(Work-in-progress Recap page for Fire Emblem Heroes in an attempt to organise one-off tropes from the main page.)
Per wiki policy, Spoilers Off applies to Recap pages. All spoilers are unmarked!
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Main Story (to be split into its own pages)
The story mode is split into "books" containing thirteen chapters, beginning in December of every year with two chapters, then one chapter a month thereafter until completing in November. At the start of every book, an opening movie is published, animated in 3D (though with an occasional Art Shift to 2D) and generally setting up the book's conflict. From Book III onwards, there is a midpoint movie that releases with Chapter 8 (Book III's released alongside Chapter 9), and an ending movie after the book ends.
Every book after the first includes an Arc Heroine given out for free upon completion of the first chapter, who allies with the Order of Heroes and plays a pivotal role in the story. They, alongside any other Original Generation characters introduced in that Book are typically drawn by a single artist, Kozaki Yusuke for Books I, III, V and VI, Maeshima Shigeki for Book II, and Yoshiku for Book IV.
Book I
Artist: Kozaki Yusuke
The first Book of the game, running from the game's launch until September 2017. See the opening cinematic here
.
Tropes:
- Hopeless Boss Fight: Ike in Chapter 10-1 is impossible to defeat since he is equipped with a special Sacred Seal (Embla's Ward) that makes him completely immune to damage. He will seek the player's units out, and the only way the player can deal with him is to avoid him entirely before successfully surviving a specific number of turns.
- Magically-Binding Contract: The reason why you fight all the Heroes in the story. Heroes defeated by the Emblian Empire must agree to the contract, which states that they must serve the empire, or they'll presumably be killed. However, the contract is null and void if someone else defeats them in combat. A majority of Book I (and a few Paralogues) focuses on freeing the Heroes from the Empire's contracts.
- Recurring Boss:
- Regular Xander is fought a few times during the story mode. Once during the prologue, twice during Ch 2, and once more in Ch 9-5, where he fights alongside Veronica.
- The Mysterious Man is fought several times during the story mode. He's fought in Ch 9-4, 10-3, 11-5, 12-5, 13-1, and 13-5 in Book I, and 1-5 and 6-5 in Book IV, notably being the main boss of 9-4 and the Climax Boss of 12-5 and 13-5.
- Wham Episode:
- Chapter 10 begins with Veronica directly invading Askr with Heroes from the World of Radiance, and the Askr trio are actually unnerved by the idea of facing Ike and his group. This time, Veronica somehow obtained a seal that makes Heroes invincible and until it wears off, the Summoner's units can't damage Ike at all. In the last chapter, the Summoner and the Askr trio follow the Heroes of Radiance into their world, and just as they claim victory the gateway between the worlds begins to close, and the player ends up temporarily trapped and very nearly killed by Veronica, only managing to return to Askr due to a timely rescue by Zacharias. Not only is this a shift in tone for the main story, but it's also a Wham Episode from a gameplay standpoint; this chapter had new objectives, such as surviving the battle for 6 turns and having a limited amount of time to defeat all enemies.
- Chapter 11 has a big story revelation at the chapter's end: Bruno states that he killed Zacharias and next on his list is Anna, Alfonse, Sharena, and you.
- Chapter 12 one-ups it again by revealing that Bruno possibly is Zacharias, and he's either suffering from Demonic Possession or is otherwise Not Himself.
Book II
Artist: Maeshima Shigeki
Kingdom of Ice, Nifl, and Kingdom of Flame, Múspell. These kingdoms fought against each other, but Múspell's forces, led by the Ruler of Flame, Surtr, overwhelmed Nifl and brought the fighting to a bitter end.
The second Book of the game, running from December 2017 to November 2018. See the opening cinematic here, and the Chibi Playhouse recap here.
Tropes:
- Anyone Can Die: It's here that this trope comes into effect, with Gunnthrá as the first on-screen death of the game.
- Bittersweet Ending: Surtr dies, but Gunnthrá is dead, countless innocents from both Nifl and Múspell are dead, Laevatein is devastated and traumatized by the deaths of her family, Embla and Loki are still threats, and Fjorm has only months to live due to a gambit that was necessary to remove Surtr's Múspellflame.
- Chekhov's Gun: At the beginning of Chapter 4: Part 2, the village the heroes saved from the previous chapter gives Alfonse some special colored hay that is stated to be handy if they need a quick signal fire. Cut to the end of Chapter 4, where said village is threatened to be burned down by Surtr. The village is saved when Alfonse burns the hay as a signal fire, warning the village to evacuate before Surtr can do harm to anyone.
- Cutscene Power to the Max: The Book II opening movie shows the Order of Heroes in a all-out brawl against Múspell's elites. Notably, the summoner is going toe-to-toe with Veronica, and Fjorm and Surtr are locked in a big power battle, with Surtr launching a gigantic fireball and Fjorm countering with giant ice lances and lasers. None of this happens in the game proper.
- Hate Sink: As Book II goes on, it becomes clear that Surtr is designed to be this. Anything that comes out of his mouth is more or less how much he loves the sight of people burning, suffering and despairing, and he'll do everything to make those happen for his own amusement and then rub the salt in his victims' wounds. He comes off as an invincible Generic Doomsday Villain as he's Nigh-Invulnerable and has very little depth compared to other villains in the franchise. He also kills Gunnthrá in cold blood in front of her sister. Finally, just as the heroes think they've killed him for good, he instantly comes Back from the Dead, rendering their efforts thus far futile, taunts them even further, and is given more time to rile up the players by doing more evil acts up until his death at the end of Book II.
- Hopeless Boss Fight: Like Embla's Ward from Book I, Surtr is equipped with a special Sacred Seal (Múspellflame) that makes him completely immune to damage. That said, he's an armoured unit that (usually) only moves one space at a time, so Holding The Line is much easier.
- Human Sacrifice: The Rite of Flame and Rite of Frost require a human sacrifice to work. Surtr was going to sacrifice Veronica to increase his power, but after she escapes, Laegjarn uses it instead to spare Laevatein, which leaves her with hours to live. Fjorm uses the Rite of Frost to empower Breidablik by offering herself as the sacrifice. Like Laegjarn, the Rite has left her with a limited amount of time, but so far it hasn't killed her.
- Mirrored Confrontation Shot: The key art for Book II, as shown above, has Fjorm and Surtr staring at each other in the background, and Alfonse, Sharena, and the summoner facing Laevatein, Loki, and Veronica in the foreground.
- Sadistic Choice: Surtr presents Alfonse with one in Chapter 4. Since the gate to Nifl is rapidly closing, Surtr threatens to burn down an Askran village if the prince decides to enter Nifl, or he could save the village at the cost of being able to enter the ice kingdom. Luckily, Alfonse is able to signal to his people to flee the area before Surtr can burn it down, and is able to do this before the gate to Nifl closes.
- Take a Third Option: Surtr in gives Alfonse a choice: stay and fight a hopeless battle that will surely get him killed, or flee and let Surtr massacre an Askran village instead. Alfonse chooses to flee to Nifl, but not before secretly using a smoke signal to warn the villagers to evacuate.
- Wham Episode:
- Chapter 7 gets very dark near the end where Surtr actually burns Gunnthrá to death in front of the heroes, making Gunnthrá the first character in the game to actually die in the story.
- Chapter 8: Surtr officially turns on Veronica, overpowers Xander and leaves him for dead, and forcibly takes control of Veronica's Hero Contracts before ordering her sent to Múspell to become a Human Sacrifice. In addition, it is heavily, heavily implied that Fjorm is now slowly dying as a result of the Rite of Frost needed to defeat Surtr. It was later proven true at end of Book II, where Hríd said that just like the Rite of Flames, the Rite of Frost also requires a sacrifice.
Book III
Artist: Kozaki Yusuke
The fierce battle with Múspell has ended and the Order of Heroes has returned to Askr. Not long after the party's return, however, they were attacked by soldiers from Hel, the realm of the dead.
The third Book of the game, running from December 2018 to November 2019. See the opening cinematic here, midpoint cinematic here in English and here in Japanese, and ending cinematic here in English and here in Japanese.
Tropes:
- Alternative-Self Name-Change: Líf and Thrasir both do this, taking on the names of their ancestors after their kingdoms are destroyed, in addition to hiding their faces, which delays their counterparts from recognizing them.
- Bad Future: In Chapters 7 and 8, the ruined Askr that the heroes explore turns out to be this. The Order of Heroes in this realm discovered a way to defeat Hel, which resulted in the end of all life in the kingdom. It is also revealed that "Líf" isn't the resurrected first Askran king, but in fact the Alfonse of the future, who enlisted under Hel in exchange for having his memories and grief erased.
- Bookends: In the opening cinematic the Alfonse that would become known as Líf is forced to watch Hel kill Sharena, with Sharena and him both doing a Futile Hand Reach towards each other before the fatal blow. In the ending cinematic, the exact same thing happens again with our version of Alfonse and Sharena, though this time Hel is stopped by Eir. Interestingly, Hel attempting to kill our version of Sharena is not something that happens in the story itself.
- Easter Egg: According to Kozaki, the composition of this book's key art is meant to resemble a skull.
- Foreshadowing: In the Aether Raids intro, Alfonse name drops Líf, the first king of Askr. Guess who shows up as one of the antagonists of Book III? Subverted, it's not the actual Líf himself, but an alternate Alfonse naming himself after the first king of Askr.
- Irony: We are introduced with a temporary alliance between Veronica and the Order of Heroes. Even with Veronica temporarily allying with them, they still face contracted heroes under Líf. As learned from Chapter 8, "Líf" is an Alternate Self of Alfonse, meaning that Alfonse is the one issuing contracts, while Veronica isn't at this point.
- Red Herring: The opening movie implies that Sharena will die. While it does happen, it's actually "Líf's" Sharena.
- Spoiler Opening: The opening movie shows Sharena getting killed by Hel in front of her brother Alfonse. It's actually Sharena from an alternate timeline, and her death causes Alfonse to snap and become "Líf".
- Stealth Pun: The intro shows off characters from Hel, the land of the dead before the music changes to metal music. Specifically, Death Metal.
- The Stinger:
- The Feh Channel broadcast in November 2018 has one announcing Book III, showing the text "That day, the light died.", before showing Sharena injured, crying, and reaching out to someone.
- The video Remembering Book I & II on the official Nintendo Mobile channel has one showing the continuation of last Book III teaser, with Alfonse with his back to the camera in a castle hallway, standing and looking upon two people on the floor, heavily implied to be dead.
- The Feh Channel broadcast in November 2018 has one announcing Book III, showing the text "That day, the light died
- Villain Song: Though it doesn't become obvious until several chapters in, Book III's boss theme is one for "Líf", explaining his motivations for serving Hel.
- Wham Episode:
- Chapter 4: Alfonse has been cursed by Hel with 9 days left to live. Eir explains to the party that there is no escaping the death curse, and Gustav appears to be accepting of Alfonse's death. The Askrans are determined to spend Alfonse's last days trying to kill Hel and break the curse, to no avail. After 9 days pass, Hel comes to kill Alfonse, but Gustav, the king of Askr, pulls a Heroic Sacrifice at the last second and is murdered by Hel, branding Alfonse as the new king.
- Book III Chapter 8: The Askr trio learns that the Sharena of the alternate Askr they've arrived in is dead, and that the cost to defeat Hel would kill nearly all life. Alfonse realizes that "Líf" is, in fact, the alternate Alfonse.
Book IV
Artist: Yoshiku
With their struggle with the realm of the dead behind them, the Order of Heroes sets out to investigate a strange report out of a remote village. It's said that the residents of the village have fallen victim to unrelenting nightmares.
The fourth Book of the game, running from December 2019 to November 2020. See the opening cinematic here, midpoint cinematic here, and ending cinematic here in English and here in Japanese.
Tropes:
- All Just a Dream: The book basically operates on this, except things get more complicated as it goes on. It turns out the first time the Askr group tried to leave the dreams, nightmares poured out and invaded the real world. Later on, the group is led to believe that they had managed to escape the dream world after Freyr sacrificed himself to depower Freyja, until they realize they've been stuck in there and race against Freyja to escape for good. Near the end, it's revealed that "Alfonse" was really the Summoner dreaming themselves as Alfonse, having experienced lapses of amnesia regarding meetings with Zacharias that they never remembered, meaning the real Alfonse wasn't even with them after they were first sent to the dream world since Book IV, Chapter I.
- Bookends: The arc ends with you fighting a slightly souped-up version of Loki and the team she fought you with at the beginning of the book, on the exact same map to boot.
- Changeling Tale: Throughout the story, Sharena starts getting dreams about her and another girl who looks just like her, with the two of them switching places by dressing as one another. When she tells others about the dream, Anna is reminded about old legends of changelings, a type of álfr who abduct children and take on their identity to be raised in their place.
- Dreams vs. Nightmares: The story sees the Order of Heroes in a Dream Land being antagonized by entities that give mortals literal nightmares.
- Food Chains: Those who drink the nectar of the gods will become "the heroes called to save the land of dreams, (...) But those who drink the nectar will never...ever...return." It is eventually revealed that the alfr Peony, Triandra, Plumeria, and Mirabilis were once human children who drank this nectar. Sharena was offered it as a young child, but refused it and ran away instead.
- Foreshadowing: The Adrift Paralogue in November 2018 as a whole was foreshadowing the theme of Book IV, that being dreams, nightmares, the dream world, and even butterflies.
- Or Was It a Dream?: The ending reveals that none of the events actually happened - in the real world, at least. The World of Dreams was indeed turned upside down by the battle with Freyja, but the encounter with Loki at the beginning of Book IV hadn't actually happened yet. Despite this, Sharena comes out of the experience with the parting gift that Peony gave her, and Peony herself shows up in the real world at the end. Meanwhile, Loki is implied to know what really happened.
- The Stinger: The Book IV Ending Movie video shows "Líf" and "Thrasir" inviting both Triandra and Plumeria to the abode of gods to have their wish to revive Freyja come true, before a metal leg stomps on the ground in a rocky landscape covered in smoke, with having "Líf" warn Alfonse about the Niðavellir, the home of the Norse Dwarves, called "Dvergar" in Heroes, while Freaky Electronic Music plays.
- Wham Episode:
- Book IV Chapter 11: Sharena was originally supposed to be an álfr like Peony and Triandra, but abandoned the World of Dreams, Sharena could possibly be a Changeling and might not actually be Alfonse's sister after getting her memories of the World of Dreams back, and Alfonse figures out that they did not really wake up and are in another layer of dreams after being chased by Freyja in the "real world".
- Book IV Chapter 12 drops one of the biggest bombs in the entire story: The Alfonse that was there through the entirety of Book IV is actually the summoner, dreaming as they were Alfonse. The real Alfonse died after his final encounter with Hel. Subverted in the next chapter when it turns out Freyja was lying her ass off.
- Wham Line:
- The final line of Book IV Chapter 12. The next chapter reveals she's lying through her teeth.Freyja: I don't suppose you CAN remember what happened... If you could recall, the dream would likely collapse. Be that as it may, the truth is that this mortal you care so much for, Prince Alfonse, defeated death... And with that, He Who Created Everything, Alfaðör, has decided... Prince Alfonse could no longer be allowed to exist. [...] Prince Alfonse is gone. You will never see him again!
- The final line of the Book IV Ending Movie."Líf": On your guard, Alfonse... Niðavellir is at hand.
- The final line of Book IV Chapter 12. The next chapter reveals she's lying through her teeth.
Book V
Artist: Kozaki Yusuke
After narrowly escaping an unending nightmare brought on by the dökkálfar, the Kingdom of Askr comes under attack once more. This time, the Order of Heroes and the accompanying summoner are under siege by Reginn, princess of Niðavellir, the realm of the dvergar.
The fifth Book of the game, running from December 2020 to November 2021. See the opening cinematic here, midpoint cinematic here, and ending cinematic here in English and here in Japanese.
On April Fools' Day, a video of Reginn and Fafnir dancing to a remix of the book's theme was released here.
Tropes:
- Easter Egg: Kozaki drew the key art to resemble the number "5", due to this being the fifth book of the game.
- Hopeless Boss Fight: Some bosses are impossible to defeat since they are equipped with a special Sacred Seal (Niðavellir Axiom) that makes them completely immune to damage. They will seek the player's units out, and the only way the player can deal with them is to avoid them entirely before successfully surviving a specific number of turns.
- Mickey Mousing: The opening movie has this, where everything is synced up with the music. In addition, compared to "Howling Gears", the Book V map music featuring the Niðavellir units, the movie's music has additional instruments played on certain parts to add emphasis to the actions onscreen, such as clanks and drops to add impact on both Alfonse and Reginn's attacks.
- Rotating Arcs: During the relative lull in Book V updates in July 2021 for the Summer seasonal banners, Book II, which ended more than two years ago prior, has the characters of Nifl and Múspell gain focus again with the release of the Ice & Flame Tempest Trials+ Series and videos of the official Nintendo Channel.
Book VI
TBA
Artist: Kozaki Yusuke
After narrowly escaping an unending nightmare brought on by the dökkálfar, the Kingdom of Askr comes under attack once more. This time, the Order of Heroes and the accompanying summoner are under siege by Reginn, princess of Niðavellir, the realm of the dvergar.
The six Book of the game, starting from December 2021. See the opening cinematic here.
Tropes:
- Decadent Court: Initially mentioned in Book I, it's expanded upon here that framing members of the royal family is not unique to Bruno's case, with Veronica's father having framed Letizia's family for treason and stripped them of their royal powers.
- Jerkass Gods: Implied, as Embla doesn't stop Elm from killing Emblian civilians or royals.
- Little Bit Beastly: Both retainers to the gods Askr and Embla are humanoid with animal traits. Ash, the retainer to the Askr, can transform into a bovine Beast, and has fluffy ears and a long tail in her humanoid form, while Elm, the retainer to Embla, can transform into a flying bat Beast, and has bat wings.
- Power of the Void: It is revealed that in addition to closing portals, the Emblian royal family possesses the power to make things disappear from the current realm (and possibly from all of existence). Elm uses this power to wipe out an entire Askran village and parts of Embla, leaving nothing but a black crater in the ground leading down to nothingness.
Paralogues and Xenologues (to be split into its own page)
Paralogues are individual chapters set outside of the main story mode, often tied to the Special Heroes banners of the game, though occasionally they involve characters from New Heroes events. Xenologues are special chapters that tie directly to the main story, and are occasionally tied to New Heroes banners.
Tropes That Apply to Paralogues in General:
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Several Paralogues during Book I and Book II are linked to New Heroes banners, and play out exactly like the earlier Book I chapters, with Veronica interacting with Heroes of another world and the Order being called to break to their contracts. Since Book III, however, Paralogues are almost exclusively linked to Special Heroes banners, and rarely have any connection to the main story plot.
- Holiday Mode: The season staple paralogues for Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter, often involve heroes wearing bunny outfits, swimsuits, Halloween, or Christmas-themed costumes respectively.
- Lighter and Softer: Though hardly without its own share of drama or angst, since becoming largely linked to seasonal alts, Paralogues rarely have the same gravity or stakes as the Book stories do.
- Mood Whiplash: The release schedule usually alternates between the New Heroes banners attached to the story mode, and the Special Heroes banners attached to Paralogues, and though it's understood that the Paralogues are happening outside of the timeline of the Books, it doesn't make it any less jarring when the characters are facing a Wham Episode in the main story, and then having their usual seasonal hijinks in a Paralogue. Special mention goes to the December banners, which herald the start of a new main story arc but is immediately followed up by the festive Christmas and New Years banners.
Other
In 2019 and 2020, the game had a crossover event with Dragalia Lost, whose Recap pages are as follows:
