Are Marth and Roy in this? Let's Play Fire Emblem!

Welcome to my first Let's Play.

I guess some introductions are in order, as I’m fairly new here… I am a longtime Toastyfrog/Gamespite reader (as in, “since 2001”), but haven’t ventured onto the forums until recently. I’ve spent much of the past year and a half contributing and editing over at TV Tropes (you can find my contributor page in my profile if you care), specializing mostly in video games, but I’ve become somewhat burned out on that place as of late and was looking for a new project in which I could write stupid shit about video games. I batted around the idea of writing a walkthrough for a game that I knew very well, but that seemed like a lot of work to put in for something that would probably end up functionally identical to any number of other walkthroughs. That was when I wandered into Talking Time and spotted Brickroad’s FF1 LP. The light bulb went on.

As a gamer, I was raised on 2-D platformers and still enjoy them, but most of my money and time these days goes into longer games like RPGs, strategy games, and fusions of those two genres. Fittingly, then, the subject of this LP is in that last genre. It is one of my favorite games of the last ten years or so, a game that I’ve logged as many hours on as any other, the seventh entry in the Fire Emblem series and the first released in America…



Fire Emblem! Also known as Fire Emblem: Rekka no Ken or Fire Emblem: Blazing Sword, depending on how anal you are. We've got over 30 chapters of strategy-RPG goodness to get to, so let's get started.

My only restriction here is that I’m going to recruit everyone, and I’m not going to let any characters die. (As you may or may not know, Fire Emblem’s signature gameplay mechanic is permanent death, no revivals.) I won’t use savestates, and I won’t replay missions attempting to abuse the RNG, but I will restart a chapter if a character cacks it. We’re not leaving anyone behind here.



Our first order of business is to name our tactician.



Again, FE7 was the first Fire Emblem game to be localized for western release, so it has a lot of quirks to introduce western gamers to the series. (These were generally not well-received -- none of the later games retained them.) One of these is the tactician, the only player avatar in the history of the series. The tactician is an NPC with no lines (although the other characters are quick to offer "Brilliant strategy, [Tactician Name]!" at various points) and no real effect on gameplay. There was a rumor early on that units who shared an elemental alignment with the tactician received a five-percent bonus on all their statistic growths, which would be quite broken if true, but this is a myth. (There are even some FAQs at GameFAQs that operate under this assumption.) The tactician offers a small -- very small, as to be almost unnoticeable -- increase in accuracy and dodge percentage to units that share an affinity with him, and that's it.

Oh, and the tactician's performance is rated throughout the game by the CPU, but the ratings are so bizarre as to be nearly worthless unless you're intentionally going for a ranking run. (It penalizes you for promoting your units, for example, as well as a bunch of other things that don't really matter except that some designer decided they were bad.) It basically forces you to play in a really weird, non-intuitive style that has no benefits except that it improves your tactician ranking. But the tactician is basically worthless; name him (or her, again, it doesn't matter) whatever you want and give him whichever element lights your fire. Prepare to have the characters constantly praise him for his brilliance, though, so look forward to that if you've got low self-esteem.



For this run, I named the tactician after my screen name, because my real name is an actual character in the game, if you can believe that (Have fun guessing which one!), and I don't really care for the scatological joke names. (Note: This was played and written before it was decreed that the official Talking Time name was PANTS. Rest assured that I’ll do better next time.) As for affinity, it was May when I started this LP, so May (and hence Wind) it shall be.

Prologue: A Girl From The Plains



The other "Hey, first Fire Emblem game in the west, let's dumb it down" quirk in this game is the presence of Lyn's Tale. "Lyn's Tale" consists of the first ten chapters in the game, plus the prologue and a side chapter, and is painfully easy, existing only to familiarize newcomers to the game's mechanics. This would be bad enough, except that the computer also forces you to make certain moves on the default difficulty, and it manipulates the random number generator of the game in order to make tutorial-related points. Once you beat it once, you unlock Hard Mode for Lyn's Tale, which removes these restrictions and (unlike for the rest of the game) makes almost no other changes to the missions. Most players, when replaying the game, play Lyn's Tale on Hard Mode so they don't have to put up with the characters' patronizing instruction and the computer's blatant interventions, but as this is a fresh file, we have no such option. (You can play Lyn's Tale on Hard Mode and the rest on Normal, if you're so inclined.)

Onward. Exposition time!

Yeah, don't hold your breath, Lyn. It's never really explained who the tactician is or what the hell he thinks he's doing. I guess you're supposed to project yourself onto him.



Whoo! A reprieve.



Typical RPG hero, playing random do-gooder...



Are you kidding? I'm a conscientious objector. You know, a coward.



No, I don't fight; I merely get off on the godlike feeling of power I receive from callously manipulating the fates, the very lives, of other people. Dance on the end of my strings, puppets! Dance!

...Aaand now it's our turn. First, let's take a look at our new friend.



The statistics in FE are pretty standard for RPGs... you can probably figure out the function behind every stat in the left column. Strength (or magic on magicians) is damage dealt, skill is accuracy, speed affects how many attacks per round you get, luck controls dodging and criticals, and defense and resistance control physical and magical damage, respectively. The only stat particular to FE that's notable is Constitution. Constitution affects attack speed: Deduct your weapon's weight from your Con, and if the resulting number is negative, deduct it from your speed. If your speed, after applying all penalties, is 4 greater than your opponent's speed, you get to attack twice. Of course, the same applies to your opponents, so you don't want to give your characters weapons that are too heavy for them to use effectively. As for elemental affinity, in addition to the aforementioned tactician bonus, it also affects what statistics are increased in support relationships with other characters.

Strength and speed are the most important statistics in the game by a fair margin; any character with aspirations of greatness needs both, and a lack of one or the other is what dooms most characters in the end. Skill is the least important; most characters get at least decent scores in that department, and there aren't any characters who would be wonderful but for that damn accuracy score.

Lyn herself is a pretty solid character, game-wise, which is good because we have to use her, and if she dies, it's game over. She has extremely high speed, skill, and luck, which means she can dodge most attacks pretty easily. Her offense is a little more iffy, but she'll almost always attacks twice, and her strength growth is high enough that she'll usually have enough of a damage output to kill most enemies. She also gets a couple of powerful unique weapons over the course of the game, which ups her usefulness a bit. As for weaknesses, she pretty much has to dodge, as her defenses are crap, even at high levels. And she promotes relatively late in the game.



Oh, and you can get a little biographical information on any character by hitting "R" and highlighting their name. Incidentally, Lord is basically a non-class in this game: there are three, and they're all different, promoting in different ways and into different classes. Basically, it's shorthand: This character is important to the plot, so don't let them die. The other classes are much more consistent.



Ah, trusty Iron Sword. We'll probably work our way through a few dozen of these before the curtain closes on this little adventure, going through the very end of the game. Light, cheap, and with a whopping 46 uses per, they're among the most efficient weapons in the game for our many sword-wielders. Vulneraries are basic healing items, restoring 10 HP per use. They're handy in the early game, but 10 HP is not a lot, and later in the game, when you have dedicated healers on your team, the space it takes up in your inventory is a more valuable resource than the sense of security it gives you. Weirdly, there's no middle item in between Vulneraries and the rare "completely heal" items, Elixirs...



This seems as good a time as any to mention the Weapon Triangle... weapons in FE operate in a rock-paper-scissors fashion: swords beat axes, axes beat lances, and lances beat swords. Bows are neutral and have an entirely different set of properties.

In theory, all the weapons are equally powerful, but in practice, axes are much more useful, due to both the dearth of quality axe-users, the commonness of enemies using lances, and the fact that the actual axes are generally stronger than their sword and lance counterparts. The triangle isn't the be-all-end-all: A sufficiently strong character will be able to take virtually any enemy, regardless of their weapon type. Nonetheless, you want to take advantage of it whenever you can, as if you’re on the right side of a weapon matchup, you receive damage, accuracy, and dodge bonuses.

Oh, and rankings... there are six weapon ranks: E, D, C, B, A, and S. You build up your rank slowly as you use weapons. (Some weapons increase the rate at which they build your ranking.) A high ranking has no inherent advantage except in widening the field of weapons available to a character, except for S, which grants an attack, accuracy, and critical boost for that weapon type. A character can only S rank in one type of weapon... not that this is a problem, since there's not enough time in the game to S-rank more than one type. Lyn's at D for swords right now, but she'll almost certainly be up to S by the end of the game, in addition to adding bows to her arsenal.

This screen is also where our supports will be charted once that option becomes available. Sadly, this won't be until after Lyn's mode is in our rear-view mirrors, so it won't be relevant for a while. File it away and let's move on.



Now it's time to actually play. As you can see, there are only two enemies on this map, and one doesn't move. It would be basically impossible to lose even if you didn't have the game rigging all the attacks in your favor.



Here's the menu that indicates how our attack is likely to play out. We can't miss, we're going to attack twice for seven damage each, and we've got a 3% chance of a critical. Our opponent, meanwhile, has only a 39% chance of hitting, and it's actually lower than that: FE's hit percentages are actually higher if the displayed number is over around 50%, and lower if it's under. (You can find a chart that gives you real hit percentages here, if you’re curious.) In the unlikely event he connected, however, it would be a hammer blow for ten damage. Normally any enemy hit percentage under 40% is safe. Note the little arrows indicating our advantage in the weapon triangle. This menu is the latest you can go without committing yourself; if you don't like what you see at this point you can back off and send your character in a different direction, but press A here and we're committed to combat.



Round 1: Fight!

We attack...



Then our opponent gets his turn, whiffing, as we'd predicted. Then we attack again, although I wasn't able to get a good shot of it. (I got the white "flash" that occurs every time a character performs a successful strike.) Remember that every fight in this level is rigged, so there's no chance of losing.



Since we didn't kill anybody, we only get a pittance in terms of experience, just ten points. We go up a level every 100 points. Our foe counterattacked on the enemies' turn and we finished him off for a further 30 EXP, but not before he took a big ten-point chunk out of Lyn's HP. We'll need to heal before we take on the boss.



...As Lyn informs us.



Thank you for this random bit of information, Fire Emblem! You're not just a game, you're an education.



We heal up and move west.



This is quite a risky proposition... Were I not sure that the rigged RNG would ensure my safety, I wouldn't even attack here. Instead I'd wait, deal damage on the counterattack, then heal on my turn if necessary. Fighting defensively against bosses is safer much of the time if the boss can kill you in two hits. In a game with permadeath, you have to assume the worst.

I love this guy. Random level 3 boss in the prologue, and he's given himself an epithet.



We attack for ten points total, but the boss hits us for ten in return. Were this a real fight, I'd be gnawing my nails right about now. It's in the hands of God now.



Your concern is touching, Lyn, but surely you realize that this is just the prologue. There's no way you're dying to some random bandit at this point.



Whew!



And we get the obviously rigged critical on the counterattack for the win. "One percent chance", eh?



Level up, baby. This is one of only two reasons to play Lyn's Tale on Normal Mode: This brokenly good initial level up. It's much easier to murdalize the numerous axe-wielding Bandits that populate the early stages of the game when you're not waiting for that fifth strength point to show up.

I should probably discuss Fire Emblem's level up system here a little bit... stat gains in Fire Emblem are basically random. Not totally random, like, say, Shining Force, but random enough that you can't expect to get the same team every time you play the game. Basically, every character has a percentage for each stat, and every time they gain a level, they have a chance equal to that percentage of gaining a point in that stat. But, if you have, say, a 40% strength growth, you are not guaranteed to get four strength points for every ten levels you gain; you might get seven or eight, or you might get one or two. Therefore, unless a character has a really absurd growth rate in a stat, like 50% or 60%, you constantly have to monitor that character to make sure they're not falling behind, and if they do, you have to be willing to dump them for someone better.

(Unless you restart and abuse the system. But who does that?)

So, all the enemies are defeated. We're not done yet, though. In this mission, as in many others, the chapter isn't officially over until we "Seize" the space the boss was standing on. Only the main character can seize.



Now time for some more mouth waggling. Hang tight, as this will continue for a while.

And... end scene.



Next Time: Kent and Sain and pray for a seventh strength point

(Note: I'm not going to do a blow-by-blow for every chapter as I did for this one. Seeing as how later chapters consist of literally dozens of characters all going at it, that would quickly become both tedious to write and interminably long to read. I just did it for this one so people unfamiliar with the series could get an idea of the flow of gameplay and some other things I'll be talking about in more depth later on.)

This may be interesting. I never got into this particular FE because the prologue section really killed it for me. Way too long and easy.

Man, that prologue sounds like the worst thing ever. Still, you're off to a strong start, and so far you've done an admirable job of explaining everything. Looking forward to the next installment!

By the way, are Marth or Roy in this? :3c

I really liked this FE, for some reason. The tutorial, far from being annoying, kinda eased me back into the series after my Advance Wars excursions, and ended quick enough for me. Besides, Lyn is way more interesting as a character than the next guy.
No. Just a lookalike or two.

I liked how this entry in the series treated the player as a general on the playfield, but who didn't activly take part in battles. It was something I missed in Sacred Stones.

Marth is not. (He's the hero of FE1, FE3, and the forthcoming FE11, which take place in an entirely different universe than this game.) Roy is, but it's only a cameo in the ending. He's the hero of FE6, which is a chronological sequel to this game and was never localized, although a fan translation exists.

I either missed this entirely or forgot. Poo.

I really didn't think the prologue was that bad, but then I'd never played a Fire Emblem game before. If I had, I would have already understood everything and been annoyed by it.

I take it this is a GBA game or something? I've noticed that Fire Emblem fans seem to have an inflated sense of their chosen series, and that it's not nearly as well-known as they think it is. ;p

You should have given your character a funny name so that all the compliments become incredibly backhanded. "Excellent strategy, jerk!"

Yes, this is a GBA game. I'm restating the intro here somewhat, but it's actually the seventh Fire Emblem game, and it was the first to be released outside of Japan. We've gotten all of the subsequent ones (8: The Sacred Stones, 9: Path of Radiance, 10: Radiant Dawn), and I'm pretty sure 11 is announced.

Also, I demand that you use Rath and Nino.

Good luck with this LP, Priscilla!

I never actually finished this game, I think I ran out of steam like... five missions before the end? I dunno. I have a feeling that Advance Wars is to blame as well.

Anyway, also looking forward to this, and if you don't use the Myrmidon/Swordsmen, I will cry.

This wasn't my first SRPG- that would be Advance Wars- but it's one of the only one I liked and can still like. FFTA and FE8 are fine, but it's too easy to overlevel. Advance Wars was a pain, and I got bored of FE9. That said...I really need to try another SRPG...

Actually, I finished this with both Ro-Eliwood and Hector. It's quite a fun game, even if the prologue was a pain to go through a second time. Go go Nino!...

What? I used her, and Tanto knows she's good.

Advance Wars is more just Turn Based Strategy than Strategy RPG, isn't it? They're so similar, but I for some reason wouldn't class AW as an RPG. Maybe I just didn't think it through.

The game had its difficulty dramatically reduced to better suit the West? Jeez, I must really freakin' suck bad at it then.

And if you don't use Jaffar, we are going to mince some words, you and I.

I was hoping you would do a "no restarts" game where if someone dies you have to keep playing.

I totally lost steam in this game near the end. Turns out I sunk all my experience into characters with shitty returns on XP investment. Even so, I've always wanted to see if dragon girl really did spoiler. Thanks, Tanto!

:3
:3
:3

Has anyone else noted a bit of moe wish fulfillment in the character of Lyn?

It's really hard not to notice any UST with Florina.

Or maybe its just the internet playing tricks with my mind.

Also:
I'm inclined to agree.

I do not. This is a one life run in Contra; everyone goes home.

I was too much of a pussy to ever finish this game or even get very far in it, so I'm glad to actually learn something about its mechanics so I can PLAY the damn thing.

Don't discourage the boy. We can always let him get by with a few do overs here and there if things get bad.

The first time one of my characters died in FE, I just sat there dumbfounded until I turned off the GBA. I think naked terror is as good a response as any to how quickly your characters get mowed down by the enemy.

I'm embarrassed to admit that I let Florina die in the first battle she shows up in. She still had dialogue at the end of the battle, so I didn't think much of it. I didn't have an instruction manual with the game and knew very little about the series, since it had only just debuted in the US.

It wasn't until Kent died several battles later that I realized how the game worked and decided I needed to start over from the beginning. :/