Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light

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Name: Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light (Japanese: ファイアーエムブレム　暗黒竜と光の剣: "Fire Emblem: Dark Dragon and the Sword of Light")
Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem (Japanese: ファイアーエムブレム　紋章の謎: "Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem")
Fire Emblem: Archanea Saga (Japanese: BS ファイアーエムブレム アカネイア戦記編): "BS Fire Emblem: Akaneia War Chronicles Section")
Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon (Japanese: ファイアーエムブレム　新・暗黒竜と光の剣: "Fire Emblem: New Dark Dragon and the Sword of Light")
'Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem: Heroes of Light and Shadow (Japanese: ファイアーエムブレム 新・紋章の謎〜光と影の英雄〜: "Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem: Heroes of Light and Shadow")
Abbreviation(s): FE1, FE3, FE11, FE12
Creator: Intelligent Systems/Nintendo
Date(s): 1990 (FE1), 1994 (FE3), 1997-99 (Archanea Saga), 2008 (FE11), 2010 (FE12)
Medium: video games
Country of Origin: Japan
External Links:
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Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light (commonly referred to as FE1) is the first entry of the strategy RPG Fire Emblem series, released for the Famicom.[1] It was released exclusively in Japan initially. It is the first in the pentalogy of games referred to by fans as "the Archanea games":

  • In 1994, FE1 received a remake/sequel on the Super Famicom, Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem (referred to as FE3). Book 1 of FE3 is an abridged retelling of FE1. Book 2 is a sequel to FE1, continuing the plot and consisting of entirely new maps. FE3 was also exclusive to Japan.[2]
  • From 1997-1999, Fire Emblem: Archanea Saga aired via the Super Famicom's Japan-exclusive Satellaview service. These broadcasts consisted of four unique maps, featuring characters and locations from FE1/3.[3]
  • In 2008, Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon (FE11) released for the DS. This is a remake of FE1/Book 1 of FE3. This game was released internationally.[4]
  • In 2012, Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem: Heroes of Light and Shadow (FE12) released for the DS. This is a remake of Book 2 of FE3. This game was exclusive to Japan. The maps and scenarios from Archanea Saga also appear here.[5]
  • Some fans include Fire Emblem Gaiden/Echoes: Shadows of Valentia (FE2/ FE15) as part of "the Archanea games", because they take place in the same world as Archanea and features some of its characters (these games are covered in a separate article).

The protagonist of these games, Marth, is perhaps the most well-known aspect of them (at least among western fans), as Marth went on to become the de facto mascot of the Fire Emblem franchise, making numerous cameos in other FE games. Marth also appears in the Super Smash Bros. series as a playable fighter. The appearance of Marth and Roy (from Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade) in these Super Smash Bros. Melee sparked interest in FE among fans in the west, leading to Nintendo's decision to release Fire Emblem games internationally, starting with Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade.[6]

OVA

A two episode OVA based on FE1 was released in 1996. Oddly enough, this obscure OVA came out overseas before any FE game did and long before Super Smash Bros. Melee, so it is technically the series' international debut. Many fans are now familiar with the OVA's English dub and a few lines from the character Gordin, "Five points!" and "But Mars!" ("Mars" being Marth's name as originally translated), have become fandom memes.[7][8][9][10][11]

Story Overview and Characters

The Archanea games follow Prince Marth of Altea, who leads an army to battle the pontifex Gharnef and the Shadow Dragon Medeus.[1][2][5]

Notable characters include:

  • Marth: the protagonist
  • Caeda: the series' first playable female character, Marth's love interest
  • Nyna: the princess of Archanea, an ally of Marth
  • Camus/Sirius: an antihero, Nyna's love interest, appears originally as an enemy and then again as a playable character. Also appears as "Zeke" in FE2/15
  • Gharnef: a major antagonist
  • Medeus: a major antagonist
  • Kris: a playable avatar character serving as a stand-in for the player, appears exclusively in FE12
  • Anna: a shopkeeper, went on to reappear in nearly every FE game afterwards, becoming a series mascot alongside Marth

Fandom

Fan reception

FE1 released exclusively in Japan in 1990. It initially received poor reviews and low sales, only picking up steam a few months later thanks to a positive Famitsu review and word of mouth. FE3, meanwhile, sold much better and is lauded by many in the Japanese fandom as the best game in the franchise, though it is largely overlooked by western fans.[1][2]

Upon FE11's international release, it quickly garnered a negative reception among western, English-speaking fans and compared unfavorably to the GBA and Tellius games (which were most western fans' introduction to the franchise). The story was deemed too simplistic, support conversations were sorely missed, and map design was criticized as too basic. A 2013 poll on the popular fan site Serenes Forest asking which FE game users disliked the most ended with FE11 garnering 27% of the vote, far outstripping any of the other thirteen games listed. In recent years, the backlash among western fans has faded somewhat and many now praise FE11, especially in the context of the "Fateswakening" era that followed FE11 and FE12 (which many old school fans criticized for being too "anime"-esque and for their dating sim features).[12][13][14][15]

FE12 saw low sales in Japan upon release and plans to release the games internationally were scrapped, disappointing western fans who expected the game to release overseas. FE12's failure put the series as a whole in limbo, with the developers intending for the next game, Fire Emblem Awakening, to be the final game in the series. Awakening, however, ended up selling very well and launched the franchise into a new era. Because of its lack of international release, FE12 has been overshadowed and overlooked in western fan spaces. However, the game was well-received, much more so than FE11, thanks to improvements to gameplay, the return of support conversations, having a more in-depth plot, etc. The avatar character introduced into FE12, Kris, remains controversial among fans, with many seeming them as a self-insert "Mary Sue" character. FE12 was also the first game to include "Casual mode", allowing players to turn off FE's famous permadeath feature. The introduction of this feature was also controversial, though broad debate about it did not begin in western fan spaces until Awakening's release.[16][17][18][19][20][21]

In commemoration of the franchise's thirtieth anniversary, FE1 was officially translated into English and released internationally for the first time, as part of a special collector's edition. This release was criticized by FE fans and others in the larger Nintendo fan sphere for being a limited-time release, only available for purchase for a couple months before it was pulled off store shelves. Many accused Nintendo and Intelligent Systems of creating artificial scarcity for the product with this decision.[22][23]

Shipping

As the Archanea games are generally light on dialogue and character development and lack the romance/matchmaking mechanics of future games, the shipping community for these games are naturally quite quiet when compared to other segments of the FE fandom.

Canonical ships include:

  • Caeda/Marth (F/M)
  • Camus/Nyna (M/F)
  • Astram/Midia (M/F)
  • Samson/Sheena (M/F)
  • Abel/Est (M/F)
  • Julian/Lena (M/F)
  • Hardin/Nyna (M/F)
  • Anna/Jake (F/M)
  • Merric/Elice (M/F)

Popular non-canonical ships include:

  • Minerva/Palla (F/F)[24]
  • Marth/Merric (M/M)[25]
  • Sedgar/Wolf (M/M)[26]

Fan translations

English fan translation patches have been created for all Archanea games not originally released in English.[18]

  • The first FE1 English translation was created by a fan, Quirino, and released in 2011. Another fan, Mega Koopa X, released a refined version of Quirino's translation in 2016, updating official names for characters and fixing bugs. The latest FE1 translation by a fan called Polinym released in 2021, which attempted to better capture the original intent of the game's scripts.[18]
  • FE3's first English translation was completed by fans VincentASM and RPGuy96 in 2008. However, this patch had numerous bugs and, due to RPGuy96's disappearance, it couldn't be updated for many years. From 2014-17, Quirino worked on updating the patch. Another fan, Robert of Normandy, released a new translation in 2019, fine-tuning the script and fixing more bugs. In 2024, the "Heroes of Light" translation released, featuring an entirely new translation.[18]
  • A fan, joesteve1914, released an English translation patch for Archanea Saga's first episode in 2014. joesteve1914 attempted to translate Episode 2 but canceled the project in 2017. In 2020, user Darman released a complete translation for all episodes on FE Universe (a popular fansite) in 2020.[18]
  • A team called the "Heroes of Shadow", organized by the fan Blazer and led by VincentASM, completed the first English FE12 patch in 2012. Progress on the hack was chronicled on the Heroes of Shadow's now defunct blog. The FE fansite, Serenes Forest, also hosted a thread for discussion on the Heroes of Shadow's work, though this thread was closed due to controversy among fans about the re-naming of characters. The decision to rename "Belf" to "Vergil" was particularly contentious and has since become a meme in the FE fan translation scene. joesteve1914, began work on another translation in 2017 which implemented official English names that were had been confirmed by Intelligent Systems in the intervening years, and also fixed some typos.[18]

Fan remakes

Fandom memes

The character of Wrys is a meme among players, especially in Japan. His notoriety largely stems from the fact that, though he appeared in FE1, he was cut in FE3 entirely, replaced by a healing item. He returned in FE11 and FE12.[27][28]

Several moments from a popular, comedic screenshot-based Let's Play/fanfiction series of FE1 by user Didja Redo on the Something Awful forums have become memes, including Jagen's line "No, sire."[29][30]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c https://fireemblemwiki.org/wiki/Fire_Emblem:_Shadow_Dragon_%26_the_Blade_of_Light
  2. ^ a b c https://fireemblemwiki.org/wiki/Fire_Emblem:_Mystery_of_the_Emblem
  3. ^ https://fireemblemwiki.org/wiki/Fire_Emblem:_Archanea_Saga
  4. ^ https://fireemblemwiki.org/wiki/Fire_Emblem:_Shadow_Dragon
  5. ^ a b https://fireemblemwiki.org/wiki/Fire_Emblem:_New_Mystery_of_the_Emblem:_Heroes_of_Light_and_Shadow
  6. ^ https://fireemblemwiki.org/wiki/Super_Smash_Bros._Melee
  7. ^ https://fireemblemwiki.org/wiki/Fire_Emblem_(anime)
  8. ^ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7W3oiyl92Q&ab_channel=FSSmash
  9. ^ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZxsZIVMJO8
  10. ^ https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Memes/FireEmblem
  11. ^ https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/mjjo3a/fire_emblem_ova_overall_series_discussion/
  12. ^ https://forums.serenesforest.net/topic/43716-worst-fire-emblem-game/
  13. ^ https://www.reddit.com/r/fireemblem/comments/u08wvi/is_shadow_dragon_ds_that_bad/
  14. ^ https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ds/943695-fire-emblem-shadow-dragon/reviews/131458
  15. ^ https://www.reddit.com/r/JRPG/comments/171hjkn/is_fire_emblem_shadow_dragon_good_compared_to/
  16. ^ https://www.reddit.com/r/fireemblem/comments/1hyeg5z/fire_emblem_new_mystery_of_the_emblem_heroes_of/
  17. ^ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_Emblem:_New_Mystery_of_the_Emblem#Reception
  18. ^ a b c d e f https://fireemblemwiki.org/wiki/Fan_translation
  19. ^ https://forums.serenesforest.net/topic/87360-thoughts-on-fe12/
  20. ^ https://www.reddit.com/r/fireemblem/comments/5xocko/what_is_the_general_opinion_of_kris_in_fe12/
  21. ^ https://fireemblemwiki.org/wiki/Fire_Emblem_Awakening
  22. ^ https://www.reddit.com/r/fireemblem/comments/jg7035/im_not_buying_the_localized_version_of_shadow/
  23. ^ https://www.cbr.com/nintendo-fire-emblem-limited-release-mistake/
  24. ^ https://archiveofourown.org/tags/Minerva*s*Paora%20%7C%20Palla/works
  25. ^ https://archiveofourown.org/tags/Marth*s*Merric%20(Fire%20Emblem)/works
  26. ^ https://archiveofourown.org/tags/Wolf*s*Zagaro%20%7C%20Sedgar/works
  27. ^ https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/204447-fire-emblem-heroes/75890924
  28. ^ https://www.reddit.com/r/fireemblem/comments/73x0p0/is_acknowledged_memes/
  29. ^ https://www.reddit.com/r/fireemblem/comments/oc0r9i/what_was_the_namechannel_for_this_fe1_meme_series/
  30. ^ https://shaym.in/fe1/chapter4.html
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