Part 13: Chapter 2, Part 1: Nova Cemetery

Today we have our first battle with Celica and her new army. But first we have a couple shrines to use up.

Music: Shrine 2



Celica is the beneficiary of all three shrine uses, gaining 1 Power and 2 Speed. The Power especially will be immediately useful.



Leaving the shrine forces us to enter the cemetery, where a battle immediately begins.

Music: Celica Battle Map 1



The battle music changes for the second chapter here, though the combat music remains the same. Our army is small and rather fragile, but all we're facing is seven zombies. As when Alm faced them, the zombies have a lot of HP but fall quickly due to an extremely low quality.


Turn 1



Celica moves out to the front as we wait for the zombies to approach.

Music: Battle Map 2, Enemy Phase

The enemy phase music changes for the second chapter as well. The zombies shuffle forward but can't reach us quite yet.


Turn 2



A couple zombies are in range, so Celica moves forward to attack one with a fireball. The gravestones for some reason give a massive 60% bonus to physical evasion, so we'll be making use of them extensively here.



Celica's battle sprite is unique and more accurately represents her plot-important red hair color. She casually tosses a couple fireballs at the zombie for 2/3 of its HP.



Jenny moves up to try and work over another zombie, but misses both attacks.



May moves up to support Jenny with some fireballs. Unless the extra range or extra point of damage from Lightning is really necessary, it's best to stick to Fire - it's more accurate, lighter, and has a smaller HP cost.



May has a unique sprite as well, as a female mage. She's also much more into her fire-throwing, with her skirts flying around and even her long hair getting into the action. (Her battle sprite is actually recycled from Linda, the female mage in Fire Emblem 1.)



Boey still hangs back to support whoever needs it. The zombies don't have anywhere to retreat to, so they'll continue to be aggressive even when severely damaged.



One of the zombies scratches Jenny, who misses both of her attacks again.



The other attacks Celica, who's forced to counterattack with her sword rather than her magic. One fireball would've killed the zombie, but an unlucky miss with the sword allows the zombie to live another turn.


Turn 3



We need to finish off the two damaged zombies now, because a couple more are about to reach us.



Boey lands his first attack of the game, bringing the zombie down to 1 HP. Unfortunately he's the only one of our units who can't double-attack.



However the zombie's now weak enough that Jenny only needs to land one of her attacks, which she manages to do this time.



May's now free to finish off Celica's attacker, which gives Celica the opportunity to toss a couple fireballs at one of the incoming zombies from the safety of the grave.



As the back line of zombies approach, Celica's target goes after Jenny for 4 damage, but Jenny immediately takes it back by landing a shot of Nosferatu.



The other zombie goes for Celica, but can't penetrate the defenses of the gravestone. Celica's sword flashes a couple times for a solid 16 damage.


Turn 4



Two more zombies will close with Celica this turn, so let's try and finish off the two that attacked last turn.



May moves into the tree instead of the grave so that she can use the more accurate Fire spell, which is more than enough to turn Celica's attacker into ash.



Jenny moves from grave to grave to finish off her own opponent.



Celica rushes forward to another grave herself for some close-range fireballs. Definitely worth incurring a counterattack here to keep the extra evasion - plus, the zombie missed, anyway, which was kind of the point.



Boey could attack the zombie directly to his left, but instead he parks himself on a grave to support Jenny next turn, if necessary.



Jenny dodges the northern zombie but misses both of her attacks again. Nosferatu is a fickle spell.



The center zombie misses May, and eats a couple of fireballs in exchange.



The southern zombie also misses, and Celica lands both attacks for the counter-kill.


Turn 5



Should be a quick wrap-up from here.



Celica is the only one not able to reach the northern zombie, so she finishes off the central one instead.



Boey and Jenny only combine for 18 damage, half of the zombie's HP.



That's still more than enough damage to allow May to get the kill and end the battle.



With the battle over, we're returned to the world map with our first chance to look around....

Music: World Map 2



Celica's journey in the second chapter has the same eventual goal as Alm's in the first - Sofia Castle. In her way are some thieves guarding a fort, a bunch of naval battles, and some kind of monster guarding a shrine.

The eastern half of the map here is actually visible during the first chapter, but none of the paths or enemies are present and none of the locations could've been examined back then, so why bother?

Next time:



It's time to secure ourselves a boat at the Nova Port. And for some reason the sail from the first enemy ship is flying around the text box instead.