Part 2: Escape!
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Remember how I said that all chapters start with a short narration? Well, this one is an exception. It's really more of a continuation from the last chapter than a new chapter all in itself.
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At the border fortress of Mulan that stands between Renais and Frelia, Grado's forces are approaching.
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It's lines like these that make me really dislike Tana. I think they're trying to make her seem somewhat ditzy, but it gets a little ridiculous sometimes.
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...Yeah. I could see him hitting, maybe, but scoring a hit and a crit with those numbers? What are the odds?
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Oh yeah, and there's also the damsel-in-distressing. That stuff gets old fast.
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And here we go! Compared to last chapter, that took hardly any time at all.
Our objective for this map is to Seize the gate to Mulan. To do that, we need to have Eirika stand on the space that Breguet's occupying and use the Seize command. Since bosses don't move in a Seize map, that also means that we'll have to get rid of Brequet too. Sounds easy enough.
But first, we've got two new unit types here, so let's have a look-see.
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Soldiers are almost universally cannon fodder. Their stats are terrible, they can only equip lances, and their constitution is often so low that anything above an iron lance actually slows them down even more.
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Breguet, meanwhile, is your typical Knight, all strength and defense and not much else. If we had a magician of some kind, we could take advantage of his low resistance and circumvent the defense entirely, but we don't, and we won't get one this map either, so we'll have to take him out some other way.
Turn 1
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That soldier north of Seth doesn't move this turn, but my memory of the map was a bit fuzzy, so I had Eirika hide behind him anyway, under the assumption that the fighter would also be going for her.
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The fighter seemed to think that whiffing a strike on a weaponless Seth was more important than striking Eirika. It's like how in Advance Wars (another wonderful game by Intelligent Systems), the AI had a peculiar fascination for destroying APC's, despite their lack of relative worth.
Turn 2
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Turn 2 starts with a pleasant surprise: reinforcements!
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And just like that, our army has doubled in size. While most new allies will require some action on our part to recruit, sometimes the game just throws them at you.
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Fairly solid bases for a level 1 character too. Franz is a cavalier, a first-tier paladin, which means that he's got 19 more levels than Seth to develop his stats. Quite a lot of potential here for the young lad, assuming he actually gains anything. You'll see when I show you his growths.
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Gilliam, meanwhile, is better than Breguet pretty much across the board. His main weakness is that low amount of move, since it means that he'll lag behind everyone else in most maps.
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First things first, Gilliam and Franz go to work on the soldier they start next to. Gilliam's not fast enough to double anyone on this map, so he'll be taking a lot of hits. But that's okay. That's what his high defense is here for.
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You might notice that I'm having Franz use a sword against a lance. That's completely intentional. You'll see.
Besides, Franz killed him anyway.
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Eirika's in a dangerous spot, but I have her soften up a fighter anyway. Don't worry about the strange blurry mess trying to smash her head in. The sprite animations use a lot of stretching shots to show sharp movements. It's really quite fascinating to watch frame-by-frame.
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Let's talk about rescuing. In short, if a character's constitution is higher than another character's constitution, he or she can carry the character, keeping him or her out of harm's way. If a character's riding a horse, they also get a bonus to their constitution for purposes of rescuing someone.
On the negative side, rescuing someone does cut Seth's speed and skill in half while he does it, so he'll need to get out of danger too.
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Fortunately, he's got a trick up his sleeve.
Mounted characters are ideal for rescuing because they get to use their movement points even after doing an action. This is true for trading and talking as well, but for some reason, the GBA games all didn't let mounted units move after attacking, even though you could do that in the SNES games. Kind of a weird restriction, since, as I mentioned, you can move after doing every other action.
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Carnage on the enemy phase, but it could be worse. Both fighters went for Gilliam, giving him some hard knocks, and one of the soldiers made a try for Franz, but got wasted. The AI in the series will tend to go for a Weapon Triangle advantage whenever possible, so that's why I had Franz use the sword, so that the two guys with axes would target Gilliam instead. If everyone had ganged up on Franz, things would have been much messier.
Turn 3
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When our turn finally rolls around, Franz has an easy win on the lone fighter who survived the last round.
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Meanwhile, Gilliam borrows one of Franz's vulneraries and uses it. Characters can trade and use items on the same turn, a convenient fact for exactly this sort of scenario.
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Finally, Seth uses the natural cover of Franz and Gilliam to drop Eirika safely behind them. I'm babying her perhaps a little much this mission, but she has a very important responsibility.
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Not much to report on the enemy phase. The last fighter and soldier went for their specific targets and Franz gained a level out of it.
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Anything with strength, speed, or defense in it is fine by me.
Turn 4
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Working together, Franz, Gilliam, and Eirika take out the last units, all without a scratch. All that's left is the boss, right?
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Not quite. You see, when I moved up to defeat those enemies, I crossed an invisible vertical line, and that triggered reinforcements. Fortunately, FE7 established a precedent where enemy reinforcements would arrive at the end of their turn, not the start, so you won't have any cases where four dudes jump out of a castle and smash your weakest unit without warning.
Turn 5
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Those are some terrible hit odds, aren't they? Obviously, part of the issue is that I'm using swords versus lances, but a bigger problem is the gate itself. It provides 3 defense and 30 avoid to whoever's standing in it. Breguet's slow enough that it doesn't matter too much, but when we encounter some of the faster enemies, this may present a problem.
Anyway, remember how I said that Eirika was needed for this fight? You see, one aspect that the Rapier shares across all games in the series is that it is "effective" against mounted units or armored units like knights (and if we'd visited one of the houses on this map, we'd have learned the same). What effectiveness does is it multiplies the weapon's damage by three. Not the total damage, only the weapon's damage. That's why we've only barely got enough power there to finish him, assuming we hit both times.
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And we do. Boy, I'm lucky.
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See? Nothing but luck.
Whacking enough things with her Rapier also increased Eirika's sword skill from E to D. If she wasn't worried about the weight of it tanking her speed, she could equip Seth's steel sword now.
Turn 6
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On the other side, Franz is taking cover in a fort. In addition to a very generous 2 defense and 20 avoid, forts also heal 20% of a unit's health if they start a turn standing in one. With that kind of protection, Franz and Gilliam are easily able to mop up the reinforcements.
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Gilliam gets a sweet level out of the deal too. Speed is rare on a knight, and every little bit helps.
Anyway, with nothing else to do, I seize and finish, and the game immediately apologizes for giving us a brief and concise introduction at the start of the chapter.
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Segue to a pointless narration sequence.
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Alongside Princess Tana of Frelia, they ride to the Frelian capital.
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Nice! Two new units, a nice bit of starting cash, and a "supply caravan." We'll see how that last one factors into things next time, but first, one last scene.
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Next time: We expand the roster even further with Chapter 2: The Protected
Extras
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Franz
Class: Cavalier
Weapon Ranks: E in Swords, D in Lances
Affinity: Light
HP: 20 (80%) Lck: 2 (40%)
Str: 7 (40%) Def: 6 (25%)
Skl: 5 (40%) Res: 1 (20%)
Spd: 7 (50%) Con: 9
It has to be somewhat embarrassing when the character who starts out promoted has superior growths in almost every stat. In terms of sheer growth, Seth beats Franz easily, and it might be tempting to just say goodbye to the kid early and try someone else. I still like to give Franz a chance, just due to his low level, but those puny defensive growths make it risky to cart him around after a while. If he doesn't perform well, there are other cavaliers ready and willing to take his place down the line, so for his own sake, he had better keep the good levels coming.
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Gilliam
Class: Knight
Weapon Ranks: C in Lances
Affinity: Thunder
HP: 25 (90%) Lck: 3 (30%)
Str: 9 (45%) Def: 9 (55%)
Skl: 6 (35%) Res: 3 (20%)
Spd: 3 (30%) Con: 14
Gilliam may not be the fastest guy around, but he's good at what you need him to do, and that's plugging chokepoints. Put him between you and the enemy, and he'll take a ridiculous amount of punishment and keep going. His only potential replacement will likely be weaker and less sturdy, even if he or she has more speed, so it'll really be a matter of taste at that point.
Bonus Conversations
I didn't capture it when I played the level, but Franz has some unique conversations with Eirika and Seth if you have him go next to either of them.
With Eirika:
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With Seth:
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And finally:
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In memory of King Fado, who really should have gotten the heck out of Dodge when he had the chance.