Part 54: Tower of Valni 6 and 7: It makes Julienne fries!

Tower of Valni 6 and 7: It makes Julienne fries!



This floor is just monotonous. You've got a bunch of bonewalkers and wights hiding behind breakable walls, and your only option is to chew through the walls, since you still have to kill everyone. What a waste of weapon uses and time.

Still, we've got four chests to loot, three of which are random, so we've got that to look forward to.




The theme of this chapter is swords. All the swords. Gerik technically uses axes too, but he started out just as a sword guy, so he counts.



And where would Gerik be without his best friend and perhaps lover, Tethys? She'll be especially handy for demolition purposes, since using melee weapons on the walls will result in a lot of gridlock.

So why all the swords, you ask? Because we've got another special guest with us this evening. Please welcome...






...Queen Ismaire? Apparently, the lady who got chumped in one hit from an axe-wielding mercenary was secretly a world-class swordmaster. Clearly, that means she must have been faking it.

In order to unlock Ismaire, you have to complete the Tower one time. She comes with Carlyle's Wind Sword, the only one of its kind in the entire game, and a Master Seal which, if you've already promoted everyone, can be redeemed for a sweet 10,000G. Plus she's a good character in her own right.



The boss of this level, a Wight, is not to be underestimated. Unless you've got someone with a decent amount of defense, which you probably would have around Chapter 14, that Brave weapon is a bit dangerous, especially since he moves.



But before we can get to him, we've got to start digging.



As I mentioned before, having Tethys in your party can really speed the process along.



And Marisa can get to work on her assassination.



If she's in the mood.



But hey, she got strength. That's got to count for something, right?



Not so much though when you consider that Joshua's constitution lets him equip better weapons, and his class crits more often.

Seriously, why didn't they give assassins a crit bonus? Crits are their modus operandi.



Now that's just rubbing it in, Joshua.



Ismaire needs no levels. She's good enough on her own.



Don't get too excited about the enemy breaking through the walls too. They only help you with the first few of them. The rest are up to you.



Good thing we've got an axe man with us then. Even if we don't use them on the enemies, axes are pretty powerful.



Not much more to say, really. Ismaire, Eirika, and Tethys are going north, and the other three are going west.



It's fun to just laugh in the face of the Weapon Triangle. One of the joys of being a Swordmaster.



Although the colorful light shows are good too, whenever you can trigger them.



I did discover one unusual fact as I made my way through this boring level:



Using a Runesword, you can suck the life out of walls. Does that mean that a Runesword is aging the wall and transferring the wall's youth to the wielder? If you use a Runesword enough, can you become immortal? Or did the game designers just forget to turn off Nosferatu's effects?



Good job, unidentifiable blur!



Physic: 40%
Fortify: 20%
Silence: 20%
Restore: 20%

Jackpot! None of the other staves even compare to healing your entire party within a certain region (except the healer himself, for whatever reason).



Even this somewhat mediocre level can't dampen my spirits.



By the way, if you didn't bring a thief of some kind, this is the only chest key you get on this map. Good luck choosing which lottery chest to try your luck on. Although when you see what's in the guaranteed chest, I bet you'd go with the sure thing too.



I suppose I should have sent Marisa or Joshua at the boss to show how deadly he can be, but they'd probably just dodge.



Interesting thing happened up top this turn. The Wight ran up to Eirika, and then just stopped. I'm guessing that the AI wanted to get at one of the people behind her, since it couldn't possibly beat Eirika herself.



How true that is.



My plan right now is for the teams to meet in the top, since Marisa's the only one with lockpicks.



Two points of strength in so many levels. That's a welcome change.



In order to speed the treasure gathering along, Eirika's snatching the Chest Key.



Crud.

Steel Sword: 10%
Steel Blade: 10%
Brave Sword: 5%
Steel Lance: 20%
Brave Lance: 5%
Steel Axe: 20%
Brave Axe: 5%
Steel Bow: 20%
Brave Bow: 5%

At least give me a Steel Blade, not the second-cheapest item in the catalog. Oh well, we've got a bunch of sword dudes here, so I guess it'll help.



Why yes, this is a perfectly acceptable use of a one-of-a-kind legendary weapon. Thanks for asking.



Elfire: 25%
Bolting: 9%
Divine: 25%
Purge: 8%
Nosferatu: 25%
Eclipse: 8%

It could have been worse, I guess. I could have gotten an Eclipse tome instead.



And here's the one with the guaranteed payoff. Heading through the Tower can be quite lucrative.



Moving right on up.



If you've played FE6 before, this level might seem a tad familiar.



It's not an exact replica, of course, but it's a definite homage to Chapter 24 of the game. There are even little recesses in the Valni version where the thrones were before.



There are a lot of minibosses in this stage, but the boss at the end is this Deathgoyle here. Not exactly the toughest thing, and the stage itself is actually hampering its mobility, since you can't go into the dark space, so it won't be a problem.



So let's get started. Our first foe: zombies.



Something I haven't mentioned about Tethys is that a dancer is a unique class when it comes to caps. She's got very tiny caps for strength and skill, but pretty high caps for everything else. I suppose it's appropriate, since she can't promote, but I kind of wish it was possible to promote her, since dancers in games prior to the GBA were able to fight using swords.



Anyway, back to the zombies. They fall very quickly.



You know, because they're zombies.



And as the last one (re)falls...



A path opens up. I actually like this level, as it funnels you right at the enemies, and incorporates the Rout objective into the level's progression.



Anyway, now we've got bonewalkers and wights. Nothing too dangerous, even if the boss version has a Spear.



I should mention that only underlings move around on these little platform things. The bosses stay still and let you whack them at your leisure, making them easier than they would be.



Speed and strength. Very nice.



Spiders are next, and they're too slow to touch us.



Especially when you can just tag the boss spider at a distance.



Let's keep moving. We've got Mauthe Doogs and Gwyllgi next.



Plus some really late reinforcements. These gargoyles only show up when we unlock the Mauthe Doog portion, but starting all the way back there means that they're not remotely a threat.



Along with the dogs, we've also got a really thrifty spender here. I should mention that enemies like the Tarvos have the potential to carry 3000G as their second item, but they won't, since it's set to be 0% for any enemy that has it. Why include it in the game in the first place? I have no clue. Maybe they changed their minds on it, but memory storage issues made it so they couldn't take it out.



Regardless, we swipe his wooden nickel.



This Gwyllgi is actually really tough. He's so fast that even Joshua can't double him, and he's strong enough that-



Oh. Never mind.



Next up: Mogalls with fairly powerful eye beams.



Not to mention more incredibly tardy gargoyles.



I actually have Ismaire stay behind with the Wind Sword, just because it'd be too boring to have everyone else double back after the boss.



Surprisingly durable, this Arch Mogall. But what are the odds that it'll actually-



Yup.



Unfortunately, this boss actually does move, unlike his lazy boss underlings.



So I have Eirika intercept him instead.



More gargoyles. Because why not?



Interesting fact about magic swords: when you fight at melee, your character's full strength is used in the damage formula like normal, but for ranged attacks, your strength is halved in calculating damage. This is true for both the Light Brand and Wind Sword, but not the Runesword, which uses the ranged formula for both melee and ranged attack.



In either case, you're still fighting the enemy's resistance, so if you're willing to take a hit, you should always engage at melee with the Light Brand instead of range.



More crit and more chances to crit twice. I can dig it.



So, having said that, there's something about the Wind Sword that deserves mention. Specifically, its effectiveness against fliers is not an effect from Excalibur, but something different altogether; a spell that was cut from the game.



You might be wondering, then, what spell the Wind Sword uses for its base. That's a legitimate question to ask, and I'll be sure to clue you in...



Next Time: Long-range magic? No thanks, I brought my own. Let's finish the Tower.

Extras:



Ismaire
Class: Swordmaster
Weapon Ranks: A in swords
Affinity: Wind

HP: 33 (75%) Lck: 12 (30%)
Str: 16 (30%) Def: 8 (20%)
Skl: 20 (60%) Res: 15 (30%)
Spd: 23 (55%) Con: 7

Well, at least we know where her son got his skills from. Ismaire's stats are very good for her class. She's a little weak on the defense, and her low luck won't help her with dodging, but her resistance is better than our male swordsmen and she comes with her own magical blade. Joshua might turn out a bit better, but since she starts at Level 9, she's easily able to keep pace with her son. If you like Swordmasters, she's definitely worth a look.