Grants Defense +3. Effective against armored foes. At start of combat, if a negative status effect is active on unit, or if unit’s Health < 100 percent, neutralizes penalties on unit and grants Attack, Speed, Defense and Resistance +4 during combat. If foe’s Range = 2, calculates damage using the lower defensive stat.
Bonfire (Cooldown = 3)
Boosts damage by 50 percent of unit’s Defense.
Fortify Defense/Resistance (A Skill)
Grants Defense and Resistance +6. Inflicts Attack -2.
Vengeful Fighter (B Skill)
If unit’s Health ≥ 50 percent and foe initiates combat, grants Special Attack cooldown charge +1 per unit’s attack, and unit makes a guaranteed follow-up attack (does not stack).
Ward Dragons (C Skill)
Grants Defense and Resistance +4 to dragon allies within two spaces during combat.
My apprehension to talk about this banner is two-fold.
First comes from the fact that I have not played the Binding Blade, and thus have no real connection to the characters.
Outside of knowing Lugh is Nino’s daughter — but I only care because she is one of my favorite Heroes units.
Second is the fact that this banner feels like a callback to the more simple units of old, which is admittedly nice after seeing so many with weapon descriptions longer than my novel.
However, Lugh and Thea basically have nothing special to talk about.
Sue similarly isn’t impressive, but only because she’s Brave Lyn lite.
Cavalry archer. Swift Sparrow. “Smoke” B Skill. ‘Nuff said.
Idunn is the only unit I would consider worth wasting orbs on. She is a powerful, red armored manakete with a weapon that counters all the Hectors and Surtrs of the world.
She also has very cute artwork.
What can I say, I’m a sucker for heterochromia. I’ll have to see about adding a character with that into my story…
While Idunn is neat, she unfortunately is not neater than Halloween Myrrh.
So I’m not going to throw a whole lot of orbs into this banner beyond supplementing the free summon tickets from Forging Bonds.
Naturally, that means the story missions are a big ol’ orb repository!
When Alfonse asks why Gustav wanted to pass along a ratty tree branch, his mother reveals that it was the play sword three-year-old Alfonse used to tell his father he was going to help defend their nation.
Real generic “you were prepared to lead all along” development beats.
Then we find out that as a result of Gustav’s death:
So the Order of Heroes, “built for small-scale operations,” decides to use the break in the war to take the fight to Hel.
Alfonse and Sharena were unable to figure out a trick to defeat her in royal archives, thus Alfonse figures they could scout her domain.
From there, the missions shift to simple character introductions.
The most interesting thing here comes when one map features an enemy pegasus archer — the first time a unit of that type has shown up.
I’m hoping we get a cool pegasus archer soon as a result.
As the Order reaches the entrance to Hel, now-fell King Gustav is sent to fight his children. Eir regards the act as particularly “cruel,” even for her mother.
I mostly found it surprising.
Not in that Gustav comes back to fight his children — that shit was obvious weeks ago. I’m simply surprised that they blew that plot point so early!
I am also admittedly surprised that they play Gustav as a character who keeps his sentience despite being physically commanded by Hel.
Naturally it’s all done so he can encourage Alfonse to be strong and kill him. Also closure:
Yet I had expected him to be a mindless, evil zombie.
So good on you for the surprise, Intelligent Systems.
From there, the Order of Heroes prepares to dive into Hel. Cut to black. See you next banner.
This FEH post feels a bit low-energy, don’t you think?
I’m not sure if it’s because I’m writing it into the wee hours of the morning, or if I simply could not care less about the characters… But either way, not my strongest.
It is one of my shortest, however. So I’ll happily accept that.
Obviously my blog posting schedule has been a little out of whack the last couple of days. Between exams and essays — one of which I was up from 7:00 p.m. to about 1:30 a.m. this morning finishing — I haven’t had too much time to write.
But considering I have now officially turned in that essay, bookending my week from hell, it’s time to relax a bit.
What better way to relax than talking about some spooky new Halloween units in Fire Emblem Heroes?
At least one in particular is especially beloved in my eyes. So I’m going to be trying something different with this new hero banner post by talking about the characters in order of how much I like them. That way I don’t have to waste a lot of time prattling on about “oh I want this guy over them because they’re great.”
That said, I’ve prattled on enough as is. Time for some spooks.
Grants Defense +3. If unit initiates combat and unit’s Defense ≥ foe’s Defense +5, unit makes a guaranteed follow-up attack. If foe’s range = 2, calculates damage using the lower of the foe’s Defense or Resistance.
Bonfire (Cooldown = 3)
Boosts damage by 50 percent of unit’s Defense.
Defense/Resistance 2 (A Skill)
Grants Defense and Resistance +2.
Vengeful Fighter (B Skill)
If unit’s Health ≥ 50 percent and foe initiates combat, grants Special Attack cooldown count +1 per unit’s attack, and unit makes a guaranteed follow-up attack.
Armor March (C Skill)
At start of turn, if unit is adjacent to an armored ally, unit and adjacent armored allies can move one extra space.
Analysis:
Myrrh is my baby from Sacred Stones and I love her. That would have inherently put her at the top of this list today, but luckily she also happens to appear god damn broken.
An armored dragon completing our color trifecta alongside male Grima and Legendary Tiki (who unfortunately alluded me), Myrrh keeps the defensive breath of her original form, just presumably boosted by the fact that she’s a heavy armor unit. Vengeful Fighter and Armor March also speak for themselves in terms of giving her power as an armored unit… With Defense and Resistance +2 kind of standing out as being really terrible.
That’s the first thing I’ll replace in a heartbeat if I get a Distant Counter fodder like Hector. But otherwise it’s hard to find anything to complain about here.
After combat, if unit attacked, resets Special Attack cooldown of target and foes within two spaces of target, and inflicts the following status those units through their next actions: “Inflicts Special Attack cooldown charge -1 per attack during combat (only highest value applied, does not stack).” Skills that accelerate or slow Special Attack cooldown are still effective.
Recover (Range = 1)
Restores Health = 50 percent of Attack +10 (minimum of 15).
Heavenly Light (Cooldown = 2)
When healing an ally with a staff, restores 10 Health to all allies.
Speed/Resistance Bond (A Skill)
If unit is adjacent to an ally, grants Speed and Resistance +5 during combat.
Hone Fliers (C Skill)
At the start of the turn, grants Attack and Speed +6 to adjacent flying allies for one turn.
Analysis:
Mia isn’t a character who I personally care for like I do Myrrh, but she is the first flying healer in FEH.
So… Yeah. She gets a nice distinction from that. Even if I do think Nowi pulled off the witch-and-broomstick flying unit thing better last year.
In fact, probably my biggest problem with Mia here is that her weapon is really the only thing that helps her stand out wildly from Nowi last year. Because by god does she have a long-winded, complicated weapon. Guess we should thank Flora and Brave Veronica for getting us here.
Essentially, that wand of hers completely nullifies the opposing team’s Special Attacks. If you’re about to proc a Moonbow, it’s gone when Mia hits you. As is the attacks of everyone around that Moonbow user. After that, if I’m reading it right, it becomes harder to build up that Special Attack charge post-nullification. That’s a really powerful supportive niche to fill.
Effective against flying foes. Inflicts Special Attack cooldown charge -1 on foe per attack during combat (only highest value applied, does not stack).
Smite (Range = 1)
Pushes target ally two spaces away.
Swift Sparrow (A Skill)
If unit initiates combat, grants Attack and Speed +4 during combat.
Attack/Speed Link (B Skill)
If a Movement Assist skill is used by unit or targets unit, grants Attack and Speed +6 to unit and target ally or vice versa for one turn.
Fortify Armor (C Skill)
At the start of the turn, grants Defense and Resistance +6 to adjacent armored allies for one turn.
Analysis:
Frankly, Niles makes sense as a unit to give a Halloween variant. More than Kagero, in my opinion — but we’ll get there.
I actually love the way Niles looks like he just haphazardly threw his outfit together with some plastic toys. It’s a great ensemble.
Beyond just his looks, Niles also stands out in that he’s an armored archer who builds up a significant amount of Attack and Speed to power up that bow, which is our second blue colored bow in the game. Interestingly enough, that bow also focuses on Special Attack cooldown. So I guess that’s our theme this year, like with panic-enducing weapons last year.
Inflicts Special Attack cooldown charge -1 on foe per attack during combat (only highest value applied, does not stack). After combat, if unit attacked, inflicts Defense and Resistance -7 on target and foes within two spaces of target through their next actions.
Draconic Aura (Cooldown = 3)
Boosts damage by 30 percent of unit’s Attack.
Mirror Strike (A Skill)
If unit initiates combat, grants Attack and Resistance +4 during combat.
Bold Fighter (B Skill)
If unit initiates combat, grants Special Attack cooldown charge +1 per unit’s attack, and unit makes a guaranteed follow-up attack.
Even Attack Wave (C Skill)
At start of even-numbered turns, grants Attack +6 to unit and adjacent allies for one turn (bonus granted even if no allies are adjacent).
Analysis:
Honestly… I have next to nothing to say about Kagero. Everything about her feels rather… Average.
Like it was jarring when Kagero showed up in a bunny outfit during the Spring banner. But the maid outfit is a bit low-key, and especially strange with her wielding “soda bottles.”
Which, by the way, I imagine must be beer in the Japanese version, right? Probably.
Past that lukewarm internal debate, she’s just rather average all-in-all. Sorry Kagero, but for now I’m going to pass.
For a banner labeled “The Land’s Bounty,” I have not exactly seen a lot of bountiful harvests thus far.
Ironically enough a lot of Niles, though. Not the Niles I’m looking for, but clearly he’s on my radar in some capacity.
To be fair I’m not exactly spending a lot of orbs on the banner yet. After being burned so bad by Legendary Tiki, I’ve spent a fair amount of time rebuilding my storehouse. So I’m trying to be a bit more frugal with my orb use for now — at least until the next Tempest Trials comes around.
But that said. Orbs. Paralogue story. Cliché transition.
Let’s do it!
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
I do so love the aesthetic of the Harvest Festival maps. Especially this year where the generic unit design took inspiration from the recent Summer banners by having them hold weapons from last year’s celebration.
That’s just a nice touch no matter how you slice it.
Now unfortunately the actual story here is sparse and somewhat uninteresting, so I’m going to blow through it right quick.
We begin with Anna dropping this little piece of information on us:
I’m not entirely sure how this royal army is constantly running out of money… But I do appreciate the specific detail used here. Makes for some decent recurring comedy.
As does probably the only stand-out character detail in this Paralogue outside of Myrrh being the cutest thing on the planet. Dorcas, despite being the future Tempest Trials reward that we don’t have access to now, has a great bit with Niles.
After all we know Niles is a foul-mouthed scoundrel who wants nothing more than torment. Dorcas ain’t having none of it, and constantly walks away from the conversation.
It’s just funny, in my opinion.
In fact you can see a bit of the interaction during the character’s gathering together at the end:
After beating them all out and winning the Triwizard Tournament or whatever, the Order of Heroes gets a grand prize of candy and vegetables.
Hooray.
There’s a moment where Anna is so touched by the gesture that she sets out a plan to become self-sustaining and help the world.
Except that quickly devolves back into her wanting to sell that surplus for a profit.
Much laughs ensue. And no real progress was observed.
Amen.
In conclusion, Halloween is great and you all are great for reading this far.
How do you feel about the special holiday units this year? Which character truly is the spookiest?
Let me know your thoughts in the comments! Because frankly I just feel like wrapping this one up quick.
Have you ever had those mornings where something seems like a mental roadblock, almost totally preventing you from getting started on work?
I’m asking as a rhetorical question, of course. I’d be surprised to hear that hasn’t happened to everyone at least once.
Be it from a serious problem, anything ranging from a bout of depression to the echoed memories of an argument the night before, or from something less serious, like the anticipation of an upcoming event or simply laziness, everyone has had those moments where they put off work they need to do.
In my opinion, there’s nothing wrong with the idea of possibly putting off plans to sit down and concentrate on something so long as that break isn’t an immediate problem.
After all it’s different to say “well maybe I’ll lay here a bit more and work later” when whatever needs to be done has no immediate deadline than when it’s due in the next hour. In the latter case it’s imperative that one finds a way to push through that apathy.
Now obviously I’m not just bringing this up as a casual conversation topic. Anyone who has been following my daily chats on various topics this summer should know they almost always tie back to an immediate consideration for me.
My sick has been a somewhat convenient excuse for me the last few days. It’s hard to bunker down and work when you sleep half the day away and cough away the other half into some phlegm-covered mess.
But even with that said, I managed to get through my transcript for the Magic interview I did while sick. So that can’t be the topic at hand here, right?
Yes, that’s right. You’re quite observant when I write your thoughts for you, aren’t you reader?
While I would consider sickness a more serious, justified reason to push off work at least a little, what I faced this morning was… Much less so. To say the least.
No, today I have to blame Fire Emblem. Because of course I do.
The game clearly was not an all-day kind of debilitating mental roadblock, as I’ve gotten the energy to at least write this post (though that in itself could be considered more procrastination, I just won’t get into that here). However, the fact that it stopped me from concentrating on anything else for even a few hours is something I wanted to unpack as one of the ridiculous ways my brain works.
Hector was the source of my ultimate dismay this morning. Specifically, his Legendary Hero special battle map.
You remember this sucker from a few days ago, right? The map that I said didn’t seem as hard as the Ryoma banner map from about a month ago?
Well… I was wrong.
For me, this map on Infernal difficulty was far harder than the Ryoma one. I was able to come up with my own way to defeat Ryoma rather easily, giving me the satisfaction of having conquered a hard challenge on my own.
I wasn’t able to come up with a solution to the Hector map. Each time you defeat one of the units surrounding him, a new one spawned that added a whole other dimension of pain that I wasn’t prepared for.
Luckily I was able to eventually find a solution (thanks to Pheonixmaster1, a YouTuber who does some pretty solid FEH content), though that required a good amount of set-up and resource allocation to match. I also didn’t think to look something up until at least a half hour+ sitting in bed frustratedly tapping at my phone screen.
Now I’m sure you must be asking yourself why I cared so much about beating this one stupid map that I wasn’t able to concentrate on anything else until I got through it.
Well, from a surface level I’m just willing to blame my brain for being weird and obsessive in all the wrong ways sometimes. But I also managed to rationalize it in a very specific way.
See, the special map for this banner goes away in two days alongside the banner itself. Because the banner is full of limited time units, it’s arguable that once they’re gone it’s the last time we’re ever going to see them.
That kind of nagging feeling was what drove me to spend far too many orbs on summoning after my lucky triple pull. However, doing so got me caught in a ‘worst case scenario’ loop.
The more I summoned, the higher my change at getting a rare unit got. But I wasn’t getting a rare unit, so the chance kept building. The higher it built, the less willing I was to let all the previous investment go to waste. Which meant I wound up needing more orbs to pour into the banner, and felt constrained by the two-day time frame.
It’s probably the worst part of free-to-start games like this, but it’s a reality I’ve gotten used to over the last year-and-a-half.
The Infernal Hector banner offered four orbs, so in my head those four orbs were a necessary object to help me break out of the feedback loop. So I threw myself against it over and over until I won.
Luckily, those four orbs were just what I needed to finally summon a rare unit, which brought my summoning chance back to its base and removed all stress from wasting that chance.
I’ll admit, getting another Myrrh instead of Hector is a double edged sword. I love the girl so I’m happy to have another one to merge.
But now I have four. And I probably would have preferred the special legendary unit in the long-run.
But hey, beggars can’t be choosers. After all, Myrrh here has helped me escape my summoning hell so I can go back to focusing on my work.
If you’ve found yourself stuck in a similar kind of mentally debilitating feedback loop that you’ve had to solve before you could move on in your life, especially one you would consider bizarre in hindsight, let me know in the comments below! I’d love some validation that I’m not the only freak on this blue marble of ours.
However, don’t expect me to see if you do anytime soon. Because now I’m going to go bunker myself down and get into this profile since I feel kind of bad about pushing it off for even a few hours to worry about video games.
I see your game, Intelligent Systems. First you drop the new summer units banner. Then you release an intriguing Death Blow skill-focused banner. Then you re-release last year’s two summer banners at the same time.
Just a few days later, you drop this on us. A brand new Legendary Hero banner. Following the Legendary Ryoma banner that came about a month ago alongside the 2018 June Brides banner.
If I were to go with my sneaking suspicion, I might just have to say you’re…
Giving us plenty of opportunities to summon really good units!
*Cough and stealing our money cough cough*
Oh gosh, I’m sorry. I must have a bad cold that’s coming through text. I’ll try to keep it under control so that doesn’t get in the way of how grateful I am to IS for giving us all these wonderful opportunities.
Speaking of a wonderful opportunity, I think it’s about time to stop pussyfooting around and get to talking about Legendary Hector.
Grants Defense +3. If the number of allies within two spaces (excluding this unit) > the number of foes within two spaces (excluding the unit’s target), for cannot make a follow-up attack.
Draconic Aura (Cooldown = 3)
Boosts Attack by 30 percent.
Distant Counter (A Skill)
Unit can counterattack regardless of foe’s range.
Vengeful Fighter (B Skill)
If unit’s Health ≥ 50 percent and foe initiates combat, unit makes a guaranteed follow-up attack. Grants Special Attack cooldown charge +1 per attack (does not stack).
Ostia’s Pulse (C Skill)
At the start of turn one, grants Special Attack cooldown -1 to all allies. Granted only if number of those allies’ movement types on current team is ≤ two.
Alright so elephant in the room. Hector is… Kind of broken?
Like we’ve had two variants of Hector thus far. The basic Hector that came in the first wave of heroes and the Valentine’s Day Hector from earlier this year.
Both have been powerful enough to essentially define the armor-based team meta. If not the meta for the entire game.
Legendary Hector seems like he’s going to do the exact same thing. Not only does he have a similar control-oriented set of skills that give him follow-up attacks while preventing enemy follow-up attacks from all distances, but from what my friend Jonathan told me he has incredibly high attack and defense stats.
I’ve heard lots of people complaining about Hector fatigue considering this is the third broken axe-wielding set of the same caliber, but honestly other than the inherent issues with quick power creep I don’t really have a problem with him in that regard.
Then again I don’t have too much of a connection to the character having not played the Blazing Blade game, so… Yeah.
My only real trepidation is not wanting to spend too many orbs on this banner considering I got so ruined on the Ryoma banner — and considering I still want to summon Summer Tana at some point.
Oh, also I do suppose I have a problem with the fact that we already had a Legendary Hero from Blazing Blade with Lyn, as I was under the impression we’d be getting one from each game.
But that’s more of a personal gripe.
As is the fact that we should’ve probably gotten Legendary Eliwood instead since he’s been kind of mistreated…
But that’s a way different story. Because again, that’s not my game to have a stake in anyway.
So Hector looks great, but I don’t necessarily want to spend a lot of time trying to summon him. To make a long story short.
But the Legendary Hero isn’t the only reason why these banners are interesting to look at.
The units on this banner are a mixed bag in terms of who I own already, but for the most part there’s a solid line-up in every color.
Except maybe colorless. I love female Grima as much as the next guy, but she isn’t the best Legendary ‘hero.’ Then both Roy and Elise are passable in my opinion, even if I don’t have the Valentine’s Roy yet.
Green is really solid between this new Legendary Hero, Brave Ike and Myrrh. Though I already have two of the three so it’s risky territory for my own summoning pleasure.
Red ironically has a better summoning pool than the last Legendary Banner for me, and not just because there’s no Ryoma (he hurt me bad, guys). While I already have two copies of Legendary Ike, Christmas Tharja is top of my desire sensor next to the new Hector himself, and Leif is a unit I don’t have yet either.
Meanwhile the blue stones sit in a sort of middle ground, with Ephraim being a unit I own, Lyn being a unit I’m not very interested in and Morgan being a unit I’m VERY interested in. The best daughter in the series has alluded me for far too long so far.
Even if I’m personally wishy-washy about a lot of the units here simply because I have a bunch of them, that doesn’t mean the pool as a whole isn’t solid. Besides perhaps Elise, Roy or Lyn I wouldn’t be upset getting anyone on the list.
So knowing I’m not going to put a lot into the banner, just what did I summon?
Well, in 30 orbs or so, I managed to pull…
I- Oh.
Wow are we serious?
Okay then.
I think the game wanted to apologize for Ryoma, which I’m pretty grateful for.
Unfortunately… Leif is the only ‘new’ guy there. The other two… Well…
Triple the Dragons
Triple the Mercs
Yeah. Kind of already have a bunch of the other two just sitting around with nowhere to go just yet.
I’ll probably merge the Myrrhs together since I love her as a unit and keep my Ikes separate so I can tribute him off for skills. But I suppose only time will tell.
Since that lucky batch of three five-star units, I haven’t seen much of anything come back to me. I do still want Legendary Hector and Winter Tharja, so I might throw some more orbs at the banner later… But for now I’m not so sure. Depends on how many more I can gather.
I suppose one thing that’ll help me gather those orbs is the new Legendary Hero Special Map:
While this one doesn’t necessarily feel as hard as the Ryoma map did last time around, I haven’t tried the hardest difficulty level yet. Hector’s high wall to overcome might just prove to be the most challenging part of it, but I’ll have to see for myself.
At the very least, I did beat every level of the Ryoma map eventually. So this one should be the same story.
Between that and the Grand Conquest going on right now, hopefully I’ll be able to gather enough orbs to get at every unit I want while saving for the future.
Alright, that’s about all I have to say about Legendary Hector guys.
He’s powerful, I got some lucky summons and IS is looking to take all of our money. Business as usual.
At this point I suppose we should all just look forward to a Legendary Eliwood sometime soon to round off the Blazing Blade trio. Unless of course it’s decided that we don’t want to give him any more love, which is always a possibility.
But what do you guys think? Is Hector worth your money? Who would you like to see become a Legendary Hero in the future?
About a week ago, we got a new calendar showcasing the many events that were coming down the pipeline in Fire Emblem Heroes for the first few months of the year.
By many events, I do mean many events.
Wow. Talk about a busy lineup, right?
Through the sizable web of things happening I, alongside many other fans of the Fire Emblem series, noticed something interesting. The chief antagonist of my favorite Fire Emblem game, the Sacred Stones, was coming up as a Grand Hero Battle. Then, when he cleared off, Valder would be returning.
Two Sacred Stones units in a row? Well that’s odd. Could it possibly be a coincidence given that a new summoning focus was set to begin just before they arrived?
As it turns out, it was not a coincidence. This new banner is indeed Sacred Stones-themed like everyone was hoping.
Let me tell you, I was excited about the sheer possibility of a banner from this game as soon as the calendar was hot on the presses. Every time something with Sacred Stones comes up, my heart starts firing at all cylinders.
Was my excitement met with an ample return from Intelligent Systems?
Am I ready as ever to immerse myself in the world of the Sacred Stones?
Would I be asking this many rhetorical questions if I didn’t have a subverting comment waiting in the wings?
Read on to find out.
To make a long cliffhanger short, I am indeed pretty excited about these units! Like I said already, it’s hard for me not to be excited when this game comes out of the woodwork.
However, there is one blemish on this otherwise beautiful sight that leaves me somewhat embittered about the whole thing.
But I’ll get to that. For now, let’s start examining what our new summon-able friends bring to the table.
Peaking a little early here, Intelligent Systems? On top of being an obvious fan favorite character, Myrrh also has arguably the most interesting and powerful build in this new bunch. She’s a rarity, being not only our second green dragon unit in the game, but also a green dragon unit with a flying movement-type distinction. You can probably build some crazy interesting half-dragon/half-flying team combinations with her on your side. It helps that she looks as powerful as she does unique, boasting a skill to Hone other manakete units, the attack-heavy Fury and Bonfire special attack and a special breath weapon that makes her hit a weaker defensive stat against ranged units. A pretty sweet spread all-and-all.
Yet another fan favorite character who seems to be bringing her wonderful holier-than-thou divine justice, but a strange name pronunciation. Seriously, I don’t think I’ve ever thought to say “Lara shell,” but to be fair the game developers also had a different pronunciation for Innes so I guess that trait runs strong in Sacred Stones. L’Arachel also has a bit of a strange skill spread compared to the undoubtedly powerful Myrrh. Rather than being a staff-wielding troubadour, as most likely remember her, she’s much more akin to her valkyrie advancement in that she uses the sacred light weapon Ivaldi (now a blue tome). Though it doesn’t have great base power, she gains bonuses in attack and speed when fighting a full health unit. An interesting add-on admittedly. However, from there she carries the sub-par special attack Glowing Light and bulk-centric Renewal (which may or may not be important depending on her stat spread), as well as the brand new Resistance Tactic that grants a big boost to infantry and armored units. There’s possibly some synergy here, we’ll have to see.
Anamnesis: Noun. The recollection or remembrance of the past. I’ll admit, this is a very clever title for Eirika given her overwhelming insistence on remembering all the good times between her, Ephraim and Lyon. If I had to guess before jumping into the story missions, this theme will play into them appearing together and I appreciate that. Unfortunately, it also brings me to remember the fact that we already got Eirika as a unit. A long, long time ago. Don’t get me wrong, it’s cool when we get new versions of old units through Brave Heroes and holiday-themed events, and I’ve been an advocate for Eirika on horseback like her final form in the original game for some time… But when a second version of a unit shows up like this in a main summoning focus, it just feels like a slot was taken that could have been filled by another. Especially since her skill spread seems like the most underwhelming of the three heroes here despite her boasting five skills. Plus, what’s with her having the dark tome Gleipnir? She can never learn how to use magic in the Sacred Stones, it just seems… Nonsensical. Unless there’s a story reason that I haven’t gotten to yet, but I guess we’ll see.
I don’t really know what it is about Eirika that bugs me so much. Her appearance here is what makes me feel rather bitter about this whole banner despite the fact that it’s based on my favorite game in the series and has two wonderful units in it. Seriously, Myrrh and L’Arachel are great and I’m going to be trying to get both, but why did we get a weird reprint of Eirika now?
It really feels like it would have made more sense to release a horseback Eirika as a Brave hero down the line, for me at least.
…
Plus that would have saved room for someone like Neimi.
I mean seriously Intelligent Systems, how much more do I have to beg? I appreciate Myrrh and L’Arachel, and I know both Lyon and Marisa are coming soon too from other events… But I just want my favorite character in the game already.
I’ll keep voting in the new Choose Your Legends event until I get her.
If nothing else, I suppose it’s a positive that she’s not in the game because I don’t feel as bad voting for her? But not really, because I would have voted for her anyway.
I will seriously throw my Brave Lyn away in a heartbeat if we got a horseback archer Neimi at some point.
That’s about enough empty, ridiculous bitching about a gotcha game for one day, though. Thanks to the Radiant Dawn banner screwing me over and scaring me away at the same time as a Tempest Trial, I’m starting off this Sacred Stones banner with 94 orbs, so I’m feeling lucky about nabbing that Myrrh.
…
Wait, what was that? I wrote this whole section before the update even happened you say?
Well… You’re not wrong.
Luckily, now present day Jason can report some good news on the tail end of this somewhat negative build-up:
I GOT DAT MYRRH BABY, YEAH!!! WOO!!
Also she’s apparently sassy as FUCKhere. It’s absolutely incredible, and I’m very happy and lucky considering this happened so easily.
It only took 30 orbs to nab her too! So I still have about 60 orbs – without having done all of the new missions and all – to spend either on future special banners or to come back and try my hands at L’Arachel.
It’s a bit of a tough choice since I love Sacred Stones, but also I love having special holiday variant heroes.
Just don’t read too much into that in comparison to my vague disdain toward a new version of Eirika appearing.
On that note, the question remains regarding whether or not my predictions about a reminiscent Eirika/Lyon interactions were valid, which strikes me as a perfect segue into story.
While I am a bit surprised to see two main story chapters show up in such a short period of time, I can’t say I’m opposed to it. Especially considering this chapter goes into a really deep amount of interesting character development.
Before they head off, however, we get to see a much deeper look into Alfonse’s daddy issues.
It actually gets a bit heavy, even if things aren’t very thoroughly explained in my opinion.
Alfonse talks about how his father is leading an army to protect the land of Askr, yet he doesn’t agree with Alfonse being a part of the Order of Heroes… Which for all intents and purposes is essentially an army protecting the land of Askr.
Sure, the Order led by a greedy general, and I guess they’re fairly ‘hands on’ as he says, but otherwise I don’t necessarily see the distinction off-hand.
Plus, the game leaves off other potentially relevant details, like why Alfonse seems to be ostracized but Sharena, his sister, isn’t. Maybe that’s just her hiding it away because she’s got a happy-go-lucky kind of defense mechanism, but if that’s true we don’t get too much of an indication to that effect either.
Am I thinking too much into this? Maybe. But I’ve got no qualms talking about my love of the lore in this game. Seeing character development is always great, and Alfonse gets some powerful stuff here.
Of course right after that ends they’re interrupted by Sharena bringing him colored hay he asked for… Which I didn’t exactly know was a thing?
Remember this, later it’s going to blow your mind.
Once you get through the first hefty story dump with a strange conclusion, the next couple of missions go relatively quietly.
Most of the summoning focus characters do get brief introductions, but that’s about all.
For some reason, Myrrh doesn’t get any sort of introduction. Why do you guys have to short my gal, Intelligent Systems? It’s not like she’s the Great Dragon of legend or anything.
Also I guess that does bring up another point I’d like to address. It feels like the Sacred Stones heroes got a bit shafted here.
In the context of the universe, the only reason game-specific heroes are still appearing is because Princess Veronica has teamed up with Surtr and is providing contracted mercenaries, essentially. From that angle, I understand why they don’t necessarily have a huge amount of time given in the main storyline compared to more independent, specifically focused Paralogues… But still.
The music playing under everything is from the Sacred Stones, but the maps aren’t. Which is unfortunate because seeing the miniature representations of original game maps is still one of my favorite things about playing Fire Emblem Heroes.
It’s a shame, though I can let it slide considering main story progression is put on the forefront here.
That progression has the Order of Heroes eventually making it to the gateway into Fjorm’s homeland, which is sealed by a massive magical MacGuffin.
Arriving at that gateway has the story kick up to 11 once again. After all, it takes time for Fjorm to open up the gate, and you know what holding a position for a long time entails:
Surtr arrives to ambush the Order, which does lead to one of my favorite aesthetic effects in the history of Fire Emblem Heroes thus far.
Chapter 4-4: The Young Dragon
Chapter 4-5: Fiery Resolve
What a cool duality between invading and defending. I love that sort of thing, revisiting an old area with a new coat of paint. It’s just rad game design!
But you know what else is rad?
How cool of a villain Surtr is.
I won’t even qualify it that much, just look at how savage and unequivocally insane the guy is.
It’s just amazing seeing such a gruesome person in a mobile game spin-off of a somewhat kid friendly Nintendo franchise. I’ve come to really love a lot of the characters from the Fire nation, and this kind of unchecked intensity is one of the reasons why.
Though I do think it’s hilarious that you get a long, intense monologue from Surtr, only for him to send his two lackies in first and arrive after turn 3.
Especially since he’s invincible. So he’s just giving you the opportunity to end the fight before he can help.
Good guy Surtr?
Okay definitely not. But when you beat this mission, the story goes wildly off the rails once again.
After Fjorm opens the gateway to allow your heroes to escape, they have to come to terms with making the decision to run and fight another day even if that means Surtr destroys a nearby village.
Alfonse leads the charge to run away, which feels uncharacteristic after a whole mission set surrounding his citizen-first mentality.
Once they escape, however, the story cuts back to focus more on Surtr’s forces.
Then, in the surprise of the century, Xander reveals that he’s still relevant to the main plot.
Yeah, remember when Xander was important as the General of Veronica’s army? Well apparently he hasn’t disappeared.
Honestly it’s getting to a point where I wouldn’t argue with people shipping Veronica and Xander together. Clearly he’s sticking with her for the long run, after all.
Plus there are people who are into older men like that. I don’t judge.
Anyway… That aside, Veronica and Surtr start arguing over whether he should destroy the town, since Veronica is keen on having them be part of the Emblian empire once Askr is destroyed.
Before they can fight, Loki stops the group by letting them know the town is empty.
Colored hay ex machina? Or nice use of chekhov’s gun? I’ll let you decide.
After Surtr metaphorically cools his jets and agrees to keep Veronica around longer, he splits his forces up, setting things in motion for the next big mission.
What a long, frankly fascinating journey just this one mission series is. The character development is interesting, the writing is clever and everything moves at a good pace.
Even if the Sacred Stones heroes feel a little left behind, I can’t argue with what we got.
Oh, and no Lyon yet in case you hadn’t noticed. I know he’s coming tomorrow, but it does seem like a waste not to have him appear with Eirika here in this set somewhere.
Especially since they alluded to it all over the place!
As I’m sure you can tell, this banner has been a bit divisive for me.
On the one hand, it’s Sacred Stones-themed, so I’m predisposed to like it. Especially since Myrrh and L’Arachel are in it. Plus, the story they have going that includes these heroes is easily the best we’ve seen out of this game yet in my opinion.
I even got Myrrh with very minimal sacrifices. That’s awesome!
But at the same time, Eirika reappearing still bugs me wildly. Especially considering they really don’t do anything with her! I’m more than willing to admit that there’s probably just some personal bias here.
I love Eirika and the fact that they included a horseback version of her, but it was so wildly disappointing seeing her taking up a slot in this summoning focus, and that just really hit me hard. I’m willing to bet it’s in part because I’ve had a rough first week of school this semester and am taking even slight blemishes in overall great developments as over-embellished issues.
That said, as much as I want to complain about it, everything outside of Eirika here really lines up perfectly and would probably be my favorite update in some time otherwise.
So I’m going to stop looking at the negatives and take everything for what it really is: Some damn well done story and gameplay.
With a little bit of luck in summoning to boot.
I guess with all that said, all I really have to add is… Here’s looking forward to Lyon being good, hopefully.
How do you feel about this new summoning focus, or the story it accompanies?
If you could have any other hero from Sacred Stones beside Eirika a second time, who would you want to see?
Let me know in the comments below, and until next time. I’m off to get some rest so I can cover an Academic Senate meeting in the morning.
Jason's Blog - Work in Progress 