Easily my favorite chapter in Birthright thus far. The buildup to the showdown was epic and bone-chilling from beginning to end. For those that don't know, this is the chapter where you battle Leo, and holy cow his introduction was perfect. Fooling around with Corrin and the gang with Faceless acting differently than usual in a dark forest setting (insert Shrek joke here)... and then his cutscene plays. You know what I'm talking about.
"Nohrian Law is blunt on the subject of traitors. There is only one punishment... The sentence is death!"
That line... sends chills down my spine. Takumi even snaps out Leo by calling him a "something something bookworm" (don't remember what the first two words were, but they were pretty harsh), and then Leo responds by calling Takumi "a coward who shoots arrows." You could really sense the intense rivalry between the two, but this isn't even the most intense part...
For all those skipping Birthright, this is what you all are missing out on:
Never did I expect Leo to carry such deep hatred towards Corrin; here Leo drops those lines made me gasp and go wide-eyed. Corrin responds if Leo really meant what he said, to which Leo replies "I'm not going to give you the satisfaction of answering that." Following that, the battle begins.
It's a really small map for a late-game chapter, but good lord there are Faceless everywhere. Leo will even activate Dragon's Vein to awaken more Faceless and create more marshes that will damage any Hoshido units that stand over it. It wasn't until turns 5-7ish when I realized that the Faceless were being infinitely summoned (a remember the second to last turn right before I KOd Leo, there was a huge influx of Faceless all of a sudden, and that made me realize I had to take out Leo soon.
Before going for Leo, I did manage to get one of his retainers, Niles. First time I encounter this guy, and his opening line is a meme. Don't believe me, here you go:
After reading that line, I can't wait to see more of Niles when I play Conquest.
Don't worry about Kagero. She survived Niles and a sudden group of Faceless shortly after the attack. I had Ryoma finish Niles off.
Thanks to Hinoka, I also took care of Odin right before taking out Leo just for the sake of it. I then had Corrin land the killing blow to Leo; I was debating on having Takumi do it instead to counteract Leo's "coward" line, but I thought, "Eh, let's go the classic hero route and have myself finish the job."
Following the battle, things get even more interesting. Leo is at the perfect opportunity to be executed by Corrin, but after talking things out, that doesn't happen, and Leo reveals this:
Damn Leo, you are quite the deceiver, you know that! Here I was being absolutely shocked that you carried such deep hatred against Corrin that made the entire battle feel intense from beginning to end, and then you lifted that heavy load off my chest with that statement.
Well, he tells Corrin to visit the Rainbow Sage so that he (Corrin) can get help in defeating Xander, and he even gives you free teleportation to the Rainbow Sage's location.
Overall, fantastic chapter! Can't wait to see what the next few chapters have in store for me, though I think I'll hold for a bit and take care of the Paralogues, not to mention that I won't be able to play again until Sunday evening as I'll be away for the weekend.
=Kana (now Lissa's great-grandaughter)
). NOA WHY!?
