Fire Emblem

Nope, no random encounters in Path of Radiance. You do get free access to shops between chapters after a certain point, though.

There will be merchants once the plot proper gets underway. Six or seven chapters in, I think.

Edited by Resileafs on Jun 26th 2019 at 2:26:04 PM

4xOf course it has merchants. In other hands random encounters doesn't do much when it came to game quality.

To be honest out of games with world map I didn't like even one. Echoes could be good but Celica ruined it for me (so it's not fault of exploration mechanics per se), but both Awakening and sacred stones would be better without it imho.

Well Awakening suffered most because shallow characters and supports that relied more on quantity then quality even further damaged by haphazardly shoehorned S-rank marriage tangents anyway.

Edited by Tenzen12 on Jun 26th 2019 at 8:31:36 PM

This mention of a world map... Reminds me that there was supposed to be another Wii Fire Emblem after Radiant Dawn that was more along the lines of a traditional RPG, of course this unnamed FE game never saw the light of day.

I think being able to move on world map actually makes Fire Emblem games blander than the ones that don't allow that <_<

^^Also, hey, Celica is great Even if the whole "makes friends angry by not talking about a thing" trope is really really really really old

But yeah, I definitely am in the party that agrees that free grinding kinda takes fun out of Fire Emblem. Mostly because grinding without plot isn't just that fun thing to do when I play games for plot anyhoo <_< How many infinity zombies/soldiers/bandits there can be in the world anyhow?

Edited by SpookyMask on Jun 26th 2019 at 11:07:53 AM

Making friends worry would be more tolerable if she was smart enough to ''not' needing to be told following strangers offering her sweets is not good idea. Even kids know that much XD.

Dumb people should listen smarter and more experienced ones. Smart one should obviously listen advice of others too, but I can understand when they decide not comply. Celica takes worst of both world. She is dumb and yet refuse council.

Edited by Tenzen12 on Jun 26th 2019 at 10:19:31 AM

That is more on fault of making Jedah obviously evil looking. I mean, for some reason that trope comes with "none of characters seems to notice that" thing :p

Plus I think I saw some video related to subject which made good job of breaking down what Celica's character is and I don't think it really came down to trusting Jedah. I don't even like Fire Emblem youtubers much, but they do sometimes interesting analysis on stuff.

Iirc, it was something about how Celica's character is consistent with Mila's teachings meaning she until end of the game doesn't have faith in mankind surviving without gods, so since Jedah obviously knows what happened to Mila, she doesn't really have any choice but to try to find out what he knows(and when they enter Duma's Temple, its too late)

Edited by SpookyMask on Jun 26th 2019 at 11:28:26 AM

That, and beside Jedah being Obviously Evil, Celica started off pretty cautious of him. It’s just he presented facts she could not exactly refute.

Maybe, but she didn't have just single reason believe in it either, and what more there was plenty of reasons to not to, even if she couldn't prove he outright lies. Words are cheap.

I watched that video again after long time and as much as I like Ghast analysis in most cases what I hear here is: "Celica is emotionally unstable, impulsive, full of herself, have no faith in her comrades and writers does terrible job make her look reasonable, but she has guts and that redeem everything and make her great leader"

I don't think it does.

I understand her motivation and feelings, but honestly she made wrong choice every single time she made decision. Making mistake and grow from it is heroic quality, but Celica never learned her lesson even if multiple people tried help her with it.

Talking about Celica always sour mood, so let's wrap it out and change topic.

Edited by Tenzen12 on Jun 26th 2019 at 11:14:05 AM

I mean Jedah is right only makes listening to him all the more rational and logical decision, even as he uses some Half-Truth and From a Certain Point of View during it.

The worldbook for Echoes even says that the continent literally cannot survive without the Gods aid and even in death Duma and Mila continue to bless the land, thus why the continent hasn't become a deadly wasteland and all the humans being dead.

Ironically Alms views end up being the ones that end up looking the more unrealistic and foolhardy in the long run, which even the Narrator ends on Humans Are the Real Monsters.

Edited by OmegaRadiance on Jun 26th 2019 at 2:15:48 AM

SOV's real problem is that Alm ends up being the perfect Hero Man who always saves the day, can do no wrong, and is a secret prince destined to save the continent. This just breaks the class and dualism themes enough that it reflects badly on the other characters tied to those themes.

I blame Rudolf. That insane plan could have gone wrong dozens upon dozens of times with no real checks in place aside from maybe Mycen (who buggered off as soon as the war started...).

Jedah outright knew his plans and still managed to nearly get what he sought if it wasn't for one faulty speech by Alm that convinced Mila to change her mind.

I dunno about alm being that wrong. yeah, the continent needs duma and mila to even exist, but the underlying point is that you don't need them alive or in charge of anything for that matter, which is a detail that invalidates the entire conflict. Yeah, you technically need the gods around, but if their corpse is enough, that's just that : a technicality.

And we know firsthand from awakening that Alm's vision for the continent comes to pass since the place is still very much alive centuries after that, narrator be damned.

Edited by Yumil on Jun 26th 2019 at 12:18:25 PM

Though far from perfect, since his descendant has gone mad with power.

Nah their corpse doesn't do anything unless the gods themselves will it so. Their corpses do it because it was their last act. So in the end they needed the Gods to be benign and ensure they don't kill themselves in Alms dumb plan of "We don't need Gods and can do it all by ourselves".

And as Divine Dragons work, they functionally live on even when "killed", which Duma warns them not to wake them up later down the road.

Edited by OmegaRadiance on Jun 26th 2019 at 3:26:34 AM

"their corspes won't do anything unless the gods are willing to" is a non-issue. Duma getting killed to be free from his madness is his endgoal, shared by rudolf, so his last will is a given considering he'll get to die as himself, and Mila wants what's best for humans by default too. Sure, she falters and almost gives up on the way, but it doesn't change the fact that the gods essentially wants to be killed and will actively make things worse for everybody if spared.

Again, that's missing the basic premise of the sentence "we don't need the gods" which implies "... to decide our lives for us", not "we do not need gods at all, period", because that's the entire theme of deicide, on a technicality.

And it still invalidates Both Jedah's and Celica's entire belifs because, again, killing them is actually an option on the table. That it requires them to want to help humanity to work is a different matter that is never questionned by either of them (because the game operates from start to end under the premise that both gods are benevolent and just go on about it in different ways)

Yeah. Although I don't remember Alm actively expecting his descendants from centuries in the future to be perfectly balanced people. And Wallhart isn't entirely devoid of qualities either - his main problem is that it takes him to literally die twice to consider rethinking his worldview.

Edited by Yumil on Jun 26th 2019 at 12:54:14 PM

I could be misremembering and possibly influenced by his Heroes dialogue, but he did want to bring a lasting peace to the continent. Cue Walhart starting a war that not only engulfs the continent, but spills overseas. And, I mean, his descendants didn't necessarily need to be balanced, either. There's a stark difference between the expected "flawed, but trying not to be too much of a dick" ruler and the mass murdering conqueror that we got.

I mean, 2000 years of peace and then Walmart leading a conquest for a few years is still pretty good on the peace-to-war ratio. Less than 1% war.

this. Although to be fair, I don't remember if awakening states if valm saw a lot of wars throughout the years, but if wallhart is the one to break the peace, 2 millenias of peace out of the idealism of a single ruler is nothing to scoff at.

Edited by Yumil on Jun 26th 2019 at 12:51:52 PM

Men, the capture mechanic in Thracia really solves an issue in the series that I have seen from time to time. Of whenever there is a sympathetic boss you have no choice but to kill them in most games.

Here on the other hand, it will take a bit of work but you can actually spare them!

Edited by dood9780 on Jun 26th 2019 at 4:00:12 AM

At the very least the continent broke back up into separate nations (Valm, Rosanne, and Chon'sin, at least), but whether those were bloody revolutions or peaceful secessions is not stated.

Here's the thing, being killed is better, but only because the Gods themselves continue doing whst they've always done even in death(blessing the land with fertility) if the gods were as intolerant and unflexible as Alms views were they wouldn't have chosen to do such an act at the end. And even in death the people do have the gods continuing to bless them.

In the end Alms views are infeasible. He thinks humanity can get by without the Gods at all and not only can they not, but he'd literally kill everyone doing such a thing. During which the Mila Tree and their remains still keep Valentia alive. In other words the continent literally depends on the Gods or it'd go back to being a landmass that can't support humans. Even in death they are still the pillars of support.

Its why Jedah and Celica is right during part of the game that an insane God is better than nothing, because if Mila had continued fo keep her power shut off by sealing away the sword her already degenerating power would completely tap off and Zofia would be left unlivable. While even in his insane state NP Cs mention how things continue on as normal in Rigel. What damage done to their land being the direct result of the Faithful and their Mad Science. The clergy were more of a danger to the people than Duma himself was.

Edited by OmegaRadiance on Jun 26th 2019 at 4:57:12 AM

I think Alm was more about humanity doesn't need gods to rule it. And he was right about that. Ultimately it was humans who ended rule themselves.

I don't remember Alm thinking of the gods as intolerants or inflexible. He's certainly justifiably angry at the loss of lives caused by duma through the witches and what happened to berkut, but Alm's not Wallhart. He still acknowledges the good they brought to humanity.

Lol at things continuing to work as normal in Rigel. Yeah, sure, aside from things like witches running amok and kidnapping people for eternal youth by tributing them to Duma. The clergy isn't a separate entity from Duma, he directly empowers them because he's willing to, and we see him firsthand corrupt the already broken berkut. Just because Rigel was slightly less fucked at the time of echoes doesn't mean the country was boned even on the short term if left unchecked. Especially considering that duma's madness was probably to get worse over time.

What you're doing is essentially look at two timed bombs, see that one has a minute left on the timer while the other has fifteen minues left and conclude the second one isn't a problem because the other one is a more pressing issue. yeah, no.

Alm isn't Wallhart. His point isn't that the gods were never needed, but that they no longer have to be ruled by them, which is correct. He may not know the full ramifications of what is at stake, but he still understands that humanity exists at all on valentia because of them. he wouldn't retcon gods out of existence if he was given the opportunity. That'd be more a wallhart thing, but wallhart's actually somewhat right on that account for his era since the remaining gods are a proactive omnicidal maniac and a benevolent god that mostly just reacts to the other and do not take action otherwise. Hell, alm's first words after hearing out Mila is to talk about saving Duma, not killing the asshole god or something like that.

Again, that's conflating the symbolic aspects of the story of breaking away from the god's control and taking hold of their fates with the factual aspects of it (the gods are needed,but not necessarily alive, and they are fine with it so it'll work out in the end).

Even if alm was essentially wallhart, that still doesn't make neither celica or Jedah right. Just because Hitler was wrong doesn't make Staline right. If alm's plan is dumb, then so is celica's because she doesn't realize the nature of the world she lives in that the gods are fundamentally looking after humanity and are fine with dying to permit it to live and just want to preserve the status quo she knows.

The story went out of it's way to state this by making mila and duma directly responsible for mankind's existence on valentia and portraying them as both well-intentioned. The option of killing them and hoping they decide to bless the land anyway isn't some last minute change of heart from them, it's an option that was on the table long before the beginning of the game. Just because niether Jedah nor celica realizes, or is willing to admit, that killing them is an option on the table doesn't make them right.

As for Mila sealing her power, the blame is on her and on Rudolf. Rudolf for not explaining his plan to her in a sensible way, and Mila for not realizing manking had outgrown her, something she admits to alm. While in his moments of lucidity, Duma actually realizes that.

Alm's plan doesn't account for the entire cosmology of the setting, but his plan is precisely what causes everything to work by helping mila realizes mankind no longer needs them.

Edited by Yumil on Jun 26th 2019 at 2:56:02 PM