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Dismount
Dismounting is a command and gameplay mechanic present in Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem, Genealogy of the Holy War, Fire Emblem: Archanea Saga, Thracia 776, and Three Houses. It revolves around mounted units—those riding horses, pegasi or wyverns—getting off their mounts and continuing to fight on foot, either out of necessity or to get a tactical advantage.
Dismounting is typically compulsory on interior maps or when entering structures on exterior maps, and presents a small handful of advantages. Being dismounted removes the unit's type vulnerabilities and, for Cavaliers and similar horse-riding units, removes the mounted terrain penalties which cause horse-riding units to struggle to cross forests and mountains. Dismounting also presents distinct disadvantages: in most cases being dismounted limits a unit's access to their usual weapons, lowers their movement by a substantial degree, disables use of the Canto skill if it is granted by their class, and, for flying units, removes their flight ability and total immunity to terrain penalties.
In Three Houses, units are not forcibly dismounted in indoor maps.
In Mystery of the Emblem and Fire Emblem: Archanea Saga
Mystery of the Emblem—and by extension, BS Archanea War Chronicles, which uses the same game engine—features the original incarnation of dismounting. When the Dismount command is selected, the mounted unit is reclassed into a different class which acts as a dismounted equivalent to it, and stats are subtracted as per the table below; the stats are restored once the player chooses the Mount command to have the unit remount. On outdoor maps, dismounting and mounting can be done freely at any time; however, if a map is set indoors, all mounted units are forced to be dismounted.
With the exception of the Horseman, all dismounted units are forced to use swords instead of their usual lances; however, this is less of a problem in Mystery of the Emblem and BS Archanea War Chronicles as, unlike its successors, its weapon level stat causes the units to be equally competent in sword and lance usage without any extra effort. The Horseman instead continues to use bows when dismounted.
style="Template:Roundtl; border:none" width="70%" colspan="4"| | |||||||||
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style="Template:Roundtl; border:none; background-color:#222222;" colspan="2" rowspan="2"| Mounted class | Dismounted class | style="Template:Roundtr; border:none; background-color:#222222" colspan="6"| Stat difference (see Note) | |||||||
Str | Skl | Spd | Def | Res | Mov | ||||
Cavalier | Knight | +0 | +0 | +0 | +0 | +0 | +3 | ||
Paladin | Knight | +2 | +3 | +3 | +2 | +6 | +4 | ||
Horseman | Hunter | +0 | +2 | +0 | +2 | +0 | +3 | ||
Pegasus Knight | Knight | +0 | +3 | +3 | +0 | +6 | +2 | ||
Dracoknight | Knight | +3 | +3 | +3 | +4 | +0 | +4 | ||
colspan="10" style="Template:Roundb; border:none; background-color:#222222" width="100%"|Note: The above stat differences are expressed as gains by mounting; for dismounting, subtract these same values from the mounted form's stats. |
In Genealogy of the Holy War
Dismounting exists in Genealogy of the Holy War in a limited form: the only character capable of it is Seliph, after promotion to Knight Lord. It serves no meaningful function, and is openly admitted by the developers to be for purely cosmetic purposes. It has also been stated that during the development of Genealogy of the Holy War dismounting was an intended feature in full, but had to be cut for space reasons.[1] Dismounting Seliph works on the same basis as in Mystery of the Emblem: it reverts him to being a Junior Lord and changes his stats accordingly. As Genealogy of the Holy War is set entirely on outdoor maps with no indoor components, there is no requirement for Seliph to dismount in order to traverse indoor terrain, nor is his ability to enter or seize castles hindered.
style="Template:Roundtl; border:none" width="70%" colspan="4"| | ||||||||||
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style="Template:Roundtl; border:none; background-color:#222222;" colspan="2" rowspan="2"| Mounted class | Dismounted class | style="Template:Roundtr; border:none; background-color:#222222" colspan="7"| Stat difference (see Note) | ||||||||
Str | Mag | Skl | Spd | Def | Res | Mov | ||||
File:Ma snes02 lord knight seliph playable.gif | Knight Lord | Junior Lord | +5 | +0 | +2 | +2 | +2 | +3 | +3 | |
colspan="11" style="Template:Roundb; border:none; background-color:#222222" width="100%"|Note: The above stat differences are expressed as gains by mounting; for dismounting, subtract these same values from the mounted form's stats. |
In Thracia 776
The Thracia 776 dismounting system is somewhat more refined than its predecessors. This time, all mounted classes have mounted and dismounted versions which share the same name, ensuring that a dismounted Paladin, for example, is still a Paladin in name. Several Thracia 776 chapters feature mixed indoor and outdoor terrain; in these cases, the unit can be mounted outdoors, but must be dismounted before entering the indoor segments. Additionally, inflicting Sleep status on a mounted unit will force them to dismount; this is necessary in order to capture mounted units and, by extension, recruit Misha.
All classes are forced into using only swords when dismounted, except for Arch Knights, Bow Knights,Troubadours, female Paladins and Mage Knights, all of whom retain access to their usual mounted weapons when dismounted. Under the new lettered weapon level system, those units which are not usually sword users but are forced to wield swords when dismounted have a separate weapon level for swords, which is typically significantly lower than their primary weapon's level and thus cripples their effectiveness indoors.
style="Template:Roundtl; border:none" width="70%" colspan="4"| | |||||||||
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style="Template:Roundtl; border:none; background-color:#222222;" colspan="3" rowspan="2"| Class | Stat difference (see Note) | style="Template:Roundtr; border:none; background-color:#222222" colspan="5"| Weapons | |||||||
Str | Skl | Spd | Def | Mov | Mount. | Dismtd. | |||
Cavalier | +1 | +1 | +1 | +2 | +3 | ||||
Paladin (male) | +1 | +1 | +1 | +2 | +3 | ||||
Troubadour | +1 | +0 | +1 | +1 | +3 | ||||
Paladin (female) | +1 | +0 | +1 | +1 | +3 | ||||
Free Knight | File:Ma snes03 dismounted free knight, dragon rider playable.gif | +1 | +0 | +0 | +1 | +3 | |||
Ranger | File:Ma snes03 dismounted ranger, wyvern rider playable.gif | +0 | +0 | +0 | +1 | +3 | |||
Lance Knight | +1 | +1 | +1 | +2 | +3 | ||||
Duke Knight | +1 | +1 | +1 | +2 | +3 | ||||
Axe Knight | +1 | +1 | +1 | +2 | +3 | ||||
Great Knight | +1 | +1 | +1 | +2 | +3 | ||||
Arch Knight | +1 | +1 | +1 | +2 | +3 | ||||
Bow Knight | +1 | +1 | +1 | +2 | +3 | ||||
Mage Knight | +1 | +1 | +1 | +1 | +3 | ||||
Pegasus Rider | +1 | +1 | +1 | +2 | +3 | ||||
Pegasus Knight | +1 | +1 | +1 | +2 | +3 | ||||
Dragon Rider | File:Ma snes03 dismounted free knight, dragon rider playable.gif | +3 | +2 | +2 | +5 | +3 | |||
File:Ma snes03 wyvern rider playable.gif | Wyvern Rider | File:Ma snes03 dismounted ranger, wyvern rider playable.gif | +3 | +2 | +2 | +5 | +3 | ||
colspan="10" style="Template:Roundb; border:none; background-color:#222222" width="100%"|Note: The above stat differences are expressed as gains by mounting; for dismounting, subtract these same values from the mounted form's stats. |
In Three Houses
The Three Houses dismounting system retains its advancements from Thracia 776, with each mounted class having its own respective unmounted form. Unlike in previous titles, however, being mounted does not always provide the unit with better stats—on top of lessened terrain penalties, cavalry units will often gain speed through dismounting; on the other hand, flying units typically lose speed from dismounting instead. It also allows units to use brawling weapons, which mounted units normally cannot use.
Dismounting is never forced based on whether the chapter is indoors or outdoors. If a unit has not moved, they can additionally dismount and re-mount at the beginning of their turn without their turn or movement being used up completely.
Trivia
- There is evidence in the internal data of Shadow Dragon that the game was intended to feature dismounting at some stage in its development, but the idea was scrapped.[2]
- In Mystery of the Emblem and Thracia 776, the majority of lance-wielding units are mounted and accordingly are forced to wield swords instead when dismounted in indoor chapters. As such, the number of units which have access to lances indoors are severely limited—Draug, Dolph, Macellan and Sheena in Mystery of the Emblem, and Dalsin and Xavier in Thracia 776—and in the former game, Gradivus has very little use as a result, since by the time the player obtains it the majority of the subsequent chapters are set indoors.
References
- ↑ "The reason for that is a simple one that I'm a little embarrassed about, which is for "aesthetic purposes". At the beginning, we guessed there would be many female fans who see Leif, for example, and think "he looks so handsome in battle, I don't want to promote him!". Originally, we wanted every mounted character to have the option of dismounting like in Mystery of the Emblem. However, because of space issues we had to give this idea up, so in the end only Seliph's dismounting option was kept." — Shouzou Kaga, developer's notes in the Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War Player's Guidebook
- ↑ "There is also data for male and female Cavaliers on foot, which probably meant dismounting (like in Mystery of the Emblem) was planned to feature at one stage." — VincentASM, Unused Content, Serenesforest.net, Retrieved: June 19 2018