#and since this was supposed to be my first proper patch 7 playthrough it felt fitting

[shiniestcrow]

Astarion, shit stirring: So, Gale, how is your sad, hopeless pining going?

Gale: I'm hardly pining. It's been a year or more since Mystra cast me aside.

Astarion: Oh, my dear wizard. I wasn't talking about Mystra.

Salas, meanwhile: I'm gonna fuck that wizard As Soon as I stop discovering new secrets about Wyll every ten steps. Stop hiding things ffs I'm trying to help you

[gascon-en-exil]

As I mentioned a few days ago I finally figured out how to play FE4 with the latest translation patch, so for the first time ever I’m actually getting to experience firsthand Jugdral’s pageantry of political and family drama, incest, and clunky inventory management. I’m currently at the start of Chapter 7; I was planning to write down my commentary so far at the end of 1st Gen, but I was delayed on account of Pâques so here we are. I know Jugdral maintains an active following here on Tumblr, so this will undoubtedly be of interest to someone.

I’m still not used to the map size and scale, but how this approach to chapters affects the narrative seems kind of inconsistent. The Prologue is just a basic FE opening times two, Chapters 1 and 2 each work well as standalone stories, and I get that Chapter 4 is the breather level between the mess that is Agustria and everything that happens to cap off the 1st Gen. That said, Chapter 5 has way too much going on (unless the intention was to overwhelm the player with a chaotic snowballing mess barreling toward the Belhalla barbecue, in which case mission accomplished), and Chapter 3 has a wildly out of place last segment: the protagonist’s wife has been kidnapped, the Camus has bit the dust, and the army has been branded traitors, but let’s take five and kill some pirates. Sure. Chapter 6 didn’t leave much of an impression on me apparently, though it was more complex than I was expecting considering it comes just after the game pushes the reset button on the playable cast. I wonder how much harder it would be using only substitute characters?

Speaking of eugenics, I paired up all the relevant women according to the pairing guide on SF because it’s been ages since I’ve been emotionally invested in a M/F romance in anything. It doesn’t seem like it would be easy in Genealogy anyway, what with the lack of proper support conversations. As I understand it some pairings don’t get any conversations at all, eesh. At any rate, I believe that several of the pairings I picked were among the more canon ones (Lewyn/Erinys, Azel/ Tailtiu, Midir/Edain, Claud/Silvia, Beowolf/Lachesis), so I guess it’s good that I’m getting to see that letting some random nobody like Arden get laid. (And yes, I know Arden has a special event in Chapter 5 if he does, but I’ll have to save that for another playthrough.)

Jugdral does appear to be a tad lacking in the queer subtext department, unless it’s just buried really deeply or all in Gen 2/FE5 or something. I mean, I can assume from how the Big Knightly Trio of Gen 1 turned out (one marries another sister’s, one marries a woman from another’s territory, the third has never loved woman until he meets a mysterious waif whom he’s explicitly forbidden from boning) that there’s some repressed erotic longing going on there, but I don’t have much else. Now that some people including myself are looking forward to gay!Leon in the Gaiden remake it’s a bit disappointing to think of how starved the inevitable remake of this game will probably feel by comparison. But then, you know, eugenics babies.

So...Deirdre’s Naga brand is easily recognizable on her forehead, right? Does that mean she never took off her circlet around Sigurd, even when they were, er, making Seliph? Now there’s a funny plot hole.

Good God, the inventory system in this game is in desperate need of an update. I can live with each character having their own gold supply, but the inability to trade is just stupid. I realize that it would detract a bit from inheritance, but I suppose they could fix that by making it impossible to get any items from Gen 1 unless they get passed down (excluding items that can never be inherited, of course). Making doubling and critical hits dependent on a skill and/or weapon kills is also in need of correcting. I imagine that Pursuit is even more centralizing to this game’s breeding meta than Galeforce is to Awakening’s, and here it’s just to get an ability that’s baseline everywhere else in the series. So annoying.

I understand that Jugdral is meant to be the distant past of Archanea, but whether it’s because I’m scarcely more familiar with that setting or something else I just keep seeing the foundations of Elibe instead. Ilia and Bern are Silesse and Thracia with their roles as mercenary nation and monarchy reversed (but the wyvern countries are the aggressive militaristic ones on both continents, because of course they are), Isaach is like a less ethnically Othered Sacae, and Grannvale is comparable to Lycia with its squabbling marquesses. It’s so extensive that I read elements of Etruria into Agustria, even though I don’t think the latter is necessarily meant to be Jugdral’s source of culture and refinement. It does at least have the warring nobility thing down pat. On a related note, the story of Verdane’s corruption felt incredibly familiar, until I remembered that earlygame (not Lyn’s story) FE7 reuses pretty much the whole thing. There was also the Agustrian noble whose son tries to attack Sigurd (and gets his ass handed to him by Eldigan) in Chapter 1, which both FE6 and 7 revisit with Laus.

Oh, Eldigan, you are neither as gay in-game as Perceval nor as slashable as Xander, and so my interest in you as a Camus is rather dwindled. At least Xander had the excuse that the irrational despot he supported was (as far as he knew) his father. Unless it’s implied by House Nordion having Hezul blood that they’re distantly related to Agustria’s ruling family or that Nordion used to be charge Eldigan’s fate does seem more misguided than tragic. I’m not even commenting on whatever’s going on with him and Lachesis, except that it’s funny as hell to imagine how (if at all) that would be officially localized. Isn’t it played up even further in some of the tie-in material?

I hated Chapter 5′s desert segment, and now I’m dreading Chapter 7 for pretty much the same reason. Gah...so much sand to get through to reach all the interesting Thracia and Freege stuff I’ve been reading about for years.

I’ll definitely have more to say once I’m all the way through the game. Incidentally, I don’t mind spoilers for the rest of the game and/or FE5 in responses; I’ve known tons of disconnected bits of info about Jugdral for years, and it’s just that now I can actually witness them for myself.