I’m going to keep this intro brief because the banner is pretty exciting.
Just so you know, this is the first time I’m going to try culling my word count by pivoting away from self-generated skill sets to showing off the official video.
It’ll be a little less fun for me personally, but it should make things more efficient.
Let me know what you think!
Darkness Within
Let’s talk about Berkut.
Legendary Alm was amazing, as I reiterated in his banner’s post. Though he screwed me out of 300 orbs, praise was well-deserved.
But my hype for Alm was nothing compared to seeing fallen Berkut for the first time.
Intelligent Systems put extra time into him. His idle sprite looks unhinged with a tilted head and calloused laugh. The witch of his sacrificed Rinea lingers in both his artwork and attack animations. On top of that, the insanity of his lust for power is evident all over the character dialogue.
Clearly the developers know Berkut is a fan-favorite, because he got love far beyond any unit I’ve seen.
He’s also my favorite part of this fallen banner, which is great considering he was my free summon:
Figures Berkut would peg me as an ally after Alm’s rejection.
However, just because Berkut is the stand-out doesn’t mean he’s the only unit available.
Last year’s fallen heroes banner had Celica, Harden and Grima, with “betrayal” Takumi as a Grand Hero Battle.
This year, alongside Berkut is Tiki, an incredibly powerful colorless armor dragon; Mareeta, a rare Thracia representative; and Corrin, who…
Frankly doesn’t compare. Maybe if she was red? But as things are, I’m not impressed.
However we have possessed Delthea coming, and if she’s amazing I might update my main infantry team.
It’s cool that Echoes has been getting its due, and thankfully Berkut gave me enough savings to focus on Tiki with the free summon tickets from Forging Bonds.
An event with strange continuity issues. Fjorm arrives in a forest of the damned and meets these four heroes, surprised by how different they are… Despite this being Mareeta’s first appearance.
The scenario is wonky, but I can forgive it. Because their individual stories are less dry than the main story chapter.
Book III, Chapter 7 — A Home Unknown
We begin in the midst of the Order of Heroes’ trip through Hel.
Seemingly out of nowhere, the landscape begins to resemble Alfonse and Sharena’s homeland of Askr — just emptier and more unnerving.
Before we can get too deep into that plot point, Intelligent Systems sidetracks us into a brief conversation between Veronica and Loki.
It sounds like they will soon be headed for Hel, as Veronica wishes to kill the queen of the dead, which by extent will kill all of the other dead that she cannot kill.
Because plot.
The Order’s trip is a mostly uneventful romp through tortured heroes until Eir has a sudden conversation with Líf: First King of Askr.
He gives us plot seeds by asking Eir not to remember things that seem to pain her.
Basic development, but my main problem with the moment is its setting. Where and when are they having this conversation?
If it’s in the Order’s camp, how did the dead guy get in unnoticed?
This conversation happens at the end of map 4, and map 5 has Anna remarking on his sudden battlefield appearance.
So what’s the deal?
Unfortunately, no answers are provided. Once the battle with Líf ends, he retreats and Sharena is distracted by flowers.
This is also a blatant set-up for something, though I’m not exactly sure what.
It’s likely either the reveal that Líf’s dead wife loved those flowers too, or that this is some alternate universe’s dead Sharena. Pick a cliché, any cliché!
Then, without any more fanfare, the chapter ends.
Nothing particularly eventful happened, and almost everything that did happen was set-up for future storytelling.
As cynical as I might be about the weak story chapter, that doesn’t take away from how much I genuinely enjoy the banner’s units.
I’m really excited to see what other possessed/fallen characters they pull out next:
Zombie Scarlet? Demon Lyon? Anankos Gunter? Apparently, fallen Julia was a thing too.
Any of those amazing units… Would have probably been better than Corrin. Banking on her three seconds of losing control at the beginning of Fates is kind of lame.
But that’s just my opinion, so let me know what you guys think about these fallen heroes in the comments!
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