Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem: Difference between revisions

'''''Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem''''' (Japanese: {{hover|ファイアーエムブレム　紋章の謎|Faiāemuburemu monshō no nazo}} ''Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem'') is a turn-based strategy role-playing game released in 1994 for the [[Super Nintendo Entertainment System|Super Famicom]], exclusively in Japan. It is the third game installment in the {{FES}}, the first for Super Famicom, and in part a direct continuation of the story of the original game, {{FE1}}, again set on the continent of [[Archanea (continent)|Archanea]] and following the adventures of [[Marth]] of [[Altea]].

''Mystery of the Emblem'' is divided into two sections, called "Books" in the fan translation. Book 1, named (Japanese: {{hover|第１部　暗黒戦争編　暗黒竜と光の剣|Dai ichi-bu ankoku sensō-hen ankoku ryū to hikari no ken}} ''Part 1: Dark War Compilation: Dark Dragon and the Light Sword''), is an abridged remake of ''Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light'', again following Marth's journey in the [[War of Shadows]] as he leads the army of the Archanean League against the [[Dolhr]] Empire and their ruler, the feared Shadow Dragon [[Medeus]]. Book 2, named (Japanese: {{hover|第２部　英雄戦争編　紋章の謎|Dai ni-bu eiyū sensō-hen monshō no nazo}} ''Part 2: Hero War Compilation: Mystery of the Emblem'') tells a new story set two years after the first book's events, in which Marth must lead a rebellion against a powerful and corrupted former ally in a new conflict, the [[War of Heroes]], all the while uncovering the true history of Archanea and the mysterious origin of its sacred relics, the sword [[Falchion]] and the [[Fire Emblem (Archanean item)|Fire Emblem]].

During the Super Famicom's lifespan, ''Mystery of the Emblem'' was supported with the release of {{FEBS}}, a series of four chapters broadcast through the [[wikipedia:Satellaview|Satellaview]] satellite radio streaming service which told new stories featuring other members of the cast in adventures leading up to Marth's own. The first few chapters of Book 1 were also adapted into a short-lived [[wikipedia:Original video animation|original video animation]] series, ''[[Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem (anime)|Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem]]'', which received an English-language dub long before the ''Fire Emblem'' games themselves commenced international releases.

With Marth as their new leader, the Archanean League moved south to retake Archanea itself. En route they encountered [[Minerva]], the princess of Macedon, forced to fight against her will while her sister [[Maria]] remained a hostage of the enemy. Receiving a plea from her subordinate [[Catria]], Marth freed Maria from captivity and thus allowed Minerva and, later, her subordinate [[Whitewings]] to ally with him to put a stop to Macedon's hand in the war. After a prolonged battle, Marth marched on Archanea and stormed its capital palace, the Millennium Court, freeing it from Dolhr's control.

Next, Marth led the army en route to Altea itself through [[Gra]], Altea's treacherous neighbor responsible for its downfall two years prior. Marth expected [[Falchion]] - his family's divine blade and a necessity to defeat Medeus - to be in Gra's possession after their murder of his father, [[Cornelius]], but upon defeating Gra's King [[Jiol]], Falchion was nowhere to be found. Marth and his advisor, [[Malledus]], thus assumed Falchion was being held by [[Gharnef]], Medeus's resurrector and minion and a key player in Cornelius's demise, and so Marth headed north to invade Gharnef's kingdom, [[Khadein]], and reclaim Falchion. Though Marth's army won the battle, Gharnef's [[Imhullu|dark magic]] rendered him completely immune to any attacks and so prevented them from reclaiming Falchion. Marth was approached by [[Gotoh]], the renowned White Sage, who told Marth of the key to defeating Gharnef: a spell tome known as [[Starlight]], created by using two rare and powerful gemstones.

This detour proving to have mostly failed, Marth turned his sights back on Altea, now under the control of a Dolhr army led by the [[manakete]] [[Morzas]]. Marth's army led an assault on the Altean capital and freed it from Dolhr occupation, only for Marth to find his mother, [[Liza (Shadow Dragon)|Liza]], had died too at the hands of Morzas, while his missing sister [[Elice]] remained in Gharnef's captivity. Afterward, heeding Gotoh's counsel, Marth led a hunt in the [[Fane of Raman]], a temple in Dolhr-allied [[Grust]], to collect the two gemstones needed to forge Starlight, and encountered the manakete princess [[Tiki]], hypnotized into serving Gharnef. He then turned to finish the job and take out Grust itself, defeating its renowned general [[Camus]] when Nyna's pleas to sway Camus to their side failed. Marth then moved in on Macedon, Dolhr's sole surviving ally, and defeated its king [[Michalis]], Minerva's elder brother.

Following the end of the conflict later known as the [[War of Shadows]], Nyna and Hardin were wed in order to continue the Archanean royal family; as part of an effort to restore Archanea to its former glory, King Hardin reorganized the kingdom into the Empire of Archanea and anointed himself its first emperor. Two years passed without incident until a new crisis arose in the Grust region, now Archanea-occupied territory. As Marth worked to heal Altea's wounds and prepared for his marriage to Caeda, Hardin bade Marth to lead the Altean army to Grust to suppress an insurrection there, a command Marth could not disobey owing to Archanea's power over Altea. Leaving Cain in charge of Altea's defense, Marth took Jagen and an assortment of knights with him to address the Grustian crisis. In Grust, he met with [[Lang]], the general of the Archanean occupying force in the region, whose malicious attitude disgusted Marth; Lang revealed the alleged rebellion was being led by [[Lorenz]], a former ally of Marth's, which raised Marth's suspicions about the situation. Marth soon learned that Lorenz was trying to protect the Grustian heirs, [[Yumina]] and [[Yubello]], from the Empire and that the uprising was in response to the harsh Archanean domination of the region. Lorenz died from wounds sustained in an earlier battle, and with his last words warned Marth of Hardin's change into a tyrannical figure.  

Once the crisis had been settled, he was contacted through magic by Gotoh, who told him of Hardin's fall to the [[Darksphere]] and requested he travel to the Ice Dragon Temple in the north in order to collect the Lightsphere, the only means of piercing the Darksphere's protection and saving Hardin. Guided by [[Xane]], Marth travelled to the Ice Dragon Temple on foot along Anri's Way, a path once traversed by Anri himself a century prior. As he travelled the route through the Marmotord desert, the Flame Barrel graveyard and the frozen wastelands of the north, fighting degenerated wild [[dragon]]s, collecting the Starsphere's shards and learning from Xane the true history of Archanea, the [[manakete]]s and the creation of the Falchion and Fire Emblem. Upon reaching the Ice Dragon Temple, Gotoh used the twelve shards to reconstitute the Starsphere, giving both it and the Lightsphere to Marth to use against Hardin. He also allowed Marth to wake [[Tiki]] and take her with him on his journey, on the condition that Marth collected all five of the Emblem's spheres to restore its true power and allow Tiki to survive.

Gotoh sent Marth's army back to Altea with his [[Warp (staff)|warp]] magic, and Marth once again fought to free Altea from Archanean conquest. At the battle's end, Gotoh contacted him again to warn him of Gharnef's return, and that Gharnef was responsible for abducting Elice, Maria and Lena for reasons unknown, and that he likely sought to abduct Nyna next. Marth resolved to lead a march on the Archanean capital itself, to stop Hardin and get to Nyna before Gharnef abducted her; unbeknownst to him, Nyna had already been given away to Gharnef by Hardin himself. After a long campaign, Hardin fell to Marth's army, and as he died his mind returned to him and he begged Marth to save Nyna and stop Gharnef. Having collected the final sphere from Hardin, the Fire Emblem was restored to its true form, the Binding Shield; Marth was approached by the four missing clerics, but the Shield's power revealed it to be an illusion cast by Gharnef. Gotoh then arrived and told Marth of how Gharnef was preparing to revive Medeus himself using the four clerics.

In order to stop Gharnef, Marth travelled to the [[Dragon's Table]] in the Macedon/Dolhr border region. En route he visited a village and encountered a severely wounded Michalis, who gave [[Starlight]] to Marth for use against Gharnef once more. In the Dragon's Table, Marth's army fought Gharnef once more and used Starlight to kill him, allowing Marth to finally reclaim Falchion from him. The revived Medeus awaited in the next chamber, now evolved into the powerful form of a [[Shadow Dragon (class)|Shadow Dragon]], surrounded by the four clerics hypnotized into his service. Determined to rescue the clerics, Marth had some of his allies work to awaken them, clearing the way for him to kill Medeus for the second and final time.

''Mystery of the Emblem'' plays by and large identically to the Famicom ''Shadow Dragon'', with the addition of a small assortment of new gameplay mechanics.

Between the two Books, ''Mystery'' features a total of 60 playable characters, with 46 in Book 1 and 45 in Book 2. Six characters from {{FE1}} - [[Roger]], [[Darros]], [[Wrys]], [[Jake]], [[Beck]] and [[Gotoh]] - are no longer playable, and all but Gotoh do not appear at all.

''Mystery of the Emblem'' features a total of 44 chapters, with 20 comprising Book 1 and 24 comprising Book 2. Five chapters from the original ''Shadow Dragon'' were cut from ''Mystery'' Book 1, with their recruitable characters and important events condensed into other chapters in the game.