fort merceus

[mikogalatea]

It's taken me a weirdly long time to get around to it, but I'm finally staring down Chapter 20's story battle in my AM run.

I'm already sad.

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Does anyone else find Linhardt to be particularly depressing as an enemy? I'm not saying that just because he's one of my favourites and was my male!Byleth's husbando in my CF run, either.

Even just looking at things before starting the battle proper, his only means of attack is a weak Nosferatu spell, his equipped skills are all evasive/defensive and not offensive, he doesn't have a battalion... they really couldn't have made it clearer from the outset that this man does not actually want to fight. On top of that, his poor physical defence and speed make him so easy to kill that it feels pointlessly cruel to do so. D:

I know I don't have to kill him to clear this map, but on the other hand, I've already heard about what happens to Fort Merceus after the battle. =/ In that case, it might be better if he dies by Byleth's sword instead -- and yes, it does have to be Byleth because if I'm putting myself through this pain at all, I should go all the way with it.

Killing Ferdie back in Chapter 16 hurt enough as is, and I felt bad about Bernie in Chapter 17 as well... I think part of the reason I've stalled on finishing AM for this long is because I'm really not looking forward to killing off the rest of my Eagles. ;.;

Don't even get me started on the whole situation with Mercie and Jeritza. That was a very good paralogue, too. (Quick question, though: does it specifically have to be Mercie who lands the killing blow on Death Knight in order to trigger the special cutscene, or does it just require having completed the paralogue?)

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Shame I can't just cancel this map or something. =/

Comments

[sarajayechan]

I can't decide whether you're a masochist or brave for putting yourself through all of this. I'm a wuss and I recruit everyone. (Except Ferdie and Petra when I play the Blue Lions because fuck you, anti-Edelgard fandumb. And even then I hate killing poor Ferdie and go out of my way to keep Petra alive...though that's also because she's a pain in the ass to fight!)

I've gotten the cutscene just by completing the paralogue.

[mikogalatea]

The former. I'm definitely the former here. Going out of my way to kill a favourite character who isn't a mandatory fight and is fairly easy to avoid altogether has got to be the height of masochism. =/

Honestly, though, recruiting so few kids from other houses isn't just about hurting myself by playing into the tragedy of things. It's also simply because it feels pointless to recruit too many people, because the maximum number of units you can deploy on any given map is so low compared to other FE games that at least some characters aren't gonna get used at all. ^^; Even on my current run, I feel like I've got more people than I need just by having most of the faculty -- which is why, on my Deer run where I'll be grabbing all the Wolves plus three or four other kids, I'm intending to not get any faculty units at all except for Cyril (and Flayn and Seteth since they're automatic recruits, but they'll almost certainly sit on the bench).

Petra's high speed and dodging ability don't make her an easy opponent, I'll certainly give you that...

If that's the case, that'll make things a lot easier. Death Knight is so fast that he'll double my Mercie even with her lightest spell equipped, and her being immune to crits thanks to the Rafail Gem won't mean much if he can tear her apart with normal attacks anyway. >>;

[sarajayechan]

Good point re: characters ending up riding the bench in the end. x3 I try to give everyone a chance, but then there's characters like Hanneman and Manuela who end up not getting very far and only used for their supports.

I'm a completionist, though or at least as much as I can be considering poor Ferdie and Petra on this route. Not just with recruiting, but I like to get as many supports as I can per run.