.

And yes, I can see where counting tiles for enemies could get tedius. Thank God for editing!

Edited October 10, 2017 by Deltre

[Interdimensional Observer]

19 minutes ago, Deltre said:

I don't mind things like that, it's mostly story that I'm worried about. I had something pretty major spoiled when I was playing PoR so I'm just trying to keep as much new for me as possible. If there's say, a Stefan situation later on I don't mind a heads up.

Spoiler

Funny you should mention him, because he's baaaaaack! And even harder to find then last time. You'll be able to tell in what chapter, but where? Press your luck!

Also, pray that Micaiah gets good Speed, ~12-13, and maybe keep a Robe in reserve, since you have one fight if you don't recall where it'll be much more frustrating if Micaiah can be ORKO'ed. If she isn't, you can use the unequip trick (enemies prioritize the unarmed/uncountering over those who can, but the killable over the uncounterable) on an ally to bait enemy attention away from her.

That is all I'll offer for now.

 

Edited October 10, 2017 by Interdimensional Observer

[DarkDestr0yer61]

To each their own, but yeah, the warning isn't really that I think it would be too hard, in fact I find it barely harder than normal, heck even easier in some cases. But I do feel like the thing the hard mode adds takes away more from the game than anything and it makes certain things more tedious.

[JSND Alter Dragon Boner]

6 hours ago, Deltre said:

I've always tended to enjoy a good challenge, really. FE12 is the only FE I never beat on the max difficulty (though I've been meaning too) so I'm kind of hoping that fundamentals will carry me haha. I just can't get into a game the same way if I'm steamrolling vs. having to put some effort in. I know it's a personal thing, but that's how I've always felt about it.

 

DO EEEEET(i'm actually doing it rn and the max diff of FE12 is pretty fun i dare say)

 

Haven't played RD so i'd give it a look through this

[Deltre]

19 hours ago, JSND Alter Dragon Boner said:

DO EEEEET(i'm actually doing it rn and the max diff of FE12 is pretty fun i dare say)

 

Haven't played RD so i'd give it a look through this

Lunatic or Reverse? Lunatic seems alright but Reverse legit seems hellish.

Still enjoying this game so far. I feel like it does a pretty good job of setting the stage so far, giving us an idea of what it's like in Daein after the war. It's pretty cool to look closer at the losing side for once. I do think Laura is kinda weird, mostly with how it seems like she's not joining you and then when the map starts she's suddenly there. It almost feels like there should have been one more scene in between meeting her and actually starting the map. It's nothing too bad though imo.

I also really like the idea of a ledge mechanic. I'm not 100% on how it works, but more ways to traverse the map are good in my book, and I assume that mounts can't use them when I evetnually get some, which is a good balancing mechanic. 

What's up with the affinity symbol in the corner of the map by the way? I assume that units with the same affinity get some kind of bonus, but I can't seem to figure out exactly what it does.

 

[Interdimensional Observer]

4 hours ago, Deltre said:

What's up with the affinity symbol in the corner of the map by the way? I assume that units with the same affinity get some kind of bonus, but I can't seem to figure out exactly what it does.

 

It's +5 Hit/Avoid for everyone of that Affinity, it's just a little kinda random thing like Biorhythm.

 

4 hours ago, Deltre said:

I also really like the idea of a ledge mechanic. I'm not 100% on how it works, but more ways to traverse the map are good in my book, and I assume that mounts can't use them when I evetnually get some, which is a good balancing mechanic. 

Ledges cannot be used by horses, but fliers can move up them no problem. Height/ledges is something from RD I would love to see returned in other games. If you like numbers on the height combat bonus:

Spoiler

 It's +50 hit and +2 damage when attacking from above, and -50 hit when attacking from below.

I heard one map from RD which ended up in Fates as buyable DLC didn't feel the same at all without height being around. I can understand why that'd be the case, RD made good use of it.

[Deltre]

Good info, thanks for the tip. I'm interested to how I feel about that map in RD, whenever I get to that point.

As a heads up, this ended up a lot longer than I intended it to be. Partly from me being cautious, and partly from just not watching the recording time. I'm having a lot of fun with the gameplay so far, everything feel pretty good up to this point, and Edward has been a complete monster which I like. The only thing I'd have to complain about is the supports. Oh God, the supports. What did they do to them? That's more a story complaint than anything though, speaking of which...

Some people in the comments on the past few videos had been voicing their opinions on Laura/Aran's intro to the Dawn Brigade, and I do agree that it could have been a little more fleshed out. The weirdest part for me is how Laura just kind of...appears on 1-2 after talking to Micaiah, without any real indication that she'd be coming along. I'm curious how people on the SF side of things feel.

For the most part, aside from maybe adding a scene or two here and there to add a little more detail on certain things, I can't say it's been bad. Everything has had a logical flow to it, and I can see how we went from point A to point B so to speak. Initially, I can't help but feel that people maybe look at the writing here a little more critically because it's the sequel to PoR, which overall had great writing. When I stack it up next to other titles that aren't FE9 though, I feel like it's easily on par if not better so far. We'll see if that holds up!

But forreal though, Edward is a beast. 

 

[Deltre]

Jill! Enough said, I think. 

I didn't remember who Izuka was when I recorded this part, but I do now. This is a very interesting turn of events in my opinion, seeing as to how we're basically teaming up with a complete psycho, whether we know it or not. I'm curious to see where that goes, but I'm calling it now, it's going to be bad news sooner or later.

[Deltre]

We might have Raised the Standard in this part, but we certainly lowered the bar for who we let into the army. Man oh man, does Fiona have some awful bases.

Let's use her. 

[MrRedCR]

3 hours ago, Deltre said:

We might have Raised the Standard in this part, but we certainly lowered the bar for who we let into the army. Man oh man, does Fiona have some awful bases.

Let's use her. 

May the RNG goddess be in your favor. They really stack the deck against Fiona in this game, but you have little reason to not use her at first. Perhaps she can be a nice rescue bot. :p

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

Ah, my favorite game in my favorite mode.

Hard mode in the DB chapters is probably the perfect difficulty in FE for me. I really love it. But the chapters of the CK's and GM's are still too easy. The removal of WT is a huge issue, the biggest weakpoint of this game. 


The difficulty jump from normal to hard is small, still high enough for the DB to cause some trouble.

• Edward can double everything in the beginning, if he doesn't get speed early on.
• Nolan can get doubled in 1-2 with the steel axe. He really needs strength or speed early on (best both).
• Micaiah will get ORKO'ed by like 99% of all physical enemies.

The chapters where you notice the jump is in the chapters against the Laguz because they have all S-strike (instead of A in normal) which means five more attack. So they can do up to seven more damage. No one aside of Sothe and Nolan (with +2 HP and + 2 def in his levels) can take two tigers in 1-4.

Tip: Make earth-earth supports because evasion is the most important stat for the DB. 


Still have to watch all the videos.

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

Ok, I watched the parts more or less.

Here are a few things:

• 1-1: Some bosses have an unique AI. This boss only starts to move after someone attacked him. BTW the boss stats and behavior are the exact same as in NM.
  Boss behavior in part 1
  Spoiler

  1-P: moves when someone is in his attack range
  1-1: moves after someone attacked him
  1-2: stationary
  1-3: moves when someone is in his attack range
  1-4: move when someone are close / are in their attack range
  1-5: moves when someone is in his attack range / starts automatically to move in turn 4 I believe
  1-6-2: moves when someone is close in his attack range / someone is in the attack range of the hand axe cavalier close to Laverton
  1-7: stationary
  1-8: moves when someone is his attack range
  1-9: stationary
  1-F: stationary

  
   
• 1-4: Laguz work differently in this game. When they're untransformed, their stats are halved. Which means they're very vulnerable especially to double attacks. However they can counterattack with kicks which normally doesn't do much especially if it's a cat. Important to know is that Laguz also have a weapon level called strike. Each strike rank up gives +5 attack I think. However discipline and arms scrolls don't work on them. Also you can increase the transformation bar by buying an olivi grass. I guess the earliest time you can buy one is in the base of 1-8. All in all non royal Laguz are nerfed because they're terrible while untransformed. Volug is probably the best simply because of wildheart during part 1. 
  Also there are three hidden items to find:
  Spoiler

  masterseal: promotion item for first tier units
  beastfoe: skills which allows to do effective damage to all beast Laguz. Really important for part 3.
  coin: to get a boost for forging

   

• 1-5: The longbow is quite useful for Leonardo to chip because no one (aside of Sothe and Edward against mages) can ORKO all the enemies. Leonardo with longbow + Micaiah or Nolan normally can. However longbows aren't good except for attaking from a higher platform due to the high weight and accuracy penalty when attacking from three range.

A few general things:

• Support conversations pretty much don't exist unless these are characters with a special relationship (Micaiah x Sothe, three brothers...) or had a support in FE9 simply because IS can't make each support unique of all the multiple thousand support possibilities. Storywise it's an issue, but there's no real way to fix it, so it's wrong to blame IS for that. Personally I favor FE10's support system gameplaywise.
• I don't like Edward x Nolan because Nolan wants to have as much evasion as possible. I think Volug is better for Edward because he's tanky enough to take a few hits. BTW your Edward doesn't need evasion anyways as tanky as he is. Never had a as defense blessed Edward in my ~200 runs as in this LP. Thankfully you appreciate him. Many people underrestimate his performance in HM. He's a great unit in part 1 at least.
• Nolan and Aran (if you want to use him seriously) need a forged weapon the most because of accuracy issues and in the case of Nolan to have higher attack power without suffering of having speed penalty. If they have the required strength to use steel weapons without speed penalty anymore, you can give the axe to Jill. Jill with a forged axe and strength boost from FE9 makes things A LOT easier. 
   

Anyways good luck for the upcoming chapters. Quite enjoy it so far!

Edited October 16, 2017 by Byakuren Hijiri

[Interdimensional Observer]

On 10/12/2017 at 11:29 PM, Deltre said:

But forreal though, Edward is a beast. 

 

He ends up being blessed for some, for others he's an investment that never pays off particular extraordinarily. You've had the luck of good early levelups and frequent dodging, Edwards not so beholden by the RNG end up tanking axes, poorly, with his face, and then drop off after he's no longer mandatory.

 

On the hidden treasures, there are a few very good exclusive ones, but absolutely nothing game breaking or if you miss it, it puts you at a terrible disadvantage. Gameplay spoilers in case you haven't looked up all the hidden treasures:

Spoiler

You mostly have hidden Arms Scrolls, a few promotion items (which you don't need to promote), an Ashera Icon or two, and some Coins and Olivi Grass. Excluding one chapter- you should know which is bound to have lots of treasure when you see it for yourself. Beyond that one chapter, there are three good items randomly tucked away, but none are absolutely necessary- the Beastfoe scroll as you discovered, the Brave Bow (neat, but no enemy phase for it means it's not as great as the Brave Sword/Lance/Axe), and the Rescue Staff (which isn't crazy useful here the way it is in some other games).

 

On 10/15/2017 at 7:16 PM, Deltre said:

Man oh man, does Fiona have some awful bases.

They're a little worse than Nolan's- she even has the same base level. The difference is that he joined two millennia ago and the enemies have gotten much stronger since then.

 

On Resolve, there were some localization changes made with this game. The English description of Resolve is wrong, they took away the Str bonus in all versions. And rose the HP requirement to 50% internationally, on top of making its trigger rate once at or below the HP requirement 100%. In Japan, Wrath and Resolve required low HP and then had a chance of activating (Skill = % for Wrath, Strength = % for Resolve), NoA/E thus undid some of the excessive nerfing. Edward and Leonardo also came at level 1 with lower base stats, instead of level 4.

 

And your Micaiah is soooooo screwed! If we wanted to stereotype a Micaiah levelup it'd be Mag-Lck-Res, but you're not even getting that! Well she deals a good single hit with Thani, but that's about it. If you weren't using Edward, she could take his Wrath- she dies in 1 hit anyhow even at max HP, her below 30% (via Sacrifice) is therefore nothing to be feared and you get a good 50 crit with every hit out of it.

 

On Supports, if you see that ^ arrow on the support screen, that means you can increase the support level to the next rank. And originally, they were going to have certain support combinations end with a special single convo- but alas, we didn't get even that. I can sort of understand why- the Part system just doesn't lend itself well to traditional Support- but that doesn't excuse what we got is still garbage.

On presentation, PoR got criticized in reviews for looking primitive by GC standards, RD massively improved on things. The visuals are beautiful, the character designs are real-istic, not like Awakening's and some of Fate's (the CQ male designs are praised for historical accuracy) over the top and fanservicey design. This said, the armor designs are unrealistic in some ways, gundam-y I once heard used to describe Generals with their oversized pauldrons, but some flair is perfectly fine and good. There are three videos on Youtube that show off all crit and skill animations from RD, they're packed with spoilers, but they'd be fun to watch when you're done with the whole RD run.

Edited October 17, 2017 by Interdimensional Observer

[Deltre]

23 hours ago, MrRedCR said:

May the RNG goddess be in your favor. They really stack the deck against Fiona in this game, but you have little reason to not use her at first. Perhaps she can be a nice rescue bot. :p

I'm starting to see that haha. Poor girl can't even come to 1-8 because...reasons :l

@Byakuren HijiriThe support system is great for gameplay, but the way it turned out it's terrible for story. It's perfectly fair to say IS dropped the ball, they're the only ones in control of what they put in their game after all! With PoR/RD thankfully there are still base conversations, and side characters get decent screentime here anyways. For the characters that aren't so lucky though, there's bound to be missed potential for sure. It's not a dealbreaker for me, but it is disappointing, especially when it comes to characters who weren't in PoR.

As much as I might joke, I definitely understand that Eddie shouldn't have this much DEF haha. I'm still willing to bet that he's good, just normally I feel that Nolan would probably give him a little more competition. Mine has not been kind to me sadly, 11 SPD at Level 14 is pretty bleh. Earth affinity is great, but I'm probably going to have to drop him. Luckily Fiona is also Earth affinity am I right?

Your tips made me realize that I completely missed 2 Master Seals so far, one of which was really easy to get too (in 1-7).That's going to make things pretty interesting for sure, but I'm glad that they're actually AVAILABLE in this game to begin with. Seriously, there's been more potential Master Seals in this game so far than there were in ALL of PoR, which is wild to me.

Anyways, glad you're enjoying this, and thanks for the hints/clarifications!

@Interdimensional Observer Oh wow, they really hit Wrath/Resolve with the nerfbat HARD. I'm glad they restored them to usable levels, needing to be under 30% AND getting a lucky skill proc would make both of them worthless IMO, outside of hyper LTC playing.

I just finished 1-8 and Micaiah continues to disappoint me. Shame too, because I kinda like her when I'm not thinking about her horrible horrible stats. I'm gonna have to look up her growths when I beat this because right now I SWEAR she has 0% SPD. That is a really good strategy for using Wrath though, if I weren't so sure that Edward was sticking around on my team I'd definitely do that. Sounds fun, because at least Micaiah has magic, if nothing else.

I really wish they would have at least kept the 'special conversations' in the final version of the game. It still wouldn't be as good, unless they really went all in for those of course, but it would have been a much better compromise than what we got honestly. It'd almost be better for there to be no conversations at all at this point, really. 

'Nother one. I talk about this more in the next video, but I really enjoy the gameplay here so much so far. I can honestly say that these are some of the best "early maps" I've played in a Fire Emblem title. Aside from 1-P, which wasn't really bad per se so much as simple, the maps have all been lots of fun with enough to differentiate them from one another to constantly keep things feeling fresh. I think a lot of that has to do with the constant shifting availability and forced units (especially for 1-8), but it's really more relevant for the next one.

Also Izuka is starting to drive me crazy, I'm honestly hoping he betrays us just so I can take him out myself.

[Interdimensional Observer]

1 hour ago, Deltre said:

I'm gonna have to look up her growths when I beat this because right now I SWEAR she has 0% SPD.

If you want to know right now without spoiling yourself to everyone else in the game it's:

Spoiler

35%. Is that good? Bad? I won't say.

The rest of her growths:

Spoiler

40 HP 15 Str 80 Mag 40 Skl 80 Lck 20 Def 90 Res

She's a mage, can't you tell?

 

If you're wondering why Fiona and Jill had reduced move. It's because you were fighting indoors, mounted units lose 2 Move on any map that counts as indoors. It keeps them equal in mobility to everyone else save the Laguz, call it a check on their frequent brokenness in other games.

And Ravens, Hawks, and Herons have gained Canto in this game, they didn't have it in PoR. Well Herons did, but the skill called Canto became Galdrar instead.

Edited October 17, 2017 by Interdimensional Observer

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

As much as I like your ambitions to train Fiona, you should be aware that each physical enemy doubles => ORKOes her. The physical enemies (aside of knights) from 1-7 have 14-16 speed so base Fiona will get doubled by everyone which isn't a mage. For now she can only finish off things or poke mages. 
Fiona has a great pay off with two decent default skills, good growths and earth affinity, but FE10's hard mode isn't made for babying units and exp. sharing. Your decent units like Edward, Nolan and Jill have to promote as soon as possible.
I know you mentioned it before that bexp. always grants three stats, but I highly recommend to use it when it makes sense. Edward is the best contender since he maxes out HP, skill and speed early, so he'll benefit the most from it. You could increase Micaiah's speed when she has capped magic and resistance.

Tip for 1-9

Spoiler

Give resolve to Micaiah and bring her to at least 9 speed not to get doubled.

 

Edited October 17, 2017 by Byakuren Hijiri

[Shadow Mir]

 

On 10/12/2017 at 10:29 PM, Deltre said:

But forreal though, Edward is a beast.

I see him as the poster boy for being hit-or-miss (unfortunately, his qualities push him much closer to the "miss" end of the scale).

On 10/15/2017 at 11:20 PM, Byakuren Hijiri said:

Ah, my favorite game in my favorite mode.

Hard mode in the DB chapters is probably the perfect difficulty in FE for me. I really love it. But the chapters of the CK's and GM's are still too easy. The removal of WT is a huge issue, the biggest weakpoint of this game. 


The difficulty jump from normal to hard is small, still high enough for the DB to cause some trouble.

• Edward can double everything in the beginning, if he doesn't get speed early on.
• Nolan can get doubled in 1-2 with the steel axe. He really needs strength or speed early on (best both).
• Micaiah will get ORKO'ed by like 99% of all physical enemies.

The chapters where you notice the jump is in the chapters against the Laguz because they have all S-strike (instead of A in normal) which means five more attack. So they can do up to seven more damage. No one aside of Sothe and Nolan (with +2 HP and + 2 def in his levels) can take two tigers in 1-4.

Tip: Make earth-earth supports because evasion is the most important stat for the DB. 


Still have to watch all the videos.

Frankly, I disagree because RD hard Mose comes off more as being tedious and frustrating than legitimate challenge.

[Interdimensional Observer]

Just now, Levant Mir Celestia said:

I see him as the poster boy for being hit-or-miss (unfortunately, his qualities push him much closer to the "miss" end of the scale).

I don't mean to bother you. But this is a semi-blind run, try not to influence his opinions on who to use too much. Let's all keep away from starting arguments here and just watch and comment with respect. I'm not saying you aren't being respectful, you are, but given your frequent willingness to engage in unit debates and strong stance on your gameplay beliefs, I just feel like saying this.

Let Deltre have fun and bumble around in the dark insomuch as he wishes to- you only get one chance at being impressed the first time, let's make the experience as pure as possible for him unless he seeks the advice.

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

Frustrating?
If you play it blind, then yes.
Otherwise no except for like a couple of chapters.

The main issue of HM is the weird difficulty spike and the mentioned points in the OP which are only cosmetic things however.

Edited October 17, 2017 by Byakuren Hijiri

[Interdimensional Observer]

26 minutes ago, Byakuren Hijiri said:

Frustrating?
If you it play it blind, yes.
Otherwise no except for very few chapters like 1-9 and especially 2-1 (which is more or less luckbased to get all possible side tasks)

The main issue of HM is that there's no straight difficulty curve. This game starts rather tricky with the weakest party and the strongest enemies while the later party members are overleveled in the majority compared to the enemies.

Please you too, no debating here! I don't me to overstep my authority, but I don't think Deltre would appreciate a 10 post argument forming in his LP topic. Take it elsewhere if you must.

Also, no talking of future gameplay! Deltre is playing semi-blind and would like it kept that way. The only exceptions I think would reasonable for a first playthrough are (don't look into this Deltre):

Spoiler

Tips on unit division at the start of P4- such advice should only be given after P3 ends

And, discussion of the finality of the stuff before P4 F begins. Such advice should only be given once Deltre gets far into P4.

Also, maybe two unusual P4 recruits, NOT the ones he can't possibly get since this is a first playthrough, the other two.

 

Edited October 17, 2017 by Interdimensional Observer

[Shadow Mir]

13 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I don't mean to bother you. But this is a semi-blind run, try not to influence his opinions on who to use too much. Let's all keep away from starting arguments here and just watch and comment with respect. I'm not saying you aren't being respectful, you are, but given your frequent willingness to engage in unit debates and strong stance on your gameplay beliefs, I just feel like saying this.

Let Deltre have fun and bumble around in the dark insomuch as he wishes to- you only get one chance at being impressed the first time, let's make the experience as pure as possible for him unless he seeks the advice.

Yeah, I kinda stepped out of line there. Sorry.

[Deltre]

@Interdimensional Observer I do appreciate the concern, but I don't think anyone went too crazy here. As long as people are using spoiler tags, I don't really mind if people want to go into more detail, so long as there's a way for myself and others to avoid it if they choose I.E clearly marked spoiler tags. No spoilers (Characters we haven't seen/Plot Points/etc.) outside of tags though, please.

@Byakuren Hijiri On Fiona, you may want to just see for yourself in the next few parts if you're watching these, but well...

Spoiler

She's doing alright, I think. Maybe I got a little lucky, I honestly don't know. But I beat 1-F earlier tonight, and I haven't had to drop a turn for her yet, honestly. I've hit every BEXP Turn Count (I usually check after I beat a map, just out of curiosity really) since I got her. How fast are people playing that there's no time for her haha.

Now granted, before I started this some people had asked me to go for the apparently super secret conversation this game has, so I needed to get a save file to do that. As a consequence, Jill is a little better than she'd normally be (I was told she got Str/Spd/Def). But I just can't for the life of me see where this girl should be regularly compared to Sophia/Wendy etc. Shoot, I've used Sophia, and I'd train Fiona 100 times before ever doing that again. Hell, I'd train Fiona again before training Est herself, from where things stand right now. Of course, my opinion might change on the very next chapter for all I know :p

If nothing else, at least she can use Paragon now I think, so hopefully she's safe.

That 1-9 tip would have been good, but the RNG actually hates my Micaiah that much. Still, appreciated nonetheless.

I love Nailah. That's all, really.

It sucks that Jill and Fiona are randomly unavailable on this map for unexplained reasons, but taking the narrative out of the equation I actually really like this choice. The game constantly mixing up who is and isn't available has actually been really enjoyable for me, including the decision to force certain units on certain maps. It reminds me of Final Fantasy 4, another game that changes your party around a lot. This one takes that idea to the extreme, but I really think that overall this is a well designed map. It feels...tight? For lack of a better word. Most of the maps so far have felt that way to be honest, everything goes at a reasonable pace, I rarely if ever find myself with nothing to do but move on any turn, etc. Something is always happening.

I'm probably preaching to the choir here, but since it was brought up in a comment on Youtube that some people hate this map, I'd just say to those people that shoving is your friend! Swamp tiles cost 3(?) move, but if you shove then in a sense they only cost 1. I love how this game so far has really rewarded understanding the mechanics unique to the Tellius series. Thankfully for me, many of them are shared between RD/PoR. With that knowledge in mind, I can hardly call this one a bad map. I wouldn't even know it was disliked if I wasn't told. Unlike the NEXT map, which has been the only weak link for me so far, but I digress, that's for the next video.

why did Micaiah never hit speed :(

Edited October 18, 2017 by Deltre