#eons away from 'yeah your dad died but who gives a fig plz be ready for me when i'll need you sensei uwu'

[randomnameless]

Final Squad for Alain was the "Cornian Cavalry" : Alain with Renault and Clive on the front line, with Josef (with the ring of the maiden!) and Monica behind - they couldn't do shit in Albion but at least they didn't die lol

I wasn't that fond of Shooters because I felt like while Liza could withstand one or two hits and not die afterwards, she tended to, well, still die when put on the front line, maybe my team wasn't optimal though but yeah, her dmg output is nothing to scoff at and unlike Berengaria, she knows how to use her great shield.

Yeah same, I wanted to get a lot of rapport convos but ultimately couldn't do it, fuck those 2k gold Albion sandwiches :(

I got more use of the Feathershields and Featherbows in the final DLC/added quest where you can play with Ilenia and... Alcina, Gary, Beaumont and Eligor :(

(I laughed way too much when one of the generics who joined with Ileina was named "Casimir" and I was just "daww that's Alain's mom who last saw him when he was 7 so of course she brings kid!Alain's favourite knight who used to tell him bedtime stories!" and then I had sad feelings (tm) about the entire situation because can you imagine the WTF Ilenia must be going through after the plot ends?)

The Sages mention something like "causality" but imo, isn't this map basically an AU of what happened in the Norbelle ending ? Basically everyone is red and/or unpromoted (or they are at the level of promotion you get them) and you fight against them on a map that has the BGM of each final stage.

Fave character, personality wise would be Gilbert or Josef himself!

Utility wise, given how Jeremy doesn't know how to count and slaughters units with some bastard cross that has between 10% to 20% of chances to hit, I'll give it to him.

WDYM only Alain can get the killing blow on Baltro???

TFW the Tricorns keep on whacking him to no avail, ditto with Magellan :(

even if plot wise it makes sense

@pandp-author Feathershields are absolutely ridiculous lol, Fodoquir basically exists and makes mage teams/teams where Sorceress try their "surprise you're frozen !" combo completely meaningless !

Sanatio's healing is completely stupid too lol, too bad we can't play more maps with the angels/feathered people, because they're fun to use!

I'll make a more detailed post about the epilogue later but plot wise for the final chapter, as expected, Gharnef Baltro backstabs the Red Emperor, it is revealed Ilenia - Alain's mom - survived in the prologue, but Red Emperor Galerius Galvius when defeated body/soul hopped on hers so she became his unwilling medium (which raises all sorts of questions here, when Alain kills Galvius during the "Rescue Scarlett" mission, did he aleady kill Ilenia and Baltro resurrected her, but she's somehow still alive and not a zombie?) but ultimately she is free when Baltro uses Galvius' soul to open the "gate to the netherworld" or something, to use the souls of the Zenoiran currently in limbo as fuel for his spells.

Given how Baltro notes that the Cornian Royal fam has the blood of the Maiden who survived the sacrifice of the Unicorn and its curse 800 years ago, I guess he implies that is the reason why Ilenia makes for a better host than the random Valmore - the previous human who was Galvius' host - but then it raises the question of Giethe hunting Virginia : wouldn't she have been used as a spare ? Granted, given how Galvius incarnates in the flesh of people who defeat him, the only way to incarnate in Virginia would be for either her or a random to kill Galvius while he's using Ilenia's body (and Virginia would later kill the random).

So I guess if Giethe brought her head Baltro would have been "you dumb fuck", but Alcina's plan to uwu with Gerard in Alain's body wouldn't put a dent in his plans, since he could get rid of Gerard in Alain's body to put Galvius instead if needed.

As cheesy as it was, I liked how the plot unfolded here - despite his "perfect lord" appearances, Alain still wants revenge for his mom and didn't forget what happened 10 years ago : if the player chooses to give Alain his vengeance, despite learning the plot and the truth about Zenoira, he... actually kills his mother, and Baltro is still Baltroing around.

If he acts as the better person and the "saviour", he tries to offer mercy to Galvius, despite him killing his mother and plunging the continent in a sea of blood, which gives Baltro the occasion and opportunity to betray Galvius, thus freeing Ilenia without killing her, and it gives the party the occasion to kill/banish him to oblivion instead.

The usual "follow the plot = you're rewarded + vengeance is meaningless" trope.

Of course I can't talk about the final map without ranting about the green NPCs that are here to "help" you - nice nod to have them be Drakengardians to echo Gilbert's earlier (at the end of arc 2!) words of sending Drakengard's help to help Cornia when it will be needed - sure his help is green units + Hermann (one of his retainer that is blue this playable \o/) but it's a nice nod to the former plot and you can honeypot about the political ramifications of this move (the Liberation Army led by the Cornian prince helped free Drakengard, so now the Drakengard Army will help the Cornian prince to free his country?).

No such lines about the enemy Bestrals - who as Bestrals can't be soul snatched - who are recruited by Dyna who basically tells them "wtf dudes stop fighting with them and join us instead!" but I confess I laughed at their names (il y en a qui s'appelle Paulo mdr, pourquoi pas Bébert pendant qu'on y est?).

Too bad the named minibosses aren't more developped, but I wonder if in the Norbelle aka worst ending we get to fight Reimann and pals instead.

Oh well, I'll have other occasions to replay that map to get the different endings - at least the normal one on this PT (the one where Alain kills Galvius but fights off the possession thanks to his magical plot ring that resonates with the plot ring of his partner).