Part 68: Chapter 5, Part 5: Doma's Altar

Behind this door, lies the final battle with the evil god Doma. Let's go.



There's a lot going on here. Celica's group is trapped in the southeast corner by a swarm of bigles. Alm's group has entered from the southwest corner, between the bigles and a few third-tier enemies. The boss group is up in the northeast corner. And there's some nice poison swamp all over the middle of the map just to clog things up.



Alm's here to kill Doma, Celica's here to free Mila. Neither really has any idea that the other was going to show up.

Don't worry. I'll crush these bastards.

It won't work. Judah somehow seals all attacks. Plus, Bigles keep spawning and entangling us. We're done for.... Sorry, Alm. I was weak after all. I've had an odd premonition that pain awaits you.... That's why I left on a quest to save Mila.... That's why I didn't want you to fight yet. I'm sorry I acted so cold.... The truth is, I've always....

Big info dump here. So Celica kinda-sorta knew what was going on, and was trying to protect Alm by doing it all herself instead. Except that hasn't really worked out too well for her.

I understand. But Celica! Focus on escaping! I'll definitely save you, so hang on!

There's no escaping. But Alm's group does have a couple healers with handy Warp spells. Celica's group just has Jenny, who doesn't get Warp, so they're stuck where they are.



The three enemies to the north have pretty good Power, Speed, and Defense. I have just the counter to that.



The bigles haven't changed much. They'll still get wrecked by the falcon knights and any holy weapons.



Judah's back, hanging out in the middle of the map with his powerful Death spell (15 Might, 70% Hit Rate). He's tough, but the biggest problem in dealing with him is the reported immunity he has to anyone's attacks.



Two nasty Aura-wielding witches in the north. They look a little worse for wear. Their portraits also bear a striking resemblance to Sonia's, with the thick hair and the upturned collar:



You decide.



The two bow knights are the only generic units on the map. Watch out for their high range and attack, but otherwise they're nothing compared to most of the named enemies.



The wizard here is Ganeph, or Garnef for you FE1/FE3 fans. He appears to be surprisingly weak, but watch out for that Medusa spell - if it lands (70% Hit Rate), it will reduce the target's HP to 1 (or kill the target if the HP is already at 1). Making that target easy pickings for someone else to finish off.

Lore note: Garnef is defeated near the end of the original Fire Emblem, but shows back up again in the direct sequel (FE3). Did he steal the Falchion at the end of the first game, bring it here for some reason? Then steal it again at the end of this game? (He shows up in FE3 with the Falchion again.) Does that mean Alm is some kind of distant cousin of Marth, since they can wield the same bloodline-restricted royal sword? Or is it all just a weird coincidence?



The big boss, Doma. So many HPs that you can't see them because the developer didn't want to figure out how to display triple digits in the window. Very tough defenses too, though not very fast. Can't really tell what his attacks are yet....


Turn 1



It's been awhile since we've used Celica's group. Let's send Saber to attack the nearby bigle.



Saber's got the Holy Sword and still barely scratches the bigle, and takes two attacks in return. He's been one of Celica's best units all game before fading in the last chapter. Since Celica's group didn't get all of the levels and promotions that Alm's group has been picking up for the last chapter and a half, only a few of their units will be of any use in this battle.

Side note: The Mercenary/Myrmidon class is usually one of the more overpowered in Fire Emblem games. Yet in this run I have four of them (Cliff in Alm's group, and Saber/Kamui/Jesse in Celica's group) and they're all completely useless. Not sure what happened there.



Celica's two falcon knights, Palla and Catria, are still effective at least. Particuarly when their attacks automatically do triple damage to all of the bigles floating around.



Catria takes out another bigle from range, forming the beginnings of a defensive line.



Celica's still got some utility with her spells, particularly since she can throw around effective Angel shots at the monsters.



Sonia also used to be considered a strong unit, but she's more than 20 levels behind Dyute at this point, and her top spell (Excalibur) is really only good if it triggers a crit. If I'd gotten her a couple more levels, she would've picked up Angel, and at level 18 she would have gotten Arrow.



Like Saber, Leo doesn't really have the Power or the Speed to keep up in the damage-dealing department. Alm's group has five units with at least 18 Power and 18 Speed - Celica's group has none.



Anyway, Celica's group just has bigles to deal with so they'll be able to survive just fine in this formation. That'll buy time for Alm's group to sweep through the rest of the enemies.



Speaking of Alm's group, their first action is to warp Matilda down to reinforce Celica's line. And bring them an Angel Ring, because why not.



Sure, Python is cheating a bit since his Holy Bow is an effective weapon, but that's still a lot more damage than Leo just did.



As Alm's group bunches together and moves forward, their last act is to have Teeta heal away all the damage that Celica's group suffered during the chapter.



The enemy phase starts with Doma summoning a pair of bigles, because who doesn't want more bigles?



The two bow knights advance. That move is actually a good one for us, since it'll be easier to take them out without triggering the rest of the boss group.



The three enemies on the left side also move forward. I have a nasty surprise waiting for them though.



Apparently the two named witches can summon more witches. Who can then also teleport and ruin my day with a well-placed attack on one of Celica's squishy units.



A wounded bigle wisely avoids the falcon knights and dive bombs Kamui instead.



Another bigle was unlucky enough to not have any options but to attack Palla, and paid a heavy price.



Not bad, Speed is probably the biggest help to her right now.



More summoning shenanigans, as a bigle brings in another bigle. They're like rabbits.



Alm's group finally takes a hit, but Force is having none of it.


Turn 2



Celica's got a nice chokepoint now with her few strong units protecting the rest of the group, and far fewer bigles in the way.



Dyute is going to ruin these guys' day.



Why waste the HP on overkill when a pair of fireballs will take down the slayer with ease?



Kamui and Matilda finish off a wounded bigle, clearing more space in the chokepoint.



A Speed-only level isn't as useful for Matilda, but bad levels aren't really going to matter anymore.



Since I'm about to accidentally solve this problem, here's a what-if of Catria flying up to attack Judah:



As Celica said in the opening, Judah is sealing all attacks against him, just like when Celica faced him at the end of Chapter 4. There are no hints as to how to proceed at this point.



Anyway putting Catria up there alone against Judah isn't very smart, so let's have her wipe out another bigle instead.



Claire has the Gladius and no fear, flying ahead of everyone to take care of yet another bigle. I really just don't want them replicating themselves all over the place.



Alm has quietly become almost as over-powered as Dyute, one-shotting another bigle here thanks to the Falchion's effectiveness against monsters.



Force charges ahead with the Speed Ring, backed up by Mycen and Zeke. Suddenly Celica's group is no longer in any immediate danger. Teeta also shoots off another Fortify to keep everyone's HP topped off, and Silk moves over to heal the damage Teeta took from casting the spell.



Doma summons three more bigles, but I've been killing them at a faster rate than he can replace them so far.



The bow knights make it down to the poison riverbank to take a couple shots at Claire, but she shrugs off one for 5 damage and dodges the other.



The second slayer has only Dyute to attack, and falls into the trap. Little did he know that Dyute is just as deadly with her sword.



The gold knight is slightly more lucky, merely being crippled rather than killed outright.



I couldn't be bothered to get her an Angel Ring. I wasn't really expecting her to gain so much XP this turn, but her stats are already so high it doesn't make much difference anymore if she missed out on a couple gains here.



Up top, the bigles summon more bigles, eventually filling the earth and ruining the world for everyone.


Turn 3



In the immediate vicinity, we have two bigles, two generic bow knights, and an invincible death mage. Sounded pretty easy up until that last part.



First step is to have Dyute casually eliminate the last of the western enemy group.



Then Palla and Catria eliminate the two bigles, before the next swarm can get down to us.



The bow knights are tough for Celica and her group. She does 15 damage with Lightning, but takes 12 damage in two counterattacks.



Sonia pitches in with a timely crit.



Claire's pretty strong with the Gladius in hand, but not quite strong enough to kill the second bow knight in one turn.



Python's easily able to finish it off, however.



Dyute gets warped up to help deal with the Judah problem. Judah is still sealing all attacks against him at this point.



More cautious advancement. Can't do much until we can get past Judah, really. Though I guess if needed we could just bypass him entirely and make a run at Doma.



So we've seen Doma summon bigles. Here's his second possible action - Megaquake. The screen shakes for a few seconds, and when it's over every one of our units has taken 10-20 damage. Pretty nasty, really. Good thing Teeta can Fortify everyone each turn to counter. I'm also pretty sure that Megaquake can't actually kill anyone, just reduce them to 1 HP at worst.



Judah summons a single bigle. Guess that death ray was too much effort for him.



And the bigles keep multiplying.



A witch and some bigles start moving across the poison water, but that's it from the boss group.


Turn 4



We start with more bigle-pruning.



Time to see if Judah can be attacked yet.



And for some reason Celica's attacks go through this time. Though if that Death spell had landed I think she would have died - the range is supposed to be 1-2 tiles, but Judah's cheating and attacking from as far away as he likes. So I reloaded since this attack was just supposed to be a test anyway.

I'm not sure why Judah can be attacked now. One game guide suggests it's because the group of three enemy units on the left side was eliminated - I checked immediately after Dyute took out the last of them, and Judah was still sealing attacks, but maybe it takes a turn for his seals to drop. Or maybe it's time-basd, or because Doma cast Megaquake, or who knows why.



What's important is Judah can now be hurt, and killed. Though Python pays a heavy price for the attempt.



Python's second attack lands with a bang, critting to finish off Judah once and for all. The penultimate boss of the game, taken out in one turn by an archer.



Not exactly an inspiring death quote from Judah there.



Judah drops a Magic Ring, but Python doesn't care about magic so stuff it into storage. It can be useful for the final push, but we really won't need it.



After Judah dies, every single bigle is de-summoned, even though they were all summoned by Doma or other bigles. Not sure if that's intentional or some kind of weird bug where the game can't tell who summoned which bigles so just gets rid of all of them. Either way, the rest of this battle just got a lot simpler.



I don't really want anyone getting hit with Medusa, so Dyute wipes out Ganeph/Garnef immediately. Shortest cameo ever.



The falcon knights, without any bigles left to target, go after the nearest witches instead. Catria brings her target down to 1 HP - effectively nullifying her ability to cast - while Claire just outright kills her target.



The faster units get across the poison river, but the rest are still stacked up off-screen waiting to cross.



Doma moves and then gets into the shaking spirit. Not a lot of final bosses move around and actively hunt you in this series. Going to need to see more than Megaquake to really fear this guy, though.



The last healthy witch goes after Force, who's been severely weakened from the quake. Fortunately she misses, or Force would've bit the dust here.


Turn 5



Claire easily takes care of the other zombie witch sister.



Mara gets a minor death quote. Not sure why she gets one, when neither Heste nor Ganeph/Garnef did.



Catria takes out the last witch, and suddenly all we have left is Doma.



You are looking at the last stat gains of the game, here.



Time to see what Doma is made of.

Music: Final Boss



Doma takes two Ragnaroks to the face for a total of 88 damage, and still has so much HP leftover that it can't be displayed. He has a Tentacle attack he could use to counter with, but Dyute is too far away. It only has 10 Might, anyway - not a very scary final boss attack. (By the way, that weird pause at the start of the animation is the screen shaking as Doma emerges from the earth - couldn't capture in the animation due to not grabbing every single frame.)



Doma really likes his Megaquake, but he's not going to get anywhere with that strategy as long as I have Teeta casting Fortify every turn.


Turn 6



Dyute heads into battle again. This time Doma apparently has an Eye Beam attack, but he again doesn't get to use it as Dyute dishes out another 88 damage from long-range. The Eye Beam attack again has just 10 Might, and counts as magic damage (as opposed to the Tentacle's physical damage).



This time we get to see Doma's HP drop all the way to just 11 HP remaining. Add in 5 HP of healing between turns, and he had 182 HP to start the battle.



Claire flies in to finish off Doma, just because I wanted to do it all with Alm and his Falchion on the sidelines. But apparently physical attacks aren't of much use against Doma.



Doma's third direct attack is called Eyeball. Appropriately enough, an eye opens in Doma's hand, looks around for a few seconds, then opens wide....



And shoots out a small ball of energy that completely misses Claire. Oh well. The Eyeball attack reportedly has 0 Might and a base 100% Hit Rate, for what it's worth - I don't really think that those numbers are accurate, though.



Am I toying with Doma at this point to try and see more of his attacks in action? Maybe. But that's no reason for him to be boring and just summon more bigles.


Turn 7



Alm is about to finish off Doma. But somehow Doma healed 40 HP last turn since he was close to dying. That seems fair.



So Alm's otherwise-impressive 46 damage only brought Doma down to 5 HP, rather than killing him outright. Oh, and Alm dodged the weird Eyeball attack, too.



Meanwhile the three falcon knights kill time by killing the three bigles.



All right Celica, you're up. Let's see how Doma likes a shot of Angel to the face.



Crap. At this point I just had everyone attack Doma to see the Eyeball attack, but it missed every time. So forget that.

Eventually I remembered that Doma is immune to everything but Falchion when his HP drops below 52 HP. Though I hear that Nosferatu can hit as well, if you feel like attacking him 1 HP at a time with your healers. A crit from Dyute with Ragnarok when Doma is between 52 and 132 HP (killing him directly) might also work.



STOP BEING BORING. Doma you went from a cool boss to worst boss ever now.


Turn 8



Whatever will I do with this single bigle that you summoned, Doma? Oh right I have three falcon knights.

In the interest of brevity, here's an outtake of me waiting around for Doma to do something cool:



See, that Tentacle attack was awesome, why couldn't you use that more often Doma? Man NES-era AI was pretty terrible. Caught some of the screen-shaking at the start, too.



Here's the Eyeball attack landing. The recipient changes color for a few frames and that's it. No explosion or fancy effects or anything. Doma your cool rating just plummeted again. Also I never figured out how to trigger the EyeBeam attack again, so no shots of that one in action.



Where were we? Right, Alm attacking Doma for 46 HP per turn while Doma heals 40 HP per turn. Simple math tells me what will happen eventually there.



When the attack is going to be a fatal one, a different animation is used. Alm tosses away his shield, and leaps into Doma to stab downward with the Falchion. Then we immediately transition to a what passes for a cut-scene on the NES.



"Our" will? I guess Mila's trapped inside of Doma, or they merged together or something.



So Alm gets the power of both Mila and Doma, gets to rule over both Rigel and Sofia (I guess with Celica at his side). As long as he doesn't...what, use his power to interfere in the world, while simultaneously ruling over it? It's not real clear what triggered these events in the first place, other than Mila and Doma having some kind of sibling squabble that had nothing to do with any of the people in the lands.



And with that, Doma fades away, and the game ends.


Next time:



The ending.