Lans Tartare- 39 Years Old: The chief of the Dark Knights. This battalion was sent to Bacrum. This was based on a secret treaty between the king of Lodis and Branta. Lans seems to be the right-hand man of Branta. The Roslolians are the most trusted battalion of Branta.
I look at Belgger and Orcus' stats. Belgger, once he has that 30 kills, can become a Terror Knight; he has the right stats. He now has 27, so he should be able to become one after the next battle. Orcus needs some more VIT. Bruno, once he gets more DEX, can become a dragoon. To help him along, I change him into a ninja. Freesia needs a bit more MP and INT to become a Priest (it should be Priestess, but eh, this game's translation, you understand). Byan... I have some special plans for Byan. Let's just say he's far away from his goal.
If you remember, we had a problem with Presance; since he is an Exorcist, he can not equip better healing magic that we'll need if we want to survive in later chapters.
My solution?
Welcome Basha to Squad Liveblog.
◊ How did I get her, you may be asking? Remember way back in Part 4, where I said you can recruit characters, and that's only really helpful in Chapter 1?
Well, I guess I was wrong, because that's exactly what I did here.
I bought an amazon (making sure her randomly generated alignment was L) and then had her hit rocks against Belgger, the only person on our squad who is level 17, until she was level 17, making her into a cleric in level 6. Now we have another cleric who can become a priest! I'm not shafting Presance entirely; I'm gonna keep him trained in case we have battles with undead; but he won't be showing up in regular battles anymore. It was fun while it lasted, Presance, but you're out.
I equip Basha, Byan, and Freesia with balder robes; I buy Aloser and Area balder bows (I forgot to mention they're in stock last post, sorry); I buy Bruno, Belgger, Canopus, and Hogan balder swords, giving the one I got in battle to Orcus; I also buy them balder helmets.
Squad Liveblog is now even more badass then they were before. Seriously, think about what they've done and how many people they've killed. Do not tell me my squad is not made up of a bunch of badasses.
With that, I train everyone who isn't level 17 to that level.
Orcus now has the right stats to become a terror knight; just needs those 30 kills. He has 19 right now. Ouch, need to work on that. I level Bruno up and... now he can become a dragoon! Say hello to Bruno the dragoon!
◊ I buy him an Acid Rain spell, as he can use magic. I level Hogan up and...
Oh... oh boy...
It seems I made a bad mistake. I've been training Hogan to become a swordsmaster, who must be lawful... and it turns out he's neutral! How in the holy mother of fuck did I miss that!? Ugh, I annoy myself sometimes...
Hmmm... what can we do...
A ha!
"Hi, Delta. Sorry for shafting you. But it turns out the 'Hulk Hogan' project was kind of a failure, as I misread his alignment. But welcome back!" I train him from level 11 as a ninja. He doesn't have quite the AGI; one more level will do the trick.
I level up everyone else to level 17. Say hello to Freesia the priest!
◊ I give her Vitalize, which heals all status ailments, and... Revivify! This can resurrect dead party members as long as it's done in the same battle they died in. Thus death is not as big an issue as it was before. It's still a big one, though. Don't think you can slack off with your tactics just because you can revive people now!
The next battle is filler. The boss is called "Felnator," but the way.
Stupid Names Count: 11
Felnator: I can't believe it... defeated... by a traitor...
We get 4050 Goth, Belgger is the MVP (again) and gets a bonus level up, and we get the spell Heal Rain, Grease boots, some more Goth, and some balder armor.
Sweet. More drops I'll actually use.
Grease boots can walk on water. I give them to Orcus. I give the balder armor to our new badass dragoon Bruno.
Meet Belgger the terror knight
◊. Or should we start calling him "tank"?
While giving the armor to Bruno, I realize I forgot to buy balder armor, making the filler battle harder than it needed to be. Sighing to myself, I buy some for everyone but my casters.
I'm left with 58074 Goth after my large amount of transactions.
Meet Delta the swordsmaster.
◊ I guess he grew to 73 in the span of 5 seconds. I give him the spell Stun; it will be very effective when he uses it, because the spells Stun and Petrify depend on DEX, and a high DEX is the staple of the swordsmaster. I'm going to be getting Petrify as soon as I can; then again, when I get it, the battle it comes from will have the perfect NPC to give it too.
Basha can change into a priest, but I decide against it, as priests can't use Heal+. However, once a certain spell is available, I will change her (probably).
I get into a random battle. For it, I get some Goth, an Obelon jewel, a pomme fruit, and some battle boots. The jewel and fruit are pretty useless; obelon gets rid of storms that randomly happen in battles, and the pomme fruit gets rid of status effects. Since Freesia can heal status effects and I don't care about storms, I don't have much use for those.
The first battle, at the entrance, is filler, but take note of the boss, the female witch Zildor, and she asks if Didario is back and that Zaebos should send more troops.
We wiped the floor with this battle. Actually, a more appropriate analogy would be we wiped the floor with this battle, then grabbed the floor with our bare hands and hit the battle over and over again, and then ate it's dying corpse.
Zildor: Barbatos... forgive me...
We get 3950 Goth, Orcus gets a bonus level up, a chain mail, and a ghaldia fan. It serves no use for us.
We are brought to the edit screen, where... meet Orcus the Terror Knight!
◊ His sprite doesn't change, but you get the idea.
Now everyone I wanted to change classes has! Sweet!
Looking at it, Canopus is now our weakest member. He's still useful to us because of his terrain-ignoring ability, but he's probably the first I'll shaft when NP Cs start coming in.
Our position.
◊ Byan is at 1, Canopus is at 2, Aloser is at 3, Bruno is at 4, Freesia is at 5, Orcus is at 6, Area is at 7, Belgger is at 8, Basha is at 9, and Delta is at 10.
Let's fight it out.
"You are Orcus of Griate!"
◊ Zaebos shouts. "You killed Zildor! I thought the Liberation Army was after you. Or is this just a plot to deceive me, like Baramus?"
"I am not a member of the Liberation Army! Don't put me in the same boat as Ronway or Branta. They are using this ethnic war to fulfill their desires!" Orcus replies.
"Are you trying to tell me that you are fighting for the people?! What a hypocrite! How many people have you killed after giving your speech about fighting for the people?"
"You're the kind of person who makes the people suffer!!"
No map this time.
I'd suggest making a mainly offensive attack in this map; this way, you can catch the enemies while they're clumped. Only do this if you have confidence in your troops. If you don't, take a defensive position.
The mages will be your biggest threat here; their spells have a large radius, and the narrow platform means your troops will be clumped. Take them out as soon as you can.
Belgger kills the boss.
"...Stupid kid!" Zaebos shouts. "You may have Coritani Castle for now! But you are going to pay for this!" He uses an Escape crystal.
"Wait! Zaebos!"
We get 1250 Goth and a mind ring.
Man, our troops kick ass.
"...Are you sure Zaebos escaped to Brigantes Castle??" we ask.
"Yes, I'm positive," the captive responds.
"I thought Brigantes Castle has been abandoned ever since it lost its lord in the war..."
"No, when we attacked Coritani Castle, there were other troops that took over the castle...the purpose of us taking over Coritani Castle was to lure the Liberation Army out of hiding. Coritani Castle was bait to get you guys. Once we trapped you, the main troops in Brigantes were supposed to attack you. But everything went wrong ever since you arrived..."
"Why are you telling me all of this information?"
"I'm nothing like Zaebos, I'm allergic to pain." I love that line. Maybe he should get a prescription. "So please don't kill me...besides..."
"Besides, what...?"
"There are a lot of refugees in Brigantes Castle. To be precise, they are the people who were afraid the Cardinal would have them executed. Zaebos is planning to execute them as a warning."
"What?! That's insane..." I shout.
"You see, I have a weak stomach and I just can't stand the thought of people dying..."
"Thanks for the info. I will go to Brigantes Castle."
"Gee, you're swell... I never thought I'd meet a guy like you. I wish I had met you sooner..." The man who is allergic to pain leaves.
Sad music plays
as we see Kachua leaving.
◊
"Kachua! Wait, Kachua!"
"Did you call me, Mr. Hero?" she asks, turning to us.
"Are you still mad at me?"
"...I hope you have a good reason for calling me here, if not, then I'll be going..."
"Are you positive that you want to go back to Griate?"
"Yes, I am. From now on, you can fight your own battles. Do whatever you want!"
We are presented with some dialogue choices.
◊ I decide to be careful with what I say and pick number 1.
"Are you leaving?"
"Me, leave you? You are the one that has left me!!"
You're so god damn selfish, Kachua! Get your head out of your ass, will ya!?
"Kachua..."
"I just don't want to be alone."
"I thought we were going to avenge our father's death. That's what we've been fighting for."
"I don't care anymore. He's not my father."
DRAMATIC MUSIC!
What!?
"What???"
"He is not our biological father. We were adopted. We were abandoned by our parents."
"That's not true! That's impossible!"
"I overheard him talking once. Search your feelings, Orcus. You know it to be true...we don't have any parents. You're the only family that I have."
Okay, that dramatic scene was ruined by the random Star Wars shout out.
"Why? Why are you telling me this now?!"
Back to sad music.
"Because you are leaving me."
"Leave you, Kachua? I will always be at your side!"
"Everything that I have ever known is a lie! You chose the war over me! You abandoned me for the sake of your ideals. Just forget that I ever existed!"
"Kachua..."
"You're the only family I have left!" And then she runs away.
"Kachua!" we scream. Run after her, you moron, you have military training, you can outrun your little...
Map screen!? Map screen!? Fucking Orcus!
-sigh-
Don't fret, Orcus. She was a whiny bitch anyway. She was only, like, level 2. You have your new badass friends now. Shack up with Area or something.
Next time: we fight Zaebos... again!
