Board 8 > SaveEstelle/LeonhartFour in Different Houses: Remastered Edition [SELF]

(+) Yeah! (+)

pjbasis posted...

I kinda want retranslations foe the ps1 games, but I fear they'd take away the good stuff too

Well, I feel like lines that are recognized as classics would stay in (except for memorable gaffes like "This guy are sick" anyway). "Spoony bard" has been in every version of FFIV despite not being in the Japanese script at all.

Still, I get what you mean. I'd just want an FFVIII retranslation just so they can properly insert the Final Fantasy reference from Edea's speech.
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FE3H Crimson Flower Chapter 15 beated

Chapter 15 Mission: Well, the mission description on the battle screen spoiled that we were defending the monastery so here we are. The church launched a surprise attack led by Seteth. Despite being a defense map I went full offense because that's how I roll. Flayn shows up eventually too. Byleth fought her and after he won she fled automatically. Surprised Seteth had no reaction to her defeat, in the last mission Claude reacted to Hilda's death. Seteth also decided to bail once he was defeated. In the post-mission cutscenes it cuts to Rhea and Catherine and apparently Seteth sent a letter to Rhea basically saying "sorry, this **** is crazy, we out." He mentions also despising "that person" with all his heart... does he mean Edelgard or Byleth? I assumed Edelgard but making it vague almost makes me think Byleth and it was written that way to account for Byleth not having a set name. Oh and Ladislava and not-Caspar died off-screen. If Ladislava was out fighting Rhea and Catherine I get that, but wasn't not-Caspar guarding the monastery? I resent the idea that anyone got past me.

Chapter 16 Free Time: Time to go after the Kingdom. The plan is to make everyone except the team think we're attacking the capital but really we're going to Arianrhod and the deception is because Edelgard can't rule out spies among our ranks. Sounds like Felix's dad will be there, among others. Edelgard also gained the Emperor class and has since changed to it after mastering Wyvern Rider. I also noticed for the first time a clear change in explore dialogue thanks to Paralogues. Talking to Bernadetta has her directly talk about the Petra/Bernadetta paralogue I did before so that was cool. I'm a bit less clear on supports influencing each other, in the last chapter in a Lysithea/Linhardt B support it sounded like it was referring to a Lysithea/Hanneman support but it was vague enough that it was believable even if you didn't see that first. Meanwhile, Sylvain's A-support seemed to reference his paralogue as well. Wonder how all this interacts and stuff. Like I suppose Sylvain's A-support could be locked to having his paralogue complete but supports maybe influencing each other and Bernadetta referencing her paralogue in explore mode is cool stuff.

On the final free day of the month, no new Paralogues or anything so it's been fairly quick. Bought all the stat boosters from one of the new shops which set me back money-wise but I have yet to break into my strategic fish reserve so I'm not worried (also I still have like 20k in bullions in the convoy.)
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One of the benefits of being a SeeD is that we get our own room, complete with the latest issue of Weapons Monthly! We're awoken by Selphie telling us we've already got our first mission and we're headed to Timber! But before that, it's time to run around the Garden and talk to all the NPCs and get new dialogue! If you head up to the computer terminal in the classroom, Selphie keeps her own personal page there for the Garden Festival, which basically doubles as a blog. She actually updates it pretty regularly, so it's fun to go back and read it every now and then. Eventually, after you meet Laguna, it becomes a place that displays all the Timber Maniacs you've found. One of the things she writes explicitly in here is that she's worried about the side effects of using GFs, including the possibility of losing her memories.

Zell rides a T-Board to get to the meeting on time, but it gets immediately confiscated for his trouble. It'd be cool if you could actually use one in the game! Cid gives some very bare bones details about our mission, after which Zell questions if it's just going to be the three of them. A faculty member said that they agreed to do this for very little money. And in a reversal of fortune, this time it's Cid who stops him from elaborating further. Is it because it's a favor to Seifer in some form or fashion? After all, Rinoa was only able to meet Cid because of him.

If you talk to Cid, he'll give you a Magical Lamp, which gives you the ability to fight Diablos, who becomes a GF if you defeat him. It's not a difficult fight because you can defeat him with his own dirty tricks because he's vulnerable to gravity spells, which you can draw from him on top of that. In a weird twist, Diablos apparently respects your choice to fight fire with fire (or fight gravity with gravity...?) and casts Curaga on you for doing so, so it provides free healing on top of that!

The nice thing is that you can have a really strong deck before you ever leave for Timber with Ifrit, Diablos, Quistis, Seifer, and Mini Mog.
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Fun fact about that BE chapter, xp:

If you do not defeat Flayn with Byleth, Flayn is actually killed. Defeating her and Seteth with Byleth allows them to live.
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oh man the NFL is back

hype
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Shadow Dino posted...

Fun fact about that BE chapter, xp:

If you do not defeat Flayn with Byleth, Flayn is actually killed. Defeating her and Seteth with Byleth allows them to live.

haha oh wow

Glad I did it the way I did then!
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Shadow Dino posted...

Fun fact about that BE chapter, xp:

If you do not defeat Flayn with Byleth, Flayn is actually killed. Defeating her and Seteth with Byleth allows them to live.

When I played that chapter I had no idea that was even possible. I initially killed Flayn but decided I wasn't happy with that result and Divine Pulsed it away. I then ran Byleth over from the other side of the map to try and talk with her. That doesn't work. I tried to see if their in battle conversation would change anything, it didn't seem to. I couldn't think of anything else and eventually KO'd her with Byleth to end the map. I was shocked that she didn't die because I wasn't expecting anything special to happen.

She didn't give me back my March Ring so my efforts were ultimately for naught.
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Wait, TRE... was the March Ring in her inventory? If so you should have been able to steal it back. You can steal from Flayn there, she had a Magic Staff (and an Elixir, I think) when I played and I stole it because on my playthrough Byleth is a kleptomaniac. Can't grab Seteth's relic though.
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Hmm...Once I finish FFVIII Remaster, maybe I should play the FFVII, FFIX, and FFX HD remasters as well while I'm at it.

And maybe FFXII if I can work up the courage
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xp1337 posted...

Wait, TRE... was the March Ring in her inventory? If so you should have been able to steal it back. You can steal from Flayn there, she had a Magic Staff (and an Elixir, I think) when I played and I stole it because on my playthrough Byleth is a kleptomaniac. Can't grab Seteth's relic though.

No. Her inventory does not include items she took with her when she left. So the March Ring was just gone. At the time I was just still hoping there was still a way to recruit her back and that she would still have it. Getting Flayn back would have been nice too. >_>
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LeonhartFour posted...

Hmm...Once I finish FFVIII Remaster, maybe I should play the FFVII, FFIX, and FFX HD remasters as well while I'm at it.

And maybe FFXII if I can work up the courage

excuse me, but trails of cold steel 3 is coming out in the end of october. that sounds like a lot of time required!
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I didn't say I intended to do them all in a row!
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Noticed myself starting to get a little fatigued with Fire Emblem today. Im still enjoying the game, but after 35 hours the loop is getting a little rote.
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Yeah, FFVIII provides me a nice break from Three Houses to prevent me from getting burnt out on it too quickly because I'd like to do all the routes eventually.
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Finished Ao no Kiseki. Great game. In the end I think I still prefer the Sky series, but I'll damned if this didn't give it a run for its money. Honestly chapter 4 might be my favorite of any Kiseki game and that's even with knowing most/all of the twists ahead of time >.>

Don't think there's a whole lot else I can comment on without just diving into spoilers, so honestly I think I'll just leave it at that. Might make a separate topic tonight or tomorrow to give more in depth thoughts though because there's a lot to be said there.

Best characters: Lloyd, Rixia, Randy, KeA

I hope the SSS gets screentime in Cold Steel 3 and/or 4 as a unit. Far and away my favorite main cast of the series. Though in fairness, that's built into the design on some level because in Sky the cast is always changing and in Cold Steel it's just too big to easily make a compelling group dynamic.
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wow that was a Packers/Bears game all right
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LeonhartFour posted...

wow that was a Packers/Bears game all right

i turned it on like 10 minutes left in the 4th (Start of the Packers FG Drive) and "yep"

feel like i got the abridged version
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Rodgers had one good drive the entire night and that was all they needed
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I was not a fan tbqh
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I forget who you guys root for

I'm not sure how to feel about Tennessee's first game being against Cleveland. I feel like if they're going to be really good this year, this is the place to get them, and the Titans have played really well against good teams the last few seasons (Crushed both the Patriots and Cowboys last year, for instance). We just suck against our own division, no matter how crappy it is. I want the Titans to make them look bad just so all the suddenly arrogant Browns fans immediately start panicking that maybe they're still the Browns after all.

Also, is there some sort of contractual obligation that the Cowboys' first game has to be at home against the Giants? I feel like that's been their first game every year since they opened the new stadium. Kinda glad Dallas gets the Giants first since it won't be as big of a deal that Zeke won't be fully in game shape to start the season. Of course, this is the kind of game the Cowboys would normally blow, but hopefully they'll take care of business.
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I root for whoever is on my fantasy team, I dont have any real investment in the NFL otherwise.
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LeonhartFour posted...

I forget who you guys root for

for everyone else to suffer as i have

which, as a jets fan, is an impossible goal but one i strive for each season

LeonhartFour posted...

Also, is there some sort of contractual obligation that the Cowboys' first game has to be at home against the Giants?

Last year they were at Carolina for Week 1. Home opener was Week 2 hosting the Giants though. Week 1 was Home v Giants from 2015-2017 however. You have to go back to 2014 where they didn't play the Giants until Week 7.
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I'm a 49ers fan living in Chicago. Holy hell will there be some Trubisky takes tomorrow.
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I like walking around Balamb with Zell in the party because he's so clearly beloved by the people there. He's the pride of the town. It's neat that there's dialogue you can only get with him in your party here. I feel like that wasn't very common in JRPGs up to this point. Also, there's a young kid NPC here literally called Big Bad Rascal. I added the Zell card to my Triple Triad deck. On a related note, I hate it when an NPC who has a rare card takes forever to actually play it. Also, it is absurdly easy to get 100 Curagas for all three of your party members because 1 Tent refines into 10 of them, and Tents are relatively cheap. Curagas junction really well to HP, too, so basically before you even get on the train to Timber, you can have your party members with HP at a level where they don't have to ever really worry about anything.
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Ch 14 mission:
Claude: improved post skip
Hilda: also improved I think?

Killed Hilda, spared Claude. It now occurs to me that I should have checked if any of the Golden Deer had any unique dialogue with either of them... oh well. We end up gaining control of the Alliance territory. Two chapters for that seems pretty quick! Sounds like we're off to face Felix's dad next?
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For Crimson Flower Chapter 14:

Only Marianne has a unique dialogue when facing Hilda. Claude has a unique line when facing a former Deer, but there's no convo.
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Now we're finally on the first train, marking the first appearance of Selphie's famous train song.

Train, Train, Take Us Away
Take Us Away, Far Away
To the Future We Will Go

And she's not wrong! They do eventually go to the future, after all! SeeD gets its own private cabin on the train, complete with a pet magazine. Zell gives us a very vague and brief overview on Timber. Squall thinks there has to be more to it, but there isn't, so he responds with, "...Thank you, Mr. Know-It-All Zell." It's rare to see Squall make a sarcastic joke like that. Apparently, it's so rare that it goes straight over Zell's head and he takes it as a sincere compliment!

Selphie stumbles in, saying that she's tired, and then they all start to feel it and eventually collapse. Then we transition into our first dream sequence with Laguna, Kiros, and Ward. One of the things I love the most about this is the fact that you can still see the inner monologue of Squall, Zell, and Selphie as they are utterly flabbergasted by what's going on. There's even one area where the entire screen gets filled with question marks, which is a nice touch. You'll often still see Squall's inner monologue in other dream sequences, but I wish they had kept it as frequent as they do in this first one because it's really cool.

It's nice to hear "The Man with the Machine Gun" again, that's for sure. Also, I gotta say, I love Ward's attack animation, where he throws his giant harpoon at an enemy and then quickly runs to retrieve it. This dream sequence is set during Galbadia's subjugation of Timber that Zell just told us about. For whatever the reason, Laguna is going AWOL and decides to book it back to Deling City. Whether he deliberately ran away from it all (perhaps realizing that Galbadia was oppressing an innocent nation for its own gain), that he wanted to see Julia, or that he just got lost, as Kiros suggests, it's hard to say. The game doesn't really go into detail about it.

One of the coolest moments in the game is visiting Deling City at the end of Disc 1 and realizing that it's the same place Laguna came to here, making you wonder if he's here and you'll run into him somehow. It just gets you excited about the possibility that they'll eventually cross paths. Laguna just parks in the middle of the street, and it causes a big traffic backup. Your goal is to get to the Galbadia Hotel where Julia is, but you can wander around the city and eventually get down into the sewers that you have to navigate at the end of Disc 1. The game doesn't really let you go anywhere, unfortunately, but it's a neat little Easter Egg. I was hoping it would be a Lunatic Pandora situation where what you find or don't find as Laguna affects the future when Squall gets there.

I love the camaraderie between Laguna, Kiros, and Ward. The latter two constantly poke fun at him, but it's all good-natured. You can tell they really care about each other. I love the part where Ward says that, because Laguna actually went up and waved at Julia, their popularity rating went up a point, but Kiros adds that because he didn't look very cool doing it, he rated at a -3 on the manliness scale. I love Squall's whole "what the heck is this guy even doing" inner monologue the whole time, too.

Then, like good wingmen and bros, they make themselves scarce when Julia approaches him after her performance. Also, you couldn't get a clear look at Julia with FFVIII's original graphics, but man, Rinoa looks a lot like her with the HD upgrade, which is cool.
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This sequence with Julia can play out differently depending on which Timber Maniacs you picked up in Balamb. Either Laguna can just ramble on and on endlessly and eventually catch himself realizing he's talked too much. Or he'll get drunk on wine and pass out on the bed. While the second one is pretty funny, I usually do the first one because it's a nicer, more romantic scene.

I like that "Eyes On Me" is actually based on something in-game, namely, Julia's desire to sing and Laguna inspiring her to write this particular song. Speaking of music, there are some really good songs that play during this dream sequence, and they're all leitmotifs of "Eyes On Me," to boot ("Julia," "Roses and Wine," and "Love Grows"). One of the coolest understated little story moments in the game is that, while Laguna and Julia never happened and they both think, "What might have been?" if it had worked out, it does end up coming together through their children.

After they all wake up, we get Squall's famous, "I dreamt I was a moron" line, but the wham moment here is when they all realize they had the same "dream." At that point, I was all in on that plotline, wondering what the heck that all meant, realizing it was more than just a dream, and hoping they'd eventually get to meet Laguna at some point. I like that Selphie immediately starts calling him "Sir Laguna." None of them are able to make any sense of what happened, so they decide to just put it out of mind for now and focus on their mission.

You're given a password to communicate to Watts when you get off the train, but even if you screw it up and pick the wrong answer, it doesn't actually change anything. You do get some funny exchanges between Zone and Watts about what they should do, but they're basically in the position of "Beggars can't be choosers," so they'll take what they can get. You can also get someone to show you a "hand drawn" map of Timber, and it's completely incomprehensible.

We get another instance of Squall refusing to shake someone's hand when Zone extends his hand and Squall just nods at him. We also get another instance of Zell trying to shake someone's hand and getting nothing. After getting rejected by Squall, Zone shakes Selphie's hand, and so Zell gets ready for his own handshake, but Squall tells them to just get down to business, so he gets ignored. Zell relieves some frustration by doing some shadow boxing in the corner as a result.

Zone and Watts talk about it being nap time for "the princess." It's an odd way of describing Rinoa because she's a general's daughter, and she doesn't act particularly pampered or regal. I guess it's just a way to avoid referring to her by name before you get the chance to name her, and she's technically not the leader of the resistance. She came along afterwards. They ask Squall to go wake her up, and he resents being treated like a gofer and has no issues telling them so, which causes Zone to suddenly have stomach problems. Selphie and Zell concur with Squall's objections as well. He might have been blunt, but they didn't seem to have their act together.

Also, one of the most annoying things that FFVIII will occasionally do is automatically remove Junctions from your party members for no reason whatsoever, and so you can charge right into a boss fight with nothing at your disposal if you're not careful. I don't know if they're just testing your attention to detail or something, but it's totally unnecessary!
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I love the song "My Mind." It's not officially Rinoa's theme, but it might as well be since it usually plays in connection with her somehow. When she realizes that Squall is the guy from the party and SeeD has finally come to help, she practically glomps him, which again, he takes no offense to despite his aversion to physical contact and actually laughs.

Rinoa explains the situation to Squall, about how Seifer introduced her to Cid. Then she asks if he's with them, and Squall has to tell her that he's not a SeeD. One of the things I wish the game had elaborated more on was the relationship between Rinoa and Seifer. They both clearly care about each other, but we don't get any details about how "serious" their relationship was or anything like that. All she does is admit that she liked him at one point, and that's about it. I can't imagine it felt very good for Squall to find out that his current crush had a crush on his biggest rival! There's actually an NPC who wants to know more about Seifer/Rinoa, but no one will tell him!

And to bring the running gag to its conclusion, when Rinoa extends her hand, Squall actually shakes it. Yet more foreshadowing that Squall doesn't look at Rinoa the same way he looks at everyone else. When she brings up the dance party, Squall comes up with some excuse that SeeDs are supposed to learn various subterfuge skills, like learning how to inconspicuously approach a target at a dance party. He pretends that the reason he refused to dance with her initially and deliberately danced poorly on purpose to get her to go away was him putting his training to the test, but I'm not totally sure I believe him!

Some people are surprised to learn that Angelo is a girl since that's a traditionally masculine name. Just in case you were wondering, Angelo's full name is Sant' Angelo di Roma. You only learn that from the Ultimania, for the record! It's kind of weird that there's a reference to Rome in a world where it doesn't actually exist!

You can find out about the history of the Forest Owls from another random NPC on the train. The organization was founded by Zone's and Watts's fathers, but when Galbadia conquered Timber, several resistance members were executed, including the two of them. This was after President Deling had come to power, so just to rub salt in the wound, he took a gun and shot their already dead bodies, which spurred Zone and Watts to carry on their fathers' legacy. You can read more about it in the meeting room if you examine the bulletin board, because it has articles from a magazine called "Anarchist Monthly," which probably doesn't have a high subscription rate!

During the meeting, you get a glimpse into the disturbed mind of one Selphie Tilmitt, when she asks if the plan is to destroy President Deling's train with a rocket launcher. I enjoy when FFVIII gets into playful banter, like when Zell and Selphie make fun of how poorly made the president's train car model is, and Watts mentions that Rinoa was the one who made that, while they bought all the others at a model shop. In his inner monologue, even Squall agrees that it looks terrible, but with the HD upgrade, it honestly looks just fine! Rinoa insists that she made it look ugly on purpose to represent her hatred of Deling, and Selphie says that she must really hate him because it's one of the ugliest things she's ever seen in her life.
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"The Mission" is a great song for the part where you hijack the train. I do feel bad for the random Galbadian soldier who has to give a regular report to President Deling and keeps getting his pay docked as he's preparing to propose to his girlfriend. I can sympathize, guy. If you complete the mission without screwing up, you gain a SeeD rank, so that's nice!

"Ahh...My butt hurts from all this sitting...Young...LADY..." is one of the best lines in the entire series. The Deling body double is a much better character than the real Deling! The boss is easy to cheese if you want to because it's an undead enemy, and sometimes that's preferable because bosses who fight mostly with status anomalies are extremely annoying.

Afterwards, they find out that the real President Deling is planning to broadcast from the TV station in Timber, which can handle live broadcasts with radio waves. This means there's a message they want to send to the whole world. As they wonder what he plans to broadcast, Selphie suggests "Everybody! Love and peace!" Which results in a collective facepalm from everyone.
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FE3H Crimson Flower Chapter 16 beated

Chapter 16 Mission: Oh new map theme. The Long Road. It's grown on me, I think the muted, subdued tone fits the war better. Map was simple, I was surprised there were no reinforcements or anything. Felix's dad being right at the start was a bit of a surprise though. Felix defeated him because battle convo. After the fight Arundel passive aggressively asks if killing Cornelia was our intention and we passively aggressively respond we didn't care. He leaves and then Hubert tells us Arianrhod was annihilated by "javelins of light" and we determine it was Arundel and Team Thales's doing. well now that's just rude.

Played a bit of Chapter 17, on Free Day 3 of 4.

Chapter 17 Free Time: We're pinning the blame for Arianrhod's destruction on the Church of Seiros hahaha cold blooded. Lysithea seems to be on to it somewhat but stops her thought. I mean, I get the impression it's more to keep the information about Arundel and Those Who Slither In The Dark under wraps since only Edelgard, Hubert, and Byleth know and they're plotting their shadow war against them comnig up. All the NPCs seem very final chaptery. It sounds like we're taking on both Dimitri and Rhea though. Definitely the former, but the Dimitri/Rhea convo makes it sound like Rhea will be a reinforcement boss or something. I wasn't sure what to make of it until Edelgard was like "we're not coming back to the monastery until we win this war" and then i was like "uh so take care of my shopping on my free day?"

I also got every A support Byleth can get now. Last holdouts were Linhardt and Alois but nothing meals and gifts couldn't solve. The team is all Level 40 except Petra who is I think Level 42 because dancing is a constant source of EXP.
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Mob Psycho 100 Episode 5 complete

Yeah, that was a really good episode. This Teru dude reminded me a lot of Seifer in that he considers himself the hero of the story despite actually being the antagonist.
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Yeah, the Teru "arc" is where things start getting really good.
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The Timber Owls plop down on the floor to discuss their next "strategy." This clearly amateur operation is irritating Squall and company, so they ask to check their contract to see what the exact terms are. They read the initial contract and get confused by all the legalese contained therein. Conveniently, Cid gave Rinoa a simplified version that is actually understandable. In it, Cid says that the contract is in effect until Timber achieves independence, and no replacement of any SeeD member would be made. Selphie rightfully complains about how vague "until Timber achieves independence" is, but there's nothing they can do about it now.

We split up the party here. I normally take Zell here because Squall/Zell/Rinoa is the best party, but I'll mix it up and take Selphie this time so I can see her dialogue. After we get dropped off the train, Watts gives us some directions to get around town (which we shouldn't need since Rinoa's with us, but whatever). Unfortunately, with the Galbadians trying to find the perpetrators of the kidnapping plot, Zone is in a hurry to get outta town, and he leaves Watts to chase him down the rails. Like I said before, FFVIII has some pretty solid comedy duos.

If you go into the hotel, you can talk to a lady looking at a model train and she'll ask if you think it looks good. If you answer "Better than Rinoa's," she'll get hurt by that. Squall will insist that he's just joking, but the NPC says that when someone says they're joking, it's usually half true. I've kind of adapted this for myself over the years and have said at times that there's a little truth in every joke. In some cases, some people don't like to hear that, perhaps because it's true...!

You can find the Timber Maniacs headquarters here in town. Among all the stacks of magazines is a copy of Girl Next Door, which won't actually be of any use to us until Disc 3! Gotta play the long game with this one! If you talk to the editor, you have several options to choose from, all of which will result in him telling a long, boring story, every now and then with a funny inner monologue response from Squall. My personal favorite is, "Just another stupid story by a boring adult. This guy needs to grow up."

If you walk around town, you'll meet an NPC who talks about the time Laguna saved her from getting hit by a train. Just a neat little anecdote.

When you get to the big TV, it's nothing but static, but if you look carefully, the screen is covered with rows and rows of words. Actually, they're all Adel's transmitted thoughts from her tomb's seal, which interferes with all signals on the surface. A couple of the things on the screen are, "Bring me back there," "I am alive," and "I will never let you forget me."

This is where we see Squall and Rinoa butt heads for the first time. Squall tells Rinoa that they'll do whatever she asks of them because that's their duty, so don't worry about them. She thinks it's sad to live a life where all you do is follow orders. Then Squall fires back by asking how serious they really are about their goal of achieving independence when they run such an amateurish outfit. As someone whose whole life has been spent in a military institution, Rinoa's way of thinking and doing things is completely foreign to him. In some ways, she fascinates him, but in other ways, she frustrates him. That's how it goes when they're both so different. Even though Rinoa's father is a general, she rejected that lifestyle and tries to live her own way. She believes in independence in more ways than one, which is why Squall's way of just mindlessly following orders bothers her so much.
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After their little tiff, Rinoa assures Squall that she's dead serious about what she's doing and then runs off right as Zell shows up, and then the broadcast begins. Deling talks about resolving problems with the nations around them at a special conference, and as he's about to introduce the ambassador who will represent him as a sorceress, Seifer charges in and takes the president hostage at gunblade point. This marks the first time "Only a Plank Between One and Perdition" plays, which is not only a great song but an excellent song title.

Quistis also happens to be there and orders us to come assist her as soon as possible. When we arrive, she explains that Seifer broke out of the disciplinary room and injured many in the process, which should show how serious he was about all of this. Squall remembers that he knows Rinoa and wonders if that's why he's here. Zell starts to say that he's Rinoa's...but then Seifer tells him to shut his mouth. For once, Seifer was right on the money because Zell then blurts out that they're all from Garden. This is an instance of what I said before of them being teenagers who act like teenagers and how Disc 1 is basically them progressing from one screwup to the next. With that, they've basically lost all of their leverage, but Seifer tries to make a getaway with Deling anyway.

At this point, the sorceress makes her grand appearance and entices Seifer into joining her cause. As we later learn, Seifer's romantic dream is to become a sorceress's knight, so she appeals directly to his greatest desires. She tells him to bid farewell to his childhood and follow her to a place of no return, which probably sounds really cool to a guy with a rebellious attitude like Seifer.

Afterwards, Rinoa finds them and tells them that the Galbadians found their secret base and destroyed it, but everyone's safe. As such, they need to get out of Timber for the foreseeable future, so Rinoa makes a formal request as Squall's client to get her somewhere safe. She deliberately chooses to speak his language here to show she took their argument earlier to heart. The leader of the Forest Foxes lets us take refuge in her home until we can figure out what to do next.
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Dedue confirmed worst character in Fire Emblem Three Housed and nothing can change my mind.
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BK_Sheikah00 posted...

Dedue confirmed worst character in Fire Emblem Three Houses and nothing can change my mind.

Duly noted, Ingrid.
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Please tell me Ingrid actually hates him and not some tsundere bs.
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The bad news is she gets over her misgivings with Dedue by their B Support

The "good" news is that Ingrid and Dedue have no A Support and Ingrid is very much not tsundere about it.
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FE3H Crimson Flower Chapter 17 beated

Chapter 17 Mission: This was a pretty fun one, though Chapter 12 still holds the crown for most hype. jerk move by Dedue giving people crest stones so they'd transform into demonic beats mid-battle. However, the only transformations I got were the first dude and Dedue himself. I'm curious what the trigger for Dedue transforming is, I'm guessing it's proximity. He first transformed on Enemy Turn 4 and I thought that was kinda early but I also knew if I Divine Pulse'd back to the beginning of Turn 3 I could set things up to get Byleth, Edelgard, and Felix in attack range for Player Phase Turn 4 for dialogue... but then when I did that he decided to transform on Enemy Turn 3 so I was like "ya well whateva i didn't want that dialogue anyway" I'm sure it's possible with Stride and/or Warp because you can just move like 25 tiles with that combo but I wasn't setup to really pull that off without redeploying.

Rhea and the Church though, they're timed for Turn 3. That area was always suspicious with the Heal Tile+ but I almost had a heart attack when Rhea was mobile lol. Had to scramble to get the B Team that was near her to flee over the river to the center of the map where the main group was all the while being attacked from all sides. It was pretty fun, had to Divine Pulse a few times to make it all work. Then when I saw that defeating Rhea caused all non-Golem Church members to retreat I backed up again and instead of engaging Rhea at the river crossing I engaged in a multi-turn retreat so I could send Ingrid to fly around and pick off the Bolting mage who had a stat booster drop. Also managed to beat all the church troops that would have retreated while I was at it. Finally engaged Rhea on a hill. Beat her with my first use of the Sublime Creator Sword all-game with Sublime Heaven for max style. That was a cool animation!

Anyway, then I made my way over to Dimitri. Had Edelgard finish him since Byleth got Rhea and it felt the most fitting that way (the other still got battle convo of course) using her Relic and the Flickering Flower Art that she got mid-fight for mastering Emperor.

Dimitri being this mad, revenge-filled dude isn't exactly sold well IMO. Really Felix did most of the selling in explore mode talk but otherwise like... I mean he's at war with the Empire of course he's mad at them. Edelgard drops some "oh this stuff happened during the timeskip btw" knowledge on us after killing him but still. Definitely not presented well IMO.

Beginning of Chapter 18: never a good sign when they don't let the civilians evacuate. also lmao rhea. The second Catherine says she's sworn her fealty to her and will do as she commands to her final moment Rhea decides to test that statement with "Catherine, set the city on fire." We full Aerys II now. I feel bad for Catherine because she was the voice of reason immediately before that. First going, "uh you sure it's a good idea not to take them up on this surrender offer? we can run and make a new plan."

But... like... what even is Rhea's plan? In theory, what is stopping Edelgard from just sitting back and waiting until the Knights of Seiros fall victim to the burning city and then invade after its over? Like, is Rhea banking on Edelgard not being willing to stand by as a bunch of civilians are burned by Rhea? She's right but I'm not sure she should be sure of that!

Stopped at the preparation screen since well... that was really the first stopping point. Took a quick look at the map though... the hell is Gilbert doing siding with them? Cyril, sure, he's been way too into Rhea since the start. Catherine would be recruitable in an old Fire Emblem here but I can still see it. But Gilbert? bro wat r u doing?
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Dedue is a top 3 character in the game so far
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One of the thing's that's unfortunate about starting with Edelgard's route is that very few of the mysteries are revealed. You find out way more stuff on Claude's route and presumably Demitri's as well. I'm not even up to the timeskip on Demitri's and I've already learned more about Arundel somehow!
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Crimson Flower

Funnily enough, Crimson Flower is the route where Dimitri is at his sanest. You may recall the E3 trailer where he has an eyepatch and yells "KILL EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM!"?

Without getting into it too much, Dimitri is far more insane in other routes, including his own.
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Mac Arrowny posted...

One of the thing's that's unfortunate about starting with Edelgard's route is that very few of the mysteries are revealed. You find out way more stuff on Claude's route and presumably Demitri's as well. I'm not even up to the timeskip on Demitri's and I've already learned more about Arundel somehow!

yeah you learn a ton of stuff in the Blue Lions route that I've heard you don't learn on others
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Antonio Brown to the Patriots

wow
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Oh right, I finished the 4th book in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy today, "So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish." This was a lot simpler than the other books, since it mostly just focused on Arthur on Earth. I liked it in some ways, but I did miss some of the other characters.
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Havent reread those in a long time. I remember them being good!
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Yeah, they're fun books and the characters are enjoyable and easy to like. I never saw the movie though, so I don't know if it's supposed to be good or not.
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It's okay, but definitely worse than the book
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Wow, Vols got a lucky break on that 4th down to get a TD.

haven't gotten too many lucky breaks with this team the last few years so I'll take that as a good sign
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