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Fire Emblem: Thracia 776
Introduction
Prince Leaf, son of Cuan and
survivor of the Lenster royal family,
lives a life on the run from the Empire. Along with the knight Fin and
Nodion's Princess Nanna, he sought refuge in various cities in the
Thracia peninsula, before finally settling down at a small village
called Fiana. There, he is looked after by Evayle, a powerful female
swordfighter, and grows up with her and the youths of Fiana. At the
eastern land of Isaac, Sigurd's son Celice, initiated a liberation
movement and a new age for Jugdral was arriving. In the year 776 of the
Gran calender, Leaf, now 15 years old, decides that it is time for
himself to embrace the Holy War.
About the game
Not long after the release of Genealogy
of the Holy, Nintendo's next console, the Nintendo 64 was
released. However the next game in the series, Thracia 776, was not released on
the Nintendo 64, but was instead one of the
final games
for the Super Famicom. Initially the game was only available by
downloading onto an
official flash cartridge, via the Nintendo Power service, but a boxed
cartridge version was later released. These reasons were why, despite
being one of the best Fire Emblem
games
yet, Thracia
776 did not sell as well as previous iterations.
Thracia
776 is a
sidestory to
Genealogy of the Holy
War, and takes place around the halfway mark of that game
(hence why it is often referred to as a midquel). Although it is
directly related to events that occurred in
Genealogy of the Holy
War, the story is well-separated, so it is easy to pick up and
understand. Unlike the previous game, the focus is on a smaller
territory and on
relations and history that were not discussed prior, thus allowing for
a
deeper view of the world. Now you could see the small soldiers who
fought
alongside the greats, as well as the impact of the war on the civilians
of the world.
The title screen
The
game is held in high
regard by many fans, who rate it as one of the best and challenging
games in the series. Although similar to Genealogy of the Holy War, the
graphics were greatly improved, especially those of the battle
maps. New elements such as capturing and rescuing
were implemented, backed up by those introduced previously, which made
the game more complete than ever. The game also featured a high
difficulty level. As a result, the resulting
satisfaction from beating the game can be enormous.
Features or changes
Gaiden chapters
Also known as
sidequest chapters. Gaiden chapters are
optional
missions and
require fulfilling special criteria to unlock. The
rewards from playing such chapters include rare items, extra characters
and
dialogue.
Branching chapters
In previous games, the
main campaign was relatively
linear, as you progress from set chapter to another. In this game, it
was
possible to choose one of two paths through the game, although only one
path featured and it only lasted for two chapters.
Victory conditions
Instead of just conquering castles you could now beat chapters by
escaping to a designated point, or surviving for a certain amount
of turns. This helped to vary missions, and meant the player had to
adapt new tactics instead of just obliterating enemies.
Fatigue
Characters possess a Fatigue stat, which rises as they fight, use
staves or
perform other actions. When the character's Fatigue rises past their HP
stat, they become fatigued and must sit out the whole of the next
chapter.
A character's Fatigue could be reset by giving them rare Stamina
Drinks. Sadly, this feature (along with a few others) was not carried
onto future games.
Fog of War
Like in other strategy games, Fog of War obscures the player's
vision, with characters only able to see parts of the map within a
certain radius of their position. This is in effect in certain
chapters, usually Gaiden chapters. Characters could use
Torches or the Torch staff to increase their radius of vision.
Eyrios about to fight a Loputo Mage
Personal weapons
In previous games,
only the main characters had the
privilege of having these. That is, specific weapons that are unique
and
only usable
by a particular character. Genealogy
of the Holy War had similar weapons, but locked to major holy
blood. However this game features more personal weapons, which could be
used by a larger variety of characters.
Leadership
In Genealogy of the Holy War,
only leader of armies had leadership stars, which increased the
performance of soldiers under their leadership. This time, some
important playable characters also have leadership stars. These
characters are
usually relatively weak, so it gave players incentive to use them, to
boost the effectiveness of other characters.
Mobility
Some characters have Movement stars, which appear in their status
screen. Each Movement star increases the chance of
the character being able to act again after waiting. Although the
effect is random, it can be very useful when it activates. Unless it's
the enemy of course.
Build
Build (or Constitution) is an additional character stat, which lowers
the speed loss
when
holding heavy weapons (although magic tomes ignore Build). Build also
has its own growth rate, although is very small for most characters.
This helped to balance the game as bulkier characters could now
outspeed speedy, but light, characters when they both carry heavy
weapons.
Weapon experience
Weapon ranks already featured in the previous game, but they could now
increase outside of promotion, thanks to the introduction of weapon
experience. By using a type of weapon often, such as swords, characters
would gain weapon experience for that type and eventually increase
their weapon
rank in that type. Weapon experience built up discreetly, although
later games provided a progress bar besides the weapon rank.
Rescue
Characters could now rescue allies, to transport them or protect
them
from danger. To rescue, the character must have greater Build than the
unit being rescued, or be mounted (on horse, pegasus or dragon).
Mounted characters or those with maximum Build could not be rescued.
An indoors map
Capturing
Characters could capture enemies, similar to rescuing allies, except
that you need to defeat the enemy first. When attempting to capture an
enemy, the
character's major stats are halved. However once the enemy is captured,
you can hold onto them and steal their items. Enemies can also do this,
so keep your staff-users away from danger...
Dismounting
Last seen in Mystery of the Emblem.
Like
in that game, mounted characters could get off their mount to
avoid
tricky terrain, weapons effective against them or to move indoors. In
indoor maps, all mounted characters are automatically dismounted. When
dismounted, most characters can only fight with swords. This gives an
extra incentive to build up the lower swords weapon rank for most
mounted
units.
Stealing
Thieves could steal in the previous game, but they were limited to just
stealing Gold. In
this game Thieves can steal any weapon or item from the enemy! However
what could be stolen depended on the character's Build stat, which most
Thieves normally lack. Still, there was the
potential for mass item-raiding sprees.
Sound Room
A hidden feature and the first of its kind to appear in Fire Emblem (disregarding Gaiden's Sound Test), which allowed
players
to listen to the game's soundtrack in-game. This could be unlocked
by obtaining a good rank in the main game.
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