The Let's Play Archive

Fire Emblem: Binding Blade

by Melth

Part 20

Playing Through:




Lalum gets a pretty bad level helping Ray move into a good forward position.




So with her help everyone just moves forward in maximum support formation. Tate and Thany drop Lugh along too, though they’ll be heading back the other way. Ray- and only Ray- is in range of the enemy mage.




The top group just moves in too; it’s a pretty slow turn.




After turn 1, Zephiel shows off his really dumb animation attacking Cecilia




And Narshen wants to rape and torture her because he’s Narshen. Same as with Clarine. Your chapters are numbered, Narshen.




And Zephiel gives him the green light, making him just as bad. Zephiel is arguably the worst guy in the world but he has the nerve to say other people are the evil ones. He’d be a much less annoying villain if he was actually honorable and somewhat decent or something, but he’s a total hypocrite. For that matter, it’s on his orders that a lot of the stuff he says is evidence people are fundamentally bad happens.




Boss fakeout number 1, Zephiel now stands on the gate for a while.




This… is just a lie. He and his group don’t move. Certainly not now. What is he talking about? Also he totally just watched his friend and comrade Cecilia get cut down in cold blood and he did nothing and shows no reaction.




If we know this, either we have scouts who ran out and saw it and then came back or we can see over there. In either case, how don’t they know that our army- which is already fighting them- is here yet?




I need to take out these ranged people quickly so that I don’t have them sniping at me from behind cavaliers next turn.




Nice!




Awful!




I’m going for as many 1-round kills as I can now to try to improve my combat ranking.




Not bad at all.




Nosferatu is a very handy weapon for Ray at this point.




Lilina moves into position so that exactly one cavalier can hit her and equips Elfire for the OHKO.




And the pegasi fly that way too so everyone is ready when the cavalier wave arrives.




She was hiding in a plot hole!

No, really. See, Roy left her with Cecilia. Then in chapter 11, Oro explicitly states that he lied to Miledy about not knowing where she is: Arcard and Roartz had captured her and were overjoyed to have got such a valuable and important hostage.

Then the next thing we know, she’s never been captured and is still with Cecilia here with no explanation. It’s like nothing said in the Western Isles is canon.




She asks him why he’s doing all these terrible things.




He responds nonsensically, saying all people are awful.




He’s apparently jerkish enough to kill even her if she causes more trouble in his bid to kill all humans. Actually what was he planning to do with her if he DID win? Just let some dragon eat her?




He tells Narshen to make sure Miledy takes his sister back to Bern safe and sound. This, above all else, is proof that Zephiel is insane.




And in an unbelievably stupid moment, he doesn’t take the Fire Emblem. He was really determined to get the Fire Emblem back, he was terrified of it falling into enemy hands, he knows she ran away with it to give it to the enemy, and he doesn’t take it back. He treats it like it’s not important at all suddenly.

Guess what? Guinevere gives it right back to Roy again. The whole “Guinevere is captured oh no” subplot here is resolved 30 seconds after it begins with no player action whatsoever and affects absolutely nothing in any way. What a pointless waste of an interesting plotline.




… huh. So it turns out archers can disengage from ballistae for free in this game. I’m pretty sure it took your turn in 7. Either way, no ballistician in any point in either game up till now would ever choose to get off the ballista before it was out of ammo. So… this was pretty much unpredictable. Oh well, time to restart. But first I think I’ll show the cutscene that immediately followed.




Narshen actually did obey orders for once and send Miledy to collect Guinevere.




Guinevere apparently grabbed a sword to try to force her way past Miledy. Or maybe threatened to kill herself with it? Either way, Miledy thinks only the princess will be hurt.




She’s determined not to go back to Bern.




MIledy reveals that she’s totally cool with that, but is kind of miffed that Guinevere didn’t just ask her to come along the first time.




That was pretty much Guinevere’s best moment in the game. Now Miledy flies her over. And neither Narshen nor Flaer nor Zephiel nor anyone stops this second flagrant defection. Even though she still has the precious Fire Emblem.




Miledy just flies right for us and asks to join. She’s not being very careful with her charge.




That settles it; she’s completely trustworthy.




And they’re reunited. And then Guinevere promptly vanishes. Ok, now it’s time to restart. As per my usual pledge, I have to have at least a slightly different strategy this time (even besides just not putting Clarine in range of a sniper I didn’t know could get off the ballista).




This time my starting formation and equipment is a bit different and it’s Lugh, rather than Ray, who’ll take the lead and the rescues executed will be different. For some reason Lalum gets a different level. Maybe I burned an RN while choosing where to move last time?




So this time Lugh will be the one the mage goes for.




Instead of pegasi rescue-dropping, this time Ray move as far as he can and then Rutger picks him up.




Then Dieck takes him and then finally Clarine moves in and drops him, ending all 5 of them in support position.




And Roy is dropped by the pegasi instead.




Next turn the top group waits with Lilina ready to fire away on the lead cavalier.




Although my troops are in a different order and got there in a different way, a similar situation ultimately ensues with the bottom group.




Darn, Rutger gets a much worse level.




And an amazing level is wasted on Clarine instead.




As usual, Lalum dances for the healer and my forces crowd in. This time the only fragile guy in sniper range is Ray, who’s armed with Nosferatu and thus able to take the heat.




But in a more pleasant surprise, the sniper goes for Lugh and misses (not that it mattered much since everyone else’s hit odds were really small).




However, Lilina missed one attack on the western front, so I lost my chance at a one-round kill there. Oh well.




Lot finishes that cavalier for a good level. This is the weirdest fighter I’ve ever seen, but apparently this is fairly normal for him.




Now that I know my funds ranking is in the bag, I’m much more liberal in my use of the killer bow to secure instant kills.




Elfire too. I also happen to know I can buy more of these things from the shops here and I’m planning on it.




I can’t take out the paladin but all his henchmen are gone, so I just go with this safe setup instead.




Alright, bridge team time again. The most important thing really is to take out these ranged people. If I can do that and make sure no one is killable by silver lance + ballista then I’m in the clear. However, I suspect I can do much better than that.




It’s a little tough to break through, so Rutger borrows Dieck’s iron blade again.




Nice. Dieck does pretty well with Rutger’s killing edge. More one-round kills for me.




Ray finishes the sniper. At first glance this is a bad level, but really Ray does mostly just need speed right now, so I’ll take it.




He’s healed and I’ve broken through the enemy ranged attackers with 3 characters to spare.




Lugh steps up, takes the killing edge, and then fires away.




Not bad, not bad. My Lugh is seriously strong, but average or below average in most other places.




And now you see why Lugh took the killing edge. It was so Rutger could get it back while stepping into range to kill the paladin.




Victory! 2-round kill on a promoted enemy is pretty awesome.




So many enemies have been killed that my whole group is safe.




Alright, they finally know we’re here. They should totally know we have Guinevere. I mean, Miledly just flew straight towards us with her and defected. So we have the Fire Emblem. And we’re heading right for them. If we’re defeated here, Zephiel wins the war completely. And if we’re not defeated here, he’s in deep trouble because we now know his army’s secrets, have the fire emblem, have his sister, and will have given the Etrurian loyalists a chance to turn things around.

So of course Zephiel will fight us, right? Afterall, he likes to fight just for the exercise of it, even besides the fact that it’s clearly best for him to take the field to ensure victory here.




But… no. He’s just leaving. Also he just referred to the army of Bern as a militia. Either the translators chose a terrible word there or that was a serious insult.




Yeah, he’s ignoring us. He’s not only ignoring us, he’s commanding Narshen to not even fight us seriously. What an idiot.




Somehow he heard about Arcadia! Actually it’s a wonder more people haven’t heard about it considering how many people know about it and that Sophia blabs all about it to everyone all the time.







Apparently Zephiel won’t because despite having disobeyed all orders and completely failed every mission in the past, Narshen still isn’t even really punished when he epic fails this one too. Heck, he’s still going to be allowed to keep his post even as the capital of Etruria falls to the loyalists provided he does his job there! Does he have embarrassing childhood pictures of Zephiel from when he wasn’t evil or some other blackmail hold with which to retain his status as general despite never, ever doing his job?




Zephiel leaves and Narshen takes over in boss fakeout number 2.




Every




Enemy




Hits. It’s a good thing there weren’t many people besides these 3 left in range, because every single enemy hit every target this turn.




Oh and the enemy healer gets to work. Troubadours do NOT count as cavalry so the horseslayer and halberd don’t work on them. This is problematic because they can’t be instant-killed without those, can’t be doubled by most things (some have at least 17 speed, so nothing unpromoted can double them at all), and dodge really well.




Another story scene mid-battle; this chapter has tons of them. Cecilia wakes up to find she’s alive because 1) Narshen apparently forgot about her just like he forgot about Clarine and 2) Sophia here bandaged her up and treated her injuries. Why Sophia had medical supplies in her prison cell is never explained. Actually why these 2 were put in the same cell at all is a mystery. Sophia knows important secrets the Béarnaise shouldn’t want anyone else to find out. Why put Cecilia with her?




Sophia shares some cryptic nonsense.




And she immediately reveals her secret village’s name. And then starts spilling all the secrets about it. This is probably how Bern found out. Sophia just runs around telling everyone everything about Arcadia.




Alright, next turn. There aren’t many enemies but they’ll be hard to kill because the paladin is tough, the cavalier is in a chokepoint, and the troubadour is fast and distant.




First, Lot moves in and gives Gonzalez the halberd.




Gonzalez gets the instant kill (I didn’t have Lot attack because he couldn’t instant kill and I want to boost my combat score).




None of the others can be OHKOed this turn, so I won’t try it for now.




Now down here I have a bit of a dilemma. I can’t beat those wyverns now and what I’d like to do is just pull back a few squares so that they have to come to me- or to some bait I’d leave. The trouble is that if I do that, these other enemies will not die this turn and my combat ranking will suffer. I think it will be better to just find a way to kill them and set up a formation such that the wyverns will die easily next turn.




Lugh opens fire with thunder for the instant kill.




Only Rutger can double this speed troubadour, and you can see she has remarkably high odds of dodging even Rutger with an iron sword and supports.





A wall is formed and people are healed.




And more wall. No one who can die in 2 hits can be hit twice.




Next turn, you can see that the map is already more than half empty (especially since some of those are still Percival’s group or other enemies who will leave).




The other wyvern actually suicides straight into Lugh, so Lugh softens this one up for Ray.




Nice, he’s doing well on offense.




Weird. Ballista tiles slow air units. That’s 2 FE6 ballista peculiarities I’ve learned today.




More healing for Clarine.




Miledy, camouflaged against the ocean, moves in to ambush the cavalier next turn! But seriously, I pulled everyone out of range so that I can just slam the guy with an OKHO next turn, or maybe give him to Ray as a 2-hit kill.




The army which has been tearing apart their troops is finally recognized. How did they not know we were coming?




This anger is completely justified!




You’re both morons! And once again, WHY did he leave that all-important battle to report to Narshen? Why not stay to actually see how it ended and THEN report it? I mean, even if the dragon was actually invincible, Roy and his group could have just walked away and remained a threat.




That’s right! All your stupid blunders up till now jeopardized it too! Take this opportunity and do something that makes sense for once!




Now’s your chance, Narshen! For once in your life, don’t make this game’s plot ridiculous.




….

Yeah. So he’s going to deliberately choose to fail EVERY objective. Not only will he not take down Roy, he won’t actually take care of Arcadia either. What’s more, he never actually DOES plan the attack against Roy that he says he’ll go do. He takes no further hostile action against you all game, it’s just you attacking his forces again and again.

I absolutely hate this game's plot. Every time I have to read another line of this insufferably stupid and absurd story I want to put the game down and never play it again.




And for no darned reason! Narshen doesn’t even gain anything by doing this; in fact he hurts himself badly!




It makes no sense!




So at last we see the true boss. Why he doesn’t just defect at this point is beyond me. He claims it’s because he’s a “Knight of Bern” but he has displayed 0 sense of duty or national loyalty or even personal pride in his work up till now.




Now I can take these guys out fairly easily.




The killer bow is the only way to down the troubadour though; it’s one of those ones with 17 speed.




Wow, that’s really old news. I think we learned that 7 chapters ago. Thanks random house!




Lot visits the village and is given a Body Ring for no reason.




Along with this terrible advice. The female characters are generally the ones who benefit the most from the Con increase.





Gonzalez and Lilina have earned their B support.




She likes the flower he picked for her and mentions Roy.




Uh oh…




Darn.




Awkward!




Another Ray kill. You can see that shamans have some accuracy issues in this game. That’s a severe problem for Sophia in particular.




Ooh, Lugh and Ray earned their support too.










Ray is still too rude to thank anyone for anything but he’s at least not a complete jerk with Lugh. Although Lugh points out that it was kind of obnoxious of him not to respond when Lugh was calling for him at the beginning of the support. And Ray grumbles some insults when Lugh leaves.




Well another dull turn of just walking forward ends with Ray getting another kill.




Now these guys over the water are pests.




With some dancing help, Ray kills one for a great level.




Then a wall is established to keep the dancer safe.




Meanwhile, this group has had a turn and a half or so to just set up and lie in wait for the reinforcements.




Poof! Giant unannounced reinforcement wave out of nowhere! If you play a conventional strategy on this chapter, this wave is pretty much certain death. See, the obvious move is to send a small party up here while your big group charges over the bridge. The small party would have taken the village a couple of turns ago and then begun heading east. This wave here is precisely timed so that they will then cut off your retreat and pin you with no possible help and then slaughter your small party. It’s really jerkish map design of the kind this game is rightfully infamous for.




But I was ready.




And Lilina guns down another.




This is a wonderful Lilina. All she needs is speed.




Hey, Percival, remember when you told them you guys were moving immediately 7 turns ago? Anyway, now they’re just going to walk off because Bern’s behavior here is somehow an “insult to Etruria”. Apparently he’s ok with Bern killing Etrurians, imprisoning their king, and preparing to dismantle the whole country eventually but NOT with whatever this insult was. What’s more, apparently he’s not at all afraid that the rebels will do anything to the king if he disobeys them by just leaving here at this critical battle. If that’s the case, why does he ever obey them at all?




We must return to Aquleia and…. aid Bern further. Next time we see him, he’s working hand in hand with actually Béarnaise troops to kill you personally.




The other cavalry all went this way for some reason. Makes it hard to engage them quickly, but I’m not in a huge hurry.




Man, my Gonzalez has gained 3 HP only levels so far. Oh well, at least he hit.




So then Lot moves in and borrows the Halberd back to attack the next enemy down the line.




Tate horseslayers another.




Which lets Thany take the horseslayer to finish the paladin.




Shin runs in and grabs Lot in an offensive rescue.




Clearing up a space for Lilina to finish the last attacking enemy! That was an awesome turn!




The whole attacking wave was completely vaporized! True it relied on some luck, but those maneuvers were pretty cool nonetheless.




Clarine is suddenly gaining a ton of magic.




The bottom group has little to do but move with a few rescues. Miledy goes to lure the first enemy mercenary. These guys are stationary unless you go in their attack ranges individually.




The top group hurries south, using mounted people to drop the slower ones.




Tate and Thany finish the annoyingly fast troubadour.




Well that awesomeness makes up for the annoyance.




That Clarine has such awful Mag really helps her get more XP sometimes since she can’t heal any moderately serious wound in one go.




Time to lure the others.




Nice. Rutger finishes the one left behind. Mine has been doing horribly in skill and speed, but his Def and Str are good and that’s what counts.




Everyone else just advances in support formations.




[insert comment about Ellen having terrible stat growths here]




Now these enemies are actually tough. The hero has 18 speed and hits hard.




Not a bad level for Lalum.




Miledy has survived 4 hits from this powerful hero and is still fine.




A hero so powerful that he survives a crit from a supported up Rutger.




Ugh, it’s probably not going to work and will only hurt my combat score, but I’m going to go for it anyway. The possible profit is too high to ignore.

I missed, but the enemy will still die in the next battle anyway whoever it picks.




Thany and Tate have also earned their first support. Did you know Thany is vulnerable to archers?







How was this idiot allowed to become a pegasus knight? I mean, Ilians are concerned enough about their national reputation that they would rather die than betray their employers; why are they not concerned about buffoons like Thany and Treck dishonoring them with their incompetence?




Well here’s my turn 12 setup as the reinforcements are about to spawn. Only Lilina and Gonzalez, both fully capable of OHKOing their enemies, are in range while everyone else loiters just out of it.




Next turn, Rutger visits a house and this woman talks about how Percival is still swearing loyalty to Mildain even though Mildain is supposedly dead.

Why hasn’t Douglas told him Mildain is still alive? For that matter, why doesn’t Mildain make that clear now? Now is a good time for it. He’s in completely safe hands- and Roy already knows who he is if you take the Bartre route. And if he reveals himself, the rebels will be defeated almost immediately since Percival will definitely change sides and even Douglas might. And national sentiment will definitely turn against the plotters since they can’t claim any legitimacy- especially not when the king’s spirits revive.

Heck, their rebellion could quite possibly have been stopped before it began. In that case the king would never have been in danger. Even now, he’d be safer if Mildain revealed himself than if he doesn’t because the rebellion would collapse and the plotters would have only the king as a bargaining chip to save their own lives. If the rebellion succeeds and Bern takes over, the king will surely be disposed of eventually. And if Roy just starts defeating the rebels, the king is in the same supposed danger as if Mildain reveals himself and the rebels defeat themselves. So… nothing is gained by this secrecy and thousands of Etrurian lives are lost.

On the other hand, Mildain is kind of a jerk so this is in character for him.




Like the Gant Lance, it’s a reference to a character in the manga adaptation that I know nothing about. And statistically it’s somewhere between an iron and a steel sword, so it’s pretty bad.




Here’s another giant army out of the south.




Now on the right front, I apparently triggered only the paladin’s proximity alarm, so most of his troops are staying put.





This troubadour only has 16 speed, so Rutger takes it down.




And Dieck supports him again. Rutger apparently once again tries to kill him for no reason.




That is clearly nonsense because we did not fight any Béarnaise troops at all in the “last battle” that you mentioned. The last battle these guys were in was 11, which definitely had no one from Bern.




For that matter, the most recent battle of all was just a bunch of bandits. Definitely no one from Bern or they would have made the bandits do their job. But anyway, he’s mad because Dieck killed the guy he wanted to kill.




Miledy is disturbingly close to parity with this promoted guy at her join level.





But instead of attacking him, everyone just crowds up in support formation.




On the left, I got greedy and gave Lilina fire instead of Elfire so now I have more to do than I should have had.




Well Thany finishes one of the damaged guys easily and Tate takes the other.




Gonzalez takes down the killer lance guy from full again.




Then Lot borrows the halberd to fell the next one, as usual.




Lilina and Shin drop the paladin.




The classic Lilina level. That leaves only one enemy who can attack. Not bad.




Now the right side. The other cavaliers are finally coming, but this will be easy.




Miledy scores a great level dropping the paladin.




Lugh gets some speed weakening the cavalier. Speed is good.




Wow. This is an improbably fast Ray. Yeah he’s sucking in most other stats, but speed is what he needs.




The wall is completed.




On the left, the troubadour is killed.




Because there’s not much else to do, Shin and Lot then drop her next to her sister for more support.




Roy continues to suck.




The map is basically empty. And as far as I know, I have a whole 6 turns to the next reinforcement wave.




Next turn Lugh promotes. His promotion gains are just fantastic. I mean 4 mag and 4 HP and 2 def? Amazing. My Lugh has had WAY above average Mag. For an average Lugh, this is something like a 40% increase in Mag all at once.




Miledy drops the last cavalier as everyone moves in.




Other than her Def, this mostly makes up for mine having sub-average HM gains.




Wow! Clarine has gained 3 mag this chapter! She gained 2 over the course of the whole rest of the game.




AGH! I did NOT know about this reinforcement wave. I thought there were only 3 (top, bottom, top on turns 8, 12, and 18). I had no idea that there were 4 waves with the 3rd being here on 15 and the 4th being from the bot. You can see that despite all my preparations, my significant foreknowledge, all my tactics, and having the capability to easily slaughter these waves; I STILL nearly lost just because I didn’t know exactly when one was coming. It’s a horrible chapter that way. All guess and check.




But I didn’t lose immediately, so I’ve got this. On the right side Lugh tries out his new ability to heal.




Damage control time, hop to it people!




Alright, the situation is stabilized. If I’d known these guys were coming, I could have hurried and been in position already. This is costing me combat ranking and also jeopardizing my ability to be ready to kill the final wave. There’s only 2 more turns to be down there and waiting.




Lugh gets ready to work on the boss.




With no enemies left, everyone gives Miledy the stuff to sell.




So turn 17, it’s a bit of a mess here. I must end next turn in position to deal with the bottom reinforcements I’m now sure are coming on 18.




Thany finishes the paladin off. She has such a huge Str bless.




And Tate drops the troubadour who luckily only has 16 speed.




Shin finishes the last enemy. Nice def there.




And I’m good to go. I’ve got some rescues set up that will get everyone where I need them.




Where was that pride when you just skipped out on chapter 12 for no reason?




This creepily giggling shopkeeper takes these gems off my hands. Then I purchase tons of heals, elfires, fluxes, torches, and –most importantly- restores. This is an extremely valuable store for preparing for both next chapter in particular and the rest of the game in general.




Everyone else mostly just heals. The boss will be killed by Lugh’s next counter.




And on turn 18, several rescue-drops get Lilina (with Elfire) and Gonzalez in position.




Turn 19, it’s go time! Shin slays the paladin immediately with his excellent killer bow skills.




Lot takes another and gains even more speed.




Gonzalez drops the killer lance guy as usual.




Not bad.




Best Lilina ever!




Def is very nice.




Exterminated! I got every last one of them in one turn.




And on the right there is healing and dancing and more healing. Meanwhile Miledy visits the armory and picks up some more killer weapons now that I know I have infinite money.




Turn 19. That’s the best possible win time. This was a pretty awesome victory, more or less ideal. And fairly smooth and clever in its details despite the terrible surprise of the chapter 15 wave. I’d say this was actually the first time ever that I had fun playing this game.




Yeah, you totally did. I mean you lost the whole war in like a week. And you completely ignored all of Roy’s warnings apparently.




Wow, you’re just telling everyone aren’t you?




You mean besides that they’re attacking every village because they’re taking over the whole world? Other than Lycia of course. They’ve made it clear that they never intend to invade Lycia.




Probably because you blab about them to everyone too! Forget Fa, why is Sophia allowed to wander around if she can’t keep her mouth shut?




Yeah this might have been a cool surprise if Zephiel didn’t already explicitly talk about it. It would have been much better if he just alluded to them in some kind of circumspect manner.




That settles it; it’s entirely true.

I continue to hate how Merlinus has no role in any conversation other than to pop up and trust all traitors and disbelieve all honest people.

Alright, there’s a very special chapter coming up. I believe it’s the ONLY chapter in the whole game where we actually see Bern doing something proactive with their army on their own.

Total Restarts: 5 (Besides the ballista surprise, I also lost one time when a mage 2% critted Ray)
Turn Surplus: 15 (Gained 1 turn, the maximum possible while killing all reins. Not bad.)
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