Part 28: Chapter 7 Part 3: Melgen-Alster

Chapter 7 Part 3: Melgen-Alster

Previously on Let's Play FE4, Celice spent a lot of time walking from castle to castle and not actually getting to kill much.



This time, the trend continues. But that's ok, because we get to play with some kickass new units.



We just got Aless on our side, and he's kinda amazing. Great stats, great growth, and a holy weapon.



Now our first target is Darna, back to the north. I don't think you actually need to take Darna, though we'll want to take it anyway. If you recall, a young dancer is currently being held hostage there.







Aless and Delmud could use some EXP, and are both fairly durable, so I'll have them lead the charge, while the frailer stay back.



We still have our four units over here. They'll hang back a bit and wait for the enemy to come to them. I'll also have Leaf wait next to Nanna to help them become lovers more quickly.





Over to the east in Alster, some mages and armors came out to attack. The armors will go north to Lenster, and unless I move some of my units toward them quickly, the mages will too. The mages are actually decently powerful, so we'll need to be careful, but more on that later.










Patty and Delmud end up pretty wrecked from Darna's onslaught, while Alster's armies spread out towards Melgen and Lenster.





Lakche'll temporarily lead the charge against Alster's mages, because I really like Lakche. I really need to get that Hero Sword over to Skasaha so he can have not shit avoid.



So with some of our units mostly dead, we're gonna wanna do a hit and run so we can recuperate.













The biggest problem now will be keeping Lana protected from bow knights. I'm hoping Aless and Julia can shield her and tank well enough. Let's watch and see what happens.





About five guys suicide onto Julia. Rezire really is a fantastic tome.











It's less fantastic when you miss twice in a row with it.





Alster advances.





Aless and Jabarro have a nice little conversation where they pledge to kill each other.





And then Aless gets a crit and kill Jabarro in one hit.













The remaining troops being bow knights makes cleanup incredibly easy. Celice is starting to catch up with the group to get ready to take Darna.









Nothing eventful happens with our other groups.







I'm the Black Knight, Aless. But you might know me better as the son of Eltshan.

What? You're the son of King Eltshan!?

That's right! The very Eltshan that your father murdered! My mother went to her grave with that over her head! How does that make you feel!?

Really... But I thought our fathers were friends. I know things ended horribly, but I don't think our fathers ever resented each other.

That can't be... How could I have grown up believing the exact opposite to be true!

Aless, we need some time to work this out. Why don't you come with us for a little while? Please consider it. Look, I hold King Eltshan in the same high regard as my father did.

...Well, I suppose I could tag along for a while and see where things go. But if I find out you've been lying to me, I will gladly take your life in place of Sigurd's! You follow me, Celice!?

You do how you please. You just don't understand how ecstatic our fathers would be at us meeting like this!

"Everything you've believed about this situation is false!"
"Oh ok, I'll come with you then."











Healing and fighting. Those Sword Fighters won't actually move to attack. The southernmost one is weakened, so I'm hoping that Patty can finish him off next turn.





We continue advancing to the east.





The armors are now getting very close to Lenster, but the mages are still pretty far off from our units.







I switch Aless to his Iron Lance here, partially to save money on repairing his holy weapon, and partially to let some of the weaker units grab some EXP (Celice and Patty namely).







Then I say fuck it and have my mounted units rush ahead and get kills.



Shanan and Lakche here will lure out the closest mages, hopefully without getting hit in the process.



Here I overestimate the armors' range and try to lure some out with Leaf, but fail.



Instead of reaching and attacking Leaf, they just kind inch forward.







However my plan in the south is more successful. In fact it works extremely well, considering that the three that don't move forward to attack are the minibosses. Anyway, the other female mage attacks Shanan.





If you don't remember what that track means, it means we're fighting somebody who can be recruited. I believe Blume mentioned already that Tinny is Tiltyu's daughter, so we'll have Arthur chat her up shortly.









We kill two out of three castle guards this turn, with Celice still working his way forward.



Back by Melgen, Arthur talks to Tinny.





You're Tinny! I've finally found you!

Huh? Who are you?

Look, I have a pendant just like yours. I've been wearing it my whole life!

Wow, they are the same... What is this all about?

Well, my mother fought with the liberation army. After the war we all fled to Silesia. But my mother and baby sister were taken from me, and this pendant is all I have left of her. I found out just recently that it was King Blume who took them from me. I also found out that my mother had passed away but that my sister was still alive! YOU are my sister! I've come all the way from Silesia for you!

Blume did all that!? I had no idea. I don't remember much of my mother. But I do remember that she always seemed so sad... You really are my brother, huh... This is all too much!

Tinny, would you care to join our side? There's so much we need to talk about.

Sure. I didn't really want to fight any of you anyway.

So yea, Tiltyu is dead. Outside sources actually say that she had a rather gruesome, depressing death, chained up and tortured by Hilda (Blume's wife) . It may be mentioned in game at a later point, I forget. Anyway, Tinny.







Tinny joins in a very similar state to Tiltyu, only two chapters earlier. She has a low base level and slightly low stats, very similar to what Arthur joined with last chapter. Like her brother she's a Mage who has Wrath, Pursuit, and minor Fala and Tordo blood. Being a Mage, and not a Thunder Mage like her mother, means she can't actually use Tron until she promotes (just like Arthur). She's inherited the Elite Ring, which will help her out early on, but will probably be passed to Celice as soon as possible. Overall, she's a very solid unit, though she shares Tiltyu's promotion to Mage Fighter, rather than Arthur's and Azel's promotion to Mage Knight. Still, just like Arthur (and pretty much every child unit), once she gets some levels under her belt, she'll be great.



The plan here is to lure out only one of the three mini-boss mages, while killing all the enemy mages that are already in our army's face. Smart positioning is really key here. The main reason we want to lure out only one mage boss, aside from just taking less hits initially, is that these three can perform a triangle attack if they surround you. What this means, for those unfamiliar with the series, is that if the three mages surround you such that they're each exactly two spaces away from a single unit (laterally, not diagonally) in a triangle formation, they'll get an automatic critical hit. This will be quite devastating, and will certainly kill whoever they target.

We'll have Skasaha take care of this first mage since he's not as durable against mages as most of our other units here. We won't really want him near the front lines yet.



Lakche will then take one of the outer mages out, making sure to stay out of range of the mini-bosses.



Since Johan can hit and move off, he's the best choice for taking care of the inner-most mage.







I get a lucky sibling crit to take care of that mage, though it wouldn't be necessary to score the kill. Had Tinny not crit, the enemy most likely would've hit, taking her down into Wrath HP, and assuring his death.



Lastly, Shana moves into range and kills the last mage. From where he is, only the outer two mini-bosses can hit him, however they only have one square from which they can attack him, so only one will actually be able to attack.







They all carry El-rank magic, a Life Ring, and have pretty good stats. Vampa's has the most attack, but the worst weapon, Eliu has more hit and Thunder, and Fetra has more evade and Wind. I like that they all have different colored eyes. Hell, the eyes are the only difference between Eliu's and Fetra's sprites.



And as you can see, the backmost mage (I think that's Eliu), is just barely far enough away that she can't hit Shanan.









On Enemy Phase, Leaf takes a bit of a pounding, but gets a lot of crits and a very crucial Elthunder dodge.







I believe Shanan actually does get hit there, but still has about half HP.





Back north, Patty manages to not kill the Sword Fighter due to too low Speed to double him (something I had not even thought about, since most of the time in this game if you have Pursuit, you always double).













Lester weakens the boss, and Celice goes in for his first kill since the start of the map.







Of course, this means we have to wait another turn to seize. Oops.



Back south, Shanan destroys Fetra.







Coward!



This is Arthur attacking with Wind, since you can't really tell from the shot. I figure, hey, the weapon triangle is a thing that applies to magic, why not use it? Wind will beat Thunder, and Tinny's Thunder will be Vampa's Fire.





Of course, the weapon triangle doesn't matter much when one side has significantly better stats. I guess it makes sure Arthur will hit and gives Eliu a chance to miss, but that's about it.



But of course, Wrath is still a thing Arthur has, and Eliu ends up wounded enough for Johan to grab the kill.









These guys all just fly away in a pentagram when they die. I believe they pop up again in the next chapter, and are a bit easier to deal with.







I continue my plan of using the weapon triangle, but unfortunately Tinny's not fast enough to double attack Vampa. Guess we'll just have to bring in a ringer.











Lakche takes a pretty heavy blow, but she'll live.



So up at Lenster, things aren't great. I have to keep the castle guarded, Leaf's at 12 HP, and Nanna's at 7 HP. I think we can turn this around though.







So we get some easy kills, and now Nanna can heal Leaf. The problem is, healing Leaf leaves her too close to the enemy to get away, so she'll get killed on Enemy Phase.



So instead we'll use the Earth Sword.





If only it had as many uses as Rezire. And was less expensive to repair.



Placing Nanna here ensures that only one enemy can reach Leaf on Enemy Phase.





And that enemy eats a crit. Leaf gets pretty lucky with the crits this chapter.









And of course, Nanna keeps herself healed with the power of Earth.



Back on Player Phase, let's seize.





The empire's military was crushing the liberation army on all fronts. The few soldiers that remained barricaded themselves in the fortress to tend their wounds. As they regrouped for what they believed was to be their last battle, a miracle occurred. Gods descended from the heavens and granted miraculous weapons and powers upon 12 young soldiers. The soldiers came to be known as the 12 Crusaders as they led the liberation army back into battle.

That was the Miracle of Darna Fortress, wasn't it?

Yep, that's right. And now another miracle is taking place, Celice. The Crusaders are once again beginning to emerge in the face of Loputousu's revival.

...Huh?

Hahaha... You'll know what I mean someday.

It's not really that complicated, Celice. The Crusaders, the people with holy blood, that's you and your friends, are fighting the Lopt Clan. And after eight chapters, we get some real information on the events that are played out in the game's intro.







Next turn, Aless will need to enter Darna to recruit Leen, and Lana will need to do some Warping, so I have them stay close to the castle. And Lana is still trying to stay by Celice whenever she can, so she can fall in love with him more quickly.



Meanwhile Julia and Delmud are in an awkward position where I don't know whether to have them charge forward, or run back and get warped. In the end I have them charge, so as to conserve Warp uses.







We clean up at Lenster, but I realize that Nanna can't manage to kill the last enemy since she's too slow to double him with the Earth Sword, and physical weapons won't deal enough damage. So Fin's gonna have to grab the kill, meaning…



I can use the Thief Sword for once.









And Lenster was defended fairly easily. Pff, what are those people in the FE5 thread complaining about? They have a whole army to defend Lenster, and I did it with just four people .



And these guys start heading towards Alster. No new enemies spawn when you take Darna, so it'll be pretty easy to finish up the chapter now.



Anyway, Aless enters Darna to find Leen.








...I wish I could say so. Fortunately someone from the liberation army rescued me.

Forgive me. I... this is all my fault. I should've listened to you.

...Forget about it. I'm just glad you came back, Aless.

I promise it won't happen again.

...And I promise to keep my mouth shut when I get angry. Don't ever leave me!

So let's take a look at the stats.







So she's quite obviously Sylvia's daughter (just in case you couldn't tell by her hair and the fact that she's a dancer). It's not perfectly clear from my screenshots, but she does in fact have major Blagi blood (since both Sylvia and Claude had Blagi blood). There's not much to say about her really. Her stats don't much matter since she's a support unit, and she has her mother's Knight and Leg rings. The Defense Sword coupled with Prayer will again be helpful for the arena.







She works exactly like Sylvia and has the same dance animation. She's really just Sylvia 2.0. Or 1.1 since she's not really any better than Sylvia. I suppose I should point out that Leen and Aless are predestined lovers, in that they have a boosted love point base, but Leen doesn't actually have any love conversations with anyone. I believe her and Julia are the only units that can fall in love, but don't have any lover conversations, either gaining love points, stats, or items. Anyway, she talks to Celice.





Don't think so. My name's Leen. I'm a dancer.

You're Leen, huh?

What s'matter? Never seen a dancer before?

No, I haven't.

Hehehe... You're funny.

I guess it's harder to write meaningful or interesting dialogue for Leen since she doesn't know who her parents were, or that they fought alongside Sigurd.





Anyway, Lana will start warping some people down to Melgen to meet up with the main army.



Meanwhile, Fin talks to his daughter. This conversation becomes available after taking Darna.





Your strong determination reminds me more of Lachesis each passing day, Nanna.

Father, if you loved mother so much, how could you have let her go all by herself!?

To Isaac? Nanna, I've asked you before not to bring that up. ...That's between your mother and I.

But...

You'll understand someday. Just wait till you're a little older.



So this conversation is the sole reason why I think Fin is a better lover for Lachesis than Beowulf. Nanna's weakest point is her iffy Speed, with either father. As you saw earlier, she had some trouble doubling some very slow armor knights, however with this five extra Speed, she'll have no problem doubling for the rest of the game.



So basically my plan now is do have Leen help Lana get over to Alster as quickly as possible, so that she can warp some of our new units back to Rivough to do the arena. Aless tags along to get love points with Leen.

Fast forward several turns, I have my units crowded around Blume in Alster, ready to take him down. So let's take a look at Blume's stats and weapons.







So two chapters into Generation 2, and we're already facing a holy weapon, something we didn't face until the final chapter of Generation 1, plus he has four leadership stars and great stats in general. Have I mentioned yet that he looks just like Adam West?



The three guards surrounding the castle aren't half bad either, but their low Resistance will make them a bit easier to deal with.



Now that all the armies are together, we have a few conversations to see. First off, Delmud and Nanna.





Yes! I found you! I'm Delmud, your brother!

Huh? Is this some kind of joke?

Here, let me explain everything Levin told me. During the last war all us kids fled to Isaac. But then our mother, Lachesis, brought you here to Lenster just after you were born.

If you're my brother, then where is she now?

You mean our mother?

She left me when I was around 3 to meet up with you in Isaac, but she never came back. I've waited for her to come home ever since...

Mother came for me? But... but I never saw her!

Oh, no! What could've happened to her...

Well, first of all Yied Desert is no place for anyone to be traveling alone.

Oh, no... Poor mother!



Nanna's a lot more of a hard-ass, like Lachesis was, in this game than she is in FE5. Sadly, Lachesis is confirmed to be dead, and then ignored for the rest of the game.



Anyway, Tinny wants to talk to Celice now.





I'm Tinny, Arthur's younger sister.

Ah, so you're Tinny. Yeah, I heard about you.

Um... I need to apologize to you.

No, don't worry about it. King Blume is your uncle, right? You didn't have a choice.

You'll forgive me then?

Hahaha... Of course! It's good to have you on our side.

Wow, you're very understanding. I wish I could've met you sooner.

Tinny, I know you have family out here, and I don't expect you to fight them, okay?

Thanks...

Despite Celice's expectations, or lack thereof, I'll try to remember to have Tinny fight her family to get any bonus bits of dialogue. The track here is Tinny's Theme, and it only plays a few times in the game. It's the only character theme that I'm not very fond of.



Lastly, Leaf and Celice talk.





...I lost both my parents in the Battle of Barhara to a surprise Thracian attack. Following that Lenster was seized by the Imperial Guard under Duke Blume. Fin kept me out of harm's way. We sought shelter in a nearby village and waited for the day to liberate the motherland. The timing felt right, so we rose up. However...

We both took up arms about the same time. We've all heard of King Blume's bloody rule. I just wish we could've made it here sooner...

No, sir. I take full responsibility for our failure. However, I have every intention of living up to my father's good name. He had earned the distinction that comes with being a Knight of Noba. With all due respect, would you consider including us in your liberation effort? With what little I have to offer I hope to assist in Grandbell's return to glory.

Thank you, Prince Leaf. People often say our fathers were two good friends who shared identical fates. And your mother was my aunt... ...They both gave their lives while trying to help to my father. Prince Leaf, I can't begin to express my sorrow to you.

I'm very proud of my parents, sir. And I greatly admire your father for all he did. It's Emperor Alvis and King Trabant that I detest!!

That's exactly how I feel. I just want to respect our father's dying wishes and return peace to the land. Do join us, Prince Leaf.

With all honor!

There's a nice bit of continuity in Leaf's backstory between this game and Thracia 776. Now that all those conversations are out of the way, let's hurry up and finish the chapter.











I believe this is Celice attacking with the Fire Sword, not Leaf attacking with the Light Sword. It can be hard to tell since their sprites are near identical.





Lana starts warping people who haven't done the arena yet back to Rivough.



Since I'll have to wait a few turns for everyone to beat the arena anyway, I take this time to slow down and let Celice get some kills.



However Blume's probably too tough for anyone without a holy weapon to take down. I figure Aless makes a good opener since he has boosted Resistance from Mistoltin.







And then he crits and defeats Blume before he can even get a chance to attack.









He runs away too. Guess we'll be seeing him again next chapter!











Lana does some more warping, and all the new units but Leen manage to clear the arena.



So let's finish this chapter.





Well, that's the way it goes sometimes, Celice. This war isn't over, you know. We've only just gained a foothold in the Thracia Peninsula.

But we have the total support of the people! They're always so happy to see us!

That just goes to show how harsh the empire's rule has been on them. The people are counting on you, Celice. But I think the worst is still ahead of us.

Yeah, maybe so. But I'm surrounded with so much talent! I can't imagine any obstacle being too great for us.

Yeah, the sky's the limit, Celice.

From here on out, I think the pace of the game goes pretty well. There's not a whole lot of running around, wasting time in deserts or waiting on Celice from get from place to place, and the story and characters become more engaging than they were in Chapter 6 and the start of Chapter 7. This next chapter is actually one of my favorites in the game, so I'm excited to get started on it. And with that, I'll leave you with some stats.