Part 18: Ep 17: Bad Weather
Chapter 7: Passing the Desert Part 1
Time to start the part of Binary where the game starts really hating you. While the first guys on the map aren't quite threatening, the ones on the right will make it their pleasure to try and mop the floor with Seliph's army.
Okay, maybe not Teeny. Without a long-range tome, she's easy to recruit.
We also get to see one of the odd discrepancies of this game: some of the FE5 portraits were added in, but not all of them. Seliph, Levin and Finn have their new portraits, but Delmud, Arthur, Leif, Nanna and Bloom don't, for some reason.
The Vendor in this chapter offers some rather pricey goods. The Flame Sword goes to Seliph and the Recover to Yulia. The new Rapier will stay where it is for now.
: Arena Completed, Gained 4 levels, +6 HP, +3 Str, +2 Mgc, +2 Skl, +3 Spd, +3 Lck, +1 Def
: Arena Completed, Gained 3 levels, +4 HP, +2 Str, +3 Skl, +2 Spd, +1 Lck, +2 Def
: Arena Completed, Gained 3 levels, +2 HP, +1 Str, +3 Skl, +3 Spd, +2 Lck, +2 Def
: Arena Completed, Gained 6 levels, +7 HP, +5 Str, +1 Mgc, +2 Skl, +2 Spd, +5 Lck, +4 Def, +1 ResFar be it from me to stop such an impressive display of beefiness, but I'm pretty sure Magic should be more of a priority there, Lana.
: Arena Completed, Gained 3 levels, +3 HP,, +3 Str, +1 Mgc, +2 Skl, +1 Spd, +3 Lck, +1 DefAnd finally getting some Skill.
: Arena Completed, Gained 5 levels, +4 HP, +4 Str,, +2 Skl, +3 Spd, +3 Lck, +3 Def, +2 Res
: Arena Completed, Gained 2 levels, +1 HP, +2 Str, +1 Skl, +2 Spd, +1 Def, +1 Res
: Arena Completed, Gained 3 levels, +3 HP, +3 Mgc, +2 Spd, +2 Lck, +2 Def, +2 Res.Working on that defense. Good girl.
: Arena Completed, Gained 3 levels, +4 HP, +1 Str, +4 Mgc, +2 Skl, +3 Spd, +3 Lck, +1 Res
: Arena Completed, Gained 3 levels, +2 HP, +2 Str, +1 Mgc, +3 Skl, +3 Spd, +3 Def, +1 Res
: Arena Completed, Gained 2 levels, +2 HP, +1 Str, +1 Mgc, +2 Spd, +2 DefExcept for magic, those are pretty much the only stats Johan will ever gain. A typical endgame Johan nearly maxes every stats, except for Magic/Luck/Res which should remain in the single digits.
Arena enemies have started changing already. Tolstoi, an axefighter and writer in his spare time, has turned to brigandage.
Meanwhile, Kruge the Lance Knight is now promoting liberty as a Free Knight, and tossed his Steel Lance and Javelin aside for a Steel Sword and Handaxe. Manstein has also climbed the ranks, being granted the title of Knight instead of simple Myrmidon.
As far as item shenanigans, Lester grabbed an Iron Sword, Johan the Steel and Brave Axe, and Oifey just picked whatever spares he could find: one of Larcei's Iron Blades, and Fee's Iron Lance and Javelin. Arthur will be the Paragon Ring bearer for this chapter.
Also, I'd like to point out that it's only the second chapter of gen 2, and all my characters have at least one high-damage weapon and can attack at both ranges. One of them has 15 charges of siege tomes as well.
Binary!
The Yied region is another map with a very odd pacing. Seliph will need to go around and capture every castle, but the journey is so long and inconvenient that the whole chapter can be summed up as "Where one group is fighting overwhelming odds, while the other is twiddling its thumbs". It's like Disturbance in Agustria, but without the pressure of late side-objectives to keep things going. Also, there's a bit of a difficulty jump here.
Like with these guys. Good skill and speed for Dark Mages, annoying defense, and of course a high Mgc so you can really feel the 15 Mgt of that dark tome.
And some are also packing a new tome. With 0 Mgt, a bit of Crt, and ignoring Resistance, it's the good old Luna spell! I did not miss it.
Seliph's army moves out and Delmud gets taught how to use his sword by Oifey, even though he's more of an axe guy.
Here's a more swordy person. Shanan was pretty great in FE4, but was hit hard by the nerf bat. -4 Str, meaning he'll have trouble not only killing things, but also dodging with most weapons. He still does get the Balmung, so he should be fine until the last few chapters where his terrible growths will start to show (20% Speed for a Swordmaster, really?)
Patty comes loaded and ready for battle. Rings, Defense Sword, Sleep Sword (aka the Arena Breaker™), and of course the mighty Beo Sword for the Vantage-Wrath combo. With Pursuit right off the bat and good evade thanks to her father, she might actually be able to kill things.
And she'll probably need to, because now Shanan can't take these guys out in one hit, even with the Balmung. They'll still have 20-ish% chance of hitting, and only need two shots to kill him.
So for now, they'll have to run the hell away.
The Balmung is still a pretty great weapon, but doesn't weigh a mere 3 Wgt anymore, meaning Shanan's weakly arms will generally halve its speed bonus.
Down in Lenster, the first priority is to take care of the bandits raiding the villages.
For that, we have Leif spearheading the offensive. Not very good starting swords, but with two minor holy bloods he'll grow into a very balanced unit. Plus, the lack of Pursuit doesn't completely ruin his usability anymore. He starts with his mother's items, as well as a free Iron Sword.
With Lex as a father, Nanna will grow surprisingly competent as well. Paragon means she'll be up to speed with everyone real quick, and Vantage is just incredibly useful when paired with a health-draining sword. And she'll probably ram her Defense cap as well. She starts with her mother's items, as well as just a Relive staff. She also got an Iron Sword in vanilla FE4, but that seems to have been removed.
Until those two reach their full potential, Finn will be the one Jeiganing them. He's got most the the best lances in the game at this point, as well as a nice +5 Str, +4 Skl blessing. And he's really going to need it. In vanilla FE4, he would have gained a free Iron Lance. He gets a Steel one here, instead.
On enemy phase, Lester grabs the first kill with lucky Adept activations. I wasn't kidding when I said these guys hit like a truck. They are also purple instead of green, in Binary. Because as we all know, purple is the color of evil.
And after a bit of patching up, he can jump back into the action! I can't complain about more Skill on him.
One of the Luna mages was also in range. The animation exactly the same as the Lightning spell, but the sound effect seems like a slowed-down version of it, and sounds positively creepier. It's not a very powerful spell at this point in the game, where mages have low Mgc, and our units have no Res to begin with. But the farther into the game, the more dangerous it will become.
Its high weight also ruins the evade of those guys, making them easy targets for Arthur's siege tomes.
Fee will be flying over to Lenster to help the FE5 crew.
Finn and Leif are taking the east, and Nanna will be pestering the western guys.
In the north, Arthur just keeps on blasting mages from afar, and being invisible while leveling up.
He sure is speedy, that boy.
And Ulster sure is Holyn's kid. The passion for Handaxe ownage runs deep in the family.
That's most of the dark mages cleared, now. Time for the boring part of rejoining with Shanan and Patty.
They seem to be fleeing well, so far. Shanan takes point for the annoying dark mage and Silver Sword myrm who are blocking their way.
See what I was saying about Shanan having trouble with those guys? And that's with the Balmung equipped.
Patty make it her duty to show him up.
Things are going pretty dang well in Lenster too, with Nanna making fantastic progress, yet somehow missing her highest growth. Leif is doing pretty well too.
As for Finn, he's infiltrated the enemy formation and will be weakening them all with a Javelin for the kids to pick up.
No, no! Bad Finn! Stop stealing the kids' food.
In the northwest, my bad formation tactics left Patty open for an attack. She proceeds to disappoint on her Vantage strike. I guess it couldn't last.
Since they aren't going to last long at this rate, I'm sending some support, with Arthur, Julia, Seliph and Lester. All the others will proceed to the Melgen border.
Back down south, there's nothing much left after Finn's slaughter. Leif took a few hits, but that's what the Light Sword is for!
Having the Rapier on Nanna is also incredible for taking down all those armors.
Speaking of incredible, that's what this level isn't. Expect to see a lot of levels like that for a Hezul/Neir child.
Leif, on the other hand, has very spread-out growths, so his levels are like a box of chocolates: you never know what you're gonna get.
Even Fee can get in on the action. Although a bit late.
We do get a few more armors popping out of Alster, so I guess she didn't come for nothing.
The situation becomes a bit complicated around Yied, as the swordies have caught up with the pair. Shanan takes a few hits, but answers with swift criticals. When it's not one, it's the other, with those two.
Also of note if that Shanan's palette was changed from blue to white. It's not extremely accurate to his artwork, but I guess it does a good job at differentiating him from generic Swordmasters.
Nothing much happens in Lenster after this point. Nanna finishes off the last brigand and gains yet another predictable level.
And Leif gets to finish whatever small fry Finn was nice enough to leave him.
These two are cutting it a little bit close. Thankfully, help is just around the corner.
Shanan has a little chat with Seliph, and we're good to go and conquer Yied, now.
The weather forecast announces a lot of thunderstorms in the area. Don't forget your umbrella!
It's incredible how much more enjoyable desert maps become, with siege tomes.
And so does Arthur, our mobile magic ballista of doom.
Now the difficult part will be to take down these three dark Mages without taking too much damage.
This is mainly why I gave the Fire Sword to Seliph. He makes good use of it here, and it does look pretty cool.
Even his casting animation has a certain charm to it.
Arthur keeps blasting things from afar, and is now focusing on his father's favorite stats.
Julia also gets out of her 0 Str state during the rumble, which is a feat in and of itself.
Somewhere during that fight, Leif visited a village for a Speed Ring. It's like having Pursuit with benefits!
After the
Meanwhile, Shanan will be meeting up with her lovestruck cousin and the other bored guys down there.
Mage-killing serves Patty really well in terms of levels.
Not so much for Lester. Maybe it's because his horse isn't around.
By the way, did you remember that the boss around here has a gimmick which was even referenced in Thracia 776? The whole "I lost my long-range magic, and will blast the crap out of you once I find it" thing?
Well, I didn't remember it.
Thankfully, the RNG is feeling merciful this time and just gives me a warning shot. Now there's the issue of slaying Ctuzof before he kills my own characters.
But the guy is quite resilient, my closest healer is very far, and worst of all, I really need her to get the kill.
Knowing that five turns of save-scumming would be soul-rending, I have Arthur shoot back at Ctuzof, out of spite before restarting.
Then this happens...
... as well as that "you put the enemy to sleep" tink.
Meaning I hit on 33% hit chance, and that triggered a 10% sleep chance.
I do believe Arthur is my new hero, now. I had originally planned to promote him to Iron Mage, but screw that idea! He's more than earned himself the Magefighter class. And besides, there's yet another candidate for Iron Mage.
All in all, I'm left with just enough turns to finish off Ctuzof's squad (yes, Lester turns into a blue Social Knight when using a sword), safely chip him down, and have Julia take him out.
Here's why I want her to get the kill: Ctuzof now drops his Yotsmungand, meaning Julia will have herself a high power dark magic tome early in gen 2.
As for the boss himself, he's gained the usual set of "make him more annoying" stats. +2 Mgc/Def/Res and +4 Str to compensate for his weapons' weight. 1000 less gold and no Bargain Ring, though. Also of note, it appears that Dark Bishops don't have an A-rank Anima anymore, which makes sense I suppose.
While Larcei isn't around, Patty jumps on the opportunity to abuse the boss as much as she can.
And boy is she enjoying herself.
The brigand near Melgen who's been staying put for so long finally decides to move, though, so I need to get a move on.
Lester puts the final touches to the boss, and proves that it really is the horse gaining good stats for him.
1 HP. Just ripe for the picking.
Super bland level aside, we finally get some dark magic for ourselves.
A quick comparison shot with what she already has. Yotsmungand is about equivalent to a dark Tornado in Binary, trading 10 more Hit and full WTA for 2 more Wgt. It also costs a truckload of money, which is why I really wanted Julia to get it now.
Yied conquered! And a unexplainable landslide that Arthur just casually shrugs off. Somehow, that doesn't surprise me.
Next time on FE4 Binary: Patty hands her most precious gift to Seliph, and we discover a new Triangle Attack. Can you guess which of our characters can perform it?