Part 30: Chapter 8 Part 2: Conote-Mease

Chapter 8 Part 2: Conote-Mease



You may or may not remember that when we left off last time, Sety appeared and took over Manster as an allied castle, meaning that in this update we'll be heading straight for Mease and the end of this chapter! You also may or may not remember that when we left off last time, I warped Celice back to Alster after he hit level 20.



If you did not remember either of those things, that's ok, because I have explained them in the preceding paragraph!





So this is one of the three (I think) new promotions we'll see in Generation 2.



Obviously we didn't see this last generation because Sigurd started the game promoted. So Celice is taken from a lowly Jr. Lord…



To a great Lord Knight!



I don't think he has a unique sprite from Sigurd, but that Fire Sword looks pretty cool when equipped on a Lord Knight.



So on promotion, Celice gains +5 Strength, +3 Resistance, and +2 Skill, Speed, and Defense! He's now actually reached his Skill cap, and he's just two away from his Strength and Defense caps.



Celice also gains B Lances, but that doesn't really matter at all.



Ok, so back between Lenster and Conote we had most of our foot units trying to catch up to the main army. Here I actually had Nanna go backwards…



So she could send Lana back to Alster…



(where upon her arrival she has an untranslated lover conversation with Celice)





… so that she can send Celice back to Conote. This does however essentially remove Lana from the rest of the chapter.



Boasting an impressive new range, Celice gets ready to talk to Sety in Manster.



If you're familiar with FE3 or FE5, you'll remember that you could dismount any of your mounted units and various things would happen (stat changes, different movement penalties, etc.). For the most part, that's absent in FE4. Celice is the only character that can dismount, and there's never any reason to actually have him dismount. An interview with (I believe) Shouzou Kaga, this game's director) reveals that the reason why it's even included in the game is purely aesthetic:




So you can have Celice mount and dismount at will, but like I said before, there's never any reason to do so. In fact, doing so can make the game unwinnable, as there's a bug that can occur that causes Celice to become permanently greyed out and unmovable when he dismounts. So don't dismount him. Ever.







The children by Manster will run north, towards Conote. I'm not actually sure if they'll stop at Conote, or if they'll go all the way to Lenster or Alster. There's no real threat of them being killed, so I'll wait until some of the unmounted units can catch up and rescue them.









So Mease's two armies of Dragon Knights will split up, with one going to Manster and the other going to Alster (our home castle which is currently undefended, save Lana, an unarmed priest).



The squad going to Manster is lead by Altenna, Cuan and Ethlin's daughter.







She has the Gae Bolg, great stats, three leadership stars, and the holy blood and skills of her parents, as expected. Of course, fighting her wouldn't be very hard since we could just have Faval kill her in one shot.



While we're looking at bosses, let's check out Maikov.





Nothing special, but he has a leadership star, and his Killer Bow makes it dangerous to attack him from a range.





The other group of Dragon Knights is nothing special really. Decent Defense and Strength, meh everything else.



And I guess the captain has another leadership star.



This third group will stay back and defend Mease until we get close.



The captain also has a Prayer Sword for some reason.

















We'll mostly save the civilians here with Leaf, though I'll grab a few with other weak units like Johan and Leen.











Altenna's squad takes it slow, stopping on the mountain top before charging Manster, while the other squad prepares to cross the river and attack Alster.



Now, let's have Celice talk to Sety.





Sir, please... save the world from despair. Too many people have given up hope as it is. Manster had a great number of children seized and sent to the shrine in Miletos. I was unable to prevent it... I'm no hero, sir. I'm a coward if anything.

Sety, I wouldn't have gotten anywhere had I been on my own! It was everybody's combined strength that brought us this far. Sety, we could use you on our side. Would you consider joining up with us?

With honor, Sir Celice. I'll fight for you till the very end!

Now if you've played or seen FE5, you'll remember Sety is sort of a god-unit who comes near the end of the game, a sort of Gotoh-esque unit. Well in this game, with Levin as his father, he's pretty much just as good, but he comes a lot earlier. Let's take a look.







Obviously the son of Fury and Levin, Sety comes with great stats, Holsety, a Lightning Tome that will never see use (though it's one of the very few Light tomes in the game), staves from Levin, great skills, and of course, major Holsety blood. You may notice that his weak point is Speed, a bit of an oddity seeing as Speed was Levin's and Fury's. Well actually, having Levin as his father gives Sety the lowest base Speed he can get. You see, due to a glitch, having Levin as his father gives Sety so much Speed that it actually wraps around from being high to being low again. Of course, his low Speed won't matter much since he gets +20 from Holsety and he has a 105% Speed growth, so he'll still pretty much double everything. For lovers, Sety's only predestined option is Tinny, so I'll most likely go with that, since they have the same movement and similar roles.



Unfortunately, Celice is now parked in front of Manster, so Sety can't do anything this turn. Oh well.











So with the rest of our turn, we move our foot units forward, grab a Civilian, and attempt to bait the Dragon Knights with Fee.











And it mostly works. Someone will have to go out further next turn to bait the remaining dragons back to Manster.





Wait for me here. I'll try to get them to lay down their arms.

I don't think so, sir. I've received strict orders from the king. Regardless of what you may have to say, I am not allowed to let up on the attack.

I am in command here! Do you wish to disobey me!?

This is my squadron! If you wish to not get involved, then step aside. Troops, prepare to attack! Remember, no survivors!

No! W, wait! Coluda!!









So Coluda's army dies attacking Celice, and Coluda himself fails to do significant damage. Back on Player Phase, we'll rescue some civilians.





















And our foot army is almost caught up with the rest. Hopefully they'll be able to see some combat by the end of the chapter.





Faval doesn't even need Ichival to take out Coluda. He's a pretty mediocre boss, and bow crits just make things easier.





Celice moves so that Sety can see some action. We won't be using Holsety just yet, since Sety will pretty easily clean up these mooks. All Holsety would do is reduce that 37% hit chance to a 0% hit chance, which would be nice, but really not necessary.









Fin and Johan team up to kill a Dragon, and Fee kills and moves to talk with her brother.





I'm here looking for you! What could I do... You never once returned home after you left!

I'm sorry, Fee. I wandered into Manster while looking for our father, and the people were so bad off I just couldn't leave them.

That's just like something you'd do, Sety. No wonder I love you so much.

So you joined the liberation army, did you?

Yep. I wanted to help out Sir Celice.

Is that right? You definitely take after mother then. She never could turn a blind eye when somebody was in trouble.

That goes for you too, Sety! Poor mother... I'll never forgive father for what he did!

Yeah, I can't figure him out. What could he have been thinking...



I'm pretty sure this conversation about their father is the same regardless of who that father is.











So we do some more cleanup, and have Oifey guard Manster.





Once again, Prayer will let Fin dodge tank the few remaining enemies gloriously. I probably need to buy him a better weapon than an Iron Lance next chapter though.









About this time, the bandits become a real threat to the villages across the mountains east of Manster. We'll try to have Fee fly on over and take them out.







Leaf manages to not crit, for perhaps the first time this map, so Arthur finished off the Dragon Knight.















Unfortunately we're too spread out and damaged to kill the rest of them, but we'll get them next turn.



Celice and Faval also head south towards Mease.



Fin gets attacked and survives just fine. With only a few enemies left, there's not a huge threat for a while.



So Sety will talk to Celice, or rather, Sety will talk to Levin who is apparently exactly where Celice is at all times.







Father, you've got some nerve! You have no idea how long I've been looking for you! Do you have any idea how many years have passed since you left Silesia!?

Hmm... good question. Hey, how's Fury doing?

H, how dare you! Mother is dead!! I wanted her to see you just one last time before she passed away, so I set out to find you.

Is that right? Fury... that's too bad.

Father, you are so cold! You're not sad in the least, are you...

...

Fee resents you very much, father. She's determined not to speak to you. Why haven't you approached her yet? You knew she was here...

Sety, I left my family a long time ago for a reason... Just deal with it, okay?

...Father!?



Naturally Celice/Levin doesn't have that conversation if Levin isn't paired with Fury. I'm fairly certain there are no alternative conversations with other children either.



Now, Altenna will just stay there for the rest of the map, and she's surrounded by neutral territory, so nobody can reach and attack her.





















Not much interesting happens, just some cleanup and moving forward. Celice leads the charge, ready to take on the remaining army of Dragon Knights.





Only doing five damage each, even though a lot of them hit, Celice doesn't take significant damage. Unfortunately they use Javelins, so they all survive.





The ballista that can target Faval does, while the rest go for Celice.



On the next turn, I realize that a few people won't be able to catch up and fight, so I start returning people who haven't done/finished the arena.







Sety now gets ready to dodge tank with Holsety, and completely destroy the enemy army if he's attacked.







We have Celice equip the Fire Sword so that he can counterattack next turn…



Then surround Faval with 1-2 range units (and Fin) to ensure a counterattack.









Unless they just charge forward and ignore my strong units. That's always a thing that can happen.



Fin gets a bit unlucky seeing as they only have a 19% hit chance. Oh well.



Now here's a fun little thing. This is one of the few, if not the only enemy thief in the game (excluding the arena).



Naturally as a thief, he has the Steal skill, which means…



They can just steal all your gold if they hit you, which is kind of hilarious. Of course this guy had a Wing Clipper, so he'd kill Fee pretty easily anyway. We'll need more tact to rescue that village without dying, but I'll show that off later.



Now that most of the team has caught up, we should be able to take out most if not all of the Dragon Knights here. We'll start the attack with Aless.





Johan really makes a good weakener for Arthur since right now Arthur has exactly enough attack to leave the enemy with 1 HP.







Oifey gets a lucky crit, which is always nice.









I felt it was imperative to refresh Nanna so that she could heal again. If you didn't notice, Leen was previously one square south of where she is in this shot, which is why I didn't move Shanan or Patty down there.



Arthur managed to get Magic from a level on that last kill, so he can now kill Dragon Knights on his own.







Faval finishes off the last Dragon Knight, leaving the rest of the team to work on the ballistae.





Fin's too weak to take out a ballista, and I don't want to risk him taking more attacks, so I'll have him hold back for now.



Meanwhile, the sword twins have been working towards this village to save it.











When I said I'd need more tact to kill the Thief, what I really meant was ignoring it and hoping the +Avoid from the village will let Fee live.













As the name implies, it gives the Thief skill. This means that if that Thief steals our gold, we can just steal it right back. Assuming we live of course.









Note that the ballista targeted Arthur, despite having 0 Hit on him.



Delmud is not so fortunate.





Fee manages to fight off that Thief and grabs 6000 Gold from him.

















And the enemy army is destroyed. Just have the boss to go now.



So Nanna will continue Returning people to the arena.







It's risky attacking Maikov at a range, thanks to his Killer Bow, but at the time I forgot that the crit formula is double attack and not triple damage, so I thought Celice could survive a crit. I of course move Celice out of Maikov's range after the attack.

















And with that, we seize.





They fight with such intensity... Where does that come from?

Well, for starters Thracia is not as well off as most countries. Its steep mountain ranges make agriculture just about impossible. Simply having enough food to eat is a job in and of itself. So the men do mercenary work, and the women take whatever work they can get. King Trabant's methods may be diabolical, but his actions aren't all personally motivated. The soldiers of Thracia have sworn their loyalty to Trabant because they believe he is their one true emancipator.

Is that so... Well, that explains it then.

Of course this by no means justifies invading other countries. Trabant's idea of justice quickly loses its meaning outside of Thracia. For the people living peacefully in the north, he's nothing more than a despised aggressor. I know this is tough to make sense of, but don't let it sidetrack you from our mission... And that is to remove Thracia's royal family from power, and create an environment where the people can live peacefully amongst themselves.











STATS!





Now a few bonus things I didn't show off:



If you have Fee wait in these mountains before Sety takes the field, you get a bonus conversation where she talks to her Pegasus.



Being named after a hero of the kingdom, my aunt no less, must count for something... Once this war is over, you and I are heading back to Silesia. Sound good? And maybe I'll find me a handsome boy and get married! Ha ha! But that's a ways off yet. Hang in there, Mahnya!

There's also a conversation between Celice and Tinny in this chapter if neither has a lover, though by the time I started the chapter Celice was already in love with Lana. But here it is anyway:

Tinny, do you know Princess Ishtar?

Yes. Ishtar was just like a sister to me.

What about that boy who came for her, who was that?

Hmm... That was probably Prince Julius.

...Prince Julius!?

Yes, the two are in love. That's why he saved her, I think.

So you know Prince Julius?

Well, I've met him a few times at Barhara. He's... Hm, how can I put it... He has this charm that attracts people to him. Yet he can be as cold as ice... It's terrifying... almost like he's not even human.

And that's all until next time, where we'll still be in Thracia.