So I decided to try Maniac Mode of this game and just finished Chapter 10, Prisoner Release, last night. I made sure to unlock everyone's cell and talk to Sephiran, Brom, and Nephenee with Ike, but after beating the chapter, instead of normally showing the scene with Ike talking to Kieran and the other playable units, it cuts straight to Ike talking with Sephiran. The problem with this is, neither Brom, Nephenee nor Kieran joined my party in Chapter 11. I tried not talking to Sephiran, only talking to a few prisoners, and not talking to any prisoners at all, I still get the same outcome. What's really weird though, is if I try the same thing on Normal or Hard difficulty, the chapter plays through just fine and everyone Ike talks to joins my party in Chapter 11.
Has anyone else experienced this problem? Is this just an extra feature of Maniac Mode made to make the game harder, because I definitely wanted to use Kieran AND Nephenee for this run and am not sure what I'd do if I couldn't. Thanks!