We have to fight roughly double our army's size in dragons. Remember those guys from 4-5? Now there are all of them.
Oh, by the way, while I'm looking around, these tiles that lead apparently to the endless abyss of "below the tower"? Those are Hades tiles. Mechanically, they're uninteresting, but that's a choice of word.
Here's the King of Dragons himself, not standing on any exciting terrain (thank Yune), but with more than enough ways to mess us up. 75 Atk, hitting Defence, means even our bulkiest unit is taking about 35 damage a hit- well, 30 with the Blessing, small comfort. 242 Hit, which means we're probably not avoiding it (imagine if he actually did hit his Skill cap!). And those Defences... Again, good thing he's not on terrain and not interested in finding some.
Now that's a class description that also tells us a bit about the man.
Here are his Skills. Shove, Formshift and Night Tide are of little interest to us, but Mantle and Ire are new.
Mantle nullifies all damage unless it's coming from one of Yune's Blessed weapons. Without that Blessing, we'd be defenceless against this guy. Imbue-for-Luck means Deghinsea heals 30 HP a turn- we've got to outdamage that if we want to overturn his 100 HP. Not mentioned: This thing is also Nihil and Fortune.
Ire is just a crit. The dragons got off bad in Masteries. But it is something we very much do not want to be hit by.
Deghinsea is also a five star commander. Good thing Ike's in command, or else we just lost 25 Hit/Avoid across the board. We're still down 10.
Nasir and Gareth are standing behind Deghinsea, transformed. It is outright in our interest to not attack them. This also leaves us with fewer options for dealing with the man himself.
Oh, not all dragons have the Tide Skills. All the better for us, in all honesty.
There are two key things to bear in mind while playing this map: Red dragons are physical (hit Defence and have high Defence) and White dragons are magical (hit Resistance and have high Resistance). Which allies you send where could make all the difference.
Jill getting a necessary Stun to take out this guy. And he's still doing 14 damage to her. Terrible hit rate, though.
Oh, right, she's not capped Defence yet. That helps.
Aw, these two really work together somehow.
...Mist doesn't ORKO a White dragon, man she's weak.
That helps.
As hinted at in a Base conversation back before we entered the Tower, the dragons are not interested in fighting Kurth and Ena, and will not willingly attack her. I also gave Ena Dragonfoe, that's why she's oneshotting this guy.
Starting this map, for some reason, all laguz begin with 30 TP and can transform Turn 1. Ena, as a dragon, is in no danger of running out before the end of the map for transforming now.
Well, it is a White dragon...
Never mind.
And yet somehow it's still alive. At least its already pathetic hit rate was lowered. This is where the lower Might of tomes starts to sting a little for these two.
Micaiah really pulling out all the stops on this guy in particular.
I'd say "no Blessed weapon is no problem!", but this guy won't go down to prove the point. I'm fairly sure this is also Cover, too, to make things worse.
Adept to knock him down and then get the crit.
And the thing I wanted to find out turned out to be true: Nephenee does mention knowing Meg as a babe. This is the thing that makes Nephenee being "not someone who lives in Brom's village" weird. Kinda weird that Nephenee has special dialogue for Meg A Support at all.
Elincia is either going to kill you eventually or kill you quickly. Apparently dragons just have low Luck, though, if I'm critting them so often. Either that or it's the +5 Skill. (I think that should only be giving me +2 crit, though.)
The Wyrmslayer is just nifty to carry about. Even not Blessed, it will smash through enemies.
Rexbolt is also super helpful for super effective power. He's Ilyana wiping out a White.
Crityana is now running a stormy day.
...Nailah can't Shove transformed Ena? I guess dragons are big.
Just Elincia will get the boost, then.
I forgot to BEXP her to 99, shamefully.
Ike's going to stay on some Cover over here. Lyre seems to have pushed someone up. I think Ilyana.
Deghinsea also has an AoE Judgment spell, with 10 Might and hitting physically. It has 1-8 range and deals 5 damage less for every square of distance with his opponents.
Not Micaiah and Ilyana's problem right now.
Sanaki's going over the west with Thorons, she's doing just fine.
No double hits with Dragonfoe, but the kill is just so much better, really.
Wow, this power is just punching in regardless of White or Red for Ilyana, huh.
Nothing else interesting in that battle.
Elinicia's going to keep up the pressure to keep up the Blossom EXP.
Ena and Elincia got the boost this time.
Unfortunately, Meg's line here was two lines and it caught me by surprise:
I hate war. I really do. But I truly got to know Nephenee, so that's something worthwhile in this mess. You better live and grow old with me! Hey, maybe our kids will be friends when they're growing up...
And these two come up to follow the front.
Well, that helps out a little bit... so close...
Doesn't oneshot, still.
Perfect level.
Ooh, double attack.
And some Defence, for all those physical threats she's worried about.
Elincia charges back in.
D'OH!
Turn 2 and Deghinsea is already surrounded.
Nephenee really needed to get some combat to finally finish up her Strength.
These dragons up here have been unshifted so far, but now shift into... the opposite colour that's normally been on each side.
Also some dragons appear as reinforcements down here. And I left Ike down here. Stillness won't work if there's no-one nearby.
Ah, come on, Nephenee, you can't get the kill on a 27% crit?
Meg gets it instead.
Mist and Jill back up, with Mist readying Florete for the White Dragon. May as well also stand on this Wardwood.
These White Dragons survive Thoron!
That's just because there's some Wardwood around here. The ones not on the stuff don't.
There's always Crits, anyway.
Ena can have a chat with her grandpa. Ena in general is really good to have standing in range of these two, because she can Blood Tide and not fear attack.
Nasir is in this to "repent" for the things he did in PoR... those things being "owning a boat and arranging closer bonds between beorc and laguz", not "blackmailing the tactician with his Branded identity and stealing a little girl's family heirloom cross doomsday device."
Ena is going to stand with humanity.
Which Nasir seems perfectly fine with, all things considered. I don't think this man is that worried about staying with his King after all. At least I hope he isn't.
Kurthnaga: Nasir! You must talk to my father! Convince him to stand down!
Nasir: …We have committed two crimes. We ignored the will of our king, and in so doing let war rise once more. We must atone for our sins.
Kurthnaga: …I am willing to accept my own punishment. But is it right that the innocent — women and children who have never lifted a weapon — are also turned to stone?
Nasir: You can’t change my mind. I have made a solemn vow that I will never again betray my king.
Come on, Nasir, you've got an uphill battle here.
Of course Ena is not going to be killing her grandfather.
...Lyre hasn't gotten much better at killing Red Dragons. The +5 statup only applies once for laguz.
Well, that's her omnicapped, at least.
...You've gotta be kidding me.
Ilyana also finds a kill to pick off. I really don't want Leanne getting hit by a Red. Whites are fine.
Astrid also helps with some kills over on this side.
Sigrun steps in front of Deghinsea and prepares to attack. Sigrun.
...Oh come on, Matrona triggers on anyone who could use a Biorhythm upper? I don't use one on this.
...Stun don't fail me now.
Excellent.
Nailah gets the last Red dragon.
OWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOW
At least the Wyrmslayer hurts him as badly as he hurts us. Imagine this with a Triangle Attack- that would take out almost all of his HP in one round!
Also, Deghinsea is so big they made a new battle interface just to fit him in. He's also technically flying, so Sigrun uses her flying animations for him.
Well that's a lot of statups.
YUNE, THAT'S SIGRUN HE'S AIMING FOR-
Oh, right, Resolve. I think Resolve actually made it so this was a guaranteed dodge- she's got like +36 to Avoid now.
Sanaki takes the hit, but because she's Sanaki and has loads of Resistance, she's completely fine. She could be at 8 HP and survive this hit.
Ah, Mist knowing how to take out a dragon despite her stat and weapon issues.
More reinforcements!
Huh, Ena doesn't have anything to say to Deg through Talk. Let's see what Gareth is like when he can say words.
...
He really doesn't have "deeper".
Ena starts to doubt her choosing to side with humanity.
At least she can keep Kurth safe! ...Why are immortals always pricks?
Gareth: I was afraid it would come to this, squared off with the very prince I’m supposed to protect. What to do?
Kurthnaga: Gareth, let me pass! I need to reach my father!
Gareth: Without the king’s word, I can’t let that happen.
Kurthnaga: Do you mean to fight me?
Gareth: Of course not! You know I couldn’t do that. All I will do is stand here, plant my feet, and wait.
Kurthnaga: Gareth!
Gareth: Prince Kurthnaga, it has been a privilege to serve you. I wish you all the best.
The pinnacle of Gareth's character development, right here.
All right, you need to die.
Yes, yes, I know.
Micaiah decides to have a chat with Deghinsea.
Keep in mind Deghinsea's connection to the Branded, it will be important later.
Either we kill him or Ashera does.
...Micaiah won't, though.
Yay! I think that is her omnicap. Off Deg. If it wasn't for Lyre, this Micaiah would be the star of the run.
Another one of these happens. This actually does kill without a Skill.
...Micaiah's in the way of an Ena/Elincia buff.
Ilyana finishes over here.
And Mist heals up Micaiah, just in case.
Sigrun takes on a White, but worries slightly about that minuscule hit chance.
Some last few kills...
And Leanne just goes for Elincia. I would've done Micaiah for the Deg convo, too, but Micaiah can't quite kill the last White and besides, this setup makes that impossible- I moved Astrid incorrectly.
Elincia gets some more EXP.
Now then, something something bringing Lyre to a Deghinsea fight.
You saw it here first.
I had someone else in mind for the kill, though.
It turns out that there's a lot of interesting things to be said when Deghinsea gets to speak to Nailah.
The one people that Deghinsea did not see.
He's curious about this other land.
THIS. This is how Nailah breaks the plot of Radiant Dawn by talking about her homeland. If she brings up "Branded are actually not considered the goddess's curse" too early, some people might decide to start looking into why that's the case...
Deghinsea is quite intrigued to hear this little detail, in fact.
Nailah doesn't seem fond of hearing more out of Deghinsea, though.
You're going down, you overgrown bastard.
Nihil puff shot. There's so many double Nihil shots coming up.
So long, old man.
...I'm now imagining he got a heart attack of some description.
Deghinsea untransforms and slumps down in defeat.
And our dragons check on the old guy.
Deg assures us all is well- a sure sign all is not well.
Deghinsea turns out to be pretty surprised our blessings won out.
And even more surprised to bump into Yune. Deg is so old that these two know each other.
Yune apologises for fighting the war 800 years ago- and for needing a war to be fought at all.
Deg knew Yune was a good soul all along, though.
...Wait a second...
Well, Yune looks first at the idea that Deg is fighting against her here and now.
Deghinsea confesses that he's done much worse to Yune than fight her.
Honestly, I feel like it popped up somewhere sooner, but the Thousand Year Covenant is about to become a lot more important to the story. It's important to keep it on your mind.
Deghinsea, knowing he was partially responsible for the breaking of said covenant, accepted his punishment.
Yune seems to take that in good humour.
THIS is what Deghinsea did that was worse than fighting Yune. Deghinsea rewrote history and made Yune out to be a dark god that should never be unsealed at any cost. I reckon Ashnard gets a lot less interesed in the medallion if he knew what was really sealed inside it... or maybe he'd be insane enough to think he could challenge the real Ashera, too. I wouldn't put it past him.
Everything Deghinsea ever did, right down to his Vow of Neutrality, was to make sure exactly this didn't happen.
Yune brushes it off with "I was a bit of a rascal too, let bygones be bygones."
Little satisfied with that, aren't you?
...Oh, sorry for being so thorough about killing them off...
If you're not getting his Talks, Gareth is in no hurry to say things that are not "At once, sir!" or "Understood, sir!".
Deghinsea thanks Nasir for coming back into the neutral fold.
Nasir didn't know about the extent of what was going on with the medallion, and decided to do some good for the world. He didn't realise how much of a risk that was until Ashnard got him fighting a war.
Ena is Deg's daughter-in-law. The husband's gone, but Ena lives on.
Deghinsea will remain here and... well, considering Mantle, probably heal up.
...Probably.
And a Memory. This guy is, of course, the character it always is.
This guy is new, and he is hammy. Honestly, his voice actor's performance honestly kinda distracts from what he is saying. Glad some of you guys are seeing this without first.
Also, content-wise, this line is just... perfect summary of Deghinsea's character right here.
Wasting no time in confirming that yes, this guy is very definitely Deghinsea. Although his name doesn't come up. It does get pronounced later, but I assume it's not a name you just drop into a conversation partway through.
Deghinsea refuses to lend a hand to help free the laguz from their slavery.
There shall Be No War, at all costs.
But would it really be the case that, to create a world that the goddess desired in making this pact, we allow laguz to live in slavery?
"Goldoa will not move" is one of those memetic lines, but I'm not sure what exactly is the famous delivery. But "Goldoa will not move" is heavily associated with Deghinsea.
Deghinsea insists that he will keep Goldoa out of conflict so that the goddess is never awakened early. The whole "not fighting war" thing is everyone else's problem.
And this guy hits where it hurts. "Do you think it would comfort them to know that you condone their misery" can be thrown at so much more than just the laguz slavery in this game. It's basically the motto of la revolution.
And Deghinsea says, point blank, that yes, those lives are worth losing for peace today.
And his conversation partner starts leaving.
If Deghinsea is going to be of no help, then it's time to find someone who will.
Honestly, that "Hold... hold, I say!" is probably the number one line that's ruined by the voice actor's intonance. He really doesn't say it in the way I think it's meant to be said- the person he is speaking to is leaving the room and he, who is not within arms' reach of him, is unable to stop him. Perhaps if that was a hyphen and not an ellipsis after the first "hold".
...So much for coming back for this guy.
And Deghinsea dies thinking of his estranged daughter, who ran away twenty-odd years ago, caused the events of both games, and is somewhere mourning her own estranged relationship with her son. Or his death. Either way, it's a pain he's experienced himself.
Yune is so close to figuring out how that memory thing is going...
...She almost has a name.
And the dragons, using their ability to sense other dragons, realise that Deghinsea has fallen.
Kurthnaga is ready to move forward in spite of that, though.
Kurthnaga will take on Ashera, for the good of his people!
And he even formally becomes a Royal Laguz in the bargain! Kurth needed to use Laguz Gems, just like Ena, but if you did what I did with Ena, you can get him into a unit even better than Ena. In fact, because he has more Capacity, you can even Parablossom him. If Astrid is the best user of Parablossom, Kurth is second best. And this seals the deal- now he can transform and attack Turn 1. Ena needs to spend that turn using an item still.
More BEXP. Honestly, who in this party is even still gaining stats?
Next time: We get some answers.
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