Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade: Difference between revisions

|title=The Blazing Blade

|caption=American English logo and box art.

|released='''Game Boy Advance'''<br>{{JP}}April 25, 2003<br>{{NA}}November 3, 2003<br>{{EU}}July 16, 2004<br>{{AUS}}February 20, 2004<br>'''Wii U Virtual Console'''<br>{{JP}}May 14, 2014<br>{{EU}}August 21, 2014<br>{{NA}}December 4, 2014

''The Blazing Blade'' is a prequel to {{FE6}}, set on the same continent of [[Elibe]] twenty years prior to its predecessor's events. It stars three main [[lord]] characters: [[Eliwood]] and [[Hector]], the fathers of ''The Binding Blade''{{'}}s [[Roy]] and [[Lilina]] respectively, and a completely new character, [[Lyn]]. The game is divided into two segments: the first segment stars Lyn and revolves around her quest to save her grandfather from his treacherous brother, acting as a tutorial mode for the game. The longer second part stars Eliwood, Hector and Lyn as they oppose the schemes of the sorcerer [[Nergal]], who seeks to summon the long-banished [[dragon]]s back to Elibe for his own gain

In ''Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade'', the player is given a direct character role in the story, as a [[Tactician (The Blazing Blade)|tactician]] who guides the armies of [[Lyn]] and later [[Eliwood]] and [[Hector]] to victory in battle. At the start of the game, the tactician's name, month of birth, gender and (only in the Japanese version) blood type are decided by the player. For this plot synopsis, the tactician's default name, ''Mark'', will be used.

[[File:CG fe07 01.png|thumb|left|[[Lyn]] takes care of the amnesiac traveler she found on the plains.]]

A tactician, Mark, wakes up in a house on the [[Sacae]] plains. A teenage girl introduces herself as Lyn of the Lorca, a tribe of nomadic plainsdwellers. Suddenly, bandits attack; Mark aids Lyn, who, with a sword, fights them off. The next morning, she decides to travel with Mark, to avenge her dead parents and the rest of the Lorca tribe, who were killed by bandits.

<!--Chapter 1-2-->

<!--Chapter 7-7x-->

While passing through [[Kathelet]], Lyn runs into a strange boy, [[Nils]], who requests her help to get his sister [[Ninian]] back from a shady organization called the [[Black Fang]]. The two are traveling performers: a [[dancer]] and a [[bard]], respectively. A monk named [[Lucius]] also joins, having heard Nils's plight. Lyn's forces manage to defeat the Black Fang; in the castle, they find that Ninian has already been rescued by [[Eliwood]], the son of the marquess of [[Pherae]]. Lyn thanks him and tells him her story; Eliwood decides to help Lyn out. Ninian and Nils also start to help Lyn by using their powers, which allow them to sense approaching dangers. Ninian finds that she has lost her ring, [[Ninis' Grace]], a keepsake from her mother. Lyn and the others are able to track the Black Fang down and reclaim Ninian's ring from them.

Lyn finally reaches [[Castle Caelin]] and, after a heated battle, defeats Lundgren. She is finally able to meet Hausen, her grandfather, who is near death because the poison. However, Lyn convinces him that they still have much they can do together, and Hausen decides to make an effort to continue living and begins to recover. When Lyn decides to stay in Caelin, Florina and Wil enter the service of House Caelin to stay with her. The rest of the characters go their separate ways, as described in their endings. The tactician Mark takes their leave to travel on their own for a time. Lyn’s tale ends here.

===Eliwood's tale - Finding Elbert===<!--Chapters 11-19?-->

===Bern and the Shrine of Seals===<!--Chapters 20-26?-->

===Defeating Nergal===

*Chapter 11 covers Hector's departure from Ostia with Matthew.

*Chapter 15 is a Hector's tale-exclusive chapter that involves Hector's party defending Laus from invaders.

*Chapter 19x pt 2 is a Hector's tale-exclusive side-chapter that becomes available if the party kills Kishuna in Chapter 19x and if Nils was at least level 7 by the end of Lyn's tale.

*Chapter 25 is a Hector's tale-exclusive chapter that introduces a new character: [[Farina]], one of the three pegasus sisters. She will join the party if paid 20,000 gold.

*Chapter 30, instead of dealing with Eliwood looking for Durandal, covers Hector's search for Armads.

*Chapter 31x also introduces a new character: the swordmaster [[Karla]], sister to Karel. She can be recruited after a duel with Bartre, but only if he is at least a level 5 Warrior.

*Chapter 32x is a Hector's tale-exclusive chapter that concludes the Kishuna subplot. It can be accessed if the player completes chapter 32 in 20 turns or less.

Overall, ''The Blazing Blade'' features no significant changes to its gameplay compared to ''The Binding Blade''.

{{main|List of characters in Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade}}

''The Blazing Blade'' features 44 playable characters; however, only 42 are available in any given playthrough, as the player must choose between [[Karel]] or [[Harken]] and [[Wallace]] or [[Geitz]], and two characters - [[Farina]] and [[Karla]] - are available only in Hector's tale. Of these 44, 13 are playable in Lyn’s tale.

{{main|List of chapters in Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade}}

From the beginning of Lyn's tale to the end of Eliwood or Hector's tale, the game is 32 (Eliwood) or 34 (Hector) chapters long, counting the prologue and final chapter but none of the sidequests. The game features a total of 46 distinct map chapters, including sidequests and alternate versions of chapters.

{{main|Staff of Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade}}

===Prototype builds===

{{main|Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade prototype build 0205}}

{{main|Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade prototype build 0219}}

Two prototype builds of the Japanese version of ''The Blazing Blade'' were leaked to the public in 2008, and are available in [[:File:Rekka no Ken prototype 0205 Patch.zip|patch]] [[:File:Rekka no Ken prototype 0219 Patch.zip|form]]. Both builds are dated at approximately two months before the Japanese release and as such the bulk of the game is complete in both builds, but there are numerous unfinished and beta elements such as unfinished or different portraits, missing kanji, CG images which are either preliminary sketches or lacking the grainy sepia overlay, slightly or completely different music tracks, minor statistical differences, and numerous portions of {{title|The Binding Blade}}'s interface left intact.

** Two epilogue scenes are unlocked through linking, although both have alternate obtain criteria. A cleared ''Binding Blade'' save file which achieved the bad ending (where the game ended at [[An Undying Dream|Chapter 22]]) unlocks the first scene with Eliwood, Hector, Roy and Lilina, which can also be obtained by clearing the game nine times. A cleared save with the good endings (where the game ended at the Final Chapter) unlocks the second scene where [[Zephiel]] is confronted by [[Jahn]], which can also be obtained by clearing the game eleven times. In the NTSC release of the game, both scenes are in the epilogue by default, but in the PAL releases the scenes are removed entirely.

* Of the official English localizations of the series, ''The Blazing Blade'' is the only one where item names do not have their entire name [[wikipedia:Capitalization|capitalized]] - for example, "[[Iron Sword]]" is spelled "Iron sword" - and are accordingly presented as common nouns rather than proper nouns (aside from [[regalia]] weapons and the [[Light Brand]]). From {{title|The Sacred Stones}} onward, capitalizing the entire item name became the series standard. The ''gringe'' [[fan translation]] of ''The Binding Blade'' and "Project Naga" fan translation of ''Genealogy of the Holy War'', however, handle item names the same way as this game.

*This game supports the ability to allow characters to wink and blink during dialogue, though the former is used once in the entire game by [[Matthew]] in his recruitment conversation with [[Guy]]. Because the wink animation plays at the same speed as the blink animation most players miss it.

|eng-name=• ''Fire Emblem''<br>• ''Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade''

|eng-mean=• As the series' first English/international release, the subtitle was omitted, likely seen as pointless in the face of no predecessors with which to confuse it.<br>• Used from {{FEH}} onward, matching Durandal's title like the Japanese name.

|jap-name={{hover|ファイアーエムブレム 烈火の剣|Faiāemuburemu rekka no ken}}

|jap-mean=Officially romanized as '''Fire Emblem: The Sword of Flame'''. The title refers to [[Durandal]], the legendary "Blazing Blade" wielded by Eliwood in the final chapter.

|eng-fan-mean=The game is almost universally identified by the fandom by a translation of its Japanese name/subtitle, or by its number in the series, instead of by its actual English title in order to avoid confusion with the rest of the series.<br>It should be noted that in the English release, Durandal's epithet and thus the game's hypothetical subtitle is actually "Blazing '''Blade'''", not "Blazing Sword", but it is universally called by the latter name anyway. This name was used on the official website as a "loose translation".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160401075809/http://old.serenesforest.net/gba/launch/history/index.html |title=Fire Emblem History (mirror, archived April 1, 2016) |site=Serenes Forest |retrieved=20 July 2016}}</ref>

FERK group artwork.jpg|Artwork for the game.