Sorry for the radio silence. I was busy playing Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes these last couple of weeks. lol

I was really excited for this game because I loved Three Houses so much. Unfortunately Three Hopes was a pretty huge letdown for me. So many interesting ideas, but most of them were just bait and/or poorly executed. And all the typos, holy shit! Did nobody proof-read this??

I absolutely hated both Edelgard’s and Claude’s route and wanted to get a lobotomy afterwards. Especially Claude hurt because Verdant Wind was my favourite route in Three Houses...

I played Dimitri’s route last, which was a good decision. It was the only playthrough I enjoyed, even though the ending was kind of unsatisfying and inconclusive (but that was the case for the other routes as well).

All three stories felt so unfinished that I thought there MUST be a secret fourth route you can unlock, but nope. I guess not.

I have many more thoughts and questions, but I doubt anyone is really interested in my ramblings, so I’ll stop lol

what were the unfinished ideas from 3 hopes you most wish they would have fleshed out?

Oh boy, I don't even know where to start.

Well, I should probably state right at the beginning that I didn't know anything about this game beside the very first trailer. I also never interacted with anyone from the fandom and went into the game completely blind.

So the only thing I knew was that Three Hopes would be some kind of alternate timeline. What I hoped and kind of expected from the game was more information on things that were not fully elaborated in Three Houses.

I'll contrinue my thoughts under the cut because, you know, spoilers.

In particular I hoped that we would learn more about Agartha, Almyra and the Nabateans. And that we get some sort of "Golden Route" where all three lords and their comrades team up and fight the true evil in Fódlan together - which are the Slitherers who infiltrated all sorts of political or otherwise important ranks and corrupted the people around them, turned them against each other and spread lies. The true villain in Fódlan is not Rhea/the church (albeit I'm the very first to admit that Rhea is seriously messed up from all the trauma she and her people had to endure during the last centuries).

Anyway, those were my wishes. But nope, we just got a slightly different spin on Edelgard's stupid war again.

About what I was disappointed in:

In general:

I was kinda baffled by Count Varley's characterization tbh. From what we learned about him in Three Houses, I had imagined him as a stern, unrelenting patriarch who keeps his daughter down and tries to force her into the role of a submissive wife for a high-ranking nobleman. Not as an even bigger bag of nerves than his daughter. I got massive Jerry Smith vibes from the guy. lol

What the hell was wrong with Sothis?? Since when does she view Byleth as just her vessel and forces her power upon him/her? Why is she acting so out of character???

Who exactly was Epimenides and what/where is Zahras? How did he incarnate his soul and powers?

On a similar note: It was never fully explained who or what Shez was, right? Apparently he/she is a vessel for Epimenides' consciousness and powers, but how did that happen? Was Shez used in Agarthan experiments? Who were Shez's birth parents? Who was his/her adoptive mother???

No matter if you recruit Byleth and kill Epimenides or don't recruit Byleth and ultimately kill him/her, the outcome is really boring and anticlimatic and doesn't really affect the rest of the storyline. Huge disappointment. :(

Scarlet Blaze: We didn't really learn anything new about the Agarthans and never truly got rid of them either. Edelgard continues her war against the Kingdom and the Church despite knowing the Slitherers are still out there, causing a mess.

Edelgard started a war and wanted to rebuild society from the ground up, abolish nobility, crests, get rid off the established religion to replace it with a church that is only a mouthpiece for her propaganda pretty much.

She also wants to give all people equal opportunities to climb the ranks if they just work hard enough. Sure sounds nice in theory, BUT SHE DOESN'T EVEN LAY THE GROUNDWORK FOR THAT TO WORK IN HER OWN DAMN COUNTRY! She wants all people to be equal and give power to the commoners without providing them with better living conditions and adequate education first!! When I read her A-support with Ferdie I was shocked. How did she imagine this to go? Imagine giving power to a person who can't read or write or knows anything about what goes on outside their tiny village. Like, WHAT?!?

Seriously, without Ferdinand and Hubert Edelgard would be completely LOST.

Her route in Three Houses was incredibly flawed already, but this here is outright dumb. I felt so bad for every single one of my actions...

*cough* but I digress.

Golden Wildfire:

I expected most of this route and was let down the worst. It was all over the place. I hoped for Almyran lore, insights in Claude's childhood and family etc.

But then this Shahid guy appears twice and then just dies. Like, seriously! When he fell off that cliff I thought, surely this was a fake-out and he'd show up again later. But nope. I felt really baited by this whole Almyran subplot.

What I also found incredibly ironic was how they constantly tried to push the message that the Almyrans are just misunderstood and aren't as vile as the people in Fódlan view them.

But hey, guess what: Not only does their king not give a shit about what his stupid Shahid does, he doesn't even seem to know what is going on in general, seeing that Nader can just make him sign random papers. Like, WHAT?!?²

Also, Shahid calls the people from Fódlan barbarians, but it is HIS people who invade a foreign country and plunder and destroy everything in their way. And it's not like they're a poor and starved country like Sreng. No, they have plentiful food and treasures in their homeland. They just do all those invasions for fun, I guess??

It is also directly confirmed several times in the game that Claude and Nader actively have to stop the Almyran troops from plundering the Kingdom! Can you imagine that? Claude's dream of opening borders to other nations might sound great on paper, but it is an incredibly naive thought that it would just work out like that when one nation is so aggressive. Fódlan would be a wasteland in no time if they just let the Almyrans in!

Speaking of Claude: He was my favourite of the three lords in Three Houses, but now he's dead to me. They butchered his character big time. In Three Houses he was always wary of the Church (and for good reason!). But his curiosity drove him to find out what REALLY happened in the past. Who the Ten Elites and Nemesis really were. What the Heroes' Relics and Crest Stones really are. He was shocked by the revelation. And then he used this new knowledge to set an end to Agartha and Nemesis, the real threats!

In Three Hopes everything was just: "RhEa BaD bEcAuSe LoNg ChUrCh TrAdItIoN bAd!" And then he joins whoever has the upper hand, only to turn on them the first opportunity. I'm really glad Lorenz and the others called him out for leaving Randolph and his troops - their allies - to die. But that didn't happen often enough sadly. I wanted to grab his shoulders and scream at him constantly!

He berates Acheron for being an opportunistic flag in the breeze, but then he does exactly the same thing - just 100 times worse.

During the whole playthrough I had the feeling that nobody really trusted Claude, not even his closest friends. And how could you blame them? He throws valuable allies under the bus and switches allegiances constantly. Who would ever trust a leader like that? You'd always be scared you'd be next if you're not useful to him anymore.

Urgh. I have so much more to say about this hot mess of a route, but I'll stop now. Just know that I was absolutely enraged when I finished Golden Wildfire.

Azure Gleam

Since I hated both Edelgard's and Claude's routes, I was really about to drop the game completely. I'm glad I didn't because I overall really enjoyed Azure Gleam. Still, it had its flaws too.

The biggest letdown to me was, of course, that we didn't really learn anything new about the Nabateans. I was so hopeful because we saw Indech and Macuil in the opening cutscene. But nothing ever came off it. :(

Also, I was really disappointed that nothing became of the whole Hegemon Husk Edelgard thing. I was absolutely sure Thales would transform her into the monster in the second phase of the battle, but nope. It was utterly anticlimatic. :(

Also also, what happened to Hubert and Ferdie? It said they went missing after Thales took control of Edelgard. So I thought they went into hiding and waited for the right time to save her from Thales’ grasp, maybe join the final battle as yellow or even green units. But nope, they were never seen again.

Then I have some questions about the sidequest where you get the Ochain-Shield. Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't that shield an heirloom of the Aegir family in Three Houses? Why is suddenly long-lost now and shows up in Indech's workshop after hundreds of years?

Another thing that I found kind of confusing was Yuri's and Seteth's support. In Three Houses I always assumed that the old man who saved Yuri's life and gave him the crest was a decendant of Aubin. But apparently it was Aubin himself??? That raises many questions: Why is Aubin the only Nabatean who was old? Seiros is probably the oldest living Nabatean and she still looks like she's in her prime. So why did Aubin age so much compared to the rest of their people? Also, Yuri said the old man died of natural causes. What happened to his body then? If he really was Aubin himself the Agarthans must have found and taken his bones and crest stone and turned it into the Fetters of Dromi. How and when did that happen? If that really was the case, the Fetters of Dromi can only be ~10-15 years old. How does Yuri know about this "relic" so much then?

Oh well, I guess I'm overthinking. I'm just starved for Nabatean lore. ;__;

______________________________________________________

Okay, now I guess I should conclude with what I actually liked, huh?

Lorenz. Honestly, without Lorenz, Golden Wildfire and Scarlet Blaze would have been an even worse experience. Lorenz, to me, is really the hero of those two routes. I really, really love how he was portrayed. His struggles, his doubts, his convictions. He also had some really great scenes with his father. Definitely a huge plus! He's a great character!

I also liked Felix in this game. I like him as the responsible, mature Duke Fraldarius who still shows his sassy and blunt behaviour too. Never really was a fan of his attitude and tsundere bs in Three Houses, so this was a huge improvement.

All Blue Lions were great! They have by far the best chemistry and closest bonds of all houses. They're supportive of each other and build each other up. And they fully trust each other. I love them so much!

Jeralt (and Rodrigue) don't have to die and are both playable! ;__;

Holst's butt-chin, my beloved (also, ProZD ftw!)

Apart from that I really liked the gameplay. It was fun and rewarding and made you feel badass. lol The expeditions feature is really cool too. And there were a few really great support conversations. <3

Anyway, that concludes my TED talk, I guess lol I want to start a petition to rename this game to “Fire Emblem Warriors: One Hope and Two Dumpster Fires”.

Things I love about drawing:

sketching

outlining

painting colourful landscapes

playing around with effects and filters

Things I hate about drawing:

colouring and shading

indoor backgrounds

backgrounds with difficult perspective

Trust me, I want to like the new casual mode. I really do. But even after several weeks the unacceptable waiting times haven’t been fixed.

This evening I invited one friend from Europe, one from North America and one from South America to the party.

After 50 freaking minutes (I wish this was an exaggeration) in the queue we ragequit, made a party for MvM and got on a good server with bearable ping for everyone within 5 seconds. (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻

What do you think about the Meet your Match update? Also, Team Heavy or Team Pyro?

Sorry for the late reply. I wanted to take my time with the answer. Here are my thoughts on the situation as it is right now (19.07.2016):

Heavy vs. Pyro: I don’t main either of the classes, but play both on a regular basis. I’m #TeamHeavy because I think Heavy needs an update more than Pyro does. I’m aware Pyro is most likely going to win this war, but here’s where I see the problem: A lot more people play Pyro right now because it’s more fun and easier to work with. And because many people consider Heavy to be boring and one-sided they don’t use him and thus don’t care about him and Pyro gets the votes - even though Heavy would profit by new weapons and especially playstyles more than Pyro (or anyone, really) would. Personally I’d love to see some totally different playstyle for Heavy, similar to Demoman - Demoknight or Turtleneer - Ninjaneer.I’m well aware that Pyro is a broken mess right now and needs massive re-working, but I still think Heavy deserves some time in the spotlight for once. He’s been neglected by Valve for years even though he’s THE iconic character of TF2. :/I’m okay with Pyro winning the war, as long as he doesn’t get another Phlog buff and Heavy gets an update too, just at a later point (which has been hinted).

Competitive Matchmaking: I’m happy for those who have been waiting for this update for years. Personally, I don’t care for competitive and don’t play it. And even if I wanted to I couldn’t because you need that Steam Authentication App that doesn’t work on my phone. And no, I won’t spend 10€ on that pass either.From what I've heard there seem to be some big problems with people just abandoning matches. If you're on the losing team you can leave the game and get a cooldown. But that's not the problem: Leaving a game doesn't result in you and your team losing rank-points! And what's even worse is that the winning team doesn't earn anything if a sore loser abandons the game.

Casual Matchmaking: This new addition came out of nowhere, but I don’t hate it as much as everyone else seems to do. In theory I think it’s a great idea - but currently there are just way too many problems:a) The waiting times: Yes, they have already fixed some issues with that, but if I want to play with my friends from another continent we STILL have to wait 10+ minutes to get into a game. :/b) No new players joining: You can’t invite friends to a server when you’re already on it, even if there is a free slot on your team. And speaking of free slots: If half a team abandons the match because they were put up against unfairly superior enemies the system doesn’t assign new players to the server. It just doesn’t happen, no matter what Valve has said. In no game I have played so far has a single new player joined a game after it has started. Which has often led to 3 vs. 12 matches. Very entertaining… Also, if you leave the server or lose connection you can’t join another server (or even rejoin the one you were on!) until the match there is over! That is some serious bs! I hope they fix that soon. I have once waited for almost half an hour before I could join a new game!c) Unbalanced teams: Yes, they existed in pubs. But that’s exactly what I hated most about pubs. I thought and hoped the level-up system was introduced to create some sort of skill-rank and those ranks would be used to put similarly skilled players on a server. But no. It’s just like pubs. In fact, it’s even worse sometimes because - and I never thought I’d ever say that in my life - there is unfortunately no autobalance or scramble. As I have mentioned before: 3 vs. 12 matches with no autobalance or new players joining suck and are not fun at all! Very rarely so far have I played casual matches where both teams were balanced and about equally strong. 85% of the time one team has level 15-20 players with unusuals and 37246327846 kills on their Australium weapons and the other team consists of gibus/hatless players on level 1-3. I’m unfortunately not joking here.This is not fair and this is not fun for anyone! (Except for the scumbags who insult weaker/less experienced players and abuse them to farm easy kills and exp.)I’m not saying the matchmaking system should create one server with 24 pros and another server with 24 newbies on it, but it should at least try to make somewhat balanced teams with an equal amount of good players and inexperienced players on each team.Yes, I’m aware determining the skill of a player is extremely difficult. But the rank system DOES indicate some things. Even if both newbies and veterans started out at level 1 when the system was implemented, the experienced players will level up much faster.I really hope Valve will make use of these ranks eventually and don’t just treat them as purely cosmetic.

In conclusion I can say that the casual matchmaking per se has the potential to become something great. Heck, even though 85% of the matches I had were absolutely horrible, the other 15% were actually the best and most entertaining games I ever had in TF2.

However, what I don’t understand is why Valve got rid of regular pubs/quickplay completely. Would it be so hard to make some of their already existing servers into classic pubs and the others into casual matchmaking servers?

(Yes, community servers exist too. But most of them have some special game mode, use weird plugins/features and are contaminated with loud ads, stupid mods and other annoying shit.)

Don’t get me wrong: I massively enjoy playing together with a team that is focused on the objective on matchmaking servers. But sometimes I really miss the random dance parties, Spycrabs, funny truce moments or other hilarious things that I experienced on pubs. :/

I have always loved TF2 because it’s NOT a dead-serious ultra-realistic and competitive game. It’s has always been meant to be a fun, casual game, later even coming with hats and silly taunts.

The people who want to play comp - go ahead, enjoy yourself and have fun! Nobody begrudges this to you! I’m happy that this is finally an official option in the game for you!

But please, Valve, don’t try to change the core of the game. The vast majority of players is still here for fun, quick casual games.

tl;dr These are my thoughts on the update and on TF2 in general. I hope that’s enough. XD