Fire Emblem Gaiden
| Fandom | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Fire Emblem Gaiden / Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia |
| Abbreviation(s): | Gaiden, Echoes |
| Creator: | Intelligent Systems/Nintendo |
| Date(s): | 14 March, 1992 (Gaiden) 20 April, 2017 (Echoes) |
| Medium: | video games |
| Country of Origin: | Japan |
| External Links: | Official Site, |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
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Fire Emblem Gaiden, and its remake Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, are the second and fifteenth mainline entries respectively in the tactical role-playing game series Fire Emblem.
Story overview
Gaiden and Echoes take place on the continent of Valentia. Valentia was founded by the gods Duma and Mila, who could not agree on how best to guide humanity, and so split the continent into two countries: Rigel, led by Duma, and Zofia, led by Mila. The player alternately controls armies led by each of the two protagonists, Alm and Celica, as they each go on their separate journies to discover the truth of their origins and find out what has become of Valentia's gods.
Characters
Echoes introduced five new characters who were not present in the original Gaiden:
- Faye (a new member of the Ram village childhood friend group, who has a crush on Alm)
- Fernand (Clive and Clair's childhood friend, who turned traitor after a disagreement with Clive)
- Berkut (Alm's cousin and Emperor Rudolf's heir)
- Rinea (Berkut's lover)
- Conrad/The Masked Knight (Celica's long-lost half brother)
Notable characters include:
- Alm: One of the lords and Rigel's prince.
- Celica: One of the lords, also known as Princess Anthiese of Zofia.
- Mycen: An ex-knight of Rigel, who raised Alm secretly in a Zofian village.
- Rudolph: Alm's father, Emperor of Rigel.
- Berkut: Alm's cousin, Rigelian prince and general.
- Halcyon: Ex-High Priest of the Duma Faithful, now residing in Sage Hamlet.
- Mila: Goddess of Zofia who has gone missing at the start of the game.
- Duma: God of Rigel, who commands his Faithful to kidnap Celica.
Gaiden Fandom
The original Gaiden's fandom was small to nonexistent due to the game's obscurity. Gaiden had several unique mechanics such as dungeon crawling and random encounters that are not common in Fire Emblem games, which made it into a bit of a black sheep in the fandom. Gaiden flew under the radar of most western fans, as it was never released overseas, meaning non-Japanese fans would have to rely on emulation and translation patches to play the game. Still, there was a small number of die-hard Gaiden fans among the western fandom who held up Gaiden as their favorite FE game, praising its unique gameplay features and surprisingly in-depth plot for a Famicom game. The announcement of Echoes naturally excited these fans greatly.[1][2]
The first English fan translation for Gaiden was released by a fan called Artemis251 in 2009. In 2016, another fan (called Gaiden Guy) created an update to Artemis251's patch, fixing some glitches and replaces fan-translated names with official names for characters confirmed by Intelligent Systems.[3]
Echoes Fandom
Pre-release fan reception and hype
Echoes was revealed in the "Fire Emblem Direct" video from January 2017. Fans expressed excitement for the title. Some were disappointed that the title would be coming to the 3DS rather than the upcoming Nintendo Switch (Echoes' reveal took place in the context of immense hype and anxiety among Nintendo fans for the Switch, with many worrying that the Switch might fail to reverse the decline in home console sales Nintendo saw in the Wii U era). There was much discussion among fans about the potential inclusion of an avatar character in Echoes. Self-insert avatar characters were included in FE12 (a remake of FE3), FE13, and FE14, naturally leading fans to wonder if Gaiden's script would be re-written to feature an avatar (in the vain of the character Kris being inserted to the plot of FE3 Book 2) who could romance other playable characters. While some (particularly Awakening and Fates fans) liked the idea of a playable avatar, others hoped Intelligent Systems would simply exclude avatars from Echoes, not wishing to see another Kris/Robin/Corrin-like character. Some wondered if a mysterious character featured in Alm's party in the reveal trailer, "Efi", was an avatar character, as no such character appeared in Gaiden. In reality, Efi (AKA Faye) was merely an original character for Echoes.[4][5][6]
The Japanese version of the game was data mined and leaked online before release, with some fans playing the game early.[7]
Post-release fan reception
When Echoes came out, the Fire Emblem fandom was much larger, and the characters were given more life and personality thanks to the deeper story and voice acting. While this was a boon for fans who enjoyed Gaiden and wanted to see more appreciation for it, the climate of the fandom led to the same character and shipping wars that plagued other games.
The five new characters were divisive, at best. Faye caught the most heat for being another "unrequited tragic maiden" type who had a crush on the hero but could never be with him.
Echoes received a lukewarm reception with some finding its gameplay relatively weak due to retaining a lot of the original game's outdated mechanics and bland map design. However, its writing, voice acting, and characters have received a lot of praise and are generally cited as the main reason to play the game.
Shipping
Echoes has several canonical pairings which are fairly popular in the fandom:
Common non-canonical ships:
Fan works
Fanfiction
- A Road Less Travelled by Pureauthor, an AU focusing on friendship between Celica and Faye, who both vie for Alm's affection in canon.
- by the seashore by PinkHydrangea, a Tatiana/Zeke fic set in pre-canon Rigel.
External links and archives
- Fire Emblem Echoes: Mou Hitori no Eiyuu Ou | Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia tag on AO3
- Fire Emblem Valentia stories on fanfiction.net
References
- ^ https://forums.serenesforest.net/topic/68360-i-cant-beleive-theyre-remaking-my-favourite-fe-game/
- ^ https://forums.serenesforest.net/topic/68413-lets-count-who-actually-played-fe2-before-the-remake-was-announced/
- ^ https://fireemblemwiki.org/wiki/Fan_translation
- ^ https://forums.serenesforest.net/topic/68238-fire-emblem-hype/
- ^ https://forums.serenesforest.net/topic/68244-who-are-you-gonna-waifu-if-they-put-an-avatar-in-the-game/
- ^ https://forums.serenesforest.net/topic/68315-the-way-avatars-should-be-handled-in-sov-and-future-games/
- ^ https://forums.serenesforest.net/topic/70779-am-i-alone-on-this/