screenshot 404'd! I play MageKnight404's FE7 hack

[Acacia Sgt]

Regarding Ellen's animations... well, she does use Lucius's Bishop one, I believe.

Also, for a reskin, I have to admit it was a good twist to bait-and-switch the recruitment. You can even notice it's not Jaffar the one in the map scene at the end. Since I believe that it's in that moment, if you got Ch26x, where the unit slot is added, so the character loaded for the scene is changed.

Edited November 27, 2016 by Acacia Sgt

[BBHood217]

Oh hey, you're right about Jaffar at the end there. I actually didn't notice that before. Welp, now the whole thing's spoiled.

But I'm still gonna post how Ellen gets recruited anyway :P

Chapter 26 cutscene

Derek is obviously displeased about the Emblem's return and Ellen's survival.

All he can do now is regroup at Valor, as there's no place anymore for him in Bern.

Meanwhile, our heroes prepare for their audience with the king of Bern.

Oh hey, you're still here. You're even more invisible than Megan.

Ellen's saved, the Emblem's recovered, everybody's happy.

And Eliwood finally gets his access to the Shrine.

So that's why Derek got out of dodge. His treason's already been discovered.

King Reggie warns of the Grandbell empire which Derek has sided with now.

One could say that they're the Bern of Jugdral.

...is that right?

And with that, Eliwood goes on his way.

But it seems Ellen forgot something.

Only took them a year.

Heather's ready for them.

As are Leaf and Lynoan.

And Ellen too?

Obviously, because you're already promoted.

Oh, we all already know where this is going.

Except Eliwood, who's out of the loop once again.

That's right. Instead of Jaffar, it's Ellen!

King Reggie has apparently approved of her adventure.

And the ceremony's date was changed to take place tomorrow.

Driven by her devotion to her country, she pleads to accompany the heroes in their battle against those who would harm Bern.

And of course, Raymond accepts.

Welcome to the team. The bench is that way, because I have like a bazillion magic users now sheesh.

Ellen repeats what she told Ray.

And Eliwood also accepts like Ray.

Congrats Ray, now you can promote.

No, I'm not petty. He's insufferable but he's still a great unit, so the seal will be used and not discarded.

Alright, we'll attend the ceremony and then it's off to the Shrine Of Seals.

...after this.

Next time: The worst level in any Zelda game.

[Acacia Sgt]

Ah, map gimmicks... gotta love to hate them, or hate to love them, haha.

I would guess the downside of having a unit slot that isn't a vanilla PC to replace one is no Support Data. I think the ending is also affected during the character epilogues, but I don't think it's something worrysome.

[BBHood217]

Chapter 26x: Treading Dark Waters

The narration tries to write around the uneditable opening cutscene but no luck, it just comes off as nonsensical.

Fortunately, this is the last opening cutscene that uses Nino's portrait so Sakura can finally stop pretending to contribute plot stuff to the team.

She should just stick to fighting, she contributes much more there.

Anyway, Ellen catches Excellen wandering around in the night.

Ellen's simply looking forward to tomorrow's ceremony.

Excellen, on the other hand, was being pestered by a mysterious beckoning call.

And she really has to answer it.

Sure, tell her to wait up while you run ahead of her.

This doesn't go unnoticed by Eliwood and friends.

I thought you've already played this game. Of course there's gonna be a fight! Nobody plays Fire Emblem to sit down and have a peace conference.

At least this gives them the opportunity to confront Sonia.

Aha, so this was where Raymond's career in dancing started.

Defeating Sonia means taking the Black Fang away from Ingram, so they won't pass this up.

Meanwhile at the water temple, the whole thing with Brendan in the original apparently already happened offscreen. Brendan's finally discovered Sonia's treachery and paid for it with his life, but not before wounding Sonia.

What the hell?! Ephidel lives?!?

A substitution jutsu. Wow.

Nice job, Naruto. And this time, I mean it.

The Fang's crumbling all around her, but Sonia's still determined to kill Eliwood.

Oh hey Bradley, haven't seen you in a while.

This allows Ephidel to indulge himself in cliched villainy once again.

And reveals that the group has practically been renamed from "The Black Fang" to "Ingram's Morphs".

Bradley is apparently still loyal to the original Fang like Brendan.

And pays for it with his life like Brendan.

As Sonia is in no condition to fight, Ephidel sends her away.

So she takes Bradley's quintessence and warps away. If she hasn't already done so, she should probably pick up Brendan's too.

Seems there's only one original Fang member left in the temple.

Excellen finally reaches the temple. So what was that mysterious voice thing all about?

It's never brought up again.

Seems that during her time in captivity, she got to know some of the Fang.

Jan starts to warn her about Ephidel.

But Ephidel interrupts him.

And lets him run away, as he's no threat at all.

He then turns his attention to Excellen.

He has a special interest in her, because he's the one who captured her in the first place.

He tells her that the Fang are all but gone now.

It's possible that the mysterious voice was actually Ephidel's doing to lure her into the temple.

And now that she's here, he can finish her off himself.

Excellen of course isn't going down without a fight.

Fortunately, she won't have to fight alone.

Ray pretends to be surprised by the plot twist that he himself wrote in.

Ephidel sees his chance for revenge and puts the temple into motion.

Everything shakes, and then...

The whole place gets flooded.

Ephidel looks forward to forcing the vermin through his specially-designed rat maze.

It's not the first time that Excellen going off by herself caused severe ramifications.

I actually agree with you here.

We're actually gonna fight Ephidel. How cool is that?

More later.

[Dayni]

..... What a twist.

A legitimately neat twist. Least Ephidel gets to die again.

Also, which of the fangs did Bradley replace? Not sure which, just to figure out who's left (besides the last of the married couple.)

[Tuvy2]

Can you link the download of this hack? I cannot find this anywhere!

Edited November 28, 2016 by Tuvy2

[BBHood217]

Jack and Madelyn replaced Lloyd and Linus, Alastor replaced Ursula, and Bradley replaced Jerme. Jaffar wasn't replaced, but his playable version is replaced with Ellen.

Chapter 26x part 2

This group plus Lynoan, Edmond, and the mandatory Eliwood and Excellen will take on Ephidel.

But first, promotion time.

Living out the fantasy even more.

Kyosuke also installs some boosters into his Mini-Alt.

I was wondering how their support was done, and now I see. Their supports with Nanna (Rebecca) were repointed to each other instead.

That made me look at Nanna's supports, which eventually led me to Leaf's.

He also has repointed supports; that explains why he can't support with Merlinus. However Merlinus has a wagon now, so he can support with Leaf though it'll be one-sided. But there's no more room in the army for Leaf so, sorry Merlinus.

That also explains Marcia's one-sided support with Lynoan, because Lynoan replaced that support with Leaf.

And no, Altenna and Leaf have no support with each other.

Anyway, we'll start like so.

Ellen shows up once the map starts. Her stats and inventory are pretty much still the same.

Now let's look at the now actually fightable Ephidel. For starters, that minimug looks fudgly.

His stats, however, are anything but. And along with bolting, he also has a sleep staff.

This valkyrie also has bolting, so she's quickly taken out.

Altenna's scuffle with the mages ends disappointingly.

So that's where the monk animation went.

I won't lie, those colors look good on him.

Get used to this, Kyosuke tanks out most of the map.

It's kinda funny that he replaces Hector, because he's now practically Hector if he started out with swords instead of axes and only starts using the other upon promotion.

That 73 crit is a thing of beauty.

Much like Luna herself.

Careful Excellen, you might have some competition for Kyo-Kyo.

Sanger's starting to fall behind. Such is the fate of prepromotes.

Gimme.

Fliers are a major asset on maps like this.

That berserk bishop's still there, along with her must-steal angelic robe.

This princess is far from helpless.

Crud, Milanor walked into sleeping range.

The berserk hits its mark this time.

Paths have not yet appeared to that annoying berserk bishop.

Good thing Altenna was close by to restore.

There, no more berserk.

Altenna takes out the luna druid.

And unfortunately, a miscalculation leaves Heather within the bishop's range. Neither the bishop nor her robe survive the encounter.

Just to rub it in too.

Wake up, wyverns are coming.

And they hurt a lot. It's Nino all over again, but at least Ellen can take two hits.

Only 3 away from maximum luna.

As Ephidel forces Ellen to reenact Sleeping Beauty, I notice that there's no special battle quote. Odd, because Sonia had one with Jaffar in the original.

I think they're practicing their own version of Rampage Ghost.

Matthew caps out his level spectacularly. If Jaffar won't join, then I'll just make my own.

And once that happens, Milanor here will do all the stealing.

Last sleep, and of course it hits.

Ray's having a good time.

Until the ground vanishes from under him.

Meanwhile, Ephidel tries to zap Kyosuke.

But all he did was piss him off even more.

Guess that's where the special battle quote with Jaffar went.

That's right, don't let that Luna chick steal your man.

Ellen's woken up to barrier Kyo, get this level,

and dodge lightning too.

"There is nothing my colossal blade cannot cut!"

Reinforcements throw themselves at Kyo, to no avail.

And finally, Ephidel exhausts his bolting supply. That contract will be mine.

More later.

[BBHood217]

Download is in this link:

Hang on, I got you. If you want to try the other less bad but still bad ones, then that link will get you what you need as well.

Chapter 26x part 3

The fliers start to catch up with the rest of the group's overall levels.

And the only chest on the normal path gets looted.

Less precision, more power please.

Good thing there's no drowning in this game.

Ninian's finally learned everything she can about dancing.

Finally, all the paths reappear.

Well, almost all.

Great.

Not great.

It takes a long while, but a path finally appears to the remaining chests. Again, I don't care for low turn counts.

Excellen spies a peculiar kid.

Convo's unedited, but it's still cute.

But what probably actually happened is that Excellen teased Edmond as she's wont to do.

Only 3 speed left until there'll be nothing you can't steal.

Not bad, though Altenna still outperforms both of them.

Mine, all mine!

There was also a blue gem dropped by a wyvern rider. Forgot to screencap that.

Time to take on Ephidel. I make one last support.

...which had no conversation at all. I supported, and Ellen's turn immediately ended. There wasn't even a message about the support level increasing even though it still did.

Why would you deny me Sakura together with Jaffar? D:

Excellen finally confronts her captor.

And then she proceeds to do what she does best: Snipe enemies from outside their attack range.

It's not quite Nino beating Sonia, but it's still satisfying to finally defeat Ephidel yourself.

And we're done.

Outside, Excellen meets up with the Black Fang's soon-to-be last surviving member.

Turns out that her time in captivity wasn't all gloom and doom as she got to know the original Fang.

Which is now no more thanks to Ingram.

Just gonna throw that onto the large pile of "evil things Ingram has done and must pay for".

And with that, they part ways. Jan wasn't asked what he was gonna do now. Maybe he'll just go live in the mountains with Ratface and all the other bandits.

Fortunately, that'll be the last time.

With that distraction done and over with, Eliwood can finally get back on track to the Shrine.

I gotta say, Ephidel turned himself around and wasn't the joke that he was in the earlier chapters.

DEFECTS TO MASTER PLAN OF LORD INGRAM MUST BE DELETED

And you read that right, Sonia died offscreen. Ingram, much like Nergal if you skipped this sidequest, killed her off for her Brendan blunder.

Ephidel doesn't take it well.

But there's nothing he can do, and perishes with one last snargleblargh.

I don't buy it, though. I'm sure that in the future, some implausible ninja magic will revive him and he'll make his grand return.

Believe it.

Next time: Holy crap this map is huge.

[Tuvy2]

thx

[Acacia Sgt]

Admitedly, I had forgotten about Ephidel there. And knowing things, I now wouldn't be surprised if he pops up a third time. Then again, from what I remember about the remaining boss changes, I think chances aren't likely. Who knows.

[BBHood217]

Chapter 27: Bloody Test

Again, her portrait could've been replaced with a blank one or even a duplicate Ellen one so the narration wouldn't have to resort to this.

But again, I digress. Eliwood's quest is near its end.

Of course, it won't end without a fight.

But really, did you expect otherwise?

The opportunity for revenge finally comes knocking for the Neo One Fang.

This shall be the Black Fang's last stand.

Great, now you jinxed it.

See what I mean?

With nothing left to live for, the last of the Fang go on a battle frenzy.

Excellen recognizes them as actual Fang members, not morphs.

Ellen seems to have vague psychic powers. Sounds like an original story, to be told another time.

Jack knows Excellen, even if only as a prisoner, so it might work.

Of course it won't.

For this large and tough map, we're pulling out all the stops.

Plus Matthew, Altenna, and Milanor.

And speaking of Matthew...

His stealing days are over.

That missing support convo had me looking at Ellen's supports, and now I see why. There appears to be an additional support with Raymond, that's probably where the Nino/Jaffar support went.

Of course, I then look at Raymond's supports. A lot has been changed, and they're probably also brand new support conversations. Although not all of them might be completely finished, the one with Sanger certainly wasn't.

The starting formation, though it doesn't matter as much here.

I don't need any of those, I need javelins and hand axes because I'm starting to run out of them.

As the battle gets underway, Excellen doesn't feel comfortable about it. She wants to fight Ingram and his minions, not the actual Black Fang who were only manipulated by Ingram's actions.

The enemy forces consist of nothing but promoted units. They're gonna be tough, but they're also gonna award so much exp that a majority of the following screenshots will just be level ups. I apologize for this.

And the level up montage begins with this crappy cap.

And another HP cap among other things.

With four stats capped, it's getting harder and harder for Kyosuke to gain any stats.

With no screenshots of my strategy, I'll just have to describe it instead. The first order of business is to get Altenna to the lone village. This of course moves the group onto one of the three paths to the Shrine, triggering the reinforcements of that path. It's then just going back and forth, defending against the incoming wave and then advancing to crush them before the next wave arrives. Repeat as necessary.

Altenna finally makes it.

And still no Murdock. Admittedly with no Zephiel, he has no reason to appear.

To be fair, he's giving it away because only great staff users (of which he is not) can use it.

With the prize acquired, Altenna quickly gets out of dodge.

Matthew carefully picks his spots to make kills that yield him much exp.

So he's acting like an actual assassin.

With the village secure, everyone hunkers down until the reinforcements finally run out.

And then the reinforcements of another path are triggered.

Just double checking. Nope, assassins really can't steal here. This isn't The Last Promise.

So as I've said before, Milanor's now in charge of stealing.

The new reinforcements are taken care of.

And then the reinforcements of the third and final path are triggered.

Excellen teases Edmond some more.

And finally, all possible reinforcements have been eliminated with plenty of kills fed to Matthew.

I promise, the next part won't be this boring.

Maybe...

[BBHood217]

Chapter 27 part 2

Moving onto the Shrine area itself causes some of its guards to start moving.

And triggers one last batch of reinforcements of which we were already prepared for.

Wait, you're not Gulcasa. Who are you?

Only one way to find out.

Oh yeah, that Isaac!

...never heard of you.

That's right, he's one of those ten friends mentioned way back.

I've completely forgotten about it, because it seems that there are like way more than ten friends in that group.

And just like that, he's in.

All this talk about Mia and elemental adepts has me thinking that he's from Golden Sun, and a google confirms it.

So yay, I have another hero.

Though I'm fine with the one I already have.

Only one level left. Can he do it?

The fliers and guards are dispatched without much trouble.

And he did it! He's capped speed along with his level.

That is beautiful.

Although I'll still need a couple of goddess icons and several talismans to get that full upgrade bonus.

We finally start making our way to the Shrine.

Where Luna takes out Jack's guards.

Leaving Jack all alone.

He looks scary, but like the rune sword the earth sword can only do magic attacks that cannot crit at all.

Just gotta avoid melee range.

I have a plan, and it starts with Excellen.

Why would Jack listen to her anyway? She was nothing more than a captive.

Anyway, it doesn't work. Jack's too far gone down the road to revenge to listen to any more reason.

But now he'll start moving.

So let's get her outta there.

And the plan works. Jack takes the bait and gets off his throne.

He starts blindly swinging his earth sword around, though the dark magic just bounces off Mia the magic tank.

I'll be taking that. You may have 27 speed, but Milanor has 28.

And after getting softened up by light magic, Excellen finally puts him down.

At least the couple can be together again.

But the battle leaves Excellen as depressed as the level up she just got.

She's gonna miss the Black Fang.

Meanwhile, Athos appears to congratulate the heroes on their successful journey to the Shrine.

Ray of course already knows why, but he's just reciting the required lines to move the story along.

Also, Kyo wouldn't have maxed his level if we just skipped to the Shrine. Do you want him taking on Ingram while he's still only a low level general?

It's now time to visit another living legend who resides within the Shrine.

The power to defeat Ingram is almost within their grasp.

But first, they'll need permission to use it.

And with a warp, they make their visit.

More later.

[BBHood217]

Chapter 27 cutscene

The place is covered in darkness, which of course fits this legendary hero's theme.

They find the hero they seek.

Bramimond, however, isn't too keen on fulfilling their request.

Ray insists, as the whole world is already in jeopardy anyway.

Not that Bramimond apparently cares.

Also, that dialogue looks wrong coming from Bramimond. Look at what you did, Ray.

Bramimond is indeed a mysterious figure.

But enough about that, let's get down to business.

Athos vouches for Eliwood and his good intentions.

Bramimond still has its doubts.

But Eliwood's determination does remind it of a fellow legendary hero.

And in the end, Bramimond finally releases the seals to the legendary weapons.

Yeah, I just said that.

Who knows, who cares, let's get those weapons.

Great, now you jinxed it. Again.

See what I mean? Again?

Ingram's back in full form.

Once again, he wants the siblings.

He threatens their friends to get to them.

Ninian knows the consequences if she doesn't go, and yields to Ingram's demands.

Oh, not you too. Not everything needs names.

The return of dragons is within Ingram's grasp.

Eliwood continues to be defiant and attempts to attack.

Suddenly, everything goes white.

And the next thing he knew, he was waking up at his camp.

They might be in serious trouble now.

So why didn't he?

Quintessence? Don't... well, y'know.

They really must acquire those weapons.

Normally, that would be the end of that. But that's the original.

And it begins.

What's the problem? Shion's also the same, but you don't hear her whining about it.

Though to be fair, Shion can fight. She just forgot her weapon at home.

Megan on the other hand is really a complete noncombatant. And she doesn't want to be anymore.

Dunno what convinced him to help her.

Oh well. Who knows, who cares, Megan's ascension to archsage replacement begins.

Yeah, the thing's that barely offscreen below your neck.

The next quest is assigned.

But before that, someone's overdue for a promotion.

And it finally works.

Great, now I'll need to buy even more javelins.

Finally, everyone's promoted.

Long after everyone else did.

But still earlier than your son.

Next stop and next time: The titular blazing blade.

[Acacia Sgt]

It wasn't shown in this update, but Isaac uses the Great Lord's animations (and the class slot, for that matter). And they really are just a group of 10 (Ray, Megan, Linoan, Leaf, Nanna, Isaac, Mia, Sakura, Serge, and Lenna; if I'm not mixing up someone), it's just that any other person they're friends with also happens to be in Elibe for some reason or another (for example, way back it was stated Shion was on vacation from her job... quite a long vacation, eh, if it has lasted more than a year). As it is, I think Isaac is the last of the 10 that join (don't vouch me on that, I might be deliberately forgetting who replaces Renault). The last two (Lenna and Serge) were likely to have been the Farina and Karla replacements if Ray had worked on that mode, I would guess.

Edited November 29, 2016 by Acacia Sgt

[BBHood217]

Chapter 28: Valorous Roland

With the legendary weapons unsealed, Eliwood's next task is to retrieve the sword of which its name is on this game's Japanese subtitle.

And that name is the Blazing Blade, Durandal.

No really, it's Blade and not Sword.

Let's peek at the Dragon's Gate first, though.

Ninian turns out to be uncooperative.

So Ingram wants dragons more than just to have them wreck the world, he also wants the power of one.

Citing his superiority, he demands that Ninian submit to him.

But she continues to be defiant, until...

She dragons up.

And with only beastly instincts remaining, she flees.

This doesn't seem to faze Ingram.

Meanwhile, Eliwood has arrived at Durandal's resting place.

Which might be too hot for some people to handle.

The unbearable heat is perfect for protecting a mighty weapon of ages past.

And if the heat doesn't get them, then the guardians will.

It's time for Eliwood to prove his worth.

And these are his friends that will accompany him.

With no Nino or Nino-like character to use it on, the Drops are finally given to Eliwood.

The map is separated into three paths, with Eliwood soloing the middle one.

He'll need all the help he can get.

Just confirming Milanor's thief function. He really is a thief through and through, with always finding items in the desert sand being the one exception. Which is kinda funny considering his love for buried treasure.

Little explanation here: Thieves automatically disable any fire tiles they end their turn on, turning them into harmless floors.

On Ray's path are magic users. Good thing he has a hand axe.

The odds were in your favor, Eliwood!

Enemies don't particularly care if they end their turn on fire tiles. Hey, it's free 10 damage for me.

Eliwood gets his revenge.

And gets patched up afterwards.

Meanwhile, Milanor is wrecking all the enemies on his path even with his support partner gone. Seems along with Hector's animations, he's also inherited his overpoweredness plus thief skills too.

And with maximum thief, there is now nothing he can't steal.

Fighting magic makes you tougher against magic. It's evolution.

Generals and fire tiles mean nothing to him.

Well, that's a slow start.

I wonder if there are master axes and master bows too.

I might've made a mistake.

Stupid axe magnetism.

At least Lynoan profits from playing medic.

There we go. I guess it just takes a while for the Drops to kick in.

Hey, don't slow down now.

Cool, there is a master bow. Now, where's that master axe?

Ray beats up more mages.

One of them has bolting however, so he waits it out.

Sanger sneaks in a few kills too.

Eliwood uses the last of his rapier to earn this level.

You will be missed.

Oh hey, a replacement.

Back to the fray!

I wonder who'd win in a fight: Raymond or Kelik?

The end is in sight.

Y'know, I always found it odd that a berserker guards the hero's weapon while a hero guards the berserker's weapon.

See? I told you all. It was never Sword this whole time much like it was never Fa, it was "Blazing Blade" and "Fae" and these names officially existed all the way back in 2003.

Also, there's this thing. Only 15 uses, but those 15 uses will hurt a ton.

The objective is to get Eliwood onto the tile he's standing on, but he'll still gladly run up to attack you. It's quite a surprise the first time it happens.

Fortunately Eliwood can handle him, and his iron rune will prevent any surprise criticals.

There were still a few enemies left for Eliwood to level up off of.

Eventually, the guardian gets trapped.

And Eliwood lands the finishing blow.

In his last moments, the guardian recognizes the descendant of Roland.

The trial leaves Eliwood stronger.

And with a shiny new katana.

And seize.

Or rather, wait.

Mad respects to the guardians.

Uh, you're not Athos.

No, it's Megan. She's the new archsage now.

There's really no reason for her instead of Athos to be here other than "she's replacing Athos in the final chapter".

Anyway, let's get that sword.

...later.

[BBHood217]

Chapter 28 cutscene

Megan summons Roland.

I think you broke him.

Nah, Roland's fine.

Eliwood pleads his case.

Hearing the word "dragon" was enough for Roland to lend his help.

And Eliwood finally claims his prize.

Not to mention really huge and really heavy.

Outside, Eliwood shows off the legendary sword.

Which gives a vague air of familiarity to Elibeans.

So Lynoan's like "huh?".

It's time for the final showdown.

But wait, the sword suddenly detects something.

And a dragon emerges.

I know, right? The text speed is forced to Slow, it goes by automatically, and it refuses to be skipped. I could press Start, but then the entire cutscene's skipped.

Knowing only what's in front of him, Eliwood takes action.

And easily slays the dragon, much like his son will with even more dragons in the future.

Everyone tries to figure out what just happened.

First, the sword really hates dragons.

And second, where did this dragon come from?

Ingram has the answer to that.

But first, he claims the other sibling.

Normally at this point, Eliwood's portrait would black out. It seems to have been fixed here.

And then, he proceeds to tell Eliwood exactly what happened.

He first gives some context.

Then he makes preparations for the big reveal.

And finally unveils just who was ultimately at fault.

Only adoration this time. It would be full love if Eliwood and Ninian had an A support.

He proceeds to torture Eliwood with the consequences of his actions.

Cruelly driving the point home that it was all his fault.

Eliwood is understandably furious.

Ray tries to hold him back.

It works, but now Eliwood is completely distraught.

He can only watch as Ninian dies in his arms.

At least she dies knowing that Eliwood is safe.

But it does little to ease his pain.

Ingram assures him that the pain will soon go away.

Megan has finally had enough and challenges the Time Diver.

She turns up the heat.

But it does little to Ingram's massive HP pool.

And he probably had a warp field to reduce the damage anyway. I hate those things.

Ingram is surprised that such an ordinary-looking girl wields legendary magic.

Not that it actually affected him.

However, he still seems impressed by her enough that he'll back off for now.

But in truth, he'll wait until Eliwood returns with his full strength to challenge him. Because that will generate the maximum amount of quintessence that he wants.

Uhh Ingram, I think you forgot someone.

Unfortunately, it'll be a long while before GBA FE hacking becomes advanced enough to majorly change the story.

And make completely new ones too.

Nils snaps out of his trance.

Upon seeing what transpired, he now wishes he hadn't woken up.

And with that really inappropriate jojoke, I now wish Nils had been killed instead of Ninian.

Next time: A message from Lord Ingram.

Edited November 30, 2016 by Baby Bonnie Hood

[Acacia Sgt]

Huh, I didn't knew that about thieves and the tiles. Heh... I gotta keep that in mind...

I've always wondered that about the guardians as well. Doesn't look like they were misplaced by accident, so I'm gonna guess they wanted to be ironic.

Ah, good old Shishioh Blade. Such a good weapon... but as far as swords go, nothing will beat the ZANKANTOU! That said, noticing the S Rank, if it's replacing the Regal Blade then it means the weapons are now obtained close to the end rather than at the end. Unless there is another S Rank sword around...

Edited November 30, 2016 by Acacia Sgt

[spiritomb108]

Nope, Ray put them closer in the game, cause giving you all of the S rank weapons in the final chapter was a dumb move on vanilla's part.

[Acacia Sgt]

I would agree that wasn't a good move from the developers. And then imagine the torture for those wanting max ranks. Especially on Funds. Get them and then can't even use them a lot.

Normally, I would comment there isn't enough bosses left (aside from the last chapter's battle royale) to give them all the weapons, but considering a Berserker was holding the sword, then as far as I know, everything's possible now.

[BBHood217]

It sounds like the final chapter won't have any item drops at all. That'll make it easier for me to plan for it because now I can stuff everyone's inventory to the brim instead of needing to leave empty slots for any item drops.

Chapter 29: Surprise Assault

I know she's just a video game character and she eventually comes back to life anyway (spoilers), but must you make light of what's supposed to be a tragic event?

How nice of him, Hector took time off of his busy schedule to help his friend.

Eliwood better appreciate it.

Because it's the last time he'll hear from him after that.

It sure is strange how the Ostian soldiers treat a commoner like royalty.

Ray pretends to care because he and we all already know what really happened to Uther by this point of the game.

And it implies that the same thing happened to Hector as well.

Little man, you could not be more wrong...

Later, everyone wants to know about Megan's new powers.

Aww, you were doing so well. But now you're calling attention to them once again. Well you heard her, ignore the following lol visions.

So I did just that by not screencapping them. We've already seen them in their original context anyway.

Basically, she just repeats what she told Athos: All she could do was play cheerleader while everyone else was fighting and it made her feel useless, even with Ray telling her that the group still appreciates her happy-go-lucky attitude.

Also, Eliwood wanders in at some point.

She continues that Athos sensed her desire and offered his help by imbuing her Starman pendant with his magic. Now she can wield the most powerful magics like he can, though only temporarily as they will dissipate by the end of the game er I mean their journey. Her newfound powers felt like she got ten fire flowers.

She then basically recounts the events of the previous chapter as if we didn't already see that for ourselves. With Ingram unaffected even by her magic, what can they do now...?

Overall it was nothing that couldn't have just been done in normal dialogue, but that history of Athos and Nergal cutscene had to be overwritten anyway because it was there. Instead of oh I dunno, just not using it at all?

Enough of that filler, let's get back to the plot.

Grandbell has launched a title drop.

And it was Ingram that made it possible.

Everyone scrambles for the defense mission.

All hands on deck!

Even you, princess.

Nah, forget him. He's still too traumatized.

You're not Denning. Why are you not Denning? Where is my message from Lord Ingram?!

Instead, Gulcasa has returned for a rematch.

And miss all the exp and loot? Nuts to that.

Please, get him outta there before he makes more random references.

Look at that. Everyone is promoted, even the green NPCs. If you still have an unpromoted unit by this chapter, they probably won't live very long.

Gulcasa is practically unchanged from his last appearance. Good thing we've gotten stronger since then.

There is one change though: He's now carrying this thing. And I want it.

This map's off to a great start.

I wonder what Edmond's father would think of Excellen. Assuming he finds him, that is.

Well, everyone in the main team has completed their supports. I won't need to worry about getting any more in the remaining chapters.

Like I said, we're not sitting still. We're taking the fight to them.

Like in the last chapter that had them, these generics are pretty competent.

I have to be careful though because a few enemies drop items, and I don't want the generics getting the kills on them.

As much as I'd like to, Milanor's too busy thieving to have a showdown with Gulcasa.

Just one mag left.

Team ATX's performance remains top notch.

Sure, why not. These guys deserve it.

Plus, it's free exp.

Of course, they also have their own healer.

Okay, I was wrong. There's still one type of unpromoted unit in this map.

Couldn't he have been an assassin, though? They can still use lockpicks.

I finally start using the Gaebolg, and good thing too because it apparently gives stat bonuses.

Very welcome stat bonuses.

Ellen helps out a little.

With everything capable of easily killing them, it's a little hard to level up the pegs.

This sniper wields a powerful bow. Damn, that could've gone south.

Altenna hits him back with her own named weapon.

She snags this level.

And the bow too.

We're halfway there.

Lynoan blows up a horse whose rider wields another super weapon.

And now she can wield Aureola. Or Luce.

How did this end up in Elibe?

The same way everyone else did: Crossover fanfiction.

This generic's having a bad day.

More thieves and more reinforcements.

That's enough purging the generics out of you, miss.

I appreciate that Eliwood's lance rank now starts at C instead of the original's D.

I also appreciate this level up.

And I especially appreciate this swordslayer.

Even though I already have one, but two is even better.

Great, too many caps.

Uh oh, the generics have wandered into Gulcasa's range. We better hustle.

Whoa, this was supposed to be a gem.

Gulcasa spots his prey and swoops in. We better do the same to him.

More later.

[BBHood217]

Chapter 29 part 2

The generic is easily slaughtered. We need to take him out before he kills off someone more important (i.e., any playable character).

As usual. You won't get away, though.

It looks bad, but we gotta charge in now.

Kathy starts off by taking out an enemy.

And Raph goes in for the kill.

No good, the second attack didn't crit.

Fortunately, Altenna follows up and gets the kill.

Showing him who the superior wyvern master really is.

The fight leaves her tougher.

And with a shiny new axe.

Too bad about the Brongaa sword, though.

We can't celebrate just yet though, we got incoming enemies.

We start picking them off.

After that fortify staff, this seems disappointing.

Really hard to level the pegs.

Practically everyone's covered. And yes, even the generics are healed.

Can a Clow card do this?

Actually, there's probably one that could.

This never gets old.

Turns out that these three enemies don't move. That makes it easier.

Wow.

Gimme that.

Raph's leveled all he can.

Maybe I should've paired him with Kyosuke after all.

That res bonus is from a barrier.

Yes, Edmond's achieved maximum luna.

With things slowing down, there's finally time to go shopping.

Well, that was a waste of a warp staff.

All the enemies are finally finished off.

And here's a sneak peek at what Heather Emblem might possibly look like.

The reinforcements finally arrive, but the fighting's already over.

Yes, go and protect the commoner.

However, it's only a brief respite. The fighting could easily start up again if Ingram has his way.

And that Leaf guy too or whatever.

Grandbell seems to be going through ridiculous lengths at this point, though.

To combat Ingram's power, they'll need even more power.

And while Athos gathers said power, the heroes will take the fight to Ingram himself.

And one son of Washington.

The exuberance of youth impresses the elder Athos, like in all those anime.

With Eliwood unable to wield Durandal, Athos holds onto it for now.

Eliwood promises that he'll be ready to wield it next time.

What's this now?

what

I what

I'm sorry, but... what???

I'm so tempted to say no, but I really need to stock up on javelins and hand axes.

Next time: Not much.

[Acacia Sgt]

Oh, and that answers my previous doubt. S-Rank weapons held by generics, haha. Then I guess it will be the same with the magical weapons in Ch30? I suppose. Hmm, well, I can easily tell the Rainbow Axe is from Chrono Cross, and Kain's Spear was pretty much stated in the description even if I didn't knew it beforehand... but no clue about where the Aurora Bow is from.

If you ask me, that Athos-Nergal thing could've stayed. I mean, maybe it's just me, but it kinda looks like a big coincidence that Ephidel, Sonia, Limstella, and especially Kishuna, would still be around if Nergal isn't. In fact, so far I was kinda thinking that Ingram is simply picking up where a less succesful Nergal failed. Then again, it's not like there's anything (yet) denying or confirming this is or isn't the case. Oh well...

Of all the little things added in, I can't really say no to that one. Some SRW games do have it that the heroes have some little party or shore leave (mind you, not all of them are cheery in nature) before the final battle(s), and I have SRW bias, so... hahahaha...

Edited December 1, 2016 by Acacia Sgt

[BBHood217]

Chapter 29x: Battle Preparations

Mere screenshots cannot do this scene justice.

So,

And then we shopped.

And then we arena grinded until time was up.

We shall never speak of this ever again.

Let's see what the bad guys are up to.

Huh, the Gate's been opened. But don't you need the siblings to do that?

Turns out that their quintessence is enough to do the same. Seems Ingram wasn't just there to taunt Eliwood, he somehow made off with Ninian's essence when nobody was looking. So he was confident in leaving Nils behind.

But he's not yet ready to summon dragons, as apparently he was feigning his invincibility during that encounter with Megan and actually did get hurt.

He requires more quintessence.

Luckily, a huge amount is about to be delivered to him.

Next time: The toughest battle yet.

[Acacia Sgt]

Hahaha, that has "Let us never speak of this again" all over it... I think...

[charlie_]

plans within plans