Dayni's Tellius Foray

[Punished Dayni]

On 1/1/2019 at 6:55 PM, Interdimensional Observer said:

He does actually have equal growths here- 40%, but he has 5 base Def to 0 base Res. Def screwed and or Res blessed.

Both. He's a bit screwed in defence but his res is just ridiculous.

Well just as Elibe was inspired by Archanea, and Magvel by Valentia, Tellius certainly derives some inspiration from Jugdral. Naesala is for sure a case of this, and I don't think it's a stretch of the imagination to consider Tibarn his contrasting Quan. But that is just me.

I'm not so certain on the comparison with Quan: I'll have to see with future chapters.

You're approaching the time when you should be reaching promotion on some units, try to get most of your crew there by like Chapter 18. Not that far off, but Chapter 17 you'll see is a... lengthy battle (be sure everyone is stocked up on durable weapons for it).

As for Mist, the one luck-based battle can be made a little more in your favor if you have her trained. But that battle is a long way off at this point, and really all she needs to do is Physics for most or all of it. 

If you want to level her faster, well if you have the spare slot for Volke in battles where enemy Priests carry Physics, you can have him easily steal them. They give 22 EXP a use, double that of Heal. And I think Physics is somewhat common on enemy healers in this game.

Most of them are closer at this point: Boyd's the highest at 18 but most of them have been getting levels and are around level 15 (Even Jill's at 13, though Astrid's also below Level 10. I think) and hopefully I can get more experience in the next few chapters. Plus there's the pool of BEXP that's not been used.

As for Physics, when's the next likely chapter and should Volke be getting EXP? I king of gave up with him.

Aside from that, there's not going to be any more progress for a few days. I'm visiting relatives so I'm not going to be playing.

I mean, I hope it won't result in this.

Edited July 24, 2020 by Dayni

[Interdimensional Observer]

28 minutes ago, Dayni said:

As for Physics, when's the next likely chapter and should Volke be getting EXP? I king of gave up with him.

Volke can be an okay fighter, I used to use him seriously, but that was long ago. That and I in olden days might have overestimated how much training added to the durability of Thieves. He doesn't need any additional Str and not much more Spd if any to pilfer Staffs. 

His good Str growth (55%) is handicapped by a low cap (23) and the strongest knife being only 8 Mt. Lethality has a 50% of activating if you land a crit, which is bad when Assassin lacks a Crit bonus or a Killer weapon equivalent (the Stiletto gives 10 Crit and is anti-Armor, but that is hardly enough). 

His fixed promotion comes at the end of Chapter 19, if you're interested in training him. You get a choice of doing it or not, but there is no point in not, since you can't promote him later if you refuse it at that moment.

 

Your first Physics is buried in the next chapter, and the chapter after will have yet another easy one locked away. As for stealing them, you should be able to grab one in Chapter 17, which gives you three of them or 45 uses for a good while. And then quite a bit of time later you can grab two more of them in a chapter where you'll be fielding a Thief for a bunch of chests anyhow. The chapter before that one has another, but you might be pressed for unit slots there, and a few more are stealable in the other late game chapters too, just flip through the enemy Priests/Bishops later on.

 

28 minutes ago, Dayni said:

Most of them are closer at this point: Boyd's the highest at 18 but most of them have been getting levels and are around level 15 (Even Jill's at 13, though Astrid's also below Level 10. I think) and hopefully I can get more experience in the next few chapters. Plus there's the pool of BEXP that's not been used.

Paragon should mean Astrid gains EXP real fast, and when at last she promotes and gets a melee weapon, she should skyrocket into the lead due to seeing more frequent combat. 

The next fight is interesting, since for every enemy you spare, you get BEXP at the end (the game I don't think gives any hint of this). This said, it might be a headache to spare more than a couple of them, if any, particularly if you want all the treasure. Your choice as for how things go. Since you've neither Jill nor Marcia promoted, going for a quick bosskill is out of the question, so you'll probably have to forsake a lot or all of the BEXP for easy if slow combat experience. Little point in dumping BEXP in either if you end up spending more than you earn.

[Punished Dayni]

On 1/1/2019 at 10:15 PM, Interdimensional Observer said:

Volke can be an okay fighter, I used to use him seriously, but that was long ago. That and I in olden days might have overestimated how much training added to the durability of Thieves. He doesn't need any additional Str and not much more Spd if any to pilfer Staffs. 

His good Str growth (55%) is handicapped by a low cap (23) and the strongest knife being only 8 Mt. Lethality has a 50% of activating if you land a crit, which is bad when Assassin lacks a Crit bonus or a Killer weapon equivalent (the Stiletto gives 10 Crit and is anti-Armor, but that is hardly enough). 

His fixed promotion comes at the end of Chapter 19, if you're interested in training him. You get a choice of doing it or not, but there is no point in not, since you can't promote him later if you refuse it at that moment.

Well, he's a thief who can actually level, so he's used. At least right now.

Your first Physics is buried in the next chapter, and the chapter after will have yet another easy one locked away. As for stealing them, you should be able to grab one in Chapter 17, which gives you three of them or 45 uses for a good while. And then quite a bit of time later you can grab two more of them in a chapter where you'll be fielding a Thief for a bunch of chests anyhow. The chapter before that one has another, but you might be pressed for unit slots there, and a few more are stealable in the other late game chapters too, just flip through the enemy Priests/Bishops later on.

Well, all three have been gotten (One with..... difficulty), 

Paragon should mean Astrid gains EXP real fast, and when at last she promotes and gets a melee weapon, she should skyrocket into the lead due to seeing more frequent combat. 

The next fight is interesting, since for every enemy you spare, you get BEXP at the end (the game I don't think gives any hint of this). This said, it might be a headache to spare more than a couple of them, if any, particularly if you want all the treasure. Your choice as for how things go. Since you've neither Jill nor Marcia promoted, going for a quick bosskill is out of the question, so you'll probably have to forsake a lot or all of the BEXP for easy if slow combat experience. Little point in dumping BEXP in either if you end up spending more than you earn.

I was a monster and didn't let a single one live.

Turns out I didn't go, partly because of the ways things were going to be and partly because the dog needed some company and a walker.

Anyways, cleared the desert map. Bit of a pain finding items with one thief but I got them all and cleared out the "thieves". Afterwords, Tormud has made me regret using Ilyana as much as I have, he could have been great. I also forged a Steel Sword with some Might, Hit and Crit called Brute Force and gave Boyd enough exp to promote because he was level 20 and I didn't want to risk having him wait to promote all chapter (Not true, but he did make a difference promoted in Chapter 16). And who thought Stefan was a good idea, those bases are amazing. Zihark's out sadly at this point.

So, Chapter 16. I had to reset because the Thief didn't drop the Physic and Volke was not fast enough to steal it. FUCK that thief. Also, Oliver is as memeable as could be expected. Nobody promoted otherwise, but it's all close at this point, while Devdan looks so disappointing compared to Nepehenee unpromoted it's not funny.

Before 17, I forged an Iron lance which is called Fire Poker. And everything was going pretty well until the third map, no real tripping over things. Then everyone started promoting, things started dying and then Volke got picked off, forcing a restart. After that, got through the other two maps while panicking on the last when the hawks showed up and beat Oliver's men like the All Blacks beat a tier 2 nation, forcing me to rush in to clear out the guys with items. As for story, I'm kind of wondering what Reyson will say to Naesala after recent events, Mist's VA gave some of the worst deliver during that one scene, Sanaki is seemingly ridiculously smart for her 10 years and Ike as a lord barely dresses any differently.

So, I got to chapter 18, which is where I stopped after forging a Javelin called Far Lance and got overwhelmed with all the new units. Any recommendations other than Reyson (because of course) and does the Demi Band affect Reyson's refreshing?

Edited January 3, 2019 by Dayni

[Interdimensional Observer]

15 hours ago, Dayni said:

And who thought Stefan was a good idea, those bases are amazing.

Well given the game gives barely if that any hint of his existence, and that the only way to obtain him is to step on a single unmarked tile with one of two units, those stats aren't wholly unjustified. The era of Path of Radiance was GC/PS2/Xbox, which I guess I perceive as being a transition period how gamers got their information. The Internet was becoming more of a thing for looking things up, but I don't think it became as ubiquitous as it would in the following generations.

Stefan is a holdover from this prior era, when players played much more blindly, and thus secrets remained secrets and could be very very good. In FE, this prior era of secrets was manifested I would say in things like Lex's Brave Axe and FE7's Hector-exclusive A Glimpse in Time chapter.

Nowadays FE basically hands you all your PCs- nobody requires any major effort to recruit in Fates, and Awakening's is restrained to like Gangrel and Walhart. Presumably I would think because secrets don't stay secrets for long now.

Also, while Stefan is kinda bonkers statistically, his Luck is quite low. I like to pretend its because you spent most of your luck in accidentally finding him. He is a good choice for any Ashera Icons you get on that note.

 

15 hours ago, Dayni said:

Any recommendations other than Reyson (because of course) and does the Demi Band affect Reyson's refreshing?

The Demi Band cannot be used by Reyson, nor its RD equivalent the skill Halfshift. I guess they couldn't bother to program in a way of limiting him to single target refresh on transforming, or they thought that the increased Move on transforming was already too good, even if with a single target refresh.

As for the other three units who joined in C18, Tanith is a pretty solid flier statistically. And her one-of-a-kind Reinforce skill can be useful, it summons two Pegasus Knights and one Falcoknight as yellow Allied units, and can be used twice per battle. The Pegs are fairly weak, but the Falcos pack Silver Lances and have combat-worthy stats. Any fighting they see I think is converted into BEXP. You don't have to use it, and Tanith is great even without it, but I just wanted to explain it.

Janaff and Ulki are weak-but-fast and strong-and-durable-but-slow respectively. They okay, but in PoR overall aren't so good (RD significantly buffed them), Beorc fliers are just better unfortunately. Still being fliers, there might be chapters where you can find a purpose for them, though Jill and Tanith could likely suffice.

 

And I'm sorry if me mentioning Volke and the Physics caused any unnecessary raging!

And I got to agree that C16 has one of the tightest "thief rushes"- as in getting to the thief by the time they show up/before they crack open a chest- in all of FE that I've played.  There have been other tight ones in my memory, Battle Before Dawn and Kinship's Bond in FE7 both being cases of it that stand out to me (the former because the Delphi Shield is on the line, the latter because the thief targets the 10k gold, which can't be reclaimed), but PoR C16 from my memories gives you just enough time with a constant push forward to bag the thief the turn after they show up. The choice to put Devdan right in front of where the thief will appear was a bit devious, since even though he is a shabby unit (I'm not sure what angle they were going for with him), out of a dedication to perfect/not Karla/Xavier recruitment, most players will avoid stabbing him and instead take the extra time to recruit him.

Edited January 3, 2019 by Interdimensional Observer

[Punished Dayni]

3 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Well given the game gives barely if that any hint of his existence, and that the only way to obtain him is to step on a single unmarked tile with one of two units, those stats aren't wholly unjustified. The era of Path of Radiance was GC/PS2/Xbox, which I guess I perceive as being a transition period how gamers got their information. The Internet was becoming more of a thing for looking things up, but I don't think it became as ubiquitous as it would in the following generations.

Stefan is a holdover from this prior era, when players played much more blindly, and thus secrets remained secrets and could be very very good. In FE, this prior era of secrets was manifested I would say in things like Lex's Brave Axe and FE7's Hector-exclusive A Glimpse in Time chapter.

Nowadays FE basically hands you all your PCs- nobody requires any major effort to recruit in Fates, and Awakening's is restrained to like Gangrel and Walhart. Presumably I would think because secrets don't stay secrets for long now.

Also, while Stefan is kinda bonkers statistically, his Luck is quite low. I like to pretend its because you spent most of your luck in accidentally finding him. He is a good choice for any Ashera Icons you get on that note.

I still think that out there recruitments like him aren't a thing that should have gone away honestly: replay value can still be found in FE without them, but I don't think the information age should prevent devs from doing this kind of thing honestly. Just, never again with Xavier.

Yeah, though his luck's pretty comparable to a lot of my units as is.

3 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

The Demi Band cannot be used by Reyson, nor its RD equivalent the skill Halfshift. I guess they couldn't bother to program in a way of limiting him to single target refresh on transforming, or they thought that the increased Move on transforming was already too good, even if with a single target refresh.

As for the other three units who joined in C18, Tanith is a pretty solid flier statistically. And her one-of-a-kind Reinforce skill can be useful, it summons two Pegasus Knights and one Falcoknight as yellow Allied units, and can be used twice per battle. The Pegs are fairly weak, but the Falcos pack Silver Lances and have combat-worthy stats. Any fighting they see I think is converted into BEXP. You don't have to use it, and Tanith is great even without it, but it is worth mentioning.

Janaff and Ulki are weak-but-fast and strong-and-durable-but-slow respectively. They okay, but in PoR overall aren't so good (RD significantly buffed them), Beorc fliers are just better unfortunately. Still being fliers, there might be chapters where you can find a purpose for them, though Jill and Tanith could likely suffice.

Well, that's a shame: I mean, 4-character refresh gives any turn a chance to break the map to pieces,  I mean, it would be broken, so maybe they decided they couldn't take any chances. Least he'll still have it when he's transforned and I hadn't used a single Laguz stone yet, so he has those.

Tanith is an easy pick when I have space at least and like hopefully Stefan won't need to be trained up be useful in the endgame.

And yeah, Jill and Tanith will probably be fine as is. Though Jill could be getting more speed (She's on 13. That's screwed right?)

3 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

And I'm sorry if me mentioning Volke and the Physics caused any unnecessary raging!

And I got to agree that C16 has one of the tightest "thief rushes"- as in getting to the thief by the time they show up/before they crack open a chest- in all of FE that I've played.  There have been other tight ones in my memory, Battle Before Dawn and Kinship's Bond in FE7 both being cases of it that stand out to me (the former because the Delphi Shield is on the line, the latter because the thief targets the 10k gold, which can't be reclaimed), but PoR C16 from my memories gives you just enough time with a constant push forward to bag the thief the turn after they show up. The choice to put Devdan right in front of where the thief will appear was a bit devious, since even though he is a shabby unit (I'm not sure what angle they were going for with him), out of a dedication to perfect/not Karla/Xavier recruitment, most players will avoid stabbing him and instead take the extra time to recruit him.

I did at least get to the thief before he took anything and got Devdan, so I didn't screw it up the second time.

So, started on Chapter 18 and it went alright enough barring having to reset once because Rolf died. MVP was untrained Rolf for surviving a Blizzard to the face though, while Shinon just disappoints at this point, Astrid and Oscar are enough for me.. After that, got to 19, forged a throwing Axe called Sharp Brick, proceeded to hit the floor several times before finally getting a clear because of Naesala and the nearby dragons and ballistae, before learning that Volke used the 50,000 as hush money rather than payment. What the hell Volke? And what the actual fuck Greil in regards to pretty much everything relating to Lehran's Medallion?

With chapter 20, holy crap Petrine should get on the GOP ticket. I also forged a Steel Axe called Rough Cutter with the full boosts (Because 90k is so much money, I'm not sure what to do with it all) and proceeded to have an easy time, finished quick for once. Ike killed Jill's dad, must make things awkward between her and Mist.

Chapter 21 saw another Iron Axe be forged (Ya Boyd 2.0) because it was cheap. It also saw me getting annoyed because Sleep staves. Also Ena, though I somehow did it in 1 round of combat because I had so many horses. Boyd stole the kill because It's Ya Boyd did the most damage out of anyone though. Also, Nasir totally punched Ike in the solarplexus afterwards right? On the other hand, Mist promoted without a Master Seal, which was nice. Also Tauroneo seems like he'd be good for a filler slot.

Anyways, Got to Chapter 22 and made a thunder tome called Dragonslayer, entirely because of how tricky Ena was. Ended there because I'm tired enough to not be trying to keep some holy men alive.

[Interdimensional Observer]

28 minutes ago, Dayni said:

Though Jill could be getting more speed (She's on 13. That's screwed right?)

Her 20/1 average is 16.4, two of which came from promoting. If you have a Speedwings laying around, you'll be able to fix most of it. At 20/5 it's 18.2 if she is further along. Not so good then.

Just hope Ike doesn't get Spd screwed, looks like he'll need 24 on Normal or 25 on Hard by the time of the final battle. Although on Normal you can just not use him for the final foe no problem, or toss him Resolve and once injured sufficiently he'll trigger it and its Spd boost. Also, for some reason, the final battle has a Speedwings dropped in it. Just tossing this out there.

[Punished Dayni]

3 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Her 20/1 average is 16.4, two of which came from promoting. If you have a Speedwings laying around, you'll be able to fix most of it. At 20/5 it's 18.2 if she is further along. Not so good then.

Just hope Ike doesn't get Spd screwed, looks like he'll need 24 on Normal or 25 on Hard by the time of the final battle. Although on Normal you can just not use him for the final foe no problem, or toss him Resolve and once injured sufficiently he'll trigger it and its Spd boost. Also, for some reason, the final battle has a Speedwings dropped in it. Just tossing this out there.

Oh yeah, Jill's absolutely fucked, she's on 14 at level 20/8 now (Pretty sure it isn't higher), though her strength and defence are both over 20. Good thing Haar's totally willing to listen to us..... Oh wait, he's probably pissed because Shiharam died.

Ike doesn't seems speed screwed, he's on 22 I think at 20/6. He's also gotten some defence, but is still res blessed.

[Punished Dayni]

Finally got back to playing the PoR playthrough where Jill has no speed.

So, chapter 22. Much as it wasn't difficult, the gimmick just drove me mad. Actually getting the thieves proved easy enough, the shoving shenanigans only slowed me down and the boss didn't get one hit in (he tried, though he still annoyed me because Nephenee's level off him was bad.). And yes, I did get the Ashera staff in 10 turns, so not bad at all. And Reyson got there to stare at a wall and learn that Ike's mum and his sis at least were alright, so that's something. Also Titania wants to murder BK as much as Ike, so I'm even more on her side in this.

Then the gang goes to a bridge. Is this the map I think it is? Well it starts with the return of Ranulf, so okay. He's just as he always was though, which is strange if a year has supposedly passed for the last 20 chapters. Also Ike/Soren A rank is official and there was much about why Soren hated himself. Drunk Shinon is himself only slurred, so that's someone I don't think I'd drink with. In the actual map, I think Haar's 5 more minutes line was great, but of course there's pitfalls everywhere (like expecting growths to even out apparently). I had to reset because I was stupid and left Reyson in range of a freely takeable ballista, which would have been blocked if I had not had him dance 3 instead of 4 allies. Also a second time because I forgot to heal Reyson. Seriously, ballista and angry bird bois do not mix. At least the pitfalls are able to be manipulable by your party, because the enemy won't activate them. Also, crap Nasir's gone.

For Chapter 24, I decided to make a new javelin called Sonic Lance, sell some utterly useless weaponry and started the map. I moved a bit up, but after Bastian and Lucia showed up I decided it's late. This is a slow one by the looks of, which is a shame because I've been pretty quick today.

[Punished Dayni]

I decided to get on with that chapter today. After getting Stefan killed because he's not as dodgetank as I expected. Really wasn't tricky, though I got Bastian to do the actual arriving as at first I wanted to beat all the enemies but gave up because the berserker went by BK to get to us and he was taking too long. Ranulf's been getting some decent exposure actually though, mainly because he's got some real good bases and the Demi Band doesn't screw him over.

After that map, I decided that:

1. Mist gets Brute Force now.

2. Ike finally gets Aether.

3. Made another hand axe (Called BRUTALITY), with the added conclusion that I was only making a forge for each silver weapon after that and not using my money to restock because I have a hoard right now.

4. Started questioning if I was going to able to use all these good prepromotes who just showed up. Seriously, I'd love some harder maps where I had more units to work with.

Aside from that, it's the boulders map next. How they got the boulders into shape and position, I wonder......

Any late games hints? Should all the speedwings go to Jill?

[RexBolt]

2 hours ago, Dayni said:

Any late games hints? Should all the speedwings go to Jill?

If she's really screwed and you want to use her anyway, sure.

Give out the Occult Scrolls already if you can, they are super useful. 

Did you do the boulder map already? I would say to not bring Reyson to this one or the bridge one where he died a lot, it's not like singers need much exp. 

Do you have someone using magic swords? Mist is a good candidate for it but Elincia easier and flying, you just need to have an Arms Scroll on the convoy. I say because the swords are basically the only magic weapons you can hope to use well, as you should have no axe units with good magic for the Bolt Axe you get on the boulder map and only Devdan has good chances to use well Petrine's Flame Lance and only if he has the right growths or some statboosters. Also there's a magic sword that works like the Nosferatu tome, so really useful.

Is Illyana's Thunder Magic rank going well? Thunder is one of the few weapons with a S-rank Weapon you can get without hacking and can be very useful in killing the dragon laguz of the later maps. It's name? Rexbolt!

Edited January 19, 2019 by RexBolt

[Interdimensional Observer]

2 hours ago, Dayni said:

Any late games hints? Should all the speedwings go to Jill?

Nothing I can really think of. Other than that one battle requiring some RNG luck will be coming up soon. The game is pretty clear about when it happens.

But if those Speedwings will help in the upcoming chapter, go ahead and give them to Jill. The terrain on that chapter will slow cavalry and armor down, and being able to send as many good fliers as you can up the cliffs will make things go quicker.

[Punished Dayni]

24 minutes ago, RexBolt said:

If she's really screwed and you want to use her anyway, sure.

She's slower than Haar, but I was expecting him to be closer to 20. Both are pretty high level as is in fairness, so they hadn't been deployed for the map before I turned it off.

Give out the Occult Scrolls already if you can, they are super useful. 

I'm not sure who should get most of the scrolls as is. Resolve hasn't shown up, so it and Wrath will stay together while I'm a bit stuck with nearly all the others. Smite works better for those with higher Weight, right? Ranulf might get picked for that alone.

Did you do the boulder map already? I would say to not bring Reyson to this one or the bridge one where he died a lot, it's not like singers need much exp. 

Brought Reyson to the bridge map, mainly because 4 units danced was enough to ensure he didn't die to a ballista (Though Oscar is tanky as all heck, I was lucky he dodged a poleaxe hit). I could drop him for this one is what you're saying though?

Do you have someone using magic swords? Mist is a good candidate for it but Elincia easier and flying, you just need to have an Arms Scroll on the convoy. I say because the swords are basically the only magic weapons you can hope to use well, as you should have no axe units with good magic for the Bolt Axe you get on the boulder map and only Devdan has good chances to use well Petrine's Flame Lance and only if he has the right growths or some statboosters. Also there's a magic sword that works like the Nosferatu tome, so really useful.

Probably her and Tanith, Mist is on D rank right now and while 15 strength isn't good for this late on, Brute Force is pretty powerful too. Shame with the Bolt Axe, if Boyd, Titania or Kieran were better they could use it (Still on Grommel by the way). Nephenee's on 10 magic now (I'd have to check who else is on what), so she could use the flame lance a bit imo, better than all but Tanith at least. You say there's a Runesword? Well that's likely for Mist then.

Is Illyana's Thunder Magic rank going well? Thunder is one of the few weapons with a S-rank Weapon you can get without hacking and can be very useful in killing the dragon laguz of the later maps. It's name? Rexbolt!

I should probably have her spam Elthunder and so on then.

17 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Nothing I can really think of. Other than that one battle requiring some RNG luck will be coming up soon. The game is pretty clear about when it happens.

I assume it's related to Mr. Steal yo Heron (aka BK)?

But if those Speedwings will help in the upcoming chapter, go ahead and give them to Jill. The terrain on that chapter will slow cavalry and armor down, and being able to send as many good fliers as you can up the cliffs will make things go quicker.

Maybe I will switch out the cavs then.

At least Ike's stats aren't doing too bad all things considered, BK's Luna won't exactly have that hard a time on sub-20 defence but other than that Ike's done well. Ashnard's also about as evil as anticipated, planning to unleash some dark god on everyone just because.

[RexBolt]

I can't reply properly because you put your commentary inside my quote, but here we go:

1- Don't worry to much with the scrolls and end up only using them on the Endgame like i did. None of them should ruin your unit and it's not like they are a must use to beat endgame on Normal either.

2- I say this about these map because Reyson is fragile and the boulder map has AoE ballistas. Also the boulders themselves that will damage any unit on their path. 

3- Dunno if Mist can reach the sword rank to use the Runesword, it's pretty high, but yes, it's a good deal. Also a Mist that can use magic swords and physic will be very helpfull on the encounter I.O. mentioned.

[Punished Dayni]

10 hours ago, RexBolt said:

1- Don't worry to much with the scrolls and end up only using them on the Endgame like i did. None of them should ruin your unit and it's not like they are a must use to beat endgame on Normal either.

Shame I'm on hard. :P It's more me questioning who needs them more.

10 hours ago, RexBolt said:

2- I say this about these map because Reyson is fragile and the boulder map has AoE ballistas. Also the boulders themselves that will damage any unit on their path. 

On the stones, I'd say only Reyson and maybe Mist could be really hurt by them as I've seen what they can do to my higher defence units..... not much. The Boulders.... No idea because I haven't seen what they can do yet.

10 hours ago, RexBolt said:

3- Dunno if Mist can reach the sword rank to use the Runesword, it's pretty high, but yes, it's a good deal. Also a Mist that can use magic swords and physic will be very helpfull on the encounter I.O. mentioned.

If it's B, I could use an Arms Scroll. If A or above, hahano. She's hopefully not far off C rank for the Sonic Sword if need be and again I have Arms Scrolls.

[RexBolt]

5 hours ago, Dayni said:

Shame I'm on hard. :P It's more me questioning who needs them more.

On the stones, I'd say only Reyson and maybe Mist could be really hurt by them as I've seen what they can do to my higher defence units..... not much. The Boulders.... No idea because I haven't seen what they can do yet.

If it's B, I could use an Arms Scroll. If A or above, hahano. She's hopefully not far off C rank for the Sonic Sword if need be and again I have Arms Scrolls.

1- First time on hard? Alright, they say PoR isn't that hard for experienced fe players anyway. And the Occult Scrolls, i sugest you see your units with enought skill (i think they are all skill based) to activate them on the regular.

2- The boulders ignore defense and will always do 10 damage.

3- It's A, i think Elincia can reach A with a good training on her starting chapter +2 arms scrolls. Or you can give it to Tanith who i think starts with B or A swords.

[Interdimensional Observer]

5 hours ago, Dayni said:

Shame I'm on hard. :P It's more me questioning who needs them more.

So you are on hard! Good to know.

Unlike other FEs, the final boss, Ashnard of course- why do I need to hide it?, will move. If you ever enter his range, he will come at you. And even if you don't, Ashnard will start moving out on the 9th turn. Also, won't say what exactly, but although the final battle is really only one phase unlike some other games, there is something of a shift in it partway in.

Since Ashnard could easily slaughter your squishes (although he has a splendid boss convo with Reyson- SF has it though in the PoR section on the main page, so you can safely look it up afterwards), you'll want to surround Ashy with units who can survive a round of combat against him. Also, Physics will be buyable for the final battle, since Ashy has range, you'll want a couple to safely heal up.

[Punished Dayni]

9 hours ago, RexBolt said:

1- First time on hard? Alright, they say PoR isn't that hard for experienced fe players anyway. And the Occult Scrolls, i sugest you see your units with enought skill (i think they are all skill based) to activate them on the regular.

2- The boulders ignore defense and will always do 10 damage.

3- It's A, i think Elincia can reach A with a good training on her starting chapter +2 arms scrolls. Or you can give it to Tanith who i think starts with B or A swords.

1- So I'm thinking Jill's one of the better choices with her skill as it is.

2- Don't remind me.

3- I think Mist would be the better choice looking at Elincia's bases. Tanith has A, so that's nice.

8 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

So you are on hard! Good to know.

Unlike other FEs, the final boss, Ashnard of course- why do I need to hide it?, will move. If you ever enter his range, he will come at you. And even if you don't, Ashnard will start moving out on the 9th turn. Also, won't say what exactly, but although the final battle is really only one phase unlike some other games, there is something of a shift in it partway in.

Since Ashnard could easily slaughter your squishes (although he has a splendid boss convo with Reyson- SF has it though in the PoR section on the main page, so you can safely look it up afterwards), you'll want to surround Ashy with units who can survive a round of combat against him. Also, Physics will be buyable for the final battle, since Ashy has range, you'll want a couple to safely heal up.

Thankfully I have plenty of Physics still. And yeah, I don't expect Ashnard to be a walk in the park for an Ike who once had more Res than Defence (He's still below 20, but nowhere near as bad)

Finally got past the Boulder.

Reyson did die once (on the first turn because on a boulder-cat combo), as did Haar (Resolve is no joke, it activated after Harr hit and he got doubled to death), Volke barely survived my stupidity when he got hit by 2 out of three of the boulders high up on the right side and the third luckily went away from him, saving the run, Grommel (who moves, thanks for the warning. /s) sadly didn't get doubled when I thought Soren would do so due to Resolve working on enemy phase, forcing my fallback plan of using a Bolting to get him at least into KO range for most any of my army (Ike in this case getting an Aether on him), it took way too long to get done (though I got the purge, which got sold)....

And Jill got speed for the first time in a while. You have no idea how concerned I was not to screw up once that happened. As for the story, I saw why Tibarn has Sturdy Impact, we got the rundown on the last few chapters worth of story and setup for the endgame, Reyson learned about Mr. Steal Yo Heron taking his sister and I was disappointed by the lack of BExp. After that, I gave Smite to Ranulf, made a Silver Lance and checked the map, where I finally get to use about everyone I wanted to (This won't last, will it?) and Elincia finally joined us with appropriate bases for her ability sadly. At least she can heal.

[Punished Dayni]

Well crap, Elincia's a game over if she dies. Also holy moly the mistakes you don't notice really get people killed.

Point is, I did not finish Clash! today.

[Punished Dayni]

I did a lot better with Clash! this time around, with Jill getting speed, Volke getting some theft in, Bertram being less trouble than expected (I guess he wanted to die) and nobody dying in under 10 turns. Afterwards, Ashnard's really wanting to just kill for the sake of it at this point. Ike also had Ragnell the whole time. What the Fuck Ike? The moments with Mist and Titania are alright though, while I got so many supports (Ike/Elincia B, Boyd/Titania A (Finally!), Stefan/Soren and Elincia/Geoffrey C). And it's almost time for BK (Ike's alright I think, 25 Spd, 20 Def and 23 Str). I also gave out most of the skills, mainly because I do think I had to by now.

I also then tried Moment of Fate. It went well until Stefan got crit by a swordmaster. Don't even need Volke because I have so many keys so I have a full force for this one.

[Punished Dayni]

Moment of Fate has been passed through. Surprisingly uneventful when I actually cleared barring Stefan defying death and some really good levels. Did it pretty quick as well, 12 turns seems to give a lot of BEXP. Also, that BK fight is ridiculous (Like, what the actual hell?). Good thing Ike activated Aether twice, BK died and Nasir got to find his.... granddaughter. Whut. Regardless, everything went better that expected, but because I didn't bring Geoffrey, I guess Elincia won't get that A rank.

I also got through Twisted Tower first try (Not without some clutch dodging from Nephenee or Mist though), despite Tibarn and my army charging close like idiots. Izuka was strange and dumb, so he of course didn't die, while Naesala got to making moves on Leanne. Reyson should probably find a way to fight just to hit Naesala.

And on the final chapter, I just spammed the bonus exp and stat boosters I had for transfer purposes on a few units to get them close to 20. Once again, Jill was a pain for getting speed. The map itself might was well be the first map in Genealogy because of its size. Also, Ashnard's also a pain to fight (and killed his own family, as if he wasn't evil enough with everything before we learned that he hired a laguz torture club). :P I have not used Wrath or Resolve, just because I want to see if it can be done without and if not how bad it is.

[Interdimensional Observer]

So you actually managed to beat the BK on your first try confronting him? Lucky you are! 

If you had Ike retreat or enough turns passed without defeating the BK instead, Nasir would appear and tell Ike to flee with Ena. He would attack the Black Knight and then the castle would have collapsed, killing Nasir and the BK in the process. Ena would have then joined instead with the same stats and skills as when she was a boss.

RD has it that Nasir lived. As if the above was not already indicative losing is the bad outcome.

[Punished Dayni]

On 1/27/2019 at 4:06 PM, Interdimensional Observer said:

So you actually managed to beat the BK on your first try confronting him? Lucky you are! 

If you had Ike retreat or enough turns passed without defeating the BK instead, Nasir would appear and tell Ike to flee with Ena. He would attack the Black Knight and then the castle would have collapsed, killing Nasir and the BK in the process. Ena would have then joined instead with the same stats and skills as when she was a boss.

RD has it that Nasir lived. As if the above was not already indicative losing is the bad outcome.

Lucky's right, Ike got Aether two enemy phases in a row and BK didn't get a single Luna (which I calculated as a 1-hit KO). He was barely doing any damage without it (A net 2 damage because Renewal), I didn't trust him surviving when he was 1 def or 2 HP away from not getting 2-shot so I avoided player phase. Still, was really satisfying to see BK fall to Ike, I won't deny I gesticulated rudely to him (As an aside, can Aether not activate from 2 range? I've never seen it happen and I'm curious.)

So anyways, Crimea's freed. This was an interesting final map, not just because we need to have most of the army distracting the other enemies while Ike and Nasir have to get into place for Ashnard but the terrain made it more interesting. No problems arose there but then I started with Ashnard and had to run everyone else away except for the healers, which allowed Mist and Elincia to get tons of experience. It was a tough draining fight (by that I mean draining on Nasir's Laguz Gems), but Ike finished Ashnard with Aether despite the generic bishop using Physic and almost ruining everything. Then Ashnard got up again better and stronger and Nasir said to bring someone in. I picked Giffca so he could do something in PoR. And at first the results of that led to danger, until I got Ashnard to go for Nasir while next to the fountain. At that point he had been got with Ike, Nasir and Giffca sitting around and taking shots until they finally beat him (Ike secured the win despite not using Aether again. To be fair, I will take 2 on BK and one on Ashnard over the other way around) and we got to save his mount. Ashnard got no kills and I have to say he was a true threat, but it's a shame he could only be attacked by three units to do so. With the epilogue, I have to say I liked the renditions of Life Returns and I'm curious how the story will go from there aside from where I've been spoiled.

And to top it all off, Jill got speed twice, which sadly did not lead to her capping despite her being given 2 speedwings. I'll show stats and talk about the game as a whole tomorrow, though the top 3 fighters were Jill, Boyd and Nephenee (Of those, Jill definitely got a lot of kills from getting to finish while Nephenee and Boyd were certainly powerful enough on their own after a time). Yes, Ike was outside the top 3. 

I'll probably get on RD in a week or so. What difficulty do you recommend?

[Interdimensional Observer]

1 minute ago, Dayni said:

(As an aside, can Aether not activate from 2 range? I've never seen it happen and I'm curious.)

Nope, Occult-derived skills, called Mastery Skills in RD, can only be used at range 1 for Swords, Lances, and Axes. Bows, obviously, work at range 2, while Magic works at either range. 

 

Also, congrats on clearing PoR!

 

For Radiant Dawn, let me begin with a little heads up. RD belongs in the same camp as Genealogy and Fates from a narrative perspective. Which is to say the game is very ambitious and aims high, and like these two other games, this gamble wasn't executed perfectly. Even so, like Genealogy, you have those who find the successes outweigh the faults, and then you find those who consider the whole thing an awful mess. So in a sense, the game can be polarizing, but not everyone of course belongs at one pole or the other, there is room for middle ground, even if these people don't speak so much. I'm laying this out in case things should disappoint, you'll know where it probably came from. Better to temper expectations than hype them beyond reality.

Now the narrative ambition of Fates was carried out in the form of three separate routes: Birthright, Conquest, and Revelation; Genealogy's ambition took the form of two generations. For Radiant Dawn, the ambition is manifested as Parts, each Part features a different story as its central narrative, and each Part also changes up who you play as. It's sorta like the Acts of Shadows of Valentia, but no world map to roam and including properly labeled chapters. And I think this is enough explanation, the rest will come naturally.

 

12 minutes ago, Dayni said:

What difficulty do you recommend?

As for difficulty, note that Radiant Dawn had a renaming of the difficulties. Easy in NA is Japanese Normal, Normal in NA is Japanese Hard, Hard in NA is Japanese Maniac. As for which difficulty I suggest, I'd pick NA Normal.

Easy might have been called Normal in Japan, but I think it is a little too easy, lower enemy stats and very generous EXP, with a few early chapters having changed objectives too.

Hard on the other hand slashes BEXP, restricts EXP gain, has slightly higher enemy stats than Normal, disables Battle Saves (which the player can choose to abuse or not use at all), and strangely disables the Weapon Triangle. But the major issue to me is ability to highlight enemy attack ranges is disabled, which is just tedium. 

Normal still has some challenge, enough I think for a blind first time play. Do know the earliest chapters are the hardest, the game gets gradually easier after that, this is kinda typical for many FEs actually.

 

And then there is the topic of hidden treasure. You know how desert maps typically hide some stuff and if you wait on certain spaces you get them? RD has this on MOST maps. Generally it's worthless Coins, but you do find some seriously good stuff randomly hidden as well.

The chance of finding anything is: Skill +/- Biorhythm (best/worst is +/-20, good/bad +/-10, normal = 0) + 60 if in the Thief line = %. So Sothe will have at least a 60% chance of finding a hidden item, at most a 100% chance.

SF has all the hidden treasures mapped out. I'll provide the link for just Part 1 right now. Look at it as you move into each new chapter. The first with hidden treasure is Chapter 3.

[Punished Dayni]

19 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Nope, Occult-derived skills, called Mastery Skills in RD, can only be used at range 1 for Swords, Lances, and Axes. Bows, obviously, work at range 2, while Magic works at either range. 

Well, that's a shame. Good thing Ashnard and BK always went for 1 range.

19 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

As for difficulty, note that Radiant Dawn had a renaming of the difficulties. Easy in NA is Japanese Normal, Normal in NA is Japanese Hard, Hard in NA is Japanese Maniac. As for which difficulty I suggest, I'd pick NA Normal.

Easy might have been called Normal in Japan, but I think it is a little too easy, lower enemy stats and very generous EXP, with a few early chapters having changed objectives too.

Hard on the other hand slashes BEXP, restricts EXP gain, has slightly higher enemy stats than Normal, disables Battle Saves (which the player can choose to abuse or not use at all), and strangely disables the Weapon Triangle. But the major issue to me is ability to highlight enemy attack ranges is disabled, which is just tedium. 

Normal still has some challenge, enough I think for a blind first time play. Do know the earliest chapters are the hardest, the game gets gradually easier after that, this is kinda typical for many FEs actually.

Is there more difficult enemy placement in H/M?

Also, are there gaiden chapters in RD?

19 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

And then there is the topic of hidden treasure. You know how desert maps typically hide some stuff and if you wait on certain spaces you get them? RD has this on MOST maps. Generally it's worthless Coins, but you do find some seriously good stuff randomly hidden as well.

The chance of finding anything is: Skill +/- Biorhythm (best/worst is +/-20, good/bad +/-10, normal = 0) + 60 if in the Thief line = %. So Sothe will have at least a 60% chance of finding a hidden item, at most a 100% chance.

And here I was thinking Mystery would be the last game I'd see it be this extensive in. It's even more so here, though thieves having less than 100% is going to be horrifying.

So, I might as well talk about the game I put close to 40 hours in. 

On the story and characters, I have to say I like Ike's arc (And yes, that does mean we have an answer to the second tag. :P), with his developing into a commander and combatant expressed pretty well imo. The people around him are also decently developed, though it has the usual issue of most characters having next to no presence but there are other avenues at least for that. Supports seem to at least be alright from what I'd unlocked (which isn't many), while base convos were neat and I'd love to see them implemented again. Unfortunately the same can't be said for the villains and some of the NPCs. Gallia kind of feels like we got less than I expected when we first got there, most of the generics could have been better (with the only other villain outside of Daein I found great was Oliver) and Daein's villains aren't all that interesting and some are a detriment (sadly Petrine, whose one interesting trait is only hinted at was particularly noteworthy in being weak personally). The only other villains I liked besides are Shiharam (who was an interesting character who was more limited in exposure than I'd have liked). Meanwhile BK and Ashnard are certainly the most complete, but BK is essentially Manfroy with a background with Greil, nigh immunity and serving rather than whipping the emperor (I do know I'll likely know more from RD but still) and Ashnard is essentially a monster who decided to destroy the world, killed his family, tortured a bunch of Laguz and invaded another country because the world is terrible in his eyes. I have to be honest and say that I'm not a big fan of Ashnard, but he is a true monster in combat. I also did like Naesala a bit and Ena and Nasir quite a bit more though, their motivations and arc are well expressed imo.

In terms of gameplay, it's not all that bad. I bet it's very easy outside of hard though. The balance is almost in cav's favour to the extent of Judgral sadly and cavs aren't stopped indoors to compensate. However, the movement is a bit more even at least and the cavs don't have amaezballs stats compared to the infantry. We also got magic non-swords which is nice and the Laguz are interesting mechanically but I do kind of wish there were more Laguz stones for instance. BK on the other hand was absurd, I'm amazed that someone on his level was put in a post-Kaga title.

As for presentation, I'll be honest and say it's a bit of a letdown. I mean, the character models could have been a lot worse considering the period (I remember the first Killzone entirely because of how bad it looked), but the battle animation was not exactly on the level of the GBA era for dynamism and the music is frankly disappointing, one of the weaker soundtracks in the series (The midi quality isn't endearing when you get past the year 2000 on home consoles sadly). The only part I'd be all in on is the character portraits, with the characters personalities conveyed well in them. And it is slow. Oh it is just a bit painful at points, especially with animations on, a problem that seems to plague console FEs. The world I hope also gets some more development outside Serenes, Begnion, Crimea and Daein. We get a bit of a sense of other's nations, but I also kind of felt like stuff was missing, I'm not sure how clear I can be on that.

I'll also put an overview of the units I played as.

Spoiler

I'll leave the win totals here:

Spoiler

>Being the Lion King's Shadow

>Having less kills than a boy archer who never fought beyond one chapter.

Poor Giffca.

Boyd was No. 2 by the way, I missed that image (I'd thought I'd missed Jill). Also wow these pictures were bad.

Ike: You know, Ike was pretty disappointing early on. being 1-range locked and not being powerful enough to compensate kind of hurt my impression of him early on. He got over it though like the other Greil mercs and he became a reliable offensive unit who tanked... decently while his defence was a bit lower than it should have been. He was always involved, fighting bosses and plenty of enemies throughout and all before the BK fight. The BK fight was absurd, simply because Ike somehow managed to get the kill with two aethers and from then on was just stupid because Ragnell is just amazing. His endgame role as the beastly powerful lord was not prevented by the fact his res was once higher than his def. 

Nasir: His being able to attack Ashnard made him worthwhile, his tanking of Ashnard's first form really well made him essential when I only had two units to work with. He wasn't needed in Chapter 28 though I could see just how devastating he was when generics just crumpled against him. Probably for the best I gave the Laguz stones to him, he used three in the events of fighting Ashnard.

Mist: You know, a 5 move healer sucks. You know what doesn't suck? An 8 move healer who can actually do decent to real good damage, somehow while being locked to a physical weapon until the final chapter. She got there by Chapter 22 sadly, but it was worth the wait as all of a sudden the canto allowed her to do so much and everything that held her back just faded away (except her defence). It sadly took its time but her healing was always appreciated. Hell, later on she could fight pretty well, as a couple uses of Brute Force demonstrated to me. That Sol proved clutch when in Chapter 28 I stupidly left her in range of a paladin and two birds: She only got hit by the paladin from 2 range and the birds were dodged and hurt by the Laguzslayer she had on her and healed with Sol. Frail she may be, but be careful in case she breaks you instead.

Tanith: You know, I wonder why I added her in the end, but she played her part in all this, minor as it was. Her great ranks alongside her good bases made her very capable when I needed a unit to do something. She might not have been a regular, but she was a fine unit regardless. (As an aside, the conversation she has with Shiharam is making me regret not using her there, that was amazing.)

Kieran: Kieran is someone who feels like he could be left out of the running. Good thing he made his case early and proved I needed a third axe and he showed his differences from Oscar by being faster if less defensive. Not much to complain about with him, while I wish Gamble was useful.

Oscar: Oscar is great when he gets going. Shame my Oscar took a while. He was always defensively strong, but his attack and speed left quite a bit to be desired, with him getting doubled for a good while if he used a steel lance. Thankfully he picked up and became strong and fast enough to use that defence often. If it weren't for his tanking, plenty of challenges would have been harder and his offence wasn't to be sneezed at either.

Ilyana: Despite my doubts and regrets, Ilyana was a worthwhile unit. One big strength she had was her strength, which compensated for her lower speed, while Shade helped prevent her getting targeted and as she became better her ability to take hits also made her more capable than Soren in that category. Flare also just allowed her to decimate opponents at times. She also hit S rank so I got to see Rexbolt in action even if it slowed her down. 

Ranulf: The first Laguz I seriously considered, he was surprisingly good and the Demi band didn't mess with his combat as much as I'd feared. He was a really dodgy cat too, which helped when some mages kept on trying to hit him from far away and always failed. Even better, he had enough weight that all but Haar could be shoved by him, so he got Smite which was quite useful. Guard also surprised me because he used it more than I expected, which was good for his survival too.

Nephenee: So, I have to be honest and say I was biased in using her. However, I will say the bias was utterly justified when even from the start her levels were great and she was doing at least decent damage quite soon after she joined the army (from where she starts, she only got better). Later on, I kind of locked the Knight Ring onto her and it just allowed me to do so much with her and while it wasn't something only she could have possibly done, she fit really well as the cantoing infantry unit who I could expect to do the job. I feel sorry for Devdan, he was worse than her while she was unpromoted. Adept was also really helpful to make her more reliable for offence. I just really liked her as a combat unit and she earned it. Neph Neph mothafucka.

Reyson: He refreshes. I think he could have been 10/10 if I'd tried to make him work better than he did but he still did well regardless. He was a bit of a liability and using him for specific tasks took more out of me than I expected (see: Naesala or the bridge map), but it was satisfying to see him refresh 4 units and watch them open up gaps.

Astrid: You might question why I went with this level 1 archer over the others, but Astrid was a beast honestly. She had a tricky enough start, but Paragon allowed her to catch up quickly and before long she was regularly doubling and making reliable chips and kills and was a keeper no questions asked. She was useful throughout, which was helped by her being able to run off as she pleased and despite her never getting higher than E swords. Shade might be strange, but it allowed me to pick the enemy's targets, because she did not need the enemy phase in the late game.

Soren: He made great contributions throughout the game, what with his good magic and speed and despite his frailty. He was a solid mage through and through, though he was on less maps than expected and also didn't get to be as flashy despite everything that says he really should be. He even hit B staves by the endgame, where he got to be really useful in his own right because of Rescue allowing me to fix my mistakes. Was worth training him, though I kind of wish I got him to use Nihil better.

Jill: On the one hand she was speed screwed. On the other hand she was a powerful wall who made her attacks count for a good deal of the time she was recruited, the reason I used her despite her shaky speed. It really helped that for the final chapter she was given enough BExp for the chance to get to 20 (which she barely did), managed to get 8 speed between the two speedwings she got (one from Bryce) and levels (BExp and in that map) and was a solid fighter even before she hit 20 speed. Hell, Stun was a neat if only situationally useful skill (seeing a wyvern go from possible threat because of a short axe to joke while being still alive was funny).  

Elincia: She had use throughout her short time and while it was a shame I couldn't make her into a broken fighter, her staff utility was beautiful in the last map. Even if her only reliable kills were mages, it freed up others and she could heal at the same time. I still think it was worthwhile, even if I could have not bothered. As an aside, she had a chance of putting Ashnard to sleep, which was hilarious to me (Mist had a better shot, so I actually tried. It didn't work).

Giffca: By far the most reliable damage against Green Ashnard, it was all he got to do but my word did he do it well.

Stefan: The moment he showed up all the other swordmasters were doomed. That does not mean he was a gamebreaker though. For despite his good bases, I'd say he was the third most likely unit to die for the amount of time he was used behind Reyson and Mist due to his shaky luck and lesser defences. He was also reliant on Astra and crits to finish enemies off, which didn't help his case.

Titania: She's the closest to Seth on the OP end of the Jagen scale. I cannot pretend that Titania wasn't a crucial unit in the early game. Frankly with how Oscar, Boyd and Ike were early on I'd have my doubts that they'd make it without her. Even still she never slid out of relevance, keeping in the camp of units who had enough bases to double most of the game and even as defence came to a point where she no longer 1-rounded she still did plenty of damage. Don't mess with the Greil Merc's real commander. Saviour was picked because it fit her personally, but she never got to use it as she should have.

Boyd: I named two axes after him. I think he was always relevant and while he never quite was a beastly unit, Boyd had plenty of power behind each swing and when he got strong enough it didn't matter what enemies did he'd keep swinging, especially with Ya Boyd. I will say it's a shame he and Titania were not in the final map, as I probably would have dropped Tanith as she had kind of a filler role in this playthrough. I have to say I would have loved to see what Vantage did for him.

Volke: He steal he loc pic but most importantly he ready for Gawain nec brec. He had his main use obviously, but while I wouldn't trust him to fight much I did try to get him some exp for stealing purposes. Thankfully he never ran into stealing issues despite his questionable levelling at times. Those Physics proved great for the endgame, so good on Volke.

Haar: I did try to use him a bit. If I didn't have so many units already he absolutely would have had a shot, especially with No Speed Jill. He saw use now and again to the point he and Jill got B rank, but he was pretty good but I don't think he got the chance to make himself useful. Corrosion probably didn't need to be given.

Geoffrey: Bit of a shame he was left out, but that's the trouble with deployment slots. He at least proved useful for a few chapters in fairness, but in no way was he a critical unit. I should criticise myself for giving him Provoke because it did cause me issues now and again in Clash! (aka the last map I used him).

I'll be honest and say the only units I'm sad I didn't get to use were Tormod and Callil/Largo. Marcia not getting good levels early on was also disappointing, while Mia and Zihark both suffered from Better replacement syndrome and were just dropped.

[Interdimensional Observer]

2 hours ago, Dayni said:

Is there more difficult enemy placement in H/M?

Also, are there gaiden chapters in RD?

For the first, I don't believe so.

For the second, nope. Would've been nice, but for much of RD, that would've been as tight as Sothe's shirt trying to fit them in.

 

2 hours ago, Dayni said:

Supports seem to at least be alright from what I'd unlocked (which isn't many

SF has all the support dialogue here in case you're interested.

 

2 hours ago, Dayni said:

And it is slow. Oh it is just a bit painful at points, especially with animations on, a problem that seems to plague console FEs.

Can't deny this, like the graphics issue. RD does have a no-animations at all option, it just shows HP ticking up and down when two units fight, and quickly states any misses, crits, and skill activations. Not sure if it is available on a first playthrough though, strangely. It helps a little if it is. I do hope 3H borrows from the quickness of the 3DS games.

 

And if I seem a little too generous and present in offering advice and such, it is simply because I'm at heart a Telliusian. I am interested in seeing others' experiences of the duology and offering some guidance to hopefully improve it. What opinions one ultimately forms I will not argue with unless they openly invite argument, everyone has their own right to dislike, like, or feel neutral towards any game. Only that they had the fortunate chance to form those opinions matters to me.

Edited January 30, 2019 by Interdimensional Observer