Wait, Zephiel's the bad guy? Let's Play Fire Emblem: Sword of Seals!

Well, it's been a blast, but it's time we put this baby to bed. The game doesn't bore us with a prologue so let's jump right to it and see what's...

Final Chapter: Beyond the Darkness





Roy: You're the Dark Priestess... No, the Dark Dragon.

Idoun: ...Why do you hinder my path?

Roy: What...?

Idoun: I have been commanded to lead this world. I shall make the world a better place. Why are you barring my performance?

Roy: ...You are wrong. You were only told the world would become a better place. The person who ordered you is already dead. So stop! You no longer have any reason to fight!

Idoun: ......

Roy: You... No, we... We have no reason to fight.

Idoun: ...A long time ago... I have a feeling I heard those same words. Soft words, like a warm breeze... ... But that was long ago... I have been asleep for too long. In the darkness, I was dreaming... An empty dream, white, colorless... But now I am awake. His majesty willed me so.

Roy: Majesty... Zephiel!

Idoun: I have woken. I am no longer who I used to be. I now clearly understand what I must do.

Roy: ......



And the cowl comes off...

Idoun: No matter how many days or nights pass, I must. I must...

Roy: You insist on fighting us?

Idoun: As long as you stand in my path.

Roy: Such strong... will...

Idoun: His Majesty wishes it to be. And I was woken to answer his Majesty's calls.

Well, I guess there's no avoiding a battle...












Roy: I have the sword of Hartmut, who pitied you and did not kill you! Everyone... leave the final blow to me!!

All right everyone, let's do this!

Hey gang, guess who forgot to make a map for this chapter!

(Hint: It is me)

Well... anyway. There's nothing left to do but finish Idoun off. However, regardless of how you do it, Roy must get the finishing blow in order to get the best ending. You can weaken her with the other Divine Weapons if you want, but she has to fall by Roy's hands in order to survive.



Though that's not too much of a problem... with Elphin's boost and the enhancement given to Roy by the Boots, he can reach Idoun in a single turn and attack. Remember when I said Elphin was essential for the Final Battle? This is why.




Well, this is it.





And so it all ends...



......

Hey, everyone! Let's watch the ending!



Roy: What's happening... the temple is starting to collapse! Everyone! Hurry outside!

Fa: Roy...

Roy: I know. Leave the rest to me. Now go!!



Back outside, everyone is waiting for us.

Roy: Yes... But the temple is gone.

Merlinus: It is over a thousand years old, and a lot of energy was released in the battles just fought. The building probably couldnt withstand it.

Roy: I see...

Merlinus: So times are changing again. And... Who is that you are carrying on your back?

Roy: Her? Oh, right. Merlinus, I need to ask something of you...

Ending credits courtesy of SpoonyGundam's translation...








This only appears if you get an A-ranking with Lilina - anyone else, and Roy would be talking with Guinevere instead.

Roy: I haven't see her in her royal garments yet. She must look beautiful beyond words. Even when I first met her, I couldn't believe that such a beautiful person existed.

Lilina: Yes.

Roy: But the princess' hardships are still to come.

Lilina: What?

Roy: Even if she becomes queen of Bern with Etruria's help, I'm sure there will be a lot of rebellion and unrest.

Lilina: Do you think so?

Roy: I think that there might be people who'll say that Princess Guinevere joined Etruria just to seize the throne. She'll have to face them.

Lilina: ...But I think Princess Guinevere will be fine. And then Bern will become a much better nation than before. She's just so smart... And strong...

Roy: Yeah... I think so too.

Lilina: ...What are you going to do now?

Roy: Me? I'll return to Pherae. I'm worried about my father's illness, and we'll have to start rebuilding the lands that were trampled on by the war.

Lilina: Um, I...

Roy: What?

Lilina: Uh... Nothing. So you're returning to Pherae...

Roy: What about you? You're going back to Ostia, right?

Lilina: ...Yes. I must take my father's place.

Roy: I'm glad to hear that you'll be staying in Ostia.

Lilina: ...Why?

Roy: Because if you're in Ostia, then I can go meet you any time I want.

Lilina: What...

Roy: Lilina... I don't know when, but some day... I'll go pick you up.

Lilina: ...I... I have to prepare, too. But... Roy... I always...

Roy: Oh! The ceremony's starting. Come on, Lilina, we have to go see Princess... I mean Queen Guinevere! And pay our respects!

Lilina: So... I always... What!? R-Roy, wait for me!

Ah, true love.



And if you finished Idoun off with Roy...



Roy: I had business in these areas, so I decided to stop by on the way.

Elder: Fa will be glad to see you.

Roy: I saw her earlier. She is as energetic as ever.

Elder: She is being allowed outside more these days. Perhaps that is why.

Roy: How is the girl I send here doing?

Elder: We succeeded in restoring her soul, but...

Roy: ...She still won't go back to normal?

Elder: Fa sometimes takes her outside, but she won't try to do anything on her own.

Roy: I see...

Elder: Master Roy... We knew that the girl you sent here was captured by the Dragons. Still, we did not try and rescue her. We feared that our kind would be in danger if we showed ourselves in front of them again. But now, I wonder whether my judgment was correct...

Roy: ......

Elder: Perhaps it is because we have begun to live with humans. I will make my best efforts to bring the girl's heart back fully.

Roy: ...Thank you.

Elder: As a first, I would like to see some sign that her emotions are working... Like laughing or crying, or something...



Idoun: Tree...

Fa: Right! And that tree gives yummy fruit!

Idoun: Fruit?

Fa: Yes. Can you see? It's up at the top. And if you shake the tree like this... Oww! It fell on Fa's head...

Idoun: *laughs*

Fa: ...? Did you just laugh?

Idoun: Laugh...? This is to laugh?

Fa: Where's Roy? Fa has to tell Roy that Idoun laughed!

[Fa leaves.]



Cue credits!



*Bows*

Character endings! Some of them are a bit cut off since I had to screenshot them before they faded to black... but I suppose you can guess the rest of them.

Note that the characters you bring along for the final chapter get more completed versions of their endings...














The game shows a few CGs before we cut to the rest...

You can probably tell where I stopped to arena abuse, heh.



And our final ranking! It's... really good, considering I wasn't even trying for one. Note that our Tactics rank was permanently ruined by the arena...

And now for the rest of the character endings! I had to switch to the translation SpoonyGundam sent me to get these, as Clarine's kept glitching up and freezing the game (don't ask why, I have no clue).

Death Count: 67

Hey, I did say I'd be dying a lot. Now for post-game content...



Trial maps! If you want, you can take your end-game file and challenge yourself against a group of extra maps. You can unlock more under certain conditions, such as completing the game on other modes, etc.

In addition, for every time you beat the game you'll unlock an extra character for the maps! For beating the game once, we get Narshen here, who is every bit as strong as he was when we faced off against him in chapter 16. He even comes with another Delphi Shield!



The other characters we can unlock for trial maps in order of playthroughs includes: Gale (2), Hector (3), Brunya (4), Eliwood (5), Murdock (6), Zephiel (7) and even Guinevere (9), so if you're patient you'll get to see your favourite enemies fight on your side for once.



In addition, we unlock the sound room!



And finally, Hard Mode for Roy's Tale!

I don't really have much else to say at this point, except:



How was that for my first time? Anyway, thank you to everyone who followed along! It was a real blast writing this LP, and I'm glad I was able to pull it off in the end. Even though my playthrough could use a lot of touching up, I'm glad you all enjoyed it nonetheless, and I hope you'll join me for my next Let's Play.

Once again, thank you all!

Next time: How do you know you exist? Let's Play Final Fantasy IX!

Kind of a weaksauce final boss, innit? Only doing 25 damage, going down in two hits? Or was that just because of the Sword of Seals' huge stat boosts?

It's a shame that the final battle is over so quickly, since the battle theme "Shaman in the Dark" (arranged version from the official soundtrack) rocks.

Wow, yeah. Short fight. Almost like they were planning to not make your update that included the ending too super-long.

Power of Human Kindness GO!

I'm relieved Fa didn't turn out to be Idoun's heart or something anime-weird like that. Both living off in the Dracohuman village together is good.

Oh God, now I'm looking at Fire Emblem hacks. D: There's no end to the madnesssss...

Both I suppose, though any of the other Divine Weapons probably would have had the same effect. Still, she's definitely nowhere near the nailbiters that the Fire Dragon and [Demon King] fights in the other GBA games were like, that's for sure.

Ah, thanks for linking that. "Shaman in the Dark" is a really great track; It just fits the fight so well, doesn't it?

Rest assured that, if that had happened, I'd probably have quit then and there. :/

Just because it hasn't been said yet:

Woo! Aweosme LP, good job, etc etc.

So, who's up next for another FE game? I love these things.

Rascally Badger has The Sacred Stones on the reserved list, though not queued. I saw a tiny bit of Fire Emblem 9 before the fiance gave up and traded it in. Would love to see more of it. (but I'm addicted to them in general so any will do. ^_^)

Has anyone done FE7 yet? That's one of the ones I haven't played and I don't really want to go to the trouble of finding a copy.

EDIT: Never mind! Found it in the archives.

You're a beast, Pappy. I don't know how you manage to do so much good work so fast, but please keep it up.

No kidding. He'll somehow beat FFIX before I finish X! Secret goal: Finish it before he queues up. Not sure how plausible that is.

Personally, I'm still waiting for an LP playthrough of Hector's Tale.

Y'know, just putting that out there.

Hint hint nudge nudge

That would depend on whether I'm aiming for a maximalist run or an Excalibur II run, but mayyybe. :3c Secret reply: Better get to work then!

Wow, that ending was leagues better than any of the Fire Emblems I've played. Thanks for showing the full version!

...you know, this game is actually a really good example of how to do an alternate ending. In a lot of games, the bonus cutscene only comes after you grind to the point where the final boss goes down like a chump. But in this game, the hardest fight comes at the end, and it would've been ridiculously hard if you hadn't collected all the divine weapons (and got the extra experience from their maps). With or without the complete ending, the final battle still feels like a final battle.

And for the extra-good ending, they tell you right there in the dialogue what you have to do, and it's something you likely would have done anyway. None of that "this secret character appears only if you move character C or D to co-ordinates (x,y) in a particular desert map" garbage.

Good on them, and good on you. A Let's Play well played!

Awesome LP, it was a fun ride! There's just something about this series that's so addicting to me; it must be the level-ups. Still having trouble finding a working version of this one, but my hands are full enough with 7 and 8 as it is.

Now someone just needs to do Sacred Stones or Path of Radiance! (since the latter can be so damn hard to track down)

The final section of the game feels unbalanced to me. Since you need all the divine weapons (and Fa, who is like a divine weapon herself) to access it, the final bosses (and the Mamkutes in the final chapter) become ridiculously easy to beat unless you refrain from using them. But that's a problem many games in the series have. FE4 is the biggest offender - the final boss is either almost impossible or a complete joke, depending on whether you have a specific weapon or not.

Anyway, I hope someone does a Let's Play of Seisen no Keifu/Genealogy of the Holy War one of these days. Might do it myself if no one else is interested.

If nobody has done Path of Radiance by the time I'm done with the three I've already claimed, then I might give it a whirl.

Same here. I'd love to see both FE4 and 5 done someday, as I've heard nothing but great things about them - difficulty aside, of course - and it'd be interesting to see where a lot of the major series staples came from.

If you do, you are going to use Boyd and Nephenee and you are going to like it. >:I

I can't fathom why anybody would not use Nephenee, and you don't really have the option of not using Boyd (I mean, there's Largo, but he kind of sucks). Radiant Dawn is a different story.

Well... Hi there.

I'm guess you're wondering why I'm posting an update to this, despite it being almost a month since its conclusion. And that's perfectly reasonable, of course! Especially considering how every main chapter in the game has been played so far, this LP is, for all things considered, finished. Complete. Etc. So why go to the bother of another update?

Well first off I'm bored, to be blunt. I missed the day-to-day schedule of updating the LP, and with Final Fantasy IX still two weeks away and on shaky ground emulation-wise, I thought I'd give the Trial Maps a go just to give myself something to do. The added benefit of this is that it'll help assuage any other LP plans I'm considering, thus helping me stop myself from doing something ridiculous like, say, offer to do a Tourist ascension for NetHack.

Another reason I'm giving this a go is also because I felt there were a few things I should have touched upon in the LP proper, and the commentary that's missing has been eating away at me slightly after the thread's conclusion. Hopefully I'll have the chance to cover a few more thoughts in these last three or so battles so my boredom-addled brain will give it a rest already.

Finally, I figured that you guys wouldn't mind a little more Fire Emblem-y goodness to go with your LPs anyway, so the chance to replay this game versus, say, any of the other three LPs, should be acceptable to you all. So! Let's get this party started, shall we?



You heard me, let's go!



First things first, we have to choose the map we'll be playing today, and since it's near the top we'll be giving the Valley of Death a go. The game gives us a little intro text upon selecting it that fills you in on the circumstances surrounding the battle. Which is neat, I guess, if you're a method actor and need to know your motivation, but otherwise it's mostly there for flavour



Also, the trial characters we've unlocked so far are available for these maps, which at the momemt consists solely of Narshen here. I guess I could probably go and unlock all of the others if I wanted to, but considering that it'd take an absolutely ridiculous eight playthroughs to do so and that there isn't (to my knowledge) a method of savescumming them into unlocking, we'll just have to do without them for now.

So let's begin our journey into post-game content and begin...

Trial Map 1: Valley of Death





Wow, they weren't kidding around with the title, were they? Considering that berserkers and swordmasters in this game still have the ridonkulous 30% crit boost in this game, this map could and usually would mean an absolutely nasty series of deaths for most players. However, we've still got our end-game characters lying around, all of which are equipped with end-game weapons and end-game stats.

I think you know where I'm going with this.

In any case, this battle is a lot simpler than it looks. Since most of the enemies on this map are either aggressive or multiples, the plan is to move west slowly and take the berserkers as they come. Thanks to the low hit-rate of axes in FE6, they hopefully shouldn't be able to land a hit on our guys as we fight. As for the swordmasters, though they may look tough, Miledy or any other decent Lance-user should be able to best them, especially if they've got a high Def stat.

One thing to keep in mind as you move is that the arrangement of mountains in the center will act as a bit of a chokepoint as you move forward, so be careful that your fliers or mounted units don't accidentally move too far ahead of the group and land themselves into a bit of trouble.



There's no intro text or dialogue in the trial maps, so we cut to the chase and begin the fight right away. The first round isn't anything special - mostly it's waiting for the berserkers to make their move before advancing.



Rutger et al claim their first victims here, pulling out their Killer weaponry to combat the berserker menace. I don't think I ever mentioned it, but Killer Weapons are notoriously broken, I find, because the huge boost to a fighter's crit% means that they can semi-consistantly deal crippling blows to anything in range, or in the case of berserkers or swordmasters, pushes it up to downright ridiculous levels. Best part is that they're only C-Rank, so you can get access to using them pretty much immediately with most characters.

Some FE players tend to advocate saving them for battles against tough enemies, like bosses or promoted enemies, just so they know they have that little something special up their sleeves. Personally? I like to buy as many as I can and bust them out as soon as they become available. There's nothing quite as satisfying as seeing an entire legion fall to one well-timed critical after another.



Anyway, the next wave of berserkers makes their way to our party, but the lead one misses due to his horrible, horrible accuracy. You can probably guess what Geese did to him on the counter.



Afterwards, Lilina busts out some laughable overkill on another one unlucky to be in her range.

With some clever use of rescuing and dropping, Elphin helps Lilina move back to the backlines while the others pull him out of danger.



A few more berserkers make their way to us on the next phase. It seems like that mountain path is working against the AI, as it slows their progress down by a fair bit.



With a little boost from Elphin, Fa moves forward and takes out one of the enemy berserkers in a single blast. Gotta love her, eh?



Just for the hell of it, Rutger and Roy pull out their Light Brands and take out another. Might as well use them while they're still in their inventory.

Oh! I almost forgot - unlike the main game, characters fighting on the Trial Maps can't gain EXP from the miscellaneous fighting. The reasons for why this is because you're loading data from a completed file, so any EXP and levels your fighters would accrue would be lost upon the map's completion. Fortunately, this comes with a few bonuses, namely that any weapons you use will be restored to their initial uses each time, and that character death, to a certain degree, isn't permanent. As it is, you can go into the trial maps expecting to use the same party each time if you want.



Anyway, the next few turns are pretty boring. Geese moves into position to close the frontlines while the enemy sends another group after us. Note that a trio of berserkers have spawned in the southwest.



One of the berserkers misses landing a blow on Geese and ends up chopped liver the next turn.



Elphin gives Ray a little boost to help him move in and finish one berserker, while Lilina follows up the rear and takes out another.



A few more berserkers march forward, one of which falls to Saul's Divine tome.

This swordmaster here is a scary proposition indeed. The Wo Dao he's wielding pushes his critical rate to dangerous levels, and unlike the other berserkers, he has enough accuracy that dodging his blows isn't nearly as definite as you'd want it to be. Thankfully, Miledy's defenses are high enough that she can pretty much shrug off anything the guy throws at her, so we send her in to rid ourselves of the pest.



Another turn, another dodge...




I think these next few screenshots should be self-explanatory. As far as we're concerned, the enemies here are out of their league by a long shot.



Hell, even Elphin can shrug off an attack from them. Elphin, I say.



Rutger and Roy kill off a few more handily.



Elphin and Wolt, meanwhile, help eachother kill another one nearby.



These guys are a little too far away to rush them yet, so we wait for them to get close...

...And then we kill them all.



This works exactly as well as you'd think it would. Yep.



The milk-brothers tag-team one more time to kill a few more berserkers. Meanwhile, Elphin helps Ray catch up enough to take out another.



At this point, the rest of the enemies on the map make a rush for our team, but it doesn't matter anymore.




One by one, our team takes apart the last few enemies on the map, some by critical hit, others without.

There's one last enemy outside the boss to the north that we haven't killed yet, so Miledy breaks away from the unit to take him out.

Speaking of the boss...



He's not much compared to our guys, but that Killer Axe he's got means he can still be dangerous. Even though his hit% is low enough to ensure a reasonable chance to dodge, the chance of being critical'd to death is still there, and I've had it happen in the past where a previously-inaccurate enemy would land a lucky hit and kill one of our units. (The most galling one for me that comes to mind was the time in FE8 when Lyon one-shot Cormag, despite the fact that he only had roughly 1% chance of criticalling and that Cormag was wielding a Killer Lance. Never has the RNG screwed me over more than then.) As it is, try and take advantage of the weapon triangle's hit-dulling nature and just play it safe.



Of course, leave it to Rutger to completely shoot down everything I just said with a critical hit. Damn, he's good.



Miledy takes out the last enemy on the map with her Silver Lance (it would've been Brave, but I forgot to switch it).



And that's it! Not too shabby, huh?



Once you finish, the game calculates your score based on how well you did. Tactics took a hit as per usual, but EXP and Survival are as good as you'd expect them to be.

Next Time: Trials and Tribulations

Welcome back to this week's installment. Since FFIX's been delayed for various reasons (the biggest being lack of emulation), I'll try and keep this going a bit longer just to keep myself prepped for when it does start.

Anyway, let's get to it then, with today's trial map, namely...

Trial Map 2: Foggy Sunday





It's a pretty big map today, as you can plainly see here. However, that's pretty much all there is here - aside from the Fog of War blanketing everything, the enemies here are too weak and too spread out to be a real threat to our team. As it is, though the map was designed around holing yourself up and fighting defensively, it's faster and more efficient to just charge into the fog and kill everything around you.

Speaking of which, this reminds me of something a friend of mine on another forum brought up a while ago when we were talking about Sword of Seals. Though he was a pretty big fan of the game himself, one of his chief complaints about FE6 was that a lot of the maps had a lot of empty, wasted space on them that never really get used to any effect. His reasoning was that how the maps were arranged meant that the extra space never really did anything to add to the strategy, and only served to drag the fight out and make it harder for your team to keep formation. After playing through this trial map and seeing just how egregious the wasted space can be, as you'll see in this chapter, I'm inclined to believe him.



Well anyway. You'll notice that I've brought along a few new fighters on the team today. ..Believe it or not, this was actually the team I wanted to use for the final battle, but because I never really could justify using them over some of the stronger fighters on the squad they got dropped. Which is a shame, because these are probably my favourite characters I've trained so far, even if they're not purely optimal.

Yes, I'm weirdly sentimental like that at times. So sue me.



Anyway, the battle begins with a slaughter, just like the other trial map. Honestly, you'd think they'd have balanced the enemies here for an end-game party, wouldn't you? Ah well.



WIth the initial surrounding enemies dealt with, the others go on the move to start spreading themselves out. Lilina here is getting a small boost here by Elphin so she can go on the offensive right away...



...like so. Since the Divine Weapons still have 10-ish charges on them and they'll be fixed by the time I load up the file again, I figure I might as well have a little fun with them on these maps.



To wit. Saul moves to the south and baits in a Fighter to purge him from the land.

As well as a pegasus knight cocky enough to try to attack him.



You know, you'd think that melee units would catch on that attacking a mage is a very, very bad idea by now, considering that they've just single-handedly killed every unit to try and attack them at that point.



Hmm... maybe they did. Interestingly enough, the archer actually managed to land a hit on Elphin despite the 37% hit rate.



The biggest "challenge" of the map would probably revolve around the druid in the corner with the Sleep staff, since it would leave your fighters wide open if it connected. Sadly for him, it does not.



Sophia blasts apart a nearby archer with a little darkness beyond blackest pitch.



For those of you wondering where Oujay and Wendy have gone, they're over here making their way to the druid in question.



Geese, meanwhile, is dishing out severe overkill on anything on reach.



As is Roy.



And Fa.