Sigurd and Friends' Happy Adventures: Let's Play Fire Emblem 4

[Smiling Knight]

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Welcome to Let's Play Genealogy of the Holy War, 4th installment of the awesome Fire Emblem series of SRPGs.

FAQ's:
Q: I'm a huge Fire Emblem fan, yet I haven't heard of this game. Why not?
A: Welp, it's only been released in Japan on the SNES and more recently on Wiiware. It's unlikely to be localized for reasons I'll get into later.
The main villain's plot involves mind-controlled incest.
Q: How are you playing it then?
A: Emulator plus a fan translation patch from Grandbell.net.

Q: How is this different from modern Fire Emblems?
A: In many, many ways. I'll discuss them one by one as they appear.

Q: Aren't there a lot of Fire Emblem LPs here?
A: Ya, but they're mostly FE 7. Variety is the spice of life and all that.

Q: What pairings are you using?
A: I'll let the audience vote. NO SPOILERS.

Q: When are updates?
A: At least once a week. Tennis season is ending soon, but exams will be starting, so picking a single day would probably be a bad idea.

Update 1: History Class and Prologue intro

The patch I'm using is incomplete, so I'll be making up subtitles based on the opening crawl. To notify readers that I'm going off-script, I'll use italics.

In the distant past, there was a great war between the humans of Judgral, their Divine Dragon Allies, and the evil Dark Dragon Lopt and his mortal minions.

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You can tell it's evil because its scales aren't shiny.

They fought many battles, but the situation was a stalemate...

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Until Narga granted extraordinary powers to twelve heroes. The Twelve Crusaders would win the war and establish their own kingdoms that would endure for centuries.

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But the followers of Lopt were not dormant, and concocted devious plans to bring about the return of their dark god.


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Title screen, yay. Now let's start a new file.

(Massive text dump courtesy of Serenes Forest).

Grandbell rests in the centre of the Jugdral continent and was founded by Saint Heim, one of the 12 Crusaders.

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Heim's descendants, the Royal Family, were joined by six additional duchies, each with their own Crusader lineage.
Each duchy possessed large territory and military holdings, and exercised partial autonomy while serving under the Royal Family.

On behalf of the aging King Azmur, the government was administered by the highly regarded Prince Kurth.

Assisting the prince was his confidant Lord Byron of Chalphy, and Lord Ring of Jungby.

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Prime Minister Reptor of Freege felt his position was being undermined.
Calling on the avaricious Lord Langbart of Dozel, the two formed a coalition opposing the prince's authority.

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The young Lord Alvis of Velthomer, commander of the Royal Guard, had little involvement in governmental affairs.
Only Father Claude of Edda could sense the impending crisis.

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Just as this drama was beginning to unfold, news of calamity arrived from the east.
The peaceful town of Darna, located in the Yied Desert, came under siege by Isaacian barbarians.
Reports told of a massive slaughter taking place.

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Back in Grandbell, public outcry began to grow, and before long the decision was made to subdue Isaac.
Acting on his father's behalf, Prince Kurth departed for the front commanding the lords from each duchy.

There at his side, a warrior in his own right revered for his heroism and bravery, was none other than Lord Byron.

Only a handful of soldiers remained in Grandbell.
Owing to a diplomatic alliance with Agustria to the west, and the Verdane Kingdom to the southwest, fear of any kind of aggression was virtually nonexistent.

However, that trust was betrayed all too soon.
Verdane Kingdom's massive army, spearheaded by Prince Gandolf, crossed into Grandbell territory unnoticed and laid siege to Jungby Castle.
Adean, daughter of Lord Ring, had sole responsibility for the castle.

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Entrusted with the protection of the kingdom by his father, Lord Vylon, Sigurd stayed behind at Chalphy Castle.
With only a few soldiers at his disposal, he was rightfully terrified when news of the invasion reached Chalphy.

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Sorry Siggy, but you're gonna be a little late.
Sigurd cried, 'Those barbarians aren't laying a hand on Adean!'
Having known Adean since childhood, he was left with no other alternative.
Sigurd promptly made the decision to take up arms.
Gran calender - 757
It was this very turn of events that cracked open the door of fate.
No one at the time could have recognised this forewarning to the disastrous events to follow.

Next time on Sigurd and Friends': Actual gameplay! Characters! Drama! Barbarian hordes!


This is my first Let's Play, so any feedback would be appreciated.

[Smiling Knight]

Update Number Two: In which there is lots of talking, and then I complete my attempt to put everyone to sleep by my description of mechanics.

Sorry 'bout the double post, but we need to have some actual gameplay.

Here we have the castle of Jungby, besieged by the barbarian hordes.
Like all NPC's, the forces of Jungby were crushed and we'll have to pull their bacon out of the fire.

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Inside:

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Midir/Midayle is probably a distant cousin to Lucius. It came as a bit of a shock when I discovered that he was male.

Adean:
Midayle, it's alright. Everyone gave their best. You needn't worry about me anymore.
Please save yourself. I want as many of you to get out of this alive as possible!

Midayle:
None of us are going anywhere, my lady. We're here for you till the very end.
Even if it means our lives.

Adean:
Oh... thank you, Midayle. I'm so sorry to put you through all this.

[Dramatic LotR-esque pan to the castle of Chalphy]
Sigurd confers with his loyal retainers.

Sigurd:
Adean is in trouble. Gandolf's army has laid siege to Jungby Castle.
Noish, I'm going to go and see if I can do something. You're in charge while I'm gone.

Noish:
Sir...
You're not planning on going alone, are you!?

Sigurd:
Grandbell's military is already en route to Isaac. There really is no one left to call on.
Verdane's army may be full of barbarians, but it's huge. There are bound to be casualties. I can't get you involved.
That's right, Sigurd is so badass that he is going to take on an entire barbarian horde by himself. Hector, go eat your heart out.

Noish:
Excuse me, sir!? We were born into the knighthood and are prepared to die fighting!
We'd be a disgrace to let our master perish out there all alone. We're going with you.
Alec, you're with me on this, aren't you?

Alec:
Damn straight. But we'd better swing by the villages before going to Jungby Castle.
Those barbarians'll loot the place, kill everybody in sight, then burn it all to the ground.
We've got to beat them there and get the villages to strengthen their defenses.
I guess we should save the villages.

Sigurd:
Point well taken, Alec. We mustn't overlook our duty as knights to protect the people. Sigurd's pretty much a straight arrow. Duty, honor, nobility, etc.

Alec:
Actually, Oifey takes credit for that one. I tell ya, that kid's a strategist in the making.
Takes right after that famous grandfather of his, Lord Sesar.

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Oifey:
Sir, I know I'm not supposed to be here, but I'd like to join your assault.
I don't want to just sit back and watch the castle, sir.

Sigurd:
I don't know, Oifey... You're still pretty young. You think you'll be okay out there?

Oifey:
I'm already 14, sir. I know I'm not ready to fight yet, but I can still help out.
Please... let me go with you.

Sigurd:
Well, it has been a good two years since you began training for your knighthood under me.
You're probably ready for some battlefield action. But no fighting... not just yet anyway.
Why don't you come along as my personal advisor?

Oifey:
You bet! Thanks, sir!
Oifaye is not an actual unit, but appears in cutscenes.

Noish:
Sir, have you considered leaving someone behind to defend the castle?
It would be too risky not to. We would be finished if we lost our base here to the enemy.

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Arden: proving that not all Fire Emblem males are pretty since the SNES.

Alec:
Because you're strong, reliable... and slow! Alec's right about that one. Poor Arden will almost never see actual combat.
You're the one, hands down! Hahahaa!

Arden:
Hrmph. I can live with the strong and reliable part, but leave the slow bit out of it, ok?

Sigurd:
Arden, can we count on you? You're the only who can aptly handle the castle's defense.

Arden:
Alright, I'll do it. But you gotta promise to take me to battle with you sometimes.

Sigurd:
Will do. Alright, let's make our way to the villages, and then we're off to Jungby!

FINALLY, we have control. Here are our four current units: Sigurd, the Lord, in his Lord Knight Class. Alec and Noish are social knights, basically cavaliers. And Arden is a Sword Armor.

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Sigurd was not just blustering when he offered to fight the entire army by himself. He starts out promoted, with excellent stats. Does that mean that he gets no xp? Nope, in Holy war xp is determined only by class level, and Sigurd starts at level 5.

A quick stat run-down: Strength determines damage for physical attacks, when added with the weapon's base damage. Magic does the same for magical attacks and healing staves (nearly irrelevant for Sigurd). Skill affects hit percentage and crits if the unit has the Critical Skill (see below), Speed affects avoid (is subtracted from enemy hit) and allows double attacks with the Pursuit Skill, Luck gives smaller boni to hit and avoid, Defense decreases physical damage, and MDefense decreases magical damage.

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There is a lot to explain on this next screen. I'll go from left to right.
Lead is his Leadership stars, which work the same way as in Radiant Dawn. All units under Sigurd's command get bonus hit/evade based upon them. Lover is his current... lover. He does not have on yet, obviously, but rest assured he'll find one. Lover's give each other some stat boosts and a need ability I'll demonstrate next update. Talk is if Sigurd can have a conversation with someone, and move is self-explanatory. Gold is his pocket money. In this game there is not a global treasury; characters must purchase weapons with their own money. Annoying. Arena I'll cover later, status too.

The right half is weapon ranks. Sigurd can use all swords and a Holy Sword, as the asterisk in that row demonstrates. He can also use lances, but almost never will. Swords are far superior, because they weigh far less and therefore units wielding them are much faster, because Weight is subtracted directly from Speed. Lastly, special skills. Sigurd may only have one, but it is the best in the game: Pursuit. Pursuit allows units to double if they have more speed than the enemy. That's right, in 4 you need a skill to do that.

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Finally, we have this special window, The Great Pretty Wheel of Ancestry. The glowing dot next to "Baldo" means that Sigurd has Major Holy Blood, which gives a big boost to stat growths, weapon ranks, and a pretty sweet sword.

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In summary, Sigurd is an awesome unit who will be our workhorse for a long time.

Alas, our Red and Green Cavaliers leave much to be desired. Neither have particularly good stats or growths, Holy Blood, tricks. They are mediocre to the bone. Alec is "fast" (note: not fast) while Noish is "strong" (note: not strong). Alec's skills are the aforementioned Pursuit and Awareness, which the same as Nihil from the Radiance games. Because so few enemies have skills, it's basically useless. Noish has Critical and Charge. Charge can add extra rounds of combat, a double-edged sword at best, because it can end up getting him killed, and Critical allows Criticals, which like doubling is not available to everyone. An important note: crits double base damage, not damage-defense, and so are a little different than in later games. But there are a couple of ways outside of the skill to get crits, as will be shown later.

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Gaze upon the average-ness!

Arden aspires to Alec and Noish's level of mediocrity. Bad stats, bad growths, and waaaaay too slow to every even get to the enemy. He'll be spending his time guarding the castle. His skill is Ambush, which allows him to attack first if low on hp. Huzzah.

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He looks so creepy...

And now it's time for our first round of combat. Sigurd charges forward to engage that dastardly bandit. As you can see, the info window does tell you whether he can double or his exact damage. We'll have to do some.... elementary mathematics to determine whether or not we'll kill him.

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Yah, it's not even close. Sigurd crushes this punk and gains a nice 26 xps.

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Alec and Noish head west, Arden cools his heels inside the castle, and that's it for turn 1. But the walls of text have made this update long enough, so I'll end it here, because on the enemy turn, there are (gasp) more walls of text! I promise it'll get better.



Harumph! At least the pace should pick up quite a bit now that we've gotten some of the basics out of the way. I'll be including some humorous interludes to break up the "Sigurd slaughters more bandits" sections.

On the Next Episode: Will Midir be able to hold out against those 123245 bandits? How will Alec and Noish try to compensate for being bland and uninteresting? And who will be the five new characters to join up?

[Pie Guy]

Ah, I've heard of this one. Could be very... interesting. :smallwink:

[Comet]

Yessssss, Fire Emblem 4 is great. Never managed to finish it, but it is great. Perfect for a LP, from my selfish point of view.