Thracia: B******t

[mark_asphodel]

Yeah.  So, on this repeat episode of Thracia 776 (Chapter Two: Ith is a stupid name for a town), all my posse did what they were supposed to do.  They captured the mooks that needed to be captured, killed the boss in two turns, and generally acted like good little Fire Emblem characters.  See, I said the boss, Bucks, brought back memories of Hyman from Chapter Three of Shadow Dragon.  Bucks is even worse on paper-- he's a pre-promote with a bow and an axe.  In Chapter Two.  And since I saved all the villages, I get to Chapter 2X, which is already complete bullshit.  

It's bad enough to have shops when we have no money.  I mean, none. You get zilch to start with and have to sell your excess stuff, and since you have no money and can't buy anything, you don't know that you even have excess stuff.  The villagers don't reward you with bags of gold... but you do come in for some verbal abuse!  And here's a bloody fog-of-war map with no torches, and I already know that it's essential to capture one of the dudes I can't see instead of killing him.   Oh, and there's sand.  Thank goodness I only have one horsey-horsey to worry about instead of the usual squad of cavaliers.  But the simple existence of sand already means my most reliable mugger unit for capturing is either bogged down or has to dismount and use his secondary weapon that sucks. 

Thracia 776 is overflowing with BS already.  At least FE8 waited a couple more chapters to throw in fog-of-war, giant spiders, and helpless NPC units.  And FE8 provided torches on the front end.  :/

I guess it's a great depiction of what it's like to be a dirt-poor bunch of losers malcontents with more ambition than sense. 

-x-

Switching back-and-forth between FE4 and FE5 is head-spinning.  The games are so radically, radically different.  Even the color palette is different; FE4 is all bright and pretty and Thracia is kind of... grimy.  It's almost as dramatic as the difference in feel between FE6/7/8 and Shadow Dragon.  In terms of play, I think they're as different as two FE games can be outside of the Gaiden line of descent with world maps and monsters, and honestly FE8 has more core similarities to "normal" FE games than does FE4.  (FE2 truly is the odd duck because the weapons and magic are... weird.)

-x-

Speaking of FE2... we finally got DLC Cellica, and I can only say she disappoints.  Should've been a Grandmaster (Cellica was the original swords'n'tomes unit, damn you to hell MyUnit).  Shouldn't look so... bland.  Cellica's got style that even NES art can't dim.  Now she's just kinda cute.  At least she still has a nose.

-x-

Regarding DLC... Watching people insist on what we are and are not going to get as DLC units is funny and sad in the same way that watching people insist on who "deserves" to be in SSB4 is funny and sad.  Predictions are fun, guys, but we don't know anything about the decision-making process IS is using.  Nobody expected DLincia.  Nobody saw the Bride class coming.  So, to say that we WILL get Sigurd/Hector/Eliwood/Lyn and they HAVE to be this class because of reason X is just... foolish.  It would've made sense to have Grandmaster Cellica.  Didn't happen.  Would've made sense to have Ephraim allow access to an unmounted lance-using class.  Didn't happen.  The next unit unveiled could be Ninja Sothe for all we know.

And to insist you know what's next just makes you look like kind of a jerk.  Rather like the people who insisted they KNEW the true nature of Masked Marth and that anyone contradicting them was delusional.

Comments

[amielleon]

The idea with Thracia and money is to capture all the enemy mooks, take all their shit, and sell their weapons for some spare change. It is not the most functional expectation for someone not savestate abusing.

The fog of war system is kind of insane on Thracia and I'm glad that in FE6 they decided to actually show you the terrain.

That said, personally I love bosses with bows. They're so easy to dupe and murder. It's the hand axes you have to watch out for.

FE4 is horribly, ridiculously broken. FE5 is full of BS; FE4 is just broken. There are some units who are useful and some who are not, and those units who are, are capable of taking out entire squadrons solo. It only gets worse in Gen2 with strong pairings.

The two games are definitely very different, though. And I think FE4 is decisive proof that the GameFaqs people who criticize the DS games for being weird are playing off unknown biases rather than examining what's actually in front of them.

[mark_asphodel]

The idea with Thracia and money is to capture all the enemy mooks, take all their shit, and sell their weapons for some spare change.

Yeah, I got the impression the game is saying "Catch 'em all," but frankly that ain't happening. Not until more than four of my party are capable of capturing, and Havan sucks at it so far. I'm not restarting the chapter every time some mook dies on a counterattack. The ones with good stuff I'm trying to save, but the fifteenth mook to crawl out of the sea with an iron axe? Dead.

And I think FE4 is decisive proof that the GameFaqs people who criticize the DS games for being weird are playing off unknown biases rather than examining what's actually in front of them.

I couldn't agree more.

[raphiael]

Yeah, the classes of the DLC, especially, have been really unpredictable. It's pretty clear that weapons, original role, all that are pretty unimportant. Sad, but true.

I've seen a lot of people claim we're DEFINITELY getting a certain number, and I just haven't seen anything backing that up.

[mark_asphodel]

It's pretty clear that weapons, original role, all that are pretty unimportant. Sad, but true.

Something about it kind of feels... memetastic. An in-joke. Like, with Leaf the Thief being played up, I know they're riffing off a uniquely WTF aspect of his game. So, are Eirika the Bride and Bishoujo Warrior Elincia also some kind of in-jokey thing that we just don't get?

I've seen a lot of people claim we're DEFINITELY getting a certain number, and I just haven't seen anything backing that up.

They may as well examine chicken entrails to seek the answer.

[xenosynth]

Hey! My chicken entrails point me towards my Mecha Eliwood getting picked! And with the whole Lord/Heroine thing in effect, the runner up with be Hector in Drag. Meanwhile, they are going to also pick a third from FE7, LORD HAUSEN.

Oh and the other entry from 8? THe three NPCs from Victims of War, as a group unit, are also going to be DLC.

The entrails know ALLLLLLLLllLllLlLllL