Fire Emblem

Protip: Rennac can be recruited by either the lord or L'Arachel. He charges a lot of gold for his services, but there might be a way around that- Perhaps an appeal to his sense of justice?

Too late. I posted that after I finished the chapter.

Do not worry about Rennac, I tried to get him twice but Ephraim kept getting Berserked.

Also, recently started FE 10. I started in on Normal mode, considering I am already familiar with FE mechanics. Well, I found out the weapon triangle here is worth shit. And also, why giving me a "weak, but squishy" lord archetype without the "squishy" part?! Damn you, Micaiah. Just... Really.

Pulse: Heh, thanks for your concern, but I'm fine. I've actually cut back a lot, which is partly why this break went on for so long. Now, if I'd continued at my original pace when I first started work on the run, then I'd probably have had that aneurysm.

Darkness: Do you mean "skilled"? Because "squishy" is typically inherently part of "weak". >.> One thing that I will point out is that Micaiah's damage, lowish as it is (barring when she has Thani against the usual Lord weapon effective targets), is very reliable. She provides good chip and can secure kills quite easily. It's just that unless she gets really good level ups, direct combat is basically suicide for her, so she needs everyone else to do the heavy lifting.

Gotta grind Eirika and Gerik to usable levels while I'm dangerously short on funds.

Gerik is amazing and you won't regret this.

Eirika also turns out dependable more often than not.

I'm definitely using them and I decided that a while ago. The problem is that I'm spending a lot of time in the Tower of Valni burning through my weapons while I don't have much money.

I'm having a tricky time of it leveling up Donnel. Right now I have to hope that Risen spawn on the Chapter 1 area, so he can pick on things his own size.

I'm also still mulling who to marry off the Avatar to. I'm leaning towards Tharja at the moment. I've already paired off Sully with Virion and Sumia with Chrom.

You can buy Reeking Boxes that summons Risen wherever you want them to.

Meanwhile, in my Sacred Stones adventure, I have finished Chapter 17, leaving a pile of dead Anti Villains and Valter in my wake. I'll see if I can grind up the three Cavaliers to promotion for Chapters 19 and up.

Also, is it just me or does the Frelian army just suck?

edited 5th Sep '15 5:43:55 PM by LinkToTheFuture

You should be able to buy Reeking Boxes from Chapter 3, the Longfort.

As for who to marry Robin off to, remember that Robin can marry ANYONE of the opposite gender in the game; that includes the child characters as well as the bonus units such as Anna. You may want to wait until you've seen all your options before you commit yourself; unless you want Morgan extra-early, you can wait as long as you want.

Jut finished chapter 18. Lyon is and isn't possessed by the Demon King.

Seriously, which is the canon version, Possessed!Lyon from Eirika'a route or Evil!Lyon from Ephraims route?

EDIT: Jesus Christ Last Hope is nuts. They expect me to hang on for 13 turns?

edited 5th Sep '15 11:24:38 PM by LinkToTheFuture

I wouldn't say there is a canon version, but I do think Eirika Route Lyon makes more sense to me because I think Eirika goes through the better character arc and that requires the more sympathetic Lyon.

Even the chapter 1 mobs can give Donnel a hard time if you don't have him supported by someone.

Just barely finished Chapter 19, will try to finish grinding with the three Cavaliers and beat the game tomorrow. How conservative should I be with the use of Sacred Twin weapons?

So, I tried to have a go at RD Easy Mode. And I must say, it is way easier than the Normal Mode.

A thought occurs. If the Easy Mode can be beaten so effortlessly (I finished the first two chapters in 10 minutes or so, counting animations too), and the Normal Mode is... yeah, how will Difficult mode be?

Fun fact: The translation made the game harder. ENG Easy mode is called Normal in JP. Normal is Hard and Hard is Intense or Lunatic or w/e it's called.

English Hard is mostly just tedious. They remove the ability to mark enemies, as well as the weapon triangle. The latter makes some things harder and a lot of things easier (such as just spamming Wind Edges, Javelins and Hand Axes). Most of the enemies get the standard +2 all stats boost, but that doesn't really change tactics too much, aside from making the scrubbier units even scrubbier.

This comic is pretty much exactly what is happening with me right now. (Just imagine Ross and Ephraim instead of Hector and Eliwood.)

EDIT: Just beat the game. Lyon was damn near Unwinnable but Formortiis went down relatively easily.

edited 6th Sep '15 10:22:55 PM by LinkToTheFuture

Ooh, overall thoughts time. How did you fancy Sacred Stones (Both its gameplay and the sturry)?

I find both lords utterly insufferable, and tend to find myself wishing that Innes and L'Arachel were the leads.

I never thought of them as unbearable. I found myself heavily invested in Eirika's growth through her route and as much as I feel Ephraim is a little too perfect, it's never that grating.

The lords were fine, IMO. They were definitely upstaged by L'Arachel, Innes, and Lyon, but they were still okay.

Game was a little on the easy side (only 3-4 total resets between chapter 11 and the final chapter, and then only in Chapter 14, Chapter 15 and Final Chapter, which is really unusual for a player of my skill.) but I still loved it, both gameplay and storywise. I know there are better FE games out there in both of those but still. I especially liked Lyon and his story.

Anyways, I'll probably move onto FE7 in a little while, but I'm gonna wait a little first. The funny thing is that it's not the limited EXP that worries me but the limited shopping opportunities.

Hey, I have a question regarding Fates' mechanics.

I know that, through the first DLC map, you can acquire the Hero-King Emblem and Awakening Emblem, which allow you to reclass a unit to Lodestar and Great Lord respectively. However, I've heard that you can only get those items one time. Is this true, or can you get as many as you need? I know that the last DLC lets you reclass people to Grandmaster as often as you wish, so it seems odd...

Shopping may be limited, but it's not especially sparse. Something tends to turn up every 2-3 chapters at the longest. And outside of 1~2-range weaponry, Iron (or lightest equivalent tome, barring something oddball like, say, Luna) is generally king for most of the game (thanks to GBA weight system, at least half the mooks coming with weapons too heavy for them, as well as all of them toting 0 Luck), meaning it's pretty easy to keep a large stock of the best weapons around.

I'll say that I liked Lyon's battle theme, and it would have been awesome if it weren't for the fact that it is an FE battle theme, and is thus 40 seconds long out of necessity.