#if i restart as a mage will it suck less | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

brassikarts · 5 years ago

Text

Who We Once Were - Val

Take a trip down memory lane, pull up the oldest ‘about’ post you can find for your character, and annotate what has changed and what has stayed the same in {Curly brackets}.

Originally posted September 23, 2018 {...though she existed well before then. I just sucked at tagging things for a long time and didn’t get around to doing a character sheet for ages}.

{Original image: not on the GIF finder anymore, but it was Gillian Jacobs as Mickey from Love. I’ve since gravitated more fully to using CYN as Val’s faceclaim because LOOK AT THAT HAIR. She looks enough like Val’s original FC but with the coloring I associate more with my girl and THAT HAIR.}

Character’s Full Name: Valerie (Variya) Theona Farmer (D’Astorio) {Same name. She still doesn’t let anyone call her Variya, not even Sino.}

Reason or Meaning of Name: The original name I gifted her was ridiculous (and no, I won’t tell you), so I retconned it when I restarted WoW and updated her character history a year and a half ago. Valerie as her living-again name was deliberate - it’s common enough not to raise eyebrows and still pretty. Theona is her mother’s name; Farmer is a wry nod towards having grown up on a farm. {Still true.}

Character’s Nickname/Alias: Val/Vally/Vee {No one really calls her anything other than Val, so, still true}

Reason for Nickname/Alias: Shortening her name, and also distinguishing her from ANOTHER Arcanist Val. {There are like, 20 Arcanist Vals, I’ve come to find, but I don’t really hang in the same circles as any of them, lol.}

Birth Date: June 21st (Cancer) {Unchanged}

Physical appearance

Age: This body is 30. {Nope; this body is 32 as of Sunday!}

How old does he/she appear: About 30! {More or less the same, I guess.}

Weight: 125 lbs {Up it to 130. She put on some muscle!}

Height: 5’6” {Unchanged.}

Body build: Average, if rather underfed. She could stand a few more pastries and solid meals in her life. {Val looks a lot more healthy these days. Part of it is eating more real food, and a lot of fresh air and exercise.}

Shape of face: I… I dunno, look at Gillian Jacobs up there and you tell me. {Look at CYN, I guess.}

Eye color: Light, fawn brown. {Unchanged.}

Glasses or contacts: Glasses. For a seer, she’s blind as a bat. It was completely on purpose. {Changed! She finagled around until, in Darkshore, she developed a spell she calls Mage Sight which more or less corrects her vision. It does, however, leave a bright blue glow overlay over her eyes. She still has her glasses because they correct better but is lazy and Mage Sight is good enough for everything but reading.}

Skin tone: Pale, with freckles popping up on her cheeks, chest, and arms if she spends too long in the dreaded sunlight. {There’s a little more color now, but Ashenvale is shady so she’s not exactly tan.}

Distinguishing marks: Awesome, large starburst-shaped scar above her heart; still-healing scar from an arrow wound on her left calf. {Both still there. I added a few streaky holy water burns on the tops of her hands and forearms.}

Hair color: Caramel-y dark blonde. {Still accurate.}

Type of hair: Curls (Type 3A, for those playing the home game), and between her chin and shoulders. {Curls still accurate, but it’s longer - mid-back.}

Hairstyle: Loose, usually. She sometimes pins it up or french-braids it to get it out of the way. {Accurate.}

Voice: Unexpectedly high and somewhat breathy. Her voiceclaim is Dana Cardinal from Welcome to Night Vale. {Yup on both points.}

Overall Attractiveness: Fairly? I dunno, solid 7 if she’s been eating enough and is in a good mood. {Awk. I’m not good at rating these things.}

Physical Disabilities: A slight limp and glasses but nothing more than that. {I probably should have mentioned the massive lack of sensation she experiences here, leaving her with drastically impaired smell and taste and less-severely-but-still-impacted touch. The limp’s gone now, though.}

Usual Fashion of Dress: Leggings and either a fancy camisole or a tunic layered underneath girly wizard’s robes. Soft suede boots with heels that are awful for running. A red, hooded silk cloak with bronze trim. {That cloak is trashed now. She’s gone more utilitarian since spending time on the front.}

Favorite Outfit: The crimson Tirisfal garb. {STILL TRUE!!!}

Jewelry or Accessories: Val wears a pair of simple pearl studs that belonged to her mother, as well as a moonsteel crescent moon necklace. Around her wrist is an amethyst necklace on a long chain that’s been looped around several times, and a chain link enamel bracelet depicting the phases of the moon. {The earrings were given to Hani prior to going back out to Darkshore. The necklace is still true, and the amethyst gets passed between her and Sino whenever one of them needs good luck. The enamelled bracelet she has, but hasn’t wore recently.}

Personality

Good Personality Traits: Highly intelligent, tenacious {Still true.}

Bad Personality Traits: Tenacious (hey, it cuts both was) and willing to do not so great stuff for certain people she’s very close to. {Still true.}

Mood Character is Most Often In: Thoughtful. {Still true.}

Sense of Humor: Wry. {Still true.}

Character’s Greatest Joy In Life: Seeing the stars, preferably from a good and empty vantage point. Also, cinnamon buns. {Definitely still true.}

Character’s Greatest Fear: Death. {Still true.}

What single event would most throw this character’s life into complete turmoil? Welp, it happened what with all the stability she’s built up over the years crashing down post-Teldrassil, soo. {Hey, she’s rebuilding! Shadowlands is going to be a whole new thing, though, especially with what else is planned.}

Character Is Most at Ease When: By herself, in a library, with snacks. {Still true, though ‘in an observatory’ would work too.}

Most Ill at Ease When: Out in nature and required to interact with it. Camping is NOT a thing she does, unless she either really likes someone or circumstances demand such. {This has changed. I wouldn’t call Val an Outdoorsman by any means, but her EW ANIMALS stance has definitely been dialed back by spending a year in a cave.}

Enraged When: Forsaken are around and plotting. When people play petty and stupid social one-upmanship games. When she’s talked down to. {Still true x 3.}

Depressed or Sad When: She feels she has no purpose or no prospects. {Still true.}

Life Philosophy: “For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.” (Thanks, Carl Sagan!) {Still true.}

If Granted One Wish, It Would Be: For her body and soul to be firmly attached together. Everything else is doable. {I think I might amend that to ‘will never die’ but.}

Greatest Strength: Came back from the brink of the madness and void while stuck between space and time. That’s pretty good if you ask me. {Still true.}

Greatest Vulnerability or Weakness: Arrogance and a tendency to want to have ALL information before making a decision. {Still true.}

Biggest Regret: Not getting into contact with her family and closest friends sooner. That’s years of relationships lost. {Still true.}

Minor Regret: Being godawful at conjuring snacks. They’re all off; she eats them anyway. {Still true, lol.}

Biggest Accomplishment: Her intelligence network efforts on the surface of Argus an using ley lines and manipulating the arcane to have scrying networks communicate with one another. {UM. Maybe Surviving Darkshore now? Not discounting Argus but she really came into her own as a mage on Kalimdor.}

Minor Accomplishment: The sheer volume of dresses and robes she’s accumulated. Wait, is that an accomplishment or just physical evidence of a tendency to hoard? {HA - all this stuff is in a closet in Suramar that she can’t get back to.}

Character’s Darkest Secret: Former Forsaken, ex (ex?) Horde deserter. One day, I’d like to play out any ramifications of that. {This is out now: she publicly admitted that she used to be Forsaken at Death Day back in April.}

Goals

Drives and Motivations: Plumb the secrets of the universe. Being better than she was yesterday. Making up for lost time. You know - small things. {Still true.}

Immediate Goals: Finding that elf (or finding his body - tbh, not sure how this is all going to play out), getting her stuff back from Suramar. {Found him! Though her crap is still in Suramar... she’s rebuilding her house right now and looking into the mystery of the disappeared @alyssa-ward at the moment.}

Long Term Goals: To make sure time isn’t ever an issue again. To figure out the connection between its (time’s) flow and the way events play out. A workable curly hair solution. {Still true x3.}

How the character plans to accomplish these goals: Magic. Persistence. Finding and networking with the right people. Being a general pain in the ass. {Still true. Being a pain in the ass is eternal.}

How Other Characters Will Be Affected: Well, that’s yet to be seen! {I mean. Might figure out where Alyssa went off to. Look, I only really have a head for 2 or 3 plots at once, sue me.}

Past

Hometown: Unincorporated countryside near Corin’s Crossing, Lordaeron. {Still true.}

Type of Childhood:Depressing. Her father left their family while she and her sister were young; her mother died before she was 10, and she and Hani were raised by their grandfather. He was a no-nonsense, anti-Gilnean ex-soldier and proud of his family’s connection to the land an raised both girls to be virtuous in it. Hasn’t been seen by Val since pre-Culling, and is assumed to be dead. Her father is still kicking around in Boralus, unbeknownst to her and Hani (another thing I’d like to explore). {Still true, but she knows where her dad is now. I forgot about that though, huh.}

Pets: None of note. {Still true, her kid self anyway.}

First Memory: Unexplained sparkles and corn fields. {Still true.}

Most Important Childhood Memory: Discovering she made the pink sparkles and that she could use magic. {Still true.}

Dream Job: Archmage, unaffiliated, and free to pursue her own research. {Still true, and she’s halfway there!}

Education: Country school at Corin’s Crossing, a brief stint as a novitiate with the Light, and then two Arcane Masters - Aeolanth DeVries (Forsaken Apothecary, brilliant, wants to watch the world burn) and Edmund Valks (Human, brilliant, but grumpy and into the Titans). {Still true. Haaay, @edmund-valks}

Religion: Growing up, the Light. {Still true.}

Finances: Poor but they had the basics and no one went hungry. {Still true.}

Present

Current Location: Splitting time between Boralus and Stormwind. {Nope. Ashenvale.}

Currently Living With: Dog and Naralash, and occasionally in Alyssa’s spare room, and at Hani’s house. {Nope. With Sino again, as well as Shifti and Naralash and - I think - Dog once more.}

Pets: Also Dog and Naralash - one old sheepdog, and one yearling Dawnsaber cub. {Shifti, Naralash’s sire, is there too and Nar is two and a half now! o.o}

Religion: Nope, though there were some inklings of curiosity into Elune there for awhile, pre-burning. The Elf is super into Malorne. {Still true, nowadays it’s a kind of... growing accord with what she assumes are the stars above and maybe Elune? Who knows; she doesn’t!}

Occupation: Freelance Diviner and Arcanist. {Still true, though her research is more... let’s say applied divination these days.}

Finances: Usually solid middle class, but without the Kirin Tor income and her stored emergency gold, not too hot. She’s being thrifty. {Still true, but they fend for themselves. Not like Ashenvale has a booming economy.}

Family

Mother: Theona D’Astorio {Still true.}

Relationship With Her: Given as she’s dead, not much. It was better while she was alive. {Still true.}

Father: Bertrand Dawes {Still true.}

Relationship with Him: None. He left when she was very young and she hasn’t sought him out since, believing he was dead (or, if he wasn’t, that he was long gone.) {Still true.}

Siblings: Haniya O’Brien (nee, D’Astorio) and a half-sibling that has yet to make an appearance. {Still true on both counts.}

Relationship With Them: Estranged with Hani for a long time. Doesn’t know the half-brother at all. {She and Hani are working on things.}

Spouse: None, but in a long-term thing with an Elf who shall not be named because he’s not on Tumblr. His name isn’t Voldemort. {Still true, but his name is Sino. He gave me permission to name him ages ago, ha.}

Relationship With Them: He needled her a lot at first, then revealed a streak of caring and intelligence; they got together and pretty quickly progressed to something exclusive and then living together, though things were rocky at times. In recent months, there’s been a dynamic shift and both have revealed the depths to which they care. {Still true; it’s been like, 3 years IC and OOC now and they’re still close. Lots of banter, lots of teaching one another stuff. Most of it isn’t RP’d out because we both hate slice of life, but!}

Children: None, and unlikely to ever be. {Heh. Not yet.}

Relationship With Them: n/a {Still true.}

Other Important Family Members: Working on that! {WTF did this mean?! Present me is confused.}

Favorites

Color: Purple and green. {Still true.}

Music: Acoustic, ambient, classical? Usually it’s background noise to her. {Still true.}

Food: Anything sweet. Even savoury things if you make them sweet. {Still true.}

Literature: Trashy romance novels (a guilty pleasure), adventure and fantasy, treatises on works of magic, clever historical fiction. {Still true.}

Form of Entertainment: Stargazing. Lectures and debates. Performances about town. {Still true but add gardening, board games, and solving mysteries.}

Expressions: Open thoughtfulness. {Still true.}

Mode of Transportation: Portals, obviously! {Still true. Lazy girl.}

Most Prized Possession: Her earrings (which were her mother’s), her cub, and a cracked scrying orb of mysterious purpose. {The earrings have been given away, the cub is now grown, but the orb is huge. Sino’s amethyst is huge to her, as is her Darkshore spellbook.}

Habits

Hobbies: Gardening, hobbyist alchemy (for everyday potions, not anything crazy powerful), drawing schematics to stuff, reading, sketching. {Still true.}

Plays a musical instrument?: LOL {Still true, hah.}

Plays a sport?: LOL {Still true!}

How he would spend a rainy day?: Indoors, with a steaming cup of cider and a book. {Still true, though she works outside if it’s light enough. It rains a lot in Ashenvale.}

Spending Habits: Awful when she has money to burn, but she’s careful to leave enough to live on. Once she and the elf became a thing, she became less spendthrifty because somehow he’s even worse with money. {Not much need to spend money when you by and large DIY like they’re doing.}

Smokes: Nope. {Still true.}

Drinks: Cocoa, tea, coffee, brandy, wine… she’s not too picky. {Still true, add arcwine.}

Other Drugs: A very occasional nip of mageroyal or bloodthistle. {Still true.}

What does he/she do too much of?: She’s a worrywort and overthinks everything. {Still VERY true.}

What does he/she do too little of?: Self-care in general, keeping up connections, and remembering to be kind and use her words. {Self care is much better now. She’s very good at using her words, but needs to work on the kindness a bit. She’s... prickly around strangers.}

Extremely Skilled At: Abjurations and Divinations, technical drawing, picking up new information. {Still true.}

Extremely Unskilled At: Physical tasks in general, evocations. {Better at all of these.}

Nervous Tics: Pinching the bridge of her nose. {Still true.}

Usual Body Posture: Crossed arms and curious looks. {Still true.}

Mannerisms: Neutral expressions, closed to those who don’t know her. You can see her excitability and really glimpse the depths of her emotions when you do. {Still true.}

Peculiarities: Very private, to a fault. Hates dirt and having her hands dirty. {Still true on all accounts.}

Traits

Optimist or Pessimist?: Realist? {Still true.}

Introvert or Extrovert?: Introvert. {Still true.}

Daredevil or Cautious?: Cautious. {Still true.}

Logical or Emotional?: Logical, but the more I play her with others and forms connections, the more emotion and depth she gains. {Still true!}

Disorderly and Messy or Methodical and Neat?: Likes neatness and strives for it but doesn’t always succeed. {Still true, and long cohabitation with someone messier than herself has relaxed her somewhat.}

Prefers Working or Relaxing?: Working, oddly. {Still true, though work can be anything that occupies her mind and makes her think.}

Confident or Unsure of Themself?: Confident in her own abilities, but not sure how others would view it. Also not sure she cares, lol. {Still true.}

Animal lover?: A little, though she keeps a respectful distance! {Still true.}

Self-perception

How She Feels About Herself: A mix of pride, confusion, and deep self-loathing. {Still true. We’re working on the self-loathing.}

One Word Character Would Use To Describe Themselves: Studied. {Still true.}

Paragraph Description on How They’d Describe Themselves: “I- why? What could you possibly want to know about me? I’m a Diviner, and no, I won’t read your fortune.” {Still true, LOL.}

What does the character consider his/her best personality trait?: She’s flexible and loyal and would walk through hell for those she loves. {Still true.}

What does the character consider his/her worst personality trait?: She makes snap judgements, and has a tendency to get passive aggressive an run away from problems. {Still true but a WIP and something she knows is a big issue.}

What does the character consider his/her best physical characteristic?: Her hair is quite thick and pretty. {Still true, when she puts in the effort.}

What does the character consider his/her worst physical characteristic?: “Spectacles are the worst.” {I’d actually say the scarring she’s gotten bugs her more.}

How does the character think others perceive him/her? I’m not sure she cares about most peoples’ perception of her. She knows she’s standoffish and can be arrogant. {Still true.}

What would the character most like to change about himself/herself? Her ability to relate to others. Huh. See below. {Still true.}

Relationships with others

Opinion of Other People in General: Some are incredible. Most are not. It’s really on a case by case basis, except for the Forsaken. They can go to hell. {Still... man. She realized in April that she absolutely needs to shift back into thinking about the Forsaken individually too - that they’re not all bloodthirsty monsters, and she used to be like that herself.}

Does the character hide his/her true opinions and emotions from others?: Absolutely. Once you get to know her well, you can see right through it, though. {Still true.}

Person Character Most Hates: Sylvanas, at the moment. {Still true. Sylvanas sucks [though I, the mun, love her]}

Best friend(s): The Elf, though she’s furious with him for the moment. @alyssa-ward. Edmund, too, and to an extent, Lucy. {The Elf, Edmund, Lucy for sure; Hani to a lesser extent, and Alyssa is... dead and growing more questionable by the moment.}

Love interest(s): The Elf. {Still true. That bastard.}

Person Character (Would) Go to For Advice: Alyssa, or - depending on circumstance, Valdim, who is a font of knowledge. Edmund, too. {Nope. Alyssa is dearly departed, she and Valdim don’t talk. Ed though! And Hani depending on advice. Sino; a few folks not on here. @curiouscodex is friendly though! This girl needs more friends is what I’m seeing.}

Person Character Feels Responsible For: Naralash and Dog. ALSO the Elf, who makes questionable decisions. {Still true, though Sino is getting better.}

Person Character Feels Awkward Around: Nobles, people in high positions of power, really. {Eh. It’s less awkward and more like there’s no reason for her to be there. I guess she’d feel awkward around Richard now, who isn’t on here, or around people she used to but doesn’t associate with anymore. Now that I think about it - @kat-hawke is one too because she doesn’t know how to react around her and doesn’t much care for her either, which sets up an interesting headspace.}

———————–

Tagged by: @alyssa-ward

Tagging: @the-kouchfort, @glitchphil, @theveiledprophet and whoever else wants to tackle this.

#what a wild wide #valerie farmer #tagged by #memory lane

8 notes · View notes

harusha · 5 years ago

Note

Is 3 Houses "New Player" friendly? I kinda wanna pick it up, but only played Awakening (and that was a few months ago, so not much history with the franchise). Also, how does it compare with Awakening in terms of level up/reclass/skills/etc?

It’s very new player friendly imo! There’s no Phoenix mode or anything, but you have features like the Retreat option (which lets you retain experience and restart the battle with all of your equipment durability set back to before you began) and Casual is back.

I do think there’s a lot of features, and that can be overwhelming, but you’ll pick them up quickly.

Honestly, I prefer Awakening in terms of skills and classes. Three Houses’s system is just tedious on a first playthrough, and the chosen master classes are super wonky. Some feel like a straight up upgrade (ex. War Master) and others are sidegrades (ex. Mortal Savant which is also kinda slow but that doesn’t matter if you have someone like Felix or Hubert who are already fairly fast). Also there’s no grounded mounted class for beginner class so riding is a pain to level up early on.

There’s also less skills (or at least what it feels like) than Awakening which I don’t really care for since I don’t get to customize the units as much. And the Dark Mage/Dark Bishop class is locked behind a certain limited enemy which is annoying. Plus, there’s no flying mage in this game which sucks (I like Dark Fliers and Malig Knights so).

And imo, the maps (at least for Blue Lions) are kinda forgettable and bad for the most part. There’s no gimmicks like Conquest, and Fog of War isn’t utilized enough. And there’s a lot of reused maps. I know they take place at the same location, but imo, the timeskip should have made some changes to the terrain instead of the same map but with more enemies spawning.

Reclassing is also a pain with certification exams because it is a random chance that’s decided as the day begins (so no save scrumming unless you go back to before the week began). You can raise it to 100% ofc, but you waste time if you don’t try every week when the option opens. For a first playthrough, you don’t have the benefits of new game+ to make it easier to get to the classes you want.

There’s also the garden where you can farm stat boosters, and cook to temporarily raise stats if you end up getting bad level ups.

And mounted units are super good with Canto and Dismount, and the size of the maps. The only thing they’re missing is Rescue (carrying units not the spell) and Hunter’s Volley (they restricted it this game). Not to mention the higher level armored battlelions and the Stride command (give all alies within range extra movement).

It’s still a good game ofc, and the lords are overpowered (not a Roy situation where he promotes super late and has kinda average growths across the board). Like... you can most likely solo maps w/ Dimitri by plopping him into a hoard of non magical enemies in Normal. The only maps I had problems with was 12 and 22 (b/c the first one had surprise spawns of certain characters, and I was collecting encounter quotes) and the latter b/c a deluge of enemies pop up.

Storywise, I think it’s fantastic (I have problems ofc w/ it, I wouldn’t call it above Geneology or the Tellius duo, but it’s up there). For me (as someone who started with Blue Lions and still needs to go through the other 3 routes), Dimitri is honestly one of the best lords in the series character-wise. His story is very much “classic Fire Emblem” but it shines in the interactions between the characters, especially Byleth and Dimitri, and on his personality post-skip. It’s honestly one of those routes where I’d recommend F!Byleth over her counterpart to take the Dimitri S-support since it ties in so nicely. I’m still saltly about M!Byleth not having the option to tbh.

That’s another of Three Houses’s strengths, the interactions between your chosen House. It feels very much like a group of friends.

As a side note, if you choose Edelgard as your first route, explore at least once every month and make sure to talk to her.

Overall, good game and a contender for GOTY, but also some obnoxious problems like the barren calendar system, split route (a lot of content and replayability but also threads are often left loose or left to epilogue), questionable reclass/skill system, etc.

Absolutely worth $60+,if you decide on the expansion pass which will eventually come with more classes and story, and a return to form after Fates’s kinda lackluster story (though I wouldn’t say it does better than Fates in some aspects like self-contained and satisfactory routes or gameplay at least for Blue Lions). Self-contained as in threads aren’t left too jarringly loose.

#conquest has some of the best map design in the series imo #Dimtri can kill in one shot but his res is bad #honestly give him vantage for the magical enemies and youre set #i do have problems w/ the story presentation at times and ive talked about it #but you asked about gameplay so im here on that #primarily

3 notes · View notes

mxmearcstapa · 5 years ago

Text

Naked Madlions Update #1!

Welcome all to the exciting adventure that is the Naked Madlions, my Maddening playthrough of Blue Lions without New Game+! (All updates are going to be tagged with #Molly's Madlions) As a warning, I've played all 4 routes and as this is a playthrough, it gets pretty spoiler-heavy. I might, and have in previous posts, talk about plot elements, comparisons, and other details.

Basically, spoiler warning for potentially all of FE3H, but most specifically Blue Lions.

With that out of the way, here's how it's going!

Prologue:

GUYS I FAILED THE FUCKING PROLOGUE AHAHAHA. We stole Claude and Edelgards' weapons and shoved them behind a wall to keep them out of danger. I put Dimitri in a bush and said, "yeah, he's sufficiently tanky, he can--" and then he took one hit, and he was okay, and then he took the second hit, and then he wasn't okay. And I thought, "oh, I'll Divine Pul--oh...right." Anyay, I've now seen what the Game Over screen looks like.

With more liberal healing and less aggressive tactics, we succeeded. :P

Mock Battle:

Battle requires Byleth and Dimitri, and I took Dedue, Mercedes, and Ingrid for other slots. Dedue has a swell personal ability which makes him excellent at taking physical hits. Mercie I took because she was the only one who could heal. Ingrid I was really on the fence about, as my past experiences with her have not been the best, but I picked her for her Res, which came really in handy this battle. I made sure to stock up on as many weapons as I could, and I equipped everyone with 2 vulneraries. It did take several restarts to find the right combination of actions, and I admit that Mercedes went down, but because this is like, one of two battles that aren't permadeath, I just left her down. She was out of heals anyway, and we were close to winning. Her survival is, of course, more important to me moving forward. Even so, it took 26 turns (and several swears) to complete three mock battle. Bleh.

"HEY, KOSTAS, REMEMBER US?":

Oh, my Divine Pulses! *cries in joy* oh...there's...only 3 of them. Okay. Cool. I'm used to like...10, but this...this is fine.

This is a tough fight to start out with, because most of these dumb babies are still level 1. No one got to 5 from the practice battle because, like a dingus, I split my exp a little more evenly before thinking about what might happen next. Plus, those Poison Touch Archers are AGGRESSIVE. All the Swordbois have Pass, so we had to watch our backs to make sure no one was sneaking behind us to stab the squishier ones. Most of the battle, we kept to the initial bridge and let the enemies come to us. The bridge gives a nice choke point to control enemy movement. Much to my own surprise, we kept everyone alive and didn't need to use any Divine Pulses (oh me of little faith). As long as you're mindful of archer range, it's workable.

DP Used: 0

Mutiny in the Mist:

CATHERINE IS AN EXP THIEF. WON'T SOMEONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN?

*ahem*

Fog...sucks. About half the army had torches ready, and we only lost of one of our allied soldiers (because he ran himself through an enemy weapon. I cannot help you, sir), so not too bad! About midway through the map, I used a Pulse to pull Sylvain back up (STOP. MISSING.). At this point, Ingrid and Sylvain had learned their basic Reason magic, but their Magic skills are craaaaaaap. Sylvain I know will grow better, and Ingrid we're mostly expecting to crit, but it's a weird progression. I've never gone for straight Magic Ingrid before. When not using magic, she's been proccing her Crest fervently in the hopes that I will reconsider and have her focus on the Lance. *laughs in distance*

At the very least, having Annette, Mercedes, and Dimitri all healing was a boon. Dedue actually crit Lonato to low health, which blew away a lot of his difficulty.

This map is also funny, because I forgot I don't have access to adjutants in the very beginning, so we have to court Ferdinand the old-fashioned way. :P HE SHALL JOIN US YET. If nothing else, his weapon and vulneraries both get restored after each battle, which means "resources I don't have to worry about." As long as he's not stealing exp getting KOs, we're all happy.

DP Used: 1

Gimme My Sword!:

So I was nervous about this because I know there's a lot of mages here, and the Lions aren't super Res-blessed as a whole. But they were okay! I did split the party--Dimitri, Byleth, Dedue, Ashe, Annette, and Ferdie to the left, and Sylvain, Felix, Ingrid, and Mercedes to the right. With Ingrid's Res, Felix's Crest-laced bow shots, Sylvain's raw strength, and Mercie's healing/Res/magic, the right side was only in deep trouble at one point. I was afraid I'd need to reset entirely, but Felix just straight dodged a lethal hit, and they pushed forward. Plus, Ingrid and Sylvain both knew Heal, which was helpful.

Meanwhile, Left Team slowly fed Annette axe kills, and Dimitri and Ashe dispatched the reinforcements. The kids are shaping up well!

DP Used: 1

Closing Thoughts:

it's, uh, it's tough. It's a completely different set of resources to work with. Having 3 Divine Pulses instead of 10 really changes how careful I am: if there's an issue, I am closer to restarting the battle than being able to rewind, which is more time spent. I knew I wouldn't start with a lot of activity points, but I had forgotten how desolately you begin. Mostly I have using my AP for faculty training and cooking for the stat boosts. My truest love, fishing, returns to me as I attempt to raise my professor level. But because I'm not dining with students, they often have low motivation, which prohibits me from training as intensely. With the battle time being longer overall, it's not as prohibitive towards weapons, but magic has limited uses, so if I'm not pumping that in lessons, they learn it much more slowly. AND, even though we're getting weapon exp, it's at the cost of the weapons themselves, and this army is NOT made of money. So striving to find a balance is something of an issue, but I think I'm getting it.

Roster Progression (Post Tomb-Raiding):

Byleth: 10, Mercenary

Dimitri: 11, Priest

Dedue: 8, Soldier

Ashe: 8, Fighter

Felix: 10, Archer

Annette: 8, Monk

Sylvain: 8, Monk

Mercedes: 8, Monk

Ingrid: 9, Monk

Current Professor Level: C

Time Stamp: 14:45

#molly's madlions #fire emblem #fire emblem three houses #blue lions #maddening mode #poison touch archers #fe3h #fe3h spoilers #fire emblem three houses spoilers #fe16 #fe16 spoilers #gamelog #let's play #naked madlions

0 notes

anamelessknight · 5 years ago

Text

Three Houses Half Thoughts

Really this is probably two fifth thoughts since I’ll end the game with another Eagles run but I digress...

Anyway, run two through the Golden Deer clocked in at 74 hours to the first playthroughs 52. There are some JRPGs where a second playthrough has gone longer because I did all the sidequests I skipped on playthrough one, but this was kind of absurd. Having so much more free time to explore and get into battles blossomed the time, and GD being flat-out longer than the Eagles didn’t help either.

Most of that time came to be spent on just eating with pairs to see their supports since they end up slightly unique depending on the house. Even still, I wasn’t able to fill out the whole of the Golden Deer’s supports. Something to work on for the next playthrough? Maybe.

The excess time also led to so many extra battles which rocketed my level average. Since I’m bad this mostly had no actual effect on main quest content difficulty, but when I was just plowing through auxiliary battles without taking damage it was less... acceptable.

There’s chatter here and there about how with Divine Pulse there’s no tension or challenge but FE is never really good for the former anyway and the later is just jacking up stats to unfun levels of tedium. Fire Emblem relies too much on RNG as a core mechanic to really have a proper sense of tension. If you miss a 90% kill hit then get 10% hit, 10% crit back that’s not tense, it’s completely beyond your control. Compared to say, Dark Souls, where all the tension comes from direct action rather than random numbers being rolled beyond your control.

Not that removing all randomness is a solution either. Some cushion is needed to protect fragile egos. But the amount FE has to rely on it just comes across as more annoying than anything. FE6, with Roy, is one of the more obnoxious about this, with high-crit, high health, high dodge and defense bosses all over the place at the start. A 40% chance of just restarting a map through no control of your own sucks, period. Or say, taking out Kishuna in 7, which is just awful and boring even if he can’t actually hurt you.

Then you flip around to the opposite side for nonthreatening bosses in Three Houses. That 9 SPD is not impressing anyone Flame Emperor. So many bosses either pathetically wimpy or so dangerous you have to carefully aim for a one-shot because poking just ends up with a mountain of corpses. The giant beasts try to avert this with some fresh mechanics, but they can effectively be stunlocked and rendered inert with minimal effort.

Most of FE’s tension comes from side missions, usually saving hapless villagers, and these tend to be the most tense maps in Three Houses since you. How many mages did most people save in that Eagles paralogue?

Of all things a Fire Emblem fangame had a really tense map where you have to retreat while hitting up villages so they don’t get destroyed.

Anyway... random rant over. On to other things.

Graphics feelings don’t change, nor does music quality or voice acting.

Some of the cracks are otherwise starting to show on repeat playthroughs. Act 1 having the same missions each time, just with different commentary. Now, any game you replay will have this same issues, but c’mon, gimme a different enemy formation at least. And you have to do this because of how early the House choice is.

Act 2, even with it filled with poached students also has less to do all around. No lost items, fewer quests and all that.

Now unto the story and whatnot... should go under spoilers since I��m going to be directly making some comparisons to the Eagles endgame.

Why does the Deer get to finish off Those Who Slither and Nemesis? Why? Edelgard has a much deeper connection to the former, and her reasoning that Nemesis was a hero would make it much better when she sees it was a sham. Hell, even Claude’s little speech about friendship could just as easily come out of Edelgard’s mouth regarding her walking alongside Byleth has made her a better person.

I’ve seen people use “well GD and Church deal with them so why should Edelgard lolol” as an excuse, which is just shitty. “Well you deal with Edelgard on BL and GD why should the Church go after her lololol” you mong.

I can only imagine the cutscenes just didn’t get done in time. I dearly hope some of the DLC fixes this. Or perhaps it’s something I’m writing hmmm....

The Golden Deer comes across as the House that frankly needs Byleth less. The situation in the Alliance is much the same regardless of where Byleth goes because Claude’s got a better reign on his own issues and control.

Whereas if Byleth sides with Edelgard the entire course of the war changes completely and she finally gets to unleash her inner dork she’s kept hidden so long.

And the actual relationship between these two is kind of refreshing, since both openly acknowledge their respect for the ideals, even if they can’t agree otherwise. Claude can’t stand Edelgard’s war, and Edelgard sort of sees Claude as one of the problems with Fodlan’s nobility since he was otherwise a foreigner brought into a major leadership position based solely on his birth. It’s easy to read an almost racial scorn in this. I’ll freely admit I’ll err more on excusing Eedelgard due to personal bias than just looking for the worst outcome though.

Though, one of the amusing things I noticed regarding BE/GD players is how some have gone on about “oh, those Eagles are totally the type to just drift apart after the TS and never speak again but the GD babies are just super-duper-tight until their deathbeds” and I just sort of laughed because the Eagles absolutely stuck together through the timeskip while the Deer splintered apart and only came back together on the eve of the promise with Byleth.

Something of another fascinating note is Edelgard’s end. Wishing to just stay by Byleth’s side, even without the months spent together. The Goddess Tower scene is just so understatedly important for her, since it pegs her as a surprise romantic. Her heart went so aflutter when Byleth saved her from Kostas. But in the end, she surrenders to death. To end this war, stop this suffering, and put a ruler on the throne with absolute skill.

The usual “STRONGEST IS BEST WEAK SUCKS” villain trope schlock is how when they lose it’s never graceful, it’s bitching about how the generic protag is just weak blahblahblah. But losing is bloody proof they’re stronger dammit. It just makes them giant eye-rolling hypocrites. Characters who can actually acknowledge the victor as stronger are rare and few between. To the point it is almost entirely Edelgard and the Suikoden V villain that I can think of.

Following her defeat, Hubert gives the letter revealing the Argathans’ base, Rhea isn’t actually dead (which confuses me), and most importantly, is how the Death Knight leads the Alliance forces out of the Fort. He could have easily just stayed in the middle and warped out, but he lured them to the outskirts, letting them escape in time. Since the Death Knights is actually nice and follows orders, Edelgard or Hubert probably arranged this in advance after learning what Argatha had planned. Turned it right around on them.

There’s plenty of scorn for Edelgard not going after the Slithers, and working with them. In her own path she keeps them on such a short chain they’re basically powerless, and on the other routes she still turns on them with acts like this.

I suppose, like Claude says, nothing should ever just be accepted as the simple it appears. Or something.

Dear me this was supposed to be about the Golden Deer and yet it still became an Edelgard post. What a problem I have.

#Fire Emblem #Fire Emblem: Three Houses #Fire Emblem Three Houses #Three Nameless Houses

0 notes

willreadforbooze · 6 years ago

Text

Hello fellow boozie readers!

Sam’s Update:

This week was pretty decent. I was trying so hard to finish some books for the start of Magical Readathon!! Which starts this week. Working hard to be a Metal Charmer.

What Sam finished this week:

The Defiant Heir by Melissa Caruso: I really enjoy this series and I’m so sad it doesn’t get any hype. I thought that it was a duology and that I’d be checking this series off my list, but alas, there’s a third book. Fortunately, it comes out this month! I’ll be drunk reviewing this so I don’t want to write too much here. Review for The Tethered Mage here.

Victory of Eagles by Naomi Novik: I adored this installment of Temeraire. We get to see a POV from Temeraire himself, and we get to see him grow and achieve his goals and WOW I just. And Lawrence, he had some baggage to work through and I think Novik did a fantastic job wit hit.

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black: So this is the book that Ginny and I listened to on our way to and from Mama’s. This book is about a human girl who was raised in Fairyland with the Fae. She just wants to fit in but she’s constantly underestimated and bullied because she’s mortal. Political machinations and spycraft and other things happen, she’s just trying to live her life. Man. The ending to this book… I’m still like… she is so. dumb. SO DUMB.

What Sam’s reading now:

It’s O.W.L.s Magical Readathon bitches!!

Charms: A Brightness Long Ago by Guy Gavriel Kay: I am barely in to this one, but from what I can tell it’s a story about a coup. We began with the assassination of the brutal governor by a neighboring rival. I don’t think I’ve quite mastered the writing style yet, but I can tell you that I’m enjoying it. I’m also not sure who the main characters are so… more information to come.

Potions: Tongues of Serpents by Naomi Novik: This is the next installment of Temeraire. Do you see the pattern here? I am LOVING these. This book takes place in Australia. I’m audio-ing this one as I have with all the others and it’s good so far. Not as good as the previous but good.

Ginny’s Update:

Hi Everyone, hope you’re doing well. I was sick last week (but still went to work because colds suck but not enough to take time off- especially once you’re passed the contagious stage) so I ended up canceling a bunch of plans and watching a lot of dumb tv… Hope you had a good week!

Currently Reading:

Mr. Hotshot CEO by Jackie Lau: Yeah, it’s another romance novel. Look, I know what I’m about. Julian Fong is being forced to take a vacation by his family, and needs help having fun. Enter Courtney, who has never necessarily been considered the life of the party but knows how to enjoy the small things in life. Julian asks Courtney to help him enjoy life and boy does she… The writing can be a little bit stilted at times (though that might just be the way the characters think/talk) but boy is it still fun.

Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay: This is a book club book. I’ve technically started reading but haven’t exactly gotten too far into it. This book is a literal brick. It is pretty big and more weight than I feel like carrying around (at least on the metro) so I’m gonna need some solid time at home to knock out some chunks of it.

How Long ‘Til Black Future Month by N.K. Jemisin: I got this as an audiobook, and I can’t do short story audiobooks. I’ve heard the first two stories and they’re captivating, but I think I’m going to need to get a physical copy of this.

Completed this week:

Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard by Chip and Dan Heath: This was kinda great. It was mostly a study in case studies, looking at why certain ideas are successful… and yeah I’ve definitely decided to use a few of these tips in my day to day life. Still, if anyone is looking into making some life changes or just wants to feel a little bit hopeful about how change is possible this is a pretty good option. 4/5

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black: I still hate some of the tropes in this book, but I very much enjoyed some of the twist and turns. I’m not sure I’d end up continuing the series (there was a lot of telling rather than showing, and god was the main character dumb sometimes) but I would definitely want to get the sparknotes version. 3/5

The Year of the Crocodile by Courtney Milan: This was a really short extra story to go with the Trade Me book I read the other week. Blake Reynolds and Tina Chen’s parents haven’t met yet because Blake’s dad is basically the founder of Apple and Tina’s parents were tortured by the Chinese regime. This ended up being absolutely hysterical. Adam Reynolds is certainly a character and his thought process is so well mapped out that it is easy to understand why he thinks the way he does. The verbal sparring between Tina’s Mom and Blake’s Dad was charming in the most asshole-way possible. 5/5

Minda’s Update:

Let’s go for Magical Readathon! Taking my O.W.Ls for my magical career path as a Librarian & I am so pumped.

What Minda is reading this week:

These Rebel Waves by Sara Raasch – This fills the Herbology O.W.L exam, which is not actually needed for my career but helps me earn an “Exceeds Expectations.” Risky move, but it’s the first due back to the library.

Uprooted by Naomi Novik – This has been on my tbr since reading Spinning Silver for book club and fulfills the Ancient Runes requirement. This was on a few lists as an awesome fairytale/retelling so sounds super promising.

Linz’s Update:

If you didn’t see our IG account, I was fostering a six week-old pupper all week, which is NOT conducive to getting my reading list done. I also hit a few books that I just couldn’t finish.

What Linz took a stab at but DNF:

The Resolutions by Mia Garcia – Four teen besties write each others’ New Year’s resolutions and try to follow them for a year. I dunno, this just wasn’t doing it for me. I felt like it took WAY too long to establish that all the characters are Latinx, it was REALLY hard trying to keep track of what time of year it was, the perfectionist’s storyline was super predictable, and there’s a character who works like, way too much in her mom’s restaurant and you’re telling me no one was dinging CPS at any point in her youth?

For a Muse of Fire by Heidi Heilig – A girl has powers over souls and also lives in a country with a lot of political and military turmoil. I actually tried reading The Girl From Everywhere before this, and I just couldn’t get into either book. I didn’t like how the worlds were built and couldn’t sink into them.

Black Wings Beating by Alex London – So, I’m an idiot because I definitely read the description about these bird-centric religious groups, and didn’t process it. I really liked where the book was going and like London’s writing, but I really really really do not like birds, and it was more bird-y than I could handle.

What Linz is reading:

Vita Nostra by Marina and Sergey Dyachenko – Sort of The Magicians but in Russia, and also Quentin is played by Sasha (a less intense Alice). It’s a weird book because it’s translated, so some stuff doesn’t quite work, and Sasha’s constant dread and confusion is a little heavy because the reader only gets as much knowledge as Sasha, but I’m gonna try to stick with it.

On The Come Up by Angie Thomas – Do I need to summarize? I was just sure if you hadn’t been waitlisted for it, you’d already gotten a copy. The Hate U Give was a little heavy-handed but necessary, still relatable, and very readable, and I’m feeling things for this sophomore effort. (BTW my god if I’d only known of true heavy-handedness before I read The Hate U Give.)

Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay – Honestly I have no idea what this is about, because I kept trying to read it between the puppy’s naps, so I have to restart reading it this week.

Until next time, we remain forever drunkenly yours,

Sam, Melinda, Linz, and Ginny

Weekly Wrap-up: Mar 25-31, 2019 Hello fellow boozie readers! Sam's Update: This week was pretty decent. I was trying so hard to finish some books for the start of…

#Wrap Up

0 notes