The big issue is that every map in the game feels like “this is my first map it’s very small only 40×40”. They’re huge, but this is difficult to grasp when 16×16 tiles look so tiny on a computer screen, and then when you make an entire game out of those maps and release it out of the blue without having people along the way to help you get your map-making habits under control… It ends up being a journey through space and time, but you go so far you go around the universe and end up being back where you started, so all along it was only a journey through time.
That being said, this is still a contender for being my favourite FE mod because it actually has a decent story that does its own thing without trying too hard to ape the vanilla games (Val Mode exists, yes, but the writing is good enough that I don’t mind).
FE7-style growths and low growths in general aren’t bad in a vacuum. It’s just Requiem being tedious, and since the maps already take a million years to move across, well…
#Ch3: Liberation
wait, why is the chapter called that?
Soon we’ll be begging for Liberation from this game HAW HAW HAW
NOT THIS MAP AGAIN! ANYTHING BUT MORE WINDS ACROSS THE PLAINS! ANYTHI
(Winds Across the Plains isn’t actually playing in this cutscene don’t worry)
(also it’s a diff map it just looks the same as the prologue)
wAITING FOR YOUR SANITY TO DISAPPEAR
can’t remember if we’ve learned Drake’s name yet so here it is.
“passage back home to Garase.”
I forgot how much I liked Drake. He doesn’t work for the bad guys because oooooh EVIL; he just wants to get home.
He explains in this cutscene that Garase did some dirty work for Egardia and Egardia got the credit while the Garasites (Garasans? Garasese? Greasers?) were called cowards.
“And I can’t speak for my husband’s and the other houses’ treatment of the people of the Western Confederation, either. I’m sorry to hear that. But my son told you what Lord Bran himself said, did he not?”
Drake: “That’s why I’m doing this. If I give them what they want, they have to let me off.”
Because that’s the rules, you see…
“I joined the Egardians of my own will, and so I’ll trust them until there’s some proper proof.”
If this were a vanilla FE game, this is the part where Drake would change sides because he saw the truth in Florence’s eyes or something
*COUGH**COUGH
New face! Half a face, at least. Look forward to her hair and shoulder pad magically changing sides when she loads on the other side of the screen
o
Florence asks this woman why the Egardians want Ash and gets a “dunno; just following orders” response.
I had no idea Drake was a spriter!
“You’re… not very smart, are you?”
But that plan was clearly ironclad! Clad in more iron than Drake himself, I say! How could it go wrong?!?!
Mage woman explains that Drake joined their army willingly and to be allowed to leave would amount to desertion. At the very best, he’d be let off the hook for his failure to capture Ash instead of Florence
The “generic recolour villains are plotting” theme is playing here, by the way. Too bad it was still the no-one-cares-about-music era back when this game was made
“In Egardia, deserters are executed if they get caught, you know? And we don’t have a high opinion of people who submit to capture in their first battle, either. As it stands right now, you’re just in the way, so I think I’ll cut you out of the picture and take her for myself. What do you think?”
i cant believe drake is fucking dead
Just kidding; Florence begs him to make a run for it after mage lady walks away into the distance
Where is the “Forgive Drake? [Yes/No]” prompt? My immersion is RUINED
Florence butters him up with praise about how he’s a proud knight so we can get this gem.
Florence already knows that Josie is the best unit in the game, I see.
Bad guys come out in the south and we come out in the north.
this is probably important
Info window: “Protect NPCs and rout enemy units”. I have to do this while being subject to Inescapable Fate.
Did I mention that on my first playthrough of this game way back when, I opened the game in Sappy and inserted a bunch of FE6 music so I wouldn’t have to listen to the FE7 music?
Suspiciously weak for how she’s being set up…
There’s literally nothing and no one between Florence and ourselves. The enemies are all in the bottom half of the map. We’ve got a huge, barren wasteland of plains through which we need to spend several turns moving before we can actually get this rigmarole rigged and rolling.
game design is my passion
I am making this executive decision with the end goal of creating another Josie, and you’re going to like it. More Josie, less hosey (and less need to mosey across FE4-sized maps)
Luckily(?) for us, the enemies have a barren wasteland of their own to waste time moving through.
Five. Only five of these 26 enemies could find it in themselves to haul their lazy asses towards the person they’re supposed to capture. Also, they’re mercenaries hired by Egardia, not Egardian soldiers themselves.
This female archer isn’t a recruitable unit or anything, btw. It’s just a random generic female archer
First blood! Feels good to have an axereaver equipped when the only guys in range are axes and spears.
Absolutely delicious. I’m getting generic combat screenshots out of the way straightaway unless something cool/dumb happens
Drake isn’t that great. I get why that’s the case, but since it takes so long for you to get to him it’s very possible for him to have to eat at least one Trained Axe (why are they still called Axes? I want my money back)
I appreciate that he goes for indirect attacks over getting himself harmed more, though.
×2 bows are no threat to Josie, but there are two thund… siiggghhhhh there are two Burst tomes down there that are also effective, only one of which is in range. As long as they don’t stack up on you with that delicious honey-flavoured lightning (the item icon totes looks like there’s a honeycomb design on the book), you’re good
“I didn’t think I was going to get off easily, but how did all of them manage to get here so quickly? The Olvans would never let him get along with a plan like this. And from the look on his face, he was completely surprised that I turned on him back there. … I guess you just can’t count on someone in such heavy armour to make a quick getaway. These mercenaries probably aren’t a match for them. I’ll have to call for the backup unit. I can’t afford to fail here.”
Alicia leaves, which makes me suspect that the gigantic map size is solely so you can’t get Josie to her and defeat her before this event plays
It is bad FE playing to let the jagen get so many earlygame kills, I’m aware. But do you really think I have the patience to wait to hike all the way down there with my 5-mov units after they’ve finished off the guys they’re currently fighting?
FUCK OFF M’KNIGHT
Did you know Josie can get to Florence on the very first turn? I didn’t even notice last time.
Josie tells her sister to stay put because she’ll handle things. We’re actually going to be rescuing her out of there next turn
That’s one liability out of the way!
For whatever reason, these mercs have decided not to clog up the bridge this time. "Merc"s are no match for me when they’re not being led by the Merc Five, anyway
Thunderation. Looks like Ray has to burn another turn on a talk convo (in which he reassures Florence that Ash is fine)
If that actually happened to Josie I’d quit the game and delete all of my roms
Finally! We can almost kick ass again!
gööð.
… not so gööð.
Thank goodness he’s smart enough to do this
×2 effectiveness finally comes back to bite me in the bum. Oh well; archers are bad anyway
Ray’s on tank duty in the west
can we let her die yet
I have anims on again here because I was thinking I’d be able to get a nice critical hit shot. At least she didn’t miss
and then Andrei grants me a very useful crit!
Now Josie can do even more! She truly is the PS3 of Fire Emblem units
It’s only chapter 3 and our Lyn’s got a B!
Meh. Also, her staff wlvl increased to D
No spd or def, huh? Am I greedy for being so ungrateful? Am I an avaricious fiend who turns death into power?
Not yet.
These guys are nicely isolated so I can feed them to the chumps (i.e. anyone who isn’t Josie and Ray)
Oh, turns out these two have a talk
“We’re going to get out of this in one piece.”
Val tells Linda during this talk that they’re fighting merciless mercs and that she’ll protect Linda if she’s in danger and stuff
“And she’s still concerned for someone like me… I have to help! We have to save Lady Florence!” Ever wanted Rebecca, but with a little of that Florina flavour? Boy howdy, have I got the character for you!
Topping off everyone’s HP before we call it a beaten chapter
There are a total of two (2) units in this game so far who know how not to disappoint
Before we finish things off, guess how much of this map was actually used in the gameplay?
“who would kidnap my sister.”
“You were so talkative before, weren’t you?”
“him in the first place!”
“But I know you’re right as well. So explain yourself, knight. You won’t be harmed by anyone, I promise you.”
“to get back home safely. But I see it clearly now. Your brother was right about Egardia. They can’t be trusted.”
“Val, this guy will turn on us at any chance he gets.”
BUILD AN ARMY
TRUST NO ONE
“I’ll do anything I can to help you from here on out.”
The same “despair” theme that was playing during the opening scene is playing now, btw. Kinda makes it feel like nothing was accomplished. As I mentioned before, it’s a journey through space and time, but…
“abandon him here like this.”
lost everything but m’lady
“We can bring him with us and then decide. That woman is surely bringing more soldiers to pursue us. We might not be able to take them.”
“Egardia is too deep within our lands for us to be able to make any advances at the moment, don’t you think?”
“actually wanted?”
Andrei ruins everything!
He pushes Drake away from the teleportation circle AND STARTS FRICKIN’ SMIRKING!
“This looks like a tragic ending for you, though.”
Drake: “I suppose I have only myself to blame. Please, I beg that however you choose to have me killed, just make it quick.”
As I was saying, I can’t believe Drake’s fucking de—
“Besides, now that you’re not in the way, you might be of some use to my lord and me.”
???
Alicia expresses curiosity in Ash’s teleportation magic; the idea is that she saw it while running in with the reinforcements.
Because he has to ruin everything, that’s why. Ash is too tuckered out by the warp to do much
Andrei complains that Drake constantly disrespected them while in captivity. You know, instead of being a nice, chipper captive
“He deserves whatever comes to him now, if you ask me.”
Is it just me or do Andrei’s and Josie’s armour look like they’re supposed to be the same shade of black/grey/purple, but they follow different colour rules?
“Are these the kind of things you’re teaching my son, Josie? You two are both irritable, but that was… inhumane!”
It’s Andrei’s fault he didn’t take to riding a wyv— excuse me, a Dragon.
Ray appears and talks some sense into Florence for almost spanking Andrei. In front of everyone. With the wooden spoon.
oh never mind she actually did
“As her condition worsens, she’s just a bit worried about how she’s leaving you kids behind.”
Pillars of support for Val? Psh. Ray is the pillar of sanity whom everyone in this game needs
Time to check off that “The Empire” bingo square!
Val decides to let everyone rest and then do some scouting while Ray reassures her that the Olvan people will stay strong in their absence because none of the royalty (nobility?) was actually captured
Val ends the chapter by stating the obvious. Don’t we all?
edit: I’m going to be putting more of an emphasis on gameplay and covering dialogue even less from here on out unless anyone has objections. Composing this post was as tedious as playing a lategame Requiem chapter with no emulator tool abuse, but there are only going to be even more words
from here on out.