Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu
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| Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu | |
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| Developer(s) | Intelligent Systems |
| Publisher(s) | Nintendo |
| Designer(s) | Shouzou Kaga Gunpei Yokoi |
| Release date(s) | JPN May 14, 1996 |
| Genre(s) | Tactical RPG |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Platform(s) | Super Famicom |
| Media | 32-megabit cartridge |
Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu (ファイアーエムブレム 聖戦の系譜 Faiā Emuburemu: Seisen no Keifu?, Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War) is a Japanese Super Famicom tactical role-playing game developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo in 1996. It is the fourth game in the Fire Emblem series, and was the last game produced by Gunpei Yokoi. The game widely received recognition outside Japan through imports or console emulation, especially in the United States and Europe since the release of Super Smash Bros. Melee, even though Marth and Roy do not appear in the game. It was translated into English through emulation.
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[edit] Gameplay
Many of the gameplay mechanics in Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu differ from most or all of the other Fire Emblem games in the series. The differences are:
- Instead of conquering just one castle per chapter, you must capture several. You also have a castle of your own at the start of each chapter that must not be conquered by the enemy. In allied castles, you can shop, fight in the arena, store items, and repair weapons (see below). Your starting castle is the only place in which you can promote characters.
- Breaking a weapon by wearing out its durability is not an inevitability. By visiting repair shops in castles under the player's control, money can be spent to restore a used weapon before it breaks instead of having to keep a stockpile of spares.
- Characters do not die when they have lost an arena battle; instead, they remain alive at 1 hit point of health. There are only seven arena opponents to fight for each character per chapter, as opposed to infinite opponents in other Fire Emblem games. Also, the arena opponents are predetermined for each level and are always the same. The exception is if the character is an archer.
- There is no limit on how many player characters can be deployed; this is balanced by the player receiving a great deal fewer controllable units than in other games in the series. However, it should be noted that the Game Boy Advance installments allow fewer units to be deployed per chapter than the console installments.
- Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu is the second Fire Emblem game where the player does not need items to promote a character. In Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu, the player character must reach level 20 and then return to the home castle of the chapter in order to receive class promotion. Also, rather than being reverted to level one, the character will remain at his/her current level, which means that they should be promoted as soon as possible.
- It is possible to bring back dead units by using the Valkyrie Staff; however, it breaks after only one use, and it costs a fortune of gold to repair.
- Villages cannot be destroyed by enemy units in one turn. Enemies can only destroy a small portion of a village each turn; however, the more you allow an enemy to tear down a village, the less gold you will receive for rescuing it.
- Each individual character in this game has their own money. The only units who can give money to others are thieves and units who are in love (see below).
- The characters in the first half of the game fall in love and pass their weapons and skills on to their children. The children then grow up to become playable units in the second half of the game. The parents also pass on their holy blood and their stat growths, giving the player some manner of control over their units' growth rates. If some of the female player characters in Sigurd's tale besides Ethlin or Diadora die or do not fall in love by the end of Chapter 5, substitute player characters appear in their childrens' place. The children can also fall in love, giving them random criticals when they stand next to their respective lovers (which is also possible in the first generation).
- Characters cannot trade weapons and items or give them to each other. The only way to "give" something to another character is to sell the item or weapon and have another character buy it.
[edit] Special Skill System
Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu is the first installment of the Fire Emblem series to have different types of special skills for every character. These skills are used both in battle and in the field. They usually occur at random. They get later passed down to the characters of the second half of Seisen no Keifu. This skill system is also used in Fire Emblem: Thracia 776 and Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, and partially in Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones.
[edit] List of Special Skills
- Ootate (Great Shield): This skill causes the character to block an enemy attack at random, even Holy Weapon attacks and magic. It is restricted to promoted heavy-armored characters. This skill became a trait inherent to all Generals in Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones.
- Ikari (Wrath): The character's attacks are always critical when he or she is low on HP, unless the enemy has Mikiri skill. Tailto, Teeny, and Linda have this skill. An altered version of this skill is available in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance.
- Tsuigeki (Pursuit): This skill lets the character attack twice if they are reasonably faster than their opponent. Most playable characters have this skill, or acquire it when promoted. Cuan, Noish and Arden do not have this skill. Pursuit's extra attack is of the Repeated Attack type, where the extra attack comes after the opponent's attack, if applicable; it is the same as the standard double attacking in other Fire Emblem games.
- Renzoku (Continue): This skill allows the character to attack twice if he or she is faster than the enemy. Ayra and Lakche get this skill upon promotion to Swordmaster class. Cuan of Lenster has this skill, as well. The Hero weaponry set gives the wielders a 100% chance of activating Continue regardless of whether they have the skill or not. Continue's extra attack is of the Continued Attack type, where the extra attack comes immediately after the attack it activates off. This is the same as the extra attack provided by the Brave weaponry set in Fire Emblem: Fūin no Tsurugi and the U.S.-released Fire Emblem games, in other words. The Continue skill is available in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, under the name 'Adept'.
- Nusumu (Steal): This skill lets the character steal money after attacking the enemy. This skill is restricted to the Thief and Thieffighter classes. Dew, Patty, and Daisy have this skill.
- Charisma: The characters surrounding a character with this skill earn an extra 10% hit accuracy increase.
- Mikiri (Awareness): This skill nullifies enemy critical attacks. It also nullifies sword-related skills, which are Meteor Hit, Moonlight Hit, and Solar Strike. It also seems to have a chance of nullifying extra-attack skills such as Pursuit and Continue. Alec, Ayra, and Diadora have this skill. Alec passes this skill onto his children. Diadora passes it onto Celice. Ira passes it onto Lakche and Skasaher. Enemies with this skill occur in Chapter 9 and Final Chapter. Julius has this skill in Final Chapter only. The Awareness skill is available in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, under the name 'Nihil'.
- Inori (Prayer): The character's chances of evading an enemy attack greatly increases if he or she is critically low on HP. Fin and Sylvia have this skill. An altered version of the Prayer skill is available in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, under the name 'Miracle'.
- Hissatsu (Critical): This skill randomly lets a character perform a critical attack. This skill does not work if the enemy has Awareness skill.
- Machibuse (Ambush): The character gets to attack first if he or she is low on HP. Lex, Arden, and Roddlevan have this skill. An enhanced version of this skill is available in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, under the name 'Vantage'.
- Totsugeki (Duel): The battle continues for another round. You must beware that enemy gets to attack as well. Noish, Midale, Jamuka, and Beowolf have this skill.
- Ryūseiken (Meteor Sword): This skill randomly lets a character attack five times in a row. The higher the skill the higher the chance this skill works. This skill works only on foot. It does not work against an enemy with Mikiri skill. Ayra, Shanan, Lakche, and Skasaha have this skill. An altered version of this skill is available in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, under the name 'Astra'.
- Gekkōken (Moonlight Sword): If this skill works, it will penetrate all the enemy's defense. This skill works only on foot. It does not work if the enemy has Mikiri skill. Holyn has this skill. Ayra, Sylvia, and Briggid let him pass this skill onto Celice's generation. An altered version of this skill is available in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, under the name 'Luna'. This skill also made an appearance in Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones under the name 'Pierce,' now given to Wyvern Knights.
- Taiyōken (Solar Sword): If this skill works, it recovers the character's HP when hitting the enemy. This skill works only on foot. It does not work if the enemy has Mikiri skill. Dew has this skill. An altered version of this skill is available in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, under the name 'Sol'.
- Life: Recovers some of the character's HP at the beginning of every turn. Only enemies in the final chapter have this skill. This skill is available in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, under the name 'Renewal'.
- Elite: This skill doubles the experience points the character receives. Lex, Linda, and Sharlow have this skill. This skill is available in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, under the name 'Paragon'.
- Negiri (Bargain): This skill grants the character a 50% discount in the shops. Dew has this skill.
- Odoru (Dance): Adds the extra "Dance" command. After the character dances, adjacent units that had already taken their move for that turn are allowed to take a second move action. However, only one dancer is available per generation.
[edit] Story
Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu takes place in the continent of Jugdral (pronounced YOOG-druhl and based on the Norse mythological name Yggdrasil).
- See also: Mythology in Fire Emblem
- See also: List of characters in Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War
[edit] Development
Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu was the first Fire Emblem game to be featured in the Fire Emblem Trading Card Game. The later games involved were Fire Emblem: Thracia 776 and Fire Emblem: Monshō no Nazo. Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu has the largest soundtrack ever composed by Yuka Tsujiyoko, composed of 114 tracks. Some songs from the game were reused in the Game Boy Advance Fire Emblem games. Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu deviates from traditional Fire Emblem gameplay in some ways. Norse and Irish mythology are the main contributors to names in Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu. Many of the battle animations in this game were recycled in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance. Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu was discussed in Nintendo Power: Volume 87, published around the time of the game's release.
[edit] Non-Japanese versions
Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu was marketed exclusively in Japan during the early 32-bit era, because Nintendo did not localize any games in the Fire Emblem series to North America or Europe until Fire Emblem: Rekka no Ken, which was renamed simply Fire Emblem in the localization process.
Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu came out late in the life of the Super Famicom, being released on May 14, 1996. It was virtually obscure outside Japan until the 128-bit era, when Marth and Roy were introduced to the non-Japanese gamers as playable characters in Super Smash Bros. Melee. The exposure of Marth and Roy to non-Japanese gamers indirectly led the Fire Emblem series as a whole to gain more attention.
Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu was successful in overseas emulation just as it was in the Japanese Super Famicom systems. In the year 2000, J2E Translations started an unofficial English translation project on the game. J2E Translations fizzled and failed, just like with Square Enix's Rudora no Hihou [1]. The translation project was dormant until 2003, when it was picked up by the Fire Emblem forums staff [2]. There are many versions of the fan translation patch circulating across the Internet. The more recent versions of the patch have the main dialogue fully translated into English, and also the battle and death scripts translated, but the game's ending dialogue remains untranslated along with certain castle conversations. [3]
Since the release of Super Smash Bros. Melee (where non-Jugdral characters Marth and Roy are playable and where Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu was not represented) during the sixth generation era, Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu has been considered an import classic by non-Japanese gamers and has been receiving a growing level of interest from North America and Europe [4].
[edit] Super Smash Bros. representation
Creator of Kirby and the Super Smash Bros. series Masahiro Sakurai stated that he had always dreamed of Sigurd being in Super Smash Bros. ever since he created it, [citation needed] although he was not sure if Japanese only characters would be a big hit in other places such as North America, Europe, and Australia. With the success of Marth and Roy in Super Smash Bros. Melee in the aforementioned regions, Sigurd has been rethought about being put in the next installment of Smash Bros., Super Smash Bros. Brawl, for Nintendo's Wii. [citation needed]
[edit] Trivia
- The player battle theme was reused as the arena battle theme for Fire Emblem: Fuuin no Tsurugi.
- The musical score for Chapter 10 of Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu was re-arranged as 'Side Battle' in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, where it is used as the trial map theme.
- Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu was released as a manga by Oosawa Mitsuki.
- In various emulations of the game, the English is mostly British English with only a few American English words and/or spellings. Armour is spelt the British way - with the same holding true for words such as colour, honour, etc: - but defence is spelt the American way (defense). This is also shown when the characters speak of their mothers. Sigurd and many of the playable characters in both generations refer to their mother as "mum" (the British term) whilst only one character, Artur, in the second generation, is the only character to call his mother "mom", the American term. This predominatly British English sets it aside from most emulations of other Fire Emblem games which have more American English language. As such, these emulations are more popular amongst the British players, who are in agreement that they should remain for a European release of the game.
