Pépito

Chapter 12, the one where we just have to wait for the right moment to talk to NPCs. I'll finish it later today.

Ah gotcha. Didn't 25% of Europe die to the real black plague? It was just in case I royally fucked up and couldn't reach the boss in time. I usually do but I didn't risk it this time. I'd rather keep a unit or two than get the brave sword and some gold. I pussied out 😞 That's true, but I don't think it unlocks their bond. Yes but you don't necessarily know that when playing blind. As the chapter get longer and more dangerous, it will become more and more important. I usually am way less careful even during Ironman runs but this is such a big time investment that I don't want it to stop because of a dumb mistake. You can kill the misarme guy by sending your fliers. I'd still rather be careful. Oh my god you are right, I never thought of doing that. I guess that will be a trick for the next run. Don't get used to it. I very easily get carried away and overconfident. This might even be an argument for giving him the mobility but I decided that Zade was more important for this run. It would have been shorter if I had remembered to use the bellflower leaf when fighting the undead. Their paralysis is extremely time consuming. You can just send Urven with a pilum and have him kill 90% of the enemies in one turn but I can't risk that in an ironman. I suspect the chapter where I won't be as restrained as I should will be chapter 15. Until then, everything should be ok. I considered it but I remembered she doesn't really need it. She has great movement in the desert, is always close to the other during 14, doesn't need to move fully every turn in any of the three "zones" of 15, 17 is a slog and 19 doesn't see her move around too much either. It would have been useful to get her to the front faster in 20 but it really isn't necessary. He wouldn't be such a problem if you didn't need to reach the gold wagon in time. My most played game of all time. So unbelievably good with enough mods to do whatever you want and great DLC's. I also came to appreciate 3 more after 4 and 76 came around. Just like in Berwick, you just need to send the speedster deal with them. I always do it that way. Just like Kaga intended. I jus overestimated the Doyenne's strength. She had 12 might and Zade would have had 11 DEF and 5 HP if he hadn't leveled defense so even a double crit wouldn't have killed him. If she had procced industry and attacked again she could have done it but the chances would be very low and he leveled DEF anyways. Still scary. You can also run in and kill the archer since almost everyone is stationary but I wasn't sure of that at that point. I like to take my time in all aspects of life. Although we won't see a turncount like that until 17.

I don't think I will ever truly get tired of Fallout New Vegas. Anyways, the second part, and the end, of chapter 11.

That's weird... Nah, there is way worse than him in this game. But he does look pretty good. He shows up three times and another one shows up twice but I think that's it. I think he just says that Halym was a tyrant and that he overthrew him to better the lives of the people. And from what we hear of Halym, he may actually be better than him. They attack the yurts over your units only as long as you don't attack them I think. If you seize before clearing the top part of the map, I'm pretty sure it just sends you there anyways. It isn't actually optional. If a powerful mage like Roland only "may" restore his eyesight then these injuries are permanent for 99,99% of people. To be fair, he wanted to ride out. Cyltan will learn self-reflection in a few chapters thankfully. While it is horrible for the ward, it is also a pretty bloodless way to ensure no more rebellions spring up. Definitely better than razing villages to the ground and the like. Having to marry a bratty younger sibling sounds worse than hell... Don't mess this up like I did.

Yeah but Meleda has better relations with some influential people in Solis like Gyskhal. Well, it does give us a proper introduction to the margulites. It is supposed to be represented by holy magic cutting damage in half and granting defensive skills (regenesis, first blood) as well as being extremely rare, so not a good offensive mainstay. But having some sort of pacifist unit would be nice. I think we learn later that she is in her thirties or something, so over twice Cyltan's age. If you let the skeletons get to the houses, they get destroyed. If you look good you must be good. We play by disney rules here. She still has the magic swords but this is really bad. Losing an amazing weapon that also helps her grow better that soon will definitely make the game harder. Better pray she gets strength blessed. I don't think we see him again. The one we see again and again is the one from chapter 11. That's weird. I guess having the skeletons destroy the houses is just part of the illusion.

Chapter 11. This will be a multi-parter.

Chapter 10 is a weird little Kaga RPG.

The end of chapter 9 (probably).

Man I really wish I could play VS2 right now. But I guess I'll wait until the end of this ironman to be really refreshed on all the important plot points. Chapter 9... is a bit of a trap. They bait you, make you feel safe and then they crush you with a big ball of reinforcements.

Chapter 8. If we live through the initial charge, the rest of this defense chapter will be easy.

Ah you're right, got a bit confused there. I didn't remember the circlet maidens exclusively coming from noble houses but I skipped the story every time I played after the first time. Yeah, I wanted him to die so that the other units could safely cross over and join Zayid's squad. He needs to get to 15 as fast as possible to print money. And Jean's level-ups have been so bad... I wish I learned about it earlier too, I got him to level 10 by chapter 5 every other time I promoted him early and it was a pain. Oh that's right, I didn't remember him being able to do that. Pretty sure you can do meme strats with a leveled Tallan and the starfall dagger but it is much better to have him repair your stuff. Athol healing him, the regenesis ring and him using an herb on his turn was actually enough to heal him completely. But before Athol got here he had to wait some turns between engagements yeah. The starfall dagger would be better if he was low enough but I would rather be prepared for every opportunity. And the thunderlight sword only has 82% chance to kill him, whereas the dandelion would have around 96% if he is low enough (great shield is horrible). I always kill him in one turn by rigging it if I have to but that's not possible here so I learn stuff about some enemies AI's. I though he wouldn't move away like he did for you if he had someone in his range but I was wrong. At least it's pretty much confirmed he will always move to that particular tile to heal. She has every right to considering she could have died. My Rubina is turning out pretty good but my Yaeri is the Jean to her Ash. Although she is at least somewhat useful, unlike Jean. I actually didn't mean to, I endangered Troy like an idiot. In retrospect I should have written that she gave the mark to Cezar back when he crossed the second bridge. You can see them standing next to each other I'm pretty sure. Also, I did permanently lose all of her inventory, the loss of the pilum+2 being particularly horrible. I'm pretty sure she will come back, there was a popup saying that she only died for this chapter but I didn't grab it. I always sell it because I love money. Although I think Aslanne was still carrying this one when she died. It makes her so much better. I usually give it to Merida but she is already so good. Pretty sure Zade is the one to "canonically" get it if VS2 is any indication. No reason to care about them before the main objective if you don't plan to enter through the main gate after all. No, Kaga gives us a bandit with a droppable one in the chapter just before the event. If you intend on doing that little sidequest in chapter 13 there really isn't anything to worry about. I stopped screenshoting them after a while but she activated industry a lot more during this map. It was pretty crazy. Killing the witch and the diabolist isn't that far fetched on a first playthrough. The game doesn't force you to seize the abbey if you do and all you get is a weird feeling you did something very wrong. I don't remember if she can enter a closed house. I meant that she doesn't do much story-wise. As a unit she is pretty solid even if she is a little frail and held back by the rarity of mage promo items. Yeah, green unit lives are pretty worthless after all. Yeah but they should grow up and become old. Which makes me think they have trouble getting there. I know but I really don't need a third healer on Cyltan's route. A mage could be fun but I'll probably keep her as she is and have her learn flurry. I'm reading his Berwick ironman right now. He really loves Sylvis doesn't he...

Chapter 7, part 2. It shouldn't be a super long update.

Chapter 7, the one with an optional character to recruit. For some ungodly reason, Kaga decided that that very optional character would be Zade's starting companion in VS2.

He probably forgot how scary it is for normal people too after successfully fighting so many of them and just having conquered an impregnable city. You can just block the village with one of your units to get as much time as you want. And if you visit with Troy and then with Lilia you can get both items. I don't know, I'd rather deal with small mountains passes and rough deserts than berserk siege tomes and 1-3 range 3x brave tomes when no one has RES other than Merida. Also, having Zade's army march through Sphire when they don't want anyone to cross their borders right now could be considered an act of war. But even if they wanted to let us pass, the empire could see that as support for the Meledans. So the tough route might be a lot less bothersome overall.

Chapter 6. A break from chapter 5.

Now for the second part of the chapter.

Now it's time for the chapter 5 update.

Losing half your combat fliers really sucks but it's probably better to lose Rubina, since you can still recruit Maya at least. You probably should turn on the option that ends your turn when you have moved all your units so that doesn't happen again.

I'm trying to get as far as I can while I still have free time. I was also trying to make the most of the two post limit per day but it seems to have disappeared already. He's really unfortunate. We already have so many good boss killers and general fighters that he feels a bit redundant. After the glorious sword fighters of Berwick I guess Kaga wanted to try something else in this game. At least he can dish out good damage very accurately and have a reliable unit like that can save a run. Dune is really lucky there is an incentive to train him up to that point because he has one of the worse starts in this game with Jean and (lol) Maya. I genuinely think he can be super useful at times but this Prody still can't even wield a spear. It's more out of habit than anything honestly. Never needed to before as long as I got a little lucky, I though I could let Theodel introduce himself to the readers and I wasn't disappointed. I got way too confident and forgot to check which squares counted as cliffs but Kaga, peace be upon him, though it would be too disappointing to have Jean die so soon. I can't imagine he'll make it to the end after surviving this so early in the run. Something else I noticed is that the arbalestrier will not move away from the forests, it's sadly impossible to bait him near the cliff. I usually move Theodel to the other forest so that he can finish off the injured brigand but since he crited him this time, I decided to move him here. A mistake, but at least he lived. This is easily the best Zade I have ever seen. He was really bad in my last run too (like 8 STR at 20 unpromoted), so the contrast is even more striking. Close. But he can't die. He has to get his good ending and rescue "spoilers". Yeah but it's really not that great a weapon. 20 damage if you get super lucky, 30 if you also get to 3 strength. It's nice, but it doesn't last long. But even at his best he doesn't hold a candle to "that other knife user". At least he'll be able to chip with darts and throwing knives. I don't remember, I think he just hit two 50% attacks. It's really nice, the thieves just stand there and take it after they break their weapons on you. I'm doing it just in case there is a level 10 requirement to promote since I always thought there was one but it may have been out of habit. I didn't post it in full but she basically apologizes to her grandfather who tells her that he understands and that he won't hold her back anymore. I'd have been so mad. Be he knew he would get his own weapon eventually so he let Sheela have it. I don't think she was ever bad in any of my runs except maybe the first one, the only one where I had Zayid fetch his weapon. Bows are just super good in this game (even if they can't quite rescue a certain steppe runner) It's true but the swindler and thief trying to sell something below even it's resell value is just funny. Cezar is just nice, even if he doesn't want to admit it. It's more luck than anything. But when I think about it, they are the equivalent of buying a cutlass each (before Cezar's haggling) which is pretty good. I usually do the Sheela version too. Still interesting to see it leads to a better outcome for Barl versus Sheela's version where he simply rejoins the Yapas. I couldn't help it when seeing her happy face while the dragon burns alive and screams in agony as it just wanted to sleep. He actually finished chapter 5 but it got him to end his let's play because it was too frustrating for him. He could be good when he bothered to turn his brain on but he didn't that time. Oh well.

We begin chapter 4, the first one where we can't bring everyone because "the caves are a little tight" despite them being able to fit dozens and dozens of bandits. It also has the first ambush reinforcement spot but I'll block it as soon as possible. Cezar and Sheela tells us that we really want to deploy them this chapter, Cezar for his thief utility and Sheela so that she can speak to a named brigand. Once again thanks to AggroIncarnate, the map: To open the door on the left we need one of the axe bros or Zayid to break the rock and have Cezar open the door. The middle door needs a special key carried by the skeleton at the top of the map. As is tradition in Kaga Saga, the last treasure room is only accessible through an invisible path. Its chest is guarded by a dragon with high defense that only takes half damage and deals magic damage in return. The game essentially begs you to send Theodel with his anti-flier tome or Sheela and her magic bow. The caverns at the top of the map and the space above the skeleton will spawn reinforcements. That middle cavern in particular will eventually spawn ambush reinforcements that can one-shot almost anyone so be sure to block it when you can. Most of the enemies on the left will try to run away at the bottom of the map so we'll need to send Troy and Merida butcher them for treasure. Finally, the map will end when the boss is defeated. He is stationary until attacked and wields a brave axe. Not much of a threat if you are prepared. We bring Troy, Merida, Zayid, Sheela, Cezar, Athol, Haldyn, Dune and Zade. Time to begin. They complain a little about their fate but they have it a little wrong. Venecia (aside from Ritton) didn't care much to hunt them down and kill them until we came and needed to be tested. Merida fails to kill a thief holding a jeweled knife (but dodged his attack) and got a meh level-up out of the other fool. We also see Cezar donating to charity for the first time. Troy kills the thief next to Merida and she charges in to kill the other jeweled knife thief. So far, so good. Our heroes hear some of the brigands trying to escape and they have a little discussion on what to do. Garlan is a firm believer in the "kill-them-all" solution, Zade also believes it but is nicer about it and Sheela is starting to understand the reality of the world. Dune can finally lift his lightest bow without penalty. Good Athol level-up. Our first Zayid level-up is very disappointing. He got defense every level-up during my last run until he capped it but it doesn't looks like this Zayid will be a blessed one. This is probably the best Zade I have ever seen. He can't quite punch boulders yet, but he will get there. We have reached turn 5 and the brigands in the top left managed to dig a tunnel to freedom. They swear to return to a normal life and since they don't carry any loot, there is no reason to kill them. Most importantly, it unlocks a conversation between Barl and either Sheela or Zayid. Either way, it lets him escape and give us a stat booster after the map is done. Sheela also reminds us that this is her first real fight. Zayid goes to talk to his friend: If you want to see the Sheela version you can go read Eltosian Kadath's ironman. Anyways, Cezar loots a multichance tome. This game has skill tomes but they are very rare. One for multichance, one for diligence (50% bonus exp) and buyable mettle tomes (more crit the lower your health is) much later. There are many good candidates for this tome. Merida is an obvious one, Sheela is another. I could also give it to the secondary lord of the game when we get there but I think I will give it to one of the two fliers in the next chapter. I need these fliers to be able to handle some things on their own later. Barl's friends react if he escapes before them which is nice. More DEX is always nice but still... Sheela shows her how it's done. We eventually manage to block all the sources of reinforcements. All that is left is killing the dragon and having Cezar open the chests before killing the boss. Troy getting ready to tank platoons of knights alone later. Cezar loots a cool magic sword. Haldyn gets a good level-up. While preparing to take on the dragon, Cezar bullies Sheela a little. Cezar: Oh goody. Well, back to murdering things. Be seein' ya. Some more Sheela and Cezar goodness. "Haha, this is what being a knight is really about teehee~" Cezar opens the final chest which contained a really good spear. Reliable kills, tanking, this thing can do it. A little better but still not great. We then get the final Sheela conversation before the end of the chapter. We then destroy Dawes, who spits in our face and gives us a blank level-up. Sheela then wonders if the captured brigands will be judged fairly and Garlan promises that there will be leniency for those that pledge to return to an honest life. Theo is pretty disappointed by Zade's faith in the Concio of Venecia and tells us of a time when a poor blacksmith came up with a new and improved hoe (the farming tool) but the nobles stole all his assets on bullshit charges (he forgot to repay a small amount of interest on a loan he took). Then, the nobles became richer while the smith rotted in prison and the peasants had to do with low quality mass-produced hoes. Garlan convinces Theodel to give a chance to Ritton since he has a good guy portrait but it's a little sad to know that patent laws are fucked even in fantasyland. The party also realizes that a netherdrake is slumbering deeper into the temple. We don't have the means to fight a netherdrake yet so thankfully they decide to leave. Barl also comes back to give us liquid agility. Ash and Jean also decide to stick with us because it's a lot more entertaining than their village. Then Athol admits to Zade that she knew Alysia since they are both circlet maidens and talks to him about how she was back at the Vestarian Vatican. Also reveals that Alysia onii-chan is the king of Rivelle and that he fell gravely ill last summer. Then, after a good night of sleep... We will have to march on Venecia next chapter. It's the chapter that got Mangs to stop his let's play because it was just too difficult but it's really not that bad with a little caution. And I'll recommend Runnin' Wild by Airbourne.

Troy visits the village which gracefully informs us that we should search a particular cave for loot. It's nice but you should already be searching anything vaguely suspicious in this game anyways. Now that we have a regenesis ring we can save a lot of money by trading it around and using it to heal during the downtime. Our main army starts crossing the bridge which summons reinforcements. They'll come for a few turns but they aren't very threatening. In the meantime... Cezar searches the spot in the woods and is ambushed by two enemy thieves. They are both armed with a deadly edge which reduces HP to one but since they don't have another weapon they can't kill Cezar. He'll battle them for a few turns on his own to grind some exp. Cezar level-ups won't matter to much but anything that makes him less liable to get one-shot/one-rounded later is good. If he gets the one point of strengh he needs to cap it it would be great too. Cezar won't get access to too many crazy knives, but when he does... Ash searches the flower and finds Octavo Herbs. Whereas regular herbs have three uses and heal 10 per use these ones have 8 uses and heal 15. Zade keeps it up. I forgot to grab it but Jean got an HP and PROF level-up. He's going to be bad this run... Amazing Merida level-up. She'll probably receive the strength booster anyways. Now, to seize Thebes we need to fight 3 mini-boss brigands. We can't just charge in and risk a crit so we will have to whittle them down little by little. Since they remain stationary we can take our sweet time. The cavaliers will attack them and canto away while someone fights Wes at two range (to only be in range of Wes). Well, no need for that I guess. Troy just one-rounded Wes. Guess I'll just have him deal with the others too. While all of that happens, Cezar is still in the middle of his training arc. Wallace managed to survive a round of combat but not the second one. Now that Troy is level 10 he gets his other skill, triple threat. It has a 20% chance of letting him attack 3 time. Other units might need some weird utility to justify their existence but Troy just attacks a lot and wins. Pretty much useless. I feed the actual boss kill to Ash because I want him to look for herbs as soon as possible. Cezar finally kills the thieves. It's time for Zade to seize. It will send some more reinforcements from the caverns and let us proceed to the rest of the map by having Valerius finally go away. Even if you try to take him down his totem ensures he can never go below 1 HP. This game will have far better implementation of strong recurring enemies than the death knight who just spouts edgy Sasuke bullshit before retreating for the nth time. We liberate the town and finally get to meet and recruit Sheela. She's perfect. The tomboy archer with a bandana thing makes a return in Vestaria Saga but this time she is a good unit. We'll discuss her right after Valerius is done playing with Haldyn. At least this time he brought a healer to the fight. Ravinia is of course going to come up later. I'll try to get Haldyn to talk to her but it probably won't happen. Once Valerius is done thrashing Haldyn, he takes interest in Alysia. He deduces that Alysia is one of the five circlet maidens (Athol being the starmaiden). Her brother Lucius and the mysterious Philip will probably be more important in VS2 but this is the last we see of Alysia in this game. Valerius warps away with her and leaves Haldyn for dead, bleeding out in the mud like an idiot. So, Sheela. She may look useless for now but both of the infantry archers are really good in this game. Unlike Dune, Sheela can use magic bows effectively and will get one soon. She may be weak and have a low strength growth but she can use a bow locked to female archers, the rambling rose, which is strong, light and accurate. It also increases her HP growth a little which is appreciated. Another really nice thing about her is her high DEX which lets her be really reliable and she eventually gets the flurry skill, which is a DEX% chance to attack 5 times. She can also climb cliffs and has the lightfoot skill. Right now, she has to walk all the way to the little tribal village on the right of the map to get all their warriors to go back into their tents and to recruit another unit. MAG is nice on Athol but the rest doesn't really matter very much. I give the liquid strength to Merida and wipe out the remaining reinforcements. Once it's done, I travel to the shop near the starting point to buy a few things. 1 healing staff, 2 iffyres and 2 light bows. I'll come back to buy a wargoddess sword later. On the way back, Zade encounter some shifty guy offering 2000D if we take back the statue that the Yapa have stolen from him. It's in the Yapa cave nearby and anyone can take it except Sheela and the unit she recruits since they know it was never stolen. Once Sheela gets to her tribe: Her grandfather tells her to go explore the world be he also has a buff prepromote go with. Just in case. Zayid has a really good bond with Sheela so you want to keep the two together. As you can see, the man is can take it and dish it just as well. He comes with critical edge and wrath (25% crit on counter) and can wield normal swords, greatswords and axes. 6 MOB, can climb cliffs, 1-2 range, great bases with a lot of room to grow. He can get even better if you get him his personal weapon but I would rather get Sheela's. It's something like 16 might, 100 ACC, gives bonus resistance and has 25% chance to nullify any attack. Right now, the hatchet that Zayid comes with also gives him ambush but we will save it because it's really good. Now that the Yapas have retreated into their tents, Cezar goes to steal the statue. Something to keep in mind is that the statue can't be traded. These two are so precious. It will only make it hurt more when one of them dies. Zayid gives her a rambling rose and they move to rejoin the rest of the army. Cezar gives the statue and gets 2000D for it. But then... The thief tries to make an escape and appears in the forest conveniently surrounded by my units. Meanwhile, the chieftain wait for whoever has the statue to bring it to him. If Sheela or Zayid do it they get their personal weapon. If anybody else does it they get a flame axe, which is useless since it's a magic axe and only one axefighter (that we get later) has a magic stat. Since the statue can't be traded, Sheela has to get the kill. And since the thief never attacks to get himself killed by somebody else, she will eventually get it. I have Jean try to weaken the thief before I notice he could crit him. Thankfully he doesn't but I still get punished with a bad level-up. Ash learns to walk faster by throwing axes at this guy. Sheela shows just why she is so popular. Cezar also gets to the store and buys 2 battleaxes. He'll also go buy a wargoddess sword and another healing staff to end the shopping on this map. Now, why is the WS so good? First thing to note is that because it's a maidensword, only Merida can use it for now. It's a magical weapon with 10 might, gives 7 bonus RES and, most importantly, grants crit immunity. We'll see that immunity serve us well in two chapters. It's also effective against dark creatures but that won't be relevant for a while. Sheela brings back the stolen statue to the village and gets a magical weapon of her own. It's amazing. And she is already able to double the slowest enemies with it too! I use the downtime to make sure everyone has the weapons they should before charging in the mountain base of the bandits. I can't even complain, she really needs more bulk. After about half the army tramples Haldyn, Garlan notices him drowning in failure. Haldyn tries to tell us that a black mage did this to him but he gets confused and tries to use the wrong slur. It also triggers reinforcements from the city caves and the mountain cave. They come for a few turns before stopping. Sheela good. Athol keeps getting MAG, which is all I really want from her. Now that the boss is below half health he switches to a 1-2 range axe. It's effective against mages, is droppable and is the only one we get It'll be very useful later one. While the boss is dealt with, I send Theodel deal with the statues surrounding the chest. They are stationary, have high DEF and no 2 range so Theodel is perfect for them. Ash gets ever closer to the weeds and also gains some stats. Merida is starting to be strength blessed. Theo destroys the rest of the statues and is clearly focused on the 18 PROF tome. Cezar opens the chest to get the starfall dagger, which attacks 5 times in a row. It sounds good but it has no might, so only 2 damage per hit for now. Only really there for meme strats and guarantying the execution of wounded units. After about 100 turns, Zade seizes the temple and ends the map. He and Garlan learn from bandits that Valerius took Alysia. Garlan informs us that Valerius is an Empire spy who worked to weaken Meleda and its allies before the empire's invasion. He also wonders if Valerius kidnapped Alysia because there is more to her than meets the eye and that it could help Valerius move up in the ranks by bringing her to the higher-ups since his more direct superior, Ajax, doesn't like his methods very much. Haldyn gives his backstory to Zade and explains that he isn't from Vestaria but from some eastern kingdom on the mainland and that he met Valerius 5 years ago, back when they were both poor and destitute. We also start getting into the ethnic relations of this world. According to Haldyn, Margul was defeated by other udagal heroes who then decided to implement limits to the power udagals could attain in this society and they handed the leadership to humans after that. After that, he talks about Ravinia. She is his younger sister by five years (how old is he?) and a great and renowned warrior. Two years ago, Valerius mind-controlled her into following him. He also apparently went from Haldyn's equal in power to what he is now in two years. Dune is also extremely agitated about Alysia's disappearance and spits on Haldyn for his stupidity before being convinced by Zade to be a little patient. They know an imperial mage took her so they'll get more eventually get more information by fighting the empire. Zade and Garlan also find Cezar looting the ruins and Garlan makes his distaste for him clear but Zade tries to be more diplomatic and gets him to join in exchange for the right to loot the temple after they chase the remaining bandits. Funnily enough, he tries to sell us some siurian thaumite for 1500 despite it's market price being 3200. What a generous man (we get it for free when he joins). Garlan then convinces Zade to send some knights kill the remaining brigands because being starving is no excuse to kill and steal from other starving people. This concludes chapter 3. The music recommendation is Band of The Hawk by Battle Beast.

The next chapter begins with exposition about how the bandits hideout is some old temple in the mountains, how Ritton tried to get the Concio (the governing body) of Venecia to send an army to deal with it and how the bandits conquered the country largest mining city a few months ago. It concludes by drawing a parallel, in the minds of our soldiers, between the brigand occupation and the empire's occupation of their homeland. Haldyn will start pulling his weight soon. But not now. The map of this chapter, once again taken from AggroIncarnate's google doc. This is the first real chapter of Vestaria Saga. Here is how this is going to go. Most of our units will move left and wait by the bridge while the Luccas climb the cliffs and deal with the enemies there. The "archer" standing in a forest is using this game's ballista, an arbalest. We will also have to kill the thief standing in a forest to the left of us without letting him attack as he has a jeweled knife equipped and a skill ensuring he always has 100% accuracy. After that, we will have to wait for a new unit to arrive and unlock the bridge for us. Then, we'll move to the city on the top left and seize it. I decide to give both the liquid dexterity and the liquid defense to Jean. He uses the DEX one on the first turn and i use a trade chain to get him the tomahawk (stronger and less accurate hurlbat) I get by visiting the house. Athol already gets a level-up from using the staff of beatitude on the Luccas and it's... At the beginning of turn 3 we get a little event in the village. Enter Theodel, the early game wind mage and very bestest friend of the lord. Mages aren't really the strongest of fighters in Vestaria. To compensate, they have great versatility. There are three different types of tomes in this game. Elemental magic, vestal magic and sphirian magic. Elemental magic is further divided into fire (effective against infantry and brigands), wind (effective against cavalry and fliers) and thunder magic (effective against armor knights). Vestal magic reduces all damage taken by half and usually has some other effect like 100% vantage or regenesis. Sphirian magic is weird. It has everything from status effects to half damage taken to triple attacks to nothing. Theodel can use elemental and vestal magic but vestal magic isn't findable for a loooooong time. His skills are critical edge and aegis (mag% chance to nullify any attack) which is wonderfully unreliable. He also has a good reciprocal bond with Zade. All in all, Thodel is only useful in a few select instances and he is really frail. He gets a personal weapon late into the game that makes him a lot better but he may not get there. Something that really hampers mages is the rarity of their promotional item. You get three units that can use it and you only get one in chap 11 and one in chap 15 before you can buy the third one. It really discourages heavy use of your combat mages sadly. Theo comes with a better wind tome which I'd like to save as much as possible and a regenesis ring. He will have to protect the village from the brigands alone with his set of mythril balls. While he charges in, let's see what the rest of the army has to do. This turn we will have to retreat a little in order to only have to fight this brave bow wielder on enemy phase. And... I completely mess it up. The axe fighter near Jean can still attack him, leading to an exact kill if all three attacks hit. The enemy phase begins with the best of news. Then the brigand misses Jean (who consumed the liquid defense, I forgot to mention it). He gets an empty level-up out of it but at least he is not going to die. Then I don't know why, but the brave bow wielder just ended his turn by moving closer instead of attacking. Meanwhile, in the bandit-occupied town... We are introduced to two of the most entertaining characters this side of Vestaria. We don't get control of Sheela just yet but we do get Cezar. Cezar isn't much of a fighter but he is irreplaceable. He can "unlock" chests, drawbridges and everything else and can unlock the bridge for us if he gets there. His other skill is lurk, the 50% bonus avoid from terrain skill. To make him even more slippery, he comes with a main gauche which gives him 20 bonus avoid and only has 30 ACC to prevent its meager durability to be depleted too fast. I mentioned it before but knives bypass defense so he'll always be able to finish something if you really need it. Starting from the next chapter, he'll give an item worth 1000D to Athol once per map if we have less than 3000D in our coffers. And, most importantly, he gets a 25% reduction in shops once he is promoted. You need to get this as soon as you can (chapter 5) if you want to be able to buy most of what you want throughout the game. Theodel has to rescue Cezar after I placed him in the wrong forest and pulled the bandits in the wrong place. Our army has almost completely cleaned up the starting bandits. It's almost time to attack the forest thief, who is stationary until attacked. On his way to the distant archer, Ash buys two dirks which sends one to the convoy. Ash knows it's an ironman. Prody managed to hit a 20 something and Dune a 40 something. Zade only has to hit one of two 80% to get the knife. Zade does it again! That's garbage. Then again, there is a tome that needs 18 PROF to be wielded. Upon meeting with Zade, Cezar shows that he is a man of his word. Then, Marth finally reunites with Meric. Theodel running from wherever he was to come to Zade's help will come up again later. Obviously, that girl is going to come up again (much) later. There is some confusion about a few things about her that I will clear up when we get there. Theodel is going to live through this. He needs to. Reliability matters to Merida. Theo really wants that tome huh? The thief that Merida missed revealed to us that there is something to find in the woods. We'll search the spot a little later. And so comes the turn 10 save. I'll continue this chapter next time 🙂

After seizing the manse and talking to the mayor we decide to have a little chat with Haldyn and invite him to join us, but only after his wounds have healed. We then embark on a little side-quest to go rescue the town's children. I'm not sure why it's treated as a side thing when our objective is to wipe out the bandits anyway but whatever. Sure, they are only pirates and not part of the Gallachian bandits but they are pretty much the same thing (even worse since they want to sell children to slavers). We also have confirmation that this is one of the games with a big "offscreen" army and the units we do control are leading other soldiers. We then head of to the pirate island and are treated with our very first prep screen. This time we can bring everyone but that will not always be the case. Here is the full map (taken from AggroIncarnate's google doc) The green knight that you is called Merida. She arrived a few hours before our party and decided to try to rescue the children alone. She is a little bit stupid but she is also a good contender for the second-best unit of the game. It's Lestian, as in from Lestia. Merida is bit of a weird one. She isn't very sturdy and her strength is terrible, base and growth-wise, however she has a decent resistance and a magic stat which makes her the best magic sword use in the game. Her 6 base luck also let's her avoid a lot of crits. Skill-wise she has high evasion, which gives her + 20 avoid and lightfoot which gives her + 1 MOB. her personal weapon is absolutely amazing. A brave lance with 10 might, 80 accuracy, 5 crit, effective against armor knights, 6 bonus AGI and it also raises her DEF growth by 10%. It speaks for itself. Since she is a female sword user she also gets to use the last sword category, the maidenswords. They are rare and expensive but they usually come with powerful effects and great stats. Merida is great, but she also has a chance to die on the first turn. After said turn, the Luccas can come and rescue her since they can climb the cliffs while everybody else has to take the long way around. If she gets defeated while still a green unit, she becomes recruitable again on chapter 11 and comes already promoted with a skill that increases her growth rates and multichance but without the Dandelion. According to Serenes Forest she would also have lower caps but I have always use the regular version of Merida. Hopefully that doesn't change now. I rearrange my units so that the Luccas start closest to the cliffs and start the map. Our current objective is to get Zade to the building next to the lowest ship within 10 turns, else it's game over. Zade also needs to speak to Merida to recruit her and someone needs to get to the seashell on the beach for a stat-booster. After Zade seizes the wharf, many pirates will spawn over the bridge but that is for later. They at least have good taste in women. All I can do now is pray... Well, looks like Silken Knight Merida will have to wait. Ash gets a level off of his rescue of Merida and it is a really good one. It would have been perfect with some DEX but I won't complain. On his way to rescue Merida, Zade gets another really good level-up. I would rather not spend all of my luck at the start though... This pirate here drops a battleaxe, which I'll promptly give to Ash so that he can preserve his serrated axe (75 ACC and only 6 weight). Meh. He needs PROF to wield a certain bow soon but otherwise... The final assault on the wharf gets Jean a decent level-up. Essentially one more point of speed and 33% more defense. He doesn't need more stats anyways. Before seizing the wharf and triggering the reinforcements we recruit Merida and ask her why she is wandering the land alone to which she responds that she has her reasons. I'll get back to that in about 15 chapters (hopefully). We give her the means to preserve her Dandelion a little bit and hope she gets a PROF level-up soon so that she can use the spear. Alysia gets a nice level-up but it doesn't really matter as this is the last map where she is under our control. Zade rescues the widdle children and summons some fresh blood for our units. Dune doesn't feel like it however and would much rather have a beach episode. Prody tries to prove he isn't worthless. "The monkey's paw curls one finger" Troy eventually gets the boss and gets yet another "ok" level-up out of it. Zade seizes on turn 17 and Dune finds us a stat booster. Once Zade comes back victorious at Elsa, he and Garlan have a little talk about Athol and Zech. About how she is the last of the royal family and how she clung to Zech out of despair more than love. About how she is so lonely and desperate that if Zade asks her to stay with Ritton she will probably throw herself of of the balcony. Zade also shows how humble he is when Alysia fell for him in five minutes yesterday. I forgot to grab it but Garlan advises Zade to friendzone Athol. he then tells Zade that he has arranged for her to be brought back from Venecia, just in time for Alysia to leave the party. Zade then decide to take in the sights of the city, which looks very colorful (and a little bit empty). The mayor also gives us our first Siurian Thaumite that a merchant wanted us to have. These little blue stones will make the personal weapons last so, so much longer. We have to be a little careful however. Whereas in some previous games like Genealogy or Berwick weapons would become broken variants of themselves when depleted, in this game they disappear. So we will have to balance our desire to use the weapons as much as possible before repairing them and the risk of breaking them permanently. The chapter concludes with a nice walk on the beach by Zade and Athol. And I'll recommend Dragula by Rob Zombie.

That's true for most knife wielders but assassins can have higher strengh. Knife wielders being able to deal 42 damage no matter your defense per round of combat are peppered here and there. Now for the update proper. I had to leave just before a bunch of level-ups. Prody shows us why we love him. Zade gets a really good level-up. Troy gets an okay one. Just one more PROF and he'll be able to use the phalanx spear. He also kills an archer who drops a bow for the archer that joins in a few turns. We are then introduced to the edgy sword user. At least one per game and their quality varies wildly but this one is... okay. The man is currently working for the bandits and is a little bit on edge (eh eh). We can't recruit him yet and we have to battle him to enter the town. Stat-wise and skill-wise, you can think of him as a deadlier Troy who can't tank and has trouble reaching the enemy in time for now. His third skill is Mettle which increases his crit chances the lower his health is. You might also notice two different sword icons in the lower left corner. That is because he can wield both normal swords and greatswords (the massive two-handed cool Conan swords). They are generally just stronger and heavier than normal swords but we will get to see a few notable ones later on. Right now, Haldyn is a stationary boss with just enough attack to be unable to pierce Bonacel's defense if he uses the phalanx lance or is next to Prody. Troy reaches the top left village and gets some money for his trouble. He then goes to the shop to buy 4 spears (9 ATK, 70 ACC simple, cheap and fairly reliable), 3 pilums and 3 hurlbats (throwing axes). Zade eventually reaches the village and recruits the two axe bros (Jean and Ash) and the early-game archer (Dune) as well as another healer. The village elder is a certified badass who can't join our party but gives Dune a personal bow. It's a strong and accurate brave bow with two uses, tailor-made to kill the pirate waiting near the top of the map. If you wait in the menu when you start the game you get a little image reel of the game, one of which is Dune using this bow on that bandit. You can keep the bow for other situations but I really want the 500D carried by that bandit. Now, the unit discussion: Dune really doesn't start out too great. He only has one skill, ambush, which is vantage with an AGI x 5% chance to activate. It's useless for now because even if it manages to activate, Dune can't use vantage very effectively for now. His AGI caps out at 19, so 95% activation rate and he'll get better bows. Eventually. He also gets multichance at level 12 (I think). He'll become a very strong fighter if he lives that long. Honestly one of the most important units for an ironman. His other skill is lurk, which is given by his hunting bow and gives 50% more terrain bonuses. Nice, but nothing more. Jean is the first of the axe bros and he is very hit-or-miss. He's strong and gets a lot of HP but he is slow and inaccurate. His one skill is axe defense which has a STR% chance to negate any attack. You don't want to rely on it but it's very nice when it happens. He'll get a personal axe eventually which will make him a lot better but until then he's pretty bad. Ash's growths beat Jean's in DEX and AGI which will make him much more reliable. He also gets two skills by leveling-up, one that increases his movement by one and another which gives him 15% chance to find herbs at the beginning of the turn for the first 23 turns (it prints money). He also has mettle but I don't want him to be on low health. Jean and him also have a small bond with each other which partially alleviates the accuracy problem. Finally, all three of them have the light infantry movement type which let's them go through some terrain like crags (the cliffs preventing other units to access the pirate at the top of the map. All three of them can get really shafted by their growths so let's hope that doesn't happen (especially Dune). The last character is sestra Alysia, essentially Athol with slighly different stats and no charisma (the skill). She can boost our three scrubs by standing near them at least. She also come with a unique, but not personal, staff: the staff of Beatitude. Having it in a healer's inventory grants them the regenesis skill (+5 hp at the beginning of every turn) and it can be used to give that status to another unit for 5 turns. Something really nice about it is that whereas a regular healing staff gives 20 exp per use, this one gives 50. She also has access to conversations with both Zade (which is just Alysia already being under Zade's charm) and Dune (to remind us that Dune got gravely injured recently to rescue Alysia). I'm not sure if the events of Alysia's rescue are covered in the side-game "The Heroes of Lucca" (which is a small side game about Dune, Jean and Ash rising up against the brigands). Hopefully it will be translated one day. Another thing of note is that although Alysia has a bond with the 3 heroes of Lucca, only Dune gives her bond bonuses (big ones too) which shows that she really cares about him. Another thing that I forgot to mention regarding weapons. Bows, tomes and throwing spears (throwing spears lose one even if you miss at close range which is a little weird) lose one durability per attack even if they miss but not throwing axes. Considering how expensive they are and how inaccurate the axe fighters are this is important to keep in mind. I use the downtime to make sure everyone can get the weapons they should have before moving towards the port city and engaging the dreaded Amundsen. He at least makes sure to give his life energy to Bonacel before leaving this world. Perhaps we will see him again one day. This will be especially important later on so I will mention it now: your units can use the trade function to change each other's equipped weapons. We park Bonacel next to Haldyn and Prody next to Bonacel before skipping forward a few turns as Haldyn futilely tries to down Bonacel with Berwick crits. After destroying Haldyn, a villager drags him to her house so that we can recruit him later. All that's left if cleaning up the remaining brigands and let Troy deal with boss. He has a 1-3 range axe but it's pretty inaccurate and he has bad stats anyways. Visiting the houses gets us a decent sword and a magic stat booster that we won't use for a while. Troy gets a really good level up from the boss kill. I buy 2 short swords and seize after 20 something turns with Zade. Before finishing the update I'll also say that effective damage is a 50% boost to attack. Using a sword effective against armor knights while having 14 ATK will mean you deal 21 ATK - DEF damage to the knight. All of this to say that the rapier and it's 6 might still aren't really worth it. The music recommendation this time will be Diggy Diggy Hole by Wind Rose

Now, for the first proper chapter of this game... exposition. Ritton is of course the good guy *tm and Venecian Hitler is the not so good guy. Turns out the Venecians don't have a real army, only mercenaries. I don't know why you would choose mercenaries over a real army but I'm sure they have the best of the best. Dulles doesn't want to aggravate an empire that could squash them with no real effort but Ritton thinks Zadrian (Zade's name) could get rid of the bandits infesting their country for them since their mercenaries, lead by a man named Villweiss, refuse to do it. This convinces the rest of the senators (?) to welcome Zadrian but Dulles wants to at least give him a time limit to ensure Zade holds up his end of the bargain. We are then introduced to Zade's nee-san, Beatrice. They talk a little about their plans to build an army to retake Meleda and hope that Zech is still alive fighting a guerilla warfare. They then start discussing the brigands. We then march to the port town of Elsa, but ask Athol to stay with Ritton as she is too important to be on the battlefield. Alright, now the first chapter but for real this time. It's a fair bit bigger than the prologue but there isn't that much more going on. We need to send Zade to the top right village of Lucca, Troy must go to the top left village before it is destroyed and after that we all regroup to take the port town. Pretty simple. The music is also really good. Down by the beach is Amundsen who became a meme for some reason. It's just Kaga showing you that sometimes there'll be enemies with a name and a portrait but you still can't recruit them. He drops a sword so killing him is mandatory of course. But not right now. We need to go to Lucca first. The village of Lucca has three brave militiamen and a sestra ready to defend it. They should be able to fend off the one or two bandits that are heading for them. Troy with his waifu. I'll have to stop the post here because I can't upload any more pictures.