What Am I Doing To Myself? Let's Try and Play Fire Emblem: Thracia 776!

[Deme]

Hallo hallo, everybody! So, I am sort of a Fire Emblem fan. We've had/have a few Fire Emblem LPs on this forum, which means options for a new LP may seem slim...That is, until we go back in time, to the wealth of Fire Emblems never released to the US!
And, conveniently, there's a game I've always liked but never played that fits handily into that catagory, Fire Emblem 5, Fire Emblem: Thracia 776. The reason I've never played it? It's extremely hard, and I'm not really good enough at Fire Emblem to feel up to the challenge. I'd be bad at it. I'd probably die a lot. "Hey," I said to myself, "You know who likes watching people be bad at videogames? People on the internet!"

So I decided to LP it, and share my first time actually playing the game with you guys! This'll just be a commentary-style LP, not a narrative one; the game just sort of lends itself better to wailing and gnashing of teeth. It's got enemy reinforcements that spawn and move on the same turn, fog of war even worse than the standard version, strong enemies (and lots of them), tricks and surprises of all sorts, healing that can miss... And there's still more. It hates the player with all of its being, basically. On the plus side, it's clever and inventive, with features and ideas that are very neat, but got dropped from the GBA games, and sometimes (lamentably) from the series as a whole. It's got a lot of good things I could say about it and its narrative, but we'll get into the good and the bad as the game progresses.

About the story: Thracia 776 is an interquel to Fire Emblem (4): Genealogy of the Holy War. Genealogy is divided into two generations, with Thracia 776 taking place at the end of the time-skip between them, right before the start. It features and mentions characters, places, and ideas from 4, and I'll try to explain them as best I can.
As a whole, I hope to make this LP and game understandable to people who've never played a Fire Emblem game before, so I may end up explaining some things that are fairly intuitive. Please feel free to ask me questions or for clarifications, and I'll do my best to deliver!

I'm using the translation patch reccomended by Serenes Forest, and have that, some guides, and some other LPs as my resources to help me get everything and everyone I can, and get through the game without suffering a loss (This means I'll be doing a lot of resetting. Place your bets on how many resets we'll go through!) I do, however, retain the right to stop the project if it gets to be un-fun.

Index of Chapters

Index of Active Characters (Contains Spoilers)


Inactive Character List


Chapter 1, Part 1: Meeting the Fiana Militia

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Well, let's fire up this puppy, and see how I manage!


So far, so good! Well, anyway, strap in for some backstory!

"A great rebellion arose and spread throughout Jugdral."

Ok, let's break that down. The basic intro to Genealogy was that, once upon a time, a dark dragon named Loputousu (Or something like that, give or take your translation) gave rise to an evil cult and an evil empire, and times were sad. So a bunch of humans, given holy weapons and holy blood by 12 good dragons, rose up to defeat Loputousu. These people came to be called The Twelve Crusaders, and their bloodlines and weapons were passed down through the lines of nobility in Jugdral. It's less important here, but their names and some holy weapons come up.

In time, that became legend. Genealogy picks up during the Kingdom of Granbell's warring on a neighboring country, which, in the way of Fire Emblem games, creates a domino effect where basically every kingdom in the main landmass of Jugdral gets dragged in, and this ultimately creates the Granbell empire. The main characters didn't mean for that to happen -- they largely just blundered their way across the continent, taking out people who were wicked, and then they got branded traitors and rebels for it, because the people who wanted there to be an empire were evil and out to create the antichrist, pretty much literally.

Of particular note to our purposes are Cuan and Ethlin, the brother-in-law and sister of the hero of 4's first generation Sigurd, and both descendants of crusaders. Cuan was prince of Lenster, which is on the Thracian peninsula (the setting of this game), and generally far away enough that they didn't have a dog in this fight...
Except that Cuan and Ethlin wanted to help out Sigurd. Let's see how that went for them, shall we?


Badly.
It went badly.
Not just for them, really. Things went badly for basically everyone, except for the evil cult and their various lackeys, puppets, and co-conspirators. It went really, really well for them.


And as for the people of Lenster, fighting their own battles at home while their prince goes off to fight some other war...


It also goes badly.


Really, really, badly.



Poor guy. Fin was a playable character for both halves of 4, the only person to be so. That's because when things went south, he mostly stayed behind and played babysitter. When put in perspective, he’s a relatively lucky guy. What with all the living he’s doing, and so on.


...Poor kid.


Leaf, too, was playable in 4, as a child character. He was...better than he is here, to be honest.


Well, let's get to it. We've apparently got a fallen kingdom to avenge, tyranny to tackle, all that other stuff.


We start with a pan-over of our setting, helpfully labeled the Thracian Peninsula...Or, at least, the north-most bits of it.
I think we are supposed to be seeing dialogue boxes that are, for some reason, not working right for me right here. Good thing I have a script with me.

It snaps back into place after a text box or two of mis-placed text, I'll just fill in until then.

”After escaping with his life from the collapsing Lenster Castle, Leaf...”


Ah, there we go. Much better, much better. We're back on track.


...That's ...A little deceiving. Specifically, Leaf has no control over anything. I kind of wonder if maybe something happened to that sentence, like maybe someone *else* defeated Thracian forces and controlled Northern Thracia. Maybe the Granbell Empire, though I am pretty sure they are buddies with Thracia. But that would make sense.
Because, in fact...

"Shaking off pursuits from the eastern Granbell Empire, Leaf fled to various cities..."
He's still being chased!



I'm sure these places won't be important later. It's nice to get a sense of the motion of things; I find Jugdral to be one of the more fleshed-out and complex settings, which means it can get a bit overwhelming to try and remember who's who, what's where, who's related to who, and so on.




This, by the way, is the stuff that was popping up for the first few text boxes. *shrug* Emulator issues.

”And she led a band of fighters to protect the neighboring villages from bandits.”

In most Fire Emblem games, you'd figure yup, that's where you start. Protecting villages from bandits, the pre-plot pasttime of FE heroes everywhere.
In Thracia 776? It's a little different.

” Eyvel gave Leaf and his comrades a warm welcome, Leaf gradually grew up among other youths who resided in Fiana.”
Well, good. Because it sounds like so far, things were pretty rough for the poor kid.

”And now, in the Gran year 776...”
We begin our story.




Yeah...I don't think we're going to be dealing with bandits...

"You fool! We don't have much time! The prince is here."
Captain Beard here is going to show up again, so he gets a font color.


...Oh, my. This isn't good. Well, guess it's time to find a new place to hide out. Fiana, it was fun knowing you for all of 3 minutes!

"He apparently left with the Fiana Militia to go save some village from a pirate attack."
Now, see, normally, *this* topic would be chapter one, or some sort of prologue, and *this* would be chapter 2 or maybe 4 or some such.
Thracia is a strange and backwards land.

"Fiana militia? What is that?"
I think it's fairly self-explanatory.

"This village was originally the headquarters of a large group of brigands. A little over a decade ago, a traveling mercenary named Eyvel cleared out the bandits and took over the village. She then established a militia to protect the nearby villages from bandit attacks. Apparently she's quite skilled with her sword..."
This sounds...Jeigan-ish.


"We have already taken Eyvel's daughter hostage.
We've also captured the daughter of Fin, the knight defending the prince."
Well. That's not good.

"They'll have no choice but to give in to us now."
...If we did that, though, it'd be a really short game!



And with this, he has sentenced his underling to being to being the first boss of the game.
And that's why I didn't give him his own font color.
"Yes, my lord. Someone! Bring the girls here!"


A couple of soldiers come in from offscreen...

This is why you should never leave your squishies at home.


Hi, "Hmph...". A pleasure to meet you.

"Ha, stoutness is cute as well. And the other one..."


That she is! Nanna's mom was a playable character in the first half of 4, which means that Nanna herself was a playable character in 4... Though, there, her father didn't have to be Fin. He was just the most canonical option, since Nanna ends up growing up with Leaf regardless.


You tell 'em, Nanna!
Or, well, not tell them. You know. As applicable.

"Well, I've got some pleasant surprised to take home with me."


Well, I guess we know where our next major destination is. After that beard!


He scoops up the girls, in typical cutscene-style gross violation of the rules, and casual walks off, leaving Wiseman to get into boss position.


...And all his dudes.
That is a lot of dudes for a first map... And not a single one of them particularly vulnerable to Leaf's sword-wielding ways. Yup.

But enough about bad guys!

We pan over to the rest of the map and see our heroes!






Our militiaman here sneaks up to the wall and quickly darts out and runs back to make his report.
"Lady Eyvel, the village is filled with Imperial troops. It looks like they attacked while we were gone..."


I need to add that I'm not sure where the limits of the forum's rule against swearing are, and I'd rather not risk it. Since this is a fan translation, the language isn't as clean as a proper localization, what with its censorship and all.
As a result, I've had to improvise. The black bars and their contents are mine, replacing whatever the character was swearing. I'm just going to put them over most profanity, even stuff I think would be OK, just to be both on the safe side and consistent, with few exceptions. Most of them come courtesy of FE9 and 10's Marcia or other Fire Emblems, and I'll continue consulting her where I can. I hope it's not too intrusive; I can think of other methods if need be.

"Why're you so calm, Havan!? Our village is being attacked!"
"No, Havan is right. Calm yourself, Othin."


Yup. Looks like it's time to pack up, grab Nanna from Manster, and find a new hidey-hole. If you ask me, Leaf should see if there's some nice tropical island somewhere he can live on.

Eyvel has the right idea. Who needs all this kingdom-restoring stuff?


Yeah, it's cool, man. It's cool.... I mean, except for that stuff that happened before the map started.

Well...I guess Leaf wouldn't be our hero if he just kept running away, would he?

"Fin, what about you? Are you going to allow Lord Leaf to get himself in danger?"

"Lord Leaf is already 15 years old. He is old enough to make his own decisions."

So it looks like we're going in for a fight! Enough running!

"Fine, if Fin says so, it's all right with me."
In other words, it's some foster-parent version of "If your father says it's ok." Which kind of defeats the point of letting Leaf make his own calls...
But may be for the best.


Othin, you are alright by me. This is so alright that I am pretty sure it is cool to leave this line as it is.
I am sort of flip-flopping on this a bit, but...Well... If I feel it is silly to censor it, and the line's not particularly sweary, I'll leave it as-is. If it's just hiking up the swear-count for no good reason, I will summon my inner Marcia.


"Yes. But be careful."


Understood!
She is actually trying to introduce us to a mechanic lamentably unique to Thracia 776: Capturing! Or, as this patch calls the command, 'catching.'
I'll talk about it when we reach gameplay.


We are a militia of compassion.
Or maybe just deeply pragmatic.

"Don't you trust me, Lady Eyvel?"

I notice that is not an answer.

Well, you heard the lady! Let's begin!...Well, or not. I’m going to finish a few things here and cut this chapter into pieces; my text-file is pretty big. So…

Let's look at our units. We'll start with Othin!


Pardon the menu gibberish.
Ok, so, things to note...

Well, for one, let's explain stats. If you're familiar with Fire Emblem, only Build and Magic are any different (and Build is not really any different from a game where Build/Constitution has anything to do with weapon weights). I'll put them all in a spoiler box, just in case you hate people talking about numbers. So do I.

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Each units has their own stats, which have a chance (that varies from stat to stat and unit to unit) on level-up.

"Str" is, well, strength. It's the attack stat of a physical-based weapon, like what most non-mages use most of the time. In other words, it's really important for dudes like our buddy Othin here. Strength is added to the Might of weapons to determine a unit's Attack stat. That's the number labelled "Swa" in the upper right there. Othin's attack with an iron axe is 15.

"Mgc" is Magic, and is the attack stat of magic weapons, most commonly tomes, but there are some others. It also affects damage healed by staves, their range, and so on. In Thracia 776, Magic is also Resistance. That is, it's the stat you subtract from someone's magic-based attack to see how much damage they'll do. I have no idea why they're the same thing, but it means taking out a mage with a mage is dumb.

"Skl" is Skill. it affects accuracy, some skill activation, and...That may be it, actually.

"Spd" being Speed and all... And it's super-important. Everyone wants speed and lots of it. It factors into evasion, and is the defining factor of attack speed. Attack Speed could be explained later, but I'll do it now.
It's basically what determines if you get to hit the enemy twice in a round of combat. Having a high attack speed effectively doubles your damage. Do Want. As for how attack speed is calculated...
Well, every weapon has a weight. Every character has build. If the weapon is heavier than the character's build, they take penalties to attack speed. Speed - (Weapon Weight - Build) = Attack Speed. If your attack Speed is 4 or more points above the enemy's, you attack twice, or "Double." But the same is true for an enemy attacking you.

Ergo, speed is super-valuable. Magic may not be all that great for everyone. Strength isn't useful unless you've got a weapon. But speed? Everyone, everyone, wants speed.

"Luk" is... Luck. It does a little bit of everything, but I tend to forget about it. It does some stuff with skills, it helps your critical chances, it helps your accuracy and evasion...Useful, and yet often rarely noticable for me.

"Def," being Defense, means it does...well, defensive stuff. You take the attacker's total attack (again, Weapon's Might + Str) and subtract the defender's defense, and that's how much damage the attack (assuming it hits) will deal.
Later Fire Emblem games will show you the results of all this math for you, but Thracia 776 will not, which is why I'm explaining it. It will show you the numbers you need to do math with – attack, defense, etc. With Fire Emblem, you can do a prediction of basically any match-up in your head, just by looking at the two units involved. The actual fight has RNG elements in terms of critical hits, and if something hits or misses, but you'll be able to assess your risks relatively cleanly this way. There are...A few extra details, but we'll get into those later.

BLD for build, is, like I said, what determines if a particular weapon gives you attack speed bonuses. But it also determines if one character can rescue/help or capture another. Unlike the games with Build released in America...
Build has a growth rate! It's not very high, but it exists! It is like a Christmas Miracle!

You got all that? No? Well, we'll see it in action soon enough. Looking at our buddy Othin, he's reasonably strong, skilled, and nice and fast, though maybe not too very tough. He's got a good enough build for that axe he's carrying, which means he's got all 9 of that speed to use against enemies. There isn't a unit on the map he can't double.


On his second page, we have other sorts of details...Most of this is rather incomprehensible, but most of it's not very useful anyway. "Weapon Level" determines what sort of weapons a unit can use; if he has a rank in something, it'll go up over time. If he doesn't, then it won't, and he can't use them. So he's got only axes for now, and only basic axes, at that.
The only other thing to really note is that icon under "Skill." In this game, like Fire Emblems 9 and 10, each unit has their own personal skills. Skills have a semi-random (range determined by stats) chance of activating in a fight; not really reliable, but handy at times.


Wrath...Wrath is pretty nice. That actually activates always, so basically, if Othin's getting attacked, the enemy is in for some *hurt*. It's great, and takes Othin from “solid unit” to “awesome unit.”

Moving on to Havan, our other low-level axer...
He's a bit higher level, and a bit stronger and slower, but also a bit tougher. He, too, is build-y enough to not have to worry about his axe, so he can pretty much double everything here, too.


He's slightly better with his axes, and he also comes with a skill.
That's Ambush, and it allows him to always attack first, regardless of whether or not he or the enemy initiates the attack. It's also pretty nice, and our boys here are solid fellas.

Moving on...

Our loyal knight, Fin. He's higher level than Leaf, Othin, and Havan, but not ridiculously so. Fin is a mounted unit, so he's got the edge up in move. He's pretty fast, particularly given Thracia 776's low stat-caps (20. Yes, even for promoted units). Finn's a good buffer between our inexperienced units and out too-experienced units, and his horse makes him good for rescuing people...Or capturing enemies.

He's got a special weapon, so let's have a look-see...
The Brave Lance. Like in any Fire Emblem, A Brave weapon allows you to automatically double...And if you were doubling already, you hit the enemy 4 times. Its might isn't bad either, and it gives Fin a boost to Luck.

The Iron Sword in his inventory is greyed out because he can only use it when he dismounts. Yeah, that's a thing, but I'm already talking way too much about these guys and mechanics. We’ll talk about dismounting when we need Fin to do it.


What is that 0 below move (that 8)? We'll deal with it later. It's not important now.
Anyway, Fin's got something new! He's got a leadership star! Leadership stars are a way of representing a character's ability to lead and command, and all that jazz. It offers the whole side a 3% boost to Accuracy and Evasion, and it's a nice world when we're in a space where we've got the only ones on the map.
Don't get used to it.

Fin's skill is "Prayer," which, when it activates (which involves a luck-based chance), a lethal attack made on the character will miss. It's...Not that useful, unless you're not being cautious enough. You shouldn't rely on it.


Ah, Eyvel... Looks nice, right? Well....About that... If you were surprised Fin wasn't a promoted unit...Here's what you were waiting for. Our early-game crutch who won't really turn out to be worth the effort.
Eyvel is, anyway, too high-level to really use right now. She's level 12 in her second class, while everyone else so far is in their first class (Fire Emblem level-counter resets when you promote from one tier to the next). So she's actually level 32-ish, give or take. This means she gains basically no EXP, and her growths make it not really worth giving her any, anyway.
For those new to Fire Emblem, this is what the term "Jeigan" means.

Her Fire Sword is a magic-based weapon, and can strike from a range of one or two, giving her a ranged option. It also gives her +5 magic when equipped, which helps a lot. We'll probably be taking it from her at some point.
Anyway, she does have a use in terms of handling enemies too tough for the rest of our units...And she brings a leadership star to the party!


She also brings another new mechanic that's not been seen in an American-released game, the movement star! That's what those two stars are, and each of them represents a 5% chance that when I end her turn, she'll be able to go again! Unlikely, but nifty as lacey cookies!

I'll talk about her skill in a second; I want to save something for Leaf.
Because I have, in fact, been saving our Lord and Protagonist for last. Introducing...


Leaf! Our hero! Our man!
...
If you didn't notice, his stats are pretty bad, the worst on our team. His build is low enough he can't even swing an iron sword without penalty. It's a gloomy, gloomy world when you're Leaf.
His Light Sword, which only he can use, is pretty nifty, though. It's a ranged magic attack, like the fire, but it can also be used to heal him up, like an item. It's a nice thing to have around if you don't burn through the uses.


Well, he's got a movement star at least...That's something, right? Right?

Anyway, his (and Eyvel's) skill is Double or Continue or whatever. For those who have played Fire Emblems 9 and/or 10, it's Adept, basically. It has an attack speed % chance of letting you get in an additional hit. It's nice, but with Leaf's attack speed taking penalties from even a basic sword...
It's nothing to write home about.

But, well, sending him off to a nice tropical island just isn't an option. He's decided it's time to be a man, and we're going with him.
Next time! We’ll despair about my screencapping problems, get level-ups, have fun stripping dudes. …Oh, and actually play the game. It shouldn’t be long!
I'll also post growth rates for our units at the end of the chapter. Just easier to do it all at once.

[Illven]

You should do a nuzlocke inspired run of this game. What could go wrong

[Deme]

Nah, like I said: I'm going completionist, and I'm resetting until everyone (except maybe one person) makes it out alive. That's how I play Fire Emblem.

....Besides...Accepting death and failure might actually make this game easier.

[Illven]

Really, would it be that much easier?

[Deme]

...Mmmmaybe. Because while you could lose useful tools -- and the game gives you less than a modern game would, that's true -- you still only have to try and do each map once (or more, if Leaf or such dies.) And you don't need to do it near-flawlessly to get out of it, though it'd be better if you did.

To get out without losing anyone? To get out while getting everything you can? That takes doing over and over, thinking over and over, trying to get the right combination of luck and strategy. Sure, you have more and better tools to deal with things at the end, but you've got a harder road ahead of you. Accepting death is the easy way out.
...That's how I feel when I play things that way. "This would be so much easier if I just accepted some losses."

Anyway, I want to give the readers the biggest pool of people to vote to deploy and so forth.

[Perkinz]

Well Deme, as much as I applaud your bravery in attempting from what I understand to be widely considered the most unforgiving game in the FE series, I feel I must provide this pre-emptively.

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Seriously though, I'm a fan of the Fire Emblem series, and this will be an interesting LP to keep tabs on. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to complete this game with a minimum of casualties. Failure is not an option. Good luck.

[Deme]

I'll take your supplies with a firm heart, and my thanks.
*overdramatic hand on forehead swoon*
I...I accepted this fate the moment I made my post.

[Acanous]

So, you like unforgiving Fire Emblem games and an audience, hmm?

Could I interest you in applying for Close Horizons? It's a forum-based FE game here on Giantitp, and you would probably get in around the same time this LP finishes :3

[Perkinz]

I'll take your supplies with a firm heart, and my thanks.
*overdramatic hand on forehead swoon*
I...I accepted this fate the moment I made my post.

For some reason I'm now thinking of Bane from Dark Knight Rises.

Ah, I was wondering which would break first. Your spirit... or your computer!

[dgnslyr]

Oh boy, this is gonna be an interesting ride. I can't think of any other Fire Emblem game where the devs hate you anywhere near this much, Lunatic modes notwithstanding. Thracia's an interesting game, because while it's the first "modern" Fire Emblem in some senses, there are a lot of mechanics exclusive to it that make it stand out. Best of luck! God knows you'll need it...

[The-Mage-King]

Don't forget: Reinforcements. Reinforcements EVERYWHERE.

[Deme]

So, you like unforgiving Fire Emblem games and an audience, hmm?

Could I interest you in applying for Close Horizons? It's a forum-based FE game here on Giantitp, and you would probably get in around the same time this LP finishes :3

I'll consider it.

For some reason I'm now thinking of Bane from Dark Knight Rises.

Well, the translation patch does funny things sometimes. Does that count?

Oh boy, this is gonna be an interesting ride. I can't think of any other Fire Emblem game where the devs hate you anywhere near this much, Lunatic modes notwithstanding. Thracia's an interesting game, because while it's the first "modern" Fire Emblem in some senses, there are a lot of mechanics exclusive to it that make it stand out. Best of luck! God knows you'll need it...

I'm not sure that it's the first "modern" Fire Emblem. I'm not sure it's the last "old-school" Fire Emblem, either. It's an odd, transitional creature, the first of a set of modern Fire Emblems that didn't happen because Sword of Seals became the foundation for modern Fire Emblem in my book.

Don't forget: Reinforcements. Reinforcements EVERYWHERE.

Eeyup. Luckily, not this time. Ah, speaking of this time... There's another post coming down the wire -- I had to split it up because it got too long to fit replies in.

[Deme]

Chapter 1, Part 2: And Now, Actual Gameplay!

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LET'S GO! This map, like any first map, is a nice, easy one to let you mess around.

I'm going to hide another primer in behind a spoiler. If you don't understand how Fire Emblem gameplay works, but would like to understand and don't want to piece it together yourself, here you go. If not, feel free to skip.

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If you haven't played a Fire Emblem before, the player and the AI take turns moving their units around a grid, and then each unit taking whatever action they can/want to, in turns called phases. I move all of my blue units, the AI moves all of the red units and then all of the green units (The priority may be green/red, who sits down and pays close attention to that?) Different terrain has different penalties and bonuses, and effect movement differently. Units can move in whatever order I deem fit, though I think enemy units always go in order of speed.

To start with, we're sending Othin down to fight that guy outside of town and go to that house. It's got a present for him.
I'm just showing you what his movement range looks like; orange are squares he can attack, but not physically walk to.


I move Leaf up, getting him into position to form a line and wait for that soldier to come to us, when...

His movement star kicks in. First round and everything! I was so surprised, I forgot to get a screenshot of it. If I don't, it looks like a little musical note appearing above the character's head.
But, as you can see, he's moved and he's ready to go again!

Trying to decide what to do with this, I poke my heads around the enemies' stats, check their movement ranges...The usual stuff. I decided it would be too dangerous for Leaf to try a direct attack -- he's pretty frail, and there are all sorts of archers around...


But I do feel bold enough for him to use the light sword to get in a ranged attack. It minimizes his damage and gives him a shot of counter-attacking the archers that are bound to swarm at him in the enemy phase from a square away.


I select my weapon...

And get a screen telling me about the fight. This guy can't attack and he has no defense against the Light Sword's magic-based attack. Leaf's got as good a chance of hitting as Thracia 776 offers, since it doesn't allow for 100% hit chances or 0% hit chances. Just to spite you.

And let me be clear: those are *real* hit chances. Starting with the GBA games, Fire Emblem employed a Roll-twice-and-average-the-two system for its RNG when it came to attacks hitting or not, so any accuracy above 50 was higher than it appeared, and any below was lower than it appeared. This is called "True Hit," and it is your friend for the most part. That's not here for Thracia 776. That 99% odds mean that, out of 100 attacks Leaf might try in this scenario, one of them will miss.
Isn't that lovely?

The stats on this screen are, since the patch busts this bit:
Level
HP (all good here)
Attack
Defense
Accuracy
Critical Hit
Attack Speed

I'm so unused to actually being *shown* attack speed in a Fire Emblem game that I didn't even realize that that was what that last number was. I had to go look it up.
As you can see, the penalties from the Light Sword take away all of Leaf's speed. Fun times, right? Fun times.

Anyway, let's start this battle!




As you can see, the Light Sword gets a nifty magical animation when used at range.
So, Fire Emblem combat normally goes like this: The attacker attacks, the defender -- if he's got a weapon that lets him attack at this range -- counter-attacks. If either of them gets a second attack, this is when the second attack happens. Since the enemy can't counter-attack, and Leaf can't double, this is all that happens:

Our enemy gets hurt, and we get EXP for it!


We send Fin and Havan behind Leaf. Leaf and Fin support, so they both get a boost to accuracy and evasion when within 3 squares of one another. Nice! And Leaf needs all the help he can get from his protector.
Support conversations haven't been invented yet, but sometimes units with a relationship can talk, for bonuses or maybe just because when else would you hear about them? Never, pretty much.

Eyvel follows along, but I don't really care about what she does. She's just going to bring up the rear.

Since our phase doesn't end automatically in this game, I need to go into the menu and tell it to do so. I just wanted to say that.
Menu's accessible via selecting an empty tile.


Let's see what the AI does...


For starters, it attacks Leaf.

And misses! Hoorah!
And Leaf counters with a lovely attack that, by sound-effect usage, may in fact be a critical hit...But a regular one would have taken the guy out, so we just get to bask in Leaf's first kill, and our first kill of the game.


Since Leaf has a ranged weapon, this guy with a javelin doesn't want to attack him and risk a counter. The AI will borderline never risk a counter attack, unless it smells a kill. Like in this situation, this knowledge can be used to force the AI to do something that makes the situation better for you.
For example, because Fin is just tougher than Leaf.

And also because this attack misses. Fin can't counter, but that's just as well...
I'd like to use this guy to show off how how capturing works, and I need him alive for that.

Next up, an archer.

He can't reach Fin, so he'll go for Leaf.

I maybe need to find a good way to handle this whole animation business (if anyone has any good, easy suggestions for things on the ZNES emulator, I'm all ears), but anyway, it hits. Buuuuttt...We equipped Leaf with the Light sword, remember?
So Leaf strikes back and softens him up for next time.


And it's back to our turn! That turned out a lot better than I was expecting, to be honest. I was predicting that it'd be dog-pile on Leaf day! I guess the guys guarding the houses won’t move.

We'll start with Othin again, and have him attack that guy in front of the house.

It's mostly an even-ish match-up...Except for that attack speed. And the accuracy.
...Oh, shoot. I need to talk about the weapon triangle, don't I? Tell you what: if you’ve got Fire Emblem experience, this is another bit you can skip: the Weapon Triangle’s a staple, after all.

Spoiler

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Ok, so, the main set of melee weapon in Fire Emblem operate rock-paper-scissors style. Axes beat lances, lances beat swords, swords beat axes. This is why most Fire Emblems start with bandits: because most lords are sword-users, and training them up against axe-wielders is easier.
Being on the good side gives a small (in Thracia 776, hardly worth noting at all) bonus to attack and accuracy, and being on the bad side gives penalties to the same. So Havan and Othin are really going to be having some fun here.

Anyway...Othin won't take this guy out until the enemy phase (unless he crits now), but he's also pretty much totally safe against this guy, so it's a splendid match-up.


I like his little jumpy animation.
Anyway, as nice as it is that the Manster soldier's attack misses...Othin's second attack also misses. Sadface. I miss you already, True Hit.


Next up, let's show off the Capture mechanic, via the "Catch" option on the menu. This only shows up if the captor's build is higher than the captive's...Or if the captor's on a mount, like a horse. A guy on a horse can attempt to capture any non-mounted unit with a build below 20.
In other words, Fin is good for this sort of thing.

This pulls up a normal attack screen once you select a weapon...Except...This is Fin capturing.

This is Fin attacking normally. Like Eyvel said, we don't want to go too hard on these guys, ergo, penalties.


The battle plays out like a normal one, with Fin getting in an extra hit because of the Brave Lance...
...
Except that, when the captive is reduced to 0 HP in the attempt, his field sprite just sort of goes into Fin's, and we've got him!



Fin's on a horse, so he can move again after performing certain actions, and apparently capturing is one of them.
Just like when you rescue an allied unit in other Fire Emblems, Fin's taking stat penalties for carrying this guy, so we'll not want him as near the main action as usual. I'll shove him in a corner I hope to make clear.


As you can see, he's got a little icon since he's carrying a dude.
There's more to capturing than that, but all the units who could show it off are going to be busy. We'll learn more next round.

I switch Leaf to the iron sword to preserve Light Sword uses...

And have him scratch up the archer a bit. Archers can't counter-attack at melee range, which kills a lot of their utility. Poor guys.
He then pings his movement star.
AGAIN.
Boy, quit using up all my luck on this! Havan's got it covered, you fool!
...Fine.

Leaf gets his second kill of the map. Not bad, kiddo. Not bad.


Since Havan's free, I can show off that stuff about capturing now, rather than later! That's useful, at least.
"Swap" means to take the guy the other unit is carrying: in this case, our enemy javelin-hurler. People who've played other Fire Emblems may remember using a unit to take a rescued unit from a rescuer and put them down in the same turn, freeing everyone up much faster? Same principle, and the strategy works here.


Once Havan has him, we elect to trade. Normally, you'd be trading with Fin, since he's next to you and all...But not here. Here...

You get to plunder the inventory of that guy we caught. The javelin? Ours. The Vulnery (it's FE's staple healing item)? Also Ours.

We take it all. Into Havan's space it goes! This is the reason to capture generics. Free stuff. Capturing non-generics has some other advantages...But that'll wait.

...I then I space out and press the wrong buttons, ending Havan's turn. Darnit!
Oh, well. I'll let someone else get rid of this guy next turn.

Eyvel's too skinny to do it, sadly. To the Enemy Phase!


Back down by the house, Othin takes a hit...
And misses. Both times. Way to show off that skill. Way. to. go.

That's all that happens. Before our turn starts, the camera pans up. Footsteps (well, approximations of footsteps. Roll with me here.) can be heard from off-screen.


Until this archer and a warrior (a promoted class, uses axes) show up.
MORE UNITS!


Eyvel hasn't even needed to do anything yet. It's cool. We're cool.


This unassuming-looking third guy shows up, too.
In fact, that's a great description of him (certain exceptions aside). "Oh, yeah. He's here, too. I guess."


That is, if you don't like "WHY DON'T YOU HAVE SPEED? WHY. WHY. WHY."
You know. Whatever suits you. (Whhhhhhyyyyyyy?)
Sure, he can hurt something...If he can *hit* something. And he can take a hit...But he's almost certain to be taking two from anything but these no-speed goons.

At least they gave him a strong axe that lets him use that build of his from the get-go. That's...that's something, right?

Marty has no skills or other noticable features. 0 speed is noticable enough.


Dagda is our *other* prepromote, and like Eyval, isn't all that viable in the long run. If I need a big-gun, though, I'll call one of them...for now.

He does come with some weapons, though: the hammer is a big heavy axe-type weapon that's effective against armored units. Our boss for this map is an armored unit. You can do the math the game wants you to do.

The hand-axe is an axe that can attack from 1-2 squares, like the Light Sword, but unlike the Light Sword, it's strength-based, not magic-based. Which is good, since axe-users are not exactly kings of magic hill. They are not even pages. They clean the privies.


Dagda's got a movement star and a new skill. That skill is Charge or Duel (Duel in my patch), and it auto-initiates a fresh round of combat if the user's AS and HP are higher than the enemy's.
...OK, I guess. You can't turn it off, though, which makes him useless for softening or bottle-necking...So for what he is, it actually hurts him a bit.


Tanya's not as bad as she looks. Or, maybe she is, but for different reasons. Her stats may be low, but she's got a lot of growing she can do, and a lot of room to do it in. That's good.
But...She's an archer. Like I said, archers can't attack or counter-attack at melee, and a ranged attacker will usually want to hit a melee character instead of her... So she's never going to be getting into fights (that she can win) on the enemy's phase, cutting the amount of time she can be useful in half. The other problems that come with being an archer are pretty simple: think about the weapons we have for our mostly-melee characters. The handaxe. The Light Sword. The javelin. The Fire Sword. Heck, we'll even be getting another ranged axe.
See what I'm saying? If you passed items around, every unit in our army right now has a ranged option.
Tanya? Tanya does not have a melee option. Nor will she ever. So, in exchange for never being able to get hits in off-turn...She gets to be less versatile than our other units, too, and they can all do the job that's meant to be hers.

I feel really sad about this, but a good archer character will pretty much be good in spite of their class, not with or because of it. Intelligent Systems, do something about this.
Also, sad to say it, but Tanya has nothing else to help her out right now. She supports Othin. That's something, I suppose.

Meanwhile...
Another round of combat, another round of Othin missing this dude and then him hitting us and then us hitting him. This guy is kind of annoying.
Future Me Edit: He's so annoying, I missed screenshotting it. Well, it happened.


I send Dagda over to take the former javelin guy from Havan, so I can finish up my explanation of capturing.

And that's Freeing. When you free a captured enemy...

His sprite runs onto the map, and then fades away. Presumably, he runs off to home, away from war. For gameplay purposes, he's no longer on our plate. We don't ever have to think about him again. In narrative purposes, he's presumably alive somewhere. Everybody wins, except for, in this instance, Manster. But who cares about them?
Catching a guy gives you the same EXP as killing him, so if you can manage to catch someone, it's a good idea to do so.


Anyway, let's let Havan see some action.

He misses on the second hit. I miss True Hit. I miss True Hit so bad. Anyway, I've got a couple of options to consider for what to do next. Leaf could take the guy out, or Fin could get the javalin and take him out...
But I'm not going to do either of those. It's a little slower, but Havan's perfectly safe, and can catch or kill him next turn without much trouble (or let Fin catch him), and he needs to get some EXP.


Anyway, I put Leaf here, since he couldn't survive both available soldiers attaching him (I think the ones guarding houses won't move). He needs a vulnery, but we don't have one that's not going to make him archer-bait to get (Havan's got one from the Javelin-guy), and I don't want to use the light sword just willy-nilly. Next round. Next round.


Some poor unfortunate soul decides it'd be a good idea to attack Fin.

He's mistaken.

The other guy I suspected would move, as predicted, goes for Leaf.

Leaf takes his blows...

Dishes a little back...

And is two EXP from a level. Drat.

Meanwhile...We finally get to resolve that situation at the house! Hoorah!

Ow. This would be the place I retreat...

Except Othin has that wonderful Wrath skill and crits this fool, dashing through him with a pleasant 'hitting for massive damage' sound. The guy fades into death behind him.

It's our turn again.

Leaf borrows out only Vulnery from Havan...
And I totally goof on my button presses again, keeping him from using it. Something about the Trade button does that to me. I had gone to see if maybe Leaf couldn't take a guy out and still be OK, but when I decided nope, I ended up cancelling out of the option to do things after trading. Oops.



Well, let's see about handling the situation so my mistake doesn't become fatal.

It looks to be near-impossible to capture both of our attackers without getting Dagda involved. Tanya would kill, but not wound like I need her to -- weight penalties or no, her speed is very nice at this point. Havan wouldn't be able to capture either of those guys. I only have one Fin.


I let Havan get the kill on the soldier. I'm pretty sure when I looked, trying to capture him would lower his AS to the point where the double I'd need to happen wouldn't. I think. Unless I just goofed *and* made a big deal of it.
If so, well, that's a preview of my troubles. It's OK now, but sooner or later, it will get me killed.


Fin captures our archer-guard buddy, since he has a Vulnery and the soldier did not, and retreats to a corner to be relieved. Probably by Marty.


We relieve him of his possessions...

And tell him that he's free to run, run away and never return.
And I did it without goofing up! I'm so proud of me!


And now we get to visit that house! Houses and/or villages give you hints, characters, and/or items when you visit them, though some of them require a certain character. This one doesn't.




You know, in most other games? I would scoff. But not here. Hoorah! That's 3!
"It's all right, it's nothing compared to what Lady Eyvel has done for us..."


...Yeah, the patch has issues with official messages like this. But we got a Vulnery!


I have Tanya take the javelin from Havan so she can give it to Fin.

Anyway, remember that house Othin's been fighting in front of for the entire map? Let's have him, and him specifically, go inside.


I love it when, in a character's hometown in a Fire Emblem, the people in the houses are sometimes relatives or friends or something, and know them. It makes me smile.

"Ha, haven't fixed that foul mouth of yours, have you, kid?"
No. It’s making me add black bars to things!




Somewhere, across space, time, and who-knows-what-else, Vaike's ears are burning. And you thought that was a unique character trait, didn't you?

"Hmph. Well, what're you waiting for? Go and help Lady Eyvel!"
"Yeah, I'm going!"


Sweeet! That conversation only occurs if you visit that house with Othin, and the Pugi axe is a weapon only for Othin.


Look at that. Look at it. Isn't it lovely?
For reference, that's more accurate and stronger than an iron axe (it's the most accurate axe in the game, actually), has the range of a hand axe, and has the critical chance of a killer axe.
It is so radical. Othin's going to tear through stuff.

...Once he catches up to the group, I mean.

The enemy turn passes without incident, so we get him started on that.


This guy...Now, this guy's strong enough that Tanya will weaken him instead of killing him. I like this.


So we let her att'em.

And send Havan to catch him. I'd like to make sure Fin's Brave Lance lasts as long as it can, hence grabbing the weapon...And, if not, I'd like to sell the short-whatever or *something*.


Leaf finally gets his Vulnery.

Meanwhile, while we're in the area...

Eyvel can talk to Dagda.

"What business does the Empire have all the way out here? That kid...?"
He's onto us. Well, Leaf.

"Yes, that boy is actually the heir to the now demised kingdom of Lenster."


Nothing like basic, single-minded hate to make you forgive deceit!
Actually, does this make him our version of FF7's Barret? Large, fatherly guy, determined to act against the ruling force due to a single-minded hate that goes for a "oh, who cares? We're fighting Shinra, that's all that counts" attitude?
If so, I wish he had some sort of axe-arm. That'd be grand. I'd use him if he did.

We don't get anything from that. I just like it.
...This is also where I realize I forgot about giving Fin his javelin, so I send him up to grab it. I maybe need a better attention span for this game. Commentating while playing makes you pretty forgetful.


Marty grabs the soldier off of Havan, takes his stuff, and lets him go. Fun times.


And I send Havan ahead to take care of the next guy...

And he gets a crit at the end of the day!


...You're mocking me by bringing me so close to level-ups without gaining levels, aren't you, Fire Emblem?

I send Tanya to the recently-cleared house.

This is the plan, yes…Though, actually, you’re the first person to tell a playable unit that they’ve been formally kidnapped.
"Oh, take this Magic Ring. Remember, just holding it is pointless. You have to use it to take advantage of its power."

Ooh, a life ring! All of the stat-up items are rings in this game. A life ring increases a unit's max HP by 7.
We'll hold onto it for now, and I'll let you vote who to use it on later.

In the meanwhile... let's have Dagda show off some stuff!

This place is not a place we can visit, but instead a shop.
And here we can get into why capturing is so important.

We're broke. We're a tiny local militia, not a real army. We’re just some people living in a dirt-poor town and some former bandits living in the mountains near a dirt-poor town. Our prince doesn't have a kingdom at his back, just a name and some minor holy blood. We're outnumbered, and many of our fighters are untrained or already past their prime...Or just not very good.
Welcome to Leaf's life. Welcome to Thracia 776.


Instead, we'll back out of the shop and have Dagda get the bow we got from Marty. It'll fetch us some money next turn. That's the balancing act we've got to pull -- make some cash, but also have weapons for tommorow.


At the start of the enemy phase, a guy charges at Leaf.

He doubles someone for the first time!
And gets the first level up of our playthrough!


I know it looks empty, but it's actually not. Thracia 776 just has the +1s pop up one at a time, then vanish. I'll bold what we got total.
+1 Str, +1 Skl

...Well, it's got Strength. I've gotten worse levels in this game; my practice of this map had him get nothing but HP for his first level-up.


The archer behind him makes for Leaf as well.

This is getting too close for comfort!


Havan can catch this guy...And so he shall.

And get himself a shiny new level!
+1 HP, +1 Str, +1 Def
All nice things! I mean, it's not stunning...But, really, it's not worth complaining about.


Leaf can even double this guy. Make it so, Leafy-boy!

…And that is the story of how I forgot to make sure Leaf could kill the guy as well as double him.
FIN! HELP! (I rather wish Tanya could help. I bet she'd like the kill. Alas, she cannot reach him.)




It took an extra javelin use, but we got it done!
Once again, I let Marty take and free the captive from Havan, now with a lighter load...


And have Dagda take his short ...lance, I guess? Spear? You can't throw it, so... What... Oh, nevermind. The one that still has full uses is for Fin, but we don't need two right now.

So we make a few sales, working on filling out empty, empty pockets.
With 785G in our coffers, I pat myself on the back for navigating that shop without disaster. It's like shopping in an specific-foreign-cuisine grocery, where no one speaks English very well or at all, so you just sort of have to guess.

...So....You know that house right below Leaf?
You know that guy there has a javelin?

I didn't.




Reset Counter: 1

This post is running long -- I've already had to cut things out of it. Next time, we load up a save state, finish up the chapter, post some growth rates. Hopefully.

By the way, I was serious about encouraging you to bet on how high the Reset Counter will go. I may even think up some sort of reward for guessing closest without going over; Thracia 776 strikes me as lending itself well to that sort of thing.

[Illven]

Can you kill enemies after capturing and stripping them of weapons for double xp?

Also how many chapters are in this game?

[Deme]

You cannot, because once you capture an enemy, it's defeated. It's HP is reduced to 0, after all. It doesn't get more HP just because you grabbed it.

There is a way to get double EXP, if we wanted to do that: Elite mode!

Counting sidequests and the final chapter, there are 33 chapters, only 24 of which are numbered. However, there is a small branching path at one point in the game, so we'll be showing off 35 chapters if I don't quit part of the way or skip side-chapters or something, which are things I'd rather not do.
...I think.
I am bad at counting, since I have a tendency to lose my place when looking at the thing I'm counting.

[Illven]

You cannot, because once you capture an enemy, it's defeated. It's HP is reduced to 0, after all. It doesn't get more HP just because you grabbed it.

There is a way to get double EXP, if we wanted to do that: Elite mode!

Counting sidequests and the final chapter, there are 33 chapters, only 24 of which are numbered. However, there is a small branching path at one point in the game, so we'll be showing off 35 chapters if I don't quit part of the way or skip side-chapters or something, which are things I'd rather not do.
...I think.
I am bad at counting, since I have a tendency to lose my place when looking at the thing I'm counting.

And you can't engage an enemy with 0 hp?

Is Elite mode a skill?

I'm going to guess. 62 resets.

65 if you show off the side chapters.

[Geno9999]

My money's on it being about 100 resets. I mean, a reset right off the bat is a very bad ill omen for this game.

[Deme]

And you can't engage an enemy with 0 hp?

Is Elite mode a skill?

I'm going to guess. 62 resets.

65 if you show off the side chapters.

I don't actually know what would happen if, say, you hacked in a unit with 0 HP, but in normal gameplay, no, of course not. They just flicker out of existence when they hit 0. And like I said during the chapter, when you free a captured unit, their sprite runs out onto the map to flicker and fade from existence as if you killed them normally. You can't act during that time, which is basically just a moment of animation. When you free them, they are out of your hair for good, sure as if you'd killed them.

The only payoff to capturing a generic unit in exchange for the difficulty in capturing, besides that warm fuzzy feeling, is that you get to take their stuff. Which makes it pretty worthwhile to do, since there's no vendor trash in this game. Capturing a non-generic enemy...This is another story. I think the earliest opportunity to talk about it is 2x, so we'll do that then. I find the use of the mechanic to do that job really, really neat, and is one of the reasons I love Capturing with all my heart.

Elite Mode is a game-mode accessed via a series of button-presses when you're choosing to make a new file. Elite, however, is a skill that grants double EXP gain -- think like Paragon in FE 9 and 10. Elite Mode treats all characters as having Elite, and character with Elite as having double elite.

[Illven]

I don't actually know what would happen if, say, you hacked in a unit with 0 HP, but in normal gameplay, no, of course not. They just flicker out of existence when they hit 0. And like I said during the chapter, when you free a captured unit, their sprite runs out onto the map to flicker and fade from existence as if you killed them normally. You can't act during that time, which is basically just a moment of animation. When you free them, they are out of your hair for good, sure as if you'd killed them.

The only payoff to capturing a generic unit in exchange for the difficulty in capturing, besides that warm fuzzy feeling, is that you get to take their stuff. Which makes it pretty worthwhile to do, since there's no vendor trash in this game. Capturing a non-generic enemy...This is another story. I think the earliest opportunity to talk about it is 2x, so we'll do that then. I find the use of the mechanic to do that job really, really neat, and is one of the reasons I love Capturing with all my heart.

Elite Mode is a game-mode accessed via a series of button-presses when you're choosing to make a new file. Elite, however, is a skill that grants double EXP gain -- think like Paragon in FE 9 and 10. Elite Mode treats all characters as having Elite, and character with Elite as having double elite.

Ah, I thought they had to actually move to the end of the map. Sorry.

[Deme]

Nope. And it's totally OK! Asking questions helps make the game clearer, which makes the LP clearer!

[Deme]

Chapter 1, Part 3: Let's Try that Again, Shall We?

Spoiler

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Conveniently, my last save-state was right before Havan's level-up. It went the same, so it appears the RNG generates a list of numbers to use at the start of the chapter, the way the GBA RNG does. Or something like that – save-stating for better numbers isn’t viable without figuring out manipulation tricks, anyway.

Anyway, this time, instead of being an idiot...

I equip Leaf with the Light Sword (which, due to bad menu translation, takes me way longer than it needs to, to make sure I’m picking the right option) and heal up.


This time, the archer gets a chance to attack Havan...And misses.


Round two, Javelin-guy. Round two.
He misses.

Leaf doesn't.



I let Tanya play with the other archer; had she hit a second time, she'd have gotten her first kill. Quite sad, really.

So instead I like Havan capture him. I love more money.
I do the usual swap-trade-release with Marty, and create a trade chain so Dagda can sell off the bow.


I give the last of Leaf's vulnery set to Fin so Fin can give it to Othin so Othin can have some fun next round, when he catches up.
I want my healer soon...

...So, remember that javelin guy?

It turns out he *will* move from the entrance to the house.
Luckily, it wasn't as fatal as his last surprise. But what does he have against Leaf?


It looks like Othin can catch him...So that's just what we'll do. It’s a risk, but I’m willing to take it.
And the first attack misses. Something sinks in the pit of my stomach. Darnit, I should have healed!
And our Javelin friend fails his counter-attack. Yippee! And then...

So, it all worked out...Just...slightly differently than I had in-mind.

And LEVEL UP!
+HP, +Skl, + Def, +Bld
These levels just keep getting more numbers! Also, the build is nice. Some axes get kind of heavy.


I send Marty and Havan down to help with the last guys and Leaf to visit the house.


You're telling me!
"We have no choice but to capture soldiers and grab their weapons."
This is where the game tells you the *pragmatic* reasons to catch people, since Eyvel is mainly talking morals.
"See, I took this from an unsuspecting Imperial soldier while he was sleeping. Go ahead, take it. If you don't need it, you could sell it at a shop for a decent sum."

Ooh, an iron sword!
I'll hold onto it for the time being. There's a shop next map, too. I can sell it then if I want.

I have Dagda take the soldier and his javelin from Othin, and pass the Javelin, sans soldier, to Eyvel for sale.


On the enemy phase, one of the two guys runs up with a Javelin to hit Marty...

But it misses. No damage was had that day.


In retaliation, I send Tanya...

But her first attack misses, and that damage isn't pretty. Looks like it's time to clean up hard.

I'd spare your life, Mr. Soldier... But you messed with Tanya (also, your HP is too high.)


Anyway, Tanya and Othin can talk. So while I build a wall around her, let's do that.


What a gentleman. Also, make your words bigger. I wanted to fit a “blazes” in there or something.

"Well, we're not so desperate as to ask for help from a kid. Now off you go."

"Who're you calling a kid?! You're the kid!"
I wonder what their support chain would be like in a GBA game...



Sell, Eyvel! Sell like the wind!


Next round, Tanya goes to attack the last house-tender...

So her support-buddy Othin can finish him.


...I have no idea what that is trying to tell me, but a quick menu check reveals it means Othin got a rank in axes! He can now use steel axes, but the extra damage doesn’t really balance the extra weight. Yet.

Anyway, this last house is Havan's.

Yes, yes he could. It doesn't even matter what 'this' is, he could use it.
"It's a nice axe, isn't it? I got it from a strange old lady who came out of a lake in the mountain. But I can't really use it, so take it."

This is probably a reference to an event in 4, where putting a certain character on a certain beach causes a lady to pop up and ask him what sort of axe he dropped into the lake. In exchange for honesty and saying it was just an iron axe, she gives him a brave axe. This is, in turn, a reference to a fable of Aesop.
I guess that lady does this a lot...But anyway, guess what we're getting?


Isn't it lovely?
It works like Fin's brave lance, and can only be gotten by sending Havan here...However, the axe is not exclusive to Havan. We can give it to someone else, if we want.

Now, the map is almost done. We just need to handle the boss.

Dubious as I am about using the Light Sword, it's the best EXP-to-Killing-Him ratio. Not to mention, he has no ranged attack, and he’s got a lot less resistance than he has defense, so Leaf can attack with impunity.

The hostages are on their way to Manster. You're right here. How exactly do you intend that to work there, buddy?
Unless you mean the villagers...But the ones in the houses are safe. And the people you've been hurting sold me out.
In other words...This is a terrible argument.



Let the hurting begin.

Since the boss is on a square we need seize, he heals during his phase. It's annoying, is what it is. We've really got no recourse but to keep burning our sword on it, or give the kill to Eyvel. Both are annoying.

So we'll bat him down...

He'll heal up...



And we repeat until he's down!

...Well...Listen, come back to me once the difficulty level kicks in. Then, then maybe I will talk about regrets.
Right now, I've been at this for over 6 hours, and I'm glad to be done.


Let's call it a day with a level-up.
+HP, +Skl, +Spd
I was hoping it'd keep getting more numbers... But more Speed for Leaf is good, too!


We seize this place and end the map


Oh, yeah. That's going to be disappointing. Why didn’t someone tell him what that lady said?

And now we know Captain Beard's name.


That we do. After all, no use manning up and facing the world without them.

"But Lord Leaf..."
"Eyvel, they were captured in my place."
What, you don't want your daughter rescued? What sort of woman are you?!

"I'm not a child anymore. I don't want to sacrifice anyone anymore for my own safety!"
You tell her, Leaf!

"Very well. We will leave tomorrow morning."


...You have no idea, Eyvel. You have no idea...



Next Time: Back to Fire Emblem form! Replaying through my practice file so I can stay a chapter ahead! Maybe Tanya will get to kill something (No promises)! Strange Units!

Growths and Other Things

Spoiler

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Tell me if you guys want me to show off some official artwork for the characters. It's a little big, so I'll pass...for now. For those unfamiliar, these are the chances that a stat will go up on a level-up.

Leaf

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HP 70%
Str 35%
Mag 10%
Skl 35%
Spd 40%
Lck 40%
Def 25%
Bld 15%
Mov 3%
PCC 2

Yeah, movement has a growth rate. It's unlikely it'll ever happen...But it would be so awesome if it did.
Anyway, Leaf's growths are OK. There are units with worse growth rates, and units with better. His bases aren't good, but he'd normally end up OK enough, particularly if you found some ways to help him out (and there are some)... Except that he's got a plot-based promotion, and, as you can expect, it's later than you really want it to be. So by the time he promotes, he's fallen way behind. It's problematic, since he has to come to every map, even when he's just sitting around, waiting to promote. I've heard people say he's the worst lord in the series, but I've also heard people say he's only the second-worst. We'll talk more about his uses and problems as our

...And, I'm just going to say this. On a certain level... I kind of like Leaf as a character. Bad unit or no, I'm kind of happy to have him as a protagonist, from a narrative perspective. He's hit a soft spot in my heart, and we'll get to talk about that as the game goes on, too.

NEXT!

Othin

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HP 85%
Str 30%
Mag 5%
Skl 25%
Spd 35%
Lck 55%
Def 25%
Bld 25%
Mov 2%
PCC 3

Othin's growths, for example, are worse than Leaf's in a lot of ways, many of them really important. On the other hand, Othin is amazing. Wrath didn't get much play in this chapter, but it really cannot be overstated how wonderful garunteed critical hits on the enemy phase are. There being more enemy units than you have units, most action will occur on the enemy phase. And the Pugi axe doesn't hurt, either. These two factors make him an absolute beast.

Fin

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HP 60%
Str 35%
Mag 5%
Skl 30%
Spd 35%
Lck 45%
Def 30%
Bld 10%
Mov 1%
PCC 1

Fin's a mixed bag. In terms of bases or growths, he's not your best Lance Knight, and not your best person-on-a-pony in general. However, he has a support with Leaf, making them both better fighters, that leadership star isn't bad, and he's got the Brave Lance. That's only for him, and it's really nice, particularly when combined with his good luck growth and his prayer skill, and that's a pretty big point in his favor. He's certainly not a bad unit, and so it's kind of one of those things we'll need to judge by ear.

Havan

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HP 80%
Str 40%
Mag 5%
Skl 20%
Spd 30%
Lck 30%
Def 30%
Bld 30%
Mov 2%
PCC 4

A solid all-rounder, Havan's maybe not as naturally advantaged as Othin, but his build growth will probably let him wield heavier axes better and catch more enemies to line our coffers, and 30% defense growth is VERY solid when only one character has above a 35% defense. No complaints about him, really. Ambush is a nice skill, and the brave axe goes really, really well with it, since he can get in 2 hits before the enemy can attack, even on the enemy phase, and with his strength, there may not be an enemy left to attack after that.

Eyvel

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HP 30%
Str 15%
Mag 10%
Skl 15%
Spd 10%
Lck 25%
Def 5%
Bld 5%
Mov 1%
PCC 1

...See what I said about her growths being bad? Yeah. Her speed and skill have very good bases, but she gets so little EXP in the early game, and gets so little out of gaining levels, that it's just not worth it. She stole the Jeigan-ness out of Fin or something, I don't even know. We will get better people to swing swords for us (I mean, if all else fails, even Leaf is better.)

Dagda

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HP 15%
Str 10%
Mag 5%
Skl 10%
Spd 10%
Lck 30%
Def 10%
Bld 5%
Mov 1%
PCC 1

Dagda's in the same boat, basically. He's maybe good for weakening bosses and capturing guys...In the early areas. A few chapters in, and he'll be quickly out-classed. That's all I've got to say. At least he comes with some nice axes for Havan and Othin to use. Good for him.

Tanya

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HP 60%
Str 35%
Mag 15%
Skl 55%
Spd 70%
Lck 60%
Def 15%
Bld 5%
Mov 2%
PCC 2

If you want a foot-based archer, and you're willing to put in the work for those growths, Tanya is your girl. They're pretty nice growths, too, and she's superior to your other foot-based archers.
...But everything I've already said about archers applies, and that really puts a crimp in Tanya's style. As does the existence of mounted archers, who at least have the mobility brought by having a horse to help them out.
I'll try and get her a little more action, in case you guys like her.

Marty

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HP 90%
Str 15%
Mag 5%
Skl 10%
Spd 15%
Lck 50%
Def 40%
Bld 75%
Mov 2%
PCC 1

...
...
...
... Marty, it doesn't matter how many heavy weapons you can learn to lift without speed penalty IF YOU DON'T HAVE ANY SPEED.
Good gravy, man, you don't even have a good strength growth!
He does have the best defense growth in the entire game. That's something... Except he's going to be getting doubled all the time, and can't evade worth anything. What else can I say? Well, I guess he's good for capturing guys, if you want to find a place for him...

I won't say it's impossible to make something of Marty -- there are ways to help anyone, and luck can be on a unit's side... But you could be using that time, energy, and resources on someone who needs less help, so you can spread all that around. Best to just leave him on the bench when he can't keep up.

[Geno9999]

Hmm... Othin actually doesn't look that bad, and the unique axe really helps. Though we might need to see how Havan turns out before we have to choose between the two.

[Deme]

I think you're understating the value of Wrath here. This is very easy to do. Othin is basically a walking critical-hit factory: any hit he lands on the enemy phase *will be* a critical, no ifs, ands or buts (excepting enemies that have things to block critical hits. There are some things that do that, but we can get them, too.)
Now, I will say that critical hits aren't as great as in the GBA games ; they only multiply the attack by two *before* defense is subtracted to get the damage. However... It's still pretty great to have guaranteed crits all over the place, and it's something you can't really talk about Othin's value without.

That said, Thracia 776 does encourage you to try and keep a good stable of well-trained units, so there may well be room for both Othin and Havan on our general roster, and neither of them is, on average, unworthy of a place there. Our individual results may vary.


...Oh, this reminds me. There's one number that I'll be including with growths in the future, but forgot to do this time. Probably because there were so many words in this chapter as it was, and because this is something the game *never tells you*. I'll put the number itself in the growth spreads, but I'll talk about it here (and show off this number as applied to our guys at the bottom, of the talk, for the ease of readers who have already read the above post).


Warning: This Post Contains Number-Stuff: The Pursuit Critical Coefficient and You!

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In Fire Emblem: Thracia 776, a second attack (via doubling or skill's like Leaf's) is more likely than the first to be a critical. Why is this?
Well, it's because of the Pursuit Critical Coefficient, or PCC. Every unit has one, and what it does is, on the second hit of an attack, it is multiplied by the unit's critical rate to make a new crit rate for that hit. A PCC of 1 doesn't do anything.

So, let's say Havan has a killer axe, which grants a critical hit rate of 30%. He goes to attack an enemy and doubles. His first hit has the normal 30% critical chance (well, minus whatever critical evasion the enemy has)... But his second hit has the PCC. Havan's is a hefty 4, so a killer axe means a 120% chance on that second hit. While that's mitigated by the enemy's critical evasion... Still. This is not something to sneeze at.

The PCC ranges from a useless 1 to a splendid 5.

Let's look at the PCC's of the units we have right now:
Leaf: 2
Fin: 1
Eyvel: 1
Havan: 4
Othin: 3
Dagda: 1
Tanya: 2
Marty: 1

Othin and Havan are also good units because they've got nice PCCs. They're good boys, and a pride to Fiana, I'm sure.

[Illven]

Is it possible to have 0 PCC?

[Deme]

I thought not, but looking the numbers over, yes. A unit can have a PCC of 0... I have no idea what happens then. I guess they can't get crits on their second attack?

[Perkinz]

I thought not, but looking the numbers over, yes. A unit can have a PCC of 0... I have no idea what happens then. I guess they can't get crits on their second attack?

Well, if it's multiplicative, then yeah, they would have a crit chance of zero for any second strike they make.

With regard to the differing crit systems, the 776 system favors lower attack, higher defense. The GBA system favors higher attack, lower defense situations. I have some napkin math to show it, but basically the break even point where the damage evens out is when the attack power is double the defense value. Before then, the 776 system is superior in damage. After, the GBA system pulls ahead.

I'd say keep both of the axe users. Their PCC can't be ignored, and if this game follows trends, there's a point where the weapon triangle ceases to be a concern. Catching also looks important, and they're the best at it other than Fin.

[Flickerdart]

Give the magic ring to the lord. If you're stuck using him, you might as well buff him up, right?

[t209]

Read the back story of Thracia and Mannster war.

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All of it started when Noba married her brother's second in command an accidently killed him in accident. And Thracia's soil is pretty much like Appalachia (Rocky and can't grow stuff too much). Why the heck are they fighting eachother for Heim's sake, their ancestors were brother and sisters? Can't you just trade, get along or something like that?

[Deme]

I'm pretty sure most of this comes up in the actual game; it's been a while since I've looked through the narrative to check, so my memory is a little rusty.
Unless you were asking a question, in which case...That's just sort of how fantasy nobility rolls. One thing I like about Thracia 776 is that most everyone has their reasons, though.

Anyway, we're living in the small-scale end of the plot at the moment, so we'll worry about the more significant histories and conflicts as the game progresses. Horses need to be held and so on; we're in for a long ride. And I'll go re-check what needs explaining later, as well.

Give the magic ring to the lord. If you're stuck using him, you might as well buff him up, right?

We'll worry about that when we have more than a handful of choices, but I will remember your vote for when the time comes.

Well, if it's multiplicative, then yeah, they would have a crit chance of zero for any second strike they make.

With regard to the differing crit systems, the 776 system favors lower attack, higher defense. The GBA system favors higher attack, lower defense situations. I have some napkin math to show it, but basically the break even point where the damage evens out is when the attack power is double the defense value. Before then, the 776 system is superior in damage. After, the GBA system pulls ahead.

...That is some pretty neat number-crunching. I'm not entirely sure how to use this information, but it's interesting to have. Thanks!

[Flickerdart]

We'll worry about that when we have more than a handful of choices, but I will remember your vote for when the time comes.

Well I was thinking more in terms of "Leaf sucks so hard he made you have to restart the game so he really needs the help for this thing to go smoothly".