Part 1: Prologue (1)

New game, ahoy!



Minions of the gods,
Einherjar dubbed are they,
In Valhalla toasting every night,
The battles of the day.

"The Chooser of the Slain,"
"Battle Maiden" be her names,
Yet others has the valkyrie,
To those whose kin she claims.



And so begins a tale,
Of vengeance and betrayal,
Destiny by sinner sought,
Tragedy by power wrought.





The map functions differently in CotP as compared to VP1: Destinations are only available during one chapter and gone the next. There is very little replaying or grinding available, so you'll have to take what you can get. In either case, we get immediately thrust into our starting location/plot.





That it does.

Wylfred and Ancel, our main characters. Wylfred is mandatory in all storyline battles, so you'll be seeing a lot of him.



Where ordinary men see risk, mercenaries see opportunity. On the fiends' heads rest ample sums for ye of the mettle to claim them.



The gods smile down on us...

Do they?



Also get used to seeing this feather quite a bit.

The time for trinkets is past. It comes time to draw swords.



Welcome to the tutorial battle! At the start of each one, we're given our mission objective (usually kill everything, but there will be exceptions).



You say this battle will be your first? Lest it be your last, you'll want to take heed of what I tell you.

Last thing we need is two dead dandies who couldn't keep their swords in their sheaths.

We'll start with that dire wolf bearing down on us. Close in and put the pup to sleep.




Each round is divided into the Ally Phase and the Enemy Phase. During the Ally Phase you can move your characters around (movement is very basic, using the four directional buttons). Characters can attack, use items, tactics, spells, or just end their turn. The red exclamation mark above an enemy's head means they can retaliate against an attacking character if they survive an attacking round.



Stats breakdown. HP is fairly self-explanatory - once it runs out, the characters is KO'd. Luckily death is not permanent in CotP (unless you make it so). AP is used for tactics and spells. It regenerates at a rate of 10 per round - 20 if you end the turn without doing anything but move.

Damage is based off ATK against RDM, or MAG against RST. All characters use ATK for their attacks, except Sorcerors, who use MAG - consequently MAG is useless for anyone except Sorcerors, who in turn have no use for ATK. HIT is stacked against AVD to determine if the attack hits or is evaded - dodging attacks is quite rare, so neither stat is an incredibly big deal.

The number next to the boots represents the number of steps the unit can move each turn - this is uniform throughout members of the same class or species. Next to the weapon icon is the number of attacks the unit can perform each round. Like other VP games, each character has their own set of three unique attacks (Sorcerors are the exception which will be covered another time). Wylfred's current weapon allows him to use the first two of his three attacks in battle. We can modify what attacks we want Wylfred to use and even what order they come in, but not just yet. Next to Attack and Defense is blank right now, but if Wylfred's attack is of any elemental nature or if he resists any elements, icons will show up next to them corresponding to said elements.



Wylfred is a Swordsman (represented by the longsword icon next to his name). Swordsmen are the basic unit, having average stats in everything and not excelling in any particular trait. Most characters of the same class have identical stats at any same level - Wylfred is an exception in that he has higher MAG growth than a regular Swordsman (which is useless, by the way). Swordsmen have a movement of 4 and can attack any unit in the eight tiles immediately around them. They tend to have low number of hits and deal average damage at best, but they are generally useful for setting enemies up for other characters to combo off of.

Watch yer step around that snarlin' harlot, lads. She'll have yer manhood if you give 'er a sniff.
Time to attack. Are you ready?




Combat takes place on a separate screen from the battlefield. Inputting attacks is very simple - just press the button corresponding to the unit's name (in this case, Y for Wylfred) and they'll execute their attacks in order. With multiple units in a single round you can spam their attacks all at once, but sometimes you have to time certain attacks to get their maximum benefit.

To the left of the enemy's HP bar are the Hit counter and the Battle Gauge - each attack has their own number of hits and adds a certain number of gauge. Get the Gauge to 100 and you can execute Soul Crushes.



Wylfred's first attack, Guilt Rack, is a fairly standard downward slash. Nothing too special about it.



His second attack, Open Slash, is a bit more interesting. Two hits, about the same damage as Guilt Rack, and more importantly, launches the enemy into the air. Airborne enemies can't block or dodge attacks, and getting struck while in the air have a chance to drop crystals. Crystals add 5% to experience gained from defeating an enemy, but they only count if you kill the enemy on the same turn the crystals are generated, and you can get a maximum of twenty crystals a combat round (for 100% experience gain). Consequently, airborne enemies can be harder to hit, depending on the attack - some characters' attacks can't hit airborne enemies at all, so timing becomes more important.

Wylfred can't finish the wolf off, so they get to counterattack and deals a minor amount of damage to Wylfred.



Ancel is a Warrior. Warriors excel in HP, ATK and RDM, and they have low MAG, AVD and RST. Their attacks tend to deal good or great damage, backed up by their strong ATK, but they also have the worst range in the game - they can only move 3 tiles and have the same attack range as a Swordsman.

We strike together?

Indeed, that is the essence of battle! The fist will crush what lone fingers cannot.

Let me in the fray and I'll show you what my sword can do!

You'll find my lance more than adequate as well. If we are to strike en masse, we had best keep together.

Any allies that are in range to attack the same enemy as the one the unit is attacking will join in as well. So Ancel moves up to the wolf, and Wylfred, being in range, will also be included in the attack.



Wylfred attacking the wolf from the back does allow me to show off another mechanic - Daze. Attacking enemies from the back has a chance to Daze them. Units that are Dazed at the end of attacks won't be able to counterattack, and they can't dodge or block while Dazed. Striking enemies when Dazed also has a chance to produce Red Gems, which replenish the attack count of the unit who generated them. Note though, that launching a Dazed enemy immediately ends Daze. There are also other ways to inflict Daze which we don't have access to at the moment.



Heugoe and Gwendal are basically here just to make sure we don't lose the tutorial battle - they're level 10 and grossly overpowered for this fight. They're both Guests, which don't mean much to us right now either. Gwendal's a Warrior as well, so nothing new there. Heugoe is a Lancer, which are a bit of the middleground between Swordsmen and Warriors. While they only have a movement of 3, they can attack any unit within 2 tiles' range. This means they can not only attack from further away, they can also avoid counterattacks from those that can only attack around them (like Swordsmen), but also makes it easier for them to join in allies' counterattacks.

Lancers have above average health and ATK, as well as high HIT and RDM, but poor AVD and RST. They have average dealing attacks but their attacks are poor at setting up combos - while this means they don't run the risk of launching enemies out of range, they depend on allies to set enemies up for them to get crystals and such.

Also note the SP besides Heugoe's Attack - it means that his weapon allows him to perform a Soul Crush. Wylfred is the only one in the current team that can't perform one right now.



Ancel's Steel Streak attack has him charge straight forward, doing six hits. It's a good attack for gathering crystals, but requires a bit of timing - if Wylfred launches the enemy too early then it will be too high up and Ancel will dive straight under or miss most of his hits.



With three characters, the combined attacks are usually enough to fill the gauge all the way up to 100, which allows us to perform Soul Crushes. Soul Crushes are simply used by pressing the button corresponding to the character whose Soul Crush you want to use. They're powerful, unblockable and undodgeable attacks, and gain power with every hit on the Hit Counter. They also add a considerable amount to the Battle Gauage, possibly allowing you to perform multiple Soul Crushes together, but there's a bit of a timer here - each time the prompt for a Soul Crush pops up the Gauge automatically drops to a certain amount and starts dropping rapidly. The first Soul Crush starts the gauge at 80, the second at 60 and the third at 40, and each character can only do their Soul Crush once per combat round.

The gauge will also start dropping after a while of the enemy not being hit, and similarly the hit counter will reset. So it's about finding a mix between chaining attacks rapidly while timing to make sure you're getting maximum impact from the attacks. If you don't want to use a Soul Crush for whatever reason, pressing any of the directional buttons will cancel the prompt.



Time to meet your maker!



Finishing Strike!







Sonic Burst!



Did you expect any less?



Defeated enemies also drop coin, or OTH. All characters on the battlefield will gain EXP even if they weren't in the round that killed the enemy, as long as they aren't KO'd.

That one's down. Keep this up and we'll fell a fortune by day's end!

We're done attacking whatever enemies are in rage, so we end our turn and it's the Enemy Phase.



Nothing of import happens (Wylfred takes another hit), but it's worth pointing out our characters are also subject to getting Dazed as well. Enemies won't get crystals though.



On our next phase, we down another Wolf, and they drop an item - Warrior's Arcanum restores 300 HP to an ally in range (about four tiles range). Items also cost AP to use.



Wylfred and Ancel also level up. Levelling up, aside from the requisite stat boosts, also fully restore a character's health - a handy trait that can end up saving a character's life or valuable items.



After we spend a turn moving forward, the leader, a Ghoul, attacks Wylfred. Leaders tend to have higher health and statistics (though not always) and are usually immune to all status effects except Daze. The Ghoul's attacks also hurt, well, at least to low levelled Wylfred.



Our attempts at retaliation are not going very well. It's a good thing we have our guests!




We manage to Daze the leader and Ancel shows off getting Red gems using Steel Streak. One quick thing to note that gems won't allow a character to use attacks that their weapon won't allow - Wylfred getting gems won't allow him to use his third attack, for instance - he'll just start using attacks from his two-attack loop again.



The Ghoul also drops a Union Plume, an item that allows a one-use revival of a fallen ally at 50% HP, and costs 30 AP to use.





And what of the tally, Captain? I don't suppose the royal rabble'll take us at our word.

Else you care to haggle for your due, you'd best to have skulls speak your claim for you.

Fair enough. I'll take just the jaws then.

Gwendal and the other soldies laugh...

Ya need not worry about that, boy. The pittance that fit in those puny arms would nae be worth disputin'!

Then I'll hear no quarrels when I line my coffers with your kill!

Heugoe and the other soldiers walk off back towards the keep.



But the demon rises up...



Ancel, look out!



And the Ghoul slashes Wylfred to the side.





Wylfred!

Damn you!



Darn it Ancel, why couldn't you have gotten this kind of strength before?



...







Wylfred offical render.