History VideoGame / FireEmblemAkaneia

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* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemShadowDragonAndTheBladeOfLight'' -- The first ''VideoGame/FireEmblem'' game, released on the [[UsefulNotes/NintendoEntertainmentSystem Famicom]] in 1990. Stars Prince Marth of Altea and takes place on Archanea. Has a remake for the UsefulNotes/NintendoDS released in 2008 called ''Shadow Dragon''.
* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemMysteryOfTheEmblem'' -- The third ''VideoGame/FireEmblem'' game, released on the [[UsefulNotes/SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem Super Famicom]] in 1993. Acts as a sequel to ''Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light'' and stars Marth again. Has a remake for the UsefulNotes/NintendoDS called ''New Mystery of the Emblem: Heroes of Light and Shadow''.
* ''BS Fire Emblem: Akaneia War Chronicles'' -- A collection of four maps made with the ''Mystery of the Emblem'' engine and released on UsefulNotes/{{Satellaview}} broadcast in 1997, telling a number of side-stories set before ''Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light''. Due to using the ''Mystery of the Emblem'' engine and the inclusion of remade versions of these maps in ''New Mystery of the Emblem'', some information on these maps can be found on ''VideoGame/FireEmblemMysteryOfTheEmblem'' and its sub-pages.
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* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemMysteryOfTheEmblem'' -- The third ''VideoGame/FireEmblem'' game, released on the [[UsefulNotes/SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem Super Famicom]] in 1993. Acts as a seqeul to ''Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light'' and stars Marth again. Has a remake for the UsefulNotes/NintendoDS called ''New Mystery of the Emblem: Heroes of Light and Shadow''.

* ''BS Fire Emblem: Akaneia War Chronicles'' -- A collection of four maps made with the ''Mystery of the Emblem'' engine and released on UsefulNotes/{{Satellaview}} broadcast in 1997, telling a number of side-stories set before ''Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light''. Due to using the ''Mystery of the Emblem'' engine and the inclusion of remade versions of these maps in ''New Mystery of the Emblem'', information on these maps can be found on ''VideoGame/FireEmblemMysteryOfTheEmblem'' and its sub-pages.

* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemGaiden'' -- The second ''VideoGame/FireEmblem'' game, released on the [[UsefulNotes/NintendoEntertainmentSystem Famicom]] in 1992. Stars Alm and Celica and takes place on Valentia. Has a remake for the UsefulNotes/Nintendo3DS called ''Echoes: Shadows of Valentia''.

* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemMysteryOfTheEmblem'' -- The third ''VideoGame/FireEmblem'' game, released on the [[UsefulNotes/SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem Super Famicom]] in 1993. Acts as a seqeul to ''Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light'' and stars Marth again. Has a remake for the UsefulNotes/NintendoDS called "New Mystery of the Emblem: Heroes of Light and Shadow''.

* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemMysteryOfTheEmblem'' -- The third ''VideoGame/FireEmblem'' game, released on the [[UsefulNotes/SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem Super Famicom in 1993. Acts as a seqeul to ''Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light'' and stars Marth again. Has a remake for the UsefulNotes/NintendoDS called "New Mystery of the Emblem: Heroes of Light and Shadow''.

* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemGaiden'' -- The second ''VideoGame/FireEmblem'' game, released on the [[UsefulNotes/NintendoEntertainmentSystem Famicom]] in 1992. Stars Alm and Celica and takes place on Valentia. Has a remake for the UsefulNotes/Ninentdo3DS called ''Echoes: Shadows of Valentia''.
* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemMysteryOfTheEmblem'' -- The third ''VideoGame/FireEmblem'' game, released on the [[UsefulNotes/SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem Super Famicom in 1993. Acts as a seqeul to ''Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light'' and stars Marth again. Has a remake for the UsefulNotes/Nintendo3DS called "New Mystery of the Emblem: Heroes of Light and Shadow''.

* ''VideoGame/Fire EmblemShadowDragonAndTheBladeOfLight'' -- The first ''VideoGame/FireEmblem'' game, released on the [[UsefulNotes/NintendoEntertainmentSystem Famicom]] in 1990. Stars Prince Marth of Altea and takes place on Archanea. Has a remake for the UsefulNotes/NintendoDS released in 2008 called ''Shadow Dragon''.

* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemMysteryOfTheEmblem'' -- The third ''VideoGame/FireEmblem'' game, released on the [[UsefulNotes/SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem Super Famicom in 1993. Acts as a seqeul to ''Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light'' and stars Marth again. Has a remake for the UsefulNotes/NintendoDS called "New Mystery of the Emblem: Heroes of Light and Shadow''.

[[quoteright:250:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fireemblemakaneiacases_5692.png]]

->''Long ago, Medeus, king of the dragonkin, conquered the continent of Archanea, beginning an age of fear and despair for all its people. That tyranny was broken, however, thanks to a miracle. A young man hailing from the Altea region appeared with a divine blade in hand. He stood against the Shadow Dragon, and struck him down.'' [...] ''However, after a century's passing, the Shadow Dragon returned. He forged an alliance with a fiendish sorcerer who sought to rule the world, and their combined might toppled kingdom upon unsuspecting kingdom. Again, darkness threatened to engulf the continent.''
-->-- ''Shadow Dragon'' prologue

The original ''VideoGame/FireEmblem'' timeline, and by far the one most prolific in the franchise, sporting a respectable three main games, two remakes, four UsefulNotes/{{Satellaview}} maps, an [[OriginalVideoAnimation OVA]] and countless manga adaptations. [[MarthDebutedInSmashBros Yes, these are the ones with Marth.]]

* ''Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light'' ([[UsefulNotes/NintendoEntertainmentSystem Famicom]], 1990) is the franchise's debut, starring Prince Marth of Altea. It tells of his efforts to win back his homeland and the entirety of Archanea from the Dolhr empire, and of his search for his family's AncestralWeapon Falchion, which is needed if the dragon emperor Medeus is to fall. The game is a pioneer in the genre of Japanese TurnBasedStrategy [=RPGs=], but partially as a result, [[SeinfeldIsUnfunny its interface has not aged particularly well]]. A FanTranslation was completed in 2011.
* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemGaiden'' (Famicom, 1992) is the second game, taking place in the same world as the first game but on the fairly distant continent of Valentia, and its plot has minimal relation to that of the first game. [[OddballInTheSeries It's the odd duck of the series]], playing quite differently and featuring a lot of unique gameplay elements that haven't been seen outside the rare [[SpiritualSuccessor spiritual successors]] like ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheSacredStones'', ''VideoGame/TearRingSaga'', and ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening''. A FanTranslation was completed in November 2009.
* ''Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem'' ([[UsefulNotes/SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem Super Famicom]], 1993) is the third title in the series, comprising both a compressed remake of the first game (''Book 1'') and a new sequel (''Book 2''), giving players the option to skip to the sequel if they're already familiar with the original game. In the sequel, several years after the fall of Medeus, Marth is dispatched by Emperor Hardin of Archanea to deal with an uprising in Grust, but is appalled to find his "allies" are instead brutally oppressing the citizens. Marth gathers a liberation army to fight back against the now corrupt Archanean Empire. A fan translation was completed in March 2008.
* ''BS Fire Emblem: Archanea War Chronicles'' (Super Famicom / UsefulNotes/{{Satellaview}}, 1997) is a collection of four Satellaview broadcast maps based on the ''Mystery of the Emblem'' engine, telling a number of side-stories set before the beginning of the first game. The nature of these games' distribution system makes them difficult to emulate at all, never mind with accuracy, so they generally go overlooked. These four maps are generally considered to comprise a single game and are for the most part not counted in the numbering scheme of the ''VideoGame/FireEmblem'' series, though Literature/GuinnessWorldRecords does count them.

11 years onward, the UsefulNotes/NintendoDS saw two remakes of Marth's adventures. 7 years later, another semi-remake would come, this time telling Alm and Celica's adventure:

* ''Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon'' (UsefulNotes/NintendoDS, 2008/2009) is a remake of the first game, and is generally counted as the eleventh installment in the franchise. It is the first game in the series to have a vaguely decent multiplayer mode, complete with online play, and has a new feature that lets the player switch the classes of their units at will; otherwise, it's pretty much a straight remake with only a few additions and modifications. With the international release of ''Shadow Dragon'', [[MarthDebutedInSmashBros Marth is now the record holder for "longest delayed solo debut after a debut in]] [[VideoGame/SuperSmashBros another series"]].
* ''Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem, Heroes of Light and Shadow'' (UsefulNotes/NintendoDS, 2010), generally counted as the twelfth title, is a remake of Book 2 of ''Mystery of the Emblem''. Unlike ''Shadow Dragon'', it is far less of a direct redo; it reincorporates characters left out of the original ''Mystery'', introduces those from the Satellaview chapters and ''Shadow Dragon'', alters the story slightly and implements a completely new subplot, as well as the inclusion of a [[HelloInsertNameHere player-created]] [[PlayerCharacter character]] (a feature which would be carried over to the next two entries in the series, ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening Awakening]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemFates Fates]]''). It includes remakes of the four ''BS Fire Emblem'' chapters as bonus content, as well as all-new bonus chapters as downloadable content. For reasons unknown, [[NoExportForYou it didn't receive an English release]], but as of November 2012, there is a [[http://www.heroesofshadow.net/2012/11/complete-translation-patch-released.html complete fan translation.]]
* ''Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia'' (UsefulNotes/Nintendo3DS, 2017) is a semi-[[VideoGameRemake remake]]/reimagining of ''Fire Emblem Gaiden'' being developed with the ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening Awakening]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemFates Fates]]'' engine.

Also present in the Archanea canon are countless manga retellings, as well as a two-episode anime OVA adaptation of ''Mystery of the Emblem''. It actually ''was'' dubbed and released in the US by Creator/ADVFilms, long before ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' happened, but remains quite obscure.

Additionally, the next two ''Fire Emblem'' games, ''Genealogy of the Holy War'' and ''Thracia 776'', are set in the same universe as the Archanea games but in the distant past and on a completely different continent, [[VideoGame/FireEmblemJugdral Jugdral]]; the stories are pretty much only connected through Naga, the Divine Dragon God who has a large role in the histories of both continents. On the other end, ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'' is set in the distant future of the Archanea universe.
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!!This sub-series provides examples of:
* AdaptationExpansion: The Nintendo DS remakes to the original Famicom games, but ''New Mystery of the Emblem'' in particular. ''Echoes'' looks like it will continue this trend in regards to ''Gaiden''.
* AdaptationInducedPlotHole:
** In the chapter before Hardin is recruited in both the first game and ''Shadow Dragon'', a villager gives you a Silver Sword that supposedly belongs to him and asks you to return it to him. With the introduction of weapon ranks, however, Hardin is initially unable to use the Silver Sword in ''Shadow Dragon''.
** The complete lack of Sages and the Myrmidon line among enemies in ''Shadow Dragon'' was because the original game had all myrmidons in that game be mercenaries, and Mages and Curates/Clerics promoted into Bishops. The Gaiden chapters and ''New Mystery of the Emblem'' fix this.
* AdultFear:
** A main villain, Lang, not only massacres whole villages if one person rebels, but kills boys and ''rapes'' girls. You can imagine how well ''that'' was taken by Marth and his group. It's also invoked in the backstory of Lena's pupil Maillesia (which involved her going into hiding and having to pretend she's much younger than she truly is to avoid him or his troops) and in Yubello and Yumina's (as the fallen heirs of Ludvick, Lang and others kill their guardian and then use them as pawns).
** Princess Maria, whose own brother Michalis uses as a hostage to force their sister Minerva to fight for him. As a result, Maria spends a long part of her life as a hostage, and Minerva can't do anything but fight on the evil Michalis's orders to ensure she won't die.
* ArtEvolution: ''Mystery of the Emblem'' was the first Fire Emblem to have an actual artist in the development team. To give an example, look at Astram's portrait between the various games: ''[[http://serenesforest.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Astria.png Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light]]'', ''[[http://serenesforest.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/astria.gif Mystery of the Emblem]]'', ''[[http://serenesforest.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/fe11-astram.png Shadow Dragon]]'', ''[[http://serenesforest.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/astram.png New Mystery of the Emblem]]''.
** More apparent in ''Shadow Dragon'', as the character art was done by Creator/ShirowMasamune.
* AllLoveIsUnrequited: [[spoiler:The Hardin/Nyna/Camus triangle in Book 2, Palla's feelings for Abel, Catria for Marth, and all the guys crushing on Caeda, though it's PlayedForLaughs in Roger's case.]]
* TheAnimeOfTheGame: A two-episode OVA based on the first game was released in 1996, and was licensed by Creator/ADVFilms in 1997. WordOfGod put out that it was supposed to last longer, but did not due to a lack of funds. Marth was voiced by Creator/HikaruMidorikawa, who went on to voice him in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros''; his dub voice was Creator/SpikeSpencer, who as of yet hasn't reprised the role, even in Marth's ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' appearances. The OVA was also the second anime adaptation of a Nintendo title (the first one being based on ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros''), a few years before the ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' animated adaptation appeared in Japan.
* BackFromTheDead: [[spoiler:Camus/Zeke/Sirius]] in ''Gaiden'' and ''Mystery of the Emblem'', [[spoiler:this time aiding you on your quest]]. Also [[spoiler:Michalis, though he gets KilledOffForReal near the endgame. Except if you're playing the remake of ''Mystery of the Emblem'' for the DS, in which Michalis can actually survive]].
* BrainwashedAndCrazy: [[spoiler:Book 2 Hardin.]]
* BeautyEqualsGoodness:
** Used in the remake of ''Mystery of the Emblem''. [[spoiler:The {{Bishonen}} Michalis not only gets to [[DisneyDeath come back from death twice]], but also lose all his scars, become a king, then leave the continent and become the king of another continent! And this is after he killed his own father, was a BadBoss to his soldiers, and an overall tyrant. The very plain Hardin still dies unhappily due to being a tyrant despite a lifetime of good. The worst part was that Hardin was possessed and had more of a connection to Marth, while Michalis did his evil deeds out of [[AmbitionIsEvil ambition]]]]. Seems you get a third chance if you’re really hot, but if you’re not attractive you don’t even get a second. The same game also has Ellerean (a blonde LongHairedPrettyBoy), though there are no second chances for [[spoiler:Kleine and Eremiya]], even for their beauty.
** Averted with Wrys, who isn't much of a looker but is a good man who provides healing services for Marth's army.
* CallBack: More than a few support conversations between My Unit and certain characters in ''New Mystery of the Emblem'' allude to major events that took place in ''Shadow Dragon'' and ''BS Fire Emblem''.
* CaptainObvious: Jagen in ''Mystery of the Emblem''.
--> "Sir Marth, there is a desert ahead of us."
* CharacterCustomization: The new main character of the ''Mystery of the Emblem'' DS remake is actually a creation of the player, built from a selection of designs and attributes.
* TheComputerIsACheatingBastard: Very much so, especially in harder difficulties, there are mooks using forged versions of otherwise unforgable weapons. Also, especially in the remakes, many enemies have their own unobtainable weapons such as Swarm, Meteor, and Glower tomes.
* ConspicuousCG: The art style of ''Shadow Dragon''; improved slightly in ''New Mystery''.
* ContinuitySnarl: The sidequest requirements in ''Shadow Dragon'' cause some pretty serious MindScrew in ''New Mystery''. Basically, ''everyone'' from ''Shadow Dragon'' returns alive and well in the sequel. While this was explained in the case of the sacrifice in the prologue, the real problem is that Marth recognizes ''all'' the sidequest-only characters, despite meeting them all in ''Shadow Dragon'' requiring practically ''all the other characters'' to be '''killed'''. Only one ''Shadow Dragon sidequest'' is explicitly stated to be non-canon: 24x (as Marth doesn't recognize Nagi) and that was the one with the ''least'' harsh requirements. Exactly how the others could have occurred with everyone surviving just boggles the mind. Or maybe the sidequest requirements in the first game are just CanonDiscontinuity.
* CrapsackWorld: Archanea really starts to seem like this in Book 2 and when you read up on its history.
** Knorda in particular is a Crapsack Town. The whole place was taken over by a gang of thugs some time ago, [[spoiler:Katarina]] was born there, and was constantly beaten and abused. Linde somehow fell into their hands during the War of Shadows, and who knows what world have happened to her if Marth hadn't got there when he did. And then we learn in ''Mystery'' that Ogma and Samto were forced to compete in brutal gladiatorial games there since they were kids. What's utterly baffling about this is the town is literally ''right outside Archanea's palace'', and yet no one thinks to do anything about it until Marth's arrival! There's a reason for this: It's stated at the end of the ''BS Fire Emblem'' "Fall" by Camus that the King wasn't a very good ruler and was too concerned with living in luxury than ruling the land correctly. Between that and having some other general (Camus got imprisoned for a while) govern the area, it's only natural that things didn't get better.
* CrutchCharacter: Jagen is a very well-known example and former TropeNamer. In the original, he has less than a 10% chance of raising each stat upon level up (with some having a ''0%'' chance), but starts decent compared to your level 1 unpromoted units. Arran replaces him in book 2 (Jagen is now Marth's tactician and doesn't fight) with only slightly better growths (Arran ''has'' a defense growth) and is ''worse'' than Jagen in the remake (his ''only'' advantage over a statless replacement unit in growths is 10% extra luck growth). Both remakes and Mystery lampshade their roles, telling the player to work on other units.
** The remake gives Caeda a special weapon to compensate for her new inability (thanks to the introduction of weapon ranks) to grab Jagen's silver lance to compensate for her rather weak start.
** Averted by Wolf and Sedgar in the remake ''Shadow Dragon''. They look like classic Crutch Characters, and even completely worthless if you look at their stats... however, they compensate for having much less levels by having some ''amazing'' stat growths, making both Wolf and Sedgar very viable late-game. (However, power-leveling them in the arena at early levels can be pretty bad since the game didn't seem to take the ''stats'' into account when generating arena enemies, making Wolf and Sedgar having the stats of a level 1-5 character fighting stats of someone at level 18+.)
* DarkerAndEdgier: ''Mystery of the Emblem'' Book 2 / ''New Mystery of the Emblem'' when compared to ''Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light'' / ''Mystery of the Emblem'' Book 1 / ''Shadow Dragon''. Not as much as the [[VideoGame/FireEmblemJugdral Jugdral series]], but things have gotten much worse for Archanea by that point.
* DeadGuyOnDisplay: When Marth's army moves in on the Archanea Palace in ''Shadow Dragon'', Nyna recalls that this done to her entire family in the early days of the war.
* DependingOnTheArtist: The [[InfinityPlusOneSword Infinity+1 Lance]] Gradivus is illustrated in the official artwork for both ''Shadow Dragon'' and ''New Mystery'', being held by its initial wielders in each, Camus and Hardin respectively. However, the color and patterns on its spearhead differ significantly between the two, and the spearhead itself is shaped slightly differently.
* DiscontinuityNod: In the prologue of ''New Mystery'', Marth has a long conversation with My Unit about how deeply the deaths of comrades during the last war affect him, and how while some people believe in the importance of "sacrificing the few to save the many", Marth would have none of that, and aims to save everyone under his command. It's likely this is a deliberate jab at ''Shadow Dragon's'' controversial sidequest requirements. While its predecessor rewarded you with sidequests for killing off your characters, this game [[WhatTheHellHero openly mocks you]] for the same behavior.
* DisneyDeath: [[spoiler:Camus. Michalis gets two in the remake!]]
* DoomedByCanon: Whoever you pick as the decoy in the prologue of ''Shadow Dragon''. [[spoiler:Canonically, this is Frey.]] However, check GameplayAndStoryIntegration.
* DoWellButNotPerfect: If you want to get the gaiden chapters in ''Shadow Dragon'', you'll need to have very few surviving units at the end of the preceding chapter. This will frequently require you to keep killing off units, since the game won't allow you to have too few units to be ''able'' to field the maximum allowable number of units--which in the case of Chapter 12 means that no matter how few units you had at the end of Chapter 11, you'll need to kill someone off to reach 12x.
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The original Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light for the Famicom/NES, in droves:
** The iconic [[ElementalRockPaperScissors Weapon Triangle]] didn't exist yet, and wouldn't be introduced until [[VideoGame/FireEmblemJugdral Genealogy of the Holy War]]. As a result, weapon types weren't distinguished all that differently from how they would be in a more standard [=RPG=].
** Different weapon ranks for each weapon type also had yet to be introduced. Instead, there existed a "Weapon Level" ''stat'', increased randomly during level up just like any other stat. Weapons had numerical weapon level values that a compatible character's Weapon Level stat would need to match or exceed in order to be able to use them. However, despite the cap being 20, the highest weapon level requirement of any regular weapon is ''9''. The only ones higher are [[InfinityPlusOneSword the legendary Lance, Gradivus]], at 14, and [[InfinityPlusOneSword the legendary Bow, Parthia]], at 13.
** All throughout the first three games, Axes as a weapon type were inexplicably shafted for some reason. Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light gave you only four Axe-users near the beginning, neither of the two Axe-using classes could promote, and armories stop selling Axes altogether after Chapter 7, with a single odd last call for rearming your Axe-wielders in Chapter 20. In Gaiden and the original Mystery of the Emblem, however, Axes were simply an enemy-only weapon type, with a few popping up in Mystery of the Emblem to serve as VendorTrash.
** Magic in general was very strange compared to later installments. The "Magic" stat simply didn't exist yet, and nothing existed to take its place in the calculations for magical attack power. Additionally, all characters barring [[EleventhHourRanger Gotoh]] had 0 base Resistance, and ''nobody'' had any Resistance growth; the only ways to increase Resistance were temporarily with a Ward staff, or permanently with a Talisman. As a result of this, Magic tomes ended up being functionally [[FixedDamageAttack Fixed Damage Attacks]] most of the time, albeit with the same chance of striking a damage-tripling critical hit as any other attack.
** Some classes in Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light couldn't promote, even ones that had an obvious class that they would promote into already in the game. Fighters, Pirates, and Thieves simply had nothing to promote into, while Knights and Hunters were unable to promote despite Generals and Horsemen already existing in the game. Remakes have since fixed this, however, by implementing proper promotions for Knights, Hunters, Fighters, and Pirates, and allowing Thieves and other classes without promoted forms to reach level 30 as compensation.
** The Mercenary and Myrmidon class lines were originally a single class line, using the names of the Mercenary-family classes but functioning like a blend of the two. Additionally, Knights were able to wield both Swords and Lances, as opposed to being restricted to one weapon type.
** [[NoExperiencePointsForMedic Using healing staves didn't yield EXP in the original]]; instead, healers could only gain [=EXP=] and level up by ''surviving being attacked''. On the upside, the [=EXP=] yield per battle survived is equivalent to having ''killed'' the enemy that attacked them, which leads to an unintentional PeninsulaOfPowerLeveling of sorts for your healers in Chapter 3; by abusing a Thief standing adjacent to a fortress, you can quickly—and relatively safely—boost your healers all the way up to the level cap of 20 very early in the game.
** Experience yield calculations were also very rigid, and much more transparent than in later games. Enemies have [=EXP=] "stats", just like player-controlled characters, which, for enemies, is used to indicate how much [=EXP=] a same-tier unit will receive for killing them. For engagements that fail to kill the enemy, the amount of [=EXP=] gained is equal to the amount of damage your character did, up to 20 [=EXP=].
** Item durabilities were much less symmetrical than the now standard "multiples of five" setup, and weapons weren't divided as cleanly into sets of equivalent power tiers as in later games. The Iron Sword was the only base weapon labeled with a material (the others being simply Lance, Axe, and Bow), and, in the original game, Marth got no fewer than ''three'' different personal Swords throughout the game! One of these Swords, Mercurius, has since been made accessible to all Sword-wielding characters in remakes, but originally, it was Marth-exclusive, like Rapiers or the iconic [[InfinityPlusOneSword Falchion]].
** Stat cap variance between classes wasn't introduced yet, and as a result, Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light had universal caps of 52 for maximum HP and 20 for all other stats.
** Double attacking originally only required an attack speed lead of ''1'' in order to pull off, making them much more frequent for both player and enemy units.
** While weapon weight existed, no stat counteracted it, making it effectively a varying fixed speed penalty attached to each weapon.
** [[RareCandy Stat boosters]] were a lot more potent than their future counterparts, which made them downright excessive when combined with Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light's much smaller stat scale. Most stat boosters give in the ballpark of +4 to +7 to their respective stats, with the Dracoshield (+3 Defense) and Seraph Robe (+9 Max HP) being outliers. The most egregious, however, despite falling inside the general range, is the Boots, which give a whopping ''+4 Movement'', which, in practice, is a ''much'' bigger improvement than an additional four points in any other stat. Shadow Dragon, of course, syncs the stat boosters up with their modern counterparts, making them significantly more balanced.
* EasyModeMockery: If you kept on [[WeHaveReserves losing your replacements]], ''Shadow Dragon'' would start giving you ones with rather insulting names like "Lucer", "Auffle", "Laim", "Rejek", "Owend", "Wymp", and "Wieklin".
* EmbeddedPrecursor: Book 1 of ''Mystery of the Emblem'' is an abridged remake of the original Famicom game. ''New Mystery of the Emblem'' contains a remake of the four ''BS Fire Emblem'' maps as unlockable content.
* EquipmentSpoiler: Subverted in ''Mystery of the Emblem'''s Book 2: You can get a few axes, but never get an axe user; you're supposed to sell them for cash. Averted in the remake, which features playable axe users and replaces those bonus axes with simply getting bonus money. This is outright lampshaded in the script.
** You got the Firestone before the first Manakete you can recruit joined your team, in both ''Shadow Dragon'' and ''Mystery''. And in fact, he actually joins without any equipment, meaning you ''need'' to get spoiled in order to even use him! Sadly, his {{Nerf}} in ''Shadow Dragon'' discouraged you from using him.
* EvilVersusEvil: The ''Assassins'' DLC Chapter in ''New Mystery of the Emblem''. The episode takes place before the main story proper, and is focused on the assassin group from the main campaign ([[spoiler:Katarina]]/Eine, Kleine, and Legion) driving out the Soothsires (the bandit group from the previous game) in order to "rescue"[[labelnote:*]]presumably to convert into ChildSoldiers[[/labelnote]] the children kidnapped by said bandit group.
* GameplayAndStoryIntegration: A mild but ''very'' clever form of it. The sacrifice in the prologue of ''Shadow Dragon'' can't be brought back using the one use "bring unit back from the dead" staff (even though characters that die by other means in the prologue can). Frey (who doesn't appear when the prologue is skipped and is seen as the canon sacrifice) [[http://serenesforest.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=21343&st=0 appears in the tutorial]] in ''New Mystery of the Emblem''. [[spoiler:He reveals through conversations with the player character that he ''was'' the canonical sacrifice, but upon being discovered as a fake, was beaten up and left for dead. Frey was then rescued by some citizens, and survived with some memory loss and a terrible scar. So thus, you could not revive him with the Aum staff... because Frey never actually ''died'' to begin with!]]
* GlassWeapon: In ''Mystery Of the Emblem'', there are glass staffs, swords, lances, axes, and bows that break after three uses. They're as strong as silver weapons (i.e., mediocre), but don't require the weapon rank to use them that silver weapons do.
* GrayAndGrayMorality: Zofia and Rigel follow their god's respective strengths, but both nations have done so to excess, leaving neither one morally superior.
* GuideDangIt: Recruitment requirements (a good number of people actually try to recruit Camus, or even Michalis), as well as gaiden chapter requirements in ''New Mystery of the Emblem''.
* HeroicLineage: A strange case. Marth and the other Altean royal family members claim linage from Anri, the hero that defeated Medeus. Then ''Mystery of the Emblem'' reveals that they aren't actually descended from Anri (who never married), but his younger brother Marcelus. Yet Marth is called Anri's descendant anyway, which is technically true, he is just an indirect descendant.
* HumansAreTheRealMonsters: But Manaketes aren't really any better.
* InconsistentDub: As with ''Advance Wars: Days of Ruin'', both the American and European releases of ''Shadow Dragon'' had several disagreements with names. For example, Caeda in the US was Shiida in Europe, Aurelis was Orleans, Macedon was Medon, and Dolhr was Doluna.
* InventoryManagementPuzzle: Especially infuriating in ''Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light''. You can only give items to another unit, and once you've given an item, the unit's turn ends.
* JokeItem: ''Mystery of the Emblem'' gives you silver axes in a game where ''absolutely no one'' is able to use them.[[note]][[VendorTrash You were meant to sell them for funds]]; since the remake actually has axe users, it replaces them with bags of cash.[[/note]] The remake gives you a bouquet of odds and ends, not the least of which is ''a bloody frying pan''! However, said joke items in the remake can actually be quite useful. Forging cost depends on the value of the item, so a nearly worthless 1-might frying pan can be forged into an 11-might axe with a much higher hit rate than a steel axe, for barely any gold compared to what forging normally costs. (It still looks like a frying pan in your inventory, though.)
* JustAKid: Samson, [[spoiler:Michalis, and Hardin]] all dismiss Marth this way at some point in ''Mystery of the Emblem''.
* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: In Nagi's support with My Unit, she reveals she has some sort of divination ability and notes that My Unit is "an enigma" "guided by a mysterious fate", while MU notes s/he has felt someone's guidance. Strange.
* LeftForDead: [[spoiler:The ultimate fate of the decoy (canonically Frey) from ''Shadow Dragon'' Prologue, according to ''New Mystery of the Emblem''.]]
* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: ''New Mystery'' brings back characters from ''Shadow Dragon'' who never appeared in the original ''Mystery of the Emblem'' (including the ''SD''-exclusive characters) and even adds the characters who only appeared in the BSFE episodes. [[http://serenesforest.net/light-and-shadow/characters/introduction/ Player controlled units in the main game]] alone add up to 77, the largest playable cast of the entire series (just edging out ''Radiant Dawn'' at 73).
%%* LoveTriangle: [[spoiler:Type 4 Love triangle in Book 1 with Hardin as A, Nyna as B, and Camus as C. In book 2, it becomes a type 5 as Camus now loves Teeta.]]
* MayflyDecemberFriendship: The manaketes Gotoh, Xane, Bantu, and Tiki all befriend Marth. Needless to say, they all outlive him. In a conversation with Xane, he mentions this as a reason why he has trouble connecting with humans.
* MercyMode: The DS remakes give you replacement units if your unit count is less than the minimum required for a chapter.
* MindControlEyes: In the DS version, [[spoiler:Maria, Lena, Nyna, and Elice have these]].
* MissionPackSequel: What ''BS Fire Emblem'' basically amounts to.
* MoodWhiplash: Occasionally occurs in the Supports of ''New Mystery''. For example, Xane's third conversation with My Unit starts with him pretending to be Jagen and declaring his love for them, but then discussing how he no longer fits in with humans or dragons, and [[WhoWantsToLiveForever how cynical he's become due to living so long]].
* {{Nerf}}: Between ''Shadow Dragon'' and ''New Mystery of the Emblem'', javelins went from a respectable 7 might to a pitiful ''3''! That's even worse than an iron sword!
** Wolf and Sedgar's growths are also nowhere near as game breaking as they were before.
** Almost everything in ''Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light'' and ''Mystery of the Emblem'' are nerfed in the remake, such as the overpowered stats boosters in the NES and SNES games.
** Marth perhaps gets hit by the biggest nerf in the series by far, going from an overpowered juggernaut in the first game, and DiscOneNuke in ''Mystery'', into one of the worst rapier-wielding Lords in the series in ''Shadow Dragon'' and merely good in ''New Mystery''.
* NintendoHard: Lunatic in ''New Mystery'' makes ''Hard 5 in Shadow Dragon'' look like a joke. (Seriously? Having to deal with a 19 ATK Archer supported by any number of enemies that can 2 hit kill your guys so early on?)
* NoExperiencePointsForMedic: In the first game, staves did not generate experience. Healers could only gain EXP from being attacked.
* NoPronunciationGuide: The English dub of the OVA has some rather strange pronunciations of some of the location names -- its handling of pronouncing "Durhua" (aka Dolhr) is particularly prone to inconsistency.
* NostalgiaLevel: ''Mystery'' and its remake have several of them, each taking place on the same area as a level from ''Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light''/''Mystery of the Emblem'' Book 1/''Shadow Dragon''.
** Chapter 8 takes place on the Chiasmir bridge where Marth's army fought the Sable Knights (this level was not present in ''Mystery of the Emblem'' Book 1).
** Chapter 9 takes place in the Khadein desert where Gharnef first appeared.
** Chapters 15 and 16 involve Marth liberating Altea again.
** Chapter 17 takes place at the Gra Bastion where Marth faced Jiol.
** Chapter 19 takes place in the pass of Archanea outside of the palace.
** Chapter 20 takes place inside the palace of Archanea, where [[spoiler:Midia is held as a hostage again.]]
* NotQuiteDead: ''Shadow Dragon'' made most people think that everyone lived... except the sacrifice. Except that they didn't, and this is revealed in the sequel.
* OminousPipeOrgan: [[spoiler:''New Mystery'''s final chapter.]]
* PermanentlyMissableContent: The Falchion in ''Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light'' and ''Mystery of the Emblem''. [[EleventhHourSuperpower You know, the sword that is pretty much the only way to win the game]]? ''Shadow Dragon'' fixes that by giving you a weaker version if you fail to get the actual Falchion and let Tiki (the other primary way to beat the final boss) die, though in the remake the Falchion isn't necessary to beat the boss. If, for example, Marth was barely used throughout the game and thus still of a low level, it's still possible to complete the final chapter with said low-level Marth sitting on a fort to prevent reinforcements spawning while others take down the boss. Even in the original, it was possible to [[DeathOfAThousandCuts cut him]] [[CherryTapping to death]].
* APupilOfMineUntilHeTurnedToEvil: Gharnef is Gotoh's ex-student.
* PurpleProse: The English localization of ''Shadow Dragon'' is incredibly eloquent and floral to the point of bordering on this trope, an incredibly stark contrast to the rather bare-bones scripts of the earlier ''Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light'' and ''Mystery of the Emblem'' fan translations, and also fairly different from earlier official localizations of the series. In a case of TropesAreNotBad, common consensus is that the game is much better off for it, with the ''New Mystery'' fan translation seeking to emulate the style.
-->'''Malledus:''' ''"Sire... You must live. Drink deeply now of these injustices; sup on these slights they serve. Remember them!"''
* RedemptionEqualsDeath: Having been nursed back to health by his sister and [[spoiler:not quite killed by the other]] after apparently dying in ''Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light''/''Mystery of the Emblem'' Book 1/''Shadow Dragon'', [[spoiler:Michalis]] (formerly someone evil enough to [[spoiler:[[SelfMadeOrphan kill his own father]]]]) dies stealing [[spoiler:Starlight from Garnef]] to give to Marth's group in ''Mystery of the Emblem'' Book 2/''New Mystery of the Emblem''. [[spoiler:It is possible to keep him alive in ''New Mystery'', then he loses [[BeautyIsNeverTarnished his scars]] [[EasilyForgiven and becomes a king]], then leaves to become a king on another continent.]]
* RetCanon: The 12th game properly introduces a lot of bits that were originally just WordOfGod backgrounds to the story proper. For example, a conversation between My Unit and Ogma brings up Ogma's fighting style being based on gladiatorial fighting.
* SchizophrenicDifficulty: ''Shadow Dragon'''s Normal mode. While the Hard modes are consistently some level of difficult, Normal mode really can get a laugh from you looking at the enemy types you fight further than their weapons. For example, disregarding the Gaiden Chapters, the only chapter to use Bishops that use staves and tomes is Chapter 17, the only enemies in the mercenary class are in Chapter 11, horseman enemies only appear in the early games as incredibly difficult prepromotes and disappear forever past Chapter 8 outside of one last appearance in Chapter 16, dracoknights are interchangeable with pegasus knights a la Wyvern Riders in the GBA games instead of being treated as promoted enemies, there are no enemy Sages, Warriors, Berserkers, Dark Mages, Sorcerers (sans [[TheHeavy Gharnef]], though even he was initially a Bishop), Myrmidons, or Swordmasters since they didn't exist in the first game, Bishops and Mages were interchangeable almost every time the former appears, and the only healer enemies in the Final Chapter were a pair of CURATES.
* SendInTheClones: When confronted at Thabes in ''Shadow Dragon''/Book 1, Gharnef creates two clones to confuse the player. It's taken further in ''New Mystery'' with Legion, whose clones endlessly replace themselves until the real one is defeated. [[spoiler:You can even control some of his clones in a downloadable episode.]]
* SomeoneHasToDie: The final prequel chapter in ''Shadow Dragon'' requires that the player select a unit to act as a decoy for a pursuing army. Interestingly, the game actually accounts for a few variations: it won't let the player [[MoreExpendableThanYou send Marth]], and the locked door preventing escape will open if you [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone kill Gordin as an enemy]] or if [[KillEmAll Marth is the only unit to survive that long]]. Subverted as of ''New Mystery''; Frey (who is the canon sacrifice) explains what really happened.
* SparedByTheAdaptation: ''New Mystery of the Emblem'' allows you to avoid a shocking number of character deaths from the original, [[spoiler:such as Michalis and the Wolfguard]].
* SpellMyNameWithAnS: All over the place, by necessity of how long they went without an official translation; very few names are remotely consistent and standardized, among them being "Marth" and "Camus". A particularly interesting example occurred long before then: Marth being called "Mars" in the dubbed OVA (though it was still pronounced closer to "Marth" than it was how "Mars" is normally pronounced). The English release of ''Shadow Dragon'' managed to both put many of the name quandaries to rest '''and''' create even more with differences between the European and American versions!
* SpitefulAI: Seemingly, the computer are more interested in scoring casualties rather than killing Marth, even if they can. They know that if a character dies, the player's likely to consider the battle "lost" and restart anyways.
* SuddenSequelDeathSyndrome: In ''Mystery of the Emblem'' and its remake, [[spoiler:Lorenz dies at the end of chapter 1, which is his only appearance in the whole game; later, Boah is strongly implied to have died in his brief appearance late in the game.]]
* TimeSkip: The events of ''Mystery of the Emblem'' happen two or four years after ''Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light''. The new prologue chapters in ''Shadow Dragon'' happen three years before the latter.
* TranslationTrainWreck: The ''Mystery of the Emblem'' fan translation is... unfortunate, with an overly literal interpretation of the dialogue that can be pretty stifling to read at times. Luckily, ''New Mystery'''s fan translation brings some redemption and a new translation is in progress for the original version.
-->'''''Mystery of the Emblem'' fan translation''': "Khadein is a free city. [[ShapedLikeItself It is not under the rule of any country, and is an independent country.]]"
** ''Gaiden's'' is a little better, but it does contain a surprising amount of ObligatorySwearing, which feels... [[GoshDangItToHeck rather jarring in comparison to the rest of the series]].
* TrilogyCreep: ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'', while nominally a standalone title, quite clearly takes place 2,000 years after this series. The creators admittedly like Archanea.
* TwoPartTrilogy: Zig-zagged. Unlike other examples of that trope, it's the ''middle'' one of the trilogy that's disconnected, only sharing a couple of characters and the world in common.
* VendorTrash:
** In the DS remakes, there are items called 'Bullion' which serve only as this with three different values depending on its size.
** In ''Mystery of the Emblem'' Book 2, you can obtain three silver axes over the course of the whole campaign; however, there are NO units that can actually equip them, thus rendering them little more than free gold.
** Towards the tail-end of Chapter 20 you obtain the Gradivus, the strongest lance in the game -- when the next chapter is the only place the player can effectively use it before the final chapter. Normally, knights, and cavaliers (and their promoted classes) can equip the Gradivus assuming they have sufficient weapon skill. Unfortunately, Cavaliers can only wield lances when mounted, and they are forced to dismount indoors and fight with swords, and to make things worse, the final chapter is ''entirely indoors''. This leaves the only two playable knights, Draug and Sheema. Draug, while not terrible, is a pretty average unit in Book 2. Sheema has [[MagikarpPower very high growths]], but low bases in addition to late jointime, due to this leveling her will often take turns out of a ranked run(which is based around on clearing chapters in as little turns as possible). This often results in players either using the Gradivus exclusively in Chapter 21 and/or selling it so they can buy the higher quality swords, tomes, and [[RareCandy stat-boosting]] items.
* YouMonster:
** In ''Shadow Dragon'', Marth calls Gharnef a monster in chapter 23 [[spoiler: when the latter congratulates him for killing Camus and Michalis]].
** PlayedForLaughs with minor boss Dahl in ''Mystery of the Emblem'' who calls Marth a monster for stealing the stolen goods from his gang of thieves.