Part 55: Long Live The King (Battle)

Chapter 22: Long Live The King (Battle)



This map actually starts with a cutscene as an enemy Dracoknight flies towards a village. No points for guessing who that might be.




: I wish for you to move someplace safe until the fighting has ended.

: Why not just end this folly now, Michalis?

: Folly? What folly?

: You loved your younger sister so much. It pains me to see you quarrel. If you and Minerva had worked as one, Macedon might have become a great kingdom- greater even than Archanea, perhaps. But instead, you let Gharnef trick you into destroying your family, and your kingdom with it.

I love that Gotoh seems to just assume Gharnef is the cause for everything going wrong. It can’t be that Michalis is just a dick. It was that evil wizard!




Pictured: projecting

: And Macedon has not been destroyed, not yet. So long as I carry Iote’s Shield, the League’s arrows cannot fell me.


: Very well. And if you win? What then?

: If I win, I will tell you. Right now, my only goal is to gut that Altean prince who leads the League. My pride as Macedonian king rests upon it.

: I see… Then we’ve nothing more to discuss, have we?







Right, so, I was wrong on the Prep preview, my bad. These castle tiles are Walls, meaning that neither your fliers nor the enemy’s can pass through. So they won’t come at you from that angle, and you can’t just fly up and challenge Michalis.

Without the Warp Staff, I mean, but that’s already pretty unfair.




Ballisticians can still fire on them, though, so I could see this being a good chapter to bring both Beck and Jake, if you wanted. The way the map is designed makes it difficult for the enemy to reach your starting point unless you let them through, and you can harass pretty effectively with Arrowspate.




The way I’ve decided to do this map is by splitting into two groups. The only thing that’s important is that Marth goes with the right team, to hit up the village.




A lot of Michalis’ cronies start their movement on Turn 1, so be prepared to deal with them as you approach.




As much as I do like this map, these first few turns are dull. It’s no New Mystery Chapter 3 Hell Spiral, though, and I played that map just before this one, so it might have just looked good by comparison.




The Dracoknight Beck shot moved, so now he’s just picking on the Curates.




Of course, his buddy will Fortify him back up…





But it’s still not enough. That’s also an awesome Beck level.



So, my strategy might not have gone exactly as planned, because there are a fuckton of fliers bearing down from slightly offscreen to the northwest there. I arranged my units like this so it’s tougher for them to be surrounded. Lorenz, despite his great Defense, is honestly the weakest link here due to his awful speed. That’s why I’ve got two of his sides covered.




Catria’s also going to try and draw away whatever units she can. You could probably avoid this situation entirely by only going up one half of the map, but then you’ll be dealing with a bigger group of defenders.




Javelins are a bit annoying (my precious setup), but they also barely do damage.




Neither do Killer Lances, evidently. That’s the power of Mercurius.




Thankfully some of the enemies also took Catria’s bait.




If the enemies had all focused on Lorenz, they might have been able to kill him, but apparently Michalis was REALLY serious about that whole “gutting the Altean prince” thing.




Anyway, hello!




Well, let’s deal with these problems as they come. Wendell still doing some damage warms my heart.




While Lorenz certainly isn’t good, I’ve seen a lot of people call him one of the worst units in the game, which I think is pretty silly. He’s got B-Rank bow utility just before you enter Flier Land, and he doesn’t collapse like a wet noodle in combat. Certainly beats the heck out of Boah.




The cleanup goes pretty damn smoothly.




I had Marth rush out in front of everyone else because I need to hurry to the village. The crit is just a nice bonus.









Here’s a rare battle background. I think I’ve only seen it on these mountain-esque tiles on this map.




Just in time!




: Now I can create Starlight for you.

There’s a little screen flash here.

: …There. It is finished. Take this with you; it is the only magic capable of breaking through Imhullu. Use it to stop that fiend Gharnef once and for all.

Marth doesn’t say a word in that whole exchange. It’s weird that, in the game where only Marth can visit villages, Marth doesn’t get any dialogue in villages. It happens in the Gaidens sometimes, so that’s probably just some leftover NES jank.




Starlight is the Legendary Tome. It’s real good.




We did, however, lose both the Light and Starspheres. Don’t worry, they grow back.

No, really, they do.





That thief should not have come to work this morning.





Beck also finishes off the Fortify curates, leaving the Macedonians with no healing legs left to stand on.




I just wanted to note the extremely obnoxious position of this Pegasus Knight. Had to waste Catria on her dumb hiding spot.




Dragon>Dragoon




Tiki levels really fast, since she’s technically unpromoted. That’s pretty useful, and goes a long way in making her more usable than, like, Est.




Nothing much interesting in any of the shops, unfortunately. Just your basics, if you need to stock up before the endgame starts. You probably don’t, this game is extremely generous with weapon drops.




Now then, time to start pulling Michalis’ guards out of their hidey-hole.




Hey, wrong lure!



You deserved that tenth of my Gradivus, asshole.




Abel please. You haven’t capped anything yet.




Beck even manages to score another pickoff.




I skipped the slaying of like, three Dracoknights because it wasn’t even a contest. We’ve got Michalis on the ropes now.




However...I’m getting this ominous feeling...about Forts.




Aha! This would have been two Paladins, by the way, had I not stopped that other one up with Caeda.




They carry Silver Lances, as you can see in this (poorly timed) shot, and can be a pain if you aren’t expecting them or they rush a squishy unit. This means it’s time for the most honorable tactic.




I’m gonna plug all the forts.




Hey! No slipping through!




Stop that.




It’s a little cheap, and it denies me some experience, but I’m ready to just be done with Macedon at this point. End of LP fatigue, what can I say?

: Ah! I know this part! Lady Minerva told me! She rode up to her brother, and he said:


: Minerva, I have missed you, Sister. Let us embrace one last time.

: Michalis…

: Well? Strike! A moment’s hesitation spells death on the battlefield. I know I taught you better.

: You will not lay down your lance and walk the right path?

: Don’t be a child. There are no right paths; just mine and yours, two that will never cross.

: Very well. Then you leave me no choice. Embrace you I shall, Brother!


: So she drove her lance through his black heart, and-

: Nope.

: Wha-

: That’s a mistranslation.

: ...It’s in our language…

: Minerva was there, yes, but it was her weapon that signaled Michalis’ defeat!

: What do you mean?





: ...oh.



: Oh!




: My Dragoons and I still rule these skies!





: You know, that actually makes a lot more sense.





This is a nice piece of loot to get. We’ll hopefully put it to better use than he did.









: Had the times been different, the two might have led illustrious lives.

: Yes, Prince Michalis was a brilliant man with great things ahead of him. But in the end, the rashness of youth did him in.

Oh yeah, Malledus is in this game, kinda.

: Only because Gharnef found his weakness and exploited it. Until we stop that fiend, this spiral of misery will never cease.

: Then shall we go to Thabes? Lord Gotoh said the city lies someplace far to the north of Khadein.

: Yes, in the heart of the desert…

: Thabes is an old city… None in recent memory have gone there and returned alive.




I know you’re hoping for magic robots, but this game is not that good, I’m sorry.

: Lord Gotoh believes Gharnef is harnessing their power, and that is why he wields such influence over the continent.

: And he has Imhullu as well... this will be a struggle. Still, Gharnef’s reign must end. The world was so much more beautiful before he painted it red…




Before we jump into the Art, it’s worth noting that Michalis, for whatever reason, has a lot of enemy-specific boss quotes! Unlike...roughly everyone else in the game. His most involved is with Minerva, which I already showed, but there are some others.

Vs. Maria: : M-Maria? What are you doing here?

Vs. Pegasus Sisters: : The Whitewings? Ha! Come to try and slay your king?

Vs. Marth: : I’ve been waiting for you, Altean whelp. I swear on my crown, you will die!

So that’s neat. Anyway.

Art Gallery, Installment IV

Let’s focus on the Macedon characters.



That’s the best quality I could get Maria’s FE1 Manual art in. I’m sorry. The Minerva looks pretty good, though, that’s from FE3.



Minerva’s Shadow Dragon art is really good, but it’s also huge. This is after a ton of downsizing, and it’s still big.



Michalis also went through quite an upgrade. In the original trading card game he looks like that guy you want to avoid at the mall, and also a vampire, but in Cipher he’s got a rad dragon and Iote’s Shield!



Here are Lena, Matthis, and Julian in their FE3 portrayals. I think Lena made off best here. Really, though, I just posted this so I could post this other Julian.



This pose has LAYERS. Try this out in real life. The one knee isn’t bad, right? Then try bending that knee back, pop the foot out. Then straighten your back out and puff out your chest. Then try and sit like that for a while.

I’m calling this pose the “Crouching Julian” and I’m going to make thousands in yoga deals and never LP again.

(PS: If you're reading this as it goes live, another Shadow Dragon related event is up in Heroes! This time it's the Grand Hero Battle against Camus. I'm awful at these, but if you beat it, you get that guy we beat a few chapters ago.)