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    Home Unlabelled Fire Emblem Happy International Women's Day from all the Fire Emblem heroines!

    Fire Emblem Happy International Women's Day from all the Fire Emblem heroines!

    March 08, 2020

    Fire Emblem Happy International Women's Day from all the Fire Emblem heroines!

    Happy International Women's Day from all the Fire Emblem heroines!

    Posted: 08 Mar 2020 09:35 AM PDT

    Church of Seiros

    Posted: 08 Mar 2020 03:39 PM PDT

    Bernadetta the piranya plant

    Posted: 08 Mar 2020 11:22 AM PDT

    Single fang Lysithea!

    Posted: 08 Mar 2020 08:10 AM PDT

    Leonie! ��

    Posted: 08 Mar 2020 05:31 PM PDT

    [OC fanart] big Sothis S-support

    Posted: 08 Mar 2020 09:48 AM PDT

    a cursed transformation

    Posted: 07 Mar 2020 10:37 PM PST

    [OC Art] Ephraim and Eirika drawn with gel pens!

    Posted: 08 Mar 2020 10:17 AM PDT

    Altena x Ced

    Posted: 08 Mar 2020 08:33 AM PDT

    I stitched the Ashen Wolves!

    Posted: 08 Mar 2020 05:01 PM PDT

    I don’t know if this counts as spoilers anymore but redesigned Morgan’s dragon since awakening sorta reused nowi/ tiki’s dragon

    Posted: 08 Mar 2020 03:44 PM PDT

    A Clash of Two Virtues

    Posted: 08 Mar 2020 02:42 PM PDT

    I think the Blue Lions and their connection to the world of Fódlan is some of the best writing in the series

    Posted: 08 Mar 2020 11:11 AM PDT

    Hello chaps.

    Spoilers for Three Houses and Radiant Dawn.

    So I know that I'm a bit late and by this point most people here might be sick of Three Houses gushing, but I did want to express my appreciation for this topic in particular.

    Most characters in the Blue Lions are tied together by one defining event, namely the Tragedy of Duscur. It's common for Fire Emblem characters to share a cause and beliefs, but not for many to be defined by one singular event. What is perhaps even more impressive is that the ones affected by the Tragedy, either directly or indirectly, cope with it in different ways. It would have been easy for the writers to treat what happened in Duscur as some kind of wake up call where the characters saw the true horrors of war which left them all with anti-war sentiments, but they do so much more than that.

    • Dimitri almost breaks as a person and wants to make sure the final wishes of those who died don't go unfulfilled

    • Ingrid has her house's future more or less ripped from her and she devotes herself to chivalry despite knowing that it might doom her family

    • Felix rejects the notion of chivalry and grows to become a much more bitter and anti-social person

    • Gilbert flees his country in shame and abandons his family for what he perceives is a major personal failure. This directly impacts Annette whose main motivation for studying so hard is to get into Garreg Mach so that she can search for her father

    • Dedue loses everything and believes that serving Dimitri will realize his desire for a more equal Faerghus

    Really, the only ones who weren't hurt by the Tragedy of Duscur are Ashe, Sylvain, and Mercedes, but the latter two are heavily tied to the wider topic of Fódlan's nobility system and the reliance on Crests, making them active participants in the world in their own way. Perhaps this is why some people find Ashe boring; he's the only one without a clear connection to important events or Fódlan society as a whole, but even he experiences heartbreak during the main story. Tragedy unites everyone in the Blue Lions without the characters coming across as samey.

    It reminds me a lot of the theme of racism in the Tellius games. However, where that game finishes with most of the issues solved and the revelation that the Goddesses did not have anything against the Branded at all (a really poignant moment), there is no real right answer for the Blue Lions. Even at the end, as an example, Felix and Dimitri disagree over how to cope with their loss and what's important to do as someone who has lived though such grief.

    I just really appreciate that they could deliver on such a fascinating and heavy topic as well as they did.

    submitted by /u/Odovakar
    [link] [comments]

    Byleth & Yuri taking a picture

    Posted: 08 Mar 2020 01:40 AM PST

    I've made a 3D render of Ragnell!

    Posted: 08 Mar 2020 08:32 AM PDT

    I drew Zelgius!

    Posted: 08 Mar 2020 02:41 PM PDT

    Balthus, what the fuck, man?

    Posted: 08 Mar 2020 12:22 PM PDT

    This was a good day

    Posted: 08 Mar 2020 11:30 AM PDT

    Making the Most of Manuela: The Mortal Savant Class

    Posted: 08 Mar 2020 01:47 PM PDT

    TL;DR: Contrary to popular belief and what you'd be led to think at a glance, Manuela is not a caster - she's a SPD-based hybrid. The Mortal Savant class leverages her strengths, mitigates her weaknesses, and allows her to keep her utility spells. If you want to use Manuela, and if you're willing to coddle her skill growths and put in some work, it will be worth it - with this class, Manuela can become a genuinely viable member of your party.

    In this essay (lmao), I aim to cover:

    • Why Manuela is not that bad and absolutely warrants a second look ( ͡° ͜Ê– ͡°), and
    • How we can strategically use the Mortal Savant class to help her become kind of good.

    This is going to be way too long, so feel free to only read the bolded parts. I'm just very passionate about our girl. If Manuela can't find love, at least she might be able to find a place in your army 😎

    (I did not come up with this concept - all credit goes to u/Vandelier. I'm just sharing my implementation of their advice.)

    The basics

    Manuela is a fairly unintuitive unit. For context:

    • Personal Ability: Infirmary Master (Adjacent allies gain Crit Avoid +10 during combat)
    • Crest: None
    • Growth Rates: HP 50%, STR 35%, MAG 35%, DEX 40%, SPD 60%, LCK 35%, DEF 30%, RES 25%, CHA 50%
    • Skill Strengths: Sword, Faith, Flying
    • Skill Weaknesses: Reason, Heavy Armor
    • White Magic Spells: Heal (D), Nosferatu (D+), Ward (C), Silence (B), Warp (A)
    • Black Magic Spells: Thunder (D), Bolganone (C), Bolting (A)
    • Unique Combat Arts: Hexblade (Sword deals damage based on MAG stat)
    • Unique Abilities: Battalion Renewal
    • Starting Skill Proficiencies: Sword C+, Faith B, Flying D

    At first glance, she seems destined for the box. The weakness in Reason might lead you to believe that she can't succeed as a Gremory or Mortal Savant. And, indeed, despite some great White Magic utility spells (particularly Silence and Warp), she simply can't be your main healing Gremory without Physic. Her limited Black Magic spell list, weakness in Reason, and inability to wield Thyrsus means that she'll make a mediocre attacking Gremory, and an even worse Dark Knight. While the Holy Knight class seems to fit her Faith skill proficiency the best, the class itself is kind of terrible and she lacks the White Magic attacking spells to make the most of it. The Falcon Knight class will offer her great mobility, but not only will she lose her utility spells, she also won't have access to a magical lance on any route aside from BE. What to do?

    Manuela's strengths

    Here are the real points you should take away from the basic stats above:

    • Her STR and MAG growths are exactly the same (a low 35%)
    • She is tied with a few other units for the highest SPD growth in the game (a busted 60%)
    • She has a surprisingly high HP growth (a very solid 50%)
    • She has an excellent list of White Magic utility spells (including Silence and Warp)
    • With her proficiency in Sword, she can easily wield Levin Swords, and learns Hexblade to boot

    In other words: Manuela will likely be among the fastest units in your entire party with very little effort. Instead of forcing Manuela into a role as a shitty healer or shitty mage, then, we should aim to capitalize upon her gifts. By leveraging her strengths, we can shape Manuela into a super fast mixed attacker who consistently doubles, can take a few hits, and carries some amazing pocket utility spells.

    (That 60% SPD growth is tied for highest with Petra, Ingrid, Leonie, and Jeritza, for the record. I'm not counting Yuri's 65%, much as I love him, because he's paid DLC dammit :T)

    Why Mortal Savant?

    A few reasons.

    • Swordfaire! Swordfaire! Double Swordfaire!!
    • Of the -faire abilities, Swordfaire is the best for improving both physical and magical damage output
    • With her high HP and SPD growths, Manuela can actually hold her own when using Swords in close quarters combat
    • Since it's a magic-wielding class, Manuela can keep her utility spells (Ward, Silence, Warp), as well as improve her Reason skill so she can eventually learn Bolting
    • The class path you take to achieve the Mortal Savant certification will optimize her stat growths, support her skill growths, and allow her to pick up some cool abilities along the way

    Some Mortal Savant basics, for the record:

    • Class Abilities: Swordfaire, Black Tomefaire
    • Stat Boosts: HP +1, STR +1, MAG +2, DEX +1, SPD +1, DEF +2, RES +2
    • Growth Rates: HP +20%, STR +10%, MAG +10%, SPD -10%, LCK +10%, CHA +5%
    • Skill Level Bonus: Sword +3, Reason +3
    • Mastered Art: Warding Blow

    If I'm honest, it's less that Mortal Savant is a truly excellent class, and more that it's the least bad option for her. That said, despite her weakness in Reason, we (through sheer willpower!!!) can make it viable enough. Let's get into it.

    Swordfaire

    As established before, Manuela's STR and MAG growths are exactly the same; as a result, those stats will be approximately equal by the end of the game, and somewhat low at that. Since she is a weaker unit, then, Manuela sorely needs a -faire ability to increase her damage output, and of the -faire abilities, Swordfaire will do the most for her. Here's why:

    • Manuela has a proficiency in Swords, meaning that she will max out her Sword skill quickly - ensuring that she'll unlock the S+ ability Swordfaire (and when stacked with Mortal Savant's class ability, double Swordfaire) well before the end of the game.
    • Of the weapon types, Swords are best suited to mixed attackers. Since Swords are the lightest weapons (excepting gauntlets) and thus suffer a lower Weight penalty, lower-STR hybrid units like Manuela won't take as much of a hit to their Attack Speed. Levin Swords are also significantly lighter than Bolt Axes (9 Wt vs. 15 Wt), are relatively easy to come by and easy to forge, and offer the full 1~3 Range.
    • While Manuela has a low STR growth, it's actually on par with the three canon student archers (and Ingrid lmao). As such, she too can use physical attacks against squishy mages to decent effect. Thus, it makes much more sense for her to go for Swordfaire (instead of one of the Tomefaires) so she can boost damage for both physical and magical attacks.
    • Since she starts with Sword C+, this means that she can use Hexblade and Levin Swords right off the bat. With Hexblade, she can deal magical damage with any Sword (Training Swords! Silver Swords! Wo Daos! Oh my!) even before you get easy access to Arcane Crystals; as such, she's one of the more effective magical Sword users overall. Once you get the Dark Merchant, it's Manuela's time to shine.

    So, to sum up: the Mortal Savant class is the only Master Class that offers her the potential for Double Swordfaire (+10 attack). Conversely, a class like Bishop or Gremory will offer her no -faire at all.

    But let's get to the good part. Remember that amazing SPD growth? As mentioned above, Manuela is likely to end up as one of the fastest units in your party (like, top 5) by the end of the game. In other words, Manuela's Attack Speed is going to be among the highest in the game, and certainly much higher than that of your next fastest magical damage dealer. If Mortal Savant Manuela doubles - which she frequently will thanks to her amazing SPD - that's going to be +20 damage for each time she attacks.

    So, sure - she won't be able to one-shot your enemies in the way that some other units can, and thus she'll have to contend with the counterattack when not using a Levin Sword. But from a damage dealing standpoint: while her STR and MAG stats are low, her ability to consistently attack twice means that she can often match the damage output of her peers. Double Swordfaire simply makes that even more effective.

    Close quarters combat

    As a Sword class, Mortal Savants often have to get up close and personal. And while this would be a problem for your other magical damage dealers, Manuela can actually go in.

    • Her 50% HP growth is peculiarly high - in the top 10 of the cast. It's higher than that of units like Byleth and Felix (45%), for example, and it's on par with Ferdinand, Hilda, Seteth, and Catherine. It follows, then, that her HP will be significantly higher than that of any other magical damage dealer.
    • While her 30% DEF and 25% RES growths might look terrible at first glance, as you can see from the link above it's par for the course lmao. Basically, it's average, but not worse than the norm. By the end of the game, most of your other units are not going to be that much better off.
    • The higher the SPD, the higher the Avo. This means that Manuela's base evasion is actually quite good.
    • Sword Prowess Lv 5 (the highest one) offers Hit +10, Avo +20, and Crit Avo +10 - in other words, Swords offer the highest Avo boost of the weapon prowess abilities (along with Brawling). Thus, using Swords as her primary weapon will be ideal for further increasing her Avo.
    • Of course, as I overemphasized above: her high SPD, and thus Attack Speed, also means she is far less likely to be doubled herself.
    • While she will need to deal with enemy counterattacks more often (since she is less likely to one-shot her enemies), Manuela is decent at dodging/absorbing them.

    So, to clarify: Manuela is not a tank. However, thanks to Manuela's high HP, SPD, and Avo, she can take a few hits of both physical and magical damage, she'll dodge frequently, and she won't get doubled. Consider her a super fast pseudo-mage who can take a hit.

    Magic-wielding class

    This one is pretty self-explanatory, but I'll go over it anyway. Another benefit of Mortal Savant is that it is a magic-wielding class. Since Manuela has some excellent spells that are worth holding on to, this is a big plus. Again, for good measure:

    • White Magic Spells: Heal (D), Nosferatu (D+), Ward (C), Silence (B), Warp (A)
    • Black Magic Spells: Thunder (D), Bolganone (C), Bolting (A)

    As you can see:

    • She's one of only a handful of units that learns a full gamut of White Magic spells; in fact, that might have been what led you to believe she would perform best as a caster in the first place. Silence and Warp, after all, are among the best White Magic spells in the game for obvious reasons. Ward can be useful in some very niche situations, especially on harder difficulties. And, of course, an extra healer never hurts.
    • As for Black Magic - even though she has a weakness in Reason, her spells aren't completely terrible. It's important to emphasize that Bolting is an incredibly useful pocket spell. With its massive Range (3~10), not only can she deal remote damage in dire situations, it's also extremely helpful for support bonuses, linked attacks, and gambit boosts. Although Manuela is not likely to unlock Bolting until near the end of the game, if you're training her to become a Mortal Savant she is far more likely to get there. It isn't necessary for Manuela to succeed, but it's very nice to have.
    • By the way, while Thunder and Bolganone are somewhat mediocre, Mortal Savant's Black Tomefaire means she can still dish out a solid amount of damage. Thunder (Wt 4) and Bolagnone (Wt 6) are both lighter than Levin Swords (Wt 9), which can help a lot when she faces the occasional enemy with a higher AS.
    • While Trickster is another magic-wielding Sword class that Manuela can excel in, it actually has fewer Magic Uses for both White Magic and Black Magic spells. In other words, she'll go from 8 uses of Thunder to 4, 5 Bolagnone to 3, 2 Bolting to 1, 10 Heal to 5, 12 Nosferatu to 6, 5 Ward to 3, and 3 Silence to 2. While she won't primarily act as a caster, she'll still strongly feel the loss of those Magic Uses - especially since it's an even further cry away from what she'd have as a Gremory.

    All of her spells can come in super clutch, which is why it's even more important for Manuela to go for the magic-wielding Mortal Savant class. (As opposed to, say, Swordmaster or Falcon Knight.) It's that spell list - of Silence, Warp, and Bolting - that truly sets her apart from other mixed attackers.

    Class path strategy

    This is going to get its own section, since it's a big one. As mentioned above, the class path to achieve the Mortal Savant certification allows her to pick up good stat growths, skill growths, and abilities.

    Before I really get into it, I'd like to mention again: Manuela is meant to be a SPD-based mixed attacker, not a caster. As such, we're aiming to maximize her potential as an attacking unit first - meaning that her spells are going to be put on the backburner until she can emerge in her full Mortal Savant glory.

    Now, to set the stage: Manuela joins your army as a Lv 15 Priest with Sword C+, Faith B, and Flying D skill levels, and with Goals in Sword & Faith. It's a far cry from the final goal of Mortal Savant. Thus, on the way there, we have to be strategic with how we increase her stats, skills, and abilities. Here's what that could look like.

    In short: Priest -> Thief -> Swordmaster -> (Mage?) -> Mortal Savant

    In long:

    • As soon as you get her, I'd reclass Manuela to Thief. As a Thief, she'll get a +10% SPD growth rate (bumping up the effective growth to 70%), a +20% HP growth rate (again, to 70%), and a +2 Sword skill bonus, allowing Manuela to start off on the right foot in maximizing her SPD potential and Sword skill. She'll also be able to unlock Steal once she masters this class, which she can use to great effect with her high SPD. As you can see, we'll be using her as a weak Sword user for a while.
    • Once Manuela reaches Lv 20, I'd reclass her to Swordmaster immediately to capitalize on its +25% HP, +10% STR, and +20% SPD growth rates and +3 Sword skill bonus. The idea, again, is to maximize her capacity as an attacker and to reach double Swordfaire as soon as possible. Swordmaster is also a solid temporary class for her since it has Swordfaire as a class ability, which will help Manuela's damage output in the meanwhile.
    • While Manuela is in the Thief/Swordmaster classes, I'd change her Goals to Faith & Reason. She can't use Magic in either of these classes, so it's imperative that you build up those skills outside of battle. Since she starts with Faith B, you'll easily be able to get her Faith to A by the time she's Lv 30.
    • If you absolutely need to make use of her Silence and Warp spells, it's very easy to temporarily reclass her to Priest or Bishop for a few battles.
    • You can skip this, but in case you're a spicy one: once you manage to Sauna/Instruct your way to Reason D or D+, I'd strongly, strongly consider temporarily reclassing her to Mage for Fiendish Blow (MAG +6 when initiating an attack). If you do, try to master the class as quickly as possible with the Knowledge Gem since the growths for Mage are not as optimal. The class does at least offer a +2 Reason and +1 Faith skill bonus, so you can also use the Knowledge Gem to further increase those skill levels. If you don't want to bother with all that, see if you can swipe Fiendish Blow from an Online Adjutant lol.
    • Throughout all of this, keep in mind that the goal is to pass the Mortal Savant certification exam (which requires Sword A and Reason B+). Since we're going through the Thief and Swordmaster classes, it should be easy to reach Sword A; thus, she'll only need a low D+ or C in Reason to attempt the Mortal Savant exam, which is easily attainable by Lv 30 even with her Reason deficiency (especially if you're making effective use of Sauna and Instruction). So, it's worth leveling her Reason just enough to get that 30% chance at passing the certification. (Not sure about the exact threshold for passing the cert - if anyone has the numbers, please let me know.)

    If Manuela follows the Thief -> Swordmaster -> Mage class path and increases Faith & Reason through Instruction, she'll be in good shape. When she finally hits Mortal Savant, her SPD should be godly, her STR should be reasonable, she can attack with her MAG through Hexblade and Levin Swords, she'll have Faith A and thus access to all her utility spells, she'll have Steal and Fiendish Blow, and she'll be well on her way to double Swordfaire.

    Once she achieves the Mortal Savant class, I'd continue to build up her Reason until she gets to level A. Bolting is just icing on the sweet sweet character-building cake.

    • (By the way, Manuela starts with Flying D. Soooooooo if you're crazy stupid like me, you could take a huge detour, spend way too much time to Rusted Lance your way up to Lance skill level D, pass the cert for Pegasus Knight, then switch back to Swords while you master the class…all to get Darting Blow (AS +6 when you initiate an attack). I'm just saying. Might as well make her SPD as busted as you can, right??? Please don't actually do this unless you like to grind though lmao - Darting Blow is really good, but it's honestly not necessary for Manuela to succeed.)

    What are the cons of the Mortal Savant class?

    All right, I've spent enough time hyping this up. Let's cover the downsides of the Mortal Savant class for Manuela.

    • The outfit lmao. It looks straight up ridiculous on her. I'm serious, it's got some big Granny Samurai vibes. You should just embrace it tbh, but if you want to you can at least change her outfit back.
    • While the class path to Mortal Savant supports her SPD growth, the Mortal Savant class itself does not as it has a -10% SPD growth. That, of course, hampers her one exceptional talent. This is the main reason why you should go through the Thief and Swordmaster classes first, in order to help her secure good SPD stat growths before eventually ending up in the Master Class.
    • The Mortal Savant class does not offer a great SPD stat boost (a mere +1). For comparison's sake, Falcon Knight and Assassin have a class modifier of +5, and Wyvern Lord and Swordmaster are both +4. Thus, while her base SPD is still going to be very high and on par with units like Petra and Ingrid, the effective SPD/Attack Speed will be lower due to the class modifier.
    • Manuela will be using Levin Swords as her primary weapon, but with a Weight of 9 they're a bit heavy. (Compared to, say, Fire's Wt 3 and Miasma's Wt 5.) While she'll still be incredibly fast, her lower STR means that she won't be able to offset the Weight by as much. That said, she can still use Training Swords (Wt 4), Iron Swords (Wt 5), Thunder (Wt 4), and Bolagnone (Wt 6) with ease, and she'll still double more frequently than not.
    • Lack of Magic Uses x 2. While I think this is not nearly as useful to Manuela as double Swordfaire will be, it's worth mentioning. The more uses of Silence and Warp, the better after all.
    • It is truly, truly a slog to get her Reason up (especially without the Sauna). Thankfully, it's not too hard for her to pass the certification exam with a low Reason skill, but it does mean that it will take a while for her to get Bolting.

    Manuela's secret weapon: The Power of Friendship

    Cool thing I'd like to mention. If you're determined to use Manuela, here's a surprise perk.

    Support bonuses, linked attacks, and gambit boosts are extremely valuable in Three Houses and comprise a good portion of FE strategy (e.g. which supports to prioritize, how to position units, optimal adjutants, etc.). And while all support bonuses increase Hit and Avo, a precious, precious few also increase Might. Check it out here.

    As you can see from the above, Manuela has one of the best support bonuses in the game. This is because she gets a Might boost with Dorothea. The opera lovelies unite!!

    Basically - if you have Dorothea as your Dancer, your Manuela will be even better off. For many reasons that have probably been discussed elsewhere, Dorothea is far, far and away the optimal/canon Dancer. Thus, the Might bonuses that Manuela receives from Dorothea are further amplified because:

    • You're likely to bring your Dancer into every battle ("wHy tHAnK yOU sO MUCh")
    • As Dancer, Dorothea should have Meteor equipped at nearly all times (and regardless, it's easy to equip at the start of a turn) - meaning that, more often than not, she will end up offering support bonuses for linked attacks and gambit boosts to anyone in her 3~10 attack range
    • Since Dorothea and Manuela's support is one of the few that also offers a Might bonus, this means that Manuela can get a +3 Might boost whenever she attacks an enemy within Dorothea's massive Range
    • Manuela will also get a nice Avo boost from Dorothea whenever she's in range, which further helps her durability.

    Free damage 👌

    If you've built up her Reason, Manuela herself can easily equip Bolting at the start of a turn and offer support bonuses for gambit boosts and linked attacks to units within her Range (3~10), too. She truly is a great friend and professor to all. T_T

    Example Manuela build

    Here's an example of a cool endgame Lv 42 Mortal Savant Manuela.

    • Class Abilities: Swordfaire, Black Tomefaire
    • Equipped Abilities: Swordfaire, Sword Prowess Lv 5, Fiendish Blow, Darting Blow, Sword Crit +10
    • Combat Arts: Draw Back, Hexblade, Wrath Strike
    • Learned Magic: Thunder, Bolagnone, Bolting, Heal, Nosferatu, Ward, Silence, Warp
    • Base Stats (BEFORE class modifiers, items, Battalion boosts, etc.): HP 54, STR 27, MAG 24, DEX 22, SPD 37, LCK 22, DEF 19, RES 20, CHA 34

    (Of course, you could swap out any of those abilities for Steal, Reason Prowess Lv 5, Magic +2, Axebreaker, Renewal/Battalion Renewal, or whatever else.)

    As you can see, compared to her peers Manuela will end up with good HP, passable STR and MAG, excellent SPD, and excellent CHA. By pursuing the Mortal Savant path, an endgame Manuela will pick up Swordfaire + Swordfaire + Fiendish Blow, so she'll get an extra +10/16 damage per attack and +20/32 when she doubles.

    When you factor in additional Might boosts from Dorothea, a Magic Staff, Sacred Power, a solid Battalion (Edmund Troops/Gloucester Knights/Nuvelle Stewards) etc., her high SPD really allows her to consistently pump up the damage.

    So does this mean she's actually top tier?

    Long story short: No.

    Long story long: No, unfortunately. If you're trying to build the most optimal team, she won't make the final cut.

    That said, the question we're trying to answer here is not "Who's the best character in the game?", but rather "How do we make Manuela actually good?" We're just trying to do the best we can with our resident Divine Songstress professor, okay? Truly skilled Trainers should try to win with the Pokémon they love best after all.

    In my case, I was determined to complete a Church of Seiros run (i.e., use all 8 Church of Seiros units in every mission) for my Silver Snow playthrough, and I was so confused as to what to do with Manuela. She's the only one who doesn't have an obvious place in the army, and seems to just take up the space that a better healer would occupy. I honestly had pretty low hopes going in. By making the most of her actual talents with the Mortal Savant class, she'll exceed your (low) expectations.

    Anyways, I'll still go over some of her faults:

    • As you can tell from all the effort that goes into planning her class path, it takes a while for Manuela to git gud. While you can absolutely get her there, she is not great off the shelf. Working with Manuela requires a lot of patience, let's just say.
    • RNG will always play a role. If you follow the class path I described above, you will (hopefully) increase your chances of getting great SPD growths and usable STR and MAG. That said, there is always a chance that she could end up RNG-screwed. Pick a god and pray.
    • Since enemies in Maddening have unfairly high Attack Speeds, a SPD-based unit like Manuela kind of suffers. In VW's final map, only ~8% of all enemies in Hard difficulty will have an AS of 37 or more; in Maddening, it's ~47%. The highest AS you'll encounter on Hard difficulty is 42; in Maddening, there are 14 enemies with 42+ and three enemy Assassins with an AS of 57. It's going to be difficult for many in your army to even keep up, let alone attack twice. So while Manuela will still be your fastest magic damage dealer by a long mile, and might actually dish out more damage when she successfully doubles, she won't be able to do so with as much consistency. Not only that, she'll have to contend with the enemy's counterattack. In Maddening, you really need to prioritize one-hit 🅱️ig damage, mobility, Range, and Crit chance - and in those areas, she unfortunately doesn't measure up. Conversely, while she won't be as consistent, she'll still be a lot better than your other units at doubling.
    • Her competitors in the Sword-wielding mixed attacker space are Felix and Byleth - very stiff competition. After reading all this, you might be wondering: why not just use them instead? To which I say: shhhh. Manuela has Dorothea, Bolting, and Warp, and that's all we need, okay?! But yeah, it's true - as a mixed attacking unit, at least, Felix outclasses Manuela in almost every way. (In short, his Major Crest is absolutely amazing, he too can easily get double Swordfaire, his actual strength in Reason means that he'll have an easier time reclassing and getting Fiendish Blow if he wants, his greater STR means greater physical damage output, his MAG is slightly lower but not by too much, while Manuela will have a higher SPD stat Felix's higher STR stat means he suffers a lower Weight penalty anyways, his Black Magic spell list is worse but it's not like Manuela has the best spells, Aegis Shield is busted, etc.) You're forced to use Byleth in every mission, who is slower but obviously quite competent in their own right. While Manuela will be a faster, wider Range, and slightly higher RES hybrid with a significantly better spell list, it's unlikely that you'll want three Sword-wielding units in your final party.

    All that said: while she may not be the cream of the crop, with careful planning and effort she will eventually pull her weight.

    In conclusion

    Manuela is a unique unit with a unique build, and so she can occupy a unique niche. With Mortal Savant, we can shape Manuela into a SPD-based mixed attacker who consistently doubles, doesn't get doubled, can take a few hits, deals a reasonable amount of damage, and wields some super sick pocket spells. It'll take time, effort, and whole lotta patience, but those who wish to use Manuela can be creative in helping her find her way.

    Thank you for coming to my overly long TED Talk. And thanks to u/Vandelier for inspiring me to look at characters a little differently, and to truly make the most of their talents. Go forth and prosper.

    submitted by /u/hyo_hyo
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    This just happend to me. Thank god there is BITES ZA DUSTO. I swear the chances are fake af on higher difficulties

    Posted: 08 Mar 2020 02:57 PM PDT

    >!spoiler My brother finds out who the flame emperor is!<

    Posted: 08 Mar 2020 01:21 AM PST

    Answering a Nintendo survey on Fire Emblem Three Houses, I'm surprised there is no option to say that I first heard about the game on a Nintendo Direct. ��?

    Posted: 08 Mar 2020 08:53 AM PDT

    I beat Berwick Saga. Final team and thoughts. Also AMA

    Posted: 08 Mar 2020 01:25 PM PDT

    So, with the amazing translation by u/matt_aegrin finished, I finally beat Berwick Saga, which I've been playing in 1-2 chapter pieces, when the translation was in progress. And I can say with certainty that it was an amazing experience, which honestly eclipsed all other FEs (and frankly SRPGs in general) for me. This game is unlike anything else on the SRPG plain and it saddens me to no end that there will probably never be a game like this, at least in my lifetime.

    Okay, that's a bit overdramatic, but seriously, at least in terms of gameplay, this is one of my favourite games period. The mechanics of Berwick are great and work so well, that I'm baffled how the developers managed to think of and competently implement so much unique stuff on their first try. Of course, there're also some... questionable decisions, but compared to the whole picture my problems with Berwick are very minor.

    I played the game half-blind, if you can call it that. I only looked up recruitment and promotion requirements, plus food info.

    My final team.

    So, my kinda-sorta-not-really review.

    Story

    The story of Berwick Saga is pretty decent medieval fantasy political drama. It's not anything groundbreaking, however it's rather well written. The game focuses its main plot on the political intrigues both inside and outside the Berwick League, a totally equal military alliance, led by the Kingdom of Veria... which has been conquered and its king is now in exile in one of its duchies, Narvia. The protagonist, Reese, is the son of a margrave under the Kingdom, who comes to the capital of Narvia, Navaron to answer the king's call for more troops. And then Reese is stuck in a losing war, where the situation is getting more and more dire with each passing month. To give you an idea of how dire, on about half of the main missions, the final objective is either defend or escape. Overall, I found the main narrative rather satisfying and I like that it overall down-to-earth.

    The game also focuses really heavily on the effects the war has on everything. How it destroys lives, separates families, embitters people, affects trade and supply chains for the production of everything from food to weapons. There are a lot of side quests and missions where you have to actually try to at least alleviate some of these effects for the people of Navarron. The fact that the game actually has you take care of these problems actually makes them more than just background noise imo and adds a lot to the worldbuilding of the game.

    Speaking of worldbuilding, if you've beaten the game, I recommend that you visit Matt's tumblr with some translated and organised info from Kaga's blog. Plenty of interesting backstory info, but there are definitely spoilers there.

    Characters

    I actually like pretty much all the characters. All of them get some development and/or rather interesting backstories. Most of them have arcs that are actually tied to gameplay: some of them give side objectives on the main maps and some give access to side missions (paralouges basically). And guess what, some characters actually appear in the main story cutscenes, despite the fact that permadeath is in full effect in Berwick.

    I genuinely adore the fact that characters go through their arcs in parallel with the progression of the main story through events in the city and on the maps themselves. I think this is far superior compared to the support system that FE seemingly can't try to even take a step from since FE10 and 11. Town events/Base convos >>> supports, fukken fight me.

    I'd say my favourite characters were Ward, Larentia, Enid, Ruby along with Clifford, Christine, Dean and Axel. Also, can't not acknowledged 150, he's pretty badass, even if he's kinda useless.

    Soundtrack

    It's amazing. Go listen to it. My favourites probably are: Cloud of War, Prelude to Battle, For Whose Sake, Crusade, Resolution, Knight's Pride, With Noble Eyes, After the Rain, Determination, Ancient Oath, Daybreak, On the Other Side of the Road.

    Gameplay

    Okay, so this is probably going to end up pretty long.

    Battle flow

    I love the battle flow. Don't know if there's a better or more wildly used name for it, but in a typical FE it goes as such:

    [Attack-->Counterattack-->Pursuit Attack]

    Where pursuit is the double attack performed by any unit with enough speed to double an enemy.

    In Berwick Saga, however this system is completely different. If your unit hit an enemy and they don't have any additional attack granted by a weapon or a skill, they don't get to counterattack at all. If, however, the unit misses or deals no damage to an enemy, they get a counterattack. If the enemy misses or deals no damage on counterattack, your unit get another chance at hitting them, then whatever additional attacks happen and then the round of combat ends.

    What this means is that you can't simply place a really bulky unit in front of 4 enemies who deal 1-2 damage to that unit and simply kill them all. Also, weapons with additional attacks are rare and rather expensive, so, for the most part, units can't simply ORKO enemies when they reach a certain threshold. As such, ORKO and OHKO command skills/capabilities give certain characters really valuable niches, even if those characters aren't bulky. This system strongly incentivizes the player to take the initiative, because otherwise they would be at a constant disadvantage.

    Simultaneous turn system

    The battle flow synergizes incredibly well with the turn system, that I think is completely unique to Berwick Saga. Player units, enemy units and ally units all act based on the number of units on the map. So, if the player has 10 units and the enemy has 30, you are able to move 1 unit, after which 3 enemies move, than you move another unit, etc. This changes... basically everything. This system feels great, it opens up opportunities and strategies that would be completely insane in any FE, like placing a thief that can be OHKO'ed by a ballista in its range to open a vital door. You can delay using your thief until ballista has finished its turn, go into its range, open the door, and then immediately move the thief outside the deadly range. On the other hand, something that would be completely safe in a normal turn system can be rather dangerous in Berwick. For example, killing a strong enemy unit in the very begging of a turn, while placing you unit in range of many enemies can be completely safe, since you'll be taking care of those enemies on the player phase anyway. Not so in this game. Honestly, I'm not nearly smart enough to articulate why exactly I like this system so much, but it just... clicks with me.

    Units, Skills and Classes

    Okay, so this going to be incredibly biased, but I personally have come to dislike how FE in general handles all three of the above. Why? Because despite the fact that we are in an era of Skill Emblem, there's barely any difference between units in the same classes besides stats. Since I'm one of those weird people who doesn't enjoy reclassing, the fact that all characters in the same class have the same skills, really detracts from my enjoyment of the games. And no, personal skills are just a fart in the ocean, especially considering that, for the most part, they don't make an enormous difference in how I might use two units, nor do they really grants some rather useful niche that is exclusive to that particular unit.

    So, how does Berwick Saga handle these three elements? The classes determine what equipment a unit can use and whether it can use a horse. So, if you look at 2 mounted units the only actual difference between them is stats... But only at a first glance. If we take a look at Leon and Adel, the first 2 units we get in the same class in the very first chapter:

    Name Class Lvl HP Str Def Spd Skills
    Leon Spear Knight 1 28 6 4 7 Deathmatch, Robust, Supporter
    Adel Spear Knight 1 29 4 3 8 Vantage, Throw, Fork, Supporter

    So, if we only compared their stats, there wouldn't be that much of a difference between these 2, Leon is just a bit bulkier and deals higher damage. However, the skills they posses put them in completely different niches in Berwick.

    From the very first chapter Leon is able to ORKO some enemies thanks to his deathmatch skill, which is a command skill that you have to use on your turn and it triggers 5 rounds of combat that are much more akin to the usual FE battle flow with guaranteed counterattacks and doubling if any of the units has higher Attack Speed. Of course, 5 rounds of combat can be extremely dangerous against stronger enemies, so this skill is not even close to a delete button against anything.

    Adel, on the other hand, has the unique (or at least innate) access to Vantage, which is a passive skill more akin to the Tracia version of the skill, except it also requires Adel's AS to be higher than the enemy's. But remember, in a normal round of combat in Berwick, if your unit damages an enemy, that enemy can't counterattack at all and that means the end of their turn. So, Adel has a niche completely different from that of Leon's, which is to aggro slow enemies that he can damage, weakening the enemy and also completely robbing them of their turn. And again, Vantage isn't a magic pill to trivialise all the enemies in the game, since enemies will often have higher AS than Adel or defence that he can't get through (Not to mention his spear growth is so low he'll have trouble hitting anything when he's outside of Leon's support range).

    And trust me when I say that practically all units have their own, actually useful niches, be it combat, or pure utility, while also not being gamebreaking. Berwick makes units feel like actual unique characters even in terms of gameplay. This is the kind of stuff I just love to see in an SRPG.

    Horses and the Flier

    I won't go too deep into this, but horses are equipment with their own HP in Berwick. The damage they take is equal to the damage the mounted unit takes. And while most horses have more than 100 HP, they do not heal naturally. The only way to heal your horses are either buying a specific dish in Navaron, or by giving a damaged horse to Christine who is the only unit in the game with a skill that allows her to heal 20 HP to a horse at the end of a chapter (note: most chapters are 3 maps in length).

    This makes horses a really valuable and limited resource that give +3 movement, Canto or even bonuses to some other stats (Speed, Defence, +1 mov on top of the +3), but you can't put mounted units in constant danger, since even if you heal the unit themselves, the damage will only accumulate for the horses and eventually you'll have to replace them. And the really good horses cost a lot. This adds a really interesting layer to the usual differences between mounts and infantry, since it's not the usual high move good, low move bad situation. You have to make meaningful decisions on when to mount/dismount and how much danger you're willing to put a mounted unit in.

    To add another layer onto this some units have access to lances. And, yes, in Berwick there is a difference between lances and spears. Lances can only be used while mounted, cannot be countered and they have an enormous bonus to damage, dependant on how many hexes a unit moved. There is a lance that has 1 might, but gives +5 damage/hex. This can translate into insane damage, as high as almost 60 per hit (at least on a certain unit). The downside is that units equipped with lances cannot counterattack at all and weigh at least 15, which translates into basically 0 AS and no avoid. So while it's an incredible OHKO tool, it's not a panacea.

    While I'm talking about mounted units, I might as well mention Larentia, who is your only flier for the entire game. She's a really interesting unit, who, while not being incredible in combat, provides enormous utility throughout basically the entire game. She can move above enemies (works like Pass) and enemies cannot end their turn on her hex. She cannot be attacked by enemies at all at range 0, which makes melee only units a complete non-threat to her. This means that she can reliable be used to choke some vital points, despite the fact that she has rather mediocre bulk. She was essential to me on the maps, where enemies have to escape through their own escape point.

    And, she ignores terrain, naturally. She's pretty good against pesky enemy mages who are out of reach to most units. She has Windsweep, which can only be used instead of moving and prevents any kind of counterattack an enemy she attacks could've made otherwise. She has Mercy which can help with crippling and capturing enemies. And one of the best skills she has imo is Watchful, which allows her to reveal any hidden enemies within three hexes, which can normally only be done by standing right next to an enemy. Overall Larentia has some limited combat and amazing support utility. How someone can come up with all this amazing stuff, I don't know. But I love it.

    Bows and Crossbows

    Bows and crossbows work basically like they do in FE10: crossbows have higher might than bows, but ignore strength in damage calculation. Bows have 1-2 range, meaning archers can attack from 2 hexes away or an adjacent hex, but still cannot counterattack in melee. Crossbows have 0-1 range, so a crossbow user can counterattack in melee, but cannot do so from 2 hexes away. One other thing that Berwick Saga adds to the equation is arrows. There is a large variety of them: some have higher might, some give additional accuracy, some deal magical damage, and one type even ignores shields. Arrows make bows one of the heaviest damage dealing weapon types in the game. This, in addition to the fact that juggernauting on enemy phase is impossible for the most part, makes bows a weapon type that is on par, if not even better than them, without giving them 4-5 range or close counter.

    Stats, growths and weapon skills

    If Adel's and Leon's base stats made you think: "Wow, those are low", you would be right. Stats and growths in Berwick Saga are really low, especially compared to modern FE. It seems inflation hasn't hit the continent of Lazberia at all. Lucky bastards smh. What separates this game from Kaga's other ones is the bracketing system, which basically sets a lower and an upper cap on a unit's stat, depending on their averages at a certain level. Brackets differ depending on units and two units don't have brackets at all, but that can only affect one unit. So, for example, if a unit's current stat is 11, they level up and their average for that level is 13.2 and their bracketing for that stat is +/-1, they are guaranteed to level up this particular stat, no matter what the RNG decides. This also means, that this stat could not be above 14 at the same level.

    This seems like kind of a compromise between the usual complete randomness of level ups and FE9's fixed level ups. I quite like this system and it basically guarantees that you'll always have reliable units, who have +/-1 brackets, such as Dean, Arthur and Volo. Brackets also guarantee that a unit will never have extremely high stats, beyond what you would expect at a certain level, which, I think, also helps in balancing enemies, not making them complete pushovers, nor complete buckets of overinflated bullshit that are overcompensating for the developers' desire to allow players to see 4-5 numbers go up with satisfying tings.

    Weapon skills are really interesting. Unlike basically any FE, there is no generic skill stat that adds hit to any weapon a unit uses. Instead all weapon types have individual skill values that go up as that type of weapon or shield is used (and on level ups). This means that you can have a unit who is really accurate with swords, but cannot for the life of him hit anything with a spear. Or a unit who can block pretty reliably with a small shield, but has trouble with reliably hitting enemies. Honestly, once I got used to this system, I actually started to quite like it. My main issue with it, are not the skills themselves but the really steep requirements of them for promotion of certain characters, combined with their stupidly slow gain of those skills. Looking at you, Adel, Aegina, Elbert

    Mercenaries

    Unlike in most other SRPGs (and RPGs in general), mercenaries in Berwick aren't just faceless fodder you hire inbetween missions to replace the ones you've lost. Every mercenary is a unique character with their own arcs. Some of the most powerful units you'll get in the game are also mercenaries. So, what's the deal with them?

    You have to rehire all mercenaries each chapter and, of course, they don't come for free. Some characters cost a lot to hire from the very beginning, others become more expensive as you level them up. As such, you'll always spend a good amount of money on mercenaries and hiring the good ones can really add up in the long term. Fortunately, most of them will permanently join your army as you use them on maps and level them up. I think this is a really interesting way of handling recruitment and a good way of giving the player access to some really powerful units early on, without trivialising the game, or making other units useless (although imo nobody is completely useless... except 1 guy).

    An issue I have is that I have no idea how successful I would've been at recruiting anyone without knowing the requirements. So, while I think this is a really good system, I wish the game was a bit more transparent about how to recruit particular units. Because I would've never guessed that you need to kill 60 people with Dean. While I think it's a pretty good example of gameplay-story integration, I read, how some person got this unit to promotion, but never manged to recruit him.

    Maps

    You could discuss Berwick's map design for day, probably. I'm gonna be honest and say that I'm bad at map analysis, but I'll try to describe what stood out to me.

    I really like the fact that many main maps have hard turn limits (usually 24). This makes turtling practically impossible, and the maps really know how to put more and more pressure onto you as they progress. The game isn't afraid of throwing tons of strong enemies at you to make you hurry. Many maps feel extremely intense and have you make meaningful actions/decisions almost every single turn. I like the variety of main objectives: seize, escape, defend and, surprisingly, I think escort/evacuate missions are really good.

    The main maps also have a large amount of side objectives, be it citizen requests from Navaron, special character events, chests, special hexes that can be searched with a thief or a pirate, etc. Completing most of these gives pretty good rewards, so while ignoring them is possible, I wouldn't want to do that, so I think side objectives do their job of making the maps even more interesting rather well.

    Side maps are more of a breather between the main ones, since most of them aren't as intensive. Though that doesn't mean that they're easy. They're mostly well designed as well imo, some better than others, but I honestly can't remember any maps that I actively disliked or found really boring, but I'm sure I would probably find some once I replay the game.

    What I think the game does really well, no matter the map is the differentiation of terrain and movement types, which gives further utility to both the mounted units and the infantry. Cliffs in particular are one of the reasons mounts don't dominate the entire game. They can be a really big game changer, since horses can't scale them at all, while light infantry is twice as fast on them as dismounted units. This can make you divide the team, which I think SRPGs should do more in general.

    Some miscellaneous thoughts and complaints

    I also have to say that Berwick is peak RNG shenanigans. The game is definitely designed around the fact that things may go either horribly wrong or terrifically right for you, and as such gives saves every 5 turns. I actually found myself rather enjoying the fact that RNGog is a fickle deity, because the game is never outright unfair, it gives you tons of tools to improve the odds in your favour. Sometimes you may get completely and utterly screwed, but I found that it can also be rather hilarious, instead of frustrating.

    So, specifically what I'm talking about is rather low hitrates in the earlygame. Some people might find this frustrating, but enemies almost always have even lower hitrates, and you are almost always given sufficient tools to make a comeback from a bit of bad luck. You have Reese's Commander skill that gives +10 hit to every ally in 3 hexes, access to rather cheap, durable and accurate swords and lances in Navaron, you immediately get two units who have really good hitrates because of their Supportive skill. And as the game progresses, and the enemies get higher hitrates, you are given access to more and more really strong units, weapons, shields, magic and items to help take on the rather steep challenge.

    The two aspects of screwy RNG I'm rather conflicted about are the fact that weapons can just break randomly once they reach less than 61% in durability, and the injury/cripple system also being very random. I honestly can't say that I like either of these, because a strong weapon or unit that you were going to rely on being completely taken out of combat based on stupid chance is rather... disheartening. And while weapons breaking is more or less easy to adapt to, cripple, especially before you get a certain unit to promotion, is rather messy and just expensive to deal with in the early game, since the items to cure the condition are almost as expensive as the most powerful weapons.

    Additionally, capturing some enemies is essential if you want to get all the money from bounties and collector's items. And to capture an enemy unit you need to cripple them, which is incredibly annoying, because you basically have to simply rig it, even if you're using all the right skills/weapons/characters. You can definitely beat the game without those rewards, but money is always useful for any kind of player, and in the case of a ranked run you need that money, because furniture is stupidly expensive. And capture relying very heavily on RNG is one of the reasons I don't really see myself doing a ranked run ever, even though I love this game.

    Of course, all this works both ways, since the enemies can get crippled from single lucky hit or break their weapons and/or shields and become complete non-threats, just because they got screwed. But, you know selective memory and all that jazz.

    All that said, I still had some positive experience with my units being crippled this sounds really wrong. For example on one of the escape maps I had Dean crippled on turn 19. Everything before that turn went perfectly, so I didn't want to reload the save and simply went with the flow. It definitely made the end of that map much more intense, which I think the developers wanted to achieve with this system... It can also, ironically, save a unit that would otherwise die, since if that unit is captured instead, you can ransom them back from the enemy for some denarii, instead of finding a new grave upon your return to Navaron.

    For the most part, I think that the interface is pretty well organised and works surprisingly well for a console game dealing with hexes. The only complaint I have is that working with bags and organising items can be a bit of a drag, but it didn't frustrate me or anything.

    Berwick also has problems with transparency in 2 particularly annoying cases: food and furniture. To figure out whether I want to feed a unit a certain dish, I have to scroll through a huge list, figure out what's on the menu in this chapter and what effects a dish'll have on a particular unit. It's just a huge waste of time imo, and not telling the player this info, when they're just capable of savescamming and figuring this shit out without a guide, is just stupid. Furniture... it costs a shit ton, yet I have literally no clue of what it's going to actually give me? Why? Like, okay, treasure chest is easy to figure out, it gives you money randomly every chapter. But how tf am I supposed to know that the Porcelain Vase gives +1 happiness to female mercenaries, instead of +0.5. It can actually be pretty useful, to make recruitment somewhat faster, but if I were playing the game completely blind I would think that I wasted my money on completely useless garbage.

    The End

    Okay, yeah, this turned out to be waaaaay to long and probably no one will read this disorganised mess of thoughts, but yeah.

    I'm genuinely glad that I got to experience this game. This is probably the most fun I've had with an SRPG and I think that's definitely going to be the case for a long time.

    I love Berwick Saga... I love Kaga. The power you give me I will lay down when I train Derrick to level 30.

    TL;DR Give Berwick Saga a try. You're not guaranteed to like it, it's a pretty niche game. But there's so much incredible stuff packed into it, it's very complex and engaging, gives a lot of freedom in terms of whom you can use to beat the game just look at whom I got level 30, and the difficulty feels just right to me. I can't recommend Berwick enough.

    submitted by /u/Just_42
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