New OOTS products from CafePress
New OOTS t-shirts, ornaments, mugs, bags, and more
Page 13 of 17 FirstFirst ... 34567891011121314151617 LastLast
Results 361 to 390 of 483
  1. - Top - End - #361
    Titan in the Playground
    Join Date
    Sep 2014

    Default Re: Fire Emblem Three Houses: Reach for my hand, I'll soar away.

    Managed to finish the Golden Deer story. Fiftyish hours, a good deal of grinding in the middle but by the end I was just skipping the last few months to get through the story. I maxed out all my relationships since I didn't really recruit many people and maxed out my Professor level so it didn't really feel like I had much to do in the super late game. I'll spoiler some stuff since we're still doing that for story relevant stuff.

    The game itself however...I enjoyed it for the most part. Some of the UI stuff began to bother me by the end. Why can't I have a "repair all" for a character? Why do I have to go through half a dozen menus to move items around? Why do you have use at the bottom for items I want to use? Why do you sequester abilities and combat arts (which I rarely ended up using by the late game) away exactly? I did like how each character had their own list of magics, it made them all feel fairly distinct. By the end my team was

    Bylth: Mortal Servant
    Claude: Barbossa
    Lorenz: Dark Knight
    Rapheal: Great Knight
    Ignatz: Bowr Knight
    Lysithia: Gremory
    Marianne: Holy Knight
    Hilda: Assassin (she never got a master class, she didn't need it. Holy crap was she strong. MVP for a good many battles.)
    Leonie: Paladin (She was also my Dancer for a while which I feel sorta stopped her from getting to a Master Class. She didn't need it either, she was awesome support all the way to the end)
    Felix: Mortal Servant
    Cyril: Wyvern Lord
    Lindhart: Priest...because I never used him but he was my best choice as a back up healer and I'd used him as a sidekick for most of the game.

    Spoiler: story stuff
    Show
    I feel like I've really done myself a disservice knowing what I know about the other stories and how they end from other people I know RL who picked the other storylines. The Golden Deer ending with dealing with Those Who Slither was pretty cool but it felt...tacked on? Unearned? It would have been better if all four stories led up to a final few chapters where you confront them. Give them a little more story and a little more depth other than "They're bad.". As it stands the lore is just....meh. I didn't really feel like, post time skip, there was a whole lot going on other than a few big battles. It was frustrating that this war that was waging for five years was taken care of, and easily thanks to my over-leveling, in as few as five turns. I didn't feel like I was given any good reasaon to get any of the neat crap in the chests and with Marianne as healer I had little need for healing items.

    Over all, Normal felt...easy...and I obviously didn't know what I was doing until about the halfway mark. I'll have a better idea of class progression and how to spend my time with the game as I start the Blue Lion's game. I have no idea what I'm going to do with my MC. Maybe archery? He seems like he can slot into any one particular field and I've already done the Gish build. Which was fun don't get me wrong but I absolutely felt unfocused and it wasn't until I unlocked Enlightened One that Mortal Servant seemed to be on the table.

    I ended up really liking everyone and I felt Claude's desire to bring peace and liberalism to the country parlleled Eddie's desires well. Claude, unburdned by the trauma of the Slitherers, seems to have had a better grasp. But for all of Eddie's posturing before I cut her to pieces...maybe she could have clued me into her little scheme? She had no certainty that I'd have sided with her but ya know, throwing it out in the tomb before things went titsup might have given us a little time to at least hear her out. Instead of her just jumping right to the murder-izing. The writing for the individual characters was strong over all and I actually felt some remorse mowing down the students who I'd otherwise been speaking to weekly. I felt that the Blue Lion at the time skip mission get a little pushed to the side. They barely even acknowledge you exist before you curb stomp them. They're another set that seems too focused on just murdering for the sake of revenge to maybe take a step back and work on working together.

    It just paints all the people you fight as unreasonable warmongers.

    I continue to feel that the time skip feels like wasted potential. Moreso with the above where you just sit up and start kicking ass all over again. There's nothing to show the passage of time other than character portraits and some rubble in the Church and....boy does that not sell "you've been asleep for five years" well. I maintain, at least at current with only partial information of the other three paths, that the whole game would have been better served if all four paths wound themselves together. That'd be hard with you there as a central character and allowing you to do them in any order, but it's doable in theory.

    In the end I chose Hilda, because there are so few gay choices, to marry. Lysithia and Cyril ended up married. I wish I'd have known that you didn't have to max out relationships to get the one you wanted. It'd have been nice if Lysithia were cured of her problem. Marianne and Lindhart got married. Claude and Lorenz worked to open up the boarders. Ignatz married Maya and Rapheal was chuffed. As he obviously would be, that dude was a sweet heart to the end. Fleix and Leonie became street performers after a great run as mercs, which makes me happy. I quite liked Felix where I thought I honestly wouldn't so eager to have him from the start this second time around. Alios became the head of the Knights of Seiros while Catherine and Shamir went their separate ways to become legends in their own right. Sylvain...who I didn't even intend to recruit, went off and opened up Sreng or whatever that area is. So good for him. Flayn and Seteth lived happily ever after with a seriously weird relationship.


    All said...if I only ever played the first time through, I'd give it a hearty recommendation to people who like TRPGs. Compared to games like Disgaea and FFT....I feel like it's a little barebones on some of the things I personally like about the other two games and I'd have liked the game to have been more of a challenge in ways it...just wasn't...but I guess all of these don't matter too much since I've already started my Blue Lion's run and I'd probably have been doing that instead of this if I didn't have work in like six hours.

  2. - Top - End - #362
    Colossus in the Playground
     
    LaZodiac's Avatar

    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Location
    Canada
    Gender
    Male2Female

    Default Re: Fire Emblem Three Houses: Reach for my hand, I'll soar away.

    Yeah it sucks that, for male Byleth, the only actual romance partner that is gay is Linhardt. Not that he's not a perfectly good and wonderful guy, but they shoulda made Felix and like, Claude an answer as well.

  3. - Top - End - #363
    Ettin in the Playground
     
    GnomeWizardGuy

    Join Date
    Nov 2013

    Default Re: Fire Emblem Three Houses: Reach for my hand, I'll soar away.

    Quote Originally Posted by LaZodiac View Post
    Yeah it sucks that, for male Byleth, the only actual romance partner that is gay is Linhardt. Not that he's not a perfectly good and wonderful guy, but they shoulda made Felix and like, Claude an answer as well.
    Heck, Sylvain would have worked. Raphael is clueless enough about romance to have worked also - I don't recall him actively courting any of the girls even in his A supports. And please don't misunderstand me - I'm talking about the ease of making a character bi without giving them loads of unique dialogue, and those characters that don't talk about romance at all are the easiest in that regard.

    On the story stuff, one non-spoiler thing I'll say is that ALL the paths could have benefited from the game not giving you a choice and instead weaving them together to form a greater narrative. Playing the different paths has been like fitting a jigsaw puzzle together, and as I complete each path I understand elements of all the others that I simply did not get. From character motivations, to lore, to the very underpinning of story themes and the plot itself. All of it would have been improved if they gave it to you in ONE story, instead of this weird alternate-universe situation where Byleth's loyalties decide the plot.

    The most frustrating thing is that it makes it impossible to even discuss the plot. If two people are at the same level of completion of the game, but one has completed Blue Lions and the other Golden Deer, there's no way to even hold a conversation without massive spoilers.

    The big question is whether the extended gameplay from having 3 paths is worth it. For the most part, I think it's an acceptable trade off. I would have been happier to have more unique maps, especially the paralogues. You can make arguments for having key locations (and thus the same map) show up repeatedly on different routes. The paralogues being on generic "let's fight bandits" maps has no excuse. The same city map gets re-used for multiple different Paralogues within different parts of the Kingdom. One map is supposedly outside of Fodlan entirely, while also somehow being near the monastery. I got spoiled on one of the Golden Deer maps by seeing it in an Auxiliary mission before going there, and there's another main story mission map you can see as a paralogue well before you get there which actually spoils the map's gimmick.

    Overall though, it's certainly expanded the heck out of MY play time with the game. I'd like a more cohesive story, but I'll deal with it to wind up with 50+ story missions instead of the usual 20 or so. It also helps to deal with playthrough fatigue - by the time I hit the end of any given route, I've already locked down my squad and am ready to move on. I can't imagine playing the game as some sort of 40-chapter epic that would be required to hit all the story elements together. At the end of the day, this is a videogame, and story services gameplay rather than the other way around.

  4. - Top - End - #364
    Colossus in the Playground
     
    LaZodiac's Avatar

    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Location
    Canada
    Gender
    Male2Female

    Default Re: Fire Emblem Three Houses: Reach for my hand, I'll soar away.

    Quote Originally Posted by Rodin View Post
    The most frustrating thing is that it makes it impossible to even discuss the plot. If two people are at the same level of completion of the game, but one has completed Blue Lions and the other Golden Deer, there's no way to even hold a conversation without massive spoilers.
    See for me I get the opposite reaction. I love that. Playing it alongside a friend who hit the Holy Tomb in Blue Lions just as I hit it as Black Eagles was fantastic. It also helps further deepen the themes of "my side is correct" since our information is different.

  5. - Top - End - #365
    Ettin in the Playground
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Gender
    Male

    Default Re: Fire Emblem Three Houses: Reach for my hand, I'll soar away.

    Argh, my one month Switch Online membership ran out early. Now I have to decide if the online features here are worth it.

    We'll see how much more my bro has in his membership. Maybe we'll get a family plan...
    The name is "tonberrian", even when it begins a sentence. It's magic, I ain't gotta 'splain why.

  6. - Top - End - #366
    Ettin in the Playground
     
    GnomeWizardGuy

    Join Date
    Nov 2013

    Default Re: Fire Emblem Three Houses: Reach for my hand, I'll soar away.

    Quote Originally Posted by tonberrian View Post
    Argh, my one month Switch Online membership ran out early. Now I have to decide if the online features here are worth it.

    We'll see how much more my bro has in his membership. Maybe we'll get a family plan...
    For Three Houses specifically I don't think there's much, at least so far?

    There's the statistics of who picks what for a given month, where I've found I'm pretty atypical.

    There's the purple and yellow swirlies on the battle maps, of which I only really use the purple ones since the yellow ones are kind of a trap - they give experience without skill points, meaning you fall behind on both your class skills and your weapon/authority skills.

    The only other thing is the travelers, which I confess I haven't used since the same feature in Fates and Awakening felt like such a cheat. Sure, I'll recruit a second Robin, that's not overpowered whatsoever...

    Oh, and there's the character popularity rankings. Since it seems everybody picked Black Eagles for their first playthrough, I've mostly found this to be a list of Black Eagles characters with people who have birthdays that month showing up occasionally in the "tea party" list.

  7. - Top - End - #367
    Titan in the Playground
     
    Zevox's Avatar

    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Gender
    Male

    Default Re: Fire Emblem Three Houses: Reach for my hand, I'll soar away.

    So, going to repost this, since I had edited it into my previous post but it may have been missed due to how long after the initial post I did that plus the page skip:

    Edit: So, about to do the Caspar/Mercedes paralogue, and a thought occurred to me that I want to get down before I do it.
    Spoiler: A guess about the Death Knight's identity.
    Show
    If he's not actually Jeritza, I think he's most likely Caspar's father. Explains why Caspar is connected to the paralogue, and Caspar's father has been set up as having a reputation for being a very strong warrior in some supports, plus he's known to be an ally of Edelgard's in the war (as opposed to Bernadetta and Ferdinand's fathers, who were the two major nobles who she put under house arrest since they wouldn't support her). All seems to fit.

    Spoiler: Edit 2 - After doing the Paralogue...
    Show
    So, wrong guess, mostly - I think he is supposed to be Jeritza, though it's not entirely clear. But his secret is that he's actually Mercedes' hitherto-unmentioned brother? Uh, that's a less impressive reveal than my guess above, I have to say. Though I don't know, maybe if I'd seen more of Mercedes' supports he'd have been mentioned somewhere and it wouldn't be quite so out of left field, but as-is Caspar summed up my reaction right at the start of the paralogue: "You have a brother?" (Also, Caspar was involved in this paralogue why? He and Mercedes don't even have a support, and he didn't do anything special...)

    Also, what the hell does he mean by "my soul departed long ago?" Is that supposed to be metaphorical, or literal? In either case, it kind of needs more explaining than it was given - particularly since he is indicated to be primarily in Edelgard's employ, not the Slitherers' (since the Flame Emperor gave her uncle permission to use him in an early cutscene). And his attitude there doesn't seem to square with Manuela saying on the Black Eagle path that when she spoke with the Death Knight after joining Edelgard he offered her a sincere, heartfelt apology for injuring her. Just... all very weird and feels quite incomplete.


    Also, today I did Marianne's paralogue!
    Spoiler
    Show
    Well now, that does explain some things about her for sure, although it seems left a little ambiguous whether she ever actually suffered from the curse she thought she had, or if it was just a matter of believing in it enough causing her to want to keep away from anyone she might hurt if it were true. Cool stuff, not much to say about it.

    I wonder if I missed some rewards from the map, since I didn't scour it so thoroughly due to the boss coming after me after I started attacking the weaker beasts in the forest, but eh, should be fine. Not sure what to do with the legendary sword there - it's a magic weapon and only needs E rank to use, so I guess I could give it to Marianne, but it's also range 1, which she does not like at all. I could use New Game+ stuff to get the Crest Stone for it and hand it to Lorenz, but that's a lot of inventory space for something that's not too different from the Levin Sword+ he's already packing (and in terms of range is just worse than it).


    Quote Originally Posted by LaZodiac View Post
    Yeah it sucks that, for male Byleth, the only actual romance partner that is gay is Linhardt. Not that he's not a perfectly good and wonderful guy, but they shoulda made Felix and like, Claude an answer as well.
    Yeah, that is a pity, for sure. Especially with the fake-out S ranks on Gilbert and Alois that are just really close friendships (hell, Alois even tells you outside of his supports that he's married, so...). And Claude in particular definitely feels like he should have been an option there too for some reason. I don't know, partially for the symmetry with Edelgard being one of the bi girls, partially just because of his pretty boy looks, I guess.

    Quote Originally Posted by Rodin View Post
    On the story stuff, one non-spoiler thing I'll say is that ALL the paths could have benefited from the game not giving you a choice and instead weaving them together to form a greater narrative. Playing the different paths has been like fitting a jigsaw puzzle together, and as I complete each path I understand elements of all the others that I simply did not get. From character motivations, to lore, to the very underpinning of story themes and the plot itself. All of it would have been improved if they gave it to you in ONE story, instead of this weird alternate-universe situation where Byleth's loyalties decide the plot.
    Eh, I don't know, I don't see how you could make this into just one story. I could maybe see universalizing part 1, such that no matter which house you choose to lead you get all of the important moments with each house leader to establish what they're about, then making the real branching point happen at the time skip, where you decide
    Spoiler
    Show
    whether to side with Edelgard, Dmitri and the Kingdom, Claude and the Alliance, or to side with Rhea and the Church regardless of what any of the nations do.

    That could certainly help with the issue that most of the story is locked in due to a decision you make at the start of the game when you barely know the first thing about the characters and really know nothing about the plot. But I think you definitely want that element of being able to see how the story varies depending on whose side you take, the game is getting a good amount of mileage out of it.

    Quote Originally Posted by Rodin View Post
    The most frustrating thing is that it makes it impossible to even discuss the plot. If two people are at the same level of completion of the game, but one has completed Blue Lions and the other Golden Deer, there's no way to even hold a conversation without massive spoilers.
    Agreed, that is a very annoying side-effect of it, unfortunately.

    Quote Originally Posted by Rodin View Post
    I would have been happier to have more unique maps, especially the paralogues. You can make arguments for having key locations (and thus the same map) show up repeatedly on different routes. The paralogues being on generic "let's fight bandits" maps has no excuse. The same city map gets re-used for multiple different Paralogues within different parts of the Kingdom. One map is supposedly outside of Fodlan entirely, while also somehow being near the monastery. I got spoiled on one of the Golden Deer maps by seeing it in an Auxiliary mission before going there, and there's another main story mission map you can see as a paralogue well before you get there which actually spoils the map's gimmick.
    Yeah, I know what you're talking about with at least one of those, and agreed, they definitely shouldn't have been using late-game maps for part 1 paralogues.

    Quote Originally Posted by Rodin View Post
    I can't imagine playing the game as some sort of 40-chapter epic that would be required to hit all the story elements together.
    Sure you can, we already had one after all: Radiant Dawn. 42 Chapters split up across four parts, three different armies that all come together for the final part.

    Quote Originally Posted by tonberrian View Post
    Argh, my one month Switch Online membership ran out early. Now I have to decide if the online features here are worth it.

    We'll see how much more my bro has in his membership. Maybe we'll get a family plan...
    I definitely wouldn't be paying for the online membership for the sake of this game, personally. I have anyway it because there's no way I'm going without being able to play Smash Brothers online, but Fire Emblem's online elements are so minor there's no way I'd pay for them if I didn't already have it like that.

    Speaking of Smash though, this game has been such a big success for the franchise that I'm now very curious how it'll impact Smash Brothers in the future. Doubt we'll see anything in Ultimate unless maybe they do a second round of DLC, since the first five appear to be all third-party guests, but I could see a major overhaul happening in the next game. Three Houses is actually stunningly popular enough that I could see them throwing out most of the current Fire Emblem characters in Smash to put in the four leads from it - would certainly shut up people who complained about all the Fire Emblem characters in Smash being swordsmen, that's for sure.
    Toph Pony avatar by Dirtytabs. Thanks!

    "When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty, I read them openly. When I became a man, I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up." -C.S. Lewis

  8. - Top - End - #368
    Ogre in the Playground
     
    Rising Phoenix's Avatar

    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Location
    Oz
    Gender
    Male

    Default Re: Fire Emblem Three Houses: Reach for my hand, I'll soar away.

    Quote Originally Posted by Zevox View Post

    Speaking of Smash though, this game has been such a big success for the franchise that I'm now very curious how it'll impact Smash Brothers in the future. Doubt we'll see anything in Ultimate unless maybe they do a second round of DLC, since the first five appear to be all third-party guests, but I could see a major overhaul happening in the next game. Three Houses is actually stunningly popular enough that I could see them throwing out most of the current Fire Emblem characters in Smash to put in the four leads from it - would certainly shut up people who complained about all the Fire Emblem characters in Smash being swordsmen, that's for sure.
    I doubt that after the popularity of the current smash if they'll ever stop releasing all the fighters in all subsequent games + new additions. I could see all three of the lords being in but I'd bed El would have the best bet. I hope they don't add Blyeth.
    Awesome FE sprites done by Penguinator

    My Homebrew:
    Spoiler
    Show


    My characters

    Spoiler
    Show

  9. - Top - End - #369
    Titan in the Playground
    Join Date
    Sep 2014

    Default Re: Fire Emblem Three Houses: Reach for my hand, I'll soar away.

    I think Byleth would be cool with the Sword of the Creator. That's a fairly interesting weapon, whip swords, and there's really only the two Castlevania guys with anything similar. Considering Eddie has been so overwhelmingly popular I'd guess she'd be the one they take though. I don't see either of the other two really being considered out of the four.

  10. - Top - End - #370
    Titan in the Playground
     
    Zevox's Avatar

    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Gender
    Male

    Default Re: Fire Emblem Three Houses: Reach for my hand, I'll soar away.

    Aside: so, Ashe showed back up in the second post-time skip mission for me in Golden Deer, after disappearing as I mentioned earlier.
    Spoiler
    Show
    I was able to re-recruit him after beating him, just like Lysithea on the Black Eagles route. Very odd though, I don't know why he had to leave for that. He didn't do anything special for the story or mission, just remarked about how it was his duty to fight in his adoptive father's place, then was strangely just fine with joining me after I offered. *shrug*


    Quote Originally Posted by Rising Phoenix View Post
    I doubt that after the popularity of the current smash if they'll ever stop releasing all the fighters in all subsequent games + new additions. I could see all three of the lords being in but I'd bed El would have the best bet. I hope they don't add Blyeth.
    Oh, they will definitely stop that - doing "everyone is here" is not possible to keep up forever. I guarantee you the only reason they could do it with Ultimate is because they were able to re-use a lot of assets from Smash 4. There's just a practical limit to how many characters you can design and implement in a fighting game without the development time and costs getting to be too high, and Smash Ultimate is already well above the norm there. The next time they need to rebuild things from the ground up, we'll see a much smaller roster, it's simply inevitable.

    And I'd say that Byleth is almost inevitable - the main character of a game always gets into Smash before anyone else. And as Razade pointed out it's really easy to make Byleth unique, since the Sword of the Creator basically means you can design his/her moveset like Ivy from Soul Calibur, which is quite different from anyone else in Smash. Plus their special class is proficient with brawling and faith magic too, so it wouldn't be out of line to draw on those fighting styles for moves either. I'd agree that Edelgard's popularity means she'd be first choice among the other three though.

    Quote Originally Posted by Razade View Post
    I think Byleth would be cool with the Sword of the Creator. That's a fairly interesting weapon, whip swords, and there's really only the two Castlevania guys with anything similar. Considering Eddie has been so overwhelmingly popular I'd guess she'd be the one they take though. I don't see either of the other two really being considered out of the four.
    I think Claude's certainly popular enough to get looked at - he's one of the only non-Black Eagle characters that I've seen break into those "most deployed" lists (it's usually the Black Eagles minus Hubert, then either him or Lysithea somewhere near the bottom of the list, in my experience), which is especially impressive since he's only available on one route, where most of the rest can be recruited on all of them. And if they get to that point, might as well go all-in with all four.

    In the most extreme scenario I could even see them actually dropping everyone else from Fire Emblem for just the four Three Houses leads, though I don't think that's likely. It would require a new game with a much smaller roster, a stark limit to the number of Fire Emblem characters they're willing to put in, and the decision being made that going all-in on Three Houses was preferable to doing a list that's 2-3 returning characters with Byleth and/or Edelgard.
    Last edited by Zevox; 2019-08-20 at 05:11 PM.
    Toph Pony avatar by Dirtytabs. Thanks!

    "When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty, I read them openly. When I became a man, I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up." -C.S. Lewis

  11. - Top - End - #371
    Titan in the Playground
    Join Date
    Sep 2014

    Default Re: Fire Emblem Three Houses: Reach for my hand, I'll soar away.

    I've been noticing pretty early just how nice having the statures more or less done (I am on the last two for each) for my second run and how much faster things are going now that I know what I'm doing. Taking my Byleth down the Archery skill this time around just for the lolz, I'll probably take him down the Faith/Reason in my next run. The statues and buying my Professor level to A+ has really changed the game though. What a crazy jump start. I keep forgetting I have another 9 chapters to do before I'm even half way.

  12. - Top - End - #372
    Ettin in the Playground
     
    GnomeWizardGuy

    Join Date
    Nov 2013

    Default Re: Fire Emblem Three Houses: Reach for my hand, I'll soar away.

    Quote Originally Posted by Razade View Post
    I've been noticing pretty early just how nice having the statures more or less done (I am on the last two for each) for my second run and how much faster things are going now that I know what I'm doing. Taking my Byleth down the Archery skill this time around just for the lolz, I'll probably take him down the Faith/Reason in my next run. The statues and buying my Professor level to A+ has really changed the game though. What a crazy jump start. I keep forgetting I have another 9 chapters to do before I'm even half way.
    I really need to make a "cleared game" save that just has the one statue up to +1 Class skills. I can't imagine playing from scratch without that now, even if I do nothing else with my Renown. It makes the class leveling system actually work.

    Playing with literally everybody recruited is a bizarre experience. I keep forgetting I'm Black Eagles, since I have the entire school minus Hilda and Dedue on my side at this point. Battle of Eagle and Lion should be funny, with me fielding a team from all 3 houses and just Claude, Dmitri, Dedue, and Hilda on the opposing side.

    I was going to recruit all of the knights (sans Gilbert) and both teachers as well, but I'm starting to think that might be overkill. I'm already overwhelmed with people and spending 10 minutes at the dining hall mapping out who I want to get Support with whom. The battles are similarly bizarre, as I have to try and make groups of people that will be getting support with each other while still filling the roles of tank/dps/healer within the squads. Once I actually hit the difficult levels I expect things to get crazy.

    My plan to make Raphael my Dancer is kinda-sorta on course. I really wish I had some +Charm consumables, as he just managed to get a couple of level-ups to push him to 8 Charm. With Dancing lessons, that makes 13, which is the minimum required amount. I'm rather scared of missing out if that number isn't a hard limit and you're judged based on who the other houses actually pick...which will be Dedue and Hilda. Dedue shouldn't be hard to beat. Hilda is more worrying, since she actually LIKES Charm and requires a 20 to recruit.

    Edit:

    As I see more of Mercedes with students from other Houses, I'm starting to appreciate how scary she is. She reminds me of Captain Carrot from Discworld - the kindest, gentlest person you could meet...and then you look behind the smile and hit a steel wall.
    Last edited by Rodin; 2019-08-22 at 08:52 AM.

  13. - Top - End - #373
    Titan in the Playground
     
    Zevox's Avatar

    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Gender
    Male

    Default Re: Fire Emblem Three Houses: Reach for my hand, I'll soar away.

    I'm getting pretty late into the Golden Deer path now - just pre-battle on chapter 17. All paralogues are completely done (and damn, are there a lot of them when you recruit everyone), and I'm not going to waste time/grind in pointless battles, so it should be quick sailing from here. I was pleased to see that the paralogues all manage to pose at least something of a challenge (and boy, taking down the boss in Claude's paralogue in particular without losing anyone was more than just something of a challenge) even when I'm in theory over-leveled for them, but the last couple of story missions haven't done so hot in that regard.

    Gameplay-wise, everybody's in their final classes at this point, so some thoughts there.
    Spoiler: Spoilered for Space
    Show
    - Byleth as a Falcon Knight has worked out spectacularly. Focusing on getting as much training in flying from Setheth and Manuela as possible, plus spear training from Shamir, I actually had her skills up right on time to promote at level 30 exactly. And it's quite effective - I mean, it's basically a flying swordmaster but with spears, so yeah, not a huge surprise there I guess. My air force in this run has generally been my MVPs, having so many highly-mobile killing machines is a major asset, especially now that you can land them if they need to get near an archer. Though sadly I've never had the occasion to use Triangle Attack...
    - Claude is a boss going his obvious archery route and using his unique classes, as expected.
    - Lorenz as a Mortal Savant is kind of working out. He has the strength and magic for it, no doubt there - but honestly, the speed loss going from Swordmaster to Mortal Savant has been an issue, and since he has a net -30% speed growth from that he's not making it up. Kind of feels like he was in many ways a more effective sword-mage as a Swordmaster who just also carried around a Levin Sword+. I'll stick with Mortal Savant this time around just to see it play out in full, but in the future, I think I might regard the class as a bit of a trap honestly. You might just be better off with anyone you would put in it going Swordmaster + Levin Sword or a straight Mage-type path.
    - Rafael is the most archetypal Fortress Knight ever. He has a speed of 4 at level 36, but his health, strength, and defense are so through the roof that it actually doesn't matter. He can still legitimately one-shot a lot of things, particularly with the right combat art, and nothing physical can do more than stcratch him. As long as he's kept away from mages, he can take entire armies on no problem.
    - Ignatz benefited a lot from the time skip and getting into the Assassin class. He was by far my weakest character before that, but now he's actually quite solid, with ridiculous speed and dexterity, and enough strength to get by. The Assassin stealth mechanic is perfect for keeping him safe, because it doesn't take much more than stiff breeze to kill him if it actually connected. He is the one character that I really can't use iron+ weapons with anymore, because they just won't do enough damage, but his speed is high enough that he doesn't need to carry one of those to ensure that he'll always double, so loading him out with silver, brave, and killing weapons has worked. And Thunderbrand, but I actually haven't resorted to using that in quite a while, which is nice.
    - Lysithea is death incarnate as a Gremory. When I need something to die, now, I point her at it. Range 5 spells (between S rank Reason and the heroes relic wand) with a magic stat that's passed 40. And enough speed that she usually doubles, but she rarely needs the second hit. Hell, with her Luna spell, she doesn't even care if the enemy has stupidly high resistance. She's just nuts. (Actually, an interesting observation to me: she's basically a better version of Hubert in every way.)
    - Marianne as a Holy Knight is... eh. I like the extra mobility it gives, and the animations for spell attacks, but I really miss the Heal +5 innate ability from Bishop (especially since her magic stat is the lowest among my casters), and to a lesser extent the doubled white magic uses. Not entirely sure the class is worth putting your main healer into because of that. Like Lorenz, think I'll play it out, but I'm leaning towards just not going Holy Knight in future runs.
    - Hilda as a Warrior is a powerhouse, most of the time. She has had some issues having enough speed to double all of the time, but she can often make up for that with the high crit rate she can get out of her Killer Axe+, or by doubling with Silver Gauntlets.
    - Leonie as a Falcon Knight has worked out quite well, with her strength issues starting to disappear after she got the growth rate bonus from the master class. Still not as ungodly crazy as she was in Wyvern Lord in my Black Eagles run, but definitely one of my stronger units.
    - Sylvain as a Dark Knight has been more satisfying than Marianne in Holy Knight. He did noticeably lose some physical effectiveness going there from Paladin (loss of Lancefaire and all), but picking up the magic has made him very flexible and able to use whatever will be most effective on a given target, which helps make up for the somewhat mediocre stats he's got. And unlike Mortal Savant, there's not a readily-available magic lance out there to just hand a Paladin for a similar effect, so the class feels more meaningful.
    - Dorothea as my Dancer has been pretty solid. The class' generally lacking growth rate bonuses have left her not as effective as a mage as she was as a Gremory (especially since no doubled black magic uses = only one meteor per map), so she's not actually killing as much as she did in my Black Eagle run, but the flexibility of adding the dance ability to her repertoire helps make up for it, and she's a solid backup healer to Marianne (since Lysithea doesn't get Physic).
    - Petra is the most agile Wyvern Lord I've ever seen. I've legitimately had a Sniper have a 4% hit chance against her when Alert+ was active. And while it's fallen behind a bit recently, there was a while there where her strength score was actually slightly higher than Rafael's, and she has Death Blow from Brigand, so she's almost as effective at killing things as Lysithea. Yeah, like I said, my air force have been great.


    Also, a couple of supports I want to comment on. (Both refer to their final supports, so only read if you've seen them or are cool with knowing how things go up to the final one.)
    Spoiler: Lorenz/Hilda
    Show
    Probably could've said this earlier, but I want to call it out, this might be my favorite support in the entire game (note: I haven't seen a lot of the Blue Lions ones yet). It is so well-written, with their respective personalities and flaws interacting in fun and interesting ways in the early supports, both of them experiencing character development from it as you hit B+ and Lorenz is actually thanking Hilda for putting so much work on him so that he could better himself while she's so astonished by this that she winds up wanting to help him in turn, and then it all actually feeling like it came together very naturally with the two developing feelings for each other in the end. My opinion of Lorenz as a character is possibly single-handedly saved by this support (okay, it's not the only one where you see his redeeming qualities by any means, but it is the one that most helps me look past his seeming inability to ever completely lose the stuck-up noble attitude and inflated opinion of himself). It kind of feels like the gold standard of Fire Emblem supports to me.

    Spoiler: Catherine/Shamir
    Show
    Okay, if these two don't have a romatically-paired ending, I am calling so much BS. In addition to everything else in their support line, in their A+ support, Shamir actually proposes to Catherine. And while she's clearly enjoying Catherine being flustered by it, it doesn't come across as her joking either, and given everything else in their supports there's no question of Catherine not being interested even though it cuts off without her giving a response beyond being flustered. That one quite surprised me, after seeing them fairly shy about being overt with the gay relationships outside of some of Dorothea's dialogue I was not expecting that.


    Quote Originally Posted by Rodin View Post
    Playing with literally everybody recruited is a bizarre experience. I keep forgetting I'm Black Eagles, since I have the entire school minus Hilda and Dedue on my side at this point. Battle of Eagle and Lion should be funny, with me fielding a team from all 3 houses and just Claude, Dmitri, Dedue, and Hilda on the opposing side.

    I was going to recruit all of the knights (sans Gilbert) and both teachers as well, but I'm starting to think that might be overkill. I'm already overwhelmed with people and spending 10 minutes at the dining hall mapping out who I want to get Support with whom. The battles are similarly bizarre, as I have to try and make groups of people that will be getting support with each other while still filling the roles of tank/dps/healer within the squads. Once I actually hit the difficult levels I expect things to get crazy.
    Personally, despite recruiting everyone, I just don't use most of them. I have my main army of 12 (since no battle lets you deploy more than that), and everybody else is on the bench or adjutant-only except when I need to bring them into paralogues or when I'm afraid I'm over-leveling my main army. Trying to actually use everyone feels like it would just dilute your levels too much, plus you couldn't focus your instruction time nearly as well that way.
    Toph Pony avatar by Dirtytabs. Thanks!

    "When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty, I read them openly. When I became a man, I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up." -C.S. Lewis

  14. - Top - End - #374
    Ettin in the Playground
     
    GnomeWizardGuy

    Join Date
    Nov 2013

    Default Re: Fire Emblem Three Houses: Reach for my hand, I'll soar away.

    Quote Originally Posted by Zevox View Post
    Personally, despite recruiting everyone, I just don't use most of them. I have my main army of 12 (since no battle lets you deploy more than that), and everybody else is on the bench or adjutant-only except when I need to bring them into paralogues or when I'm afraid I'm over-leveling my main army. Trying to actually use everyone feels like it would just dilute your levels too much, plus you couldn't focus your instruction time nearly as well that way.
    That sort clutter annoys me, which is why I've avoided it up until now by recruiting the exact number of people I need for each route (around 15). This time, I'm focusing on as many cross-House supports as possible, even at the expense of having a good army. I'm comfortable enough with the difficulty by now, which I can now definitively say is easier than any Fire Emblem game I've played thus far. This is mostly thanks to Dragon Pulse, but it also feels like the game in general is simply easier. So, my armies look less like armies and more like a high school cafeteria. At any rate, having characters sat around on the bench does me no good, since they aren't gaining those sweet sweet in-battle Support points.

    The knights and teachers have a sort of double problem - not only do they have a bunch of supports across all three Houses, but they have supports with each other as well - most of which I've seen, since I've always grabbed a few knights and teachers to fill out my ranks. It's only the ones I haven't recruited together (like Shamir and Catherine) that I'm missing out on.

    I'll probably grab Shamir and Catherine just so I can see the Support you're talking about, and leave Manuela and Hanneman since I've seen most of their stuff. Alois will get left out as well, since I'd be most interested in seeing any Supports he might have with Gilbert and I can't recruit Gilbert on this route.

  15. - Top - End - #375
    Titan in the Playground
    Join Date
    Sep 2014

    Default Re: Fire Emblem Three Houses: Reach for my hand, I'll soar away.

    I've mostly just been clearing through with a few extra people grabbed with both games so far. Working to steal two more out of the Black Eagles since...I got all the people in Golden Dear at max relationship among themselves and I have at least two more run throughs in the game. The DLC seems to be having more recruit-able people coming? So I figure if I work through all the characters by house and save up Renown since I've got the Statues maxed more or less I can just splurge when the DLCs are all released and take Golden Deer again because I love those guys.


    I recruited Felix in my last game and he seems a much happier sort when he was in my class. Among his own class he...he's a real jerk. Sylvian is understandable but a jerk and I'm finding it hard to care about Ashe and his general moon eyed naivatte and Dimitr's...I don't even know what to call it. He just seems kinda bland compared to Claude. Mercedes...isn't doing it for me either, compared to Marianne. Marianne had some teeth to her story where as Mercedes is just...Team Mom in all the ways that just bore me. Dedue just seems to have been handed a bad lot. I don't dislike him but he's just so bland.

    The standouts for me in Blue Lion are Annette...who is just adorable in a little sister sort of way and Ingrid who is the stand out for me personally. Before, not recruiting her, she seemed cold and distracted. Now that I'm teaching her class she seems like she should have been the main character for the Blue Lion route. Arraigned Marriage, responsibility to her friends, ethics and a reason to fight.

    Over all it's at least been nice to see all of these people from another angle, even if it's made me sort of dislike a character I previously liked. Felix for Golden Deer forever.

  16. - Top - End - #376
    Ogre in the Playground
     
    Rising Phoenix's Avatar

    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Location
    Oz
    Gender
    Male

    Default Re: Fire Emblem Three Houses: Reach for my hand, I'll soar away.

    Quote Originally Posted by Razade View Post
    I've mostly just been clearing through with a few extra people grabbed with both games so far. Working to steal two more out of the Black Eagles since...I got all the people in Golden Dear at max relationship among themselves and I have at least two more run throughs in the game. The DLC seems to be having more recruit-able people coming? So I figure if I work through all the characters by house and save up Renown since I've got the Statues maxed more or less I can just splurge when the DLCs are all released and take Golden Deer again because I love those guys.


    I recruited Felix in my last game and he seems a much happier sort when he was in my class. Among his own class he...he's a real jerk. Sylvian is understandable but a jerk and I'm finding it hard to care about Ashe and his general moon eyed naivatte and Dimitr's...I don't even know what to call it. He just seems kinda bland compared to Claude. Mercedes...isn't doing it for me either, compared to Marianne. Marianne had some teeth to her story where as Mercedes is just...Team Mom in all the ways that just bore me. Dedue just seems to have been handed a bad lot. I don't dislike him but he's just so bland.

    The standouts for me in Blue Lion are Annette...who is just adorable in a little sister sort of way and Ingrid who is the stand out for me personally. Before, not recruiting her, she seemed cold and distracted. Now that I'm teaching her class she seems like she should have been the main character for the Blue Lion route. Arraigned Marriage, responsibility to her friends, ethics and a reason to fight.

    Over all it's at least been nice to see all of these people from another angle, even if it's made me sort of dislike a character I previously liked. Felix for Golden Deer forever.
    Ashe is a pure, naive cinnamon roll and Sylvain has a lot more going for him. They are not the best characters in the game. But then there are no badly written ones either.
    Awesome FE sprites done by Penguinator

    My Homebrew:
    Spoiler
    Show


    My characters

    Spoiler
    Show

  17. - Top - End - #377
    Titan in the Playground
    Join Date
    Sep 2014

    Default Re: Fire Emblem Three Houses: Reach for my hand, I'll soar away.

    I don't think Sylvain doesn't have more going for him, he's certainly talented and cares for the people he loves. So far none of the characters have been badly written, at least not the ones I've dealt with. Still have two Black Eagle games to go. Will probably go on a recruiting spree when I do the Church Route since by then, everyone will have the option of a B rank with me if everything goes to plan. I'm only in chapter six of my Blue Lion game and I've got B rank with my entire class and they all have at least B rank with one another. So yeah, way way different than my last game.

    I'm coming to the conclusion, level 20 now, that you really should go for front line combat roles with Byleth. He's kinda bland as an archer and I'm kinda regretting taking him that route but I'm already 20 levels in and sunk cost falacy has set in. I can always buy his sword skill to A+ since I got it last game and I already got him to Reason B since that's where I left it. I wish you could have a mage/archer build then I'd maybe feel a little better.

  18. - Top - End - #378
    Ettin in the Playground
     
    GnomeWizardGuy

    Join Date
    Nov 2013

    Default Re: Fire Emblem Three Houses: Reach for my hand, I'll soar away.

    I just got to the ball, and learned something I suspected but could never prove: 13 is not neccessarily good enough to win the dance competition. I had Raphael at exactly 13, and lost out to Dmitri. Fortunately I did a Paralogue that gave me a Black Pearl right beforehand, so I'm hoping giving him a +2 boost will be enough to push him over the edge. Dmitri and Claude still strike me as tough competition

    Quote Originally Posted by Razade View Post
    I don't think Sylvain doesn't have more going for him, he's certainly talented and cares for the people he loves. So far none of the characters have been badly written, at least not the ones I've dealt with. Still have two Black Eagle games to go. Will probably go on a recruiting spree when I do the Church Route since by then, everyone will have the option of a B rank with me if everything goes to plan. I'm only in chapter six of my Blue Lion game and I've got B rank with my entire class and they all have at least B rank with one another. So yeah, way way different than my last game.
    As I was told at around about the same chapter of Blue Lions:

    Oh you sweet summer child.

    I'm having a hard time judging who my favorite class is between Blue Lions and Golden Deer, personally. I like hanging out with the Blue Lions characters more, but the personal storylines of the Golden Deers are generally better.

    From Black Eagles, I'd say I like Dorothea and maybe Linhardt and Bernadette. Linhardt can be great, but he's a jerk a fair bit of the time. Bernadette is either hilarious or irritating, depending on my mood (and the specific person she's with).

    Petra, Caspar, and Ferdinand are all kind of bland to me. Hubert and Edelgard are two of the only characters I actively dislike (with the third being Felix when interacting with the other Blue Lions, where his Sasuke Edgelord tendencies are most pronounced). If I had to choose a fourth, it'd probably be Lorenz. He's probably about the same level as Ferdinand in noble twittery though. I thought console was going to have a smugness overload when they had a Support conversation together.

    In combat terms, I've discovered that Pegasus Archers are brutal. I've got Leonie and Ingrid teaming up to rain fire down, and pretty soon Petra will be joining them on Wyvernback.

  19. - Top - End - #379
    Titan in the Playground
     
    Zevox's Avatar

    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Gender
    Male

    Default Re: Fire Emblem Three Houses: Reach for my hand, I'll soar away.

    Quote Originally Posted by Razade View Post
    The DLC seems to be having more recruit-able people coming?
    I don't think we know what the DLC will have, really. I know they've got a line-up planned for it, but details were basically nonexistant when I was reading about it around release time. Some story stuff, some cosmetic stuff, some other stuff, all pretty vague.

    Re: Favorite house(s) - I don't know that I can picked between Black Eagle and Golden Deer myself. Both have one character I don't like as much as the rest, Hubert and Lorenz, and similar numbers that I really like and that I more lukewarm-like. I really like both Edelgard and Claude; Black Eagle has Dorothea, Petra, and Bernie; but Golden Deer has Leonie, Lysithea, and Rafael. Hilda and Lindhart are fairly comparable to me. Ferdinand and Caspar versus Marianne and Ignatz, same. Yeah, it's kind of a toss-up for me.

    Haven't done Blue Lion yet, so my knowledge of most of them is minimal, but I do suspect they'll end up my least favorite from what I have seen. I've actually used two of them, Ingrid in my Black Eagle file, Sylvain in my Golden Deer one. Ingrid I like, while Sylvain is clearly the Hubert/Lorenz of his house. From what I've seen of the others... Felix hasn't made a great impression, Mercedes and Ashe (especially Ashe) seem kind of bland, and Annette might have potential but I've seen next to nothing of her. And I'm pretty in the dark on Dimitri and Dedue, you just don't get much of them when leading the other houses.
    Last edited by Zevox; 2019-08-23 at 09:03 PM.
    Toph Pony avatar by Dirtytabs. Thanks!

    "When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty, I read them openly. When I became a man, I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up." -C.S. Lewis

  20. - Top - End - #380
    Titan in the Playground
    Join Date
    Sep 2014

    Default Re: Fire Emblem Three Houses: Reach for my hand, I'll soar away.

    I don't get the dislike of Lorenz, especially with all his A ranks where he figures out he's had his head up his butt the entire time. His character arc is one of the best I feel. I was dreading him when I started, by the end o was glad o took the time to sit through his story.

  21. - Top - End - #381
    Ettin in the Playground
     
    GnomeWizardGuy

    Join Date
    Nov 2013

    Default Re: Fire Emblem Three Houses: Reach for my hand, I'll soar away.

    Quote Originally Posted by Zevox View Post
    Haven't done Blue Lion yet, so my knowledge of most of them is minimal, but I do suspect they'll end up my least favorite from what I have seen. I've actually used two of them, Ingrid in my Black Eagle file, Sylvain in my Golden Deer one. Ingrid I like, while Sylvain is clearly the Hubert/Lorenz of his house. From what I've seen of the others... Felix hasn't made a great impression, Mercedes and Ashe (especially Ashe) seem kind of bland, and Annette might have potential but I've seen next to nothing of her. And I'm pretty in the dark on Dimitri and Dedue, you just don't get much of them when leading the other houses.
    I think Hubert is really only similar to Dedue, in that both of them would burn down the world (with themselves on the pyre) if their respective life partners demanded it. Kudos to the writers for making them so different from that starting point. I don't see any similarities between Sylvain and Hubert, but there are certainly a lot between him and Lorenz. They're both womanizers, they're both very aware of their nobility and Crests, and yet both still manage to be totally different in how they react. Have I mentioned the writing is awesome yet? Because it is.

    Sylvain for me is redeemed a lot by the underlying reasons for how he acts. I seriously feel sorry for the dude, despite his jerkish behaviour towards women.

    Mercedes is a tough one. Some of her supports are quite bland, but then there are others like her C Support with Lorenz where she really impresses me. Part of the problem I think is that she's 5 years older than the others (seriously, she starts the game at 23), so she has a lot less growing to do.

    Ashe feels like a wasted opportunity. He's great to hang out with and he has some fantastically fun supports, but there's a lot of character depth that just doesn't get explored because the Lonato stuff kinda gets forgotten about by the story. He has his Paralogue and his supports with Catherine, but I really feel like there was room to explore more.

    Annette's a treat, she's easily my favorite from Blue Lions. Her storyline is pretty great too.

    Dedue is...interesting. I quite like him, but he's a slow burn.

    Quote Originally Posted by Razade View Post
    I don't get the dislike of Lorenz, especially with all his A ranks where he figures out he's had his head up his butt the entire time. His character arc is one of the best I feel. I was dreading him when I started, by the end o was glad o took the time to sit through his story.
    It's mostly stiff competition from the others for me. That and his womanizing, where the other noble girls have to call in Byleth on multiple occasions to get him to stop bothering them. He does have pretty nice growth though, which is why I'd still put him above Ferdinand in an overall list. Lorenz is a jerk with a heart of gold, Ferdie's an all-around nice guy, they're both noble prats, but Lorenz shows character growth while Ferdinand really doesn't so much. I don't dislike Ferdinand the way I do early Lorenz (although his C support with Marianne is utterly cringe-inducing), but unfortunately that just leaves him kind of bland.

  22. - Top - End - #382
    Titan in the Playground
    Join Date
    Sep 2014

    Default Re: Fire Emblem Three Houses: Reach for my hand, I'll soar away.

    Quote Originally Posted by Rodin View Post
    Sylvain for me is redeemed a lot by the underlying reasons for how he acts. I seriously feel sorry for the dude, despite his jerkish behaviour towards women.
    I certainly agree here. There's a lot of angst with him on the whole "brood mare" line. There are times, so far, he's mentioned if he'd only known some of the other characters earlier he might have turned out differently and I both believe he feels that way and isn't totally wrong about it either. I also totally get Ingrid's total "I'm over this" with him though. I hope they end up together when I finish this run.

    Quote Originally Posted by Rodin View Post
    Annette's a treat, she's easily my favorite from Blue Lions. Her storyline is pretty great too.
    I quite like her so far, I'm almost done with Chapter Six but I'm mostly on B rank with everyone in the House. They really sell the moe vibe with her, a bit more than I'd prefer but it works and I don't find it too offensive. She's at least genuine about the way she is.

    Quote Originally Posted by Rodin View Post
    Dedue is...interesting. I quite like him, but he's a slow burn.
    I liked his inclusion in the Golden Deer storyline so I went in hoping to see some interesting stuff out of him in his own branch. I just did his Paralouge and I enjoyed it. His relationship with Ingrid (who I continue to believe should have been one of the three main characters) has been really nice. Seeing Ingrid grow out of her hate of him and realizing that people can be crappy and not have it reflect on a whole culture was good to see. It was really the only spot I took issue with her. Dedue otherwise seems like a pretty solid guy, helping everyone in his House.

    Quote Originally Posted by Rodin View Post
    It's mostly stiff competition from the others for me. That and his womanizing, where the other noble girls have to call in Byleth on multiple occasions to get him to stop bothering them.
    Does this show up in other Non-Golden Deer Supports? Because other than his own with Byleth...you don't see him acting like that to the other women in the Golden Deer. He doesn't creep on anyone like Syl does, not even Marianne who is the only one I can even recall him mentioning as an object he might be attracted to. He certainly doesn't do it with Leonie or Lyth. I just took his own Support with Byleth to be...over-eager? Coming on a little too strong?

    Quote Originally Posted by Rodin View Post
    He does have pretty nice growth though, which is why I'd still put him above Ferdinand in an overall list. Lorenz is a jerk with a heart of gold, Ferdie's an all-around nice guy, they're both noble prats, but Lorenz shows character growth while Ferdinand really doesn't so much. I don't dislike Ferdinand the way I do early Lorenz (although his C support with Marianne is utterly cringe-inducing), but unfortunately that just leaves him kind of bland.
    I didn't find Lorenz to be much of a jerk. Totally into the whole concept of Nobility but...that's part of the story and it makes sense for him to see things that way. The idea itself revolts me, but ya know. Gotta put that aside. He even seems down to abolishing the nobility post timeskip so..he can't be that bad on that front. His general candor with his House (except Marianne early on) is nothing short of sweet, if based on a silly foundation. He treats the largely non-Noble Golden Deer House with respect from the get go and you can see his time with them really changed his outlook by the end.

  23. - Top - End - #383
    Titan in the Playground
     
    Zevox's Avatar

    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Gender
    Male

    Default Re: Fire Emblem Three Houses: Reach for my hand, I'll soar away.

    Quote Originally Posted by Razade View Post
    I don't get the dislike of Lorenz, especially with all his A ranks where he figures out he's had his head up his butt the entire time. His character arc is one of the best I feel. I was dreading him when I started, by the end o was glad o took the time to sit through his story.
    Having seen a lot of his A supports, it doesn't feel to me like that's what happens. It's more that the further you get into his supports, the more of his redeeming qualities you actually get to see. Not that he doesn't have some great supports - see my praise for his support with Hilda above - but he's not a fundamentally changed man who's fully realized the problem with much of his behavior by the end of them, either, I feel. I'll have some more to say about this in comparing him with Ferdinand below.

    Quote Originally Posted by Rodin View Post
    I think Hubert is really only similar to Dedue, in that both of them would burn down the world (with themselves on the pyre) if their respective life partners demanded it. Kudos to the writers for making them so different from that starting point. I don't see any similarities between Sylvain and Hubert, but there are certainly a lot between him and Lorenz. They're both womanizers, they're both very aware of their nobility and Crests, and yet both still manage to be totally different in how they react. Have I mentioned the writing is awesome yet? Because it is.
    In comparing Hubert to the other two I didn't mean that their personalities are similar, but rather that my reaction to them is. Namely that their particular character flaws all make me like them notably less than their comrades - Hubert's ruthlessness, Sylvain's shameless and constant womanizing and the implication that he even regularly cheats on the women he dates, and Lorenz's stuck-up attitude about the nobility and overall ego. I still understand why each is the way they are, and they can even have some very good moments (again, see my remarks about the Lorenz/Hilda support), but their particular character traits still make them less likable to me than the rest.

    Quote Originally Posted by Rodin View Post
    It's mostly stiff competition from the others for me. That and his womanizing, where the other noble girls have to call in Byleth on multiple occasions to get him to stop bothering them. He does have pretty nice growth though, which is why I'd still put him above Ferdinand in an overall list. Lorenz is a jerk with a heart of gold, Ferdie's an all-around nice guy, they're both noble prats, but Lorenz shows character growth while Ferdinand really doesn't so much. I don't dislike Ferdinand the way I do early Lorenz (although his C support with Marianne is utterly cringe-inducing), but unfortunately that just leaves him kind of bland.
    The thing about Ferdinand and Lorenz to me is that they're ultimately very similar in overall outlook, but with I think one crucial difference to their fundamental character: their egos.
    Spoiler: Just to be safe, since I reference a lot of supports...
    Show
    Lorenz has a massive one, where Ferdinand really doesn't. Lorenz can't understand why the girls would be bothered by his constant invitations to eat with him, he believes himself destined to be the leader of the Alliance even though that's really Claude's job, he has a habit of trying to call attention to his own perceived greatness and superiority ("I am Lorenz Helman Gloucester, after all!" - hell, he still does that in many of his A supports), and he really feels that nobles are inherently superior to commoners in a number of ways. With Ferdinand, on the other hand, his ego only really extends to his competitiveness with Edelgard - he wants to be seen as her better, specifically, but no one else's. So when he talks about the responsibilities that being a noble brings him and others, I buy it; it doesn't come across as him being arrogant about his birth status, it comes across as his genuine belief (because it of course is), and he actually does act accordingly. He's occasionally a bit oblivious, such as when Lindhart's sarcastic mockery of his beliefs about nobles went right over his head, but that doesn't come across as a flaw like it does with Lorenz but as an endearing trait, where the weighty responsibilities that he feels nobles have is such an ingrained part of his mindset that he misses when other people don't think that way if they're not being blunt about it.

    At the end of the day, Lorenz actually does believe things quite similar to what Ferdinand does, but because those beliefs are all wrapped up in his oversized ego as well, he comes across as much less genuine about them when he does speak about them, so it's more a surprise when he actually acts on them later. It's what makes Lorenz feel stuck-up, where Ferdinand really doesn't. Lorenz will actually say that some things are beneath him because of his status, where I don't believe Ferdinand ever does. It's arguably fair to say that means Lorenz had more character growth that he needed than Ferdinand, but I think it's also fair to see that as Ferdinand just being a better person than Lorenz. And it never quite feels to me like Lorenz fully gets over himself by the time you're seeing his A supports - he comes across much better by then, but that ego and sense of superiority is still there, just tempered by him more openly showing his better qualities than he used to and having a stronger foundation of friendship with the others. Granted, I've yet to see the ending of Golden Deer (on chapter 18 now), so I technically don't have the full view of him yet, but his ending still needs to take him a decent extra step for me to see his growth as fully overcoming his major flaws.

    And it's not like Ferdinand doesn't have to grow at all - his support with Edelgard in particular is notable for this. Not only does he have to get over his competitiveness with her and accept that yes, she is just a better warrior than him, but (since you have to side with Edelgard to get their A support) he also has to figure out what he's going to do in a world where the nobility is going to be abolished as well. And his answer is that he's going to try and help Edelgard find a way to bring what he feels is the reason the noble system created new leaders each generation to the masses: the way it educated noble children. He has a serious talk with her about the need to bring some form of widespread education system to everyone if they want the Empire to thrive as the meritocracy she envisions, and even she recognizes that he's clearly given it a lot of thought, and it's something she hadn't considered before. Coming from a person who on the surface would seem to believe that nobles are just superior, that's a wonderful capstone to his character to me, him helping to figure out what elements of the nobility system need to be brought to everyone if it's to be abolished, and identifying that rather than anything superficial or the wealth that noble houses have. It makes him end up feeling to me like a genuinely thoughtful, actually noble (and not in the status sense) character, in a way beyond what Lorenz ever quite reaches from what I've seen - he's fully ready to give up on the noble system that is so central to his character, as long as what he feels is the important part is preserved and passed on to everyone.

    That is why I like Ferdinand better than Lorenz, personally.
    Last edited by Zevox; 2019-08-24 at 10:13 AM.
    Toph Pony avatar by Dirtytabs. Thanks!

    "When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty, I read them openly. When I became a man, I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up." -C.S. Lewis

  24. - Top - End - #384
    Colossus in the Playground
     
    LaZodiac's Avatar

    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Location
    Canada
    Gender
    Male2Female

    Default Re: Fire Emblem Three Houses: Reach for my hand, I'll soar away.

    In the simplest of terms possible.

    Ferdinand believes he is Noble because he is noble.

    Lorenz believes he is noble because he is Noble.

    Both of their character arcs involve learning the flaws in their reasoning, and becoming more complete people.

  25. - Top - End - #385
    Ettin in the Playground
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Gender
    Male

    Default Re: Fire Emblem Three Houses: Reach for my hand, I'll soar away.

    Why is Leonie so good? Every time I recruit her, same chapter, she has Strength, Dex, Speed, and Defense all at her level or over (well, Defense is 18 at 19, close enough). Sure her resistance and magic are terrible, but she's like, the best of the cavalier-pathed characters available - Lorenz seems to peter out first, then Ferdinand, and Sylvain is almost as good, but Leonie is just excellent!
    The name is "tonberrian", even when it begins a sentence. It's magic, I ain't gotta 'splain why.

  26. - Top - End - #386
    Titan in the Playground
     
    Zevox's Avatar

    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Gender
    Male

    Default Re: Fire Emblem Three Houses: Reach for my hand, I'll soar away.

    Quote Originally Posted by tonberrian View Post
    Why is Leonie so good? Every time I recruit her, same chapter, she has Strength, Dex, Speed, and Defense all at her level or over (well, Defense is 18 at 19, close enough). Sure her resistance and magic are terrible, but she's like, the best of the cavalier-pathed characters available - Lorenz seems to peter out first, then Ferdinand, and Sylvain is almost as good, but Leonie is just excellent!
    Her growth rates are just good. 60% in speed is tied for best in the game, 55% dex is tied for second best, and 40% each in health, strength, defense, and luck are all solid, especially in any class that boosts them even a little. Cavalier plays into this, boosting her health, strength, dex, and defense growths, and penalizing her speed 10%, but her base is so high that she can handle that. Magic and resistance are legitimately her only weaknesses unless she gets rng-screwed.
    Toph Pony avatar by Dirtytabs. Thanks!

    "When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty, I read them openly. When I became a man, I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up." -C.S. Lewis

  27. - Top - End - #387
    Troll in the Playground
    Join Date
    Jul 2009
    Location
    Garreg Mach Monastery
    Gender
    Female

    Default Re: Fire Emblem Three Houses: Reach for my hand, I'll soar away.

    Currently doing a blue loins All Mages run on Hard/Classic. This is looking very fun so far - Dedue, Sylvain and Dimitri still retain their sky-high Def values so they end up being monster tanks while everyone else kinda sorta works as a mage already. The only non-mages on the team right now are Bernie and Byleth, who both lack the Reason/Faith training to be Monks.
    Behold! My tiny deviantart gallery!
    Comment, browse the itty-bitty collection, etc.
    Morning Star

  28. - Top - End - #388
    Titan in the Playground
     
    Zevox's Avatar

    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Gender
    Male

    Default Re: Fire Emblem Three Houses: Reach for my hand, I'll soar away.

    So, I've finished chapter 20 of Golden Deer. Saving a lot of thoughts for when I finish, but a few things I wanted to throw out now:
    Spoiler: Late Golden Deer and Black Eagle
    Show
    They got my hopes up for a second when Byleth and Claude said they'd rather not kill Edelgard if they didn't have to that I'd be able to spare her, like Claude on the Black Eagle route. Sadly not the case I see. Oh well.

    I was also worried for a second there that the route wouldn't actually properly resolve the Slitherers subplot, despite LaZodiac having accidentally indicated that it did to me earlier, since dealing with the Empire took so long (the route is already 2 chapters longer than the Black Eagles' Edelgard route). Seeing that it does is good - but also makes me that much more annoyed that it just gets dropped in Edelgard's route, since obviously this is just going to be another chapter or two to handle the Slitherers, and Edelgard's route is already shorter than the Golden Deer one. Really makes it feel like there was no reason not to include that.

    Finally, really not sure why Rhea was still alive if the Empire had captured her. Toppling the Church and killing her is kind of Edelgard's whole goal with the war - she's the final boss of Edelgard's route, for crying out loud. There's no reason for Edelgard to keep her alive. There wasn't even any implication that the Slitherers wanted her alive for some reason, either, which is the only thing I can think of for why Edelgard might not kill her as soon as she had the chance (and even that's iffy as heck given she's only allied with them as an "enemy of enemy is my friend" kind of thing until the Church is defeated).

    Also, Caspar's father died off-screen? Kind of lame. They've built him up so much, I was looking forward to seeing him. I mean, it's great to hear that he sacrificed himself in such a meaningful way, but still... off-screen.
    Last edited by Zevox; 2019-08-25 at 03:31 PM.
    Toph Pony avatar by Dirtytabs. Thanks!

    "When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty, I read them openly. When I became a man, I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up." -C.S. Lewis

  29. - Top - End - #389
    Ettin in the Playground
     
    GnomeWizardGuy

    Join Date
    Nov 2013

    Default Re: Fire Emblem Three Houses: Reach for my hand, I'll soar away.

    Quote Originally Posted by Zevox View Post
    So, I've finished chapter 20 of Golden Deer. Saving a lot of thoughts for when I finish, but a few things I wanted to throw out now:
    Spoiler: Late Golden Deer and Black Eagle
    Show
    They got my hopes up for a second when Byleth and Claude said they'd rather not kill Edelgard if they didn't have to that I'd be able to spare her, like Claude on the Black Eagle route. Sadly not the case I see. Oh well.

    I was also worried for a second there that the route wouldn't actually properly resolve the Slitherers subplot, despite LaZodiac having accidentally indicated that it did to me earlier, since dealing with the Empire took so long (the route is already 2 chapters longer than the Black Eagles' Edelgard route). Seeing that it does is good - but also makes me that much more annoyed that it just gets dropped in Edelgard's route, since obviously this is just going to be another chapter or two to handle the Slitherers, and Edelgard's route is already shorter than the Golden Deer one. Really makes it feel like there was no reason not to include that.

    Finally, really not sure why Rhea was still alive if the Empire had captured her. Toppling the Church and killing her is kind of Edelgard's whole goal with the war - she's the final boss of Edelgard's route, for crying out loud. There's no reason for Edelgard to keep her alive. There wasn't even any implication that the Slitherers wanted her alive for some reason, either, which is the only thing I can think of for why Edelgard might not kill her as soon as she had the chance (and even that's iffy as heck given she's only allied with them as an "enemy of enemy is my friend" kind of thing until the Church is defeated).

    Also, Caspar's father died off-screen? Kind of lame. They've built him up so much, I was looking forward to seeing him. I mean, it's great to hear that he sacrificed himself in such a meaningful way, but still... off-screen.
    Spoiler
    Show
    You can't spare Edelgard because Edelgard without Byleth to moderate her darker tendencies is pretty much a fanatic. She makes reference to this a couple times on her path and it shows up elsewhere as well. If Edelgard initiates the war by herself, she becomes isolated from the world and becomes a much colder person than she was even at the academy, and as her plans collapse she goes nuts in much the same way Rhea did on Edelgard's path. She's not unique in this - as you've seen already, Dmitri without Byleth goes absolutely WHACKO and starts mowing down friend and foe alike in his quest for vengeance, and eventually comes to a bad end. It's something I quite like about the game - Byleth doesn't move the plot apart from winning battles, because they're a tactician and not a strategist and are not personally invested in the war. Byleth shapes the plot by having a positive influence on everyone around them, causing them to be better people. Any changes in the timelines are a direct result of either Byleth's presence or absence.

    Claude is actually unique in that he isn't as invested in the whole business as any of the other leaders. He cares about Fodlan and the Alliance, but at the end of the day he grew up in Almyra and is perfectly happy to cut his losses in favor of planning a new scheme outside of Fodlan. There's no way to spare Dmitri, Edelgard, or Rhea because none of them would accept being spared. Edelgard would rather die than come to some sort of negotiated compromise or be allowed to run away and live out her days in obscurity.

    On Rhea, I can only assume that she did so at the Slitherer's request. Dragon blood is very valuable, and it's implied pretty heavily that Rhea has been getting experimented on and/or tortured. Flayn spent an entire month in their tender clutches, and I don't see any reason why the same wouldn't be true of Rhea. I think it's also consistent with Edelgard's goals - Edelgard doesn't appear to have a personal vendetta against Rhea that I can tell. Rhea never did anything directly to Edelgard*, it was just the Crest and noble system that allowed the Slitherers power to torture her family to death. I've never quite understood why Edelgard places so much of the blame on the Church for this while being willing to work with the Slitherers, but that's really a discussion for another time.

    The main point I'm trying to make here is that Edelgard doesn't care what happens to Rhea - she only wants her out of power and the Church crushed. Rhea in a prison cell in the most secure location in the world is just as unable to influence world events as Rhea in a grave. Lord Arundel would have presumably come to her after the monastery battle and demanded Rhea be handed over to him as a condition for the continued support of the Slitherers and the wonderful monstrosities. I assume that if Edelgard had won on the other routes, she would have quietly offed Rhea at the same time as disposing of the Slitherers.

    I don't think Caspar's father ever appears in any route. You don't get to see his sacrifice because they want to give him voice lines (or do character art for him). Sucks, but there it is. There's a lot of little touches like that where I wish the budget was ever so slightly larger.

    *at least, not prior to Edelgard declaring herself the Church's enemy.

  30. - Top - End - #390
    Titan in the Playground
    Join Date
    Sep 2014

    Default Re: Fire Emblem Three Houses: Reach for my hand, I'll soar away.

    I think you all are missing something really big re: Rhea in the Golden Deer (and maybe Blue Lion...IDK how that turns out yet) Route post time-skip.

    Spoiler: What you're missing
    Show
    Rhea isn't just the head of the church. She's the Church itself in every possible way to the people of Fodlan. From commoner to merchant to noble, the majority religion of the continent is the Church of Seiros. It's a monolithic element to the entire culture in all three nations, to the point that it's something people mention when people either question the Church in Supports or aren't worshipers of the religion.

    The common folk may not know much about the day to day events of the Church but they know Rhea. Everyone knows that Rhea is the head of the Church and thus, the physical representation of Seiros (who she actually is but that's not here or there) on...well not Earth. But you get what I mean. Eddie needs the people to fight her war. People who worship Seiros, the Goddess, and identify Rhea as the top of their religious structure. You can't kill her. If you kill Rhea you alienate everyone you hope to rule.

    You become an enemy not only of The Kingdom and The Alliance. You become an enemy of the Faith and that's awful for any would be conqueror. Eddie needs to keep Rhea alive until she's conqured all of Fodlan and frees them of the Church's control. Until then, Rhea has to be alive so you can trot her out every now and then and go "See, we're still friends of the Church but we're purging the Heresy within it".
    Last edited by Razade; 2019-08-26 at 05:41 AM.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •