But I can’t say much more about Dragalia Lost. I’ve never played the game, and know nothing about it other than my friend Sam gave a high recommendation.
All I can say is that I’m looking forward to getting upset when Dragalia Lost characters get a summoning focus in FEH before we see another Sacred Stones-themed banner.
Not that I have the orbs anymore
Until then, we can celebrate the first alternate for our friendly neighborhood Alm!
Effective against flying foes. Grants Speed +3. If unit initiates combat, deals damage = 25 percent of foe’s Defense (ignores reduction from special skills).
Lunar Flash (Cooldown = 2)
Treats foe’s Defense and Resistance as if reduced by 20 percent during combat. Boosts damage by 20 percent of unit’s Speed.
Darting Blow 4 (A Skill)
If unit initiates combat, grants Speed +9 during combat.
Null Follow-Up (B Skill)
Disables foe’s skills that guarantee foe’s follow-up attack and foe’s skills that prevent unit’s follow-up attack.
Odd Attack Wave (C Skill)
At start of odd-numbered turns, grants Attack +6 to unit and adjacent allies for one turn (bonus granted even if no allies are adjacent).
There’s only one way to describe Legendary Alm:
Powerful.
He gets +12 speed when initiating combat, and the opponent cannot prevent a follow-up.
Then all that extra speed is added into his two-turn (!!!) Special Attack, which reduces the foe’s Defense without affecting his weapon’s Defense-based damage boost.
It’s crazy how copacetic that build is — especially when you can add a Sacred Seal to boost his Speed further. Odd Attack Wave is probably the weak link because it’s situational, but +6 Attack is nothing to sneeze at.
And let’s not forget, he gets the brand new pair up mechanic. Meaning an ally can back the boy up.
If that doesn’t convince you that Alm is a powerful motherfucker, just look at his art.
I have none of the colorless units on this banner and want Alm and Eirika badly.
I also don’t own Legendary Roy, Nailah, Christmas Fae or Sue. I don’t care about them quite as much, but wouldn’t be opposed to summoning any.
There’s not much more to say beyond that. He’s got a map:
But I’m terrible at judging whether these things are difficult or not, so I won’t even try.
All I know is that Legendary Battle Maps mean more orbs. And boy am I going to need a lot of orbs by the end of this week.
… Did I say by the end of this week?
I may have underestimated. Because some part of me snapped once this banner came around, and I spent an embarrassing number of orbs trying to summon Alm and/or Eirika.
All I’ll say is that it was between 199 and 201 or so.
No big deal. My impulse control is fine! As is my missing orb horde.
What is a big deal is that being a big spender has only gotten me this return:
Two new characters isn’t bad or anything, but it just figures the only colorless unit I get is the one I didn’t want (as much).
With all of these golden week rewards coming through, I’ll probably be pumping way more resources into Alm’s banner than I care to admit. So hopefully things work out soon, otherwise I’ll have another Legendary Ryoma situation on my hands.
In the meantime, let me know how many orbs you’ve spend on this banner! I’d like to feel justified by sharing in my pain.
Maybe then my hands will stop shaking from the dirty deeds I have done.
With the spring 2019 semester recently kicking off, I can’t think of any better way to stave off my looming cloud of stress than to blather on about nonessential pleasantries.
Luckily Intelligent Systems has just what the doctor ordered with a well-timed banner of special heroes!
If unit’s Speed > foe’s Speed, deals damage = 70 percent of the difference between stats (maximum of 7, combos with Phantom Speed). After combat, if unit attacked, inflicts Defense and Resistance -7 on foe’s within two spaces of target through their next actions.
Rally Up Attack (Range = 1)
Grants Attack +6 to target ally and allies within two spaces (excluding unit) for one turn.
Swift Sparrow (A Skill)
If unit initiates combat, grants Attack and Speed +4 during combat.
Attack Feint (B Skill)
If a Rally assist skill is used by unit or targets unit, inflicts Attack -7 on foes in cardinal directions of unit through their next actions.
Dagger Valor (C Skill)
While unit lives, all dagger allies on team get x2 Skill Points (only highest value applied, does not stack).
Effective against dragon foes. Disables foe’s skills that “calculate damage using the lower of foe’s Defense or Resistance” and “calculate damage from staff like other weapons.” After combat, if unit attacked, inflicts Defense and Resistance -7 on foes within two spaces of target through their next actions.
Draw Back (Range = 1)
Unit moves one space away from target ally. Ally moves to unit’s previous space.
Attack/Speed Bond (A Skill)
If unit is adjacent to an ally, grants Attack and Speed +5 during combat.
Attack/Speed Link (B Skill)
If a movement assist skill is used by unit or targets unit, grants Attack/Speed to both unit and ally for one turn.
Air Orders (C Skill)
At the start of the turn, grants “Unit can move to a space adjacent to any ally within two spaces” to adjacent flying allies for one turn.
Seeing the initial silhouette teaser for this banner piqued my interest.
I have the latest info for you! Starting 1/22 at 11PM (PT) Some new Heroes free of tension and ready to battle will make an appearance… I can't wait! There's also going to be a Special Log-In Bonus to celebrate their arrival! #FEHeroespic.twitter.com/PkVvMWHG2s
I had no idea who we were looking at and, at the time, wasn’t expecting any special banners until Valentine’s Day.
Yet I rolled my eyes without even thinking after I found out we were getting more Fire Emblem Fates royal sibling alts.
I’m a fan of Fates and everything, but there are so many characters from it who have no representations. Meanwhile Tempest Trials Camilla is her sixthalternate costumes.
It’s disheartening… But unfortunately I’m such a fan of the Hoshidan royal sisters that the game had me at Sakura and Hinoka.
Wanting this Sakura because I like her character and status as a pegasus-riding staff user probably won’t save me when the police come for summoning a near underage girl in a towel…
But that’s a bridge I’ll cross later.
Oh, and I’m 100 percent summoning for characters, not skills, on this banner. Hinoka is the only one with an interesting build, so she and Sakura are my focus.
Unfortunately, all 60 orbs have gotten me is a 3-star original Sakura.
So you know what that means? Time for paralogue orbs!
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Shout out to that armored unit with the buns on his head in map 30-1. He’s worth this entire mediocre banner.
Outside of his majesty there isn’t a whole lot to say for the story.
There’s kind of no explanation as to why the Order of Heroes has to jump in. The royal siblings have just been put under a contract but… Nobody knows why?
He’s simply concerned about heading into such a private place.
Luckily my keen interest in cute redheads is vindicated by the way they share Alfonse’s reservations.
The Nohr sisters seem more than eager to just let a bunch of soldiers join them in the baths.
Yet that’s the only bit of story worth talking about here.
After the fighting ends, Anna makes a comment about wanting a hot springs in the Order’s castle, which seems less a nod to future content than it is an outlet for Alfonse to make fun of the girls for getting into useless tasks too quickly.
So… Orbs.
Hurray!
If it wasn’t obvious, this banner didn’t really excite me.
I’m happy to shill out orbs for Hinoka or Sakura in lieu of the beast units who are going in the main summoning pool, but I don’t particularly care about any of the units mechanically.
Even my complaint about Fates units being used again is easily mitigated by the argument that Fates had the first canonical hot spring system. So that’s a banal annoyance at best.
Perhaps the Valentine’s Day units will get me more hyped up, but for now this isn’t much more than a neat distraction from school.
That’s just my opinion though. Let me know what you think of these special hot springs units!
With the addition of our newest Legendary Hero Hríd, the sole Prince of Nifl, we finally have every Book II character released as a playable unit in Fire Emblem Heroes.
Just in time for Book III to start in December. It’s almost like Intelligent Systems planned this stuff out!
Grants Attack +3. If a penalty inflicted by a skill like Panic or Threaten, and/or a negative status effect (preventing counterattacks or restricting movement) is active on foe, unit makes a guaranteed follow-up attack and foe cannot.
Moonbow (Cooldown = 2)
Treats foe’s Defense or Resistance as if reduced by 30 percent during combat.
Distant Counter (A Skill)
Unit can counterattack regardless of foe’s range.
Freezing Seal (B Skill)
At the start of a turn, if unit’s Health ≥ 50 percent, inflicts Attack/Speed -6 on foe with the lowest Resistance through its next action.
Attack Smoke (C Skill)
Inflicts Attack -7 on foes within two spaces of target through their next actions after combat.
From a purely conceptual standpoint, I actually really like the idea behind Hríd’s base skill kit. His B skill weakens the strongest enemy on the opposing team so that he can race in on his horse and slay them with the guaranteed follow-up of his sword.
On top of that he has defensive capabilities thanks to Distant Counter, which balances things out.
Overall it’s a really solid set of capabilities, and if nothing else it’s great to have a new unit with Distant Counter given how rare the ability is.
To be completely honest my only real problem with Hríd is the fact that… Well…
Come on Intelligent Systems, at least separate out the weapon/move type combinations a little better. Maybe make Hríd a sword armor unit or something, that way we can have a power crept Black Knight as a Legendary Hero.
I don’t know , the quick repetition bugs me. But even so I don’t mind the character himself.
On top of that, his entourage in the special Legendary Hero banner isn’t so bad:
Red and green hold the most interest for me this time around. Hríd, Legendary Ryoma, Summer Innes and Kana are all not in my current arsenal, and thus all worth summoning.
In the other two colors the only character I’m missing is Brave Hector.
I do want Brave Hector, but I’m not sure he’s worth potentially getting another Legendary Lucina or Summer Cordelia.
Also can we hold an intervention for Intelligent Systems to not include female Grima in any more of these banners? I’m pretty sure she’s been in every single one.
There better be some cool story thing that comes out of that eventually.
While I started with about 200 orbs once again, it took me 50 or so to get something of particular interest to me:
All the animosity I stored toward the Legendary Lobster since his first appearance when he took all my orbs and never showed up has finally been relieved.
I don’t know that I’ll ever be the same still… But he’s +Attack, -Resistance. Which I think is his best build.
So hey I guess I can’t really complain.
I’ve also gotten a second Laevatein at this point, but she’s not very good compared to the one I had already.
I don’t know whether I’ll spend a lot more orbs on this banner unless I get a bunch in the near future. At this point there aren’t enough units left to justify it.
But at least there are Legendary Battle Maps to score some extra orbs, right?
Nailed the transition.
While most of the Legendary Battle Maps have been cool examples of a stage from the character’s original game, I particularly appreciate what they did for Hríd.
His map appears to be the Rite of Frost chamber from Heroes’ main story, seen back when Kinshi Hinoka first came out, but frozen over more than ever. It’s a nice touch for people who have been sticking with this game for a long time.
As far as the difficulty goes? I mean it’s the same old reinforcement map bs as always. Not very fun in my opinion.
What is more fun to discuss is the Forging Bonds that coincides with Hríd’s addition featuring the four Nifl siblings:
I haven’t gotten very far into any of the support conversation threads, but what I have seen has been so different than usual that it’s pretty engaging.
The overall theme of the event is a prequel of sorts. The story starts off prior to Surtr’s invasion right around the time when Gunnthrá apparently has a premonition that he will be coming soon.
Group sections seem to focus on the siblings preparing together (a somber twist considering how the story goes) while the individual conversations each have the siblings meeting you in their dreams.
Again I don’t know where they wind up going just yet, but I’m very excited to see!
I’m going to level with you guys, I thought I was going to end this off early tonight and go to bed.
Then I got distracted with some videos online and somehow it turned into 2:00 a.m.
So I’m not going to put a lot of fanfare into this conclusion. Just let me know what you think of Hríd, what you want to see in the future, all that fun stuff.
That said, I’ll see you in the next FEH post where I’ll hopefully be more awake.
Effective against cavalry foes. Disables unit’s and foe’s skills that change attack priority. After combat, if unit attacked, inflicts Defense and Resistance -7 on target and foes within two spaces of target through their next actions.
Dance (Range = 1)
Grants another action to target ally (cannot target an ally with Sing or Dance).
Close Counter (A Skill)
Unit can counterattack regardless of foe’s range.
Quick Riposte (B Skill)
If unit’s Health ≥ 70 percent and foe initiates combat, unit makes a guaranteed follow-up attack.
Odd Defense Wave (C Skill)
At start of odd-numbered turns, grants Defense +6 to unit and adjacent allies for one turn (bonus granted to unit even if no allies are adjacent).
Analysis:
If I’m just being honest, the most important thing about this Performing Arts Xander is his dance.
Like. I don’t know how Intelligent Systems did it. But they created literal perfection.
Outside of that dance animation, however, he still seems to be one of the most worthwhile heroes on this banner to summon. Like every hero here, his weapon disables priority-changing skills on top of being effective against a specific kind of unit.
Plus he comes with three passive skills, again like every unit here. I don’t know why IS decided to make these dancers so stacked, but I’m not complaining.
Xander is obviously built to be an interesting defensive dancing dagger user. His close combat lets him hit from one space away, where his Wave and Quick Riposte can help him survive an attack and hit back twice.
If his stat line is any good, he’ll be an interesting character to throw onto a team.
Effective against dragon foes. Disables unit’s and foe’s skills that change attack priority. After combat, if unit attacked, inflicts Defense and Resistance -7 on target and foes within two spaces of target through their next actions.
Dance (Range = 1)
Grants another action to target ally (cannot target an ally with Sing or Dance).
Attack/Speed Push (A Skill)
At start of combat, if unit’s Health = 100 percent, grants Attack and Speed +5, but if unit attacked, deals one damage to unit after combat.
Rockslide Dance (B Skill)
If Sing or Dance is used, grants Speed +3 and Defense +4 to target.
Drive Resistance (C Skill)
Grants Resistance +3 to allies within two spaces during combat.
Analysis:
Elincia holds the distinction of being the very first colored dagger unit in Fire Emblem Heroes. Hurray! Congratulations on your accomplishments girl, you’re doing the Radiant games proud.
Now I already have a pretty strong tie to Elincia as a unit in FEH because she’s such a powerful staple on my flying team. One that I happened to summon when I was in the hospital.
Unlike Xander, her skills are a little more spread around and don’t fit one play style in particular. But they leave her more readily available to fill a variety of niches.
She can be a solid blue dragon killer with that dagger of hers and the Attack/Speed Push. Probably combined with a healing skill.
Or she can be focused purely on buffing dances through that double stat improving Rockslide, improved further by her ability to grant Resistance buffs to nearby allies during combat.
There’s just a lot of potential with her, and I’d be excited to summon Elincia as well.
Effective against armored foes. Disables unit’s and foe’s skills that change attack priority. After combat, if unit attacked, inflicts Defense and Resistance -7 on target and foes within two spaces of target through their next actions.
Dance (Range = 1)
Grants another action to target ally (cannot target an ally with Sing or Dance).
Triangle Adept (A Skill)
If unit has weapon-triangle advantage, boosts Attack by 20 percent. If unit has weapon-triangle disadvantage, reduces Attack by 20 percent.
Chill Defense (B Skill)
At start of turn, inflicts Defense -7 on foe on the enemy team with the highest Defense through its next action.
Spur Speed/Resistance (C Skill)
Grants Speed and Resistance +3 to adjacent allies during combat.
Analysis:
Ohh, so sorry Ryoma. If only you were one reveal ahead, you could have been our first colored dagger unit.
Luckily we have a consolation prize in the form of a very special niche for you to fill as a red armor killer.
Yeah, oddly enough this unarmored lobster seems built to kill powerful red armor units like the Black Knight or Zelgius. He has color priority on a ranged weapon that’s boosted by Triangle Adept and effective against armor units specifically. Plus, he inflicts a hell of a defense debuff at the beginning of each turn.
Now I can’t promise Ryoma will be defensive enough himself to tank a counterattack should his effort to kill fail, but still. Thanks to canceling out abilities like Vantage he may actually have a chance to be a super solid tech choice on teams that are weak to red armored boys.
Effective against armored and cavalry foes. Disables unit’s and foe’s skills that change attack priority.
Dance (Range = 1)
Grants another action to target ally (cannot target an ally with Sing or Dance).
Attack/Resistance Bond (A Skill)
If unit is adjacent to an ally, grants Attack and Resistance +5 during combat.
Fireflood Dance (B Skill)
If Sing or Dance is used, grants Attack +3 and Resistance +4 to target.
Resistance Ploy (C Skill)
At start of turn, inflicts Resistance -5 on foes in cardinal directions with Resistance > unit’s Resistance through their next actions.
Analysis:
Color me impressed, every single unit on this banner is actually friggen useful. Micaiah here because she carries a legendary weapon with double ranged type effectiveness that cancels out abilities like Vantage while also lowering an opponent’s resistance and boosting her own Attack and Resistance during battle.
Yeah that’s front loaded I know, but it’s really solid on paper.
Of course the Fireflood Dance is a bit more situational as it seems better fitting for a purely supportive dancer, but hey. Maybe she’ll be a great offensive and defensive dancer.
Seriously I don’t have too much to say here because she’s just a good unit. I do wish she had a red dagger just to round out a banner full of each other colored dagger… But beggars can’t be choosers, I suppose.
I don’t think I can state enough how great every unit on this banner is. Seriously, if you didn’t waste too many orbs on the last Summer/Awakening/Legendary banners like I didn’t, you can have a good time stacking your roster with dancers that can fit on a variety of teams.
Personally I think Elincia and Ryoma are my favorites just based on skills alone. But I’d frankly be happy to get any of them.
In fact, for that reason I’m spending a whole bunch of my ~170 orbs on this sucker. Though probably not enough to go below 100 orbs considering all of the summoning banners coming up soon…
But with my recent lucky streaks, I should have a good time here, right?
Actually, interestingly enough I have been rather lucky. Just… Not in the way that I’d like to be.
I’m admittedly not entirely sure where these three came from. Micaiah was sort of funny just from the novelty of her alternate skin being in this new banner, but the other two were just. Eh.
I didn’t have a five-star Shigure before, so he’s got some catalog novelty, but Sonya is unfortunately just merging fodder.
So yeah, three five-stars in about 70 orbs. Can’t necessarily complain since my friend Jonathan didn’t get anything tonight… But boy do I want to complain about only getting duplicates.
At least there’s a whole month to score some silly dancers! Plus, the story mode we got to accompany this Paralogue is as interesting in lore as it is useful for orbs.
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Unlike most Paralogues in Fire Emblem Heroes, I would argue the ‘Festival in Hoshido’ Paralogue is much cooler for the story it presents than the pretty art style.
Though that, of course, is just as pretty as ever.
We start off, as you can see, with some exposition by the great Lobster himself regarding the history of the Hoshidan festival. He’s introducing the festivities to Princess Elincia, who has been invited to partake alongside Micaiah. Also Xander. But he’s just right across the gorge so it’s a little bit less of an interesting invitation.
The stakes are raised very quickly when Loki shows up to remind the two that they’ve been put into a contract by Veronica. As they distract the Order of Heroes, who have come to protect the festivities:
Loki goes off to investigate whatever it is she has come to Hoshido seeking. Something that I’ll get into in a minute.
Already this plot is more engaging than the fifth session of Anna tries to sneak peeks at naked Heroes to raise money.
Even if Sharena doesn’t seem to be taking it too seriously.
As the Order makes their way around, they then come across Xander giving some similar exposition to Micaiah.
While Loki arriving to put a wrench in the festivities was already an interesting point of contention, Xander adds more depth into this particular event by explaining how he’s there in more of a peaceful mission following the conclusion of Fates.
That’s actually some pretty cool world-building. Especially in a world where heroes from other realms can show up to experience the same activities.
It kind of makes up for the fact that I was upset seeing another Fates-based alternate art banner. Even with the Radiant representation, we just have way too many Awakening/Fates characters getting special treatment at this point.
Anyway, once the Order arrives at the final stage, Loki adds even more intrigue to her arrival at the festival.
Yeah, that’s right. Loki is after Anakos. ANAKOS of all things.
Apparently a fire dragon god isn’t good enough for the Múspell army. Now to be completely honest, I wasn’t a huge fan of this ultimate dragonic antagonist in Fates. Especially following Grima in Awakening, he was just sort of forgettable and weird.
But if they incorporate him into the plot of the mobile gotcha game somehow, I’m all in IS. You’ll have us good.
I agree completely.
But am also very invested in exactly where this sideplot is headed.
Normally I would just conclude my pieces here with a quick question about who you’re most interested in summoning off the banner and what you think about the suddenly interesting developments in the Paralogue story.
But this time I have a little more to jump on.
Version 2.8.0 dropped yesterday, and while it may not have added enough to warrant a full post yesterday I still wanted to dedicate some time to it. Because you know. I like cataloging this stuff.
A lot of what was implemented here are minor adjustments to pre-existing modes. Adjustments that don’t really do a lot for me specifically.
First and foremost is a new tier being added to the Arena. Once players hit tier 20, now they can go further and become a Great Summoner. Anyone who does gets an aesthetic crown mark on top of Feh’s head on the home screen.
I’ve never made it to tier 20. So… Yeah. Doesn’t mean too much for me.
Intelligent Systems also added in the ability to have multiple skill sets for each unit. That way you could have a build if your Reinhardt is on a cavalry only team versus if your Reinhardt is on his own. For example.
There’s also some more options in the allies menu to sort different combinations of favorite characters together. But that’s another functionality I never used in the first place so… Yeah. Again.
Probably the only thing that was added which I could actually see myself using is the Order of Heroes weapon refines.
Perhaps these three could actually be useful now! Which would be very beneficial to new players especially.
With those changes out-of-the-way, everything else is summed up as minor additions. Very cleanly summed up by this succinct list:
Gaining extra rewards during Grand Conquests is probably the best thing just in this section alone, though I am very interested to see what it will be like to play tap battles at triple speed.
Also I would be interested in having my orbs hit quadruple digits. But that’s a different story.
That’s about all I have to say for Fire Emblem Heroes for the day.
Since I was already on track for this earlier, let me know what you think about those questions I asked in the comments! Based on the events calendar, it’ll be a couple of weeks before one of these shows up again. Considering I’m pretty sure I’m the only one who enjoys them, hopefully you all enjoy the hiatus.
Normally I try to have this kind of Fire Emblem Heroes post out early in the morning, but after exploding all over Pokémon news yesterday I couldn’t bring myself to stay up late to write more.
So enjoy this later-than-average look at the Legendary Lobster himself: Supreme Samurai Ryoma.
If foe initiates combat, grants Attack and Speed +4 during combat.
Bushido (B Skill)
Deals +10 damage when Special triggers.
Guidance (C Skill)
Infantry and armored allies within two spaces can move to a space adjacent to unit.
Clearly not wanting to be upstaged by his younger sister, the crown prince of Hoshido is here with his first alternate form since the game was released. Instead of being a grounded samurai warrior, he has taken to the skies on a legendary Kinshi mount to bring swift destruction using his legendary electric blade.
As our seventh Legendary Hero, Ryoma brings all water-blessed allies +3 Health and +4 Defense when they enter battle during a water season. Something particularly interesting about the banner this time around is that it actually laid out exactly how legendary hero stat bonuses work:
This, by extension, also just about confirms that there are only going to be 16 Legendary Heroes all together. Unless they do something like add more elements of course, but that’s a bridge we can cross when we get to it.
I quite like the chart. It’s succinct and shows pretty neatly how the developers have begun to plan things out.
Next presumably is a fire element Legendary Hero with a Resistance buff, and I’m interested to see who they choose to fit that role.
But we’re not here to discuss future content. Let’s discuss current content.
Many of you who know Fire Emblem fairly well like I do probably thought the same thing:
Why the hell is Ryoma a flying unit?
It’s rather bizarre seeing him take a Kinshi mount, because it seems like the only Legendary alt that’s somewhat out of character. Sure, Kinshi are great mythical beasts associated with the Hoshidan royal family, but Hinoka made far more sense riding one than her brother does here.
If anything, I would imagine Ryoma to fit the archetype of someone like the Black Knight better. A hulking armored unit with samurai gear turned up to 11, stomping around like an impenetrable tank that fires back from all distances with his Raijinto.
Would’ve been pretty dope if I say so myself.
Even though that isn’t what we got, what Legendary Ryoma is certainly isn’t anything to scoff at. Sword-wielding fliers are a rare unit type in Heroes, and even if I have a personal bias for the Elincia that has served me so well, the Hoshidan crown prince is imposing to say the least.
Stat-wise he’s near perfect based on what we can see in his legendary battle. Attack and Speed stats that are both around 50 while still having a baffling high defense stat for a flying unit. Even his resistance isn’t so bad, so he’s well-rounded enough to take a hit and retaliate.
In fact, that’s essentially what his base skills are meant for. If he can tank that bow or that magic attack, not only can Ryoma counter attack from a distance, but his attack and speed are buffed by his A Skill and he deals an insane critical hit thanks to the signature Bushido B Skill.
With it, his distant counter Raijinto also acts like a Wo Dao weapon. It’s kinda nuts.
I’ve seen some buzz talking about how Ryoma may just be the strongest Legendary Hero we’ve ever gotten, and I can’t say I disagree. I had expected a complete glass cannon based on his flying attribute, but those defenses don’t lie.
However, he isn’t the only thing available on this summoning banner. Also in the eight percent pool are:
Being blunt about it, the red stones are the only ones I truly care about in this pool of focus units.
Ryoma is obviously the chief goal, but Sigurd and Tiki are both solid options to summon for me as well. Both units are perpetual projects of merging that I tend to be working on, and both are frequently in use in my army. Plus, Tiki is about to get a new legendary weapon, so she’ll be even more fun to see in action.
Beyond that, I already have both the Legendary Nifl sisters and Legendary Grima — though I do find it interesting that Legendary Lyn is not on this banner given the fact that she’s the last one we saw implemented.
The Christmas and New Years units that are returning aren’t exactly my favorite either. I already have Azura and probably wouldn’t bother with anyone from the Christmas side but Tharja.
Though if they brought Tharja back she would be in three different summoning banners at the same time right now… So I can understand the restraint.
The non-special units, Hardin and Innes, just seem kind of random honestly. They’re both good of course, but not necessarily good enough for me to bother pulling them.
So that means we’re just sniping the red orbs fellas, where are those-
… Oh I see.
Yeah that has been a bit of a pattern for me on this banner so far, just pulling singular red stones. In the case above, Ares was a cool compensation unit since I didn’t have him before, but beyond that I haven’t had a whole lot of luck.
This time I swear I’m going to keep my orb counter above 50, I won’t break that promise. There are still brides waiting in the wings for me somewhere, I hope.
That said, orbs are available through Ryoma’s legendary battle.
Except if you’re going to try that, you should know it’s a little…
Intense.
The dude basically surrounds himself with long-ranged units so he can wear you down before coming in for the kill. I’ll admit that the map does a great job showcasing why Ryoma is so powerful, but boy that Infernal difficulty hurts when you need to get through so many waves of reinforcements.
Oh well. Even with the Tempest Trial cleaned out for me, hopefully I’ll be able to stock up on some more orbs somewhere or another.
Beyond that I don’t have too much more to say about this Legendary Lobster. What do you think about him? Is he too overpowered? Or just overpowered enough?
Let me know in the comments below, and while you’re at it let me know who you think the next Legendary Hero is going to be! I’m down to start taking bets.
It seems like I’ve really taken that “not planning on posting anything on this blog until after finals” thing to heart, haven’t I? Guess I really can’t bring myself to avoid a couple good Fire Emblem updates.
Though to be fair, two things are different this time around.
Firstly, I’ve actually finished a lot of my work for the final projects and exams I have. The only thing I’ve still got to finish is some work for my internship class, which shouldn’t be that much trouble.
There’s also work for the paper I suppose… But that’s always kind of a different story.
Secondly, this post should be really short. I know I say that a lot, but I’m serious this time around. Just watch, let’s see how quick I can get it out of the way:
Today is the day that the Children of Fate summoning focus banner has arrived. These heroes have been built up for quite some time now, appearing as a point of attention in the calendar update a few weeks ago and showing up in the Book II story update just a couple days ago.
I enjoyed Fates a lot (besides one majorly terrible thing that kind of ruined the whole experience for me, but that’s a story for another day). One of the things that made Fates as enjoyable experience as it was boiled down to the child characters. The same thing could be said for Awakening too, but in Fates I distinctly remember a bunch of the kids being more memorable.
In fact, my friend and I spent a good amount of time leading up to this update discussing who we believed would be appearing in this banner. I actually wound up calling two out of the four new heroes: Soleil and Shiro.
Ryoma’s son Shiro was a character I imagined would arrive based on the general lack of lance-wielding units amongst Fate’s children cast, and I’m interested seeing that I was right. Even if Shiro wasn’t necessarily my favorite character overall. In Heroes, he comes with a Bright Naginata that grants him +4 attack and defense if the opponent initiates combat, the Swap movement skill, Steady Stance to gain +6 defense when he’s attacked and Defense Tactic, a new skill that grants allies +6 defense if they can only move two or less spaces at a time. There’s something a little off in my head when thinking that they made the character named for his ‘Raw Talent’ focused almost solely on defending rather than attacking. I don’t know, maybe I’m just biased because I don’t really like Shiro all that much, but I just think that Siegbert handles it better. Speaking of…
Okay, before I really get into things, I just wanted to say that ‘Future King’ is kind of a lame moniker. There’s seriously half a billion characters in the Fire Emblem universe that this could fit. Hell, related to this banner alone, Shiro could also use the title ‘Future King.’ In fact, Siegbert’s father Xander could technically be called ‘Future King’ as well. He really never becomes the king of Nohr until post-game. It might have fit Siegbert better if it commented on his nerves or fear of the responsibility he’s to inherit. But I digress, onto the character details:
Xander’s son Siegbert comes equipped with a Dark Greatsword that grants him +4 attack and speed if he initiates combat. He also has the powerful special attack Dragon Fang, Death Blow and Attack Tactic, which gives his allies +6 attack if they aren’t cavalier units (only 2 or less movement spaces). Frankly, I really like his skill set. Not only is he built like a long-range heavy hitter, but his new passive skill Attack Tactic really fits his character from an inherent, descriptive sense. Much more than I feel like the opposite ability does with Shiro, honestly. I like it, and I wouldn’t be too upset receiving a Siegbert. Even though I’d much rather get…
Laslow’s daughter Soleil is probably one of if not my favorite character in Fire Emblem Fates. Or, at least, my favorite child character from Fates. She’s incredible, taking all of the flirtatious, happy-go-lucky attitude of her father (who we’ve gotten to know over two games) and putting it in a much more adorable form that manages to do everything better than he ever could. It’s a beautiful dynamic, and it’s gotten me very excited to pick up a Soleil of my own. But is she worth summoning? Well, she comes with a Firesweep Sword, preventing counterattacks on both sides, the special attack Blazing Wind to cause damage to foes all around whoever Soleil attacks and the passive skills Darting Blow, which grants her +6 speed if she attacks, and Drive Resistance, which grants allies +3 resistance during combat. The Drive Resistance skill is a little out of left field, but everything else makes her sound like a great fast attacker, which is always a good niche to fill.
I would also be remiss to not talk about the other Fates child introduced, even if she showed up the other day. But I didn’t talk about her then, so let’s give Rhajat some time to shine now.
Hayato’s daughter Rhajat is a character that I honestly didn’t want to see show up in this banner. Or… This split banner, as it were. She, alongside Caeldori and Asugi, were children of Fates characters who were actually retreads of parent characters from Awakening. That whole idea never really sat well with me in the original game, since it just felt like a strange way to shoehorn in old characters compared to just having them be travelers from a different land like Laslow, Odin and Selena. Though I suppose her appearance was predictable considering how much people love Tharja. I know I do, but Rhajat not quite as much. Either way, that shouldn’t take away from her potential usefulness here in-game. She comes with a Keen Gronnwolf green tome, which is effective against calvary, a Rally Attack/Defense movement skill, Distant Defense to grant her +6 defense and resistance when attacked from a distant weapon, and Savage Blow to cause damage to surrounding opponents after she attacks one of them.
I’ll be honest, Rhajat is the least appealing of the four heroes here, in my opinion. Ironic I know, considering she’s the most dramatically sexualized one of the lot (seriously, I joked with my friends that she’s like a pornstar in this version for some reason), but her skill set just doesn’t do it for me. I suppose in a sense that makes it better that she’s separated from the rest in a different banner.
However, that does annoy me quite a bit, as an aside.
Any sensible person seeing the collection of heroes in both of these banners with new characters must have thought the same thing as I did. Why is there one banner with two red units (Soleil and Siegbert) while there could have easily been a swap with Rhajat, making the Fates children banner contain a red, blue and green unit?
Well, the obvious answer to explain this is forcing the pay-to-play model. With two reds on one banner, there’s an increased chance of pulling the unit you don’t want. In my case, for example, I could wind up pulling a Siegbert when I want a Soleil. Though I’d be find with a Siegbert, I would still wholly prefer a Soleil, and might be more tempted to spend money to get more orbs if I lost out on the unit I wanted.
That’s a pretty shitty way to approach things, and you can tell it’s supposed to be the intent when there could have very easily been a split of the red units. Hell, Soleil would have arguably fit just as well in a love-themed Voting Gauntlet slot as Rhajat does, especially since Tharja is there filling the exact same role as is.
I don’t know, it just bugs me to see that greed factor rear its ugly head and remind me that I’m playing a generally unfair RNG-based character draw game.
That said… I have succumb to the enduring challenges of fighting against RNG this time around. Like I’ve said, Soleil is my goal, and I’ve already sunk about 50 stored up orbs into it.
Without much luck.
Seriously, three Corrins? Come on game. I think I deserve a little better than that.
Oh well, I’ve got about two weeks to get it right, and as far as I can tell there isn’t anything else coming up that’s going to get in the way.
Alright, clocking in this post at… Close to 1,500 words. Still arguably more chatty than I expected to get with it, but much better than usual, I’d say. In fact, 1,500 words is the cap for the reflection I have to write for my internship class. So, if nothing else, this is a good comparison to use for how easy that assignment should hopefully be.
Wait, what’s that? You’re wondering where the story-based portion of this post is?
Well, there is no paralogue for these heroes. Why would there be, they’ve already gotten a chance to appear in the second chapter of Book II.
Sure, they didn’t get a single line of dialogue, and only seemed to be there to serve as a tool for Princess Veronica to throw at you, and they don’t get a paralogue mission to offer players an extra chance to get some orbs so the split banners annoyance can be offset… But it’s fine. These guys didn’t get shafted at all.
Again, I digress. We’d be here all day if I just griped about everything for the rest of eternity. It’s all just a little… Underwhelming. Anticlimactic even, considering how much buid-up there was. Which is how I described this one in my post title.
How do you feel about the new heroes? Were they who you hoped to see? I know theres a few I might have preferred, like Nina or Mitama for example. Though, do you also think the ones we got were shafted too? Let me know in the comments below.
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