It’s not meant as a downer–She’s the last queen of Aukema because she was able to transition Aukema to something that doesn’t need further monarchs
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Ohhhh okay. That makes more sense.
So now for my more complete thoughts, starting with the characterization and writing- I did like it a lot for the Musain route; and in general even before and beyond that. Though I do think there were some oddities, it’s nothing I can’t live with.
I found Arcus oddly compelling. Can’t really say why- just that he really stuck out to me as probably my favorite unit somehow… well, okay, he’s my favorite male unit from this hack so far.
My favorite female one is Thyra. Didn’t think I’d be using her, honestly speaking, but pairing her with Kolbane was fun to do. (And she was also one of my MVP’s for Endgame… mostly because I think she was the only person on the team with 30 Strength naturally and uhhh well… there’s some… things there that require a significant amount of hard-hitting damage).
Also personal unbreakable lancereaver in a game where those cost no small amount of coin and also where (at least on Musain route it feels like) good axe users are a bit hard to come by, well… it does help! A lot!
Some Random Spoiler Thoughts
I did notice something was up with the reinforcements Fleurre sent at the start of the Vish arc when the commander of them used the word “drones”- despite the fact that part of the whole point of the revolution was abolishing that system. If that was intentional five-second foreshadowing, I applaud you because that was subtle enough to where I feel like that might’ve actually gone over people’s heads.
I paired Severin up with Morwen because I initially wondered at first what a Support chain between those two would be like… and then I saw the A-Support and then I was sold on it lmao.
“That’s not the only stallion around.”- Probably Morwen internally at a certain point. IYKYK.
At the end of the day, character wise, it does feel like a scene was missing for Arcus- namely, him leaving before Chapter 19 (I think? It’s the final Fog of War map) begins. Maybe I missed it because I wasn’t paying attention, but I wish we had gotten some kind of scene showing him leaving to head back to Vishara.
Is Jolyon bisexual? Feels like he could swing both ways- like even before I saw his A-Support with Arcus, his C and B felt like they kinda were going that direction…
Looking at Thyra’s design sheet, I did wonder if she was trans and then I realized no, that the reduced breast size is actually a common thing for female athletes and the like irl- because breasts are fat, and you don’t have fat so much as muscle when you’re as athletic as her, sooooo… neat touch, honestly.
Sheila too I was wondering if they were trans also, although I think that one’s mostly caused by me having to take some time to get used to the fact that everyone in a military position is referred to as “Sir”.
Why I’m so fixated on character sexualities, I don’t know. It’s just one of those things my mind wandered to while I was writing this up.
I’m gonna be real here too- I didn’t know that Thyra could recruit Volund until he was right up in my face and I was trying to figure out how to spare him so he could join us lmao. But that’s not a flaw, that’s just character writing.
I also chose to spare Varkade. Because sparing him is both a far greater ‘screw you’ to his ideals when it comes down to it… and because I think that Rena needed to let go of that anger toward him by letting him live his final days out.
I blame Project Moon for influencing me to do this. I wonder how many people opted to just kill Varkade on their first run through the postscript…?
As a final one:
I do think that while Rena’s character arc is excellently written, I think the groundwork for what her solo ending results in should be shown a bit more- or at least some thoughts of it. But that’s just me personally. Maybe I missed something- I don’t know.
Gameplay will be up later once I get my thoughts on that in order.
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Some Spoiler Responses
Arcus doesn’t have a whole scene dedicated to him leaving, but Rena has mentioned in-text he’s gone home.
Jolyon is bisexual, yes. Unlike Arcus and Lizaveta where neither betrothed are particularly compatible with each other, Jolyon was pretty receptive to giving Meliza a proper courtship despite their union being arranged, and they do genuinely grow fond of each other in their A.
With Volund, the detail is in the character design–both Annelise and Thyra could recruit him, and they’re the 3 playable characters with chinese style clothing. That being said Volund’s actually a freebie because he refuses to die until he finds Thyra anyway and since Thyra’s a retreat character, you just don’t get to use him for chapter 21.
Yeah Thyra’s very much intended as a cis woman since she was designed back in the 2010s when her level of muscularity and power in female characters were not as widely accepted as nowadays, and the way she’s written is also fairly hard to come by for cis female characters as well, so it’s something I really wanted on my part. I do study anatomy quite a bit so I’m glad you picked up on the higher muscle definition → lower body fat detail.
Sparing vs Killing Varkade slightly changes the ending–not in the grand scheme of things, just some of Rena’s following actions in handling cleaning up Aukema after.
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Responses to all the Spoiler Stuff:
Huh, must’ve missed Rena mentioning Arcus left before the chapter started. Whoops.
I also forgot to mention this I think but Arcus’s supports with Lizaveta also kinda clued me into the idea of him being asexual. I’d like to think that he genuinely didn’t know what she was talking about during the C and to a lesser extent, the B-Supports… but by the A, I think he’s smart enough to have put two and two together… and just not care, essentially, because as he reveals during it, he sympathizes with her.
And yeah Jolyon’s supports with Meliza also clued me in to him being bisexual as well for me.
The detail for recruiting Volund in hindsight should have been screamingly obvious. I feel like Annelise could pass honestly for a mainlander (something of an irony given how she wants to be home the most out of the three of them).
Also regarding what you said about anatomy- you can thank two things- something I saw on the internet once that talked about how the two works, and also my younger sister who’s into graphic design who one day in the midst of a conversation about… idr what it was now, but she’s the one who told me that breasts are just essentially lumps of fat.
Speaking of Thyra, her paired ending with Kolbane (and Kolbane’s other supports) makes me wonder if Kolbane might be an exception to the rule about characters only having 0-1 paired endings. Feels like he has a paired ending with Garath somehow (and I’ve seen their supports).
That reminds me, does his house in I believe the final shopping chapter have a different cutscene based on whether or not Kolbane has an A-support with someone, or does it automatically default to Thyra?
Also- yeah, I saw how the ending text changes based on if you killed Varkade or not. I do find it interesting- how she becomes more coldhearted if she killed Varkade, versus more kind if you spared him.
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Spoilers etc
You’re correct about Arcus/Veta C, and he’s mostly figured it out by the end of B. The A was mostly him talking a bit more roundabout and hypothetically as a way to tell Veta he’s chill with the whole situation and she has his support to do as she likes and be free.
That’s probably due to Annelise’s mug angle–The front of her outfit uses Qing dynasty styles, but given how small the 17x CG is it doesn’t show much in-game haha
There is no exception to the 0-1 paired endings–we deliberately only gave romantic paired endings for a very practical reason: if characters aren’t glued together, we get twice the amount of text to work with.
It’s always Thyra. In the 2012 draft of the game their relationship was meant to feature in the main story dialogue a bit more, but we felt that having a whole romantic subplot distracts from the story we want to tell in do5 proper, so we left just small nudges (in the form of Garath teasing Kolbane in 18 and post-finale), the 23x house, and kept it mostly in supports otherwise.
3 Likes
Wait a minute… Something else? Something like… A Confederation? Is this the conection I was looking for with Drums of War?
Probably should’ve kept the spoiler tags in that one
but
No, Rena does not invent the DoW Confederation. For more details though that’s a Parr question
Edit: wait does discourse just default to unspoilering that or something, that’s wack, forum software
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Honestly I thought the connection was a redhaired heroine lord with a military background and essentially similar (yet different) storylines… and I didnt even know there was a connection until Lewyn mentioned it.
Either that or it’s the reforged weapons.
Now as for gameplay…
Spoilers!
This applies to the Musain route.
Honestly, I think the number of longbow enemies needs to be toned down a little- it makes fielding fliers prior to getting the Hrethe Bracer in a variety of scenarios just not worth it because of the range finagling you have to do to keep them safe from the archers and the other enemies too.
The Nomad Troopers being able to cross River tiles was also quite annoying to deal with in Chapter 25- I think those and the Marksmen managed to cause the most amount of resets due to that and the range they caused + the damage being actually both accurate and sizable makes them menaces.
The enemy dragons made me glad I went out of my way to have a friend recruit the guy in the temple in 25 for me- gave him Parzifal and away we go… even if he cant one-round the dragons, the effectiveness is appreciated.
… in fact, mind, it might be because I didn’t check but… is that person the only playable character who can actually use Parzifal?
Unit wise otherwise, I have no real complaints. I do wish you got a couple more master seals before the chapter where Se’Mori joins but I digress.
spoilers etc
Yeah he’s the only one who can use parzifal, his battle quotes with the dragons should give a hint to who he is
Wait in 25? Did I miss someone? I got everyone it shows in the tierlist maker and on the website I don’t remember someone in 25. I don’t remember anyone being able to wield that sword either
You might’ve.
For 25
If you visit the intact temple with an Onduris character like Se’Mori, a Swordmaster who can use the Parzifal is recruited.
He doesn’t appear in the tierlist maker either from what I can tell.
He’s THAT big a secret ig.
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Patchday with minor fixes, including a missing chunk of Conleth’s hat on status-screen, the Japanese characters on the buff status, Adalheid wearing her armour at inappropriate moments and the absolute final attempt to fix the C25 house on some emulators.
EDIT: If you downloaded the ROM before seeing this, courtly alt Hereward’s hair will be cut off in the like 1-2 scenes he appears. It’s fixed in the current upload.
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The alts are for end of chapter cutscenes in 6 and 7B so if you’re past that point they’re on the website
Character involved are Farrell, Wyclif, Hereward, Adalheid, since it didn’t make sense for them to wear armor in those scenes
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I swear all the portraits in this game are phenomenal. The art direction is A+, and the soundtrack fits the look and feel so much. The promo portraits are so good (Crowe looks so hot ngl) and these new court attire portraits look great!
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Quickly must say, I am gay. Still working on beating the game but wow, wow.
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Words cannot explain how long I have been looking for the mf who can use that sword. LFG
Sidenote - how do I get stolypin and his brother? I cant figure it out.
On B route, Stolypin joins several chapters beforehand, and then can recruit Rotariu in C25.
Yeah
Onduris gets Rotariu instead of Morwen (since Lyndra doesn’t join in Onduris)
Stolypin joins in Onduris around where Severin does in Musain
Posting character availability chart because why the heck not
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Very clear evidence of a width disparity between Musain and Onduris characters. Parr fix this
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Nah each has 12 exclusives it’s just some portraits are bigger than the others 