Update 105

Update 105: I'll Add It to the Heap

♪ Three Crowns ♪

Having repelled the Imperial vanguard, the Kingdom must now supplement its meager forces. And so it requests reinforcements from Rodrigue, who is busy resisting Cornelia's army in Fraldarius territory.

♪ King of Lions ♪

We received a reply from my father. You should read it too.

I would like to say that I will gather reinforcements and send them to the monastery at once...

However, I cannot afford to leave the front lines for that long.

Would you be willing to meet us south of Fraldarius territory in Ailell, the Valley of Torment? Ailell is halfway between the monastery and our territory. There, I will deliver the soldiers you require.

The Valley of Torment...

Ailell lies on the border between Kingdom territory and Alliance territory. Humans dare not approach that place.

He's right. In Ailell, we can meet up with them without our enemy ever finding out.

Once my old man delivers his soldiers to us, then our war against the Empire can finally begin.

The path ahead will be a difficult one, Your Highness. Deadly, in all likelihood...

True. But what's the point in wavering now? Father, Stepmother, Glenn, and even Dedue... I am certain this will bring them great joy. I know if I can just offer them Edelgard's head... I just know it...

Amazing that guy is always there, regardless of timeline or who I'm playing as.

♪ Scales of the Goddess ♪

Oof, we've got two rough paralogues open to us now.

But hey, at least we've got supports.

Sylvain/Leonie B.

♪ A Gentle Breeze ♪

Hey, Leonie... I mean... Hello, beautiful. What brings a sweet girl like you to a place like this?

Uh, I just came to the greenhouse to look at flowers. What's with you?

Nothing much. Nothing...much... I was just thinking about how sunflowers don't deserve to be stuffed away in a greenhouse. They'd bloom better out in the open! Just like you.

Could you cut the weird metaphors and just say what you want to say? Oh, wait. I get it. I'm not ladylike enough to fit in with all the pretty flowers.

No! OK, that compliment backfired. Let me try a different angle...

This is a joke, right? Tell me this is a joke.

What have you got against sunflowers, anyway? I think they're lovely, myself. If you think I only care about delicate flowers raised in a greenhouse, you've got me all wrong.

Statuesque sunflowers, blooming proud and tall in the open air, have a beauty all their own.

Is that right?

You better believe it, and the same goes for you. You have a beauty unlike any other. I look at you, and I see sunflowers.

...

Mm?

Look, can you just...go back to normal?

At this point, I feel like anything I say is just going to make you more angry.

Why are you suddenly not capable of carrying on a normal conversation?

My eyes have been opened to the charms of the beautiful flower blooming right beside me. It's a whole new day for my heart.

You can quit messing with me at any time.

I'm not. I'm absolutely serious. You really are as charming as any flower. I see that now.

Would you stop? This is getting weird.

Even sincerity doesn't work? What kind of flirting is going to satisfy you? You know what? I'm just going to leave you alone for now, so I can get a fresh start some other time.

Right. Bye.

Charming? Me, of all people? Like I'd actually believe that.

♪ Scales of the Goddess ♪

Kinda wish that support went up to A, but also it makes sense that Sylvain, given who he is, would stop talking to Leonie after that, sadly.

Here's a character who can open up to others, though, even if it takes some doing.

Bernadetta/Alois C.

♪ Respite and Sunlight ♪

She's as timid as a mouse—and that's when speaking to people her own age! She'll likely scream the second she sees me. Maybe this is a mistake. All that noise is going to frighten the other students.

Ah, hello! I have some business with Bernadetta. I wasn't sure how to approach her.

I'm not sure what that's supposed to mean, but OK. What business do you have with Bernie?

I was supposed to deliver this, you see. Perhaps you can take it off my hands?

Right... Thanks for taking the time.

No trouble at all! Here it is.

Thanks. I'm going to head in now, if that's OK.

Whew, that's quite a relief. How kind of Bernadetta's friend, making that delivery for me. ...

Wait a second...

But it couldn't have been! She spoke so...normally. She didn't act frightened at all. In fact, she was quite friendly!

Hm. I'm glad the ordeal's done with, but now I feel terribly confused. And a little worried. Meek little Bernadetta, what have they done to you?

♪ Scales of the Goddess ♪

Well, that was unusual.

I used to eat until I was full, but nowadays I can't even get seconds! Aren't reinforcements supposed to be joining us soon? I hope they bring food along with them... I still want my little sis to live in the town here, but there's no point if we can't even feed her!

If we tried to take on the Empire like this, would we really stand a chance? With House Fraldarius under attack, they probably can't spare many soldiers. On the other hand, if we did manage to take the Imperial capital, the war would be over. Hmm... I'm no good at thinking through this kind of complicated stuff.

I mean, it's not really a choice? Almost-certain annihilation is not worth the very small chance of ending the war early.

Most importantly of all, there are people in the Kingdom waiting for our help... Even His Highness understands that. I'm sure of it. Yet he wants to take on the Empire despite all that... Do you think...he just doesn't care about anything other than fighting Edelgard anymore?

You may be right.

He wasn't always like this. What happened...

I mean, this isn't a big revelation.

The situation right now is difficult. But at times like this, you have the opportunity to really shine, eh Professor?

You're in charge. Show them what you're made of! I'll do what I can to help.

Alois with the correct observation: this entire counteroffensive against the Empire has been in shambles from the very beginning.

The search for Lady Rhea will be so much easier if we can just get the Empire out of the way. I suppose Dimitri might still pose a problem though. He seems so fixated on the Imperial capital, but... I get the feeling he's not even sure what he wants anymore.

Here's a rare moment of me disagreeing with Mercedes:

Attacking Enbarr right now would be suicidal.

Thus ends me disagreeing with Mercedes.

Can we really plan to fight when we're this unsure of ourselves?

It's hard to say.

Well, Professor, I hope you can bring everyone together. You might be the only person who can.

But I wonder what he would say if he saw what has become of Dimitri...

For all I know, Rodrigue might think this is good. Dude doesn't exactly have the best judgement.

If we do, our ability to reclaim the Kingdom capital is ensured. We should aim for this outcome rather than focusing our efforts on the Imperial capital.

This seems to me the best strategy at present. But I feel what His Highness feels—his hatred, his anger—so keenly, as if it were my own. So I find it difficult to oppose his wishes.

Please do not let Dimitri's untreated PTSD addle your thinking, Ingrid.

Gladly.

Statbooster 3: ディミトリの最期!?

There's no joke here.

Upon reflection, I don't think giving Ingrid both the Str and Spd boosters was a good idea.

You really hate him.

Yes, I do. Above all, I hate the crazed nonsense that comes out of his mouth.

Can't say I really disagree with you, Felix.

This happened while I was doing the lance tournament.

...Sigh. I don't want to do this, but I don't really have much of a choice.

♪ As Fierce as Fire ♪

Take one of the worse paralogues and play it on Maddening, and what do you get? Pain.

No extra monsters to deal with on Maddening, thankfully—just clones of already existing enemies. Unfortunately, that means there are now two enemy Physic users.

We've got three dads for adjutants today. One bad dad, one dad who's a little overprotective, and one dad who I'm sure is a good dad.

Thyrsus, how I yearn for thee.

Bernie's been at Bow S for a while now, no reason not to equip Bow Crit +10 on her.

Really hope I can find some mythril on this map.

Let's-a go.

♪ Tempest of Seasons ♪

Ingrid gets the privilege of using Stride this time.

Canto also lets her run right into this thing.

Dorothea is the designated torch user.

Banshee Θ is way too dangerous, so Adan kills the closest dark bishop.

Keeping Marianne alive on Maddening is the absolute worst.

That wolf will absolutely kill Dorothea if I don't break its armor, so...let's do that.

Lure has the added benefit of pulling this monster into a slightly more favorable position.

That's one of three HP bars.

That's really unfortunate, one-shotting that HP bar would be a big help.

The game is just giving me no respect today.

twitch

Oh, come on.

I can do no less!

Finally. At least the kill came with an excellent level.

Ingrid is getting very powerful.

Out of my way!

Dimitri strong.

Marianne is able to finish off that wolf, giving her some space.

If this looks easy, it isn't. I'm not showing you the multiple failed attempts before this one.

...Uh-oh.

♪ The Dream is Over ♪

Right, I forgot that Maurice goes aggro if you get a non-Marianne unit close to him.

♪ Tempest of Seasons ♪

Easy fix. Keeping Felix down here prevents Maurice from going aggro.

Bizarrely, even though I can't see the monster to the west in the fog, I can see its armor tiles when moving a unit.

One more Stride.

No real reason to use Bolting there, but I guess the Crest of Noa mitigates that.

power

Let's get this monster out of the—

Calm down, Maurice, I'll get to you eventually, no need to get mad.

Ah, dammit, that's what I get for not having Marianne's Reason prowess equipped.

Thankfully, Dimitri can prevent Maurice from going after either Dorothea or Marianne, both of whom cannot take any attacks.

One less wolf.

Throwing a Seraphim on Maurice can't hurt.

Oh, fuck, there are wolves near Constance in the fog!

Note the plural...

♪ The Dream is Over ♪

Right, remembering why I don't like this map.

♪ Tempest of Seasons ♪

Let's just have Constance do her thing from over here.

Might as well take the opportunity to shuffle positions to make better use of Bernie.

Stay alive, Bernie!

Marvelous.

The wolves have Defiant Avo as their final ability, which can actually be a real pain.

Exhibit A.

Thankfully, Bernie's got Hit to spare.

Oh, hey, that one went for Dimitri this time.

♪ The Dream is Over ♪

I hate fog maps.

♪ Tempest of Seasons ♪

We'll play it your way, Three Houses.

Ugh.

I've had enough of this, let's just break Maurice's armor and kill him.

The fuck, Felix?

Don't struggle.

Once again, I remain conflicted about this man getting good levels.

It sure does, Gustave.

This is gonna take longer than this player phase, so let's break that wolf's armor.

♪ The Dream is Over ♪

And then I misclicked with Bernadetta and ran her right into an enemy unit, causing her turn to end immediately, and resulting in Felix's death. My god I hate this paralogue.

Oh, cool, Ingrid got in on the death action, too.

♪ Tempest of Seasons ♪

I'm leaving all of the failure states and redos in so you all can suffer with me.

Prepare yourself!

Incidentally, bizarre thing: for one frame after crit cut-ins end, you can see that the level's normal skybox has been overwritten with...the crit cut-in background. You can also kind of see that fog is disabled on the frame after the cut-in ends, you can see trees that are otherwise obscured by the fog. The cut-ins are programmed so weirdly, man.