In which I mostly get to know the system through grinding levels in the first dungeon. That's right, this game has dungeons.
I start the session by heading up to the Thieves Shrine, where we overheard a woman had been taken captive. The watchman at the entrance runs away from us. "They only told me I'd have to watch! I'm not fighting anyone!"
Alm says the dungeon smells of mold.
Interesting, this is a 3D exploration mode. Basically I run through the cave as Alm, slashing at barrels, and when I run into a bandit it takes me to the tactical map screen for the fight. The fights are pretty easy, but it's neat that I can try to avoid them if I want to.
I also discover that slashing with Alm's sword will cut the grass and flowers, and sometimes money pops out a-la Legend of Zelda. That's pretty fun. And if I slash the bandits in the exploration screen they start with less health during the actual battle. Fun!
Tobin gets a good level up during one of the fights, and I like his level up quote: "Look at these muscles! Who wants to touch 'em?"
Each character has voiced dialogue on leveling up, and the dialogue changes depending on how many stats for the random increase. It's pretty neat.
At the other end of the dungeon we run into the boss of the bandits, and summarily defeat him. We rescue Silque, a cleric from the priory at Novis Island. She was traveling in these lands with a message for Sir Mycen, but immediately becomes distracted by Alm's mark. (The one that matched Celica's mark.) Apparently this is a sign of something, and she gives Alm Mila's Turnwheel, a relic that houses some of Mila's power. Apparently the Turnwheel uses me? "In mother Zofia, Turnwheel uses you!"
Upon taking the Turnwheel, Alm has a vision of a burning kingdom, filled with gravestones. Is this the future? Silque says it's probably a possible future, or maybe even the past. The power Mila grants through the Turnwheel is that of Sight.
Silque does not want to just watch people suffer in this burgeoning civil war, and asks to join. Yes please! I could use a healer!
Silque says her mother was also a cleric, and she took Silque on a pilgrimage when Silque was young, so she knows how to travel well.
I spend a good amount of time going back into the Thieves Shrine dungeon and grinding some levels for Kliff, Gray, Faye and Tobin especially. Apparently when attacking or defending within two squares of each other my people gain support points, and can unlock support conversations. I know in previous games there were limits on how many supports you can have, and I didn't want to worry about that so I looked it up. No limits this game! Well, beyond "Faye only supports with Silque and Alm" sort of thing anyway. Excellent! Tobin gets some support with Gray and Kliff, both of whom seem vexed by Tobin generally. Faye earns support with Silque, and their conversation centers on Silque trying to gossip with Faye, but Faye is only interested in talking to Alm.
Faye does have my favorite support conversation with Alm though. "Shall I head back out there and slay more of your enemies fo you Alm?" Alm: "uh... slay my enemies?" Poor guy.
Gray hits level 10 and I decide to promote him to a mercenary. It looks like I have to go to a Shrine to Mila to promote, but don't need items, just to reach certain levels. My villagers could all promote at level 3 or so, but I wanted to get some more stats first.
Moving on, I go to the next story fight: Ram Valley. Lukas explains that Desaix's soldiers have hired brigands to hold the valley. We fight a bunch of axe guys and some archers, and a single sword guy from the Zofian knights. Sword guy has a shield, making him harder to hit. After the fight, we meet a survivor of the Deliverance forces at the Southern Outpost we had been heading towards: The outpost has been seized by Zofian forces, and Lady Clair has been taken captive. Time for a rescue!
But first, I want some variety. I head back to the shrine and promote the rest of my now level 10 villagers. Tobin can be an archer, Kliff a Mage, and Faye a cleric. I go ahead and promote Lukas from soldier to knight too. Get that defense Lukas!
We fight our way into the Southern Outpost, and rescue lady Clair. Clair is a woman of the nobility, but she and her brother have joined Clive in the Deliverance. "You may take a lady's hand." She is a bit confused and then delighted to meet Alm and the villagers. "I've never met someone from a village before! Are there a lot of cows? Cows seem to mean, how do you handle them all the time?"
She's actually kind of delightful, very well meaning and apologetic if she gets something wrong, rather than expecting the villagers to know proper etiquette themselves. Alm seems bemused by her, and Gray is excited to be fighting for a lady. Tobin calls Gray out a bit. "And you mocked me for fighting for money..."
We move out, and Clair joins us! She's a Pegasus Knight, hurray fliers! We fight off a few more Zofian forces, and run into another noble of the Deliverance, Fernand. I instantly dislike him. He is very "commoners have no business being around nobles" sort of guy. Clair tells him off though. "I'm traveling with Alm. He is Sir Mycen's grandson, and he and his friends rescued me." Go Clair! She also defends poor Lukas from Fernand. Lukas is of the nobility, but of a minor house from the outskirts of the realm. Fernand drips contempt on Lukas as a backwater noble unworthy of his time, but Clair is like "If not for Lukas I'd still be locked up. Where were you?"
And I'm calling it there! I'm going to try and keep these posts shorter so I have less trouble getting them written. And again, screenshots will be if I feel like taking them. I may look up some art of the characters next time though, so there's some fun visuals.
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