Zodi Plays: Fire Emblem Path of Radiance (Fighting for friends, etc etc)

[LaZodiac]

But but La Zodiac. What is your special move

Make me play a game I'm good at and you'll see

[Illven]

Make me play a game I'm good at and you'll see

Are they rhythm games?

[LaZodiac]

Are they rhythm games?

N...no. I'm super bad at those. I mean like action games and stuff. But yeah my special movie is "actually being good at video games". That was the idea anyway

[Illven]

N...no. I'm super bad at those. I mean like action games and stuff. But yeah my special movie is "actually being good at video games". That was the idea anyway

Ah, I was guessing that because the hell mic weapon, singing and dancing are both perform skills.

It made sense in my mind.

[Lord Raziere]

On 15:
Rude Protagonist, meet realistic handling of guy who tries to screw the rules to do whats right.

He is totally a traitor, Zodi. the only question is whether he is a redeemable traitor or not, and whether we will get a map revolving around him finally revealing it.

hi randomly Australian racist barmaid. Bye randomly Australian racist barmaid....thanks....for....the....tip?

Gatrie! I'm pretty sure they're not fish you can reel in if they're handmaidens.....just saying, I mean yeah, hard to get forbidden fruit factor, but c'mon....

oh good! We're killing slavers! I love killing slavers.

unfortunately, this slaver leader is a Berserker with a killer axe. very bad.

Astrid, Astrid.....Astrid......*facepalm*

IIiiiiiits the missing axe duo! watch Boyd and some random guy attempt to hit each other and fail miserably-TWICE!

Zodi, this entire game is about playing it obnoxiously safe. at least from my defensive minded standpoint. a strategist isn't about being reckless, its about winning, and taking unnecessary risks doesn't lead to that. only take risks when you have no other choice.

always embrace cowardice! living another day is the better part of valor.

Mist your an angel, not caring about who is from what nation.

So yeah.......that map could've gone better in a lot of ways. I don't think I'm going to say how, or what I'd done differently because its so obvious and you seem to have a good grasp of that already.

[PhantomFox]

Level Up Spreadsheet

The fact that Soren keeps getting sub-par levels... annoys me

Huh? He's pretty much exactly on target if you look at the average stats for him at this point. Lowest stat compared to average is -1.0 Luck, and that's hardly bad! He's +1.5 overall.

Ike continues to refuse his strength stat as much as he can.

I was just about to correct you on this, but then you go and do it for me. *shakes fist* His speed on the other hand... he's at 12 when he should be around 16ish. Apparently he's traded it for his 17 skill when he should have 14.

Oscar is the first to hit 20. Huzzah! A bit lacking in the Resist department (-3 to par), but is was never going to be that high to begin with.
Boyd is making rapid Strength gains, is now +3.0! (19 vs. 16)
Rhys is... +3 to HP. Tankier healers are never bad.

Random stats time!
Top 3 active characters compared to their average stat totals!
1) Oscar: +3.4
2) Zihark: +2.7
3) Gatrie: +2.2

Bottom 3 active characters compared to their average stat totals:
1) Illiana: -6.4
2) Mist: -5.2
3) Ike: -4.6

[Illven]

Woot Oscar MVP!

Also Sanaki is a generous goddess for sparing Ike's life.

And of course Ike ignores Elicinca. He only has eyes for Soren.

[LaZodiac]

Level Up Spreadsheet

Huh? He's pretty much exactly on target if you look at the average stats for him at this point. Lowest stat compared to average is -1.0 Luck, and that's hardly bad! He's +1.5 overall.

I was just about to correct you on this, but then you go and do it for me. *shakes fist* His speed on the other hand... he's at 12 when he should be around 16ish. Apparently he's traded it for his 17 skill when he should have 14.

Oscar is the first to hit 20. Huzzah! A bit lacking in the Resist department (-3 to par), but is was never going to be that high to begin with.
Boyd is making rapid Strength gains, is now +3.0! (19 vs. 16)
Rhys is... +3 to HP. Tankier healers are never bad.

I guess it's more that Soren's level ups never seem exciting. He gets exactly what is needed and never more. Or less. And man, Ike...get you some speed boy, you need to double things.

Rhys is absolutely determined to be a combat unit. Can't wait till he promotes.

Woot Oscar MVP!

Also Sanaki is a generous goddess for sparing Ike's life.

And of course Ike ignores Elicinca. He only has eyes for Soren.

The whims of a 12 year old loli pope are fickle, so we must tread carefully.

If you go with the interpretation that Ike just doesn't care about ladies and has Soren as jut a good friend, which is honestly just as viable a theory, it's still kind of a shame that so many girls are crushing on him THAT HARD and they're going to go nowhere.

[Illven]

The whims of a 12 year old loli pope are fickle, so we must tread carefully.

If you go with the interpretation that Ike just doesn't care about ladies and has Soren as jut a good friend, which is honestly just as viable a theory, it's still kind of a shame that so many girls are crushing on him THAT HARD and they're going to go nowhere.

I'm aware it's just I ship everything, so.

[HalfTangible]

N...no. I'm super bad at those. I m

Rhythm game it is!

[AsteriskAmp]

Oh right Mastery Skills.

So, each class promotes, and each promoted class has a specific skill they can put on using the Occult scroll. I'll go over em here if you're at all interested, with the caveat we'll be seeing only some of these.

Warriors (Axe Fighter promotion we've yet to see) and Berserkers get Colossus. Gives a skill percent chance to, if their Con is higher than the enemies, give 25% more damage. Given these classes tend to have low skill, even if they're usable, Colossus is in general just a bad ability.

Boyd actually has pretty decent skill growths and Colossus does come in quite handy in general if only because most mastery skills in Path of Radiance are utterly atrocious, Colossus breaks even and a bit beyond.

Swordmaster (the myrmidon promotion we've yet to see) gets Astra, which has a Skill/2 percent chance to activate. If it does, yo do half damage on all attacks, but one attack becomes five hits, and two attacks become ten hits. It's...unclear if this is good or not, given that it rips your weapon to flinders and halving a Myrmidon's strength can lead to them just not doing damage.

Astra is not only not good, it's arguably ACTIVELY DETRACTING from your unit capabilities. Having Astra makes a unit WORSE, it's better to not have the skill even if you had to lose the slot anyway.

Astra:

• Uses 5 weapon uses when it procs.
• Cannot proc. off continued attacks in Path of Radiance (no Adept comboing, no Brave Weapon for 40 hits) and furthermore blocks other skills from activating in the same attack (you can't get adept and astra resulting in 5 hits followed by the adept hit).
• Cannot critical (astra will proc even if you'd critical otherwise meaning it blocks criticals in certain situations, Astra runs up 5 weapon uses and does 2.5 times damage, a critical does 3 times the damage but can proc. adept meaning Astra could be blocking up to 4 times the damage at the cost of 3 additional weapon uses) [Observation corrected as per Illven mention]
• Can miss all of the hits beyond the first (while a swordmaster shouldn't ever be below 100% hit rate at that point this is just shameful for a "Mastery Skill")
• Will not proc. in indirect combat.
  As a side not-saving-grace-but-Astra-is-not-that-insanely-bad at least it stops when it gets a kill.

Still you are better of not having astra even burning the scroll to NOT have it would be preferable.
Particularly when the best weapons in the game tend to have 20 uses and Astra cares not for your durability ever and does pitiful amounts of damage compared to a run of the mill crit (which your swordmaster should get repeatedly) for the durability cost it has.

Astra, not even once.

Sniper's get Deadeye. Skill/2 chance to double the accuracy of your attack, and the hit gives them the status effect of Being Asleep. I...why?

Sleep in this game is not like those other sane RPGs where being hit wakes you up, I always just saw deadeye as putting the enemy in a coma, from which they won't wake up anyway.

Sages and Bishops (Rhys's promotion) get Flare. Flare is a skill percent chance to reduce enemy resistance by half. Its real good and against enemies it matters on, it basically kills them dead.

While not THAT useful as most enemies already have single digit Res outside of Lunatic (and mages which you shouldn't be killing with other mages) it has THE best animation in the entire game out of the sheer absurdity of how magic is fluffed to work in the series.

Crows get Vortex. It gives the bird a permanent reusable wind spell. I mean. That's it. That's it. It doesn't even say how strong it is I think it's JUST a base ole wind tome.

It's an Elwind tome in terms of power. Even if it does effective damage, doubling elwind might is ... not exactly massive damage when their beak will just overpower said doubled might anyway in almost every case.

[Illven]

Don't crits deal triple damage?

[AsteriskAmp]

Don't crits deal triple damage?

Yes, I mixed my numbers up with effective damage only being double in this particular game. This makes Astra objectively even worse, as a crit is just outright better in every single sense.

While most mastery skills not named Sol, Luna and Colossus are bad or mediocre, Astra takes the cake in how it's actively detracting from your character. (The only thing even close to it in the series would be Devil Axe as an item (suicide ahoy!), Bane which would leave enemies at 1hp, usually in your second attack and Mercy in Radiant Dawn which would be given to a major unit stealthily only for you to find after its almost first kill that it was unable to kill enemies for that entire map... FUN! and well just playing Thracia, but that last one is highly enjoyable).

[LaZodiac]

It's time for a Fire Emblem staple.

Zodi Plays: Fire Emblem Path of Radiance [15] S A N D

Video Length: 33:54

In this episode, Sanaki sends us out to a desert to beat up some thieves. Only once we get there it turns out their all Laguz. And here I am forgetting to bring Fire tomes. Oops! Ah well, I've got a Laguz Axe that'll help. Anyway, there isn't MUCH plot here except at the end, so let's speed through the mechanical interesting bits of this map.

What we've got here is ye olde standard Fire Emblem Desert Map. It's all sandy, so all ground units are reduced by 2 movement, except for armor knights and Chevalier who are reduced by four. Mages and thieves are able to move without any hindrance, and the thieves can find loot in the dunes, which I'm sure to collect. All the loot is nice, but the best of it is the Boots, a magical pair of shoes that'll increase someone's move speed by one. I'm thinking we should give this to Ike, what're all your thoughts on this?

I brought Sothe and Mia on this mission in the hopes that the untransformed Laguz could be beat up for some quick EXP but they're both generally two weak to do any damage. Mia and Sothe are officially shoved onto the bench with Rolf. Sothe was to be expected honestly, but I am dissapointed in Mia, she can be a good unit! Ah well. My main goal of this map was trying to get some EXP for Nephenee but I'm dumb and didn't bring any weaker weapons for my really good units, so I ended up having to have Neph not really kill anything, but instead just poke things to get some pittance EXP. I'll be doing my best to save Neph from uselessness because she IS a good unit, don't worry. Also, this map gets you BEXP in droves if you manage to avoid killing everyone but the boss, but...that's just not practical. So sorry, Laguz rebel forces, but we had to beat you down.

While all the actual fighting is going on we sent Lethe up to the northeast and she found some rando desert man with a super katana. We've got a swordmaster now, say hello to Stefan. He's entirely usable, though Astra is a detriment. I won't be removing it because I do want to maybe show it off at some point. I won't be like, focusing on using this guy, he's a bit too much.

Anyway, after beating up all the rebels we meet with Tormod, the leader of this group. He and Maurim explain they're actually freedom fighters and Ike is all "well crap" and that's basically the end of it until next mission. We do however get a scene of Naesala...selling his heron fiend to the ever creepy Duke Oliver. Something tells me next mission is going to involve a lot of stabbing fat priests.

That said, hope you enjoyed! This mission was pretty simple so there isn't much to talk about. I'll see you all next time!

------

Okay so let's talk supports! We got a few this time, like maxing Ike and Oscar out to A rank!

Spoiler: Oscar and Ike: Good Buddies

Show

Oscar and Ike's relationship is an interesting one. The way Ike interacts with him is basically how I expected, and in all honesty THOUGH, Ike interacted with Boyd. Oscar is Ike's buddy and closest friend, and together they play off each other well. Oscar's calm demeanor mixed with Ike's somewhat rash personality. They're a good pair mechanically and flavor wise as good friends. There isn't anything special about this support, it's just kind of nice.

We also begin the...agonizing process of making Mist and Boyd support. I hate this support because it just doesn't work in my eyes. Mist is a good girl and after realizing Boyd isn't even Ike's friend, it makes it a little weirder.

I also subject Marcia and Rhys to Kieran, because at the end of the day Kieran is a really funny character and his supports rule. In the future I'll be going over Kieran's support with other characters, like Mia. I'll also be finishing Marcia and Rhys's supports in thread eventually because Kieran wants to give his last conversation to Oscar. That'll give him one more conversation, and it'll probably be Rhys based on how my units are going.

[Illven]

So did Boyd cap Str?

[LaZodiac]

So did Boyd cap Str?

He did in fact cap strength, first stat cap of the series. I did not notice or realize he did until just today while recording new episodes to shove into the backlog. Everyone throw a party for Boyd.

[Illven]

He did in fact cap strength, first stat cap of the series. I did not notice or realize he did until just today while recording new episodes to shove into the backlog. Everyone throw a party for Boyd.

Woo! Go Boyd!

You also seemed unwilling to grind our healers on the boss. Any particular reason for that?

[LaZodiac]

Woo! Go Boyd!

You also seemed unwilling to grind our healers on the boss. Any particular reason for that?

You really have a couple of options on this one so pick for yourself.

1: Zodi's an idiot
2: Still on the tail end of "gotta rush recording before I go to watch my Aunt's house"
3: Afraid of tiger based violence being far too much to heal through/crits
4: Zodi's really just actually a idiot.

[Lord Raziere]

On 16:
So zealous human hater and scumbag sellout talk.....and ho boy, Naesala....you really are a scumbag....

Makala heheheheheh.....can't outfox the Greil mercs!

bad day for Zihark indeed.

......oh yeah, Laguz freedom fighters how surprising.....uh...not... So we're finally going to do some REBELLION stuff next eh? awesome.

Reyson, don't trust him.....DON'T TRUST NAESALA.....

[DataNinja]

Alright, well, finally able to catch up after various debates, tests, and assignments, looks like I have two videos to catch up on. Whoops. Gotta love the week before finals.

Spoiler: Episode 15

Show

Unit	Class	First Ep	Dmg Dealt	Dmg Taken	Ratio	# Defeated	Tally
Ike	Ranger	1	980	259	3.78	36	Spoiler Show Boyd (Fighter, Tutorial) Greil (Hero, Tutorial) Zawana (Bandit) Ikanau (Bandit) Maijin (Knight) *** Archer x5 Bandit x3 Fighter x5 Knight x3 Myrmidon x7 Priest x1 Raven x2 Soldier x7 Tiger x1
Boyd	Fighter	2	1044	259	4.03	32	Spoiler Show Kotaff (Halberdier) Danomill (General) *** Archer x4 Bandit x3 Bow Knight x1 Fighter x3 Halberdier x1 Knight x5 Lance Knight x1 Mage x2 Myrmidon x4 Raven x1 Soldier x7
Oscar	Lance Knight	2	1274	239	5.33	39	Spoiler Show Balmer (Sage) Gashilama (Berserker) *** Archer x4 Axe Knight x1 Bandit x3 Fighter x1 Halberdier x1 Knight x4 Lance Knight x2 Mage x3 Myrmidon x6 Priest x1 Raven x2 Soldier x9 Sword Knight x1 Thief x1
Titania	Paladin	2	954	124	7.69	31	Spoiler Show Mackoya (Paladin) *** Archer x2 Axe Knight x2 Fighter x1 Knight x1 Lance Knight x6 Mage x2 Myrmidon x2 Soldier x14 Sword Knight x2
Rhys	Priest	3	0 (657)	38	17.29	0	Spoiler Show --
Shinon	Sniper	4	173	25	6.92	11	Spoiler Show Dakova (Knight) *** Archer x3 Bandit x3 Lance Knight x1 Myrmidon x 1 Soldier x2
Gatrie	Knight	4	725	53	13.68	22	Spoiler Show Havetti (Bandit) Norris (Sniper) *** Archer x2 Bandit x3 Fighter x3 Halberdier x1 Knight x2 Mage x1 Myrmidon x3 Soldier x7
Soren	Mage	5	391	42	9.31	21	Spoiler Show Emil (Halberdier) *** Bandit x1 Fighter x1 Knight x5 Myrmidon x3 Raven x1 Soldier x7 Sword Knight x2
Mia	Myrmidon	8	241	73	3.30	7	Spoiler Show Bandit x2 Fighter x1 Mage x2 Myrmidon x1 Soldier x1
Ilyana	Mage	9	327	21	15.57	17	Spoiler Show Nedata (Bandit) Seeker (Beast Tribe) *** Fighter x4 Knight x2 Mage x2 Myrmidon x3 Raven x1 Soldier x3
Mist	Cleric	10	0 (381)	0	--	0	Spoiler Show --
Rolf	Archer	10	28	0	--	2	Spoiler Show Mage x1 Myrmidon x1
Marcia	Pegasus Knight	10	293	61	4.80	10	Spoiler Show Archer x1 Bandit x1 Mage x2 Myrmidon x2 Raven x1 Soldier x2 Tiger x1
Volke	Thief	11	37	14	2.64	1	Spoiler Show Archer x1
Lethe	Beast Tribe	11	61	0	--	3	Spoiler Show Mage x1 Myrmidon x1 Soldier x1
Mordecai	Beast Tribe	11	51	5	10.2	2	Spoiler Show Knight x1 Soldier x1
Nephenee	Soldier	12	65	12	5.42	4	Spoiler Show Priest x1 Raven x2 Soldier x1
Brom	Knight	12	35	26	1.35	0	Spoiler Show --
Kieran	Axe Knight	12	234	75	3.12	9	Spoiler Show Archer x2 Halberdier x1 Lance Knight x1 Mage x1 Myrmidon x1 Soldier x1 Sword Knight x1 Thief x1
Zihark	Myrmidon	12	106	32	3.31	4	Spoiler Show Bandit x1 Fighter x1 Lance Knight x1 Raven x1
Sothe	Thief	13	0	0	--	0	Spoiler Show --
Jill	Wyvern Rider	13	126	53	2.38	4	Spoiler Show Archer x1 Myrmidon x1 Raven x2
Astrid	Bow Knight	14	57	0	--	3	Spoiler Show Bandit x1 Mage x1 Soldier x1
Makalov	Sword Knight	15	23	0	--	0	Spoiler Show --

I keep wondering... who gives the report if Soren falls in battle?

Nah, not all of us think Volke's a traitor. Clearly it's Brom, the worm!

...well, that sentence regarding Soren almost seems prophetic now.

And Oscar becomes the first to break 100 fights. Titania's in second with 84, though Boyd and Ike are at 79 and 76 respectively (at the time of Oscar hitting 100). Gatrie's in fifth with 58, followed by Rhys with 57 heals. Then we fall down to Mist at 39 heals. Only Soren and Marcia are above 30. Well I can sure see who your favorite meatshield is.

Incidentally, I don't count Wards or other buffs (including item use) in a unit's battle count. Only when they hit people to (try and) cause damage, or hit people to take their damage away.

Ouch. That's going to be a dent in poor Rhys' numbers. Er, I mean health. Yes, my concern is for his well being. Honest.

"Nephenee becomes a god" method? Sure, I'd like to see that. If my vote still counts. Because, well, this is from the past, and I'm not caught up.

Huh. Even a "no damage" hit can cause poison.

And, double feature...

Spoiler: Episode 16

Show

Unit	Class	First Ep	Dmg Dealt	Dmg Taken	Ratio	# Defeated	Tally
Ike	Ranger	1	1056	298	3.54	38	Spoiler Show Boyd (Fighter, Tutorial) Greil (Hero, Tutorial) Zawana (Bandit) Ikanau (Bandit) Maijin (Knight) *** Archer x5 Bandit x3 Cat x1 Fighter x5 Knight x3 Myrmidon x7 Priest x1 Raven x2 Soldier x7 Tiger x2
Boyd	Fighter	2	1109	270	4.11	35	Spoiler Show Kotaff (Halberdier) Danomill (General) Muarim (Beast Tribe) *** Archer x4 Bandit x3 Bow Knight x1 Cat x1 Fighter x3 Halberdier x1 Knight x5 Lance Knight x1 Mage x2 Myrmidon x4 Raven x1 Soldier x7 Tiger x1
Oscar	Lance Knight	2	1274	239	5.33	39	Spoiler Show Balmer (Sage) Gashilama (Berserker) *** Archer x4 Axe Knight x1 Bandit x3 Fighter x1 Halberdier x1 Knight x4 Lance Knight x2 Mage x3 Myrmidon x6 Priest x1 Raven x2 Soldier x9 Sword Knight x1 Thief x1
Titania	Paladin	2	954	124	7.69	31	Spoiler Show Mackoya (Paladin) *** Archer x2 Axe Knight x2 Fighter x1 Knight x1 Lance Knight x6 Mage x2 Myrmidon x2 Soldier x14 Sword Knight x2
Rhys	Priest	3	0 (696)	38	18.32	0	Spoiler Show --
Shinon	Sniper	4	173	25	6.92	11	Spoiler Show Dakova (Knight) *** Archer x3 Bandit x3 Lance Knight x1 Myrmidon x 1 Soldier x2
Gatrie	Knight	4	725	53	13.68	22	Spoiler Show Havetti (Bandit) Norris (Sniper) *** Archer x2 Bandit x3 Fighter x3 Halberdier x1 Knight x2 Mage x1 Myrmidon x3 Soldier x7
Soren	Mage	5	462	42	11	24	Spoiler Show Emil (Halberdier) *** Bandit x1 Fighter x1 Hawk x1 Knight x5 Myrmidon x3 Raven x2 Soldier x7 Sword Knight x2 Tiger x1
Mia	Myrmidon	8	241	73	3.30	7	Spoiler Show Bandit x2 Fighter x1 Mage x2 Myrmidon x1 Soldier x1
Ilyana	Mage	9	418	21	19.90	20	Spoiler Show Nedata (Bandit) Seeker (Beast Tribe) *** Beast Tribe x1 Cat x1 Fighter x4 Knight x2 Mage x2 Myrmidon x3 Raven x1 Soldier x3 Tiger x1
Mist	Cleric	10	0 (462)	0	--	0	Spoiler Show --
Rolf	Archer	10	28	0	--	2	Spoiler Show Mage x1 Myrmidon x1
Marcia	Pegasus Knight	10	369	94	3.93	12	Spoiler Show Archer x1 Bandit x1 Bird Tribe x1 Hawk x1 Mage x2 Myrmidon x2 Raven x1 Soldier x2 Tiger x1
Volke	Thief	11	93	14	6.64	3	Spoiler Show Archer x1 Beast Tribe x1 Cat x1
Lethe	Beast Tribe	11	111	16	6.94	4	Spoiler Show Bird Tribe x1 Mage x1 Myrmidon x1 Soldier x1
Mordecai	Beast Tribe	11	51	5	10.2	2	Spoiler Show Knight x1 Soldier x1
Nephenee	Soldier	12	87	12	7.25	4	Spoiler Show Priest x1 Raven x2 Soldier x1
Brom	Knight	12	35	26	1.35	0	Spoiler Show --
Kieran	Axe Knight	12	234	75	3.12	9	Spoiler Show Archer x2 Halberdier x1 Lance Knight x1 Mage x1 Myrmidon x1 Soldier x1 Sword Knight x1 Thief x1
Zihark	Myrmidon	12	144	32	4.50	7	Spoiler Show Bandit x1 Beast Tribe x1 Cat x2 Fighter x1 Lance Knight x1 Raven x1
Sothe	Thief	13	0	0	--	0	Spoiler Show --
Jill	Wyvern Rider	13	210	77	2.73	5	Spoiler Show Archer x1 Cat x1 Myrmidon x1 Raven x2
Astrid	Bow Knight	14	57	0	--	3	Spoiler Show Bandit x1 Mage x1 Soldier x1
Makalov	Sword Knight	15	23	0	--	0	Spoiler Show --
Stefan	Swordmaster	16	0	0	--	0	Spoiler Show --

Looks like your error regarding Ilyana's level up was in saying "I was certain I was certain I had made an error". Balance restored to the universe. As long as all your errors are post-game, you should be fine.

Volke seems to be working on an alphabet of kills. In order. Archer, Beast Tribe, Cat...

How in the world are you supposed to know to trigger him?

Hey, could have been worse. Could have been s a n db i r d level.

Oh, also chart. Not much to say about that other than squiggly-wiggly-I'm-done-with-numbers-for-now.

[LaZodiac]

Alright, well, finally able to catch up after various debates, tests, and assignments, looks like I have two videos to catch up on. Whoops. Gotta love the week before finals.

I keep wondering... who gives the report if Soren falls in battle?

"Nephenee becomes a god" method? Sure, I'd like to see that. If my vote still counts. Because, well, this is from the past, and I'm not caught up.

Huh. Even a "no damage" hit can cause poison.

How in the world are you supposed to know to trigger him?

Hey, could have been worse. Could have been s a n db i r d level.

Oh, also chart. Not much to say about that other than squiggly-wiggly-I'm-done-with-numbers-for-now.

Ah, that's where you've been. Blasted school.

Soren, Titania, and Mist are the only units that, if they die, are considered "gravely wounded and unable to fight" instead of "just outright dead". Everyone else is expendable except for Ike who'll game over you if he dies. So, still Soren.

I'm doing my best but Nephenee requires a lot of work, especially since I sooort of gimped her by not using her in Training by mistake.

Yup! Sure, the axe doesn't do no damage, but it's still covered in goo. You gun get poisoned son!

The Info talk about the sands mentioned "mysterious figures wondering in the North East of the sands" and that's basically your whole clue. You basically have to step on every spot to find him trial and error wise. If a non Laguz steps on the spot he gives you his sword but does not join. He is a very mysterious person, that Steve.

Sand Biiiiiird.

[DataNinja]

Ah, that's where you've been. Blasted school.

Soren, Titania, and Mist are the only units that, if they die, are considered "gravely wounded and unable to fight" instead of "just outright dead". Everyone else is expendable except for Ike who'll game over you if he dies. So, still Soren.

I'm doing my best but Nephenee requires a lot of work, especially since I sooort of gimped her by not using her in Training by mistake.

Yup! Sure, the axe doesn't do no damage, but it's still covered in goo. You gun get poisoned son!

The Info talk about the sands mentioned "mysterious figures wondering in the North East of the sands" and that's basically your whole clue. You basically have to step on every spot to find him trial and error wise. If a non Laguz steps on the spot he gives you his sword but does not join. He is a very mysterious person, that Steve.

Sand Biiiiiird.

Yeah. Don't worry, I didn't just pack up my stuff and vanish.

Well, that makes sense (and answers why Soren mentions wounded), given the amount of Plot Stuffs™ that seem to revolve around them. Or just exposition and character development. I take it that that means that they're still out permanently, though? No healing?

Well, whatever happens, happens. Yes, I know that's not helpful or informative in the slightest.

Well, it sure started to put more damage on Gatrie than almost any other mission. Clearly I need to invest stock in whoever makes them, because whatever they're doing is working. No guarantees about the aptitude of the wielders, though.

Oh boy. Trial and error. My favorite.

[Knaight]

And Oscar becomes the first to break 100 fights. Titania's in second with 84, though Boyd and Ike are at 79 and 76 respectively (at the time of Oscar hitting 100). Gatrie's in fifth with 58, followed by Rhys with 57 heals. Then we fall down to Mist at 39 heals. Only Soren and Marcia are above 30. Well I can sure see who your favorite meatshield is.
...
"Nephenee becomes a god" method? Sure, I'd like to see that. If my vote still counts. Because, well, this is from the past, and I'm not caught up.

That Rhys-Mist bit isn't bad considering how much later you get Mist. She's worth entirely replacing Rhys with too - once she classes up you get a mounted healer who can also fight with a sword, and while her strength and defense aren't great she's got high speed and is nearly immune to enemy magic. You know who tends to have low speed and next to no defense? Enemy mages.

Also Nephenee is just a rock solid character, and I strongly support all Nephenee based strategies.

[DataNinja]

That Rhys-Mist bit isn't bad considering how much later you get Mist.

I was more commenting on the fact that I thought that there would be more people above Mist. She shot up fast. Watch out, Ike, she's coming for your position.

[Knaight]

I was more commenting on the fact that I thought that there would be more people above Mist. She shot up fast. Watch out, Ike, she's coming for your position.

Mist is one of those characters really worth grinding (although my primary technique there has always been assigning enough bonus experience to start 1 XP below leveling up for every stage), so I'm not surprised. There's two big reasons here, one of which is how much better she is than Rhys once they both class up and the other of which is a spoiler.

[Illven]

But Rhys just wants to make La Zodiac happy, doesn't he deserve to come along, because of his good level ups.

[AsteriskAmp]

Well, that makes sense (and answers why Soren mentions wounded), given the amount of Plot Stuffs™ that seem to revolve around them. Or just exposition and character development. I take it that that means that they're still out permanently, though? No healing?

It's implied there are wounds beyond magical healing in-universe.

Oh boy. Trial and error. My favorite.

To be fair Stefan is entirely optional and probably not intended for players to get him on a blind run. He'll still come around and have his dialogue with Ike to give him training, even if you don't recruit him, no Vague Katti or joining though. He's a prepromoted unit that's actually likely better than all of your swordmasters when you get him (he's the best swordmaster mid game and late game he's just slightly worse than Zihark because Zihark has Adept instead of Fail-stra), with great base stats, solid growths (Zihark>Stefan>>>Mia growth wise) and an improved killer edge. He's kinda of a reward for actually finding him.

His recruitment method is equally precise in the game's sequel but if you already recruited him in this game, you know what to expect and it's at least nominally easier in that sense. (Also not even close to the most annoying recruitment method in the series, just the most obscure).

Mist is one of those characters really worth grinding (although my primary technique there has always been assigning enough bonus experience to start 1 XP below leveling up for every stage), so I'm not surprised. There's two big reasons here, one of which is how much better she is than Rhys once they both class up and the other of which is a spoiler.

While Mist has amazing growths and her promotion is pretty good, there's three factors against grinding her. You have to dump a massive share of the BEXP on her to get her anywhere, Mist won't get going until MUCH farther ahead and while there are few units that want it as badly as her, those units pay for themselves almost immediately. Rhys is a better healer out of the box, and around the point Mist starts to outclass him your other mages will be hitting promotion, and getting access to staves meaning you don't have to rely only on Rhys entirely for healing anymore as you will have other healers to extend your healing range (outside a horrendous bout of luck where both Ilyanna and Soren get almost no magic throughout the game and you are forced to bench them). The spoiler reason unless you get a monster of a Mist it won't change much, you are still relying in an RNG proc, you just swap elixirs for a Mist (which while economical if you already have her it's not exactly reason to dump at least 15 levels of BEXP on someone).

Granted offensively you are right, Rhys is the only one with access to light magic... and it's heavily nerfed and has little reason for existing, he has better magic growths than Mist but light magic is not the way to use them; while Mist with a rune/sonic sword is scary even if she got str screwed and she has more speed so she'll be doubling more reliably. And while there are much better mage hunters Mist is serviceable within reason.

[LaZodiac]

Now how's about that Fire Emblem eh?

Zodi Plays: Fire Emblem Path of Radiance [17] House Crashing

Video Length: 47:40

Today's episode is a bit of a treat. It begins with Ike, rightly so, pointing out that the last two missions have all been very subtle "look at the bad of this country" tests Sanaki has sent Ike out on. With it firmly aware to him that this was all a test, he confronts Sanaki and he basically pats him on the head and then hires him out to go over Oliver's place and maybe kill everyone inside. It's all to make sure he has slaves or not. I'll be honest, I really like this plot development. The idea that Sanaki isn't some rude petulant child, but is actually genuinely trying to fix things, while also keeping faith in the theocracy it's all founded on.

Of course, it ACTUALLY begins with Duke Oliver of Tanas being...himself, with Reyson, and getting socked in the face for it. Man it's a good thing Sanaki sent us to raid his house specifically, this is the only laguz slave he probably even has given his...tastes. Ugh. I hate writing about this character, lets move on to the mechanical whatever.

So, it was kind of lowkey and not really touched upon at all, but Tormod and Muarim joined our army last time? They just kinda showed up and never left but that describes like half of it so...yeah. Tormod is your third wizard in case Soren and Ilyana have somehow failed to be good or died. He's not AWFUL, but he's...certainly not great either. He also uses fire magic which just bugs me in general because he's a Laguz freedom fighter so you'd think he'd use not fire for flavor reasons? Meanwhile Muarim's basically just Mordecai but I think slightly tankier? He comes with the Demi band and that'll be useful to use later, potentially, but other than that they're basically just there. For some reason I also show me taking off Steve's vague katti and outfitting him with I think the very last of our glitch obtained iron swords. I also show off that yes, Boyd has capped strength. It won't stay capped for long since he's close to promoting, but still!

We then get into dissing out EXP and hooo boy. Mist and Neph get some decent to great levels out of it, and everyone is looking to go my way. We round out some of our supports, and sadly end Ike's ability to do supports, but I'll be sharing the rest with you in thread. I intend to share a bunch of them but I'm not really sure how to go about it. Feel free to throw out your ideas. In the meanwhile we've also got info chats, and these ones are quite important! First is "Muarim" but in truth it's basically a continuation of the opening cutscene with Tormod and Muarim and Soren that really should of been unmissable because it kind of sort of feels important? We also get to talk to Steve, and he offers to train us! You only get this scene if you recruit him, and the training somehow creates an Occult scroll. This will be important in the future. 2 down 5 to go.

Now we get to the meat of the level. Ike and company get to Oliver's house and explore it on the order of Sanaki. Unfortunately for everyone involved, Mist and Titania have spotted Reyson. Oliver decides the best way to prove his innocence is to order all his men to kill us, so WELP guess it's time to cut through his personal army. While we're at it let's loot the joint I'm sure he's got some cool stuff for us to steal (he do).

Overall this mission isn't actually all that special? We're firmly at the point of the game where, baring a few exceptions, we can take what it's going to throw at us with...relatively unharm. There's still an occasional mission that's going to be an utter cluterfumble, and sometimes I will not realize that Tormod is within range of the archer and almost have to restart because this small child takes an arrow to the throat, but other than that we've got this. The one surprise this mission has is that if you're too slow or leave people at the start, enemy reinforcements appear from behind! And these are the classic Fire Emblem reinforcements that get to move when they show up, so that's pretty scary. Other scary and rude things is that of the three loot rooms, two of them have two guys in them each. One has a killer edge user and the other has a killer bow user, and I feel that's a bit of a "gotcha" moment that I don't like the design of. After the first room you can (and should given it's Fire Emblem) expect the other room to have guys in it, but there's no reason to assume it'll be those same two guys just with a killer bow instead of an edge, and no matter your planning or caution, someone's going to get hit with a killer weapon to deal with this and that's just a risky proposition.

Also...there's a recruitable man on this map. Devdan, an orange halberdier that's more of a tank focused Nephenee. He's...certainly a character. What's weird is that the game gives no direct hint that he's recruitable, or how you recruit him. The only hint you can get is that, if Tormod, Mist, Soren, Sothe, or Rolf are within his attack range, he won't hit them. If those people talk to him he'll join your side due to the innocence of children (or because Soren offers to actual pay him). One wonders why he doesn't react this way to Jill given she's the same age as Mist...but the she's also riding a huge dragon and can kill people. But then also at this point you could have Mist promoted so I guess it's just story and gameplay segregation. Anyway we kill the boss and he provides us with my favorite "wow you're an idiot" death quote these NPC bosses have given me yet. "Is this my fate for my compliance in the evils that went on here?"

YES. YES IT IS. WOW.

We storm the room and sadly Oliver vanishes into fat air and escapes, and Reyson...also just kinda screws off somewhere but the scene is so weirdly cut I wonder what all even HAPPENED. We return to Sanaki and we tell her about him and we get a big ole plot dump about how OOOPS Begion is stupid and burnt down the ancestral home of the Herons, killing all of them. Or, it would seem, not all. At least one survived, and as WE the audience now, two survived because Reyson's Dad is DYING, not dead. And so begins the heron hunt, so Sanaki can talk to the pretty boy.

And that's our episode. Hope you all enjoyed, I'll see you guys next time for...a thing. A thing and a half. Hoo boy.

------

Supports!

Mist and Jill hit B rank and it's quite sweet. It's a short scene but it furthers their characters and also sort of solidifies who they are. Mist is trying to be as nice as possible, and directly avoiding mentioning the bad thing as much as possible. Jill continues to wonder why everyone tolerates her existence here.

Ike and Soren hit B rank and we get a bit of an info dump on Soren's backstory...which Ike rightly calls one of the worst things he's ever heard happen to anyone ever. Soren learned magic thanks to the man who bought him from his mother who likely wasn't even his REAL mom to begin with, and...he never actually learned how to speak. Good lord.

Finally we get Ilyana's first two supports, with Mordecai and Zihark. I don't know why I picked Mordecai I guess I just wanted to show off a support that wasn't less than half a minute long. Look, Ilyana...has some degree of character. But one of the consequences of how Fire Emblem works as a game is that a lot of it's characters are one note and llyana...she's REALLY one note, even for this series. She wants food. She eats food. She will manipulate everyone into feeding her as much food as possible because she desires to shove more food into her body. I relate to this immensely but lady please have some degree of character beyond this, even a little.

And that's our supports for today.

[ThePhantom]

Oh there's almost always a clue on how to recruit, at the unit screen at the start, you can go all the way to the end and see who can talk to who. It doesn't cover all the recruitment but it does most of them. And its a shame that you didn't get the last Ike and Soren support, because it is important and explains a lot. Yes Ike and Oscar is more powerful gameplaywise, but the Soren/Ike is story important.

[LaZodiac]

Oh there's almost always a clue on how to recruit, at the unit screen at the start, you can go all the way to the end and see who can talk to who. It doesn't cover all the recruitment but it does most of them. And its a shame that you didn't get the last Ike and Soren support, because it is important and explains a lot. Yes Ike and Oscar is more powerful gameplaywise, but the Soren/Ike is story important.

Yeah Devdan is one of the guys who DOESN'T get a talk prompt in the unit screen, thus why I even brought it up as a thing

And rest assured, I'll be showing the A rank for Ike and Soren later, in thread.