Not a lot of active warfare, but a very violent and brutal history for the many.
Conflict, not war, has gripped the hearts of the people. It may be more pleasant, but it is still toxic and should be stemmed all the same. Remember the greater Reign of Terror.
No respect for bows and knives We're mostly just expositing for the new people.
Well... I can definitely say they were created in equal faith. The differences are what make the sameness more special. Or whatever.
A sign of what, then, exactly?
Wonder, and perhaps not quite understand until she gives it great thought with great hindsight.
We're definitely going to find a prince today.
This is a one off map. It's a very nice one off map. I don't remember seeing that fountain anywhere else. I'll have to keep an eye open.
We didn't find the Prince, did you miss that?
Let's hope it's not another fool's errand.
Micaiah's Farsight being somewhat vague as usual. The images in front of our eyes are pretty cool, though. Probably an actual picture of an actual place. Looks too photorealistic.
...I don't think they do, this is just Micaiah being dramatic. Her destiny is elsewhere.
Someone other than Micaiah!
Four conversations today, all with self-explanatory titles. One of them does not have Micaiah in it!
Sothe has been doing inventory. The treasures they took are not the same as the ones we, the player, took.
10000G added to our coffers.
I'm with both of them. Am I greedy?
Micaiah has a very lofty view of finances. Not sure I like it.
Sothe's heard it all before.
At least we get to keep the money.
So you're not?
Nailah wants to know how she can help.
A bit of a conundrum.
Micaiah tells them there's not that much they can offer. Which is sadly kinda true.
Volug has an idea!
No, he doesn't say anything. At all, other language or not. Not sure what these three can talk in silently.
He has transformed. And that's all we can tell.
I think a dog that's as long as I am tall counts as an exotic pet. Especially in a world where there is an entire race of people who can do it in feline form.
Unless you're a royal, of course, because special privileges.
This is... almost new.
This is basically the in-universe equivalent of the Demi Band from Path of Radiance.
Micaiah's line appears, and then Nailah's appears right afterwards quickly and with no input from the player. She's determined for this idea to go through.
"The official term for us is 'beast', this is honestly a step up!"
...Nailah, he's a human being. Also, he better not pee in Micaiah's lap.
Micaiah tries to reassert herself as a participant in this conversation.
Nailah ploughs on.
Blunt? Pushy? I really don't know how to say what she is without coming off as insulting.
We won't be using Volug ourselves, so his whole deal with Halfshift and Wildheart can wait (which... might actually be a while, come to think of it), but he has a Vulnerary we can pinch, I guess. He's also force-deployed on all the maps coming up, but I'm not sure what happens if you don't read this conversation.
With Laura and Aran, we need to talk about Aran for a spell.
Aran actually has a bit of a complex about being a turncoat in some of his Supports, and I wish I knew more about them to talk more in detail about it. He's concerned he comes off as a flake for switching sides between Daein and Begnion too readily.
He did the right thing in the end, which is all right by us.
So how's Laura been doing while Aran was away and the Begnions were running around?
This is a big deal in religious organisations, but it is at least a reversible thing. If we can overthrow Begnion, these guys can get their churches back and so forth.
I wonder what the difference between Daein and Begnion dogma is, if this is a valid question.
Laura's church slipped through the cracks.
The goddess works in mysterious ways.
...Wait what?
Neither Micaiah nor Aran know what to say to that.
...That's... uh... well, we did steal the Wind Edge and Energy Drop. And I guess Thani too, I refuse to believe the Church will miss that.
I think Aran doesn't believe Laura either.
Laura at least knows we're good guys.
...I guess.
This is our conversation with the Dawn Brigade.
This whole prince thing is one heck of a long shot.
But Edward has faith the Prince is there.
Because Micaiah said so!
She knows what she's talking about when she's using her farsight, after all.
If you're raising him, he has a Strength growth like nobody's business and can do a good job as your Swordmaster. If he doesn't get to that point in the next two chapters, he stops being worth it.
"Invincible, hard to hit, same thing, right?"
"...And four or five spares."
Leonardo tells him his dream is unrealistic.
Which Edward takes personally. He wanted to be one of Ashnard's guys, he probably has high standards for himself.
No matter how much Edward trains, he's never going to do a map on his own. Well, mechanically, I'm not sure why not, but...
Edward insists it's OK for him to set that as a goal.
Leonardo takes things a bit more seriously. I think Leo doesn't want to see Edward kill himself.
Edward is... generally not interested in this.
Leonardo apologises for getting so serious with him.
Nolan notices this conversation is depressing and gets concerned.
And suggests a middle ground. Just because you're weak now doesn't mean you won't be strong later.
Fighting at all is still an honourable thing, even if you don't win the whole thing. No one bring up the fact that most people bench one or both of these kids, even outside of All Girls.
And that's one way to get the miserable conversation over.
..."For" an old man?
Well, that's... a more respectful way of putting it...
Edward is 15, Leo is 16, and Nolan is 34, by artbook apparent ages. Yes, that does mean Edward is the same age as Rolf!
Today's bargains. That Spirit Dust was remarkably tempting, but ultimately, none of the mages I'm really worried about will be concerned about their Magic. Maybe I could've given it to Laura for reasons, but not exactly great ones. Arms Scrolls, not so much- it's a lot easier to get WEXP in this game compared to PoR.
I take this Howl skill from Volug because "take all the male Skills", but it will be a long time before this Skill can be assigned to a female character. The Howl paralysis is Stun, and I assume it sticks around for the turn after it triggers, otherwise it would be literally useless, since it, as a rule, can only trigger on Enemy Phase. It is a Strength% proc.
We can also see Wildheart is locked to Volug here, costing him 10 points of Capacity. Wildheart works differently in Part 1 compared to the rest of the game, but since Volug is also going to be a force deploy, all you need to know is that Volug is permanently transformed. Even a laguz royal can voluntarily revert, for whatever reason.
I level up Laura twice, and also give her enough BEXP to be at 99 and level up on her first heal.
BEXP gives 3 stats a level, and for Laura, seeing these stats on her early levels is not a surprise.
I get her an extra Heal staff for the purposes of this mission. I guess last mission was when she got her Mend in the Bargains.
I also Sell my Iron Bow. The thing about Bows in RD is that, much like in PoR, only my Bow Paladins can use them, and neither of them will get access to this bow until there's no reason for it.
I also Erase this Support at last. The main reason to keep it is because of a Base conversation, and I can always review those in the library to show it off when it comes up. I just don't get an Elixir.
Here's another bit map. There's a lot of these.
East is probably too much Desert of Death too. I like south.
OK, we're treating him like a dog. Is Nico stuck in the well?
Senses, smells, same thing. I'm not sure how well scent carries in the desert.
To the south we go!
Good guess.
Oh hey, Zihark's here too. He came to stay in Daein after all.
Jill comes flying in from the skies. Honestly, where were these two earlier?
Jill's one of those characters who went through the transition between Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn with nothing but the slight glow-up of the GCN -> Wii artstyle at best. She's got a second set of shoulder armour and slightly longer sideburns. Also her ponytail might have a bit more volume to it and her belt has less of her yellow undershirt over it.
Probably Daeins.
Yeah, we don't discriminate when we come to the aid of people fighting Begnion oppressors.
Here's our force-deployed Volug. His job will be picking up characters and running around at high speed to hidey-holes.
Ooh, conversations.
Here is the map. Victory in Easy Mode is Rout. In Normal, it's to defend the tile Tauroneo is standing on for 6 turns. I challenge anyone to lose by Defend without rushing Volug to remove Tauroneo from his tile.
Here are Jill's stats. I'll wait until we get her to talk about her as a playable character, but for now, note that her Transfer bonuses have been applied. Green units in this game are the same character as your blue units of the same face. This was also the case for Path of Radiance, too, but it's more important in this game.
Here's the boss. Most people who play Normal Mode don't kill him, because it's rather difficult to reach him in time. I'll be making a mockery of that.
This guy is holding, but will not drop, a Master Seal.
This tile has a Concoction.
And I entered this map believing there was a Coin here. It's not. I honestly don't really go out of my way for Coins, and I'll probably wind up skimming them.
First thing's first, Micaiah oneshots this guy. Hm.
While I'm considering the implications of that, Ilyana climbs this ledge to try and occupy that western force. There's a gap on their side they can climb, and just because Tauroneo is invincible doesn't mean Zihark Jill is.
Meg slaps this man for some EXP before Micaiah kills him. He's too dangerous to leave alive.
Strength and Speed will make it so Meg can possibly kill things on her own in the future.
Laura switched out Skill for Defence. On Laura, I'll take it.
And down goes the Myrm. I didn't check, but I'm 150% positive he could've killed Laura.
A mage attacks Meg and deals as much damage as a myrmidon did. I'm not sure whether I'm more impressed with the myrm, disappointed in the mage, or bewildered by Meg.
The Begnions have their eye on Zihark. He kills them in return, which is annoying (because it means a man is contributing) and wasteful (because he's got a Killing Edge equipped). I have no real way of stopping or manipulating this, so I don't hold what green units do against them.
One run of All Girls RD had Zihark get the MVP for this map. In hindsight, I wonder how the hell that happened.
This one goes for Tauroneo, presumably because he saw two of his buddies die to Zihark and thought better of being a third.
The Other AI is surprisingly polite and attacks this soldier with Jill. Not that it gives her EXP, but I like how the obstensibly friendly AI is attempting to obey my arbitrary ruleset.
Sothe has a moment of realisation.
He recognises Tauroneo by his distinctive white armour. The reasoning "some other man might be wearing it" appears to have at least crossed his mind.
Micaiah is wondering why Sothe is considering changing his behaviour in response to this information.
Meg gets to fight a Fighter. It turns out it's very difficult to place her on the other end of a gap.
Micaiah keeps going north, stopping to get rid of this guy.
And stealing his lunch.
This is on my phase. I want the position Ilyana is standing in more than I want the safety of killing this guy from a distance.
That being asserting control over this ledge. Most of her opponents will fight her with the height disadvantage.
-50 Hit increases her safety tremendously.
So does this Speed. Any level up with less than three stats feels bad when you remember BEXP forces three.
And Zihark should hopefully be done contributing to this mission.
Enemies appear in the north! All this desert sand makes them annoying. I don't think Jill can cross those rocks to her west to engage them directly?
Micaiah accounts for one.
And gets one heck of a level up, and a Resistance cap.
Ilyana's chokepoint continues to be difficult with one defender. Killing this man reduces the range people can attack from significantly.
Unfortunately, Ilyana is still part of it. Meg climbs up the gap, consuming all of her Move to do so.
Volug tells Zihark to never contribute to this mission again.
The critical animation doesn't look like much, if it's even different at all, from atop a ledge.
A lot of bright lights for Thani hits. Micaiah took that hit.
Ilyana dodged this one, and thank goodness. I'm not sure what the safe strat would be. If she healed, that would mean she didn't kill the second Fighter that she would then proceed to have to dodge.
Sothe talks to Jill while Micaiah is occupied on the space with the Concoction.
Sothe and Jill take a moment to reminisce.
Although Jill wonders why Sothe turned up.
Well, we were right after all.
Can do! Sothe won't, though, he'll go digging around for healing items I'm not going to use.
Sothe: General Tauroneo!
Tauroneo: Well, if it isn’t our little Sothe! I’d never have thought to see you here!
Sothe: General, these ruins you’re defending… Do they hold hope for Daein?
Tauroneo: They do. In fact, these walls hold what may well be Daein’s only hope.
Sothe: I see. Then we must protect this place at all costs.
Tauroneo: Indeed.
I won't be sticking around here, but it turns out Sothe has a line with Tauroneo as well as Zihark and Jill.
Meg cannot oneround this guy, and he's going to come up onto the ledge and make Laura's life annoying.
But at least he won't try to set Meg on fire this phase.
Yeah, sure, that's a level. Not a great one, but...
Laura heals Ilyana, and I notice that that soldier can attack Laura without the ledge penalty.
Micaiah stops to Sacrifice a few HP out of Jill.
And Volug hides over in this corner, worried about the mage to his south.
This guy climbed the ledge to take a swing at Meg.
Meg still hit back, despite the accuracy issue.
A nice fat level up, although I would kinda like all the stats she didn't get.
This soldier comes up to have a go at Meg too. He's more of a problem, but at least Meg can survive him.
And Laura also going to survive this guy.
This will help. /s
Volug drops Sothe so the pair can talk.
Sothe is mostly assuming because he has no real clue what reason Zihark has for even participating.
That's because Zihark is a Daein-born! Can you believe it? Zihark's story gets more impressive from here.
Except for the racism. The rest of the personality... the jury's out.
Ah, that sounds like Zihark all right.
And this is the Concoction tile.
I disagree with the game's decision on what counts as a "Miss" here. I'm not complaining, but I'm sure Ilyana needs multiple transplants.
Ilyana dodging this hit allows Meg to stand here and form a safe space for Laura to stand while healing her.
And Micaiah gets some EXP out of giving the last of her HP to Laura. Laura can finish off with her Heal staff passive.
This'll do a bit more damage, but annoyingly won't settle the kill.
Zihark runs away from Volug. Back on the doggy.
This archer has a worryingly high attack range.
Micaiah, with a heal from Laura, will take this front.
Gaining her physical stats.
And Meg finishes off the soldier at last.
To a much better level up. Every point in Skill represents less of a chance of a Miss.
I'm not sure what offends me more, the hit, or the fact this man made me waste a second Thani.
This soldier gets it. Despite being a Mage and having more Res, his lower HP makes him oneshot by Thani.
Jill takes great offense to the idea of this priest surviving.
Meg can start throwing ranged attacks down this ledge. She can't oneround this guy, though.
This is the start of the next turn, as indicated by the fact Meg is still pink and not greyed out. Nobody moved.
His loss.
Strength, Speed and Defence, yep, this is going to be one heck of an armour knight.
Ilyana hits level 20 with a Speed cap, and some more Magic. That Luck looks a lot lower from this screen, hm.
Ilyana moves up this way-
So she can have her talk with Zihark.
Zihark is impressed with this fact. Ilyana getting it wrong is part of their Support in PoR.
...The joke was that Zihark did not feed Ilyana. Apparently, A Support was a huge change of heart.
...Wait, isn't Brom/Zihark A canon?
Ilyana counts her meals very precisely for someone who's dinner time is "five minutes ago".
...I'm not sure that's very sweet for Ilyana.
Yeah, that's more or less what I was expecting for Ilyana's reaction.
More Skill would be nice right about now.
Laura gets a very nice level.
"Daein isn't known for winning its wars." Three years long enough to forget how much of a military mastermind Daein used to be?
This mage attacks Micaiah and fails to do damage. Micaiah is actually not holding a weapon right now. I'm doing setup.
These are hits four and five. 76% printed hit rate my rear end.
I'm starting to think this Coin might not be on this tile.
And Laura gets... another level up? Well, if I want to use Laura the way I plan to, I'm going to have to do a bit of a grind, and I decided this BEXP was worth losing both numerically and in terms of how much of it I was going to get.
Micaiah gets this level up with some Sacrifice.
She's going to look like this for the rest of Part 1.
I finally found the Coin was on this tile.
I healed so much that my first Heal broke! This is why I bought a spare.
Now those are some level ups. Meg got a level from the one EXP you get from being in a round of combat.
This grind is over on Turn 51. And why is that?
Wystan has run out of Fire tome.
If an enemy is in some way disarmed, combat animations won't play.
Laura finishes up some Heals on the last few scratched characters. Yeah... I think I'm going to need another Heal. And she's only level 10!
Wystan has an appropriate reaction.
He had a more narrative-driven thought, but I prefer my theory.
Wystan: Come to help the helpless? A dainty little flower like you is hardly worth the effort! Well, do your worst.
Micaiah: What is Begnion doing out here in the desert? Is there something or someone in these ruins that you’re interested in?
Wystan: That’s none of your business, little girl. We’ll slash our way in no matter what anybody else wants!
Boss dialogue with Micaiah.
Wystan: How charming. You must be one of the foul sub-humans of the deep sands. That explains the stench.
And with Volug. So much for hiding he's a laguz.
Yeah, I think by this point, Meg is self-sufficient.
Jill has a sprite for not being on her wyvern! It feels a little stiff, though. It's definitely just to make cutscenes in this arc slightly less dumb. I don't remember if Titania ever had to worry about this in PoR.
行商団のみんなもいっしょか。
皆、うまく
収容所送りを免れたものだな。
This line sounds like it's talking about Zihark knowing about the merchants movements, and hoping that they escaped the work camps.
Is the desert really that bad?
(Says the Tormod fan...)
As did most people. Sothe got a huge overhaul.
Sothe gets started on introductions...
And we have another familiar face! Remember Izuka, from Path of Radiance? Yeah, he's going to be a much bigger character in Radiant Dawn.
Three years have taken a toll on Izuka's posture, but he hasn't found any pupils in the meantime. His hair is also now tied up in the world's smallest bun (how does that even work?), and if you peer exceptionally closely, you might notice that Izuka now has a monocle. It's more apparent in his official artwork and CYL portrait.
Sothe looks at him like the dirt on his shoe, because honestly, he looks like it.
Izuka is the Soren to Pelleas's Elincia. Or I guess the Bastian or Lucia.
Finally, proof Ashnard's son is here!
"Now I don't have to remember any new peoples' names!"
We volunteer!
And Tauroneo is happy to have us join.
And this is where Izuka's theme starts to play. Izuka's got his own theme song now!
This line of dialogue turns out to be very significant.
Even though right now, Izuka seems to think of us as clearly being Begnion spies. He might be touched in the head. He probably is touched in the head.
いーや、納得いかんぞ！ いま矛盾を見つけた。
デインの若い者は皆、収容所送りだ。
なのに何故おまえたちは
こんなところをうろついている？
怪しい、実に怪しい。
おまえたちは帝国の間者だな？
正直に認めるのだ！
The extended script suggets his reasonining is that the sendings to the work camps were too complete to have excluded us.
Sothe announces their identity. I'm going to assume, for the normal reasons, that this wasn't immediately obvious.
With the connection to the Dawn Brigade, Izuka lights up at the sight of the Silver-Haired Maiden.
And brushes past Sothe to begin touching her.
I don't think the latter option had any influence over it. We found out about you guys from a rumour.
Izuka, a man with the long-lost prince of Daein at his side, thinks he needs Micaiah to win over the people of Daein.
Well, yes, but actually no... but actually yes. I think?
...Uh...
...huh...
Izuka has an annoying tendency, as someone screenshotting his dialogue, to pull stunts like this, where he'll say a complete line, and then add more words after the end of his thought without scrolling his textbox like a polite person. I'll try to keep "showing this" to a minimum, but the sheer comedy of this one lets it stand.
And Izuka invites us in.
I love these writers.
Here is Pelleas, Ashnard's son. I guess. He's not much of a looker.
And here's Ashnard's wife consort, who is a character that not only exists, but actually has a huge degree of influence over the plot. Prepare to hear a lot more about who this woman is and how her child with Ashnard has impacted the history of Tellius in the future. For a mother, that's one heck of an achievement.
Kneel ye.
Pelleas talks Izuka down.
Pelleas was not raised in the knowledge that he was Prince of Daein. Really, what kind of father did you expect Ashnard to be?
Izuka was the one who found Pelleas. One wonders what he was looking for at the time. Did he know about Pelleas first?
Pelleas also doesn't exactly believe it. It's a tall tale.
It should be noted that Almedha and Pelleas only met thanks to Izuka too. Almedha is... very attached to Pelleas.
Izuka bores of this 'character building' and 'non-business conversation'.
Well, that was faster than when Ike did it.
Both Sothe and Micaiah are caught flatfooted.
These are valid points. Even if Ike lacked both, he had access to Soren, who had the latter. No clue who gave him the former.
Izuka seems to think her exploits as the Dawn Brigade's most prominent member (not leader, Izuka noticed that tidbit!) give her what is necessary.
Implying this is a goal of Micaiah's.
Sothe, like Soren, has some knowledge of capital D Diplomacy. Not as much as Soren does, but enough to spot a few tricks.
Micaiah is not going to be a figure with agency in this appointment. She's just going to be something shiny the people of Daein can point at and go "I want to serve under her please".
Izuka seems to think she'll be fine with that.
Sothe and Micaiah are not going to be involved if that's what Izuka's plan is. Although I notice that Micaiah, ironically, doesn't have that much agency in decrying it.
Pelleas is desperate for Micaiah's help.
Yeah, he's very much a pacifist sort of person. Nothing of his father in him at all.
Pelleas has to do it, or Daein will suffer.
So can Micaiah do it too?
And so Micaiah accepts.
To Sothe's complete surprise.
Pelleas probably has the most doubt in that out of anybody in this room.
Way to lay the pressure on thick.
Sothe is shocked.
This is a problem with Micaiah that's going to be danced around for a little bit before it's explained.
But Micaiah is very much not one for the spotlight.
But Micaiah's a new person now.
She's got a national identity in Daein now.
The former, yeah. The latter... ???
Micaiah can... sorta do what the herons can do and read hearts?
Farsight sounds like its on our side.
Sothe is happy with that explanation.
This is Sothe's one goal. He won't be diverted from that for any reason.
Just making sure we're all on the same page.
Micaiah seems appreciative, at least.
Yeah, no turncount for 52 turns. Zihark's kills have converted into slightly more than that for us- the Other unit's experience BEXP doesn't even come close to making up for losing it as CEXP. BEXP formula in this game is brutal (50 x Level + 50, I'm told).
Next time: Begnion stops to cheat.
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