there is a visual bug at 0:42 sorry about that. for some reason the screen goes black. The hilarious part is it covers up the text plugging for "subscribe so you dont miss the lords video" i guess youtube doesnt want me to plug haha.
Fun Fact about the Amiti: it is actually coded to be usable by two characters, Elincia and Renning! However, since it isn't allowed to leave Elincia's inventory, Renning is still not able to use it. This tracks, since it is supposed to be handed down through the royal family, which Renning is a part of. I wish he were able to use it ;-;
There were some Engage Rapiers that you missed: Lyn gives you the Mani Katti at bond level 10. It sucks so it makes sense you’d forget it. And Lucina gives you the Noble Rapier at bond rank 1. Lucina is more Utility than combat so that’s also not a super important rapier either
I'm in the middle of a jp FE7 playthrough, and yeah the game's balance makes way more sense with the mechanics as intended like FE6 equivalent throne bonuses and as mentioned in this video the x3 weapon effectiveness. Lyn kills armor knights without needing to crit, Eliwood one-shots nomads more reliably than Hector, etc. Even though they're still not the best units they have actual niches in the early game and just feel much better to use generally.
Another plus for the FE1 rapier is that it’s straight-up the only weapon effective on paladins thanks to the funny “knight killer” only working on unpromoted cavaliers
I always liked Chrom’s sealed Falchion’s anti dragon attribute being quite useful early game. Wyverns are no joke to face in swarms that early in the game, and Chrom has weapon advantage against them. Wyverns pop up in swarms in a later early chapter as well. Feels like pretty intentional design, it was more memorable then yet another rapier to me setting Chrom apart. They are some early knights but the cavaliers are not particulary common until bit later if I recall correctly.
48:11 hey, portugueseite here! Destreza is actually a swordfighting technique/discipline that was originated by Spanish noblemen which translates to "Dexterity/Skill", or the "True Skill/Art" in its full form (La Verdadera Destreza). It focused on careful spacing and a cautious and calculated approach towards your opponent-- Thus the skill guaranteeing a hit on an opponent you'd kill, it reflects the calculated nature of the discipline. It was a discipline used in contrast to the "common/vulgar" style of swordsmanship at the time, which is likely why its also the last CA learned, because it was considered a "high-class" style of fighting rooted in philosophy, mathematics (geometry specifically) and renaissance era ideals that focused on humanity. The discipline of Destreza is able to be used for most weapons but it was made in mind *for* Rapiers, thus its inclusion on the weapon.
@@DaniDoyle Practitioner of Destreza here, wanted to add that in practice it’s a fairly snooty looking and mildly sassy looking style of Rapier fencing, when performed well it straight up looks like your opponent is walking into your own sword. If you wanna see it in action I recommend looking up a guy named Ton Puey, he’s absolutely THE guy for Destreza in the HEMA-sphere rn
I think there technically is 1 more Engage rapier. Lucina has the 'Noble Rapier' as her starting weapon, which isn't a normal rapier, but it does still share the same use cases.
Siegfried boosts defence, Brynhildr can halve magic damage, Rajinto boosts strength, and the Fujin Yumi aids movement so the Yato stat boosts tie into that. My guess for the Nohrian weapons being defensive is a point about darkness not being inherently evil.
You don't need to wait for Ayra to trade away the silver sword; Ethlyn can use it too on account of her holy blood. I've actually gotten her through the chapter 1 and 2 arenas with some opportune silver sword crits.
Side fun fact: Micaiah's Thani is also tied for the 3rd strongest Light tome in the game in terms of base might, only surpassed by the 2 SS rank light tomes.
I know a little Jaoanese so I tried playing with the Japanese flavor text for FE6, and it specifies cavalry knight and armor knight types. So I guess the rapier is effective against knights be they mounted or armored, and nomads and valkyries don't count as knights?
I think for FE7 a fun thing they could’ve done if they were gonna stick to the rapier clones is differentiate their effective bonuses between the characters. Eliwood is the same Lyn gets Flying and Cavalry And Hector gets Armor and Flying I think Lyn having flier effectiveness is a fun hint to her promotion, and for Hector having flier effectiveness fits into his beefy strong guy trait of being able to smack down Wyverns and Armor knights Edit: Oh also you forgot about Lucina’s Noble Rapier in engage.
@@noukan42 Was about to say that while this is more flavorful in design, for gameplay purposes it's generally worse given the enemy distribution in FE7. (You don't fight many fliers and you're better off using bows anyway, and armorpiercing is the saving grace for the Mani Katti cuz of her low str.)
@@aghadlarhen9397 That’s fair, I know my idea is just more flavorful thematic rather than viable. I just think it’d be a nice differentiation since having 3 rapiers is a little boring and I didn’t wanna just do a “oh Mani Kati has +10 Avoid” or “Wolf Beil has +2 Def” or “Rapier has +5 Luck”
Does anyone else think a PRF weapon could do something like, be a Reaver weapon? That would also justify having other weapons of the same kind, as they’d have a use that the PRF doesn’t specialise in… Much as I don’t share Dani’s disdain for GBA!Emblem (especially not FE7 in general), I can admit that whenever I can use a different weapon without being handicapped, I tend to; it’s preferable to save Rapier/Mani Katti/Wolf Beil/Reginleif uses for mid-to-late game. Incentivising the use of the PRF so you use them more does strike me as a wise adjustment, even in titles which have Weapon Durability.
I think the shadow and blazing yato bonuses make sense this way when you look at the class split. The Nohrian classes favor a lot of the traditionally bulkier ones, knights cavs wyverns and even dark mages. The Hoshidan classes have a bigger bias to frailer, faster classes like myrms, pegs, and mages.
To add on to this if you look at the weapons the yato upgrades comes from. Both Nohr legendary weapons gives defensive effects while the Hoshidan weapons are more offensively oriented.
Minor nitpick: you cannot withdraw from the arena in FE1. If you can't take on the enemy, you're out the wager AND your unit. Also, THANK YOU for not saying "Strength is Constitution in Tellius". I hate that so friggin' much, and it's so much worse because Tellius actually has a Constitution stat (which is called Build half the time, but still).
While it's a bit questionable how sensible the "knight killer" = cavaliers and paladins but not nomads thing is, FE1 _also_ doesn't have Rapiers and similar do effective damage on Horsemen, the Nomad equivalent, so FE6 pretty clearly just took it from that. (though, well, it didn't take the knight killer not being effective against Paladins at least)
well, horsemen, arch / bow knights, and nomads are all distinct classes even if there's little distinguishing them mechanically, with horsemen being used consistently in pre-awakening archanea and the same going for nomads in elibe. it's not a thing stemming from localization, either, as they all differ in the original text in the way that classes like fighter, archer, and mercenary do not so it seem pretty clear that horsemen, nomads, and troubadours lacking the classification in the earlier games was very much an intentional decision, as fe3 also kept 'em out of the classification. the only real niggle to this is troubadours being included in fe4 and 5, but they _do_ promote into paladins in those games, so perhaps that's just a matter of how long the name "rod knight" took to catch on for. y'know. as much as "rod knight" has caught on now
Rapier in 3H kinda good for crit build war master ashe or ignatz. It is the cheapest weapon with high crit at base, decent durability and low weapon rank. Compare it to cursed sword or wo dao+ which is expensive to be repaired and low in durability, rapier is cheaper and more consistent option for crit build unit.
4:08 The FE1 arena is a prize money system, there is no 1-to-10 wager. The misconception is a relic of issues with some of the NES Shadow Dragon translation patches, where the initial gold display for some reason is missing a 0. Though I suppose the point still stands that as long as the unit can survive the arena, it's an easy source of money. There's also an unfortunate translation error for FE: Gaiden patches where the vast majority (if not all) of the available English translation patches render the "1 (or 2) hit(s)" message as "Group got 1 (or 2) EXP". Particpation EXP does exist in the original NES Gaiden, but it works more like the participation EXP system in Echoes: SoV where all of them are handed out after the map. Many of the currently available NESFE English translations patches have somewhat unfortunate quality overall.
26:06 i mean, you only use durandal at the end in fe7 too And yes, it would be interesting to talk about legendary weapons too, how we went from the 3 regalia of arkanea and falchion to the 3H relics and the Sword of the creator etc.
3H's Rapier is actually pretty cracked. The forged version has 9 might (27 vs cavs and armors), 95 Hit, 20 Crits, 5 Weight and a whopping 45 durability while being cheap to repair with regular Smithing Stones. It doesn't really matter that the good sword combat arts are few and far between when you can easily double and score a lot of crits with it.
Yeah, the DLC makes it wildly accessible too. imo it's arguably the best weapon in the game because of how little investment it needs compared to how much you can get out of it, especially when the forged silver sword has 13 might, 90 hit, 0 crit, and 8 weight. Arguably worse because against normal enemies you only deal four more damage with a higher likelihood of not doubling, and a much lower chance to crit. It's also in the running against the brave sword+, which has 10 might, 12 weight, 85 hit, and 40 uses. All of which I think speaks for itself in that you need to be much faster (and/or have 65 strength to completely negate its weight) to quad with the brave sword anyway and get 40 base damage against a normal enemy, while with the rapier+ you have at least a one-in-five base chance (likely higher depending on unit dex and unit battalion) to double and deal 42 base crit damage. so. The Mercurius, at 12 might, 7 weight, 80 hit, 10 crit, and 40 uses, is comparable to a silver sword+ and gets in closer contention with the rapier, but is weighted in its stats to be used by your highest-dex offensive sword user. This, however, comes at a cost of: finding the correct rusted sword in the first place, 10 mithril to forge, and 10 mithril to repair. When it comes to Mythril, there are competing uses for it (3 per repair to sacred weapons, such as the Spear of Assal, aka probably the best lance in the game). This means that, if anything, it's a sword relegated to the endgame, within the final three maps or so. The Sword of Moralta gets somewhat comparable to the Rapier+ (13 might, 9 weight, 75 hit, 25 crit, 30 uses), but is exclusive to the latter two thirds of Azure Moon. The Sword of Begalta (12 might, 5 weight, 100 hit, 0 crit, 30 uses) is arguably straight-up worse than the Rapier+ because you're getting 3 extra might for twenty less crit, and is exclusive to the second half of Verdant Wind. It should also be worth noting that none of the five swords I've just talked about have any kind of effectiveness, while the Rapier+ retains its comparably fantastic stats *and* cavalry and armour effectiveness. This comment's getting a bit long, but to do a quick overview, the Killing Edge+ and Wo Dao+ offer the exact same might as the Rapier+ for considerably more crit but horrifically less uses (tbf Black-Sand Steel isn't at all arduous to get). The Cursed Ashiya Sword+ is arguably better than both of these, with more might, 50 crit, less hit, and 20 uses, and imo is worth the BSS investment, and probably so far the only sword in real contention with the Rapier+. The Sword of Zoltan+ is very neat but requires Wootz Steel which is annoyingly rare. The other swords aren't really anything special when it comes to what might be the best sword in the game, but; Shoutout to the Levin Sword+ for having 3 range.
I would like to correct you when you said the GBA is weaker than the SNES , this is actually false, the GBA is technically more powerful than the SNES, however it has less button and a small screen, that's the reason why GBA FE is less innovative than Snes FE.
11:55 FE5 Leif starts with C swords in Thracia as does Nanna. In addition, Macha, Lifis, and Finn start with D+30 so Fergus’ rapier use is far from exclusive, though I agree he is the best user of the one you get in Chapter 4 13:20 Fergus/Karin is actually a two-way support, but most people tend to not use Karin for combat to begin with (even if she is amazing with magic swords.)
Couple comments to make, I’ll add edits as I finish the video FE7: I agree that the three main PRF’s all having the same effective bonus is kinda lame but don’t forget Wolf Beil is an *axe* so will have advantage against lances. You know… the weapon most commonly wielded by the very enemy types that Wolf Beil is specially made to take out FE9: Yeah… no, “Regal Sword” is objectively the correct romanization of the in-game katakana for the weapon name (リガルソード)
Since you mentioned it, I wanted to do a check on the FE6 rapier in Japanese, disclaimer, my Japanese is basic at best, but translated word for word, the item descriptions says: "Horseback Knight class . Armor Class (ni) effective". While I don't see any game that refers to Cavalier as "Horseback Knight" (騎馬ナイト), Knight itself (or Social Knight) is only used for Cavalier in FE6. So I would believe that the weapon is made specifically for Cavaliers and Knights
Honestly, I'm glad I found your channel. You have really well thought out takes and insight on Fire Emblem. And even if I don't always agree, I always feel like I come away from your videos feeling more informed. ^^
Rapiers are so fun. Plus I like the extra effort they put into some of the motions when they use the weapon. Makes it stand out a bit amongst all the swords we have
Actually getting into Playstation Fe ,Tearring saga gives Holmes a fairly decent longbow with 40 uses and 2-3 range as a pseudo personal weapon,as in anyone can use it but i doubt anyone else needs it more than him, at least in route split one. It offers attacking at 3 range ,which can be quite valuable in chapter 11, where's a tihjt corridor with archers firing at you,or chapter 13 with a summoner of harpies in an otherwise innacesible square without flying Its not exactly a rapier but the fact that half of the monsters are flying gives it at least some effective damage utility
Simpletons will say the longbow isn't Holmes' personal because Raquel can use it, but the truly enlightened give Ruka every manual in the game. (I still think it's so funny Ruka just lies to Holmes and claims he can use the long bow)
One thing I will say for the Three Houses Rapier--the forged version, the Rapier+, is arguably one of the best swords, if not best weapons, in the entire game. It has decent might (9), it's very light (5 weight), very good accuracy (95) and considerable crit (20) for the uses you get (45). With the DLC adding the pagan altar in Abyss, where you can buy multiple Rapiers with renown, it becomes very accessible to run on pretty much any of your sword units, because they'll likely have more than enough strength to negate its weight, speed to double most enemies, and dex to help ensure relatively consistent hits and crits. For me, it's basically a must-run on Swordleth, as well as any assassins, mortal savants, swordmasters, dancers, heroes, or even sometimes falcon knights that I'm running.
Thani, aka "Tactical Horse and Armor Nuking Incantation". It does what it says on the tin. Armor Knights having terrible Res as usual means that it's way better than the Rapier at making them explode. Add Micaiah's overkill Magic and yeah she one shots everything that she's effective against. It's my favourite of the lord Prfs, and even survived the transition into Engage. Just in case you want your super staff bot to also wreck armors and cavaliers. It's just a shame that, just like Micaiah herself, it's better for the super staff bot to use staves than to blast enemies with a light nuke (rip giant ball of light, though)
15:35 the GBA has more powerful hardware than the SNES and GBA carts had (generally) more storage. It did have more audio limitations and the screen size limitations, tho. It was kinda harder to display a lot of information at once.
Big agree on variation in starting Lord PRFs, especially in games with multiple Lords. If we ever get a multi-Lord game again (copium copium) I hope they consider that. Not sure if it was the intent, but I'm kinda high on Ettard after that section. Big Mt, no effectiveness and 50 uses makes it a "rated E for Everyone" type of weapon, which honestly fits Ike's character. No discrimination, plenty ass whuppins to go around, especially with the second Ettard.
Cool vid but uh The GBA is actually more powerful than the SNES. I don't think that really affects your argument about Kaga not being why gba era sorta stagnated experimentation wise, just kinda funny that one misconception is replaced with another lol
@@DaniDoyle yeah kinda crazy how powerful the GBA is for it's time, like have you seen the 3D games on that thing? Some person's programming Mario 64 for GBA! A lot of SNES ports just look like a downgrade due to a combination of screen size, brighter colors due to no backlight, and other such changes
Another commenter pointed out that the game boy advance having a smaller screen and only two buttons is likely the reason for the simplicity and I think that makes sense because especially the smaller screen makes it harder to convey complicated information
@@DaniDoyle yeah that's probably the reason for quite a few simplifications, especially in regards to skills. Heck even with the really well done implementation of a skill system in romhacks skill bloat can be a big problem due to the GBAs general screen real estate making getting quick information difficult
Fates is my favorite game in the series and learning Yato breaks througj Dragonskin was news to me. I normally reclass Corrin out of swords into a magic class or just double down on only using the Dragonstone
Great content! I love these “through the Series” videos that teach me a lot, not only about the history but also current meta considerations of characters, weapons, or mechanics. I’m often impressed by your depth of knowledge in nearly every game, a credit to your research and experience. I learn a lot about older games, which I appreciate as I tend to play mostly newer ones. I never knew that Leif’s Light Brand switches between physical and magical damage depending on range. Combined with enemy Res, very cool to see that situational shine! I do have some constructive feedback on 3H. The 3H Rapier(+) is probably the 2nd best Sword in the game and is straight up the best early game weapon if you get it via DLC altar. Another commenter mentioned the E rank on it, but while also considering that best sword Thunderbrand is E rank, these can be used by anyone in any class regardless if they are Sword focused or not. Sword magic arts are very strong but you can also just use these swords in any class for some eff dmg benchmarks or quadding Dmg/AS thresholds. Sword Prowess gives like no hit so if you’re packing any regular suite of Battalion Hit and/or Hit +20, you will not have problems using them on a unit with zero previous Sword investment and securing tough kills.
Roy & Micaiah on their respective hard modes honestly have the most interesting iteration of the Lord Rapier, in my opinion. I think both of their earlygame contributions are broadly underrated and misunderstood: they're not just shitty combat units, they're *generally* shitty combat units with a really unique specialization against common (and very scary!) enemy unit types. There's just something about nuking an obscenely overstatted Cavalier with Thani so that your better combat units can attend to something other than the cavalier that activates all of my neurons
Reminding me how pre-upgrade Sword of the Creator is 9 weight brick. Since it's been a long time since I played 3H that reminded me that until upgrade it's just essentially a 1-2 range Steel Sword.
Yeah Byleth doesn't really need it and it's very nice when upgraded. It has also it's use of being one of the first relics you get and damaging your units without the crest if you need it. It has it's uses and I think it's better designed than Siegfried/Raijntaro in the end
I actually like for rapiers to stay rapiers. I like rapiers for the same reason i hate Jeigans(one of the reasons at least). Earlygame is meant to teach a new player an a lesson organically learned by doing is almost always better than a tutorial. Rapiers are an excellent tool to teach players about effective damage while also providing an unique niche for the lord. They may even be useful for teaching the importance of durability. I think alternative weapons can work if they do offer to teach something as important as that, but the light brand and maybe Liberation are the only cases i can think of.
The Yato gives offense in Birthright because it's the easier story. Most of Birthright takes little more than the the ability to unga bunga the enemy army. Conquest will kill you if you run out full offense no tactics so defense stats would serve you better in that story.
With the Yato upgrades, I think it's more in reference to how the design of the two nations is translated into gameplay, rather than the story events. They made the Hoshidan classes faster but less defensive bc the Hoshidans wear relatively little armor, and they made Nohrian classes slower but tankier bc heavier armor and such. So the Yato gives boosts that lean into the designs and class balance of whichever nation you ally with.
31:34 I wanna add my two cents here because I see an opportunity to apologize for RD but seriously I think it’s pretty thematic for Micaiah to just keep thani, although as a character she would probably have hang ups about stealing I think sothe would eventually talk her into keeping it since they’re fighting begnion and they need whatever help they could get
I think the Yato bonuses make a lot of sense, since they reference not what the nations are doing right now, but their combat styles. Hoshidan classes have more focus on fast, offensive units, like samurai, sky knights, archers, etc. While Nohrian classes focus more on bulkier, defensive units, like mercenaries, wyverns, cavaliers, and armour knights. It makes sense, that as they fight alongside either nation, the Yato(&Corrin) adopt elements of their fighting style, even if it's just +2 speed or tome access.
Good Video PD: huh, I always assume that the general opinion is that marth is the best unit in fe1 no conquest and in fe3 he was good but not great, Funny PD2: what is the name of the hack of the minute 2:00 (Edit) forget it, I already saw it, and tried the first 3 chapters
My main take away here is "A Fire Emblem game's quality is determined by whether or not the effective damage is 2x or 3x in English version It's fine, hate in my 2 favorite FE games for one small aspect...it's cool
Libération sounds nice on paper but Alear's class has gauntlet so even if you double with Libération it will be worse at generating meter than quadding with gauntlet. Libération killing gives 4(2 hits, 1 enemy counter attack and the effect) while quadding gives 5(4 hits, 1 enemy counter attack) and if Libération fails to kill then it's 3 vs 5 meter
there is a visual bug at 0:42 sorry about that. for some reason the screen goes black. The hilarious part is it covers up the text plugging for "subscribe so you dont miss the lords video" i guess youtube doesnt want me to plug haha.
Fun Fact about the Amiti: it is actually coded to be usable by two characters, Elincia and Renning! However, since it isn't allowed to leave Elincia's inventory, Renning is still not able to use it. This tracks, since it is supposed to be handed down through the royal family, which Renning is a part of. I wish he were able to use it ;-;
Yep! RR takes advantage of that as well
Rapier in 3h kind of good. Who cares that I'm not getting +3 lance rank I just killed all the enemies.
You forgot to mention that the ultimate form of the Yato is a flaming chainsaw sword and that goes incredible hard.
that's what im sayin
It a example of anime over top stuff working rather it being narmy
There were some Engage Rapiers that you missed: Lyn gives you the Mani Katti at bond level 10. It sucks so it makes sense you’d forget it. And Lucina gives you the Noble Rapier at bond rank 1. Lucina is more Utility than combat so that’s also not a super important rapier either
I'm in the middle of a jp FE7 playthrough, and yeah the game's balance makes way more sense with the mechanics as intended like FE6 equivalent throne bonuses and as mentioned in this video the x3 weapon effectiveness. Lyn kills armor knights without needing to crit, Eliwood one-shots nomads more reliably than Hector, etc. Even though they're still not the best units they have actual niches in the early game and just feel much better to use generally.
Another plus for the FE1 rapier is that it’s straight-up the only weapon effective on paladins thanks to the funny “knight killer” only working on unpromoted cavaliers
lmao i forgot about that
I always liked Chrom’s sealed Falchion’s anti dragon attribute being quite useful early game. Wyverns are no joke to face in swarms that early in the game, and Chrom has weapon advantage against them. Wyverns pop up in swarms in a later early chapter as well. Feels like pretty intentional design, it was more memorable then yet another rapier to me setting Chrom apart. They are some early knights but the cavaliers are not particulary common until bit later if I recall correctly.
48:11 hey, portugueseite here!
Destreza is actually a swordfighting technique/discipline that was originated by Spanish noblemen which translates to "Dexterity/Skill", or the "True Skill/Art" in its full form (La Verdadera Destreza). It focused on careful spacing and a cautious and calculated approach towards your opponent-- Thus the skill guaranteeing a hit on an opponent you'd kill, it reflects the calculated nature of the discipline. It was a discipline used in contrast to the "common/vulgar" style of swordsmanship at the time, which is likely why its also the last CA learned, because it was considered a "high-class" style of fighting rooted in philosophy, mathematics (geometry specifically) and renaissance era ideals that focused on humanity.
The discipline of Destreza is able to be used for most weapons but it was made in mind *for* Rapiers, thus its inclusion on the weapon.
Oh that's really neat! I just thought it was a random fantasy name! Thanks for sharing!!!
That’s amazing, ive never even seen this art before. That’s super cool
@@DaniDoyle Practitioner of Destreza here, wanted to add that in practice it’s a fairly snooty looking and mildly sassy looking style of Rapier fencing, when performed well it straight up looks like your opponent is walking into your own sword.
If you wanna see it in action I recommend looking up a guy named Ton Puey, he’s absolutely THE guy for Destreza in the HEMA-sphere rn
I think there technically is 1 more Engage rapier. Lucina has the 'Noble Rapier' as her starting weapon, which isn't a normal rapier, but it does still share the same use cases.
Siegfried boosts defence, Brynhildr can halve magic damage, Rajinto boosts strength, and the Fujin Yumi aids movement so the Yato stat boosts tie into that. My guess for the Nohrian weapons being defensive is a point about darkness not being inherently evil.
OMG that makes sense!
You don't need to wait for Ayra to trade away the silver sword; Ethlyn can use it too on account of her holy blood. I've actually gotten her through the chapter 1 and 2 arenas with some opportune silver sword crits.
Side fun fact: Micaiah's Thani is also tied for the 3rd strongest Light tome in the game in terms of base might, only surpassed by the 2 SS rank light tomes.
I know a little Jaoanese so I tried playing with the Japanese flavor text for FE6, and it specifies cavalry knight and armor knight types. So I guess the rapier is effective against knights be they mounted or armored, and nomads and valkyries don't count as knights?
Rapiers are such cool weapons, and I like when they can be used by multiple units. I always imagine dancers and thieves using them mostly
I think for FE7 a fun thing they could’ve done if they were gonna stick to the rapier clones is differentiate their effective bonuses between the characters.
Eliwood is the same
Lyn gets Flying and Cavalry
And Hector gets Armor and Flying
I think Lyn having flier effectiveness is a fun hint to her promotion, and for Hector having flier effectiveness fits into his beefy strong guy trait of being able to smack down Wyverns and Armor knights
Edit: Oh also you forgot about Lucina’s Noble Rapier in engage.
Lyn absolutely need armor effectiveness tho, unless you make Lundgren a Wyvern Lord i guess.
@@noukan42 Was about to say that while this is more flavorful in design, for gameplay purposes it's generally worse given the enemy distribution in FE7. (You don't fight many fliers and you're better off using bows anyway, and armorpiercing is the saving grace for the Mani Katti cuz of her low str.)
@@aghadlarhen9397 That’s fair, I know my idea is just more flavorful thematic rather than viable. I just think it’d be a nice differentiation since having 3 rapiers is a little boring and I didn’t wanna just do a “oh Mani Kati has +10 Avoid” or “Wolf Beil has +2 Def” or “Rapier has +5 Luck”
Does anyone else think a PRF weapon could do something like, be a Reaver weapon? That would also justify having other weapons of the same kind, as they’d have a use that the PRF doesn’t specialise in…
Much as I don’t share Dani’s disdain for GBA!Emblem (especially not FE7 in general), I can admit that whenever I can use a different weapon without being handicapped, I tend to; it’s preferable to save Rapier/Mani Katti/Wolf Beil/Reginleif uses for mid-to-late game. Incentivising the use of the PRF so you use them more does strike me as a wise adjustment, even in titles which have Weapon Durability.
I think the shadow and blazing yato bonuses make sense this way when you look at the class split. The Nohrian classes favor a lot of the traditionally bulkier ones, knights cavs wyverns and even dark mages. The Hoshidan classes have a bigger bias to frailer, faster classes like myrms, pegs, and mages.
To add on to this if you look at the weapons the yato upgrades comes from. Both Nohr legendary weapons gives defensive effects while the Hoshidan weapons are more offensively oriented.
Minor nitpick: you cannot withdraw from the arena in FE1. If you can't take on the enemy, you're out the wager AND your unit.
Also, THANK YOU for not saying "Strength is Constitution in Tellius". I hate that so friggin' much, and it's so much worse because Tellius actually has a Constitution stat (which is called Build half the time, but still).
While it's a bit questionable how sensible the "knight killer" = cavaliers and paladins but not nomads thing is, FE1 _also_ doesn't have Rapiers and similar do effective damage on Horsemen, the Nomad equivalent, so FE6 pretty clearly just took it from that. (though, well, it didn't take the knight killer not being effective against Paladins at least)
well, horsemen, arch / bow knights, and nomads are all distinct classes even if there's little distinguishing them mechanically, with horsemen being used consistently in pre-awakening archanea and the same going for nomads in elibe. it's not a thing stemming from localization, either, as they all differ in the original text in the way that classes like fighter, archer, and mercenary do not
so it seem pretty clear that horsemen, nomads, and troubadours lacking the classification in the earlier games was very much an intentional decision, as fe3 also kept 'em out of the classification. the only real niggle to this is troubadours being included in fe4 and 5, but they _do_ promote into paladins in those games, so perhaps that's just a matter of how long the name "rod knight" took to catch on
for. y'know. as much as "rod knight" has caught on now
Rapier in 3H kinda good for crit build war master ashe or ignatz. It is the cheapest weapon with high crit at base, decent durability and low weapon rank. Compare it to cursed sword or wo dao+ which is expensive to be repaired and low in durability, rapier is cheaper and more consistent option for crit build unit.
4:08 The FE1 arena is a prize money system, there is no 1-to-10 wager. The misconception is a relic of issues with some of the NES Shadow Dragon translation patches, where the initial gold display for some reason is missing a 0. Though I suppose the point still stands that as long as the unit can survive the arena, it's an easy source of money.
There's also an unfortunate translation error for FE: Gaiden patches where the vast majority (if not all) of the available English translation patches render the "1 (or 2) hit(s)" message as "Group got 1 (or 2) EXP". Particpation EXP does exist in the original NES Gaiden, but it works more like the participation EXP system in Echoes: SoV where all of them are handed out after the map.
Many of the currently available NESFE English translations patches have somewhat unfortunate quality overall.
Interesting, I didn't know that, thanks for telling me.
Reason to like rapiers: me like bonus big damage and higher crit.
26:06 i mean, you only use durandal at the end in fe7 too
And yes, it would be interesting to talk about legendary weapons too, how we went from the 3 regalia of arkanea and falchion to the 3H relics and the Sword of the creator etc.
In fe6, you get Durandal in ch8x
@DaniDoyle but (excepting maybe rugter) nobody can use it lol
3H's Rapier is actually pretty cracked. The forged version has 9 might (27 vs cavs and armors), 95 Hit, 20 Crits, 5 Weight and a whopping 45 durability while being cheap to repair with regular Smithing Stones. It doesn't really matter that the good sword combat arts are few and far between when you can easily double and score a lot of crits with it.
Yeah, the DLC makes it wildly accessible too. imo it's arguably the best weapon in the game because of how little investment it needs compared to how much you can get out of it, especially when the forged silver sword has 13 might, 90 hit, 0 crit, and 8 weight. Arguably worse because against normal enemies you only deal four more damage with a higher likelihood of not doubling, and a much lower chance to crit.
It's also in the running against the brave sword+, which has 10 might, 12 weight, 85 hit, and 40 uses. All of which I think speaks for itself in that you need to be much faster (and/or have 65 strength to completely negate its weight) to quad with the brave sword anyway and get 40 base damage against a normal enemy, while with the rapier+ you have at least a one-in-five base chance (likely higher depending on unit dex and unit battalion) to double and deal 42 base crit damage. so.
The Mercurius, at 12 might, 7 weight, 80 hit, 10 crit, and 40 uses, is comparable to a silver sword+ and gets in closer contention with the rapier, but is weighted in its stats to be used by your highest-dex offensive sword user. This, however, comes at a cost of: finding the correct rusted sword in the first place, 10 mithril to forge, and 10 mithril to repair. When it comes to Mythril, there are competing uses for it (3 per repair to sacred weapons, such as the Spear of Assal, aka probably the best lance in the game). This means that, if anything, it's a sword relegated to the endgame, within the final three maps or so.
The Sword of Moralta gets somewhat comparable to the Rapier+ (13 might, 9 weight, 75 hit, 25 crit, 30 uses), but is exclusive to the latter two thirds of Azure Moon. The Sword of Begalta (12 might, 5 weight, 100 hit, 0 crit, 30 uses) is arguably straight-up worse than the Rapier+ because you're getting 3 extra might for twenty less crit, and is exclusive to the second half of Verdant Wind. It should also be worth noting that none of the five swords I've just talked about have any kind of effectiveness, while the Rapier+ retains its comparably fantastic stats *and* cavalry and armour effectiveness.
This comment's getting a bit long, but to do a quick overview, the Killing Edge+ and Wo Dao+ offer the exact same might as the Rapier+ for considerably more crit but horrifically less uses (tbf Black-Sand Steel isn't at all arduous to get). The Cursed Ashiya Sword+ is arguably better than both of these, with more might, 50 crit, less hit, and 20 uses, and imo is worth the BSS investment, and probably so far the only sword in real contention with the Rapier+. The Sword of Zoltan+ is very neat but requires Wootz Steel which is annoyingly rare. The other swords aren't really anything special when it comes to what might be the best sword in the game, but;
Shoutout to the Levin Sword+ for having 3 range.
Oh and the Rapier (and Rapier+), mind you, are E-rank weapons for some ridiculous reason LMAO
I would like to correct you when you said the GBA is weaker than the SNES , this is actually false, the GBA is technically more powerful than the SNES, however it has less button and a small screen, that's the reason why GBA FE is less innovative than Snes FE.
Oh that makes sense yeah with fewer buttons and smaller screen it's harder to convey complicated information
11:55 FE5 Leif starts with C swords in Thracia as does Nanna. In addition, Macha, Lifis, and Finn start with D+30 so Fergus’ rapier use is far from exclusive, though I agree he is the best user of the one you get in Chapter 4
13:20 Fergus/Karin is actually a two-way support, but most people tend to not use Karin for combat to begin with (even if she is amazing with magic swords.)
Fergus is still a Lord because he can use the Braggi Sword, though
Couple comments to make, I’ll add edits as I finish the video
FE7: I agree that the three main PRF’s all having the same effective bonus is kinda lame but don’t forget Wolf Beil is an *axe* so will have advantage against lances. You know… the weapon most commonly wielded by the very enemy types that Wolf Beil is specially made to take out
FE9: Yeah… no, “Regal Sword” is objectively the correct romanization of the in-game katakana for the weapon name (リガルソード)
1:41 the devil axe having 13 durability is actually dope imo we should do that again.
I agree!!!
Devil Axe durability is actually only 9. The Hand Axe is the one with 13 durability.
Whoops!!!
Since you mentioned it, I wanted to do a check on the FE6 rapier in Japanese, disclaimer, my Japanese is basic at best, but translated word for word, the item descriptions says: "Horseback Knight class . Armor Class (ni) effective". While I don't see any game that refers to Cavalier as "Horseback Knight" (騎馬ナイト), Knight itself (or Social Knight) is only used for Cavalier in FE6. So I would believe that the weapon is made specifically for Cavaliers and Knights
For reference, FE7 straight up says Horseback and Armored unit
I misread the title as "Rappers are Awesome" and thought it was going to be you suggesting a major shift in the game's music.
I think the biggest point about Liberation is how cheap (in terms of money and materials) is to +5
I know a lot of people like forging it, but personally I prefer spending my ore on stuff other units can use (like levin sword, rad bow, etc)
I think emblem Lucina also gives a rapier, the noble one though at rank 10? i could be miss remembering though.
You are correct! I just forgot
15:00 omg the road to ruin gameplay. There's the best Jagan girl in that rom hack. Love that rom hack.
For those wondering what the game at the start is, it's "En Garde!", and is currently only on Steam
whoops, i forgot to put that in the description. i updated it, tysm!
Honestly, I'm glad I found your channel. You have really well thought out takes and insight on Fire Emblem. And even if I don't always agree, I always feel like I come away from your videos feeling more informed. ^^
Rapiers are so fun. Plus I like the extra effort they put into some of the motions when they use the weapon. Makes it stand out a bit amongst all the swords we have
Actually getting into Playstation Fe ,Tearring saga gives Holmes a fairly decent longbow with 40 uses and 2-3 range as a pseudo personal weapon,as in anyone can use it but i doubt anyone else needs it more than him, at least in route split one.
It offers attacking at 3 range ,which can be quite valuable in chapter 11, where's a tihjt corridor with archers firing at you,or chapter 13 with a summoner of harpies in an otherwise innacesible square without flying
Its not exactly a rapier but the fact that half of the monsters are flying gives it at least some effective damage utility
Simpletons will say the longbow isn't Holmes' personal because Raquel can use it, but the truly enlightened give Ruka every manual in the game. (I still think it's so funny Ruka just lies to Holmes and claims he can use the long bow)
@@DaniDoyle you say that and I raise you 3 range tank thomas so you can tank farther and finally contribute past turn 2
@@thewindysage1538 tom
One thing I will say for the Three Houses Rapier--the forged version, the Rapier+, is arguably one of the best swords, if not best weapons, in the entire game. It has decent might (9), it's very light (5 weight), very good accuracy (95) and considerable crit (20) for the uses you get (45). With the DLC adding the pagan altar in Abyss, where you can buy multiple Rapiers with renown, it becomes very accessible to run on pretty much any of your sword units, because they'll likely have more than enough strength to negate its weight, speed to double most enemies, and dex to help ensure relatively consistent hits and crits. For me, it's basically a must-run on Swordleth, as well as any assassins, mortal savants, swordmasters, dancers, heroes, or even sometimes falcon knights that I'm running.
Thani, aka "Tactical Horse and Armor Nuking Incantation". It does what it says on the tin. Armor Knights having terrible Res as usual means that it's way better than the Rapier at making them explode. Add Micaiah's overkill Magic and yeah she one shots everything that she's effective against.
It's my favourite of the lord Prfs, and even survived the transition into Engage. Just in case you want your super staff bot to also wreck armors and cavaliers. It's just a shame that, just like Micaiah herself, it's better for the super staff bot to use staves than to blast enemies with a light nuke (rip giant ball of light, though)
15:35 the GBA has more powerful hardware than the SNES and GBA carts had (generally) more storage.
It did have more audio limitations and the screen size limitations, tho. It was kinda harder to display a lot of information at once.
Big agree on variation in starting Lord PRFs, especially in games with multiple Lords. If we ever get a multi-Lord game again (copium copium) I hope they consider that.
Not sure if it was the intent, but I'm kinda high on Ettard after that section. Big Mt, no effectiveness and 50 uses makes it a "rated E for Everyone" type of weapon, which honestly fits Ike's character. No discrimination, plenty ass whuppins to go around, especially with the second Ettard.
Cool vid but uh
The GBA is actually more powerful than the SNES. I don't think that really affects your argument about Kaga not being why gba era sorta stagnated experimentation wise, just kinda funny that one misconception is replaced with another lol
Zamn, really? I just sssumed mobile device weaker then home console
@@DaniDoyle yeah kinda crazy how powerful the GBA is for it's time, like have you seen the 3D games on that thing? Some person's programming Mario 64 for GBA!
A lot of SNES ports just look like a downgrade due to a combination of screen size, brighter colors due to no backlight, and other such changes
Another commenter pointed out that the game boy advance having a smaller screen and only two buttons is likely the reason for the simplicity and I think that makes sense because especially the smaller screen makes it harder to convey complicated information
@@DaniDoyle yeah that's probably the reason for quite a few simplifications, especially in regards to skills. Heck even with the really well done implementation of a skill system in romhacks skill bloat can be a big problem due to the GBAs general screen real estate making getting quick information difficult
I could have sworn there was a vague throwaway line about Micaiah's stuff being stolen at some point around 2nd chapter
Hmm maybe I'm just not remembering. I thought that was in ch3 (after the thanni, when shes arrested, and sothe just gives her back everything)
53:10 you forgot emblem lucina has the noble rapier
Damnit, i knew i missed one, but i couldn't figure out what it is 🤦🏻♀️ thanks for helping!
Fates is my favorite game in the series and learning Yato breaks througj Dragonskin was news to me. I normally reclass Corrin out of swords into a magic class or just double down on only using the Dragonstone
0:09 hehe you said among
Gus
I would just like to state that the GBA is much more powerful than the SNES
Great content! I love these “through the Series” videos that teach me a lot, not only about the history but also current meta considerations of characters, weapons, or mechanics. I’m often impressed by your depth of knowledge in nearly every game, a credit to your research and experience. I learn a lot about older games, which I appreciate as I tend to play mostly newer ones. I never knew that Leif’s Light Brand switches between physical and magical damage depending on range. Combined with enemy Res, very cool to see that situational shine!
I do have some constructive feedback on 3H. The 3H Rapier(+) is probably the 2nd best Sword in the game and is straight up the best early game weapon if you get it via DLC altar.
Another commenter mentioned the E rank on it, but while also considering that best sword Thunderbrand is E rank, these can be used by anyone in any class regardless if they are Sword focused or not. Sword magic arts are very strong but you can also just use these swords in any class for some eff dmg benchmarks or quadding Dmg/AS thresholds. Sword Prowess gives like no hit so if you’re packing any regular suite of Battalion Hit and/or Hit +20, you will not have problems using them on a unit with zero previous Sword investment and securing tough kills.
Roy & Micaiah on their respective hard modes honestly have the most interesting iteration of the Lord Rapier, in my opinion. I think both of their earlygame contributions are broadly underrated and misunderstood: they're not just shitty combat units, they're *generally* shitty combat units with a really unique specialization against common (and very scary!) enemy unit types. There's just something about nuking an obscenely overstatted Cavalier with Thani so that your better combat units can attend to something other than the cavalier that activates all of my neurons
TBH the thanni is really strong and accurate even against normal enemies
In Engage, you forgot more rapier variants. Lucina has the Noble Rapier, and Lyn has the Mani Kati. Literally unwatchable.
😭😭😭😭
Im going to blame nomads not being affected by effective damage on roy sucking. Hes the kind of guy that can miss on a 100 after all
Reminding me how pre-upgrade Sword of the Creator is 9 weight brick. Since it's been a long time since I played 3H that reminded me that until upgrade it's just essentially a 1-2 range Steel Sword.
Yeah its like... Such a meh personal. Granted, Byleth is so good they don't need a busted prf but its still kinda... 🤷🏻♀️
Yeah Byleth doesn't really need it and it's very nice when upgraded. It has also it's use of being one of the first relics you get and damaging your units without the crest if you need it.
It has it's uses and I think it's better designed than Siegfried/Raijntaro in the end
I love SMASH OC Roy. He presses neutral B real good
I am happy they make spinoff characters like FEH Veronica and SSB Roy Canon with mainline games
I actually like for rapiers to stay rapiers.
I like rapiers for the same reason i hate Jeigans(one of the reasons at least). Earlygame is meant to teach a new player an a lesson organically learned by doing is almost always better than a tutorial. Rapiers are an excellent tool to teach players about effective damage while also providing an unique niche for the lord. They may even be useful for teaching the importance of durability.
I think alternative weapons can work if they do offer to teach something as important as that, but the light brand and maybe Liberation are the only cases i can think of.
The Yato gives offense in Birthright because it's the easier story. Most of Birthright takes little more than the the ability to unga bunga the enemy army. Conquest will kill you if you run out full offense no tactics so defense stats would serve you better in that story.
With the Yato upgrades, I think it's more in reference to how the design of the two nations is translated into gameplay, rather than the story events. They made the Hoshidan classes faster but less defensive bc the Hoshidans wear relatively little armor, and they made Nohrian classes slower but tankier bc heavier armor and such. So the Yato gives boosts that lean into the designs and class balance of whichever nation you ally with.
So what you're saying is the rapier is an est?
Actually it's the legendary merric archetype
I used Ferdinand for the first time in my last Three Houses playthrough, and he was insane with the Rapier. It was just like, WHOA!
25:30
Okay
I know you don't like short bows being 1-2 range in ROMHacks, BUT HEAR ME OUT... lol
31:34 I wanna add my two cents here because I see an opportunity to apologize for RD but seriously I think it’s pretty thematic for Micaiah to just keep thani, although as a character she would probably have hang ups about stealing I think sothe would eventually talk her into keeping it since they’re fighting begnion and they need whatever help they could get
Alear my GOAT… the Liberation is so fun, I love Divine Dragon as a class for the emblem bonus spam!
3:20
Forget the damn rapier! Let's talk about how Linde pulled an uno reverse on that archer!
my counterpoint to rapier as an archtype: prf weapon is already a term that exists so defining rapier as an archtype seems unnecessary
20:00 100% accuracy threshold you say? In FE6 you say? I kid, I kid lol
Me on a random Saturday: Oh look 55 minutes about Fire Emblem rapiers
I think the Yato bonuses make a lot of sense, since they reference not what the nations are doing right now, but their combat styles.
Hoshidan classes have more focus on fast, offensive units, like samurai, sky knights, archers, etc.
While Nohrian classes focus more on bulkier, defensive units, like mercenaries, wyverns, cavaliers, and armour knights.
It makes sense, that as they fight alongside either nation, the Yato(&Corrin) adopt elements of their fighting style, even if it's just +2 speed or tome access.
Oh, that's a good point!!!
easy fix. Get an Eliwood with 17Str, 8Skll at lvl20
Emblem lucina gives access to the noble rapier when you engage
Rapiers my beloved 🙏 can’t wait for the lord video
next fire emblem lord needs to have an axe, if not, atleast an rapier.
Yeeeeeeess En garde is such a fun little game
I love ALL Dani Doyle videos!!!! ❤
Eyy the En Garde shoutout in desc
I read that title wrooooong lmaoo.
43:03 Dani - "Corrin: Based"
Marth my goat
Rapier cool
Idk what else to say I just like this video
Rapier cool and you're cool
Emblem Lucina has the Noble Rapier as well
Yep. I forgot that and the Mani Katti from Lyn
-mani katti is better /hj /lh-
Good Video
PD: huh, I always assume that the general opinion is that marth is the best unit in fe1 no conquest and in fe3 he was good but not great, Funny
PD2: what is the name of the hack of the minute 2:00 (Edit) forget it, I already saw it, and tried the first 3 chapters
My main take away here is "A Fire Emblem game's quality is determined by whether or not the effective damage is 2x or 3x in English version
It's fine, hate in my 2 favorite FE games for one small aspect...it's cool
2X effectiveness isn't the reason I dislike fe7
@@DaniDoyle So it's just a personal attack against me? /s
You're allowed to like different games than me. They are just video games.
@@DaniDoyle which is why I put the "/s"
Where did you get that FE1 GBA game you used as footage early on?
Fe1 faithful remake (link in description)
@@DaniDoyle Thank you
Libération sounds nice on paper but Alear's class has gauntlet so even if you double with Libération it will be worse at generating meter than quadding with gauntlet. Libération killing gives 4(2 hits, 1 enemy counter attack and the effect) while quadding gives 5(4 hits, 1 enemy counter attack) and if Libération fails to kill then it's 3 vs 5 meter
In the promoted class, yeah, but at least the Libération is useful early (before promos)
Amazing video as always
Glad you enjoyed 😊
Maybe you'd enjoy FE7 more if you played a translated japanese copy instead of the english release?
My issues with the game are not related to effective damage, that's just one minor point that I think is an issue
@@DaniDoyle Still, the less issues the better.