Runan

Map 25: The Great River Reeve. - no Rishel, no Aura Rain for Meriel - otherwise, mostly the same Map 26: Desert - one big difference is that this map is harder because the Wyvern Riders on the south will actually move by themselves to support the north once you advanced half of the way. So they're actually doing what they said they would do. One more example of gameplay meddling based on game tester feedback without changing the story to reflect the new passiveness of the wyvern lords. - have Juni in your party, I didn't and so no sand treasures. Map 27 a+b: - I seized the desert fort and was surprised to actually get to play both maps and they are changed substantially. - Map 27a, the outdoor map has a gimmick where Lentzenheimer's soldiers use NPCs as shields and force the townsfolk (who are week Mercenaries) to battle you. you need to stall their progress in the alleyways and then bring fliers to the houses. Some of the houses have a hostage event. When you visit them, the hostage gets released and one mercenary will disappear from the map. The visiting unit gets a +1 to a pre-determined stat. - The female NPCs, who are shields, will eventually start moving anyway, which defeats the purpose of this map somewhat. If you get rid of the soldiers, the NPCs vanish from the map. - Lentzenheimer is surrounded by three female NPCs and will vanish into the castle once you approach him. Seize the castle to start.... - Map 27b: the indoor map. - Rina/Lina doesn't exist, but you can recruit a character here. In the right cell there is a group of pirates and their boss who is a chief. The pirates are green and the chief can be recruited. His name is Jacob and he mentions that he is one of three brothers, the other two being Maerchen and Poem. He is the only one with a normal name and joins you as your resident joke character with the mug ability. Holmes: Map 28: Sea Lion: After the route split 2 Sierra joins the party, and Shigen comes back as well... is what I want to say, but actually the exact opposite happens. Sierra doesn't yet have any relation to Shigen and Shigen after the split actually retreats from your fighting force and becomes your item bank, just like Eugen is for Runan. So you lose a unit you potentially invested a lot into. the map itself is the same Map 29: Granada Sea battle: the same Map 30: Granada-City: - since Renee is now Lesfeen and a dancer, she isn't even on the map and does not teleport anyone. - the boss in the fort will leave his throne and come to you, his range covers a big chunk of the map and the map layout is assembled in a way as to make you actually use the sideways to the left and right. You know, those sideways you wondered about, because they seem so pointless? In the finished game, IIRC he doesn't leave the throne, so you can just clean up around him without using them. Here, he and his cronies support each other in such a way, that you want to avoid his range and clean up around him first, if you do not want to get overwhelmed. Once again the beta map seems more like the intended way, ruined by some last minute changes. Map Extra: The desert. - yes, no Tower of Morse or Yr!! - you go into the big desert which has no map in the final version. you loot some chests and visit Holmes' father in an isolated home near an oasis, there you will promote Holmes. Map 31: No Zieg, but yes Daniel - kinda funny actually. There is one extra hut in this map and the person inside is a former Gerxelist who wants to redeem himself. He says his name is Rishel!! But when he comes out and joins you, his name is Daniel?? He is a dark priest and the only one who can use black magic. - you finish off a boss who is different from the one in the final, and yes, no Zieg. Map Extra: The valley of no return. - an extra map with monsters spawning from holes. You have to loot one chest at the end. It's a Sage's proof. Holmes says: "Really? Now we're getting one of this still? Well, anyway, I'll take it, I guess" Map 32: The big swamp: - So let's talk about our dancer unit, Lesfeen who joined us in Granada. The dancer unit is by far the worst. Horrible stats and no weapon, even staffs, usable. Also and it will drive you to tears in this map: No warp, and the dancer is the only unit in the game that cannot move onto swamp land. But in this map, you start in the swamp. So Lesfeen will just be stuck and unable to move. Nothing you can do but watch her be wrecked by the witches warping over to her. also the unit is in the middle of being integrated into plum. Renee is purple-haired, right? Lesfeen's portrait is Renee's but her map sprite shows her with lime green hair. But the battle animation for the dance has her have the battle sprite of Plum!! Wow, what a mess this is in this demo. When Lesfeen is attacked her battle sprite will show the green hair and you'll see that her battle sprite is the same as a clerics (like Plum and Lyria) whereas her map sprite is a dancer's (with that "outfit") - You are not going to be prepared for this map without Warp, trust me. Do yourself a favor and use the inn feature in Blaad to give all your units the frontier skill, that makes it a bit more bearable. Map 33: Seiken Salia: the same Map 34: The same Map 35: Same Map 36: Same Map 37: Same Map 38: Same Map 39: Quite different - no Zieg!!! Instead Carla is your opponent. Her Zahhak makes her invulnerable. Only Runan with the Seiken Reeve can harm her. She has one Azoth/Elixir and will teleport away for the final map - Sierra is locked into a room with two Zombies, when you free her, you cannot talk to her with anyone. She has nothing on her, doesn't do anything and will not join you. She will just stand there as green unit. Map 40: - Carla is only using Zahhak once again Guenchaos has it as well. - Gerxel's dragon mail, just like Carla's will quarter the damage not only half it. This makes this fight much more difficult. - Alfred has Sylpheed and only one door key. - You have no warp and I had no extra door keys. I would have had to lead Holmes and Juni around the map while it was swarmed by all the enemies. No way, I coldn't finish the map in the 20 turns till Black Rain. - You cannot manage Holmes' army!! Shigen joins the fight again for this map only. Ending: Would need to replay it, but the game is very difficult and still unbalanced in this demo.

Map 15: Ruckus at Ocus. - this map just starts there is no story beforehand. You just get to Ocus, the map is pretty small and that's all there is... - or is there? Actually Ocus spawns random bandit encounters afterwards, giving you an easy way to enter the arena (if there wasn't the ultimate easy way to do it in Fort Ligria) - after suppressing 5 bandit encounters you get to choose 5 treasures and ocus is liberated and doesn't spawn any more encounters Map 16? Blaad - there is no encounter in Blaad, no Frau and no San, here you get introduced to probably the single best feature of the Prelude demo that you wish they kept in the final game. The feature is called "inn". You can access it just like you access the city shops and when you do, your first 10 or so units (depends on the map will just generate on the map and can move anywhere and with unlimited turns. This lets you use potions, repair weapons, learn skills, everything in a free-roam environment. Map 17? Cave of Mermel - The music is very upbeat and doesn't really fit well. - the reason map animations are blocked in Prelude is because most of them don't exist yet. For the small "Ops" enemies you get to see them, there's nothing. Map 18: Cornell and Lionheart - you join up with Lionheart's army and try to get Cornell and his Salia Codex. But suddenly... Maerchen??? No, wait, what does his name next to his portrait say...? Poem....? His name is Poem?! Wow... . - Poem kidnapped Neyfa and makes her transform in order to see Sennet again. So you got to contend with a dragon who stays until you take the fort. - Poem... . Oh and Maruj cannot get the Reeve Tome or even Sylpheed Spell, as you cannot visit the water temple after Map 5. Maruj doesn't have any useful event, so he can be in either group. Map 19: Fort Balt: - Fort Balt is much more difficult as there is actually a yellow opposing force on the other side of the fort in addition to the forces inside the fort. The yellow force is led by Teo. - Teo?, you say. Well... he's a recruitable character who has the exact same portrait as Raffin and is a hero prepromote. He is constantly tagged along by... Frau, who will not fight you on her own. The only way to recruit them is have Martel in Runan's group, which wasn't the case for me... - no canto scrolls or occult books period. Map 20: Reunion (with Raphael) - This is the map where Zieg leaves you, he's not here though so what can be different here.... quite a lot actually. - first off, you get an Ensorcel and a Silence Staff and they aren't limited to (Alicia?) and Letena either. Anyone can use these staffs and they're pretty powerful... except in my playthrough i didn't get to use them as you need a high weapons mastery. for Silence you need 16 for ex. None of my clerics came close to that - Carla and Sierra appear on the map after a certain time. Sierra makes it known, that she is not that evil and can probably be recruited. Carla teleports to you and starts to use Zahhak Magic, which makes anyone unable to move. You cannot do anything about her on this map and need to seize the fort. - Zahhak actually has a gameplay role, as Carla can use it and not only Guenchaos in his scripted final scenes. - Carla's portrait is very different, silver hair and more majestic. Also her dragon mail cuts damage to 1/4 rather than 1/2 as in the final game. Map 21: Frontier Battles - no Entombed / Grace Mummy only map - instead of the lame Save Staff the thing in the chest were the Arch Ops is sitting on is the Dolharken which halfs your battle damage Map 22: Witch Dragon - in the chest's there is the Dakruon and a Defense+ Staff Map 23: Zachariah - mostly the same Map 24: Katri's parents - quite different as there is a division of Gerxel to the right and the all carry the spears, which are the final version of the throwable javelin. - no Bud and no Rishel, so Juni is your one and only thief in existence. - if you get rid of the map boss you get whisked away into a cave encounter with Gargoyles where you have to rescue Katri's parents. In here you get the Goddess Shield and the save staff.

Hey, for anyone interested, I took the time and played through the whole prelude demo (did stop at the last map though, because I had no "door keys" (you're gonna read why, later") I am going to write down the biggest differences below. So after starting up Aethin's save state our journey started with... Map 4: - Raquel isn't in this map, her "home" is just a random goodie hut, that will give you a weapon mastery inc potion - Roger has nothing against hurting "women" in this one yet. However, you can easily bait him with Martel. - The swordmaster sprite looks a little different, having the "katana" unsheathed and holding it in the two hands rather than having it sheathed like in the final version. - also Vega, after bringing Julia to 1 HP, gives you an "Elixir" or "Healing Drop" instead of the fruit. So you get the strongest healing item, basically. Map 5: The temple with Maruj - No Zieg!!!! He doesn't exist yet Map 6: The bridge: - Instead of Mel bringing you Sasha's pegasus flute it's actually Narron who does and he even does it when he's your unit. So... If you order your team around so that Narron and Sasha start out near each other you can make him talk to her and just immediately get the flute. However, you should be very careful, as when you promote Sasha she will be in a sorry state, because... - There are no Occult Books / Super Proofs: You cannot and for no one raise their level cap. This means that Sasha has to be lvl 20 before promoting in order to get her cap to 40 because of one other difference... - Pegasus Knights do not promote into Wyvern Knights in this game... actually no one does, even Raffin stays a Bronze Paladin. - My Sasha was therefore stuck at a level cap of 23.... - Mel does not show up on this map at all. Map 7: Codha in Fort Wellt - you actually start out with Roger and Mel to the south right before the forest with the priest. They are already blue. - Codha's forces including a sniper and the map boss general with the swordbreaker of the final release make their way toward Roger and Mel immediately. - Codha himself is on the map as a duke and is the map boss sitting on the palace. - all in all: I think that this version actually makes more sense considering the story of Eugen having made a mistake with the drawbridges which led into a trap by Codha. Why? Because when you do not have roger or Mel on the map, because you killed one of them earlier in Map 4, Codha's force make their way to your troops and manage to get there in about 4-5 turns. Now, all of a sudden, what has been a joke in the final version of the game actually gets serious. There even is a case to be made for the bridge key in this version. You get it and then try to escape from Codha's forces. you can go north of course, but the Ballisticians / Wood Shooters, Bowmen and Armor Knights actually make this kinda tricky and stalls your progress. In The final version, you can take your time, you're never in danger, making the story kinda ridiculous. This makes me think that some playtesters complained and tirnanog toned down the game's difficulty in order to make this new IP sell as well as it possibly can. Map 8: Isura - only bigger difference is that Maerchen's ship always leaves the coast and sails away a bit before the enemy phase starts. Map 9: Marl Harbor - What can I say other than: Completely New Map !! - you land in Marl Harbor and liberate the city, afterwards you meet Richard and go to the desert map Map 10: desert and secret shop: - OMG, no Narcus. Let this be a warning. If you play the Prelude version, always put Juni, who is your ONLY thief for the whole game in Runan's group, because Holmes has locktouch at least and doesn't need to search in the sand. If you do not have Juni, you cannot get the key to the secret shop. Map 11: Ernst, Mintz and Pavlov - no Sharron or Billford, instead you get a guy named Albert who is a "Sergeant" class. I couldn't talk to him with anyone I had in Runan's group so I couldn't recruit him. His death quote was "I am sorry, Lete(e)na.", hmm.... - No Sharron = No Wyvern Knight promotion for Raffin, deal with it. - Only the house that sold you the wyvern flute is open. It just gives you a "magic mirror" that just says "makes you look beautiful". Maybe it is like "Lan's mirror" for Plum? Didn't test it. It can be carried by anyone as an item. - Plum will not get the dance skill and her side quest isn't there. Map 12: Bandits in the mountains (Holmes) - This map is incredibly hard if you care about Samson and Alicia. The enemies are balanced so that if you do not abuse save states and even the RNG a little Samson will go down long before you ever get there. Map 13: Maerchen and Attrom: - a little more difficult if anything Map 14: Maerchen at sea. - The warp staff wielding, exorcising holy goddess that is Renee in the final version is actually called something like "Lesfeen" and is a dancer unit. Yes, a dedicated dancer unit. And you get her at the same time as Renee, too so your dancer will join you very late into the game. I talk about her more, when we get her. - Maerchen does not join you and in fact probably dies? Map 15: coming next post...