What's the most obscure thing you've accidentally discovered in Fire Emblem without having foreknowledge of its existence?

[Kantoor]

I found out by accident that there's a unique conversation between Sigrun and Jill in FE10 3-E. It caught me off guard after I decided to give Sigrun extreme favoritism on a whim and have her basically solo this chapter alongside her support Haar. They talk about Micaiah's infamous oil and fire gambit and it's a neat interaction. It's made more explicit here that the alleged war crime was in attempting a targeted slaughter of the enemy's civilian political leaders (which is historically taboo in wars between nation-states) rather than the mere brutality of the tactic being used against enemy combatants which has less significance. It also implicitly brings up how anyone of notable influence or authority in an army that had just performed this action would naturally fear reprisals against themselves and attempt to distance themselves from it. I like that they added this here since it's essentially the last moment any of this could be discusssed before the focus of the story shifts in Part 4.

[lenticular]

Neither of these are super obscure, but they're the best I can immediately think of.

In Three Houses, if you completely ignore all the monastery quests that unlock various monastery activities, the game flashes up a big warning near the end of Part 1 telling you the quests will go away for ever if you don't do them, but then if you continue to ignore them anyway then all the different activities will just auto-unlock anyway at the start of part 2. (Discovered this as part of a challenge run.)

In Radiant Dawn, if you support Lyre and Ranulf together, she has unique dialogue when she talks to him. She flirts with him, and he completely shoots her down by responding with his standard lines. Brutal. (Discovered this by actually using Lyre, which makes it fairly obscure by default.)

[Jotari]

5 hours ago, Kantoor said:

I found out by accident that there's a unique conversation between Sigrun and Jill in FE10 3-E. It caught me off guard after I decided to give Sigrun extreme favoritism on a whim and have her basically solo this chapter alongside her support Haar. They talk about Micaiah's infamous oil and fire gambit and it's a neat interaction. It's made more explicit here that the alleged war crime was in attempting a targeted slaughter of the enemy's civilian political leaders (which is historically taboo in wars between nation-states) rather than the mere brutality of the tactic being used against enemy combatants which has less significance. It also implicitly brings up how anyone of notable influence or authority in an army that had just performed this action would naturally fear reprisals against themselves and attempt to distance themselves from it. I like that they added this here since it's essentially the last moment any of this could be discusssed before the focus of the story shifts in Part 4.

Glancing at the link to the script, I see that Tanith also has unique dialogue with Jill too, and she's much less forgiving than Sigurun.

• Tanith: Jill Fizzart! You shall pay for your treachery! May the goddess have mercy on you, where I cannot. Prepare to die.
• Jill: I understand. It doesn’t matter what I’ve done. It was all to protect my country and my people!

4 hours ago, lenticular said:

In Radiant Dawn, if you support Lyre and Ranulf together, she has unique dialogue when she talks to him. She flirts with him, and he completely shoots her down by responding with his standard lines. Brutal. (Discovered this by actually using Lyre, which makes it fairly obscure by default.)

That's hilarious.

 

I feel I should mention something, but I'm drawing a blank. I have an immense backlog of obscure Fire Emblem trivia, but little that I discovered myself. I guess I found out myself than Julius and Ishtar can fight each other in Chapter 10 (Julius even forces enemy on enemy animations on) and that if Julius kills Ishtar it triggers the "Julius killed someone" quote instead of the "Ishtar dead" quote.

Not pictured in that video was a previous attempt where Ishtar instead killed Zagam and that caused the retreat to happen. So, they're coded to run away after 1 kill even if it's an enemy they kill.

[Eltosian Kadath]

One that probably counts is what got me to make an account on this forum in the first place, a bug in Genealogy of the Holy War that occurs if you kill the final boss with a unit that can canto after doing so, while triggering the event that occurs if Manfroy is still alive when Julius dies. If you are curious about my finding on the bug, I will save you the trouble of digging up the old post and quote it in the spoiler box below

Spoiler

Quote

I have run into a strange bug while playing this game with this translation. If someone is able to Canto after killing Julius, after the events that occur if both Manfroy and Julia are still alive and enemies, the chapter's sound track becomes a distorted version of the the chapters theme (although the no enemy theme should be playing), and some inconsistent graphical bugs appear too. After a little messing around here are some things I have noticed about this bug:

I am fairly certain it involves Canto, I am able to trigger it with both a Mounted Seliph and Ares, while a dismounted Seliph and Faval will not

The distortion in music seems to specifically effect the chapter music, using a Staff, or having someone enter a castle, or participate in the arena seems to have the normal sounds play but even when it returns to the map, the music seems to still be distorted.

Ending the turn seems to fix this as long as the sound errors have not hit the point where the sound track cuts out or becomes static.

If the sound cuts out or becomes static, anything that changes the music that I have tried (using a staff, entering a castle or ending the turn and letting the NPC turn start) seems to soft-lock the game.

Edit: I have found another very strange effect of this bug, it seems to have the lingering  effect of setting every character's loss record to 132

 

I have cutout part of the post where I included a save file and detailed instructions for reproducing the bug.

 

A more recent one would be that in Engage when a character dies, other characters related to them will have extra dialogue where they are mourning the character's death in the exploration of the map after completion (but before returning to the Somniel). I will add that characters that merely retreat after defeat (ex. Ivy, Veyle, etc.) don't get the same treatment. Another one in a similar vein, in spite of Ivy retreating after defeat, it does have a long lasting impact of the Somniel feature associated with her (the Wyvern Riding minigame) will sometimes be unmanned, and thus not allow you to play it until you trigger something that makes "time pass" in the Somniel to reset the one manning it.

 

5 hours ago, lenticular said:

 

In Radiant Dawn, if you support Lyre and Ranulf together, she has unique dialogue when she talks to him. She flirts with him, and he completely shoots her down by responding with his standard lines. Brutal. (Discovered this by actually using Lyre, which makes it fairly obscure by default.)

That is a really cool little detail to discover, and rather fitting for Ranulf's character

 

2 hours ago, Jotari said:

Not pictured in that video was a previous attempt where Ishtar instead killed Zagam and that caused the retreat to happen. So, they're coded to run away after 1 kill even if it's an enemy they kill.

Its an interesting detail that you get to see some of the priority for the events, as the event for him getting a kill and retreat triggers instead of the event for her being defeated and retreat triggers.

[Kantoor]

6 hours ago, lenticular said:

In Radiant Dawn, if you support Lyre and Ranulf together, she has unique dialogue when she talks to him. She flirts with him, and he completely shoots her down by responding with his standard lines. Brutal. (Discovered this by actually using Lyre, which makes it fairly obscure by default.)

The most esoteric unique support interaction in Radiant Dawn that I know of is the romantically implicit dialogue of Shinon addressing Leanne.

Quote

You know, I try to stay out of relationships. And I’m not saying I want a relationship. But, Princess Leanne, I do hope you live.

Quote

 I…will be…careful. For you. For…us. (This is her default response.)

[Polinym]

Some years ago I did a bunch of FE3 hacking via ZSNES and found a bunch of weird stuff. You could say it's pretty obscure.

Spoiler

One code I found made the textbox print out junk like this, which is very boring...

But eventually, I somehow got it to print this line which definitely did not occur in the game, but must've been intentionally put there! I suspect the translators might've used it for testing text fitting in boxes.

I also found a map-loading code 7E07CExx which let me load any map in the game, including some unused maps! The maps are mostly in order for Book I, but chapters 2, 7, and 19 come at the end of the "used" list. Book II is completely out of order. Unused maps include:
0x1b the "Earthern Temple", a broken palette swap of B1 C15.

0x22, which is a unique path leading to a throne. Looks like a proto Gharnef fight.

Some of them are pure junk like this:

Or the sea of Mars! And yes, they animate.

There's a bunch of clones of other maps in the values past 0x31, but then you get whatever this castle is at 0x35:

My personal favorite is the map 0x17, which oddly comes between 0x16 Book II Chapter 3 and 0x18 Book II Chapter 5.

 

Edited July 23 by Polinym

[Hrothgar777]

In 3H there's a character with an unusual "merchant guy" sprite who, as far as I know, only appears one time at the end of the church route. As a general rule of thumb, distinct characters get their own sprites while multiple NPCs share a sprite with each other. But this NPC had a unique sprite just because.

Edited July 23 by Hrothgar777

[Original Alear]

Possibly that in 3 Houses, if you rush to complete the story quest where Flayn gets kidnapped ASAP rather than waiting til the end of the month to do it, you'll get an accessory (some kind of scarf?) when you complete it. It's not a very good one IIRC, it adds 1 charm or something like that. I think Seteth probably gives it to you. It's not THAT obscure though.

 

[Zapp Branniglenn]

I discovered some awesome and some weird gameplay interactions in my most recent run of Three Houses

• Combat Arts that grant Avoid also grant you an equal amount of Critical Avoid. Great against mini boss enemies like the Death Knight and Randolph that are using killer weapons.
• You can use the Steal command to give the victim accessories. There's not much utility to this because Three Houses has so few enemies you can use the Steal command on in the first place, and killing them will delete whatever you gave them entirely. The best I've done personally with it was giving Hubert a shield I didn't want in chapter 12 to weigh down his AS, but I doubt that was essential to killing him.
• Recruiting units while still in the Fighter Class is occasionally optimal, because they'll be sporting a D rank in Bows, gauntlets, and axes. Bernadetta is the prime example, given how much effort it takes to get her up to D+ axes for brigand. If you're planning to recruit her, do so before she auto levels into an archer. Dorothea is also worth your consideration while still a monk, since getting her with D Faith lets her start Healing immediately and be that much closer to Physic.
• The Battalion Bergliez War Group has a description that calls them Brawlers. But they're holding swords like most generic infantry batallions. The only batallions that feature actual Brawlers are the Seiros Brawlers and whichever house equivalent is available when the guild unlocks.

[ping]

In BinBla, there's two kinds of reinforcements - one that you can prevent from spawning, and one that will just appear on another tile if you try to block them. Specifically, where I noticed, in Hector's version of Whereabouts Unknown (the one after Lyndis's Legion joins), one Cav and one Nomad spawn in the SW corner of the map for a few turns. You can block the Cavs from appearing, but not the Nomads.

I believe (but didn't notice myself) that you can recognise the unblockable reinforcements because they run onto the map instead of just appearing on their tile, but I only read or heard that somewhere randomly and can't be certain if I remember this correctly. In any case, I'm certainly not the first one to find out about this, but I don't think it's common knowledge at all.

[samthedigital]

I'm not sure exactly how obscure this is, but... In chapter 8? of Lyn's mode there's a cutscene where Lyn gets shot at by a ballista. It grants 1? exp and can be viewed multiple times by saving and reloading. I don't know if it counts for the exp rank or not.

[Florete]

Genesis in FE7 has a female General around Kishuna in at least one of the difficulties. You can tell because of the lower Con, and iirc it's the only one in the game. Way back in the day VincentASM did an obscure trivia quiz and this was one of the questions. I got it (and won!) because I'd just happened to notice it once.

[Yexin]

not really an easter egg nor anything similar, but the only thing i can think of is that, when i first played Genealogy on an emulator like 10 years ago and was trying to beat the arena with every character, i noticed how RNG works (sorta) in that game
i was surprised when i figured out that trying to beat the arena in a certain way will always give the same result, while changing weapon, character or stats (maybe with rings) will give different results

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, Yexin said:

not really an easter egg nor anything similar, but the only thing i can think of is that, when i first played Genealogy on an emulator like 10 years ago and was trying to beat the arena with every character, i noticed how RNG works (sorta) in that game
i was surprised when i figured out that trying to beat the arena in a certain way will always give the same result, while changing weapon, character or stats (maybe with rings) will give different results

I don't think changing rings would have any effect as, I think, the reason changing weapons makes a difference is because you have different hit and Crit rates to work with, meaning the RNG is processing through a new seed.

[indigoasis]

7 hours ago, Yexin said:

not really an easter egg nor anything similar, but the only thing i can think of is that, when i first played Genealogy on an emulator like 10 years ago and was trying to beat the arena with every character, i noticed how RNG works (sorta) in that game
i was surprised when i figured out that trying to beat the arena in a certain way will always give the same result, while changing weapon, character or stats (maybe with rings) will give different results

FE4 is weird in that it's RNG isn't really RNG since it operates on the same seed all the time. If you were to replicate the actions of another player move for move, you'll have the exact same outcomes every time; it's also why, if you were to have first have Sigurd attack the brigand in his range in the beginning of the Prologue, he defeats them the same way every time at the start of a playthrough. It's a unique quirk of FE4 that I'm curious to see if it'll be done in a remake or if it'll be replaced by a traditional RNG system.

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

I didn't discover it myself but got to know it by watching a stream that enemies can also level up weapon ranks.

Edited July 24 by MisterIceTeaPeach

[Jotari]

16 minutes ago, MisterIceTeaPeach said:

I didn't discover it myself but got to know it by watching a stream that enemies can also level up weapon ranks.

In which game?

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

Just now, Jotari said:

In which game?

Radiant Dawn

[Eltosian Kadath]

16 hours ago, Zapp Branniglenn said:

• You can use the Steal command to give the victim accessories. There's not much utility to this because Three Houses has so few enemies you can use the Steal command on in the first place, and killing them will delete whatever you gave them entirely. The best I've done personally with it was giving Hubert a shield I didn't want in chapter 12 to weigh down his AS, but I doubt that was essential to killing him.

Oh that is fun, just like the steal command in Thracia 776

 

16 hours ago, ping said:

In BinBla, there's two kinds of reinforcements - one that you can prevent from spawning, and one that will just appear on another tile if you try to block them. Specifically, where I noticed, in Hector's version of Whereabouts Unknown (the one after Lyndis's Legion joins), one Cav and one Nomad spawn in the SW corner of the map for a few turns. You can block the Cavs from appearing, but not the Nomads.

Yeah FE7 has some particularly inconsistent reinforcement rules, with strange mixes of ambush spawns, non-ambush spawns, blockable and unblockable reinforcements...

 

1 hour ago, Jotari said:

I don't think changing rings would have any effect as, I think, the reason changing weapons makes a difference is because you have different hit and Crit rates to work with, meaning the RNG is processing through a new seed.

Changing weapons kind of could change the RNG in the arena back in the day. There was the arena RNG bug (technically it can also happen with astronomically good luck with the charge skill (or whatever it is translated to now a days), but is fairly easy to trigger in the arena) where if the battle goes on long enough the RN string will run out, which is generally fixed by changing weapons mid arena battle to generate a new RN string in the battle. This was most notable as it would lead to levelups after the arena battle failing to gain stats evens with growth rates over 100, but the Project Naga patch has fixed this bug.

 

6 hours ago, MisterIceTeaPeach said:

I didn't discover it myself but got to know it by watching a stream that enemies can also level up weapon ranks.

Oh yeah, that is a really weird quirk of that game. I remember someone going through the effort of grinding a green Ena's strike rank up only to discover that the green and blue versions of Ena were different units and so that effort didn't transfer once she was officially recruited.

 

Not sure if I am the one that should be counted as the one discovering it, as I am not the one playing, just someone suggesting edits, but the Conquest PME (Pick My Edits) @Codename Shrimp is doing now taught me a few obscure things about Fates, like that the debuff pots of chapter 12 bypass the enemy only Immune Status skill, and that generic units edited into Songstresses class don't have access to the Sing command.

 

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

On 7/23/2024 at 3:14 PM, Zapp Branniglenn said:

You can use the Steal command to give the victim accessories. There's not much utility to this because Three Houses has so few enemies you can use the Steal command on in the first place, and killing them will delete whatever you gave them entirely. The best I've done personally with it was giving Hubert a shield I didn't want in chapter 12 to weigh down his AS, but I doubt that was essential to killing him.

The obvious play is, Stealing the Flame Orb onto the Death Knight, so he gets burned and his Attack stat is halved.

14 hours ago, Jotari said:

I don't think changing rings would have any effect as, I think, the reason changing weapons makes a difference is because you have different hit and Crit rates to work with, meaning the RNG is processing through a new seed.

Bringing in the Skill Ring would increase your Hit and (potentially) Crit rates, though.

Anyway, the best detail I "discovered" also came from FE4. See, when a Commander unit wants to run back to their home castle to "restock", that's... all they want to do. They won't attack any of your units, even if doing so would clear a path back home. So you can safely box them in, and feed them to one of your weaker units. This also works great against Hannibal, as a means of holding him harmless without putting him to Sleep.

[Palasid]

The most obscure thing I found was in Fire Emblem Echoes. I didn't recruit any units, and I didn't wake up Silque after rescuing her... so I didn't obtain Mila's Turnwheel.
At the start of Part 3 a merchant gives it to you with unique dialogue. Silque also leaves the shrine during part 3 (Not sure to where), but returns (Now being awake) in Part 4.

[Yexin]

On 7/24/2024 at 1:12 PM, Jotari said:

I don't think changing rings would have any effect as, I think, the reason changing weapons makes a difference is because you have different hit and Crit rates to work with, meaning the RNG is processing through a new seed.

not even those rings who alter combat-relevant stats like speed (for those who have pursuit)?
i could've sworn it worked, but i trust you on that

Edited July 26 by Yexin

[Jotari]

7 minutes ago, Yexin said:

not even those rings who alter combat-relevant stats like speed (for those who have pursuit)?
i could've sworn it worked, but i trust you on that

Speed Ring probably would since speed is used to calculate Avoid, but Strength, Defense, Magic, Resistance boosting rings probably don't.

(also you shouldn't trust me for anything XD, I rarely know what I'm talking about)

Edited July 26 by Jotari

[Samz707]

I managed to find one of the secret shops in FE8 without a guide.

That's really it.

I guess also the hidden dialogue if Matthew is dead in FE7 in *that* scene with Leila but that's more due to bad play then anything clever on my end.

Edited July 27 by Samz707

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

On 7/25/2024 at 8:06 PM, Palasid said:

The most obscure thing I found was in Fire Emblem Echoes. I didn't recruit any units, and I didn't wake up Silque after rescuing her... so I didn't obtain Mila's Turnwheel.
At the start of Part 3 a merchant gives it to you with unique dialogue. Silque also leaves the shrine during part 3 (Not sure to where), but returns (Now being awake) in Part 4.

Interesting! See, I did a "minimum recruitment" playthrough, where Silque gave me the Turnwheel, but I didn't recruit her. I knew she disappeared later on, but didn't know that she reappeared in Act IV.

The funniest part is, in Act II, you can have Celica visit her at the Thieves' Shrine. They exchange pleasantries, and then.... Celica just leaves. Never invites her old pal Silque to join her army. Just lets her starve in the cave. I know Faye and Kliff were "Easter Egg" recruits for Celica. But if anyone on Alm's side made narrative sense to join her, it's Silque.

Didn't know about Alm getting the Turnwheel in Act III! I never got past Act I on my "minimum days" playthrough, as I wound up trapped forever in the Deliverance Hideout. Cool information, though.

On 7/26/2024 at 4:18 AM, Jotari said:

Speed Ring probably would since speed is used to calculate Avoid, but Strength, Defense, Magic, Resistance boosting rings probably don't.

Interesting that there never was a Luck Ring. I guess Kaga realized there was no way +5 Luck would be worth 20K gold. After the enemy drops it, you'd pawn it off and never pick it up again.