With the spring 2019 semester recently kicking off, I can’t think of any better way to stave off my looming cloud of stress than to blather on about nonessential pleasantries.
Luckily Intelligent Systems has just what the doctor ordered with a well-timed banner of special heroes!
Ryoma — Samurai at Ease
- It’s Curtains… (Might = 14, Range = 1)
- At the start of turn 1, grants Special Attack cooldown count -2.
- Luna (Cooldown = 3)
- Treats foe’s Defense and Resistance as if reduced by 50 percent during combat.
- Attack/Defense Solo (A Skill)
- If unit is not adjacent to an ally, grants Attack and Defense +6 during combat.
- Chill Speed (B Skill)
- At the start of the turn, inflicts Speed -7 on for on the enemy team with the highest Speed through its next action.
- Odd Defense Wave (C Skill)
- At the start of odd-numbered turns, grants Defense +6 to unit and adjacent allies for one turn (bonus granted to unit even if no allies are adjacent).
Sakura — Hot-Spring Healer
- Grandscratcher (Might = 12, Range = 2)
- At the start of turn 1, grants Special Attack cooldown charge -1 to ally with the highest Attack.
- Physic (Range = 2)
- Restores Health = 50 percent of Attack (minimum of 8 Health).
- Fireflood Balm (Cooldown = 1)
- When healing an ally with a staff, grants Attack and Resistance +6 to all allies for one turn.
- Wrathful Staff (B Skill)
- Calculates damage from staff like other weapons.
- Speed Opening (C Skill)
- At the start of the turn, grants Speed +6 to ally with the highest Speed for one turn (excluding this unit).
Elise — Bubbling Flower
- Red-Hot Ducks (Might = 12, Range = 2)
- If unit’s Speed > foe’s Speed, deals damage = 70 percent of the difference between stats (maximum of 7, combos with Phantom Speed). After combat, if unit attacked, inflicts Defense and Resistance -7 on foe’s within two spaces of target through their next actions.
- Rally Up Attack (Range = 1)
- Grants Attack +6 to target ally and allies within two spaces (excluding unit) for one turn.
- Swift Sparrow (A Skill)
- If unit initiates combat, grants Attack and Speed +4 during combat.
- Attack Feint (B Skill)
- If a Rally assist skill is used by unit or targets unit, inflicts Attack -7 on foes in cardinal directions of unit through their next actions.
- Dagger Valor (C Skill)
- While unit lives, all dagger allies on team get x2 Skill Points (only highest value applied, does not stack).
Hinoka — Relaxed Warrior
- Splashy Bucket (Might = 12, Range = 2)
- Effective against dragon foes. Disables foe’s skills that “calculate damage using the lower of foe’s Defense or Resistance” and “calculate damage from staff like other weapons.” After combat, if unit attacked, inflicts Defense and Resistance -7 on foes within two spaces of target through their next actions.
- Draw Back (Range = 1)
- Unit moves one space away from target ally. Ally moves to unit’s previous space.
- Attack/Speed Bond (A Skill)
- If unit is adjacent to an ally, grants Attack and Speed +5 during combat.
- Attack/Speed Link (B Skill)
- If a movement assist skill is used by unit or targets unit, grants Attack/Speed to both unit and ally for one turn.
- Air Orders (C Skill)
- At the start of the turn, grants “Unit can move to a space adjacent to any ally within two spaces” to adjacent flying allies for one turn.
Seeing the initial silhouette teaser for this banner piqued my interest.
I had no idea who we were looking at and, at the time, wasn’t expecting any special banners until Valentine’s Day.
Yet I rolled my eyes without even thinking after I found out we were getting more Fire Emblem Fates royal sibling alts.
I’m a fan of Fates and everything, but there are so many characters from it who have no representations. Meanwhile Tempest Trials Camilla is her sixth alternate costumes.
It’s disheartening… But unfortunately I’m such a fan of the Hoshidan royal sisters that the game had me at Sakura and Hinoka.
Wanting this Sakura because I like her character and status as a pegasus-riding staff user probably won’t save me when the police come for summoning a near underage girl in a towel…
But that’s a bridge I’ll cross later.
Oh, and I’m 100 percent summoning for characters, not skills, on this banner. Hinoka is the only one with an interesting build, so she and Sakura are my focus.
Unfortunately, all 60 orbs have gotten me is a 3-star original Sakura.
So you know what that means? Time for paralogue orbs!
Shout out to that armored unit with the buns on his head in map 30-1. He’s worth this entire mediocre banner.
Outside of his majesty there isn’t a whole lot to say for the story.
There’s kind of no explanation as to why the Order of Heroes has to jump in. The royal siblings have just been put under a contract but… Nobody knows why?
Also it’s just a side story, so Alfonse isn’t dead from Hel’s curse yet.
He’s simply concerned about heading into such a private place.
Luckily my keen interest in cute redheads is vindicated by the way they share Alfonse’s reservations.
The Nohr sisters seem more than eager to just let a bunch of soldiers join them in the baths.
Yet that’s the only bit of story worth talking about here.
After the fighting ends, Anna makes a comment about wanting a hot springs in the Order’s castle, which seems less a nod to future content than it is an outlet for Alfonse to make fun of the girls for getting into useless tasks too quickly.
So… Orbs.
Hurray!
If it wasn’t obvious, this banner didn’t really excite me.
I’m happy to shill out orbs for Hinoka or Sakura in lieu of the beast units who are going in the main summoning pool, but I don’t particularly care about any of the units mechanically.
Even my complaint about Fates units being used again is easily mitigated by the argument that Fates had the first canonical hot spring system. So that’s a banal annoyance at best.
Perhaps the Valentine’s Day units will get me more hyped up, but for now this isn’t much more than a neat distraction from school.
That’s just my opinion though. Let me know what you think of these special hot springs units!
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