In the early copies of Eiyuden Chronicle there has been a bug that may prevent you from recruiting one character. Since there is conflicting information on whether this bug has been fixed in the current pre-release patch for all systems, I will show how I recruited this character. Read on for light location and character spoilers if you want to make sure.

The character that may become unrecruitable is in Daphan Village, which is available after about 10+ hours into the game. You may want to bring Cassandra as a support character to make sure you can change party members freely. When you come to the nation of Euchrisse, the story points you towards the capital, Hishahn. Daphan is past Hishahn, to the north-east. You can go into the western village of Twinhorne without trouble, just don’t enter Daphan before you’ve been to Hishahn.

Once you enter the town and look around, you will find an elderly man called Riufan sitting on the dock. If you talk to him at a low level, he will insult you for being too weak. If Nowa is level 32 or higher, he will challenge you to a duel. You can safely leave the city or follow the storyline to level up, as long as you don’t go to Daphan. Save before taking on Hiuran, since Nowa will fight in a regular battle 1 on 1. He easily does around 80 damage per round so it’s vital to take him down quickly. Once you beat Hiuran, he will join you.

Now, to avoid the bug possibly affecting you, as soon as you’ve recruited Hiuran, go to the inn and add him to your party. Then make your way to Daphan.

Inside the city, you’ll find a blonde woman. Talk to her. Hiuran will come out and you’ll talk, but she’ll dismiss you. As you leave, Hiuran tells you to go back. Do so, and you’ll recruit the character, Lam.

Apparently, if you go to Daphan without Hiuran, you may be unable to recruit Lam even if you don’t talk to her and go back to get him. However, I did it as described above and safely recruited her.

If you follow the story you will probably deal with Hiuran way before going to Daphan anyway, but if you’re low level or won’t bother with the duel you may easily move on, and since the game encourages going out of your way to look for recruits before moving on with the story, this might still be a problem – at least until it’s been completely confirmed that the bug is fixed and applies even to playthroughs started before the patch.