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mark_asphodelI wanted to send my favorite Jugdral villain out in style.
By which I mean I wanted both Trabant's boss conversations.
See, by this point in time Trabant seems... not desperate, exactly, but he's realized the game is up and is prepared for the end. Yeah, he talks tough, but handing over the Gungnir to Arion tells us a lot more than his bluster does. He may call Celice Army "wimps," but it's not that convincing. The coolly dismissive, oh-look-what-crawled-out-of-
Anyway, it worked-- Finn set up the kill, Leaf polished off Trabant with the Hero Sword (Yeah, I wanted to use Ethlin's Light Sword, but Leaf needed a boost). And then I, in my sleep-deprived state, accidentally killed Hannibal when I made Julia attack the poor fleeing general adjacent to her instead of the mini-boss two spaces away. Restart! That time I said the hell with it and let LOLsety handle Trabant.
Chapter 9 is another disjointed mess. The opening few turns are a blur-- BANDITS! Altenna! Hannibal! Trabant! Then everything grinds to a creaking halt until you actually ferry Corple over to his dad... and Corple has, like, 5 MOV. It gave me time to promote Leaf, play the arena, and move units around to various castles for defense, but it just feels like another case of exploiting a poor design instead of a seamless, intuitive one-- not as bad as Chapter 7 or parts of Chapter 2, but still not that clever.
Hannibal's recruitment, though infamous, is really not that bad. If Celice Army wipes out enough of his mooks in one turn, he just turns around and leaves, and all you have to do is 1) block his escape into the castle and b) have a ranged unit like Julia take out poor Maikov so Maikov doesn't maul the "doorman." And step B is optional if the doorman is someone like Aless instead of someone like Finn/Oifaye (odds are the guys with 9 MOV are the ones you'd use, and Aless has better things to do than stand around blocking a damned door). Then Hannibal just stands there chillin' until Corple shows up. What's so bad about that? Tinny gave me far more trouble, to say nothing of Aira. I guess the challenge is eliminating three consecutive mook squads with high efficiency, but that kind of synchronized combat is a main selling point of FE4's gameplay for me. Dance us to victory, Leen!
[To hell with GBA-era dancers. Seriously.]
OK. So then, once Hannibal turns a new color, a bunch of promoted horsey-units come streaming in from the north. They looked scary but seriously weren't any kind of a problem for the little army I'd assembled around Lutecia. Knowing they're coming is the main threat, but that's what FAQs are for! These assorted Master Knights, Duke Knights, and Paladins also got eliminated on one turn. Altenna had joined the party by this point, so I officially have my entire Gen2 cast at my disposal now, plus one more holy weapon in the arsenal.
By which I mean I wanted both Trabant's boss conversations.
See, by this point in time Trabant seems... not desperate, exactly, but he's realized the game is up and is prepared for the end. Yeah, he talks tough, but handing over the Gungnir to Arion tells us a lot more than his bluster does. He may call Celice Army "wimps," but it's not that convincing. The coolly dismissive, oh-look-what-crawled-out-of-
Anyway, it worked-- Finn set up the kill, Leaf polished off Trabant with the Hero Sword (Yeah, I wanted to use Ethlin's Light Sword, but Leaf needed a boost). And then I, in my sleep-deprived state, accidentally killed Hannibal when I made Julia attack the poor fleeing general adjacent to her instead of the mini-boss two spaces away. Restart! That time I said the hell with it and let LOLsety handle Trabant.
Chapter 9 is another disjointed mess. The opening few turns are a blur-- BANDITS! Altenna! Hannibal! Trabant! Then everything grinds to a creaking halt until you actually ferry Corple over to his dad... and Corple has, like, 5 MOV. It gave me time to promote Leaf, play the arena, and move units around to various castles for defense, but it just feels like another case of exploiting a poor design instead of a seamless, intuitive one-- not as bad as Chapter 7 or parts of Chapter 2, but still not that clever.
Hannibal's recruitment, though infamous, is really not that bad. If Celice Army wipes out enough of his mooks in one turn, he just turns around and leaves, and all you have to do is 1) block his escape into the castle and b) have a ranged unit like Julia take out poor Maikov so Maikov doesn't maul the "doorman." And step B is optional if the doorman is someone like Aless instead of someone like Finn/Oifaye (odds are the guys with 9 MOV are the ones you'd use, and Aless has better things to do than stand around blocking a damned door). Then Hannibal just stands there chillin' until Corple shows up. What's so bad about that? Tinny gave me far more trouble, to say nothing of Aira. I guess the challenge is eliminating three consecutive mook squads with high efficiency, but that kind of synchronized combat is a main selling point of FE4's gameplay for me. Dance us to victory, Leen!
[To hell with GBA-era dancers. Seriously.]
OK. So then, once Hannibal turns a new color, a bunch of promoted horsey-units come streaming in from the north. They looked scary but seriously weren't any kind of a problem for the little army I'd assembled around Lutecia. Knowing they're coming is the main threat, but that's what FAQs are for! These assorted Master Knights, Duke Knights, and Paladins also got eliminated on one turn. Altenna had joined the party by this point, so I officially have my entire Gen2 cast at my disposal now, plus one more holy weapon in the arsenal.
Patty is such a golddigger fangirl. She and Corple went off to rob save some villages during the lull in action that followed, and meanwhile Celice and Master Knight Leaf crept down to Grutia to take care of that castle. I will say that I completely understand where the designers were coming from with "Leaf is so pretty I don't want to promote him," as Prince!Leaf is a beautiful thing to see in action once he stops being pathetic and MK!Leaf... isn't. The Master Knight sprite is ugly, too. But MK!Leaf is so hax he doesn't need to feel inferior over not being a major-blood carrier anymore; Lachesis is looking down on her foster son from FE Limbo and weeping tears of joy over how Leafy turned out.
So, with Grutia seized, Finn had his love points stat boost conversation with Altenna; if that's the last useful thing he can do for me in this game, well... it was a hell of ride. You deserve that spot as one of my favorite FE units ever, Finn. <3
Meanwhile, Arion-- orphaned, deprived of his sister, and generally hosed-- is about to unleash his "Three Headed Dragon" attack in a vain attempt to maintain sovereignty over Thracia. Fee's packing a fully-repared Fire Sword, Lana's got a Wind Tome, Leaf's got Elfire, Tiltykids have their thunder power... oh yes, and LOLsety. I'm not especially worried about this one.
