Since print magazines in Japan have started covering Fire Emblem: The Sealed Sword in depth, we thought you might be interested in some of the actual scenario data/walkthroughs that are being posted (why they are doing this is beyond us, since the game is still a month away).

Chapter 1: Unmei no Ibuki (The Breath of Fate)

House item (if you move a character to a house, a cut-scene will appear and you will usually get an item): 5000 gold

Starting units:

Roy (class: Lord)

Marcus (class: Paladin)

Allen (class: Social Knight)

Lance (class: Social Knight)

Bors (class: Armor Knight)

Walt (class: Archer)

Chapter 2: Berun no Oujo (The Bern Princess)

House item: Armor Killer

New units who join:

Dieck (class: Mercenary)

Ward (class: Warrior) [Japanese: Senshi]

Lot (class: Warrior) [Japanese: Senshi]

Shany (class: Pegasus Knight)

Ellen (class: Priest) [Japanese: Souryo]

Chad (class: Thief) [Japanese: Touzoku]

Shop items:

Tetsu no Tsurugi : 460GP

Tetsu no Yari: 360GP

Te Yari: 400GP

Tetsu no Yumi: 540GP

Chapter 3: Okurete Kita Mono (The person who arrived too late)

New units who join:

Ruu (class: Magician) [Japanese: Madoushi]

Chapter 4: Doumei no Houkai (Collapse of the Alliance)

New units who join:

Rutger (class: Fencer) [Japanese: Kenshi]

Chapter 5: Honoo no Monshou (Fire Emblem)

No known information yet

As more story details and gameplay details emerge, we'll be sure to update this section.

Also here are a few gameplay elements worthy of note:

You can "Rescue" characters similar to the previous Fire Emblem game. However as far as we can tell, you can no longer "Capture" enemy units. The way Rescue works lies in the "Build" stat, where character A with higher build than character B will be able to carry character B, resulting in losing half his speed. This is used primarily for strategic purposes.

Thieves can steal an item from an enemy randomly in combat. This is similar to how it was done in Shozo Kaga's TearRing Saga, but it is different from previous Fire Emblem games.

Magic spells no longer fall into fire/wind/thunder/dark/light categories. Instead there are dark, light, and a new type, neutral.

Here are descriptions of a couple of the new characters that were recently revealed:

Ellen (Souryo) - A sister who works for Princess Guinevere, the younger sister of the king of Bern.

Clareine (Troubadour) - The daughter of a Erutoria nobleman. It is said that due to her upbringing, she is a bit self-minded. Originally she was bright and cheerful.

Last updated: 02/20/2002 by Desmond Gaban

Fire Emblem: The Sealed Sword is nearing its Japanese release and Nintendo has been really turning up the hype machine for the game. Every month, publications such as Famitsu and Dorimaga have been releasing new screenshots and information. There is even a Fire Emblem comic running in the popular Gekkan Shounen Jump (and yes this comic is based in the same universe as that of The Sealed Sword, but it is set from the perspective of characters who may or may not be in The Sealed Sword). It seems like after the embarrassing situation stemming from series creator Shozo Kaga's defection and releasing a Fire Emblem-like game on the Playstation, Nintendo is really trying to claim the Fire Emblem name back.

So how is the actual game? All indications point to The Sealed Sword using an engine that, architecturally, comes from Advance Wars (the exact same team is working on the game after all), but has been retooled so that it resembles the last Fire Emblem game (Thracia 776 for SNES) in terms of gameplay. The ability to capture enemy units or carry allies is purported to be back. Judging from screenshots, most elements of the previous game are returning as well.

What is new/different to the series?

For starters, Intelligent Systems has done away with the battle backgrounds of the old games. No longer do you shift to a full-screen battle background and watch the characters duke it out there. Now, the animation takes place on screen, with only small terrain underdrop. Technically, this isn't much of a big deal, and we're sure the developer had their reason for doing so, but series purists might balk at the change.

See the new system:

in comparison to the old system:

The other changes to the game seem to be minor design details. You can now have shooters in your party (the last time a Fire Emblem game had this ability was the very first one). Shooters are units who stand in one place and fire long range projectiles at enemies. After the first game, Kaga decided that the player should never ever have this sort of unit on their party (for design purposes). Although TearRing Saga featured a unit similar to this (the Wide Shooter, a tank that can transform into a Shooter), Fire Emblem: The Sealed Sword brings this back by allowing regular archers to turn into Shooters if they have the right equipment (a Long Arch).

There also seems to be a new female archer knight class, represented by the character Sue. However other than her being a female on horseback who can use bows, we don't know for sure what makes her different from regular bow knights of the past.

The plot once again involves a series of political wars with the true enemy being "The Dark Continent" Ereb. It seems like every Fire Emblem game needs a plot with this structure, but we certainly don't mind!

The last notable item about The Sealed Sword is that it seems that MANY announced characters of the game seem to resemble, plot role-wise, characters from previous Fire Emblem games. Witness this list:

• Roy - Marth (FE1/3)

• Marcus - Jeigan (FE1/3)

• Allen - Kain (FE1/3)

• Lance - Abel (FE1/3)

• Walt - Gordon (FE1/3)

• Bors - Dohga (FE1/3)

• Clareine - Lachesis (FE4)

• Ellen - Safy (FE5)

• Chad - Julian (FE1/3)

• Ruu - Marik (FE1/3)

• Ward and Lot - Saji and Maji (FE1/3)

• Dieck - Oguma (FE1/3)

• Rutger - Navaar (FE1/3)

Last updated: 04/22/2001 by Max Lake

Fire Emblem may be a very popular series in Japan & is considered a very mature RPG series but none of the games have been released in the U.S. –until now?

Because of the history of Fire Emblem, it’s been our natural instinct to suspect that we would not see the latest Fire Emblem in North America. We hoped we were wrong though & we just might be. Louie the Cat he’s heard a rumor claiming the latest FE might just make it outside of Japan.

After Nintendo asked readers to vote on which GBA titles they were interested in (something documented in the Rock the Vote special) and included Fire Emblem, it seemed that there was a chance…These polls are gone now, implying the decisions have been made.

And then, the rumor breaks. Is it accurate or a false lead? We really don’t know.

We’re crossing our fingers – it’d be great to finally experience the long running Fire Emblem series, especially with many American Nintendo fans getting to know Intelligent System through their recent excellent work on Paper Mario.

We’ll definitely keep you posted & see what we can learn at E3.

Last updated: 01/10/2001

Although you may have heard of the Fire Emblem series, it's unlikely that you have ever played or actually seen any of the games. In Japan, Fire Emblem has been popular enough to merit numerous sequels, though not a single one of the games have been released in North America. Along with the sequels, there were also updated versions of earlier games ported to the Super Famicom (SNES) and ones Japanese consumers could download via the Satellaview (BS-X) system . Over the past couple years, rumors of a new Fire Emblem game being developed for Nintendo 64 persisted, though the game never materialized. Like many popular game series in Japan, there was even a Fire Emblem anime made. Ironically, A.D. Vision released the anime domestically.

Fire Emblem is a Strategy-RPG series that originated on the Famicom (NES) system and has been developed by a small company called Intelligent Systems. Intelligent Systems are known primarily for their tools work and for some of Nintendo's more strategic games. Additionally, their ranks actually include former members from Nintendo's R&D1 development group. Fire Emblem is a very mature RPG series and if it were to be released stateside Nintendo might NEVER be called "kiddie."

The 6th (not counting the BS versions) Fire Emblem game (which was originally slated for N64,) is heading to Gameboy Advance. Intelligent Systems, known primarily for their tools work and for some of Nintendo's more strategic games, is naturally behind the game once again, although the original designer of the series left the company a while ago and is not involved with the project. This leaves Fire Emblem fans to question the quality of this upcoming GBA game, especially when the ex-designer is working on a Fire Emblem-like game for the Playstation known as Emblem saga. The only screenshot of the title so far shows a conversation scene, and it is hard to tell if the game is still retaining its Fire Emblem simulation/RPG gameplay or if it has been turned into an adventure or RPG instead. Hopefully the remaining Fire Emblem staff at Intelligent Systems are well-versed in the Fire Emblem lore and programming to be able to pull off another masterpiece in the flawless series.

Because none of the previous Fire Emblem games have come stateside, it's unlikely that this one will come to the US either.