We'll skip to the part of the pre-Remire cutscene that's actually different.
What's going on here...
Ungh...
Are you OK? Don't waste your time on me. Saving the villagers is far more important. We haven't a moment to lose!
What can we do amidst such confusion?
We'll have to take up arms against the villagers who are rampaging. If we strike carefully, it should be possible to spare their lives.
Oh dear... Isn't there a more peaceful way to deal with this?
No matter how long it takes, we'll need to check and rescue them all, one at a time.
Those who have gone mad may be victims themselves. Is it possible to save them?
Well, saving the poor people who aren't crazy is definitely our top priority! Let's get on with it!
Slow down, Annette. It won't do anyone any good if we panic and get injured ourselves. Isn't that... Your Highness. Suspicious figures spotted in the village. They seem to be...watching the chaos.
Are they the ones responsible for this madness? If so...it's clear what must be done.
...Dimitri? You okay there, bud?
Truth be told, I don't like Remire that much. Kind of an annoying map, and Maddening doesn't help.
Inexplicably, the only unit change on Maddening is moving an armored knight positioned in front of the stairs on Hard to his position on Normal—northwest from Solon.
Anyways, bringing along my better units for this map, since I need to move quickly to get the best rewards. Dedue's here to help with pushing into the boss area, and Hapi's here because...well, she could use some EXP.
For the important equipment on this map: Felix has the Fetters of Dromi, and Lysithea has the march ring—both definitely benefit from the extra Mv, and Felix especially can benefit from Canto, even if he'll only have 1 Mv after most rounds of combat. Dedue also gets the Aegis Shield, because honestly, who else can really use it?
I also forge the wo dao I got from Felix's paralogue into a wo dao+. This thing is, arguably, way too powerful for this early in the game. To that I say: meh.
Here we go.
♪ Tearing Through Heaven ♪
You know the drill by this point.
Right where I want you!
I have no doubt that Dedue will fall off eventually, but for the time being, he's pretty good with gauntlets.
Adan's initial outing with gauntlets proves a rousing success.
I've got you!
Thank you, my boy.
Is that all?!
Jesus, I just noticed how bad Felix's Dex is. Good thing it's not that significant of a stat.
One villager saved.
Two villagers saved.
Not a bad first player phase!
As always, the green units have buffs to put them on par with the enemies attacking them, so you're not suddenly in a massive time crunch compared to Hard.
Sadly, the wall guarding this one villager goes down in one hit.
Yep.
Would that I could've used this on Dimitri instead—Bernadetta and Constance would get the effects of Stride too, in that case. Sadly, Mercedes is one Mv short from being able to reach Dimitri.
Dammit.
Dedue's gonna try to take the direct approach with the eastern villagers.
Not the best use of Bolting, but, well, if I didn't kill him with it, he would've probably lived for the rest of the map, and that's just leaving EXP on the table.
Three villagers saved. Thank you, Stride.
♪ Those Who Sow Darkness ♪
slither slither hiss hiss etc. etc.
grrr spooky skull mask
Wuh-oh, need to hurry up saving this guy.
This one, too.
I need to clear out the center if I want Lysithea to be able to reach the eastern units.
My gods, I should've had Adan start using gauntlets earlier.
I'm pretty sure Dimitri can take a round of combat with the Death Knight. Pretty sure.
Not a kill, but hey, got a Crest of Noa activation.
Got a reasonable level, too! Importantly, Constance has hit level 20, which means I can make her a warlock next month, which will give her four uses of Bolting.
Thank you for getting Mag, Mercie.
Four villagers saved.
wait whati've never seen Solon move this way— wait you can move to Solon's area from the bottom-left?!
Indeed, the Death Knight's weak Maddening buffs lets Dimitri very easily withstand a round of combat against him.
...Right, the Death Knight has Poison Strike.
Hoooooooo man that miss was important.
...Oh.
Okay, easy fix, I just won't put Adan there.
Bernie can kill that archer, instead.
The rest of the turn proceeded as it did before, just with RNG differences (such as Constance no longer getting a Crest of Noa activation on Bolting). Unfortunately, one of those differences was the trapped villager not managing to evade that attack, putting him at near-death HP.
Doesn't do much to the Death Knight, but it severely limits what his entourage can do.
Stand down!
I can't particularly say I was expecting that, but I won't complain. Just goes to show how effective Knightkneeler is on the Death Knight.
My boy continues to impress.
Moment of truth...
...Dammit, ugh.
I'm not gonna reset for that, but it still feels bad.
Too slow!
More power for the game's second-best swordsman.
It's over!
Impressive.
I don't need to do this, Bernadetta can just one-round Solon, but again, that'd be leaving a little EXP and skill experience on the table.
...Man.
Lost 5000 gold because I wasn't fast enough saving that one trapped villager. Sucks, but I don't think that's worth resetting over.
Skipping past the cutscenes that are unchanged...
When I saw the chaos and violence there...my mind just went completely dark.
You weren't yourself. I see why you would say that. I always strive to keep my emotions at bay, but... Sometimes the darkness takes hold and...it's impossible to suppress. It just shows you how lacking I am... I have much to learn. I've told you before...that some day we may find ourselves facing something we simply cannot accept. That's what the chaos in Remire Village was to me. Solon and the Flame Emperor are both beasts who must be eliminated. Demons who kill the innocent. They aren't even human at this point.
Where is this anger coming from? It must be hard to fathom. It's true that I don't have any strong connection to those villagers. And yet... You see, Professor... I saw the same flames of torment just four years ago...in Duscur.
My father...my stepmother... Four years ago, they lost their lives to those flames. I'll never forget... I still remember their faces. Their screams. The tortured last moments of every person who died that day... But right now...all that matters is that we do whatever we can to help the surviving villagers get back to their normal lives. Thank you. For everything. There's a reason that I came to the Officers Academy. Just one reason.
Real ominous.
Another month of paralogue pain, huh? I think we can start suffering through that next time...
This update brought to you by the wonderful patrons of my LPs on Patreon:
- SighOfLethe
- Silverfire
- Carlos C.
- Cotton
- Vrorag
- LiveBait
- JeromeKelvin
- Logicblade
- LoneJudas
- LPFinale
- Nico Z
- Materant
- RNGesus Disciple
- Crosspeice
- Mutie
- Wakujuz
- Shei-kun
- ThornBrain
- Spavven
- ZZT the Fifth
- Sylviaon
- Erisin
- Zeke
- Andrew
- marron
- BeanMachine
- Leraika
Next Update
Previous Update
Table of Contents
