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The second game in the Fire Emblem series and was available exclusively in Japan for the Famicon in 1992. It was remade in 2017 for the Nintendo 3DS, under the name Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia.
The story itself takes place on Valentia, an distant continent that's to the west of Archanea. Several generations ago, there were two gods watching over the people of Valentia; the benevolent Mila and the stoic Duma. While Duma believed in one's personal strength and self-sufficiency, Mila preferred to nurture the humans. The pair didn't get along, their arguments where less than civilized, and their viewpoints became more extreme. The pair eventually ended their conflict and went their separate ways.
Duma and his followers claimed the northern half of Valentia to found the Empire of Rigel, and nation with an strong emphasis on militaristic might. While Mila and her followers settled in the south, creating the kingdom of Zofia; which was renowned for it's fertility and luxury. As time passed, the people of both countries took their gods' teachings an little bit too literally: Rigel became too militarized and war-like so it started preparing to invade Zofia, which has been overcome by the greed and personal ambitions of an few key leaders and especially after the mysterious disappearance of "Mother" Mila.
Not every single hope is lost, however. In the Zofian village named Ram, a retired Rigelian knight named Mycen raised two youngsters named Alm and Celica together (though Celica had to go live into the Priorate of Novis after some time). Both of them have odd marks on their hands, signaling them as The Chosen Ones for each of the countries they wre born in: Alm is this for Rigel, Celica is this for Zofia. On one hand Alm and his friends (Tobin, Gray, Kliff, and in the remake Faye) join the Deliverance alias a resistance group that tries to restore Zofia and deal with the Rigelian invasion; on the other, Celica and her friends from Novis (Bey, Mae and Genny) go on their own journey so they can investigate Mila's whereabouts and restore the damaged lands without fighting...
- Actually Four Mooks: Fights on the global map are usual represented by a single character. Challenge them and you'll have an small army to contend with.
- And in a similar vein, an single enemy patrolling an dungeon represents several on the battlefield.
- Adaptational Attractiveness: One of the selling points of the 3DS remake is the improved artwork for the character portraits of just about everyone. Nuibaba, in particular, went from being an grotesque green monster to an attractive witch and Vain Sorceress who's been trying to preserve her beauty for as long as she can.
- Adaptational Sexuality: Leon's sexuality was never explored in Gaiden. In Echoes, however, he's very, very Camp Gay.
- Similarly, Python and Forsyth's sexualities was not touched on in Gaiden but Echoes strongly implies that they're both bisexual.
- An Axe to Grind:
- The bandits that are encountered early on in the game attack with axes as opposed to fighting with swords or lances.
- And certain types of Terrors also use them, but these are kind of rare.
- Anti-Air: As usual, arrows deal more damage to flying enemies.
- Anti-Magic: In addition to automatically gaining five Resistance points, Dread Fighters have another skill that halves the damage they take from magical attacks. For reference, this is an game where there's an large number of enemy magician and hardly anybody else, besides the archers, is geared towards fighting them.
- And there's also a status effects that prevents magicians from casting spells. Although it's usually Terrors who can inflict this.
- And there's an few Combat Arts that can temporarily seal an enemy's magic.
- Arbitrary Headcount Limit: You can bring up to 9 more characters with you whenever you're exploring an dungeon as opposed to using your entire party on the battlefield.
- Beef Gate: Technically speaking, any fight where you're underleveled and escape qualifies. But since most of those fights are mandatory, an better example would be the Necrodragon in the Dragon Shrine: It's perfectly stationary, blocking an room with several treasure chests, and there's actually four of them once you pick a fight with it.
- The 3DS remake introduces an optional trip to the neighboring continent, Archanea. And the Archanea Seaway starts off with an upgraded, yet manageable version of the pirate raids from the second chapter. But it ends with a battle against several powerful Dagons that uses an attack that ignores your defense stat. And just to rub salt in the wound, there's an constant stream of enemy reinforcements in a game that never relied on this mechanic.
- The midpoint of Thabes Labyrinth is a trial featuring an different breed of dragon that's backed by an variety of enemies and you can only use 10 characters to fight them.
- Black and White Magic: Although the spells are divided by what class the user is; but upon promotion, the magicians have an choice of attacking with magic or healing a nearby ally.
- Black Mage: The Mage class exclusively relies on offensive magic.
- Sages are the male promotion of Mages and gain an ability that improves their magical accuracy by 10%, along with a few new offensive spells and one short-ranged healing spell.
- Blade on a Stick: The weapon of choice for cavalry and armored soldiers is an lance.
- Bling of War: Where the lowly Archer in the 3DS remake is an edited version of the Soldier model (which is just a lightly armored man wearing an helmet) and the Sniper class gains an better suit of armor; Bow Knights are adorned with feathers and gold accents on their helmets and badges.
- Broken Bridge: Alm's party is unable to enter Rigel from the western Sluice Gate until Celica' party manages to open the eastern counterpart at the Temple of Mila. Otherwise, Zofia will be flooded.
- Halfway through Alm's route in Chapter 4, a volcano called Mount Dragonsblight erupts and seals the only route to Rigel Castle. Fortunately, the path opens after Celica's journey is completed.
- Cannon Fodder: The Terrors that an Cantor can summon are mainly used to wear down your troops, since there's no shortage of them and they're easily disposed of.
- Canon Foreigner: Faye (Alm and Celica's friend, plus his Unlucky Childhood Friend), Fernand (Clive and Clair's Childhood Friend who goes through a Face Heel Turn), Prince Berkut (Rudolf's nephew and heir and Alm's cousin), Rinea (Berkut's Love Interest), Conrad (the local Char Clone of sorts and Celica's long-lost half brother)
- Cast From Hit Points: Nearly every magical spell drains the caster's health, and using stronger spells normally carries an higher price than the weaker ones. Advanced classes have different ways to get around this: Saints can cast the Life Drain spell Nosferatu to heal themselves, Sages gain the Renewal skill that restores some health points by turns, and Priestesses can attack with magic AND swords.
- And using most of the Combat Arts also drains the wielder's health.
- Combination Attack: The three Pegasus riders from Celica's route (Palla, Catria and Est - yes, the same ladies from the Archanea games) can use the Triangle Attack, which has each sister attacking an single enemy in quick succession.
- Cosmetic Award: The 3DS remake has an large list of medals that earned for completing certain milestones, like slaughtering an certain number of Necrodragons, for example.
- Crippling Overspecialization: Due to how most of the classes are vulnerable to magic, it's kind of tempting to field magicians. However, they aren't known for their endurance and they also need to be regularly healed in order to cast their magic; if not, then they'll be rendered defenselessness.
- Damage Over Time: Being poisoned in this game results in the afflicted character losing 10 hit points at the start of their turns.
- Disc One Nuke: The Dracoshield that Desaix[1] uses at the end of Chapter One grants an massive boost to the wearer's Defense and Resistance while constantly healing them. But the 3DS remake makes it pretty clear that you're not supposed to fight Desaix, who is essentially unbeatable without Level Grinding. However, should you actually defeat him instead of Slayde; nearly any character that's available in Alm's route has an massive advantage in the third and fourth chapters of the game.
- The Dreaded: Terrors normally get this treatment on account of being an instrument of divine retribution, literally being the walking dead, attacking anyone they see, and they keep coming back after they have been "killed."
- While Necrodragons are dangerous on the own, the one (or pair if you're playing on Hard Mode) guarding the entrance to the Seabound Shrine has managed to scare the populace of Novis Island.
- Dracolich: As their name implies, Necrodragons are undead dragons. What makes them bad news is that they're supposed to outclass your team, can easily cover an lot of ground, and the one at the Seabound Shrine has gained an reputation at Novis Greatport for guarding the entrance to it.
- Dronejam: An easy way to handle most of the pirate raids in Chapter 2 is to have Valbar, Kamui, or Saber stand on the gangplank while having Leon and the magicians attack from an distance. Otherwise, you'll be surrounded by enemies on your ship if you don't find a way to stop them from crossing over.
- An good way to protect the Clerics/Saints, archers, and your magicians is to arrange most of your army in an line or L-shape, with the cavalry at the edges of it and whoever that can tank physical hits at wherever the enemy is going to attack. As the enemy spends their turn picking fights that they can't really finish, your next move should be using your ranged attackers and melee combatanta to finish off the first wave and have your cavalry weaken the next wave of enemies.
- Bear in mind that this does not work with fliers, since they can't be pinned down like this.
- And this also works in Alm's route when you can have one unit to physically block the only bridge on a bisected map to avoid being overun by the enemy cavalry.[2]
- An good way to protect the Clerics/Saints, archers, and your magicians is to arrange most of your army in an line or L-shape, with the cavalry at the edges of it and whoever that can tank physical hits at wherever the enemy is going to attack. As the enemy spends their turn picking fights that they can't really finish, your next move should be using your ranged attackers and melee combatanta to finish off the first wave and have your cavalry weaken the next wave of enemies.
- Get on the Boat: The majority of the second chapter involves Celica riding an boat from the remote island where the Novis Priory is to Zofia Harbor.
- Glass Cannon: Generally speaking, magicians of all stripes have problems taking damage on account of their mediocre health. Throwing in the fact that they have to spend their health points to cast their magic exacerbates the problem. But with the exception of the Dread Fighters, other magicians, and certain Terrors ; hardly anything else can handle being attacked by magic.
- Health Damage Asymmetry: While the exact numbers and statistical growth rates varies by their classes, most of the playable characters start off with an mediocre amount of health and the ability to win their fights within 2-5 attacks. Terrors, on the other hand, have an lot of health to compensate for their lack of strength and defense.
- In the Hood: The generic Arcanists are magicians who wields dark magic and wear an ornate robe that cover their faces with an hood, which mainly serves to draw attention to their shadowed faces and glowing eyes.
- On the other hand, Dread Fighters wear an hood and a mask to conceal their identities because they're assassins.
- Life Drain: The Nosferatu spell heals the caster half of what the spell dealt as damage.
- Magic Knight: A Priestess is an female magician who knows an variety of magic and also wields an sword. Given how the other classes are usually limited to dealing out just one kind of damage, this is as about as fun as it sounds.
- Mighty Glacier: Knights and Barons can take an beating from conventional weaponry and they also have the strength to provide an good fight, as well. But their movement range is among the worst of the playable classes.
- Red Mage: Technically, most of the playable magic-using classes qualifies. But the only that truly fits are the Priestesses, since they have an (mostly) equal number of offensive and supportive spells.
- Scratch Damage: An negative result in damage calculation is an single point of damage to whoever being attacked. It doesn't matter how high the defender's Resistance or Defense is, they'll still lose one of their fifty or so hit points.
- Soul Eater: Want to be imbued with an lot of power? Why not offer up someone else's soul to Duma? Apparently, he'll give you more power if it was an loved one or someone important. . . This is one of the ways to become a Witch, and it's what happens to Rinea when Berkut loses it and offers the two of them (but especially her) to Duma. . .
- Video Game Weapon Stats:
- The "Mt" stat of an weapon or spell is simply added onto a character's "ATK" stat.
- An weapon's or spell's weight reduces an character's speed that by an corresponding amount, which can deprive them of an second attack.
- The critical hit rate ranges from being unmodified to being boosted or reduced by a certain percentage.
- Range is normally irrelevant until archery and magic is involved, which jumps from the standard range of an adjacent tile in a cardinal direction to 3 squares and possibily more, depending on the circumstances.
- Damage is divided between magical and physical. And unlike some of the other Fire Emblem games, their power is drawn from the same stat.
- Accuracy usually takes an penalty whenever you have an weapon equipped. And some of the more powerful spells are an little bit on the inaccurate side.
- ↑ This is actually his body double, but nobody on his side cares about what happens to him.
- ↑ For context, an recurring map design is an open field, with two forts on the opposing side and there's an impassable river horizontally running through the center of the battlefield. You normally have quite an few opponents on your side of the map and it takes several turns for the enemy to reach and cross the bridge that's in the center of the map. All it takes to hold it is a healer, an archer, and someone who can withstand the might of an dozen angry horsemen.