Salutations, viewers! Just so you know, new events seem to appear in the Barracks every hour of so, even if the game isn't on. And when I turned on my 3DS this morning and checked it out, while I wasn't surprised to see five scenes waiting for me, I was a tad surprised that they were all relationship building. And because it will bore you if I list every single event that happens, both in the Barracks and on the battlefield, I'll just stop detailing them. Unless it's funny, though, like watching Yukari and Sumia talk to each other twice, sandwiching a scene with just Sumia in it. Oh, and if you see an odd Support pair at the end of an installment, just assume it was from points earned in the barracks. With that out of the way, let's take on the Border Pass!
CHAPTER 5: THE EXALT AND THE KING
The three royal siblings meet up with the Mad King Gangrel and his voluptuous assistant, Aversa. Maribelle is fine, but is being held back by a man wearing an animal skull for a helmet, which is probably a bad sign. Aversa claims that Maribelle crossed the border without consent, and wounded Plegian soldiers. Maribelle calls her a lying, wretched crone, and Gangrel claims that a temper like hers speaks to her guilt and deserves punishment. And if she's also a Ylissean spy? Oh, Emm will have to pay a hefty price for this folly. Maribelle claims that Plegians razed a whole village and she got dragged across the border when trying to intervene, but Gangrel points out the recent bandit problem and claims that the rogues were completely and utterly unconnected to his soldiers. Emm believes Maribelle over Gangrel, but is willing to negotiate with the Mad King. Gangrel wonders why they should even parley if he's hasn't received an apology by now, but will release 'Mari Contrary' for the low, low price of the Fire Emblem.
Now, the Fire Emblem has been various things over the course of the series. In the games starring Ike, it was also known as Lehran's Medallion, and was said to house a chaotic god (and the azure flame it seems to radiate supports that theory). In Sacred Stones, the Fire Emblem was one of the titular stones, and housed the 'fiery' soul of the Demon King. But this is the same universe that Shadow Dragon and Mystery of the Emblem (Japan-only) took place in, where the Fire Emblem is a holy shield that can become the powerful Shield of Seals once five sacred spheres are inserted in it. We get a picture of the shield once Gangrel brings it up, and it's also in the background of the title screen, but it looks quite different from its 'Mystery' design. Also, only one sacred sphere is inserted, but there's probably some good reason for that. One probably involving politics.
Getting back to the main event, Emm is shocked that Gangrel would ask for their royal treasure. Gangrel claims that the Emblem is the key to having his wishes granted, and has desired it for years. Since nobody ever thought to just give it to him as an awesome birthday gift, bargaining for it will have to do. Emm claims that the Emblem is only for saving the world in a crisis, which admittedly would be a noble wish, but it seems that what every Plegian wishes for is Ylisse's downfall. Apparently, the last exalt (and Chrom's parent) wasn't quite as peaceful as Emm, having massacred countless Plegians during his crusade. Emm has sworn not to repeat the horrible mistakes of the past, but Gangrel would rather have the Emblem than trust in her words. Mari states that she'd rather die than see that happen, and Gangrel decides to end negotiations violently.
A bunch of bandit-looking soldiers then step out, but before they can harm Emm, Chrom strikes first and threatens anyone that would dare harm Emm. Unfortunately, Chrom's eagerness to harm Gangrel's soldiers means that a war between Plegia and Ylisse is now justified. Meanwhile, Aversa taunts Mari and states how she'll be remembered for sparking the battles that destroyed House Ylisse. Thankfully, the man holding her back is then blasted away with a gust of Wind (well, the stronger Elwind, technically), cast by none other than Ricken. Running into the scene and yelling at Mari to run for it, he also takes a moment to blast Aversa, and the Dark Flier (Aversa's like a Pegasus Knight, but she can cast magic as well) is shocked and barely manages to guard. She considers going after the escaping duo, but decides that Gangrel's men can handle the problem on their own.
After some preparations, including leaving the battlefield to go back to a shop and pick up a Wind tome for Yukari (so that our stronger tomes can be saved for Miriel, our weaker mage), the battle begins! Let's meet the important units, shall we?
- RICKEN (A mage who, in my last play through, earned a bronze medal for most fights participated in): An aspiring Shepherd who hates being treated like a child.
- MARIBELLE (Who somehow found a horse while escaping): A Shepherd, and also Lissa's best friend. Proud, yet kind.
- ORTON (A Wvern Rider, which is like a Pegasus Knight, but with a focus on power instead of speed): The Plegian commander. Merciless and bloodthirsty
Now, Ricken and Maribelle are separated from the rest of the army on Turn 1, and since Maribelle is a Troubadour (and thus can only use staves, like Lissa), they can quickly get overwhelmed if you don't send most of your army north ASAP. Even if they somehow survive the initial waves of barbarians and myrmidons, Orton isn't the only wyvern rider on the map. Also, before he left, Gangrel told Orton that Plegian reinforcements would come from the forts on the map. With all that said, let's get ready to rumble!
- Frederick, Lissa, & Virion: Virion's the odd one out, as we have 11 units on the field (counting Ricken and Mari). Still, he's able to do some damage while standing behind the wall that is Freddy, and a few Dual Strikes with the Great Knight gives him a level or two (since, even if the killing blow is from a strong unit that Dual Strikes, the unit that initiated the attack still gets bonus experience). Virion did take a fair bit of damage when some dark mages with Flux (Dark magic that can only be wielded by dark mages and sorcerers) got lucky and hit him despite a low hit rate, but Mari comes with a Mend staff, which heals more than the regular Heal staff that Lissa starts with. Virion was a major help against the flying wyverns with his bow, and at one point, Frederick even reached Level 2. I have to be careful when my forces move northward, lest I coax Orton and his Short Axe (a more powerful Hand Axe) out of his starting position before I'm ready (since not all bosses will remain at their starting location for the whole battle). Around that point, I switched Frederick from bronze weaponry to the axe that Vaike no longer had a need for, and Frederick killed some of the foes blocking our path in addition to weakening others that my less experienced units could finish off. When Orton was lured out, Frederick weakened the mighty foe, using a Hammer earned from the Longfort to give Ricken a decent advantage. And in the last turn, after Maribelle and Lissa got in a little more healing experience, Virion finished off the last rider.
- Sully & Sully: This duo use Sumia's pegasus to fly up the cliff separating them from Ricken and help Freddy take out some foes. It took a bit of Save Scumming (I mentioned that I save at the start of every turn in Classic Mode, right?) to find a situation where either Sully or Virion didn't die in Turn 2, but thanks to careful planning, highlighting the movement range of a Wyvern Rider, and a lucky Dual Guard, Sully entered Turn 3 with 2/23 HP. With the other units in the area, the duo knocked down the opponents charging in from the north, and managed to survive even with each unit's HP constantly dipping down to single digits. They were the first to be attacked by Orton, dodged his attack, and helped mop up the remaining wyvern riders. Is it a bad sign that Sumia's actually doing more damage with an Iron Lance than Sully is? The Random Number Goddess can be so fickle...
- Stahl & Miriel: They went north with the majority of the pairs. They helped out, but nothing really remarkable occurred.
- Chrom & Yukari: Since I've had to send Yukari and Chrom in separate directions in the past few battles, but still haven't decided whether to support Chrom/Sully over this pairing, I decide to have them take on all of the units to the south. This includes the reinforcements that start popping out of the southern and right-most fort on Turns 4 and 6. Reinforcements can't appear if the fort they come from is blocked, and while a guy with a hand axe standing on the spot almost prevented this duo from getting more relationship points from fighting, Chrom managed to land a critical hit. Because both of the healers were in the other group, they did use one third of a Vulnery, which is an item that restores 10 HP to its user.
- Ricken & Maribelle: They went south from their starting position to meet up with Freddy's gang, and helped take out some mages with the Elwind spell, which is a D-Rank tome (Fire, Thunder, and regular Wind are all E-Rank). Unfortunately, Ricken does not have the defense to manage multiple enemy attacks, so he and Mari quickly retreated to heal units like Virion and Chrom. When the enemy myrmidons and barbarians started to thin out, though, Ricken did marvelously, especially since Wind tomes also do bonus damage against flying units like wyvern riders. He even killed Orton, after Freddy weaken him a tad.
- Turns: 9
- Heroes: Sully & Sumia
Lissa and Mari are reunited after the battle. Yukari's glad that Mari's safe, even though their first meeting didn't go so well. Mari says that her own opinion doesn't really matter; she just wants the best for her sensitive treasure (that is to say, Lissa). She's hesitant to justify herself, but she still musters up an apology for her earlier actions and thanks us for rescuing her. Back with Chrom and his big sis, our Lord wants to apologize for his rash actions, but Emm understands that he was only being protective. Freddy suggests that they get back to Ylisstol before the Mad King rallies his forces and overwhelms us, and Emm states that war is upon us now, and that we should protect the Ylissean people. There's a save prompt, and we get two new points on the map: Ylisstol (where Chapter 6 takes place, and we get access to two useful units), and The Twins' Turf (the setting for Paralogue 2, which does not offer new characters, but could get us some rare items). Oh, and of course, we have new Supports!
- Yukari & Sumia B-Rank (actually earned before the battle, due to Barracks shenanegans): It turns out that "Wyvern Wars" was actually really interesting. Yukari asks what Sumia's reading now, and it turns out to be "Ribald Tales of the Faith Wars", which (according to the TV Tropes article for this game) used to be a reference to a previous Fire Emblem game pre-translation. "Faith Wars" is based on historical events, but the characters are made up, and (obviously) there's a lot of 'ribald' parts. Sumia asks what kind of book Yukari prefers, but she likes reading a little bit of everything. The duo then talk about getting caught up in a good story, with Sumia implying that when she isn't pretending the be the main character of one of her books, she's a little disappointed with her actual life. Also, after finishing "Faith Wars", Sumia plans to start on book one of a thirty-seven-volume set.
- Sully & Sumia C-Rank: Sumia's cleaning up her pegasus, and Sully thinks the klutz is spoiling the thing, though the pegasus has earned it for protecting Sumia in rough battles. Sumia remarks that Sully's quite fond of her own steed, and Sully talks about her horse like a proud mother. They talk about how their steeds are so happy to see them, and are happy that they can talk to each other about them. Sumia suggests that they talk further over a cup of tea, but Sully remarks how the klutz deserves a rest after cleaning up her pegasus, and that the cavalier will make the tea.
- Stahl & Miriel B-Rank: Stahl has just finished running ten laps around the camp as a part of Miriel's experiments. Stahl's completely winded, and Miriel allows him to take a break. Apparently, Miriel's been observing everyone's training, and couldn't help but notice that Stahl's performances are perfectly average in every possible respect. Being so completely un-outstanding, according to Miriel, is a scientific miracle. Stahl's aware of how ordinary he's always been, but Miriel's surprised that he hits every possible statistical mean with remarkable precision and without purposely trying to do so. Miriel requests more data to investigate this further, which unfortunately means ten more laps around the camp.
Finally, let's talk about Ricken and Maribelle. Now, if it turns out that Yukari and Chrom is a pairing more desired than Sully and Chrom, then Ricken will need a different partner for future battles. Sully will also be free, but that doesn't mean we have to 'pair the spares' if you don't want to. And as for Maribelle...well, in my last play through, she and Ricken ended up together. It was partly because of the boost they gave to each other's magic, partly because he risked his life rescuing her, and partly because...well, because of something I found funny that occurs after Chrom's marriage deadline. Will she hook up with the next available guy we cross paths with, start pairing up with an eligible bachelor such as Virion or Kellam, or wait until a later option becomes available? As always, viewers, your comments are greatly appreciated!
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