I wish people would remember FE3 AKA Mystery of the Emblem featured Male Pegasus Knights as enemies, they're even labeled as male in the game data.

In fact the whole concept of Male Pegasus Knights being impossible, as opposed to just being something that doesn't happen often. Karin saying Pegasus Knights are usually women doesn't mean a man riding a pegasus is totally impossible.

In Vestaria Saga 2, Eagle/Gryphon riders are usually women, but there's still a male one that shows up as a boss.

In-fact the entire concept that a Pegasus can only be ridden by a woman and that a male Pegasus Knight is outright impossible was introduced in The Blazing Blade, a game Kaga had no involvement in.

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Playing Berwick Saga really is just like, an insane experience, bc of it understanding how to properly utilise base management back in 2005, that Three Houses utterly fumbled.

Part two of redrawing one of my favorite old posts ahaha

Original post

I played Berwick Saga, here's why you should!

It's a really really good games :)

For those not in the know, Berwick was the second of Kaga's post-Nintendo SRPG games. Despite having TearRing Saga in its ridiculously-long full title (TearRing Saga Series: Berwick Saga Lazberia Chronicle Chapter 174 for those who are curious), the game has only the loosest narrative connection with its predecessor, so don't feel obliged to play that first (though you still might want to to get your feet wet on Kaga's post-Nintendo design style, if you've never played Thracia).

Unlike TearRing, which was basically Fire Emblem with a new coat of paint slapped on top, Berwick is quite a bit different, most notably featuring a hex-grid layout, the player and the AI take turns taking actions on a single phase of play (so no player and enemy phase, but the player does always get the first move each turn) weapon access being mostly tied to a unit's level, playable units you need to hire each chapter if you want to use them until you manage to permanently recruit them, and horses that can take damage and die!

The cast of playable characters is rather small but highly unique on the whole. Units are seldom defined by their stats, but by their skills, weapon access, and prf weapons they have at their disposal. A number of units, including all the thieves, can hide on leafy or man-made terrain, the flier can fly over ground-based units and is safe from melee units initiating onto her, the christmas cavs of the game are defined by one having Vantage (due to the way countering works in Berwick, he can stop enemies dead in their tracks if he hits them first) and the other having the accost-like Deathmatch, a few units are highly valuable for their ability to re-roll avoidance against arrows (you'll be seeing a lot of enemy archers :p), some archers can set up an action to intercept units moving into their range with a free attack that immediately ends their action if the attack lands, and the pirate is less an axe guy who can swim and more a nautical thief who can actually pack a punch unlike the two pure thieves.

The writing is also excellent. Though the main lord, Reese, is involved in a continent-spanning war, the corrupt and incompetent king and his court do everything in their power to sideline him out of petty prejudice, so Reese's army spends as much time helping the common people of the capital as they do aiding the war effort directly. That's not to say Berwick is devoid of big moves and politics, but it is to say it has a stronger focus on the daily struggles of life during a time of war (though this naturally abates by the end of the game, focusing more on the big movements again). The playable characters also receive much more care in their characterization and different story arcs than is the norm, and almost everyone has their own story woven into the main plot, and their own ending once the final map is done.

Downtime between missions (for most of the game, each chapter has its own main mission followed by two optional side missions) takes place in the hub city of Navaron. Before you get worried, everything is done via menus, and the hub is purely there for watching cutscenes, taking on missions, preparing your team, hiring mercenaries, buying equipment and horses, exchanging prisoners, turning in bounties, chatting with an eccentric collector who's keen on rewarding you handsomely for giving him often-unsavory weapons, forging and crafting gear, and eating at the pavilion for chapter-long stat boosts. None of the tedium of exploring Garreg Mach or doing the Somniel's dozen or so chapterly minigames. Much of the NPCs are involved in giving you your side missions, so you'll get to know even them quite well.

Berwick is challenging but fair. And when it feels overwhelming, the folks on the FE Discord are extremely helpful and welcoming to new players. So yeah, I said my piece, Berwick's worth trying out :)

Plum, from Tear Ring Saga: Oh boy, I sure love exploring houses! I hope that the Northeastern House in Chapter 10 has something fun inside it! (<- clueless)

sometimes i’m reminded that the kaga saga games exist and goddamn i’m glad i chose not to add those to the scope of “fire emblem” games to get to during my marathon of them bc that would’ve been way too overwhelming

The worst FE director poll is really just a test to see which man do you think its the worst man alive between Kusakihara and Kaga and they’re both trying their hardest IRL to beat each other in that

Wishing You All a Great 2023!! May Wonders be upon Ye!

Kaga haters are the worst and do no research whatsoever in their neverending quest to find anything to hate him for.

Vestaria Saga did a tons of new things including giving us a playable dragon without any sort of human form, dynamic difficulty, tons of weapons with alot of diversity with plans to add even more like shields, and even improved on old things like finally making the Armored class line good in Vestaria Saga II, something even Engage couldn't do as General was still bad in that game.

I'll also note that it was the Japanese fandom that convinced Kaga to come out of retirement, hardly Kaga entering game development entirely out of "spite" as claimed by Kaga haters on this tumblr that never even touched Vestaria Saga.

Vestaria Saga was a pure labor of love Kaga did for free with no budget and with no intent to make a profit given the game is entirely free. Dozens of new artwork and sprite animations were made for it.

And the third Vestaria Saga is going to have entirely different gameplay from S-RPGs in general because Kaga wanted to try something new.

Its fine to criticize something, but do it earnestly, in good faith, and without making up info.

PS: Vestaria Saga was so downloaded when it came out in Japan, it literallhy brought the public download site. Imagine a free game here being so downloaded it broke Mediafire!

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Vestaria Saga II is officially finished!

Excellent game and can’t wait for the next one!

I think an SRPG game should take advantage of Full Metal Demon Muramasa's route system and implement an event where a character performs a heroic sacrifice and it's based on (out of a select number) whoever has the highest support points with the main lord.

And then on repeats it should randomise the number so you don't know who it'll be.

i do feel in a lot of ways engage will be the anti-Three Houses. both gameplaywise and plotwise. which is a big question mark for marketing, but not something i'm altogether too unhappy with.

(explanation: weapon level locks per class with no weapon level training at all, aptitude perks to weapon levels, really strong terrain, debuffs, player phase focus, a lot of overpowered weird shit but seems primarily also usable by the enemy, rather than enemies being strong in a very different way from you.)

(storywise should be obvious: one route, defeat evil dragon, you pick up friends along the way rather than knowing everyone from the start, much more active rather than passive role for the main character, no s-supports.)

i don't know about the tone or map design overall of the game yet, but it certainly does seem like we are playing Shadow Dragon And The Blade Of Light, Again but with thracia-level weird mechanics in there. exciting to me personally!

Here's my hot take for the night - Shouzou Kaga should have been allowed to call Tear Ring Saga "Emblem Saga" and include Fire Emblem characters in it. Him not being allowed to do so set a terrible precedent for creator rights in the game industry and paved the way for stuff like Kojima being forced out of Konami and what's happening right now at ZA/UM.

(Gets to the city in Berwick Saga)

This is literally just how Garreg Mach shoulda been done.

God damn, how does Kaga always manage to do it first?