Zodi Plays: Tactics Ogre The Knight of Lodis (Crime Island Adventure)

[LaZodiac]

It's time for some Knight of Zodis.

Zodi Plays: Tactics Ogre The Knight of Lodis [20] The Sacred Spear?

Video Length: 29:20

In this exciting episode of Knight of Lodis, we head to Sotavento to finally find the Sacred Spear! However, Nichart is here blocking our path with an army of ladies (and two knights). So we're gonna need to take care of these losers before we can find the shrine. They're pretty tough, Nichart being an "Esquire", a special dragoon style class. This is also the first map were we fight an enemy priest, and though they have Resurrection they likely won't be using it on their allies in any way. The AI is...not quite smart enough for that.

I think I handle this encounter pretty well, even though it is pretty dangerous given the valkyries actually having people to buff. That all aside, I've nothing to really say about this one, at least from a mechanical point of view. We've firmly hit the point where I've explained basically all the mechanics, and aside from a few things we've hit everything the game will really throw at us. We're still pretty early into chapter two as well, so that's...interesting. I feel like I may have gotten to end game tier classes too quickly, but given some of the requirements FOR the end game tier classes that might just be unavoidable. It's...interesting.

Anyway, after chasing Nichart off (his transferring stone means we're not killing him any time soon) we can explore Sotavento a bit. As it turns out, though we did know this I just forgot, Eleanor used to live here after Berevra saved her! Of note, please realize this means Berevra ALSO crossed that volcano, carrying a baby, to reach this town, as well as had to go through what was no doubt a beginning to be haunted forest. They're so far away from each other, the place she was born and the place she was raised, it's a little silly! At any rate, we have a nice conversation and while it's not pointed out in any actual sense she has given us the ability to remove her pearl necklace! We won't be putting it on anyone other than her though, no real reason to.

Finally, we make our way to where the spear is...the public ass shrine that anyone can go to if they know where it is. Surprising no one, the spear is gone. Someone has found it over the like, 15 years it's been here. But then Gaston has a plan...just claim he has the spear. This'll cause his enemies to start panicking, since they KNOW he can't have the spear...but the spear IS gone, meaning SOMEONE has it. Perhaps it will drive a rift in the middle of our foes? That remains to be seen!

Anyway, that's it for this one! I hope you all enjoyed, I'll see you all next time.

[Ninja_Prawn]

I think that might be the first video where you haven't pressed a wrong button! Hooray!

[DataNinja]

I'll count Nichart as a kill, given that I also counted the "'kill' to recruit" ones.

The plot thickens. And, for once, it's Gaston being proactive.

Not much else to comment on, really.

Spoiler: Army

Show

Unit	Kills
Gaston	27
Deneb	12
DataNinja	13
Blue	12
Celestine	14
Trobby	6
Vecna	14
Ivanna	4
Glycinia	1
Terepat	2
Orson	2
Deme	5
Eleanor	2
Pitt	0
Euphaire	2
Friendly Fire: 5	Whoops, An Object Got In The Way: 14

And, here's our round episode number killcount:

Spoiler

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Tried to increase the distance between the people at the same count, but might have missed one or two, in case it seems wobbly at places.

[tonberrian]

Woo, snapdragon! Let's horde these until later!

[LaZodiac]

I'll count Nichart as a kill, given that I also counted the "'kill' to recruit" ones.

The plot thickens. And, for once, it's Gaston being proactive.

Not much else to comment on, really.

Spoiler: Army

Show

Unit	Kills
Gaston	27
Deneb	12
DataNinja	13
Blue	12
Celestine	14
Trobby	6
Vecna	14
Ivanna	4
Glycinia	1
Terepat	2
Orson	2
Deme	5
Eleanor	2
Pitt	0
Euphaire	2
Friendly Fire: 5	Whoops, An Object Got In The Way: 14

And, here's our round episode number killcount:

Spoiler

Show

Tried to increase the distance between the people at the same count, but might have missed one or two, in case it seems wobbly at places.

Wow, Gaston kinda rocketed up there huh. Feels like he hit a threshold.

I think that might be the first video where you haven't pressed a wrong button! Hooray!

Depressing if true.

Woo, snapdragon! Let's horde these until later!

I have Plans for the snapdragon, which I will elaborate on...later.

[DataNinja]

Wow, Gaston kinda rocketed up there huh. Feels like he hit a threshold.

Blue also rocketed up (relatively)… but, we all know why that is.

But, yes, he's very Ike-like in shooting up there with the kills. A regular protagonist.

[jindra34]

I'm more just waiting for that moment when Elanore actually starts to show why she is special. Because that might have some Blue like rocketry there.

[LansXero]

Does KoL have a

Spoiler

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100 level dungeon?

Because beyond Quest mode, you should cakewalk everything thats left. Between Quest Mode loot, named characters getting great growth and you having every relevant class minus one so far, I dont think anything will be much of a contest anymore.

Spoiler

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Even the final fight is pretty simple once you figure out the gimmick and they spell it out for you so you cant miss it.

[LaZodiac]

Does KoL have a

Spoiler

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100 level dungeon?

Because beyond Quest mode, you should cakewalk everything thats left. Between Quest Mode loot, named characters getting great growth and you having every relevant class minus one so far, I dont think anything will be much of a contest anymore.

Spoiler

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Even the final fight is pretty simple once you figure out the gimmick and they spell it out for you so you cant miss it.

I don't think so and you severely underestimate how stupid I am at tactics games. Like, straight up, Friday's video might be enough to prove you wrong maybe?

I don't know I have a bad read on this sort of thing, I think.

[LaZodiac]

God, because the fact that I'm writing like 5000 words a week and work being a bit of a slog, it feels like it's been way longer than it has been. Time for a Lodis.

Zodi Plays: Tactics Ogre The Knight of Lodis [21] Duke Knights

Video Length: 45:35

Starting us off, we do something I had intended to do earlier. The newest Quest we acquired has glass pumpkins as a reward, so I got one of those! This is our fifth pumpkin, so after selling it to Pumpkinhead we've unlocked a special item! The Firecrest! Failed Legend of Dragoon joke aside, this is a powerful item. It's not necessary by any means and given it's price I don't know if we'll even get it, but it sure looks powerful! Put this bad boy on and the unit wearing it is basically invulnerable. I think that's a pretty decent reward, since to get this you need to know about the Deneb special character and all that, plus you need to find the pumpkins (there ARE enough in game to sell it without grinding in a quest, I just wasn't aware of that).

Now then, for the actual video. Not a lot of plot in this one, we basically just hit a story enforced random encounter. However, it does introduce a dangerous foe! The Duke Knights, special units under service of Naris himself! The Duke Knights are spellblades covered in heavy armour wielding, typically, big swords, making them kind of a perfect super unit. What really puts them over the top is that they have Charisma. Luckily, they don't LEGALLY have Charisma, otherwise they'd be unstoppable. It gives a +1 aura to every ally within 3 squares, meaning fighting them is...well, like fighting US. Suffice to say, this fight is difficult! It also features one of my favorite events to happen in a Zodi life rotation: something happens that breaks me enough to laugh. It's like a melodic, dying hyena. Also we snatch up some flying shoes, and Dragon Armour which I hype up a bit but forget that we need the dragon helm still before I can actually show it off. Oopsidoodle!

Once the fight ends, we have a little camp scene...wherein Cybil reveals a bit more about her story. Turns out she was ALSO from a town that Lodis destroyed, and she got kidnapped by the church and groomed into their ultimate wizard assassin. And never questioned her loyalty to them. This is perfectly reasonable a plot point it's just also really silly when you say it out loud. Anyway, it turns out she took this mission for more than just loyalty reasons, and she realizes we're not actually allies in any real sense so she goes off to take care of some personal stuff before returning. Sure thing Cybil, you do you.

And that's it for this one. I hope you all enjoyed, I'll see you all next time!

------

Emblem time! But first a special note: we finally got Dragon Scales for Gaston! That's rad! He can finally become a dragoon, which I'll talk about more indepthly next time. Now onto the actual new emblem we saw today.

Charisma: Charisma is a powerful emblem! It gives you a +1 morale bonus to every ally within 3 tiles. Getting this on say, a valkyrie, is a really good idea! However, getting it is pretty tricky. You see, you've gotta get 300 in one of the three stats, any will do, to get it. That's kind of a big ask! I'm not sure if we'll be getting that or not! I do hope we do, because it'd be cool.

[jindra34]

Note for crazy people: You can buy multiple fireseals. So if you want a nigh invincible tank, just stack 4 on a unit.
Also these encounters are leveled like random encounters, meaning if for some reason you never leveled Gaston these guys would all be level 2 or 3. Silly programming made 90% of encounters like that..

[DataNinja]

I... very much understand the feeling of things needing to be done, and time flowing weird. Though, in my case it's "oh, god, I have five group/solo projects that need to be done, I'm gonna die."

...well then, we basically doubled out friendly fire right there. I must say, that's the first time someone's friendly fired themself.
(Also, I just realized I forgot to add in the friendly fire from Terepat's breath from prior, whoops.)

Oh, don't worry, I was way ahead of you on the counting.

Well, apparently everyone lost towns here. Geez. Small world.

Spoiler: Army

Show

Unit	Kills
Gaston	30
Deneb	12
DataNinja	13
Blue	12
Celestine	14
Trobby	7
Vecna	16
Ivanna	4
Glycinia	1
Terepat	2
Orson	2
Deme	5
Eleanor	3
Pitt	0
Euphaire	2
Friendly Fire: 10	Whoops, An Object Got In The Way: 14

[Ninja_Prawn]

Episode 21, in which mistakes were made.

That is an incredible laugh. Perfect for striking fear into the hearts of your enemies!

[jindra34]

Well, apparently everyone lost towns here. Geez. Small world.

Lodis came and burned down my hometown 15 years ago (because it somehow always is) is in fact part of the back of about 20-30% of the named character in the Ogre Battle series. So yes, that sentiment is approriate.

[LansXero]

Lodis came and burned down my hometown 15 years ago (because it somehow always is) is in fact part of the back of about 20-30% of the named character in the Ogre Battle series. So yes, that sentiment is approriate.

Considering how Griate / Goliath looks a decade after its seen burning completely, I'd think Lodis just ransacks whats valuable, burns the tatch roofs that are silly flammable, then stands away to look ominously and calls it a day. Stone buildings would likely not be damaged that much, and you can return and rebuild fairly quickly. So its not like 'my city dissappeared from the world and its records'

[LaZodiac]

Considering how Griate / Goliath looks a decade after its seen burning completely, I'd think Lodis just ransacks whats valuable, burns the tatch roofs that are silly flammable, then stands away to look ominously and calls it a day. Stone buildings would likely not be damaged that much, and you can return and rebuild fairly quickly. So its not like 'my city dissappeared from the world and its records'

Maybe if they were better about burning down villages the number of protagonists they create would be smaller.

[LansXero]

Maybe if they were better about burning down villages the number of protagonists they create would be smaller.

It is pretty small already. [Redacted] Gaston is a Lodisian, no burned villages there. LUCT is the one example I think.

[jindra34]

It is pretty small already. [Redacted] Gaston is a Lodisian, no burned villages there. LUCT is the one example I think.

Debonair from March of the Black Queen also doesn't have a Lodis burned village behind him. Primarily because Zenobia is outside of Lodis's conquest range at the time.

[LansXero]

Debonair from March of the Black Queen also doesn't have a Lodis burned village behind him. Primarily because Zenobia is outside of Lodis's conquest range at the time.

Spoiler: Games that nobody cares about

Show

Do any of the older games explain the grudge between both Lans guys?LUCT felt so much like a sequel, but I wouldnt know what to.

Also, while its not a protagonist, Andoras did have his 'village' 'burned' by Lodis, and thus triggers the endgame of LUCT. So perhaps it doesnt breed protagonists, just enablers? xD

[jindra34]

Spoiler: Games that nobody cares about

Show

Do any of the older games explain the grudge between both Lans guys?LUCT felt so much like a sequel, but I wouldnt know what to.

Spoiler: LUCT

Show

Well for one, yes LUCT is the current (probably eternal) end of the Ogre Battle timeline. But no, almost no one who is not a Zenobian has much of game spanning story. Though one Lans pretty much has a grudge against the world, so maybe the other just reciprocated.

[Anteros]

Spoiler: Games that nobody cares about

Show

Do any of the older games explain the grudge between both Lans guys?LUCT felt so much like a sequel, but I wouldnt know what to.

Also, while its not a protagonist, Andoras did have his 'village' 'burned' by Lodis, and thus triggers the endgame of LUCT. So perhaps it doesnt breed protagonists, just enablers? xD

I don't remember there being much of a grudge. They just found themselves on opposite sides of the conflict, and when Lans was captured by Lans' units, he had Lans tortured for information. There didn't seem to be any type of deeper relationship between them that I remember other than sharing a name.

[LaZodiac]

Despite stepping on my microphone like a dumbass and having to rerecord; a video exists!

Zodi Plays: Tactics Ogre The Knight of Lodis [22] Mount Gracula

Video Length: 22:28

In this episode we finally have Gaston enter his final form as a Dragoon. He is now virtually indestructible! He's also got a spell he can toss out but since he's got War God it's not going to be all that effective. Still, it has it's uses! We also outfitted Gaston with the flying shoes, and gave Ivanna that earth sword we found...which isn't any stronger than the fafnir sword we had, but it matches her element so it's slightly better.

Now let's talk about the map a bit! Glycinia appears and tells us she smells her sister and or friend Lubina. One of the gremlins is named somewhat similar, and that's your hint to not murder it (that and it doesn't ever attack). Once all the enemies are killed, if you move Glycinia next to the mystery gremlin, they have a discussion and the gremlin reveals herself to be Lubina! That gets us another fairly strong fairy, comparatively to other fairies anyway, and...I mean that's basically it. Not much else happens at this place with a cool name.

And...yeah. That's it. Hope you all enjoyed, I'll see you all next time for something far, far more important and complex!

[jindra34]

So let me say a little something: Despite these two having a combo attack, don't actually deploy them as a pair unless you are DESPERATELY out of units. Its not worth it.

[DataNinja]

Oh no, hopefully microphone's all okay...

That was a... thing. Interesting.

Spoiler: Army

Show

Unit	Kills
Gaston	32
Deneb	12
DataNinja	13
Blue	12
Celestine	14
Trobby	7
Vecna	17
Ivanna	4
Glycinia	2
Terepat	2
Orson	3
Deme	7
Eleanor	3
Pitt	0
Euphaire	2
Lubina	0
Friendly Fire: 11	Whoops, An Object Got In The Way: 14

On a non-Lodis related note, I am sorry that I've not gotten to you on feedback. This is currently an "I have ALL the projects due" time, plus "mid"terms, so I'm not in the most put-together headspace right now. I'll have a couple free hours on Wednesday that I should hopefully be able to get some reply in a more feedback-conducive headspace.
Don't worry, I've not forgotten about it - it's busy screaming at me every time I open my email.

[LansXero]

I don't remember there being much of a grudge. They just found themselves on opposite sides of the conflict, and when Lans was captured by Lans' units, he had Lans tortured for information. There didn't seem to be any type of deeper relationship between them that I remember other than sharing a name.

Spoiler: LUCT

Show

He mentions that the zenobian was the one who took his eye. Also, Barbas was pretty stocked about getting to fight him, so I figured he was important in a previous game, seeing how the Lodis gang all seemed to acknowledge him.

[Ninja_Prawn]

Woo, a double kill for Deme! I was worried we'd never see any of those.

I like the fairies. They're sweet.

Spoiler: Style Points

Show

Unit	Counter Kills	Power Naps	Shield Bash Kills	Multi Kills	Total
Gaston	5	0	0	0	5
Allos (retired)	1	0	0	0	1
Blue	0	0	1	0	1
Celestine	0	3	1	0	4
DataNinja	1	0	0	0	1
Deme	1	0	0	1	2
Deneb	0	0	1	0	1
Eleanor	0	0	0	0	0
Euphaire	0	0	0	0	0
Flauros (retired)	0	0	0	0	0
Glycinia	0	0	0	0	0
Ivanna	1	0	0	0	1
Kamui (retired)	0	0	0	0	0
Lubina	0	0	0	0	0
Orson	0	0	0	0	0
Pitt	0	0	0	0	0
Thelma (retired)	0	0	0	0	0
Terepat	0	0	0	0	0
Trobby	0	0	0	0	0
Vecna	0	0	0	0	0
Total	9	3	3	1	16

[LaZodiac]

Oh no, hopefully microphone's all okay...

That was a... thing. Interesting.

Spoiler: Army

Show

Unit	Kills
Gaston	32
Deneb	12
DataNinja	13
Blue	12
Celestine	14
Trobby	7
Vecna	17
Ivanna	4
Glycinia	2
Terepat	2
Orson	3
Deme	7
Eleanor	3
Pitt	0
Euphaire	2
Lubina	0
Friendly Fire: 11	Whoops, An Object Got In The Way: 14

On a non-Lodis related note, I am sorry that I've not gotten to you on feedback. This is currently an "I have ALL the projects due" time, plus "mid"terms, so I'm not in the most put-together headspace right now. I'll have a couple free hours on Wednesday that I should hopefully be able to get some reply in a more feedback-conducive headspace.
Don't worry, I've not forgotten about it - it's busy screaming at me every time I open my email.

Dude I dropped like 5 chapters on you when I promised quote "at least two a week" I don't mind some delay

Also eah, the fairies are fun. So is the Deme double kill, I completely forgot to like, mentally register that as cool!

[Anteros]

Spoiler: LUCT

Show

He mentions that the zenobian was the one who took his eye. Also, Barbas was pretty stocked about getting to fight him, so I figured he was important in a previous game, seeing how the Lodis gang all seemed to acknowledge him.

Spoiler

Show

Does he? Interesting. I don't know how I missed that given that LUCT is one of the games I replay every few years. The way the Lans plot line was left dangling always bothered me. At least they addressed it in the remake, although weakly

.

[LaZodiac]

Oh hey it's time for a big Lodis.

Zodi Plays: Tactics Ogre The Knight of Lodis [23] West Side Story

Video Length: 55:42

Real big one this time, but for valid reasons! We're storming Ostorea castle, ready to take the fight to Naris Batraal himself! This, by the way, is part of why I did go out of my way to recruit all the optional units. Because of duel assault maps like this, you're able to field functionally 16 units at once, meaning having a roster of people waiting in the wings who are actually leveled up and good to go is important! If you don't have enough units to do both maps you just skip the other one, but that means you lose out on treasure and loot and experience, and that's not good at all!

We're tackling the west side of Ostorea today, which is guarded by a handful of powerful but generic units, plus Margaret, Ivanna's sword teacher. Margaret is very powerful, and is the only female swordmaster in the game. I don't...exactly know why we don't get access to swordmaster for ladies, presumably it's to make Margaret look more impressive? But she's also the first enemy to have a Special Skill so she's already super impressive. Ah well. But yeah, she has Atropos, a super powerful skill that can only be used by sword, katana, and axes. It does a ton of damage, in exchange for biting a chunk out of your health! It's pretty dangerous, but as far as double edged swords go it's entirely reasonable and fair.

That aside...there's not much else to this one! It's just a really difficult map, where the enemy has two archers on super high ground and four units that are decently powerful able to engage you at the base of it. The hawkmen aren't as big a deal as the duke knights, and for some reason the duke knights aren't actually exhibiting the Charisma they should have (that's fine on my part!) but it's still pretty tough. The loot is worth it though, giving us a a bunch of good rare items...which would be some of our FIRST magical rare items if we weren't using quest mode to some degree. We also get Atropos, which we can only teach to one unit, forever...and we choose Ivanna, to help make her relevant.

And that's it for today. Join us next time when we see how team DataNinja is doing. See you all next time.

------

There is an emblem to show off here, so let's talk of it!

Mark of the Elite: Giving to units that win a map when there is only one other friendly unit on the field. This is a pretty hard reward to get depending on the enemy layout, but the reward is very palpable. If you are rewarded this, you instantly get 100 EXP, right then and there. Winning a match heavily outnumbered is a small price to pay for a free level up. The only problem with this is that it is, of course, only gettable once...and you're not allowed to ever remove Gaston from the combat, so you can only get it on two people once. Then it's one person carried on Gaston's back for the rest of it. I will be doing my part to try and get this emblem at some point, basically the next legitimate random encounter will be Gaston and DataNinja probably, but I won't be going out of my way to put it on everyone.

[jindra34]

So did you just have to re-record this map, or this section?

Also fairies would be SO much better if they used MP, and therefore were subject to fooding and energy transfer.