#game-review #finishedgame2023 # Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade ![](https://goombastomp.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Fire-Emblem-Blazing-Blade-Wallpaper-image-courtesy-of-fire-emblem-wiki.jpg) [Console:: Gameboy Advance] [Status:: Beaten] [Approximate Start Date:: 2022-10-02] [Finish Date:: 2023-05-12] [Clear Time:: 28h 31m] [Total Play Time:: 36h 30m] [nReplays:: 0] ## [Rating:: 83] Really good Fire Emblem, cannot deny that, but the way I played it was probably wrong in a lot of different ways. # Playthrough Notes I got the SteamDeck and [[EmuDeck]] working, so I decided to boot up a Gameboy Advance game that would work well to play something new. I've started and dropped Sacred Stones enough times to not want to do that one first, so here I am playing Blazing Blade. I'm going to consider most of the controls in this game in context of the SteamDeck, but I would imagine it's not all that different rom an actual GBA, sans the biggest screen. I'm debating whether I want to use a walkthrough for this game, though I do have the physical guidebook for the game, which I bought back during my Guidebook obsession. I got it from Half Price books, and I'll have to check whether or not I have it here in Ann Arbor, or if it's back at my parents's place. Otherwise, [the gamefaqs guide](https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/gba/468480-fire-emblem/faqs/40524) will have to suffice. ## Using Save States I always try to complete a chapter on its first go without savestates. I only resorted to using save states under the following circumstances: 1. I attempted the chapter but lost a unit that I cared about, especially near the end of the chapter 2. I wanted to try a glitch (the Mine Glitch in Chapter 24) 3. I wanted to see what people meant by "Arena Abuse". After a while, especially near the end of the game, in the interest of getting through the final few chapters, I'd make a save state at the start of each turn so as to be able to reload things in the event that I goof up. I don't care if this isn't how the game was meant to be played, at some point one has to accept the fact that if they want to play the game in a slightly easier way in order to enjoy the game, then that's how it's gonna be. # My Thoughts - [[Permadeath in Fire Emblem Blazing Blade Makes the Game More Tense, Like How a War Game Should Feel]] - [[Getting A-Supports in Blazing Blade Was Hard Because the Supports are not How I was Used to with Modern Fire Emblem's Gameplay Loop]] - [[I can only play so much of Blazing Blade at a time before I need a Mental Break because the game requires a LOT of mental attention]] - [[Weather Mechanics in Blazing Blade are BAD because they impede movement, and movement is the name of the game]] - [[Did I Play Blazing Blade Wrong]]? ## General Thoughts While Playing The game starting off with the faceless me (Petro) being woken up in bed by Lyn is a weird incidence. At least at the beginning, Lyn's motives (her tribe being wiped out with her as the sole survivor) are pretty straightforward: get revenge for her father's death. The tutorial is easy enough and while I've played a Fire Emblem game before, I can appreciate this game's tutorial simply because it was the first Fire emblem game the West ever saw. It's easy enough to start. I wish that the *B* button didn't immediately skip all the cutscene dialogue that's present through the game. It's frustrating because I then have to go and restart the chapter if I want to see that dialogue. I will do better to avoid this. It's a little different not having a kind of overworld map where you can make preparations, at least in the early game. The item buying also appears to solely be on the battle maps, which makes for more interesting movement on the map itself, and having to manage resources more carefully. At around Chapter 16x I've come to realize that it will be nearly impossible to raise every unit in a meaningful way the way I attempted to do in both [[Fire Emblem Three Houses]] and [[Fire Emblem Awakening]]. With this mindset, so long as I'm not outright abandoning everyone and keeping everyone mostly balanced, some units will just naturally get more practice. Of course, I have to accept that not every single unit will be worth bringing. ## First Playthrough Notes ### Lyn's Story ##### Prologue: A Girl From the Plains Probably not even worth commenting on, which is a good thing. Simple, straightforward, gets to the heart of the matter in a quick amount of time, no problem. #### Chapter 1: Footsteps of Fate Easy enough, still very much a tutorial level. Good way of introducing the Red and Green Knights, Sain and Kent, respectively. #### Chapter 2: Sword of Spirits Still a tutorial level but it introduces the idea of Seizing the throne as a means of ending the chapter rather than routing the enemy. My first Fire Emblem was Fire Emblem Three Houses, which had very few of these types of maps, so it was a fun difference. Still a tutorial level though more or less. #### Chapter 3: Band of Mercenaries Introduces Florina, the shrinking-est violet you ever did see, and Wil, a guy. Level was pretty straightforward, though I let a bandit destroy one of the villages, not realizing that was actually possible, and as a result, I missed 2,000 gold. Pretty good chapter at introducing archers and Florina being scared of them is a cute little way to tell the player that fliers are weak to archers. #### Chapter 4: In Occupation's Shadow A better way at teaching the player that there are some enemy characters they may be able to recruit. Also the first "defend" chapter in the game. there were essentially none of these in Three Houses, and only two in [[Fire Emblem Awakening]] (one early on protecting Emmeryn and one late in the game protecting Tiki), so it's cool to see this happen so early on. I didn't use Florina a ton since I was worried about her frailty, but then I realized we could put her on the Eastern hold of the castle against the swords people. Dorcas is a pretty strong character, and actually interesting given that he wants to protect his wife above all else. I really enjoyed the defense aspect as it was the first map that really made me feel like characters might actually be in some kind of danger. #### Chapter 5: Beyond the Borders Serra is fun and Erk makes for a fun little foil. Serra, being the healer will likely be a staple for the next few chapters. #### Chapter 6: Blood of Pride The objective on this one is rather neat, triggering three switches means that you're moving the party all around the smaller map to get places. Rath makes for a useful new addition in this regard because he can move around quite quickly without much impedance. This Chapter wasn't all that hard though? Truthfully, none of these first few chapters have really felt difficult. Lyn's story must be the tutorial round. #### Chapter 7: Siblings Abroad We meet Nils, a Dancer? A Bard? He lets us move twice which means MORE HEALING. supposedly too if I finish this chapter in fewer than 15 turns I can get a sidestory which is neato, but it also implies that I'll need to check a walkthrough for every chapter to make sure I don't miss an optional chapter. This was also the first time I got to select units, something I was worried that the game just wasn't going to let me do initially and that I'd have to trade items on the battle field. Here I'm able to move items around with ease in advance, which is crucial. the whole plot of Nils and Ninnian having this anticipation psychic power is a little silly, but they're the creepy psychic twins trope that I'm willing to let slide so long as it doesn't Deus Ex Machina. Lucius is also just really good? Like, it's not the Monk I'm used to, but I can see where the design for Libra kind of came from. Monk sort of feels like a holy mage or something? I think he makes for a useful unit along with Erk The plot is rather basic as it stands. Lord Lungren, Lyn's Great Uncle is poisoning her grandfather to take the throne and Lyn is working to take it back slowly but surely. Lundgren's throwing his forces out at her, and like, yeah sure that tracks. Not much more than that it looks like, but it's solid enough. A little standard storytelling for this kind of thing, though I can look past it as this was the first fire Emblem game in the states. The plot, at least initially, needed to be pretty simple. I definitely prefer it to the overly-anime tropes of the new Fire Emblem Engage trailer I saw today (Jesus Christ it looks like Genshin Impact), or even things from [[Fire Emblem Awakening]]. It's definitely anime-tropey, don't get me wrong, but the plot so far is far less "ANIME!!!" than later entries so far. #### Chapter 7X: The Black Shadow A fine little sub chapter. I'm not sure what it does for the overall plot, or gameplay beyond provide extra levels? #### Chapter 8: Vortex of Strategy The intro to ballista is a little underwhelming. Pretty easy map, once the ballista was acquired it was pretty smooth sailing, even if it ultimately did nothing for me and my playthrough. Played in Greece on the futon :] #### Chapter 9: A Grim Reunion Fog of war rears its ugly head. They give us Wallace in this Chapter and he's immediately promoted to General, so that's clearly the crutch character. I used him to block off chokepoints from behind in order to prevent the random units from appearing outside of the fog. Didn't really use torches, though I probably should have! #### Chapter 10: The Distant Plains Used Florina to bring Wallace to the gate and hold everyone off. Thanks Wallace! Very cool. Though I did restart at first because I got Florina killed, WHOOPS! though I think she would've made it through fine, it wasn't until after this chapter that they said that people died for real so who even knows. Otherwise, the chapter had a lot of weird mechanics like rain that don't really make it fun to play I really liked that after the chapter ended, instead of the played out trope of Lyn taking her grandfather in her arms and then him dying knowing that his kingdom is safe, that instead he makes a complete recovery and lives with Lyn. It's small but impactful that Lyn is able to have a happy ending (for now) #### Overall on Lyn's Story: I think this was just one really long drawn out prologue. I imagine things are only going to get much harder and much more complicated from here. I wasn't able to get healing items or other things or whatever, so I imagine that in the future routes that there'll be more access to items and whatnot. For now though, once I realized that this was basically one long and drawn out prologue, it was really easy to let myself just go with the flow of the game. ### Eliwood's Story #### Chapter 11 - Taking Leave Straightforward intro chapter to a new cast of characters. Found myself a little hesitant to lean into the new band of travelers just because I didn't know anyone from Lyn's route, but alas, it is time to make new friends. #### Chapter 12 - Birds of a Feather I fist pumped when I saw Matthew and Serra with Hector at the start of the Chapter. Kickass moment. #### Chapter 13 - In Search of Truth I was able to recruit Guy easily enough, and Guy seems like a really useful unit to have on deck. A Killing Edge really does wonders for the group. I actually didn't travel to the North town, but apparently you need to do that in order to get a Gaiden chapter, so I guess I just missed that one, rip. #### Chapter 14 - False Friends Simple enough chapter, it was fun to recruit Erk once again, and Priscilla is very cute, and a MUCH NEEDED second healer with a lot more range. Priscilla in particular is really cute and I want to make sure she stays alive for personal and strategic reasons lol. Gameplay-wise Chapter is a solid one to traverse, nothing to nuts, which is appreciated, especially when ocnsidering the story portion, how the purple haired lord gives up his own son to accomplish his goals. he's not making it to the end of the game, is he? #### Chapter 15 - Noble Lady of Caelin The gang is BACK TOGETHER BABY! We've got Lyn, Florina, saint, Kent and Wil all backtogether and this map is HUGE. I nearly lost Florina because I misplaced her, but she had a lucky dodge, which was huge. I would hate to lose anyone in my playthroughs at this point. This map was pretty big, and dare I say, not a simple event. I actually had to reasonably consider who went where and how to position people in case random reenforements came up. Once the two parties met in the middle of the map, we moved upward as dictated by the flow of battle. But it really felt like an all-out skirmish that I could handle, but would need to take seriously with my placement of troops. Nice work, this is a quality chapter because it mananges to bring together the first party and the new party all while still making the map moderately challenging. #### Chapter 16 - Whereabouts Unknown Got Merlinus so now I don't have to worry about inventory as much. Maybe I could've gotten him sooner? I left Oswin behind to guard Merlinus and that turned out to be the right call. Had to initially restart the map since I let Rebecca die because I was silly. Nice to get Lucius back and Raven seems like an interesting character, even if the name is a little edgy lol (Raymond -> Raven). Generally a straightforward map, but there was a lot to sort of keep track of, especially when it came to recruiting Raven and Lucius again #### Chapter 16X - The Port of Badon Oh look, it's Anna in the Inn, that's fun. This chapter GOT me the first time when the Black Fang assassins just appeared out of NOWHERE and immediately almost killed Lyn. Not very cool, but at least it was super early in the chapter to the point where I hadn't made any progress whatsoever. There's an arena on this map, and I'm debating whether or not I want to faff about and grind levels there. I ended up avoiding any and all conflict or treasures and just took the path around the town, (after getting Canas, of course) using Florina to eventually reach Fargus with minimal bloodshed. I'm sure I could've used this map to grind to make things easier going forward, but I also appreciate that the game values crafty tactics as well. #### Chapter 17 - Pirate Ship I ended up beating Zoldam to finish the chapter rather than surviving 11 turns. though I don't know if I've ever felt as tense about a 74% roll as I did attacking with Florina, knowing that Zoldam had a super high crit rate. It's amusing to me just how quickly my fears were assuaged and just how anti-climactic it all was. Despite that, I was able to steal off of him and keep everyone alive. At this point I've started noticing a pattern of my preferred units: the Three Lords (Lyn, Eliwood and Hector), Oswin (GOAT), Florina (GOAT), Priscilla (excellent healer), Canas and Lucius (though I wish I had bought another Lightning on the ship, whoops), Matthew (for thievin'), Lowen (GOAT), and then Serra if the party allows for it. I'd like to use Erk more since I think he'll be useful, but alas, there are only so many party members I can take each time. I now understand why there's a great amount of replay value and the merit of permadeath. When units die, you'll still have a strong surplus of relatively reliable units. This would be cool and all... but then again, no one likes losing their "regulars". Speaking of... #### Chapter 18 - The Dread Isle I hate Fog of War so much, it's a dumb and useless mechanic that just makes the levels artificially harder (Scrubquotes.tm). This is made especially clear because I had made it through the chapter, recruited Fiora, protected Merlinus, made it to Uhai, and then I lost both Canas and Dart to the longbow Uhai had which I didn't know he had and a foe I didn't know was there from the Fog of War respectively. Because of this I restarted the chapter, but then realized, "ah shit, that means I gotta replay the whole chapter", and that made me set the game down for a bit, not wanting to replay literally everything I had just done. What a hassle, eh? I'm not sure if I should be promoting my units yet as the game hasn't really given me any indication of how to do so or when to do so, despite the fact that I appear to have items to do so. I would assume Chapter 18 is near the end of the game, or at least the game is leading me to think it is, but from reviewing the walkthrough, this is about HALFWAY through the game. There's still 13 more chapters, holy moly. #### Chapter 18x - Imprisoner of Magic This is the one with the magic seal and I almost got caught with my pants down with the guy who placed the seal suddenly vanished. I was also able to meet what's his name at the temple to the south before the chapter really got started and I think he'll be joining my party later. It's at this point I should make it explicitly clear that I've been trying to recruit every single character in the game and not lose any either, which makes for some EXCRUCIATING chapters where I might lose one unit because of a bad roll. This chapter was particularly bad because I kept trying to hardcore things with Erk and Sain and they'd both end up dead every time. Oops. I promoted Sain into a Paladin after this map. #### Chapter 19 - Dragon's Gate It's here where the game makes you think that this is going to be the penultimate level of the game and that once you confront Nergal at the sanctum the final map will be there shortly after. This is, of course, a lie, and the game has like 10 more chapters, nice work Fire Emblem! I was, of course, a dipshit since I took a break between playing the previous chapter and this one and was REALLY confused when Matthew wasn't able to open any doors or chests. But looking up the reason, I didn't equip Matthew with any lockpicks which basically rendered him an almost useless unit at the time. All the same, I managed to recruit Legault (the better Thief!) and finish the chapter with relative ease, though I definitely didn't get every single treasure chest. Also Oswin remains the fucking GOAT #### Chapter 20 - New Resolve This was an interesting chapter, definitely one I goofed up really late in the game where I basically guaranteed losing Fiora one turn before the end of the map... except that I was trying out some arena abuse with save states for Raven because I'd been slacking on raising him. This was one of those chapters where the opportunity presented itself and I figured, eh, why not try it once or twice? I also used this chapter to really restock on items, including getting another Lightning for Lucius and another Flux for Canas, but after this chapter my funding ranking fell from 4 to 3, despite the fact that I ended the chapter with more money than I started. I can only assume that the arena had something to do with this. Oh well. No use trying to 5 star everything on your first go,, and considering my rank is presently 4/5/3/5/5, I think I'm doing just fine. I definitely said "Oh FUCK" aloud when I saw a Wyvern Rider for the first time and it nearly killed Wil. Wil survived but I had a LOT of close calls there. I really gotta beef that guy up just a bit. Somehow I missed the item that would let me promote Florina into a Falcoknight, so now I just feel a little foolish. I'm sure there's another, but augh, missable items. #### Chapter 21 - Kinship's Bond THREE NEW CHARACTERS IN A CHAPTER SO WE HAVE LIKE 20 UNITS? SIGN ME THE FUCK UP DUDE! But for real, this chapter was honestly incredibly easy and a real breath of fresh air. I managed to recruit everyone (though Isadora almost killed Heath) and get every treasure with Legault which is a win in my book. I also upgraded Erk to Sage before this fight so now I have three consistent healers which is nice. I was gonna try and set it up so that Heath could get the kill on his old boss, thinking there might be some unique dialogue, but then Eliwood critted with a 1% chance and then got a 6 point level up, so I couldn't really say no to that one haha. #### Chapter 22 - Living Legend I hate Desert Levels so much, and that's especially true in this game. And to make matters worse, Pent stole all my experience :( I still met the requirements to get the Gaiden chapter, Genesis, but even still, I found myself making basically no progress through the sand alol At least I recruited Hawkeye? #### Chapter 22x - Genesis This chapter's reputation preceded itself. I knew from guides both fan made and "official" that this chapter was going to be ticky. and of course, despite the obvious magic seal, I brought Erk, Serra, Lucius AND Canas, like a dipshit. So half the time my units couldn't even do anything. Still cleared it first try, though I didn't noticed that I was running seriously low on turns until very close to the end of the map, so I hastened my movements and unlocked the door only to have the magic seal vanish at the end. Got all the treasures! No deaths, no restarts, good stuff. #### Chapter 23 - Four-Fanged Offense (Lloyd) So I didn't level up my Lords enough and ended up in this piss-easy fog of war chapter. I just sent Raven to the Arena for some general arena abuse and re-recruited Wallace (who I have absolutely no plans of using). This one I just tried to raise a lot of people the best I could since I know that at this point in the game, the4re are some units that are just gonna get left behind and I have to deal with that. Little to no threat of losing anyone besides Lyn, whom I was trying to level up appropriately. #### Chapter 24 - Unfulfilled Heart Among other things, I tried using the Mine glitch this chapter, wherein you can lay a mine on the battlefield and if an enemy lands on it, you can soft reset during the animation and gain control of the enemy units for a turn. That was kind of fun, I had all of my foes ditch their weapons which made for a quick and easy cleanup at the end of the chapter. It was otherwise incredibly simple to survive for 11 turns this chapter, like stupidly easy. I didn't engage the main enemy general and as a result she didn't approach me. Like, huh. How about that. I promoted Raven into a Hero after Arena abuse in this chapter lolololol #### Chapter 25 - Pale Flower of Darkness (Kenneth) Snow is a pain in the ass, lemme tell ya. I ended up recruiting Karel since guess I killed enough of the promoted units on the field. And then Karel went and proceeded to wipe the fucking floor with the Wo Dao. Love me some Wo Dao action. Other highlights: Pent and Erk crittting every fuckin wyvern rider lol Plotwise, I think that Sonia is a despicable human and I love the backstory that we're getting with Nino and Jaffar, especially after knoing that Jaffar is one of those bad guys who killed Elbert. Also it occurred to me between this chapter and the next one that the four high members of the Black Fang are all Sonia's children or something of that nature. I cannot wait to kill her in a later chapter. I also promoted Priscilla after this chapter. Once I get the means to promote Florina or Fiora I will too since Florina is max level and Fiora is Level 18. Hoping to be able to promote a Lord after this chapter. #### Chapter 26 - Battle Before Dawn Before playing: I have heard a LOT about this chapter. It's a controversial one because of some poor game design choices, as well as the new character you can recruit, Nino, being a moderately controversial unit in the sense that she has some HARDCORE defenders when it comes to her utility as a unit. Because I'm playing with a walkthrough I know that I should go after her initially and not Jaffar, but that I have to eventually talk with Jaffar if I want the Paralogue chapter. After playing: It's weird, but this map was easily the most stressful one I've played so far. There's something about racing towards both Nino and Jaffar before they end up dead that I found to be very, very stressful. Getting to Nino was pretty simple; I took both Legault and Matthew and split them up so that we could enter the palace from both sides, and then sent Eliwood and Hector down the side where Nino was. Once I recruited her, I used Priscila, now able to defend herself with Fire magic, to carry her across the stage. I ended up using Pent's Physic to heal Jaffar when it got a little too close for comfort. At least Zephiel was easily defendable, hell he killed two foes on his own. He seems like a pretty solid dude all things considered, I wonder what his and Guinevere's deals are though since who knows if we'll be back to Bern after this. I initially got to turn 15 / 15 before I realized that I hadn't killed the Sage enemy that had the Whip item I needed to promote a Peg knight so I basically restarted the chapter to get it, lolololol. It's worth it though because now I FINALLY have a Falcoknight. I wish I hadn't missed it in the initial chapter it was in because now I'm basically stuck with Fiora being a maxed out Peg Knight with no chance at a promotion. But in that initial run of the map, Jaffar actually killed Ursula, so I didn't get any of the exp, so it was worth restarting the chapter in that regard as well. Between using both Legault and Matthew this chapter, AND realizing you can see enemy inventories by pressing 'R' on them, I realized that I've been using my thieves entirely wrong all game. they're supposed to get a load of experience from stealing items from foes that you can then equip to your units or sell for big profits. I feel foolish for not realizing this sooner, but at least I recognize it now. If I ever do a replay, I'll make sure that I'm doing this more often. After this map, I promoted Hector into a Great Lord, Florina into a Falcoknight, and Canas into a Druid. #### Chapter 26x - Night of Farewells Dude, look at this map, holy shmoly. Wish I hadn't used the Mine glitch on Chapter 24, I could've used it here to Level Up Nino. The plot surrounding this chapter and the last chapter is also really really interesting for this game? I hadn't expected Nino to endear me as much as she has, what with her naive, plucky resolve, and her compassionate nature really makes her stand out against a lot of the more paper-thin characters. Her and Jaffar are really compelling, especially when considering their role initially as antagonists. I love that you first meet Nino on Chapter 23 as a random NPC in a house as she tends to Jaffar's wounds, and then it's slowly revealed that she's 1. an antagonist, 2. she's Sonia's daughter, 3. Sonia wants her dead because she's actually an adopted daughter. I only wish this chapter weren't locked behind a paralogue check because, wow it's a great little mini-arc. FUCK THIS CHAPTER WAS HARD, I shouldn't have gone after the chests before I had cleared the map, what a fool I was. I had to use soooooo many save states to make sure Florina, Fiora and Legault all didn't die from Sonia' Bolting. Jaffar got the kill on Sonia, hell yeah. Made Legault an Assassin after this map. I thought I had another Guiding Seal for Nino, but I don't so I guess I'm not using her after allllllll, rip #### Chapter 27 - Cog of Destiny A long ass chapter that I managed to get through in like 45 minutes. Seriously super duper long and it involved a couple restarts because of the ballistae. Sain missed on an 89 and I had to restart because of it and I wanted to wring his smug little face's neck. So unreliable, yet so good. Anyways, I did it, and I guess that's that, no real words because it was long as hell and I'm very tired out. I wouldn't call it hard, the map itself is just Fire Emblem Blazing Blade throwing a ton of enemies at you and saying "hey sucker, I hope you know how to position your units strategically!" I had Hector and Oswin block off the mountain pass, Nino continuously picking off units (Oops I AM using her because Erk's level ups have been extremely bad). I managed to get Priscilla and Erk's C support and Pent and Louise's conversation, which was neat, but honestly, looking at Serene's Forest, how the hell are you supposed to get Supports in this game, especially supports all the way up to A? It's a little insane how specific they are. #### Chapter 28 - Valorous Roland Really fun short chapter that's neat in what it does to let the gamer level up Eliwood for the sake of the plot. IT works well as a story beat and for a gameplay application and it was quite a nice shorter (5 UNIT) chapter. I mean, only FIVE Units, we haven't had that in almost 18 chapters, that's nuts! #### Chapter 29 - Sands of Time Long, I had all the foes defeated by turn 7 and then I learned that it was impossible for me to get the Secret Shop in this map which has a bunch of promotion items, SAD! IT was kind of fun to have an archer boss unit for the chapter though, and I found his repeated message from Nergal just unsettling enough to be kinda fun :] Had to restart once because Sain died #### Chapter 29x - Battle Preparations So I don't have Luna for Canas btw, I must've missed that at some point, whoops. I sent Nino to the arena to get like 5 turns of arena work while everyone else spent a bunch of money. I figure I could've spent all my money there if I really wanted, but I still held onto it in the event that, for some reason the game had lied to me when it said "This is the Final Battle". What am I, some money hoarder? This isn't a play to earn game, this is GBA Fire Emblem! #### Chapter 30 Big long ass chapter that seems to be more about wearing out your main items so that when you DO get to the final map your weapons aren't in mint condition. That's the only reason I think this chapter is as expansive as it is, ESPECIALLY when it's preceded by the only chapter where your whole purpose playing it is to BUY THINGS with MONEY. Had to restart once because Sain died. #### Chapter Final - Light Definitely managed pretty well taking out all the former foes though once I had to deal with Nergal, I had to ACTUALLY deal with the fact that I didn't bring a Restore and the foe had a "Berserk" staff that kept fucking me up. Nergal himself was pretty easy I cheesed the dragon fight with Athos and Priscilla, took be a couple tries, but once I figured out the dragon doesn't move and the range appears to be three tiles in the cardinal directions, it was easy to take advantage of the dragon's quirks. I suppose that's why they give you Athos though, in case you're like me and didn't raise your units properly. "An Evil Star rises in Bern", hmmm I wonder who that could be, maybe that nice prince we saved from assassination? I sure hope not, he was a good kid. > Maybe the humans were the bad guys all along, the way they drove the dragons out... hrm Please game, for the love of god, please move faster at this ending. I love that Ninnian is back and alive and well, but the text scroll is tiringly slow. # Favorite Moments / Memories - Honestly, the Nino / Jaffar subplot is an excellent one. # What were you doing when not playing this? - Got my steam deck the weekend my parents first came to visit out here in A2. Playing off and on with the SteamDeck when I can since now I have portable Rom playing!!! - Played Chapters 8 - 10 (end of Lyn's story) in Athens in the AirBnb while waiting for Lasen - Chapters 16x, 17 and 18 during the power outage from the freezing rain storm - Chapters 19 - 22 in the basement at Mom and Dad's house when I found the guidebook!!!! - Chapters 23 - 26 back in A2 after telling myself that I was gonna finish this game, goddamn it. # Relevant Links - The [gamefaqs guide](https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/gba/468480-fire-emblem/faqs/40524) for my reference when playing.