Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones

Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones
Also known as: Fire Emblem: Seima no Koseki (JP) Developer: Intelligent Systems Publisher: Nintendo Platform: Game Boy Advance Released in JP: October 7, 2004 Released in US: May 23, 2005 Released in EU: November 4, 2005 This game has unused playable characters. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused items. This game has unused text. This game has debugging material. This game has regional differences. This game has a prototype article This game has a bugs page

To do: Document the Prototype. Source here. More unused info can be found here Bring everything over that isn't currently documented. Create a prerelease page and bring over the stuff documented from this page. A few images still need to be uploaded (also, check if there are any more unused small portraits).

Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones is the third and final Fire Emblem game released on the Game Boy Advance. In this game, we follow a pair of blue-haired twins on their quest to find out why their best friend hates them.

It's also widely regarded as among the easiest of all Fire Emblem games, as well as being one of the shorter installments at a modest 23 main story chapters. At least it brings back the map system from Gaiden and a dungeon for you to grind your units (which makes the game even easier).

Sub-Pages

Prototype Info

Bugs

Unused Playable Characters For units and classes which never got to be used.

Unused Text Debug text and many leftovers from the previous game.

Regional Differences Lots of messing around with the stats.

Build Date

Region	Offset	Text
JP	0xDC110	2004/09/09(THU) 13:12:56
US	0xD74D0	2005/02/04(FRI) 16:55:40
EU	0xD8090	2005/07/12(TUE) 19:24:55

Leftover Alternate Arena Mode

This needs some investigation. Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page. Specifically: It is apparently possible to get this to trigger (erroneously? in the Japanese version only?) by soft-resetting the game at an unclear point when the overworld map is being loaded after winning an arena match.

The alternate arena mode from Fire Emblem and its associated text is still present and unused in this game. The text is exactly the same as it was in Fire Emblem GBA, and the mode can be forced to trigger the same way as in Fire Emblem.

Welcome to the arena.
Oh! It's you again.
I've lost a lot of gold
thanks to you...
If you want to continue,
we're going to have to
do things differently.
I'm going to prepare some
more challenging foes.

(Source: Tequila)

Debug Menu Remnants

Some debug menus from the prototype were left in the game, albeit in a partially dummied-out state, and can be accessed by hacking the game. For information on their former full functionality, see the prototype's sub-page on the topic.

Boot-Up Menu

The menu that appears in the prototype upon starting the game. It is missing some features compared to the prototype, most notably the options relating to the world map and the chapter/level warp. The present options appear to be functional and do the same things they did in the prototype. The portraits will also sometimes change seemingly randomly after booting up, though what causes this is currently unknown.

Debug Map Menu Commands

Another debug menu which remains in the final game; however, this one is much less functional, as it also has features removed compared to the prototype. The map warp at the top is no longer functional, and either resets or crashes the game. "Info" does nothing; in the prototype, it displayed numbers on the right side of the screen relating to what is going on in the game. "Weather" also seems nonfunctional, though the fog enabling/disabling still works. The game clear modifier also still works. The data erase feature seems to be as functional as it was in the prototype (it offers to erase data, though it doesn't seem to do so even if the player confirms the option). G'Night! puts the game into sleep mode, which cannot be done by the average player under any other circumstances as there are no menus in the normal game that allow for sleep mode to be accessed.

(Source: FEUniverse.us)

"XMAP" functionality

Remnants of the first Game Boy Advance Fire Emblem title's downloadable trial map functionality remains in this game's data. This is curious, as it was removed from the second game. It is currently unclear how functional this data is. No trial maps, downloadable or not, are known to have been planned for The Sacred Stones.

(Source: Sme)

Unused Graphics

Main Game Portraits

The placeholder portrait from the prototype and Fire Emblem, complete with a small portrait for use on maps. Most NPC portraits have this little dummy portrait associated with them, though the player never sees them, as generic NPCs tend to use a different alliance-type icon for their mini icons.

An unused portrait set for a minor bandit character. His character data even gives him a name... "Bandit".

An unused recolor of Novala's portrait where his robe is grayish green with a brown front part, instead of brown with a light purple front part. Interestingly, his in-battle graphic does depict him wearing a green robe.

An unused small portrait for Myrrh with her dragon wings out. In the final game, only the wingless variant of this portrait ends up being used.

An unused small portrait for Morva in his human form. In the final game, he can only be seen during battle in his undead dragon form.

Generic class portraits of the Rogue and Wyvern Knight, classes that never make generic enemy appearances. The generic Nomad, Nomadic Trooper, and Manakete class portraits are leftover from Fire Emblem.

• 

  Rogue

• 

  Wyvern Knight

• 

  Nomad

• 

  Nomadic Trooper

• 

  Manakete

(Source: Fireemblemwiki.org)

Battle Palettes

To do: Rip the unused palettes by themselves.

A number of The Sacred Stones' early-game bosses suffer from similar issues to Erik from The Blazing Blade: their proper intended battle palettes are only set to be used when they're part of the Player faction, while their Enemy faction palettes are all very generic-looking and similar, if not identical, to the actual generic enemy palettes of their respective classes.

Interestingly enough, there are also two completely unused battle palette IDs; 0x0F and 0x4A. These seem to be intended for Ewan as a Bishop and Knoll as a Sage, respectively, judging from their labels and placements within the palette order. In the final game, Ewan cannot become a Bishop, nor can Knoll become a Sage. Even if they could, however, neither of these palettes is assigned to any class in their palette lists.

• 

  0x20 O'Neill

• 

  0x04 Breguet

• 

  0x09 Bone

• 

  0x0A Bazba

• 

  0x05 Saar

• 

  0x0F Ewan as a Bishop

• 

  0x4A Knoll as a Sage

Battle Animations

Both the Knight and General variants of the Triangle Attack from Fire Emblem: Fuuin no Tsurugi are present in the game and fully functional, but unused.

The female Shaman and Druid animations from Fire Emblem: Fuuin no Tsurugi are fully implemented but completely unused. The corresponding map sprites were not carried over.

A battle sprite set for a male Archer using a ballista exists; normally, when any unit uses a ballista, the game always defaults to map animations.

Both the Mogall and Arch Mogall enemies have some frames that don't seem to display properly in-game, which appear to have been intended for their critical hit animations. Specifically, the missing frames are the ones that loop during a spellcasting animation. During the critical animation, their eye's sclera turns black, and their iris red. However, in-game, the loop frames revert to the classes' usual white sclera and pink iris.

(Source: Fireemblemwiki.org)

Battlefield Animations

Several map animations are unused leftovers from Fire Emblem and Fuuin no Tsurugi:

Animation	Class	Notes
	Mercenary (Female)	Unused in Fuuin no Tsurugi and Fire Emblem as well. Used by the unused Female Mercenary class.
	Hero (Female)	Used in Fuuin no Tsurugi, but went unused in Fire Emblem as well. Used by the unused Female Hero class.
	Bard	Used by Nils in Fire Emblem as well as by the unused Bard class.
	Princess	Used by the unused second Queen-class and also went unused in Fire Emblem as sprite of the "Princess"-class as well.
	Prince	Used by Zephiel in Fire Emblem.
	Transporter	The tent which was used by Merlinus in Fire Emblem, and is used by the unused Transporter class.
	Wyvern Knight	The unpolished looking variant of the Wyvern Knight sprite used in the prototype also still remains in the final game; it doesn't seem to have graphics for moving around the map.

(Source: Fireemblemwiki.org)

Battlefield Weather

The rain, snow and sandstorm weather effects from Fire Emblem are still present in the game, and so are their movement penalties. The aesthetic-only fire "weather", used in Chapter 8x of The Binding Blade and in cutscenes in Fire Emblem, is also present.

Battlefield Traps

Mine

The unused "DUMMY" Mine item turns out to be fully functional, hurting any unit that steps on the tile it is placed on. Thieves and Assassins still interact with Mines like in the previous game, by disabling them or picking them up, respectively. However, the Rogue, the new Thief promotion and counterpart to the Assassin, was not programmed to interact with mines, and takes damage from them like normal units.

Light Rune

The unused "DUMMY" Light Rune item also turns out to be fully functional, preventing any unit from stepping on the tile it is placed on.

Spikes

The spike trap graphics from Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade are still present, though their actual trap behavior isn't.

World Map Highlights

During the game's intro, there are graphics in the shape of each country which are used to highlight said country as the narration discusses them. One unused world map highlight exists in the game with the label "?"; its shape seems to match up with Darkling Woods, the location of the game's final chapter.

(Source: Fireemblemwiki.org)

World Map Location Icons

Two of the world map location icons have hidden labels written with their icons. By the Renais Castle graphic is "ルネス", which reads Renais, and by the Caer Pelyn graphic is "ポカラ", which reads Pokara, the name of the village in the Japanese version.

Fuuin no Tsurugi Data Transfer Graphic

Fuuin no Tsurugi (Used)	Sacred Stones (Unused)

The full-screen graphic for Fuuin no Tsurugi used in the previous game's linkup feature is still around in this game, albeit lacking its corresponding palette.

Unused Status Conditions

There are a few unused status conditions in the game:

Sick

One such unused status condition is called Sick, and it is not programmed to actually do anything if inflicted on a unit. It also has no help text associated with it. This status condition is also present in the prototype.

Dancer Rings

The unused dancer ring items work as they did in Fire Emblem, providing their respective stat-increasing boosts for a single turn. It's worth noting that while the items are fully functional, the text marking the status condition on the unit window was left untranslated in all localizations.

Gorgon Eggs

While not unused, the hatching mechanisms for Gorgon eggs are a hidden status effect, named "--" if viewed on the stat screen.

(Source: FEUniverse)

Unused Items

ID	Icon	Name	Range	Might	Hit	Weight	Critical	Weapon rank	Durability	Worth	Flavor Text	Notes
0A		Dummy	1	8	80	3	20	Preferential Sword	45	Cannot be sold.	DUMMY	Appears to have at one point been the Mani Katti, the personal sword of Lyn, one of the protagonists from the previous game. Uses the Mani Katti icon, which remains leftover from the previous game. No character in Sacred Stones has the assigned character weapon lock to wield it.
3D		Dummy	1-2	14	85	11	5	S Anima Magic	20	Cannot be sold.	DUMMY	Appears to have at one point been the Forblaze spell that appeared in the two previous games. It does not have a proper spell animation associated with it, and lacks the +5 Luck stat bonus, but otherwise seems to function normally. Uses the Forblaze icon, which remains leftover from the previous game.
44		Dummy	1-2	6	85	10	0	B Light Magic	20	4000	DUMMY	Appears to have at one point been the Luce spell that appeared in the previous game. It does not have a proper spell animation associated with it, but otherwise seems to function normally. Uses the Luce icon, which remains leftover from the previous game.
77		Gold	--	--	--	--	--	--	1	500	A bag full of money.	Its icon is a brown pouch. It has no known functionality, though it can be sold.
7A		Dummy	--	--	--	--	--	--	1	500	DUMMY	The Mine item from the previous game. It is fully functional; it can be placed on a tile on a map and will explode and damage anyone to walk across it. Uses the Mine icon, which remains leftover from the previous game.
7B		Dummy	--	--	--	--	--	--	1	800	DUMMY	The Light Rune item from the previous game. It is fully functional; it can be placed on a tile on a map and will prevent that tile from being passed over for several turns. Uses the Light Rune icon, which remains leftover from the previous game.
7D		Dummy	--	--	--	--	--	--	15	Cannot be sold.	DUMMY	The Filla's Might ring from the previous game. It is fully functional; it can be used by a Dancer to give a temporary +10 boost to a player unit's damage output. Uses the Filla's Might icon, which remains leftover from the previous game.
7E		Dummy	--	--	--	--	--	--	15	Cannot be sold.	DUMMY	The Ninis's Grace ring from the previous game. It is fully functional; it can be used by a Dancer to give a temporary +10 boost to a player unit's Defense and Resistance. Uses the Ninis's Grace icon, which remains leftover from the previous game.
7F		Dummy	--	--	--	--	--	--	15	Cannot be sold.	DUMMY	The Thor's Ire ring from the previous game. It is fully functional; it can be used by a Dancer to give a temporary +10 boost to a player unit's critical hit chance. Uses the Thor's Ire icon, which remains leftover from the previous game.
80		Dummy	--	--	--	--	--	--	15	Cannot be sold.	DUMMY	The Set's Litany ring from the previous game. It is fully functional; it can be used by a Dancer to give a temporary +10 boost to a player unit's avoid. Uses the Set's Litany icon, which remains leftover from the previous game.
8A		Dummy	--	--	--	--	--	--	15	Cannot be sold.	DUMMY	The Heaven Seal from the previous game. It is fully functional, promoting Eirika or Ephraim, this game's Lord characters, like it did with Eliwood, Hector, or Lyn previously. Uses the Heaven Seal icon, which remains leftover from the previous game.
A1		Vulnerary	--	--	--	--	--	--	60	6,000	A medicinal solution used for healing minor wounds.	A variant of the Vulnerary item that can be used an obscene amount of times. Uses the regular Vulnerary icon. It is also present in the previous game, where it could be obtained in Japan as an event distribution item, though there is no way to obtain it in any version of The Sacred Stones.
A2		Vulnerary	--	--	--	--	--	--	60	6,000	A medicinal solution used for healing minor wounds.	A variant of the Vulnerary item with an obscene amount of uses. Despite the description's claims, it cannot be used. Has a strange green music note for an icon.
A4		Vulnerary	--	--	--	--	--	--	60	6,000	A medicinal solution used for healing minor wounds.	A variant of the Vulnerary item with an obscene amount of uses. Despite the description's claims, it cannot be used. Has a strange red music note for an icon.
A5		Dance	--	--	--	--	--	--	0	Cannot be sold.	A dance that allows allies to move again.	What appears to be an item version of the "Dance" action the Dancer unit can perform, sharing the same name and description. It has no functionality and uses the icon for the Iron Sword weapon.
A7		Stone Shard	1	11	65	0	0	(Monster Weapon)	Infinite	Cannot be sold.	DUMMY	A weapon for monster units seen in many pre-release previews and in the prototype. If a monster attempts to attack with it with battle animations enabled, the game will freeze. This weapon had a proper description in the prototype. Uses the icon for the Red Gem item.
B6		Alacalibur	1-2	8	86	2	0	B Anima Magic	20	1,100	DUMMY	An anima spell not seen since Fire Emblem: Fuuin no Tsurugi; it's more well-known by the name Aircalibur, from fan translations of that game. It functions the same as it did in Fuuin no Tsurugi, being effective against flying units. It also is the only unused spell to have its original spell animation, though said animation causes the battle music to cut out. Uses the icon for the Killer Ballista, for whatever reason.

One used weapon also has an effect that cannot be seen in normal gameplay. The game's final boss, the Demon King Fomortiis, has an area of effect 'staff' called Nightmare that inflicts the sleep status on all player units within 3 tiles. The weapon is programmed to give a +5 defense and +5 resistance bonus when equipped... but Staff weapons can't be equipped.

(Source: Fireemblemwiki.org)

Unused Maps

This needs some investigation. Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page. Specifically: Load the map events properly to see if any units or special properties are deployed. There is also another ugly map that may have also been used for testing purposes, but is not known to be in the prototype.

The test map from the prototype still exists in the final game.

Oddities

Intro Portraits

The portraits of Rennac, Innes, and Glen that appear in the game's intro are slightly different from the ones used in the actual game. Specifically, the shape and shading on Rennac's hair is different, Innes' clothes are drawn slightly differently, and Glen's armor is lower than in his regular portrait. These portraits are different from the prototype versions as well, so they're likely intermediate revisions.

Introduction	Gameplay

Tutorial Escape Code

The game's Easy mode unsurprisingly has forced tutorials, yet you can break out of them with a button combination. To do so, hold any direction on the D-Pad, then also hold A, B, Start, and Select to exit the current forced tutorial segment. The player needs to be careful when inputing this code, however, as this button combination includes the one for a soft-reset in it, so if you don't hold a D-Pad direction first the game will probably soft-reset. This code also turns out to not really be that useful, as the game will sometimes force you back into the tutorial again, depending on what part of the tutorial you exited.

This function also exists in the prototype for The Sacred Stones, as well as the previous game and its prototypes.

(Source: Serenes Forest)