Unused content in Fire Emblem Awakening

Numerous pieces of unused content have been found within the game data for Fire Emblem Awakening. Most of these discoveries were made by VincentASM of the Serenes Forest forums, and are summarized here.

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• There are three unused text strings for character names located among the names of the rest of the game's characters. These names have absolutely no other known data associated with them, similar to unused name listings in Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn, and their intended purpose is unknown. These name strings exist in both Japanese and English.
  • Leopold (Japanese: レオパルド Leopold) is listed between Cordelia and Nowi.
  • Tracy (Japanese: トレイシー Tracy) is listed between Henry and Lucina.
  • Andrea (Japanese: アンドレア Andrea) is listed between Priam and Emmeryn.
• The names of files relating certain characters and classes make unusual references to other things entirely. The Taguel class is referred to as "Laguz", the shapeshifters of the Tellius duology, implying a relation between the two was intended. Lucina's files are labeled "Marth", while files related to the bonus unit Marth are referred to instead as (Japanese: 旧マルス Old Marth).
• Awakening itself is, in certain places such as the sound files, internally referred to as "14Iron". This codename is actually a pun: the abbreviation for Fire Emblem, "FE", is also the chemical symbol for the metal iron. It also incorporates the short-lived altered series count which counts Fire Emblem: Archanea Saga as a full game and thus places Awakening as the fourteenth game.

Map sprites

The personalized map sprites of Awakening, which depict characters' individual heads on top of the class outfits, are all pre-made within the game. Every character has map sprites depicting themselves in most of the classes they can access, with any missing personalized sprites instead using the class's default map sprite. Several characters, however, have sets of personalized map sprites depicting them in classes they cannot access in the finished game.

Pictured below are just the default poses of each map sprite in playable (blue) colors. It should be noted that each sprite has a complete set of animated map sprites in all three applicable colors (playable blue, enemy red, and NPC green).

File:Ms 3ds hero sully playable.pngFile:Ms 3ds hero stahl playable.pngFile:Ms 3ds hero lon'qu playable.pngFile:Ms 3ds hero olivia playable.pngFile:Ms 3ds hero say'ri playable.png	style="background: #222222; padding: 10px; Template:Round; border: 1px solid #b0b0b0; " align="center" | Several characters have map sprites depicting them as Heroes, even though none of these characters have access to the Mercenary or Fighter class families in the finished game. These characters are Sully, Stahl, Lon'qu, Olivia and Say'ri. However, all five of these characters have access to the Myrmidon class family in the finished game, which indicates that at some point in development the Hero class was intended to be a class change option for Myrmidons; there is precedent for this, as Myrmidons originated with the ability to become classes very similar to the Hero in Genealogy of the Holy War and Thracia 776. Yen'fay is the only character with the Myrmidon family who does not have also have a Hero sprite (the other three characters with the Myrmidon/Hero combination - Gaius, Gregor and Priam - have access to both the Myrmidon class family and at least one of the two families containing Hero). Source: The Spriters Resource
File:Ms 3ds mage emmeryn playable.pngFile:Ms 3ds dark knight emmeryn playable.png	style="background: #222222; padding: 10px; Template:Round; border: 1px solid #b0b0b0; " align="center" | Emmeryn has unused map sprites depicting her as a Mage and a Dark Knight. In the finished game, she has access to neither class (her being a Sage instead comes from the Cleric family), but she does by default have Magic +2 and Focus, two skills otherwise learned only by being a Mage. Source: The Spriters Resource
File:Ms 3ds mage aversa playable.pngFile:Ms 3ds sage aversa playable.png	style="background: #222222; padding: 10px; Template:Round; border: 1px solid #b0b0b0; " align="center" | Aversa also has map sprites depicting her as a Mage and a Sage. In the finished game, she has access to neither class. Source: The Spriters Resource
File:Ms 3ds sage excellus playable.pngFile:Ms 3ds sage excellus npc.png	style="background: #222222; padding: 10px; Template:Round; border: 1px solid #b0b0b0; " align="center" | Unlike past sprite-based Fire Emblem games, which have a single set of map sprites which are recolored as needed for use in gameplay, Awakening actually has its map sprites internally already recolored separately into the three allegience colors. As such, map sprites only ever seen belonging to enemies all have unused playable and NPC palettes; this applies to the Risen variant map sprites and to Excellus, one of only two non-playable characters to have non-generic map sprites. However, this does not apply to Validar, the other non-playable unit with unique map sprites, as his sprites do not conform to the standard color-coding; instead of having three different palettes for the three allegiences, he instead has the same unique coloring repeated three times with no changes. Source: The Spriters Resource

Character portraits, etc

Several unused elements can be found within the character portrait graphics, including the S-rank confession graphics and critical hit/trigger skill cut-in portrait graphics.

	style="background: #222222; padding: 10px; Template:Round; border: 1px solid #b0b0b0; " align="center" | Like the Game Boy Advance games and Radiant Dawn, Awakening has a blank placeholder portrait. It was actually sighted in several early pre-release image. Although superficially similar, it is actually substantially different from the blank portraits used by the Paralogue 22 Mirages, or from those of DLC characters when the SD Card is not in the Nintendo 3DS console. Source: Serenes Forest Forums; "FE: Awakening ROM decrypted and extracted"
	style="background: #222222; padding: 10px; Template:Round; border: 1px solid #b0b0b0; " align="center" | The generic class portrait for Priests has a Risen variant. In the final game, Priests will never appear among Risen, although a Risen Priest was spotted in a pre-release image.
	style="background: #222222; padding: 10px; Template:Round; border: 1px solid #b0b0b0; " align="center" | This recolored version of Gangrel's confession graphic appears twice in the ROM's data. It has been theorized to be a placeholder for the two Morgans, who obviously lack these graphics in the finished game, in order to prevent potential game crashes. Source: Serenes Forest Forums; "FE: Awakening ROM decrypted and extracted"
	style="background: #222222; padding: 10px; Template:Round; border: 1px solid #b0b0b0; " align="center" | Several characters feature unused critical cut-in portraits. Gerome has an maskless variant, suggesting that perhaps at some point he was intended to become unmasked outside support conversations. Phila also has a cut-in portrait, even though in the finished game she never even has an opportunity to attack, let alone score a critical hit. Source: The Spriters Resource

Skills

File:Is 3ds dance.png

style="background: #222222; padding: 10px; Template:Round; border: 1px solid #b0b0b0; " align="center" | There exists an unused icon for the Dance skill, as well as a text string which may be its help description ("Use "Dance" to allow an adjacent ally to act again."). In the finished game, while Dance does exist, it is hidden and does not consume a visible skill slot. This unused Dance icon is a recolor of the Special Dance icon (or vice versa).

Map screen icons

style="background: #222222; padding: 10px; Template:Round; border: 1px solid #b0b0b0; " align="center" | Five unused bottom-screen map icons have been discovered in between the icons representing Grima (position 27 on the icon sheet) and The Farfort (position 33 on the icon sheet). These icons are located in positions 28 through 32 on the icon sheet, and may potentially represent cut chapters from along the game's main story path, or possibly one or more planned skirmish-only locations such as The Sacred Stones's Melkaen Coast.

Chapter title cards

Two unused chapter title cards have been found. They bear no resemblance to the chapter titles of the finished game, both in style and in the listed names. Both cards contain unique, individual sketches of the subject matter in their background, an element not retained by the finished game which instead has a generic image of the Fire Emblem on all title cards.

style="background: #222222; padding: 10px; Template:Round; border: 1px solid #b0b0b0; " align="center" | The chapter title reads "Chapter 5: Young Squires". The actual fifth chapter of the finished game has no particular relation to such a group of young squires. Source: Serenes Forest Forums; "FE: Awakening ROM decrypted and extracted"

style="background: #222222; padding: 10px; Template:Round; border: 1px solid #b0b0b0; " align="center" | The chapter title reads "Challenge: Valmese Water Gate". In the finished game, this location does not exist; the closest thing to such a structure is the dam in the background of the Carrion Isle, which is in Plegia and not Valm. It is worth noting that in Fire Emblem Gaiden, Alm's journey through Valentia (which later became Valm) took him to a floodgate, and it is possible that this location was intended to be that same location, similarly to how Paralogue 6 revisits the Duma's Gate location from Gaiden. Source: Serenes Forest Forums; "FE: Awakening ROM decrypted and extracted"