Part 4: Prologue 4: Sacrifice
Prologue 4: SacrificeSo, we’ve got the final Prologue chapter today. I like this one quite a bit.
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Also his mom. Seriously, Marth’s mom is just so neglected by the game.
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Apparently they weren’t very good at hiding in the woods or lying low.
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Another emergence of Blinking Marth. The harvest will be bountiful this year.
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Altea is a kingdom where everything is frequently blocked off by massive structures for little reason. When your only claim to leadership is “my grandpa killed a dragon”, I guess you aren’t super qualified with civil engineering your kingdom.
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Oh, this will be handy. (It’s mandatory.)
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This is good advice! In the Fire Emblem games, lots of potential allies will appear as enemies. Sometimes you’ll have to talk with them before they join your side.
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This map isn’t exactly complicated either. Picture a reverse L. We’re going right, then up. It’s moderately guarded.
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Perhaps most notably, this is our first map with a real boss! For, uh, certain definitions of the word. Bosses are typically named...I guess “Captain” is sorta halfway there.
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So, I’m trying to park most of my units in the woods, because as you can see in the terrain overview in the bottom right of the top screen, it gives them +10 to avoidance. Terrain is a pretty significant detail on some maps. Keep in mind that forests also cost more movement points to move through, especially for mounted units, but...the game never really tells you that. Maybe a house does, I don’t know.
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The exception to this mass forest excursion is Jagen, who’s off to visit another house.
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Alright, I’m going!
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This little cutscene triggers at the start of the Enemy Phase.
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So, uh, the forests?
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Turned out to be a good idea, because Cain dodged every single attack that came at him. I have good feelings about our red haired friend on this adventure.
After their phase ends, it’s another cutscene! There are a lot of them on this map. But this one is great.
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Ah, Ruffian. Get used to Ruffian.
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Don’t worry about this guy.
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I love this guy.
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His grammar is shifting to accommodate just how aggressively cockney ‘e is.
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I just cleaned up the remaining enemies south of the prison. Abel leveled up!
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And we got an Iron Bow, but nobody can use it. Huh.
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I did have to use Jagen on one guy because there was just a bit too much HP for the others to kill all of them, but I’ll take it.
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Abel got a bit scratched up in that fight, so I’m moving him onto the Fort. Along with being fantastic defensive spots, forts have healing properties! You’ll see in a bit. However, some forts are villainous traitors. Again, you’ll see later.
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Houses will never betray us.
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This, I guess, counts as a hint towards this game’s absolutely asinine requirements for getting bonus chapters. Don’t worry, on the main run I will never accept my losses.
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At the start of my next phase, Abel recovers some HP for being on the fort. This is a good way to heal up units without using consumables or a healer.
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Door Keys are required to open...doors. That’s probably unsurprising.
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Hm. Something’s telling me I shouldn’t just attack this guy.
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I will scoot everyone in around him, though.
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This special command appears when two units that can talk are next to eachother. So, let’s have Marth chat with Gordin.
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Wow. Ruffian’s a prophet.
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That’s a handy coincidence.
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Units next to eachother can trade items, although it does eat up the turn of the one who initiates the trade.
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So, Gordin gets his Bow!
Unfortunately Gordin kinda sucks. Archers aren’t a great class, due to the restrictions of the bow, so they often need great stats to make up for it. Gordin...does not have those. Oddly, his most notable growth is probably his decent defense, which is...not really something Archers are begging for. Even reclassed, Gordin remains pretty mediocre.
At the start of the Enemy Phase… (again)
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That...that looks bad.
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I like that an Emergency Marth Costume is standard issue for Altean knights.
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That sound you hear is that of thousands of OCD Fire Emblem players having traumatic flashbacks to this scene.
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Well, I have a difficult choice to make. Or, I would, if I weren’t commentating this after I’d already done it.
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This door is conveniently blocking passage until someone dies. Unfortunately I guess Marth broke the Door Key on that first one.
There is a “canon” sacrifice here.
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Farewell, Frey.
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Oh, hey, he took Marth’s sprite!
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Two of them have met. I’m not sure the game engine can handle this much generic red guy.
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“Hie”? The prologue of this game does the whole faux-Medieval English thing way more than the rest of the series, for some reason.
Regardless, that huge mass of knights disappears, along with Frey.
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What is with this man and plums?
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you fucked up.
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Abel whiffs two Javelins in a row. C’mon, man. Be like Cain.
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Exactly.
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He learned!
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The remainder of the enemy Soldiers decided to try their luck against Cain. It was a bad decision.
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I wish I could keep this level up. Damn having to move to Hard after this.
At the start of Player Phase… (I promise this is the last one)
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Villages always have rewards, unlike houses, which just give advice. Only Marth, the Lord, can visit villages, which sucks and is dumb, because in almost every previous game in the series, that wasn’t the case. But that wasn’t one of the things they updated for the remake.
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Well, regardless, the Mage goes down, and only the boss remains.
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Or...does he? These guys spawned during the enemy phase. This is your introduction to reinforcements. Reinforcements can spawn at the start of the enemy’s turn, in fixed locations, almost always on a Fort. They can be on a turn timer, or wait for you to cross a certain point on the map...regardless of cause, these can be some of the most deadly things in the game.
Especially on Hard and above, where they can move and attack as soon as they spawn. This will make you deeply distrust forts. They are shifty and dangerous beasts.
For all that buildup, though, these Pegasus Knights aren’t a huge deal. I’ll hold off explaining this class for a bit, because this update is getting huge, but for now, just know they can fly.
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While the others move to engage the incoming Pegs, Abel challenges Captain to a duel of the Javelins.
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He wins with STYLE. That’s a critical hit!
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In lieu of a death quote, Captain leaves us a free Vulnerary.
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The Pegasus Knights don’t hit too hard, but they are fast.
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Abel hides in a corner for now.
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Here’s the bonus for bows, flying units take triple damage from them. This makes Gordin suddenly good at damage! In very, very, niche cases.
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Oh, I had Marth visit the village.
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Later Village rewards will prove...better.
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Gordin deletes the other Pegasus, though, and that’s all for this one.
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A new ally!
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Draug’s name is Guard backwards and that’s his whole character.
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Then the screen fades out. They didn’t want to actually make a boat. This is one of the few Fire Emblems without a boat chapter (and we’re probably better off for it, fuck boat chapters.)
(the blazing sword one was okay)
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“There goes everything you’ve ever known!” Jagen’s not the best grief counselor.
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Marth those mean the same thing. Also worth noting, if Jagen died, this cutscene features Draug instead...with the same dialogue.
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And that’s where our real story will start.
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But...there’s something I want to go over here. There’s a bit of an alternate way to overcome the sacrifice dilemma. And a unit hidden behind weird gameplay decisions. Let’s check that out.
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If you kill Gordin, Jiol and his knights don’t even appear.
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You can’t escape the “Hie”, though.
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(Killing Cain was actually a little annoying, the soldiers didn’t do enough damage, I had to get the mage to do it. And yes, this was on purpose. Trust me.)
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Oh, also, the Rapier does triple damage to mounted units. Captain goes down like a sack of bricks against Marth's weapon of choice.
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The map starts out ending the same way, but…
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If you have 4 or less remaining units, which is one death in addition to the sacrifice/Gordin, minimum, Norne appears here. This means she’s also only available on Normal mode.
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Norne is an Archer, just like Gordin. She has better Speed and less Defense, which is probably better for an Archer, but she’s still not very good.
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She’s also vaguely country, I guess.
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Then the chapter ends as normal. This file I WILL be keeping, to do the Normal mode run for the bonus chapters on.
But all of that can wait for now. For now, we’ve finished the prologue, and next time, the main game starts. Hopefully you’ll join me!
Today’s bonus content is in honor of our fallen friend. He doesn’t have a Cipher card, but he did get special artwork for being a character debuting in the remake.
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...I mean, he’s got blueish hair. Close enough to Marth, apparently.