Screenshot LunaticScreamer plays The Last Promise

[fengaridotdll]

Is it just me or does Mina look like Idoun/Idenn/Whatever you want to call her because there are like a million different translations?

[Ansem]

She looked even more like her in the earlier patches. I have not played this patch in particular, but it seems like most of the mugs got rehauled. Its a shame, they all look mellow now, devoid of emotion. Eduardo used to look smug, but now he looks boring .-.

[Kon]

Unfortunately they all came down with a terrible case of Nayr-face syndrome.

Symptoms include but aren't limited to looking bored and/or stoned and having a uniform 0_O angle

[HF Makalov Fanboy Kai]

speakin of Nayr...

[LunaticScreamer]

Part 1 is complete!

[spoiler=Ch10: Conclusion of Part 1]

Quick, find that one Mulan song!

You know, Magnus really needs to get its act together soon or the next person to defect from the nation is basically going to be the death knell that brings them to their knees.

At this point, Pellenore's praying that Howard gets back from Aegis and fast to remedy the current situation.

Well now, I wonder who that...

...is. That's Galagar, the man Siegfried freed at the end of chapter 3. Considering he's here talking with Pellenore and telling him to hold on, he's working for Magnus.

You know, I said I wasn't going to pull off any inside jokes very often, if at all. I never said the game was going to do that itself with that familiar meme.

Heroic roll call before the map gets underway.

Anyways, there's quite a few enemies at the start, mainly to your north. The worst of the lot is the Mage and the unit directly to its north, the Mercenary. The Mage has Thunderbolt, a siege tome, while the Mercenary has a Zanbato to bring on the pain to mounted units.

However, I have a plan. I think it's time to use that Mine for a minor bit of glitch abuse.

Before I let the enemy move, Althares swipes some Elixirs, then gets rescued back closer to the team. I'll need him to go north and swipe another set of Elixirs on the next turn.

Glitch time!

I'll need to create a path to the east and this enemy is going to provide that for me. The Devil Axe is heavy and a bit inaccurate, but makes up for that with raw power and a good crit rate. You do not want to send a lance user against this guy, that's for sure.

With some clever usage of enemies, I'm able to transfer the Mage's Thunderbolt tome up to an enemy with drop flag attached to it, meaning Cia's going to have something fun to play with when this Knight north of the shops falls.

Other than that, I moved two Cavaliers off of some forts in the northeast. This will allow reinforcements to pour in from there once a few turns have passed, thereby giving me access to more exp gaining opportunities. No, I didn't get rid of every enemy weapon in a three mile radius. I can handle it just fine without the help.

The Zanbato Mercenary that triggered the glitch gets killed on turn 2, allowing Althares to run up and swipe another pack of Elixirs. Otherwise, it's just me setting up a defensive line to handle a group of enemies in the north during the enemy phase.

Everyone lives, good.

Actually...there's a Mercenary down south that can't reach anyone.

At least not anyone he can damage before getting destroyed on the counterattack that is.

The last remaining enemy down by Kevin actually can get in range of someone he can damage. Unfortunately that someone is Cia who can one round him. She gets the exact same level she got last time which is good. She can always use more defense.

Althares is going on a stealing binge with some Knights in the north. More Elixirs for selling!

Lots of cleanup duty before the next enemy phase occurs and any semblance of challenge this map provided going with it basically. I think FE7if broke me in a way where I'm expecting walls of stupid high hp enemies to cleave through, heh.

Althares is in dodging mode and oh god don't die Shon thank you (He did indeed survive that Javelin with 1 hp left).

With the first Knight he stole from killed by other units, Althares moves up to swipe something quite a bit more useful than Elixirs. He even gets a level in general toughness for the effort.

As for the Knight that attacked Shon? It got put down quickly.

A potentially nasty enemy because he also has a Killer Axe on him which could mean the end of a unit with low enough defense and getting critted in the face.

Low accuracy axe + sword user attacking said low accuracy axe user = Death.

Oh, and a level for Shon, why not.

Fire Emblem AI highlight: Instead of going for Althares who couldn't counter, the Warrior felt like tossing a Hand Axe in the direction of Cia during an enemy phase. She doubles him, then finishes the job on the next player phase, gaining a damn good level. I think she's in business now and I can safely toss the Energy Ring over to Tamiko.

And the reinforcements are beginning to pour in. They're going in the direction of the shops, meaning Kevin is going to rescue someone and wall up there. Yes, he needs to rescue someone so he doesn't double and kill them, thereby stealing exp other units could use.

This Mercenary is holding a new weapon. Stronger than an Iron Blade and just as accurate, but a bit lighter and with a bit of crit on the side too. Althares has no problem taking him down.

Speaking of new weapons, this Mage near the center of the map has Hero's Flare. Just has the Fire animation, but the tome has the brave effect attached. Sadly he's attacking Haas who has enough resistance & hp to easily soak up its damage.

Kevin weakens something in his guard duties, then someone else provides the killing blow. Arthur gets some badly needed speed for one of the finishing blows.

More stolen Elixirs! Good thing I did a bunch of selling last map as I needed to transfer the stuff Althares already sold to someone with space so he could continue stealing.

Levels while finishing off the last of the Cavalier reinforcement squad. Kevin's 1 point away from capping strength while Cia's inching closer to a speed cap while being the fastest unit on the team I believe.

The Thunderbolt holding Knight suicides on Cia. I think she's about to have some fun playing around with this, heh.

First though, some random Shaman roasting.

The item shop has the usual selection of magical wares and...wait a minute, buyable Angelic Robes? Looks like I just found what to burn my funds on, but I'll save this until the entire map is cleaned out of enemies.

Speaking of cleaning out the enemies, a Mercenary gets zapped by Thunderbolt.

Best use of a one stat level up as demonstrated by Cia.

Haas has 15 speed promoted. Storm is one behind that, but unpromoted. He might yet be useful to me.

Sadly, Cia's Thunderbolt spam comes to an end with the last use failing to kill a lowly female Mage.

Few enemies remain now, but a pair of Generals up by Pellenore represent a good chance to get some levels for Arthur & Storm.via chip damage before getting a kill.

Just for kicks, I fed the last weakened General to Shuuda. It was worth it for the defense boost.

As for Pellenore, he's got two good ranged weapons, but isn't Liquid and thusly doesn't have a high hit rate. Shouldn't be too hard to put him down, but there's only one person that gets the honor for that.

Yup, it's Shon. Pellenore is the next step for Shon's personal sidequest. He needs to get the kill on Pellenore, but not during an enemy phase. Only a kill dealt on the player phase will count.

Shon gets some mileage out of that Silver Sword for several turns, Once he's low enough on hp, he can go for a kill on the player phase.

Like so. Not going to argue about more strength for Shon.

Gave both Dragonshields to Cia and my spare Energy RIng to Tamiko, then sold everything I could to get enough gold for eight Angelic Robes. Shon got two while Tamiko & Cia got three each.

Siegfried acknowledging Shon as a man for his effort in taking down Pellenore. That's good.

Howard coming back to Yulia Castle. That's bad.

Shon getting triple 0s in a cutscene fight against Howard. That's worse.

Siegfried tells the rebellion to split up and has Kevin go to Regalia to help Anakin with the efforts in recruiting new party members. He's going to try to defend Yulia Castle, but it's going to be hopeless as he'll eventually get captured.

The story is about to start picking up in part 2. This war is about to get much more intense and Magnus may achieve its goals at this rate.

I do hope Anakin can find help quickly because it seems like Magnus now has the upper hand in the war at the moment.

Before part 1 closes out for good, we get a brief look at Blaine. On the right is Blaine's king while the man on the left is one of its generals, Zane. They too are about to get more involved into this war.

Death Count: Shon (1), Siegfried (1)

Next time: How Anakin & friends are faring in Regalia.

[HF Makalov Fanboy Kai]

now for the actual game to begin!

[LunaticScreamer]

Update time. Will be another one coming after this shortly.

[spoiler=Ch11 & Ch12: Anakin's Journey Begins]

Sleeping with your eyes open? That's pretty impressive there chief.

Kevin arrives to relay the news of events going on in Yulia (Namely, it's not going too well).

On the plus side, Kevin joins the team, bringing Anakin's group up to...four. Yeah, he has not had much luck trying to recruit new members for the rebellion.

Probably because of the Magnian forces stationed in the area. I think it's time to do something about this.

First off, Kevin's been refitted with some fresh equipment. Not that he needs the Vulneraries because his defense is sky high right now though, heh. Seriously, the axe users here would do 2 damage at best to him.

As if that wasn't enough, Anakin no longer has to worry about random events occurring that reset his level & experience so he can start getting trained up. You've seen how he can grant an extra turn to someone, but he's also capable of defending himself with various Light class tomes should the occasion call for it.

Growth wise, he has precisely two bad ones, hp & magic. Anakin getting magic screwed isn't going to be a death knell because extra turn granting is always useful and low hp isn't going to be so bad when his high speed & luck growths kick in and turn him into an insane dodge tank.

Right here is the 2nd part to my master plan come chapter 19. Ace starts out pretty well with nice speed, good defense, and a huge reserve of hp. He's going to need to pick up some strength quickly though so here's hoping he doesn't disappoint with his acceptable growths.

With Anakin's help, Ace takes out the Archer to the south. He gets a nice chunk of experience from the exchange (16 for the first hit, 40 for the kill).

Just before the turn 1 enemy phase begins, a Magnian soldier reports to his superior, Talon. He tells him to simply capture the rebels and not spill needless blood.

The grunt is not pleased!

Also, take note of that Soldier just north of the fort.

Sheesh, he's got a ton of move doesn't he?

No he doesn't. A Soldier appeared on the fort just at the start of the enemy phase. Luckily, this is the only time it happens. To boot, Ace counterkills the jerk.

Turn 2 begins with Eduardo appearing by the village in the northeast.

So, remember when I said Ace had a huge reserve of hp? Well, Eduardo has an even bigger reserve of hp and has the highest hp growth in the game to boot at 125%. Thankfully, this does not mean his other growths suffer for it. Very befitting of his personality as a reckless idiot, his strongest growth besides hp is strength, but everything else save for his defensive growths are 35% or better so he could be good with some lucky level ups.

Also, he comes armed with a personal weapon, Charge. Low attack power and low accuracy, but it has the brave effect so it could be useful if his strength & skill tick on up quickly.

Eduardo comes down here to hook up with Anakin's group. I was going to have him just poke the Mercenary with his Iron Lance, but decided on busting out Charge for kicks. He lands both hits to drop the Mercenary which helps takes a bit of pressure off for the incoming enemy phase.

Anakin takes a hit in the enemy phase, but greatly injures his attacker. Ace simply doesn't give a damn for the projectile tossed in his direction though.

This lovely girl appears in the southwest at the start of turn 3, hellbent on stealing my experience.

Not for Eduardo though who finishes off a Fighter in the east for a pretty decent first level, proc'ing that 125% hp growth right away.

Ace picks a target to murder and copies Eduardo's level, minus the +2 hp.

This is the typical outcome of most any enemy that Karina decides to target.

Eduardo rushes back up to the village he came out of to grab a Blue Gem. Good thing because Anakin starts with no gold in the war chest so a quick 5000 gold is going to help with early game purchases.

Ace heals up just in case that Soldier decides to meander his way.

Meander his way the Soldier did. Too bad Ace counterkilled him and got a meh level out of it.

I've never been happy to see a miss like this one. It means I can feed it to someone that can actually gain experience.

Case in point. Anakin's at 1 hp, but he profits quite nicely from the level up.

With some help from Kevin so she doesn't get any ideas about rushing the boss. Anakin is able to have a chat with Karina and bring her under his command. Sure didn't take long for him to get a dedicated flyer for his group, eh?

Anyways, Karina is your first Wyvern Rider and has the trademark low resistance most of them are known for. Rather low con though which is going to hamper her some until that speed ticks on up which, given it has a 45% growth, might end up being her death knell if she doesn't get enough of it. I likely won't be using her long term since there's a future Wyvern Rider I prefer, but she'll be useful for the next couple of chapters.

Finally, an amusing fact...Karina has an odd hp growth. Not bad mind you, but it's 77%. Usually a growth is a multiple of 5. Thought that'd be interesting to mention.

Sold that Blue Gem, then picked up an Iron Sword for Eduardo. The nearby item shop has some basic, but useful magic supplies. I grab a spare Lightning tome for Anakin, a Fire tome, and I believe a Heal staff.

Time for the boss. Talon's nothing special, but take note of that Generic Spear.

Yeah, effective damage on other fellow Soldiers. Ace doesn't attack, but lets Anakin get the first strike.

He expects a mere speaker with no combat experience, but gets one who has combat experience. Surprising, perhaps. Anakin lands both of his attacks thankfully.

Trash talking to Ace sir?

Ace is not amused.

This is what happens when bosses get overconfident around Soldiers like Ace.

Also, Ace had to land both of his attacks to take out Talon. If he missed one, no worries since Karina was in range to rescue him and I'd just let Anakin counterkill Talon.

When questioned by Anakin about why Magnus has begun taking over the continent of Solum, Talon says the most predictable answer...power, stating that emperor believes Solum "is his right". Talon is then allowed to do whatever he wants, meaning he's going to go think twice about talking trash in a fight next time.

While getting preparations made for the journey to Alexia, Anakin is approached by a man named Logan who says he knows of a shortcut to Alexia which will save quite a bit of time.

Of course, Ace rightly warns Anakin that this seems too good to be true and you have a big choice to make. Your map for chapter 13 will change depending on what you select here. Saying no is the best result here unless you want a very difficult chapter 13.

Anakin decides to question Logan about how he knows of a shortcut to Alexia, then immediately concludes that Logan was going to lure his group into a trap and finish them all off at once (I'd like to see them try to kill Kevin though, heh).

Logan is not happy he was found out, but to add insult to injury, what Anakin just said above was a complete and utter bluff and Logan fell for it.

In short...

Anakin: 1, Logan: 0

Chapter 11 concludes and the perspective switches over for the next chapter to a familiar face...

Kelik's back. He's talking to a couple members of his group, the Legend Mercenaries, about how there's been no sign of any Magnian encampments in the fortress.

Suddenly, Althares! He ninja teleports in, prompting Tekun (Brown haired man) to be awed by that technique.

Kelik's not exactly, shall we say, amused at his entrance, but there's no time to dwell on it.

A messenger arrives, stating the dire news...Siegfried's been captured by Howard two days prior.

Kelik's influence seems to be rubbing off on Althares there.

The message continues on, stating that Kelik should seek out Anakin in Regalia and carry on with the resistance. I do think Kelik's already on that since he's the one that sent out Karina to look for him. At least Kelik isn't blindly rushing into situations like Siegfried has done so that's good.

Tekun's gotta leave on a quest for vengeance in the Atheya region. He picked a poor time to leave because...

Looks like Howard has found out where Kelik's group was hiding.

You would do well to heed Kelik's words here. More on that in a bit, but first, might as well see what Kelik has for equipment.

Kelik sure doesn't mess around, does he? He starts out with solid bases and a nice personal weapon, the Flamberge. Good power, respectable accuracy, and is 1-2 range. It also has a rather strange amount of uses.

Growth wise, they're solid with resistance being the only sub-30% growth.

This guy though...damn! Levion is absurdly strong for this map, but Kelik will need his help to make it out alive, that much is certain.

While Levion does have growths, I'll save that until later down the road. You'll see why at the end.

Kelik's first action? Critical this Cavalier.

This does demonstrate one of the challenges for this map. Every enemy except for a rare couple of them use spears, meaning Kelik's accuracy takes a hit. Levion will be nearby if Kelik misses a target so he can kill it and prevent Kelik from being swarmed too much.

Well, this is going to end well, isn't it?

Althares nabs the first chest and it's...these already? Wow. Sure as hell not complaining though, heh.

Speaking of wow...somehow hit his lowest growth and nothing else besides hp. Moving on!

Picture this happening anytime Levion attacks an enemy or vice versa. It's how all his fights end.

Another 10k gold for the war chest once I get a chance to sell it, very nice.

Kelik heals himself with a Vulnerary he took from Levion who grabbed them from Althares.

This would be a good time to explain what Kelik meant when he said Levion shouldn't engage Howard. First off, Howard has some nasty weaponry and high stats, but in all honesty, Levion could outduel him if he had Kelik's Elixirs.

The problem arises though when anyone engages Howard, even if the man himself initiates the fight. After one battle, Cavaliers appear from basically every opening in the base and you're more or less screwed because they have high stats and good weaponry like Silver Lances.

Long story short...stick to the southern wall with anyone as you go east and you'll be out of Howard's attack range.

Of course, there's a Cavalier next to Howard with a Silver Lance. That could have been nasty if it hit.

Go. Away.

This Thief, by virtue of the Fire Emblem AI, was forced to attack Levion for maximum hilarity. I don't think I need to say what happened here.

Meanwhile, Kelik's taking any chance he can get to get kills and boost his level. Can't argue about speed & luck making him more dodgy.

Assuming you'll want to get everything from this chapter, Althares will likely attract a Cavalier or two his way. Getting him all those levels in part 1 makes a difference as he can focus on opening the chests and not worrying about his health.

Speaking of chests, Althares gets the only Mine you'll find for the rest of the game. The Chest Keys though...ehh, that seems strange too, but whatever.

Not too bad of a level. Kelik can always make use of stronger defenses.

Around turn 12 or so, Howard begins to move. Levion gives his Dragon Axe & Silver Sword over to Kelik before stepping onto the tile to end this map.

Yeah, Levion's gone out to find a base to conquer in order to have a good start point to assault Yulia Castle as chapter 12 concludes..

More importantly though...when Levion returns, his experience resets and he gets fresh equipment. Might as well take advantage of free weapons then, am I right?

Death Count: Shon (1), Siegfried (1)

Next time: Another axe user...a promoted one that is.

[spoiler=Growths & Comments (Anakin, Ace, Eduardo, Karina, Kelik)]

Anakin's growths:

Hp: 55% Luk: 75%

Mag: 35% Def: 30%

Skl: 65% Res: 45%

Spd: 50%

Anakin might end up magic screwed if his growth is unkind for him, but even then, he's not useless. He'll have access to his extra turn granting abilities and sky high evasion. Surprisingly high defense growth for a magic user too which is nice. Even if he weren't forced to go to the endgame, I would still take him with me, no questions asked.

Ace's growths:

Hp: 80% Luk: 40%

Str: 45% Def: 35%

Skl: 45% Res: 25%

Spd: 50%

Growths aren't bad, but considering how low his strength starts, he's going to live or die by how much of that he gets. At least his quickened exp gain by being a Soldiers will help him to get multiple levels to (hopefully) patch that issue up.

Eduardo's growths:

Hp: 125% Luk: 35%

Str: 60% Def: 30%

Skl: 40% Res: 30%

Spd: 40%

Eduardo's certainly got the growths befitting a reckless idiot who charges into every fight with no regards for his own safety. He really just needs to hit his skill & speed growths enough and get some defense on the side and he could go places.

Karina's growths:

Hp: 77% Luk: 35%

Str: 40% Def: 25%

Skl: 50% Res: 25%

Spd: 45%

Part of my issue with Karina is that awful constitution of hers. She can't even wield an Iron Lance without being weighed down before promotion. That basically means she has to pray her 45% speed growth procs enough to offset the weight of heavy weapons. I have taken her to the endgame before with good results, but nowadays, I prefer another Wyvern Rider we'll be seeing later on to her.

Kelik's growths:

Hp: 80% Luk: 55%

Str: 50% Def: 35%

Skl: 55% Res: 25%

Spd: 55%

Not much to really say here. Kelik's growths ensure that he seldom, if ever, screwed over by the RNG. Having a more dedicated & reliable sword user helps matters too.

[LunaticScreamer]

And here's the other part of the first update for today.

[spoiler=Ch13: The Wrath of the RNG]

Here's a curious individual. We'll see what's up with him in a bit.

Logan's got to attempt damage control for his colossal screw up in falling for Anakin's bluff.

This would also be a good time to mention the alternate chapter 13 that could have appeared if you decided to trust Logan. It's a nasty difficulty spike to make up for the fact Anakin was a silly kid that trusted anyone too quickly.

There are some other differences though in the kinds of rewards you get. There's a village with a Secret Book and Logan, while still an enemy, can be recruited by Anakin for his group. I'll talk about his growths at the end of the update.

As for the alternate chapter 13 boss...yes, he has a Killer Axe, but I don't believe he has a ranged option so you can chip away at him from range with someone like Anakin.

You get no such luck in recruiting Logan in the chapter 13 I'm doing though as he must be killed.

Indeed, we'll do just that chief.

First turn is oddly quiet. No enemies aside from Logan who's far over to the west. This turn is basically just moving forward and getting prepared for the fight to start up.

That's because all the enemies you'll be fighting come from reinforcements. An interesting concept, but I feel the map could have done with a few enemies already on the field on top of the reinforcements.

An upgraded tome for Anakin, not bad. He'll need to boost his weapon rank though to use it. I then move her as close to Anakin as I can get so he can grant her another turn. She has some important work to do on the western half of the map.

Of course, MAYBE having her Axereaver equipped just in case a Pirate decides to come over and annoy her would have been nice.

Turn 3 and she picks up this man here, Asch, and flies southwest.

Meanwhile, Cavaliers are appearing from the forts in the southeast. This will make for a good chance to boost up Ace's levels. The defense will help I guess, but he really needs strength & speed right now.

Kelik & Althares have arrived in the southwest and way too far away to help Anakin out. Don't worry, they'll have their own enemies to deal with soon enough.

Kelik doesn't have the highest of opinions babysitting a kid like Anakin, shall we say.

Karina drops Asch next to Kelik, allowing the two to have a chat and get Asch on our side.

Fun fact...if you wanted to, you could have Anakin talk to Asch, but like Kelik, Asch doesn't have the time for little kids and won't join the team. Poor guy.

Anyways...see that village?

Another party member, nice.

First off, Asch is a Hero, but much like Echinda from Binding Blade, he specializes in axes more than swords, even coming along with a rather interesting axe. Low Mt, ok accuracy, VERY heavy (18 wt), few uses, but a massive crit rate of 57. Asch would do well to save this for an enemy you really need to die right then and there.

As for his growths...he has two above 100% which are hp (115%) and luck (120%). Putting those aside, the rest of his growths are good aside from resistance. No offensively oriented ones below 50% means that he has some good potential once he can get actual good exp from a kill.

Itsuke is a pretty solid unit right out of the gate. Good bases, quite acceptable growths including a decent defense growth for a Mage, and a free Energy Ring for the pile.

If you were playing the alternate chapter 13, he'd join when Kelik & Althares arrive on that map, but he doesn't have an Energy Ring there.

The usual here really. Kevin's standing weaponless nearby if Ace needs to back off and heal for a turn.

Reinforcements finally start appearing over by Kelik's group. Karina & Itsuke kill one Soldier while Asch forms a defensive wall to protect Itsuke while injuring another Soldier.

Back at the start, Eduardo & Anakin are on Pirate slaying duty. No complaints here.

The reinforcements from the west aren't much of a threat when I can shut them down before they get to move.

Apparently they can also shut down any hopes of a good first level for Itsuke too.

Some reinforcements even start coming from the two forts near Logan. More annoying here because of the extra evasion, but still manageable to kill with one or two units.

Let's just say I didn't have the best of fortune with more good level ups than bad ones on this map.

At least Althares is getting exactly what he needs right now.

Kelik's not doing too bad either.

More defense for Eduardo, good. His reckless charges will be less risky thankfully.

I've basically been walling up this entire time with my team in the northeast while someone blocks off the bridge to the south.

Knights on forts can be nasty. Lots of defense and Itsuke alone can't drop either one in a single round.

This is the point where the RNG decided to go into jerk mode.

Ok, it let up a bit, that's good.

Reinforcements from the west got an upgrade. Pair of Fighters & Myrmidons which will be a little more tricky to effectively clean out each time a group comes up.

Defense going up for Ace, but not strength.

Kelik finally gets some strength. More defense too!

Hero crits are always fun to watch. Too bad the Myrmidon had to get killed in the process.

At least if she's going to get a one stat level, she gets it in a useful stat.

Finally, Itsuke catches a break and gets a good level roasting an enemy.

Not much to say really. Just walling up and abusing reinforcements for experience at this point.

Train derailed, uh oh.

This group of two Mages and one Sage is the final wave of reinforcements the western team has to deal with. The Sage has Elfire and that hurts like hell, at least a third of anyone's hp over there, if not more.

Kelik & Althares drop the Sage and...train derailed further!

Althares narrowly avoids a trip to the Death Count list.

All done. Now to wait for Anakin's team to finish cleaning up their side.

Four hp only level ups in a single map. That has to be a new record for me.

Also, Ace might be a lost cause unless the RNG gods intervene something fierce. Luckily, I have a backup idea for my master plan I can use so this isn't a lost cause. It may even benefit Kevin down the road too.

While waiting for Anakin's crew to make it over to the west, might as well see what Logan's all about.

Overall...nasty. Yes, that Shadow Sword is heavy, but even with it on, Logan is at an effective 13 speed, meaning possible doubles on some of my party members (Ace!).

Also, those Elixirs?

Yeah, I don't think so sir. Those are mine now!

Finally starting to get a support going. This should benefit the both of them well. Kelik goes up close and personal with the enemies while Anakin can rely on his evasion to keep himself alive and still provide a bonus to Kelik.

Solution to dealing with Logan...throw a giant walking glacial wall of pain at him until he takes a hit. Kevin connects, bringing Logan down to 6 hp.

With a bit of help from Anakin, Itsuke connects on his 2nd try and...sir, you are forgiven for your bad levels this map, good job!

Yeah Anakin, I'd get used to it like Kelik says because he isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

Death Count: Shon (1), Siegfried (1)

Next time: More returning members of Siegfried's army.

[spoiler=Growths & Comments (Logan, Itsuke, Asch)]

Logan's growths:

Hp: 65% Luk: 20%

Str: 40% Def: 30%

Skl: 75% Res: 15%

Spd: 75%

Logan's an interesting unit. For one, he has absurdly high skill & speed bases (16 skl, 15 spd) plus he's level 1. Couple that with absolutely insane growths for those two stats and he's all but guaranteed to cap both by at least lv10, if not sooner.

As for his other stats, they start out middling, but he does have at least decent strength & defense growths. Bad luck & resistance though.

Could he be a useful unit? Of course. Is he worth losing an Energy Ring & Asch for though? That's up for debate.

Itsuke's growths:

Hp: 60% Luk: 30%

Mag: 55% Def: 25%

Skl: 50% Res: 35%

Spd: 40%

Itsuke is the power version of Cia more or less. She has more speed & luck, but Itsuke usually has the edge in magic & skill and is a bit more tanky on the physical side of things. His strong bases means he can get a really bad level or two and still be good at a low level, say, lv10. As for who's better between him or Cia...neither really. Both are solid characters and both can shine in the endgame.

Asch's growths:

Hp: 115% Luk: 120%

Str: 55% Def: 35%

Skl: 50% Res: 25%

Spd: 50%

Asch is pretty good at the start since axe users are a rarity until several chapters down the road. His meh speed though had best get corrected fast once he can actually get some good experience though or he'll quickly get left in the dust.

[fengaridotdll]

Eduardo's a crutch character with a few growths that are better then Seth's?

Wow

[X-Naut]

Man I hate the cavaliers in this map, even with the Strength procs you're not getting they have way too much defense. >

[LunaticScreamer]

Might as well drop my next batch of updates one map at a time.

[spoiler=Ch14: The Raging War]

Not much really happens in the story before the battle besides "Let's seize the castle to the south!" more or less. You do get a preparations screen if you need to rearrange anyone's inventory, but more importantly...instant 8000 gold right as the map starts. Bear in mind I still have that White Gem from chapter 12 to sell so there's plenty in the war chest for my needs.

Oh yeah, bring Althares along. There's something very nice to steal at the end.

Murder happens right out of the gate pretty much with Kelik picking up a great level dropping an Archer.

Karmic balance is restored on the 2nd turn when Itsuke fries the Archer that attacked him in the enemy phase.

Best way to break the last use of a Javelin, bar none.

This map isn't too bad once you can gain control of the central fort as all the reinforcements are going to come from the south, meaning lots of potential exp if you want to pour it onto a specific character.

More spear induced deaths courtesy of Eduardo.

Yeah, I don't think so missy.

Don't care at all to be honest.

Karina rescues Anakin. I'm going to have her drop him on a fort in the south and see if any enemies feel like diving his way.

Eduardo tries to kill an Archer, but misses a hit. Ace decides to kill it and...yeah, isn't that like his third level with those exact same gains? Not that it matters since he's getting benched beyond this point.

Seems like someone of Siegfried's rebellion is being held here and could be executed.

Howard's not exactly 100% on board with this execution, especially of a young girl. Is someone perhaps losing their will to work for evil?

Back to your regularly scheduled murder, already in progress. More speed for Eduardo is quite nice.

Sure enough, Anakin is luring random Cavaliers over his way in the southeast. Not the best level, but it's at least some small boost to evasion.

On the other hand, Kevin's rush of good levels hasn't stopped yet, capping strength with this one.

More murder, more levels. Itsuke could get this level all the way until lv20 and I'd be just fine with it.

Somehow I knew who the girl to be executed was going to be. She's currently on the enemy side, but against her will. Soon enough, she'll be whisked to the southeast corner. I'm not 100% sure if she moves to attack anyone in her range, but I don't want Anakin sitting around to find out.

Just before Karina gets him out of the danger zone, Anakin picks up a good level weakening a Cavalier.

Howard's devotion to Magnus seems to be weakening ever so slightly, allowing Cia to go into the southeastern part of the map.

But they're worth experience Anakin. More reinforcements are good!

Tamiko's back, thank god. I've missed her healing services quite a bit.

First order of business is to have Tamiko talk to Cia to bring her back on to the side of good.

Second order of business is to wonder how Itsuke can be so wildly random with his level ups.

The usual green army hijinks, but that Archer has a name. Would be nice to have him on our side.

Anakin talks to this Soldier, getting that named Archer called Zach added to his group.

If you're itching to use bows, Zach's going to be your only option for awhile until Storm returns. Luckily, he's not half bad at his job, possessing good strength & speed with acceptable growths in both and a nice high con, allowing him to use most bows at this stage in the game with a 1 or 2 point AS loss at best..

Also of note...his surprisingly high hp. Coupled with a high growth there, he can afford to take a hit or two, even if he might not be able to counterattack afterwards.

Of course, one new unit isn't enough so let's throw a flyer into that deal as well. This is Lirin and she's basically a more competent Inanna at this stage thanks to her fantastic bases. Growths are a bit shaky (40% speed growth on a Pegasus Knight, lovely), but she starts at lv5 and thusly has a chance to potentially shine if given a chance...oh, and a lighter weapon than an Axereaver.

At this point, it's basically everyone holding their ground and killing any reinforcements that get close. Kelik picks up a nice level murdering a random enemy.

Tank Cia will have none of your spearing hijinks there chief.

The previous statement still stands.

The net is closing in on the castle. Won't be much longer now until it's liberated.

It's so nice to have my healer back.

Cia's doing pretty good right now. Could do with a bit more skill, but that's about it.

A Soldier gets into a Javelin contest with Lirin. He loses.

The number of enemies are slowly dwindling.

Oh yeah, there's still some random enemies up in the northeast yet. Eduardo can deal with that.

Just for kicks, I fed a couple enemies to Lirin. Not a bad first level up actually.

Fire Emblem AI: Green Army Suicide Crew Edition

Kelik finally kills a pesky Cavalier that had been running away for awhile and is a point off of capping speed.

Free elixirs, thank you.

Eduardo's cleaned out the northeast corner so he visits this village and gets yet another tome that Anakin can use when he has the weapon rank for it.

Kelik & Anakin boost their support level up a notch.

Less hp/skill/luck level ups please, thank you.

As for the boss, Lena, she's not much of a threat honestly. No giant reservoir of speed & skill like Logan and weapons that are slowing her down make for an easy fight. Too bad she's saying no to effective damage from bows and...wait a minute!

I think she's rather well screwed now (those Elixirs are also pilfered for the record).

Zach comes in and humiliates Lena with a critical shot, gaining a decent level up in the process.

While making my purchases before ending the chapter, I should call attention to this. It might seem like a good deal, but don't buy it, trust me.

Death Count: Shon (1), Siegfried (1)

Next time: Stalling for fountains of experience.

[spoiler=Growths & Comments (Zach, Lirin)]

Zach's growths:

Hp: 85% Luk: 40%

Str: 45% Def: 30%

Skl: 50% Res: 15%

Spd: 45%

Zach's a pretty good unit actually. Good offensive bases, enough hp to take a decent hit or two, and a surprisingly good defense growth. Toss in a con of 8 which lets him wield most bows at this stage with little to no AS loss and he's a recipe for potential stardom. I'll probably still go back to Storm when he rejoins, but Zach's still a good unit regardless.

Lirin's growths:

Hp: 75% Luk: 25%

Str: 45% Def: 25%

Skl: 40% Res: 30%

Spd: 40%

Her growths might be a little shaky, but Lirin's awesome bases coupled with a low joining level gives her some breathing room for a bad level or two. Just make sure not to give her too heavy of a spear until her speed develops a bit as her con is pretty low.

[LunaticScreamer]

Last update for tonight.

[spoiler=Ch15: Fountains of Experience]

Oh really chief? Did you not see the color of the Cavaliers next to you?

He said it, not me.

Kelik decides to pull off a cutscene version of an earth shattering kaboom to make the Cavaliers go poof.

Preparation screens from this point onwards feature this lovely lady. For a cheap fee, usually 50 or 100 gold, she'll give you some hints about the map you're going into.

For the time being, just make sure to bring both Kelik & Althares to this map. Why?

Tekun can have a chat with Kelik why Althares needs to chat with Tekun for something important.

Before that though...Tekun's finally joining the party. He doesn't have Logan's sky high skill & speed growths, but he makes up for that by having actual good growths everywhere else. Having a free Killing Edge is always useful too.

Tekun gives Kelik about that cutscene caliber earth shattering kaboom. That's not why I had him talk to Kelik.

This is why. Scattered around the game are seven secret scrolls in total which can be found by performing some specific tasks or fulfilling hidden requirement. Collect all seven and you can unlock some post game content for free with it.

Anyways, Karina goes and murders this Killing Edge jerk before he can become a threat.

Eduardo only needed one poke to get this level. More speed and lots of other stuff too!

Zach finishes off the Mercenary Eduardo weakened.

Not much happened in the first enemy phase besides this Zanbato coming from some random enemy that suicided on Karina. She'll be visiting that village on the next turn.

Here's something interesting. This Cavalier is using the spear based version of the Chainsaw. A bit weaker and with only 10 uses, but relatively light and with an insanely high crit rate. That would have helped the Cavalier here had he...

A. Had a good amount of strength

B. Not attack Kevin

Karina visits that village on turn 2 and picks up a new party member for the team, Emma.

Emma is a very odd Troubadour. Not because of her low magic for a lv10 unit, not because of her low luck, but because she has 10 defense. That is quite high for a healer. Not going to complain though, heh.

Besides that, she has the low hp & defense growths of a typical magic user, but pretty good elsewhere, especially speed. Some say she attached rocket powered engines to her horse. Considering that speed growth is at 80%, I'm inclined to believe it.

Also, she does have a Celestial Ring, a promotion item for magic users.

Tamiko's been waiting for this upgrade for awhile. She even gets to have expertise in Light magic to defend herself with.

Murder!

More enemy murd...oh wait, that's my guy getting murdered, whoops. This one's my fault though.

Random Zach level.

Eduardo's reckless charge impulses are getting less and less painful with every level.

Fucks given by Emma: 0

Magic on the first level up, nice.

Fire Emblem AI: We can definitely charge through this enemy group in front of us. Why bother taking the completely unguarded bridge to the south!

Anakin is going to be picking up several levels here with all the extra turn granting he's giving to Emma and/or Lirin. Can't argue about magic & defense here.

Speaking of Lirin, she gets a good level up sniping with her Javelin.

Rocket powered engine horse at work folks!

Kelik & Anakin get an A support together finally.

Althares finally remembers to talk to Tekun and gets a free Member Card. Now you know why I didn't buy one last chapter, heh.

Lirin's not doing too bad actually. More defense is always useful.

All Emma really needs honestly. Everything else is a bonus.

Lots of enemies there, isn't it? Well, hope you like a level montage!

Wanted Emma at lv20 before I went to town on nuking the remaining enemies. She's not doing too bad honestly.

Anakin could do with a bit more speed at this point while Tamiko might want to get actual stats next time.

Jesus her strength is going up quickly. A total of 6 points in 7 levels. To boot, she's only had one bad level thus far. She might just be getting a spot on the team at this rate.

With the enemy cluster at the start finally dead, I feed an Archer to Karina since she was close to a level. Turns out it was the right choice considering the great level she got out of it.

As for the boss, Perry, he's not a weakling in the slightest. Good stats plus a painful Silver Lance which he drops upon his death.

Worse yet though? He can and will move if anyone enters his attack range. Make damn sure you don't trigger him too early before you're ready to gank him when using your bait to lure him in.

You mean your Silver Lance that does 9 damage to Kevin? Ok then, I hope you like taking over half your health in damage on the counterattack.

Perry & Lirin engage in a missing contest.

Missing contest over. Lirin wins the defeated's prize, a Silver Spear.

I'm not sure what you hope to accomplish with a 3 damage crit, but whatever suits your fancy. Just know that Lirin is going to kill you right after that.

Please cap strength before lv20. I have faith in you.

Someone's gotta take the crummy levels for all the luck Lirin's having with hers.

One enemy left, but first...see that village up north? If you enter it, you'll usually get an Iron Blade. If you enter it with Emma however...

Free magic sealing staff? Sure, why not! This gets passed to Tamiko as she has the highest magic of my staff users right now.

Oh hey, Kevin actually got a bad level. He hasn't had one of those for a long time.

Not much else needs to be said. Just make sure you get any supplies you want from the shops here as it'll be a couple chapters before your next one appears.

Zombie Perry, oh dear.

...Ok Anakin, really now? He seriously just about killed you and you decide to get mad at Kelik for saving your ass?

See, even Kelik's getting a little tired of this charade.

"Just a bit"? That might be underselling it Kelik, but yeah. Most of Anakin's issues in this part of the story revolve around the fact that he's precisely what Kelik just said. He nearly died twice on this day because he thinks someone can't change or won't cause harm, no matter the situation.

In any case, that's the end of chapter 15.

Death Count: Shon (1), Siegfried (1), Tekun (1)

Next time: The return of the emblem weapons!

[spoiler=Growths & Comments (Emma)]

Emma's growths:

Hp: 55% Luk: 35%

Mag: 50% Def: 20%

Skl: 40% Res: 35%

Spd: 80%

Emma's a pretty good unit, not going to lie. Sure, her magic starts low. She has a good growth there however. Also, you can't deny how useful it is to have a mounted healer among your ranks. One of the few characters that always goes to the endgame in every one of my playthroughs, no questions asked.

[HF Makalov Fanboy Kai]

cousin said that anakin and kelik make good BF's

[LunaticScreamer]

Quick morning update.

[spoiler=Ch16: The Return of the Emblem Weapons]

Getting very close to Yulia now as the duo here is discussing their plan of attack.

Random mercenaries that decide to agree to everything and praise Kelik like it's going out of style? Yeah, I'd be a little annoyed myself there chief.

Remember Levion? Kelik sent him off some time ago to find an area near the border so an attack on Yulia could be launched.

Levion's gotta bolt and find Shon, so he leaves the task of assaulting Yulia from the south to a few familiar faces.

Someone is devising something mysterious, but out of nowhere, reunited siblings or something like that. Good for here I guess, but whatever, time for action to finally begin!

Regardless of what mysterious plans he may be cooking up, Ben is my preferred go to person for all things Wyvern Rider related. His con lets him use actual heavy weapons with little or no AS loss and he's pretty sturdy too, even having a very high res base for a Wyvern Rider. Granted, his res growth is low, but that extra padding gives him a little breathing room if he's forced to eat some magic hits.

As an amusing note, all his training to become more magic resistant also made him conform to the idea that he should have a low hp growth like most magic users. Thankfully, his base is good enough to make up for that.

Other than that, his strongest growth is speed which is good. He needs some of that and fast.

Anyways, there's two routes you can take on your way to Yulia Castle. The upper path, clearly, is more dangerous, especially since there's a Hero's Flare using Mage skulking about up there. I have plans for that one though.

Zach gets a little help from Anakin in dropping a Fighter. Not really caring about his levels since Storm will replace him later on, but he's the only bow user I have right now.

Solution to the nasty upper half of the map? Send in my giant armored powerhouse. Only this Mage and the two to the west can actually do any serious damage to Kevin so he'll be just fine.

Tamiko grabbed herself a Lightning tome and used it to weaken a Mage for Eduardo to kill.

Someone with a Hand Axe actually damaging Kevin? Shocking! I still don't care though, heh.

Looks like someone is not happy that his girlfriend got killed. Maybe if you hadn't ditched her back at Alexia, this wouldn't have happened chief.

This highlighted Mage is the one with the Hero's Flare.

Yeah, I don't think so.

Longbow jerk gets kicked off the map.

Still a good chunk of damage even with Lirin holding the Delphi Shield. That would have been at least half her health or more without it.

The northern enemy forces are getting picked off one by one.

Since my healers are up north, Lirin decides to use a Vulnerary before the next Archer attacks her.

Potential criticals that can one shot, however small the chance, aren't pleasant to be hit by. At least he didn't get critted here.

I'd like to inform you that she's missed her strength growth all of one time thus far. Seriously, if you don't cap strength by lv20 Lirin, I'm going to be disappointed in you.

Know what would be hilarious? If Eduardo capped hp before promotion. Unlikely, but it's an amusing thought regardless.

Kevin finally maxes out with a kill. Of course he would decide to get more resistance on it, heh.

Too bad there's not an Elfire tome around. Cia would be able to use that quite well given her speed right now.

A quick heal for Ben since he traded blows with an Archer.

Reinforcements are arriving, though honestly it's just Shuuda in this case. Lirin is basically outpacing Inanna in every way possible.

These two will eventually be shooting for an A support.

Damn.

Lirin's already luring over some of the enemies near Yulia. I'm making quicker progress through this chapter than I usually do which is nice.

Reinforcements eh? Too bad I have a giant wall of units there about to mess their day up.

Speed cap for Kelik and more defense. Now he just needs to actually focus on his strength.

Lirin & Ben are going to make good training partners as one can setup a kill for the other since neither can double the currently incoming enemies.

There are Corben, just not any you're likely to be fed if Eduardo has anything to say about it.

If you got both emblem weapon in part 1, Corben will come with both in his inventory. Ben just might want that lance for himself right now.

Haven't been able to push forward much since there's a high volume of mages in the area and they're decently powerful.

It's a good chance to get some levels for Ben though. Not going to complain about the surge of luck he's been getting.

Ouch. This is why I was reluctant to move forward until the Mage population got thinned down some. This jerk has Elfire and is quite proficient with it. At least Anakin picked up some speed which he was actually falling a bit behind in.

Ben can now go around and start assassinating the last few dregs of the enemy force with minimal worry for his life.

Anakin doesn't even need heals, especially against a Javelin.

More speed for Ben and his hp ticking up quickly despite only a 55% growth there. Not bad.

Anakin drops the last non boss enemy and profits nicely from the exchange.

Roarik is not to be underestimated. A decent reserve of strength coupled with a Brave Lance means few can afford to get up in his face without risking death.

Shuuda with the Lancereaver is one of the few that can afford to sit up close.

Yeah, the Brave Lance stings something fierce if it connects. Doubly so if it hits twice.

A little ranged bombing action from Anakin & Cia take down Roarik with Cia getting some magic which she was lacking a bit in.

Can't hurt to give these two a quick boost via support powers before seizing the gate.

The Zeros eh? Wonder what they're like.

Assassins that don't give any damns about killing Magnians. Well then!

Meanwhile, Levion got Shon out of Yulia safe & sound. Levion's pretty good at cutscene caliber tasks.

Shortly before infiltrating Yulia Castle, Kelik decides to stay behind in the off chance Howard comes riding back. Wouldn't want a repeat performance of what happened at the end of part 1, now do we?

Or he could have detected Renault. I suppose that works.

I think you may be in a little over your head here Kelik. Just saying.

Earth shattering kabooms? Renault Fenix, that should only be capable from my team members you dingbat!

Heh, nice photo here.

Uh...Anakin, Renault Fenix one shotted Kelik. You have less hp and roughly the same amount of evasion. I don't foresee you getting out of this battle alive.

Not unless Renault's Fenix's superior, Lahar, decides to intervene and tells him to stay his hand on any further earth shattering kabooms as chapter 16 comes to a close.

Death Count: Shon (1), Siegfried (1), Tekun (1)

Next time: Promotions!

[spoiler=Growths & Comments (Ben)]

Ben's growths:

Hp: 55% Luk: 35%

Str: 45% Def: 40%

Skl: 45% Res: 20%

Spd: 60%

Ben's growths are pretty damn respectable, aren't they? Only hp & resistance are low and, to boot, has much more con than Karina, meaning he can use more powerful spears without tanking his AS anywhere near as much. Couple all that with solid bases besides luck and he's got good prospects for getting into my endgame team.

[fengaridotdll]

Wow, Ben looks awfully similar to Sigurd... Coincidence, I guess?

[LunaticScreamer]

Update time!

[spoiler=Ch17: Linear Path To Glory]

Well, it's about time! I don't have to worry about throwing anything away anymore as the man on the right, Liuke, acts as the tent to which all excess items can be tossed to.

The plan for retaking Yulia? Kelik's going to go find Siegfried with the help of Shon.

Meanwhile, Anakin has a chat with the commander in charge of Yulia at the moment, Lyam. Turns out he's not really a Magnian, but rather a mercenary from Blaine hired to destroy Magnus's army from the inside out. He wants Anakin to make it to the throne room and then he'll drop his whole enemy ruse and destroy every red unit in the immediate area. Sounds easy enough.

First though...make sure Shon or Kelik have the Member Card on hand as there's a secret shop either one can visit en route to their task of saving Siegfried.

Liuke's pretty sturdy. Decent evasion and enough defense & hp to take a hit or two from a physical using enemy if it comes to that. The catch? Two thirds of the time, he's in no danger of being reached by any enemies, be it due to no reinforcements at the start or your team blowing up everything near him and nothing happening in his area. As such, his level will go up quickly.

If, however, you're looking for someone to use for combat purposes, look no further than your first true axe user, Mark. Good con to use at least Steel Axes with little or no penalties right out of the game and workable bases besides resistance. His growths edge him towards much of the same role Shuuda's going for...low defenses, but solid everywhere else. He just needs speed quickly and he oughta do well.

While I'd like to feed kills to my lower leveled units, I don't have time to dawdle. There's a gaiden to access if the chapter is completed in 21 turns or less and there's plenty of enemies to mow down en route to the throne room. Cia kicks off the festivites by dropping this General to 1 hp.

B support between Shuuda & Eduardo now.

With a bit of help from Anakin, Shuuda can reach the General that Cia weakened and finish it off for a solid level.

Meanwhile, Shon & Kelik's task to cut through a few meager enemies begins and Shon...gets a good level? Damn son, when was the last time you did that?

The only other highlight besides a Mercenary suiciding on Kelik during the first enemy phase.

Free Door Keys from a slain Fighter, then the usual murder spree continues with Eduardo getting some much needed speed on a level up.

Kevin's not nearly broken enough right now so he slips on some stylish gear to increase his movement.

Even less happens on the second enemy phase besides Kelik critting this Fighter on a counterattack.

Secret shop finally and it's a pretty good one with several rare weapons on sale. Of interest...

Valumin is a Light tome with low power and accuracy, but will poison the target it hits. Not at all useful.

Aircalibur though is a completely different story. Power equivalent to that of a Thunder tome, but very very light. I grab a few of these for Cia as well as a Halberd & Cappricio.

This is the part of the game where promotion items start pouring in at a good clip. Kevin gets this one because goddamn he's not powerful enough yet and now has 7 move.

More support strengthening occurs between Ben & Emma.

More enemies failing to hit their marks in another largely uneventful enemy phase.

Shon kills the Knight that attacked him and grabs the keys needed to unlock Siegfried's cell.

Free weapon. Yay I guess...if I had a good bow user right now that is.

Murder commences with Ben somehow not getting tagged by an hp draining tome. At least Emma was nearby to patch him up if it had connected.

Honestly, there's not much to talk about here. The map's pretty glacial in terms of difficulty and the enemies feel like they're underperforming a tiny bit for this stage in the game.

Seriously, my HEALER could plug up a gap and be just fine. Then again, it IS Emma we're talking about here.

At least there's profit in good levels to be had.

Shon steps in to save his dad and the trio twiddle their thumbs for several turns.

Seriously, I'm getting way too many good levels in a row here. This is slightly unnerving to say the least.

Ok, less good, but it's defense for Lirin which she can use.

Being able to have Lirin rush the enemy lines with little risk to her own life is pretty amusing.

Where's all these good levels coming from? I'm setting up for an hp only level on at least two or three units at this rate, given my luck.

Everyone's starting to catch up and inch closer to the throne room with the same easy waves of enemies to cut down.

Speed cap for Cia finally. More magic too!

'

Kevin's basically invincible right now, no matter who attacks him.

More murder, more levels, more of Eduardo addressing some of his problem areas.

Finally, something interesting is about to happen. Cia kills this Mage, then...

Lyam turns from a red unit to a green army unit. Three of those enemies are likely going to target him and die instantly because he's currently equipped with a Silver Sword.

Ok, normalcy in levels seems to be taking over once again. At least Tamiko picks up some magic.

Breaking into the second treasure room and killing its inhabitant rewards a meh bow. It's about to get much better though.

Probably the only significant threat to Lyam in the throne room. I don't think I need to mention what happens to the Soldier on Lyam's counterattack strikes.

Ditto for this Fighter.

More enemies suiciding, but this time it's on someone that can benefit from it. Not a bad level up at all.

On turn 10, this guy appears. If you somehow haven't saved Siegfried by now, you get a game over. It doesn't happen here and this grunt fails to see just who exactly opened the cell.

Said grunt dies very quickly by Shon's hands.

Althares gets to looting the treasure room, starting with another promotion item that quickly gets tossed Emma's way so she can defend herself with Anima Nature tomes from now on.

.

Anti armor weaponry is always nice.

So is recruiting a new party member for the army. Lyam's class is actually one from Sacred Stones, the Ranger. Just another name for a Nomad Trooper, thusly being proficient with swords & bows.

While Lyam's growths are pretty solid, the problem is that, for some weird reason, he doesn't get good experience from kills at all, even when enemy exp actually becomes somerhing. If he does, it's a very slow process.

Final treasure chest with a useful tome that Cia could make use of.

Cleared this chapter in 13 turns just before Anakin seizes the throne.

Battle plans are being discussed with the next target being Aegis, home of Duke Paul. I do believe someone is one step closer to finally showing his face when I step into that castle, heh.

Levion, ever the smart strategist, suggests a plan. He says that seeking out a group of pirates that hasn't allied themselves with Magnus just yet might be worth following up on. Anything to cross a river quickly works I guess.

Death Count: Shon (1), Siegfried (1), Tekun (1)

Next time: Zoro. I suspect this is a reference to One Piece that Blazer put in, but what do I know.

[spoiler=Growths & Comments (Liuke, Mark, Lyam)]

Liuke's growths:

Hp: 125% Luk: 110%

Str: 10% Def: 35%

Skl: 70% Res: 25%

Spd: 90%

What really needs to be said for Liuke? He should not be seeing combat, but once he gains some levels, he'll have decent evasion and good defense to soak up hits with if combat can't be avoided.

Mark's growths:

Hp: 80% Luk: 30%

Str: 55% Def: 25%

Skl: 45% Res: 20%

Spd: 40%

Very much a glass cannon much like Shuuda is, but he doesn't have as high of a speed growth as him. Still, he is your first pure axe user. Granted, I prefer another axe user coming up later, but Mark's not too bad so long as he can get some speed.

Lyam's growths:

Hp: 80% Luk: 35%

Str: 40% Def: 30%

Skl: 55% Res: 20%

Spd: 55%

Good growths, yes, but you're going to have to deal with his bugged exp gains if you want to want him to get any better sadly.

[LunaticScreamer]

Morning update with a very short chapter.

[spoiler=Ch17x: Zoro]

Looks like Kelik has to prove himself to this swordsman by the name of Zoro to get passage on his ship.

...Wait a minute, Zoro? As in that guy from an anime called One Piece?

...Well then!

The funny thing is, despite Zoro wanting to duel Kelik, you are not required to bring him here. I just bring along Shuuda & Eduardo so they can get their A support here.

Your characters are quite split up on this map. Anakin's out east, Shuuda is in the northwest, and Eduardo starts near the gate to the shops. I have him run west and begin chipping down this Pirate, thereby keeping him out of the range of any other enemies around.

For Anakin, he needs to find the nearest forest and park in it as he's going to get blasted by at least three enemies, maybe even four. His sky high evasion in a forest means only the Archer and Mercenary really have any decent chance to hit him.

Of course, Anakin can also take steps to bolster his evasion even further which is fine by me. The enemies coughing up nice amounts of exp here help too, making it easy to bring up a unit to a more sensible level if he or she is lagging behind.

Eduardo with the Axereaver can more or less function on his own here so long as he doesn't get in range of any Mercenaries. This good level makes things that much better for him too.

Pointless criticals are always amusing as an extra insult to injury.

I think the game is telling me to use Shuuda as my primary Hero based on the levels he's been getting as of late. I'm inclined to agree with that if he keeps this up.

One last enemy falls to Eduardo, leaving him with another level featuring resistance and me to deal with Zoro.

Zoro is an interesting boss, mainly due to that sword of his. Low power and poor hit, but it ignores defense. Basically, a 1 range version of Luna.

Before engaging Zoro, Anakin gets to visiting houses. This one gives a rather strange weapon. Has crap for hit, but the Mt is absolutely insane. Still though, it's useless to me.

These though? Not so much. If Eduardo sticks around long enough, he might just get this.

Standing in front of the gate leading to the shops gives you a free Door Key if you wish to go purchase things from the shops (I don't).

A support get for my glass cannon duo.

Note to self: Don't screw up your positioning and lure out Zoro well before you're ready to lure him in. He could have doubled & killed Eduardo, but he's dodges good and I'm safe.

Here's the problem with Onigiri's low accuracy. An A support with Shuuda combined with sitting in a forest already makes the hit rate tank to abysmal levels. Toss in a weapon type advantage and Zoro clocks in at a smashing 0% hit rate.

Eduardo finishes this farce of a duel, picking up a good level and getting the Onigiri to toss into the convoy so Kelik might make use of it down the road.

You didn't even fight Kelik you dingbat. Anyways, 17x is over with.

Death Count: Shon (1), Siegfried (1), Tekun (1)

Next time: Beginning the quest to retake Aegis.

[HF Makalov Fanboy Kai]

gg zoro, nice job jobbin

[LunaticScreamer]

Might as well put up the other part of my update too while I'm at it.

[spoiler=Ch18: A General's Conviction Weakens]

War time once again for poor Siegfried. He can devise up plans from the bench as that's where he'll be for this map.

Also, very important that you bring both Shon & Cia along. Both have some important work to do with the main boss of this chapter.

The main boss isn't this guy, but he is guarding the gate of one of the forts that need to be seized.

This is also important. If Anakin talks to the Cavalier to his south, additional green army units will come in as reinforcements. Granted, they're pretty pathetic in terms of durability here, but they make great distraction bait while the rest of your team works to clear a zone near the start.

Althares visits a nearby village, picking up another promotion item and some gold for the war chest. The ring will be going to Cia once she hits lv20 which she oughta do this map.

Zach's only here to let me have a bit of fun playing around with a Killer Ballista for giggles.

Emma being able to attack now increases her usefulness tenfold. Even with mere Fire tomes, she can bring on the murder in droves.

Honestly, some of the enemy mages are rather pathetic at this point. Nine attack might have been fine back in chapter 5, but it's crap at this point

When I said the green army units here were bad at surviving, the captain that Anakin needs to talk to for reinforcements, if he were ever daring to step out onto the battlefield, would actually be downright respectable at killing enemies.

Well now, the green army's making sure to cause as many headaches for the enemy group as possible. Nothing wrong with that.

This lone green army man is solo up in the northeast with about four enemies around him. You'd think he'd be dead before the other phase starts, but...

Turns out this guy really wants to cause problems for the enemy group. He even has Elixirs so he'll move and heal himself up after this.

Seriously, I'm impressed at how competent the green army units were this turn. Sure, that Soldier got doubled and killed by the Cavalier that attacked him, but he managed to dodge the first strike.

The Mercenary in the northeast moved up precisely one square to heal himself with an Elixir which is all I needed to put my plan into motion. Anakin talks with the captain to get some more green army dodge tanks added to the group, but in the northeast...

Noah's back! He's been leveled up a bit and thusly his stats will be a bit randomized. Granted, Shuuda's going to be better than him in almost every category when he promotes, but for the present time, Noah can clean out the northeast corner with the help of the Mercenary there. Noah's Divine Sword, if he equips it, boosts his defense by 2 and is a 1-2 range weapon. Not bad, just note the low number of uses it has.

Finally, my units are getting a bit more involved in the action.

Seriously, these Mages should not be so weak at this stage in the game. Add another 6-7 magic and a bit of bulk and they'd be something to watch out for.

Ethan's not really much of a threat to be honest. Having 14 defense as a Knight class is rather bad right now.

He does have this interesting weapon though. Any swordsman wanting to fight with him had best be packing a Lancereaver or maybe an Armor Cutter.

Not bad actually for Lirin. She could use the defense.

Eh, might as well support these two. They'll be around for some time anyways.

Green army units are still causing headaches for the enemy team. I like it.

Of course, some enemies would rather die by my unit's hands.

This Mercenary is doing surprisingly well slaying some enemies by Noah in the northeast.

So...I hear Ethan is fighting Shuuda. I wonder if he's doing ok against him.

Nope! Shuuda gets the Elixirs that Ethan drops.

Yeah, this Mage doubled and killed this Fighter, but still...green army units doing dodge work and just annoying the enemy in general as per usual.

As for the main boss of this map? Howard. Oh dear, oh dear.

Still, Cia & Shon's important work they have to do in this map has to do with Howard, but there's still enemies to slay before that time.

Yes, reinforcements are appearing down by where Ethan was. It's only a pair of Cavaliers for a few turns though so everyone there can easily gank them for experience, especially Shuuda who's continuing his streak of good levels.

There goes the Sniper harassing some of the ballista users thanks to a fly by impaling from Lirin.

Noah finally gets a chance to visit the northeastern village, adding yet another promotion item to the pile. The game really wants you to get people promoted now, doesn't it?

Green army Mercenary in the northeast is still a beast and killing things. Sadly he's wandered into a big group of enemies so he's going down soon enough.

The western group begins to slowly nudge northward and murder whatever is still alive up there.

I would say karmic balance has been restored with regards to levels, but it's Shon so he doesn't count.

Oh yes, I also had him visit the armory in the southwest. It has the usual Iron & Steel weapons in all weapon types as well as Hand Axes, Javelins, and...Horseslayers. I pick up a few Horseslayers for the pile as they're going to be useful next chapter.

There goes the Mercenary. He did good though.

Really all that Ben needs right now aside from some defense.

Eh, I was bored so I tried to silence a Sage for kicks. No dice though.

Ok, NOW karmic balance has been officially restored.

Honestly, I've never used Eduardo extensively in my previous playthroughs. He's not doing half bad for himself here honestly.

Cia, not wanting to have a resistance lower than her defense, takes measures to correct it.

The enemies are slowly dwindling.

At this point, Cia just flies forward and counterkills what she can. Ben follows behind her and kills anything dangerous that manages to survive her wrath.

Not the best way to crash into the level cap, but that's his task for this chapter complete.

Some good levels come from mopping up the last remaining enemy forces and it's now time to deal with Howard.

Anakin seizes Fort Darner. Only Aegis is left, but there's a problem.

Howard's guarding Aegis and, unlike chapter 12, must be defeated now. While he's traded in his Brave Sword for a Steel Sword & Spear, he's no less dangerous, sporting high offensive stats and evasion. He'll be a little tricky to bring down.

First order of business is to hand the Lancereaver over to Shon.

Next, Cia can talk with Howard. She gets emotional because she wonders why he's fighting for the bad guys when it was him that saved her from being executed long ago. While nothing seems to be rewarded for this conversation, believe me, it will have an effect down the road.

Next, Kelik forces Howard to attack him with his Spear.

This allows Shon to come in and attack with his Lancereaver. You can see the problem here as Shon may be defeated in a single combat round if he's unlucky.

He is not unlucky, dodging both of Howard's attacks. Why would I have Shon nearly kill himself?

First, this is the last thing he needs to do for his personal sidequest. Doesn't matter if he kills him or not, he just have to survive a round of combat.

This is the other reason. That's 2/7 secrets collected thus far.

Now though, it's time to take out Howard. Cia starts off with a hit on her first combat round, then missing on the enemy phase, but it's enough to get her to lv20 which means...

Promotion time! Having another staff user on hand for emergency healing will be handy.

Ben & Emma get their A support.

This seems suicidal, but it was only a 10% chance to connect so I wasn't really worried. Thanks to a couple other characters, Howard's almost defeated.

Emma makes that fully defeated, getting a good level up for herself. The gate is seized soon after.

Howard still doesn't know when to give up, but it seems like his loyalty is starting to falter.

Provided you had Cia talk to Howard before defeating him, Siegfried makes mention of that change in his conviction & loyalty. This is the sign you did things right with her and will change something in a few chapters.

Inside Aegis, Siegfried finds it a good time to present Anakin with a seal of some kind once held by a hero of the past. Take two guesses as to what that seal does.

Suddenly, promotion! To be honest, I'd have rather this be a Heaven's Seal or something so Anakin can promote whenever he wants to and doesn't have to basically be forced to lv20 before ending the map if you don't want to waste levels.

Regardless, those are definitely some stats going up. Anakin gets the use of staves as a result, making him incredibly useful. Even if he's been magic screwed, he can still be a great support unit with his extra turn granting & heals. There's one other perk he gets, but I'll explain that when it comes up.

For now, that's the end of chapter 18 and...hold it, what's the next chapter again? I forgot.

Oh hell yes. I have been waiting the entire game for this chapter to finally come up. Granted, I don't like the design of it, but my master plan can finally be put into action.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to do some serious praying to the RNG gods.

Death Count: Shon (1), Siegfried (1), Tekun (1)

Next time: A Magnian defects over to the rebellion!

[spoiler=Growths & Comments (Noah)]

Noah's growths:

Hp: 110% Luk: 40%

Str: 60% Def: 30%

Skl: 45% Res: 25%

Spd: 45%

Noah's much like Eduardo in his growths. Lots of hp & strength and decent everywhere else. The problem is that Shuuda or maybe even Asch make just as good Hero prospects as him, if not better, so Noah's kinda superfluous in the end.

Next chapter folks, next chapter...hoo boy, I am excited as hell for it, heh.

Edited January 30, 2015 by LunaticScreamer

[Upside-DownFish]

Hoo boy, I have a feeling you are gonna make a Rex/Kevin dual support murder machine. Let's see how well it works out.

Edited January 31, 2015 by Upside-DownFish

[fengaridotdll]

The equivalent to Merlinus in this hack is Luke... And the Lord is named Anakin...

I GET IT NOW

[LunaticScreamer]

An update with enough images that I have to split it into two parts. All this for a silly little map.

[spoiler=Ch19 Part 1: The Calm Before the Storm]

Howard trying to tell the lovely individual on the right to surrender, but Magnian idiocy kicks in and he's decided to stay and fight. Howard's smart and goes to hide.

Not much else to say as the action begins right away. First, this Warrior. Notable because he's got a decent weapon loadout and a free Energy Ring.

The kicker? There are only two other promoted enemies on this map, one of them being the boss.

In all honesty, I don't like this map. Much like chapter 17, it's basically one giant linear spiral leading to the boss with enemies that move little, if any, and pose minimal threat at best.

Even with a weapon type disadvantage, this is kinda pathetic for damage being taken.

...Ok, maybe that's because of Lirin's high defense, but still...eh, this map is easy and, quite honestly, boring.

At least Lirin's speeding this up as much as possible.

I even brought base level Tekun along for kicks.

These two are going to deal with the enemy forces in the west as both are pretty sturdy enough to keep on trucking.

I don't even think she was on a pillar here. See what I mean about the threat level being low?

A quick heal for Shuuda since he got hit a little more than I was expecting him to.

Some random Mage is about to die with a sword planted in his head in his very near future (as in, Shuuda's second attack here kind of future).

I'm not sure if I should call this an omen of things to come or a sign that Tekun might be good if given a chance in leveling up.

More murder!

Free weapons are good I guess.

Shuuda caps speed and picks up resistance? Not bad sir, not bad at all.

Kevin's making a detoure here while most everyone else holds their position.

Eduardo does quite a bit of counterkilling on the turn 3 enemy phase, coming a step closer to full on reckless charging.

The last dregs of the turn 3 enemy phase do their thing.

Now, turn 4 is where I'm probably going to be like a kid in a candy store. Why? You'll find out in the next post!

[fengaridotdll]

What's up with Earnest's face?

[HF Makalov Fanboy Kai]

here we go

[SirNicee]

This is where the fun begins.