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If your curious: Heroes of Shadow is the fan translation team, find it a little egotistical to put yourself right on the intro like that, but the fan translators worked hard on this so whatever
Side note: I'm annoyed this game wasn't localized, but I understand, I imagine the main issue was that it was released more or less after the release of the 3DS, they likely didn't want to waste their time localizing a DS game that likely wouldn't sell well.
I mean I guess, I know that for a while the Wikipedia page for just entering in Marth referred to a small german town rather than the Fire Emblem protagonist.
That ambiguous person who we aren't going to describe because we want you to slide yourself into that role!
But it's a white person because non-pale skin people don't play Fire Emblem.
I like this intro shot because it's fun to see all the characters included.
Implying this person is not a renowned hero.
OH WAIT! Is it Merric? Him and Marth were pretty close IIRC, or it could be Caeda, you know a romantic interest is a friend if you think about it.
Does Marth befriend the titular shadow dragon of the last game? IDK who they can be referring too.
Which is why they are not in Fire Emblem Heroes!
Yeah I got nothing else snarky to say here.
I believe the fan translators put in a modified title screen as well that must have not been easy.
Starting a new game. I might show some extra stuff later if I get bored.
Normal Mode because I'm a bitch, because IDK if this challenge is possible even on normal mode (I practiced up to Chapter 10, but after that is when it would get REAL hard). So I'm not gonna even try anything beyond Normal
No tutorials because I don't need 'em!
I should probably explain this difference: Casual mode means that if anyone dies besides the main character they just return the next chapter. (The main character dying still means game over)
Classic mode means when your unit dies it's for real and they are gone forever, or more accurately when a character dies you restart the chapter over again because unless you're doing an Ironman self-imposed challenge, no one lets characters die for real. I'm playing classic because it makes things more interesting.
Since this is the first game with Casual mode I should probably say my thoughts: I don't hate it, honestly, it probably creates a better game experience, but I'm so used to Classic that unless I'm doing something like support grinding in awakening I pick Classic.
Well thank you, Anna, to explain who this is, this is Anna, the mascot of the series, she's appeared in almost every game in the series, to explain how this is possible, Fire Emblem Awakening justifies this as "Dimensional Hopping Nurse Joy's". She's not too much of a character this game but oh well.
Basically what's she saying is this is when you get to introduce a self-insert avatar.
The cannon name for the avatar here is "Chris", however in Awakening location (along with with the Fire Emblem Heroes "Choose Your Legends" pool), it was localized as "Kris".
I'll be naming the avatar Kris here just for consistency with modern localization
You get to choose your avatar's gender, I'll be choosing Male since it's closer to cannon (I don't think Female Kris even has a Cipher card).
Next, you choose your class, let me go through the options briefly, note that Male and Female class options are different. (I'll into more detail of the classes in separate posts): Mercenaries (as seen above) are a sword user, swords being the weakest most accurate of the 3 main melee types, it has decent strength and pretty good speed and skill. It's a solid option to start with.
Only male avatars can be mercenaries (and only male characters in general, this will be more important when I explain reclassing)
Knights are the tanks, that fail at being tanks because they can't reach the front lines of this game, and, on harder difficulties get doubled when they do. They use Lances, which are the Mario of Melee weapons, they have medium accuracy and power. It's apparently a good option for Kris to take for the Prologue in an efficient playthrough but I'm not a fan overall.
Only male avatars can be Knights
Pegasus Knights are the flying class of the game, they have good movement and ignore terrain. They also have high resistance making them less vulnerable to magic and have high speed. Their typical downsides are being vulnerable to Bow, poor bulk and not great Strength. Overall a useful class and probably the only reason to be a female avatar in this game.
Only female avatars (and female characters in general) can be Pegasus Knights because of some weird favor reason that has never made sense to me.
Left (Male), Right (Female)
Cavaliers the mounted units of this game, they have good movement, they use both Swords and Lance, they are somewhat tanky and can reach the front line, unlike Knights. It's probably the best option for Kris to take in a casual playthrough (not the option casual just a non-efficient playthrough)
Both male and female avatars can be Cavaliers, male avatars in Cavalier start with an Iron Lance and D rank Lances and E Rank Swords, female avatars in Cavalier start with an Iron Sword and D rank Swords and E Rank Lances. (Also female Cavaliers will have access to one sword that males won't and it's a pretty decent sword)
Fighters are the axe specialists of the game, axes are the least accurate but most powerful of the 3 melee weapon types. The low defense is a bit of a misnomer they usually have high HP to somewhat make up for their low defense so they tend to have average bulk. Their main issues arise more their weapon type is inaccurate which is somewhat annoying, and their speed is pretty hit and miss.
Only male avatars can be fighters.
Left (Male), Right (Female)
Archer's attack from range and can't counterattack in melee. Normally they kind of suck because the developers insist on giving them shitty stats, this is also true this game but on top of that, they have a bad move. I guess they are tanker than usual but why would a unit who can't counter attack care that much about bulk.
Both male and female avatars can be archers and there is no difference as long as you remain archers.
Left (Male), Right (Female)
Mages are tome users. Tomes can attack from melee and ranged. On top of that their tomes target Resistance instead of Defense and Resistance tends to be a much lower stat (like 0 til near endgame) for most units. Their downside is primarily that they have low bulk and their combat stat (Magic) tends to be somewhat lower than physical units Strength, personally I find that avatar mages tend to get outclassed by other mages later but that might just be my one experience.
Both male and female avatars can be mages and the only difference is that they are two exclusive female tomes and one exclusive male tome. Yes, that is dumb.
I'm gonna default here and choose mercenary as that is canon (as supported by official art and card game), female Kris's cannon option is myrmidon BTW.
At this point you get to customize your appearance, I'm not gonna show the options here just know there is no skin tone option (which tbf isn't a huge deal since this game wasn't released outside of Japan), nor is there any curly hair option (which I personally found frustrating when trying to create myself), and strangely for a game where the intended audience is Japanese people, no black hair.
I shall now predict your journey using your past, present, and future.
After appearance customization, this is where you get to your avatar's "Past, Present, and Future". These all affect your stats in both a short term and a long term way.
Past gives a large bonus to bases and a low one to growths.
I'll list the bonuses below, I'm going min-max here since they are no "canon" options
Merchant's child: Luck +2, Resistance +2, Luck Growth +5%
Priest's child: Defense +2
Orphan: Strength +2, Magic +2, Strength growth +5%, Magic growth +5%
Farmer's Child: HP +4, HP growth +10%
Noble's child: Skill +2, Speed +2, Skill growth +5%, Speed growth +5%
I'm going with Orphan since a starting boost of Power is nice.
Next is present which gives a medium bonus to both your bases and growths.
Beauty: Skill +1, Speed +1, Skill growth +10%, Speed growth +10%
Wisdom: Luck +1, Resistance +1, Luck growth +10%, Resistance growth +5%
Diversity(Not shown here because I picked orphan last time): Strength +1, Magic +1, Strength growth + 10%, Magic growth +10%
Kindness: Defense +1, Defense growth +5%
Strength: HP +2, HP growth +20%
I went with Beauty because speed is and will always be the most important stat.
Last is the future which only affects your growth rates.
Humane: Defense Growth +10%
Honorable: (Not shown here because I picked Beauty last time) Skill growth +15%, Speed growth +15%
Enlighted: HP growth +30%
Wealthy: Luck growth +15%, Resistance growth +10%
Recluse: (Not shown here because I picked Orphan first) Strength growth +15%, Magic growth 15%
I picked "Enlighted" because of the HP boost, which puts me over 100% in HP which makes be guaranteed to level it up.
Side note why is "Recluse" something to strive for? Is this a Japanese cultural difference thing or a weird joke by developers?
With everything now complete, let us begin your story posthaste...
Hm... meeting? I wonder who we are meeting?
A bunch of blue units just hanging out. Note the archer and weirdly blue soldiers we never get access too. Along with that, a strange Cleric, who I have no idea who that's supposed to represent, I'm fairly certain on that Archer but that's about it.
Looks like we're about to bump into a mage girl.
I guess that answers the meeting question earlier.
I-I'm sorry. I was in a hurry, and... Excuse me, did you come here to become an Altean knight as well?
Yep. I came here all the way from Sera village when I heard they were recruiting new knights. The name's Kris
Kris? That's a nice name. We're here for the same reason, then.
This dialogue varies based on your name length, I surprisingly got the medium-length one.
If your name is super short (like one character):
"___...? T-that's quite an unusual, short name...."
If your name is short:
"___? That's a nice, short name."
If your name is long:
"___? That sounds so dignified!"
My name is Katarina. I came because I wish to serve Prince Marth. But there sure are a lot of hopefuls here. Look, there's one over there and another there...
The first chapter of my epic saga to become Altea's greatest knight!
Hey, wait up, Rody! Don't leave your partner behind!
There's no doubt those two were knight candidates like us.
We should follow them, Kris. I think the leader of the knights, Sir Jagen, has something to say to all of us.
OMG Jagen is EVIL guys he's red! Also, that mysterious Cleric returns.
Knights will be chosen by their ability, not by their blood. The path is not easy, though. We have gathered a hundred men and women today, and only a handful of you will succeed.
So we expect every one of you to show us the fruits of your arduous training! Apprentices, I want you to gather in pairs! You will be facing real Altean knights in mock combat!
Huh?! We have to fight? T-this could be a problem.. Kris would you please partner with me? I'm training to become a strategist.
A strategist?
Wouldn't a strategist be doing entirely different training and regiment and stuff than becoming a knight, this part of the plot never made sense to me honestly?
Y-yes. I can give you advice on how to fight, but I can't fight at all...
Let's just casually ignore the fact you have the mage sprite map sprite right now...
You're up next. Grab your weapons and get into position. Hurry!
Got it! Let's go, Katarina! The test is about to start.
Y-yes! Let's do our best.
Why does it matter Katarina? No one is on the field yet!
Okay we're mostly out of plot mode and into the first battle of the game, but as you can see we are by ourselves
Fire Emblem is a grid-based tactical RPG, now this may seem like a lot of numbers but let me explain them
HP: Is Hit Points (Or is it Health points? Does any Fire Emblem game confirm what it stands for?) But you know what this is. It gets lowered every time you get attacked and If it reaches 0 your dead.
Str: Is Strength it's how much extra damage you do with Physical weapons (most Swords, Lances, Axes, and Bows). This is useless to magic users though in this game.
Mag: Is Magic it's how much extra damage you do with Magical weapons (mostly just Tomes, but there is a Sword that uses Magic), along with how much Healing you do with Staves (more on that a little later). This is useless to most physical units though.
Skill: is well, Skill it gives a bonus to accuracy and critical hit rate, and if you're a pen and paper RPG fan you might think this is the god stat, but quite the opposite, it only gives a VERY small bonus (Each point of skill gives a 1% bonus and each point of skill gives half a percent to Critical hit rate, weirdly until you reach 20 skill then it's (Skill - 10)%.) to those things 9/10 the weapons accuracy and critical is more important than the units.
Spd: Is Speed, it gives an evasion bonus (not much in this game, 1% per point of Speed) and the most important part if your Speed is 4 or higher than the opponents you attack twice (one when initiating and one after the enemy counteracts assuming it's player phase, both after the enemies counterattack if it's the enemy), the inverse is also true (if the enemy has 4 or more speed than you they double). This turns Speed into the god stat.
Lck: Is Luck, it gives an even slighter than Skill boost to accuracy, a slight boost to avoid (half the amount speed does), and reduces your chances to get hit by a critical by 1% per point, this might seem kind of useless because it is, but they are times where this is nice.
Def: Is Defense, every point of Defense reduces the damage you take from physical attacks (Swords, Lances, Axes, Bows, etc) by 1, simple enough.
Res: Is Resistance, every point of Resistance reduces the damage you take from magical attacks (just Tomes and that one Sword in this game basically) by 1, again straight forward, note that aside from magic-users don't expect this to grow much.
If you're curious without the bonuses I chose here are what my stats would have been:
HP: 20
Str: 6
Skill: 11
Spd: 10
Lck: 3
Def: 5
Res: 0
Now let's look at my weapon:
To explain what these numbers mean:
The number by the weapon itself is its durability. Even time you use a weapon it's durability decreases, once it reaches 0 it breaks.
The letter "E" next to Sword is the Rank you need to equip E is as low as it goes so as long you can use Swords you can equip it.
The Mt is Might and it's the damage bonus of how much you damage you do
The Hit in the black bar the Hit bonus your weapon gives
The Crit (short for Critical) in the black bar is the Critical bonus your weapon gives.
Finally, the Rng (short for Range) in the black bar is the number spaces away you need to be to attack your foe with.
Also, I should probably point those numbers in the corner
Atk is Attack it's Strength or Magic + Might. Crit is (for Kris here) Skill/2 (Rounded Down), Hit is Weapon Hit Rate + Skill + (Luck/2) (Rounded down), avoid is Speed + (Luck/2) (Rounded down), which is garbage, GBA and the Tellius games used Speed * 2 + Luck (and I guess they used Skill * 2 + Luck as well, but it still resulted in more evasion overall since player stats are better than enemy, which resulted in dodge tanking being somewhat viable, in this game you basically can't dodge tank.
To explain the "Iron Sword" in general: it's the standard weak sword, nothing too special about it, but you gotta start somewhere.
Enough lollygagging, time to move to the space highlighted like we were told to.
I love how this Soldier was impressed we walked in a straight in a line.
As you can tell this guy is a joke
I should probably explain his class though: Soldier is kind of unique throughout the series as it's mostly used a weak fodder class, to serve as the token lance infantry enemy class, because the series (aside from the Tellius games, Fates and I guess kind of Three Houses) refuses to give us Lance Infantry as main units. It's dumb IMHO.
His weapon is less special: Lances are less accurate and more powerful than Swords as I said earlier, and this the standard default lance.
Side Note: Why are they called "Lances" and not "Spears" like most things call them, is that localization thing or a thing in the Japanese version?
Kris can make short work of this guy. (If you're wondering about the up arrow by the Iron Lance and the down arrow by the Sword, or why the Soldier has slightly more accuracy than he should, I'll explain that next chapter when it's more relevant)
Here's what soldiers (and Kris as a Mercenary) look like in battle.
Oh crap we have to beat up an elderly man this gonna be SO hard
Jagen is the boss here and as you can tell unlike Shadow Dragon and original FE1, he's not that good here. Age must have caught up with him.
So Jagen is equipped with a Javelin, they have crap might, and lower accuracy than an Iron Lance, but have the primary benefit of 1-2 range, meaning I can be used on foes either 1 or 2 spaces way, considering the VAST majority of weapons in this game only attack in those two ranges (I think in this game you get access to one weapon that goes beyond 2 range), it's pretty handy.
As you can tell Jagen will use no trouble, we literally can't lose.
All bosses in this game have a "Boss Quote" basically just dialogue they give when they are attacked or attack for the first time, here's Jagens
And here is a clear look at the enemy palette of paladin
I should probably explain what Paladin is: It's the promoted form of Cavalier, it uses the same Sword and Lance combo, it has an absurd defense cap it'll never reach likely because of a programming error. It usually has better stats then Jagen here, okay done.
He wasn't hard to kill.
So after killing Jagen (sorry about that), we leveled up. if you're curious how this works. Every stat has a hidden value to increase that change depending on your class, for reference here are (my) Kris's as a mercenary.
110% HP
50% Str
5% Mag
65% Skill
60% Spd
60% Lck
30% Def
0% Res
If you're curious a growth rate of over 100% means that you are guaranteed to go up in that stat, and have Growth - 100% chance to go up twice, so I have a 10% chance to get a +2 HP, neato.
Map clear? But I only beat two people, usually maps are bigger than that?
...But I didn't really do anything...It was all thanks to you that we won, Kris!
At least she knows she's useless
Prince Marth wishes to address everyone who passed the test. Sire, if you please.
Ah, it's Prince Marth! He looks so majestic. So that's the face of the hero who saved the world. I love the stories about Prince Marth in the last war. How about you, Kris?
Of course. After all, Prince Marth was the hero who brought an end to the previous war.
Yes, he defeated the Shadow Dragon and Dark Pontifex, restoring peace to the world.
You there, silence! You stand before Prince Marth!
Eep!
I'm surprised the game acknowledged we probably shouldn't be talking now
Everyone. I'm truly happy that so many come to help shoulder Altea's future. With the war over, peace has returned. However, peace isn't something we can simply take for granted: It is my duty, as ruler, to risk my life to protect it. Alone, I am powerless. So, everyone. From now on, I want you to lend me your power, as my knights.
Hear hear, Prince Marth! It was wonderful hearing Prince Marth speak, wasn't it, Kris?
Not really he just said generic dribble
Yeah, it was. We have to do our best as his loyal knights.
Let's keep at it together!