What Games Are You Playing: 2008

[Grefter]

It gave off vibes like that even if the Count dude is evil, because, you know, capitalism is evil.

[SageAcrin]

Mirror Cuirass/Jewel Gauntlets(Go PSP retranslation) are in the Outer Wall.

At a glance they're behind a Mist grate, but there's a very hidden elevator to them, which I assume Meep means.

Gauntlets are seriously broken for the time, so I naturally never use them anymore. >_>

[Grefter]

Oooh Jewel Gauntlets NOW I recognise them perfectly yeah.  Yeah I used them tons.

[Meeplelard]

At a glance they're behind a Mist grate, but there's a very hidden elevator to them, which I assume Meep means.

Yeah, I used the Elevator.  I was talking to a friend who I see once a week at best (different schools now and such) and he was a massive fan of the game, and since I was right in the area, he told me how to get them.  They're pretty sweet for the time, yeah, though getting all these interesting weapon drops that are clearly obsoleted kind of is irksome, but that's what happens when you get an item earlier than they wanted you too <_<

I don't even remember where to get those, Mirror Cuirass I remember using, gauntlets... not so much.  Mirror Cuirass makes for less throwing your television into the pool during Clocktower ventures until you get Medusa shield to finally drop.

In fairness, playing on the PSP means I won't ever have to worry about throwing my TV into the pool!  Though yeah, being told it stopped petrify basically made me say "That's going to be damned helpful, since the few times I dealt with Petrify have been annoying, and I'm sure that's not the last of it."

[Shale]

Apollo Justice: Case 4, Perry Mason Reference Section. This is a pretty kickass case, and uniquely structured to boot. Only downside so far is the lameass Perceive sequence in the first trial part.

[OblivionKnight]

Actually, the plot of Eternal Sonata would be much more coherent if it were a war against capitalism >_>

[Dark Holy Elf]

Phoenix Wright 2 - Finished this a couple days ago.

Mmm, more of the same isn't a bad thing with PW. Once again, ingenious writing with memorable characters, and gameplay which was fundamentally not worth playing for but usually inoffensive. Once again the game peaked in the middle and had a weak final case (though 2-4 is far superior to 1-5, if we count 1-5). It made some improvements, overall, too, though it doesn't completely overshadow its predecessor:

The good:
-The game gets rolling faster, in a manner of speaking. In PW1, the first "real" case was 1-3. In this game, it's 2-2.
-The game has two cases that rate as absolutely awesome to me (2-2 and 2-3) whereas the first game only had one (1-3). The games are at their best when the writing is really firing on all cylinders, from all directions (comedy and mystery both), and both those cases delivered wonderfully. 2-3 even introduced some charming characters, and probably the only truly charismatic and effective murderer in the series. 2-2 was just a good mix of funny, clever, and exploring the Fey plotlines laid out in the first game.
-Psyche locks provide added direction to the investigation stage. This is a good thing.
-For all that I'm not too happy with the execution of 2-4 (not that it was bad. No such thing as a bad PW case, etc.), it had some very good ideas which I'm glad the writers decided to give a shot. You know what plot twist I'm talking about.

The bad:
-No Larry Butz. What. The. Fuck.
-No Cody Hackins either, although this one does make more sense, sadly.
-Presumably partly due to lack of Larry (Maggie sucked), I thought 2-1 was a weaker first case than 1-1. Difficult to put my finger on why. Doesn't matter too much.
-The music for cornering someone wasn't nearly as catchy.


SPOILER stuff:

2-1: Y'know, I really don't have anything to say about this case.

2-2: Even if the murderer here retreads Yanni Yogi's footsteps a bit, I still found that plot point nifty. Partly for the moment where she lets slip that she had a British car and that fact + facial reconstruction surgery snap together and you get one of those classic "IT ALL MAKES SENSE!" moments that PW sometimes gives that I love. <_< Also, nice to see them shed some light on the fact that yes, Maya does physically change during channelling, since it was something I wasn't sure of from the first game. Though now I'm left wondering why more people don't recognise Mia.

2-3: Yeah, Acro hype. For all that I am amused by the endless "OH SHIT YOU GOT ME" funny poses most characters have on stands (even Shelly de Killer's radio got one!), it was noticeable and very effective that this guy never did. He provides a pretty compelling (if twisted) reason for committing the murder and actually feels like a worthy foe for Phoenix, both things I've often felt previous villains were bad at (Gant especially stood out for this). Just a really fun interplay of an apparently baffled and amused Acro throwing out reasons why he couldn't be the murderer and Phoenix countering them one by one. What a PW final confrontation -should- be.

Also, Moe quoting Fresh Prince is probably the most awesome laugh-out-loud moment of the game, to me. I am easily amused by a game randomly pulling up part of my childhood like that, though. <_<

2-4: Edgeworth's best showing since 1-3, so that's a plus. I like Edgeworth but it feels like he's still not quite there as a convincing character (and he still has to atone for being a loser in 1-2, then emo mode in 1-4 and parts of 1-5), so hopefully PW3 continues to take him in a good direction. Wendy Oldbag... I like her, but feel they went a bit over the top with her in this game? The helmet and raygun just didn't really make much sense, even for her. No Cody Hackins for her to play off also hurt. <_<

Seriously, though, the case is about its second day (it's unremarkable and unimpressive before then). Evil Matt's first scene was great (where DID he get that wine glass?), but he never really capitalised on it after that. Shelly de Killer was funny, and his final threats and Matt's reaction to them = love. Also neat is the fact that the game shows how Phoenix is capable of using his talents for evil, as he is able to make an innocent woman look like a murderer with his "contradictions", the only time we really see the other side of this so far. Other than that, though... I dunno, the whole court proceedings were a bit weak because there was no mystery and "uh we are stalling for time!" makes everything feel kinda pointless. de Killer helped, though why on earth he let Phoenix cross-examine him at all didn't really make sense.

General notes... oh, I really did like Franziska a fair bit. Bit of a funny sendup to the anime rival, and the endless whipping of everyone was just amusing. How -does- she get away with it? Glad they went a slightly different route with her than Manfred, in the end, and the fact that they did actually caught me off guard some. Pearl was cute and probably preferable to Maya overall. Certainly ended up less damsely, which is a plus. Phoenix was his usual, sarcastic self, and it worked very well.


So yeah, good game, looking forward to the third, etc.


Yay, one game review done. Just have to finish off the FE9 one and then I'll drop -that- on all of you. Mwahaha.

[Shale]

I find it amusing that I agree with just about everything in the "good/bad" summary, and disagree with just about everything (except case 4's general high points but disappointing execution) in the spoiler reviews.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Anything in particular? Besides Franziska which we've gone over.

[Shale]

Didn't much care for the payoff in cases 2 or 3. Couldn't get past the absurdity of Ini's transformation working for years in 2 (Nobody noticed anything different? Ever? Including doctors?), or the fact that she could have smacked down the contradiction in the article by saying she was misquoted, and never even tried. Morgan was awesome, though.

In case 3, the physics of the murder were just outlandishly weird, and the confrontation with Acro was...not much. His motivation was good, yeah, but it was a motivation for a totally different murder than the one he ended up committing, which makes his cool-and-collected act harder to swallow. Plus it felt like he gave up way too soon relative to the case against him - I was holding out hope for a third day, honestly - although I think that's more of a difference in what parts of the game we enjoy.

Case 4 Edgeworth was also pretty disappointing to me compared to his 1-3 and 1-5 trial showings. I like him working with Phoenix in court, not so much dispensing cliche anime-rival advice lines.

Also, you failed to point out Case 1's amnesia thing. Man, that was lame.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Spoiler parade! Also opening disclaimer that PW plot is zany by nature.


Case 1: Well, for all that the amnesia was silly, it was a reasonable enough way to re-introduce how the court system works to the player, and that fundamentally had to be done. I can think of worse ways to do it, even if it was incredibly idiotic plotwise (of course, the villain of this case was a bit of an idiot even by PW villain standards).

One thing I will give the gimmick, though, it made for the awesome bit at the end where Phoenix recovers his memories and tells the player about all the characters involved in the case from the first game... then gets to Payne, and then promptly fails to remember him anyway. <_<

2: Well, Mimi only was out of the hospital for six months? Not really years. Granted, this plot point only works if you assume the Mineys had no real family left, but beyond that, I found it easy enough to swallow, especially since "Ini" is... just really out there to begin with, and could blame any contradictions in her memories on the accident. Smacking down the contradiction... eh, it's a point I guess (hadn't really thought about it). Counterargument would be that once the idea was planted in Phoenix's mind so firmly, it'd be difficult to shake off, as a blood test could probably prove who she is, for instance. Maybe even a fingerprint test if she had been fingerprinted during the case where all the patients died?

3: Eh. The only part of the physics here that bothered me was the cloak bouncing off the victim and onto the murder weapon. It'd make more sense to say it snagged, I think? Pretty minor point anyway, I think. I agree there wasn't tooo much evidence against him in some ways, but once Phoenix caught him with the murder weapon, he was pretty much toast - I certainly couldn't see any way for him out of that one. The cool and collected thing just seems an innate part of his character, and I don't see why him making an error in his murder would change this - if anything, he might be more willing to admit to the deed if he'd killed the person he'd wanted to, since then he could at least have some pride in the deed.

Really, it was just refreshing for a murderer to be asking Phoenix to provide a motive, or resolve some baffling contradictions, from behind a facade of collection and confidence, rather than looking all panicked the way most of the murderers do late in a case like this.

Case 4 Edgeworth was also pretty disappointing to me compared to his 1-3 and 1-5 trial showings. I like him working with Phoenix in court, not so much dispensing cliche anime-rival advice lines.

Agreed. That's part of what I meant as how he hadn't really fully delivered as a character yet, I phrased that poorly. Still, he did do some of that teamwork thing too. (And spent far too much of 1-5 whining for my tastes, but that's another issue.)

[Sierra]

MGS: Replaying this for the first time in, uh...god, it was sometime during college, wasn't it? How the time it is flying. Anyway, just fragged Raven's tank. Acquired THE BOX.

Man, Kojima didn't waste any time breaking the fourth wall, did he? Baker, trying to tell you about Meryl and forgetting her radio frequency: "Oh well, it's on the back of the CD case." Ahahaha. I'd forgotten about that.

[Clear Tranquil]

FF7 8 bit - Ran into a dead end at the guards when trying to board the train. I only have one Potion left after the boss fight in the reactor. I think I'm screwed.

Met Aeris (at least I think it was Aeris though her dress was green instead of pink) and I thought she might heal me after battles or something so I could do a bit of grinding but no such luck.  Also saw an NPC that looked suspiciously like Terra but is probably a generic style for females in this port or something. Still cool.

[Niu]

Poison Pink- I have been cheated, I shall forever hate all characters that can shapeshift.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Okay, I meant to post updates of this as I went a long, but hahaha. Procrastination to the rescue! So instead, I will post... ALL THE UPDATES AT ONCE! THIS IS THE WAY!

Warning: Incoming 56k wall of text.

Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance: Lowest Level Only Challenge

The rules!

1. Only the lowest levelled PCs may be brought into any map. Tiebreak is for lowest Experience, naturally.
2. Every unit in the game must be recruited, and must be kept alive until the final chapter, so that there is no cheaping out of the system by conviniently killing Shinon. <_< The point of the game is to use everyone, except overlevelled freaks like Tauroneo.
3. Effort should be taken to even out levels as much as possible. Which basically means "no letting Ike run away with a level lead".
4. No resources to boost up a unit's performance artificially, including bands (arbitrary, but it was the first playthrough on this memory card, so I had no choice!), stat boosters, Bonus Experience, Arms Scrolls, Master Seals, etc. Exception for skill scrolls. They need to not be banned or Ashnard becomes unbeatable.
5. Ena and Naesala are the lowest level of their splitpath PC blocks, so they must be chosen! Not that there's any choosing to do with Ena, unless Ike gets an RNG blesssing to end all RNG blessings.
6. Using one of Janaff or Ulki to get the Knight Ring and make Chapter 19 sane is okay, as is (implied by 2) using overlevelled PCs for the purpose of recruiting.
7. Hard Mode.


Notes on forged weapons: I always boost them for Hit, and lower their Weight if they'd be weighing down the unit using them. I never boost them for Crit. Might boost is listed. Their initial owner is listed in parentheses, but they may (will) get passed around after that. Usually I forge for the lowest levelled PC.

The challenge doesn't really start until the first map on which PC use is restricted, so let's begin there.


Prisoner Release (1 reset)

Initially on the team: Ike, Rhys, Soren, Mia, Ilyana, Mist, Rolf, Marcia, Volke (Ike is L12, others vary from around L5 Rolf/Marcia to L11 Mia)
Initially off the team: Titania, Oscar, Boyd, Lethe, Mordecai (Oscar/Boyd are L14, Titania L3)

Forged weapons:
-Zahhak Blade (Iron Sword +3, Mia)
-Ozzie Bolt (Thunder +1, Ilyana)
-Marcus Lance (Iron Lance +5, Marcia)

The really scary turn here is 1. I trigger the ambush from behind immediately, then have to cut it down as best I'm able. Mia has the best offence so she is valuable here. Once that's under control, the map is simple. Doors need to be opened but nobody actually needs to be talked to or recruited.

The really scary part of this map is Danomill, a General with a pair of powerful range 1 weapons. There's no way to lure him out of his starting point without also luring out a Steel Bow archer he has with him, and vice versa. I only had two PCs who could survive attacks from both: Ike and Mia. I used Mia because she'd do more damage on a counterattack (yes my Mia had 1 more Str than my Ike at this point). Anyway, after I lured them both out, I figured I'd one-round the boss. To my surprise, I couldn't. Mia had done 8 damage and could do 8 more; Ike could do 5, Illyana 7, Soren 5, Marcia 4... not good enough! So I had everyone retreat to the two chokepoint hallways, Ike and Mia guarding again, and healed Mia. This time I figured I could one-round the boss. I could, in fact... but not simultaneously kill the archer, who would finish off Ike or Marcia. Finally, I realised I could kill the archer and surround the boss with Ike/Mia/Marcia (he's all melee), and won from there.


Blood Runs Red (2 resets)

Team: As above, plus Mordecai, Kieran, Brom, Nephenee.
Forge: Jaro Lance (Iron Lance +5, Nephenee)

Kept dying near the start of the battle, getting overwhelmed by the rush of enemies. Eventually I was able to somehow split the enemy force from the west in half so some came through the central road and some through the southwest.

Anyway, HM makes you kill four enemies right at the start, which puts you on the defensive as enemies come in. I kill the axe vigilantes because I can't afford to deal with them, and save the Dracoshield house. Couldn't reach the other houses in time though. Mia and Kieran probably had the best offence in this chapter, though Nephenee was close enough. Brom made a very valuable tank in the central road, but not as decisive as I expected. In general, the main thing that made this chapter harder from my previous experience was no Oscar, having another awesome mobile tank with good offence would help a lot.

Sent Mordecai north to get Zihark, who killed another Vigilante. Mackoya was kinda scary because again I couldn't one-round him, but surrounding him with people he didn't take out in one attack kept him under control.


A Strange Land (2 resets)

New team: Ike, Rhys, Ilyana, Mist, Rolf, Marcia, Brom, Nephenee, Zihark, Sothe. Most around Level 10, Mist/Sothe lower, Ike a bit higher.
Forge: Ramus Bow (Iron Bow +5, Rolf)

Okay. Of the ten units I am using, five (both healers, Sothe, Rolf, Illyana) get one-rounded by ravens, who have 18 attack and 15 speed. Bad. Very bad. Until hitting the right strategy. Head to the centre of the ship, just south of the mast, and set up like this...

PxxP
RxxR
PRRP

Units marked P are at the perimeter. These spots must be occupied by units who can take a hit. Fortunately, they only need to take one - they can only be attacked by immediately above/below.

Units marked R are on the railings. If these spots are not occupied, the ravens can fly into the box and kick some ass. So while these spots will never be attacked, they do need to be occupied.

That leaves two units who can hide in the middle. Of course, on the player phase, there's freedom to move units to different positions, to heal, take out ravens with ranged attacks, etc. Rolf in particular is good at the latter.

Jill joins, and her Laguzguard is certainly appreciated. I then draw out the battle until that second Angelic Robe pops out. Pretty routine really.

Sothe is epic beyond belief. Not only do the ravens one-round them, but they have 11 defence, and he has 7 attack. Um. Um. ;_;


A Guiding Wind (0 resets)

Team: Ike, Rhys, Ilyana, Mist, Rolf, Marcia, Brom, Nephenee, Zihark, Sothe, Jill, Volke.
Forge: Yuuno Lance (Iron Lance +5, Brom)

Despite this being a hard chapter I don't have too many problems. Shove Ike three times on round 1 to get him to Astrid, and get her to Gatrie. Astrid herself spends a lot of time in the battle swiping kills to level up (grabbing the Ramus Bow from Rolf). With the Knight Ward on she quickly becomes effective. The first two ravens fear both archers, the others don't even attack. Just a simple matter of pressing back the enemy lines.

This map has a lot of enemies who don't move, and knowing who those are helps: the Halberdiers on the bridges, the mages in the back of Norris' ship, Norris himself.

Eventually push onto the other ship, though not before one raven is able to survive to grab two treasures. Killing him only nets the first one he picked up, so I get a Speedwing.

Sothe is a highlight of this map, as I try to get him to accomplish... anything. He can damage Myrms (for 1) and mages (for 2). He does get one kill eventually, on a mage! And needs two more to even level up. Oh well, at least he opened some chests.

Norris moves on turn 8 (always?). For me he attacked Astrid, who survived. After that I pin him and kill him using move-again attacks from melee.


Training (0 resets)

Team: Ike, Rhys, Ilyana, Mist, Rolf, Marcia, Brom, Nephenee, Sothe, Jill, Volke, Astrid, Kieran.
Forge: Guido Bow (Steel Bow +4, Rolf)

Despite fog, this map is really easy. However, my nerfed offence means that I'm not able to save both houses, and I lose a Wrath scroll. Makalov is easily recruited despite almost suiciding on Brom. Astrid continues to level very quickly, reaching Level 11 by the end of this fight, and certainly one of the best PCs thanks to a slight Strength blessing (plus her usual excellent speed and mobility).

Sothe's misadventures continue. This time, it's Bandits he can damage for 1, as well as Myrms. He kills one of each, reaches Level 2, and mercifully gains Strength.

Neither Gashilama nor the two tigers move, which makes things even easier. Gashi can't reasonably be attacked at turn 1 until the killing blow, but Rolf + Astrid + Ilyana = who cares. Ilyana OHKOs him with a crit, anyway.


The Feral Frontier (0 resets)

Team: Ike, Rhys, Mist, Rolf, Marcia, Brom, Sothe, Volke, Astrid, Kieran, Makalov, Zihark, Soren, Mordecai. Around Level 12-13 or so, typically.
Forge: Euram Sword (Steel Sword +4, Makalov)

Desert time! Wow, the FE9 desert is forgiving. Only halved movement for most infantry. Full movement for thieves, unlike other FEs. And cavaliers at least manage 2 panels.

Not much to say here. I definitely go for kills since I can't use Bonus Exp. Sothe now has access to Daggers, and between that and the fact that untransformed laguz fail (typically 5 or 6 def) he's easily able to snag some kills in this map, gaining two more levels and the "MVP" status (riiiight). Muarim is another immobile range 1 boss, except this time some of my PCs can even survive melee hits from him! Zihark does the deed, that cold, laguz-hating bastard.

Due to deploying both Sothe and Volke I'm able to get every single desert item without dragging out the map. One issue I notice, though - it took Volke three tries to get the White Gem. I thought thieves were always 100% for that.


The Atonement (0 resets)

Team: Ike, Rhys, Mist, Brom, Sothe, Makalov, Zihark, Ilyana, Nephenee, Jill, Tormod.
Forge: Koichi's Rune (Thunder +3, Tormod)

Three chapters after starting at Level 1, and Astrid is already off the team. Damn Paragon. Anyway, this is another pretty easy map. Only really scary moment was when I opened the northeast treasure room and forgot there was a Killer Lance Halberdier in there, and had nobody who could really tank the assault. Got lucky and didn't face a crit. Aside from that... there's a couple mages with Kimaarsi who would be scary if they move, but they don't, and everything is pretty manageable. Ward Staff is great for ensuring survival of potential Elthunder crits.

Devdan is easily lured with any number of PCs (not too strong for a prepromo) and recruited. The thief who raids the northwest treasure room will chase after the central treasure room, allowing him to be stolen from and then killed so you get everything. Sothe does the honours. Not a great level for levelling Sothe, as he's usually on utility, but he does see some action.

Kimaarsi himself is scary, with his high att/def and crit rate. Why is it that Generals tend to be among the best bosses in FE games? Anyway, Devdan to the rescue, chips him down with the Heavy Spear well enough for Tormod to finish with Koichi's Rune.


Day Breaks (1 reset, on Part 2)

Team: Ike, Mist, Sothe, Makalov, Tormod, Rolf, Astrid, Mia, Boyd, Gatrie. Vast majority of party starts at Level 14.
Forge: Pepporbox (Steel Axe +5, Boyd)
Part 2 reinforcement: Ilyana, Volke
Part 3 reinforcement: Soren, Oscar
Part 4 reinforcement: Kieran, Nephenee

After three easy chapters, the game starts getting serious again.

First part has some scary stuff, mostly the Sniper in the middle, the Killer Lance Halberdier at the end, and the Myrmidon reinforcements from the south. The Myrms are the best since I can't let them touch the mages, but I want one of my tanks to bait the Sniper... dilemma. End up having Gatrie in the north, and KW Makalov trying his best in the south. Gives me a few scares.

Second part... yikes. Cavalier swarm in the west is nasty, particularly the Paladin (this is where my only reset occurs). Most of my better units (Makalov, Astria, Boyd, Gatrie) all head this way to handle it. The softer units head east. I also get into quite a scrape against the second cavalier swarm at the east. Damn cavaliers and their crazy reach and ability to move-away so others can attack.

Third part continues to be pretty scary. Enemies surround on all sides, so I first work on pushing back and eliminating the areas near the start. Quickly I find other enemies bearing down on me from all sides, though. Once Oscar shows up (at least!) things get a bit better, as he's quite a good tank. Before then, making do with Boyd and Mia in that role isn't too effective, as you might expect. The mages in particular are nasty, I tend to have ranged weapons out to help softening them (Ward Staff also gets hype here). Ike is suddenly doubled by quite a few enemies, to make matters worse, so I pretty much don't use him. Once I weather the storm and finally push through, he snags a kill on the last archer to reach Level 17.

Fourth part is probably the most straightforward. Although cavaliers are still scary, there's no horribly unpleasant surprises. Tibarn and co. kill more than I'd like, but I get the battle under control and rescue them before they can steal my Adept scroll or Nosferatu tome. Oliver sucks, though Nosferatu makes it too hard to set up a Sothe kill like I'd want. Victory is mine!

Ike promotes, and is suddenly the new Jeigan at 17/1. He's probably about as good as Marcus 6 at being a Jeigan, but at least he won't descend into massive suck.


Crimea Marches (2 resets)

Team: Ike, Mist, Sothe, Rolf, Volke, Soren, Kieran, Nephenee, Brom, Rhys, Zihark, Jill, Marcia
Forge: Franz Lance (Steel Lance +5, Nephenee)

Long range magic whoring, go!

Yeah, this chapter is quite a pain. Not too many of my PCs can survive a double ranged tome beatdown, though the Ward Staff helps with this. With that, I have first Kieran, and on the winning run Jill, lead the charge through, with Nephenee and Brom close behind, and Ike/Rolf to do Shinon recruiting. Meanwhile, Marcia and Jill (later Kieran) hold off the wyverns and cavaliers from the rear. Sothe, Volke, Zihark kinda can't do much in this fight.

The map's mostly about watching ranged tome range. Fortunately the users die easily. I rush in and get the first with Kieran/Jill, baiting Shinon at the same time. He's weak and nothing to be afraid of even with Brave Bow + crit rate. Then surround him until Rolf can reach.

The last nasty party of the map is the final corridor with multiple magic users, and the swarm of ravens and two cavaliers. I die once because Kayachey crits Brom (gooo luck-screwed?), die again from a general magic beatdown when I intend to give Brom the Knight Ward then forget. Third time, having Jill as a second tank to weather the storm helps, and I'm able to cut through everyone while keeping the weaker characters protected well enough.


Entrusted (0 resets)

Team: Ike, Mist, Sothe, Volke, Kieran, Brom, Rhys, Zihark, Ilyana, Tormod, Mia, Reyson, Ulki. Most Level 17.
Forge: Suo's Katana (Steel Sword +5, Zihark)

Ulki gets used because he's lower levelled than Janaff.

Anyway, first turn's important, so here it is. Ulki (with Full Guard) moves to 17 panels due south of Naesala, uses Laguz Stone. Reyson chants for him. Ulki moves to 9 panels due south of Naesala. Tanks a hit from archer, double Vortex from Naesala. Pretty easily, he's very durable. Turn 2 talk to Naesala, move Reyson into Naesala's threat range. Start of enemy phase 2: ravens turn, so I can manage to avoid killing one. Or them mangling me. One of the ravens needs to be distracted turn 1. The two wyvern knights who could otherwise be a pain get distracted by the northern ravens on turn 2, and basically become non-factors.

From there, things are pretty routine, as long as I am very careful of the ballistas' range. The ballistas do limit who I can place on the front lines, but not too much, given that I use Zihark there. It's mostly my party, only Ike, Kieran, and Brom can really take hits well.

Ulki kills one of the ballista operators, since he's the only one who can reach those hills anyway. Eventually kills the other, too, though he demorphs before then so I equip him with the Demi Band. Means he two-rounds the archers instead. Doesn't matter, really.

Homasa is intimidating with his brutal offensive potential and incredible speed. Solution? Why, to Ward Staff the mages! I get to witness the awesomness of him doubling, activating Adept, and criticalling for a 5x multiplier, and still doing 0 damage. Ward Staff is godly. After the mages chip him down a little, Zihark finishes him.

Volke reaches Level 18 in this battle, and promotes out of the party, becoming my second promotion.


Defending Talrega (6 resets)

Team: Ike, Mist, Sothe, Brom, Rhys, Ilyana, Tormod, Mia, Soren, Marcia, Oscar. Mostly L18, some 17.
Forge: Magikarpbane (Thunder +5, Soren)

Argh.

The reset count should have tipped you off by now, but this battle was really nasty. Wyverns are very dangerous. To make matters worse, I have three frail mages, and thanks to an unkind RNG only Soren is fast enough to even double Wyverns. Two frail healers and a frail thief, too! And Mia/Ike/Brom merely fail offensively against Wyverns, having swords in the case of the first two and not doubling in the case of the third. Oscar and Marcia really carry me through this battle.

The really scary part, which costs me all resets except the first, is at the start. Halberdiers and Wyverns converge from the northeast along with various soldiers, axemen, and archers from the south. Mia and Brom form perimeters at the south, Marcia and Oscar at the north, with the mages trying to be useful by taking potshots, especially at wyverns which everyone else struggles with. After three or four rounds this is under control, and I can start really moving forward. There's a Killer Bow Paladin to be worried about, but a variety of my units can tank him, including Full Guard Marcia.

Once I start progressing past the houses in the south, another swarm of wyverns crops up. I have to divide my troops to stop six wyverns (three first, then three later) and two mages from the west, sacrificing as little as I can to this diversion. I settle on Marcia to take the melee attacks of two of the wyverns, the mages to finish them, and then anyone can survive what the third wyvern does. Marcia can use her extra turn to attack a mage, not that any of the three fear mages.

On the other side of things, I have to deal with another long range tome (argh), and a new swarm of wizards and armours, and take one reset here due to double wyvern + blizzard beatdown at one point. Knights in particular call for magic, though a Heavy Spear also works. Tormod gets some wicked levels in this battle and starts doubling the Wyverns consistently, which gives me a needed oomph at the end. Approaching the end is still scary, since the boss' support, innocent though it looks, can all move. I have to do some crazy makeshift tanking that involves bringing Marcia back over.

Finally, Shiraham. Most of my units have trouble doubling, my best units use lances... yeah, this is a problem. Tormod is barely not OHKOed and does decent damage with Magikarpbane, so he ends up shouldering a lot of the burden, even snagging the kill, and with it, the first natural promotion! Sothe steals the Elixirs to avoid nasty problems, Marcia and Oscar also help despite being triangled.

Sothe seizes the gate because honestly, he's the real lord of this challenge.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Without a King (0 resets)

Team: Ike, Mist, Sothe, Rhys, Ilyana, Kieran, Zihark, Nephenee, Jill, Rolf, Makalov, Gatrie, Boyd. L18-19. All other units are at least Level 20.
Forge: Krin's Dart (Javelin +5, Nephenee)

High on my list of "Why didn't I think of this earlier?" moments: Knight Ring thief! Really speeds this map up. Also ensures Sothe is always on the move, doing something useful. In fact, Sothe is the story of this map. Sothe has gained eight levels over the last eight maps and is now Level 12, though still struggling. A good level to start the map and a Stiletto from a chest in the first room later, and... he has a semblance of actual offence! Yes! The boy actually snags four kills in this level, including Kasatai, and finally the end to his massive sucking is in sight.

I really hate Sleep Staves. Having both Mist and Rhys with Restore Staves helps a good deal, but there are still some tense moments. The initial axeman from the rear reinforcement coinciding with Zihark being put to sleep isn't pretty, so I put my own, low-defence axemen to the task of countering them, barely getting away with doing so.

Sothe's party, which also includes Ike, Makalov, and Marcia, encounters generally less resistance, thanks in large part to Makalov's tanking. Kasatai is an exception, with his Brave Lance and Wrath. Fortunately, my swordsmen are able to take the pain and not lower him to critical - that is saved for Ilyana and Sothe finishing him off.

Elthunder mages are also a bitch. Damn fatal crits on... most people! Ward Staff to the rescue again.

The second to last treasure room is a mean surprise, as I open it with Sothe and discover... four swordsmen, including a Swordmaster. Well crap. Rolf tanks for a turn until Makalov can come in... Makalov still almost dies after taking a critical. I'm kinda desperate about saving him (since I screw up and move my healers away before realising how bad a situation he's in) and Sothe, one of whom has to take a hit and die... until I realise that Makalov is at 90+ exp on Level 20. One promotion and full heal later from killing one of the swordies, and he can tank the last one left and mock.

Other promotions follow as I push down and recruit Tauroneo. Kieran, Jill, Ilyana, Nephenee, Boyd. I lure out the crit happy enemies in the throne room with my tanks, lure out the mages with Tauroneo and Ilyana, and prepare to face Ena.

25 defence. 25 resist. 18 speed (only Nephenee doubles). 35 attack. 10 crit (nails a lot of my party, including my axemen, when I'd brought my shiny Laguz Axe ;_;). 10 HP regen. Ick.

I can do some ranged potshotting, but only Ilyana does damage worth noting with Magikarpbane, and not that much even so. Tauroneo takes the job of facing her at melee for a bit, even though she doubles him until Resolve kicks in. Eventually I get Ena down to the point where all it will take is Kieran to shoot her with a forged Iron Bow at ~85 hit for the kill...

And of course he misses, and Ena uses an Elixir. ARGH. This drags out the epic conquest of a whole army vs. a single dragon for another two rounds. First, Tauroneo moves aside so Sothe can steal the Elixir. Then, I try Nephenee in front of Ena, activating double Wrath with her forged lance for actually decent damage, despite her (RNG-screwed) 13 strength. Ilyana continues to chip, until Ena is at 1 HP. At this point, I send Rolf up, forged Steel Bow in hand, and he does... 1 damage. Victory! 25 turns, the longest battle yet.

Kieran wins MVP proving that the MVP award is a load of crap. Bastard cost me two turns! And is badly RNG-screwed on defence and slightly on speed.


Solo (0 resets)

Team: Ike, Sothe, Rhys, Zihark, Rolf, Brom, Mia, Soren, Marcia, Oscar, Astrid. All Level 20 except Sothe (and Ike), and all units not used in this party are already promoted!
Forge: Hans Bow (Steel Bow +5, Rolf)

The last fairly easy battle. Handling the Priests is no different on this playthrough than any other - don't be in a position to counter the ones who attack you, shove the ones who block you, etc. Generally a pretty uneventful map, watching out for the one or two enemies who can crit is the main concern. The game provides four Chest Keys and six chests, so Sothe and carrying in another Chest Key does the trick. Bolting is a threat from the centre of the map, but it doesn't threaten the real battles near the treasure rooms, so it's easily handled.

The last batch of promotions occurs in this map, with Soren being the very last. Yay! Other random thing worth noting: Ike is way better when both Soren and Oscar are around, due to the +35 avoid of the two B supports. Without them he is... pretty bad despite being average, but I guess he is shortchanged three levels. Doesn't matter since I'm still mainly using him to chip.

Schaeffer is a pretty scary boss with those crits. The solution is of course to abuse his range. He never moves (not even at low HP), so attacking him at range and Cantoing away (or rescuing) = he can never attack. He's tanky but ultimately not too bad.

The Great Bridge (7 resets)

Team: Ike, Sothe, Rhys, Brom, Mist, Ilyana, Nephenee, Jill, Makalov, Gatrie, Boyd, Tormod, Volke. All Level 1 except Sothe (17) and Ike (2).
Forge: Birdman Blade (Steel Sword +5, Mist)

;_____;

FAQ the holes. I have no shame. They are horrible.

Uh. Well okay. After a few tries I put Provoke on Nephenee because someone needs to draw ballista fire, and at least she has Wrath for an added benefit of lowering her HP. I also put Shade on Rhys because getting 2HKOed by ballistas and having 3 Def and 13 AS just sucks.

After a quick initial OHKO on the nearest mage, and taking out the first ballista (flight rules), Jill has to head back east to wait for Haar. Gatrie goes with her because two tanky lance knights seems the trick to handling the six sword-using enemies and three dracoknights Haar brings with him. Gatrie still manages to die twice here, once getting one-rounded by the Swordmaster (doublecrit. Yes) and once accidentally being left in Haar's range and one-rounded by him. Normally I check to make sure the SM doesn't double him and let Jill handle him if that's the case, I just forgot once. <_<

Besides that, the rest of the party heads forward with Makalov and Nephenee in the lead. The initial fighter swarm is scary but not too bad, the cats are another matter since they're near undoublable. Elfire does help, as does the Laguz Guard. By turn two Makalov is past the first barrier tanking for cats, by turn 3 he can kill the Blizzard mage (after some strategy adjustment anyway), which is good since the last thing the map needs is someone else who has crazy range. Ballistas are bad enough (hate-filled understatement).

Speaking of ballistas, Snipers definitely, definitely impart their crit rate to them. This is very bad, and why Provoke on someone with high defence is extremely helpful. Not absolutely perfect, though, so being careful about moving lower def characters into the range of the second ballista (who I usually kill on turn 4 with Makalov) is a good idea.

Oddly, two of the cavaliers (an lance one past the first barrier, and a sword one past the third) don't move for no good reason. Same with one of the wind sages past the third barrier, but that one is trying to bait you into falling into a hole so it makes sense.

Towards the end, a last rush of cavaliers and tigers can be extremely dangerous, coupled with ANOTHER ballista. Eventually I take it out with Brom, Nephenee and Makalov leading the way. Jill's able to make it back to this part of the battle around now. The wyverns in the far east get owned by Lucia's paladin swarm for the most part and are easilly mopped up otherwise.

Petrine is GRAAAAH. No resets here, but god. Crit rate on lots of people + really high evade + haha 23 AS doubles almost everyone! + haha 23 AS means you can't steal the Elixirs! What a bitch. Fortunately Tormod can survive a double (same with most mages) and thunder magic hits her back... somewhat decently (high single digit damage) and Haar also nulls her crit rate and can survive a double, and hit weakness on her with a Poleaxe. 49% hit rate, but he gets lucky. Rhys finishes her off. Go fighting warrior Rhys, show that bad woman that a 13 AS deficit is meaningless! Silly mage bosses.

I don't want to think what I'd do if she had a Spear.

Battle Reunion (2 resets)

Team: Ike, Sothe, Brom, Volke, Zihark, Rolf, Mia, Soren, Oscar, Astrid, Shinon. Level 1-2, with Sothe at 19.
Forge: Badrach Bow (Silver Bow +5, Shinon)

I still fucking hate ballistas. At least the first two don't have Snipers this time, but c'mon, 15 range?

Shinon finally draws into the party again. I am immediately filled with a deep regret, deeper than the deepest ocean. Shinon is maddeningly godawful, with defence only besting that of Soren, Ilyana, and Rhys (THIS IS NORMAL) and speed only besting Gatrie and equalling Rhys, and Strength besting only... uh mages. AND he's stuck in the worst class in the game! He can't one-round wyverns, his longbows tink, and he isn't even that damaging without expensive weaponry. The one plus side? He actually gets expensive weaponry, as he actually has an A in his weapon, something my freshly promoted army does not as a general rule.

Anyway, party gets split in two, one heading west and one heading north. Both parties need to handle wyverns, but luckilly I've got enough magic (Sonic Sword makes an appearance, it's a great wyvern-killer regardless of Magic stat) and arrows to handle them even with my party split. Astrid and Oscar lead the charge north, saving the house a turn before the bandits can reach it, while Brom forms the iron wall as I slowly push west.

Once I get far enough west, there's a high-crit ballista to worry about. Again, this is a bad thing! Keeping softies like Zihark out of its range is the order of the day. Brom holds the choke point opening into the Geoffrey-Rikard area when the time comes.

Rikard himself gets baited by Brom and co., but charges up to fight Geoffrey's troops instead. He one-rounds one, then fails at killing any more, eventually meeting up with the Ike/Oscar/Astrid group coming from the north. He's really unimpressive compared to any boss since... uh... Oliver, despite mobility, and isn't too hard to surround with tanks and bring down at my leisure. Doesn't help that ally units distract him.

Rolf, with Brom's crew is able to make a mad dash to save the second house just ahead of the bandits. Bandits are finished off easily enough. Sothe hits Level 20 somewhere early in the map, which means that, after this, HE FINALLY IS OFF THE TEAM! YAY! He seizes the gate once again and ends his stint as the honourary lord of this playthrough.

Strange Lands (4 resets)

Team: Ike, Shinon, Rhys, Mist, Ilyana, Jill, Boyd, Tormod, Marcia, Kieran, Mordecai, Lethe. Level 2-3.
Forge: Zealot Lance (Steel Lance +5, Marcia)

Rocks fall, everybody dies. Also, huh, took me until this playthrough to notice that Chapters 12 and 25 have nearly identical names.

Well, not precisely, since those rock locations can be FAQed. And very fortunately, the three rocks at the top of the east path aren't sent down until you're near the top.

I split my party in two. The initial west checkpoint is tough, as cats remain brutal, there's a hawk that arrives turn 3, and an Elthunder mage with a deadly crit (that he unleashes three times in four battles here <_< Only once fatally!). I use Marcia for main tanking duties on this side, with Lethe and Kieran to a lesser extent. The axemen, comparatively, aren't too bad. Once I'm able to push through here, I kill the west rock-thrower and start working on the promoted enemies who run down this way. On turn... 4-5, some Wyverns appear who are extremely dangerous, but I do have the mages to deal with them. Luring the Wyvern Lord into getting countered by Tormod helps. When Lethe untransforms, immediately slip the Demi Band onto her so she transforms back.

The east side is generally a bit easier with fewer enemies to worry about, although once again the token two flying laguz are extremely dangerous. On turn 5, Mordecai transforms and can help out here; until then, it's mostly the Jill show, with Boyd, Ike, and the healers helping out. Not getting in the boss' range is definitely something this group has to watch.

The ballista is definitely worth a note; it's manned by a Sniper so it can OHKO some units. Keeping the softies away from it (not too hard) is important, but so is keeping SOMEONE in its range so it will be out of ammo starting turn 6.

Gromell is pain. Sure, not too durable thanks to lacking a Full Guard, but Resolve gives him 25 speed and a crit rate and nobody wants to see that. I actually manage to get myself killed on him once, and he's scary other times. (Other resets involve an Elthunder crit OHKO, Lethe getting killed because I overestimated her tanking, and getting overwhelmed by wyverns.)

Luring the boss over to the side with the mages helps a lot. Shinon finishes him off with his 36 might bow, though a miss would have turned him into smoking crisp.

Once all the flyers are dead and the ballista is out of ammo, the map becomes pretty easy, though the last two cat + tiger rush at the end is still kinda scary, and the Sniper still deserves some note.

Clash! (4 resets)

Team: Ike, Elincia, Rhys, Mist, Kieran, Mordecai, Lethe, Volke, Zihark, Rolf, Mia, Soren, Oscar, Astrid, Nephenee, Makalov, Gatrie, Reyson, Titania. All Level 3.
Forge: Cinna Hammer (Silver Axe +5, Titania)

Another nasty one, despite getting to deploy an incredible number of units.

The real problem comes on turn 2. A quick advancement forward can weaken the Warriors, but there will still be some around turn 2, along with the swarm of five Paladins coming from the north. Paladins are evil, they have enough speed to be hard to double and can even double my own slowpokes. Having Oscar get in their face with the Knight Killer helps, but they're durable too so he doesn't one-round them.

To make matters worse, there's a Meteor Sage up north this whole time. In order to survive this part of the battle I pretty much need -some- dodging. If I make it past turn 2, though, I'm in the clear. Reyson can help with reaching and killing the Meteor Sage, and after that mopup tends to be reasonably straightforward, if still a bit scary. Some Wyverns then come from the north, but they can be managed by Paladins and a Sonic Sword SM easily enough.

Meanwhile, another group, headed by Gatrie, but also well-stocked with my two archers, goes to deal with the Swordmasters out west. A Forged Steel Lance allows Gatrie to 2HKO them on counters, and since none of them have a Silver Blade or anything nonsensical like that, he's not in any real danger. They all die quickly enough, then there's a Halberdier/General assault. Heavy Spear lets Gatrie take out Generals effectively, Flame Lance lets Nephenee take out the Cats (and Provoke can draw fire away from softies), the archers continue to do their work, and even Elincia can chip in with this group. On that note, ^_^ Elincia. Yay mobile healer who's durable! Not being as underlevelled as usual makes her really good.

Next, both groups start approaching the boss area. South side of things can lure out a Sniper, Tiger, and Wyvern easily enough. North group gets to work on a Killer Lance General (who mercifully has a Short Spear so he can easily be baited into that) as well as some mobile Paladin reinforcements who appear. The scariest part of all is a 24 speed Brave Sword SM, whom I bait with Knight Ward Oscar (high evade/def, enough speed to not be doubled, lance). Even worse, after baiting him a whole new gaggle of Paladins and Sages (including two with ranged tomes) appear. I make the mistake of sending Makalov in alone to deal with the Sleep Staff Bishop and he gets mobbed by more of them than I realise can hit him. Fortunately he dodges enough.

From there on, I descend on the surviving Paladins, Swordmaster, General, with as much brutality as I can muster. Reyson is again helpful in sending two Paladins in to kill the ranged Sages. Paladins continue to appear as reinforcements to give me headaches (I can't stress enough how scary these enemies are ;_;) but eventually I gain the upper hand, around turn 9 or so.

Worthy of note: Rhys, Mist, Oscar, Kieran, Nephenee, Makalov all hit A in their weapons on this battle, my first A's besides Ike's and the prepromos. About damn time.

Bertram is a monster. 25 Def, 22 Speed, 12/17 crit depending on weapon, and with the 12 crit one he drains while doing monstrous damage (34, hits Res). He also has Elixirs, and is too fast for Volke to steal from, and from experiences with Ena we know what THAT means. Just all-around bad news. To make matters worse, him using a Spear isn't much of an option since 17 crit is higher than anyone's Luck in my party barring healers (lol no). Runesword it is! Even with Ward Staff, though, it drains way more than I can do with damage. Only solution is to evade, evade, evade!

Eventual winning strategy is to have Oscar attack him, get missed. He regens 4, attacks Oscar, misses. Oscar attacks again, moves away but stays in support range. Soren attacks (Ward Staff'd up so him being countered isn't tooo bad if it hits). Ike attacks, again hoping for a miss. Rescue Ike, Kieran does the finishing blow. Kieran gets doubled and needs a Ward Staff not to die, and faces 2 crit even then, but fortunately with Cinna's Hammer his hit is over 90 anyway. Monstrous attack with that puppy lets him do 17 damage and is perfect as a finisher (the others weren't doing more than 8 damage). Takes a couple tries to work (if he hits someone, I have to try again next round since he's getting all his HP back) but gets the job done.

Annoying that I had to use Oscar so much, since now there's a chance I may never get to use him again. ;___; Great sadness if so. With 20 Def, 24 Speed, move-again, B Ike support, and now an A in Lances, he's my best unit without much question? Flyers and Astrid are also excellent.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Moment of Fate (2 resets)

Team: Ike, Elincia, Mordecai, Lethe, Volke, Mia, Ilyana, Boyd, Tormod, Brom, Devdan. Level 4.
Forge: Charmles Sword (Silver Sword +5, Mia)

Three paths to go on. The west is almost entirely Warriors, which means even an underlevelled Swordmaster is good enough to handle them. Sounds like a job for Mia. The east has a bunch of Knights/Generals, a Warrior, and a Swordmaster, which I take out using Brom (Heavy Spear, then Spear for the SM), Tormod, Volke (Stiletto), and Lethe.

Middle path is the tough one, and I have everyone else there, after some false starts. The Laguz are the real problems; Boyd can do huge damage to them, but sometimes gets doubled; Laguzguard to the rescue. He also sometimes misses, which sucks. Devdan's Flame Lance is also a help, although Devdan himself is terrible. Ike's okay, Ilyana's ranged attacks certainly help, etc. Making matters worse is the Bolting tome from the north; one of my resets is due to it managing a crit (;_;) but even when it's not doing that it is nasty. Ward Staff/Pure Water to the rescue. Elincia, my only real healer, helps out here.

The thieves, I can't realy catch, which is a problem. Well, I get one of the two on the east, but the other one on the east and the one in the west escape to open the doors. The east side has a swarm of laguz to worry about, but Laguzguard Tormod is able to hold the gap indefinitely while doing good damage in return. Mm, fire pretty. On the other side, Mia joins up with the rest of the central crew, and she/Ilyana/Mordecai head west to deal with the Generals and Swordmaster. This is barely enough to handle them, especially with the Bolting sage still having one last attack to get off, but I make it, thanks to bringing over Elincia to distract a couple of the Generals. Idiots.

Ike/Boyd/Devdan went into the central room, slowly baiting the Snipers and mage. Devdan nulled Elthunder crit, which was nice! But yeah, I had to be really wary here. Once they were gone it was straightforward enough to mop up the two additional Generals.

In the west, Elincia was easily able to kill the two Sages, including the one with Bolting, while in the east, the Meteor Sage ran out of ammo while invincible Tormod (...) guarded the east, then getting killed off pretty easily.

That left everyone converging in the north room. The Brave Bow Sniper was -scary- but didn't move. The Sleep Staff Bishop on the west tried to hit Mia, but Elincia was ready with Restore. Tigers scary but manageable. Brave Bow guy never did move, and I finally rushed into kill him.

Hafedd was no slouch, but still one of the least scary bosses in a while. Starting with a Brave Lance out let me own him from range, and Mia was able to double him and survive a Brave Lance hit thanks to being Def-blessed. Mia, Boyd with forged Iron Bow, and the two Sages one-rounded him, although the Sages did have some accuracy issues.

Black Knight's projected damage against Ike: 28x2. Run, run away!

Twisted Tower (2 resets)

Team: Ike, Mist, Rhys, Zihark, Rolf, Nephenee, Gatrie, Reyson, Titania, Shinon, Jill, Marcia. Level 4-5.
Forge: Gobi Spear (Silver Lance +5, Nephenee)

I get a stronger team for this map than last, which helps. That said, the enemies take a step up. Even with two Laguzguards, these guys are scary; birds = flying = ;_;, while cats/tigers remain incredibly buff. And don't even get me started on Dragons. They hit really hard and take an incredible amount of punishment to go down.

In addition to better units, I am more and more allowing myself to use my best weapons. Forged Silver (more and more of my army has A's, now), Brave, Laguz, Spears/Tomahawks, magic weapons to the rescue. I'm a little short on good lances, since I have four lancers in this battle, but it's not too bad.

I decide not to use Tibarn, although I can't really justify this choice really. Except that he's too high level!

The fliers are really good here, since they can get over the trees, and the high move and move-again is great as always. One of them kills the Meteor Sage on turn 2. Reyson is handy, glad to have him back.

Beyond that, I just generally push forward. Surviving the initial assault is kinda difficult, but Nephenee having Provoke does help matters. From there on it's just a matter of using tankier PCs (Marcia, Jill, Ike, Nephenee, Gatrie... although Gatrie gets doubled by dragons so maybe him not so much, sadly) in the tougher situations, and pulling through, with the flyers continuing to do lots of strikes off to the sides against birds and the like.

Respect for Heddwyn's Bolting range is key. With 13 crit he can nail everyone in my party except Ike (Ragnell), Titania, Zihark, Rolf, and the healers/Reyson... not good! Fortunately Marcia can get around his range to help Ike with killing the Sages (although Ike is now an excellent Sage killer since they're the only thing he one-rounds, and he has range 1-2). Everything else can be baited out. The three tigers at once are kinda badass, but no worse than a dragon, and suitable amounts of beating on them always works. Neph's Wrath also helps matters.

Heddwyn himself is guarded by a dragon. Rolf's Laguzbow (9 damage or so!) does most of the work thanks to some luck with crits and Adept, though Zihark/Titania/Ike can also help a... little bit (single digit damage woohoo!). Once the dragon is gone, Marcia flies in from 11 range to 2 range, doubles a Spear attack against him, and one-rounds.

Repatriation (4 resets)

Ike, Ena, Elincia, Mist, Reyson, Mordecai, Volke, Brom, Kieran, Soren, Oscar, Astrid, Makalov, Calill (Naesala). Level 5-6.
Forge: Jogurt Flame (Fire +5, Soren)

One last painful level. Okay, first things first: the four forged Silvers I have go to the Paladins (Brom doesn't have an A yet, so he gets the Brave Lance). Both mages use long range tomes, a forged tome, and a filler to hit different weaknesses. Healers both have two Physics, though this proves unnecessary. Ena gets the Demi Band and two Laguz Stones, Reyson gets the third Laguz Stone. Mordecai is more or less dead weight in this battle as everything doubles him anyway. Ena gets Resolve and Wrath. Party gets split three ways.

West: The easiest overall. Ena/Makalov/Astrid handle it, with Mak/Astrid first chipping the cat, then killing it next turn (yes, it needs four attacks to die). Ena baits the Paladins, and then I start finishing them off; they aren't too dangerous. Elincia helps out with Physic use on this team if need be.

Centre: Ike, Oscar, Soren, Brom. Everyone except Soren immediately uses a Pure Water to deal with arghBolting. Oscar leads the pack in, but everyone except Soren exposes themselves to Tigers. Player turn 2, Oscar rushes in and kills the Bolting user, while the rest mop up the tigers, and hopefully someone is able to bait one or two Paladins over from the west. At this point the Dragons/Generals/more Paladins arrive, but by forming a wall with the tankier PCs, it's quite manageable. Dragons still take forever to die, though.

East: Ick. Meteor helps at taking out the Tiger. Optimally Meteor + Kieran, though the latter has some trouble hitting. The cat comes in, hopefully baited into fighting Laguzguard Elfire Calill, and is largely dealt with. Then the Short Spear swarm from the east. Kieran mainly tries to tank through this, with mixed success (one or two attacks have to miss, and if the Sniper ever gets off Deadeye, it's over). Reyson uses a Laguz Stone to help with offence at this point. Volke (Knight Ring + Shade is cool), Kieran, and Calill (some normal attacks, some Bolting/Meteor) take things out here, helped out by Reyson, Mist's healing, and sometimes even Elincia's healing.

Enemies continue to show up from the east. The wyverns are dangerous since they can reach the softies; baiting them properly helps, as does Soren's Blizzard. The Swordmasters are extremely dangerous to the party I have deployed here; possibly should have deployed Brom here, but they too fall to a combination of factors, such as Bolting and finishing them off with accurate attacks like Brom (Calill or Ward Staff Kieran deals with the Runesword well).

Bryce I mainly fight with Oscar, which is risky because Bryce can crit him. Ike also helps, as does Calill (not that Calill is within 8 panels of him, mind <_<). He falls, as do the two Generals and two Dragons he brings with him (the west dragon I take out with the west group; unlike the east group they actually advance).

Ashnard moves on Enemy Phase 9.

Well, fuck. I thought it was 10. <_< Thus, Ena wasn't in range when it happened, as I'd planned, and he swoops down towards the central army. No way I can retreat everyone from him, and of my entire army, only Ena and Oscar can survive an attack from him (everyone else gets doubled except Astrid, who gets OHKOed). I scramble, and end up sacrificing Reyson, Volke, Mordecai, and Astrid in that order. I could reset over this, but don't really want to do a hard three-hour battle again. Enough already! So at this point, Ena is finally the only one in range. She gets 2HKOed and counters with Resolve/Wrath, doing either 12 damage or 36 damage when the Demi Band is on (more while she still has Laguz Stones). Elincia/Mist contribute their move/again Physics while staying out of range. Pretty simple really.

Form 2 just means Naesala shows up and gets to join the battle. Not really necessary, but he does speed things up just a little because Ena decides to stop criticalling at this point.

Victory!

I had some notes written down on the playthrough, but they got eaten by a power failure. What I do know:

Kill notes: Boyd 70 > Oscar 67 > Soren 64 > Rolf 62 > Mia 54 > Gatrie 52 > Ike 51 > Zihark 50 > Marcia 49 > Tormod 47 > Sothe 45 > Ilyana 43 > Nephenee 42 > Brom 42 > Makalov 40 > Titania/Jill/Kieran in the 30's > Shinon 24 > Lethe/Devdan 11 > various others including Calill 7, Ena 6, Elincia 6, Rhys 4, Ulki 2 and Mist/Bastian/Naesala with 1. Astrid/Volke/Mordi took their kill counts to the grave; my guess is Astrid was in the 30's or 40's, Volke in the 20's or 30's, and Mordecai in the high single digits. Only units with 0: Tauroneo, Lucia, Geoffrey, Tanith, Ranulf, Muarim, Janaff, Stefan, Largo.

Kind of an interesting list, though more or less, kills are proportional to lower starting level (with Sothe mercifully capping since I stopped using him, Astrid lower than she should be due to Paragon, etc.), which makes sense. Ike's lower than expected because I needed him to gain Exp slower, so he generally chipped things for others rather than vice versa.

I had some notes written down about which battles took the longest (Without a King, 25 turns) but I lost them.

Most of my units finished up around Level 7 or 8. Honestly, this was a bit higher than I expected. Flipside, the game also ended up harder than I expected, despite being only 8 levels lower than I'm used to. Losing about 3-4 points off all stats + generally having shitty or non-existent supports + no Silver weapons until the last three chapters for most units really adds up. Toss in having to use trash like Shinon and things get ugly. It was neat. Quick unit notes, crazy RNG experience included!

Ike: Shortchanged three levels, which is very bad when everyone's stats are already bleh. Anyway, he grew basically averagely, which was... not good. Pretty underwhelming except when Oscar/Soren were around (then he had some durability), though he was fastish and did get Silver Swords before other units. But... to give you an idea of the problems he was having, he only 3HKOed Paladins and Warriors with Ragnell, and failed to double them. o_O Not as bad as it sounds because everyone was having these problems, at least! Gave him Smite since he was wasting so many turns anyway.

Titania: By the time I can finally use her, her durability and speed were pretty atrocious (though thanks to KW, neither ended up as bad as they could have been; her speed caught up quickly in particular). Having a 21 might weapon helped her raw damage, though, and she was mobile, so she ended up reasonably effective in her own way.

Oscar: He was above average. KW helped matters, and he had SM-esque speed, plus some of the higher Attack and Defence stats on my team. Arguable MVP.

Boyd: Accuracy issues, but the damage was a godsend. Took hella lots of damage, Laguzguard was a necessity for him on many later maps.

Rhys: Healer, but a horrible one. Got one-rounded by most enemies later on, and not even Shade kept him alive. Despite this I generally took care to keep one of him/Mist/Elincia in the party. Physic Staff for Godlike, on another note.

Shinon: ARGH. Well, 36 might weapon against flyers! Terrible against everything else. See Titania, only way worse weapons, lower damage against non-flyers, lower durability, lower speed... etc. This challenge is horrible to him. Not that he's good to start with, those stats are already bad in Chapter 19, let alone 24...

Gatrie: Durable, but not quite as durable as I'd like since things typically didn't tink him and most things doubled him. Strength was nice, but hit/AS obviously were not.

Soren: Mag-screwed, speed-blessed. Interesting combo, not sure if he benefitted from it or not. Anyway, couldn't one-round anything, struggled to even two-round generals (;_;) but reliably dented almost everything except mages, and did it from range 2, so not too bad. Frail as hell, though.

Mia: Ridiculous def-blessing, having 19 Def by Level 7 or something. WTF. Ended up a reliable, reasonably durable, doubling PC. Not great (damage had issues despite slight Str blessing, tanking was only decent) but someone I was generally happy to have in the party.

Ilyana: Shade sucks. Uh, besides that... too fucking slow. Mine was speed-raped some so she couldn't even double wyverns at times. Hit decently hard I guess. Bleh, frail + whatever offence = sadness.

Mist: Rhys + horsy + could almost take hits and wasn't doubled! Also built supports pretty reliably thanks to her terrible starting level and fast supports, making her the only PC for whom this is the case (along with Ike). Best healer obviously, always happy to have her along.

Rolf: Got rolling around Chapter 12 after sucking until then. Flying weakness wasn't bad to hit. For a purely offensive character, he needed more speed and strength both, though.

Marcia: God. Having awesome starting stats for your level is win. Getting 20 Def by endgame in massive RNG blessing fashion is also win. Speed rapeage is not, costing her some points there, but even with that she had easily one of the best offences, mobilities, and durabilities in my party. Another arguable MVP.

Lethe: Ewww. Kinda fragile, never doubled, awful damage, laguz issues. At least Demi Band could make sure she was never fully untransformed.

Mordecai: Lethe who could take hits until everything started doubling him (instead of just lower-attack enemies) toward the end. Did better damage, too.

Volke: Did bad damage, kinda frail but not too bad. Had his thiefy duties, though, at least. Honestly not too different from normal.

Kieran: RNG kinda disliked his speed and defence, so he be the scrub Cavalier as a result. Had damage, but not anything else, including accuracy. Knight Ward at times was always a plus.

Brom: See Gatrie + speed didn't fail as bad + not quite as much Str. Also needed more luck.

Nephenee: Badly Str-raped, but... honestly, still had decent offence, thanks to awesome Speed and, more importantly, Wrath. Wrath is godly for getting some extra offence. Otherwise, pretty durable, so decent. Gave her Provoke for more Wrath abuse.

Zihark: Mia without the defence, so a nice, reliable if not stellar offence... and piss-poor defence. Still okay. Sonic Sword helped him not fail against wyverns, though he couldn't one-round the later ones. Adept kinda sucks even with everyone failing at damage, the hype for it from some people still baffles me.

Sothe: OH DEAR GOD. Nearly unuseable until Daggers became storebought, then the entire game became a pathetic charade of weakening things for him. Terrible everything, though he meant I always had thief duties handy! Once Stilettos showed up and he started kiiinda catching up level-wise around Chapter 21 he was all right.

Jill: Basically the same as Marcia, with a little more damage and a little less speed? So extremely good.

Astrid: Paragon is obviously ^_^. Anyway, Str-blessed, so combined with her super-awesome speed (as usual) she had some of the best offence, and acceptable defence. So much better than the other archers. Dumped Paragon around promotion so I could use her more. Another top PC. Durability got notably worse towards the end though.

Makalov: Good defence, good mobility, bleh offence. He's still memorable for running ahead of everyone else and killing sages and the likes.

Tormod: The best mage, easily. +2 move, slight defence blessing. Speed wasn't quite reliable but he could take hits sometimes, and meshed perfectly with the Laguzguard for combatting that type of enemy. Got above average magic, too?

Devdan: Ugh, awful. Bad prepromo like Titania/Shinon, but lacking Silver weapons was... really bad! Fortunately I only had to use him for one map.

Reyson: ^_^ Godly as ever. So glad I got to use him in both the last two maps. Durability sucks but it never, ever matters. Find his detractors more baffling than ever; if I can keep him protected despite my army of suck, what excuse do competent armies have?

Calill: Unfairly awesome on her one map, because she could spam long range tomes. I should have hyped these more for the other sages, except they could only use one, and generally only in the last battle or two I had them for. Calill could use all of 'em. Other than that, only Tormod had better stats than her mage-wise.

Elincia: Hooray, PC with good stats for her level kinda! She was Mist with notably better durability, slightly better offence (actually one-rounded an enemy type!), better mobility... etc. Very nice lategame pickup.

Ena: Needed to kill Ashnard. Aside from that, uh, invincible! Bad offence though. Way better than Lethe/Mordecai, that's for sure.

Naesala: Did 8 damage to Ashy and could do it on the Player Phase, too! Not as good as Ena probably but more versatile. Also awesome lines.

Unordered, arbitrary tier list!
God: Oscar, Marcia, Jill, Astrid, Reyson
High: Mia, Nephenee, Makalov, Tormod, Calill, Elincia
Upper Mid: Ike, Boyd, Mist, Volke, Kieran, Ena
Lower Mid: Rhys, Gatrie, Soren, Rolf, Brom, Zihark
Low: Titania, Ilyana, Mordecai, Sothe
Bottom: Shinon, Lethe, Devdan

Apart from Ena's and Calill's weird roles, the screwing over of earlyjoining prepromos, and the massive pampering administered to Elincia, not toooo different from normal.


Well, that's it. Playthrough was generally lots of fun, if occasionally a bit frustrating. A good way to inject a real Maniac Mode or whatever into the game, worked out better than I thought. Fun. Now I want to replay the game for real, though. <_<

[Anthony Edward Stark]

I cannot fathom wanting to write that much about Fire Emblem, of all things.

[superaielman]

That challenge sounds awesome actually. I may give that one a shot for GE. It'd sure as shit make playing Esgares different, that's for sure.

[metroid composite]

FFT completed all 5 rare poaches (2x Zorlin Shape, 1x Ivory Rod, 1x Dragon Whisker, 1x Defender).

The one poach I had repeatedly failed before and failed a few more times this time was trying to get a Mythril Gun off a Revenant (I had the Revenant in my party anyway, and he was the only monster finished breeding or I wouldn't have bothered).  I wonder if the poaching guide was just plain wrong on Mythril Guns.  Breeding multiple plagues was oddly problematic (for Zorlin Shapes).  I got one Plague no problem, but he then produced nothing but Floatiballs (possibly because he was level 7 and therefore "weak" or something?)  It wasn't until I stopped kicking the Floatiballs, and breeded a new Ahriman that I got my second Plague.

Agrias is the worst damage dealer of the people with poached weapons.  Even a Thief with only one Zorlin Shape was outdamaging her Defender based swordskills.  Ninja is the best, though he's only slightly ahead of the Lancer, and honestly I expect that to change as soon as I get Equip Spear (which should be soon--already got Horizontal 8, Vertical 7).

Agrias is also having major JP issues.  I've put her in every battle, and have given her Battle Boots (instead of the Chantage I poached for her) and she was my highest level character to start with but she's still only picked up the absolute basics (Gained JP Up, Weapon Guard, Move+1).  I will give her credit for being a tank, though (Defender, highest HP, Chantage if she wants it).

My levels at the start of this poaching escapade averaged about 13, and at the end now average about 16.  I'm glad I didn't gain too many levels, since it's not like the party was having a hard time in Chapter 2, and their damage just doubled for the most part.

[metroid composite]

FFT

So played a few story battles with the new equipment.

The Dragon Lance guy is ridiculous.  I moved him out of Lancer because he has Equip Spear, just...good grief, as a Thief he was dwarfing other characters' damage (go Twist Headband I guess).

The Ninja, feeling like a comparative lamer next to the crazy Dragon Lance madman, decided to switch back to Geo for Attack Up (causing him to have the worst physical damage in the party.  Granted, the Chemist/Mediator deals less damage, but Mythril Guns are awesome).

Agrias learned Lighting Stab, then switched to Knight to pick up Equip Sword so she can train in other classes.  These changes give her +1 range and raise her damage from 90 to 120, which is noticeable.  By the time I get her Equip Sword, storebought swords will be not far off from Defender, anyway, so she'll probably spend early Chapter 4 getting stuff like Attack Up and Move+2.

Ramza is settling in to being an Oracle rather than a Black Mage, finally, in that he more often casts Sleep and Life Drain than Bolt.  Still not using stick physicals much, though.  121 damage is cool and all, but usually range or evasion rules it out.


Chapter 3 so far has been weird.  I mean, the enemies actually caused me to lose, or rather forced a reset.  How, you might wonder?  Two words: "Steal Weapon".  Otherwise, the party as a whole is certainly strong--As cool as my Lancer (currently an Archer) is, and as much as he deals more than double the damage of any other party member right now, the rest of my party isn't bad.  Izlude, for instance, died before said Lancer got a single turn.  In fact, my three weakest attackers (Agrias, Chemist, temp-Geomancer) finished Izlude off on their own.  (Boss Wiegraf fared better, at least, in that it took four people, and the Lancer's jump would have actually landed if Agrias hadn't gotten a maximum critical.  Though again, had the jump landed, it would nearly OHKO Wiegraf singlehandedly--granted, the Lancer is Capricorn, so that helps).

[Tide]

Persona 3:
Really enjoying it. It is the game with a mandatory 258 floor dungeon...how that works is beyond me. Generally speaking, I find that the setting and tone of the story along with the characters to be quite the interesting read. So despite certain parts sucking ass, it's still good!

Up to mid August or so. Things so far? Mmm...battles are generally...interesting. Games places heavier focus on hitting weaknesses, that's for sure. Despite having probably weakish Personas, still finding most randoms to be a breeze by simply hitting weakness --> All Out Attack. AI generally has ISSUES. That and the entire main character death = game over thing means OH GOD PAIN. Especially with the stupid 200 floor dungeon. Still, it's the first game in a while that has given me quite a challenge (possibly due to the above mentioned problems). I've probably died at least 20 times now. And its not on a challenge either! Win.

Problems with the AI...not using any items other Medicine and Medical Powder. I had one reset against Lovers despite the battle being very easy >_>. Got charmed and COULDN'T heal out of it, so I died to a Heartbreaker. Also, Knock Down is weird. I remember fighting some stupid ice mages who had a fire weaknesses but the AI refused to cast fire spells on it >_>. When the enemy didn't have reflect! What.

Other than that...thoughts on PCs so far: Minato is broken beyond belief (bbb!). Being controllable + multi personas + able to use all items and such makes him amazingly versatile. This goes without saying though. The others;

Yukari had some lag time. She's fine now after picking up better healing and a multi wind attack. Doesn't do much damage. But I usually have her assigned to healing duties, so not as important.

Junpei is uh...massively behind level wise! Aside from dying once or twice and having no revival on me, he was sick at certain points so I couldn't take him into the mandatory tower of doom. His physical skills are meh. Really, they don't seem to do that much damage and he drains HP way too fast, putting himself constantly into position to be KO'd by something. He's probably my worst PC right now, partly due to levels, partly due to skills.

Akihiko started off being awesome and is now roughly average. Damage is there, but starting to dwindle a bit. Also no longer as tanky with the newer characters joining in.

Mitsuru is probably MVP right now. Having good damage + healing = whee! Not much else to say about her. I probably won't use her in fights where fire is dominant, but damn she's an awesome person to bring on to the team.

And finally! The the two other characters on the team...

Doglike is new and find him to be quite usable. Partly thanks to his two resistances as opposed to everyone's one. He's also more of a dedicated fire mage than Junpei, so uh...that guy is taking even more of a back seat now >_>. Plus Dog is durable.

Robot is durable too! But burns HP to do anything other than hit things. I'm hoping she learns some other skills soon. Really these two probably eat up Junpei's possible space on the team since they can do what he can, except they have varying weaknesses. ie: I can't really place Robot on the same team as Yukari unless I want to get absolutely raped by lightning magic.

So right now: Minato >>>>>>>>>>>> Mitsuru > Dog > Akihiko/Robot/Yukari > Junpei

Wild ARMS XF:
Beat a boss! With creepy red hair! Also 3/2s Lewin. Yes 3/2s the fastest character in the game. AFTER a 25% speed boost. Damn that is badass. And Lewin was already 150% average speed himself. He has a charge move which deals around 400 damage (average HP is roughly 250 or so I want to say) so uh...good luck dodging that in a duel! For fun, I compared his speed to the slowest PC in the game and he was quadraturning her without a sweat >_>. Sometimes getting 5 turns to boot. So in case you can't tell, PC Enil didn't get used.

Next level after that had golems. Which apparantly, lightning skills DO increased damage. So I was wrong about my initial presumption! Labryanna still sucks horribly though since she's too slow to do anything. Lewin meanwhile runs ahead and 2HKO's most of the targets. He's gone from meh at the start to game MVP right now.

Also, NEB deserves a cookie for all of Sothe's Misadventures in FE9. I'm guessing Shinon was worse though relatively?

[Dark Holy Elf]

Also, NEB deserves a cookie for all of Sothe's Misadventures in FE9. I'm guessing Shinon was worse though relatively?

Well, Sothe at the end wasn't too far off Shinon, though his earlygame epic can not be overstated, so he'd be worse overall... except for the fact he can do thiefy things (stealing Elixirs from bosses so they don't become megawhores is handy, as is grabbing free Physics, etc.). That's the only reason I ranked him above Shinon.

[Meeplelard]

OS: Started Mercedes Chapters.

Ok, they really lost it with balance here.  Character with rapid fire capabilities, who is entirely RANGED, with an attack that kicks the crap out of Cyclone?  And then they decided she can aim, have a piercing shot, a charged shot for crowd control? Just when you think that's not enough, they decided that instead of the usual Pow Meter, they'd give her Ammo instead (makes sense; firing a magical crossbow is probably a lot less tiring than swinging a sword or lance around), which recharges in 1/3rd the time as Fatigue does *AND* still reloads even if she's hit in the middle of the animation?

...yeah, this game isn't exactly what I call balanced.  I suppose crappy HP is suppose to offset this, but the Pooka Village's eventually existence makes me think that even that won't be enough since you can abuse the hell out of that to get her HP up.

[Twilkitri]

Went shopping today and found that AWDC and Megaman Starforce had both come out while I hadn't been looking. Got AWDC (and NewSMB which I was far overdue getting), MMSF will have to wait for later. Wish that PW3 and 4 had come out that way instead though.

Obviously I haven't played much of them yet, but current thoughts...

NSMB: Just got up to World 2 (and 5). The secret exit in the tower was completely evil (unless there was a shell hidden somewhere that I didn't notice that you were supposed to use instead of wandering back and forth hitting the random blocks until you found one). Um, the game seems a bit floaty for my liking. But good from what I've seen so far of it. Considering I have a horrendous track record with Mario games I wonder if I'll be able to finish it (which reminds me that I never got around to finishing YI2).

AWDC: Is it just me, or does everything seem to be doing less damage than in past installments...? Then again the most AW I've played recently is AWDS with characters with extra damage skills and such, so...
Up to the levels after the one with the Megatank, which I've stabbed several times but still haven't managed to S-rank.

The new information interface is a bit cluttered compared to AWDS's... it looks a bit more stylish, but it's a bit hard to read. I'm currently having trouble getting a handle on what's supposed to be good against what and so forth (although I'm thinking this is more due to the seemingly lower damage).
I know it doesn't really affect anything whatsoever, but delineating movement and attacking and then having it go through in one sweep instead of actually moving then choosing what to do just seems really wierd. Although when I think about it didn't the earlier AWs charge you fuel for moves you took back during FoW? It seems like that's no longer possible for one. The manual talks about things in forests still only being able to be seen by adjacent units in FoW, but it looks like they can be seen regardless if you throw a flare over them, I'm not sure what's up with that.



Also been playing SRWF! Up to Londo Bell Targetted on the Goloan route. Enemy weapons annoyingly beefed up somewhat considerably in the last chapter.
I always forget how good Getta 3 can be if you give it the chance. I guess it's because the later Gettas the initial version tends to get flagrant attacks and the third version gets nothing. But currently it's smiting things. All good. I need more supers. But most of all I need more Jeigans because they're awesome and I only currently only have two which is nowhere near enough.
They need to put in a combo attack between a GM and a GM Custom and a GM III at some point or something along those lines (Guntank/Guncannon/Gundam in GC/XO doesn't count. Guntank is sub-GM).

I'm currently mostly spending my money on giving every unit I have a single mobility upgrade which is arguably throwing my money away but who knows when 5 extra evade/accuracy might come in handy. Especially since I'm an obsessive quicksave/continuer.