Arena

Arenas, sometimes referred to as Coliseums, are a recurring gameplay element in the Fire Emblem series series. Debuting in Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light, the arena later reappeared in Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War, Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War, Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade, Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade, Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, as well as reappearing in the three remakes of the first game.

Overview

While the mechanics of the arena have changed from game to game, its overall function has remained the same: at a small cost of gold, one of the player's units may enter the arena to take part in a standard battle, in hopes of netting a profit from the victory, as well as experience. Units that cannot attack, such as Clerics or Bards cannot take part in the arena, nor can units who do not have any weapons to equip. Unusually, manaketes cannot enter arenas under any circumstances, though they can spawn as enemy units in Mystery of the Emblem.

A battle in the arena is similar to standard fights on the map. One battle is performed within the arena, wherein the enemy unit attacks first. Should this battle be insufficient to determine a winner, another battle is performed, and the cycle continues until one combatant is defeated. Between battles, the player can flee by pressing the B button during this pause if they feel that their unit stands no hope of surviving; doing so, however, causes the player to lose whatever gold they placed as their bet, and fleeing battles is not an option in the first game.

While effectively acting as a method to "buy" experience points, use of the arena to raise units can be a risky strategy. Enemy units within the arena can be absurdly overpowered, with their stats "scaling" alongside the unit that enters; particularly powerful units in the player's army can end up fighting enemies that not only wield powerful weaponry, but those that break standard class stat caps. In most of the games, characters defeated in the arena are killed.

In specific games

Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light

Arenas made their debut in this game. Acting as a risky method to raising units in the game, most of its features were not carried over in later games, with the exception of Thracia 776. Unusual amongst the various arenas found in later games, the arenas here allowed the player to bet various wagers before entering the fray, with higher bets resulting in higher payouts, but also more powerful enemies. Unlike later games in the series, characters who could not win in the arena could not flee.

Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem

The remake of the first game brought back most of the previous innovations, including the ability to change wagers; Mystery of the Emblem, however, added the ability to flee battles if the player feels that the fight will end in the character's death.

Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War

Arenas were completely revamped for Genealogy of the Holy War, due to the game's radically different design from the previous games in the series. Instead of being a designated tile on the map, the arena must be accessed from the Castle; furthermore, while units could no longer retreat from the arena, they would instead respawn outside of the Castle with only 1 hit point left.

Instead of allowing for unlimited uses like in other games, the arenas in Genealogy of the Holy War allows units to take part in the arena eight times per chapter; these seven battles, however, are predetermined by the game and gradually increase in difficulty. Assuming a unit can survive all seven battles, they can win 17500 gold.

Fire Emblem: Thracia 776

Due to Thracia 776 returning to the gameplay seen in the first three games of the series, the arenas within the game are more similar to those seen in Mystery of the Emblem. The ability to flee from battles and to set one's bet were carried over, as was the possibility of characters dying in the arena.

As to take advantage of some of the game's new additions, the arena could be influenced by outside factors, such as from Charisma, Supports, and Leadership. As a drawback, however, the arena also increases the unit's fatigue levels, and as such, players cannot easily abuse the arena to raise their units, lest they become unavailable for the next chapter.

Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade

The Binding Blade keeps a majority of Thracia 776's mechanics for the arena, with supports again allowing one to enter the arena with a boost to their stats. Despite this, the ability to change one's wager was lost, and instead, the bet is kept at a fixed amount that depends on the unit's overall power. An programming oversight in the game, which was carried over to Blazing Sword and The Sacred Stones, however, allows players to reset the game when they are being informed of who their opponent is; resetting the game causes the player's unit to once again enter the arena, but the randomly generated opponent will be different.

While not imperative to gameplay, the overuse of arenas can be detrimental to the player's Tactics Ranking; as more turns are used for using the arena, the number of turns used per map increases, lowing the rating.

A rare glitch exclusive to The Binding Blade can cause the arena to spawn Brigands wielding an Iron Bow or Warriors with a Fire tome. In these circumstances, damage will be inflicted to one or both of the combatants, and the battle abruptly ends; no reward is dispensed if this occurs.

Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade

Blazing Sword continues the system found within the previous game, though glitches that can cause esoteric combinations of weapons and classes have been removed.

Along with The Binding Blade, overuse of the arena in Blazing Sword can significantly impact the player's Tactics Ranking.

With the presence of Rings that can be used by Ninian and Nils, the ability to abuse the arena via the use of a glitch can present itself to the player.

Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones

The Sacred Stones offers no new innovations to the arena from the previous two Game Boy Advance games.

While usable under normal circumstances, arenas are completely inaccessible during Skirmishes that take place on the World Map; as a result, once a chapter with an arena has been completed, it can never be accessed again.

Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem

Despite being remakes of the first and third games in the series, the remakes of Shadow Dragon and New Mystery of the Emblem, Heroes of Light and Shadow feature an arena system more similar to the Game Boy Advance games than the original source material. As such, wagering is not featured, though supports in the second of the remakes can influence the outcome of matches.

Unique to these two games is the ability to use the arena multiple times in the same turn; upon completion of one battle in the arena, the player can choose whether or not to allow their unit to take place in another battle, with the outcome featuring even more experience and monetary gain. This strategy, however, is of extreme risk, due to the unit not being healed between battles.

Outside of the Fire Emblem series

In Super Smash Bros. 4

The Arena in Super Smash Bros. 4

While little immediate information has been given on the stage in question, the Wii U version of Super Smash Bros. 4 is to include a stage based on the arenas from the series, called the "Coliseum"; like the Castle Siege stage from Super Smash Bros. Brawl, it does not specifically reference a single game. According to the game's director, Masahiro Sakurai, the stage will change its layout by spawning platforms and walls throughout the fight.