Chapter 2: The Pirates of Galder
The introductory text explains that Galder Harbor is the mainland port closest to Talys.
We start this battle with some new people, Ogma, a mercenary swordsman (mercenary is his class as well as his background)and his crew of three axe-guys (technically they are Fighter class), Cord, Bord and Barst. Of the three, Barst is the higher level at 3. They are mercenaries from Talys that the king instructed to come help us. Ogma notes before we start the fight that there are enemy cavalry arriving from the west flying Grust's standard, and they are here to take Marth's head.
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| So many people! And look at all those axe guys I just got! I'll probably keep 0-1 of them long term... |
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| Ogma is in Mercenaries Anonymous. Hi Ogma! |
Most of the enemies are pirates, with a few archer units. Amongst them are two named people, Darros a pirate who a villager tells me wants to talk to Marth, and Castor, a Hunter (a different type of archer apparently). The enemy boss is the pirate Gomer.
NOTE: I did find a walkthrough before this chapter which lists recruitable units at the top. I don't plan to read through the strategy or anything, but I know future Fire Emblem games have a tendency to require certain units to talk to recruitable people, and later when I can choose who comes with me into battle I don't want to miss out on people because I bring the wrong allies. In this chapter, Marth can talk to Darros to recruit him, and Caeda can talk to Castor to recruit him.
There is also a new battlefield feature, the Savepoint. Which looks like the glowing arcane circle that was a save point in Final Fantasy IV. This isn't in the gameboy advanced games, I to use each save point once per battle, and can start from that point later on (this is in addition to the suspend feature). That's nice, I could potentially save time if I need to restart to save somebody, but I'll have to figure out the best time to use them. I'm not sure if this is a new feature in the DS remake of the game, or if it was in the original Fire Emblem.
So we start the fight, a few enemies are north of us with Darros, but most of them and the boss are to the west. Abel quickly levels up to level 6, and gains a point in HP, Strength, Skill and Speed. That's a really good level up for a cavalry unit. A villager tells us that Darros wants to leave behind his pirating ways and fight for a good cause, though the villager doesn't believe it.
Darros actually runs down and talks to Marth on the enemy turn, I've never seen them do that before. He tells Marth basically the same thing the villager said, and joins us. He and Marth take out the northern units pretty easily. Marth levels up to 5, gaining points in HP, Stength, Skill, Luck AND Defense! 5 stats up is really nice. Keep that up Marth!
Darros is a pirate, so they use axes, and have a mobility bonus in that they can walk on the water, where other units have to find a bridge.
Ogma in the west is just destroying the enemy axe guys. His sword has weapon advantage on them, and mercenaries are often a very strong class in this game.
Draug levels up to 2 and gains HP, Skill and Speed. Not bad, but I also want him to increase defense, since the Knight unit is the big slow tank of the game. Cain levels up to 5, but only gets HP and Speed. Speed is good, but I'd like it paired with some skill please. I'll have to try and get him to 6 and compare him to Abel and see how they're each doing.
As we move west, I'm able to get Caeda to talk to Castor. She knows him, and is upset that even good men like him have betrayed Talys and joined the pirates. Castor says he's doing it because he needs money to buy medicine for his sick mother. Caeda is still upset, and shouts that if he needs gold he can take all the gold she has on her. This makes him feel guilty for the choice he's made, and promises his life to Princess Caeda. I mean, it's a good cause, but it's hard to justify hurting other people in order to save another like this, since this pirate group has been pretty bad to the people of Galder whom they essentially conquered.
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| Castor also apologizes to Marth for being a pirate, but Marth welcomes him to the team. |
There's an armoury I can go to buy some extra weapons, so I send Jagen there. He buys several iron axes and hand axes since Gord, Barst and Darros all started with steel axes, which are a step up in damage but more expensive to buy, so I'd rather they use iron until steel becomes necessary. And hand axes are throwable ranged weapons, it's always nice to have some options.
Caeda levels up to three, and only gets HP and Speed, like Cain. What is with these level ups?
Oh, it gets worse. Wrys, our cleric (healer) levels up to 2 and gets NO STAT UPS! Come on game!
Marth visits a village and the villagers ask him to save Sister Lena who has gone to the Ghoul's Teeth. I don't know what those are but it sounds nasty. They give us 5000 gold to help, which lets me go buy a few more iron weapons (like an iron sword for Ogma, so he doesn't use up his steel sword).
Ogma can talk to Caeda too! Hmm, it looks like if the unit I select can have a conversation with someone else, it highlights the other unit's square in yellow. That's handy! I bet that's a new addition for the DS.
Caeda is happy to see Ogma is coming with us, as there is no other swordsman she trusts more. I agree, I trust him to get the job done for sure! Good mercenary. Ogma asks Caeda to leave the dangerous fighting to him and his crew, but Caeda says she doesn't need protecting. Instead, Caeda asks that Ogma protect Marth for her. “He's very important to me. And the world, but mostly to me.” He agrees, but asks Caeda also to stay safe, pointing out that Marth would also be upset if something happened to her. (This hints at some history between Marth and Caeda, I wonder if it will come out at some point or if we leave it to our imaginations...)
Caeda says Ogma is a good listener.
Castor gets the first shot at the boss Gomer. I'm worried about Gomer's big axe so I'm going to hit him a bit from range then move in to attack in melee.
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| I really want Shanty Pete to be a character now. |
Cord levels up to 3, and gains HP, Strength, Speed, Luck and Defense. That's pretty good.
Caeda flies in from behind him and finishes Gomer off.
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| That's right, we beat one guy with about 10. We're totally fiends. |
After the fight, a villager approaches to express their gratitude for driving out the pirates and freeing the village. He explains that the next place we'll need to go on our way to the mainland will be the Ghoul's Teeth, which is Soothsire bandit territory, and they have a swordsman named Navarre who is a terror with the blade. He's either the boss or a recruitable character with that kind of introduction...
On to Chapter 3!
Chapter 3: A Brush in the Teeth.
Oh boy, puns in the chapter title! Were the previous ones puns too? Or will that be just occasional?
Introductory text again explains that the Samsooth mountains divide the peninsula we are on, and we will have to cross them to reach the interior. The mountaintops of the Samsooth range have been the territory of bandits for longer than anyone can remember, and thus the locals have given them another name, the Ghoul's Teeth. Likewise, the bandits have come to calling themselves the Soothsire bandits.
The chapter starts with two people running away, Julian a thief and Lena, a cleric. Julian is encouraging Lena to keep running, that they've heard the Knights of Altea are at the foot of the mountain and this is their best chance to escape.
These two look kind of related? They both have similar red hair... Lena says she forgot her mend staff, and it's precious to her. She wants to go back for it, and for Julian to go on without her, possibly with the help from her warp staff, but he refuses. He didn't leave his brothers in the bandit gang just to leave her behind.
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| I suppose Caeda and Marth both have blue hair and aren't related so I shouldn't assume... |
Navarre shows up behind them with several other bandits to chase them. These two groups are north of our starting position, but it's a narrow path between some mountain spaces, so it will be best to send my main force west while a small force goes north. Julian and Lena begin on my team. I look it up, and Navarre is recruitable by Caeda, and he's the only recruitable character this map. I send Caeda north with Cain to back her up.
Ha, a villager tells Marth “Oh, ho ho! Don't you look young and full of life! You deserve a reward, so take this axe! THIS EVIL AXE THAT MIGHT KILL YOU IF YOU USE IT!”
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| A good axe or the best axe ever? It's called the Devil Axe and it has a chance of hurting the wielder instead of the enemy... |
Caeda levels up to 4, and gets skill, speed and luck.
I'm able to get Caeda to meet up with Navarre. She seems to know him, and doesn't understand why he's with these bandits, but he doesn't recognize her. Or maybe it's just that she knows his name from the villager last map? She urges him to join us and fight for a cause for once, and not for no reason, and if he doesn't join us he may as well kill her. Navarre refuses to turn his blade on a woman though, and because she offered her life to pay for his services, agrees to join us.
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| He's a bishounen, he has to be a good guy, right? Re-reading this I think it's not that Caeda knows him, and just that she heard of his reputation. |
Julian and Lena can both talk to Marth. Julian moves faster and reaches him first. Marth apparently tries to stab him at first, because Julian's like “Whoa! Don't hit me!”
Ha, he's bad at trying to explain things. “I'm Julian! I'm one of the bandits, one of the bad guys! No wait, I mean I'm a good guy!”
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| Julian is the best explainer. |
Eventually Marth cuts him off and says “you say you want a second chance, and I think you deserve to prove it. Show me you're a person of character.”
When Lena catches up, Marth offers to use his army as a distraction while she escapes, but she wants to help. She can't just stand by when she has the power to save people. Of course, this would be easier if she had a healing staff... Marth agrees to let her accompany us as long as she's careful, as he doesn't want her to get hurt.
We progress across the map, taking the enemy out as we go. At one point, I restart the map, because I moved wrong and Dorg gets killed, and while I'd used the save point, I used it AFTER all my people moved that turn. That's a mistake, I need to use it at the beginning of the turn if I want to use it to change the outcome of a mistaken move...
Ogma levels up to 5 and gets HP and Strength. Not bad, but skill or speed would also be nice.
Draug levels up to 3 and gets Speed and Defense. I like that defense stat going up Draug!
Navarre levels up to 4 and gets HP and skill. He's a myrmidon, the other sword using class, that tend to be the fast hitters rather than strength hitting guys, and are good at critical hits (he started with a Killing Edge sword, which gives massive critical chance, I had to give him an iron sword so I don't waste that thing on these low level mooks). So I'll take the skill.
Abel gains a weapon level! His sword skill goes up to D, which is the same as his lance skill and lets him use some better swords.
Wrys hits level 3 because I have him healing at any opportunity, but he gets not stats up again. He's going to be the first on the bench at this rate! Lena will take his place. I like her better anyway.
The boss Hyman dies under a barrage of ranged and close range hits (he had a handaxe, and was really dangerous. Could have one-shotted Dorg even!) He drops Lena's mend staff when he dies.
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| Sorry about that glare, I was playing while a passenger in the car |
After the fight, Malledus finds the bandits left behind 15,000 gold as they fled, which we loot. Tomorrow we will arrive in Aurelis!
Next time, on to Chapter 4!
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