Chapter 10: Light and Dark
Player phase music:
It's heresy time - I do not think this is one of the best tracks in the game. It's good, but it's nothing special. Feel free to hate me now.
So here's the chapter where the game starts to get fond of status staffs. They're much more predictable in this game than in later games - if your MDef is higher than their magic, they can't hit you. Otherwise, they hit you 100% of the time. Range is fixed to 10 squares, not based on magic. We also start seeing a lot more dark magic here, which can be annoying for the fire/wind/thunder magic users who suffer WTD against them. And Julia is captured by Manfloy. Like mother like daughter, huh? Oops, I don't think we've officially been told that until this chapter, but come on, it's obvious.
Also, we meet Hilda here, who is kind of a complete ***** who more or less tortured her sister-in-law to death over the years, and is also happy to partake in the Lopt Sect's child hunts. Oh yeah, the child hunts. Children are rounded up and forced into fighting each other to the death, with the winners being indoctrinated as servants of the empire. Nasty business, and Julius seems to be orchestrating them, with Ishtar seeming slightly reluctant, and she gives us the interesting info that Alvis opposes such things. Given that they're happening anyway, this is our first hint that Alvis might not be in control anymore...But before we start dealing with all these issues, it's arena time! And I had forgotten that the Paladin boss in this chapter, Ridale, is a Harold. Yay! And while I'm making random notes, Celice with his HP having grown a lot (72 right now and he's got another level to grow, so it could even reach 74) and max MDef will, once he acquires Tyrfing, be able to survive two hits from Alvis at the end of the chapter. That's some serious durability. Shame his speed is still awful.
Well, that was a mouthful to open the chapter <_< So. Enemies. I try to eliminate the guys with Sleep, Fenrir and Hel first, and get enough of them to keep myself fairly safe. Sylvia ends up in range of a Sniper, but once Corple heals the point of HP she gained on her level up, she survives his attacks with 1HP, so if he hits her, he sets her Prayer range up perfectly. I discover that several of my characters have much less MDef than I'd like and eventually settle on Sety to get the next Barrier Ring; I need him to be nuking dudes in the final chapter, so sleep immunity (I think there's one guy who has the magic to sleep him, but he'll gain some levels before then so I hope it works out) will be very welcome. Leaf is now showing off one of the many reasons his promotion to Master Knight is so absurd - the Rescue staff. A unit with this much durability and this much ability to sit wherever he pleases and have a great enemy phase having access to this thing? Ridiculous. He can rescue Sylvia, have her dance him, then rescue her again, or someone else, or whatever else he feels like. One of the absolute best things in the entire game right here.
The foot units are really going to struggle to do much in this chapter. At some point Sylvia will devote herself to helping a few of them, but for the first stretch, it's all about a handful of horsies kicking some ass. Unfortunately, Celice gets doubled by Hilda despite his Speed Ring, so he barely survives and can't finish her off (does drop her to very low HP with a critical though). Leaf scores the kill, then Sylvia dances them both so Celice can seize and Leaf can Rescue Sety to join us for the battle against Ridale the Harold.
Next time: We fight another Harold. I like Harolds. Also I try to remember to engage in various conversations that provide stat boosts, notably a +5 (!) strength one for Fee.
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We clasped our hands, our hands in praise of a conquerors right to tyranny