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

[Rising Phoenix]

The thing with Raphael is that he follows some of the "big dumb musclehead" tropes but not others. He's not the world's greatest student and can be a bit oblivious at times but he's NOT an idiot. He's one of the most emotionally mature in the entire house (behind Claude and possibly Lorenz) and he's the kindest guy I've met in the game by far. His supports with Ignatz in particular (as well as their Paralogue) are fantastic.

I can say the same for all characters in Blue Lions as well. There's plenty of tropes, but they have layers to them.

E.g.

Spoiler

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Sylvain is a philandering jerk. You can even call him that (which is great) and he won't deny it. But really the way he sees it is that the ladies want him for the chance that they will have a kid with him that bears his crest. Ergo they don't want him as a person. So if fate has deemed to make him miserable he might as well take advantage of it. This does not make him any less of a jerk, but there is a valid reason as to why he is a jerk.

Felix is your I like sword stereotype. But he has a gentler side which is quite endearing to see

[Zevox]

Also I did read the involved spoiler, while still trying to avoid the details, and I can answer something wit that at least:

Spoiler

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In Persona 3 onward, it tends to be that massive plot events take you out of the calendar management segment so they can reach the proper conclusion, if you do them earlier than expected. It's just something that comes with the genre.

I'm a big Persona fan, but off the top of my head can't think of anything comparable in those games. There's moments where you skip over periods of time, yes, but the ones that come to mind are all pre-set, not triggered by you doing anything specific.

At this stage FE didn't need saving imo. But it's very, very encouraging to see it drop the fan service charade and actually give as a very good and rather mature story. It's not flawless, and some of the support convos I've seen are awfully similar to each other, but characters are lore aware, behave in a believable and appropriate manner.

On top of that the gameplay is also great...I am not convinced that it's better than fates, but it's pretty damn close.

I can only hope that they maintain the formula moving forward.

I'm too early in the game to have a definitive opinion just yet, but I will say that I'm pretty damned impressed too. If it keeps up being as good as it has been early on or gets better, I could easily see it becoming my hands-down favorite of the franchise, and I've honestly never been able to pick a favorite before - at least not since the days when the only two I'd played were Blazing Sword and Sacred Stones. There's so many good changes to the gameplay that I'm enjoying a lot, and I'm definitely liking the characters and overall writing thus far too. Still too early to have a clear sense of the overall plot though.

Some of the characters [in Fates] feeling like copy-paste from Awakening (sometimes literally, since we had the actual Severa and Inigo)

Yeah, that still bugs me - they never did explain what the hells brought Owain, Severa, and Inigo to the world of Fates, just hinted that they'd come there on some mission. Feels like a cheap cop-out to have them in because they were popular (or at least I know Owain was, and I'm assuming that's why Severa and Inigo were chosen too, even though I wasn't aware if they were). And the knock-off kids like Rhajat could have been done without for sure.

Supports still have some of the lingering problems, but they're integrated well enough that sometimes I'm not sure if I'm watching a support conversation or a story event.

My only complaint with supports right now is how Byleth can't just trigger his/her supports off the menu like all the rest, you have to wander the school or get approached at a random time during the week. Seems pointless to force them to work that way.

Oh, and Raphael is Best Boy. I admit that I don't know the characters from the other two houses yet, but I'm having a hard time seeing any of them beat Raphael for just how awesome he is.

For favorite characters along these lines, I would submit Bernadetta. Her combination of introvert anxiety and paranoia turned up to 11 is incredibly entertaining and adorable, and despite being comically overblown also very relateable, surprisingly. It's a pity she's the single worst character in Black Eagle in combat terms - or at least has been for me, can't be sure whether that's RNG screwing her or just how she is. I sadly suspect I might wind up dumping her from actual combat use as I get more options, but I really want to see all of her supports...

And for more "awesome" characters, Edelgard. I don't think it's possible to not like and want to help her after seeing her C+ support, because holy ****. Makes me happier I did wind up going Black Eagles for my first time through after all.

As an aside Dorothea is extremely bi and I love Petra so much I want to die. The only Black Eagle people I don't necessarily like is Hubert and Ferdinand since they scream "We're Fire Emblem villains" in every single aspect of their characters.

Very much like Petra too - the localization team has done a fairly good job with her language struggles, with her wording of things so often being slightly off, but never so much that you can't understand her. Good backstory and personality, too.

I'm curious what you mean about Ferdinand though? Hubert I completely see, he's the one Black Eagle I'm not so fond of myself, but Ferdinand doesn't strike me as villainous at all. Is it just that he goes on about being a noble so much? But his idea of that is that it makes it his duty to help others and set a good example, which is about the best outlook someone like that could have.

[Rising Phoenix]

And for more "awesome" characters, Edelgard. I don't think it's possible to not like and want to help her after seeing her C+ support, because holy ****. Makes me happier I did wind up going Black Eagles for my first time through after all.

See I am going Blue Lions and with regards to Edelgard I want...well it would be a spoiler so

Spoiler

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I want to kill her, she has done some horrible, horrible things

.

[tonberrian]

Argh, i think i'm going to restart now that I've got the hang of the gift-giving system and how it relates to characters being recruited. I really need a peg knight and there is like, no one in the Black Eagles who can do that.

[Zevox]

@ Rising Phoenix - And unfortunately that being a spoiler means I'm not going to be reading it. Sorry, but don't want spoilers for the other routes. Even if Blue Lion is almost definitely going to be the last of the three I play...

Argh, i think i'm going to restart now that I've got the hang of the gift-giving system and how it relates to characters being recruited. I really need a peg knight and there is like, no one in the Black Eagles who can do that.

That's not really true, you could train Petra to be a Pegasus Knight - she has flight as one of her strengths, and you could teach her to use a lance just fine. It's just that then you miss out on her being an awesome swordmaster or assassin, which she's just so perfect for. Bernadetta could possibly as well, I've considered that as an option for her, though I don't know if it would make her work out any better than she has for me so far.

Though personally, my current plan is to train Leonie into a Wyvern Rider (got her as a Cavalier, immediately switched her skill focus to axe and flying, probably going to reclass her to Pegasus Knight until advanced classes open up) and grab Ingrid from the Blue Lions for a Pegasus Knight, if I can.

[huttj509]

Edit: So, in month 6 (Horsebow Moon)...

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While searching for what happened to Flayn I've reached a point where I can look for Jeritz in his quarters, but get a message warning me it will end the month. Is that literal, it'll skip the entire rest of the month if I do it, in which case I should wait for the end of the month? That's several weeks of activities I'll lose if I do it now if so, since I'm on the first weekend of the month at the moment.

I'm putting this unspoilered on purpose, as I feel it needed to be more clearly communicated in-game.

When you do the big monthly story mission, the chapter ends, next chapter begins, new month.

There exist some situations where you can do this mission before the actual end of the month.

In these situations, it treats it as if you selected "rest" for all the remaining options.

You still gain the weekly skill progress towards your goals (saved up and applied together with the next time it'd happen), but not the specific training you may have done.

[Maryring]

Yeah, that still bugs me - they never did explain what the hells brought Owain, Severa, and Inigo to the world of Fates, just hinted that they'd come there on some mission. Feels like a cheap cop-out to have them in because they were popular (or at least I know Owain was, and I'm assuming that's why Severa and Inigo were chosen too, even though I wasn't aware if they were). And the knock-off kids like Rhajat could have been done without for sure.

They actually do, but it's a set of DLC missions. As for why them, it's because they were the three most popular kid characters according to a poll. I don't recall if it was a japanese only poll or a global one though.

[Zevox]

Ending the day having finished chapter 6, and suddenly at +2 characters in my house. One was Ingrid, who I was able to recruit shockingly fast compared to the several months I spent on Leonie, and without even bothering to train myself in the skill she wanted (flying). Just B rank support is indeed apparently all it takes.

The other...

Spoiler: End of Chapter 6

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is Flayn, who quite surprised me. She seems kind of young for this, after all, even if the argument that staying at the monastery will safer for her because she's surrounded by capable soldiers and students is quite true. And she's another mage when Black Eagle already has plenty of those, so I'm not sure if I'll actually use her. Dorothea, Hubert, and Lindhart already give me a nice balance of mage types, being the regular mage, dark mage, and white mage/healer respectively, and none of them have looked particularly weak (though Hubert and Lindhart could use some more speed). And honestly, they've all learned both reason and faith magic anyway (because there's really no reason not to, even with Hubert and initially Dorothea being weak at it), so they're all able to both fight and heal. Makes Flayn feel kind of redundant.

So yeah, not sure who else to try and poach, if anyone. My army is starting to feel pretty well-balanced now that I've got a couple of fliers and a dedicated archer on top of what Black Eagle gets by default.

I'm putting this unspoilered on purpose, as I feel it needed to be more clearly communicated in-game.

When you do the big monthly story mission, the chapter ends, next chapter begins, new month.

There exist some situations where you can do this mission before the actual end of the month.

In these situations, it treats it as if you selected "rest" for all the remaining options.

You still gain the weekly skill progress towards your goals (saved up and applied together with the next time it'd happen), but not the specific training you may have done.

Well, that's definitely important information that I wish the game would have made clear. Though I think I would still have put it off for the actual end of the month knowing that, but it would be good to let people know they won't just miss out on a whole month of progress completely.

They actually do, but it's a set of DLC missions. As for why them, it's because they were the three most popular kid characters according to a poll. I don't recall if it was a japanese only poll or a global one though.

Well, that's annoying. Can I ask what the explanation is then? Because I've never bought any of the DLC for Awakening or Fates, nor do I intend to. A few extra missions just isn't worth extra money to me.

[GloatingSwine]

So yeah, not sure who else to try and poach, if anyone. My army is starting to feel pretty well-balanced now that I've got a couple of fliers and a dedicated archer on top of what Black Eagle gets by default.

You can recruit Cyril, the odd jobs kid from the monastery. He has a personal skill that gives him 20% increased chance of stat growths on level up, which means he's probably going to end up a beast.

Makes a very good Wyvern Lord with his strengths all being right for it.

[deuterio12]

Bit of tangent, but Fire Emblem Heroes is going kinda kinda crazy with promoting Three Houses, with not only the heads of the houses and the protagonist being added (both male and female versions), all the events being 3H themed and Sothis will be the new mythic hero.

They even added new backgrounds for main menu based in the 3H classroom! They had never added any backgrounds at all after the ones from the game's start!

[GloatingSwine]

Well yeah, it's the new hotness and they're going to want to promote it.

Echoes is the only other game that's launched since Heroes started and that was never expected to reach quite the same audience being a remake of a game nobody outside of Japan saw and in the latter days of the 3DS.

(Three Houses has had a very strong launch.)

[deuterio12]

Echoes was much more than a simple remake, besides graphics they also added lots of new stuff including modernized mechanics (contrast to Shadow Dragon that tried to stick to old mechanics as much as possible and thus ended pretty poor in that department compared to previous FEs) and even adding a bunch of new characters to expand the story (another weakness of Shadow Dragon, the story didn't age that well).

But yeah 3H had a pretty good marketing effort and the game's actually good stuff so it's paying off.

It also helps that they put the whole three routes in a single game instead of getting greedy and splitting it over three separate titles that had to be purchased in separate (cough Fates cough).

[Maryring]

Well, that's annoying. Can I ask what the explanation is then? Because I've never bought any of the DLC for Awakening or Fates, nor do I intend to. A few extra missions just isn't worth extra money to me.

Spoiler: Hidden Truths

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Some time after the defeat of Grima, Inigo, Owain and Severa are summoned to Mila tree, where they meet up with the non-insane half of Anankos. He asks them to help save his world, and guides them through the outrealms to reach Valla. There he uses his powers to disguise them as Odin, Selena and Laslow, before sending them off to Nohr with the instructions to become retainers for the royal family so that they can eventually guide Corrin into gathering the divine weapons and defeating Anankos's insane half.

[Zevox]

So, I got Bernadette and Dorothea's B support, and about Bernie...

Spoiler: Support spoiler

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Geez, no wonder the girl has such ridiculous levels of anxiety issues around talking to people. Her father is so against her associating with commoners that when she secretly befriended a commoner boy as kid and he found out, the boy disappeared later the same day, and turned up beaten half to death later! And of course after that she never saw him again, because no duh the kid wouldn't want to get anywhere near her again when it might get him killed. She could've had no anxiety issues whatsoever before that and something that awful would probably have given her plenty. Holy crap.

Though I will say, I hope this doesn't become too much of a pattern for the game. So far Edelgard and Bernie's messed-up family stories make complete sense for explaining their characters and earn them my total sympathies, but if it turns out that pretty much everyone has an abusive or generally awful parent or parents, it could get old fast.

You can recruit Cyril, the odd jobs kid from the monastery. He has a personal skill that gives him 20% increased chance of stat growths on level up, which means he's probably going to end up a beast.

Makes a very good Wyvern Lord with his strengths all being right for it.

Ah, so there is still an Aptitude kid like Donnel and Mozu in this one, eh? Might keep an eye out for the chance to grab him then, though I've already got Leonie working on becoming a Wyvern Rider.

Spoiler: Hidden Truths

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Some time after the defeat of Grima, Inigo, Owain and Severa are summoned to Mila tree, where they meet up with the non-insane half of Anankos. He asks them to help save his world, and guides them through the outrealms to reach Valla. There he uses his powers to disguise them as Odin, Selena and Laslow, before sending them off to Nohr with the instructions to become retainers for the royal family so that they can eventually guide Corrin into gathering the divine weapons and defeating Anankos's insane half.

Spoiler: Fates

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...well, they sure did a bang-up job of that, considering at no point did they do anything that would come across as trying to guide Corrin in any way, didn't they? Yeah, really just sounds like a thin excuse to shove them into the game as themselves rather than as conveniently similar characters like Rhajat or Caeldori.

Also, Anakos did a great job disguising them, what with them looking and acting exactly like they already did. I guess that can explain why Owain suddenly learned magic and has a slightly different outfit to go with it, but that's really the only change that happened. Fortunately it's not like they needed disguises or even the fake names anyway, since no one in the world of Fates would know who they were regardless.

[GloatingSwine]

Ah, so there is still an Aptitude kid like Donnel and Mozu in this one, eh? Might keep an eye out for the chance to grab him then, though I've already got Leonie working on becoming a Wyvern Rider.

You can almost certainly get him now. He only cares about level and I got him at the start of chapter 6.

Recruitment for most characters is some kind of hybrid of the support level you've reached and your stats and skills in the thing they care about. The more they like you the less your stats can be and still recruit them. (Remember you can use the temporary mission assist to farm affinity in battles, otherwise get your tea on)

With her already being good at horse and lance I'm reckoning Holy Knight for Leonie. Just prod her Faith a bit.

[Zevox]

You can almost certainly get him now. He only cares about level and I got him at the start of chapter 6.

Recruitment for most characters is some kind of hybrid of the support level you've reached and your stats and skills in the thing they care about. The more they like you the less your stats can be and still recruit them. (Remember you can use the temporary mission assist to farm affinity in battles, otherwise get your tea on)

With her already being good at horse and lance I'm reckoning Holy Knight for Leonie. Just prod her Faith a bit.

Not now, no. When speaking to Cyril I'm only given the option to give him gifts or lost items, can't even ask about recruiting him.

And yep, that's what I did with Leonie and Ingrid. Just gave Ingrid a lot more gifts to speed her up. Wasn't expecting B support to come quite as quick as it did or to let me recruit her despite an E rank in flying though.

And I've already got Ferdinand and Bernadette as Cavaliers, so I didn't really need another out of Leonie, hence the more drastic job route for her. Besides, she's got the stats for it - she's actually really impressive all around, at least for me.

[LaZodiac]

I'm a big Persona fan, but off the top of my head can't think of anything comparable in those games. There's moments where you skip over periods of time, yes, but the ones that come to mind are all pre-set, not triggered by you doing anything specific.

Yeah, that still bugs me - they never did explain what the hells brought Owain, Severa, and Inigo to the world of Fates, just hinted that they'd come there on some mission. Feels like a cheap cop-out to have them in because they were popular (or at least I know Owain was, and I'm assuming that's why Severa and Inigo were chosen too, even though I wasn't aware if they were). And the knock-off kids like Rhajat could have been done without for sure.

Very much like Petra too - the localization team has done a fairly good job with her language struggles, with her wording of things so often being slightly off, but never so much that you can't understand her. Good backstory and personality, too.

I'm curious what you mean about Ferdinand though? Hubert I completely see, he's the one Black Eagle I'm not so fond of myself, but Ferdinand doesn't strike me as villainous at all. Is it just that he goes on about being a noble so much? But his idea of that is that it makes it his duty to help others and set a good example, which is about the best outlook someone like that could have.

Coulda swore that was a thing. My mistake.

All the Awakening to Fate carry overs were decided by popularity poll.

Petra will be having the victory. War feeds her.

Ferdinand is a pompous "I'm a noble and thus I should act noble" type, who immediately hits me as "we will want to recruit him but have to kill him in the rain because for him it's his country right or wrong, he's still honourable though" archetype from other Fire Emblems. He seems to fit it too a tea, for me. Everyone else aside from Edelgard and Hubert in Black Eagle feels like "they're someone on the bad guy side that you'd recruit over by talking to them" if this were a normal Fire Emblem. That's how it feels for me, anyway.

[GloatingSwine]

Yeah, Leonie's a pretty strong character for me as well, she's my only Cavalier at the moment, recruitment efforts are focused on Petra as a second.

With Mariella and Cyril as air support. Mariella does not seem to be taking to her stabbing people in the face role though, only really use her to pick up stray kills because she seems to give away double counters a lot.

It would possibly be entertaining to try and recruit a full Mongol horde of horse archers. Claude, Ignatz, Bernadetta, Felix, Petra, Ashe, and Leonie would all have the skills for it.

[tonberrian]

It appears Cyril is not available on the Black Eagles route. Not Catherine or Hilda either (Hilda is available on the Blue Lions).

[Zevox]

Petra will be having the victory. War feeds her.

I actually just unlocked the ability to craft Killing weapons and handed her a Killing Edge, so, yes, very much so.
(I have no idea how I'm going to decide between Swordmaster and Assassin for her final class...)

Ferdinand is a pompous "I'm a noble and thus I should act noble" type, who immediately hits me as "we will want to recruit him but have to kill him in the rain because for him it's his country right or wrong, he's still honourable though" archetype from other Fire Emblems. He seems to fit it too a tea, for me. Everyone else aside from Edelgard and Hubert in Black Eagle feels like "they're someone on the bad guy side that you'd recruit over by talking to them" if this were a normal Fire Emblem. That's how it feels for me, anyway.

I don't get the impression of Ferdinand being about his country over everything else - I think that if it were in the wrong, he'd see that and turn against it in order to change it. Could see him as the sort you'd recruit away from the enemy in past Fire Emblems, I'll give you that.

As far as the rest of the Black Eagles, I could see some that way, but not everyone. Caspar, Dorothea, and Bernadetta in particular don't seem like the type that would be on an enemy side to me.

It appears Cyril is not available on the Black Eagles route. Not Catherine or Hilda either (Hilda is available on the Blue Lions).

Really? Huh, I wonder why. And I wonder if that explains why I can't give Hilda lost items, because I'm pretty sure I have one for her.

Oh well, like I said, feels like my army is pretty well-rounded with the few additions I've grabbed. Shamir as a dedicated archer plus Leonie and Ingrid to get me an air force seems to fill in the main holes in the Black Eagles.

Oh, and speaking of fliers, can I say how happy I am to have the dismount feature on mounted characters now, so that I can actually use fliers on maps with more than one or two archers and not have to keep them to the outskirts of the fight constantly? It's quite nice.

[tonberrian]

The only real difference between classes now is their class abilities - the ones you pick up automatically for being in class. So the real question between swordmaster and assassin, once you've mastered them both, is Sword Crit +10 on the one hand, and locktouch and stealth on the other. Personally I'd take sword crit, it's always useful, and the lack of stealth means that Petra can kill things on the opponent's turn as well. Both get swordfaire as a class ability. On the other hand, you can get sword crit +10 by getting S-rank in swords as one of your pickable abilities, and I don't think you can stack it twice (nor swordfaire, which is available at S+).

Edit: and also growth rates, I suppose.

Edit 2: With all that said, if there was an easy way to get her the proficiencies, War Master would be great for Petra. A stackable crit boost (for all weapons! 20%!), and 'faires with both fists and axes, it's a very sexy class.

[MCerberus]

Oh, and speaking of fliers, can I say how happy I am to have the dismount feature on mounted characters now, so that I can actually use fliers on maps with more than one or two archers and not have to keep them to the outskirts of the fight constantly? It's quite nice.

Also frozen lance lets you key a Pegasus rider's attack off of dex instead of strength making getting a viable flier much easier

[Rodin]

Really? Huh, I wonder why. And I wonder if that explains why I can't give Hilda lost items, because I'm pretty sure I have one for her.

I just hit the timeskip, and I'm suspecting there is a plot cause behind this.

Spoiler: MAJOR TIMESKIP SPOILER

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Assuming the plot remains the same up until the timeskip no matter which House you pick, Edelgard is going to be responsible for Rhea's (apparent) death.
Cyril is obsessed with Rhea, and would never join anyone who harmed her. Hilda is the scion of a family on the far side of the Leicester Alliance from the Empire, and it thus could be difficult for her to reasonably join the Empire. I would bet that certain characters from the Black Lions are similarly unavailable to other Houses, such as Hubert.

I'm probably only halfway to 2/3rds of the way through the game, and I'm already itching to start a new save with a different house just so I can find out how the plot changes. There have been several dialogue choices that look like forks in the road, and I'm dying to know if they really are or if they are just fake outs.


Oh, and my favorite combat animation award goes to...

Spoiler: Class and character spoiler

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Flayn as a Dancer doing a flowing, flipping critical hit with her sword...then standing there and stoically ignoring a fireball to the face for 0 damage...and then casually poking the guy with the sword to make him fall down.

And in case you're wondering, I made Flayn my Dancer because she had the highest Charm stat. And because I knew it would piss off Seteth. I make a lot of gameplay affecting choices for my own amusement.

Close second is Raphael pulling a Conan/Arnie and punching a Dire Wolf to death.

[tonberrian]

The only dialogue choice that's felt like a fork in the road I found was EXPLICITLY called out as such, with big bold "THIS WILL CHANGE THE PATH OF THE STORY." That was on Black Eagles.

[Zevox]

Re: Favorite Animations - Mine at this point goes to the Mage dodge-counterattack animation. First saw it on Dorothea, but I believe I've seen Hubert do it once now too. They dodge an attack by jumping back, then cast their counterattack spell mid-jump. Looks especially awesome with Nosferatu, just causing a big blast of light at the space where they were just standing.

Close second is a dodge-counter I saw Bernadette do as a Cavalier recently. Kind of like the Mage, her horse dodged by jumping away from the attacker, then she shot an arrow back at him as her horse was still landing (requires the skill that lets an archer counter a close-range attack). Very fluid and cool looking.

Also frozen lance lets you key a Pegasus rider's attack off of dex instead of strength making getting a viable flier much easier

What now? If there's a way to make attacks work off dex instead of strength, I really need to get that for Bernadette. Lack of strength, and thus damage, is one of the big reasons she's lagging behind the rest of my army, but her dex is her one stand-out, very high stat.

[huttj509]

Re: Favorite Animations - Mine at this point goes to the Mage dodge-counterattack animation. First saw it on Dorothea, but I believe I've seen Hubert do it once now too. They dodge an attack by jumping back, then cast their counterattack spell mid-jump. Looks especially awesome with Nosferatu, just causing a big blast of light at the space where they were just standing.

Close second is a dodge-counter I saw Bernadette do as a Cavalier recently. Kind of like the Mage, her horse dodged by jumping away from the attacker, then she shot an arrow back at him as her horse was still landing (requires the skill that lets an archer counter a close-range attack). Very fluid and cool looking.


What now? If there's a way to make attacks work off dex instead of strength, I really need to get that for Bernadette. Lack of strength, and thus damage, is one of the big reasons she's lagging behind the rest of my army, but her dex is her one stand-out, very high stat.

It's a lance combat skill. Doesn't work for normal attacks.

[Zevox]

It's a lance combat skill. Doesn't work for normal attacks.

Would still be better than nothing - I do have Bernie using lances as well as bows, since I went Cavalier with her. How do you get it?

[GloatingSwine]

It comes either at A rank or from activating a Budding Talent for lance.

It's not everyone's A rank talent either. Some get a different one.

It's damn hard on your weapon durability if you're relying on it for damage (I am with Marianne, who is my mage hunter)

[MCerberus]

It comes either at A rank or from activating a Budding Talent for lance.

It's not everyone's A rank talent either. Some get a different one.

It's damn hard on your weapon durability if you're relying on it for damage (I am with Marianne, who is my mage hunter)

Bad with names, got mine as a hidden talent from the blue-haired shy girl in Deer that starts out with a faith focus. It's not so bad money-wise as long as you just use basic steel. It makes her the best offensive member of her class I've run across in the series without using selective breeding to crit-cheese.

edit - and let's face it, it's still not as expensive of an alpha-strike as tempest-lance users and the crop of lance users seems too slow to rely on double-hits anyway.

[Zevox]

It comes either at A rank or from activating a Budding Talent for lance.

It's not everyone's A rank talent either. Some get a different one.

It's damn hard on your weapon durability if you're relying on it for damage (I am with Marianne, who is my mage hunter)

I see. I hope it's Bernie's A rank then, because she needs it. Going to be a while to get there though, she's only C+ in lance at this point. Been splitting her attention between lances, bows, and riding.

Edit: Nevermind, found where on Serenes Forest I could look it up, and she doesn't get it. In fact, she gets nothing at A rank lances. I might need to just ditch her. Either that or find another class route for her, because her current one is not working at all, and she's fallen quite noticeably behind the rest of my army in effectiveness despite being about the same level.

edit - and let's face it, it's still not as expensive of an alpha-strike as tempest-lance users and the crop of lance users seems too slow to rely on double-hits anyway.

Maybe in Golden Deer. I'm having no trouble getting doubles out of Ferdinand and Ingrid myself. Well, Ferdinand took a bit, wasn't getting good levels early on, but he's picked up lately.