Fire Emblem

This is a /v/ related article, which we tolerate because it's relevant and/or popular on /tg/... or we just can't be bothered to delete it.

Fire Emblem is a video game series for the Nintendo consoles and handhelds. It's the younger, more popular, brother of Advance Wars. Among the tRPG genre, of which it was a fairly early member of, it's unusual for its lack of player controlled generic characters: Every character the player controls is unique, has a personality and if they die, they're dead forever. In most games there is a finite number of battles and obtainable money while weapons are finite in use, which renders efficiency in combat quite important (though only a handful are particularly stingy about this). Until the 13th game, it had a down to Earth artstyle with characters who were reasonably proportioned in sensible armor and only some unusual hair colors (an artifact of the the NES's very limited color options) would betray its Japanese origins.

Officially, we're not here to talk about any of that! Instead we're going to talk about a pair of trading card games based on it.

First TCG

An unusual, poorly supported game. It's best remembered for being the only source of official art for many characters from the first five games. No effort was made to translate it and nobody plays it.

Cipher

Cipher is the second attempt at a TCG. While it has not been translated officially, there is a notably sized English community for simulator play and all cards have been translated for such. It is unusual among TCGs for two reasons.

Firstly, all cards represent characters, with no land, sorcery, spell, energy, item, instant or trap cards to be found. Instead deployment is fueled by setting characters down from your hand once a turn as Bonds. To deploy a character you need to spend bonds equal to their deployment cost and have at least one bond with the same symbol (or both symbols in the case of cards with both Hoshido and Nohr symbols). Expended bonds return to normal during your next turn. In addition to spending bonds to deploy, certain cards also Flip bonds as a cost. Flipped bonds can not provide symbols, but can still provide points. Very few effects can unflip bonds, so this payment is largely final.

Secondly decking out does not lose the game, it only causes the discard pile to be shuffled into a new deck (and this happens instantly so you don't even miss drawing a card). Pulling cards from the discard pile, known as the Retreat Area, is actually relatively easy and doable by multiple series with low cost clerics.

Each deck consists of a minimum of 50 cards (including the main character) with no maximum. Each card (determined by serial number) can only appear 4 times and each deployed character must be unique. Some cards representing generic monsters, faceless enemy units and, in one case, a guy who can multiply have exceptions to this rule. At the start of play each player chooses a character from any card with a cost of 1 and deploys it over a special marker identifying it as the main character (Also known as "lord" by English fans, since the terms were synonymous when discussing Fire Emblem before Cipher).

The objective of play is to destroy the five cards an opponent has deployed as orbs, either by defeating their main character 5 times or using skills that destroy orbs, then attacking them again. So far, the only other way to win is to destroy all five orbs and activating a skill found on a particular Marth (B13-051SR). When an orb is destroyed, that player adds it to their hand (The reverse of Pokemon TCG, since that has been found to make for a death spiral if you're screwed enough to have all your important cards as prizes)

During combat the top card of each player's deck is revealed and the support value of the revealed card added to a character's attack unless the revealed character has the same name as the supported character. After this the attacking player may critical hit by discarding a card from their hand with the same name as the attacking character, doubling their attack. A defending player may discard a card from their hand with the same name as the defending character to evade and nullify all damage (even critical hits). If the attacking unit's attack is higher and they haven't been evaded the defending unit is sent to the retreat zone or (if they're a main character) an orb breaks.

Games

Until the 7th game, none of these were officially translated. English titles for these are the ones used by Nintendo in crossover games. While the earlier games have not been translated officially, fans have translated all of them and as a result many are known to older fans by slightly different translations of their titles.

Most of the games are in separate unrelated universes, with only two or three games being connected in plot. Fans refer to these subseries by the name of the world they take place in while Cipher, the second TCG, assigns each a color and a symbol.

Archanea/Falchion/Red

In Cipher characters originating from these games focus on swarming cheap units, fitting how many of these characters lacked solid personalities or dialog past their original chapter. One mechanic unique (aside from the colorless heroes of Fire Emblem Warriors Lianna and Rowan) to Red is Hero Skills, which changes the main character mid-play.

• Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light (ファイアーエムブレム　暗黒竜と光の剣) on the Famicom (NES), often known by early fans as Dark Dragon and the Sword of Light or just FE1. The pantless prince Marth is forced to flea from his country of Altea after Dolhr, who has obtained supernatural aid from some old artifacts and some evil dragons, invaded it. After his cover is blown in exile, he and his retainers decide to join forces with the other countries of Archanea, including the Holy Kingdom of Archanea, who are trying to fight Dolhr. Along the way he acquires the legendary sword Falchion (which isn't actually a falchion) and the Fire Emblem shield. It is regarded as exceptionally primitive and lacks many basic features of later games. The most obvious three being that healers can't level up by healing and instead can only get XP by being attacked by an enemy and not dying (quite a task given their frailty), not being able to see the enemy's movement range when selecting them, and the inability to rearrange units in the deployment phase (this can be worked around by removing all units from deployment and readding them in a particular order). Don't play it and play one of the remakes instead.
  • Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon (ファイアーエムブレム　新・暗黒竜と光の剣, lit New Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light) on the DS was the 11th game and is a remake of the first game. While it fixes the basic issues and gives Marth some much needed pants, it still lacks much of the advanced mechanics found in later (Thracia 776 onward) games and for some bizarre reason makes the new content impossible to access by a rational player by requiring you kill off the majority of player units at a rate even a horrifically bad player couldn't manage. This is corrected by a fanmade Full Content Patch.
• Fire Emblem Gaiden (ファイアーエムブレム外伝) on the Famicom was the second game and set on Valentia, a continent far to the west of Archanea. It stars Alm, a youth that eventually acquires another, separate, Falchion (that's still not a falchion!) and Celica, a sword wielding priestess. The mechanics actually got weirder here instead of more polished and introduced concepts that would never or almost never be seen in the series again like magic that requires spending HP to use, equipable shields, explorable towns and abandoning the limited resources. The maps in this game are really terrible, open with limited terrain.
  • Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia (ファイアーエムブレム Echoes もうひとりの英雄王, lit Echoes Another Hero King) on the 3DS is the fifteenth game and a remake of Gaiden. It's officially released in English, though the translation is quite lacking and has a bizarre love of adding character breaking jokes (thankfully not to the extent of Awakening and Fates). The maps were barely improved, though it's the first game in the series to have full voice acting.
• Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem (ファイアーエムブレム　紋章の謎) on the Super Famicom (SNES) was the 3rd game in the series and where it started to hit its stride. Two years after the original game Marth has found pants and become king of Altea and awaits his marriage. A two year peace ends when the Kingdom of Archanea forces Marth to assemble his men and crush a rebellion in Grust. It included a remake of the original game which uses the new mechanics and contains many differences, including removal of several filler levels. Remains a fan favorite in Japan.
  • BS Fire Emblem: Archanea War Chronicles (BS ファイアーエムブレム アカネイア戦記編) on the Super Famicom with the (Broadcast) Satellaview is a sidestory that was only briefly playable. Using the Mystery of the Emblem engine this set of four chapters with an objective to survive as long as possible while collecting as much loot as possible. Each chapter was a prequel or sidestory to Mystery of the Emblem.
  • New Mystery of the Emblem: Heroes of Light and Shadow (ファイアーエムブレム新・紋章の謎〜光と影の英雄〜) on the DS was the 12th game and a remake of the third. It generally tightens up the original, expands the personality of the previously bland characters, and remains quite good. It was for some reason not translated to English, but a fan translation exists. It introduced two mechanics which were well executed here but directly contributed to the downfall of the series: My Unit/The Avatar, a player created original character, and Casual Mode, where dead units only stay dead for one chapter. Since Shadow Dragon existed the remake of the original was not included, but a remake of the BS episodes are.

Jugrdal/Flag/Yellow

Yellow cards have low support values, but higher than average attack and non-support ways to boost attack. They also have a unique mechanic known as Bond Skill, which can only be used when they are set as bonds. Supporting Bond Skills is that, so far, all cards that restore a net positive number of bonds to face up status are yellow, though it is by no means a common ability even in yellow. So far Leif, Lewyn, Linoan, Ethlyn and Deirdre have cards capable of doing this. Jugdral is actually in the same world as Archanea, located to the south of that continent with its edge visible on Awakening's world map.

• Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War (ファイアーエムブレム　聖戦の系譜) for the Super Famicom (SNES) was the 4th game in the series. It breaks the mold right after Mystery of the Emblem set it: Maps are huge, you can deploy everyone at once, counter attacks aren't automatic, units can't trade items, class change doesn't reset level, and more. It also introduced the weapon triangle and skills to the series, the only of its oddities that would remain in the series going forward. The game is quite good because of or in spite of these differences however.
• Fire Emblem: Thracia 776 (ファイアーエムブレム　トラキア７７６) was 5th game and the final game (not just from the Fire Emblem series) released for the Super Famicom. Releasing three (four if you count the slightly different cartridge release) years after the Nintendo 64 was released. After several failed attempts to make an N64 game (Which were scrapped as over ambitious, underdeveloped or wound up designed for the ill-fated N64DD) it recycled some concepts from the failures, though Binding Blade, Sacred Stones and Path of Radiance are all known to have remnants of the multiple projects. Predictably, the game is set in in Thracia in the year 776 (during the middle of the previous game), where Lief is running a rebellion. Remember how the introduction said some games were quite stingy about experience and money? This is one of them. It introduced the Rescue mechanic and differing stage objective, both of which would remain in the series going forward. The objectives are used to instill dread in the player, frequently forcing escape from battles that genuinely can't be won't. It also added the ability to capture enemy units and non-Lief units growing tired if they were deployed too many times in a row, which did not exist beyond this game. It's actually quite a "normal" installment compared to its predecessor aside from how hard it is.

Elibe and Magvel/Legendary Weapons/Purple

In Cipher characters from these games focus on support skills, which is appropriate since the series's beloved support system began here. Characters from Magvel (which isn't actually in the same world as Elibe as far as we know) often have anti-monster effects or (in one case) monster tribal. As of this writing only two Yellow monsters were printed and only 4 monsters were printed overall, so this isn't utilized all that much.

• Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade (ファイアーエムブレム　封印の剣), known by early fans as Sword of Seals (since it is related to a building translated as the "Shrine of Seals" in the next game), was the 6th game and released on the GBA. With his father, Eliwood, ill and the league's official leader, Hector, dead the young Roy is pressed into leadership of the Lycian League after it is invaded by its belligerent neighbor Bern. Very much a back to basics title, with a simple plot and no map objectives other than seize and killing the final boss. It is regarded as unexceptionable but playable, albeit with very low growth rates that make it quite possible many character will turn out absolutely terrible if the dice hate you. It did however introduce the support feature that became a staple of the series. By fighting alongside each other, units could become friends and get bonuses when fighting near the other. These bonuses were accompanied by conversations between the two units which expanded upon their characterization and backstory. The Manga Champion's Sword (覇者の剣) is a sidestory set in the same world and characters from it appear in Cipher as purple cards.
• Fire Emblem (ファイアーエムブレム 烈火の剣) was the 7th game, also on the GBA, and the first to be released in English, albeit without a subtitle. It is known as The Blazing Blade in English releases of spinoff titles and older English fans refer to it as Blazing Sword (An alternate translation of the Japanese subtitle) or just FE7. The story for this game, which is a prequel set 20 years before the previous game, is divided into two parts and is unusual in that it lacks a full scale war. The first part stars Lyn, the sole survivor of a tribe of nomads that learns her grandfather, an elderly lord of the Lycian League, wants to see her before he dies, and the Tactician (Default name: Mark) a mute, player created journeyman tactician that never quite manages to appear in frame. Lyn's journey to Lycia is fraught with obstacles including vengeful bandits, agents of her great uncle who wants to keep the throne for himself, and a pack of shadowy assassins seeking a pair of mysterious children. Lyn's mode is essentially a long tutorial, but it introduced many characters who would appear in the main game. After Lyn's story the game's main story occurs one year later as Eliwood and Hector are ambushed by the same group of assassins while searching for Eliwood's missing father. This game is the most recommended for newcomers: In addition to being a fan favorite, it is one of the most polished/balanced titles and has high replay value while having a long tutorial that must be completed the first time the game is played (though a fan made "tutorial slayer" patch exists to remove this requirement). It also maintained the support system of its predecessor, but with much more interesting characters.
• Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones (ファイアーエムブレム 聖魔の光石) on the GBA was the 8th game in the series. It is largely a spiritual successor to Gaiden, implementing many (but not all) of its unique mechanics in a much better base game (the base mechanics are largely unchanged from the 7th game). It also reintroduced skills to the series, albeit in a limited fashion, after the 6th game removed them. Set on the continent of Magvel where a long-lived peace is shattered when Renais is invaded by its former ally Grado. Grado's apparent motive is to destroy the Sacred Stones of each country, a disturbing revelation as these stones are all that hold back the banished demon king from reemerging. The twin heirs to Renais, Erika and Ephraim, embark on separate quests to end Grado's assault. Despite being very easy, even without using the ability to grind infinitely, the base gameplay is solid and it continued use of the support system. Due to its best developed mechanics and largest rom size, it is the most popular base for rom hacks of which there are quite a few.

Tellius/Lehran's Medallion/Green

In Cipher characters from these games focus on leveling up and promoting to achieve high power, with abilities that only work if a character has sufficient cards on its stack. It also has tribal effects for Laguz characters, who appeared only in this series.

• Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance (ファイアーエムブレム 蒼炎の軌跡, literally Trail of the Blue Flames) released on the GameCube was the 9th game (though it began development before Sacred Stones did). When the country of Crimea is invaded by Daein, the mercenary Ike stumbles upon a woman claiming to be the lost princess of Crimea. Their attempts to flee Daein and obtain aid for Crimea take them across the world. It properly reintroduced skills to the series and was the first game in 3D. Ike remains the only main character in the series who is not a noble.
• Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn (ファイアーエムブレム 暁の女神, literally Goddess of Dawn) released relatively early in the Wii's life and was the 10th game in the series. After its defeat three years ago, Daein is occupied by the country of Begnion. Begnion's occupying forces have proved to be abusive which has prompted the creation of the rebellious Dawn Brigade, led by the "Silver-Haired Maiden" Michiah who has mysterious powers. Unusually Daein regains its independence a mere third into the game and the prospective shifts between multiple different fronts of an increasingly tangled war. Clearly rushed to be an early release for the new Wii, it has quite a bit of unused content and fairly shallow characters, but the gameplay remains solid overall aside from the extreme differences in unit power. The shifting focus really makes this obvious, with half the Dawn Brigade being useless and the other half starved for experience but Ike's forces are capable of destroying everything in their path with minimal effort. Included height difference in maps with bonuses and penalties for attacking from/against higher ground, but this strangely hasn't been seen since.

Ylisse/Naga's Brand/Blue

In Cipher characters from this game focus on class change (but not to the extent of Tellius), orb manipulation and have easily swarmed monsters with their own tribal support. Ylisse is actually the same continent as Archanea but in the distant future where technology is exactly the same or worse.

• Fire Emblem: Awakening (ファイアーエムブレム覚醒) was the 13th game and released on the 3DS. It stars Chrom, the prince of the Holy Kingdom of Ylisse (a country of the same name, not the continent as a whole) and wielder of the Falchion (which looks different but is still not a falchion) who finds an amnesiac tactician while hunting bandits. The two quickly come into conflict with the country of Plegia and meet a mysterious man claiming to be the legendary Hero King Marth. During development it was expected to be the last game in the series ever due to a stint of poor sales. As such it was designed to feature many formerly game exclusive mechanics like the world map/infinite experience found in Gaiden and Sacred Stones, the second generation of Genealogy of the Holy War and the custom player created unit of New Mystery of the Emblem among other fanservice for series fans. Unfortunately the combination of a self-insert and romance led to a large influx of people who didn't care about the actual game to make the game wildly successful. The translation isn't very good either, often changing characters into entirely different ones for no reason. The artstyle also throws away the reasonable designs of the series in favor of pure Fantasy Armor. Gameplay is very unbalanced, with the main character able to clear the game in just over half an hour. It also has the dishonor of introducing paid DLC to Nintendo systems.

Hoshido/White and Nohr/Black

In Cipher this unnamed continent has two symbols, one for each of the two warring countries. Hoshido focuses on swarming while Nohr gets bonuses when it destroys units and abilities that destroy units.

• The three variants of Fire Emblem Fates (ファイアーエムブレム if) are the 14th game in the series. After the success of Awakening the next game was made for all the new fans of "the series" (who were really just fans of Awakening) and places a greater emphasis on waifu shit and the player avatar. The translation became consistently awful to the point the works of 4Kids bore more resemblance to the original: Changes to the names (Even when it makes no sense like Harold, a man with a giant H on his outfit, being changed to Arthur even though there was already a character by that name in the series) and personalities of characters are done at random. Obvious references to myth and the series history are missed while wide sections of content were cut out at random as well. This got so bad a completely independent fan translation exists.
  • Birthright (白夜王国, lit White Night Kingdom) took waifu faggotry to the extreme, to the point the avatar's siblings can be romanced (they literally carry around a letter revealing they aren't blood siblings that they only mention during love confessions). Extremely easy and only marginally more balanced than the previous game.
  • Conquest (黒夜王国, lit Black Night Kingdom) has playable, roughly balanced gameplay and no infinite experience. In exchange for that, the plot makes no zero sense, even with the actual translation.
  • Revelation (インビジブルキングダム, the English Invisible Kingdom rendered phonetically) is closer to Birthright in gameplay but mildly more challenging. It contains almost every character from both routes.

Fódlan/???/Bronze

Neither the game nor any of the cards with characters from it are out yet, but previews show these games will have a bronze/brown border.

• Fire Emblem: Three Houses (ファイアーエムブレム 風花雪月, Wind, Flower, Snow and Moon) will be the sixteenth game in the series and will be released on the Nintendo Switch. It has the player avatar as teacher in a school. With this in mind, it's probably safe to say it'll be more waifu faggotry than anything. At least there's Langrisser style armies supporting individual units now.

Colorless

Colorless cards are those of character original to Cipher (though cards of these characters sometimes have the symbols of random existing universes instead), those of characters originating in one of the spinoff titles, certain promotional cards, or the character Anna (who appears in every game in the series but Gaiden). They have no set mechanics and are splashable since they don't need a color bond to deploy, but don't provide a color when played as bonds.