Here there be dragons. Let's Play Bahamut Lagoon!

First off, we're gonna name our newest addition to the team. Say hi, Calzone!



Next, we'll go feed the dragons some of the items Zora gave us earlier. What is dragon feeding, you ask? Why, that's a good question!

Unlike the human characters, the dragons don't gain stat boosts from level ups or the like. Instead, they rely on the items we feed them in order to grow stronger. The stats themselves aren't too difficult to figure out - HP, MP and the like are standard RPG-fare and should be instantly recognizable to anyone familiar with the genre - however, what's important to point out are the elemental levels of a dragon.

As you saw in the last battle, each attack party is assigned to a dragon at the start of battle. That's because not only do they work together when fighting, but the human party relies on the dragon to power their special attacks. To be more specific, every 10 points in an element equates in a single level in the related skill - for example, VicViper here would endow the party with level 2 fire attacks thanks to the 20 points he has in fire. This becomes increasingly important as the game goes on, as the types of elemental attacks you have increasingly affect the types of strategies you can use.

On the flip side, there are also the personality stats of a dragon. This mostly affects how they move in battle - Wisdom affects which attack they'll use in preference, Intimacy affects how far they stay near a teammate, etc. These stats can also have a strange affect on the dragon's form, though I'll leave that up in the air until we come across it later.

In any case, it's better to show, not tell, so let's see it in action. First we'll open up the item menu by selecting "Feed Dragon".



The types of stats growths can be generalized based on the types of items themselves - staves increase Mind, armour raises Vitality, etc. Since VicViper's Life stat is the highest of the other elements, we're going to try raising that first by feeding him some of the Life Grass we got earlier.



Now, we'll select the amount to feed him...



And PANTS will use the item on him, raising his Life stat.



However! Something interesting happens when we raise his Life stat - his form changes! Every so often when a dragon gains a level in an element, they'll change appearance accordingly. This is mostly for anesthetic affect, however it does play an element in some of the later, stronger forms.

Well, that's dragon feeding in a nutshell. I forgot to mention that there are also hidden stats - Earth, for example, is an element-neutral attack determined by the points put into Fire, Ice and Thunder, or Personality, which determines the aggressiveness of a dragon and is completely uncheckable. However, since that's more advanced stuff and I don't have the means at the moment to show you how they work, I'll leave that until we're better stocked up.

Note that, though I ran us through it this time, I'll be letting you guys choose which stats to raise in future installments. Want to see Salamando learn how to breathe Ice? Let me know!

All right, I guess it's time we move on with the game, huh? Onward!



>Um, that's kind of awkward...

Sendak: But I will fall off... Let me hold on...

I'm not saying nothin'.



Manyo: Manyoooo! (When we die, we'll die together!)

Ugh, Mini-Devils. I'll explain what they do later on if I still care by then.



Right, one more thing - before you enter a battle, you have the option of editing your formation, equipment, etc. How you arrange your team before you enter a battle can affect the outcome of a battle greatly, so always make sure you have everything prepared before hand.

However, we won't able to modify our team until next chapter, so I'll hold off on explanation for each of the classes when I can get better screenshots for them. For now, let's continue the game and start with the chapter fight.

Matelite: We're gonna kick the crap out of them and take back Kahna's flagship!!

You heard the man. Charge!!



That, uh, isn't exactly something to be proud of. Oh well. Let's attack now then.



The battle itself isn't terribly difficult - the terrain is flat and narrow, which forces us to fight them head-on, and we're stronger than them by far. And even if the enemies were tough, we could just lure the boss close and mob him for a quick victory.



This is what the battle screen is supposed to look like, by the way. Note that since we powered up VicViper's Life stat we can now use Drug attacks to drain HP from the enemy, but it doesn't really matter since the two attacks we have are too close in level.



Something I forgot to mention last time - the items you win in battle are affected by the element you killed them with. For example, since I used Fire attacks this time, we won a bunch of Fire Grass to raise our dragons with. Be sure to keep this in mind if you plan on raising specific elements.



Afterwards, VicViper follows up our assault by attacking the Ice Magi in the enemy army's flank.



One interesting thing about Field attacks is that they stack - if more than one character has the ability, their spell levels are added together in the attack itself. For some classes this is important, though we don't really get a chance to fudge those around until we can edit our formations.

By the way, I'll explain the differences in classes later as well, since there's not much point when there's nothing we can do about shifting them around at the moment.



Calzone here one of the more aggressive dragons in the game - his personality stat, if I remember correctly, is the highest of them all, driving him to confront enemies whenever he can. Contrast this to Polaris and Wh.MAGE, whom prefer fighting at a distance. Amazing what the little touches can do for a game, isn't it?



Since the rest of my team is too far away to attack, I'll end their turns for now. Though Polaris here is insistant on getting the last word.

Now it's time for the enemy's phase.

Right away, they go after PANTs and company, but it doesn't work quite in their favour. Because of our superior fighters, they go down one after the other.



VicViper doesn't feel like helping out, oddly enough. Depending on the loyalty stat, a dragon may sometimes opt out of helping you in a fight. It's not too big of a deal though, as it just means that less damage gets dealt this turn than I had hoped, and I shouldn't have to rely on the dragons jumping in regardless.



In any case, he's fighting off his fair share of enemies on the other side of the map, so he's at least helping us in that respect. Speaking of which, we better heal him up next turn when we get the chance.



Finally, the enemy's turn ends with a ranged attack from the Boss. It's not terribly powerful, and the drain attacks we got from VicViper will keep us healthy enough, so it's not too much to worry about.



Now that it's our turn again, I have PANTS's group get to work dismantling the soldiers surrounding the Boss. Which, thanks to the ranged attacks by Polaris and VicViper last turn, go down after the assault.



VicViper, meanwhile, takes on the Magi again. I better heal him up soon before he falls.



Zora here is a Priest, which means she has access to the healing spells that the other team members do not. The Priest class's abilities are a bit more unique than the others, but I'll get into that next time when I can go over all of the classes more easily.



Wh.MAGE does her thing and takes out the soldier in the lower left.



And Sendak weakens the rest a little more with magic. One more attack should finish them off, but we can save that for the enemy's phase.

Or have Calzone finish them off, I guess. Either one works.



Finally, the turn ends with Polaris hitting the Magi and boss in the back with his Ice Breath. Unfortunately, due to their resistances it ends up healing the Magi a bit from it, but it's nothing too serious.



And the enemy attacks as usual...



The Magi cast their spells...



And the boss throws his lance...



And wouldn't you know it? It's our turn again. However, because VicViper's running out of HP and this update's dragging on as it is, we should probably take out the boss now.



Matelite, using his trademark Inspire attack, leads the assault, knocking off roughly 700 HP with help from the others.



Polaris, not seeing the importance of taking out the boss, targets this soldier instead.



It's a moot point though, as PANTS's team finishes him off next turn.

Lanzenritter: Screw this!! You can have the damn ship!!



*victory fanfare*

Matelite: OK!! I'm taking charge of the ship!! Everybody get inside!!

Meanwhile, on the flagship of Kahna...



Taicho: It is I, Taicho! We have just arrived!

(Good lord, he actually does announce himself like this whenever he talks).

Matelite: How rude! Nobody's here to greet us! Taicho, follow me!

Sendak: Ah, the good old Kahna flagship. It still seems to be doing just fine.



Hornet: Your friends are on the bridge.

Introducing Hornet, the pilot of the flagship. He's blocking the doorway to the bridge right now, but he moves aside right after he says hello.

Hornet: Come with me!

-

Matelite: Taicho! Where are you?

Taicho: Matelite! I am stuck in here!



I wonder who it can be? Hohoho!



Sendak stops PANTS to ask him something.

Sendak: The truth is... we need to think of a new name for the ship. But... I'm not very good at that kind of thing... I'm sure you can come up with a good one. Please, choose a really hip name!

A name? Well, all right then. What to call it...



What? It's a good name! You guys are all just jealous.



See? Sendak agrees with me.

Matelite: Hmph! Papillon!!

"Papillon! Let's go!"

Hornet: Come with me!

All right already! Geez, a bit of a nag, aren't you Hornet?

Hornet: Sorry to make you wait! We brought your leader back. Captain Sendak is with us too.

Diana: PANTS's here!!

I am!!

Frederica: PANTS!! We were waiting for you!

Diana: We were getting worried since you were late.

Introducing the Priests Frederica and Diana. They'll be helping out Zora with the healing, I assure you. As for the two in the corner, well-



Hey, I was trying to say something here, Hornet. Geez, you'd think I could get a word in edg-

Hornet: Okay, Captain Sendak! Give the order for departure! ...That's right! I forgot! You decided on a name for the ship, didn't you?

Sendak: The name of the ship is...



Taicho: Matelite! Wait!

Cue Matelite's and Taicho's abrupt entrance. Talk about throwing your weight around, eh?



Hornet doesn't give a damn and tells them to shut up. Serves them right I suppose (though Hornet isn't much to talk, considering what a demanding nag he's been up to this point).



Matelite doesn't approve, however. Hornet responds in kind by throwing him into a wall.

Hornet: Okay, Captain Sendak. Now for the ship's name.

Sendak: Ahem! Okay, get ready now...



Taicho: The flagship of Kahna!? But something seems missing!



Matelite's figured it out. He hands something to Taicho and gestures to the blank wall above the.. windshield? Window? What's it called on an airship anyway?

Taicho: T-this is...! Sir Matelite!! As you wish, SIr Matelite! Here I go!



He them proceeds to climb up the wall (how dangerous!) out of sight, then drops back into view. What did he do, you ask?

Taicho: Sir Matelite!! Look!!



There we go. After all, what's a flagship without a flag? Matelite then begins narrating...

Matelite: Our kingdom of Kahna... BRIEFS... Master Sendak! PANTS!! Someday... We will hang many more flags up here!! Taicho!! The day when we hang the flag of your kingdom of Mahal will come without fail! We are fighting for that day! The battle has just begun! I am Matelite!



This seriously took me four hours to finish.

Next week - Chapter 2: The Legend we Dreamed of...

Whew, that was a nice vacation. Sorry about the wait guys, but we're back and better than ever. So now, we take a break from the rebellion's side of the story and cut to the villains that we so desperately seek...



You sure? She doesn't look asleep to me (unless BRIEFS can sleep with her eyes open... creeepyyy).

Sauzer: Palpaleos... There you are. You can't sleep either?

Palpaleos: No...

Sauzer: Don't worry about it. Can you feel it...? The legend we dreamed of is here, now.

Palpaleos: On this green continent of Campbell?

Sauzer: Yes... This girl will fulfill our dreams. She will fulfill the legend. No, it's rude of me to call her a girl. Princess BRIEFS has become very beautiful.

If I were BRIEFS, I would probably be fearing for my life right about now.

Sauzer: Palpaleos... The day we leave is close at hand. Please rest.

Palpaleos: (The legend we dreamed of...)

Cue yet another flashback!



Sauzer: Look at the sky... The sky is ours. But not all of it.

Palpaleos: Sauzer...

Sauzer: There is a legend... One spoken of in Kahna. Do you know of it?

Palpaleos: The legend of the Holy Dragon...

If you're expecting an explanation of the legend, don't get your hopes up - we don't actually get to hear it for ourselves until a few chapters later.

Sauzer: Do you think I can do it? Do you think I can become the man of legend? I am the man who conquered the skies. If there are any battles before me, I will accept the challenge. And then I will achieve victory!

Palpaleos: Victory for a new era...

Sauzer: A new victory together. Always be at my side, Palpaleos.

Well, backstories are all well and good, but let's get back to the action now, shall we? Onward, to...





Rush: He thinks he' such a big shot, yelling at us to line up and wait like that...

Back at base, our army is lined up and waiting for Matelite to come out and train them. Which... doesn't make much sense, to be honest - shouldn't the training have been done before they started their assault?

But whatever, we've got some spare time to wander about. First off, let me introduce the guys we got last time:



Frenze & Reeve: We attack from far away! Lan...lan...lancers!

Frenze and Reeve are our first two lancers on our team. I'll go into the job specifics more once we get to the formation screen, but needless to say you'll want to talk to these guys between battles because the mini soap-opera that goes on between them is hilarious.

Anyway, time to move the story forward. Onwards...



Taicho: Be quiet and listen to Matelite's speech!



There's actually very little difference between the long and quick version; the text is essentially the same, except the music is sped up and Matelite runs around the room instead of his usual slow walk, and also starts to gasp for breath after a while due to the strain. Needless to say, we're going for that choice.

Did I mention this game was silly?

Matelite: (Do it just like I practiced...)



Matelite: We are raising a flag in opposition to the Granbelos Empire! We are the freedom force that will save all the lagoons of our world of Orelus from the rule of the Empire!



Matelite: However, It seems there are people who don't understand! First, I will have to show you what rules and orders are!



Matelite: The one who will command the Resistance is... ME!



Matelite: If I'm going to be the one who takes command of the battle, then the captain of Papillon, Kahna's... No... the Resistance's flagship will be... Master Sendak!!



Matelite: You handle the controls! You, over there!

Hornet: Tell me when to make Papillon leave!

How rude! You could have just asked me to leave the room, you know.

Matelite: Taicho is the squad captain!



Matelite: Okay, everybody! From now on follow the rules! We're going to practice now! Do what I say Okay, here we go!

After he finishes, he starts to order you to change facing (eg. Face straight, turn left, etc.). Remember during the Junon Parade in FFVII when you have to show off to Rufus? Same thing, basically.

Matelite: Bwahaha! PANTS! It looks like ou still don't understand what rules are!



Matelite: I don't know if you're just acting like a leader or what, but you're now in charge of miscellaneous duties! Go study up about things like formation!

tl;dr: We're now in charge of this operation.



Matelite: Taicho! I'm tired, you take over!

Taicho: !!! You want me... to explain? (Oh no... I am not very good with formation... because you can create strong parties with it.) PANTS... You know about formation, do you not?

Since I'm just going to explain it myself later on, I think I'll save Taicho the stress and pass on his offer. So... "Yes, I know about it!"

Taicho: (That's good... You should choose a suitable formation...)

And the Dragonkeeper floats up to the cockpit via air balloon and crashes the meeting through the window. Talk about badass.



Dragonkeeper: You have to be friendy with dragons! I'll teach you how to take care of them! Let's go!

Meeting ajorned, there's not much else to do but head downstairs and meet up with him, as we're too poor to actually go shopping yet and we don't really need to update our wares for some time yet - at the moment, our teams are far beyond whatever the game can throw at us.



Dragonkeeper: Okay! Shall I teach you about how to take care of the dragnons?

Gah, I jumped the gun and explained dragon-feeding a little too soon with the previous update, so I'll sum it up again for those of you reading:

�Feeding dragons raises their stats, from battle-specific ones like Strength to elemental-based ones like Fire or Life.
�The dragon's skill with an element carries over to the team it's paired with. A dragon with level 2 fire, for example, will grant their allied team level 2 fire abilities.

As long as you keep those two things in mind, you're pretty much set for the game. By the way, as a reminder you guys get to choose how I raise my dragons. Hell, I'll even open the floor to the special, weird forms if you guys want me to. As it is, the dragons will have to go without because no one picked anything for them. You monsters.

By the way, we get a new dragon now!



Dragonkeeper: Okay then! You can do whatever you want now!

But what to name him? Perhaps after a member of Talking Time?



Yep.



What's interesting to note about Brandon is that he's the only dragon to start with two elemental attacks in his arsenal, bringing him up to speed with the others without having to feed him much. He's got decent enough strength and HP, but his other stats bear watching.

Personality-wise, Brandon's a pretty timid dragon, as more often than not he'll opt to attack at-range whenever the option presents itself. That doesn't mean he won't ever go into combat, however...

Well, formation aside, that's pretty much it for the tutorial aspect of the game. Time to move on with the story.



"Later", of course, means "now", since we can see him anytime we want but can't move onto the battle until we do.



Sendak: The truth is, I... I have always been lacking a sense of direction ever since long ago... So I don't really know where our destination should be... PANTS... Take care of it for me. Can you give Hornet our destination and the order to depart?



And he laughs, completely out of the blue.

...

Anyway, we promise since it means becoming replacement Captain and PANTS is not one to refuse a promotion like that. He's got plans, man. Big plans.



Note: Sendak is seriously man-crushing on PANTS, and it'll only grow more and more blatant as the game progresses. Better get used to it when you can.

Sendak: Ah.. so you will take care of it for me? You really are nice, PANTS. Well, I have to take care of the crew's wages and such, so... Keep our promise a secret from everybody else...



>Let's go!



Rush: On the green continent of Campbell!! Right, PANTS?!

Hornet: Okay! We'll go over the details later! Let's go! Full speed ahead, Papillon!

So... many... exclamation marks...



And thus we cry havok and let loose the dragons of war. Onwards, to battle!

But first, our formations.

Now that we're out of the tutorial stage of the game, we've got all but one of our menu options available for us to use, one of which being the recently-revealed formation sub-menu.



Formation, in a nut-shell, is basically the make-up of our teams, which we rearrange by switching around characters with each other until we get what we want. As Taicho mentioned above, you can make very powerful teams via formation, as active and passive abilities stack depending on the number of units that can use them.

The general rule-of-thumb when it comes to formations is to pair like-with-like; Wizards should go with Wizards, Lancers with Lancers, etc. in order to take full advantage of their field skills. However, with combat-only classes (them being the Knight, Heavy and Light Armors), this gets reversed; you'll want to split them up as much as possible in order to have their passive bonuses split up amongst the physical teams. This also helps the slower units get to the front lines faster due to the LA's movement bonus, as well as helps them deal more damage thanks to support from the Knights and Heavys.

However, the game's easy enough that you can stay with the default formations and still be able to win, though the later battles will tend to be tougher than if you set things up perfectly. In any case, the game's not so hard that things have to be perfect, so don't be afraid to be experimental if you want to.

Anyway, since I've been promising class explanations for two updates now, I might as well get it over with.



First off is the Cross Knight. Their trade-mark skill, Swordtech, can be used both inside and out of battle, dealing elemental damage to whatever's caught in range. Statistically speaking, they tend to be pretty well-balanced units overall.

As of the moment, PANTS is the only one we've got, but much later another Cross Knight will join our team, giving our leader's skills the much-needed ability to stack.



Next up are the Knights. The most combat-oriented class in the game, the knights specialize in beating things to death in close counters with their techniques. They also gain a critical bonus as well, making them great for boss-killing and other general assaults.

There are three knights in the game, and we've already got them: Rush, Bikkebakke and Truce joined way back in the prologue, meaning we don't have to watch out for any others to join our team.



On the more defensive front are the Heavy Armors, whom specialize more in their resilience than their strength. They tend to fall behind the other units more often than not, and it's not like the enemy stands much of a chance yet of actually killing us, so they tend to fall behind until much later when the difficulty starts to scale more.

As with the knights, we've already got all of the ones in the game (Taicho, Barcley, Gunso), so, again, no worries here.



Matelite is an interesting specialization of the Heavy Armor: he only gets one skill to use, but his growths are better and he can actually use it outside of battle. He's still not very good, however.



On the flip-side are the Light Armors. While the Heavys specialize in defense, the Lights specialize in speed, but that's not important; the Light Armor's greatest asset is the bonus they give to a units movement, with three LAs granting as big a bonus as 15 more move per turn (!) once you max out their skill. All in all, they're very valuable units to have on your team, even for this skill alone.

Unlike the other two fighter groups, we've only got one Light Armor on our team, with two more joining later on in the game. What's more, the second Light Armor is actually missable, so be sure to keep an eye out for her as you progress through the game.



Unlike the other three main physical classes, the fourth class, Lancer, can actually attack on the field! Howevever, their trademark lance attacks are pretty horrid, only being able to target two panels away when other units can target five or more. Still, they're helpful to have in battle, since they turn into Target-All elemental skills, but otherwise they're pretty much out-classed by the other units available.

What's annoying is that the Lancers are really amusing characters otherwise; Frenze and Reeve have this weird soap opera-ish relationship going on throughout the game that's really strange to watch, and the latter two lancers we recruit are bizarre in their own, unique ways.

Moving onto the magical classes now, the Wizard specializes in attacking at a range. Due to the effects of elements on the environment and the fact that field attacks tend to grow weaker as the game progresses, they tend to be more useful for demolition than anything else, but otherwise you'll probably be seeing a lot more of them as the game progresses.

As with all of the classes with field attacks, there are four wizards in total, three of which we already have (Melodia, Anastasia, Ectarina). Later on when we recruit our fourth spellcaster, I'll probably pool them all together into one magic unit to take full advantage of their skills.



And, of course, where there's a Wizard, there's always a Priest. Priests, as you may have guessed, focus entirely on healing other units and keeping them alive. They also have a few status effects, too! However, because healing isn't as important an issue as dealing damage, they tend to be left in the wayside in favour of more powerful units, but they're okay, nonetheless.

Like Wizards, there are four Priests in the game and we've already recruited all but one, and I'll probably push them together like I will with the Wizards. So, yeah.



Outside of the Wizard and Priest lies the Summoner. As you may have noticed, their skill lies in being able to summon powerful beasts to the field to way laste to anything caught in range. And I mean that with no exagerration, mind you - the Summoner is, by far, the most powerful class in the gme. However, until the summons actually become available, the Summoner is stuck as a watered-down version of the Red Mage, with a grand total of three spells at his arsenal.

Probably in order to balance out the power of summon spells, there are only two Summoners in the game, the first being Sendak and the second joining in a few chapters from now. Until we actually get their first summon, they probably won't be doing much, but once they do they'll probably become the main source of damage for the remainder of the game.



And, last but not least, are the Mini-devils, which are... strange units. Strange, in the sense that their skills range from "game-breaking" to "absolute garbage". As you may have noticed, Mini-Devils can't attack - their only skill available is Dance, which is essentially a random attack against whatever's targeted. Honestly? I never bother with them since there are other, better options available to use in place of them, but I've heard stories of how people have turned them into engines of mass destruction.

Anyway, there are four Mini-Devils in the game, and we've recruited two of them so far, Manyo and Monyo. Don't expect to see much of them though; as I said, there are better characters to use than them.

There are a few more classes available as the game progresses, but I'll go into them later when their respective units joined. As for formations, I'll just leave the guys as they are right now until some more units join; once I get one more Light Armor and the last few mages, there'll be a huge team overhaul to be done.



Anyway, onto the fight in question. Like the last few, it's pretty much a straight trek towards the boss, defeating whatever gets in our way in the meantime. Those warbusters are a little worrisome though, but they should be nothing we can't handle so long as we take it slow.



Matelite: Right!! Princess BRIEFS!! Matelite is on his way!! Let's go everybody!! This time we'll show them what we're made of!!

I know he's supposed to be shouting, but man... does he really have to be so loud?



Taicho: We are poor! We need money! Money, money, money!!

Matelite: Crush them in head-on attacks! And take no prisoners!

Matelite and Taicho actually bring up an interesting point. Since extra money means better equipment and healthier, better fed dragons, it's generally a good idea to weaken enemies with ranged attacks and have the melee units finish them off in order to get the extra money. Isn't too much of a big deal, however, so don't overthink things too much.

Sendak: The green continent of Campbell... Something is in the air...

And it begins! As I said earlier, nothing too complex.



This should illustrate just why Lancers aren't very good. Compared to Cross Knights and Wizards, Lancers just don't make very effective field units.



Thankfully, Brandon is more than willing to make up for his teammate's ineffectiveness by softening up these soldiers with Hellfire. He takes a few hits, however, but it's nothing too bad.



Zora patches him up with her patented White Drug, while Wh. MAGE deals a heavy blow to one of the soldiers.



And afterwards, PANTS, VicViper and Polaris finish him off in quick succession.



The enemy starts their advance during their phase, but nothing much happens since they're not in our range yet.

Next turn, Sendak and Calzone make up for wasted time by going after this soldier here. Note the changed forest graphic due to the forest fire.



Matelite still isn't in range to attack, but Polaris doesn't seem to mind.



Since they're out of range, PANTS, Brandon and VicViper set to work weakening this Warbuster unit...



While Zora and Wh.MAGE heal everyone up for the next turn.

Since we were unable to finish them off last turn, the two Soldier units near the bottom of the screen attack Matelite and Calzone. They get the worse of it, however.



The Ice Magus near the top tries to put VicViper to sleep, but it fails. To be honest, I'm not sure I've ever seen the spell succeed.



Finally, their turn ends by attacking Frenze's & Reeve's unit here, taking some damage from their dust attacks.



When our turn rolls around, Brandon flies in and finishes him off.



Sendak here kills one of the Soldiers and cripples the other...



Which Matelite and Calzone finish off afterwards.

Next, we get some healing courtesy of our healers.



The enemy forces end their turn without any attacks, giving us the opportunity to continue our march northward.



This warbuster standing in our way takes a bit of a beating at the hands of PANTS and VicViper, but still stands.



Meanwhile, Sendak and Calzone start on attacking the Ice Magi in the corner...



While Frenze, Reeve and Brandon take out the Warbuster. The soldiers are still standing though, but they're not much of a threat.

Then we finish with a little more healing...



Oddly enough, the Ice Magi opts to try and put Calzone asleep instead of attacking him, but I'm not one to complain about these kinds of things.



Enraged at the loss of their leader, the two soldiers attack Brandon and eat some Ice Breath in return.



The other Warbuster unit follows behind with their own attack as well.



Matelite's team has fallen a bit behind, and thus is unable to land an attack this turn while Polaris tries to make up for it on his own.



Meanwhile, PANTS takes out all but one soldier in the neighbouring Warbuster unit while VicViper terrorizes the other Ice Magus.

Intent on removing that last soldier from the map, Frenze/Reeve and Brandon throw one attack after another at it, but somehow it survives.



Sendak finishes off the Ice Magus. Nothing to see here.



Calzone and Wh.MAGE team up to finish off this surprisingly resiliant soldier while Zora heals the former dragon. Calzone's HP is getting a little low, so I'll have to play it a little safe for now.



Next turn, the remaining Ice Magi and Lazenritter launch an attack, the latter getting a pretty big hit in, however...

Now that the boss has moved close enough for us to attack, the battle has all but ended now that we can swarm and kill him.



Ayep.



Lanzenritter: Groyer... You're the last defense now...



Victory! Glory to the Resistance Army!



Next time: The Green Continent of Campbell.

Another quick one today - the early chapters aren't too difficult, and there isn't as much story going by, so the updates for now are a snap. In any case, let's follow our heroes as they push forward through:





PANTS, Matelite, and all the rest rush into the scene, swords a-blazing, before stopping to survey their surroundings.



Yep, that's one hell of a fortress all right. Why does it have two sets of walls, though? Is the Granbelos Empire really that paranoid? Are they just huge fans of walls?



Matelite: BRIEF! Hold on just a little longer! Okay, you guys!! Follow me!

(Matelite Leaves)

Rush: "You guys?" Is he talking to us?

Lukia: Calm down, don't get upset. Okay, let's go!



Rush and Lukia then rush off, leaving PANTS with Sendak to restock and feed the dragons. But first...

>Call the dragons

Sendak: Ah, you are going to feed them! Over here, over here!



PANTS then does his dragon-calling thing, much to Sendak's awe and adoration. But first, who's that suspicious fellow in the corner?



Perfect timing, I was just about to prepare my stuff. You wouldn't mind if I took a look at your wares, good sir?



Never mind about that, then. All of the equipment and items this guy is selling is either stuff we're equipped with or have in abundance, so spending money at this stage of the game is just a waste. It's not even that good for dragon-feeding - you get better equipment for the task from defeating enemies anyway.

Speaking of which, it's dragon-feeding time!

Since you guys don't seem to care about how I raise my dragons, I think I'll just forgo the polling from now on and do it myself...? In any case, I fed VicViper a Flame Vest in order to up his defense a bit while pushing his fire skills up to lv 3. This should come in handy for PANTS's team, upping the damage they deal with their skills and making them even more of a threat to bosses.



Afterwards, I fed him an extra Long Sword to boost his Strength a little bit, but otherwise he's doing pretty fine so far; if the fire items keep dropping at the rate they're are, he'll probably max that stat in a few chapters.



Next, I got to work feeding Brandon some Thunder Grass to raise his Thunder stat a bit. Since he came preloaded with Lv 1 fire and ice, I'm planning on turning him into the Jack-of-all-Trades of the dragons, and though it didn't seem to push it over the Lv 1 threshhold quite yet, its gotten him almost all of the way there.



I also added a few points to his Poison stat, but it, too, doesn't quite make it there. Still, he's well on his way to getting levels in those stats, so it was hardly a waste.



And, of course, I gave him a few blades of Earth Grass for good measure, since he'd be the one to get the most out of it.

Since Polaris's personality has turned him into a sniper of sorts, I dumped a lot of Ice Grass onto him to boost his Ice stat closer to VicViper's. He's still a little behind, but it's nothing to worry about in this stage of the game.



Out of all of the dragons this chapter, Calzone probably had it the best. Seeing as I had a bunch of Blaze Axes lying around and VicViper's Fire stat was already decent, I dumped them onto Calzone and wow. Not only does he get access to Lv 2 Fire skills right off the bat, but his Strength gets a significant boost as well. He'll probably be serving as our powerhouse for quite a while, at least until the others catch up.

Also check out the new form he's got. Pretty badass, huh?



Since fire items seem to be dropping the most, I drop the rest of the Fire Grass onto Wh.MAGE to grant her some offensive ability. The logic behind this is that more enemies will drop fire items when they die from fire attacks, which will in turn fuel their growth in that stat.

Wh.MAGE, too, gets a new form-change, though it isn't as cool-looking as Calzone's.



I also dumped a bunch of Drugs onto Wh.MAGE in order to boost her HP, but it didn't improve nearly as much as I hoped. Note-to-self: Drugs suck for dragon-feeding.

Well, now that we've got the feeding and restocking finished, it's time to charge the fortress like a dead battery. Let's go!

Sendak Give it your all! The princess is waiting!



Groyer: Huh?! The Resistance is approaching!

I really love how all of the bosses we've fought so far are a bunch of incompetents that don't care at all about their job. Really, one has to wonder where the Empire recruits these guys.



Anyway, the battle is the same as before - charge the boss and whup his ass. However, there are a few new tricks to the battles this time around.

First off is the introduction of new terrain. As you may have noticed, the fortress we're storming is heavily walled, forcing us to push through the gates and creating a bottleneck This'll create a problem as we approach, limiting our movement through the games and preventing us from making more strategic moves.

Second is the large river in front of us near the start. Since we've only got one narrow bridge to cross and we don't have nearly enough magic yet to freeze enough water to cross, it'll slow down our march as our units waste their time lining up as the rest of their movement range is blocked off by the others occuping it.



Anyway, our turn begins in earnest with Calzone celebrating his new form by zapping this unwary warbuster unit near the gate. It doesn't deal too much damage, however - I may have to dump a few items in Calzone's Thunder stat to bring him up to speed with the others.

Also note that his attack smashed down the walls surrounding the soldier, widening the gap for us to move forward in. Thunder (and, later, Earth) are very important for demolition purposes, and it's always a good idea to keep the element on-hand just in case.



Polaris and Brandon, too, bring the hurt on the warbuster unit as their masters find themselves shuffling at the other end of the bridge.



PANTS follows up behind them with a spell of his own, severely weakening the two mages behind the Warbuster unit while also stripping him of his reinforcements.



Which VicViper hurts even moreso when his turn comes around.

One other thing that I forgot to mention is that the buildings littering the map here and there restore a small percentage of HP per turn, similar to that of the Fortresses and thrones in Fire Emblem. It doesn't heal that much however, so don't make bother with destroying or occupying them.



The remaining warbuster and soldiers make various suicide runs at VicViper, getting wiped out in the process. I also get a bunch of fire items, too - when the next update comes around, I may just give them all to VicViper and power him up right away.



Anyway, our turn comes around soon enough. With the three units at the beginning out of our way, PANTS's team gets to work dismantling this warbuster. Note the amount of damage - it's increased by roughly 200 HP thanks to the one level VicViper gained in fire.



VicViper, thinking ahead, takes a potshot at the boss. It doesn't deal much damage, however.



Sendak's unit, just reaching the action, lends a hand by shocking the soldier and warbuster, while Calzone rushes forward to engage the latter.



Wh.MAGE, sick of being left behind, decides to try out her new fire skill on the warbuster and soldier. One or two more attacks should finish it off.



Which Brandon and Polaris (not shown) oblige us with.

The catapults in the corner start hitting at us from a range, hitting PANTS for a fair amount of damage. It's nothing serious, but it's something to watch out for.



Because of VicViper's rush last turn, he's left himself wide open for the enemies to swarm him. He fights back just as hard though, but he may need a heal before this is all over.



Thankfully, the enemy army's clustering works for us as well, with this single cast of Flame Gaze hitting the group for a significant amount of damage.



Calzone and Brandon seem to agree, and start laying into the group with attacks of their own.



Though a little healing wouldn't hurt. Wh.MAGE seems intent on attacking though.

And Polaris follows all of this up with an attack of his own.



With the warbuster unit in the way, PANTS's unit has no choice but to kill it to clear a path north.



VicViper decides to end the turn by engaging the boss and taking a beating from his patented Daikon Chop (I am not making this up).



Taking advantage of our lack of manuverability, the catapults from before begin the enemy phase by taking shots at our team. There's not much we can do about them annoyingly enough, so we'll leave them be and focus on the boss.



Due to Vic's blunder, he takes a beating from the surrounding enemies and gets rewarded with a dirt nap. Thankfully, deaths in Bahamut Lagoon aren't permanent, and he's already attacked enough that the EXP bonus at the end doesn't matter as much. However...



With Vic gone, PANTS et al are unable to use their skills anymore, forcing them to rely on physical attacks. This is obviously pretty bad, and I probably should've set Vic to Wait in order to prevent it, so let's treat this as an object lesson on the importance of managing tactics.



In any case, PANTS's unit is plenty strong on their own, taking off 1,000 HP from Groyer without special attacks. Rush falls from Groyer's attack however, but Zora's more than ready to help him back on his feet.

The annoying thing about the dragons' targetting is that they tend to go for the weakest enemy in range instead of the most important one. Hence Wh.MAGE's insistance on targeting this soldier and ice magus.



Matelite clears a path through the wall using his trusty Inspire attack while Polaris continues the trend of ganging up on the soldier.



It's almost comical, really.



The turn then ends with Sendak wiping out Groyer's guards while Calzone beats down the soldiers, netting me a handful of fire items as a reward.



The catapults, as if on queue, start firing at PANTS's team while the ice magi fire their spells.

Groyer and PANTS's unit trade blows for a bit, leaving both of them in critical status. It's calling it close, but the battle's all but over now.



Calzone seems intent on getting the last word in, however.



And that's all she wrote!

Groyer: Dammit!! Now I'm out of a job!



All too easy.



Tune in next time as the Empire leaves us full of regret.

Now that the tutorial and opening crap are done with, I find myself warming to this game. I also want to pat Wh.Mage on her head for her adorable insistence on fighting stupid. Let's give her some cookies, kay?

I would like to see the special forms you mentioned earlier. However, if that limits their effectiveness, do whatever makes them killing machines.

I didn't chime in earlier because I wanted to see how the game works a bit more.