Fire Emblem Engage Part 6: Chapter 16-20
Chapter 16
The mission is on the border of Solm and Firene, bringing the adventure full circle, literally and figuratively. It's similar to how, in Awakening, the last few chapters were near places you'd already been.
Alear and the royals discuss their next move, noting that they have five rings, but the bad guys have seven- the six that were stolen from Alear at the cathedral and Eirika and Ephraim's ring. They realize they're in a tight situation- they need to get some rings back but taking the fight to the enemy is difficult as long as the latter has more rings. I'm personally curious as to how Elusia's military strength compares to that of the other three nations.
At that point, they realize that Elusian ships are heading towards Firene and make haste to intercept their foes.
Meanwhile, on the ships, Marni and Mauvier of the Four Hounds learn that Hortensia's retainers Goldmary and Rosado stole the twin's ring and escaped. They then demand to go after the retainers.
Goldmary and Rosado are unpleasantly surprised to see the fleet chasing after them, but luckily for them, Hortensia and the heroes arrive to help them. After some confusion as to whether Alear is still the enemy, Goldmary and Rosado join, with Rosado using the ring.
The map has another unique mechanic- the tide comes in and out, turning the easily passable beaches into shoals that are hard to cross. The tide goes in or out every other turn. These mechanics can make maps more interesting, but they can often be rather gimmicky and frustrating.
On this map, you now have to face Wyrms, which, as I've mentioned before, occupy two spaces, like the Demonic Beasts from Three Houses, but lack the Demonic Beasts' multiple life bars or special abilities.
I had the chance to view more supports. The B rank support between Ivy and Hortensia casts light on Hortensia's mother- a woman who managed to win over many people, including Ivy's mother. Unfortunately, they're still a bit hit or miss, and many of the ones with secondary characters focus on their surface personality traits, at least at first. Compare how quite a few Three Houses supports get off to a strong start- Edelgard's C support with Byleth involves the revelation of her traumatic past, while Caspar's C support with Byleth has him unwittingly thwart an investigation into an illegal group by trying to protect some kids.
At the end of the chapter, Zephia and Griss talk with Veyle, who reminisces about a sibling in the past, who gave her a gem that looks like the Draconic Time Crystal. Zephia is convinced that Sombron had no other children, but comes to an epiphany.
Chapter 17
At the start of the chapter, an Elusian fleet attacks a Firenese port town, setting it ablaze.
Alear confronts Veyle and the Four Hounds, and is still angry at Veyle. At that point, Zephia comes in and helpfully explains that Veyle has two personalities- her true personality, which is friends with Alear, and one implanted on her that is loyal to Sombron.
The battle this chatper involves you having to defeat the Four Hounds, Veyle and a resurrected Hyacinth, all of whom are using the Emblem rings that had been stolen from you. It seems like a climactic battle and is rather fun, but not much changes.
After the battle, Alear takes back Leif's ring from Hyacinth. As the Elusians are sailing away, Veyle commands Zephia to give her Sigurd's ring. Zephia complies... and then Veyle throws the ring to Alear, her "good" personality having taken control. Alear finally realizes that Veyle didn't betray her, and Zephia is furious with Veyle.
Chapter 18
The army sails to Elusia, pondering what Veyle's giving Alear the ring could mean. Before they can come to an answer, two Elusian ships attack.
The one on your ship's port side doesn't have much on it apart from a chest, but the one on the right has the boss of the chapter, as well as a character named Lindon. While Lindon is hostile, he expresses displeasure with what has become of Elusia, and can be recruited if you talk with him usng Ivy or Alear. However, there's a catch- he's still hostile until you talk to him and will attack any units within range on his turn.
The boss of the chapter is a rather forgettable axe-wielder. Apart from the opportunity to recruit a new character, this battle is basically a filler mission.
After the battle, Alear consults Ivy on where to go next, and Ivy sets course to an Elusian port. On the ship, the Emblem heroes talk about a potential measure they could use, but some are hesitant to go through with it, especially with some of their number absent.
Elsewhere, Zephia speaks with Sombron about Veyle. Sombron is convinced that Veyle is his only surviving child but seems to change his mind when Zephia brings up the intact Dragonstone, and plans to take steps. Zephia plans on using a special helmet to permanently put Veyle's good personality to sleep, something that Mauvier clearly is uncomfortable with. It's obvious that they're implying that Alear is also Veyle's child.
Chapter 19
Mauvier and Marni go out to fight the heroes once again, with Marni having stolen Micaiah and Roy's rings, giving the former to Mauvier and taking the latter for herself.
The heroes arrive in what the mission description says is a lively port, but they soon notice that no one's here and come to a horrifying conclusion- the entire town was turned into Corrupted. While dismayed, Ivy realizes that the best course of action is to get out of here, but Marni and Mauvier stop the heroes.
There's yet another unit available for recruitment in this chapter- Saphir, captain of Brodia's Royal Guard. Talking with her with Alear (and possibly the princes of Brodia) allows you to recruit her, but since Alear was cut off from her, it took me a few turns to get to Saphir.
Speaking of units, I've noticed that some of my units that I've used for a while, such as Celine, have declined in terms of usefulness, so I replaced them with some of the newcomers- for example, Fogado replaced Etie, while Lindon replaced Celine. In Fire Emblem, a unit's growth rates, which determine how likely a statistic is to grow once a unit levels up(either it goes up a point or it doesn't at all), aren't always apparent to players, so it can be hard for casual players to tell how useful a unit will be.
The map is covered with miasma, and while the cannon on the ships in the harbor where you start can clear it, each one only has a limited range, so you'll have to lure out your foes.
Marni and Mauvier were a bit more difficult than the previous time, but not all that hard, albeit because I was playing on Normal, rather than Hard. It's a bit surprising how often I've fought them- in Chapter 11, Chapter 16, Chapter 17 and now Chapter 19- and it's getting a bit repetitive.
After the battle, Alear welcomes Micaiah and Roy back into the fold, and they head to Elusia Castle.
Chapter 20
I took a break and did some Paralogues before starting this mission. Each Paralogue is based on a key moment from the hero's life- for example, the time Lucina fought her father in Regna Ferox's arena. They're intersting levels that call back to previous games, but don't add all that much to the story.
Zephia is furious with Marni and Mauvier for losing their rings, and hypocritically tries to downplay her losing hers as being the result of Veyle tricking her. After revealing that she already finished the spell on Veyle, likely to cause Mauvier pain, Zephia blasts them with fire magic until they fall unconscious, and leaves Griss to handle the heroes.
Griss is the boss of the chapter and he wields Emblem Celica, allowing him to warm and attack enemies with Ragnarok, a powerful Fire spell. To make matters worse, much of the castle is dark, and he and his minions can hide in it.
Griss starts in the southeast corner. After injuring Griss enough, he retreats, and eventually, he makes his way to the heal tile(which not only restores HP every turn for units on it, but also increases Avoidance) in the center of the north edge of the map, which is the standard boss starting point. He came after me at the first opportunity, leaving the safety of the healing tile, but I was able to finish him off by the end of the phase.
After being defeated, Griss hands over Celica's ring and taunts Alear to use it, which is incredibly suspicious. Celica is freed of the Fell Dragon's corruption, but Griss is thrilled, since it confirms what he's always suspected- that Alear is the Fell Dragon's child. He points out that the final proof was that Alear used an invocation to summon the Emblems, like Fell Dragons do, rather than prayers like Divine Dragons do. Considering that Veyle sees Alear as a sibling, and Sombron referred to his "child" with gender-neutral language, I easily predicted this trip
Luckily, Alear's retainers and friends reassure her of the truth. While Alear uses invocations to summon Emblems, they do not become mindless like they did under the Fell Dragon's control, proving that she is a hybrid of a Fell and Divine Dragon.
Mauvier shows up and reveals that Zephia escaped with Veyle, heading to Lythos. Alear then promises to pursue them.
I took a look at the next mission and found that it's yet another case of multiple missions in a row, so I decided to stop for now.
Supports
Now for a few supports.
Alfred and Celine's support is one of the more interesting ones- I've always liked the sibling supports. It turns out that Alfred has long struggled with a chronic illness, and his attempts to get stronger are a means of trying to overcome it. Unfortunately, he's less successful than he'd like, and still has attacks that only Celine knows about.
Yunaka and Citrinne's A support brings the former's story to an end- she became an assassin to succeed her mentor, and the latter asked her to put him out of his misery while he was dying. Citrinne regrets being suspicious of Yunaka and promises to support her in her real goal- helping war orphans. It's a good ending, if a bit predictable.
Ivy and Hortensia's A support reveals that Ivy sees much of Hortensia's mother in Hortensia herself, since she survived in the royal court without her mother, excelled in her studies and won many people over. It's vaguely reminiscent of Fates, in which all of Garon's children had different mothers, but the entire subplot feels half-baked and underdeveloped.
Chloe and Louis engage in some "people-watching," and Chloe notes that people often get the wrong idea about Louis because of it.
My thoughts so far
The game's nearing its end, and in my opinion, the plot hasn't gotten any more compelling. I saw the twists with Veyle and Alear coming a mile away.
The maps are definitely getting challenging. There are times when I wonder if I should have stuck with Hard, but I'm glad I switched to Normal.
Supports are mixed, but I'll concede that I've only seen a fraction of them, and only have a handful at A rank. It's definitely a lot harder to get all the Supports in this game than in Three Houses, which divided its characters into houses; in the latter game, you could get most intra-house supports on your first playthrough if you used everyone.
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