Chrono Trigger is a great game but while playing it I can see the seams. This feels like a game where there just wants to be more time and room to let the beats hit and show the characters. The campfire scene is so good and I wish there was more stuff like that in here.
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Cai's Casuality: Altered
22 September 2026
Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weaveactive
Beaten Cai's final battle. It was good! Story was fine. I maintain Cai feels like a character in the wrong franchise and nothing about his story really changed my opinion of that.
Some spoilers: His dad's illness still seems random and pointless.
I disliked how many adult characters appeared to...just be waiting for him to be of age which is...a vibe.
The "gods" in this setting are just weird and I think it's partially because they've all been flattened age wise. Solel is Aurora's dad but she could just be his sister or lover or whatever.
Overall I think subsequent runs will go much faster without all the side questing to do. Which, good! The game takes too long between major plot elements. I just wonder how much there will even be to do. I now know I don't need to recruit as much so there's kind of a double lessening of time pressure.
We're on to Theodora next. She seemed like the opposite side of Cai's coin. Going to try to reduce overlap with some of my characters from last time.
Oof, it is ROUGH to go back to level 1, three units, and intro fights. I think the overall tutorialization could be further reduced here.
Dyan sucks but we're laying it on a bit thick with the forked tongue? It's so hard to take this greaser with the pompadour seriously. He's so anachronistic. There's a lot of tell, don't show about the Saraminians being a sea people.
Overall her story feels much more in line with a standard Fire Emblem, at least to start. A lord with a mission for their people. It also goes MUCH faster this time between story battles which is a good thing. Part of that is definitely me just knowing the ropes better, and part of it is just that by having done the other route a lot of things are just done for me.
It really feels like THIS is the way the game should be played. Although one caveat, don't go so deep in the paint on the karma shard prizes. They can really quickly trivialize the game and it's a one way ratchet: I can't reinstate 10% exp boost, now it's 30% or nothing.
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The sun begins to set on Cai's weave
21 September 2026
Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weaveactive
The paralogues are so good and they made me smile the whole time with how interesting and inventive they are. Some of the best fights this game has to offer so far and I just wish there were more.
For all my gripes, I think my biggest one is that I can't recruit Anatolia.
I'm getting close to turning off combat animations to speed it up. This game never totally recaptured the charm of the pixel art versions.
Ending a battle with the turn based boss mode is a cool idea...if the turn based jrpg battle thing was more interesting.
The restart chapter button really shouldn't be so close to the battle one...
Alright, we're on Cai's final chapter. Initially I had thought to play Leda next but now I'm not sure! I might want to save her for even later, when she'll be even more powerful. Bwahaha.
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Weaving paralogues
20 September 2026
Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weaveactive
It's getting pretty interesting and I've gotten to the part where I've unlocked the paralogues.
One thing that I do find frustrating about this is just the recruitment requirements and I wish they would telegraph that stuff in advance: "Oh I need to save money" or "I need to be gathering these items out on the overworld to be prepared for it." That would just be a nice quality-of-life thing.
I do also really like the Roman Mediterranean setting and I wish Fire Emblem would do this stuff more. I thought it was such a cool breath of fresh air when we got Face and there was a Japan-inspired one. Why haven't we revisited that? Can we do more? Can we go to a Nordic-inspired area or a Middle Eastern-inspired area?
The first paralogue was really good. It was a three way battle with bandits and birds to collect treasure. Fun and interesting, so much better than your standard boring overworld battles.
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Busily weaving
19 September 2026
Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weaveactive
The lack of a weapon triangle definitely I think removes some texture. Sure, it's just rock paper scissors, but it means Cai can't just tank EVERYONE, an axe wielder makes you think twice. And sure spears do more vs mounted units but you can dismount for very free.
I think I'm also not using weapon arts aggressively enough but the game doesn't make me so...
Bird time is the silliest mechanic ever. Every time I do it I just think about how dumb it is in fiction. Imagine being a bystander for this exchange.
"Bird, do you ever think I'll be better than my dad with a spear?"
Bird sings a song
"You're right, I'll NEVER be as good as him. I'M A FAILURE! ...so anyways, today's a perfect day for fishing, you wanna come along?"
It is currently the middle of the night.If they want to rip off persona so much just do it harder in the dungeons. Make it a one more system. Make it at least mildly interesting.