Part 2: (Part One, Prologue) Same Shit, Different Daein
In Path of Radiance, Daein started a rather large war by invading neighboring Crimea, the home of Ike and Greil. A lot of things then proceeded to happen, the upshot of which was Ike gathering an army representing three extremely pissed off nations (Crimea, Begnion and Crimea's ally Gallia) and marching into Daein in retaliation. Not concerned with anything other than the liberation of their homeland, Ike and Princess Elincia elected to hand control of Daein to Begnion, what with the Begnion Central Army and its commander, General Zelgius, having formed the bulk of their war effort. The result; a Begnion occupied Daein. How's that working out? Well...
Don't worry. He'll be here.
Hey, I have an idea... Micaiah, why don't you use your farsight to see when Leonardo will arrive? Edward, you know that's not how it works. I foresee some things, but I don't get to choose what I see. I was just teasing! Still, Leonardo's never late. Something must have--
H-help! Someone, please help us!
Where is the Imperial Occupation Army this time? How can they keep the peace when they're nowhere to be found?
Who, the Begnion soldiers?! Hah! They don't care a lick about us! We lost the war, and they won. We're nothing to them. They're only interested in chasing down the Dawn Brigade. They let the real scoundrels run wild and brutalize us. They're worse than useless! We'll be glad to help you. Just find someplace to hide, and leave those bandits to us. And don't worry about us. We happen to be members of that same Dawn Brigade that the Begnion troops are so interested in!
What! Really?! You guys are in the Dawn Brigade?! Wow, my friends and I talk about you all the time! You? But you're just children! Oh, how Daein has fallen... Children, forced to fight and steal for the good of the poor. But we can't fight the rogues, so we'll take you up on your offer. Please be careful. They'll slice clean through you if they can.--------
Listen up, you louts! This town is nothin' but idiot kids and drooling graybeards. Steal everything you can! Yune, it's dangerous here. Go find someplace safe for now.
Well, it looks like we've got our first battle on our hands. Note the bandit in the top right; he's the boss. His flashing shield icon denotes bossitude. Sometimes you only need to kill the boss to win the battle; and sometimes your victory is dependent on non-murder related conditions. But for now, our objective is simply to kill all the bandits.
Sod that, though. Who wants to look at some numbers?
Those are certainly some numbers! A summary of what they all mean and what they all do will follow this update. It's not necessary to memorize it all just yet, but if you absolutely must know right now, here's a link. Come back when you're done!
Anyway, this is Micaiah. She will be our main character. In a break from tradition, our main character is a mage, and a light mage at that! Her numbers suggest typical mage fare; she's able to wield magic effectively (and unlike a certain mage in Path of Radiance, actually starts with enough strength to carry her books without taking a speed penalty) but rather bad at taking hits, having low health and lower defense. As a light mage she will of course be dealing exclusively in light tomes.
Micaiah has a unique skill: Sacrifce. Sounds fun! We'll see it in action shortly. She also has Shove, but all non-mounted units have Shove, so that's not really remarkable. We'll demonstrate Shove in a future update; it's situational but handy. Somewhat annoyingly, Shove takes up five skill points - a valuable commodity that will later allow us to expand certain characters' abilities - and cannot ever be unequipped. Why they did this instead of simply reducing the max skill points by five and having Shove be a thing that you can just *do* (like attacking) is beyond me, but as it is, those five would-be skill points will remain. Taunting me.
Micaiah is accompanied by Edward. Edward is a myrmidon, which for some reason is what students of swordfighting are called in Fire Emblem lore. Myrmidons are characterized by high speed and skill, allowing them to attack accurately and often get in multiple hits per round, as well as dodge counterattacks. This is offset by not-the-worlds-greatest strength and low defense - meaning that if their evasion fails them they're going to be left hurting. Edward will of course be fighting exclusively with swords.
For the entirety of my time playing this game, I instinctively referred to Edward as "Matthew". I have no idea why. Though, now I bring it up, he does look like he should be a Matthew. Is it just me?
Speaking of getting to things, let's get to some murder! There's a bad guy already positioned in ideal violence range, as if some kind of invisible designer intended him to be the first thing to die.
Let's play it safe and open with Micaiah's magic; Edward can finish him off from melee range afterward.
I like those odds! The numbers on display here are pretty self explanatory, and tell us that Micaiah is absolutely, positively, definitely going to hit this guy for ten damage, consequence free!
It talks!
Good one, Micaiah! I wish I could come up with zingers that cut like that.
What did you say? That better not have been an insult, you… Huh!?
Though Micaiah's words cut deep, they don't deal damage. This, however, will.
Yep. And now to finish him off;
Here we see The Myrmidon Problem made manifest. Edward is fast enough to attack this guy twice in one action, and two hits means double damage, but in between those two hits we must endure a counterattack. Being the first mission, the incoming damage is laughable, but it all adds up; myrmidons are not meant to take hits.
We don't have a choice, though, so here we go! And hey, it's only 61%! We could dodge it!
We didn't dodge it. Of course, neither did the bandit. Edward scores the game's first kill and some EXP for his trouble.
He also does a little victory dance during which his sword disappears off the top of the screen.
That's better. Well, we've moved the entirety of our two person army, so I guess it's the enemy turn now.
Do your worst, bandits!
The bandits use their turn to order one of their guys to wander into our vicinity. Oh, bandits.
Turn 2 kicks off with a demonstration of the map screen; it's good as an overview but not really much use for things that aren't finding out exactly how many enemy units are left.
Let's continue with the murder! This time we'll open with Edward and let Micaiah take the kill.
Note the green arrow next to Edward's name in the NUMBERS window and the red arrow next to the Bandit's. These arrows denote the status of the character's biorhythm. We won't be covering biorhythms in much detail in this LP because they're not that interesting and not really that useful, either, but the short version is that character's stats - specifically hit rate and evasion - fluctuate a little over time, and you can see in advance where the peaks and slumps are going to be. It's pointless to obsess over them, but it never hurts to keep an eye out, because sometimes you can get situations like the one pictured, where you're at a good point and they're at a bad one. Note the Bandit's chance of hitting Edward here (36%) and compare it with the last Bandit we faced (61%). Not too shabby.
We mess him up, but take another hit in the process.
And Micaiah finishes the job.
I find it amusing that enemies, rather than falling over in any kind of obvious death, will instead kneel and then vanish. It's very Nintendo-Circa-Ninety-Five.
"...and you will KNOW my name is the GODDESS, when I lay my judgement upon you!"
Continuing their tactical brilliance, the bandits spend their turn doing... nothing. It looks as though we can't progress without walking into their range and taking a hit.
Pictured: The enemy's attack range. You can hover your pointer over an enemy and see where they can move to and attack, and you can toggle the red outline to remain in place even while your pointer is pointing at other things. It's a nice feature. It's also disabled in hard mode, which is silly, because it just makes it more of a pain to figure out the enemy's attack range.
While Edward stands in the chokepoint, Micaiah does something about her companion's health.
As is implied by the name of the technique and the onscreen display of numbers, Sacrifice will heal an adjacent teammate by transferring Micaiah's own hit points to them. Obviously, you can only heal as much as Micaiah has spare hit points.
That's better.
As expected, the bandit in whose range we are standing waddles over and attacks Edward. He is successful, but we have a nasty surprise for him...
Critical hit ACTIVATE! In Radiant Dawn, critical hits are heralded by a flash of red light and the appearance of "Critical" onscreen, just as if it were a skill activating. It's extremely satisfying. In that split second of forewarning, you can unconsciously get psyched up to appreciate the murder to follow. There's no feeling quite like it in all the world. Well, maybe one, but we won't be seeing that for a good long while.
There's also a nice, flashy and longer-than-usual attack animation.
More importantly, though, critical hits deal triple the damage of regular hits. This guy is very, very, dead.
(note that the attack appears to be dealing 26 damage in the screenshot above; attacks will never register as doing more damage than the target has hit points remaining. It's an odd feature, but not really consequential. In any case, we actually did 33 damage.)
We have company!
Leonardo! How did you find us?
A little bird told me. Yours, in fact.
Chirp! What were you two thinking, taking on these bandits alone? That's beyond reckless. I'm sorry, Leonardo. We couldn't just leave the helpless villagers to these monsters. Please, help us fight them.We've got ourselves a new party member! Let's see what he can do:
As an archer, Leonardo's main interests are in strength and skill. He's not lacking in other areas, though; he has enough speed to double-hit most enemies at this stage in the game, and despite being a ranged unit whose entire... thing is not being able to survive for long when enemies get in melee range he still has defense equal to Edward's, though frankly that says more about Edward than it does about Leonardo. As a bow user, Leonardo will not be able to counterattack when engaged at melee range. Yes, archers are all about picking off the enemy's melee units without fear of counterattack, and are best kept surrounded while in enemy attack range; Fire Emblem AI loves nothing more than attacking units that can't counterattack (and you bet we will be abusing this quirk later on).
Note the Dracoshield in his inventory; it permanently increases one character's defense by 2. It's going straight into storage. Why? Tell you later, if you don't already know on account of the same nuance being present in each of the other Fire Emblem games being Let's Played at time of writing.
Now. Micaiah's Sacrifice earlier has left her low on health. Let's fix that.
Healing items have been given a major boost in utility from Path of Radiance. This humble herb, which restores 10 HP to the user, is good for 10 uses. Not bad!
Aah.
Alright, bandits, whaddya got?
"YOU'RE TOO SLO-OW!
Our turn. Micaiah finishes what Edward (involuntarily) started.
This guy drops another Herb. Don't mind if I do.
I hoped to weaken this guy with Edward and have Leonardo finish him, but Edward had other ideas.
So Leonardo just stands around being useless.
No one's in attack range... are the bandits going to bother moving this time?
*sigh*
Alright, Leo, have at him.
Ready...
"CURSE YOU AND YOUR 100% AIM LEONARDO!"
...you'd think this would deal more damage.
Instead, Edward finishes the job, and in doing so...
We gain our first level up! RNG Gods, grant me favour...
Why are we praying? Because this is Fire Emblem, son. If you expect to level up and just GET more stats, you're in for a shock. Fire Emblem's infamous character advancement system merely grants you opportunities to roll for stat-ups when you gain a level; your chances of success for each stat are dependent on the class of the character levelling up. You might get some of everything, you might only get one (the system is fixed such that you'll always get at least one +1 per level). For this reason, the makeup of your team is going to vary from playthrough to playthrough depending on which characters are favoured by good levels and which aren't; you can only get so far looking up growth rates and averages on GameFAQs; averages don't mean shit when you're living in an instance. It's true that some characters are generally more likely to wind up godly than others, but at the end of the day, it is left to the fickle guardians of the Random Number Generator to decide how great you get to be today.
So. Praying.
...not bad! This is a textbook myrmidon level, though I really hope he gets some defense soon. We won't be in the prologue forever...
Micaiah moves into position.
Alright, so Edward'll take a hit from the guy in front and...
WAIT FUCK I forgot about him...
Fire Emblem "bosses" are strange beasts, though they have patterns, and knowing (and remembering!) which pattern is in place is vital to survival. In this case, I completely forgot that this boss is of the variety that will move to attack you if you step into his range, as opposed to bosses in those missions based around capturing a point, who will stand on the point and not abandon it until they're dead. Oh, I'm going to pay for this.
Bosses are also statistically likely to smack talk you.
welp
Edward is duly up-fucked.
Oh-ho?
Suddenly, Edward's skills activate!
Wrath provides a sizable boost to your crit rate when you are on less than 30% health. It's not quite as useless as it sounds; it doesn't simply multiply your chance to crit versus a given opponent, it adds fifty to the number that determines what your crit rate is (see Let's Talk About Game Mechanics, immediately after this post). If your stated crit chance is 1%, with Wrath, it's 51%. Even in matchups where you can't crit, Wrath will probably boost you enough that you can. It's still not the greatest of skills, given that deliberately using it requires wandering around with <30% health, and that it still won't ever realistically grant you more than 60% chance of getting a crit - not a chance you want to be taking with a unit on less than 30% health. On top of that, it costs 15 skill points to use on anyone other than Edward. It's just not worth it. Still, you won't hear me complaining. Not this time.
Funny thing, though; Wrath, like many skills, has an activation sound and animation. Under the right conditions (having low health), Wrath activates 100% of the time. However, it's not guaranteed that you will actually get your Wrath-Crit. So a lot of the time, you get the sound, and the flash, and you get all excited, and then nothing happens. *sigh*
Anyway, at the start of our turn, Pugo is left on 6 HP. Finish him!
No, wait, first, Edward's gonna stand in front of him and heal. All part of the plan.
Note the Vulnerary; 20 HP of heals and good for 8 uses - up from only 3 in Path of Radiance. Very handy to have around.
Fully healed, Edward prepares to watch the light show.
NOW we finish him.
Bosses regularly have additional smack-talk for certain characters.
These people work hard to feed their families mere scraps. Then you come along and steal what little they've earned. Shut up, kid! I work hard, too! You want honest? Once I've sold you, I'll have earned an honest penny!Yep. Traditional Fire Emblem Bandit. Nothing to see here.
...because there's nothing left to see.
Oh, good, you're already praying.
Our faith is rewarded with gifts of Micaiah-is-now-less-fragile.
(The Illusion Of Audience Participation: There's something not quite right with the story of Pugo's demise. There's an inconsistency that exists because I'm covering something up. Do you have what it takes to uncover the truth? Can you work backwards from this contradiction and figure out what really happened?)
"Well, there was this woman and a kid, and they said there were bandits, and..."
Leonardo shows us all how to move over there.
That remaining bandit must have one heck of a plan.
Fine by me.
To numb the pain, Edward contemplates how dead this guy is about to be.
Which is to say, mostly.
Oh, alright, we'll cut poor Leonardo a break and feed him a kill.
Time seemed to slow a little as the bandit contemplated his imminent death.
...but only a little.
Yune, come here.
Yep, they actually animated Yune here.
Well, well, well. Look who decided to show up... Begnion soldiers. They certainly took their time, didn't they? We mustn't be caught. Micaiah! Edward! Make a break for it. Run! I'm sorry. We have to leave. I know. Thank you again for all you've done. Now, go! Run! Hey, lady! My name's Nico! When I grow up, I want to be just like you guys! Come back sometime!"Noooo you stupid child don't make yourself relatable!"
The group converses for a while, but ultimately determines that stopping is not an option.
Ooh, he looks friendly.
General Jarod?! Wh-when did you arrive?
Answer my question, maggot. I want to know who you were yelling at and why you did nothing but yell at them. S-sorry, sir. We suspect they were from the Dawn Brigade, a band of thieves that targets goods levied from the town. People say they give what they've stolen back to the villagers and strut around acting like heroes.
They say she can heal wounds instantly by laying her hands on any injury. Townspeople treat her like a savior. And? What have you been doing about this band of fools? Sir. A few days ago we stormed their hideout. We found a girl much like the Silver-Haired Maiden... We ran the dogs from their den, but they were cunning and cautious, and...we lost them. I see. I'm beginning to understand. How do you mean, sir? I'm beginning to understand exactly how incompetent you all are!
Urk!
Make the villagers talk. I want to know who these bandits are and where they're hiding.
Y-yes, sir! Understood, sir!
Precisely. Overseeing this dusty old town is wearing thin. A little fresh game is just what I need.Who are all these people? What's the deal with this Micaiah lady? Where the hell did Sothe go? When do we get to play as Ike again? Why is Jarod such an asshole? How is that sparrow able to communicate? Coming up next time: All the answers to one of these questions! And maybe some fighting!