Fire Emblem Gaiden
Fire Emblem Gaiden |
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Developer: Intelligent Systems
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Fire Emblem Gaiden is the second game in the series and the only other one for the original Famicom. While set after the events of the first game, it is not a continuation of Marth's adventures (hence the Gaiden titling), but instead focuses around two new protagonists, Alm and Celica (each leading their own army), as they seek to bring peace to the continent of Valentia, a land divided by a war between two deities. The game adds an exploration aspect that brings it closer to more conventional RPGs, as opposed to being just a series of battles (an approach very similar to Shining Force, which was coincidentally released in Japan a week later).
It would later be remade for the Nintendo 3DS as Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, this time getting an international release.
Contents
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Prerelease Info |
Unused Characters
Gaiden has no shortage of characters that go unused. These unused characters are at varying levels of completion.
Alm-Forsyth
To do: Hack him into the game properly and check for data such as death quotes and endings. |
The character found at ID 18 is the most complete of this vast assortment of unused characters. Though his name (フォルス) is an identical copy of Forsyth's and his portrait is simply Alm's, the rest of his data is unique and not used by any other character. He would have joined the army as a level 5 Paladin, carrying no special equipment.
HP | Str | Skl | Spd | Luck | Def | Res | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Base stats | 32 | 12 | 6 | 9 | 3 | 7 | 5 |
Growth rates | 50% | 15% | 25% | 15% | 10% | 30% | 0% |
Clive's Clone
Adjacent to the used (クレーベ) Clive is this duplicate of him at ID 0B. This duplicate is almost completely identical to the original.
HP | Str | Skl | Spd | Luck | Def | Res | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Base stats | 26 | 12 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 0 |
Growth rates | 40% | 20% | 20% | 20% | 20% | 20% | 0% |
In identical fashion to the used Clive, he joins as a level 6 Cavalier wielding a Steel Lance. The only discrepancy that can be found is in their resistance stats: this clone has absolutely zero Resistance, while the used version has a single point of it.
Other Playable/Neutral Characters
To do: Add the offsets for each of the name strings, unpointed-to strings especially. |
ID | Name | Translation | Notes |
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24 | おんな | Girl | While this name label is used when talking to the woman who promotes Celica in Grieth's Fort, this ID has Alm's promoted portrait attached to it for some reason, which can never be seen as there is no data left for this character as a unit. |
25 | おとこ | Boy | This name label never gets used. Celica's promoted portrait is associated with this unit slot. |
26 | むすめ | Lady | This label also goes unused. No portrait data is associated with it. |
29 | Gナイト | Gold Knight | This generic unit is meant to represent some of Zeke's underlings, who turn into temporary allies on the Rigel Plains battle. While the paladin and bow knight are used, this gold knight is not: the only gold knight in the formation is Zeke himself. |
--- | ジュノー | Juno | This name string can be found amongst the playable characters. No pointer to it remains. A character with a similar name, Juno (ユーノ), is playable in Fuuin no Tsurugi; the reuse of the name is likely coincidental. |
Unused Enemies
There are several unused enemies present within the code of Gaiden. Non-generic units are associated with their map; none of these units have any remaining data besides their names and portraits.
ID | Name | Translation | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
8C | ハンニバル | Hannibal | Uses the same portrait as Slayde and several other minor bosses. The name Hannibal would later be used for a playable character in Seisen no Keifu. |
8D | マッセナ | Massena | While Massena does appear as an NPC in the final game, it is noteworthy that his unit ID is an enemy's. He never fights the player in the final release. As he was the captain of Emperor Rudolf of Rigel's guards, it is likely that he attacked the player at some point of development instead of surrendering to Alm as part of Rudolf's final orders. |
99 | リゲルぐん | Rigel Army | Most Fire Emblem games label their generic units with the unit's affiliation. Final Gaiden does not do this, with generic units simply referred to by their class. This shows that naming units by affiliation was planned at some point. The game's 3DS remake later followed this scheme. These represent the forces of the Kingdom of Rigel, the main enemy kingdom throughout the game. |
9F | リゲルぐん | Rigel Army | Another unit ID representing the Rigelians. |
A0 | ギースぐん | Grieth's Army | These generic units are loyal to Grieth, who has carved out a realm for himself in the eastern deserts and is fought during Celica's half of Chapter 3. |
A1 | ドゼーぐん | Desaix's Army | These are soldiers of Desaix, who organized a coup against the king of Zofia and attempted to take over the kingdom. His forces are the main enemy for Chapter 1. |
A2 | ドルクくん | Dolth-kun | Considering the context of the surrounding unit IDs, it is likely that ドルクくん is a typo and ドルクぐん, Dolth's Army, was the intent. Dolth is a boss fought in Celica's half of Chapter 4, described as "the Great Cantor Dolth" by himself and NPCs. |
A3 | まどうぐん | Netherworld Army | The word used is actually "madō", which can mean several different things, ranging from "heresy / (the) path of evil" to "sorcery", to even the netherworld. Without more context to go off of, it's not really clear which reading was intended here. It was likely intended for either the Duma Faithful, a cult of dark sorcerers, or for the numerous monster units, who often appear under the control of said Duma Faithful. |
A4 | かいぞく | Pirate | Several pirates are fought throughout Chapter 2, which largely takes place on the open sea. |
A5 | さんぞく | Bandit | Bandits are staple early game enemies in Fire Emblem, and Gaiden is no exception to this. The first few maps in Chapter 1 involve skirmishes against bandits. |
A6 | まもの | Monster | Monsters are a staple enemy type in the game. |
Unused Classes
Due to the way class data works in Gaiden, there are no unused classes with any amount of data remaining. The majority of enemy name IDs beyond B0 are dedicated to the unit names used by generic enemies, and unused entries here were presumably at some point intended to represent some form of class.
ID | Name | Translation | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
C8 | デビル | Devil | An unused monster type. No monsters resembling traditional depictions of the devil appear elsewhere in the series. |
D0 | サーペント | Serpent | The translation patch renders this as "Gorgon", monsters with a snake motif that appear in Sacred Stones. However, simple snakes are not fought as monsters at any point. |
D1 | ナーガ | Naga | While its name is shared with Naga, the dragon god of Archanea, it is unlikely to be a reference to Ankoku Ryu or its as of then unreleased sequel. Since nagas are snake-like creatures belonging to Indian mythology, it was most likely intended to be a variant of the serpent. |
--- | ハイナイト | High Knight | What these knights were originally above is anyone's guess. The name would never be seen again in any other Fire Emblem game. A quirk of the fan translation uses this name for まじん ("majin", officially localized as "Fiend") enemies. |
--- | ジェネラル | General | Generals are a series staple, being the promoted form of the Knight. For whatever reason, Intelligent Systems chose to call the promoted form of the Knight class "Baron" in Gaiden, since the aforementioned staple would not be properly established until Monshou. Its position amongst the enemy unit names suggests that the name was intended for use amongst enemy barons at some point. |
--- | きょうせんし | Berserker | Berserkers are a later staple of the franchise, typically being depicted as promoted brigands and pirates. This axe-toting variant would be introduced in Thracia 776, well after Gaiden's release. A sword-using berserker can be found in Monshou. Whether that variant, Thracia and beyond's version, or something else entirely was intended to be used for this name is unknown. Worth noting is that the きょうせんし ("kyōsenshi", literally "crazed fighter") name would only actually be used for the class in The Blazing Blade. バーサーカー (the English word "Berserker", transcribed into katakana) is the name used for the class in all other appearances. |
Unused Items
Gaia
The only functional unused item is the Gaia spell. The term Gaia has a history of being unused within Fire Emblem games: Medeus, the final boss of Ankoku Ryu, was originally named Gaia earlier in development, and the final game has an unused character slot using that name. Even as late as Shin Monshou, Dark Breath's file names refer to it as "Gaiabreath".
The spell name is located at 0x3DE56.
ID | Weapon Name | Translation | Mt | Hit | Wt | Crt | Rng |
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1E | ガイア | Gaia | 0 | 100 | 0 | 0 | 1-2 |
Outside of having 100% accuracy, the rest of Gaia's stats are all zeroes. If hacked in as an item, it can be used by priestesses. Its icon is a bow, like all magic spells that are hacked in as items. When cast, a copy of the caster will move towards the enemy.
Other Unused Items
No other functional items are present, but there are some name strings with no accompanying data.
- ボーマ Bōma
- ボース Bōsu
Neither of these items appear in any other Fire Emblem game. Their name strings are located amongst enemy spells, so it is most likely that that was their original purpose before getting cut.
Unused Graphics
Unused Portraits
Gaiden has two unused character portraits. The first, ID 1E, is an edit of a generic boss portrait, though this particular version of it never gets used.
The second, ID 33, is more interesting. It is an edit of Zeke's portrait that cuts his hair back. Zeke's portrait is a slightly edited version of Camus's portrait from Ankoku Ryu; this is because they are one and the same person. It is possible that earlier in development Zeke's design would've been slightly altered so that even though he would still recognizably be Camus, he would not be completely identical. In any case, the final release opted for a much more conservative edit of his Ankoku Ryu portrait.
Unused Locations
Desert Shrine
The (さばくのほこら) Desert Shrine is a fully unused dungeon. The video demonstrates the player exploring the dungeon.
To access the dungeon, go to the world map and attempt to move to a location. When selecting where to go, edit RAM 0x74B5 or 0x74B6 to 0x3E to replace the first or second available destinations with the Desert Shrine. The dungeon layout itself is the same as the Liberation Headquarters, featuring a hallway, an encounter, a hallway with some graves, and finally the Mila shrine. The encounter is not used anywhere else, featuring a battle against a single Fiend. The shrine's lion heads provide three HP or Luck bonuses to be distributed at the player's discretion. This combination of stat bonuses is not found anywhere else. When leaving the dungeon, the player will be placed outside of Mila's Temple.
Other Unused Entrances
In addition to the Desert Temple, there is unused entrance data for the Fort and Duma's Gate, which cannot be entered in the final release. Wherever they originally lead to no longer exists: both drop the player into the Lost Woods. While Duma's Gate is located near the Lost Woods and an entrance to it makes sense, the Fort, a location late on Alm's route, transporting the player to a dungeon on Celica's route is unlikely to have been the original intention before the entrance's removal.
To enter the Fort's entrance, set 0x74B5 or 0x74B6 to 0x49. Set it to 0x4C instead to enter Duma's Gate.
Unused Location Names
(ドーマのさいだん) Duma's Altar, the final dungeon of the game, has its own location name like all other locations. Its name string is at the very end of the area names. While the location is named in dialogue, it does not appear on the world map at any point, only being accessed through Rigel Castle. As a result, its name string goes unused and no pointer to it remains.
Difficulty Select
On the title menu, set cursor to the "さいしょから" ("New Game") option, hold Select + Start and then press A on Controller 1. When selecting a save slot, a new additional menu with a difficulty select will appear. "NORMAL" and "EASY" are the available options.
Easy mode doubles experience gain for all player units and allows unlimited trading between Alm's and Celica's groups. On Normal mode, there are a limited amount of times items can be sent across groups. Enemy attributes and layouts are unchanged, making this mode comparable to Thracia 776's Paragon Mode, which is also unlocked in a similar manner and also granted doubled experience gain to all units.
Sound Test
This needs some investigation. Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page. Specifically: Some sounds in here are definite FE1 leftovers - the "no damage" tink, for instance. Figure these out. |
This game contains exactly the same sound test mode as its predecessor, although the method to access it is much simpler: at the first game message ("1991") after startup, press Up, Down, Left, Right, Up on Controller 1. This still works in the remake, albeit at the title screen, though the sound test's basic functionality remains unchanged.
The Fire Emblem series
| |
---|---|
NES | Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light • Gaiden |
SNES | Monshou no Nazo • Seisen no Keifu • Thracia 776 |
Satellaview | Akaneia Senkihen |
Game Boy Advance | Fuuin no Tsurugi • Fire Emblem (Prototypes) • The Sacred Stones (Prototype) |
GameCube | Path of Radiance |
Wii | Radiant Dawn |
Nintendo DS | Shadow Dragon • Shin Monshou no Nazo |
Nintendo 3DS | Awakening • Fates • Echoes: Shadows of Valentia |
Wii U | Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE |
Nintendo Switch | Warriors • Three Houses • Warriors: Three Hopes • Engage |
iOS, Android | Heroes |
Related Games | |
PlayStation | Tear Ring Saga (Prototype) |
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