Metal plays Thracia 776, the rant thread
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MetalSonic
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Re: Metal plays Thracia 776, the rant thread
Also, I'm out of hand axes and none of the enemy axe-wielders have any, goddamnit.
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MetalSonic
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Re: Metal plays Thracia 776, the rant thread
Chapter 15! The villages in the middle are getting attackedand there's a big mountain between you and them...
You can also just choose to ignore them and just go left or right, but there's probably good stuff to get from the villages and bandits. But I like that you actually have a choice to save the village, it's choices through gameplay and that one isn't too often in Fire Emblem especially.
Also I was hoping I'd get some more heal staves from that shop but it didn't have any staves.
I didn't make any screenshots so have this pic from the lparchive instead of the boss.
He gave me quite a headache, cause I thought all these brigands would mean I could train all my weaker swordarms. So I put in Mareeta, Perne and that Myrm you get in Pernes level. Problem: all of these are instashotted by the boss, so I had to struggle and bring in carrion with the boss killer the flame sword after all.
It's a pretty easy and unremarkable chapter otherwise, so I'm gonna skip over the details
So yeah, I slaughtered everyone, stole a bunch of bows and Killing Edges and a Steel axe as well as a Hand axe. Levels have been had and Mareeta learned astra from Shanam.
Seriously that conversation with Shanam is grounds for me wanting to reread Shanams conversations in FE4 again. He has grounds for becoming one of my favorite characters.
This is part of the convo:
Mareeta:
“Lord Shanan!”
Shanam:
“Whoa! Wh-What is it? You startled me.”
Mareeta:
“Please teach me the way of the sword! I’m not asking for much… If I can just learn the beginnings of the Starstrike…”
Shanam:
“……”
Mareeta:
“Please! I want to become stronger. I have to become stronger!”
Shanam:
“…Well, just the beginnings, I suppose…”
Mareeta:
“R-Really? Thank you!”
Shanam:
“Hmm, I wasn’t expecting this. Well, I’ll just give her some random tips and get it over with… The Starstrike is not only about your skill. It is your heart that is important. Once your skill and your heart become one…only then will you be able to perform the Starstrike.”
Mareeta:
“My skill and my heart?”
Shanam:
“Right. First, try swinging your sword.”
Mareeta:
“How should I swing… Can you show me?”
Shanam:
“Erg… N-No, the Starstrike is only learned after hard practice. If you see how it is done, you tend to copy it instead of developing it on your own… Yeah…”
Mareeta:
“Oh, I see… All right, I’ll try. Ha!”
Shanam:
“No. Try again.”
Mareeta:
“Ya!”
Shanam:
“No, no. Your heart is being left behind. Your sword and heart must be in unison. …I have no idea what I’m saying…”
(Mareeta proceeds to do a perfect Starstrike (Astra) )
...
Mareeta:
“Yes, thank you very much, Lord Shanan! My blade and my heart in unison…”
Shanam:
“Who the hell is that girl!?”
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MetalSonic
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Re: Metal plays Thracia 776, the rant thread
So, I'm past the midway point, so let's review the roster so far:
The idea of this was to only look at the characters I actually used, but I used a large chunk of the roster at one point so here goes nothing
Leif, our main Lord. He dies and it's game over. I gave him the boots, so he has 9 MOV and even so he's quite good (mostly thanks to beginning rings all given to him). His Build is pretty bad though, he can barely use any heavy swords. He also has kind of low DEF, but he has high HP, so he can tank a hit or two. I also gave him wrath, which makes him quite a good enemy phase unit for the mid-game IMO.
Perne, a rogue, mostly used for stealing stuff thanks to his high BLD. He can even steal Iron Axes by now not to mention most Swords and some Lances! Otherwise, he needs a good sword to make significant damage, but then again so do most people in this game due to low caps.
Ah, carrier of the early early game, and afterwards he's quite good too. Othin crits a lot, thanks to his Wrath skill, his Pugi Axe and what I presume is a high PCC. (I never bothered looking up PCC for anyone, but you can tell who's critting more often and who's not)
I promoted him at level 15 or so and didn't use too many scrolls, but he still turned out amazing. He also had quite high promotion boosts.
Good unit is good.
Deen is a Prepromoted Draco-knight and he is quite good, especially in regards to his DEF and BLD. He's a very mobile tank that you have to keep away from ballistae and archers. Also he has 9 MOV, which is amazing on a flier and brings thus good utility.
Eda, oh I tried to level you, but the fact that you start with 5 BLD and haven't leveled it once in 7 levels kind of broke her. Lances are super heavy and she struggles to get even 5 AS going with anything other than an Iron Lance. Build-based Fire Emblem AS systems really screw women disproportionately in a gameplay sense.
The one unit I Arena/Scroll abused. Solid 20s all around with a 9 in Magic for the Flame sword and a 15 in defense. He brings his name honor and carries me to victory.
Ah, Mareeta. I got her only a few chapters ago and she already kicks major butt. Her personal Sword, appropriately named "Mareetas Sword" has a Brave Effect and gives Nihil. It's almost too good not to use. And she herself has Astra (which she got last chapter) and Luna, which makes for a nice combo. She's a contender for the next Knights Proof.
Robert is a mobile archer, which is really good considering horse archers in FE4 and 5 have supercanto, meaning they can attack and then move away again. Meaning he's perfect for hit and run tactics and to chip away from enemies. Statwise, he's pretty good for his level, especially the 16 SPD and 10 STR are pretty amazing.
Karin got hampered in her growth by all the ballistae in the chapters where I wanted to train her. Bad BLD, but good SPD means she can double things, but in reality she's usually just a mobile taxi service. Usually Pegasus-Riders have a niche in eradicating pesky mages, but in almost every chapter so far a larger amount of mages also meant ballistae being not too far away, kinda killing that role for her.
Troude. He's got Nihil, but I already have so many good Myrms at this point that I am not sure if it is worth training him or not. Considering Big Shield might be a thing in this game, I'm wagering giving him some more levels if I ever get the chance might not be too wrong.
And here's my second monster. She healed Carrion while he was on his arena quest and so got a 18/1 or something promotion out of that one. Using her as a staffbot and a mage-tank thanks to her Earth Sword means she's really good utility. Oh, and she's that high a level cause she murdered the entire squadron of Schwarzenritter druids in Chapter 14. On her own.
Did I already say that she's badass?
Another Monster. I didn't even scroll abuse him or anything, he just turned out this way. He even has solid HP and DEF for a sword master and is only 3 points from capping STR. Skillswise, he's got Sol for survivability and Adept for even more damage.
Asvel, the original Mage-murderer. He still hasn't A staves yet though. Actually no one but Safy has so far. No idea what I am doing wrong. Other than that, good stats and still a few uses on his personal tome, Grafcalibur which boosts his crit rate to something over 50, which is just amazíng.
A bow-locked unit with low BLD. Good thing most bows don't require that high an amount of BLD. And even so, she's got 20 Speed, so she can double most mooks pretty easily. Good for maps with lots of flying idiots, like 14x.
FE Heroes bait, Olwen here. All set with her barely used Dire Thunder. And as in FEH, without Dire Thunder, she's kinda mediocre-bad. With it she becomes pretty good, but since her AS is 0 after using it, beware counter attacks. They could end deadly.
Brighton, my trusty mobile tank. With 16 DEF he's the sturdiest of my non-Carrion units and thus helped kill the Ballistae in Chapter 14, while taking on all the armors on the outside. He's a bit on the kind of slow side, using heavy axes and having only 14 speed for his level, but his tankiness is still something to behold.
Lifis, another thief. He's actually the first thief you get and you really need him. Problem is only that my Lifis leveled build exactly once in what, 15 levels? That is just bad and means that he's the reserve thief for whenever Perne is out. Combat-wise he's also not that great, but why fight if you can steal the swords out of their hands?
The strongest unit in my game. Ignore her stats, she's got the warp and rescue staff, along with Hammerne to repair them as well as an A level in staves. She's super amazing and worth your first Knights Proof for that reason alone.
Fontra's favorite character, a loyal knight to Leifs Family and one of the sort-of early Jeigans in the beginning of the game, mostly due to his Brave Lance. Mine is still good, but I have little reason to use him nowadays, with Carrion and Brighton and Nanna around. Maybe when they're all fatigued and I am still to stingy to use any one of my 12-15 stamina potions I might use you again.
Another prepromote with okay-ish stats. I mean he's almost on par with Finn, only that I can give Finn a Knights Proof and he'd be far better. Other than that, I had to use him in a chapter and he comes with a silver lance, which is nice.
Hicks is budget Brighton. Meaning that if you need Brighton and he's fatigued, you can use Hicks. Considering I didn't level him too much, he's okay I guess. Not that I'd consider using him unless absolutely necessary.
Her only good thing is that she came with a Killer Bow and an B-Rank in Bows. Her stats suck and I didn't get the Brave Bow in Chapter 13 due to her having Charge and dying instantly to any Ballista she comes in range in.
She's a good early-game unit that you could bring into the late game if there wasn't the big problem of her low STR. Seriously, she leveled STR what 3 times in all those levels? She helps out tremendously in the Manster Arc, though.
Bargain Bin Othin, with Ambush (he always attacks first) instead of Wrath (guaranteed crit). He's benched for every chapter that Othin is in play, basically.
Another one of the early-game Jeigans, only that he's the capturing Jeigan with his high Build. He's slow though and starts with only an E in bows, so he's never gonna get amazing in that respect.
Fergus, another one of the early game riders. He just kinda fizzled out as I played. I remember him critting a bunch, but his 8 str is not that great in general. Also he's sword locked, which means even less DMG from him. Probably not gonna use him that much, unless there's a good reason to.
Uh, yeah, I forgot why I even made a screenshot of him. I used him in the chapter where he's recruited and the ones where I couldn't bench him and benched him hard afterwards.
Very useful tank in the Manster Arc, very bad due to being an Armor unit everywhere else.
Ah, Marty. Probably one of the worst units in all of FE's history. With a SPD and skill of literally 0 at base, him deserting mid-way at least makes for a funny conversation. No idea what IS was thinking with him here.
The only things good about him are the sword he's starting with and that he's on horseback. Otherwise, bad prepromote.
And last but not least, Ralf, another prepromote. He's an okay Hero if you haven't got Othin nor Halvan out, so basically almost never.
The idea of this was to only look at the characters I actually used, but I used a large chunk of the roster at one point so here goes nothing
Leif, our main Lord. He dies and it's game over. I gave him the boots, so he has 9 MOV and even so he's quite good (mostly thanks to beginning rings all given to him). His Build is pretty bad though, he can barely use any heavy swords. He also has kind of low DEF, but he has high HP, so he can tank a hit or two. I also gave him wrath, which makes him quite a good enemy phase unit for the mid-game IMO.
Perne, a rogue, mostly used for stealing stuff thanks to his high BLD. He can even steal Iron Axes by now not to mention most Swords and some Lances! Otherwise, he needs a good sword to make significant damage, but then again so do most people in this game due to low caps.
Ah, carrier of the early early game, and afterwards he's quite good too. Othin crits a lot, thanks to his Wrath skill, his Pugi Axe and what I presume is a high PCC. (I never bothered looking up PCC for anyone, but you can tell who's critting more often and who's not)
I promoted him at level 15 or so and didn't use too many scrolls, but he still turned out amazing. He also had quite high promotion boosts.
Good unit is good.
Deen is a Prepromoted Draco-knight and he is quite good, especially in regards to his DEF and BLD. He's a very mobile tank that you have to keep away from ballistae and archers. Also he has 9 MOV, which is amazing on a flier and brings thus good utility.
Eda, oh I tried to level you, but the fact that you start with 5 BLD and haven't leveled it once in 7 levels kind of broke her. Lances are super heavy and she struggles to get even 5 AS going with anything other than an Iron Lance. Build-based Fire Emblem AS systems really screw women disproportionately in a gameplay sense.
The one unit I Arena/Scroll abused. Solid 20s all around with a 9 in Magic for the Flame sword and a 15 in defense. He brings his name honor and carries me to victory.
Ah, Mareeta. I got her only a few chapters ago and she already kicks major butt. Her personal Sword, appropriately named "Mareetas Sword" has a Brave Effect and gives Nihil. It's almost too good not to use. And she herself has Astra (which she got last chapter) and Luna, which makes for a nice combo. She's a contender for the next Knights Proof.
Robert is a mobile archer, which is really good considering horse archers in FE4 and 5 have supercanto, meaning they can attack and then move away again. Meaning he's perfect for hit and run tactics and to chip away from enemies. Statwise, he's pretty good for his level, especially the 16 SPD and 10 STR are pretty amazing.
Karin got hampered in her growth by all the ballistae in the chapters where I wanted to train her. Bad BLD, but good SPD means she can double things, but in reality she's usually just a mobile taxi service. Usually Pegasus-Riders have a niche in eradicating pesky mages, but in almost every chapter so far a larger amount of mages also meant ballistae being not too far away, kinda killing that role for her.
Troude. He's got Nihil, but I already have so many good Myrms at this point that I am not sure if it is worth training him or not. Considering Big Shield might be a thing in this game, I'm wagering giving him some more levels if I ever get the chance might not be too wrong.
And here's my second monster. She healed Carrion while he was on his arena quest and so got a 18/1 or something promotion out of that one. Using her as a staffbot and a mage-tank thanks to her Earth Sword means she's really good utility. Oh, and she's that high a level cause she murdered the entire squadron of Schwarzenritter druids in Chapter 14. On her own.
Did I already say that she's badass?
Another Monster. I didn't even scroll abuse him or anything, he just turned out this way. He even has solid HP and DEF for a sword master and is only 3 points from capping STR. Skillswise, he's got Sol for survivability and Adept for even more damage.
Asvel, the original Mage-murderer. He still hasn't A staves yet though. Actually no one but Safy has so far. No idea what I am doing wrong. Other than that, good stats and still a few uses on his personal tome, Grafcalibur which boosts his crit rate to something over 50, which is just amazíng.
A bow-locked unit with low BLD. Good thing most bows don't require that high an amount of BLD. And even so, she's got 20 Speed, so she can double most mooks pretty easily. Good for maps with lots of flying idiots, like 14x.
FE Heroes bait, Olwen here. All set with her barely used Dire Thunder. And as in FEH, without Dire Thunder, she's kinda mediocre-bad. With it she becomes pretty good, but since her AS is 0 after using it, beware counter attacks. They could end deadly.
Brighton, my trusty mobile tank. With 16 DEF he's the sturdiest of my non-Carrion units and thus helped kill the Ballistae in Chapter 14, while taking on all the armors on the outside. He's a bit on the kind of slow side, using heavy axes and having only 14 speed for his level, but his tankiness is still something to behold.
Lifis, another thief. He's actually the first thief you get and you really need him. Problem is only that my Lifis leveled build exactly once in what, 15 levels? That is just bad and means that he's the reserve thief for whenever Perne is out. Combat-wise he's also not that great, but why fight if you can steal the swords out of their hands?
The strongest unit in my game. Ignore her stats, she's got the warp and rescue staff, along with Hammerne to repair them as well as an A level in staves. She's super amazing and worth your first Knights Proof for that reason alone.
Fontra's favorite character, a loyal knight to Leifs Family and one of the sort-of early Jeigans in the beginning of the game, mostly due to his Brave Lance. Mine is still good, but I have little reason to use him nowadays, with Carrion and Brighton and Nanna around. Maybe when they're all fatigued and I am still to stingy to use any one of my 12-15 stamina potions I might use you again.
Another prepromote with okay-ish stats. I mean he's almost on par with Finn, only that I can give Finn a Knights Proof and he'd be far better. Other than that, I had to use him in a chapter and he comes with a silver lance, which is nice.
Hicks is budget Brighton. Meaning that if you need Brighton and he's fatigued, you can use Hicks. Considering I didn't level him too much, he's okay I guess. Not that I'd consider using him unless absolutely necessary.
Her only good thing is that she came with a Killer Bow and an B-Rank in Bows. Her stats suck and I didn't get the Brave Bow in Chapter 13 due to her having Charge and dying instantly to any Ballista she comes in range in.
She's a good early-game unit that you could bring into the late game if there wasn't the big problem of her low STR. Seriously, she leveled STR what 3 times in all those levels? She helps out tremendously in the Manster Arc, though.
Bargain Bin Othin, with Ambush (he always attacks first) instead of Wrath (guaranteed crit). He's benched for every chapter that Othin is in play, basically.
Another one of the early-game Jeigans, only that he's the capturing Jeigan with his high Build. He's slow though and starts with only an E in bows, so he's never gonna get amazing in that respect.
Fergus, another one of the early game riders. He just kinda fizzled out as I played. I remember him critting a bunch, but his 8 str is not that great in general. Also he's sword locked, which means even less DMG from him. Probably not gonna use him that much, unless there's a good reason to.
Uh, yeah, I forgot why I even made a screenshot of him. I used him in the chapter where he's recruited and the ones where I couldn't bench him and benched him hard afterwards.
Very useful tank in the Manster Arc, very bad due to being an Armor unit everywhere else.
Ah, Marty. Probably one of the worst units in all of FE's history. With a SPD and skill of literally 0 at base, him deserting mid-way at least makes for a funny conversation. No idea what IS was thinking with him here.
The only things good about him are the sword he's starting with and that he's on horseback. Otherwise, bad prepromote.
And last but not least, Ralf, another prepromote. He's an okay Hero if you haven't got Othin nor Halvan out, so basically almost never.
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MetalSonic
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Re: Metal plays Thracia 776, the rant thread
Also, holy shit Thracia has a big cast!
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Orange Fluffy Sheep
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Re: Metal plays Thracia 776, the rant thread
Its pretty bloodthirsty and the stamina system encourages rotation.
I hope you either use Ralph extensively or none, no half-assing our least-important man.
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Fontra
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Re: Metal plays Thracia 776, the rant thread
Othin is the only fighter I know of that can do anything in a Kaga game.
The cast is mainly commoners. It's actually pretty neat considering everyone beforehand was some sort of nobility, military general, or divine being.
The cast is mainly commoners. It's actually pretty neat considering everyone beforehand was some sort of nobility, military general, or divine being.
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MetalSonic
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Re: Metal plays Thracia 776, the rant thread
Well, I just binged 16A-19. Which mean I have retaken Lenster and am under siege. Cue timeskip of a half month, rumors of Seliph arriving have turned up, but you're kinda crammed into a small castle and under siege.
So, about the chapter before this one then...
Chapter 16a - the chapter linear castle storming chapter where you can finally kill kempf. The only hard parts are the riders with sleep swords at the beginning and the ballistae at the end. Sleep swords I got by sleep staffing one of the riders, capturing him and getting the sword and then using that sword to sleep the other 2.
Weirdly enough, in another try where I thief-staffed the sleep staff, the generic rider would trade a weapon with Eyrios, glitching the game up a bit. Thankfully it was just cosmetic and fixed itself after the enemy phase.
17A I warp-skipped after sleep-staffing the warp-staff wielding boss and then warping a flier next to him and capturing him. Used one warp to get 3, pretty good. Afterwards, I talked with the green enemy boss and captured her. And then I just warp-skipped the chapter with carrion and his brave sword.
18. I got Xavier. Somehow. Didn't get the membership card because fuck that noise. But getting xavier involved using my sleep swords to sleep the charging knights, who thankfully were all able to withstand a crit from leif with the sleep sword.
19, what a bullshit chapter, I love the story and the feel though. Didn't let anyone die or get captured, but only because othin massacred everyone with his pugi axe while standing in a forest. There was supposed to be a person that one could convert, however the one from my path that I'd have to convert with sleuf kinda ran into pugi-othin and died.
Also the chapter was tooth and nails enough to just beat with the civilians intact.
So, about the chapter before this one then...
Chapter 16a - the chapter linear castle storming chapter where you can finally kill kempf. The only hard parts are the riders with sleep swords at the beginning and the ballistae at the end. Sleep swords I got by sleep staffing one of the riders, capturing him and getting the sword and then using that sword to sleep the other 2.
Weirdly enough, in another try where I thief-staffed the sleep staff, the generic rider would trade a weapon with Eyrios, glitching the game up a bit. Thankfully it was just cosmetic and fixed itself after the enemy phase.
17A I warp-skipped after sleep-staffing the warp-staff wielding boss and then warping a flier next to him and capturing him. Used one warp to get 3, pretty good. Afterwards, I talked with the green enemy boss and captured her. And then I just warp-skipped the chapter with carrion and his brave sword.
18. I got Xavier. Somehow. Didn't get the membership card because fuck that noise. But getting xavier involved using my sleep swords to sleep the charging knights, who thankfully were all able to withstand a crit from leif with the sleep sword.
19, what a bullshit chapter, I love the story and the feel though. Didn't let anyone die or get captured, but only because othin massacred everyone with his pugi axe while standing in a forest. There was supposed to be a person that one could convert, however the one from my path that I'd have to convert with sleuf kinda ran into pugi-othin and died.
Also the chapter was tooth and nails enough to just beat with the civilians intact.
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Orange Fluffy Sheep
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Re: Metal plays Thracia 776, the rant thread
Congrats, that's the hardest recruitment in Fire Emblem history.
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MetalSonic
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Re: Metal plays Thracia 776, the rant thread
I just beat Chapter 20, by tooth and nail, and 2 uses of Rescue and 3 uses of the Thief staff. I still have 2 full Warp Staffs available as well as 2 uses of Hammerne. I used one to repair Othins Pugi Axe because he's one of my best people and yeah I could have used it to repair a staff like Rescue, I still have some Hammerne left.
Still, good thing the game is almost over, otherwise I'd run out of top tier staves.
But seriously, Ballistae as reinforcements! That can attack the same turn! I almost had to reset there and was only lucky they didn't hit. Also fuck the long-range tomes in that level, too.
I'm not gonna do 21x btw, because I kinda forgot to let a unit get captured. Oopsie. Guess it's gonna be a 95% completed run of Thracia, minus one level.
Still, good thing the game is almost over, otherwise I'd run out of top tier staves.
But seriously, Ballistae as reinforcements! That can attack the same turn! I almost had to reset there and was only lucky they didn't hit. Also fuck the long-range tomes in that level, too.
I'm not gonna do 21x btw, because I kinda forgot to let a unit get captured. Oopsie. Guess it's gonna be a 95% completed run of Thracia, minus one level.
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MetalSonic
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Re: Metal plays Thracia 776, the rant thread
Chapter 21 and 22 have not been fun at all. Both just spam reinforcements without end for a long time. Both have tons of ballistae. Chapter 22 additionally has all these bullshit leadership stars.
At this point I'm basically just dumping staves into the enemy, in 21 warping to the castle with carrion and leif and killing the boss, in 22 stealing the berserk staff, berserking rein, warping leif in and killing the boss.
Still have a hammerne use and two warp staves.
At this point the game is more a testament on how i didn't use the cool staves until chapter 20 more than anything else
At this point I'm basically just dumping staves into the enemy, in 21 warping to the castle with carrion and leif and killing the boss, in 22 stealing the berserk staff, berserking rein, warping leif in and killing the boss.
Still have a hammerne use and two warp staves.
At this point the game is more a testament on how i didn't use the cool staves until chapter 20 more than anything else
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MetalSonic
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Re: Metal plays Thracia 776, the rant thread
I mean yeah you could do it without staff abuse, but seriously, doing ch.22 without that is just a tedium, because every enemy hits while you have barely more than 50 hit chance on even the trash mob soldiers with javs
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MetalSonic
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Re: Metal plays Thracia 776, the rant thread
Aaaand I am through. With only one casualty in the last chapter, namely olwen. She got oneshot by a fenrir druid that I couldn't prevent by anything other than not manning her and not manning her would mean these nice starting positions would be all bad.
But holy crap I am relieved that the end came because I went all out in that chapter, using all staves I had. Weapons I had stockpiled and lying around including amazing weapons like thr brave sword that I used to off stone master druid endboss guy.
But holy crap I am relieved that the end came because I went all out in that chapter, using all staves I had. Weapons I had stockpiled and lying around including amazing weapons like thr brave sword that I used to off stone master druid endboss guy.
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Fontra
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Re: Metal plays Thracia 776, the rant thread
What's your overall opinion? Also congrats on nabbing Xavier, I don't even think I nabbed him.
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MetalSonic
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Re: Metal plays Thracia 776, the rant thread
Well, okay. Let's have some :words: about Fire Emblem then.
First up, I liked the music, it's not as memorable as Genealogys (I mean nothing will ever come close to Verdane Phase anyways), but everytime the Enemy talks (I think Army A) it gives just the right amount of "holy crap they're evil" through music. I am only a bit sad that the enemy phase music changes so seldom, they probably should have made a track for escape chapters and one for siege chapters.
The graphics were serviceable, I mean it is the Genealogy engine they're running the game on. I deactivated battle anims very quickly, as I do in almost all FEs.
But now the thing you probably want to hear the most: the gameplay.
Hoo boy, does the game want me to be a psychic. Thankfully I somehow mostly followed in the path the game supposedly wants to follow me. But if I didn't steal most of the shiny toys the game gave me via Perne/Thief staff, I dunno if I could have beaten the game.
I mean just as an example: the Xavier recruitment I basically could only do, because in Chapter 17A I stole all the Sleep Swords off the enemies. Without them I couldn't have possibly gotten Xavier. With the Sleep Swords it became managable, mostly because my Leif wasan't a monster yet and even with wrath he wouldn't kill the Armors if they attacked him.
Another instance was Chapter 22, The One With Reinhardt In It. There's a trick to doing the Chapter that involves the Thief Staff and Warp (that you can thankfully get from a village in that Chapter but you should really already have Warp Staves stockpiled by now) . Steal the Berserk Staff from the Boss, Berserk Rein and watch him go apeshit and kill his entire platoon, before he gets killed by the Ballistae/ put to sleep by the Boss. Afterwards warp your Good Leif near the enemy castle, because Cyas leaves when you go near him. Then just kill the boss and seize the castle (or just stand there and get to the villages/arena/shops on the left side).
But I mean most of these have very specific conditions to work, and until chapter 20/21 you really have to stockpile staves and good weapons and try to do it without them. Afterwards, just go nuts (within reason, you still need shit for 24x and Endgame). If you don't do it then you have to be either prepared for a long slog through these terrible chapters or you might as well just begin from the beginning.
I played the game with a new menu patch, which fixes all of the crashes of the old complete patch and makes the menu actually readable. The script is in Japanese now though, sadly so I used the script translation found at Serenes Forest/GameFAQs. Here's hope that there's gonna be a complete translation at some point.
Okay, that is basically the Thracia Bullshit out of the way, but most people already heard about the Thracia Bullshit from somewhere else and it's the reason this game is regarded as so hard. If you go into this one blindly, you will not have fun at all. I read the thracia newcomer guide beforehand (this one) and with that it became very managable.
So, other than the bullshit, how did it play? It was actually really fun. You had a lot of options for the chapters, the broken staves make enemies go bonkers sometimes and the chapters, if they were not doing too bullshitty stuff, were challenging, but fun. Most maps were good and fun to play. However, the game has a big problem that hampers its enjoyment: Ballistae. Seriously I have never hated anything as much as the Ballistae in the chapters they were used. Mostly untouchable except for your most tanky units and usually located somewhere where only fliers can reach them - oh and Ballistae are effective against fliers and usually have JUST ENOUGH reach for your fliers not to reach the safe zone before getting one shotted by the Ballista. Fuck Ballistae.
What I loved though, was the capturing/stealing mechanics. Saw an enemy with a nice weapon? Just steal it. Problem with mages in the early chapters? Just steal their books and see them run away. Tough enemy that you want to capture? Get Lara in his vicinity and see her getting captured, halving his stats. Then just capture him with your units easily.
In general I actually also like the idea behind mounting/unmounting and indoor maps having only unmounted units. It nerfs your riders a bit and you need to spread out a bit more instead of relying on riders most of the game like in many other FEs. However the problem here is that you don't have any foot soldiers besides Dalshin/Xavier that can possibly wield Lances indoors. Which makes them useless for any Chapters past 23. Yes, you can't use an entire weapon type in Endgame. Also why does Brighton use Swords indoors and not Axes. I mean I could get the argument for Lances, but Axe Riders may as well just use goddamn Axes indoors.
This means however, that indoors Fighters, Mages and Magic Swords are your friend, because of the 1-2 range capabilities of these. Especially the end chapters become unbearable without a decent amount of Magic Users/Magic Swords, so keep stealing Magic swords. Which is a fact you kind of need to know beforehand.
I love the side objectives that are sometimes in a chapter. I escpecially loved the one where you can recruit Ralph by trying to save the village, because you really don't need to do it, but of course you want to do it because it gives bonuses. To be fair, I also don't know how you're supposed to finish Thracia without doing Gaiden chapters. They are almost mandatory, because they give you a bunch of cool people/items. Especially 2x and 4x come to mind here.
Another type of bullshit is that you cannot reposition your units at the beginning of the map.
To jump back to the beginning of the game, I also wanted to say: fuck the bullshit at Chapter 4, but to be fair Thracia is probably one of the best FE games to mix story and gameplay to date. Escape chapters in general feel like the enemy is super powerful and you just need to get the fuck outta there. Chapter 19, where half of your 16 units gets scattered halfway across the map and you have to hightail out of there is another good example. The Manster Arc feels like you are escaping against all odds, as bullshit as it is gameplay wise.
The story in general is something not often seen in a FE game, a pretty much down to earth war story where half the story is just Leif running away from his enemies. And yes, usually in such a story you would have him find hope and turn around and recapture his home. Which he kind of did. See, at one point he finds the (terrible) lost Knights of Lenster as well as Darius, a second advisor besides August. And with them he tries to defend ... Tahra, a city giving a lot of refugees from Lenster refuge and ... ultimately fails. He has to be on the run again. But this time he goes to recapture his home and you think "yeah this is usually the Endgame-ish situation for a FE game". They did the "we have to reclaim our homeland" schtick in FE8 and FE9 as well and in both games retaking your home was either the end or 2 chapters before the end, because you had to very quickly depose of the enemy leader in his Castle.
In Thracia, you retake Lenster against all odds ... and are stuck there. Just because you retook your homeland does not mean you're gonna win against the entire Empire now and that's exactly what happens. Dorias dies because of Leif not listening to his advisors and actually trying to retake another city under siege. Immediately after retaking Lenster. When his army is at his lowest. It leads to the Empire now going after you and trying to retake Lenster for themselves again. And because of that botched stupid attack, Leif now has to hide inside a small portion of Castle Lenster. For me THAT mission was the penultimate chapter in the entire game, storywise. Leif and his crew sitting in the last corner of the castle desperately defending against the neverending siege for 6 months only to be saved in the last minute by another rebellion that has started in Isaach led by Seliph, Sigurds son. The Rebellion you're playing in Genealogy where you actually have to save Leif's ass because Castle Lenster was under siege. They changed the details between this chapter and Genealogy but the feeling of the chapter remains the same.
Which brings me to Leif. Leif is now one of my favorite Lords in any FE, just behind Ike. And it's because he's not really special - at least at the beginning. You can see he's still a kid at the very beginning, making lots of mistakes, being very hotheaded. But that just got him captured in Manster. He actually learns to listen to his (competent) advisors over the course of the game and the only instance where he relapses actually did spell disaster. FE6 had the problem with Merlinus and FE9 to a lesser degree with Soren at the beginning where they give you advisors and the hero characters basically do always the opposite they say and it was always the right choice. Why having advisors in the story if all they say is stupid?
Leif, however, actually learns over the path of the game. He does mistakes. He's not a useless fighting unit, but he's not RD Ike broken either. I like Leif as a Lord.
The rest of the cast is a bit underdeveloped though, aside from the inner circle of Leif, meaning Mareeta, Nanna, Fin. That just comes with the big sprawling cast and to be honest, a lot of the characterization is through the gameplay anyways. I also loved the Personal Weapons everyone got. See, in most FE titles, Lords begin with a generic Rapier. Or another Weapon whose sole existance is "Lord Weapon". Leif's personal weapon is the Light Brand. Why? It's the weapon that Ethlyn uses, Leifs mother. It's literally a hand-me-down. Exactly like Nannas Earth Sword, which she got from Lachesis. Fin's Brave Lance that he still has from his time in Sigurds Army. Mareeta's Weapon is the dark sword that she held in Chapter 5, while she was possessed and almost killed her (adoptive) mother, but stripped of the dark magic. Othin and Halvans personal weapons you have to fetch in the first mission in their home town, from their relatives. The weapons have actual personal meaning.
Okay, I think that's enough :words:, even though I'd have more things to share, like how inventory management during the manster arc was bullshit and how much I hate long-range tomes and argh
Tl;dr: good story, okay cast with good main lord, lots of detail, thracia bullshit
First up, I liked the music, it's not as memorable as Genealogys (I mean nothing will ever come close to Verdane Phase anyways), but everytime the Enemy talks (I think Army A) it gives just the right amount of "holy crap they're evil" through music. I am only a bit sad that the enemy phase music changes so seldom, they probably should have made a track for escape chapters and one for siege chapters.
The graphics were serviceable, I mean it is the Genealogy engine they're running the game on. I deactivated battle anims very quickly, as I do in almost all FEs.
But now the thing you probably want to hear the most: the gameplay.
Hoo boy, does the game want me to be a psychic. Thankfully I somehow mostly followed in the path the game supposedly wants to follow me. But if I didn't steal most of the shiny toys the game gave me via Perne/Thief staff, I dunno if I could have beaten the game.
I mean just as an example: the Xavier recruitment I basically could only do, because in Chapter 17A I stole all the Sleep Swords off the enemies. Without them I couldn't have possibly gotten Xavier. With the Sleep Swords it became managable, mostly because my Leif wasan't a monster yet and even with wrath he wouldn't kill the Armors if they attacked him.
Another instance was Chapter 22, The One With Reinhardt In It. There's a trick to doing the Chapter that involves the Thief Staff and Warp (that you can thankfully get from a village in that Chapter but you should really already have Warp Staves stockpiled by now) . Steal the Berserk Staff from the Boss, Berserk Rein and watch him go apeshit and kill his entire platoon, before he gets killed by the Ballistae/ put to sleep by the Boss. Afterwards warp your Good Leif near the enemy castle, because Cyas leaves when you go near him. Then just kill the boss and seize the castle (or just stand there and get to the villages/arena/shops on the left side).
But I mean most of these have very specific conditions to work, and until chapter 20/21 you really have to stockpile staves and good weapons and try to do it without them. Afterwards, just go nuts (within reason, you still need shit for 24x and Endgame). If you don't do it then you have to be either prepared for a long slog through these terrible chapters or you might as well just begin from the beginning.
I played the game with a new menu patch, which fixes all of the crashes of the old complete patch and makes the menu actually readable. The script is in Japanese now though, sadly so I used the script translation found at Serenes Forest/GameFAQs. Here's hope that there's gonna be a complete translation at some point.
Okay, that is basically the Thracia Bullshit out of the way, but most people already heard about the Thracia Bullshit from somewhere else and it's the reason this game is regarded as so hard. If you go into this one blindly, you will not have fun at all. I read the thracia newcomer guide beforehand (this one) and with that it became very managable.
So, other than the bullshit, how did it play? It was actually really fun. You had a lot of options for the chapters, the broken staves make enemies go bonkers sometimes and the chapters, if they were not doing too bullshitty stuff, were challenging, but fun. Most maps were good and fun to play. However, the game has a big problem that hampers its enjoyment: Ballistae. Seriously I have never hated anything as much as the Ballistae in the chapters they were used. Mostly untouchable except for your most tanky units and usually located somewhere where only fliers can reach them - oh and Ballistae are effective against fliers and usually have JUST ENOUGH reach for your fliers not to reach the safe zone before getting one shotted by the Ballista. Fuck Ballistae.
What I loved though, was the capturing/stealing mechanics. Saw an enemy with a nice weapon? Just steal it. Problem with mages in the early chapters? Just steal their books and see them run away. Tough enemy that you want to capture? Get Lara in his vicinity and see her getting captured, halving his stats. Then just capture him with your units easily.
In general I actually also like the idea behind mounting/unmounting and indoor maps having only unmounted units. It nerfs your riders a bit and you need to spread out a bit more instead of relying on riders most of the game like in many other FEs. However the problem here is that you don't have any foot soldiers besides Dalshin/Xavier that can possibly wield Lances indoors. Which makes them useless for any Chapters past 23. Yes, you can't use an entire weapon type in Endgame. Also why does Brighton use Swords indoors and not Axes. I mean I could get the argument for Lances, but Axe Riders may as well just use goddamn Axes indoors.
This means however, that indoors Fighters, Mages and Magic Swords are your friend, because of the 1-2 range capabilities of these. Especially the end chapters become unbearable without a decent amount of Magic Users/Magic Swords, so keep stealing Magic swords. Which is a fact you kind of need to know beforehand.
I love the side objectives that are sometimes in a chapter. I escpecially loved the one where you can recruit Ralph by trying to save the village, because you really don't need to do it, but of course you want to do it because it gives bonuses. To be fair, I also don't know how you're supposed to finish Thracia without doing Gaiden chapters. They are almost mandatory, because they give you a bunch of cool people/items. Especially 2x and 4x come to mind here.
Another type of bullshit is that you cannot reposition your units at the beginning of the map.
To jump back to the beginning of the game, I also wanted to say: fuck the bullshit at Chapter 4, but to be fair Thracia is probably one of the best FE games to mix story and gameplay to date. Escape chapters in general feel like the enemy is super powerful and you just need to get the fuck outta there. Chapter 19, where half of your 16 units gets scattered halfway across the map and you have to hightail out of there is another good example. The Manster Arc feels like you are escaping against all odds, as bullshit as it is gameplay wise.
The story in general is something not often seen in a FE game, a pretty much down to earth war story where half the story is just Leif running away from his enemies. And yes, usually in such a story you would have him find hope and turn around and recapture his home. Which he kind of did. See, at one point he finds the (terrible) lost Knights of Lenster as well as Darius, a second advisor besides August. And with them he tries to defend ... Tahra, a city giving a lot of refugees from Lenster refuge and ... ultimately fails. He has to be on the run again. But this time he goes to recapture his home and you think "yeah this is usually the Endgame-ish situation for a FE game". They did the "we have to reclaim our homeland" schtick in FE8 and FE9 as well and in both games retaking your home was either the end or 2 chapters before the end, because you had to very quickly depose of the enemy leader in his Castle.
In Thracia, you retake Lenster against all odds ... and are stuck there. Just because you retook your homeland does not mean you're gonna win against the entire Empire now and that's exactly what happens. Dorias dies because of Leif not listening to his advisors and actually trying to retake another city under siege. Immediately after retaking Lenster. When his army is at his lowest. It leads to the Empire now going after you and trying to retake Lenster for themselves again. And because of that botched stupid attack, Leif now has to hide inside a small portion of Castle Lenster. For me THAT mission was the penultimate chapter in the entire game, storywise. Leif and his crew sitting in the last corner of the castle desperately defending against the neverending siege for 6 months only to be saved in the last minute by another rebellion that has started in Isaach led by Seliph, Sigurds son. The Rebellion you're playing in Genealogy where you actually have to save Leif's ass because Castle Lenster was under siege. They changed the details between this chapter and Genealogy but the feeling of the chapter remains the same.
Which brings me to Leif. Leif is now one of my favorite Lords in any FE, just behind Ike. And it's because he's not really special - at least at the beginning. You can see he's still a kid at the very beginning, making lots of mistakes, being very hotheaded. But that just got him captured in Manster. He actually learns to listen to his (competent) advisors over the course of the game and the only instance where he relapses actually did spell disaster. FE6 had the problem with Merlinus and FE9 to a lesser degree with Soren at the beginning where they give you advisors and the hero characters basically do always the opposite they say and it was always the right choice. Why having advisors in the story if all they say is stupid?
Leif, however, actually learns over the path of the game. He does mistakes. He's not a useless fighting unit, but he's not RD Ike broken either. I like Leif as a Lord.
The rest of the cast is a bit underdeveloped though, aside from the inner circle of Leif, meaning Mareeta, Nanna, Fin. That just comes with the big sprawling cast and to be honest, a lot of the characterization is through the gameplay anyways. I also loved the Personal Weapons everyone got. See, in most FE titles, Lords begin with a generic Rapier. Or another Weapon whose sole existance is "Lord Weapon". Leif's personal weapon is the Light Brand. Why? It's the weapon that Ethlyn uses, Leifs mother. It's literally a hand-me-down. Exactly like Nannas Earth Sword, which she got from Lachesis. Fin's Brave Lance that he still has from his time in Sigurds Army. Mareeta's Weapon is the dark sword that she held in Chapter 5, while she was possessed and almost killed her (adoptive) mother, but stripped of the dark magic. Othin and Halvans personal weapons you have to fetch in the first mission in their home town, from their relatives. The weapons have actual personal meaning.
Okay, I think that's enough :words:, even though I'd have more things to share, like how inventory management during the manster arc was bullshit and how much I hate long-range tomes and argh
Tl;dr: good story, okay cast with good main lord, lots of detail, thracia bullshit
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Perrydotto
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Re: Metal plays Thracia 776, the rant thread
Thanks for the :words: ! I've never played this game and likely never will but I appreciate the extensive thoughts all the same.
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Fontra
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Re: Metal plays Thracia 776, the rant thread
You pretty much summed up what I'd say if I could be more objective and not have the rosey tinted glasses where I love it to bits in spite of its quirks. Glad you like Leif though and what you say about him is exactly why he's my second favorite lord in the series. I really can't put it better than you did yourself.