Paper Jam

Cormag isn't that frail, is he?

To avoid increasing your L rank on any of your guys, you can make two copies of your current save file, let a non-lord and a lord each take a loss on one of those two files, delete that file, and make a copy of the other file. Then, when you restart the chapter, everyone will have L 0, but the Within Sadness and Game Over tracks will be unlocked in your Sound Room.

Because Vigarde specifically ordered him not to, and it's not like Lyon to defy Vigarde. I disagree. I like how close Lyon came to regaining control over himself in Ephraim's route, but I don't think he should have come any closer than that.

I've known for a while how easy it is to exploit the so-called Random Number Generator in the GBA games, but it only recently occurred to me to take thorough notes about it. I thought I might share those notes with the forum, with the caveat that this is very much a work in progress. It's probably easier to find out what I've found out (and then some) by hacking the game, but here's a taste of what can be learned without hacking. gbaferng.ods

The game keeps track of your rankings on both a cumulative basis (to determine your overall score) and a chapter-by-chapter basis (to determine your Tactician Points). https://serenesforest.net/blazing-sword/miscellaneous/the-tactician/ and https://serenesforest.net/blazing-sword/miscellaneous/rankings/tables/ have more information.

The Value of Life can be completed in 1 or 2 turns with a use of the Warp staff and a crit or two.

I'd like to see Eliwood recover from his illness and join Roy late in the game, and have a word with Zephiel too while he's at it.

We actually don't know whether Hector's attack on the soldier was lethal or not, but I think it's safe to say that Oswin and Serra would have had a much bigger problem with it if it were. They only call it "violence," after all, not "murder."

That wasn't an assumption; it was a fact. More than one dragon did come out of that gate, and all three of them roasted Athos medium-well before Ninian put two of them on ice.

Merlinus/Nino needs the same prodecure as Merlinus/Vaida. Battle Before Dawn is a survive chapter, and Merlinus is unavailable in Night of Farewells, so the earliest Merlinus and Nino could get their C support is Cog of Destiny, and then they have to stay together enough turns after that to unlock B support on the first turn of Sands of Time... Well, you know the drill. The final chapter is technically two chapters, so if you got any of Renault's C supports in Victory or Death or The Value of Life, you can get his B support in the first part of the final chapter (with Nergal as the boss), and then his A support in the second part (with the Dragon as the boss).

I think it would be nice to have a dedicated convoy unit, but with a bit more utility than Merlinus had. And I think the most logical addition to a convoy unit's utility would be stealing. It makes sense to me that the person in charge of overseeing the convoy should have some ability to... make acquisitions... for that convoy. I'd call such a class a Fence or a Smuggler.

I have an idea for Ein's speech, which should have a similar effect to his katakana speech in the original Japanese. During his dialogue with Flaer...

Just that Conrad revealed himself to Celica and her party doesn't necessarily mean that he revealed himself to anyone else. He could put the mask back on as easily as he took it off. It doesn't seem like anyone recognized him as Lima's son when he became a civil servant, or when he took over Mycen's job as chancellor; if anyone did recognize him, they didn't make a bigger deal out of it than he did.

All those forests and rivers suggest to me that Ilia's main source of food is probably hunting and fishing. The rest of what they need, they probably import.

Technically two of the lords in Three Houses meet the criteria of "playable at first, but become unplayable and unrecruitable after certain points in the story." You play all three in the prologue, and when you choose to teach one of their Houses after the prologue, the other two "leave the party" permanently. They're only playable for one chapter (outside of DLC, anyway), but so is Orson. Depending on how hard and fast the "become unplayable and unrecruitable" criterion is, you could count Dedue in the Blue Lions route too; he will only rejoin you in Azure Moon if you did his sidequest during White Clouds, and there is no way of knowing in advance that that is a prerequisite for him rejoining you. By a similar token to Dedue, Wallace in the Blazing Blade will only show up in Eliwood's/Hector's tale if the Lords' levels are low enough in the mid-game to trigger the map in which he shows up; otherwise, he arguably "becomes unplayable and unrecruitable" after Lyn's tale too.

Point of order: Orun was Hector's and Uther's cousin, not their half-brother. And "cousin" doesn't necessarily imply a close relationship. Still, he was also the marquess of Thria, so it is odd that he wasn't even mentioned during Hector's and Uther's reunion on the border of Thria.

We already have different countries having different units, such as pegasus knights generally coming from friendly or at least neutral countries, and wyvern riders usually coming from enemy countries. I don't see how much of a difference it would make to give pegasus knights and wyvern riders different levels of technology too.

I'm pretty sure that magic has at least as much destructive power in the FE games as guns had in the real-life colonial era, so I'm pretty sure in any sort of "colonial" setting, magic would replace guns. Of course, in real life, guns largely replaced bows, and in FE, magic didn't... Anyway, as political intrigue goes, FE7 is more complicated (or at least different) than the "one European country invades another one" trope: There is a succession crisis in one of the country's central provinces one year, followed by a rebellion by another of the country's central provinces a year later. I do agree that it would be nice for FE to do something like that more often, and invasions less often.

FE7 and 8 are still available on the Virtual Console for a year or so, if you have or can get a Wii-U. I've seen a few listings on ebay for about $150.

A few years ago I made a spreadsheet to help me with my ranked runs of FE7, which I also shared on these forums. Having used it to play through a few ranked runs of FE7 since then, I decided to polish it a bit. As an addition to this project, I figured that since FE6 has a ranking system too, I might as well make a similar spreadsheet for FE6 too. I have attached a file containing sheets for every mode of FE6 and 7 (not necessarily in that order) along with a few miscellanea that may also be helpful for keeping track of one's playthroughs. My understanding is that not many people care about ranked runs, but maybe this will be useful to the few who do care. FE7 FE6 Data Log Templates 2.ods

Edelgard is pretty much the same thing to Fodlan that Ashnard was to Tellius.

If there's a story-based reason for the chapter to have two different names in the English version of FE7, why didn't it have two different names in the Japanese version? At best it's a liberty taken by the localization team.

The original Japanese title for both chapter 18x of Eliwood's tale and 19x of Hector's tale is "Ma Fuuji no Mono" and literally means "magic sealing person." Even if both "Imprisoner of Magic" and "Prisoner of Magic" are valid interpretations of "Ma Fuuji no Mono" (and I would argue that the latter isn't), we have no official explanation as to why it was translated differently in Eliwood's and Hector's tales. So I would argue that the most likely explanation is mistranslation.

Hard to pick just one. There are quite a few good tracks, particularly in FE7, that are variations on the same theme. There are also a few that span across FE6 and 7. "Land of Dragons - Bern" (FE6) and "The Kingdom of Bern" (FE7) are particularly notable to me. The two tracks are pretty similar, but they serve different functions in their respective games: "Land of Dragons" is an enemy phase map theme, and "The Kingdom of Bern" is a cutscene theme. The differences between the two versions, as slight as they are, also fit their respective functions well: "Land of Dragons" has a faster tempo, not quite as ominous (so for example it doesn't work as well with the cutscene at the beginning of chapter 2), but it does a good job of conveying the sense of a powerful enemy army on the move, which works well in the later maps of FE6. "The Kingdom of Bern" has a slower and more ominous tempo that works well in the cutscenes in which it is used, but it's too slow to work well as an enemy phase map theme. On a different note, I would also mention... the FE7 Lords' themes, which are all really variations on the same theme: "Girl from the Plains - Lyn's Theme", "One Heart - Eliwood's Theme" and "Loyalty - Hector's Theme". They do a pretty good job of portraying their respective Lords: Lyn's wanderlust, Eliwood's idealism, and Hector's refusal to back down. But then there are the variations on the variations: If "One Heart" represents Eliwood's youthful idealism early in the game, "Unshakeable Faith" represents that same idealism tempered by hardships and setbacks but still strong late in the game. I think I have to call those two variations my favorite for that reason. For the benefit of TLDR: Land of Dragons - Bern (FE6) The Kingdom of Bern (FE7) One Heart - Eliwood's Theme (FE7) Unshakeable Faith (FE7)

I thought I'd go through each chapter's title and explain it to the best of my knowledge. Most of the names are self-explanatory, but I think enough of them aren't... Lyn's tale: * Girl from the Plains: Lyn. * Footsteps of Fate: Unclear; perhaps it means the footsteps of Kent and Sain, or of the brigands who traveled from Caelin to Bulgar. * Sword of Spirits: The Mani Katti. * Band of Mercenaries: With the addition of Florina and Wil, this is what Lyn's companions become. * In Occupation's Shadow: The area is occupied by brigands, and the chapter takes place at sunset, when the shadows get longer. * Beyond the Borders: Lyn's goal in this chapter is to get beyond the borders of Bern. * Blood of Pride: Lyn's pride in her Sacaean heritage gets her into trouble with the marquess of Araphen. * Siblings Abroad: Nils and Ninian. At this point in the story, it isn't clear exactly how far "abroad" they are... * The Black Shadow: The enemy in this chapter is the Black Fang, which has cast a shadow over Lycia already. * Vortex of Strategy: Unclear. Maybe the presence of a ballista makes the gameplay strategy more relevant in this chapter, or maybe it has to do with how Lundgren's rumors of Lyn's illegitimacy have thrown a wrench in her plans. * A Grim Reunion: Kent and Sain's reunion with Eagler. The Japanese title is more accurately translated "Sad Reunion." * The Distant Plains: The map itself is mostly woods and mountains; Lyn has traveled a long way from the plains of Sacae to get where she is now. Eliwood's and Hector's tales: * Taking Leave: Eliwood's departure from Castle Pherae. * Another Journey: Hector's departure from Castle Ostia. "Another" is in contrast to either Lyn's journey last year or Eliwood's journey at the same time. * Birds of a Feather: Eliwood and Hector flock together in this chapter. * In Search of Truth: Why Eliwood decided to travel to Santaruz in the first place. * The Peddler Merlinus: The goal of the chapter is to keep him alive. * False Friends: Erik and his men, to Eliwood and his men. * Talons Alight: Unclear. Maybe it's referring to how quickly Eubans' mercenaries attacked Castle Laus. * Noble Lady of Caelin: Lyn. * Whereabouts Unknown: As of the beginning of this chapter, Eliwood still doesn't know his father's whereabouts; he only learns of them at the end of the chapter. * The Port of Badon: Where the chapter takes place. * Pirate Ship: Where the chapter takes place. * The Dread Isle: Where the chapter takes place. * Imprisoner of Magic: Kishuna. Though "Prisoner of Magic" in Hector's tale is a mistranslation, it could refer to Aion. * A Glimpse in Time: The player gets a flashback in this chapter, and apparently so do Ninian and Nergal. One might argue that the eerie painting that the lords see at the end of the chapter counts too. * Dragon's Gate: Where the chapter takes place. (I'm starting to see a pattern here...) * New Resolve: What the group (especially Eliwood, after his father's death) gains during this chapter. * Kinship's Bond: Hector's and Uther's. * Living Legend: What (or rather, whom) Uther told the group to seek out. * Genesis: A flashback to Kishuna's creation. * Four-Fanged Offense: The group's first encounter with one of the Four Fangs. * Crazed Beast: Pascal. * Unfulfilled Heart: It takes place near the capital of Bern (or the "heart" of Bern, you might say), and the plot revolves around King Desmond's unfulfilled wishes. A full translation of the Japanese title ("Unfulfilled hand, unfulfilled heart") is less clear. * Pale Flower of Darkness: This was unclear until Fire Emblem Heroes referred to Nino as a "pale flower"; it did not occur to me until then that the name of this chapter could refer to the fact that this is the first time that the lords see Nino. * Battle Before Dawn: Exactly what happens. * Night of Farewells: The chapter takes place at night, and Nino says farewell to Sonia, Brendan, and Jan. * Cog of Destiny: This is the chapter when Bramimond releases the seals on the Divine Weapons, which has a massive impact on the destiny of Elibe. I'm not sure why Bramimond, or what he did, would be considered a "cog" though. * Valorous Roland: The Divine General with whom Eliwood must negotiate. * The Berserker: The Divine General with whom Hector must negotiate. * Sands of Time: This is when Athos tells the lords about Arcadia, which has withstood the sands of Nabata for a long time. Alternatively, it could refer to the fact that time continues to pass while Nergal continues to gain power on the Dread Isle. * Battle Preparations: Exactly what happens. * Victory or Death: The only two possible outcomes: either they make their way to the Dragon's Gate and stop Nergal, or everyone dies when Nergal triumphs. * The Value of Life: The question posed in this chapter: How valuable is Kishuna's life? * Light: Unclear. Neither of the high-level Light magic spells you get here (Aureola and Luce) seem particularly important here.