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Valkyria Chronicles: Gallian Crossfire mod - Temporary Ceasefire


Ertrick36
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... your heart has stopped and your brain is cooo-ooold~ you are so, so de-ead...

Eh?  What are you lookin' at me for?  Oh right, you want some more content?  Here you go.

 

BHBF Part 1-6/2-1 Segway: Socrates Wants You to Not (Conclusion/Story?)

Spoiler

This is one of those rare occasions where there's technically no end or intro, but this is in fact a new chapter we're going into.

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Because this is a DLC campaign, you aren't taken back to the book menu; instead, you're just told to go fuck yourself.

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???

I looked up the official dictionary.com definition, and this is what it came up with:

reservist

/rɪˈzɜːvɪst/
noun
1.
one who serves in the reserve formations of a nation's armed forces

 

I think it means that I've got new soldiers.  I'll probably use a few of them, but don't expect a widely different team than from before.

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So because this is Nerd Marth's story, this is the perspective we get.

Yeah...

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Gah, what the fuck?!

Did Selvaria become a giant?!  Is she gonna eat us?  What is this shot???

I shouldn't have said that; now I've titillated the vore fetishists that I know are out there because of Android 21 in Dragon Ball FighterZ.

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Nah, she was just extremely close to Johann.

Say... what was she doing to him before he regained consciousness???

This is...  You know what, I'm not even gonna comment for fear of making this scene even weirder.

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Yes, it is your general... hovering over you for some reason.

I mean, she probably just heard him stirring and came over, but still.  Johann could probably smell her breath at this proximity.  Hopefully she brushes her teeth.

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Awfully concerned about him, aren't you?

I mean, you're kind of the reason he's in this state.

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You're inside your own tent.  It turns out, the last battle was just a dream, and we're just now getting ready to take on the Gallian scum.

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Thank Isara she's no longer right in our face.

And if you've ever watched dark comedies from the Cold War, you should fully expect me to make a joke regarding the name of this place later on.

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She put you there in the first place, do you honestly think she minds?

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Um... wait, why did she get slightly closer in this shot?

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Uh...

Johann, what are you gonna say?

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I know that tone!

He's gonna say something really stup-

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This is all I have in response to this:

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Of course, she doesn't react well to-

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HEY!

NO FIGHTING IN THE WAR ROOM!

Socrates wouldn't have wanted it to come to this!

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HE'S PROBABLY FUCKING DEAD!

Or damn near it!  Remember that she pretty much has inhuman strength.

Though I will give her credit; at least she didn't punch him like Sumia did to Chrom, and then try to claim it was just a slap.

 

Oh, but I'm ignoring one pertinent fact...

THIS IS A FORCED GAG, EVERYONE!

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Okay, her just saying that got a chuckle out of me.

Up until this scene, would you have imagined Selvaria saying and doing these things?  I certainly didn't.

 

Then we cut to back on top of the Citadel wall.

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Ah, live and let live.  Just forget about it and move on.

You may have almost killed a man for saying something incredibly stupid for absolutely no reason, but his cheekbones are... at least on the way to recovery?

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You're goddamn right you should apologize.

Why the fuck did you have to mention that her humongous mommy cups were sitting on your arm, potentially trapping your arm and cutting off blood circulation to your hand, thereby numbing it entirely and making you useless should a battle erupt?

Shit, I just gave a legitimate excuse for him.

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... am I gonna have to bring Rev back?

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where I got that one picture of Selvara.jpg

Actually, it's a png file, but you get the point.

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If this is what you'd define as "thinking", I think it's time you just stop doing that in general.

Once again, Socrates is sorely disappointed.

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I must be at least half as annoyed as she is.

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"Even though you have horrendous manners and have the tendency to ignore social conduct so that you can voice your weird, slightly perverted thoughts out loud, I feel I should commend you for destroying those four-or-so blockades and killing that one guy."

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Finally, something that came out of his mouth that isn't a stupid remark.

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Ah, a genuinely touching moment that doesn't just scream anime hi-jinks.

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Are you shitting me?  Engineers rock.

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Just ask Nadine the rockstar.

Totally shredding on that air-guitar.

 

Anyway, Selvaria lines him out on precisely why being a Valkyrur is not something to be envious of.

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In other words, everyone thinks she's a freak.

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People only like her because she can kill things good...

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Nerd Marth sucks, so it's naturally unfair to compare him to her...

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And "good job taking down those barricades, kid".

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I have a feeling that if he read my LP, he wouldn't feel so great about his role in the army.

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I... don't believe I actually heard a reason out of him yet.  If anything, it sounds like he was conscripted into the army.

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Dear lord, look at how sad she looks.

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Oh my god, she looks like she's about to cry.

This is soul crushing.  Damn...

One minute we're pulling perverted gags, and the next we have Selvaria facing bleak realities about her purpose.

Why must you yank me around like this, game?

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You can't tell, but he said that more like a question.

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Oh fuck off, Selvaria, you cheeky bastard!

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And with that, we move on to-

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Goddammit, Otto, go away!

Take your ashtray voice and go bother Jackal or whatever.

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He fell under the witch's spell.

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"And did you hear that she actually let me touch her breast?  I'm tellin' ya, man, I never want this war to end!"

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Fuck off, Otto, I said that as a joke.

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Johann, you should show Otto Rev's PSA.

Set him straight.

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You're an asshole, Otto.

And here I head-canoned you as a Darcsen, yet you're as intolerant as the next man.

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"Yeah, she is incredibly hot, but still..."

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That's really sad, especially when you actually know what her backstory is.

Also, this segment abruptly ends here.  No bones about it, 'cuz literally the next scene is the briefing for the next mission.

 

Tune in for... something that'll actually make me legitimately hate Damon.

 

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On 2/15/2018 at 8:01 AM, Cheetar said:

more than usael?

Usually he's just an arrogant, pompous jerk who pushes the lower class military leaders around.  But here, he does something... well, just read the LP segment in this post and you'll quickly understand.

 

Not too much content today, mostly because I haven't recorded the gameplay of the next part yet, but here's the beginning of the chapter I like to call "War Crime Wednesday".

BHBF Part 2-2: Damon Stoops to a New Low (Not-Really-Gameplay)

Spoiler

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So yes, there actually is another part to this.  Like I said, this DLC amounts to a total of four chapters, except two of them are pretty much just slightly different versions of each other.  Whether you get Chapter "2" or "3" depends on if you destroyed Damon's tank.  Believe it or not, this is technically the last part of the story (same with the alternate version where you don't destroy it), as the fourth chapter is more a bonus chapter you get for crushing all of these chapters (getting A rank in them).  Still, we will do that chapter, but it'll mostly be for shits and giggles.  You'll see why when we get to it.

So what exactly are we doing here?  Besides just blowing through more dudes?  Well here's the lowdown...

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Basically the situation.  Damon's a stubborn asshole who won't just give up.  I'll give him that.

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In other words, he's stupid so we should... watch out?

The reason we should watch out isn't so much that he's stupid, but rather because he's both scummy and prideful.  The bottom line for him is his reputation; he'll do anything to make himself look better.

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Because nothing is more terrifying than seeing this probably 6'+ tall behemoth of a woman - who wields a roughly 50 pound gun and wears all black - standing next to your tank, so her running over there will cause Damon to run away screaming and pissing his pants.

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I mean, given that we didn't need to use them while fighting Damon's forces within the Citadel walls, I don't see why we'd need to start using them now.

Though it'd be nice if someone actually killed him this time.  Seriously, killing a General would be a huge boon for the Imperial forces.  Or imprisoning him.  It doesn't matter.  Although then again, him being in command of the Gallian forces is a bane for the Gallians more than anything, so maybe it is for the best...

Dammit!

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So I can just stomp the whole field with Selvaria?

Where's the challenge?

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Conditions.

This time, our goal is only to bring Selvaria to a specific point.  That point, coincidentally, is right on top of the Gallian Base Camp.

For those who've played the main game, this is essentially Chapter 15 (Part 1) in reverse; we start on the Citadel wall and charge into a valley, breaking through what is supposed to be an offensive line and outmaneuvering the enemy so that they'll surrender and retreat back to their base...

except they've thrown in a particularly nasty surprise in this map.

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So there are new units available and I suggested that I might use some of them...

Well, that was a lie.

Everyone I used in the previous chapter, I'm gonna use this chapter as well.

Even Jackal.

So no more stories for these characters.  I don't want to make up more stories for them anyway; it's tiring.

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.....

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I honestly didn't expect that I'd pull this screenshot up as much as I have so far, but dammit if I don't find the stark contrast between her treatment of her troops in the main story and the DLC absolutely hysterical.

So we begin...

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Because Damon gives literally no fucks about the lives of his troops.

It's really as simple as that.

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So Selvaria tries to bark orders at Johann and the others, when suddenly a ghost farts and blows it Selvaria's way.

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Selvaria... seizes up?!

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Uh...  That's really bad.

Especially in the middle of a battlefield.

What the hell is going on?!

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.....

No...

Don't tell me...

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YOU

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HAVE

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GOT

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TO BE

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KIDDING!

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More like you aren't gonna allow your pride to be crushed out of morals, you piece of shit!

I can't believe this guy!  Really, he's willing to potentially embroil Gallia in an international legal crisis and brutally murder an enemy soldier in a cruel and unusual manner all because his tiny little metaphorical dick of a tank was stomped on?!

Damon was already scum, but now he's just a straight up villain.  Who did you learn this villainy from, Damon?

Spoiler

If anyone here says Isara is responsible, you will get a one-way ticket to the gallows.

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Not only that, but he's also willing to destroy the only thing keeping the Empire out of Gallia.  And even assuming he manages to actually capture Selvaria and defeat the Imperial troops here, the fact that Gallia released poison gas into the air will not only spur the Empire to invade in full force and slaughter every Gallian they come across, but will make any other nation either an enemy or hesitant to aid Gallia.

Damon basically screwed everyone over so that he can prove he doesn't have a small dick.  Damon is Vegeta's hubris times a thousand!

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In case you had any doubt that this was about anything other than his hurt pride.

Nope... it really isn't.  He's just all pissy because his stupid fucking tank was blown up, so he's now gonna blow up the Citadel and gas a woman to death!  And you guys think girls can overreact.

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Uh...  New conditions!

Damon really is planning on destroying the Citadel, and a new objective for us is to put a stop to that!

Also, I believe this is the most defeat conditions we've seen yet in this LP.

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Attack "squad"?

Don't you mean attack person?

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No shit.

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Err... yes, we've... already established this...

How about we point out the fact that this is literally nerve gas which means Selvaria will choke to death and collapse, unable to move yet still completely conscious while she struggles to simply breathe or stand up?

How are we gonna fix this disgustingly fucked up situation?

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Yeah, she... she is...

Really, do we have to point out so many obvious things?

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Johann then has flashbacks to things Selvaria said to him.  I won't bother showing them as they don't have subtitles and they're literally just things she's said to him that we've seen before, but we know that Johann cares a lot about her, so...

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You can't see his face, but this pose practically screams "Omae wa mou shindeiru" to Damon.  Even though he's not actually gonna die here ;_;

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He's obviously gonna go on a rampa-

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Oh...  He's not gonna just run off?

Also, I believe this is gonna be the reasoning for why you'll be able to resurrect fallen allies with engineers in VC4.  And this was a point I brought up way back when folks were trying to describe how Ragnaid works.  If you didn't see it/don't remember it, I argued that Ragnaid basically is a distilled and synthesized form of Ragnite that comes packed with other healing agents, which I believe was supported by Nerd Marth's explanation of engineer Ragnaid here.

So yes... this is the one time where Johann actually will be helpful... and it's something that literally anyone else could do if they just had the Ragnaid that engineers carry.

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Said the internet.

Spoiler

Egh, who'd actually pair this guy with Selvaria, though?

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And this is the method Damon employs for destroying the wall; he has artillery units set up at each of the camps, and each camp consecutively fires one after the other at the wall.  The one firing the first artillery is incidentally the camp closest to us to the northwest.

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How will this all play out?

Find out...

Next time, when I actually get around to playing it because I haven't recorded it yet!

I'm gonna see if I can actually use her, because I never tried before.

 

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  • 3 months later...

Oh my word, it's been forever since I updated.  Fuck.

I got swooped by the times n' stuff.  Really though, I just stopped because I needed to take a break; trying to put out all the updates in a timely manner and even playing the game started feeling like a chore... none of which was helped by the fact that the mod version of Behind Her Blue Flame is honestly kind of really boring to do an LP on since it's just piss easy and there's barely anything to comment on.

But here's the deal.  I really do want to finish this LP.  I don't want to leave anyone who might actually enjoy and follow it hanging, as I personally know what it's like to see an LP I like just abruptly end.  So I'm gonna seriously reconsider how I record/compile footage, especially for the remainder of Behind Her Blue Flame, so that it doesn't drag on.  I think this late into the LP, folks generally will know how the game works so I won't have to go into so much detail.  I figure that now-ish is a good time to get started back up on it, since news of VC4's western release has started trickling in.  I will try to have an update soon.  I really will.

While I'm prepping all that, I'll sort of recap things that have happened in my next post as a refresher, since it's been a while and we've gotten pretty far (more than a third of the way through the whole game, not counting DLC, skirmishes, and bonus chapters).  So look forward to everything that is to come.

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And here is that wondrous recap I mentioned.

Intermission: A Somewhat Brief Recap of Several Months of Gameplay

Spoiler

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So we began with a pissing match between a bunch of greedy asshole politicians looking to size up their fossil fuels and subjugate the actual superior race of Darcsens.  Also, I forgot to turn off the stupid FPS counter.

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Except this story's about Sweden instead, I guess.  See more about the big boys in the next sequel, Valkyria Chronicles 4: Revenge of Doge.  This is not a paid sponsorship; if it was, I'd actually have finished the damn LP by now.

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Anime moments ensued, and we eventually met the most crucial figure of the conspiracy war, Isara.

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Then war happened, and random people died because brutality.

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But it was okay, because highly trained soldiers were no match for a few barely trained town guards.

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Anime girl let loose her seed, and the game actually begun at this point (sort of).

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More anime happened while war was looming right over our protagonists' shoulders, but not for long because of course it didn't frickin' last long.

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We learned that scouts are major ass in this mod...

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A tank showed up to blast Mr. Town Watchman into a state of [retreating], and then the real threat (which was four bastard scouts who were somehow a big pain in the ass) showed up.

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But Welkin reached the goal so that he could run like a bitch to get help from his...

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badass sister who from here on out became the #1 fan favorite character (at least for me).

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Grand Exalt Isara took Welkin to her daddy's tank so that she could exploit use his one-time experience with driving tanks to murder the already pretty inept Imp soldiers.

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We learned that the Empire hires deer people (which I'm pretty sure are just called "Fawns" in D&D), and Welks helped Isara steamroll the Imperial troops.

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Also, someone gave birth in the tank, because why the fuck not?

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Some actually well-written and heartfelt dialogue is spoken, and our heroes bid a temporary farewell to their hometown...

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only to be thrown right back into the thick of things, because fuck happiness and because apparently Welkin gets to inherit his father's role of war hero.

Also, with the assistance of audience feedback, Captain Eleanor Varot subtly morphed into a more sadistic R. Lee Ermey.

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We built an army of tiny-mouthed idols, not-gay soldier boys, not-so-useless cowards, and badass Darcsens to combat the tide of incompetent soldiers the Empire is throwing at us.

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Also, one of legendary bar expert Jon Taffer's (AKA Gordon Ramsey, but with bars) regular spies and not!Ganondorf made a vow to occasionally show up in cutscenes to nag on us and be substantially more relatable and more realistically cynical than the main heroes.

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Then we received a [plot item] from our hero and told off some lard ass who wanted to make us feel bad.

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I'm forced to use the three characters I'm not supposed to be using in this playthrough, but it turned out okay because...

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Two core members of Isara's new army got to be heroes for the first time and murder.

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Then a reporter came along because somebody (probably Karl) shat their pants during the battle and the stink attracted this vermin to us.

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This reporter decided to start post-haste on writing a bunch of smut about Welkin, when in reality...

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Isara's unphased, no-nonsense reaction to Ellet's attempt to spook her is worth more than all the smut any reporter could ever hope to muster.

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After a tense meeting where we surmised that we were basically gonna probably die, we learn that Isara and Rosie are the complete opposite in regards to intelligence.

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Welks bets everything on a crazy and daring plan which was mostly possible due to Isara's brilliant ingenuity.

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After a few close calls and several badass moments from a lot of our heroes...

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Isara gets to commit her first mass murder, thus completing yet another step in the path to becoming a dictator the Grand Exalt of Many Lands and enabling the Gallian military to advance beyond the goddamn city.

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After the decisive defeat of the bridge bois, the camera man comes face to face with the villains shit-talking each other and coming up with a plan while Maximilian flaunts his lackluster penis size and makes the albino poster girl cream her pants by simply existing.

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The only seemingly decent guy in the Imperial military then proceeded to fail at the task he was given, and we never get to see him in a gameplay capacity again until almost endgame for some inexplicable reason.

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Welkin made Alicia carry poo for the shits (heheh) and giggles, and then randomly decides that the animal trails will lead to an Imperial base just because.

And I just noticed that Rosie's outfit has a midriff for some reason.

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A Nohrian soldier found his way among our ranks, and initiated a plot to usurp the throne from Isara.  Then we finally found some Imperial supply base by coincidence because animal trails actually leading to a military base is just stupid.

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After Susie scrambled the brains of a young Texan lesbian, Isara threatened her with violence so that she'd shoot better...

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Through the power of sick air guitar solos and Wavy's patented Boy Scout Grenades, we finally took the supply camp and greatly crippled the Empire's ability to ship vital equipment to their troops in Gallia...

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a fact which is celebrated by the moron I mentioned earlier.

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Also, Welkin ate bread.

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On a more important note, Largo saved the vegetables immediately after Alicia refused to bake any bread for the rest of the squad because she obviously gushin' for Welks.  She probably got brain damage like Texas did.

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Our heroes were later sent out in the desert boonies for no goddamn reason except that Varot wanted to make the platoon suffer for not letting her butcher and serve Hans as a meal like he should be before he has a chance to attempt an assassination on Isara.

In the meantime, Rosie threw around a made up word and the villains continued to shit-talk each other because they just can't fucking get along and it's no wonder we keep winning against these rejects.

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long battle then ensued...

in the process, the 'Boro we all know and love was jammed into the beloved Fire Emblem Warriors like she goddamn deserves to be, Catherine actually got to be useful, Jane became Public Enemy #1, Edy stole the show yet again, Nadine had fucking beautiful, flowing hair that made me cream my pants, ancient memes were resurrected to protect us, and Homer put a former friend-turned-foe into the dirt.

Surpassing Sniper Hell, we learned that we did absolutely nothing of value, but then...

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We find that Maximilian is here with Selvaria and an extremely dry sense of humor.

What ensued was...

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a disappointingly easy battle that left me just as stoic and unamused as Gen 2 Lewyn, AKA Mr. Lewyn "What Went On Between Your Mom and I Is None of Your Damn Business" Sety Jones.  I'd love to imagine how one would receive that quote without the proper context.

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And then Selvaria ruined Christmas with her breasts, but to no avail because the Batomys is still an overhyped piece of shit tank.

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Rewind to just before all this shit even happened, we learned that Selvaria has conflicting feelings about her soldiers, and might possibly be suffering from bipolar depression.

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Also, this shitstain is voiced by Marth.

And Damon's an ass.

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And then the S.S. 'Boro (AKA this LP) crash landed on "Fuck This Power Supply" Island and now you're all caught up ヽRGaYS2c.png

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

As promised, I have come out with a new part.  It's going to be relatively short and sweet, because again this DLC is piss easy in this mod.

BHBF Part 2-3: Musaad the Bastard (Gameplay)

Spoiler

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Where we last left off:

  • Fuck this guy
  • He's a bitch
  • I hate this guy
  • The bastard used poison gas on Selvaria

All caught up?  Good.

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So Damon's scheme turned this from a simple route the enemy mission to a defense and rescue mission.  Allow me to show you the battlefield.  It's fairly big and, believe it or not, we'll actually see it again at some point.

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Because of the poison gas, we are incapable of using Selvaria.  The only way we can get her moving again is if we bring Nerd Marth to her.  But remember that he's an Engineer, the most feeble class in the game.  And even with this mod installed, he'll die if so much as an ant bites him.  So what are the threats he (and by extension, the rest of the army, which are all sitting on that goddamn wall except the tank) will have to look out for?  And what else is going on?

Well...

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The first most immediate problem we have to concern ourselves with objective-wise is the bombardment that Damon is issuing.  He has ordered one of his camps to lay down some artillery fire on the wall; if he destroys enough of the wall, the mission fails.

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Next, we have a blockade right in front of us.  There is actually a straight up wall extending far to the east and west from this tank's position; bordering that to the south, you have a trench, which Selvaria is trapped in.  So that means if we want to move up, we either have to destroy this entire blockade (which consists of two soldiers, two gatling guns, and this tank) or flank far to either side.  Even if we cut down the blockade here, if you'll notice, there is an indestructible barrier immediately blocking Selvaria from the eastern flank, and moving around that will only put Mr. Engineer in more danger, so really we want to move him and maybe one shocktrooper along the west flank.

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Within the trench, there is exactly one shocktrooper we need to worry about.  Also, there are two barriers that need to be destroyed with grenades.  Not too big a trouble, but too much for Math Man alone to deal with.  He needs to tag team with a shocky boi.

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Further south, you have snipers and more gatling guns.  These snipers are capable of interception fire, so they should be taken out immediately.  And when our units emerge from the trench, it'd be preferable if the western gun was destroyed so that we don't have to worry about it either.

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And last, but most certainly not least, we... have...

Wait a minute...

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MUSAAD, YOU TRAITOR!

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I take you in, and THIS is how you treat me!  You BASTARD!  You BITCH!  HOW FUCKING DARE YOU!

So yeah, Musaad's fighting us, and for all intents and purposes, he's considered an enemy Ace.  Which essentially means he's going to be a humongous pain in the ass to fight without exploits.  Great.

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Much further south, we see there's actually a goal; Selvaria is to reach (not capture; reach) this camp all the way down here.  Apparently there's just a gatling gun here.  You think this is all there is here, folks?  Because if so, I give you guys too much credit.

Of course there's more than just some flimsy gatling gun here.  Though honestly, even one's enough of a pain, even for Selvaria.  But we'll get to that when we get to it.  This is just to show you what the ultimate goal is.

 

So from here on out, I'm just going to show a few pics to visualize my general strategy.  For example...

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Taking out the snipers with Dustpan.

This is first aside from...

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NUKING EVERYTHING

...

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Except fucking Musaad, because of course he doesn't die.

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Let's fix that.  Ignore the damage done to Otto.  I totally didn't neglect the fact that the gatling guns would almost decimate him.

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And it triggers a cutscene.

Incidentally, the guy celebrating is actually the guy who took him down.  That was totally by accident.  Gotta also love how he's wearing red in the cutscene, but black in gameplay; there are some things Busard can't change, I suppose.

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Fucking really, dude?  What, did you just graduate from friggin' preschool?  You never played card games before?

Not even Go-Fish?

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And betrayed my trust, goddammit!

I have no idea why they're putting an in-story explanation for Aces here.  Technically, you're supposed to play this after beating the game.

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Hahaha, get it?  Because all the guys we're using will become enemy Aces in the main story, but they just think they're regular joes.  So funny, haha.

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#LivingLegend #TheManBehindTheLegend

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So anyway, let's have Ty Immortal capture that base so that Damon doesn't do anything too rash.

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Of course, there's another cutscene when we do this.

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Of course he doesn't give a shit.

He

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So after his fuming, I finally move Mathematics up just so that he isn't sitting on his ass all the way back on top of the wall.

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Now we're in the trenches, and through a combination of Wavy's patented Boy Scout Grenades and mortality catching up to all not named "Ty", we clear out the infestation problem we're having here...

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And we finally meet up with our princess, who...

uh...

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Is just standing there???

Her nervous system is breaking down, but she's perfectly capable of standing.

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Hell if I know, hell if I care.

Let's go, Selvie.

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Oh but first, we gotta have a cutscene.

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You know this is going into the general "Reaction Pic" Folder.

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One of the few times I'll use a screenshot of Damon to be condescending towards someone else.

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Oh yeah, of course, Selvaria's got her hero now, Nerd Marth, the- zzzzzzzzz

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Oh for fu-

Okay, I guess to her credit she literally was just numbed from head to toe by chemicals, so she might be woozy.

That being said...

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Get in the game, man!

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And is there a need for so much dialogue about him injecting her with meds?

He wasn't even at much of a risk; I kinda cleared the way for him for the most part.

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And because of this, I guess.

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So yadda yadda yadda, he gives this big, long speech about this and that.

Dude, we honestly don't care much about you.  We care more about the lady you're pumping with fluids.  Not meant as an innuendo, goddammit.

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Let's cut the chit-chat and get to work already, man.

So he injects her with the hypo, and then...

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We get to relearn his name.

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Johann?

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Johann, the son of Duke Dannan of Dozel (also the tyrannical king of Isaach), and the man who is determined to win the heart of Isaach's Princess Larcei?

Come to think of it, Selvaria kind of sort of maybe looks like a white-haired, red-eyed Larcei from certain angles.

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Same pissy-looking face, anyway.

It'd explain a lot, honestly.  Though then I have to wonder why this Johann is so squishy.

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Because the Johan I know may not be the best unit, but he's not known for being a squishy boy.  That defense is literally a single point away from the max, btw.

Anyway, enough not!Game of Thrones.  We've gotta play not!Band of Brothers.

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Well, you won't exactly have a choice... if you don't deliberately remember it, he's going to make you remember it with about a dozen-or-so poems.  And you really don't want to hear them.

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Amazing how paralysis can be fixed with a simple injection.  Again, I know nothing about medicine other than basic commonly available knowledge.

So yadda yadda, she makes a full recovery...

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And then we learn the single primary reason why Selvaria is so inclined to call the Gallian troops "peasants".

To be fair, if I was just gassed by a general from some nation, I probably would also be treating them as less-than-human.

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A "hero".

Barely does jack shit except for when the plot demands him to.

But yes, a decisive victory we shall have!

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And then we're back in the action.

Do you realize how piss easy things will be now?

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Er... actually, that'll have to wait, because I literally expended the last CP on dragging Johann's sorry ass over to Selvaria.

So what ways will the enemy cripple us this time?

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...

This is almost a meme at this point.

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Uh...

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Otto, NOOOOOOO!

...

Eh, who give a shit?

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Oh... right.  There's a couple of dudes who try to come from this area, but...

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Yeah...

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This dick shoots at Jackal, but doesn't finish the job because the AI in this game is dum.

And that is actually the end of the enemy's turn.

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Top of our turn, we have to worry about another mortar strike...

Except we don't, because I only need one more turn to beat this level.  Seriously, it's nowhere near as involved as the previous chapter.

Let's cut the BS and see what's far to our south, because that's honestly our biggest concern at this point.

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If you squint your eyes, you'll see there are two gatling guns and some tank there.

That tank is Damon's tank.  The machine gun on it is actually kind of a bitch.  And not in the way that's good for us.

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One destroyed gatling gun later, and she's actually not looking so hot.

Fuck, these things are damn powerful.

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So we take out the other one, and-

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...

This is what death looks like for Selvaria.

She just... stands.

Amazing, isn't it?

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Let it be noted that Damon's tank is a pain to deal with.

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So let's have her sit here, instead.

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And then Johann can heal her, and-

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...

Ahem!

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We'll have Johann heal her twice, and...

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Oh yeah, that's right.  She just has to arrive at the point.

Well, there you have it.  Mission comprete.

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Hu-friggin'-zah, it only took, like, three or four months to get the job done.

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How?  Why?  Because...

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It's...

MATHS!

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Yeah, if you keep fighting, Selvaria will just shove that gun up your ass.

Really, I have to ask how it is that you are still alive.  Your tank fucking EXPLODED.  You're the one that should be dead, all things considered.

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And just like the scumbag that he is, he orders his troops to lie about the fact that he used poison gas.

That's also why he's not treated like the criminal scum that he is.  The Gallians believe that the Empire used gas, while the Empire knows that Damon used gas.  Damon cleverly turned future relations between the two into a big, stupid finger-pointing game.  Fifty years down the line, and the two nations will still be bickering about who should apologize for using poison gas during EWII.  Nice one, General.  Real fuckin' classy.

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And that wraps everything up.  Technically, I'm supposed to play through the alternate version of this mission that I get when I don't destroy Damon's tank in the first chapter in order to obtain the Ruhm machine gun, but it's pretty much exactly the same mission as the one we just played except we go through the eastern flank instead and there are no mortars.

Tune in later for the conclusion of this part of the DLC.

 

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Is anyone missing Lynn, Isara, and Nadine yet?  I am.  Let's hurry up so that we can get back to them, shall we?

BHBF Part 2-4: And That's How Generic Enemy Aces Are Made (Finale... for now)

Spoiler

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So the fighting is long since over, and we are now watching a sort of formal ceremony.

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Ah yes, accolades.  I'd equate this to real world honors, but I can't think of any high honors that are military right now.  As far as I know, the Order of the Iron Star is a high honor in the Empire in this game.  And Johann's getting it.

All for charging into a trench with an immortal shocktrooper to inject steroids or something into his general.

Joking aside, I do like seeing the more official high-ranking officer side of Selvaria that hands out badges and issues titles.  Just a little thing you don't see in games as often as you might think you would.  Most generals in games are either fighting on the front lines, giving briefings to units way too far down the chain of command for them to realistically have direct control, or just generally a non-factor.  Only high-ranking military officer/politician I can remember at the moment who handed out a prize like this in a game is either President Kimbal or Caesar in Fallout New Vegas, depending on which army you side with.  And maybe Princess Leia in Star Wars games if you wanna get real technical.

Point is, award ceremonies in video games are underrated, especially in a day and age when trophies and achievements are tacked onto every game.

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Yeah, so does getting what is essentially the highest honor in the goddamn Empire!

Really, he's getting a lot showered on him today.  What a whirlwind this guy's been through, especially if you head-canon the story I gave him.

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And that's the name of an enemy Ace who appears in the base game.

As I said before, a lot of the units we got to use in this DLC are Aces in the base game.

Now, I know exactly where this guy's gonna show up later on, and I've got a whole rant just stirring in my head right now for when that happens, but I'm not gonna say much.  I'll only say that I think the place he winds up ties more into the backstory I gave him than the story/personality this DLC establishes for him.

Anyway, so he's being called "The Iron" before he even receives the Order of the Iron Star?  Seems legit.

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I bet it was goddamn Seguler that was teasing him...

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G A M E P L A Y - S T O R Y   I N T E G R A T I O N

Though with the mod installed, this just seems contradictory because she already has not one, but two orders that heal allies.

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And now an explanation for why Oswald the Iron is actually a scout in the base game instead of an engineer.

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... he honestly doesn't look different at all.

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Of course he's sticking around, and he seems more than happy to.

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I swear, she's just not capable of forming a proper smile.  It's like this one character I made in a story who I described as "always having a severe case of resting bitch face".

You might be wondering if this is her coming on to him, but nah.  She... isn't really much for feelings.  The person who her feelings most closely resemble love or a crush with is Maximilian.  Apart from that, her relationship with her subordinates is pretty much the same as that of the other Drei Stern generals'.

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Why yes, are there any suitable restaurants for high-ranking officials in this tiny backwater nation that you literally just began razing?  I'm sure if you look on Yelp, you'll find a halfway decent restaurant that hasn't been blown to bits.

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I kind of figured they wouldn't be eating out.

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I mean...

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Well, first off, I don't think it's something one should find embarrassing.  The ability to cook and/or bake food is a damn good skill to have, no matter who you are.

Secondly, is it so far-fetched in this world for a military general to know cooking?  I have to figure that with all the days and nights of needing to eat shitty-ass military rations, they'd had to have learned how to make it taste not so shitty at some point.  Unless they're French rations; I hear those are actually decent.

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Ah yes, some semblance of realism sprinkled in.

Okay, I know I've been throwing the game some flak, but I mean... as much as I would normally praise its story and sometimes somewhat gritty take on war, there's no denying how anime it is sometimes.  You need only go back a page in this LP to see just how far it goes in that regard.

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Flak and fluff aside, it is indeed quite an honor to have a general actually cook food for you.  Takes quite a bit of time and effort to do so, and it really can make a mess, especially if any baked goods are involved.

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No, don't end it here; I wanna know what Oswald eats!  Does he prefer lasagna, casserole, or shepherd's pie?  What kind of spices does he like on his food?  Gimme some answers, goddam-

Nah, JK.  Who cares about that stuff?

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Suddenly narration.

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Remember this in particular; he wanted to fight by her side.  Seriously, etch it into your brain.  It'll be relevant later on.

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So you'd risk getting your arm blown off by a homosexual transvestite or your face ripped to shreds by a vicious and deadly factory worker just to-

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Okay yeah, he would.

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How cute and sweet...

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And that is the end... of this DLC.  At least for now; there's a hidden chapter... but at this point, I'm kind of done LPing this DLC because commentating on me easily slaughtering dudes actually isn't as fun as commentating on the various close calls and non-generic troops of Gallia's side.

So here are my formal thoughts on the DLC:

It's a lot more fun in the original version of the game.  Behind Her Blue Flame is actually pretty tricky to A-rank - more difficult than the base game, possibly.  But it's clear that in Busard's mind, this was only supposed to be a set of missions where you can let off some steam after playing the much more difficult main game for a bit.  So in that respect, I'll treat it like it is and say it's fun in that sense.  There's virtually no challenge, but it was not meant to be challenging in the first place.  And logically, it makes sense that the Imperials would be disgustingly superior to Damon's regular joes.  I can't really fault it for simply being a mindless slaughterfest.

And in regards to the story...  I did give it flak at points, but that's just how I am; that hardly means I dislike it at all.  In the base game, you don't really get any real happy or peaceful moments with Selvaria, and you only get to see her stoic side.  Here, we get to see a relatively more lax, friendly, and even bashful side of her, and I appreciate that even if it can get a little anime at times.  Johann isn't much of a character to me; he's a device to bring out the more human side of Selvaria.  And the other thing I appreciate is hearing her mention the research facility she was raised in; I don't think it's brought up a lot in the main story.

And of course, I love shoving Damon's face in the dirt and rubbing it in there until blood starts showing.  This set of missions really demonstrates just how much of a bastard he can be and how far he'll go when his pride is broken.  I also like that the game showed that the Empire isn't entirely bad and that the Gallian Army isn't entirely good; both sides have their heroes and villains.  That's demonstrated in the main game's story as well, but it really shows here with the whole poison gas bit and it's cool they didn't ignore the fact that Damon would probably have been sent to prison had he not scapegoated like he did.

All in all, I like this DLC.  However, it wasn't quite as fun to LP as I thought it might be.  The story was nice to LP, but the gameplay just wasn't interesting, which is why I one-shotted the second chapter instead of splitting it into more segments.  Because of this, I've reconsidered doing the hidden mission for now; I think instead of doing that immediately, it'll be a little treat later down the line.  There's not all that much to it; it's mostly just another romp where you just go full ham and destroy an entire army with even more OP forces.  But there's a reason why it's special, and I'll save that reason for when it comes.  I probably stated it before, and it's pretty obvious anyway.

For now, we are finished with Behind Her Blue Flame.  Next time I come back, we'll join with Team Isara and the No-Fun Gang once again in the Kloden Forest for... some reason.  Hell if I remember.  Until then, I bid you a good day... and welcome you all back to the LP.

 

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I really need to try to play the dlc again, I think I beat the first map but not an A rank so have to redo it anyways.

Enough of my talking though, congrats on beating the dlc despite how easy it seems for you. Oh boy Kloden, yep I remember that, good luck with that.

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So VC 4 is comin' to PC.  That means I most definitely will do an LP of it, since I have an easier time working on this stuff for PC than for consoles.  Also holy shit, Nintendo blew everything up here with their E3 presentation.

Putting out a small part.  I attended a wedding over the weekend, and then a BBQ happened the next day, so I didn't have time to do anything for the LP.  Plus, with certain events transpiring, I think it'd be better to post small stuff for now.

Interlude 7 Continued:

Spoiler

So where we last left off before we took on the DLC, we got a new ally for our team.

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AKA, the actual best sniper in the whole goddamn game.  Seriously, literally every potential she has works in her favor as a sniper, and to top it all off, she's an animal person.  She must've heard about the Porcavian we picked up and decided that now is the time to join.  And she's come at an opportune time, as we're comin' up to a fairly difficult defense mission here.

But I didn't show that we actually got another member to join our army...

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So here, we have a lancer, Audrey Heitinga, as you can see.

About lancer Audrey Heitinga: She is actually another one of the secret characters that you unlock by fulfilling certain criteria; for her, you need to obtain ten medals, which we actually haven't even gotten to.  She is basically a Welkin fangirl, and apparently joined because she "gets swept up in trends".  She's very sociable and friendly, but also is allegedly strong enough to literally crush a watermelon with a single hand.

Potentials:

Spoiler
  • Pollen Allergy
  • Good Buddy
  • Camaraderie

Likes: Welkin Gunther, Salinas Milton, Ramona Linton

Assessment:

Spoiler

Like most other hidden characters, Audrey is one of the better units in the game.

Her strength revolves around being around people, but she also gets the best Battle Potential for Lancers, which is Ultimate Anti-Armor.  Not only that, but she also gets Tank Slayer, which boosts her anti-tank attack power even more when there are multiple tanks in her line of sight, which essentially means she's easily capable of destroy most tanks with one shot.  Pretty much exactly what you'd want from a lancer.

I have not personally used her yet, but I'm going to this next- er, the second chapter after this next one, because... well, reasons.  You'll know why when I get around to it.

Though with new members, we must bid farewell to others.

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I don't need your goddamn spicy memes anyway.

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You know... you ain't terrible, either.  Except for the part where I had to fight you in the DLC.  You can genuinely go fuck yourself for that.

But hey, we might be seeing him again.  After all, we still have a number of chapters with trenches, and he's excellent at trench warfare.

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Behold, more levels.

And orders that I'm not gonna show because I haven't started showing them before, so I won't begin to now.

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Hoho, boyo, it's time for some meat and potatoes!

Finally, we can finally check out some of the changes Busaards made to these guns.

Firstly, these weapons don't do what you think they might do judging from the names of the upgrades.  You can see this in the stats displayed; the stats themselves will show what their effects actually are.

The Gallian-S series is the standard rifles in the branch; there's nothing notable about them except for the fact that they're going to be exactly like the rifles we've come to know and love, just more powerful and more accurate than before.

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And here is where things get gimmicky pretty much immediately.

You see how the Gallian-A series has a range of "0"?  That doesn't mean it is a melee weapon, that means it can't intercept.  However, look at how much more damage it does.  And according to Busards, this thing loses attack power as distance is built up, so you know what we have here?  We have a friggin' shotgun, essentially.  So yeah, as you can see, there's some very visible differences between weapon branches; before, they were only slight.

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The Gallian-X series still has the same gimmick of decreasing enemy defense stats.  But this time it's less shitty.

These are the only new branches, though we may soon get a new type of lance weapon.  Essentially the inferior prototype of VC4's Grenadier class, but hey, maybe Busards made it better.

I also may as well show what my tank's additional body enhancements look like now.

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Let me show you the notes from the Readme in regards to these things so that you can better understand what these things do:

Quote
  • Red parts increase both Body HP and Tread HP
  • Yellow parts increase both Body Defense and Tread Defense
  • Purple parts increase AP
  • For red and yellow parts, depending if you are buying or equiping, the game will only display one increase (body or tread) but both values are increased.
  • For purple parts, when you are equiping, the game will still show "Ammo 0->0" instead of the actual increase in AP but equiping them does increase AP as properly displayed when buying them (hopefully, the tank's AP is displayed and updated at the top of the screen).

So what we have is:

  • Triple-boosted all-around defense.
  • Double-boosted all-around HP.
  • Double-boosted accuracy (from blue parts).
  • Boosted AP.

I actually like these changes, especially the change from ammo-addons to AP boosts.  That further emphasizes the engineer's resupply role, making it more worthwhile to actually use them.

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Alright, let's give Lynn the BFG, already.

The game is now officially over.  Every little struggle we went through?  Child's play now.

Now let me give you a rundown of this gun, the Ruhm, one more time.  The thing about this gun is that it's actually not the most powerful MG in the game in regards to attack power; in fact, the endgame royal weapons will have more anti-personnel attack power.  However, this thing is stupidly accurate and long range, and you never need more than 20 shots to kill anything that moves.  For comparison, the next most accurate gun we have currently still only as a C-rank in aiming, while this game is A-tier aiming.  Hell, you saw how accurate it was in Selvaria's hands; how much deadlier do you think it'll be in the hands of Lynn, who has access to more potentials and more equipment (grenades and Ragnaid) than Selvaria?  And technically, it's better in the hands of a shocktrooper because they don't shoot as fast, so not as many shots will hit a ragdolling corpse, meaning fewer wasted bullets.

From here on out, I'm gonna start showing which characters will be wielding what weapons before every new mission.

And that's it for this intermission... let's get started on the next mission now.

Chapter 8-1: Everyone Suddenly Cares About Isara (Intro Segment)

Spoiler

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If you look at this page, you can see there are actually two gameplay segments; you can tell by the portions pictures that are actually maps.  That's right, we have our first double-parted chapter in the game.  That's gonna be fun for me to sort through.

So, Woodland Snare...  In what way do Welkin and Alicia fuck up this time?  Let's find out!

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So we're returning to Randgriz from Barious... via the Kloden Wildwoods?

HMMMM.....

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Uh huh, yeah sure, game.  Whatever you say.  Seems totally legit.

Okay, to be fair, we're actually in the woods immediately to the southwest from Barious, but I want to make fun of the game, goddammit.

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Me too, Largo.

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Alright, which one of you motherfuckers didn't report back?

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I bet it was you, wasn't it?  Goddamn you, Susie, get your shit together!

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Yeah, they very well could be, couldn't they?

Hmmm...

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Welks agrees to walk off with only Alicia, leaving behind the true MVPs.  Gee guys, there's no way they're gonna fall into a trap and get separated from the rest of the platoon, right?

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And of course, Largo, being the MVP vet he is, notices something happening first.

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And boom goes the dynamite...

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Isara, of all people, starts trying to go after them.

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But is stopped by the big man.

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Who are you calling an-

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Okay, fair point.

Gee, Largo all of a sudden caring about Isara's wellbeing?  What's going on here?

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Not if Lynn the Destroyer has anything to say about it, but for the sake of the plot, I'll roll with it.

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Oh wowie, guys, there's, like... eight guys attacking us.  Real scary.

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1) No we're not outnumbered, we can usually deploy, like, twelve units, and

2) when has that ever stopped us?

Answer that question, Mr. "Violent for Vegetables" who, may I remind everyone, charged into the battlefield with only two other troops against a force that was probably the size of a platoon just to save some produce.

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Even fucking Rosie???

Damn, the turning point happened a lot sooner than I remember.  Actually, now that I think about it, this is one of the major stints that really brings the platoon together.

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Finally, I'm not the only one here who actually appreciates Isara.

So they hit the deck... but what about Welks and 'Licia?

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Oh, of course, they were knocked out together.

I wouldn't be surprised if they landed on top of each other.

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What?  But you both were unconscious.

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Apparently...

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... so I think maybe not doing so great.

Though they have a tank and, like, four Darcsen bad asses on their side, so they should be okay.

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I like that dumbfounded response.

"Yeah, I have no idea how our buddies are doing, but we got separated."

"Oh."

No shit you got separated.

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Yeah, I'd imagine so.

They really like camping in forests.  They'd probably love coming down to Montana to camp out by the pristine lakes.  Or maybe I'm just forgetting that this is essentially Sweden, where everything's a frickin' forest.

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Nah, just stay here.  It'll be fine, trust me.

With how the AI pathing works, they'll probably all just run around in circles until they run into something to shoot.

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Gee, it'd really suck if she was hurt and I'd have to deal with her being a gimped-ass scout for the whole chapter.

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Oh good, I'm glad we can rely on-

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Goddamn...

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Okay, maybe it won't be terrible.  Just a bit of difficulty.

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Well game... is it going to be more difficult or not???  The answer is oh hell yes, it most certainly will.

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But I guess she'll take it in stride.

You know... there's something I'd actually like to mention here, but it's spoilers.  So I'll talk about it under spoilers for those who have played the game.

Spoiler

One key element to Alicia that is so prominent that it's interwoven into the gameplay as a potential is her ability to just miraculously get healed because of her being a Valkyrur.  Now, I know it doesn't always happen immediately, but that's usually in the case of her being critically wounded, which starts her transformation into the Valkyrur form.  This is just a sprained ankle; why the hell doesn't it just get healed right there?  Gameplay-story segregation?  I know this game has instances of such, but this is a weird place for it to happen in.  The devs know they're gonna make that an aspect of her character, yet they dedicate an entire chapter to her being gimped because of a sprained ankle?  Or am I mistaken and there was a point in development where Alicia wasn't going to be a Valkyrur?

It's just really bizarre to me that this is a problem for a good chunk of this chapter, yet we later learn that it shouldn't have been a problem in the first place because she is literally immortal until she decides to become a nuke.

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So there you have it.  Our mission is set, so let's get a move on...

... next time!

 

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On 6/12/2018 at 2:14 PM, Ertrick36 said:
Spoiler

 

One key element to Alicia that is so prominent that it's interwoven into the gameplay as a potential is her ability to just miraculously get healed because of her being a Valkyrur.  Now, I know it doesn't always happen immediately, but that's usually in the case of her being critically wounded, which starts her transformation into the Valkyrur form.  This is just a sprained ankle; why the hell doesn't it just get healed right there?  Gameplay-story segregation?  I know this game has instances of such, but this is a weird place for it to happen in.  The devs know they're gonna make that an aspect of her character, yet they dedicate an entire chapter to her being gimped because of a sprained ankle?  Or am I mistaken and there was a point in development where Alicia wasn't going to be a Valkyrur?

It's just really bizarre to me that this is a problem for a good chunk of this chapter, yet we later learn that it shouldn't have been a problem in the first place because she is literally immortal until she decides to become a nuke.

 

 

Spoiler

I believe it's explained in in-game cutscenes that Valkyrur's only awaken when they are on the verge of death, obviously a sprained ankle isn't going to kill Alicia, at least not directly. And yeah becoming a Nuke is unstabling the power within them. I will say based off what I know of Valkyria Chronicles 3, Riela doesn't awaken until late in the game, yet apparently growing up she had Valkyrur level healing. due to *insert Milk joke here*. So since both games take place at the same time or in the same timeframe it is very weird about those two cases.

 

Edited by LucarioGamer812
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58 minutes ago, LucarioGamer812 said:

Snip

My spoiler isn't hidden in your post; you need to fix that before I'll respond to you.

If all else fails, just ping me like @Ertrick36.  I'll probably know what you're referring to.

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One thing I really enjoy about Gallian Crossfire is that pretty much each weapon has their own purpose now instead of having a clear cut superior option (though it didn't really matter too much with lousy enemy stats and generous headshot multipliers in the vanilla game).  And yeah, the Gallian-A rifles are basically a purely player phase weapon with their zero range.  While their damage does drop off the further away from the target, its penalty isn't as harsh compared to the other scout rifles since you can still kill enemies at a decent distance.  I actually managed to snipe a sniper from about halfway across the map one time :P

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1 minute ago, kaidoi said:

One thing I really enjoy about Gallian Crossfire is that pretty much each weapon has their own purpose now instead of having a clear cut superior option (though it didn't really matter too much with lousy enemy stats and generous headshot multipliers in the vanilla game).  And yeah, the Gallian-A rifles are basically a purely player phase weapon with their zero range.  While their damage does drop off the further away from the target, its penalty isn't as harsh compared to the other scout rifles since you can still kill enemies at a decent distance.  I actually managed to snipe a sniper from about halfway across the map one time :P

Yeah, I absolutely agree.  In fact, everyone reading this will get to see those particular rifles in action this segment, and just how precisely they'll work to our benefit.

 

To celebrate officially breaking the game by obtaining the Ruhm, I acquired some extraction tools and made this work of art:

Spoiler

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Lynn, posing with her new Big Fucking Gun in XPS, ready to destroy the Empire with her Darcsen friends.

The war's end has now officially begun!

Spoiler

To cover my credit bases...

The tools I used to ultimately create this are as follows:

  • Import Valkyria, made by the people in this thread; this is for importing model files into Blender
  • VC Tool, found on the sixth page of the thread I just linked; this is for extracting textures, as well as modding in new textures, which is how the high res mods are made
  • Blender, which is such a well known tool that I probably don't even have to link it, tbh; I used this to actually mess with the models... and spend an unnecessary amount of time rigging facial bones (these models don't come with face bones for some reason) and tearing my hair out getting all the weight paints just right when I should've just worked with the shape keys that were already made available
  • XNA Posing Studio, which I obviously used to pose and screencap the final product

I didn't use GIMP to touch it up, oddly enough.  And obviously, the models came from VC itself.  In fact, the PC version makes it extremely easy, as all the loose files aren't even archived for some reason.

Will probably do poses for the other characters I'm using.  So if you're keeping track of my team, that'd mean I'd do poses for: Ted, Wavy, Susie, Salinas, Edy (of course I'd have to), Jane, Jann, Audrey, Elysse, Karl, Homer, Dallas (probably with Susie, 'cuz of a certain notorious moment), Nadine, Emile, Catherine, Marina, Musaad (yeah, I still consider him a member, despite his absence currently).

Probably will do one with all the Darcsens together, as well as maybe for some other personal favorites of mine.  And some will probably contain actual backgrounds.  I'm excited to have finally acquired the means to do this ヽRGaYS2c.png

 

 

And I've got a new part ready.  Prepare for a return in difficult - sometimes total bullshit - moments!

Chapter 8-2: The Return of an Immortal (Gameplay)

Spoiler

This segment of the chapter actually won't be terribly long because this is actually a short mission, but it does still have its fair share of difficulties.  And there's a bit of a meta to it.  That said, it will still take multiple parts, because I'm still concerned about hitting that upper limit of screenshot posts (that I'm assuming exists just to be on the safe side).  So without further adieu, let's get into it.

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For this mission, we'll only be using Welkin and Alicia.  This technically breaks the rule of "no squad leaders" that I've imposed on myself for this LP, but as I've said before, it's sometimes absolutely unavoidable.  And that is especially true for this one; in fact, this mission is the exact reason why Busards recommends against booting them from the platoon.  You'll see why in a bit.

I'm having them use Gallian-A1's.  I'll explain when we get to the mission itself.  Which is... right now!

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When we get on the ground, you'll find out just how untrue that is.  It's honestly more like they're cornered, tbh.

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So basically, this is a little bit like Largo's Passion, but it's an escape mission there are actually more conditions this briefing isn't telling us about; we'll learn about that in the opening cutscene and as we go along.

So the reasons I'm using the A1 are twofold:

  1. As this is a stealth mission, I don't want there to be any risk of either Welkin or Alicia blowing their own cover by shooting an enemy.  The mission doesn't fail when we're spotted, but we need as few risks of death as possible because two scouts are very, very weak combat units in this mod.  And
  2. Anyone I shoot needs to drop ASAP.  I shouldn't have to five-round an enemy.  And these guns are powerful in close-quarters, which is what a lot of our engagements will look like.

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Conditions.

This is why you must keep Alicia; if you don't have her in your platoon by the time this mission rolls around, it will literally be impossible to complete, as the victory condition hinges on both Welkin and Alicia making it to the destination.  No Alicia, no victory.

After this mission, it may be safe to remove her, but I'd personally wait until you finish her reports as well as after you beat Chapter 14 if you want to officially abandon her.  But even then, you might as well keep her; if you really need to change your unit makeup, just trade units, because not a single mission allows you to deploy 17 or more units.

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Anyway, so we need to get out of here, basically, with both Alicia and Welks intact, limbs and all.

I don't know if we'll necessarily "sneak out without being spotted", but... uh, I guess I'll try.

Also, just as the briefing said, we can't pick our positions.  In fact, we don't even get a setup screen; we're just thrusted right into the mission, whether we're having second thoughts or not.

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Yeah, but the same also applies to our enemies.  So it's honestly a double-edged sword.

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Dear lord, girl, that sprained ankle really fucked you up.

I can't imagine how you'd react to actually being crippled.

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Nope.  Time to chop it off.  Goodbye, foot.  Alicia will now walk on a peg.

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Oh, goddammit...

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This is a not-so-subtle hint to indicate how you should play this chapter.

Because having the cripple go first is a great idea.

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Oh, and this is also happening.

Then there's the distant sound of mortar fire (not this one, an off-screen mortar), and then...

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Nah, it's just the elephants stampeding through the Imperial camp.  Or probably just Lynn test firing her new gun.  I can't tell.

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If they did, you'd already be dead.  Er, actually, it's more like you'd have a turn to move away, and... well, we'll talk about it later.

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Yeah, what he said.

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I mean...

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Not "predict", so much as "take note of it and avoid it entirely".

"Predict" has the implication that you don't know for 100% certainty.

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And now gameplay has officially begun.  Allow me to show you the area.

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As you can see, it's actually pretty small.  But here's some caveats about this map:

  • Mortar fire will happen every turn.  And it won't always be in the same place.  Actually, I'm pretty confident that the location of the mortars is dependent on the location of your units, but only in the sense that "if you've made it this far, the target area will shift over here instead" rather than "it'll be right on you all the time".
  • Search lights are everywhere.  I'll get more into that later, but they're not good news.
  • The bridge closest to us is out, so it's not a straight shot across the river; our path will probably look something like this:

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Quite a few switchbacks in our path because paths are blocked/don't exist, and it's particularly roundabout because of enemies and... certain things we need to do.

And one more thing...

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Alicia is GIMPED!

This means that she has severely low AP, and that she moves really slowly.  The former isn't actually the worst because by the time she'll actually need to move great distances, she'll the AP problem will actually be fixed.  But the latter is going to consistently be an issue when dealing with enemies; slower movement means enemies will get more hits on her when she tries to escape or position herself to attack, which means she'll more easily die.  This becomes a very relevant problem later on.  And the worst thing is that it never gets fixed.  That's right, the AP itself will get fixed (and I'll show you how soon), but not her slow movement.  It's as much bullshit as it sounds like.

So anyway... how exactly do you overcome this chapter?  Well, there's good news; there are literally only four enemies on the entire map.  And no enemy units ever spawn in, so they're the only units we need to overcome.  So really, we don't actually need to worry very much about bumping into many enemies.

And another thing about this chapter is it's probably better to actually think about it as if you have only two CPs, except that Alicia is able to take two actions sort of like Lynn or the Double Action battle potential some engineers have.  In that sense, it's actually a lot better than it sounds.

So right, let's actually get on this, shall we?

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Like the game suggested, I have Alicia move first.

You'll see why she should move first soon.  There is only one turn I remember where I had Welkin go first.

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Ooooohhh, hey, sparklies!

And actually, this is when a cutscene happens.

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I don't know if I like any bug with "Lucifer" in its name.  Normal bugs are terrifying enough...

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Again with the poop, and again with the frickin' animal trails!

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That...

Is actually a bit more sensible.  The animals will probably want to stay hidden and away from the big, bad people with guns.  And I have to assume they haven't launched any mortars in the area to frenzy their directions, so their trails are probably pretty clear and straightforward.

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So I have Alicia crawl right into the animal shit.  But damn, she doesn't really move far, does she?

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I select her again to move her further in, and I stumble upon this peculiar glowing plant.  The game makes it pretty obvious that it's important, and so I'm gonna plant Alicia's feet right next to it.

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Welkin moves last; remember, I only have three CPs.  He's much faster, and can move farther, so that's why it's better to use two CPs on Alicia and one on Welkin.

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He catches up to Alicia, and hey, there's a new "View event" action available for him.  The nice thing about that is it actually doesn't count as him taking a combat action; if this were D&D, this would be a Free Action, even though it's an extremely involved one that takes more than six seconds.

So let's... view the event.

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Not familiar with that, but maybe you should make like it and... leave.

No, that's not boo's you hear off in the distance, that's just everyone's hunger for great puns rumbling.

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Yeah, Welks, why did you just stop here?  Are you checkin' out Alicia?  Has your interest in her finally sparked like we all know it will?

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Oh... how convenient.

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"The stem and leaves"...

So basically... the entire plant.

Cool.

We hear a little "white magic" noise (don't know how else to describe it), and then...

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That is why Alicia should go first.  You see, each one of these plants restores just a bit of Alicia's original max AP.  You give her three of them, and she finally recovers the full max AP of a scout.  But she herself can't activate these events even if Welkin is there, and Welkin will almost always have leftover AP to move further ahead, so it's a waste to just plant him next to one anyway.  So you ideally would move Alicia up to one of these things first, and then have Welks work his herbal magic on her.

Now that we got that out of the way...

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At the end of this little detour, we see an enemy scout was actually watching the opposite flank.  So now we're flanking himand Welkin can still take an action.

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Naturally, we end him.  If we were using any other rifle, this would probably require five headshots and way too many body shots.  Here, I decided to go for body shots; I only needed three to take him down.  That's right, this gun actually makes scouts pretty powerful offensive units, meaning their only problem now is their lackluster defenses and the inability to perform enemy-phase combat.  Though that last part is actually good here, because we don't want the enemies shooting back.

Speaking of enemy phase...

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It's about that time.

This is what happens.

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I'm showing these three in particular because that's how many units there are.  Like I said, only four enemy units appear on the entire map, and we just killed one of them.  Until they find something to shoot at, they'll just run in circles or find some grass to hide in.  So we should be careful about how we position our units if we hope to evade total annihilation.

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When their turn ends, this happens.

Mortar fire destroys trees, but not our units.

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And when we begin our turn, this happens.

Great.  Not sure why the camera pans over here instead of towards our units or the mortar fire.

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Top of the round, Welkin starts further ahead of Alicia, but that's okay, because...

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She got a pretty decent boost in AP, all things considered.

So she's gonna be moving quite a bit farther than before.

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So crossing this bridge, you might see a light off in the distance.  Well...

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Yeah, they're actually searchlights, as opposed to... forest road lights? :unsure:

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Ah yes, good.  Alicia with the fading text.  I love when I fuck up these shots. /sarcasm

I skip through text sometimes because I save scum at times and have to sit through these cutscenes still, so I have to have more precise timing with snapshots or else stuff like this happens.

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Kinda, yeah.  Though sometimes it just doesn't make any goddamn sense.

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Well... it's not high on my list of bad things, either because...

Here, I'll use this fuck-up to demonstrate why.  A fuck-up that I rolled with.

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Firstly, these search lights move in fixed patterns.  Welkin can get past them extremely easily, but Alicia has a difficult time throughout the whole chapter because of her movement speed.

But this time, I kind of intentionally let her get spotted because I was hoping for something to happen that didn't.

So when you do get spotted by the searchlights...

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This results.

They get to fire in another place that I'm pretty sure is fixed depending on which light spotted you.  Nothing else actually happens; the enemies don't suddenly start coming for you, nor do more enemies spawn.  You just have to deal with another mortar strike that typically doesn't hinder you much at all.

BTW, I was hoping that getting Alicia spotted would redirect the first mortar strike, but it only added another one.  So there's no metagaming you could really do here unless it messes with AI pathing or something.

Anyway, Welks of course is the last to move...

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And he takes out this pesky grassy knoll.

Good thing I got Welkin to aim before this guy started shooting, because again these guys need all the health they can get.

This is also the last guy with a leadership badge.  That's barely important, though if we didn't kill them first and chose to kill one of the other guys, at least one of these enemies would probably move twice.

Anyway...

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I lay him down somewhere in this comfy patch of grass.  That searchlight just circles around it clockwise all the time, and never changes direction.

Enemy phase is the same as before, except now only two enemies move, because that's all there is left.

Now...

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Long story short (actually, not really a long story; that searchlight's extremely easy to avoid), our heroes make it past and find more ponisera.

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Alicia: ... Thanks, it hurts even less now.

Welkin: That's good.  But still, don't push yourself.

 

Just some inconsequential dialogue.  But, now Alicia is able to move further ahead; probably the same distance as an engineer at this point.  But even though it's apparently hurting less, she's still limping.

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So we've been seeing two guys running in circles up here on the map.  Around this corner we have...

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TY THE IMMORTAL?!?!?!

How the hell can you betray me, man?!  I commanded you back in the day!  I guess Ty has truly gone psychotic.

So, uh... can we kill what can't be killed?

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52 FUCKING SHOTS?!

So in other words...

NO.  HE CAN'T BE KILLED...

 

Okay, but to be fair...

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Headshots are definitely the way to go, but that's... I mean, Welks'll get maybe three headshots in at tops.  So taking him out will be an ordeal.  Oh, but what if we try to sneak by him?  Well, you could try, but...

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Yeah...

Thing is, he can spot you a mile away even if you're hiding in grass, and if you're in his shooting range for more than a second, you're actually dead.  Seriously, Ty's fucking powerful here.  He's a tank that only requires one CP to use; he could probably actually destroy our tank with just one blitz from his MG in the radiator.  He's no joke!

 

And that's where I'll end it for now.  So what do you think?  Can I kill my former ally?  Or is he truly immortal, and our best course of action is to run?  Find out in the next part!

 

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11 minutes ago, Ertrick36 said:

Yeah...

Thing is, he can spot you a mile away even if you're hiding in grass, and if you're in his shooting range for more than a second, you're actually dead.  Seriously, Ty's fucking powerful here.  He's a tank that only requires one CP to use; he could probably actually destroy our tank with just one blitz from his MG in the radiator.  He's no joke!

 

And that's where I'll end it for now.  So what do you think?  Can I kill my former ally?  Or is he truly immortal, and our best course of action is to run?  Find out in the next part!

I'd say he's only able to see you because that scout can see you due to them being able to detect enemies in grass further out.

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13 hours ago, kaidoi said:

I'd say he's only able to see you because that scout can see you due to them being able to detect enemies in grass further out.

Maybe.  I didn't point out that scout, but yeah, he's there, too.  Though even then, he won't actually attack you from his full interception range if you duck into the grass; you have to get to probably 2/3rds to halfway up to his range for him to actually shoot at you.

That being said, I know of an exploit to keep him from hurting my units that is mostly present due to poor positioning on his part.  And from what I can tell, he will always go to that exact same position unless there are any of our units within his sight lines, so I can take advantage of this exploit every turn.  But enough explaining on my part, they say a picture speaks a thousand words (or maybe it's that an Ertrick speaks a thousand words to explain one goddamn thing), so let's get onto the next part.

Chapter 8-3: And the Ty Refused to Die (Gameplay)

Spoiler

M0G3Deh.png

Where we last left off:

  • Alicia and Welks got cornered, but not for long because they had the brilliant idea to go around their enemies.
  • We learned that the Imperials are not environmentalists.
  • Welks made Alicia cover herself in poop again because he's a wacko.
  • Ty lives up to his title of "Immortal"... for now.

So now here's the deal.

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If you try to crawl in the grass to sneak passed him, he will kill you.

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If you try just rush to the west flank, he will kill you.

And if you try to get Alicia to flank at all... well, just take a guess what he'll do.

If you try to use grenades on him, well...

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It doesn't do much to him, because he ducks just like any other Ace would.  Also, look at Welkin's health; that's what happens if you try to rush the east flank.  Welkin can survive, but he takes a hell of a beating.  If you try to get him any further beyond this rock, the scout will destroy him.  And I'm also pretty sure that the shocktrooper interception radius is wide enough that Ty can also turn around to shoot at Welkin, even if he didn't through a 'nade.

Just what exactly are we dealing with here?

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Ignore the reduced health on Ty right now.  His max HP is 666.  I fucking knew it was a bad idea to invoke the name of "Lucifer", Welkin.

That's three times the amount of health the other guys have.  Not only that, but he's a shocktrooper and an Ace.  Any engagement we have with him at all will result in death because of how many shots he'll fire at you.  Bear in mind that the scout's rifle also does a good amount of damage.  And remember...

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Even with our guns that do 75 vs. personnel damage, it still takes 52 normal shots to take him down, or...

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eight well-placed head shots.

And every time you attack him...

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He will fight back.

But...

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If you place yourself at a certain angle, he'll just shoot the tree.

That's right, there's an angle you can get at where you can shoot him perfectly fine, but he can only shoot the tree.  And that is how we're going to defeat him.  But that's easier said than done, because...

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For one thing, if you leave any of your units in range of him while he makes his circling patrols on enemy phase, he'll come out and have a much clearer on you.  And also...

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This is the average amount of damage I can muster when I have both of them attack him.  So unless I can get them to both hit his head five times, this'll be a two-round match.

BTW, these last two screenies are from my successful first turn.  This is what our positioning looks like immediately after:

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Apparently all you need to do to keep out of his range is just hide right around the corner.  I guess with all the shots to the head he's received so far, his perception's all sorts of messed up.

Hey, if he can be bullshit, so can we!

So for the next turn...

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After a lot of this (btw, they just circle around this eastern rock north of us)...

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I forgot to show the mortar targeting for the last turn, didn't I?

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This is how we're looking.  No idea about the enemies because we technically "lost track" of them (not really, though).  But Ty probably regained a little bit of health.

Now... the thing is, I need to deal with both of these guys before moving on.  Because either of them will kill Alicia.  So let's get to work.

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Okay, this time, we need to do better.  Because last time, we only took down half of his health, and he got about half or a third of that back.

So...

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Holy shit, Welks, that's a ton better.

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Keep in mind that there's this searchlight here.  This entire area will be covered by mortars if we step into it, so let's not do that.

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Oooohhhh... for running into the line of fire, that's not a terrible amount of damage.  Still, it kinda sucks, and he's gonna have to stay here for now.

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Go, 'Licia, GO!!!

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Hrrrmmmm.....

I'm not sure I like those odds... but... if only I could...

Wait, I know... she may not be here physically, but...

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THIS IS AN ORDER!  From the spirit of Isara that occasionally floats outside of her body.

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IF YOU MISS, YOU'RE GONNA BE PORCAVIAN CHOW!!!

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Thank Theimer three shots connected...

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Okay, you can clearly see that path to the right, right?

I could've had Alicia taken that route and have a slightly easier time up ahead, but...

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I didn't ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Instead, she's gonna get shot by that scout.

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It's just risk after risk, here.  Goddamn, this PoS better not dodge...

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Spoiler: he doesn't.

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I try to not waste AP on Welks, but... well, I'm not getting A-rank, that's for sure.

So we're moving onto turn 5.  Mortar hits, no one's hurt.  At this point, we don't really need to worry about about anything except for getting to the goal.  But for those curious...

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This is where the next mortar fire will be.  But I'm going to try my utmost to finish this now.

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Uggghhhhh...  So much useful AP going to waste plopping Alicia down here.  But I want to see the final event here so that she can get her full AP back.

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There's a reason I had Welkin stationed right there.

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It's mostly gone, but she will still limp around!

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I'm almost glad I'm not using you outside of missions where you're mandatory.

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Except it's not fixing her stupid limp for some reason.

Did that stuff only serve to numb her ankle?

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I mean, I think it's obvious why she's asking this question, but there's something funny about her asking this question when they're stranded out in the woods.

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Okay, Welks.  I love ya.  But you dumb.

Did you forget that she baked, like, a dozen giant loafs of bread for you?

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There's that anime body language again.

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Yeah, I guess I could see that.  Though you'd probably need to collect a few to make enough for a baked bread loaf.  Probably isn't a very rare type of plant, but still...

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Oh, for fu-

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Yeah, what she said!

And lmao, that is definitely gonna be a reaction pic.

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Welks knows he can't win this bout.

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So let me show you step-by-step what we're gonna do to get through all this crap.

Searchlights.  While I do intend to try to finish this up this turn, I need to make sure they don't strike elsewhere just to be safe.  So let's avoid 'em.

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Alright, looks like this one's gonna go around this little rock here to the left of us.  So when it slinks in there, let's just-

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Oh shit, it's coming back!

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Trees are my friend, I guess.

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Getting passsed that first obstacle, we now have to deal with a second searchlight that actually does go around in a circle.

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But that's child's play.

Look, there it is!  It's the goal!

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But... I mean... I just...

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You literally just told her to keep a move on not a minute ago!

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Were you even paying attention???

Ahem... so now that Welks is there, let's get 'Licia there.

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So you saw how much AP it took Welks to get all the way over there?  Alicia has less AP starting off.  This is gonna be a very tight squeeze, if she can even make it at all.

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Ooooohhhhh...

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C'mon, the light's right on your ass...!

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Got past the first one, the second one just went left of us...

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Rrrrrgggghhhhh..... C'MON, it's RIGHT THERE!

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It's BY THE HAIR...!

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Aaaaaahhhhhh, sweet catharsis...

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Yeah, rest, while the rest of your platoon is probably in grave danger.

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Okay, that's fair.

Team Darcsen's protecting the tank anyway.  They'll be fine.

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If I hadn't taken two turns to take down Ty, I would've A-ranked this.  However, given the fact that I'm honestly an amateur, this'll suffice.

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We did get a neat gun, though.  Ty is probably not dead, but hey, if we ever run into him again, we can claim two mementos from him.

And with that, the first gameplay segment of this chapter is done.  All in all, it was a return in challenge that I appreciated.  Though Ty was a bitch; it took me roughly thirty minutes to figure out how to get passed him.  And before we move on any further, we did just get some money and experience; maybe there's stuff we can do at HQ.  So the next part'll be an interlude.  So look forward to that!

 

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In order to stand up to the Imperials while Welks and 'Licia recuperate and make their way back to the rest of the platoon, we need to outfit our troops in the absolute best weapons and equipment.  So we will retroactively equip them at HQ in an interlude!

Interlude 9: Tons of Gun Talk

Spoiler

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Doing this chapter didn't grant us any new units to recruit (I probably wouldn't want them anyway, as I'm full up), but it granted us other things.

Like experience.

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Now let me say a few things here.

Firstly, I'm focusing slightly on Lancers and Engineers so that they can defend our tank.

Secondly, I don't know if I went over this, but I prefer balancing the level spread.  Some min-maxers will tell you to probably dump most in scouts and shocktroopers, even with this mod, but honestly, you'll be okay just so long as you aren't relying on engineers and snipers to carry the rest of the team, because even with interception weaponry and a huge level lead... they won't.  Though it makes an interesting idea for a challenge run.

Anyway, onto the R&D, which is-

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Okay, yeah...  We got some new stuff.  More weapon development branches.

So again, the Mags M10 is the standard upgrade for submachine guns.  Just boosts all around.

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And the MAJ-X M1 is the shocktroopers' debuff gun.  But it also fires fewer shots per round, which sucks, but you don't typically need more than fifteen to kill a dude, and the debuff makes it harder for the enemies to kill your guys.  It's basically a good defensive weapon.  Which is precisely what we need in the next gameplay segment.

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But of course, we've also got shiny new snipers, and ho lordy, are these guns drastically different.

The GSR-10 is the most normal sniper rifle here, merely seeing boosts to stats all around.

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This gun... this fucking gun...  In case you couldn't tell, the Intercept X1 is... well, you figure it out.  Again, that's helpful for defense.

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And then we have-

HOOOOOOO BOOOOOOY, LOOK AT THAT VS. ARMOR!

Yeah, that's right.  What we have here with the Brondel M1 is an anti-tank rifle, not unlike the Soviet PTRS-41 from WW2, which is this big boy:

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or the Barrett M82A1 or M82A2, which is this mother fucker:

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So now we can turn some snipers into dedicated anti-tank units while retaining the same kind of accuracy and normal infantry killing power we expect from snipers.

You might think this makes lancers obsolete, but... a lancer could handle three blazes from a machine gun, but a sniper can only handle one.  However, this will be very useful for a chapter up ahead.  You'll know it when you see it.

Anyway, so our shocktroopers and snipers now have new toys...

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But sadly, our lancers don't yet.

Also...

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I should've been showing these in the first place, but I suppose now isn't a bad time.  Each of these guns has a story and fairly different looks from one another.  If you can't read any of this, here is as good a place as any to read them yourself.  I'll just comment on them.  If you don't want to read me going on about these things, now is probably as good a time as any to close the spoiler, because that'll be the rest of this update.  I can't help it; I'm a Montanan, and that automatically means I'm also a gun nut.

The Gallian is basically the kind of gun you'd probably expect farmers and antique collectors to have nowadays.  Though because it's semi-automatic - meaning you only need to pull the trigger to fire a bullet - it probably wouldn't be widely available in some countries if it existed in the real world.  Still, it's mostly a gun for self-defense and killing varmints, and is not a particularly great gun to be using in a military setting.

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The Gallian-S guns basically are just the previous gun, but with longer barrels for longer range.  Though eventually, the wood finish will become darker and the last upgrade seems to have a bipod, likely because they made the barrel so freakin' long by that point.

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The story for this gun is oddly consistent with how the rifle actually performs in-game.  This one also eventually gets a darker wood finish (though I think most of them do), but I guess some PC elitists worked on the Gallian-A series because it has... water coolants!  Which I honestly don't think has ever been done to weapons.  Points for creativity, I guess.

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Oooohhhh, special wood, eh?  I wonder what the hell kind of rounds these are.  Poison?  In any case, it seems the Gallian-X rifles were a bitch to make.

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Of course, we also have Imperial rifles.  Though "axe-shaped"?  Not so sure about that.  Maybe if the stock caved lower, I could see it.  But yeah, the ZM Kar is much more of a military rifle than the Gallian is.

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And the ZM Kar B is the only other series of Imperial scout rifles that exists.  Basically a mix between the Gallian-S and Gallian-X later on.  How despicable.

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The first SMG the Gallians made, the Mags is a more impressive gun than the Gallian.  Worldwide renown?  Yeah, that almost makes me think of the AK-47, though if R. Lee Ermey was still with us, he'd chew my ear out for making that comparison.

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Even more impressive, the Mags M SMGs are starting to look more like rifles.  Damn, though, fixing the chambering and ejection issues is pretty good, especially for a backwater country like Gallia.

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So now we know why this damn MAJ-X doesn't fire 20 rounds; it's an unstable piece of shit!  FYI, whenever I say "PoS", that means "piece of shit".

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And now the very German ZM MP, which, just like German weaponry, was relatively low cost while still maintaining great effectiveness.  Yeah, the Empire sure loves to take inspiration from the Nazis.

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And the ZM MP B is so good that it starts looking like it could be a straight up assault rifle.  I mean seriously...

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You almost might think that this is an assault rifle.

Though I've got no idea why so many guns in this game develop bipods in their final versions.  It's such an odd thing, because some weapons really don't need bipods because they aren't heavy, and thus all it does for things like SMGs is add unnecessary weight.  If they wanted to make it easier to aim, they could've made a foregrip under the barrel instead.  Sort of like what the Tommy Gun has.

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And this gun was made in 1918, so there's no excuse!

Anyway...

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The regular ol' Lancaar is probably one of the more interesting weapons.  I mean, it's essentially a Panzerfaust or an RPG, except it's lance-shaped.  And you hold it against your side rather than over your shoulder.  Probably why they're really inaccurate, at least in the vanilla game.

Seriously, there's a reason they make it so that portable rocket launchers are slung over one's shoulder; it's so that you can actually aim the damn thing!  And it gives you more leverage than some heavy chunk of metal you hold against your hip.

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Anything called the Theimer has gotta be high quality, I'd imagine.  In the vanilla game, there wasn't much of a reason to use these over simply having shocktroopers or scouts run up behind tanks and blast their radiators to hell.  Let's hope this thing sees more action.

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And of course, the Imps also use lance-like RPGs in the form of the VB PL.  Smart that they were developing the means to destroy the very things they created in the first place before anyone else was putting tanks on the field.

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The GSR is a cowboy weapon, basically.  Though damn, people were using them on horseback?  Do you have any idea how hard it is to actually hit something with precision on a galloping horse?  People need to be trained to do that, or have years of experience, essentially.  Though it's odd that we got the Gallian-S well after getting this gun, despite the fact that the former was the basis for the latter, apparently.

Also, the really bizarre thing about this gun is that in the vanilla game, for some reason that is way beyond me, the GSR-1 actually has more zoom levels than its successors (including the branching rifles), which means the first sniper rifle you get is the most accurate sniper rifle in the whole game.  It's so goddamn strange, but Busards changed it so that zoom level progression goes in the opposite way, as in the zoom gets better as you upgrade your sniper rifles, like it frickin' should.

And one more thing... it says the bolt-action makes the rifle obsolete, but I mean... bolt-action weapons are still made to this very day, so to say they don't have a use in more recent combat is flat out wrong.  If you want good sniper rifles, you either want to use bolt-action ones or you gotta shell out so much money that it isn't even worth it.  Sniper rifles work best as bolt-action; their function and purpose (which literally revolves around the saying "one shot, one kill") means there really is no need to make them shoot rapidly at all.

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I find it awfully convenient that the Brondel's description doesn't really give specifics about its function.  "Reinforced rounds" could still apply to anti-tank weaponry, and it actually is less accurate than the regular sniper rifle line.  And yes, it's the same description as vanilla; they all are.

Incidentally, there are actually anti-tank rifles in this game, but I have never seen them in-game.  As far as I can tell, they are very late-game weapons meant mostly for the Hard EX skirmishes.

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Interesting that the later GSR's had maintenance kits stored in the gun itself.  I'm sure Catherine the Wary would appreciate that.  Though I guess with the longer barrels, the days of riding into battle with this thing on horseback are over.

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Not the correct name this mod gave the gun, the description for the Brondel X is largely unrelated to the changes from it to the Interception X.  Though I'd like to imagine that them trying to make the gun semi-automatic resulted in the gun becoming heavier initially.

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And lastly, the ZM SG is just another sniper rifle.  Though I find it hilarious that a sniper rifle, of all things, was given the option of having bayonets fixed to them.  Like, what the hell kind of sniper would use a frickin' bayonet?

We actually haven't seen all the guns there are in this game.  There's one more SMG type, one more Lance type, one more Imperial weapon type, and "Royal" versions of the Gallian weapons which we'll start getting later for being bad asses.  And technically, the Ruhm's page doesn't actually show up until a certain chapter, so that's why I didn't show its description this time.

All in all, I really love that this mod gave some of these weapon branches new functions as opposed to "increased accuracy or damage" and "added effect".  The sniper rifles especially; increased damage and debuffing accuracy are useless as all hell.  But anti-tank sniping and interception sniping both are palatable niches.

Anyway, now that we're all suited up and ready to destroy the Empire...  Let's get Welks and 'Licia the rest they deserve, and maybe Rosie will finally conjure up the confidence to land herself in jail ask the teenage tank driver out on a date.  Let's hope not.  Next part will be a meaty story segment.

 

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Nice you got through that level, the next level I imagine will be hard with the mod since you're evenly spreading exp. And in base game it was hard as heck, until you leveled up classes to max. Good luck.

Also unrelated note, sorry for very late edit but I edited the comment into spoilers, I've basically been without wifi for a week and will be for 4 weeks so yeah.

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1 hour ago, LucarioGamer812 said:

Nice you got through that level, the next level I imagine will be hard with the mod since you're evenly spreading exp. And in base game it was hard as heck, until you leveled up classes to max. Good luck.

Also unrelated note, sorry for very late edit but I edited the comment into spoilers, I've basically been without wifi for a week and will be for 4 weeks so yeah.

I did get through it somehow when I initially played the mod, I believe.  I know because I remember doing the APC chapter that came immediately after.  It wasn't until Fouzen that I stopped that initial playthrough and figured that I wanted to LP the game.  Though all that was a while ago.  But I'm not even gonna Elite any classes until it naturally comes; I'm hoping that happens by Chapter 10 or 11, but if not all of them can reach it by those points, then I will dump EXP into shocktroopers and scouts because they're more useful Elites.  The order classes will be Elited is as follows: Shocktrooper > Scout > Lancer > Sniper > Engineer.  By the time we complete Chapter 12, everyone should be able to become Elite, as you only need to get classes to level 11.

I understand.  Just try to look at your post more closely after you posted it next time.  I only react the way I do because I take spoilers very seriously, to the point that I'm reluctant to spoil even media that's, like, a millennium old.  I don't want to ruin the story for folks who maybe haven't played the game and only want to experience it through an LP.  Anyway, I'll respond to your post now that you've fixed it.

On 6/12/2018 at 8:33 PM, LucarioGamer812 said:
  Reveal hidden contents

I believe it's explained in in-game cutscenes that Valkyrur's only awaken when they are on the verge of death, obviously a sprained ankle isn't going to kill Alicia, at least not directly. And yeah becoming a Nuke is unstabling the power within them. I will say based off what I know of Valkyria Chronicles 3, Riela doesn't awaken until late in the game, yet apparently growing up she had Valkyrur level healing. due to *insert Milk joke here*. So since both games take place at the same time or in the same timeframe it is very weird about those two cases.

 

Spoiler

From what I remember (which may not be totally reliable, since it's been a bit since I've played the game all the way through), Alicia discovered her Valkyrur healing very early on (though she didn't connect it with her being one).  I highly doubt she suffered grave injuries as a child, though it may be possible that such wounds only healed after a few hours.  In that sense, I could see her sprained ankle ordeal making sense, since it doesn't seem like it takes many hours as they still reach the cabin during nighttime.

And her continuing to have a limp after being "mostly healed" could make sense if the ponisera actually merely numbed her ankle instead (since then it'd be like walking on your foot when it fell asleep), although that doesn't explain why she's able to move at her full AP movement.

I'm also just looking to go on tangents whenever I can.  My narrative is something of a character of its own, nitpicking over every little stupid thing.  In reality, I'm not quite that critical.  I don't despise "anime", and I don't really go crazy over little details.  Unless it's guns.  Because in that sense, I actually went to my brother, and told him that a game I was playing had submachine guns with bipods, and even he was like "that's stupid", and I was like "I know, right???".

I don't know anything about VC3, so I don't know how Riela's story goes.  I also haven't seen all of VC2, so all I know is that Aliasse is part of some sort of Valkyrur experiment, and I am pretty sure Juliana's gonna get roped into that somehow because the foreshadowing in that game is almost as insane as the foreshadowing in this game implying that Welkin and Alicia will get together.

 

Next part will be in the following post.

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This next part's actually a fairly meaty story segment.  And it's some heavy meat, at that.

Chapter 8-4: The Return of Isara's Title and Tsunderes Everywhere (Mid-Story 1)

Spoiler

This is one of, like, three chapters that'll be split up this way, fyi.

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"Gee, what an awfully convenient plot device!"

Come on, Welkin, I could see you and your father living out here.

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And we cut right to this.  I love how the previous line (and scenery) literally existed just to lampshade the convenience of a cottage being here for our leading characters to rest in.

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"I can't even feel my legs anymore.  Trust me, it's great!"

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Are you gonna inject her with the pot needles, Welks?  I hear they can kill elephants.

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Yeah, it just figures that nature boy would know everything there is to know about the wild.  I'm just waiting for him to run into something he doesn't know about.

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Wait, what?!  Severa?!

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Get out of my WW2 game, you tsundere trash!  What even is that pose anyway?  Go on, SHOO!

lmao, I love that it's not aloe vera, but aloe severa.  It's such a blatant copy, it might as well just be aloe vera.

Also, succ.

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I can't help but think that a certain someone would be jelly that you're spending so much time with Alicia.  In fact, I know of a few.

Spoiler

They are Dallas Wyatt, Noce Wordsworth, and probably Isara, maybe.  Two of these people are actually jealous of Welkin.

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He's probably a better medical aid than "Doctor Dick".

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And then probably five-fifteen minutes later...

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Well-

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I feel a little weirded out by the fact that she keeps calling you "doc".

I dunno.  Maybe I'm just equating it too much to when girls call their boyfriends "daddy".  That word has been completely ruined for me.

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Don't you mean the num- wait, she said the compress was "nice and cool".  So the ponisera DIDN'T make her ankle numb!

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Alright, sit down everyone.  Time for some exposition.

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This... is already starting off a little sad.

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No, Alicia, he's talking about fucking Theimer, clearly.

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Hell, no wonder why he seems to know damn near everything about nature; it has essentially been his whole life.

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What I like about the story of Belgen Gunther is what I like about the story of his son; both of them are eventually revered as idols and icons, almost as gods or just respectable entities, but they're just normal people who could give less of a damn about all the fame and glory they earned.  The only reason they fought is simply to protect the people they loved and to enjoy the peace they once enjoyed as children.

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And speaking of protecting loved ones...

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Yeah...

This segment will only keep getting more and more disgustingly sad.

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Fuck, man...

Seriously, if there's anyone out there who has experienced anything like this at all, I'm genuinely sorry.

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Trying not to be too snide for this scene, but... kinda figures you wouldn't.

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That's only making the tears come down faster, Welks!

Goddammit!

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The one point where a sentiment that Alicia expressed actually reflects my own sentiments.

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Oh?

So yeah, we're brought back out here... all of a sudden.  And so before we move on with Alicia and Welks... I still really want to know how everyone else is doing.

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"Yeah, they're cuddling in this conveniently placed cottage.  It smells like salty tears in there, for some reason."

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Of course Largo wouldn't find anything...  He's a lancer, not a scout, and more importantly, he doesn't have the Nocturnal potential.  You should send Ted Ustinov out there instead.

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Meanwhile, our favorite President Superior GUNSLINGIN' Cold-Blooded Overachieving Worldwide Tank Driving Genocidal Fast-Thinking Code-Talker the Post Apocalyptic ACTUAL ScientistBitter as Hell Time Travelling Ultra Grande Exalt of Ylisse, Europa, Black Mesa, America, and Magvel, Great Prime Minister of Grannvale and Duke of House FreegeDaedric Prince of MADNESS and Cheese Driven G-Approved Interdimensional Agent of the Porcavian Pigs and Wildwoods who wields DARUDE'S PROTECTION, THOR HAMMER, and UNLIMITED POWER!...

is working on the tank because she's the only one with the sense to realize that trying to look for people in the fucking dark in a forest is not all that great of an idea.

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Though Rosie decides this is the moment to be a nitpicker.  It's not.

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Yeah!  You... uh, you... tell 'em?

Wow, what a canned response.

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Christ, Rosie, you make her sound like an unsympathetic sociopath who has, all this time, been ruthlessly killing all of her enemies without regard to the value of human life.

What do you take her for?

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Yeah, Rosie.  At least she recognizes her weak- er, at least she knows what her strong suits are.

Her time is better spent fixing up the tank than looking for that loser, even though she clearly could find him in, like, five minutes tops.

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Holy shit, never saw her make that particular expression in response to something Isara, of all people, said.

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"N-not like a LIKE you or anything, baka!"

She clearly was going to have that classic tsundere moment at some point.  I mean...  Just look at her!

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Yeah, she may be 27 years old, but between the red, twin-bun hair, the pouty expression, and her sour attitude... you can't honestly say you weren't expecting it.

Though what's with all the tsunderes appearing here?  First Aloe Severa shows up, then Rosie comes out of the closet as openly tsundere.

What's next?  She gonna reveal she actually does have the hots for Isara, a feeling which is probably only semi-legal depending on the laws instituted by Gallia?  Or maybe SHE will be Welkin's love interest, and all this foreshadowing setting him up with Alicia is just a bunch of fluff meant to throw us for a loop when he realizes his one true love is actually Brigette the singer?

Well, in any case, Rosie tsunere's off to somewhere else.

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And Largo is Dad.

And here, the story officially acknowledges Isara's great importance to the entire platoon.

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Isara approves!

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You get to live another day.

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Is Largo a goddamn dere of some kind, too?

Come on, game!
 

I actually want to make the next part of the story sort of its own thing, because I'm coming up on the 100 picture limit with it.  So the next post will be a continuation of the story.

 

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Chapter 8-5: Life (Mid-Story 2)

Spoiler

So back at the cottage...

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We see a few establishing shots.

This cameraman is insane, I tell ya.  One minute, he's in Vasel, the next he's all the way in Ghirlandaio with all the Imperial Generals responsible for the Gallian Invasion.  I don't know if I'll give him a pay raise, but he's certainly going places, I tell you what.

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Suddenly, Imperial boots.

Not good!

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These... footsteps from outside the entirely closed cottage wakes Welkin up.

Man, he must not sleep well ever if this can wake him up.  Either that, or he was only partially asleep.  Kind of like the one guard in Metal Gear on the NES.

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He only "FEELS" asleep.

Though... what a weird way for a soldier to walk.  It's almost like the Resistance guy in MGS4 who blends in with the other PMC troops by dressing like them, but he just walks around without a gun and with his arms to his sides like this Imperial soldier.  Man, a double-whammy of Metal Gear references?  I'm on a streak!

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And again, Welks has to wake up this sleepyhead.

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Holy hell, what a tense moment...

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Both feet in the door, gun pointed at him...

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He's... delirious.

Then all of a sudden...

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This happens.

I'm in Alicia's boat, with her slightly drowsy "what?!".

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Yeah, I'll say!

Maybe you can just fini-

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No... no, game...

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PLEASE, I already am dehydrated after all the tears I wept for Welks.  DON'T DO THIS TO ME, GAME!

So yeah, Welkin agrees to help.

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But...

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Yeah, this guy's actually going to die.

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Oh wow, we actually get to see the full head of one of these guys.

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I... I'm just going to show the rest of this scene without my commentary.

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Then his body goes limp...

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and his hand slips out of Alicia's...

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And the scene ends.  But before we move on, I think I should show his face the moment he passes on...

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This is possibly one of the most powerful, emotional scenes that we see in this game.  So what we have here is:

  • A scene that establishes that the members of Welkin's platoon - Welkin himself included - are such sympathetic people that even in their scary, dire situation, they go out of their way to try to help an enemy who is gravely wounded.
  • A scene that shows that those enemies are also suffering in this war, despite the fact that their side was the one that started it.
  • And a scene where Alicia properly earns her "Maternal" potential as she tries to sort of "stand-in" as this man's mother to ease his suffering.

And the thing about Alicia here is that I don't think it'd have been as powerful if we hadn't seen her more silly, light-hearted moments.  Because if this was her only moment in the whole story, it wouldn't have been as compelling; we wouldn't have seen a normally cheerful, sometimes dopey girl watch this man die, try to comfort him, and cry for him when he passes.

It's probably my favorite scene in the game... but it's not even technically over yet.  Because then we cut to daylight...

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And she's still dwelling on it.

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I feel like this could tie strongly into the story we heard not ten minutes ago about Belgen losing his wife...

"All I could do was let her die."

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But unlike Belgen, Alicia has someone who was right there with her to reassure her.

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There was a reason I showed his final expression from after he passed on.

In the first frame, his eyebrows were very furrowed and he was gritting his teeth a lot.  Or the brows would be turned up like he was whimpering in pain through them.  But then, when Alicia talked to him, the brows relaxed and, just before he actually passed on, you could see his teeth separate as if they were relaxed too.  And while his expression post-death wasn't a smile, like Welkin said, it wasn't one of pain, either; if it wasn't for the wounds, you might think he passed on peacefully.

I just really like that you can even see what happened to him when she spoke to him.  It's just like Welkin said; she helped him in only a way she could have.  Take a look back earlier to see what I mean.

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She doesn't sound totally reassured, but I think she'll at least stop beating herself up over it.

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I mean... yeah, though that's not necessarily a reason alone to sympathize with them.  I think I've said it before, but even tyrants are human.

Though in this particular case, it's much easier to sympathize with him because he was probably drafted into the military.  He may not have even wanted to fight, or if he did, it wasn't for malicious or tyrannical purposes.

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Yeah, it is kind of horrifying how our minds adapt to being forced to kill people.  And especially when we look back on war, we only see it as "good vs. bad".  All the Germans fighting us in WW2 were evil, all the Japanese fighting us in WW2 were evil, all those among the Communist alliances during the Cold War were evil, our soldiers did everything right and were completely infallible...

That isn't to say what their governments did were right, but even some educated people are incapable of discerning the difference between the people fighting, those who were merely complicit in letting it all happen (who all ultimately paid some price anyway), and those who actively pursue horrible, fascist agendas.  Nor am I saying that everyone sent to fight and die from the NATO side are wholly evil, but rather that they, just like anyone else, are imperfect humans who have made mistakes.  Heck, it's the flaw of forgetting the humanity in others that enables some of us to fight, and soldiers who show too much sympathy are the ones who are most likely to die first.

For that reason, it's something we'll probably be doomed to forget it again, and again, and again for as long as we have conflicts in the world.  And because of that...

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People who would normally be home with their families and friends are now one with the earth.

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And I told you this was only gonna keep getting more and more disgustingly sad.

This is a real bummer of a chapter for what is otherwise probably filler.  At least as far as what's actually happening within the grand scheme of the war.

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I don't think anyone we've seen in the game at all knew this.  Not even Noce or Texas, both of whom have huge crushes on her.

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That's...

No... you really aren't, Alicia.

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Being an orphan really isn't such a great thing, and she doesn't even seem convinced herself.

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Okay, Welkin, I've given you a lot of shit, but...

MY MAN!

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Yeah, don't you see it?

It's like...

  • Largo's the dad
  • Rosie's the cousin
  • Isara's the sister
  • You... uh, are an in-law!

You see?  A big, happy fa-

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That's... a little on-the-nose comparison for you and Alicia, isn't it, Welks?

I think Rosie and Isara being the daughters is really bizarre.  Rosie is eleven years older than Isara, and she's even older than either of you two.

I guess Largo could be a grandpa too, though.

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Yeah, he definitely would, especially since you seem to ignore your "daughters" a lot.  Largo's got ultra dad instincts and wouldn't allow for that to stand.

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Ah, yes...

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The best of friends.

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Man, I'm beginning to think Alicia is the heart of the party.

When she's all bummed, I feel bummed.

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Yeah, Alicia.  Don't you fucking DARE ever say that you're alone EVER AGAIN or I will personally END YOU!

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giphy.webp

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All of a sudden, RUSTlE.

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And eyes.

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And- oh, shit...

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It's... this guy!

Okay, I have to admit something.  Back when I played this, because he was blonde and had blue eyes and pale skin and a weathered look, I though he was Berthold Gregor.  But he's actually just an unnamed Imperial officer we've never seen before.  This mistake made one of the future chapters really confusing to me.

So it looks like Alicia and Welks are screwed.

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Although...

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It seems that Alicia and Welkin gave the dying man from the previous night a visible burial.

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I actually looked back at the full roster of Behind Her Blue Flame and no, there is no Fritz among Selvaria's troops.

Well, it looks like we won't be having any Fritz crackers today.

I'm sorry.

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So now he knows that not only did they bury him, but also tried to tend to his wounds.

And so Welkin explains to this imposing man why he did it.

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Just another way of saying he felt bad for the man and was too sympathetic to just let him die in pain like that.

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They teased him?  Oof.  Also, just look at the following screen cap.

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Aw, look how sad the generic soldier looks!  And all he did was tilt his head downward.

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That's the generic soldier continuing to talk, not either Welkin or Alicia.

That's gotta be real rough...  You teased this guy, calling him a momma's boy... and then a couple of soldiers from your enemy nation tell you that he died crying out for his mother.  I bet these guys feel terrible about how they treated him.

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And that's the officer asking Welkin this question.

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And Welkin answering.

Gee, maybe I should've taken the pictures while they had their mouths open.

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Welkin again...

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And the officer...

Gee, now I'll feel really bad if I have to kill him.

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This makes me glad I gave stories to the soldiers in Selvaria's unit.

At least then there's a bit of background to the Imps aside from "we're gonna kill and conquer the Gallians!".

Well, and there's an Imperial citizen in VC2 who transfers to the Lanseal Academy for reasons, but that was after this game.

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That'll be rough for the mother, I almost neglected that fact.

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Then the war beckons their return as we hear explosions off in the distance.

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But now I really don't want to...

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Noooooo~ come baaaaaaack!

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And then he sets off with his men, leaving Welks and 'Licia completely unscathed.

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Our heroes do the same...

 

And that's the end of this exceptionally somber segment.  The next part will be gameplay.  And it'll be quite a bit more challenging than the last gameplay segment.

 

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I just finished beating this chapter, and lemme tell you, it's actually a pretty tough nut to crack, especially since I have yet to play any Skirmishes on the save I'm using (I did sorta demo the first one, but didn't actually save the completion of it).  As such, remember what my levels were in the last interlude?

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The only Level 9 class I had was Lancer; I had no Elites.  That means I had only 1-2 Battle Potentials for each class and that I had no flamethrowers or grenade launchers.  As I've said before, I like to evenly space out the levels.  Keep this in mind as I play this level.

I will take a short break (a few days or a week) to let readers catch their breath, because I've been rapid-firing updates.  But when I get back, I want you to witness everything I went through.  And before I go, lemme just say two things.  First of all, this mission really truly makes me hope that Busards will create a mod for the PC version of VC4, because the balancing changes really come together well here; it is like a Well Done filet mignon, albeit maybe with maybe a little bit too much salt and spices seasoned on top.  Secondly...

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This right here is a goddess and her holy weapon.  Even if I let her die once or twice on accident.

Seriously, I just can't get enough of her and this BFG.  Might be a cheap combo, but I'll take whatever the hell I can get.

 

So with that, I'll see you all in a bit.

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Yeah I'll check it next time, I thought quoting a spoiler would still have the spoiler so yeah. I understand, I refuse to spoil Xenoblade 1 and 2's story so yeah.

Spoiler

I don't recall there being to much mention to Alicia's youth besides her being an orphan and bread maker, though I could be wrong. I also haven't played 2 or 3 so I don't know either, but if I recall right Selvaria was part of that experiment too.

 

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@LucarioGamer812

Spoiler

I don't think it was anything all that in-depth; it was just that Alicia said something like "Oh yeah, I've always bounced back from my wounds pretty quickly" after some gunshot wound in her arm just miraculously healed over night without much treatment.  That'd suggest that she's been fully aware of her miraculous healing for a long time, and thus the first instance must've happened that long ago.

In regards to Selvaria and Alicia being part of the same experiment, I think that's just heavily implied by the fact that she has no past, yet has two showdowns with Selvaria, complete with their shared dialogues and Selvaria showing some admiration for her (enough for her to help them avoid certain death from her suicide explosion by having them guide her defeated troops to Randgriz).  Though they must have gotten rid of Alicia or someone rescued her.  What I know for sure is that Maximilian was one of the people responsible for the experiment, and his "saving" her was merely an act to ensure her loyalty.

I've still yet to beat VC2 or even play VC3, so I don't know much about how the first game's characters tie into the stories of the later games.  Though I am fully aware that all the core members of Squad 7, the Drei Stern, and the Edy Detachment made cameos in both games.  Even Isara showed up in VC2 despite... you know... being dead.  Though only as a character obtainable through cheats.  And it seems as though those characters will make a cameo again, or at least the core Squad 7 characters and Edy will, in VC4, with Isara taking on the fresh new Grenadier class.

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Though I wouldn't be surprised if Selvaria and the rest of the Edy detachment somehow made it in this game, what with them making it in the last couple numbered of games as well.

 

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