Scene 6 is what I'd call the last “tutorial” level. After this the towns spend less time telling you how to play the game (though they still do). More importantly, the game's difficulty curves takes a bump. It doesn't become _hard_, but maps are larger than before, enemy units are no longer designed to be as inefficient as possible. Squads almost always have all their slots full. Also, bosses begin requiring some effort. Well, most of them anyway. So, lets enjoy our last brainlessly easy level. Also, I wont list the effect of drawing Tarots anymore, since the last update covered that.
Scene 6: Glass Pumpkin
As you can see
◊. Deneb's garden is tiny. Only 6 settlements beside the two bases.
Lans liberates Talka and gets us a XIII: Death. Well, there goes our reputation. Talka will be one of the major points the enemy squads will attack, so my new vampire-led squad moves are reinforcement.
Canopus frees Bajib and draws XIX: Sun and I begin lamenting my luck for Tarot cards.
Peltmon is freed by another squad, getting us ANOTHER XIII: Death. Okay, seriously game, why do you hate me?
I would make a Pumpkinhead's Revenge joke here, but that'd be expected of me.
The Roshian Temple is freed, giving me a III: Empress and I suddenly forgive the computer.
Oh, like you are shedding a tear for the dozen of squads of mooks I am about to butcher.
Freeing Roseanhels nets me ANOTHER XIII: Death. WTF is up with that card.
Roseanhels is another town that will see lots of enemies. Warren's unit moves as backup there.
This map marks our first encounter with Cockatrice. Evolved griffons whose sole perk is to be annoying as all hell. They turn your units to stone, doing small damage, but more importantly, preventing them from attacking. Not a threat, just an annoyance. Eitherway the goal is to destroy some of Deneb's units before moving to Anquard.
Anquard nets me XXI: World
The two hidden treasures around Valparine are a Dwarven sword, +7 str, Lighting element, and a thunder helmet, +8 lightning resist, +5 physical resistances. Neither great nor bad.
I have no ****ing idea why either. WTF.
Eitherway, we set the tactic to leader and beat the ever loving crap of the cute witch.
Forgiving Deneb loses you 5 reputation. Not forgiving her looses you 5 alignment. Since Reputation is easier to recover, I pick to forgive her. Also, by forgiving her, if my reputation doesn't recover by a few more levels, there's a slight chance I can recruit her. But I won't keep my fingers crossed. Contrary to rumors, forgiving Deneb has no effect on the ending you get.
Yup
Freeing Valparine nets us 32108 goths.
On a re-visit to Valparine, Deneb tells us she needs a Golden Bough for her experiments. As a front payment, she gives us a black pearl we can sell for some nice cash later in the game. Doing this quest nets us the Glass Pumpkin the chapter is named after. Yes. Scene 6 is named after an item that it's both possible to miss, AND who is not even mentioned till after three stages from now.
And that's it for scene 6.
Deneb becomes the defacto mascot of the Ogre Battle / Tactic Ogre series, appearing in several of the other games or being mentioned, often as a secret character. And yes, there's always hearts in her speech bubbles.
Next time: The empire gets real and sends one of the four Devas to fight us!
