Part 50: UPDATE 45: March on the Capital
Yeah, these are MUCH better Gorgon names. The other ones sounded like Sex And The City characters or something.
Not a whole lot else to do at the moment -- I've seen enough Organize Screen to last me at LEAST until after this mission is over. Let's storm Latium.
Update 45: March on the Capital
Man, when exactly did the update number get so far ahead of the scene number? I haven't explored THAT many regions.
Oh jeez. Sorry, guys, the save file must have wigged out or something. It'll take me a few weeks to get back to where we
Oh. Right. This is, like, a DIFFERENT flashback. Good!
: "...Freddie, introduce yourself."
Before Young Freddie can finish his perfectly simple sentence, Ankiseth fades out into nothingness. Which seems a bit rude.
Yeah, prepare for SERIAL FLASHBACKS. We're in this for the long haul.
"Hey, wait for me!"
"Hahaha! Hurry up, Yumil!"
The introduction scene fades out in favor of Freddie and Yumil running around and Freddie taking a huuuge spill off that stone stairway.
: "I'm fine. ...This is nothing."
: "But... you're bleeding...": "Don't worry, it doesn't hurt!": "You're so strong, Freddie... I... wanna be strong, too.": "Yumil? No way! ...You're such a wuss, and you cry a lot, too.": "...I know! I've got a good idea! I'm gonna be a king when I grow up, so... You can be my knight, Freddie.": "Me, a knight...?"
"sure that doesn't sound ambiguously homoerotic at all"
For the last couple of lines, Grownup Freddie has been standing in the corner peepin on the conversation. At this point, everything else fades away to Flashback Sepia and the conversation that took place after our first time through Mylesia begins to make considerably more sense.
Next up on our little trip down memory lane is this charming scene. Remember this guy? Oh wacky fun.
GREAT IDEAS IN PROGRESS
Yeah from here on out I think we've seen this before.
YEESH
That just doesn't stop looking painful on repeat views!
: "...Freddie!!"
Ankiseth and Blond Asshole #213 fade away, leaving nothing in the entire world except these two people and this moment. Remember that scene from Chrono Trigger on top of Death Peak? HOW ROMANTIC
: "Thanks to you, Freddie. If you hadn't protected me...""by which i mean getting knocked on your ass and watching while your dad killed the guy for us. seriously how impressive is that"
: "No, Yumil. It was my dad who saved you... I... I couldn't... I couldn't do anything. I hate myself!"
Flashback to Volmus Mine. Recurring themes all up in this bitch.
Yeah, we've definitely been here before.
The intro scene: Now with dialogue portraits!
: "...Yeah.": "Why can't you stay here? Why the military academy? Why?"(i was seriously typing this spiel up from memory without even looking at the screen)
: "God knows where my mother is. And I can't stand... being around my father.": ".........": "I'm leaving... Yumil,"
: "I have to learn to stand on my own... so I can protect both of us."
Yeah, I guess that scene does make more sense now that we know the context, but still I question whether it was really necessary to show us the entire thing again. At least this time you can kind of skip past the dialogue due to it being displayed in the usual speech-bubble format, which allows for mashing A.
Cut to the present day and the mission at hand.
: "......... ...Freddie."
: "...What, Hugo?": "...No, it's nothing. Let me tell you our current status. Let's get started..."man hugo, last thing i need is YOU getting all emotional on me too
: "Our goal is to liberate both forts, and make our way to Winnea."WHOA CURVEBALL
TWO ENEMY HQS
Wouldn't have it any other way.
: "They expect this to be the final confrontation. We should prepare ourselves. We must direct this battle swiftly and concisely, if we're going to win this one."Freddie gets up and is about to leave without another word when Hugo stops him:
: "...we must face reality. Are you ready... Freddie?"...crazy little thing called love
: "I can't believe Yumil would do such a thing. ...I believe in him.": "Freddie! What are you saying!?": "Don't worry, Hugo. ...I believe in Yumil. That's why I could resolve myself to this. Even if he stands in my way... I won't stop fighting. I can't lose to them, no matter what... for this kingdom's freedom... for this world that Yumil loved."I'm not sure how it's decided that Freddie is suddenly aware that Yumil is very much a part of this plot to resurrect Danika -- if you'll recall, when he heard about it from Plot Ninja he was pretty much playing dumb the whole time -- but I welcome the lack of COMPLEX EMOTIONS.
This is, unless I'm forgetting something, the first instance of a mission with an objective other than "kill the enemy leader at this stronghold." Of course "kill the enemy leaders at both of these two strongholds" isn't really much different.
This is a tough mission for more or less the same reason Tremos Mountains I was a tough mission, if to a slightly lesser extent. We're being attacked by a whole bunch of enemy units all at once, and they've all got at least 3 or 4 levels on me: everyone in the Generic Army except Freddie's unit (who will see no action this mission) is hovering between levels 28 and 30. Keep that in mind while you peruse the following 10 billion enemy formation shots.
This is about as good a formation as you can possibly give the core unit of a 5-unit legion. The Centurion gets 2 attacks in the front, 3 soldiers are in the same row for optimum combos, and the last one is providing some back-row tanking in the center column. Of course, at the end of the day it's still a unit containing 4 soldiers and one centurion, sooooo take that for what it's worth.
That Ogre might present some problems. At least this unit is slightly lower in level than the others.
Man, what IS it with Freyas and giant birds anyway
Finally, these two Archmage units could cause some damage, even if they won't take it particularly well themselves. Look at those levels. Not looking forward to facing that Sphinx.
The other legion is led by Dollonne, who would have a good idea going if she didn't choose the absolute worst Dragon and put it in the worst place.
Her lackeys Deacon and Gauche aren't anything special, but their levels make them a threat all the same.
WELP
Let's get to it! I'm trying out Meredia's new unit here. If she leaves any survivors of any battle I'll eat my hat.
Good start!
Yeah Griffins and Opinininininci are still useless. Bye now.
Ah, HERE we go. The one spear in the game better than Ignis. I'm at a point now where my only remaining Dragon Masters (besides Boudica, who is not changing class anytime soon) are Fel and Ivory, who were both specifically requested to be Dragon Masters, but maybe it's about time I changed that and made some Freyas. It's a damn shame to think of all those awesome spears sitting in mothballs.
Meredia continues to utterly destroy all in her path, but we begin to see the problem: Princess units deal more damage, but they don't deal it any FASTER, which means they still take their fair share of damage themselves, and after three battles in a row that starts to add up. Ivory ain't looking too hot right now.
Or now. Whoops! Y'know, maybe I should finally invest in a good solid stock of items one of these days...
This was satisfying, but I had to stop the fight and order a retreat at this point so Ivory could get far enough away from the rest of this Legion to limp back to HQ without anybody else dying. I've still got those two Archmage units left, after all.
Meanwhile, Hector is taking quite some hits in his debut fight too. He's doing pretty well actually, but he wears light armor and is not equipped to tank three hits from an Ogre with like 5 levels on him who couldn't possibly attack any other target if it wanted to.
As such after Deacon is dead I'm pulling him right the hell out.
AND DIO TOO. Man, this really is reminding me a whole lot of Tremos. I'm doing slightly better here, since my attrition rate isn't QUITE 1:1, but still!
NOT YOU TOO GUY
For Christ's sake that Archmage isn't even in the back row!
NOOOOO BANANA
You monster <
>
Leia does slightly better. I'd attribute this to the presence of a Priest, but that didn't really help Katreda's unit. I'd say it's more because this Centurion/Flarebrass/Soldiers unit is the absolute weakest one I had to face.
Her reward is this thing. It's a piece of shit. An accessorry equippable by Mages and the like, it imparts no INT, and less STR than the Naga Ring so you can't even give it to an Enchanter. I guess a Black Knight could use it, but it's not even particularly useful to them.
Conveniently, our starting headquarters of Latina contains a Witch Den. I take advantage of the facilities to bring back Ivory and Banana. Apparently resurrecting Pumpkinheads is cheap!
The first two Legions are dealt with, but don't relax yet because we've got a third one coming up fast! Eh, Hydras are better than Flarebrasses but that unit design is still kinda lame.
His subordinates are a bit better. MacPherson at least knows where to put his Dragon, even if he's the wrong kind of tamer class for it.
Man, I never get tired of seeing enemy Faeries use their one buff action to buff themselves.
I chose Gilbert for this battle because he doesn't have anything not positioned on a corner, making him a good counter-Dragon unit. And it's SORT of working -- he's not taking much damage, but unfortunately, getting put to Sleep a lot still prevented him from killing MacPherson by conventional means. On the plus side LOOK AT ALL THESE PEDRAS. Let's call in a tactical strike.
Predictably, the Wind-element spirit animal is a bird made of thunder. MacPherson is slain.
This happened too. I was really hoping at least one set of Soldiers would get petrified, but unfortunately that never happened.
I brought in Ankiseth to take care of the last unit. He did so handily.
Well, that takes care of that. Look at this goddamn mess. Best get to work.
I just petrified this guy, and his unit was milling around aimlessly like any leaderless unit, but for some reason when I fought him I found him as spry and mean as he ever was. I killed him again and THIS time it stuck.
Pretty much every one of my units is healing on my HQ, but Guy was strong enough to go forth and claim me some goddamn territory already. I think I've earned it.
LOOT TIME. Another Naga Ring; it'll probably find its way to a Black Knight.
I also found the Bow of Thunderbolt, which is pretty much a Wind-element answer to the Bow of Sandstorm, and another Blood Whip which would be cool if I had any reason to have more than one Beast Master in my army. Nothing else really dropped anything good, but I was getting great EXP from everything. Seriously, finishing off those four sets of soldiers from that Centurion unit got Guy and his golems a full level each. Easiest 100 EXP I ever got.
For some reason, finishing off those last two units triggered the attack of Lime the Diana. I don't know what the hell she thinks she's playing at stepping to me in Chapter Four with Knights and Archers.
She got the Royal Treatment. She died before two full turns were up, though. What a waste of Meredia's talents!
As a reward for killing her, though, Meredia found the Bloodstained Armor, which is (obviously) Bane-element and the second-best medium armor set in the game. I'm thinking Ankiseth gets this.
I guess mopping up all the Legions ALSO triggers the attack of Gyler the Black Knight. He's got one impressive dragon (and one lame one) as well as some impressive levels, but I've been gaining some of my own in the meantime. Let's do this.
The Starry Sky sure is still doing its job! Killing this guy took way too long for my tastes. Stupid levels.
Killing Gyler's dragons earned me Dagda's Hammer, the best 2H hammer in the game. Epic loot all up in this bitch.
Well, with that we've got Latium about wrapped up. Let's take a look at one of those HQs.
Yeah, you had to know we'd be fighting these guys eventually. They've got some pretty good cutscene-fu, but then again so did Baldwin. Hell, so did Mari. Let's see how they hold up in a good old-fashioned in-engine brawl.
Oh boy. We've got an ALL CAPS character. Great. he even kind of looks like ZOAH
: "REVOLUTIONARY ARMY, STAY AWAY FROM WINNEA. DO NOT INTERFERE WITH THE WISHES OF LADY DANIKA."
So, they're, like, some kind of fantasy robots or something?
The K.O.D. hits pretty damn hard, and his Saturoses do too, but even though killing him won't end the mission, it'll still end the battle. Focus on the big guy.
Pfffft. What's the big deal? These guys aren't so tough.
Our reward for killing the Knight of Danika is the Black Cat. These claws look impressive, but they're actually slightly weaker than the Touelno both of our claw-wielders are currently packing. Pass.
Yeah, might as well also take the fort while we're in the area.
This one too! I'm not really sure why this stronghold is even included on the Map, but I like free Chaos Frame as much as the next guy. Gyler was probably guarding this before. So much for that.
See this thing I'm doing here? See how I took off my HQ guard to send him treasure-hunting? NEVER DO THIS. I only did it because I'm cocky and overconfident and one day I'll get put in my place. BUT NOT TODAY.
Winnea is of course visible on this map, but as I'm sure you're aware, it's not our current objective. As such we can't go there or anywhere on that whole little island thing. Calm down and take one objective at a time.
And now I'll just mop up the last remaining hidden treasures... the Lfal comes through where the Black Cat didn't and delivers a ninja-claw actually stronger than Touelno. Yeah. And the Angelic Armor is the best medium armor in the game. I'm maxing out each individual equipment category one by one. It's pretty cool.
Now then! The guard of the other fort is... another Knight of Danika! SHOCK. This one's got angel friends rather than demons. Perplexing!
yeah i got the spiel from the other guy let's just do this
: "STOP TORMENTING LADY DANIKA. FOLLOW HER, AND SERVE HER."
Man, I can't BELIEVE I missed the shots of Ankiseth guarding and critting this Knight of Danika. It was baller as helllll you guys
...so, not Danika then?....
Mehhhhhh I already got one of these from a long-ass sidequest and I stopped using it a WHILE ago.
A couple of things for the record: First, and nonspoilery, is that while you can indeed get both Dragon Helms and Dragon Armor through non-sidequesty means, you still have to complete both of those sidequests to get your hands on a Sword of Tiamat and a Dragoon. Second, if you come here with a low CF, (alternate-playthrough spoilers) you don't actually fight Knights of Danika here; the twin forts are guarded by run-of-the-mill Paladins. It is boring. This way is much better.
"Sir, we've found a lone and extremely obsolete-looking Central Division soldier still alive! Maybe we could question him!"
"Yes, of course. Fetch my two most obsolete subordinates! We don't want him to feel uncomfortable."
: "The coming of the next Progenitor... The legendary... forbidden spell! We will use the forbidden spell... We will crush you and Lodis! ...There's no way out. The evil will perish, and peace will once again be brought to this land. ...Just like the legend... It is the revival of the legend, by The Chosen!"Well, he sure is culty as hell. Let's see what Yumil's up to.
Hmmmm
Is it just me, or is this room darker and more ominous than it was last time we saw it?
How you doin' there Yumil?
Well alrighty!
: "I'm almost there... This world...... Hahahahaha..."
oh hey you guys are still here too, that's just great
So yeah, we've seized Latium, but we're not done here yet. You didn't seriously think our only siege map would be Fort Romulus, right? Who the fuck cares about Fort Romulus? Next time on Ogre Battle, we're sieging the FUCK out of Winnea.