So Gandolf, Jamka, and Kinbois, the three sons of Verdane's King Batou, are attacking Sigurd's units on multiple fronts. The previously peaceful King seems to have given up the ruse that his nation is anything more than a bunch of bloodthirsty barbarians. These great looking guys are up to no good. Will Sigurd find the missing lady Aideen and learn why she was kidnapped in the first place?
While deep into Verdane territory, Sigurd seems to be close friends of
Eltshan, who seems to be some other noble or knight from the nearby castle of Nodion. He doesn't join up, but it's good to know someone seems to have Sigurd's back. Meanwhile, Kinbois seems to be blackmailing the Myrmidon
Aira for her services by holding her brother
Shanan hostage within Genoa castle. However, she also seems to have some personal grudges against the people of Grandbell as well. She's an enemy unit with a portrait, and the first (and only) Myrmidon faced so far. This seems super familiar, can you say "recruitable character"?! So many names and allegiances, it's a little hard to keep track of it all, to be honest. I'm taking some notes but there's a lot of specifics that I'm not really keeping track of, such as many character's who have been mentioned but have not made an appearance.
So, my first foray into the castle gameplay. Some neat things here. The way the arena works is so different compared to what I am used to. There seems to be a set list of competitors that each unit faces. I was able to get Sigurd to clear the arena (thanks to Alvis' Silver Sword) but people like Azel couldn't get past the first or second round. I see Anna is in charge of storing items in this one, but I'm not really in need of those services at the moment. The item shop only has a handful of things and I clear them out pretty easily. I give a javelin to Sigurd, a Steel Axe to Lex, and a few other things that I'm forgetting at the moment. I also learn through the arena use here that every unit has their own personal gold amount. Weird! Anyways, outside of getting a Heal repaired for Ethlin, none of the other units really found themselves short on gold or needing much in the way of services provided.
So, back to the map. The next castle seems to be
Genoa. Aira stands outside while Kinbois sends more brigands up to meet my army. The castle itself is run by a nameless captain, with Aira's brother Shanan presumably inside. Meanwhile, Alec goes west to learn from one of Eltshan's men that they have things under control on that front. So he ends up having to turn around anyways. Meanwhile, a talk between Cuan and Fin (remember, they joined up together in the previous chapter) shows that Fin is loyal to his lord and he actually got a few stat ups from the conversation. This is actually pretty cool. The flavor of the random extra dialogue is neat enough, but the small boost to his stats actually may have played a crucial role later into the battle. At least the game menus make it easy to see who can talk to who so I can at least see most such conversations.
Over at the NEXT NEXT castle (Marpha) we learn that the youngest, nicest looking son of King Batou, the prince
Jamka is actually not a bad person and is letting Aideen escape. She is also joined by the thief
Dew, who we don't seemingly know anything about. It doesn't seem like Aideen really knows him but I'm not entirely sure. They are being chased by a bunch of brigands, and neither is very useful in a fight. I have to let the nearby village go unguarded for now; I don't have time to have someone stop by. The duo begin to rush over to Sigurd's location.
Literally "Us" against "Them". A lot of factions at play here. Meanwhile, my units carefully begin to dispatch Kinbois' men while Aira insists she's ready to kill any Grandbellian invader that approaches her. I move Sigurd towards her and the castle, ready to recruit. He has a silver sword and is a pretty good level so I'm not too worried about his safety. I'm worried about the safety of his foes. I'm able to easily rescue the nearby village for some gold and use the combined efforts of my troops to safely dispatch the enemies one by one. I quickly learn that Cuan is one of my favorite units at this point. Even though he uses lances, his high strength makes him incredibly useful since he he able to take out enemies so that they aren't able to focus down any of the squishier units. I learn that Noish is one of my least favorites since he doesn't get to attack twice, and doesn't seem to excel anywhere. Ardan stays at the castle, I feel like I'm not going to be able to use him much. Midir has a few close calls but manages to make it out alive. Surprisingly, the troubador Ethlin seems to be able to hold her own when it comes to staying alive. Being able to hold the weapon triangle advantage against the axe-wielding foes certainly helps.
Whhhaaat. Sigurd doesn't have a Talk option for Aira D:. I must have to save Shanan from the castle first. These darn recruitable enemies always have to make things so difficult. At least she's not sporting a killing edge. So Sigurd moves past to take on the castle keeper while I move Fin into position to hopefully survive an encounter against Aira. I figure having the weapon triangle advantage will certainly help, no? Remember, Fin is a Lance Knight. Well holy moly. Aira already knows
Astra and isn't afraid to use it. On top of that she attacks Fin twice.
She Astra's twice. GEEZ. Fin is able to dodge four on the five Astra swings in each occurrence and manages to survive with 2 health. Things not looking so good though, as he still has the angry Myrmidon and her friends sitting right in front of him. Will Sigurd be able to calm her down in time? Fin hasn't been a great character so far, but he got lucky here.
Sigurd easily dispatches the castle keeper (some nameless guy) and Oifaye (does he right on the same horse or something?) finds the imprisoned Shanan, Shanan informs them that the crazy lady outside is his aunt (not his sister, oops). She's having her way with Fin, and things generally don't look good. Luckily, and to my surprise, taking the castle makes her help disappear, which makes things more manageable. The exp from killing them would have been nice, but in this situation I think the best outcome occured. Sigurd goes out and convinces her that fighting them is not in her best interest. She joins up and becomes an ally. Fin retreats to go get healed, and the new comrades find themselves staring down a bunch of new foes, the ones that were initially chasing Dew and Aideen. They seem to have lost track of the runaways and have their eyes set on the pair outside of Genoa castle now. Uh oh. Things are not looking great!
Meanwhile, Kinbois doesn't seem to have his head on straight, confusing what is
clearly a lance for a sword. Cuan dispatches him easily with a little help. Told you he was becoming a favorite unit. Things get dicey down south, a few close calls for Aira and Sigurd, but luckily none of the attackers had a great chance to ever hit them.
Kinbois dropped a Hand Axe, which I would love to give from Cuan to Lex, but I seem to only be able to do that at a castle. Dew and Aideen manage to meet up with the rest of my units up north, Aideen gets a
Warp staff and Ethlin receives a
Return from Aideen. A few other conversations take place. Genoa ends up destroyed by one of the brigands as Sigurd and Aira barely survive the initial assault. Hopefully Shanan is okay, but I don't really know.
As if things weren't bad enough, it seems that some Heirhein (??) knight named
Elliot is going to try to sneak in the back door and take back Evans. No honor, and no shame. Ardan, the forgotten armor sword, seems like a capable guy but I feel like he's not going to be able to defend the place on his own. I being to split my forces and send some back to defend the keep. Eltshan decides to go out to help, and we are also introduced to his sister (?)
Lachesis. A bunch of green npc Crossknights fill the screen to take on the new enemy Lanceknights. Eltshan leads the charge. What a bro!
Well, that was uneventful. The units that I sent up to help Eltshan don't even make it in time as he wipes the floor with the sneak attackers. I'm not sure they even had a casualty. They (well, really only Elliot, I'm unsure who he is talking to since h'es the only one left) promptly retreat. The units that I sent turn around again to head south to help Aira and Sigurd and company, where I should have sent them all along. I learn that I could have used the Warp staff to move some units to Genoa, and maybe could have prevented its destruction. Oh well.
Aira and Sigurd wipe up the rest of the remaining Marpha attackers, and I start moving my forces west. The village that I ignored so long ago with Dew and Aideen wasn't going to last much longer and I wanted to save it! I play out some of the conversations, including Aideen and Sigurd talking about the missing
Brigid and we learn a little more about the assassinated Prince
Maricle, Shanan's father, as well. I finally get a chance to get people to heal up and group units together. I'm able to "Give" a few times between a couple units and I'm still not 100% sure what that does. I make sure to give Aideen as many uses of the Mend as she can, since it seems to be her only way to get exp at the moment. Units like Aira and Fin and also Midir get back to full strength after suffering some damage in the last encounter.
Sigurd manages to make it to the nearly destroyed village near Marpha castle in time. We get a small amount of gold but even more important than that, we learn about the mysterious
Sandima who seems to be behind King Batou's recent unexplained acts of aggression.
Surprise! My refreshed units duke it out near the village, putting Aira in some forest cover really befuddled the attacking troops who could barely hit her. Even the Thief Dew got in on the action. It's interesting that he can steal gold from the encounters. The fact that he also seems to get a discount at shops seems to be incentive for having him do this sometimes: build up some gold, have him buy shop items, and then trade to people who actually need them. However, I am near certain he cannot promote, and I assume his battle usefulness will be limited. I didn't see any swipeable items from the enemy units either.
Gandalf Gandolf, of course, isn't too happy about how things have gone. I try to attack him with Alec and Aira but his high defense means he is able to survive those attacks. So naturally, I try to get a hit in with my only offensive magic user, and see an Azel specific dialogue. Kind of neat. Azel, of course, gets the final blow. Only one brother (the nice one, Jamka) remains. I learn that I can enter this castle and that the shop and Arena status seems to be consistent from castle to castle within a chapter? I don't feel so bad about losing Genoa, now. I actually thought that taking this castle would be the end of the level. NOPE. More shit goes down! Gandolf dropped a
Skill ring for me, by the way!
Inside the castle, we meet some Shaman lady of sorts names
Deirdre. Sigurd seems a bit infatuated with her from the get go, but she runs off before speaking to him for very long. We learn that she is religiously forbidden from interacting with many people so of course that will turn Sigurd away. Why does the old man gotta crush our dreams.
Story begins to get a bit heavy. Jamka reluctantly goes out to defend the last remaining castle on the map (I hope) at the order of his father. However,
Ephidel the sorceror Sandima decides that Batou has outlived his usefulness and decides it's time he gives up the ghost. We are then introduced to
Nergal Archbishop Manfloy, who is the real big bad. We learn that he and Sandima are searching for the daughter of
Sigyn, who is needed to awaken the
Dark Lord. Dun Dun duuun. The last remaining troops head out of the castle led by Jamka and Sandima sits on the keep itself. Sigurd and company don't have time to rest up and chase after mysterious pretty ladies and must make their way north in order to nip this whole problem in the bud.
