In which we talk to the Wonderful Druids.
Wednesday, July 24, 2019
Tuesday, July 23, 2019
Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia Part 1: Introduction
I'm going to be starting a new series of Fire Emblem posts as I play through Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia. This is the 15th game in the series, which is also a remake of the 2nd game in the series, and takes place in the same world that Shadow Dragon did, albeit on a different continent.
This game was released for the Nintendo 3DS, which is a significant upgrade over the original version on the NES. And they went all out for this remake. It has a lot of new content,, full voice acting, full animation cinematic sequences... I've never played the original, so I won't know if there are story differences or mechanics differences (and I can't remember from the wikipedia page) but I already love how it looks. This is the first game in the main series to have full voice acting.
I've also decided I want to approach this game differently than I did with Shadow Dragon. I ended up doing a sort of play-by-play of Shadow Dragon, talking about the full missions as I played them as well as the story, with lots of screenshots. The trouble with that approach is that it ended up being a bit intimidating for me to actually write them, and I barely finished the game. I want this to be a more relaxed experience for my own good. So I plan to play a mission or two and use handwritten notes about what happens to write up later. Screenshots are going to be much rarer as well I think. I'll try to do more of a summary than before, and only take pictures of particularly fun moments.
I'm not planning on using a guide for this play, especially if I'm not writing as I play I'll feel less pressure to get things right the first time out.
That out of the way, let's get started.
I watched the opening cinematic movie. It starts with two children, a boy and a girl, talking about a book they are reading. Long ago, two gods fought for supremacy on the continent of Valentia for many centuries, before finally finding some level of peace. The pair promise they will never be like that. I immediately am concerned that the game is going to tear these two apart horribly.
The cinematic continues to show a blue/green haired man leading armies, and fighting people. The music is pretty cool, with some good vocals.
Starting a new game, I get the option between Normal and Hard difficulty. Normal is an easy choice to make for me, as that's the experience I want. I also get to choose between Casual and Classic; in classic mode there is perma-death, like in the last game, but Casual mode means characters come back even if I lose them in a fight. I think for this play I want to do casual, I don't want my game to be a source of stress or I'll never return to it. Maybe on a second playthrough I'll do Classic mode for the challenge, but this way I won't be restarting maps so often as I did last time... also I'm pleased that it seems unlikely that there are gaiden chapters unlocked by killing half my squad like there were in Shadow Dragon.
With that taken care of, on to the game itself!
Title screen gives a date of something Flostym, 402 V.C. A cinematic plays. A huge dragon skull sits in the middle of a dark room. The two kids from the opening movie, looking grown up, stand on top of the skull. It looks like the boy has killed the girl? There's a sword through her, and she falls. They both seem to be crying. The girl is Ceilica, and the boy cries out her name as she dies.
Well that's a start. My horrible premonition is immediately played out! Alright, good game.
Oh wait there's more. We move on to the Prologue, which takes place in 394 V.C. So we have 8 years before the horrible outcome... we meet the children from the opening cinematic, Alm and Celica, through the eyes of the children of Ram Village. Faye, Gray and Kliff are complaining that Alm spends all his time with Celica, ever since she came to live in Ram Village. Alm and Celica are cousins. Kliff clarifies that Alm and Celica are not cousins, Celica is the ward of Alm's grandfather. Another kid name Tobin enters the scene, excited that a knight was sighted in the woods near the village.
We cut to Alm and Celica in the woods. Celica has made a flower wreathe for Alm. Alm is happy that Celiva has cheered up, as she didn't speak when she first arrived. Alm told her stories, picked flowers and took her on walks attempting to cheer her up. Celica really appreciated it, and tells Alm it really helped to have him around.
They each seem to have a sort of cross mark on one hand, Alm's mark is on the back of his left hand while Celica's mark is on her right palm. I'm sure this will never come up again.
Alm wants always to be with Celica, and Celica is about to say she wants the same thing when they are interrupted by Faye's scream.
A group of soldiers have grabbed the kids we met before. The leader is a knight named Slayde, commander of King Lima IV's knights. Slayde demands the kids lead them to their village. Tobin and Gray protest, determined not to lead these violent strangers to the village. Alm runs in with Celica. Slayde takes an interest in Celica, says General Desaix will want to meet her. Alm punches Slayde! This is going to go south, but go Alm!
Slayde is about to kill the children when Alm's grandfather rides in, full armor and warhorse, and intercepts Slayde's sword. Slayde knows Alm's grandfather as Mycen, and they have history. Not friendly history either. Mycen tells the kids to run, and we're into a fight!
Mycen advises my moves, but as the kids are all level 1 children they can't do much but run and hide (Slayde 'kills' Gray when I try to fight back with the kids...) but the enemies are no match for Mycen. Slayde runs off afterward, muttering about having found the "princess who won't die".
We won! Well, Mycen won. Sorry Gray (at least I'm not doing perma-death, it would be awkward to have to redo the prologue already!)
Alm and Tobin celebrate their victory, Kriff and Faye are just exhausted. Unfortunately, Mycen and Celica don't look happy. It's no longer safe for Celica in Ram village, she'll have to move on. Mycen has another favor to call in. Alm is very upset at this, and wants to know why Celica has to leave. "That's a page you don't want to turn, not yet." Mycen says sadly. Celica apologizes for having to leave, but gives Alm her good luck charm. As Celica and Mycen leave, Alm runs after them, promising that he will find Celica one day when he's stronger. "Please don't forget me."
We get an introductory movie! ...Again! (It feels Final Fantasy VII levels of overdone cutscenes, but I am getting a lot of good backstory from them, and the voice acting is spectacularly good at least.)
This movie shows that dragon skull with a sword in it, and then we get the title. Backstory time! Duma and Milla, the gods, once walked these lands. They fought over ideology; Duma believed humanity needed strength and discipline while Milla believed humanity needed freedom and peace. The two eventually reached a Divine Accord. Duma would get the north of the continent, Milla the south. Peace from the accord has lasted 1000 years, with the kingdom of Zofia in the south and the Rigelian Empire in the north. Zofia, from Milla's gifts, became decadent and depraved, never wanting for anything, while Rigel became cold and numb to kindness, valuing only strength. The two are now on the cusp of war.
We move on to Act 1: Zofia's call. This take place in 401 V.C. (I'm curious what the V.C. stands for.)
So this is 1 year before the horrible opening, and 7 years after the prologue. We open with Alm and Mycen sparring. Mycen has been training Alm, but won't allow Alm outside the village. I'm sure that will be changing in the next two minutes. Ram village is in Zofia. There's a terrible drought, and many people have turned to banditry. Rigel has been crossing the border in violation of the divine accord. And apparently "The Terrors" have resurfaced. That sounds pleasant.
Alm wants to go out and help the innocent people who are suffering. Mycen's response: "Before you dream of changing the world, learn your damn place in it!" So... is Alm Luke Skywalker?
Ooh, I can explore the village, this is different from Shadow Dragon. I get to examine stuff and pick up things like oranges and a splitting axe, and get some extra character from looking at other things (Alm says sheep are jerks, and Cliff scorched Mycen's house practicing fire magic!) I also talk to villagers, who give me even more backstory. Desaix is the chancellor, and puppets King Lima, leading to many rebellions in Zofia.
I traverse the town by moving between points of interest, which I like, it stops me getting lost. Sort of visual novel style. It simplifies things.
At the village gate I meet teenager Tobin and teenager Gray. Tobin says someone is here to see Mycen, although Gray does not trust anyone in full armor. (I'm sorry Gray! I didn't realize Slayde would move down and kill you in the prologue!)
The newcomer is Lukas, who fights for the Deliverance. Alm, Tobin and Gray are all befuddled. Lukas explains that King Lima is dead, killed by Desaix, who sold Zofia to Rigel. The Deliverance was formed by the Zofian knight Clive as a rebellion against this act. Lukas is here to seek the aid of a hero: Mycen.
We get reactions from the kids at the thought of war, and Alm leads Lukas to see Mycen. Mycen refuses to help (off screen, we don't see it and neither does Alm...), so Lukas goes to leave. Alm volunteers to join the Deliverance in Mycen's stead. He wants to prove Mycen is not a coward, and also prove to himself that he is strong enough to make a difference now. Alm asks the others to accompany him.
"Sure, we could all get impaled on the same lance!" is Kliff's droll response, but Gray is in. "I'm not as bright as I'd like to think I am, so count me in."
Tobin gets drawn along when Lukas mentions the army gets paid; he has family who need the financial support. Alm heads back to say farewell to Mycen, but Mycen is nowhere to be found. Hmm...
A rumor in town is that Desaix murdered all of Lima's heirs... so Celica must be the last of them, Mycen called her princess in the prologue. Another rumor is that Zofia is at fault for Rigel's invasion, because Zofia didn't help when Rigel had a famine a few years prior (this rumor comes from a very disgruntled man in the village that I don't like...)
Gray and Tobin are definitely coming.
I get the option to recruit Faye and Kliff. I bring them both of course. Faye doesn't want to be apart from Alm, and Kliff wants to see the world.
As we leave, Tobin worries about Alm not saying farewell to Mycen. Alm says he feels called to go do something. Tobin wonders if it's Celica who is calling him, and apparently Alm hadn't considered this?
A world map! That I can walk around on, from encounter to encounter. I wonder if I'll get random encounters? The first fight takes place just steps from the village gate when brigands demand a toll. We promptly kill them all. Alm starts as a fighter, Lukas a soldier, and the others are villagers. Gray and Tobin, who trained the most with Alm and Mycen, are higher level than Kliff and Faye. The graphics of the battles are much improved over Shadow Dragon, very fluid. I run to a second fight. Lukas advises slipping past these brigands because we don't have forever, but when they mention kidnapping a woman Alm charges in anyway. We face down our first enemy archer, and I learn that archers can hit adjacent spaces in this game... but I win with no casualties taken anyway.
I'm going to call it here! This game doesn't seem to have the straightforward chapters that Shadow Dragon did, so I'll just play for a bit until I feel I have enough to talk about. This turned into more play-by-play of the story than summary, but that's something I'll work on as I go I think. I'm really enjoying the gameplay so far, so I definitely want to keep going on this one.
Next time! To the bandit hideout!
This game was released for the Nintendo 3DS, which is a significant upgrade over the original version on the NES. And they went all out for this remake. It has a lot of new content,, full voice acting, full animation cinematic sequences... I've never played the original, so I won't know if there are story differences or mechanics differences (and I can't remember from the wikipedia page) but I already love how it looks. This is the first game in the main series to have full voice acting.
I've also decided I want to approach this game differently than I did with Shadow Dragon. I ended up doing a sort of play-by-play of Shadow Dragon, talking about the full missions as I played them as well as the story, with lots of screenshots. The trouble with that approach is that it ended up being a bit intimidating for me to actually write them, and I barely finished the game. I want this to be a more relaxed experience for my own good. So I plan to play a mission or two and use handwritten notes about what happens to write up later. Screenshots are going to be much rarer as well I think. I'll try to do more of a summary than before, and only take pictures of particularly fun moments.
I'm not planning on using a guide for this play, especially if I'm not writing as I play I'll feel less pressure to get things right the first time out.
That out of the way, let's get started.
I watched the opening cinematic movie. It starts with two children, a boy and a girl, talking about a book they are reading. Long ago, two gods fought for supremacy on the continent of Valentia for many centuries, before finally finding some level of peace. The pair promise they will never be like that. I immediately am concerned that the game is going to tear these two apart horribly.
The cinematic continues to show a blue/green haired man leading armies, and fighting people. The music is pretty cool, with some good vocals.
Starting a new game, I get the option between Normal and Hard difficulty. Normal is an easy choice to make for me, as that's the experience I want. I also get to choose between Casual and Classic; in classic mode there is perma-death, like in the last game, but Casual mode means characters come back even if I lose them in a fight. I think for this play I want to do casual, I don't want my game to be a source of stress or I'll never return to it. Maybe on a second playthrough I'll do Classic mode for the challenge, but this way I won't be restarting maps so often as I did last time... also I'm pleased that it seems unlikely that there are gaiden chapters unlocked by killing half my squad like there were in Shadow Dragon.
With that taken care of, on to the game itself!
Title screen gives a date of something Flostym, 402 V.C. A cinematic plays. A huge dragon skull sits in the middle of a dark room. The two kids from the opening movie, looking grown up, stand on top of the skull. It looks like the boy has killed the girl? There's a sword through her, and she falls. They both seem to be crying. The girl is Ceilica, and the boy cries out her name as she dies.
Well that's a start. My horrible premonition is immediately played out! Alright, good game.
Oh wait there's more. We move on to the Prologue, which takes place in 394 V.C. So we have 8 years before the horrible outcome... we meet the children from the opening cinematic, Alm and Celica, through the eyes of the children of Ram Village. Faye, Gray and Kliff are complaining that Alm spends all his time with Celica, ever since she came to live in Ram Village. Alm and Celica are cousins. Kliff clarifies that Alm and Celica are not cousins, Celica is the ward of Alm's grandfather. Another kid name Tobin enters the scene, excited that a knight was sighted in the woods near the village.
We cut to Alm and Celica in the woods. Celica has made a flower wreathe for Alm. Alm is happy that Celiva has cheered up, as she didn't speak when she first arrived. Alm told her stories, picked flowers and took her on walks attempting to cheer her up. Celica really appreciated it, and tells Alm it really helped to have him around.
They each seem to have a sort of cross mark on one hand, Alm's mark is on the back of his left hand while Celica's mark is on her right palm. I'm sure this will never come up again.
Alm wants always to be with Celica, and Celica is about to say she wants the same thing when they are interrupted by Faye's scream.
A group of soldiers have grabbed the kids we met before. The leader is a knight named Slayde, commander of King Lima IV's knights. Slayde demands the kids lead them to their village. Tobin and Gray protest, determined not to lead these violent strangers to the village. Alm runs in with Celica. Slayde takes an interest in Celica, says General Desaix will want to meet her. Alm punches Slayde! This is going to go south, but go Alm!
Slayde is about to kill the children when Alm's grandfather rides in, full armor and warhorse, and intercepts Slayde's sword. Slayde knows Alm's grandfather as Mycen, and they have history. Not friendly history either. Mycen tells the kids to run, and we're into a fight!
Mycen advises my moves, but as the kids are all level 1 children they can't do much but run and hide (Slayde 'kills' Gray when I try to fight back with the kids...) but the enemies are no match for Mycen. Slayde runs off afterward, muttering about having found the "princess who won't die".
We won! Well, Mycen won. Sorry Gray (at least I'm not doing perma-death, it would be awkward to have to redo the prologue already!)
Alm and Tobin celebrate their victory, Kriff and Faye are just exhausted. Unfortunately, Mycen and Celica don't look happy. It's no longer safe for Celica in Ram village, she'll have to move on. Mycen has another favor to call in. Alm is very upset at this, and wants to know why Celica has to leave. "That's a page you don't want to turn, not yet." Mycen says sadly. Celica apologizes for having to leave, but gives Alm her good luck charm. As Celica and Mycen leave, Alm runs after them, promising that he will find Celica one day when he's stronger. "Please don't forget me."
We get an introductory movie! ...Again! (It feels Final Fantasy VII levels of overdone cutscenes, but I am getting a lot of good backstory from them, and the voice acting is spectacularly good at least.)
This movie shows that dragon skull with a sword in it, and then we get the title. Backstory time! Duma and Milla, the gods, once walked these lands. They fought over ideology; Duma believed humanity needed strength and discipline while Milla believed humanity needed freedom and peace. The two eventually reached a Divine Accord. Duma would get the north of the continent, Milla the south. Peace from the accord has lasted 1000 years, with the kingdom of Zofia in the south and the Rigelian Empire in the north. Zofia, from Milla's gifts, became decadent and depraved, never wanting for anything, while Rigel became cold and numb to kindness, valuing only strength. The two are now on the cusp of war.
We move on to Act 1: Zofia's call. This take place in 401 V.C. (I'm curious what the V.C. stands for.)
So this is 1 year before the horrible opening, and 7 years after the prologue. We open with Alm and Mycen sparring. Mycen has been training Alm, but won't allow Alm outside the village. I'm sure that will be changing in the next two minutes. Ram village is in Zofia. There's a terrible drought, and many people have turned to banditry. Rigel has been crossing the border in violation of the divine accord. And apparently "The Terrors" have resurfaced. That sounds pleasant.
Alm wants to go out and help the innocent people who are suffering. Mycen's response: "Before you dream of changing the world, learn your damn place in it!" So... is Alm Luke Skywalker?
Ooh, I can explore the village, this is different from Shadow Dragon. I get to examine stuff and pick up things like oranges and a splitting axe, and get some extra character from looking at other things (Alm says sheep are jerks, and Cliff scorched Mycen's house practicing fire magic!) I also talk to villagers, who give me even more backstory. Desaix is the chancellor, and puppets King Lima, leading to many rebellions in Zofia.
I traverse the town by moving between points of interest, which I like, it stops me getting lost. Sort of visual novel style. It simplifies things.
At the village gate I meet teenager Tobin and teenager Gray. Tobin says someone is here to see Mycen, although Gray does not trust anyone in full armor. (I'm sorry Gray! I didn't realize Slayde would move down and kill you in the prologue!)
The newcomer is Lukas, who fights for the Deliverance. Alm, Tobin and Gray are all befuddled. Lukas explains that King Lima is dead, killed by Desaix, who sold Zofia to Rigel. The Deliverance was formed by the Zofian knight Clive as a rebellion against this act. Lukas is here to seek the aid of a hero: Mycen.
We get reactions from the kids at the thought of war, and Alm leads Lukas to see Mycen. Mycen refuses to help (off screen, we don't see it and neither does Alm...), so Lukas goes to leave. Alm volunteers to join the Deliverance in Mycen's stead. He wants to prove Mycen is not a coward, and also prove to himself that he is strong enough to make a difference now. Alm asks the others to accompany him.
"Sure, we could all get impaled on the same lance!" is Kliff's droll response, but Gray is in. "I'm not as bright as I'd like to think I am, so count me in."
Tobin gets drawn along when Lukas mentions the army gets paid; he has family who need the financial support. Alm heads back to say farewell to Mycen, but Mycen is nowhere to be found. Hmm...
A rumor in town is that Desaix murdered all of Lima's heirs... so Celica must be the last of them, Mycen called her princess in the prologue. Another rumor is that Zofia is at fault for Rigel's invasion, because Zofia didn't help when Rigel had a famine a few years prior (this rumor comes from a very disgruntled man in the village that I don't like...)
Gray and Tobin are definitely coming.
 |
| Gray is my comic relief? |
I get the option to recruit Faye and Kliff. I bring them both of course. Faye doesn't want to be apart from Alm, and Kliff wants to see the world.
As we leave, Tobin worries about Alm not saying farewell to Mycen. Alm says he feels called to go do something. Tobin wonders if it's Celica who is calling him, and apparently Alm hadn't considered this?
A world map! That I can walk around on, from encounter to encounter. I wonder if I'll get random encounters? The first fight takes place just steps from the village gate when brigands demand a toll. We promptly kill them all. Alm starts as a fighter, Lukas a soldier, and the others are villagers. Gray and Tobin, who trained the most with Alm and Mycen, are higher level than Kliff and Faye. The graphics of the battles are much improved over Shadow Dragon, very fluid. I run to a second fight. Lukas advises slipping past these brigands because we don't have forever, but when they mention kidnapping a woman Alm charges in anyway. We face down our first enemy archer, and I learn that archers can hit adjacent spaces in this game... but I win with no casualties taken anyway.
I'm going to call it here! This game doesn't seem to have the straightforward chapters that Shadow Dragon did, so I'll just play for a bit until I feel I have enough to talk about. This turned into more play-by-play of the story than summary, but that's something I'll work on as I go I think. I'm really enjoying the gameplay so far, so I definitely want to keep going on this one.
Next time! To the bandit hideout!
Friday, July 19, 2019
Wednesday, July 3, 2019
GC Dungeons and Dragons: Pangea Part 6: Of Rats and Goblins
In which somebody dies. (I sure hope it's Griff.)
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