Fire Emblem Engage Part 5: Chapter 13-15

Once again, I'm resuming my playthrough of Fire Emblem Engage, in which I cover what could be called the Solm arc of the game- Chapters 13-15, as well as Chapter 12, which I covered last time. Beware of spoilers if you have not already played the game.

Chapter 13

Fogado introduces the heroes to his mother Queen Seforia, who is remarkably laid-back for a queen, answering to "Mom" rather than "Mother." She informs the heroes that her daughter Timerra has Ike's ring, and demonstrates that she lets her children- including Timerra, the successor to the throne- mostly do as they please.

At night, Timera is camping with her retainers, eating meat and doing some awful singing when some bandits attack. Fogado and the heroes arrive and have to help out.

The map is another "fog of war" map (i.e. night in thi scase). These maps seem more common than in Three Houses, in which Chapter 3 was the only story map with fog (and it disappears after the mage's death), and only a few Paralogues- Ashe and Catherine, Marianne, and Linhardt and Leonie- feature it. Considering it's a rather obnoxious mechanic, I'm not too unhappy about that.

The ring summons Emblem Ike, who shows his ability to instantly destroy the barricades blocking the area, among others.

There are two bosses to the level- bandits with similar names. This is a bit of a recurring element in Fire Emblem games, but they're often used as the bosses of Paralogues, like Kana's Paralogue in Fates or one of the Anna Paralogues in Awakening. Bandits aren't terribly interesting as villains, which is probably why they tend to be the bosses of early chapters, before the plot really gets going, but in this case, they show up halfway through the game.

After all the enemies are dead, Timerra joins. She reveals that Hortensia headed to the castle, a revelation that dismays Ivy.

Chapter 14

At the palace, Hortensia has taken Queen Seforia hostage, and demands the heroes hand over the rings, apparently having been fooled into thinking that Ivy is a traitor. Ivy tries to reason with her, and Alear points out that Hortensia, who just lost her father, isn't seriously going to try to deprive Timerra and Fogado of their mother. Unfortunately, Zephia brainwashes Hortensia, and attacks with her and two of the other Four Hounds- Marni and Mauvier- with Griss nowhere to be seen.

Hortensia is the primary boss of the level, and is the first enemy with three life bars that you're expected to defeat. After emptying the first health bar, she goes berserk and gets stronger, similar to the Demonic Beasts gaining additional abilities.

In the aftermath, Hortensia comes to her senses, and after some convincing from Ivy, realizes that the only way to help Elusia is to join the heroes. She then turns over (male) Byleth's ring, and hopes to find her retainers Goldmary and Rosado, whose whereabouts are unknown. Afterward, Seforia is unharmed, and tells the heroes where to find (female) Corrin's ring. Hortensia apologizes profusely to Queen Seforia for threatening her life. In a queenly display of sternness, Seforia says she should send Hortensia to the dungeons, but allows her to fight alongside Alear to atone for her actions.

Elsewhere, Veyle's good personality awakens in the desert, with no idea of how she got there.

Chapter 15

The mission takes you to an abandoned fortress in Solm. Timerra remarks that her mother discouraged her from going there to prevent anyone from finding out the ring's location, but it turns out that they aren't the first to arrive- the Corrupted are there, as is a man named Seadall, who barely survives with Emblem Corrin's help.

Your first order of business is to break down the walls and talk to Seadall to recruit him. Once you do, you gain this game's resident Dancer, who can spend his turn to allow allies to act again, which can be useful when used on your best units. Incidentally, Emblem Byleth has a special ability that does this with all adjacent units, but it can be a bit tricky to position him so that he can get more than one.

One frustrating aspect about this map is the presence of miasma, which not only reduce the defense and resistance of any of your units by 20(a massive amount that will likely result in them getting one-shotted), but they increase the Corrupted's Defense and Resistance by the same amount, making them practically invincible until you lure them off the tiles.

The map ends once Seadall escapes, and he parts ways from you for the moment. Alear then meets Veyle, who is completely oblivious to everything her evil self did, stoking Alear and the royals' fury until Veyle runs away, heartbroken. Veyle then finds Griss, who tries to encourage her to talk to Alear again, for some unknown purpose. Griss appears confident that Alear's group is heading back to Firene, and for good reason- the next mission is on the coast near the border of Solm and Firene.

I watched Ivy and Hortensia's support, which reveals that the two are half-sisters with different mothers, and that Ivy feels guilty about some incident involving Hortensia's mother. I also saw Yunaka's B support with Alear, in which Yunaka confesses that she is trying to leave her past self behind. These are fairly interesting supports, but it would be nice if they were longer.

My Thoughts So Far

At this point, while Normal mode is a bit on the easy side, since you have unlimited charges for your Draconic Time Crystal, I'm glad I did it, since I have less patience for getting stuck on encounters. It's a bit disappointing that there isn't a mode harder than Normal but easier than Hard, though.