Part 26: Crossing the Desert

Chapter 7: Crossing the Desert

So Celice's liberation army is picking up steam after years of hiding. In this chapter we'll be intersecting with some chapters the Thracia 776 LP has been through recently, and maybe even meeting an old friend. Note that this chapter (the whole chapter, not just this update) may have very minor spoilers for up through Chapter 18 or so of Thracia 776. I'll try to tag the things that are just about FE5's plot and don't hold much weight in this game's plot. Let's get started.





a sense of courage in those still suffering under the empire's tyrannical rule. As a result uprisings broke out in almost every corner of the continent. However, many lacked solid leadership and were easily crushed by the empire. Casualties at the hands of the imperial troops were enormous.





But they suffered a crushing defeat before King Blume's massive army and found themselves stranded in enemy territory.



from Yied Shrine.





squad.









liberation army on a rescue mission to distant Lenster. Each warrior put aside his and her individual concerns as they embraced the new challenge before them.





Chapter 7: Crossing the Desert







Oh hey, Fin's back! Being the sole member of our party who wasn't either killed in Chapter 5, or at the battle of Barhara, it's kind of expected that he would pop up in generation two. At this point in FE5, Leaf has just liberated Lenster and promoted.  The Alster raid refers to one of Leaf's advisors', Dorias', suicide attack on Alster after freeing Lenster. 

Prince Leaf, we've lost our entire fighting force.

That can't be... All along I thought we had a chance here. Grr! I'll take that Blume on myself if I have to!

Prince Leaf, calm down. We're not through yet. Levin is sending Sir Celice's liberation army our way. We must hold out till they arrive.

The Imperial Prince Celice... They say he's the son of my father's good friend Sir Sigurd and Empress Diadora.



We should abandon this castle at once and go find cover west of here near the church.



Alright. We need to hold out as long as we can. At least until Prince Celice arrives...

Yea fuck that, we'll be defending Lenster and breaking FE5 canon all over the place.









I don't want to hear it! You capture Lenster Castle, and you do it now! Isaac's rebel army is going to be here before you know it!

Yes sir! We will carry out our raid immediately, sir!













But this isn't the time to be takin' in the view. I've got to get a move on!







This sword wasn't that easy to come by. If you want it, you just try and get it!

Hey, wait!







They got the Balmung!? Well, what are you doing here? Get after them!

But Cutozof... Shouldn't you be able to stop them in their tracks with your black magic?



So if we take too long to kill this guy, he'll find his book of Fenrir and start kicking our ass with it. FE5 has a chapter with a similar scene and gimmick that kind of references this one.

Cutozof... rest assured we will recover the stolen goods.









with dark mages who'll attack without any provocation. It's no wonder people now refer to the Yied Desert as the desert of death.

That's got to make it tough for travelers. There must be some way to capture Yied Shrine...

Hmph... I thought you'd say that. There is a way, but it'll involve some great sacrifices.

I'm prepared for that. There's no other way around this. And Shanan's still out there, too. Let's just focus on gaining control of Yied. Everything else'll start from there!





Ok, new chapter, new country, new base, five new units, we have a lot to go over before we actually start the playing.



The first thing I'll show off is that in generation two, the Fortune Teller has a new option.



For most units, there will be a Parents option that tells you who that kid's parents are. It's pretty unnecessary since you can figure out everybody's parents from their skills and blood, if not just from their appearance. Obviously it doesn't work for non-child units, like Oifey, Fin, and Julia.





And the shop has a lot of stuff to buy. Most of the weapons are weapons from generation one that weren't inherited by anyone (i.e. things the non-fathers had at the end of Chapter 5, and Lex's axes), but a few, like the Fire Sword, are unique items that always just show up in the item shop.







Johan buys the Hand Axe (not pictured above since I bought it before taking the screenshots), Oifey buys an Iron Blade, and a Slim Sword and Lance, and Celice buys the Fire Sword. Usually I have Oifey take the Fire Sword, but I figure that Celice could us a two ranged option, and with his Narga blood and Deirdre's magic growth, he'll be able to get some decent damage from it after a few more levels.





Also it's ridiculously easy for pretty much everyone to beat the arena in generation two. The only people who haven't are out new units who aren't in a castle, Lana who can't fight, and Johan, our weakest unit. If the final enemy didn't have a sword, he probably could've finished it. Let's take a look at the map now.






This is a bit of a long one. Our main army are in Rivough in the northeast, while Fin and company are directly south in Lenster. South of that is Alster, where kind Blume resides (more on him later, but if you've been reading the FE5 LP you may recognize him). For now I'll just say he's Reptor's son and Tiltyu's brother. In the northwest is Yied, our current target. Our other two recruits are there as well. South of Yied is Darna, a castle of historical importance during the holy war, and Melgen, a castle on Thracia and Yied. On the subject of Thracia's borders, I feel I should explain a bit about that, since it's kind of confusing. What is now, in generation two, Thracia, was formerly two separate countries, Manster and the Kingdom of Thracia. Manster was the northern half, containing the castles of Melgen, Lenster, Aslter, Conote, and Manster, while Thracia was the southern half, containing some other castles that we'll see in a chapter or two. Manster consisted of fertile land that bred prosperity, while Thracia was left with mountains and barren land. The lack of resources were the driving reason behind Trabant's attack on Cuan. There are also some neutral soldiers that isolate Alster and Lenster from the rest of the map, so none of our units can run over there to back up Fin and company. Alright, let's look at our units.







Leaf is the son of Cuan and Ethlin, and is a semi-static unit, like Celice. Since Cuan and Ethlin can't die as a part of the plot (or rather, are forced to die as a part of the plot after they have kids), Leaf has no substitute and will always be a member of your army. It's probably because of this that they made him the lord of Thracia 776. Leaf joins as a level 1 Prince, which coincides perfectly with his class and level at this point in FE5. After taking Lenster, Leaf will promote from a Lord to a Prince. It's a nice continuity touch between the two games. Being a Prince, he'll have a similar promotion to our generation one Princess. Anyway, he joins with his mother's Light Sword (which incidentally is his unique weapon in FE5), and his parents' skills and holy blood. Having double minor blood gives him a nice growth spread, but his lack of Pursuit will make things difficult for him until he promotes or gets the Pursuit Ring. He only has a 7% Magic growth, so he'll never be able to make great use of the magic from his Light Sword, but early on his base is high enough, and his foes' have low enough Resistance, that he'll be able to do some good damage with it for a while. In short, he's very much a growth unit, and having near-exclusive access to enemies on his side of the map helps him out immensely in the beginning. Next up, Fin.







Fin is exactly the same as we left him at the end of Chapter 3. Now because he's a father, even though he shows up in generation two and can't pass down his weapons to any unit in the entire generation, he tries to, and loses all of his weapons, rejoining with just an Iron Lance. This is another reason why I sold his Hero Lance before he left, and this is why it was so important to get him promoted before he left. He'll need to babysit the other two units here for a bit, and armed only with an Iron Lance, he'll need everything he can get from his raw stats. Being a generation one unit with generation one growths, he'll eventually fall behind like Oifey, but he'll always be a solid enough unit, and with his level lead he won't fall off until around the final chapter.







Lastly, we have Nanna, who looks near identical to her mother, Lachesis. And if you recall, Lachesis was paired with Fin, so she actually joins along with her father! But they actually won't talk to one another for a while. She's not too impressive statwise for now, but her Hezul blood will give her a great Strength growth. The rest of her growths, sans Luck, are pretty so-so, but she'll get a stat boost later on that'll help. Having Prayer and the Earth Sword also allows for some strategic abuse in the arena. Joining with Relive makes her our only healer by Lenster, so she'll be keeping the other two alive for a bit. A fun thing you can do if you pass down Warp or Return from Lachesis, is sending Leaf (and Fin, but that's riskier) to join up with the rest of the group, then having Nanna guard Lenster with the Earth Sword equipped (or if you keep Fin there, have her guard the castle and heal Fin while he guards the gate).

Both Nanna and Fin show up fairly early on in FE5, sporting the Earth Sword and Hero Lance as unique weapons respectively. I really hate how Nanna looks in FE5 though, and much prefer her look here.  They're sort of lovers in that game, and I think they have a paired ending if they're both alive at the end.  In this game Nanna and Leaf are predestined lovers, and a fairly easy pairing to set up with a nice stat boost in endgame. This is my personal favorite pairing for Nanna, though there's another unit who joins later this chapter that some of you may want me to go with instead. But more on that later. Next, let's check out those units by Yied.







So yea, that was pretty obviously Shanan up there. He's really grown up a lot in seventeen years. I mean god damn, look at those base stats! Those are high enough to pretty much carry him through the whole game! Well not quite, but still, they're great. And it's a damn good thing too, because his growths are all shit except for Skill. He has some great skills too, so he'll be a force to be reckoned with forever. Really there's not much else to say.







Patty's one of the few characters whose parents you can't figure out just by looking at her and her class. But the skills and blood give it away, she's Brigid and Lex's daughter (remember, dominance is reversed for Brigid, so she inherits directly from Lex). Since Lex can't pass down axes to her, she comes with nothing but the Sleep Sword, which has a chance to inflict the Sleep status effect on whoever it hits. Now because Brigid had Pursuit as a class skill and not a personal skill, Patty doesn't inherit it. However, Lex passed down the Pursuit Ring to her, so it doesn't really matter, and once she promotes she'll get it as a class skill, just like Dew. Being our thief for the second generation, she'll be a lot like Dew, only less terrible because of her father. Usually Patty's a pretty bad unit, but thanks to Elite, Ambush, and Lex's high Strength and Defense, she's very salvageable here. You also may remember that a long time ago I had Lex get the Return Ring for a very specific reason in generation two. We'll see that reason shortly. But first, Shanan needs to get that sword from Patty!







Huh... what do you mean? Is this sword yours?

Yes, it's been in my family for generations. It's the Divine Balmung. I'm the only one who can use it anyway, so there's really no point in you keeping it.

Then what was this Holy thingamajig doing in Yied?

It was taken off my father. He was killed during Isaac's war with Grandbell. I just found out recently that it was being kept here, so I came to get it back.

Hey! You're not Prince Shanan of Isaac, are ya?

...Yes, I am.

Whoa! Really!? Oh my gosh... I can't believe it!

...

I have been an admirer for so long! I always dreamed of meeting you, but never did I...

Ahem...

I just can't believe it! I must be dreaming!

...Alright already. The sword, please.

Oh, sorry! Here you are.

The Balmung... I finally have you now. This sword has... ah, woaahhh! The power!

...This is all too much!









Ok, now Shanan's stats are good enough to carry him through the game. They don't dick around waiting to give you holy weapons this generation. We didn't get any until the fourth chapter of generation one, and here they give us one in the second chapter of generation two.

Something I forgot to mention, Shanan and Patty are predestined lovers, and are the pair I generally go with. As alternatives, Patty has Lester (though the two don't have any conversations until their Endgame one if they do fall in love), and Shanan has Lakche (for all those incest fans out there). Also, I haven't been mentioning it, and probably won't mention it again, but every girl has Celice as a predestined lover, though most only have an Endgame conversation with him. Oh and Fee and Oifey are also predestined lovers, but they take forever to pair together. Anyway, back to the game.







So that's why we got the Return Ring. Those Dark Mages are pretty strong, and Patty would be more or less boned against them, so it's good to get her out of there ASAP.



Down by Lenster, Nanna will start visiting villages. Most of the villages are in the little area around Lenster, so our new units will get some easy gold.







Here's the roadblock that separates Alster and Lenster from the rest of the map. However, it's only a ground roadblock, meaning Fee can get over to help them out.



So we'll send her south while the rest of the group heads towards Yied.



I send Delmud a bit too far out though, and he just barely survives.











So Shanan kicks some ass without taking a hit. Those two on the lower cliff will chase after Shanan, but they're no real threat. They're mainly there to make having Patty escape more difficult. Good thing we had that Return Ring!







Those armors will head for Lenster, so if you abandon it and run west, they won't come after you. The bandits will start burning down the villages, as bandits are known to do.

Now that Enemy Phase is over, let's talk why the Lex/Brigid pairing makes Patty so good. Being so frail and weak, she's not great in combat right now, and it would take a long time to level her off of chip EXP and stealing last hits. She'd be like a slightly better Dew, and require a lot of grinding to actually raise and make usable. However, with Elite, if she can make it through the arena, she'll get a lot of EXP.



But oh no, she's still too bad to actually get through the arena! I mean this is only the second enemy, and her chances of winning are extremely slim!



Here's the thing though, the Sleep Sword works just fine in the arena.



And with Ambush, while she's below half HP (i.e. directly after she loses in the arena), she'll always attack first. And while the Sleep Sword doesn't always send the target to sleep, it always has a chance to, so you can just keep reentering until she hits and the target takes a nap.



Of course, on some of the later fights…



It could take a while to kill the enemy, even while they are asleep.



And while Sleep doesn't wear off in the arena, your enemy doesn't get any penalty to avoid like they do in more recent games.



So certain fights can take a very long time to actually win, even though you have no chance at losing.



Like 3-5 minutes of just watching Patty whittle down some chump.



And that's still like 10-30 seconds with the game on turbo.









After 53 hits, he's finally dead.



And naturally her weapon gets broken (I always switch to Iron after the target falls asleep since it's cheaper to repair). So Patty will always make it through the arena without fail, and get double EXP for the whole thing. After the Chapter 8 arena, she'll be pretty much up to speed and competent in combat.



Back to Shanan, he actually comes strong enough to kill these mages without them retaliating.





We see out first bit of combat with the main army. Julia makes a great magic tank since she has high Resistance and Resire to heal herself. While there are a few dark mages up here, most of the combat in this update will take place by Lenster, and a bit will be Shanan killing everyone by Yied.







Nanna sets up Leaf for a kill, since it'll be important to promote him quickly. Fin then stretches his combat muscles after almost two decades off.



After taking a hit, Celice gets a lucky dodge to save his life.











And then counters with a very flashy critical hit. I believe it's the same animation that Leaf has for his crits, both in this game and in FE5.



And Shanan takes an unfortunate hit, putting him in severe danger.







There's a nice bounty on that boy. Let's see to it that we are the ones who bring him in. Keep the border secure for now. Their fatigue will mark the moment of opportunity! You tell Commander Jabarro to be on the alert!





Whew... that's a relief. For a second there I thought you had to go to battle.

If war breaks out, I will go. All mercenaries will. Besides, I heard that Sigurd's son is commanding the rebels. Sigurd was the sworn enemy of my father. His boy is as good as dead if I get my hands on him.

Hahaha... you just don't let up, do you? Your father and that Sigurd guy were both knights. Well, their job was killing people. Am I right? Sometimes I have to dance for disgusting men, but that's a part of my job! We do what we do to survive! So don't hold a grudge over someone else's livelihood.

...You've got a good point, Leen. I'm just in a difficult position, that's all.

Well those two looked familiar. Go figure. Let's look back at Lenster.







Leaf will spend some time whittling down that bandit, while Nanna goes to kill the ones attacking the villages to the west. I'll be saving most of them for Leaf to get though, since I'll be wanting him to buy either the Elite or the Pursuit Ring.



Back north, Shanan kills the last actual threat since the other mages won't move to attack him.

















Patty sets up Johan for a kill, the healers heal, and Lester, Delmud, Celice, and Oifey take out the nearby mages. Delmud could've killed that mage, but I had him attack with the Iron Sword instead of the Silver Blade, allowing Celice to grab the kill.



Meanwhile, Fee has now flown down to Lenster to provide backup. It would've been cool if she was recruitable or made a cameo in FE5, since she's the first unit from Celice's army that can actually get to Leaf's army, but for whatever reason they didn't want to do that.  Actually, they probably didn't do that because her brother shows up a few times in FE5, and they didn't want to have to write interaction between them. 



Now unfortunately, Oifey failed to kill that mage, so he'll be able to finish off Celice or Delmud if we don't get lucky.



We got lucky.



Alster's army is slowly approaching Lenster, and bandits are burning down villages.









Same old same old on those fronts.











And on this front we heal up and take out the enemy.



At this point I realize that Oifey can talk to Delmud, so let's do that.





Oh... Fin. I bet you can't wait to see her again.

You got that right!

Well, you've got your work cut out for you. Here, I'll give you some tips on using that sword.

Wow, that'd be great!

I always wonder why Oifey sounds so unenthusiastic about seeing Fin. It's kind of a shame that none of the units from generation one that are in generation two interact much.







And Delmud gets some stats! There aren't a lot of stat giving conversations in generation two, besides the brother-sister ones that give Luck. However if you have the substitute kids, there are a lot of secret conversations that give stats, in order to help them not suck, what with their bad growths and lack of inherited weapons.



Fast forwarding a bit, Shanan attacks the boss guarding Yied.







And gets an easy kill.





I let Nanna get this village so that she can afford the Recover Staff and do some decent healing, though the rest will go to Leaf.







You know, a villager said the same thing about Johan and Johalva last chapter. Though this guy didn't give us any obvious hints about how to recruit Ishtor or Ishtar, so maybe we can't get either.



Fin and Fee refrain from getting too close so as not to get overwhelmed on enemy phase.







Lana heals up Celice, then gets some money from Patty so she can afford to repair some staves.



And Shanan luckily dodges the remaining dark mages.





Leaf gets lucky with some dodges, which is always nice. Not a single hit on him means less work for Nanna to do.





I forgot to equip the Hero Lance onto Fee (I have no idea why she had the Slim Lance equipped in the first place), but she still manages to grab a kill.

Now in the north Celice is pretty much just moving towards Yied while the others move towards Darna, so I'll be ignoring most of that for now.





Same old stuff happening with those two, however now that Fee's here, I'll be trying something interesting that I've never actually done before.



I'll be using the Berserk Sword!





And we're successful! I'm not sure what the formula is for status effects from swords landing on an enemy, but it happened first try here, so it can't be too difficult to do.





Fin grabs another kill. At this point I realize he doesn't get EXP from any of these guys because he's too high level.



On enemy phase, Fee Berserks some more enemies.



Leaf takes an unfortunate hit, but he'll be more or less safe now that all the enemies are Berserked (ok not all of them, but about half are).



So when an enemy is Berserked, they'll attack nearby enemy units. They will not actually ever attack your units as far as I know.





The Captain has an axe while his subordinates have swords, so he'll miss most of them, and take a bit of damage in return, which works out great for us. Weakens the tough guy and leaves the others for us to get EXP from.









Ok so now pretty much all the enemies are Berserked. Makes 'em easy pickings for us.



Ok I lied, Fee gets this village too because I'm impatient and lazy.









I think you might be able to guess who Tinny is at this point. And you'll sort of recognize the three sisters when you see them.











Leaf gets some EXP, and Fin fails to kill the boss thanks to Big Shield. Fuck Big Shield.





Our other units are around here now, slowly making their way towards Yied and Darna.













Back by Lenster, Berserked guys kill each other, and luck sets up Leaf for the boss kill.



A few turns later, reinforcements come from Alster. They're more spread out than the first group, and there's fewer of them, so they won't be even close to a threat.







Nanna does some healing, and Leaf chips away at the last Berserked guy. He still won't attack any of us, so might as well milk him for all he's worth.









We do a bit of hit-and-running and retreat to the forest for now.



Our main force gets to the barricade by Darna. Anyone can actually talk to the guards here, it doesn't have to be Lakche (I think).



Not that he says anything interesting.















Pretty simple funneling and shielding tactics here.



By the way, Lana's been following Celice to meet up with him and get some love points after he takes Yied. She's close enough to heal Shanan now, so I have her do that.









Continue activates for Leaf, finishing off the enemies by Lenster.



Our main force gets ready to head out once this barricade disappears. Let's fast forward to Leaf visiting villages.











At this point the bandit who's been waiting here starts moving for a village just to the north of him. Speaking of villages…









So that's helpful. At the very least it increases Continue's activation rate, and the extra avoid doesn't hurt.



And Celice finally seizes.





They had no choice. They would've been persecuted and burned at the stake otherwise. I doubt they differed much from you or I at first, but over time the ways of evil took root.

It's like they're being punished just because their ancestors were a part of the empire! And people are always calling them the 'family of the devil' and whatnot. ...is this is a child's handwriting on this wall? It's a prayer for the Dark Lord's revival... ...Is Loputousu the only god they have?

Yeah... You have to be careful when placing labels on good and evil, Celice. Never waste your anger on individuals. Always focus it on the evil within all of us.





At this point the cliffs flatten out, allowing Celice and Shanan to get back to the group more quickly. Meanwhile, in Darna…







We'll usher them onto the narrow road to Melgen and strike from behind when they least expect it! Heh, heh... This is child's play. Isn't that right, Jabarro?

You never want to face the enemy up front, do you, Bramsel... Well, I guess I can't complain. We'll show you what mercenaries'll do for gold.









We definitely can't let their army get through to Alster... Your father's so preoccupied with recapturing Lenster, he would never see them coming! I think we need to take our entire military and lay in a course to intercept.

Yeah, anything to keep them out of Alster. Liza, can I have you command the troops into battle?

Yes, of course!

Forgive me, Liza. I'd keep you from danger if I could, but you're the only one I can trust.

Ishtor, I'll be fine. I consider it an honor to go. I just want you to be safe. Farewell, Ishtor. Okay, troops! Take your positions!







This will be a hard fight for next time. For now, enjoy some stats.