Fire Emblem

Ryoma blames Shiro for not knowing the thing he didn't teach Shiro. Shiro calls him out, but the game is still very much projecting a "daddy knows best" vibe. So yes, Ryoma's flaws come out a bit, but Shiro is very much treated as the wrong one.

And coming from the guy who ditched his country to lead a YOLO assault on Nohr with a small force, putting both the lives of all the important leadership, as well as the citizens back home, at risk (which again, absolutely no one else comments on in Birthright), this just looks really, really stupid and silly. And besides that, Shiro was largely in that position because Ryoma didn't prepare him for anyone other than fighting (and even then, it sounds like it was the servants who taught him to fight, not Ryoma).

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I thought the paralogue made it pretty clear that Ryoma's initial words were ill-thought and clearly said out of a mixture of anger and worry. Notice how when Ryoma has had a chance to calm down, he's more reasonable. Hell, even taking Shiro out of the Deeprealm was his way of acknowledging that, yes, he should've been more involved in Shiro's life and raising him to be a responsible monarch. A more unreasonable father would've thrown Shiro straight back into the Deeprealm to 'meditate' on things.

Also, remember that the last time Ryoma saw his father take his children to learn the responsibilities of a monarch, Sumeragi ended up ventilated by arrows and the Avatar was kidnapped. I wouldn't be surprised if that little incident still lingers in Ryoma's memories and he worries a little as a result. Ryoma's not a perfect parent, but he's far from a horrible one. Hell, my own father can be a hell of a lot less reasonable than Ryoma, but I wouldn't say he was a terrible parent either.

So...he's basically doing the same things that Marth, Seliph, Roy, Eliwood, Hector, Lyn, Ephraim, and Chrom do?

edited 28th May '16 11:54:38 AM by dragonfire5000

I think Shiro being unaware of his legacy is just so he can contrast Siegbert, who's been educated in kingly matters his whole life, and whose entire character is basically 'I'm gonna be king oh god what if I suck?'.

Heart of Stone

To be fair in Chrom's case it's a Yllisean/Feroxi joint operation.

Eating a Vanilluxe will give you frostbite.

And that's the part with Ryoma's flaws coming out a bit, yes, which Shiro calls him out on. The game still gives him the upper hand throughout the rest of the conversation, though and it definitely came across as him grudgingly accepting that he might have to do something about this.

As for the Sumeragi thing, I'd buy that if Ryoma wasn't running off to get himself killed in the same way.

That doesn't make it any less stupid or irresponsible. It's made especially stark by the fact that Ryoma is hypocritically riding his son's ass about it.

edited 28th May '16 1:33:52 PM by KuroiTsubasaTenshi

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Personally, I thought both of them were allowed to make their case. And really, I think it's only natural that Ryoma would be reluctant to accept that he had screwed up.

I'd argue that Ryoma sees it as his responsibility to get involved, but he doesn't want to make the same mistake as Sumeragi and risk losing his son.

Oh God! Natural light!

Welp, time limit on Chapter 12. Forgot about that one. I might just go do a paralogue instead now.

No idea of what is going on.

Natural? Perhaps. But lots of things come naturally and make very poor excuses for bad behaviour.

Okay, I can buy that half of it. My point still stands about him running off like an idiot to become the next corpse and leave his kid(s) fatherless when, because of that same Sumeragi situation, he should very much know better.

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I don't know, in-story and during gameplay, Ryoma proves himself to be a valuable asset on the battlefield. I'd argue that's where he's needed the most. Royalty on the battlefield is hardly anything new in Fire Emblem, and Xander does the same.

Oh God! Natural light!

Blazing Sword Chapter 17: Pirate Ship

Well, this mission was harder than it seemed. There were some clear chokepoints on the map to fight from, but by the time my forces could reach the southern ones, the Shamans from the west and Mercenaries from the east were already getting through. I did manage to take out enough of them to secure the chokepoints, but I lost Kent in doing so. But worse yet, I had Eliwood guarding the northeast plank along with Priscilla there to heal him. But alas, it was not enough, and Eliwood fell. Game over.

New Party Members: None

Casualties: Kent, Eliwood

The Living Guildpact rules that coffee is an acceptable substitution for rest as specified in subsection … whatever.

There's a difference between being an asset on the battlefield and recklessly attacking the enemy while telling literally no one who needs to know.

"There's not a girl alive who wouldn't be happy being called cute." ~Tamamo-no-Mae

I'm not complaining about him being on the battlefield. I'm complaining about his extreme recklessness, dragging everyone else into said recklessness and then no one saying crap all about it. It's also worth noting that the situation is far from the same with Xander. Ryoma's parents are already dead, making him effectively King. Xander is just High Prince because Garon is still alive. It's still not great for Xander, but with Ryoma, he's effectively doubling down with himself.

For a comparison of what I'd expect, given the history of the series, see Hector. His recklessness is an acknowledged flaw, with other characters giving him shit about it several times throughout the story. Hell, he even admits it outright a couple times after his brother kicks the bucket.

D'oh. You made it pretty far without restarting. You gonna have another go at it or are you considering Lord death run over forever?

This. So much this.

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In fairness, he didn't have a kid then.

Also, isn't kind of reckless of Xander to stay on the battlefield in Revelations, once it's clear that Garon's gone Cuckoo for Coco Puffs?

edited 28th May '16 2:37:19 PM by KarkatTheDalek

Oh God! Natural light!

Yes, in Revelation, that does put them on more even footing for recklessness.

Ryoma not having a kid when he did his reckless YOLO doesn't stop it from being stupid amounts of reckless. It would have been stupider if he'd had a kid at that point, but it's still bad for everyone else in Hoshido for him to pull that shit.

edited 28th May '16 2:43:52 PM by KuroiTsubasaTenshi

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My original plan was to end the run when a Lord died, but now I'm reconsidering that.

Aside from the Final Death "killed characters are Lost Forever" aspect of the series, I'm enjoying the gameplay and I want to see how the story progresses. This is the farthest I've ever gotten, and I don't really want to give up the progress I've made. The whole point of letting dead characters stay dead for this run was because I didn't want to go through the trouble of restarting an entire chapter every time a single unit fell, and restarting the entire game because a Lord fell would be an even more extreme version of what I was trying to avoid.

On the other hand, it would be rather lame of me to go back on my original intent. There's also the irony that restarting only when a Lord dies would make them less valuable than the rest of my forces, or that restarting when a Lord dies but not anyone else could end up with me getting so many of my other units killed that the game would become Unwinnable.

edited 28th May '16 2:59:54 PM by Lightblade

The Living Guildpact rules that coffee is an acceptable substitution for rest as specified in subsection … whatever.

Nah, the game wouldn't become unwinnable. Hector is such a juggernaut that you can almost beat the game entirely with him. Eliwood and Lyn have decent potential to become strong and are usually usable in the very least. Those three with enough EXP fed into them should be enough to win. Throw in the other pre-promotes the game will occasionally give you and you shouldn't be able to get too screwed over. Plus, you should at least have a few non-essentials who will pick up enough power through surviving long enough that they'll pass the enemy stat curve and become nigh invulnerable.

I'd say that if you want to see the story, just go with restarting when a Lord dies.

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Is Hector that good? I've seen a common sentiment that he's overrated.

Dopants: He meant what he said and he said what he meant, a Ninety is faithful 100%.

Care to provide a more specific example? Because I've never seen anything from Ryoma that suggested "extreme recklessness," and his not being in his kingdom to defend it isn't really all that different from what the vast majority of Fire Emblem protagonists do.

And hey, at least Ryoma didn't get his party obliterated.

He has trouble dealing with magic, and he runs a risk of getting speed-screwed if you're unlucky, but that's about it. He is a very solid unit.

Heart of Stone

Ninety: Hector can get General levels of concrete Def without the weakness and has a ton of Str. I think he's generally considered overrated because at the end of the day, he's still a foot unit, so even though he's more mobile than Generals, there's others in the game who outdo him in utility. As a raw stat stick, though, he's quite powerful.

Dude, that's like saying, "Well, these other guys jumped off a bridge, so Ryoma doing that too isn't stupid." We've been over this like half-dozen times now. He buggered off without telling anyone, so he spent the first 1/3 of the game not even leading his forces. He's well into enemy territory by himself with allies he just met and he's likely sticking around because he wants a piece of Scarlet booty (Revelation then drops all pretenses of subtlety and pushes this hard). Then, when they find him, his plan is to YOLO into Nohr with a small force and murder his way all the way to the capital (they attack the first large force they see because LOL, what is stealth?) and this largely only works because Leo switches sides and helps them. Not only that, but he takes all of his siblings along, so if they're wiped out, it's GG. This also has the side effect of him having buggered off and left Hoshido wide open. Seriously, his homeland being undefended is only a side effect of how stupid he is.

And yes, some of the other Lords do it too and it's pretty stupid, but Ryoma takes the stupid up to eleven by pulling this crap and then hypocritically lecturing Shiro about it. For contrast, when everyone else finds him doing that dumb crap, they're all, "We're glad we found you." instead of, "Hey, Ryoma? What the actual shit?"

The even stupider thing is that in Revelation, Saizo actually calls the crap out for what it is... while Ryoma isn't around at all. And then it's never mentioned again, so it might as well just be like Birthright where everyone just ignores it.

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Ah, I forgot the hardcore side of the fandom's obsession with horses.

Dopants: He meant what he said and he said what he meant, a Ninety is faithful 100%.

...Now I have to ask why there is a horse obsession. Also paralogues are kicking my ass, so I'm just gonna go yolo in Ch 12.

No idea of what is going on.

More move (and Canto/Rescue where applicable) as well as generally good stats for little downside. Mostly the move though, makes strategies more efficient and whatnot.

Dopants: He meant what he said and he said what he meant, a Ninety is faithful 100%.

Yeah, the efficiency side favours the Move and flier mobility.

It is still quite valuable for more casual play, though, in that it can often make things safer. Anyone with more Move (or better mobility, such as with fliers ignoring terrain penalties or being able to reach areas unreachable by ground units) can easily disengage if combat gets scary. Higher mobility allows reaching of choke-points or other key areas that can draw enemies away from squishies (granted, this can also easily be solved by just having a team of strong stat sticks such that the enemy is making a mistake by attacking any of them). And it might make reaching new recruits who are in dangerous situations much less frustrating.

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Midori's paralogue was well-structured and i give them props for making Candace a BBW who isn't a walking fat joke (or maybe she was and No A fixed her, but either way). My Midori ended up with Shove and Poison Strike, making her quite useful.

Chapter 16 was another easy one. Only one Fire Orb and the chapter shoves a Silence stave into your hands to help fix it. I was mad that they locked out Takumi from that chapter, he's one of the ships i'm focusing on. I did manage to get Hinoka and Hayato hitched, Takumi/Kagero and Silas/Sakura are on the brink. Kaden/Oboro should come last.