Burning Out Together: Let's Correspondence Play Fire Emblem 8: JP Reversion

Put your Let's Plays in here.

Eirika or Ephraim Route?

Poll ended at Fri Aug 21, 2020 8:03 pm

Gerik
5
28%
Duessel
7
39%
Both?!
6
33%
 
Total votes: 18

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In an effort to rip off three unrelated-but-personally-inspirational phenomena - The recent trend of Fire Emblem romhack playthroughs on SA, a round of correspondence FE playthroughs on 4chan's Fire Emblem General board (AKA /feg/), and apparently the Dwarf Fortress Let's Plays from over a dozen years ago (and here I thought I was ripping off GuavaMoment's X-COM narrative playthroughs from the same period) - I've decided to combine all of them into my own bizarre spice - namely, a trade-off playthrough of a romhack recreation of Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones...'s Japanese regional version.

Anyone reading this is almost certainly familiar with how easy Sacred Stones is. The ability to grind from the World Map was the biggest factor to this easiness, but there was also an issue with how weak the enemies actually present in the story levels tended to be, to the point that - at least in Normal Mode - when promoted enemy units started regularly appearing in the lategame, they could end up looking absolutely pathetic:

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This is supposed to be a promoted enemy in the penultimate chapter of the game, by the way. I've also seen things like 24HP Berserkers and 28HP Warriors in Chapter 17. And even on Hard/"Difficult" Mode, the game's enemies still tend to feel weaker than they should've been. Combine that with an incredibly reliable crutch unit given to the player from the very beginning, and FE8 is now commonly known as "Seth Emblem".

As it turns out, the reason enemies were so weak was a byproduct of the localization. As some of you know, there is a hidden "bonus leveling" system in FE games that helps to boost the stats of enemies even further than their level should theoretically allow them. That same system can also be turned backwards, though - majorly diminishing the threat posed by enemies and turning them into glorified XP pinatas. FE8's Normal Mode had this dial tweaked in localization so that, rather than enemies being as strong as their level should indicate, they're actually all around two levels weaker than normal. And somehow, whatever de-leveling system got applied to them also led to the utter embarassment of its promoted enemies.

So I decided to try and counter this issue by looking for a romhack that restored the Japanese bonus-leveling setup, and also all the other localization changes to the game while I was at it, and I found it in Flock of Geese's FE8 Gameplay Reversion Hack, claiming - and mostly succeeding - to revert all gameplay-related changes from localization to be just like the Japanese experience. So that means modified growths, modified base stats, modified item loadouts, and of course, modified enemy stats. The full list is on the Fire Emblem Wiki.

And because I want everyone to experience this with me together (and wonder aloud if it's still Seth Emblem in this format), I'm deciding to make this a correspondence playthrough. When I've beaten Chapter 2, I'll dump my game's save into a convenient Mediafire link, so that anyone can pick up from where I leave off. Then when whoever lays claim to continuing is done with the next two chapters, they can leave their save in another Mediafire or Dropbox link. When the run reaches the route split after Chapter 8, we'll decide whether or not to maintain the pace at two chapters per turn, or lower it to one. Repeat until we're done with the game, and then we either find some other FE romhack to show off, or I start uploading a Mystery of the Emblem playthrough as a follow-up.

RULES:

-Downloading the Reversion Patch will be necessary to play this game.
-There is no spoiler policy. Post as much or as little story content and/or support dialogue as you like.
-Grinding and using the arena is allowed. Just don't go overboard.
-This is an Ironman run, or at least mostly Ironman. No resetting if a non-mandatory unit dies, but for the sake of wanting to see this run finished, resets are allowed if a Game Over occurs.
-Unit choices are up to personal preference of the player. If you want to grind a trainee unit while in the middle of Chapter 12, be my guest.
-I'd like to see as many different people get a turn as possible. Consider carefully whether it's too soon after your last turn to call dibs on another one.
-Eirika vs Ephraim Route decision is still pending. We may end up doing both if enough posters want to try it, similar to how Crosspiece is doing a Pokémon Black run behind the scenes of their Pokémon White run, but I'm fine with only going one route if that's the decision made by the thread.

With that out of the way, good luck, and happy gaming!

UPDATES
Update 1 (Greener223224)
Update 2 (vilk)
Update 3 (The Flying Twybil)
Update 4 (The Flying Twybil)
Update 5 (TheMcD)
Update 6 (TheMcD)
Last edited by Greener223224 on Sat Aug 15, 2020 8:03 pm, edited 11 times in total.

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Update 1 (Greener223224)

Update in here
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Just proving that I'm not actually playing the Japanese version, just an ordinary romhack of the English version.

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We'll be playing on Hard Mode, since that's where the differences are most visible, and because this is still supposed to be some kind of challenge.

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Featuring on this world map: Not A Sage,

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Not An Emperor,

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and most heinous of all, Not A Monarchy.

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The opening cutscenes play out the same as they always do, so let's skip forward to the start of gameplay.

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Maps and enemy composition are all unchanged in this version. The difference really lies in the statistics of each unit.

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Not Eirika, though. She's still her same Lyn+ self as always.

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Seth is a slightly different story. The localization gave him an extra 5% HP growth, boosting it to an incredible 90%. The base of 85% is still ludicrous enough, so Seth is still a totally overpowered crutch, but it's a start.

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Now, the enemies in the prologue have surprisingly been buffed, with two extra bonus levels than EN Hard Mode. It's not enough to make them a threat here, but I would like to note that most of EN's Hard Mode only gave 3 extra levels its enemies, so enemy quality is already on par with what the usual midgame would be throwing at you.

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Just look at how intimidated Eirika is by these changes!

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But seriously, the prologue is still easily mopped up in two turns, and Eirika gets a great level for her efforts.

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You just fled the castle, and you're already considering going back? Confused face.

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Chapter 1, then.

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Enemies are still at +3 bonus levels, so they could be a threat to Eirika if the RNG looks poorly on her.

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So I'll be using Seth relatively liberally here, if only just to speed this level up.

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And then the cavalry arrive, with their own little changes.

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Franz's changes weren't to growths, but to his bases. He lost 1 point in HP, Strength and Speed in the localization. So with the reversion he's become one of the best units in the game at, in case he wasn't already thanks to early join time and cavalier class.

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Gilliam, though, is rather hurt by the reversion. The localization gave him +5% more growth to what was otherwise a mediocre 40% Strength and bad 30% Skill. I'd be shocked if he makes it even to midgame.

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But for the moment, he has his purpose in softening up enemies for Franz.

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Replace "lead" with "carry", and Franz is absolutely correct.

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It's a quick flurry of kills after that.

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And a small gamble to give Gilliam a kill on one of the axefighters.

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Seth parks next to Breguet to set up a riskless kill for Eirika...

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And does so!

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Right as the reinforcements arrive.

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The rest of the party heads to meet with the reinforcements as Eirika gets her boss kill, and a more predictable level for her usual fare.

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Franz takes a hard blow from one of the two axefighters, and then kills him to give Franz just the levelup he needs to survive this entanglement.

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...Well, after a lucky dodge from the second axefighter.

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If it hadn't been for that point of defense, Franz would be dead here. Helps to show how much stronger the enemies are from the normal game.

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And Gilliam gets the last kill for a good level that still misses the areas he's lost out in.

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I feel like I should be keeping a hidden tally for how often the topic turns to Ephraim in this game.

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Not pictured: the modder behind Restoration Queen getting increasingly disgruntled.

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We get out unaltered chump change, and that's it for Chapter 1.

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On to Chapter 2, but not without taking note of this weird detail that Seth is the lead unit in the game instead of Eirika from the prologue until Eirika becomes a mandatory deployment in Chapter 4.

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So, with more units, comes more reversions to talk about.

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Vanessa's reversion has given her 1 more point of speed than normal. Useful to have, but nothing game game-changing unless you're a 0% growths runner.

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Moulder's growths have taken a big positive, with +15% HP to take that growth to an incredible 80% (or rather 85%, since the hacker messed up), and +5% Speed to get it up to a very workable 45%.

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Ross's biggest change has to do with his Super Journeyman class, but the change that most affects his performance is a -5% penalty to Speed, lowering it to 25%. Will likely make training him an even riskier gamble than normal.

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And Garcia is the one person here who stays unchanged.

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Meanwhile, the enemies have taken another power escalation. Hard Mode bonuses are now equivalent to 4 extra levels, which is on the same scale as the lategame and endgame in the localized Hard Mode. We can't take these guys too lightly, especially with all the terrain in this map.

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The usual steps are taken here. Rescue Ross with Vanessa, then have Moulder Take and Drop him to speed up Garcia's rescue.

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It's probably only a matter of time before an actual character called Erina gets added to the franchise. Only took one game for Lugh to become an actual character name instead of an alias for Leaf.

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Garcia holds his own while I wait for the next turn.

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And then Ross goes and uses his Vulnerary because I guess he's too stubborn to accept Moulder's heals.

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Eirika recruits Ross,

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then Vanessa and Seth rescue-drop Garcia,

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so that Ross can recruit him on Turn 2.

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And Garcia springs into action immediately from there.

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Is she referring to Ephraim, or to Joshua? You decide!

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And then my decision to have Garcia attack this brigand backfires, as he ducks into a fort to retaliate.

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Franz handles his buddy while I wonder whether to get Seth involved.

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I decide to risk the decision on whether or not Gilliam makes this hit...

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...which he does!

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Then I follow up with another lucky hit from Ross, giving him a fresh Vulnerary for his efforts.

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Garcia then finishes off the brigand that Franz softened up.

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Eirika ends off the turn by heading to the armory to sell off the Red Gem and buy an Iron Sword so I can stop wearing down her Rapier.

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And then she starts the next turn by heading off the reinforcements that appear to the west.

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I used the turn Seth had free to lure in the one enemy archer on the map, so that Gilliam and Franz could take it down this turn.

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And that's the last village saved.

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Enemy turn. Franz engages and finishes off the brigand that Garcia softened up earlier for a great level.

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You all know where this leads.

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Eirika holds off the reinforcements for a weapon level, and then it's the player phase again.

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Franz and Garcia engage the boss. I haven't mentioned yet, but bosses take advantage of the same bonus levels as the rest of the game's enemies, so they can get stronger just as much as their buddies. Still, Bone shouldn't be too much trouble now that he's off the mountains-

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Whoops, spoke too soon.

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I'm still not slowing down the risks, though. Vanessa engages and weakens one of the reinforcements so that Ross can try and get a kill from it.

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It pays off wonderfully.

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The other reinforcement goes down to Eirika afterward, and Moulder heals Garcia from his whiff.

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I still want Garcia to get the boss kill, so I switch Franz's weapons in the hope that if Bone attacks him, he'll miss on the counter.

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It didn't work.

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Franz gets the boss kill, and the level ends with a mediocre level.

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Not all that prestigious a rank, given that O'Neil had a similar rank, and he was just some faceless Prologue boss.

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The tally rises...

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And this dialogue no longer sounds innocent after a decade and a half of anime trends.

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But I've finally reached the end of Chapter 2, and after quickly noting how there's a tiny sword above the name of our location to denote Armory access, that'll be the end of my startoff for this Let's Play!

I'll be handing control off to whoever volunteers to do the next two chapters, and they can find my save for this run by CLICKING HERE. Just remember to patch in the reversion first. Hopefully I shouldn't need to progress this run until at least the route split.
Last edited by Greener223224 on Thu Aug 13, 2020 8:53 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Just proving that I'm not actually playing the Japanese version.
I think all the non-Japanese text in the game would kind of give it away :v:

I love that someone thought Seth needed, specifically, +5% hp. Nothing else! Just +5% hp.


Huh, nice Eirika level, this might go pretty well.


Strange to see the soldiers not having like all 0 stats for once! They might actually be a challhahahahaha no sorry i don't know what came over me.

Also weird how random some of the changes are - nerfing Franz isn't a bad idea as such, he's still very good in FE8E, but like... Seth still exists with the same availability. Meanwhile, Gilliam is just poo. Ross getting slightly more speed% is, like... fine, but still only 1-2 points across the whole game. +1 base would have been more useful.
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Image "So dreamy..."

Is she referring to Ephraim, or to Joshua? You decide!
Probably Joshua. I don't think Ephraim does "elegant". Also, he went in like the other direction.

Oh, you have the shot with Seth introducing Garcia repeated.

And this dialogue no longer sounds innocent after a decade and a half of anime trends.
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:colbert:










Aw geez okay fine i guess i'll go next then!!!

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I suppose I'll take the reins after Vilk, if you're fine with that. It'll be just in time for one of my favorite units to start showing up. Besides, I'd rather get my turn in earlier on this as I'm a bit less familiar with the FE8 late game as I am with the early game. It's been a long time for me and FE8, after all.

This Franz isn't looking too bad so far, but it's always a gamble with him. Now Forde on the other hand, will be a complete toss-up whether or not he seeks the bench immediately.

Here's to hoping Ross pulls through on SPD growth as time goes on. C'mon, son, you gotta work up that cardio if you want to be a great fighter like your dad!

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Why would i not be fine with that? Go get it! And speaking of which:


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Part 2 (linked in the interest of not having 7000 images on one page)

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I might pick up a chapter or two, this looks fun.

What the heck is this Ross though :magical:

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vilk wrote:
Tue Aug 11, 2020 1:59 am
Even with her original, unlimited power, she kinda sucks, at least right off the bat. I fully understand if she doesn't get fielded ever again but shut up i like using archers, there's something satisfying about wrecking shit with the most useless class in the game ok.
I just babysit Neimi because I really like Bow Knights for no rational reason. Maybe it’s the feeling of getting 2 range from a mounted unit without feeling like I’m wasting a low-durability item. Or maybe it’s just how overpowered Nomad Troopers are.
Gotta say i'm not really feeling the increased difficulty a lot so far, this is Garcia doubling someone already!
Which is bizarre, because Chapter 4 starts another power escalation to +5 bonus levels, the level that most of the game, save late/endgame and Lagdou, are set at.

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Lute no, get better levels

I want you to be usable

Lute, don't do this to me

At least Ross is pulling better weight. I'll get on the next update tomorrow, (or rather this morning, technically) after I get some sleep. You two pushed these updates out in record time though, that's for sure.

Edit: aw yes, I get to dodge having to do the damn fog map, perfect timing

Edit 2: also, Neimi is good, but the question remains, do we drop Moulder for Nat? Decisions...

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theshim wrote:
Tue Aug 11, 2020 2:01 am
I might pick up a chapter or two, this looks fun.
Are you claiming chapters 6-7 then? Or thinking of something later?
What the heck is this Ross though :magical:
He heard us talking shit.
Greener223224 wrote:
Tue Aug 11, 2020 2:33 am
Which is bizarre, because Chapter 4 starts another power escalation to +5 bonus levels, the level that most of the game, save late/endgame and Lagdou, are set at.
Seems like no matter the version, low level monsters kind of suck.
The Flying Twybil wrote:
Tue Aug 11, 2020 4:39 am
Lute no, get better levels

I want you to be usable

Lute, don't do this to me
To be fair it was only one level. She has plenty of room to grow and prove how superior she is if you want to give her the opportunity.
Edit: aw yes, I get to dodge having to do the damn fog map, perfect timing
Yeeeah i'll not blame the person who plays that if they just throw Seth at it.
do we drop Moulder for Nat? Decisions...
You can just use both and leave the decision for others to agonize over! :imunfunny:

Remember that Joshua will try to skewer Natasha in this version though, or the next person might not need to worry about it at all

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vilk wrote:
Tue Aug 11, 2020 4:55 am
To be fair it was only one level. She has plenty of room to grow and prove how superior she is if you want to give her the opportunity.
I'm definitely using Lute, she never let me down in my original run. Neimi's coming too, otherwise this army has a distinct lack of violet hair colors and we just can't have that.
Yeeeah i'll not blame the person who plays that if they just throw Seth at it.
The map's a pain on Normal, and only moreso on Hard where they throw lines of Cav reinforcements. I... I had to throw Seth at it most of the time when I played. Just too many horses trying to re-establish Horse Emblem supremacy.
Remember that Joshua will try to skewer Natasha in this version though, or the next person might not need to worry about it at all
It's a good thing I read through all the changes beforehand, that would've been a nasty damn surprise

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Ooh, this is a really fun thread! Definitely following it, might claim some chapters in a week or so?

Greener223224 wrote:
Tue Aug 11, 2020 2:33 am
vilk wrote:
Tue Aug 11, 2020 1:59 am
Gotta say i'm not really feeling the increased difficulty a lot so far, this is Garcia doubling someone already!
Which is bizarre, because Chapter 4 starts another power escalation to +5 bonus levels, the level that most of the game, save late/endgame and Lagdou, are set at.
Not that bizarre really, Bonewalkers are just pathetically slow even before getting weighed down by every non-slim variety of lance and there's only so much those five bonus levels can do to fix a base of 3 and a 20% growth for generic enemies.

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Listen, I may not be as fast as putting out updates as Green or Vilk, but I assure you mine are always of the highest quality, no matter what.

Prepare only the finest of drinks and snacks, recline gracefully in your chair, and put on only the most sonorous of tunes. Then, you can find it here: Update 3 - Ch.5

Enjoy.

The next shall be out tomorrow. Await it's arrival at your own leisure.

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The Flying Twybil wrote:
Tue Aug 11, 2020 10:11 pm
what kind of nerd doesn't play in detailed mode? I mean, what even
If this is even slightly serious, then I feel even more encouraged to follow this up with an FE3 run later.
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Excuse me, I need to troll r/shitpostemblem with this image right now.

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You know i was expecting to find like a giant flashing gif just saying FUCK!!! but this is much, much better. :golfclap:

I hope everyone playing this finds something to dunk on about the previous person's settings :v:

What's a #024 :j:

You're not fooling me, i didn't believe for a moment that Franz died!!!

Hahaha yeah i can get behind baiting with Eirika since you don't lose anyone if she gets crit...

At least you got some sweet levels to go with the less sweet ones!


I believe i shall in fact await the next update at my leisure. :toot:

wait does this place have a smiley limit i guess we'll find out

e:
Greener223224 wrote:
Tue Aug 11, 2020 10:49 pm
Excuse me, I need to troll r/shitpostemblem with this image right now.
What part of that is supposed to troll anyone? Just looks like a perfectly ordinary Myrm Doing Myrm Things.

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vilk wrote:
Tue Aug 11, 2020 10:53 pm
What part of that is supposed to troll anyone? Just looks like a perfectly ordinary Myrm Doing Myrm Things.

Oh, right. Nevermind

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Greener223224 wrote:
Tue Aug 11, 2020 10:49 pm
If this is even slightly serious, then I feel even more encouraged to follow this up with an FE3 run later.
doing the weight spd calc is for nerds, just compare AS

why use simple, u can figure out doubling on ur own not even that hard


Realtalk, I get most people probably use the shortened set, but I like seeing my calculated AS. It lets me know where my units are at without me having to check weapon weight manually.

Oh, but I've played FE3, I know how that interface looks
vilk wrote:
Tue Aug 11, 2020 10:53 pm
You know i was expecting to find like a giant flashing gif just saying FUCK!!! but this is much, much better. :golfclap:
thx, i worked real hard on it :keke:

am i a lp superstar yet :v:
What's a #024 :j:
Blast it all, I actually did make a legitimate error in that

Nope, I didn't say anything. You're just seeing things
At least you got some sweet levels to go with the less sweet ones!
Lute lifts, I'm tellin ya


e:

Damn, I didn't realize how perfect that Joshua shot was for being done on hand-reactions. That's like the best frame to get that animation on

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Thank you for awaiting at your leisure. Please take the same preparations as last time, and enjoy.

Update 4: Chapter 5x

(The download link for the save is on the last screenshot.)

What is this bizarre universe where Kyle actually gains stats instead of being a shameful idiot.

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RandomKesaranPasaran wrote:
Thu Aug 13, 2020 12:34 am
What is this bizarre universe where Kyle actually gains stats instead of being a shameful idiot.
I mean, usually my Kyles turn out fine

this one just doesn't want to crit

It's just Forde, his awesome hair, and his refusal to be good

Also what an Ephraim

e: It may just be my LP luck bleeding in, who knows :j:

e2: Kyle did crit a random enemy with a sword in there, I just forgot to mention it

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FE8’s Christmas Cavs just resist any attempt to make them good, and I have no idea why. Back in FE7, Lowen tends to get left in the dust while Sain and Kent are top tier units, but here the opposite happens, where Franz is one of the best units and Kyle and Forde are saved only by their choice of class, even though their averages tend to level out the same as Sain and Kent. Maybe it’s just the Steel weapons that’s weighing down both their speed and their ability to be good.

At any rate, who’s next to donate their bodies free time to (social) science?

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Pretty good Kyle there, huh. :confuoot:

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Don't we all wish...
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Rambo wants to know what a triangle is, can you tell him
I think it's this bit

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but don't quote me on it.


e: Oh yeah, with dropbox links you can change the dl=0 at the end to dl=1 and it'll just immediately give you the file instead of sending you to a new page and being like "are you suuuure you want to download this file...?" :science:

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I guess I got next. Let's see how long I need to get my workflow going for this.

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I will add my name to the hat. Also, Twybil's dialogue rewrites are peak :allears:

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Greener223224 wrote:
Thu Aug 13, 2020 6:48 am
FE8’s Christmas Cavs just resist any attempt to make them good, and I have no idea why. Back in FE7, Lowen tends to get left in the dust while Sain and Kent are top tier units, but here the opposite happens, where Franz is one of the best units and Kyle and Forde are saved only by their choice of class, even though their averages tend to level out the same as Sain and Kent. Maybe it’s just the Steel weapons that’s weighing down both their speed and their ability to be good.
Actually, in my experience, Kyle almost always does pretty alright, Franz destroys the competition, and Forde remains too far behind to be useful when I could just put Seth in his spot. I mean, I want to use Forde, but buddy, you start one level higher than Kyle and your stats are worse than his by a decent bit.

FE7-wise, I've never had a good Kent. I don't know what it is. My Lowens are always good though, with pretty high HP and DEF.
vilk wrote:
Thu Aug 13, 2020 8:58 am
Pretty good Kyle there, huh. :confuoot:

e: Oh yeah, with dropbox links you can change the dl=0 at the end to dl=1 and it'll just immediately give you the file instead of sending you to a new page and being like "are you suuuure you want to download this file...?" :science:
Seriously, my Kyles are always usually good enough, even if Franz has the better stats in the end.

I figured I was forgetting something on the link. I had to make an account and upload all this stuff in a rush though because of an oncoming storm.

I'm not even kidding on that.
Tanegashima wrote:
Thu Aug 13, 2020 2:19 pm
Also, Twybil's dialogue rewrites are peak :allears:
what do you mean, this is the normal dialogue

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Alright, I'm done with my two chapters as far as playing and recording is concerned. This playthrough got interesting very fast.

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Collapse boxes are now a thing. If you don't want to use lpix to post your updates, you can use these to minimize all the pics for in-thread updates.

Like so
Although given how prominent lpix use has become, I don't think anybody is going to be shifting their formatting habits. Oh, woe be to my fragile ego...


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TheMcD wrote:
Thu Aug 13, 2020 7:28 pm
This playthrough got interesting very fast.
Rip Franz :tinfoil:

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vilk wrote:
Thu Aug 13, 2020 9:07 pm
TheMcD wrote:
Thu Aug 13, 2020 7:28 pm
This playthrough got interesting very fast.
Rip Franz :tinfoil:
Nah, feels more like “RIP Joshua” or “RIP Vanessa”

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Well then. Let's see what kind of shit I'm in.

My first act is to buy a vulnerary for Natasha so everybody has a vulnerary, because I feel like it might come in handy. There was a one use vulnerary in supply, but I wanted Natasha to have more, given that she can't exactly be healing herself with her staff. Also, I change some options, as usual with this LP now.

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Next up, I declare myself the arbiter of stat boosts, and with that, I drop the Dragonshield on Lute, since she's got a bit of a defense problem...

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...and then I drop the Secret Book on her as well because hey, why not. Let's help her become a god unit. Then I also buy her a new Fire tome just in case.

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Now, let's give this mission a shot.

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BORING.

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Alright, now for the fun part. First, let's look at the map.

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You'll notice that I'm not entirely sure on my memories of this map. There are still a few unclear things. I sure hope that won't come back to bite me in the ass!

Also, don't worry about the double Colm and such. I moved him around in battle preps to get more vision and haven't made my setup for the map yet.

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Here's the crew I'm going with. You might say "Why are you not bringing Colm on a fog map?" and I'd say "I'm pretty sure if I do, some asshole is just going to run up and one-shot him.". Artur is also not great on the defensive side, and I'm not confident in my ability to defend him. I wanted Neimi for some range over Joshua, which might've been a bad decision, and finally, I figured I only needed one healer, so no Moulder.

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And here we go. First basic idea is I take Gilliam and send him up in the direction of that forest spot where he can hopefully tank the one or two units that are up there, then go east with the rest of the group, weathering whatever's set up there.

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And it is of course after I move most of my units that I decide to Torch to see what I'm getting into and then realize that just maybe I underestimated what was going on here. Well, we'll see how it goes.

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The only guy that can reach Garcia in the first enemy phase goes down without much of a fight.

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Gilliam, however, is not doing well at tanking. I did not expect an Iron Blade cav that can double Gilliam to come out of the fog. He is immediately in deep shit. There's also an Iron Sword cav that doesn't double. Fucking go figure.

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Next player phase, Gilliam gets to the forest and tries not to die. I'm very torn on whether I need Seth here to help out, but eventually decide against it, figuring that the main group needed more help.

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Garcia takes out the other soldier and hunkers down in the fort.

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He also gets a mediocre level out of it.

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Natasha gets a terrible level from Torching.

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At least there's not too much extra here.

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The final situation at turn end is this. I kinda set up a half-assed defensive formation behind Garcia to protect the vulnerable units, but ultimately I'm hoping Garcia takes most of the heat and tanks it. He has an Elixir, he'll be fine.

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...that's not a good start. I mean, that's about 30% with True Hit, which I guess isn't too unlikely, but still, that's kinda rude.

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This is also not good, but I had to expect that. I think I underestimated mercs at the time, which can be a fatal error, since I'm pretty sure they're very above average in regular enemy dangerousness.

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...and then this guy shows up. OK, now I just need no other enemy to have a ranged weapon, and Garcia can pop an Elixir, and we're back on track.

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Guess what my dipshit ass didn't notice because I didn't scroll the fucking map up after Torching?

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...oh, go fuck yourself, Gilliam. That's like a ten percent chance! So now he's back at 8 HP - Iron Sword guy missed. That's not good.

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Surprise! Another ranged asshole! Thankfully, he missed.

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...but this guy didn't. So, uh, yeah. RIP Garcia. The first casualty, and hopefully not the last because otherwise that'd make me look bad.

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So yeah, this is my situation now. Gilliam is hanging on by a thread and can't run away from the cavs fast enough, which means I should send in Seth, but the situation at the front is just as fucked, so I kinda need him there too. This kinda sucks.

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Here's the first part of the phase. Looks good so far, killing a bunch of enemies, but there's still a lot left, so we're certainly going to have to weather some of it.

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Ross gets a garbage level out of it.

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Lute shows him how it's done.

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And here's the second part of the phase. This did go a lot better than I expected.

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And I immediately pay for thinking that, because I realized too late that I basically left Ross to the wolves - I should've probably rescued him with Vanessa and sent him off, but then Gilliam would have probably died to the Iron Blade guy.

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Franz gets a level off killing some fighter that popped out of the fog.

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This is about where I thought I'd shit myself. I did not check for weapons, and as a result, this fighter fuck could've just one-shotted Seth and I'd never have heard the end of it.

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Iron Blade guy does what I hoped he would by attacking Vanessa instead of Gilliam.

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Vanessa gets more defensive because of it. Good plan.

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And then the archer claims his second victim. Fucking bravo, I say. MVP of this entire playthrough, I'm sure. RIP Ross, at least you didn't have a lot of time to grieve about your father dying.

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Then there's this prick in the north, healing up the Iron Sword cav I did some damage to earlier. Brilliant.

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Camera movement in the west after the Green Unit Phase. Reinforcements?

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Next player phase. Seth blitzes up ASAP - the earlier he can kill this boss, the earlier I can get the fuck out of this nightmare of a map.

Eirika then starts working over the archer, though he's still alive, and I decide to have Natasha Torch the area where I saw movement earlier.

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Oh you are fucking shitting me. That's it, Gilliam's fucking dead. He's not getting out of there without getting swamped by cavs. I could try to rescue him, but that would just either lead Vanessa into a difficult situation or cause the cavs to quickly catch up to other slower units and murder them. So congratulations, Gilliam, you've been elected to fill up the fucking hat trick.

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One problem I'm having with this merc is that he's really hard to hit and therefore hard to kill.

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Lute gets to take out the Archer Of Death.

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Neimi's not helping. I should've brought Joshua.

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Finally, Natasha gets rescued by Vanessa because she's in the attack line of some cav, and this is the setup. Kinda fucked.

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Lute helps with taking down the merc on enemy phase.

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Gilliam gets hit by two 64s and misses a 74. Fuck you too. You are so dead.

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Then he gets hit by a 40, misses an 88, and the last 40 actually misses, otherwise he would've been dead right then and there. I assume that means the next enemy will just be the one that kills him.

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Meanwhile, Seth is doing Seth things.

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Thankfully, the cavs positioned themselves in a bad way, leaving one cav unable to attack Gilliam, and the other one misses with the javelin, so he gets to live one more turn.

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So, uh, yeah. I'm pretty sure I'm just accepting the death now unless I think of something. He's got 6 HP, and I'm pretty sure I can't get him out there without immediately greatly endangering someone else, and if somebody's got to go, it might as well be fucking Gilliam.

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Though I'm giving him a bit more of a chance by trading him Franz's vulnerary, since he's getting the fuck out of Dodge.

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Eirika uses her Torch to reveal a bit more map, and... uh, I don't like this at all. I need a better approach for this. The fact that Novala is an exact two-shot kill on Seth is really not good. Also, why the fuck does he get to have so much HP again?

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I mean, he's a level 10 Shaman! Do they really get that much health?

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Guess I'll kill this cleric instead, he's going to be a pain in the ass if I don't get rid of him.

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So, uh, yeah. Have fun, Gilliam!

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OK, Lute, that's really not what I needed from you right now.

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Seth does Seth things.

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People start popping out of the fog again.

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The first cav that attack Gilliam instantly takes him down to 4 HP.

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Then the Iron Sword guy takes him down to 2 HP.

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Javelin guy misses.

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Also, some shaman shows up too.

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And that's it! Gilliam lives another turn thanks to forests making it hard for cavs to get to him! But now I really need to finish this this turn. How do I do that?

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I do heal him up and put him on a fort, but I don't expect that to hold. Now, I need something to solve this conundrum of killing Novala before the cavs murder Gilliam.

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Well, whatever the solution is, this will help.

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This looks good, but not good enough for a player phase kill. If I hit twice, that's an enemy phase kill, but does that save Gilliam... actually, it might! Don't bosses attack first on enemy phase? I think they do! So, if Seth hits two 81s - which honestly is a fucking feat at this point, given that I've seen several upper 80s miss this map - and bosses attack first, Gilliam is safe.

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The first part works. Seth hits, Novala misses. I had things prepped to where I could rescuedrop Seth out with Franz and heal him, since two hits from Novala are a death, but this part works, so Seth should be safe at least. I can't believe I have to be happy about that. That should be a fucking given.

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Still, we need to set up as well as possible in case Seth misses. Vanessa fails at getting that fucking merc out of my hair.

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Franz gets the job done, finally. He's no Archer of Death, but he was a massive thorn in my side.

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Neimi and Lute combine for a soldier kill.

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MAG/SPD/DEF, let's go. Lute putting in work on her levels.

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Well, this sucks. I'm pretty sure Neimi can get hit by a cav (though she has great speed, so she won't get doubled and should live), and Gilliam is probably wrecked if Seth misses or Novala doesn't attack first. The shaman will probably attack Natasha, but she should live. Unless there's some guys in the fog still. Let's see what happens!

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Yes...

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...yes!

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Get fucking wrecked. Ignore the fact that this mission fucking wrecked me. I wrecked it. That's all that matters.

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Oh, yeah, I saved you. I totally was going fast because of that, not because I was fighting for the life of my units and needed to end the mission ASAP.

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Somebody better promote Neimi with this.

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Alright, there we go! Fucking done with this shit! I sure hope the next chapter isn't as extremely rude as this one.

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Should've guessed we'd lose both of our fighters. RIP Garcia and Ross

RIP chance at pirate

but hey, Lute and Josh are still alive, so I'm all good with this

Seriously, though, this map is a fucking nightmare. It's painful on Normal.

Weirdly robust Novala was one of the things that made me doubletake a bit since I hadn't touched the JP version in forever but no, someone was just drunk off their ass apparently and gave a level 10 shaman +23 HP for some reason.

That archer though, what a legend (RIP Garcia and Ross).

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:magical:

Well on the plus side you didn't lose any good units. I was guessing Franz since that might actually have been detrimental in the long run. There's always Gerik and Dozla if someone really wants a hero or berserker. I'm actually a little salty Seth didn't get oneshot when he had the opportunity because it would have been hilarious

Next map should be better though! Unless jp version actually has more than like one manned ballista three timezones over to the side

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RIP our hopes and dreams regarding axes. Maybe we'll just stick Franz in Great Knight.

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Ouch, two units I would’ve loved to see used go down like punks. Only a matter of time before the entire party is cut down to only mounted units and Gerik.
Vilkacis wrote: I'm actually a little salty Seth didn't get oneshot when he had the opportunity because it would have been hilarious
That probably would’ve resulted in a Game Over, though, given how vital Seth was to saving the level and Gilliam. Ah well, would’ve been funny to see.

Also, I’m all but certain Novala’s 42HP is a mixup on the hacker’s part, and you’ll see why eventually.
Tanegashima wrote: RIP our hopes and dreams regarding axes. Maybe we'll just stick Franz in Great Knight.
Why do we need to screw the GOOD cavalier with the bad class just for Hand Axes? We already got Forde and Kyle as glorified axefighters on horses.

Greener223224 wrote:
Fri Aug 14, 2020 10:54 pm
Also, I’m all but certain Novala’s 42HP is a mixup on the hacker’s part, and you’ll see why eventually.
I checked and it's not. It really is that high in the JP version for some odd reason.

In fact I'm kind of half-tempted to go through the minor boss differences now since those aren't documented in the linked wiki.

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What a bloodbath! Glad to see Gilliam pulled through though.

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RandomKesaranPasaran wrote:
Fri Aug 14, 2020 10:57 pm
Greener223224 wrote:
Fri Aug 14, 2020 10:54 pm
Also, I’m all but certain Novala’s 42HP is a mixup on the hacker’s part, and you’ll see why eventually.
I checked and it's not. It really is that high in the JP version for some odd reason.

In fact I'm kind of half-tempted to go through the minor boss differences now since those aren't documented in the linked wiki.
Not yet. There’s still one big difference down the line that I really don’t want spoiled. And it has nothing to do with HP counts.

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Alright, no need to futz around much this time, just bought two extra vulneraries just in case. We're kinda low on funds, but whatever, it's fine.

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Yeah, yeah, whatever, let's get to the preps.

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This is what I'm bringing this time. I'm not exactly confident I'll get a lot of good use out of Neimi, and I want Colm around because there's something I need to steal. Joshua will probably do a lot better than Neimi.

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And here's the map. Given that there's no fog, I'm hoping I'm not going to be overwhelmed with surprises here. Let's go.

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I'm not screwing around with this map, not after the disaster that was the last one. Lute and Gilliam set up to take the first few enemies at chokepoints, and everybody else sits behind them for eventual backup.

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Gilliam gets this level going up against the first soldier. I hope he gets speed at some fucking point.

Second turn isn't much new. Gilliam kills the solider and Natasha heals him, the rest keep hunkering down.

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Lute gets axed because of course.

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And then she gets thundered because of course.

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Nothing much on the third turn either, and this will probably become a theme. Lute attacks from range and gets healed by Natasha, Artur and Vanessa set up to take over from Gilliam when the enemy mage arrives.

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Then Vanessa sets up to take the attack from the approaching mage from the east while Lute keeps fighting the mage from the north.

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Vanessa does her thing on enemy phase.

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Lute gets a garbage level after taking out the other mage.

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Apart from that, Joshua takes point to take on the approaching fighter, which should be the last enemy that moves on their own. Then we get to the part where I slowly trudge across the map picking off enemies, and in the interest of keeping this less boring, I'll be abridging a lot here.

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Josh gets a level from fighting the fighter.

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Natasha gets a level while we're fighting the two fighters and one archer group at the bottom right of the map.

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Franz also gets one while killing the archer of that group. I only now notice that Franz is a speed demon.

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Next we use Gilliam to force the ballista guy to run out of ammo.

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We move on to fighting the mercs one at a time with Franz, since I've now learned that mercs are not to be fucked with.

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Franz levels up again doing that.

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Lute sets up to lure out that Energy Ring mage so I can steal it.

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It works.

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Franz levels up again from killing the mage.

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Gilliam levels up after I place him in a bad position and he gets attacked by a fighter. Thankfully, the fighter was wounded and Gilliam could just kill him on the counter. Also, GET SPEED.

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Then he levels up again after I send him to take out the soldiers, which is about the only thing he can do reliably. I'm pretty sure whoever gets this save next is just going to bench you, you slow ass.

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Franz gets given the job of taking out the archers next to Murray and does so with a good level.

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Then I decide to give Franz the energy ring as well, because he's turning out really well, and adding on to that seems like a good idea. Having god units you can rely on should be useful in an iron man run.

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And indeed, he's just going to take on Murray on his own without problems.

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And get another great level out of it. And since Murray drops a knight crest, I start wondering if I should be leaving that item for the next player after burning a ton of stat boosters.

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Then I decide "fuck it" and just promote Franz to paladin immediately.

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Look at this. Franz beats Seth on strength, speed and defense, with him having six more speed than Seth, and I just promoted him at level 12! Now the next player will have two get-out-of-jail-free cards.

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Anyway, Eirika seizes and we're done.

Here's the save file. I use RetroArch to emulate, so I'm not sure if it'll run easily in other emulators.

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Yay, Paladin Franz! Not happy about the early promotion, but at least he's not lagging behind chucking Hand Axes while Seth is sweeping the levels instead. This is probably going to start a trend that will involve the next player promoting Vanessa to Wyvern Knight and Lute to Mage Knight immediately, though.

And as another thing to note, Murray doesn't have a Javelin in this version. He's stuck on a gate with just a Steel Sword and no ranged option.

Anyways, whoever's going next should make a save that stops after beating Chapter 8 rather than after the route split. I want to see if both routes can get covered in this run.

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