I ran through most of the girls (BE, so no Hilda) and none of the others really came close, and a lot of them were real boring.
No, but she did provide another instance of her fabled singing.did Annette bring a bird to the goddess tower in order to satisfy the "man and a woman" requirement, though
One of the things I'm thinking about a lot as I get into part 2 of my Azure Moon Maddening NG+ run is how weird the game feels sometimes due to the recruitment system. Because all the characters can potentially be recruited, they also have incidental dialogue for the circumstances of any route (so I have Lysithea explaining she doesn't realy care about Faerghus, just a peaceful future for her family)... but that also kind of limits how meaningful their roles can be if they aren't recruited. I left Hilda unrecruited because it felt weird to break her away from Claude, but realistically I know she'll get a few lines of dialogue in cutscenes at most, and I kind of wonder if I should've just grabbed her anyway for her supports + monastery dialogue.
And then of course there's the knock-on effect of how empty or full the monastery is, which affects how much there is to do, and how many paralogues you can get, and so on and so forth. But then because the game rarely has more than 10 unit slots per mission (maybe 12 max IIRC, and often lower) there's not really any good way to make use of a larger army.
It's like, not recruiting much makes more sense for the story and should be more thematically interesting, but it's not really explored, and recruiting a ton should give a lot more gameplay flexibility but in practice you don't have much use for a bunch of your units. Which, granted, happens in every Fire Emblem to some extent.
One of the things I'm thinking about a lot as I get into part 2 of my Azure Moon Maddening NG+ run is how weird the game feels sometimes due to the recruitment system. Because all the characters can potentially be recruited, they also have incidental dialogue for the circumstances of any route (so I have Lysithea explaining she doesn't realy care about Faerghus, just a peaceful future for her family)... but that also kind of limits how meaningful their roles can be if they aren't recruited. I left Hilda unrecruited because it felt weird to break her away from Claude, but realistically I know she'll get a few lines of dialogue in cutscenes at most, and I kind of wonder if I should've just grabbed her anyway for her supports + monastery dialogue.
And then of course there's the knock-on effect of how empty or full the monastery is, which affects how much there is to do, and how many paralogues you can get, and so on and so forth. But then because the game rarely has more than 10 unit slots per mission (maybe 12 max IIRC, and often lower) there's not really any good way to make use of a larger army.
It's like, not recruiting much makes more sense for the story and should be more thematically interesting, but it's not really explored, and recruiting a ton should give a lot more gameplay flexibility but in practice you don't have much use for a bunch of your units. Which, granted, happens in every Fire Emblem to some extent.
So do Flayn and Seteth everstop referring to each other as siblings in their relationship cut scenes? I already beat the paralogue that reveals he's her father
One of the things I like about the game being split up into different routes is that it's easy to just concentrate on your house students plus a few extras you poached from other classes, knowing you'll be able to concentrate on the rest of the cast in their route. In Awakening and Fates, I got into a bad habit of trying to grind out the entire cast to get their supports, to get their kids, to get their kid's supports, even though I could only field a fraction of those units once I hit story missions. It's a lot nicer being able to focus on a core group in any given route.It's like, not recruiting much makes more sense for the story and should be more thematically interesting, but it's not really explored, and recruiting a ton should give a lot more gameplay flexibility but in practice you don't have much use for a bunch of your units. Which, granted, happens in every Fire Emblem to some extent.
I understand the general sentiment of what you are saying, but felt I should just point out that in your specific example, Hilda isn't recruitable. The right hands of the other lords are stuck to them and can't go to other houses. So Dimitri/Dedue, Edelgard/Hubert and Claude/Hilda can only be used in their respective routes.
EDIT: Oh my god I just fact checked myself and I'm fn wrong. Didn't realize Hilda just broke that rule. I assumed she did the same as Dedue and Hubert... Poor Claude has no one that is infinitely loyal.
Fully agreed. Also in agreement with BL plot line ending up rather underwhelming.Ultimately, I think Three Houses is worse off for having so many separate routes. The map variety just isn't there to keep each campaign feeling fresh. The lords barely exist outside of their own routes, so the grand clash of personalities and ideals that the game sold itself on never really materializes. And the contrived way it sections off crucial plot information to specific routes to encourage replays is super obnoxious.
Probably still a top three Fire Emblem for me, and handily my favorite story and cast in the series, but it falls short of its own potential.
The parlay scene in AM is a prime example.
For a scene so late in the game, they intentionally wrote El to be so vague with her motives, when otherwise the scene acted to set up the final battle as a tragedy. I think the developers not only wanted her motives to be hidden behind taking the CF route, but they also wanted the choice to side with El to be a bit of a leap of faith. Hence why the BE route defaults to SS and they are so tightlipped on El's true goals in the other routes.
A lot of time was spent with Dimitri making bad decisions surrounded by his group of enablers, plus Felix. I could look past that, but the part I get hung up on is what turns Dimitri around.
The fuzzieness of this important moment bothers me because it's such a huge turnaround for his character, and I just don't understand the impetus of it.
For Dimitri, I understand the pain he carries with him and how that weighed him down until he broke. But for identifying what was the turn that seperates the redeemable Dimitri of Azure Moon from the Dimitri of the other routes is uuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhh happenstance????
I was so mad yesterday. I was on Chapter 21 of Azure Moon, and got everyone to the end of the stage, and had Dimitri ready to counter Hubert on the Enemy Phase and kill him, when ONE REINFORCEMENT SHOWED UP, killed Annette, and then Hubert suicided on Dimitri, ending the stage. So I had to reset to save Annette. God fucking dammit.
Thanks for letting me know.Yeah the reinforcements on that chapter are pretty bogus. Chapter 22 pulls the same nonsense as well, just as a heads up.
If you're not in Maddening mode, it's doable. But it's much easier if you've got the Knowledge Gem. It also depends on what classes you're thinking about. There are some that aren't worth it.I've got a couple of characters at lv16 who have mastered their current class. What do you think, should I be ambitious and switch their classes to try to master another?
I am in Maddening haha. It's mostly my White Mages -> Black Mages, but my main from Thief -> Mercenary too. I suppose the only "risk" is slight skill level loss from being in an off-class and being down 1k gold per experiment.If you're not in Maddening mode, it's doable. But it's much easier if you've got the Knowledge Gem. It also depends on what classes you're thinking about. There are some that aren't worth it.
What units, specifically, are you thinking about, and what endgame classes are you considering? Those would be factors. Mercenary is a bit of a waste IMO - the odds are low that it will trigger and then do enough damage to kill another unit, since proc skills got heavily nerfed in this game so you're unlikely to get stuff like Vantage -> Sol/Luna -> Astra craziness like you could in Awakening and Fates. Death Blow from Brigand is usually more useful.I am in Maddening haha. It's mostly my White Mages -> Black Mages, but my main from Thief -> Mercenary too. I suppose the only "risk" is slight skill level loss from being in an off-class and being down 1k gold per experiment.
The main reason I prefer free battle saves to rewinds. Rewinds only work as long as you don't complete the mission.I was so mad yesterday. I was on Chapter 21 of Azure Moon, and got everyone to the end of the stage, and had Dimitri ready to counter Hubert on the Enemy Phase and kill him, when ONE REINFORCEMENT SHOWED UP, killed Annette, and then Hubert suicided on Dimitri, ending the stage. So I had to reset to save Annette. God fucking dammit.
Not sure about late game classes yet. Still on my first playthrough and Maddening doesn't seem hard enough to warrant that type of thorough planning. But unfortunately, my protag is not eligible for Brigand. I was thinking the black mages for the +6 atk on offense ability, but it's more of a, should I risk wasting money to min-max this way? How plentiful is money? Assuming it should be rarely easy to get money once I start going for golden fish. I'm pretty much spending every penny between months as is, this month being the first exception.What units, specifically, are you thinking about, and what endgame classes are you considering? Those would be factors. Mercenary is a bit of a waste IMO - the odds are low that it will trigger and then do enough damage to kill another unit, since proc skills got heavily nerfed in this game so you're unlikely to get stuff like Vantage -> Sol/Luna -> Astra craziness like you could in Awakening and Fates. Death Blow from Brigand is usually more useful.
Yeah, I think you're probably right that they wanted siding withEdelgard to be a leap of faith, and I think that moment actually works quite well in her own route. But having played Crimson Flower first, it's a real struggle going through the other routes dancing around what's actually happening in the plot and seeing Edelgard never speak with the other lords about Rhea controlling Fodlan. Like, the manifesto she distributes to the public in Crimson Flower presumably discloses all of that information to basically everyone, but it conveniently just doesn't exist in the other routes to prevent it from being addressed. The plot of every non-CF route is hamstrung by the need to preserve a cool twist in CF.
Another big part of the problem is Rhea disappearing almost completely from the back half of the game. I imagine this was done to prevent the lords from being outshone as key players, and I get why that's important. But if she was still around to provide some counterweight to Edelgard there easily could've been a scenario where Edelgard confronts the lords with the truth and Dimitri is convinced to side with the church anyway, or where Claude decides to chart his own course free of influence from either party. As is, both Claude and Dimitri functionally end up working for the church and defending the Crest-based class system without ever being forced to consider whether that's actually a good idea. Which is pretty unsatisfying, narratively.
I'd also agree that much of Dimitri's character development feels a bit arbitrary and not particularly well-earned. And like you say, his entire team (minus Felix) isenabling him for the whole first half of the war phase, which was obnoxious to sit through and undermines the character work for a lot of the other Blue Lions.
This is a day raffle that will expire in 24 hours. The winner will be drawn at random! Any prizes leftover after the deadline will become available on a first-come first-serve basis.
lt519 said:Wal-Mart error, didn't get the base game. Giving away the expansion pass code. Thought I'd try the OT first even if most of you already have it. Enjoy!
It sounds like a bad time, mostly withHow is Maddening for the Church route? It's the only route I haven't played and I haven't played anything but Hard for the past three routes. Might hold off on this till Spring though, the burnout is real lol
41-43 worked out well enough for me. The beginning of the last map was a bit harrowing, but after that it was manageable.About what level range should I have my characters at by the end game? (Doing BL on Hard/Classic)
I was so mad yesterday. I was on Chapter 21 of Azure Moon, and got everyone to the end of the stage, and had Dimitri ready to counter Hubert on the Enemy Phase and kill him, when ONE REINFORCEMENT SHOWED UP, killed Annette, and then Hubert suicided on Dimitri, ending the stage. So I had to reset to save Annette. God fucking dammit.
whoa is this the 3rd wave of Three Houses DLC?I'm loving it so far, but I really desperately wish there was more fine-tuning of the assist mode/strength settings. I'm in PT for my left neck/shoulder (with complications in the arm and back). If I push those the same way I push the rest of my body, I wind up in actual pain and need to stop, but it looks like the strength setting is global. I tried the shoulder assist mode and it doesn't help because some of the exercises it cuts out are totally fine for me while it leaves others that I can't do.
In terms of the route split, it's interesting that despite being the shortest Crimson Flower is the best route in terms of giving all the Lords proper screen time and acknowledgement
(some general spoilers for all routes)
- Edelgard doesn't need to be explained
- Claude actually schemes, you get good insight to his character, and he's presented fairly.
- Dimitri doesn't die like a chump, is in a far better place mentally than any other route, and you get good insight into his ideals - particularly in the big battle
- Rhea might go crazy but it's totally justified and she bafflingly has the best role here than in any of the "5 years in a dungeon" routes iirc (haven't done Church myself). How is this the only one where she isn't MIA for such a huge chunk lol
I'd honestly argue that if it hadn't been for a certain missing story beat at the end this route it would be the objective best in terms of overall story, even with the missing lore. Given the scenario of the route it's honestly the only route that really needs to touch on every aspect of the conflict post-timeskip and it shows.
Lmao whoops. Dragaux x Raphael support chain when?
Given how what's missing is so poorly addressed in other routes, I'd say that's almost a pro for that route instead of a con.In terms of the route split, it's interesting that despite being the shortest Crimson Flower is the best route in terms of giving all the Lords proper screen time and acknowledgement
(some general spoilers for all routes)
- Edelgard doesn't need to be explained
- Claude actually schemes, you get good insight to his character, and he's presented fairly.
- Dimitri doesn't die like a chump, is in a far better place mentally than any other route, and you get good insight into his ideals - particularly in the big battle
- Rhea might go crazy but it's totally justified and she bafflingly has the best role here than in any of the "5 years in a dungeon" routes iirc (haven't done Church myself). How is this the only one where she isn't MIA for such a huge chunk lol
I'd honestly argue that if it hadn't been for a certain missing story beat at the end this route it would be the objective best in terms of overall story, even with the missing lore. Given the scenario of the route it's honestly the only route that really needs to touch on every aspect of the conflict post-timeskip and it shows.