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

[FionordeQuester]

Well, actually I'm pairing Jamka X Aideen since the Pursuit Ring isn't in very high demand in Gen 2. Plus, with his superior Arena Clearing, Jamka makes better use of all the cash that Aideen gives him. As for the pairings, they are...

Aira X Holyn

Lachesis X Beowulf

Sylvia X Lex

Fury X Levin

Briggid X Dew

Tiltyu X Azel

Edited July 2, 2015 by FionordeQuester

[FionordeQuester]

Chapter 1: Part 1-1

Hello everyone, and welcome back to Let's Max Rank Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War! Last episode, Verdane tried to conquer Grandbell while most of it's military was away, but then we beat them back! But we still have to rescue Aideen, so how will we accomplish that? Hop on in and find out!

"In other words, your princess is in another castle"

In the past, Verdanes frequent encroachment of the border earned them the label of barbarians by the people of Grandbell.

And yet Grandbell still trusted them enough to send their entire military away .

Under the reign of King Batou, Verdane witnessed a cessation of all fighting along the border. The amiable monarch succeeded in maintaining the peace with Grandbell, while pacifying his zealous sons.

Just HOW he managed to do that is entirely beyond me, given that he's an old man, and Kinbois and Gandalf are as savage as they come. In fact, how does he even stay in power anyway?

However, that very peace was ultimately violated by none other than King Batou.

Otherwise, Batou would have totally risen up, grabbed his sons by the neck, and choke slammed them into the ground if they tried anything. Yeah, I'm sure things would've been WAY different if Batou had kept on being all for love and peace .

There was Kinbois of Genoa [to the upper right], the eldest son, Gandolf of Marpha [to the lower left], and Jamka, the youngest of the three [in the middle].

Where had Aideen been swept off to? And what incited King Batou to invade Grandbell without warning?

Chapter 1 - The Spirit Forest's Maiden

Well now. Could we possibly be getting a new, female character? Let's find out!

Huh...I don't remember this character. For that matter, I don't remember Nodion either. Where was that supposed to...

OH! So Nodion is an Augustrian Duchy! And it looks like it's RIGHT on Verdane's border, near Evans. So it seems this blonde-haired dude seems to want to watch what's happening between Grandbell and Verdane. Interesting.

Anyways, blondy goes to Evans, and he and Sigurd have a little talk...

???: You're not formally attacking Verdane, are you?

Sigurd: Eltshan, thanks for coming! Verdane has taken Lady Aideen of Jungby hostage.

Eltshan: So thats whats going on...I wouldnt leave this castle unattended if I were you. Theres no telling what the lords of Agustria may do...Ill watch your back, Sigurd.

Oh wonderful. So now we may have Agustria on our butts too ...

Sigurd: I sure appreciate it, Eltshan. Lets you and I meet up when this is all over. Well find a cozy little spot, have a little wine...just like old times.

Eltshan: That sounds nice. May you be victorious, Sigurd!

Eltshan, if you don't remember, is the other person Cuan mentioned last chapter, when he talked about how he, Sigurd, and Eltshan all made a pledge to support each other in their time of need. Pretty nice that they already set that up before introducing him, isn't it ?

Strangely enough, you never see the often mentioned friendship between Cuan and Eltshan. They have no on screen conversations.

Oh yeah, huh... that's too bad isn't it ?

Anyway, bad guy time...

Hmm...this wouldn't happen to be our "Maiden of the Spirit Forest", would it?

Kinbois: Heh... Look, hes all yours once weve gotten Evans Castle back.

Aira: You better not double-cross me, Kinbois. Because Ill hunt you down...and put your head on a stick! Even if it takes me to the ends of hell! Got it!?

Kinbois: Whoa-woa!! Fer such a pretty face, you sure can spew some filth! Just relax. Ive no plans of making an enemy with someone of your swordsmanship.

Aira: Shanan, stay strong. Itll only be for a little while.

And then with all that said...

Kinbois bellows a war cry...

And then summons a sizable group with him leading from behind. Interestingly enough, Kinbois is NOT the one guarding the castle. The guy who IS guarding it is just a generic Warrior, while the Warrior on the top-left is actually Kinbois himself. And that makes for a rather interesting fight, as you'll soon see.

And now it's our turn! Now, if you move your cursor over to the entrance like this, and then press A...

That will take us INSIDE our own castle, where all of our units wait for the call of duty. If you want them to join the fray...

You will want to select the Sortie command here. Now, all of you Fire Emblem afficionados may be wondering this. "How many playable units can you have out of your castle at once?" And the answer?

EEEVERY OOOONE!!! Yes, that's right, there is NO limit whatsoever in this Fire Emblem. You can use as many, or as few units as you want, without fear of any kind of penalty. And that's the case for ALL the Chapters, not just some of them. Not only that, but if you decide you don't want them fighting anymore, you can actually move them back inside! And once inside, they will recover 1/5 of their HP per turn...at a cost...

HP recovery from castles x 5 [gold]

Yeah. You may get healing for every turn spent guarding or resting inside a castle, but it's NOT free! You spend 5 Gold for every point of HP recovered. So, say Azel is inside the castle, has a max of 32 HP, but has been reduced to 1. He has 15,000G to start with, but every turn, he's going to recover 6 HP, which means he'll lose 30 Gold per turn. Which really isn't that bad. It's so minimal in fact, that I never even knew that mechanic existed until now. But still, do be careful !

Yeah... even when I was aiming for super precise item management in my 0% growth run, the cost of castle healing never really ruined my plans. I don't even know why it costs anything, it's such an insignificant amount of money.

So let's check out the Arena!

In other Fire Emblem games, you're forced to use an Iron Sword/Lance/Axe/what have you, but in THIS game, you can go ahead and use whatever you want. And as for me, I'll want to go ahead and use my Iron Lance, since that's the cheapest. Plus, I'll want Sigurd to have lots of money for later on in the game.

TIME TO DIIIIIIE!!

1000G, on the house. And that number increases by 500G for each Rank in the Arena you get to, and it doesn't even need to be done all at once either. Again, unlike other Fire Emblems, if you leave the castle and come back, you'll still get to fight the next guy after Gazak, and get 1500G from beating him.

So let's fight the second guy now.

Second verse, same as the first...

And if you feel like switching the Weapon you're using at any point, you can simply select "Weapon" and switch to a different one.

Level up achieved...

1+ HP! 1+ Luck!

.......

Don't worry, Sigurd hardly even needs level ups to be a monster.

I suppose ...

Anyways, another thing you can do in the Arena. If it looks like a fight is going south, you can press the B Button in the middle of it, interrupt the match, and get this screen...So not only do you NOT have to pay to use the Arena, and not only can you use whatever weapon you want, but you can actually give up AND change weapons on the fly! Of course, you have to wait until the current round of combat resolves before the B Button will take effect, but still! Plus, even if you DO die in the Arena...your character doesn't actually die. You'll just get this screen...

And then get dumped right back inside the castle, at 1 HP. In fact, losing in the Arena doesn't even affect your Combat Ranking, so really, the Arena is actually a FREE source of Exp. and Gold that you can visit each and every Chapter! And of course, it only has seven guys that you can beat per chapter, so it's not unlimited...but still, it's pretty neat!

There IS just one downside the Arena though. For some reason, the level ups you get here tend to be much worse than the level ups you get outside of the Arena. It was theorized that this was because fights tend to last a while in the Arena both due to how much tougher the enemies are, and due to the flat 20+ Avoid boost that both combatants get. Because of that, we thought, the game could actually run out of random numbers to use when calculating, say, how many stats you get per level up. As a result, it was possible to get 0 stat bonuses even in areas where you have a growth rate of more than 100%! And that's the theory I always accepted...but, it seems Marty has this to say...

I'm not actually sure if this is the reason or not. In my 0% growth run of FE4 I went through some long fights (such as a thief killinga final general with a broken sword) and my RNG display script never stopped showing new numbers. I guess it's possible that this was a flaw of the script I used (which worked perfectly otherwise), or maybe there's some other cause for this.

So, there you go. I don't know what's up. But, what I DO know, is that there is a way around this! If you press the B Button and go to the resulting screen, that will allow the game to refresh it's string of random numbers. So essentially, if you know you're about to get a level up, you'll always want to press the B Button before actually landing the finishing blow. If you do that, you'll actually get BETTER level ups than if you don't do that. And that I DO know for sure, because I tested that myself numerous times.

So after that run, we buy these two weapons for Sigurd. I'll bet it's obvious what the Javelin is for, but as for the Slim Sword, well...see these stars here? Let us talk about that, now, in our next War Room section.

The War Room Part 3: (The Kill Counter, the Critical Skill, and Powering Up Your Weapons)

Those represent a kill counter. For each enemy you kill, 1 point is added to the star. But, it's NOT just for show. Once you get past 50 Kills on a weapon (ANY weapon, even the ultimate ones), that weapon will automatically grant you the Critical skill for as long as you have it equipped. Plus, you'll actually gain a 1% increase in your chance to activate Critical for EVERY further kill the weapon gains, up until the counter caps at 100. Then it won't increase anymore.

So yes, not only can you gain the ability to sometimes DOUBLE your Attack Power, but you'll also get up to a 50% Increase in your ability to do so just by using the same weapon over and over! But of course, the flipside to this is that getting that many kills on any weapon requires a bit of planning, especially since enemies are usually finite. Plus, it often forces you to not use as many characters, unless you want to hemorrhage money playing patty cake with the weapon you're using.

Because of that, you'll want to figure on only being able to get three weapons up to 100 kills by the end of the game. And if we're that limited, we need to spend some time figuring out the weapons we want to super-charge. And as far as I can figure, you'll generally want to create these three weapons...

1# - A super-charged version of something that can be used by almost everyone, like the Slim, Iron, or Steel Swords. This way, you can give a much needed boost to characters who otherwise do not have much in the way of attack power, like Ardan. And by doing that, I can help them to defeat enemies (like the Rank 6 and 7 guys in the Arena) that they would NEVER otherwise be able to beat on their own without lots of resets. So this weapon is first on my list.

2# - A good ranged weapon. The Javelin and Hand Axe are obviously flawed due to their extreme weight, but later on you'll get a variety of magical swords that use your Magic stat to attack from range, and your Strength stat to attack from close-up. Of course, physical units like Sigurd get almost no stat boosts to their Magic stat, but once you get 100 kills on one of those swords, and then throw on a Magic Ring (5+ to Magic)...well then you're really in business! Sigurd's not just soloing Brigands, but also Javelin users, Hand Axe users, basically EVERYONE except mages. And because swords don't weigh a whole lot, Sigurd's not even sacrificing much in the way of speed or accuracy while using one of those weapons. So after forging that Uber Slim Sword, I'll be forging this one along with...

3# - An Uber Hero Sword. What is the Hero Sword? It is a weapon that allows you two consecutive hits per attack, allowing you to hit your opponent FOUR times with Pursuit, rather than just twice. Not only that, but it already has 2 more Might and 20 more Hit than a Steel Sword, so once you plop on an extra 50% chance to activate Critical...owch. This one is the lowest priority one, just because most regular enemies aren't nearly strong enough to warrant such an obscene weapon...but many of the bosses are in a league of their own, so this weapon is meant mainly for them. Plus, Weapons 1 and 2 aren't always going to cut it for killing some particularly stubborn enemies.

So there you go. There's my master plan for accomplishing much of the stuff that I would normally need to RNG Abuse for. And if we want those weapons in time, we'll need to start building them up right away.

As for which weapon I'm forging to be Weapon #1, I'm going to be taking this Slim Sword, and turning it into an Uber Slim Sword! The reason for this is because it's flat out better than the Iron Sword, and it has several important advantages over the Steel Sword despite having 2 less Might. To start with, it's a Rank C weapon rather than a Rank B weapon, which means that ANYONE who can use swords can use it.

This is very significant because there is a thief we're recruiting in this Chapter that otherwise can't accomplish anything in the Arena. But, as stated in the previous War Room, thieves have the ability to give money out to anyone, not just their lovers. And this particular thief ALSO has the added ability of being able to buy everything at half price, which is exactly as abusive as it sounds. But I can't take full advantage of all of that unless I can fetch him 17500G per chapter in Arena gold. So the Uber Slim Sword will be great for him...

But even disregarding that, it also has a Weight of 1 rather than a Weight of 3. This may not SOUND significant at first, but guys like Noish, Alec, Ardan, and

Beowulf

have a real problem trying to outspeed some of the Arena fighters. For example, Rank 4 of this Chapter has this guy, Shark...

And he is a jerk. In fact, you get the impression that the designers custom made him to be the wall that none of your weaker units can get past on their own. The dude has 13 Speed and wields a Steel Sword, effectively giving him 10 AS. And since Alec and Noish only start with 8 Speed and 10 Speed even WITHOUT weapons...that's going to be an issue. To top that off, Shark has Pursuit and an Attack Power of 20, so the guy will wreck a lot of our men.

There's always that one sword fighter in the arena who very few people can get past... Swords OP.

But that all changes the moment, say, Alec, gets a Speed proc. When he has that and a Slim Sword, that makes it so that his AS is also 10, meaning that he nullifies Shark's Pursuit. And both Noish and

Beowulf

run into a similar case in Chapter 2 where they literally NEED to exceed 12 AS in order to compete with Bachnin and Keimos (Rank 4 and Rank 7). So just for situations like that, the Slim Sword's lesser Weight makes all the difference in the world. Plus, it's more accurate, so battles won't be quite as luck based either. All in all, I just think it's the superior choice for training your scrubs up to a decent level.

The EXP rank in this game is extremely stringent, and if you're playing for reliability it can be very hard to train units. Essentially, not doing well in early arenas can start a vicious cycle, where once a unit is finally powerful enough to do well in the arena, their poor early performances means they don't have enough money to buy the elite ring, making it very difficult to reach the EXP requirement. Normally this issue can be worked around by RNG abusing or just having your units fight in different orders. In a run where neither of these options are allowed, I think a high kill slim sword might be one of the best ways to let chumps like Arden and Dew get far in the arena.

Indeed. And while I will sometimes use the two other options, they're really slow in terms of real time, while forging an Uber Slim Sword will only take about 40 minutes and 22 Turns the way I'm doing it. That may sound like quite a bit, but because it's so early in the game, the Uber Slim Sword more than justifies the time spent making it over the long haul.

Playing Through:

Anyways, Sigurd now has the Slim Sword for training and the Silver Sword for sheer power, so, the Steel Sword is now redundant enough to sell to this weird looking man. So let's check the Unit menu now, see if there are any conversations available!

Ah, what do you know? Seems Cuan wants to talk to Fin about something!

Cuan: I appreciate it.

Fin: Of course, I am still only an apprentice. I doubt Ill be of much help to you.

Cuan: Yeah? Then lets use this opportunity to teach you a bit about the art of war. Here, Fin. Take this lance.

Fin: Thank you very much, Your Highness!

And contrary to what was implied, Fin does NOT get a new weapon, but instead gets a single point boost to Strength, Skill, and Defense. Which is still pretty awesome!

The Lenster theme is beautiful.

Anyways, we're going to be using every mounted unit except Midir to push through Kinbois's men, so Lexy here is gonna get...

The Steel Axe! With 18 Might! WHOOOOO !!!

Still an axe 3/10.

So here's our formation at the end of our turn. Actually, Midir would have been good to have as well, just in case someone needed more help killing something...but whatever. Anyways, Sigurd and Cuan are there to kill stuff, Ethlin is there to heal, Noish and Alec are there to train, Lex wants a Hand Axe from Kinbois, and Fin is gonna help Lex get it. Because you see...

Some boss units will have weapons or items that have this bag icon next to them. When you see that, that means that whoever kills the boss unit will get that item! But Kinbois is no slouch. With 50 HP, 14 Strength, 13 Defense, a Hand Axe, and a Silver Axe, the guy is a 1-2 Range unit who hits even harder than Gerrard, is almost as durable, and can actually move around instead of being stuck to a castle. And while that's bad enough...there's also a rather unfair advantage that the A.I. has that you'll see in this GIF...

Yeah, that's right. Unlike your units, enemy units can switch their weapons on the fly. It doesn't matter what weapons they have equipped when you attack them. If you execute a ranged attack, they'll automatically switch to whatever ranged weapon they have. But if you attack them from close-up, they'll automatically switch back to the most powerful weapon they have, ranged or otherwise.

So with all that stuff going for him, Kinbois is quite the speed-bump on a Chapter that is otherwise little more than a one-sided butt stomp in favor of your forces. And we still want that Hand Axe of course. So getting that for Lex while still surviving and getting to Genoa is going to take some co-ordination, and all of our mounted units except Midir (although, as I said, it would've been a good idea to bring him).

So watch this now. Pay attention to how our enemies move...

See this? Notice how the A.I. moves all (or almost all) of one unit type before moving any of the other unit types. And then it moved Kinbois himself last? Well, the A.I. will always do that, because it has a pre-selected list of what order it will move it's units in. And most importantly, Enemy Commanders will always move last. So if we are aware of this, we can do strategic maneuvers we wouldn't otherwise be able to do.

Edited July 11, 2015 by FionordeQuester

[FionordeQuester]

Chapter 1: Part 1-2

"Meanwhile, at the Fortress of Evil..."

We have two blue units and a red unit marching out of Marpha. Please don't tell me this is going to be an execution ...

OH! So it's a prison break instead !

Jamka: Gandolf is going to find you guys. Now move it!

Aideen: Prince Jamka, you’re not joining us?

Jamka: No. I can’t go against my father… even with all the mayhem my brothers are causing. I’m going to Verdane to see my father. I have to get him to see the wrong in all this.

Aideen: Yes, indeed. This war has gone on long enough. Prince Jamka, you’re our only hope. Do your best to persuade the king to end this war.

Aw c,mon! Don't you mean "persuade the king to 'end this destructive conflict'”? You guys missed a perfectly good reference there!

Dew: Aideen, we gotta move now! It’s gettin’ too hairy ’round here. Gandolf’ll rip out my tongue next time they find me!

Jamka: Dew, you were just asking to get locked up, you little thief. You’re just lucky Aideen pleaded for your release. No more stealing, am I correct?

Dew: Look, I promised Aideen, too. I’m finished with the thievin’ business, OK?

Jamka: I’ll take your word, Dew. Now you two get going!

And then Aideen and Dew run away while Jamka heads back. But before he leaves...

His heart really isn't in this, is it? Unfortunately, there is naught we can do for him now...

Gandolf: You bring the woman an’ that litlle thief back here. If they resist ya, do ’em in.

And here is...one of the most idiotic plot points in this Chapter. Frankly, out of all the Chapters in the game, I think this one is one of the most nonsensical if you really think about it, and here's one of the reasons why. Last chapter, Gandalf made this big deal about how he was going to go back and "get Kinbois and his men" before returning to lay further seige to Grandbell. In fact, that was the whole reason why he didn't stick around...

Well, here he is back in Marpha, not doing a blasted thing to help, despite having this MASSIVE concentration of guys with him. So really there's only two ways to spin this scenario. Either Gandalf doesn't know that Grandbell's arrived, and he's decided to just lay around and let Kinbois do all the work against the most powerful country on the continent. Or, he DOES know Grandbell's invading, but is choosing to be an indecisive dolt rather than either choosing to surrender, or combining his forces with Kinbois's in order to defeat Grandbell.

So either way, he's being an idiot! Either way, he's pointlessly spreading their forces thin at a time when they really need every man they can spare! And either way, this drastically undercuts all that time spent in the Prologue building him up to be this really scary customer! It's frankly quite ridiculous I tell you.

Anyways, Gandalf's men are divided into two groups. The first group consists of the men near the castle. They won't move until you get in range of their attacks, so they're harmless for now. The right group however is going to go after Dew and Aideen for the whole map, so that's a problem.

But fortunately, they don't move till the next turn, so we've got a chance to breath a little. Anyways, now that Aideen is on the field, let's see how many guys she can talk t-

Whoa! Check out Ms. Personality here ! Yeah, it's very important to check this screen every time you either liberate a castle, or get new party members, because these Talk opportunities WILL slip by if you don't get them quickly. In fact, this Chapter alone will be having us recruit two new units by using Talk, so...yeah, pretty important I'd say.

But as for Aideen and Dew, they're already on our side. So let's cover them real quickly!

Level 3 Priest

HP: 28 (70%) Spd: 9 (30%)

Str: 0 (20%) Lck: 11 (60%)

Mag: 13 (30%) Def: 1 (20%)

Skl: 8 (20%) Res: 10 (5%)

Move: 5

Weapon Ranks: Staves (B)

Items: Relive Staff

Skill: (Empty)

Ah, our second healer. And while she loses to Ethlin in movement, she has more magic power to heal with, and can use far more potent staves. In terms of a normal playthrough, that's not so critical, but in an AAAA Ranked run, it means that she can use staffs that give up to 100 Exp. rather than the 15 Exp that Ethlin receives from her Live Staff. Because of that, Aideen is what we like to call a Staff Bot.

Yes, the staff bot. This unit is one of the most important kinds of units you can have. With staves that give tons of Exp per use, they can effortlessly get up to Level 30 without using the Elite Ring or the Arena. And once they hit Level 20, all staff bots will gain magic on top of their talents with the staff, so money is hardly ever a problem for them once they get going. Of course, combat does not tend to be something staff bots do well, given their inferior offensive stats and lack of Pursuit. But that's ok, because their contributions to the Exp rank are more than enough to make up for that.

So, I'd compare Aideen here to Dende. Can't do much fighting, but she can heal people instantly and immediately, which more than justifies her presence.

Staffbots gonna staff.

Level 1 Thief

HP: 28 (50%) Spd: 15 (40%)

Str: 3 (40%) Lck: 12 (40%)

Mag: 0 (10%) Def: 1 (40%)

Skl: 6 (40%) Res: 0 (10%)

Move: 6

Weapon Ranks: Swords ©

Items: Iron Sword

Skill: Steal (User takes enemy's gold), Solar Sword (Skill%=Chance to Restore HP equal to damage done to enemy), Bargain (Buy and Repair things for half price!)

And here we have another of the most important characters, and well as one of the most interesting. At first, he looks like complete trash, packing the SAME Defense and HP as Aideen, and Strength so low that even Alec and Midir are laughing at him. And though his growths are otherwise solid, his HP growth means that he's going to be struggling with durability for a while...

So what if I were to tell you that this guy probably has an easier chance of clearing Arena's than almost anyone else on our team? Once he gets going I mean? Really though, the Bargain Skill alone allows him to trivialize much of what he faces by getting awesome stuff like the Elite Ring, the Speed Ring, and other such things. And he doesn't even need to really pay anything for those either, because he can sell items at the SAME price as he can buy them.

But what REALLY puts him over the top is the Uber Slim Sword that I'm fixing to make. With that and the Pursuit Ring on him, he goes from someone who can't hurt people at all, to a ridiculously dodgy murder machine who can generally kill things MUCH faster than they can kill him. With all that going for him, and the Thief's innate ability to Give away all their gold, he's practically a walking, talking ATM machine that doubles as a death machine! And if giving away ALL of his Gold seems counter-productive, remember, units can store their items.

So, suppose Dew has 50,000 Gold, and we need to give 10,000 Gold to, say, Midir. He doesn't have to give up ALL of his money. Instead, all he has to do is buy 40,000 Gold worth of stuff, Give the remaining 10,000 Gold to Midir, and then sell all the stuff he just bought to get his 40,000 back. Plus, with all these Axefighters and Bandits around, Dew can get to Level 8 even without the Arena, allowing him to put his awesome growths to use. And of course, he's got an awesome promotion so...yeah.

The guy is a little like Gotenks then. He's a goofy, impulsive, air-headed little kid who's always getting himself in trouble and is...frankly not a whole lot of good to anyone. Not at first anyway. But given a little time, he goes from zero to hero and becomes one of the most helpful allies you can possibly have...as long as you aren't relying on him to be saving any worlds .

A very underrated unit. Though he never becomes too much of a fighter, bargain on a theif is so useful. In an AAAA rank playthrough everyone needs a lot of money to afford the elite ring, and no matter how judicious you are with village allocation, units can slip through the cracks, and in these situations, Dew does a lot. Plus, some units need a cash dump to get going.

So here's what I do with them for now. Aideen can't fight, and Dew actually gets OHKOed by the Captain of the squad, so they're going to be spending some time on the run. But right now, I'm still putting Dew in a spot where he would be targeted by two of the goons. This decision may cause me to Reset if one of the two hurt him, but on the other hand, Dew needs a level as soon as possible if he wants to be able to survive a hit from the Captain. So I think that's worth the potential time lost in resets.

So here's the current situation. Cuan has attacked the Mbandit, Sigurd has killed the topmost Brigand with the Slim Sword, and everyone else has gotten into preparation on the outside of the enemy's unit range. Now, Sigurd will solo the Brigands, and the Axefighters...

And Kinbois is forced to attack Sigurd from close-up, in addition to the three Axefighters who would've otherwise used their Hand Axe. Normally, if given the chance between attacking a melee character from 1 or 2 ranged, enemies will attack from 2 range so long as they have a 1% chance or more of hitting. However, knowing the order that the computer moves it's units, and the fact that Kinbois and the Axefighters would go after the archers, I've moved Sigurd in such a way that they had no choice but to get in his face...

Still, things don't go perfectly. Kinbois takes off more than half of Sigurd's HP in one blow, so both me and him are sent reeling from this round of combat...

Other than that though, things went off without a hitch for Sigurd and Co. Will Dew and Aideen manage the same luck?

Yes, c,mon...

Yeah, there we go!! Got 28 Exp, didn't get hit...

And now Dew is 2,000 Gold richer than we were before! Now I just hope Aideen and Jamka don't get too mad .

In case you're wondering, the reason I couldn't get Dew onto either a Town or Forest tile is because the Brigands only have a 16% chance of hitting him on Plains. Stack a 20% Evade boost on top of that, and the Brigands will literally just walk right by Dew, knowing that they have no chance of hitting him. But the Captain will still be on his butt. And he'll still be strong enough to kill Dew in one hit, so it's actually more dangerous to stick Dew on a Forest than it is to do what I'm doing. So...

Next turn, Aideen and Dew the same thing as last turn...

Cuan kills the Mbandit attacking the northern village...

1+ HP! 1+ Str! 1+ Mag! 1+ Def!

And he actually gets Magic, and also the REST of the left side of the screen!

After that, Ethlin kills a heavily injured Bandit, though she might not have been able to if she or Cuan had ended up any weaker than they were. And THAT'S why I say that having Midir along might've been a good idea, just in case that happened. Oh well though, no biggie.

Now, we have to take care of Kinbois, but there are still archers blocking him off. So, Alec weakens one of them...

And then Noish finishes that one off!

Alright Fin, let's see what you can do!

...Yeah he beat up Kinbois pretty bad, but look at that Damage! Whatever is he to do now?!

1+ Luck!

Well, first of all, I think that is just about the unluckiest Luck level I have ever seen.

But anyways, it LOOKS like Fin is in danger here...but remember, he has the Prayer skill, which raises his Evade by 10 for every point of HP under 11 he's at for one turn. Now let's see how much Hit the archers have...

Ah, only 70! So as long as Fin stays off the Roads, he's invincible! And yes, this was all precisely arranged so that that would happen. Because now the archers will most likely attack him since he's technically got one foot in the grave, distracting them from everyone else.

And then Lex kills Kinbois! And for that, he gets...

1+ HP! 1+ Skl! 1+ Str! 1+ Spd! 1+ Def!

An amazing level...

And a shiny new 1-2 Range weapon, just as planned!

Alright, time to get dangerous.

See this? Aira and the three Axefighters will normally stay frozen in place, but once you get in their range, all bets are off. And while the three Axefighters are as pathetic as always...

Aira is kind of in a league of her own. First of all, she's a sword user who uses an Iron Blade, which is basically an Iron Lance, but with half the weight and 20 less Hit. But more importantly...

She's got this skill here, perhaps one of the most overpowered offensive skills in the entire game. Seriously though, that thing there is almost always an instant reset if it she hits someone with it. Not only that, but it's activation formula is equal to how much Skill the user has, so this thing has a 16% chance of activating per attack. So actually, since she has Pursuit, Aira's hitting her opponent ten times, not just five! That said though, she's a little on the fragile side, and Sigurd's got the Slim Sword, so Sigurd COULD actually reliably kill her as long as he's at full health...

But here's the thing. You don't have to do that. In fact, you can actually get her, and other enemy units, to switch sides as long as you fulfill certain conditions. Usually it's as simple as talking to them with the right person, but in Aira's case, (and only in Aira's case), it's more complicated then that. You not only have to conquer Genoa without killing her, but then you ALSO have to talk to her with Sigurd, and only Sigurd. Otherwise, she'll just head back to Genoa, destroy it (along with anyone else who gets in her way), and then come running back to you, screaming bloody murder the whole way through...

And what makes it worse is that there's almost nothing in either the game OR the Japanese instruction manual that actually tells you that you can convert enemies to your side with the Talk command. The game doesn't tell you that you can do this until Chapter 6 (at which point you've already permanently missed four characters), and the Japanese instruction manual just has this...

The circled section talks about the "Talk" command. But even there, all it really says is something along the lines of "Under certain conditions, your units can talk to other Allied units. Also, you can use the Talk command to convert enemy units to your side, and also get some items from some of your other Allied units."

...

And that is it. That is literally... It. Those are the ONLY places in either the game OR the manual where it tells you how to recruit enemy units. Of course, there are at least subtle hints that Aira's supposed to join you at some point, like that whole thing about her not wanting to serve Kinbois, as well as this portrait of her on the lower right...

But even then, the game tells you almost nothing about HOW you're supposed to recruit her, or anyone else. For all you know, she'll just automatically join you at the end of the Chapter, regardless of whether you kill her or not. Or maybe you have to find a way to keep her alive for the whole Chapter while you go knock down Kinbois, Gandolf, and whatever other bosses you fight. Or maybe recruiting her is something that happens after you kill every enemy unit but her?

It's just one of those things that's not quite a Guide Dang It moment, but is still needlessly obscure. After all, this could be someone's very first Fire Emblem game! And there's always that chance, where by the time you realize your mistake, you'll have already saved your file in a way that forces you to restart your game just to get her. Pre-tty unfortunate game design, if you ask me...but oh well, I still love this game .

Now then, Aira has two exact ways she can move when you move Sigurd into aggro range, depending on whether or not you have ANY units other than him past those red lines. If you do, she'll move like this...

But if you make sure NOT to have anyone but Sigurd past those red lines...

She'll move like this. So now we can capture Genoa without having to fight her!

Now let's see how this goes!

Alright! Nice dodging by Fin (and no, the battle screen does NOT show the results of Prayer)...

This axefighter suicides himself on Sigurd since he's too dodgy for a Hand Axe...

Dew continues to run circles around Gandolf's men...

And here comes Aira!

Or...not. The A.I. can be funny sometimes, can't it?

So Sigurd gets started on the Warrior guarding the castle...

And then he scampers off JUST outside Aira's attack range!

Cuan continues his journey to the next village in need of rescue...

And then I help Noish kill an archer before sending him to save one of the other ones!

He has attacked our village on numerous occasions. It's been dreadful. And things had been so peaceful under the reign of King Batou... Anyway, were all so glad that you've come!

Shucks...well, we're all here to help.

So Alec gets another level...

1+ Str! 1+ Skl! 1 Luck!

And WHOOO! Strength on Alec! Now that's what I want to see!

Anyways, Dew retreats to another point where he'll fight two Brigands, Aideen goes as far as she can go without getting attacked by Aira...

And then the rest of the units finish off their turn by following Cuan as best they can. Nothing much happens on the enemy's turn...

So let's skip to ours! Aira is dangerously close, but don't worry, that will not be a problem because...

Sigurd kills the one guarding the castle...

And then conquers it, thereby freeing Shanan from Verdane's clutches! Now let's see what they have to say!

Edited July 11, 2015 by FionordeQuester

[FionordeQuester]

Chapter 1: Part 1-3

Shanan: .....

Sigurd: What's up? Why aren't you talking? Who locked you up in there?

Shanan: ...Aren't you Kinbois men?

Sigurd: We took care of Kinbois. You're safe with us.

Shanan: Really? Then Aira doesnt have to fight anymore! They're makin' my auntie fight against her will! Please, you gotta help her!!

Sigurd: That swordfighter out there? I thought something was different about her. I'll go let her know you're alright. So what's your name?

Ah, so there's one of your clues about how to recruit her. Of course, that assumes that you didn't already kill her first...though actually, you're supposed to get the hint even if you HAVE already chopped off her head. But due to some English patch shenanigans...well, let's just see how the rest of this plays out first.

Shanan: Shanan. I'm... er.. prince of the Kingdom of Isaac.

Sigurd: YOU are the prince of Isaac? You're serious, aren't you? I bet you've been through a lot. You're best to stay with our troops for now. Just be patient for the time being. You'll make it back to your country someday.

And then Shanan leaves, and Oifaye pops up again.

Sigurd: Oifaye, that war has nothing to do with this child. I don't care where he's from. We'll find a way to get him home. For now I just want to keep him safe.

Oifaye: Understood.

For reference, back in medieval times, times were a bit...rougher back then. When your kingdom had defeated another in war, it was common practice to not only execute the enemy king, but also his entire FAMILY, including granddaughters, grandsons, uncles, grandfathers, mothers, cousins, pretty much EVERYONE who had even a drop of the enemy king's blood inside them. And according to at least one FE4 guidebook, that was the case in this game's universe as well. And obviously Sigurd and Oifaye know this, hence that brief exchange between them at the end...

So really, what Sigurd's doing here isn't just a random act of generosity. It's yet another defining moment of him as someone who truly is every bit as kind-hearted and self-sacrificial as you'd expect a Holy Knight to be. Sigurd is not just a bro (though he certainly is that ;) ), he truly is a good person, and someone who obviously has a lot of sympathy for the weak and helpless. So that was all pretty cool, and there's of course, nothing obviously wrong with the script there...

But, what if things had gone...not so well? How would Shanan react if Aira was dead? THAT, my friends is when things take a sort of...interesting turn, in a conversation that has to be seen...to be believed. Though at least we've got one of my favorite themes in the game to go with it.

Wait for it...

I'm sorry, but, Jay and Boo...just when exactly did you decide to turn FE4 into a black comedy? Out of ALL the things you could have had Sigurd say, you choose "Geez, I'm sorry! I had no idea!"?! Because...not only does that line completely kill the scene, and make Sigurd look like a heartless dastard...but it's also, completely, and utterly, NOT correct!

See this screen here? It's the exact screen as the "Geez, I had no idea!" line...except wait, there are no exclamation marks in what Sigurd says, is there? Because what Sigurd is actually actually supposed to say is something along the lines of...

"I'm sorry Shanan, if I had had any idea, ANY idea at all, I promise you that I would've done EVERYTHING in my power to save her..."

So this line is completely incorrect, hilariously out of place, AND gets rid of one of the ONLY HINTS YOU HAVE THAT SIGURD IS SUPPOSED TO RECRUIT AIRA!!. And it's not even like the sentence was something really hard to translate or anything, it's clear as night and day what Sigurd's supposed to be saying...

So I don't know what happened here. Maybe Jay and Boo were just clowning around with this scene, and were intending to go back and fix it later when they got the rest of the patch done? Or maybe they thought the original dialogue was boring? Perhaps they got a bad translation from someone who wasn't as competent as them? I don't know. But holy cow...holy cow is this a stinker. A turd. Or, perhaps it is, what one might call an...

Epic Fail - #1 (Because unfortunately, there WILL be more of them...)

So, Genoa's captured. Let's check the ol' Talk screen again...

Ah, look at that! Dew's got something to say to Aideen!

Here's a nice spot. Technically any spot will do, but Dew's already got 84 Exp, I want to conserve his sword uses for the Captain, and forests reduce Brigand hit chances to 0, so, there you go.

Dew: I can't get it t'do nothin, so there's no point in me keepin' it.

Aideen: Oh, this is a Warp Staff, Dew.

Aideen: Where'd you find it?

Dew: Umm... It was... over there! Yeah, that's where I found it. I betcha one of the gods dropped er outta the sky just for you!

Aideen: Yeah right, Dew. Well, it will help out around here to have it. Thanks.

So see this Warp Staff? It'll warp you to ANY castle you happen to own, as well as give the user 60 Exp per use, and it even has 10 uses on it! And yes, it can be repaired, so as long as you have 1,000 Gold per use, you can spam it for as long as you want! So this here is helpful both for zipping around entire maps, and ALSO for grinding to Level 30, so it's quite lovely really! Thanks Dew!

And speaking of neat gifts, Aideen's got one too!

Aideen: Thank you so much. I'm ever so grateful. Here, please have this staff. I'm sure you'll get more use out of it than I.

Ethlin: This a Return Staff, isn't it? Thank you, Aideen! I'll put it to good use.

And now we've got the Return Staff, which is...basically a worse version of the Warp Staff. Instead of being able to choose any Player controlled castle, it can only warp you to your starting castle. And instead of giving 60 Exp, it only gives you 35. So Ethlin will be wanting the Elite Ring before she does any Staff Spamming with this...

That said though, at least it's C Rank! And it's only worth 5000G instead of 10000G, so it's easier to repair than the Warp Staff. Because of those things, it's still pretty helpful for Exp grinding some people who can only use C Staves (which there are actually quite a few of).

The best part about the return staff is that troubadours can use it, meaning that you have at least some mounted warpeen. Aideen is too slow.

I agree completely Marty. So then, I suppose that's enough for now. Genoa has been conquered, Kinbois has been done n' dusted, Aideen has gotten out with Dew and Jamka's help, and things are looking good. But can we recruit Aira on time, before anyone else gets hurt? Will she listen to us? Or will we have to beat her down in combat first? Will we be able to defeat Gandalf while he's still in his stupor of stupidity? Or will he get his act together and pull out some nasty surprises? And what about that Slim Sword? How am I going to get 100 kills on it in time? Find out, on the next exciting episode of Let's Max Rank Fire Emblem 4! Have a nice day, and God bless you!

Translation Tidbits:

Epic Fail #1 - I cut the explanation of what's wrong with "Geez, I'm sorry! I had no idea!" a little short, since it seemed like it broke the flow of the update a little too much. But I've got more to say on this. Because there's one more thing about how Sigurd talks to Shanan that's important to get across. See, he not only states that he would've done everything in his power to help Aira if he had known she was innocent, but also talks to Shanan in an unusually tender way that's normally reserved for close friends...

I say that, because instead of saying "I'm sorry" as in "すみません" (the formal way of saying usually used by the Japanese), he says it as "すまない" (the informal way of saying it, normally reserved for friends). If that seems confusing, the Japanese language has sort of a "ranking" system attached to it. So instead of just calling someone "Thomas" or something like that, you usually address them with some sort of honorific. Like...

"Thomas-san" - (what equals say to each other)

"Thomas-sama" - (basically the equivalent of calling him "Mr. Thomas" instead)

"Thomas-chan" - (a cutesy way of saying someone's name, like calling the guy "Lil' Tom Tom" instead of just "Thomas". Can be either affectionate or derogative, depending on whether you're talking to your kid, or stealing someone's lunch money)...

And you get the idea. So, it's a little like the way we call some people "Mr." and stuff, but the rules are far more complicated in Japanese. Instead of just attaching said honorifics to proper nouns, you have to attach them even to your verbs when talking to people. So "すみません" (I'm sorry) becomes "すみませんございます" instead when, say, apologizing to your Japanese 1 teacher. So Sigurd could speak to Shanan in a diminutive, demeaning, or even just distant manner, since he's not only a kid, but the prince of the very country Grandbell is at war with...

But he doesn't. Not only does he not do that, but he even talks to him in a way that implies that he considers Shanan a friend. In fact, Sigurd does that with almost everyone in the story, always acting warm and friendly to people, even when they're complete strangers. That's a big part of why Azel was so enamored by the guy, and why he wished Alvis was more like him. So IMO, this scene may not be THAT important in the grand scheme of things, but it's still a real shame that Jay and Boo stuffed it up here. Oh well though. Aside from these kinds of moments (which there ARE more of in this patch), I still consider their patch to be at least the best FE fan-translation we have. Heck, I might even go as far as to say it's the BEST fan-translation we have, since even FE12's English patch struggles a little with being overly literal.

Edited July 11, 2015 by FionordeQuester

[momogeek2141]

Ardan with a few defense procs in the prologue can actually survive an Astra, but then he'll die on the pursuit strike :P

Also, how are you using the SA emoji's?! You've no idea how often I would have used the red shaking fist in FE4 mountless!

[FionordeQuester]

I downloaded the emoticons, uploaded them to LPix, and then just uploaded the resulting image URL's. Because frankly, I'm sick of having to redo each and every emoticon on updates that are this long !

Edited July 11, 2015 by FionordeQuester

[momogeek2141]

I downloaded the emoticons, uploaded them to LPix, and then just uploaded the resulting image URL's. Because frankly, I'm sick of having to redo each and every emoticon on updates that are this long !

[FionordeQuester]

Exactly!

[Jotari]

The most telling indicator that Aira (and Jamka) can join your side.

[B.Leu]

Ah, so that's the explanation of the 'Geez I'm sorry' part, it explain a lot of things. I thought it was really strange.

I mean crap, Sigurd is such a nice guy, he would probably burn himself alive for the people he love if he could.

I always thought that Verdane was somekind of tribal kingdom thing, that would explain a LOT of things.

Aira's the best waifu of entire the game.

Edited July 12, 2015 by B.Leu

[FionordeQuester]

Chapter 1 Part 2-1

Hello everyone! Last time we covered the Arena, defeated Kinbois, and dodged the deadly blade of Aira herself! And it seems Aideen has managed to escape from Gandolf's clutches. But Aideen is still being chased by a mob of Gandolf's men, and Aira still does not know that we have rescued Shanan! Can we save these wonderful, pure-hearted women before they're made to shuffle off the mortal coil? Can we end this destructive conflict once and for all? Find out, TODAY, on Let's Max Rank Fire Emblem 4: Genealogy of the Holy War!

Alright, let's see what our enemies do!

Well, nothing from the Captain or his men. With Dew in the forest, nobody even TRIES to hit him. The Captain WOULD attempt something, but, well, he's only got 6 Move.

Then Aira gets her turn, and is she mad!

So much so, in fact, that she'll actually ignore anyone who's not either directly in her path, or right next to her, and instead just sprint right back to Genoa. And if she captures it before we've recruited her...

Aira: Theyre dead!!

She'll into the Incredible fricken Hulk, and SMASH that castle ! And then she'll attack anyone and EVERYONE in her path! So obviously don't let that happen...actually, speaking of Aira, it turns out I made an incredible mistake last episode. You see, I railed against how obscure the enemy recruitment mechanic seemed...but, it turns out that while the game does not FLAT OUT tell you how to recruit people...it DOES give some very strong auditory hints as to who can and cannot be recruited.

To begin with, whenever one of your units dies, the game will play either a male death cry, or a female death cry depending on the gender. But as this video shows...

FE4 Female Death Cry

That sound byte will play for recruitable ENEMY units as well! And Aira is one such unit! And no, NO other kind of adversary will ever do that, no matter how sympathetic they may be in the story. ONLY the enemy units that can be recruited! In addition, if you happen to have animations on, this unique theme plays...

Aira: Feel my Meteor Sword!

Yes, Aira actually says that. But yeah, all that critiquing I did? Turns out I was dead wrong. If anything, the game might even be just a little TOO obvious...or maybe not. Despite all these strong visual and audio cues, I still found quite a few posts from FE4 newbies claiming that they accidentally killed Aira, not knowing that they could recruit her, and wondering if they should restart the game because of that. Plus, the game STILL doesn't tell you that the Talk mechanic can be used to recruit enemies so...maybe it's a wash?

But the point is, the game actually does a better job of explaining itself than I thought it did...it just took an unusually roundabout way of doing so. But I digress. Anyways, we pass the turn...

AND THEN MORE ENEMIES!!

Elliot: Ok, heres our chance. First we take Evans, then well shoot straight for the border!

NOOO!! I already sent my main force away from Evans! WHADAREWEGONNADOOO?!?

Yellow NPC! Help me!

Or Eltshan, sure, why not? ANYONE'll do at this point!

Well now...this is quite unfortunate, isn't it? Look how close they are to the castle! However will I defend myself from all those guys? Ardan, Azel, and Midir certainly can't hack it. I guess I could put the Return and Warp Staves to use, and try to send back Sigurd and some other guys, but are they even strong enough?

Well, their stats are definitely lower than ours, but...

They're still packing some serious heat! I can still double them easily enough, but Sigurd doesn't have WTA (Weapon Triangle Advantage) over them, so he's facing approximately 44% hit rates against guys who not only have 23 Attack, but can also move out of the way after attacking. Even Sigurd can't survive EVERY hit...

So how am I going to beat these guys? And why in the world would I still send off almost all of my army, despite knowing that this would happen? Well that's because I've still got...

FIIIIIIINN!!

That's right! The day will be saved by none other than our blue-haired boy wonder! He's got Pursuit and 22 Attack with his Iron Lance, but MORE importantly, he's also got Prayer, the 30+ Castle Evade bonus, and 8 Defense. And by the time Elliot gets to Evans, Fin will have already regenerated 12 HP, and will have 16 HP as a result.

So, if two of Elliot's men, with their 23 Attack, hit Fin...that'll reduce him to 1 HP, and THEREFORE, grant him a 100+ boost to Evade. Mix that all together with the 5 Evade that Fin already has, and he effectively has 135 Evade for one enemy phase! So he has NO risk of death, and a 100% chance of killing everything but Elliot himself. And even Elliot'll be so weak, that I can just feed him to Azel afterwards.

Quite nice eh? The best part is, I don't even need to raise him at all! Just make sure he stays at base level till he already talks to Cuan, get him slapped around by Kinbois, and that's it! Nothing to it!

So then, moving on...

Our Slim Sword's getting a bit rusty, so we got get some fixin' done on 'er...

And I guess Aira would be good to have, so let's see how this goes.

Sigurd: Prince Shanan told me that youre the younger sister to the King of Isaac. He also said that youd be hostile towards us since were from Grandbell. But consider the facts. You have a young prince to protect. Is this war really worth risking your life over!?

Aira: My brother, the king, was prepared for death when he entrusted Shanan with me. Weve come this far... But youre right. I cant risk my life for Verdane! I must see Shanan through until hes old enough to become a respectable king.

Sigurd: Then put down your sword. As a descendant of Baldo, the Crusader of Light, I will not betray you.

Aira: ...Consider your trust reciprocated then. Thats the way of the Isaacian warrior. For now I consecrate my sword to thee. But I still view Grandbell as my sworn enemy. Just so youre prepared for the day when that enemy may include you.

Sigurd: War sure can be cruel. Aira, warrior of Isaac... I pray that day never comes.

Yay! Meteor Swo-, er...Aira, is one of us now! So, let's see how she stacks up...

Level 4 Swordfighter

HP: 32 (70%) Spd: 17 (30%)

Str: 11 (30%) Lck: 3 (20%)

Mag: 0 (5%) Def: 7 (20%)

Skl: 16 (60%) Res: 1 (5%)

Move: 6

Weapon Ranks: Swords (A)

Items: Iron Blade

Skill: Pursuit, Awareness, Meteor Sword (Skill%= Activates 5 continuous attacks (10 with a Hero weapon), can not activate Continue or another sword skill simultaneously)

Ah, Aira. Or Ayra, or Ira, whatever you want to call her. She is...a very hyped up unit. That's mainly due to Meteor Sword, but also because she has pretty good bases, A Swords, and a very offensive stat spread. Because of these advantages, she can probably kill just about anything in the game with enough luck. And there's no denying the worth of someone like that...

But here's the thing. Having a walking murder machine sounds amazing...but we already have galloping murder machines like Sigurd, Lex, Fin, and Cuan. And those guys not only have excellent offense, but also have excellent Defense, excellent Move, early 1-2 Range, AND the ability to move again after attacking, while Aira really just has the excellent offense.

First of all, if you haven't picked up on this by now...

This game's maps are absolutely GIGANTIC, and Road tiles benefit mounted units more than they do foot units. So even just GETTING to the battlefield before the fighting is over is a real challenge for any foot unit. So Aira's got that against her. But even if she could, you'd still have to be careful with her because her durability is simply "decent", not great. She can survive about 3 hits in Chapter 2, but her lack of Canto (the term we use for the ability to move again after attacking) prevents her from being able to be too aggressive without exposing herself to heavy enemy fire.

Like I said though...she's still not too shabby either. If you're willing, you can also get her the Steel Blade from Chapter 2's item shop, which gives her 16 Might instead of just 12. So even if she doesn't get any Strength procs, she's STILL strong enough to kill just all but one unit type in Chapter 2 with just her raw stats. And for the more stubborn enemies? Well then she's essentially got a 34% or higher chance of instantly killing THOSE enemies with Meteor Sword! Plus, you CAN always give her the Prayer Sword, a female-only sword that grants the Prayer Skill. And Fin's already proven how awesome THAT is, right?

So if nothing else, she's a darn sight better than Alec or Noish will ever be. And her extreme offensive abilities help her to clear the Arenas easier than just about anyone. But even still, she's kind of like a high school Quarterback trying to compete in the Olympics. She's good...but she's just not good enough to stand out. She's neat to have...but she's not really NECESSARY, if you get my drift.

And as far as DBZ goes? I'd say she's basically Android #18, a female fighter who's very strong, and absolutely ruthless in battle. She starts off as an antagonist, but ultimately, she's too good of a person to stay a bad guy for long. In addition, in a show where almost everyone is either completely amazing, or completely worthless, she's one of the few people who manage to be somewhere in-between. As a result, she's far above all the scrubs...but she's still just not good enough to compete with the other heavy-weights.

Astra seems really cool, but against pretty much anything but armor knights it's huge overkill, which is really just as good as normally killing. Her defense is kinda an issue, but by the time she promotes she's dodgy enough to be ok as long as there are other units to also soak up some hits. She is always limited by being a foot unit in FE4, but in situations where foot units are useful, [since knights sometimes have to backstrack], she's a valuable contributor.

Anyways, her and Alec are just going to chill near Marpha. We don't need to use her this Chapter, and Alec's guarding Marpha for a reason. See, unlike with your home castle, your units can't inside Marpha. They can enter, fix their weapons, visit the fortune teller, go to the pawn shop, and all that, but they can't rest inside of it. No, instead, the castle just spits you right back out the minute you're done navigating the menus. And eventually, Sigurd's going to want to sell the Slim Sword to Alec, so if I move Alec from the top of the castle, he doesn't waste a movement square when he otherwise would.

As for Dew, one attack against the Captain will get him the level he needs, but, I need to make sure he procs Defense on that level. So, I set things up so that next turn, Dew can safely fight the Captain via Forest Tile and Leadership Bonus. Then I can reset with minimal time loss if I don't proc the point of Defense I want.

Also, Cuan gets prepared to attack the southern Mbandit next turn (he's razing the village right now)...

And then everyone else moves out of the way of enemy fire before the start of the next Enemy phase.

Wherein yet MORE Brigands run into Sigurd's sword, and feed him level ups the way they always do.

1+ HP! 1+ Skl! 1+ Lck! 1+ Def!

And hey, it's a pretty good one this time!

Again, no one can really hit Dew, so none of the remaining enemies really know what to do with themselves.

Except for that annoying Mbandit, who's stealing OUR Gold even as we speak !

Edited July 16, 2015 by FionordeQuester

[FionordeQuester]

Chapter 1 Part 2-2

So back at Nodion...

Turns out Eltshan is aware of the situation!

Eltshan: Hmm... Elliot just couldnt stay out of this, could he... Lachesis, watch the castle. Im going to backup Sigurd.

Eltshan: His troops shouldnt pose much of a problem, but do stay alert.

Aw yeah, Eltshan's laying down the gauntlet!

Eltshan: Just pull out right now. I know youre not ready to face me either.

Elliot: Eltshan, are you mad!? Dont tell me youve sided with Grandbell!

Eltshan: Dont you realize youre running in direct violation to our superiors orders? The reverent King Agusty has no desire to wage war against Grandbell.

Elliot: Only you would be foolish enough to take that old man seriously anymore. Besides, all the lords of the dominion have already unified against Grandbell.

Eltshan: Not all of them! Anyway, a war now would incur huge sacrifices on both sides! Our past is a testament to that. The noble class arent the ones who suffer in the end. Its the powerless citizens who suffer, and Im not about to let it happen!

Elliot: As always your head is in the clouds, Eltshan. I knew itd come to this sooner or later. Lets settle this once and for all. Men, Nodion is now the enemy! I want Eltshan dead!!

Goodness. Elliot must be pretty brutal if he's just going to kill off one of his fellow Dukes, just like that...so let's see how Eltshan and his men d-

How...HOW in the holy HECK do Eltshan and his men have THAT much HP?! And, if that's how much they have...just...just how many other stats do they have?!

Ok...and Eltshan himself?

Oh, OK, so Eltshan...is not quite as amazing as Alvis...but he's still REALLY good! Compared to Sigurd, he's a bit lower in Strength, but ahead everywhere else! So needless to say...

Things don't exactly go as planned for Elliot.

So in case you haven't guessed by now, that whole plan I described, with Fin killing everyone and Azel getting the finishing blow on Elliot? I was just kidding around with you all for the sake of avoiding spoilers. Oh, don't get me wrong, Fin would've destroyed them all if he'd been given the chance, but unfortunately, he was not. I just warped him back to Evans because I didn't have any further jobs for him to do.

SNAPE KILLS DUMBLEDORE

So, nothing to worry about but these guys here.

Sigurd kills one of the Brigands, and Dew gets on a Forest within three spaces of Sigurd to get both the Forest and Leadership Evasion boost. With that, the Captain will not have any chance of hitting him, but he'll still THINK he does since the computer doesn't take Leadership bonuses into it's calculations.

Finally, Cuan tries to hit the Mbandit...

...Aaand then whiffs his attack. Cripes!

Oh well. As long as Aideen and the others are staying out of range, she can get 20 Exp per pop just by healing. In fact, she'll have to use the Relive staff a few times since I'm plan on promoting her in Chapter 2. Then she can start clearing Arena's as well !

Now how many resets will it take for Dew to get what he needs?

1+ HP! 1+ Str! 1+ Spd! 1+ Def!

Huh...none at all...and that's like, all of the most important stats right there!

And then the Captain's men all convert themselves into rust on Sigurd's blade. Speaking of which...

Eltshan and his knights clean up the rest of Elliot's squad. But as for Elliot himself...

He still lives. Not only that...

But he then breaks the rules of the game in order to go past the Cross Knights. C,MON ELTSHAN! I know you're all honorable and everything, but you couldn't at least take Elliot prisoner? Maybe have him tried for trying to incite a war with Grandbell, against the King's express wishes? Honestly now...

Oh, and before I forget, you actually CAN have your own units attack Elliot and his men, though they're not really worth it. They're only at Level 1, and they tend to prioritize attacking Eltshan's group rather than your guys, so you're still not getting much Exp from them. Still, if you DO attack Elliot, he actually does have a battle quote...

Elliot: Damn it, Eltshan! Always have to play the good guy! Ill end this grudge today!

...Exactly why DID he think he had any chance again Eltshan anyway? The guy has a legendary weapon for pete's sake! Yeah, any time we see a 30 Might weapon, like Alvis's FFlame (Fala Flame), or Eltshan's Mistoltein, you can always assume that those are one of the 12 Legendary weapons. Speaking of which...

War Room Part 5 (Holy Blood is Thicker Than Iron)

You see this Holy Blood wheel right here? This is a third screen accessible by heading down to this screen...

And then pressing the A Button. Now, for most units, the wheel will look like this due to a lack of Holy Blood. But for those who ARE descended from one of the 12 Legendary Heroes, and therefore DO have some Holy Blood in them, their wheels will look like this instead...

See that blue dot on each of their screens? That signifies that, while they don't have a TON of Holy Blood in them, they do have SOME. Or, as we FE4 vets say, they have "Minor Holy Blood", which means they have higher growths, and they're better at wielding a specific weapon type. So without their minor Holy Blood, Lex would only be able to use B Ranked axes, Azel would only be able to use C Ranked Fire Tomes, and Aira would only be able to use B Ranked swords. Plus, these units also get a slight boost to a few of their growths. Which growths are boosted? That depends on what kind of Holy Blood they have, so here's a table for your convenience...

http://serenesforest.net/genealogy-of-the-holy-war/miscellaneous/holy-blood/

So that's minor Holy Blood...now here's MAJOR Holy Blood!

Now MAJOR Holy Blood works the same way, except it's boosts are much higher. First of all, whosoever gets it will get an * Rank in their respective weapon, meaning that they can use the Legendary Weapon related to their ancestor (for example, Sigurd can use Tyrfing since he has Baldo blood). In addition to that, they can use whatever OTHER weapon they happen to have an * Rank in, except for other Holy Weapons (so Sigurd cannot wield the Balmung or the Mistoltein, the ones related to Odo and Hezul blood). And in terms of growth rates, people with Major Blood get DOUBLE the bonuses of their Minor Blood counterparts...

Which is actually part of the reason why guys like Sigurd and Cuan are so overpowered. WITHOUT those bonuses, Sigurd would lose a lot of HP and some Str. And then Cuan would be hamstrung by a loss of HP, Str, Spd, AND Def!

So there's your lesson for today. Holy Blood = Awesomeness, in most cases, and Elliot is absolutely stupid for even ATTEMPTING to do anything to Eltshan.

Now then...

Normally I'd chump this Captain here...but there'ssomething I'm planning on abusing, and I'm not going to be able to do that if this Captain dies. So for now, I'm just going to use Dew to pull him to the left, that way he doesn't get in our way.

Also, since Cuan failed to hit the Mbandit last turn, and since he wasn't able to activate Continue on this turn, the Mbandit's going to live for a bit longer. On the plus side though, at least Sigurd can feed the Slim Sword yet another kill.

Now after some more unit positioning, it's Marpha's Turn!

And as you can see, Dew now has NO chance of dying! Before, he could get one-shotted by the Captain, but now he'll survive one blow, which then allows me to simply reset if he gets hit. In addition, units will ALWAYS do at least 1 Damage per hit to those they attack, even if their opponent's defense is higher than their Attack. Combine that with the Captain's high level, and Dew is actually getting 18 Exp per round of combat, which is quite nice!

I once used a Celice with 10 Str to kill a late game boss (name removed to avoid spoilers, what a dastard though) with 40 defense. This mechanic can be fun to play around with.[/b]

Also, Eltshan's done for the day. Now that we've had our tutorial on why we should always have someone guarding the castle, they're just going to chill at Nodion. Which I don't mind. They'd just steal the Exp anyways.

Turn 9: Now then, at this point, there's a lot of dead air that I'm skipping through, So next turn, Sigurd goes to aggro all the stationary enemies at Marpha...

And the rest of our units do the same as they did last turn. With that out of the way, Gandolf FINALLY gets off his duff, at long last.

Gandolf: Don't let them near the castle!!

WARNING: Next GIF is two minutes long

And here we see what I like to call, the Conga Line of Death, where every one of Gandalf's men decide that they're just tired of life. But no worries, they'll be back! Because these aren't just normal enemies, they're infinitely respawning enemies !

Heh, seriously though, all nine of these guys will crawl their way out of H.F.I.L over and over again, as long as their dear Captain is alive. And in fact, the same thing would've happened with Kinbois and his men had I allowed him to live (though in his case, he'd need to go inside Genoa first). Quite a useful mechanic really, because this is how I'm going to turn my Slim Sword into an Uber Slim Sword! A few rounds of this, and Alec, Noish, Dew, and Ardan will be all set to kick some bacon!

Also, the rest of Gandolf's men also aggro onto us, and do not have any more luck than the others did. Well ok, one of the archers manage to do 6 Damage, but that's it. And unfortunately, these guys won't be re-spawning .

It's just as well though. The Slim Sword's almost broken anyway, so Sigurd's gonna have to head back to Genoa to get it fixed.

Turn 10: Now, Dew's succeeded in drawing the Captain to some place safe, so Aideen can Warp Sigurd back and forth without any interference.

Then Gandolf's dudes head back to Marpha now that there aren't any more people in their range. Unfortunately it takes 3 Turns for enemies to start re-spawning, so that adds even more dead air.

Turns 11: Alright, so on this turn, we run into an issue.

Dew got hit! Oh noes! What are we to do?!

Well, just reset, load your file...

Then have someone (I don't care who) enter the Arena...

Burn some RNs...

And there you go! Now Dew has dodged the strike this time!

Now then, Sigurd's only got one use on his Slim Sword, so it's time to Warp back to Genoa!

And we get this cool menu as we do so...

And this cool animation! Look at that Exp gain!

After ending our turn, Dew gets a level up and...

1+ Str! 1+ Lck! 1+ Def!

Hey, it's a pretty good one isn't it? Actually, we're going to get quite a few level ups, so that's something to look forward to.

This dew is ridiculous.

Edited July 16, 2015 by FionordeQuester

[FionordeQuester]

Chapter 1 Part 2-3

Turn 12: So next turn, Sigurd fixes the sword...

Aideen gets a level up...

1 HP! 1 Mag!

And then more reinforcements...

1+ HP!

Turns 13-15: And then more Sigurd killing (and now I'll be skipping the rest of the levels until the end of this grinding segment)...

More reinforcements...

More Sigurd killing...

Turns 16-40: And with 56 kills on it, our Slim Sword has finally gotten the Critical skill, and has become an Uber Slim Sword! Guess it's high time for someone else to train with it. But first, a conversation with Aideen.

Aideen: Oh, Im terribly sorry to bring all of you from Chalphy into this.

Sigurd: No worries there. Everyone will just be glad to know that youre alright. We have things under control here, Aideen. Why dont you head on back to Grandbell?

Aideen: No, Im staying. Theres bound to be more injuries further along. I want to help others in the service of the Lord.

Sigurd: Aideen... Didnt you leave the knighthood to become a nun? I think it suits you perfectly. Id do well to learn a thing or two from you myself.

I think you already did. Harboring the son of the country you're currently at war with? That's a pretty "Aideen" thing to do in itself! Then again, since this Talk option came up before we rescued Shanan...heck, maybe Aideen was the one who gave Sigurd the idea.

Aideen: Actually, the sole reason I joined the nunnery is... Well, its to aid the chances of finding my sister.

Sigurd: You must mean Briggid. Shes been missing since your childhood, hasnt she... You still believe you can find her, do you?

Aideen: Thats correct. And when I do, I must give the Holy Bow Ichival to her!

...Ok, so that wasn't one of the more subtle exposition dumps we got in this game, though it IS a rather helpful thing to remember for the future. But yeah, for as good as this game's story is, it DOES have a real problem with handling exposition smoothly. Like, this occasion wasn't TOO bad, but oooh it gets worse .

So after getting Warped back to Genoa, Sigurd fixes and then sells the Uber Slim Sword for Alec to use...

But before racking up more kills, Alec decides to put his Speed Ring in storage. This way, his Avoid with the Slim Sword will be 29. Put him on a Forest tile, and count in his triangle advantage against Brigands, that drops their hit chances to just 3%. But then add Sigurd's Leadership bonus on top of that, and they're now unable to hit him at all! But again, the computer doesn't factor in Leadership bonuses, so they'll still TRY!

Because of that, grinding up the rest of the kills is as easy as pie. So I'm going to skip the rest of the grinding segment, but, if you're playing along with me, I want you to do these two things.

Alec won't always be able to get back from Genoa that quickly, so sometimes you'll have to put Alec on this Forest all the way back here. And since that is the case, Dew will want to move to where he's at now, that way you don't risk the Captain running off somewhere else instead of playing Tom and Jerry with Dew. And one another thing...

Make sure you visit this village with Noish, cuz he still needs money.

That sorcerer, Sandima, is behind all of this. Everything began going downhill the moment he showed up. Aside from the youngest prince, Jamka, Sandima has them all wrapped around his finger. Please, I beg of you... save our kingdom!

Sandima eh? I'll have to investigate that...but for now, one thing I want to say. Alec wasn't the only person who killed respawning Brigands. If he gets unlucky with the Critical skill, he's not always able to kill all the Brigands before the next wave spawns, so for just a few of those cases, Noish picked off some of the stragglers. As a result...

1+ HP!

Noish got a level up. A TERRIBLE level up, but, what can you do :shrug:? He needs all the stats he can get.

Anyways, that all takes 27 Turns and about 50 minutes. If 50 minutes seems like a lot, trust me, it saves SO much than that in the long term. In fact, just with the Rank 7 Arena foe alone, it allows Dew to kill him in just 1 minute and 20 seconds, instead of the 4 minutes and 4 seconds it would've otherwise taken (you'll see...).

Needless to say, a 100 kill slim sword is practically a holy weapon.

Indeed. And Alec gets like, 11 Levels from that whole thing.

7+ HP! 4+ Str! 4+ Skl! 2+ Spd! 3+ Lck! 4+ Def!

Could've used a bit more Speed, but on the other hand, Alec's doing wonderfully on Strength!

Ehhh, he doesn't need speed anyways, swords OP!

Turn 37: So now it's Gandolf's turn!

Gandolf: First my girl escapes, and now my castles under attack! Why am I so unlucky!?

And yeah, after all that time in the Prologue, Gandolf is...frankly kind of a let down when you finally do get to him.

I mean even besides Alec's 64% chance of taking off half his health with each hit...he's still only got his 27 Attack, which at this point is just not enough to be a threat. And from a story perspective, he basically spends this entire Chapter just freaking out at every little thing. But at least he's got some slightly amusing battle quotes with Azel and Midir...

Gandolf vs. Azel

Gandolf: Whore you? Ya got a lot of nerve to attack me, ya little brat!

Azel: So youre Gandolf... How dare you take Aideen!

Gandolf vs. Midir

Gandolf: What? Youre that arch knight from before!? Man, I blew it! I cant believe youre still alive!

Midir: Prepare yourself, Gandolf! Ill never forgive someone like you!!

I'm guessing "Arch knight" is the result of replacing every instance of the original class name with one that had to be abbreviated in order to fit the menu text boxes. But that's just my guess .

Turn 38: So Dew kills the Captain, with just one use of his Iron Sword to spare...

And obviously Gandolf doesn't last too long...

1+ Skl!

Shucks...

Oh well, we conquered Marpha, and that's all that matters. So let's see what happens now!

Edited July 16, 2015 by FionordeQuester

[FionordeQuester]

Chapter 1 Part 2-4

DiMaggio!! IS THAT YOU ?!?

???: Please... just let me be on my way!

DiMaggio's Twin?: Grr! Sweetie, you best just shut your trap!

Sigurd: Thats right, so get moving! Nothing gets under my skin more than scum like you! You apologize to the girl and then get out of my sight!

DiMaggio's Twin?: Alright already. Er... Sorry, miss. Is just havin a little fun.

Sigurd: Er? You know who I am?

???: Yes, I met a woman here in the castle a little while ago named Aideen.

Sigurd: Aideen said something about me?

???: She did. Youre just how I imagined you to be.

Sigurd: Whats ah... your name?

???: Im sorry. I... I must go!

Sigurd: Hey... hold on! I just wanted to talk...

???: Im sorry. Im glad we were able to meet.

Sigurd: Wha- whats the problem? Wait! Sheesh!

Ah Sigurd. Once again you've proven what a master wordsmith you are.

Sigurd = Shakespeare

But sadly, after looking back just once...he mysterious woman retreats off the northwest corner of the map, just as Jamka did previously.

And Sigurd is still there, reeling from the conversation.

Old Man: Ahh, yes. Thatd be Deirdre. Shes a shaman of the Spirit Forest.

Sigurd: Deirdre... Shes so beautiful.

Old Man: A-ha! Even a man of your caliber falls readily fer a pretty woman. Perhaps its love at first sight!

Sigurd: Sir, please. Im serious. There was something about her... I hope to meet her again.

Old Man: That might be a tad difficult. You see, the villagers of the Spirit Forest do not involve themselves with the outside world. Moreover, that girl youre so fond of is strictly forbidden from associating with men. The villagers believe a great catastrophe will befall us if that were ever violated. Ill get right to the point, Sigurd. Resign yourself of that girl.

Sigurd: That sounds like superstitious nonsense to me. No one should be forced to live like that. Deirdre... we must meet again.

Sigurd, resigning herself of the beautiful, mysterious woman? Pfft, as if we don't know how THIS always turns out :keke:! Although, you do kind of have to wonder how she managed to live in this village without, I dunno, getting forced into Gandolf's harem or something. I mean she WAS in contact with Aideen and everything, so...

Anyways, that's Marpha done n' dusted. Just one more castle left to go...

Man, look at all those Forest tiles ...

This is the worst designed castle in all of FE4 in my opinion, but I will save that tirade for the next update!

Jamka: Gandolf and Kinbois have failed, and the enemyll be striking here before you know it. Commander Sigurd of Grandbell is by no means a bad person. Please, withdraw the troops!

King Batou: Originally, Grandbell was preparing to strike us! Thats why I allowed Gandolfs raid. I never intended for it to get this out of hand.

Minor mistranslation here...but we'll get into that.

Jamka: That sorceror Sandima is behind all of this, isnt he... You, Gandolf and Kinbois have trusted him far too much. He has deceived all of you!

Ah, so Sandima's behind it all! HE'S the one who's been pulling the string!. Alright then, let's see this Sandima dude! Let's see for ourselves who could possibly be so charismatic...so trustworthy...so eloquent, that he could possibly charm his way into the King's-

...You know what? I give up. Let's...let's just hear what this, puppy-dog looking man has to say.

Sandima: I believe you, as prince, have an obligation to command an attack on the enemy. Your negligence to do so could have grave consequences on the kingdoms future.

Jamka: Father!! Theres just no convincing you, is there... Alright, Ill do it. But if I make it back alive, Sandima, Im taking you out!!

And so Jamka, the red bow and arrow guy, joins up with the rest of the pack. But as for Batou...

King Batou: It was you who said that Grandbell was conspiring to take my kingdom.

Sandima: Whats that? Here I thought Verdane would workout somehow... Youre just a bunch of savages. Ive no longer any use for you. Ill be taking command of the troops from here on out.

King Batou: Whatre you doing!? Guh! Uuaaaaahhh...!

Sandima: Hrmph... wretched old fool.

And then...someone else shows up.

Sandima: I can just tell them the king has fallen ill.

Manfloy: So be it. How are things otherwise? Is everything running as planned?

Sandima: My humblest apologies. Our invasion of Grandbell has met with unexpected difficulties. A nuisance by the name of Sigurd keeps stirring up trouble.

Manfloy: Well, how about the Loptian blood link? Have you located Sigyns daughter yet?

Sandima: Well, as of yet nothing, but I...

Manfloy: You imbecile! Well, the boy... Sigyns son is in Barhara at the moment. But hes of no use to us without the girl... Allow me to explain. Sigyn was a descendant of Prince Maira, the Loputo Emperors younger brother. In short, Sigyn was the only surviving descendant of the Lopt Clan. Now Sigyn broke the Maira Decree by bearing two children. You follow me, Sandima?

Sandima: Yes. By uniting the blood of her offspring, the Dark Lord Loputousu shall be revived!

...Are...are you serious game? Did I really just hear Sandima correctly? Am I to understand, that the whole plot of this game LITERALLY revolves around a bunch of cultists trying to find a woman, kidnap her, and then have her sleep with her brother so that he can sire Satan...is that seriously what you're saying?

Manfloy: Precisely. Now in order for us, the remnants of the Lopt Empire, to once again enter the world stage, we must awaken the Dark Lord at any cost. Sandima, you know as well as I what weve been through. Weve spent the last hundred years in hiding deep within the Yied Desert, suffering extreme hardships, dreaming the day would come for us to rebuild the Empire. Well, that day is now upon us!

"Also, as your good and faithful friend, I am pleased to see that you are doing well in your duties involving the manipulation of King Batou. That is very good, a far cry from a month ago, when you were found cheating on your last girlfriend, with a woman, named Gomer, who then dumped you for that other young man, a Mr. 'Henry Beavis', if I recall? Anyways, go and get that girl, will you?"

Sandima: Understood. I will see my mission through, even if it takes my last breath!

Now then, what will happen now? Who exactly ARE these new, insidious characters who've shown their ugly mugs? What exactly do their plans involve? And was King Batou their only puppet? Or does their long, shadowy hand extend elsewhere? Can we defeat them? Can we even defeat Jamka? Or will Sigurd and friends finally meet their demise? Find out, on the next EXPLOSIVE episode of Let's Max Rank Fire Emblem 4! Have a nice day, and God bless you all!

Translation Tidbits:

Mistranslation #4: When Eltshan denies that all of Agustria had joined against Grandbell, what he's actually saying is that HE has not turned heel on Grandbell, and THAT'S why Agustria isn't ENTIRELY against it. So he's not actually saying that there are still other people besides him who are still our allies, he's just saying that HE is still our ally.

Mistranslation #5: When King Batou says that he didn't expect things to "get so out of hand", what he really means by that is that he didn't expect Grandbell to do as well as they did. He didn't expect that Verdane would lose so badly, in other words. It's not like he had any delusions that war would NOT bring a whole bunch of chaos.

Mistranslation #6: When Sandima says "Hmmph, and here I thought Verdane would work out somehow", what he's actually saying is more like "Oh...huh, so now you're finally questioning me? Guess I'll just get rid of you". Just one of those things that's a bit unclear in this patch.

Edited July 16, 2015 by FionordeQuester

[momogeek2141]

And now is the return of MAAANNNNNFFFFLLLLOOOOOOYYYYY!

Not enough Silver Sword Ayra, 0/10.

So wrt to the Uber Slim sword, how are you going to get that to the home castle or whatever and have Ardan and Dew clear the Arena? Warp Alec?

Also, Deirdre. Do you need to get her a lot of levels?

Finally, what stats did Sigurd gain during his pilgrimage to get 56 kills?

[FionordeQuester]

So wrt to the Uber Slim sword, how are you going to get that to the home castle or whatever and have Ardan and Dew clear the Arena? Warp Alec?

Nah. Actually, the Pawn Shop has the same inventory you sell there no matter WHERE you're visiting from. So if you sell, say, a Silver Sword to the Pawn Shop in Evans, but then go to Marpha castle, you can still get that Silver Sword in Marpha. So we don't need to worry about stuff like that!

Also, Deirdre. Do you need to get her a lot of levels?

Well...I don't really NEED to persay, but it'd be recommended, because she's a staff bot who can get 60 Exp per use of Warp. So getting her to Level 30 is extremely fast.

Finally, what stats did Sigurd gain during his pilgrimage to get 56 kills?

Oh, just one HP .

[B.Leu]

It's the eyes, if you look too deep into them, Sandima will take your soul. :p

Kinda weird how the spirit forest is in the middle of the road just like that without any problem for Deirdre. I guess they respect/fear them that much

[Darrman]

So... how are going go get through the worst chokepoint in the game? Your horses are slow, and it's a long chokepoint. Will there be uber slim sword tricks at work?

[FionordeQuester]

Nah, all you have to do is have Sigurd kill everyone with an Iron Lance. Then they'll all just suicide on him :P.

[FionordeQuester]

Alright, one thing to keep in mind. From now on, any levels I get while Warp/Return Spamming will all be tallied up, and then given at the END of each update rather than how I've been recording every other level up so far.

Also, here's something fun I've thought of. I want you all to pick your bets. Just HOW far will each character get in the Arena? Who will be beating up all the big behemoths, and who will fail to even get past Shark? That is my challenge to you readers! For reference, here are the stats for each Arena fighter...

http://serenesforest.net/genealogy-of-the-holy-war/miscellaneous/arena-data/

(Just in case you don't know, Hood is the archer equivalent of Shark)

[FionordeQuester]

Alright guys, Marty's going to be done with his commentary either later today, or tomorrow! So see you then!

[FionordeQuester]

Chapter 1 Part 3-1

Hello everyone, and welcome back to Let's Max Rank Fire Emblem 4: Genealogy of the Holy War! Last time, we found the woman of Sigurd's dreams, a lovely woman named Deirdre, whom he rescued from DiMaggio's reanimated corpse. But afterwards, we happened upon a disturbing plot being enacted not just by Sandima, but by a man named Manfloy, and a whole other sect made up of the remnants of the Lopt Empire. And they are all dedicated to reviving Satan by any means necessary, including...incest. Yes, it seems that though the graphics are bright and colorful, and the characters charming, there are some dark, insidious forces at work behind the scenes...

Oh, and we have to fight Jamka too. So then, can we defeat the last of the Verdanian forces? Will we be able to find Deirdre before Sandima does? Can we defeat him? Find out, TODAY, on Let's Max Rank Fire Emblem 4!

Alright then, let's see what'll happen this turn!

So, Alec had plenty of time with the Uber Slim Sword, so now everyone else wants a turn with it. But first, a little trip into the Arena, as well as an abject lesson into the sheer POWER of the Uber Slim Sword!

Alec Time Chapter 1!

Now, yes, obviously Alec had more than just the Uber Slim Sword on his side. He also had the Speed and Skill Rings as well as a TON of extra levels he wouldn't usually have achieved...but trust me, this Uber Slim Sword is practically a gift from above in an AAAA Rank run. And the further we get into the game, the more you will realize that. So here's what he got there...

Arena Completed, 1 Level gained, +1 HP, +1 Skl!

Yeah, I'm going to be changing the format of the levels to this, just because it seems easier on the eyes to me.

Well... I guess he has an easier time critting now? Now that he needs it...

Alright, so now Alec's sold all the sweet swag he had, giving the Uber Slim Sword back to the cause, and getting a nice 20,000G for selling the Skill and Speed Rings. Don't worry, he's got the stats he needs for Chapter 2's Arena, and he's going to promote on that Chapter anyway so....

Everyone in the main group moves west, with Aideen healing whomever she can with Relive for Exp (again, assume that I'm doing that every opportunity I get from now on).

Aideen is so easy to train with staff exp, that once I did an AAAA run where I almost completely forgot to train her until chapter four and still got her to level thirty no problem.

Indeed. Heck, the only reason I'm even training her right NOW is so she can get more money in a quicker amount of time for her future husband. Were it not for that, I'd wait until late in Chapter 2 to train her.

After that, Dew heads back to Genoa, where he'll eventually clear the Arena, and that ends my turn.

Not that much really happens on the enemy phase. Out of every part of this Chapter, this last assault on Verdane is definitely the most irritating of all. It's not really hard, because you've got a whole bunch of sword users, in a forest, fighting against a bunch of slow, pathetic axe users. They're SO pathetic in fact, that they won't even try to attack Sigurd if he has a sword on. I end up having to equip him Sigurd with his Iron Lance in order to clear them out in a timely manner. And even then, Sigurd STILL ORKOes them at 100% Hit rates, and STILL takes minimal damage from them! All I have to do is occasionally heal him with Ethlin, and he's all good to go!

And yet, in spite of that, it just takes so long to accomplish anything. Because every square is a forest, even Sigurd and Cuan can't move more than 3 squares. And I need to get Aideen up there to recruit Jamka (oh c,mon, as if that's a spoiler), so that's even MORE time wasted trying to drag her all the way up here...sigh. Oh well, at least Sigurd gets a level out of it...

+2 HP, +1 Str, +1 Skl, +1 Spd, +1 Lck!

I was going to complain about this, but you beat me to it. But on second thought, I would like to take back a comment I made in the last update. This is only the second worst castle in the game. This castle is badly designed at the right time, whereas a future castle is badly designed at the wrong time. I still love this game though, even if sometimes I have no idea what the designers were thinking.

First of all, sorry for beating you to it. I knew you wanted to talk about the map design last update, so, probably I should've left some more wiggle room for you to say something. Oh well though, next time. And yeah, I think a LOT of us know games like that. Personally, The 7th Saga is one of my favorite RPG's (I even did an LP of it), but I definitely don't know why e designers did some of the things they did...

Now then, moving swiftly on...let's talk about Jamka. He's pretty strong, but, it's also pretty obvious that we can recruit him. I mean, the game like, told us that he had reservations about the war and everything! And as we all know, the best way to tell if someone can be recruited, is to use this simple, but time-tested method...

Works every time ! So let's check out ol' Jammy real quickly...

Hmm...ok, so he's got pretty decent stats, but he doesn't look THAT bad. I mean, 25 Attack is good, but it's still...

Oh whoa, hold up now! This thing grants the CRITICAL skill?! Shoot man, that means his Attack Power has a 14% chance of spiking up to 50 instead! So, obviously we don't want to get careless...but still, Sigurd's faster than him, and the Forest Tiles + Cuan and Ethlin Bonus + Leadership Bonus (yes he gets it too) pushes Jamka's accuracy to a mere 39% per attack...

Plus, the thing's got 3 Weight instead of 8 Weight, like most other bows. So if this guy's got Pursuit, we probably won't want Sigurd getting attac-

...ked...

...

Oh. Oh my. Look at those skills. This guy seriously has Pursuit, Continue, Charge, AND Critical all rolled into one?! So...so basically he's got...

1) A 14% chance to double his Attack Power to 50 per attack.

2) A 31% chance to activate Continue, during any given attack. And that gives him ANOTHER ATTACK.

3) A 100% chance to activate Pursuit, and get a guaranteed extra attack against anyone who has less than 11 AS.

4) Around a 19% chance of activating up to 2-20 extra rounds of combat, thereby making him all that much more likely to activate both of the OTHER skills mentioned above! And since none of my units have good ranged attacks right now, there's not a darn thing we can do to fight back!

So, the guy sounds pretty tough, right? Well, he is...but he's also completely locked to 2 Range, which means if he get up in his face, there's absolutely nothing he can do about that. And considering how dumb the A.I. can be...

Setting up the kill is actually pretty trivial. But of course, we don't actually want to do that. We want to recruit him, like so!

It's actually pretty easy really. And that's because he will NEVER attack Aideen, even if she's at 1 HP, and is directly in his range. And as for the Brigands, they're as pathetic as always. Again, just equip Sigurd with his Iron Lance, maybe set Cuan and Lex up in a way that they can get some action too, and the enemies will quite literally take care of themselves.

So, just remember that Jamka can move 3 Squares in this terrain, and that he can attack from 2 Squares away...

And there we go, Jamka has been recruited!

Aideen: I thought you went to talk to your father! Now youre fighting? What is going on!?

Jamka: I dont know. Something was real odd about him. He just wouldnt listen to me. Everythings been upside-down since that Sandima showed up. My father and brothers have done anything he has asked them to.

Aideen: So why does that bring you into battle? Please Jamka, dont do this! Lets return to Verdane and speak with the king once more. Were stopping this war! Sir Sigurd did not come here to invade your country. He was merely fighting to rescue me. Please, Jamka, listen to reason!

Jamka: Alright, lets give it one more try. And Im exposing that traitor once and for all. But no one lays a finger on my father. Thats my one condition.

Aideen: Ill see to it no one does. Thank you, Jamka. You really are a good person.

And whooo! There we go. And for reference, here's the quote when you're fighting him...

Jamka: You dont have to die. Just leave the country at once!

And here's the quote for when he dies...

Jamka: Father

And for completions sake...

FE4 Male Death Cry

Always happy to serve! But yeah, fortunately, we have not had to kill Jamka. Instead, he's now doing THIS!

Hehehehehe ...

LTC runs used to always butcher Jamka without mercy. General Horace actually discovered a while ago that you can get the minimum turn count in this chapter while still recruiting Jamka, so I apologize for all the times you died.

Really now? I wonder if Horace has a video of that or something...I gotta check at out.

So anyways, Aideen's now done her job, and Jamka isn't really needed for anything, so Ethlin sends the both of them back to the castle. This way Aideen can start Warping outside Evans for 60 Exp a pop while Jamka Waits right next to her. Why would I have Jamka do that? And why have Aideen Warp Staff spam outside, when I can easily have her spam inside with less time and effort?

Because in this game, you can get your male units to marry some of your female units, and their children will make up most of your army in Generation 2. Not only that, but the husband's and wives will pass actually pass down all their unique skills, their weapons and items, some of their growth rates, and whatever Holy Blood they happen to have, so pairing your females with the right husbands is an extremely important part of Gen 1.

I'll get into the specifics of how all of this works next update, but for now, just know that until Turn 50 comes around, males and females will make more progress towards getting hitched if they spend their Turns right next to each other rather than apart. And they can't do that inside Evans, even if both of them are in there. So that's why I'm setting things up like that.

Speaking of marriage, maybe we could try finding the lovely Deirdre while we're working on Sandima. Maybe Alec could go and ask the locals how to do all this?

Huh, that's interesting. Please, go o-

I used tlive there once upon a time in a village hidden deep within th forest. Th legend goes that Saint Maira was exiled by his fellow Lopt clansmen for allying with us humans. That village is where all of Mairas descendants holed up tavoid persecution. While I was there, a beautiful girl named Sigyn was living under th villages custody. That was due ther bein th last remaining descendant of th Lopt prince. But Sigyn grew tired of th forest life. She up and left thus breaking village law. She returned several years later expectin a child. She gave birth to a little girl, but tragically didnt survive. Apparently, the village fortune-teller took after raising the child. I wonder where the child is now If shes livin shed be around 17 or 18 I imagine.

...ok, clearly that was a bad choice of words on my part. And despite all that exposition, we're still no closer to killing Sandima OR finding Deirdre...

Not only that, but this guy also dodges me since I've trying to attack him from those orange Forest tiles (40+ boost to Evade instead of 20+ Evade)...

And on top of all that, we're trudging through all Forest terrain, where even Sigurd is moving like a snail. Man, some days really are the worst, aren't th-

. DEIRDRE!!!

Sigurd: Deirdre, is that you!? Ah, so this is the Spirit Forest! Im so happy to see you! I thought wed never meet again.

Deirdre: Sigurd, listen to me. Theres an evil priest at Verdane Castle named Sandima. His black magic is deadly, so dont even think of approaching him...Please!

Sigurd: Ive put everybody in enough danger as it is... Ill go this one alone.

Deirdre: ...Then Im going with you.

Sigurd: Youre what!?

Deirdre: I have a Silence Staff with me. I can block magic with it as long as my magic power can overcome his resistance. Ill silence that Sandima... youll see!

Sigurd: Whoa! Sounds like you could take him yourself! Wh... why are you helping me?

Deirdre: I tried putting you out of my mind, Sigurd but I just couldnt. Oh, I dont know what I should do...

Sigurd: I dont know why youre so afraid. If we both feel the same for each other weve nothing to fear. I... I believe Ive fallen for you, Deirdre.

WHOO!! Deirdre has joined our party now! Now see that red dot? If Sigurd goes either on that dot, or anywhere past it, Deirdre automatically comes onto the map and will either go on the space directly north of the red dot, or will go 2 spaces north of it if Sigurd's already sitting there.

One interesting implication of that is that if you really wanted to, you could actually kill Sandima before getting Deirdre as long as you don't send Sigurd onto or above that dot. And if you decide to do that, the conversation will be like this instead...

Deirdre: Sigurd... wait.

Sigurd: Deirdre, is that you!? Ah, so this is the Spirit Forest! Im so happy to see you! I thought wed never meet again.

Deirdre: Sigurd, I heard of Sandimas death. I was so worried hed find me. He was a black priest sent by an underground religious sect to find me.

Sigurd: Underground religious sect? Whats this all about?

Deirdre: Well, all I know is what the woman who raised me told me on her deathbed. She said there exists in this world a religious sect who follow the Dark Lord Loputousu. The Dark Lord was presumed dead, but theyve been secretly planning his resurrection.

Sigurd: Ive heard something about that, too. So why are they after you?

Deirdre: The Dark Lord lies dormant within my blood, and through me they can resurrect him. I was told they must never find me. I am also forbidden to be with a man.

Sigurd: Geez... you must always be on the run. You were avoiding me earlier, werent you?

Deirdre: I was afraid Id fall for you, Sigurd. I tried putting you out of my mind, but I... I just dont want to lose you. Oh, what am I to do...

Sigurd: Deirdre, I can understand why youre scared. But theres no reason to let this ruin your whole life for you. Deirdre, I vow to keep you out of harms way. I wont let anyone hurt you. If we both feel the same for each other, then weve nothing to fear. Dear Lord, if you deem our love for each other to be a sin, I beg of you... punish me! I wont regret it... even if it means a thousand slashes upon my heart! I only ask that you watch over my beloved Deirdre... unto all eternity!

Deirdre: Sigurd...

Oooh Sigurd. I really do love your character .

After playing through this game at least fifteen times, I have never seen this conversation. While on the one hand I think so much exposition so early is bad, this develops Sigurd quite well... no idea why they designed it so that practically nobody would ever see this.

if I had to guess, they just wanted to cover their bases, so they had to come up with some kind of alternate conversation to keep from looking silly. Hence, all the exposition that you'd normally keep till later in he game. They just thought, "eh, no one's going to see it anyway, so why not?"

So then, let's get to covering both of our new recruits, shall we?

Level 6 Bow Fighter

HP: 36 (90%) Spd: 14 (30%)

Str: 11 (50%) Lck: 4 (40%)

Mag: 0 (0%) Def: 9 (30%)

Skl: 14 (10%) Res: 0 (5%)

Move: 6

Weapon Ranks: Bows (A)

Items: Killer Bow

Skill: Pursuit, Continue, Charge

Holy Blood: None

So, here's the thing with Jamka. Obviously his offense is amazing, right? I mean, Pursuit, Continue, Charge, AND Critical are guaranteed to kill just about anything...and yet, in-spite of all of that...Jamka's still not a very good unit.

This is because he's got all of Aira's problems, but also has the great misfortune of being in the game's very worst class, the Bow Fighter. Why is it the worst? Because it is literally one of the only classes in the game that has no 1-Range options whatsoever. It's locked to 2 Range, in a game where most of the enemies you fight not only can attack from 1 Range, but travel in very large packs of like, 7-10 or so.

So yeah, Jamka can most likely kill just one enemy on his Player Phase, but then he's helpless! It will be open season for his enemies! I mean heck, just look at how easy it was for me to set up the kill with Sigurd and Cuan! And they were just two guys!

So at best, Jamka will kill an enemy, and then be safe as you form a protective wall around him. More likely, you'll be too busy protecting him to actually get much out of him. And at worst? He won't be able to even get to any of the battles because he's still a foot unit with only 6 Move! I mean sure, Midir isn't doing much better, but at least he's got 8 Move and Canto! He can at least outmaneuver a lot of your enemies, even if he can't actually drop them!

Which is a bummer, because were it not for that one problem, he'd probably be a really, really good unit. Because unlike Aira, he's actually got pretty good defensive growths. I mean he's not Lex, Sigurd, or Cuan, but then who is? And I will also say that he IS pretty helpful on an AAAA Ranked run on account of how good he is in the Arena. This makes it extremely easy for him to get money, which is good, because Aideen really needs to recieve some cash from him next Chapter. But otherwise, he's even more redundant than Aira is.

And as far as DBZ goes, I'd compare him to Android #16. He's part of a trio of villains, and yet, despite being the most powerful of them, he is by far the kindest, calmest, and most peaceful one in the gang, to the point where he's the first one to join the good guys. Perhaps because of that, he is the ONLY one in that group who has any common sense, the only one who isn't constantly making stupid decisions, like wanting to stay and fight someone who is not only stronger than you, but very clearly wants to kill you. But unfortunately for him, in-spite of all those advantages, he still fails to save the other two from their own idiocy.

Level 3 Shaman

HP: 32 (70%) Spd: 17 (10%)

Str: 11 (10%) Lck: 3 (10%)

Mag: 0 (70%) Def: 7 (10%)

Skl: 16 (20%) Res: 1 (70%)

Move: 5

Weapon Ranks: Light (*), Staves (B)

Items: Aura Tome, Silence Staff

Skill: Awareness

Holy Blood: Major Narga, Minor Loputousu

Oh wow, those growths...MAN that's bad ! Heck, the only reason she even has those 70%'s is because of all the Holy Blood she's got in her! Without those, she would literally have just 40% HP, 20% Skl, and 10% everywhere else! YEEESH!! So she's got horrible growths, does not have good skills, has only 5 movement, and probably THE worst availability in the game (more on that later). Oh, and she's loaded down by this stupid thing...

Yeah. That's right. Her Tome has 20 WEIGHT ON IT, making it even heavier than most axes! She actually has -6 Attack Speed, and only 10% on her Speed growth! Looking at all this, she practically looks like a joke character at first glance! Most FE4 players you talk to will probably refer to her as the worst character in the entire game...

But I won't. Because for however glaring her faults are, Deirdre actually CAN be really useful, even aside from Silencing Sandima (though believe me, that's good enough as it is). And of course, she's another Staff bot, meaning that she can pull down an instant 27 Levels for the Exp Rank. Plus...

You can win this li'l beauty from ol' Sandy. Of course, I'm not going to be giving it to her, but if you DO decide to go that route, you can very easily get Deirdre up to 48 Attack Power and OHKO EVERYONE in Chapter 2. Or at least, everyone who is not either an Armour unit, a promoted enemy, or a boss. So that's a nice niche right there...but more importantly, she's got this...

See that Circlet? That is a unit that cannot be sold or broken, and will automatically give not just the Prayer skill, but also Live (5-10 HP automatically restored per turn). Live is pretty convenient, but Prayer is the real hero here. So in spite of her normally horrible Evade, she can literally OHKO an entire squad of enemies near one of the castles in Chapter 2. Again, neat...but as Marty says...

The issue is that even with prayer unless you gei ht her knocked down into the really low bounds of HP she'll still get hit a fair bit. I did manage to use it in my 0% growths playthrough, but in a ranked run there's no reason to do this as you should never waste combat experience on a staffer.

Indeed. And what further pins her down into mediocrity is that she's only got one Chapter to really do anything. After Chapter 2, Sigurd just asks her to stop coming to anymore maps...so yeah, kind of hard to make any real impact there. Again, to her credit, she can easily clear Arena's with Prayer, give Sigurd some free gold, and can also fetch you 27 free Levels...but otherwise, you're just not going to get much use out of her. And it's not because she's actually worse than, say, Noish or Ardan, it's because she doesn't really have the opportunity to do anything. Rather a shame, that...

So, I suppose she'd be Chi-Chi. She's the main character's wife...and that's about it. Cooking him a nice sandwich is about all she usually ever does to help him save the world. Other than that, she really doesn't do a whole lot of anything.

Now then, Cuan's got no further jobs here, so he gets Returned to Evans, where he...

Kicks the crud out of Ranks 1-5 in the Arena...

But then gets stymied by this windbag here. This woman...Aye aye aye. First of all, LOOK at these stats...

HP: 42

Mag: 11

Skl: 10

Spd: 13 (18 w/Speed Ring)

Def: 2

Res: 9

And Elwind has 14 Might and only 2 Wt. First of all, this give Emmile an AS of 16. For reference, that is so ridiculously high for this point in the game...

That fricken Aira is getting outsped! AIRA! The very woman who's supposed to be our resident speed-demon! But even SHE can only manage 14-15 AS if she uses anything but a Slim Sword! And 25 Damage per hit, when your units barely have any Res at all? Yikes! Even Sigurd has trouble with this woman! And the only reason Alec managed to beat her was because he had two different stat rings, the Uber Slim Sword, AND had gained 11 Levels before facing her!

So needless to say, even Cuan's gonna have to bow out of this one. But even if he didn't...

Dulles, the last opponent, would still give him a good challenge, not due to high stats, but due to Big Guard, which MORE than makes up for his inaccurate Steel Blade. Basically, Big Guard activates at a rate equal to the level of the user. So since Dulles is Level 19, has a 19% rate of activating per hit. Furthermore, it doesn't just activate once per round, it has a chance of activating EVERY time someone tries to hit Dulles.

And yes, Big Guard will completely nullify EVERY attack, no matter how much damage it would've done otherwise. So you could literally get Alvis in here, with his 70 Attack Power and everything, and Big Guard would STILL completely negate whatever damage Alvis would've done.

That said, Dulles still isn't QUITE as bad as Emmile. Anyone who has a chance of beating Emmile definitely has a chance of beating him too...but again, I don't think it's really worth trying to fight him for most weaker characters. Yeah, most of them will win eventually, but the rewards aren't THAT worth it for most characters.

So, here's what Cuan got from the Arena, and his time outside...

Arena up to Rank 6, 2 Levels gained, +2 HP, +1 Spd, +1 Def!

And after that, Cuan sells his Steel Lance...

So that way Fin can buy it. After that, he goes through Ranks 1-3...

And then gets kicked around by Shark, who's basically a much weaker Emmile who has Pursuit. So...

Fin has to beat a brave retreat for now. But that's ok, because...

Whatever damage you take in the Arena carries over unless you win your match (in which case, all your HP is restored). Because of that, Prayer allows just about everyone who has it to trivialize the Arena completely, provided that they can survive at least survive the first round before quitting. So Fin's actually doing just fine .

As for the main group...

Well...frankly this part is just so boring. I've only got four units here now, the enemies are so weak, and Sandima's going to be trivialized soon, so...here's the cliff notes version of everything that happens.

Lex gets a level...

+1 HP, +1 Str!

Fin abuses Prayer to beat Shark...

Then prepares to do the same to Bacchus in a few turns time...

And then comes the big moment, where Deirdre prepares to Silence Sandima with her 10 Range staff. Why is that necessary? Well, just LOOK at the guy...

Yeah, the guy seriously has a 3-10 Range Tome that gives him 32 Might. And then if you try to attack him, he'll just switch to Jormung, giving him 38 Might instead! For reference, that's actually enough to OHKO ALL of our 15 units except Sigurd, Alec, Cuan, Aideen, and Deirdre. Yes, he can literally one-shot almost 75% of our army! But fortunately, Deirdre puts a stop to all that with an animation that's simply too good to cover with just GIF...

Silence Staff Animation

Yep, when you Silence someone, that soundtrack itself suddenly gets muted! Nice touch Intelligence Systems !

+1 HP, +1 Mag, +1 Res!

And Deidre gets a typical "Deidre Level", no shocker there.

Edited July 21, 2015 by FionordeQuester

[FionordeQuester]

Chapter 1 Part 3-2

Now then, Sigurd himself will now get started on the last enemies. The archers are pathetic, only doing 4 Damage to Sigurd at horrible hit rates in return for getting 2HKOed by him. But the Axefighters have the potential to be a problem. They've got 29 Attack Power, and while they only have 10% Hit rates on Silver Sword!Sigurd (Sigurd equipped with Silver Sword), they'll do 15 Damage to him if they hit. So that spot where Sigurd's at is where he's going to rest for the turn.

Because with the Silver Sword, the Forest tile, and his own Leadership Bonus (yes, he gets to enjoy it too), the archers will whiff every attack while one of the Axefighters will just march up to him without even TRYING to hit him, the perfect set up for killing him next turn. Also...

http://lpix.org/2141285/Deirdre

Deirdre regenerates an HP with the Live skill!

And then Sigurd kills the Axefighter...

Before going out of range of the next one (they move 3 squares in this large forest) and switching to the Javelin. Now, Sigurd will be 2HKOing archers while dodging approximately 67% of their attacks .

Anyways, Deirdre is done silencing Sandima, so off to Evans she goes! And Ethlin gets another level...

+1 HP, +1 Skl!

And then she and Lex start heading east towards this point here...

You'd never know this unless you read a strategy guide, but if you have Lex wait on this exact spot, some random person will give him something called a "Hero Axe". In case you don't remember, Hero weapons allow their wielders at least twice before their opponent, four times if they also have Pursuit. And it's the only Hero Axe you will ever get in Gen 1, so needless to say, Lex REALLY wants this weapon! And then Ethlin can Return him after he's gotten that.

Now then, Turn 50 has arrived, which means no more Lover points can be gained, so, Jamka goes here...

And then Aideen warps him from the castle entrance, THAT way she can enter the castle itself on the same turn! Not really necessary here, but it's a very handy maneuver to remember for the future.

Fin pulls out his strongest Prayer against Bacchus...

Gets EXTREMELY lucky against Emmile (normally I have to wait a few turns, then abuse Prayer again)...

But then is finally chased out of the Arena again by Dulles, the last opponent.

Next time Dulles...next time...

So next enemy phase, Sigurd starts beating up all the archers. And then...

Sigurd finally destroys the 2nd Axefighter, getting a level up in the process!

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

And with those two swept aside...

The rest of the archers will all be joining them soon!

So after Ethlin and Lex travel further on eastward...

Fin finally defeats the last opponent...

Arena Completed, 3 Levels gained, +3 HP, +2 Spd, +2 Lck!

And then Deirdre gets to beating up some guys in the Arena, but gets stymied by Weissman, who outspeeds her...

So, she's gonna have to wait two turns for her HP to go up enough. So, in the mean time, let's get her some help.

Aideen's already gotten to use the Warp Staff seven times...

So now it's Deirdre's turn to use it...

Inside the castle! Neat!

And now we got the Hero Axe, and the following conversation!

Holy Woman: You are very honest! As a reward for your honesty I present you with the Hero Axe. Farewell, Lex...

Lex: ...?!

And YES! Sigurd's FINALLY taken care of the last archer!

Now all that's left is Sandima himself. Better hurry though...

See what his "State" says? This here means that you've only got 2 more turns until Silence wears off, and if that happens, Sigurd's not going to be able to safely kill Sandima. But fortunately...

Sigurd cleanly ORKOes Sandima at 90% hit odds. And even if he whiffs one of those attacks, you can simply reset and burn some RN's via the Arena. So if you've been following this guide up till now, you have nothing to worry about !

So then, Ethlin returns Lex to Evans...

And look! Deidre's got 19 HP now, which is JUST enough...

http://lpix.org/2142816/Aura

To make her immortal against Weissman.

Darn shame then that Shark kills her afterwards .

Now for Deirdre, staying at Evans only heals 5 HP per turn. HOWEVER, if she spends her turns outside, then her Live skill will usually allow her to regenerate more than that. And since we're already on Turn 53, well, I do want to end this Chapter at SOME point, right?

So, she's going to be Warping people OUTSIDE instead of INSIDE Evans. That said though, she's down to just one use on her Warp staff, so first...

She sells the Silence Staff for money, since there aren't anymore opportunities where it's handy...

And yikes, pretty expensive huh? For reference, that's why I had Aideen use her Relive Staff every chance I got. But now Deirdre's "Live"ing it up outside, and Warping people left and right, so while I'm waiting...

I go and FINALLY put an end to Sandima. For reference, here are his other quotes...

Vs. Most Units (His quotes won't activate if he's either silenced already, or if Deidre is Silencing him as opposed to actually fighting him)

Sandima: Heheheh... Feel the horror of my dark magic!

Vs. Deirdre

Sandima: What? Youre a shaman...? You must be Dierdre... The cursed maiden...

Vs. Jamka

Sandima: Heheheh... Youre too late, Jamka. Your father is already dead.

Jamka: W, what!? Sandima! You...!

Well Jamka, if it's any consolation, he's dead now. Plus...

We get a Magic Ring off of him! And yes, that actually WILL be helpful to have on Sigurd, you'll see why next chapter.

But for now, let's finish our business on this one.

So then, after getting up to 14 HP outside, Deirdre's gotten to the point where a turn inside Evans will allow her to survive an attack from Shark, SO, I use this trick again.

And then Shark is forced to fight a valiant, but ultimately fruitless battle against someone who 2HKOes him while facing what are effectively 6% hit rates from him (still dangerous enough to warrant a save mind you, but still). After that, everyone else goes down like so...

Yeah Emmile has no chance against Deidre's insane Res, and Bacchus and Dulles actually doom themselves by taking off almost all of Deirdre's health in just one attack .

And now look at all that Exp and Gold Deirdre's won! Quite a bit eh? And of course, her Lover is Sigurd. No need to build up Love Points there. So now here are the total amount stats she gained!

Arena Completed, 5 Levels! 4+ HP! 3+ Mag! 2+ Skl! 1+ Spd! 1+ Lck! 5+ Res!

No, we're not counting the level we got from Sandima. If we do, Deirdre's actually gotten six levels since joining us! Now let's see what the rest can manage, with an icon yoinked from Miacis's Binary LP!

Arena up to Rank 7, gained 2 Levels, +1 HP, +2 Str, +1 Skl, +1 Def!

Yeah, Ardan was lucky to have gotten a point in Strength before fighting Emmile. Because of that, he could literally OHKO Emmile with an Uber Slim Sword crit. Throw Ambush on top of that, and he was guaranteed to win eventually, even if it did mean getting beat like 7 times first. Had that not been the case however, I would've just left him at Rank 6. Which is ok, because he would still have the money needed to thrive.

I think this is the first time I've heard "Arden" and "thrive" in the same sentence.

Oh yeah. Turns out Ardan + Uber Slim Sword + Ambush isn't such a bad combination !

Arena up to Rank 4, gained 1 Level, +1 HP, +1 Str, +1 Skl, +1 Def!

Now don't misinterpret these results, Noish could've easily defeated Shark if I was willing to potentially spend 10 minutes on resets. I mean, he has just enough durability to survive 4 hits...but I just didn't think it was really worth the trouble. We don't have the Elite Ring, so Exp gain is still pretty minimal in this Arena, and there are enough villages next Chapter that Noish is still going to be able to buy everything he needs anyway.

So, I didn't feel like getting him further was really necessary. In fact, I didn't even bother giving him the Uber Slim Sword. I just gave him the Iron Lance for Weissman, and then sold that and his Steel Sword to give him ~27,000G (which becomes 30,000G when starting the next Chapter).

Arena up to Rank 7, gained 4 Levels, +4 HP, +2 Str, +1 Skl, +1 Spd, +3 Def!

Man Elite is awesome! And Lex actually got a lot of Def procs, so he actually had enough power and durability to take down Shark in-spite of his 40% hit odds. And of course, Emmile was easy pickings for him, same as she was for Ardan.

Arena up to Rank 4, gained 1 Level, +1 Str!

...No comment.

Arena Completed, gained 2 Levels, +2 HP, +2 Str, +2 Lck, +1 Def!

Pursuit + Continue + Charge + Killer Bow absolutely destroys !

Arena up to Rank 4, gained 1 Level, +1 HP!

And Midir is as weak as I said he was. Dat level...

Arena Completed, gained 2 Levels, +1 HP, +1 Skl!

Bad levels, but it doesn't matter. Just LOOK at how thoroughly she destroys things with the Uber Slim Sword!

Aira Time Chapter 1

Look at that offense! Yeah, her levels are different from what was recorded, but that's because I re-recorded this Chapter run-through a few times, and this was recorded before the final version of it. Anyways though, Emmile is the only one who could kill Aira, but even then, you just have to keep trying until Aira either gets lucky with dodges, or procs Meteor Sword. And now, one of my favorite performances, and a perfect demonstration of why the Uber Slim Sword is so good...

Arena Completed, gained 2 Levels, +1 Str, +1 Mag, +1 Skl, +1 Spd, +1 Def, +1 Res!

Dew Time Chapter 1

You see how the Dulles fight only took 1 minute and 20 seconds? Well without that Uber Slim Sword, Dew would've taken 4 minutes and 6 seconds instead, so even on that one fight, we gained almost three minutes back from the 50 minutes it took creating it. And we've still got a LOT of game left, so I definitely think it was worth it!

No Arena fighting, gained 4 Levels, +1 HP, +1 Str, +1 Mag, +2 Skl, +1 Spd, +3 Lck!

And of course, here are Aideen's levels. Like I said, I'm just going to record all of her levels at the END of the update rather than throughout, because staffbots get a LOT of levels REALLY quickly, so it'd get redundant recording all their levels as they come. Plus...

Her levels don't really matter. She can still staff no matter what.

Indeed. But, speaking of Aideen, I still haven't recorded her talks with Midir and Azel, so here they are!

[Nintales]

Deirdre does have an easy time on the arena once you get rid of the swordie. She can 2HKO almost anything, and will survive or will "die" and fight back with prayer.

With the magic ring, I think she OHKOes some dudes on chapter 2. Not sure though.

Without, she's pretty much a Jeigan. Weakens mobs for others to finish.. That is if she can get to these mobs.

Why didn't you finish the arena with Lex, by the way?

[FionordeQuester]

Actually, there's one more part...it's just taking me an unusually long time to do everything since I'm doing it via iPad :/

Chapter 1 Part 3-3

Midir Talks to Aideen



Midir: My lady! Youre alright! Ahh... What a relief! My humblest apologies for all you had to go through!

Aideen: Midir, Im just happy that youre not hurt. Lets put this all behind us. You did your very best, and thats all I could ever ask for. Do me a favour, Midir, and stay with Sir Sigurds troops.

Midir: Id be more than happy to. I am greatly indebted to him for rescuing Jungby Castle for us, and you as well!

Azel Talks to Aideen



Azel: Lady Aideen! Youre not hurt, are you?

Aideen: Azel of Velthomer? Youve been helping out as well, have you?

Azel: Yeah, when I heard that you had been kidnapped, I couldnt concentrate on anything! I came as fast as I could.

Aideen: Your brother is Lord Alvis, isnt he? Did you get his permission before coming?

Azel: Nope... And hes not going to be happy with me either.

Aideen: Then why did you do such a silly thing? Besides, I thought you hated fighting.

Azel: Well, I, uh...

Aideen: Whats that, Azel?

Azel: Er... nevermind.

The interesting thing about both of these conversations is that unlike other conversations, they will actually boost the amount of progress made towards making your men and women fall in love with each other. So in this situation, having Aideen talk to Midir makes it more likely for them to marry each other, and the same goes for her talk with Azel. Note that this does not apply to every conversation between males and females, only some of them.

For example, this next one doesn't have that at all!

Aira Talks to Cuan



Cuan: Hello, Im Cuan of Lenster. Sigurd tells me that youre Princess Aira from Isaac.

Aira: ...Nice to meet you.

Cuan: Im sorry, but I just have to ask you. Why did Isaac attack Darna? You had to have known Grandbell would get involved. I just cant fathom why King Mananan would do something like that.

Aira: You actually know my father, Cuan!?

Cuan: No. Not personally. But my father did. He had a very high opinion of your father. He also thought your brother, Prince Maricle, was a fine young man.

Aira: He said that, did he... That makes me proud. They were both highly respected soldiers. Neither would ever condone an attack on a defenseless people. The leader of Rivough... Hes the one who besieged Darna, not my father.

Cuan: Youre kidding! Why hasnt Grandbell been informed of that? Prince Kurth would surely reconsider his offensive if he knew that.

Aira: My father thought so as well. After executing Rivoughs leader, he left for Grandbells frontline, head and all, to explain everything. However...

Uh oh ...

Cuan: What?

Aira: My father was assassinated at the Grandbellian front. When Isaac heard word of the kings death, the people went into a rage! Maricle thus proceeded to launch a full-scale attack against Grandbell.

Whoa, what happened THERE I wonder?

Cuan: Whew... I just cant imagine Prince Kurth acting so rashly. Does Sigurd know about all of this?

Aira: No. Sigurd has his hands full here as it is. Besides, I dont think Maricle...

Cuan: ...survived? Prince Maricle knew he would perish in battle, huh...

Aira: He believed the future of Isaac rests in Shanans survival. My job is to make sure Shanan grows up safe and sound.

Cuan: I see... Well, dont lose hope, Aira. Someday the truth will come to light. In the meantime, Ill try to help you out however I can.

Aira: Thats very kind of you, Cuan.

Pretty unique conversation there...and pretty disturbing. I mean, we already know that the Loputousu clansmen have been manipulating everything here in Verdane...so who's to say they're not doing that everywhere else as well? We'd best get some more info on them...





Anyways though, we've completed every objective on this map now, so at long last, this map is finished! Now, one thing that's unique about Deirdre. She's a very important character to the plot, so if she dies on any of the maps...well, she doesn't actually die, she just gets captured. And if that happens, you'll get this additional screen when you finish the map...





No other dialogue, that's all they say to each other. Note that Deirdre's "death" still counts as a Loss as far as the Combat ranking goes, and you can only afford 3 "Losses", so we still need to keep her alive. Anyways...



Oifaye: He has sustained heavy injuries. Hes very likely beyond our help.



Sigurd, don't even bother, Sandima killed him long ago, and Manfloy himself confirmed him dead, so there's no chance that he's going to-

King Batou: Urgh... Sigurd, my apologies for all you had to go through.



Ok, WHAT THE HECK SANDIMA?!? Are you seriously SO incompetent, that you can't even kill an old man?! Then again, Manfloy also thought he was dead, so...what, was Batou playing dead or something? I guess...I mean, that's most likely not too hard when you almost ARE dead already...

King Batou: This was all Sandimas doing. He deceived me while conning my two sons in an attempt to take control of the country.

Sigurd: Yes, Im aware of that. Please, dont overexert yourself. You just need some rest.

And now things really get dumb.

King Batou: No, Im already done for. But before I die, I have one last thing I must tell you. The evil thats rearing its head across the continent is all the work of the Dark Sect. Theyre out to destroy all thats 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!!, a group that you KNEW was specifically dedicated to REVIVING SATAN!! YOU KNEW THIS!! Otherwise you wouldn't have told us all this!

And yet, despite all of that, you still honestly believe at he was honestly working for your good?! REALLY?! WHY?! HOW ARE YOU THIS GULLIBLE?!?

I think he was drawn in by Sandima's hip fashion sense.



I guess this statement here renders Deirdre's alternate conversation with Sigurd non-canon. That, or she talked to him about it afterwards. Actually that'd make the most considering that Deirdre is most likely looking to Sigurd for protection. Heck, now that I think about it, the Dark Sect is probably one of the biggest reasons why she's doing this. She KNOWS Sigurd can protect her, and she KNOWS that she's just going to continue being hunted, and eventually caught, by the Dark Sect if she remains in the Spirit Forest. Never thought of that before...



So then, on that somber note, we now close out on this update. We have now completely subdued Isaac, Aideen has been rescued, and we have finally found Deirdre. But, will this be the end of Sigurd's troubles? Or will we run into more problems with the Dark Sect? And just how far does their reach extend to? Will Isaac start to become a problem for Sigurd soon? And what of Elliot? Has Eltshan put an end to his antics? Or will be find ourselves haunted by him again in the future? Find out, on the next exhilarating episode of Let's Max Rank Fire Emblem 4! Have a nice night, and God bless you all!

Translation Tidbits

Creative Liberty #7: When Sigurd calls for God to put "1000 slashes upon his heart" if he's sinning, that's not actually in the original script. In the original script, he just calls for God to "visit unbearable agony and pain" upon him or something like that. He doesn't specify WHAT kind of agony.

Creative Liberty #8: The first half of Sigurd's ending line of "King Batou...No...What IS the Dark Sect anyway...?" is a bit different in the original script, and somehow even sillier. In the original script, Sigurd literally says something along the lines of "King Batou...What sorrow..." or "King Batou...What a pity." Either way, it's still evident that the writers weren't even trying with this scene .

Edited July 22, 2015 by FionordeQuester