LogFAQs > #961545317

12/25

Christmas time! I wonder what Christmas festivities they will get up to today. Launching mortars instead of fireworks? Setting Christmas trees on fire as we destroy Duke Albarea's fortress? I can't wait! They let us bring 7 party members instead of 6, and make Jusis and Sara required. I would normally bring them anyway so I have 1 extra slot to play with. I decide on Millium because I don't think I'll need any extra firepower, and she seems like she has potential for interesting things to say since the political intrigue is ramping up.

No new quests today, looks like we're all main plot, all the way. Works for me! A quick lap around the ship results in nothing new to see, so lets attack this damn fort. After setting off we get a scene where McBurn and Duvalie are talking. It's been so long I almost forgot about them! Duvalie lectures Mick on how they aren't supposed to fight in this war, because they're supposed to be "in the shadows". I guess dealing with Trails protagonists doesn't count as being in the war for whatever reason. Mick says that she should be glad to relax since she just got back form Crossbell. At least they're consistent! And they have a good reason why Ouroboros hasn't been part of the plot for awhile lol.

Fast forward to Rean and co arriving at the fort, Scarlet shows up in her gear to stop us. She says that she doesn't care about life anymore since she has no reason to live past Crow "killing" Chancellor Osborne. Hopefully she does die here, like Vulcan, so she never has to learn the truth about that. I'm sure it would crush her. But really, I think the developers just had no clue what to do with the terrorists after CS1 lol. They could've just written them out and nobody would've been bothered by it I think, but no big deal.

After a robot fight which was somehow easier than the rest of them, she attempts to suicide herself but Rean rushes in and saves her. I guess the writers didn't want her to die yet since she has more "appeal". She's honestly ugly af because they just comically oversized her tits and it looks stupid, and I say that as a confessed tits > ass kinda guy. Anime can be silly as fuck sometimes lol. Anyway, Crow shows up to check on his girl and Angelica gives him shit for caring about Scarlet so much. Jealous? Crow reveals that he knows what we're doing with the ore and the sword, and says that we should keep doing the shrines if we're gonna take him on. Does anyone question how this kid our age knows all this shit? It's a little disconcerting.

The rest of the gang rushes inside while Rean's preoccupied out there. Some jaegers are inside ready to greet us, but Sara walks up to confront them first. Apparently, she's originally from North Ambria and was a part of this jaeger clan in her past. She says her loyalty now lies with Erebonia and her students however, and she challenges the jaegers to a duel. It starts a solo battle of her vs them and she immediately unlocks a new S craft that has 4S as its rank, which is the first time I've seen that I think. Naturally you use it right away but it doesn't even one shot their entire board, which kind of surprises me because the stragglers get pretty close to killing me on their turn. If your Sara wasn't as cracked as mine wouldn't this fight just be impossible? Like if she were 10 levels lower and not equipped I don't see how I would've won that ever.

After the fight ends they all kinda act like Sara lost though, so maybe you are supposed to lose it? Not sure why they'd make it winnable at all then. Or are they just doing that trails thing where they require you to win a fight but then act like you lost in the cutscene after anyway? I didn't get any bonus AP for winning it, so I'm guessing it's that. Anyway, the jaegers basically just look at her pitifully and say they don't get paid enough for this shit and walk out the door. The gang talks a bit about Sara's jaeger past and basically are just like, yeah whatever homie you're our teacher lets go. I guess that does explain the bit of a soft spot she's had for Fie all this time so that's a nice touch.

After this fight, Sara is just totally too injured to go on and is kicked out of your party. Super lame. I guess Millium might see some use after all then? Probably not. At least it explains the whole 7 party member thing. I guess we'll just tackle this dungeon without her, I decide on Machias to fill her spot but I'll probably switch in Jusis for the boss battle at the end.

The journey through the dungeon is pretty uneventful, mostly just grinding. There's another ex-boss for a random enemy which is cool. I also had to retry some fight against one of those and some soldiers, twice, because the solider would cast grim butterfly which would one shot my entire board. Thank god for retry. I'm playing SMT5 now and dying in that is always very frustrating.

Once you get to the top of the fortress, the gang of course tries to arrest ol' Duke Albarea, but Duvalie steps in "from the shadows" to prevent us. She gives a rousing speech about how we will go no further because Ouroboros will fulfill their mission...it's very beautiful...but Mick is just like "Nah I'm good" and teleports out. Ahhh...Mick is great lmao. I guess they need to save him for CS3 or 4 when we're level 250 and he would just shit on us now. In general though, Trails is at its best when Ouroboros is involved and I have felt their lack of presence over the last few war heavy chapters.

The fight itself vs. Duvalie begins and ends pretty quickly. She did get a full map S craft off which would normally be scary, but it was literally the turn after I casted the double your HP arte with Alisa, so it didn't really do anything...so sadly Duvalie wasn't able to KO even a single unit. I'm rooting for you next time though Duvalie, if anyone beats me I want it to be you. Laura mentions after the fight that she (Duvalie) seemed unusually tired, and then Duvalie mentions how she has now disgraced herself here and in Crossbell. Beautiful. This is all happening in a pretty short timespan after all! We are fast approaching Zero's epilogue...now I'm wondering how KeA and Millium will get along lol. They don't seem like a good fit.

Duvalie leaves though and Jusis formally arrests his father, as the scene fades to black. We resume showing the Imperial forces occupying Bareahard. I have to wonder why the Noble alliance gave up the Duke if it meant also surrendering Bareahard? I thought that was basically their HQ. I know Rufus said the bulk of their army is with him, wherever they are, but where the hell is that? Further out west in some town we haven't been to, I guess...but they need a lot of infrastructure to support their war effort, I can't imagine there's very many places they could be. Whatever, another thing we shouldn't worry about, I suppose.

After that though, we get a transition to the next day and it says Bareahard stopover day. I suppose we'll get some bonding events in tomorrow! I think it's a little weird nobody mentioned Christmas this entire time, but I suppose they were a little preoccupied. Perhaps tomorrow we'll get some festivities. See you guys then!