Part 11: Tolerable Postgame

VS Yaksha



Welcome back. When we last left off, our nearby enemies trained all day yesterday and are now a threat. You're right, it sucks.



Like seriously, what the fuck is this?



Super effective damage is the only way to get out of this, since our opponents are slightly stronger than us. We also have to deal with this bullshit map and the slight burn out that occurs from JUST fighting in this map.



That's very funny though. I don't think the AI realises how awful Flame Burst's splash damage is.



See, we're getting out hit here, which is never a good thing for a simple battle game like this.



Still, we should be alright, Pansear is the most dangerous opponent (I know, right?) since we can't chunk it really hard, but I have a plan.



Since it has a 2 range move, we can trap it like this and make it unable to attack while we slowly kill it. I'm a genius!



I'm a fool, goddammit Yaksha!



Oh yeah, cause our enemies are stronger and have higher stats, hit rates also go down, which is just what you want. God what a dumb mechanic.



Alright, we Poisoned it, now it can actually die.



I think in a straight up fight we would've lost since we couldn't hit it that hard, but I dunno for sure.



Actually, yeah, we would've totally lost.



Uh, yeah, sure, keikaku and all that.

Ransei



Alright, let's never do anything like that again. Unfortunately, we still have to beat up all the strong guys, but they didn't become impossible to beat, just annoying. Anyway, is it our turn yet?

"and Lord Kanetsugu!"

...the fuck is this?



Lord Motoharu is hereby appointed the Guardian of Power!

I shall continue to wield my strength to the best of my ability!

Lord Shingen is hereby appointed the Guardian of Wisdom!

I still have a long way to go on that count...

Lady Oichi is hereby appointed the Guardian of Charisma!

I just can't believe it! Thank you so much!

Lord Kanetsugu is hereby appointed the Guardian of Capacity!

Never has there been a happier day! Kirlia shares my gratitude!

Hey, guys! Let's join forces and give this army everything we've got!



Alright, the Four Guardians event, uh... *rustles nonexistant papers* ...only occurs after conquering over half the available kingdoms. Out of the four stats, Warriors or Warlords that have the highest in that category are appointed as a Guardian and will never leave the army. Uh, that's it, I am going to completely forget this ever happened. There's a fair few random events that can happen, but whether we see them or not is up the chance.



ANYWAY, we can see that Ujiyasu and friends have gotten real strong, so we should crush these rebels before they become La Resistance. This shouldn't encourage you to spread out your army so you don't trigger the Gabite guy, you'll easily overtake the enemy without trying, so get as strong as possible so you can destroy the new nuisances as soon as possible. There is a limit to this power boost, they won't jump like 3000 power in one go to catch up to you.




Muneshige get.

VS Cragspur



I guess I'll properly go over a battle now that we have some actual competence on the opponent's side.



Only Conkeldurr and Samurott will actually be fighting in this battle, everyone else is here so they can stop being fuckin useless already.



Gah Sturdy, gah Dragon Rage.



Gah Dragon Rage, ooh Aqua Tail.



Even with Superpower lowering stats, Conkeldurr is still a wrecking ball, especially when it gets statused.



Ow. We absolutely want to recruit Kai, she's great.



Oh, wasn't I gonna show off that battle properly? Well, that was me doing so, since as the updates go on I'll be skipping around and over a lot of things, otherwise there's gonna be a LOT of repetiton.

Ransei



Alright, only Nene and Masamune are strong, because of course we've gotta deal with a strong Hanzo and Spiritomb again, sigh.



These notifications will be useful later, but for now it's a nice little boost to Energy. I haven't used a Ponigiri once.



Also, levelling up that cave in Ignis continues to be useful as we can get Kai's Perfect Link. Ohohohohohohohohohoho. Do continue levelling the cave up to 3.

VS Viperia



Alright, Viperia time, I guess. It's gonna be super similar to our first fight here, even more so than Cragspur.



The AI is still dumb, let me show you something you cool.



Every turn Ekans is gonna come out from that passage. Gyarados will just knock it right back to where it was and Ekans is go back through the passage every turn until it's knocked out. If you can get an enemy like this then it is hilarious.




Seems to be going alright. Gotta place Rhyperior somewhere it can hit Golbat, but it's a speedy little fella and can't stop moving to all these awkward places.



Ah fuck Interference. These are numbers you never want to see, what is this, Fire Emblem?



Oh. Damn. Nice one Roggenrola.




Alright, let's wrap this up. It took a while but we've actually encountered someone new! Hattori Yasunaga was an Iga ninja and father of Hattori Hanzō and due to Hanzō's popularity, there's very little info about Yasunaga. Oh well.



After smacking the ghost for like 10 minutes it goes down and we are victorious.

Ransei



Ooh very nice, rock ear did some work in that battle.



Some Pokemon and Warlords are less expressive than others, not everyone has like 5 different emotion portraits, some have 2 or 3, like can you see the difference in those Boldore images? They are there, trust me. There are some amazing portraits we'll hopefully see later on.

VS Avia



Last strong guy is Masamune, but annoyingly he's conquered Spectra. This does mean we can just walk over his divided forces in Avia, but he'll still be strong in Spectra. Ugh.



Only worries are Masamune with Scyther and Magoichi with Carnivine.



Tsuruhime was the seventh daughter of Oda Nobunaga (he had like 23 kids, not a big deal) and was married to Nakagawa Hidemasa, son of Nakagawa Kiyohide, who served Nobunaga. She doesn't seem to have done anything notable and Hidemasa died at a young age at the Battle of Bunroku. Since Nō never had children, Tsuruhime is not her daughter.



Yeah yeah, see you soon.



Easy enough, so we'll chase them north soon enough. But let's do other things first!

Ransei



Like get lots of cash and then...?



Get even more cash! Sometimes while mining you'll have the option to use an item to increase the amount you get, though it can fail and you'll get nothing. The Hammer is the best, giving you 3x the amount, so if you consistently use Gold Mines throughout a story, you should have a good chunk of gold, which you'll want no matter the story. With Meowth, you'll never need to upgrade mines through banks, just focus on the various caves and locations instead.



Oh? Is Masamune becoming even more annoying to wipe out?



...huh? Well it's not as surprising as you think. The AI only sends enough army to just beat out the opponent in Strength, so he probably sent like 3 guys? Wouldn't want the strong AIs to just roll out of control, that's only for us!

VS Valora



Ugh Valora, Ieyasu will be easy to take down thankfully, so let's just get this awkward map over with.



Want me to show the cameras moving every turn? No? Good, fuck Valora.



Let's do something fun instead, like spinning on gears and nearly hitting the damage cap.



Yeah I think we'll be fine.



That was pretty dumb since Lairon is now Burned and we need Samurott to recruit it. Hopefully it lasts!



Phew, barely. That about wraps things up. Now I just need to catch up to Quagsire once it stops getting caught by cameras every turn.




Ashikaga Yoshiteru was the 13th Shogun of the Ashikaga shogunate, the elder brother of the 15th Shogun, Ashikaga Yoshiaki, who was installed by Oda Nobunaga in the power vacuum. Yoshiteru became a puppet shogun like his father at the age of 11 after his father, the 12th Shogun, Ashikaga Yoshiharu, was forced to retire after a political struggle with a local daimyo, Hosokawa Harumoto. While his father made peace with Harumoto so the family could return to Kyoto, Harumoto's retainer, Miyoshi Nagayoshi, drove out the Ashikaga family into exile, where Yoshiharu passed, leaving Yoshiteru as a shogun in exile. He made peace with Nagayoshi to return to Kyoto again and then the next year attempted to remove Nagayoshi with Harumoto's help. However, he lost to Nagayoshi and was driven from Kyoto for the third time. Afraid of killing a Shogun, Nagayoshi agreed for Yoshiteru to return back to Kyoto again so long as Yoshiteru did whatever Nagayoshi wanted.

Despite being a puppet, Yoshiteru took any opportunity to govern through diplomacy and gained the respect of many daimyo, like Nobunaga and Kenshin. When Nagayoshi died of illness, Yoshiteru saw the opportunity to reclaim his full authority, however Matsunaga Hisahide and the Miyoshi Triumvirs were quite happy ruling as Nagayoshi did and wished to remove Yoshiteru from power and install Ashikaga Yoshihide. Hisahide and Yoshitsugu attacked Yoshiteru quickly to prevent any local daimyos assisting him, quickly overrunning and killing him. Yoshihide was installed as the 14th Shogun and died shortly after due to illness, leaving Kyoto in a vacuum until Nobunaga arrived to install Yoshiaki and drive out Hisahide. That was kinda long, but I didn't expect to find such an important figure randomly. The danger of going on historical tangents when we encounter a new Warrior: you never know who they'll be until you look into it.

Ransei



Neat. Three kingdoms remain.



Let's have a breather, we need to put Warriors in the Gallery after all.



I didn't intend for Shingen to be a great recruiter, but he fits the role so easily. Anyway, Honjō Saneyori was a part of Kenshin's inner circle and was close friends with Kanetsugu's adoptive father, Naoe Kagetsuna (not in game).



Ah good, more of this please. Ekans evolves when its Attack reaches 59.



Let's recruit Kenshin and then not touch him for the rest of the scenario cause we can't do anything with him. Cool.

VS Spectra



Alright let's get this over with, if Mitsuhide and Nobunaga get strong after this month I'm gonna be mildly upset and then crush them anyway.



Fuck trees. Hey Tsuru.



Ōkubo Nagayasu was a samurai bureaucrat and a vassal of Ieyasu. He was in charge of the silver mines in Sagami, Sado and Izu, expanding and increasing production in all three. After his death, evidence of misconduct was discovered and his fief was confiscated and his sons were ordered to commit seppuku.



Stop that Boldore.



Kamehime was the eldest daughter of Ieyasu with his first official wife, Lady Tsukiyama. She married Okudaira Nobumasa, who repelled a Takeda siege at Nagashino Castle after defecting. Nobunaga and Ieyasu were impressed when they arrived to reinforce, so Nobunaga allowed him to use part of his name and Ieyasu offered his daughter in marriage, who had been at the battle and assisted Nobumasa.



The battle ended quickly enough that the Misdreavus statues didn't get in the way too much. They were around, but moveable field elements disappear during attack animations.

Ransei



We're getting to the end here, we could end this scenario this month. Though there's still a lot of things to do.



Oh neat, another event.



Hmm, no.



They'll be fine since the scenario will be over before they can revolt and lower everyone's Energy. If you keep donating to the farmers when they show up then you'll get some nice rare items, including evolution items! But I'm saving my money for other things and we'll soon be done here, so whatever.

VS Nixtorm



Now as you might expect, this story will end when we control all 17 kingdoms, so there's always one army you won't be able to recruit and one kingdom we won't be able to use. Our choice here doesn't really matter, but might as well save Nobunaga for later.



Fuck icicles and icebergs.



Hanzo's power got reset when he went off after Viperia, so he's weak again and easy to recruit.



Are you fucking kidding me.



I wish we could've done this the first time around. Oh well, got him now.



Oh behave. I love that Guts activates while sleeping. Samurott is still frozen btw.




Could've ended this battle a lot earlier if half my team didn't succumb to status, but whatever, I'm not mad.

Ransei




I think we've got a few Warlords in our army now.



Choan is absolutely necessary to recruit as he's the only one who can Perfect Link with Bidoof. He will be instrumental in our future.



Oh yeah, we're basically done with this story, so now we're gonna do something fun! (Hint, it's not fun at all). By the end of this story, most of our Warlords and Pokemon are at max like 45-50% or so. The average for Pokemon and Warlords to evolve are like 55-60%, so we're close, but most of our army are pretty weak and it would be real tedious to grind them up to make the rest of the postgame easier, so I'm just gonna use AR codes to increase link gain by 32x. Obviously this isn't something you should do playing this game normally, but I'm gonna get super bored going through the postgame normally and not finish the LP. I don't want that. I do want to buff everyone up, getting Perfect Link and evolutions and have a much easier time going through most of the stories, since I will have to go through a lot of them to reach the final scenario and I won't be playing this game in chunks over a few months, I'll be blasting through most of it and I could get burned out real fast if I have to slog through this postgame and do it bit by bit.

The game intends you to play through everyone's stories to slowly evolve everyone as you use them primarily, but that's boring for an LP and as you've seen in this story, we easy rolled over most of the kingdoms and didn't end up amazingly strong at the end of it. There are some high requirements to reach that we'll need to grind for and while I could spend the next 5-10 in-game years doing that, I could just cheat and save a lot of time. You can leave a kingdom empty so the AI takes it over so you can beat them up over and over again for link, but fuck that. Let's go on a crazy spree and evolve most of the Warlords, cause they're the only ones that matter.

Now this is gonna be a bit of a long one, so I'll be splitting it into a separate update if watching numbers go up isn't your jam. Click right here for all the juicy info! Otherwise, here are the highlights so you know the real important stuff that happened, but if you just care about taking down Dragnor and finishing the story, then just skip to after Oichi evolves (spoilers).



Just before we start, here's a password. What does it do? Find out slightly later! Wow, suspense!




Monferno evolves when its Speed reaches 102 and Hideyoshi evolves when his link with Monferno or Infernape reaches 60%. See, we were close, but it would've taken a couple months to get to that point and I ain't got time for that.



Hey, Infernape! We're still a team, right!

So, spoilers, every single Warlord can evolve and this lets them Perfect Link with their fully evolved Pokemon partner. So if a Warlord stops having their Pokemon appear in the back, then they need to evolve to have that happen again.



Now I sense an even greater power than we had before, Pikachu. You feel it too, right? Let's stay friends, Pikachu!



Pichi evolves into Pikachu at 50% link, like most friendship evolutions. Hanbei evolves when Pikachu or Raichu reaches 60% link while in the same kingdom as Kanbei. Therefore...



Lampent... I sense a greater power than I did before... Do you feel it too? Well. Shall we set off, Lampent?



Litwick evolves when it reaches 84 Attack and Kanbei evolves when Lampent or Chandelure reaches 60% link while in the same kingdome as Hanbei. How cute.




I won't be showing every evolution that happens, but I will be doing most of the Warlords. We can't do all of them just yet and some I'll leave for future so we have something to look forward to. Also this is the only reason I reached level 3 in that Ignis cave, so Larvesta can appear and become Okuni's Perfect Link. Yes it's as amazing as you think.




Magoichi's Perfect Link is with the Treecko line and Hanzo's is with the Gastly line. I'm evolving all the Poison and Ghost types I can find to make things easier later. Also any new Warriors we encounter will be given full depth in the side update.



Motonari only evolves when you have over 100 Pokemon registered in the Gallery (as well as having 60% link with Servine or Serperior). Motochika has no such requirement, so he's very easy to snowball in any story he's in.



There is a Pokemon inside it, too! One that has never been seen before!



It looks powerful... Most Warriors would not even dare approach such a Pokemon.

Hmm... This sounds interesting. I shall go and investigate.

That password seems to have caused something to appear. Whatever could it be?

VS Legendary




Hey Reshiram, why you hiding buddy? Surprise surprise, a Gen 5 game with Zekrom in it has Reshiram too. However, due to it being an event (originally over Wi-Fi, but thankfully over password too), it's not counted towards 100% and the game will let you do stuff later on if you don't activate Reshiram's event.




Well Hideyoshi doesn't have Reshiram as a Perfect Link. Maybe we can change that when we give it a test run next month.




Excellent. Nene only evolves when you register all 16 Poison types into the Gallery, which can be a bit tricky since she also needs 60% link with Crobat (unless you evolve a Golbat elsewhere to register a Crobat beforehand) and Golbat evolves at 65% link. So I'm glad we could do this right now, but we'll have to wait on getting all the Ghost types since some of them are harder to come by (especially since Chandelure, Mismagius, Froslass and Dusknoir need evolution items).




Gracia's Perfect Link is with the Gothita line once I finally found one for her, while Oichi evolves when Jigglypuff or Wigglytuff reaches 55% link. She looks super cute now!



Phew, there's still stuff to do during this month, but only Warriors are registered to the Gallery by using them in battle the month after you did something crazy, but after you save, Pokemon are automatically attached and remain with their Warriors even if you don't register them next month, so it's more things to look forward to.



Hey, it's not nice to call people weird, you know! Anyway, I'm just a travelling merchant, so you can stop panicking. And I've brought some extra-special rare items with me today.

Oh well, this is a great opportunity. We should try and purchase some useful items, shouldn't we?



I was wondering if the travelling merchant would show up. This guy is someone you should prepare for, as there are a lot of items only he has, which can be super annoying if he pops up at a bad time. If you don't have any facilities to level up, then you should get a chunk of money regardless for the merchant.

Anyway, these four items are the only single use items that stay between stories, so they're a good investment, kinda. You can guess what the Full Restore and Purple Ponigiri do and they are pretty good, but again, Skills are free and easier to use. Hachimakis maxes out Attack, but makes the Pokemon faint on the 4th turn. Yes, it's amazing. Noisemakers prevent enemies from using items or Skills on the next turn. Eh, it's not that good.



Likewise, this is most of the equipment that stays between stories, aside from character exclusive items, like the Jigglypuff Charm, though you need to equip them each time. Fog Machines prevent the enemy from landing crits. Eh. Guardian Charms are pricy but sharply boost all stats when the Pokemon is the last one standing on the field, including if you only bring the one Warrior to that field. Combined with the Hero ability that basically does the same thing, this can make solo runs incredibly potent. Lucky Coins increase gold gains in battle and in the overworld. Combine with a Meowth and you'll have a nice amount of cash. Still eh. Large Sacks collect all the items on the field after battle, but can only be used once. Again, eh.



This is the main draw of the travelling merchant, evolution items! But first, let's go over the unique items here. Fireworks are used in January and boost energy for all in the army. Cold Medicine and Hayfever Pills are used in certain events to get good outcomes, but they're not necessary. Seriously, there's a lot of small events in this game and we had hardly any occur in this story. Maybe next one.



So this is the only place to obtain evolution items, which sucks really hard, since you need them to fill out the Gallery. I'm just gonna hack them in after this story cause I'm not gonna rely on this merchant appearing when I'm ready. To get all the evolutions for Warlords, you'll need a Razor Claw, a Thunderstone (since we got a free Thunderstone, Fire Stone and Water Stone for Eevee), a Moon Stone, two Dusk Stones, a Reaper Cloth and a Dawn Stone. Everything else is extra if you want to get every Pokemon, though a Protector is unnecessary. So yeah, a bit annoying, but we'll manage.



We've got enough spare cash to get a Moon Stone and a Dusk Stone. To use them, simply equip them to the right Pokemon and finish a battle. Simple. For Pokemon that require an item and a trade, you need to equip an item then recruit a Warrior with that Pokemon. Since there's no day/night or genders, the Razor Claw and Dawn Stone are much simpler to use.



Gothorita... It's weird--the feeling I have about you seems to have grown stronger... Do you get the same feeling? Okay! Let's stay friends, Gothorita!

There's still some evolving and all that that'll be in the side update, so who cares about that, let's go kick Nobunaga's ass. Again... again.

VS Dragnor



I think we're a bit stronger than them.




Okay, I know we're like 50x stronger than our opponents, but Reshiram is a really powerful Pokemon regardless, especially since it ignores abilities like Sturdy. Hideyoshi is gonna be a monster in future.



Mmm, that's the good stuff. Even though this is the final battle, it acts like any other, so you can recruit opponents, evolve, get items, etc, even though none of that matters (aside from Pokemon evolution).



You're a terrible brother.



Ideura Morikiyo was a ninja that served as a vassal in the Sanada clan and was governor of the Kai province under the Takeda family. He commanded groups of ninja to infiltrate castles and fortresses as he was a former ninja and very experienced in that field. After the Sanada clan fell, Morikiyo served under Nagayoshi Mori and led heavy fights with the Hōjō clan.



Nice, we've reached 100% link! It doesn't do anything unless your move benefits from a +S boost, but it's not worth it since getting to 100% legit takes forever and is awful and the opponents will never ever get close to your level. Anyway, let's recruit everyone? I guess???

Ransei



I can't wait to use these guys in another story. Seriously why are we able to do this?



Hey, Reshiram... I feel even greater strength than I did before... You feel it too, right? Hey, Reshiram! We're still a team, right!

Woah how crazy, Hideyoshi can evolve a second time if he reaches 70% link with Reshiram, who saw that coming? It's pretty neat, but isn't counted for completion if you never do the Reshiram event. We'll see what cool things he can do another time. For now, it's stone evolution time!



I sense a greater strength from you now than ever before, Wigglytuff... You feel it too--I know it. Let's stay together, Wigglytuff!




Okay I think we're done here, let us never grind again.









Lord Hideyoshi... Isn't that...?

It's here! The legendary Pokemon! It won't be long now! Soon we'll have a world where all people can live happily together with Pokemon!



Ransei was united under Hideyoshi's leadership, and conflict was banished from the region. As a result, it became easier for Pokemon and people to understand one another. The fact that this change was brought about through the power of Arceus, however, was known to no one...

Credits



And there we go, we're finally finished with this LP, thank you everyone for watching and... I'm not gonna do this joke again. We're at least done with Hideyoshi's story and got an alright ending, I guess. We'll see how it stacks up compared to the others.



Anyway, we've seen how this all goes, so let's save up and head back to the main menu.



When you complete a story, you usually unlock a new story you can play. There's 3 types of stories: Mandatory, which are the 17 stories of the main Warlords you need to complete to unlock the final scenario, as well as any other stories that unlock Mandatory stories. So Nene's is an example of that. Optional stories aren't required for the final scenario, but do unlock other stories if you're interested. Hanbei's is one of those, since completing that one unlocks Kanbei's story, which is the final type: Pointless. Doesn't unlock any new stories and isn't required to unlock the final scenario, but if you like the character, or are completing every story (you crazy motherfucker) then you can complete it, I guess.



Next time, it's Ieyasu's story and as you can see, we've still got a long way to go. Later!