Fire Emblem Three Houses: Name Origins – Do They Mean Anything?

[This article is spoiler-free but may indirectly reference the plot and characters. If your radar for foreshadowing and symbolism analysis is top-tier, I suggest you read this another time after you’re done with Blue Lions and Black Eagles.]

Fire Emblem Three Houses is my first entry into the franchise and I’ve been completely charmed by its lore,plot,characters,setting and gameplay. (Basically, everything about it)

And when you’re absorbed by its fandom and content, you get curious and try to associate certain aspects in the game to real life. Also, my intentions in making this article is for fun. I mean no ill, especially when I briefly reference history. In this case, we’ll take a look at name origins and legends related to the house leaders.

(Babynames.com, here we go!)

Edelgard von Hresvelg

The Gemarnic name,Edelgard, when put together means “Noble Protector”. If you split them into two, “gard” literally means ‘fence,enclosure and protection. Sampling the word from Norse Mythology ‘Midgard’ in Old English directly translates to Middle Earth where humans live. The word has evolved into many iterations.

Adel (another variation of Edel) on the other hand has also Arabic origins that means “one who judges fairly.”

Her family name, Hresvelg, has the most connection to her lore as it originates from the giant who takes the form of an eagle in Norse mythology named Hraesvelgr. In Old Norse translation, it means “Corpse Swallower”. Yikes.

Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd

The name Dimitri/Dmitri goes way back to ancient Greece and is related to Demeter, the goddess of agriculture. His first name literally means “devoted to mother earth/demeter”. There is a Christian martyr and a military saint called “Saint Demetrios of Thessaloniki“. Many of his stories revolve around him miraculously defending the city and in one particular picture, he is portrayed as a man riding a horse with his spear piercing through Kaloyan, the emperor of Bulgaria at that time. The history behind the war he was involved in was quite complicated and I haven’t really gotten deep into its history but TLDR; at somepoint, Saint Demetrios’ enemy waged war against the crusaders, the Church’s army, and referred to his place of ruling as the empire.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demetrius_of_Thessaloniki

Meanwhile, Alexandre/Alexander is also derived from Greek which means “Defender of the people” or “Protector of men”. A lot of rulers that date back to the BC timeline up until modern times bear the ‘Alexander’ name. There’s also a ton of variations of the it that has spread through the world.

Blaiddyd/Bladud means “Wolf Lord”. Not exactly what we’re looking for since he’s the house leader of the lions. There’s a tale surrounding King Bladud on how he believed in necromancy or divination through the spirits of the dead. He passed away after thinking he could fly with fake wings. Oof.

Claude von Regan

It’s kinda sad reading ‘Claude/Claudius’ name origins. A lot would lead to the word “lame” but there are at least two prominent Klaúdios in history (Ptolemy and Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus)  in a sea of people that bear the Claudii “family” name. After researching a bit, it is hard to pin-point a connection to FE Claude but hey, Urban Dictionary says the name means “cool” and I’m satisfied with that.

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Claude

Thankfully, the name ‘Regan” has a more solid origin story than his first name. It’s a gender neutral Irish name that means “The king’s child”. What’s interesting is that the O’Regans of Meath from Ireland are a part of the Four Tribes of Tara, an alliance formed by different clans. There’s a lot of history involved in their lands and it might be a little tedious to go over them one by one so I’ll link you to the wiki.

My mark is totally off on this next point but I thought of including this still since it just reminds me of Fodlan a bit.

What I would love to highlight is the map that features Meath/Mide, one of the places where O’Regans were based 900 years ago:

Today, the Leinster province is much larger now compared to the past and I can’t help but think the partitions is similar to Fódlan. (Except for the northern area,of course)

I’m sure there’s still more details that I’ve missed but that’s the gist of it! I’ll see if I can do this article again for the other students. Let me know if you’ve enjoyed this article.

Thank you again for dropping by! You can DM me at @RikuCasts

Sources:
Wikipedia
Babynames.com
fireemblem.fandom.com
villains.fandom.com

Grand Chase: Crowning the Queen of SR Supports

Stop wasting your stones. Stop wasting your monies. Stop whatever you’re doing and read. I know you need this.

With the recent hero balance patch implemented on January 31, KOG made changes to make PVP/PVE comps more flexible as the rest of the SR pool can easily be overshadowed by the usual picks since last year. I made a “before and after” doc about that one too so we can easily compare.

What Gives a Support Character Value?

First off, we need to assess what is expected and what is needed from a support hero in the current meta for both PVP and PVE. Dungeons and raids are getting harder and with Zero just releasing and Asin might be coming soon,  it will definitely save you a truck ton of resources if you know who to prioritize on growing first.

As a support, you’re mainly expected to have:

• Heal
• Shields
• Buffs

Tankiness and damage are huge bonuses. Heal can be rarely found in other heroes and is usually the reason why a support is picked up. And that’s why its important to assess because you might be overdoing certain aspects of the comp and neglecting to balance your line-up.

Let’s focus on the three mentioned above first.

Comparison Time!

There are currently 4 SR supports in the pool: Amy, Lime, Rin and Serdin. Take note that the numbers presented here are based from the in-game description. Therefore, all of these are the base amount.

‘Right-Click’ and ‘View Image’ to see a bigger image

The Rundown

There’s honestly no best support hero for me. (LOL. I’m lying. Its Amy. B I A S ED) It just really depends what you need and what your play style is. There are supports great at shielding, healing, debuffing and as well as dealing damage. (I’m looking at you,Serdin).

• Best Heal Value: Amy overall for consistency. Lime ends up in 2nd for her free heals on her auto-attacks and cheap skills.
• Best Shield Value: Lime for her cheap and 30% HP based shield at 1 SP cost. Serdin claims second place with 20% based on other people’s HP at 2 SP.
• Most Buffs: Amy wins again with her SP Gain, Damage Reduction on both skills. Her ultimate is also killer on PVE.
• Best Damage: Serdin. I don’t know what else to say aside from the 200% basic attack damage 20 seconds every time she uses her skill for a good . There’s no cool down stated either.
• Best Ultimate: Amy again. Honestly tough to beat as you give your other party members to shine with the insane 70% cool down reduction and 12 SP. Very expensive though.
• Best PVP: Rin for the null zones and heals. Serdin for damage and synergizes with comps with assault/rangers. Depends on your play style,really.

Amy

Amy is a healing machine. She may have 0 shields but her damage reduction buffs on both her Skill 1 and Skill 2 makes up for it. Viable on both PVP/PVE, she makes everyone crazy tanky. She recently got buffed so she doesn’t die during clutch heal moments while using “Loving You”. She’s great with any line-up. The only downside to Amy is her slow skill animation on her Skill 1, so it’ll be easily interrupted if you’re not careful.

Lime

Lime has a lot of everything. 2 skills that heal both at 1 SP cost.Can provide shields. And also does a moderate amount of damage. Her free heals will be reliant on how fast she auto attacks. Her splash damage would be a better way to proc this effect so use her first skill to be in the middle of the mob! She also has a built-in cleanse. Very strong in both PVP/PVE.

Might build her next.

Rin

I feel like Rin shines the brightest on PVP. PVE is a little so-so, for me. Lesser mobs have buffs that aren’t exactly too significant to remove or even non-existent; and the really strong enemy buffs on bosses are often “uncleansable“. Also, the mere fact that you have to use 5 skills to reach ‘Light’ or ‘Dark’ mode means you have to spend 5-10 SP just to fully utilize all her effects. They already buffed her by having free heals as long as you cleanse enemies but again, its reliant on other conditions.

For PVP though, she’ll be a headache to deal with on defense/offense as she deals damage,a null zone for 2 instances and heals for days. You’ll definitely get a lot of value outta her.

For my final verdict, I find her expensive to use (SP-wise) and reliant on numerous factors to be fully maximized. Is the return worth? PVP,  hell yes. PVE, I would rather use Lime or Amy with consistent effects.

Serdin

KOG still managed to still portray her as a powerful mage with crazy damage numbers as a support hero but still retain her kind heart with her healing abilities. Her basic attack damage debuff works well with assault, rangers and even herself as her passive gives her autos splash damage. The splash damage was buffed from 50% – > 200%. People say she’s great in PVE. I can imagine. If only I had her, I’d love to test her out on the field.

But based from the numbers, she’ll really do well in PVE. Especially when you have to melt through mobs and bosses. Her only reliable heal is her 2nd skill that matches  other SR supports. They all fall around 230%-240%. The rest of her heal will be reliant on autos. (And I’m not sure how it works either but the healing rate looks very small. Hit me up if you know how the math works with her first skill.)

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That’s it for me. Thanks for reading! Hope I helped decide which support to build this time around! There’s no “Queen of SR Supports”. Everyone can be viable and effective depending if its a raid, dungeon, adventure or PVP!

Again this is my opinion. Feel free to discuss your thoughts below!

Summoners’ War: Mari vs Ley

Hey, folks! This is probably the first of many (I hope) character breakdowns in this website where we put two units against each other and compare them side by side. The intention of this face-off is to define which is stronger, best comp synergies and as well as how well they fair on PVP and PVE.

Most of the data derived here are from the actual skill descriptions in-game, some tests on practice mode and first-hand experience as I do own Mari and Ley, both used on PVP and dungeons.

I’m a lazy typer and it’s 1AM so I’ll keep it concise.

Expectations

To make a comparison, a few guidelines had to be set and I believe Mari and Ley fall under these:

• Similar playstyle
• Same rank
• Same class

I ain’t the best in math, won’t go too deep and make things complicated. Just think of this article as just ‘setting the table’ for ya’ll to eat. All my computations are done based from base stats and therefore buffs from equipment sets, party skills and possible synergy from other characters are not counted in the “Skillset” part of the article.

Skillset

To get a better perspective of how these two summoners work, we’ll have to take a look at each skill and compare!

Correction: Mari’s KORMETs have a 3 summon limit. Thanks to Gelo for pointing this out. Tried and tested on practice mode.

Ley – After summoning Jeeves, your first skill turns into a different ability that commands him to rush towards the enemy and do a continuous knockback CC. If you’re able to maximize the whole 30 secs, you can potentially deal 2,000%+ damage in 30 secs with Jeeves’ skill alone. This is also with the standard 3 sec cooldown. What more with cooldown reduction and attack speed to proc her passive(We’ll get to that later).

The computation does not include Jeeves’ basic attacks and his initial damage.

Mari – With KORMET able to be alive for 30 sec and on a 20 sec cooldown, you can potentially have 2 KORMETS available on a 10 sec window. Without attack speed buffs, let’s assume the missiles come out every 4-5 secs, dealing 432% m. dmg in 30 secs + 144% m.dmg in 10 seconds for when the second KORMET is summoned + 240% dmg (Initial dmg with 2 KORMETS) + 180% dmg (Upon the first summon’s death) = 996% m.dmg in 30 secs.

This does not include KORMET’s basic attacks as well and the possibility of overlapping 3 KORMETs with the right build for cdr, skill rotations and SP recovery.

Conclusion: Ley clearly wins this one damage-wise. But for PVE dungeons, Mari’s skill has a far greater reach for mobs and splash damage. Having 996% m.dmg per unit is pretty impressive.

Ley – Has a smaller range in comparison to Mari’s and this is another summon that has HP. Not sure if the debuff stacks ex. 3 Haunts = -150% HP Recovery. Great for PVP. Take note that 110% m.dmg/sec is actually pretty insane because it damages enemies around the summon. If you keep 3 Haunts alive, you’ll be dealing 7,260% m.dmg in a span of 30 secs. (As long as you summon every 8 secs).

This computation does not count the initial damage as Mari’s skill doesn’t have one.

Mari – Not entirely sure what “maximum magic damage per second” means but the way I understood it is that, a certain unit can only suffer up to 358.4% damage tops during the whole duration of the AoE. I’m assuming this is the case as you can summon unlimited amounts of the WDW and they can go on top of each other. Seems pretty OP if its 300%+ dmg per second and you can place as many as you want. It lasts for 15 secs and has a 12 sec cd, therefore, you have a good 3 sec DoT of 2x damage before it expires.

Conclusion: Ley wins again for both PVP and PVE for having an effective spread, heal debuff and a huge amount of damage. The effectiveness of Mari’s 2nd skill is dependent on KORMET summons. Still great because the AoE size is huge but its a rather slow dps skill compared to Ley’s Haunts.

Conclusion: I’m not even gonna break it down since it’s not that complicated. Ultimate skills that costs 40 SP are rarely used and the damage gap is just too much between the two. Ley wins again. The only good side for Mari’s skill is having a good 30 seconds with 4 KORMETS. Not entirely sure if that’s worth it for 40 SP but looking at Ley’s other skills, she can easily get more damage without spending that much.

Ley – Packed with a ton of buffs for summons and as well as a way of sustain to keep your little shits alive, this works great with atk speed buffs. Each basic atk will deal a  35% splash m.dmg from the targeted unit. Its just too good. Empowered autoattacks are always helpful.

Mari – her passive is very underwhelming. Not only that it doesn’t indicate how much damage the “Overloaded” debuff actually does, but it only has a 10% chance of proc-ing. Its not worth working around it. Its just a bonus and its definitely not what makes Mari great.

Conclusion: I don’t think I need to say anything here.

Overall Assessment

I’m obviously leaning heavily on Ley due to how effective she could be at both PVP and PVE for full-on damage. One thing to note on Ley is that her skill animations are quite slow so if you don’t correctly have your skill rotations right in-between controlling everyone, you’ll definitely either find yourself investing too much on Ley and ignoring the rest or the complete opposite and therefore, not maximizing her kit. Her Jeeves knockback skill has 0 cost + can potentially reach 1 sec cooldown. Extremely powerful at PVP.

On the other hand, Mari is very straightforward and doesn’t need too much attention. The bots do whatever they want and therefore, you can focus controlling other characters in the comp that has a lower CDR and the rest will do their job. Still works amazingly well on PVE with her bigger range and tick damage.

Ley

• Equipment: Green Set for the atk speed buffs and boost her atk dmg as well. In my opinion, I’d go for a combination of Green Set and Blue Set to get just the atk speed buff and cooldown reduction.
• Good with: Sofia for the atk speed buffs for your passive and your summons, Amy/Sage for more SP regeneration, Olivia for atk dmg increase for you and your summons, Ronan for magic dmg buffs and protection. Mages are super squishy.
• Bad against: Heavy CC divers. They can cancel your somewhat base slow skill animation. This includes Seighart, Elesis and Lass to name a few. Boar as he has a 10 sec skill that instantly kills off summons.
• PVP: She’s great with the heal reduction debuffs and as well as Jeeves’ knockback. Its a small space so if you can, you can pin them towards the door forever where the other units get summoned when you kill them. Perfect setup for AoE attacks.
• PVE: Damage will definitely not disappoint and your “Haunts” will have a fun time dealing tons of hurt out there but I feel like there are better options from other classes.

Mari

• Equipment: Feel free to go full blue set here for dmg redux + skill cdr redux(Be more tankier + more KORMETS and WDW). Or if you want to take advantage of the passive, go Green Set.
• Good with: Same with Ley
• Bad Against: Same with Ley
• PVP: The WDW is great as it takes up a huge area. And AI doesn’t normally dodge and re-position. Summons are also great at separating the squad so you can juggle aggro and focus 1-2 members at a time.
• PVE: I think Mari is way better on PVE. The fact that you don’t need to control her much but deals a significant amount of damage still is a plus since you can invest your SP and other resources on other units.

And that ends my Ley vs Mari face-off. I’m super tired already so I won’t say much. If you like what you’ve read, kindly share the article. If you see something wrong, feel free to leave a comment!

Want a face-off and a comparison like this for other characters? Hit me up at @RikuCasts and if I have time, I’ll make one! For now, hope you enjoyed!

Before You Rant: Grand Chase Dimensional Chaser

“Ay, pangit. Hindi parehas sa PC game”
“Bakit ganito gameplay?”
“Mobile pala? Wag na lang.”

Taken from the official facebook page of Grand Chase PH

There’s probably a couple more I’ve missed but this pretty much sums up some of the reactions I saw at the comment section of Grand Chase Dimensional Chaser’s announcement. A lot of people have been looking forward to the return of Grand Chase and there have been a few games that sorta tried to fill that void: From Elsword to Grand Chase Mobile M , it wasn’t the same.

Enter Grand Chase Dimensional Chaser (mobile), a game that is officially announced as the direct sequel to the original Grand Chase(PC) – The one we know and love to bits. Before I give my thoughts on the game, let me tell you my background as a player. I am a huge GC fan since it got released, played from highschool to college (on and off) and stopped around the time Rin or Lime was released in the Philippines.

The intention of this article is to help you understand what I think KOG did great about this game and cite instances of how it relates to the old one. Having a whole new different approach doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be given a chance. Now that’s out of the way, let’s proceed to the review.

Gameplay

The biggest turn off that people found upon seeing videos was the gameplay. As the devs explained, they thought long and hard on how they would approach this and saw that a real-time action RPG was the way to go. You assemble a party of four, control them as a unit and fight your way through monsters and bosses in instanced dungeons. It has the same essence as the original while still making sure it fits as a game in the mobile market.

I found it enjoyable, challenging and addicting as you still have to move around and dodge attacks, gather mobs to get the maximum efficiency when you use your AoE skills and since there are different types of enemies and a variety of conditions for a certain dungeon, there’s still some strategy and planning involved – both before and during the run. I wish I could elaborate more on the RPG elements of this game like characters have individual stats, skills, roles ,equipment, etc but I’ll save that for another article (probably).

Not a major spoiler but I was so happy to see Sieghart again and Arme’s reaction!

Story / Writing

One thing to take from the original GC is it’s story. It isn’t the most amazing thing but travelling through the different worlds and gathering new and unique members to the chase as you go along brings you a sense of attachment to the group. ALSO, WHAT STORY? We keep pressing ‘Z’ or ‘X’ to skip the dialogue back then because everyone is in a hurry to finish the dungeon. But the colorful characters, the concept of many encountered maps and worlds and the boss and monster mechanics were one of the many factors that made the GC universe unique.

Now, what does Grand Chase Dimensional Chaser has to offer? Everything above but better. You have new characters and and old ones from the original cast, cute little dialogue references from the previous game or from other games, occasional fourth wall breaking and banter between the main cast and the villains of the game.

I honestly don’t want to spoil too much but if you’re a JRPG and an anime fan, you’ll enjoy playing through the story and getting to know the different characters that pop in from time to time or that join your group. Take note, this game has an encyclopedia feature where you can read more about your roster and replay the story just in case you’ve missed a cinematic or dialogue.

The best part about the story is that players that never got a chance to try out or understood the original GC will still enjoy this game either way. Nostalgia is just a bonus. And because the story is more of a single player experience, you can now immerse yourself without any time pressure from your peers or randoms.

Art / Design

I think the whole thing speaks for itself. Their approach is a classic anime style JRPG. Character portraits are detailed and colorful that matches the theme of the original, in-game units are quite similar to the Disgaea remake and the maps and environment are quite detailed.

UI design is clean and not confusing at all. For beginners, there’s a lot of things going on on your screen but they made it organized enough that you know where to go and what to click within an hour of playing time. (At least, for me)

Also, you’ll enjoy the game’s OST. You’ll be greeted by the original theme song as the main menu BGM. Dungeons have both new and probably remastered music from the old game just to keep the nostalgia flowing. Sound design is not bad. Different sound sfx when skills register, weapon and bangs and thwacks and character voice lines during runs all blend well together and are well-thought.

On a side note, all characters are fully voiced in Japanese. /weab mode: ON

Not gonna dwell here too much. I just love the design and their approach overall!

Overall Impression

The game has heart, I can tell you that.You can play this game without spending a dime but you’ll probably tempted to do so if you absolutely want a better chance of getting SR ranked characters faster or improve your line-up to go through dungeons with ease. I’m not saying it’s a pay to win game but it’ll definitely make your life easier. This game has no stamina and that’s the reason why I could play this non-stop. Been playing for 2-3 days straight now. There’s plenty of rewards and things to do in the game.

Props to KOG for a job well-done!

Pros and Cons

I’ll keep just enumerate because I noticed this was supposed to be a fast review. I feel like I’m rambling already ;A;

Pros

• Fully controlled PVP
• Lots of things to do outside the story like other game modes,missions and PVP
• Guild feature that gives you guild-only benefits such as trading materials to improve your characters, guild wars, guild exclusive currency to buy stuff at the shop,etc
• Playing through the story mode gives you a truck ton of rewards, even allowing you to choose S ranked heroes from each class
• No stamina – you can play all-day,baby
• Story is good enough to be entertaining and interesting. Feels like I’m watching an anime. I want more.
• RPG style where you have 5 classes and customize your roster however you like

Cons

• No stamina would mean you can just marathon this game and reach the end of the story super fast (Probably would take you 1 whole afternoon. Not bad for a mobile game, I suppose)
• Not a lot of SR characters to choose from so people would end up with the same roster (Asurai pointed this out).

Hopefully, new updates and content comes soon so more SR characters get added to the roster and end game line-ups would have more variety. Also, I want to know more about the story!

Final Thoughts

While it’s true that nothing has ever came close to the experience we had with the original GC, I felt like KOG did a good job translating the essence of the first one to the mobile platform. There’s a balance of where the old players would probably still be happy seeing the old cast return but at the same time not alienating new players to the franchise. There’s something for everybody.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed the review! Here are the download links and you can play and judge for yourself!

Download links
Apple: https://apple.co/2u0PZYm
Google: https://bit.ly/2KI7yDJ

 

Seagate Encourages Us to Be Wiser!

Having to lose your precious files is a nightmare. As a content creator, this is one of the things that I wish to never experience. EVER. Just imagine: raw footage from my vlogs and media coverage done on other countries and events, saved project files, .psd templates, gameplay recordings,etc – all gone.Everything is very important for my work and I’m sure a lot of people can relate. Even if our jobs are not on the line, all our precious memories,programs,games,etc we have gathered overtime just disappear in a snap due to data corruption or from physical causes is still a hassle to deal with.

With Seagate’s running campaign called “Be WISER”, it reminds us that the cliche line “Prevention is better than Cure” can be applied for our internal storage needs and prevent disasters such as the mentioned above from happening.

 

Be WISER!

Purchasing second hand products is a common practice, especially when there are deals that are hard to resist. But it doesn’t change the fact that at some instances, you are putting yourself at risk of sketchy transactions, potential zero customer support and damaged goods . And when it comes to internal hard drives, it can get a little bit tricky. Memories in the form of files on your PC and the time invested to make them can’t be bought back. (Unless, you have a time machine.)

 

You can easily spot Seagate’s friendly reminder through their signages, stickers and posters on their products located at certain stores.

Benefits of buying a brand new Internal drive:

• Its new and the purchase is under your name – saves the hassle of documents for applying for needed services and stuff
• Direct support/Warranty – if ever problems are encountered, you can easily contact them through their customer support hotline or via email and save yourself from solving these things on your own
• After services like “Rescue” for Seagate – they’ve got awesome tools to recover files in-case of emergency and/or you’re just not tech-confident enough to use their software on your own. If you have also accidentally or happen to have important data formatted or deleted, they can help with that too.
• You can check out this link for more information about their “Rescue” plans and services: https://www.seagate.com/as/en/services-software/recover/

Just a friendly reminder,fam! Have fun and keep gaming!

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