Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon Part 15: Liberating Altea

In which we retake Altea castle and free Marth's homeland.




Chapter 17: Star and Savior

Having liberated the countryside, we head into Altea castle. A Mage-Dragon named Morzas commands the enemy forces here. Apparently Morzas took over after General Camus left, and has been a much crueler warden than Camus had been. We hear that Morzas would kill Altean citizens at the slightest provocation.

Using the preview of the map, I see the opposition is limited but potentially dangerous. To the left of our starting position is a room filled with treasure chests, guarded by a few mages and a scary Sniper with a Killer Bow. I've had trouble with Snipers before, and the Killer Bow boosts the enemy's critical chance, which could one-shot my people.

That's a lot of treasure, and I want it.

The corridor directly ahead of us holds a regular manakete, so I need to be prepared with dragon-killer weapons if I have any. There is a second manakete in the upper left corner, maybe it will rush us? I don't see any other reason to go up there...

To the right is a room where the boss Morzas is hanging out with some knights and a bishop with the Swarm spell, which is a long range spell like the Ballisticians. There's like a statue that seems to block the throne room from another room to the right of it with no obvious way in from my side, where two enemy bishops with the ridiculously long range Fortify healing spell. I'll need to take them out with ranged attacks or else have them healing wounded enemies the entire map. A second sniper guards the two bishops though, so getting them could be tough.

Snipers have been my bane this game...

So I want to bring Julian to open the doors and chests for treasure... And with the presence of the snipers I'm nervous to bring in fliers. I switch Caeda to a Paladin for the map because she looks awesome as a paladin. I do have a dragon pike, which is a dragon-killer spear, so Caeda gets it. I like her having speed to go kill that Manakete. Catria I think I'll swap for Jake. I'll give the Ballistician a try, and having the extra range could help with those snipers and the swarm-mage.

So here's my team: Marth, Abel, Cain, Ogma, Barst, Caeda, Maria, Gordon, Merric, Linda, Julian and Jake.

Saving my game, in case that first manakete kills us all right away. Deep breath, and start!

Morzas gets the standard bad guy taunting in on us.

Is Gharnef the real big bad in this game? I really don't like him.

And then he says he killed Marth's mother Liza (who gets a name! I'm impressed!). Welp. Now it's... even more personal? I guess this is maybe to show the bad guys are bad? Although to be fair, killing anyone with a claim to the throne is probably good practice in an invasion like that, considering how well Marth has succeeded with his rebellion. Gharnef took Elice for reasons unknown, but Morzas only admits that that is why he didn't kill Elice himself.

Alright, on to the fight. Caeda rushes the first Manakete, and with her dragon pike is able to kill it outright. She levels up to 4, gaining Strength, Skill and Luck.

St. Caeda and the dragon

My people move forward cautiously, Merric and Gordin heading right to try and take on the bishops, everyone else going left to try and get to the treasure before the two enemy thieves I see take it and escape.

An enemy mage moves up to attack Caeda, but Cain rides past her and kills the mage. Jake moves slowly into the castle, firing his ballista over (through?) the walls as he goes, injuring a mage in the treasure room who is subsequently healed by the fortify bishops. Jake levels up to 2, gaining skill, speed and luck. (Indoor maps are weird, in that archers and the like can shoot through walls as long as the walls are only one square thick. It's basically the same mechanics as outside, but it makes more sense when I'm not picturing a sealing overhead.)

The army moves through the castle apace. Caeda moves forward and lures out the second Makakete and skewers it as well. I move Cain through the northern passage because I realize the enemy thieves are going to try to escape that way, and I want to get back the Warp Staff and Demon Sword they grabbed from the treasure chests. Jake moves up and kills the 1st fortify bishop, leveling up to 3 and gaining HP, Skill and Luck. On the right, Marth takes some Javelins from enemy knights, then he and Barst kill them with Armorslayer sword and Hammer respectively. Abel then lures out the enemy Hero unit, takes a hit and counter attacks, and levels up to 18. Abel gains HP and skill.

Cain rushes through the northern corridor (I love cavalier speed) and cuts off the thieves escape. He kills the first one, and goes up to level 18 as well, gaining HP and Speed.

Barst finishes the enemy Hero while Ogma kills the second thief. And then (after moving them of course) I realize I put Barst in range of the sniper with the killer bow. I can only hope he survives...

Barst lives! The sniper shot him just once, and only did 10 damage so no critical. I think critical are triple damage, so he only would have taken 30 damage anyway, and Barst has 32 HP, so he would have survived anyway. Whew! Barst moves up and hits the sniper, leveling to 17 and gaining HP and Skill. Ogma finishes the Sniper off and levels to 17 as well, gaining HP, Speed, Luck and Defense.

On the other side of the map, Gordin kills the second bishop, but Jake misses his shot at the sniper, who then moves up and shoots Gordin. Gordin survives the hit, and survives the counterattack when he shoots next turn. Jake then hits the Sniper, and Gordin is able to finish the sniper on the next turn. Yeah! Just two mages guarding the loot, and then the throne room!

Linde and Ogma move into the treasure room and kill the mages. I open the first chest with Julian, and get a killer bow of my own.

And then, as I start regrouping, figuring I'd save once I was ready for the boss rush, I forget about the swarm-mage. Gordin stops just inside the range of swarm, and takes 13 damage. He was sitting on 13 HP from his confrontation with the sniper, and he dies. Shoot.

Well, that went better than I'd feared, so let's do it again!

Take two goes about the same, but Gordin gets killed inches duel with the sniper.

Take three goes the same again, but again, Gordin gets killed. Gordin may be the weak link... I take an overnight break to recover before trying again.

Ok, try number four, and I'm replacing Gordin with Wolf. Sorry Gordin, Wolf is already promoted so I rate his survival chances as higher than yours. Also Wolf is on a horse, and can move much faster.

The map goes about the same as the first time, with different level-ups of course. Caeda kills the first Manakin, hits level 4 and gains Strength, Skill, Speed and Luck. Wolf immediately proves his worth by killing a bishop in one round, and he has enough speed that the sniper doesn't get a double shot on him in retaliation.

Level-ups are as follows:
Jake -> Level 2 -> HP, Speed, Luck
Abel -> Level 18 -> HP, Speed
Cain -> Level 18 -> HP, Speed
Linde -> Level 17 -> Magic, Skill, Speed, Luck

At this point I've dealt with the bishops and sniper on the right, the manaketes, the thieves, and the knights on the left. The Hero goes down, as does the killer bow sniper, and the mages roaming free.

I make sure to be careful to keep out of range of the swarm-mage and start regrouping in front of the main door to the throne room while Julian loots the chests and Jake hurls spears at all and sundry behind the final walls.

Jake levels up to 3, gaining Skill and Luck, and then again to level 4, gaining only Luck. His stats aren't anything to write home about, but his range and raw ballista power sort of make up for that. Although he's also only level 4...

Maria levels up to 18 healing people up, gaining Skill and Luck.

Julian loots all the chests, and I get a Master Seal, a Dracoshield, a Silver Axe, and a Secret Book in addition to the items I found in my first attempt. The Dracoshield and Secret Book are one-use permanent stat increases, and the Master Seal is the promotion item for the next person to hit level 20.

After the army gathers, Jake moves just in range of the swarm-mage, and they chucking long range attacks at each other. Interestingly, it looks like there's no counter-attack at such range, so Jake fires, then no counter until the enemy gets their turn (rather than immediate counter during the attack everyone else deals with). Maria keeps Jake healed, standing next to him but just out of range of the mage. Jake levels to 5, gaining HP and Defense, and then again to level 6 when he kills the mage, this time getting Skill, Speed and Luck. Julian opens the door to the throne room, and Merric runs in and kills the knights, leveling to 17 and gaining HP and Luck. Once we take out the last of Morzas's guards, reinforcements spawn off to the right, where the two bishops had been. There is a new enemy knight and a new cavalier. The knight moves to the wall to hurl javelins at us, while the cavalier has to circle behind the throne itself on a semi-circular path to reach us. I send Wolf and my own two Cavaliers to meet the enemy cavalier, while Merric murders the impertinent knight with lightning. The following turn, a second knight and a second cavalier spawn as well. The knight again dies to Merric's lightning, but I realize my mounted people went the wrong way (I thought the passage behind the throne led to the door, but it just leads in front of the throne) and Marth has to kill the two cavaliers as they approach. Marth levels up to 15 and gains only Speed, and Maria heals him up and achieves level 19, gaining Speed, Luck and Resistance. Jake fires on Morzas, and levels up to 7, gaining HP, Strength, Skill and Luck, and then Caeda destroys Morzas with a critical blow of her Dragonbane spear.

Oh yeah?

Not my best screenshot, but I was interested that Morzas looks different as a dragon than the manaketes. Maybe because he has a Magestone and they have Firestones?

Morzas dies, and Caeda reaches level 5, gaining Skill, Speed and Luck.

Yes, St. Caeda will correct you, you better believe it.

Victory is ours! (Finally.)

Nyna enters the room as Marth contemplates the now empty throne. She asks if he has found his family, and Marth tells her his sister was taken by Gharnef. And then he says his mother is dead, and the dialogue text actually shows him choked up with emotion at this.

It's the repetition. I can just feel him choking out those words...

I think it's the most emotion we've had from Marth this whole game. Nyna offer him comfort.

I feel bad for Marth. I kind of want to give him a hug.

Malledus then enters the room, and reports that the people of Altea have gathered outside the castle, and want to see their prince. Nyna (showing good instincts and a good solution to me) suggests that Marth wait to celebrate the victory with his people until he can share in their joy (i.e. after he's processed his grief).

It's a very compassionate suggestion.

But Marth decides it is best he go out and mark this as a momentous day for his kingdom and his people. He feels not celebrating with the people after overthrowing their conquerers would be a disservice to those who died to save Altea. And I can see his point as well. He is a prince first and foremost, and a son and brother second.

He feels the weight of responsibility. 

So the chapter ends, with the people celebrating and cheering for Marth their "Star and Savior".

The explanatory text says Marth's last victory of the day was choking back the tears so his people wouldn't see him cry.

This ending actually had me feeling drawn into the game more. I kind of wish we'd had more personality from Marth before this besides vengeful anger and stoicism (and befuddlement when confronted by Athena). It makes him feel like more of a character and less of a player stand-in, I guess, but I wish they didn't have to kill his mother to get here. Or that we'd at least been able to develop his mother as a character before she died, so she wasn't just a spur to emotional growth for Marth. At least she got a name, and wasn't just "Marth's mother who died". I hope we get to rescue Elice soon...

And I know that's largely a product of the original game, which was more limited in development constraints, and the attitudes of the developers at the time. But the chapters making me feel emotions and I wanted to explore that a bit. I actually liked this one overall, despite Gordin getting needlessly sniped that first time and then having bad luck with him on the second and third attempts (if I hadn't moved him wrong that first time, I think I could have done this in one try... Next time!)

Anyway, onwards to Chapter 18!