Part 16: Ep 15: The Light Lives On
Chapter 6: Light Inheritors Part 1
Last time on FE4 Binary, Sigurd's army had to go through a fearsome set of op- wait a second, this picture isn't right.
Much better. Last time, as I was saying, Sigurd sneaked into Belhalla to rescue Deirdre, and presumably failed.
Now that Arvis has grown older, it's time for Seliph to pick up the torch. And then probably sell it because there's no Fog of War in this game.
That's quite a less fearsome set of foes he'll have to face, but it's Binary. They'll always find a way to make it rough on the player.
Seliph's sprite was updated to its Thracia 776 version. It's a pretty neat sprite, but boy, does he make the other characters look terrible in comparison.
Anyways, let's start. With less glitchy Evil Lords his time.
The enemy layout of the map hasn't really been altered for this part, although a decent portion of Axefighters were turned into axe-wielding Armors. Having Seliph inherit the Rapier would actually help quite a lot for this part of the chapter, and would be a pretty nice throwback to... well, pretty much every Fire Emblem Lord ever.
But mine only has this basic set of increasingly powerful weapons. Pursuit is his biggest asset at this point in the game, but that'll soon be replaced by his ability to Nihil bosses and mini-bosses. Having an early Paragon Ring on him will help immensely so he can keep up the pace and hopefully promote early.
He's also got 4 Leadership stars, which gives him the exact same bonus as vanilla 3 stars. (It's now 5% Hit/Avoid per star.)
Say Hi to Larcei, our designated gen 2 boss killer. Nihil + powerful offensive skills + good crit chances means her usage of the Blagi Sword will be even more brutal than her mother's.
Do notice the dual Iron Blades as well. One has the kill count from her mom, and the other is brand new.
Her twin brother Ulster is a Free Fighter, just like Holyn, and a little bit more tame than his sister. He can still hold his own pretty well on the long run: give him a good Hand Axe, and he should be able to crowd control a whole group of cavalry without too much trouble.
He starts with an Iron Blade, and his father's items.
Also of note is that both have major Odo blood, meaning I can give any of them the Balmung and watch them leave a trail of ashes and destruction in their path. In vanilla FE4, it is possible to have them with major Odo too, but selling Holy Weapons is impossible without using a glitch. That lock was removed in Binary.
Next up is our somewhat beefy healer Rana. She's got all the staves which could be useful at this point of the game, as well as really good magic offense. A shame she'll be stuck to healing for most of this chapter.
She starts with a Heal staff and all of Adean's items. But since her mother was stuck in the mountain, I couldn't duplicate that Heal staff.
To start off, Ulster wishes good luck to his sister, which increases that stat by one. Maybe he should have wished her good strength instead.
The very beginning of this chapter is actually fairly challenging, since our characters don't have much Str to compensate the weight of their weapons.
And since the enemies around here aren't fucking around in the Spd department...
... the lack of Pursuit for our swordies becomes very apparent.
Thankfully, their sword skills help remedy that issue. And since now Astra and Luna aren't exclusive, I have legitimate chances to trigger 5 Lunas in a row.
And here comes the cavalry to help our sorry asses. There's something different about Oifey though...
He is a Paladin no more. Sure, he's very overleveled for this point in the game, but now he actually has a chance to promote into better classes, and make better use of his decent growths. Stats-wise, he's pretty much the same as in vanilla FE4, but without the Paladin promotion bonuses (2~3 in Str/Skl/Spd/Def/Res)
He also traded his Armor Cutter and Javelin for a more multi-purpose Silver Sword (fitting, considering it was also Sigurd's weapon of choice). I like Binary Oifey. He's a fun guy to use.
Accompanying him is Lester, who has pretty great stats thanks to Jamke. The Brave Bow and Charge Ability should mitigate the lack of Pursuit for now, and in time he'll be activating Adept just as ridiculously often as his father.
He starts with an Iron Bow and his father's items, and I have great plans for him, later down the line.
Finally, Delmud is a very odd Sword/Axe knight hybrid of sorts. For now, he's sticking to his father Lex's weapons and a starting Steel Sword, but will eventually balance it out. His tankiness and high Atk value should work wonders alongside Vantage, and with Paragon he'll grow strong extremely fast.
Good thing those three arrive early, or Larcei and friends wouldn't have lasted very long.
Well, unless they start chaining Sibling criticals, that is.
With the first few stragglers out of the way, there comes the first wave from Ganeishire, with Seliph is the front to dodge-tank.
He always forgets about the "dodge" part of "dodge-tank".
But having the Master Axe on a cavalier at this point in the gen wrecks pretty much everything, so it's fine.
Even Social Knight Oifey can be of great use thanks to his shiny sword. And this time I won't have to cringe as much for all the EXP I'm losing.
He actually has a unique battle sprite as well... a sort of "Social Paladin" mixture. The black armor from his artwork is pretty standard for his class, but this specific shield used to be unique to Paladin Ares. Seeing a white horse on an unpromoted unit is also unheard of, and contrasts pretty well.
Ulster also earns the first level of the chapter with... this mediocrity. Keep in mind that his and Larcei's HP/Skl growths are over 100%, so all I'm getting here is Lck and Res.
Hopefully that won't get any worse.
Me and my big mouth... I'm not going to spit on some Str, but that's pretty pathetic.
Yes, Seliph. You have 9 Str-Skl-Spd-Lck. It's very pretty, but you need to gain other stats right now.
Lester wishes good luck to his sister, but gets all the luck for himself with another Sibling Critical. Seeing a pattern there yet?
Oifey effortlessly finishes the last armor and has a little chat with Seliph. Not even going to wish him good luck there?
Skippîng ahead a few turns, the next wave is barely more threatening than the previous one.
Unfortunately, nowadays, anything is a threat to Seliph the Anvil-Footed.
At least he's working on it, if very relunctantly.
Meanwhile, Ulster and Delmud are starting to pick up the pace. Finally some more typical gen 2 levels.
I'm not really sure why I still haven't picked up on the fact that Lana is as safe as anyone on the frontlines. Heck, she can probably one-round all of these guys.
But boy, am I getting lucky with these skill activations. Larcei gets a double Luna, and Ulster counters with his own critical Luna.
And Lester to pursue the group effort with his own level. Speed is pretty good for now, I suppose.
Well, everyone got at least one Sibling Critical already. Lana completely ruins these Armors with her base Lightning, though, so that was very unnecessary.
That's more like it.
We're a bit far from that village being ransacked, so Oifey is just going to head up there and deal with the ruffian while the others stay together and take on the castle armors.
Yep, she sure is Adean's daughter.
The Armors around the boss are pretty tough, sporting Steel Axes and Hand Axes. But their immobility is their demise.
Just like that unlucky brigand in the north.
As mentionned before, now would be an excellent time for Seliph to bust out the Rapier and murder everything.
Although, with that Mgc stat he's growing, a good Fire Sword might be just as good.
On the other hand, I have a feeling I'll have the same kind of love-hate relationship with Larcei as I had with Aira.
It's a little off-putting to see Delmud in black, lugging a big Silver Axe around. A lot of characters seem to be wearing black in the artwork for this game, now that I think about it.
Well, that only leaves the boss. He's the first one in gen 2, so no big deal, right?
Wrong! With 2 more levels than the vanilla version, +2 in most stats +4 in Def, Harold is kind of a pain now. His new weapon of choice is a Killer Axe, and he'll make sure to give a good scare to all the swordies who will be spending a lot of rounds fighting against him.
When you put stuff like that as the first boss of the gen, you're pretty plainly asking for a spanking.
And with some support from her brother, Larcei takes the Blagi Crusade to a second tier of murderousness.
We're only just getting started though, so let's seize right away and get Julia in our team.
Julia received the same basic improvements as her mother: +3 Mgc, +1 Skl/Spd/Res, and more money. At least she has some good combat skills, and can actually get her hands on some Dark magic, this time.
At the very south, Danan deploy his troops.
And the Joha brothers turn red on us.
I wish this game had Rescue outside of cutscenes. That would certainly help Arthur get some kills on this map instead of just hanging around Sophara, twiddling his thumbs.
I mean, he's got some pretty good killing power on his side, there. Pursuit will greatly help with his lack of Str, and using long-range tomes while in Wrath range is hilariously broken.
He's got all tomes his father handed down to him, as well as a starting Wind tome. I should have been able to buy that one back in chapter 4 when half my spellcasters had only one weapon!
Accompanying him is Fee, who is kind of a flying eldritch monster of doom and destruction with that set of weapons. Good solid skills too, so she's probably going to be one of my MVPs for this playthrough.
She starts with Ferry's items, as well as a Javelin. No Berserk Sword, sadly.
She effortlessly feeds the soul of the poor brigand to the Lady Sword and Arthur gets closer to the Sophara guard. Whether we recruit Johalva or not, experience is experience!
Also Rana hands a Mend staff to Julia from her super secret stash, so we can have two healers instead of just one.
Johan's troops are the first to charge at us.
And taking axes to the face prompts Larcei to trigger her more precious growths. I like it.
Meanwhile, Oifey cares about our funds by killing enemies in one hit instead of two. How sweet of him.
And how sweet this level up is. Keep on trucking, Oifey.
Johan starts with a ranged weapon, but completely whiffs. He's in perfect range for recruitment, now.
But first, I want to kill more of his mooks before they join us!
With pretty mixed results, I suppose.
That should be enough for now. Let's get this sexy Axe Knight in our party before ending the update.
Johan has lost two levels compared to his vanilla version, which is good, and traded 2 Spd for 2 more Skl, which is also good, because his Skill growth is rather shaky, unlike his Speed one. Normally, Johalva would have better stats for a non-ranked run like what I'm doing, but Johan has a lot of redeeming qualities in Binary.
For starters, he has the Pugi from Thracia 776. Despite the rather low uses, I don't think I need to explain why a ranged Killer Axe is fantastic.
There's also his improved Vantage skill, which allows him to do just like Lex and kill enemies before they can even attack.
Also, this: Major fucking Neir on a playable character. +20% HP and +30% Def growth? Yes, please!
As for Johalva? He lost 2 Spd in exchange for +1 Res, only has Charge, and a non-ranged Killer Axe. Good luck capping that Speed now, with a 10% growth!
(Granted, he does have Major Neir as well, but seriously, he's just terrible outside of that.)
Next time on Let's Play FE4 Binary: we take down that disgrace of a brother.
Blaggi Crusade Death Toll: 4