Let's Compare Fire Emblem Sword Of Seals & Fire Emblem Dark Dragon Sword Of Light

[BrightBow]

Don't you play JRPGs? You slaughter thousands of evil minions (possibly human ones), and then you spare the big bad villain because "if you kill him, you'll be just like him". Happy end.

In the ones I played, the bad guys were always killed.

Since I might actually contribute something to the topic for a change I would say that the art of the game also intentionally moved into the direction of Monshu.

For example, in Jugdral most of the mounted knights weren't even wearing any visible armor and a cape.

In FE4, it seemed to be more of an Lance Knight, Nobleman thing. But in Thracia, the only exceptions were Hicks and Amalda who wears the sort of armor that was quite common among foot soldiers back then and only covers the upper body, while Amalda's was probably designed to fit with the Troubadour class minus the skirt. They also brought those huge mage hats back, though they only were gone in Thracia to begin with.

Of course, it's an arguable statement. I did notice that the Pegasus Knights were going into a different direction then either. The Monshu and Jugdral ones locked very much alike except the later ones had their legs covered. The Elibe ones had their legs bare again (the "snowy wastelands from Ilia" must be rather warm), but removed the right shoulder pad and added a mini skirt so they actually look a bit different. Though for some reason Juno looks pretty much like the Monshu ones since she has both shoulder pads and no mini skirt.

Edited July 4, 2012 by BrightBow

[Ike-Mike]

This is pretty much why I hate FE6. Even the plot is like what would happen if FE3's books were merged. A mad king who suddenly wages war and is disillusioned with humanity, revives Dark Dragon, etc, blah blah, bandits, Ogma + two fighters, useless mid-game cavaliers, the list goes on. I'd go so far as to say that FE6 is a reimagining of FE3... but maybe that's a little too much.

This pretty much.

And then they throw in a few elements from Jugdral, which only turns the game into a weird mess with little to no identity of its own and to have some flimsy justification along the lines of "This isn't an exact copy of Akaneia, Akaneia didn't have Troubadours!"

At least Shadow Dragon was honest that it's a straight remake of FE1.

[DarthMikey]

Oh yeah, I've known about this for a long time. Has nobody ever noticed? The games are strikingly similar (and I've only noticed more since I got FE11: I never even played FE1/3 and knew). Don't forget about the character designs, either.

[Refa]

Wow, it's been upwards of a month since my last post! I didn't realize things have gone on for so long. Never fear, here I am to provide you with more comparisons. You'll see why this one took so long, let's just say it required me to get to Chapter 9 of Monshou No Nazo. On a tangentially related note, I'll be sure to do some posts about character designs, geographical stuff (not sure how much I could write about that, but we'll see), and etc. (music, weapon designs, anything you want to see, feel free to request it) in supplemental posts, but I think I'll get a few more chapters in before I get started with those things. Speaking of more chapters...

Both chapters are taking place in a nearby small village close to where the main character set off.

OK, I lied, Roy's takes place in a castle nearby the small village. Apparently it's manned by Bern's forces, which is not so good for Roy; he can barely handle 2-bit pirates as it is. For Marth, the battle is a little closer to home, and with pirates instead of trained soldiers. Also Grust is working with the pirates, which I guess shows that they'll do anything to get Marth dead.

(...cause turbulence all over Elibe)

And surprisingly, it's not just because these are the first steps in the

.

(...homeland)

Which is coincidentally, exactly what Marth's is. I don't see why this battle is any more important than the last (first time fighting Grust units maybe), the first real steps don't come until like Chapter 4 (5 in other versions) where he unites with Hardin.

And now we jump to chapter 9 of Fire Emblem 3! See, Minerva is pretty interesting, being partially the influence for both Miledy's and to a lesser extent, Guinevere's characters. I'd comment on the story but wtf Minerva and Miledy look so damn similar are you sure they're not the same person?

OK, uh...back to story. They both want to know where the princess is, apparently.

Rude is a lying jerk who kidnapped the princess for monetary gain, because apparently there's nothing else to be gained by working for the most powerful empire in the continent.

At least this guy's honest about the hostage situation. What's fucked up about this is that they're putting their own princess hostage (loyal knights, not traitors like Rude), and that she VOLUNTEERED to do it. Maybe they have like cable and a good internet connection in that small cell...

(this is after Miledy left obviously, as was the "WE HAD HER ALL ALONG" pic)

So the impetus for enemy action in FE6 is to kill Guinevere's servant, while the FE3

are a bit more pragmatic, opting to focus their attention on the advancing army before them.

Also I'm pretty sure FE6 is the only GBA game where the generic soldier faces at you (just like FE3!) rather than looking at whoever else is on the screen.

And we jumpcut again, this time to the end of Monshou No Nazo Chapter 8. Ellen takes Catria's place in explaining that the princess (In FE3, Minerva is the one that needs help rescuing Maria, but FE6 consolidates both objectives to one with Guinevere) could use a little big of help right now.

Ellen and Guinevere were hoping that they could find a peaceful solution to the conflict created by Guinevere's asshat brother.

Minerva's solution to the problem is sticking a lance in her asshat brother's face.

Unfortunately, Rude set them up a trap, which explains Guinevere's current predicament.

Minerva's situation is pretty much the same, with the main difference being her sister is the hostage rather than, well, herself.

But hey, remember we're still in Chapter 2 when it comes to FE6.

That means mercenaries!

Hired on to bolster our chances of winning; Dieck is pretty fucking awesome, after all. Apparently there are others too, but Dieck was probably the reason they got hired.

And what do you know, Oguma also has several flunkies, one of which is very comparable to him! Unfortunately, there is no Barst equivalent in FE6, at least as of yet.

Dieck is all about kicking ass while Ogma is apparently all about doing his job.

Also I just noticed, but they've got the same basic haircut, are facing in the same position, they even have the same scar, albeit in different places.

Now for the part that everyone else seems to be interested in, but that I dread working on; stats!

Thany may be like Est in that they're both the youngest sibling and somewhat tomboyish (it's worth noting that Thany is much more lackadaisical and interesting than Est, the latter being my opinion, of course), but she's pretty much Sheeda when it comes to stats. Sheeda's base stats are more variable than most (e.g 3 Str in FE1, 5 in FE3, and 4 in FE11), so she actually became more like Thany in FE11 (D lances prohibiting the instant use of Silvers at base, for one thing).

Thany: 45% HP 30% STR 55% SKL 60% SPD 60% LCK 10% DEF 25% RES

Shiida (FE1): 50% HP 20% STR 70% SKL 90% SPD 70% LCK 20% DEF 0% RES

Sheeda (FE3): 50% HP 20% STR 70% SKL 90% SPD 70% LCK 20% DEF 3% RES

Caeda (FE11): 40% HP 20% STR 60% SKL 85% SPD 70% LCK 10% DEF 0% RES

Even her growths tend towards Thany's as time goes on, although I'd much rather have Thany's better STR, DEF, and RES over Sheeda's overkill SKL, SPD, and LCK. Thankfully the game designers are in love with Sheeda and make her amazing in some completely different way from game to game.

Dieck is pretty much a better version of Ogma. Most of their stats look pretty similar (especially if you reverse Dieck's Skill and Speed), except Dieck has a 3 level and 3 STR lead on Ogma, which automatically makes him better. How about them growths then?

Dieck: 90% HP 40% STR 40% SKL 30% SPD 35% LCK 20% DEF 15% RES

Ogma (FE1): 80% HP 40% STR 20% SKL 30% SPD 40% LCK 20% DEF 0% RES

Ogma (FE3): 80% HP 40% STR 20% SKL 30% SPD 40% LCK 30% DEF 3% RES

Ogma (FE11): 90% HP 40% STR 40% SKL 30% SPD 40% LCK 20% DEF 0% RES

Pretty damn similar until you get to FE11, where the growths are exactly the same, discounting a +5% Luck on Ogma and a +15% RES for Dieck (because FE11 doesn't have RES in the conventional stats sense). This is uncanny indeed.

Lott is also quite similar to Saji, except apparently he's taken an Angelic Robe and a cursed Speedwings. Nothing really interesting to note here, other than the Lott's starting items are quite similar to Saji's starting items...from FE11. In FE3, they fuck up with a lot of the starting items for some reason (same logic applies to Ogma).

Lott: 80% HP 30% STR 30% SKL 35% SPD 30% LCK 40% DEF 15% RES

Bord (FE1): 100% HP 30% STR 20% SKL 40% SPD 40% LCK 40% DEF 0% RES

Bord (FE3): 10% HP 30% STR 20% SKL 40% SPD 40% LCK 40% DEF 3% RES

Bord (FE11): 90% HP 55% STR 45% SKL 10% SPD 35% LCK 10% DEF 0% RES

Lott's stats match up pretty well with Bord's FE1 and FE3 counterparts (although his FE3 HP is so WTF bad that there had to be a computational error involved), but diverge when Bord's stats got more polarizing (but overall worse, good job with the balance there, IS) with FE11.

World is like Saji with more HP and worse everything else. They sure did go out of their way to make him lame, didn't they...

Ward: 75% HP 50% STR 45% SKL 20% SPD 45% LCK 30% DEF 5% RES

Cord (FE1): 90% HP 50% STR 50% SKL 10% SPD 30% LCK 50% DEF 0% RES

Cord (FE3): 90% HP 50% STR 50% SKL 10% SPD 30% LCK 50% DEF 3% RES

Cord (FE11): 80% HP 50% STR 20% SKL 40% SPD 40% LCK 10% LCK 0% RES

Ward is pretty similar to Cord's earlier incarnations before they changed him up (for the better, in this case; 10% SPD is so bad) for the DS incarnation.

And wow...that's it for characters! Finally, I can move on to something less time consuming.

Roy gets someone else to do the harsh basement rescue while Marth gets his hand dirty and does it himself.

Roy isn't as popular as Marth, it seems.

(WHAT COULD IT BE)

Guinevere being the princess of the enemy nation is a uh...big reveal in-universe, and finally explains what that somewhat cryptic opening text meant. We already knew Minerva was a princess, so no big reveal there.

Believe it or not, Merlinus being a prat actually may have originated from FE3 as well.

(MILEDY?)

Kidnapping yourself would be a pretty hardcore trap by Guinevere, but apparently she's not the type of person to do that.

Being the kindhearted person that she is, Guinevere wants to find a peaceful way to end this war.

Apparently Guinevere is pretty committed to stopping the war, but she doesn't really seem like the kind of person who'd do whatever it takes to make it happen; maybe that's just me.

Minerva, on the other hand...

Edited August 23, 2012 by Refa

[ZemZem]

Glad to see you're continuing with this.

Pretty cool how Dieck and FE11!Oguma have the same growths. Also kinda funny how they both have a scar somewhere in their portraits.

[Jedi]

So Guinevere + Miledy = Minerva.. interesting

Also I have to lol at Ogma's and Dieck's exact growths.. Funny how Ogma seems to get Str screwed for me while Dieck does amazing.. Well Ogma always did awesome for me in fe3 but not in fe11 but that makes almost no sense

Edited August 24, 2012 by Jedi

[Sundus64]

Hey guys, what is a marquess?

[Samias]

A marquess is a title for a mid/high-ranking lord, above an earl but below a duke. According to Wikipedia, a marquess was usually the lord of land bordering another country, making them important as far as defending the border was concerned. It makes them more important than a count, whose counties would all be inside of the country. That said, it's a more obscure level of lordship now that we don't exactly have lords to pay tithes to. Lycia itself is weird in that they have all these marquesses in a league with no king, apparently. Sacred Stones was much more straightforward by making all the lords princes and princesses.

[Bryan]

So Guinevere + Miledy = Minerva.. interesting

I don't think so. There are some similaraties, but they both have other counterparts.

Though I can't deny there are similarities.