Part 37

Playing Through:




Lilina immediately fries the Berserk druid. She had to be on the right side to do that.




Not bad for her.




Then Clarine warps Zeiss. Even sub-par Mag for the lowest Mag staff user in the game at low level is more than enough to use Warp and Physic and the like in this game.




All the bad stats!




Zeiss kills the bishop. There are now no more status staves on the map.




Hugh heals Lilina’s level up wound.




With some rescue drops, everyone is positioned so that Bors can kill this mercenary next turn.




The left side needs to move fast, so lots of dancing and rescue-drops are in order.




They too are set up to lure a mercenary and feed it to a weak character. That’s the turn.




Pretty bad, but she’s at her caps.




Zeiss is doing a little better at slightly lower level, but is also pretty much at his caps.




He had the bad luck to get hit by every attack from every unit (and take a crit from a hero), so he’s way more injured than I expected.




The Physic druids ruin my plans by healing up the mercenaries.




Oh well, my turn, people are dropped in and Shin spends his turn weakening the mercenary all over again.




With a dance, Noah gets the kill and then a crude wall is formed. That sniper can’t quite instant-kill anyone.




I’m going to find a way to have every healer heal every turn more or less. That’s best for XP.




The paladins set up to start thinning the enemy ranged units while Miledy goes to kill the enemy knight.




Roy is just barely competent enough to be usable while he has the Sword of Seals. Even though he has maximum support and the sniper is badly weakened, he can’t even deal 21 damage with a silver sword.




Bors kills the mercenary and gets a decent level.




More heals.




And one for Zeiss. Clarine should be able to lure and finish one of the berserkers.




But instead this one just runs away from Zeiss for some reason.




Pretty bad, but he’s at his caps.




The enemy healers are becoming kind of a nuisance.




More heals.




In a chain.




This lucky mercenary dodged every attack thrown at him. And he has a lancereaver, so I can’t really give him to Bors regardless.

Have I mentioned that Roy is really weak?




Zeiss is mostly done now.




I give another easy kill to Noah and he rewards me with a mediocre level.




Shin is underperforming too and this Str bonus is going to make it much harder to feed kills with him.




So the goal over here is to either kill or surround that sniper without putting someone vulnerable in range of the druid.




As it happens, Ray is just strong enough to leave this sniper at 1 HP. Man, my Ray is fast.




Whether or not Noah hits, the sniper is now locked in.




Pretty bad again.




Complete left side capping, as per usual. Now I just have to cross my fingers and hope for more Def and Res.




Even people with the worthless Light Brand pose a serious threat to Roy since they double him.




Lance has taken a turn for the disappointing.




Alan gets hit and then double-misses.




I’ve had some pretty lousy accuracy luck on this side, but the numbers of ranged enemies is down.




Alright, Zeiss is back in the game.




Several druids are taken down in quick succession. They’re the main threat remaining here and will instant-kill Noah or Cath, so they’re not good training material.




I decided to risk it on this one and Cath got a nice level for her trouble.




SWEET! That’s what I was waiting for. She has a steel sword all ready to go. Now she’ll do enough damage to be a lot easier to train.




So there goes that one too.




And Shin is patched up to keep fighting more of them.




I have had this support available pretty much all game, but I was planning on having Lilina get an A with either Oujay or Gonzalez. It’s finally become apparent that that’s just not going to happen, so I might as well get this C.




She’s the MVP afterall. That… just about sums their conversation up.




The pesky Nosferatu druid is finally dead.




Even that mercenary’s luck wears out eventually. What a pest.




There’s still lots to do.




Some chain heals.




Everyone crowds up just on the edge of the range of the next group.




Zeiss charges into battle and Clarine throws him another heal.




This whole chapter is basically just me healing stuff.




Lance continues to not be very good.




But the last ranged foe here bites the dust and I can finally move on.




Nice! Def is the only stat that matters for him now.




Noah crits an enemy I wanted to give to Cath. Oh well, it works out ok.




Just moving up with some more heals.




Huh. That’s actually a good level.




In retrospect, I’m not sure why I thought all these heals were noteworthy enough to screencap. Let it suffice to say that every single one of my 5 healers used a staff pretty much every single turn.




Time to wipe out these last few guys.




Welp.




Zeiss is nearly done.




Forblaze softens up this target.




And ultimately Noah is able to get the kill and ANOTHER bad level.




It’s proven impossible to train Bors any further, which makes Roy the lowest level unit on that side of the field. I’ve arranged a bunch of kills for him so far.




I guess that balances out the good level last time.




Hugh never disappoints though.




So the group begins dividing a bit. I’ve decided to have Miledy go for the switch, but I didn’t give her a chest key before finally deciding that, so Lilina and Oujay had to go back with a key for her to take.




Yuck.




Ok, it’s turn 8. I only have this one chance to get any left people I need over to the right side before this corridor is permanently filled with status stavers.




Sad. Know what’s worse? I don’t think she’s even behind average overall.




Shin makes the hallway safe and opens a spot for Lalum at the same time.




No surprise.




Those pests have longbows, but there’s only one real enemy left.




That fellow has a spear, so hopefully he’ll take the bait. It’s going to be a long walk to that switch.




My sages begin opening fire on these pesky snipers. I want to be able to move around freely near that door.




Everyone is trooping down.




And drops are conducted.




Apocalypse is the biggest, longest dark magic in the whole series as far as I can remember.




Miledy is working on taking that switch.




The snipers are now clear.




Ooh, another support. That finishes Lilina up.




They were talking about how he has a sister something like 10 chapters ago.







It kind of sounds like Hector has been a pretty cruddy ruler of Ostia from some of the supports about how awful life there is.




Maybe this support is based on some real practice somewhere at some point, but it comes across as a really weird idea. I mean, they have to have the money for pretty clothes and the spare time to walk presumably days to a faraway town, but not the money to buy food. And considering the Elimine church does so much work taking care of orphans and the like, you’d think they have better options.







The top right guard is dead and Miledy has capped her left side.




… darn. Just 1 turn too late, now she can’t step on the switch for 4- or open any chests for maybe 10.




Oh well, it’ll be 6 turns or so before I’m ready on this side.




Unless I use Zeiss to speed things up.




Finally some Mag.




I can’t wait 10 turns; I’m going to use a charge of this to un-sleep Miledy.







Why would it? You know there’s 2 and then Roy has to use the Fire Emblem on the door.




The Warp staff is restored once again.




There’s some good loot here, but it’s kind of late.




Not much to do but crowd in.




And now this switch is open too.




In case you didn’t have infinite money already somehow.




On second thought, I need to grab those chests faster. Bors is given a set of keys and sent in. I don’t like using Warp like that, but it’s better than wasting a pile of turns.




Ok, that’s both.







Last left chest.




So I have to switch the Sword of Seals to the top of Roy’s inventory and THEN wait.




That’s not really ironic. Also you knew he was the one in your way for forever now.




Roy is too cool for question marks when he’s asking things.




And everyone deserts him!

Or not. Apparently all his troops stay for no adequately explained reason.







Dude, they ALL worked for YOU!




It’s nice that Roy recognizes how ridiculous Zephiel is too.




Ok, even if it was true that people were bad, why the heck would you put the dragons in charge? Almost all of them really ARE awful.

Even Ninian and Nils are only barely willing to entertain the possibility of not exterminating all the humans in the world they invaded. The fire dragons destroy people’s souls and make soulless mockeries of life that do nothing but mindlessly destroy everything they’re pointed at. They were so bad that the Divine Dragons hid rather than work with them. And it’s not like Yahn persuaded Zephiel that dragons were good either, he’d apparently just decided that on his own despite having nothing but counterevidence to look at.




Is Zephiel even aware that those aren’t real dragons? You would think so.




Ugh, just stab the idiot already.




It’s anticlimactically easy boss battle time!







Bam! Reinforcements. I did not know those were coming and Bors is in danger. Why didn’t these guys help before?




Quite a dangerous army.




I’ll have to burn another Warp to deal with the reins quickly. Clarine gets another bad level.




I can’t charge in safely, so I’ll wall up instead.




My Oujay is so good.




I’d put him in range of only the druid and one hero at first to ensure his survival, but now he can charge in safely.




The enemy is breathing down Bors’s neck.




Alright, let’s see what I can do here.




Here’s something the Sword of Seals is actually good at.




Actually pretty good.




Hugh continues to be great.




Lance continues to be Lance.




The humble Wyrmslayer will fell this one.




Alan is a bit more respectable.




And they’re almost all dead.




But I have to burn the last Holy Maiden (don’t worry, it’s not a legendary weapon and it has a value of 0). Reinforcements are coming and I also need to cure Miledy again.




Just in time.




And here come the reinforcements. Maybe only 2 turns after the door was opened. Yeah, I’m not really sure I see the pattern.




Oujay is doing well overall, but falling behind on speed- which is kind of his thing usually.




This thief actually spawns at the END of the enemy turn, like reinforcements in good FE games instead of at the beginning like almost all the others in THIS game.




Oujay is down to one on one. It’s in the bag.




Miledy moves to engage only the druid and one hero at first, same as Oujay did. And I do NOT take the sole remaining chest. I want to leave that as bait.




You know, he was actually turning around at the end. He was above average in most of the important stats- and a lot in Def. But he was still completely worthless. Least valuable cavalier in the game, hands down.




Well the new guys should be easy to deal with now.




YES!







Ok, looking much better.




So the throne room is now clear. I don’t know if killing Zephiel stops further reinforcements, but I want to fight 1 more wave, so I won’t do it yet.




Some people ask why Roy is so bad. I think a better question is why is Skill such a bad stat in game after game?



Ugh, well that’s the last sleep and I can restore it. Note, by the way, that the hit chance would be 84 without the Sword of Seals.




Miledy needs some help.




Now she can finish that sniper off guaranteed (she doesn’t have the Delphi Shield, remember).




The reason I didn’t take the last chest was so this thief wouldn’t leave. Cath is chipping away at him for XP.




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5HywJGoPBg

Although I don’t like it at all, I have to concede that Zephiel’s battle theme is one of the best tracks in this game.




I found out for sure that the reinforcements will still spawn, so Roy attacks Zephiel in one final battle.




Because this is a lazy game, Roy and Zephiel don’t actually have any special dialog; this is just his death quote. Oh and look how silly his sword is.




Another empty for Miledy.




Killing this thief will take too long, I’m just going to grab the lockpick and finish things after the next wave.




Everyone gets to battle stations, pinning the reinforcements in against only foes that can smash them.




Then Bors loots the last chest. This will be handy.




The berserker bites the dust.




Lance and Alan got sucky levels this chapter. Actually, most people did.




Finally some Str though.




Lilina has the best possible excuse for her bad levels.




And turn 19 win.




Congrendulates!




Yes. Neither Idoun nor Brenya does ANYTHING if you don’t go after them.




Why does this conversation go nowhere if you don’t have every legendary weapon?




Let’s take it! It had good stats and 1-2 range and infinite uses! C’mon, please?

For some reason we apparently just leave it.







That’s a stupid legend. Why would the dragon’s temple appear when the human weapons are nearby?




Apparently he STILL doesn’t even know the basic list of what the 8 weapons were.







You can call it a plot hole, but I actually think it’s a fairly cool and interesting mystery.




So the 8 legendary weapons give us directions there. Of course, the location can’t be THAT secret and it can’t have actually been below ground because Zephiel and Brenya and her whole army knew exactly where it was and Yahn and Idoun had to be able to get out of it and so on. We could have found it without them.

If you don’t get the true ending, the weapons don’t glow and the group basically discusses how the true enemy may still be on the loose and then shrugs and decides to do nothing about it. And it all works out the same! And there’s no real clue that you missed several chapters and all the background and the real ending, or what you could do to unlock them next time. Terrible.

Well that’s the chapter. I finished undertime, but could probably have done things a bit faster- and with less use of Warp. On the other hand, there aren’t many good occasions to use Warp left and there’s nothing better to use the Hammerne on, so why not? I did get 39 level ups by using so many low level guys. The requirement is… 10. Yeah. I’ve mentioned before that they clearly had no idea what they were doing with these ranking requirements. Anyway, that’s actually 1 level above my FE7 best (Cog of Destiny) and only 3 behind the chapter 18 level fest that astounded even me.

I could have done better and probably grabbed the Hero Crest and also get Cath right to level 20 instead of just level 19 and 85 XP or something, but I really don’t want to play through it again. It’s a long, dull chapter that’s in the bag before you begin.

Total Restarts: 16 (None here)
Turn Surplus: +74 (+6. Not bad for a level that makes you run all around and wait for a door to open. It’s going to be really hard to hit my stretch goal of +100 though)
Things I Regret Missing: A couple of uses of Marcus’s silver lance on Rude, a Chapter 5 nomad Marcus had to kill, two Chapter 12 fighters I couldn’t kill since I needed supports built elsewhere, a pirate and a wyvern rider on 14x who I didn’t have time to go after, 2 enemies in a room I didn’t have time to kill on chapter 20x, this one lazy mercenary on chapter 21x, Zephiel’s steal-only Hero Crest
Legendary Weapon Scoreboard: Durandal slew Ohtz using Oujay on chapter 14x, turn 2; and the top left mamkute using Oujay on chapter 16, turn 9; and Arcard using Oujay on chapter 17, turn 16; and a bottom left paladin using Oujay on chapter 21, turn 7; and a bottom left wyvern rider using Oujay on chapter 21, turn 9. Armads slew Teck using Gonzalez on chapter 20x, turn 10. Forblaze slew the top right mamkute using Lugh on chapter 16, turn 6. Forblaze slew the left section hero using Lugh on chapter 20, turn 2. Forblaze slew the purge bishop using Lugh on chapter 20, turn 5. Maltet slew a middle area wyvern rider using Miledy on chapter 21, turn 2; and a middle area wyvern lord using Miledy on chapter 21, turn 2; and the right mamkute using Miledy on chapter 21, turn 10; and the middle right sniper using Tate on chapter 21x, turn 3; and the silence druid using Tate on chapter 21x, turn 7; and Pereth using Tate on chapter 21x, turn 14. Miurgre slew the throne room mamkute using Shin on chapter 22, turn 15. Apocalypse slew the top left general using Ray on chapter 22, turn 8. The Sword of Seals slew the right area Sniper using Roy on chapter 22, turn 2; and the top right Berserker using Roy on chapter 22, turn 6; and a top middlish druid on chapter 22, turn 7; and the right throne room mamkute on chapter 22, turn 15; and a throne room sniper reinforcement on chapter 22, turn 16; and Zephiel on chapter 22, turn 17.