Super Luigi Galaxy - 83 stars. Not much to report. Luigi's controls made "Hurry, it's hungry" (the Sea Slide sekret star) notably harder. Races are tough but good fun. Otherwise it's mostly easy but still a fun and pretty game as always.
Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn - Endgame. Map 3 at the moment. HM with the wind/light/heaven, focussing on PCs I've used less so far playthrough. Endgame-1 was easily the hardest battle in the game thus far, but that's not surprising, seeing as my party is...
Ike: A bit underlevelled because I'm not focussing on him much. As such he can hold his own (outside res) but isn't amazing (lol 28 speed in endgame). Good enough to Hammer the BK at least (actually this is easier on HM due to no weapon triangle!).
Micaiah: Like Ike but much more underlevelled. As in has gained like 3 levels total. At least she can heal. (I'm as weirded out as you are that she's even effective at that.)
Dragons: They're there, they tank and support as usual.
Sothe: No Baselard, but can activate Bane sometimes and is reasonably evasive at least...
Sanaki: Good damage, never doubles, 2HKOed by everything. The usual. Still not my worst mage!
Lethe: MVP? Probably. 50+ attack, 40 speed, Resolve+Adept+Rend means something nuts like a >90% chance to one-round just about everything while having psycho evade. Yeah, I guess Zihark does this too (and other SMs aren't bad at it) but Rend is a far better mastery than Astra, it's cool. Pleasant surprise of the playthrough, I was expecting she'd pick up at endgame if she managed SS strike (which she easily did) but not this much.
Vika: Has a horrible join so I babied her to hell in her first map. Payoff is pretty much worth it, doesn't have the same attack as Lethe, but 46 speed (and therefore 46% Tear rate) and Canto is cool, even if she has less skill flexibility.
Kyza: The speed cap hurts, and he was speed-screwed so I had to give him a Speedwing. Reasonably tanky though (>60 HP and >30 Def).
Laura: She uh heals things, and occasionally tosses in some semi-respectable damage. Slowest character with a 70% speed growth ever, she only very rarely doubled (a few Generals). Still, not a horrid attacker and party-best healer.
Ilyana: Is terrible. No, really. She isn't fast enough to do much of anything and her Mag isn't scary like Sanaki's to make up for it. 3HKOs aren't uncommon. At least she can heal! Which is to say with Arms Scrolls she can finally start using Physic in the final dungeon.
Astrid: Is the worst character in the game I have ever used (which is to say only Lyre might be worse). See, Fiona? As epically horrid as Fiona is overall, the girl has -potential-. Y'know, high Def, high Speed, free Imbue, Earth support and all that. Astrid takes Fiona, trades Speed/Def for uh RES AND SKILL, manages to have terrible overall stats in the big three (Str/Spd/Def) and makes even the Double Bow look like a mundane weapon due to lack of doubles and bad Str. Grah.
Bastian: Take Ilyana, give her weapon levels of SS/A/A/B instead of S/C/D/E in mid part 4, and improve her Mag and Res, and you have Bastian. This adds up to be a pretty large difference. Well, Ilyana will score some points for being able to fight E-3 boss I guess, but everywhere else Bastian is better, including against the dragons that are supposed to be her foe. High staff rank is especially big for someone kinda middling at combat. And he's this good (which isn't great, but...) without levelling up. He's certainly not a great endgame choice overall but he's above average out of the folks I have brought.
Volke and Stefan: Hey, I guess these two guys are technically different. Well, aside from the fact that Volke gets a map to look like a complete badass in (hi Tibarn authority stars and low luck stats making me dodge and critkill everything hahaha), the two are virtually identical thereafter. And pretty good. Speed to double everything, decent chance of hax, respectable 2-range offence (especially Stefan). They're both very mortal in the final dungeon (more luck would help) but still very helpful for offence alone, and the durability isn't -bad- or anything (wait Volke has 29 def how does that even make sense).
Kieran: Well, my Kieran got super-speed blessed so he kinda rules. He literally gained speed 8 levels in a row at one point. Off a 30% growth. This basically makes him Titania level, which is great. The speed cap of 31 starts hurting him in E-2 and will screw him over utterly in the last few maps, but between Hammer and Wyrmslayer and Urvan he's been excellent otherwise. Definitely a pleasant surprise, if a fortuitous and unobjective one.
