Dragon Quest 9 - About 7 hours in. The RAGIN' CONTAGION (awesome name) is the only boss so far who had me worried about losing, but generally easy going. I dislike the alchemy pot being stuck in one town, but at least it's instant to make up for this.
Fire Emblem 6 HM - Played this a lot over the past week! Up to Chapter 16.
Casualties!
Ward - Well HM Rutger pretty much has to kill someone. Ward's not someone I was going to miss!
Lugh - Apparently Chapter 6 decides it's cool to have 4 reinforcements appear right on top of you while fighting the boss with no warning, that is fair.
Treck - You have to rush to recruit him, doing so made me lose people who actually mattered, so yeah, he gets to die instead.
Marcus - Died holding off the Mercenary/Archer reinforcements in C8, after a costly miss.
Zealot - Died holding off the reinforcements from the southwest in C8. It's worth noting that I used both him and Marcus as long as I was able, this game. Marcus in particular is very valuable.
Bors - Died hodling off the northwest reinforcements in C8, stupid Armourslayers.
Thany - Didn't notice I'd put her on a fire trap in C8x towards the end of the map when she was one hit from death. Whoops.
Dieck - Overwhelmed by the pirate swarm towards the end of C9.
Since C11 or so I've been settling into a main team and have started always resetting when anyone dies. Fortunately those deaths are getting rarer because supports in this game are really potent. Promotions are a big help, too, as always, though it remains to be seen what sort of challenges Sacae and endgame will put up.
Midgame character notes!
Roy - Was pretty RNG screwed on speed for a while, which he didn't need. Has since mostly recovered from this but yeesh, getting doubled by enemy swordsmen bad. Has useful supports at least. Got the boots so I wouldn't have to waste actions rescuing him for him to keep up on his march to the throne each map.
Allen - Also somewhat RNG screwed on speed, but a Speedwings fixed this. HM really limits his doubling, but he still has the awesome Lance support and is decent otherwise. Finally promoted with the Knight Crest from C15, the wait there was a bit of a downer.
Lance - Awesome. RNG blessed on speed, was MVP for a while (the Western Isles arc or so) due to the speed/mobility/evade tanking. Now other awesome PCs have showed up who also have good speed and a lot more strength (although supports shore that one up a lot for Lance, to be fair). First promoted unit (end of C13).
Clarine - RNG has kinda spat at her, so she won't be the wall this playthrough she often is. Still not a terrible one and is a mobile staff user.
Rutger - HM makes him even more awesome. The best PC along with Marcus in Chapters 4-7 or so, the best after Lance in the Western Isles, and still kicking ass with +30 crit and good supports for his crit and evade.
Saul - Sorta on the team, off the team, as a second-string healer. Not promoted yet, naturally.
Astol - Chad is borderline untrainable in HM. Astol, on the other hand? Oddly tanky, and has actually seen some use for his combat, though mostly about utility of course. Very valuble. Doesn't play in every fight, mind.
Lilina - With Lugh dead, using her was basically a sure thing since I needed her ability to kill knights (even if they almost disappear after she joins) and more importantly, kill horrible bosses like HM Scott. Not much to say, she doesn't double too much but what she does double DIES and she has solid 2HKO/decent crit due to supports against everything else. Also one-shotting wyverns with Aircalibur, barely. Can heal now too.
Fir - She sure doesn't feel like Level 1 on HM. Other than missing the awesome earlygoing then playing catchup for a few maps, you can basically see Rutger's entry. Blah blah decent strength / amazing speed / solid avoid and HP / +30 crit now.
Shin - Total monster. Starts underlevelled but with great stats, and as he catches up he just gets better and better. Durability is serviceable and once he promotes he can start putitng it to use, offence is just outstanding. He had like 18 str/20 skl/20 spd before he promoted, and possibly has overall best party offence now, though it's a decent fight with a few others.
Gonzales - Figured I'd use him because why not, HM boosts. Not really enjoying this so far. He probably needs to be promoted fast for that +5 skill and +30 crit, but Hero Crests are in short supply. Now that I'm hitting C16, this will change, even though he's only Level 16 or so (has trouble gaining levels due to whiffs). 60 hit on most things is bad, and that's with Iron/Killer.
Klein - 16 str/13 spd means he's actually good when he joins! But as everyone else starts promoting, he goes back to his HM sucking. Has good supports but I'm not playing him just for those. Will probably see filler use again, though.
Tate - HM bonuses make her a decent flier and I needed one, for all that she still has a rocky start (her first few maps are axe-heavy and C12 has archers in narrow spaces). Really paid off in the desert though. Is going to be my second last unit to promote besides Gonzales (third last if I promote Saul).
Miredy - Broken. 13 base speed is her worst flaw, but she feasts on the desert like little else, promoted in C14x, and has just been generally a total monster. It's not enough that she has offensive stats of 23/22/19 at L2, but she has 53 HP and 18 Def so she can go wherever the hell she wants, kills all but the fast, and never dies. MVP of late.
Igrene - Still better than Klein when she joins due to the 2 extra speed. Blargh. Oh well. Will probably see some filler use.
Percival - Doesn't look as good as I expected because he competes with other monsters with HM boosts, mostly Miredy and Shin, but still, you don't say no to a paladin who joins with 20 str, 20 spd, 15 def, and 50 HP midgame. Skill's the only sour note. (Wait, skill matters? Wow.)
Marcus, Dieck, Thany, Lugh, Zealot, Lalum, Echidna - All saw notable filler use. Don't really like Lalum's durability in HM, though.
Generally enjoyed this playthrough though it has some polish issues that are apparent. FE6 HM's big major annoyance is removing the formation screen shop, so you can't even sell gems without taking them into maps, and once again I worry about running out of weapons like in 7. Also how the game handles reinforcements is stupid, though at least most maps have a warning cutscene the turn before. PC balance is poor, but mechanically I do like how FE6 is balanced; it really makes hit feel more important than other games, and you can really see the importance of different stats, unlike FE9-10 where it just feels like you can use concrete to get through everything (and the dodgers often have good concrete anyway).
