The Let's Play Archive

Fire Emblem: Dark Dragon and the Sword of Light

by DKII

Part 3: Retribution

When last we left off, we'd fended off a Pirate invasion of Talis, and then the Talis King sent us off to Orleans for...some reason...instead of going after the Pirate leader Gomes in Garda.

The Talis King also gave us some new buddies for our play group:



be joining your army.

This place's filled with pirates and soldiers who wish to kill you.

Be careful.

So let's check out where we've landed.



We've got two groups of enemies to deal with here - five Pirates, a Hunter, and a couple Thieves to the north, with another five Pirates, two Hunters, and two Social Knights far off to the west. There's a single village to the northwest, but the enemy Thieves will never make it that far.

Most of the enemies just have 'Garda' as their name, same as last chapter, but a few stand out.



Well looks like Garda is on the way to Orleans, since we've managed to find the Pirate leader here. Gomes has a couple more levels than the last boss but won't pose much more of a threat. The Hand Axe he's carrying is similar to the Javelin - it's weak and inaccurate but can strike from 1 or 2 squares away.



The nearby Social Knights are both from Grunia. I assume we'll find out more about them later?



One of the Hunters and one of the Pirates each have a unique name. I'm sure that doesn't mean anything at all.

Now let's check out our new allies:



Oguma is a Mercenary, aka Swords Specialist. He's got great base stats (that Skill and Speed will make him fast, accurate, and dodgy) and good, balanced growth rates. He is also able to promote with a Hero's Proof.



Barts is a Fighter, basically a pure damage-dealer, with a high base Power and a growth rate to match. He's really the only axe-user worth using in this game, as he'll also usually have enough Speed to offset the weight of the axes he's forced to use. One drawback - he comes in at Level 5 and can't promote, so he'll only get 15 levels of growth to work with.



Maji and Saji are Barts' backup crew, and basically inferior in every way, so by popular vote we'll be sticking with Barts as our lone Fighter. None of our Fighters will ever say anything.

We'll want to take care of the north group of enemies before the western group can get over to us. But first, we send Riff down to the southern house and Sheeda over to the one to the northwest.



Covered that one last time, thanks.



You should listen to him.

Pretty obvious hint to have Marth talk to Daros to recruit him.

Oguma, Barts, and Doga form a line to the north (the Pirates can go over the water, remember). I send Abel off to join Sheeda, but I'll just end up bringing him back anyway.



One Pirate goes after Oguma, who dodges and then does 14 damage (in two attacks) in return.



Another Pirate attacks Barts for 6 damage, but takes a big 15 damage attack on the counter.



A third Pirate hit Doga for all of 1 damage, who countered with two hits totaling 16 damage.

So, sometimes letting the enemy come to you works out for the best.

The western group mostly advances, though Gomes just parks himself on the castle.

Start of Turn 2:



Time to mop up the weakened Pirates.



Gordon shoots down the left one, while Barts and Doga each kill off their own attackers. Oguma moves up onto the bridge and softens up the Hunter for Sheeda to finish off. Abel and Riff rejoin the group and we end our turn.

The remaining nearest Pirate is Daros, and he moves up to talk to Marth:



please let me join you.

And that's the only line Daros will ever have.

The remaining Pirate attacks Oguma for 6 damage, taking 7 in return (he dodged Oguma's 2nd attack). One of the Thieves hits Sheeda for 1 damage and takes 6 in return (again, dodging Sheeda's 2nd attack). The western group of enemies continues to advance.

Start of Turn 3:



Let's take a look at our new Pirate.



Not a lot to say here - though that 2 Skill will be a killer since Daros has a 0% Skill growth rate. He also comes with a Steel Axe.

Doga moves over to the west bridge to block the western group's advance. Saji moves up to give his last weapon (an Iron Axe) to Daros.



Riff moves up to heal Oguma...



Who then moves up to kill the far Thief.



Marth moves in to take a shot at the other Thief:



Well that didn't accomplish anything. The Thief does 4 damage on two counterattacks. Sheeda finishes it off instead for a level:





Very typical Pegasus Knight level. Sheeda's going to need some Power eventually, but for now stronger weapons will make up for it. (Sharp eyes may notice I shamelessly took the +1 image from FE7.)

Barts tries to finish off the remaining Pirate...



but it dodges (twice!) and hits Barts for 6 damage in return. Daros moves up to protect Riff and take another stab at the Pirate, but also misses and takes 7 damage in return.

Gordon moves up to at least soften up the Pirate a bit with the Bowgun:



Well the RNG apparently was storing up a bit of luck for me for that one.

With the entire northern enemy group wiped out, here's where we stand at the end of the turn:



We could have Abel move up and take a shot at the incoming enemies, but that would just leave him exposed, so we end things there. (Mistake #1 as it turns out.)



The western Pirates move up first, and one reaches Doga but misses. Doga's two attacks take all but 2 HP from the Pirate. (If Doga had killed the Pirate, it would've just freed up the space for more enemies to attack, so this is actually a pretty good result.)

With their path blocked, the two Social Knights cross over the southern bridge to approach our non-combatants.

Start of Turn 4:



Gordon moves down behind Doga to finish off the weakened Pirate.



Doga moves up and attacks the next Pirate in line, reducing him to 2 HP.



Abel moves in and finishes off the Pirate from afar with his Javelin for his first level.





Speed is nice but otherwise not a great level.

At this point I realize I don't have any eligible combatants to go after the two Social Knights (should've had Abel block the southern bridge probably), so I move everyone I can down within range, park Marth on a city as bait, and then use Riff to heal him up.



Now I just have to sit and wait for the attacks to come in.



The first Pirate goes after Abel, who takes off half the Pirate's HP on the counter but misses the second attack.



The other Pirate does some damage to Sheeda, taking some damage in return.



One of the Social Knights goes after Marth, who dodges and deals 6 damage in two attacks in return. The other one takes a shot at the defenseless Maji.



Note how since Maji doesn't have a weapon, he can't counterattack and thus doesn't gain any experience.

Start of Turn 5:



We should be able to finish off this group of enemies this turn.



Oguma takes a shot at the Social Knight, dodging the counterattack while knocking off half his HP.



Daros switches to the Steel Axe and barely finishes off the Social Knight. One down!



I had kept Marth with the Iron Sword the previous turn so that he wouldn't kill the Social Knight with his counterattack (which would've freed up the space for the other Social Knight to also attack). Here we switch Marth to the Rapier and finish off the last Social Knight with one blow.



Riff heals up Barts, who then kills the nearest Pirate. At this point the map music switches to the 'You've all but won' variety.



Abel sticks with the Javelin, but only one shot lands, leaving the Pirate barely alive. Gordon finishes him off for a level.



Again, Speed is nice but some Power, somewhere, would be great someday.



Doga and Sheeda move up to face the few remaining enemies before we end our turn. The two Hunters finally advance on the enemy turn.

Start of Turn 6:



One of the Hunters is Kashim. If we were to let him attack, we'd see the following:



'Princess' here is a clue to talk to him with Sheeda, so let's go do that:



Oh...

I'm sorry princess. My mother's ill and I needed money...

So you joined the pirates.

I see. I have some money.

Take this to your mother.

!... Even though I betrayed Talis, you still treat me nice.

Forgive me! My life is yours!

And so now we have a Hunter on our side:



Kashim is stronger but more fragile than Gordon, but since he shouldn't ever be getting hit anyway, Kashim is much more useful. Kashim also gets one more Movement than Gordon. However, as a Hunter he can't promote. He comes with an Iron Bow.

Time to take out the remaining Hunter with Doga and Kashim before it can get off a shot at Sheeda:



Problem solved.

With only Gomes remaining, let's take care of some side business. Abel visits the house to the southwest:



That information is actually new. Hammers are a type of axe, strong against Armor Knights but otherwise weaker than an Iron Axe. They can be situationally useful for Barts and Daros.

The Armory to the southwest has a few different items than last chapter, notably a nice axe selection:



We have Daros pick up a Hammer and a Hand Axe.

The pyramid next to the Armory is the Storage. Each character can only hold up to 4 items in inventory; if they pick up additional items and their inventory is full, they can send the extra one to the Storage to be retrieved later. Otherwise items can only be stored or withdrawn by having the character visit the Storage on the map.

Marth visits the lone village:



Oh hey, I think that's where we find out we're Aritian, not Talisian or whatever.

Rena, who cures the people's sicknesses, ignored our warnings and went to the Devil's Mountain. She hasn't returned.

From Devil's Mountain? You must be joking.

Here's 5000G.

Well thanks then.

Please save Rena with this! She's like an angel to us.

I suppose if it's not too far out of the way. Like, if Devil's Mountain happens to be the next chapter, you know how it goes.

Eventually we're lined up and ready to blitz the boss:



Gomes's Hand Axe backed with 8 Power makes for only 13 attack, but we let Doga take the first shot (and first counterattack) just because. He lands two hits and dodges the counterattack.

Abel and Barts each only land one hit, and Sheeda switches to the Silver Lance to finish him off:



Yea, somehow Gomes was holding a Hand Axe but dropped a Steel Sword.

Marth seizes the castle for the win!



Now we can live without fear.

Until the next pirate lord comes along I guess.



Sure, I think there's some chick we need to rescue there anyway.



What else is new?







Thanks!


Vote time!

  1. Abel or Kain - Abel's had just one level so far, not a great one but still recoverable
  2. Barts, Maji, or Saji - Barts is awesome, no need to rock the boat here
  3. Oguma or New Merc - Can't really go wrong with either choice but we'll see more of the new guy next chapter
  4. Riff or Damsel in Distress - Priests are kind of the same all over but there's a very good reason to switch over later


New Characters

Oguma - Mercenary

Oguma is a solid character in a strong class with an available promotion. He can sometimes end up pretty fragile though.

Growth Rates:

Barts - Fighter

Barts is a powerhouse with a huge Power and Defense and high enough secondary stats that he won't have any real weaknesses other than the fact that he can't promote - even a low Weapon Level won't hurt, since the most advanced axe is Weapon Level 3. Usually the only really worthwhile axe-user in the game.

Growth Rates:

Maji and Saji - Fighters

These guys don't even get their own portraits, and are mainly there as backups in case you screw up and lose Barts. They can make serviceable units, and with high HP and Defense growths they'll make pretty good tanks, but Barts is just better in every way.

Maji Growth Rates:

Saji Growth Rates:

Daros - Pirate

Daros is the only Pirate we get, and while he won't be an all-star (especialy with 0% Skill growth) he can still be useful with high Power and Defense and the ability to cross ocean tiles.

Growth Rates:

Kashim - Hunter

As a Hunter, Kashim is basically what an Archer should be, with high Power and Speed offsetting weaker defenses. Unfortunately, Hunters can't promote, so an Archer that is nurtured along will usually end up better in the long run. Fortunately, we can use one of each.

Growth Rates:


New Weapons:

Hand Axe - The inferior cousin to the Javelin (less damage, less accurate, less durable, *and* heavier), this weapon is also weaker than an Iron Axe, but able to strike from distance.

Hammer [Axe] - Other than Marth's Rapier, this is the first weapon we come across that's meant to be used against a particular class. While normally weaker than an Iron Axe, the Hammer has triple the Might against Armor Knights.

Steel Sword - Our prize from Gomes is a basic upgrade over the Iron Sword, dealing more damage in exchange for more weight, less accuracy, and lower durability. Weird trivia - while there's a Steel Sword and a Steel Axe, there is no Steel Lance in this game.

Live Wand - This wand isn't actually new since Riff had it with him last chapter. It heals a flat 10 HP per use. Wands cannot miss, crit, or double.

Next time: We graduate from pirates to bandits!