Fire Emblem (Game Boy Advance)

Fire Emblem
Also known as: Fire Emblem: Rekka no Ken ("The Sword of Flame", "Blazing Sword") (JP), Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade (US Fire Emblem Heroes promo) Developer: Intelligent Systems Publisher: Nintendo Platform: Game Boy Advance Released in JP: April 25, 2003 Released in US: November 3, 2003 Released in EU: July 16, 2004 This game has unused abilities. This game has unused text. This game has regional differences. This game has a prototype article

To do: More unused content from the Fire Emblem wiki. Document the 0219 and 0206 prototypes.

Fire Emblem, more colloquially known as Fire Emblem: Blazing Blade ("Rekka no Ken" in Japanese) is the seventh game in the series, and the first one released outside of Japan. The game is a direct prequel to Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade, and takes place twenty years before that game.

Subpages

Regional Differences The series tradition of having many regional differences would start with this game.

Alternate Arena Mode

In the game there are buildings called arenas where units can fight and gain experience. Within the game there is unused text and other data that appears to have at one point triggered a more difficult set of arena enemies; the text suggests this mode would have been triggered if a particular unit fights and wins in the arena excessively. This was presumably intended to prevent the player from over-leveling their characters. The mode and associated unused text is also present, and also unused, in Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones.

The mode is triggered if bits 0x8 and either 0x2 or 0x4 (or both) of byte 0xE of ram character data are set. These values are not set in normal gameplay rendering this feature of the arena impossible to trigger. If forced to occur the arena starts matching that particular unit with more difficult battles and displays the unused text upon that unit entering the arena.

Also of note the text has slight display errors when scrolling; cementing this feature as unused as the text formatting was not corrected.

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)

Unused Graphics

Battle Palettes

Erik and Nergal both have battle palettes intended for them that go unused to various degrees. Erik's palette data is correctly assigned to his unit ID, and to the correct promotion tier, but the palette he's clearly intended to have is only set to be used when he's part of the Player faction. His enemy faction palette, which is what the player actually sees in-game, is different, and gives him an incorrect hair color. In Nergal's case, the developers just mistakenly set his battle palette to be used only while in unpromoted classes, seemingly forgetting that Dark Druid is regarded by the code as a promoted class. Oops.

• 

  0x61 Erik

• 

  0x28 Nergal

Ballista Animation

Normally, ballistas can only be used in the overworld and do not display an attack animation. However, when hacked into the inventory, there exists full animation for the weapon.

Spell Animations

These were leftovers from the previous game on the GBA.

• The first spell is the ranged attack of King Zephiel's sword, Eckesachs. The sound cuts off abruptly when used.

• The second is the Binding Blade's ranged animation. Also cuts off the sound after being used.

• The third is Fae's divine dragon breath, which retains its sound effect and appears to be fully functional.

• Lastly, is Idunn's Dark Breath animation. It always plays from the left side (the enemy side) of the screen, and does not mirror automatically if given to a player unit.

Map Animations

There are what appear to be graphics for a cutscene animation involving Ninian facing upwards while raising her arms. The most obvious place this would have been intended to be used would be the cutscene in the final chapter where she attacks a trio of fire dragons with ice magic, during which she conspicuously just loops her idle animation.

Placeholder Map Graphic

This graphic is loaded during world map events, it appears to indicate where map sprites will be loaded for cutscenes, though it is never shown in gameplay.

Transfer Data

The Transfer Data menu button exists for every language, but there wasn't any method in Europe for getting it. However, the US MKDD Bonus Disc can be used for getting it.

Title Screen

The Japanese version has leftover Fuuin no Tsurugi title screen graphics.

Unused Text

Intro

The Japanese version has alternate intro graphics written in English, like in Thracia 776. Unlike that game though, the translation is horrible. The used text in the intro is in regular Japanese.

There was a continent where "people" and
a "dragon" live together a long time ago.
Both they were living by not invading.
However suddenly The balance was torn
by invasion of "people."
Fighting has also changed natural
providence.
This to fight was called
"war of a dragon and a man."
The defeated dragon disappeared
to somewhere
People who won made it steady and
lengthened power.
And about 1000 years after...

Death Quote

I can't...continue... Mother... I'm truly sorry...

Eliwood has an unused death quote; its use is unknown, though it is speculated that it was intended for use after Eliwood leaves the Dread Isle.

(Source: Fireemblemwiki.net)

Trial Map Text

Despite the absence of the previous game's Trial Map mode, leftover text referencing it can still be found within the game. It seems that a feature that would allow you to send maps between copies of the game would have been added if it wasn't removed.

Shall I begin sending the trial map? [Yes]

Loading.
Please wait a moment.

Sending map now.
Please wait a moment.

Map send complete.

An error has occurred.

There is no backup trial map.
Ending map send and returning to menu.

Leftovers from The Binding Blade data transfer

All international versions of the game removed the ability to transfer data from The Binding Blade to unlock extras, due to that game not being released outside of Japan. Remnants of this feature still exist, however, including early English titles (the only official version of these to exist, in fact) of every chapter from The Binding Blade (referred to as Sword of Seals here).

Breath of Destiny
Princess of Bern
The Latecomer
Federation Crumbling
Flame Crest
The Trap is Sprung
Ostia's Rebellion
Reunion
Island of Mists
Fighters
Hero of the West
The True Enemy
Rescue Mission
Arcadia
Dragon Girl
Reclaim the Capital
Ocean Road
Frozen River
General Winter
Liberation of Ilia
Sword of Seals
Unfulfilled Dream
Apparitions of Bern
Truth of Legends
Beyond Darkness
The Space Between
Escape to Freedom
Cleric's Teachings
The Laws of Sacae
Bulgar's Arms and Armor
The Silver Wolf
The Blazing Blade
Thunder Axe
Hellfire's Truth
Light of Supremacy
Lance of Ice and snow
Bow of Hurricanes
Darkness of Oblivion
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Ch.
Prologue
x
x Pt. 2
Turn

No Data

Linking. Please wait.

End

Load

Master Load

Is this data OK?

Loading.
Please wait...

Sword of Seals Game Pak
could not be found.

There is no Clear data.

Data loaded successfully.

Debug Text

There are two sets of strings which are presumably leftovers from removed debug functions, since many of them line up with the functions of the two leaked prototypes. The first set is listed before the Battle History text, and the second set right after. It seems likely that the implementation of the Battle History text overwrote some debug strings. The first set of strings are:

Anim.

Left

Nothing

Trans

Give

Take

Drop

Is this map OK?

Sent 

Cont. Tutorial

Quit Tutorial

Erase
File?

Erased files are
gone forever!

OK

Release Entry

Continue Chp.

Initialize File

Manual Save

Manual Cont.

Map

D.Info

Weather

Fog

Clears

Erased

G'Night!

The second set of strings are:

Erase file?

Once a file is erased,
it cannot be played.

Understood

G'Night!

Nothing Found

Total Score

Total P

No Display

Phase Ended

Dead

Retired

Parent

Child

Sheltered

Out of Sight

Peninsula

CP Attack

CP Move

Counter

1/3

Trust Level

Support

2/3

3/3

This unit has no SRAM information

SRAM info

Vctry

Dft

Adv.

E.D.

Pick

x

Exp

Favorite

DEBUG

Clear

Sand

Snow

Flurry

Rain

Night

Lava

Wthr

Clears

Clears

Erased

Fog

CPU

Human

Blocked

Brightness

Tact.

Unused Names

Nine names intended to be used for important units are unused, found in-between the names of used character units in the game.

• Igrene (イグレーヌ), located between Uther and Dart. This was likely meant to be the character Igrene from The Binding Blade.
• Nadine (ナディーン), located between Isadora and Legault.
• Santals (サンタルス), located between Eubans and Nergal. This name corresponds to unused unit data for the character Helman, and appears to be an alternate translation of "Santaruz", the Lycian territory Helman governs.
• Bruno (ブュルノ), located between Ursula and Paul.
• Bogan (ボーガン), located after Brendan.
• Efta (エフタ), located after Bogan and before Denning.
• Igor (イーゴリ) is located after Kaim. There is a character named Igor, who appears in Linus' version of Four-Fanged Offense as his subordinate, but he never actually appears as a unit in gameplay.
• Alexis (アレクス, Alex), located after Igor.
• Baudouin (ボドワン), located after Alexis.

Unused Classes

To do: See if the female variant for the Peer class has any differences in its base stats. A full sheet of all the map graphics instead of gifs of parts of the animations.

Several unused classes appear within the game, used as a placeholder/dummy class for certain characters that appear only during cutscenes.

Female Mercenary

This appears to be left over from Fuiin no Tsurugi. It was not used by any characters in that game, but the map sprite associated with it did appear in some of the earliest screenshots of the game.

Female Hero

This appears to be left over from Fuiin no Tsurugi, where it was used by the character Echidna. It has no battle animations.

Peer

The Peer class is used for Eliwood's father Elbert, during the ending cutscene for the story chapter "Dragon's Gate". While not technically unused, the Peer class is never actually seen in gameplay, as its only use is to represent characters on the field map. It has no description of its own, only displaying a blank text box, and similar to other non-playable characters, possesses no combat animations, acting as if battle animations were turned off.

• 

  Player palette

• 

  Enemy palette

• 

  Other palette

Elbert's unused character description.

The class "description" for the Peer.

Despite never being used in any active gameplay context, the Peer class does have defined base and maximum stats, although they appear to mostly be placeholders.

Base stats

HP	Strength	Magic	Skill	Speed	Luck	Defense	Resistance	Movement	Constitution
10	0	N/A	0	0	0	0	0	5	8

Max stats

HP	Strength	Magic	Skill	Speed	Luck	Defense	Resistance	Movement	Constitution
60	20	N/A	20	20	30	20	20	15	20

The class has an also unused female variant that holds almost identical attributes. It uses the sprite of the "Queen" class.

Base stats

HP	Strength	Magic	Skill	Speed	Luck	Defense	Resistance	Movement	Constitution
10	0	N/A	0	0	0	0	0	5	5

A screenshot of the field sprite for the female Peer.

Bramimmond

The character Bramimmond, only appearing in the cutscene separating the two parts of the game's final chapter, has his own exclusive class, using the same name as himself ("Bramimmond"). The class possesses a complete set of combat data, as does the character himself. Its stats are identical to the used Archsage class (used for his companion, Athos, who is playable in the final game), and has the ability to use dark magic and staves. It's possible that Bramimmond was once meant to be playable alongside Athos, however, no data exists for his unique tome, Apocalypse. Similar to the Peer class, the class itself has no description, only showing a blank text box, and possesses no combat animations.

• 

  Player palette

• 

  Enemy palette

• 

  Other palette

Bramimond's unused character description.

Base stats

HP	Strength	Magic	Skill	Speed	Luck	Defense	Resistance	Movement	Constitution
35	N/A	30	25	19	0	18	30	5	6

Max stats

HP	Strength	Magic	Skill	Speed	Luck	Defense	Resistance	Movement	Constitution
60	N/A	30	30	25	30	25	30	15	20

Map Oddities

Chapter 30 (Hector mode): The Berserker

There is a misplaced escape coordinate for enemy thieves at (0, 6), it is located within a wall, so it cannot be used.

Chapter 29 (Eliwood mode)/Chapter 31 (Hector mode): Sands of Time

There is a set of tile changes for a door in the upper left. There was a door there the prototypes; it was the location of the secret shop, which was moved elsewhere on the map for the final release.

Base Map (Final)	Unused Change (Final)	Base Map (Proto)

Chapter 30 (Eliwood mode)/Chapter 32 (Hector mode): Victory or Death

There are several unused tile changes that would add bridges crossing the river surrounding the boss of the map, Limstella. There is no known way to trigger these to appear. There is no known way to trigger these in the prototypes either.

Note that each individual bridge is its own change, so it would have been possible for them to appear individually, instead of just all at once.

Base Map	Unused Changes

Final: Light

Both parts of the final chapter of the game have data for contents of chests on the map. These are inaccessible both because their coordinates are not used on a chest tile, which is required to make them function, and because they're placed in areas that cannot be accessed by the player.

The presence of this data may suggest that these two maps were different earlier in development; there are no chests whatsoever on these maps in the final game or in any of the known prototypes.

Part 1 has four chests:

Map Coordinates	Contents	Notes
(5, 11)	Elixir	Located in a wall.
(15, 11)	Fortify Staff	Located in a wall.
(2, 19)	Barrier Staff	Located in a wall.
(18, 19)	Boots	Located out of bounds.

Part 2 has two chests:

Map Coordinates	Contents	Notes
(6, 18)	Wyrmslayer	Located in an inaccessible room on the same tile the Bishop wielding Purge on the left-hand side.
(18, 18)	Hammerne Staff	Located in an inaccessible room on the same tile the Bishop wielding Purge on the right-hand side.

Hidden Password Screen

In the "Battle History" in the "Extras" menu, hold Select for a few moments. After a little while, a screen with a password will pop up. How the password is generated is unknown, but save states show the password includes a clocktick based RNG, which differs from how the game normally handles RNG. Aside from generating the password, the screen doesn't do anything. The screen cannot be exited, so the game needs to be reset after doing this.

This was apparently for some sort of contest on the game's official Japanese website, though no official materials outside of Japan are known to acknowledge this feature, despite it being accessible in non-Japanese copies. Information on the contest itself is slim.

(Source: Serenesforest.net)