To the point. We will be rescuing prisoners today.
Ike offers a friendly word to Ranulf.
Seems an odd assumption, honestly. It's not like Ike remembers his time in Gallia.
Ranulf also tries to slip a mention to Ike that "beorc" is the politically correct term for... well, beorc. Ike's already caught on, though, so Ranulf changes tack.
This is important. (Incidentally, the JP term for "human-used-as-slur" is "ningen", which is roughly the equivalent word to set up the same thing).
ie "Beorc would not guess the implication on their own."
Any laguz we meet that calls the beorc "humans" is hostile. This is why learning that fact was important.
The reason Ranulf showed up here, though, was to talk to Elincia.
He has something to give her!
...There are different beorc and laguz currencies? This never comes up in gameplay, partially because the only thing we have to spend money on is our own personal shop, but this is an odd reveal for an off-the-cuff comment.
20,000 is apparently a lot. And it is.
Caineghis is giving such a generous funding packet because he is upset that he can't do anything other than give Elincia to some random mercenaries and send her back to Crimea to find a boat to Begnion.
Ranulf suggests Elincia use the money to pay the mercenaries, which just gets Ike involved in trying to deny it.
This is Caineghis's counter, and it's honestly a pretty good one. "Just" 20,000? That's not going to last us the whole game even if we don't do any Forging.
Elincia will glaldy take it.
And give it to us.
We are now paid mercenaries!
...Oh yeah, the whole "there are no boats in Gallia" thing comes up here. I wonder what the problem is- don't cats like fish? Maybe they just don't want to lose one of their own boats.
If we're going to run into Daeins, it would be nice if there were more of us. We are at least getting actual new characters now.
Caineghis is helping!
Oh yeah, I implied we would be getting Lethe. Also Mordecai, who is an awesome unit casually more because of his bulk and his Supports than his offensive power, just as you'd expect from a pacifist.
Well, if that isn't a good line to hear after learning what a laguz saying "humans" means.
This is a better reason for laguz to not be interested in this trip. Begnion is not a laguz-friendly place.
Compared to Ike constantly asking if his subordinates are 100% on board with his leadership, this is sorta nuts. The sorts of "my King, right or wrong" is a pervading character type of Fire Emblem on both sides (though only on the enemy side is it memorable), but Three Houses was the game to finally start unpacking that with Faerghus.
Lethe and Mordecai are more than worth it. Even if laguz are kinda weird mechanically.
Yes yes, can't forget that.
Even Ranulf is snarking at her.
Titania is still MVP for cleaning up the south largely on her own. We'll start using other units enough to get her out of the MVP slot this map.
Now that we actually have a breadth of units, it's time to show off some of our Support options. Titania will only ever Support with these four characters, which means she's going to get some with Mist as a matter of course.
Mia and Ilyana have ??? entries on their listings, which will be filled in when we recruit the missing characters. I can confirm that Mia's last Support partner is a man, but Ilyana will be able to Support with another woman. Also, Ilyana's Support listing kinda spoils we're getting Gatrie back- you'll also see Shinon if you check some other characters.
Mist Supports Titania and also one more character. I will confirm that that character is a girl.
Marcia has two extra characters not currently listed. One of them is a woman.
Lethe has three missing characters, one of whom is a girl.
We still don't yet have any girl/girl pairings we can start yet, but Supports form by using the two characters in the same mission together. This cannot be sped up in any way. The fact that the devs know exactly when you're allowed to first see a Support allows them to use plot developments to their advantage, a feature that's incredibly cool... and only used properly by a handful of chains. It wouldn't be until Shadows of Valentia that the idea of Supports that could only be viewed after certain plot events would be revisited.
Also, I'll still be showing off all Supports, regardless of number of men. I'll only be focusing on the ones I get, though.
Starting off with... Ike/Titania? Well, Titania can only Support one female, so might as well use up her other chain. Ike/Titania is a hard chain to build and might as well. This does mean that, depending on Ike's position, Titania might sorta "cheat" by proccing this bonus. Oh well.
Anyway, Ike mentions that Titania's tutelage helped Ike to flourish, which is something I had always skimmed.
Sure, Titania, tell him about his talent.
This is the chain where this comes up.
...Later. Titania just dodging that question.
Three Info conversations today. One that touches on the themes of the game, and two with female characters. My favourite kinds!
Generic solider laguz designs always look weird to me. Where are the eyes? It gets worse in Radiant Dawn: some generic laguz portraits have headbands that look like they're covering up the eyes, rather than just some very perplexing arrangement where the artist has just elected not to draw eyes where they should logically be.
Ike got lost, which is an understandable state when inside an unfamiliar castle. The laguz offers to help him out.
And then the laguz kinda... tells him to keep his distance.
Just because you know a behaviour is racist does not mean you will stop doing that behaviour. Particularly if your division is based on some kind of wrongdoing, like the laguz have for beorc, old habits die hard. This is something that Ingrid has to deal with when talking to Dedue.
Honestly, you don't even need "our blood remembers the slavery". You've got plenty of problems in living memory to point to.
Ike makes things as easy as possible. He may not know the correct things to do, but when he's taught, he will take them to heart quickly.
Ike asks Marcia if she's doing all right with the packing. Marcia's doing just fine, thanks for asking.
This surprises Ike, mostly because Marcia is so good at packing that it makes him reassess his expectations.
Nah, this is just something she picked up from the Holy Knights.
The Holy Knights are a big deal in Begnion. I almost think badly of Marcia for deciding to quit after all, if it wasn't for how volatile the Begnion court is. And also her other reasoning.
Marcia wonders if Ike's trying to get rid of her. Ike insists that he's happy for each person who stays.
Marcia has reasoning for leaving the Holy Knights other than following Ike, and it's... her brother. Everyone who knows the slightest bit about who her brother is is going "really, Marcia?" right now, and with good reason. Honestly, though, I support Marcia's decision here.
Marcia's brother is a compulsive gambler who's racked up more debt than Jeralt's bar tab, and Marcia needs him to take responsibility. I believe it comes up later, but debt collectors have taken to approaching the Holy Knight's barracks, simply because trying to extort Marcia for money is more likely to get a response than tracking down that layabout. Marcia needs to do something just to handle that mess.
...And also he's her brother. Rolls eyes.
Speaking of not being fond of the people you are forced to deal with, Lethe is being catty about being stuck with the beorc. Also she's bored of waiting around.
Ike likes to travel light. I'm sure he very much wishes he could just punch people to death and only use his cape as his camping supplies. Even then he'd still need to carry rations and stuff, though I'm sure the laguz should be concerned about that too.
Weapons of steel are also what allowed the beorc to fight the laguz at all. Which... from a laguz perspective, probably a bad thing, yeah.
...Busted.
Lethe doesn't fight with her dagger. More's the pity, honestly. But I can see how doing this with a beorc tool would be better than using her laguz paws.
Lethe is prideful, not stupid.
Wait a second, Lethe, are you...
...Never mind. Sadly, it turns out "This is a ridiculous conversation. I'm leaving now" is separate textboxes. Feels like it should all be one.
Showing off the shop. Look at those prices, look at those Funds. I should be stocking up on weapons right now! But I'm in the habit of doing it later and we're not particularly pressed for anything yet, so all I get is a Steel Axe for Titania. Steel Axes and Steel Lances will be the bread and butter of your offensive presence with lance and axe users- plus the thrown weapons, if you trust them enough. I, incidentally, do not. Sword users also have Blades, which makes kitting them more interesting.
Speaking of Blades, it turns out that Mia is now strong enough to wield Iron Blades without penalty! In Three Houses, 1 point of weapon weight was mitigated by 5 points of Strength, but in PoR, it's a much less strict 1:1 system. You'll find that this quickly trivialises the weapon weight system for physical units, which is probably why it was changed.
This is Lethe's second stat page. She doesn't have any skills, but cast your attention to the lower-left corner. Whether Lethe is an untransformed Beast Tribe or a transformed Cat is governed by her Transform Gauge, which fills and empties and causes her transformation.
While in Beast Tribe state, her Gauge will fill. At the beginning of every Player Phase, she will gain 4 points of "TP", and every round of combat she participates in will grant her an extra 2 points. Whenever she happens to be at 20 points (it will not go over), she will transform into her Cat form.
While in Cat state, her Gauge will empty. At the beginning of every Player Phase, she will lose 3 points of TP, and each round of combat will cost her 1 TP. Whenever she happens to hit 0 TP, she will instantly revert to Beast Tribe state.
Lethe may only attack while in Cat form. Her Claws are a static, never changing weapon (8 Mt for Lethe) that can only attack at 1 range. While transformed, laguz gain a static set of transformation bonuses based exclusively on their class and gender- although cats specifically do not differ by gender. These facts will dictate how I use her. Another important fact, specific to Lethe, is that she will always start a map with 16 TP- which means she instantly transforms with all 20 TP on Turn 1. Mordecai starts with 0 TP instead, so he has to charge up his whole gauge before he can start contributing.
Well, that was a huge laguz dump. Let's see some numbers!
These two were on the first try. After that, though, things got a little more annoying.
Got the sort of thing I want to see in the end, though. Mist's main concerns are her Mag (for healing) and her Speed/Luck (for evasion). She will have use for her Strength and Skill later, though.
...Oh, right, Mist is so low levelled that BEXP is still relatively cheap for her. Oh well, one more.
...The three stats I singled out. Well, sure. Moving on...
Map narration! After the base. I think it's usually before the chapter title, or at least directly after.
The first time I saw that country, I thought the map designers had given up on countries and just filled in the rest of the map with Begnion. I can still sorta see where I got that opinion from.
Is the narrator from the Begnion Empire? This is such an infantilising turn of phrase. ...Literally, I suppose, but still. Cut them some slack!
This is a bit of a different story to "Gallia has no boats". This "impassable" mountain range turns out to be very passable in Radiant Dawn, but I still think it's not functionally passable enough to recommend Elincia use.
That route even looks long.
Ranulf is just sticking around until Crimea. We're not getting him in our party.
...Random statement, Ranulf.
Oh. Sure, let's do that.
I'm not sure how and why you know this, but sounds good! I like having more people.
Look, people! This panning shot gets complicated, so I'll go over the geography in a bit, but this picture shows the important stuff.
Map scenes often include the highest characters in the roster. Which means Marcia brings her pegasus in with its flapping wings. At least we won't have to send for anyone while switching people.
To free the prisoners, we must get the keys to the cell doors, of course.
You don't want to trade blows with the entire castle garrison.
You can stay close to the walls and avoid being seen or heard.
Oh hey, a visitor. Just walking right into a hostile castle and asking for a dead man, as you do.
The pot calling the kettle black. This time, while the two characters are wearing black!
Yeah, sorry, Mr. Volke. Ike's Greil's son, though!
"...Intelligence" always means you're in the sort of conversations that involve one member having an emergency blood removal. And Greil employed this guy.
Good to know. I hope.
Well, at least we can reap the benefits. Name your price, shady dude-
Oh. That is more than I possess.
I'll believe it when I see it. (It is.)
Ike is happy to believe it.
Titania, less so. And with good reason.
Ike points out that if it's a dud, at least we'll know. Whether or not this guy keeps our money is another matter.
Volke has better things to do than wait for us to supply the money.
Beyond whether or not firemen exist in the setting of Tellius, I am now imagining a man whose house is on fire entering a tavern, asking for a fireman, and Volke showing up to much confusion from everyone involved.
Soren has another idea.
We need cell doors open, but we don't yet have a certified lockpicker.
This isn't just something Volke says but doesn't follow through on. If Volke opens a door or a chest, you will be 50G poorer.
You can say that about multiple people in this party.
You can choose not to hire Volke. I think doing that actually makes you lose a deployment space in this map. Just Hire him, you don't even have to use him.
Volke in a nutshell.
Ranulf, now that everything has been organised, decides to leave us to our own devices.
He's busy, you see. I don't know if we ever find out what. "I have a job to do" or "I have errands to run" or something similar is a quick and easy way for Fire Emblem games to get overpowered characters to not participate in an earlygame map.
For the first time in the run, we're almost running up against the permitted deployment space! This is the first map in the game a normal run will be required to make choices about which units to deploy. We've made our choices.
We start out outnumbering the enemy! Well, it's not that simple. This can be a stealth mission- those three guards out in the middle will wander around the map in a fixed pattern, and if you complete the objective of the map (Escape up in the top-left) without being "discovered", you gain a large quantity of BEXP.
You will be considered "discovered" if you do one of the following things:
- Have a non-red unit of any colour (blue, green, yellow) in range of a Watch at the start of Enemy Phase.
- Attack a cell door to break it down.
- Attack or kill a Watch unit.
This is the boss. He's got a bit of a Strength stat, Defence stat and some serious power in that Steel Blade. Keep on your toes if you're in the area.
This is his area. Him and his two myrmidon guards are not members of the Watch, and attacking them will not compromise the "Was not discovered" objective. Those are also four treasure chests with him.
This is a treasure chest in the top-right corner, inside a jail cell. It has been locked away because it is a Statue Fragment, and Statue Fragments suck- they raise your Build, but Build is nearly worthless outside Shove and Rescue calculations (and something else if you're using Boyd). Not worth the time and effort. Maybe if this was the GBA.
We start the battle with Lethe transforming.
Pictured: If you want to avoid being discovered, you want to stay outside the red area. It's not something unfamiliar to you, it's just being used a new way.
Ilyana attempts to break down this cell door. This is my first attempt.
Because I didn't yet know that attacking cell doors triggers the "Discovered" condition. I was actually kind of upset to find this out.
I redo this turn, keeping everyone out of range and not attacking this door.
After our first turn, we check in on the prisoners. This fellow seems untalkative.
Poor Brom. He doesn't deserve this.
"This", of course, not being the probable slow and painful death of his friends, but the misfortune of being locked in the same cell as this nutjob.
TMI, dude.
"I joined the war effort to fight people, not listen to the ways I might be tortured!".
This woman is either in danger of going insane or just trying to keep quiet. Maybe she's supposed to be in solitary right now- this prison is kinda weirdly set up.
Kieran, Brom and Nephenee are recruitable characters, and obviously, we will get them if we free them from jail. So what about Sephiran?
...I dunno, boss, something's telling me this guy might not be joining us.
The Watch has moved, and the field of discovery has changed with it.
I decide to free Sephiran from his cell. I had some weird idea about putting him somewhere exciting tactically, but I never got around to choosing a position. Oh well. Note if you're playing stealth, if you unlock this cell, the south Watch will notice Sephiran and Discover you.
Speaking of being Discovered, I decide to do so. There's a reason I decided to do so on Turn 2, incidentally.
That being the reinforcements appear at the beginning of Enemy Phase.
Which makes them one of the handful of Same-Turn Reinforcements that make players of specific FEs and difficulties tremor in fear. Path of Radiance has only a few cases, and even fewer that are scary.
Lethe jumps around like mad when attacking. Also I do not understand what part of the animation this screenshot is depicting.
Her EXP isn't as bad as Titania's was, but Lethe is considered to be "promoted". No, seriously, the thing that governs her EXP yield is the same as that for promoted units. I still don't understand RD laguz EXP curves, though.
Marcia does more damage to this soldier than he does to her, both raw and percentage-based, but I do not like the numbers.
Lethe doesn't actually one-round this Knight on her own. I decide to have her damage this guy and let someone else get the kill, which honestly becomes an issue later. I don't think she could have reached the fire mage one tile up, though.
Soldiers appeared in the starting position (which makes a Turn 1 trigger exceptionally awkward), so Ike and Mist are running out of places to stand.
Ilyana can finish off this guy if she switches to Elthunder. Remember to check this sort of thing.
Sometimes Ilyana will crit and you feel like you wasted your effort.
That is way too close for comfort. I should be more concerned about Marcia's Defence...
Mist does not fully heal Marcia's encounter. This is both worrying on Mist's part and... kinda not, because you can always heal again for more EXP. Depends on what time you have.
Fire magic is Effective against Beast Tribe units. That, of course, doesn't mean that it's lethal to them.
Lethe does one round the other armour.
Marcia does not double myrmidons. Which is not surprising, but I'm spoiled and this is mildly irritating.
Mia did a lot of damage to this armour knight with her Iron Sword. Anti-armour just kinda loses its luster when you're doing the job with your stock weapons.
Remember that knight Lethe weakened to feed it to someone? This is it finally getting fed. Feels like I should have had a better plan for how to do this.
Lethe uses a Door Key to open this cell. This is something I normally ignore in All Girls runs, since both the inmates here are boys, but I also happen to really like Brom, so I decided to spare him this time.
Mia brings out her Armourslayer for a Knight and crits it.
Ilyana can one round soldiers now. She's doing just fine.
Never has a six stat level up seemed so disappointing. Speed and Defence are the important stuff!
Lethe kills this fire mage finally. She's probably more sick of dealing with it than I am. If she didn't, I think it could've gone after Kieran and Lethe's almost out of TP and then it'd be a big problem...
Oh, Lethe is out of TP.
...
Damn, Lethe is buff as hell.
Either that or Brom is light, considering how overweight he is.
Volke rolls his eyes.
Ike is a mercenary in the employ of a princess whom, as far as the general public is concerned, does not exist. Yeah, it kinda is a long story.
Ike Shoved her back a tile, but setting her to Target the Escape tile means she's moving closer than I can deal with the enemies.
Marcia is a bad unit to use to fight Danomill. Let's get someone better in.
Well, Ilyana's just been doing so good this map, how about a bad level up?
Ike orders Nephenee to Halt. Beats re-targeting.
Strength and Speed! But still no Defence. We'll reconsider the ramifications of that later.
Titania drew the "bait Danomill" straw. She has her Hammer to smack him upside the head with.
Danomill is such a creepy asshole. He has unique boss dialogue with Ike, Lethe and Mordecai that is even more flowery. I think I'll share Mordecai's.
Danomill: Oh, dear heavens… Look at the size of this one! Easy now–don’t move. I’ll not let such a trophy escape.
Mordecai: Your soul is twisted. It saddens me.
Titania has severely wounded Danomill, but not killed him! Perfect timing for someone else to get the kill and reap the experience!
...Mia? One important thing about boss kills you should keep in mind is that you can't get more than 100 EXP in one go. Feeding your bosses to your stronger units might just waste less EXP in the long run- let your weaker units gain their EXP from easier ways while they're still easy.
A worthy level from killing a General.
We get his Master Seal. Master Seals can be used on an unpromoted unit who is level 10 or higher to promote them into a level 1 promoted unit. In Tellius only, you can also promote by getting to level 20 and then levelling up again, so Master Seals aren't necessary. There's also only three of them. One of them is destined for Mist and the other two might never get used. Especially the third one.
For the first time all map, Ilyana feeds Marcia a kill. I feel like I should've been doing this more.
Ike recruits Brom, who seems excited to learn the Princess is in charge of Ike.
Also he's cramping up. Brom was designed to look 38, and he fits comfortably within that.
Ike has no patience for it. Boo.
...Brom realises after the fact that he doesn't know who Princess Elincia is.
I'm done using Mia, so I have her Escape. Incidentally, the one-use Iron Sword I used to kill Danomill might have ultimately been better served weakening that Halberdier so Marcia could kill it.
Nephenee and Brom reach the Escape square. They're worth BEXP if they do so too. If you're playing on the JP-exclusive Maniac difficulty, getting them to the Escape tile is required to recruit them at all.
So yeah, I was saying about weakening this Halberdier for Marcia's benefit?
One of the chests was holding a Counter scroll. Another scroll I'm probably never going to use.
The other three Chests have a Short Axe, Steel Lance and Javelin. For some reason, I feel like those are Kieran, Brom and Nephenee's weapons (respectively), confiscated.
One last level for Marcia. She hits hard, I'll give her that.
Ilyana and Volke make their getaways.
Mist is staying behind for EXP, but I decide to stop here, both for timing reasons and, well, giving Mist this last level in BEXP.
Bye bye, Canteus!
Kieran takes off his helmet. We don't have faceless soldiers in this army!
Kieran is one of the knights of Crimea that knows who Elincia is.
In fact, he was in the party we found dead in Chapter 4!
Poor Kieran doesn't seem too comfortable with what happened. We didn't show it, but Kieran has something to say to Oscar if you Talk with them (this is how you turn Kieran into a yellow unit).
Oscar: You're from Crimea, right? Come on--we're here to rescue you. We've opened your cell. Now's the time to escape.
Kieran: Ah! It's you!
Kieran: I could never forget that squint! Knights of Crimea, twelfth regiment...your name is Oscar!
Oscar: And you're... Wait a moment...You're Kieran, right?
Kieran: That is correct! I am Kieran...The same Kieran who has sworn himself to be your eternal rival!
Oscar: Uh...Right...Kieran...So...how've you been? You look good.
Kieran: As always, your manner is listless and inappropriate. It befits one who would call me foe! You were discharged three years ago...What are you doing here now? Aha! Could it be...You dastard! You've turned your coat and gone over to Daein, haven't you? Rarrrrr! What despicable, contemptible behavior! Unforgivable! Have you no shame? You were my one true rival! Where has your pride gone?
Oscar: The mercenary company I'm attached to serves under the command of the princess of Crimea! We came here to free any Crimean prisoners.
Kieran: The princess of Crimea?!? You're not part of the royal guard! How do you know about the princess?
Oscar: Well, like I said, the princess is our employer and--
Oscar: Aha! So that's your scheme, is it? You hope to distinguish yourself by meritorious service and gain the glory that is rightfully mine! Admit it!
Oscar: Look, my duty is...
Kieran: Blast you! Curse your name! Curse the name of Oscar and all who call him kin! I will never let you surpass me! Princess! I'm coming! Kieran will be forever at your side!
Oscar: Whoa...He's even more excitable than I remember. Hard to believe he's actually a decent knight...
Pretty good summary of Kieran's character right here.
Joy cookies!
This is good to know. Not something we can go do something about, though.
Aw...
(But seriously, Kieran. Get a hobby.)
Not sure this is how I'd phrase it...
Radiant Dawn would later retcon this to "same town". I'd say this might be because Nephenee moved to Brom's village, but it's also mentioned that Nephenee is familiar with Brom's daughters.
This sentiment is often used as a hammer against warlords, but there's a bit of nuance to it. You're only affected by kings and queens as much as their knights come to visit. If you're an uneducated commoner in this sort of time period, you're not contributing to politics because you don't understand it, and you don't understand it because there's no point you contributing. Not that Tellius is a game about rebelling against the concept of the upper class.
You can make people believe anything you tell them if they don't feel like fact-checking you. Brom here probably doesn't want to know what Ashnard's really been up to.
I don't know at what point Nephenee has become familiar with how Daein treats the common people of Crimea.
Brom trusts his intuition and is happy to stand by it. He's really a swell guy, another one of my favourites amongst the men.
"Milksops". I'm sold.
Sephiran crops up. Brom and Nephenee are familiar with him, but not in any real capacity.
Sephiran was just passing by when he came to the aid of Brom and Nephenee, and this was considered grounds to capture him.
And he introduces himself. A level 10 promoted monk. Sounds above board.
Ike is suspicious. Not that it's entirely unfounded.
Think back to when Mist got captured. When Elincia was lying at the side of the road. When Greil went missing with Shinon and Gatrie on the diversion mission.
Ike says he'd do the smart thing, of course.
But Sephiran has his number. If Ike saw someone in danger, he'd rush to the rescue.
Ike seems to have forgotten that Sephiran has not answered his question.
Why am I not reassured?
Volke is more interested in siding with us now.
Ike points out that he does still have other potential clients. I like how even Ike is calling it "...intelligence", rather than just "intelligence".
Volke has other reasons for joining Ike. He's not interested in telling. He is interested in dangling them in front of Ike.
Soren is on team "keep him around", because that's what he's here for.
Classy, Soren.
Classic Soren quote. He does have a point here: I'm sure he finds it adorable that Soren thinks he's "controlling" him.
You get the choice whether to Hire him or not again here. You almost never have a reason to turn down someone, so I decide I may as well.
Oh hey, Ranulf's back! He doesn't seem very fond of this 'fourth wall' thing.
Do you ever get the impression that the devs are laughing about lines like this?
This is something that Fire Emblem in general likes to use as a soft theme. The difference between a recruitable character and an unrecruitable villain can often be how well you know their fears and opinions, the difference between a likable character and an unlikable one comes down to what people they do and do not talk to and what they get to say. Perhaps some of the characters we can recruit would have been better off abandoned, perhaps some of the characters we can't recruit deserved a redemption we just couldn't give them. This sort of thing is really hard for Lords like Ike, who really want to save everyone they can. The multiple route system introduced in Fates and improved upon by Three Houses really enhance this theme, since you can try out multiple different sides as well as recruiting as many different people as possible.
The turn I escaped was the last turn for max EXP, so I worked really effectively to secure the BEXP you can get on a rout. For the record, "Was not discovered" gives 700 BEXP on Normal and Hard, 1050 on Easy.
Next time: A very heavy chapter on multiple levels.
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