Romance! Intrigue! Honor! And WAR!! Let's Max Rank Fire Emblem 4!!
Posted: Sat Aug 29, 2020 3:47 am
Hello everyone, and welcome to a special Let's Play of Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War! Yes, Fire Emblem Appreciation Season seems to have been revitalized, so I decided to jump on and show YOU how to Max Rank this game!
The Fire Emblem series consists of Strategy RPG's made by Intelligent Systems. They are a little like Chess, in that you control a multitude of "pieces", each with their own strengths and weaknesses. However, UNLIKE Chess, your "pieces" are individual characters that ALL have their own unique attributes, personalities, and even backgrounds. And unlike other Strategy RPG's (like Warcraft, Age of Empires, and Advance Wars), there are NO generic playable characters in the entire game!
Plus, some of these games have a ranking system that judges you on how WELL you beat it! Like, "how many of your people got killed?", "how much time did it take you to beat the game?", and etc.
So my intention is not just to beat it, or even just to get the maximum rank. No, my goal is to instruct you, the readers, on how to Max Rank this game as easily, quickly, efficiently, and reliably as possible. I'm not attempting to reinvent the wheel by trying to exceed the requirements as much as I can (like what Melth does). No, it's to Max Rank this game in a way that is as simple as possible while still using strategies worthy of an RTA speed run. For reference, here are all the updates thus far...
Prologue Part 1: (This Post, Basic Game Mechanics Explained)
Prologue Part 2 (Lex and Azel Recruited)
Prologue Part 3 (DiMaggio Defeated; Jungby Reclaimed)
Prologue Part 4 (Silver Sword Acquired)
Prologue Part 5 (Gerrard Defeated; End of Prologue)
Chapter 1 Part 1 (Kinbois Defeated; Genoa Conquered)
Chapter 1 Part 2 (Gandolf Defeated; Genoa Conquered)
Chapter 1 Part 3 (Sandima Defeated; End of Chapter 1)
Mini-Update #1: War Room Part 5 (Pairing Choices, Romance, Inheritance, and the Jealousy System)
Chapter 2 Part 1 (Elliot, Philip, and Boldo Defeated; Heirhein Conquered)
Chapter 2 Part 2 (Voltz and Macbeth Defeated; Anphony Conquered)
Chapter 2 Part 3 (Clement Defeated, Mackily Conquered)
Chapter 2 Part 4-1 (1st and 2nd Turn)
Chapter 2 Part 4-2 (Zyne and his Army Defeated)
Chapter 2 Part 4-3 (Arena Shenanigans, Miscellaneous Conversations, End of Chapter 2)
Chapter 3 Part 1 (Opening Narration and Turn 1)
Chapter 3 Part 2 (Jacoban Defeated)
Chapter 3 Part 3 (The Last Remnants of Agustria)
Chapter 3 Part 4 (Papilion and His Employer Defeated)
Chapter 3 Part 5 (Pizarl and Dobarl Defeated)
Chapter 4 Part 1 (Arena and War Room #7)
Chapter 4 Part 2 (Cuvuli and Deetva Defeated)
Chapter 4 Part 3 (Lord Maios Defeated)
Chapter 4 Part 4 (Lord Daccar Defeated)
Chapter 5 Part 1 (Lord Langbart Defeated)
Chapter 5 Part 2 (Grinding to LVL 30)
Chapter 5 Part 2 (Grinding to LVL 30)
Chapter 5 Part 3 (Lady Vaha Defeated)
Chapter 5 Part 4 (Miscellaneous Lover Conversations)
Chapter 5 Part 5 (End of Gen 1)
AAAA Ranked Stats at the End of Gen 1
Chapter 6 Part 1 (General Harold Defeated)
Chapter 6 Part 2 (Lord Dannan Defeated)
Chapter 7 Intro
Chapter 7 Part 1 (Cutozov Defeated)
Chapter 7 Part 2 (Lord Ishtor Defeated)
And here are what I like to consider little "War Room" updates (TOTALLY not stolen from Melth, no sir), going over things that you'll need to understand in order to AAAA Rank this game properly...
The War Room Part 1: What is Max Ranking About?
The War Room Part 2: The Elite Ring, the Arena, and Why We've GOT to Have, Moneyyy...
The War Room Part 3: The Kill Counter, the Critical Skill, and Powering Up Your Weapons
The War Room Part 4: Holy Blood is Thicker Than Iron
The War Room Part 5: Pairing Choices, Romance, Inheritance, and the Jealousy System
The War Room Part 6: The Power of Dancers (Courtesy of MartytheDemonslayer)
The War Room Part 7: What to Do With Civilians?
The War Room Part 8: Hitting LVL 30 in Gen 2
Now, enough hooplah about all that; let's check out the opening crawl!
In an age beyond living memory
A devil's shade cast upon our world
Plunging it into the deepest darkness
And condemning us to endless grief.
In vain we prayed to the bleak heavens.
Twelve gods descended from above
To lead the charge against the great evil.
Invoking holy light, the gods smote the devil,
And granted us our lost hope once more.
We and our world were thus reborn.
And so,
As time flows endlessly on,
The nightmare has faded into legend...
And title drop! Yes, like I was saying, the Fire Emblem series is not JUST about the gameplay. Each one also puts a heavy emphasis on having an extensive plotline, on having lots of dialogue, on having many unique and colorful characters, on having an interesting backstory...basically, on having an actual plot.
Unfortunately, this particular game in the series was never released in America. In fact, NONE of them were until the 7th game, shortly after a certain character called Roy appeared in Super Smash Bros. Unfortunately, Roy was the main character of the 6th game, so we never actually got his game. But oh well...
Anyways, I AM using an English patch for this game. But, while it is actually pretty well done (as far as translation patches go), it did not translate ALL of the dialogue, only most of it. There is someone named "BookofHolsety" doing another translation patch, but for now, I'll have to settle for using his script for whatever parts weren't translated.
Now then, let's start our game!
Oh, wait, nvm, another opening crawl. Gotta have that backstory !
Boy...wonder why this never made it into America...
Yeah, some of the middle part of that timeline was alluded to in the opening we watched. You don't really need to know it, but it's a neat little thing to keep in mind, just because it adds some flavor to the story .
Now then, after that, we get a nice isometric map of the world of Fire Emblem 4. Every time you complete a map, you're going to be treated to one of these segments, accompanied with text to inform you of the current situation, being faced by both the world, and by your main character (who is always some sort of military commander in these games).
Unfortunately, the text itself consists of a long string of sentences scrawled across many, many text boxes. And considering each of them can only contain two short lines of text...I'm not going to try to catch all the text in screenshots. Instead, we're just going to transcribe it, and include the occasional screenshot so that you don't get lost. Now then...
Grandbell rests in the centre of the Jugdral continent and was founded by Saint Heim, one of the 12 Crusaders.
Heim’s descendants, the Royal Family, were joined by six additional duchies, each with their own Crusader lineage. Each duchy possessed large territory and military holdings, and exercised partial autonomy while serving under the Royal Family.
Assisting the prince was his confidant Lord Bryon of Chalphy, and Lord Ring of Jungby.
Prime Minister Reptor of Freege felt his position was being undermined. Calling on the avaricious Lord Langbart of Dozel, the two formed a coalition opposing the prince’s authority.
Actually, this screenshot contains a small error in the English patch script. See, Reptor's loathing wasn't something that just started recently. According to BookofHolsety's shiny new script, Reptor had been hating Kurth for a good while before finally starting stuff with Langbart at his side. Anyways, mugshots.
And now for the next person on our list...Alvis!
The young Lord Alvis of Velthomer, commander of the Royal Guard, had little involvement in governmental affairs.
"So all those other important guys? He's not one of them, he just some guy. Some guy who does...stuff, I guess....Yeah. Don't know why we even mentioned him really."
Okay but seriously, what the game is SUPPOSED to tell you is that Alvis is extremely busy with his duties as Commander of the Royal Guard, and THAT'S why he isn't involving himself in the current situation with Kurth vs. Reptor & Langbart. The original translation patch just missed that tidbit.
And unfortunately for us, HE'S not going to be in the plot for another 10 hours, so that...doesn't really help us much . So that's it for all the Dukes and Duchies. But wait, there's more!
Just as this drama was beginning to unfold, news of calamity arrived from the east.
We then scroll northeast.
The peaceful town of Darna, located in the Yied Desert, came under siege by Isaacian barbarians. Reports told of a massive slaughter taking place.
We then we scroll back to Grandbell.
Back in Grandbell, public outcry began to grow, and before long the decision was made to subdue Isaac. Acting on his father’s behalf, Prince Kurth departed for the front commanding the lords from each duchy. There at his side, a warrior in his own right revered for his heroism and bravery, was none other than Lord Bryon. Only a handful of soldiers remained in Grandbell. Owing to a diplomatic alliance with Agustria to the west...
...and the Verdane Kingdom to the southwest...
...fear of any kind of aggression was virtually non-existent. However, that trust was betrayed all too soon. Verdane Kingdom’s massive army, spearheaded by Prince Gandolf...
...crossed into Grandbell territory unnoticed and laid siege to Jungby Castle.
Entrusted with the protection of the kingdom by his father, Lord Bryon, Sigurd...
...stayed behind at Chalphy Castle. With only a few soldiers at his disposal, he was rightfully terrified when news of the invasion reached Chalphy. Sigurd cried, ‘Those barbarians aren’t laying a hand on Aideen!’
Creative Liberty #1: The original text just has the narrator speaking the entire time, while this one quotes something Sigurd said.
So yeah, unlike most other fan translations, this one actually has had some creative liberties taken with it! And a lot of them actually work out pretty well! This one, for example, brings some much needed spice into what is otherwise a long info-dump about Grandbell and it's politics. Pretty neat eh?
Having known Aideen since childhood, he was left with no other alternative. Sigurd promptly made the decision to take up arms.
Gran calender – 757. It was this very turn of events that cracked open the door of fate. No one at the time could have recognised this forewarning to the disastrous events to follow.
Oooh, that sounds ominous.
Birth of a Crusader
Here's the Chapter title screen, written in lots of complicated looking Kanji! I've taken beginning Japanese, but I can't even HOPE to translate that myself! Not without a dictionary!
So here's that massive army the game was talking about. Man, looks like it's in deep trouble doesn't it?
And here's a look at the conversation going on in Jungby. You're going to be seeing this kind of thing very often in Fire Emblem 4, with every different faction talking about what's going on, and how they feel about the proceedings, and things like that. Quite neat, that.
Aideen: Please save yourself. I want as many of you to get out of this alive as possible!
Midir: None of us are going anywhere, my lady. We’re here for you till the very end. Even if it means our lives.
Aideen: Oh… thank you, Midir. I’m so sorry to put you through all this.
Pretty nice woman, huh? You can really see why everyone's so concerned about her .
Meanwhile, at Castle Chalphy...
Here's Sigurd!
Sigurd: Aideen is in trouble. Gandolf’s army has laid siege to Jungby Castle. Noish, I’m going to go and see if I can do something. You’re in charge while I’m gone.
Noish: Sir… You’re not planning on going alone, are you!?
Sigurd: Grandbell’s military is already en route to Isaac. There really is no one left to call on. Verdane’s army may be full of barbarians, but it’s huge. There are bound to be casualties. I can’t get you involved.
...uh, yeah, isn't that EXACTLY WHY THEY SHOULD get involved?! Sentiment is nice and all, but how are you going to save Aideen and everyone else if you're fricken DEAD ?!
Noish: Excuse me, sir!?
Yeah, excuse me? Noish and Alec may stink at fighting (as we will see soon), but...surely they don't stink THAT badly...right?
Noish: We were born into the knighthood and are prepared to die fighting! We’d be a disgrace to let our master perish out there all alone. We’re going with you. Alec, you’re with me on this, aren’t you?
You tell him Alec!
Alec: But we’d better swing by the villages before going to Jungby Castle. Those barbarians’ll loot the place, kill everybody in sight, then burn it all to the ground. We’ve got to beat them there and get the villages to strengthen their defenses.
Sigurd: Point well taken, Alec. We mustn’t overlook our duty as knights to protect the people.
Alec: Actually, Oifaye takes credit for that one. I tell ya, that kid’s a strategist in the making. Takes right after that famous grandfather of his, Lord Sesar.
In some ways, it does seem a little strange to take such a detour when Jungby, one of the six major duchies of Grandbell, is in danger of being conquered...but actually, this is pretty smart if you think about it. One, you really do need the support of the common people if you want them to fund your war as willingly as you'll want them to, and secondly, Verdane's army is kind of all over the place. So if you just try and charge straight toward Jungby, like Sigurd may have otherwise done, there's a very real risk that he and his men would have just gotten themselves surrounded, flanked, and then killed.
But by doing this first, they're not only eliminating that risk, but they're also taking out a good chunk of Verdane's army while it's still scattered, unorganized, and not as adequately prepared to deal with Sigurd's army. So good on ya Oifaye.
Sigurd: I don’t know, Oifaye…You’re still pretty young. You think you’ll be okay out there?
Oifaye: I’m already 14, sir.
Whoa fourteen! That's like, all the way into your tweens :cheeky:!
Oifaye: I know I’m not ready to fight yet, but I can still help out. Please… let me go with you.
Sigurd: Well, it has been a good two years since you began training for your knighthood under me. You’re probably ready for some battlefield action. But no fighting… not just yet anyway. Why don’t you come along as my personal advisor?
Oifaye: You bet! Thanks, sir!
So Fire Emblem 7 had Mark the Tactician, and now we have Oifaye. Quite a bit younger than Mark, but hey, at least he talks !
Noish: Sir, have you considered leaving someone behind to defend the castle? It would be too risky not to. We would be finished if we lost our base here to the enemy.
Alec: Hey Noish… you KNOW who’d be perfect for that job! Isn’t that right, Arden?
Ardan: Why me, Alec?
Ok, so I've given the Translation patch some grief in regards to a few mistranslations and some untranslated dialogue. And trust me, there's going to be more issues as time goes along...
But do not be fooled. In terms of reading well, reading like it was written by an actual human being, this is BY FAR one of the best patches I've ever seen. It's not (usually) overly literal, it's easily to understand what the characters are saying, the names were localized faithfully while still sounding like actual names, the characters personalities are still mostly retained (though the translators DID take liberties with some of them...like Trabant and Ardan, and it's really obvious that whoever the translators were, they had a very good sense of humor.
Seriously, it's very rare that you'll find an English patch like this. Obviously the localization isn't quite as good as the kind you'd find in any of the FE games that actually came out in America...but it's still head and shoulders above almost every other fan translation I've ever seen (exceeded only by the excellent FE12 translation). Heck, it even reminds me of Woosley's FF6 translation in some ways, though BookofHolsety certainly doesn't think it's anywhere near comparable in quality...
But still, it's an extremely nice change of pace after fan translation after fan translation containing dialogue so stiff and natural, it hardly even feels like a human wrote it. So I like it at least. Anyways, let's see some more of that dialogue, shall we?
Sigurd: Ardan, can we count on you? You’re the only who can aptly handle the castle’s defense.
Ardan: Alright, I’ll do it. But you gotta promise to take me to battle with you sometimes.
Sigurd: Will do. Alright, let’s make our way to the villages, and then we’re off to Jungby!
And there we go. All of Sigurd's forces are assembled, and we are ready to kick some butt! But first, let's use the R Button to scan one of the enemies...
Alright, so we're seeing a whole lot of numbers and stuff. But if you're new to the Fire Emblem series, I'm guessing you're not too familiar with any of this stuff, so let's go over it real quickly, alright? Now then...
HP: This here is the most important stat of all. This represents your health, and the number on the right represents the maximum amount of health any unit can have. The number on the left represents how much health you have currently, and this number will start to go down if the unit starts taking hits from an opposing unit. And if it goes all the way to zero...well, I'm...sure you can imagine what happens then :nervous:. So do NOT let that happen to your own units!
Lev: We'll get more into this later...but for now, just realize that this plays a crucial role in how many of the other stats you have.
Atk: This here represents how much "Damage" your unit can do to another unit's HP. See, like Chess, each faction in this game takes turns. But unlike Chess, each and every unit on your side gets to move before the Computer gets a chance to move it's unit. Then you have to wait till IT moves all of it's units before finally getting to take your next turn.
In addition, unlike Chess, you can't just attack a "piece" and expect to just instantly K.O. it no matter what. No, in order to "kill" a unit, you have to take off ALL of it's HP, and the "Atk" rating represents just how much HP you can take off at any one time, assuming that your opponent has 0 Defense/Resistance. If your opponent DOES have Defense and Resistance however, then your Atk will be subtracted by however much Defense or Resistance your opponent has. "But wait', you might ask. 'Why do you keep saying Defense OR Resistance as opposed to both?" Well...you'll see, but for now, let's move on...
Hit and Evd (Evade): Represents how accurate a unit's attack is, and how likely it is to "dodge" an attack. Yes, not only can you NOT kill a unit in one blow, but you're attack may not even do ANY Damage at all! Basically, take the "Hit" of your unit, and subtract it by the "Evade" of whatever enemy unit you want to attack, and you'll have your percentage of how likely you are to hit.
So if one of your units has 80 Hit, and you subtract it by this guy's -20 Evade, that means you have a 100% chance of hitting this guy! But if your unit has only 10 Hit, and you subtract it by this guy's -20 Evade, then that means you only have a 30% chance of hitting this guy. So you're going to want to have REALLY high Hit and Evade ratings in this game if you want to do well!
Str (Strength), Mgt (Might) and Def (Defense): So now we know that "Attack" determines how much damage you can do...but what determines how much Attack your unit has? Well, actually, it's quite easy to find out. Just add this unit's "Strength" rating to the "Might" of it's weapon, and there you go! 5 Str + 14 Mgt = 19 Damage! As for those two stats, a unit has a fixed amount of Strength that it just naturally possesses, but it's Might depends on what exact weapon it's using. Right now, this enemy only has a weak Iron Axe, but later enemies have multiple Weapons that it can use depending on what they feel like doing. So keep that in mind for later...
As for "Defense", this is the stat that protects you against your opponent's attack. So if this guy attacks your unit, and your unit has 14 Defense, then that means this guy will only do 5 HP worth of damage rather than his full 19. So that's pretty simple I think...
Mgc & Res: Now these stats are like Str and Def, except, they only into play if you or your enemy decides to use a book of magic, like a Fire Tome or a Thunder Tome. Yes, in addition to knights and bandits, there are also wizards and sorcerers here too! And if one of those guys decide to attack you with magic rather than a weapon...
Then these stats will determine how much damage you take from their magic spells. So if your opponent has 4 Mgc and their Thunder tome has 14 Mgt, then that means that they have 18 Atk. Then if your unit has 5 Res, then that means your opponent does 13 Damage to you. Because 18 - 5 = 13. So that'll add a bit of a new dimension to things, once we actually get magic using units and stuff.
Skl & Acc: Now then, these two stats are what are used to determine your Hit rating. The formula is Skl x 2 + Weapon Acc = Hit. This guy's Skl is 0, and the Acc of his Iron Axe is 70. So, 0 Skl x 2 + 70 Acc = 70 Hit.
Spd, Wgt and Lck: These three stats are what determine your Evd. The formula for this is (Spd-Wgt) x 2 + Lck = Evd. This guy's Spd is 7, the weight of his weapon is 18, and his Lck is 0. So, (7 Spd - 18 Wgt) x 2 + Lck = -22 Evd.
That said though, Spd actually has an EXTREMELY important second function, which we will get to...now!
See this screen here? This is the second part of each unit's stat screen. So first, let's start with...
Personal Data: "Move" represents how many squares a unit can move per turn, Gold allows you to buy stuff on later maps, and "Lead" is a passive bonus Hit and Evd bonus that some units can give to others if they happen to be within 3 square of them. 2 Star units give 10+ Hit/Evd, 3 star units give 20+ Hit/Evd, 4 star units give 30+ Hit/Evd, and finally, 5 star units give 40+ Hit/Evd. So if you have the opportunity, it can sometimes be REALLY helpful to have your other units fight within three squares of wherever Sigurd is. As for the rest of the Personal data, those are all only situationally relevant, so we'll save those for later. For now, let's move on to...
Weapon Level: Here we have every kind of weapon in the game represented, both regular and magical. And there are 4 Ranks you can get within each category. You can have either a C Rank, a B Rank, an A Rank, or an "*" Rank. Each one is better than the one before it, to the point where having an * in, say, Axes, allows you to wield each and every single Axe in the entire game, including the very best ones to exist. But if you only have a C Rank, then that means you can only use extremely weak, extremely ineffective axes. And obviously THAT'S no good! And finally...
Special Skills: Oh boy. This here is one of the simplest, yet probably THE most important mechanic in the game. Remember what I was saying at the beginning, when I said that each character had their own unique attributes and traits? Well, this here is a large part of that!
See, "Special Skills" represent abilities that only certain characters have. Some, like Sigurd, only have one, but others can have as many as FIVE Special Skills! And there are as many Special Skills in this game as there are Pokemon in the Pokemon series! Some can sometimes allow a unit to hit an enemy up to 10 times in a single fight, some can sometimes allow a unit to have DOUBLE the amount of Atk they would normally have, some allow you to take an enemy unit's Gold from there...you get the point.
Unfortunately, Sigurd here only has one Special Skill. But the one he DOES have is probably the very best one in the game. If you click the R Button in order to check it out...
Whoa! Look at that! This baby allows Sigurd to attack an enemy unit not just once, but TWICE so long as he is faster than them! How can you tell if he's faster? Well, take his Spd...
...subtract it by the Weight of his weapon...
And you'll see that the resulting number (or Attack Speed/"AS", as we Fire Emblem 4 players call it) is 9. On the other hand, the Iron Axe guy has 7 Speed, and wields a weapon that has 18 Wgt, so 7 Spd - 18 Wgt = -11 AS. So yeah, Sigurd is DEFINITELY fast enough to hit the other guy twice when he attacks with his Steel Sword! And since Sigurd has 24 Atk compared to the other guy's 5 Def, he'll not only do 19 Damage per hit, but he'll deal TWO hits instead of just one during a round of combat. And since the Axe guy only has 36 HP...
...
Yeah . Clearly you see see just how amazing skills are. And best of all, each and every single unit you have, and will ever get, will ALWAYS have at least one skill, while the enemy units usually have none. Pretty AMAZING eh?
So I know this all sounds pretty tedious, and it sounds like it involves a LOT more number crunching than is actually fun to do...but actually, it's not as bad as it sounds becaaaaaaause...
Because of this. Don't be fooled by the "Acc" rating here. Unlike the "Accuracy" rating we already talked about (the one that belongs to individual weapons), this number is generated AFTER the game subtracts the enemy's Evade from however much Hit you have. So actually, the game already does a lot of the math FOR you. Because if you decide to have your unit attack an enemy, but then decide that you don't like the numbers displayed her, you can actually CANCEL your decision instead of actually going through with it.
As for why the enemy's hit is so much higher when Sigurd uses a lance, even though Sigurd didn't suffer that sharp an Evasion drop...that's because there's a little something called the "Weapon Triangle" mechanic in this game. Basically, if you attack an Axe-Wielder with someone using a sword, you get a 20+ bonus to your Accuracy and Evade. But if you attack said Axe-Wielder with a lance, then you get a 20 point penalty on your Accuracy and Evade. Same bonus applies for if you attack a Lance-Wielder with an axe, and the same penalty applies for if you attack said Lance-Wielder with a sword. And then of course, I think you can guess what happens if you use a lance or an axe against someone using a sword...
But man, that is a HECK of a lot of words I just threw at you, isn't it? This game must sound like some boring board game or something, huh? Well, actually it's not. In fact, before I end this update, let me show you just a little taste of just how exciting it can be...
Yeah, LOOK at those awesome animations! Look at how fast that went! Yeah, that's part of what makes the Fire Emblem series so great. Because of the story, the unique characters, the (usually) well done graphics, and the animations, the series itself is FAR more dynamic than a lot of other Strategy RPG's. Because of this, the games are able to be appealing even if you're not the kind of guy who'd be willing to, say, sit down at a Dungeons and Dragons game for 3 hours. Or something nerdy like that. So once you get the mechanics down, these games are seriously a ton of fun to play, so don't be intimidated by the epic mechanics-dump I just gave, alright?
So, anyways, I think I'll call this a day. We've went over a LOT of ground today, and I've already given the mother of all info-dumps. So then, how will Sigurd save the fair lady of Jungby? What will be done about Gandolf? Will he have to stop the Verdane army all alone? When am I going to start talking about what a "Max Rank Run" looks like? And...just what does the game mean about "cracking open the door of fate"? Find out, on the next EXCITING episode, of Let's Play Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War! Have a nice day...and God bless you !