Well, isn't that just swell of her. I wonder what that chapter means, though.
Oh yeah. We now have laguz. In Melior. On Elincia's invitation.
Translation: If Leanne so much as sheds a single tear, Tibarn and Naesala will hunt down the man who made her shed it so Tibarn can tear off his arms and Naesala can shove them down his throat.
But that doesn't mean the nobles are going to sit there and take it.
This is getting serious.
Ohma, where have I heard that before?
Time to see what this mess is all about.
Welcome to Ohma, population: "Characters we've heard of before".
Brom! Brom's been getting to work doing things other than killing people, good for him. Shame about the muscle routine, although looking more closely, that ab line peeking out of his singlet doesn't look like fat...
Brom only has this portrait for this scene, so it doesn't go much further down. Someone more artistically inclined/familiar with the male body can tell me if Brom's bulk is fat or muscle from Boyd.
Hey, Brom has a socially acceptable number of children- oh yeah, he's a farmer.
Ah, Brom, humble as ever.
Nephenee shows up. Back in Path of Radiance, I talked about how Nephenee living in Brom's village is a bit of a contradiction with the Brom/Nephenee chain, but I'm starting to wonder if perhaps Nephenee doesn't live here, and has come here from some other village. There's still one thing I don't know, and I'm incredibly tempted to check it this run.
...So why are you in armour, Nephenee?
I honestly think I prefer the PoR design on this one, by a hair. RD's adjustments all feel pretty solid, especially the red necktie. I also feel like her RD design makes it easier to see the woman underneath the helmet.
...Oh dear, that don't sound good.
So what's this about a revolution?
Jacob hasn't been keeping his ear to the ground, but he heard the yelling through his window from the kids on his lawn.
Something something Elincia is a horrible queen and we should do something about it yadda yadda yadda.
Brom approves wholeheartedly of Elincia, with the sole exception that he doesn't think she should be spending her early adult years on politics instead of being young. It's pretty sad Ellie didn't get that chance.
...Nnnnnnooooooo, Crimea was the country that helped the least. For some reason, I'm almost tempted to say Daein was more helpful, considering Gawain, Elena, Jill...
Anyway, since I'm sure a lot of you spotted it: Yeardley is a name that has a bit too much recognition to be in the disposable boss name pool. Yeardley is the name of Lisa Simpson's voice actress, and the combination of the high prestige of the role and the rarity of the name means it's near impossible for anyone familiar with her to take this guy seriously. At least he's soapboxing. Although I'm fairly sure Lisa would take Elincia's side.
Talking to this guy is like talking to some particularly obstinate Three Houses circles, I swear. I feel like I need to break out the bullet points to point out everything that is wrong with this textbox.
For one thing, I'm not convinced "the Queen" is the correct answer to these even if it were true.
At least now Yeardley is saying some true things. Even if he's still acting in bad faith.
Daein or Gallia, I'm really having trouble keeping track.
You are not too manly to call it the motherland like a normal person. Your name is a woman's name, for crying out loud. ...I think. Also, somehow I feel like "Ike the patriot" would be the part of this speech that offends Ike the most.
...Now we have armed civilians.
Expletives.
Muscle or fat, Brom has not been having fun lugging around his old General armour.
Because of the adjustment from PoR Knights to RD Knights, one of the PoR veterans had to become the new "Axe General" class, and Brom got picked. Why Brom would change weapon specialties when he has no intention of fighting again is another matter.
あぁ、そうじゃ。
新しいかぶ畑を作るのに
木をぎょうさん切り倒したからなぁ。
Apparently, it's because he's been using axes for non-violent purposes.
Brom asks why Nephenee needs to know.
Nephenee has a Steel Greatlance and Brom got stuck with an Iron Axe. I feel like Brom is being short-changed here.
(Ironically, the general gameplay opinion of this decision is that Brom is the lucky one, because Nephenee doesn't start with the Strength to hold a Steel Greatlance without Speed penalty.)
I feel like there's something being said by having Daein's revolution with us on the rebel's side be followed up by a Crimean revolution with us fighting the rebels.
But Brom and Nephenee are choosing Elincia over whoever this guy works for.
...Brom, maybe a bit too much info.
Oh, what the hell are we making up now, I've had enough of dealing with this in-
Hey wait, isn't your argument that the Queen is too weak to do crap like this?
...If nothing else, he's good at stoking the fires of rebellion.
Brom tries appealing to these civilians' senses of peace.
Yeah... they're too far gone for that.
Translation: There's a BEXP reward in it for you if they're still alive.
The Player Phase jingle for Brom and Nephenee is the Other Phase jingle.
There are two factions, "Rebels" and "Volunteers". The Volunteers are the ones who are worth BEXP if they end the mission alive, so you can tell the difference by checking the fourth page of their stat screen.
Nephenee is the Lord of this mission, but there's no real difference between the two if both cause a Game Over condition on defeat and neither of them have Authority Stars.
Nephenee is more Skill/Speed than generalist in this game, as a contrast to Aran from the Dawn Brigade being Str/Def as a substitute Knight. Like Aran, once you've capped her important stats, BEXP is her best friend. 32/17 bulk is a little spotty for what Nephenee has to do, but we can make do, Jill needed the extra HP boost more. Nephenee was the only other real choice, though.
No real surprises here, unless you count the fact that Halberdiers have 5 extra crit as a class bonus as a surprise. There are crit bonuses from +5 to +25 scattered around the classes you might expect (and one you might not), and if a class with one promotes, they usually get a better one. I suppose Nephenee is technically our first character in such a class!
From the looks of things, it's just her and the swordmasters. The other three class lines are male-only.
Here's Yeardley, being a fairly standard Lance General boss. He'll be a little tricky for Nephenee to chew on.
He comes with an Authority star to call his own- and since Nephenee does not, that puts us at a disadvantage. Despite his skill at oration, the mechanics of Authority Stars means this only applies to the Rebels and not the Volunteers.
If you want to know which four soldiers are the Volunteers, it's these four. They all have healing items to drop and very spotty decision-making on their aggression. A good way to make them go away is to smack them over the head enough to make them run and use their healing item.
Hm... this is something I should be careful of doing.
Exactly why I decide to do it.
At least I don't get hit on the Enemy Phase too. Funny how the background changes despite the part of the map this is on not changing- I imagine it's because the knight is on a Plain tile and Nephenee is on Stairs.
Brom stands here, to make sure that this Hand Axeman doesn't block him going down the ledge. I don't really know how to hide Brom in this map, so he can run around visiting houses.
Nephenee takes down a Rebel and shows off her lance twirling.
She goes back to go visit one of the houses behind her. This conversation is rather intimidating. Just walks into a random house with a weapon.
He's fine staying home for this Part.
Giving Haar's Steel Axe to Nealuchi allows Brom to pick it up later, but then he also gets this one.
Brom climbs down here to meet his main goal on this map.
Even if he attracts this mage.
I move Brom here to make sure he can reach a specific square. He doesn't need to do this yet, I should've have him visit the house to his west on this turn.
He can stop by the house to his east next turn. Calill's been teaching magic to more people than Tormod, it seems.
She's very generous to the people who indulge her vanity.
A nice reward for this party for... some reasons.
The Spectre Card is the weakest of the Cards, and this kid actually kinda tutorialises them.
Nephenee's been making her way down here too. I think she's been working on geting past that Volunteer with the Hand Axe.
And this guy makes his move on her. If she wasn't unarmed, this would be bad for him.
Hello, miss!
She's come onto the field to relieve the combatants of their belongings. I love the juxtaposition of her thievery and "Be home soon, Mum!"
Brom walks over to get her over on our side. Man, he needs health.
Heather doesn't seem to be very interested in what he has to say.
Brom's assumption is that she's hard of hearing, and he tries shouting.
Heather gets bored of ignoring him and decides to hear him out.
Brom just wants to say hi.
...How often does Heather have to deal with this sort of thing?
Brom has a family, he doesn't need a mistress.
Heather's really not into this conversation.
This probably sounds very moralistic to Heather at first.
And then he compliments her.
Although it is not exactly something you want just anyone to be able to point to.
Brom's not going to be doing anything Heather won't like about that.
He just wants Heather to relieve the Rebels of their goods for the good of Crimea.
Him and Nephenee.
It'll help with the whole "not hurting anybody" thing.
You can't steal equipped weapons, but Brom actually has a brand new skill for RD that makes the person he hits drop their weapon. If Heather's available, she can steal it and now the guy is unarmed. Brom having an Iron Axe and being kinda sluggish helps him not just kill the Volunteer on the spot.
Heahter's noticed something that's piqued her interest.
Hm... I feel like "friend" might be the right word, though. I'm not sure what's the stage above that on the platonic scale.
Brom definitely has no more interest in Nephenee than he does Heather.
Heather's jumped on board.
Well, she's making herself clear, you can't deny that.
Heather was intentionally written as gay.
Just not interested in Brom, but very interested in Nephenee.
Brom takes things in stride.
And Heather gets the hell away from him.
Heather is more or less what you expect a thief to be. She's going to be our main Knife user, for whatever prestige this title holds, and she is going to feel like she's gone to heaven in this party setup.
Knifes have Ranks now, but I don't think Heather will ever be in a position where she can't use a Knife for not having the Rank. She's not a PoR character, so she's gotta grind up from scratch, at least.
She also innately has the Pass skill, which will help her be annoying to the enemy.
How fitting, that the commander is Nephenee. Fittingly, all the Lords in Part 2 that Heather works for are women. That Biorhythm is just about right.
Heather shanks this man.
And Nephenee deals with this one.
Look at those statups. And no Str/Def.
Heather comes just shy of killing this fellow.
And gets to have this chat with Nephenee.
Nephenee is very perplexed.
And flustered. I wonder how close Heather is right now.
Nephenee tells her to keep her distance.
Heathers prepped.
Literally uphill! Pass is good for when you have chokepoints like this.
Don't think too hard.
A great day gets even greater.
Not that Nephenee gets it.
And Heather practices her knife-throwing against this volunteer. Knives are throwing weapons and Daggers are melee only.
And the Volunteers run away to heal.
Well, when Lisa Simpson starts advocating for the overthrow of the ruler he doesn't like, some people are going to start throwing hands.
This woman gives us a healing item and worries about her sister.
Concoction, specifically. Ths might be nice for Nephenee, but it's not happening this map.
Heather and Nephenee are busy up here.
Heather does two gratuitous backflips whenever she gets a kill. It's amazing.
Hm... this is a matchup I should definitely concede first strike in.
Heather attracted some more unpleasant attention. She's perfectly dodgy.
And Nephenee dodged this Poleaxeman.
And this position is going just fine-
Oh. You.
Two bandits appear (the other one is up in the west, you can see him above the label in the previous screenshot). New faction means they don't have Yeardley's Authority Star, but they're still going to try and burn the houses down.
Not if we save them first!
This position is going to get worse before it gets better.
Starting with dealing with this guy.
Unfortunately, this round didn't kill, and also Nephenee is in a bit of a pickle.
Thank goodness, this guy didn't do anything about that house. For some reason.
And Brom isn't even blocked! How lucky! If I didn't have to visit the Concoction house the way back, I could've made this safer, presumably.
And now one of the Fighter Volunteers is about to become our problem!
This guy hits Heather, in case things weren't bad enough.
Brom saves this house, at least!
Another one of these villagers who got given a weapon unsolicited and doesn't want to keep it.
When you consider this is probably a 20-pack quiver, this is even worse for her.
And Heather meets up with this other woman.
It's the sister of the Concoction lady!
About equal in usefulness.
And now Nephenee is going play distraction to make Heather's job easier.
These guys trapped Brom in front of the house. He'll be stuck here for the rest of the mission.
And this Volunteer moving to this exact position means the Rebel knight can steal his Vulnerary. How rude.
Now then, let's show off one of those weird bugs that probably slipped past playtesters.
If a character Passes through an enemy, their movement isn't properly deducted, and you get shenanigans like this. You can't actually Move anywhere you weren't already allowed, but you can make your movement arrow do weird things.
Well, the main thing we need to do is stand and heal.
Nephenee deals with this guy.
Well, now we're in Wrath. Probably should consider changing that at some point.
Heather makes this guy's life interesting.
And Nephenee takes advantage of Wrath to deal with this guy.
And gets some solid stats to add to the pool. Especially that Strength.
And we get the Vulnerary. The two Volunteers have a Herb.
They're nice and out of the way now, too.
Nephenee prepares to deal with Yeardley, and heals this time. She's gonna need more than Wrath.
And Heather tickles this guy to keep him on his toes.
For great profit.
Yeardley is prepared to put Nephenee down.
And he proudly proclaims the identity of his superior!
...That's a pretty serious aim. Hopefully it's just hyperbole.
"Riiiiiiiight..."
"Riiiiiiiiiiiiight."
This guy, we handle just fine.
And this guy is healing.
So are these two, but they have designs on making an issue for us. Slowly.
...So, this is the dumbest thing ever.
Why do I get the sinking suspicion this rebellion is not on the up and up?
...Heather, how do you know this?
...No, but seriously, how do you know Ludveck of Felirae as any guess in particular?
It's definitely the correct guess.
Yeardley channelling the wrong Simpson.
Fairly sure this is personal.
Yeardley proves as capable of hitting Heather as he was hitting Nephenee.
Ooh, Knife rank.
Hitting him with Heather was to make this a oneshot. This crit made that redundant.
At least we got the essentials.
And he even tells you who his boss is with his dying breath! The plot depends on Brom and Nephenee knowing this.
Brom: Hey, you! Who put ya up ta this? Politics ain’t my strong suit, so ya can spare me the details, but I know you’re up ta no good, and someone’s behind it.
Yeardley: Hah! Clamor all you like, but it won’t change a thing. Revolution is taking root across Crimea. Our plan is flawless. We’re getting rid of that… girl! We shall have a new ruler in Melior… Soon… Lord Ludveck, duke of Felirae, will wear the crown.
Brom: Ludveck? From Felirae?
Yeardley: That is correct. And you shall perish with that name fresh on your lips, you blundering cow!
You take that back about Brom! Elincia, too.
These Volunteers get into fights with Brom and Nephenee, now that Yeardley is down.
Brom and Nephenee stab their respective challengers.
That's... you literally stabbed first.
Nephenee is off-foot.
Brom is a little more prepared.
The people who have been in war know a little more about it than people who just got riled up by a random madman.
そうじゃ。 わしらは人殺しじゃ。
知らんかったんかい？
わしやネフェニーは
戦に行ったんじゃ。
おまえさんたちが
デインにかなうわけねえいうて
逃げ隠れとる間にね。
わしはデイン兵を何人も何人も殺した。
ちょうど、こんなふうに……
Brom's speech here is a little more active, calling himself a murderer who killed many Daeins just like this guy. This kind of explains his body language a little more clearly.
No more of these crazy promises.
He's clearly been around the block more than once, and not just about this.
Brom and Nephenee decide to go tell Elincia that Ludveck is up to no good.
Well, I'm sure Meg's turned up somewhere safe. Certainly not any kind of revolution.
So Brom tells Jacob. I wonder who Jacob is.
That's certainly one reason to have to leave. I'm sure Ohma needs time apart after this.
That's certainly... a thing for a queen. No real policy in there, but a good heart nonetheless. Sounds like where Dimitri sits after Azure Moon, honestly.
It doesn't seem like this much is enough for the people of Crimea right now.
But yeah, this country is going to the dogs.
"Elincia will know what to do!"
Elincia: "I have no idea what to do!"
"The sooner we finish up, the sooner we get back home."
Not only is that the full bonus for sparing all four Volunteers, that's the full Turn bonus, too! ...Somehow. Serenes says this map caps out at 750 BEXP for Turns.
Next time: Espionage.
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