Bethany Plays: RD Chapter 3-8 Battle: Half measures

36 soldiers, with limited reinforcements. This is a fairly generic map, gimmick aside.

General Septimus will be our boss today, and I hope that him starting at Worst Biorhythm is intentional. He has no Authority, fitting a coward who is being press-ganged into this position, but he is a fairly high-powered boss with a strong weapon. His weakness is his remarkably poor Hit chance.

The gimmick of Intelligent Systems volcano maps is that, at some point during the turn, all units standing on specifically marked tiles will be set on fire for fixed damage. In this game, that is at the start of the Player Phase, and rather than the heated tiles burning the units, they are instead pelted with eruption debris.

These three suckers are our guinea pigs, to explain to the player this gimmick in a manner more succint than my own. The danger tiles are the reddish squares scattered around, and despite my earlier assertion that they are "specifically marked", they aren't actually special from a terrain perspective other than the whole "laser guided rock" deal- ie if I were to highlight a square, the terrain window would tell me both safe and dangerous tiles are "Cave" terrain. For the most part, it's obvious where the safe tiles end and danger begins, but there are a few cases in which I'd like for the matter to be more clear.

As one last note before we start, I earlier asserted that Eternal Bond would play on all Greil Mercenary maps from 3-4 on. Turns out I was wrong, this one plays Gathering of Storms. The one exception...

Lethe opens hostilities with a Halfshift and knocking this guy on the head for most of his health. Lethe can honestly make a lot of use of halfshifting coming up to weaken things for Lyre, since she's done with Strike rank and EXP is a different issue.

No crit, but losing a quarter of her transformed Speed costs her a healthy chunk of Avoid. Plus, this guy is a swordmaster, they're accurate.

Now that's a Blossom level.

Have you ever just stopped and realised... Nephenee can oneround Generals.

This guy doesn't count, he was one of the guys who ate volcano dust.

Ike and Ranulf are not needed elsewhere, so they'll just park in the corner and gain Support ranks.

I'm interested in EXP for Lyre and I'm feeling brave, so she won't transform this turn.

Mist heals up Lethe. For some reason, she got a lot of use as a healer this map. Maybe I should've switched Ilyana and Mist around, but I was going for Ilyana/Heather Support.

...Actually, come to think of it, that's not much of a counterargument. Ah well. Hindsight.

Speaking of Heather, her dodging gets to be the first action of the turn. I gave her Sothe's Kard, but honestly, Kard is a pretty terrible dagger and this is just for kicks.

Of course he runs away. There are two Vulneraries, Septimus's Concoction and a healer running around. When raising laguz and actively not killing enemies before enemy phase, it's important to keep on top of where the healing items are.

This was slightly more dangerous than I counted on.

Lyre made do.

The offending swordmaster paid for his insolence.

Did I say something about Wildheart being the Demi Band, back in 1-5? Well, there's one major practical consideration- you get raised to 30 TP when you Halfshift, but your TP runs out at the usual rate- and for cats, that's "a lot". Just because you're using Wildheart doesn't mean you ignored TP.

Lyre finishes this guy off.

Lethe demonstrates the trick to managing TP while Halfshifted- once you've moved, but before you do your action for that turn, Revert and then Halfshift again. Back to 30 TP for free. Once you've done this dance, you're committed to your tile, so you must make sure you want to do whatever action you have in mind, but you must also remember to perform this Revert-Halfshift flicker or risk untransforming entirely.

Lethe's action this turn is to kill this mage. Anything that attacks at 2 range is a problem, since laguz can't answer that as an enemy phase action.

Mist gets a kill, because she's a growing girl and needs a few of those.

I don't know why, the Valkyrie horse feels like it moves around at a different speed than its gait suggests it ought. This screenshot somehow manages to convey that dissonance.

As poor as Kard is, it's still good enough to shank some mages.

Ilyana, I don't think you and Heather are thinking of the same gains.

Ilyana heals up Nephenee's hit.

And gains her last Staff rank. She is now capped at A Staves- the only interesting S Staff is Fortify. Which, fair enough, I would like it if Ilyana had the choice to use it, but we always have alternatives.

Nephenee goes down to bait some armours.

And Mia stays up here to kill things that have less armour.

In her usual way.

This'll do, I guess. Lyre really needs better levels.

Oh, we're back to these scares, are we?

Nephenee gets two Impales in a row, in the sort of gambit that would make you stay on your toes if these screenshots depicted the same part of the flash.

These two warriors have come to say hello to Nephenee and met the volcanism for their troubles.

Lyre goes forward to check on this Fire Mage that didn't attack us, and notices it is a bad idea for her to open hostilities.

Mist solves one problem.

And Lethe chips down one of the Knights.

...Hey, does Titania's Movement seem a little restricted?

Oh, good to know, this map counts as Indoors. This is also affecting Mist, by the way.

Titania comes over here and makes sure Mist is armed for potential combat.

Nephenee changed her mind- she Shoves Mia and has her handle the south.

Aside from this guy, this side is now mostly people that Mia wants to be handling.

Another mage for Kard.

And a decent enough level up.

Lyre decides to engage this guy for some free points in Strike. Ironically, I think I may actually have been better served not doing this in the long run, or at least attacking the other guy (Lyre does not double him).

That's not just because of the general problem.

...Or this one.

Of course the enemy goes straight for Nephenee. I should consider giving one of the laguz Provoke.

This guy misses the second time.

And Mia's getting her kills just fine.

Some Strength into the bargain.

There goes the Silver Sword.

...This might've been a great time for Vantage. Not that Mia has any tactical benefit for doing so other than the satisfaction of having a meaningful Vantage.

This one was not.

One important thing to know about the volcano is that it is lethal- this guy was on 4 HP when the rock fell and now he is dead. I wasn't expecting this guy to flee- and if he did, not onto a volcano tile.

So yeah, this was the guy Lyre attacked for free? Now Lethe can't weaken him for Lyre to get the kill. Oops.

Fortunately, Mist can do the chip damage!

First of all, let's check out how Lethe does here.

She's good.

Now Mist can attack from this side. Mist needs all the Move she can get.

No Sol proc, that's good.

Lyre gets her kill. I'm fairly sure kills are as good for Strike as her EXP.

Titania just comes down here, looking for the map's one Coin.

Ilyana zaps this guy. She only has Thunder magic right now, since she's capped on her backups. Also, her two Elthunder tomes are the extent of my Elthunder supply. I'm going to need more El-tomes for Calill and another mage.

Even when she's not critting, she's Flaring.

And Ilyana has now capped every single weapon rank she has. Odds are she'll still have Discipline next map, because reasons.

Heather marches into this mess to be a potential weaken.

So does Nephenee, but without the "weaken" clause.

Crossbows annoy me greatly. The accuracy gets me most- and the fact they always tend to do some scratch damage.

Yeah, this is going to be sold again.

No Bane or Crit. I thought Kard was supposed to be critty.

And Lethe gets to weaken a General.

Longbows, these are a pain too.

And this Thunder mage got a rock to the face.

Oh dear, this guy has moved north.

...Oh dear, he's spotted Ike and Ranulf in his evacuation loop, hasn't he?

Ilyana gets rid of this guy.

And Heather gives her a friendly chat.

Before relieving this guy of one of the Vulneraries on the map.

Lethe relieves him of most of his HP.

Lyre scratches this guy.

Nephenee and Titania just move forward. They're so high levelled right now, I'd rather Lyre get the kills.

Mist heals Lyre.

And then backs up to bait down this fellow.

Ike and Ranulf, to be safe, go down over here.

Oh hey, Mia didn't move. Oops.

She got her kill.

And she continues to attract this guy's attention. One of the Lyre knights has run away.

The other one, on the other hand, judged his options and decided that if he was going to die, he was going to make his own choice how.

Ilyana obliges with the obvious.

Speed!

Enemy reinforcements!

Ah, dang it.

Never mind, I'm content with this outcome.

Mia comes down here and brings out the Wind Edge. That highlighted Fire mage has the other Vulnerary.

Mist gets another kill.

And some good enough stats.

And there's her Luck cap anyway.

Lethe is preparing to attract enemy attention. This pit of danger tiles is the hardest to cross.

Nephenee prepares for these guys. I just really need a foothold to get south.

Mist does some more healing.

Titania unequips herself as she enters this position. Not making the same mistake as last turn.

Ranulf explores his options.

Always go for the unarmed ones.

Ooh, an enemy for Nephenee to weaken.

Why did I think it could be possible...

Not the time to get Astrum, Mia.

...Come on, girls.

And that guy hasn't moved.

If I enter the highlighted range, I attract unwanted attention from some knights. Lucky this guy is not in it!

That's a lot of work to not dodge a guaranteed dodge.

...Oh. That explains the level up. Uh...

Lethe feeds a kill to Heather. Aside from the ludicrousness of Lethe not going for the kill, why would you not kill something on a cat tribe player phase?

Nephenee breaks out the three use Javelin to strike this General.

Now you don't crit. I don't think this guy moves.

Lyre can take out this fellow.

Ranulf makes sure to stay out of trouble.

Oh, Mia has the attention of the druids.

They sold their souls for a 37% crit chance, but didn't check which side would have it.

This is going to be the guy who chews up Nephenee's last Javelin. At least he's due another 10 damage.

Disarm the Worm!

Oh hey, this one's come here too.

Disarm only!

I'm sure both of these two are rethinking their life choices.

Lyre gets a double hit-to-kill on this guy. This is the best-case scenario for Strike.

Ranulf drops Ike off over here. They'll try and dig up the Coin.

We really need to get some enemies out of the way.

Not the skill that would speed this up.

I decided to get this kill with Nephenee, mostly because I didn't want to move her pointlessly so Ilyana could do it instead. Seemed wasteful.

Heather returns the favour.

Considering what Ilyana did with her turn, maybe she should have switched with Nephenee. Some more EXP for Nephenee is valuable considering her stat caps.

Mia withdraws, owing to her high EXP. I want all the remaining kills to go to Lyre and Mist.

And Lethe reminds me why perhaps I should've been more cautious about plunging her into danger.

Wow, that's a lot of missing TP. On the plus side, all these dented generals.

Let's deal with all these healing sources.

Lyre uses Heather's old space to secure some Strikes.

Yes, this guy has not moved. If I was just in this for grinding, I might have not done this and allowed Lyre to chip him down the whole way.

Laura and Fiona were grinding enough. Lyre doesn't need SS that badly.

Titania and Nephenee hide over here. I don't need them to contribute any more.

Lethe takes out the priest.

And Ike finds the Coin. Goody.

Ilyana actually uses that Physic staff I stole from Elincia. Who knew?

Oh, you, you got the Concoction.

Stop that.

This is for being a very bad boy.

Mist gets this kill in particular, as part of my cunning plan.

She also gets a Sol on it. Her Sol isn't unique from Titania's, but she is now in the Mastery club.

Lyre takes his place and kills this guy. Now the third general is the guy that doesn't move.

Ilyana uses the normal Heal staff this time.

Strength, more Strength!

Septimus, down to three men including himself, bemoans his poor lot. That was a tall ask from Valtome.

Maybe in the next life.

First of all, you have a 22% hit chance on a little girl with WTD.

A crit? Showing off, Mist?

All right, one more turn, we need to finish off the last of these guys.

Mist heals up Lethe.

Heather relieves him of his other treasure, offloading the Concoction to Mist to make room.

Why do I always forget to check my EXP before a Steal?

Lethe untransforms.

We're desperate for meat, and stringy meat will do.

He did get one hit, but still.

Lethe gets one more hit in.

Mist heals her up for this pretty good level. Staff EXP is always good EXP.

I felt it was appropriate for this guy to die to a laguz. And then this idea came to mind.

Lyre vindicates that decision.

Defence, I'll need some of that eventually, I'll take that. By the way, that was Lyre's fourth level up in one map while Halfshifted nearly the whole time. Something something Wildheart halves EXP? (She did not get 100 EXP from the Septimus kill- it was 86, I think.)

Septimus: Wh-Who are you?!
Ike: Ike of the Greil Mercenaries. You don’t look too good. Maybe you should just leave…
Septimus: Wait a moment… HAH! Look everyone! Look at this one! He’s not a beast! Oh, thank the goddess! Victory is nigh!
Ike: So… Chasing us into these caves wasn’t the plum assignment that all the best generals wanted, huh?
Septimus: How DARE you! Take my spear, knave!

Septimus finds one spare drop of courage talking to Ike. Of all people. Remember the Begnion who recognised Ike worked for this man.

So long, Septimus. You will be remembered. For about half a chapter.

Ike and Ranulf pretend they were helping- Ranulf does so untransformed like a badass- and Skrimir hides in the corner of the screen like this game isn't in widescreen. I don't think this game normally does things like this, I don't know why it happens here of all places.

"I just wanted to watch you kill those guys first."

That's the end of this hellhole.

SUNLIGHT! Sunlight that isn't trying to kill us! Quickly!

WIND! Wind that isn't trying melt our faces off!

We need the chance to take a breather.

Skrimir has spent this entire pursuit knowing, on some level (not always the same level the whole way) that this entire mess was his fault, and if they all died, that would be on him too. Skrimir is so relieved they pulled an escape card out of their tails.

So, who's an expert in Tellian geography and tell us what the landscape of Gallia looks like?

So what other country did Kauku come out in...

Oh. Yeah. Right.

The country of neutrals.

Skrimir? I think it's probably best we don't fight these ones. Not because we can't- Ilyana melts the red ones- but because it would be the mother of all faux pas.

不可抗力とはいえ、
国境を侵したとなると……
叔父貴に知れたら大目玉だ。

Skrimir instead brings up force majuere. The fact this came up in the machine translation makes me wonder if JP uses the same Latin we do for the concept (force majuere is a correct Latin term for our problem).

I think that might be the case already.

All right, so let's go check in on Deghinsea...

That is one heck of a castle for the land of neutrals.

Hello, Deghinsea. We totally respect your vow of neutrality and all that.

Deghinsea is the sort of man who ignores things like "context" and focuses on actions.

Which is not very good for us right now.

Skrimir is tired, his men are at the end of their ropes, there is no way we'll ever be able to find the Gallia exit of Kauku, please, man, just let us do literally anything else.

Ranulf, I don't think playing his game is going to help us.

Skrimir has a sense of responsibility, and if that means challenging the Dragon King, so be it. If he couldn't beat Zelgius, I don't think this guy is in his power.

我が軍には多数の負傷兵がいる！
もう一度あの溶岩窟に戻れば、
もはやもたない者もでてくる！！
せっかく助かった命を……
無為に捨てろというのかっ！？

Skrimir saved lives finding that exit, and he's not going to let anyone else die because it wasn't the right one!

Deghinsea's vow of neutrality is total.

Skrimir doesn't understand where Deghinsea is coming from. As is usual for him, normally, but Deghinsea is closed off more than usual. Even Soren wears his weakness openly.

Goldoa was separate from Begnion since both nations were formed. Goldoa has not interfered in anything. Anything.

And if Deghinsea gets his way, so it shall stay.

Ike sasses the dragon king. I just love the "it saves us the walk".

…なら、いっそ
ここで俺たちを始末したらどうだ？
法を犯すことが、生きた者を
見殺しにするぐらい重いと……
それがこの国だというなら、
この場で、あんた自らの手で裁け！

It may not be the sass of "saves us the walk", but Ike certainly understands the weight of his request here. If Deghinsea values his neutrality so much as to kill us by sending us to the caves, then he should kill us personally and bear that weight himself.

Perhaps if you explained yourself, maybe we could challenge your expectations!

...At this point, Ike, I would expect to be converted into new and exciting forms of matter.

あぁ、そうだ。
俺はベオクだが、あんたより
よっぽどラグズに近い。

Instead of insulting his capacity to be King, Ike questions Deghinsea's claim to the title of 'laguz'. You know how I always say Ike is more laguz than beorc? Ike is pressing that here. This is a more valid criticism of Deghinsea than his work as King, but it is still about as likely to end with Ike turned into a puddle of something.

Oh, hello, it's you two. I guess they did have an in with the King.

The dragons in general have a bit of a more dour disposition in RD, and Ena demonstrates that. In terms of physical changes, though, I'm not sure what one's expecting- dragons live hundreds of years, three is a drop in the bucket.

Ena requests that the Laguz Alliance be granted safe passage for personal reasons.

Nasir gives him something a little more concrete.

I don't believe it was ever actually made explicit in Path of Radiance, but Rajaion is Deghinsea's oldest son. The Black Dragon tribe is only seen in Deghinsea and his children, but the nature of dragon tribe races wasn't discussed in PoR- in fact, I don't think we even see Kurthnaga and Deghinsea transform! The idea that Nasir, Ena and Rajaion's non-red colour is a racial trait and not just the same thing as all the named beasts being non-standard colours (think Mordecai being blue and Muarim being green while generic tigers are grey) isn't something that PoR really primed you to know.

Deghinsea is moved to accept this plea on behalf of the fact that we saved Rajaion in PoR. Once.

One thing I find interesting about the backdrop is that there are three thrones here, but only two members of the dragon tribe nobility running around- Deghinsea and Kurthnaga. I wonder where Kurthnaga's mother is, and also who is supposed to sit in these chairs in ordinary business- I presume Deghinsea and Rajaion are two, but is the third for the mother, another child, or someone else entirely? Why am I talking about a backdrop that has mostly been obscured for this whole conversation?

And with that, we are dropped off in Gallia.

Nasir coming through in the end, same as PoR. ~~You know, Soren's still waiting on that apology.~~

Ike wonders why that's where we're going to end the conversation. It has been three years.

According to Pegasusknight, at least, this attempt at casual conversation only happens with Transfer Data- without, you still see this setpiece, but it's much shorter. I don't think Serenes has the evidence one way of the other- this is one of the chapters they still don't have the script for.

Apparently three years passes the dragons by so quickly that Ena doesn't even bat an eye at not having met an acquaintance for that long.

You know, long-lived races always say this, and while on a historical level they have a point, I have to wonder what about longevity makes it so that sleeping doesn't provide a grounding point. Then again, I am not long-lived in any way.

Technically, Nasir isn't even supposed to be having this conversation with us. This is honestly quite the character shift from PoR Nasir. Especially with the whole "unifying the world" PoR Nasir claimed to have as part of his whole "owning a ship" deal.

Ike is asking this question about the dragon tribe specifically, although Nasir and Ena seem to have fallen in line with the rhetoric after PoR.

What about it makes it so hard to understand? I guess... maybe...

Nasir states, for the record, that he and Ena agree wholeheartedly with the Vow of Neutrality. Which is a solid argument- these two aren't unreasonable. Thinks back to PoR Mostly.