Part 1: Prologue: Introduction

Prologue: Introduction

Title Music

The first thing we see when we load up the new game is a pan around the first map:



We're the blue guys on the right outnumbered 2 to 1. A bit more than that considering our restrictions. But first, some dialogue:



Old guy gives us an introduction. So we're Marth, prince of...somewhere , and we're about to meet Sheeda, Princess of Talis. (Marth is actually Prince of Aritia, but not sure how you would know that in the original here - I originally assumed he was also from Talis.)




The pirates of Garda suddenly attacked us.
The castle has been taken and many people have been killed.
Please, save my father!

Objective Received: Fight off the pirates of Garda and save the king. No sweat. (Actual objective: bring Marth to the castle and seize it.)



inside this fortress.
We won't lose to a gang of pirates. Now, come with me to Talis Castle!

And we're off! But before we get started, here's our team:



This is Marth, the hero of our tale. You may recognize him from a cameo in Super Smash Bros. Melee, since that was actually his first appearance outside Japan. It was actually his and Roy's popularity in Smash Bros. that led to later Fire Emblem games getting released internationally. Anyway, I digress.

Marth is the only Lord of the game, which basically is an **Important Character** flag. Unlike with any other character, if Marth dies, it's game over. He starts off at Level 1, with 18 HP (hit points). He's currently holding a Rapier, a sword that only Marth can use, that's effective against certain other classes. More on that later. The number next to the weapon is how many times you can use it before it breaks and disappears.



Here are Marth's starting stats and his portrait. The stats mean, in order:

• Power - How much physical damage the character does
  
• Skill - Affects hit rate and critical hit rate
  
• Weapon Level - Determines which weapons a character can equip
  
• Speed - Affects attack speed
  
• Luck - Affects critical hit rade and magic evade
  
• Defense - Reduces physical damage
  
• Movement - How many tiles a character can move
  
• Resist - Reduces magical damage
  
• Exp - Number of experience points earned by fighting enemies - a character levels up upon reaching 100 Exp, which then resets the current Exp to 0.

More details on the game mechanics later. They're a little different than you might be used to in other Fire Emblem games. Anyway, on to the rest of our little crew.



This is Sheeda, a Pegasus Knight. She rides on a flying horse, what more do you want? As a class, Pegasus Knights are pretty fast and dodgy and can move pretty far, but won't hit very hard and can't take a hit real well. As a flying unit, she can ride over mountains and water no problem, and go over trees and forts without any penalty. She's got an Iron Sword to start, the weakest but also lightest weapon.



As an Archer, Gordon uses bows to attack from range. They can only hit from exactly 2 tiles away. The Bowgun (Crossbow) does less damage than the Steel Bow, but is lighter and has a higher hit rate and critical rate.



Doga, as his appearance may indicate, is our tank for the start of the game, with a nice 11 Defense - the 'A' is for 'Armor'. He's got both an Iron Sword and an Iron Lance - generally swords will be lighter and more accurate than lances, in exchange for doing less damage. There's one big exception to that though that we'll see a few chapters in.




Kain and Abel are the twin red/green Social Knights that have appeared in (I think) every Fire Emblem since. They both have pretty similar stats and a very nice 9 Movement, though as mounted units they have an extra move penalty in rough terrain like trees and desert. Abel has a Javelin, which is a weaker, less accurate Iron Lance that can be thrown from 1 or 2 tiles away. If you're using it from 1 tile away, you're doing it wrong.



The infamous Jeigan. This guy is a Paladin, which is just a Social Knight who leveled up a lot and then promoted using a Knight Medal. Notice how his stats aren't much higher than Kain or Abel's, despite basically being pre-leveled. I'll get to the worst part of this character in a moment, but basically this character became so infamous he's now a stereotype that appears throughout many other Fire Emblem games. He starts off with a basic Iron Sword and a fancy Silver Lance. He won't be getting to use either one.

One last info dump:

Each time a character levels up, he can increase stats based on the growth rates, which is a simple % chance. The growth rates for our starting characters are as follows:
Now you can see why Jeigan is so terrible in this game - he will basically not gain any stats more than a third of the time (1-.9^4 for the math nerds), and half of his stats can't increase at all. Using him is really just stealing experience from better characters, but he can still make a good wall for this chapter at least.

Also notice how no one has any Resist growths, or any starting Resist. This will definitely make magic a reliable source of damage, once we find ourselves a mage. Defense growths are generally pretty low too, but enough characters (like Doga) will have a high enough base Defense to occasionally make dealing physical damage difficult.

Before we actually start the map, it's time for a quick vote - we'll only be using one of Kain or Abel to fight, so you guys get to pick one. (Notice how I'm not allowing anyone to vote for Jeigan, I'm not that crazy.)