Today I wanted to go over Delthea and Luthier. These two mages are sister and brother, both descended from a powerful mage. While Delthea inherited a lot of the blood from this mage, Luthier didn’t get much of it. However, Delthea doesn’t really like magic, and just wants to live her life being a normal teenage girl, obsessing over boys like… hold on… let me check my notes… Clive (dude is a grown married man and she is 14). OK. Luthier, on the other hand, is extremely autistic, and his #1 special interest is magic. He’s worked so hard all of his life to perfect it, but he’ll be the first to admit he only has a fraction of the power his sister does. Side note, but Luthier is an extremely relatable guy. Autistic and likes cats. That’s so many people. Anyway, he’s always telling Delthea she needs to embrace her natural talent, info-dumping about magic and such. She wants to hear about NONE of it though, and she can be a bit bratty. Pretty understandable, considering she’s essentially been given a role she doesn’t want. Just because her brother wants it, doesn’t mean she should have to live it out for him. Although these mark some of Luthier’s feelings towards her, lot of his “nagging” is really in the interest of keeping her safe, as she’s really reckless and cocky about her power.

Here’s where I applaud the Shadows of Valentia devs though. In gameplay, Delthea is one of the best characters in the game. She starts off at a lower level, but quickly levels up, surpassing most of the other mages. She even learns Ragnarok, a spell mentioned to be on par with a Mila, a god. The only other character who can learn this spell is Celica, a main character who has literally been marked by that god. She’s REALLY strong. Luthier, on the other hand, is okay. He’s pretty good when introduced, and he gains both Thunder and Sagittae, longer-range spells (something Delthea lacks). He joins earlier, and at a higher level. The issue is, he starts to become more mediocre as the game goes on. He’s not bad, and he’s a mage so he’s automatically good, but even being at level 11 when promoted, a level 4 promoted Delthea will be much stronger than him. Even a level 7 promoted Faye (when a mage) will be stronger than him. I think it was a great idea to actually integrate the lore between the siblings in the gameplay. It lets the player feel the power difference between them, and through their support conversations it’s clear how that difference can cause some strife between them.

So when I said Delthea supremacy, it was not a matter of my opinion. It was a fact. Statistically speaking, Delthea will always reign supreme. At least until she gives up magic and decides to try to romance Clive, good luck with that small child.

Also have to admire the work on his portrait. Berkut goes from being normal to looking like this when he says UNCLE!!!

Didn’t you say you thought you were neurotypical a month or two ago?