Part 3: It's War!

Welcome back. Last time on Exit Fate, we made a bandit gang into a bunch of chumps. Now it's time to get on with the actual plot.

Music: Reinard Castle - Suikoden V, "Fortified Castle"





We begin this update in Daniel's room, 23 days later. Not much to do but head out.




So... Today is the day.
Yes. We're supposed to gather at the meeting hall, together with the other generals and division commanders. General Eander will give a short talk, and then we'll depart together. It's still a long way to Helman Island.
This'll be our last day in St. Reinard before the war. So, Daniel? Are you with me?



I've made up my mind. Once Helman Island is under our control, I will try to convince them to stop going any further. That's the best I can hope for at this point.
Then it'll be just like every other time in recent history. Zelmony will take it back again in ten, twenty years, and then what? We'll be back where we started. What's the point of that, Daniel? Who's going to benefit from it?

Jovian does kind of have a point here. True, stopping at Helman Island will mean that we won't attack the Zelmony mainland, but it's still going result in a lot of pissed-off Zelmonians. What is Daniel hoping to accomplish here?



Your plan may not work out perfectly either.



Oh, right, meeting. Let's go.

Yes... we should go.
I don't want to see you arguing constantly, especially at an important time like this. Try to work together, okay? We've been friends all our lives. I'd hate to see it end like this.



I'm sorry too. But Angel... I think Daniel is thinking the same thing as me. These are things we -have- to argue about. We're talking about the fate of our country. It affects millions of people. Don't you think that's too important to ignore, even at the risk of hurting our friendship?
You two, you'll never change... Come on, we're going to the meeting hall.



Again, not much else to do here. The meeting hall is our only option.



Though I do find it kind of funny that even after three weeks of rest, nobody's wounds have healed. And yet from here on out, a single night at an inn will restore everyone to full health.



Also, this guy has a new line of dialogue. But nobody else in the castle seems to have anything new to say.



That is, except for the people outside the meeting hall, where we see a few familiar faces.




What's this? Bruce NOT being a douchebag for once?





Onwards!

Music: Kirgard - Suikoden V, "Harbor Town by the Lighthouse"




Today, most of you will leave for Ashton Port, where you will board the ships that will take you to Helman Island. This is the beginning of the end for the State Union. The constant threat that Zelmony has been posing for centuries will finally end at your hands. Before your voyage, His Royal Highness the King will arrive at Ashton to speak to his loyal followers and give his blessings to your mission. Remember, the successful outcome of this assault will depend entirely on the strength of your leadership.



I wish you the best of luck.



It's absolutely vital that our first attack succeeds. It's an important duty, and it now rests entirely on your shoulders. I hope you will show us that our trust in you was not misplaced.
General, I will pay you back tenfold for all your trust. I will not disappoint you. With all the talented and loyal officers I have at my disposal, I can't lose.
Good. We'll conclude the meeting here.



You're all dismissed.

Three days later...



Music: King - Final Fantasy Tactics, "Attack Team"




Good, good. We're about done, then.
Shouldn't we be out there to listen to the King's speech?
You can go if you want, but we've heard it all before. It's just to give the soldiers courage and raise their morale. We don't really need that, do we?
We don't have much time left, so we should use it efficiently. We will be leaving Kirgard in only two hours.
Hmm...

One fade to black later...



I'm not gonna lie, the first time I saw this sprite I thought the king had a crazy Santa beard or something.



Then his portrait came up and I was sorely disappointed.

The Almenga empire in the west. The mountain tribes in the east. The State Union of Zelmony in the south... We are surrounded by enemies on all sides. If we don't act now, the Kingdom of Kirgard will not survive for another decade. We must strike first to protect our homeland! We have to take advantage of the weak leadership that is plaguing Zelmony now. Their fractured union will easily crumble before the might of our royal army. Your bravery will be the key to victory in the coming battle. If you succeed, your deeds will be remembered for generations to come. We have resisted all attempts to seize our lands, and we've come back stronger than ever. The time has come to show the world that we bow to no one!




Well, it seems as though the speech had its intended effect.





Damn it Daniel, don't say things like that! This is an RPG, you know saying that can't lead to anything good!

Sometimes I wish I could just stop time and keep living like this, without having to worry about the future.
Wouldn't it be boring if every day was exactly the same? If nothing ever changed, you couldn't really call that living. Besides, time's not going to stop because you want it to. The world's going to keep turning. No, wishing for things like that is pointless. We have to fight. We have to fight to change things for the better.
Yes, that's true... Sadly, people have different ides of how to make things better.

I can't decide whether this is Daniel trying to get in a subtle snipe at Jovian. I dunno, he doesn't really seem the type for that.

Forget it, I'm just rambling. We'd better go.
All right! We're off!





At this point we're given the option to save the game. Seems a little early in the game for stuff like that, but might as well use it.

Music: War Battle - Final Fantasy IX, "Consecutive Battles"




Jovian, let's try to take the city with as little bloodshed as possible.
The city's in chaos. They won't be able to resist us for long, anyway. Daniel, you take the flank and attack from the west. Angel and I will confront them head-on. Go! This is our first test!

WAR BATTLE #1




Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to our first War Battle. If you've played Suikoden II, this should look rather familiar to you.

While I'd love to get into the nitty-gritty of war battles just like I did with the small-party battle system, we are unfortunately locked out of a lot of features in this battle, so I'm going to have to save some stuff for later. But at its heart, the war battle system is pretty simple and reminiscent of games like Advance Wars and Fire Emblem. We and the enemy have a bunch of units on a grid, and both sides take turns moving their units across that grid in order to approach the opposing units, attack them, and kill them. In this battle, Kirgard is represented by the brown units facing right, while Jargo's units are the yellow ones facing left.

Usually, our objective in war battles is to take out the enemy commander while defending our own, the commander being denoted by a banner like the one above our horseman. But Jargo doesn't have a commander, so despite Daniel's protests, we're just going to have to kill everyone.



For this battle, our commander, Jovian, and the unit next to him, led by Angel, are controlled by the computer. Only Daniel's unit (the one highlighted in the above shot) and a few generic "Kirgard 3rd Legion" units nearby will take our orders. Before we begin, there are a couple of things we need to familiarize ourselves with. The first is unit stats, and the second is unit types.

All units, regardless of type, have three stats: Men, Atk, and Def. Men is probably the most important stat, as it represents the unit's health. Much like in Advance Wars, the health of a unit determines not only how much damage a unit can take, but also how much it can dish out. The more men in a unit, the stronger its attacks will be. We can see every unit's men as a number above their heads, and the tallies at the top of the screen tell us how many men each side has left in total.

Atk and Def are pretty self-explanatory, but it's worth noting that these values are only modifiers on the unit's men. All the attack power in the world won't do a damn thing if your unit only has a single man in it. Unit attack and defense, as well as starting men, are constant and are determined by the unit's commander. Daniel, as we can see above, has a very respectable 6 in both attack and defense. Our generic units, on the other hand...




... leave a lot to be desired. (And if you're curious, I didn't get a screenshot of them, but Jovian's unit is 6/4 and Angel's is 5/6.)

Some units also have special abilities listed, like our generic with Counter. But they won't come into play in this battle, and in any case, the method for acquiring them is still a complete mystery to us, so we'll have to come back to that at a later date.



When we select one of our units, we are shown its movement range. We can select any of these squares and our unit will move there...



... and then we can choose to attack, if there's an enemy in the unit's attack range, or wait. If we attack an enemy, they will automatically counterattack if able.



It's worth noting, though, that not all units have the same movement and attack ranges. There are four possible unit types, though only three are on the battlefield at present. They are listed below.

Infantry are the regular footmen-looking dudes, and have a movement range of 2. They can only attack adjacent enemies.
Pros: The strongest unit type in terms of attack and defense. Has a constant movement range that is not slowed down by any type of terrain.
Cons: That constant movement range is very short.

Cavalry are the horsemen, unsurprisingly, and have a movement range of 4. They can only attack adjacent enemies.
Pros: The fastest unit of them all.
Cons: ... if it's on plains. Cannot move more than 1 space per turn in forest and mountains. Also not quite as strong as infantry.

Scouts are the archers, and have a movement range of 3. They can attack both adjacent enemies and targets 2 spaces away.
Pros: Can attack most units without fear of counterattack. Also not slowed down by forests, so they have the best movement through forests of any unit.
Cons: Not quite as strong as infantry. Still slowed down by mountains.

Sorcery units are hooded mage-types, though there aren't any on this map. They have a movement range of 2 and a huge attack range, at 3 spaces.
Pros: Enormous attack range that no enemy can counterattack from.
Cons: If attacked, cannot counterattack. Even with a movement range of 2, still slowed down by forests and mountains. Has the weakest overall attack of any unit type.



Jovian and Angel's strategy is very simple: they're going to charge straight south and engage any enemies that happen to get in their way. The units under our control aren't in range of anyone yet, so I just have them move forward a bit, planning to attack the western enemies.




The enemy uses its turn to split its forces in two and send them towards us. Oddly, though these guys are supposed to be the "Jargo Defense Force," they make no attempt to guard Jargo itself. I don't believe it matters, though, since I'm fairly sure that placing one of our units on Jargo won't do anything.




On turn 2, Jovian and Angel move themselves further south, Angel putting herself in range of the enemy infantry.




I check the range of the enemy infantry and set up my units right outside of his range. While I could have attacked him with my scout, I'd prefer for the scout to stay out of the enemy's attack range, since one hit to him will likely leave him crippled and useless for the rest of the battle.




The northernmost enemy infantry takes the initiative and charges Angel to deliver the battle's first attack. As I mentioned previously, attacked units will automatically counterattack when they can, but it's worth noting that like in Advance Wars, the counterattack is made using the the unit's remaining health. So if possible, you always want to get in the first strike on your opponent. Unlike Suikoden II's system, where (if I understand the videos I watched correctly) it's essentially random whether you "damage" an opposing unit or not, the damage your attacks do in Exit Fate's war battles is fairly constant. Attacks never fail to do damage, except in the case of a certain special ability that none of the units on this map have.

(Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong about Suikoden II there, by the way. I just watched a few youtube videos to try to understand its system. )



Sorry about the turn counter obscuring the units here, but I was trying to get a shot before Jovian and Angel moved and you can see enough of them to make out what happened. The other northern infantry parked himself in range to attack Jovian, but in a place where Jovian cannot reach him (since cavalry can only move 1 space per turn through forests). The western infantry also proved themselves to not be complete retards and moved north onto the mountains rather than right into my formation.

As you can probably tell by now, the war AI in this game is actually fairly smart. It's outnumbered and outgunned in this battle, but future war battles will turn out to be quite the challenge.





Angel moves southeast and engages the infantry that attacked her last turn, wounding it heavily...





... and Jovian rides in to clean up.




I have Daniel attack the infantry in range, sustaining only minor damage in the process.



I also move my other units as close as I can, using my infantry to shield the scout.




On the enemy's turn, Jovian gets attacked and a decent amount of damage gets dealt on both sides.



Rather than charging suicidally into my units, the injured infantry actually moves northwest and declines to attack. I think he's trying to get around my formation to hit my scout, but I can't be sure.



The other infantry decides (correctly) that it would be a much better idea to attack one of the generics instead of Daniel's unit.





Our turn again. Angel and Jovian waste no time eliminating the infantry between them.



I have my scout attack the stronger infantry from a safe distance... (I missed the action shot here, but picture an arrow falling into the enemy's head.)




... and follow up with my other generic, but it's not enough to get the kill.




Daniel, on the other hand, has no trouble taking out the northern infantry.




The enemy uses its last turn to continue the war of attrition with my generic infantry.





I let Daniel perform the coup de grace.




One division will stay behind in the city. The rest of us will set up camp at the Kelsinger Pass and prepare for tomorrow.



That's an... interesting choice of words, Jovian.

Music: War Battle Won - Suikoden V, "Cry Victory!"



Anyway,



After each battle, we are graded on our performance in three categories: Speed, Efficiency and Power.
Speed refers to how fast we finished the battle.
Efficiency refers to how many of our men we had to sacrifice to finish the job.
Power refers to how many of the enemy men we killed.

Each of these categories has a "target" in each war battle. If we meet the target, we get a 100% rating for that category; otherwise, we get a proportionally worse rating. As this was the first battle, it's hard to get anything but a 100% rating overall.



We also receive a grade from A-F based on our rating, and a reward for that grade. The rewards for A, B and C grades are unique to each war battle, with the A-grade reward usually being something that you normally won't be able to get until a little later in the game. A D grade will always get you a simple herb, and if you actually manage to win a battle while still maintaining an F grade, you'll receive a Badge of Shame, an accessory that does nothing, cannot be dropped or sold, and has the description, "A constant reminder of past failures." Harsh, game.

Our reward for the A grade here is a Lightning spell, which, shockingly, is the basic lightning-elemental attack spell.

That night...

Music: Reflection - Chrono Trigger, "At the Bottom of the Night"



We find Daniel still awake, lost in his thoughts, when Jovian comes by.



Oh, Jovian. I was just... thinking.
Worried about the battle tomorrow, huh?
Jovian... we caught Jargo off-guard and easily walked over their defenses. But tomorrow will be different. Many lives will be lost, on both sides. Enemy forces are already gathering at the other side of the pass. Even our own survival isn't certain. It'd take a heartless man not to be worried.



The enemy troops here may get the chance to organize themselves, but there's not enough time for them to bring in reinforcements. You shouldn't worry so much.
Still, it's the beginning of the war. It will get harder and harder from here on.



Yes. I am.
I see...



But just then...

Music: None



Do you hear that?





Angel comes dashing in from the north.

Music: Fuse - Xenogears, "Fuse"



It's a surprise attack! They're at the second division camp!



Oh, fuck.

How could they have the capability to attack so quickly!?
Damn it! This isn't how it was supposed to start! Daniel, go there as fast as you can and take command! Angel, you and I will mobilize everyone else! Go! If we react fast, we can limit the damage!
Yes, sir!



Angel and Jovian quickly run to the west, while Daniel dashes north.



I have to hurry! I have to---

Music: None



Er, hang on a sec, why the black screen? Weren't we in the middle of something? Hell, Daniel was in the middle of a sentence!



Wait, what?




What?!

Next time: What?!