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Welcome to this randomized run of Fire Emblem: Sacred St-



-excuse me, I, Elf Member: Arch Detests Nose! This will be done on the self-randomizing ROM for Sacred Stones, as created by CirclesEverywhere on Serenes Forest. Unlike Yune, which is an executable program that randomizes the game for you, the game randomizes itself. Here's what that means:



When you start a new game, you're first presented with this screen. The options aren't as robust as the ones Yune offers, but top to bottom:
% Variation: From 0 to 100, in increments of 5. Affects both growths and bases. Move isn't affected.
Don't Change: Thieves, Generics (as in generic enemies/NPCs), Both, or None. Note that this does not affect character recruitment or names, so we won't get anything like, say, Dozla replacing Ewan or something; everyone comes in the same order as the original game.
Skills: Class+Personal, Class, or Vanilla. The first two options add in a myriad of skills from other games - personal skills are unique to the unit, while class skills are shared by any unit in that class, like in Awakening and Fates. Vanilla just sticks with the regular skills from Sacred Stones, and doesn't randomize them. I'll explain skills as we get them.
Peak/Water Units: 1 Tile Move, Limit Classes, or Pure Random. I'll be honest; I haven't really played around with this setting, so I'm not really sure what these options do.
Weapon Stats: Random or Fixed. This only affects the weapon's combat stats, and doesn't change properties like durability, poison, or effectiveness.
Random Items: Chests+Events, Chests, Events, or Neither. Self-explanatory.
Mode: Classic or Casual, just like FE12 and onwards.
Map Music: Random or Normal. Also self-explanatory.

EDIT: vilkacis explains the Peak/Water Units option:

vilkacis posted:

The peak/water option is basically so you can get characters who start on normally unwalkable terrain to move - the bandits in Ross/Garcia's chapter can't get off the mountains if they're, say, mercenaries, for instance.


With all that said, here's the settings I'm going with:



High variation, random stats, random classes for everyone, let's go



The randomizer seed is determined by your "tactician" name. Since the other randomizer is Yune...

The world map introduction is completely unchanged - Eirika still looks like Eirika, Ephraim still looks like Ephraim, etc. so let's jump right into things.




From here, we can see that Eirika is a Knight, Seth is a Wyvern Lord, and Franz is an Archer. Seems pretty tame so far.



The trio escape Castle Renais and... wait, weren't they all just different classes? Now Eirika's a Mercenary, Seth's a Berserker, and Franz is a Wyvern Rider.



Then Valter shows up to take a swing at Seth.



Not a very effectual swing, but there you go. The palettes aren't quite as clean as the ones Yune makes, but sometimes that can add to the charm.

(not pictured: Seth missing a 100% hit chance because scripted events are silly)



Eirika and Seth get away, but not before their classes change again. I really don't know why this happens, but these are their actual classes now, as cool as it would have been to have Berserker Seth rocking a Swordslayer.



That's... not a rapier. Hopefully Seth can use this.



Now that O'Neill's monster army has shown up, let's take a look at what kind of stats we're working with.



Eirika is pretty much myrmidons.txt. Great speed and skill, mediocre strength, awful defenses. By pressing Select, we can view her growths...



...to find page 2 of myrmidons.txt. Those Strength and Defense growths are a little concerning, but we'll live (probably).

The way skill lists are structured is that it shows personal skills first, then shared skills like Shove or Canto, then class skills. Eirika here has Death Blow, which gives her +6 Attack when she initiates battle, Shove, which lets you shove people like in the Tellius games (all foot units have this), and Duelist's Blow, also giving +30% Avoid when she initiates battle. These are some very nice skills, and Death Blow especially helps with her abysmal strength growth.



The Iron Sword is a little stronger and more accurate, but with 1 extra point of weight, Eirika's weighed down slightly by it. Good thing she started out so speedy.



The Iron Ballista is actually weaker than in vanilla Sacred Stones... I don't see myself using this much at all, unless it's for super long-range shenanigans.



As for Seth... oh, dear. 11 HP on a Sniper? Hopefully his high Strength will be enough to drop enemies before he gets into any real danger. He also only has a C in bows, which is kind of annoying but hopefully won't affect too much this early on.



His Strength growth is high enough that he might actually cap it if I end up using him enough. The Skill growth is nice, too, and his other growths are just okay.

In terms of skills, we have Seal Luck, which drops the Luck of an enemy that survives combat with him by 6 (increasing by 1 each turn until it returns to normal), Shove, Certain Blow, granting +40% Hit when he starts a fight, and Sure Shot, a combat skill that gives him a (Skill)% chance to ensure a hit will land and also deal 1.5x the usual damage.



Looks like the Iron Bow also got nerfed, taking a hit to its power and accuracy. Seth is really gonna ride on his Attack stat and Certain Blow, isn't he...?



Let's start by showing this other archer what for.



That palette looks pretty nice on the Sniper sprite. After that...



Eirika picks a fight with the Tarvos. The sword weighing her down is a little annoying, but she wouldn't be able to one-round this guy anyway.



Her palette looks... less nice. Wait, 0% hit from a Halberd? I know I have Darting Blow, but is that really enough to totally dodge stuff like this right off the bat?



Oh. Sure, this guy's 0 skill isn't helping, either, but those stats are atrocious! Hopefully nobody joins with a halberd.
Two turns later, Eirika finally kills him, leaving O'Neill to come after her. But before that, Seth takes the Iron Ballista off her hands.



Huh. That's a way better hit chance than I thought... This'll make a good boss killer if I really need it, but hopefully I won't.



Oh god, that palette on the skeleton class is He hits, but Eirika will make it through even if he hits again.



And make it through she does, complete with a superfluous crit!



Strength is nice, but hopefully she hits that Defense growth soon.

And with that, we're done with the chapter! Thanks for reading.

NEXT TIME:

We witness a staring contest between a healer and a zombie.