The Let's Play Archive

Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest

by midnight_lasagna

Part 19: My Castle (Chapter 12)


It's hard to believe Elise would have the strength to even pick up a pickaxe, let alone mine with one. She's probably just playing Minecraft.



I'd prefer to win ingredients I don't have from the lottery than minerals, since you can trade for those at the smithy. I think the only ingredients I still need are Wheat (defense), and Meat (strength).



The arena is a cool place to get to see Azura fight. The mechanics of the arena seem to favour units with high strength but poor defense, or at least that's how it seems to me. The optimal arena setup is your weakest unit paired with your strongest unit, which will make you face a weak unit paired with a strong unit. Your strong unit's dual attack will KO the enemy weak unit in a single hit if the difference in power is big enough, it doesn't matter if your weak unit would die in one hit on the counterattack.



I don't think I've actually stated any of my support plans so far, but this one was probably obvious. Corrin and Silas have been this playthrough's power couple. Childhood friendship turning into a romance is cute!



Although these cutscenes are always a little awkward. Pairing up fictional characters is fun but I don't want them telling me they love me, it's weird : (




Corrin & Jakob A, Silas & Azura C, Odin & Nyx B, Niles & Mozu A.

Odin and Nyx's support is absolutely hilarious. "Odin Dark" is just Owain from Awakening's LARP identity and he's distraught to have met a Dark Mage with a cooler origin story than what he's got.



Silas can have this as a wedding gift. His bulk isn't bad, but it is below average and I do want him to try the Sol Master Ninja combo later.



Pairing off Corrin and Silas has unlocked two different paralogues, although I'm not going to do either just yet. Because both of these paralogues are for characters not exclusive to Conquest, they'll be much easier in difficulty. The AI also won't act like it does in Conquest, meaning enemies will attack your units even if they can't hurt them. Both of these paralogues will always have a few promoted enemies no matter your progress through the story, which make them great sources of EXP if you can do them early enough.

...unfortunately I don't think either of these children are going to be very good. A +magic Corrin isn't quite the optimal mother for Sophie, Silas's child. Meanwhile, Kana, Corrin's child... sucks. I think the devs overcorrected when they saw how powerful Morgan could be in Awakening.



I'll do any essential shopping I need right before I start Chapter 12, but I just want to do this while I remember. The upcoming chapter is full of a lot of powerful ranged enemies, so the tonics are for Odin and Niles who'll be fighting most of them. The Steel Axe I just bought because it was on sale, but Camilla could do with a replacement after she gave hers away to Elise.





Everybody's stats pre-chapter 12. I'm a little nervous for this one, but I'm sure things will be fine...



Kaze
Ninja (HS: Samurai)
A+ Support Classes: Silas (Cavalier), Xander (Cavalier)
Personal Skill: Miraculous Save (When a partner in a support pair, grant lead unit a Luck% chance of surviving a fatal hit with 1 HP remaining if HP > 1. In other words, it gives the lead unit the Miracle skill (luck stat used is lead unit's, not Kaze's))
Growths (With default class):
HP: 55% (60)
STR: 40% (45)
MAG: 0% (0)
SKL: 45% (65)
SPD: 65% (85)
LCK: 20% (20)
DEF: 20% (25)
RES: 35% (50)

It's Kaze! The Hoshidan counterpart to Silas, Kaze will always join you, no matter the route. And unlike in Birthright, he's not going to get killed off by the plot if you don't have an A support with him!

Sometimes classes that are very annoying when used by the enemy turn out to mediocre in your own hands, but thankfully that is not the case with the Ninja. 1-2 range, debuffs, and great speed are all things you can use with great effectiveness, and Kaze is pretty much the quintessential ninja. He's fast, he's got great skill and great res, but his strength and physical bulk are lacking. His HP growth is deceptively high for an otherwise squishy unit, but don't expect it to make him into any sort of physical tank. Do expect him to absolutely tear enemy mages apart though, "mage killers" might be a bit of a meme in the Fire Emblem community but Kaze is absolutely built for being one thanks to his amazing res, 1-2 range, and weapon triangle advantage against tomes. His Luck is pretty bad though so you might want to feed him a Goddess Icon if you can spare one.

Debuffs and Poison Strike might make Kaze well suited for player phase combat and setting up enemies for kills, but the mechanics of dual guard make him a surprisingly good enemy phase tank, so long as he's got a good partner to help shore up his defense a little. If Kaze doubles every enemy, then he'll fill up the dual guard gauge entirely after two rounds of combat, effectively blocking 1 in 3 attacks. Combine this with his high tendency to dodge, and his bad bulk might end up mattering deceptively little. Kaze makes for a pretty good user of the Sol Master Ninja combo, and unlike Silas he's got a lot more flexibility in who he can support to use it. He will however struggle to deal as much damage as Silas can, and he is quite a lot more fragile too. Charlotte is a pretty great support partner for Kaze if you want him to pull it off (although Charlotte is a great support partner for nearly everyone), but Selena can also give him Sol access while also increasing his bulk a little.

Unfortunately, Kaze is lacking some of the tools that make ninjas so good that you would normally have in abundance in any other route. Shurriken weapons all give the user + 2 speed, but the only one Kaze has access to is the Steel Shurriken he joins with, which will slightly lower his avoid and make him require 1 more point of speed to double than a knife would. There is also the Flame Shurriken, but Kaze's non-existant magic makes it pretty much a joke weapon in his hands. Not having weapons such as the Dual and Sting Shurriken make him underperform compared to his Birthright self too, although at least in Conquest he won't have to compete with the amazing Saizo.

Kaze's only Friendship Seal options both give Cavalier, but it's not a bad source of skills for him. Reclassing into Paladin and leveling until he gets Defender will give him the three skills he wants the most. As an actual combat class however he'll function pretty mediocrely. Samurai also has some interesting skills for Kaze - Vantage can help with a Sol Master Ninja build, while Seal Strength and Duellists Blow make him great for softening up foes on player phase. Again however he'll be pretty underwhelming as a Samurai in combat.

Lastly, Kaze's kid comes with a great join chapter that is both an easy source of EXP and provides exclusive access to the Dragon Herbs, a stat booster that increases every stat by one. His daughter is also one of the few units to be able to access the Spendthrift skill, and her personal skill means she'll pick up Gold Bars more often than even Mozu can. As an actual combat unit she's pretty mediocre without a good mother so don't expect much from her in that department.

TL;DR:

Pros
Cons
...hmm, I feel like Kaze's huge list of pros and small list of cons might make him seem a little better than he actually is. He is good though, but maybe not that good!

My Rating: More handsome than his brother but not quite as powerful.