We begin with a few flashbacks to Greil as a dad. Because we're going to need a chapter to fully recover from the last one.
They didn't skimp on this moment. Greil and Jeralt from Three Houses are obvious parallels, especially once we explore deeper into Greil's past, but one major commonality is that both dads get an extended mourning period. The monastery allows for a wide breadth of reactions to Jeralt's death. PoR has to make do with the Base.
Greil's grave, marked with his trusty axe Urvan.
One thing Ike has over Byleth is that we actually get an insight into what he's thinking. Byleth is surprisingly communicative for a mute protagonist, but it's very much outsiders looking in.
Mist needs a little more time for things to parse.
That's going to sting for a while.
Mist's portrait looks so sullen here. Good work, artists. I'm crying again now.
Ike's got a new goal. He's lost people enough by now.
Just... Mist.
Ike promises so much. This time, though, I think he's starting to realise what that means.
Yeah... we're going to get a lot of that first one today.
We're still in the part of the game where the Greil Mercs are getting characterisation, so we'll get the chance to hear from them all. Mia, though, I dunno.
Yeah, that one definitely hit Mist hardest.
This is the same thing Edelgard told Byleth in her version of "A Form of Grief". Just because you feel like crying in the corner some more doesn't mean the world is going to stop and let you take your time.
If there's one thing Ike needs right now, though, it's both of these two.
Don't worry, this isn't about Titania. But it is still bad news...
Yeah, uh... turns out that not everyone took the news as well.
We are now down some people. Personality-wise, no great losses, but mechanically and narratively, they are skilled people the Greil Mercs would really like to continue having. This chapter especially plays to their strengths.
Ike realises pretty quickly what the problem is. Shinon and Gatrie's resentment bubbles close to the surface, and, well...
Their interest in being Greil Mercenaries did not extend to becoming Ike Mercenaries.
I'm sure Shinon said some unbelievably rude things.
This is a reasonable assessment. Shinon and Gatrie should not feel obligated to remain in the company. It sucks for us that they left, but good people don't force people to stay in situations they don't like.
Mia will one day outshine them both. Where is she right now, anyway?
It does bring up a sort of... hollowness, to know that long-time friends can and will ditch you if they don't like the environment that allows you to be friends. Just how much did Shinon and Gatrie value their friendships?
Ike takes responsibility. If Shinon were still here, he'd be heckling Ike at every opportunity like some insulting version of Statler and Waldorf.
And Ike is going to prove Shinon wrong. Titania actually tries to make Ike feel better, but Ike is resolute about taking exactly what he thinks he deserves and deciding he is going to do something about the criticism.
Oscar and Boyd will be sticking around. The conversation above has an excessively high number of variants based on who is dead, and if you've lost Shinon and Gatrie but not these two, they bring up that they also know what it's like to lose a father.
Soren has doubts about whether he could still be of use to Ike.
But Ike's got no time for that. Soren stays, and that's that.
With Titania at our side, how hard can it be?
Oh, right...
It can get very hard. Or at least complex.
Yeah, let's do that instead.
Also, Titania is still hurting from Greil's death, so she needs time to cool down too.
So I may have forgotten to take a picture of the Base screen in Chapter 8. Aside from the different background, this one will do. Our next order of business is to familiarise ourselves with these buttons. A summary:
Outfit allows us to inspect the inventories of each character and tweak them where necessary. You can also visit the shops in this screen, and purchase weapons and items you might need. The weapon supplies vary by chapter, but once an item is added to the item stock, it's there for good.
Manage allows us to spend the Bonus EXP we've been collecting. 1 point of BEXP is not equal to 1 point of EXP, but we can get some decent gains. (Before level ~8, BEXP is cheaper than 1:1). It costs more BEXP to get later levels than earlier ones. Manage also allows us to apply Skill Scrolls we find, like Miracle, and remove Skills we don't want. As mentioned last time, removing Skills does not give you a Skill Scroll to give to someone else.
Support allows us to view Support chains. Only five conversations can be viewed for a single character in one playthrough (unless you kill the other person). We'll go over Supports in greater detail once we get one- right now, all we can get is Ike/Oscar C and that doesn't help anyone.
Info allows us to view various conversations about the plot at large and about the upcoming chapter. Info conversations are new to Tellius, and didn't really escape it intact. Shadows of Valentia had something close to it, but only with Three Houses was the idea really tackled again. And even then, Three Houses' implementation wasn't exactly the same thing.
One other thing we can find in Outfit is the storage convoy. That 200 spaces is what we have for the whole game, but any items that drop into a character's full inventory now get sent here! No more inventory micromanaging to make sure we keep all the drops!
The list of Info conversations you get is static, and there are very few ways to gain access to an Info conversation. You'll pretty much get them all regardless of what you do, but if one of the characters you need is dead, then you'll lose it. We'll talk about the exceptions as we miss them.
"Merchant" sees us talking to the merchants in the merchant caravan we found. Muston sells weapons, Aimee sells items. Aimee also appears in the Archanean Fire Emblem games, but under the name "Larabel".
Well, of course, when we get them.
This is one hell of a gig these guys are planning. I don't fully understand it myself.
Ah, yes, these two. Jorge, the one in green, is who we visit when we want to Sell. He got included in Fire Emblem Heroes because of botting. Daniel, on the other hand, is the big man. Once a map, you can Forge a custom weapon with him. This allows you to tweak the Might (+5), Hit (+25), Crit (+9) or Weight (-5), and also allows you custom decals and names. He only works in the regular Iron, Steel and Silver, though (and obviously he doesn't sell Forge Silvers yet), as well as Slim weapons, Hand Axes, Javelins and the base Wind/Fire/Thunder/Light tomes.
Forging reappears later in the series, but they apparently took a few shots to get the balancing just right.
If we check "Unknown", Ike will encounter Titania having a cry about Greil. This is a relatively short info conversation, since Ike promptly leaves her to it.
Talking to Rolf gets us a pretty short conversation about how the two kids are doing. Rolf's holding it together about as well as Mist is. This is about the most we get out of him.
Ike wants to talk to Boyd about how much Boyd likes this new position. Remember how cocky Boyd was in the first few chapters? Seems pretty odd how Boyd's ready to get in line with Ike now.
Boyd hasn't forgotten either.
But he trusts Greil, and Ike in turn. As much as Ike harps on how bad a commander he is, at least he is aware of his potential to make mistakes and open about it. I'd trust him too. Especially since Titania's around to keep the problems to a minimum.
Boyd goes into a bit of what happened to him and his brothers as a child.
Oscar is a former Crimean Knight, but that wasn't helping around the house.
The brothers owe Greil big.
Ike points out that this debt is to Greil, not to him. Ike doesn't expect them to continue to honour this debt.
But to Boyd, the bonds of friendship he forged with the other Mercs mean too much for him to quit now. Besides, I feel like the matter of 'not having stable income' is still going to be there.
Boyd reminds Ike not to keep pushing people away where it's not necessary.
Rhys is praying for Ike's father. Rhys isn't really a man of the cloth, despite being a Priest, but this is a moment that surprised me.
And on top of that, we get to hear a little bit about the beliefs held in Tellius. I'm not entirely convinced on how healthy a way this is at looking at things, but one thing that does get reflected by this belief is that, the more people cry about someone's passing, the more that person meant to the world.
I sympathise, Ike. I can't cry for people's passing either.
...Ike tries so hard.
Anyway. BEXP! We need some Defence on Mia, so BEXP she shall gain.
I'm cautious enough about my BEXP that I stop with this. A few units coming up need the BEXP too. I might be too cautious with BEXP.
Well, that's enough rest. Time for the next chapter.
Titania brings up our recruit situation. At least that won't be a problem, even for us. Well, won't be a problem for future us.
There is the slight issue with not getting any word from the Gallians about how diplomacy is going. At least that's been a few days for recovery.
Oh.
Correct response.
Yeah, something's telling me the Daein army is in no position to believe they're going to get out of this one alive. Not the least because their King will kill them if they fail anyway. But still, military activity in a nation you're not yet at war with is a good way to change that.
You said it, not me.
Good boy. I'll be winging things by the seat of my pants past Turn 2.
Ike tells Mist to hide for now.
Mist is still too depressed to argue. Which is the main reason I'd even encourage her to take Ike's advice.
They actually show the medallion cutscene again- yeah, that five second one. Apparently they really wanted to get their money's worth out of it.
He's going to need all the help he can get.
Things have gotten a mite more serious since the last time we saw this view.
Here's hoping.
The "Select Units" option is now meaningful! For this chapter and the next, you don't need to bench anyone casually.
But I'll be doing it. For this map, there's a tangible reason to bench your underperformers, but I'd advise against it. If you're doing a challenge run, though, bench. There's nowhere for your banned squad to hide.
Here's our map. We have to keep the red guys off our green tile for eight turns. There will be reinforcements.
You might notice there are three access points and only two girls. That's not going to help things.
This south side, thankfully, is the ticket out of surviving the first wave of enemies. Titania, with the help of her Strength and Skill gains, must kill five of these cavaliers on turn 1. Preferably all six, but the sixth can be killed on Player Phase 2.
That's because Titania needs to be put to work covering the east side on turn 2.
Mia's job will be to handle the west wing on her own. You want to make sure you're on top of the west wing.
This is the boss. That Soldier Band of his increases HP/Def growths while equipped, a unique effect that will come in handy. I want to kill him. At least he comes to us eventually. How have I turned "the boss comes charging at us" into a positive?
This priest drops a Red Gem. Red Gems are worth 2500G sold- if you're mainly familiar with modern Fire Emblems, Gems are Bullions.
This is a recruitable female character. That uses offensive magic. We need to talk to her with Ike to get her on our side, and she'll obediently walk up to us as fast as possible and not attack, but we still need the west wing to be free from enemies so Ike and Ilyana can survive the turn this talk happens. I don't have her stats, but trust me, Ilyana can't take hits.
Right away, Mia's Armourslayer kills this guy. You need things dead as fast as possible.
Confirmation that yes, if we don't block this chokepoint this turn, we lose. Admittedly, even if they couldn't reach the green tile this turn, it would be impossible to salvage the situation if everyone got in. Unless Titania still had a route to stand on the green tile itself.
This took a few tries, because the sword cavaliers have an annoying tendency to survive a Hand Axe barrage on 1 HP, but I got it. Because I had 13 uses on the Hand Axe left, this also allowed me to switch weapons too.
Crisis averted.
Look at what Mia has to deal with. No indirect swords means she can't deal with that archer effectively.
This is not a level to cover Mia's bulk issues, but otherwise welcome.
The priest moved in front of the formation. Titania is not carrying the Javelin- I had her carry a Hammer and Steel Axes.
I think this is actually an Enemy Phase mage encounter- one thing you can exploit if you don't want to use 2 range weapons is put your units in a chokepoint where only one indirect unit can attack. All the 1-2 range enemies in range will pile onto that 1 range square and gladly submit to your counterattacks.
Ilyana comes with a Vulnerary, I'm fairly sure. I'm also fairly sure this Soldier stole it. This is annoying now, but it gets much worse later.
Mia cut this way too close. If it wasn't for this Vantage Crit, she would have died to this guy. Lucky he was the last.
Oh right, I also need luck for these.
This one was actually lucky for me to spare this guy. The way he's standing, if he had died, Ilyana would likely have taken his spot and then moving Mia and Ike around to recruit her would have gotten very ugly.
Titania lends a hand to clean out this side so that I can recruit Ilyana.
It is actually raining this map. It's a cool visual effect that kinda fades into the background in motion. This isn't FE7, that rain isn't hampering our movement (that might make this map easier.)
Ike is starting to wonder if Ilyana is really a Daein soldier by trade.
No, she isn't. Wait, merchants?
I should've made a "villain things" Bingo card. Daein must have fifty squares by now.
...I'm not sure if I respect Ike more or less for this.
Ike does figure out that Ilyana's merchants are indeed Muston, Aimee, and the brothers.
That's another mage.
Goddammit Ike. We need more sword arms rather than more things to shield.
Well, OK, that's a good reason.
...Right, we're being crushed by overwhelming Daein forces with a former Crimean Knight, a mercenary with a chip on her shoulder, and now a sick mage as our usable units.
Our mage has the world's shortest skirt. The artbook also states that Ilyana is designed to appear 16. It gets worse if you check the game files.
Well now, this is a problem. The priest up in the corner is the one with the Red Gem. At the time, I thought this was a legitimate choice I had to make here. Looking back at this screenshot and counting squares, Titania couldn't kill the Priest and get back to the chokepoint.
Mia and Ilyana can't trade the Hammer off her, so she's going to smash those cavaliers with it on the way out. But I have my Soldier Band.
...Is he calling his own troops dogs?
I need to start worrying about Titania's Strength again. Mia has like -3 on her, last I checked.
Speaking of Mia, she came out of this by the skin of her teeth. I think she needed another point of Defence. Well, we did survive it...
More reinforcements spawn at the end of Daein's 8th enemy phase. Losing is in the script.
Everyone: "Well, we're already here..."
Ike, Titania and Soren do the fighting on the map. They're the plot-relevant characters. Mia and Ilyana apparently needed that break.
Ike, despite being level 1, is still dealing with soldiers as they come.
Mist comes out to see what's going on.
She wants to stay with her brother.
After all, she's not losing another relative outside her watch.
Ike insists that Mist escape. I'm not sure how Ike plans on this happening.
Poor girl.
You just wanna give her a hug.
Ike gives her the next best thing.
Well, promises. The odds are not in his favour.
If Kamura survived, he'd be the one standing here, of course.
He hears a howl.
And we get big damn heroes!
Only in PoR does this rescue look realistic in regards to the power of a laguz.
If we had these two from the start, the map would not have been much easier. Well, for us, it would have been, we need another woman to plug the third hole.
The cat beats the knight.
And the two laguz revert. I'm never sure what to call the base forms because of the laguz etiquette.
Meet Mordecai, a big hearted softie. I love this guy, but not enough to really make it to my favourites. That's not really his fault, though, he deserves a spot.
He's also a bit unfamiliar with the common tongue.
But he's eager to form new friendships.
Lethe, on the other hand? Not so friendly.
You have to wonder what led her to that impression.
This is a bit of laguz pride, and also part of the reason I never got what made beorc so special in universe until relatively recently.
Despite this being exactly the sort of grammar mistake Petra makes, I honestly can't imagine her saying this.
Lethe honestly does have a bit of a point.
Not the right response, Ike. That was on you. And I guess the localisers.
I don't blame you for that one.
Laguz are also longer lived, too, so this is also literally true as well as metaphorically. Perhaps not these two, though.
Soren does not seem interested in a history lesson. I honestly don't blame him.
This, though... not necessary, dude.
Not smart, either.
This is probably the first instance of the laguz's rage in practice. When a laguz gets angered, they lose all sense of reason and lash out until their anger has been settled. Beorc don't do this, which means they can outplay a laguz. One-on-one, a laguz will always beat a beorc. But on a large scale? The beorc have the advantage.
Well that escalated quickly.
Still going.
Ike blocks the blow for Soren.
He seems more OK than I expected. Mordecai hurts.
That startles Mordecai into his usual state. Mordecai is a pacifist usually.
Soren doesn't take the hint.
He actually readies a Wind cast here. The wind faded before I could catch it.
Ike is very precious to Soren. Mordecai giving him a scratch definitely didn't help him.
Ike points out the obvious.
I'm not sure how much of this is on that, but it'll smooth things over.
It helps that Mordecai works on such a mutually respectful code.
"Unkind", she says.
We'll not mention this in our review.
In Defend maps in PoR, you're not given a turn bonus, so the "Did Not Fight" bonus replaces it- every empty deployment space is worth 50 BEXP. Would I recommend it? Not really. The "Did Not Fight" bonus does not reappear in Radiant Dawn.
So that was the hardest map in the game. Honestly, even casually, it still kinda sucks. Oscar, Boyd and competent Ike can at least block up all your chokepoints, and Soren is a valuable means of indirect combat damage- when you're on the defence, indirect damage is invaluable. Rhys's healing, of course, means you don't need to burn Player Phases on Vulneraries- Mia used plenty.
Would I say the rest of the game is smooth sailing? Not necessarily, but not far off. We're going to have so many more characters that can take the pressure off people, and a few of them are proper frontliners in their own right. Plus a healer! Chapter 8 is not necessarily the most brutal challenge we'll have to deal with, but in the future, we'll have actual means of dealing with them.
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