RD Chapter 4-1: Unfogging the situation

By "west", they're going close to Serenes Forest. But not crossing Ribahn or Miscale. Although considering Oliver had access to Serenes, there may just be a bridge over Miscale down there.

Ike gets Rafiel, Kurthnaga, and their babysitters. Honestly, Greil Army has the lightest plot stuff (as hinted by the fact this chapter isn't even a two-parter).

But the Disciples of Order are going to continue to hassle us anyway.

Part 4 has a lot more chapters than ideas for chapter titles, and it shows sometimes.

"...Well, other than us."

How convenient from Ashera. I presume there's some good way of doing this, come to think of it. Although she is a goddess...

I wonder if he means "just now" or before this conversation. Imagine what could get interrupted with these Sending Stone calls.

ラフィエル王子…
リアーネ姫から伝えられた
【正の使徒】のことを、
もう一度お伺いしていいですか？

Titania asks Rafiel to go over the nature of the Disciples again.

Scoffs.

Soren gets the practical concern: We could be attacked at any moment.

Any moment.

Be prepared.

Short opening today.

Titania:

アイク、そろそろ
また食料が不足してきたわ。
町の物を勝手に拝借するのは
気が引けるけど…
ここで補充させてもらわない？

Ike:

そうだな…
支払いやなんかは、
世界が元に戻ってからの話だ。
よし、全員ひとまず解散だ。
各自が必要と思える装備を
整えておいてくれ。
夕刻までにはこの町を発ち、
野営できる場所を探す。

Mist:

せっかく町にいるのに、
わざわざ野宿しに出て行くの？

Ike:

見晴らしのいい場所で
夜明かししたほうが安全だからな。

Titania:

どこから近付いてきても
すぐに察知できるでしょう？
勿論、こちらも
身を隠す場所がないし、
良いことばかりじゃないけど…

Mist:

かえって目立つよね。
敵に見つけてくれって
言ってるようなものじゃない？

Soren:

むしろ見つけて欲しいんですよ、
…相手から逃げ隠れして
いつ襲われるのかと怯えるのは、
グレイル傭兵団の流儀ではない。
そうですね、アイク？

Ike:

あぁ。どの程度の奴らなのか…
早めに分かったほうが
対策も立てやすいからな。

Titania:

そういうこと。
じゃあミスト、私と行きましょうか。

Mist:

うん。

Much longer in Extended. This isn't plot, though, this is stuff like how the Greil Army approaches paying the petrified villages ("we'll worry about that when they can talk back"), why Ike is setting up camp instead of using the inn ("it lets us have more field of vision") and Ike and Soren's philosophy on how that makes them an easy target ("then let them learn why the Greil Mercenaries are not to be trifled with").

Sigrun one day, Tanith the next. Fits right next to one another.

Only three Base conversations today.

"Appearances" will be between Rafiel, Nailah and Ike.

Rafiel seems a little odd right now.

...I wonder what is bothering Rafiel right now, though. The whole point of this Order environment is that the herons are exceptionally healthy.

Rafiel is strange to Ike. Ike specifically, mostly- remember this is Ike's first real time with Rafiel.

Reyson and Leanne are herons that act in a certain way. Rafiel does not fit the family mold.

Rafiel is refined and delicate. And Ike is very used to being around people with a little steel to them. PoR Elincia is probably the most delicate person Ike knows, and by Chapter 13 she was swearing like a sailor.

I don't blame Rafiel for this response, in all honesty. Ike's observation, while valid, is a complete non-sequitir.

Rafiel has no presence in this argument, and Ike has absolutely no idea how to handle that.

...Yeah, we need another character to get out of this argument loop.

We can say Rafiel is unlike his family, but this is not actually a comment on Rafiel's strange character. Herons are supposed to be like Rafiel- Reyson and Leanne are the outliers.

Reyson is loud, coarse and unyielding

And Leanne can only still be described as "quiet, elegant and delicate" because she's young, doesn't know the language, and attractive.

It's honestly rather sad, when you think about it, that Reyson is so detached from the cultural identity of the heron clan as a response to its genocide. He rejected the values of the heron clan because they're representative of weakness and reliance on others, and Reyson wants to assert himself opposite of that.

Ike probably just mentioned it. If I was in this conversation, there would be some kind of emphasis on the word "did", but Fire Emblem seems to limit emphasis to capital letters, which wouldn't fit the conversation.

Reyson's spent the last twenty years hanging around Tibarn, probably the most intense bundle of testosterone in the entire Fire Emblem franchise.

Fortunately, he hasn't turned into a copy of Tibarn. Mostly because the idea of Reyson chugging beers and grabbing people's collars is indeed hilarious.

...Although that is also reason to say "unfortunately he hasn't".

This isn't just exposure: Reyson likes Tibarn and is actively following his example when he believes Tibarn's doing the right thing. Which probably explains why Reyson hasn't picked up the more macho quirks, but means we're not dragging him away from the rest.

So what about Rafiel? What does he think of Tibarn?

Tibarn's very likable. What can I say? Probably not the sort of person you want to emulate, but definitely the sort of person you want to have around. If only to not have him on the opposite side.

These two are related, all right.

Nailah: "I married a gentle soul and for Yune's sake, I don't want him turning into a pig like Tibarn."

"Visions" focuses on Mist.

She's found a hidden item, in the Greil Army's version of this tutorial conversation.

In the American version, he claims it "looks like a master crown". The item is a Holy Crown and not a Master Crown, but I think Ike identifying it incorrectly should've been part of the point.

These dreams get around. Though that leaves the question of who in Hawk Army is going to get the dream if Micaiah and Mist are taken.

Is that such a bad thing, Ike?

Mist: Will wander out whenever she damn well pleases.

The Holy Crown is a special Master Crown that only works on Mist. In the JP version, that means Valkyrie is locked until now, but for us, this is a pretty meaningless prize. Either you've got a Mist good enough to already be promoted, or you're not using Mist heavily and not likely to bring her to endgame. The second Greil Army mission is unfriendly to horses, so I wouldn't exactly say it's a no-brainer to just use it for using it.

There's an alternate version of this Base conversation where Mist doesn't go looking for any items (and you don't get a Holy Crown) but is otherwise basically the same. You only get it if Mist died. There are five Base Conversations total that require actively sacrificing a character, and I will gladly accept that I will never add them to the library of Base Conversations in the Event Viewer.

So how's everyone's "favourite" vendor?

She's got a present for Soren. Why Soren?

Well, assuming you've been raising him.

So yeah, why is it going to Ike?

Oh yeah. She's got the hots for Ike and not Soren. I think Soren is honestly grateful.

Honestly, I'm not even entirely sure if Ike knows how you feel now. I mean, he probably does, but he can be a little dense sometimes.

He definitely doesn't care, though.

...Wait, is Ike confirming he still has no idea what Aimee's on about?

Well... I can't say that's a wrong assessment of Ike, and it's definitely stoking the fires of "what the hell is Ike's sexuality" (honestly, the answer is "Ike couldn't care less"), but I can assure you you are at the bottom of the list of candidates Ike is considering for his life partner.

Honestly, he probably would go for Sothe over Aimee.

Ike is deeply concerned about this train of thought.

Again, because clearly this needs to be said multiple times, reverse the genders of this conversation and Aimee becomes one of the worst people in Tellius- and when Izuka, Lekain, Valtome and Makalov are running around, that's a tall order.

Ike is deeply concerned, although what he's concerned about and what an external viewer is concerned about are two completely different things.

Aimee has gone completely off the deep end.

Rexcalibur, the SS Wind Tome. 13/105/10- if not for its Weight and low durability, this is basically a Wind version of Cymbeline that also gives the wielder +3 Luck. For us, it's glorified gold, since the only two characters who can wield the SS Wind tome are men- Soren and Bastian.

Meg goes rifling through the convoy and picks up some gear to prepare herself to train her weapon ranks. Unfortunately, there's no Discipline here, either. They're both over with Hawk Army!

Mia considers tinkering with her inventory, and notices how dire the Steel Blade situation is. We can probably make it to Endgame, but we might find ourselves buying more anyway. Well, we can always use Forges instead...

Another Wyrmslayer in the Bargains. The game clearly wants us to have one. Possibly multiple, but I don't think that will be necessary.

When Ike promtoed to Vanguard, the Nihil skill just appeared on him. We now have three Nihil scrolls total- Nolan's, Calill's, and this one.

We can also finally get this back, for whatever we need it for.

Meg will bring Disarm, because of her low Speed meaning she's likely to actually use it, and Paragon, to shore up her level. Considering what happened to Sanaki last mission, I think you can see where this is going.

My endgame is Nephenee/Meg Support, for lore reasons. If I wind up bringing both of these characters to endgame, it's because I really want to see their A Support. As a result, to make sure Nephenee doesn't steal all Meg's kills, Shade it is.

Everyone's gathered around the campfire. Although what is Meg doing in that corner with those barrels?

Kurthnaga was last seen on a battlefield, getting traumatised by his first sight of blood and his first Chaos rage.

It's... traumatised him.

Kurthnaga can help us untangle the lore quite a bit right now, but it's not like we're under any time pressure to take action on what he says. Most of the things he knows are about stuff that's already happened.

Also, it's an ambush!

Fog of War?

It's not something the Greil Army will get to see in action often.

I don't believe Ena's death is a fail condition, but if you have someone carry her around, Kurthnaga's tent is definitely not a fail condition.

Little hard when we can't see the enemy.

...Well, this map isn't that helpful. Probably should've checked my fail conditions.

Incidentally, this is the only Fog of War map that Janaff can employ his +5 Vision from Insight on in the entire duology. Recall that bird tribes have 1 vision untransformed and 0 transformed- Janaff's vision isn't great even with Insight.

Here is Ena with her canon stats. Considering transformation, Ena isn't that much worse in RD compared to PoR. But the enemy will be even more dangerous, and Ena was kinda wanting in PoR as it was...

I feel robbed of S Strike.

Meg opens festivities with an axe to grind.

The phase jingle for Greil Army is the Greil Mercenaries' one.

Prepare to see a lot of these.

Nephenee has a Short Spear, but no Javelin. Probably for the best I try to keep Nephenee and Meg adjacent at all times.

These sandbags can be broken, and apparently this can be done really easily in one go. You'd think there'd be a reason to keep them as a defensive line to throw indirect combat over, but a) this party is at a premium on indirect combat and b) the enemy is going to break these in short order anyway, best not to let them stay distracted.

...Well, I suppose that's to be expected...

Mist can kill this guy and move back into the chokepoint, and does so instead. It'll also mean I don't have to deal with this guy later!

Nailah is now getting more than 1 EXP from these guys! OK, it's still, like, 8, but Nailah can actually use EXP, so might as well let her get some while I'm spreading my meagre forces thinly.

(The laguz royals can kick ass in Endgame just fine at base level. I just like my numbers green and glowing.)

...Guess who forgot to unload Heather's inventory of valuables after last map?

Nephenee has enough space to unload into!

...Oh yeah, Heather doesn't have Shade anymore, I don't think.

Double Adept.

You will not be missed.

I didn't switch to Steel Dagger in reserve. Ah well. At least it probably saved this guy's life.

Meg moderately appreciated the EXP.

Ooh, Axe rank. Now she can start using the Steel Poleaxes.

Well, I guess these guys don't like sandbags.

And Mia gets to show off Astrum again.

Reminder that she's kicking all kinds of ass in her stat caps that aren't Magic.

Ah, hello, something that isn't dead. On this side, a bit of an issue, but it's a surprise out of Mia. I guess these guys know better than to challenge Nailah.

At the end of the Enemy Phase, some reinforcements will come in. You can hear the sound effect of them appearing, and you can in fact see them if the camera is in the correct position. That is not the case right now.

Titania kills this guy, and this guy in particular.

This is a great level up out of the deal, but she didn't find the item she was supposed to grab. No way am I saying no to the level, though.

Ah, yeah. Just roll some Sols right about now with Mist. This side stinks.

This side, on the other hand, has Nailah.

The issue with Nailah is not "will she accomplish her objectives", it's "how inconvenient will it be".

Mia uses the Wind Edge to kill this guy from this tile.

It has an Arms Scroll on it. And this is an item.

Ike, at a loss for things to do, notices that he can Talk to Ena. Serenes doesn't have scripts for Talk conversations in Part 4, so I have to keep on my toes for this stuff.

...Can you blame them for omitting this one?

Well, this is a question about Ena I don't think gets explored. Maybe in JP.

Meg goes for this guy. Incidentally, she doesn't double the swordmaster.

She's working on it, though.

Nephenee deals with this guy, since I see it being an issue.

Heather switches Nephenee's held weapon to her Sword- yes, that's an Iron Sword forge from Part 1, Meg's been working on her not-swords and also has had need of Steel Blades.

Heather puts her dagger down, to try and not hog all of Meg's spotlight.

Since Mia is holding a Wind Edge, this guy wastes his time trying to hit Nailah instead. Honestly, considering WTA, I think Mia has more Avoid.

There's something about the No damage effect that makes you feel all giddy. I especially love the fact that the character doesn't perform any animation whatsoever on a No damage. Not even worth acknowledging.

...Something's telling me this turn isn't turning out how I hoped.

At least Meg got this beauty of a level up out of it. Only thing I care about that she didn't get is Defence, and well, she's already taking no damage from some enemies.

At least Heather isn't taking damage. Despite what one might expect, you're usually more survivable unarmed because you're not engaging in the weapon weight system. Not that anyone in this army actually cares about weapon weight anymore.

Nephenee gets a kill!

This is why I don't want her getting kills. That is her Resistance cap, though.

Nailah continues to have fun.

Aha! Spotted you!

Mia can take out this armour just fine.

Proof of concept, we can't actually see this guy's two friends right now, but thanks to the reinforcement animation, we know they exist.

Mist continues to get plenty of stats that are not Strength. Her Strength cap is actually pretty low, it turns out, so it's not a problem.

Ah. So that's what you are. Hm.

Mist wants to go south, though.

Titania stays here and continues looking for her hidden item with a Hand Axe. Sadly, that's a Biorhythm downer she's on, so her odds are not good.

Heather decides there's no future in looting with Meg doing as she has been, and comes over to help.

So Meg breaks out some more Brom to clear this position of Heather pursuit.

Yeah... all this Speed is going to cost Disarm the ability to mean something.

Nephenee chooses this tile to make sure that Warrior won't go for Heather. The General doesn't have the Movement.

Nailah has noticed that she's killed a lot of enemies and she hasn't gotten a level up, despite starting this mission on 40 EXP. Time to use the old standby of EXP on laguz- untransformed time!

Titania practices hatchet throwing.

And Meg continues getting faster and several other things.

...Enemy Generals are so much bigger than Meg, wow...

Meg has hit her new Speed cap now, though. This is as fast as she gets. She also hit Res cap at some point, I think observing her caps is the least of our issues.

Titania also gets this level up. Titania's... honestly kinda doomed from a cap perspective, but she's still a solid unit. Slower than Meg, admittedly.

Oh hey, a pegasus knight! Our third and last time dealing with them.

Ooh, doubles Nailah and damages her, too! Finally, an opponent worth acknowledging!

Nailah doesn't have a lot of stats to gain. That's already her Skill cap. She does only get 7 levels to get all her stats. Admittedly, she needs 22 statups.

Those two tiles are the only tiles in this hallway that are fogged, so the camera doesn't pan over, but since it's in the shot, we can still spot them. The reinforcements last turn did have one of them appear in vision, so the camera panned over entirely.

Titania needs to move so Heather can pick up the treasure, and might as well get more vision up ahead after getting this guy.

Counter procs: 2.

Mist plunged ahead, but bonked into this guy. Not something she needed to have happen.

Some more Brom ploughing.

And Nephenee breaks out the Short Spear for some kills of her own.

All right, so what are we dealing with back here? Nothing special.

Nailah is so uninterested in this chokepoint that she Glares at this pegasus knight to pass the time.

Eh, with her caps...

Nailah kicked a pegasus right in the down.

And got some good stat for it. Ish.

And one more hit. She got attacked on all four sides, but this is the only connect she had to deal with.

This was not worth it.

Meg is out of targets, so into the Fog she goes.

Mist can take this guy, and gets her HP back while she's at it.

More four stat levels! Push slightly ahead of the curve! Wait, that's her Speed cap now, that's three caps. And she's 5 stats away total from HP/Str/Mag caps.

...Uh, game? Little help? This doesn't normally happen, and in this case, checking the stat menu got it all properly unfogged.

Mia goes for the guy with the better accuracy.

And picks up a Strength cap, I guess. Her margin of error on Magic is now one, by the way.

Nailah heals up this time.

Oh hey, Steel Blade users. It might be nice to steal one, but I don't think we'll be able to keep them alive.

...This could've been nicer, but at least Meg is pretty behind on Skill.

Ooh, Sword rank.

Nailah's not doing much better on level ups. At least Defence is her weak area relative to her caps.

...Hm, 88 EXP...

Time to break out the transformation again.

...Dangit, Nailah.

Time to get into the lower corner.

Mist heals up Meg on the way over.

And Titania goes back to pick Heather up, in case of something last minute.

Never doubt the ability to throw axes at someone who won't throw back.

...Nobody else moved. I seem to remember the boss being of the moving variety, but I guess not on Easy.

Ah well, let's get a level for Nailah.

NAILAH PLEASE! This is why she spent some time kickboxing.

The boss makes an appearance. One authority star and one cutie of a Falcon Knight. I'm of the opinion this woman could be a Holy Guard, but there's no evidence other than her pegasus.

Meg gets the chance to weaken some things.

Meg is that seriously the best you can do?

Not that Nephenee is much better off.

The thing that gets Catalena points over Yuma is the creativity and flowery language of her "die you heathens" boss quotes.

Oh hey, someone else took a swing at Meg.

Disarm did something after all!

Nailah gets the boss kill. Remember what I said about boss kills going to laguz for that sweet EXP bonus? Royal laguz are still laguz.

Poor Catalena. There were better outcomes.

Not for Nailah, though. This is a strong position to be in from a stat cap perspective, despite the fact she's still only capped one stat. She's one off from everything and two off in Mag/Luck.

Yeah, sorry for not letting you kill us all and allow the total annihilation of humanity.

Catalena: Pawns of your execrable goddess, die! You are a festering wound in the flesh of the world! Die, and let it heal!
Ike: I suppose talking it over is out of the question?

Only one boss quote- the only boss with very little to say in all of Part 4! Catalena herself only gets her usual flowery heretic speech, but this is a candidate for Ike's best zinger. He has a lot of them, admittedly, but there's something about his sarcastic resignation.

Nephenee gets more EXP.

Meg gets another weaken for WEXP.

And Mia and Mist finish off.

Not that tough, clearly. This army is powerful as heck.

...Because her TP situation is garbage. OK, admittedly, I think she could transform by the end of the mission, but still.

I wonder how that would go for her. By the time we get Ena, we don't really have the margins of error to let Ena go untransformed.

Kurthnaga could really use some help moving forward if this is how things start.

Ike hopes he can get something out of Kurth. The two are cordial, but they also have a sum total of one interaction before now.

...Wow, Kurth's in bad shape.

Ike has not been having a tactful showing today.

Well, that's clearly a sign of deep trauma.

Ike actually disappears, complete with footstep sounds and "dropping the sword" sounds.

I wonder what "Kurthnaga appears on screen after that" is supposed to represent in-universe. Him getting out of bed?

Good idea to establish your baseline.

Three years is a long time for a human, not so long for a dragon.

Ike offers some more clues.

But it's not exactly something Kurthnaga was likely to forget.

The following snippet of conversation that goes into the events of PoR Chapter 12 in more detail appears to be a Transfer Data thing.

This is true- Ike never introduced himself. Probably helps Ike feel self-conscious about how he left that conversation.

"...And several more exciting things after that." I appreciate why Ike brings this up, and the limpness is probably part of the point, but it's still hilarious.

Especially when this is how he phrases his thanks. Ike is giving Kurth his just dues, even when this is probably the worst time and place for it.

"I had only read about beorc in books". As beorc ourselves, it's hard to imagine this perspective, but to someone who spent his entire life around dragons and people who believed in a certain way of life, anyone the slightest bit different is fascinating.

Remember what I said about Ike, how Ike has seen and done so much since PoR Chapter 12? This is the most exciting thing that happened to Kurthnaga until RD. Poor kid doesn't get out much, and has a lot of time to dwell on this once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Back in PoR Chapter 12, Ike was a bit of a hothead and very much not quite the man he is today. And yeah, he was pretty rude and blunt and if Kurthnaga was anyone else, Ike would not have gotten what he needed.

He needed to learn valuable lessons, but it's also nice that he wasn't yelled at the whole time until he did.

Interesting. He probably feels a little guilty he didn't do much for 3-E.

Ike is curious about that.

Ena:

…クルト様、
私は席をはずしますので、
お２人でゆっくりお話しください。

Ike:

悪いな。

Ena:

いえ。

Kurthnaga:

……改まると…
少し、緊張しますね…

Just before this topic of conversation comes up, Ena leaves. She was here earlier (she suggested that Ike abandon his sword), but mostly just listened.

Kurthnaga, of all people, has about... fifty reasons not to do something like that, and he clearly regretted it as soon as he started.

This is something that's very important, but mostly on a macro level. Kurthnaga, despite being the prince of the dragons and representative of that nation, entered this war because of personal reasons.

Kurthnaga was just in this for his sister.

Almedha... and Rajaion.

I wonder what Kurthnaga thought when this happened. Clearly he liked Almedha as a kid, since he felt compelled to go check up on her on his own (Almedha didn't get the Sending Stone until 1-6, remember). That also makes me wonder how Kurth gets his news of the outside world.

Rajaion, Ike already knows. The fact that he's Kurth's brother, on the other hand? That's new. Ike's forming mental links to Kurth and these Daein characters in his mind.

Are we just going to skim over that line? Granted, Almedha would probably have more to say about how that went down than Kurth, but still.

Rajaion came in to rescue Almedha's son and paid the price.

Ike seems concerned about how Kurth's handling delivering these reveals. Probably a tone thing.

This might help his mental fortitude.

Fortunately, Rajaion passed on in peace. This saved our butts back in 3-8, and on basically every level beats the alternative.

You can rest easy, Kurth.

I'm not sure what, exactly, prevented her from returning to Goldoa, but I can honestly see a very paternal and very harsh scolding from Deg coming Almedha's way if she did. Which is probably why.

Kurthnaga cared about her enough to go behind Deghinsea's back and help her get back on her feet. That's true brotherly love right there.

Hearing someone not yell at him about it probably helped him feel like it was a not-completely-stupid decision. Which, I mean, it wasn't, barring one unfortunate circumstance...

...Odd promise, but I like. It's not Ike's story to tell.

Draws you back to it? But he has a point. Ashnard did so much in order to get things where they are now. The mad tyrant hardly seemed to plan far enough ahead to get out of the room he was standing in, but clearly there was indeed a head on his shoulders. Well, not anymore.

That's almost pathetic.

Next time: The Hawk Army tie up some loose ends.