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.
And we're home at last! It's been, what... some 40-50 odd chapters since we've been here? I appreciate they recreated the place for this establishing shot (those houses are different to the ones in PoR), but there won't be a battle here like in PoR.
At least we're done travelling for now.
I assure you these are the same character. Damn, I think the three year timeskip affected you the most. The red is presumably based on her red Valkyrie outfit, but the general design is just... so much different now. Mist is the oldest of the child units from PoR, and technically, she is now an adult in RD- if you can call 15 -> 18 adequate for that. I feel a lot of the surprise for Mist/Boyd being the canon ending comes from the fact that Mist is still kind of mentally in the "child character" box for many people, and the writers didn't fully communicate that age dynamic. Admittedly, sometimes they still treat RD Mist like a kid.
I think that's just nobles anywhere, Ike.
Thanks for the pay, Bastian. Now for our next job...
A fairly unremarkable shift side-by-side, but something about RD Titania really does look different. I think it's the fact that the hair on the far side of her head now completely fills the gap next to her chin, mostly. Also, she looks a lot more like she's actively narrowing her eyes rather than just having naturally small eyes.
Mist points out they were offered the chance to be set for life.
Just as a tease, though. Ike would never have gone for it.
It doesn't seem to have done the nobles any good.
Besides, Father would've wanted it this way. Well, I presume. He seemed pretty OK with the whole "betray Ashnard" thing, but that's Ashnard in comparison to Elincia. I do remember him trying to steer clear of the whole "Elincia succession" thing.
Now who could be calling at this hour?
Soren has a lot less anger against the world to get out in this game. Also, he's grown his hair out significantly. I'm not sure what idea this change is trying to communicate, if it even is doing such, but it's a trait nonetheless. People with better eyes (and probably better quality images of his head) have said that Soren's Brand (the tiny little red symbol on his forehead) has actually slightly changed shape too, but, well, clearly the game isn't that interested in getting a good look. I find it interesting that Soren's Brand is so small while Micaiah's is so big, but I don't believe we ever discuss why.
He hasn't been home for a few weeks in order to pull off the mother of all gambits.
Ranulf hasn't changed much over the timeskip- don't expect much out of laguz, three years means less to them than beorc, although how much less differs from race to race- but I notice his muscle tone has increased. I wonder if Ike's newfound muscle is because of a new training regimen or just a new artstyle.
Ike's happy to see Ranulf again.
Apparently, the Extended script skips right over all the Titania and Mist stuff and gets right to Ranulf. I guess they had the spotlight in 2-E.
...Well, for a certain definition of "great".
Well, aren't you in a very exposition-y mood right now! Ranulf didn't show up for pleasantries, though.
Remember this? How Leanne came to Crimea to find Ike? At least Ike did bump into her.
I wonder in which language. I presume modern, because Ike doesn't have all the details.
- Ike:
- 話したというか……
リアーネが繰り返しこう言ってただけだ。
『にいさまたちを助けて』とな。
他にも色々言ってたが、
俺は古代語がまったく分からん。
鴉の爺さんのほうも、
『ベオクには漏らせない情報ですじゃ』
とか言って通訳も説明もしてくれんし。
- Ranulf:
- 悪気がないとはいえ、
まだ協議中の国の秘事を
外に漏らすとは…困ったもんだ。
おまえが古代語できなくて幸いだったよ。
Apparently it was in Modern, although she was giving a lot more story in Ancient. Nealuchi refused to translate, saying it was a Laguz Secret. Ranulf agrees with his assessment.
"How are you?"
"Fine, doing just great. Except we declared war."
Laguz versus Begnion. This is one heck of a battle.
Ike's thinking of Tibarn and Sanaki's connection- Sanaki is doing so much for the laguz, it's hard to imagine the laguz declaring war on her.
"From Daein", he says, but Rafiel knew this all the way from Hatari. How he came by that information, we'll discuss much later, but this is why Rafiel is the most important character in Radiant Dawn's plot. Without him and this disturbing news, Part 3 doesn't happen. And Part 2 might've actually been a little smaller, because no Leanne.
The Serenes Massacre was the fault of the Begnion Senators. And the laguz want answers.
He asks for Ike's help, but really, Ike isn't the person who's necessary for the laguz right now.
We get another map narration, complete with the voice actor. I think the Parts all have sorta intermissions, except Part 2's intermission turned into On Drifting Clouds and Part 4's has significant non-map gameplay, leaving Part 3's with just a short discussion between Ike and Ranulf- a discussion the game is about to reiterate.
Tormod proceeded to bugger off somewhere- possibly back to Begnion to protect his people again. Nailah's staying with Rafiel.
And, by "long thought", we mean "as of three years ago, when we just guessed based on context clues."
In addition to, you know, not being a foreign power randomly assassinating a ruler and then not doing anything but indirectly causing a genocide on an unrelated third party, the Senators also have something resembling a motive for doing so, although we'll be talking about motive later. For now, "they're assholes" should be plenty.
Tibarn is, understandably, ready to introduce Lekain to six million forms of pain in no particular order. I think it's very important that, when you find out the real culprits behind a genocide, they should receive some form of punishment. Dimitri.
All three laguz kings want one thing:
Answers. The choice of words "the leadership of Begnion" seems interesting, since this includes Sanaki.
Also, Kilvas's map colour looks a lot like Begnion's and that's not a great colour choice when Naesala's portrait is hiding the sea in between the two nations.
The senate's response is a resounding "bugger off."
...I'm like 500% sure that's not OK by any stretch of the imagination.
The Laguz Alliance is the one to declare war on Begnion. A lot of people discussing Three Houses like to point fingers at Edelgard for starting the war, but "starting the war" doesn't seem to have cost the likable faction of this war any points.
Ranulf, ie the only sane laguz, asks "hey, is this something we are actually capable of doing?"
The answer is no. One laguz will beat one beorc, but an army of beorc will outsmart and outplay a horde of rampaging laguz with no sense of reason.
So he hires Ike. Ike, the tactical genius who brought us such magnificent strategies as "charge in blindly", "charge in bluntly", and "charge in bravely".
Apparently, Ike has a high enough impression of Sanaki that he almost declines Ranulf's request so as to not be on the opposite side of a war with her.
Considering things a little further, though, Ike is fully on board with the Laguz Alliance's opinion on these matters. Ike really is more laguz than beorc at times.
The Greil Mercenaries will fight with the Laguz Alliance.
Time to begin.
The laguz tents are pretty cute. I think this is based on an actual culture, but I'm not sure which.
There's a quick establishing shot before we go to the map screen. There's unmounted Titania after all, the usual crew, Lethe and Mordecai (who have left Crimea to chip in), Rhys and a new laguz character (for... some reason, these are the most random choices ever), and a brand new character to join the plot-important crew.
I don't think any cutscene ever actually uses that side room.
Gotta start somewhere.
Ranulf has a plan of attack.
- ………
オレたちが抵抗らしい抵抗もなく
帝国領内に進入できたのは…
我等ガリアの獣牙族のみが知る
『抜け道』があったからこそだ。
逆に言えば、エルツ山脈を通る
あの道がなかったら……
今回の進攻はあり得なかった。
There's a secret passage through the mountains between Gallia and Begnion that only the Gallians know about. The Gallians used it to reach Begnion, and thus we currently have the element of surprise.
Meet Skrimir, the formal general of this army. I think these two lines tell you nearly everything you need to know about him. Well, except for the part where he gets an actual character arc.
Ranulf doesn't even dignify that with a response.
So why are the Mercenaries here?
Guerilla duty. Surely someone in this room could've come up with better.
- Ranulf:
- グレイル傭兵団は、
遊撃隊として動いて欲しい。
オレたち獣牙族にとって脅威となるのは
ベオクの炎魔法だ……
魔道士を中心に潰していってほしい。
- Ike:
- わかった。
- Ranulf:
- それから…
オレたちは”シューター”とかいう
兵器を操ることはできない。
それを奪取し、
敵を撹乱してくれると助かる。
できるか？
- Ike:
- 俺の傭兵団の弓兵はどちらも優秀だ。
期待を裏切ることはない。
The game takes the opinion that ballistae are a weakness of the laguz tribes. While this is, to some extent, true (it's hard to keep shape when the enemy can pelt you from that far away), the map coming up doesn't actually give the enemy any ballistae to use against us. Ranulf's request of Ike is to tell him to take out the fire mages and seize and operate the ballistae. Ike assures him that both of his snipers are competent at that task- something that means more in-universe, since ballistae don't care about the operator's stats.
I'd tell someone to get this man a leash, but I don't think they make them durable enough.
Yeah, I don't think this would fly with any general.
This man is insane. And yet, still somehow saner than Boar Dimitri...
Skrimir cannot be easily stopped.
I find that both hard to believe and completely hilarious.
...You know, after how often PoR Ike asked people if they were sure they wanted to be in the Crimean Army, Ranulf gets to deliver the question from the other foot.
Ranulf seems to think that Ike would be swayed by this argument. Clearly, three years has been long enough to make Ranulf forget what Ike was like.
The Laguz Alliance are right, the Begnion Senators are wrong. End of story. How race politics enters into that is not Ike's problem.
I'm not even sure Ike cares. Although he does need the clientele...
Yeah... that's our Ike.
Marcia MVP. The most fitting choice.
We have Base, but no Market. The laguz aren't in the habit of selling weapons. We'll have to make do with what we've got scattered around the Greil Mercenaries. So let's meet our old friends.
I was about to make a joke about how this Titania embarasses PoR Titania, but I do notice RD Titania actually outlevels PoR Titania. Still, though, that Strength is more than four points up. The HP's gone down, though.
Titania still has her innate Counter, for all it's worth. Also, she's lost the use of Lances from PoR- not that that's a surprise.
Still got her Miracle.
Well, that's her Swords set. She didn't get Staves, but she used enough of them through PoR to get a big boost. Her base RD ranks are C Sword and B Staff.
And Mia brings back her Vantage. As mentioned in 2-E, this is a Speed% chance and not guaranteed, but at least it's innate. There is a six skill limit, but Mia's not really worried about hitting it.
I'll go over Mia's redesign in detail next chapter. I think we've already seen plenty today, and there's two more male GMs I want to show too.
Four Base conversations today. We do have a lot of new characters at once. Some of the introductory one star conversations actually got pushed to 3-1! Today's just the important people, mostly.
Ranulf's not feeling the greatest.
Ike comes over to check on him.
And Ranulf rebuffs him.
Ike knows Ranulf isn't going to be at his best if he keeps shouldering doubts.
You could not have phrased that any more vaguely.
I wonder how long it took Ranulf to pluck up the courage to make this decision in the first place. Then again, he's still a laguz, perhaps he asked first and then started double-thinking his choices.
Ike certainly doesn't think about his choices any more deeply than that.
Even Soren and Shinon? We'll get some more thoughts about Soren later on, but Shinon only gets one or two conversations that really touch on the topic. I wonder if, despite his prejudice, he really does think the Begnion nobles have gone too far and values justice.
This is something the extended script cares about much more than the main script. Ike had the choice between tracking down the Black Knight and finishing his business with him, or doing this.
One thing that's been more or less unmentioned up until now, but Base conversations aren't actually affected by the extended script thing.
Ike accepts that he can deal with the Black Knight whenever, but this is important now.
I feel like Ranulf is not just feeling better about Ike's position, but is also using Ike's philosophy to ease his own burden.
Ike's happy as long as Ranulf is happy.
Skrimir is... a character.
Laguz are implied to be a meritocratic society, but of the three major examples of succession we can point to, all of the rulers give the title to a family member. All three examples also have it where the royal family is a unique sub-race of laguz that is legitimately more powerful than the rank and file. The complexities of this issue get brushed under the rug.
Caineghis is so powerful, he sent his minion to fight Ashnard because he didn't think the man was worth his time.
He's also a terror off the battlefield.
Ike offers to give him a hand.
Ranulf figures "one thing at a time".
And off we go-
I think Ike has grown a bit in three years. I wonder how his relationship with Soren has developed in that time.
The greatest explanation ever.
Though it seems Ranulf's touched.
So what does Ike have to say to Mist? Well, right off the bat, not great.
"I know the shift to RD has made you better than me again, but I'll change that eventually!"
We've been over this, bro.
Especially not in another country!
Losing her dad was a landmark milestone in her childhood.
Mist is a Greil Mercenary now. And the Greil Mercenaries stick together.
Ike is happy to acquiesce. He's always been very flexible when it comes to such arrangements.
"Now watch me go on a rampage with Florete!"
So what's Skrimir like one on one?
Just think about the backup playthrough's Ike and not this one.
Ike knows he's too skilled to be that humble, but Giffca is so powerful Ike doesn't feel comfortable being put on the same level.
It's interesting, that Skrimir feels like he should avoid calling Caineghis his family. I assume this ties in to the "laguz are meritocratic" angle.
When the strongest person you know recommends studying under you, that's how you know you've made it to the big leagues. With that said, I wonder if it is strength Caineghis is talking about...
Sorry to disappoint you, Skrimir.
Ike is always happy to have another teacher. When I was studying pedagogy, this was called "lifelong learning", and it's a very healthy quality to have. You should never feel like there's nothing left to learn.
Skrimir is the "worst" Lion laguz we (eventually) get to play as, or even meet, but he's still more than equal to the rest of the beast tribe laguz.
A quick mention as to why this character wasn't in Path of Radiance.
That indeed.
"Feast or Famine" is a cute side conversation with Titania and these three. Other than establishing Lethe and Mordecai as being members of this Laguz Alliance faction, it's mostly just for fluff. Which makes it possibly more suited to the next chapter, but it could've gone either way.
This is something PoR Lethe would never have said. She really has grown.
Oscar doesn't go into detail on where he learned it, but considering his backstory, it would ruin the mood of this conversation.
Mordecai intends this as praise.
But honestly, it's a bit of a bad sign.
This army is full of voracious laguz.
Oscar... hasn't made enough food for them all.
Titania can't imagine Ike eating as much as a laguz.
...Although when she puts her mind to it, it does sound like him...
Ike is a growing boy. A growing bodybuilder.
"We're going to need more meat."
And more of everything else.
You know, we don't even need to start a war with Begnion. We just need to run around Begnion long enough with an army and we'll eventually starve them out by overgrazing.
There's very little we can do in the Base with the GMs on the first go, but we can edit skills. Soren and Shinon have these Skills, and had them in PoR too, and now we can use them. If you checked their stat pages in PoR, you might notice that Boyd and Rhys had the Skills Tempest and Serenity. These skills have been removed from RD (probably for the best). The Skills still exist if hacked in, and they can be freely edited by assigning and removing their Skill Scrolls, but the Skills themselves are nonfunctional.
This is where I intend on putting Provoke and Adept for now. Provoke is just a really good Skill to put on a powerful character like Titania, and Mia can at least hit people lots of times to knock them out.
Speaking of new special weapons, Ike has a new PRF sword called Ettard. It's basically a heavier Silver Sword with innate crit (just 10). As a quirky translation note, the JP versions of both games switches the name of this sword and the Black Knight's Alondite. This doesn't mean a lot over the history of the series, but in the American version of Super Smash Bros Brawl, the Black Knight's trophy erroneously claims that he wields the sword Ettard, and this is why.
One thing Transfers does is give you all the Coins you picked up in PoR in Ike's convoy.
And as one last note, Ike has three Authority Stars, which will be very useful for us going forward.
Part 3 in general is going to be very bulky, so we're going to have to start splitting.
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