FE10 Step 0: Take control of the Dawn Brigade, the worst starting army in all of FE

Summary Playlist: • Fire Emblem Radiant Da...
Livestream Playlist: • Fire Emblem Radiant Da...
Ruleset:
Hard mode
Modded to re-add enemy ranges and the weapon triangle
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Twitter: / excelblem
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[@semicorrect]

How could Jarod sacrifice his own soldier for no tactical gain? What a monster!

[@alchene321]

Wasting "pawns", what a joke!

[@risacooper]

Murdering his own subordinate in cold blood? Who would do such a despicable and unimaginably cruel thing!

[@alchene321]

Marth shocked face *

[@raze2012_]

*Marth looking away*

[@chaosamber7719]

"Is it the Dawn Brigade?" "No, it was just a new Excelblem playthrough."

[@Broscarf]

This Jarod character seems familiar somehow.. the way he sacrifices his own pawns for minimal gain.. who could he remind me of?

[@masonhughes7357]

Man I love the dawn brigade, I love how micaiah dies to a single sneeze.

[@funkyflunky9882]

Gets doubled by an archer that can cleanly one-shot her both times. Very iron man friendly.

[@Aeivious]

​@funkyflunky9882 just get good rng level ups duh.

[@ultimapower6950]

And then Micaiah got crippled by the knights of sinon due to working with the Demias Bandits or something idk Yes I know that Lazberia and Tellius are different continents, yes I’m going to continue doing Kaga Saga Hiljacks

[@raymoo8504]

@@Aeivious just don't let ashera corrupt your save

[@jules9424]

At risk of getting one-shotted by random enemies as early as chapter 2. That's Micaiah for ya!

[@allan4172]

"particular circumstances" Sounds like a man who played 1-9

[@fu8746]

Nothing in the FE franchise will ever be funnier to me than knowing that in the original Japanese script for Radiant Dawn, Hard mode also changes the game's script to make expository dialog less heavy handed and forced. Yes, in the Japanese script, Hard Mode also made the dialog harder.

[@bgammax5842]

Ah yes Edward, my favorite character who's known for having more lines in Fire Emblem Heroes than his actual game and getting crowded out by the 4 other Swordmasters in Radiant Dawn

[@mysmallnoman]

Being outclassed doesn't mean a unit is bad

[@bgammax5842]

@@mysmallnoman he's not outclassed, he is legitimately significantly stronger than the other sword masters if you bother training him. But he suffers from the difficulty involved in training more than like 2 Dawn Brigade members and the presence of 4 different characters competing for the role of "guy who holds Alondite"

[@mysmallnoman]

@@bgammax5842 1) he's not hard to train lol and it's not like you have to train any other unit than jill and Nolan, and jill and with instant promo + transfers is fine without any training 2) alondite only exists for like 3 maps lol and it's not necessary

[@bgammax5842]

@@mysmallnoman to he perfectly clear Edward's my favorite character and I once showed him so much favoritism that he was a level 5 true blade by the time of part 3's endgame and necessitated me rerolling for a Deadeye trigger to avoid losing anyone (in hindsight I was probably better off just bringing a bunch of fliers and going around) I'm just acknowledging the reasons most people forget he exists

[@mysmallnoman]

@@bgammax5842 which is ironic because he's essential for 1-p + 1-1 lol

[@Anti-i25]

I was just thinking "Huh, it's been a while since the last summary series." and out comes Excelblem with the perfect timing. 10/10

[@webbowser8834]

IIRC this one got delayed due to hardware issues.

[@KoopaKoot]

Jarod: I finally got into Heroes! Soldier: what did it cost? Jarod: I owe them one soul....

[@hank2815]

Soldier: Y-You must mean a Daein’s soul, ri-“

[@DarrienGlasser]

Reminder that Edward has the same strength growth as base Dimitri

[@CrickettoSantalune]

And Azura has more strength growth than RD Ike

[@Jadriam]

Micaiah: can sacrifice hp ot heal others Also Micaiah: has almost no hp, arrows magnetically attracted to her vital organs, armor of paper I didn't get far in this game. All ARadiant Dawn really succeeded at was introducing me to Ike, as I didn't have access to the prequel in the series at the time.

[@jvts8916]

That review is a prime example of how sometimes we focus on innovation over things actually working. The only one that might be a better one is Megaman X6 getting points docked for not being 3D.

[@vincentthelego7967]

Nah, I think it would be Sticker Star getting bonus points for not having as many RPGs on the 3DS at the time.

[@CyclonSilver]

Oh the Radiant Dawn reviews were a riot. Something Excelblem hasn't mentioned here (yet) is that through localization, they made the Japanese Normal, Hard and Maniac into Easy, Normal and Hard (without changing the actual difficulty of course). The tutorials were also only on Easy mode, leading to journalists not going through them and getting bullied by the game, and since FE wasn't as recognized a name as it is now, they gave it no quarter when scoring. Pretty sure it's easily the worst reviewed FE out there, in magazines at least.

[@raze2012_]

This always happened with JRPGs until like, maybe late 2010's. Even the the bias remains. Always called it the "JRPG tax" to remove 5 points (out of 100) from a score becsuse of some weird nitpick. No motion controls, too much water, objectification that leads to a reviewer basically slandering the artists. It was wild.

[@Chorkly]

Somehow, Excelbelm returned.

[@EleofHarmony]

So glad you're finally playing the best FE

[@noiseisgold3n42]

well, best after the other 13.

[@hajoeijgenraam295]

Agreed, it has its flaws, but feels so good to play and has such a grand story

[@mikalepoot6634]

A fire emblem game's score directly corresponds with the volume of garbage units (this is an undisputed fact)

[@SethJV]

The irony is strong with this one.

[@serpent2776]

If you ignore part 4, sure

[@daz1543]

If you didn't bring the entire Dawn Brigade (including Meg and Fiona) to the tower, you didn't beat the game

[@GURGLEGUY12345]

The tragic thing about Fiona is that she has godlike growths and two useful skills that take up no space, but her bases and availability are godawful and she suffers on the maps where she _is_ available.

[@SirVyre]

I'll never forget my first Radiant Dawn playthrough. My brother and I got it during his visit for Christmas and New Years of 07. The goal was to beat it before he had to leave for his final week to spend time with his best friend on the other side of the state. We got to the tower, our hodgepodge of Greils, Waifus, and Dawnbies. Those prodigious stat having Laguz Royals the game just injected into our army? Nah, we don't need any of them! The game saying explicitly, "Better take our 11 best!" That can be ignored! No, we didn't get the Fortify staff. We didn't know about it, and didn't have enough Chest Keys. Why do you ask? Try, try, and Battle Save abuse again, only to not be able to beat Ashera. What do you mean 32 speed isn't enough to double all of endgame? What do you mean Parity is a good skill? That Saturday my brother saying to me, "Well, replay from our second save... back at Elincia's Gambit. If you can get back to the tower by next weekend, I should have one more night before my flight back home for us to beat it." Animations to map only, no lifing it, I reached the tower and stopped. Upon his return, we took in Caineghis, Tibarn, and Giffca. We won that time, and my brother still felt bad because we didn't do it with a team consisting of all his waifus. Then we read the online reviews and remember that one of them rated it at like 73/100 and said it was too difficult, even for a Fire Emblem game lmao.

[@mads_in_zero]

The Dawn Brigade sucking ass is genius design actually. It directly contrasts them with Ike's Greil Mercenaries, who in this game are all pre-promoted badasses on account of having survived the first game. Micaiah is on the back-foot the entire game, which causes her to justify several compromises for the "greater good". This turns out to be a recurring theme in the story, where compromising for the greater good is this game's Problem Dragon.

[@ddshocktrooper5604]

It's kinda bad in terms of game design, because the difficulty curve is complete nonsense in the early chapters. The part 3 stuff where DB returns is great idea of making a difficulty spike though. Part 4 is pretty terrible too.

[@archmagef6971]

yes yes someone else who notices that every major character is forced to be a hypocrite, with the player in the driver's seat. Like how Ike has to invade a sovereign nation on a war of revenge that he has nothing personally to do with. Or that Ashera tries to kill everyone for angering her even though she spilt her self in two and went into aslumber because she didn't want to kill everyone because they angered her again. Or that after the events of part two wher the antagonits duke ludveck an Snator valtome mistake Queen Elincia,s non-violence for weakness, the player removes her Mercy skill in part 4 and turns her into a killing machine on par with the worlds most dangerous man after Ashnard's death Hawk king Tibarn. Oh Micaiah isn't a mary sue she gets all the credit because she's treated like a figure head by the masses. Like Trump or Elon or any other Great Man TM.

[@mads_in_zero]

@@archmagef6971 Ike is a Mercenary who takes a job after asking the most reasonable question he can: Do we have a way to make sure this war won't awaken Lerhan's Medallion? Ike's always been characterized as dismissive to international politics, and it remains consistent in RD. You're also just, straight up wrong about Ashera? Her long nap wasn't a pure example of not wanting to destroy everything, so much as giving the world one last chance. Which, by the terms of her agreement, they failed. It also feels weird to call Micaiah a Mary Sue for being so beloved when like, it's her deification as Maiden of Dawn that's what causes her to make so many shitty decisions in the first place? The game is _about_ the Great Man Theory in that sense, because what RD is following up PoR from is Sephiran's ending speech - Ike has become a great Hero, but Heroes only raise the appetite for war. And so in Radiant Dawn (Japanese title "Goddess of Dawn") Daein's "Maiden of Dawn" ignites an appetite for revenge. And she's swallowed by the responsibility until she repeats the same mistakes as every other leader in Tellius? Because Elincia gets a moment like this too! She almost lets Lucia be executed, because it'll settle the whole tragic affair - making a compromise for the greater good - until the Greil Mercenaries appear out of nowhere and cut the proverbial knot. Ike being a mercenary first, hero second, who ignores all of the messy politicking of the game is why he doesn't make these big compromise mistakes. He doesn't fight for nations, he fights for his friends.

[@raze2012_]

​@@ddshocktrooper5604do people really hate part 4 that much? It's basically 3 houses before 3 houses. My only complaint is that it's way too short for the 3 armies it wants to make. 6 maps and off to endgame

[@audreyschicksalholmwiltz3872]

Radiant Dawn is truly one of the FEs of all time. All forms of slander directed at the Dawn Brigade have become daily food for the Tellius cultists to justify how training all Dawn Brigade units for 5 hours on one map to the max only to be benched at the end of the game is the best game design

[@jaskaranbajwa8443]

Is this a psyop? Who has ever trained the Dawn Brigade and then dropped the? You either don't train them (and drop them) or you do and they're viable in endgame

[@megarotom1590]

Edward and Nolan are end game viable with enough investment and Micaih and Sothe are mandated so might as well Imo act 1 is a tad annoying but worth it for the later parts of the game

[@mauwus4322]

​@@megarotom1590 c'mon Leonardo is good too if you're a masochist who doesn't want to use Shinon (or even Rolf) for whatever reason. Mainly because snipers are kinda cracked in this game

[@megarotom1590]

@@mauwus4322 fair, but also I just find the other two to statistically end up better. Especially Edward who actually can compare to the other swordmaster that aren’t mia Also helps he gets one of the best skills

[@mauwus4322]

@megarotom1590 I mean, for all the effort you put into Leonardo, he's still worse than a trained Rolf or Shinon. So you put in all the effort to get less payoff than Shinon, a character who requires almost no effort to be good. Nolan and Edward outclass at some of their competition when trained.

[@EdwardoFE]

If RD had motion controls it woulda sold 10 million copies

[@ivanbluecool]

Where is my PowerPoint presentation? What a rip off i wanted to see non moving pictures and typed letters

[@duyanhpham9227]

How could he be using power point if he is called Excelblem though

[@megarotom1590]

Edward is actually pretty good with enough training… though mostly cause FE10 Trueblades are busted

[@gunji8952]

Oh boy radiant dawn, surely the game will let you use each character a reasonable amount

[@SilverRoy212]

This is gonna be a treat!

[@OrigamiAhsoka]

YESSS, I’m so glad you’re doing recaps of this one

[@thomasnguyen4427]

IS IT THE DAWN BRIGADE!?!?!?

[@Snow_Fire_Flame]

Burying the lead here... you turned back on the weapon triangle & threat ranges, but did you hack ELEMENTAL AFFINITY back on, which is also inexplicably turned off on Hard? (And actually mostly makes the game harder anyway, since 90%+ of bosses match the elemental affinity of the map?) Truly one of the mechanics of all time.

[@raze2012_]

Definitely one of my "meta complaints". Wouldn't break the game, but from a design perspective it feels like they wanted to approach RD as if you'll use all your units and shuffle them in and out like a puzzle game, rather than an SRPG. That'd also explain the availability. ... Meanwhile, endgame forces 12 units out of 70 and gives you access to at least 5 different Athos's that are the optimal best choice, even if you ignored the game design and fed stats to your favorites. And forces you to use Ike that has a very intentional 1v1 as a force deploy. Playing "as intended" means Ike will be too weak to give what the narrative clearly wants out of you in having a clash between two goddess swords, and a climax for the son of the previous owner. It's my favorite game but it really didn't want to be a "FE game" .

[@ivanbluecool]

"training her doesn't make her more useful" so Erika and Roy?

[@itzcheeze2356]

Eirika and Roy can take a hit. Micaiah doesnt

[@Aeivious]

The only reason to train michaih is to make her a purge bot in the last few chapters of the game lol.

[@ultimapower6950]

And Runan… and I think Reese?

[@JustsomeKid93]

And Lyn and Eliwood and DS Marth

[@PriestOfTheHelix]

Shame Exel didn't think to use the true optimal Radiant Dawn strat of having Edward tank hits from the bandits and abusing sacrifice to grind Michiah to level 20 in the prologue. I half expected him to considering it seemed like the kind of strat he'd do.

[@ItsmeInternetStranger]

As someone with ADHD, if you couldn't handle Radiant Dawn's enemy phases that is some *severe* ADHD.

[@Aeivious]

Radiant dawn the is the perfect fire emblem for adults. Play a turn then get up and go do chores and other tasks and by the time its bedtime you can put another turn in.

[@ItsmeInternetStranger]

@@Aeivious It's still faster than FE4

[@butteredsalmonella]

FE10 EP was so bad that they made it so that FE11 has an option that lets you skip EP entirely. That about sums it up.

[@SwitheKun]

I'm glad youre doing a playthrough so i can enjoy the game. I dont know how anyone could bring themselves to play a game without motion controls, but you do seem to enjoy suffering.

[@dannybeeblebrox754]

Oh boy i can’t wait for excelblem to make it through part one on his first try!!!!! 🎉

[@PinClockFuntime]

Excelblem dropping iron man, this must've taken a lot out of him oh boy

[@Erinyes]

Murdering your own subordinate? We stan that

[@zuramaru3837]

Circumstances? Oh you mean green unit fiona chapter

[@JulieFalcom]

The fact that the Dawn Brigade is the most fragile (early game) party in FE is what makes Radiant Dawn so fun for me. I love the challenge David vs. Goliath, and honestly it features the perfect kind of challenge for me. Never unfair and it features enough of great units later on.

[@mitchelljohnson6106]

Funnily enough I consider this one of my favorite games in the series because I was bored one summer in high school and this game takes a long while to complete(thanks in part to enemy turn phases)

[@SharurFoF]

How on earth was it Radiant Dawn, and not Path of Radiance, that frustrated you with enemy phase length? Did you forget to turn off animations :P

[@radiantherooftellius1138]

IS IT THE DAWN BRIGADE

[@krishjay526]

You should sue the general for copyright infringement

[@TheWing2dasky]

"oh wow I can't wait to use all my cool units from fe9 in the sequel, surely IS won't stick me with a bunch of forgettable randos"

[@jacewarbeck9684]

Damn, Light Mage, Myrmidon, Archer map 1. Destined to suck ass.

[@PokeShadow77]

1:05 so did you stop the ironman and play on or quit entirely?

[@mateomarangelli9191]

How did you get that patch for the ranges and weapon triangle?

[@GiantCaliber]

No Engage KMU highlights?

[@screamingatstars66]

When do you unlock Iron Man?

[@VanessaVersus]

Dont forget the lack of mii support, how could a serious fire emblem game on the wii forget those

[@Aego384]

Scrub Brigade

[@paperluigi6132]

I’m guessing you’ve made it back to the start of Part 2 now? Also fun fact, unlike PoR, RD’s difficulties were left untouched from the original apart from the names.

[@FalcoFreeling]

That's just flat out false though, they didn't modify stats of enemies that much, but AI's, system changes and such all were absolutely made and JPN RD and US RD are twocompletely different games.

[@robertobrosful]

Radiant Dawn starts you with:. Micaiah, the worst lord to ever exist in Fire Emblem that can easily be doubled/one shoot by every enemy on the game (without RNG blessed stat gains) Edward, basically a trainee that either gets good or just meh, in the game while you have some of the best units on the franchise and you really want to build OP units by endgame And Leonardo, the worst archers ever conceived (yes, even worst that Neimi) that aports nothing but a Dracoshield and his (out of Japan) exclusive Bow that has arguably one of the best bonus stat in the worst Unit. (+5 speed on him would be crazy if he had some kind of speed to begin with) And still, Radiant Dawn is top 3 Fire Emblem games for me.

[@jacewarbeck9684]

Micaiah has 1-2 range from map 1. Still better than Eirika.

[@youtubedeletedmyaccountlma2263]

@@jacewarbeck9684 better than roy imo.

[@Siinory]

no motion controls?! I'm outta here!

[@Xertaron.]

It's also not Excelblem friendly - can't kill most of your army from the get-go.