History VideoGame / FireEmblemTheBindingBlade

* NintendoHard: This is the only game that might rival [[VideoGame/FireEmblemThracia776 its predecessor]] for "hardest game in the series on Normal difficulty" (later games added [[SerialEscalation increasingly higher difficulty levels]] in order to simultaneously make the series friendly to newcomers and provide challenges for veterans who enjoyed the ridiculousness of the early games). While fatigue meters, leadership stars, and unit capturing are gone (and only the last has ever returned, in a much less frustrating form), FogOfWar became a mainstay, as did gaiden chapters, with the addition that missing even one of these gaiden chapters--or allowing the {{Infinity Plus One Sword}}s that you acquired therein to break prior to the end of the chapter in question--would cause the game to end three chapters prematurely. This was also the game that codified the series' desert maps (namely the part about the hidden items scattered across the maps, something that ''Radiant Dawn'' extended to nearly ''every map''), except this game's incarnation of the desert map was also a FogOfWar map...with a requirement for unlocking a gaiden chapter...that involved keeping alive a freshly recruited and forced party member with stats so poor that were she an enemy, your main character could kill her in one round with his starting stats.

''Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade'' - also known as ''Fire Emblem: Binding Blade'' and ''Fire Emblem: Sword of Seals'' - is the sixth game in the ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' series, released only in Japan on the UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance in 2002. It takes place on the continent of Elibe, which is in a new continuity separate from all previous games.

** This is the first game in the series to lack any involvement with franchise creator Shouzou Kaga, since he left Intelligent Systems before its predecessor ''Thracia 776'' was released. It is also the first handheld title, as all previous games were on home consoles instead, though it was going to be on the UsefulNotes/Nintendo64 under a different title at one point.

** In order to recruit Thea, you need to either talk to her with Shanna ''before'' you recruit Klein, or talk to her with Shanna ''and'' Klein. If you only talk to her with Shanna after recruiting Klein, she becomes an NPC and will not join your army afterwards, even if she survives the battle. There's no clear reason why it works this way, or that you need to talk to Thea again to actually recruit her. (This is made worse by being on a very hard map, and if you want HundredPercentCompletion you absolutely ''must'' recruit Klein first.)

While it wasn't officially confirmed until 2015, this game is infamous for its rocky development history; it began in 1997 as a Platform/Nintendo64 title, specifically for the [=64DD=], when it was known as ''Maiden of Darkness''. However, after years of silence, its overambitiousness, alongside the failure of the [=64DD=] forced development to restart as a Platform/GameBoyAdvance title with its current name, as well as almost rewriting the entire cast (aside from Roy and Karel). However, it remains to be seen as to what else has changed between the the transition from the Nintendo 64 to the Game Boy Advance.

* GuideDangIt: Recruiting Douglas doesn't make sense at a first glance. He starts as an enemy and proactively attacks, and nobody can make him a friendly unit by talking to him (including his prince and his adopted daughter) like other potential recruits. You have to seize the throne first.

*** to not have a dark mage as one of the main antagonists (or at least ''the'' main antagonist), as all enemy shamans and druids encountered throughout the course of the game are instead mooks or minor bosses.

* SpellMyNameWithAnS: ''Binding'' is a bit worse about it than a number of other ''FE'' entries due to just how long the game's gone without an official release, and how long the fans only had katakana and a few sources of romanized names in JP materials to rely on (with some of those clearly not matching the katakana--"Thite" being a classic example). The whole cast only got official names once ''Fire Emblem Heroes'' rolled around with its Choose Your Legend event.

* ChildSoldiers: A lot of playable characters in this game are stated to be teenagers in the ''[[AllThereInTheManual Fire Emblem Characters]]'' book, but a majority look to be no older than early/mid teens, at an age where they are supposed to be too young to fight. Sophia and Fae, despite being long-lived dragons, also look very young, with the latter looking like a child. However, because most of the characters ages [[VagueAge were never given exact estimates]], the only teenage characters with confirmed/implied ages are Lugh and Raigh[[note]]13[[/note]], Roy[[note]]15[[/note]], and Lilina[[note]]also 15[[/note]]. This makes Roy himself one of the youngest lords in the franchise.

* TheLoad: Roy receives his promotion via story event very late in the game. It's not hard for him to ram level 20 ''long'' before this, so he can't fight or else the rest of the party loses experience.

* ChildSoldiers: A lot of playable characters in this game are stated to be teenagers in the ''[[AllThereInTheManual Fire Emblem Characters]]'' book, but a majority look to be no older than early/mid teens, at an age where they are too young to fight, Sophia and Fae, despite being long-lived dragons, also look very young, with the latter looking like a child. However, because most of the characters ages [[VagueAge were never given exact estimates]], the only teenage characters with confirmed/implied ages are Lugh and Raigh[[note]]13[[/note]], Roy[[note]]15[[/note]], and Lilina[[note]]also 15[[/note]]. This makes Roy himself one of the youngest lords in the franchise.