Fire Emblem

More marriages! Everybody is pairing off!

Cordelia fell for Kellam after they made an incredible pair-up team on the last couple of maps, Nowi and Gregor ended up together because I guess the writers really wanted a rescue romance, and it turns out Robin and Lissa had fallen for each other almost as soon as they met. It feels so weird that Robin is supposed to represent me; it makes more sense with Corrin, since they're the protagonist, but Robin isn't.

Still, the new side stories also link up one that was unlocked some time before, so I now have four new children to recruit, and one of them is going to O{wa|d}in Dark!

Also I got my first look at Walhart. Holy shit... just... jaysus.

Edited by VampireBuddha on Dec 2nd 2018 at 9:39:28 AM

Walhart's got a sick Tin Tyrant design.

Walmart stops for no one.

...And now I am imagining Walhart working at Walmart, still with his full suit of armour.

Edited by dood9780 on Dec 2nd 2018 at 2:52:09 AM

Manfroy's evil plan: Send a brainwashed teenager after the entire army that's carved a bloody swath through the continent.

It appears my fears were unfounded as Julia freaking annihilated Julius with tactical precision, and that's all she wrote. I've beaten Genealogy of the Holy War.

Edited by RodimusMinor on Dec 2nd 2018 at 7:14:06 AM

Farina's hiring cost isn't pocket change, but at the same time, if you're not overspending and taking time to acquire the sellable gems, it shouldn't really be a big deal. If nothing else, you can also pawn off some stat boosters, since they're worth a lot of cash and the enemies are so weak, you're unlikely to miss about half of them.

Manfroy is like an evil version of Robin, getting his units to hook up and produce eugenic supersoldiers.

Robin him/herself is essentially an Anti Anti Christ version of Julius.

Owain is now part of my army, and he is all of the awesome.

I also managed to get Severa without too much difficulty, on what is a pretty inventive and clever setup where Gaius acquitted himself with aplomb.

Cynthia gave me some trouble, mostly because she had an annoying habit of throwing herself on Lucina's sword before I could speak to her. Finally, she moved to get close to me without attacking and I finally managed to persuade her that the guy who looks and acts nothing like her father isn't her father.

In the meantime, I managed to pair Tharja with Ricken, Panne with Vaike, and Cherche with Lon'qu. Tharja/Ricken's S support is lame, but I really like their interactions up to that point so I'm still happy. Panne/Vaike is overall sweet and well-thought-out, with Panne gradually coming to like and trust a man-spawn in a way that feels natural. And Cherche/Lon'qu... woah. This pairing looks to be canon, since it goes into Lon'qu's past and has him finally overcoming his gynophobia in the S-support. Full marks for that one.

Recruiting Gerome, however, is a buggerance, especially with trying to save all the villagers. You'd think it would be easier when the new guy is literally Batman.

RE: Rodimus Minor

Congratulations. The ending also differs depending on the pairings you did and the characters that survived, IE: which nation joins with whom and such.

Jamke didn't have a kid so Verdane was the only place to get annexed by Grannvale. Wish there was more dialogue for marrying off the second generation since there's no gameplay reasons to pair them up other than getting a boost when they're adjacent.

RE: Rodimus Minor

Its mentioned Verdane was in chaos, hence the need for annexation if Jamke has no heir from what I remember.

What did you think of the game overall?

Edited by Monsund on Dec 3rd 2018 at 8:15:26 AM

Of the four FE games I've played (Awakening, both Fates and now this), it's definitely my favorite. I loved the practical Low Fantasy setting with politics being the main source of conflict. I've gushed a lot about the maps but they really are something and add an epic feeling to the conflicts, where you're deploying your whole army to conquer nations.

I've got Awakening loaded in my 3DS and Sacred Stones on my laptop for later. I'd love to play Path of Radiance sometime but that one's a wee bit too expensive.

...A setting where mages can rain meteors down on hapless soldiers and a prince can get possessed by an evil dragon through an evil tome is considered low fantasy?

RE:Rodimus Minor

I love that aspect of the plot, I love stuff like world building and politics.

I'm really hoping Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn get re-releases like the other Gamecube and Wii games developed by Nintendo. That way, I could recommend them to more people without them having to bring out a fortune just to play one.

Fire Emblem is pretty clearly Heroic Fantasy in every iteration

Edited by EpicBleye on Dec 3rd 2018 at 12:29:48 PM

RE: Epic Bleye

Though certain games fall closer to Low or High Fantasy. In particular, some Fire Emblem games are big on world building and developing the setting, others are more straightforward.

I don't think any Fire Emblem game comes close to low fantasy at all. When you have magical weapons, sapient dragons that can shapeshift into humanoid forms, dragons that can possess people based on their bloodline, mages aplenty throwing spells aplomb, and magical artifacts corrupting people, you're pretty much disqualified from calling yourself "low fantasy."

Unless there's some alternate definition of "low fantasy" that I'm not aware of.

Well tvtropes lists in addition to Fire Emblem, Dwarf Fortress, Majora's Mask, and Final Fantasy 6 all as Low Fantasy.

...Yeah, I don't think any of those count. Seems like misuse of the term to me.

Looking at the definitions, I have to agree that it's decidedly not Low Fantasy. Fire Emblem tends to be "small, rag-tag army led by a lordling of some kind must stop the villain from enacting its world-ending gambit", which better fits the High Fantasy definition.

RE: Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi

There are games with smaller stakes.

Though in general, I think Rodimus meant the Jugdral focus a lot on politics, history and the affects of war.

Which isn't enough to classify something as low fantasy or anything even close to it. Again, a dragon that possesses a magic-slinging prince through an evil tome.

Story focus and size of stakes are not the only things that define something as low fantasy. A fantasy story that focuses on politics and warfare does not automatically equal low fantasy or something close to fantasy.

Edited by dragonfire5000 on Dec 3rd 2018 at 9:57:48 AM

Rodimus said earlier, he meant "politics being the main source of conflict" which is true.

Whether something is high or low fantasy is usually regarding how integral the fantastic elements of the setting are to the world and plot. Magic and dragon possessions can exist in such settings, otherwise it's just not fantasy, they just have to be secondary to a good old sword arm and the sort of politicking you'd expect from an actual medieval court.

I'd rate Fire Emblem as coming close to low fantasy, actually, given how often they'd actually completely work if you removed most/all of the supernatural elements. But at the same time the franchise has never had any intentions of shying away from crazy anime shit, especially lately.