Part 21: Chapter 5 Part 2: Lubeck-Phinora

Chapter 5 Part 2: Lubeck-Phinora



This one's a short one folks. I think I played through this section in less than half an hour. You can literally count the amount of enemies I fight on your fingers. Hell, almost on one hand. But that's not really the point. Let's get going.



So let's see, we just killed Lex's dad and sent Celice, Shanan, and Oifey to Isaac.



Velthomer also deployed a bunch of meteor mages into the desert.



And there's more of 'em over here. They can be a real pain in the ass if we don't take care of them quickly.



Also note that they're tied to Velthomer, so they won't die when we take Phinora (this actually ends up being a good thing, since we'll get to murder more of them and gain more stars for our weapons).



Oh, and Cuan and Ethlin came to help us! Unfortunately, they were followed by Thracia. Let's see how everyone's doing there.



So he's pretty much the same as we left him. His stats when he returns here are always the same as whatever they were when he left us after Chapter three.



Same with Ethlin. Though it seems she gets a stock inventory (honestly Cuan probably does too) instead of what we left her with. I guess she's already given her Light Sword to Leaf.



And here's Trabant. He could actually be a big threat with Gungnir. Oh yea, and that Recover Ring? That's an enemy only ring that fully heals its wearer at the start of their turn. So the strategy here is to take him out with the auto-crits we'll get on him with archers.



Oh, wait, he has Awareness which negates non Wrath crits… So that won't work, and his Defense is kind of great. Guess we'll just have to pile on the damage with our mages then. Yea, his Evade isn't great, so with Sylvia dancing for them, Levin, Azel, and Tiltyu should be able to take him out, especially if we get Tiltyu's HP into Wrath range.

Ok I'm lying, while it would be interesting if the game required that much strategy here, the Recover Ring is basically plot armor. We're not supposed to kill him, plot events will probably cause him to flee or something.



And of course, major Dain blood so he can use the Gungnir. Now, conversations.








Huh? You were entrusted with Shanan's protection, but he's in Isaac and you're here!

Ah, you're talking about the promise to my late brother. My job is finished with Shanan. He's old enough to look after himself now.

Yeah, but...

I will return to Isaac as soon as this war is finished. And when that day comes, Sir, you too will be able to return to your homeland.

I really like that they address the fact that Aira doesn't really have any reason to still be fighting with you, and in all honesty should've left with Shanan. It also helps to flesh out her character a bit more. Also, holy fuck, this track. It just oozes drama. Anyway, next Lex talks to Azel.







Huh? Ah, you mean my dad?

Yeah...

Yeah... Well, I'd be lyin' if I said I didn't feel nothin'. But I tell you, it serves him right. He killed a lot of innocent people.

Boy, you're strong, Lex. I start to shake just when I'm around Alvis.

I can't figure your brother out. I never thought of him as a bad guy. He was always kind to us.

Yeah, he always meant more to me than my dad did. But sometimes I feel like I don't even know him. He can get pretty violent.

And that's why you left your pad. Am I right? I don't see any problem there, Azel. You've got your life, and he's got his.

Yeah, I suppose.

Again, this is a nice little scene to show how your characters have grown. Lex was initially in this just to help out his buddy, Azel. He was loyal to his father over the Chalphy house, and kinda didn't like helping out Sigurd because of the feud between Byron and Langobart. But after seeing the atrocities that his dad committed, he's resolved to help Sigurd fight for justice. This also gives us a bit more characterization of Alvis. He's not a bad guy per se, he just gets violent sometimes and tries to kill us and take over Grandbell. Lastly, Dew and Jamka.



I actually forgot that this was a conversation, and I had to run Jamka all the way back to Zaxon to talk. Of course, I didn't save after doing this, but it's here for your enjoyment.





Everyone's been sayin' that, and I'm sick of it! What's up with everybody? We're just about ready to win here, but everyone's bein' all weird.

Er... Sorry, Dew. Yeah, you're right. I am a bit on edge. I'm not sure why.

Jamka, look. I like you. You're a nice guy. I know I caused you trouble before... Anyway, I'm sorry.

Dew! What are you getting all mushy on me for? Now you're the one being weird.

Yeah, I just... Never mind. I'll see ya later.



I'm not as fond of this conversation as the other two, but it serves to add a sort of mysteriousness with that last line. It also shows the strain that's taking toll on the people in our army.



Oh, right deserts. So you may or may not know that pretty much every Fire Emblem has a desert chapter where all your characters have hindered movement and it takes forever to get anywhere. In most games, there's also goodies hidden beneath the desert sands, but in this game there's nothing. You can see that Midir's movement pretty much halts once he gets to the sand. It's also worth noting that sand has a much harsher movement penalty on mounted units than infantry, and a harsher penalty on physical units than mages.



So we cluster up against the sand.



Oh, right, and we're promoting Alec. Almost forgot.









Alec promotes from Social Knight to Paladin, i.e. the same class Ethlin promoted into. He gains +5 Magic and Resistance, +3 Skill, Speed, and Defense, and +2 Strength. It's one of the worse promotions in the game, and it'd be great in any other game.



He also gains a rank in Lances. Woo.



Oh, and something I forgot to mention when we were looking at Trabant and his Dragon Knights. They're all equipped with Horse Slayers.



Meanwhile Cuan's troops are only equipped with Steel Lances. Oh dear…







So yea, they kinda start destroying the Lenster troops, taking little damage in return.



So here's our plan for the Meteo mages: Have Fury fly around and kill them all with the Hero Lance.



Fucking desert !



Another uneventful turn of crawling through the desert.



The Lenster troops slowly advance towards our army.



And the last of Cuan's army falls. I hope he and Ethlin will be alright.











Phew, a solid dodge. Oh, maybe this is one of those scripted moments where they actually can't hit Cuan or Ethlin until they become units we can actually use.



Er, ok, maybe the enemy just can't hit if the attack would kill them.





Oh, shoot, I forgot to mention Margon, the miniboss with Trabant. We'll get to him in a moment.



And scratch that theory. So… she retreats now?





Wait what? Did she really just die? Did the game really just kill one of our units without giving us any control over the matter?





You tell 'im to hand over the Gae Bolg, otherwise the little girl gets it. Heh heh... Cuan, whatcha gonna do?



He can have the damn Gae Bolg, but he better not lay a finger on Altenna!

You can't just give up! You actually stand a chance with that weapon! Groan.



Vaha decides to attack Fury with Meteo. Let's see how that goes.





Whiff. Fury dodging Meteo will be a bit of a running theme in this part.





So Magorn. Decent stats, a Hero weapon, AND Pursuit? Hell, I think this is the first enemy who's actually had Pursuit! This could be an interesting boss, if we didn't just kill him with arrows before he can attack.



Also, Cuan really did surrender the Gae Bolg. But he has enough evade that maybe he can dodge his way out of any danger until we get there?



By the way, this is enemy number two, if you're keeping count at home.







Oh, and Sylvia finally catches up with the gang. I really hate the desert.















First Ethlin and now Cuan!? This is really heartbreaking.

























So Trabant flees, and Thracia immediately becomes our enemy. Once again, their battle theme plays, and I just realized when playing through this that parts of it are a high energy rendition of Enemy Message 3, which is essentially Trabants cutscene theme. Back at Phinora…







Lex and Azel get put to sleep, and Fury dodges a Meteo. So the enemy has two sleep staff users. This would be a problem if Levin didn't have the Recover staff, and Sylvia couldn’t refresh him to let him use it twice per turn.



And Fury's just out of reach of that fucker. Kill count's still at two.



So we wake up Azel and leave Sigurd close enough so that Sylvia can refresh him.



In the interest of getting things done quickly, I just have Sigurd Javelin the boss and kill her in one round. She's incredibly frail and has no Big Shield to prolong her life.





That's three.



We have Azel attack this fucker, who's actually manages to live. I also forgot that Fire beats Wind, so Azel takes a hit. But it's nothing he can't handle.





And Lex is awake again.



And everyone is clustered together enough that Claude can just heal 'em all with Reserve. This part of the game seriously could not be easier.



That's four.



Thracia moves closer, and it looks like they're actually approaching Fury (she's just offscreen to the northwest).



And Brigid gets sleep'd. Just more EXP for Levin with Recover.



Azel counter kills Phinora's last offensive unit. That's five.



And Fury dodges again. I'm really loving her this chapter.



That's six, and we have her move further west to avoid the Dragon Knights. Fury also levels up and gains Strength! She's quickly becoming an unstoppable killing machine. Sure it's happening in the last chapter of the generation, but still!





Levin Restores Brigid, and Sigurd kills the last enemy for this update. That's seven. While ordinarily I would've given this kill to someone who would benefit from the EXP more, since Sigurd is already level 29, but I figured that nobody will get much from this priest anyway, and Sigurd could use another kill on his Silver Sword (it's up to 42 now).



Let's Seize.





Oifey... Celice... I wonder how they're doing...



caught up in the middle of all this.

: Well, it can't be helped. We just heard about another skirmish in the desert's south end. I tell you, the world's become a dangerous place.

There was fighting in the south end, too? Who was that?



The music actually stops entirely here, before cutting into this next track.









First Eltshan, now Cuan. Sigurd's lost his two best friends now. Morale must be running pretty low. But we will get our sweet, sweet vengeance when we make Alvis pay. Meanwhile, at Velthomer…















Wait, caught on to what? Could it be that Alvis is really on our side, and has been playing these suckers for fools? I mean probably not, that's a pretty big leap of logic, but still…





They really don't move until you're like right next to them. So enjoy moving through the desert for like 10 turns before fighting anyone.





So before ending our turn, we move forward a bit. I intend to have the archers and Beowulf defend Phinora from the Dragon Knights, what with the effective damage bonus and all.



Thracia advances, this time more towards Phinora than Fury, so that’s good.



And Azel dodges a Meteo. I'm sure if Fury had been there, she would've dodge too.

Ok, so Cuan and Ethlin dying is obviously a scripted thing, and it'll affect stuff in generation two (and FE5, if you're reading that LP as well!), but you can actually avoid it with some serious manipulation. You'll want them to be level 30, with high Evasion (high Speed and Luck) before they leave after Chapter 3. Then, when you get to Chapter 5, let Byron die. This apparently changes the Lenster AI. Then, after taking Lubeck, have Fury and Sylvia move down to meet Cuan and Ethlin ASAP. Also have Fury be damaged. The Lenster gang will prioritize healing her instead of fighting the Dragon Knights. From there, it's just luck manipulation so that Cuan and Ethlin dodge enough to reach your guys alive. Now, you still can't attack Thracia's units, so you have to do more manipulation to get Cuan and Ethlin to. This makes Trabant especially difficult, thanks to his Recover Ring. You have to have Cuan hit him three times (meaning Ethlin must be alive so Cuan has a weapon), so he'll have to both counter Trabant on Enemy Phase, then attack him on Player Phase, and activate Continue somewhere in either attack. So you can save them, and everyone's happy, but taking Phinora causes them to die so the plot can continue. If you want though, you can wait for Cuan to take Phinora so that they'll live. I wouldn't recommend this though, because it makes the game unwinnable.