Time to head to the world map. A new location has appeared- the flag will help to remind you which place you should be going, but you never have to backtrack to somewhere you've been before.
So here we are. To move around the map, you must click on a place and Eirika will head to it. There are branching paths later, and Eirika will take the smartest path if multiple are available. Not that changing your path matters that much.
If you click somewhere on the map that isn't a place, you get this menu. This is more or less the same menu we get during missions (with Save instead of End Turn), but what do Unit and Status do here?
The Unit menu is basically the same, just allowing you to put all your stat menus in one place. No Conv section, though. It... it can be useful?
This is the Status menu. There are worse things you could see on this screen. Still not exactly the most necessary of things, and honestly I never used it before this.
Click on a place you don't need to be, and you get to manage the items you hold.
For some reason, Seth is listed first. That won't actually get fixed until Chapter 4, when Eirika gets her first force deploy.
Our first new character! Vanessa is very Pegasus Knight in flavour- fast, but weak and frail. We'll have to work around that, especially in these upcoming maps.
Moulder is an all around swell guy with the misfortune of being a male unit on an All Girls run. He didn't make Ephraim route- in hindsight, I should've used him, but I had other plans. He wouldn't have got on the endgame team anyway.
If you click on the location you have to go to next, Eirika navigates over to it, and then the mission starts immediately.
The gameplay power of Moulder and Vanessa well and truly outclass their narrative power, but the plot clearly understands both.
So let's go see what Ephraim's up to. It'll be some time before we find him, but that's our goal.
I think Ide is still part of Renais, it's just less of a village now.
This is all one line, I'm showing off that Eirika's running to Ide during the dialogue. I wish she finished this after the textbox was done.
The idea is that "the protected" are the people of Renais. Not that they're all that protected right now.
...I'm sad now.
He's being helpful!
I feel like we'll be doing that no matter where we choose to travel through.
Vanessa decides to scout ahead, a decision that we only really think to use this first time. After this point, Vanessa is allowed to die to permadeath and the game is no longer allowed to assume she can contribute to the plot.
I feel like Vanessa shouldn't have to ask- yeah, she should tell us she's planning on it, but does Moulder have to be so formal about asking permission for a simple scout?
Pegasus knights are weak to archers, and a lot of dialogue about GBA pegasus knights (especially the first one) uses this element as a punchline.
Vanessa's sincerety is... well, certainly a character trait. I'll freely admit I don't fully understand some of the Magvel characters, especially ones like these who only meaningfully appear in Supports I never pick up anyway. I feel like Vanessa isn't as sincere as she's portrayed here, but she actively tries to portray herself that way.
Perhaps this is an allusion to that. Vanessa and Moulder have a Support, of course.
Vanessa flies up to the map we'll be playing on- there's a bit more on the bottom, but we're focused on the stuff on the top anyway.
This is our boss of the map, Bone. He's a Fire Emblem Bandit, and between the dozens of them you can find, they have about half a personality total.
And this guy is Bazba, Bone's commanding officer. He has the brains- not enough to fully make up for his men lacking them, but enough that the organisation functions.
With that said, it's not... hard to be a group of bandits right now. In fact, because Renais has negative resources right now, it's probably easier to be a bandit than not to be.
Bazba entrusts Bone with the job of attacking villages. Honestly, Bone doesn't need to be that smart, or that competent, to rob most villages.
This is not one of those villages. We have two new characters to meet!
The man on the right is named Garcia, and Ross, the boy on the left, is his son.
Bone's ready to start the attack.
Bone is delegating even further. Honestly, I don't think killing these guys is going to make the organisation any weaker.
And we get a quick little showcase of "bandits can destroy villages". Also, this is what villages look like on the GBA. In Tellius, places you could visit for items were houses, and you stood in front of the door to claim the item (or, if you're a bandit, burn it down). You'll notice the entrance is slightly inside the shape on this one- that is reflected in their function. Although you'll probably want a visual example.
Ross and Garcia escape the village... somehow. Ross is the smaller character currently highlighted, Garcia is the Fighter next to him.
Ross seems to have been injured on the way out. We skimmed over the "how" they escaped, but they probably passed some bandits or collapsing houses on the way.
Ross, of course, doesn't care about his injury, he just wants to help however he can.
Garcia, like a good father, tries to help his son first, and deal with the bandits secondary to that goal.
Vanessa saw... well, enough of it. Whether she saw the details is another matter, but the important part is obvious.
Time to let Eirika in on the chapter story.
Eirika wasn't expecting that news.
So what do we do?
Eirika, of course, will take the option that saves the most people now. Lives that are potentially saved later are just statistics.
...You know, I'm not really sure if Ross counts as a villager. I think he does, but it's still kinda misleading to imply Ross is one.
Eirika doesn't know the specific mechanics of Moulder's staff, which is a good excuse to exposit about its nature for the audience!
Moulder only possesses a Heal staff, and thus he can only heal at range 1. There is a later staff that allows healing at a distance, but even if Moulder had a Physic staff (and the rank to use it), he probably wouldn't have the magic to reach Ross in a hurry.
Vanessa can Rescue Ross and ferry him over the mountain.
And the battle starts with our units in this formation. Seth and Franz, at the back, are going to have a lot of trouble reaching the front through those forests. Gilliam is going to have problems reaching the enemy because he is slow. Eirika, Vanessa and Moulder will be getting to the good parts quickly.
Say hello to Ross, an introduction to a new mechanic, unique to Sacred Stones... mostly. He is a Journeyman, and if a Fighter is described as "unpromoted", a Journeyman is considered as less promoted than that. Once Ross is recruited, he must level up to level 10 in order to "promote" into a basic class. I'll talk a little more about the details later- there are three such characters in the game, all with their own unique classes and directions, and one of them is female, so I'll be able to more directly highlight their function there. Considering everyone is kinda "on his level" right now, raising Ross is basically the same as raising any other character, but he needs a little favouritism to "equalise the levels".
Also, take note of the fact he actually is hurt right now, and Moulder healing him is mechanical as well as narrative.
Slight spoilers on Garcia's character, but we'll go into that at the end of the chapter anyway, so it's not too much trouble. Garcia is a Fighter roughly equal to everyone else, and he has the Fire Emblem Fighter stereotype of having high HP and Strength, but mediocre Speed and Defence. Ross likes to make up the Speed deficiencies Garcia suffers from, but Garcia is perfectly servicable. If you're only using one of them for early-game axing, Garcia is the way to go.
Vanessa can fly all over these mountains. How tall are these mountains? Not entirely sure, to be honest, but clearly not above the flight ceiling. Flight honestly feels more powerful here on GBA than in modern games, probably based on the things you can fly over.
The unfortunate thing about Vanessa's join time is that this map is nothing but Bandits and that one archer, and Vanessa hates fighting those classes- even moreso when she's not gotten any stats and can't ORKO.
I also don't want Vanessa Rescuing Ross- I want her getting into fights as fast as possible and getting EXP so she actually pick her battles. If you want to Rescue Ross, pick him up from the left, so you have room to back away.
Eirika is going to visit this village. Not only am I collecting the prize, but there's special dialogue if Eirika shows up to this one as opposed to literally anyone else.
This villager is speaking to a remarkably designed woman. This woman is, in fact, a character- the villager, on the other hand, is just a generic.
The woman seems interested in helping out.
And Eirika jumps right in to lend a hand.
The woman instantly recognises that Eirika is some kind of militarised traveler.
Eirika demonstrates the presence of mind to hide her identity with a fake name and background. And a good call, too.
Not that she is believed.
Everyone blinking at once! So yeah, we just bumped right into one of Grado's generals.
Eirika has terrible poker face.
Smooth.
Selena is a very helpful person, but unfortunately, her duties as a Grado general take her elsewhere from "helping the displaced people of the nation she is currently invading".
If we can lend a hand, though, she can leave with a clear(-ish) conscience.
Eirika: "...On one hand, I was doing it anyway. On the other hand, working for a Grado general..."
Helping people is helping people, regardless of why.
Eirika asks why one of Grado's generals is interested in helping the people of Renais in the first place.
Selena has her principles. She's an overall swell woman and I'm certainly not looking forward to the idea of having to oppose her. If only all Grado generals could be like her.
We also get paid!
...No one tell her she just handed actual resources to her direct opponent.
The Red Gem must, of course, be sold first. Until then, it's just taking up space in our inventory. There's next to no reason to have cash in Gem form in this game.
Moulder visits this village for the sake of doing so. Perhaps I'd like the AI manipulation of having the bandits try and get to this place, but eh.
We get a rather peculiar conversation here.
This woman talks about a man with this unhelpful description. I have a few candidates about which character she's meant to be foreshadowing, but the most likely of them is Joshua, who is not elegant.
The Elixir is the only healing item more powerful than the Vulnerary, and it's a full heal. This is going right in the convoy and never coming out again. Honestly, I don't really want to be healing with either Vulneraries or Elixirs anyway.
Look at how little ground Seth can gain.
Fortunately, the bandits are in similar straits. Bandits can cross Peaks, but they can't do it in much of a hurry.
This bandit is now standing on a Forest, and has extra defence making it harder for Vanessa to hit, and also giving him a point in Defence. Thank goodness he's none too accurate himself- Vanessa's woods don't count for anything, she's flying over them.
Ross is standing on a Fortress, so he picks up a little HP.
And he throws his Hatchet to chip at the enemy. The Hatchet is a 4 Might Axe (Iron is 8) that can be thrown at 1-2 range and is remarkably light. I wish more games had a weapon like this, but this might be the only such example.
The conventional Hand Axe has 25 less accuracy than the Hatchet, meaning Garcia isn't as likely to land with his shots.
To make Vanessa even harder to use out of the box, she can't even deal solid damage to the one enemy she doesn't have WTD on. You don't have to get early level ups on her, but they're certainly nice, and she's not really getting good chances to get them. I vastly prefer a later pegasus knight for multiple reasons, and this is one of them.
I don't commit to this action- that's just asking for the archer to shoot back.
I Rescue Ross and do the thing I'm supposed to do. Making sure to stay out of bandit range, of course.
Gilliam takes Ross, but doesn't drop him. That's just asking for Ross to charge the enemies and die a horrible death, and although I'm not using him, I don't want that to happen to the kid.
That square next to Eirika and Vanessa is an Armoury, and it sells weapons. Tellius and 3H allowed purchase of nearly every weapon you could want before every chapter- the GBA Fire Emblems are not so generous. Sacred Stones, fortunately, has a workaround (and, in an emergency, also a before-mission armoury that sells all the basic weapons at double price), but if you're playing FE7, you must plan your shopping list around when the armouries pop up. I was honestly never really good at that.
Seth went into the armoury and purchased a few swords and lances for Eirika and Vanessa before moving back out of range. This armoury is surprisingly important for reasons I didn't quite realise.
Great work, boys.
At least Garcia is in no danger here, question mark?
Some bandits appear as reinforcements here, but they have to take a turn or two escaping the peaks and cannot destroy that village they're right next to. Which is good for us, since even a Seth rush wouldn't be much help.
Eirika is strong enough to get some exact kills here, which is going to be hugely helpful tactically, but it is going to be bad news for Vanessa.
Please don't hit her.
At least there's a few of these through drops.
Vanessa's moving here, mostly to save that village. I don't think she's in range of any enemies, although she can bait a little bit.
Seth dropped off his purchases, to make sure he didn't attack things. Unlike Tellius, it is impossible to hold a weapon and not have it equipped.
I was wondering whether she could manage to dodge a 17.11%.
And hey, I can feed this to Vanessa. Can doesn't mean can, in a way.
Garcia demonstrates his own inability to hit things.
He has better luck with his Iron Axe.
...Much better luck. He managed a double on that one. I'm legitimately impressed.
All right, I think I can get away with this this turn. Those bandits in the south shouldn't be able to reach the village, but I will probably have to save it next turn.
Of course, Vanessa had to hit, but I can control for that.
Hm... annoying.
Eirika prepares to fight the other one, too. I want the boys to have nothing to worry about.
And this guy got to recover HP on the fort.
...Not that he made good use of it.
As rounds of combat go, this could've gone worse.
Eirika is just embarassing this guy.
And continuing to blossom. Of course, any hope of continuing to feed these kills to Vanessa is nigh gone.
Garcia tried to attack at range, for some reason.
Anyway, Bone can destroy this next turn, let's fix that.
This guy was either trying to sleep or is British.
Either way, that could've gone badly.
...Pure Water. Even if having +7 Res was helpful, I'm not entirely sure how worthwhile it is to use an inventory slot on it.
Just moving Vanessa out of range of the bandits while I have extra squares.
As much as I want to finish this guy with Vanessa, he's not going to let that happen- he's going to run at the boys.
And now this guy is dealt with, too. In case I had funny ideas of feeding Vanessa his kill or anything.
...Well, if he was dead anyway, best it were done in one Iron Sword use rather than two.
If you wanted the answer to that question, perhaps you ought to have not attacked first? He did at least ask the question before attacking, but the opposite of "shoot first, ask questions later" implies getting answers to the question.
This guy survives.
...Oh man. I have to.
That took some doing.
...I did say "half a personality between them all".
Defence. That'll... sure, she could use the help.
Now that we've chased away all the bandits, we can talk to Garcia freely. It's possible to recruit Ross and Garcia to the blue army during the mission, to give them EXP, but either way, this still comes up in the end.
Ross: Hey, listen! My village is being attacked by bandits. My name’s Ross. Come on! You have to help me wipe those thugs out!
Eirika: All right, just… Just take a deep breath and calm down, Ross. Leave the villages to us. We’ll drive off the bandits. Seth, take the boy somewhere safe.
Ross: No! Wait! I’m going to fight, too!
Eirika: But…
Ross: My father is out there all alone, fighting those bandits. I’ve got to get back to him as quickly as possible! I’m the son of the great Garcia! As long as I have my axe, no bandit will ever defeat me!
Eirika: All right, I can see you’re not going to be swayed… But you must promise you will stay close to us.
Ross: Dad!
Garcia: Ross?! Boy, what did I tell you!? What are you doing here? Don’t worry about me. Hurry up and get yourself to safety!
Ross: Did you really think I could just run away while you fight, Dad? You taught me that fighters fight for what’s important to them! There’s no way I’m leaving! I’m fighting just like you!
Garcia: Ross… All right, listen to me. We’ll cut our way out of here together!
If they're still alive, they'll join your party regardless.
I believe Garcia's profile mentioned something about being a Renais war hero?
Garcia doesn't seem entirely enthused to talk about it.
So then, who is he?
Apparently, a big deal. A compliment from Seth is considered impressive narratively as well as mechanically.
With a strong warrior like Garcia around, the effort to save Renais will be all the easier.
Garcia isn't in the business anymore.
Self-defence is one thing. But joining a war party? That's not something you ask everyone who knows which end of an axe is the pointy end, no matter how desperate you are.
"Master" Garcia? I assume this was a JP honorific that the translation bungled. Shame I can't check it- Pegasusknight.com doesn't have much for Sacred Stones.
At this point, we get to quite possibly one of the stranger parts of the game's story.
Garcia resents his time as a warrior. He was good at it, perhaps even enjoyed it, but he didn't find it fulfilling.
And Garcia realises that being a warrior got in the way of his family. Many of Fire Emblem's least sympathetic playable characters are unsympathetic because they haven't learned this lesson. Tauroneo, Gilbert... there's a reason you don't take your kids for granted.
Garcia has taken them to heart.
And even the protagonists have little reason to argue.
But agreeing with Garcia would mean not getting him as a playable character, and we can't have that, can we? Part of me wants to tell you that Ross is meant to come off as foolish here, because he's, you know, immature, but Garcia's Supports (particularly with Seth) seem to be on Ross's side in this argument.
At the very least, this is (hopefully) supposed to come off as a little immature. Just a little, though. While Garcia has rejected the life of a warrior, Ross has not, and he's eager to experience it.
...Which is honestly rather astounding, considering Garcia didn't exactly give it a glowing recommendation.
So what's Ross's argument, then?
...OK, that's kinda true, but I don't think that means what you think it means.
...
I understand what the game is going for here. I don't happen to agree with it. I feel like a man that lives a life of fierce dedication to warfare is not the sort of man who would dial down his work/life balance by retiring and hiding. That sounds like a man who learned a serious lesson and has accepted the change to his worldview.
But, since we need Garcia to join us, it's an argument that works.
OK, technically, neither of you are Warriors, but...
Ross wants to join us.
...
Ross, I think you might be a little too gung-ho about all this.
Well, right now, you can barely be put in range of an enemy without serious consideration of your respective stats.
Garcia decides that, if Ross wants to become a fighter, he's more than ready to apply.
And, with Renais so badly battered and not having much family to look after at home, he's got worse things to do with his time than lend his own axe.
Ross is suitably surprised.
Ross is ready to "leave the nest" as it were. Of the three "trainee" units, Ross is almost definitely the oldest, and I'm hesitant to call him a kid. He's not that far removed, though.
Garcia, I'm still not sure if these are connected thoughts, or even how they would be.
But with all that said and done, we've convinced Garcia to get out of retirement!
...Hand over your axes and head back home, this is an All-Girls run.
With Ross and Garcia dealt with, we go back to just dealing with the leads.
Even if Eirika was of a mind to linger any longer in Renais than absolutely necessary, I wouldn't fancy still being here when Selena comes back to check on the place.
...That is, if she does.
The mayor we're talking to accepts it. And honestly, probably appreciates it. Mercenaries aren't exactly the greatest people to have around, even if they're good people like Eirika's group.
So yeah, let's take a moment to consider this bracelet Eirika has. This came up as we left Renais, so clearly it's going to be important again.
Unfortunately, Renais is full of bandits and thieves. Eirika is capable of self-defence, but this is definitely going to make her a target.
Gold-hungry and probably normal hungry, too.
Bazba's bunch were probably the bunch of people who were bandits back when Renais was peaceful- the people for whom violence is part of the point, and not merely a means to an end.
I don't think these travelers come up elsewhere, but we're going to see some people who got harmed by Bazba in other ways. Part of me wonders if this line is intended to be foreshadowing them, and if not, whether it should do.
The whole situation has left our people pretty pessimistic.
Especially since Ephraim is losing. Is this a bad means of judging our chances? Kinda, but he does have a point...
...Yeah, this isn't encouraging news for Eirika.
Eirika wanders off, and we get the first of what will be many flashbacks. For this one, we're meant to believe Eirika is actively recalling this memory, but for the rest of them, that level of narrative integration is skimmed over. Presumably that's what we're going with, though.
We're going to "meet" Ephraim here.
Specifically, we're going to learn about when Eirika learned to fight. Only three years ago- I'm not sure how long Ephraim's been fighting, but it's his thing.
Eirika, for her part, doesn't believe that fighting is an essential part of a ruler's toolkit.
On the other hand, though, this is not an ideal world.
Eirika would like to know how to fight so she can play a more independent role in her environment.
...Not that that's how the game phrases it.
Eirika has a long path to go to be able to fight back against military threats. She can hold her own until someone else comes to her aid, but she can't be that aid on her own. Most people shouldn't get that far anyway.
Every argument along these lines forgets involuntary incapacitation or the advantages of working separately as reasons to not be dependent on one another. Usually, both characters do the forgetting.
Eirika's argument to Ephraim about why she should be allowed to learn swordplay is about why her having a sword would help when they're together.
Right about now seems to be "Ephraim's time of need".
Well, you started this conversation seemingly ready to get started, it'd be weird to stop now.
Eirika is committal when it comes to her ideas. This is a good trait to have in a diplomat- much better than it is to have in a warrior.
Ephraim tells her to expect the worst. Were you expecting Ephraim to be the best teacher?
Not that Eirika is opposed to a challenge.
Remember when I said Eirika was canonically reminiscing about this flashback? That's because her state of reverie is plot-relevant! For later flashbacks, they don't actually state what the twins are supposed to be doing while flashbacking, and we're largely just assuming they're doing off-screen maintenance stuff.
Eirika's assailant has wandered off, though, and Eirika is completely unharmed.
But not unmolested. (The normal way, not the creepy way.)
Eirika is not particularly bothered, although it's undeniably frustrated.
Seth is much more eager to recollect the trinket than Eirika is.
Eirika dismisses him.
Helping the people of Renais is a noble goal, and is kinda the reason we're moving around to begin with- the long term goal that "saving Ephraim" is supposed to build towards. "Collecting one shiny bracelet" is... incredibly decadent in comparison.
Seth insists. Because, you know, he's the one who should be making decisions in this party, and not the princess of the country who is currently being ravaged. I guess dealing with Bazba is going to lighten the lot of the people of Renais for a little bit.
Next time: Much ado about personal trinkets.
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