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mark_asphodelI think Chapter 10 might be my favorite chapter of FE4.
1) The design is not a bucket of crap. The stages unroll with a natural feel, unlike the tortuous routes required by Ch2, Ch4, and Ch7. There are no moments where the entire army has to be ferried around via Warp and Return. Celice has to make two detours-- one to see Palmark, and once to commune with spirits-- but that's bearable compared with the crap in earlier chapters.
2) No tedious NPC battles. 'Nuff said.
3) Good music, though I still prefer Gen 1 for the map themes.
4) My army is in decent shape so battles are fun rather than aggravating reset-fests.
Now, this is a chapter wherein the enemy does NOT attempt to seize the home castle or retake captured castles, so that makes it easier than it would be otherwise. OTOH, it's a great chapter to start abandoning the members of Celice Army who aren't fit for the A-team... or even the B-team. I could just dump off Lester, Johalva, Bad!Delmud, and the older guys in the woods somewhere and know they'd be OK if I actually needed them for something.
Anyway, I'm finishing off the backup file of my original FE4 playthrough (the one I covered earlier), which was paused at the beginning of Chapter 10-- before Leaf and Nanna got accidentally married and well before Aless got wasted by falcoknights. So I had the opportunity to correct some mistakes...
1) Bench the losers, now. I already saw how these particular versions of Delmud, Lester, etc turned out and I decided to not dump any more resources into the liability characters. I'm not sinking a great deal of effort into Altenna 'cause she's not much help in Final; I did promoteScathach Noish!Scrabbles and Corple because the former does have his uses and the latter needs to be able to defend himself and earn gold on his own to fix them staves.
2) Two-timing Leaf. Leaf&Tinny got hitched on Turn Three or so, but the "tiara shopping" conversation with Nanna didn't deactivate immediately, so Leaf and Nanna had their cute little talk and Nanna got her HP boost before Leaf bailed on her. How nice of the game to let me have it both ways.
3) Let's watch Arthur choke this point. The first time I played through Ch10, I was reveling in the joy of promoted Leaf and let him stomp all over things. Since I was confident now in the abilities of Finn!Arthur, this time I used him in that capacity instead, and as far as utility players go, Arthur's really fantastic. He doesn't have Leaf's crazy arsenal of weaponry or Fee's range, but he's toe-to-toe with them in terms of usefulness. I used Arthur as the chokepoint-guard at Chronos and he mauled Ridale's brigade with the Hero Sword; he was at 3 HP by the time he was done, but Ridale was at 14 HP and his troops were easy prey for everyone else after that. Then I let Arthur Tron-bomb the bridge to Chalphy, which softened up the Roten Ritter but good. He's just such a nicely balanced character-- enough STR to one-round magical enemies with the sword, enough MAG to do likewise with melee enemies, enough DEF and RES that he's durable but not enough of a tank in either department that his skillset won't activate. Yes, if not for the Wrath crits he wouldn't be as good, but if not for the Wrath crits, he wouldn't exist in the first place. In terms of fun, this particular Arthur has been the male equivalent of Fee, and he's making use of both roles of the Mage Knight class.
4) Hold onto your Holsety. Sety can make out just fine with Tornado against anything that isn't Ishtar. Faval, OTOH, pretty much needs Ichival to get by. He misses so often it's not funny. I like Faval, but his accuracy blows and I remembered him as being better than this. As for Aless, it's good that he's married to Thief Sword Nanna, who can replenish his Mystletainn repair fund.
I will say that the boss battle against Alvis took forever this time. For whatever reason, Celice's lover-crit bonus with Lana never once kicked in over ten tedious turns of bouncing Tyrfing off Alvis's Great Shield.
PS: I actually picked a theme for my sorry mess of a tumblr. Apologies to anyone following my content-free mess; it may get better soon. :/
1) The design is not a bucket of crap. The stages unroll with a natural feel, unlike the tortuous routes required by Ch2, Ch4, and Ch7. There are no moments where the entire army has to be ferried around via Warp and Return. Celice has to make two detours-- one to see Palmark, and once to commune with spirits-- but that's bearable compared with the crap in earlier chapters.
2) No tedious NPC battles. 'Nuff said.
3) Good music, though I still prefer Gen 1 for the map themes.
4) My army is in decent shape so battles are fun rather than aggravating reset-fests.
Now, this is a chapter wherein the enemy does NOT attempt to seize the home castle or retake captured castles, so that makes it easier than it would be otherwise. OTOH, it's a great chapter to start abandoning the members of Celice Army who aren't fit for the A-team... or even the B-team. I could just dump off Lester, Johalva, Bad!Delmud, and the older guys in the woods somewhere and know they'd be OK if I actually needed them for something.
Anyway, I'm finishing off the backup file of my original FE4 playthrough (the one I covered earlier), which was paused at the beginning of Chapter 10-- before Leaf and Nanna got accidentally married and well before Aless got wasted by falcoknights. So I had the opportunity to correct some mistakes...
1) Bench the losers, now. I already saw how these particular versions of Delmud, Lester, etc turned out and I decided to not dump any more resources into the liability characters. I'm not sinking a great deal of effort into Altenna 'cause she's not much help in Final; I did promote
2) Two-timing Leaf. Leaf&Tinny got hitched on Turn Three or so, but the "tiara shopping" conversation with Nanna didn't deactivate immediately, so Leaf and Nanna had their cute little talk and Nanna got her HP boost before Leaf bailed on her. How nice of the game to let me have it both ways.
3) Let's watch Arthur choke this point. The first time I played through Ch10, I was reveling in the joy of promoted Leaf and let him stomp all over things. Since I was confident now in the abilities of Finn!Arthur, this time I used him in that capacity instead, and as far as utility players go, Arthur's really fantastic. He doesn't have Leaf's crazy arsenal of weaponry or Fee's range, but he's toe-to-toe with them in terms of usefulness. I used Arthur as the chokepoint-guard at Chronos and he mauled Ridale's brigade with the Hero Sword; he was at 3 HP by the time he was done, but Ridale was at 14 HP and his troops were easy prey for everyone else after that. Then I let Arthur Tron-bomb the bridge to Chalphy, which softened up the Roten Ritter but good. He's just such a nicely balanced character-- enough STR to one-round magical enemies with the sword, enough MAG to do likewise with melee enemies, enough DEF and RES that he's durable but not enough of a tank in either department that his skillset won't activate. Yes, if not for the Wrath crits he wouldn't be as good, but if not for the Wrath crits, he wouldn't exist in the first place. In terms of fun, this particular Arthur has been the male equivalent of Fee, and he's making use of both roles of the Mage Knight class.
4) Hold onto your Holsety. Sety can make out just fine with Tornado against anything that isn't Ishtar. Faval, OTOH, pretty much needs Ichival to get by. He misses so often it's not funny. I like Faval, but his accuracy blows and I remembered him as being better than this. As for Aless, it's good that he's married to Thief Sword Nanna, who can replenish his Mystletainn repair fund.
I will say that the boss battle against Alvis took forever this time. For whatever reason, Celice's lover-crit bonus with Lana never once kicked in over ten tedious turns of bouncing Tyrfing off Alvis's Great Shield.
PS: I actually picked a theme for my sorry mess of a tumblr. Apologies to anyone following my content-free mess; it may get better soon. :/
no subject
Date: 2012-10-28 12:23 am (UTC)As for Tornado, give it to the Master Knight! Obviously your Holsety user has Holsety, and the only other unit who could even use Tornado (Levin/Tiltyu aside) is your Master Knight. As it so happens, Leaf kicks a lot of ass with Tornado.
no subject
Date: 2012-10-28 12:35 am (UTC)As for Tornado, give it to the Master Knight!
That's what I was going to do in Final, actually. For Ch10 I was trying to conserve Sety's cash for Silence Staff repairs. I actually gave Leaf Bolganone for a bit (for lulz), but between Bolganone and Tornado it's a pretty obvious choice.
As it so happens, Leaf kicks a lot of ass with Tornado
I bet he will. For ranged attacks I tend to use him as a bowman, though, because Lester sucks and Faval lacks a horse and can't aim straight half the time.
no subject
Date: 2012-10-28 01:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-28 07:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-28 11:54 pm (UTC)It's the crack shipper's paradise.
There's even some potential for yuri in spite of the Everyone's Het mechanics.
no subject
Date: 2012-10-29 02:00 am (UTC)You rang?
(couldn't resist, sorry)