Pokemon Conquest- Conquest One: Burning and Learning (2/9)

Two men now appear- a muscular guy carelessly chomping on what looks like a pastry of some kind, and a curly-haired man who seems a bit less abrasive.  Respectively, these two are named Koroku and Nagayasu.  Koroku & Nagayasu introduce themselves as being from Ignis, which happens to be the ‘fortress next door’.  Having announced themselves, they then challenge you.  You know that new warlord that giant-hair was talking about?

As it turns out, that’s you.  Uh-oh.

This, of course, means that it’s time for an honored tradition of strategy games and Pokemon as well- the introductory battle.  As simple as ever, this fight remains a good introduction to and grounding in the very most basic bits of battle in the game.  Unusually for Pokemon, you aren’t facing a roughly equal force- these two are strictly inferior to you.

Koroku’s Tepig and Nagayasu’s Bidoof appear in the rice paddies towards the top-right of the map, and your Eevee shows up opposite them, in the middle of the space in the wall there.

Required Battle: Protect Aurora!  (20 turns, enemy acts first.)
Win: Defeat all opposing Warriors.
 Lose: All your Warriors are defeated.

Bizarrely, in this battle the enemy attackers go first.  Koroku is completely stoked that ‘there’s only one of you!’  He’s quite sure that he and Nagayasu are going to beat the silly metal wings clean off your head- until the girl from earlier pitches in, complaining about the unfairness.  Not waiting to let you get a word in edgewise, her Jigglypuff pops into place in the battle along the right side of the map, on the road that goes past the wall.  She declares that she’s going to help you, and that declaration holds true- you don’t get a choice on much yet.

Nagayasu gets worried over this, apparently a bit put off by facing ‘even’ odds now.  Koroku, on the other hand, barely registers the interference, still sure he and his pessimistic buddy can score a win and capture Aurora away from you.

The girl takes her turn first, moving her Jigglypuff along the road a ways to show you how movement works.  The computer then pitches in, pointing out a location you must move to during your first turn, and then forcing you to wait (you can try to attack Jigglypuff, but it won’t let you).  While this is common to some strategy RPGs like this, it’s very unusual for a Pokemon game to get your hand not only held for the first battle, but directed for you- but bear with, it passes before too long.

Once you’re done, Turn 1 ends, and Turn 2 starts off with Koroku claiming to feel sorry for you getting attacked just after becoming Warlord.  He’s clearly expecting to win hard by default, and is really swaggering hard.  The two attackers advance across the rice paddies- thankfully putting them in your range, but too far off to actually attack you yet.

With that done, it becomes your turn again.  The girl goes before you do a second time, remaining out of the scope of your control.  She moves her Jigglypuff up- and Double-Slaps Nagayasu utterly out of the fight.  On your turn, you (following the iron-clad enforcement of the game) clobber Koroku in a single hit as well.  The two enemy Warriors flee, Koroku  insisting he’ll ‘remember this’ and pretty much swearing vengeance on you.  Someday.  With both of the enemy astonished at your computer-railroaded might, they flee at top speed, worrying that ‘Hideyoshi’ will be mad at them.  The mystery girl expresses surprise, now that she’s seen how strong your link with Eevee is.  Now that the emergency is over, it’s jubilant victory time~!  Both of the pokemon involved in this battle on your side drastically improve their Link ratings and thus their effective power.