Part 2: Prologue Part 2: Jungby-Evans

Prologue Part 2: Jungby-Evans

Welcome back to the Fire Emblem 4 Prologue! Last time we took Jungby from DiMaggio and rescued Midir, then Lord Alvis entered the battle as an Other unit. Let's take a look at Alvis now.



Hmm, looks like Alvis has some interesting things on him. FFlame and a Recover ring, whatever those are. Let's examine them, shall we?



Wow, 30 attack! Ah, the F must be short for Fala, the crusader of fire. So Alvis seems to have the holy tome of fire. I'd imagine he has the major holy blood to go along with it, but we'll get to that in a moment.



Wow, it would be nice if we could get one of those. Unfortunately I'm pretty sure that's the only one in the game, and I doubt Alvis would part with it so easily. Essentially it just serves to make him invincible without actually being invincible (though with 30 Spd he might as well be since nothing could even hit him).



* Fire, B Staves, Wind, Thunder, and Light, Continue, Awareness, and 5 leadership stars!? Man this guy is awesome! Lastly, let's see his holy blood:



Yup, there's that major Fala blood. I wonder if he's related to Azel in any way? It also looks like he has some purple dot in the middle of his holy blood wheel. Go figure.

Now veterans of the FE series will know that often times an enemy or other unit will appear and be persuaded to join your team by one of your units. I think it's obvious that that isn't the case here since the game wouldn't just give us such a powerful unit from the get go. However veterans will also know that sometimes a unit like this appears early on in the game and will eventually join our team. Well, we'll see what happens with that later. Now that Alvis is on the field he'll make his way towards Sigurd on Other Phase to talk to him. If enemies are stupid enough to attack him, he'll ORKO them with Fala Flame. Now then, it looks like we have a bit of cleanup to do...



Cuan attacks the bandit on the village...









Then Midir attacks the bandit below the bridge, Sigurd attacks the one above it and moves forward, then Ethlin goes to heal Fin and talk to Sigurd.


I was so worried when I heard about Verdane's invasion. I'm just glad you're okay.
You didn't think I'd lose to Verdane, did you?
Yeah, but I heard you only had a few soldiers in Chalphy. And I know you, Sigurd. You are always jumping into this kind of stuff without thinking. Especially with Father being away... I knew I had to come.
Heh heh... you've always had your head on straight, haven't you... You know you did a great job filling mum's shoes after she passed away. When you married into Lenster's royal family, I swore we had a lady on our hands. But you're still the same old Ethlin. Poor Cuan! Hahaha!
Sigurd! If I'm a nag, it's because of you and dad! If both of you weren't such slobs!
...Yeah, you might have us there. But we still appreciate everything you've done. Ethlin, I'm sorry you had to come all this way. I can't thank you enough.
Sigurd...

Aw, that's kind of cute. Classic brother-sister friendly insults. I really do love the two of them, but it's a shame that they don't actually have many conversations together. Here a track called A New Advance plays (this also played last chapter when Cuan and Sigurd talked). This generally plays when a new unit talks to Sigurd for the first time. I'm not a huge fan of it, but it has a nice kind of regal tone to it. Anyway…





Fin then goes to finish off the bandit on the village and move north







Azel kills the bandit on the village and other units move forward. Not really much exciting. Lex gets attacked on Enemy Phase and levels up, gaining +1 HP.





It's called the Speed Ring. Slip her on for a little boost in speed. Go ahead... put her on! Your enemy'll have a tough time hitting you now!



Cuan then visits that village and gets a Speed Ring, as well as some money.





You can see, as the name would imply, the Speed Ring boosts the holder's Spd by 5. This is helpful for Cuan because it gives him an extra 5% chance to activate Continue. Nobody else really needs it because those with Pursuit should all be doubling reliably for most of the game, and those without Pursuit don't really need Spd for much.



Fin moves forward and gets healed by Ethlin who levels up, gaining +1 HP, Skl, and Spd.





Alec moves forward and attacks a bandit, weakening him for Azel who finishes him off and levels up gaining +1 Mag. Other units move forward like so:



On enemy phase enemies attack Sigurd, Lex, Alec, and Ethlin. Nobody dies (player or enemy), but Ethlin manages a crit to do some good damage to her attacker.









Noish, Alec, Fin, and Ethlin each attack a weakened enemy and score a kill. Noish actually managed to activate Charge to help kill his enemy.



Sigurd attacks and levels up, gaining +1 HP, Str, Skl, Spd, and Def, an extraordinary level up! He then moves to talk to Alvis.



His Majesty was worried, so he sent me to assess the state of the conflict. He also sent this with me. It's for you.
Whoa... a silver sword! He wanted me to have this? What an honour! Lord Alvis, please express my sincerest gratitude to His Majesty.
Will do. By the way, I heard my brother Azel has joined your army.
Yeah... sorry. It sounds like he came behind your back. I couldn't just turn him away. If at all possible I'd like him to stay with us for a bit longer.
Well, keep him safe. Azel's my only brother. We may have different mothers, but he still means the world to me. I wish he and I got along better, but that's the way these things go. Sigurd, I'm leaving him with you in good faith. Show him the ropes, okay?
I'll do that. I'll see if I can get him to return home once we finish up here.
I appreciate it. Well, I need to get back to Barhara to watch over His Majesty. Don't let me down, Sigurd.

Yea, this makes a bit more sense if we've heard what Azel has to say to Sigurd. But we will get to that fairly soon. Alvis then leaves the battlefield, but not before giving Sigurd a Silver Sword! Whenever Alvis talks he has his own theme that plays, linked above. It's very dramatic and a little bit foreboding, which makes sense considering his status as a lord and how much more powerful than us he is.





This is the best weapon we'll get for a while, and Sigurd will be sticking with that for pretty much the rest of the game. This'll be one of the few weapons that even approaches 50 kills for the Critical skill by the end of the first generation.







Midir, Lex, and Azel finish up our cleanup for now. Midir levels up gaining only +1 HP. Now unfortunately we couldn't finish off that one archer and we have a lot of units at low HP that could probably die in one hit. However...



With the strategy I've used we have the archer surrounded so that the only one he can attack is Midir, who fortunately can counter attack and finish him off on enemy phase.



Noish and Alec move forward with Alec attacking the bandit guarding the bridge. Alec levels up gaining +1 HP, Lck, and Res. Midir then visits the nearby village.



Duke Ring had himself twin daughters and a son. However, Lady Aideen's twin was abducted by pirates as a youngster. The son, Sir Andre, joined his father on the campaign to Isaac. You didn't hear it from me, but there seems to be quite a bit of friction between the two.

This here is a bit of foreshadowing for future events. But that's a long time from now, so let's focus on something else, like Azel's and Lex's conversation with Sigurd.


Lex and I came to help you fight Verdane. We came as quick as we could. Please, let us fight with you.
Geez, I could never ask you to fight. Does your brother, Lord Alvis, know that you're here?
Er... no, I doubt it. He's back in Barhara commanding the Royal Guard. Actually, he specifically forbade me from stepping outside the capital.
I bet he did! Have you considered the consequences of leaving like you did?
Yeah, but... I shouldn't say this, but Alvis scares the living hell out of me! I don't think I live up to his expectations. I... I feel like I'm just a burden on him.
Well, you have your reasons. I'm glad you came, Azel. You stay as long as you want.
Thank you, sir!



So yea, that conversation with Alvis makes a bit more sense now. We can really see that Azel and Alvis have a few problems in their relationship with one another. Still, it doesn't seem like either one of them is really a bad guy...



Actually, Azel, that little punk... he dragged me here.
You're too much, Lex... haha. Does Lord Langobart know you're here?
Hell no! No offense, sir, but my father can't stand yours. No way in hell he'd consent to me helping the Chalphys. I'm here by my own reckoning. Sir, just so you know... I'm not here for your little mission. Azel's just a good bud of mine.
Er... I see. Well, all the same, I appreciate you guys coming.
Well, we'll do what we can. Those barbarians have had their way long enough.

Lex seems like a good enough guy, despite being somewhat hostile towards Sigurd. Plus it looks like there's some tension between Langobart and Byron. More foreshadowing perhaps? Anyway, Ethlin heals Sigurd and everyone else moves forward:



On enemy phase the Evans army moves to meet Sigurd's army at the bridge.





Alec attacks and retreats, allowing Azel to move up and ranged attack to weaken a bandit.



Cuan then attacks the northern bandit activating Continue for the kill and takes his place, leveling up and gaining +2 HP, +1 Str and Skl.







Ethlin heals Fin then moves back to her starting position. Noish then finishes off the bandit that Azel weakens and levels up +1 HP and Str. Sigurd kills the next bandit and moves above the western archer, then Fin attacks the southern archer and moves above Sigurd, giving us another level up this turn in which he gains +1 HP and Lck. In the end the map looks like this:



All four remaining enemies decide to gang up on Cuan on enemy phase, leaving him just barely alive (1 HP). This next turn is just some basic clean up where not much interesting happens. Ethlin does manage a level up by healing Cuan (+1 HP, Str, and Skl).







Azel and Midir do some chip damage to the boss. Midir has some special dialogue with him as well. If you're unfamiliar with Fire Emblem, often certain units will have conversations with certain bosses. Usually just the main lord will, though in some cases others will as well.

Something I forgot to screenshot, but that I thought I should mention, is that enemies in this game cheat. See Gerrard here has a Steel Axe and a Hand Axe, and he started this turn with the Steel Axe equipped. However when somebody attacks him at 2 range, he immediately switches to the Hand Axe so that he can counterattack, instead of being defenseless like he should be. Every boss and miniboss with a one range and a two range or one-to-two range weapon will switch weapons if they're unable to counterattack, while your guys will just eat it if they can't counterattack but have a spare weapon that would let them.



Arden manages to get possibly his last kill of the game here. I thought it was worthy of his own screenshot. After that Alec attacks the boss gaining +1 Spd and Lck. After defeating the last of the enemies, this track starts playing. It's called Victory is Near, and it basically plays whenever there are few to no enemies left on the map. It's a kind of repetitive tune, but you never hear it for long so it doesn't really ware itself out.

Sigurd then goes to finish off the boss and seize the castle:





Prince Gandolf's got her.

Sigurd levels up again gaining +2 HP and +1 Def. Let's see the end of chapter cutscene now:



Weren't you listening!? Gandolf's got her!

Verdane must have taken her away before we arrived. I hope she's alright.
Grr! I'm hunting those bastards down! We're getting her back!











His Majesty is exceedingly pleased and has ordained you a Holy Knight of the Kingdom.
I hardly deserve such a great honour! I pledge my allegiance to His Majesty.
We gravely need your help in protecting these castles. You will be duly compensated. Of course the sum will go down if the castles incur any damages. Please continue to be vigilant in the ensuing battle.

The track in that cutscene was Victory 1, the main victory theme that plays either after you seize a castle or beat a chapter. It's one of my favorite Victory themes in the series. It's exactly what it should be: Triumphant and full of hope. And thus ends the Prologue. After his heroic effort sir Sigurd becomes a Holy Knight, hence the name of the chapter, Birth of a Holy Knight. Unfortunately we've yet to rescue Aideen, and it looks like we have a long road ahead of us, a road which we'll explore further in Part 3.