Sword of Seals Conclusion

I finished this probably a month ago and forgot to update about it. Which means I forgot most of the details. Oh well...

Overall, I rather liked this game. It was shorter than I expected (despite how long it took me to complete), and I didn't realize when it was over because they didn't call the last chapter "endgame." I get confused easily. heh

Here's the list of supports, all of which came with me to the endgame:
A: Roy/Lilina; Chad/Lugh; Klein/Clarine; Alan/Lance
B: Chad/Ray; Lugh/Ray
C: Hugh/Niime; Miledy/Zeiss

I also brought along Rutger, Dieck, & Ellen.

I didn't realize I could have promoted Ellen until the final chapter. Oops. Rutger took down everyone, and the Chad/Ray/Lugh trio was pretty fantastic. (NO ONE touched Lugh.)

I don't get why Roy didn't promote prior to the endgame. I didn't really use him, until I had to battle Zephiel. All my mages did the hard work.

And there are a lot of mages in this game. I basically used them all.

SoS ch. 21: Sword of Seals

I have no words for my frustration with this chapter. Only this.



I've finally come to accept the fact that not everyone will survive, but if one of those blasted wyvern knights kills one of my mages I simply cannot continue. My mages are so good.

Alan & Lance are rocking the field, though. As you can tell.

Family Connections

Things I learned in the past ten minutes, thanks to the Fire Emblem wiki:

Pent & Louise have children. (Klein and Clarine.)

Niime is mother to Canas, who is father to Hugh. Canas might also be Nino's uncle.

And I really shouldn't be playing Blazing Sword and Sword of Seals at the same time, because I keep on mixing up who is in which game.

But really, I was researching my two new favorite mages: Canas and Pent.

Pent rocks from day one. When he's recruited in the desert, he can easily take on everyone without question. You just have to continue using him so his skills don't get rusty.

But Canas? He's okay at first, but once you level him up nothing can stop him. I got him up to level 20 and then used the class promotion item (too lazy to look up what it's called) and I currently have him at a level 12 druid. He does, like, 24 damage at once. (And hits twice.) Somehow I never recruited him during my first play-through of Blazing Sword, but it totally makes up for him now. He's one of few I can send off on his own and know he'll be okay—because no one can hit him. Way to go, Canas. You're coming to the endgame with me.

SoS ch. 14: Arcadia

...I obviously spoke too soon.

THIS SAND STORM IS AWFUL. In my typical OCD-way, I refused to let any of my characters die. But heck, that's just impossible here. We're traveling through a desert, which means it's a waste to use anyone on a horse because they don't really move. (Sorry, Alan.) Which means I'm left with a lot of mages, though luckily mine aren't so bad. But Cecilia and Sophia couldn't survive, and I got tired of resetting the game for them. Actually, I got tired of resetting in general, considering I've been muttering to myself about this level for well over a week. (A week seems to be my limit until I just give in.)

So, yeah, I'm pretty sure this chapter is the barrier between "this game isn't so bad" to "why do all my characters suck?". I'm not even using Marcus anymore, because he does so little damage. I don't know what happened to him.

At the moment, my guys with maxed experience are Chad, Lugh, and Rutgar. Lilina is getting there, too. Random much? I love the little guys. I'm working on Ray next.

Sword of Seals strategy

Here's my issue with Sword of Seals: It makes strategy far too easy.

In most levels, there's one logical path that your guys can take. And everyone's bunched up on this path trying to get through. My system is pretty flawless, actually. I stick Alan and Lance in the front, they get beat up a little, and in the next move they retreat to let the other guys take over. I do this in practically every chapter.

Per the norm with me, my little guys are ridiculously leveled up. I send Chad and Lugh, who now have A-support, off on their own. No one hits them and they defeat everyone. I'm not even worried about those guys anymore. Plus, they both have maxed experience.

I recall from Blazing Sword a similar thing going on. So I know that at some point, things are going to get crazy difficult out of nowhere. I may be approaching that point. I'm waiting for it. I need more of a challenge in this game.

Hector

I kind of fell in love with Hector during Blazing Sword. He's currently #4 in my Fire Emblem Top Five, which is impressive considering the other four are from the Tellius series (yeah. We see where my priorities lie).

So when I learned, in Sword of Seals, that he had been captured by the enemy, I scoffed at them. Who do they think they are, anyway, to think they can defeat the great Hector?

HE DIES! This isn't really a spoiler, since it happens in chapter three. I spent so much time with him in Blazing Sword; he was probably better than everyone else toward the end. So who are these guys that were able to defeat him? So disappointing. I was rather liking his bushy blue beard.

Also, I've been stuck on chapter four of Sword of Seals for a week, because it's a little impossible. Well, "impossible" if you want all your characters to survive, which I do. Come on, Roy. I know you can do this.

Emulator Victory

Wellll it seems I finally figured out how to use my emulator. Took me long enough, right?

Visual Boy Advance isn't as bad as I originally thought. I discovered an option to increase the screen size, so I'm not working with a super-tiny window. AND I found a way to hook up my wiimote via bluetooth, so I don't have to use the awkward keyboard controls. It's like playing a real game now!

So I started Sword of Seals, again, and was actually able to save my progress (I apparently deleted the save file last time... whoops). I can officially begin my journey with Roy. SO EXCITED.

A fellow fan also sent me some links for other translated FE games, which I definitely have to check out. Genealogy of the Holy War and Thracia 776? I'm in geek heaven.

Sword of Seals rom

Attempting to play the Sword of Seals translation on the DS was kind of a failure. While it ran just fine, the translation hack didn't work. So unless I want to play in Japanese... I'm going to have to track down a good emulator. This would ordinarily be no problem, except for the fact I'm on a Mac.

VisualBoyAdvance seems to be the name for a good emulator, but their Mac version is kind of old and buggy. Besides, the screen is ridiculously tiny on my system. See?

The controls are really awkward, too, and I can't change them. I'm contemplating booting up the ol' PC, which I'd rather not do because that's yet another laptop sitting on my desk. I guess I'm going to have to find another emulator, or suck it up.

I did get to play chapter one, though. Good ol' Marcus; I love a familiar face.

SoS Translation

DS Flash card, slot 1: $46.50.
EZ-Flash card, slot 2: $21.50.

Conclusion: I spent $68 just to play the English translation of Sword of Seals on my DS.

You bet it's worth it.

(I don't have the slot 2 card yet, as I didn't know I needed it, but at some point I'll start playing this game. The rom is already loaded onto my flash card. YAY)