Messing with MyCastle IX¶

More upgrades this time, including ones for the Smithy (you can level weapons up to +4), the Prison (holds more prisoners), Accessory Shop (better selection of accessories) and the Hot Spring.

While the upgrades are useful this time around, there’s not much to say about them. On the other hand, you may have a good bit of grinding to do. The enemies are only getting stronger, and promoted units are making up more and more of the enemy ranks. This might be an indication where you should be. Likely you have characters who are at or near 20th level, in which case, it’s time to promote them into higher classes. There’s no shame in grinding a few levels to get some key characters the promotions they’re going to sorely need for future missions.

More importantly, make sure your protagonist has a support rank of A or higher with Kaze. No spoilers here, just do it, or you’ll regret it after the next mission.

Mount Garou¶

The party will continue their flight from Nohr, who, instead of going for the obvious and safe move of capturing the entire Hoshidan royal family (and hence decisively ending the war in their favor) decides instead to arbitrarily gamble by forcing you to flee across an ominous mountain. Because they wouldn’t be typical video game bad-guys if they didn’t allow for an heroic and unlikely escape, would they? Anyways, the crossing is complicated by the locals, Garon plays another dirty trick, blame is wrongfully allocated, and a fight ensues.

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Map of Chapter 15.

The free time between your last battle and this one was a fine time to level up characters and, if possible, promote a few of them. Even if you didn’t, this fight is pretty easy, as you’ll mostly only fight two foes; Wolfskin, who are short-range melee combatants with low Attack, decent Hit Points, and low Defense and Resistance, and Wolfsegner, their promotion. Their only worrisome traits are their fair Critical and Avoid rates, but if you attack at range and team up on them, you’ll mitigate the damage they can do. Their Beaststones do let them attack your horse units for higher damage though, so watch out!

There are a few more complications in this fight, but they’re minor. First, the terrain is fairly rugged, so flying units are advised, as they can out-maneuver your foes, who are relatively unimpeded by the terrain. Another thing to watch out for are the scattered Forts and Dragon Veins. The former will give you defensive boosts and regeneration while standing in them, and the latter will reduce the stats of all hostiles on the map. Lastly, there’s the leader of these Wolfskins, Keaton , who has higher attributes, most notably Attack, Hit Points and Avoid rate (but lower Speed, making him Kaden’s counterpart), but compared to some of the nasty units you fought in previous missions, he’s nothing to fear. Again, ranged attacks will serve you well on him.

Start the battle out by taking out the nearby Wolfssegners. Be sure to use ranged attacks, as the Wolfssegners will counter attacks from adjacent foes with its Counter skill. For dealing with this pest you’ll gain a Master Seal, should you need any more, and another foe will also yield another Master Seal for your promoting needs. Two nearby Wolfssegner will drop 3000G , as will a third up north near Keaton. In the north-eastern corner of the map is another Wolfssegner who will drop a “Secret Book” (Permanently increases Skill by 2) who also has the “Poison Strike” skill, which deals damage equal to 20% of a unit’s Hit Points when said Wolfssegner initiates combat. It’s exclusive to Ninjas but the AI don’t care.

Near Keaton are more Wolfssegners, one of whom has the “Countermagic” skill, which will reflect magic damage on attacks (ouch!), the other of which will drop a Speedwing (Permanently increases Speed by 2) and has the wretched Life and Death skill, which increases damage dealt and received by 10, so be sure to attack this guy before he attacks you, which may be difficult, seeing as this unit is in the north-western corner of the map. Keaton himself will drop you a Spirit Wing (Permanently increases Magic by 2) and has the Beastbane skill, which deals extra damage against beasts (e.g. Silas), among other, less dangerous skills.

After the battle, Kaze will prove himself to be a good retainer, possibly to his detriment, depending upon your support rank with him. Afterwards, the protagonist and Ryoma will share a moment of hope. When you finally make it back into MyCastle, you’ll finally be joined by whatever servant you left behind in Nohr, either Felicia (if your protagonist is female) or Jakob (if your protagonist is male). Sadly, they’re likely such a low level compared to the rest of your party that it’ll require some grinding to get them up to snuff. Ah well… you can use it as an opportunity to promote a few more of your others characters. And note that Jakob is linked to a child character.