Video Game / Banner of the Maid

Banner of the Maid is a Strategy RPG created by Azure Flame Studio and published by CE-Asia. The game is set in the middle of The French Revolution. The game was released for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Steam.

When France is at war with the entire Europe, the Queen Marie-Antoinette suggests that young women be allowed to serve in the military. Our protagonist Pauline Bonaparte has recently graduated from the École-Militaire and had her first taste of battle. She decides to pay a visit to her older brother, Napoléon Bonaparte in Toulon. Because of their success in repelling the British invaders, the Bonaparte siblings become highly commended and transfer to Paris to prepare for a new military campaign. It is here that Pauline learns that she is a "Maid," a heroine with extraordinary powers destined to save France.

However, everything is not what it seems. Paris is in the midst of power struggle between multiple factions, all of them seek the support of the Parisians as well as the Maid of France. Pauline will have not only achieve victory in the battlefield but also navigate the complicated political arena that is the Revolution.

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The game contains examples of these tropes:

• Alliance Meter: The game keep tracks of Pauline's alliance with the multiple factions in Paris, which can increase by doing sidequests and selecting certain dialogue choices. As your alliance levels with various factions increase, you will be able to buy better items and equipment.
• Alternate History: The game differs from the historical French Revolution at certain points. For once, women can enroll in the military academy. Second, it is Lafayette and Mirabeau who stop the Royal Family's flight to Varennes.
• And the Adventure Continues: The game ends with the war between France and the Coalition still going on. Pauline and Napoleon ready for the next battle.
• Animesque: The game was produced by a Chinese developer, but has an anime-inspired aesthetic.
• Anti-Grinding: Units won't gain any experience from defeating enemies more than a few levels below them.
• Arc Villain: For the first couple parts of the game, the main antagonists are the Anti-France Coalition, led by the British General Anne. In Part IV the main antagonist is the traitorous Hubert. In Part V the main antagonist is Queen Marie Antoinette herself.
• Artifact of Doom: During the final chapters, Marie Antoinette wields a blue diamond that amplifies the power of a Maid, hoping to use it to reclaim Paris for the monarchy and control the chaos. But after being defeated by Pauline, the diamond turns out to have been draining Marie's life, and she instantly dies after relinquishing it.^note Likely inspired by the famously "cursed" Hope Diamond, which was cut from a larger gem once owned by the French royal family.
• A Taste of Power: Pauline is accompanied by Napoleon and Rose during her first battle, who are both prepromoted and have much higher stats than her. They are also supported by an artillery unit led by Hubert, which can easily clear any remaining enemies away for them at the end of a turn.
• Beauty Equals Goodness:
  • With the exceptions of Cool Old Guy d'Eon and Murat, who, while not unattractive, is drawn relatively faithfully to pictures of his historical counterpart, the player's army is made up entirely of beautiful women and Bishōnen men. In comparison, enemy soldiers range from being ugly to plain, though Bishōnen Line is firmly in effect in respect to the major antagonists.
  • Lampshaded and subverted by the minor character Fernand, who is a loyal soldier of the French army but has a Face of a Thug that makes him resemble a typical goon. Desaix naturally assumes him to be a deserter when he first meets him.
• Blessed with Suck: The Maid are extraordinary women who are revered by many as heroes, but they are also accused as witches and thus far all Maids are met with a tragic end. Pauline decides to Screw Destiny and avoid the tragic fate of the Maids, including herself.
• Breakable Weapons: Similar to the Fire Emblem series, every weapon can only be used a finite number of times per battle, with higher-grade weapons generally trading off their better stats for a fewer number of overall uses. Unlike in Fire Emblem, this durability is restored between each battle and can even be replenished within battle by stationing a unit next to someone of the Sapper class.
• Brother–Sister Team:
  • Pauline and Napoleon both care for and respect each other, and are always willing to pitch in with helping the other in battle when they can.
  • The duos of Aimee and Leclerc, and Ernestine and Philipp, can technically also count provided that player recruits the Optional Party Member brothers and fields them together with their sisters.
• Charged Attack: Heavy Cavalry units have a literal charging attack mechanic; they receive an attack boost for every three tiles they move before attacking an enemy.
• The Chosen One: Only a few women touched by the Queen's diamond scepter develop the power of the Maids.
• Convenient Replacement Character: After Desaix is Killed Off for Real, his older sister Antoinette will join the party a few chapters later. Not only is she of the same Heavy Cavalry class as her brother, but her stats, abilities, and growths are also identical; making her effectively a re-skin of him. Interestingly, it is possible to use the two in the party together during New Game Plus provided Desaix survived his Plotline Death, essentially giving the player access to two copies of the same unit.
• Crippling Overspecialization: The Bonaparte siblings are phenomenal military tacticians and commanders, but are virtually inept at anything involving art or culture. The two plan a date for Napoleon with Josephine as though it were a war campaign, and Pauline's idea of writing a play amounts to staging a mock battle. Naturally, their companions are floored by their cluelessness.
• Crutch Character:
  • Guest characters are generally a bit stronger than the rest of the party whenever they participate in battle and never give any penalty to the final payout of a mission if they're wiped out (though optional mission objectives often require them to survive), but don't gain any experience for defeating enemies. It's best not to rely on them too much, lest they steal much-needed experience points from your actual units.
  • D'Eon is a more specific example. He starts at level 5 compared to the rest of the initial party beginning at level 1, but has only slightly higher stats than they do. By the time the rest of the party reaches level 5, d'Eon will already be lagging far behind them. He has some marginal utility as the only light infantry unit available early game, but will quickly get benched as soon as more useful characters of the same class join. The game even seems to directly encourage you to stop using him after Adelaide is recruited, with her first appearance basically amounting to her telling d'Eon that he's old and washed up and that she can do his job better than he can.
  • If you purchase the DLC, then you will obtain Mu Zhiyun just before D'Eon. Unlike d'Eon, however, she is an absolute monster for the first half of the game thanks to her high HP and speed, as well as her ability to use both swords and guns to ensure that she has no bad matchup. The only con to her is her very low charisma. Once the second half of the game rolls out, however, her inability to promote and the difficulty of obtaining high-tier weapons make her lag behind in terms of offensive power, and because of her low charisma she can't even mitigate that by spamming Heroic Attacks. Fortunately, she still retains her great survivability so you can at least use her to bait enemy fire.
• Decoy Protagonist: The opening battle of the game places the player in control of the Marquis de Lafayette, who is not only not the protagonist, but is also never a playable character outside of this brief segment.
• Disguised in Drag: It is common practice for members of the Secret du Roi spy network to disguise as the opposite sex while performing undercover work. While Adelaide is the only example seen in-game, d'Éon also apparently did so in his youth and occasionally references it when selected at the start of a turn. Nivernais, a spy cooperating with the Anti-France Coalition, is also of indeterminate gender, with characters from both sides referring to them as male and female.
• Doom Magnet: Leonore, one of the commanding members of the Anti-France Coalition, is said to bring misfortune whereever she goes. While most of her allies try to avoid her because of this rumor, Anne recognizes her talents in spite of it, which causes Leonore to have Undying Loyalty toward her.
• Drill Sergeant Nasty: The Marquis de Lafayette is said to have been a brutal training instructor during Pauline and her friends' time studying at École-Militaire. He's much more pleasant toward them post-graduation, likely as a result of them earning his respect.
• Duel Boss: Charlotte squares off against the Marquis de Lafayette one-on-one during chapter 26. Can be potentially subverted, as the game encourages you to Sheathe Your Sword and turn the battle into an "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight to talk him down rather than actually try to beat him.
• Fanservice: Every named female character wears an outfit that is some combination of skintight and revealing, with short skirts and plunging necklines being particularly prominent.
• Four-Girl Ensemble: Pauline and her academy friends fill this trope out quite nicely:
  • Lady of War in the making Pauline is the tomboyish one.
  • Demure Friend to All Living Things Cosette is the feminine one.
  • Reliable Cool Big Sis Charlotte is the aspirational one.
  • Exuberant Cloudcuckoolander Eugenie is the childish one.
• Fragile Speedster: Light Infantry units have high speed and movement, but the low health and defense. Thankfully, their agility makes them excellent dodge tanks, to the point that they border on being Game-Breakers.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: Several. Just to name a few:
  • Murat deliberately wears loud and garish clothing on the battlefield to distract his enemies. His unique passive ability decreases the hit and dodge rate of surrounding enemies by doing exactly that.
  • Cosette has her skylark friend fly behind enemy lines to scout information for the party at several points in the story. Her unique passive ability gives her a flat increase to her range, implicitly by having her skylark fly ahead and spot for her.
  • Dutheil is a Jerkass who always says what's on his mind, even when the people around him don't want to hear it. His unique passive ability increases the movement range of all surrounding male units by one, presumably because his attitude makes them want to get as far away from him as possible.
  • Dutheil and Lafite are Those Two Guys. Both Dutheil's unique passive ability (which increases the movement range of any male units stationed near him at the end of a turn) and class passive ability (which replenishes the weapon durability of all units stationed near him at the end of a turn) pair excellently with Lafite's unit type; the slow-moving and resource-intensive cannoneer. Thus, you'll get the most mileage out of both characters by deploying them together and keeping them close to each other at all times.
• Game-Favored Gender: Along with there being more female units than male at the player's disposal for most of the game, the only male in the Game-Breaking Light Infantry class is the near-useless Crutch Character d'Eon, and there are no males in the very useful Military Band class, giving the women a serious edge over the men overall. Interestingly, the only gendered passive ability in the game buffs male characters (Dutheil's, which gives all male units adjacent to him at the beginning of a turn an additional point in movement), possibly in an attempt to remedy this disparity.
• Glass Cannon: Artillery units, fittingly enough; they have abysmal speed and movement and will crumble apart quickly if cornered, but they have excellent range and hit very hard, making them great support for your frontline fighters.
• Greater-Scope Paragon: Jeanne D'Arc, the first woman to wield the power of the Maid and save all of France.
• Grey-and-Gray Morality: All factions in France are struggling against each other to gain the power to control the whole nation, and each of them believe that they will bring France to glory. Even the foreign invaders have their own reason for going to war, as they see the post-Revolution France to be a threat to the entire Europe.
• Guest-Star Party Member: Guest characters occasionally fight alongside the player's party and come in two types: "Ally" units, which can be controlled like a normal character but do not gain any experience points from defeating enemies, and "Computer" units, which can't be controlled directly but otherwise function the same way.
• Guide Dang It!: While the game provides hints that Desaix can survive his Plotline Death, it is deliberately very vague about them, simply indicating that there is a secret optional objective in the chapter he is killed at the end of and emphasizing the poor health he is in throughout it. Even with this in mind, there is no indication that "Larrey's Notes" are required for him to survive outside of their descriptions indicating that they're from a medical journal. Without prior knowledge, it is very easy to assume that Desaix's death isn't preventable, though it is at least possible to stumble upon it by accident if you go out of your way to complete every optional mission objective.
• Heroic Sacrifice:
  • Charles Leclerc pushes Pauline out of the way of enemy fire at the beginning of the game. While he survives, he breaks both of his legs and is out of commission for most of the story.
  • Later, Louis Desaix uses his body to shield Pauline from an enemy sniper and is gravely injured. Unless special precautions are taken by the player both before and after he is shot, he will die from his wounds. Even if he is able to survive, he will spend several chapters incapacitated while recovering from his injuries.
• Historical Beauty Upgrade: Female characters based directly on actual historical figures, namely Pauline, Marie Antoinette, and Josephine de Beauharnais, are generally much shapelier than most paintings would lead you to believe. While this is mostly averted by historical male characters, who look very close to the real life paintings portraying them, Louis Desaix, Jean Lannes, and Charles Leclerc are all depicted as Bishōnen.
• Historical Domain Character: It's not just the male characters (along with Marie Antoinette and Josephine) that are real historical figures, many of the females are also the same, having a case of Historical Badass Upgrade.
  • Pauline Bonaparte is indeed a real sister of Napoleon. In real life, she was married to Charles Leclerc and the most loyal of all Naopelon's siblings.
  • Paulette Méric is the first wife of Jean Lannes. Yes, the same Lannes in the game. Interestingly, in real life, he divorced her because of infidelity.
  • Adelaide de Broglie is the daughter of Charles-François de Broglie, marquis de Ruffec, a member of Secret du Roi.
  • Anne Wellesley - as her name suggests - is the sister of the Duke of Wellington.
  • Even in real life, Leonore Prochaska was a Prussian soldier. The only difference is her real name; Eleonore Prochaska.
  • Nicolette is the female version of Nicholas Oudinot, one of Napoleon's more prominent Marshals during the Napoleonic Wars.
  • Oscar is implied to be a fictional daughter of the Comte de Rochambeau, who indeed was arrested and nearly executed during the Reign of Terror (before eventually being pensioned by Napoleon and released).
  • Aimée Leclerc is the real-life sister of Charles Leclerc and Pauline's sister-in-law, and later becomes the second wife of Napoleon's best general, Louis-Nicholas Davout (who for some reason doesn't appear in the game).
  • D'Eon de Beaumont, also known as Chevalier d'Eon, was a French soldier and spy, though the version of him here is presented as being Older and Wiser than he is generally remembered, with his main historical accomplishments having already happened long in the past.
  • Thérèse is indeed the eldest daughter of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, Marie-Thérèse Charlotte, and their only child to survive to adulthood. Napoleon would praise her as being "the only man in her family" when she attempted to stand up to him during the Hundred Days in 1815.
  • While Mu Zhiyun is a fictional character, she makes references in-game to having a sister named Ching Shih (referencing the name of the historical pirate leader who also served as adopted mother (and later wife) of infamous Chinese pirate Cheung Po Tsai).
• Historical Gender Flip:
  • As mentioned above, the female Nicolette is based on the male Nicholas Oudinot.
  • An odd variation with D'Eon de Beaumont. According to the article about the historical D'Eon on The Other Wiki, their actual gender identity is hard to discern; they were raised male and a surgeon that examined D'Eon's body post-mortem identified fully-formed male organs, but D'Eon claimed to have been assigned female in birth and spent the final years of their life dressing and identifying as a woman, with modern scholars interpreting D'Eon as transgender. However, the D'Eon in Banner of the Maid is unquestionably male-presenting in old age, and the only reference to him wearing women's attire is while acting as a spy when he was younger.
• Hopeless Suitor:
  • Napoleon is in love with Josephine de Beauharnais, who seems content to string him along. Considering that the historical Josephine went on to become Napoleon's wife, we can assume that, eventually, they end up together. This is based on actual historical fact, as Napoleon is known to have sent Josephine several love letters while trying to court her.
  • Heinrich, a minor commander of the Anti-France Coalition, has a crush on Leonore and always tries to be near her during battle. She seems both oblivious and indifferent to his infatuation.
• I Fight for the Strongest Side!: While Hubert Mondego is technically on the same side as the heroes, it is made clear early on that he has no real allegiance to any of France's numerous warring factions and simply weasels his way into whichever one will provide him with the most immediate increase in status at any given time. Partway through the game, he sabotages Rose's unit to kill her off and take all of the credit for defeating the Anti-France Coalition from her. When it becomes clear shortly afterwards that the newly Jacobin-run French government intends to punish him for his deeds, he immediately sides with the emerging Royalist revolution being led by Rose, the very same woman he had earlier attempted to kill.
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Pauline and Charlotte desperately try to snap out the Brainwashed and Crazy Marquis de Lafayette during chapter 26.
• Implied Love Interest: Desaix is Pauline's most vocal supporter among the party and the two share a rather unambiguously romantic scene together while floating in a hot air balloon above Paris. They also each have a voice clip that features them saying the other's name. Despite this, the romantic aspect of their relationship never moves beyond being subtext and Desaix is potentially killed off two-thirds of the way through the game.
• In Spite of a Nail: Despite the Alternate History situation, the Royal Family still falls from power, with both the King and Queen ending up dead. The Jacobins also rise in power after the fall or the Royalists.
• Interface Spoiler:
  • While computer-controlled ally units appear throughout the game, it's rather telling that the eventual traitor Hubert is the only one of the Guest-Star Party Member trio of himself, Napoleon, and Rose that can't be controlled during the second chapter.
  • The character profile viewer is available from the beginning of the game, and categorizes characters in such a way where you can tell whether they'll be recruitable or not (party members fill out the first three pages, everyone else takes up the last two). Likely in an attempt to lessen potential spoilers, certain characters don't have their profiles added until after certain plot developments involving them, though this has the ironic effect of casting even more suspicion onto them. It can also be quite handy for figuring out which characters are Optional Party Members that can be potentially added to your ranks.
• Insufferable Genius:
  • Napoleon is renowned as one of the finest military minds in the entire world and is very well aware of it. Pauline immediately knows that Desaix is an excellent general because, in her words, he's one of the only people she's ever heard her brother compliment the talents of besides himself.
  • Dutheil is another example, but places considerably more emphasis on the "Insufferable" half of the trope. While he's noted to be an exceptional soldier and commander (he's one of Rose's top men), he's also incredibly rude and arrogant and acts as though almost everyone he speaks to is beneath him.
• Jeanne d'Archétype: The Maids are extraordinary women who are destined to save France. Even the original Jeanne is the predecessor Maid of Orleans.
• Killed Off for Real: In Chapter 16, Desaix suffers a fatal wound. However, this can be averted by acquiring both halves of "Larrey's Notes", which are earned by completing optional mission objectives, and having Desaix take no damage at all on that stage.
• Last-Name Basis: With the noted exception of Philipp and Napoleon, every male party member is referred to exclusively by their last names in status menus, which largely also carries over into how other characters refer to them.
• Last of His Kind: In the denouement, the boy faking amnesia that serves as Napoleon's new aide is heavily implied to be the last surviving member of the royal family.
• Limit Break: The Heroic attacks are only available once units have filled up their entire meter. The Heroic attacks are 1.5 times stronger than normal attacks and are much more accurate to boot. Certain characters also have abilities that consumes a part of the heroic meter.
• Mechanically Unusual Class: Both the Artillery and Military Band classes qualify:
  • Artillery units are not part of the Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors class square, cannot attack units within one space of themselves, and are unusable on maps that take place indoors.
  • Military Band units are Support Party Members that are incapable of attacking enemies conventionally and can instead buff their allies in a variety of ways by playing music. Like Artillery units, they are also not a part of the class square.
• Men Are Generic, Women Are Special: Only women can wield the world-changing powers of the Maid, thus many of the story's biggest movers and shakers are female. And while both the player's army and the top ranks of the enemy are filled with female soldiers, all generic enemy units just so happen to be male. Downplayed somewhat in that Napoléon Bonaparte is still regarded as the most brilliant military commander in history despite not having any magical powers of his own.
• Mighty Glacier:
  • Heavy Cavalry units have high health and defense, but low speed and can't be counted on to attack twice in battle.
  • While Line Infantry units don't necessarily have low speed (some like Pauline are actually quite fast), they have the second-worst movement range in the game after Artillery units and a range of only one square in front of them, making them hard to maneuver around the battlefield. They compensate by having excellent defensive potential, with a variety of passive abilities that allow them to recover health every time they take part in battle. Of particular note is Dutheil, whose abysmal speed is offset by his tremendous health and defense (he has the highest values for both in the game).
• Mirror Match: The side mission "Staff vs. Tactician" pits the player against an army comprised of copies of the first nine units the player recruits. Can potentially be subverted should the player choose to only deploy the units recruited after these nine.
• More Deadly Than the Male: The three highest-ranking (and thus strongest) members of the Anti-France Coalition are all female, with the male members who aren't nameless Mooks being early game midbosses that aren't made out to be anything special. Notably averted within a larger context, as while the Always Female Maids possess incredible supernatural powers, men such as Napoleon and the Marquis de Lafayette are able to match and even surpass them as military commanders through sheer talent.
• Mutually Exclusive Party Members: In Chapter 21, Antoinette only joins the army if her brother Desaix was Killed Off for Real. However, this can be averted with New Game Plus.
• New Game Plus: After the story is complete, this option becomes available. The player keeps all recruited units and reputation with each faction, as well as a sum of gold equal to the value of every item they had before. Everyone is reset to base level and give up any skills learned/purchased, but there's a permanent 1.5x experience bonus. Additionally, both of the Mutually Exclusive Party Members can be used.
• Next Tier Power-Up: Once your units reach a certain level, they can promote to an elite class.
• No Social Skills: Zig-zagged in the case of the Bonaparte siblings. While they're both rather tactless and approach even mundane as though they were on the battlefield, they're also charismatic leaders whose strong characters naturally draw others toward them.
• Non-Standard Character Design: While the artstyle is generally Animesque, certain characters based on actual historical figures are noticeably more realistic-looking, almost resembling stylized portraits; the most obvious example being Napoleon.
• Optional Boss: The Marquis de Lafayette does not need to be defeated to complete chapter 26, but doing so is necessary for the chapter's bonus objective. Along with being a Duel Boss that can only be fought by Charlotte, he has much higher stats than you're likely able to handle if you didn't prepare ahead of time.
• Optional Party Member: While the majority of new recruits are mandatory, there are five that are completely optional: Julie (requires making dialogue choices that support her across multiple chapters), Rose (requires Pauline talking to her in three different battles), Therese (must survive Chapter 18 as a Guest), Philipp (must be talked to by Ernestine in Chapter 19), and Leclerc (must be talked to by Pauline or Aimee in Chapter 24).
• Post-End Game Content: After completing the main story, the player can finish sidequests or replay Free Missions in order to prepare for New Game Plus. Additionally, free DLC allows one to play the "Miss Elisa's Journals" missions, which focus on Elisa the reporter investigating Pauline's life, and pits players against high-level opponents as Pauline's comrades retell and embellish her victories.
• Pragmatic Villainy: Hubert has no real allegiance to any one party in France, and will side with whichever one is most convenient for him to at any given time. This results in him siding with Rose mere weeks after attempting to kill her for the sake of avoiding getting sent to the guillotine.
• Promoted to Playable: The "Sailor's Gossip" DLC campaign allows the player to control the leading members of the Anti-France Coalition, who are otherwise unplayable in the main story.
• "Rashomon"-Style: The "Miss Elisa's Journals" Post-End Game Content is presented as Elisa interviewing various members of Pauline's army, who are greatly embellishing the challenges they faced together.
• Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: The shrewd and practical Lannes and his Lady Drunk childhood friend Paulette, respectively.
• Secret Character: While the game features several Optional Party Members, Desaix stands out for having the most esoteric means to permanently recruit of them all, which will likely only be discovered by accident.
• Sequel Hook: By the end of the game, the war with the Anti-France Coalition is still going on, none of the major antagonists have been decisively beaten, and Pauline and her soldiers have begun assisting Napoleon on the frontlines.
• Shared Family Quirks:
  • While Pauline is generally more modest and sensible than Napoleon, both Bonaparte siblings think about all aspects in life in military terms and have No Social Skills as a result. On the flipside, they're both outstanding military leaders for much of the same reasons.
  • Both Leclerc and his younger sister Aimee have short, curly blonde hair and overly-exuberant personalities. Pauline notes their similarities soon after meeting Aimee.
• Shout-Out: There are various references to classical literature throughout the game, such as a party member named Cosette with a very familiar backstory, and during "Beneath the City of Paris", there's a skeleton you can check for loot that's wearing a strange iron mask.
  • Mu Zhiyun's character design is likely a callback to that of one of the four playable protagonists in Uncharted Waters IV.
  • Hubert Mondego and Fernand each share a name with Fernand Mondego de Morcerf, the serial-betraying co-antagonist of The Count of Monte Cristo.
• The Slacker: Eugenie hates hard work and is always on the lookout for a way to retire early. The majority of her battle dialogue consists of asking if she can take a break, with one level-up line in particular asking if she can be transferred to a position that doesn't require her to do anything.
• Support Party Member: Military Band units can't attack but are able to buff their allies in a variety of ways, such as healing them, raising their morale, or allowing them to act again on the same turn.
• Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: Heavy Cavalry is strong against Light Cavalry, which is strong against Light Infantry, which is strong against Line Infantry, which is strong against Heavy Cavalry. Cannon is technically outside of the weapon square, but they deal more damage to Light Cavalry and Light Infantry.
• Taking the Bullet: Happens twice over, with the second instance deliberately echoing the first:
  • Charles Leclerc pushes Pauline out of the way when the enemy fires at her at the beginning of the game. While he survives, he is too injured to remain on the frontlines and spends most of the rest of the game hospitalized.
  • Later, Louis Desaix uses his body to shield Pauline from an enemy sniper. The bullet severely wounds him and will potentially lead to his death provided the necessary measures aren't taken to ensure his survival.
• This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman: Artillery units qualify to an extent; their low movement range and high attack range makes them very useful in wide open maps but more or less The Load in narrower ones. They also can't be deployed at all in maps that take place indoors, making them the only units with selective usability. Thankfully, there are enough of wide open map types to allow them to remain viable throughout the game.
• Those Two Guys: Dutheil and Lafite are introduced together, serve the same functional role in the story (as Rose's most loyal subordinates), and almost never appear apart. While they're technically not recruited at the same time, Lafite joins the party at the start of the very first chapter after Dutheil is recruited, meaning that the only way you'll ever actually get a chance to use Dutheil without the option of also using Lafite is if you go out of your way to play free maps right after you get him. This also leads to Gameplay and Story Integration, as Dutheil's passive abilities make him pair very well with Lafite, encouraging you to keep them together during battles.
• Title Drop: The Banner of the Maid refers to the original banner used by Jeanne D'Arc, which Pauline inherits.
• Weather of War: Weathers can significantly change the course of the battle.
  • Sunny weather is the default, straightforward weather.
  • Rainy weather reduces evasion to all units by 20%. Rifles, cannons, and muskets cost double the amount of ammo.
  • Snowy weather reduces movement and speed of all units. However, units stationed near campfires are not affected by the cold.
  • Foggy weather reduces the range of long range weapons by 2.
• "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: Similar to Fire Emblem games, each character has their own short ending after the credits showing what happens to them.
• World of Action Girls: Not only are women able to enroll in the military in this version of revolutionary era France, but they also happen to be the only people capable of possessing the power of the Maid, which enables them to inspire soldiers to perform astounding feats in battle that can instantly turn the tides of war in their favor. Men are still very capable of being talented soldiers and commanders, but the focus of the game is primarily on the women. Female characters also hold a majority over males in the player's party throughout all but the earliest sections of the game, meaning it is likely that you'll take part in a battle using a team comprised almost entirely of women at at least one point or another.
• Worthy Opponent: Anne Wellesley, the leader of the division of the Anti-France Coalition encountered in-game, has an eye for talented people. Along with making her great at finding useful subordinates, it allows her to understand Pauline's potential far earlier than most of the cast, even among Pauline's allies. As such, she shows just as much interest in observing how Pauline leads her troops during battle as she does in defeating her.

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