Yes. Tactics Ogre hates the idea of you resurrecting anyone. I can't remember if the remake is the same way, but in TO original you only get one copy of the Resurrection spell too unless you want to do the horrible, horrible Hell's Gate optional dungeon (100 floors of zzzzzzzzz) to find another. Plus, at least one of the few classes that could use it required the unit not to have killed more than 10 people in the game. Craziness.

Pretty good progress in the last couple of days. First, I beat that mage quite easily (although the samurai I was trying to save died the first time... The second, thankfully, some enemy ninja bound him to his place, not allowing him to foolishly rush at the enemies instead of allowing me to heal him). In a lame fashion, upon joining me, he lost his abilities and couldn't even wield the weapon he had. -_- He is blind and apparently, he hates Lodis - he blames them for his blindness. Then, storming Coritanae again. The first battle had all the makings to be really tough - there were a bunch of dragons in the enemy team, and even a kraken. But the terror knight in charge decided to come at me, and I wasted him before his monsters could waste me (though they did bring a few of my men down).

Then, inside the castle, Denam was confronted by Leonar. Denam tried to turn him away from the Duke, but Leonar insisted on fighting to the death. I was offered a choice to fight him solo, or have a normal battle. I chose the latter, but then decided to see how the former plays out, and it turns out I can totally cheat through that fight by staying away from him and just collecting TP to then use for my Dark Blade "finishing" attack, which can hit from a distance. His own finisher required him to be right next to me to use, and, since Denam is a ninja, that was impossible because I kept staying out of his reach. Then I did the normal battle I'd decided on anyway, and Leonar had interesting conversations with Denam, Arycelle, his beloved, and Donnalto. It was a much easier battle than it should've been... He really should've been tougher than Xaebos, for instance. Instead, his party couldn't bring even one of my men down. Wtih his dying breath, he revealed the Duke's plan to rule Valeria as a vassal to Lodis, and told Denam to go and stop him. Off to Rhime we go.

I somehow managed to make it, since Ganpp was stupid enough to charge at me. I brought his health down to 20% or so, and he teleported away. Then, a cutscene. Catiua was hanging around in Golyat, and the Knights of Lodis' leader, Lanselot Tartaros, appeared out of nowhere, telling her she was really a Bakram princess. The late king apparently cheated on his wife with some maiden. Interestingly, Lanselot claimed that Denam and Catiua weren't really blood-related. Somehow, I feel that they share a father (the king), but we'll see. Lanselot then took her away.

Upon arriving at Rhime, I saw Vyce on the move with some knights. He didn't see me, fortunately. The Duke was meeting with Lanselot Tartaros, when the knights stormed the room. Duke thought Lanselot had betrayed him, and Vyce entered the room from the Duke's side, telling the Duke to come to him. As he did, the cur stabbed him, and then his knights surrounded Lanselot. Vyce ordered them to kill him.

Back to Denam, some Bakram troops cornered a couple of Lodis knights, Oz and Ozma, a brother and sister. Denam appeared with his men, and those two managed to escape. The Bakram hotheads attacked Denam. The battle was really easy because their leader, a terror knight, thought he could rush at my troops with his low defence. lol. I dispatched him quickly, and it was time for another cutscene...

With the aid of Oz and Ozma, Lanselot had killed Vyce's knights, and Vyce was on his knees, begging for mercy. Lanselot decided to let him live, so long as he never appeared before his eyes again. Vyce scrammed. We find ourselves back on the map, and our path leads to Almorica... One last battle with Vyce, perhaps?

If I get rid of the "tourists" in my party (the two new white knights, and the samurai), and take a very defensive formation, the battle seems actually winnable... What's annoying is that I won't get white knight XP this way. Hm, I should probably try with one and keep him in the back, use him as a healer. I'll try that if my current attempt fails. But it's going quite well so far.

I have this won. Systematically, I killed off all of Oz's men. Only negative is that I used up all my Blessing Stones. It's funny how he's the only one left with a bunch of my units around him, and he's still all arrogant, asking Denam how he wants to die.

Happenings all around! I smashed that samurai dude because, after hesitating for a while, he got silly enough to come at me. Then, the dark knights saw that they were doomed, and decided to withdraw from the castle. But a couple stayed behind to attempt to stop me - Oz and Ozma. Before the battle ensued, Denam saw Catiua, who mercilessly assaulted him while he had his guard down. With a quick reaction, he managed to dodge the blade, Delita-style. But he just fell on the ground after dodging, and Catiua scrammed... It seems she's aligned with the dark knights now - is it lust for power? She certainly feels less attached to Denam after learning he was not her brother by blood.

The battle against Oz and Ozma would've been pretty hard, as enemies were coming at my party from all sides, and it was hard to defend from them all. However... Oz and Ozma also rushed at me, stupidly. I had to kill them both to win the battle, and so I did (Ozma had low defence, which helped - she went down first). Like half of my units were dropped, and Denam almost had his three turns pass, but I managed to resurrect him in the last possible moment, by resurrecting the unit that had his turn right before him, and was the only unit close enough to do so. To achieve that, sadly I had to waste my last 2 Blessing Stones. Right after, I killed Oz with Canopus' new finishing bow move, which looks insanely powerful (140+ damage on a relatively high-defence Oz).

Cutscenes followed. Vyce, who had rushed to Brantyn's aid after Lanselot spared his life, was executed so as to not cast any suspicions about Brantyn being involved in the Duke's assassination plot. That caught me off-guard - I certainly expected to cross swords with him again... And he died with my name on his lips (probably realising he should've known I knew best and never betrayed me). Chapter IV, called Let Us Cling Together, started. It was revealed that Denam was now the de facto ruler of the southern part of Valeria, and the scheme of Lodis to instate Catiua on the throne and keep Valeria as a vassal country was a success.

A really fascinating conversation between the two Lanselots followed - finally, we saw where the Holy Knight was - he was captured and tortured by the dark knights in a dungeon. It seems that he was also the one that took the dark knight's eye. The two chatted about the people of Valeria and ruling over them... The dark knight despised these cowardly creatures who would betray even those dearest to them in the name of a little safety, while the holy knight defended them, saying that they may yet show valour and surprise his interlocutor. Catiua then showed up and got mixed feelings at seeing the Holy Knight Lanselot, explaining that she was doing this because Denam had abandoned her (totally not true).

Denam learned where the Holy Knight Lanselot was by a spy he had among the enemies' ranks. While he was pondering whether to go and free him, a messenger busted in the room with bad news... After Catiua ascended the throne, even some of the Walister resistance, now under Denam's command, rebelled, as their religious leaders wanted to end the war and bend the knee to Catiua. They are at Brigantys castle, and Denam is now on his way to meet them. His intention is to speak with them in peace, but I have a strong feeling we'll be forced to do battle again.

This game is quite clever. Apparently, I should've made my party in front of the castle walls just Denam, and strip his equipment, and we would've avoided that slaughter... A "title" I got after the battle tipped me, and I decided to eventually redo the scene. Anyway, after I got inside the castle, a battle didn't await me - instead, it was a top priestess named Olivya, who told me that the leader of these supposed religious rebels was actually Denam's father, Abuna Prancet! However, his health was failing and he was on his death bed... Denam rushed to see him, and Prancet told him of his sister's true origins, then asked him to make the right choices and lead Valeria to salvation (I'll try!). Afterwards, he sadly passed away.

In the next scene, Olivya explained to Denam that he was actually a Bakram, and that Prancet was Regent Brantyn's brother, meaning Brantyn is Denam's uncle! It was also revealed that Denam had played with Olivya as a child... with Olivya and her three sisters, two of whom were right there in Denam's party - Cerya and Cistina! The third sister, Sherri, has apparently deserted the others in service to Brantyn.

And now we are off to seek these four sisters' father, a former Archierei of the church of Philaha. That's who Prancet asked Denam to look for, too. But before that, I decided to pass through Almorica and check on Warren. He was not fully recovered, but was visibly better, and Denam asked him for the true purpose of the Xenobian group's trip to Valeria. After much convincing, Warren finally spilled the beans - the Xenobian king had sent them to recover a sword with an unpronouncable and even less memorable name, a legendary sword for the nation of Xenobia, which the dark knights had stolen. Denam promised he'd recover it.

I bought some Blessing Stones before trying again, but I failed again, sadly. I'm too eager to attack, and they're dropping some of my men with their combined efforts. My clerics have got too much on their hands that way, and I can't exorcise the fallen enemies in time (they revive if you don't do it). I'll try again tomorrow, this time with a more patient attitude.

So, I went to Almorica and... nothing happened. Thus, I decided to make my way back to the main quest. In the mountain pass before my destination (with lava and stuff), some Bakram warlock attacked me. I decided to take a patient approach, and it's paying off, though I probably could've dismantled that warlock with 2-3 arrows from Canopus. Instead, I'm killing dragons and stuff until only weak units are left.

So I made my way to Barnicia castle, beating that terror knight, then some dragoon, and then an actual dark knight, though he was apparently originally from a country that fell under the rule of the Lodissian Empire... Canopus confronted him about this, wondering why he is helping the ones who killed so many of his compatriots. Apparently there will be at least 3 battles in Barnicia... The first one, outside the castle walls, I had to redo a couple of times. It was a very tricky battle, I had to defeat the whole enemy group, and they had a couple of golems who I barely managed to bring down with magic... Good thing my mages are good at blocking melee attacks. I'd brought 4 Blessing Stones along for the ride, and they were all spent in keeping my party members alive while I killed each and every enemy. Almost blew it at the end, too - some stupid dark knight mage was running to the very edges of the map and, caught with chasing him, I almost didn't revive Cistina. Made it with the last unit before she was to die, though. I went in further, and saw Lanselot Tartaros and Catiua. Another dark knight commander was talking to Lanselot, and insisted on fighting Denam, instead of listening to his leader, who was offering retreating. And so it will be. I will have to defeat this dark knight called Barbas (I think).