Messing with MyCastle, II¶

A new chapter means there are new things to see and do in MyCastle. First off there are new buildings to play with, including perhaps new statues or upgrades to old ones. Statues of various characters can be built as you play with them, and when built they will increase your max stat caps during player-versus-player MyCastle battles only . If you don’t care about MyCastle battles, don’t bother.

In addition there are two new buildings; the Lottery Shop and the Mess Hall. The Lottery Shop allows you to visit for a random roll at a free item once per day (game day, not real day; be sure to check back after every battle), and since it’s free loot, you might as well spend the 1 DVP and build it as quickly as possible, then visit it whenever you can play. The Mess Hall, on the other hand, allows you to use random food items (stuff you could otherwise feed to Lilith) to feed your troops, giving them random bonuses for one map.

You’ll also unlock Paralogue 1. See the Paralogues section for all Paralogues coverage. They’re worth doing for the extra gold and XP you’ll earn, but they’re more than just the random battles you can find in scouting missions, as you can also witness insightful lore and plot bits you can’t get just playing through the main campaign. The first Paralogue, “Tragic Start” is available on the world map right now, and completing it will get you a new character, so check it out below if you want. If you can’t be bothered, skip ahead to the next story battle under the header “Wind Tribe Village”.

Wind Tribe Village¶

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Map of Chapter 8.

When you’re done with the post-mission MyCastle activities and perhaps the Paralogue quest “Tragic Start”, go start the next story mission, which sees you ascending the Eternal Stairway. A bad pun and a sneaky trick later you’ll find yourself involved in an unfortunate skirmish in Wind Tribe territory.

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Use the “Talk” command to recruit Hinoka in-battle.

The battle starts with you having three allies: Hinoka, Azama, and Setsuna, who are in the south-western corner of the map. Hinoka, as you know, is a relatively powerful Sky Knight, while her subordinates - Azama and Setsuna - are a Monk and Archer, respectively, with Setsuna being a notable understudy at this point. Then again, Azama is a dedicated healer who cannot attack on his own, so Hinoka is the only capable fighter in the group.

The enemy is worth noting, as well, as there’s an obvious boss in this fight; the Chief of the Wind Tribe, Fuga. He’s got a hefty number of Hit Points and is a Master of Arms, an advanced class. Another novelty for this fight is the inclusion of enemy healers (Shrine Maidens) one of whom flanks Fuga. Both of them will be kind enough to drop their Sun Festal staves for you when they die, which should give you more healing than you know what to do with. Otherwise the enemies are diverse, but not terribly powerful.

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These Dragon Veins will free up your footed units from the sand. But it helps enemies too!

Next take note of the terrain. You are in a sandy area. Most of your units, Silas included, will have restricted movement. Subaki, being a flying unit, will be unhindered, so if you have a powerhouse you want to use to rip through the enemy, pair up someone with Subaki. You can also correct this issue using various Dragon Vein spots scattered around the terrain. In case you forgot, Hinoka, Azura, your avatar, and any other character with a crown next to their name on the touch screen will be able to activate the Dragon Veins.

Your first move should be to sweep the weaker units off the map to the left and north, including two Samurai, a Shrine Maiden and two Oni Savages. When you advance across the map and dispatch a few units, Fuga will speak and chase out any hope of a peaceful resolution; apparently you’ll need to pummel him before he’ll consider talking. Fair enough. Try to lure some of his units towards you before you engage him, and be sure to attack in force when you do. Fuga tends to be more passive than his Diviner and Archer (probably due to the fact that he’s stuck on desert and can only move two spaces to start), and if there’s an injured unit in range, the Shrine Maiden will come down to help, too. If you get an opportunity to link up with Hinoka and her subordinates, be sure to talk to her with your protagonist to put them under your direct control for the rest of the battle.

After you have won, Chief Fuga will talk to you and explain himself, give you the most typical anime explanation for fighting you. Ugh. He’ll also entrust you with the services of yet another ally, Hayato, who, similar to Orochi, is a Diviner. Yay, redundancy! You’ll also, of course, gain the full-time services of your sister Hinoka and her two goofy retainers. More characters to train, hooray! Setsuna (LV 2) and Hayato (LV 1) in particular will take a good deal of work to make battle-worthy.