The Let's Play Archive

Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon

by LordHippoman

Part 15: Chapter 6x: A Vonderful Day To Die (Battle)

Chapter 6x: A Vonderful Day To Die (Battle)

This is our first Gaiden map, and it’s going to be a pretty short and sweet affair. These chapters, are, in general, pretty easy, most likely because they’re meant to replenish the rosters of players who are struggling and have lost a lot of characters.



So let’s just get started.







: But you’ve barely recovered! If you try to fight the pirates in that state, you’ll only-

: Only vat? Die? If your villagers had not pulled us from the sea, ve vould have been svallowed by the vaves anyway. That is the least ve can do. Vat sort of selfish creature do you take us for?

Have you figured out Athena’s gimmick yet?

: But there’s no way you can stop them! There’s only one of you-er, yous.



: Look, please just wait a little longer. I’ve sent our younger folk to find help. Give them a chance to return!

: ...Very well. Ve vill vait for this “help”. But if no vun comes, make no mistake: ve vill not sit idly by.

She will absolutely sit idly by until we get there.




The map is nice enough to start you near some convenient forts. Or, they’d be convenient if YOU reached them on the first turn. I’m dumb and let Julian stand where a pirate is going to get the fort bonus. Ah well.




The first wave of enemies on this map will rush you, so it’s not a bad idea to just stay near the start and cut them down as they come to you. I’m not doing a speedrun here.




The enemies that do rush you are...a little erratic, though. It seems to just be some very arbitrarily placed units.




I took out the pirate that came for Julian, with some help from Merric, and now Barst is going to show these pirates using forts how to really be a pirate on a fort.




Yes, like that.




I’m not going to show all the levels in these Gaiden maps, because they don’t affect the main run, but I wanted to remind you all that Barst is, in fact...good.




: “Stand behind the beefy pirate”, they said to me, “He’s got a fort!”, they said. Bah! Axes beat lances, but y’know what beats Axes?

: Swords?

: Fire.



Honestly, these enemies can do decent damage, but they’re all fairly slow and you’ve got control of the space. This opening salvo of guys is pretty much some free EXP.




The design of the map works against the enemies, too. This archer is completely cut off from his friends thanks to the river tiles that surround the islands. Unfortunately, Caeda can’t one shot him yet, so I didn’t do this. We’ll have to be a little patient…




You can go either way here, both the north and south paths will lead you to the boss, but I just split the army and took both. Marth is going to want to head north for the village, though.




Here’s the benefit of the Pirate class. They can walk on water! This little trick is usually pretty useless, but on maps like this we can get some nice advantages. Time to soften him up for Caeda.




Or, it would be, if Barst wasn’t just an unstoppable blender of pain.




Frey is pretty much just soloing the lower path, because all it has now is...this archer.




Nothing really notable in this shot. I just wanted to point out that Heroes, the class I put Sedgar in, do silly backflips after every attack.

Heroes, by the way, are promoted Mercenaries who can also use Axes.




Just hanging out here in the ocean. The ocean gives you 20 Avoidance, by the way!



Still, that’s enough goofing around, let’s get a new character.




: Ah, splendid. How many of you? Gather your men, and we’ll be on our way at once.




Athena is so good.

: I heard pirates took the village children, so I brought my army straightaway.

: …If you say so. Ve are called Athena. The vee vuns have been visked away to a castle south of here. Come. Ve have a fair bit of skill vith a sword; hopefully the same can be said of you, Marth of Altea.




Athena, despite my dislike for Myrmidons in this game, is a really, really good unit. Some people purposely kill off a lot of units in the first part of the game just to get her. She comes at a really high level with good base stats. When it comes to Growth rates, Nabavarl has her beat in a few categories, notably Strength and Luck, but she’s still solid, and I like her a little more.




Sadly Wrys has gotten 3 empty levels in the eight he’s scored as part of the team




All that’s really left to worry about now are these two guards near the boss.




Barst and Jagen, at the ready.




I wanted to show this Sedgar level just to point out the +2 in HP. That means his growth rate was over 100%, so he automatically got a +1, then it procced again. I think HP is the only stat you can see that in in this game.




Yikes, Jagen’s pretty brittle. I’ll keep that in mind.



Meanwhile Barst has a duel with a wizard in the middle of the ocean.




Bathys is...a huge chump. WIth a little luck a fresh Athena can solo him (on Normal).







Of course, a little help (and a little extra XP) is never something to turn down.




: Yo ho, gangplank, shiver me timbers, rattle me bones, broadside!











Marth just stares, stone cold at these kidnapped children. He sorta tends to do that a lot in this game.




: We were ready to abandon all hope, but you came to our aid when no one else would, when you did not have to. I know today’s battle means little when the entire world is at war. History may not remember it- but we will. Our village will speak of your feats for generations to come.






: You have?


: It is the least ve can do. Vat sort of selfish creature do you take us for? Ve vill join you, and you vill be grateful. Do ve make ourselves clear?

: P-perfectly clear, Athena. Your swordsmanship will turn the tides in many a battle to come.




Next time, back to the main run for Lefcandith Gauntlet. For real.

Bonus Content

Athena's really the only choice here, right?



The Swordsman of a Foreign Country, Athena

Uh

That's not how spines...work.

One sec, Athena deserves better.



As a remake exclusive character, Athena got her own artwork.