Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem
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ファイアーエムブレム 紋章の謎 Faiā Emuburemu: Monshō no Nazo
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Cover artwork of Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem
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Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem is the third installment of the Fire Emblem series, released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It is the best-selling game in the series in Japan, and returns to the original formula after Fire Emblem Gaiden's experimentation.
Mystery of the Emblem contains two parts: Part 1: War of Shadows Chapter: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light, which is an abridged remake of Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light; and Part 2: War of Heroes Chapter: Mystery of the Emblem, which is an all new story taking place a year after the conclusion of the original, and is the main part of the game.
Story
Part 1
Part 1 is a remake of Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light but with five chapters removed.
Medeus, the Shadow Dragon and the earth dragon emperor of Dolhr, has been resurrected with the help of the Dark Pontifex, Gharnef, and has allied with Macedon, Gra, and Grust.
Marth, prince of Altea, sets off from Talys, to which he fled two years prior to the start of the game after Gra betrayed Altea, to ally with Aurelis and the remainder of Archanea, and together they form the Archanean League and aim to free the continent from Dolhr's tyranny.
Part 2
One year after the conclusion of Part 1, Emperor Hardin of Archanea sends a note to Marth, requesting him to set off to Grust, which was rebelling from the harsh rule of General Lang, stationed there by Archanea, which was occupying Grust after the last war. The rebellion's leader, Lorenz, tells Marth that Hardin is no longer the good man he once was, and kills himself, and the two royal children of Grust are taken by Lang, despite Marth's protests. Marth then goes to fight off rebels in Macedon who have kidnapped Princess Minerva. Marth defeats the rebels, who were revealed to have been given the idea by Hardin, and goes off to find the Grustian royals, who have been rescued by Ogma. He finds them, but his fiancée Caeda arrives to tell him that Hardin has attacked Altea
Marth goes to defeat General Lang and defeat Grust, and is told by Pontifex Wendell that he must collect all twelve star shards and the rest of the orbs, and bring them to Gotoh. Marth travels a very long distance on the same journey as his ancestor Anri, and encounters Xane. Xane reveals several things to Marth about the history of the dragonkin and the true identity of the guardian deity Naga: king of the divine dragons, and that the five orbs are part of the Binding Shield, which keeps the earth dragons in their slumber, but without the orbs, the seal weakens.
They arrive at the Ice Dragon Temple, where Gotoh reveals the following. Gharnef has been resurrected by his followers. Hardin is being corrupted by the Darksphere. The true identity of the Fire Emblem is the Binding Shield, which was stolen by the founder of Archanea and the orbs sold to fund his new kingdom. Lastly, the several thousands of earth dragons slumbering under the Wyvern Valley in the Macedon-Dolhr border region will soon awaken, and the divine dragon Tiki will soon go mad and attack humanity, unless the Binding Shield is restored.
Marth returns to his homeland and reclaims Altea, and then goes to Archanea to confront Hardin. Hardin is defeated and returns to his former self, and apologizes to Marth before passing away. Marth obtains the Darksphere and restores the Binding Shield. Gharnef and his followers attempt to trick Marth using an illusion, but the Binding Shield breaks their illusion. Gotoh tells Marth that Medeus has been revived in his "true and darkest form".
Marth goes to the Wyvern Valley, and obtains the tome Starlight from Michalis, who had stolen it from Gharnef. However, Michalis had been mortally wounded, and he dies after giving it to Marth. Marth and his companions enter the Dragon's Table and one of Marth's companions uses Starlight to kill Gharnef once more, and Marth reclaims the divine blade Falchion. Marth uses Falchion to kill Medeus, completely destroying him. Marth weds Caeda, and becomes the king of Altea, before he goes on to become the king of the United Kingdom of Archanea, after all the heirs of the other kingdoms renounced their claims to the throne and gave Marth their kingdoms.
Gameplay
Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem returns to the style of gameplay featured in Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light, with several adjustments. The on-map item storage shop has been replaced with the convoy, which is accessible at the preparations menu or by Marth and units adjacent to him. The inventory has been split into two different inventories, one for items and one for weapons. The "give" command has been replaced with trading, allowing two adjacent units to swap items between their inventories. While the combat system is largely the same as in the previous titles, units will have better combat abilities when engaging battle while positioned near certain other characters. This title also introduces the dismount feature, which while it can be used to negate a unit's weaknesses or cross terrain that mounted units have trouble with, is mainly used to force mounted units to fight on foot in indoor maps; all except horsemen are forced to use swords, and their movement is lower.
Reception
Each of Famitsu's four reviewers rated Mystery of the Emblem a 9/10, thus the game got a combined score of 36/40.
Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem is the best-selling game in the Fire Emblem series in Japan, selling an estimated 776,338 copies in its original print run.[1]
Technical details
Other releases
Title
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Cover art
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Platform
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Release date(s)
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Notes
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Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem
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Wii (Virtual Console)
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JP: December 26, 2006
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A direct port of the game released as a digital download on the Wii Shop Channel.
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Fire Emblem: Shin Monshō no Nazo: Hikari to Kage no Eiyū
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Nintendo DS
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JP: July 15, 2010
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A remake of the game with added features and bonus content.
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Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem
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Wii U (Virtual Console)
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JP: April 27, 2013
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A direct port of the game released as a digital download on the Nintendo eShop for Wii U, with added emulator features.
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Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem
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New Nintendo 3DS (Virtual Console)
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JP: June 22, 2016
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A direct port of the game released as a digital download on the Nintendo eShop exclusively for New Nintendo 3DS systems, with added emulator features.
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Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem
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Nintendo Classic Mini: Super Famicom
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JP: October 5, 2017
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A direct port of the game released on the Super Famicom Mini plug-and-play console with added emulator features.
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External links
Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem on other NIWA Wikis:
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References