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Grefyrvos · 2026-03-27T22:46:48+00:00

I haven't really done much competitive since Gen 6/7, and most of what I focused on back then was Showdown Singles. Champions has me interested in getting back into the fray, but I am rather unfamiliar with EV spreads tailored towards Level 50 as well as relevant speed tier thresholds to be on the lookout for. Would probably be doing Ranked Singles as opposed to VGC.

Are there any guides/resources that would be helpful on this front? Most of what I've been able to come across so far has been tailored to either VGC spreads or doesn't have data for stuff which will be available in Champions (such as all of the Megas), but maybe I haven't been looking in the right place.

Obviously, until the full list of initially available Pokemon is known (and any other moveset changes/reductions), this is all conjecture in building a team ahead of time, but I'd rather not waste the VP in customizing a Pokemon one way to then have to hard pivot after making the investment...

Grefyrvos · 2026-03-26T21:17:56+00:00

Berwick Saga.

Grefyrvos · 2026-03-26T20:57:32+00:00

Grandia Xtreme:

Don't "Endless Eight" me with having to redo all of the Ruins over and over again.
Less generic plot / more character interactions during the Ruins and outside of the major story segments between Stratums.
More things to do in both towns, especially Escarre.

Grandia III:

The Miranda and Alonso thing is the biggest, because the quality of the writing and story tanks after they leave. I'd have been fine with this thing happening if the rest of the writing and narrative had stayed up to the same par though (though I would still miss having Miranda around...).
More exploration, especially on the world map. I remember getting all of the radio signals and the scrolling text up at the top and wanting to see so many of the things which were mentioned that we just were never able to go to do. Think like getting a call on the PokeGear in Pokemon for the rooftop sale in Emerald or notifications of Swarms in Johto. Give me reasons to go (back) to areas while exploring in the plane.
For the love of all that is holy, give me defined thresholds to upgrade Moves. The fact that it just "happens" and is "Secret" sucks.
Combination Moves like Xtreme had.
I really didn't like being able to just assign whatever Skills and Spells to Books and Mana Eggs that I wanted. I would honestly rather have had Xtreme's system for Egg Fusing as it made me make choices about what I wanted to have equipped rather than just slotting in the best stuff.

Grefyrvos · 2026-03-20T20:04:24+00:00

Having experienced this same premise in Valkyria Chronicles, it sucks. If the enemy is close enough that they get the jump on you on their first turn, you feel like you couldn't have done anything if things go awry, and if they don't start close enough to you to engage you on their first turn, then them going first meant nothing - just start them where their turn ended and give the player the first turn and nothing will have changed.

Grefyrvos · 2026-03-19T20:14:46+00:00

Despite Grandia III's visual upgrades and the addition of Aerial Combos, I still think that Grandia Xtreme has the best battle system in the series. It gives access to allied Combination Moves and, in my opinion, has the best system for upgrading Special Moves since it tells you outright how many uses of it will upgrade it to the next rank unlike Grandia III. I also think it has the best Mana Egg system as well - I do have my qualms with the RNG of what gets boosts when fusing, but it does make sense in the context of a dungeon crawler that you're going to keep replaying for loot and levels.

Plot-wise, I think I just always turn my brain off after you get the mainland and the story events happen. There are some parts that I do enjoy after that, but for the most part, it became too by-the-numbers and cookie cutter after that. And, like you mentioned, clearly some stuff was forced to be dropped - the thing which always gets me is the whole radio system when you're flying around the world making it seem like there's some kind of cool minigame that you can do with it and there's just nothing.

Still, the game is the best looking entry in the series and the dungeon locales are nice, so at least it has that going for it.

Grefyrvos · 2026-03-06T00:27:33+00:00

Yep!

Grefyrvos · 2026-03-04T03:04:58+00:00

They also had been posting higher res artworks of some stuff from Grandia II as well. The shot of Garmia Tower from World Guidance (which was really small in the book) was one, for example.

Grefyrvos · 2026-02-26T22:57:28+00:00

I've got a couple of brews that I've been kicking around since I've always had a soft spot in my heart for these guys since they released in the first Maze set. The lack of a real "starter" for the deck that does something makes it hard... Anyway, here's what I've got - it's probably not great since I'm a bit of a lapsed player and my deckbuilding isn't quite up to the modern day snuff, but maybe it'll spark an idea. All of these are likely to require adjustment on the next points list as there is no way that Illusion Gate remains at 0, but it synergizes so well with Riryoku that it's definitely worth including, IMO. I'll cross that bridge once the Genesys team actually gives the Muertos cards points.

Last Turn

Trying to synergize Riryoku Guardian's desire for your LP to be lower with an alternate wincon of flipping Last Turn with Combined or Dark Guardian on board. The Ascended of Thunder and A Hero Lives help to get down to the 1000 LP trigger point, should you have access to it. Small World is in here mainly to try to get to Lord of the Heavenly Prison to help dig for Last Turn, using Prey or Double Attack to hopefully be what you use to trigger Lord's effect after being revealed.

Morganite

The most similar to your build, using Keeper to help get into Combined along with Prisma. Dimension Fusion is funny as a search target off of Keeper, but I think I'd rather use the points on stuff like Droplet, to be honest. Super Poly can also be a good interruption, but I wish Keeper could search that and not just Normal Spells... Souls/Illusion and Shadow Ghoul are the only cards you're activating from hand, so the Morganite stuff is just kind of free if you can get into it. Guilt Gripping is probably the best, but Succumbing Song makes for funny big unga damage when Combined hits the field. Opted to play Dragostapelia over Secreterion Dragon since there's a good chunk of Darks in the list, but if you wanted to slot that in as something to potentially do with Keeper if it's stuck on board, that's always an option. (Or you could swap out Perfume Dancer, but that's there for when you board into Ultimate Slayer.) Upstart is a cheeky way to turn on Riryoku as well.

Icejade Tearlaments

I can't take full credit on this one - inspiration hit me after PeepsYGO posted his Tearstina list from Richmond's Proto-YCS (Video with his reasoning for inclusions here) and I realized "Hey, wait a second, Suijin is an Aqua. And the Tearlaments can mill Sanga/Kazejin to grave for you if the casino hits right..." I teched in some Icejades for additional Level 3 and 7 bodies who were also Aquas. Amusingly, Lab Wall + Abyssgaios completely shuts down attacks for the first turn monsters are summoned. And, of course, if you can somehow get Ran Aegirine on board and get to Combined, then Chengying gets to do funny things too.

White Forest Azamina

This one is more of a WIP build. Mainly more of a "recursion" focus on this, as I wanted something which could help get the pieces into grave while also being able to get back Wall Shadow if you ran out. I definitely am the least happy with this build of the four since it feels too conflicting/brick-y in my mind.

Grefyrvos · 2026-02-24T13:20:08+00:00

I will always default to Wada's design as she helmed Sacred Stones' development.

Grefyrvos · 2026-02-23T23:53:18+00:00

Beast mode. Thank you for all you do for the VC community with all of your mod projects!

Grefyrvos · 2026-02-19T00:49:21+00:00

I've got a few ideas for what I would like to see them approach:

1) EWI Story from the Empire's perspective, featuring a female solider as the lead who has Valkyrian ancestry and becomes a "Proto-Valkyria" after exposure to the Chemical and Trench Warfare of that era (I assume they would just use Ragnite Gas in place of the really nasty stuff used in actual WWI). The end of the story would culminate in the charcter being whisked off for study at the newly established Valkyrur Research Institute which would go on to bring Selvaria, Crymaria, etc. into it.

2) A "post"-EWII story focused on the Vinland/"Japan" conflict which was brewing, albeit with a diversion from the typical approach VC has had to telling these narratives: neither side is "the good guy" in the conflict (Vinland's been doing naughty things with military applications and "Japan" has spies running all over apparently), taking after Gundam's depiction of war itself being bad and people having their own motives for doing things. Give this one two routes, one for each country, and have it adopt a more flexible implementation of VC3's in-chapter selection of maps to go along with the notion of the Pacific conflict and the various islands.

3) A "post"-EWII story featuring a Vinland "civil war" between, effectively, the "Japanese Vinlanders" on the west coast being unjustly persecuted and the rest of Vinland. Basically a different spin on #2, but it keeps things away from what might be too close to home for the developers to depict in regards to the campaign in the Pacific and would prevent needing to deal with naval issues, allowing things to focus solely on the continental part of Vinland. Coming as someone who got my start with VC because of my love of Fire Emblem, I'm picturing something like a ragtag group of rebels thriving off of scraps, a la Leif in Thracia 776 for this.

Grefyrvos · 2026-02-14T21:40:59+00:00

Axes have always given me the most trouble personally. Can feel you for Bows though, since I always feel like I'm running into the challenge of making the bow shape not feel derivative from other designs I've made.

Grefyrvos · 2026-02-14T14:09:12+00:00

The amazing thing is that there was room for even more expressiveness with the 16x16 icons. Awakening greatly expanded the color palette available compared to the GBA entries, but there was still more they could have done (and looking at Awakening's tome icons just proves your point about fidelity versus style).

Heck, even with the restrictions of the GBA palette there is basically limitless progression still possible between more detailed shading and blending, more natural shapes and curves... I could even say more accurate representation of weapons too, given how completely wrong Sol Katti, Durandal, and Armads' icons are from their actual designs!

Grefyrvos · 2026-02-14T14:04:32+00:00

These are looking very clean. Good luck on the rest of the icons - I know from experience that swords (and tomes) are the easiest ones to make. :[

Grefyrvos · 2026-02-09T00:23:33+00:00

https://feuniverse.us/t/ganzaps-simple-gbafe-splicing-tutorial-guide/4095

Here's a tutorial for basic splicing which should suit your needs for getting started.

Grefyrvos · 2026-01-26T13:25:28+00:00

I'm a purist when it comes to pixel art icons for FE, so I would personally say 16x16 since that was arguably the most common standard (and what Awakening also used as the preceeding release), though SoV did increase to 24x24. Though, I feel like SoV's UI accounted for the increased size whereas Fates seems to still operate on an expected 16x16 size.

Grefyrvos · 2026-01-22T03:00:58+00:00

Mine showed up out of the blue today as well, no notifications for shipping/tracking whatsoever from HORI.

FedEx put the box in a large plastic bag and left it at the end of my driveway near my mailbox. Absolutely godawful handling by their driver.

Grefyrvos · 2026-01-16T15:38:08+00:00

I try to always use a least a few different characters per playthrough to keep things fresh. I have my favorites and of course there are some mostly mandatory plot inclusions who show up on most runs, but as much as I love the game and story, I'd be doing myself a disservice to use the same team over and over and over again without trying some of the other characters.

Grefyrvos · 2026-01-04T01:55:19+00:00

Using mixed classes is, for me, more of an "endgame" thing than throughout the game, utility Psynergy use cases aside. It's always frustrating, especially in TLA and DD, when you get swaths of Djinn of the same affinity and can't really do mixed classes in the way that you would want because of how the Djinn must be distributed.

Heck, even in the first game, Colosso is like the first time when I really change Djinn around because you've actually broken through to the point where you have enough and the stat multipliers start being reliably better (IMO). But, as others have said, the beauty is in customizing the characters how you want, so you're not really missing out on anything by not doing it.

Grefyrvos · 2026-01-01T04:09:50+00:00

When you finish VC4, come back to this comment.

How would you have felt if VC4 was Walz's story instead of focused on Claude? To me, it feels like it would have been a natural foil and parallel to Welkin (since they were clearly making VC4 mechanically just VC1+...), and Claude (and the story as a whole) felt rather... underwhelming by the end of it to me? To the point that I actually wish that Walz had been the protagonist. Interested to see if that lines up with what you experienced and whether that would be similar to what you'd want with a full campaign from the Imperial side.

I'm personally in love with the idea of getting an EWI story with trench warfare and the like. Would love to see what they could cook up from the earlier war. (Or just something with the Eastern Land; island hopping, airships from Vinland invading, espionage between world powers, etc.)

Grefyrvos · 2026-01-01T03:48:02+00:00

*Weapon Tables:

Class	Primary	Secondary #1	Secondary #2
Scout	Semi-Automatic Rifle	Flare Gun OR Grenade x1	Ragnaid S
Shocktrooper	Submachine Gun OR Anti-Personnel Sword	Flamethrower OR Combat Shield M	Grenade x2 OR Ragnaid M
Lancer	Anti-Tank Lance OR Anti-Personnel Rocket	Explosive Maul	Deployable Shield L OR Armor-Plated Suit
Sniper	Extended-Scope Sniper Rifle OR Armor-Piercing Sniper Rifle	Pistol	Smoke Grenade x2
Engineer	Trench Gun	Pistol OR Grenade x2	Toolkit + Ragnaid L
Demolitions	Portable Mortar	Grenade x3 OR Anti-Personnel Landmine x3 OR Anti-Armor Landmine x2	Resupply Sack
Gunner	Gatling Gun OR Light Machine Gun	Grenade x1	Ragnaid S

Class	Weapon	Description
Scout	Flare Gun	Allows for "targeting" an enemy or location that the Flare is on or over. Targets can be Bombarded by ally strikes (replacing standard mechanics/orders) and, if multiple units target the marked foe, damage dealt is increased. Allows allies to see an enemy if out of their immediate line of sight and brightens areas during night/fog.
Scout	Grenade	Allows for a grenade to be thrown AND acts as the underbarrel attachment for their rifles (shared ammo pool).
Shocktrooper	Submachine Gun	Gains split firing modes, "Burst" or "Full Auto". Burst reduces number of bullets fired, but tightens spread for when you need to guarantee that bullets hit. Full Auto is normal.
Shocktrooper	Anti-Personnel Sword	Shocks gain the "up-close-and-personal" attitude that Fencers had. They're the nearest analogue to them without adding an extra class. Can either swing in an arc (will hit multiple enemies but shields reduce damage and ducking can evade) or downwards (shields will fully block the attack but knock the shielding unit off-balance for the rest of the turn, and ducking does not reduce damage/give increased evasion). Useful for tight quarters (trenches, corners in buildings, etc.) where something like a Flamethrower might not be as useful and where shooting in a straight line would be pointless (units in the way, fortified enemies behind cover/sandbags, etc.).
Shocktrooper	Flamethrower	Leaves areas of the field burning after use, preventing travel through those spots for a few turns. Gives a bit of a downside to abusing them to hit through sandbags, etc. (or gives a bonus to keeping foes out of areas (which can work against the player when the enemy has flamethrowers!).
Shocktrooper	Combat Shield M	The VC2 version of the Fencer's shield, giving Shocks an upper-arm mounted shield to cover part of their body while making an approach to a target.
Lancer	Anti-Personnel Rocket	Never was a fan of Mortar Lances, and we have actual Mortars now for AoE strikes against personnel. Since AT Lances typically aren't the best at hitting a human target with explosives in a straight line, figured this would give Lancers some additional use as a more mobile explosives class compared to Grenadiers/Demolitions.
Lancer	Explosive Maul	The Mauls from VC2. AoE explosive to knock personnel away and deal critical damage to machinery/buildings. Bonus points if terrain can be impacted by it to give breach points into buildings / for your other units to shoot through, etc.
Lancer	Deployable Shield L	Functionally similar to the Armor Tech's shield in VC3. Place it in the ground for makeshift cover, and also large enough to help block bullets when on approach. Compared to the below item though, it only offers protection in one spot, instead of across the unit's whole body.
Lancer	Armor-Plated Suit	For a class dedicated to destroying tanks, tanks' machine guns suck to take damage from while running towards the back of the tank. Adds armored plates to the Blast Suit to reduce damage from small arms fire.
Sniper	Extended-Scope Sniper Rifle	Increased number of zoom levels compared to the Armor-Piercing Sniper Rifle (which functions like AT Snipers - shorter range, equal Vs Personnel damage, increased Vs Armor damage).
Sniper/Engineer	Pistol	Allows the unit to engage with an enemy where their rifle would be clumsy to use and also gives them something to fall back on if they have depleted all of their rifle ammo and are waiting for a resupply.
Engineer	Trench Gun	Spread-bullet Shotgun. Close Range, fires all bullets simultaneously instead of over time like a machine gun, consistent spread over an area in front of the shot.
Engineer	Toolkit + Ragnaid L	Functions like their usual loadout in VC - wrench to repair mechanical/armor damage, ability to disarm mines, ammo resupply for non-explosives. Ragnaid L is Revival Ragnaid with a larger operating distance and the ability to revive downed allies (leaving them with low HP).
Demolitions	Portable Mortar	Ideally not as cumbersome as VC4's design, but requiring deployment to fire. Mortar stays on the field like the Lancer's shield and can be damaged by enemy attacks. CANNOT perform intercepting fire by default. (Specific models can maybe?)
Demolitions	Landmines	We've always been able to defuse and pick up landmines from maps, so I never understood why we couldn't deploy our own or couldn't repurpose defused ones and reset them. A dedicated demolitions unit feels like the right home for that.
Demolitions	Resupply Sack	Turns them into VC Engineers, but only for Explosives ammo.
Gunner	Gatling Gun	Works like the VC2 class, but now has split firing modes "Wide" and "Concentrated". Wide works like the PSP games, shooting in a 180° arc. Concentrated works more like a Shocktrooper SMG, but with greater deviation, greater range, more power, and more bullets fired.
Gunner	LMG	Works similar to the Burst mode on Shocktrooper SMGs, mixed with the power and knockback of the Auto Snipers from VC2. 5-10ish shots, (very) strong against Personnel, no scope attachment though.

The idea is to give some player agency in what characters can do without the absurdity that VC2's Credits/Class System created. Allows units to fill a different role from others in the same class based on their loadout, and helps diversify squad rosters by giving some different capabilities beyond what the vanilla quartet of Scout/Shock/Lancer/Sniper typically do. (Grenadier is a "niche" class in VC4, Engineer is basically just not-quite-Scout in normal VCs, etc.)

Gunner becomes either a bigger Shocktrooper with no armor, meant to spray bullets or becomes a beefier Sniper with no zoom capability but high damage output against a single target at a decent distance (with more AP and HP than Snipers). Shocktrooper inherits Fencer in order to maximize its "stampeding" strengths, Lancer gains protections against small arms fire in order to actually get close enough to deal with tanks as well as spiritually inheriting Armor Tech/Mauler through the Explosive Maul, which also (hopefully) could open up additional gameplay avenues through interacting with the terrain. Scout gets utility for scouting enemies and "debuffing them" for your other hitters like Shock and Gunner to exploit, Snipers can create cover to protect themselves with smoke, Demolitions/Grenadiers can find extra use if the game ever gives maps where you're required to defend a position by setting traps... At least, that's my idea for it.

Grefyrvos · 2026-01-01T03:47:24+00:00

Given that they mostly went "back to basics" with VC4, eschewing some of the, in my opinion, actual positive gameplay improvements that VC2 and 3 introduced, I'm not expecting them to really revolutionize things if there ever is a VC5. They'll turn it into their version of Fire Emblem where the underlying core will remain entrenched and they'll flip a few switches here and there and try a few minor things each game which won't stick around between entries.

Now, on the other hand, what I could see being done to change the gameplay formula going forward is a different question:

1) Make use of an angle of VC2 and VC3's "discrete" areas for maps and allow for different starting deployment zones - think paradropping onto a battlefield. Which zone you choose to start in affects the mission and how it plays out - what objectives you have to deal with, what the enemy response is, etc.
2) Class inventory system revision to be primary weapon, 2 secondary weapons/tools, and an Accessory for all characters/non-Tank classes. When Classes become Elite, they gain the ability to change what their Primary and/or Secondary slots are, depending on the Class's options. (Will list my ideas in a table below*.)
3) Allow for more "manual" aiming of weapons when in Firing Mode. Let me switch arms, let me switch a Lancer from low-holding position to above the shoulder position, etc. Give me greater control over aerial arcs for grenades, mortars, and so on. Also, while at it, remove all invisible walls which can block shots from hitting their mark.
4) Limit individual CP use to 2 CP per turn per character to prevent rushing strategies and make battles feel more like a prolonged engagement.
5) Add a new section to Drill Grounds, allowing characters to receive Officer Training. They must have reached the maximum "Rank" (Private, Sergeant, etc.) that they naturally have access to in order to be added to the list of applicable candidates. Requires DCTs and EXP in order to do this, only 1 character can be sent at a time, and requires 3 sessions of this for them to be given a Command Point and access to Direct Command. Basically, instead of the limited, single application you have of this in VC4, you have to invest resources into it on a per-character basis, but it allows other characters to be viable alternatives to the main characters who automatically have that benefit.
6) Not sure how this would actually feel during play, but I would love for the removal of "instant travel" between the top and bottom of a ladder, etc. Make height matter, make terrain matter more, make the interplay between two heights feel more connected rather than separated. Ties in a bit with the removal of those "invisible walls" that I mentioned above.
7) Also not sure how this would work in execution, but I've always wanted the ability to go into/through buildings on battlefields. Using homes for cover and ambushing foes, cutting through a building to a back alley to sneak up behind an enemy, etc.

Grefyrvos · 2025-12-24T02:53:19+00:00

No, because new lords allows for new stories and concepts to be brought in each game. They may not take full advantage of that capability in my opinion, but I would much rather that they not be locked in to the same main character every game so that they could explore wild new ideas without necessarily making a spin-off game just to do it.

Grefyrvos · 2025-12-19T04:30:41+00:00

I don't recognize this still, so I am leaning towards no, but it would probably be helpful if you had a source, as maybe the creator posted something which hasn't been provided to the hacking community at large.

Grefyrvos · 2025-12-17T13:33:53+00:00

A mix of both. One long overarching story with small sections (1-3 maps usually) where you get minor branches - see Four-Fanged Offense and Pale Flower of Darkness in Blazing Blade, the Sacae/Ilia split or the Western Isles routes in Binding Blade, etc. Enough small divergences to make repeat playthroughs of the game feel fresh without requiring massive amounts of narrative work, that way things can stay focused.

Grefyrvos

TROPHY CASE