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 Posted: Mon Jun 03, 2013 6:01 pm
Nomad Rath I would have liked if Excellus' role was improved upon and he was made to be a rival strategist that was actually good and we had to contend with. Instead, he kind of sucked and was a joke. He could have challenged Avatar strategically and caused Avatar to grow. If I remembered correctly, didn't Excellus receive some help from Aversa? I know that in the support conversation between Aversa and Female!Robin, Aversa considered herself a strategist and was trying to top Robin over the role of strategist. Not to mention, we did see some dialogues of Aversa commenting about her strategies. So wouldn't that make Aversa more to be Robin's rival strategist than Excellus? I admitted that we barely see some of her strategies against Robin in the storyplot, but I agree with you about wanting to see both Excellus and Aversa to have bigger role on being strategists. >>;
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Posted: Sat Jun 15, 2013 6:50 am
Well, all of this strategist talk might hold more water if there was more time for it to breathe. I don't think Awakening is a bad story, but it's not the best. I think what it needed most of all was breathing time. Maybe Aversa and Excellus could have been fleshed out more if they just had more time to do it.
I feel as though Excellus' little snippet about being in contact with Aversa was meant to suggest some sort of interference or manipulation on the part of Validar in the Valm events, but you already know about how I feel about Valm. A mention or acknowledgement is not the same thing as actual development (Though a mention like that could go a long way if we had already seen evidence of such manipulation elsewhere), especially with all of these underwritten events vying for attention. I think that the developers saying that Awakening was thought to be the last game in the series and they wanted to put in everything they had always wanted to do and call back to many FE stories was the most telling thing about how Awakening ended up. In a way, I feel that is something to be admired especially because it shows that the developers are passionate about the series. But it explains a lot of Awakneing's hiccups, especially the poor, stuffed to the brim pacing. And when you want to make a big story without the room to do it, you rely more in cliches and stories that the people that enter already know, which gimps the game's potential.
I think that MU's role should be analyzed precisely because it is designed to be a self-insert. Even implying that there is room for this character to grow is an admission that there is a character here that acts beyond the player. Yes, a lot of people see themselves in the role of MU and make their own characters (which is what I think is the best way to handle the rather disappointing hand that the game itself gives MU), but in my opinion, it's not done well, and majorly detracts from the overall experience by getting in the way of the actual main characters with actual character. Video games should not have to work this hard to make you feel like a part of the action. It is an interactive medium. No matter what happens you should feel like a part of the action (emphasis on SHOULD for those cutscene heavy exposition barf games). I feel like during my second playthrough of awakening, I'm going to be a little more miffed since I know what this game can do at its best, and will have to see the worst all over again.
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Posted: Sun Jun 30, 2013 12:12 pm
ThePersonInFrontOfYou I feel as though Excellus' little snippet about being in contact with Aversa was meant to suggest some sort of interference or manipulation on the part of Validar in the Valm events, but you already know about how I feel about Valm. A mention or acknowledgement is not the same thing as actual development (Though a mention like that could go a long way if we had already seen evidence of such manipulation elsewhere) Have MU fight Aversa in chapter 22 and the Excellus-Aversa contact gets expanded on substantially. Excellus was an insurance plan for Validar, basically. So yeah. Greeting for the now SoCal FD. Moving has been a huge distraction, and I apologize. I'll try to be more 'on it'. Obviously MU is the best unit in the game. I really shouldn't have to explain why, but here are the bullet points: -perfect availability -modifiable stats/stat cap mods -can marry anyone and supports everyone -can reclass to anything (gender restrictions applying and favoring females for once substantially) -perhaps most importantly, Veteran. It's very imbalancing. But why NOT give the the most versatile unit in the game something to make them level hella-fast? I'd probably take Veteran out of the game if I made it, personally. It's too much. This would put them closer to the value of FE12 MU where they're still awesome but aren't awesome AND leveling faster than everyone else. -Grandmaster skills are pretty ******** amazing, too. Rainbow Rally is one of the best skills ever. Free 28 stats to everyone? Why not? So yeah. MU is super awesome as a unit. As a character... I don't mind MU being important to the story as opposed to just an observer the way MU was in FE12. Being important is nice. CONSUMING the story is not. I think it would've been better if MU wasn't a tactical genius but just someone who impressed the Shepherds as a fighter, becomes attached to them and especially to Chrom, and even still had the Grima heritage stuff going on. Let the shepherds already HAVE a strategist. MU would still be important enough to the story, but not everyone would have to kiss their a** ceaselessly for coming up with such "brilliant" and "bold" ideas as retreating to a volcano and setting ships on fire. A lot of the worst parts of MU would be taken out just with them not being a strategist to Chrom. The whole genius strategist thing is STILL never explained, either. We know MU's heritage, we know their mother took them from Validar and fled. We don't know the amnesia bit, which is acceptable I guess, and we don't know why the bloody hell they're ******** amazing at strategy. One can only get so good at it without having applied it, either. So shouldn't MU have advised someone before in strategy? And no one knew of this person? I think this was incredibly unfortunate not to follow up on. They could've advised Plegia during the war with Chrom's d**k father or something. I'd prefer the brilliant strategist bit removed altogether, as I already mentioned, but if it had to stay in, at least justify it somehow without writing it off due to amnesia. Especially when other parts of MU's part get explained. Having more influence over MU's characterization and decisions that have more impact on the game would've been really great, too. But they're getting better about this, so perhaps it's just a matter of time. It's not a true self-insert when all your supports are written, all your story dialogue is written and you only make choices something like 4-5 times in the entire game. More choices, perhaps even controlling the characterization with a quiz before the game starts, would be great for the future, but you have to attempt from somewhere and MU was a decent starting pint on this front, I think. I expect IS to get better at inserting self-insert characters in the future, judging by FE12 and 13. I guess we'll just have to see in time.
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Posted: Sun Jun 30, 2013 5:16 pm
Also, the current character to analyze is Chrom (you can always keep talking about old topic characters, though)!
What's the story with the latest lordling?
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Posted: Tue Jul 02, 2013 4:42 pm
So I missed out on some boss convos? This pleases me. I'll look into them when I can.
Chrom's growths are a notch above those of your average lord in a few areas, though the growths on Awakening's characters are a notch higher in general. He's got solid bases, he's an overall solid character. A lord/great lord's skillset in Awakening is also quite good. Dual strike + can make a big difference, especially early in the game. Aether seems to be becoming the go-to sword lord skill, and it's still a great skill here. Rightful King is also quite useful, and a lot of skills can benefit from an added +10% activation rate. Chrom's skills can make for plenty of different character builds in his kids, though the fact that all girl descendants get Aether and all boys get Rightful King puts a small cap on the possibilities.
Having your main lord come with his signature unbreakable weapon from the getgo is a bit of a slice of different. Obviously, you can't go swinging around something like Tyrfing or Armads or whatever from the getgo, so the Falchion is kinda dinky before receiving Naga's blessing towards the end to make up for the fact that it is unbreakable and it has effective damage towards wyverns and dragons, as one would expect from Falchion. Of course he still comes with a lord's signature rapier, and there are times where you'd want to use it and perhaps other weapons as well. Being able to use an unbreakable weapon from the getgo is a pretty useful, and an advantage in many ways even before it gets powered up.
If you've been reading my tons of second playthrough draftlog side blurbs, you've noticed a good deal of running Chrommentary. I decided to pay close attention to Chrom in particular (as well as Lucina) due in part to an online friend I spoke with about him, but also due in part to the fact that certain things made him stand out a bit more to me, like chapter 10 and how I continued to turn that chapter over in my head after I had finished it.
Chrom is very much the sort of lord who, while not incapable of subtle emotion, tends to be on the louder, more impulsive side. He's also older, or at least comes off as older with his lower voice, which I think is a bit refreshing. I've seen a lot of criticisms towards Chrom as a lord, and while he is nowhere near my favorite, some of the things he is criticized for I find myself being interested in. Chief among those is Chrom's tendency towards not just being impulsive, but also downright angry and vengeful. From the lords I know (which by now is most of them), Chrom is really the only one that lets his anger get the better of him and holds grudges towards people and countries. He's not the only one to hold a grudge against a country, even Marth can't forgive Gra for betraying Altea. But Chrom has such an angry edge to him, amplified by his voice, it really stands out to me. Especially in Chapter 10, where he is so overtaken by his anger and sadness that he never stops to give thought to the fact that he is slaughtering people that don't want to fight and completely unable to understand that the people of Plegia are people too, and there is no "mocking" of his sisters words gong on as he sees it (open to interpretation), amplified by other things and other things going on beside it. Some of his lines are also just brutal. It's not like the game totally ignores this either. Gangrel does the whole "we're not so different, you and I" thing, and Chrom acknowledges it a bit as well as giving you room to acknowledge it. Chrom's also capable of questioning himself and whether or not he is worthy of his sister's ideals.
In addition to this, we see that Chrom isn't incapable of compassion or understanding. He is trusting of MU and other characters to a fault. More than that, towards his daughter he can be very comforting. The cutscene of Chrom realizing who Lucina is happens to be one of my favorites in the whole game. He's just so... tender and comforting. Next to Lucina just letting her tears roll, and him saying his "You deserve better than one sword and a world of troubles... I'm sorry" is just so well paced and framed. I'm a sucker for it. So while Chrom is definitely Lord Angrypants, he's got this side to him too which helps ground him a bit and let you know he is a good man at heart, even if he can't really understand his sister's actions.
Angry Chrom is Angry. Is this bad? I say no! I'm glad we have an angry lord! Isn't FE at its best when it's getting all dirty with grey morality and imperfect people? It's not like he's totally irredeemable either. If you can appreciate good in villains, why not bad in protagonists? At the same time, though, it could have been done much better than it was. Of course, if Chrom just bugs the hell out of you that's understandable too. I've seen folks that can't stand him, especially since he sells his soul to MU so much and some of his scenes can be a bit eye-rolling (Piere Emblem Abakening and NAKED TIME! to name a few). As I said the other week, I think that MU's writing prevents him from fully exploring his character, among other things. You can only get what you can, and what I have here... I actually don't mind so much. Doesn't mean I can't wish for more, though. For more, check my commentary, but that's all the eye strain I'll give here for now.
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