My name is Igor...I mean, Endark...I am delighted to make your acquaintance.
Welcome back! Terribly sorry about all the text you had to read in that last installment; as I said in its final paragraph, don't expect long entries like that very often. And to be completely honest, phoenix, Fuuka was my first choice. There was a nice bluish-teal hair colour, and Wendee Lee (who does Female Voice #2) voiced Fuuka in Persona 4 Arena. But I couldn't find a hairstyle that matched with how Fuuka looks in Persona 4 Arena, and she had a different voice actor in Persona 3. So instead, because Michelle Ruff was Yukari's voice actor (and as you said, the default voice sounds almost exactly like her), I went with the more romantic option. Did I mention that romance and bonds are important? The game pretty much beat this into me during the final stages of my last run.
Anyways, now that we've created Yukari...well, actually, since we've only just begun, I took phoenix's suggestion and recreated Yukari with color 15. No harm, no foul; less than a minute of progress lost. So, now that we've created Yukari twice, let's see how her first battles play out!
PREMONITION: INVISIBLE TIES
Note, that's 'Premonition', not 'Prologue'. This will probably be important later. Anyways, this chapter begins with a cutscene. From the point of view of Yukari, who's the hood-wearing mysterious person from the introductory cutscene (instead of having to render every single possible appearance, cutscenes usually just cover the face with a hood and ignore the fact that you may be slightly taller or shorter than the others), we watch as a blue-haired man uses his blade to fight against an obviously evil sorcerer, before lending our assistance by firing a bolt of lightning at the bad guy. Unfortunately, the sorcerer knows how to fire large spheres of energy,and his retaliation leads to blasting the blue-haired man into a wall and then smirking towards us.
The cutscene ends, and we get to see the battlefield. The blue-haired man, AKA our protagonist Chrom, mentions that this is our final battle and that "destiny" won't change the fact that we're allies. Did "destiny" tell us earlier that we were enemies? Either way, it's time to kill a dastard! ...Chrom's word, not mine. Clicking around on menus after that text is gone, we can identify our first three major characters:
- YUKARI (That's our created unit!): A traveler with no memory of the past, but a gift for tactics.
- CHROM (Our heroic Lord): Captain of the Shepherds. Treats his men firmly but fairly.
- VALIDAR (The obviously evil sorcerer): A dark mage who wishes to architect the world's end.
Also, Chrom wields a Silver Sword and the Falchion, otherwise known as Marth's legendary sword, while Yukari has the Thoron (lightning) magic tome and a Steel Sword, and Validar's weapon is the Dark Magic known as Grima's Truth. Time to...summarize!
- Chrom & Yukari: Spent Turn 1 Pairing Up (a feature that will be explained later, and wouldn't be available this early in Normal mode) and moving closer to Validar. Turn 2, with the stat boosts received from Pairing up, Chrom would be able to kill Validar with two swings of his Silver Sword and a 100% hit rate. However, he didn't need to land the second hit, because Yukari jumped in and blasted the opponent with Thoron to knock him to the ground.
- Turns taken: 2
- Heroes: None
And that was the Premonition, ladies and gentlemen! Short, wasn't it? Now it's time to sit back, relax, and watch as (in a cutscene) Validar fizzles into a purple mist. In Validar's last moments, he almost hits Chrom with one final energy blast, but Yukari pushes him out of the way in time. But we're all right...barring the fact that, right after Chrom checks to make sure, Yukari experiences some kind of painful sensation that makes her see red and causes her to stab Chrom through the chest with a lightning bolt. So that's how magic is represented in this world...it's cool to look at, but doesn't really explain why tomes have a durability, unlike the 'enchant the book and throw it' theory posed by the web comic Brawl In The Family. Getting back to the actual important parts of this scene, Chrom tells us that this wasn't our fault before he keels over, and the last thing we hear before blacking out is Validar's laughter...
PROLOGUE: THE VERGE OF HISTORY
Guess what, folks? It was all just a dream! In yet another cutscene from our created character's perspective, Yukari awakens under a blue sky to the voice of Chrom and a young girl with pigtails. They give her a hand to help her off the ground, and we see that the back of Yukari's hand has an interesting purple mark. The cutscene ends, and it turns out that not only were we under a blue sky, we were in the middle of a field. Also, there's a man in blue armor standing at attention nearby. There's a bit of dialogue after, but the gist of it is that Yukari is an amnesiac that somehow can recall Chrom's (and a bit later, her own) name, Lissa (the girl) is willing to give her the benefit of the doubt, and Frederick (the man in armor)...isn't. 'A load of Pegasus dung', to use his own words, though he's only being wary due to his lord's importance. They decide to take Yukari to town and discuss what to do with her, promising to treat her fairly if she's not an enemy of Ylisse. Ylisse is apparently the 'Haildom' we're in right now, led by an exalt named Emmeryn. Also, Lissa is Chrom's spunky little sister, and Chrom is the leader of the Shepherds. It's not explained immediately, but the Shepherds are more or less Ylisse's militia, taking care of the innocent people of the land and protecting them from brigands like a shepherd would look after his flock. Oh, and Southtown, the town we're going to? It's being raided by brigands led by a barbarian named Garrick. Chrom and his friends decide to focus on saving the townspeople before dealing with Yukari, who decides to accompany them and lend a hand. We then reach the main battlefield, and are allowed to examine some more important people:
- LISSA (A cleric): A Shepherd, and Chrom's little sister. Eager to prove herself.
- FREDERICK (a Great Knight): The Shepherds' stern and sarcastic second in command.
- GARRICK (The enemy boss): The ruffians' savage and unsavory leader.
And with that out of the way, it's time to Pair Up and obliterate these foolish enemies!
- Yukari & Lissa: Lissa can heal people with her staves, but initially, I just have her Pair Up with Yukari to give her magic a boost. After a brief dialogue with Chrom about how Yukari can use both magic and swords, Yukari fries a Myrmidon (Skill and Speed-oriented swordsmen...swords-people?) with Thunder. Yukari takes a bit of damage when the enemies attack on their turn, but is in no risk of dying, and kills off a barbarian (Strength and Critical-focused axemen...I mean, axe wielders). An enemy comes after the girls, but Dual Guard kicks in (randomly, a unit you're Paired Up with will jump in and nullify all damage) and the foe gets toasted soon after. This gives Yukari her very first level, in which HP, Strength, Magic, and Defense all increase by one (despite that last one being her flaw). The duo then head to a sparkly event panel and heal Chrom while standing on it. Event Panels either give you experience points, weapon proficiency, a random item, or a bit of dialogue and relationship points between two Paired Up units. They get the latter. Lissa then serves as bait to lure out two more Myrmidon and a Mage with Thunder. Yukari levels up while helping Chrom deal with them, and after Lissa heals Chrom one last time, they let Chrom weaken the boss and Yukari land the final blow (and her third level up, four stats increasing every time thus far).
- Chrom & Frederick: Because Frederick is a 2nd-tier class (a class that a unit can promote to with a Great Seal item after earning at least ten levels in their initial class) and would hog the experience from weaker units, I have him unequip his weapon and Pair Up with Chrom to give his stats a boost. Chrom then kills the Myrmidon Yukari fried. Taking little damage during the enemy's first turn, he then goes after a Magician with Wind (the weakest of the three base spells, but has a high hit rate). It takes three turns, since Chrom only has one Resistance and needed to be healed. He and Yukari then kill some enemies that Lissa lured out, Chrom earning his first level up (HP, Strength, and Luck) in the process. Chrom then goes after Garrick, but since Yukari's taken some damage (and I don't want to spend an extra turn switching Lissa around just to fix it), he merely weakens the boss so that our Tactician (did I mention that this is Yukari's initial class?) can get the experience.
- Turns: 8
- Heroes: Yukari & Lissa (who landed the final blow on a berserker or two, a mage, a myrmidon, and the boss)
Chrom and his pals are impressed by Yukari's skills, though Frederick is still being cautious. Yukari has earned Chrom's trust by risking her life to save innocent Ylisseans, and after telling Frederick that her skills could be useful to them, asks Yukari to join his group.
Moments later, Frederick and Chrom talk about how the bandits spoke with a Plegian accent. Plegia is apparently the country to Ylisse's west, and they're not-too-subtly trying to instigate a war by letting their rogues run loose in the area. The villagers we've protected offer their hospitality, and while Lissa's a little sad that we're not staying, Frederick insists that our time would be better spent getting closer to our destination and merely camping when night falls. Laughs are had over how Frederick's so strict, and then our four-member party starts their trek towards the capital city.
We now have access to the World Map screen! Unfortunately, all we can do is survey the small portion of the continent that Ylisse takes up, walk to our next destination (a forest called "West of Ylisstol"), see a summary of the story thus far, and save. Later on, we'll be able to do a lot more from the World Map, such as spend the 5000 gold we start with, and access Support conversations. But for now, I think I'm going to save and quit. Hopefully, the action in this chapter was enough to make up for the boredom you experienced in the last!
...Wait, one more thing. Supports aren't open yet, but what stops us from planning supports for later? We've already met Yukari, Chrom, Lissa, and Frederick. Yukari can have a romantic relationship with any male character in the game, including Chrom and...well, characters from side quests that we can access after Chapter 13. Speaking of Chrom, there are only five ladies he can have a romantic relationship with (if you include Yukari), and there's a deadline for when a choice has to be made. There's also Lissa and Frederick, the former of which should probably get into a relationship at some point if we want to experience the full game, and the latter of which was in a relationship with a dark mage in the only other play through I've done with my digital copy of Fire Emblem Awakening. Phoenix has already brought up Chrom and Ricken as candidates for Yukari, but we've got plenty of time to make decisions not involving Chrom, so feel free to go wild!
So, my viewers...I could call you my flock, but I'm not protecting you from anything...thanks for reading, and have a wonderful day!
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