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mark_asphodelAll right.
FE4's Chapter 9 isn't my favorite but it's not terrible the way that 2, 4, and 7 are terrible. The action goes very smoothly in a counter-clockwise direction and if you have staff users to Warp and Return then defending all of your castles is a piece of cake. The main delay comes from harvesting all the money from the villages and that's only slow if you want Patty collecting all the money and dumping it on poor Corple/Sharlow one bag at a time. If you let Fee and Altena grab all the cash and the Barrier Ring, it'd be less troublesome.
Highlights:
Sharlow used the Berserk Staff to make a Dragon Knight attack his comrades. Cute trick but damn that thing is expensive to repair.
Lex!Arthur FINALLY gained a point of magic in a normal level-up... at Level 27. He was the first Gen 2 character to hit Level 30, as a whole squad of Dragon Knights decided to suicide on him rather than deal with Altena. That said, he can't do magic for shit unless he's below half HP and Ambush/Wrath activates. Lex!Tinny is substantially the same as Finn!Tinny, with a respectable 19 MCG but a whopping 61 HP (as opposed to 54). She gets Continue on promotion, which substantially helps with the decision to make Lex their father and give Arthur the Pursuit Ring.
Master Knight!Leif took out Travant with a silver arrow. Revenge was sweet. Finn got in a hit on Travant, too, as he turned out pretty good in this file. He definitely proved useful in dealing with that whole Three-Headed Dragon Attack.
Oifaye and Fee made a very cute and highly useful anti-dragon defense couple.
I think Larcei got about eight level-ups in this chapter. She was the dragon knights' favorite target but thanks to the Prayer Sword and support from Shanan she kicked some real ass.
Ulster and Delmud still haven't promoted. Neither sucks, but they weren't my go-to guys. Ulster also utterly failed to capture Julia's heart before her abduction, so he's SOL. Ulster's magnificent skillset does help him immensely (ditto for Larcei).
Alec!Nanna is basically the same Paladin Tank Girl as Dew!Nanna except with marginally less HP and substantially worse LCK. Crappy 6 MCG either way. She and Leif got hitched this chapter and I wasn't even trying.
Lana's so terrifying now enemies won't even bother. An entire squadron of dragon knights looked at her, said "Nope," then gave up on the whole "capture Kapathogia" thing and flew off elsewhere. That capped MCG is something, man... and she caps out so EARLY thanks to that 5-pt bonus. Last time around Lana was six points shy of the cap at Lvl 30 and I still thought she was pretty damn amazing. Even Ced can't match her offensive power going into Chapter 10 this time around.
Ced's still good, though. He has four more levels to go. He took care of Arion for me, and honestly nobody else could (Lana was too far away to even make the attempt).
Holyn!Faval is really something and Holyn!Patty is Lvl 11.56. The whole Jungby clan is making me happy this time around because Lester really shone in this chapter.
Midayle!Lester @ LVL 21.4
HP 48
STR 16
MCG 7
SKL 18
SPD 17
LCK 17
DEF 14
RES 5
STR 21
MCG 7
SKL 20
SPD 14
LCK 28
DEF 20
RES 5
Like I said, there's one obvious problem here and a Speed Ring can fix that right up. What the stats don't reflect is that this time around I am not constantly resetting the damn game on Lester's account (or Delmud's account). I think Lester died on me exactly once in the last two chapters, and that was because I was testing out who and what could take a hit from Travant and survive (Faval worked nicely). I suspect Lester and Patty are going to get married in this chapter, but since Shanan is already taken I think I can deal with that outcome. :/
FE4's Chapter 9 isn't my favorite but it's not terrible the way that 2, 4, and 7 are terrible. The action goes very smoothly in a counter-clockwise direction and if you have staff users to Warp and Return then defending all of your castles is a piece of cake. The main delay comes from harvesting all the money from the villages and that's only slow if you want Patty collecting all the money and dumping it on poor Corple/Sharlow one bag at a time. If you let Fee and Altena grab all the cash and the Barrier Ring, it'd be less troublesome.
Highlights:
Sharlow used the Berserk Staff to make a Dragon Knight attack his comrades. Cute trick but damn that thing is expensive to repair.
Lex!Arthur FINALLY gained a point of magic in a normal level-up... at Level 27. He was the first Gen 2 character to hit Level 30, as a whole squad of Dragon Knights decided to suicide on him rather than deal with Altena. That said, he can't do magic for shit unless he's below half HP and Ambush/Wrath activates. Lex!Tinny is substantially the same as Finn!Tinny, with a respectable 19 MCG but a whopping 61 HP (as opposed to 54). She gets Continue on promotion, which substantially helps with the decision to make Lex their father and give Arthur the Pursuit Ring.
Master Knight!Leif took out Travant with a silver arrow. Revenge was sweet. Finn got in a hit on Travant, too, as he turned out pretty good in this file. He definitely proved useful in dealing with that whole Three-Headed Dragon Attack.
Oifaye and Fee made a very cute and highly useful anti-dragon defense couple.
I think Larcei got about eight level-ups in this chapter. She was the dragon knights' favorite target but thanks to the Prayer Sword and support from Shanan she kicked some real ass.
Ulster and Delmud still haven't promoted. Neither sucks, but they weren't my go-to guys. Ulster also utterly failed to capture Julia's heart before her abduction, so he's SOL. Ulster's magnificent skillset does help him immensely (ditto for Larcei).
Alec!Nanna is basically the same Paladin Tank Girl as Dew!Nanna except with marginally less HP and substantially worse LCK. Crappy 6 MCG either way. She and Leif got hitched this chapter and I wasn't even trying.
Lana's so terrifying now enemies won't even bother. An entire squadron of dragon knights looked at her, said "Nope," then gave up on the whole "capture Kapathogia" thing and flew off elsewhere. That capped MCG is something, man... and she caps out so EARLY thanks to that 5-pt bonus. Last time around Lana was six points shy of the cap at Lvl 30 and I still thought she was pretty damn amazing. Even Ced can't match her offensive power going into Chapter 10 this time around.
Ced's still good, though. He has four more levels to go. He took care of Arion for me, and honestly nobody else could (Lana was too far away to even make the attempt).
Holyn!Faval is really something and Holyn!Patty is Lvl 11.56. The whole Jungby clan is making me happy this time around because Lester really shone in this chapter.
Midayle!Lester @ LVL 21.4
HP 48
STR 16
MCG 7
SKL 18
SPD 17
LCK 17
DEF 14
RES 5
Finn!Lester @ LVL 21.93
STR 21
MCG 7
SKL 20
SPD 14
LCK 28
DEF 20
RES 5
Like I said, there's one obvious problem here and a Speed Ring can fix that right up. What the stats don't reflect is that this time around I am not constantly resetting the damn game on Lester's account (or Delmud's account). I think Lester died on me exactly once in the last two chapters, and that was because I was testing out who and what could take a hit from Travant and survive (Faval worked nicely). I suspect Lester and Patty are going to get married in this chapter, but since Shanan is already taken I think I can deal with that outcome. :/
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Date: 2013-11-29 02:08 pm (UTC)yes.
(sorry, I had to)
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Date: 2013-11-30 01:44 am (UTC)Catherine – Game Over
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Date: 2013-11-30 02:34 am (UTC)(That theme's familiar, though. I mean -- I know it's technically a different musical track I'm thinking of? But I know I've heard one just like it somewhere...)
(and now you've successfully made me curious about that game darnit)
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Date: 2013-11-30 03:33 am (UTC)(Catherine is nothing short of amazing.)
EDIT: Bonus points for the persimmon from Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom.
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Date: 2013-11-30 03:41 am (UTC)(I've enjoyed LPs of Princess Tomato at both the LP Archive and Talking Time. I even have a strong memory of seeing it on a shelf for rent long, long ago... but the idea to use Percy for a DW icon was a recent one, surprisingly. It feels like the ancient precursor to the awesomeface, though it also makes a darn fine candidate for the derpface, especially when you consider what always happened in-game when you saw that mug...)
"Boss! I threw some stuff away!"
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Date: 2013-11-29 05:23 pm (UTC)FE4 is one game where the defaults make me quite happy.
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Date: 2013-11-30 02:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-11-30 03:13 pm (UTC)Oh, I don't quite mean the defaults as in "the arrangement in which every character walks off with their most predestined fellow," more like, "reasonably predestined pairings." Aideen/Midayle, Fury/Levin, Ayra/Lex, Tiltyu/Alec, Sylvia/Corple, Lachesis/Dew are all pretty good mechanically -- actually, the only girl I beg to differ on is Briggid.
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Date: 2013-12-10 12:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-12-10 02:13 am (UTC)It's not that Alec is a bad father, it's just that he's outclassed by so many other male options that he never gets a chance with me.
In Bridget's case, Holyn means Party with a Brave Sword as a thief, which means a much easier time nabbing her a promotion, which is yes please.
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Date: 2013-11-30 03:05 am (UTC)>> Lachesis/Alec
Funny thing about that - I don't have the numbers in front of me, but...I wanna say, offhand, that Alec's growths were supposed to be nigh-identical to Fin's, minus the stellar luck. And while nobody really came out and told me so directly, I always got the vibe that fandom considered Fin one of Lachy's best pairings mathematically.
*pulls up those numbers* ... yep, right on the tick. Totally identical, with +20% LCK as the only difference.
(This kinda reaffirms my belief that Lachy's kids kind of need more help than one father can give 'em. Azel makes them good skirmishers IIRC, but there's lowish SKL to contend with and a tough time in the arena for Del unless you baby him a little. His promotion totally fixes that, though. And Nanna has her staves, so she's fine for EXP.)
Serenes' tables do assert that Midayle has +10% SPD growth on Fin, but their DEF growths are supposed to be identical. Seems like fate smiled on Finster, there...or alternatively, scowled at Midster.
>> Sharlow's Berserk Staff
I seem to recall that a walkthrough I followed - possibly Eaichu's - toted berserking Arion as a worthy tactic of dealing with him. Been so damn long, but - I don't honestly remember if that was worth it or not. (I probably didn't play FE4 right at all on account of savestating all over the place)
>> Lex!Tinny is substantially the same as Finn!Tinny,
A surprising report. I've never tried either pairing, but I would've thought there'd be a stronger difference. =o I'd also forgotten that Magefighters get Continue on promotion - but for my tastes, I'm not sure if that makes up for lacking Pursuit.
Wrath/Ambush for all the heavy lifting is pretty much the whole point of Lex+Tiltyu, or so I've always gathered. All the eggs in one basket. Low MAG and no Pursuit doesn't make me especially eager to try it. I know there's the ring to make up for it, but you only get the precious one...
(I always went Levin+Tiltyu for Holsarthur and frequently relied on the nukewind tome's stat boots to proc Continues.)
>> Holyn!Faval is really something and Holyn!Patty is Lvl 11.56.
In gameplay, I was oddly disappointed by Holynval lacking any skills besides Pursuit. And Holatty is a glass sword despite her mounds of HP; she can break shit, but getting her broken's pretty easy too. Holyn passes down impressive offense, but not a whole lot of defense. (Both kids had mountains of HP, though, and I seem to remember Faval breaking 70s. This probably added more fuel to Ichival's Live property, but again, savestate abuser - I likely never properly appreciated it.)
It was my intent one day to Lex!Briggid, just to see how it went. On the one hand, Elite skill means fast-growing kids, and Neir blood means DEF growth -- plus they should still have their piles of HP. On the other hand, if Faval bein' skill-less was my main complaint under Holyn... I mean, Lex doesn't really give 'im anything better in that regard. Patty will be less fragile, but lowish SKL might hamper her - especially if it already did under Jamka; despite being canonblessed that pair made difficult kids for me too, in spite of the skillset that looks good on paper. It pretty much looks like a straight offense-for-defense trade.
>> Fin!Lana is made of awesome.
This is something I definitely must try. On an interesting story note, Fin and Aideen are both alive come Gen-2, and adult!Fin can't pair up with anyone anyway, so. 8'D HUSBAND AND WIFE REUNION YAY.
At least until their particular duties call. I wonder if Aideen would leave the convent for Fin? I don't really see the reverse happening; Lenster and Leaf and that whole bag of fish is pretty much Fin's life by this point, so...
>> An entire squadron of dragon knights looked at her, said "Nope," then gave up on the whole "capture Kapathogia" thing and flew off elsewhere.
I've seen FE4's AI do similar stuff, yeah. 8D - mostly with the Holsety bearer, which in my case was Arthur. Parked him on a mountain tile with Nukewind in the 2nd gen intro chapter and none of Johalva's troops would fool themselves into thinking they could get a piece of that. Which is kind of different from what I'm used to FE AI doing.
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Date: 2013-11-30 02:59 pm (UTC)There is that. Finn also provides Nanna with a +5 SPD bonus in chapter 7, and those massive boosts are awfully helpful. Prayer is good, too, at least in my style of play, but Awareness on Nanna was extremely useful in Ch 10.
I seem to recall that a walkthrough I followed - possibly Eaichu's - toted berserking Arion as a worthy tactic of dealing with him.
Thought about that, but if it backfired I didn't want Sharlow within 10 spaces of any of Arion's gang.
Low MAG and no Pursuit doesn't make me especially eager to try it. I know there's the ring to make up for it, but you only get the precious one...
Well, Elite does help the kiddies train up fast so Tinny can get her precious Continue and Arthur gets a horsey. Having them be absolute tanks is a nice change from the usual frail mages. If they raised to promotion at normal speed, I'd say "Forget it," but they blossom so quickly that IMO it was worth the investment.
In gameplay, I was oddly disappointed by Holynval lacking any skills besides Pursuit.
He can shoot straight, though, which was NOT my experience with Jamke!Faval. And Jamke!Patty was completely useless in combat.
At least until their particular duties call. I wonder if Aideen would leave the convent for Fin? I don't really see the reverse happening; Lenster and Leaf and that whole bag of fish is pretty much Fin's life by this point, so...
If Aideen actually entered the convent as a cloistered nun/abbess I'd say that union is over. If she's just hanging out there doing good works, though... but you know, that dialogue between Finn and Lana makes clear that Aideen never even told her kiddies who there father even was, because Lana knows Finn on sight as "Leif's knight guy" but has no clue they're related. So yeah, doesn't look like either party has any investment in getting back together there.
And I'm sure the prospect of acknowledged as being the emperor's father-in-law is another reason for Finn to hightail it in the other direction. Doesn't sound like he'd find that appealing.Parked him on a mountain tile with Nukewind in the 2nd gen intro chapter and none of Johalva's troops would fool themselves into thinking they could get a piece of that.
Chapter 6, huh? LOL.
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Date: 2013-11-30 03:53 am (UTC)I did some brief digging, and according to the post-reset jealousy data, it's apparently Amid/Arthur and Shanan who have the best overall chances with her. Scatty has none. (For pre-reset, I couldn't tell you -- I coulda sworn that data was out there somewhere, once, but I strangely don't have it saved and can't find it anywhere (if I ever had it in the first place.)
Amid in particular is the strongest competitor by far; Femina alone edges Yuria out in jealousy priority.
And the ironic thing is none of her suitors ever see anything for it in the endings! Julia always stays in Grandbell to support big brother Seliph, no matter what. There's not even a shred of text in-game (IIRC) that acknowledges any of her pair-ups.
(Scatters does have Tinny as his solid #2, though, which probably explains why he always shacked up with her in my gamefiles when I wasn't even trying to actively pair them...)
(And his #1? Is Fee. Which probably explain why that never happened because lol movement ranges.)
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Date: 2013-11-30 05:11 am (UTC)He must pre-reset. Far and away he's her most popular non-Seliph lover in Japanese fanart. I realize J-fandom ships plenty of unpossible pairings (Finn/Altenna comes to mind right off the bat, as it's doubly not possible), but there's got to be something to the Ulster/Julia thing.
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Date: 2013-12-10 12:18 am (UTC)Whoa, does a chart of this exist? Cause all the charts I've seen for Julia's Love Growth is pre-rest that have +0 for everyone and the negative with Celice.
(and I'm really curious where some characters stand on hooking up with her without cheatcodes)
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Date: 2013-12-12 12:30 am (UTC)Been thinking on that and Shanan is an interesting option because of his apparent kiddycrush on Deirdre.
Hmm.
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Date: 2013-11-30 10:34 am (UTC)In my experience, you basically have to have them glued together right from the moment you recruit her in order to have any chance of pairing them. Doesn't really do old Ulster any good, because as soon as you get them together, she gets nabbed. And they don't even have an ending together. Isn't it sad Ulster-chin? ;_;
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Date: 2013-11-30 02:46 pm (UTC)