The Let's Play Archive

Fire Emblem: Geneology of the Holy War

by Wind God Sety

Part 48: Inheritance, Manga, and Music

Inheritance, Manga, and Music

But not in that order. So before we start generation two (and we'll start it soon), I have a few more loose ends I'd like to tie up. First of all, I'd like to go into more detail about how exactly inheritance works. It's pretty simple, but there are a few things people unfamiliar with the game might have questions about, or just want more detail on. Secondly, I've recently read through some more of the manga that's recently been translated (up to the fall of Silesia), so I can talk a bit about how that differs from the game. Lastly, there are a few tracks of music I haven't linked to or mentioned (mostly enemy army tracks). But not in that order. So let's talk about manga.

So I think I touched on this briefly when I played through Chapter 4, but the first large section of the manga in Silesia is establishing that Levin's great and his uncles are dicks. The people all love Levin because he's kind to them, while the other rulers just oppress them. So Maios, the ruler of Throve, and Daccar, the ruler of Zaxon, get ready stage a coup, just like in game. However they're a lot more aggressive about it. Maios actually strikes first, taking over the village closest to Sailane and holding its people hostage, while simultaneously Pamela and Grandbell wage their attack on Silesia, as opposed to in game where Pamela doesn't attack until after Throve is lost. There's some cool scenes where they talk about the strategy of it all, namely Mahnya realizing that Pamela's group is a decoy and figuring out that Zaxon has reinforcements coming from Grandbell. So Levin and Sylvia attempt to stop Maios from killing everyone on the village, but Maios manages to use his Sleep Staff on Levin and proceeds to take him hostage.

Sigurd, Fury, and Claude move to infiltrate the village undetected, get the Sleep Staff, and save Levin. And they pretty much do so without any trouble. Sylvia, still captured by Throve's men along with the villagers, ends up distracting most of the guards with a song and dance, allowing Sigurd and co. to sneak around more easily. Claude finds himself enamored by her dance, and the seeds of love between them are planted. So things go pretty standard for them, they save Levin and defeat Maios. Meanwhile, Mahnya dies just like she does in game, though they flesh it out a bit more. Pamela seems to have a lot more respect for Mahnya in the manga, and gets pissed off at Andre for killing her during their one on one duel. They also give Andre a very cocky, wisecracking personality.

So Zaxon takes Silesia, and the villagers there escape with Queen Rahna acting as a decoy. In the manga she also gives Holsety to the villagers, prompting Pamela to chase after them, instead of keeping it with her like she does in game. So Sigurd and co. move out to retake Silesia, and that's where the translation ends.

Next, music. First let's cover the enemy army tracks that I neglected to bring up earlier. I don't have anything to say about most of them, because I'm really not a huge fan of most of the enemy music in this game. It's not bad, just kinda meh.

Agustria Army (Pirates)


I forgot if I mentioned this one back in Chapter 3, but this is the unique theme that plays for the Orgahill Pirates.

Silesia Army


This plays for all the enemies in Chapter 4. I guess it has a kinda winter-y feel to it.

Yeid Army


This plays for the Phinora troops in Chapter 5.

Grandbell Army 1


This plays for the Lubeck and Velthomer armies in Chapter 5. It might also play for the Beige Ritter in Chapter 4.

Ok, that's out of the way. Next, that game over track that I said I would show off earlier but never did.

Time of Sadness 1


This track plays if Fin, Cuan, or Ethlin die before the end of Chapter 3. You get a short scene where they retreat (I'd show it off, but it's not really anything special. They just talk about how they're too wounded to go on, and head back to Lenster). If either Cuan or Ethlin die, both retreat. This also plays when you lose your main castle, when Oifey tells you that you fucked up. You might also recognize that this track is used in the beginning portion of Part One Map Melody.

I think those are it for big tracks that I missed, so let's talk inheritance. So as a rule, every mother has two children that we'll get to play as in generation two, one boy and one girl. Both the mother and the father pass down things to both children, but a parent will pass down more things to the child that is the same sex as them. The exceptions to this are Ethlin (and Cuan) and Brigid (and Lex). Ethlin and Brigid will pass down to their sons, while Cuan and Lex (or whoever you pair with Brigid) will pass down to their daughters. In this way parents will be referred to as a child's dominant parent, or non-dominant parent.

We'll start with items and holy blood. A child will receive whatever the dominant parent had in their inventory at the start of the game, provided that the child can use it. If they cannot use it, most items will be given to a specific enemy in generation two, for you to be able to get it back. This is especially important for Lex, as no children characters can use Axes, meaning it's impossible for someone to inherit the Hero Axe. Because of this, the Hero Axe will show up on an enemy, retaining its durability and kill count. Holy blood is inherited in a similar manner. A child inherits whatever holy blood their dominant parent has, and minor blood in whatever their non-dominant parent has. For example, Brigid has Major Ulir blood, and Lex has Minor Neir blood. This means Brigid's son (remember, her son is her dominant child) will have Major Ulir and Minor Neir, while her daughter will have Minor Ulir and Minor Neir. However, if both parents have the same type of holy blood (major or minor), both children will inherit major blood of that type.

Alright, next every child will inherent a portion of their parents' stats. Every kid has set base stats, with a bonus added to it depending on the parents' stats, via a fairly complex formula. Essentially each parent has a stat addition equal to his or her final stat, minus his or her class' base stat. Note that this is not the parent's base stat, but rather the game has actual data for base stats of any given class. For example, the base Lord Knight Strength is 10, and our Sigurd had 25 Strength, so his stat addition is 15. Another note, when a unit promotes, they change classes, and their promoted class' base stats are equal to their unpromoted class' base stats plus their promotion gains. This means that their stat addition is not affected by promotion. Now that we have the stat addition, we can find a child's base stat. You take the sum of the non-dominant parent's addition and twice the dominant parent's addition, and divide that by ten. Then, take the child's level minus one multiplied by his or her growth rates (covered below), and divide it by 15. Take the remainder and add it to the previous number you got from the parents' additions. Lastly, add that number to the child's class' base stat. Confused? Yea it's a really weird formula, and there's no reason to ever know it. The simple thing to remember is that parents with high stats and growths will give children with slightly higher base stats (generally they only change by 2 or 3, but that can make a decent difference in the beginning). Note also that this formula is different for HP and Luck, but I won't go into that.

Next, growth rates. These are much more simple. A child's growth rate in a stat is equal to the dominant parent's growth in that stat (without the holy blood bonus), plus one half of the non-dominant parent's growth in that stat (again, without the holy blood bonus), plus the bonus(es) from his or her own holy blood.

Finally, gold. Again, this is pretty simple. A child starts with 2000 gold, plus one tenth of the sum of their parents' gold. Because dominance is not involved in this calculation, siblings will start with the same amount of gold as each other.

That's all for now, expect the start of Chapter 6 soon.