I don't want to redo Chapter 7, but I have a good point I need to address.
Rolanmen1 pointed out that avoiding the Other Phase will save time, and it will. It can even be done with only one of the three horsemen recruited (Zealot), since Zealot can rescue Treck and hide away, and Noah can be rescued by Lance. This creates an entirely new problem however - the key shopping.
If Thany is left on her own on turn 1, while everyone else is off to the right (both Marcus and Alan will be over here along with Roy), the wyvern that normally attacks blocks the shop square itself (in the current version, Marcus's turn 1 position causes the wyvern to move further right). Marcus and Alan also have to deal with more combat on the right, and there's the possibility that, in keeping Thany alive, I will cause the Physic users to activate on the enemies surrounding Zealot/Treck, more so than in the current version.
Then there's the problem of getting Marcus/Roy to the boss. With Thany needing to take an extra turn to reach the shop, it means Marcus opens the door a turn later too, even though he can just reach the door in turn 3. Lance also suffers at least one combat turn while rescuing Noah. Moving Zealot off into a neutral position is an obvious time waste over moving less units too.
So as I see it, the pros and cons of recruiting/rescuing the horsemen are:
Pros:
Time saved due to no Other Phase
Cons:
Thany suffers more dodges on enemy phase, and also has to take more time (at least 1 extra turn) to reach the shop, delaying Marcus's arrival to the boss area.
More enemy phase combat with Alan/Marcus
6 turn strategy as opposed to 5 turn currently used
More movement of long distance characters (Zealot/Lance), and likely having to move on every player phase to avoid the enemies chasing them
Risk of more Physic healing
I'm not going to stop the current progress to test this option. But I am aware of the possibility it might be faster, I argue that it probably isn't due to all the negative effects of recruiting Zealot, especially on the left side of the map.
EDIT: Turns out I can be wrong sometimes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6S-B9yJIS8
340 frame improvement ahoy (370 on the map, -30 in battle preparations). I manage to remove all Other Phases and Physic healing, but it doesn't add a lot of improvement in the long run. In fact, since the enemies that normally pursue Zealot/Treck are free to roam, they pursue Marcus across the map, costing time here. But overall, it's an improvement, so I have to take it. I could save even more time here by not taking the Alan level up in Turn 4, but I'd still need to get to L10 in Chapter 8 to promote, so I may as well start as I mean to go on.
