Fire Emblem Fates / Tropes A to G

Tropes A-G for Fire Emblem Fates.

A

• Acceptable Breaks from Reality: The jars of poison and medicine in one chapter of Conquest look almost identical to each other (one is ever so slightly greener than the other), but fortunately, the game will inform you just what jars are poison and which jars are medicine.
• Accent Upon The Wrong Syllable: The English version of Azura's song contains the line "Yet the waters ever change", putting the wrong emphasis on the "ers" in "Waters". Additionally, it also features the lyric "A douBLE-edged blade cuts your heart in two".
• Aerith and Bob: Nohr has plenty of exotic or regal-sounding names like Prince Xander, Princess Elise and Dark Mage Nyx. Local Gentle Giant Nice Guy Benny is the odd name out.^note This does not count in the Japanese version, where his name, Benoit, fit right in On the Hoshidan side, most of the names are unusual Japanese names, like Orochi, Oboro, and Hinoka.
• Alas, Poor Villain:
  • Zola being executed by Garon for begging to spare the avatar in Birthright.
  • After Anthony fails to kill Corrin, he begs to Anankos to not be punished before his master turns him into a Faceless. His battle dialogue implies he's either completely mentally broken or in a state of And I Must Scream. Defeating him is basically a Mercy Kill.
  • Also, anyone who is being controlled by Anankos.
    • In particular, Garon in Birthright, who had been portrayed as mostly unsympathetic up until his death, where the end of his final speech induces a bit of pity from the Avatar.
  • Anankos himself. He's a full-blown Tragic Villain who did not choose to be a genocidal maniac and wage war on Hoshido and Nohr, but was forced into it by degeneration. He even took measures to prevent this, but all of those measures failed. However, this is primarily revealed through DLC, such as Hidden Truths and Heirs of Fate.
• All Just a Dream: The prologue. You're on a battlefield where Hoshido and Nohr troops are calling you their sibling, the music sounds off... and then you're woken up.
• all lowercase letters: The Japanese subtitle of if is, at least.
• All Men Are Perverts: The male characters generally have more...suggestive lines in the skinship minigame. Out of the female characters, only Camilla gets close to being as risqué as them. Case in point:
  Niles: "For all that I had to endure...you better prepare yourself tonight. Even if you cry or scream...I won't stop." "Close your eyes...Don't worry...I'm just going to touch you."
  Forrest: "Everything suits you so there's worth in making clothes. But...I...really know that you look best when wearing nothing."
  Jakob: "In front of everyone else, I am only your butler. But right here and now, I want to make a mess of you."
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us: Occasionally your home castle will come under attack by invaders. You can pull this on other players' castles if you wish.
• Alternate Continuity:
  • Played with. The Fates DLC "Before Awakening" states that the kingdoms of Nohr and Hoshido are considered legends in the in-game lore of Awakening. Whether the two kingdoms actually existed in that world is up to question, as the continent where they're located is never mentioned by name in Fates.
  • Played with in the case of the Echoes DLC. The DLC maps "Cypher Legends" I & II contain Fire Emblem Cipher characters who are Nohrian and Hoshidan, further implying that the events of Fates and Echoes may be contemporary and/or take place in the same world. Unlike the "Before Awakening" Fates DLC, there are no supernatural/extemporary elements that lead to the encounters, further driving the point that said Nohrian and Hoshidan characters may indeed live in the world of Archanea/Valentia.
• Alternate Universe: The Fire Emblem characters encounter via the amiibo feature are from an alternate world: the world of Super Smash Bros..
• Ambidextrous Sprite: Characters with asymmetrical features (such as Saizo's scarred eye, Kagero and Camilla's bangs, etc.) will be flipped depending on which direction they're facing.
• And Your Reward Is Parenthood: When you pair up two characters, they'll eventually have children. These children become new units via a Pocket Dimension that allows them to grow up quickly.
• An Interior Designer Is You: While maybe not a simple house, there is a customizable base known as "My Castle" that will let the player create their own village, placing buildings around the pavement.
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • When starting a new game file, the game gives you the option to skip the first five chapters and go right to chapter six, which is where the path branches into one of the three routes. If you picked the same gender as in your last playthrough, all your units (which, at this point, will only be made up of the Avatar, Azura, and Jakob or Felicia) keep their levels stats. However, this will not allow you to pick the difficulty; it will automatically use the same difficulty as your last playthrough. You also get stuck with a Level 1 Felicia/Jakob if you switch your Avatar's gender.
  • The paralogues for the second generation characters are scaled to your progress in the story - and the second generation characters can't join promoted. At this point, they come with a "Child Seal" that auto-promotes them to the average level of the enemies on the map, allowing you to use them immediately.
  • If the player is having a particularly difficult time, Phoenix mode is always an available option, though difficulty can only be lowered and not raised.
  • If you have enough copies of a base weapon and enough ore, the game will allow you to forge higher-level weapons in a single command rather than going through the arduous process of combining them 2 at a time into +1 weapons, then combining those 2 at a time into +2 weapons, and so on. If you're forging at discount, this could potentially mean making a +6 weapon.
• Anti-Grinding: Striking a balance between the ability to class change and grinding, Fates removes the ability to reset levels when changing classes. In classic Fire Emblem fashion, only by promoting can a unit's level reset to 1, this means the unit effectively stops growing once they hit level 20 while in a promoted class. However, the new, highly expensive Eternal Seal can raise a unit's level cap by 5, allowing for further growth.
• Anyone Can Die: Lots of important characters die regardless of what path is taken. Aside from obvious gameplay unit deaths, certain character deaths are avoidable depending on the player's choices, and some will die depending on your chosen route no matter what. The characters who are confirmed to die under the above listed reasons are as follows: Sumeragi and Mikoto^note both die protecting the Avatar, the former from Garon and the latter from her Came Back Wrong husband, both later killed by the party with each other after being brought back by Anankos in the third route, Kaze^note can fall off a cliff by preventing the Avatar from doing so in Birthright, Flora ^note self-immolation during Birthright, Kaden or Keaton^note the boss of a chapter featuring their pack in Conquest and Birthright respectively, Charlotte and Benny^note Are enemy characters in Chapter 14 of Birthright. They can also either be recruited or killed in Revelation depending on whether or not you talk to them as Elise., Lilith^note dies protecting the Avatar from Hans in Birthright and a Faceless in Conquest, Arthur and Effie ^note can be talked to or killed in Camilla's second boss fight, Elise^note took a hit from Xander intended for the Avatar during Birthright, Laslow and Peri^note die in battle along with their lord in Birthright unless if one defeats the lord fast enough., Xander ^note Suicide by Cop after Elise's death, Hinata and Oboro^note same as Laslow and Peri/Saizo and Kagero, but with Takumi on the second to last battle with him in Conquest., Saizo and Kagero^note same as Laslow and Peri, but with Ryoma, Ryoma^note commits Seppuku to protect the Avatar from being killed by Garon after being spared, Garon^note killed before the story even starts after he had Elise and replaced by a fake from then on, Azura^note decomposes into water after the battle with "Garon" in Birthright and Conquest, Takumi ^note brainwashed and killed by the Nohrian army in Conquest as the final boss, Shura^note can either be spared or killed in Nohr. Should you fail to recruit him by the Revelation route in chapter 15, he can also die., Izana^note died while using all his life force in delivering a message from the gods for the Avatar in the third route, and Scarlet^note killed by a "shadow" and resurrected by Anankos as a brainwashed servant on the third route and killed in battle during chapter 13 of Conquest. That's a lot of characters.
• Arbitrary Headcount Limit: Once the player fills out their army, the game only allows bringing a certain amount of units into battle (which varies based on the map). This is a staple of the series, for the most part.
• Arc Words: The opening verse to "Lost in Thoughts All Alone" ("You are the ocean's gray waves, destined to seek / Life beyond the shore, just out of reach") is sung by Azura several times over the course of each story. The entirety of the song is about the Avatar, the 3 major routes they can take, and Anankos's pleas for help.
• Archnemesis Dad: It was hinted that Garon and his son Xander will eventually share this relationship. Actually, they don't; it's Garon's posthumous impostor that the cast comes to blows with.
  • The player character, however, plays this absolutely straight, since the Greater-Scope Villain on both routes (and flat-out Big Bad of the third path) is their dragon-god father.
• Aristocrat Team: With careful planning, everyone can be related to royalty by marriage.
• Armor Is Useless: Averted. Some skills and weapons have a secondary effect of lowering the defense stat of the enemy they hit, and its visual effect on the character models is always Clothing Damage.
• Artistic License – Biology: Just like Awakening, each of the second-generation characters are fixed to one specific parent (In this case, their fathers). Who their fathers marry and have them with has absolutely no bearing on their physical appearance sans their hair color, which is obviously not how real-life genetics work.
• Art Shift: The first trailer opens with fairly realistic-looking CGI before switching to a more stylized version like that of Awakening's pre-rendered cutscenes. The game itself also does this from Awakening's artstyle and a more traditional anime style most noticeably when the Avatar transforms into and from their dragon form the first time.
• Artificial Brilliance: While the AI will still send generics to their deaths to wear your powerful units down and make you restart if you're playing Classic, it has learned a few tricks to annoy you. Some enemy ninjas have the Lunge skill, an ability that allows them to swap places with targets who survive their attacks. Naturally, the computer always figures the best order to send units, pulling them away from a partner they may be supporting, trapping them behind enemy lines, or just in general cherry-tap them. They also use Shurikens, which are rather weak, but rarely miss, and they significantly reduce your stats - meaning the tank you put in the front may suddenly become too weak to hold the line against them.
  • It is possible to reduce maximum health temporarily via staves or traps. Sure enough, if you put a Fighter (Who has high health, but very low Defense and even lower Resistance) in the way, guess who's going to get hit with it? They become an even bigger Glass Cannon, since a single attack they could normally shrug off will become fatal.
  • One way the Pair-Up mechanics have been adjusted is allowing the enemies to do it. Naturally, they will take advantage of this.
  • On the Conquest path, enemies are smart enough to stop charging at your units if they have no chance of damaging them. However, if they can debuff a unit (using Shurikens or Seal X skills) or deal damage via skills (Poison Strike, Grisly Wound etc.), they will do it and send more units to take advantage of this.
  • An AI unit that has low health and is near a fort will make it a priority to head straight to that fort so it can get healed.
  • Sometimes the AI is smart enough to wait until a unit is in range of multiple enemies before attacking them all at once.
• Ascended Meme:
  • Saizo and Beruka's C-support (in the international version at least) is believed to be a nod to a meme where people made joke support conversations where the silent or mean-looking characters just stared at each other going "...", like the fanmade one between Jaffar and Rath.
  • Ryoma and Orochi's English supports also reference the "lobster lord" meme, with Orochi saying that Ryoma looks like "a lobster on a bad hair day."
• A Taste of Power: Chapter 6 of Conquest/Birthright lets the player control all the royals of their respective routes before they're permanently recruited later. Played a bit straighter in Conquest since all the Nohr royals (minus Elise) are promoted and stronger.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Applicable to the Faceless (large, ogre-like creatures) and Stoneborn (rock-hurling Blob Monsters), both of which are significantly bigger than your own units. They're essentially Fates's equivalent to the monster battles seen in previous installments.
• Award-Bait Song: "Lost In Thoughts All Alone" or "if~ hitori omou" in Japan, the game's main theme and the recurring song that Azura sings, is a rather somber example. The full version, played over the end credits, even makes good use of sparkly synth and Truck Driver's Gear Change.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Forging weapons much beyond +2, maybe +3 if it's a basic Iron weapon or something else easily obtainable. The way forging works is that you take two of the same weapon and merge them into a weapon with a bonus 1 level higher, and you also have to spend an amount of a certain type of ore (based on the weapon type) equal to the bonus of the weapon you're trying to create (minus one if your Smithy is of a class that wields that weapon type, though this can't reduce the cost of making a +1 weapon from 1 to 0). So a +1 weapon requires two unforged weapons and a single piece of ore, but a +2 requires two +1 weapons and either 1 or 2 pieces of the proper ore. The maximum is +7, which gives +11 to might, +20 to hit rate, and +15 to crit rate if the weapon is capable of making a critical hit and +11 to might and +30 to hit rate if it is not—which puts most Iron weapons on par with the S-ranked weapons in raw might without the drawbacks that the stronger weapons come with, but also requires 128 copies of the base weapon and 184 pieces of the proper ore (at discount). Note that this also means it's impossible to forge a +7 weapon from scratch in a single go, since the Cap on each type of ore is 99.
  • In a downplayed example, the A-Rank weapons, while devastatingly powerful, have significant drawbacks to discourage spamming them. For instance, the Ginnungagap tome has a crushing Might of 15, but after use in combat, it halves the wielder's Magic stat for their next attack, which severely cripples their damage output (albeit temporarily).
• Awesome Moment of Crowning: All three routes end with one. In Birthright, Ryoma is crowned king of Hoshido, with Leo's coronation as king of Nohr on the way. In Conquest, Xander is crowned king of Nohr, with Hinoka's coronation as queen of Hoshido on the way. And in Revelation, the Avatar is crowned the king/queen of Valla, along with Ryoma and Xander being crowned kings of their respective nations.

B

• Background Music Override: Used tragically during Chapter 26 of Birthright, the chapter where Corrin faces off against Xander. In it, Xander challenges Corrin to a one-on-one duel and completely dominates them, and when he's about to finish Corrin off, Elise suddenly dives in front of him to take the blow meant for Corrin and is killed. Cue "Lament", which continues to play in the preceding cutscenes and into the battle preperations screen, and "Thorn in You" as the battle music for the chapter.
• Backstory Invader: Anankos's good side had given false backstories for Laslow, Selena, and Odin when they come to Nohr, and are subsequently appointed as retainers to the royals. Xander points out how odd he finds it that he had never heard of Laslow until his appointment as a retainer in spite of having records suggesting his existence in Nohr — but regardless, Xander won't argue with the results. Niles additionally points this out as well, saying that Selena basically appeared out of thin air.
• Badass Family: Both the Hoshidan and Nohrian royal families are full of Warrior Princes and Princesses. In the third route, Revelation, you can have all eight of both the Hoshidan and Nohrian families in your army, and their children. Much like Chrom in the previous game, you can theoretically have an entire battlefield of nothing but the Avatar's extended family.
• Bag of Holding: While every character has an inventory of 5 items, there's also a Convoy that holds all of your unused equipment. The Avatar has access to this Convoy at all times if you need to grab something during battle.
• Balance Buff: Heartseeker (the Fates equivalent of Fire Emblem: Awakening's Hex skill) had its effectiveness increased. It now lowers enemy Avoid by 20 instead of 15.
• Bald of Evil: Hans, a bald Nohrian soldier, is clearly not a friendly fellow from his intimidating appearance alone. He later reveals that he is only in it for his own gain.
• Battle Amongst the Flames:
  • Chapter 21 of Birthright has you fight your way through a giant lava mountain.
  • Chapter 25 of Conquest has Ryoma use his Raijinto to light up some braziers to look cool before your final confrontation.
  • Chapter 16 of Revelation features walls of fire that rise and fall. Naturally, they can be manipulated with Dragon Veins.
• Battle Theme Music: The game is fairly consistent in giving people battle themes based on plot importance.
  • Unplayable and capturable Hoshidan bosses get "Rage in the Light".
  • Playable Hoshidan bosses get "Misery in Hand".
  • Hoshidan royals get "You of the Light".
  • Unplayable and capturable Nohrian bosses get "Squirm in the Dark".
  • Playable Nohrian bosses get "Condemnation".
  • Nohrian royals get "You of the Dark".
  • Invader/Vallite bosses get "Puppet's Feast". The fact that Takumi uses this theme on the Conquest route ought to be a major red flag.
  • Major Invader/Vallite bosses get "Destiny By Blood".
  • Nohrian King Garon and possessed Gunter get "Lost King's Supper".
  • Empty Vessel Garon and Anankos' base form get "Fantastical Feast".
  • The three Final Bosses get "End of All", a remix of the main theme. Blight Dragon Garon gets the "Sky" variant, possessed Takumi gets "Land", and Anankos' true form gets "Below". In addition, Anankos gets another variant called "Lost in the Waves" as the Final Boss of the "Heirs of Fate" DLC.
• Becoming the Mask: In Birthright, Zola puts on a masquerade of a Heel–Face Turn, and when his masquerade ends, asks Garon to spare the Avatar's life because he's come to respect the Avatar.
• Beauty Equals Goodness: The leader of peaceful Hoshido, Queen Mikoto, is beautiful and serene-looking. Garon, the king of Nohr, is old and sinister-looking, while the noble Prince Xander is more handsome.
• Beef Gate: Downplayed, as it can be passed at any time (in fact, there's no real way to prepare for it), but Revelation's notoriously difficult Chapter 7 (in which you're direly undermanned for the game's only Fog of War level) seems designed to chase off players who haven't completed the other two routes yet, especially since the difficulty swiftly levels off right after.
• Big Bad: The Nohrian ruler, Garon, is an antagonistic force in both Birthright and Conquest, but in different capacities.
  • In the Hoshido path, he is in a more straightforwardly-antagonistic role as the ruler of the invading kingdom and (somewhat predictably) is the Final Boss.
  • In the Nohr path, it's his glory-seeking influence on the kingdom which you are ultimately trying to reform.
  • Then there's the third path, where he gets demoted to The Dragon of the real Big Bad, Anankos.
• Big Fancy Castle: Exaggerated Trope. The last 4 missions in Birthright and Conquest (and 5 in Revelation) take place within different areas of the enemy faction's main castle.
• Bittersweet Ending: Birthright and Conquest both end in this way.
  • In Birthright, King Garon is dead, the most corrupt villains of Nohr are killed off, and both kingdoms are now at peace with the implication that Nohr will be rebuilt into a better land. However, the road also involves the Avatar's adoptive family and friends being killed off, including Xander, Elise, and Flora. Lilith dies protecting the Avatar from Hans. Kaze could potentially also end up being a casualty (if you don't have an A-rank support with him). Along with numerous people being forced or tricked into fighting against Hoshido and dying against them.
  • In Conquest, King Garon is revealed to be an impostor and defeated, along with the corrupt individuals Iago and Hans. However, Hoshido was still invaded, causing many innocent lives lost in a pointless war, but the Avatar was able to save some even at the cost of others. In addition, Ryoma commits suicide in order to save the Avatar from execution, Lilith dies protecting the Avatar from a Faceless, and Takumi is lost to corruption and must be killed off.
  • To make matters worse, Azura dies on both routes with the Avatar unable to save her, along with the fact that the true Big Bad that instigated the Hoshido/Nohr war is still alive, with the implication that it will one day make a return.
• Blatant Lies: In the Before Awakening DLC map, the Avatar tells Chrom that the invaders they're chasing after are actually "invisible boars". Chrom is at least willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, while Frederick views the party with suspicion (although he still helps the Avatar).
• Blood Magic: Overlaps with Royalty Superpower and Royal Blood. Nohr and Hoshido's royalty have blood from divine dragons, which let them use dragon veins to manipulate the environment. You can also literally drink divine dragon blood to gain dragon vein powers for a time, as demonstrated in the Hidden Truths DLC.
• Book Ends:
  • In Birthright, Xander is the boss of the second chapter and the second-to-last chapter. In Conquest, Takumi is your first ally and your last foe.
  • Birthright begins with Corrin being woken up by Felicia and Flora for a training session with Xander. After being struck down by Garon's dragon form, Corrin imagines being woken up by Flora (who's dead) in a dream.
  • Corrin meets Azura by the shore of a lake in Hoshido. In the ending of Birthright, Corrin returns there after Azura disappears and sees her spirit.
• Boring, but Practical:
  • The lower-tier weapons, while obviously weaker than higher-tier weapons, don't have major secondary penalties attached to them.
  • The Cupid Bow replenishes the enemy's health. While it is usually a Joke Weapon, it is helpful for grinding low-level archers.
• Bowdlerise:
  • The face-rubbing skinship minigame was removed from the Western releases. Calling allies to the Avatar's Private Quarters or having the Avatar bond with their spouse will skip the minigame, playing the session completion dialogue and rewarding the support boost for free. The minigames for waking up the Avatar's spouse and blowing away bath steam still remain.
  • The support conversations between male Corrin and Soleil were rewritten in the Western release, as the original version featured the Avatar Slipping a Mickey in her drink, which many interpreted as him applying gay conversion therapy on Soleil. Instead of the "magic powder" in the Japanese version, Corrin has Soleil wear a blindfold and perform a visualization exercise.
  • Almost all of the remotely risqué body pieces have been Dummied Out of the Accessory Shop in the Western release, with the only thing left to purchase being the Bath Towel. Characters can now only be seen in their swimsuits while visiting the Hot Spring or in the swimwear option in the Accessory Shop, while their underwear is only visible if they receive sufficient Clothing Damage or are hit with certain skills.
  • A lot of Niles's dialogue was toned down due to how innuendo-laden it was in Japanese. For example, the C Support with Arthur originally had Niles say an innuendo about wanting to "ram something else in him", but the localization is just him teasing Arthur about saying something offensive.
  • In Fuga's C Support with the male Avatar in the original Japanese, he mentions that he and Sumeragi would get kicked out of brothels when they were younger. The localization changed this to him talking about Sumeragi being a prankster that would play tricks on the royal servants.
• Boyish Short Hair:
  • Hinoka the Sky Knight sports short, bright red hair.
  • Scarlet wears her hair short, as well.
  • It's also a choice of hairstyle for a female Avatar.
• Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs:
  • In Conquest, while the Avatar's group is having trouble passing through Wind Tribe territory, Elise notices that Camilla's feminine wiles failed to sway them. She concludes that they must not like Nohr or women... or just Nohrian women.
  • If Sakura fights in the Boo Camp DLC, she asks if the creature she's facing is a ghost, a monster, or a ghost monster.
  • In Ignatius's C support with his mother, the mother asks if a spider or a worm got into Ignatius' tent. He replies that it's a spider riding a worm.
  • In Laslow and Saizo's Revelation supports, Laslow mentions having lost girls to a masked man and a scary-looking guy (Gerome and Brady, respectively) before. He then concludes that he had no chance against a scary guy in a mask, which he proceeds to cry hysterically over.
• Breakable Weapons: Averted for the first time in the main series since Fire Emblem Gaiden in 1992. All weapons are indestructible, but healing staffs/rods still have limited uses. The trade-off is that high-tier weapons now have stat penalties.
• Breather Episode: Conquest Chapter 18 involves the party dealing with Izana, the very eccentric Archduke of Izumo, and him forcing the Nohrian royal siblings to attend a peaceful party with the Hoshidan royal siblings. The humor of the situation gives a break from the serious tone found in the rest of the version's narrative.
• Bringing Back Proof: In the Conquest route, Corrin knows he will be expected to kill his siblings despite not wanting to do so. However, being far enough ahead of King Garon, he is able to spare his sister, Hinoka, by taking their weapon and telling them to flee before anyone can find out how things really played out.
• Brother–Sister Incest: The Avatar and Azura are allowed to marry their siblings from Hoshido or Nohr, and even have children with them. This is made possible by the fact that they are not directly related and are not blood siblings with either royal family.
• Bust-Contrast Duo: The older sisters of the two opposing families Nohr and Hoshido are the big-breasted, motherly Camilla and the flat-chested, tomboyish Hinoka.

C

• Call-Back:
  • Keaton and Laslow's "C" support has Keaton excitedly showing a massive bug to Laslow, who responds with disgust and fear after Keaton had done that to him previously. As one of Lucina's possible siblings in Awakening, it's fully possible for him to have been terrorized by a huge bug in the past.
  • Caeldori's A support with Mitama has one to, "Make Him Fall for You in a Fortnight", a book mentioned in Cordelia/Severa's exp tile events. Funnier still is that Caeldori intends on having Mitama reading said book, and with Severa's comments on it in Awakening heavily implying it to be a trashy romance novel at best.
  • Asugi mentions in his C support with the Female Avatar that he was going to give them the nickname "Bubbles" but "but something about it just didn't sit right." "Bubbles" was Gaius' nickname for both Avatars.
    • Another one involving Asugi is in his support with Sakura if she's his mother. Asugi's mother is always worried that something might happen to him on one of his solo missions, but Sakura specifically mentions worrying that he might be bleeding somewhere she couldn't get to him. Sakura finding Saizo bleeding behind enemy lines is exactly how their support is set up.
  • Should you defeat Garon in Chapter 12 of Birthright, he says "This is a waste of time. My men can take it from here." - just like how in Genealogy of the Holy War, Julius said "Playtime is over - I'm going home" if you beat him during his Final Boss Preview.
  • Some of the Spear Fighter/Master animations are very similar to those of the Halberdier/Sentinel class in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, especially the critical animation and the final hit of Astra.
• Canine Confusion: Keaton is a Wolfskin (a humanoid creature with wolf-like features) and his tail tends to wag when he's happy. In real life, wolves' tails don't wag unless they're expressing subordination, though Keaton's case could be justified since he has a mostly human body.
• Canon Welding: When spoken to, the amiibo characters mention their experiences in the Super Smash Bros. universe.
• Can't Catch Up: Averted by the new Child Seal, which, in addition to promoting a child unit, will also adjust their stats to match how strong they should be depending on how late in the game it is used. As a result, child units are still usable regardless of what point in time they are recruited.
• Can't Drop the Hero: The Avatar cannot be removed from the party for any of the story missions.
• Cast from Hit Points: The upgraded version of Ganglari (only obtainable by doing 400 Castle Battles) has a very high Might stat, but it also causes the wielder to lose 20% of their health after attacking.
• Central Theme: A general one is Conflicting Loyalties and Thicker Than Water vs Family of Choice. There's also East vs. West represented by Hoshido and Nohr respectively.
• Character Customization: The Avatar (with the default name of Kamui in Japan and Corrin in the West) can have their appearance, name, and voice customized by the player.
• Checkpoint Starvation:
  • There is no option to save between Revelation chapters 16 and 17, so if the player is defeated or a unit is killed in chapter 17 and the game is reset, the player will be forced to restart at the beginning of 16.
  • All three routes also do this for the final chapter and endgame.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • In the Hidden Truths chapters, Owain, Inigo, and Severa are given a stone that can help them return to their homes whenever they want. This stone is never seen being used in the main story line, but it shows up again in Heirs of Fate, being the strange stone Ophelia and Soleil were given by their fathers, which they use to go back to Shigure before he gets to sacrifice himself to Anankos.
  • Odin, Laslow, and Selena are mentioned to disappear in all of their endings, unless they marry the Avatar in Revelation. It's strongly implied that they used the stone obtained in Hidden Truths to indeed go home.
• Child of Two Worlds: The Avatar is born from the Hoshido royal family, but was raised in the court of the Nohr royal family. Azura was originally the princess of Nohr, but was taken prisoner by Hoshido. Although Revelation shows that it's three worlds, as the Avatar and Azura are originally from Valla.
• Chromatic Rock Paper Scissors: The Weapon Triangle is distinguished this way, with two weapons being assigned to each color. Much like the Grass-Fire-Water triangle from Pokémon, Red (Swords and Tomes) beats Green (Axes and Bows) beats Blue (Lances and Daggers) beats Red.
• Clothing Damage:
  • If a unit is brought down to half health or outright defeated, parts of their armor/uniform will visually break off or be torn.
  • Raider weapons and the Disrobing Gale can shred a target down to their underwear if they are at a weapon disadvantage when hit, regardless of how much health they have left. Silas's daughter, Sophie, can do this naturally with her personal skill regardless of weapon advantage.
• Color-Coded Armies: As per Fire Emblem tradition, during battle, the player's army is colored blue, while the enemy army is identified by the color red, invaders by the color purple, and allies are green.
• Combat Stilettos:
  • Camilla is wearing some very tall and very sharp heels on her boots.
  • All maids happen to wear high-heeled boots, even to the point of having one of their melee critical animations that involves kicking their opponent.
• Comes Great Insanity: Like in previous games, the dragons here eventually become insane due to their instincts taking over unless they do something about it. Anankos fell victim to this pretty bad.
• The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: Naturally, there are many missions where the enemy can get particular and serious advantages over the player, such as access to special Dragon Veins. In addition, the game has the annoying habit of spawning enemies behind or perilously close to your army with little warning or reason, forcing you to play extremely conservatively or restarting the mission to change up your strategy through trial and error.
• Composite Character: The Outlaw class takes the traditional elements of the Thief class and mixes it with the classic bow-locked Hunter class from the original Archanea games, as reflected by their skills (Locktouch and Movement +1) and promotion branch. (Adventurer and Bow Knight)
• Conflicting Loyalty: The revelation that the Avatar has familiar ties with Hoshido, but was brought up with Nohr brings up a dilemma of where their loyalty truly lies. You'll even be called "a traitor" by people of the side you don't choose. You can choose neither, but everyone will come after you except for Sakura.
• Continuity Nod:
  • A wall decoration similar to the Mouth of Truth appeared◊ all the way back in the second Fire Emblem installment, Gaiden.
  • Odin and Laslow's A Support has the former referencing the conversation they had in the Harvest Scramble DLC.
  • Laslow's B Support with Saizo in Revelation has the former referencing how he lost girls to Brady and Gerome in their Supports under similar circumstances after he loses his competition with Saizo.
  • Selena's Supports with the Avatar have them trying to find a yukata for her after she mentions the one she wore during the events of the Hot Spring Scramble DLC, and ropes them into helping her.
  • In the Before Awakening DLC map, you team up with Chrom, Frederick, and Lissa to fight some monsters. Shortly after you leave, they find an unconscious person and begin the dialogue from the start of Awakening when they find the Avatar.
• Contractual Boss Immunity: The last few bosses in all three paths are immune to statuses, indirect damage (e.g. Poison Strike), and stat debuffs. Many bosses are also immune to the Entrap and Freeze staves due to how they interact with movement and the bosses being stationary.
• Cool Crown: Xander wears an iron laurel, helping with the Roman Empire connotations.
• Cool Sword:
  • The new "Katana" sword type, staple to the Hoshidan army.
  • The Avatar wields Ganglari at first, a dark blade with an ominous eye (even though its purpose is far from cool), and then Yato, a long bronze sword with prongs on its hilt which in the third route becomes a chainsaw sword with Yin-Yang Bomb powers.
  • Ryoma and Xander have their own holy swords; the former has Raijinto, a katana constantly wreathed in lightning, and the latter has Siegfried, a sword with dark flames and two separate long blades that join together at the tip.
• Creating Life: The Avatar is able to make Bond units by bonding with another player’s Avatar. The two breathe life into the earth itself to create new Avatars. This power is likely inherited from Anankos, who could give his own emotions/mental state and heart human form.
• Creepy Cemetery: Leo's boss fight in the Birthright route takes place in one of these. The cemetery is located in the Woods of the Forlorn, making it even creepier.
• Critical Status Buff:
  • Scarlet's personal skill, In Extremis, increases her Critical Hit rate by 30 as long as her health is at 25% or lower.
  • The Awakening skill, learned by Great Lords, increases the user's Hit, Avoid, Critical Hit rate, and Critical Evade by 30 when their health is below half.
• Crutch Character: True to Fire Emblem, you do get early prepromotes who are around to help lessen the stress on your weaker units and help you through the Early Game Hell. Zig-zagged, however, in that a lot of them are actually quite feasible and that they don't "steal" experience.
• Cultural Posturing: One of the few things that make the generally benevolent Hoshido grey is their tendency to characterize all citizens of Nohr as wicked monsters, when the truth is that it is really just Garon and his advisors/generals, Iago and Hans. This has the result of making the Hoshido characters look a tad racist during the Conquest route, as they insist that the player character must have been brainwashed as they continue to plead for peace between Nohr and Hoshido.
• Cutting Off the Branches:
  • Averted in the Hidden Truths DLC. Owain, Severa, and Inigo all get their hair colors changed by magical means before their portraits even appear on screen so as to not give any confirmation on who their fathers are.
  • However, the DLC does imply that Inigo is not Chrom's son, as he does not seem to have a brand at all as seen when Owain is surprised to see his Brand being hidden, yet Inigo makes no comment on having something similar. Granted, Inigo's brand is stated to be in his right eye, but his lack of comment on it despite him knowing about it if he is Chrom's son, heavily leans towards him not being his son.
  • In the Before Awakening DLC, none of the above three characters have any dialogue with Frederick, which implies that he isn't the father of any of them. Inigo also doesn't comment anything to the effect of Chrom being his dad either, supporting the idea he isn't his son.

D

• Damage-Increasing Debuff: There are a number of ways to lower the enemies defensive stats, such as knives/shuriken, the Enfeeble staff, and the "Seal Defense", "Seal Resistance", and "Draconic Hex" skills.
• Damn You, Muscle Memory!:
  • The Pair Up system has changed drastically compared to Awakening: joining two units in one square always puts the rear unit in defense, and main attacks from the enemy will only be blocked if the gauge beneath the health bar is full. Meanwhile, having two adjacent unjoined units is the only way of having the rear unit attack. So if you're used to Awakening's system, which does not regard whether units are joined and runs on RNG, things may get a bit tougher for you.
  • Some skills returning from past games have been reworked to focus less on RNG and be more of a direct Status Buff. For example, Demoiselle now makes males within 3 spaces take 2 less damage rather than get increased accuracy and evasion. This can cause issues for players of those games when trying to mentally calculate damage.
  • The method of recruiting the child characters in Awakening (talk with either the main Lord or their fixed parent) doesn't always work here, and some of the kids have to be fought before they join, something that players of previous games would normally avoid at all costs.
• Darker and Edgier: Namely, there's the sheer amount of playable character deaths (including Flora's self-immolation while her twin sister looks on, Xander's accidental murder of Elise (who took the blow for Corrin) before his own death at the hands of the Avatar, and Ryoma killing himself to prevent the Avatar from being the one to do it) and the flagrant incestuous vibes running wild in Fates (even though none of them are actually related to you at all except for Azura). That's not even everything that the game covers...
• Dark Is Evil: While they don't seem to be entirely evil, the more morally-questionable Nohr all wear armor that is primarily black in color.
• Dark Is Not Evil:
  • Nohr is associated with dark colors and the country is a hellish landscape, though very few named characters from there are actually evil. Even when they're the main antagonists in Birthright, many Nohrians are just doing their jobs and fighting for their country.
  • The grotesque Golems and Faceless can be used as personal servants/defenders of the player's My Castle on the Conquest and Revelation routes. Up to three Golems (A, B, and C) can be set up to act as defense.
  • Despite the Nohrian legendary weapons being associated with darkness, their actual effects are far more conventionally virtuous than the Hoshidan ones, focusing on protecting the wielder rather than allowing them to do more damage or move around more easily.
• The Day the Music Lied: In Birthright Chapter 10 and Nina's paralogue, if you beat up Takumi and Nina respectively, the death theme plays as if they're permanently lost. However, they will simply join you automatically at the end of the chapter.
• Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: If you play on Phoenix Mode, any of your characters who get defeated in battle will be resurrected and fully restored on your next turn, turning “deaths” into a fleeting inconvenience.
• Defeat Equals Friendship: One of the ways to recruit certain units is by defeating them in battle. All of the amiibo characters require this method.
• Defector from Decadence:
  • Potentially, on the Hoshido path, where the protagonist, despite being raised in the Nohr court as a member of the Nohr royal family, defects to join their blood relations in protecting the kingdom and reforming The Empire.
  • The Nohrian siblings could also count on the Revelation path, where they outright join Corrin's side in order to help them strive for peace between the two main countries.
• Developers' Desired Date: While the Player Character can romance any unit except for Kana, Azura is one of the few characters that is playable in all routes, is mistaken to be a male Avatar's girlfriend in Chapter 5, has one of the fastest support growth rates in the game with the Avatar, and the two of them constantly mention how much they trust and feel comfortable with each other throughout the game. Azura is also the only character in the game to have different Love Confessions and support chains with the Avatar depending on the chosen path.

• Developer's Foresight:
  • To preserve the game's advertised feel of being like classic Fire Emblem titles with limited resources and Level Grinding opportunities, playing any of the DLC in Conquest (with the exception of Boo Camp, which is designed to allow grinding) will not award any experience. Support grinding is still possible in all DLCs, however.
  • In Casual Mode, you normally don't get a Game Over if the Avatar dies... except in Chapter 5. This is because the boss of that chapter would likely be unbeatable without the Avatar.
  • In Chapter 10 Conquest, if you manage to make it to Takumi and defeat him before he uses the Dragon Vein, he actually won't do it anyway. There's nothing stopping you from using it yourself though, if you really want to have even more reinforcements and make the chapter a whole lot harder than it needs to be.
  • The game clearly does not want the player to fight Garon when he shows up in Chapter 12 of Birthright, as he's exceptionally powerful and the goal of the map is to flee the area. If the player decides to take him on and somehow beats him, he has dialogue for being defeated.
  • In Chapter 7 of Revelation, there is a short cutscene where the party meets up with Gunter that is supposed to trigger once one of the player's units enters the second-to-last room of the map's maze. If the player is able to skip this room^note Only possible by abusing the Lunge ability (which is not available at this point unless it's purchased from another player's My Castle or the Log Book) with a ranged weapon to cross a wall to enter the last room., the cutscene will still play so Gunter can join the party.
  • During the Duel Boss fights with Xander in Birthright Chapter 26 and Ryoma in Conquest Chapter 25, the game does not allow you to have the Avatar start the chapter Paired Up in order to sneak a third unit into the duel.
  • In chapter 25 of Birthright, Iago carries the skill Bowbreaker, which adds +50 hit and +50 avoid to the unit if they're attacked by a bow-wielder. He also has it even earlier in Chapter 16. Given that you find out he's been controlling Takumi like a puppet for practically the whole game, it seems that Iago anticipated Takumi turning on him.
  • Depending on who wields it, the Umbrella weapon takes on a more European or Japanese-style design.
  • While most of the supports between mothers and the second generation are the same, a few alterations occur depending on who the mother is. For example, in Siegbert's A support with his mother, he offers to give her a shoulder massage again, which has the mothers react differently as fitting their personalities, such as Azura playfully teasing him, Felicia thinking he's asking because he couldn't find someone else to practice on, to Charlotte joking that if it wasn't for the fact that he's her son, she'd assume he was coming onto her. Interestingly enough, the later support actually changes his response, whereas the others are all the same.
  • Normally, Nohrian and Birthright characters can only support each other - except in Revelation, which adds some supports between the two. One of these is Subaki, whose child is Caeldori (who looks exactly like Cordelia from Fire Emblem: Awakening) and... Selena, who is Cordelia's daughter. Meaning that if Subaki is paired with Selena, Caeldori will inherit Selena's hair colour and look EXACTLY like Cordelia. The game will in fact acknowledge this, if Selena is Caeldori's mother, then an extra scene acknowledging this will play.
  • The Before Awakening DLC (Which takes place before the opening scene of Fire Emblem Awakening) has some future acknowledgement as well:
    • If Selena, Laslow, or Odin are deployed, they will gain unique dialogue with Chrom and Lissa in which they will conceal their identities, but Selena will tell Chrom to at least have a cup of tea with Cordelia.
    • If Ophelia is deployed (Odin's daughter), she can actually speak with Lissa. This seems weird... until you realise Ophelia is actually Lissa's granddaughter!
    • If Caeldori is deployed, she gains the option to speak with Chrom who natually confuses her for Cordelia... regardless of her hair color.
  • When S ranking another unit, if the units share the same base class, using a Partner Seal will result in the unit gaining their spouses secondary class instead, since they share the same class. In addition, if two classes share an overlapping promoted class, such as a Great Knight for a Knight or Cavalier, than leveling up the unit will give them access to the starter skills of the secondary class without having to reclass, since they now have the base class requirement.
  • The Avatar, Keaton, and Kaden's default classes give them transformation abilities, meaning they take damage from effective vs Dragons and Beast weapons, and this will pass down to any of their kids as well. Should any of them be reclassed into other classes, the effectiveness modifier will remain in effect, as they are still Dragons or Beast units even if they are reclassed. Furthermore, if you pair a Female Avatar with Keaton or Kaden, both children will have both effectiveness on them, meaning either weapon type is a good against them.
  • With the DLC skill Point Blank, the Spy's Yumi changes from a fixed range of three squares away to being able to shoot from two squares like normal bows in addition to the melee attacking range the skill normally provides to Bows and Yumi.
• Disc-One Nuke:
  • The Dragonstone that the Avatar is given at the end of Chapter 5 has a Might of 14, which is stronger than most weapons available for a good chunk of the game, and provides an increase to their Defense and Resistance stats. It's very useful during the early game to allow them to safely shrug off hits and potentially one-shot enemies.
  • Should the Avatar be female, if the player reclasses Jakob into a Paladin/Great Knight, he will have good stats for a good amount of chapters.
  • In Birthright, Takumi and Reina. Reina is an already promoted class that, despite eventually being outclassed, does fairly good damage for the time. Takumi is a pretty strong Archer unit that gives the player a good ranged option early. Additionally, both of them join on maps where bows come in very useful.
  • Camilla in Conquest is a prepromote with great base stats, a solid personal skill, access to the Dual Club and a nice skill set. She has a low internal level in comparison to other pre-promotes, so she actually gains EXP rather quickly. Somewhat averted in that she continues to dominate well into the lategame.
  • In Revelation:
    • The Avatar becomes one. They are essentially the only source of offense until Chapter Nine, meaning that they'll wind up gaining a ton of levels and will probably be well into the teens when most of your allies who join will be around 7-10. This is going to be quite helpful since the game tosses promoted enemies at you far earlier than in other routes.
    • Takumi joins pretty early compared to the rest of the siblings, and he still has his Fujin Yumi. Reina joins one chapter later as well, and again on a shuriken-heavy map.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Azura's dance has been making some rounds on the internet, and a lot of viewers are giggling over Garon's undignified reaction. What's actually happening is a purification, where Garon, who turned out to be a monster disguised as the real guy, is damaged by Azura's magic.
• Double-Edged Buff: Shiro's personal skill, Noble Cause, augments the damages he inflicts by 3, but also the damage he takes by 1. However, the skill only activates if he is supported by a wounded unit.
• Double In-Law Marriage: A few pairs of pairings can be between siblings, whether they be blood-siblings or otherwise.
  • In Birthright or Revelation: Saizo and Kaze can marry two of Hinoka, Sakura, and a female Avatar.
  • In Conquest or Revelation: A male Avatar can marry Flora and any of his brothers can marry Felicia.
  • In Revelation: Ryoma and Takumi can marry Camilla and Elise, and Hinoka and Sakura can marry Leo and Xander, for a potential quadruple in-law marriage.
  • In any path: Shigure can marry a female Avatar's daughter, and (male) Kana can marry Azura's daughter. Revelation reveals Kissing Cousins is also in play here, as these pairings are between second cousins.
• Double Weapon: The Dual Katana, Club, Naginata, and Shuriken have this design. They also reverse the game's weapon triangle system and double the strength of its effects.
• Downloadable Content: Plenty of extra maps can be purchased, which include ones that give easy experience and supplies, side stories, extra classes, and more.
• Dragon Ancestry: Both the Hoshidan and Nohrian royal families are descended from the First Dragons, and the Avatar in particular is capable of transforming into a dragon as a result of Anankos being their birth father. Kana, being the Avatar's child, has the same ability as well as any other children born from the Avatar, provided their spouse has another kid.
• Dreaming of Things to Come: The Avatar's dream in the prologue mirrors the events of Chapter 6, with the Nohrian army on Hoshido's border and the royal families fighting over them. Additionally, the map features units that wouldn't be in the army if not for the Avatar's presence later on, such as Nyx, Keaton and Kaden.
• Dracolich: The new Malig Knight class ride undead wyverns with glowing red eyes.
• Dual Wielding: Uniquely, the Swordmaster class can dual wield when equipped with certain katanas. This is an entirely aesthetic feature, however, and does not count as two attacks, etc.
• Dude Looks Like a Lady: Forrest is mistaken for a girl by the Avatar, Elise, and some ruffians on several separate occasions due to his long hair and effeminate clothing. Dwyer also assumes he's a girl at first in Heirs of Fate.
• Dual Boss: Takumi as the final boss of Conquest. However, you only need to kill one.
  • Much later, the Avatar must fight both Ryoma (on Conquest) and Xander (on Birthright) alone while the rest of the team takes care of the brother's subordinates. Both fights feature a kink though: Xander will never do any damage to you, and your team can eventually get to where you and Ryoma are through Dragon Vein if you beat Kagero and Saizo.
• Dying as Yourself: Many characters whose corpses are possessed by Anankos have a few moments as themselves after the party defeats them, which they often use to say a few parting words before they really die.
• Dysfunction Junction: Compared to Hoshido, Nohr's roster is filled with this. To name a few, we got Camilla, Peri, Keaton and Selena, Charlotte, Niles, Odin, Laslow...

E

• Early-Bird Cameo:
  • Aside from the royals, the prologue's map consists almost entirely of named units that neither the Avatar nor the player have been introduced to.
  • Saizo and Kagero also have a brief appearance at the end of Chapter 3; neither of them reappear in the story for at least a few more chapters, regardless of route.
• Early Game Hell:
  • The first chapter of Conquest (technically Chapter 7) features several hard-hitting monsters, all while the player slowly accumulates a small amount of units (maxing out at six), even the hardiest of whom can be broken easily at this point if the player isn't careful.
  • Revelation Chapter 7 only gives the player 3 characters: Corrin, Felicia or Jakob (depending on Corrin's gender), and Azura. Only Corrin can take a hit out of the three, the map is initially a maze of twisty passages layered in Fog of War, and there are treasure chests that the player will probably want to grab. The saving graces are Corrin's Dragonstone and a Crutch Character showing up near the end of the map, but if Corrin's Defense is the chosen Dump Stat, there will be trouble.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: This is the first Fire Emblem game to make use of amiibo, and like later main-series titles, this is done in the main hub area. Unlike later games, it is used on a menu at the crystal ball, rather than the amiibo Gazebo that was introduced in Fire Emblem: Three Houses and returned in Fire Emblem Engage.
• Easier Than Easy: Phoenix Mode causes defeated units to be revived the turn after they are defeated. Even if the enemy manages to defeat all your units in one turn, they'll all revive on the next turn so it's impossible to lose unless there's an additional condition for defeat. Unlike Casual Mode, it can only be used with Normal difficulty.
• Easter Egg:
  • If the Avatar dies during Chapter 2, their death quote changes to reflect the circumstances in which they're dying, and Xander gets an appropriately horrified reaction to seeing his little brother/sister die in front of him.
    Avatar : I can't believe I failed...in front of Father...
    Xander: Avatar? What have we done?! We should never have let you leave the fortress!
  • If Takumi reclasses to a Samurai via Partner or Heart Seal, his outfit will be based on Sumeragi's, his father's. Similarly, Shiro gets an outfit based on Ryoma's if he gets reclassed into a Swordmaster.
  • Midori has special Ninja and Master Ninja outfits that not only have unique clothing, but a special green palette as well.
  • Engaging and and defeating certain bosses with specific characters will lead to unique conversations. For example, Kotaro will taunt Saizo about how he killed Saizo's father, and say Saizo won't land a single blow if he's anything like his father. If Saizo kills him, he will taunt Kotaro back and say he did get a blow.
  • In the Before Awakening DLC, Chrom, Lissa, and Frederick can be talked to by various characters.^note All three can talk to the Avatar. Chrom can talk to Selena, Laslow, and Caeldori. Lissa can talk to Odin and Ophelia and Frederick can talk to Jakob. There's no real benefit to this outside of reading the conversations, which are different depending on who they're talking to.
  • If Selena is Caeldori's mother in Revelation, she will show up in the cutscene at the end of Paralogue 13. Selena's A Support conversation with Caeldori also has extra dialogue where she will compare Caeldori to her own mother.
  • Unlike in Awakening where a child unit's lines would essentially be set in stone for their non-determined parent (or sibling in Lucina and female Morgan's case), the second gen's supports in this game will actually contain noticeable (though rarely significant) changes depending on who their parent/sibling is. Such as Mitama changing/adding/dropping haikus depending on her mother, male Kana reacting uncomfortably to Odin's antics, and Caeldori having a unique line at the end of her B-supports for each of her possible mothers.
  • Clothing Damage taken by units carries over into cutscenes that use 3D models.
  • In the amiibo battles, Odin, Selena, and Laslow can have a unique conversation with Lucina and Robin. They'll each find Robin familiar, but also recognize that he's not the same Avatar they knew from their Ylisse.
  • Giving Odin, Selena, or Laslow any of the four accessories obtained from scanning the Robin or Lucina amiibo will garner unique responses from them, such as being disgusted if handed the Dragon's Feather.
    • They also have special reactions if you give them the Emblem Shield obtained by having Street Pass data from Awakening.
• Easy-Mode Mockery: Defied by the developers, who state playing on Phoenix Mode won't give the player a worse ending.
• Eldritch Location: Valla, at least, by the time of the game's events. Usually, you get there by falling into a canyon since most people don't have the ability to use the entrance at the bottom of lakes, though then there's a chance you'll get possessed by the evil god in charge either way. If your sanity is intact upon arrival, you can see clouds and the ocean if you look through the holes in the foggy white sky, which is also where some pieces of the ground are, and it's populated by the invisible, reanimated corpses of the original kingdom's soldiers. You also die if you talk about it outside.
• Elemental Powers:
  • Dragon Veins allow manipulation over various elements, such as water, fire, wind and earth.
  • Water is frequently manifested by the Avatar and Azura via their unique abilities.
  • Individuals hailing from various clans, such as the Ice, Wind and Fire clans, all produce an appropriate elemental effect when their attacks land. These effects are purely aesthetic, however.
• Elemental Weapon: The royal brothers' weapons, which each oppose that of their counterparts:
  • Ryoma wields a lightning-imbued katana called Raijinto.
  • Takumi wields a yumi called Fujin Yumi that forms arrows of wind.
  • Xander's sword, Siegfried, shoots beams made of darkness.
  • Leo's tome, Brynhildr, manipulates earth and gravity.
• Establishing Character Music: Azura, the songstress, is introduced when the player character hears someone singing and a cutscene shows Azura singing by the lake (Seen toward the end here). The song itself, in addition to being her theme, proves to be a key plot point and has strange powers which become more apparent as time goes on.
• Et Tu, Brute?: As seen in the Choose Your Path trailer, the kingdom that is not sided with will carry this sentiment towards the Avatar. Xander and Takumi flat out call the Avatar a traitor depending on which side they are on. This even happens in the Revelation route, where the Avatar is initially considered a traitor to both of them.
• Excuse Plot: Most of the children characters' Paralogue chapters are contrived random encounters with bandits, monsters, etc. to prove that the child is capable of fighting alongside their parents.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • Iago expresses shock when Garon acts outright cruel and says he wants the Avatar to suffer.
  • Zola in Birthright comes to legitimately respect the Avatar and even begs Garon to spare their life because of that. Garon, however, has none of this.
• Evolving Weapon: The Yato becomes more powerful at key points in each story path. In Birthright it gains Speed and Strength buffs, in Conquest Defense and Resistance buffs, and both sets of buffs in Revelation.
• Expy: Caeldori, Rhajat, and Asugi, who are all nearly identical to Cordelia, Tharja, and Gaius from Fire Emblem: Awakening respectively, right down to the latter's names being anagrams of the former. Funnily enough, subverted with Odin, Selena, and Laslow, who actually are Owain, Severa, and Inigo.

F

• Faceless Goons: Generic enemy units are the only ones who allow their faces to be obscured by helmets/hats. Actual enemy monsters called Faceless also wear masks.
• Faction Calculus: Unlike most Fire Emblem games, Nohr and Hoshido have very different units available between them. Even the weapons used by them are different.
  • Powerhouse: Nohr. Utilizes units and weapons closer in spirit to the standard Fire emblem game and has a near monopoly on armored and various forms of mounted (Horses and Wyverns) units sans the various forms of Pegasus knights.
  • Subversive: Hoshido. Their units tend to favor fragile speedsters and their unique alternate weapons tend to give some bonus over their more standardized Nohr counterparts at a small cost- often accuracy.
  • Balanced: Valla and the Revelations path has access to the arsenal of both Nohr and Hoshido.
• Fake Difficulty: The Endgame chapters don't let you save before starting them. If you screw up, you have to redo the preceding chapter as well.
  • On Revelation, Chapters 16-17 don't let you save between them, either.
• Fanservice: Fates introduces a number of extra features, such as the ability to "pet" any playable character between battles,^note Japanese version exclusive the ability to dress up characters in a variety of accessories, and the hot spring.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Hoshido resembles feudal Japan, complete with unusually Japanese-sounding names for the series, like Hana and Hinoka, as well as curved weaponry such as naginatas and katanas. Nohr looks similar to Medieval Europe, with one of its major characters, Xander, wearing a laurel crown.
• Fighting Clown: The Basara class, promotable from either Spear Fighters or Diviners. They wear flamboyant, incongruous outfits with silly tengu masks, have a needlessly showy critical hit animation, and their “finishing hit” animation with naginata involves doing several horizontal flips in midair before flopping on their backs as their spear cuts the enemy. That being said, their class skills of Rend Heaven and Quixotic are considered to be among the best in the game.
• Final Boss Preview: Chapter 12 in Birthright features the Final Boss King Garon on the map.
• First-Episode Twist: Mikoto's sudden death right before the Branch of Fate section is this. Only supports with the Hoshidans and Revelation help extend how she used to be.
• Fire, Ice, Lightning: Ice takes wind's place in the Fire-Wind-Thunder trio, without the strengths that wind tomes usually come with (i.e. effective against fliers). Excalibur is the only wind tome here, and it is an S-rank tome exclusive to Conquest and Revelation.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing: The games likes doing this a lot with map sprites. The start of Birthright involves searching for Takumi. In Chapter 10, he shows up on the second turn... in enemy colors. The player has just enough time for an Oh, Crap! reaction before the reveal that he's Brainwashed and Crazy. A similar thing happens with Flora in Chapter 17, except there's no brainwashing involved this time.
• Flirty Stepsiblings:
  • Any marriage between the Avatar and their Hoshido "siblings" is revealed to be this.
  • Similarly, Azura can marry her step-brothers Xander and Leo in Conquest and Revelation.
• Floating Continent: Several small, floating islands are briefly seen in the first trailer. They even appear to be upside down and/or sideways. They're said to be part of the "Invisible Kingdom", as the one time you visit islands like them in the Nohr route, you're swarmed by "Invisible Demons".
• Flower Motifs: Cherry Blossoms represent Hoshido, roses represent Nohr, and both and/or water lilies represent Valla.
• Foil: The royal families of both Nohr and Hoshido fit this to a T.
  • Their parental figures, Garon and Mikoto, are an Evil Overlord and The High Queen. Garon is actually biologically related to his children (with the exception of the player), while Mikoto is only the biological parent of the player character.
  • The eldest brothers, Xander and Ryoma, are almost complete opposites. Xander is an Aloof Big Brother while Ryoma is much more Hot-Blooded. Ryoma was a natural born talent at everything he did while Xander was a rather weak child who reached his current status through hard work alone. Ryoma is very much an honor bound man; when Xander challenges Corrin to a duel near the end of Birthright, Ryoma stands back and simply watches, believing that it is not his place to interupt a duel. By contrast, when Ryoma similarly challenges Corrin to a duel in Conquest, Xander's first reaction is to back his sibling up, honor be damned, only being held back by enemy forces arriving to slow him and his allies down. Ryoma is a dog person while Xander is more of a cat kind of guy. But they are the same in that they love their siblings very dearly, and both give their lives up for the sake of Corrin, even when he opposes them (Xander in a Suicide by Cop and Ryoma in a more literal suicide to save his sibling from having to kill him themself in front of their father).
  • The eldest sisters, Camilla and Hinoka, have their Tomboy and Girly Girl dynamic examined in their Revelation support line, and both of them are very protective of the Avatar.
  • The younger brothers, Leo and Takumi; the former is a Teen Genius who is very fond of the player, and the latter is a boy who prides himself on his work ethic while being distrustful of the player character even if they side with Hoshido.
  • The youngest sisters, Elise and Sakura, downplay this, as they are both The Baby of the Bunch Little Sister Heroines who seriously look up to their siblings and try to bring out the best in everyone. However, Elise is much more upbeat and sociable, while Sakura comes off as rather shy.
  • The retainers who serve the royal siblings are also like this. Their respective character pages cover their personalities; as a whole, the Hoshidan retainers, and most of the other Hoshidan units, are either from nobility or from other prominent families (Hayato being the ward of the leader of the Wind Tribe, for example), with the retainers being from families that have served the royal household for generations. The Nohrians, by contrast, are from all class backgrounds. Beruka and Niles were criminals raised in absolute poverty, Shura is the fallen duke of the Duchy of Kouga, and Odin, Laslow, and Selena are really Owain, Inigo, and Severa, all under pseudonyms.
  • Hoshido and Nohr as kingdoms foil each other, as the Revelation support for Azura and the Avatar explains. Hoshido was able to be peaceful and prosperous because of its beautiful, eden-like land, whereas its equal and opposite Nohr had to be ambitious and warlike in order to survive their hellish environment.
  • Even the protagonists, the Avatar and Azura, are this to each other.
    • First, the way they each became a Child of Two Worlds oppose each other, with Nohr-born Azura being raised in Hoshido, where the Avatar, raised in Nohr, was born.
    • Second, the results of their unique upbringing contrast: the Avatar's character emphasizes how both sets of royal siblings love them and consider them family no matter what, while a large part of Azura's character has to do with how neither kingdom truly accepted her. Interestingly, this is played with: even if the Avatar chooses a side, they feel ties to the land they're fighting against and will never truly hate the kingdom they oppose. Meanwhile, although Azura had faced hostility in Hoshido, she prefers it overall compared to Nohr.
    • Third, the Avatar always begins as a Wide-Eyed Idealist, but changes differently depending on the path, while Azura starts off a coolheaded, reserved Knight in Sour Armor and always stays that way.
    • Their outfits serve as a fourth foil: The Avatar wears rigid silver and black armor (the latter being a color associated with Nohr) with stiff clothing underneath; Azura wears a puffy, flowing white dress (white being associated with Hoshido) with gold accents. Tying with the second point above, the Avatar's main promotions have them don either all-white (Hoshido Noble) or all-black (Nohr Noble) armor, and they can freely promote to both in Revelation. Meanwhile, the only time Azura ditches her white dress is in the Conquest version of the dance at Cyrkensia, where she puts on a dark purple version of her dress and wears a veil over her face.
    • Finally, we learn in both Revelation and the Hidden Truths DLC that both of them aren't from Hoshido or Nohr at all — they are actually royalty from Valla. Azura is the daughter of its last king before its destruction; the Avatar is the son/daughter of Anankos, the dragon that destroyed it and usurped the throne. To take this even further, if you beat Revelation, the Avatar — the child of the usurper — will become the new regent of Valla, while Azura, the actual heiress to the throne, will disown her claim to it; the only way she can become a ruler is by marrying a male Avatar on that path, and even then, she acts as his Queen Consort.
  • Though the comparison breaks the pattern above, Elise and Takumi are polar opposites in terms of character and story role(s):
    • Elise is the best-adjusted of the Nohr siblings, with loads of self-confidence despite being the youngest and least experienced, unconditionally loves and admires her siblings, and completely believes in/fights for peace between Nohr and Hoshido. Meanwhile Takumi's lack of confidence and trust as well as his suspicions of being The Unfavorite causes several points of conflict between the three routes, and has a hatred for Nohr second to only Oboro (whose hatred is so great it translates to a personal skill), extending to his adoptive sibling Azura.
    • Story and gameplay-wise, they have a number of parallels and points of contrast. In the route where one falls ill near Macarath, the other dies near the end of the story, along with their oldest brother (Elise while saving the Avatar, Takumi after failing to kill them). Among the siblings, Takumi is the most recurring boss, fought four times in a single path, while Elise is The Unfought and is even sometimes required to turn enemies on the map into allies.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Some of the characters' support conversations as well as the lines in their facerubbing sequences foreshadow their deaths or ultimate fates. See Scarlet's A support, or Xander, Takumi, Flora, and Azura's facerubbing lines when you've reached S-support with them.
  • If siding with Hoshido, the Avatar tells Xander that they believe Garon is no longer human, he's pure evil. This statement turns out to a a lot more literal than they probably thought... There are many more hints to Garon's Demonic Possession as well; he's earlier overheard having a conversation, but the characters enter the room to find no-one else there, he doesn't seem to recognize Azura when she returns on Conquest, the lyrics of the Conquest version of Lost in Thoughts All Alone mention "a legacy of lies, a familiar disguise", and, of course, his reactions to Azura's singing on both routes.
  • On the Birthright route, having the Avatar engage Leo in a fight triggers a conversation where Leo threatens to "knock some sense into [them]" but makes it clear that he takes no pleasure in the act. This proves early on that his antagonistic attitude towards the Avatar in that route is all an act.
  • In Conquest Chapter 10, having the Avatar engage with Hinata and Oboro (Takumi's retainers) result in unique dialogue. Their reactions are best summed up as out for their blood (Hinata) and disappointment they aren't on the same side (Oboro), which are especially notable as both are quite out of character considering how they normally are in Birthright. They're hints of what is to come for their lord in later chapters of Conquest.
• Forged by the Gods: The five legendary weapons were originally created by dragons to stop the ancient war between, um, other dragons. They were, however, made for humans, which back then were subordinates to the warring dragons.
• Fourth-Date Marriage: In a gameplay sense, romantic support chains are like this, with the fourth and final conversation raising a pair to "S" rank and securing the two as a couple. Whether this applies in a story sense or not depends on the specific pairing.
• The Four Gods: The Four Dragon symbols for Dragon Veins are based on them. The Fire Dragon is birdlike, similarly to the Vermilion Bird, the Water Dragon has a snake for a tail like the one that accompanies the Black Tortoise, the Ground Dragon has fur and is vaguely feline in shape like the White Tiger, and the Wind Dragon has a lean appearance much like the Azure Dragon.
• Four Is Death: The fourth verse of Lost in Thoughts All Alone.

G

• Game-Favored Gender: Done interestingly. The female Avatar has the freedom to marry whoever she wants without consequence (whereas the male renders one child Permanently Missable if he marries a first-generation non-Avatarsexual), in addition to having multiple children who can become a Hoshido/Nohr Noble, whereas the male can only marry Azura if he wants a second child. On the other hand, the male has twice as many gender-exclusive DLC classes as the female, and the one great skill of a female-only class, Warp, is available to males through a Warp Scroll. (Female characters can get access to Vanguard skills via the Vanguard Dawn map, but one of these is also available from the Great Lord class, and none of them are as game-breaking as Warp.)
  • Female Avatars are also favored in terms of unit availability. Whichever assistant doesn't accompany you at the beginning of the game only joins much later. A female Avatar will get Jakob first, and have Felicia be the late joiner. It is entirely possible to get all the children without having Felicia available if Mozu is recruited, the only problem coming if the player really specifically wants Felicia to mother one of the children. A male Avatar will get Felicia first, and need to unlock Jakob later, which makes both Jakob and Dwyer unavailable until relatively late in the game.
• Gameplay and Story Integration:
  • In general, a unit's personal skill will either have something to do with their personality or their class. For example, Ryoma, the game's prototypical samurai, having "Bushido" as his own personal skill or Niles, an outlaw, being able to kidnap units.
  • At one point in Conquest and Birthright, Elise/Takumi comes down with a fever, causing the party to sidetrack so they can get them access to medicine. In the next battle, Elise/Takumi cannot be deployed.
  • The 'My Castle' Arena works according to which campaign you are playing: the Conquest version doesn't let you gain experience, while the Birthright version does.
  • Arthur's quirk is that he has the worst luck of anyone in the army. He has a Luck stat of 1 when he joins, as well as a very poor luck growth.
  • Leo's stats during his main confrontation on Birthright are unusually low for a major boss, even on Lunatic Mode. He reveals after the battle that he never had the heart to kill the Avatar and all his hatred was a lie, so he was likely holding back.
  • A similar example happens with Xander's boss battle in Birthright. His stats are also lower than the player might expect, due to Elise's Heroic Sacrifice a few minutes prior. The Avatar even notes that Xander let them win in the following cutscene from the guilt of accidentally killing his own sister.
  • Ryoma's fight in Conquest is a reverse of the above two examples. His stats are very high, and on harder difficulties, he can be impossible for the Avatar to fight alone due to his fury at the Avatar for apparently killing Hinoka. Unlike Leo and Xander, he is truly fighting to kill.
  • The swamp on Birthright Chapter 18 is stated to specifically not affect Nohrians, and tires anyone from Hoshido. Corrin, Jakob, Felicia, and Silas don't take any damage from standing on them, unlike every Hoshidan member of the army.
  • Invoked. Characters who have no chance to beat an enemy will reflect so by appearing distraught. In Charlotte's case, however, it's completely possible for her to be just as distraught, except her Luck stat can be high enough for her to land a lethal finishing blow, invoking her forced nature to appear like a Girly Girl while hiding her strength.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation:
  • It's possible for support conversations to mention people who haven't joined the army yet; Arthur and Elise's B Support involves trying to make Xander laugh, and Odin mentions Leo and Laslow in his B Support with Felicia.
  • The game's Big First Choice, where Corrin must decide between their Hoshidan biological family, their Nohrian adoptive family, or choose neither. However, unless you own the Special Edition of the game which has all three routes, bought both standard editions of the game, or bought the Revelation DLC in addition to either of the standard editions, you're locked into the specific route of whatever game you purchased, i.e. you already decided which family you will take sides with, if any, before you even started up the game.
  • In spite of the curse placed on the land of Valla, the player can take any units there for Challenges on the Chapter 7 map in Revelation.
  • Saizo and Kaze's C-rank support has Kaze expressing concern over Saizo's strong desire to avenge the death of their father, treating it as a current issue Saizo's still facing despite the fact that it's entirely possible for you to have allowed Saizo to do just that by having him kill an early boss in both the Birthright and Revelation routes.
  • It's also possible for Saizo to fight Kaze in the chapter Ryoma of Conquest. Disappointingly for many players, the twins display no reaction in-game to fighting — neither one seems to demonstrate any recognition that he is fighting his brother, nor does either one seem to display any Angst or emotion at possibly killing his own brother, should the player be playing Classic mode.
  • In Revelation Chapter 13, the city of Cyrkensia is destroyed by the undead forces of Valla, but since Xander and Ryoma happen to be there and can't see them, they blame each other for the destruction and battle, and you're tasked with defeating the real perpetrator. In battle, however, the Nohrian and Hoshidan armies are all programmed as one giant enemy faction, so instead of fighting each other, they'll actually team up against YOU. In fact, this chapter's gimmick^note Picking up blocks of debris and strategically setting them down to seal off the path of one army is specifically designed to give the player a means of avoiding this.
  • Despite Leo's son Forrest saying that he and Aunt Elise would become "fast friends," they cannot gain any support ranks, as like other second-gen units, he only has support ranks with his parents and other second-gen units.
    • Similarly, despite a clear bond between Ryoma and Scarlet in the script, Ryoma and Scarlet cannot gain any support ranks, as Scarlet can only support Corrin.
• Gay Option: Fates includes same-sex marriage options for the Avatar — however, which gender gets the option depends on the chosen game version. The Conquest story has Niles as a possible male love interest for the male Avatar, the Birthright story includes Rhajat as a female love interest for the female Avatar, and Revelation includes both. Children still come with the marriages, though it's only mentioned that they're adopted and you can't recruit them.
• Gender-Equal Ensemble: The siblings and their retainers are split perfectly down the middle. There are two Princes and two Princesses, each with one male and one female retainer (with the exception of Camilla, who has two female retainers, and Leo, who has two male retainers). Combining all playable units together (counting children but not counting captured units and DLC), there are two more males in the army than there are females. When adding the siblings together, you can either subvert this trope by playing female (as Azura, the Avatar's counterpart, is always female, thus giving the royals two more females than males) or play it straight by playing male (balancing out Azura for equal genders overall).
• Gendered Outfit: Both male and female Avatar wear identical clothes, save for the fact that the female leaves her inner thighs bare.
• Gender Flip: In a reverse from Awakening, it's now the fathers that the children come from, with their mothers determining hair color. This means that now female Avatars can receive two children from most first generation males, while the male Avatars can only get two from the plot-central Azura (much like how Chrom was the only male who could give a female Robin two children).
  • Azura's son himself, Shigure, will always inherit his mother's light blue hair, much like Lucina would always have Chrom's dark blue.
• Genre Refugee: Arthur looks effectively like an American comic-book superhero in a medieval-fantasy setting.
• Genre Throwback: The Conquest campaign is closer to classic Fire Emblem gameplay, with a much more difficult campaign, more various victory requirements, and limited chances to gain experience and funds. The Birthright campaign is closer to Awakening gameplay.
• Glad-to-Be-Alive Sex: Implied to be the case with Kaze and his wife in Birthright. Why else would one be unable to unlock Midori's paralogue unless he survives Chapter 15?
• Glowing Eyes of Doom:
  • Transformed Nine-Tails and Wolfssegners have glowing red eyes, and their generic untransformed portraits also depict glowing eyes under their hoods.
  • The portraits of the invisible warriors have eyes that glow pinkish purple.
  • Takumi's possessed corpse has glowing red eyes that are given ample focus in its introductory cutscene.
• Golden Ending: The third route, Revelation, compared to the other two paths, ends with this trope. The true Big Bad, Anankos, is defeated, King Garon is dead, the most corrupt Nohr villains, Iago and Hans, are also dead, the Avatar becomes the rightful heir and ruler of Valla, and to top it all off, the other two kingdoms, Nohr and Hoshido, are finally at peace, along with the implication that Nohr itself will be rebuilt into a better land. Even though there were still some unavoidable deaths (in this case, Izana ^note  forced to sacrifice his life to deliver a divine prophecy to convince Takumi to believe the Avatar, the Rainbow Sage ^note Who dies from natural causes (in this case, old age), Scarlet ^note dies from protecting the Avatar from an Anankos-possessed Gunter, and dies again after she Came Back Wrong, Arete, Mikoto, and Sumeragi ^note In another few cases of Came Back Wrong, forcing the Avatar, Azura, and company to kill the three of them), most of the cast from both sides, including all of the siblings survive the events and become very good friends with each other. Also, unlike the other 2 routes, Azura lives.
• Golden Path: Revelation was definitely intended to be this. Hoshido and Nohr unite against a common foe and save the continent from collapse, defeating the mastermind behind the war.
• Good Colors, Evil Colors: The peaceful Hoshidan army feature a lot of white, red and blue in their uniforms. The more antagonistic Nohr army are identified by their predominantly black and purple uniforms.
• Good Morning, Crono: The first chapter of the game begins with the player being woken up by Felicia and Flora.
• Greater-Scope Villain: For the Birthright and Conquest routes. Naturally, you end up fighting insane water dragon Anankos as the regular Big Bad in Revelation.
• Grey-and-Gray Morality: Despite Hoshido being portrayed as a "peace-loving" kingdom while Nohr is portrayed as a "glory-seeking" empire, neither Hoshido nor Nohr are outright portrayed as "good vs. evil." In fact, the royal siblings from both Hoshido and Nohr are genuinely good people at heart that care about the Avatar very much, but have very different ideas of what is best for them. The Nohr royal siblings want the Avatar to accept their life in Nohr, but also play a key part in reforming a militaristic empire within in the Nohr route. The Hoshido siblings want the Avatar to return to their birth home and take pride in their bloodline, but also want to defeat the Nohr militaristic empire in the Hoshido route. Also, despite their light and dark themes from Hoshido and Nohr, their appearance is not all what it seems. Garon, the Big Bad king of Nohr, does have some justification in declaring war on Hoshido ^note Poor crop harvests in Nohr due to poor weather conditions, rampant chaos within the kingdom, and Hoshido shinobi kidnapping their princess. Hoshido, despite being the "peace-loving" kingdom, also has some uncouth secrets, such as the aforementioned kidnapping of Azura, the princess of Nohr, in retaliation of Nohr kidnapping the Avatar and if the Avatar sides with Nohr they send ninjas to assassinate the Avatar. But in the end, both Hoshido siblings and Nohr siblings care deeply for the Avatar even if you have to fight most of them in the different story lines.
  • It's also reflected in both original routes to some degree. Birthright has a lot more named-character deaths, while Conquest has a higher civilian death toll.
• Guest-Star Party Member: As a result of the Story Branching nature of Fates and the natural exclusion of units from one path or the other, certain characters will temporarily join your party but end up leaving for one reason or another. Gunter on the Birthright route, the Hoshidan siblings and Rinkah on the Conquest route, and Scarlet on the Revelation route. Interestingly, most of these guest star as a result of being playable in the prologue with Scarlet being the exception.
• Guide Dang It!: A few minor examples:
  • Downplayed in regards to Saizo's beef with Kotaro, which is only explicitly stated on the Conquest route and in Saizo's B support with Kaze. If you don't view said support on Birthright, there is no indication that anything special will happen if you pit Saizo against Kotaro, and it's actually impossible to have any advance warning on Revelation since Saizo joins during the chapter you fight Kotaro unless you've played a different route.
  • Kaze's death in Birthright comes somewhat out of the blue and it's quite easy to be surprised. Before that specific point, the character in question must have an "A" support with the Avatar otherwise the character is removed from the group entirely, despite that you can actually have this character form an "S" relationship with any other potential characters. (Meaning there is no Interface Spoiler). The only way to tell that something is up would be if you notice that Midori's paralogue is not available despite putting him together with someone, a hint that is very easy to miss on your first playthrough - and even then, this hint doesn't tell you what you have to do.
  • The gimmick of Birthright Chapter 21 is that you need to use the Dragon Vein points at the statues to open paths through the map, but each statue has two points and only one opens a path, the other floods the area you're standing in with lava, restricting your movement and damaging your troops every turn, while also summoning reinforcements for several turns. While is is possible to figure out which Dragon Vein is the right one, it's whichever is under the hand the statue is holding an orb in, the game doesn't mention what to do if you pick the wrong one: you have to wait several turns for the right Vein to reappear. It's a long time before this happens, and Dragon Veins have never respawned in any earlier map, so a player who chooses wrong might think they've rendered the map Unwinnable by Design as there is no way for non-fliers to cross the lava without the Veins. And Birthright never explains the gimmick of a map before it starts, like Conquest does, making this even more confusing.
  • Also rather minor as well - Flora, Izana, and Yukimura. They are recruited via reaching specific objectives - you must have a structure upgraded to level three and they must be on a route where they survive. There is nothing actually telling you which structures must be built. While Yukimura's can be guessed (Any puppet that defends your castle during invasions), Flora's seems completely arbitrary (Any orb, launcher, or ballista). Fuga can be a bit of a Guide Dang It! as well, since he only joins in Revelation and uses the same structure that Izana uses in the other two routes (and since said character dies in the third route, the player might not think to upgrade their respective building).
  • The goal of Nina's Paralogue is to rout the enemy before she escapes. Nina herself is an enemy, and can't be talked to by Niles, indicating that you have to defeat her too. Except that when she's reduced to 0 HP, the music cuts and plays the normal character death theme, which usually indicates a recruit has been killed permanently. But she isn't, she'll still join at the end of the chapter. This is probably an oversight or a poor translation, as all other child characters you're forced to defeat in battle to recruit don't play the death theme. Inversely, if Benny's son Ignatius is defeated in his Paralogue but you still manage to finish it, the dialogue with him at the end of the chapter will still play, but he actually is Permanently Missable. While a player can figure out just what happened to make him missable, the fact that the dialogue doesn't change is what confuses you. The same goes for Sophie, Silas' daughter.
  • The westernmost chest in Conquest Chapter 26 is subject to an intriguing oddity that went undiscovered for over three years after the game's release. If Kaze's shuriken rank is B or higher, the chest will yield a Spy's Shuriken. If it is still his base rank of C, it will yield a Spy's Yumi instead.
  • Stat-boosting statues for your castle can be built for each character who kills 10 enemies, with upgrades available after killing 50 and 100. If you want to get Scarlet's statue for your castle in Revelation, you have to earn it before starting Chapter 18, as she is killed as soon as it begins. If you want her statue at Level 3, that also means lengthy grinding on Challenges as the two storyline Chapters you get her for don't offer nearly enough enemies.