Let's Play Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem!

[┌༼ຈل͜ຈ༽┘]

Let’s Play Fire Emblem: Shin Monshou no Nazo - Hikari to Kage no Eiyuu

Welcome to my second Let’s Play. After finishing Shadow Dragon, it’s only logical that I should LP the sequel. ‘Fire Emblem: Shin Monshou no Nazo - Hikari to Kage no Eiyuu’, translated as ‘New Mystery of the Emblem – Heroes of Light and Shadow’ was, simultaneously, the sequel to ‘Shadow Dragon’ and a remake of ‘Monshou no Nazo’ or ‘Mystery of the Emblem’ which itself was a remake AND a sequel to ‘Ankokuryuu to Hikari no Tsurugi’ or ‘Dark Dragon and the Sword of Light’, the first Fire Emblem game. Mystery of the Emblem contained two ‘books’. Book 1 was a shortened remake of the first Fire Emblem game and Book 2 was a fully fledged sequel to it. Seeing as Shadow Dragon already existed, New Mystery of the Emblem is only a remake of Book 2 of Mystery of the Emblem and does not contain remake of Shadow Dragon.

The bad news is that despite Shadow Dragon selling well globally by the series standards, the sequel was never localized. The reason for this is completely unknown. A common misconception is that it was never localized due to poor sales of it and Shadow Dragon but the 2 games sold far more than Path of Radiance (Gamecube) and Radiant Dawn (Wii) so that theory is false.

But the fans weren’t going to give up. A group of dedicated hackers, dubbing themselves ‘The Heroes of Shadow’ took it upon themselves to create a fan translation that would be up to the standards of proper localizations. For the most part, they succeeded as the fan translation, released in November 2012 is a high quality product and the team tried to emulate the localization style of Shadow Dragon, employing purple prose just like Shadow Dragon did. Obviously, some parts of the translation are better than others but overall, it’s one of the finest fan translations ever created, especially considering the very poor quality of previous Fire Emblem fan translations.

As for the game itself, it’s Shadow Dragon but better in every way in technical terms. The more subjective parts like story and characters are debatable but I think it’s just as good as Shadow Dragon. The gameplay and graphics are unchanged except for slight improvements. The game brought back support conversations and they work as they did in Path of Radiance. If 2 characters are used together for a certain number of chapters, then they can unlock support conversations. These conversations provide some valuable character development, allowing the developers to flesh out characters without dragging out the plot while still keeping having permanent death. The supports have 3 ranks and each rank provides increasing bonus to hit, evade and critical rate.

The game introduces the ‘Avatar’ feature that was seen in Awakening. The Avatar is a player created character that joins the main heroes in their quest and has a lot of customization options.

This game also added a new game mode. ‘Casual Mode’ is for those who don’t want to deal with permanent death. In casual mode, characters who die in a chapter are not dead permanently and return in the beginning of the next chapter. Classic mode is still available to those who want the challenge. You can only select which mode you want to play in the beginning of the game and can’t be changed later on. Aside from this choice, the game also has 1 Normal difficulty and 3 levels of Hard difficulty going up to Lunatic as well as final ‘Lunatic Reverse’ difficulty. Game Mode and difficulty are independent of each other so you can play Normal Classic or Lunatic Casual.

The Game also has multiplayer options over Wi-fi but since I can’t show them off, I won’t bother covering them here.

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Index:
Opening
Prologue 1
Prologue 2
Prologue 3
Prologue 4
Prologue 5
Prologue 6
Interlude - Lunatic Reverse
Prologue 7
Prologue 8

Chapter 1 - Grustian Expedition
Chapter 2 - Rebellion of Macedon
Support Conversations Part 1
Support Conversations Part 2
Chapter 3 - Abducted Princess
Chapter 3x - Lurking Shadows
Support Conversations Part 3
Chapter 4 - Joy and Sorrow
Support Conversations Part 4
Chapter 5 - Liberation of Grust
Support Conversations Part 5
Chapter 6 - The Nest of Evil
Support Conversations Part 6
Chapter 6x - Mercenary Squad
Support Conversations Part 7
Chapter 7 - Scarlet Swordsman
Support Conversations Part 8
Chapter 8 - Soulful Bridge
Support Conversations Part 9
Hard Mode

DLC 3 - By the Sword

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So let’s play Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem – Heroes of Light and Shadow!

I think it was a bit egotistical to hack in the name of the fan translation team and show it right below Nintendo but no harm done.

Our game’s hero is still Prince Marth but he’s joined by the player created Avatar. The avatar isn’t important to the plot like Awakening fortunately.

No trust me. The Avatar isn’t plot important despite what this text may be trying to tell you.

Nice art of some of the major characters from the previous game. Except it’s supposed to be a scene from this game yet only includes characters from previous game so I don’t know.

From Left to right: Marth, Caeda, Gordin, Ogma, Merric, Linde, Abel, Cain, Navarre, Bord/Cord, Draug, Barst, Bantu and Tiki in dragon form.
And flying up aboive are clearly Minerva and the 3 Whitewing sisters; Palla, Catria and Est.

No, really. Not plot important.

You’re really making it hard for me to convince the viewers of the non-importance of the avatar.

I’ll concede that the Avatar is an important character but in no way does the plot revolve around them unlike Awakening.

I wonder what this scene is supposed to be.

Nope. Not now.

Here’s the title screen.



Now before we begin a new game, let’s take a look at the Bonus features. First, there’s the Wireless option where you pit your teams over wireless connection.



The game comes with a guide. You can use this to look at the world map, see character relations and learn where each character comes from. Since going an further will reveal massive spoilers, let’s not do that.



All story events and conversations are recorded and can be viewed at any time through the Event Recap feature. This too will reveal massive spoilers and we’ll be seeing the events and conversations anyway so let’s avoid this too.



3 free DLC maps and 3 free items were given out. We’ll get to them in due time.



And we’ve already seen the Archanea Chronicles in my previous LP.



The sound room can be used to listen to any piece of music from the game. Pretty awesome. I've wasted a lot of time here.



So let’s start the game. In Normal mode, everything is, well, normal.



In Hard mode, enemies are tougher. In this and all higher difficulties, enemy reinforcements arrive at the start of the enemy phase and attack on the same turn, ambushing you. I hate this feature so I won’t play this mode.



In Maniac mode, enemies are tougher and more numerous, blah, blah, blah…



This is the highest level of difficulty. Lunatic is a very appropriate name for it.



Lunatic reverse is identical to Luantic except for one key difference. Enemies always attack first, even on player phase. Say you move a unit next to an enemy and attack them, the enemy unit will strike first. It’s like all enemies having Vantage+ skill from awakening.



Our chosen difficulty is Normal and we don’t want any tutorials.




And we select Classic. It’s the only way to play a Fire Emblem game, you filthy casual scum. Go back to Angry Birds. This game is for the real pros.

Anyway, we’ll start the game properly in the next episode.

Here’s to another hopefully good LP!

[Yoh]

Toast to the new LP!

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And so we begin. When you start a new game, after selecting the difficulty level and mode, you’re asked to create an Avatar.



Anna, my waifu greet us. She’ll be our guide when creating our Avatar.



In the fan translation, the default name is ‘Kris’. However, in Awakening, the default name is localized to the more gender neutral ‘Kris’ which is what we’ll be using. The official localization comes from the item ‘Kris’s Confect’ from Awakening. So if you were ever wondering who the hell this ‘Kris’ was, now you know.



Strangely enough, the game asks you to pick a gender after you name your Avatar. You can always go back and rename your Avatar. We’ll be going with a female Avatar. Just because.



Your Avatar’s gender affects what class you’re initially allowed to select. Classes are divided into 3 sets: Male A, Male B and Female.

Male set A

Non-promoted: N/A - Cavalier- Archer - Myrmidon - Mage - Curate
Promoted: Dracoknight - Paladin - Sniper - Swordmaster - Sage - Bishop

Male set B

Non-promoted: Knight - Mercenary - Fighter - Hunter - Pirate - Dark Mage
Promoted: General - Hero - Warrior - Horseman - Berserker - Sorcerer

Female set

Non-promoted: Pegasus Knight - Cavalier- N/A - Archer - Myrmidon - Mage - Cleric
Promoted: Dracoknight* - Paladin - General - Sniper - Swordmaster - Sage - Bishop

* Falcon Knight if promoted using the Elysian Whip

After beating the game in Hard mode or above, Male sets A and B will become combined, so male characters can Reclass to any class from both sets. Thus Male characters have a distinct advantage over female characters.

However, these are not the classes you’re initially allowed to select. That choice is a bit more limited and is freed up once you finish all the prologue chapters and unlock reclassing.

Initially, males Avatars are only allowed to select from Mercenary, Knight, Cavalier, Fighter, Archer or Mage. This choice is important if you haven’t merged male class sets as it affects what class your male Avatar can reclass to once reclassing is unlocked. Females are allowed to select from Myrmidon, Pegasus Knight, Cavalier, Archer or Mage. Female Avatars done have to worry about this initial choice if your main concern is what your final class will be.

What class you select affects your base stats as well as your growth rates. It also affects the appearance of your Avatar. Classes like Cavalier and Knight are more heavily armoured while classes like Archer and Mage have less armour and the Avatar’s appearance reflects this. Reclassing DOES NOT change the Avatar’s appearance and is final. So if you care about this, select your initial class carefully. But we’re not done with customization.



I’ve decided that our Avatar will be a Mage. I’ve heard that in the highest level of difficulty, it is flat out impossible to complete the prologue as a mage because the Avatar ends up being far too fragile. I’m not exaggerating. Mage is the only class I’ve never played as and I want to try it out since this is Normal mode.



We can now customize our Avatar’s face. The look on the right has long been my preferred look for the female Avatar.



Next, we need to select a past, present and future. This affects the Avatar’s base stats and growths. This gets a bit complicated so I’ll let Serenes Forest do the talking.

But we’re done with creating our Avatar! Now to begin the story.

And we bump into this girl as soon as the game begins.

Whoa, are you okay?
I-I'm sorry. I was in a hurry, and... Excuse me, did you come here to become an Altean knight as well?
Yep. I came here all the way from Sera village when I heard they were recruiting new knights. The name's Kris.
Kris? That's a nice, short name. We're here for the same reason, then. My name is Katarina. I came because I wish to serve Prince Marth. But there sure are a lot of hopefuls here. Look, there's one over there and another there...


The first chapter of my epic saga to become Altea's greatest knight!

Hey, wait up, Rody! Don't leave your partner behind!

And yes, that creepy eyeless image of Katarina stays there for the whole conversation.



Katarina’s got a “Thank you, Captain Obvious’ face right there.

We should follow them, Kris. I think the leader of the knights, Sir Jagen, has something to say to all of us.



Hey, it’s Jagen! He’s still rocking those MAN SPIKES!

Knights will be chosen by their ability, not by their blood. The path is not easy, though. We have gathered a hundred men and women today, and only a handful of you will succeed.
T-this is nervewracking.
I'm nervous too, but I've been training hard for this day.
So we expect every one of you to show us the fruits of your arduous training! Apprentices, I want you to gather in pairs! You will be facing real Altean knights in mock combat!
Huh? We have to fight? T-this could be a problem... Kris, would you please partner with me? I'm training to become a strategist.
A strategist?
Y-yes. I can give you advice on how to fight, but I can't fight at all...

WHAAAAT.

Hey, you two! You're up next. Grab your weapons and get into position. Hurry!
Got it! Let's go, Katarina! The test is about to start.
Y-yes! Let's do our best.



And we finally get to do something.



So here is our Avatar. A Mage Avatar is by far the weakest one since physical classes start with no magic and almost no resistance but the mage class distributes stat points into those too. A mage has zero need for strength but my mage still starts with 4 Strength. That’s only 1 point lower than my magic stat. In the previous game, strength was used to deal with weapon weight but that aspect has been removed so strength really is useless on a mage since there are no hybrid classes in this game. I suppose a high magic sword user could make great use of Levin Swords but that’s gimmicky. The total stats remain the same and a mage gets gimped by this system.

But that’s okay since even a Mage Avatar is still the most broken unit in this game. In Normal mode anyway.

We start with the basic Fire Tome. Nothing fancy. My customization gives me the highest base magic a mage Avatar can get while skill and speed get the highest growth customization.



We move onto the square and our first enemy appears.



Seeing that this is only normal mode and the first prologue chapter, this guy is very easy to deal with.



Fire ball away!



Our second and final opponent is Jagen himself. Let’s see how the years have been treating him.



Goddamn Jagen, what happened to you? Old age has REALLY taken its toll. Don’t worry though. You’re still awesome as a character like you’ve always been.



Well, we can’t double him.

Excellent. Show me what you've got!



But after some back and forth javelin and fireball tossing, he eventually goes down.



Our first level is fucking amazing. I told you that even a Mage Avatar is still the most broken unit in the game.



We’re clear!


Yes... that was most splendid! I see we can expect much from this year's apprentices.
You did it! We won, Kris! ...But I didn't really do anything... It was all thanks to you that we won, Kris!


Marth’s coming here? Cool.



Wow, Marth! You’ve grown up!

Ah, it's Prince Marth! He looks so majestic. So that's the face of the hero who saved the world. I love the stories about Prince Marth in the last war. How about you, Kris?
Of course. After all, Prince Marth was the hero who brought an end to the previous war.
Yes, he defeated the Shadow Dragon and Dark Pontifex, restoring peace to the world.
You there, silence! You stand before Prince Marth!

HA!

Eep!
Everyone. I'm truly happy that so many came to help shoulder Altea's future. With the war over, peace has returned. However, peace isn't something we can simply take for granted: It is my duty, as ruler, to risk my life to protect it. Alone, I am powerless. So, everyone. From now on, I want you to lend me your power, as my knights.
Hear hear, Prince Marth! It was wonderful hearing Prince Marth speak, wasn't it, Kris?
Yeah, it was. We have to do our best as his loyal knights.
Let's keep at it together!

And so ends Prologue 1. Short and to the point.

Character Spotlight:

Avatar (Kris)





Those growths should immediately tell you why the Avatar is so broken. And the growths are even better distributed in other classes. I’d say the best choices for class are Mercenary or Fighter (Male) or Myrmidon or Pegasus Knight (Female). But still, my Mage Avatar is still pretty deadly. Shame about that defence growth but in physical classes, our resistance growth takes a hit so it’s fair trade off. These growths here reflect my customization at the beginning. Male Avatar is significantly better because he has access to far more classes than the Female Avatar.

Artwork of the Avatar:

[Yoh]

I am really digging the new art for Marth.

[Yoh]

I am really digging the new art for Marth.

[┌༼ຈل͜ຈ༽┘]

So much better than the Awakening Art. Looks like a woman in that.

Here's an awesome wallpaper too!

[┌༼ຈل͜ຈ༽┘]

And here's another.

[Marksman]

Does your game lag out or freeze at times? Mine does, but I'm guessing it's the DS emulator I use, Desmume.

[┌༼ຈل͜ຈ༽┘]

I've not had any lagging or freezing issues on Desmume. These are usually occur on slower computers.

[┌༼ຈل͜ຈ༽┘]

In the past, there was a war known as the War of Shadows. It began when the fearsome Shadow Dragon, Medeus, launched a sudden invasion.



The Kingdom of Archanea, protector of the lands, clashed with Medeus's forces. But against such superior might, Archanea was overwhelmed and trembled in defeat.



Nyna, princess of Archanea, had no choice but to flee from her beloved homeland. To rescue Archanea, the Kingdom of Altea, its allied nation, sallied forth.



However, it too was defeated by Medeus. With its king lost to war, Altea fell to ruins... From his exiled shores Marth, young prince of Altea, swore he would retake his homeland.



Marth never forgot his oath. Years later, he rallied an army at Talys to defeat Medeus. Starting with Caeda, Talys's princess, Marth gathered together many allies.




Duke Hardin, Nyna's guardian, also became one of his trusted comrades.



With Archanea's treasured "Fire Emblem" awarded to him by Nyna,



Marth led the Archanean League, as its commander. In the following battles, the League wrestled back control of both Archanea and Altea.



Finally, after a long and fierce battle with Shadow Dragon Medeus's forces...



Marth vanquished the Shadow Dragon...

And thus did peace return to the world. These are the events that transpired one year ago.

As am I. Who are the others?
I'm Luke! Or if you prefer, you can call me Luke, the Paladin of Dawn!
I am Rody. It is a pleasure to meet you. So, is that everyone?
U-um... I'm a new recruit, too. My name is Ryan. I'm an archer.

RYAN?

It looks like that's all five of us.. Well, what's the plan for today?
There was an order from Sir Jagen. Today's mission is to decide who the new commander will be.
Commander? Gotcha! Well, I'll be commander if you guys all insist!
Nobody's insisting anything, Luke...
Excuse me. I'd like to recommend Kris.
Katarina...?
Kris is a really strong individual. And she didn't abandon me during the mock combat yesterday, even though I couldn't fight.

Yeah, you still owe me about that.

Alright then, I challenge him! Kris, if you beat me, I'll cede the position to you.
Huh? H-how has it come to this?
It's a challenge, man-to-man!
But I'm a woman...
Well then it's a man-to-woman challenge!! Kris, you're not afraid to fight me, are you?
Don't be silly. Kris, won't lose to you.
So we'll decide with a battle. That'll let us see who's got the skill to be commander.
I'm sorry, Kris. That was selfish of me... But I couldn't stand hearing them make fun of you...
It's okay. When my grandfather trained me, he used to say the same thing. He said that the best way for men to understand each other is by fighting. I believe that applies to everyone, not just men.
Huh. Y-your grandfather sure sounds colorful... Anyway, our opponents are Luke and Rody. It's been decided that Ryan will be on our team.
Y-yes. I'll do my best.


Rody, you wait at the back. I'll fight alone! It's just Kris and that kid, right? If that's all, I should be able to handle it. I'll show them my true strength.
You're at it again...? Fine, have it your way. But I think underestimating your opponent will get you into trouble.



Alright, so we have a new ally, Ryan the archer and out first opponent is Luke. This shouldn’t be hard at all since we can double team him.

Kiddo, just stand back and watch! Only Kris is worthy of fighting me!



Sorry, Kris, but I won't hold back just because you're a girl!
That's fine with me.
I'll show you what I've got! Kris, try not to fall in love with me!

Lolwut



Not quite fast enough to double.



However, Luke won’t pay attention to Ryan who can’t counterattack and will always go for the Avatar. KI defeat him on the counterattack.

Guah...?! I-impossible... The future hero, Luke, defeated...



Eh.

As I thought, Luke couldn't win alone. I guess I'll have to fight, too.



Rody appears on the battlefield. He’s actually worse than Luke, stat wise.



We back off onto the forts which are out of his range. He still moves though.

Kris, I've heard the rumors about you as well. I need to see your ability firsthand, especially if you're to become the commander. I ask you this, as a fellow squire of Altea.



I still allow Rody to attack us first. He goes for Kris.

My opponent is an archer... Then I should engage him in close-quarters.



Ryan chips at him from range.



Urgh! I see... You are even stronger than I had imagined...

And I finish him off.



Thank goodness... Kris, you won. I knew you could do it.
Alright, I'm a man of my word. I'll keep my promise. From here on, the commander'll be Kris. Gah, but I don't get it! I was so confident in my skills! How did I wind up losing?!
Because we didn't fight together. We took turns fighting Kris one-on-one. That's why we lost to him.
Yeah, my brother once said the same thing... Even if we are weak individually, we can become stronger by working together with our friends.
That's right. Fighting with your friends: That is the way of an Altean knight.
...I see. I thought I could be the victor through my strength alone. But I guess I was wrong. Fighting together is far more important...
Luke... I'm so glad. You understand now.
Yeah, it's all clear to me! It looks like being the leader is more trouble than it's worth! So I'll leave this bothersome job to Kris! I'm sure it'll be a joy working under him! Kris, I'll be looking forward to your help!
...Does he really get it?

Oh Luke.

Alright then, Kris! Now that you're the commander, how about I give you a cool title?
A title?
Yeah. All the legendary heroes have their own awesome title! Hm, let's see... looking at your eyes... It's got to be Captain Kris!
I don't really understand... Nor do I think it's something worth celebrating...
Aw, don't worry about it! Captain Kris!

That’s a terrible nickname, Luke.

Character Spotlight:

Ryan





RYAAAAN! Anyway... The growths in the bracket are the growths he will have when I eventually reclass him. He’ll keep that class indefinitely which I why I included those growths too. Anyway, even though Ryan is an archer and archers tend to suck, the prologue gives a lot of room to grow. Additionally, his growths are pretty damn good. Whether he turns out to be good or not really depends on how much speed he gets as he starts with very little of it.

[Deleted]

Not going to lie, the exposition is a bit more deep.

[┌༼ຈل͜ຈ༽┘]

Boy, we haven't even reached the supports. Entire updates of nothing but conversations.

[Yoh]

Is it possible to lose in this situation, or is it so scripted that you can only lose if you don't attack with both characters?

[┌༼ຈل͜ຈ༽┘]

Definitely possible. Depends on the class though. A knight Avatar will always defeat them before thay can defeat you. An Archer or Mage avatar will lose if you don't use the forst for healing.

On Lunatic mode, Archer or Mage Avatars WILL die if you don't use the forts. They are flat out impossible to use in Lunatic. They simply cannot beat all of the prologue chapters, especially prologue 8. In Lunatic Reverse, you either go Knight Avatar or you go home crying.

[Yoh]

Yikes, that's kinda scary.