FE13: To Chapter 15, Plus Paralogue 8
Feb. 12th, 2013 08:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mark_asphodelUh, where'd I leave off?
OK. So Chrom and Sully and friends enjoyed two whole years of peace 'n' shit before more bad stuff started. That's more free time than Sigurd ever got to spend with his wife, so good for you, Chrom.
And then Bad Stuff started and the next thing I know, we're dealing with sketchy alliances, visions, doppleganger shenanigans, family reunions, boats, sketchy tactics, and now we're on Valm trying to save Say'ri from... whatever.
It's a fun game. A bunch of characters got promoted and now my weapon stash is lagging behind their ability in most cases. Good thing this chapter promises some nice drops.
Pairings:
Grinding away at Henry/Olivia (B), Robin/Anna (A), and Virion/Cherche (B). Also got friendship supports for Ricken/Henry (C), Frederick/Virion (C), and something else I can't recall right now. I suppose "friendship" is a term to be used loosely re: Fred and Virion, though. Oh, and there's all kinds of family support goodness now that I have Lucina and her sister Kjelle. I love the option of having a four-person family all fighting together and everyone is really cute. I'm loving Lucina even if she has this weird thing for clothes-shopping.
PS: Levin might not see a shrink in the actual game text, but Henry sure has according to this adaptation.
Kjelle's map wasn't too bad. I tried to recruit Severa after Cordy and Stahl finally tied the knot, but that chapter was a god-damned bloodbath and I got the hell out of there and sailed for Valm. Severa can wait until my peeps are up to the fight.
The Plot:
I have very little to say about the story right now because it's all very mid-game. We've been hammered, and now the plot's ramping up again, and we have lots of questions but no good answers... except that it should be really obvious to everyone that Robin is Chrom's future murderer, but nobody's catching on. They have the puzzle pieces all right there but these guys are about as good as solving puzzles as Levin was in ferreting out Julia's true identity. OK, maybe that's harsh.
Other Stuff:
Since I've naught to say about plot, I will complain about the character design. I've gotten used to the characters' faces and even find many of them cute/attractive now, but the overall aesthetic of Ylisse is just off-putting. I remember one cutscene in which the light was glinting off the exposed struts in Lissa's skirt, and I remember thinking to myself, "I don't care the detail they put into it, that skirt's still dumb." And then we have the villainous freakshow in Validar and Aversa and it's all cartoony and goofy and... no. FE's always been bad about cartoony bad guys (Hardin and his glowing eyes, Nergal), but at least we had normal villains like Rudolf and even good-looking scoundrels like Alvis and Trabant. Not to mention Lyon the Woobie and the prettyboy team of Zelgius and Sephiran. This game's just given us a bunch of alien clowns so far.
The localization fixed a good many of my issues with this game, but it hasn't and won't fix the design issue. And let's not get started on the Tharja figurine...
PS: Finally got Innes's Bow as a drop. Hadn't found a legacy weapon since Donny the Dipstick got me Orsin's Hatchet.
OK. So Chrom and Sully and friends enjoyed two whole years of peace 'n' shit before more bad stuff started. That's more free time than Sigurd ever got to spend with his wife, so good for you, Chrom.
And then Bad Stuff started and the next thing I know, we're dealing with sketchy alliances, visions, doppleganger shenanigans, family reunions, boats, sketchy tactics, and now we're on Valm trying to save Say'ri from... whatever.
It's a fun game. A bunch of characters got promoted and now my weapon stash is lagging behind their ability in most cases. Good thing this chapter promises some nice drops.
Pairings:
Grinding away at Henry/Olivia (B), Robin/Anna (A), and Virion/Cherche (B). Also got friendship supports for Ricken/Henry (C), Frederick/Virion (C), and something else I can't recall right now. I suppose "friendship" is a term to be used loosely re: Fred and Virion, though. Oh, and there's all kinds of family support goodness now that I have Lucina and her sister Kjelle. I love the option of having a four-person family all fighting together and everyone is really cute. I'm loving Lucina even if she has this weird thing for clothes-shopping.
PS: Levin might not see a shrink in the actual game text, but Henry sure has according to this adaptation.
Kjelle's map wasn't too bad. I tried to recruit Severa after Cordy and Stahl finally tied the knot, but that chapter was a god-damned bloodbath and I got the hell out of there and sailed for Valm. Severa can wait until my peeps are up to the fight.
The Plot:
I have very little to say about the story right now because it's all very mid-game. We've been hammered, and now the plot's ramping up again, and we have lots of questions but no good answers... except that it should be really obvious to everyone that Robin is Chrom's future murderer, but nobody's catching on. They have the puzzle pieces all right there but these guys are about as good as solving puzzles as Levin was in ferreting out Julia's true identity. OK, maybe that's harsh.
Other Stuff:
Since I've naught to say about plot, I will complain about the character design. I've gotten used to the characters' faces and even find many of them cute/attractive now, but the overall aesthetic of Ylisse is just off-putting. I remember one cutscene in which the light was glinting off the exposed struts in Lissa's skirt, and I remember thinking to myself, "I don't care the detail they put into it, that skirt's still dumb." And then we have the villainous freakshow in Validar and Aversa and it's all cartoony and goofy and... no. FE's always been bad about cartoony bad guys (Hardin and his glowing eyes, Nergal), but at least we had normal villains like Rudolf and even good-looking scoundrels like Alvis and Trabant. Not to mention Lyon the Woobie and the prettyboy team of Zelgius and Sephiran. This game's just given us a bunch of alien clowns so far.
The localization fixed a good many of my issues with this game, but it hasn't and won't fix the design issue. And let's not get started on the Tharja figurine...
PS: Finally got Innes's Bow as a drop. Hadn't found a legacy weapon since Donny the Dipstick got me Orsin's Hatchet.
no subject
Date: 2013-02-13 02:27 am (UTC)agreed; I found this far more adorable than I had any right to. "aw look mommy and daddy and babby are teaming up hey there little asskicker you're doing great"
(incidentally all the making-elite-babies business seriously compels me to give FE4 a shot; I dug the marriage mechanics in this game more than I was expecting)
no subject
Date: 2013-02-13 02:37 am (UTC)Yeah, and since there the kidlets essentially replace your entire playable cast instead of supplementing them-- and some of the kids will SUCK with the wrong combinations-- the pairing mechanic is quite high-stakes.
Don't expect many heart-warming parent/child moments though. I'm not gonna say there's nothing, because one of Levin's conversations with a potential daughter is kinda sweet without being too sobby, but other than that it's all on the continuum from discomfort to hostility.
ETA: Well, there's also Hannibal and his son. But the kid is probably going to abandon Hannibal once he finds his Real Family, so that sucks too in context.
no subject
Date: 2013-02-13 02:51 am (UTC)Oh hay, so you did Stahl/Cordelia too? Those two are just so adorable. Not to mention that after reclassing Stahl into a myrm, and Cordelia being a skill demon they pretty much will always end up dual-striking.
I ended up going for Sigurd/Dierdre MKII with Chrom and Olivia but then again there was that two year gap for them to know each other...
In my efforts to keep Chrom celibate until then I ended up pairing Sully/Sumia and holy shit, they are the best murder-train, animal husbandry sisters ever. Like jesus, they were tearing shit up around chapter 5. Why can't we have gay marriage and adoption? The kids should still turn out fine!
no subject
Date: 2013-02-13 05:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-13 06:30 am (UTC)And then I saw the Noire father support and became even more confused. Seriously the two simply do not make sense existing next to one another. The only way I've found to reconcile it is---wait, how okay would it be to spoil some support convos here? But yeah, needless to say it involved plenty of mental gymnastics and probably more effort than the writers put into it.
But yeah, Sully and Sumia would totally make great parents/caretakers.
no subject
Date: 2013-02-13 06:46 am (UTC)(Award for first OTP goes to Henry/Olivia.)
no subject
Date: 2013-02-16 02:26 am (UTC)Go ahead. I'm not that likely to breed Tharja anyway.
no subject
Date: 2013-02-16 06:32 pm (UTC)Dear IS: there is a difference between multifaceted relationships and personalities and complete diametric opposition. The is the latter, that's not good.
The only way I've managed to reconcile this is that most of the experimentation came in the future where its implied Tharja kinda snapped after everything that happened and went full on mad scientist, while I think modern day Tharja is trying to help out in her own twisted way. There are supports (Tharja/Ricken and Henry/Sumia) that show that "curses" aren't necessarily all bad things and maybe Tharja was trying out one of the benevolent curses on Noire, but being Tharja messed it up and the rest of the Noire dad support comes from Tharja being pissed off about messing up.
Yeah, logic acrobatics ahoy, but it makes more sense then taking it all at face value in my opinion.
no subject
Date: 2013-02-16 02:28 am (UTC)My next run/through will be C/O, I think, but my word I like them better than Sigurd/DeeDee or Eliwood/Ninian.
Stahl and Cordelia are impossibly sweet. I hear Cordy/Frederick is more like, "Well, I can't have Chrom so I guess I'll settle," but I can believe Stahl and Cordy really love each other.
no subject
Date: 2013-02-13 02:55 am (UTC)That figurine wouldn't be out of place in the merchandise for several of the other series I play.This game's just given us a bunch of alien clowns so far.
The character designer did do the No More Heroes games, after all. (And he has his own DeviantArt page.)
no subject
Date: 2013-02-13 04:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-16 02:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-14 01:04 am (UTC)