where to get my canon. because yes, you totally want to.
So I have this awesome but pretty unknown canon, and of course that means I just have to come pimp it out. Canonmates are cool but god, I just want people to talk to about this stuff. ;_; Do you like strategy-RPGs? You're in the right place. Are you afraid of getting your ass kicked by strategy-RPGs? We have playthroughs on YouTube! Do you like reading better than playing? There's manga! And if none of that appeals to you at all, there's a couple CDs of the sexy arranged versions of some of the game music. Everybody likes free music, right?
Fire Emblem is about political machinations, fantasy warfare, and canon incest. The games for the most part come in sets of two, with each duology taking place in a different setting. The Jugdral duology consists of Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu (aka FE4) and Fire Emblem: Thracia 776 (aka FE5).
(this scan is shitty because I made it five years ago but APP THESE PEOPLE AND I WILL MAKE YOU A BETTER ONE)
Seisen's story unfolds over two generations. The first half of the game stars Sigurd, the son of Duke Vylon of Chalphy. At first, he's simply leading a hastily scrapped together army to defend the borders of the Grandbell kingdom while the bulk of the army is fighting a war in Isaac; however, things get complicated quickly, as the cult of the dark god Loputous is manipulating things behind the scenes to try and resurrect their god so he can skullfuck the world. The second generation picks up with Sigurd's son, Celice, twenty years later, when the cult has succeeded in taking control of Grandbell and most of the continent. Celice seeks to bring together the children of Sigurd's old army and save the world. Thracia 776 is a sidestory that takes place within chapters 6-8 of Seisen, following Leaf's campaigns in the Thracian Peninsula before he joins up with Celice.
Seisen is a pretty decent jump-in point for the series, in my opinion (though I may be biased because it was my first). It's a black sheep in some ways, but it's easier than many of the other games because of some of those differences -- broken weapons can be repaired instead of having to find new ones entirely (usually you get a few shots of a "repair staff" and that's it), and you actually get the chance to resurrect dead characters rather than losing them forever (although you need someone who can use the Valkyrie Staff, and it costs 40000g a pop to fix...).
Seisen also has a very cool mechanic, thanks to taking place over two generations -- you can choose how to pair off characters within your army. Each female unit will always have the same children in the second half of the game, but depending on who you hook up with who, their skills, stat growth, and starting equipment will change, which makes for some awesome replay value. (Alternately, if you want the game to be harder, not pairing a girl off will give you different characters in place of her children. They're weaker, but still quite usable.)
Thracia is harder, and plays more like traditional Fire Emblem, with none of the generational stuff. Thracia is, in fact, one of the hardest in the series. You need to do a lot of capturing enemy units and stealing their stuff if you want to stay equipped early on when you're broke, and unlike most of the other games, there's a fatigue stat that prevents you from abusing the same characters too much by forcing them to sit a chapter out if you let it get too high. If you like games that take no mercy on you, Thracia may be right up your alley. (If not, there's a 2x experience mode you can turn on with a code. It helps...some.)
Just remember: when I say Thracia will make you hate life, I really mean it.
To play, you'll need an SNES emulator. Last I heard, zSNES was the preferred choice for PC; for my fellow Mac users, I recommend SNES9x.
I've uploaded the game (.sfc) and translation patch (.ips) files here. Put the games in your ROM folder and the patches in your IPS folder (they may be named differently in zSNES?). Keep the file names before the extension the same! That way, your emulator should automatically apply the patch when you start the game.
Neither of these patches is complete, but they're close enough. The Seisen patch is still missing the happily ever afters in the epilogue, I think, but should otherwise be fine. The Thracia patch has the story text and menus properly inserted, but there's some gibberish in the status screen labels (Aquilae's FAQ on GameFAQs does a nice job of explaining what's what, however), and the text when you get a new item is garbled (but the name of the item is still readable, which is the important part). It's not perfect, but it's pretty minor stuff.
I do suggesting looking at a FAQ before starting (check here for Seisen and here for Thracia), as the games don't hold your hand and explain themselves.
If your eyes just glazed over at the above, or if you hate strategy games but want to see what this madness is all about, there are some playthroughs on YouTube! (And really, I won't think less of you if you'd rather check the FE5 Let's Play than get skullfucked by the CPU, because Thracia ain't for pussies.)
Seisen is split in two -- the first generation can be found here and the second generation is here. These are complete! I have not watched them, so I can't vouch for such things as 1) whether the guy gives annoying commentary or not, 2) whether the guy plays competently or whether watching him will make you go WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT a lot, or 3) whether his choice of pairings sucks or not. But it's there!
The Thracia playthrough can be found here, but as of this posting it's only on chapter 17 (of 25, not counting the gaiden chapters). It does skip over some optional dialogues that I really enjoy (though since some of said dialogues would require using Selphina, I guess I can't really blame them), but most of the good stuff is there.
There are actually three different manga adaptations of Seisen. (All of which I own, and will happily scan if canonmates need icon material. Just sayin'.)
(if nothing else, the Oosawa manga is nice for Leaf's dad being a huge goddamned badass)
The big one is by Mitsuki Oosawa. It's the most complete version, spanning both generations. Very shoujo art, sticks with the pairings that are strongly implied to be canon, and she does a really nice job with a lot of my favorite scenes, especially in the first generation; I would call this one the definitive gen1 manga. And in the midst of writing this pimp post, I discovered that since the first scanlation group fell apart, apparently someone else has picked it up! They're only in volume 2 (of sixteen), but you learn to take what you can get in this fandom -- their downloads can be found here. (If you were just pinged to this post by the promise of canon incest, the scanlations aren't there yet, but I will totally scan the big scene for you, because christ on a cracker Eltoshan and Lachesis are hot.)
I don't like Oosawa's handling of the second gen quite so much, but I'm just biased and dislike pussification of the Lenstersibs so uhhh yeah. There's still a lot of awesome stuff there, though, and while the scanlations are a long ways off, if you were to app I will scan the hell out of everything ever for you.
Second, there's one by Nattsu Fujimori, which focuses on the first generation only. This one is a lot more humorous in nature, with goofier art, lots of sight gags, and Oifey in a starfish costume (I DON'T EVEN KNOW). She also does some...more esoteric pairings, IIRC, but it's got some cute moments, so hey. Only the first volume has been scanlated (here), though it's available in both English and French. Just scroll down a bit and you'll find it.
(app Leaf's BFFs, too!)
Third is one called Light Inheritor, by Nea Fuyuki. This is the one in most of Leaf's icons, and I am ridiculously fond of it! Alas, there are no scanlations, so I mostly mentioned it here to point out that I have it and I will totally scan it if I get canonmates, because it has some ridiculously cute stuff.
There are some 4koma gag volumes floating around the internets, some of which should still be available on the same page as the Fujimori manga, I think. They're just one-shots and not continuous stories like the other manga, but they're fun!
...you may have also noticed that there's a lot more awesome Seisen shit I can hook you up with than Thracia shit. It's a sad truth that Seisen just got more media lovin'. I don't really expect that anybody on the internet actually loves Glade as much as I do, though, so this probably won't be much of an issue. :( (edited to note that I have obtained a couple volumes of Thracia manga, though, so at the very least, I've got imagery for some of the early recruits. App Eyvel.)
I love Yuka Tsujiyoko, okay. Seisen's soundtrack is the one I'm more likely to be humming under my breath at work, but Thracia has the superior arranged versions. Both are worth a listen, so:
FE4 Arranged
FE5 Arranged
And the vocal theme from Thracia: Blow'in in the Wind (no, I'm not sure what's up with that apostrophe placement either).
And one more for the lulz, though this is actually from the ad campaign for FE6: Fire Emblem theme...opera version!
All in .m4a, as that's how I like to store my files. I don't know how nicely everyone's computer plays with that these days, but if you need them converted, I can probably do that too.
Look at all this awesome shit, guys. I have so much awesome canon material to squee over. COME, JOIN MY WORLD OF PAINFUL MASOCHISM IN VIDEO GAMES. CRY AT MY SEXY AND TRAGIC CANON INCEST.
(I am linking this post in the sticky in Leaf's journal, and will probably link back to it in any and all future character pimping I do, so even if you get here long after the fact -- feel free to comment and tell me if the downloads have expired, and I'll be happy to reupload!)
Fire Emblem is about political machinations, fantasy warfare, and canon incest. The games for the most part come in sets of two, with each duology taking place in a different setting. The Jugdral duology consists of Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu (aka FE4) and Fire Emblem: Thracia 776 (aka FE5).
(this scan is shitty because I made it five years ago but APP THESE PEOPLE AND I WILL MAKE YOU A BETTER ONE)
Seisen's story unfolds over two generations. The first half of the game stars Sigurd, the son of Duke Vylon of Chalphy. At first, he's simply leading a hastily scrapped together army to defend the borders of the Grandbell kingdom while the bulk of the army is fighting a war in Isaac; however, things get complicated quickly, as the cult of the dark god Loputous is manipulating things behind the scenes to try and resurrect their god so he can skullfuck the world. The second generation picks up with Sigurd's son, Celice, twenty years later, when the cult has succeeded in taking control of Grandbell and most of the continent. Celice seeks to bring together the children of Sigurd's old army and save the world. Thracia 776 is a sidestory that takes place within chapters 6-8 of Seisen, following Leaf's campaigns in the Thracian Peninsula before he joins up with Celice.
Seisen is a pretty decent jump-in point for the series, in my opinion (though I may be biased because it was my first). It's a black sheep in some ways, but it's easier than many of the other games because of some of those differences -- broken weapons can be repaired instead of having to find new ones entirely (usually you get a few shots of a "repair staff" and that's it), and you actually get the chance to resurrect dead characters rather than losing them forever (although you need someone who can use the Valkyrie Staff, and it costs 40000g a pop to fix...).
Seisen also has a very cool mechanic, thanks to taking place over two generations -- you can choose how to pair off characters within your army. Each female unit will always have the same children in the second half of the game, but depending on who you hook up with who, their skills, stat growth, and starting equipment will change, which makes for some awesome replay value. (Alternately, if you want the game to be harder, not pairing a girl off will give you different characters in place of her children. They're weaker, but still quite usable.)
Thracia is harder, and plays more like traditional Fire Emblem, with none of the generational stuff. Thracia is, in fact, one of the hardest in the series. You need to do a lot of capturing enemy units and stealing their stuff if you want to stay equipped early on when you're broke, and unlike most of the other games, there's a fatigue stat that prevents you from abusing the same characters too much by forcing them to sit a chapter out if you let it get too high. If you like games that take no mercy on you, Thracia may be right up your alley. (If not, there's a 2x experience mode you can turn on with a code. It helps...some.)
Click to viewJust remember: when I say Thracia will make you hate life, I really mean it.
To play, you'll need an SNES emulator. Last I heard, zSNES was the preferred choice for PC; for my fellow Mac users, I recommend SNES9x.
I've uploaded the game (.sfc) and translation patch (.ips) files here. Put the games in your ROM folder and the patches in your IPS folder (they may be named differently in zSNES?). Keep the file names before the extension the same! That way, your emulator should automatically apply the patch when you start the game.
Neither of these patches is complete, but they're close enough. The Seisen patch is still missing the happily ever afters in the epilogue, I think, but should otherwise be fine. The Thracia patch has the story text and menus properly inserted, but there's some gibberish in the status screen labels (Aquilae's FAQ on GameFAQs does a nice job of explaining what's what, however), and the text when you get a new item is garbled (but the name of the item is still readable, which is the important part). It's not perfect, but it's pretty minor stuff.
I do suggesting looking at a FAQ before starting (check here for Seisen and here for Thracia), as the games don't hold your hand and explain themselves.
If your eyes just glazed over at the above, or if you hate strategy games but want to see what this madness is all about, there are some playthroughs on YouTube! (And really, I won't think less of you if you'd rather check the FE5 Let's Play than get skullfucked by the CPU, because Thracia ain't for pussies.)
Seisen is split in two -- the first generation can be found here and the second generation is here. These are complete! I have not watched them, so I can't vouch for such things as 1) whether the guy gives annoying commentary or not, 2) whether the guy plays competently or whether watching him will make you go WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT a lot, or 3) whether his choice of pairings sucks or not. But it's there!
The Thracia playthrough can be found here, but as of this posting it's only on chapter 17 (of 25, not counting the gaiden chapters). It does skip over some optional dialogues that I really enjoy (though since some of said dialogues would require using Selphina, I guess I can't really blame them), but most of the good stuff is there.
There are actually three different manga adaptations of Seisen. (All of which I own, and will happily scan if canonmates need icon material. Just sayin'.)
(if nothing else, the Oosawa manga is nice for Leaf's dad being a huge goddamned badass)
The big one is by Mitsuki Oosawa. It's the most complete version, spanning both generations. Very shoujo art, sticks with the pairings that are strongly implied to be canon, and she does a really nice job with a lot of my favorite scenes, especially in the first generation; I would call this one the definitive gen1 manga. And in the midst of writing this pimp post, I discovered that since the first scanlation group fell apart, apparently someone else has picked it up! They're only in volume 2 (of sixteen), but you learn to take what you can get in this fandom -- their downloads can be found here. (If you were just pinged to this post by the promise of canon incest, the scanlations aren't there yet, but I will totally scan the big scene for you, because christ on a cracker Eltoshan and Lachesis are hot.)
I don't like Oosawa's handling of the second gen quite so much, but I'm just biased and dislike pussification of the Lenstersibs so uhhh yeah. There's still a lot of awesome stuff there, though, and while the scanlations are a long ways off, if you were to app I will scan the hell out of everything ever for you.
Second, there's one by Nattsu Fujimori, which focuses on the first generation only. This one is a lot more humorous in nature, with goofier art, lots of sight gags, and Oifey in a starfish costume (I DON'T EVEN KNOW). She also does some...more esoteric pairings, IIRC, but it's got some cute moments, so hey. Only the first volume has been scanlated (here), though it's available in both English and French. Just scroll down a bit and you'll find it.
(app Leaf's BFFs, too!)
Third is one called Light Inheritor, by Nea Fuyuki. This is the one in most of Leaf's icons, and I am ridiculously fond of it! Alas, there are no scanlations, so I mostly mentioned it here to point out that I have it and I will totally scan it if I get canonmates, because it has some ridiculously cute stuff.
There are some 4koma gag volumes floating around the internets, some of which should still be available on the same page as the Fujimori manga, I think. They're just one-shots and not continuous stories like the other manga, but they're fun!
...you may have also noticed that there's a lot more awesome Seisen shit I can hook you up with than Thracia shit. It's a sad truth that Seisen just got more media lovin'. I don't really expect that anybody on the internet actually loves Glade as much as I do, though, so this probably won't be much of an issue. :( (edited to note that I have obtained a couple volumes of Thracia manga, though, so at the very least, I've got imagery for some of the early recruits. App Eyvel.)
I love Yuka Tsujiyoko, okay. Seisen's soundtrack is the one I'm more likely to be humming under my breath at work, but Thracia has the superior arranged versions. Both are worth a listen, so:
FE4 Arranged
FE5 Arranged
And the vocal theme from Thracia: Blow'in in the Wind (no, I'm not sure what's up with that apostrophe placement either).
And one more for the lulz, though this is actually from the ad campaign for FE6: Fire Emblem theme...opera version!
All in .m4a, as that's how I like to store my files. I don't know how nicely everyone's computer plays with that these days, but if you need them converted, I can probably do that too.
Look at all this awesome shit, guys. I have so much awesome canon material to squee over. COME, JOIN MY WORLD OF PAINFUL MASOCHISM IN VIDEO GAMES. CRY AT MY SEXY AND TRAGIC CANON INCEST.
(I am linking this post in the sticky in Leaf's journal, and will probably link back to it in any and all future character pimping I do, so even if you get here long after the fact -- feel free to comment and tell me if the downloads have expired, and I'll be happy to reupload!)