Let's Battle Ogres! (Ogre Battle 64)

Revolutionary Soldier: B, bastards!

Dio: Is it the Southern Division?! Everybody, get ready !



Battle!

Dio's unit managed to lose somehow (which is a bit of a concern since this isn't the first time he's lost a battle), but we killed the leader so it doesn't really matter. But from now on we'll be running into Goblins (the ones with swords) and Ogres (the grey ones with hammers) very often.

Translation: the game is done toying with us.

Leia liberates Melphy, and Lichald fights the unit defending the stronghold to the east..and, wait, what?!!?



Our soldier got promoted already?! This is our first battle with this unit since putting a Soldier in it, and we used Soldiers in the first battle and in a training battle before this mission, so we do have some Soldier exp. under our belt. I guess Soldier exp. isn't limited to one unit. Wow. Even now I'm still learning things about this game! Well, hey...now we've got a new unit! We'll figure out what to do with him later. For now, let's move on.

Leia wipes out a Sorceress unit, and the stronghold in the east is liberated. Some time is spent moping up leftover units, and then it's time to head further east.



Hot Sorceress-on-Sorceress action! This is a screenshot of Ionosphere, BJ and Rumpus' unit's combination spell.

So far, all of the changes we've made to our units have worked out pretty well. Lichald's unit hasn't lost much in the damage department thanks to Lichald using the Flame Flail and Helm of the Fearless, Asnabel and Wario are both pretty strong in their own right but they'll be needing some help, and BJ now has combination magic on his side.

Moments like this are what Ogre Battle 64 is all about. You spend hours in the Organize screen tinkering with jobs and unit formation and equipment...and then you come up with a plan, and it works. It's just so damn satisfying.



Wait...where? Where the hell did he come from?! Was he just hiding down south the whole time?!



I just had to open my big mouth, didn’t I? The enemy sent a regular unit from the south and right to our HQ. The bottom line is that I was careless. I saw this coming, and I could have easily left Asnabel back at the HQ to stop it...but I didn't. I kept thinking that it was too early for the game to pull something like that, but then here it is. I should have listened to my own advice.

Like I said, the game is done toying with us. Well, we won’t get caught off guard next time.

From now on, we'll be leaving one unit behind at our HQ each mission. This mission will be Asnabel, since we only need a unit that's strong enough to repel the enemy and not necessarily wipe them out right away. We'll rotate which one gets left behind so they don't lose exp. And even if they do, we can always train them in between battles to keep them on par with everyone else.

Time to start over. Unfortunately, things don't go so smoothly this time. Asnabel pushes back the Doll Master unit in a different direction, and it captures the neutral town to the south.



And the Beast Tamer that killed us last time appears? So if we had just captured this one to begin with, we could’ve stopped the whole disaster. Well, alright. We'll send Dio down to help out Asnabel, Lichald and BJ will take the eastern stronghold, and Leia and G&G will take the one in the north.

Lichald gets in a fight and we get a new Fighter again, only this time his name is Otto. Dio gets in a fight with the Beast Tamer unit and...Ozzy dies!? What!? This map is just not going well. Dio's unit has really not been performing well lately. But, no matter. This is just an opportunity for me to show you all how reviving works in this game. We have more important things to worry about right now. The Beast Tamer unit's leader is dead, but the Doll Master unit is still around and needs to be dealt with.



As a matter of fact, here he is! In addition, a Berserker is headed towards Lichald and BJ, but since they're two of my best units, that should be no problem.



Yeah, no problem at all.



Things are still ugly down south, but the northern and eastern routes are under control. Asnabel takes care of the Doll Master's unit leader, so now we have two leaderless units and control of the southern stronghold. Dio isn't needed anymore, so we'll need to send him to the town with a Witch's Den in it to revive Ozzy. ...unfortunately, that's near the end of the map. Time to get moving, Dio!



G&G's unit is in a tiny bit of trouble, so I decide it's time to use a Pedra for the first time. It's kind of hard to tell since the background is messed up, but those are birds made of lightning that dive bomb the enemy. You may notice the Pumpkinheads we're up against too. Pumpkinheads are dangerous. In the front two rows they do an attack that halves your HP. In the back row they do an attack that halves their HP but does massive damage. They're never to be taken lightly.

Things are a bit better now. We've got a few units that need to be mopped up, and a few strongholds to capture...but Asnabel is almost finished clearing out the units near our HQ, and everyone else is on track.

While mopping up, Lichald finds an altar of resurrection! And Dio's unit is nearby! So we can trade the item to Dio's unit and revive Ozzy, and then we don't need the Witch's Den, right?

BUZZ. Wrong. That would be convenient. We can't have that, now can we? Whenever you find an item, it immediately goes into your army's inventory...not your individual unit's inventory. So we still need to head to the Witch's Den to get Ozzy back. Which really sucks because not long after this I found two more altars. This game can be a pain in the ass sometimes.

After a bunch of tracking down units and killing them, Dio avoids everyone and finally makes it to the Witch's Den.



Ozzy is back, and we now control all of the strongholds. Time to take on this area's boss, the lovable sidekick Ariosh.

But wait! Asnabel finally finishes off the Beast Tamer unit and...what the?! We have a new Fighter, Ralph! Already! That was damn quick! But let's stay focused and end this nightmare of a level. G&G and Lichald head to the enemy HQ and...



G&G: What are they!? You've sold your soul to the devil to defeat us!?
Ariosh: I, if not for you...the revolution...



You know, I always felt bad for Ariosh. He only has a handful of lines in the game (most of which I edited out of the first update), but he seemed like a good kid. He just didn't know what to do. Well, whatever. He's the boss so he's about to get raped. After a few battles, he goes down like the chump he is.



Hey, now we're talking. G&G can make use of this. So can Dio and G&G’s Knights, but whatever. I always give the main character in a game the best stuff. It just feels right, you know?



Ariosh: The...the general...H...e...Ugh...
Destin: That's enough, Goofus.
G&G: What on earth are they...?
Destin: I can't say if those creatures are truly Ogres.



THISISIMPORTANTREMEMBERIT

Destin: That means...either they've succumbed to the way of darkness, or...they came from the netherworld. They're denizens of the netherworld, aren't they!? Damn it, what did you do!?
Ariosh: The general...he sacrificed the people who ate the fruit of the netherworld...their bodies burst from the inside, and...the denizens of the netherworld, the Ogres, appeared...
G&G: Netherworld? ...Ogres!? What are you...Don't tell us a lie, just because you don't know what you're dealing with...
Destin: ...
G&G: The Ogre Battle is only a legend, isn't it...?

Nope! The Ogre Battle is sort of like Ragnarok in Norse mythology. It’s a battle that occurred between the humans and the denizens of the netherworld a long time ago, and all of the games (generally speaking) are about trying to stop the second Ogre Battle from beginning and to stop this guy called Rashidi (who is really evil) from taking over the world. In other words, shit’s gettin’ real. Ya dig?

This update took a lot longer to put together than I originally planned, so I'm going to call it a day.

Next time on Let's Battle Ogres!: Have fun storming the castle!

Sum Mannus is my favorite sword ever. You have to love a weapon that translates to "I am a horse".

By the way, Alixsar, what emulator are you using? Are you using any plugins? I just downloaded this rom to play along and my backgrounds seem to be messed up much more often than yours...

Status Report

Well, we've got two new units now. Let's see what we can do with them.



Otto, the Fighter in Lichald's unit, was able to turn into a Doll Master. We don't have any Doll Masters yet, so I figured what the hell? Why not? In addition, Doll Masters do the same damage in the middle row as they do up front, so he's a good candidate for being a middle row combatant. I moved him to Asnabel's unit, and turned Ralph into yet another Wizard. I then put a new Soldier cluster in Lichald's unit. I have a few reasons for doing this.

- When he's strong enough, WhiteMage is going to become a Ninja Master. In the back row, Ninja Masters use high level spells of a random element. We've got him paired with a Wizard now, so they'll eventually be able to use all kinds of combination magic. In addition, the Enchanter (the upgraded Doll Master) gets three attacks in the front row. So if we move our Ninja Master to the back with an Archmage and have an Enchanter and two Black Knights up front, our unit will be pretty damn strong. And that's the plan for now.

- Thanks to the Flame Flail and the Helm of the Fearless, Lichald is now my strongest character; even stronger than Rumpus. He's got Troi to back him up and two mages. His unit is already really powerful, whereas Asnabel's needs some help. A Doll Master in the middle row or another Phalanx up front to absorb damage would be great...so why not put a Soldier in with Lichald, get a new Fighter, and then make him into one of those two classes?

We're going to be getting some more recruitable characters in a few updates, so all of this will change. But for now, this is a good plan and we should stick to it.

Also, I should note that this is the most balanced army I've ever used. Typically I would use almost nothing but Knights/Paladins and Berserkers/Black Knights. I've never had less than six Knights/Paladins in my army ever, but here we've got Doll Masters and Beast Tamers!? I never use Doll Masters or Beast Tamers! And hell, Beef Jerky is one of my stronger characters. How the hell did this happen? Well, whatever. So far so good...except our Fencers aren't really pulling their weight yet. Eventually they'll be really strong, but for now they're just weaker Knights. Oh well; they'll get the hang of it eventually.

I'm toying with the idea of tracking down a wild Golem. Doll Masters give them a bonus just like Beast Tamers give beasts a bonus and Dragon Tamers give Dragons a bonus. If I can find a Golem, I'm going to name him Buckethead. And it's going to ROCK.

Names

So now we've got two more characters, a Doll Master and a Wizard. Anyone got any names out there? Remember: we still need names for our Valkyries, Sorceresses, and an Archer. Six female names and two males. Anyone got any ideas?

Project64. No plugins. And no, they probably aren't. A metric fuck-ton of my backgrounds are messed up. I just don't take screenshots of those battles/events if I don't have to. I try to keep screenshots to legit screens only.

It's OK, I've got an ogre-slaying knife! It's got a +9 against ogres.

I totally forgot about that. This game came out while I was in high school, during my extremely misguided effort to study Latin. None of my friends ever figured out why I laughed every time I saw that sword.

I don't remember much of OB64's plot, but I remember Baldwin.

I'm gonna go ahead and recommend Kankuro for the Doll Master's name.

Zinc sounds like a lovely name for one of the girls.

And Waffles for one of the males? I like waffles.

Ooh and maybe WonderWoman for a Valkyrie?

Sorry I haven’t updated in a few days everyone. I wrote the majority of this on Thursday night but I’ve been too busy with work/my real life to get around to posting it. But tonight I have the time, so get ready for a special double length update! Double the excitement! Double the thrills! Double the non-sensical pop culture references! Double the shoddy writing!

We've now captured the Central Route and it's time to take the southern region's headquarters at Alba. Our next map is small but absolutely brutal. Before we rush headfirst into certain doom, let's take a break and get some sidequests done.

When we last left the Dragoon and Princess sidequests, we had procured a Dragon Helm and gotten some info on where to get silk. We can't get the Dragon Armor yet, but we can get one step closer to getting the Princess.



Right now, we're at Dardunnelles on the 18th. We need to head to Melphy, a town in Darunnelles, on the 15th. It doesn't matter which month but it has to be the 15th. G&G and co. are going to be running around the world map doing nothing in particular but wasting time until it's the 15th. It takes seven days to travel to the nearest point on the world map. So that's two weeks roundtrip...which gets us back to Dardunelles on the 7th, which is too early. We can travel to the second closest point on the world map, which gets us back on the 15th...which doesn't give us enough time to get to Melphy.

This is why sidequests are a pain in the ass in Ogre Battle 64. You have to be ridiculously precise with an imprecise system. Luckily for us, we'll only need to deal with timed events like this one more time (to get a piece of material for the Dragon Armor). After running around the map for literally two months, I make it to Dardunelles on the 13th. I make it to Melphy on the 14th and just wait until it's the 15th. A peddler sells me a bolt of silk for a whooping 2000 goth, but it'll be worth it in just a minute. Now that we have the silk, it's time to head back to the Tenne Plains.

We need to send a female unit to Billney, so Leia heads off with the silk in tow.



Guy with Awesome Hat makes dresses, too?! Is there anything he can't do?

No. There isn’t.

Anyway, we pay him 2500 goth for the dress and after a bit of mostly pointless dialogue...



The Princess requires four items in order to be made. Two of them are common, the Pure-white Dress is the third, and the fourth one is the hardest to get of all. We can't even try to unlock it until much, much later in the game. So for now we're done with the Princess class quest. Right now we're at mission 9, and after mission 15 we can get the Dragon Armor. But for now we’re ready to…wait, stop.

You know what? I just remembered something. We never picked up the second elemental pedra! Let's head back to Mylesia real quick. After fighting a few training battles with G&G's unit...



A Dragoon appears! There's also a fire dragon, so that means that we'll be getting the Pedra of Fire if we win this battle. Go Goofus! For everlasting peace!!



G&G: OH SHI-

Yeah, this might be hard. Not only does that attack hit everyone, but it lowers everyone's strength as well. This means that even if you have a Cleric to negate the damage it does, eventually your attack will be so low that you'll only be doing 1 damage against the dragon. G&G's unit gets wiped out, so I temporarily bring Maxwell and Lichald into G&G's unit and try again. This time things go much better, and even though it's close, we're able to pull out a victory.



Instructor: I am sure this will help you. I want you to have this.



Later in the game we’ll need to repeat this “train a few times with G&G’s unit and then fight a Dragoon/Dragon”-routine to get the Pedras of Water and Earth. The pedras of Virtue and Bane are harder to get, but they’re not available for a while.

Okay, now we're all good on the sidequest front. Like I said before, we can't do anything else until after mission…

Monty Python: GET ON WITH IT!!!

Right.

WAIT I JUST HAD AN IDEA. We’re naming our Doll Master in Asnabel’s unit Tim. That way, when I make him an Enchanter, he’ll be Tim the Enchanter. Thanks Monty Python!

Hugo: The Central Division has taken the slaughter of the reinforcements at Dardunnelles as a mutiny by the Southern Division.
G&G: Wasn't the Southern Division...the general following the Central Division's orders?
Hugo: We have no idea why General Godeslas decided to involve those monsters. But it's certain that the Central Region is worried about Lodis. If they learn that Palatinus was employing monsters, nothing can be said if they consider this kingdom as a land of pagans. The entire Southern Division was cut off to emphasize that the Central Region took no part in the incident...
G&G: Cut off, huh...?
Hugo: Troops have been dispatched to control the chaos created by the monsters.



Hugo: ...We're on our own against the Southern Division.

In other words, Destin and everyone else are going to go fight monsters and, once again, we have to do everything. Le sigh.



This map is super small, but like most things that are small, it knows how to compensate. The northern path has a large number of units protecting the HQ. We'll send four units north to meet the bulk of their force, and two to the east to sneak around. Lichald and BJ will be needed on the front lines, Asnabel isn't quite strong enough (yet) to be trusted with the outer path, and G&G needs to stay protected...so Dio and Leia will take the eastern route.

Hugo: Even though it was abandoned by the Central Region, the Southern Division is a force to be reckoned with. I'm also concerned about General Godeslas' intentions. We must stay alert.
G&G: Regardless of why, this is a perfect opportunity for us. I want to meet the expectations of our sympathizers...and the Revolutionary Army, who took us in. Inform everyone to prepare for battle!
Hugo: Absolutely.

You need to work on your battle cry, Hugo. Remember what I said about this map being brutal?



Yeah, see? That's three units headed towards us, with more on the way. Again, this game is done toying with us.

Jesus Christ! The Pumpkinhead in the back row was able to bring my Archer down to 1 HP with Pumpkin Smash, and the one up front was able to take off half of Goofus' HP. Ridiculous. Luckily for us, we can use a Pedra since we took so much damage and we've now got two so it's okay to use one right away.



I guess that's a...salamander? Or something? I dunno, but it killed the annoying Pumpkinhead that uses Pumpkin Smash, so who cares what it is? It’s my friend.



After a string of battles, we are victorious! Lichald and Asnabel's units are able to take care of the leader of the Witch unit, and severely damage all of the other units. They all go running for cover at the next stronghold. Meanwhile, Dio and Leia are coming up on their destination and G&G is still healing after his encounter with the Great Pumpkin.



Even more fighting occurs, and now we've got a bit of a mess…but its okay because a fully healed Lichald/BJ/G&G/Asnabel are all headed towards the one stronghold that has almost all of the enemies units. It's gonna be bloody, but we'll do just fine.



Do you see those three units on the bridge near Godeslas? Yeah, Lichald's unit did that by itself. They fought five units: one was completely annhilated, they killed all but one member of one unit, and killed the leaders of the other three. Lichald's unit is just TOO GOOD. They can't be stopped!

Maybe I should change Lichald's name to Mr. Domino. After all, No One Can Stop Mr. Domino.



So after what seemed like four years of fighting, all of the units are routed and we're on our way to fight Godeslas. This map is by far the most straightfoward map so far. It's difficultly is in the fact that there's a million units to kill. I was able to kill all but one who got pushed into an area we can't access...but hey, that’s not bad.



Godeslas: Even I was branded as an insurgent...
Baldwin: It looks like this is the end of your career...You did quite well for yourself, don't you think?
Godeslas: Sir Baldwin!! What have you done!? No...you...you deceived me!?



I told you! This motherfucker! You can keep your Sephiroths and Kujas or whatever; this is how bad guys are supposed to be.

Baldwin: You just didn't put your power to good use.



Aww, poor guy. It wasn't his fault.

Baldwin: Silence! It was you who made up your mind to sacrifice your family!



Oh. Maaaaaybe not.

Baldwin: ...and now you dare blame me for your misdeeds!?



Baldwin: I'm sure you're glad to know that you were of good use to us. This was a very valuable case to examine. We learned that someone with little desire, like yourself, can only gain so much from the fruit of the netherworld. I'm afraid I must be going now. Did you finally realize that you can't do anything without our counsel? Are you angry at me, at yourself? Channel that rage. Strike back at the Revolutionary Army!



Ooooh. The power? What power? Could this be connected to that Aura Destin mentioned earlier?

Godeslas: Goofus, if only you hadn't betrayed me...what meaning did my life hold? You can't imagine what I went through for this!! Do you understand my pain!? Do you have anything you'd protect at all costs, even if you had to sacrifice your own family!?



Whoa shit! An Aura! And it's mighty Infernal looking, wouldn't you say?

The fight begins…Godeslas summons all of his rage and uses the spell Infest! Oh no! Can G&G withstand the sheer power of Godeslas' anger?! Can G&G stand up to the might of the dark power of the Netherworld!? Other dramatic cliffhanger sounding stuff!!!



Bwahahahahahhahahahahahahaha!!! Yes, yes we can! 8 damage to a Cleric. Come on, man! You can do better than that!



Then again, maybe he can't. Hurray, we won!

Godeslas: I will...reach...the...top...



An Estoc, huh? Dragon Tamers use Rapiers, but we don't have any of those. Maybe it's time we change one of our Valkyries into one? They have better stat growth than Valkyries but worse defense...it'd be a fair trade.

Frederick: Well done Goofus.
G&G: Frederick...did we do the right thing? Many were hurt. The entire kingdom and the Lodis Empire are against us.



If you act now, you get a second one absolutely free!!! But onnnnlllly if you call within the next 15 minutes!!

G&G: We haven't got the slightest clue as to what those monsters are. All is shrouded in mystery. Can we...can the Revolutionary Army overcome these obstacles?
Frederick: Honestly, we are in a very difficult situation. But Goofus, don't you think that the important thing now is to do our best?

I hate it when people say shit like this. "Let's do our best everyone!" You know what? Sometimes "your best" isn't good enough. We need to do all of that shit he just said, not "our best". Fuck you Fred.

Frederick: You refuse to respond when faced with a difficult problem? You only act when a solution is obvious? The future...our future is yet to be told. Listen, Goofus, to the people's cheers. What we do know is that the cheers that you hear...the rejoicing...is the result of what we've done.
N64 Sound Chip: This is people cheering! Can you hear it? I know it sounds like an ice pick being dragged along a shaggy carpet, but seriously! It's cheering!

Narrative: A few days after the liberation of the southern region...





Narrative: Two months later...

What you can't see in this picture is Yumil sitting in a throne off camera. And that's Ankiseth leading the troops. And he's headed for us? And there's a full scale battle taking place soon!? Foreshadowing?!!?

Narrative: Although the Eastern Orthodox Church received the same instructions, it chose to remain silent in the matter...

I wonder if they'll start acting up later and become our main opponents. More foreshadowing!



That is deep.

Ankiseth the Steadfast: My lord...we should go back.
Yumil: Ankiseth...what is my father's intention? What am I to do in Wentinus? He wants me to fight Lodis? What should I do? How can I gain his approval?
Unfamiliar Voice: There you are, my lord. I've been looking for you.



This! Mother! Fucker! (and remember that girl, too)

Baldwin: This is to commemorate your appointment as general...please accept this holy sword of the royal family.



You know. Needs.

Baldwin: Though she is of humble origins, I believe she is suitable to serve you, in both age and features...

Nudge nudge! She's a goer! KnowwhatImean, eh? Saynomore, saynomore!



Yumil: ...Why? I know you. Who are...you......?

Seriously, do we need to get into this again? We already took your license away Atlus!

*a small earthquake shakes everything and Yumil grabs Mari*

Yumil: ...an earthquake?
Baldwin: Oh, it seems the gods have taken a liking of our new general as well.

Narrative: Southern Region, Akka Castle

Frederick: Still no activity at the Eastern Orthodox Church...
Hugo: The Central Division is keeping a close watch over the area, presumably to prevent us from making contact with them. The Eastern Region, led by the Eastern Orthodox Church, has opposed the Central Region in the past. It can't be helped. They seem to have no intention of following the Central Region, but it's hard to say if they'll be on our side, or...against us.
Frederick: I see. What is the status of the Western Division?
Random Valkyrie: Since the appointment of Prince Yumil as commander of the Western Division, the troops have advanced to the border five times. This is the largest force we have yet encountered...they will most likely start advancing toward us in the next few days.
Destin: The Western Division bares its fangs at last...there's no way we can avoid this battle.



We haven't been introduced to Xevec yet, but…well, here he is. He's an important figure in the Revolution. He gets even more important as the game goes on, so remember him. I always thought it was really weird that you're never properly introduced to him and he just shows up randomly.

Xevec: Western Region in which people are enslaved. Why don't we liberate them and join forces?
Saradin: Are you talking about the mining facility in Audvera Heights? Most of them are Bolmaukans...

Bolmaukans. Read as: black.

Saradin: The Holy Lodis Empire will surely respond in kind.
Xevec: Nice and convenient for us, isn't it? Let them handle the Western Division and Lodis. A little give-and-take.
G&G: Xevec!! How can you say that!? Are you suggesting that we use the Bolmaukans? I thought our goal was to abolish the class system and declare independence from the Holy Lodis Empire. If that's true, then the Bolmaukans should be our allies, not a tool to serve our purpose...
Xevec: Shut up!! So what if your operation was a success?



Sorry, he’s right Goofus. He’s got a pretty sick beard. You can’t talk shit to a beard like that.

Xevec: Xevec: My only concern is acheiving our goal...winning this war. We set the Bolmaukans free, and they help us in return. Is that wrong? We don't use them; we fight together with them!! It's all for victory!
Frederick: It's important to win battles, but that is not our goal. Winning battles allows us to quickly achieve our goals, but the only thing we'd gain would be short-lived peace!
Xevec: Then tell me what the hell I'm supposed to do!! We can't contact the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Western Division is only a few days away, the Central Division is fast on our heels...and to top it all off, there's Lodis! Talking about ideals doesn't improve our situation! Or what, are you gonna kill us all!? We're gonna fight them anyway. Pushing them back to the Western Region isn't enough! We should advance into their territory! We free the Bolmaukans while we're at it, and prepare for Lodis' attack. And it's all for the sake of revolution!! You have a problem with this, Frederick?
Frederick: Goofus, head west to stop the advancement of the Western Division. And I want others on standby. I will contact each of you later about the plan.

Frederick: Do you still have something to say to me...?
Xevec: Frederick...you're our leader.



Xevec: Is it to pursue ideals, or to live in reality? Make up your mind, will ya?
Frederick: ...
Xevec: You'll understand eventually, the reality of it all...the reality that we have to face...

At this point we're sent back to the World Map. I only made one minor change to our army. I made one of Leia's Valkyries into a Dragon Tamer since, like I mentioned before, they have better stat growth. And we have a new rapier for her, so why not? We need to head to Mylesia (the map we escorted the Prince through before, see Episode 5), but as soon as we reach Crenel Canyon we're immediately thrown into battle!

G&G: What's wrong? We don't have time to spare.



Hugo: Actually, it doesn't seem like it's them. But they are hostile toward us for sure.

This map is the same it was the first time we played it (see Episode 4). It's small and pretty straight forward. The plan is simple too. Split everyone up, half goes east and then north and the other half goes west and then north. But...who are we up against? Who is waiting for us and not willing to let us through?

G&G's unit gained several levels last mission, so I decide to leave them to guard my HQ this map. We don't want any mistakes like the other day, right? Dio takes the lead on the eastern path with Leia and BJ close behind. Dio tackles a Phalanx and Sorceress unit, but he does alright. Lichald runs into the lone Wizard unit guarding the western stronghold and...



Revolutionary Army Soldier: This revolution will fail if we do it your way.

This ain't Burger King! You cannot have it your way!

Soldier: You get it? You're not wanted! Your presence is a burden. If you're so concerned about the revolution, you know what to do right? ...Die for us, right here!

So not only is there a civil war in Palatinus between two factions (and one of those factions is broken up into three different groups), but now the other faction is fighting within itself in order to determine who gets to fight the other factions of the one faction. Sort of.

What. The. FUCK.



Unfortunately, things get out of hand in the northeast pretty quick. Two units are headed straight for Dio, and one of them has a Black Knight! You can't send a class like that after us! That's cheating!! Thankfully, Dio rises to the occasion (for once) and wipes out the Phalanx unit and kills the leader of the Wizard unit.



Dio's still in a bad spot, but BJ is on his way to help out. Meanwhile, things are surprisingly quiet on the Western front.


This is why we want Black Knights. They have great defense and are damn strong. Not pictured: the Black Knight criticalling one of my Fencers for 50 damage. Dio's unit is in really bad shape, so it's time to bust out a pedra.



I choose you, Zapdos!



Holy crap, Paladins too!? This game really is just not fucking around anymore. Thankfully for us, BJ and Lichald's units are ludicrously powerful for this stage in the game. So we'll be fine.



See what I mean? They completely worked that unit.



I moved G&G up to help out, but now I'm a bit worried. See that unit Lichald is chasing? She appeared out of nowhere when Asnabel crossed the bridge. What if a flying unit spawned somewhere and is headed to our HQ?! Hurry back, G&G!



Some good news: Asnabel's unit is finally starting to come into its own. They're no Lichald or BJ, but they're about as good as anyone else.

Christ, look at Lichald and co. go. That's it; I'm naming the next Fighter that spawns in Lichald’s unit Domino for sure.

It turns out that my paranoia was unjustified and I could have left G&G with the main forces. But hey; better safe than sorry.



To be honest, I have no idea what that Sorceress is doing. She's just been running in place for hours. I've never seen that ever before. Anyway, after killing off all but one of the units, it's boss time.

Nagate: Not bad...so different from Frederick. That coward. Too bad. Your strength is too valuable to be wasted, but you're really nothing but a hindrance to us.



Nagate: I'm pissed off at his beating around the bush. Everyone living in peace? It's nothing but a dream. A damn dream!! We do things by force. That's what we believe in. We'll change the world ourselves, for ourselves! Anybody who stands against us...will fall!!

Unfortunately, I accidentally forced myself to be back attacked by the boss. That confused Sorceress unit went to rest at the stronghold, and I fought her and pushed her outside of the map. So I had Leia turn around to give the Sorceress time to come back, but Leia was too close to the boss and while she was able to turn around, she wasn’t able to get away from him. But its okay because I almost killed him, had Leia retreat, and then kill him. So it’s like it never even happened.

Nagate: Liberating Alba changed the Revolutionary Army. Don't think it's the same as before. It learned the sweetness of victory...the joy of winning battles...You think you can keep it under control...? Can you stop...the momentum? We aren't a bunch of cowards. You better watch...your back...don't trust...any...b...ody...

SERIOUSLY ATLUS KNOCK IT OFF WITH THE ELLIPSES



A mask? Well we've got a Ninja who can use that, so that's cool. We found a Baldr Claw during the mission too, so it looks like WhiteMage is about to get pimped out.

Narrative: Western Region, Castle Talpaea

Rhade: Congratulations on your long-awaited appointment to general, my lord. How does it feel?
Yumil: …State your business.
Rhade: My prince seems to be in a bad mood...I came to talk with you about the upcoming battle with the Revolutionary Army. I believe that the Western Division is more than adequate to deal with them, especially since Sir Ankiseth is here...but you never know what's going to happen on the battlefield. That's why I brought some able reinforcements.



No, they're from Africa.

Also, note that Rhade wears red now. That means he's bad! But Ankiseth is still wearing blue...?!

Rhade: You are very astute, Sir Ankiseth!! These men were sent to us by the Holy Lodis Empire.
Ankiseth: Nonsense! Are you suggesting that we be indebted to Lodis!? This is our problem; we must take care of it ourselves!
Rhade: How the hell can you still think that!? Where in this kingdom is there strength!? Our own problem? Who do you think exercises control over Palatinus!? We're nothing but vassals of the Lodis Empire who live in one of their territories. You know all too well that if we can't stop the revolution...this kingdom will perish, don't you? Oh, that's right. Your beloved son is a turncoat, isn't he? You want to avoid fighting your son? You want to treat him with kindness, as a father...? I guess that's to be expected, even for Ankiseth the Steadfast himself.
Yumil: Ankiseth, is that true!? Goofus is in the Revolutionary Army?
Rhade: Even Ankiseth the Murderer is ashamed that his son has joined the rebels? You shouldn't hide such an important matter from our prince. My lord, your friend Goofus was, until recently, assigned to the Southern Division, but...he is now with the Revolutionary Army. He was spotted during the battle against the Southern Division.
Yumil: No! You're lying!!
Rhade: I am not lying, my lord. Unfortunately...he turned against us, in front of my very own eyes. What I'm telling you is the truth.
Ankiseth: Sir Rhade!! I understand the Central Division's intent, but we have pride as the Western Division. If we accept assistance, it may affect our morale. I'm very sorry, but we must decline. Please deliver our response to the king.
Rhade: If you say so, then there's nothing else for me to say. Since I'm assigned to deal with the Revolutionary Army, I cannot return to the Central Division empty-handed. From now on, we will act on our own...if you don't mind, of course. If you excuse me Prince Yumil, I must be going. Sir Ankiseth, you retain your title solely by the mercy of His Majesty. Keep that in mind.
Yumil: Why? Goofus...What happened? Why did you turn on us?

Yeah, why? I saw it happen and I still don't know.

Yumil: Ankiseth, tell me. Is it my fault? Because I lack strength...? Because I don't have enough power to change Palatinus?

I’m going to have to say yes.

So there you have it. Action, adventure, ninjas…this update had it all. More coming tomorrow! Er...maybe. Probably.

I haven't chimed in too much in this LP, but I can safely say I've been enjoying this one more then any other that's been done so far, including Brick's FF1 run. Don't let up!

Names

At this time, I'd like to welcome some new members to the PANTS Platoon. We now have Waffles the Wizard (Asnabel's unit), Zinc the Dragon Tamer and WonderWoman the Valkyrie (Leia's unit), and Tim the Doll Master (soon to be Enchanter, Lichald's unit). But we still have three Sorceress' who need names, as well as an Archer.

Ruik: I'm probably going to make my next unit that spawns in Lichald's unit into a Doll Master as well, so he can be Kankuro. Although I really want to name him Domino so I can make jokes about how great No One Can Stop Mr. Domino is, and this violates my principles because I think Naruto is awful, I'm willing to do this anyway. After all, you asked for it and I shouldn't be selfish. And I got to name Tim, so it's only fair that you get to name the other one. We should be getting a new Fighter in another update or two, so look for Kankuro then.

But damn, the next next male unit is soooo getting called Domino.

Status Report

I didn't even bother taking a screenshot this time. The only change in this update was one of Leia's Valkyries becoming a Dragon Tamer. But we're faced with a bit of a problem...

The Curious Case of Troi

Troi is in Lichald's unit, which is widly Chaotic. Troi's class, the Phalanx, is a fairly neutral class. They can be slightly Chaotic or slightly Lawful, but that's it (specifically, their alignment must be in between 20-80). Their upgraded version, the Cataphract, has to have an alignment between 30-80. Troi's already become too Chaotic to turn into a Knight (a Lawful-oriented class). We can't afford to have another Berserker since we can only make a maximum of three Black Knights (their upgraded version) and we already have three Berserkers. We can't keep him in the same unit or else we risk him becoming too Chaotic to turn into anything useful later in the game. We have a few options here.

1) We now have a Dragon Tamer (Zinc) in Leia's unit (a Lawful unit). We can spend some time hunting dragons in the wild and then create a Dragon/Dragon Tamer unit and give Troi Zinc's spot. The peer pressure aspect of alignment will push Troi back towards the middle and we can either make him into a Cataphract or a Paladin as time goes on. I think this may be our best option.

2) We can keep Troi a Phalanx and then make him into our Dragoon. Dragoons don't have a required alignment, so even if Troi goes full tilt Chaotic, he can still be useful to us. The only problem is that he'll be stuck as a Phalanx for a long time and may become too weak to be of any use.

3) We can completely dismantle all of our existing units and start over. This is a pain in the ass, so let's not do that.

4) We can make Troi into a full-tilt Chaotic class, like a Ninja or Beast Tamer or something. This isn't really a good idea either.

I think that Option 1 is our best bet. And hell, we've got a Doll Master now...why not get some Golems, too? We've got a Beast Tamer with a Beast...why not get a Doll Master with a Golem and a Dragon Tamer with a Dragon? Look for tomorrow's update about how to catch wild monsters and how I restructure our units!

Edit:
Wow. Thanks Torgo. I wasn't sure if anyone out there was digging this LP or not, but it's good to know that people out there are enjoying it. Actually, it's great to know that. Thanks again.

Yeah, it's a lot of fun to read since I never made it this far into the game myself. Were you the one I sold my OB64 cart to Alixsar? I can't really remember.

Well i love the fact that your playing the game while actually im doing the same thing. Im just a few episodes ahead of your status reports. Well i think Lichald rocks and a quick comment on both of Dio�s guys cause i went through the same thing, make them knights form the beggining and keep them on high levels, and as for the Black knight you shoudl probably use Asnabel for the Black knight. Id advise you search for a thunder dragon so you can later have a Quetzalcoatl that kicks ass! And name the dragon Jormulgand!. Try using once u get a love and peace item on a leaderless unit that has a ogre so u can replace the hellhound or probably give it to tim the enchanter instead of a slow golem. Anyway Just keep up the good work with the fighting and Id build a Flying unit as soon as possible so you can hunt down hard to reach enemies, such as the wizard that escaped annihilation on Alba because he was behind Godeslas.

BTW your pop culture reference kick ass!

I wish I was. I foolishly sold my cart years ago when I sold my N64. ARGH!!! VC release, please. PLEASE!

Like I teased last time, we have some major house cleaning to do before we can move on with the story. Troi’s alignment needs “fixing” in order to get the best results, and we need some Dragons and Golems for our Dragon Tamer Zinc and our Doll Master Tim. I’ve semi-purposefully been avoiding recruiting wild members so far, but I think it’s time. Today’s update is going to be solely devoted to expanding the PANTS Platoon. I won’t be moving the story forward any more (hence the 10.5 moniker).

Operation Recruit Fodder

First thing’s first; let’s go get us some dragons. witsu mentioned in his post that we should get a Thunder Dragon, and he’s absolutely right. Actually, at the time I read his post I had already captured a Thunder Dragon! So it’s good to see that we’re all on the same page.

Thunder Dragons themselves aren’t anything spectacular but they evolve into a Quetzalcoatl, which are wincredible. Their back row attack hits the entire enemy unit and has a chance to paralyze. You can capture Thunder Dragons on a few maps we’ve already been to, but the highest level ones we can capture are in the Barren-type terrain in the Dardunelles.



Neutral encounters are actually incredibly simple. At any time, you can be attacked by a wild creature. The creature that attacks you depends on the map and that type of terrain you’re on. Unfortunately for us, neutral encounters are extremely rare. It’s entirely possible to go through a map without seeing a single neutral encounter. It took Lichald almost four days of wandering back and forth in the Barren patch near our HQ before he finally found a Thunder Dragon.



The typical interruption commands (Battle Strategy, Retreat, and Pedra) are replaced with the Talk option. When you “Talk” to a wild character, one of three things happens. If you’re lucky, they’ll join your battalion. If you’re only slightly unlucky, they’ll refuse and continue to fight you (you can try talking again immediately though).

But the vast majority of the time, they’ll flee and then you’ve got to start all over again. Thankfully for me, I’m playing on an emulator! And through the magic of save states, I don’t need to spend two weeks in-game time running around hunting down Dragons. But to give you an idea of how hard it is to get a wild creature to join your battalion, the Thunder Dragon took 7 tries and our next Dragon took 10 tries. And that’s with reloading save states.

Imagine if you didn’t have those and had to hunt down a completely new creature each time. Yeah, yet another reason why OB64 is a pain in the ass sometimes.

We’ll be pairing our Thunder Dragon with an Earth Dragon for a few reasons.

1. We can capture one at this stage in the game.

2. It has the same alignment requirements for evolving to its upgraded version (the Azhi Dahaka) that the Thunder Dragon has.

3. Its green and that’s my favorite color.

4. The Azhi Dahaka has an attack that hits all enemy party members and lowers their strength, provided they aren’t flying-type. But if you paralyze a flying unit, you can hit them with Azhi Dahaka’s attack. And who has a move that can paralyze an entire enemy party? The Quetzacoatl that it’ll be paired with. Plus, as long as we don’t send this unit to attack any flying units this won’t even be an issue.

5. Green is my favorite color. …what?

Now we’re off to the Forests of Alba. Dio and Goofus spend a few days running around in the forest until…



Alright! Come with us Earth Dragon! We’ve got lots of treats!



Shit!

Like I mentioned earlier, I had to reload this save state 10 times before I could get this jerk to join. But he did, and now our Dragon unit is complete. Time to go grab us a Golem. …but wait, didn’t we run into a Golem once before?

Back in Episode 8, I briefly mentioned that Leia’s unit ran into a Golem. I wasn’t able to convince him to join and he kept fighting. Whenever you kill a neutral character, you’ll find some kind of item. Rather than continue to test my luck and risk having it run away, I tried killing it to get an item. Leia’s unit was too weak though. But still, at least we know where to find them! Let’s go back to Gunther Piedmont.

Golems can be encountered in Highland-type terrain in Gunther Piedmont.



Dude, weren’t you listening? I just warned you two seconds ago!

Well, whatever. Oddly enough, this Golem joins us on our first try. Go figure. We now have all the units we need.

Operation Party Shuffle



This screenshot showcases all of the changes I’ve made. Note that I changed the unit formely known as Fran into Deneb the Witch. Fran wasn’t doing much damage-wise, so I figured that having someone who can paralyze around might be handy. The Archer who still needed a name in Leia’s unit is now Fran.

My first course of action was to create a new unit with Zinc and our two Dragons. That’s kind of self-explanatory. The special attacks I mentioned on the upgraded forms of each dragon comes much later in the game, so for now they’ll be upfront to use their physical attacks while Zinc will be hiding in the back and helping out with the occasional rapier stab.

Now we’ve got a hole in Leia’s unit where Zinc used to be. That’s fine; Troi can step in there. I mentioned yesterday that Troi’s alignment was becoming Chaotic to the point where he may become potentially useless to us. We need to get him in a Lawful unit and fast. And with Zinc in her own unit we can do that. I changed the formation of Leia’s unit to better reflect this new setup. Troi is now up front in the middle which makes him the most likely to be attacked. This is exactly what we want since Troi has the best HP, VIT, and physical defense out of the whole unit.

Now we need to get our Golem into Tim’s unit (yes Tim, Asnabel is no longer the leader since I’ve taken a liking to Tim). I remove WhiteMage and Wario, and put our Golem in their place. Upgrading Golems is a bit of a pain in the ass, so it is possible we may just leave our Golem as a regular Golem. But I’ll try and upgrade him as soon as possible. WhiteMage and Wario get moved to Lichald’s unit, which should break the game even further. Lichald takes the middle spot since he has the best defense.

By the way, you know how I’ve been talking about how ridiculous powerful Lichald is?



See those numbers on the right? That’s his physical and magical defense. His physical defense is 26. My Golem’s is 34. And his STR is 138…exactly the same amount as Rumpus. And Rumpus is a man-sized, two headed dog. So let’s break this down.

He’s almost as tough as an animated pile of boulders, he’s just as strong as a two-headed, man-sized dog, and he has the strongest attack power out of any of my units.

FUCKING. UNSTOPPABLE.

The Future

I agree that Knights are generally speaking better than Fencers, but I’m really set on having Dio use Fencers. I rarely ever use Fencers, so I’d like to have them on my team for once.

Re: Black Knights, we can have a maximum of three. And we’ve already got three Berserkers (Asnabel, Wario, and Lichald). So they’ll all naturally become Black Knights…although I may reward Lichald's awesomeness with Dragoonhood. But we’ll see.

Re: replacing our Golem or Hellhound, I like both of them and they’ve been performing much better than they should be so far so I want to keep using them. Also, I’ve grown somewhat attached to them and don’t want to see them go. But...we might have to do this later, yes. We’ll see how things work out but I'm happy with the current line up.

So, we’ve now got a fully functional 7 unit Platoon. I’m also toying with the idea of getting some Pumpkinheads, which we can recruit in just two missions. They’d be a perfect fit for G&G and Dio’s units as backrow characters. Their backrow attack does the most damage, but it hurts them as well…but having a Cleric in the unit would eliminate any problems that would create. I remember that Elfir wanted a Deneb/Pumpkinhead-themed unit, but that would be a bit of a pain since we’d have to find a way to replace Deneb in G&G’s unit as well as start a new unit. I could do it, but I’d need maybe three or so Pumpkinheads to do it and it would take a while. I could also recruit some new beasts and move the two Sorceresses to a new unit. In three missions, I can recruit a gamebreakingly powerful Cockatrice. Also, five missions from now I’ll be getting a flying unit as a part of the story. I can recruit a bunch of other flyers (Wyrms, Hawkmen) to be paired up with him to make a dedicated flying unit. And in four missions, I’ll be getting a new super-ninja as a part of the story.

In other words, we’ve got an almost limitless number of options ahead of us. We can:

- make a flying unit

- expand our beast unit

- make a dedicated pumpkinhead unit or incorporate pumpkinheads into
existing units

- leave it up to me

What do you guys want to see me do?

Personally, I’m leaning towards the Deneb-lead unit idea. Like I said before, a Pumpkinhead would be a good fit G&G’s unit, Deneb can get her own unit with two Pumpkinheads and the two new characters we’ll be recruiting. It'd be an EXTREMELY item dependent unit, but it would be damn strong. It’ll take a while to get this whole thing operational, but it’ll be totally bitchin’ once I do. I also don’t want to mess with BJ’s unit too much since it’s been incredibly consistent.

Names

I’d like to welcome our new Dragons Jormungand (Earth) and Fafnir (Thunder) to the battalion. Jormungand is named after the serpent whose poison kills Thor during Ragnarok (it’s Norse mythology stuff), so I named the Earth Dragon after him since has an attack called Acid Breath. That’s kind of like poison, right? Fafnir is named after the dragon that Sigurd kills. Sigurd then eats Fafnir’s heart and is warned by birds that his step-father is about to kill him. And then he goes on to do other super manly things.

I’d also like to welcome our new Golem, Domino. This is kind of self-explanatory if you read Episode 10.

I made the aforementioned changes with Fran and Deneb, and I gave the two Sorceresses in BJ’s units the names Kotake and Koume. I’m honestly a little ashamed of myself for not thinking of this sooner.

Our entire army has names now…except for the Sorceress in Lichald’s unit. Come on everyone, we just need one more female name!

I'm going to try and update tomorrow, but I can't really promise anything.

It's going to turn on you and murder Asnabel, isn't it?

Since we have a Waffle, how about Pancake? Hotcake?

I've been lurking this thread for a while now(much like I lurk the rest of these forums) and I gotta say this is my favorite Let's Play too. Keep it up til the end.

I remember playing the game like 5 or 6 years ago on a friend's N64. Somehow I got the holiest friggin army ever. EVERY unit was max alignment, and it was made up of nothing but Freyas, Paladins, and Clerics. I have no idea how I did this. I somehow thought I'd get the best ending this way, I was wrong. Afterwards, I looked up how alignment and CF worked and thought "Oh...."

Still it's an awesome game, thought the story doesn't seem to hold up as well as I remember(okay maybe not the story, but definitely the writing). I forgot how homo Magnus and Yumil's relationship came off though.

By the way, I think you are nuts for eschewing some 6 good characters for the friggin werewolf.

Doesn't Atlus support the VC?

Nich, please get on this now.

Is it just me, or is it much harder to keep people neutral in this game than it is to push them to one side or the other?

As I mentioned, the last time I played this game, I had a whole team of Lawful people. I mean, it was terrible. I couldn't even get the neutral classes like Dianas and Dragon Masters, my alignment was so high.

This time, I've got two full-blown chaotic units that are leaning really chaotic, but almost everyone else is so Lawful that I'm beginning to fear again that I won't be able to get certain third-tier classes.

Is there a good method to keep people neutral without having to swap them in and out of heavily Lawful and heavily Chaotic units all the time?

The method I used while was to have the units that you want to be neutral not kill anything, and just level them up in training. The best way to accomplish this was to set their strategy to "Attack Strongest" My two neutral units were a Doll Master with two Golems, and three Cataphracts and 2 Dianas. The latter unit was extremely effective against that one boss with the petrifying attack.

Speaking of Golems, has anyone had much success in upgrading them? I normally just recruited the stronger types when I had opportunity to do so, rather than try to class change them.

Jesus Christ. I didn't think my Richard the Lion Hearted rip-off would be so Godly. If this guy fought the Third Crusade, Saladin would've lost.

Yes, FOUGHT, not FOUGHT IN. By the way, for the sorceress...Perhaps Erizabeth? Or enough engrish stuff, especially since Saradin isn't joining? Sally? Meg Ryan?

keep up the LP- it's great!

Of course, we all know the REAL secret behind Lichald's power - Maxwell and his hot sorceress mistress, tearin' it up from the back lines. Booya!

Also, what the hell kind of name is Lichald, anyway? Is it really a screwed up Japanification of Richard?

Erizabesu