#lucia plays fire emblem radiant dawn

[calamitaswrath]

Lucia plays Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn: Chapter 4

Oh thank goodness the base is unlocked this early. Still scarred from how long it took to get in Path of Radiance. So, base conversations!

Meeeeg! Peak design, right there. She's one of the characters from this game that I did already know about in advance!

Merchant talk, nothing too noteworthy there. But the way they're talking. . . are there any new options here compared to PoR?

And Kurth continues to be totally not important.

Ike's getting mentioned! That really didn't take long at all. From the sound of it, Micaiah's already over him, too, lol.

Ah. We're fighting laguz already, when everybody's still really squishy. . . oh boy. At least I gave Aran the Draco Shield that I got in an earlier chapter, so he should be able to tank a bit.

And the map still went well overall. Though I think by skipping over some of the tutorials, I must have missed some changes to laguz mechanics?

Also lol @ this game's twin thug bosses being laguz.

Rafiel. . . hold on, how many princes and princesses did the herons have?! We're at four now. That's enough to fill up an entire Fates royal family!

Is it a legal requirement for wolf laguz to be slutty? Because if so, then I'm not complaining.

Oh, so that explains why there weren't any wolves in the first game. They're from a really distant land.

So we're going to Gallia now? Feels familiar.

. . .And after looking up some more information on this chapter after finishing it, I found out that there were hidden items that I completely missed. FUCK

[nagargent]

toa anniversary munday!

Celebrating TOA and the people who contribute to make our group what it is.

Repost, don't reblog. Only fill in what you feel comfortable sharing!

Happy anniversary, TOA! Here's to many more years spent together.

Name: Nic

Pronouns: they/them

Birthday (no year): 14th July

Where are you from? What is your time zone? The UK (BST)

Roleplay experience: I started around like '06 via msn or stuff doing Harry Potter or Naruto rp with my friends.

Got any pets?: Catcat!

Favorite time of year: Summer - I hate the heat but like, I need the sunlight to keep myself together

Some interests and things you like: Reading, writing, languages and linguistics, astrophysics, mythology, history, animals uh... I find almost everything interesting and it definitely keeps me awake a lot.

Some funfacts & trivia about you: I fell asleep at a scout camp once in the toilets and didn't hear the tannoy that was sent out for me. My grandfather taught me how to stroke bees. I love water/the oceans/seas/rivers but never learned how to swim. Peas scare me. I'm pretty good at -- and rather competitive about trivia games and quizzes.

What non-Fire Emblem games do you play?: The Sims! Dragon Age, Persona, Story of Seasons, Rune Factory, Stardew Valley, Wildermyth

Favorite Pokemon type & Pokemon: Fire or Fairy and I just think Dreepy is very endearing.

How did you get into Fire Emblem?: I saw a review of it on a news channel and decided to try it out. Then I became obsessed and haven't looked back since.

What Fire Emblem games have you played? I've watched playthroughs and read scripts for all but I played about half of fe5, fe7 (lyn and eliwood modes only though), fe8, 3/4 of fe9 before my emulator crashed, fe10 and everything post Awakening.

First Fire Emblem game: Fates

Favorite Fire Emblem game: Either Genealogy, Radiant Dawn or Three Houses

Any Fire Emblem crushes?: Ayra, Mercedes, Camilla, Lucia, Diamant, Jeorge, Sonya and oh my god I hate myself for this but Sylvain.

If you’ve played the following games, who was your first S support? Who would you S support nowadays? - Awakening: Chrom but now I'd probably opt for Libra or Henry? - Fates: Takumi before I knew what an S support was. Kaze as a neutral pick, Subaki for Hoshido and Niles for Nohr - Three Houses: Dimitri or Mercedes ? - Engage: Yunaka was my first!

Favorite Fire Emblem class: DARK FLIER. but also any pegasus class is so chefs kiss for me

If you were a Fire Emblem character, what would be your class? I'd want to be a pegasus knight or a mage but I could see myself being an armoured unit tbh

If you were a Three Houses character, what would be your affiliation? LION PRIDE LETSSSSSGOOOOOO

If you were an Engage character, which Emblem would you Engage with? Micaiah :D

How did you find TOA? I just searched the fire emblem rp tags on a whim one day and found the group. Had a nosy around and was really impressed and excited to join :)

Current TOA muses: Elincia, Goldmary and Julia

Who was your first TOA muse? If you don’t have them anymore, could you see yourself picking them up again? Lincie! :D

Have you had any other TOA muses? I've had quite a lot um... Eirika, Ares, Orochi, Mercedes, Mae, Manuela, f!Shez, Macuil, Lana, Forrest, Constance, Tana & Celine

Do you think you have a type of character you gravitate towards? I do feel a big pull to healers usually? Or pegasus knights.

What do you believe you enjoy writing the most? Character's bonding and forming relationships.

Favorite TOA-related memory: Unlocked 2021 Cha Cha Slide

How do you pronounce TOA? 🤔 Usually like noah but with a t but sometimes i call it twaaah just to be silly.

Got any delusions that didn’t see the light of day that you’d like to share? 😉 Tatiana, Safy, Rodrigue, Altena and Yunaka all have either blogs or partial apps. Of them Tatiana and Rodrigue whilst still outliers could potentially hit me with a steel chair at some point in the future.

[wish-spinner]

so many of these are good... but how about 31, 32, 35, and 37?

31) Some moments of Fire Emblem you keep thinking of?

oh god. there are so many..... every lyon scene. the orson reveal ofc. the hd 3d cinematic of the battle of belhalla that will Definitely be in that remake thats Definitely happening. the entire awakening kids drama cd bc its SOOOO GOOD and nobody talks abt it. ena and rajaion reunion. Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn Base Conversation "Dragons" (Chapter 4-F-1). all of sephirans battle talks. all of rolfs supports. AND ofc. elincias gambit and following cutscene. i was vaguely spoiled on most of rd when i played it and the only major plot beat i didnt know was how lucia was saved LOL it was maybe the hypest thing of my fe career

32) What direction you wish this series would take?

im sure you can glean this from what i've already said in the last set of asks LOL but lose the avatars!!! make it more about the actual cast of characters and find ways to weave them into the story and contribute in meaningful ways. it wouldve been SO (relatively) easy to do this with the 3h kids and i get mad sometimes thinking abt how good the potential was. i know it would take a lot of time to consider story changes wrt permadeath mechanics, but!!! idk. there are ways to circumvent it. bring back base conversations im BEGGING you. i want less player insertion with more complex stories released with even longer periods of time in between and im not kidding

35) What's something you wish IntSys would just stop doing?

sexualizing minors and hiring people who do so lol

37) What's a weird theory or headcanon you have?

im gonna be here all day thinking of just one so i will give the general statement that. i am a history major and duly i do enjoy injecting like.... a smidge of medieval realism into fe?? mostly wrt to like... everyday technology and shit. hygiene. medicinal practices. cooking. even like class disparity stuff?? what is a commoner character's reaction to holing up in a castle their army has just conquered? and my FAVOURITE is religious implications. i love the sweet lore surrounding faith in fe games and its integration into society. i love when... the World has been Built and if its not then im not scared to do it myself

[transcendentscomics]

10 Fire Emblem Heroes Characters I really want

So here is a top 10 list of characters I want in Fire Emblem Heroes along with a loosely designed skill set, BST, etc for the character. Love to talk about how you would want these characters to work and if you would like to see me do this again with other characters, maybe a set theme like characters from this game or of that type. 

Xane

The shapeshifting character, I am not even sure how you would handle them mechanically but I do have a few ideas. I think that Xane could work as a unit who copies a random unit your foe controls but has Xane’s skills minus their weapon. They would be treated as a “dagger” unit but be unable to inherit any daggers other then their default one that holds it’s mechanic to turn into another unit.

Sword  - BST:  Super Low everything Shifters Weapon: This unit gains the stats and weapon type of the first unit it engages in combat. This weapon  gains the might, weapon type, and effects of the weapon the unit this unit attacked has equipped.  Units Cannot counter attack

Support: Deshift - Undoes transformation on this unit.

A: Fury

B: Hit and Run

Vaida

Vaida would be the perfect Grand Hero Battle Unit. She is a boss that you can recruit who is super hard, super scary, super memorable.  Fighting against Vaida is probably my most vivid memory from the eliwood campaign in FE7 since she had that chapter where she was nearly impossible to kill and avoiding her was your best option.  

Flier/Lance - BST: Atk: 50 (with weapon) Spd: 35 Def: 30 Res: 23 HP 38

Gungnir:  Enables counterattack regardless of distance if this unit is attacked

Special: Luna

A. Fury

C. Feared Presence:  While HP is above 50% The unit with the highest spd on the foes side gains minus -5 speed -2 def.

L’arachel 

 One of the most fun horse healers, princess adventure, healing all the hearts after stomping on them. She gets to be this recurring presence in Sacred Stone with a ting of mystery that is fun to learn about.  I really like her character and she is one of the coolest healers in the series.

Horse/Staff - BST - HP 30, Attack 34,  SPD 34, Def 16 Res 30    

Absorb+

B. Dazzling Staff  

C. All in the Party: When this unit heals another all units with in two spaces heal half the recovered hp

Sue 

Your friendly bow archer, simple lady, kicking asses. Playing FE6 she was one of the units who actually stood out to me. She had a great intro chapter and she was such a great unit to have in your party since she could use her bow and travel long distances on her horse.

Bow/Cav - BST HP 30 Attack 30 SPD 35 DEF 18 RES 24  

Firesweep Bow

Special: Miracle

B. Special  Hit and Run for archers (locked to sue)

C. Stunning Arrow: Units hit by this unit have their movement restricted to one space.  (Only Inheritable to Bow Units)

Heather 

 Stealing ladies hearts, my favorite thief in FE series, the last lady you think about messing with. There isn't a ton of lady thief in fire emblem so she really stood out to me in the Radiant games.

Dagger - BST - HP 32 Atk 25 Spd 40 Def 22  Res 24

Brave Dagger: Attack Twice when initiating combat  -5 spd

Special: Bane:   Resolves Combat as if Foe Suffered Def/Res - 50% Cool Down 2

B. Bowbreaker

C. Guidance but infantry.

Lucia 

 Cool blue haired sword lesbian before Lucina, really similar name, loves the queen, protector, badass. I didn't really appreciate her until my most recent session with Path of Radiance. Like she has such a cool design, she is freaking fierce, and I do adore my devoted lesbian partner type characters. Like even on her pairing with a dude she is utterly devoted to Elenica, won’t marry him but just like sleeps with him sometimes. So it feels pretty canon that Lucia and Elenica are a thing. I like to imagine Ike and Elenica do a baby together to keep up the royal line then Ike goes off to wander around with his boyfriends and Elenica and Lucia raise the kid.

Sword - BST - HP 40 ATK 35 SPD 35  DEF 31 Res 20

Parity Blade: In Combat with another unit ignore all bonuses the opposing unit has.

Special: Regnal Astra

B. Atk/Spd Bound: Grants Atk/Spd +5 to this unit during combat if unit is adjacent to an ally

C. Guardian Formation: If Unit has > 50% HP, Unit can move to a space adjacent to an ally flier with in 3 spaces.  

Ilyana 

 The Sleepy mage, the shy lesbian, the magical queen supreme it’s Iyana who holds the position of being one half of my first ever real FF ship. I just thought Illyana and Mia were so cute together and I wanted them to kiss so bad. She was always one of my favorite units in the radiant games and one I would always fit into my team throwing any other mage under the bus if need be.

Green Tome - BST -  HP 38 ATK 35 SPD 32  Def 15 Res 30

Rexbolt - Effective Against Dragons, +2 Spd/Res/Def  (Exclusive)

Special: 2 cool down - Shade: When Triggered until next action ally units gain +2 Atk +2 SPD

B. Vantage

C. Fortify Infantry -  Grants Adjacent infantry allies def/res +6 through their next actions at the start of each turn.

Nailah

 So I couldn’t not put a beast unit on this list. While there is no mechanic for beast units in heroes yet, Naliah is easily my favorite new Radiant Dawn unit. She us just so freaking cool, a queen, a wolf, a badass. I'm running off the assumption that beasts will be a new colorless unit but I think the set works if they are a new weapon added to each color.

Beast - BST - HP 32 ATK 40 SPD 35 DEF 28 RES 28   

Queens Fang:  Attack Twice when initiating combat

Special: Savage - Grants +30% ATK 2 Cool Down, only for beast units

Support: Shove

A. Death Blow

C. Glare - targets in column are preventented counterattacks through their next actions if ATK is less then Nailah (This Skill Can’t be inherited)

Echidna

 Leader of a rebel army, number one axe girl, lezbean for life, a great hero, Goddess of the West, owner of my gay heart in FE6. She is the unit that made me go “okay so FE6 is a good game “ this buff axe hero woman just comes out protector of her people looking so slick I am like, I don't care that your a promoted unit your in my squad.  

Axe - BST - HP 42 ATK 36 SPD 32 DEF 30 Res 21

Fire Sweep Axe:  Units and Enemies cannot use counterattacks

Support: Reposition

A.  Swift Sparrow

C. Goad Infantry:  Grans infantry units within 2 spaces Spd/atk +4 during combat

Forrest Forrest is number 1 on this yet the number one character I don't want in this game too. Forrest is a trans girl, for sure no doubt but the writing in fates tried really hard to not have that be the case. I'd love to have her in the game but I do worry about her having a “I'm really a boy” line. Anyway I'll assume my trans princess will be treated well until proven otherwise.

Staff/Cav: BST -  HP 38, Attack 32,  SPD 30, Def  22 Res 34   

Matrona: Adds half of damage taken to attack.

Support: M Recover: Range 1 or 2 spaces. Restores HP = 50% of Res (Minimum of 8 HP)

B. Live to Serve

C. Res Tactic At start of turn, grants Res+6 to allies within 2 spaces for 1 turn. Granted only if number of that ally's movement type on current team ≤ 2.

[gascon-en-exil]

The Top Ten Women of Fire Emblem (As Written by a Gay Man)

#8 - Heather

Don’t worry about it. I’m the type that likes to help nice country girls like you.

I wrote about her before years ago, but now that the series finally has a second absolutely inarguable gay character in Leon it’s time to take another look at the most transparent of Tellius’s many queer-coded characters. This ranking doesn’t come purely out of gay-lesbian solidarity or anything like that however, as I find Heather in her own way equally as relatable as Leon. He may be a twink looking for daddy and worrying over his fading youth, but Heather is happy to play the field and is even willing to do things like flirt with people she’s not interested in to help out those she is. She also has fantastic gaydar, a point that I think most people have overlooked when they’re comparing her behavior with the likes of Niles or Soleil. Every one of the women Heather expresses interest in (outside of FE10′s mostly generic support system) comes with some sapphic subtext of her own: Elincia and Lucia have their closer-than-sisters relationship, while Nephenee and Ilyana have their supports in FE9 with Calill and Mia respectively that play out as homosocially inclined if not a bit flirtatious and also reveal Ilyana’s expected vore kink. And hey, while Ilyana very arguably has Zihark as a competing interest Nephenee has nothing of the sort in either game. That’s really good odds for Heather, especially in Tellius.

There’s a lot to be said too for how the game handles Heather’s sexuality. One bit of worldbuilding Radiant Dawn briefly touches on - and through Brom of all people - is the crucial understanding that Heather’s behavior is considered strange, at least by people in rural Crimea where she lives. One throwaway line in a relatively unimportant base conversation does more for establishing the transgressive nature of Heather’s lesbianism than all the lines in FE15 about Leon staying true to himself and such. I don’t think you could reasonably conclude that that perception affects all of Tellius’s queer-coded characters - I seriously doubt Tibarn and Reyson or Sigrun and Tanith would know or care very much about what the peasants of another country think of their relationships, for example - but that the writers took even that small effort to show rather than tell about homophobia (however mild) is helpful in allowing Heather’s character to feel more grounded in her setting and less of a token addition. And for a woman whose sexuality is about 80% of her character and who as a result disproportionately stands out among the many underdeveloped units introduced in FE10 (particularly as she’s optional to recruit and is never plot-relevant) Heather needs all the help she can get to avoid coming off as a gimmick. I’d say she mostly succeeds.

Plus, you know who else grew up in rural Crimea and is very likely to be same-sex inclined? Food for thought.

[whitewashedhanzo]

These Fire Emblem posts are really throwing me back to when i was 12 and getting into fights in the comment sections defending ships (Ike / Ranulf and Lucia / Elincia at the time) on AMVs that combined angsty Three Days Grace music and the so awful and so gay cgis of Radiant Dawn. anyways my point is thanks for reminding me of that dark time and also keep fighting that good 9/10 FE fight, the TRUE Fire Emblem(s): Gay Solidarity 🌈

:( i love ike/ranulf and lucia/elincia OMG i was so mad that lucia didnt get a paired ending with elincia but elincia would marry geoffrey instead (who is a nice guy but he um..tastes like oatmeal?) like..no offense but geoffrey is the uglier twin.

ANYWAY its so wild seeing ppl who are into fire emblem cuz like As A Geek that was probably the most formative Fandom ive ever been in (like..i was in 4th grade when i started playing the gba games) and i lov seeing new fans getting into the series and also getting mad about the gay ike conspiracy. love u

[anonarat]

And done.

So this is going to be a bit different from my other Radiant Dawn posts, as I finished the game... early this morning. The Endgame wasn’t exactly short, except the second part. Zelgius went down like a punk after Ike was equipped with a hammer.

So, to start with, I think we had the hardest level in the game, Oliver’s mansion. Hard because you start with three liabilities, have to face a ridiculous number of reinforcements and there’s a priest with a sleep staff waiting to screw you over. This level also made me wish I’d stuck Heather with Ike, especially since on the next map she wasn’t as relevant as she might have been.

Nailah is pretty much the only reason I survived this map, as she killed most of the reinforcements by herself. It was also this map that I realised that apparently Marksmen have +1 range on bows, which is amazing. Finally for this map... Oliver is recruitable ;_;

He is an odious man, but the completionist in me refuses to kill him.

Fortunately, on the next map, we get to kill Izuka, so that eases some of the pain. The chump met his end by rewarping into attack range of Mia. He did not last long. We also got Volke again, and this time as a full blown assassin from the start.

Honestly, I wish that we got him and Bastian earlier, since Volke was my main thief throughout PoR, it would have been nice to have him slightly earlier. Bastian could not compete with Soren, Sanaki and Micaiah, my primary magic users (though the latter became so because they are forced characters).

We find out that Bertram was Renning. To be honest... this didn’t feel like much of a shock, not because the information wasn’t shocking, but because we never really got emotionally invested in Renning.

I also think I may have terrible luck with drawing cards for forging.

My Endgame team consisted of (let’s see if I can remember them all):

Micaiah, Sothe, Ike, Kurthnaga, Ena, Elincia, Sanaki, Heather, Nephenee, Lucia, Mia, Titania, Soren, Reyson, Mist, Nolan and Caineghis (as this is the only opportunity across both games to use him).

The first floor we get to finish kicking the snot out of the Begnion senators. Woo! ...Honestly, I don’t feel like Kilvas being under a blood pact makes much sense. Naesala does not strike me as someone so easily tricked, and during PoR, Kilvas was raiding all ships, including those from Begnion. I thought it might be something like this, but it more feels like a cheap excuse to have Naesala betray everyone... again.

Also, why on earth would Lekain carry around both blood pacts with him?

As I mentioned earlier, in part 2, Zelgius died on the first enemy turn, leaving me no chance to grab the Wishblade *grumble grumble* Mia got Alondite.

Can I just say, I loved the opportunity to bless weapons. It felt so... fitting, good, appropriate, cool... it just worked really well, okay? Of particular note, was Lucia getting a blessed Vague Katti, Titania getting Urvan blessed (because Titania should be the one to use Urvan) and Heather getting Baselard blessed.

...I accidentally got Blizzard on Soren blessed, but it actually worked out rather well, as having an infinite use high range spell was very nice.

Then we fight Deghinsea, and... that is a ridiculous boss to try to kill. Like, actually absurd. Plus we get introduced to the map-wide ridiculousness that late game bosses like to put out. Kurthnaga gets formshift and gets to see his dad die. We also get replacements for Sothe and Ena.

I’d also like to point out that I was bang on the money when I guessed the reason for Goldoa’s neutrality. I really wish that Almedha was a playable character now. Her supports and ending would have been rather interesting.

The first time I played the fourth map, I didn’t check the movement on those fire spirits. ...20 Movement continues the trend of the late game maps being absurd. I also had a difficult time actually killing Sephiran. One turn I got him down to 1HP but couldn’t get that final point of damage. I thought that Sanaki not being able to attack Sephiran was a very nice touch.

We find out that Sephiran was actually Lehran, which clears up a mystery that we didn’t even know was a mystery. Though apparently Lehran spoke for the bird tribes... but what is his actual descent? I mean some of the flashbacks indicate that he might be Branded, but then Yune’s conversation with Ashera about the Branded existing doesn’t make sense. He certainly doesn’t have any external characteristics of the bird tribe though.

Then we get the final fight against Ashera. I think I must have killed her around 10 times before I accidentally dealt a finishing blow with Ike. That, more than anything annoys me. Why on earth did it have to be Ike dealing the final blow, why couldn’t it be someone else, someone equally worthy of killing a god?

I mean, by the end of it, I had a set up whereby Elincia was killing Ashera once per turn (Three dragons surrounding her, with Amiti means she does 4x15 damage per attack, and then galdr her into action again).

Can I also say that Ashera and her aura having Nihil felt... cheap? If you didn’t want the tier 3 Beorc skills to wreck your bosses... maybe just... change them? It’s like I have all these awesome characters, but I can’t actually use them properly.

Of all the Fire Emblems that I’ve played, I think Ashera might be my favourite final boss though. That despair as I keep trying to kill her, and she gets up yet again. I managed to blow through about 15 charges on a Fortify staff just to keep everyone alive and killing. Yune bless the Hammerne stave to give me those charges.

To my knowledge, no other Fire Emblem end boss has had in excess of 1500 health (including her auras). She might technically have less, but that’s what she had for me.

Then we get to the bit that really makes no sense to me. All throughout the game the duality of Yune and Ashera gets driven home. So why on earth does Yune not die shortly after Ashera? Please, someone explain this to me.

Anyways, we get the unit endings, which it’s nice to see make a return after their weird semi-presence in PoR.

I’ll post some overall thoughts later I think, as this post has already gone on too long.

...Next time though, I think I’ll play on ‘Easy’.

[burgermiester]

Why Brom is the best Armored Unit in Radiant Dawn

First off, “best armored unit” is not the most auspicious title.  Its pretty rare for a Fire Emblem game to have worthwhile armor knights.  As a general rule, mounted units and fliers reach the enemies first and get the bulk of the kills/exp/functionality, unarmored foot units come next and get the scraps, and armor knights are left with the crumbs.  Radiant Dawn is not an exception in this regard, for the most part.  At least in Radiant Dawn there do exist chapters where your armor knights are useful because of “scenario” style chapters and occasional limited units to choose from. So instead of comparing the armors to each other in terms of stats and raw number of chapters they are available in, I think its more important to look at how many chapters they are in where they can contribute meaningfully and how much they do contribute, starting with the man of the hour:

Brom:

Brom has part 2.  I could probably stop typing right here but I dont know when to quit so I will continue.  2-1 has only Brom, Nephenee, and Heather.  Heather cant do much to most of the enemies on any difficulty, Nephenee cant really touch the enemy armors, including the boss, and on hard I dont even think she can do enough damage to feasibly take him on so that makes Brom your only option for the boss, and the best option to take on most enemies. That right there would be enough for me to call Brom the best armor in the game, because being the best unit in one chapter (and on hard being the only unit capable of beating the chapter)>being available but not worth using in a dozen others.  But it doesnt end there, in 2-2 hes one of the most capable and certainly tankiest fighters and you will probably have him leading the march through the dark cave, and you especially will on the turns where Mordecai is untransformed.  Lucia can get more kills but you have to be a bit cautious since a few lances or lucky other hits will put her down.  Brom gets to actually be a tank and do it well in the situation where it makes the most sense to have a tank (in cramped fog of war.)  Last, hes got 2-E.  Now, theres lots of ways to cheese this map as well as take it head-on, but even the cheesy strats involve blocking one of the two sides with Brom.  So hes not as crucial as in the other two chapters, but he still is absolutely contributing.  

Meg:

Poor Meg.  Shes got horrible bases, growths that clash with her class caps, and is stuck in the dawn brigade where shes competing with too many other growth units with too few exp to spread between them.  The chapters where youd want an armor, 3-6, 3-12 and 3-13, dont really beg for you to train her since Nolan, Jill and even Aran if you are dying for a tank all get you through those chapters more easily (and shell probably not have the defense to really tank 3-6).  I probably didnt even need to write this part, we all know ultimately unimpressive Meg’s combat capabilities are, even if it can be a lot of fun to use her for novelty’s sake.  

Tauroneo:

Brom has 3 chapters he can really contribute in, while Tauroneo has only 2*, yet one of those chapters is 3-13, which for many is the hardest chapter in the game.   That being said, like most defense chapters its very easy to beat it cheaply, so its hard for me to rate Tauroneo all that highly just for this chapter.  But even if you are cheesing it you will probably want to use Tauroneo, so I would consider him contributing as much in 3-13 as Brom in 2-E, even if thats perhaps a bit too generous considering other units can be trained up to plug important gaps whereas Brom is in a more preset role so hes always going to be necessary for a gap or 2.  In his only other chapter, 3-12, he unfortunately starts far on the left when youd want him on the right, and it takes a few turns for him to join the fight, although when hes there he kicks ass. But in any case, 3-12 can be beaten pretty much entirely by the ally units so any contributions are not that impressive.

*he can also contribute in the first map of 1-6, but you really want to be training Nolan and Jill and any other DB baby in part 1 so its a bit of a waste to let him get these easy kills, especially when its not that hard to beat the chapter without him.

Gatrie:

Finally, we have Gatrie.  Hes the guy that I have little doubt gamefaqs guides and tierers in general will call the best armor knight in the game.  And before I get to the real meat of Gatrie’s usefulness by my standards, I feel I must make a brief aside to address the general idea of usefulness and why Gatrie is cited as better than Brom, which is to say raw availability, bases and growths and starting level, and usable weapons/rank.  Brom actually has one chapter of availability more than Gatrie, but for the most part they are nearly the same.  Brom joins at level 2 and Gatrie 10, but in my experience using both sensibly and not giving either of them favoritism or anti-favoritism by the time they are in a party together Brom is close to level 10 and Gatrie to 13-15, so its not a big difference there, and if you look at their average stats on SF youll see its really not a big difference in stats at those levels, or indeed at any level. The only important stats Gatrie excels over Brom in is speed and strength, and its only by a point or two, so they are both doubling or not doubling or getting doubled by pretty much the exact same enemies.   And in actual damage Brom will be outperforming Gatrie because hes using axes, which more than make up for the couple points of str to outperform Gatrie with his weaker lances.  When taking all that into account I dont see either of them being significantly better than the other in a statoff, and since I still am saying that “how useful are they in the chapters where its worth using them?” is much more important than “how useful would they be if I forced myself to use them?” lets put this aside and go back to where Gatrie is uniquely useful.

So what does Gatrie do that only Gatrie can do? Well, hes got 2 chapters, 3-P and 3-1.  In 3-1 Gatrie is fantastic.  Its a small fog of war map with chokepoints and a time limit.  Gatrie excels at heading up the left path through the grass towards the boss, especially with Shinon at his back shooting from behind and through the fence, giving the enemies the old thunder and lightning maneuver while the more mobile members of the GM sweep around to clear out the rest of the map.  Its a bit like Brom’s contributions in 2-2 but I would say slightly better.  In 2-2 Brom is great, but you could potentially take the dark very slowly with just Lucia or any other character of your choosing if you desired, but in 3-1 theres a time limit so its all hands on deck, everyone has to help and Gatrie has a convenient spot he excels at.  Sadly, 3-P is not nearly as good for Gatrie.  Its textbook armor knight curse map design.  The enemies are all on one path, your more mobile units, in this case everyone else, will reach and kill enemies before Gatrie arrives.  He might as well not even exist.  

And speaking of might as well not even existing; the rest of the game.  From 3-3 onward Brom and Gatrie have identical availability, and its really not worth using either of them.  Just like 3-P, time and time again the poor armors just cant reach fighting before its over.  3-5 is a defense chapter where either of them might contribute but in the entire series 3-5 is perhaps the easiest defense chapter to play offensively, so thats not really an opportunity for them to be useful.  Plenty of chapters have reinforcements from behind that they could potentially fight, but to the question “why not instead of using armors just keep training all high movement units who can either finish chapters before reinforcements become an issue or run back and kill reinforcements and return to the main fight quickly” there is no objective answer in favor of armor knights.  If you were to ask yourself “I am determined to use one of the armor knights in every single chapter despite the fact that using no armor knight would be a better choice, so which one should I choose?” The answer might be Gatrie or it might be too close to call.  If you were to ask yourself the much more practical question “which units should I use?” the answer in regards to this subject at least, is, “however many deployment slots you have, Brom and Gatrie are equally unworthy of filling them.”  There are always better units to choose from than either of them.  They are comrades in obsolescence.

The Very Short Version:

When it comes to a class thats overall not worth using like Armors in a game with as strange of a structure as Radiant Dawn, comparing their usefulness is about looking at where each of them is actually worth using and how well they perform.  Meg has nothing, Tauroneo has two chapters where hes good, Gatrie has one chapter where hes great, and Brom has one chapter where hes good, one where hes great, and one where hes indispensable.  

[thetempesttactician-blog]

✘, ☯ for the mun's interpretation questions?

✘ That he isn’t weak. I understand that a good deal of blame for this one lies on Intelligent Systems themselves, after how much of Soren’s character development they centered entirely around Ike in Radiant Dawn, but the Fire Emblem fandom at large has the most inexplicable tendency to see and portray Soren as a fragile tsundere waif who would just fall apart without his beefy bara bestie.

While it’s true that he thinks the world of Ike and relies on him for support, Soren to me is the absolute farthest thing from weak. Soren survived Branded life on his own for goddesses only know how long, he’s made it through two continental wars, he’s probably the most powerful spellcaster on Tellius this side of Sephiran, and his sass is as sharp as his spells.

The guy is absolutely capable on his own. Ike just makes things easier, physically and psychologically.

☯ As most FE fans know, Soren is a pretty beloved fixture in the franchise, and with good reason. Amusingly enough, I actually hated him the first time I played through Path of Radiance (note: teen me was an asshole who couldn’t comprehend moral grays for fear of his head exploding), but in time I came to love him for all the same reasons as everyone else: his ruthlessness, his complexity, his sass, his wonderful hair. Where Lucia I loved from the moment I recruited her, Soren grew on me slowly, like the world’s most critical vine.

For the most part, I don’t think Soren’s reputation effects much of how I portray him; I just write him as I read his character and develop headcanons around him. That being said, there’s always going to be a little pressure, because the writer in me (or rather, the writer that is all of me) will never be able to shake the drive to write a Soren that the fans will love just as much as his portrayal in canon.

[cityofreverie]

The roaring sound of helicopters echo throughout the capital’s skies within the invisible glass dome…

Hours later… the twelve o’clock train pulls in … and out comes…

Anaithnid Saighdiuir - played by Justin (original character)

Decim - played by Emma (Death Parade canon)

Elzbieta "Ela" Bosak - played by Ellie ( Rainbow Six: Siege canon)

Garry - played by Rose (Ib canon)

Ismerila Saighdiuir - played by Ismer (original character)

Jacket - played by Kyle (Hotline Miami canon)

Koishi Komeiji - played by Kyle (Touhou canon)

Libra - played by Rose (Fire Emblem: Awakening canon)

Lucia Driscoll - played by Crissy (original character)

Lyn - played by Jay (Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade)

Maria Rossi - played by Cro (original character) 

Ramlethal Valentine - played by Kyle (Guilty Gear canon)

Ruby Rose - played by Kyle (RWBY canon)

Torrence Flexington - played by Theo (original character)

William “Slate” Beckworth - played by Dean (original character)

Zelgius / The Black Knight - played by John (Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance / Radiant Dawn canon)

…Once you arrive to Reverie, you’ll never want to go back!

[calamitaswrath]

Lucia plays Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn: Chapter 6

Uhh, we get an actual view of what civilians are doing! And they're getting suppressed and killed. 's what civilians do, in Fire Emblem I guess.

Ohh, Fiona's cute! And definitely the look of a character who's Not Going To Be Playable, I'm sure. What with her standing up to Jarod and everything.

"Late King Ashnard's orphan surfaces!" "Silver-Haired Maiden at Prince Pelleas's side!" - you just know that in another life, Izuka would have thrived at writing outrageous articles for a newspaper.

Not much else for the pre-battle cutscene, so let's go over the base conversations!

A whopping 1000 gold from a buncha villagers. . . yay. Look, the shop has got way more expensive stuff right around now that I want, so you better step up your fundraising game!

Oh yeah, I wonder why Kurth and Almedha look so similar. Real puzzler, that one. Come to think of it - if I'm half remembering Soren being involved in this whole family tree correctly, and Pelleas really is Almedha's son (having some doubts there since they don't really look that similar) that must be one convoluted family tree.

So, the battle - first stage went pretty well. It is a bit weird to use Jill and not have her stomp everything with the absurd stats she ended up with for me in PoR, but she's still pretty strong.

Second stage, though. . . er, everything did go well until I was rudely shown that the boss does in fact move, and he killed Leonardo. So, that was a reset. Second go went better, and the level-ups I did get still ended up well enough.

Cool gambit from Micaiah though to play into the boss' FE villain strategy of wanting to kill hostages to get Fiona to defect. It's a nice moment for Micaiah's character.

Fiona's the daughter of one of the original four riders? That's cool, nothing I would've thought from just looking at her.

[eienias20]

Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn 17 Victories

I don’t think I’ll ever be able to stop playing this game. It’s just too good.

Anyway, yesterday (3/18) I beat Radiant Dawn...again. It’s always fun running through the game again, no real reason other than just to do it.

A generally standard run with a few mistakes because what’s Fire Emblem without losing some people to dumb mistakes? Boring that’s what. Losing people along the way is what makes it more memorable and meaningful.

Brom died during Endgame 2 (cursed hammer!)

Tormod died in Part 4, the level where he Maurim and Vika come back.

Sanaki was defeated in Engame 4 (2), moved her a little too forward and didn’t have enough to cover her.

That aside, Most everything else went fine and dandy, Soren, Mia, Nephenee, Heather, Marcia, Lucia, Leonardo, Laura, Aran and Jill were the ten soldiers I brought along for the finale. They all made it thru,

My top five this time around being: Heather with 78 Wins Mia with 84 Wins Aran with 88 Wins Marcia with 102 Wins and as shown above Nephenee with 114 Wins

Another completed Radiant Dawn run in the books and another will follow, along with the eventual Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn Let’s Play. Look forward to that :D

[calamitaswrath]

Lucia plays Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn: Chapter 3

So, Micaiah and Laura are in prison. At least they're not getting executed right away, so that's something!

Heyyy, Aimee's back! I wonder if Ike reported her for sexual harrassment and that's why she's in prison.

Uhh, first returning character from PoR. Maaaaybe this would've hit harder if I. . . well, had actually used Ilyana at all. The game doesn't really give her much focus though, given that she's asleep for her introduction.

Aimee's thirsty again! Maybe she realized that she ain't getting anywhere with Ike, and decided to look elsewhere. But Sothe ain't it, either, lady.

And we got "Kurth". All the look of a guy who's very unimportant, I'm certain.

So. . . everyone's breaking in just to break out? Sure. Sounds like the kind of strategy that'd get them more easily noticed, but sure.

Sothe can't distinguish light magic and thunder magic, smh. Micaiah really should've taken some time teaching him how to read.

Y'know, not to sound too mean, but. . . Ilyana really kinda reads like a Awakening or Fates character a bit, with how much they hammer home her gimmick of liking food. I like characters from those games mind you, but they are very gimmick-heavy.

. . .I accidentally killed Aran on the first attempt. Reset!

Oof, had some really shitty level-ups on this map. Is the Dawn Brigade generally just prone to getting screwed over by level-ups, or is this just me?

I still had an Energy Drop from the previous chapter, which went to Edward. It was between him and Nolan for me.

Other than that, things went smooth. I got a bit tripped up by information on the Wiki since apparently this map's objective vary between difficulties.

. . .Okay, some banger dialogue from Daniel and Jorge. Especially for something this early in the game.

ASHNARD FUCKS? ASHNARD FUCKS! FUCKNARD! ASHFUCK! . . .I mean, I do vaguely remember hearing that he has children, but still. It's a weird to think that Ashnard fucks.

Oh yeah our next destination sounds like a lovely place. What could possibly be threatening about the Desert of Death?

[calamitaswrath]

Lucia plays Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn: Chapter 8

Begnion politics! . . .I got nothing.

The scene with Micaiah healing that random soldier is not noteworthy by itself, but the way the German translation handled his dialogue really was needlessly posh. It was like "Hm, fascinating. My wound is indeed healed."

And we're walking into a trap. Shouldn't Micaiah's. . . whatever her foresight is called warn her of that? But to be fair, the trap is so obvious that not even everyone's coming along, so. . . yeah.

Not much of anything to note on the base conversations. . . except for the one with Vika. I'll admit that the other day I already looked up who Micaiah tends to get paired with because since I haven't really seen much content of her over the years I legit didn't know. Now this! This doesn't disappoint. . . .But I also already looked up how Vika's available moving forward, and it really does look like this is all these two will get. Sadge. . .

NAILAH JOINS! And also Rafiel I guess.

Ah. Rafiel can't fly. I guess IntSys must've realized how broken that made Reyson in PoR, so they worked around that. . . that only makes me miss Reyson, though.

Bit of a bother with this map, couldn't save two NPC units, but ultimately all went well. Edward, Aran and Nolan are all promoted now, and they're really putting in some work, so that's good.

I already called what was going on with Muarim before the game itself even revealed it, hah. But with Izuka around, this all had to pay off sooner or later, I guess.

So Begnion's forces are to just stand down? That feels really rather anticlimactic. I already know what the basic structure of the game is going to be, so I guess this "arc" has to wrap up in the next two chapters, but I hope it does so satisfyingly at least. While I have enjoyed my time thus far, I would preferred it if all the story beats thus far had been at least a bit more drawn out.

[calamitaswrath]

Lucia plays Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn: Chapter 7

. . .Did Izuka hit his head or something between games? I mean, I didn't see much of him in PoR, but he felt more coherent than. . . this. But also - the Dawn Brigade and revolutionary army trusting him feels about as sensical as the Nohrians working with Iago in Fates. . . .Probably even less so, considering that they were distrustful of Iago.

Base conversations, Meg and Zihark - . . .oh god, that was hilarious. But also, I suppose that was something that Brom and Zihark talked about in their supports back in PoR? I didn't get any for either of them, so I could see it.

Pelleas and Micaiah - okay, I'm. . . having a difficult time getting a good read on Pelleas. Is he a Branded, and just trying to obscure it? Or is he legitimately someone who has a bond with a spirit? And the way he talks about it with Micaiah. . . speaking of whom, so I guess she is a Branded? Def weird stuff going on with this convo.

I had like 5000 points of BEXP, so I levelled Micaiah a bunch, leaving her at level 18 (already read that her promotion is story-based), got Edward all the way up to his promotion after some of his stats already got maxed out, and got Aran really rather close to his promotion. I think Micaiah and Aran I'm not gonna use much for the next chapter, so I can make sure to get their three guaranteed stat-ups.

Ah, now we're getting to the point where I can't deploy everyone anymore. Honestly surprised it took this long. . . well, for the time being, I'm benching, Zihark, Ilyana, Leonardo and regrettably Fiona. After reading up some more on her, I just doubt that she's going to be worth it, which is a shame.

Tormod and Muarim are back! And the former really just looks a lot like Roy with his new, older design, I gotta say. And- . . .I just found another go-to unit for my team. Vika. Vika. Vika!! Oh my god.

Overall not much trouble with this map, and Edward is really tearing shit up now that he's promoted.

Now for the aftermath - . . .did Sothe and Tormod have supports in PoR? Because looking at their interactions here, there's some chemistry, I gotta say.

. . .Come to think of it, I forgot the hidden items again. Fuck! But since those were apparently just a coin and a master seal, probably not that big of a loss, especially since you can't sell master seals in this game.

Inch resting that all of what's going on in Daien is happening behind Sanaki's back. Speaking of her though - is she 13 now, or was she 13 in PoR? The writing here was a bit unclear on that.

Ah, and Micaiah's a branded after all. I wonder what kind of Laguz her other parent was?

Actually, something that's been bothering me this chapter - for whatever reason, there were these instances where my units would just not do any damage despite the battle forecast showing they would, and I have no idea why?? What's up with that?

[calamitaswrath]

Lucia plays Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn: Chapter 5

You know, I haven't really commented on it much yet, but the graphical leap between Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn is honestly a rather nice one. The Gamecube and Wii may have been really rather close in terms of power, but for RD it really feels like they have much more detailed environments and character models. Case in point, the desert really does look rather striking.

So, we're still looking for that lost heir. What, isn't Rafiel good enough for us?

Base conversations! Now, let's see.

Conversation with Nailah and Volug - sooo, does Volug ever get any dialogue? I mean, having one character whose whole gimmick is that he never talks is fine, but. . . I dunno, for being one of only two wolves that we have, I think that's a bit of a missed opportunity. lol @ the way Nailah talks about him, though.

"We should be rich of heart and poor of pocket."

Conversation with Laura and Aran - oh shoot, I never realized that Micaiah is our first bandit protag in the series! Congrats to her on that!

Edward, Leonardo and Nolan get a conversation as well, so that's nice. I do rather hope that them being so relatively out of focus isn't going to be a trend, though since I already know that this game lacks traditional support conversations, I fear this will be the exactly the case. The Dawn Brigade really does get screwed over a lot on a meta-level, don't they?

On to the chapter - aaaand because I always at least look up gameplay details before I start these, I already knew that Tauroneo, Jill and Zihark were coming back here. Still, that's pretty nice to see, even if at first glance this seems like a rather odd combination of characters. Makes sense, though. . . .And I should probably read up on some more of Zihark's and Tauroneo's supports from Path of Radiance. Since I basically benched both of them, I didn't really see much of anything of either of them.

Not much of a problem with the map in terms of gameplay. By now, I get the feeling that at least some of my units are coming into their own, most notably Micaiah, Edward and Aran. I also know about bonus experience guaranteeing only three stat gains per level up, which can't be reset. . . which in exchange however means that you can abuse that once units hit a stat cap. Since all three of them are getting close to that, it will be Time™ soon.

Ah. Izuka's back. My friend did say that I wouldn't have to wait long for him to return, but I did not expect to meet him this soon. And. . . from the overall look of things, he did get just a bit more unhinged over the timeskip.

There's Pelleas, whose design I was at least alredy familiar with due to the aforementioned friend drawing him while doing a whole bunch of Tellius doodles, anyway. With his blue hair, he's definitely looking more like a standard FE protag, and- . . .Almedha. Woag

. . .Er, Women aside, I do find it interesting that this current setup is really rather similar to what the story for most of PoR was about. Secret rightful heir to the throne being helped by small group of fighters facing overwhelming odds - that has to be a deliberate parallel.