screenshot Let's Play FE4 Binary: Where Hacking Goes To Get Hacked

[epilepsyduck]

did bananas create the updated portraits hack? because i've seen a lot of those in other genealogy hacks. some hacks like tordo and neir have been out for years, and the sigurd sprite was in there. and that is just one instance

No, I'm not a hacker or an artist, so none of that's mine. It's just another version of the RM patch.

[Ansem]

No, I'm not a hacker or an artist, so none of that's mine. It's just another version of the RM patch.

ah haha i was thinking you were since he said he got your permission. was gonna give you mad props.

but mad props for the lp tho. it actually got me interested in playing RM again. if you get the chance/are interested there are other hacks of FE4 out there if you idnt know already. interesting stuff, and since you're used to the japanese commands and all, playing those should be easy too. if you need a patch lmk

[Konnor97]

ah haha i was thinking you were since he said he got your permission. was gonna give you mad props.

I asked permission so it wasn't like I was just jumping in the thread to show of the portraits of the 2.97 version.

Speaking of that, here are the ones from Chapter 4.

[spoiler=Chapter 4]

Lewyn and his uncles Maios using Coruta's portrait from Thracia and Daccar using a recolored Gustav portrait from Thracia

Cuvuli using Veld's portrait from Thracia

Deet'ver using her daughter Misha's portrait from Thracia

Pamela using Femina's unused portrait from Thracia

Mahnya and Lahna

Andrei

Donovan

Lamia

I've edited my other post with the names for the bosses.

EDIT: [spoiler=Chapter 5]

Vaha using a recolored Mareeta portrait from Thracia and Aida with a recolored Amalda portrait from Thracia

Slayder using Paulus' portrait from Thracia

Hardin using a recolored Barat portrait from Thracia

Travant

Magorn using Dobalzark's portrait from Thracia

The three minibosses near Reptor no longer have Eyrios', Olwen's, nor Amalda's portraits

[spoiler=Beo Sword and Chapter 6 sneak peek]

Anyone can equip the Beo Sword in this version of Binary, just as long as they can wield B swords

Further proof as Delmud is Lex's son

Old Arvis

Danan, Johalva, Johan, and Harold using a recolored Oltof portrait fron Thracia

Shanan

Seliph

Bit late for this I guess, but it seems like all of the villager portraits come from Thracia, but I'll make a note if there are any interesting ones.

Edited July 16, 2016 by Konnor97

[Enaluxeme]

Those are two sexy Joha brothers ._. Also Danan looks even more like a zombie

[epilepsyduck]

ah haha i was thinking you were since he said he got your permission. was gonna give you mad props.

but mad props for the lp tho. it actually got me interested in playing RM again. if you get the chance/are interested there are other hacks of FE4 out there if you idnt know already. interesting stuff, and since you're used to the japanese commands and all, playing those should be easy too. if you need a patch lmk

I've got Tordo Revolution and another one I don't know the name of, but I've not had much luck finding the others. I wouldn't mind being pointed in the right direction on where to find stuff like Genealogy of Neir and all that.

We've got a few more promotions to look at today, and after that we'll handle the first boss of Chapter 8.

Chapter 8 Part 1: Horse-B-Gone

After two chapters with really weird, floaty progression, we've returned to comforting linearity in Chapter 8. We also get a peek at some people who'll be making our lives very miserable not too long from now.

But first, we get a rerun of the shit we had to deal with last chapter. Freege doesn't take kindly to being routed like that.

Yet more inconsistently applied Thracia portraits; the Thracians get them, but Ced doesn't. Also, what's going on with Areone's hair?

There Leif and Pals go, to defend Lenster all by themselves. You'd think Celice would send more reinforcements then like three people if it was really that urgent.

Before we move out into the chapter itself, it's time to pass the Elite Ring around and get everyone some EXP.

The foes in the Arena are a varied bunch. Starting off, we've got a mere Axe Fighter whom Celice felt the need to show off to.

Fate here, once a mere Thunder Mage, has gotten an upgrade and become a Mage Knight. Dismounted, of course, because horses are apparently quite rare in Jugdral these days.

We've then got a... Paladin? Duke Knight? I don't know, all cavaliers kind of look the same. Anyway, he's quite a tough customer.

Though Louis and Heste were once a stereotypical Swordfighter/Bowfighter pair, Louis managed to break through all the stereotypes of his profession and become a Free Fighter instead. They've both got Killer weapons for extra oomph.

For everyone who's sick of all these dismounted Mage Knights, fret not; a Mage Fighter makes himself known. Boy does he love using Continue!

This General's got a Killer Lance, because his durability wasn't annoying enough to deal with.

The final pair of foes are packing Silver weapons, and are quite the pain to deal with for many reasons.

Thankfully, everyone made it through the Arena, and even the Lenster defenders (except for Leif) were able to get their hands on the Elite Ring. Let's see how everyone's turned out:

Arena Rankings and Level Ups:

ARENA RANKINGS- Celice *, Lester *, Lana *, Patty *, Fee *, Teeny *, Arthur *, Delmud *, Johan *, Ares *, Oifey *, Shanan *, Larcei *, Skasaher *, Nanna *, Fin *, Leif , Leen *, Julia

ARENA LEVELS-

Celice: 4 levels- +2 MHP, +1 Skl, +3 Str, +3 Spd, +3 Def

Our little lord gets straight to the point and nabs all the essentials. Smart.

Lester: 5 levels- +4 MHP, +3 Skl, +2 Str, +1 Spd, +3 Luk, +4 Def

You were looking pretty patchy for a while, so I'm glad you're making up for lost time here.

Lana: 4 levels- +4 MHP, +1 Skl, +1 Str, +1 Spd, +2 Mgc, +3 Luk, +1 Def

That's all very nice and balanced, but I'd have liked a bit more Magic. Oh well, nothing promotion won't fix!

Patty: 5 levels- +6 MHP, +1 Skl, +3 Str, +3 Spd, +1 Mgc, +4 Luk, +2 Def, +2 Mdf

The beefiest thief in the world is right here in FEBinary.

Fee: 6 levels- +6 MHP, +1 Skl, +2 Str, +1 Spd, +3 Mgc, +2 Luk, +2 Def

She's really not measuring up to Fury, but that's okay. Fury was kind of an anomaly last Gen anyway.

Teeny: 5 levels- +5 MHP, +4 Skl, +3 Spd, +4 Mgc, +4 Luk, +2 Mdf

I'm so glad Teeny is turning out to be her brother's equal here. Despite her lower level, some of her stats are higher than his!

Arthur: 6 levels- +6 MHP, +5 Skl, +1 Str, +1 Spd, +4 Mgc, +3 Luk, +1 Def

Not that Arthur is slacking or anything. Speed is capped here I'm pretty sure.

Delmud: 6 levels- +11 MHP, +2 Skl, +4 Str, +4 Spd, +2 Mgc, +2 Luk, +3 Def

Why weren't you doing this the entire time, Delmud?

Johan: 4 levels- +1 MHP, +1 Skl, +2 Str, +2 Spd, +3 Def, +1 Mdf

He is so very strong. Be afraid.

Ares: 5 levels- +8 MHP, +1 Skl, +5 Str, +2 Spd, +2 Mgc, +3 Luk

That's what I'd expect of you.

Oifey: 5 levels- +3 MHP, +4 Skl, +1 Spd, +1 Mgc, +2 Luk, +1 Def

I don't think it matters too much what you get in your levels.

Shanan: 4 levels- +1 MHP, +3 Skl, +3 Def

Ditto for you.

Larcei: 2 levels- +2 MHP, +2 Spd

She's capped basically everything, so I understand.

Skasaher: 4 levels- +6 MHP, +2 Str, +2 Spd, +1 Luk, +1 Def

I'm happy when most of my units remember to get Strength, Speed and Defense instead of one of those and a million points of Luck.

Nanna: 5 levels- +5 MHP, +2 Skl, +3 Str, +3 Spd, +1 Mgc, +2 Luk, +1 Def

That's a hell of a lot better than before. Please keep it up.

Fin: 2 levels- +1 MHP, +1 Spd

*yawn*

Leif: 3 levels- +4 MHP, +1 Skl, +2 Str, +1 Luk

Poor Leif is really underleveled and didn't get great gains here. At least he won't stay overshadowed for long.

Leen: 6 levels- +4 MHP, +1 Str, +1 Spd, +2 Mgc, +1 Luk, +2 Mdf

Okay then.

Julia: 3 levels- +3 MHP, +1 Str, +2 Mgc, +1 Luk, +1 Mdf

You're just full of surprises, aren't you Julia?

We've got four promotions to handle today. Let's start with Lana, as her options should look quite familiar.

Much like her mother, her default option is Valkyrie. +3 Skl, +2 Spd, +4 Mgc, +5 Def, +5 Mdf, +3 Mov, access to basic Anima and B Light, and most importantly, an A staff rank. She's now the perfect staffbot!

You could also pick the hilarious underwhelming Shaman option instead. With crappier stat gains (+2 Skl, +2 Spd, +3 Mgc, +3 Def, +4 Mdf), the only real niche this class has is Dark magic, but since Julia and Ced can do that but better, it's not much of an advantage.

I don't think it's a surprise I picked Valkyrie here. Shaman is just a terrible choice all around.

Skasaher is also up for a class change, and much like Lana, his options should be quite familiar.

Mercenary is the default pick, just like our previous Free Fighter. It's got slightly offensively-oriented boosts of +3 Skl, +4 Str, +2 Spd, +3 Mgc, +2 Def, +3 Mdf, +1 Mov, and grants Pursuit and +5 Crit. And A Axes, but he's already got that anyway.

His second choice is Forrest Knight. The boosts are the closest he'll ever get to Swordmaster (+7 Skl, +1 Str, +3 Spd, +3 Def, +3 Mdf, +3 Mov), and much like Swordmaster, he gets Continue, but sadly no Crit bonus or Pursuit. He does have the Pursuit Ring, though, so that's not a huge issue.

Despite saying I'd have him go Mercenary last time, I've chosen Forrest Knight instead. Having Neir Blood means he gets A Axes in the class anyway, so the only real downside is the lower caps. Still, with the Master Axe in hand I don't think it's a huge issue.

Oifey got demoted to mere Cavalier back in Chapter 6, but he's ready to promote and get back in the game!

His first pick is Paladin, naturally. The gains, +3 Skl, +2 Str, +3 Spd, +5 Mgc, +3 Def, +5 Mdf, +1 Mov, are pretty balanced, and he gets better Lances and access to Axes, but it's otherwise a functional but unexciting class.

His next option is Duke Knight. +1 Skl, +4 Str, +1 Spd, +3 Def, +3 Mdf, +1 Mov gives him more offensive edge in exchange for Speed and Resistance, and he doesn't get Axes but gets A Lances. Again, it's functional, but not really exciting. Besides, Finn is already a Duke Knight.

He can also sacrifice any movement gains to go Iron Knight! The stats he gets are a bit lopsided at +4 Str, +7 Def, +5 Mdf, but he gets Great Shield and better weapon ranks than the other classes. The ever-so-slightly lower movement is a bit of an issue, but nothing crucial.

Iron Knight will be my pick for our beloved crutch, for class variety as much as anything. I hate having multiple Paladins and Duke Knights running around.

Johan's our last promotion candidate today, and he's got some very enticing options indeed!

But before we get to such options, we've got to look at Great Knight. With +1 Skl, +5 Str, +1 Spd, +4 Def, +3 Mdf, +1 Mov, it's quite a beefy class, but kinda slow and not terribly interesting. The only real advantage is has is higher movement.

Iron Knight is his next pick. Same +4 Str, +7 Def, +5 Mdf for the stat boosts, same Great Shield skill, same weapon ranks (though he gets A Axes because of Major Neir blood), same everything as Oifey. It's useful if you didn't want Oifey to go Iron Knight, but it's not the only option.

His third promotion is the wonderful Berserker class! It's got crazy stat boosts (+6 Skl, +8 Str, +4 Spd, +2 Def, -1 Mov), a massive +20 Crit, and gives him the Wrath skill for even more critical hits! The only real disadvantages are loss of movement and the fact he can't equip swords anymore, but compared to the advantages of the class I'd say it's a fair trade.

Berserker is Johan's new class assignment. Aside from all the gameplay advantages, I'm quite fond of the silly crabwalk animation and the shirtless barbarian look, even if the blue makes it look a bit odd.

It's time to actually play the game! Fee will set out to rescue villages from all the jerks who want to smash them up.

Teeny's got the Bolting tome, and will be using it to support Leif and his friends while they defend Lenster.

There, everyone's outside and ready to throw down with the approaching enemies.

First, we've got Not!Shagaal and, of all things, a minor boss with a unique portrait! They'll be charging for Alster and Lenster, respectively.

The Magi Sisters are also out for blood, and with their Leg Rings they'll reach us pretty quickly. Imagine if they actually had horses!

Ovo will take a few turns to actually reach the Lenster group.

Muhammed, on the other hand, is ready to fight us right now.

Johan decides to show off his new animations.

Ares could've done better this turn, though.

I'm quite worried about the possibility that these three will attack Lenster. We already had one close call in regards to that, don't try this shit again!

Some of Ovo's troops are in range, so Teeny tries out her new tome.

+1 MHP, +1 Skl, +1 Mgc, +1 Luk. Not bad.

Before she sets out on her village-saving quest, Fee takes a passing shot at one of Muhammed's dudes.

Things could've gone better.

Delmud enjoys his newfound ability to kill things without me having to babysit him.

Celice's Rapier really comes in handy with all these Armors around.

He gets +2 MHP, +1 Skl, +1 Str, +1 Luk, +1 Def, +1 Mdf. He's so balanced!

Let's dispose of the healer before he annoys me with his heal-y ways.

Muhammed will be our first boss encounter this chapter. Shall we look at what we're up against.

Compared to last chapter's bosses (who ranged from "utterly vicious" to "completely harmless"), Muhammed's quite tough without being insanely powerful. He's got a pair of Hero weapons for either range, and drops the Bow on defeat unless you already have it. He's got Vantage, so keep that in mind before you have people charge up to fight him, but overall he's fairly manageable.

He's especially manageable if you knock him out with Blizzard first.

In his unconscious state, I let a few people take potshots at him. Delmud here gets +2 MHP, +1 Str, +1 Spd, +1 Luk, +1 Def, +1 Mdf.

Patty had to give her gold to Leen so she could buy the Elite Ring, so now it's time to start building those gold reserves back up again!

Skasaher ultimately finishes him off.

+1 MHP, +1 Spd, +1 Luk, +1 Def. Good stuff.

With Muhammed out of the way, we can start moving towards Conote, but first we've gotta clear his mooks out.

+1 MHP, +1 Str. Ares is so delightfully himself today.

In addition to all the troops Blume has sent our way before now, he also send this one puny archer after us. I don't know how this factors into your grand strategy, Blume, he doesn't even have the Yewfelle!

Enemy phase is a fun time for units with Vantage, but not so great for their levels; both Johan and Patty only get +1 MHP.

Back in Lenster, Leif defends his allies from a swarm of Silver and Rapier wielding foes.

He doesn't do such a bad job of things.

+1 MHP, +1 Skl, +1 Str, +1 Mgc, +1 Def. That's pretty nice!

And again!

+2 MHP, +1 Spd, +1 Mgc. Less nice, but not bad!

All these enemies are getting dangerously close to Lenster. Makes me wish we'd sent maybe more than three people to defend this place.

Luckily, we're ready to move out and back them up! Next time, we defeat the same bosses as last Chapter, only slightly differently!

[Konnor97]

[spoiler=Chapter 6]

Larcei and Ulster

Lana

Oifaye and Lester

Delmud using his Thracia portrait

Lewyn and Julia using their Thracia portraits

Arthur using his unused Thracia portrait and Fee

Schmidt using Seyme's portrait from Thracia

Neither Johalva nor Johan have Major Neir blood anymore

[spoiler=Chapter 7]

Leif and Finn using their Thracia portraits

Jabarro, Bramsel using Cowen's portrait from Thracia, and Ctuzof using Veld's portrait

Ishtore using what looks like an edited splice of Brighton's and Reinhardt's portraits from Thracia, Liza using a recolored Amalda portrait from Thracia, Blume using his Thracia portrait, and Tinny

Nanna using her Thracia portrait

Some guy using Lobos' portrait from Thracia

Shanan and Patty

Some guy using Ctuzof's old portrait

Generic soldier

Leen and Ares

Vampa, Fetra, and Eliu using edited and recolored Lara portraits from Thracia

The fem!Hero in front of Darna using a Beo Sword

Edited July 19, 2016 by Konnor97

[epilepsyduck]

I fucking hate Imgur's new update so fucking much it's so incredibly awful asdkfhasdiulfhadfshadfhlhdfkhuadfuadfpo

Sorry for the delays, let's actually take on the meat of Chapter 8 this time instead of just one throwaway boss!

Chapter 8 Part 2: Warp in the North West

Last time, we crushed Muhammed beneath our heel and set out to wipe that smug look off Blume's face yet again.

This time around, we've got a few enemies to clean up, and then we can focus on protecting Lenster and dealing with whatever foes get thrown our way.

There, that's the last of them. Our march begins!

Now that Alster is safe, I can send most of my troops to Conote.

Lenster's troubles, however, have only just begun.

One tricky little thing is how pretty much everyone here has a Horseslayer or Rapier (the few who don't have Silver weapons instead). This means Leif has to do the lion's share of the defending, though Fin or a properly leveled Nanna can handle it if they're placed on the castle.

Even the Mage Knights get in on the action, though they prefer using Elthunder. One of them's got Thoron and a Silver Sword instead.

Ovo here is quite a bit more troublesome than Muhammed ever was. With two very strong weapons and the stats to use them, not just anyone can go toe-to-toe with him and expect to come out of it okay. He's also got Sol for some annoying self-heals, and a Sol Manual that he'd drop if you didn't pass it down.

One thing I'm very worried about is these three. I don't want them attacking Lenster, because the four people there aren't any more equipped to handle that than they were before. I've really gotta move.

Having Teeny around for long-range support makes defending Lenster a bit easier, at least.

Nanna does her healer thing as best she can, which, with Holyn as a dad, isn't especially good at all.

No one's in range of the boss except Fin, because I don't trust him not to eviscerate the kids.

Everyone loves picking on this poor beleaguered knight.

Fortunately, those castle bonuses really help him out.

That guy fails to move our of the way, so his allies just bunch up behind him.

Excepting the magic users of course.

For the most part, they're similarly ineffectual.

The boss is... not, though.

I legit didn't intend for this to happen, but at least it keeps them away from Leif.

Fee lives, but only barely.

Teeny follows in her father's footsteps in terms of getting rid of assholes with well-timed crits.

The whole situation over there is making me a bit antsy, though. Time to send in the white mage!

Lana opens up our levels today with +1 MHP, +1 Mgc. That's fine, Magic is really what you need most.

There's only one response to this attempt on Fee's life.

Johan as a Berserker is so wonderful.

Leen gets a dance in there to let some people try their hand at getting rid of the other two.

This wasn't gonna end any other way, let's be real.

+1 MHP, +1 Spd. And with that she capped Speed!

Johan sadly didn't get rid of the last of the sisters, so we'll have to contend with another turn of her assholery.

Back in Lenster, their newest defender immediately makes herself at home.

+1 MHP, +1 Str, +1 Luk. Strength? Okay, I guess it'll make your tomes less heavy.

This is how things are set up. Hopefully Ovo won't splatter anyone this turn.

Speaking of people who can splatter stuff, it's Ishtar everyone! With a new artstyle and everything, she's ready to make life less fun for everyone involved.

She's not a Sage anymore, but a Mage Fighter instead. That'll be relevant very soon, just you wait.

Fucking healers, I hate them!

Everyone's really got it out for Fin it seems, because they all go straight for him.

The first foe he faces knocks him to 2 HP, thereby making him immortal.

Even the boss couldn't get a hit in!

Enough of that, it's time to start getting rid of these pests.

+1 MHP, +1 Skl, +1 Spd, +1 Luk, +1 Def. Good on you, working on your weak points!

Honestly, Teeny is kicking so much ass that I almost want to hand Forseti over to her when we eventually get it. I won't, but she's making a strong case for herself.

Especially when she does things like +1 MHP, +1 Skl, +1 Spd, +1 Luk, +1 Def, +1 Mdf.

Just for the hell of it, I send Lester over to help with killing the boss.

He gets a couple strong hits in there.

+1 MHP, +1 Skl, +1 Luk. He's ready to promote!

Julia brings Ovo's HP even lower.

Leif is the one to get the last hit, and does so quite flamboyantly!

+1 MHP, +1 Skl, +1 Str, +1 Spd, +1 Luk, +1 Def. Excellent!

I'm really quite sick of these mage sisters, so time to do away with them once and for all!

She never stood a chance.

+1 MHP. To be fair, he's hit a lot of his caps at this point.

+1 Skl, +1 Def. Yep.

With that out of the way, it's time to look at our little roving boss.

Ishtar has actually had a few of her stats drop in the change from Sage to Mage Fighter, but she's still a very deadly boss anyway, thanks to the addition of Pursuit and a bit of Strength so she can heft that heavy tome of hers. Her defensive stats are also better, and she takes advantage of her (cheated) B Swords to wield the Blaggi Sword just in case you Silence her. She's obviously not quite as threatening wielding it than she'd be with Mjölnir in her hands, but it means Silence no longer completely neutralizes her.

Most of the enemies guarding the bridge to Conote aren't terribly impressive, but it just wouldn't be FEBinary if we didn't have some minibosses hiding around.

Enough babble, though, let's get back to the real exciting stuff.

Leif decides to show off a bit with not one but two critical hits!

This one last Mage Knight picks a target I didn't quite expect.

Well, that's just rude.

Watch as our death slowly approaches. And Faval too, of course. Can't forget about him.

We're all safely out of range and ready for him to be swayed back to our side by his darling sister.

His cousin, meanwhile, is busy defending a faraway castle and won't be attending this touching reunion.

Teeny gets rid of the last pony mage.

Fin does his thing too, of course.

That one village far to the north is getting its ass handed to it, so I'm sending Oifey to handle the situation.

I honestly have horror stories of trying to deal with this woman in FEBinary without status staves. It's not a pretty picture.

What is a pretty picture is the adorably hatted thief getting her brother to turn traitor. Let's see what we've picked up.

Unlike vanilla FE4, Binary Faval isn't 100% guaranteed to be amazing since he doesn't inherit Yewfelle. Beowulf Faval in particular is somewhat overshadowed by Lester, who's basically the same thing but better. Still, he's not awful or anything, and that Luna Manual will hopefully let him stand out a bit.

Since Lana remembered to get Magic this time around, it's time to put Ishtar down for a nap so she won't try to murder us.

+1 MHP, +1 Skl. Yep, that's a level.

Delmud does a really good job chewing through Ishtar's HP.

Because I was feeling a bit lazy, I let Ares get the final blow.

+1 MHP, +1 Skl, +1 Mdf. That's... something, I guess.

Hello, Julius!

Goodbye, Julius!

We're just about done in Lenster, so soon we'll have everyone back together and never have to stupidly split up like that again.

Teeny handles this jerk with much style and flair.

+1 MHP, +1 Spd, +1 Mgc, +1 Luk, +1 Def. She's so very strong now.

Everyone's ready to rejoin Celice and Friends on their murderquest.

Oifey manages to save the village. Though it's basically just a single house now.

We'll be mopping the floor with Conote's defenders and have Blume dead in the ground by next update. See you then!

[epilepsyduck]

There was legitimately no reason for Imgur to do this to me whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

We'll deal with Blume once and for all this time around, and get a few promotions for our squad. At least one of them should be a surprise!

Chapter 8 Part 3: Always a Baronet, never a Baron

We begin by tearing through the feeble guards set here to defend the bridge to Conote.

They really don't stand much of a chance.

+2 MHP, +1 Spd, +1 Def. Not too shabby.

Since the General here is a bit tougher than his mooks, I decide to send in someone "a bit" tougher than Delmud.

I didn't even mean to get a sibling crit, but hey!

Not like he would've survived without the sib crit.

+1 MHP. Ugh.

A little patching up gets done, which nets Lana +1 MHP, +1 Luk. So very typical.

Faval does his part to clear out the Armors.

This is not the world's best formation by any stretch.

Come on, Shanan. Don't you and your twig arms let me down here!

Thank you, Shanan! You're not so terrible for now.

Johan could've met a tragic end here, but fortune smiled on me.

These guys with Bolting sure are inaccurate.

Firing back with his own siege tomes nets Arthur +1 MHP, +1 Mgc, +1 Luk.

The Iron Mage here was the biggest issue in that little cluster of mages, so Celice breaks out the Rapier.

After that, taking care of the others is smooth sailing.

Well, unless your name is Faval, I suppose.

+1 MHP, +1 Skl, +1 Luk, +1 Def. That's pretty okay, at least.

Let's see how Blume's doing, and if he's ready for Round 2.

Without the Mjölnir, Blume isn't quite as deadly as before, but that doesn't mean he's got no tricks up his sleeve. Bolting makes approaching him a bit more dangerous than our last encounter, and he now wields the Dime Thunder spell, a thunder spell with a Brave effect, and that alone can make mincemeat out of a lot of my units. It also gives him that +5 Skl, for whatever that's worth.

I don't remember if I showed off Dime Thunder's stats last time we saw it, so here it is again just in case.

Blume picks possibly the worst fucking target on the very first turn that I've got more than one person in range of him.

But luck isn't done saving me from my own poor decisions.

Enough of that, I don't need you getting any funny ideas and attacking Leen or someone else incompetent.

+1 MHP, +1 Spd, +1 Mgc, +1 Luk, +1 Def. That's the kind of shit I like to see.

The Generals surrounding Blume aren't especially threatening, and are handled swiftly and without mercy.

+2 MHP, even though all I ever did was love you.

I do appreciate how we're still at that stage where "Green Sparkles = Instant Death".

Delmud's failure to get rid of the guard grants him +2 MHP, +1 Str, +1 Spd, +1 Luk, +1 Mdf.

Celice finishes the job for +1 MHP, +1 Skl, +1 Str, +1 Mgc, +1 Def.

Since Blume is silenced, I let a few people take chunks out of him.

Patty, of course, goes straight for the money.

Skasaher is the one who ultimately eliminates the head of House Freege for good.

He gets a sorta-okay +1 MHP, +1 Mgc, +1 Def for his troubles.

I let Nanna do some healing so she'll hit level 20, getting a measly +1 MHP. You can do a lot better than that.

Time to send a few units home for promotions!

+1 MHP, +1 Skl, +1 Str, +1 Mdf. Honestly, if you want to make Lightning a bit lighter for yourself go right ahead.

+1 Mgc, +1 Luk. There's really nothing to say when a Dancer levels up.

Nanna will be the first on our promotion mini-marathon today. Her options are stolen straight from Ethlin.

Her first option, naturally, is to become a Paladin. In addition to the fantastic pink armor, she earns +3 Skl, +5 Str, +3 Spd, +3 Mgc, +5 Def, +3 Mdf, +1 Mov from this class, and gains an utterly pointless Lance rank as well. Overall, it's a pretty great class, and pretty much her default choice in most cases.

If her father is Azel or (god forbid) Levin, though, you'll probably want to go Mage Knight. It's got a more magical slant in its boosts of +1 Skl, +2 Spd, +8 Mgc, +2 Def, +4 Mdf, +1 Mov, and trades in that useless Lance rank for B Anima.

While Mage Knight's an interesting choice, Holyn!Nanna is really a physical fighter through and through. With that said, I've made her a Paladin, as she can better take advantage of the boosts is provides than the ones given by Mage Knight. Besides, Mage Knight gives her boring grey armor, and I hate boring palettes.

Lester is our second candidate for promotions, and like Nanna, he borrows his classes from a Gen 1 unit, in this case his father Midayle.

Bow Knight, of course, is the default pick for Lester. Granting +2 Skl, +3 Str, +2 Spd, +2 Def, +3 Mdf, +1 Mov, as well as B Swords, it's a pretty balanced option overall, and lets him get his hands dirty with melee combat if he feels like it.

Alternatively, he can abandon his horse altogether and become a Sniper. Getting +6 Skl, +3 Str, +6 Spd, +1 Def, +3 Mdf, -1 Mov and +5 Crit, he becomes a bit more offensively potent but loses movement and the ability to do hit-and-run tactics. He also completely loses any melee capabilities whatsoever.

I'll be playing it safe and going Bow Knight on this one. Sniper is nice if Lester doesn't already have Pursuit, but I'd prefer to keep him in his current role of a mounted archer, especially since he's far from the only Sniper we can get.

You might not believe this, but Celice here has more than one promotion to pick from! Let's take a look at what he's got in store for us;

His default option, naturally, is Lord Knight. The stats he gets are actually kind of hilariously paltry thanks to the higher caps of his starting class, meaning he only gets +2 Str, +3 Mov from promotion. Well, that and B Lances.

If that dissatisfies you, he can take a page out of his uncle's playbook and go Baron instead. He sacrifices movement for actual stat gains, getting +4 Str, +4 Mgc, +6 Def, +4 Mdf, -1 Mov, and gets A everything but Light and Dark and B Light. He also gets Great Shield, just to add to the huge number of characters on our side who can have that as a skill.

Baron is an interesting class, but also an immensely tedious one to actually use. I suppose I could have Leen spend her time dancing him to where he needs to go... but I'd rather just get the +3 Movement, so Lord Knight it is! He doesn't need all those other weapon ranks anyway.

Another castle is "liberated" by the Liberation Army.

This really pisses off the local gang of dragon riders, who immediately set out to put us in our place.

Meanwhile, the castle between our two titanic forces realizes how royally fucked it is and goes green in the hopes that we'll save all six of the people living there.

To make matters worse, these villages immediately start getting smashed up by some unseemly brigand types.

Fee will set out to save the poor villagers, but not before netting herself some juicy EXP.

She gets enough to level up, but only gets +1 MHP, +1 Def. It's a bit late to be taking after your mother.

Check in next time to see how we deal with the absurd swarm of dragon rider bearing down on us at top speed!

[epilepsyduck]

I'll keep complainging about Imgur's awful new update in strikethrough until somebody posts something because uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugggggggggggghhhhhhhh

This time around, we escape from Chapter 8 altogether, but not before discovering some unusual foes from a faraway land standing in our way.

Chapter 8 Part 4: Archanean Artillery

Before we look at the inbound dragon riders, we must send Fee far across the mountains to save the Thief Ring village and another one that just has money.

Patty and Julia level up by consuming the immortal souls of the fleeing citizens, netting them +1 MHP, +1 Skl, +1 Spd, +1 Luk and +1 MHP, +1 Spd, +1 Mdf, respectively.

Let's see what sort of flying foes we'll be dealing with soon.

The generic dragon riders, as usual, are utter shit.

Coruta, on the other hand, is a fairly beefy boss. Along with an enormous boost to Strength (counting the Ring bonus) and fairly significant ones to his other stats, he's now picked up Critical and Pursuit instead of the empty void he had in his skills list before. He no longer has his Javelin, though, so bow users are even less threatened by him than before provided he doesn't get the drop on them.

The other little flier squad is lead by this nameless commander here, and he's remarkably competent too. No Hero Weapon, but he's got Continue and a Silver Lance, so he can still dish out some damage. He also remembered to pack a Javelin, though on the whole he's still very vulnerable to arrows.

Once we deal with those guys, we'll have to march down here and take on yet another swarm of dragon-riding jerks, supported by a cluster of ballista. One of them is even a miniboss!

He's got a portrait, but no name, though I'm guessing he's based on a boss from Mystery of the Emblem if he's got a portrait like that. I suppose Garnef sent him as support from one evil dragon worshiping cult to another.

Anyway, this mystery man here is remarkably dangerous if you're foolish enough to let frail units wander into his range. He's got more crit than a ballista has any right to have, and Great Shield and a Life Ring to make sure he stays on the field as long as possible. His Leadership also lets his troops hit you with alarming accuracy, so he must be dealt with quickly, especially given what's backing him up.

Here we have an ever-so-slightly less shit troop with Horseslayers instead of Steel Lances. They're still weak as hell, but a Horseslayer can be deadly regardless thanks to how effectiveness works.

The three Dragon Knights instead of Dragons Riders are marginally better and have Killer Lances. They're still chumps, but it's something.

Their commander is a bit more threatening, with a Hero Lance and the Critical and Awareness skills. Admittedly Awareness doesn't mean a whole lot for her since it no longer guards against effective damage, but she still cuts a scarier figure than her mooks. She probably would've benefited from getting a Critical Guard instead of a shitty Javelin, though.

This man, whose name I don't remember and can't be arsed to look up, is the final foe between us and the next chapter. He's clearly very fond of critical hits, as he's got two Killer weapons, and Continue and Pursuit so he can get as many chances as possible to end a life with an unlucky crit. Still, remarkably tame compared to some of the other bosses this Chapter, and his weakness to the Rapier and Blaggi Sword make him easy pickings.

These are not the world's best odds.

She makes it work for herself, though.

Let's get ourselves a Sage, shall we?

Ced here is not the world's best Ced, with Azel as a father, but he'll still serve us quite well I feel. He'll be getting a very special weapon later in the game, but for now he'll stick to Tornado and Elfire, provided I don't kick the latter to someone else.

Here's the stats of Tornado, in case you're curious.

We've gathered around Manster to staunchly defend it from invading dragons. This is a thing we'll absolutely keep doing.

An attempt is made on Shanan's life, but he dodges against all odds.

I have not put defenders out for any of my castles, so the fact the miniboss and two of his cronies are flying out to capture them is entirely on me.

Altenna puts up some token resistance to the mass slaughter of the innocent, but the boss is unswayed, so she'll just sit on a mountain moping about it.

Supported by one another's Charisma and Celice's Leadership, Lachesis's kids prove adept at dodging Javelins.

Somebody makes a laughably feeble attempt at killing Celice. He responds swiftly and without mercy.

Only one thing left to do now, I suppose.

Teeny's aid provides her with +1 MHP, +1 Spd, +1 Luk.

Delmud gets ready for promotion with +1 MHP. A shame that promotions will have to wait until next time.

Johan kills Coruta with almost no trouble at all.

Since a few enemies have started flying for Alster, I send Fin to defend it. He won't be needed for the rest of the chapter anyway.

In my haste to defend home, I neglected to defend Manster and the enemy captured it. Great going, myself.

Yet more people try to murder Shanan.

To protect him (and another distant castle I forgot to defend), I port him over to Lenster.

+1 MHP, +1 Skl. You're not giving me a lot to work with, Lana.

Our rude miniboss friend who tried to walk out on the party arrives at last, and Nanna puts him in his place.

+1 MHP. I know you capped Strength, but you could try getting some Defense or Speed, maybe?

Killing the man who took Manster castle gives Faval +2 MHP, +1 Str, +1 Luk.

+1 MHP, +1 Skl, +1 Spd. I don't know why I force myself to come up with commentary for all these levels.

Patty deals with the last of the riders. Well, the last of them that didn't fly out to capture my undefended castles.

Doing so earns an utterly pitiful +1 MHP for my favorite little thief. Why must you do this to me, child?

Fee is trying to deal with the Thief Fighter and Berserker before they destroy the village. Those Devil weapons they have hurt, though, and Fee gets unlucky and loses both a chunk of HP and all her money!

There, Manster is under our control now. Sorry mysterious green entity that was controlling it before!

The prodigal sons return.

Leif punishes them both for leaving us and is given +1 MHP, +1 Str, +1 Spd, +1 Def, +1 Mdf as a reward.

Fee is more successful in handling the bandit menace the second time around, and gets +1 MHP, +1 Spd, +1 Luk, +1 Mdf and +1 MHP, +1 Spd for each of them. Another unit ready to promote!

Let's get some of these events out of the way; Fee talks to her brother for the stereotypical +1 Luk.

Nanna and Ares chat to give the former +2 Str, +2 Def. Or they would, except she's already capped Strength, so instead all she gets is the Defense boost.

Arthur then shows up to give Fee a +3 MHP boost. It also grants a few love points for the pair, which is fine by me.

Enough about the art of conversation, we've got a strange Archanean man to deal with.

Johan isn't lucky enough to get a crit, though. At least the boss didn't use Great Shield.

No matter, I suppose; we'll just deal with the other shooters surrounding him first.

Including with a little artillery of our own.

On enemy phase, this happens over and over again. Why they don't use their Horseslayers on him is a mystery.

Not a single one hits home, amazingly enough.

His cousin is similarly lucky.

And then there's Leen...

The Awareness miniboss tries to kill Nanna for some unfathomable reason. Again with the Javelins?

Nevermind their poor tactics, I suppose, we've got murders to commit.

+1 MHP, +1 Mgc. Darling, I think the time for you to ever bother with magic swords is long behind us.

+1 MHP, +1 Str. That's... an unusual one for sure.

Oifey decides to copy Julia exactly with his own +1 MHP, +1 Str level.

Fee finally gets to try out the effective damage on her magic sword.

While Faval is having a great time shooting all these jerks out of the sky, he leaves a lot to be desired in the levels department and merely gets +2 MHP, +1 Luk, +1 Def.

+2 MHP. Another promotion ready to go!

Ms. Hero Lance is dealt with in the typical fashion.

The foreigner with his evil war machines is also disposed of.

Dunno what he's saying there, but it's neat when these minibosses get deathquotes!

+1 MHP, +1 Mdf. You can do a lot better, kid.

+1 MHP, +1 Luk, +1 Mdf. The only expectation I have is that it won't matter.

Time to kill whoever the fuck this guy is!

Teeny offers yet more long-range support.

+1 MHP, +1 Def. I'm sure you'll hit that Defense cap any day now!

Her brother tries to help, but Great Shield throws him off his game.

Skasaher is ultimately the one to finish things here.

+1 MHP, +1 Spd. So fast.

I couldn't think of anyone else who really needed the Thief Ring, so it goes to Ares so maybe he can actually afford to repair his Holy Weapon without selling a kidney.

Fee gets the remaining villages to build up her gold reserves.

I haven't done all the events or sent people through the Arena, and I won't be. Let's leave Chapter 8 behind forever!

Our Lord of Exposition has another text dump to drop on us. We can't read his fascinating words because it's not in English.

Altenna gets off her lazy ass and decides to go tell her dad that shit has hit the fan while he and his son were on vacation.

We've made great time, haven't we?

In Chapter 9, the hack continues escalating things to absurd degrees in a desperate attempt to destroy the player, but also becomes too generous for its own good and hands us all manner of delightful items.

[Enaluxeme]

Wait. Wait. Wait. Can Seliph wield Narga if he promotes to Baron?

[eclipse]

Mr. Miniboss is probably Toras from New Mystery (otherwise known as "return of the ballista boss").

[epilepsyduck]

Wait. Wait. Wait. Can Seliph wield Narga if he promotes to Baron?

I never actually tried that (I've only gone with Baron!Celice once), but I'd assume so. Then again it's possible the Holy Weapon unlock doesn't apply to it, since it doesn't apply to the Valkyrie staff.

Mr. Miniboss is probably Toras from New Mystery (otherwise known as "return of the ballista boss").

You learn something new every day. Thanks!

I was gonna have the first part of Chapter 9 out today, but Imgur is being dumb right now. Hopefully it'll be up tomorrow!

Edited August 2, 2016 by whenbananasattack

[Alastor15243]

I never actually tried that (I've only gone with Baron!Celice once), but I'd assume so. Then again it's possible the Holy Weapon unlock doesn't apply to it, since it doesn't apply to the Valkyrie staff.

Maybe, but Valkyrie has a good reason, since there's no way to halve Valkyrie's effect, it's all or nothing. You should try it! That would be awesome if it works!

[Enaluxeme]

I'll go baron and I'll try it, it's just gonna take some time since I just started my playthrough. I doubt W.B.A. has a save from before the promotion to try it herself.

[Alastor15243]

I'll go baron and I'll try it, it's just gonna take some time since I just started my playthrough. I doubt W.B.A. has a save from before the promotion to try it herself.

Shoot, I've been playing too much modern FE.

[epilepsyduck]

I'll go baron and I'll try it, it's just gonna take some time since I just started my playthrough. I doubt W.B.A. has a save from before the promotion to try it herself.

I absolutely did and then I deleted it shortsightedly after clearing Chapter 8.

We've got no less than 8 promotions to look at today, and quite a bit of inventory management besides.

Chapter 9 Part 1: Patty's Promotion Palace

Thracia really doesn't appreciate Celice trying to muscle in on their territory, and so several bosses with clashing artstyles step forth to handle the situation.

But first, we get to see Altenna chew her father out for abandoning his castle and leaving it defended by some crappy generic boss with a reused portrait.

In response, he sends out all sorts of troops to stop the endlessly destructive rampage of the Liberation Army.

For once, Leif and friends decide not to run off and defend some faraway castle without any backup. Thanks a lot, buddy!

In the usual style of things, we won't be seeing much actual combat today. Instead, we'll be fighting through the Arena and trading items around.

Our first opponents are a Killer Sword/Killer Bow toting pair, though these weapons ultimately do little to help them.

Their friend here is similarly ineffective despite his Hero Axe.

These two are more skilled wielders of their weapons than previous fighters, but ultimately give little trouble to my army.

Then we hit our first actual challenge; a General with a Hero Lance for melee combat and a Master Lance for ranged. Everyone ultimately makes it, but some *coughcoughLeencough* had to abuse the Sleep Sword to make it.

His Warrior friend is considerably tamer, wielding the devastating Hand Axe for both versions of the Arena. Bit of an odd downgrade, that.

It's okay, though, because here we've got a Darkness Sword-toting Iron Knight, who proved incredibly difficult for quite a few people to deal with thanks to Great Shield and constant critical hits.

Our last opponent is a Tornado-wielding Baron, and you can imagine the trouble some units had with him. The Sleep Sword found its way into quite a few people's hands.

Fortunately, everyone did make it through. Here's the results of their toil:

Arena Rankings and Level Ups

ARENA RAKNINGS- Celice *, Lester *, Julia *, Arthur *, Leif *, Leen *, Patty *, Teeny *, Shanan *, Faval *, Fee *, Nanna *, Larcei *, Skasaher *, Johan *, Fin *, Lana *, Ced *, Oifey *, Delmud *, Ares

ARENA LEVELS-

Celice: 3 levels- +2 MHP, +2 Skl, +2 Str, +1 Luk

We're getting to that point where almost everyone's capped their highest growths, so I imagine we soon won't have much to talk about.

Lester: 4 levels- +4 MHP, +2 Skl, +3 Str, +3 Luk, +2 Def

I was worried about your Strength for quite some time, so I'm glad you've taken steps to remedy the situation.

Julia: 4 levels- +2 MHP, +2 Skl, +1 Spd, +2 Mdf

Typical Julia things really.

Arthur: 5 levels- +3 MHP, +2 Mgc, +1 Def

Good, you'll need all the Magic you can get.

Leif: 4 levels- +7 MHP, +1 Skl, +2 Str, +2 Spd, +3 Luk, +2 Def

He's a very balanced young boy.

Leen: 5 levels- +2 MHP, +2 Skl, +1 Str, +4 Spd, +2 Mgc, +1 Luk, +1 Mdf

If she's gonna specialize in anything, I'm glad she picked Speed.

Patty: 3 levels- +4 MHP, +2 Skl, +1 Spd, +1 Mgc, +2 Luk, +2 Def

She already rammed the Strength cap for thieves pretty quickly, so it's nice she's spreading the points out a bit.

Teeny: 4 levels- +3 MHP, +1 Str, +1 Def

Strength?

Shanan: 4 levels- +4 MHP, +3 Skl, +3 Def, +1 Mdf

You are the worst Swordmaster, Shanan. What kind of Swordmaster has a 20% Speed growth?

Faval: 6 levels- +9 MHP, +2 Skl, +3 Str, +1 Spd, +1 Mgc, +6 Luk, +4 Def

I wish you'd maybe focus a bit less on Luck and more on stats that will actually make a difference for you.

Fee: 2 levels- +2 MHP, +1 Str, +1 Spd

I don't think it matters at this point.

Nanna: 2 levels- +2 MHP, +1 Mgc, +1 Luk, +2 Def, +1 Mdf

Good, you need better Defense if you're gonna get through the last chapter without dying a bunch.

Larcei: 2 levels- +2 MHP, +1 Luk

Everything important is capped, so whatever

Skasaher: 2 levels- +1 MHP, +1 Luk

Ditto here, I believe.

Johan: 1 level- +1 MHP, +1 Spd

You could always use more of that.

Fin: 1 level- +1 MHP, +1 Luk

I don't think anyone really cares anymore, Fin. Certainly, I don't!

Lana: 1 level- +1 MHP, +1 Spd, +1 Mgc, +1 Def

Magic is the crucial one for Lana, but the other stats are nice too.

Ced: 2 levels- +1 MHP, +2 Skl, +2 Spd, +2 Mgc, +1 Def

Since he can't just rely on Forseti for stat boosts, I'm happy he's getting good levels here.

Oifey: 1 level- +1 MHP, +1 Spd, +1 Luk

Yep.

Delmud: 3 levels- +5 MHP, +1 Str, +1 Spd, +2 Luk, +1 Mdf

Delmud's got better Speed than his minmaxed sister, but he's got the same defensive issues.

Ares: 2 levels- +2 MHP, +1 Spd, +1 Mdf

Did you finally run out of room for Strength and remember you have other stats?

Patty will be our first promotion for the new chapter. She's only got the one class to promote into, so I figured she was a good place to start.

Patty's only option is to become a Thief Fighter. In this class, she gains +4 Skl, +4 Str, +5 Spd, +3 Mgc, +4 Def, +3 Mdf, +1 Mov, as well as a +5 Crit boost and A Swords. She'd also have gained Pursuit, but she had that anyway. These boosts make her into the wonderful little killing machine she should be.

Julia, like Patty, only gets one class to promote into, and it's the obvious one.

Sage is Julia's sole promotion, just like vanilla FE4. The stat gains have been brought down a hair, giving +4 Skl, +6 Spd, +4 Mgc, +1 Mdf, +1 Mov, but they're still very good. She loses a Staff rank, but gains A Anima in addition to her A Light and C Dark ranks. Ultimately, she's functionally the same unit as before, just stronger.

Despite most of Leif's inheritance coming from his mother, he's borrowing from his father once it comes time to promote.

Master Knight remains his normal promotion. He gets +5 Skl, +4 Str, +5 Spd, +4 Mgc, +5 Def, +4 Mdf, +3 Mov, as well as A ranks in almost everything, access to Lightning, and the Pursuit skill. Much like his father, there's not really any point to him having a second choice when this is the primary one.

And much like his father, his second option is the Baron class, an interesting option in theory but utterly outclassed in practice. With largely inferior gains and movement loss (+4 Str, +4 Mgc, +6 Def, +4 Mdf, -1 Mov), as well as trading Pursuit for Great Shield, there's not an especially compelling reason to pick it over Master Knight. There's another candidate for this class who's better suited for it, anyway.

Master Knight is the class to go for, if it's not obvious by now. I don't understand why anyone would pick Baron.

Much like Leif, Fee is borrowing her class options from a parent, in this case her mother.

Falcon Knight is naturally her first class. Boosts of +3 Skl, +3 Spd, +4 Mgc, +2 Def, +5 Mdf mean she gains no Strength or movement, but experiences no stat losses either. She gets the Continue skill, A Lances, and a staff rank for basic healing. This makes her a useful utility unit, but not a frontline fighter, though she can do passably with her Wind Sword.

Alternately, you can take the retro path and make her a Dragon Master. The stats are a mixed bag, giving her +3 Skl, +4 Str, -4 Spd, -3 Mgc, +8 Def, -5 Mdf, +1 Mov, so she gains some movement and much-needed Strength and Defense, but experiences nasty stat losses as well. Pursuit is offered by this class, but since she has that by default it's of no use; she does, however, get an A in Swords, and access to a special weapon not available to her in the Falcon Knight class.

This was a tough call, but I ultimately picked Falcon Knight. While Dragon Master is great for a more physically-oriented Fee, with Azel as a father the benefits of Falcon Knight seemed more useful. Besides, she's obviously not the only potential Dragon Master.

Arthur gets three choices to pick from, and they should all seem quite familiar.

His first available promotion is Mage Knight. Aside from a lovely palette, it's got the lowest non-movement gains of +1 Skl, +4 Str, +1 Spd, +3 Mgc, +4 Def, +2 Mdf, +4 Mov, and he gets no skills from this class. He gets C Staves and B Swords, as well as a boost to his Anima ranks, but no Light Magic. It's still very useful, of course, as the extra mobility let's him get to the action a lot faster.

If that's not important for you, though, he can go Mage Fighter instead. It's got better boosts (+4 Skl, +4 Str, +4 Spd, +5 Mgc, +6 Def, +2 Mdf, +1 Mov), but misses out on movement and Canto. He gets C Staves and B Swords again, but also gets C Light in addition to the new Anima ranks. He'd normally get Continue from this, but since he had it already he gets absolutely nothing.

Rounding out the Azel-copycat-hour is Iron Mage. He gets more defensively-oriented boosts to the tune of +4 Str, -1 Spd, +3 Mgc, +9 Def, +3 Mdf, but receives no movement. The ranks are basically the same as Mage Fighter minus the Sword rank, and he gets the Great Shield skill. This actually isn't a bad class for him, but it does make getting him to battle a bit more difficult than the others.

Since he'll eventually be getting Forseti, he can handle the lower stats of Mage Knight, so that's what I'm going for. A pony-mounted mage with the Green Nuke is too good to pass up.

Despite being a Cavalier, Ares actually has a different set of promotions unlike those of everyone else in the class, though one is fairly familiar anyway.

The basic Paladin class is his default promotion. He gets +3 Skl, +2 Str, +3 Spd, +5 Mgc, +3 Def, +5 Mdf, +1 Mov, a fairly balanced set of boosts. He'll get up to B Lance and Axes, but no new skills. He does get to keep Rapier access in this class, though, unlike...

The Forrest Knight class! He gets far more Speed-and-Skill oriented stats (+9 Skl, +1 Str, +6 Spd, +2 Def, +3 Mdf, +1 Mov), but only gains B Axes instead of both B Lances and B Axes. Ultimately, it's a better class, as the considerably higher boosts to Skill and Speed are better then the slightly higher boosts to Defense and Strength of Paladin.

And yet, I'm going with Paladin here, and it's entirely so he and Skasaher don't share a map sprite. I'm ridiculous, I know. I'll made sure he uses that extra rank, at least.

Teeny is another unit taking after a parent when it comes time to promote.

Like her mother, she can become a Mage Fighter. It provides good stat boosts (+3 Skl, +3 Str, +6 Spd, +4 Mgc, +4 Def, +5 Mdf, +1 Mov), as well as C Swords, B Staves, and C Light. It also improves all her Anima ranks by one (in this case giving her A Thunder and A Wind, but only B Fire), and would have given her Continue if she didn't already have it.

If you're willing to sacrifice a few stats, though, you can have her go Mage Knight instead. The typical lower-stats-higher-movement tradeoff is in effect (+1 Skl, +3 Str, +2 Spd, +3 Mgc, +4 Def, +2 Mdf, +4 Mov), she doesn't get a Light rank, and her Staff and Sword ranks swap, but it's still a viable class through and through.

While she'll be getting something very special later on, she won't be able to crutch on ridiculous stat boosts the way her brother can, so I'll pick Mage Fighter to keep her competitive. That, and it looks a lot nicer than her boring grey armor as a Mage Knight.

Delmud comes last on the promotion front, and gets three classes unlike the last Free Knight we had.

First off, he can go for the mounted-Swordmaster-like that is Forrest Knight. It's got quite hefty gains of +8 Skl, +2 Str, +5 Spd, +2 Def, +3 Mdf, +1 Mov, and he gets Continue, but he doesn't get any new or improved weapon ranks and receives no Crit bonus.

If that's what you want out of him, you can send him down the Mercenary path instead. It's beefier but slower (+4 Skl, +5 Str, +4 Spd, +3 Mgc, +1 Def, +3 Mdf, -1 Mov), and trades Continue for Pursuit, A Axes and +5 Crit. It's great for making Delmud a powerhouse.

Then we have Paladin, oddly enough, and it's... something, I guess? The stats he gets are a bit weak comparatively (+2 Skl, +3 Str, +2 Spd, +5 Mgc, +3 Def, +5 Mdf, +1 Mov), and it hands him a Lance rank he's not all that likely to use, but no new skills or crit bonuses. A bit lame.

It's obvious that I'm not picking Paladin here. The choice between Mercenary and Forrest Knight is a tough one, but ultimately I went with Mercenary, and not just because Skasaher is already a Forrest Knight. I just figured one can never have too many units with A Axes.

After all that was done, I started tossing items about so everyone could take advantage of their new weapon ranks. Celice dropped his Iron Blade and Rapier for a Killer Lance.

Patty ditched the Power Ring for a Thunder Sword.

Faval got some bows that make him look like he's got a trio of starter Pokemon in his inventory, and will be toting the Elite Ring for the time being.

Lana put Lightning away and picked up a Wind tome instead.

Arthur got Thoron and Elfire instead of a bunch of basic tomes, and picked up a staff as well.

Oifey is the current holder of the Hero Lance, which he stole from Fin.

Leif decides to diversify a bit by getting a Killer Axe from the shop, a Steel Bow from Lester, and a Fire tome just because.

I felt like Delmud was a bit lacking in nice weapons, so he got Larcei's Killing Edge.

In addition to her default Elthunder, Teeny now wields Ced's Tornado tome. She also got the Devil Sword because she's got the highest Luck of any sword wielder in my army, and I figured why not? It probably won't see much use anyway.

The Halberd is now in Johan's mighty grip. I figured just having the Pugi and Steel Axe was a bit light.

Ares now has that Rapier Celice got rid of, and a Defense Ring from Nanna. He also got a Steel Lance.

Nanna picked up the Defender Sword instead of the Ring, to preserve uses on her more specialized weapons.

Ced stole that Yotsmungand from Julia, and picked up Meteor, Elwind and Bolganone as well.

Finally, to make up for making her a Falcon Knight, I gave Fee a Power Ring, as well as a staff for that new rank of hers.

At last, we set out to deal with the myriad forces Trabant has set out for us.

Hannibal is surrounded by a surprisingly capable bunch of dudes.

The Armors aren't anything particularly special, but they're still a bit difficult thanks to those Hero weapons. Some also have Sleep Swords to further fuck you up.

The Generals are wielding considerably more deadly Master Lances instead.

The Iron Mages are the most basic of the bunch, but given the poor Mdf of half my army they can still be difficult.

No army in this game is complete without the requisite Annoying Healer, of course.

Most insidious is this Shaman at the back, who packs the basic Dark tome and a Sleep Staff. Taking her out is important.

I forget this guy's name, but he's got a generic portrait so he can't possibly be important. Just know that he's got both Vantage and a Master Lance, and thus should be approached with caution lest he splatter a frail mage before they can get an attack in.

Aside from them, we've got the immediate threat of approaching dragons, led by Leif's long lost sibling. I think you know how that goes.

We've also gotta get Fee over to this area ASAP, or it'll be all burned down.

We'll actually be taking on the chapter itself next time, and hopefully getting a nigh-immortal cleric and his secretly blue-blooded father as well.

[epilepsyduck]

In a rare turn of events, we slaughter everyone guarding a castle but then don't immediately take it over. A remarkable show of restraint for our young conqueror!

We also have a ton of dragon riders coming to try and take our castle, though, so don't panic, we're still in familiar territory.

Chapter 9 Part 2: Naptime in Kapathogia

First up, let's look at how I've divided my troops; the majority of them are heading straight for Hannibal, but I've sent my archers, including Leif, to deal with Altenna's squad. Fin's guarding the castle, because I don't particularly need him for anything.

Already, we have a bold new challenger!

Bold, but not especially effective.

They've all bumbled forward, ready for my army to fall upon and crush them.

Meanwhile, this D-List boss brags about how Corple/Corpul/Carpal Tunnel Syndrome will never escape his "impregnable" castle. Given that he's the only person defending it, I very much doubt the "impregnable" part.

This bandit continues his smashing. Fee will have to hurry up a bit.

Altenna, meanwhile, gets one step closer to being out of our hair.

Since I'd rather not have Hannibal suicide on my team, I try putting him to sleep with Blizzard.

The sleep effect hits home, thankfully. I suppose it would've been smarter to use the staff, but these are the kinds of daring risks the audience asked for!

With him out of the way, it's time to start dealing with the soldier's he's throwing our way.

+2 MHP. She's capped all her highest growths at this point, so I won't complain.

Teeny tries out her new spell.

Afterwards she gets a bit more sturdy with a +2 MHP, +1 Luk, +1 Def, +1 Mdf level.

Nanna and Ares's Rapiers make dealing with all these armors a breeze.

We have a strict "no annoying healers" policy in the Liberation Army, so I'm afraid you have to go.

+1 MHP, +1 Skl, +1 Luk, +1 Def. I'd appreciate a little more speed for our brave conqueror, but fine.

In addition to our "no annoying healers" policy, we also stand against status staves.

+2 MHP, +1 Luk. Much like your sister, I'll let it slide here, especially since you won't ever get another level.

+1 MHP, +1 Def. You, on the other hand, have no such excuse.

Patty wants to become the most rounded thief ever, netting +1 MHP, +1 Skl, +1 Def for herself.

Ced, meanwhile, simply aspires to general excellence. (+1 MHP, +1 Skl, +1 Spd, +1 Mgc, +1 Luk)

We're pretty much done with Hannibal's troops. Now we can focus on the true scourge of Thracia.

While flying towards Mease, a couple of Altenna's riders get distracted.

Well, that's not very nice.

Others pay far more attention to the task at hand.

Altenna attempts to murder her younger brother. This is exactly how all my family reunions go.

Unlike mine, though, no one actually dies.

The Dragon Riders are punished for going off script with a bolt of divine retribution.

Lester and Faval, meanwhile, bring down the ones who actually remembered what they were supposed to be doing.

Faval is determined to catch up to Lester somehow, and earns +1 MHP, +1 Str, +1 Spd, +1 Luk, +1 Mdf to do so.

This time let's talk things out like rational adults.

It takes Altenna far less time to fly home than it did to fly to Mease.

She is then brutally murdered by her own family. We'll never see her again, nope.

Dear old dad flies out with a more formidable group to do what his daughter didn't.

+1 MHP, +1 Skl. It's kind of a bitch to say anything interesting about some of these.

This Iron Mage, in his attempts to slay Johan, have instead made him a vicious monster.

Aside from Hannibal and whats-his-name on the castle itself, that's pretty much the last of Kapathogia's defenders.

Speaking of him, he proves remarkably resilient. The RNG did everything it could to keep him alive.

Ultimately, though, none of it mattered.

+1 MHP, +1 Spd. I'll accept this if only because you need better Speed.

Leen copies Nanna entirely with +1 MHP, +1 Spd. If a dancer is gonna get anything, I'd rather it be that.

Hannibal carries on the LP's proud tradition of units talking in their sleep.

Some of what remains of Altenna's squad try to dogpile poor Fin.

Luckily, Fin is just barely competent enough not to die.

Shanan was targeted too, in the AI's bizarre vendetta against him.

One, meanwhile, decides to feed Ares a very nice +1 MHP, +1 Skl, +1 Mgc, +1 Def, +1 Mdf level.

It'll be a couple turns before these guys become a problem.

Until then, we'll just mop up the first wave of dragons.

Fee has finally arrived at this weird village cluster.

I suppose she could've done better on her first engagement of the chapter.

This Hero has both a Hero Sword and Hero Bow. Fortunately, Fee has long since taken care of her arrow weakness.

+1 MHP, +1 Def. I'd kind of given up hope she'd have her mother's odd tankiness, but it's looking like she might actually make it!

These guys are now close enough to be a problem, so let's see how they stack up.

The generics, while not anything particularly special, do have Silver Lances to dish out respectable damage.

Travant, meanwhile, is a remarkably difficult boss. His stats are actually fairly similar to vanilla FE4 (the most notable upgrade being +4 Spd), but he's got the extremely strong Dragon Lance instead of a mere Silver one, a critical guard to protect him from bows and the Wind Sword, and a suite of skills to make handling him even more difficult. Awareness in particular means the old "throw Larcei at the boss" trick isn't really all that effective anymore, and his Charisma and Leadership will make his dragons a lot more threatening than they'd be on their own.

The stats of the Dragon Lance, which we haven't seen in a while. In addition to being a powerful Brave weapon, it's also got Ambush, and this Awareness won't stop him from attacking first.

We won't actually be taking this castle yet, but I've sent a few soldiers to handle it when the time comes.

Most of my units are waiting for Travant so they can all takes chunks out of him before he gets a chance to attack.

In the meantime, let's look at this bandit who's chewing things up here. He might seem familiar.

That's right, we have yet another bandit with this portrait! Unlike most bandits, he's actually quite dangerous thanks to how damaging his Devil Axe is, and he's got Sol for longevity to boot. There's a weird glitch that plays out when Sol and the Devil effect occur simultaneously, though, so perhaps he's just here to rend the fabric of the game's reality.

Fee doesn't have the greatest odds against him.

She makes it work, though.

Oddly, he's got a deathquote and everything. It's almost like he's a real boss!

The random soldiers defending this strange man attempt to avenge his death.

All they get instead is a painful death by Lady Sword.

Here comes the second wave.

First contact went well, if unexcitingly so.

I don't know why they even tried to hit Leif here.

He is remarkably unforgiving (+1 MHP, +1 Skl, +1 Def).

There, Travant's right where I want him.

First, let's get rid of some of the guys surrounding him.

Faval is ready for promotion! (+2 MHP, +1 Skl, +1 Str, +1 Spd)

Ares seems like a good unit to start off with here.

Indeed, he does pretty admirably.

He even gets an okay level! (+1 MHP, +1 Luk, +1 Def)

I figured Leif deserved a chance to avenge his fallen family.

He doesn't really make the most of it, though. Oh well.

Despite being unable to unleash the power of green sparkles, Larcei still does a respectable amount of damage to the boss.

Ultimately, though, it's Delmud who finishes things.

+2 MHP, +1 Spd, +1 Def. Not bad at all.

After that, it was time to clear out the (now far less dangerous) Dragon Knights.

Arthur and Teeny both pitch in from afar.

Shanan ultimately gets the last one.

+1 MHP. This is why giving you anything ever is a mistake.

Meanwhile, in a faraway land, Fee kills a troublesome Hero for a nice +1 MHP, +1 Str, +1 Def level.

Despite Altenna's untimely death, her not-brother-maybe-lover reveals his powers of resurrection and brings her back from the void.

She immediately runs the fuck outta there, ready to be recruited.

Before we go, let's take a look at the solitary foe on the map.

Disler (which is an incredibly dumb name) here is a very boring and unremarkable boss. He's gotten some of the usual stat boosts and picked up Silver weapons, but ultimately his so-called "impregnable" castle is remarkably easy to take over, with this loser as its only defender and all. Don't expect too much trouble here.

Hannibal's finally woken up, but in his desperation for reinforcements, has completely forgotten how to use weapons, and is thus stuck outside his own castle because a tiny dancer is in the way.

Next time, we'll handle that idiot and get a very underleveled priest, a very slow general, and a very scary and powerful dragon-riding princess all in one go. We might also see a couple promotions and a few other goodies. Till then!

[Moblin Major General]

So, Hannibal will sit where he is if the castle is blocked? Useful. Did your Corpul end up getting Valkyrie?

[Miacis]

The main reason I didn't do that was because the other FEBinary LP did that, actually.

Heyooo

It's me, I'm the other FE Binary LP. The one with pointless micromanaging and cringy incest jokes. And Balmung Scathach, yeeeaaah!

I started reading this thread for the nostalgia value, but now it's interesting how things are diverging from my own LP. It started pretty much the same way, character/inventory-wise, and now the different pairings/promotions/playstyle are making things radically different. Keep up the good work!

A few lil' notes I gathered while binging through your updates:

- I can't believe the Sylvia-instalkills-a-dude glitch is a thing that can be reproduced in the same spot. Now I'm curious whether or not the Epilogue Arena rank 6 opponent will do weird Bane shit for you as well.

- I had my units pressed hard against the border guards in Chapter 7 like you did and the Magi sisters still went to attack Lenster, so I'm not sure what's up with that.

I don't know why I force myself to come up with commentary for all these levels.

FireEmblemLet'sPlay.txt

weird village cluster.

There's a weird glitch that plays out when Sol and the Devil effect occur simultaneously, though, so perhaps he's just here to rend the fabric of the game's reality.

It's absoutely magical how much the game has no idea what the fuck to do.

Edited August 15, 2016 by Miacis

[epilepsyduck]

Did your Corpul end up getting Valkyrie?

He did indeed. Valkyrie's sort of special compared to the other Holy Weapons- you need Major Blood to use it, and it gets inherited unlike most of the others.

-snip-

I've been noticed by a celebrity!

I'm glad you're enjoying my LP, especially since yours was so excellent. I was paranoid worried mine would end up too similar to yours, so I'm relieved to hear they're sufficiently different that this one's not just some shoddy clone.

Also the Tahra thing actually makes a lot of sense now that I think about it. Learn something new every day!

The next bit of Chapter 9 is coming soon, sorry for the wait! It should be up tomorrow.

[epilepsyduck]

Today, we fight a usurper of a tome very near and dear to us all, and a certain general discovers his hidden noble heritage.

Chapter 9 Part 3: Wind of the Forrest Knights

With Hannibal locked out of his castle by a teensy dancer girl, we're free to handle the lone enemy still on the map with no interruptions.

Johan is the obvious solution to handling that little pest.

Johan decides now is the perfect time to focus on ancillary stats and gets +1 MHP, +1 Skl, +1 Luk.

I have to wonder what convinced that guy that this castle was in any way "impregnable".

Who cares, though, we've got an adorable little priest on our side now!

Let's see what Binary has in store for the infamously weak Corple.

In truth, not a whole lot. He's ultimately still the same underleveled healer he's always been, but access to C Light gives him a chance to actually catch up in a reasonable timeframe. Thanks to my Sylvia x Claude pairing, he's also got Prayer + Life, a very potent skill combo that gives him more survivability than his 2 Defense would suggest. This will be especially useful once promotion time comes around; he gets access to something quite a bit nicer than High Priest.

A little healing gets done once he's on our side. Every bit of EXP counts!

Since I want him to buy Lightning and the Elite Ring, I have him sell the Valkyrie Staff for tons of cash. It's not like I've got a lot of use for the thing.

Faval here is ready to promote and maybe step out from under Lester's shadow a bit.

His default choice for promotions is the obvious Sniper. Providing +5 Skl, +3 Str, +5 Spd, +2 Def, +3 Mdf, +1 Mov and +5 Crit, it'll give him an immediate boost and patch up that Speed issue he's been having. However, he'll be forever stuck outside of melee range, and he doesn't gain much movement, unlike...

His cousin's Bow Knight class. It grants +1 Skl, +3 Str, +1 Spd, +3 Def, +3 Mdf, +3 Mov, trading lower stats for more movement, and gives up the crit bonus for B Swords. A decent choice overall, and in this case it would give him Beo Sword access.

Since he really needs the better stats, though, and since Lester is already a Bow Knight, I made him a Sniper. His sister wields their father's sword just fine.

Speaking of whom, I nearly forgot to do their +1 Luk event. I wonder if improving your sister's Luck stat by a minuscule amount is some bizarre Jugdral tradition or something.

Altenna eventually flew her way over to Celice and joined our noble cause. Glad you've stopped menacing us with your 1-2 range Holy Weapon!

Let's check out our newest recruit and see how much liberation she'll be getting up to.

Altenna's still her old murder-happy self, of course. The added range of her Gáe Bolg means she doesn't really need any Javelins or what have you, but she should probably pick something up quick so she doesn't eat through her funds repairing her absurdly pricey lance. At any rate, she and Fee make perfect flying companions.

Corple, Fee and Patty pick up these villages and their contents.

This allows Corple to pick up his much needed Elite Ring and Lightning tome. Now he might actually be of use to someone someday!

Especially if he gets levels like the first one (+1 MHP, +1 Skl, +1 Spd, +1 Luk, +1 Def, +1 Mdf) and not like the second (+1 MHP, +1 Mdf).

He really cleans house in the Arena, getting levels for all seven of his opponents. I'll detail what he managed later once Altenna and Hannibal get the same chance.

Enough faffing about, though, he has to recruit his beloved father and free the man from limbo.

Hannibal hasn't changed a whole lot either, really, though he's very strong regardless. He got a few nice boosts to his stats, but his real role isn't so much to contribute to the army's victories as it is to protect your castles. At that he's second to none, especially given the Master Lance he starts with, the first one we get after several chapters of it being in enemy hands.

You'll note that Hannibal is able to promote right off the bat. We'll get to that in a bit, as we have other concerns.

Off he goes to the home castle to become even stronger than before.

His recruitment summons swarms of enemies. Oddly, Musar has gained the portrait of Eyrios from Thracia, though recolored to match his old one.

We'll get to the Palace of Ballista in a bit, right now let's look at the Musar and his cronies.

His squad are all very well equipped, with Silver weapons for the physical guys and Elwinds and Mend staves for the magical ladies. They also have fairly decent stats to use them with.

Skillswise, most of them have Charge, the Forrest Knights get Continue on top of that, and the Mage Knights make up for their lack of it with Miracle just to be extra annoying.

Then we get to Musar himself, and let's just say he's really upped his game and stopped being just another generic boss. He's putting that minor Holy Blood of his to good use and wields Forseti, giving him halved boosts that are still very lethal. Any units who are particularly slow or have pitiful resistance are going to have a really rough time with him, so it's important not to let anyone who can't survive a round with the Green Nuke anywhere near combat with the guy. He also has a Master Sword to stop you from just Silencing him out of combat.

Fortunately, he drops Forseti for us upon his death. Arthur would very much like to have his dad's tome back, so I'll make sure he gets to kill this loser.

I'm being real careful not to let him get the drop on someone here. Last thing I need to deal with is Musar deleting someone because of my typical poor formations.

His mooks are not the worlds best decision makers.

Not even a little bit.

With his soldiers in range, it's time to start cleaning them up.

+2 MHP, +1 Def. You're not a tank, son. Don't act like one.

This Mage Knight was at 1 HP here, but Delmud defies the odds.

Altenna's first taste of combat with our merry army is perhaps not the best use of her talents.

This could be better, but I'm not too worried.

Almost all of them try to go for Patty, who has little patience for their bullshit.

Musar makes a bizarre decision and equips his Master Sword to fight Oifey, even though he can barely scratch him with it.

This doesn't end well for him, or for this screenshot that I took too fucking late.

Altenna (who's already gained two levels in the arena that we'll get to later) gets ready to promote! (+1 MHP, +1 Def)

I figured it was only appropriate for Arthur to reclaim his father's tome with his sister's help.

Goodbye and good riddance, Musar.

+2 MHP, +1 Luk, +1 Def. Nice.

Arthur was already good, but now we have a true wind god on our hands. One with 9 move at that.

After all that noise, I let Corple do a little healing.

He flubs the first level and gets only +1 Mgc.

He does considerably better on the second try and gives me +1 MHP, +1 Str, +1 Mgc, +1 Luk, +1 Mdf.

Altenna will be our first look at promotions today. Her options are nothing we haven't seen before, but they're interesting nonetheless.

The first class up for grabs is Dragon Master. She gets +3 Skl, +2 Str, +1 Spd, +3 Def, +1 Mov from promoting into this class, as well as the Pursuit skill. Standard stuff, but useful.

Her second pick is a strange reversal of the old "Peg. Knights promote to Dragon Knights" thing and makes her a Falcon Knight. She gets some stat drops as well as gains (+3 Skl, -2 Str, +8 Spd, +7 Mgc, -3 Def, +10 Mdf), and loses out on the movement bonus and Pursuit, but gets Staves and just enough magic to use them.

Falcon Knight is a really interesting class for Altenna, especially if Fee went the Dragon Master route, but I'll instead be going the classic road and make her a Dragon Master. She's better suited for it, and Pursuit is better than just Continue again.

Hannibal gets two wildly different choices, one that patches up his most obvious issue and another that just makes him even better at what he already does.

The default class choice is Iron Knight. Given that General is just the dismounted version of this class, the gains are rather paltry (+1 Spd, +2 Mdf, +3 Mov), but the huge movement increase makes it a lot easier to use him as a combat unit and not just a castle defender. He loses his Bow rank, but he was unlikely to use it anyway so that's not much of an issue, and he can dismount back to General if you really want him to use bows.

Alternately, he can keep that and gain so much more with Baron! It has actual promotion gains to the tune of +1 Skl, +1 Str, +2 Spd, +7 Mgc, +4 Mdf, and gives him A ranks in nearly everything and C Light. What it doesn't do, however, is increase his movement range, so he'll ultimately be somewhat impractical to use in the field, but it's still fantastic for making him even more unkillable and strong.

Iron Knight is probably the more practical option here, but fuck practicality. I'm making him a Baron so we can actually have one and so he doesn't have to share a map sprite with Oifey.

Once he promoted, I let him buy Thoron off of Arthur, who doesn't really need it anymore. He's got enough magic to deal respectable damage with it, so I figured it couldn't hurt.

And deal damage he did, as he cleared the Arena just like Corple and Altenna before him. Let's see how the three newbies did!

Arena Rankings and Level Ups

ARENA RANKINGS- Altenna *, Corple *, Hannibal *



ARENA LEVELS-

Altenna: 2 levels- +2 MHP, +1 Skl, +2 Str, +1 Spd, +1 Luk, +2 Def, +1 Mdf

This is her way of thanking me for not making her a Falcon Knight and putting her in a dumb miniskirt.

Corple: 7 levels- +6 MHP, +4 Skl, +2 Spd, +2 Mgc, +4 Luk, +3 Mdf
I would've appreciated more Magic out of you, but it's not a big deal.

Hannibal: 1 level- +1 MHP, +1 Skl, +1 Spd, +1 Def
Your levels aren't always the best, but they're usually good enough.

We'll return once Hannibal catches up to the rest of the Liberation Army. Stay tuned for us clearing out a nasty nest of ballista, followed by a swarm of dragons that would make Partia 2 proud!

Edited August 18, 2016 by whenbananasattack

[Moblin Major General]

*Make Partia 2 Proud

[epilepsyduck]

Sorry that took so long! I have no excuses.

I ended up falling just shy of finishing Chapter 9 this time around, but oh well. Let's see what Areone's got cooked up for us!

Chapter 9 Part 4: I wasn't kidding about the Partia 2 reference

Celice has gathered every ally he can handle, and is ready to smash up all that remains of Thracia.

Standing in his way is a meager army consisting of eight ballista and a lone dark mage. Don't know what gives them the idea they can take us on, but we'll humor them!

One fun thing to note is that all but one of the ballista are wielding the Killer version of the weapon. Aggravating, but only threatening for a turn or so.

One thing Binary seems to love doing is creating commanders for clusters of ballista who have higher stats and Great Shield. This one doesn't get a portrait, though.

Judah here is a fan of Gaiden, and blatantly stole his name from that old, old game. In any case, he's mostly a fairly standard dark magic boss with both short and long range tomes, but Binary throws him Wrath to make him infinitely more threatening if you aren't prompt about dealing with him. The Blaggi Sword is your friend here, though he shouldn't be too difficult to take out with other means.

Silence, for example, works wonders.

I won't have you squishing some defenseless dancer or something with your bullshit.

Lana hits the level cap with a bang, getting +1 MHP, +1 Skl, +1 Str, +1 Spd, +1 Mgc.

Let's just hope no frail innocent lives fall in the face of such foes.

Of course not.

They can't even land a hit on the man, hilariously enough.

I don't know what the AI has against this man, but sooner or later they'll realize they can't hope to hit him, at least not for now.

Julia is a slightly better pick, but the RNG is not on their side and they don't land a hit here either. So much for that token resistance.

Faval clambers up the cliffs to shoot at the boss.

It's a Meteor-wielding Ced who ends things, though.

+1 MHP, +1 Mgc, +1 Def. More Defense is always a plus.

His sister goes for a grab bag of a level with +1 MHP, +1 Skl, +1 Spd, +1 Mgc, +1 Luk, +1 Def.

Leen was there too. (+1 MHP, +1 Spd, +1 Def, +1 Mdf)

Time to start demolishing all these godless machines they've set up.

For dealing with the nameless commander, Lester is granted a +1 MHP, +1 Str, +1 Luk, +1 Def level. Your father would be proud.

Since Corple needs to level, I have him use Fortify even though almost no one is wounded.

My wasteful behavior earns the kid +1 MHP, +1 Skl, +1 Mgc, +1 Mdf.

Don't really remember what made me feel like having Teeny use the Devil Sword here, but she got +1 MHP, +1 Str, +1 Mgc, +1 Mdf, so maybe it isn't a weapon of bad luck after all.

With all the enemies here dealt with, I send a few people to defend our castles against the utterly ridiculous swarm of dragon knights that we'll be seeing shortly.

In a rare turn of events, Nanna gets Magic! (+2 MHP, +1 Mgc, +1 Luk, +1 Def)

Corple doesn't, only getting +1 MHP, +1 Mdf. I want to say "you can do better", but it probably doesn't matter too much anyway.

Another castle falls to the brutal methods of the Liberation Army.

Levin, no one cares about your constant yammering. At least Oifey was a cute kid when he was wasting our time with this stuff!

Areone isn't going to take all this conquering and bloodshed sitting down, and hatches a master plan to handle it. Meanwhile, the emptiness of the void looms above, reminding Areone of how alone he is in this world.

Shrugging off such nihilistic thoughts, Areone unleashes like fifty guys, his master plan being to just throw as many troops as he can at a problem and hope it goes away. Anyone who read the Partia 2 LP can see why I made the comparison.

Fortunately, I planned ahead for this. Hannibal is in Mease, revealing that I didn't need to bother moving him from here at all...

Arthur is defending Hannibal's home in Kapathogia...

And Johan defends Luthecia, keeping Disler's dream of it being "impregnable" alive.

I'm also leaving Shanan here in case any of Areone's soldiers get any funny ideas. I don't need him for much, anyway.

Now, at this late point in Celice's quest, do you think Areone has sent out Thracia's best and brightest?

No, of course not. He seems to be sending a bunch of dragon-riding toddlers at us if their stats are anything to go by.

Their commanders are actually fairly competent, though. This one's going for critical hits, with a Killer Lance and the Critical skill...

This one got a Silver Lance for raw damage, and traded Critical for Awareness...

And this one brought out the big guns and got a Hero Lance, and made herself aggravatingly hard to kill with Prayer. They've also all got respectable leadership to make handling their weak goons a bit trickier than it'd be otherwise.

Areone's own troops are actually a lot more threatening, with Killer and Master Lances all around and stats that, while not fantastic, are just good enough to be troublesome.

There's also this guy, who while lacking a name and portrait, is threatening enough to be a boss all his own. The Dragon Lance is not something you want to fuck around with.

It's not him who's the boss, though, but rather Areone, crown prince of Thracia.

And oh boy is Areone quite the boss fight! Oddly, some of his stats have actually gone down, but that's made up for by his skillset and aggravating 7 Leadership stars, with Charisma to top it off. Dealing with all those dragon knights is a headache when he's around to give them bonuses. The changes to Prayer make taking him down immensely frustrating, and while Awareness no longer protects him from effective damage, he's got another ace up his sleeve to make attacking him with archers immensely risky.

The Gungnir, like the Gáe Bolg before it, now has 1-2 range. That's a whopping 60 might anyone who attacks him is facing, and he's more than fast enough to dodge your attacks effortlessly unless you pile the Charisma bonuses and Celice's Leadership onto him. Basically, if you can't bring him down in one turn, your best option is to pray the RNG blesses you and he doesn't murder someone.

We'll cross that bridge when we get there, though. Right now we have to deal with his little strike teams here.

Everyone else is just approaching as carefully as possible to avoid the almighty Areone.

I left Arthur equipped with Forseti, which in hindsight was massive overkill.

Arthur is having a good time, though. (+1 MHP, +1 Luk)

I suppose that's the end of that.

+1 MHP, +1 Luk, +1 Mdf. That's almost exactly the same as the last one.

Hannibal has a similarly exciting time of things.

He also gets a bit faster with +1 MHP, +1 Spd.

It takes these guys an extra turn or too to reach Johan, but no worries.

There's no point in rushing the inevitable, is there?

These enemies are not a source of good levels. (+2 MHP)

The surviving commanders both start flying back home. Probably not a good sign.

By that point, we've moved into range of Areone's soldiers, prompting him to charge us all down.

Patty bravely leads us into battle, all while basking in the Charisma Zone.

These enemies sure don't have their own best interest at heart, do they?

One of them takes an interest in Fee, who reminds them that she's packing the power of the wind.

Overall, it was a pretty good day for Patty.

A pretty good day indeed. (+1 MHP, +1 Skl, +1 Spd, +1 Luk)

One soldier, rather than rushing to his death, realizes Patty's power stems from the Charisma Zone, and tries to break it up. Sadly, the Charisma Zone is too powerful for him.

There we go, the prince is in place but hadn't committed any murders yet.

What better way to celebrate than with another unecessary use of an expensive staff? Corple certain has a lot to gain from it, with +1 MHP, +1 Skl, +1 Str, +1 Spd, +1 Mgc, +1 Mdf.

I start off by cutting a path to the boss so somebody can actually get a shot in at him before he gets a chance.

This brings some minor benefits to a few lucky individuals. (+1 MHP, +1 Luk)

Leif benefits a bit more, getting +1 MHP, +1 Str, +1 Def.

With no other bow users in range, Lester has to be our hero, backed up by the Charisma Zone.

Somewhat impressively, he gets two hits in and doesn't take a hit in return! These things never go quite according to plan like that, so that was nice.

This was a far, far dicier thing, and yet I took the chance.

She got only a single hit in, and did end up eating his stupid salad fork to the face, but only on the second toss. Better than I'd feared, at least.

Now, though, it's Altenna's time to shine.

With a single blow, she puts Areone down and makes him regret saving her life.

For that, she is blessed with the only important stat her lance doesn't cover. (+1 MHP, +1 Spd)

Hi Julius!

Bye Julius! Man, that kid's everywhere these days!

For once, this is not me being unnecessarily wasteful in an effort to get Corple up to snuff.

Though that is a nice bonus at least. (+1 MHP, +1 Mgc, +1 Mdf)

While Areone was the worst of these guys, I'm still a bit antsy. I don't like all those Killer weapons flying around.

Literally every enemy here goes straight for Ares, who has a mere Steel Lance equipped.

It turns out that's all he needs, though, and he makes quite a show of destroying everything he faces.

He continues to underperform in some areas, though. (+1 MHP, +1 Luk, +1 Def)

My heart was in my throat here, but Ares didn't let me down.

There's not much left to Chapter 9, but we'll handle the rest next time in whatever amount of time it takes for me to stop being lazy and post it!

Edited September 4, 2016 by whenbananasattack

[Moblin Major General]

Oh, yes. I remember Partia 2's Dave spam. That was fun.

[epilepsyduck]

I find it sort of hilarious some people are still voting in the poll, given that the Joha-brother decision has long passed us by. I guess they're hoping I can bring poor Johalva back from the dead!

This'll be a short one, mostly odds and ends that didn't fit into the last post. After that, we move onto Miletos!

Chapter 9 Part 5: For Corple's Sake

With Areone taken care of, it's time to finish off these last few dragon riders and get out of this backwater nation once and for all!

That one Dragon Master with the Dragon Lance needs dealing with, and Lester is perfect for the job.

It took a bit of doing, but he's down!

He gets a bit tankier with +1 MHP, +1 Skl, +1 Def. Where do these horse archers get all this defense?

With him out of the way, dealing with these other guys was trivial.

It also got poor Corple a chance to get some experience. (+1 MHP, +1 Str, +1 Mdf)

Much like Hannibal before her, the miniboss here is rendered unable to harm us because she's too focused on getting reinforcements that my units are now blocking.

A tag team of Fee and Leif brings her out of the sky.

And hey, why not spend yet more uses of a fragile, expensive staff for no reason other than free levels? (+1 MHP, +1 Mgc, +1 Luk)

This guy suffers from the same affliction as his colleagues, I fear.

I'm afraid we have to put him out of his misery.

Which proves quite helpful for some. (+2 MHP, +1 Mgc)

Tending to a few minor scratches helps Corple finally reach level 20, getting +1 MHP, +1 Mgc and +1 Luk.

Both him and Julia have some business to take care of at the home castle, so that's where they're heading.

Julia's sold all her stuff, since she'll be leaving us soon. We'll miss you, brave Sage!

This is our last time through the Promotion Palace, sadly. Cherish this moment.

Corple's default promotion is the ever-unpopular High Priest. Choosing this class gives him +3 Skl, +2 Str, +2 Spd, +5 Mgc, +2 Def, +3 Mdf, as well as C Anima and B Light, which does at least give him access to Resire. If you want him to be a boring little staffbot, that's a perfectly adequate (if incredibly basic) option.

If you want to inject a little danger and excitement into young Corple's life, though, you can make him an Iron Mage. The stats are a bit defensively-oriented, grantin +5 Str, -1 Spd, +3 Mgc, +9 Def, +1 Mdf. His Light and Anima ranks are reversed, and best of all, he actually gets a skill this time! Great Shield is a pretty excellent defensive measure when stacked up with his Prayer + Life combo, making an already strangely tough-to-kill little cleric even hardier!

Since the benefits of High Priest don't really measure up to those of his second promotion, I'll be going with Iron Mage. Besides, it lets him match up with his foster dad.

In case you didn't notice in those screenshots above, by the way, Corple has a lover, and her name is Patty! That's not an ideal pairing given the differences in their movement ranges, but it's cute and not inappropriate!

Larcei was... less lucky, and ended up with her cousin Shanan. I was hoping once I was done with Fates I could avoid all the unnecessary incest stuff, IntSys.

Thankfully, Lana didn't fall for her cousin or some weird gross crap, and instead fell for our dashing hero Celice! Since they've both got mounts, I imagine that might actually come in handy!

Time to leave Thracia behind for good. Good riddance to this dragon-filled shithole, honestly.

Levin's here to tell us that even with the time pressure of an imminent dark god resurrection, we should spend extra time conquering a place at the ass end of the world that has literally never been mentioned before now. Sound logic to me!

I'm practically blazing through this shit!

Next up on FEBinary, we have Arena-fighting Queens and vessels for evil gods to deal with, and we get our hands on a pair of very special tomes that the story doesn't want us to have!