Family Connections

Things I learned in the past ten minutes, thanks to the Fire Emblem wiki:

Pent & Louise have children. (Klein and Clarine.)

Niime is mother to Canas, who is father to Hugh. Canas might also be Nino's uncle.

And I really shouldn't be playing Blazing Sword and Sword of Seals at the same time, because I keep on mixing up who is in which game.

But really, I was researching my two new favorite mages: Canas and Pent.

Pent rocks from day one. When he's recruited in the desert, he can easily take on everyone without question. You just have to continue using him so his skills don't get rusty.

But Canas? He's okay at first, but once you level him up nothing can stop him. I got him up to level 20 and then used the class promotion item (too lazy to look up what it's called) and I currently have him at a level 12 druid. He does, like, 24 damage at once. (And hits twice.) Somehow I never recruited him during my first play-through of Blazing Sword, but it totally makes up for him now. He's one of few I can send off on his own and know he'll be okay—because no one can hit him. Way to go, Canas. You're coming to the endgame with me.

RD Conclusion x5

Okay okay, I'm obsessed with this game.

The top five:
5. Rolf - 99
4. Ike - 103
3. Shinon - 108
2. Nephenee - 114


I'm not surprised that he ended up first, I'm more surprised that there were others that didn't. Namely, Brom or Nephenee. Seriously, those two rocked at the end.

Brom ended up at #6, and Leonardo was a total surprise at #8. (Soren was wedged between them.)

I don't think I've ever had so many people with maxed experienced. The list includes:

Ike - Lv 20 Vanguard - Ragnell
Soren - Lv 20 Arch Sage - Rexcalibur
Shinon - Lv 20 Marksman - Double Bow
Nephenee - Lv 20 Sentinel - Silver Greatlance
Brom - Lv 20 Marshall - Urvan
Rolf - Lv 20 Marksman - Silencer
Haar - Lv 20 Dragonlord - Silver Poleax

Shinon and Brom almost had maxed stats as well. Too bad I didn't have more Ashera Icons in my inventory, as they were both lacking in the luck department.

As for the rest of you slackers...
Pelleas - Lv 16 Arch Sage - Fenrir
Gatrie - Lv 16 Marshall - Silver Greatlance
Rhys - Lv 14 Saint - Ellight
Micaiah - Lv 11 Light Priestess - Thani
Sothe - Lev 9 Whisper - Peshkatz
Sankaki - Lv 9 Empress - Cymbeline
Naesala - Lv 33
Ena - Lv 25
And I kind of killed Kurth during the Ashera battle.

A-supports: Ike/Soren; Shinon/Gatrie; Brom/Nephenee; Rolf/Rhys; Boyd/Mist; Micaiah/Sothe

I like including their weapons in the list, because I select them so very carefully. I bought the Silver Greatlances and Poleax long before the endgame stated, because I knew I'd want them. I don't think I've ever used a Silver Poleax before. It's so awesome.

During the level with all the dragons, I kept Rolf & Shinon buddied up and they passed the Double Bow between them. Then I almost forgot to give Shinon his weapon back for the next level. heh

Supports make everything easier. I send Shinon and Gatrie one way (no one hits them), and Brom and Nephenee the other (likewise). Brom might be one of my new favorite characters.

And hey! This is the first time I didn't kill off Meg. If she had been leveled up a bit more I would have supported her with Brom, but I knew before I reached the tower that she just wouldn't work. She's not so bad once leveled up, though.

Blazing Sword Supports

Is it just me, or are they creepy?

I'm in my second play-through of this title (Hector's story! woo!), and figured I'd actually support some people.

Eliwood and Ninian are following each other around because my little fangirl heart needs them to have A-support. In the C-support conversation, Eliwood asks if she can do a "special dance" for him. Whoa. Too early for that, buddy.

Priscilla and Raven's C-support has kicked in as well, and she reminds him of the time in their childhood that he promised she'd be his bride. Um, lady? He's your brother. She claims it's just a silly child's game, but then proceeds to call herself a child. Um, ew. He's your brother.

Weird things happen when you're involved in a war, I guess.

Fan Recruitment

It seems the only thing my teenage cousin and I have conversations about is video games. it's our one bonding topic. So we were discussing games, and I obviously mentioned that Fire Emblem was one my favorites ever.

"Really?" He says. "I've been meaning to play that."
"Well! I'll let you borrow my copy of Path of Radiance."

This is a big deal for me; loaning out PoR. But anyway. He glanced at the case and said, "Oh! That's where Ike comes from." (As he's one of the group that only knows him from Brawl.) "What about Marth and Roy?" He asked.

Which is funny, because they're all FE titles, and yet he's never played any of them. I guess the style is rather distinct. I, of course, explained which games they originated from, and then boasted that I am currently playing Roy's Japanese-only game with an English hack. There is no limit to my fandom.

I suppose we'll be discussing PoR over Christmas dinner, assuming his busy college schedule has provided him time to play it yet. These are the things I look forward to. I only hope he's as excited over it as I am.

SoS ch. 14: Arcadia

...I obviously spoke too soon.

THIS SAND STORM IS AWFUL. In my typical OCD-way, I refused to let any of my characters die. But heck, that's just impossible here. We're traveling through a desert, which means it's a waste to use anyone on a horse because they don't really move. (Sorry, Alan.) Which means I'm left with a lot of mages, though luckily mine aren't so bad. But Cecilia and Sophia couldn't survive, and I got tired of resetting the game for them. Actually, I got tired of resetting in general, considering I've been muttering to myself about this level for well over a week. (A week seems to be my limit until I just give in.)

So, yeah, I'm pretty sure this chapter is the barrier between "this game isn't so bad" to "why do all my characters suck?". I'm not even using Marcus anymore, because he does so little damage. I don't know what happened to him.

At the moment, my guys with maxed experience are Chad, Lugh, and Rutgar. Lilina is getting there, too. Random much? I love the little guys. I'm working on Ray next.

Sword of Seals strategy

Here's my issue with Sword of Seals: It makes strategy far too easy.

In most levels, there's one logical path that your guys can take. And everyone's bunched up on this path trying to get through. My system is pretty flawless, actually. I stick Alan and Lance in the front, they get beat up a little, and in the next move they retreat to let the other guys take over. I do this in practically every chapter.

Per the norm with me, my little guys are ridiculously leveled up. I send Chad and Lugh, who now have A-support, off on their own. No one hits them and they defeat everyone. I'm not even worried about those guys anymore. Plus, they both have maxed experience.

I recall from Blazing Sword a similar thing going on. So I know that at some point, things are going to get crazy difficult out of nowhere. I may be approaching that point. I'm waiting for it. I need more of a challenge in this game.

PoR Conclusion, hard mode

After my several play-throughs of this game, I decided it was finally time to go at it in hard mode.

I wouldn't call it hard, but it was certainly increasingly challenging. Stronger enemies—and more of them—and experience points not as easily gained. You know you've played a game too many times when you say at any random level, "hey that enemy wasn't there before!"

But I rather like hard mode. Works the brain cells a little more.

The obligatory endgame roster includes: Ike; Ena; Elincia; Boyd; Ulki; Shinon; Rolf; Oscar; Tanith; Rhys; Haar; Astrid; Titania; Stefan.
Honestly, Ulki, Shinon, and Titania just weren't that good to warrant a spot in the endgame. But I kept them around for finishing off enemies and the like. Besides, Boyd & Ulki had A-support so it certainly helped Boyd out to have his buddy around.
And I kind of accidentally killed off Haar in the end. But what can you do?

And can we discuss how I have to battle Ashnard twice in hard mode? yeah. Even with Ike maxed he only did nine damage. Good thing I had a couple physic staves; Rhys kept himself busy at the end. I also didn't know Ashnard moves from his post about nine turns in, which was unfortunate for Rolf the first time around :(

And the top five: (with number of wins)
5. Ike (95)
4. Oscar (99)
3. Rolf (110)
2. Titania (127)
1. Boyd (143)
I like me some Greil Mercenaries.

I'm actually surprised that Astrid isn't in there. Once I had her leveled up and promoted, she was unstoppable. Equipped her with an axe and gave her the Provoke skill and she tore down everyone. I think she came in at #7. Only she and Ike had maxed exp, though Rolf was five points from it himself. I kept on willing more enemies to appear at the endgame just so I could properly max him out. Oh well.

But yeah, Boyd was awesome. He was MVP for more than half of the game, I'm not even kidding. I used to think Boyd pretty useless and I tend to not use him that much, but I guess I just proved that he's totally worth training.

Hard mode = success.