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Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem

From Fire Emblem Wiki, your source on Fire Emblem information. By fans, for fans.
Mystery of the Emblem

File:FEMN logo.gif File:Ba japan fe03.png
Japanese logo and box art.

Developer(s)

Intelligent Systems

Publisher(s)

Nintendo

Designer(s)

Shouzou Kaga

Release date(s)

Super Famicom
JPJanuary 21st, 1994
Wii Virtual Console
JPDecember 26th, 2006
Wii U Virtual Console
JPFebruary 20th 2013

Rating(s)

CERO: A (Virtual Console rerelease)

Platform(s)
Predecessor

Fire Emblem Gaiden

Successor

Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War

On partnered sites

Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem (ファイアーエムブレム 紋章の謎 Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem) is a turn-based strategy role-playing game released in 1994 for the Super Famicom, exclusively in Japan. It is the third game installment in the Fire Emblem series, the first for Super Famicom, and in part a direct continuation of the story of the original game, Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light, again set on the continent of Archanea and following the adventures of Marth of Altea.

Mystery of the Emblem is divided into two sections, dubbed "Books". Book 1 is a slightly abbreviated remake of Shadow Dragon, 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 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.

During the Super Famicom's lifespan, Mystery of the Emblem was supported with the release of Fire Emblem: Archanea Saga, a series of four chapters broadcast through the 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 original video animation series, Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem, which received an English-language dub long before the Fire Emblem games themselves commenced international releases.

Sixteen years after the release of Mystery of the Emblem, an enhanced and extended remake of Book 2 was released for the Nintendo DS console, Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem. In addition to its two Virtual Console re-releases in its original form, Mystery of the Emblem was also available as a playable Masterpiece in the Japanese version of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, allowing players to experience a three-minute demo of Marth's origins as a character; owing to the game's lack of an English version, it was removed from international releases of Brawl.

Plot


This section has been marked as a stub. Please help improve the page by adding information.


Book 1: The War of Shadows

Book 2: The War of Heroes

Gameplay

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.

Supports

Although significantly different from its widely known modern incarnation, Mystery of the Emblem features the first known appearance of support system, in which characters can perform better in battle if they are near their friends, family or loved ones. Most playable units have a hidden in-built support bonus with certain other units, and receive a boost of a few points to their stats in battle if they are within a three-tile radius of their support partner.

Dismounting

Mystery is the first of three games to implement the dismounting system, in which units who ride on horses, pegasi or wyverns can get off their mount and continue to fight on foot, losing their vulnerability to effective damage in exchange for lower movement range. In exterior chapters units can dismount or remount at will, but all riding units are forced to dismount when participating in indoor chapters.

Other changes

  • For the first time, when selecting a unit the player is shown their movement range and where they are able to attack. In the Famicom titles, this range is not shown due to the limitations of the console.
  • It is now possible for units to gain experience from using staves; in the original game, the only way Priests could ever gain experience was by letting enemies attack them.
  • Exclusively in Mystery, Manaketes and their dragonstones function differently from other games in the series. When used as items, the unit is transformed into their dragon state both on the field and in battle for five turns, giving them access to a breath weapon matching the dragon type.
  • Mystery connected four previously stand-alone classes into class change lines: Knights now promote to Generals using a Knight Crest, and Hunters now promote to Horsemen using an Orion's Bolt. A few other classes still lack class change options entirely, which were implemented in the Nintendo DS remakes.

Characters

Main article: List of characters in Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem

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 Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light - Roger, Darros, Wrys, Jake, Beck and Gotoh - are no longer playable, and all but Gotoh do not appear at all.

Chapters

Main article: List of chapters in Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem

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.

Reception

In Japan, Mystery of the Emblem has remained the best-selling Fire Emblem game in Japan ever since its release by a significant margin, having sold an estimated 776,338 copies in its original Super Famicom print run.[1] Among Japanese gaming communities, Mystery is widely revered as the best and most popular title in the series, and was voted the sixty-eighth most popular game in Famitsu's "top 100 games" list in 2006, although its initial critical reception by the magazine was lukewarm, having only been scored 24/40 at the time of its release.[2]

Trivia

Gallery

Etymology and other languages

Names, etymology, and in other regions
Language Name Definition, etymology, and notes
English

Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem

As of Fire Emblem Awakening.

References

  1. Translan: 日本ユニ著作権センター/判例全文・2002/11/14d: (University of Japan Copyright Center / Case law full text 14-11-2002) (Japanese)
  2. 実験!! ゲーム家族のクロスレビュー: ファイアーエムブレム 紋章の謎. Weekly Famicom Tsūshin. No.343. Pg.107. 14 July 1995.

External links

Fire Emblem series
Main series Shadow Dragon & the Blade of LightGaidenMystery of the EmblemGenealogy of the Holy WarThracia 776The Binding BladeThe Blazing BladeThe Sacred StonesPath of RadianceRadiant DawnShadow DragonNew Mystery of the EmblemAwakeningFatesEchoes: Shadows of ValentiaThree HousesEngage
Spin-offs Archanea SagaTokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FEHeroesWarriorsWarriors: Three Hopes
Crossover games Super Smash Bros. (MeleeBrawlfor Nintendo 3DS and Wii UUltimate) • Club Nintendo Picross+Code Name: S.T.E.A.M.Project X Zone 2WarioWareDragalia Lost
Unreleased games and prototypes Fire Emblem 64The Blazing Blade pre-release build 0206The Blazing Blade pre-release build 0219The Sacred Stones prototypeFire Emblem Wii
TearRing Saga series Yutona Heroes War ChroniclesBerwick Saga
Vestaria Saga series War of the ScionsThe Sacred Sword of SilvanisterLucca GaidenChronicles of the Norden Civil War
Related titles Mario Kart: Double Dash!! bonus discLINENintendo Badge Arcade
Versions and releases List of version differencesLocalization of the Fire Emblem seriesVirtual Console
Other References in other mediaReferences to other media