And here I am again, regulars of this beautiful tavern, a wonderful minstrel with you Bard. Thousands of apologies for such a long absence – I had to delve quite a bit into the history of Fire Emblem, and, in a way, experience the experience of past years myself. This took, to my great regret, an extremely long time. But it doesn’t matter, because I’m here again and ready to tell you the next part of the history of the series Fire Emblem.
And in order not to get lost in my story, I advise you to refresh your memory and skim through the previous parts:
Take a sip of ale and eat some ham – I continue my story..
FIRE EMBLEM MYSTERY OF THE EMBLEM
"Creators continue to create"
And so, after the relative success of Fire Emblem Gaiden, Intelligent Systems decided to leave the hopelessly outdated Famicom (NES) and develop the game on a brand new one Super Famicom (SNES), which came out at the same time as the original Fire Emblem (surprising, isn’t it). The entire creative process began approximately immediately after the release of Gaiden. Despite its elaboration and overall quality, many could miss the second game in the line, or even the entire series, one of the reasons for which is the obsolescence of the console. Therefore, Intelligent Systems made a decision that other developers rarely make. They decided to show the very first Fire Emblem, but more advanced and refined, on a new console and with new features. Shozo Kaga again at the head of development, and Gunpeya Yokoi also in place of the project’s producer, with a few new faces for additional assistance. Having tightened and improved everything that was possible and that had enough imagination, they release Fire Emblem Monshou no Nazo or Fire Emblem Mystery of the Emblem, released in 1994, which in many ways was the same Fire Emblem that fans loved, but with its own innovations.
Mystery of the Emblem became a remake and at the same time a sequel, containing in one game two full-fledged campaigns, complete stories, divided into books 1 and 2. This essentially doubled the duration of the passage. And despite the fact that the SNES was naturally a more powerful gaming platform, it still could not fit so much information on one cartridge, so the development team had to make the necessary sacrifices – five full maps and six characters were mercilessly cut to make room for the second book. But this does not mean that the game lacked content, but on the contrary, the content was overflowing. Each book was created separately from each other, by different teams, which affected several things at once.
First of all, it was the music. The fact is that book 1 and 2 have different, non-repetitive musical accompaniment. While the first book pumped over the soundtrack from the original Fire Emblem, becoming more complex and interesting, more… 16-bit in general. Then for the second book the composer of the previous parts Yuka Tsujioko worked hard and created new wonderful compositions, suffering much less from the SNES speakers. Now my ears no longer hurt after many hours of gameplay, and all thanks to the talent of the composer… and nextgen.
Secondly, there is a narrative component. As mentioned, the game’s narrative is primarily told through character dialogue at the beginning, middle, and end of each mission. And the fact is that in the first book the quality of the dialogues and their semantic component changed little (although it’s a little difficult to say here, given that the comparison was made between games with fan translations – an attempt to compare the Japanese did not bring tangible results). In the first book, they only added a short description before the beginning of each chapter, but no one delved too deeply into the details of the plot or the lore of the world. The situation was different with the second book – the dialogues between the characters sometimes lasted several minutes, in the addition the continent of Arcanea acquired details and details, thanks to which everything became deeper and more elaborate, and you begin to believe in the world more strongly.
In addition to the description, the camera shows us a map of the continent and where the Altean army is currently located
In addition to the description, the camera shows us a map of the continent and where the Altean army is currently located
In addition to the description, the camera shows us a map of the continent and where the Altean army is currently located
Character design and other artistic direction were once again handled by the people responsible for the art in Gaiden – Toshitaka Muramatsu And Naotaka Ohonishi. Well, what can I say?? It turned out pretty good. And even more remarkable for 1994. The character designs have become more colorful, and even variegated in some way. Many characters have had a redesign (thanks to Mars for the pants), and in general the units have been given more detail: both in concept art and in sprites. Despite the fact that the artists have not changed from the previous part, there are still stylistic differences from their previous work in Gaiden, so a common style for the entire series was not introduced again..
The first book retold the story Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light almost verbatim, with some changes, and the second book is a direct continuation, with new characters, in addition to the old ones, united to defeat the dragon again and save the world. Despite the story remaining at the same level, plus or minus, the game has otherwise stepped forward. The graphics were naturally improved, 8-bit sprites gave way to young and fragile 16-bit sprites, allowing characters to be depicted more vividly and colorfully. Well, now, directly about the content of the game, and first in line we have a story, which, as always, is deeper than it seems at first glance.
“Something ends, something begins… Oh, not from here either”
As already mentioned, the third part of Fire Emblem is both a remake of the first part and its direct continuation – the game consists of two books, telling the story of the “War of Shadows” in the first, and the story of the “War of Heroes” in the second, respectively. And since we already know what happened during the War of Shadows, I don’t see the point in retelling the plot again, besides, over the course of several years, it has not become overgrown with details and still remains rustic. But there is an important clarification: as I already said, five chapters were thrown out of the game to save system memory; they carry almost no semantic load, and therefore they could easily be sacrificed. These chapters are from the first book: Chapter 4 "Battle of Leia", Chapter 9 "The Pirati Dragon", Chapter 13 "Wooden Cavalry", Chapter 18 "Sable’s Troop", Chapter 21 "The Skirmish in Macedon". Six characters also came under the knife: Wrys, Darros, Roger, Jake, Beck And Gotoh(actually Goto is in the game, but is no longer a playable character). And also the joining conditions for some units have changed. The most important thing is that there is a continuation in the form of a second book. Let’s talk about this story.
But first, let’s refresh our memory a little on previous events. On the continent of Arcanea, war broke out – the ancient dragon Medeus from the cursed country of Dolr, moved his troops towards other states. He formed alliances with some, and mercilessly destroyed others. Althea, a small kingdom, fell victim to treachery, and the young prince Mars fled with a handful of knights to eventually gather an independent army of many allies, overthrow the oppressive traitors and enemies of Althea, and eventually kill Medeus with the magic sword Falchion, given to humanity by the goddess Naga. Also, several details and clarifications appeared in the old plot. For example, here we are finally told that Mars fled his native state when he was 16, and he spent 2 years in Talis. Also, the dialogues became a little more informative, but in general, nothing fundamental in the plot and its presentation has changed. As for the allies joining us, who were in the cut chapters, they were simply transferred to others. For example, we recruit Merrick not in Chapter 4, but in Chapter 5. Well, this also works with other units.
And so, since we’ve sorted this out, now it’s worth understanding the political balance of power. At the beginning and throughout the game, it is explained to us, but for convenience, I will do it now. Arcanea, the most powerful state on the continent, is left without a king, only Princess Nina rules the strange, but the nobility, in particular Bishop Boa, convince her to marry. As a result, the younger brother of the ruler of Aurelis, Hardin, becomes the new king of Arcanea. Althea, Kadein, Aurelis and Talis are trying to recover (the latter were less affected by the war). Grast was weakened the most and at the time of the second book is in a deplorable state. The Gras, former traitors, were forgiven by Mars, and the king’s daughter Jiol Sheena was given the heavy burden of ruling the state. Princess Minerva sat on the throne of Macedon, seeking to atone for the sins of the past. In this state of the world the game begins. I won’t delve too deeply into the lore, and I’ll save a detailed story about the world for next time. In the meantime, at the beginning of the second book, we are told that a year has passed since the end of the Shadow War. Hardin, who became the emperor of Arcanea, restored the state in the shortest possible time and was able to gather a strong army. In Altea, people rejoiced at the imminent wedding of Mars and Kaeda, but the celebration was overshadowed by a message from Hardin. He wants Mars and his knights to suppress the uprisings in Grast, and since Althea is considered a vassal of Arcanea, refusal is unacceptable. There is nothing to do – the prince gathers troops and goes on an expedition.
Up to this point, I haven’t gone into depth about the characters (since they were cardboard cutouts), but some of them that have a direct impact on the plot are still worth talking about. Of course, they are not yet as well written as in future parts, but they are still important for the narrative. Let’s go in order:
— Mars (March) — we have already met the prince of Althea without pants (however, in the next part the artists still drew them, so it’s worth saying thank you to them). The main protagonist of the Arcanea saga. A young and naive idealist who seeks to reclaim his homeland and defeat the evil dragon in the first book. By the way, his character had not changed at all by the beginning of the second book, so he remains a piece of meat that protects everyone.
— Kaeda (Caeda) – Princess Talisa, a beauty, extremely devoted to Mars, so much so that she is ready to die for him. In the first part, she falls in love with him, and already at the time of the second book, she is the prince’s bride. By the way, as in the first game, so here, the loss of Kaeda on the battlefield will at least somehow affect the characters, and they will comment on it (at the end of the game Mars will regret that he could not save her).
— Jagen (Jagen) – Veteran of the Knights of Althea and loyal defender of Mars. A powerful unit of the advanced Paladin class in the first book. Due to his age, he no longer takes part in battles and becomes Mars’ personal tactician and strategist. (It’s strange, of course, since he’s only just passed since the end of the last war, he hasn’t aged that much. Apparently, the wounds received, coupled with age, prevented participation in battles).
— Malledus (Malledus) – the senior tactician of Mars in the first book, telling the legend of Henri, and also before and after battles reporting new information about the enemy and the future route. Due to illness in the second book, Jagen replaces him as tactician.
— Hardin (Hardin) – Prince and younger brother of King Aurelis. Joins Mars’ campaign against the troops of Medeus. At the end of the first book, he marries Princess Nina and becomes the new king of Arcanea. Will have a direct impact on the events of the second book.
— Nina (Nyna) – Princess of Arcanea and the only surviving member of the royal family. During the Shadow War, she was rescued by enemy general Grasta Kamus and taken to Hardin’s army. She trusts Mars with the Fire Emblem. At the end of the first book, she marries Hardin.
— Garnef (Gharnef) – Dark Pontiff, one of the main antagonists, servant of the dark dragon Medeus. It was he who killed Mars’s family, kidnapped his sister and took the sacred sword Falchion. To defeat him, we needed the Starlight volume; without it, Garnef was absolutely invulnerable to any type of attack.
— Medeus (Medeus) – a dark dragon who awakened in the lands of Dolr and moved his army against all humanity. Killed by Mars during the Shadow War.
So, we are familiar with more or less significant characters, now we can directly move on to the story of the second book of Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem. Unlike Gaiden, where all the chapters were huge, which included many battles, the new part returns to the roots and is again divided into the standard 20-25 chapters. Although, in total with the first and second books, we get almost 50 chapters of pure, magnificent and not at all COMPLEX gameplay… have fun, children..
After listening to a brief introduction, Mars arrives in Grust along with fresh recruits, completely new characters, whom you naturally won’t remember, because no one will tell you who they are… But I’ll tell you. New faces in the troops of Mars will be: Cecil, Luke, Roderick in the role of cavalry and archer Ryan (Ryan), and they won’t be revealed as full-fledged characters for a long time, unfortunately. We also see familiar faces: Gordina, Drauga And Arran. With such an “impressive” army, Mars went to suppress the uprising, which, according to the assurances of General Arkanei Lang, our old friend general is in charge Lorenz. By the way, here we see that all the levels obtained through hard work in the first book have been reset, and Mars has lost his Falchion – in general, we are entering the world of dangers fresh and naked. The chapter is not difficult, and gives us not particularly strong opponents to gain experience. In a village in the north we find the first healer, a girl Marisha, which her grandmother hid. She persuades Mars to take her granddaughter with him, and she naturally falls in love with our hero (another one). Continuing to advance towards the castle, we watch as Lorenz orders Ogme, to a mercenary we know, to take away the last representatives of the royal blood of Grast – Yulia And Jubelo. But the girl refuses to leave Lorenz and they have to stay.
When Mars gets to the general, it is not necessary to fight with him, you can only talk, in the hope of a peaceful outcome. But not everything is rosy – Lorenz reports that not everything is so simple and Hardin decided to conquer Grust. Naturally, our fool doesn’t believe it. The general only asks to take care of the children and commits suicide. Then Lang appears, takes the children away by force and orders to suppress another uprising, this time in Macedonia. There is nothing to do – Mars has to go save the princess Minerva, which the rebels imprisoned.
Our heroes leave Grast and arrive at the borders of Macedon. We are told that after the War of Shadows, Princess Minerva chose a peaceful policy of state, seeking to restore the war-torn country and reform the army. She expelled all the rebellious and aggressive generals, but soon they were led by the general By hand (Rucke) rebelled and overthrew the princess. Now Mars has to punish the conspirators. As soon as the army of Altea sets foot on the lands of Macedon, Katria and informs us about the capture of Minerva and then joins us. By the way, she can persuade the hunter Warren (Warren), side with Mars.
The map itself isn’t very Spin-Casino.co.uk complicated either. The main thing is to make your way through the forest, and watch out for the wyvern riders, since they are very strong, since archers will quickly shoot them down. We liberate the fortress and find a prisoner in it Linde, which Princess Nina sent to give the Fire Emblem. Mars has many questions, which, unfortunately, remain unanswered.
Before the battle we will be told a little about the history of Macedon. Long ago, these lands belonged to the dragon tribe, and people were slaves. But soon they rebelled and founded the state of Macedon. But in modern times, Mikalis killed his father to join Dolr, for the safety of his sisters and Macedon’s desire for world domination over the entire continent. This map can already cause difficulties. The enemy is on the central island, which can be reached by lowering the bridge. But it’s better to go around on the left side in order to get to Palla, who joined us at the beginning of the battle, single-handedly holding back the onslaught of enemies. Also in the village in the northeast you can recruit Julian, who says that Lena was kidnapped. With the help of the thief, you can recruit her brother Matthias, who is currently fighting on the side of Macedon. After which we kill General Rook and capture the fortress. Surprisingly, we do not find Princess Minerva here, but Lang soon arrives and reports that the royal children of Grast have been kidnapped, and he orders Mars to return them. The prince runs out of patience and openly opposes. Lang declares Mars a traitor and runs back to the empire, and we go to save Julia and Jubelo.
Mars was unable to reach Minerva, so he decides to find Wendell, the current archmage Kadain, who was the mentor and guardian of the Grast children. Arriving at "Holm Beach", site of Wendell’s residence, the Prince of Altea finds Ogma, Julia and Jubelo surrounded by the Vikings of Macedon. We can control the mercenary with children from the very beginning of the battle, and across the bridge in the forest there is a certain traveling paladin in a mask. If Ogma talks to him, he will introduce himself as Sirius (Sirius), and will volunteer to protect the children until Althea’s army arrives and joins us. As soon as Mars reaches the village in the north, it will be possible to recruit an old friend there Castor, who again needs money for his sick mother. We break through in battle and capture the fortress.
After the battle, Kaeda flies to us and tells us terrible news – Althea has been captured by the troops of Arcanea. Mars cannot believe this and blames Lang for this, but Jagen suggests that all of this, starting with the expedition to Grast, was carefully planned by Hardin – he initially sent the prince to suppress the uprising with the main staff of knights, thereby leaving Althea almost without protection. Be that as it may, Mars decides to immediately return to his homeland.
Mars is moving back to Altea, but in its path is Albern Keep. Lang sat down in it and orders to stop the troops of Althea, and to recall another former ally – George. He, in turn, is in the forest in the northeast, and decides to stay aside and not interfere. There is an enemy thief near the troops of Mars Rickard, also a former ally from the last war.
He can join us if Julian talks to him. Here we can immediately cross the bridge of the leading fortress, but it will be difficult to do this from a swoop because of the ballistas, so it’s better to go around. Besides, if you don’t approach George, he won’t attack first. In the northwest we visit the village to get the Hammerin staff, and after that we deal with the cavalrymen and horsemen, then it will become easier to get close to the artillerymen. After capturing the fortress, we follow directly behind Lang.
Grast has been liberated, all that remains is to clear the Albern Fortress and kill General Lang. Inside we find out that he hired Navarre, mercenary who fought on our side in the War of Shadows. Like last time, if Kaeda talks to him, he will join us. But during the conversation it turns out that this is not the real Navarre, but only a mercenary who looks like him and takes advantage of it – Samuel (Samuel). He apologizes for the deception and decides to join our ranks. The map is not particularly difficult: the main thing is to lure the soldiers near Lang and remember about reinforcements from the main entrance.
After killing the general, we free Wendell, who talks about the mission assigned by Lord Goto himself – to find 12 Starsphere Shards. By the way, we could already find several of them: some story bosses had them in their inventory, just like the characters they joined. And, of course, in chests (on this map, one of the fragments will be in the chest). Mars promises to help in the search, and sets off further, along the way deciding to look into Ramana Temple.
Mars with knights appears in the vicinity of the Ramana Temple. At the beginning we see how Navarre, as well as a girl, are surrounded by robbers in the forest Fina (Phina), who is a dancer with a very “bright” character, who has strayed from her group of traveling artists. In the north-west, the troops of Arkanea were located, led by Astram, guarding the bridge further north. The chapter is not particularly difficult, but the main thing here is to do everything quickly – first get Fina and Navarre out of the forest, and then try to deal with the robbers and shake out everything valuable from their pockets. Unfortunately, after the liberation of the temple, Jagen tells us that the thieves have already taken everything valuable from here, so Mars does not find any spheres or other useful artifacts, after which he continues his journey to the north.
Althea’s army begins to cross Chazmir Bridge, but then new problems begin – Arcanea’s troops are approaching from the north, squeezing Mars in a vice. At the beginning of the battle he comes to us Cain, and makes sure that everything is fine with the prince, after which he joins us. This chapter will be a tough nut to crack. In addition to Astram pursuing us from the south (unless, of course, we killed him in the last chapter), from the north we are attacked by paladins led by Emperor Hardin, who looks extremely ominous and threatening. The fortress that needs to be captured is guarded by George, who can be convinced to join us if Gordin talks to him. The hard part is that if we want to recruit all possible allies, we’ll have to do a fair bit of legwork.
The fact is that near the middle of the bridge there is a small peninsula with a village. If Mars visits it, Bantu will join us. The difficulty is that the path to the village is approximately several moves, and all this time our troops will have to hold the bridge. And yes, if we try to attack Hardin, then an unpleasant surprise awaits us – all our attacks are absolutely ineffective, but the response from the emperor can send almost any unit to the next world with the first poke, so I don’t recommend attacking him (unless of course you are a fierce pervert who sends all his warriors to death… like me). After we captured the fortress, Althea’s troops give Mars a chance to escape, and after a diversion they catch up with him in the Kadeina desert.
Mars reunites with his knights and continues on to Kadain. Immediately upon arrival, Jagen informs us that the local magicians are hostile towards Althea. Before the battle begins, we also see Mikalis fly into the northeastern village, bringing with him the wounded Minerva. He reports that the army of Mars has arrived in Kadein, and it will soon save the princess. Actually, if the Prince of Altea visits this village, Minerva will join us.
The battle is not particularly difficult, the main thing is to field units with a high resistance indicator, and capable of moving through the desert without penalties. Well, of course, we try to do everything quickly, because Astram and his troops are pursuing Mars. Having dealt with the local magicians, we continue our path inside the city of magic.
Kadain – independent state of magic. The current archmage and, concurrently, the ruler of Kadein is Wendell. But not long ago he left his homeland, going in search of the 12 fragments, leaving his best students to look after the city: Merrick and Arlena (Arlen).
And now we see Arlen attacking Merrick, accusing him of being a traitor. Arlen himself supports Arcanea, we also see terrible envy in him in the spirit: “Uuuu, why did our teacher choose you and not me. ». And so, from the very beginning we have Merrick surrounded by enemies, who needs to be taken out as quickly as possible so as not to be killed. Also, if we want to recruit Arlen, then Wendell must talk to him and convince him of the wrongness of his actions. After the victory, Goto contacts Mars using magic and asks to find him as soon as possible.
In search of the Sphere of Light that was promised to Goto, Mars and his troops arrive at Tower of Thabes – the remnant of the ancient city of Tabes, now buried under the desert sands Mamorthod. The main goal is to get to the tower. In general, this is not difficult to do, the main thing is to remember the right choice of units for the desert, as well as methods of countering flying dragons, such as bows and wind tomes.
Having reached the tower, we find our old friend Kzeina, capable of taking on any appearance, which he took advantage of by pretending to be the princess-manake Tiki. But the main thing now is that Xane will show us the way to Goto.
We continue north and Xane leads us through boiling lakes of lava, the place where he says wild dragons remain. Lore and history of the world, as I said earlier, we will touch on later. What is interesting now is that dragons used to rule the continent, but after an unknown disease that turned them into crazy and wild creatures, most of them disappeared. One part, wanting to avoid this fate, took the form of people and enclosed their power in stones – they all became manaketes. The other part of the dragons could not give up their previous appearance and, as a result, went wild.
Now, all the dragons here want to tear Althea’s army apart. We need to cross the bridge, remembering the vulnerability of flying dragons and the slowness of those on foot. As soon as we capture the local fortress, Mars continues its journey into the frosty mountains.
As a result, we reach the final destination – Ice Dragon Temple. The temple itself is located in the center of the map on an island surrounded by a spiral river. The main thing to remember is about flying dragons, and try to choose units that can ford rivers, such as mercenaries and archers. Having secured the entrance to the temple, Xane announces that he will now personally participate in the battle. Mars moves on in search of Goto.
Althea’s army found itself inside the temple, overrun by a bunch of crazy ice dragons. Xain also told us the story that Tyki is the daughter of a goddess Naga (Naga), and is hidden in the temple in constant hibernation so that her power does not destroy humanity. I’ll tell you more about this important girl for the series another time. Now the main thing is that the temple consists of three rooms, two of which are not yet available to us. Goto is in the central room, and as soon as Mars gets to him, he will give us Sphere of Light (Lightsphere), and if we also collected all 12 fragments, then Goto will also give the Star Sphere.
We definitely need her, because without her we will not be able to recruit Tiki, who is in the room on the right. By the way, there is a secret store on this map, but you can only get there with a Warp staff – it is located near the lake, outside the walls of the temple. After completing all our business, we capture the throne room (room on the left) and set off to liberate Althea.
Goto teleports the entire army of Mars directly to the capital of Altea – Anri. Here we see how the enemy general sent an elite Gra army against us. He also forced one of our knights, Abel, fight on the side of Arcanea. And all because they captured his wife, Est.
Therefore, before storming the fortress, it is worth freeing it, especially since the path to the city runs straight through the dungeon. Now, in order for Abel to join us, either Mars or Est must talk to him. We capture the city, remembering the ballistas, after which the battle continues within its walls.
After Althea has been liberated, Mars can only destroy the remaining Arcanea troops entrenched inside the fortress. On the left side of the castle there is a treasury with a bunch of chests. Also, Astram and his warriors are waiting for us there (unless, of course, we killed him in the previous chapters) – in order for him to join us, George must talk to him. After this, the throne room will open to your eyes, with a bunch of magicians and knights. The main thing is to lure one at a time, and the rest will not be a problem. After the battle the prince receives Sphere of the Earth (Earthsphere) and Goto contacts us again and reports that Princess Alice has been kidnapped by Garnef and instructs Mars to go to Arcanea and stop the mad Hardin.
Mars leaves Altea again, heading to the capital of Arcanea, but the kingdom of Gra stands in his way. Now sits on the throne Tire (Sheena), daughter of the previous traitor king Giola. She received support from the people, as well as from Arcanea, essentially becoming a vassal of the empire. The chapter itself is not difficult. In order for Sheena and her bodyguard Samson to join us, we must not kill Gra soldiers on the way to them. After a conversation with the queen, she says that the future of the kingdom now rests on the shoulders of Mars.
In order to get to the capital of Arcanea as quickly as possible, Althea’s troops will have to cross Adria Pass, but here’s the problem: in addition to the Arkanei troops, who blocked the further path to the east, the elite troops of Aurelis are approaching from the north "Wolfguard". The challenge is to move Mars in one turn to the village in the west. For this, the Warp staff or Fina’s abilities will be useful. King Aurelis, Hardin’s older brother, suddenly appears in the village.
He gives us Sphere of Life (Lifesphere) and gives the signal to retreat to the troops of Aurelis. Also, the king, due to his childlessness and old age, entrusts Mars with the care of the kingdom. Now everything is simpler: we use flying units to eliminate ballistas and capture the fortress. After which the path to the capital is open.
Second month of the third year of the imperial calendar. Mars reaches the capital of Arcanea – Palesa (Pales). He heard news of a rebellion by some of Hardin’s knights, led by Mussels, now imprisoned. The map is one to one like from the First Book, although this time there are more troops.
First of all, we go to the village in the southeast. One of the Wolfguard warriors will join us there – Roche. The rest chose to remain on Hardin’s side. After a difficult battle, fighting his way through ballistas, paladins and knights, Mars finally reaches the walls of the capital. There’s a dying man there Boa, says that Princess Nina has been kidnapped.
Arcanea is the most powerful state on the continent. But its capital fell in less than a day under the onslaught of the united army of Altea. The inhabitants of Arcanea greeted Mars as a liberator, and all that remained were Hardin and his bodyguards. With all the strongest and most pumped up units we make our way through the remaining warriors of Arcanea. Mussel will be captured next to Hardin. And so, as already said, the emperor is completely invulnerable. Before this, Goto told us that it was all because Dark Sphere (Darksphere), which perverted Hardin.
In order to damage him, the attacker must have a Sphere of Light. After defeat, Hardin confesses to all his sins, and that his unrequited love for Nina pushed him to commit these crimes. Now the most interesting thing is that the game has a bad ending (surprise, isn’t it??). If we have not collected all five spheres by this moment, then the game ends after all four kidnapped girls suddenly arrive: Maria, Lena, Alice and Nina… and credits. "What was that??", a question arose. The answer to it will be the following. If we have all five spheres by the time we defeat Hardin, they will take their rightful place inside the Fire Emblem that Mars carried with him. Also before this, Goto told us that the Fire Emblem, along with the five spheres, is a powerful artifact – Binding Shield. And as soon as the four girls arrive, under the influence of the artifact, they will take on their true appearance as the dark priests of Garnef – in this way he wanted to deceive Mars and kill him when he loses his vigilance. After which the game will continue. We follow Garnef to the lands of dragons.
Led by Goto, Althea’s army reaches Wyvern Valley in the north of Macedonia. There is located Dragon Temple, in which Garnef hid. The chapter is essentially simple, but there will be many strong opponents against us, such as dragons and dark priests. In the northeast there is a village in which Mars can find the dying Mikalis, who will give us the Starlight volume necessary to defeat the Dark Pontiff. Having reached the temple, Goto begins to understand Garnef’s plan – he intends to sacrifice four "pure in heart" girls in order to awaken Medeus’ true form.
And so, now the most difficult final battle begins. In fact, the next three chapters are not separate, but rather parts of one large chapter (that’s why the subsequent chapter titles are taken from their remake). This means two things: first, it won’t be possible to save between them (great, really!?), and secondly, the units that you will take into the final battle must under no circumstances be lost, since you will not be able to get new ones or replace old ones (even better. ). And so, the most important thing: your team MUST include Sirius, Minerva, Julian and Merrick, a couple of additional magicians and priests also wouldn’t hurt, and the rest is at your discretion. And so, the first part – we make our way through crowds of dragons and dark priests along narrow corridors and capture this area. Then we move on.
Here you need to be very careful, because Garnef and many dragon magicians are against us. To defeat the Dark Pontiff, you need a pumped-up mage with the Starlight tome, and after death, Garnef will drop the Falchion sword, with which it will be much easier to kill Medeus.
We reach Medeus in his dragon form, surrounded by four kidnapped girls, and many dragons. Fortunately, at the beginning of the battle, the power of the Binding Shield banishes the remaining enemies. The girls are under a spell and will not let anyone near Medeus.
In order not to kill them, people special to them must talk to them: with Maria – Minerva, with Alice – Merrick, with Lena – Julian, and with Nina – Sirius (by the way, from the dialogue between the characters we should already guess that Sirius is none other than Kamus, the former general of Grast, who was considered dead). After freeing the girls, all that remains is to plunge the Falchion into Medeus’ skull (which is not very easy…).
After the victory, Mars and Kaeda (if she survived, of course) are finally going to get married, and the rest scatter in all directions. Mars becomes the sole ruler of the entire continent. We are shown short epilogues of all the other characters, and how their fate turned out.
This is how the plot of the second book of Fire Emblem: Mystery of Emblem turned out. The story of the War of Heroes, in which, according to tradition, evil was defeated and good triumphed. It sounds a little banal, but you can’t escape the plot of those times. In addition, the content itself, the central characters and the expanded lore of this world make the story much deeper than it seems at first glance. Which you will see some other time… heh.
“I mean, the swords break again?»
And so, sir, now comes the gameplay, which has undergone significant changes. It’s worth saying right away that in Mystery of the Emblem the developers abandoned many gameplay innovations presented in Fire Emblem Gaiden, such as moving around the world, visiting various hub locations and exploring caves. Yes, now it was impossible to return to previous locations in which enemies spawned randomly in order to gain a couple of extra levels, and it was also impossible to grind in dungeons. A controversial decision, in fact, because in this way, in the new part a limited number of characters will be upgraded, with a limited amount of experience. And in case of losses, it will be very difficult to pump up new units somewhere in the middle of the game, not only because of the increased strength of the opponents, but also because of their limited number. You won’t be able to buy from merchants between battle maps as before; during chapters, you will have to find merchant shops, gunsmiths and arenas (which have also returned) with separate units.
Many interesting mechanics working directly on the battlefield were also thrown into the background until better times. Changing classes is again done through special items in the character’s inventory, such as the Hero’s Emblem. I have already said that this is a little ambiguous, since it has its disadvantages and advantages when compared with the previous method of class promotion from Gaiden, namely special altars.
The inventory has also returned to a more familiar state: five slots for weapons and four for various items, such as healing potions. The durability of ALL weapons in the game has also returned: swords, spears, axes, tomes and staves. Yes, now health was not spent on magic, and you could carry up to four healing potions with you with three uses – we live longer, we fight better. But the old problem from the original Fire Emblem has returned – the need to monitor the wear and tear of weapons and purchase new ones in a timely manner, so with one rusty sharpener you won’t be able to complete the entire game like in Gaiden, for better or for worse. At the same time, it became noticeable that Mars has become a walking convoy… that is, in fact, he always has almost direct access to all the items and weapons available to the player – such a kind of storage – which, by the way, is convenient. And in order for others to gain access to the convoy, they need to approach Mars during the battle, and then the corresponding option will appear in the menu when selecting a character.
But at the same time the beginnings Support System left in approximately the same state, that is, in a fetal state. In Gaiden, it was available only to Alm and Celica, resulting in an increased chance of critical damage. Now all characters who sympathize with each other, are in love or family relationships, have a Support System. All this results in a slight increase in damage if characters with similar connections fight next to each other. A drop in the bucket, but at least it’s a start. (Oh, you have no idea what this will lead to in the future). Well, for the rest, additions to small things, like the animation of health restoration in the fort, which made this, for example, more obvious. Oh, and even before their death, the characters can say something final, instead of the dry and laconic message from the original “The unit died”..
“Oh, how prettier Arcanea has become in a couple of years…”
As you can see, the game has improved graphically, and this applies to everything: the landscape, characters, other environments, menus and interface – everything has been improved. Dialogues between characters are now framed in beautiful frames, portraits of heroes look richer and neater. In battle, more serious changes have taken place in terms of graphics. Now the warriors fought not just on a black canvas, but against the background of blue skies, deserts, mountains and the internal corridors of castles. The interface during “auto-battle” has also been made more pleasing to the eye. The character sprites are absolutely beautiful – not only did the sprites of all units add more details and colors, but also the models of all the weapons were different from each other. That is, now a conventional iron sword is different from a steel one (previously, all types of weapons were the same, for obvious reasons).
In general, the difference is visible even to an almost blind person
In general, the difference is visible even to an almost blind person
But the MOST IMPORTANT addition, or rather improvement, was the highlighting of the boundaries of the character’s possible movement when selecting him. No, I’m serious, this is indeed a VERY convenient and correct solution, which greatly speeded up the gameplay, making it more enjoyable. Previously, when selecting a unit, the player did not understand how far he could go by moving the cursor as far as possible to the side. Now there are no such hemorrhoids, and we can easily move units around the map. After a long game, the movement process will become automatic. In the original, I was never able to get used to the original gameplay and therefore suffered (which does not mean that I did not suffer here, but for other reasons). In general, the battles have become more dynamic, spectacular and, most importantly, faster, which will only get better and better over time. And after a very long playthrough, you will pray that the battles end as quickly as possible.
"Now you can walk again, my foot rider"
As has been said many times, the game is essentially the very first Fire Emblem, only in a 16-bit wrapper, so the classes here are as close as possible to the original, with the exception of a couple of additions and improvements. Unlike Gaiden, here again almost all units have only one promotion tier, and characters with axes are again present. And since nothing much has changed with the old units since the first part, I don’t see any point in repeating. Therefore, let’s move on to the story about the newcomers, of which there are few… or rather one..
Dancer (Dancer) — a new class that debuted in this part often performs a support function, due to its unique class ability "Dance" (Dance). When the Dancer is adjacent to a unit that has already completed its turn, she can use Dance, giving another character the opportunity to perform a full action again. The dancer cannot be promoted, so her leveling is limited to level 30, as opposed to the standard 20. In general, the Dancer helps very well in tactical maneuvers, when one strong character needs to destroy several opponents, or get to the desired location in one turn. But it’s unlikely that you will send the Dancer into a full-fledged battle, and all because of her low characteristics. Her low health makes her very fragile, and her strength is so low that the Dancer can only kill a Priest, and even then in two turns. Has a 30% Growth Index level primarily in Speed, Skill, Defense, Resistance and Strength. But leveling up the Dancer is very difficult (to do this you will have to let her finish off enemies, which is extremely inconvenient). You will use the main characteristic, namely Speed, only to increase the chance of evasion. But you won’t cause any serious damage, so it’s better to keep it at a safe distance. The Dancer wields swords, but not very effectively. The only representative of this class in the game is Fina.
It is also necessary to remember about all the riders: not only on horses, but also on wyverns and pegasi. The fact is that they all have the opportunity to “Dismount” in the game (Dismount). Now, depending on the situation, you can hurry up your riders, and, for example, ford a river or cross a desert faster. At the same time, we are forcibly rushed if we are in a closed area, like castles. At this moment, our units seem to acquire a different class – Knight (Knight). Knights have their own unique class sprite depending on their gender, and they can only use swords instead of their main weapons, so it’s worth stocking up on them if you want to take riders with you to castles. All their characteristics remain the same.
One more thing worth mentioning regarding classes. In the first part of Fire Emblem classes Hunter (Hunter) And Heavy Knight (Armored Knight) could not be promoted, and more advanced classes Rider (Horseman) And General (General) were separate. Now they opened with the promotion of the Hunter and the Heavy Knight, respectively, which is good news. Also, as before, there are many classes that are inaccessible to us, but available to our enemy, such as Soldier (Solder) And Berserker (Berserker). Unfortunately, our artillerymen also joined the ranks of the enemy extremists. It’s a pity – it was an interesting class..
This is how we live and fight… That is, according to the classics.
“And now for something completely different.”
It’s also worth mentioning that around the same time, after the game’s release, several third-party Fire Emblem projects were released, which acted as a kind of experiment. Well, you know the Japanese – when a title begins to gain at least some fame, they release a bunch of related media. Like the Manga that started coming out in 1992, retelling the plot of Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light with some additions, but to be honest there is nothing worth mentioning there… not even the art.
The anime that was released in 1996 looks much more interesting. A two-part OVA that retold the entire plot of the games (or rather the beginning), with additional flashbacks to further delve into the backstory of Mars. And despite the fact that the game itself was still not planned for a Western release, this anime made it to America, and even got a full-fledged dubbing… what a surprise. Overall, the show is tolerable and can be appreciated, fortunately there are only two episodes. I will say that I personally watched it with pleasure, because I am a man of culture. And even such a third-party product as an anime based on the game contributed to attracting a new Western audience.
Another interesting mention is that in 1997, a kind of “add-on” was released, DLC of that time – Fire Emblem: Archanea Saga. These were 4 additional cards with their own history, for a special module SNES Satellaview. This piece of plastic received a signal from Nintendo, which allowed you to play for a limited amount of time. In short, a mandatory internet connection for a game of the time (Ubisoft probably got the idea from them)… These maps represent the backstory of the first book, which took place after Mars fled to the island nation of Talis, in the two-year period before the first chapter of the first book of Fire Emblem Mystery of the Emblem. No one will be able to play them now, but judging by some footage, it looks like a regular chapter, except that there are fewer units and the characters for each map are different, telling their own unique story.
“What happened next??»
The new part of the franchise was a truly big step forward for the entire series, and its popularity began to grow even more. Over time, it would become the most successful Fire Emblem game of all time in Japan, surpassing even some of the more recent games in the franchise, selling a total of approximately 750,000 copies upon release. A good result when compared to many Nintendo mastodons, but, unfortunately, not really phenomenal. But nevertheless, Fire Emblem deserved its place of honor among other games of that time. Why did it become the most successful and best-selling game in the series, eclipsing the fourth part, which was somewhat popular among fans?? I have no idea… Personally, I feel like I played Mystery of the Emblem like I played The Witcher – about 60 hours. And this is not because there is twice as much content in it, but because of the complexity. In order to go through everything as it should, recruiting all the characters and without losing anyone in all chapters, you need to make competent, proven moves and pump up your units in the right way. But it didn’t work out on the first try… and on the second too… In general, yes, I started many chapters over again when I was already approaching their end (which is damn disappointing). In the end, I’m devastated… and honestly, for me, Fire Emblem Mystery of the Emblem was not the game it was for fans of the series. Even though I’m a fan myself, I’m not going to go through it again, but I can recommend checking it out, although emulation and installing a more or less adequate English translation will take a little trouble.
Next time I’ll talk about the fourth part, which is considered by fans to be the best in the series, and I hope I’ll get through it faster than its predecessor. For now I say goodbye and wish everyone more Luck and Resistance.
Well, as if they still haven’t brought in art with half-naked girls, so let there be at least some of those))
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