Part 45: Chapter 5B (1)

Impossible! Lord Roienburg swore his allegiance!

A clever ploy to seize the initiative, no doubt.

Was I naive to trust him? Gullible not to suspect he would turn my cousin against me? Must I sit ever in fear upon this throne?



---



Wylfred visits Margot to the same results, as well.





Know I would no sooner risk your lives than my own. It is with a heavy heart I stand before you here, at war's brink.

If the enemy would strike us in our weakest hour, then adversity shall be our rallying cry! Rise or fall, we stand together... for Artolia!





You would do well to hire me.

Strong words. We shall see if you have the sword arm to match. Enter the yard at your own peril.

---

Now that we're fully in control, let's finally take a look at Phiona.



While Valmur is the only male Archer, Phiona is the only female Warrior, not just in the game, but across the entire franchise. As a Guest, Phiona could use three attacks but no Soul Crush, but now she's fully customizable to our liking. Both Valmur and her start with a decent set of armour, too. As a female, she also has access to tiaras and dresses.



All the members of House Haughn are generally good characters, and while Phiona is perhaps less of a stand-out compared to her kin she's no exception to the rule. Phiona is arguably the easiest Warrior to use, as her attacks have a good amount of range and hits, she doesn't have a launcher, and her damage is only a sliver behind Gwendal's. Ocean of Pain is one of the strongest attacks in the game and is unblockable to boot, and while it only does one hit her other attacks are good enough for both crystals and gems. Since she doesn't have a launcher, unlike Gwendal, Phiona isn't deterred from using three-attack broadswords, widening her versatility. Her biggest flaw really is that she has a Warrior's range.



In a silly moment, I only realize now that I only have one copy of Dash and I had forgotten to restock on it (there are three battles in a row from Chapter IV till we get a chance to shop again). I decide to pass it to Phiona - Valmur's range is good enough that he can afford to go without it for one more map. I pass Valmur the Dawnsong and Supreme Crown, and give Phiona the Elemental Edge, which we haven't touched since we got it in Chapter II.



Sounds like a good enough time as any to test our siblings out. Liese is there because she's Liese.





Once again we have a battle without getting to shop, so enemies are hitting harder than we'd like them to be. We start off surrounded by enemies once again, but otherwise it's actually quite a relaxed battle. There are Mercenary enemies, which are resistant to Fire but weak to Ice.



Liese starts things off by Suspending the Queenpin.



Meanwhile, Phiona sets her sight on her first kill.



I shall wash my steel in your blood!

Later Wylfred joins in after the trio weaken it.



A few quick things can be seen - Phiona's range is immense, and she manages to hit the opponent even quite a way up in the air with the tip of Ocean of Pain. In addition Needlerain is still ridiculous. There is a notable drawback to it though, and that is the very long startup time - it isn't sped up by sieges either, so there are times when the game will prompt you to do a Soul Crush even when you're not done using Valmur's attacks.



Valmur Soul Crush

I accidentally cut off Valmur's line at the end trying to do his attacks again - his line is "'Tis the least I could do." Valmur's Soul Crush, like Duwain's, is powerful, but does only three hits, making it a good choice to end a long chain with.



Phiona Soul Crush

Once again I accidentally cut off her line, which was "Now you are verily fallen from grace." Also Valmur got a ridiculous number of gems and got the hit count all the way to 98, then Needlerain took too long and the hit counter reset.

Phiona's Soul Crush is actually quite average, her high ATK the only thing saving it from being mediocre. One quirk is that if you skip past the animation, the end only shows one Phiona stabbing the opponent without a double.



Is it ended at last?



The Sorcerer then proceeds to undo Liese's work by Normalizing the Queenpin.



To re-iterate, enemies hit hard, and Rogues tend to go for a character's back to get gems and rack up the damage. Liese luckily survived.



Fix that right up.



Perhaps war... is the only answer.

Geez Valmur, don't make us almost feel bad.



So basically I underestimated damage and it killed her perfectly, and Valmur's attacks were just a hedge slow and the gauge drained a bit, so I didn't even get a Soul Crush off. I'd need perfect kills on every other enemy to get double Sin, and I almost thought about restarting, but then again, I suddenly decided it wasn't worth stressing out about it this time round, as I didn't really need the rewards that badly. I probably wouldn't have had this problem if I actually gave Phiona a weapon that allowed her to do more than one attack.



Liese and Valmur weaken the Lancer and we get ready to finish him off.



The house is sacred above all else!

This is Phiona's line that she only uses if Valmur is also in the party. And she didn't really grasp Auguste's last words, did she?



Better.



Phiona's taken a bit of a beating, hanging in there due to her high HP.



You can see in the background how Needlerain is still happening. Actually that's a slight trick or quirk one can use - after a Soul Crush prompt, whether or not you do one or cancel it, if a character has any attacks remaining afterwards, they will perform them from the beginning of their order instead of where they left off. For instance, if I have Valmur's attacks in the order Needlerain > tri-Stinger > Cutthroat, do two attacks, and the Soul Crush prompt comes up, afterwards, Valmur will do Needlerain instead of continuing with Cutthroat. You can use this trick to maximize use of your best damaging or multi-hit attacks.



In deepest reverence we hold the fallen.



Liese barely survives the Archeress' attacks. I don't think anything's going to beat Duwain's miraculous survival in that first battle of chapter 4C, though.



Nicolas... I go to you...

Phiona is not so lucky.



One revive later, and let's take out the Queenpin.





Now, this is my bad - my finger slipped and I scrambled to recover, but too much of the gauge had drained to get off another Soul Crush, so I just opted for Phiona's and hoped the Elemental Edge boosted Soul Crush would be enough.



It is not, sadly.



Savour the beauty amid the battlefield's gore!

There's this odd sense of relaxation when you know you're not going to get double Sin and you don't really care - now you can just afford to kill enemies leisurely without stressing to get perfect combos.



Also Liese got a level up and fully restored her health from that close shave, and now we take out the Archeress.





You bring glory to our house, Brother.

I like Phiona's victory animation though. And there's her victory line that she might use if Valmur is in the party.



Only the Sorcerer is left, and he has an unpleasant surprise for Valmur in the form of Suspend Motion.



I move everyone forward and put off healing him, and he gets a nasty shot of fire up his crack for his troubles.



Healing health and status effects today, Liese? Who are you, Rosea?



Alright, let's get a long chain of fillers for this chapter over with.







And we're done.





The 150% rewards (Magic Boots and Encirclement) are all we would want, anyway. 200% gets us a copy each of Aura Flux and Knockout Blow. While Knockout Blow is nice to have, it's not really vital. A shame Archers can't learn it.

---



Your Highness!

Disperse. I wish to have word with this one.



That explains why it is unfamiliar, then. My late father taught my brother and me all manner of fencing.

As children, we would duel with dulled daggers. Though the years have honed our blades, our bonds have weathered.

Have you any brothers?

Nay. A sister once, but hunger took her.

My condolences on your loss. I can only imagine your pain.

I have no desire to see my sibling dead. I wage war against him under duress.



It is unbecoming of a prince to ramble on like a madman.

Voice should not be given to such thoughts.

Seldom do heart and mind agree... ...in my experience.



As all else grew dark, it became clear to me that I should live for a single purpose - to smite the one who sundered my family.

Yet the notion of sacrificing those dear to me for that purpose...



...

Alas, no good comes of asking others that which only oneself can answer.



As we speak, one who has kept watch over my brother and me since childhood seeks to negotiate a truce between us.

My advisors appeal me to oppose a resolution, all the while insisting they consider my best interest at heart.

Nevertheless, they hold a personal stake in this conflict you do not. And what is more, I do not hear the sincerity in their tone that I do in yours.

Only the honesty of a trusted ally can clear my clouded vision.



---

Voting Time!

First of all, Liese is going to secure herself a spot, by virtue of being our only character with a knockdown. The remaining two spots are up for grabs, however. You get two votes each to decide who gets those spots amongst Cheripha, Natalia, Earnest, Valmur and Phiona. Again, you can split them 1-1 between two characters, or back one character up with both votes.

In addition, you guys also get one vote on one character to be used as a backup. The backup vote will be done separately - whoever has the highest votes in the backup poll who didn't already secure a spot in the main party gets it. To make things just a tiny bit more interesting, you can't vote for a character for the backup that you did for the main party.

Sounds simple enough, right? Voting ends sometime at the end of the weekend.