I haven't finished the video yet, but I just had to say I absolutely LOVE the physical map you drew with the portraits and colored blocks, that's so awesome
To me it doesn't really matter what the quality of this map "is" - I can have a fun time playing it defensively if I want to. But if I don't feel like it, the other methods are there. See also: Shadow Dragon Warp Staff, but for the entire game minus 5 or so chapters.
Reminds me of something I've been thinking for some time. Shadow Dragon is perfectly broken. You can just ban the warp staff and everything becomes neat. FE3H is broken in so many different ways it's difficult to decide what exactly needs to be banned. Ban Stride, Dance and Warp in an attempt to make kill boss chapters more interesting?Just Impregnable Wall your way to the boss. Impregnable Wall is banned? Use a dodge tank. It feels like what you need to do is ban certain strategies to make the game interesting (banning boss rushing), which leads to the game feeling less like strategical decisions and more like stat checks. In Shadow Dragon, by banning just the warp staff, you still allow yourself to use any strategies and boss rushing in warpless shadow dragon feels VERY rewarding.
Bopper: Begins the video with an analogy to a Shakespeare passage Me: Oh yeah, he is/was a teacher. That's right. -Me halfway through the video, forgetting that again- Bopper: "Hot dog or hamburger style, if you will" Me: Oh he's DEFINITELY a teacher From one teacher to another, this was a fantastic video Bopper! I love the concept and the execution was *chef's kiss.* I'm off to join Patreon, but until then, might I suggest Battle Before Dawn from FE7? It's a polarizing map that I find frustrating but also very fun and ludonarratively interesting, and it won't be too long before you and Vivian contend with it on your ironman run >:)
TIL about the undeploy-everyone method to playing this map and now I'm not sure if IntSys carefully designed the map intending that, in case all of your units somehow died previously, or if that solution is possible completely by accident. I assume the latter, because as Shouzou Kaga once said, expectation is the root of all heartache.
I feel like you’re being a bit disingenuous when you simplify the incentive for slow playing the map as just the Dracoshield. Players who are going to clear the map with items in mind will get all of those items, not just that one, and the Nullify scroll is arguably more important than the dracoshield, as it can remove Haar’s only weakness making your army hyper-reliable even in iron man settings. Beyond that, even if you pretend the stats you get from the two stat boosters doesn’t matter, the 8000 gold you can get from them instead certainly will, as Radiant Dawn is notoriously strapped for gold and hungry for strong forges. I do agree that you can’t “unsee” the quick way to clear the map, but I do still think that the rewards for choosing to play more slowly do provide a decent incentive, and shouldn’t be just thrown to the wayside.
Favorite map in the series to this day. It may take a while but I like how many options you have on how to approach it, you can go for a quick boss kill in several ways, hold chokes, push down the stairs from multiple directions. It just feels like a bit of a sandbox map where you can do a lot of different things with your units
I see the spider, and I CHUG CHUG CHUG. My favorite strategy is to take the hammer from the store before Geoffrey's Charge, put it in the convoy, and give it to Haar, then on the first couple of turns send him to the right to take out the Silver Greatlance and company before flying between there, the stairwell next to it, and the middle section. I typically wait those eight turns and get a giant stack of enemies for the Knights Geoffrey, maybe Danved, and Kieran to attack. But this video made me realize it could be more productive to use Haar or Marcia to lead a few of them up to where the Knights start. Using Marcia, it might be a good ludonarrative (or maybe just unseen narrative) play where Geoffrey tells here which gate the Knights will be coming through. Great video, Professor!
19:58 this issue could easily be fixed with better AI and in fact the AI in conquest is actually smart enough to move non combatants out of the way to attack which I actually experienced myself in ch 26 where a general made way for a berserker who had a tomahawk and then killed my poor rallyman
I really like the idea of map analysis series. Analyzing the gameplay aspects is really cool but I think connecting the map/gameplay to the story is incredible. Looking forward to more!
A map where you have to survive 15 turns, your main forces diverted away for something else. You're left cornered with minimal forces, you can hold them off with chokepoints and can also hilariously cheese them by deploying and doing nothing. In Advance Wars, this map is Two-Week Test.
Interestingly, I found this map to be very memorable on my first playthrough desire killing the boss before the knights showed up. I think this has to do with how "underfed" my Haar was - he wasn't able to double basically any of the enemies, which singlehandedly made the map more dynamic. Haar could go anywhere and tank whatever he wanted, but it took him 2 rounds of combat to deal with enemies, stopping him from clearing large sections of the map. This forced me to juggle and manage more of my resources as Haar couldn't just "win". I didn't feel robbed when I ended the map early. I had to use Haar, Callil, Elincia, and Leanne together to clear a path and kill Ludvik, making it a climatic interesting challenge. Additionally, the job of killing Ludvik fell to Elencia due to Amiti + stun giving her the highest kill power, which added to the narrative weight of the fight.
This was a really great analysis!! I look forward to more editions!! I remember 15 year old me playing Radiant Dawn when it first came out, blind on "Normal" Mode and getting to this map, and also not knowing that wyverns are no longer weak to bows (since I never moved a wyvern into bow range because in all the previous games, you just don't do that), and I was considering the quick Haar kill, but I was like, "there's the thunder mage and 2 archers, it's too risky," so as a result this map was tough, but very memorable for both its raw gameplay and ludonarrative. I was so excited when Geoffrey and Royal Knights arrived on turn 8, only for them not to be able to take out those generals on the right side and retreating back to the gate. It was embarrassing tbh
15:10 I’ve heard people talking about the strategy, but I’ve never seen anyone genuinely do it. And by genuinely, I mean not doing it to prove it’s a thing. I don’t know if it’s really an illusion. Sure it’s unnecessary, but it makes capping stats easier in a game where you want to cap stats.
damn i knew about the Haar boss kill skip but meat-shielding with the allied units is... something all right. nonetheless I adore this map (along with 3-13) and it's one scenario where I will happily drink that spider venom despite knowing its there because playing the map as intended is just too fun.
when it comes to playing this map "straight-up," something that's true but pretty boring to talk about or analyze in a FLOWERY video like this is that Tellius maps with high unit density just take too long to play that way. this map starts with ~50 red and yellow units plus 80-something reinforcements, and they're always doing shit. that's way more units than "Clash!," a map people think is much too slow and bad. maybe it's my fault that i'm on my phone during enemy phase instead of savoring the finer notes of Haar single-handedly suppressing a rebellion. kids these days, what with their phones. but ultimately, my monkey brain wants the dracoshield (for Tormod) and the hidden arms scroll (that's Tormod's), so the chapter's not so bad. maybe there's a banger Shakespeare reference for that too.
Another golden video essay, with a conclusion I wasnt suspecting and tied super beautifully to the literary reference. A really nuanced perspective that I really appreciate hearing. As well, the addition of the whiteboards for visual aid were lovely, hoping we get to see it more in future videos!
Can't forget how this map looks to us level-grinders: this is a rout map with a time limit. I must. kill. every last one of them! (in 15 turns of course)
I really like the literary structuring alongside the map analysis, and it just felt awesome to hear the connections made. I also thoroughly enjoyed the physical map you drew just to give the audience full overview of the map. Thanks Bopper for going through the effort to make such a creative visual! I'm excited to see where this series goes as I think Fire Emblem Map Design is interesting in of and itself. Not to mention many people have such different opinions on the definition of a good map, and Bopper added in this new perspective of alternative ways to complete maps that I never really thought about before. As for my opinion of Elincia's Gambit... it's just okay. I remember hearing the community say it's amazing, but I didn't quite feel the same when I played it. I don't particularly like ending maps early, mostly so I can get stealables and fulfill side objectives, so it just felt like one huge slog. From a story perspective, it's fantastic, but that's really the best thing I can say about it. If you were to ask me what the best map in Radiant Dawn is, I would say River Crossing (which is the supplies burning map in Part 3)
I was only vaguely aware of the spider, and I still don't really care all that much, but the three-boss improvement plan sounds really sick to me. It makes me wonder what other RD maps could be elevated in such a way with a bit of thought.
I just started playing Radiant Dawn recently. I never really used thiefs for stealing, I just had used them to unlock chests. But I do really like how Radiant Dawn pulls you into using theives since you get Sothe and Heather relatively early in Parts 1 and 2. First time I've gone around checking enemy for stealables, and it's been fun attempting (mostly in vain) to manipulate enemies to swap their equipped items so you can steal something you want.
Super interesting video, this map was definitely one of my favorites when i played radiant dawn, and watching this makes me wanna replay it to see what i think as a more experienced player now
I like your work and I always crave map analysis, so the video was sure to hit the spot for me. However, I would have never guessed you to use a freaking Shakespearian monologue to frame it all, I loved it!
i tried radiant dawn for the first time this year after a handful of recommendations from a friend. im no fire emblem pro (ive only a few of the newer games under my belt), so even with the luxury of savestates this map had me sitting in my seat and evaluating every decision i made with a fine-toothed comb. what's this guy's movement? what's that guy's range? will marcia have enough movement left to reposition to safety? will makalov not job? where's the real astrid? all that to say, i really enjoyed this chapter. i'm also stunned by the "Elincia does almost nothing" strategy, how about that EDIT: i also realy like the whiteboard diagram you did of the map. it was fun to watch all that
I really enjoyed the fates version of this map, even if it was super easy. You get a bunch of cool stuff if you play well, including the aether scroll, which can give female units the skill without the vanguard brand, a massive boon to any character. It also gives you heavy blade and veteran’s intuition, decent skills made novel because you can only get them from that map. The strategy itself is even more laughable than it’s radiant dawn counterpart, because anyone can just walk up to the three bosses and slap them around with a forge weapon. At least there are three bosses to fight, making things harder. Funny story I was writing this while the video was paused right before the fates segment. Now I look stupid.
You touched on a part of fire emblem design that I've never in depth thought of before, but is so obvious in hindsight that with its simple gameplay premise and loop it seems like the only thing that affects play is rng, but there is actually so much more freedom in this game series than I ever gave it credit for, and I adore and replay these games often
Thank you for analyzing my also favorite map from an underrated FE game! Bopper, you described perfectly what I felt when I first attempted this chapter 14 years ago
When I first played this map, I just didn't like it. I literally just had Haar and and an over-invested Nephenee just camp in one spot and have them enemy phase the whole thing. It was monotonous as fuck. But seeing this video really changed how I see the map now.
The map is memorable, but I think it's less favorable to new players than you state. A map this long and daunting is an awful experience to replay if you screw up and get a unit killed, so I think the defeat boss option is in players minds way before a second playthrough. I spotted it back when I was 15 easily, and I never knew how OP Haar was. Missing the dracoshield hurts, but I think it's easy to dismiss it based on how long the map is and how difficult it is to reach. I think the main two flaws of this map are two distance problems. The distance between Ludveck and the second wall is too short and the distance between the royal knights and the battlefield is too long. Lengthening the distance for Ludveck would make it far less trivial to fly down and snipe him. Making it so that there in a position to either break the assault or assassinate Ludveck would also make the map far more in line with the story it is trying to tell. All that said, it's been like 17 years since I've played the map so I'm just working off wisps of old memories. It was one of the most memorable maps from that game for me (though memorable and fun aren't always matching.) I ended up bouncing off the game and never returning on the boulder mountain map. Honestly a majority of the problems with this map are greater Radiant Dawn problems from what I can tell. I might also be a minority, because I hate CQ chapter 10 and that seems to be pretty popular..
Wow bop, quite a watch! On that note, I think the elephant in the room would be to ask if you ever intend to make a video of conquest ch. 10. Lots of similarities and differences that would be interesting to see your take!
So fun fact I have never seen Geoffrey come theough the gates Haar is too fucking good to not destroy Ludveck Honestly the only reason this is not a 3 turn map is because there's a general with an energy drop
Love this video!!!! Also I trust you had as much fun with the white board and the shrinky drinks as it appears bc that was so cute LOL do more please What a great way to sum up Elincia's Gambit 🙏 you forgot the part where all its faults would be forgiven if only Kieran and Geoffrey kissed right before running into battle but its ok you only had so much time
Haar should be on the left staircase so he can eventually get nullify scroll. Tiger can easily guard the stairs afterwards. Brom and Neph go right to plug the gap. Flyers clear out top platform and eventually take Heather to get the Dracoshield. Simple.
I love the map. Killing Ludveck early never bothered me because I always took it slow, so I could get the enemy-drops. That said, I agree with Quoros when it comes to Geoffrey’s reinforcements. Based on how I play the map - holding chokepoints and gradually getting the enemy-items - the southeastern portion of the map gets inundated with enemies because they can’t get past my chokepoint. Well, Geoffrey’s reinforcements aren’t strong enough to flank them and survive on enemy phase. They arrive in a spot where they can’t relieve pressure; that’s just an unfortunate design flaw.
Great analysis bopper! I remember playing this map for the first time on normal with a very bonus exp heavy haar with a forged axe so I think you know how that went lmao.I actually really enjoy beating hard maps really quickly or ig even just efficiently and also I kinda wasn't that invested in the story so I really just cared about seeing haar kill things lmao. If this is a series I'd be excited to see you review some Fe4 maps particularly chapters 5 and 7 because those I think are the 2 people tend to be opinionated on the most.I liked your birth of a holy knight vod as sort of a precursor to this series so I'd be excited to see more
I clicked over from FE PVP to sub and this autoplayed and now i'm invested, like, two minutes in? You can tell it's good fantasy writing when it sounds like real world politics, but there's a pegasus knight there, and also i'm just here for this in general holy shit 🙏
Also, yeah, halfway through i think Quoros has a salient point? Like, you hear that the cavalry arrives and you're like 'YEAH!' Brings to mind the Winged Hussars at Vienna, right? But, like- the Winged Hussars came screaming into battle and broke the enemy formation, and here the Knights have to ride around a lil loop to get at the side? If they came screaming in at a flank, head-on, within a turn or two of charge, *that* could be an amazing moment. As it is, it sounds like too much of the defenders' strength is focused in the highly-mobile Haar, which, in the hands of an experienced player, kinda saps the climactic strength of the map by pulling away the curtain and showing that, played "right", it is, in fact, toothless? But I'm also only halfway through, that's just my thoughts as of 10:22 this rocks having your patrons' opinions and testimonials is a really cool touch, too
I mean fe in general is an illusion. The "issue" with this map is basically the seth problem lmao. I still use gilliam instead, and its not bcuz i dont know seth could solo, so i think the map is fine. If anything it allows every type of player to enjoy the map, so its almost a bonus. That said i did like a lot of the ideas you proposed in the conclusion. Great vid
Just a small point about the story section, the capital Melior is not actually what you are playing in Elincia's gambit. After the royal knights left, as requested by Geoffrey and Lucia, Elincia was moved to Fort Alpia to be secretly kept away from a possible attack by Ludvek, guarded by some freelancers like Haar, some citizens like Brom and Neph, and laguz allies like Lethe and Leanne. Lucia was captured, Elincia's location was found out, rebel sympathizers then let the army in, and the battle begins from there.
Another fix to this map would be to hinder elincia and haar's ability to just rush to the end. Not only are they both the strongest units offensively but also they can fly in a map that is only limited by those. Giving elincia a sort of movement limit like micaiah does on the DB vs GM map on part 3 and getting rid of Haar by the glory of plot devices would make this map a lot better imo, you wouldn't have an easy way of breaking through to the end, but marcia and nealuchi could still feasably kill ludbeck with proper planning and help of leanne, which would still leave the "skip" option open but it would take significantly more effort, which lines up better with the plot of the map I remember the first time i played RD i was already a decently good fire emblem player, but i didnt play PoR and rushed the prologue, by the time haar showed up i didnt know i could recruit him and checking out if i could would've taken me 3 turns of flying back to the start, so i flat out didn't recruit him. Later on on the epilogue, this map was awesome, i still had elincia to bypass walls and murder units, but i couldn't leave her there as she was fragile and could get sniped easily. I remember i beat the map by doing a poor man's version of the cheese rush, i spent about 7 turns using marcia, elincia and leanne to thin out the bottom floor units while being careful to not get sniped, and by the time the archers were gone, ludveck still wasn't available as he had a wall of units around him, so it took another turn to bait out more units and THEN i could do a coordinated heron play to kill him and end the map The knights didn't get to do anything there either. i think getting rid of haar is the key imo, he only shows up on the prologue anyways, might as well make him join the GM directly instead
Nice vid! I’ve never played Radiant Dawn. I’ve seen a playthrough though and think it’s really good. I wish Ike’s games weren’t so expensive :/. Defense maps are fun…I know this might be a tired, cliché thought, but Conquest Ch. 10 comes to mind. I recently did it on Lunatic and it took me forever (3 days to be honest 😩) to figure it out, but when I got it, it was so rewarding. On face value, this map kinda reminds me of it, but since I’ve only watched it played and haven’t experienced myself I’m not 100% sure how accurate that statement is lol…
I love this map and adore the whole game but the one thing that I find sad is the best laid out defense map is played with the crew of characters you borderline care the least about. Only 2 characters are even really worth training. I personally think this map could be more fun with Ike’s crew but that’s just me
Now I'm wondering how much this map changes just from making wyverns vulnerable to bows and crossbows like they are in other games. But balance be damned, RD giving the player units as strong as Haar or Nailah and as weak as Meg or Lyre makes the game a great sandbox, perfect for self-imposed challenges, and I like it just the way it is.
As one of the fools who had to endure the worst case scenario and play this without Haar, I liked it. I used Elincia and Leanne to chip at the middle of the map on player phase until I could get a safe boss kill. I felt like I was being very meticulous with my actions, and I remember it being one of the first times I really carefully counted out how many tiles my units were moving to make sure I could canto to safety.
I have always said that looting brown bricks is the most fun you can possibly have in a video game. About time people started taking that opinion seriously.
Incredibly well made video. Have you been watching Jon Bois? Because this felt very Boisian, especially the editing when you talk about the "losing strategy."
I love stuff like this in games, your powerhouses being unavailable… having to band together with the less stacked characters to accomplish a scary mission… it’s so exciting! Fantastic video, I’m looking forward to more like this
This might be unpopular but I think I like the 3-13 defense map more. The dawn brigade just has so much less going for them & adds that extra challenge, especially with a line to hold instead of a spot & bird laguz coming in
Before I watch... I just played this map yesterday on hard mode and... Damn it was a slog. I can't imagine this map without Haar, and even he didn't double anything until Geoffrey arrived with the speedwing I should have put on Marcia. Yeah this map is not fun, cuz the enemies are plenty and bulky. I like the idea of a siege though and it really "feels similar" to how a real historic siege would feel to fight, especially with the ledges. This map definitely highlights why the story should avoid having fights in siege style at all costs, whether through strategy, plot convenience or just altogether skipping the fight or implying a npc army did the sieging.
OK after seeing the vid, I will add that my enjoyment of this map does exist even if it's only really in the spectacle and thematic sense, however this map could have easily made me stop playing for days if I lost an important unit like Geoffrey late in the game. This map would definitely benefit from a save point in a remake/remaster. Also, did I really forgo ending the map in 3 turns for a Dracoshield? 😅 Ah the greed of a FE player will push us to such extremes.
i lovehate clusterfuck siege maps, they're the best i agree that the main flaw is that geoffrey doesn't really contribute much, when he shows up you're either firmly established or getting overrun and there's not much he can do about it either way
No; that only happened because I let one yellow unit die that didn’t have to. Besides, the bows can’t one shot her, only the crossbows can (they’re significantly stronger when dealing effective damage)
Do you think having a two part win condition would be better than the current two option win condition? Like if you survive for 5-8 turns first and then when your reinforcements come it turns into kill boss(es)?
In general, defense maps in Fire Emblem have pretty much always been terrible, with tons of dead turns waiting around, trivial boss-kills that basically skip the map, or due to the fact that almost all of them can be beaten by mindlessly plugging chokepoints. The only exception to these qualities is CQ 10, which by avoiding the above pitfalls is easily the best defense map in the series. Even when playing Ellincia's Gambit straight, there's nothing particularly strategic about holding chokepoints, since the strategy is so glaringly obvious and doesn't require much management to actually do. In regards to the rest of RD, Part 2 exists as filler, between the interesting portions involving the Dawn Brigade and the Greil Mercenaries. Part 2 is also filled with garbage maps, and like Geoffrey's Charge, Ellincia's Gambit clearly didn't understand how annoying it is to be forced to wait through extremely long ally and enemy phases. Even one of the positives of defense maps, the ability to gain an abundance of EXP, hardly matters because the Crimean Knights basically don't exist for most of the entire game and aren't particularly very good units. Storywise, Geoffrey and his reinforcements aren't actually stronger than your starting units, so it feels off that their arrival heralds when the tides of battle are supposed to turn, especially when the map is likely nearly over or done by the time that they arrive. To be frank, I feel like the positive feelings towards Ellincia's Gambit are from players who don't really care how maps actually play out. The map looks cool and imposing with all these enemies and is a somewhat climatic story moment, but breaks apart strategically with any sort of critical analysis.
I wonder if replacing the implicit "OR" in the objectives with an "AND" would be a good idea. Like, you rushed down Ludveck and killed him in three turns? Okay. Twelve turns to go, and 1-2 of your most important units are in a very difficult bind now. Or maybe you decided to hunker down and stall out the 15 turns. Well, it's turn 16 now and Ludveck is still alive-until you defeat him, the map won't end.
18:05 I would make the opposite claim, actually. Sure, the long nature of the game means that you will have ample opportunity to make up that defense loss later through bonus experience, other statboosters, and skills. However, because the game is so long, and the dracoshield is just 2 free defense, giving that to Haar or someone will not only free up the bonus experience etc. required to make up for not having the dracoshield, but it with also prevent hundreds of points of damage across the unit’s lifetime. Is it required? Absolutely not, but I wouldn’t underrate the viability of that extra insurance against bad math or rng screwage, especially in an Ironman run (because let’s be honest, even if you do screw up and trade Heather for the dracoshield, losing Heather in 2-E is not that bad)
Saying "it will prevent hundreds of points of damage" feels like the wrong way of looking at it. You aren't micromanaging hit points in that way. It's a game about thresholds rather than attrition. 2 points of damage is very rarely going to change your decision to heal a unit or keep it in combat and those extra hit points are likely to be lost in overhealing or irrelevant because the unit ends the map with excess hp. You aren't really saving hp. If the shield blocks 12 damage in a map and that unit ends the map with 13hp, the shield hasn't actually done anything. Where it makes a difference is in unit utility. Changing a turn where a unit would die to one where it would survive. But that's so heavily based on the specific stats of units and map layouts that it's hard to make any sort of value judgement. I guess what I'm trying to say is that the only hp that matters is 0 so 'saved hp' is an illusion. But it can potentially be the difference between a unit living or dying, so there's still value there.
Professor Bopper I assumed so, but I might be wrong. I know it isn’t the case in PoR because of the Hotline Mia, but I seem to remember that being in place in RD so that you don’t lose the blessed weapons in Endgame. Either way, you could probably just steal and then move Haar next to her and trade it off (or the same with Elincia, as long as you had space to canto out of range)
Aurtose Baelheim Yeah, that’s fair. I like it for reliability sake, because often it’s difficult to extrapolate the live/die ranges across multiple turns or single turns in fog maps, so that dracoshield often allows me to be a bit more proactive with the unit that gets it
I thought I knew every way to play Radiant Dawn because I've played Radiant Dawn too many times, but I never thought Yellow Turtling would actually be viable. Well, at least on Maniac I wouldn't think so. I assume the footage is on Normal or Hard? I use the JP difficulty names. I might just test this on Maniac myself.
I just played this map in a Minimum Recruitment Run and man, this was quite a challenge Having to hold out until Turn 8 with Elincia, Lethe, Mordecai, Nephenee, Brom, Leanne, Nealuchi and Marcia tested my strategic prowess
i gotta disagree about elincia's gambit being the highestt point of the game. i absolutely HAVE to give it to Blood contract 3-13. Just the feeling of pure dread seeing you have to take on the strongest army being the greil mercenaries as the weakest being the dawn brigade, and just how overwhelming it is, all tied in with such an insane story relevance feels amazing. pair that in with an army of powerful laguz coming for your cheeks and an instant loss condition, and the weight feels almost suffocating.
@@lucydoodles2020 right? unless im ltc clearing the chapter by gimping ike with a negative forged weapon, as soon as the greil mercenaries start moving, i gotta clench my cheeks.
I think the shear amount of tactics that can be reliably used isn't a hinder but a book. I don't want to use the exact same chapter the exact same way every single time. It's an extremely open chapter especially for a very restricted cast. How you play this chapter will have an insane impact on how part 3 will feel for yah. This is the best chapter in the series
Elincia Gambit two options : - You either turtle your way , chip little by little and either you have the upper hand or just been push back …. - The other option is to send Haar and one round the boss LOOL
This is one of the best maps in the series in my opinion and to think i did it without Haar..... When i finally found the tie in of the quote and the whole point of the video, my mind was honestly blown
Ima be real that thumbnail was huge clickbait compared to what was actually talked about, and I don't find either complaint about cheesing map as bad as they are made out to be because of how many maps or even FE games can be cheesed practically all the way through.
"It's clickbait because I disagree" In actuality, to say that an analysis of a map is illegitimate because other maps can be cheesed or other games can be broken punts all analysis of any map in any game
I haven't finished the video yet, but I just had to say I absolutely LOVE the physical map you drew with the portraits and colored blocks, that's so awesome
To me it doesn't really matter what the quality of this map "is" - I can have a fun time playing it defensively if I want to. But if I don't feel like it, the other methods are there. See also: Shadow Dragon Warp Staff, but for the entire game minus 5 or so chapters.
Reminds me of something I've been thinking for some time. Shadow Dragon is perfectly broken. You can just ban the warp staff and everything becomes neat.
FE3H is broken in so many different ways it's difficult to decide what exactly needs to be banned. Ban Stride, Dance and Warp in an attempt to make kill boss chapters more interesting?Just Impregnable Wall your way to the boss. Impregnable Wall is banned? Use a dodge tank. It feels like what you need to do is ban certain strategies to make the game interesting (banning boss rushing), which leads to the game feeling less like strategical decisions and more like stat checks.
In Shadow Dragon, by banning just the warp staff, you still allow yourself to use any strategies and boss rushing in warpless shadow dragon feels VERY rewarding.
Mekker
...ahem. "OR YOU COULD USE THE WARP STAFF!"
@@iamlordapollo This brought me such joy
Bopper: Begins the video with an analogy to a Shakespeare passage
Me: Oh yeah, he is/was a teacher. That's right.
-Me halfway through the video, forgetting that again-
Bopper: "Hot dog or hamburger style, if you will"
Me: Oh he's DEFINITELY a teacher
From one teacher to another, this was a fantastic video Bopper! I love the concept and the execution was *chef's kiss.* I'm off to join Patreon, but until then, might I suggest Battle Before Dawn from FE7? It's a polarizing map that I find frustrating but also very fun and ludonarratively interesting, and it won't be too long before you and Vivian contend with it on your ironman run >:)
He's an actual teacher ?!
TIL about the undeploy-everyone method to playing this map and now I'm not sure if IntSys carefully designed the map intending that, in case all of your units somehow died previously, or if that solution is possible completely by accident. I assume the latter, because as Shouzou Kaga once said, expectation is the root of all heartache.
I feel like you’re being a bit disingenuous when you simplify the incentive for slow playing the map as just the Dracoshield. Players who are going to clear the map with items in mind will get all of those items, not just that one, and the Nullify scroll is arguably more important than the dracoshield, as it can remove Haar’s only weakness making your army hyper-reliable even in iron man settings. Beyond that, even if you pretend the stats you get from the two stat boosters doesn’t matter, the 8000 gold you can get from them instead certainly will, as Radiant Dawn is notoriously strapped for gold and hungry for strong forges. I do agree that you can’t “unsee” the quick way to clear the map, but I do still think that the rewards for choosing to play more slowly do provide a decent incentive, and shouldn’t be just thrown to the wayside.
That’s an incredible literary reference to perfectly tie the experience of this map together. Great stuff Bopper!
Favorite map in the series to this day. It may take a while but I like how many options you have on how to approach it, you can go for a quick boss kill in several ways, hold chokes, push down the stairs from multiple directions. It just feels like a bit of a sandbox map where you can do a lot of different things with your units
I see the spider, and I CHUG CHUG CHUG.
My favorite strategy is to take the hammer from the store before Geoffrey's Charge, put it in the convoy, and give it to Haar, then on the first couple of turns send him to the right to take out the Silver Greatlance and company before flying between there, the stairwell next to it, and the middle section. I typically wait those eight turns and get a giant stack of enemies for the Knights Geoffrey, maybe Danved, and Kieran to attack. But this video made me realize it could be more productive to use Haar or Marcia to lead a few of them up to where the Knights start. Using Marcia, it might be a good ludonarrative (or maybe just unseen narrative) play where Geoffrey tells here which gate the Knights will be coming through. Great video, Professor!
19:58 this issue could easily be fixed with better AI and in fact the AI in conquest is actually smart enough to move non combatants out of the way to attack which I actually experienced myself in ch 26 where a general made way for a berserker who had a tomahawk and then killed my poor rallyman
I really like the idea of map analysis series. Analyzing the gameplay aspects is really cool but I think connecting the map/gameplay to the story is incredible.
Looking forward to more!
A map where you have to survive 15 turns, your main forces diverted away for something else. You're left cornered with minimal forces, you can hold them off with chokepoints and can also hilariously cheese them by deploying and doing nothing.
In Advance Wars, this map is Two-Week Test.
Interestingly, I found this map to be very memorable on my first playthrough desire killing the boss before the knights showed up. I think this has to do with how "underfed" my Haar was - he wasn't able to double basically any of the enemies, which singlehandedly made the map more dynamic. Haar could go anywhere and tank whatever he wanted, but it took him 2 rounds of combat to deal with enemies, stopping him from clearing large sections of the map. This forced me to juggle and manage more of my resources as Haar couldn't just "win".
I didn't feel robbed when I ended the map early. I had to use Haar, Callil, Elincia, and Leanne together to clear a path and kill Ludvik, making it a climatic interesting challenge. Additionally, the job of killing Ludvik fell to Elencia due to Amiti + stun giving her the highest kill power, which added to the narrative weight of the fight.
This was a really great analysis!! I look forward to more editions!!
I remember 15 year old me playing Radiant Dawn when it first came out, blind on "Normal" Mode and getting to this map, and also not knowing that wyverns are no longer weak to bows (since I never moved a wyvern into bow range because in all the previous games, you just don't do that), and I was considering the quick Haar kill, but I was like, "there's the thunder mage and 2 archers, it's too risky," so as a result this map was tough, but very memorable for both its raw gameplay and ludonarrative.
I was so excited when Geoffrey and Royal Knights arrived on turn 8, only for them not to be able to take out those generals on the right side and retreating back to the gate. It was embarrassing tbh
15:10 I’ve heard people talking about the strategy, but I’ve never seen anyone genuinely do it. And by genuinely, I mean not doing it to prove it’s a thing.
I don’t know if it’s really an illusion. Sure it’s unnecessary, but it makes capping stats easier in a game where you want to cap stats.
damn i knew about the Haar boss kill skip but meat-shielding with the allied units is... something all right.
nonetheless I adore this map (along with 3-13) and it's one scenario where I will happily drink that spider venom despite knowing its there because playing the map as intended is just too fun.
when it comes to playing this map "straight-up," something that's true but pretty boring to talk about or analyze in a FLOWERY video like this is that Tellius maps with high unit density just take too long to play that way. this map starts with ~50 red and yellow units plus 80-something reinforcements, and they're always doing shit. that's way more units than "Clash!," a map people think is much too slow and bad. maybe it's my fault that i'm on my phone during enemy phase instead of savoring the finer notes of Haar single-handedly suppressing a rebellion. kids these days, what with their phones.
but ultimately, my monkey brain wants the dracoshield (for Tormod) and the hidden arms scroll (that's Tormod's), so the chapter's not so bad. maybe there's a banger Shakespeare reference for that too.
Another golden video essay, with a conclusion I wasnt suspecting and tied super beautifully to the literary reference. A really nuanced perspective that I really appreciate hearing. As well, the addition of the whiteboards for visual aid were lovely, hoping we get to see it more in future videos!
Can't forget how this map looks to us level-grinders: this is a rout map with a time limit. I must. kill. every last one of them! (in 15 turns of course)
I really like the literary structuring alongside the map analysis, and it just felt awesome to hear the connections made. I also thoroughly enjoyed the physical map you drew just to give the audience full overview of the map. Thanks Bopper for going through the effort to make such a creative visual!
I'm excited to see where this series goes as I think Fire Emblem Map Design is interesting in of and itself. Not to mention many people have such different opinions on the definition of a good map, and Bopper added in this new perspective of alternative ways to complete maps that I never really thought about before.
As for my opinion of Elincia's Gambit... it's just okay. I remember hearing the community say it's amazing, but I didn't quite feel the same when I played it. I don't particularly like ending maps early, mostly so I can get stealables and fulfill side objectives, so it just felt like one huge slog. From a story perspective, it's fantastic, but that's really the best thing I can say about it. If you were to ask me what the best map in Radiant Dawn is, I would say River Crossing (which is the supplies burning map in Part 3)
I really missed your fe analysis videos, again such a good video
I was only vaguely aware of the spider, and I still don't really care all that much, but the three-boss improvement plan sounds really sick to me. It makes me wonder what other RD maps could be elevated in such a way with a bit of thought.
Beautiful! Thanks for the super analysis Bopper!
I just started playing Radiant Dawn recently. I never really used thiefs for stealing, I just had used them to unlock chests. But I do really like how Radiant Dawn pulls you into using theives since you get Sothe and Heather relatively early in Parts 1 and 2. First time I've gone around checking enemy for stealables, and it's been fun attempting (mostly in vain) to manipulate enemies to swap their equipped items so you can steal something you want.
Elincia’s gambit is a great map.
Super interesting video, this map was definitely one of my favorites when i played radiant dawn, and watching this makes me wanna replay it to see what i think as a more experienced player now
such a great video, can't wait to see what else you might have planned for this series
Thanks for the help, I used the no-fun strat to cheese a draft I'm in where I only had Makalov and Geoffrey for this map
I like your work and I always crave map analysis, so the video was sure to hit the spot for me. However, I would have never guessed you to use a freaking Shakespearian monologue to frame it all, I loved it!
I fucking adore the use of the King Leontes quote and I cite this video as why the monologue basically became a my motto
i tried radiant dawn for the first time this year after a handful of recommendations from a friend. im no fire emblem pro (ive only a few of the newer games under my belt), so even with the luxury of savestates this map had me sitting in my seat and evaluating every decision i made with a fine-toothed comb. what's this guy's movement? what's that guy's range? will marcia have enough movement left to reposition to safety? will makalov not job? where's the real astrid?
all that to say, i really enjoyed this chapter. i'm also stunned by the "Elincia does almost nothing" strategy, how about that
EDIT: i also realy like the whiteboard diagram you did of the map. it was fun to watch all that
Didn’t ever get to play that fire emblem… now I want to! What a video!!
A+ video and S-tier map analysis Bopper. Can't wait for the next one!
It's honestly one of your best analyses, and I never even thought about boss rushing with Haar in all my years playing RD until this video.
i love this so much. i need to play radiant dawn again
I really enjoyed the fates version of this map, even if it was super easy. You get a bunch of cool stuff if you play well, including the aether scroll, which can give female units the skill without the vanguard brand, a massive boon to any character. It also gives you heavy blade and veteran’s intuition, decent skills made novel because you can only get them from that map. The strategy itself is even more laughable than it’s radiant dawn counterpart, because anyone can just walk up to the three bosses and slap them around with a forge weapon. At least there are three bosses to fight, making things harder.
Funny story I was writing this while the video was paused right before the fates segment. Now I look stupid.
My problem was on my first run I didn’t recruit haar
That's like just your opinion man
You touched on a part of fire emblem design that I've never in depth thought of before, but is so obvious in hindsight that with its simple gameplay premise and loop it seems like the only thing that affects play is rng, but there is actually so much more freedom in this game series than I ever gave it credit for, and I adore and replay these games often
Thank you for analyzing my also favorite map from an underrated FE game! Bopper, you described perfectly what I felt when I first attempted this chapter 14 years ago
One of your best videos. Congratulations!
Great video Bopper! I love this map and my approach to it is entirely based on how lazy I'm feeling.
This was amazing! Can’t wait for more
When I first played this map, I just didn't like it. I literally just had Haar and and an over-invested Nephenee just camp in one spot and have them enemy phase the whole thing. It was monotonous as fuck. But seeing this video really changed how I see the map now.
The map is memorable, but I think it's less favorable to new players than you state. A map this long and daunting is an awful experience to replay if you screw up and get a unit killed, so I think the defeat boss option is in players minds way before a second playthrough. I spotted it back when I was 15 easily, and I never knew how OP Haar was. Missing the dracoshield hurts, but I think it's easy to dismiss it based on how long the map is and how difficult it is to reach.
I think the main two flaws of this map are two distance problems. The distance between Ludveck and the second wall is too short and the distance between the royal knights and the battlefield is too long. Lengthening the distance for Ludveck would make it far less trivial to fly down and snipe him. Making it so that there in a position to either break the assault or assassinate Ludveck would also make the map far more in line with the story it is trying to tell.
All that said, it's been like 17 years since I've played the map so I'm just working off wisps of old memories. It was one of the most memorable maps from that game for me (though memorable and fun aren't always matching.) I ended up bouncing off the game and never returning on the boulder mountain map. Honestly a majority of the problems with this map are greater Radiant Dawn problems from what I can tell. I might also be a minority, because I hate CQ chapter 10 and that seems to be pretty popular..
Wow bop, quite a watch! On that note, I think the elephant in the room would be to ask if you ever intend to make a video of conquest ch. 10. Lots of similarities and differences that would be interesting to see your take!
This is probably my favorite memory of an FE map honestly. I used to listen to the music all the time
Ludveckian Horde is the best name for these enemies I've ever heard
So fun fact
I have never seen Geoffrey come theough the gates
Haar is too fucking good to not destroy Ludveck
Honestly the only reason this is not a 3 turn map is because there's a general with an energy drop
Also the fact that Marcia comes to your army allows to give her the possibility of giving you the buyable hammer from the shop in the last chapter
fire emblem haar
The only chapter that actually gave me elincia’s gambit vibes was chapter 10 of conquest. Loved to see a breakdown of a beloved map like this!
Love this video!!!! Also I trust you had as much fun with the white board and the shrinky drinks as it appears bc that was so cute LOL do more please
What a great way to sum up Elincia's Gambit 🙏 you forgot the part where all its faults would be forgiven if only Kieran and Geoffrey kissed right before running into battle but its ok you only had so much time
LMAO NOOOO I JUST NOTICED HE THUMBNAIL NOT KIERAN IN THE DUMPSTER
Haar should be on the left staircase so he can eventually get nullify scroll. Tiger can easily guard the stairs afterwards. Brom and Neph go right to plug the gap. Flyers clear out top platform and eventually take Heather to get the Dracoshield. Simple.
This is art right here.
I love the map. Killing Ludveck early never bothered me because I always took it slow, so I could get the enemy-drops.
That said, I agree with Quoros when it comes to Geoffrey’s reinforcements.
Based on how I play the map - holding chokepoints and gradually getting the enemy-items - the southeastern portion of the map gets inundated with enemies because they can’t get past my chokepoint.
Well, Geoffrey’s reinforcements aren’t strong enough to flank them and survive on enemy phase. They arrive in a spot where they can’t relieve pressure; that’s just an unfortunate design flaw.
This video inspired me to go play fe10 again. Definitely better than I remember
Great analysis bopper!
I remember playing this map for the first time on normal with a very bonus exp heavy haar with a forged axe so I think you know how that went lmao.I actually really enjoy beating hard maps really quickly or ig even just efficiently and also I kinda wasn't that invested in the story so I really just cared about seeing haar kill things lmao.
If this is a series I'd be excited to see you review some Fe4 maps particularly chapters 5 and 7 because those I think are the 2 people tend to be opinionated on the most.I liked your birth of a holy knight vod as sort of a precursor to this series so I'd be excited to see more
This might be the best FE video I've ever seen. Kudos, sir.
This is my favorite map in the entire series, lol. I still loved the video anyway.
I clicked over from FE PVP to sub and this autoplayed and now i'm invested, like, two minutes in?
You can tell it's good fantasy writing when it sounds like real world politics, but there's a pegasus knight there, and also i'm just here for this in general holy shit 🙏
Also, yeah, halfway through i think Quoros has a salient point? Like, you hear that the cavalry arrives and you're like 'YEAH!'
Brings to mind the Winged Hussars at Vienna, right? But, like- the Winged Hussars came screaming into battle and broke the enemy formation, and here the Knights have to ride around a lil loop to get at the side? If they came screaming in at a flank, head-on, within a turn or two of charge, *that* could be an amazing moment. As it is, it sounds like too much of the defenders' strength is focused in the highly-mobile Haar, which, in the hands of an experienced player, kinda saps the climactic strength of the map by pulling away the curtain and showing that, played "right", it is, in fact, toothless?
But I'm also only halfway through, that's just my thoughts as of 10:22
this rocks
having your patrons' opinions and testimonials is a really cool touch, too
I am a simple man I see radiant dawn video I watch.
I mean fe in general is an illusion. The "issue" with this map is basically the seth problem lmao. I still use gilliam instead, and its not bcuz i dont know seth could solo, so i think the map is fine. If anything it allows every type of player to enjoy the map, so its almost a bonus. That said i did like a lot of the ideas you proposed in the conclusion. Great vid
As iron colon correctly identified, this is an optimal level for a dancer. We should seek him out for further insight on fire emblem map design.
I have been building up my immunity to poison over the years so I love this map.
This is my favorite map in my favorite game in the FE franchise!
Just a small point about the story section, the capital Melior is not actually what you are playing in Elincia's gambit. After the royal knights left, as requested by Geoffrey and Lucia, Elincia was moved to Fort Alpia to be secretly kept away from a possible attack by Ludvek, guarded by some freelancers like Haar, some citizens like Brom and Neph, and laguz allies like Lethe and Leanne. Lucia was captured, Elincia's location was found out, rebel sympathizers then let the army in, and the battle begins from there.
Another thing to improve the map is to make the mages actually threatening to haar. So he has at least something to worry about
19:08 I already nearly forgot the context of this and it hasn't even been half a year lmao
Expanding the area you need to defend (like in 3-13) would solve the soloing with elincia issue.
Another fix to this map would be to hinder elincia and haar's ability to just rush to the end. Not only are they both the strongest units offensively but also they can fly in a map that is only limited by those.
Giving elincia a sort of movement limit like micaiah does on the DB vs GM map on part 3 and getting rid of Haar by the glory of plot devices would make this map a lot better imo, you wouldn't have an easy way of breaking through to the end, but marcia and nealuchi could still feasably kill ludbeck with proper planning and help of leanne, which would still leave the "skip" option open but it would take significantly more effort, which lines up better with the plot of the map
I remember the first time i played RD i was already a decently good fire emblem player, but i didnt play PoR and rushed the prologue, by the time haar showed up i didnt know i could recruit him and checking out if i could would've taken me 3 turns of flying back to the start, so i flat out didn't recruit him. Later on on the epilogue, this map was awesome, i still had elincia to bypass walls and murder units, but i couldn't leave her there as she was fragile and could get sniped easily. I remember i beat the map by doing a poor man's version of the cheese rush, i spent about 7 turns using marcia, elincia and leanne to thin out the bottom floor units while being careful to not get sniped, and by the time the archers were gone, ludveck still wasn't available as he had a wall of units around him, so it took another turn to bait out more units and THEN i could do a coordinated heron play to kill him and end the map
The knights didn't get to do anything there either.
i think getting rid of haar is the key imo, he only shows up on the prologue anyways, might as well make him join the GM directly instead
Nice vid! I’ve never played Radiant Dawn. I’ve seen a playthrough though and think it’s really good. I wish Ike’s games weren’t so expensive :/. Defense maps are fun…I know this might be a tired, cliché thought, but Conquest Ch. 10 comes to mind. I recently did it on Lunatic and it took me forever (3 days to be honest 😩) to figure it out, but when I got it, it was so rewarding. On face value, this map kinda reminds me of it, but since I’ve only watched it played and haven’t experienced myself I’m not 100% sure how accurate that statement is lol…
I love this map and adore the whole game but the one thing that I find sad is the best laid out defense map is played with the crew of characters you borderline care the least about. Only 2 characters are even really worth training. I personally think this map could be more fun with Ike’s crew but that’s just me
Now I'm wondering how much this map changes just from making wyverns vulnerable to bows and crossbows like they are in other games. But balance be damned, RD giving the player units as strong as Haar or Nailah and as weak as Meg or Lyre makes the game a great sandbox, perfect for self-imposed challenges, and I like it just the way it is.
As one of the fools who had to endure the worst case scenario and play this without Haar, I liked it. I used Elincia and Leanne to chip at the middle of the map on player phase until I could get a safe boss kill. I felt like I was being very meticulous with my actions, and I remember it being one of the first times I really carefully counted out how many tiles my units were moving to make sure I could canto to safety.
I have always said that looting brown bricks is the most fun you can possibly have in a video game. About time people started taking that opinion seriously.
Incredibly well made video. Have you been watching Jon Bois? Because this felt very Boisian, especially the editing when you talk about the "losing strategy."
Looove the whiteboard
I love stuff like this in games, your powerhouses being unavailable… having to band together with the less stacked characters to accomplish a scary mission… it’s so exciting!
Fantastic video, I’m looking forward to more like this
But Haar is the best unit in the game and he can solo the entire map by himself and some healing from Elincia.
This might be unpopular but I think I like the 3-13 defense map more. The dawn brigade just has so much less going for them & adds that extra challenge, especially with a line to hold instead of a spot & bird laguz coming in
Does the stall strategy works on hard mode?
Before I watch... I just played this map yesterday on hard mode and... Damn it was a slog. I can't imagine this map without Haar, and even he didn't double anything until Geoffrey arrived with the speedwing I should have put on Marcia.
Yeah this map is not fun, cuz the enemies are plenty and bulky. I like the idea of a siege though and it really "feels similar" to how a real historic siege would feel to fight, especially with the ledges.
This map definitely highlights why the story should avoid having fights in siege style at all costs, whether through strategy, plot convenience or just altogether skipping the fight or implying a npc army did the sieging.
OK after seeing the vid, I will add that my enjoyment of this map does exist even if it's only really in the spectacle and thematic sense, however this map could have easily made me stop playing for days if I lost an important unit like Geoffrey late in the game. This map would definitely benefit from a save point in a remake/remaster.
Also, did I really forgo ending the map in 3 turns for a Dracoshield? 😅 Ah the greed of a FE player will push us to such extremes.
I don't particularly like this map but one thing i find incredibly cool is that they manage to design a map where leanne is by far the optimal heron
i lovehate clusterfuck siege maps, they're the best
i agree that the main flaw is that geoffrey doesn't really contribute much, when he shows up you're either firmly established or getting overrun and there's not much he can do about it either way
I noticed a sniper reaching elincea in your footage is her dodging required in this map?
No; that only happened because I let one yellow unit die that didn’t have to. Besides, the bows can’t one shot her, only the crossbows can (they’re significantly stronger when dealing effective damage)
Do you think having a two part win condition would be better than the current two option win condition? Like if you survive for 5-8 turns first and then when your reinforcements come it turns into kill boss(es)?
In general, defense maps in Fire Emblem have pretty much always been terrible, with tons of dead turns waiting around, trivial boss-kills that basically skip the map, or due to the fact that almost all of them can be beaten by mindlessly plugging chokepoints. The only exception to these qualities is CQ 10, which by avoiding the above pitfalls is easily the best defense map in the series. Even when playing Ellincia's Gambit straight, there's nothing particularly strategic about holding chokepoints, since the strategy is so glaringly obvious and doesn't require much management to actually do.
In regards to the rest of RD, Part 2 exists as filler, between the interesting portions involving the Dawn Brigade and the Greil Mercenaries. Part 2 is also filled with garbage maps, and like Geoffrey's Charge, Ellincia's Gambit clearly didn't understand how annoying it is to be forced to wait through extremely long ally and enemy phases. Even one of the positives of defense maps, the ability to gain an abundance of EXP, hardly matters because the Crimean Knights basically don't exist for most of the entire game and aren't particularly very good units.
Storywise, Geoffrey and his reinforcements aren't actually stronger than your starting units, so it feels off that their arrival heralds when the tides of battle are supposed to turn, especially when the map is likely nearly over or done by the time that they arrive.
To be frank, I feel like the positive feelings towards Ellincia's Gambit are from players who don't really care how maps actually play out. The map looks cool and imposing with all these enemies and is a somewhat climatic story moment, but breaks apart strategically with any sort of critical analysis.
I wonder if replacing the implicit "OR" in the objectives with an "AND" would be a good idea.
Like, you rushed down Ludveck and killed him in three turns? Okay. Twelve turns to go, and 1-2 of your most important units are in a very difficult bind now.
Or maybe you decided to hunker down and stall out the 15 turns. Well, it's turn 16 now and Ludveck is still alive-until you defeat him, the map won't end.
I love this map
18:05
I would make the opposite claim, actually. Sure, the long nature of the game means that you will have ample opportunity to make up that defense loss later through bonus experience, other statboosters, and skills. However, because the game is so long, and the dracoshield is just 2 free defense, giving that to Haar or someone will not only free up the bonus experience etc. required to make up for not having the dracoshield, but it with also prevent hundreds of points of damage across the unit’s lifetime. Is it required? Absolutely not, but I wouldn’t underrate the viability of that extra insurance against bad math or rng screwage, especially in an Ironman run (because let’s be honest, even if you do screw up and trade Heather for the dracoshield, losing Heather in 2-E is not that bad)
Do inventories go to the convoy when a character dies in this game? I’m pretty sure that started with Shadow Dragon, but I could be wrong
Saying "it will prevent hundreds of points of damage" feels like the wrong way of looking at it. You aren't micromanaging hit points in that way. It's a game about thresholds rather than attrition.
2 points of damage is very rarely going to change your decision to heal a unit or keep it in combat and those extra hit points are likely to be lost in overhealing or irrelevant because the unit ends the map with excess hp. You aren't really saving hp. If the shield blocks 12 damage in a map and that unit ends the map with 13hp, the shield hasn't actually done anything.
Where it makes a difference is in unit utility. Changing a turn where a unit would die to one where it would survive. But that's so heavily based on the specific stats of units and map layouts that it's hard to make any sort of value judgement.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that the only hp that matters is 0 so 'saved hp' is an illusion. But it can potentially be the difference between a unit living or dying, so there's still value there.
Professor Bopper I assumed so, but I might be wrong. I know it isn’t the case in PoR because of the Hotline Mia, but I seem to remember that being in place in RD so that you don’t lose the blessed weapons in Endgame. Either way, you could probably just steal and then move Haar next to her and trade it off (or the same with Elincia, as long as you had space to canto out of range)
Aurtose Baelheim Yeah, that’s fair. I like it for reliability sake, because often it’s difficult to extrapolate the live/die ranges across multiple turns or single turns in fog maps, so that dracoshield often allows me to be a bit more proactive with the unit that gets it
I live to stack bulk boosting items on magic nukes in SD
I thought I knew every way to play Radiant Dawn because I've played Radiant Dawn too many times, but I never thought Yellow Turtling would actually be viable. Well, at least on Maniac I wouldn't think so. I assume the footage is on Normal or Hard? I use the JP difficulty names. I might just test this on Maniac myself.
I just played this map in a Minimum Recruitment Run and man, this was quite a challenge
Having to hold out until Turn 8 with Elincia, Lethe, Mordecai, Nephenee, Brom, Leanne, Nealuchi and Marcia tested my strategic prowess
I played this map once 5 years ago and I don’t remember much, but I remember thinking it was good. So I’m right and you’re wrong sorry.
i gotta disagree about elincia's gambit being the highestt point of the game. i absolutely HAVE to give it to Blood contract 3-13. Just the feeling of pure dread seeing you have to take on the strongest army being the greil mercenaries as the weakest being the dawn brigade, and just how overwhelming it is, all tied in with such an insane story relevance feels amazing. pair that in with an army of powerful laguz coming for your cheeks and an instant loss condition, and the weight feels almost suffocating.
EXACTLY!!! the fear when Ike starts moving is UNREAL lmaooooo
@@lucydoodles2020 right? unless im ltc clearing the chapter by gimping ike with a negative forged weapon, as soon as the greil mercenaries start moving, i gotta clench my cheeks.
I think the shear amount of tactics that can be reliably used isn't a hinder but a book. I don't want to use the exact same chapter the exact same way every single time. It's an extremely open chapter especially for a very restricted cast. How you play this chapter will have an insane impact on how part 3 will feel for yah.
This is the best chapter in the series
Ellincia solos the boss turn one too if you dance her
Elincia Gambit two options :
- You either turtle your way , chip little by little and either you have the upper hand or just been push back ….
- The other option is to send Haar and one round the boss LOOL
This is one of the best maps in the series in my opinion and to think i did it without Haar.....
When i finally found the tie in of the quote and the whole point of the video, my mind was honestly blown
Now do chapter 3-13.
Ima be real that thumbnail was huge clickbait compared to what was actually talked about, and I don't find either complaint about cheesing map as bad as they are made out to be because of how many maps or even FE games can be cheesed practically all the way through.
"It's clickbait because I disagree"
In actuality, to say that an analysis of a map is illegitimate because other maps can be cheesed or other games can be broken punts all analysis of any map in any game
The thumbnail calls the map great trash, and your criticisms were tame in comparison to that description.