Part 3: Team Fortress 4

Part 2: Team Fortress 4

Last time on Fire Emblem 12, we set an elderly gentleman in purple armor and his generic soldier friend aflame. This time, we'll recap the prequel. Strap in, it's time for a lot of screenshots with some handy visual guides on the bottom screen!





I don't know how you pronounce that country. I always said "Dollar", but I'm not positive that's right.



That's Gharnef, the Dark Pontifex up top there. He's your standard evil wizard guy. We'll hear more about him later.







The guy to the right of Nyna there is supposed to be Marth's Dad, I think.



That's not really the whole story. Marth's father was betrayed by his allies in Gra (a country so shit it's not even on the map), and was backstabbed. This led to Marth's babysitters basically trying to kill him in the first game's prologue.



Being a hero and all, he of course got away.



This army consisted of two horse guys, a peg knight, a shitty archer, a knight, and a Jagen.







The Fire Emblem is something different in every game. Sometimes it's a shiny rock, other times it's jewelry with an evil god lodged in it or something.





Also around here Marth learned his mom was murdered by a dragon but he took it pretty well. I don't think he even said anything about it. Shadow Dragon . (To be fair it's an old game.)



He also trounced some other assorted minor villains, but let's skip to the good bit.





That's the basics of it, really. Shadow Dragon was not a super complex narrative. It should be noted that Marth did meet all the bonus characters in the first game, but did so without killing all his own allies. Probably because they realized that was a stupid gameplay decision.

In Shadow Dragon, to get to the bonus chapters, you had to be under a certain cap of units, which pretty much required sacrificing almost everyone you recruited. It was stupid. It is gone in this game.





We rejoin our sightless heroine as she stares (?) blankly at Katarina while she blabbers. Who could these mysterious allies be?



Dammit.





This kid is supposed to be 17. I don't know.



Did he expect them to just draw straws for this? Jagen, shouldn't you be making that choice?



: Don't make up our words...

You get the feeling Rody has seen this shit before.

: Excuse me. I'd like to recommend Steve.

: Katarina?

Oh, hey, Steve, what happened to your background? (Thank you vilkacis for valiantly serving the thread again. You are now commander of the 7th Thread Platoon.)

: Steve is a really strong individual. And she didn't abandon me during the mock combat yesterday, even though I couldn't fight.

: Alright then, I challenge her! Chris, if you beat me, I'll cede the position to you.

: Huh? How has it come to this...?





Honestly, it's a little hard to tell when you don't have a face.

: Well then it's a man-to-woman challenge! Steve, you're not afraid to fight me, are you?

: Don't be silly. Steve won't lose to you.

: So we'll decide with a battle. That'll let us see who's got the skill to be commander.

Somewhere Jagen is cackling madly, jotting down notes in his Hunger Games fanfiction.





: He said the best way for men to understand each other is by fighting. Well, I'm a girl, but...

I like to imagine Steve's grandfather was Hulk Hogan or something.



Can we trade?

: Y-yes. I'll do my best.

Time for another fight, then.



: Rody, you wait at the back. I'll fight alone! It's just Steve and that kid, right? If that's all, I should be able to handle it. I'll show them my true strength.

: You're at it again? Fine, have it your way. But I think underestimating your opponent will get you into trouble.



Alright, gameplay again. Luke is the cavalier closer to us, Rody is in the bottom left. We've got Ryan with us for this map.

Ryan's a decent archer, with good growths in Strength and Skill. Also HP, but Archer, who cares. He'll never be a defensive powerhouse, but he can hold his own in a ranged fight.



Couple things to note in this screenshot. Ryan has an iron bow, which means if Luke comes after him, he can't counterattack. But there are forts on this map, which provide bonuses to defense and dodge, as well as heal you at the start of your turn. Useful stuff.



I'm choosing to camp Steve and Ryan on the forts to help them weather Luke's first attack.



He goes for Steve.



Luke packs a hell of a punch. This is with fortress defenses up.

Steve does pull off a counterattack though.



Steve heals up on the fort. You can't really see Luke here, he's under the blue box.



This puts him in perfect position for Ryan to let loose with an arrow shot.



Ryan is a year younger than him .



Ryan does not take it well.



We'll let Steve finish off her...uh...rival.







Aww, cheer up. You get better.



...

STEEEEEVVEEEEEEE

That's a shitty level if I've ever seen one.



Rody is going to wait for us to make the first move. As you can see, he's not as strong as Luke, but more well rounded. But I do have a plan.



FE12 gives you a nice feature where you can press X to see the damage dealing range of all enemies on the map, in this case, Rody. I want him close to Steve, so...



Go Ryan. Lure him with your green mop head.





He does, and does pithy damage. I let Ryan hit him again to chip some health away, and Rody decides to go for Steve.



: I need to see your ability firsthand, especially if you're to become the commander. I ask you this, as a fellow squire of Altea.



Steve chips his health down by 11, leaving him at 6, enough for Ryan to finish the fight.



Which he does. Despite my slow screenshot abilities causing it to look like they just kinda stare at eachother.

: Urgh! I see... You are even stronger than I had imagined...



(I never noticed before, but that top screen doesn't update. Ryan should be missing one more use on that bow, and have a bit more EXP.)



: Alright, I'm a man of my word. I'll keep my promise. From here on, the commander'll be Steve. Gah, but I don't get it! I was so confident in my skills! How did I wind up losing?!



: We took turns fighting Steve one-on-one. That's why we lost to her.

Poor Ryan Eternally ignored.



: Even if we are weak individually, we can become stronger by working together with our friends.

friendship



Friendship

: I see. I thought I could win through my strength alone.



FRIENDSHIP



: Yeah, it's all clear to me! It looks like being the leader is more trouble than it's worth! So I'll leave this bothersome job to Steve! I'm sure it'll be a joy working under her! Steve, I'll be looking forward to your help!

: ...Does he really get it?



This next scene is different depending on the choices you made in MU creation.



: A title?

: Yeah. All the legendary heroes have their own awesome title! Hm, let's see... looking at your eyes...

Luke, you might want to rethink that last sentence.





: I don't really understand... Nor do I think it's something worth celebrating...



Oh Luke. You scamp. And that's the end of Prologue 2. Now that we've...bonded, we're unstoppable. Or something.

Join us next time for Part 3, Bachelorette Party

(I have all the screenshots done, so it should be fairly soon. I just didn't want to do 2 chapters in one update, because the post would drag on forever.)