Liberal Arts Major
after an ill-fated attempt to try and defend it plan "grind" went into effect.
Here's the system I'm using for that. An earlier DLC (Lost Bloodlines 3) is a map with 50 enemies and they all eventually rush you. So, if you park on a nearby fort with a 1-2 range weapon and turn all animation off you can quickly get a lot of EXP. LB3 also gives Paragon for clearing it, which is nice because Paragon is a great help for this.
Avatar now knows every skill in the game he can learn except for Dread Fighter's 2nd Skill because he's only a Level 5 Dread Fighter and the power light went red and I didn't feel like risking another fight to get the skill (each run of this is roughly 10-12 levels for Avatar, maybe more depending on factors) He also has all stats capped (probably, it's plausible there exists a certain class where his cap in a stat might exceed what he has, but most of the time he has either had everything capped or very quickly fixes this if in a class where he had a stat or two uncapped.
...While only Morgan would be as awful to do this for, I think after the tedium of that, I'll just stick to getting useful skills and stats for everyone else. Also, while I have more than enough Paragons, I may have to make short detours to other previously cleared DLC maps for other stuff I may want, but that should be fairly trivial. [/spoiler]
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Liberal Arts Major
Cordelia? basically did this in 15 minutes. Lissa? omfg her classes that relied on physical attacks oh my god (in retrospect maybe i could have bought a billion rescues staves and used those but it'd probably be longer that way still)
I think as of now the following characters are "done," at least for now: Avatar, Lucina, Morgan, Chrom, Severa, Cordelia, Nowi, Lissa. Noticed while I was doing this that Lissa's skill selection is terrible. She'll probably be a dedicated healer when I get back to this because of it. I'm thinking Valkyrie but if horse weakness bugs me (doubt it) than I guess Sage would work too. Though I could make her Sage anyway if she's just paired up with someone else. We'll see I guess. Nowi doesn't have the best skill selection either but her survivability just seems so much better.
Sword-only weapon sets also not that fun because limited magic swords, and they're my only 1-2 range swords. I've taken to just equipping Silver/Brave and hoping whoever is involved can just dodge everything before wrapping things up, which is working so far, but not ideal. Anyone with Armsthrift I usually let play with Magic Swords but I usually still bleed a few uses away doing that since I'm also support grinding to try and kill two birds here and often times Luck doesn't make it to 50 to ensure I'm not losing uses here and there. [/spoiler]
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Liberal Arts Major
But IIRC, shortly after the tournament/maybe even the tournament itself is when I really, really started liking the game. I mean, I liked it before, but man.
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Liberal Arts Major
I said it fuck it and trained my Red Skull up a bit, god damn I didn't realize how good they could get. The last 3 and a half chapters I just solo'd them all using a single Star Skull. <_<
<->
http://www.backloggery.com/kodan882
Liberal Arts Major
[Spoiler for Persona 4, click to show]So, I got kinda fed up. Just met Rise again on my Very Easy playthrough. I decided to say fuck it and looked up the plot synopsis on Wikipedia
FUCK YEAH I WAS RIGHT ADACHI WAS THE REAL KILLER. [/spoiler]
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Liberal Arts Major
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Liberal Arts Major
Priam never stood a chance. I have 22 units trained up to either max or near max stats, including all 14 2nd gen units. That said, this map was basically handled by Avatar, Severa, and most of all Morgan. Because wide-open fields where 50 units just charge you from the beginning tend to go like that.
Hopefully the remaining DLC can reinvigorate me, because otherwise I'm starting to feel glad it's almost over. [/spoiler]
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Liberal Arts Major
Other giveaways were:
* He complains he's bored and wants something to do
* His constant slipping up and talking about the case excitedly.
Also, yeah. He's a social link in Golden.[/spoiler]
<->
http://www.backloggery.com/kodan882
Liberal Arts Major
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Liberal Arts Major
Went to a used game store, traded my DVD collection in (Bastards only accepted a quarter of the colleection <_<)
I bought Guitar Hero 3 and a wired 360 guitar. <_<
I originally intended just to buy a wired 360 controller for my PC, but when I got in there, I saw that Guitar Hero 3 was on sale for $6 and wired 360 guitars were $15.
So, not a bad deal for a game I liked when I borrowed it!
<->
http://www.backloggery.com/kodan882
Liberal Arts Major
[Spoiler for FE: Awakening Five-Anna Firefight, click to show]This, on the other hand, was a let-down. Well, outside the conversations before the map. Here you have to rescue 5 NPC Annas in a volcano. There's like 19 enemies deployed and you get 12. About 8 are flying the rest on the ground. Rescue is banned (and Chrom and Lissa's reaction to being told this in-game is great). However, the flying units don't automatically rush... and you can get there Turn 1. So even though I only deployed two fliers + Noire/Mire I was never in any danger here. Boring. [/spoiler]
[Spoiler for FE: Awakening Roster Rescue, click to show]As was this map. Here you basically have to defeat 7 Revenants who are trying to flee the map. But with walls that fall/repair like in Nah's Paralogue. Also the rest of the enemy army, but they aren't fleeing. So I basically just moved my army as far as the map would let me. Noire picked off a few when she could with Mire. Two of them almost got away, and one may have if not for Galeforce. Highlight of this map was Softly with Grace (FE7) was the battle theme. [/spoiler]
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Liberal Arts Major
<->
http://www.backloggery.com/kodan882
Editor
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"You're childish. What are you getting? Are you getting strawberry? Ha! That's such a childish flavor, only children eat strawberry."
Liberal Arts Major
I only borrowed it years ago. I avoided getting it because it was too fucking expensive. Hell, just 2 years I called around to various shops... They still wanted $30+ for most of the new games, and $60+ for the guitars... Ridiculous bull shit.
So, $15 for the guitar (Only paid $4) and $6 for the game was a pretty sweet deal all things considered.
Also, I liked the PS2 Kramer guitar more than the 360 X-Plorer guitar. Feels way more comfortable.
<->
http://www.backloggery.com/kodan882
Liberal Arts Major
[Spoiler for FE: Awakening Summer Scramble, click to show]This map too, although instead of Risen it's just mercenaries. And no counter. [/spoiler]
[Spoiler for FE: Awakening Hot Springs Scramble, click to show]And this one too EXCEPT REINFORCEMENTS SPAWNING IN YOUR OWN SPAWN POINT WHAT THE HELL. why would you do that on a map designed for conversations which would quite easily encourage you to bring characters who are not really battle-ready and oh my god.
so yeah i lost a unit (Emmeryn) to this.
aughhhh. Now that I know it won't happen again but that was BS. [/spoiler]
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Liberal Arts Major
It's MUCH BETTER with a controller than with Keyboard. The keyboard controls suck.
It's not a bad game per se, but there's a shitload of "go here but i'm not going to give a hint where" type of shit that goes on.
And the lack of a map screen (In a FREE ROAM GAME) is INCREDIBLY annoying.
<->
http://www.backloggery.com/kodan882
Liberal Arts Major
Avatar/Lucina's conversation was adorable though. [/spoiler]
Okay, now my DLC Spoiler Warnings actually have some meaning because Future Past actually seems to have a plot, so if you care about spoilers the Future Past ones might be something to be taken seriously.
[Spoiler for FE: Awakening The Future Past 1, click to show]So, it looks like Naga has summoned us to save the world. Well, a world. A world in which Grima has returned. Chrom is like, "Well sign me up." Naga explains the world's fate hinges on 12 children but that without intervention they're doomed. Chrom misses that it means the 2nd gen and Naga is like "you might know some of these people." First up we end up somewhere in Plegia, a burning building of some sort, where Cynthia, Nah, Noire, and Kjelle are after having found two of the gemstones. They get surrounded, then separated and disarmed. Lucina (our Lucina) goes into a freak-out saying this place feels just like her future and we've made a mistake coming here, but Chrom tells her we're doing this. Meanwhile, Cynthia is trying to pep-talk the NPCs through this, but the others won't have it given the situation, and even Cynthia is forced to admit they're screwed.
Anyway, our objective here seems to be to save the NPC Cynthia/Nah/Noire/Kjelle. They're in 4 rooms that are locked where they're being attacked by 2 weaking enemies, with a bunch of promoted ones out in the halls. It's a small map and the hall guys can take shots at the NPCs through the wall if allowed. The enemies actually in the cells are weak and do like 1-4 damage on these guys, who are armed with Elixirs (but with silly AI on when to use them)
They're also crazy weak. Well, some of them. I think there's some inheritence at work here. Definitely with the skills, but Nah is by far the most competent of the NPCs here and that makes sense given that I have Nowi and Gaius very leveled. At first things were going well, then reinforcements spawned and a sorcerer was able to 1-shot Kjelle through a wall. I had to roll my eyes. Reset and tried again, making sure to block that from happening.
****ER HAS MIRE.
AND CAN ONE-SHOT KJELLE WITH IT
ugh gonna have to do the dishonorable thing and block stairs i think to prevent that guy from existing. [/spoiler]
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Liberal Arts Major
* The one for completing the story.
* The one for beating Beauty Queen Etna and getting the Demon Lord title.
* The one for beating Larhl via the Dark Embassy option "I want to fight a demon lord". [/spoiler]
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Liberal Arts Major
[Spoiler for FE: Awakening The Future Past 1, click to show]Okay, so we employed a new strategy here which was more or less "don't pair up, I need more units to act as shields" and this worked more or less. The boss (Morgan (M)) then lost his mind and charged at one group of my army. And being a MASTER TACTICIAN he chooses to fight not the unit (Chrom) who can't fight back at 2-range, but Kjelle who has Hand Axes equipped and one-shots him with a crit.
Meanwhile, you can actually learn quite a bit about the actual 2nd gen here by having them "talk" to their NPC versions. Where they don't actually talk to them because time travel shenanigans but tend to monologue and reveal things. It appears this is their future but slightly worse. They comment on how they had stopped by here themselves when they were returning the gemstones but got a bad feeling and left quickly. Chrom also chats with Cynthia and Cynthia lets us know that Lucina is defending Ylisse by herself while everyone else is on fetch quests. Like a boss.
Anyway, after we clear the map Naga is all "congrats but it's not done yet" and we shift scenes to Ylisse where Lucina is chilling and worrying about how the others are taking too long. Tiki shows up and Lucina is like "'sup Tiki, how are-wait what are you doing here" and Tiki explains that Mount Prism has fallen to Lucina's "fffffffffffffff" reaction. Tiki tries to give Lucina a pep talk on the status of the others which is interrupted when she throws herself in front of Lucina to take a hit by Grima's Avatar and tells Lucina to run the **** away. Scene end.
man this is seemingly like a better plot than most of the game itself. [/spoiler]
[Spoiler for FE: Awakening The Future Past 2, click to show]This time we have to save Owain, Inigo, Brady, and Yarne who are also trying to deliver two gemstones back to Ylisse. However, they get swarmed by Risen and Owain tells the other 3 to leave him behind and let him defend the bridge to buy them time. Inigo agrees, but then tells Owain "nope" and cuts down the bridge separating them from Brady and Yarne. Brady reluctantly tells Yarne they need to gtfo because they're still being chased.
There's a bunch of fliers here but thankfully they (or any other high power units) don't go after Owain/Inigo because otherwise this would be pretty hopeless. Instead they have the foresight to go where Yarne and Brady are going and also to ignore my attempts to get in the way. I have a scare at one point because there was one more flier than I could handle one turn, but instead of probably killing Yarne or Brady it chose to use Rally and I almost had to crack up laughing.
Less funny was a bit later on when I thought I was all clear except for getting a few more conversations with Owain/Inigo and I think 8 units spawned right in front of me, and more alarmingly, Lissa. Lissa got taken to 1 hit away from destruction but ultimately survived. Avatar chatted with the boss, Morgan (F) and unnerved her sufficiently for her to bail on the fight. It also calls into question some things about this timeline. She expresses faith in the path that (presumably Grima!Avatar) is on to the point of being willing to fight her former friends but also notes that the one thing she can't do is fight the kind and gentle person her father used to be. So I guess Morgan here was born pre-Grima. Then again, I kind of suspect Morgan in this timeline came about some other way. i think lucina would remember having a daughter.
More 2nd Gen comments reveal this battle happened for them, but there were a lot less Risen and thus they never had to split up like they did here. Anyway, we save everyone again, and the battle is over once we complete the rout.
More celebrating from the NPCs as well as more "still not done" from Naga before we head back to Ylisse. Grima!Avatar (it has to be him, but he's still wearing the hood) teleports out when Lucina attacks... which is kinda weird, you'd think he could win here. Lucina tells Tiki she'll get a cleric but Tiki waves it off saying she's done and they don't have enough staves and vulneraries to waste on her. Which is absurd. Tiki is a critical person, Lucina even argues that! But Tiki is having none of that and decides to die, before trying again to keep Lucina from going into DESPAIR like she hasn't since Chapter 21/22. I'm not sure she succeeds, because it appears that after her parents died, Lucina saw Tiki as a kind of mother figure or something so the scene ends with her breaking down over Tiki's death. [/spoiler]
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Liberal Arts Major
He destroys the world because he's angry he lost. [/spoiler]
<->
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Liberal Arts Major
like i said my memory is bad.
really bad. [/spoiler]
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Liberal Arts Major
You fight him in Holt Village. It's him and 4x of those demons with arm cannons.
So, if you beat him he gets pissed and destroys the world.
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Liberal Arts Major
[Spoiler for FE: Awakening The Future Past 3, click to show]The thrilling conclusion~!
In Ylisstol, Lucina meets up with Severa, Gerome, and Laurent. They've successfully recovered the Fire Emblem and one gemstone. They're also the only ones to report back so far. Lucina is actually positive for once but then Avatar!Grima shows up again and is like "lol sup guys gonna shut down this party right now." He explains briefly he is Grima since Lucina doesn't know and asks they turn over the Fire Emblem, saying the other children are dead. They call him on this bluff and refuse. He responds by using his "drop to 1 HP" cutscene move on all of them. He's about to finish Lucina when Severa jumps between them and tells Lucina to run. Severa what a pro. Laurent and Gerome join her. Lucina struggles to decide whether to stay or fight when Chrom's group teleports in. Grima has a brief, "what the ****, I killed Chrom. oh, naga what a troll" moment and the battle is on.
Lucina and co start out at your location, but they're all still at 1 HP from the cutscene attack. You're also pretty much surrounded. It's defeat commander though so in theory you could end this turn 1 with Galeforce and provided you can take down Grima who has better stats than his final chapter story version I'm pretty sure. No Ignis but he has Hawkeye so he has guaranteed hits and that's just silly. For this I did convos turn 1 and used my spare characters to beat the enemies who were in range of both the NPCs and my weaker convo-only members. The NPCs on their turn break for the bottom of the screen to block stairs for me, spamming concoctions on the way. Meanwhile on subsequent turns I just keep clearing enemies and by Turn 4 I have it down to just Grima and Lucina paired with Avatar decide to ruin Grima's day personally. In convos, our Lucina reflects on how this would have happened to her had she not time-travelled and also how despite things being worse off in this world, they at least had the Emblem + 5 Gemstones whereas they lost a Gemstone (Think she mentioned this in the story too, but it's been a while) so in its own way, this world also has more hope than hers did.
At that point Grima gets mad and invokes cutscene immunity or something and claims he's about to kill us all after complaining we shouldn't be this strong, though I have no idea why he thinks he's capable. Then Avatar hijacks his body to stop him from attacking and teleports Chrom's group out back to their own world to save them from Grima. because NPC Lucina is so much better off without us there to back her up! Naga basically goes "wtf guys, what the hell are you doing here? Did you fail?" and Chrom replies, "Um... maybe? It wasn't too clear!" Then Tiki pops in and explains she's showing up to chat with Naga and us before she replaces her. Presumably because even while dead, Tiki is more useful than Naga. She then disappears mid-sentence on the group and Chrom is like "wtf" and Naga just goes, "We won."
Back in Ylisstol, Lucina wonders wtf happened to Chrom's army and Grima recovers and realizes what should have been obvious the whole time. Without Chrom's army he can win easily! ...What then ensues is just massive trolling to Grima. I'll try to paraphrase:
Grima: Well, that sure was interesting.
Lucina: What happened to Father?
Grima: Did you know, the man who once controlled this body loved Chrom. He'd die to protect him, and just now in sending him away his spirit has finally died!
Lucina: ...Huh.
Grima: Well, now, you're totally ****ed. The Emblem and one gemstone? Please. Time to-*gets struck by an arrow*
Noire: 'Sup.
Grima: What?
*The other 8 children show up*
Grima: Wait, what? That must mean Morgan failed. And the other Morgan! (yes grima does refer to "the other morgan") All Naga's fault no doubt.
Lucina: We have all 5 Gemstones now it's over.
Grima: Yeah, it would be. But I killed Naga ages ago. *background music stops* (it actually does stop)
Lucina: Wait, what? (Seriously, what? So is the Naga who's been mission control here been our Naga? That's what I'm rolling with now. Or maybe it's Dead!Naga, I dunno.)
Grima: Did you really think I'd let her live and let the Awakening be possible?
Lucina: ...yes. yes i did.
Tiki: Wrong, mother****er.
Lucina: oh this is ri-goddamn-diculous.
Grima: Wait, I killed you!
Tiki: Only my body, not my spirit!
Grima: there was a difference?
Tiki: Yes! And Avatar hijacked you there to ensure you didn't kill my spirit back there so this could happen!
Grima: that ****ing guy.
Lucina: That's cool and all, but-
Tiki: I'll become the new Naga.
Lucina:...you can do that?
Tiki: Yep.
Lucina: Well, okay, I'm not complaining.
Grima: Well, I did not see any of this coming. Really. But you guys have totally forgotten that the Awakening has to be performed on Mount Prism and I'm sure as hell not letting you walk over there.
Tiki: Since when were you under the impression the Awakening had to take place on Mount Prism?
Grima: ...explain
Tiki: The reason it takes place there is because that's where the divine dragon's power is the strongest. But let's assume, hypothetically, that Risen invaded Mount Prism and defiled it. The divine dragon's power would mean **** there, wouldn't it?
Grima: oh ****.
Tiki: So where would it go? Well, it happened to go to the remains of the divine dragon's voice. Who you idiotically left right here. In Ylisstol.
Grima: ...
Tiki: Honestly, if you left Mount Prism alone you might have had a chance. (Tiki actually takes the time to troll Grima on this very point.)
Grima: ffffffffffffffff-IT DOESN'T MATTER. TALKING ISN'T A FREE ACTION! YOU CAN'T DEFEND WHILE DOING THE AWAKENING! I'LL JUST ATTACK THEN!
*Avatar hijacks Grima again*
Grima: THAT ****ING GUY
Tiki: Do it, Lucina!
*Id ~ Purpose starts up. Also, Burn My Dread -Last Battle-*
*Lucina starts the awakening*
Avatar (as Grima): All right, let's do this.
*Lucina OHKOs Grima. Cutscene displays her damage correctly as like 11 v Grima's 90, but she hits for 99 anyway*
You know, when Id ~Purpose~ started I was hoping I'd get command of the NPC units there even if it was a formality battle. I was too hyped. alas i knew it couldn't be.
So, Grima dies (or more likely is sealed based on story knowledge) and the NPCs celebrate. Then there's a flashforward a few months forward and the children are calling a meeting (and are going by the Shepherd name) Everyone but Lucina, Severa, and Cynthia eventually show and they say it's everyone and get ready to start, when Lucina is like, "you ****ing guys. didn't even invite me." To which they reply, "what are you even doing here? the exalt shouldn't be alone." "since when were you under the impression i was alone?" Cynthia shows up having been authorized to revive the Pegasus Knights of Ylisse after begging Lucina, and Severa joined up.
Cynthia: Severa is AMAZING
preach it cynthia. that's why you're high on the deployment tier. also galeforce. and aether. but also for knowing what's what.
Then there's a Risen attack and the Shepherds go after it in total overkill fashion. Lucina, Severa, and Cynthia chill until Cynthia finally asks to go check on them and is given permission. Leaving Lucina and Severa some time to chat. Finally Severa goes, "Well, they've got that **** covered, want to go back to the castle?" and Lucina replies, "Sure, let's go" and monologues a bit towards Chrom. After Lucina and Severa leave Chrom shows up and maybe it's just the context but the art freaks me out and I half expect the music to change to creepy as Chrom talks but I'm pretty sure it's meant to be his "ghost" and Avatar's too show up and chat how they'll always be watching, etc.
~End~
Despite my semi-mocking paraphrase there, this was a much better ending then the actual ending, IMO. The Future Past in general was probably a better arc than most of the actual story. It was worth playing. Also, Severa appearing to be Lucina's BFF and second-in-command the best. [/spoiler]
Anyway, then I checked Apotheosis really quickly and saw everyone was maxed on stats, and in at least one case I think beyond caps even assuming Limit Breaker. so i was like "nope" and left to start Grind Session 2.0: the quest to max stats. Should go a lot faster than Grind Session 1.0 but we'll see.
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Liberal Arts Major
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Liberal Arts Major
Didn't win, not sure I'm going to put the effort into actually doing so. I'm sure I could if I re-classed my units to more ideal classes, forged a bunch of Brave Weapons, or spammed Rally or something, but meh. [/spoiler]
[Spoiler for FE: Awakening, click to show]I may give Apotheosis another shot today or something, but no promises, and either way, I think I'm basically done now. So, time for some general thoughts I guess.
Pretty good game, but not the best Fire Emblem. Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn still the best. I think I'd put Awakening next, but FE7 has an argument there. I think I finally get the map design argument because man a lot of places just felt like "send an OP unit or two out into the middle of this field and win" Supports and characters felt kind of weak in a lot of places too. Maybe because a lot/most of the characters were like... caricatures, more than usual, and for a lot/most of them I wasn't a fan of. Story was a bit all over the place. Sometimes it was okay, sometimes it wasn't, and a lot of times in retrospect I have no idea wtf.
The game definitely was at its best during Future Past. Future Past 3 the highlight of the game probably. Which I have mixed feelings about because the highlight being DLC? don't really want. Other highlights being Lucina's DESPAIR after Chapter 21, the battles against Walhart, and the final chapter.
I thought I'd have more to say, but uh... apparently not! At least not right now. [/spoiler]
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Liberal Arts Major
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Editor
I agree a lot. I felt like the children characters were generally characterized a lot better, but even then instead of "what random quirk/interest does this character talk about nonstop?" it was just "what random psychological disorder/coping mechanism does this character have?" which is more interesting to me but still not a great basis for a character.
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"You're childish. What are you getting? Are you getting strawberry? Ha! That's such a childish flavor, only children eat strawberry."
Liberal Arts Major
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Liberal Arts Major
Also, the cahpter 2 background image on the guide is horrifying. [/spoiler]
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Liberal Arts Major
Yeah, the children characters were on the whole much better done, IMO. There are a few 1st gen characters who are on their level, and a few children characters who aren't that good but in general 2nd gen easily wins.
Man, Fire Emblem is a game I keep hearing about and it sounds so awesome, but whenever I try to get into it, it's just kinda... "Blah".
Fire Emblem is a pretty good series. I'd recommend Path of Radiance (GCN) to someone new to the series, but well... it's a GCN game and apparently rare/expensive now so...
I'd hesitate in recommending Awakening as an entry point. Difficulty/mechanics-wise it's arguably the most accessible, but I kind of feel like it'd be easy to get the wrong impression of the series from it.
[Spoiler for Disgaea 2, click to show]IIRC, I didn't like the Axel Campaign either. [/spoiler]
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?