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Proto:Fire Emblem (Game Boy Advance)

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This page details one or more prototype versions of Fire Emblem (Game Boy Advance).

How about a nice leek in this trying time?
This page or section details content from the October 2008 Intelligent Systems Leak.
Check the October 2008 Intelligent Systems Leak category for more pages also sourced from this material.
Hmmm...
To do:
Document the 0206 Prototype. Source
Hmmm...
To do:
  • Finish story art comparisons.
  • Compare chapter maps (some have different terrain and palettes).
  • Look over items (stats, note graphical differences, a few of the new weapons still use placeholder icons).
  • Look over character stats and inventory.

There are two known Japanese prototypes for Fire Emblem: Rekka no Ken. They are from very late in development and are very close to the final release in terms of content.

The two builds are themselves very similar overall, with the differences between them mostly being minor revisional ones. The final build is dated March 29, 2003, the anniversary of Fuuin no Tsurugi's release.

Sub-Pages

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Cutscene Artwork
Almost all of the artwork is different from the final game, mostly due to the artwork still being in in-progress stages.


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0206 Prototype
Content exclusive to the prototype dated February 6, 2003.
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0219 Prototype
Content exclusive to the prototype dated February 19, 2003.

Debugging Functions

Both prototypes have a fairly extensive set of debug features.

A lot of this stuff is identical or very similar to the debug menus in The Sacred Stones' prototype, give or take a few things.

Boot-Up Menu

Elementary, my dear Cactus.
This needs some investigation.
Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page.
Specifically: Something causes the portraits on this screen to change to child portraits; no idea what triggers it though.
Fire Emblem GBA 0219 proto startup.png

Upon starting the game, it immediately goes to this boot-up menu without much fanfare. The commands available are:

  • リリースエントリ (Release Entry) - This starts the game normally; and begins by showing the game's introductory sequence.
  • どこでも再開 (Continue Chapter) - Restart the game from the currently saved file.
  • 手再開 (Manual Continue) - Restart the game from a suspend. This is notable as suspend files can be at any point in a chapter instead of just the start of the chapter.
  • ファイル初期化 (Initialize File) - Anna appears to ask the player if they want to delete all the save data. Regardless of the player selecting yes or no, the game experiences graphical glitches and save data is not actually deleted.
  • The last unlabeled row is a map select. Press Left or Right on the D-Pad to navigate the list, and press A to select a chapter.

Test Map Variants

There are three variants to the test map in the chapter select, each activated by a held button.

Entering the test map while holding nothing results in a small selection of player and enemy units. Holding Start when entering the test map results in a large selection of units of the playable cast and a set of enemy units representing about half the generic classes in the game. Holding Select when doing this instead produces similar results, but with another large selection of different units of the playable cast and the other half of the generic enemy units.

The L Button

Yes, the L button (once again) is awesome enough to have its own section.

The L shoulder button allows access to one of the more interesting and most versatile debug functions. These functions vary on where it is used.

In a unit's stat screens, it can be used to modify just about any variable a character can have. To change a stat, press L, and a little hand will appear, likely pointing at the Str or Mag stat to start. Place the hand over what you want to change by using any direction on the D-Pad. Once on the desired stat to change, hold A then press Left or Right on the D-Pad to decrease or increase that stat.

If the L button is used like this on the character's inventory, every item and weapon in the game is accessible. In this instance pressing Left and Right while holding A scrolls through the entire game's items in their internal order.

If used on the status screen during a chapter, the player can give themselves a large amount of money or set the chapter's turn count.

Debug Map Menu Commands

Fire Emblem GBA 0219 proto map menu.png

Hanging out with the regular options in the map menu are several debug commands.

Fire Emblem GBA 0219 proto enemy range.png
  • The first option is an enemy range viewer, one of the more famous aspects of these prototypes. The code for this is actually left in the final release, but goes unused. While later Fire Emblem games have this as a standard feature, this is the first instance of the enemy range viewer in the series.
  • 担当 (Charge) - Allows the player to set what has control of enemy and NPC units. The specific options for each faction are CP, the default, meaning the computer controls them, 人間, human, which gives the player control, and 不参加, nobody, which makes the units do absolutely nothing.
  • デバ (Debug) - Opens a debug menu (detailed below).
  • 記録 (Save) - One of the options makes a Manual Suspend, which then can be loaded from the boot-up menu. The other options brought up don't seem to be entirely functional and cause massive graphical glitches.

The デバ (Debug) menu mentioned above has several options appear in a new window.

  • マップ (Map) - The chapter select, which works just like it does on the boot-up menu.
  • デバ情報 (Debug Information) - Toggles a debug value tracker of some sort. The exact meaning of some of the numbers is unknown, but one value on it is the cursor's coordinates on the map.
  • 天気 (Weather) - Inflicts weather conditions on the current map. It does not include Fog, as that is handled differently.
  • さく敵 (Enemy Search) - Toggles Fog of War; seems to only work on chapters that begin in Fog of War.
  • 周回数 (Playthrough count) - Use Left or Right on the D-Pad to decrease or increase the number of playthroughs. The maximum number recorded is 13.
  • クリアずみ (Clear) - Selecting this brings up another window. Selecting the glowing 'confirm' letters doesn't seem to... actually... do anything.
  • The next line is unlabeled, but allows the player to modify the tactician. It defaults to Ice affinity, and A blood type. Press Select to alter their affinity and blood type. Left and Right on the D-Pad changes the tactician's rank (this is, under normal circumstances, used to judge the performance of the player). Pressing the L shoulder button disables the tactician entirely, while pressing the R shoulder button re-enables the tactician. There appears to be no way to set the tactician's name, though judging by the tactician weapons (which have the tactician's name applied to them) the game defaults to マーク (Mark).
  • おやすみなさい (Good Night) - Puts the console into sleep mode. Hold the L and R shoulder buttons to exit.
  • M - Press Left and Right to select the music. ("M" will change to the title of the song that is currently playing.)

Quick Debug Menu

Fire Emblem GBA 0219 proto quick debug.png

Hold Select and press Start twice with the cursor on an empty space. This opens a small window that contains the following.

  • Turn - Set the turn count.
  • 2軍CP (2Army Computer) - Turn enemy units' AI on or off; when off, enemies will do nothing.
  • 3軍CP (3Army Computer) - Turn NPC units' AI on or off; when off, NPCs will do nothing.

Character Debug Menu

Fire Emblem GBA 0219 proto character debug.png

To open this menu, hold Select and press Start twice with the cursor on a character. The menu includes:

  • ドーピングする? (Dope the unit?) - Maxes out the character's stats. (Apparently with performance-enhancing substances?)
  • HP - Sets the character's max HP.
  • Attack AI - Only does anything for NPC and enemy units.
  • Movement AI - Only does anything for NPC and enemy units.
  • Recovery - Not sure what this does...
  • Condition - Afflicts the unit with a status effect. Choose the status effect by pressing Left or Right on the D-Pad. It should be noted this menu doesn't support any of the new status effects added in Fire Emblem or The Sacred Stones, as the game explodes into a glitchy mess if the player tries to scroll past the Berserk (はっきょう) status effect.

Debug Stat Screen

Hmmm...
To do:
Figure out what some of the values stand for.
Fire Emblem GBA 0219 proto character stat debug pg1.png

Hold Select and press the R shoulder button while the cursor is on a character to open an alternate set of stat screens. These screens have the same data and more as the regular stat screens.

Fire Emblem GBA 0219 proto character stat debug pg2.png

On page two, the one displaying a character's possible support partners, pressing the L or R shoulder buttons brings up a hand cursor over the names of the support partners. Pressing Left or Right decreases or increases support points, which, for whatever reason, don't increase normally in this build.

The debug stat screen is also interesting in that it can be used to view the stats of player units who are not deployed in the current chapter, as well as dead units. Undeployed units are marked with "隠居" (Retire) on their stat screen. The stat screen also keeps track of if a unit has ended their turn. A unit who has ended their turn has their stat screen marked with 行動ずみ (already moved).

Debug Button Combinations

Miscellaneous combinations that cause useful (or not so useful) effects, though they in themselves don't bring up any menus.

Win Everything

Very usefully, the prototype has a "win the chapter" button combination. Press and hold the R shoulder button and B at the same time, then press Select twice. After this is done, the game will skip to the current chapter's ending scenes.

Full Sound Room Unlock

Holding the L shoulder button before pressing A to enter the game's Sound Room auto-unlocks everything in it.

Disable Tutorials

On the startup menu's chapter select, hold the L shoulder button when entering a chapter to disable the game's forced tutorials (though you'll have to exit the world map debug first to get to the chapter).

Escape the Tutorial

If you, for some reason, didn't disable the tutorials, you can break out of a forced tutorial with another button combo.

Hold any direction on the D-Pad, then also hold A, B, Start, and Select to exit the current forced tutorial segment. Be careful, as this button combination includes the combination for a soft-reset in it, so if you don't hold a D-Pad direction first the game will probably soft-reset.

It's not super useful, as the game will sometimes force you back into the tutorial again depending on what part of the tutorial you exited. This is actually in the final release, too... Who knows why it was left in?


(Source: Serenes Forest)

Title Screen Animation Test

Holding the L button while going to the title screen (either by skipping the intro or backing out of the menus) causes the logo's fly-in animation along with the sword and axe to play. Usually when backing out of menus and such the logo fades in without movement.

Crash Info Display

While this sometimes displays when the prototype experiences an error, it can be brought up at the player's discretion by holding B, the R shoulder button and Right on the D-Pad.

Contains information relating to the state of the game, such as the status of the save files, playthrough count, and status of the tutorial and sound room, among other things.

World Map Debug

Fire Emblem GBA World Map debug.png

When entering a chapter with world map narration, hold the R shoulder button in the 0206 prototype or the L shoulder button in the 0219 prototype and the game will load the game's map with a coordinate viewer with some other features.

Place glowing blue dots by pressing the L shoulder button and R shoulder button at the same time. Holding B allows for fast cursor movement. Pressing A and B at the same time seems to snap the cursor to certain coordinates, though the exact reasoning for the snapping is unknown.

Lyn can also be placed on the map, and she can be made to walk around. Press the L shoulder button and A at the same time, this will make Lyn appear. Holding the L shoulder button and A again will cause Lyn to move where the cursor was, with blue dots trailing behind her. To remove Lyn from the map, press the L shoulder button and B.

Depending on what chapter you enter, pressing Start may produce a crash accompanied by a very nasty screech, so, uh maybe turn down the volume. In chapters where it doesn't crash, pressing Start exits this mode and begins the chapter you selected.

Music Differences

There are a large number of small differences between the music here and in the finished version, including a few songs entirely absent from the final game. Most of these are identical between both prototypes, unless otherwise stated.

ID 0206 Prototype Final Notes
1
First half of the song is almost identical to final, but second half is completely different.
2
Minor instrumentation changes throughout.
5
Minor differences in the horn part at the start.
6
Minor differences throughout.
8
Entirely different song.
9
Slight instrumentation changes.
18
Different electric guitar.
19
Different bass guitar.
21
Different brass instrument in the opening, and a louder section near the end.
22
Significantly different instrumentation, including a probably-broken square wave.
23
Much louder drone at the beginning.
24
Dynamics changes.
27
Significantly louder crest.
28
Slight instrumentation changes.
29
Volume changes.
31
Generally different, and has a broken instrument.
35
Minor differences throughout.
37
Different percussion.
38
Different percussion.
41 N/A
Absent entirely from the prototype.
42 N/A
Absent entirely from the prototype.
46
Missing the bassline and has a completely different melody.
47
N/A This would later be used as the track Prologue in FE8.
48
Minor changes to the flute in the beginning.
50
Stronger percussion.
68
Simpler, with different instrumentation.
81
Has an intro section absent from the final game.
85
N/A A wholly unique, unused song absent from the final game.
89
N/A An earlier version of the song The Inn from the final game, in a different song slot.
90
Brass section near the end is absent from final, and it goes up a key right at the end.
93
A copy of the track Safeguard in the prototype.

There's about a dozen songs in the final game beyond index 95, but in the 0206 prototype nothing past that point is included yet. However, the 0219 prototype does have a few differences to the 0206 one:

  • Track 81 is now the final version with no intro.
  • Track 93 is now empty.

Additionally, songs beyond index 95 up through index 111 are now present. This leaves only the last 7 songs unaccounted for. Of these, only two have notable changes:

ID 0219 Prototype Final Notes
104
In a shocking inversion, the prototype version of a song is now the one missing the introduction!
110
A copy of Blessing of the 8 Generals I in the prototype.


(Source: Fire Emblem Universe)


Item Differences

Hmmm...
To do:
  • Properly translate these item names.
  • Show graphics for item icons that are different from final.

Many items are not yet using the unique item icons they have in the final game. This includes all legendary weapons, Emblem weapons and the Emblem Seal, Fell Contract, Heaven Seal, and Flametongue.

Dancer rings are instead scarves, following the same color palettes as the rings in the final game:

Proto Final
FE7-Proto-FillasMight.png FE7-FillasMight.png
FE7-Proto-NinissGrace.png FE7-NinissGrace.png
FE7-Proto-ThorsIre.png FE7-ThorsIre.png
FE7-Proto-SetsLitany.png FE7-SetsLitany.png

In the final game, dancer items get their own weapon type, but here they're just set as regular items, and their effects are also not yet implemented.

Additionally, there are 3 items present in both prototypes that are absent from the final. The first of these is ティーナの杖, a staff left over from FE6. The other two are likely both dancer items by icon, 攻撃の衣 and 攻撃の笛, but much like the used dancer items are set as regular items and have no effects implemented. Neither item has any description text set that would further allude to what they were meant to do. 攻撃の衣 reuses the yellow scarf icon, but 攻撃の笛 has a wholly unique icon absent from the final game:

FE7-Proto-Whistle.png


(Source: Fire Emblem Universe)

Character & Portrait Differences

Hmmm...
To do:
Document minimug differences (there's a whooole lot of them), as well as differences in default mug expression being smiling vs serious.

There's a fairly large number of portrait differences between the prototypes and the final game, both large and small.

Raven and Heath have different color palettes than the final game:

Proto Final
FE7-Proto-Raven.png FE7-Raven.png
Proto Final
FE7-Proto-Heath.png FE7-Heath.png

Both Kishuna and the final boss Fire Dragon are using Ein's portrait from FE6 rather than unique ones (or no mug, in the Fire Dragon's case):

Proto Final
FE7-Proto-Kishuna.png FE7-Kishuna.png

Puzon is using Glass' portrait, with the minimug of Damas from FE6 used as a placeholder:

Proto Final
FE7-Proto-Puzon.png FE7-Puzon.png

Aion, Kenneth, and Teodor are using each other's mugs and a Denning recolor. Worth noting, the minimug associated with the portraits that would ultimately be used for Kenneth and Teodor is completely unseen in any other GBA Fire Emblem title, appearing to be based on the NPC priest caring for the orphans in FE6:

Aion

Proto Final
FE7-Proto-Aion.png FE7-Aion.png

Kenneth

Proto Final
FE7-Proto-Kenneth.png FE7-Kenneth.png
Proto Final
FE7-Proto-KennethMorph.png FE7-KennethMorph.png

Teodor

Proto Final
FE7-Proto-Teodor.png FE7-Teodor.png

Jerme doesn't have his headband, both normally and as a morph:

Proto Final
FE7-Proto-Jerme.png FE7-Jerme.png
Proto Final
FE7-Proto-JermeMorph.png FE7-JermeMorph.png

Zephiel has larger eyes and no minimug:

Proto Final
FE7-Proto-Zephiel.png FE7-Zephiel.png

Natalie has different bangs:

Proto Final
FE7-Proto-Natalie.png FE7-Natalie.png

Murdock is using his FE6 portrait as a placeholder:

Proto Final
FE7-Proto-Murdock.png FE7-Murdock.png

Some lord emotion portraits are slightly different:

Proto Final
FE7-Proto-LynSad.png FE7-LynSad.png
Proto Final
FE7-Proto-LynSerious.png FE7-LynSerious.png
Proto Final
FE7-Proto-EliwoodSad.png FE7-EliwoodSad.png
Proto Final
FE7-Proto-EliwoodStare.png FE7-EliwoodStare.png
Proto Final
FE7-Proto-HectorCloak.png FE7-HectorCloak.png

This Hector emotion portrait has no equivalent in the final game. There are two portraits with this exact face, but neither of them features Hector wearing his armor:

FE7-Proto-HectorStare.png

All villagers, generic soldiers, and Anna are using their portraits from FE6, ever so slightly edited to accommodate not having blinking frames, something introduced in this game.

Eleanora

In the final game, character 0x29 is a copy of Nils, but in the prototypes, it’s instead Eleanora. Her stats are identical to the Eleanora in slot 0x35 in the final game (that slot is empty in the prototypes), but here she’s adjacent to all playable characters. In the final game, she has growth rates despite only ever appearing in cutscenes, but if she were intended to be playable at some point that could explain why.

Igrene

Character 0x2B is a copy of Vaida in the final game, but in both prototypes, it’s instead イグレーヌ (Igrene). Clearly unfinished, she has no portrait at all, all of her base stat modifiers are 4, and her weapon ranks are A Swords, S Lances, and C Axes, though her default class is set to F!Archer. Her affinity is also Anima instead of Ice as it was in FE6.

Given the timeline of events in Elibe, if she was to appear at all it would likely only have been in a cutscene.

(Source: Fire Emblem Universe)

SAKABA

In the debug chapter select, there's an option titled "SAKABA". Selecting this attempts to send the player to chapter 0x3C, but in actuality has a variety of effects from sending you to other chapters to just crashing the game. Looking at the data for the chapter's map in a map editor reveals its layout:

Fe7proto-sakaba.png

This map uses a version of the village tileset not present in the final game to achieve the look of the tables and some of the walls. While the map itself does exist in the final game, it has the wrong tileset applied to it.