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Alfric2012-06-04 15:55:52

This being the series-wide universal title drop of Fire Emblem!◊

Roy, still bound for Ostia in an attempt to lead the alliance, heads through a mountain pass to avoid other possible betrayals like Erik's.

We start by seeing a large group of bandits talking of their plan to raid a village, only to comment on our nearing presence. The boss is undaunted, believing that due to Lycia's war losses, that we will be easy meat for them to claim.

Now with Roy, a villager comes to ask him to save them from the bandits who loom over their village in an old castle. Merlinus protests, saying that we must keep onwards to Ostia, but Roy is unable to ignore these peoples plight, and decides to help them.

Now, let's kick some ass! After scoping out their troop, while there are quite a lot of them, they don't seem to have anything special in their equipment, save for a large number of ranged weapons, which is going to make taking these guys out slow-going. The various forts throughout the map also don't bode well for future events. I send Roy, Lance and Clarine north, while Rutger, Dieck, Lot, Lugh, and Ellen head towards the gate, so that they can match the enemies once the gate opens (I really hope it opens sooner rather than later). After the enemies move, I cut to the village, and get to see Dorothy speak with Yodel about protecting Saul, only to cut to him as he seems to be attempting to woo a young girl. He is then caught by Dorothy, and the two argue until the topic shifts to us, where Saul suddenly wants to join us upon knowing that Guinevere is in the army. Dorothy accuses him more of lechery, which he denies, and then they run off somewhere to the side of the map.

Roy and Lance park themselves on safer terrain (Roy a mountain and Lance a fort) to await the enemies, and the other group nears the gate, waiting for it to open. The enemies are unable to harm Roy's group, and I must say, I like the "no damage" sound effect in this game. Roy and Lance fight off the incoming foes, using the terrain to avoid their attacks, while Dieck's group waits at the gate and Lugh stops bandits crossing the mountains. I decide to have Dieck walk up to the gate, and then someone happens to open it, allowing the others to enter while Dory laments the fact that he was unable to notice an enormous mountain gate. The enemies start flowing through, and Rutger takes a sword to the face, finishing off the enemy while the others begin busting their way through. Once both groups have dealt with their foes, Lance visits the village, obtaining a Gant's Lance (what is this a reference to?) and Roy accompanies him along with Clarine to take care of the final enemies. Roy and Lance take care of two, while a merc who runs down is burned and then sliced by Lugh and Rutger, who baits the boss into switching to his hand axe.

Clarine buys some staves and a fire tome, leaving me mostly broke, and Rutger prepares to fight Dory. Or at least he was, until some reinforcements came out of the forts, as expected. Lot plugs up the fort near the castle, and Lance prepares to take down the other bandit in the meantime. Rutger then goes to build support with Dieck and, soon, Clarine. Roy and Lance must side-track to take out the bandits, and Clarine runs down to join the others while they do so. Rutger, Clarine and Dieck build up a support while Lugh and Ellen do the same... Only they don't. After lord knows how many turns (about 90 or so, give or take 5 turns) with them next to each other, I just decide to have Rutger rip Dory a new one with his Killing edge.

The first turn had him hit and miss, and Lance and Clarine pulling him out of there so he isn't crushed by a critical, followed by him finishing him off on the next turn with a critical and a finishing hit. Roy then conquers the castle.

Merlinus then informs us that a priest is looking for Roy and Guinevere. After some deliberation, he is met and introduces himself as Saul to the young lords. At first, he appears to begin complimenting Guinevere, but suddenly he shocks her by asking her if she has the Fire Emblem, and saying that he was sent to investigate the disappearance of both it and her by the church. Guinevere reveals that she had hoped to dissuade Zephiel due to the Fire Emblem being the key to a powerful dragon slaying weapon, but war broke out anyways. Still, she appears to have a plan, and thus Saul says he will join our group.

Next time, we are going to be tackling the oh-so forebodingly named chapter Traps...

Would someone be able to explain the supports issue that seems to be happening?

Comments

montagohalcyon Since: Dec, 1969

Jun 4th 2012 at 4:39:38 PM

Alright, supports first:

Unlike FE 7 and FE 8, the limit is on how many support points can be built up per chapter rather than conversations per pair. According to serenes it's 120, coincidentally exactly the number needed for two C supports or one B.

So if you want one support really fast it can potentially reach B in a single map (the minor upside), but if you're trying to support multiple people it will probably take a few chapters (or a lot for some pairs with a +1 growth since others will be sucking up all the points) and then you'll start unlocking several at once.

Gant's Lance: it and two later items (Al's Sword and Tina's Staff) are a reference to the FE 6 manga, which I haven't read. They're basically an in-between phase of iron and steel weapons (or Heal and Mend) with more durability.

The gate is actually under your control as hinted at by the villager, just send a unit next to it. I've never had the courage to open it before the top group got around the bend, too much risk of getting swarmed. So congrats!

Alfric Since: Dec, 1969

Jun 4th 2012 at 5:00:01 PM

Ah, the support point limit explains it. It'll be slow going then, it seems, but it looks like it'll be worth it.

So the specially named weapons reference the manga, alright then, cool. The weapon itself looked pretty good, so I think I'll be making use of it in the future.

JonnasN Since: Dec, 1969

Jun 5th 2012 at 3:26:43 AM

Gant's Lance is pretty darn good. I'd give it to units with less Con (thus being ineffective with Steel)

HamburgerTime Since: Dec, 1969

Jun 5th 2012 at 4:32:41 PM

Here's some more advice on getting around a couple Guide Dand It situations, again being as vague as possible because you want to play blind:

There's a map where you can get a certain powerful enemy character to come to your side, but only before a certain turn. If you try to go to him, you probably won't reach him, but it's entirely possible to bait him into coming to you, so make sure your bait can survive his attacks if you want him! As to who you recruit him with, I'll only tell you it's the last person you'd probably want to plonk down next to a powerful enemy, and you'll probably be able to guess who it is by the connection between the two units. The guy joins automatically in a later chapter, but recruiting him in this one is necessary for the best reward from the chapter.

There are three maps where reaping the best rewards requires keeping NPC generics alive, as well. I believe these are in fact the only maps with generic NPCs.

Finally, one map features an extra reward from a certain house if you visit it with a certain character. I'll tell you that it's someone you have now but who you don't seem to be using, and that the person inside the house wears the same color clothes as the person who needs to talk to her. There's a huge number of houses on this map, too, and if you save them all from bandits, you get a bonus item.

Alfric Since: Dec, 1969

Jun 5th 2012 at 6:28:14 PM

All of those hints are really cryptic, but I'll keep them in mind for future events. Thanks for the tips everyone!

hnd03 Since: Dec, 1969

Jun 5th 2012 at 6:40:29 PM

Hamburger, I'm not even sure who you're talking about with the first clue. I might actually be talking about the same person though, but there is a character you will see in Chapter 13, that while you can recruit him, it's best to wait until 15. For several reasons: A) Takes less time. B) Much easier to reach him. C) His group, which will become NP Cs upon his recruitment, are easier to keep alive. If you were playing Hard Mode, then he would only get HM bonuses if recruited in Chapter 15.