Let's Play Fire Emblem: Monster Quest Index

 My earliest attempt at Let's Play, a screenshot LP of a Fire Emblem: Sacred Stones hack in which most of your characters are switched to having monster classes.

This was a semi-blind LP, in that I've played Sacred Stones quite a bit, but had never played the hack. (And also it had been years since the last time I played Sacred Stones, so I'd forgotten some things and misremembered other things)

I had some fun constructing a parallel reality narrative building on the situation of player characters mostly being monsters and trying to construct a vaguely coherent plot out of that while loosely fitting to the original plot. There's also some commentary in there about some of the least coherent elements of Sacred Stones' actual plot, some directly from me, some through the characters.

The early posts have some jank from things like me starting out doing being inconsistent about stat comparisons and then editing in missing cases after the fact, and just general inexperience with building a Let's Play of any kind. Later posts are smoother, overall.

Surprisingly, this LP also caused me to notice a bunch of interesting tidbits about the base game, including significant evidence of the base game being rushed. I'd broadly suspected such beforehand, but this LP made the suspicion a lot more concrete.

Note that this LP is currently in a limbo state, as it's not actually done but assorted difficulties have been interfering with advancing further on it, and I'm unsure when these difficulties will clear away.

Prologue. In which I already start revising Eirika's character, in part by poking fun at canon.

Chapter 1. In which I'm frustratingly sloppy with screenshots, and start seeing early signs of Monster Quest having made more changes than I originally assumed.

Chapter 2. In which I start being a bit more detailed in talking about mechanics, and continue to mildly distort characters for funny value.

Chapter 3. In which I draw attention to how little sense this whole twin bracelet sub-plot makes, am genuinely grossed out by a zombie, and have some fun with the narrative thanks to hack changes.

still needs a chapter icon

Chapter 4. In which I speculate about technical details, start playing around with combat descriptions, notice possible exploits, touch upon true hit, and just generally start having fun with the LP.

Chapter 5. In which we see what MQ has done with Mauthe Doog, something bizarre happens and gives me Dummy the Tarvos, I'm disappointed I have strong incentives to not use Natasha, I'm delighted to discover the Gorgon design is a lot more imaginative than the regular palette makes them seem, and I get ever more divergent in characterization. Sort of.

Chapter 5.x. In which we get poisonous weaponry, Orson is unsubtle, I finally notice Sacred Stones draws spiders correctly, Kyle misses a lot, the boss is annoying, and Ephrai m makes bad decisions the writer inexplicably believes look like good decisions.

Chapter 6. In which the evils of Fire Emblem's Fog of War are discussed, particularly Sacred Stones' horrendous use of it in this mission, discuss how lackluster Blade weapons are, cover how this mission's Bael timer doesn't fit into the narrative sensibly, and I poke some at how terrible Seth's decisions are if you really think about them.

Chapter 7. In which I approach a map with unnecessary aggression, I first try not bringing a healer and am pleasantly surprised at how well it works out, Eirika gets a surprising amount of use out of an Iron Blade, and I start having very strong suspicions that Eirika's growths have been improved by Monster Quest.

Chapter 8. In which I continue trying out this crazy 'no healer' style of play, point out how nonsensical this 'trap' is, raise the multiple plotholes present in this mission, I turn to RNG manipulation to get around the game not being adequately random. Joshua underperforms to an astounding extent, and I point out how weird it is of Sacred Stones to make a big deal out of Myrrh's hair color and not... you know... her giant wings.

Chapter 9. In which Joshua continues to severely underperform, Franz severely overperforms, I continue to get a surprising amount of use out of an Iron Blade, I discover Shortbows are actually good in Monster Quest, and I use a Juna Fruit and explain its significance.

Chapter 10. In which Monster Quest's design catches me strongly off guard twice, Slim Lances turn out to have variety, Slim Swords turn out to have been buffed, my favorite recruitment conversation happens, and I poke at how the narrative of this mission doesn't hold up to scrutiny very well.

Chapter 11. In which L'Arachel surprises me, the fog aggravates me, a key miss costs me multiple times over, the boss has been mishandled, and I poke at how Glen is pretty eyebrow-raising in his behavior.

Chapter 12. In which Monster Quest introduces another weird weapon, an intersection of AI quirks not seen in the base game surprises me, and we end on possibly overly-dark humor.

Chapter 13. In which I get through a map pretty heavily through blind luck saving me, confirm you can double people with Ballistae, and poke fun at  Eirika's ignorance and Cormag's... Cormag-ness.

Chapter 14. In which Monster Quest starts bringing out its really mean boss design, catches me off guard with radical changes it's made, and I poke at the jank with this mission's narrative decisions. Ephraim's bugginess fixes itself, promotions start happening, and Tethys picks up a snazzy pair of Boots.

Chapter 15. In which we meet a surprisingly well-designed desert mission, I painstakingly raise Ewan (And it's not worth it), and Caellach is a lot more of a wall than usual.

Chapter 16. In which Myrrh, though notably improved, still manages to disappoint me, enemies perpetually surprise me with their passiveness, many promotions happen with some surprises among them, and Ephraim's strangeness evolves into a new weird form.

Chapter 17. In which Lyon  has gotten a rather large upgrade, I get rather absurdly lucky on dodges at a key point, multiple S ranks are hit, and the mission is it's usual long-but-not-that-hard self. Mostly.

Chapter 18. In which I discover Monster Quest has actually broken up monster weapons into different equip categories, discover the Stone Shard is a monster weapon to help keep them relevant in the late game, I start really making use of some of the interesting tools Monster Quest has provided me, I discuss an oddity with reinforcements, experience galore is passed out, learn Myrrh has cooler design than in the base game, and poke pretty hard at the plot of this mission.

Grinding Part 1. In which we start grinding because the next mission is a big spike in difficulty, I discover Sacred Twins don't get bonus damage against monsters in Monster Quest, discover the Stone Shard is anti-cavalry, discover I have access to Silencer, and I give up on seeing how far I can take Ephraim's level.

Grinding Part 2. In which the grinding continues, I finally realize Revenants and Entombed don't actually have the Thief bonus experience effect, and overall not a lot happens.

Grinding Part 3. In which I finally give in and give Ewan a slightly better Tome so he can grind more effectively, notice that Kyle has actually turned out pretty well, and I marvel at how amazing Tethys is.

Chapter 19. In which I summarize some off-screen grinding, delve into why this mission in particular s so unpleasant, confirm the Stone Shard is extra-effective against armored enemies in addition to cavalry, and I finally get through this miserable slog.

Chapter 20. In which we enter the second heart of the Darkling Woods, I poke at the strangeness of this mission's story decisions, I lay out what the Stone Shard's deal is, I screw up a lot in gameplay but it all works out (In part because my team is amazingly powerful), and the longest mission of the game is finally done.

Chapter 21. In which we beat the game.

Chapter 9B. In which we turn back time and see Ephraim's side of things. I also point out a lot of narrative jank with this mission and, to a lesser extent, Ephraim's route more broadly.

Chapter 10B. In which I talk a fair amount of strategy to start, complain a lot about this mission's design, touch on the strangeness of Cormag being here at all, and I succeed primarily through a bunch of bad decisions happening through no fault of my own to produce good outcomes.

Chapter 11B. In which a frustrating mission has been made more frustrating by Monster Quest, largely on accident.

Chapter 12B. In which monsters openly work with Gradosians with inadequate commentary to explain this situation, while Ephraim's team is starting to come into its own.

Chapter 13B. In which I complain about how little sense this chapter makes to even exist, I completely fail to notice Elder Baels do in fact get +15 to crit, I learn Maelduin have Ranger movement, and Myrrh refuses to join us for no real reason,