Board 8 > Fire Emblem playthrough topic

(+) Yeah! (+)

From: ShadowHalo17 | #049
I always play slow as well. Rarely am I able to finish off a chapter quickly, and I like to soak up as much experience as I can anyway.

I used to always play slowly, but by now I've played the games enough that it starts to feel a bit dull to do it, so I'm starting to have more fun by being as aggressive as I feel I can get away with.

--
We clasped our hands, our hands in praise of a conquerors right to tyranny
In Punk We Trust

Chapter 8

With a name like "It's a Trap!" I'm sure this will be a peaceful chapter where everything is resolved without violence. Yeah. Ephraim and his buddies (minus Orson obviously) show up partway through to "help", although they'll probably do little more than gather experience for themselves while my other troops rush the throne room.

We make a dash to open the north door right away so Seth can mow down the armors. Vanessa kills the Shaman with some Javelin tosses while the rest of the team deals with the enemies nearby until Franz starts carrying Eirika forward. Ephraims team advances slowly because they'll never get a healer near them in all likelihood so they have to be a tad conservative. They have to use their Vulneraries and Elixirs to survive but they manage to pull it off. Ephraim gets some nice experience wiping out the cavalier reinforcements, Reginleif is getting a little lower on uses than I'd like but it's not like he'll truly need it once he gets going.

I was hoping to find a way to get the Silver Sword and Elysian Whip chests in the west, but there was just no way to pull it off in time without diverting Seth to help out and I don't like the odds of anyone else against Tirado, who nearly OHKOs Joshua, does OHKO Eirika, and could even 2HKO my slightly wounded Seth. No one else can do any real damage to him since Franz doesn't have the rank for Armorslayer. I seized on turn 8, with Eirika never actually finding out that her brother had shown up.

Hooray plot stuff, the twins have yet another flashback, which in this game means the screen gets an odd brownish grey filter over it. Some excellent timing happens. Tana mentions that Innes will return soon. Immediately a soldier appears to say Innes is back. The Frelian king says they're guarding their Sacred Stone well. BAM soldier comes into the room to say it's been destroyed. And any minute now I'll be receiving my new car. Damn, didn't work.

DUN DUN DUN EPHRAIM ROUTE COMMENCE

Chapter 9

Hey, it's another fortress that's rumoured to be unbeatable. Somehow I doubt that. Also this chapter features Gheb, the ugliest boss ever who somehow has a major fanbase in some places. Also also, we rescue Tana. Again. How the hell did she get captured this time? She's a Pegasus Knight, couldn't she just fly to where Ephraim was? On the plus side, her stats are equal or better in every area to what Vanessa has now, so at least I get a very slight upgrade to my flight squad.

Going into this I'm a little worried about how there's three chests with useful things in them all near the end of the map; getting all three without slowing myself down might not be easy. Also, I gave the Angelic Robe from the last chapter to Ephraim. Higher health means he can more safely walk into enemy groups, both to level and to approach seize points without needing to be carried, and I'm sure it will come in handy when I start running into Bolting/Shadowshot enemies later.

This chapter marks the debut of Sleep staff enemies, which everyone loves. Also this is the point where Seth starts dropping from "super god" down to "amazing" as he takes real damage when a wave of enemies rushes into him. Rescue chains are needed to keep the foot units up where they need to be to help out. On turn 5 I got super lucky when Franz had to tank a Horseslayer hit but I didn't realize I couldn't clear out all the other enemies, so he had to dodge a cavalier like the champ he is.

--
We clasped our hands, our hands in praise of a conquerors right to tyranny
In Punk We Trust

The middle hallway here is a pain in the ass, with archers and mages on either side to harass you and a steady stream of enemies coming down the top. Also there's Amelia, our second Trainee, to recruit. She's impressively terrible (2HKO'd by every enemy on the map besides the handful that OHKO her, doubled by several enemies, no offense to speak of) but I'm trying to recruit everyone and besides, she has a Speedwing.

After finally clearing that mess up, Seth heads to the throne room while everyone else tries to get to the treasure chests. Kyle gets a lucky dodge on a Sleep staff to help speed me up a bit. Then reinforcements show up to muck things up a bit. Eventually I get everything I need though, mainly because I had to slow down a lot when the waves of cavaliers showed up by the throne room and because I forgot to give Seth a Silver Sword; with Steel he 5HKOs Gheb. Say what you will about the guy and his crazy fanbase but taking a 3RKO from Seth is pretty impressive. I end up seizing on turn 17. Man that's a large number. I know this chapter does always take a while, but I feel like I dropped the ball on this one a bit. Not going to re-do it though; this chapter isn't particularly hard, but it is pretty frustrating.

--
Mistake you're making - overlooking the fact that we might not want to be saved.

Let's move on and wipe the taste of that ugly mess out of my mouth.

Chapter 10

Hey look, it's the REAL flight squad upgrade, Cormag! He's your standard good dragon knight unit, strong and durable with acceptable speed. Also this is where we get Duessel, who is amazing, will be my S axe user for endgame, will get the Swiftsole so he can have 8 move, and will be instrumental in dealing with the crap the Phantom Ship throws at you.

This map is technically about survival (survive for ten turns is the objective), but you can kill the boss to end it early. I don't think I have anyone who can take Beran reliably enough to do a flight-drop, plus there's Fleets, the ballista of the seas. So I'll take it a bit slower, but still aim to get the boss kill before time runs out. Still might be tough; Beran has 45HP, 17 Def with the gate, on top of 59 avoid from 16 AS, which means doubling him isn't going to happen.

I rush everyone towards the center so I can bring Duessel under my control and try to preserve his NPC buddies (doing so gets you a Knight Crest at the end of the chapter, and that's always nice). Seth takes the lead (which chapter has that happened in before?) because he's good like that while everyone else tries to get in what kills they can. Tana, of course, lounges around the eastern side of the map so she can recruit Cormag once he starts to move, while Vanessa takes a quick trip to the nearby village. There are some surprisingly non-**** enemies in the middle here. 8 AS Fighters? Really? My cavaliers can't even double these jerks.

Two of the NPCs get brought down to 1 and 2 HP but neither needed to dodge anything to live, thankfully. One did move onto the village, which is annoying since I have to rescue him to get it myself. Oh, and Cormag was recruited and promptly murdered his former comrades before heading off to try to get the Secret Book from the western Fleet. Everything gets bunched up everywhere and in the end I don't get the Secret Book because while I was trying to chip at Beran with a Horseslayer, Seth decided to crit him for the chapter ending kill. Good going, not like I care about +2 skill anyway, though I do hate not being able to sell it. Completed in 9 turns.

Up next is where the game decides to play a little rough. Phantom Ship next update!

--
We clasped our hands, our hands in praise of a conquerors right to tyranny
In Punk We Trust

Well I could delay but why bother? Time for arguably the hardest chapter in the game.

Chapter 11

I don't even care about the plot significance of this. Oh, Riev shows up and mentions the resurrection of the Demon King, which I think is the first direct allusion to that. L'Arachel and Dozla join here and their main purpose is to get killed while they're still NPCs if I don't prevent it. Oh, and L'Arachel will save me 10,000 gold on recruiting Rennac in chapter 14. "Yay".

This is a chapter where bringing all but the most durable units is suicide. Flying enemies who hit hard in the fog. Naturally, I'll be leaving everyone but Seth and Duessel on the bench and...wait. No. **** that. I'm hardcore, I can bring everyone! Let's make this extra fun. Before going in I go on a major spending spree since I won't be able to shop between Phantom Ship and chapter 12. Duessel needs lots of Hand Axes to play with, and he also gets the Speedwings from chapter 9 because why not?

The beginning is pretty easy, Artur lures in some eyeballs, although for whatever reason only one feels like coming down. Some gargoyles approach and Duessel and Cormag nuke them easily enough. With Ephraim using a Torch and both staff users taking advantage of Torch staffs, visibility is not too big a deal. For some reason when given a choice, the enemies prefer to suicide into Duessel than Seth or Ephraim. No idea why but it will ensure he gets to S axes quickly so I'm okay with it.

Everything goes smoothly until turn 5 hits. That's when L'Arachel shows up, and more importantly, half a dozen gargoyles come in behind you, one of them a powerful boss, and a bunch of other reinforcements show up too. This turn sets off some grief that stops me cold a few times. There's just so many flying enemies coming at you at once, and that Deathgoyle boss is insane, 14 AS with 23 attack at 1-2 range is no slouch, and he's durable as hell too. Almost makes me wish I had Neimi!

Man, everything I try puts someone into range of death. I thought I had it once but then Cormag drew in an eyeball and died. This chapter is nasty, yo. Franz, Kyle, Natasha and Moulder have all also suffered deaths in my efforts to figure out a way to handle this, but with enough tries I'm sure I'll get it done right eventually. I hope.

After more tries than I care to count, I find a way to position myself to survive into turn 7. Enemy numbers are a lot thinner now so I'm hoping I can handle it from here. In fact, that turn left me with only about three enemies left. Huh. Victory on turn 8.

This is a very hard chapter because of that two-turn stretch when all the reinforcements show up. There's way too many powerful enemies all around to manage easily, but once you find a way to deal with them, it's suddenly an easy mop-up. I spent WAY too god damn long getting to that point though.

--
We clasped our hands, our hands in praise of a conquerors right to tyranny
In Punk We Trust

Let's wash away the painful memories. If I'm ever on a boat when it gets foggy I'm going to have a heart attack now.

Also I'm at the point where Moulder and Artur are levels 10 and 11 respectively, which means promotion is now a good idea, and I get my second Guiding Ring this chapter. I'm not quite sure when I want to do it, but I know they'll be promoting soon. Giving Moulder some chip damage potential is not a bad thing and letting Artur use staffs is a huge benefit. Cormag is also ready to promote but I'll hold off a bit longer on him, his combat is enough to make do for another map or two and he can gain a few quick levels before he promotes and has his experience gain dwindle to nothing.

Chapter 12

Hey look the line "It's a trap!" is used again, this time in dialogue. I have nothing else to say about the story relevance of this chapter.

Here we recruit Ewan and Marisa. Unfortunately. Ewan is the third trainee. No stronger than the last two, and appearing later in the game. Yeah, good luck avoiding the bench. Marisa is a pretty mediocre myrmidon, definitely no threat to Joshua's position on the team.

This chapter pulls a little fake out. Like how chapter 10 had Selena as the boss to begin with before being replaced by Beran, Caellach is standing around and gives a speech before Riev shows up, drags him off and brings in some monsters. More gargoyles, just what I wanted to see! Also the new boss is a Cyclops. 61 HP, 15 Def, 11 Res. Remember how I said Beran and that Deathgoyle were durable? This thing is insane. 9 AS isn't even all that bad either. I'm sure to have a lot of fun dealing with it.

The cavaliers go to fend off the forces from the east so Seth, Duessel and Ephraim can break off towards the boss. Duessel goes off to get Ewan, while my fliers start to air-lift people across the water so they don't have to deal with the enemy cluster from the boat. Things get a bit bogged down near the boss, but it's nothing too serious. Ephraim crits the boss with his Axereaver, but still doesn't 2HKO it, which lets Artur snipe the kill for a free level up. I won on turn...12, I think? I forgot to check. I'm slowing down some now, not doing a very good job of speeding through things any more. And the next three chapters won't be any easier. At least I know how to handle a few of the late-game ones well.

--
Mistake you're making - overlooking the fact that we might not want to be saved.

At this rate I'm going to finish this by tomorrow and no one else will have had a chance to comment <_< Well maybe not. Only one more chapter before Father and Son, which may prove to be just as unpleasant as Phantom Ship was.

Chapter 13

Prior to the battle, Franz gets yet another Dragonshield. His defense is really lagging and it's preventing him from seeing enough combat, which makes it lag more, etc. He's doing pretty poorly this run, I need to remember to have him do more combat and let Kyle and Forde handle the utility tasks for a while. And Artur promotes to Bishop, because the better staff rank is very handy (he can use Restore right away, Sage would not have allowed that).

Yay, we finally get to actually *fight* a Grado general instead of recruiting one or watching them leave after a turn. Unfortunately, Selena is pretty dangerous with Bolting at her disposal, and she's right in the middle of a very circular map. Good news is we recruit the rather great Gerik and Tethys this chapter, and they'll both be very helpful additions to the team.

I move people forward on both sides while leaving Artur on a forest to tank Boltings. The sooner Selena combine with pretty much any other enemy to 2HKO most of my team from across the map, the better. Unfortunately there's no real good option for dropping someone next to her to assassinate her. Gerik is having surprising trouble here, for some reason he refuses to dodge anything. Franz ends up gaining a few levels like I hoped, so he's back on track. Those three Luna Shamans around Selena would have been very nasty in FE7 but in this game, Luna is trash so they go down with no fuss at all. Selena herself takes shots from Duessel and Seth before Ephraim finally finishes her off. All the villages visited, no stealing the Red Gem because I didn't want to waste a slot on Colm, 11 turns total.

--
We clasped our hands, our hands in praise of a conquerors right to tyranny
In Punk We Trust

From: Panthera | #057
At this rate I'm going to finish this by tomorrow and no one else will have had a chance to comment <_< Well maybe not. Only one more chapter before Father and Son, which may prove to be just as unpleasant as Phantom Ship was.

I'm reading, but not having played the game, I'm struggling for things to comment on.

Uhh... good job!

--
There, that works. :)

Chapter 14

I have bad memories of this place. Let's see how it goes this time.

Alright. Storm the enemy capital, recruit Rennac with a unit I don't want to field, etc. The big excitement here is the Secret Shop, which I hope to visit for the wonderful Physic staffs.

So yeah, Berserk staff Druids that I can't reach. Fun times. I'm on a slight timer here because I need to get Rennac, and I have a lot of objectives scattered around. Each team tries to advance and gets bogged down by the reinforcements; it's either that or charge ahead and get murdered. Needing L'Arachel here is a pain in the ass because of how weak she is but there's no way I'm going to spend money to recruit this idiot.

One attempt started going splendidly, then Moulder got Silenced and there's no way to proceed into Berserk staff territory without my Restore user for that half of the map. Yay! Eventually I get the doors open while I have a handle on my teams status. Ephraim mauls the reinforcements with ease on the east, while Franz needs to pull some impressive dodging to keep the run alive on the west. Gerik helps clear some enemies then escorts Colm to the central treasure room. Meanwhile, Duessel realizes Franz is struggling so he goes back to clean up the last batch of reinforcements personally. West Druid runs out of Berserk uses, which makes me very happy, and the east one is almost done. Ephraim's path to the throne is pretty clear, the western group still has some work to do to clear out enemies and get to the secret shop though.

Things smooth out and then immediately get rough again as legions of reinforcements pour in, including some nasty Shamans in the treasure room that caught me totally off guard. I have to scramble to get that dealt with, but eventually it works. Vigarde himself has some annoying FE6 style hit rates going. You wouldn't expect to have 50/50 accuracy against a General but he doesn't care what you expect. He still goes down before I've finished collecting the treasure, so I stall an extra turn to allow it to happen. Seized on turn 14. This chapter was rough, but not nearly the nightmare I expected, and not as bad as Phantom Ship was.

--
We clasped our hands, our hands in praise of a conquerors right to tyranny
In Punk We Trust

From: nintendogirl1 | #058
I'm reading, but not having played the game, I'm struggling for things to comment on.

Uhh... good job!

:)

I probably should have taken the easy route and done FE7 first since everyone has played that. Oh well.

--
Mistake you're making - overlooking the fact that we might not want to be saved.

I've only played the first half of that, before I lost my cartridge.

FE9, my Gamecube memory card glitched and needed reformatting, which was upsetting.

FE10 I've beaten a bunch of times.

--
Chronological order? Fooey.

Oh, uh, I guess I should probably point out that this will feature spoilers <_<

Chapter 15

Is there a Fire Emblem fan who *doesn't* hate the desert chapters? Probably not. Personally, FE6 Chapter 14 is my least favourite chapter in the entire series. So now that we're at the FE8 desert chapter, you can expect me to rage, and be surprised when I reveal that I actually like this chapter. It helps that there's a fair bit of non-desert terrain on the edges of the map, and also that it's a gigantic brawl against tons of enemies with two separate, fairly competent bosses in Caellach and Valter, the latter of whom I have been neglecting to properly mention because he's a bit more prominent in Eirika's route, but he's a creepy, disturbing bastard and killing him is quite nice.

Before getting underway I promoted Gerik (to Hero, because Hand Axes trump a sword/bow horse), Moulder to Bishop (Slayer chip against monsters might help someday, mainly he just needs some sort of offense for this map) and Joshua (to Swordmaster, because **** Assassin), and went on a major spending spree to get Javelins and Hand Axes. Also, Eirika rejoins in this chapter, and she's brought Innes and Saleh along with her. Sadly they'll probably need some help because they start a long ways away in somewhat hostile territory.

As usual there's a bunch of valuable treasure to be had in the sands. Worth noting that Valter has 18 AS here, which is pretty damn impressive; thankfully I picked up a Dragonspear in a previous chapter so someone can do huge damage to him, and Seth won't get doubled. Battle begins and Seth and Duessel head east to handle that bunch while most everyone else heads north/north east to try to deal with Caellach and rescue Eirika's little gang, who try to stay out of trouble. I probably should have brought all three flying units instead of just two to speed up the thief carrying, but I still got everything except Eclipse and Killer Bow, which I don't care about anyway. Valter goes down extremely easy; Seth stabs him then Duessel finishes it off. Caellach takes several turns of Joshua and Gerik hacking away at him because his nearly 70 avoid is not easy to overcome even with WTA. I have to backtrack a bit to deal with reinforcements, but it's pretty standard stuff.

Completed in 11 turns. Which is way too slow, since I know you can do it in 7 and possibly less while still getting the good loot. Still, it's better than I've ever done before so I'm happy. In future playthroughs I'll make sure Rennac gets to steal the Hoplon Guard from Caellach before I attack him; sure, he drops it on death, but critical hits would have sped up killing him a LOT.

--
Mistake you're making - overlooking the fact that we might not want to be saved.

From: nintendogirl1 | #061
I've only played the first half of that, before I lost my cartridge.

FE9, my Gamecube memory card glitched and needed reformatting, which was upsetting.

FE10 I've beaten a bunch of times.

I've only played FE10 once (liked it a lot, just haven't gotten around to redoing it) and FE9 continues to evade me. I've hunted every video game store in my city and still can't find it. It's a shame too because I know I used to see used copies of it a fair bit, but then once I started liking the series and wanted to play it, boom, all disappeared.

--
Mistake you're making - overlooking the fact that we might not want to be saved.

Took me a long time to find it before I eventually found it in a tiny little store, on a bottom shelf with the only other 8 or so GameCube games the place stocked. I took it to the counter and the guy said that it had come in earlier that morning and if it was still there at the end of the day, one of his co-workers was planning on buying it when he came in the next day.

--
Sometimes you just get lucky.

How dare you deprive that man of his game

<_<

I'm pretty much going to need that same kind of luck to find it. I actually had a dream once where I was shopping and then found a copy of FE9 and bought it. Probably the most pathetic dream anyone has ever had, but I guess looking every time you go by a game store for nearly a year eventually gets into your head.

--
Mistake you're making - overlooking the fact that we might not want to be saved.

...You could just buy it on Amazon, you know.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B000AOEU2K/ref=dp_olp_used?ie=UTF8&condition=used

--
"The U.S. should detonate all its nukes on its own soil."-Terran [Evil Republican]
Play Der Langrisser.

I have terrible luck with ordering stuff online. Things always show up months late or not at all and I have to jump through hoops trying to figure out what's going on. Every problem that can happen does happen for me. Besides, the endless hunt is kind of fun.

--
Mistake you're making - overlooking the fact that we might not want to be saved.

Bump. Should be continuing relatively soon.

--
We clasped our hands, our hands in praise of a conquerors right to tyranny
In Punk We Trust

Chapter 16

Hey, it's Orson. Again. Also this is when Eirika and Ephraim get to promote. Ephraim ended up having no trouble at all reaching 20, Eirika will try to snipe a few kills on this map to gain some levels.

Speaking of promoting, Cormag becomes a Wyvern Lord here, and Franz and Kyle both promoted to Paladin. They have the saddest stats I've ever seen on 16/1 Paladins but it's not like I have anything else to do with these Knight Crests and they'll still be useful. Duessel gets the Swiftsole as I alluded to earlier, so now he has 8 move and his one real flaw is surpassed.

How sad is it that it's chapter 16, we're into the final third of the game, and there's SOLDIERS appearing on the map? Soldiers. The joke class. Anyway, I split my forces into two, one group heading north, one heading east. Eventually they'll meet up in the middle and I'll hopefully be able to get all the treasures.

Nothing eventful happens until I get everything from the throne room and all the sets of reinforcements all coming at me at once. Then things get a tad exciting. Joshua bailed me by dodging a Purge at 1HP (though in my defense, he was hit several times to bring him that low, he really just needed to dodge one of three attacks so the odds weren't bad) and I managed to eliminate the aggressive Druids quickly, since they're the true threats. Once that mess is dealt with the rest is easy, I just charge down the Sages and throne room Druids then Ephraim tries to catch up from where he was destroying reinforcements. I set up Orson to get chipped into range for Eirika to kill, just for kicks; she hit level 13 and while it's not ideal, she should be able to function well enough in the coming chapters. Seized on turn 16. Could have been WAY faster had I let someone other than Ephraim handle the reinforcements or at least given him a rescue/dance/warp assist on his way back.

--
We clasped our hands, our hands in praise of a conquerors right to tyranny
In Punk We Trust

Chapter 17

The last recruitable character in the game is here (besides the secret characters in the post-game stuff but that doesn't count and I'm not doing it anyway because on hard mode it just turns into endless waves of 80 HP, 20 Def Cyclops swarms). Syrene is a Falcoknight who isn't anything special, but considering she's better than my barely-used Tana and Vanessa, she'll probably get fielded a few times for ferrying purposes.

We fight...Lyon? I guess this must be the final battle then, there's the main villain. Or not, there's still a few more chapters to go. Annoyingly, Ephraim can't ORKO him, he's one point of strength short, so assassinating the guy is going to require some enemy phase survival. Annoying, but I'm sure I'll manage. Duessel is also two points of strength short of pulling it off with the Brave Axe, which I conveniently acquire this chapter.

I take a few tries to figure out the best way to approach the beginning of this chapter. The goal is to kill Lyon as early as possible while trying to still get the Brave Axe. Keeping the civilians alive will net me a Rescue staff, which I'm sure I'll be able to figure out some utility for once I start needing to dart in and out of the range of Shadowshot Gorgons next chapter.

After restarting several times before even entering combat with a single enemy, I get it right. Saleh Barriers Ephraim just for a bit of extra insurance (and to boost his staff rank), Tana rescues Ephraim and flies north with help from Tethys. Gerik heads down to fight the Heroes, but that's hardly important. Moulder Warps Tana, who drops Ephraim in front of Lyon and retreats. Stuff happens, in the end Eirika gets Warped to take advantage of Sieglinde giving her the exact attack power needed to kill the Brave Axe Hero, and Ephraim finishes Lyon off. Completed on turn 3, and I even got to do a little shopping.

--
Mistake you're making - overlooking the fact that we might not want to be saved.

Chapter 18

Now for a map that is pretty easy if you take it slowly, but potentially a headache if you want to clear it fast. The main problem being of course the Shadowshot Gorgons I've alluded to a few times. On Hard mode, their attack tends to hover in the 37-40 range. That kind of power targeting Res from 10 squares away is extremely dangerous, and I'm going to have to use every trick I have to make sure they die before they can snipe me, since several of my team members can't take that hit at full health, and pretty much anyone will die from it if they've taken much prior damage.

I go into this chapter loaded up on Barrier staffs, Pure Water, Warp/Rescue, Physic and perhaps my favourite trick of all, Knoll the Summoner. I had two Guiding Rings laying around for this very purpose. One was sold for cash. The other was used to promote Knoll. This seems crazy, but the enemy AI prioritizes summons above all else. Which means that as long as I can clear out any other enemies that might kill it first, I can waltz into Shadowshot range secure in the knowledge that an expendable phantom will take the hit instead of one of my characters. There's only one Shadowshot Gorgon on the map to begin with, but I'm pretty sure some of the eggs can hatch into them. If not, the summons will still have some utility here and I know I'll be happy to have them in Final when I can lure Dracozombies out of the way if I need to.

Turns out this went a lot smoother than I expected it to. Duessel and Saleh looped down to the south, Cormag, Seth, Joshua and Artur went north and the rest of the team went northeast. Knoll's summons did help me close in on the Shadowshot Gorgon and helped me lure away some enemies to make sure my other characters didn't need to dodge to survive (though they ended up dodging a lot so it didn't look like much), and he even got a chip shot in on an enemy! I try to distribute the eggs to the team members who need the experience most; either the people who are behind the curve but are still worth using, or the people who are so high leveled they don't gain experience from anything else. Of course, that's only when I had a choice; killing the eggs ASAP takes priority.

I'm surprised by how smooth that went. Up next is Last Hope, AKA the map where I try to figure out how much loot I can collect before I Warp Ephraim or Duessel to nuke Riev.

--
Mistake you're making - overlooking the fact that we might not want to be saved.

Chapter 19

Working out deployment and positioning for this chapter is a pain. So many slots, so much stuff to try to get done, so little time for it all.

I have Syrene go off to visit the Secret Shop while Rennac gets warped to the right treasure room. Knoll covers for Tethys as she dances Moulder, summons are fun! Colm gets warped to recover the Speedwing in the west room. My other staff users throw out Torch to light the way for me to get to Riev, and Saleh uses Hammerne on the Warp staff for obvious reasons. Eirika, Joshua, Gerik and Kyle poke at stuff up north, not that anyone could possibly care.

Only have enough time to collect two treasues, Speedwing and the Fortify staff, because Moulder and Ephraim got into position for a warp-kill on Riev. In fact, Ephraim nuked him with a critical hit. Totally unnecessary, but fun. Finished on turn 3. I imagine a turn 2 is possible with high enough magic on your Warp user, but **** that, this is good enough.

--
Mistake you're making - overlooking the fact that we might not want to be saved.

Chapter 20

This map can be a pain from the sheer number of enemies it throws at you. A handful of them are dangerous (Arch Mogalls, the "promoted" eyeballs, are pretty damn powerful, for example) but even besides that they threaten to use their soft, squishy flesh to break all your weapons. Especially the Cyclops brigade up north, who aren't as ridiculous as their Lagdou Ruins brethren but are still pretty damn bulky. Fortunately, I can bypass basically everything with proper Warp usage.

I do my last shopping trip of the game here. Buying lots of Silvers for everyone to play with, I'll want as much firepower as I can for clearing my path to the bosses in the next two maps. Unfortunately I can't do my usual Ephraim Warp boss-kill tactic here because even Ephraim probably can't withstand all the enemies in that part of the map, especially when he takes a huge hit from Morva first, and he needs to seize. If I'm counting correctly Duessel should have no problem nuking Morva for me though, and then I can send Ephraim in to seize right after.

So this goes exactly according to plan. I move north, Knoll summons stuff for lulz, I loop everyone into the position they need to be in for the final turn while keeping enemies off my back, Duessel gets Warped to nuke Morva, Saleh repairs the Warp staff again, Ephraim is warped and seizes. Completed in 4 turns.

--
We clasped our hands, our hands in praise of a conquerors right to tyranny
In Punk We Trust

Final: Part 1

The standard GBA two-part final chapter begins here! Okay technically FE6 has one "Final" and the map before it is Chapter 24, but come on, we know it's the same idea. I don't actually know in advance how I'm going to handle this one. I assume I'll be doing some Warping but Lyon is super-durable so no one can ORKO him. I'll have to improvise as I go along.

Holy hell the Dracozombies in this map are durable 0_o I forgot about that. 82HP and 30 Def, yeah that's going down easy alright <_< Sure I have effective weapons and all but even a 30 strength unit with Garm can't ORKO that thing without a crit (the 80HP, 29 Def one it could, but I don't have Berserker Ross anyway). Definitely going to want to use summons to distract one of those things.

I lure out one Dracozombie to allow me access to the north part of the map and Cormag carries people across the gap with help from Tethys. Moulder also Warps a bit, though the staff users are mainly using Physic, while Artur uses Rescue to prevent the Gorgons around Lyon from mobbing anyone. The reinforcement Arch Mogall brigade is a major problem, but I manage to throw everything I have at them and then have Moulder use Latona to heal the damage. Wish I had a way to dart around the zone that triggers their appearance, but I don't think I do. Progress is kind of slow here, but this is not an easy map to rush.

Seth at one point dodges two straight Gorgons to keep himself alive. Nice going champ.

Eventually things clear up enough for me to launch my final assault. Gerik Brave Swords a path so both Duessel with Garm and Ephraim with Siegmunde can hack at Lyon, then Cormag rescues Ephraim so Seth can charge in with Audhulma and score the killing blow. Lyon died in 7 turns.

Final: Part 2

Hey, I killed the villain, why can't I have won yet :(

Fomortiis the Demon King is well known for being a bit of a joke. You have so many weapons that do bonus damage against him and he wastes his first turn summoning monsters. They can get in the way a bit, true, but chances are you'll still be able to kill him before he ever gets a second turn. He has some nasty tricks if you let him use them, so just kill him fast.

Just for kicks I tested and it turns out he'll still summon monsters even if you have Knoll summon a phantom. Cool. He also summoned three Dracozombies at once, but I don't care because that was a trial run and the actual battle goes like this:

Ephraim smacks him
Seth smacks him (and hits level 20 in the process, yay!)
Moulder Warps Tethys
Tethys dances for Ephraim
Saleh Physics Ephraim
Ephraim makes him dead.

1 turn victory and it's clearly so hard to do it this fast! Also, fun fact for fans of the webcomic 8 Bit Theater - Fomortiis here is the sprite Brian Clevinger used for Chaos (and Idoun from FE6 is the sprite used for Muffin). That's probably more exciting knowledge than hearing about the bog-standard final battle with this chump.

Final Turn Count: 179

Well that was fun. Man, I played a ****ton of Fire Emblem in the past 24 hours or so <_< Now to decide what game to move on to next, and see if anyone is still out there reading all this.

--
We clasped our hands, our hands in praise of a conquerors right to tyranny
In Punk We Trust

I read it all!

I'm your loyalist (possibly only) reader.

--
<_<

If that's true then I'm pretty much locked into doing Radiant Dawn next simply for the sake of discussion <_< I've only played that game once and never on hard mode (and the things I've heard about it, like removing the weapon triangle and forcing you to count squares of enemy movement instead of being able to highlight them, do not appeal) so if this run had several chapters get bogged down, you can only imagine how bad that one could get.

Fun fact: I took 179 turns to finish this. There's a guy who has done a bunch of 0% growth runs in FE games. His 0% growths playthrough of FE8 finished in something like 118 turns. Now granted, I think Ephraim's route is a bit longer to complete and he did Eirika's, but even so, that puts into perspective just how far I have to go with regards to figuring out the most efficient routes to clear chapters.

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Mistake you're making - overlooking the fact that we might not want to be saved.

Weapon triangle removal, I can sort of see how they could argue is an increase in difficulty, because you abuse it.

But the counting movement squares is just obnoxious.

--
:|

I read it all but I didn't have much to comment on. For one thing I'm more familiar with Eirika's route, but mostly I just don't have very much to say about FE8 in general. <_<

--
"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma

You should comment on how I probably missed some obvious super easy way to deal with Phantom Ship and the two hours I spent trying to deal with it were thus wasted.

Weapon triangle removal feels like it will just free me to throw <insert good unit here> at enemies regardless of weapon type.

--
We clasped our hands, our hands in praise of a conquerors right to tyranny
In Punk We Trust

Yay Radiant Dawn next! It's my favorite and only game for the Wii that I love. I've also played it more than any other FE. Of course I've only beaten FE7 and 8, played through some of 6 but quit about a quarter of the way in probably.

I should replay 8, because I've only played through it once, and that was Eirika's route.

Again, yay Radiant Dawn! Don't back out now. I'll actually read your write-ups for that game >_>

--
~Halo Time to rock, Scott Pilgrim style.
http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/907/bandfinisher.jpg

Never played RD. Need to get my perfect save from PoR first, but I haven't had the motivation to do it yet. I did just recently buy RD though, wanted to see whether it had the easy mode glitch before I started my import file (it does, unforunately).

Okay then, Radiant Dawn next. Might get started tonight, might not. I really don't want to do hard mode just because of the movement counting issue <_< My posts might be a bit less detailed too since FE8 I played while at my laptop so I could update whenever something came to mind, but it's kind of awkward to play console games from my desk. I might give it a try anyway though.

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Mistake you're making - overlooking the fact that we might not want to be saved.

I don't have that problem since my laptop is always in front of me.

Also I won't make you play Hard if you don't want to, you can do Normal if that'll make you feel better.

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~Halo Give into the Night.
http://a.imageshack.us/img443/8466/shadowhalo.png

I used to have a great set up where my laptop could always be with me, but then the 20+ year old chair involved broke and stuff happened and I ended up with a nice desk but I don't have a way to set it up to be a good TV-watching location.

--
We clasped our hands, our hands in praise of a conquerors right to tyranny
In Punk We Trust

Ah.

You don't even have a comfortable chair? When I had a desktop computer, there was always a nice padded chair with arm rests on wheels that leaned back, it was nice.

Also I just started a new game on FE8 and Eirika already has a habit of blocking attacks with her face, which doesn't bode well. I died twice on the PROLOGUE.

--
~Halo Give into the Night.
http://a.imageshack.us/img443/8466/shadowhalo.png

I have a decently comfy swivel chair for my desk, and an awesome recliner for TV-related things. The problem is just spacing; the only place I can put my desk is at a fairly sharp angle to the TV, which is unpleasant. Unless I wanted to have my desk diagonally cutting across the room, leaving my recliner nowhere to go, this is the set up I need to have.

From: ShadowHalo17 | #085
Also I just started a new game on FE8 and Eirika already has a habit of blocking attacks with her face, which doesn't bode well. I died twice on the PROLOGUE.

Huh. You know the solution, of course - throw Seth in there!

:)

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Mistake you're making - overlooking the fact that we might not want to be saved.

Well no, I beat it with just Eirika. I don't believe in giving Seth any experience when I don't need to.

--
~Halo Now you learn the mistake of challenging me.
http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/2734/hieis.jpg

You know you want to use Seth. He's like a drug. Once you start you can't stop. You keep saying you're only bringing him to rescue people, he's just going up there in case of emergencies, no big deal, and then suddenly there's half a dozen corpses scattered around him and you're on another high.

--
We clasped our hands, our hands in praise of a conquerors right to tyranny
In Punk We Trust

Not at all, because I don't like Seth. I honestly don't like mounted units much at all, for aesthetic reasons, they're not as badass, but I of course use them because of their mobility. But I prefer to use ones that I actually raised and promoted myself.

--
~Halo Live, fight, survive, as a family.
http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/7469/batfamily.jpg

Oh and that's also why I like Eliwood, Ephraim, and Eirika better before they promote, I'm really sad they ruined them by putting them on a damn horse.

--
~Halo Live, fight, survive, as a family.
http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/7469/batfamily.jpg

Don't ever play FE4 then <_< You need to make use of your mounted units or you're going to have a lot of villages burned down on you, which means less money, no Bargain Ring, no Thief Ring, all kinds of unhappiness.

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Mistake you're making - overlooking the fact that we might not want to be saved.

No I'm fine with utilizing them, I just don't like them much, so I won't focus on the ones that aren't necessary, like Seth for instance.

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~Halo Everybody run!
http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/6195/furriese.jpg

So whether Radiant Dawn begins overnight or tomorrow afternoon/evening depends entirely on whether my insomnia is enough to make me want to play something to occupy my time.

Unrelated question - am I the only one who gets a strange satisfaction out of killing archers with flying units? I find that if I have multiple options for killing an enemy archer and all of them are relatively equal (equal odds of success, any alternate tasks one could do the others can, etc), I will almost always let the flying unit get it.

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Mistake you're making - overlooking the fact that we might not want to be saved.

Yay FE playlogs.

Unrelated question - am I the only one who gets a strange satisfaction out of killing archers with flying units? I find that if I have multiple options for killing an enemy archer and all of them are relatively equal (equal odds of success, any alternate tasks one could do the others can, etc), I will almost always let the flying unit get it.

I pretty much agree. And hilariously, flyers are often going to be the units who take out ballistas in various games, I find (protect them so they can avoid a OHKO, then have them rush in and kill the ****er... in some cases you literally have no other choice, e.g. FE6 chapter 23).

Re FE8, I'm not really a huge fan of LTC-type deals (I think not routing Last Hope means you miss out on a very fun test of your promoted units, for instance), it was still a good playlog to read about. Really looking forward to RD, though, that's my fave. Even if its HM kinda sucks due to its obnoxious quirks (fortunately, its NM is respectable for challenge).

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The RPG Duelling League: www.rpgdl.com
An unparalleled source for RPG information and discussion

I usually do go the "dramatic last stand siege thing" route in Last Hope, but I figured since I had committed to trying to be quick, I had to keep at it. Not that I ended up very quick in the scheme of things anyway.

I'll definitely be doing normal mode for RD, to avoid the aforementioned obnoxious quirks. I'm sure it will be a decent challenge in a few places because let's face it, I managed to have trouble in Sacred Stones, I can struggle with anything.

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Mistake you're making - overlooking the fact that we might not want to be saved.

Oh hey, I'm pretty sure I already said this before, but just so you remember, you have to use Edward. And Nephenee of course, but that's obvious.

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~Halo Now you learn the mistake of challenging me.
http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/2734/hieis.jpg

Radiant Dawn commences! Let's see how long it takes me to get the hang of the Wiimote controls for this game. This playthrough will be on normal difficulty, and a lot more casual than the Sacred Stones one was. May or may not have plot commentary so expect spoilers.

Part 1

Chapter 1-P

Yeah, I'll be using the (Part Number) - (Chapter Number) format here for lack of a better alternative.

The plot begins with a cutscene where Sothe shows up to bail out Micaiah and acts like a moron. He drops in and slits a guys throat. Okay. Then, he...decides it's time to just kick everyone else? You're fighting for your life and you obviously aren't hesitant to kill these dudes, why the hell are you suddenly ignoring your knife in favour of pretending you're Bruce Lee or something?

Hey it's our typical starting battle against bandits. FE8 didn't really have one of those until chapter 2, nice to get into the tradition early. I spend a good five minutes just fiddling with options and getting used to the controls before proceeding.

Edward gets off to a brilliant start by blocking the very first axe he sees with his face. He and Micaiah team up to chip/kill bandits one after another. This is standard stuff. I think FE4 is the only game where the prologue chapter has anything going on that's interesting to talk about. Micaiah uses her reverse vampirism to heal Edward a couple of times, Leonardo shows up just in time to poke things because the only reason I even care about his existence is that he brings a Dracoshield I could use on an actually good unit. The first level up of the game goes to Micaiah and she gets Skill, Luck and Resistance. Speed would have been nice, dear. And don't you have a 70% magic growth or something absurd like that? Already off to a wonderful start, gaining probably the least useful stats possible. Then Edward follows up with HP, Skill, Luck and Defense. The durability boost I won't say no to, but what's with the lack of offensive growth here guys?

In any event, Edward finishes off the boss with a 100% excessive Wrath-crit when he was already doing enough damage to kill the guy anyway. Didn't even check the turn count because I don't care much on this run.

--
We clasped our hands, our hands in praise of a conquerors right to tyranny
In Punk We Trust

You have to get used to the controls? I just hold the Wiimote sideways, it's very simple and comfortable.

--
~Halo Give into the Night.
http://a.imageshack.us/img443/8466/shadowhalo.png

Chapter 1-1

Hey, narration. I actually like the guys voice, but given that I can just read the text, all I ever hear is "They...However...The..." because I keep skipping through it so fast.

I guess I should have done my usual "discuss the recruited units" thing. Edward blocks axes with his face but has the growths to eventually be a great swordmaster if you can get through his shaky start. Leonardo is a crappy archer. Micaiah gives her life away to heal others and pokes with light magic. "Yay". Now I get Nolan, the first Fighter to not suck since FE5.

Nolan dodges the first axe he faces. See why I like this guy more than Edward? Anyway, he draws enemies in and blasts them down to low health so they can be killed on the next turn. Micaiah heals him at one point, and healing items in this game have more uses than in most of the series so I take advantage of that too. Unless I'm much mistaken some enemy reinforcements come in from behind me at some point so I know I have to hurry a bit. Leonardo decides to crit an enemy to death, which kind of surprised me and deprived Edward of a kill, but it probably also deprived his face of an axe so I'm not too torn up about it.

Eventually Nolan decides that he doesn't give a **** about no weapon triangle and he nukes the boss. Levels up and gains HP, Strength, Speed, Defense and Resistance. DO YOU SEE WHY I LIKE THIS GUY?! Edward takes out the Hand Axe Fighter beside him, and I stall a turn so I can do some item trading (namely giving Nolan the Hand Axe from one of the houses. I have everyone else escape before Micaiah because FE5 has me paranoid about always doing that, even though I don't think it actually hurts me in this game if I don't.

--
Mistake you're making - overlooking the fact that we might not want to be saved.

From: ShadowHalo17 | #098
You have to get used to the controls? I just hold the Wiimote sideways, it's very simple and comfortable.

Same here, it's the "hold B + another button" things I need to get used to. Takes me a minute or two to get them all memorized.

--
We clasped our hands, our hands in praise of a conquerors right to tyranny
In Punk We Trust