Now we look at failure stories. Next time I should review a god FE character and a shitter Hyrule Warrior character.Â
Ah Walolace. He basically showed off how awesome a promoted character is and in normal Lyn mode, he basically laughed at enemies for all of two chapters. Then he disapoofs for like 20 chapters and now he is one of the worst characters in the game. As in he is in danger of dying to pretty much everything. He just comes back way too late with unsalvageable stats.Â
This is the best case scenario, but we’re not using LNM, but LHM. He is just pretty bland as a knight and is pretty much like Oswin minus the 7 luck Wallace has on him. His utility however is not using the Knight Crest and instead giving it to someone like Kent or Sain. In fact he is one of the few units where killing him off makes him better. Granted he still shows up shit, but it’s a funny thought nonetheless.Â
Wallace is just bad. At least Oswin tanks and does damage while also being in part of the game where low MOV isn’t bad. Wallace is just thrown to the wolves with nothing going for him. He can’t even double FFS and all it takes is some mage with 9 SPD to roast Wallace alive.Â
Zant is probably one of this games biggest success stories. Back in the Wii U version when it first came out, Zant was far and wide one of the worst characters. Extremely unsafe moves, crap DPS, and just generally being game hostile, Zant was basically put into his own tier of suckage. Then came patch 1.5 and suddenly Zant became very viable. As the years have gone on, a lot of people have discovered new tech and now the usurper himself is close to reaching S tier. Amazing.Â
Why is he that good? Well a number of factors play into that. First of all most of Zant’s moveset no longer locks you into place and you can actually dodge cancel to avoid getting BTFO by mobs. Then they decided to give Zant actual damage, especially in his spin-to-win move. It’s not the best damage dealing move, but it actual registers as damage. It also helps it vacuums up enemies, fills up your special bar extremely fast, and you can end it with a special move. Ya his special is kinda mediocre but meh. His C2 you can use as a launcher if you dodge cancel and can lead into moves like C4/5. C3 is a nice way to do damage and be invulnerable. C4/5 are you gonna be your general end combos and his stomp move is really great and even has a nice finisher. His C6 is still awesome and one of the few moves that was always awesome, even when Zant was shit tier. It’s basically mook annihilation and the fact damage requirements are extremely lax, you can just spam it for the whole map with reckless aggression. His boss handling skills on the other hand? It’s actually great...if you can do it properly. His other C1 move is firing dark orbs. It does have a sweet spot and IIRC hits the WPG on every boss. Otherwise he’s only really getting Gohma and shitter bosses like Dodongo and Phantom Ganon without a special. The only weakness I can find is Zant’s rage mechanic, which gates a lot of his potential damage.Â
Zant is just awesome. Have a dark weapon on top of his moveset and just being extremely versatile helps him so much. It’s rather somber to see him so high up on the tier list when he used to be lower than Fi and fucking Great Fairy. I’m so proud of this boi. ;_;
Gonna be honest reviewing units from FEH is fucking useless. With new skills and refines every update, units that were trash suddenly become god tier or new dueling skills means shits like Leon can score very well in the Arena. It is basically unstoppable power creep that even topples over once future proof units like Wendy. Then Aether Raids is basically its own meta, so you have to effectively rate units on how they perform in TWO modes. So if you’re looking at tier lists, the tl;dr is look for high bst or a unit with a PRF weapon that can abuse Duel skills while adding in the highest SP skills onto your unit. I can keep going on this rant, but I’ve already said too much. I will now be a hypocrite and look at Shigure here.Â
I saw a thread on FEH sub that rated all the dancers and Shigure was at the absolute bottom with no one really disagreeing. I maybe biased, but this dude has saved my ass in Arena Assault a few times that would have ruined my run. Unfortunately AA is his only place where he can shine. Why is that? Take a look at his BST. It’s a rock bottom 139. It’s literally the lowest BST in the game tied with, ironically enough, other mage dancers. The problem is they all have their own useful niche. Inigo makes Reinhardt cry at least, which makes him better than Shigure.
Despite that you can make him a dancing poor mans Robin with Blarraven/TA or you can do a Breath of Life 9 meme build or both even. He does pretty good against some reds and can at least take a decent hit at them, assuming they can’t fight back. His defenses are in the pooper and his combat ain’t exactly turning heads either. Still the fact he dances and has some combat makes him not shit tier. Definitely the worst dancer in the game though.Â
I have no idea why FE6 has so many mediocre-bad units. I know it’s the first GBA game, but did IS really want us to cry this much?Â
Lugh is a nice early mage. His bases are pretty not good, but he does hit RES, so it mitigates his low MAG base of 4 and being in a game where hit rates are in the pooper and Lugh has an accurate weapon type, it helps. Problem is Lugh is just way too frail and doesn’t really have any SPD in the beginning, so he is in danger of dying. Luckily for him he gets better, only slightly however. The issue with Lugh is his growths are like Eliwood. Either he’ll end up godly or really bad. When he’s good, he’s REALLY GOOD. Otherwise, he’s kind of mediocre-bad with pretty awful durability. When he promotes, he gets major gains that helps him out a lot with the extra magic boost on top of healing. Lugh’s only real supports are Raigh and the Chad Chad.Â
Lugh is pretty much a coin flip. Depending on how the RNGesus feels about you, you’ll either get a great unit or a bad unit. Most of the time however Lugh ends up average. His bases really kill him and tend to haunt for the whole game. It also doesn’t help there is fierce guiding ring competition, but he’s like top 3 for that race anyways, considering the other magic users around him are...not good.Â
Thank the lord Twili Midna has more to talk about.Â
Twili Midna is pretty cool. I remember for a long time she was top tier and theres a reason for that. Her big selling point is her C1. Charges up whenever you attack enemies. The bigger the charge, the faster it comes out to the point it’s instant and leaves you invulnerable. This results in ass loads of damage and also stuns any enemies in it making it a great way to destroy WPG and go right into your weak point smash on top of applying darkness. In other words: thing die. This is mitigated by the fact she needs high mook traffic to charge fairly fast.Â
The rest of her kit however isn’t as great as her C1. Her C2/3 are fairly meh. C2 is a decent, albeit slow launcher. C4 on the other hand is where big guns come in, literally. Midna brings out a giant cannon that I’m sure has the biggest attack range in the game. You need some space to use, but when used properly, is an awesome kiting tool. C5 is awesome since it breaks guard and does damage, probably her only good 1-on-1 tool. C6 is basically AoE destruction. So her mook killing skills are great and she does decent against officers. Her biggest weakness is her boss killing skills. For whatever reason she has a hard time bringing them down and you need to come in with a charged C1. Even then Midna can only take out Gohma I think without a need for a special. If you have no C1 charged then lol good luck.Â
Twili Midna has got some nice tools and can definitely leave destruction in her wake, but she is kind of slow to setup, even with hasty attacks. While most of Midna’s power comes from a charged C1, the rest of her kit is solid enough where she doesn’t rely on it 24/7.Â
Everyone’s favorite waifu who can really only do one thing: spam C3.Â
That’s basically Midna in a nutshell. Her C3 is pretty insane. Does a lot of damage and has pretty good AoE. The only issue is you’re rather vulnerable from behind so use it wisely. Sprinkle in some C1′s and C5′s for darkness element and you’re set to go. C2 and C4 aren’t really worth mentioning since by and large they’re really not that useful at all. C5 is probably the only other combo worth spamming since it’s pretty good at smacking groups and couple of the bosses like Gohma. Skill wise pretty much the cookie cutter build of Heart Strong, Finishing Blow+, Hasty Attacks, Defenseless/No Healing, etc.
Not much else to say really. Midna is pretty much the one combo wonder but hey that one combo is very good, so you should be able to get a lot of mileage out of Midna anyways.
I feel like dunking on some shit character and luckily for me Amelia provides!Â
Amelia is the second trainee you get and is utter garbage. She’s in a Wendy sort of situation where she is in danger of constantly dying due to being as durable as wet toilet paper which means training her is a nightmare. She does get a lot of XP just for chipping, but good luck hitting anything with the javelin. Even then if Amelia gets caught while using said javelin, her AS is in the shitter and will be likely ORKO’d. Also lol4 mov. It just never gets better ever. You think her growths would be good for coming about half way through the game but no they’re awful. 35% STR, 40% SPD/SKL, 30% DEF wtf is happening here. She can’t even make a good knight! Then again why would you? Cavalier is obviously the superior option, but she can barely do that right since her AID is crap and her support isn’t even that good. Even when taken to the 10/20/20 conclusion she is only around the same power as every other paladins.Â
Amelia just has no redeeming factors. Takes too long to even be usable and even then she is only average at best. The only reason to use her is for novelty reasons or if you just like seeing shitty units grow into not shitty units.Â
Young Link is pretty good. Short stuff here has the curse of having a short jab string. His combos on the other hand are really good. C2 wrecks any and all officer weakness gauges, C3 Wrecks bosses, C4 wrecks crowds, and C6 is contender for best wave clearing in the game. It has a ton of invincibility frames, a vacuum effect, and slaughters mooks and officer groups. C5 is bad because of the after mentioned small range of YL range. His Special Attack is good enough. It does the job of doing good damage and a “get out of jail free card” should you become surrounded. It really his strong attack that makes YL well YL.
Converting special attack to magic is awesome and unleashes Fierce Deity Link. FDL receives the biggest boost from focus spirit of any character. Along with the effects of focus spirit (super armor, guard breaking) FDL gets so much fucking damage from it and range thanks to the fact he now has sword beams! Remember C5 being the worst combo on YL? It has now become one of the best attacks in the game. Having superb range and damage from the sword beams and FDL’s overall damage it cuts down anything in front of you. Not to mention it quickly increases the Special Attack gauge, which means more magic! Also of note is FDL is the only character whose magic gauge doesn’t deplete during weak point smash attacks, which makes him a rolling death machine that can’t be stopped. Boss killing as FDL? Literally use any combo attack and the boss is as good as dead or use your sexy, sexy Focus Spirit Finisher to reveal the WPG, use the Ocarina, and proceed to make the boss disappear. The only misstep I can find with FD is that it requires high enemy traffic to get the most mileage out of focus spirit. Of course if you have a maxed of My Fairy, then its 24/7 apocalypse.Â
When it comes to weapon skills I go with the following: Focus Spirit+ is a no brainer, making the already strong FD go into “how quickly can I kill the map” machine. Finishing Blow+, Heart Strong, No Healing/Defenseless, and STR skills for whatever filler you have left or something like VS. Dragon.Â
It really is hard to find anything bad to say about YL other than him requiring high mook traffic but guess what? Yellow potion, Special Attack potion from the Apothecary, and My Fairy can mitigate that. Even YL on his own is really good, having really good combos and wave clearing, just having really short range but honestly FDL is just so fucking broken. My personal contender for best overall character in the game.
Not even Oscar is safe from the massive horse nerfs.Â
Oscar, like the last game has pretty okay STR and defensive stats, but makes up for it with SPD. In the beginning his SPD base of 21 does some great injustices. It only allows him to kill only slugs which include a couple sages (lol) and generals which he won’t do too much damage to anyways. Oscar’s SPD growth on the other hand is at a blistering 60% so he can catch up right? Nope! His SPD cap of 24 basically kills Oscar’s mid game significantly. So only like five levels to cap and then he’s stuck at 24 SPD which is not so great. Then you see his STR growth at a measly 35% and he looks nigh unsalvageable.Â
Luckily for Oscar all is not lost. His base STR helps out a lot and with an Energy Drop can help his longevity. Then when he promotes, he gains bows, unlocks his SPD cap, and access to Sol. Oscar also happens to have shit loads of avoid through his Earth support so even when he becomes less tanky, he can just not care and dodge everything. Endgame is iffy since his SPD cap is only 32.Â
Oscar is still very nice. Being on Ike’s team helps out a lot and while he is mostly overshadowed by Titania, his inherit utility as a cavalry can’t be overlooked.Â
Since I’m here retooling this blog a little bit, might as well get this guy out of the way.Â
Honestly there isn’t too much to say about Raigh here. Usual dark magic user syndrome where his SPD is shot by dark magic tome weight. It doesn’t help Raigh has base 9 SPD and even with Flux, loses 1 AS since magic users have lolCON. Then we see he has the durability of wet paper and with the aforementioned SPD, he is in danger of dying in his own chapter. The good thing is he does come in at level 12, so an immediate promotion does wonders for him. 40% SPD is pretty meh, but it’s better than nothing and if it gets going, Raigh can almost go toe-to-toe with Niime combat wise. Staff utility is a no go however. E rank upon promotion yikes. There is also pretty intense guiding ring competition, considering how many magic users are running around.Â
Raigh is sort of bland unit. He’s kind of like an archer where his chip damage is nice and is somewhat serviceable to a degree. Other than that meh.Â
An adult critiques a children’s show part whatever
On this day 15 years ago, Code Lyoko first premiered on Cartoon Network in the US. Looks like I will talk about it on this day after all. Having just finished season 4 relatively blind, I have a bunch of things to say, both good and bad. I also come to the conclusion that show had potential that could have driven it to ATLA levels of following. Maybe some hyperbole, but we’ll get to that in a bit. For now, let’s dive in to a more detailed look at CL and why it worked for me. This time spoilers are afoot.Â
First I’ll just give my season 4 review: it was awesome. The whole digital sea concept was done so well. The irl bases was kind of...shark jumping but in a good way. I suppose it was the only logical conclusion left and I honestly can’t complain. Basically everything I said about season 3, but better...for the most part. Season 4 had the opposite problem of season 1: it went way too fast. Well ok maybe not fast, more like abrupt. It felt like the last three episodes were planned much later and seeing rumors of a mountain replika, plus the fabled lava sector this might be true. It just felt disjointed and really out of no where. William never gets to redeem himself because fuck William, a lot of the mysteries surrounding Franz Hopper are unresolved, and the final episode was just a really bad clip show. I really wish the finale did a time skip or maybe Franz left an exposition file to solve more mysteries. Heck even a lot of why Lyoko existed was left unexplored. This segues into my next point that will be long: potential.Â
With the finale fresh on my mind and looking back over a decade back to this show, there was some serious potential to make this show ATLA in terms of how massive the show became. It was REALLY close. Unfortunately many problems that was inherent throughout the series never left, such as the side cast being under developed. Season 1 it was doing ok and looked like Sissi wasn’t going to be an insufferable cunt throughout or maybe we can bring back based Jim. Then season 2 came and everyone was reset and Jim was put back on meme duties. Even some of the main cast don’t really grow. Jeremy seemed to regress into an over controlling freak, Yumi still sucks, and Odd is under developed. I like him don’t get me wrong. His bantz are top tier, but I feel like we don’t know too much about him outside the le funny guy routine (minus some exceptions). Ulrich kinda grew to not having a stick up his ass perpetually. Aelita on the other hand must of been someones waifu. Her entire arc is really done well and you can really sympathize with her. Aelita also has a lot of rather terrifying implications (the fact she is over 20 springs to mind) that makes her a very complex and at times a tragic character. Then you have shits like Yumi. Oh man.Â
Yumi is basically the walking love interest. Ulrich and eventually William go through constant fights and REEEEs with even some fights being exactly the same. At least they had the friendzone conversation which I totally understood Yumi’s reasoning, but it didn’t matter since the UlrichxYumi ship would be constantly teased at for the whole run. The only thing I can say about Yumi was her family issues at home. That shit is really depressing and explains a lot of Yumi’s attitude. It doesn’t help that her brother seemingly materialized in season 2. Then they added William because why not. William is a case of “would’ve liked if the writers did also.” He is woefully underused. I like the idea of adding a Lyoko warrior and while William’s character is basically trying to cuck Ulrich out of Yumi, it could’ve worked. Alas someone must been a Yulrich shipper and so William gets cucked by XANA for the rest of the series to be le evil bad guy because fuck William.Â
There are many, MANY things that had Code Lyoko done differently, the show would be like ATLA. I know I keep bringing that show up, but there is a reason why that show is highly regarded. It’s a simple, yet interesting premise. The writing and the lore behind it is amazing. You really learned about not only the characters, but the world around it. It feels so alive and most characters are very complex and have very defined motivations. Code Lyoko on the other hand has the makings of something similar, but it felt like they were too scared. Season 1 is probably the safest monster of the week show, which inevitably brings the whole show down. Those 20 odd episodes that could have added some mystery/lore to Lyoko and giving characters more backgrounds are instead wasted on stuff that for all intents and purposes, don’t add much whatsoever. I would have loved to see more of Odd’s family life beyond vague references, Yumi getting actual development, more Lyoko lore, William getting a redemption arc, there is just so much more the show could have done.Â
Again I shat on Code Lyoko hard, but this is the part where I say it’s still a great show and that lies in the premise. There was a lot of good ideas and made the world seem really cool. The interactions between most of the characters are great and always sneaks in a way to get a chuckle from me. The crazy, dumb shit XANA did were also a delight and Aelita’s whole arc was fantastically done. I could go on, but this is long enough already. There is a reason why i watched nearly 100 episodes of this show and well it’s just good. If the entire season 1 was retooled, I think this show would’ve had more potential to be a series everyone looks at and says “hey this is a fantastic show. watch it now. you won’t regret it.” I’ll leave behind this vintage meme. Happy Easter!Â
Gonna be straight up, might just turn this blog into: “thoughts I have on shit I like and stuff” since I sort of lost my Fire Emblem drive. Maybe when its reawakened again I’ll get back into it, but for now I’ll either dump my silly thoughts or just disappear for a while. In any event today I’m gonna talk about one of my favorite cartoons of all time and that would be the French animated cartoon/anime Code Lyoko. Don’t worry spoilers will be kept to a minimum. : )
I really enjoyed it overall. There was some good, but there was a lot more bad than I remembered. For starters season 1 aged horribly. The CGI doesn’t hold up that well, the constant reuse of the same scenes to pad out time, and their soundtrack is piss poor. I swear the same two the three songs would play each episode. Not to mention the animation errors. Good lord if I had a shot for every time they forgot to put Odd’s undershirt on, I’d die. I also noticed something I haven’t seen since the 1980′s TMNT: the wrong fucking voice came out of the character. Laughed my ass off, but good lord how did they miss that? The episodes on the other hand are for the most part boring. It’s one of the laziest monster of the week show. There are a few diamonds in the rough. The final two episode are awesome and Ghost Channel. That episode is one of the most visceral episode of the entire series so far. It really shows how fucking scary XANA is.Â
Season 2 it thankfully gets a lot better. Aelita finally starts to get more backstory and the plot as a whole seems to be picking up. The CGI looks so much better and they managed to triple their soundtrack. Amazing. Still there are a lot the same pitfalls from season 1. Cringe dialogue, Odd’s midriff being exposed when it shouldn’t, and many episodes that are inconsequential. They are a lot more fun and way better than season 1 at least. The finale is an emotional gut punch and they do a fantastic job with the atmosphere. Season 3 it only gets better. Honestly at this point I only have two complaints. One is William. Good lord do I hate him. The second is the stupid ass thing between Ulrich and Yumi. It’s one of the worst written romances I’ve seen in a kids show. Otherwise the season as a whole has been fantastic and even the filler episodes are very fun to watch.Â
While there is a lot of negative to go around, this was a 2004 show after all. We are approaching its 15th year anniversary and honestly it still stands the test of time in some areas. Despite my constant gripe of animation errors, the 2D animation really holds up well. The characters also are a lot fun when they are together (minus UlrichxYumi that makes me angry) and the banters between them and the side cast is hysterical. The plot also gets really serious and even dark at times as the show progresses. Even Lyoko as a whole is really fun concept. Kid me always wanted to go into Lyoko and fight monsters. It just sounds so cool. It was a big part of my childhood and watching Code Lyoko again made me very nostalgic. I’m not sure how I will feel when I watch the series finale since I never really did. I’ll most likely be sad since it was a big part of me, but I also know I’ll be happy for all the memories it has given me. Very sappy closing I know, but I’ll leave you with this instead: Yes Yumi’s forehead is enough to land Air Force One on I’ve heard that joke for over a decade now please stop...
I apologize for my poor grammar and spelling for Volug.Â
Naesala, the bird who lives in the shadows and definitely is the shadow of Tibarn. He is basically a discount Tibarn except has higher SPD and RES...which amounts to nothing since Tibarn has overkill SPD and lolRES. Everything else is way worse, especially his STR. NINE STR lower than Tibarn and not being tanky, it’s pretty bad.Â
Despite all of that Naesala is still a godsend. Micaiah map’s are pretty difficult and Naesala does a lot on her maps. Having higher Tear activation than even Tibarn and high MOV allows Naesala to swoop in and take out problematic units reliably. Just keep him away from bow units though.Â
Compared to the other Laguz Royals, Naesala usually finds himself at the bottom. He is a huge boon for Part 4, but in Endgame he is just too weak to really help. Dark affinity is pretty nice, but good luck building it meaningfully.Â
Hey FE:H added some Laguz units. Perfect time to do this!Â
The king of the skies he is, Tibarn is pretty broken. First off he has Formshift, which means he can stay transformed indefinitely. Then he has base 40 SPD. That literally allows him to double every single enemy in the game. Even Ashera gets doubled by him with no help wtf. Then base 56 ATK with really high tear activation=everything is dead pretty much on top of 10 move lol. The endgame units barely survive two hits from Tibarn assuming he doesn’t activate tear.Â
On the defensive side he is amazing. Base 68 HP with 32 DEF allows him to even tank a crossbow shot. Even then good luck hitting him since his avoid is through the roof. What really hinders him isn’t bow weakness, but his availability. Only available for 3 Part 4 chapters and Endgame. Tibarn is awesome in all of them, but damn if he came towards the end of Part 3 he be Seth tiers of broken. His support, Heaven, could do something. With his lack of existing however it really doesn’t mean much.Â
Tibarn is just stupid. Is awesome whenever he exists and has no obvious weaknesses. Just his availability compared to the greats is too low, but then Radiant Dawn would be way too easy.Â
Hey did you hear beast units are coming to FE:H? If only I still played that game...
Volug is one of the new wolf units in Radiant Dawn and man he is sexy not only in looks but stats. Double everything and doesn’t die. Base 49 HP is super overkill with passable defense. Someone on IS must really like Volug. Halfshift in part 1 means he doesn’t need Olivi Grass and despite his stats only going up by 50% while transformed, his stats are so god damn good it doesn’t matter. Then part 3 rolls around and holy shit he gets better because he can remove Halfshift. This means his stats are now doubled and he is truly unlocked. The only people beating him in damage are Beast Killer Sothe and Beastfoe person. Also thanks to him doubling, he can get his weapon rank up fast, which helps because unfortunately Volug has one fatal problem: low STR growth. 25% growth is just pitiful and will most likely need an Energy Drop to keep up. It’s a temporary solution and unfortunately this problem will might make him miss endgame.Â
Volug is just really good. He’s the Dawn Brigades Seth on maps that would otherwise be a nightmare without him. He’s got great stats, monopoly on the Olivi Grass, freaking Earth support, and high move. Volug’s STR growth hurts a lot however.Â
Time to do what I do best when I’m drunk and bored: talk about fire emblem. YAYÂ
So this meme character here is the first fighter you get in LHM and to be honest, he’s not that bad. Least compared to Bartre he actually has speed. Base 6 SPD is not the worst and can double slugs. Then base 7 STR means he hits pretty hard on top of a 60% growth. Pretty good actually. His DEF/RES are in the shitter, but Dorcas is kind of a meat wall. Base 30 HP with 80% growth offsets his lousy defenses pretty well. Finally his starting axe rank of C really helps out, especially in LHM. By the time he returns to HHM, Dorcas should be close or have B rank axes, which means he can get to A axes reliably. Silver Axe Dorcas early will definitely hurt anything.
So Dorcas early game is really nice. Alas like most fighters he is undone by his SPD. More specifically his awful 20% SPD growth. Thats horrible and really starts to slow down as the game progresses. A promotion and a wing or two do increase his longevity enough to be at least passable. Still that’s a lot of resources to make a mediocre unit slightly less mediocre. Not to mention Raven has a claim on the Hero Crest. Also lol slow supports.Â
As it stands Dorcas has a really good early-mid game. Probably the 2nd best candidate for the Hero Crest and can at least get you out of early game.Â
