Part 6: Battle #3

randomcommoner posted:

I remember the sequel was the first game I ever rented, and I loved the heck out of it, hell it is one of the few games I rented more than once, because I couldn't finish it the first go and because I really liked it. Maybe it's because I was very young, but I still love and seldomly replay it.

It was the same with me. I actually played the original Shining Force after its sequel, though I came to like the original a little more, if only because the character portraits aren't as happy-looking. It's disconcerting for all the characters to have shit-eating grins when horrible things are happening.


Update time!





When in battle, you can bring up a minimap to show the layout of units on a battlefield.
The green dots are us, the red ones are the enemies.

So, this battle consists of:



Five Dark Dwarves



Five Rune Knights


And five Giant Bats, which we haven't seen before. As I mentioned before, flying units get to ignore terrain, so it won't be long until they reach us.



Our initial layout is fairly mediocre. The centaurs and the warriors are put in front, but Gillian is further back than I'd prefer.



I go after the bats to the right first because they're obviously advancing towards us.



The theme of this battle is evasion, apparently. The bat dodges Mae's attack, Mae dodged the bat's attack, and now the bat dodges Ken's attack.



Well, shit. Apparently bats have a chance to cause "Sleep" when attacking, and getting hit again doesn't wake them up. Ken is smacked twice and is asleep on the job.



And now Mae gets double attacked.



As you can see, when I moved right to go after the bats, one of the Dark Dwarves advanced. I'll be going after him with Gillian so he doesn't get easy access to our squishier party members.



Gillian swings twice and eliminates the threat.



Luke gets to try out his new axe, and does 8 damage.



Gort only does 6.

More of the Dark Dwarves are trying to take advantage now that we're split into two groups, but since both groups have a healer, I'm not worried.



Mae gets her first kill.



And now Luke is asleep.



Gillian takes out another Dwarf, and the other one nearby is almost dead as well.



Finally.

Since Tao is at 92 XP, I avoid giving her the kill. I'd rather let Gong have it.



Instead, I have her go after this Dwarf.



1 defense, 1 speed, 1 HP, 1 MP.



Gort finishes off the other bat.



Since the forces on the right have finished with the bats, it'll be time for them to rejoin the main force.

The two lower dwarves barely have any HP left, and Gillian has 96 HP, so there's no sense in letting him hog the kill XP. I have him go after a Dwarf to the North.



2 Attack, 1 Defense, 2 Speed.



Gong cleans up one Dwarf, Tao takes out the northernmost one



And Ken finishes off the last one.

2 Attack, 1 Speed, 4 HP.



About time, any longer and he'd have little hope of catching up.





With the Dwarves gone, my formation looks like this. I've begun advancing on the bats to the northwest. I'm going after them first because the Rune Knight's crappy mobility through the forest will keep them away until after I'm done. If I went after them first, I'd most likely have to deal with both groups of enemies at once.



Of course, some of the Rune Knights approach anyway, but only a couple of them, rather than the full group.



Gillian double attacks, but the bat dodges both swings.



1 Attack, 3 Defense, 1 HP.



I then have Ken poke at this bat.



And Gort finishes it off. He gains 4 Defense, 1 Speed.



Gillian finishes off the final bat, while the Rune Knights have yet to reach us.



Now the Rune Knights are attacking in full force, and I'm still spread out a bit.



Ken picks off this Knight.



While Tao uses the last of her MP to wound this one.



Mae is taking a bit of a beating, so Gong brings her back to 100%.



Luke finally catches up, just in time to finish off the second Rune Knight.



Ken takes a hard hit.



Luckily, Gong is able to act before Ken can be finished off.



Gort gets off a critical attack, which finishes off yet another. Two to go. Fun fact, if a character is going to critical hit, a "clicking" sound plays when they begin their swing, and it's one of the most satisfying sound effects in gaming.



I let Gong have another kill.



1 Attack, 2 Defense, 1 HP, 1 MP.



And Luke finishes off the last one.




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