Commander

Yeah...I tried doing a randomizer for HC, but I scrapped most of it but the wild mons just due to how screwy it got (and I wasn't a big fan of how randomized trainers kept their items, evs, and ivs the same). Also, gift Pokemon didn't work like intended causing other problems. But as for your question, it might be good to PM Jan anyways since it is his game so he kind of has a say whether he wants something like this or not. Regardless, I doubt he's going to say no, but it's just best to wait before posting anything.

Weather is an issue. I tried to revert to the old thing but some kind of script is either at war or I missed something when doing this whole thing. It's a massive headache to figure out and the only reason I haven't reverted it back is due to another massive headache. You see, the old weather system in essentials got removed so you can't set weather to specific areas very easily. It requires finding the code and adding it into the scripts which with 40 maps is a tad bit too much. And the old weather wasn't much better so...not much point in changing it as worst comes to worst, I can edit the metadata to have weather appear by chance instead of by day (ie entering and exiting could make it rain, shine, or bluster). There's just no good solution other than reverting back to E15 for the weather at this point. E17 it WILL be fixed as I know how to get around it for what I need to do. As for the party system, it was basically a toy to play with for special runs similiar to mono runs. While the main game is more or less supposed to be with the player, I'm planning on adding stuff that is exclusive to the party members over time. I can't promise much will be available for E17 due to the Gen VII shift, but I had a few things I could do with it. Priorities are Gen VII, CoM and Altered Path, then HCHQ updates. These should hopefully make leveling them up a bit more at your leisure while the main game you only focus on the protag. But Fero himself is the weakest (really strong if you spend time training him) of the group and mostly serves as a mobile HM slave character. Don't worry about training him up tbh. But I will say that picking Fero up does alter one story moment in the game and how it plays out. Don't worry though as you won't need to use anyone but the protag going into it. That's an example of events I want to add into the game for these party members. And trust me, you'll know when you see it. Yeah...the El thing isn't as big as it was, but I intentionally did those in a way that due to being solo mons which are basically cheese to win mons as getting a toxic or status on them is an auto win. For El, I may drop the full heal, but the Pulses are going to keep their items. If I had the time, I probably would make it a situation to make it so that the pulse machines are able to heal and regenerate health (or at least make it seem like that), but alas, Full Restores are the answer. But yeah, those aren't bugs and they aren't changing. I'm actually considering changing how the pulses function to make them even more difficult than with the full restores. Pulse mons are going to be a lot scarier if I'm still able to do a certain something to them.

Rejuv Hardcore likely isn't going to happen for many numerous reasons which number one is that I'm still working on Hardcore for Reborn. That drains up a lot of my time (picture this being 10% of the work required to manage and work on the mod). The second is that Rejuv already has an intense mode that is made to fit people thirsty for a higher difficulty. Even if I did a mod, I feel that would take away all the hard work put into that difficulty mode since people would likely prefer a harder difficulty where someone manages all their time in the battles. After E17 if I get the bulk of the work done, I may consider it if enough people show interest. @Everyone who suggested Chespin or a gen 7 starter. I actually considered going for those when I went a bit further in the game. Chespin was actually going to be my pick, but you'll see what I got. And I learned something interesting picking this little guy. Love him already. Anyways I didn't get very far, but since I have 50 or so images...I think it's about time I made another post. This is gonna be a long playthrough if Jan keeps giving me commentary gold. But I promise we'll get through Venam by the end of the month. Chapter 1: Amanda the Ignoramus And we start off with this... (Was the cameraman drunk or something? I don't even remember this in the image) This pic really isn't that bad but...it's boring. The art style is cool, but I'd rather have a standstill image over some...weird ass pics for an opening. It still gives me a bad impression when the full picture is so good. Rant aside, we go into the city but first... (If this process was as simple in real life, America would be overloaded with people...or empty) Never really understood the whole verification process, but it's no big deal imo. What really bothers me is that people are treating the PC like they are silent and can't talk. A major and traumatizing issue happened yet they act like the player is perfectly okay. A normal person would be unable to focus or paranoid. Basically, it would be obvious something bad would happen especially for a child (an adult I could believe, but that would require building a personality). While this could've been a minor issue, Jan just kept pushing the envelope a little too hard as you'll see. (Minor comment, but this trainer has an insane range. Found it kind of humorous. Reminds me of that one trainer from Pokemon Redemption, an abandoned fangame, who had an aerodactyl and like a 20 tile range) Moving on... (I mean...how many people do you know with that name? Let alone cosplayers) Also is it just me or did Amanda suddenly find an hat and grow a ponytail? It's not just me, right? (My clothes are drenched from the waist down and I was on a tentacle infested ship. I'll leave it to your imagination what went down.) You think her ignorance is bad now, just wait... nothing really interesting happens in this conversation anyways other than asking to meet her. Typical dialogue. (Venam...she does things to people) These are really hard to capture since I have to push two buttons and if I push a certain one early, it screws up my computer a little bit. I love the emoticons though since it shows facial expression when you normally couldn't. Very golden sun like. On a different note if you pay attention to the news or talk to live 80% of the NPCs, they talk about the missing boat. You know, the one with the famous Unovan celebrity on it. Not to mention her "son" is participating in the league. (Main lab. You mean there's more than one!) The normal tutorial stuff but...I was met with a nice surprise: (When someone says they're studying, it means they're doing anything but that. Also, I'm stuck in the middle of this sibling conversation). I'm kind of surprised how Jan introduced himself in his game. There's a funny story behind my self insert. Only reason he's still around is due to how people really liked him while I was fixing Terra. He didn't become a canon character in Hardcore until E16 though. Anyways, I feel inserts should fill the role of side characters who hold no power instead of being in charge. I could give examples of where it happens, but it's not a big deal to me, but I definitely could see why people hate it. I do have a gripe about why he's there though which you'll see later. (Both in game me and real life me have a sister. Both of us would've taken a swing at our sis or "disown" them. Not saying this is bad or incorrect, but just kind of a little fact. Sibling bonds are a strange thing). (There's a reason the hot one never has to do anything) Yeah, I don't know if Jan has a sibling irl or not, but we rarely are so straightforward when bantering each other. I feel like this was a missed opportunity to give Jan a bit more personality. I know Jan likely doesn't want his character to get too much attention nor involved, that doesn't mean he's not a character so I encourage him to treat him as he would anyone else. This was a missed opportunity of a very humorous moment in a section of gloom and doom that ended up being a little bland. Not really what the characters did or what they said, but how they said it. And yes, I know how everyone's siblings are a bit different, but I really couldn't distinguish much from Jan due to how mixed his responses of professional and unprofessional. Sorry to be a little overcritical here, but it is very important to leave good first impressions of characters. I like Amanda, but Jan is eh to the point I wonder why he was even added as Amanda could've done his job and more herself. (This does put a whole new meaning to burning passion) (You see this blond girl. She deserves an extra special post that's going to likely be about her and only her. You can probably already imagine what's going to happen). I have a lot to talk about this girl, but it probably isn't exactly what you think it's going to be about. My opinion of her is based on Version 6 up until Angie so my thoughts could change over time, but you'll understand what's going on in due time. Moving on you won't be so lucky next time. (This guy kind of reminds me of someone in Reborn. The resemblance is rather...shocking) I actually want to say something about this scene. The only reason we assume and already know Prof Jen is part of the villain group is based on video game culture. In real life, everything he did could be considered normal and wouldn't pin him as a bad guy. That's why part of me wants a writer to take the challenge of creating a situation similar to this and ultimately make them feel bad for placing them on the bad guy side over something so small. I suppose Titania does count, but let's not go there. Too much controversy. (Pretty sure he's pretending he doesn't know anything) Going back on this, Amanda must be one of the most ignorant people ever. And even then, Jan didn't even react to the protags arrival when he's in charge and probably should've been aware. If the protag was a nobody this would be believable, but there's just so much evidence the player was on the ship that they should've put two and two together. Not even Jenipper said something and even if he was concealing that he knew, it would be hard for the protag not to be displaying any emotions which one of these three should've commented on. Two and a half people were so ignorant on a breaking news issue that's the talk of the moment with the only one who escaped being a the child of a celebrity joining the league that these people are in charge of. Let alone, an E4...E8 member witnessed this whole thing and it's hard to believe she wouldn't contact somebody immediately to give them the news. I'm only bothered by this since it's just so unrealistic. I'm going to stop ranting but basically while it is possible, there's literally so many factors and coincidences that would've had to happen for this single situation to occur. It's just Amanda's ignorance that bothers me so much. Not even a single thought something bad may have happened or some situation came up. Also, I just realized after like 3 years, Jenipper has a beard and I think it's a goatee. Also sorry if I spelled the proferor's name wrong (You can't tell me what to do 'cause you're not my mom. I know because she's approximately 10,000 feet under the sea). Now we finally get to where most people start their runs. Seriously, we've only just hit the hour mark in the playthrough. Now time to finally play Pokemon. (It's only funny because it's true. Luckily, I'm part of the 19%. Also ROWLETT!) Not much to say, but I feel like Jan toned down the dialogue for the mons a little bit. Not complaining too much as I prefer this way more than the lab Poke ball thing. Also, this reminds me way too much of Phenac City's Gym. Even has the matching elevator. Now time to decide: (Nope. I would pick Bulbasaur, but I've use him way too much) (What have squirtles ever done to you, lady?) Someone please explain this thing to me. I don't get it. (Nope, I'm not going to pick a stalker like you) . .. ... .... (Nope, still not interested) . .. ... .... (I have much to teach you on your way to greatness). Yep, I caved in guys. But seriously, I rarely use Oshawott so I decided to pick him as I still have a bias for waters not named Froakie. I know so many people picked him, but eh, it's my run and I do what I want. I also know somebody somewhere is crying that I'm an idiot for picking something with such terrible IVs. One thing you need to know about me is that I don't reset...ever for mons. It keeps things interesting. I also won't be EV training as well not because I want to challenge myself, but because I really, really don't care about perfecting them. It also makes for some hilarious moments. Anyways... (If you mean first as in battling a black person then yes, this is my first) (You aren't my first opponent. Mine was Johnathan. It didn't end so well. Certainly was a fight to remember though). (Nobody wants to see this shit. Not even the Pokemon.) (Giving you a fire type was probably his second worst life decision). (Oh I know who exactly who you are talking about. That guy was pretty cool and one of my favorite people). (He's dead so...I don't think you have to worry about that. Wait...are we talking about the same guy?) Well it's finally here. An actual Pokemon battle so let's begin: (Good. That makes one of us.) First off I really like her sprite. Her sprite at the beginning contradicts it a tad bit, but I think it's fine. Seriously though, where did that ponytail come from? Anyways, the battle pretty much was me using tail whip before spamming pound. I had to use a potion I bought, but as a great gambler would say, "If you can't beat 'em, cheat 'em." Growl caused me a lot of problems as well as that nonexistent speed IVs. (Feel the sting of the sword master's blade) (You can't come up with a good sibling convo yet you can conjure up a crazy phrase like this. I don't get it). (Which is funny because nobody used tackle. Even though I'm willing to tackle you any day. Except today). Anyways, I kind of hate how you have to fight Ren right after, but oh well. It's battle time...again: (I may or may not have forgotten I don't have a Vs Sprite. Maybe I should have played the game as Shelly instead) More or less just imagine a froakie getting completely slaughtered by a cute little Oshawott. Way less intense than the Amanda battle where I was getting my butt kicked hard. (*Ahem* FEEL THE STING OF THE SWORD MASTER'S BLADE! HAAAAAAA!) (But...you said Melia was on Route 1. Why would I need to go through a forest then?) And then we get to go to tutorial city with Jan. Since I'm already pushing the pic count (if I haven't surpassed it yet), I'm just going to give you the abridged version more or less. I don't understand the whole mobile star pole thing that acts as a PC. I mean, you don't need a valid reason to put a computer in the middle of nowhere (heck Gen I had an invisible one). I still think light shards are better than Jan's heal pole thing since they are a one time use putting a bit of pressure one someone to succeed the first time. But honestly, I think Ame gives players way too many of those things as learning to use items and managing the team was how old reborn worked without them. Ranting aside here's what I really want to talk about: (Can I barrow this for Halloween? I'll promise to put it to good use). Oh the good old axing the gym guide. Only concern is that this won't do much for Jan. Ame is a little rambly when she's the gym guide which kind of helps flesh her out a tad bit and make the statues a bit more interesting to listen to such as the one for Luna's. A gym guide could do the same thing (somehow I was able to get Jim to every single gym leader by getting a bit creative). Only major difference is that one is actually there to support or cheer for you and another is just a machine. I'm not saying making machines in the gyms is a bad choice, but it's not simply an easy way out of gym guides. More like the opposite since it is one single character. I did like the little counter productive line though. (If this post someone goes through, just picture this guy dancing like mad. Other he's dancing...mad). And that's it for this time. The next post probably won't be for a little while as I have a few things I need to get done. The real question is: how many times will I get lost in the city...again. Also, I don't think anything here is that bad and all, but when you go back over something you did for commentary, it's easy to notice something you missed the first time. A lot of my issues are minor and I'm still enjoying it even if it doesn't look like it. It just felt like some stuff was lacking was all.

Oh yeah, Johnathan and his Mega Rayquayza is quite the tale. It started off when Ame was testing something in 14.5 and gave Johnathan a Rayquayza. She forgot about it and it made it into the public release before being quickly taken down and reuploaded within a few hours. The inside joke lived on though as E16 does make a quick reference. However, that was too good of a crazy story to go left untold, however, players really didn't like when the first trainer they fought had a Rayquayza so this is kind of my compromise. Congrats on beating it at its prime. Or is it?

Note: Due to my images host's site crashing I had to re-upload them all. While doing that I added some post commentary labeled with this mark: >>> Also here's a link to the When Love Lies Written Run [Up to the end of Chapter 1] Hi there. Some of you may know me from doing the hardcore mod over in the Reborn thread. Well...a long, long time ago I played bits of Rejuv and just got burned out due to so many issues I had with Rejuv. Well, I decided to give this another shot because Rejuv had a lot of good things I liked, but the issues eventually made me put it down. So this time we're doing something interesting so that I may actually finish this game as well as give a piece of my mind a bit of feedback regarding issues I had with the game and if they're still there. Don't worry, I'm still going to keep this entertaining since this is a semi screenshot run. It's just that not every post is going to be about a battle but more like an LP of the game. Anyways let's get started: Prologue: This is Starting to Look Like a Shipwreck So I didn't screenshot any of the prologue since it's kind of the same old same old stuff from before. At first I didn't like the Zorua story at the start but when I saw the reference I really liked it as it adds a nice touch. I also don't have an issue with anything in the Marianette (I think I spelled that right) flashback except for one thing. It takes focus away from the protag and is something kind of contradicting the silent protag. You see the purpose of a silent protag is to immerse yourself into the game and more or less become that character. Kind of difficult to do when you know something that the protagonist doesn't. You also almost always want to keep it in their perspective only. Breaking that immersion really hurts the idea of a silent protag, however, some characters are designed to be not the player and are normally quiet, but Rejuv I doubt was going for that. Anyways, I still think that portrait is beautiful and the graphics are pretty good here. I'll go into graphics a bit more in a second as it's actually interesting. So now we're at the... (Hello Gorgeous! What's your name?) If this is somehow not Zumi's work I'd be surprised since it's her art style, but she looks so, so much better than Amaria. I really disliked Amaria's design so I approve of the new and improve Amanda. Anyways we're going with regular mode as I'm not sadistic enough to try and go through Rejuv intense while talking about all kinds of things. Also we're going with the standard boy so you're going to see this guy a lot: Yeah...this really isn't my style. Not really a hat person so let's try this... Shit! I forgot to screen cap there. Give me a minute: (That's better. Much Better). Yes, this crappy sprite of mine does have a small purpose. It does help separate Reborn and Rejuv's art styles a bit as I'd say some of Rejuv's NPCs are super well detailed compared to Reborn's since anytime this sprite stands out is a good thing. Also, it is fun to be me in the game. Not much to talk about here still so let's move on: (I'm pretty sure I'm old enough to be your mom.) Not much really changed storywise here that I remember, but everything felt less memey or pop culture which I felt was an improvement. Also pretty sure that hidden item that's easy to miss got moved making it easier. Thank you, Jan. Thank you. Now I don't have to have nightmares knowing I missed a good item early on. I like the layout and design a lot more as it feels a lot more unique and is easier to traverse. TBH, I thought I was going to dread this part, but it didn't feel that bad this time. Maybe because it was prettier. But... (You know what they say: Shippers gotta ship) I know it's a standard, but the NPCs really aren't all that interesting imo. They're the kind of people you can go wild and through more logic out the window compared to the main story. They aren't bad, but more like meh. (We can play a game of Blackjack if you want to try and win it all back. I am a gambler after all). Kind of odd how certain NPCs don't move for the banquet, but whatevs. I missed a few screencaps of the piano girl floor as honestly that bit looks amazing with the backdrop. So much better than the previous design which I think was just a floor. It also makes a bit more sense how the piano came tumbling down later but uhh I'll let the logical fallacies go on that one as it's entertaining. But uhh... (Pieces of metal can control wild animals. The more you know.) An RPG fallacy that even some very good game designers fall into is trying to explain game mechanics in the plot. It sounds silly which this kind of did honestly. I had a hell of a time trying to explain level limiter in hardcore so I can't be too hard here. Just for future game makers of the world, avoid this at all costs. You'll thank me later. I don't have much to talk about until the plot kicks in but... (Seriously look at the difference in art quality. You can see the heavy details on the random NPC so well. Yes, a random NPC.) Rejuv has plenty of graphic inconsistencies and some stuff looks absolutely amazing and other stuff looks...flat is the best way to put it. What I will give so much props to is that the custom tilesets feel so much better than the public and free stuff. I know some stuff was borrowed from Reborn, but most of it feels like it was made just for Rejuv and Rejuv only. That's something I didn't feel in Version 6. And yes, that's the last version I played iirc. It's been a long time. Anyways time for something new: (Tentacles popping up from the ground. I don't like where this is going) I'm glad the Harry potter reference was removed from the bomb part, but...the shading here is a nice little touch that's new. A lot of stuff got changed here and uhh...not sure how I feel about it. I liked all the little boys people getting grabbed by these things as it gave a feeling of intimidation, but this whole new setup does feel a bit more pleasing in terms of animation. The water levels rising was such a cool little touch. (I don't know if it's the sprite or not, but every time I walk I suddenly become Jesus. 10/10 best game ever). I actually liked the boat scenes a lot better now and I really didn't like the previous two versions. I don't even think you really need the password thing at this point as it's not as bad as before and the layout makes it pretty quick paced. Wish the NPCs were a wee bit more interesting, but I thought everything else was fine. And now thanks to a magical fire bird we can move onward! (Thanks Magical Fire Bird! Sorry that Gen VII killed your usefulness) I don't remember what it was like in the early days, but I swear this is the only area in the game that never changed. Never really liked it since well the true city is like 2 minutes away and nothing really goes on here. Well sidequests, but that's a long topic for later and we get to see me get my butt kicked...since Pelipper is gone But yeah, I'm going to stop here now: (The more I look at this building, the less sense it makes. I think the old one was more fitting). Now as a warning, I barely know anything about Gen VII so this is going to certainly be an experience. I know the mons and what they're kind of known for, but that's pretty much it. I'm not sure what starter I'm going to pick though so you guys can humor me. Only ones I won't pick are Chimchar, Typhlosion, Torchic, and Froakie as I do like a challenge. Oh yeah I almost forgot about this:

So sorry for the lack of updates, but I should be getting back to hardcore on Monday if all hell doesn't break loose before then. But yeah this week is going to be fixing stuff before getting into the E17 stuff. So I won't beat around the Bush when HC E17 is going to take a long time, but hopefully not as bad as this episode because this one was burnout hell. Thankfully I should be able to hop back in and start editing the dialogue to look better thanks to my new work schedule. Most of the critical errors have been fixed already, but only one I can't fix is weather. With the new gen battle quality is still the top priority and yes, I spend hours on each gym fight. Hours. Alternate battles were well received and way, way more well received than I anticipated. It is like the thing I spend the least time on are people's favorite things. Anyways I'm going to try and invest time into the party system for a couple little things with one of them being the ability to make them your partners on the field. Partnering up will be a thing, but I don't know how deep I'm going to make it since I'd need to remove them for story segments and gym battles. I know how to approach this, but if someone is interested in making this, please help. I got a boatload of things on my plate as is. There are a few other things regarding this system, but it is mostly just to do during down times for the game instead of poked ex grinding. If I get any of it done I'll showcase it. Altered Path is going to get done before E17 is released, but I will hold off on releasing it until that episode. Unless of course Ame somehow clones herself and gets the episode released in the next two months. I already said I was not going to add too much to E17, but it is going to be a mess since new gen causes new Balance issues. Gen VII really won't change fights drastically though as z moves are mostly just going to be for item variety and mons are going to mostly the same. Variety is the key word as bosses all using the same mon does get stale. Oh I almost forgot something. You see, I tend to put stuff in as experiments in Hardcore to see how desperate players are. This time it was Project Lucky Egg. Since the Johnathan jumps care was moved back, I changed how the items were obtained and while the exp share is easy to find, I made the lucky egg very, very well hidden. I predicted that exp would be an issue so players would be sharing to other players where the obscure location was. Thankfully, it seems episode 1 is a lot more balanced so it isn't needed as much. I may push the egg back to post Florinia or I may keep it there. Now what to do in E17. This'll be fun given I got a literal giant sandbox to play with and some desperate players to toy with.

@Chase Honestly, there's no reason for grinding dlc as I leveled up my units pretty quickly through the main game (mostly to avoid another Berkut and his reinforcements episode. Random Spawns there are so deadly especially dealing with 4 paladins plus Fernand). Even Desaix can be beaten with 1st/2nd Tier classes. Just have 4-5 units with roughly 6-8 defense and slowly take him out. I didn't since I didn't make Faye a Cleric. Biggest mistake ever. But two complaints I see about the game that I don't understand: Cantors and the hit rate I understand the hit rate as very early you do miss a couple hits, but Mila's turnwheel helps counter that. When you learn to make use of the systems though, it's not that bad. Skills may not let you double but they increase the hit rate and most supports increase hits and criticals. Never really had an issue with hit rates, but probably because I was used to fates and missing 90% all the time that this didn't phase me. Yeah it's lower than normal but it didn't bother me at all as I'm used to some of that stuff. Iron bow is amazing as Curved Shot fixes archers terrible accuracy (especially since they rarely can double anyways). And then you realize enemies have the same crappy hit rate and abuse it to raise Athos super fast. Cantors I really, really don't get at all for the hate. You may as well call enemy reinforcements stupid if that's what bugs you. There is only one cantor in the game that annoyed me, but that was because of that stupid skill to block attacks. It ain't even worth trying to take him down at that point with all the mess that's going on during the fight. I liked them as they kept me thinking about my moves since I had to deal with endless reinforcements while clearing out the other guys as well. Good exp for the little guys and I'd be okay with these guys coming back but...just once in a while during defense maps. Kept some maps interesting instead of turtle city (and splitting your army works wonders when handling cantors). Seriously, play Radiant Dawn and Cantors wouldn't even phase you as enemies can hit even into the hundreds in that game at points. You heard me, hundreds. Anyways, here's a list of things I really, really disliked in the game: 1. The 3 tier premotion system: I still prefer the regular premotion where you get fixed stat gains no matter your stats instead of you bases getting increased. It helps units like Est and Delthea with low HP, but it made units way too much the same. Something most fe games do is give each character a bit of a different feel for each other. Echoes has it, but it's very, very weak overall as Lukas and Python still function the same and almost like Valbar making it grind down to rng level ups. 2. The Poison Swamps: First off if you want to do a Swamp level, Radiant Dawn is the best example. They aren't the best at it, but it at least makes it a defense map instead of route the enemy. The Desert is bleh but better than some games with the only bad one being the archers map since well 1 move is fantastic. Swamps do the same thing but poison does 10 damage to your HP which having to move units across it was painful. Didn't like them in fates either so maybe we can get rid of them for good. But if they are going to design them, make them in spurts that are easy to cross and not a full walk across a river of death. 3. Single RNG: I'm not going to go into this one but the reason units miss so much is due to the lack of true hit. While it wasn't that bad, I would not have enjoyed this game at all without Mila's turnwheel to counter the constant missing. This is mostly the early game though, but yeah true hit seems to be where IS shines the best with the games. 4. The lack of unit variety: Honestly when it came to the post game you were one of four things: An archer, a magic user, a dread fighter, or a calv. Mostly dread fighters and magic though. Seriously, the lack of a weapon triangle as well as the limited premotions just doesn't mix very well as it pushes you to only use only certain units and with a very small cast on each side you pretty much use them all anyways until the postgame where you probably will pick the best of the best. 5. That bloody bonus dungeon: I'll get into dungeons in a minute, but I have to talk about this one. This is not how you make a dungeon. The first half of it is fine, but the second half is just a mess and given there's no saves here, retreating is really the only option to get through it. Act 5 was a point of no return, but you have 4 different areas you can save through before the final boss in which that dungeon was only half the size. Even until the 8th floor I could understand, but the power creep was just ridiculous making whatever treasures in there really worthless to risk your life for. Should've honestly made this one easier and a separate dungeon like this for DLC. Would've been cool Apothesis type challenge. 6. That stupid thing they did in awakening: You know that thing where they show a critical spoiler earlier in the story, they did that here to, but not a single game I've seen do that did it well except one. That game is called Xenoblade Chronicles which is centered around the ability to see the future. They just need to cut it out as they are horrible at explaining it. Which is the writing's biggest issue right now. They have good ideas, but horribly explain them (since you can tell Awakening writers were brought back). Take a step back and look at the pre Awakening games, IS. They did some things which could really help you make a really good story (but I doubt fe switch will be that game). 7. Witches. If you know what they are, I don't need to say anything else. There's a reason they haven't made a return since Gaiden. A very good reason. (Even though we should've seen this game coming with the fates DLC cause why else would they revive that class?). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Now here's some things I hope they bring back in future games: 1. Cantors: Yes, you heard me right. I want to see these things back as summoners rarely get to play a role in FE games only appearing in two games: SS and Gaiden (and Echoes). I guess fates as well but that's a weird version of it. The thing is that these guys make maps a little more interesting and with a little bit of work could be really well liked additions and staples in the series. You think I'm crazy, be we'll see. 2. Dungeons: I'll be honest, this is the reason to buy Echoes. Some people will love it, but others will hate it, but man do I think the dungeons are the highlight of the game. It's a little awkward moving around, but the exploration aspect really helps this game especially since items are scarce. If they want to add grinding back into FE, but not have an arena, I feel this would be kind of the middle ground. Yes, there's some work needed to be done, but it does have potential. This is a topic in and of itself though. 3. Weapon based skills: I think this is the first time I can say skills don't make or break a unit. Heck, they made Devil weapons viable. Yeah, they're still kind of bad, but I really enjoyed using that shadow sword on Jesse (though I don't know how it works in Echoes for the backfire rate). I think fates had the best balance, but they kind of took it a little too far at this point. I think they worked fine here and the HP cost kind of pushed it so you wouldn't be spamming them. 4. Con, but not actually con: Let's be honest here, any FE vet will tell you that the weight system here is basically a more simplified version of con. Just that speed is reduced by weight which works for Echoes, but I don't think it will in future installments. It's simple and way less complicated to the Fates system. If infinite weapons are a thing, this is the way to go. Don't believe me I'll make it simple: Would you rather use the Gradivus or the Waterwheel in Echoes? 5. Equipment: I'll be honest when I say we've only seen one other game really, really use equipment. That game is Path of Radiance. RD and other FE games did have them, but it wasn't as big of a thing as this one since NG+ had items that increased your chances of stat increases. I think bringing in shields would be interesting seeing how they work in Echoes, but something like only being able to hold one weapon, one accessory (Ring or Shield), and a couple miscellaneous items for the the other spots like Mana Herbs (think something of a hybrid of PoR and Echoes). 6. Weapon Scarcity: Something I'm sure people will have mixed feelings about is weapon durability. I think IS can go either way with it from this point forth, but if weapons are infinite use (or legendary/unique weapons are) they should be few and very hard to get so that there is challenge to get them. If we do go infinite weapons route, dungeons and inflating the price of armory weapons are going to be a must, but if they have durability maybe making dungeons the new gaiden chapters even (seriously bring back gaiden chapters). 7. This support and town convos: Is this support system a mess? Yes. I like how you are able to learn character backstories by talking to them in villages and dungeons though and how they changed throughout the story. This progression has a lot of potential as if you do the Delthea x Lu support you'll see one of the most unique supports ever. It's kind of the right medium for vets and newcomers (even if newcomers don't like it) as it brings a bit from both the old and new systems. Honorable Mention: Voice Acting: While I think it really helped out the story in Echoes, I think that's the first resource they should cut back on to invest things that are needed to make an fe game a good fe game. My top 3 favorite storylines don't even have voice acting in them, but many I liked do. But the full scale voice acting is so, so much better than the Awakening and Fates random lines. It'd be great to have, but it wouldn't save a plot lot fates. And also, I'm mostly namine stuff that would give future FE games a unique feel to them building off of a game like this despite it being a black sheep.

I mean alloy some would technically have to do is remove the randomizer from the seventh street event. Don't remember how it works but it isn't complicated. As for the IVS and EVS thing giving a new pokemon set IVs is easy, but an already defined one probably needs a scope. The data is defined somewhere so it would need to be pulled up and then replaced with the player input. Definitely requires a tiny bit of scripting as eventing it would be a bit tricky. Possible, but more work. Haven't looked at that coding in a while so I can't say how to write it exactly, but you could even call the debug menu if you really are desperate. But the first step is selecting the mon so go from there. Another fun one would be a special event mon tutor such as extremes peed Zigzagoon or sludge wave Gengar but that requires editing the pbs file a tad bit. Only other thing I can think of is an NPC who can shuffle the mystery egg or other randomized events. I'm sure you can figure that one out yourself if you want to do it.

While this may be considered advertising, I think it is well needed. An ongoing issue with this thread is week to two week delays so anyone who wants to fulfill their own requests should probably use this. As for any remaining requests, I'll get to them Monday. Just let me know if you changed your mind or fulfilled it before then.

I'm gonna be that guy and just say from all I've played in various rpgs one true fact remains true: people over exaggerate what you really need to do with breeding. Let the pro explain how to enjoy breeding without pulling your hair out or doing what you think you should do. So first tip I can give is movesets. Good moves are very hard to get so look at its baby moves and see what it needs. Gallade is a pokemon with a good move set however two interesting moves it can learn are shadow sneak and destiny bond. So then you look for a compatible pokemon with those moves such as dusclops and wait for an egg. That's it. You can invest time working on perfecting pokemon but we're talking like very little boost in power and honestly pokemon is not a very hard game and I'd say even Hardcore is on the average difficulty for rpgs. My average IVs on stats is 10 so I know what I'm talking about. As for things to watch out for, very low IVs on stats a pokemon relies on like attack and speed for a glass cannon, but low IVs isn't a big deal, but the bigger thing is a hindering nature like modest on a physical attacker. These hurt a pokemon performance and you will start to notice the affects down the line. 16 to 20 is generally good for a stat but it is mostly a 10 to 15 percent difference. Hence why moves are much more important. Good moves can make even bad pokemon super useful. See swalot the game breaking pokemon. @Amethyst I didn't even know eggs were randomized, but you really can't stop people from soft resetting in rng games unless you take away the save anywhere feature. Look at Radiant Dawn for example. I'd say don't bother unless you can make mons have fixed IVs when the events are generated. Possible, but a bit of work.

Young Tiki has very strong stats with her only set backs being that she is 1 range, vulnerable to Nowi, and dies to the Falchion. She is really good except for the fact Lucina exists which if you don't have a counter for, Tiki won't save you. I have a minus Attack one, but she is my second best red after the ungodly Ike pull. So I recommend her. Speaking of bride cordelia, it is kind of hard to be called better than Takumi when Takumi comes with a solid skill set only needing Vantage to improve it. Takumi is not the best archer, but he is the best at handling fliers. You also really only need one archer in an army. Would love to pull Klein though. I'm grinding my sword army up so now I have to decide who to promote next. Unless Camus is the next grand hero, I think it is about time Robin premotes. Almost have a full roster for the war vortex.

My trial ended 6 years ago and I still use WinRAR so don't worry if that is your issue. Trust me, nobody pays for that thing and if you are really worried there are free alternatives like 7zip.

Pretty sure Amethyst and I share a similar ideal when it comes to this as people have a right to hate the game. The guy brought up valid points, but there is no point getting upset about it. I've seen a few lps written like that for games, but this one did give me a good laugh. I should really find that xenogears lps. As for this, getting upset is not going to help anyone and at best make the community look like a bunch fanboys crying out to something they don't want to hear. For me personally I prefer reading this over people who say a game is the best thing ever or perfect. That is just me. Also this is tame compared to complaints I have had to handle.

It is up to Derx, but I don't see the need for it. In the end, all it does is push people to behave like this game is smog on more. IVS affect so little. But if it is going to happen, it would be easier to add in an item to change the stats instead of forcing them to 31. It can be done, but effort. As for additions, a simple one would be to add in either an item or option on the menu to warp to the sandbox area whenever you need to visit there. Then to leave you could have warps or npcs who will warp you to different areas of the game, probably outside of PC or fly zones. It would make traveling a bit easier.

I'm not going to argue on difficulty as there are other factors outside of powerful mons that make a game difficult, but giving players better mons pretty much negates all difficulty. Hardcore's late game suffers heavily from it. Im not trying to back you away from doing this, but I'm merely giving a warning it might not be as easy as you think. Be ready to do testing and revisions. Lots of revisions. I am interested to see how far this project goes.

@Chase For the villagers I did the following: Kliff - Mage: He's been super helpful since the second mage you get is in the middle of part three (well your first) so if you don't make one of your units a mage...you'll be very, very sorry. When he learns Excalibur, he becomes super, super good. Faye - Peg Knight: Gonna say I regretted this as Claire who is literally the same level as Fae has better Pegasus stats (which doesn't say much since Pegs are bad in this game). I'd definitely say go Cleric as she's gonna be your only Psychic users until like halfway through Part 4 on Alm's route. Peg Fae is okay at the start then just turns into straight bad. Not sure anything else is good for her. Gray: He was a mercenary and honestly, that's the best class for him as he's fast af and strong. His only downside are that his defenses are a little low. As a Dread Fighter Equipped with a Hexing Shield, attacks from mages with 20-30 attack (he has 8 res) did about 6 damage. That's not a tiny amount. Alm's path only has a couple super good swords and Alm is your only other sword user in your army so this is a given. Gray's great as a merc. Tobin: A guide said Tobin sucks so make him an Archer. Mine is now a Bow Knight but with a Steel Bow, Tobin has been my bloody rock in Act 4 (especially with some of those hell fights). Yeah he's bad at the beginning but once skills come into play his high skill will make it so that he rarely ever misses (Once I upgraded Python's Iron Bow to the max the two work well hand in hand for chip damage). He's a good Steel Bow user and two Archers isn't a bad thing. Make sure you level both him and Python or you will suffer down the line from some nasty surprises. Also minor spoilers: As for them as characters, Faye though is kind of meh. I love how her crit face is so creepy it works (nobody is that happy to kill). I like her design, but her focus only being Alm's lover is what kills her. The Alm and Faye's A support is good as Alm straight up rejects her. I don't know if the game will build off of this, but it would be good for the story if they showed her getting over it. Alm didn't even beat around the bush. Silque's support does show a bit about her as she really doesn't care about anyone other than Alm at the start. In the end, the two become friends due to Faye revealing she is a bit lonely (which instead of asking to talk about Alm, she wants to learn more about Silque). The sad part is, this is all we really have of her character unlike most of the cast where you can learn more about them. Kind of sucks since it would be nice to learn more (yes, I'm aware there are two more supports). But to sum Faye in a nutshell, she's not a poorly written character, but she's only an okay unit and lacks depth needed for her character to work. That combination just makes her pretty shallow which in return makes her not very likeable. She wasn't part of the original cast so I'm not going to be too harsh on her as it's very possible she was pushed in at the end. I just wish she could've been an archer. She would've made a pretty good archer. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Now that I've gotten very far into the game (Part 4 of 6), I can judge it a little bit more. This won't be a pro and cons but mostly a collection of my thoughts: I'll start with the story since it's one of the smallest. The main story is really good. There's very little that's going to surprise you so don't expect major plot twists, but what it does do it does very well. The voice acting really helps flesh out the characters better and makes them sound more alive and my god does it really make things interesting. Scene's are very interesting to watch and I'll admit the party members being part of the story really helps make it far more interesting (it's basically Tellius, but better). And yes, party members can and will die in classic mode (some will retreat if they are needed for major plot points in the story), but most of them have death quotes. Maybe I should go into the character involvement a bit more as it's not every character, but I want you to remember this is a huge cast. On Alm's side: Clive, Gray, Tobin, Lukas, and Claire are featured quite a bit (this is forced stuff and not optional). On Celica's side: Mae, Booey, and Saber appear quite a bit, but I know Kamui, Leon, and Valibar have a couple scenes. I can't remember every little detail off the top of my head, but yeah characters appear quite a bit so I assume if they die their lines are just removed (I don't know what happens to the peg sisters though when you get Est. And yes, they can die as well). But in general, scenes are just rarely the lord talking with their adviser and one other important character to progress the plot. The characters are what make this game so full of life. Now going more into characters, you can learn more about them other than supports this time around. In fact being able to talk to them are basically Alm's supports with people more or less. When you got to a village or similar areas you can talk with party members and often it is interesting dialogue where they talk about...almost anything (it changes the further you progress into the game). You can learn why Lukas joined the army, Python's sass, and such. This is the meat of their backstory is at. Then we get into supports. They are in a sense, better than the bulk of Fate's supports, but overall weaker than most of the series. Basically it's more or less them talking a bit on the battlefield about something. Nothing stood out, but some of them were pretty good (Lu's and Delthea's were entertaining). In fact some of the requirements to unlock further convos is talking to them in a village. It works, but it's not the best. Tellius games did something similar and in fact, the design was eerily similar. I think what tops this all off is the little things characters do. Death quotes and level ups are always entertaining to see how they react (in fact when they only gain a little stat growth their reactions are priceless. My favorite is when they level up luck they talk about being lucky). There's so much more but it's just better to experience it for yourself. Oh yeah, the voice acting is pretty good as well (better than fates). We've come a long way from PoR. A very long way. Oh and a certain character will attack Alm and only Alm if he's in range which is a cool mechanic. Okay now to talk about Gameplay and oh boy where to begin: Let's talk about that map design. Oi, I'll just say that Gaiden has some of the most sadistic ideas for maps such as a building where you are outside, but it's blocked by a mountain and the only way to get inside is through two very narrow pathways on either side. While maps are bleh, they are better than Awakening's since reinforcements aren't as BS as that game and you do have a couple of objectives to complete during a map. You have a lot more to play with so I wouldn't say maps are very boring, but the design is interesting. But in a nutshell: Alm's are big open field and Celica's are hazard hell. There are a lot of gem maps though. Only map I really despise is to whoever the fucker though making an archer desert map was a good idea. Now with bad maps designs and grinding you'd think the game would have horrible balance issues. Honestly on Hard Mode, Echoes is tough, but easier than Conquest Hard mode by a landslide. I'll admit Echoes is not a cakewalk game and there will be points where you wonder how in the world you are going to beat this. Mila's Time Turner is an ungodly gift and what makes the game really fun to play. So in a sense, you could say Echoes is very difficult or the easiest FE game to date due to this mechanic. Hard mode feels pretty natural to me if you're wondering as the only big thing is that enemies are a bit tanky. I do want to talk about the weapon system now. While I miss the weapon triangle, this game really doesn't need a weapon triangle to work. Skills and supports more or less make up for the difference a triangle would make. But you know how Fates did the infinite use thing. Echoes does that, but instead of being a huge bloody mess, Echoes feels more natural. Basically you can only hold one weapon at a time or a shield (which I use a combination of both), but weapons work by basically adding might to your attack (you can attack without a weapon), but more importantly, your speed is deduced by the weight of the weapon. The speed thing I'm a big fan of as it's just like good old FE mechanics of Weight and con, but simplified. It's simple to remember and works well since fast characters won't be affected as much and get more power whereas middle ground units want to use weaker weapons for less speed deduction. Now there's magic. I'll be honest, I think the magic system works fantastically here and kicks Fate's but hard. Magic is very overpowered, but the HP thing is not that big of a deal once you get the hang of it. Once you get two healers, you'll never have to worry about mages running out of HP. Dying is a different story. It works and it works very well once you get to act 3. I love this system and I would definitely be okay with them bringing this back in future fe games. Though on the flip side, it is a little OP since rings can heal psychic damage off. I may or may not have been abusing this with Genny. Now for some gripes I have: Premotions are kind of weird as in you generally just want to premote units ASAP. In the long run, not doing 20/20/20 will make it so that you probably won't max units out, but you level up so little that 7/10/20 more or less will take the whole game to achieve. It's a confusing mechanic that I still don't understand very well, but you don't get to be too powerful so it works out. BExp is also super nice since Exp is in such a shortage, but I wish characters could level up through it instead of it being a waste. Losing 10 points in Exp in a low Exp gain game is a big deal. Enemies also popping out from the boss section to charge at you on the overworld is also kind of annoying as well. But free silver coins and exp. Then there's Mila's Time Gear...or whatever it's called. The mechanics itself is fantastic as if you make a bad more or bad play you can undo it. Unless of course Alm or Celica die. But by the time I reached Act 4, I have 10 uses of this thing and imo that's way too much. If they bring this mechanic back (which they really should), I'd like it to be reduced to 3. In dungeons though, you will meet some very, very strong foes so you will want to use these wisely. It's the battle save feature but done just right. Speaking of Dungeons, I love them in Echoes. They are pretty short except the Fear Mountain one which is pretty long, and I'm so glad you heal up after every battle. So far the fatigue system barely affected me, but I slightly understand the decision, but eh, don't worry about it too much. As long as you don't overuse a character, you're usually fine. Easily the best part of Echoes despite maps being more or less open areas. But battles can be very scary when you have a limited amount of time gear uses and enemies can gang up on you. I'm not sure how I feel about the dual lords mechanic though. On one hand, it works, but on the other, enemies can move to attack the other lord if you aren't careful. If they decide to do another Radiant Dawn designed game which you have 3 armies later, I'd prefer something like this, but eh, one army seems to be IS's strongsuit. The item scarcity is my favorite thing as it makes you think about who gets what weapon in battle instead of loading everyone up on a Steel/Silver, Iron, and Dual ranged weapon and maybe a healing item just in case. And then there's towns. I was upset at first when they got rid of the ability to walk around in towns. With the slightly awkward movement in dungeons, I kind of understand that decision, but I prefer this new system where you use a menu to choose actions. Picture professor layton but a little more simplified. It's sadly way too much fun when the first thing you want to do is visit a new area and hunt for stuff. It's a lot of fun and the sidequests kind of add to it. Sidequests are kind of meh, but some rewards are fantastic. And I have...32,679 renown. How in the hell did I get that much? Anyways, it's a little side dish and there are a couple ones where you get weapons. Trust me, you want to get weapons. I almost forgot about weapon forging. I kind of understand the DLC now, but eh...don't bother forging weapons until Act 4 when you have a ton of silver ones. The only weapons I forged were an Iron Lance (Deliverer for Clive) and Iron Bow (Cobra for Python). Oh and forging a Dark Sword into a Brave Sword. Forging earlier is a waste of silver coins since you can max it from the base weapon. As for gold coins...Alm has two and Celica has one which these are used for forging special weapons like the Royal Sword or Gold Dagger. If you want to max all weapons though, you'll need the DLC as you get pitiful amounts from defeating enemies (20 silver). But now that I got a feel for the game, I can talk about the DLC. Here's my judgement on it: Only invest 20 bucks in the Prologue DLC and Cipher units, but skip the rest. The fourth tier dungeons I can't judge right now but if they are very well designed dungeons they might be worth it. As for the first two sets of DLC...the dungeon ones might be worth it if your into that, but the other 4 are definitely not worth it. Exp is not that hard to gain and the Silver and Gold coins aren't that big of a deal unless you want to max characters out (which there is zero reason to). Prologue ones I can recommend since characters are very well written I doubt they'd have very bad story maps for them. As for the Cipher, that's pretty much just for the free units.

So I haven't finished act one yet, but I can at least give my thoughts in regards to the whole differences between Gaiden and Echoes (even though I haven't played Gaiden I've seen bits and pieces of it). So here's kind of my initial first impression review: The game is a gem, but it is certainly not made for everyone. I really, really, really like Echoes and you can see they did a really good job and put a lot of love into this remake. More than Shadow Dragon imo. So vets and fans of Gaiden you definitely want to pick this one up and give it a try. It's pretty much Gaiden but more fleshed out in both story and graphics (and hell of a lot better UI). This game was aimed at fans of Gaiden and you can tell. Now let's get into a little more detail: Pros: The story is solid especially coming off of Fates which even the most hardcore fans of fates can't defend that story. It's interesting and the VA makes the story all the more involving. They went all out on the VA with even minor NPCs having voices. It really helps bring out a charm and get more into the characters. I love the other characters being involved though as it's so much more entertaining than watch the lord talk about the conflict and go through the conflict. Faye, on the other hand, is a really shallow character, but hey extra unit. The gameplay itself just works. It's very odd, but I kind of like it. It requires you to rely on terrain a lot more even at the start (I'm playing on hard mode), but even your crappy characters can easily get experience if you know how to play. Yeah, yeah Gaiden's maps are flat, but you have to think about your every move so it helps balance it out. Dungeon exploring is also a hell of a lot of fun (a little clunky, but walking around in an FE game is rare). And magic is perfectly fine with the HP cost and trust me, you will use magic. Oh, I forgot to mention the AI. The AI is very, very smart. If an enemy is dying and there's a healing tile nearby, they'll run to the tile instead of attacking. Only found one odd quirk but definitely pay attention on the soldier maps or you may get into trouble (haven't had to use the time turner yet, but I had one close call. Love that thing though). Cons: Gaiden's (It's Echoes, but they are the same game at the core) gameplay is going to turn certain people off very fast. Your units aren't unstoppable monsters who can easily defeat someone using the weapon triangle. You rarely are even able to ORKO a unit with Alm or Lukas (both whom are very strong). That feeling of being really weak might turn players off. Terrain is the bigger deal. Get ready to miss a number of attacks just due to terrain as you go from 90 to 60 if an enemy is on a tree. I'm also aware how Echoes is going to be a ton of flat pieces of land. If that's your reason for not trying Gaiden yet you loved Awakening or Birthright (even if you thought they were okay same applies) give Echoes a try. Yeah maps are lackluster, but you got a lot of toys to play with. So far Act 1's maps aren't very boring especially with a few dangerous enemies who will give you hell (that bloody shield mercenary). Echoes is also a perfect replica of Gaiden only fixing the UI (which has that classic feel still which imo is mixed feelings), adding a ton of story narrative to it, and a whole bunch of bells and whistles (and a hard mode difficulty, but not lunatic). While I could complain about stamina, I haven't had an issue so far. That might be for the full review. Oh and one other gripe: You have to hit end turn to end your turn (instead of moving all units automatically sets you into enemy phase). I understand the decision, but...it is a minor nitpick. Closing Thoughts: I'll admit there was a lot in this game that turned me off when it was first announced, but all that doubt has cleared away and I'm really enjoying Echoes. Of the 5 games for the 3ds, Echoes is easily my favorite and I haven't even gotten that far into it. Do I think the Awakening or Fates fanbase will like this game? Absolutely not. It is almost the exact opposite of those games and will feel very different to the point people used to the super powerful units will be a little lost (Alm is very, very strong though, but the other villagers not so much). Supports are fine and is better than the GBA since you can see them and figure out who to support. Do I recommend giving Echoes a shot: oh absolutely. I didn't understand why people loved Gaiden so much until I started playing Echoes and it all kind of clicked. I'm very impressed with what I've seen and despite being a very, very flawed game, I'm having fun. It's an 8/10 game, but it's still fire emblem to the core.

@Chase They can as it is literally Lucina. Like there is no reason to back up Camilla or Tharja as those two are much, much smaller compared to Lucina in retrospect (Literally she is female marth in the sense).

@Chase Where do I begin? The idea isn't too bad except for two major issues I see: Ardent Sacrifice and the HP +3 seal. Ardent Sac is kind of counter productive to her idea as QR needs her HP pretty high (QR2 more or less requires 80% and you're now at 75%). If you want to go bait mage, Reposition or Swap will work wonders for her. Hell, those two skills can make a godawful unit into a very useful one. I can't recommend any other Support skill since well...you want her to be offensive. The other gripe I have is the HP seal. It's not that giving anyone more HP is a bad thing but...this seal is easily the best one of the pack and by quite a margin. Felicia's low HP...doesn't make very much, if any, use out of it as she's gonna die to a single physical attack anyways. With your style, Attack +1 is the best one to give her as then she can actually do damage before debuffing once in a while.

I think we lost but damn did we give the popular vote a run for their money. Once Tharja passes Robin it is over as their are too little votes for the times 3.

She is pretty good tbh, but...we're going through the whole removing daily orbs thing again. I know IS is not going to read this, but look...they're losing money removing those since instead of having a chance for a 5 star, you basically have no chance since you could easily burn 60 orbs without a 5 star. 40 it is almost guaranteed with 6 percent. I'm going to be use the 20 orb bonus on Celica banner, but...I really recommend saving your orbs until they release daily again or a banner you really, really want something since you only get 20 free orbs a banner. I don't particularly need anything so I'm just summoning with hopes of at least getting good skill fodder. As for the whole Wrathful staff, I'd it makes mages okay for attacking, but give it to Elise if you have her. It has its uses, but I doubt we are going to see much of healers in arena for various reasons. Genny is okay, Boer is too slow, Mae is alright and useful if you don't have a good Linde, and Celica is great but loses to Tharja in usefulness. Personally if I get Celica I will use her. She fights just how I like them.

@Sheep Fair enough. Genealogy of the Holy War is one of the games on my very long list of backlog I'd need to play. Speaking of that, we still need Sigurd along with Leif and Micaiah to have the full set of lords in heroes. I'm hoping after that they star putting in 3-4 star hero draws in. @Combat Imo it's going to really come down to your build whether or not -HP Nino is going to be of any use. If you are able to one shot Ryoma and Ike (and Xander) you should be safe. I mean I generally just use Takumi to one shot her, but dear god Fury + Spur/Rally Defense Ninos are a pain to take down as they can live stuff. Just did a calc with Fury and Desperation and once she gets her HP down, she only loses to Henry and Sanaki if she has a spur speed and spur attack on her (cough *Eirika* cough). But if you have a good supporter, Fury 3 (did life and death calcs and those aren't so great), Desperation, and whatever for the C Skill (Keep Hone Attack probably), she should a pretty good nuke and still work. Obviously, she's going to die to pretty much any attack but Fury lets her ORKO basically everything except Sanaki and Henry more or less (there's a few others but you get the idea). Though I do recommend holding off until you use all the upcoming orbs heading our way since you'll never know what you'll roll. But all I'm saying is that you can work with this. @Chase Imo, it would probably be easier to balance this all out if the winner of a round gets and orb and the loser gets 1k feathers. Freeriders would want to go for the orbs, but people who care about feathers would be aiming for the loser characters anyways to max out their points so you can aim for 3k feathers and no orbs, 3 orbs and no feathers, 2 orbs and 1k feathers, and so on. While it wouldn't really change anything at all, losers would at least get something out of picking who they want.

Julia's in Merric's situation right now, but she could possibly pass Tharja, but not likely. 100 mil really isn't that much, but it's gonna be the problem of passing her. Still I'm surprised how close it is. Also @Hukuna the Undying Ike is the second most broken character in the series right behind Ryoma. Only thing that separates the two is Ryoma's insane Crit rate (I think it's believed he has a hidden 30% rate) and vantage.

So this is a long, long, long overdue topic I should have created a while back. This little gem series is one of my favorites and I was bound to make it eventually. And for the sake of people who haven't played any of the games, I'll try to avoid as many spoilers as possible here though if any discussion goes on regarding certain topics I can answer, but spoiler tags likely will be used. And for the sake of anyone who wants the full experience, it'd probably be best to avoid looking at most threads regarding this stuff even though the big spoilers are more or less the lore of the game. So what exactly are these games? Falcolm originally made a different series made after the dragon slayer games called the legend of heroes that took place on the same continent, however, they were spaced far apart iirc and didn't sell over that well (the battle system was also kind of clunky). I believe that continent takes place in the same world as the trails series, however, there isn't really any evidence. Here's how to summarize the series in a nutshell: It's basically an imagining of the world if the industrial revolution happened in the 1300-1400s (and iirc it takes place in 1400s). Obviously there are going to be some fantasy elements to make this happen (orbal technology aka the magic that made it happen), but it is very scary how realistic some of this stuff is if technology advanced that far in that short amount of time. The continent that this game series takes place on is called Zemuria which consists of 2 major power countries called the Erebonia Empire and the Calvard Republic. There are also two bordering nations called Crossbell State and the Liberl Kingdom. There are a few other places, but these are the 4 major countries and you'll hear quite a bit about them in every game of the series. Each arc focuses on a single country to deepen the lore even more, but trust me that you will know a lot about Erebonia, Calvard, and Liberl by the time you finish the skies series. I could tell you about them, but the fun is learning about each place and forming an opinion of them on your own. While each nation is their own power, there are two powers not bound to any nation and move freely across them all: the Septian Church and Bracers. The Septian Church is this world's version of the Catholic church and any history nerd could recall the church had a lot of power in the olden days. They aren't as powerful here, but their main role is to handle ancient and sacred relics as well as spread the word and love of Aidios (the god of this world). I don't recall there being any other religions off the top of my head. Bracers are a little bit different as their job is to more or less help those in need. They fulfill requests for the common man such as getting a cat from a tree up to stuff like taking down high rank assassins. While they have authority in any nations, they must abide by a code which focuses on civilians (which yes is a double edged sword at times). So yeah, that's just a quick glimpse of the world, but it's the little things that really make this series work imo. Nearly every character has a story and I mean every character. The shopkeeper in the first town in Skies has a love life problem which talking to him and his mother leads you to learn about more what's happening. My favorite has to be the student from Jenis Royal Academy being asked to dine with a suitor or the lady obsessed with cats in Rolent. Xseed, the people who translate it, are huge, huge fans of the series which, unlike the original legend of heroes series, do a very, very good job (so good that persona 5 used many of the voice actors from Cold Steel). They also threw in a lot of fun little things like chest phrases (instead of saying the chest is empty) and silly things like naming the birds. Yes, they gave birds names. So now then you are probably asking: where do I begin? This is going to be very hard to answer as it really depends but here's the order the games take place from what I remember: Act 1: [Redacted] (If you play the games you know exactly what that would say) -Trails in the Sky 1 -Trails in the Sky 2 -Trails in the Sky 3 Act 2: [Redacted] (Again, you probably have a good idea when you play Skies) -Trails of Cold Steel -Zero no Kiseki (currently untranslated) -Trails of Cold Steel II -Ao no Kiseki (same as Zero) -Trails of Cold Steel III (not released in Japan yet) (Act 3 will likely take place in the Calvard Republic but we haven't gotten that far yet) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you care about story and don't want to be spoiled anywhere, play skies, wait a year or two for the crossbell games (you can play Cold Steel I and half of CSII) then move on to Cold Steel as they all build off of the previous entry. You don't have to play a previous game, but it helps understand the games better and skies does a very, very good job introducing the series where Cold Steel (which I played first) overwhelmed me a littler. The original Sky (ie Skies 1) is very outdated graphics wise as well as a clunky battle system, horrible party availability, and so on, but Skies SC fixes a lot of that (it takes time to get used to the orbment system). It goes on sale for 9.99 on steam (2nd in 19.99 on sale iirc but 3rd just released) so if you like the lore and plot you'll get a taste of it at a cheap price. My personal recommendation to get into the series is Cold Steel. The plot, story, characters, etc are nowhere near as good as Skies, but the graphics are a bit more pleasing and combat is fast paced and a lot easier to learn. Cold Steel spoils very, very little of everything else in the series (like one event that happens in Crossbell), but nothing on skies iirc. It's coming to steam in June (it's on PS3 right now) and if you have a decent computer, it should be able to run it and I recommend that one over the PS3 version. It has its own issues, but you don't have to worry about quartz combinations. Cold Steel is my favorite after Skies 3rd. Though CSII spoils more or less Skies plotline even if it is brief. Now there is something I have to tell you about Skies 3rd: it's the black sheep of the series. Each arc (well nation arcs) consist of two games the first being part one and the buildup and the second finishing the story. 3rd is kind of its own thing with its main focus adding a lot of depth to the Liberl characters and giving you information on critical events and facts to give you a better understanding of the world. Pretty much though it's to tie up all the loose ends so if you want to skip it, someone like me or anyone else who played the game could give you the info when you need it or are curious about it. I haven't finished it, but I'm at the finale and it's easily my favorite, but you have to play Skies 1 & 2 to fully enjoy it. Also: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Whew, that is a bloody long and I tried to condense it as much as possible. I wanted to avoid spoiling anything since not a lot of people have played the games. Feel free to ask me anything regarding this series and while I'm not an expert, I have a pretty good understanding of the basic lore and have beaten all the English released games. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going back to playing as a BA priest.

Alright so since nobody chose Merric I doubt anyone is using any of my units. I'll probably be leading with Minerva if people want to add me to use (I'll be picking Julia or Sanaki ie whichever one wins). Robin vs Leo will be a good matchup if Merric vs Robin displayed anything. He was doomed from the beginning but hey 300 mil difference isn't that bad (but damn did it get close at points). Anyways as for the newly revealed units: Celica with Renewal will easily be one of the best mages if she has the right stats, but she wants to lure people to attack her, not go on the offensive. Definitely worth trying to go for her for the good setup alone. I can't really judge whether or not she'll be S-tier but yeah, I expect her to easily be really, really good. Booey on paper looks good but +6 def on a mage isn't bad but...it's gonna grind down to stats for his tier. The problem isn't the idea, but the fact you rarely have all your units cluttered together to move (that also increases the chance of someone dying). If you're going to use Booey, I'd say Fury is going to be better on him. Defense is nice, but from using hector (with that 40 def) it's nice, but doesn't make you as invincible as you think (as Magic attacks are more threatening). Judging him from first glance, I'd say he has around 30 defense. He needs for to bulk attacks which his skill works, but doesn't at the same time. Mae is gonna be more or less infantry Reinhardt. Death Blow, Desperation, Threaten Res will work very well for her. I really doubt she's going to be game breaking but another good blue make is always welcome. She's got stiff competition though when you think about it. Reinhardt and Robbin are the biggest due to being pretty common. Then there's Fae Genny. While that staff skill is really, really good, the biggest issue with staff users is the B skill slot which is their most important being Live to Serve, Wings of Mercy, or even Renewal. Point is that healers pretty much want Live to Serve as their B skill since their priority is healing (as greys aren't really good damage dealers other than like 4). Now if you really want to know what healers are competing against, it is not against being offensive as they'll always lose (pain is still a great staff skill due to the 10 damage chip), but they are competing against dancers which due to how short maps are will always outclass healers. Live to serve rarely is ever useful and Wings of Mercy is the best staff skill, but hard to give so this skill is well worth inheriting, but due to it likely being as hard to get as close counter (which is required for offensive staff user), yeah...staffs rarely are going to get used.