Part 50: He Who Loves Chaos
Before we do anything, let's go over our new units. Hauser heads a cavalry unit with 9 ATK and 7 DEF. Georg leads an infantry unit with 11 ATK and 8 DEF, with Critical, and Maximilian has a cavalry unit with 6 ATK and 7 DEF. They're a bit light in units, let's add some.
Gijimu, Lo Wen, and Koyu are now lieutenants. Melee is an ability that allows a non-archer, non-mage unit to instantly defeat archers or mages. Lo Wen also has this ability, and gives +2 ATK as well. Koyu gives +1 ATK and Repair Self. We also switch Camus over to Georg's unit so we have more cavalry fighters.
Going with Viktor leads to the least interesting of the choices. This battle only lasts seven turns.
Jowy heads the unit that attacks us, while we distract their forces from reaching Greenhill.
Their mage unit uses Fire, a spell we don't have access to right now.
It's overall pretty dull, especially since there are so few enemies.
Lo Wen's Melee instantly runs through the mages, after she calls them cowards.
But we could also just take out their leader.
Jowy's not supposed to fall when this happens, but he calls for Culgan and Seed as backup. They then retreat.
Next we choose to wait. During this instance, you'll face no war battles. Instead, you'll handle battlefield reports.
It's the dullest of the three options, but some of your choices are amusing.
We get a play-by-play of the whole battle.
Basically what's happening if we chose to go with Viktor.
Your choices can lead to Stars of Destiny dying, so it's best to play safe and choose the first option every time.
We'll be in that battle soon enough.
Choosing the bloodthirsty route can get Stars of Destiny killed, even if it's enticing. The soldier immediately comes back reporting that Hauser has encountered a bunch of new units, the end of the Viktor war battle.
Kiba's forces encounter Yuber, and the forces from Karaya, headed by Lucia. The soldier takes over command on his own, in a Shu-like manner.
Apple of course berates us for being here.
The third option is the best, but Apple won't let you do it. No matter what happens, you'll still end up outside Greenhill.
The option the game wants you to choose is to go with Kiba, and that's to march on Greenhill. It's also the most exciting and requires a lot of
Yeah yeah generic banter between generals
Jowy has Lucia all in his pocket.
The Karaya Tribe units all have high attack and low defense, making them worthy adversaries.
Lucia's a tough unit on her own, and Yuber, the head, has 16 ATK and 12 DEF. The only forces of ours that are shared between these two battles are Gilbert's and Ayda's. This battle gives us Ridley, Kasumi, Luc and Kiba.
goddammit Ayda.
Thanks to the RNG system, these units have some unknown resiliency, despite having 3 DEF.
And yet they run through Kiba like butter.
But Ayda eventually learns how to shoot arrows.
Her forest walk ability is really nice here, because if she gets hurt she can easily retreat.
However, despite all the forces, the AI is determined to just... wait the entire battle. Except for the mage.
So I just pick them off with archers and mages...
Eventually, Lucia steps in to fight.
And Kiba just wrecks her shit in. She does the same to him the next round.
In a real war, these volleys of arrows would actually do something.
Jess, being a not-asshole for this battle, uses his Evade ability to nullify Lucia's attack.
All that's left is an archer and Yuber.
After that it's all a matter of wearing through Yuber's high defense. However, once your units are on the same city as he is, you'll regenerate HP (at the end of turn), putting you at an advantage since he will not. His unit also doesn't have the ability to bypass fortress walls, so you can shoot arrows at him all you want.
Seems fitting. Jess also stepped in again with another Evade.
Teresa, of course, reminds us that there are secret passages. Which is what we've known for quite some time now.
Teresa joins our group, but Shin is optional. I bring him along just for funsies, despite his horrible defense stat.
Here's our weird-ass battle party. L.C.Chan, yes, does join at level 99 as well.
Yep, he's ridiculous. You can actually return to HQ to outfit your dudes, and it's a good idea to do so.
One way to trivialize the next section's boss is to bring Luc with a Cyclone Rune, or, buy a ton of Wind crystals and synthesize them into The Shredding scrolls. He has a huge weakness to Wind.
The only new enemies here are the GrandHollys. The HollyFairy will frequently levitate upward and cast a spell. If there are no Hollyboys on the field, the GrandHolly will spew a few more out. The GrandHollys have a lot of HP and can attack any character on the field.
The DoReMi Elves are here, too, and they're stronger.
The Highland soldiers here will drop Iron Boots, the only place to get them. They add 15 DEF, one of the strongest accessories in the game.
Gross. (He's sneezing them out, by the way)
We also find the Dream Robe here, a rare item. It basically makes it so you'll sometimes dodge an attack, be it physical, range, or magical.
Mini-boss battle with Lucia and her Karayans. Like every boss, she gets two turns. Her Karayans also pack a punch, Shin alone took 250 damage; however, he also has shitty defense so that's his problem. Like before, Lucia has her Fire Rune, and does more damage with it now.
So we spider slay her.
Yep, L.C.Chan throws a fucking hadoken.
That's without a Fury Rune or any Runes that boost his attack. Bob is ridiculous.
She also has a very strong attack which summons fire chakrams, unique to her.
And Bob ends the battle. Lucia gives us another Blue Gate Rune upon defeat.
: Why do you think of us as enemies?
: What are you talking about?
: We, the people of the Karaya, have been caught up in countless foolish wars with you, and have always been oppressed. And just when some measure of harmony was in sight... your father Alec and Gordeau (read: Gorudo, translators...) of Matilda poisoned my father to death at a peace council. They assassinated him! They probably thought that since the girl was next in line to be chieftain, they could control us. A most foolish strategy indeed! All the Karaya are warriors... men, women, it doesn't matter!: My father did what... ?
: If they prove true, I swear my father's sin will be acknowledged and you will be compensated. For now, I ask you to believe us. Lord Azure is different from my father, and past rulers of the City-State. I ask you to watch our struggle and decide for yourself.
Once we get into Greenhill, this student will recover your HP/MP for free, and the soldier across from her will allow you to save.
Getting through the town requires many more Highland soldier fights.
At the entrance of Greenhill, Yuber appears.
: Ruler of hatred, master of nightmares... my servant, I call you forth from your dark realm to wreak havoc and destroy this boy!
Just then, a skeleton dragon! With a huge weakness to Wind.
Even L.C.Chan, with a 133 Magic stat, can tear apart this guy. Luc, with 180, can do 1400 damage.
It spends the entire match growling at you.
This is Shining Wind. It first heals, then attacks, instead of what it did in the first game.
The dragon has two attacks. It'll do this, or it will breath a huge fuckoff blast.
Like so.
: You will find it is not easy to extinguish the flames of war...Yuber disappears from the game, but he's not quite gone from the series.
And Greenhill, after so much playtime, is liberated.
While we attacked Greenhill, Highland took the opportunity to flood Matilda.
Viktor's battle, ultimately, was just fighting decoys. Klaus tells us that while the Knights remain independent, they are now puppets of Highland (maybe they always were...).
Apple reasons it's time to take the fight to Muse, but, we won't do that just yet. We have Stars of Destiny to recruit first.