Welcome back to another chapter of Scrapbook! As always, all characters are property of their respective companies. Also, see the author's notes for details.

Journeys of a Wheeling Gamer (August 9, 2017)

Fine night for another Semilocke! So let us begin. This one's Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume!

Last time, I was nearing the fifth chapter and working on completing chapter 4. Today, I will finish it, but leave chapter 5 to itself. First there is an argument in the house my group is staying, and I have to rush to defend it.

Except the rush isn't much at all.

The enemies are still overpowered by my incredible equipment, and the only real problem is the high Sin requirement.

Luckily, that is solved by Ratatoskr's Scandal, and group healing for my team.

The rest of the enemies are defeated easily after being attacked in groups. Flyers try to come in from the sides, but my sorcerers easily deal with them.

But it seems this battle is only preparation for the true fight.

All of a sudden, there are sounds of battle, and it seems as though the main house is being attacked.

And the owners, Auguste and Reinhilde, are in trouble.

So I have to rescue them.

But this is where the game takes a step up.

The Sin requirement is high, and Ratatoskr's Scandal will damage Auguste and Reinhilde as well. So I can't use it to help mitigate it. Of course, this being the B Path, sacrificing someone is also out of the question.

So my best bet is Gelphir's Bonds. It will buy me time while the enemies are paralyzed.

Except there's still trouble. Reinhilde and Auguste will only attack those in their range. Unfortunately, Auguste's range is very short. Reinhilde's range is very long, but she's vulnerable to attacks from up close. Unfortunately, the leader evades my spell, and advances on Reinhilde…

He can easily attack her from behind, and there's nothing she can do to counter.

So now it's a rush to heal Reinhilde while at the same time defeating all the enemies and getting as much Sin as possible.

I choose to not worry about getting the most Sin, but I only just manage to get the highest.

At least I've got what I need.

But there are still some tough enemies here. One of them is a monster that casts magic beams. This monster can also fly, and has a very long range.

It manages to petrify Wylfred and nearly kill Darius. However, it is still defeated by the sorcerers.

Nothing much else gives me trouble, and I speed towards victory.

Except it's not.

Everything is for nothing, as Reinhilde and Auguste pass away. Their last wishes are for their children to follow their hearts, and to disregard the military house they been born into, if they so desire.

Valmur makes one of the most powerful speeches in the entire game, as he states this house has been visited three times by the gods. He then makes a decision that completely develops his character.

He chooses to go to war, and order to stop the conflict.

And who better to go to war with than Wylfred?

So Valmur and his sister join the party.

And I'm left to mull over bad writing.

You see, characters in this game who need to be rescued will always die. This happens whether or not it makes sense in the story (with the exception of one person who will be seen later). So, at the end of the battle, Reinhilde and Auguste were at full health.

But they died anyway.

It's the same outcome as if I lost the battle.

It really doesn't make sense, especially since it seems to be just drama for drama's sake. There's no evidence that any of the characters rescued are wounded in the fights, and they can't die while in the battle.

Furthermore, some scenes also make sense if the characters are still alive.

For example, the request for the children to follow their hearts can still be done if the parents doing it are alive. It could be something like they realize that the conflict within their house can be solved with the children follow their hearts, and choose to watch over the area when they go to war.

It also makes the rescue since very predictable, because the end is clear.

The bad writing continues in this route, because there's a clear indicator that everyone wants to stop the war, and does a good job of tying up loose ends.

However, the A ending never does that, even with Wylfred.

Some of the bloodshed that occurs past here seems to be thrown in, and is again tragedy for tragedy's sake. I feel as if the A and B ending should have been combined somehow, the happy ending of the A route combined with the definite one of the B.

Furthermore, the happy ending of the A route could lead to an alternate timeline for Lenneth, because it's never clarified what happens to her there...

It would be perfect.

Three games.

Three timelines.

And the fourth where all are together.

Unfortunately, that likely won't happen.

But I can dream.

So for now, I await chapter 5, and the end of this path.

But after that, a bit of Fire Emblem: Heroes.

Still trying to level Cherche in that game, but I have enough crystals saved up to max her out right away.

However, I'm not going to do that.

It's worth noting that the new leveling system has some upgrades.

One of which is the ability to switch enemies at the press of a button. Another which is to start at the lowest possible level one can go, and move up until you reach the highest level.

But I'm simply interested in training in the Tower.

There's the usual suspects, and a couple of Light's Blessings.

But eventually, Cherche is as strong as she can go.

And then I put my plan into action.

To complete all of the game's modes.

I'll start with the team I've got, and then if I start struggling, I'll create another one. I will keep going like that until everything is cleared.

Starting with the remaining story maps.

I haven't done some of the later chapters on the harder modes, so I may as well get to it now.

Starting with Chapter 11 Hard Mode.

The battles seem easy enough, with Cherche clearing the entirety of the first one by herself.

And that is, until I get to the third chapter. The third chapter has a bunch of enemy reinforcements, six turns to defend, and a bunch of defensive tiles.

The idea that troops are supposed to stand on the defensive tiles until the assault ends. Flyers can also reunite with their comrades with flying over the mountains separating the two sides. Horsemen will be on their own, however.

I, foolishly, however, rush into attack, thinking I have the advantage.

That turns out not to be the case.

An archer and a mage gang up on Cherche, defeating her. The troops injure Eliwood as well. However, with him being unable to cross the mountains, he has no safe place to retreat to.

Odin is also caught in the middle. He gets to half HP, which triggers his skill that boosts his attack.

He is strong now, but he uselessly flings attacks at Celica. Celica, who happens to be invulnerable using her shield.

Luckily, he manages to retreat to safety.

Gaius is the only one that initially manages to make it to the safe spot. However, enemies quickly follow, and slam him with attacks. Thankfully, the three manage to survive, two being out of range and the other by being in a safer space that boosts defense.

I've cleared half the chapter, but I think that's enough.

Next time, I shall continue, and perhaps clear Hard Mode itself.

Author's notes:

-So the first mention of Valkyrie Profile is here. Valkyrie Profile, while being not a particularly popular series is one of my favorites. Thus, this series is mentioned several times within the blog, and I decided to create Semilockes for the series games. Covenant of the Plume was the easiest to adapt to the Semilocke rules, so I was playing it at the time this blog was written.

-The problem of the high Sin requirement is based on something in the game. During each battle, the protagonist, Wylfred, is tasked with gathering Sin for the god Hel. Sin is collected whenever Wylfred and his allies attack enemies after these enemies have been defeated but before the battle ends. The more damage attacks do, the more Sin is collected. Each battle displays an amount of Sin that the player must try to collect, in addition to filling any other conditions required to win the fight. Meeting the Sin requirement awards the player items, with better items being awarded the more Sin the player collects. Not getting the required Sin still allows the player to progress. However, they won't receive any items, and enemies called Realmstalkers will appear in the next battle. Realmstalkers are extremely powerful, much more so than any enemy the player would normally face. The idea is to force the player to sacrifice an ally. This makes said ally extremely strong for that battle, grants them a special power, and automatically fulfills the Sin requirement. However, the ally dies permanently afterward, and Wylfred gains a weaker version of their power to use from then on. It is possible to defeat a Realmstalker without doing any of this, but it's likely the player will suffer many casualties. Regardless, successfully destroying a Realmstalker awards the player with an item called a Chain. The Chain is different for each Realmstalker, but they don't do anything other than serving as proof of the player's victory.

-The paths with the different letters is a reference to something in the Valkyrie Profile series. In most of these games, there are multiple endings. The endings are usually denoted by letters, with the A endings being the best one for the characters and going down from there. The different endings can be obtained depending on what actions the player takes. The B ending mentioned here is considered the middle ground, and is only gotten by sacrificing one character in the entire game. The A ending, also mentioned here, is only gotten if the player chooses not to sacrifice anyone, other than the tutorial that explains the sacrifice mechanic. The C ending is gotten if the player sacrifices of their allies throughout the course of the game. Finally, the bad ending, leading to an unwinnable fight and early game over at the end of the current chapter is gotten if one sacrifices two or more allies in chapters 2 through four. Unlike the other endings, it is possible to save and be locked into the bad ending, but thankfully the game gives subtle a warning before the player can go on to it.

-The idea of alternate timelines with the different games comes from something that happened in them. The games center around three sisters known as the Valkyries. Each sister is meant to get her own game, and they are all revealed to take place in a different timeline. The first game, Lenneth, takes place in what is considered to be the main timeline. The second game, Silmeria, starts off as a prequel to the first. However, around the game's second half, the game diverges into an alternate timeline and a proper sequel. The Lenneth from the first game also appears, but it's not known what happens to her or her timeline after the game is completed. Covenant of the Plume is a spinoff that takes the games back to the main timeline. It explains some of the events before the first game, and now the mortal world views the Valkyries. However, it has for endings of its own that could potentially all lead to alternative timelines. To make things more confusing, Covenant of the Plume isn't clear what ending led to the first game, since all of them could work.

This left fans anticipating a third main game, and a fourth game overall.

One starring the eldest sister of the Valkyrie trio, Hrist.

That game was so highly anticipated that the characters even make comments about it, with Hrist being mortified that she hasn't received a leading role.

And eventually, a fourth game did happen.

But Hrist's leading role never came to be.

Instead, the fourth game was called Anatomia, and it was released for mobile devices. However, it led to yet another alternative timeline, and once again centered on Lenneth. This game chose to delve into Lenneth's past in the timeline, also examining a potential path Lenneth never took in the main games and how that affects her character. In addition, the game focuses a lot on the people known as the Aesir, and what their world and lives are like. Despite being a separate timeline, Anatomia establishes that it is part of the Valkyrie Profile universe. Lenneth makes references to her other selves, and it is possible for the player to recruit these other selves. There are also no issues with having multiple versions of Lenneth in the same party.

The problem is none of the games in the series did particularly well, and often had long release gaps.

Anatomia was released in April of 2016 in Japan. However, it was not released worldwide until April 2019.

That's around seven years after the last installment.

Compounding the issue is that a game featuring Hrist would most likely be the final installment in the series, such each of the sisters will have received their own game.

With all of this, it's not known if Hrist will ever receive her own game, or if the events of the different timelines will ever come together.