Part 8: (Part One, Chapter 4) Never worked a Daein their lives
What a cheerful place.
We've unlocked the ability to use the Base Menu! This is where we will prepare for each mission and micromanage our team and our stuff. "Info" is glowing an inviting green, let's check it out.
"Info", it turns out, is a collection of conversations we can watch, each of which is assigned an "importance".
Let's talk to Kurth.
Hello, Micaiah. Pay me no mind. I'm just watching the desert. How the wind changes the sandscape... The ebb and flow of the dunes, like giant swells in the ocean. I find it mesmerizing.
Is this your first time in the desert? Yes. My homeland is ringed with mountains. Everything about Daein looks new and curious to my eyes. I see. ...You have not asked. I'm sorry? You have not asked me who I am or where I am from. Not just you, Micaiah, but the others as well. No one seeks to know who I am. You seem not to want to talk about yourself. Am I right? Yes... Quite right. That's why no one asks. People can tell when someone wants privacy. Many of us desire privacy too. Kurth, you are not our enemy. I know that much. You are kind and gentle. That is all I need to know. Thank you..."...now that I think about it, did any of the others besides Ike actually see us conversing? It would explain how no one is seeing through this paper thin disguise."
Conversations marked with one star are "unimportant", quote marks included because "important" is not the same thing as "interesting" and one-star conversations often contain "interesting" things like character development. And in a game that's 80% strategy and 20% people talking, character development is pretty important. Most of the best conversations are "unimportant".
Let's check out these "Merchants".
Aimee, Muston. How may I help you?
Relax, honey. I'm here to tell you about our business. You like to shop, don't you?
Let me guess, you want to sell us weapons and other items. Am I right? That's right. OUr inventory changes depending on where we are and what time it is.
But one thing is always the same. We guarantee fair prices! So stop by whenever you can. Do you carry tomes? Yep. Fire, Thunder, Wind, Light... We've got your basics covered. My shop also has lots of staves and medicine. Oh, and I have recently made some... key connections. Now I carry some very rare items. They're one of a kind, and very valuable. You should come have a look! Rare weapons too. Honestly, you should buy them before someone else does! At these prices, they're bound to sell quickly. Well, that's our spiel. Thanks for listening. Do come by! We'll be waiting.Two-star conversations are those that contain helpful or very pertinent information about gameplay related things. Here, Aimee is telling us about her "Bargain" section, a special shop that carries a few very specific items that change each mission and are in limited supply. Often, she'll carry items that will be of use in the upcoming mission. It's always worth checking her shop out; you can get some pretty awesome stuff.
Now, what's going on "In Town"?
Yes. Ever since we arrived here.
... What should we do? Hmm, I can't sense any malice. Whoever it is doesn't seem to mean us any harm, but... Yes, let's do it. All right. On three, then. One... two... three! Ahh!
"Watch it! I'm not specced to survive attacks like that!"
"Are you kidding? What about all that armour? What kind of dumbass knight isn't specced for defense?"
There, now we can see your face. You're... a girl?
I-I'm sorry! No! Wait! Please don't run! ... My name is Micaiah. Don't be afraid. Have you gone mad? Don't tell her your name! We're on the run, remember? It's all right. She's not after us."In fact, according to my Farsight, she's incapable of doing much harm to anything, really."
"Really? To anything?"
"Well… maybe if she was backed up by a small army working tirelessly to arrange favourable circumstances…"
... This is my... brother, Sothe. We're from Nevassa. Oh... uhh... hi there. And you are? I'm Meg. What are you doing out here on the edge of the desert? I'm looking for someone. Someone very important. Someone close to my heart... All by yourself? Yes. You're meeting someone way out here? I'm not sure, exactly. All I know is that this is where he came before he disappeared. I thought maybe he went into the desert... What a coincidence. We're also looking for someone in the desert. Would you like to come along? Really? Are you sure? Of course. Oh, thank you! I've been so lonely since I left Crimea all on my own. You came all the way from Crimea? I'm surprised you've made it this far. That's it then. Welcome aboard, Meg. You're one of us now.Three-star conversations will give us actual, tangible (so to speak) things, like items, money, or new characters.
Of course, not all characters are worth having.
…
…what? I just felt like saying that.
And finally, there's "More Merchants":
Well, hello! Don't mind us! We won't take but a moment of your time... Hello, Jorge. Hello, Daniel.
We just wanted to tell you a little about what we can do for YOU."Goddess… he's serious, isn't he?"
I've already told her. Jorge will buy from us any items or weapons that we no longer need. And Daniel-- Hey! Excuse me, we're here to talk to Micaiah! Not to some stuffy, know-it-all pun-- Jorge, don't be rude! I'm sorry about that, Sothe. Anyway, we just wanted to tell you about some changes we made to our business. All right, then. I'll keep my mouth shut as long as Daniel does the talking. Thank you. So, what do you have, Daniel? Hey, thanks for asking! I've got a guy who's a master blacksmith. He makes weapons you wouldn't believe... and they're not available anywhere else! Hey, thanks a lot, Jorge! I make weapons too... pretty good ones, if I do say so myself! It's just, you know, customs have been extremely tight lately... raw materials are so hard to come by... Which reminds me, if you ever have weapons you don't need, would you sell them to us? Yes, please. Actually, even better... sell me your weapons, and I'll give them to Daniel. Then he can smelt them down and use the steel for newer, shinier pieces! It costs some money to upgrade weapons, but... But hey, let's face it, it's worth the money. Owning a custom-made weapon sets you apart from the common soldier! It's a pretty nice place, huh? You basically have no excuse not to come by now. Got that, Micaiah? Um... yes. Thank you. ... One last thing. If you ever bring me a coin, I'll give you a little bonus on whatever I'm making for you. They're very rare, so be sure to hang on to them. Don't sell them to some stranger!…wait a minute. Wasn't this a three star conversation?
This was a localization oversight. In the Japanese version, forging weapons wasn't just a matter of money; you also had a finite supply of Forge Points that you could only build up by selling items (hence the reference to smelting). This conversation would give you some free FP to get you started. However, the mechanic was removed for the English version, its only remnant being the fact that you need to sell a certain number of weapons before new weapon tiers become available to forge.
In the Library, you'll find the Records, Glossary and Character Tree screens. The latter two carry across to Second Playthroughs, so we won't be seeing them on account of how spoiler-filled they are. Which is a shame, because the Character Tree is awesome in a kind of "I can't believe they actually put in the time to include this in the game" kind of way - it's basically a diagram of all the characters and who's whose parents and siblings and commanders and friends and factions and countrymen and stuff. It fills in as you meet new people and progress the story.
Here's the Records screen, though;
It tells you how much Bonus EXP you're getting and who got the most kills in each chapter. All chapters give you a set amount of BEXP for completion and some have bonuses for meeting certain conditions (often for winning quickly). What is Bonus EXP? Patience…
Moving on: Supports! Supports are yet another Fire Emblem mainstay; if two characters with any sort of relationship (friendly, romantic, master-and-student, even a common interest) spend enough time fighting together, they can form a support relationship, get bonuses, and have conversations. Support conversations are awesome! They're one of the highlights of Fire Emblem, often containing excellent writing and lots and lots of character development. Let's check one out! We'll be establishing a support with
…
…
wait.
…
…
…that's it?
…
…
…
That's it. No conversation. Just instant stats.
In Radiant Dawn - unlike in every other Fire Emblem game that had supports - a support relation can be created between ANY two units (though a unit can only be in one support at a time) who have fought together enough. Once they've built up enough tolerance of eachother's company, you go into this menu, select the character, and Create a new support or Strengthen the existing one. Characters in support relationships can still "Talk" mid-battle, but their conversations are short, template-based and… well, about as good as single lines of dialogue that are designed to be conceivably delivered to any one of Radiant Dawn's cast of seventy-something can possibly be.
You can even delete old supports if you want to create new ones. It's sacrilege.
I'm angry now. I need to laugh at something. I know! Let's take a look at our newest recruit!
Meg is a knight (though her class says "Armour Sword", that's just to differentiate between knights that use lances and knights that use swords, because they're technically different classes in this game).
Knights are all about standing in chokepoints and laughing at enemies' feeble attempts at inflicting damage.
Meg's defense growth is 35%. Her "strengths" are speed and luck.
…that's Meg, folks. She joins you with less defense than Nolan and Aran, is a complete pain to level up, and will likely end up terrible once she does get some levels. It takes an entire game of babying to make her usable - I should know, I did it once! She wasn't particularly great, either, but by the time I hit the Endgame I was too heavily invested. Oh, happy memories.
Meg also comes with the Fortune skill, which nullifies enemy critical hits! It would be pretty handy if you ever intend her to see frontline combat, but otherwise it's better to just remove and put on someone else. Only, if you do that, it'll cost more skill points to equip than any character has right now. Goddamnit, Meg.
Speaking of Skills, we can now "Manage" skills! It turns out that there was one I forgot to mention. Since we're already talking about useless characters…
Leonardo's been holding out on us! He's got the Cancel skill; an amazing blessing of a skill that has a chance to stop an enemy from counterattacking in combat. No mess, no fuss, just "nope, you don't get to counter". It's wasted on Leo, because
a) it's Leonardo,
b) Archers shouldn't be attacking enemies who can counter, and
c) its chance to activate is [speed stat]%, so it's not so great on an archer anyway.
So let's put it on Edward, who has the highest speed (bar Sothe) and the greatest need of not taking damage.
We also equip Discipline, which we plundered from the unfortunate boss last chapter, on Micaiah. Discipline doubles the rate at which you level up your weapon ranks.
Time to hit the shops!
First stop, Jorge's. We sell all our Herbs because Sothe has pilfered enough Vulneraries for everyone, and it's time for big-boy heals now.
Aimee's shop only has Herbs and Heal staffs, neither of which we need. However, her inaugural Bargain Corner has some things of more interest, including an upgraded but ludicrously un-worth it light tome, a Mend staff (an upgraded version of Heal that heals 10 more health than Heal would) and a Beast Killer, a dagger that is effective against something called "beast tribe laguz". Given the nature of Aimee's bargains, it's likely that we'll be dealing with them, though why we'd want more power for Sothe of all people is beyond me. For some reason, I buy it anyway.
Muston's armory is thoroughly uninteresting, selling only Bronze and Iron weapons and magic tomes we already have or don't need.
Nolan does need a new axe, however, and he's used to Steel but it's not on sale yet. Only one thing to do; to the Forge!
You can forge something for pretty much anyone.
Right now, we can only make Iron stuff, but better metals will become available as we sell lots of weapons.
You can increase or reduce Mt, Hit, Crit and Wt by up to five increments in either direction. Mt and Wt increment by 1, Hit by 5, and Crit by 3. The first increment in each attribute adds 10% of the weapon's original cost to the total, the second adds 30% (not including the original 10%), the third 50% (etc), the fourth 70%, and the fifth 90%. Trick everything out and you'll be paying 460% of the weapons' cost. It's not worth it to trick out everything.
For some reason, reducing Mt, Hit and Crit or increasing Wt cost just as much. Though why you'd ever do it is beyond me - it's just weird that they didn't make it cheaper to buy a weaker weapon, for gameplay reasons.
The traditional approach to forging is to take an Iron weapon (all of which are light), add several notches to Mt and some to Hit and some to Crit, and call it a day. That's exactly what we're going to do; +3 Mt, +10 Hit, +6 Crit.
You can also recolour your weapon, though it only changes one material and the effects aren't always worth it. We go with white for a gleaming metal effect, for what it's worth.
An axe named by the people, for use on the people.
Forged weapons are named in green print. Non negotiable, sadly.
We're done in menus, so let's leave the base.
I'm not sure. I sense...something. There's a presence here that calls out to me. All right, Micaiah, you and I should look into this. Everyone else, check the surroundings.
Got it. Everybody, be on your guard. Amazing... I can't believe these ruins are still standing. They do seem to be very old, indeed. I wonder who built them... Judging by the size, it must have been the laguz. What makes you say that? What do you think it would be like, to change into a bird or a dragon, as the laguz can? Being part beast is one thing, but being able to transform into that beast, with more strength than we could ever imagine... I mean, they could build a place like this before breakfast."Sothe, what are you doing?"
"What do you mean?"
"There's something weird about how you're talking…"
"What? I'm just pointing out that the laguz are a race similar to humans (who are actually called beorc) who have the ability to transform into beasts and-"
"Sothe, are you expositing again? I thought we talked about this…"
I suppose that's true... But what surprises me most is not that these could be laguz ruins, but you, Sothe. You've changed, haven't you? Me? How so? I remember a time when you used to refer to them laguz as "sub-humans." Such an ugly word. Now look at you. Well, come on. Beorc are called the "Children of Wisdom"--and the laguz the "Children of Strength"--for a reason. But I know now that just because our two races differ, that doesn't mean one is better than the other. The age-old beorc bias against laguz is based on sheer ignorance. When I met Ike during the war three years ago...and fought beneath him...he made me realize this. Honestly. Here I thought you were saying something enlightened, and you're just talking about him again? What do you mean, "again"? Sothe, sometimes, every other thing you say is like an ode to Ike. I know you fought beside him. I know you owe him your life. And I know you want to be just like him... But to the people of Daein, he's the man who crushed us three years ago. Some would even call him our archenemy. If we hadn't lost the war to that man, Daein wouldn't be in the mess it's in now. You know that. Pish! I know that. Everyone knows that.I kinda think it's neat that Radiant Dawn spends a good chunk of its story exploring what is essentially the aftermath of a war started by a king whose people wanted nothing to do with it. Yes, Ashnard started it, and yes, Crimea was justified, and yes, it is not fair that the people of Daein hate Ike, but the thing that makes it really hit home on that weird, introspective level is how plausible it is that this would happen. It's surprisingly cynical for a Fire Emblem game, where usually you follow around some lordling who's all like "I am actually quite well instructed in the sword" and only ever hear (or fleetingly see) all the "war" you're trying to prevent with all your murder. Lyn of FE7 fame would, I think, have been a lot more interesting if those two blabbermouth knights hadn't blurted out her heritage so quickly - maybe she could have spent a few more chapters as "just a plainswoman" whose only existence is fighting off bandits. In any case, getting to play as la resistance on the losing side of a war you, the player, won, is much more effective than hearing the winners talk about how sorry they are for everyone who got in their way.
Chirp! Yune? What is it? Where are you going?…
Incredible!
: Grrruah! What is this?! Looks like a tasty snack turned up while we were out!
Not good. Laguz bandits! Micaiah, give the signal. Consider it done!Meet Pain, and his identical twin Agony, frightening but for their idea of frightening.
And here's our new pre-battle menu!
"Wait, Micaiah, did you just "Battle formations!" us into a dead end?"
There's nothing special in this menu except "Choose Units", which we don't need right now since we're allowed to use everyone, and "Reposition", which allows us to swap the starting positions of anyone other than Micaiah and Sothe. We can even go back to the Base menu and shop and stuff!
We do, in fact, shuffle around somewhat;
Our starting positions have Edward and Nolan "forward" to hold the chokepoints, and everyone else backing up. Aran is in the back for now, though his life is about to get "interesting" pretty quickly. Meg is holding all the extra vulnararies and keys and stuff no one else wants to haul around.
We move Sothe over here and-
Oh.
…well, what about all the other coins in the mountain thereof you're standing on? Or the gems? No? OK, one coin. Fine.
Radiant Dawn takes what was a throwaway mechanic in a few stages in Path of Radiance and runs with it. Just about every stage has a few items hidden in spaces a few tiles wide; the only way to find them is to move a character onto them and choose "Wait", and even then, it's only a chance. Your chances are improved by
a) being a Thief
b) having high Luck
c) your Biorhythm
Let's check out a generic enemy:
Yikes. Enemy laguz do not fuck around.
OK, here's how laguz work. They have a humanoid form (which is their regular form) and a beast form. They have a meter (shown above, under the Weapon Levels) that controls their transformation; each laguz gains a set amount of transformation points at the start of every turn and gains more for being attacked (untransformed laguz cannot start fights and are generally very weak). When they reach 30, they can transform into their beast form (or choose not to) and all of their attribute scores (except luck) double. They then lose a few transformation points every turn and lose some more for each round of combat they are involved in. When the gauge empties, they go back to their untransformed state.
(Laguz gain some additional attack power as they level up their Strike weapon rank)
There are two different species of laguz present - each having their own statistical tendencies, like beorc classes. Tigers - like the one pictured above - are strong, while cats are weaker but faster and dodgier. Both Pain and Agony are tigers. This will be interesting.
Also interesting are these Healing Jars. You get 20% of your health restored if you begin a turn next to one of these. Pretty neat.
Well, neither tribe reckoned on Nolan. As we'll learn later, laguz aren't too fond of democracy.
Edward finishes him off. Laura moves in with the heals.
Micaiah sees an opportunity; some of these walls (the ones with gaps) can be attacked through. She finds herself next to Sothe...
We've unlocked the Converse option! When two characters are in a support relationship and have spent enough time fighting together, they can "Converse" in battle. Before strengthening a support bond, both characters need to initiate conversations with eachother in addition to fighting together. Micaiah talks to Sothe.
(It's a lot less meaningful once you realize that Sothe can say this to anyone.)
Anyway, Micaiah pelts the tiger on the other side of the wall with some magic and we end turn.
If you thought we just had to hold the front, you were wrong. This wall will go down the next time it's hit and Aran will have his work cut out to hold the gap.
A cat runs up to Nolan and is summarily critted. Another tries its luck and survives, but gives Nolan a level.
ARGH HUMOURLESS EXPRESSION OF RAGE
…it turns out that's pretty therapeutic to type!
Finally, another tiger shows up, misses Nolan, and is axed twice.
Our turn, and Aran prepares for the fight to come.
He remains in place, though, because this guy will transform on the next turn, and if anyone other than Aran is standing in the gap he will run up and kill them the second the wall goes down.
The tiger across from Micaiah still hasn't moved, so we make him regret his error. Micaiah crits, and levels up.
Well, so much for the unlucky streak.
Edward does what he always does when attacking a weakened opponent;
Gets an unnecessary crit.
Nolan finishes off the tiger, Laura heals, Laura levels.
It's everything a healer doesn't need.
As expected, the wall goes down, and that guy in the back runs into the gap, transforms, and attacks Aran.
Tigers are tough. To make this worse, Aran misses.
With the south cleared, we should send up Edward and Nolan to help. Even Leonardo is able to get in on the action, and…
…yyyyep.
Someone made a point earlier about the awesomeness of Hand Axes that I shall now demonstrate.
Here's the Wind Edge, wielded by Edward, who has quite decent skill.
Here's the same attack being carried out by Nolan's Hand Axe. Note the mostly insignificant drop off in accuracy for the massive boost in damage. Note also that, for this demonstration, Edward's biorhythm was at "best" while Nolan's was at "bad".
To make this better, Edward and Nolan "talk".
Engaging stuff.
Anyway, Nolan lops off most of the tiger's health.
Aran tries his luck with a Javelin against the far tiger but misses, while Micaiah keeps his health topped up. Sothe keeps the conversation flowing;
Blah. End turn.
Aran takes some damage as expected and deals some in return, leveling up his Lance rank to boot.
This could be trouble. There's a second breakable wall, and if it goes down, the reinforcements that are about to come in might be able to bypass Aran and go straight to our squishy mages.
Aran dispenses with the tiger and steals his Chest Key. Micaiah takes a potshot at the one breaking the wall and gets a level in Light Tomes.
Nolan finishes it off.
Enemy turn and Edward has company.
…why, oh why, did I not unequip that Wind Edge…
Reinforcements arrive from the north; a cat and a tiger, pre-transformed.
Edward finishes murdering that tiger...
And gets a pretty great level for his trouble. Laura, healing, Staves level get.
Enemy turn: Aran is attacked by the new tiger, and the new cat moves for the weak wall.
Micaiah weakens the tiger somewhat. Rather than attack, Aran heals himself; we need to be careful here.
Edward grabs a Chest Key from Meg and heads as far West as he can go, hoping to bait the nearby tiger. End turn.
Aran's defensive heroics earn him a quite decent level. The weak wall is just barely holding on at 2HP to destruction. Edward and the tiger exchange damage...
…and more reinforcements from the North. This isn't over...
Edward heals, the better to continue fighting the tiger, and Sothe moves East a-
This nifty-but-should-you-really item will promote any Lv10+ character other than Sothe and Micaiah to their second class, instantly. It might work out well at the time, but don't use these on anyone you want to train for the Endgame. Those extra levels will (probably) really count.
Micaiah is playing a risky game, but we should be able to kill the nearby tiger before his turn, and the reinforcements are still too far away to attack her on their turn.
With a little help from Leonardo, Aran does exactly that.
Surprising everyone, the cat who was attacking the wall now attacks Aran, doing laughable damage and stopping the tiger from being a threat. To make things funnier, he runs out of transform power and resumes his regular form.
Edward-
-hehehehe.
Untransformed laguz are really weak and really slow.
Nolan takes up Democracy and approaches another tiger to the West.
Their turn; the enemy continues being silly and sending things that aren't tigers to attack Aran.
He receives a sparse but decent level.
They finally bring down the wall. We'll need to kill them both, fast.
The tiger near Nolan attacks, and…
Nolan-crit!
It's like his regular attack but with somersaults and after-images.
…aaaand this is about as un-Nolan a level as you can get. Sothe swoops in and relieves the nearby Chest of a Pure Water, a defensive item that temporarily increases your resistance. It probably won't see use.
Nolan approaches one of the bosses. I forget which. He prepares accordingly - it won't be easy.
Meg, go make yourself useful and take a hit. Assuming you can survive it.
Micaiah weakens the cat a little, and profits to the tune of a level in usefulness. Her attack also exhausts the cat's remaining transformation time.
Aran obligingly finishes it off. Enemy turn.
This is as useful as Meg will get.
Agony (it was Agony, by the way, who Nolan approached!) intends to make Nolan's immediate future a bit more interesting. Damage is exchanged.
On our turn, Leonardo, Ilyana and Micaiah (in that order) begin a murder parade on the tiger who attacked Meg.
More conversation!
…y'know, that is pretty damn on-point for Nolan and Edward, I'll give 'em that. Try not to remember that this is what Nolan will say in response to any C-Rank conversation.
Edward raises his Wind Edge against Agony. Amusingly, both hits trigger Cancel, despite it being useless here. Nolan heals himself, Laura heals Meg, end turn.
Agony runs off and targets Aran now. I thought I was done feeding Aran kills this mission; not yet. Looks like he and Micaiah have more to do.
We do not want your treasures, and we mean no ill will. Step back, and we will not harm you.
If the fire don't roar like a furnace, it don't scare me! Mwah-ha-ha! I'm gonna rip your throat out!(this conversation in no way refers to the effectiveness of Fire Magic against Beast Laguz)
An alright level - Aran's defense is coming along nicely.
Grrrua...gack! What happened to me...In celebration, Laura heals Micaiah for 1HP.
Now...
…why couldn't we have had this at the start of this mission?
Beastfoe makes all of your attacks "effective" against Beast Tribe Laguz - triple Mt on all your attacks. That's not bad at all.
Sadly, you can't equip skills mid-battle.
A shove, and...
Edward claims the chest.
Of all the gold in this room, why were these 3000 pieces specifically in a box? And why are they the only ones we can take?
The enemy does nothing in their turn, so we advance and heal. And prepare.
Pain defies all expectations by moving despite not being able to attack us. He doesn't transform. We won't question this providence.
(note the sand; it slows down units trying to cross it. It's quite the pain)
Micaiah gets a rare chance to double-hit with light magic.
Mwah-ha-ha! Beorc are good eats! Listen up! We did not intentionally intrude on your territory. Mwah-ha-ha! I'll listen...while I'm gnawing on your bones!
Edward moves in to finish. The first attack misses, but not the second.
Mwah...ha...ha-- Gnk! How did this happen?
The level-up does kinda suck though.
Note Sothe's position during all this: He's trying to get to the chest in the northeast, but without making the nearby cat move to somewhere where he'll be blocked - if we kill the last enemy, the mission ends. So we'll draw him into the wide area and run around. Sothe is unequipped, of course.
…like so.
Seraph Robes add +7 Max HP to a character. Useful!
We are out of reasons to hold back, so Edward begins ending the cat's life (and gets a Sword Level. He's now at rank A, the highest he can get before promoting).
The cat continues attacking Sothe. Oh, AI. Edward berates the creature by breaking his Iron Sword over its head.
I like where Edward is going.
You and that bird. It's...a little strange.Sothe has Noticed™.
You're just jealous. Wait, I hear something. I can't hear anything. Someone's singing. It's coming from over there. Micaiah, wait!
And just where were this lot during the battle?
No. But I heard a voice that guided me here as well. Someone or something may want us both here. You're laguz, aren't you? One of the heron clan, and two of the beast tribe. Right?
That is correct, beorc youth. Your white wings reveal you're of the heron royal family. Are you related to Prince Reyson by any chance? Reyson? My younger brother? You know of him? You could say that. We served in the same company for a while. What? You are suggesting that my brother is still alive? Yes. He is still alive. And as far as I know, your father the king and the princess Leanne are as well. Unless something's happened, all three of them live in the royal palace of Gallia, country of the beast tribe. Unbelievable! My father and sweet Leanne... They're still with me! Oh, goddess! I'm...not alone. Not anymore... ...Ah...
Argh. Characters with heavily asymmetrical designs (like, say, eyepatches) in games that liberally mirror sprites will never stop being jarring.
Hello. And you are?
I am Nailah, Queen of Hatari, and this is Volug, my loyal servant. Our kingdom lies far east of here. There's a country on the other side of the desert? As I said. We have just traveled from there. Until we met Rafiel, we didn't know there were countries on this side of the desert. After all, no one had ever crossed the Desert of Death and lived to tell of it. Without Rafiel's guidance, we would never have survived the crossing.This is Intelligent Systems explaining how an entire country and an entirely new laguz tribe managed to spend an entire game (and, in the continuity, nearly a thousand years) not being noticed; they were "hidden" across a desert. Of course, Nailah goes on to add that Hatary never knew there were countries across the desert, but… well… that just sounds like handwaving to me.
My people, the heron clan of Serenes, were blamed for the murder of Begnion's empress. Begnion mobs rose up in rage and massacred them. I had thought the whole of my clan, my entire race, had been wiped out. I wandered the desert in despair. If not for the queen, I would have died. In Hatari, I vowed to dedicate my life to her. And yet every night for these past three years, a voice has called out to me. Day by day, it has grown stronger... Until the voice led me to you all. Your news brings such joy! Father...Reyson...Leanne... My beloved family... My thanks to thee, O goddess... Ah... Rafiel... You talk too much. Control yourself. You, beorc... What's the best route to Gallia? For a group of laguz, traveling through the Daein countryside would be suicide. It will take you longer, but we could take you as far as Crimea. We would be grateful. By all means, let's travel together. But why go to Crimea? Why not travel directly to Gallia? Entering Gallia by yourselves would be nearly impossible. The man you need to get you into Gallia actually resides in Crimea. That man, Ike, is in contact with King Caineghis and his advisors. There's no doubt in my mind that he's the man you need. Right. Lord Ike, "hero" of the Crimean Liberation, leader of the Greil Mercenaries, and father of Sothe's children...Coming up next time: More returning characters who aren't Ike!