RD Chapter 3-2 Battle: Crush puny forces

Remember how I said PoR Chapter 26 didn't have a lot of bite to it? RD does this sort of thing a lot more.

Istvan is a near-capped Dragonmaster in Strength and Defence, and has some Speed compared to PoR bosses. Our Speed is just so powercrept that we can walk over this. His Res is also a good target, but Ilyana won't be coming down here to zap him.

Istvan has one Authority Star to his name. I feel like this as much an insult as it is praise on his skill as a leader.

This guy has a Statue Fragment on his person as well as a droppable Recover.

This guy has a stealable Reaper Card. Sadly, I don't acquire it. It would've been nice.

This guy has a Bolting tome. I briefly consider stealing it, but I forgot about the fact that Thieves need enough Strength to loot things with Weight and Heather currently does not have that Strength.

RD Chapter 3-2 Preparations: Half blood and half price

We have taken these fortresses. We have a foothold in Begnion!

We're going to skip a few of these battles. I think making us do Flaguerre and Mugill is to introduce us to the Greil Mercenaries and the laguz properly. Maybe we could do one fogged fortress and Telgam, or maybe the devs felt doing both fogged fortresses was more interesting than a slugfest with just the mercs. Especially since the plot needs this upcoming map to be a slugfest.

Yeah... that feels very possible.

Gaddos is Lekain, but Seliora is unknown. It's either Numida or a generic Senator who appears in the next few chapters, doesn't get a name, but could logically be Seliora because he appears in the Seliora region. One thing that is true is that these red dots are highlighting the Gaddos and Seliora castles.

They organise themselves amongst the nearby forces and assemble something resembling an opposing army.

Ribahn is an incredibly important river in the story coming up. The fact that it's a tributary of a larger river, and indeed the fact that the Miscale exists, will get skimmed over. It's one of those minor details that really is a minor detail.

...Why is the Ribhan a defensive front when the enemy is on the same side of Ribhan as us?

ミスケーレ大河の支流リバン河を防衛線とし
その西側に位置するセストゥール平野で
雌雄を決すべく大掛かりな陣を敷いたのだった

I'm... not sure how much clearer this is in JP.

Hm. Interesting choice in chapter title.

RD Chapter 3-1 Combat: Going on Strike

We begin with Soren's as-yet-unstated plan in medias res, with these three Begnions. I don't believe this is a part of the Mugill map we fight on.

They are the enemy with which you are at war. You have bigger problems.

As opposed to any other day?

いつもだったら、
見張り中でも酒の１杯や２杯は
大目に見てもらえるんだがな。

Normally, Begnions can nip at the sake while they work without much consequence. The presence of the laguz has made this more difficult.

Siege situations are very much in favour of the defenders, unless the attackers have enough of a supply line that it can become a test of endurance.

Three cloaked figures enter the area.

RD Chapter 3-1 Base: The planning phase

One down, one to go.

...Daein? Are the writers seeing the same maps we are? I mean, I guess you'd want to watch for flank attacks, but through terrain like that?

Also, I wonder which Crimean King wanted to declare war on Begnion.

Flaguerre was possibly the same situation, but they didn't have time to bunker up.

Over-dramaticising this a little bit, aren't we?

Let's... try and bury those thoughts a little deeper.

For some reason, I thought the Part was called Laguz and Beorc. I'm not sure why this chapter in particular gets this title, though.

RD Part 3 Prologue Battle: Charging blindly into fog

Welcome to Flaguerre, pronounced "Flag-AIR". And yet somehow, I don't think the narrator ever gives us an in-game pronounced Phoenicis.

Did we send a proper declaration of war to Begnion, or is this man just paranoid beyond all belief? I honestly believe the latter more, but I think the laguz would've sent a message.

To my understanding, "making the rounds" means going around and checking everything you need to. I don't really understand why this particular place might want to do this.

Septimus is very much not the general to send at a war party of laguz.

"You say this every evening." He must be very annoying.

ノ、ノーズ将軍、
落ち着いてください！
誰か、将軍に薬をお持ちしろ！
この西方に赴任されてから
毎晩そう仰っておられますが……
ガリアの襲撃など、過去一度も
起こったことはないではありませんか。

Apparently, Septimus needs to be medicated. Suddenly I feel bad about that choice of words.

This time, he's right.

RD Part 3 Prologue Preparations: A new war has begun

Now that we have been introduced to Ike, the Attract Mode cutscene has been expanded. There's a total of thirty seconds of new footage, with three additions included intermittedly. I find it interesting how they tried to hide Ike almost entirely from a first player's impression. There are trailers with Ike in them, but I think mostly Western ones.

Intersecting. This Part is about not only introducing this new war with new players, but also putting all the old players back on the board.

How pathetic. And yet... that led to so much.

Ike certainly isn't sticking around any longer. This is also the non-Extended script's first opportunity to see the main trio's new portraits. Ike has also switched to his new design- I wonder if the old PoR artwork in Part 2 was to hide Ike or perhaps just his new redesign.

I think Elincia deserves a lot more of the credit here, narrator.

This is a huge bombshell to drop on Ike here.

Ike needs to properly decide what to do about this at some point.

Radiant Dawn Part 2: Crimean Civil War

That was one hell of an ending. Elincia faced not just the revolution of her people, but the near death of her sister, all because of her meek rule. This isn't really the job for on-the-job training, but for the benefit of her people, she pulled through. Elincia was a relatively passive character before now, but this arc is what defines her for many of her fans, myself included.

One thing I brought up early on is that it's interesting that the game follows up a revolution with the people as the protagonists with a revolution with the rulers as the protagonists. One thing the story does a good job doing is not only making sure Elincia is still worth supporting, but highlighting exactly what it is Ludveck is doing wrong. Even if the audience is encouraged to consider Ludveck as having a point, it does not want them to be taking his side, and I think most people would agree that Elincia at any point in this part is a better Queen than Ludveck would be King.

The fact that this Part includes not just one, but two chapters where the player is encouraged to spare lives is interesting in conjunction with the theme. Elincia's mercy is something the plot will keep in mind- she hasn't abandoned it completely- but the fact that Elincia explicitly highlights that the Endgame will have no mercy condition is definitely intentional- Elincia not only understands when violence is not necessary, she also understands when it is. While there are no analogues to Three Houses on this topic, I am thinking of the conflict within nonetheless.

There's a bit of an elephant in the room to talk about, though, and that is Lucia on the gallows. Damn. That thing went right for the gut. I knew the scene, of course, but I had completely underestimated how much of an emotional sucker punch it was going to be coming back to it. My first time seeing the plot of Radiant Dawn was so long ago, and while I was so young, that I can't say for sure whether I really thought the game was going to have the guts to kill Lucia off- all she really had protecting her was tradition. And traditions were made to be broken...

Mechanically, Part 2 is a bit of a hodge-podge. There are a total of 17 characters playable in at least one chapter here, and which ones appear where is nearly random. These characters are going to go their separate ways- some of them will show up relatively soon, some of them will stay with the Crimean faction, and some of them will disappear completely until near the end of Part 3! Unless you're aware of exactly which units are which, you are going to have the rug pulled out from under you somewhere. Fortunately, there is only one chapter you will depend on the characters you met in Part 2, and because of the nature of which characters they chose, you're not being expected to do anything beyond your means by using them- although the map highly incentivises having them at least somewhat trained, it doesn't punish you for not having done so. When I say "90% of all dead RD runs die with the Dawn Brigade", less than half the runs remaining die with the Crimeans in Part 2. The rest of them die in Endgame.

RD Part 2 Ending: A weak queen falls

So let's go see what they've gone and done with Lucia. The following content is going to be incredibly confronting, even if I'm not entirely sure on the words to describe how.

RD Part 2 Endgame Battle: The Bearer of Hope

Here we go. One hell of a map, and at least we have the generics to lend a hand.

Despite having the same name as the blue faction, they are not commanded by Elincia and do not benefit from her Authority bonus.

We have a Bolting sage. Nifty.

Here is Ludveck, bringing the most powerful throwing axe. He can be tough for most people, but he has his weaknesses. If you want to win this map quickly, bring a Hammer.

Ludveck also has the Vantage skill, giving him an 18% chance of getting a hit in even if you're landing the killshot. Calill at least blocks that.

And two Authority Stars, bringing Elincia's advantage to just +5 Hit/Avoid. Still an advantage, at least, unlike the fight with Jarod.

RD Part 2 Endgame Preparations: Last Resort

Yeah, we're on a bit of a backfoot here.

There went Geoffrey and two of our finest knights.

...What do you mean, five? I said two and I meant two.

And Ludveck's plan is to get to Elincia.

Oh yeah, Leanne is here. Probably a good idea to do something about that. I wonder if Janaff and Ulki are being made aware of how hot the water is around Leanne. Some bird tribe reinforcements sound pretty good about now...

No Geoffrey, no Lucia, no Bastian.

Elincia's running out of people.

Welcome. To one hell of a map to follow up 2-3 on.