Romance! Intrigue! Honor! And WAR!! Let's Max Rank Fire Emblem 4!!

[FionordeQuester]

Chapter 2 (Part 1-2)

Actually no, they're REALLY strong! If it weren't for Mistletein, they'd almost be as deadly as Eltshan himself! So technically they could kill a good chunk of Elliot's forces by themselves...

But that's just not good enough, because this game actually has a hidden reward for keeping them all alive. After beating the map, the knights will give Lachesis something called the Knight Ring, a Ring that grant foot units Canto! But more importantly, it sells for 20,000G, making it EXTREMELY useful for some quick cash! So obviously we'll really want to get to Nodion as fast as possible...

But, then you run into another problem. Nodion is so far away that only cavalry units like Sigurd, Noish, and Midir are the only ones fast enough to get there on time. And out of all of them, only Sigurd, Cuan, and Lex are durable enough to reliably survive a round of combat. Guys like Midir, Noish, and even Alec are too fragile to throw into that mosh pit, and Fin's HP and Defense values aren't set up to where he can activate a strong enough Prayer against them.

This then leaves us with only three guys strong enough to protect Eve, Eva, and Alva on Turn 4, where they are most at risk of dying. Needless to say, we need an edge...

So if Fin can't get a good enough Prayer from Elliot's men...

Then he'll just need to use the Arena to "adjust" his HP values a little. Basically, just look at how much Defense Fin has, calculate how much damage can be inflicted on him by Elliot's Lance or Axe Knights, and then try to get his HP reduced to where one of said knights can put him down to 1-2 HP (or 3 if you don't mind being a little risky). Actually calculating all that though can be tricky since Fin's stats will obviously differ from playthrough to playthrough. So, here's what stats and weapons each opponent has in the Arena.

Use that to help you out. Or, if you'd prefer to figure things out without using external sources, then just know that Hertzog (Rank 5) is almost guaranteed to get Fin down to where he needs to go, but Bachnin (Rank 4) is highly likely to kill Fin before he gets that far. So if you can help it, you'll want to try to avoid going past Lovin (Rank 3). Otherwise, you may have to have Ethlin heal Fin to help him out, which is minorly inconvenient...but oh well.

Also, don't go charging out of Evans without repairing your weapons. In my case, Fin has enough uses on his Iron and Steel Lances here to kill all of Elliot's men, but that won't necessarily be the case for, say, Lex and his Hero Axe. So make sure everyone's weapons are ready for heavy duty fighting. Also...

Make sure Deirdre at least makes it up to Lovin before going any further. The higher she pumps up her levels with Warp, the less Exp. she gets from her foes in the Arena. And we're going to be clearing the Arena with her just for the Gold anyway, so there's no sense in wasting good Exp.

So if you get to someone Deirdre can't beat, just fight them, give up before they kill her, let her recover her HP, and then beat that guy down the moment she's got enough HP to activate Prayer! Rinse and repeat till Deirdre's defeated everyone!

After that, have Sigurd head to the pawn shop, and buy him the Uber Slim Sword, in all it's glory! And of course, be sure to "fix er' up", as the good man says.

Then have him beat up everyone up till Bachnin. Why're we stopping there? Because as I mentioned before, your HP will refill every time you defeat someone in the Arena...and almost every castle in the game allows you to enter it, even the ones that you had to conquer first...

So you starting to catch my drift? After we take care of Elliot, we're gunning for Boldo next. And then after THAT, when Sigurd and Lex are all dinged up, I can go and trash the next guy in the Arena, and get their HP all up to max! And then when I conquer the next two castles before the final one, I can go and DO THAT AGAIN!! Awesome eh ?

Anyways, out Sigurd goes. And then after that...

Midir gets a new weapon and gets extremely unlucky against Lovin. Not a big deal though, I'm not going to let any of Elliot's men get to him anyway. Midir's just there to help clean up in case my main fighters can't mop up Elliot's forces on Turn 5.

Now, Midir, Sigurd, Deirdre, and Fin were the only ones I wanted fighting in the Arena, because almost everyone else is going to be waiting until I get the Elite Ring. Because yes, that's coming this chapter! So...

Cuan buys a Steel Lance for himself...

And then he, Alec, Fin, Lex, and Midir all join Sigurd, forming everyone in our Nodion rescue team! But ah, we're not done yet!

Turns out Deirdre can talk to Ethlin! Let's see what she has to say!

Deirdre: I'll be fine as long as I have Sigurd at my side.

Ethlin: I still cant get over how much hes changed since meeting you, Deirdre.

Deirdre: Ethlin I have something Id like you to have.

Ethlin: Isn't this the Light Sword!? You sure you want me to have this?

Deirdre: Yes. I know you'll put it to good use.

Ethlin: Thank you so much, Deirdre! I'll treasure it!

Oh no you won't, because that's going right to Sigurd !

Now then, having talked to Ethlin right in front of Evans, Deirdre gets to enter it, and then...

Aira, Aideen, and Jamka ALL go and form that brand-spankin' Jealousy formation I told you about last update. With this on, Jamka and Aideen will be getting 12 Love Points instead of just the 7 they'd get if they simply sat next to each other! As for Ardan, ignore him. He's simply a holdover from when I was still going to pair Aira with Ardan.

Anyways, I then end my turn here, dragging my cursor here so that the game doesn't slowly auto-scroll back to where it was after the enemy ends their turn. For reference, if you hold down the Y Button, your cursor will go much faster than it would otherwise, but you don't get to do that during enemy phases so...this saves a bit of time.

As for the Cross Knight trio, none of them actually move, they just stand there frozen until you have Sigurd talk to Lachesis. So Elliot immediately gets his turn.

Elliot: Her days of jerking me around are over. Just wait and see! What could she possibly do surrounded by a military of this force!? She's coming back to Heirhein with me whether she likes it OR NOT!

Aaand he's a creep.

But unfortunately, he's a creep that starts about a Turn closer to Heirhein than we do.

Philip: Defend to the death!

Good thing then that these guys are staying put for now.

But there is someone else we DO need to worry about, and that's this guy here...

Macbeth: Brilliant, we're right on schedule. Let the bandits loose on the villages. We pretty much have free reign now that Shagaal has taken the throne. Strip the villages of all valuables and return them to the castle!

You know, just in case there was ANY confusion about which side we should be rooting for .

Yeesh, LOOK at all those villages!

Those poor, poor villages! All that lost gold! AND THAT BARGAIN RING!! That's in the village closest to Anphony, so that's going to be the first one on the chopping block if we don't get there fa-

Gyah, MORE enemies?! How much more are we going to-

Clement: I'm not lifting a finger till the dust settles. Keep our soldiers put for the moment.

Ah, ok. Whew...now then.

We spend the next turn moving people forward. It doesn't matter what order you move Sigurd and Cuan in, but you'll want Fin and Lex to be in front of Alec and Midir.

After that, Deirdre Warps Ethlin back so that she can sell the Light Sword to Sigurd, along with everything else but her Return Staff.

So to make up for Ethlin's loss, we get her Aideen's Relive staff, and fix up her Return Staff! Yeah we're not having Ethlin join the main group right now, since they're going to be under some pretty heavy fire, but she WILL be warping her to Heirhein after we've knocked off Boldo. And once she does, she's going to want all the charges of Return she can get, for reasons we'll get to next episode. Now then...

We put Ethlin back into the Jealousy formation, and then we end our turn.

The Lachesis trio can take care of the regular noobs easily enough, but they're going to be dropping like flies the moment Elliot gets in there. As for why that one soldier moved so far ahead of the main group, that's just a quirk of the A.I. In general, if there's a large pack of enemies, but they don't have anybody to hit on that turn, they'll often move just a little bit slower than they would otherwise. So that's good for us, but we still gotta hurry.

C,mon, c,mon...

Alright then, time for Operation Rescue!

First Lex kills a Lance Knight, body blocks for Eva and Alva, and gets a level...

+1 HP, +1 Spd, +1 Def!

Next up, Fin activates his strongest Prayer, equips the Steel Lance, and then body blocks for Alva. Note though, that I made a strategic error here. I'm not going to re-record the entire video to fix it, but just know that what I SHOULD have done was move Fin right below Lex. Not only would it have allowed him to stay on a Plains tile rather than a Road tile (meaning 2 HP Prayer + Leadership would've still guaranteed his safety), but it also has an added advantage that I will explain later.

Anyways, here's one of the most important parts. Sigurd gets in front of Lachesis, kills the Lance Knight...

Buys that coveted Light Sword, and then has a little chat with Lachesis.

Lachesis: No, he's still being held in Agusty. It seems all of Agustria has turned against us. Sir Sigurd, please I need your help. I must free my brother!

Sigurd: I usually try to keep our troops off foreign soil, but this time its unavoidable. I've already received King Azmur's approval to engage the enemy. His Majesty is aware of King Imuka's assassination by Shagaal's hand, as well as Shagaal's plans to invade Grandbell. His Majesty has also stressed the importance of Eltshan's rescue for future peace negotiations. Don't worry, Lachesis. I promise well get Eltshan out.

W-wait, so Grandbell is AWARE of the fact that Shagaal killed Imuka? And that's common knowledge? Well, no, actually, they are still rumors...it's just that they're rumors that almost everyone believes (and they're right of course ).

Anyways though, Lachesis is now recruited. What that means, however, is that the Cross Knights will actually move now, which can result in very bad things. This then is what made my earlier move with Fin a blunder.

See, Eve, the left-most knight, is more heavily injured than the other guys, so we want him to try and keep him from just running out into the open. Right now he's got four options on who to attack. He could attack the knights to the west or south of Cuan with the Javelin, then stay where he is or retreat...

Or he could choose to be a complete moron, rush out, attack this guy here, and then get swarmed by Elliot's men. Unfortunately, this is something that could potentially happen no matter what. But, he could also go and attack the guy directly southwest of Lex. And if Fin happens to be right below where Lex is...

Fin will force Eve to head into the Forest east of him. This then eats up enough of Eve's movement squares for him to just stop right there. And because of that, Elliot is too far away from him to actually attack him next turn, which almost guaranteeing his survival.

This by the way, means that you also don't want Cuan hitting anyone. Otherwise, this could happen...

This of course is also why Sigurd took out the knight west of Eve rather than the one below him. That way, Eve is still somewhat boxed in by the remaining enemies.

So, I didn't move Fin in the exact optimal way, but oh well. At the very least, I can move Alec here, and try to pull two of the knights off of Nodion. The A.I. is pretty random after all.

Anyways, right before ending our turn, Deirdre goes and punches out Lovin with Prayer...

But then gets blicked by Bachnin immediately afterwards.

Now, will the Lachesis trio act intelligently?

Edited August 25, 2015 by FionordeQuester

[FionordeQuester]

Chapter 2 (Part 1-3)

YES, THEY DID IT! They actually managed to set up, *gasp*, an actually reasonable defensive formation !! So next turn...





Elliot and his men fight a futile battle, dashing themselves upon the unfeeling shoals of our MIGHT!

+1 HP, +1 Str, +1 Spd, +1 Lck



Heck, even Elliot can't do much. He's got 42 Attack, but Eva's so buff that he just takes it straight to the face!



In addition, most of Elliot's men are now dead, with only 4 units left, because like I said, the Lachesis trio does a pretty good job of softening them up. So then,



Lex kills a man before charging ahead...





And then Sigurd kicks Elliot around a little so that Cuan...



Can finish him off for a level...

+1 HP, +1 Def!



And a free Silver Lance! Now Cuan's got even higher Attack Power than Sigurd!

But yeah, that Light Sword is pretty awesome. It's basically a 1-2 weapon that acts as a regular 12 Might, 70 Hit sword that targets Defense from 1 Range, but then changes into a 14 Might, 90 Hit Lightning tome that targets Resistance when attacking from 2 Range. So essentially, Sigurd's a physical unit from 1 Range, but turns into a mage unit from 2 Range, which is why I got him Sandima's Magic Ring!





Anyways, Midir kills the last enemy, and gets this level up...

+1 HP!







So everyone but Midir's going to be charging Philip's group next, so I have to recharge some of Fin's HP first. Cuan's going to Talk to him and give him a pretty valuable item after Boldo's done n' dusted.



So now Eve, Eva, and Alva start grouping around Lachesis every turn, but be careful not to let them near any of Philip's men. If they do, they'll go running after them instead and get themselves killed. So because of that, and the fact that Beowulf's going to be recruited soon, I'm having Lachesis head back to Evans. In fact, speaking of Lachesis, let's go over her real quickly, shall we?





Level 2 Princess

HP: 26 (60%) Spd: 13 (20%)
Str: 6 (50%) Lck: 5 (40%)
Mag: 8 (5%) Def: 7 (20%)
Skl: 9 (10%) Res: 9 (10%)

Move: (before Promotion): 6
Move: (after Promotion): 9
Weapon Ranks (before Promotion): Swords (A), Staves ©
Weapon Ranks (after Promotion): Swords (A), Lances (A), Axes (A), Bows (A), Fire (A), Thunder (A), Wind (A), Light ©
Promotion Bonuses: +7 Str, +7 Skl, +4 Spd, +7 Def, Canto, Pursuit
Items: Prayer Sword, Live Staff
Skill: Charisma (grants +10 Hit & Evade to those within 3 squares of her)
Holy Blood: Minor Hezul

In a word, Lachesis is...amazing. First of all, she is incredibly EASY to raise! The Prayer Sword does exactly what it sounds like it does, so Arenas are no problem. And she uses staves, so she can just get the Elite Ring and spam Return for free experience. But most importantly, she gets the Knight Ring, which she can sell for an automatic 20,000G in Chapter 3. So basically, she's one of the most easily promoted units the the game

And then once she does promote...WOW! Look at those stat bonuses! Look at those weapon ranks! And look! She actually gets a horse! And she gets to have Pursuit on TOP of all that?! Holy cow, she get pretty much EVERYTHING, doesn't she?! You want her to be a healer who spams staves and warps people everywhere? She can do that! You want her to be a physical attacker AND a magical attacker rolled into one? She can do that too! You want her to be a Charisma bot, helping to train weaker units? You've got it! You want her to act as "Sugah Momma" for her dear husband, giving him all the Gold he wants? Oh she can definitely do that !

Post-Promotion Lachesis just amazing. There is absolutely NOTHING that she cannot do! Heck, if it weren't for Sigurd and

Holsety!Levin

, she'd probably be the strongest unit in Gen 1! I'm not going to work on promoting her RIGHT this second, since there are other staff bots I want to train first...but wow! My word!

So, if I had to compare her to any DBZ character? I'd compare her to Frieza. She looks like a woman, happens to be royalty, and is more than a little arrogant and spoiled. But she makes up for these weaknesses by having the inexplicable ability to get thousands upon thousands of times stronger than almost every existing person to ever exist...just by like, doing some push-ups and sit-ups, drinking plenty of juice, and making she's eating a healthy and nutritious diet for a few months.

Seriously though, anyone see that new "Revival of F" movie? Frieza spends the entire Namek saga freaking out about the Super Saiyan, blows up a planet to stop one from coming, gets killed by one any way, comes back to life, then gets cut in half by Trunks...

And all that, time, literally ALL he ever had to do was pop in a few exercise videos every day, lift some weights with the Ginyu Force, maybe do some cardio in the mornings... I'm just saying, if he had JUST done some power-walking before fighting Goku & friends, that saga MIGHT not have ended so happily

Alright, let's see just how strong Philip's group is...





Oh, wow. Those are some pretty strong enemies! And that Defense and HP! Even Sigurd can't reliably kill them without the Uber Slim Sword! And Philip himself is often the cause of many resets because of Big Guard (a skill that EVERY General has). I could technically skip him, because I'm not going to be using his ring as an item. However, I can still sell it for 10,000G, which is not the kind of money you want to just casually throw away. So, we're going to have to find a way to kill him.

And as for the other two unit types...



These guys are just plain annoying. The "LongArch's" can't move, and they're too weak to be TOO much of a threat against Sigurd, Cuan, and Lex...but they still do enough that I can't safely bring Ethlin or Midir through this minefield. And every bit of damage they do starts to add up when I also have everyone else to deal with.

And then the Priest is the most annoying snot ever. He moves after everyone else but Philip, which means that he's constantly going to be healing enemies to full health. So that's nice .

So needless to say, these guys are an enormous step up from the enemies we've been fighting last Chapter. Elliot and his men weren't so bad if you weren't concerned about keeping the Lachesis trio alive, but NOW the gloves are coming off. This is pretty much where the game starts expecting you to learn how to use actual strategy. Because if you try to fight these guys straight up, in a knock down, drag out fight...you're going to die, and you're going to die horribly. But you can't just go "slow and steady" either, because then the Bargain Ring village gets destroyed. So what's a man to do? Well, first of all, let's check their range shadows...



Now, I want Sigurd to try and kill Philip with the Uber Slim Sword on enemy phase, so I want to put him in a spot where Philip will attack him. But then I also want to put him and the rest of the guys in a position where they're not getting attacked by anyone from the north half of his group. By doing that, we'll be able to potentially kill Philip while minimizing the damage we take. To that end...



I have Cuan attack this guy from afar before resting right outside of Philip's range shadow...



Then Sigurd finishes the guy off (note how the Light Sword cheeses these guys)...



And then parks himself west of Cuan, equipping himself with the Uber Slim Sword while he's at it. Now, not only will he have a shot at killing Philip on Enemy Phase, but now he's also serving as a shield for Cuan.



Hmm, but wait, Cuan could still get swarmed...



So let's put Lex next to him too.



Now nobody but Sigurd will be fighting more than two guys at once, and Sigurd can handle that.



As for Fin, he's still injured, and he's the one with the least Defense, so he goes right outside the enemy's range shadow, with Alec right behind him.



Now again, be ABSOLUTELY SURE that the Lachesis trio is not close enough to these guys to fight them. If they are, Philip and his men will end them! Now let's see how this goes.





Whoa! Sigurd dodged the guy AND critted him to death!

+1 HP, +1 Str, +1 Spd!

Good start!



And hey, Cuan dodged despite a 79% hit chance! Neat!! Note how Cuan barely did half his health despite having the Silver Lance equipped.



And of course, the enemies are still pretty tough to kill...





We've got these two guys chipping away at Cuan...



And we've got THIS puny gnat restoring everyone's health. And all this on just Chapter 2!



Oh, and here's Philip now.





Philip: So long as I live, you will not reach Heirhein!

Can Sigurd defeat him without taking too much damage?!



YES!! That's the spirit Sigurd! Rather too bad that Philip had to die, but, that's war.



And now we're looting his corpse. Poor guy. Here's to hoping we can put that ring to some good use .





And there's the Bargain Ring village. We can't even DO anything about it right now either, we've got to wait another 6-7 turns!





Guess all we can do is focus on what's in front of us then. So, we got EXTREMELY lucky next turn. Sigurd dodged an attack, Cuan didn't get hurt by anyone but the LongArchers, and then Sigurd killed Philip in one round...so basically we lucked out in almost every possible way. I mean Philip has Great Shield, so technically, we could have ended up doing no damage at all. If THAT had happened, I might've actually had to redo the entire preceding turn. But fortunately, that didn't happen, so...



We're now just going to bypass them entirely! That's right, the best way to deal with Philip's men is to just not fight them at all. So, Sigurd adds another kill to the Light Sword before killing one of those pesky Long Archers...



Lex kills the other one for a level...

+1 HP, +1 Spd!



Cuan TRIES to hit the Recover Priest before going below Sigurd, but misses him.



As for Cuan and Alec, they just run past whoever they can while hiding from the north half of Philip's brigade. Also, some other things of note happen on this turn.





Midir gets fully healed then gets his revenge on Lovin, because every bit of Exp. helps.



Deirdre gets a bit further in the Arena...



And is also still Warping people, ALWAYS make sure you do that every turn. So next Enemy Phase!





...Nothing of note happens. Cool. Now then, we're just about to kill Boldo, so let's take a look at his stats...



Hmm, not bad. But not as good as Philip. And as for his three guards,



They're pretty weak, no question about it. In fact, Sigurd could get hit by them AND Boldo, and still live through it. So then...



Lex kills another guy and heads up...



So here's a mistake. All I needed to do to have Sigurd kill Boldo next turn was have him wait 2 squares east of him, equip the Light Sword, and then Cuan and Lex someplace where they wouldn't get hit at all. Then, Sigurd would pound Boldo with magic on enemy phase, and then next turn, Lex and Cuan would get rid of the guy blocking him. Then Sigurd swoops in, and BAM, there goes Heirhein.

But instead, I got greedy, wanted another kill on my Light Sword, and attacked this guard on Player Phase. He's only got a 24% chance of hitting Sigurd back, but if he had managed to hit him on both Phases, that would've dropped him to where could've killed him in one hit. So I would've had to reset, and waste a few minutes of time! Course, that wouldn't be too bad, but still, gotta save those frames!



As a result of that mistake, Cuan parks next to Boldo instead, with a radically inferior weapon equipped. And no, I didn't have him attack.



So that's the main group done. Now we just gotta take care of some miscellaneous stuff, so...



Lachesis heads back to Evans to do some other side jobs later...



Deirdre repairs the staff so we don't have to waste frames looking at the "Weapon Broke!" message. So next enemy phase, Cuan starts the first fight with Boldo, but fails to do anything but listen to his spiel...





Boldo: Bah! You're all useless!! I'll do this myself!

Yeah keep telling yourself that .

Edited August 11, 2015 by FionordeQuester

[FionordeQuester]

Chapter 2 (Part 1-4)

Anyways, next player phase, Cuan kills another guy with Lex's help...

Then parks himself as close as he can to Heirhein's entrance, as does Fin. Yes, that'll be important later.

Alright Sigurd, do your thing!

Sigurd: 4

Bosses: 0

Now let's get some story!

Sigurd: But Eltshan is still being held in Agusty. And that's not all

Oifaye: Yes?

Sigurd: Bandits are laying seige to the pioneer villages in the central forest. Weve got to intervene.

Oifaye: Agreed. That'll help convice the citizens of Agustria that we are not the aggressor here. If that's your decision, then we'd better get moving. We've no time to waste!

Alright then, and there we go! Now before ending the turn, let's get some other stuff out of the way.

There we go.

So with Heirhein acquired, we've got a convenient, safe way of getting Ethlin up to the main group, so to that end, we're going to warp her there next turn. Because of that, I moved everyone one space to the east, that way, they could move back to where they were next turn, with Deirdre filling in for Ethlin like so.

Cool. Now let's see what happens.

Shagaal: How do you explain this carelessness, Macbeth!?

Macbeth: M... My humblest apologies, Your Majesty! I'll dispatch Voltz and his mercenaries immediately!

And then Voltz and someone else ride out.

Voltz: Hey! Why're we first to go in? I'm staying put. I wanna see how this unfolds first. Yo, Beowulf... Whaddya think?

BEOWULF!

Beowulf: I'm not buyin' any of this. I'm 'bout ready to walk on that Macbeth sleaze.

Voltz: Well, do as you see fit. As a mercenary you're free to work for whomever you please. Strange how one day were fighting side by side... the next day who knows.

Beowulf: Sure is. I just hope I don't gotta face you ever. I would'nt stand a chance.

Voltz: Heh heh heh... Ain't a soul alive who can take me!

They then ride out...

Macbeth summons up a mass of those annoying Armour Knights...

And yeah, we didn't see them, but these three guys were neutral units near Heirhein before we conquered it. Now, for some reason, they ride AWAY from us rather than to us, unless someone happens to be in their range.

And then we finish off by continuing Macbeth's rampage against his villages. When are we finally going to be able to take care of those guys?

Well, right NOW actually, after watching this cutscene!

Levin: Bandits? Where's the Agustrian army at a time like this?

Man: There's mutiny in th' streets, m'boy. Ain't no-one got time t'worry about us! T'tell th' truth, there's a bit more to th' story... Rumour has it Lord Macbeth himself set them bandits loose on our villages.

Levin: Whoa... he's gotta go. Look, I'll see what I can do. I'll take care of that scumbag. And you can all whip up a nice reward for me when I get back.

Man: There you go again with that big talk of yours. You best just get a move on. We ain't got time to be gettin' cosy with ya.

Levin: : Crap... Sylvia! Er... you found me, huh?

Sylvia: You've had your fun with me so you just up and leave, huh?

Levin: Hey now... Be nice. We've only been out like what... 2 or 3 times together!? I mean come on! Besides you're a traveling dancer, and I'm a bard. Doesn't that about sum it up?

Sylvia: But you said you thought I was cute. That meant something to me.

Levin: Yeah, sometimes I say that. It don't mean anything. No no! Dont cry! I... I... Damn, now look. Everyone's starin' at us. Alright, you can come with me if you want. But things might get a little rough. You okay with that?

Sylvia: Yeah! I like it rough!

You know the most amazing thing about that line? That's not even a creative liberty right there. That is literally exactly what Sylvia says in the Japanese version. Jay and Boo didn't even NEED to do any rewriting to put THAT one in there .

Levin: Sheesh... You were cryin' like a baby a minute ago, now you're all smiles.

Sylvia: What's that?

Levin: Nevermind! Lets go.

Goodness...

Well, here they are. So then, that's the end of this episode. Can we save the Anphony villages? Can we rescue Eltshan? And CAN we recruit Beowulf without getting killed by Voltz? If so, how? And can we resolve this peacefully just by taking Anphony? Or will we have to subdue the whole country before we're through? Find out, NEXT TIME, on Let's Max Rank Fire Emblem 4! This is Fionordequester signing out. Have a nice day, and God bless you!

Translation Tidbits:

Creative Liberty #9: When Boldo tells Elliot "Go take Nodion by storm!", there's actually a deliciously hammy line that was clipped from the patch. In the Original script, Boldo tells Elliot this, then literally tells Elliot to "Get Eltshan to break down into tears!". So essentially his line is something like...

Eltshan angered the king and got himself jailed did he? Brilliant! Elliot, here's your chance to even the score! Go take Nodion by storm! MAKE ELTSHAN SUFFER!!

I'm not sure whether the translators dropped that extra bit because of textbox limitations (even what we got was already approaching the maximum space allowed), or because they wanted to make the dialogue a bit less hammy, but there you go.

Mistranslation #6: When Lachesis is having her conversation with Eve, and is talking about how she'll never marry because no one's as awesome as her darling Elty, Eve is supposed to have a rather amusing reaction to that. I kid you not, he literally goes "Umm...that's nice but...". And THEN he talks about how bad their situation is and all that. But sadly, that amusing little reaction is missing for whatever reason .

Mistranslation #7: "When Macbeth says "Brilliant, we're right on schedule.", that's actually not correct. Instead, he's supposed to be saying like "So Heirhein's finally starting their invasion. Took them long enough."

Mistranslation #8: "We pretty much have free reign now that Shagaal is on the throne" is also kind of misleading. Instead, what he's saying is more like "Man, cheating Imuka was so hard, but with Shagaal on the throne? It's like taking candy from a baby!" Because remember, Agustria is still the sovereign kingdom, so technically, all of Anphony's villages, and all their assets, belong to Shagaal, not to Macbeth. Macbeth is simply Shagaal's appointed official. But now he believes that the Heirhein vs. Nodion conflict is providing the perfect smokescreen for his illegal actions, though he turns out to be incorrect on this.

Mistranslation #9: Voltz's opening line is mistranslated, and also pretty awkward. Instead of saying "Were to attack, are we? Hmph as fatell have it.", he's supposed to say something like "Were to attack, are we? Ah damn, guess it can't be helped." Because obviously, Voltz isn't stupid. He KNOWS it's going to be a tough fight, he KNOWS that Macbeth is an untrustworthy scumbag, and is expressing that in what's actually quite a lovably annoyed tone. In fact, he actually shows off a pretty unique personality even just from the few lines he gets.

Edited August 25, 2015 by FionordeQuester

[B.Leu]

Elty isn't really that smart anyways. Y'ello Lev'.

[FionordeQuester]

Chapter 2 (Part 2-1)

NOTE: Due to some further inexpected stuff, Marty was unable to add in his commentary for this, though he may write some up later. If he does, I'll insert that into the update, but for now, I think you've all waited long enough, so...

Hello fellow warriors! Last time, King Shagaal threw Eltshan in jail. And it turns out HE was the one who killed his father, at the suggestion of Manfloy no less! In the midst of all this, Heirhein attempted to lay seige to Nodion. Ultimately we defeated them in a furious battle against the cavalry of Elliot, the armoured Knights of Philip, and even Boldo himself, only barely managing to conquer Heirhein without any deaths. But, now we must save the villages of Anphony from being ransacked by their own appointed governor! Can we manage to accomplish this? Can we save Eltshan? Find out, TODAY, on Let's Max Rank Fire Emblem 4: Genealogy of the Holy War!

Alright, so last time we got these two new units, and it looks like they're going to be the ones saving the villages. But, who are they anyway? And how are they as units? Let's find out.

Level 4 Bard

HP: 34 (90%) Spd: 16 (90%)

Str: 1 (10%) Lck: 7 (20%)

Mag: 12 (30%) Def: 5 (20%)

Skl: 12 (40%) Res: 9 (10%)

Move: (before Promotion): 6

Move: (after Promotion): 6

Weapon Ranks (before Promotion): Fire ©, Thunder ©, Wind (*), Light ©

Weapon Ranks (after Promotion): Fire (B), Thunder (B), Wind (*), Light (B), Staves (B)

Promotion Bonuses: +8 Mag, +5 Skl, +5 Spd, +5 Res

Items: Elwind

Skill: Continue, Critical

Holy Blood: Major Holsety

Wow, nice stat line. Ok, sure, his Mag growth is a little low, but almost no one has that much Res anyway. So because of that, his innate 1-2 Range, and the possession of Critical and Continue, Levin basically has a 46% chance of killing anyone he fights, and a 100% chance of reducing their HP by half. Not bad

Most importantly though (at least for a casual playthrough), he starts next to all the villages he could possibly need, AND he has easy access to the Bargain Ring. From there, he can easily snag the Elite and Defense Rings, with nothing but an occasional reset against Voltz and co. Have him solo Anphony's forces, heal him up with Ethlin, warp him back, have him fight in the Arena a bit, and there you go. Instant promotion. Instant B Staves. Instant capped Speed. Follow that up by slapping the Speed and Pursuit Rings on him, and Levin becomes... untouchable. He doesn't even need the Elite Ring from there. He becomes effectively immortal, someone who will never fail to kill anyone he fights. Why is that the case for him, and not for other units I could theoretically baby? Well, here's why.

1) Unlike say, Aira, he's got automatic 1-2 Range with strong, accurate AND incredibly light wind tomes. Plus he targets Resistance, not Defense.

2) Unlike Azel and Tiltyu, he specializes in the BEST kind of magic, and has 6 Move.

3) Most importantly, his Speed is so, absolutely, utterly, absurdly, LUDICROUSLY high, that when you get him leveled up far enough and get him a Live Ring (regenerates 5-10 HP per turn)...he's invincible. He is, for all intents and purpose, invincible. He's like Ike, except he can use staves, and doesn't even need Ragnell to become a walking death machine.

4)

He's one of the few characters who gets a Holy Weapon. Not just any Holy Weapon either, but a Holy Weapon that INCREASES HIS SPEED BY +20!! So now, he has an Evade rate that goes past the 110 mark!

5) If he's Tiltyu's husband, he can pass down ALL of that awesome stuff,

including the Holy Weapon that raises Speed by +20

, down to Arthur, who's available in the very first Chapter of Gen 2. So he's not just a magnificent fighter. He's a magnificent Dad as well.

So, there's your reasons for why he's worth babying in every way you possibly can in a casual playthrough. He is FE6 Karel, if Karel had 26 whole levels to grow instead of 1. He is FE9 Ike, if Ike got Ragnell at Chapter 9 instead of Chapter 27. He is FE11 Wolf and Sedgar, if Wolf and Sedgar already started off strong, and could get promotion bonuses. He is Robin, if Robin starred in FE7, and had the same skills, growths, weapon levels, caps, and all of that stuff.

...

.......Aaaaaand, we're not going to be using him to fight for anything besides Macbeth's bandits and one specific boss in Chapter 5. Other than that, the only place he's ever going to see action is the Arena.

Why? Because for one thing, actually getting him all those rings and all those levels is a horribly inefficient use of Turns and resources as far as AAAA Ranking goes. But secondly, he simply doesn't need to do any of that, because B Staves means he'll easily get to Level 30 WITHOUT any babying. So basically I'm just going to treat him like a glorified staff bot. The only reason I went on that long spiel above was for the sake of any reader who just wants to know the easiest way to beat Gen 1, and trivialize a good chunk of Gen 2.

So, with all that said, this guy would definitely be Adult Gohan. He's not THAT OP compared to the others to start with, but that's only because he's not quite at his full potential yet. When he DOES get his potential unlocked, and he gets that sudden powerup, oh baby! Even GOKU can't touch him! Now let's go see our next character.

Level 1 Dancer

HP: 28 (50%) Spd: 12 (10%)

Str: 3 (10%) Lck: 6 (30%)

Mag: 0 (30%) Def: 1 (10%)

Skl: 4 (10%) Res: 5 (40%)

Move: 6

Weapon Ranks: Swords ©

Promotion Bonuses: None (she has no promotion)

Items: Slim Sword

Skill: Continue, Prayer, Dance (Use to give another Turn to adjacent grayed out units)

Holy Blood: Minor Blaggi

Owch...those stats. Rather too bad that Sylvia likes it rough, because with these stats, she's about as fragile as they come. And even with Prayer and the Uber Slime Sword, getting her through the Arena is one of the most tedious things you can do, so I'm not even going to bother doing that. No, instead, she's to be used for her primary function, which is allowing other units to move again. Yes, that right, she has the Dance skill, which is a command that you can actually use to do THIS!

Looks pretty handy, right? But wait, there's more! As Marty here will demonstrate, dancers are good on their own...but when you add in the Rescue Staff, that's when things get REALLY crazy. Isn't that right Marty?

If you've watched any efficiency run before, you'll probably know that dancers are incredibly important. Their ability to let units move again can be useful in so many different ways, from getting extra experience to completing objectives faster. However, FE4 has the best dancers in the series. Though they're pitifully weak (why do they even have swords? at least it lets them get exp in the arena...) they refresh EVERY unit adjacent to them. Though a transformed heron/rafael can technically do this in FE9/10, in no other game do you have such a powerful ability with such huge availability. With the ability to refresh four units, Sylvia's squishiness becomes less of a drawback because if Sigurd, Cuan, Lex, and some other juggernaut can move twice...

...there probably won't be any enemies left. Even though Sylvia can't always keep pace with your leading units, there's always something useful for her to do. Dancing helps allocate kills to weak units who really need the help by letting them move twice, and can speed up side objectives immensely. Furthermore, the use of the warp staff allows Sylvia to be relevant in the few turns after a a castle has been seized. This utility coupled with the lax turn count requirements of an AAAA rank means that Sylvia can do useful dances every single turn.

However, Sylvia can [also] do some very flashy things. Later on in the game, you get an item called the rescue staff that allows the user to bring any unit within ten squares adjacent to them (the game tries to put the unit above the rescuer, then left/right, then down). So far most staff users have either been really slow (Aideen) or have a low weapon rank, but each generation gives you a master knight, [a class that has] A rank staves. There are also two items called the leg ring and the knight ring. The leg ring boosts movement by three, and the knight ring allows the user to move like mounts do. With all these items properly allocated (it seems like a lot, but it's completely worth it), a formation of a dancer, a master knight, and three other promoted mounts can move 18 squares a turn if there is no terrain in the way. 18 squares.

If you want to use rescue on a unit other than the dancer, you can boost your lord 27 squares to quickly seize a gate.

With this immense power, you can skip huge portions of the game. I doubt you'll see that in this run because rescue skipping whole squads isn't good for the exp rank, but just know that you can break the game with it. In my 0% growths play through I used the power of rescue/dancers to trivialize some of the worst parts of the game. It is incredible.

Yes is it Marty. Yes it is...

Rather a bummer then that she's such a bad character storywise. She pretty much IS your stereotypical Japanese “under-aged but promiscuously dressed” girl, and doesn't really have much of a character beyond that, so...yeah. Not as bad as Nowi...

or, maybe she is. That whole thing with Claude certainly doesn't do her any favors, especially since that's pretty much the canon pairing. Here's to hoping that Kaga was telling the truth when he said that they aren't actually full siblings, and that he just set that up for the sake of comedy...

There's not really a way to connect her role in combat to DBZ. So as far as the story goes...I guess she's Maron? Maybe there is a point to her character besides fan-service, a few comedic moments, and trolling the fandom (SPOILERS HERE)...but heck if I can think of any.

Anyways, with Sylvia's help...

Levin goes and OHKOes this Mbandit with a critical. Nice! We've saved ourselves 500G with that.

Now, Sigurd's a bit dinged up, so let's help him out...

There we go!

Now, Sigurd will also need 10,000G+ for later on, so we'll want to sell the Silver Sword and the Return Ring...

There we go...

And off he goes. But before we begin our assault, we've got other things to do as well. Firstly...

Cuan's got something to tell Fin!

Feh, don't need to tell me twice.

Cuan: I’d say your weapon needs a little upgrading. Here, try using this lance.

Fin: A Hero Lance… Are you sure about this?

Cuan: You’re a valuable knight of the Lenster Kingdom, Fin. We can’t afford to lose you. Giving you this lance is about all I can do to help you out now. Please have it.

Fin: Your Highness… thank you very much.

You're welcome Fin. But you're not keeping that lance, Cuan is. Sorry .

Anyways, Alec is actually going to enact some A.I. shenanigans later on by going near where Levin and Sylvia are, but he's still pretty injured right now. So make sure he's not in range of anyone but the paladin.

As for Lex, he also has HP to recover.

There we go. But they'll need even more healing later, so, here comes Ethlin!

And here comes yet more healing!

Gotta love that Relive Staff. Even with Ethlin's lower Magic stat, she still almost always manages to heal people's HP to the max. Such is it's power !

To finish off our turn, Lachesis gets closer and closer to Evans, and that's about it. Now let's see what happens!

First of all, these three cavalry guys move. Yikes, good thing Alec wasn't in range of anyone else.

And Voltz is ready to go now. Rather odd that they're starting off way over there, even if Voltz did want to hang back a bit. But on the other hand? More prep time for us!

So, here's the next turn. But before it begins, we have yet another cutscene!

Fury: Let’s hope we can get a lead in town on Prince Levin’s whereabouts.

Whoa, wait, did she just say PRINCE Levin? The SAME lazy eyed guy who has conversations like...

Sylvia: But you said you thought I was cute. That meant something to me.

Levin: Yeah, sometimes I say that. It don’t mean anything.

Really? Man, wonder what his story is...

So, those winged ponies? They're a new unit type that we haven't been introduced to yet. We'll go over them later, but...not right now. For now, see this map below? See the pink dot on it?

This is yet another secret spot, like the Hero Axe spot in Chapter 1. But this time, we get a Pursuit Ring, and we need Ardan instead of Lex to get it. So,

Off you go Ardan! Also,

Levin's still busy cleaning up. Boy am I getting lucky with those Continue and Critical procs!

Now for the main group, Fin sells his Hero Lance for Cuan,

Lex kills the paladin.

+1 HP, +1 Def!

Sigurd gets another kill on the Light Sword...

Ethlin heals up all of Alec's HP...

Alec goes as far to the northeast as he can...

And then Cuan gets himself the Hero Lance before going off. This is extremely important for Cuan to get, and that's because there's something about him that I haven't told you yet. See, he's NOT going to be sticking with us for all of Gen 1. For reasons we'll see later, he's going to leave at the end of Chapter 3, so we actually don't have a lot of time to pump levels into him. So he needs to spend some time with the Elite Ring to make up for that, time he'll only get if he can kill Voltz! And that can be problematic...

Cuz dang, Beo wasn't kidding about Voltz! He really IS tough! After all, Continue still allows him to almost ORKO just about anyone you fight him with, and he's pretty durable to boot.

Next enemy phase...

The remaining cavalier tries to hit Ethlin...

And that's that!

Alright Lachesis...

Time to chat with Dew!

Dew: It’s a Thief Sword. Now you can tear into them bad guys!

Lachesis: Er… thanks, Dew. But don’t you want it for yourself?

Dew: Nah, go ahead. No point in me keepin’ it. Let’s just say it does more than cuts and dices, heheh. See ya, Lachesis!

Yeah, don't listen to Dew. This thing is NOT your friend if you're trying to beat up them bad guys. The point of it is that it grants it's wielder the Steal skill...but it's also horrifically weak and inaccurate to compensate for that. It's got 3 Might and 50 Hit, just to give you an idea of how bad it is.

Even still, it actually DOES come in real handy on at least two separate chapters. Being able to steal all of your enemy's gold just by hitting the is just too handy to NOT put to some use, especially when trying to raise funds for your poorer units. Speaking of which,

Noish is one of those units. But he doesn't need it because HE'S actually the one who puts the Bargain Ring to use the best. So instead, we're warping him to Heirhein too.

And don't worry, he's got plenty of time to get all the villages he needs, so there's not too much stress there. As to the main group, we don't actually need Lex or Fin for the Anphony fight anymore, so,

Ethlin warps him back like so.

And then Lex kills the last cavalier, and starts heading to the southeast in preparation for a future brawl.

Now here's a really important move right. For the sake of conquering Anphony quicker, we want Sigurd to crit most of these guys to death while we're waiting for Voltz and Co. to arrive. However, the way they move will depend on how we position Sigurd.

If he parks himself as far to the southeast as he can while still being in range of this guy, Voltz's group will move in a southwest direction. But if Sigurd parks himself really far to the west of Macbeth's personal guard, then Volt'z corp will just go straight west themselves, and THAT is actually really bad for us. For one, it brings the two forces closer together, and two, it makes it much harder to draw Voltz away from his group, and onto Cuan.

So for your sake, move Sigurd exactly to where the cursor is.

And then move Alec further towards where Levin and Sylvia started, and move Ethlin and Cuan into position to take on Voltz.

Edited August 27, 2015 by FionordeQuester

[FionordeQuester]

Chapter 2 (Part 2-2)

Level 9 Free Knight

HP: 38 (80%) Spd: 11 (30%)

Str: 14 (40%) Lck: 3 (20%)

Mag: 0 (0%) Def: 10 (30%)

Skl: 11 (40%) Res: 0 (5%)

Move (before Promotion): 8

Move (after Promotion): 9

Weapon Ranks (before Promotion): Swords (B)

Weapon Ranks (after Promotion): Swords (A)

Promotion Bonuses: +1 Str, +9 Skl, +6 Spd, +2 Def, +3 Res

Items: Steel Sword

Skill: Pursuit, Charge

Holy Blood: None

Well well well...Beowulf. If you want an impression of how useful he is, just imagine taking ALL of the best parts of Alec and Noish, fusing them into one character, and then pumping about eight levels into said character at the expense of his ability to ever wield lances. Which is fine, because unlike Alec and Noish, he gets A Swords upon promotion. And since the “Blade” series of weapons exist, Beowulf...doesn't actually lose his offensive edge over them. At all. Because “Blades” are basically lances, but with less accuracy. Not a problem when Beo's getting +9 Skill on promotion.

So, Beowulf's kind of neat, if a little redundant. Not TOO redundant, because he can help a little with clearing out Mbandits and the like, but, with monsters like Sigurd, Levin, Lachesis, and Lex running around, Beowulf doesn't really get much of an opportunity to really flex his muscles.

Which really is a problem with FE4 in general. There's a ton of OP stuff like the Live Ring and Elite Rings running around, you can't easily trade any of them between characters, there's virtually no consequences for over-leveling certain characters (due to a lack of Exp. Penalties, even when promoted), growth rates are low enough that a good chunk of your stats will come from promotion bonuses anyway...the game really encourages you to centralize all of the Exp on a select few group of characters, rather than raising everyone equally. In fact, pretty much ALL the Fire Emblems had that problem until FE5 I think.

But oh well. He's still helpful for an AAAA Ranked run, and he's a nice father to Delmud and Nanna, so, we'll be putting him to some use. Now, who's he like in regards to DBZ? Ah, right, Future Trunks! He's a pretty competent warrior who wields a sword...but he's still ultimately a jobber to all the other OP heroes in the house. Hence, he terminates Frieza and Cold, then has a long and glorious fighting career as he...

1) Gets knocked out in one hit by Android #18, despite Vegeta lasting much longer against her.

2) Completely fails to stop Semi-Perfect Cell, despite knowing that he had the Solar Flare, dwarfing him in power and speed, and having the ability to sense ki (so temporary blindness shouldn't have been that big of an issue).

3) Is apparently SO inexperienced, that he somehow fails to notice his speed getting cut in half by Grade 3 Super Saiyan, and therefore makes an utter fool of himself against Cell.

4) Cannot subdue a creature that Cell literally just farted out.

5) Is once again taken down in one hit after Cell comes back as Super Perfect Cell.

6) Finally gets to save his timeline, but only by beating villains that even Piccolo had surpassed by that point.

Don't get me wrong, I like Future Trunks...but Toriyama really didn't make him look that great as a fighter, did he?

But not right now, because I want Voltz's henchmen to attack Cuan, not him.

Same applies to Ethlin as well, though he does still have other stuff to do here.

Alright, line em' up! Time for a 3 minute GIF!

+4 Levels, +5 HP, +3 Str, +2 Skl, +1 Spd, +2 Def

One neat thing about the A.I. They will avoid units whose Defense exceeds their Attack Power, but ONLY if said Defense is high enough at the beginning of their enemy phase. So in this situation, Cuan only started the enemy phase with 14 Defense to their 15 Attack Power. Because of that, the computer had already decided to send all of the free knights after him, despite the fact that he later got up to 16 Defense in the process. Rather convenient, that.

And for the cherry on top, Sigurd even gets to smack the three remaining Armour Knights around, getting another kill on that Light Sword in the process!

So yeah, Macbeth is just about finished. So before we put the kibosh on him...how's about we view an optional conversation between Sigurd and Levin? (remember, if you don't actually get any items/love points/stat boosts/whatever from the conversation, you can assume that I didn't ACTUALLY initiate that in the playthrough itself)

Sigurd: I also heard you’re a bard… …but one that can do magic?

Levin: Yeah, call it… a hobby of mine. I take it you’re that Sigurd guy. You must have an awful lot of free time to be runnin’ around startin’ wars all over the place!

Sigurd: Huh? I don’t follow. What’re you so angry about?

Levin: :Try putting yourself into these people’s shoes for a second! They’re just tryin’ to make a livin’ here. Then you show up, flashin’ your shiny swords around…

Sigurd: Hmm… I see your point. Geez, I feel awful about the Agustrian people.

Levin: Well, talk is cheap. If you really feel so bad, why don’t you pack up and leave?

Sigurd: Alright then. Look, I’ll go consult with my people.

Levin: W, w, whoa! You serious about pullin’ out!?

Sigurd: Yeah, I’ve been tossing the idea around myself, and you just helped me make up my mind. I’m through fighting. I’ve got to try and settle this with King Shagaal peacefully.

Levin: Ah… that’d be a complete and utter waste of your time. He wouldn’t listen to you. And if Grandbell pulls out now, all the citizens who helped you guys out’ll be tossed in jail! Doesn’t that bother you?

Sigurd: Well, um… of course it does! But… didn’t I, er…

Levin: Hahaha! You’re alright, Sigurd. Look, how about I join up with you guys?

Sigurd: Join up wi… Just who are you!?

Levin: Me? Just a traveling bard, my friend.

I like how the game actually brings this up, and mentions that Sigurd actually is making some effort to settle things peacefully. Because frankly, war is NOT something you can just wage without expecting there to be consequences. You can have all the righteous justifications in the world, but that still won't change how awful it is for everyone involved, nor the fact that you're killing innocent soldiers as well as evil ones. For example, Philip. So far as we could tell, he wasn't doing anything wrong. If anything he seemed like a good, loyal knight who just happened to be on the wrong side.

And that Levin. He's actually so crass, that he doesn't even bother calling Sigurd “sir” :P. Actually, he's got an amusing conversation with Macbeth too...

Edited August 26, 2015 by FionordeQuester

[FionordeQuester]

Chapter 2 (Part 2-3)

Levin: About time you were retired...

Ha, you so serious. But you know, come to think of it, Beowulf actually has a conversation with Voltz if you choose to have the two fight each other...

And then there's one I missed from the last update :P

So ok, NOW it's back to the main playthrough!

Firstly, Cuan gets yet another level from one of the two remaining Bow Armours...

+1 HP, +1 Skl, +1 Str, +1 Def!

You know what's really amazing about Cuan's Defense blessing? It's not even THAT much of a blessing! Even just going by his averages, he still gets 16 Defense by this level! That's right, he's still only 1 point ahead there! His growths are just THAT stupidly good !

Now then, Beo kills the last regular enemy...

And now it's time for a next boss fight!

Macbeth: What do those mercenaries think I'm paying them for!? Ooh... It looks like I'll have to settle this myself!

Well, give him some credit. He may not have brains, but he's got heart. Or something.

Actually, he is relatively tough.

He's got 8 levels and 8 HP over Boldo while being two points higher in every other stat. But add on that Defense Ring, and he's actually got +23 Defense instead of just 16! That that will save him from Sigurd, but still, not bad!

Now, Sigurd needs to be Returned immediately after conquering Anphony, and there are still a ton of stragglers out there in need of warping, so Ethlin moves up here. After that, I do all the miscellaneous stuff with Levin, Sylvia, Alec, Noish, Ardan, Lex, and Deirdre...

And then Macbeth ultimately succumbs to Sigurd's might, like all the rest. Still put up a pretty good fight though, if Sigurd's HP bar is any indication.

But now we've got the Defense Ring!

BWA HA HA!! 20 DEFENSE BABY!! Now Sigurd's REALLY trashing countries!

And it's cutscene time!

Oooh, Filat. That's that old guy we talked to at the end of the Prologue! Wonder what he's got to say this time?

Filat: Sir Sigurd, looks like we’ve reached full-scale war with Agustria. What’s the prognosis?

Sigurd: We seem to be holding up alright, but it’s been no easy fight.

Filat: Incidentally, I’ve come with a bit of bad news.

Sigurd: Sir?

Filat: There’s been some nasty rumours making the rounds in the Royal Court. It’s going around that Prince Cuan of Lenster, King Eltshan of Nodion, and yourself are conspiring against His Majesty. They say that explains why you’re hiding the Prince of Isaac.

Sigurd: That’s absurd! Who could’ve started such a story!?

Filat: Duke Reptor and Lord Langbart.

Sigurd: I see… Those two have had it in for my father for some time, but this has gone far enough.

Filat: I believe they’re put off by the way Prince Kurth goes to Lord Byron for everything. Once the prince ascends the throne, those two are sure to be ousted from their posts, and that has them worried. At any rate, I’d watch your back.

Sigurd: Thanks, I’ll do that. Tell me, how are we faring in the Isaacian conflict?

Filat: We expect Prince Kurth and your father’s triumphant return any day now.

Sigurd: I’m glad to hear His Highness made it through alright. My father sure worries about his safety. He fears the Royal Family’s blood would be lost forever if anything were to happen to him.

Filat: Indeed. We’ve been trying to hasten his search for a bride as of late.

Sigurd: Huh? Is there any special reason for that?

Filat: Er… Well, only a select few at the Royal Court know this but… It seems His Highness is having problems letting go of a love from his past.

Sigurd: Really? Any reason the two never married?

Filat: Oh, I may as well tell you the whole story. This all took place nearly 20 years ago.

Oh boy, here we go. This scene isn't bad, but...it has some blunders, so be prepared for some complaining.

Filat: The lovely duchess of Velthomer, a married woman mind you, fell for the prince.

NOTE: Well, actually, the original script doesn't say who fell in love with who. So Jay and Boo laying the blame at Duchess Velthomer's feat might be somewhat disingenuous.

Filat: Now the duke of Velthomer was a reputed womaniser and had several lovers. The prince, however, was a straight arrow. Initially, the prince merely sympathised with the duchess, but then one day the two fell deeply in love. Now the duke lost his head. After writing a letter denouncing the two, he committed suicide. The duchess, clearly perplexed, disappeared without a trace. I believe her name was Sigyn.

Epic Fail #2: Saying that Sigyn was "perplexed" at what happened was just...no. No. That, is NOT an acceptable translation. Again, just like with the previous "Epic Fail" moment, this isn't even an overly literal translation. It is both dumb AND innaccurate, because in the original script, Filat literally says that Sigyn "could not bear to stay". Yes, Sigyn. Could not. Bear. To stay. But oh no, "perplexed" is clearly the better choice. Clearly...

Sigurd: Geez… I never knew. The duchess would have been Lord Alvis’ mother, correct?

Actually this here might've been a rhetorical question, since Sigurd ends this sentence with an ellipses rather than a question mark in the original script. The I bring this up is because...

Filat: Precisely. Oh, what a pity… To lose both parents like that at the age of seven…

Sigurd: Poor Prince Kurth… and the duchess.

It really seems like Sigurd is completely ignoring Alvis while abruptly changing the conversation to talking about Sigyn and Kurth. But actually, he probably did express sympathy for Alvis, just did it in the form of a rhetorical question. Like "Geez...and Sigyn was Alvis's MOTHER, huh...".

Of course, I'm not necessarily sure that that's the case, but, we'll cover that more in the Translation tidbits. Either way though, it makes more sense to read it that way

Filat: Oh, I’m sorry to run on and on. Soldiers like yourself have no time for Royal Court gossip. Just forget I said anything. I’m sure this conflict is keeping you plenty busy. Sir Sigurd, we anxiously await your return to the homeland!

To be clear, this still isn't that bad. Even with these mistakes, this was still leagues above what a completely literal translation would have churned out (for example, Filat saying that Victor was “frenzied" when he found out about the affair). I'm just saying that it's kind of a shame that Jay and Boo didn't do better here, because this was a fairly critical plot point. I actually have more to say in the tidbits, but for now... oh well.

Now let's finish this!

Let's warp Sigurd back...

And now it's time for Cuan to go through the Arena! Or, most of it anyway.

And yes, there we go!

+3 Levels, +3 HP, +2 Str, +2 Skl, +2 Spd, +2 Def!

Nice! Good to know that we got to 19 Defense. That's the exact amount we want for the upcoming section. So if you're about it exceed it, quit the Arena early. Otherwise, if you still don't reach it by the time you beat Chekov, just leave the last guy be. You'll want the HP recharge for when you finally start the assault on Agusty, and we've still got more more fight to go through before that happens.

And of course, you'll want to repair your Hero Lance too.

Ok so Cuan heads out to the same place Lex is going...

Which is here (don't move Lex past here, there will be ballista spawning soon).

And Noish is going for the Bargain Ring village. And as for Beo and Levin, Levin wants to get warped back to Evans, and Beowulf ALSO wants some Gold, just like Noish does.

Ardan, for his part, wants to get his Pursuit Ring (not that he's going to get to keep it)...

Alec is almost to where he needs to be thanks to Sylvia's help here.

Alright, time to see what the King of Mackily has to say about this!

“Grandbell's coming?! HOLY COW!! You'd best surrender now, that way you and all your soldiers don't get slaughte-

Clement: We’ve no choice but to fight. Get the ballistas in position. The Grandbell army must not reach Agusty!

...Or...get yourself and your army all killed uselessly for the sake of “honor” or something...

Man, he didn't even seem like that bad of a guy either . Shagaal on the other hand...

Fury: I must find Prince Levin as soon as possible! I’m only here because I heard you knew his whereabouts.

Shagaal: Prince Levin's been captured by the Grandbell army… the very army that’s currently invading Agustria. My sources tell me they are executing anybody and everybody they run across. The prince is being held at their base in Evans and, word is, is about to be executed.

Fury: Oh no! I must rescue the prince! We’ll leave for Evans at once. Queen Lahna of Silesia warned me to keep out of combat, but this might be unavoidable. If I come across any Grandbell troops, I will engage them.

Shagaal: Uhh… Hopefully it won’t come to that. May your mission be a success.

Eh, this is another mistranslation. Shagaal IS making a sort of “Ah” sound at the beginning, but, it's not “Ah” as in “um, I'm feeling uncertain about this”, it's “Ah, you're actually going to FIGHT them?! Awesome! GO GET EM' TIGER!”. So basically, Shagaal's not being subtle in ANY way whatsoever. He just wants to sic her on Sigurd, and he's doing almost nothing to hide that.

Fury: All right. We’re off!

Which...makes Fury that much more gullible .

So, we're going to have to find a way to deal with her next update. Hopefully with Levin on our side, we can manage something. Anyway...

Shagaal calls for yet more soldiers...

And now we've got two small squads of cavalry running towards us too, in addition to Fury and her squad.

So then, how we will handle all of these new challenges? Can Sigurd and his army still hold up under these new challenges, in-spite of all the fighting they've already had to do? And what of Fury and Levin? Will Levin be able to stop her from spilling her blood? Or will she fall by Sigurd's sword due to Shagaal's treachery? And can we find a way to dissuade the King of Mackily from fighting us? Or will he be yet another innocent victim in this war? Find out, next time, on Let's Max Rank Fire Emblem 4! Have a nice night, and God bless you all!

AAAA RANKED RUN STATS

Time Taken This Update: ~33 minutes, and 48 seconds.

Total Time Elapsed Over the Run: ~3 hours, 56 minutes and 9 seconds.

Turns Taken This Update: 9 Turns

Total Turns Elapsed Over The Run: 87 Turns

Levels Gained This Update: 24 Levels

Total Levels Gained: 116 Levels

Things I Regret on This Section: I regret NOTHING!!

Total Things I Regret: The fact that Noish had to hang back as I rigged levels for Sigurd in the Prologue. And in Chapter 1, I should've brought Midir to guarantee that Kinbois's men would be taken down without issue. On Chapter 2, I regret the fact that Ardan built up so many love points with Aira even though that pairing's been written out of the route, I regret making that positioning mistake with Fin, and I wish I hadn't made that careless mistake with Sigurd attacking that guard near Boldo (even if it did end up working out).

TRANSLATION TIDBITS:

Creative Liberty #7 (All of the game): In the original script, everyone just calls Sigurd the exact same title that they call everyone else. So if one were to use “Sir” for Sigurd, they'd use “Sir” for everyone else as well if they were doing a completely literal translation. Or if they used “Lord” for Alvis, they'd refer to Sigurd as “Lord” as well. But Jay and Boo didn't do that. They specifically singled Sigurd out as “Sir” while calling everyone else “Lord”, which to me is brilliant. It's just a great, subtle way of reinforcing Sigurd's character as a humble guy, in-spite of all he accomplishes. Quite nice if I say so myself!

Mistranslation #12 (C2): In regards to who started the affair, the original script doesn't really specify that. It just says that they both fell in love with each other, yet, Jay and Boo make it sound like Sigyn alone was the one who kick-started the whole thing.

Mistranslation #13 (C2): Well, ok, maybe not necessarily a mistranslation? Sigurd does actually ask whether or not Lady Sigyn was Alvis's mother...but, his sentence was actually supposed to trail off with an ellipses, not end with a question mark. Now, in Japanese, you CAN ask legitimate questions this way, but, in this case, it makes more sense for Sigurd to be asking this rhetorically. So really, he should probably be saying something more like...

"Geez... I never knew. And she was Alvis's mother, wasn't she..."

That way it doesn't look like he's just skipping past how awful Alvis's childhood was.

Mistranslation #14 (C2): Again, when Fury tells Shagaal that she's going to attack Sigurd and Co., Shagaal is NOT saying anything to hide his excitement at this. No, actually, he shows extreme excitement, essentially telling Fury “Ah, you're going to fight him?! Awesome, good luck girl!” before sending her off.

It seems to me like this mistranslation is pretty understandable though. Why? Because the very last part of Shagaal's sentence, ”願ってもない”, actually DOES mean something like “For you, hope it is not”. Which seems weird, unless you know that Japanese is a very context heavy language. For example, suppose someone asks you “what's your major”, and you want to answer tell them that you're majoring in the Japanese language? What would you say in Japanese? Well, you would say “日本語です”. What is the literal translation for THAT phrase, when you translate it to English? Well, it comes out to, and I quote...

“...is the Japanese language.”

Yes, that's it. If someone asks you what your major is, you don't say “My major is such and such”. All you say is “...is such and such”. Or suppose your friend is asking you to a movie, but the date he/she wants to go at is inconvenient for you. What do you say? You say “土曜日はちょっと”. What's the literal translation? It is, and I quote...

“Saturday is a little bit...”

And that's it. That's the end of the sentence. That's all you get. And that's because in the Japanese language, you don't normally NEED to be that specific. You could be more specific with the above examples...but then people would look at you funny. So then, what Jay and Boo obviously DIDN'T know is that “願ってもない” is actually a figure of speech! It's an expression, not a literal statement! And it's an expression that roughly translates as “The best one could ask for.” Or “just what one wants.” Or “Heaven-sent”...thinks like that.

So basically, Shagaal is barely even trying to be subtle about his desire to sic Fury on Sigurd, which is part of what makes the “mistranslation” so tricky. Because if this guy had any brains whatsoever, he would pretend that he's hoping they don't have to fight. But nope, he's a baboon. That seriously cannot be emphasized enough.

Epic Fail #2 (C2): One of the things that make the previous Epic Fail such a shame is that when you consider Sigyn's backstory, it makes the whole thing even more heart-wrenching than it already was. She literally grew up believing that she was cursed, and was always told not to wander outside the village, lest terrible things happen. And then, lo and behold, she's bringing disaster upon everyone around her. Kurth's become involved in an affair with her, her husband is committing suicide, Alvis is...well, we don't know whether he was definitely abused by Victor...buuuuut....

Alvis exiled all but one of his father Victor's mistresses. He ordered their children to be demoted to servants or exiled. The only mistress left was a girl who was his mother Shigyun's maid servant. Although she went through a tough childhood and wasn't beautiful, she had a kind heart and frequently took care of Alvis. Even Alvis could not be cruel towards her.

Although Victor got his hands on the girl from the momentum of being drunk, when he knew the girl got pregnant he yelled, cursed, used violence, and tried to drive her away. The person who scolded at this was Shigyun [yeah, this translation is kinda stiff], and the very child who this girl got pregnant with was in fact Azel. When Victor died, Azel was just born.

So yeah, Sigyn. You could say she was "perplexed" at everything that happened .

Edited August 28, 2015 by FionordeQuester

[HF Makalov Fanboy Kai]

i am quite perplexed by that translation error

[FionordeQuester]

Yeah . Actually, this is something I forgot to mention, but the literal translation for that line is that Sigyn "could not bare to stay". So like I said, it's not even an overly literal translation, it was the patch writers looking at that phrase, and apparently deciding that "perplexed" was a better choice.

Edited August 26, 2015 by FionordeQuester

[Jotari]

I find some irony that you describe Levin as a good dad when he'll probably spends the majority of the second gen ignoring his children.

[Ansem]

well

levin was killed by manfloy, and i'd feel a little odd two if two children that werent mine kept on trying to cozy up to me, especially if i were the wind god

[FionordeQuester]

Alright, and here's Marty the LTCer's treatise on dancers! Thank you Marty for explaining the power of the dancer so well! I'll be adding THIS to the update I just posted!

If you've watched any efficiency run before, you'll probably know that dancers are incredibly important. Their ability to let units move again can be useful in so many different ways, from getting extra experience to completing objectives faster. However, FE4 has the best dancers in the series. Though they're pitifully weak (why do they even have swords? at least it lets them get exp in the arena...) they refresh EVERY unit adjacent to them. Though a transformed heron/rafael can technically do this in FE9/10, in no other game do you have such a powerful ability with such huge availability. With the ability to refresh four units, Sylvia's squishiness becomes less of a drawback because if Sigurd, Cuan, Lex, and some other juggernaut can move twice...







...there probably won't be any enemies left. Even though Sylvia can't always keep pace with your leading units, there's always something useful for her to do. Dancing helps allocate kills to weak units who really need the help by letting them move twice, and can speed up side objectives immensely. Furthermore, the use of the warp staff allows Sylvia to be relevant in the few turns after a a castle has been seized. This utility coupled with the lax turn count requirements of an AAAA rank means that Sylvia can do useful dances every single turn.

However, Sylvia can [also] do some very flashy things. Later on in the game, you get an item called the rescue staff that allows the user to bring any unit within ten squares adjacent to them (the game tries to put the unit above the rescuer, then left/right, then down). So far most staff users have either been really slow (Aideen) or have a low weapon rank, but each generation gives you a master knight, [a class that has] A rank staves. There are also two items called the leg ring and the knight ring. The leg ring boosts movement by three, and the knight ring allows the user to move like mounts do. With all these items properly allocated (it seems like a lot, but it's completely worth it), a formation of a dancer, a master knight, and three other promoted mounts can move 18 squares a turn if there is no terrain in the way. 18 squares.



If you want to use rescue on a unit other than the dancer, you can boost your lord 27 squares to quickly seize a gate.



With this immense power, you can skip huge portions of the game. I doubt you'll see that in this run because rescue skipping whole squads isn't good for the exp rank, but just know that you can break the game with it. In my 0% growths play through I used the power of rescue/dancers to trivialize some of the worst parts of the game. It is incredible

Isn't it though? And I don't know...I think there may be a little Rescue Warping involved here...you'll see readers, you'll see .

Edited August 27, 2015 by FionordeQuester

[sirmola]

Don't forget to mention the rescue glitch.

[FionordeQuester]

Oh you're right! I'll be sure to remember to talk about that in Chapter 4, alright? Thanks for reminding me!

[FionordeQuester]

Gyargh, double post. Sorry about that.

Edited December 16, 2015 by FionordeQuester

[FionordeQuester]

Hey hey hey! Guess who's FINALLY back! Yes, it's Fionordequester, and I've only just gotten done carrying 15 units at my 4 year university! So now I've finally got the time and energy to focus on this! Unfortunately, MartytheDemonSlayer won't be joining us today, since he never got back to me when I sent him this update, but oh well. I'm just glad to FINALLY have this back on track! So, without further adieu...

Chapter 2 (Part 3-1)

Hello fellow warriors, and welcome back to Let's Max Rank Fire Emblem 4, Genealogy of the Holy War! Last time, we went and subdued like, half of the country of Agustria! We killed Lord Macbeth AND Voltz's mercenary corp., and now we're moving on to topple King Shagaal as well. After all, King Azmur commands us too! King Eltshan, whom Shagaal has captured, is vitally important to negotiating for peace in Agustria. That's why we're going to burn Agustria to the fricken ground trying to get him out !!

…

Yeah. Perhaps not the best thought out plan on Mr. Azmur's part...or maybe all this is simply a convenient opportunity for Grandbell to conquer Agusty? Nah, he's a cool guy, and so's Prince Kurth. NO WAY he'd be down with that, right? Of course not.

Anyways, we have to go through the Duchy of Mackily first. So let's see what kind of heat King Clement's packin' for us...

Huh. 53 HP, 4 Defense, 1 Leadership Star, and no Skills? This guy's actually kind of a pushover, isn't he? But he does have one trick up his sleeve...

Yep, he's got a staff, and THIS one puts someone to sleep for 5 whole turns. Which essentially means that they cannot move or do anything else until those 5 turns are up (though oddly enough, they can still dodge enemy attacks). So that's annoying.

Speaking of annoying, these guys WILL NOT MOVE until you move into Sleep Staff range. And that's a problem because that makes it impossible to move in and conquer Mackily in one turn. And what's more, when determining which unit to put to sleep, the AI looks at this list here...

And then goes from top-to-bottom, depending on who's in range. So yes, if Sigurd happens to be in range, and he's got less than 15 Resistance (highly likely), Clement will always, ALWAYS target him above every other target (which is actually how that works in FE6-8, for those who play those games). And what's more, the path to his castle is a natural chokepoint, which will be raining with Ballista bolts, and blocked by swarms of enemies. So it's very hard to not get bogged down for a significant amount of time trying to seize this castle. Unless...

BOOM!! GAME SET AND MATCH CLEMENT! YES! This here is an amazing AI trick that I discovered from a long abandoned FE4 speed run project. Yes, Alec is now in range of Clement, which means that instead of staying near him, all of Clement's men will go charging towards Nodion/Evans instead. That means that we can now kill them all much more easily, AND we can take out Bishop Clement without getting stuck in one place for 5-6 turns.

So yeah, Alec, you're my hero! And as it turns out, he's Sylvia's hero too. Why? Because they have this conversation together...

Alec: Good thing I showed up, huh? Sure glad I found you in all this mess.

Sylvia: Me too!

Alec: You wanna hang out sometime?

Sylvia: You bet! I can show ya my special dance! I ain’t shown it to no one yet. Let’s just say it’s, ah… V-E-R-Y special!

Alec: W, whoa! That I want to see!

Aaand there she goes, our promiscuously dressed 14 year old hitting on all the older men in our army. Well, ok, maybe Alec isn't that old, maybe. But this other guy...

Sylvia: :Sir, don’cha ya know who I am? I’m Sylvia. Call me Sylvie if ya like.

Sigurd: Look, I don’t have time for this. Now be a good little girl and run on back to the castle.

Sylvia: Good little gi… You ever see a little girl with THESE before!? Grr… what a moron.

Sigurd: Enough already!

Sylvia: Sigh… I’m just a lone flower upon the battleground. Beauty entrapped by adversity…

Sigurd: Now what’s she… Geez… I’m never going to get rid of her!

Heh, rather amusing conversation, though it has a slightly disturbing undertone in the original script, wherein Sylvia states that Sigurd is a “boring old stiff, just like everyone else.” So you really can't help but wonder if she would've tried putting the moves on him if he hadn't insulted her first. Screw your stupid focus on loli's Japan. And screw Fire Emblem If's further push into that direction. Honestly...

Anyways, enough of that nonsense. Sylvia heads back to the west, where Ethlin can warp her back to Evans...

And then all these guys are moving around every which way. Ethlin's headed down to warp Levin and then the other people who need it, Cuan's heading down to smash some heads at Mackily, Levin wants to get warped to Evans to talk to Fury, Beowulf's out to get some more Gold, and then Noish is going to get that and the Bargain Ring.

Oh, and Ardan's finally arrived at his destination! Let's see what happens!

:(

Ardan: If only I could repeated attack like Alec… that’d give me the edge I need. Maybe I could even find me a girlie then. Ahh… it’s tough being a guy! Hm? What’s this ol’ ring doing here… Looks magical or something. Let’s try ‘er on. Ooooooo! What’s going on!? …… The Power of Pursuit!

Yay, Ardan's got the Pursuit Ring! He's not going to actually KEEP it, but still, YAAAY !!

Anyways, speaking of heavily armoured people...

Deirdre's still trying to get past Hertzog there. But more importantly,

She's got to fix her Warp Staff now, preferably before it breaks. Otherwise, we'll get the “Broken Weapon” textbox, and that always wastes time.

Also, Sigurd spars a bit in the Arena to restore his HP, and gets a level up for his troubles.

+1 HP, +1 Skl, +1 Spd, +1 Def!

Interesting thing about Sigurd right now. His class caps almost all of it's stats at 25 points, just like it was with Roy from FE6, and Marth from FE11-12. So even without those ridiculous promo gains, Sigurd's STILL close to capping his Strength, Skill, and Speed stats. Not so much HP, because that caps at 80 instead of 60, but still, that's pretty good isn't it? And he's not really even that blessed overall. He's got 2 more points in Speed than he usually does at this level, but his Strength really is just THAT good! And when you add in the Defense Ring on top of that, Sigurd is SO good...

That we literally have to GET RID OF the Defense Ring! Not sell it mind you, just put it into Storage. Otherwise, Sigurd's Defense is so high, that most of Clement's forces won't even try to attack him! They'll just ride up to him, and then just kind of go “please don't hurt me ”, which would waste many valuable turns. So that's kind of a funny little factoid.

So off Sigurd goes...

And then Lex moves right outside the range shadows of all the Mackily enemies (except the Ballista men). Now it's Clement's turn!

I just like to imagine Alec, sitting there in town, bobbing up and down like a little kid as she's about to start her “special” dance...and then Clement strikes, and puts him to sleep at the exact moment Sylvia actually starts. Cue the wacky, anime shenanigans as Sylvia finishes, looks, screams her head off, then beats the ever-loving tar out of him for falling asleep in the middle of her performance. Then draws a mustache on him for good measure.

Oh well. For the sake of turns, sacrifices MUST be made. Besides, Sylvie's too young for ya. I'm doing you a favor quite honestly.

Also, I'd like to take a minute to point out that Clement's Ballista are not doing ANYTHING to Lex, chipping off just 1 HP at a time.

And there we go. Everyone hates our guts, and they're not afraid to show it! So we've got to do something about that!

Now then, these sword dudes 20 Attack, and they have Pursuit. So while they're not terribly strong, they're still doing 8 Damage per round at 100% accuracy rates. Plus, there are three mages that will just eat Lex alive if we let them, so Lex can't just charge through everything like Sigurd can. He's only the “Piccolo” to Sigurd's “Goku” after all. So instead...

We're going to be using hit and run tactics, picking off weaker units, limiting the enemies to only attacking us two at a time on enemy phase...

+1 HP, +1 Str, +1 Def, +1 Res!

And also snagging some levels while he's at it. Now the sword dudes are only doing 6 Damage to him per round!

Oh, and Ethlin's just warped Levin back to Evans while getting a level in the process. I'm not going to say what she got till the end of this Chapter though, because right now, it's largely irrelevant.

And now Ardan is going back to Heirhein to put that Pursuit Ring to use. He's gotta sell it eventually, but as long as he's got it, he might as well use it.

In addition, Levin moves here since this is the best spot for him to be when Fury and Co. arrive. And finally, Sigurd, Cuan, Beowulf, Noish, and all the other stragglers will keep on going to all the places they were headed to last turn, and will keep on doing that. Now let's see what the enemy does!

:(

:)

+1 HP, +1 Str, +1 Def!

And there we go! Lex has lost a third of his health, but he's still doing great!

That said, those mages will still incinerate him, so let's see...what can we do?

Well, Lex's Defensive gains have drastically cut into these guy's damage output, so maybe we can snipe one of em' before running away again?

Yes we caaaaaaan! Go Lex!

And look at that, Beo's got his first village. About time we got some Village flavor text, innit?

I wish he were dead!

Way ahead of ya buddio. We already took care of that last update. Thanks for the 5000G though!

And since I didn't show it off last update, here's Sylvia's dancing animation!

Also, another village!

Wouldn’t ya say King Eltshan and th’ princess are a wee bit too cosy for siblings? Oh, how I love t’gossip! Eh? I’ve too much free time, ya say? Well, I’ll shut mah mouth!

Alright, I'll uh, keep that in mind, weird, gossipy...random lady.

And congratulations Beo, you just made yet another 10,000G! Other than Voltz kicking the bucket, things really are going your way aren't they? Speaking of which, not much else really happens till next enemy phase...

Which ALSO didn't have much happen...but at least we got another level!

+1 HP, +1 Spd, +1 Def!

Man, he just keeps pumping those Defense procs out, doesn't he? He's already 4 points ahead of his average!

Not that there are that many physical attackers left to use that. Anyways, here's our next turn.

Unfortunately, Lex is going to HAVE to take a fireball to the face from the westmost Mage, but that's ok. That was still totally worth snagging the archer kill becauuuse...

SIGURD has arrived, at long last!

And so's Cuan, so next turn, he's going to be cracking some heads as well!

But for now, Sigurd's going to get the ball rolling. Which is just as well, because more kills on the Light Sword is ALWAYS a desirable outcome!

And speaking of desirable outcomes, here's the Bargain Ring village, at long last!

Edited December 16, 2015 by FionordeQuester

[FionordeQuester]

Chapter 2 Part 3-2

Nice bracelet, huh? Wear it at the shops for a little discount, ok?

YES!! About Noish! We're gonna need to get you two more villages, but after that, you'll finally be going from zero to hero!

Anyways, like I said, Noish wants some more villages, so Beo's gonna leave these two alone for Noish to snag. But the rest are his!

Also there goes Sylvia! This here is especially excellent, because...

Sylvia can dance INSIDE Evans as well as outside, meaning that Deirdre can gain 120 Experience per turn, and not just 60! Yes, she's literally gaining a free level every turn, which is why staff bots are so awesome!

Now then, next enemy phase.

Uh...well, Lex takes a fireball to the face. That kind stunk.

But at least he got to take it out on the final Swordfighter!

And then Sigurd was able to avenge him by smacking one of the other mages around...

And then killing the other one, who decided to get too close. Like I said two updates ago, the Light Sword essentially functions as a Lightning tome when attacking from 2 Range, which also means that Sigurd gets +20 Hit and Evade bonuses on any mage who decides to attack him from there. So that's why you're seeing a discrepancy between the two mage's Hit chances.

Anyways, one of Shagaal's two cavalry squads have finally entered the fray.

As usual, the mooks aren't much of a threat, but the Captain...

Well, actually the Captain just ends up whiffing his attack, and therefore, is now a non-issue...but still, 32 Attack! That could've done some decent damage...if it had hit.

Now in case you're wondering about Fury's squad, don't worry, they won't arrive at Evans for a while, so let's forget about them for now.

Anyways, our turn now.

Eltshan’s demon sword Mistoltin, along with the Tyrfing of Chalphy and Isaac’s Balmung, are the strongest swords in all creation.

Huh, neat. So, it seems there's a third legendary sword besides the Mistoltin and Balmung. Wonder if we're going to be using THAT at any point? Who knows?

Alrighty then, first Cuan kills the Captain,

Lex kills one of the last two mages...

And then Sigurd kills the very last one, thereby putting an end to every single one of Clement's men except for the five ballistamen, and the Armour blocking the chokepoint.

Oh, and Deirdre finally gets past Hertzog before smashing Chekov, even further compounding our sudden victory dance!

And now it's time for the FINAL battle against Holyn! The...Level 12...unpromoted swordfighter...with an Iron Sword? Or, maybe an Iron Blade, but still, not exactly the kind of guy you'd expect to be in the Rank 7 match. Then again, it's not as though Deirdre is much better, so, let's see how this goes-

W-wait, is that ALL the HP he's got?! What the heck?! Deirdre can fricken one-shot him!

I mean ok, he still one, but still, this guy's pathetic! Or at least, he is compared to the likes of Dulles from the last Chapter. In fact, now that I think about it, Chekov the Thunder Mage is ALSO a downgrade of Emmile, the Wind Mage with Elwind AND the Speed Ring!! So if anything, these guys are actually WEAKER than their Chapter 1 counterparts, not stronger! What the heck game? Were we really just not supposed to succeed in actually beating everyone last chapter?

Anyways, next enemy phase! Shagaal's men...

...do nothing. Well, ok, I guess maybe they're begging for their lives, but still...

I mean yeesh, Sigurd doesn't even HAVE the Defense Ring right now, and he's still scaring the pants off everyone. Even still, I don't regret storing that ring, because Lex normally does not do quite that well at cleaning house before Sigurd and Cuan arrive. He just happened to get ridiculously blessed in Defesne.

Anyways, the Captain tries to fight Cuan, but doesn't really accomplish much of anything. Rather too bad, that.

So, let's go teach him the error of his ways.

First, Sigurd kills one of the henchmen in his way...

And then Lex TRIES to kill the Captain, but alas, no such luck.

Anyways, we don't actually need Lex anymore, so now I'm sending him back south to Evans, where he'll eventually promote after beating up some guys in the Arena.

So then, Cuan kills the Captain instead...

+1 HP, +1 Def!

Now then...

THIS is where Cuan moves, right next to Sigurd, that way there's only ONE guy getting in Sigurd's way next turn instead of three! Just a neat little manuever there.

And finally, Deirdre's close to maxing her level at this point, so I decide to fix the Warp staff here rather than waiting till it dropped to one use. In hindsight, this was a mistake, because this made it so that she wasn't able to cap her level without fighting some risky Chapter 3 Arena fights...but, we'll get to that when we get to it. Just know that I should've fixed the staff at two uses instead.

That said, nothing really happens on enemy phase, so next turn, Cuan softens this Lance Armour so that Sigurd...

Can kill him and get started on fighting Clement himself next turn! And don't worry, if Clement has a choice between putting someone to sleep, and choosing to just fight them instead, he will always choose to just fight them instead. In fact, if I had remembered that, I actually could've had Beowulf save another village this turn, but...I didn't, so oh well.

But we can still get Noish to do so, so let's see what the guy here has to say!

Why else would King Shagall have him put away?

...Because Eltshan is basically the human embodiment of “Honor Before Reason” and “Lawful Stupid”? His heart is good, but his ethics...leave something to be desired. Also, note how Shagaal is called “Shagall” in this conversation. Different patch versions have had different spellings for various characters, and it looks like Twilkitri forgot to edit this particular instance. Whoops.

Please, I beg of you… Save King Eltshan!

But, I will indeed rescue him. Hopefully.

Speaking of which, time for another boss fight!

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, I really, really do feel bad for this guy. Elliot was a warmonger and rapist, his father wasn't any better, Macbeth valued money over human life and Shagaal is a psychopathic baboon...and even Eltshan is kind of...extreme in his actions. But Clement? Dude's just kind of...*gasp*, NORMAL! Seriously, he is like, the ONLY sane man out of everyone in Agustria. Maybe not the most righteous man...but he never really does anything I would consider unreasonable.

I mean, ok, he didn't do anything to help Lachesis out against Elliot, but that's because he didn't fully know all the details of what was happening. He didn't want to make a decision until the “dust had settled”, and that's actually the smart thing to do when you don't know all the facts. Then when Grandbell takes Anphony, he's all “HOLY COW, are these guys gonna subdue EVERYONE?! We gotta protect the king!”, right before putting himself right in the line of fire. And then when the big confrontation with Sigurd finally happens, does he act like a coward? No, the guy girds up his loins and says “well, let's do this!”

Heck, he even comes off as a reasonably clever military tactician, doing everything he can to take advantage of the fact that we had to go through a choke-point in order to get to him. Sure, I cheesed his forces pretty bad, but that's because I took advantage of a quirk in the A.I. Otherwise, this battle would've gone on MUCH longer than it did.

Quite honestly, I have to wonder if this whole thing was a diplomatic failure on Sigurd's part. I mean, WE know that we're trying to save Eltshan, and why we kicked the crud out of Heirhein and Anphony...but Clement doesn't! Was there really no way for Sigurd to just tell him what was going on? Could he really not have just had Lachesis go tell him “hey, Heirhein kind of tried to kill me, and Anphony's leading raids on Shagaal's villages”? I'm just saying, if I saw Sigurd going on a rampage through MY home country, and I had no clue that my Lord was doing anything fishy...I honestly don't think I would've reacted much differently than Clement did. After all, Shagaal's probably spreading a bunch of Anti-Grandbell propaganda even as we speak, if his conversation with Fury is anything to go by...

But alas, we now have to put him out of his misery, using the Uber Slim Sword since the Light Sword could potentially miss...

Don't you worry Clement...you will always have a special place in my heart :sigh:...

Oh well, at least we get his Sleep Staff. We're never going to find a good place to use it, but Sigurd CAN sell it for quite a bit of money, that way Clement's death won't be a total waste.

Anyways, time for more story.

DARN IT SIGURD!! Didn't I JUST get done telling everyone why we should feel BAD for Clement ?!?

Oifaye: That’s right. But there still reports of a good-sized army waiting in Agusty. So take extra precaution!

Sigurd: Yeah, you’re right. Just what is our boy Shagall up to…

Oh well. Guess I can't expect him to feel bad for EVERY guy who tries to kill him, justified or not. Guy's so kindhearted already that he'd practically be a nervous wreck .

And now with Clement gone, we can get the rest of the villages without getting put to sleep! But will we have the same luck with Lord Shagaal himself? Can we save Eltshan in time? Is he even still alive at this point? And, just what kind of surprises does Shagaal still have in store for us? Find out, NEXT TIME, on Let's Play Fire Emblem 4: Genealogy of the Holy War! Have a nice night, and God bless you all!

Edited December 16, 2015 by FionordeQuester

[Jotari]

Per the rules of Fire Emblem, Alec will still be able to dodge Sylvia as she attempts to beat him for falling a sleep on her. You've also made me feel somewhat guilty for just regulating Clement as that one guy before Shagall in my mind.

Seems you also posted the first update twice and should really spoiler them. The page's scroll length is pretty immense.

Edited December 16, 2015 by Jotari

[HF Makalov Fanboy Kai]

yeah i always thought so about that Clement boss guy, granted he is recolored later for less flattering bosses.

[FionordeQuester]

yeah i always thought so about that Clement boss guy, granted he is recolored later for less flattering bosses.

Yeah. Personally, I always kind of wonder this. "Were we really SUPPOSED to sympathize with him, or were we just supposed to write him off as another bad guy?" It seems like the latter is what we're supposed to think, given the happy music that plays after conquering his castle, and also the generic bad guy mug used for him...but, on the other hand, the game really doesn't give us a very good reason TO hate him. Guy's in a tough position no matter how you slice it.

Per the rules of Fire Emblem, Alec will still be able to dodge Sylvia as she attempts to beat him for falling a sleep on her. You've also made me feel somewhat guilty for just regulating Clement as that one guy before Shagall in my mind.

Seems you also posted the first update twice and should really spoiler them. The page's scroll length is pretty immense.

Heh, thanks for the heads up Jotari. I already went back and fixed that stuff. And lol at your first and second statements

Edited December 18, 2015 by FionordeQuester

[Darrman]

It's back! Woo! Now I can read more FE4! still too lazy to clear this very castle in a draft... At least you can use everyone.

[FionordeQuester]

Alright, so Jegan on the Something Awful forums brought up a really good point about something I complained about in regards to Batou. Here's the posts in question...

No, I'm already done for. But before I die, I have one last thing I must tell you. The evil that's rearing its head across the continent is all the work of the Dark Sect. They're out to destroy all that's good and hasten the revival of the Dark Lord Loputousu. Sandima incited our attack on Grandbell solely to further their cause. They have infested the world, Sigurd. You must stay sharp and not be led astray! Please absolve my failure to keep my citizens from harms way. S... Sigurd, I beg of you...

I bold these lines here, because this pretty much destroys ANY wiggle room there may have been for Batou NOT being a naive dummy. I mean c,mon man, you invade a country, let your sons run wild, cause all this mayhem, do all this bad stuff...and you did it all on account of a man, who you KNEW was part of a group called THE FRICKEN DARK SECT!!, who you KNEW was specifically dedicated to REVIVING SATAN!! YOU KNEW THIS!! Obviously you knew this, or you wouldn't be telling us this!

And yet, you still honestly thought he was working for the good of your country? WHY?! HOW ARE YOU THIS NAIVE?!?

I realize this is going back five months, but I really had to comment on this.

It's not like Manfloy and Sandima left the room after supposedly killing him, he learned it from their ill timed exposition. Well, probably? I mean they didn't call themselves the Dark Sect, but maybe Batou was just extrapolating from the facts that they're trying to revive a dark god and one of them has the title of Archbishop. As long as they don't call themselves the Dark Sect in the future, it's safe to assume that he made the name up on his own.

So, I looked up the script on Serenes, and sure enough, none of the Lopt Sect guys ever refer to themselves as the Dark Sect. Manfloy DOES refer to Loputousu as "the Dark Lord", but other than that, people generally refer to them as the "Lopt Sect" or the "Loputo Sect" (depending on how Jay and Boo are feeling that day I guess).

But yeah, looks like I was wrong there, and should now make an annotation on that particular update. Hats off to Jegan everyone!

Edited December 23, 2015 by FionordeQuester

[ruadath]

I'm a bit late here, but glad to see your working on this again. Looking forward to seeing how things progress.

[FionordeQuester]

I'm a bit late here, but glad to see your working on this again. Looking forward to seeing how things progress.

Why thank you Ruadath! The next update is coming soon, but before it does, a funny pic that Vilkacis made on Something Awful!

[FionordeQuester]

Chapter 2 (Part 4-1)

Happy New Years fellow warriors! Welcome back to Let's Max Rank FE4! Last time, we had to face Clement the wizard! Though he had no ill intent, he put up a fierce defensive front, thinking that Sigurd was out to raze Agustria! He fought for his home country, and was cut down in a war with no justice. But with a heavy heart, we move on, remembering his dedication. Oh, and Shagaal is sending some girl called Fury to attack us, because apparently she's looking for Levin. Considering that Levin is among us right now though, well...we'll see just how long she can go before seeing the light.

Will we break through Shagaal's maniacal machinations? Find out, today!

But first, we have some villages to visit, and some gold to procure for our men. So let's see what we get from this one!

Each year big towns like Agusty and Mackily hold witch hunts and arrest a ton of people. Then they burn ’em at the stake for doin’ what? Absolutely nothin’! Is that nuts or what!?

Hysteria never is a good thing is it?

Oh well. At least we got some money out of the deal.

Now then, let's get Alec and Lex back to our home base...

And let's get Noish some more money as well. He has the Bargain Ring, but he still needs just a BIT more if he wants to stand a chance of beating the Arena!

Speaking of which, here's Holyn going splat against Deirdre! Now to collect our 4000G and...

Holyn: You’ve got some serious spirit in your attack. Obviously you’re not here for the money.

Actually I kind of am in this case, but go on .

Holyn: Cash has been my motivator all these years… But after seeing you it kinda loses its meaning. You mind if I tag along? It’d be nice to fight for something real for a change.

As opposed to what, actually DOING YOUR JOB as the prince of Sophara itself? Yeah, Sophara is castle in the southern Isaacian region. So just what the heck Holyn's doing all the way out here, fighting here in an arena inside the capital of Verdane, on the exact opposite of the world, is utterly beyond me. Dude must've been a real snot in his terrible teens :mmmhmm:

Anyways, let's talk about Holyn, shall we?

Level 12 Swordfighter

HP: 40 (110%) Spd: 17 (30%)

Str: 14 (30%) Lck: 1 (20%)

Mag: 0 (5%) Def: 11 (30%)

Skl: 17 (80%) Res: 1 (5%)

Move (before Promotion): 6

Move (after Promotion): 6

Weapon Ranks (before Promotion): Swords (A)

Weapon Ranks (after Promotion): Swords (A)

Promotion Bonuses: +5 Str, +3 Mag, +2 Skl, +2 Spd, +2 Def, +3 Res

Items: Iron Blade

Skill: Pursuit, Moon Sword (Skl%=Halves enemy defense before strike hits)

Holy Blood: Minor Odo

So here's Holyn everyone. He's...basically Aira, but better in almost every possible way, ESPECIALLY in his growth rates. In fact, his growths are the exact same as Aira's, except he gets 20% higher Skill and 40% higher HP. There is, quite literally, not a single area where his growths are worse than Aira's. They are either the exact same, or flat out better.

Seriously, even if Aira were to join at Level 12 (and not Level 4), she would STILL only surpass him in Speed, Skill, Luck, and Res. Other than that, Holyn still ties her in Strength, and has a SIGNIFICANT advantage in HP and Defense. And, to add further insult to injury, Aira's not really even going to be leading by that much even in Speed and Skill. Both of their starting Speed and Skill stats are so high, that they're already capping them long before either of them ever hit Level 30.

Because of that, the only significant thing Aira has over Holyn is that Meteor Sword is a better skill than Luna Sword, which doesn't do much against anyone without really high defense. But, Holyn's Strength is more than enough to make up for that, and Aira's glass cannon status makes it difficult for her to actually USE her Meteor Sword anyway. Perhaps most importantly, however, is that Holyn is just capable of taking a much more vicious butt-kicking than Aira is, even at equal levels. Where base Aira is getting 3HKOed by enemies in this chapter, base Holyn is only getting 5HKOed by the same stuff, and is 8 levels closer to promoting.

So, if Aira is Android #18, I guess that'd make Holyn Android #17. He's stronger in every way, but is also much lazier, and tends to get sidetracked much more often.

Oh, also, Aira and Holyn are distantly related.

.

Now, time for some staff grinding...

Some dancing from everyone's favorite 14 year old dancer...

And then yet more grinding, for a grand total of 120 EXP this turn!

And that'd end our turn !

“Meanwhile, at the Fortress of Evil...”

Shagaal: Stop your nitpicking and go!

Yes, “nitpicking”, the BEST adverb to use for “つべこべいわず”. As opposed to, you know, “whining”.

That is definitely one oddity within this particular translation. For as much as I praise it for how liberal it is, there are also places where it is extremely LITERAL as well. As in, it's so literal, it's like Jay and Boo ran the script through Babelfish. But then you get to other lines, like

Levin and his shrink

, and it almost seems like they had some trouble deciding what kind of translation they wanted. Fortunately, this one still tends to err on the side of liberalism, but still.

Also, hi Manfloy.

Shagaal: You! Manfloy!! Y… You’re the one who told us what to do and it’s all backfired! How are you going to fix this!?

Manfloy: I merely advised the removal of the king. He was getting in the way. I believe the rest is your doing. Wouldn’t you agree?

Shagaal: Damn. I just never imagined Sigurd’s army would be this strong. Manfloy, help me… What should I do?

Manfloy: There’s still hope. If necessary we can make use of that rascal you’re holding in the dungeon… Eltshan. Sigurd will listen to anything Eltshan’s got to say. Now go and give him a formal apology.

Make note of Manfloy's remark right here, and remember it for later. Just saying.

Shagaal: Er… okay. Yeah. I’ll do that. Let’s put him to some use.

Oh that's no big deal. I mean, Sandima got killed too, yet here he is, alive and kicking. Seems Loputousu isn't the only being that can be revived.

Manfloy: Only one descendant remains of our old foe Narga, and he will die before long. Then all that’s left is the revival of our Dark Lord. Then the world will be ours!

Well, at least till someone goes and revives Narga .

Dark Mage: Has Alvis consented to your proposal?

Manfloy: Of course he did.

, THAT however is not good! What the heck Alvis?!

Manfloy: He’s got Loputousu’s blood flowing in his veins. And if that ever got out, they would burn him at the stake for being of Loptian descent. I just wonder if someone as arrogant as Alvis can keep quiet.

Actually, that line is more like “could someone as proud as Alvis bear to meet such a miserable end?” Either way though, stuff just got real if Manfloy's extended his reach THIS far out .

Dark Mage: Alright. Next we betray the king and once you become emperor…

Manfloy: There’s a bit more to it than that. To resurrect Lord Loputousu, we’ll need not only Alvis but also that woman’s daughter.

Alright, so, here's what we have so far. We were told in Chapter 1 that Deirdre had Loputousu blood in her veins, and that she was Sigyn's daughter. The Dark Sect wants to “unite their blood” (heck of a euphemism btw) and produce Satan. And now, we've just found out that Alvis has got that Lopt blood kicking around in his veins too.

Do you know what this means? That means...that Deirdre...is Alvis's sister!! Yes, it's true! Well, that or Sigyn went and had Deirdre with someone else (which would still make Alvis and Deirdre half-siblings). So yeah, here's to hoping things don't get awkward between Sigurd and Alvis at some point :P.

Anyways, back to the A plot. We've got Zyne to deal with, but fortunately, the guy will never move till you move a unit onto or past this line...

So we've got plenty of time to prepare.

Other than those guys, all we've got left are Fury and her squad, as well as the two stragglers from last update.

Needless to say, Shagaal's dynamic duo is no match for ours, and Sigurd nets himself yet another kill for his Light Sword.

Now, time for some preparations.

First of all, here's Keimos, the REAL champion of the Chapter 2 Arena division. With 63 HP, the powerful Steel Blade, 12 AS, and 13 Defense, Keimos is a far more worthy adversary than Holyn ever was. He's durable, powerful, AND fast enough to double a good portion of your army...

Course, none of that means a blasted thing to Sigurd, who still has the Uber Slime Sword, and is as broken as he ever was...

+1 Str, +1 Spd, +1 Lck, +1 Def!

And is now yet more broken. But still, good effort .

Now then, the chapter's almost over, and most of our guys still haven't gotten their turn in the Arena, so Sigurd's selling his Uber Slim Sword as well as the Sleep Staff we got from Clement. It seems like a lot of money, but trust me, the Light Sword's going to burn through it REAL fast.

Now then, Cuan kills the last guy, and now he and Sigurd are getting into position. So before we move on to the next enemy phase, let's take some time to visit more villages!

First, we have Noish getting some Gold.

Smashing. Now let's see what Beowulf gets.

That son of his, Prince Shagaal, is bound t’ruin the country before too long. Ahh… if only King Eltshan could’ve succeeded Agustria’s throne somehow.

Well, he would be better than Shagaal, though I worry Eltshan might have ruined Agustria in a different way. If there's one thing the Chapter 2 opening has taught me, it's that Eltshan is not the brightest tool in the shed.

Ok Ardan, you've got your Pursuit Ring, an' you've got your Uber Slim Sword.

Now let's see how you do!

Actually, Bachnin is a rather scary foe for Ardan to face, so I settle for Ardan just making it past Lovin. But next turn Lovin, NEXT turn !

Also, more miscellaneous stuff from the guys back home. Time for the next turn!

Well, actually it's not much to write home about. Like I said, Zyne stays put till you move past a certain point, so this is all that actually happens on that Enemy phase.

Alright Ardan, show us your stuff!

Nice! Good job Ardan!

And then Hertzog is next to fall, despite having WTA. Turns out, the ability to double attack with the Uber Slim Sword is a wonderful asset.

Anyways, that'll be that for Ardan. If he had gotten more points in Speed, I might have been able to have him beat Emmile the Thunder Mage too...but ah well. This'll do. Here are his levels for this Chapter...

Anyways, Ardan's done now. He's got more than enough cash for the next chapter, and I plan on doing something special with him in Chapter 3. So he won't be needing the Pursuit Ring. Here are his levels for this chapter btw.

+2 Levels, +2 HP, +2 Str, +1 Spd

Yep, those are some classic Ardan levels.

Ready for another village Noish?

A thousand thanks to y’all for comin’! Here, I’ve a sword for ya. T’is called an Iron Cutter. This sword’ll pierce some of the toughest armour around. If ya can’t use it, try sellin’ it at the pawn shop. It should fetch a good price.

Yeah, the Iron Cutter is a special kind of weapon. By itself, it kind of stinks. It's got 6 Might, 70 Accuracy, and 5 Weight, making it a less effective weapon than even the Iron Sword under most circumstances.

HOWEVER, this all changes if you fight an Armoured opponent, like Philip from the 1st Chapter 2 update, or Ardan. If you use the Iron Cutter on them, all of your strikes will automatically be a critical hit! And since the critical bonus is applied to your BASE attack power in this game, rather than simply tripling whatever damage you would do normally, this means that no one will ever be safe from the Iron Cutter, even if they max out their Defense.

Of course, this sword is rendered obsolete by the Uber Slim Sword, so it probably won't be seeing any use in this run. But still, it's a good niche weapon to have on, say, Fury, assuming you're playing this game normally.

Alright, one last village Beo. Noish got everything he needs now, so now you'll be getting this one.

Edited January 2, 2016 by FionordeQuester