Thanks for the link F.O.E.!
Last time on Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem, we reached the mainland and wrecked the Garda pirates with Oguma (and also took an unnecessarily long hiatus). Today we meet the next broken Mercenary and also some other people.
Travelling from the frontier regions to Akaneia, Marth's biggest challenge has appeared. The Samsufe Peak is a steep mountain that divides the peninsula into northern and southern regions. Since some unknown time, bandits made it their base, and they started attacking neighbouring villages and travellers. Raids, kidnaps, setting fires... Their crimes are known to many. In fear, the people called the mountain "Devil Mountain". And they called those gathered at Samsufe the demonic "Samsians"...So apparently it's not the villagers' fault for naming it Devil Mountain. Dearest apologies, random... village guy in chapter 2.
Anyway, some people start running out of a fortress in some sort of mountain valley.
"I heard the Aritian knights have arrived towards the south. Now's our chance to escape. Please hang on, you can do it!"
"I'm sorry... But, I still haven't found my precious Relive staff... Julian! Forget about me and flee yourself! If it's just you, I can teleport you away to safety with my Warp staff."
"How is that going to help? Don't you understand why I betrayed them in the first place? ...Anyway. I will find that staff later. For now, let's just make our escape! Hurry! Go!!"
Just in the nick of time, because a bunch of bandits (and one classy-looking Mercenary) pop out of that clown car fort there.
Before we start the level, let's take a look at the power players here.
Haiman here is the chapter's boss. Not that tough, really. The game hasn't taken off the kiddie gloves yet. :v
Two things to note here are that A) Haiman's name no longer has an unfortunately placed "y", like it does in the Dark Dragon and the Blade of Light translation, and B) Haiman has Rena's Relive staff, meaning we're only one chapter away from having a functioning healer.
Julian is a thief. He picks locks (and bridges later
). He has surprisingly good stats, but is hindered by his inability to gain weapon ranks.
Rena is a dedicated healer. In the original she would be our second healer, but to save space on the cartridge Mystery took out Riff, the healer we would've gotten in Chapter 1. I don't mind, because both of them suck in the long term and this is literally two games for the price of one because of the size-trimming of Book 1. Anywho, her Warp staff is broken to high heaven because it has infinite range. If you're lucky, you can one-round the final level with it.
Let's go.
Under the Flag - The game's player map theme. I like to imagine its cheery unfittingness to warfare is symbolic of Marth's gleeful Durhuan bloodlust.
Everything until we move onto the next book (e.g. for the next 18 chapters, inclusively) is listed under "Book 1", by the way.
First off, we get Rena and Julian out of there. They'll meet up with Marth's army in a couple turns.
This group has Oguma, Marth, Jeigan, Sheeda, and Gordon. Sheeda is the most critical element here.
The other group will work to clean up the pictured chokepoint in preparation for Marth's group. I realized in hindsight it would've made much more sense to send Marth's group up through the north for a pincer attack of sorts, but live and learn, right?
The enemy comes to meet Marth's army in the pass.
That classy-looking merc has a Kill Sword, which has a very high chance of getting a critical hit and ruining our fun. But more important is that Sheeda is nearby.
In the end our formation looks like this.
Meanwhile with the western front:
In which I forget that only Marth can visit villages.
We ought to be ready to face the chokepoint in a turn or so.
Now for the confrontation. First order of business:
Hi, Navarre.
"Swordfighter Navarre!"
"I have no business with women or children! Get out of here!!" "Please, stop this unnecessary fighting... and lend your strength to us.
If you're unwilling, you can cut me down with your sword right now.""...I won't point my sword at women. Since you risked your own life to request for me, I don't have a choice... I will lend my strength to you."It was at this point I forgot to take a screenshot of his stats, so have it in text format:
LV 3
HP 19
STR 5
SKL 9
SPD 11
LCK 8
WLV 9
DEF 6
RES 0
MOV 7
Navarre is really good. His stats are super-high, he can dodge even better than Oguma, and he has a tendency to become a crit-machine. He singlehandedly inspired the Myrmidon class, and by tradition, almost every game with Myrmidons has at least one you have to recruit from the enemy side (e.g. Ayra, Guy, Joshua AND Marisa, Zihark twice.) He even became a myrmidon in the remakes!
With that taken care of, the violence begins.
The killing spree begins with another highly unnecessary crit from Marth.
Excellent work, Marth.
Next up is Oguma's job.
You people really hate thieves! o_o
Finally, I move Navarre up to stop that archer from shooting Sheeda.
The paladins and fighters have finally arrived at the chokepoint. These archers are guarding it, and I want to draw the enemies out one by one.
But Doga isn't here yet.
On the enemy phase, Oguma scores a mediocre level-up.
Gordon takes care of this guy. He'll probably eventually be outclassed by Kashim, who gets a free horse, but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.
Hey, Strength? Not bad. There's hope for you yet.
Marth and Sheeda tag-team that hunter.
Now for Navarre's first real fight. The Kill Sword must be preserved, for it is a rare commodity that scores lots of critical hits.
Like so.
Next, we start advancing everybody to the west to take on Haiman's stronghold.
Doga is just barely in the range of this archer, and I intend to lure out the archer with him. Since he's practically invincible and all.
Of course, they didn't take the bait, so I moved him closer.
And again.
Instead he attracts Haiman's cronies who were guarding the castle with him. They can barely scratch him.
At long last, Marth reaches the village, where he is confronted by an old man.
"Hoho! You're looking very lively, young lad! It isn't an easy
What do think? It looks impressive, no? However... This Devil Axe is a cursed axe that draws blood from its user. It would be best not to use it at all!!"Then why the hell are you giving it to us, you old loon?!
On the enemy's turn, Doga nearly kills this bandit...
...and Kashim finishes the job.
Abel and
Barts work together to finish off this guy.
Kain and Sheeda kill the other archer. We are only left with a couple bandits and Haiman. Sheeda is also something of a crit-machine. The reason we get so many crits is also related to the fact that the enemy team is literally not permitted to have a luck stat.
Around this point,
Victory Nears starts playing. It's the "end-of-map" theme for this game that tells you you're kicking ass and almost done. (Which reminds me of a strange bit of trivia: almost every game after this has a song that serves this purpose, but Path of Radiance's absolutely awesome version, "Victory is Near", only plays in two chapters. Nobody's sure why.)
Sheeda kills the boss's left-hand man...
...and gets a very Sheeda-ish level for it. She has a spectacularly low STR growth that will greatly hinder her lategame viability.
Kain and Abel ride up to kill the remaining bandits before we take on Haiman.
Almost there!
Doga finishes one of these two.
Sheeda takes the other...
and gets free medicine for her efforts.
Gordon and, uh, Kain? Abel? take on the last non-boss guy.
Marth hands Navarre his spare sword to preserve the Kill Sword's uses. Worth noting is that you can buy more Rapiers, unlike later games, so Marth doesn't have anything to be afraid of only using the Rapier (until he gets the Falchion, that is, which is unbreakable)
I park Barts in front of the boss to gauge his strength.
They exchange complete misses with one another.
Oguma will have none of that.
oguma wai
Oh, and he got Rena's staff back, too. This will be greatly appreciated.
Haiman confesses his love for Oguma in his dying moments. How bittersweet ;_;
And that's that!
who are you
"We found 10000 Gold inside the castle, which the bandits left behind. With these we can make further preparations. Excellent! Tomorrow we will reach Orleans. Until then, please rest well."(This is Morodof, Marth's tactician, by the way. Maybe he's Robin's great-great-great-great-great grandfather or something? In any case, I guess that means he's me?)
Next time on Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem:
Attack on Orleans
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Topic: Let's Play Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem - Chapter Five (Read 16785 times)