Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War

Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu
Developer(s)	Intelligent Systems
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Designer(s)	Shouzou Kaga Gunpei Yokoi
Series	Fire Emblem
Platform(s)	Super Famicom, Virtual Console
Genre(s)	Tactical RPG
Mode(s)	Single player

Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu (ファイアーエムブレム　聖戦の系譜, Faiā Emuburemu Seisen no Keifu, literally Fire Emblem: Genealogy of Holy-War) is a Japanese Super Famicom tactical role-playing game developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo. It was released on May 14, 1996 in Japan. It is the fourth title in the Fire Emblem series, the second Fire Emblem title for the Super Famicom and was the last game produced by Gunpei Yokoi. The game has received recognition outside Japan through imports and console emulation, including an unofficial emulation fan translation into English. It was released on the Japanese Virtual Console service on January 30, 2007, at the price of 900 Wii points.

Gameplay

Seisen no Keifu, like all Fire Emblem games, is a turn-based tactical role-playing game. The player controls a small army of units (characters) as they travel across the land, fighting enemies and liberating castles. For basic gameplay information, see the gameplay basics. There is no limit on how many player units can be deployed; this is balanced by the player receiving fewer controllable units than in other games in the series.

At the start of each chapter, the player holds a castle that must not be conquered by the enemy. In allied castles, units can shop, store items, repair damaged items, and fight in the arena. Each individual unit has its own money; the only units who can give money to others are thieves and units who are in love. Units cannot trade weapons or items. The only way to "give" something to another unit is to sell the item at a pawn shop and have another unit buy it. By visiting repair shops, money can be spent to restore a used weapon before it breaks. In the starting castle, the player can also promote units to a more powerful class when they reach level 20. Rather than being reverted to level 1, the unit will remain at its current level. There are only seven arena opponents to fight for each unit per chapter, as opposed to infinite opponents in other Fire Emblem games. The arena opponents are predetermined for each chapter and are always the same. Units do not die when they have lost an arena battle; instead, they remain alive at 1 hit point.

The majority of gameplay takes place on the battlefield. Seisen no Keifu is the first installment of the Fire Emblem series to implement the weapon triangle, a rock-paper-scissors-like system. In the weapon triangle, swords beat axes, axes beat lances, and lances beat swords. There is also a similar trinity of magic: fire beats wind, wind beats thunder and thunder beats fire. There are also Darkness and Light magic which beat all three of those, and are neutral against each other. Higher character level and statistics can still overcome a weapon triangle disadvantage. Among the features of the battlefield are differing terrains, which give defensive bonuses, gates which can only be opened by triggering a plot event, and villages, which can be attacked and destroyed by bandit enemies. Enemies can only destroy a portion of a village each turn; however, the more the player allows an enemy to tear down a village, the less gold will be rewarded for rescuing it. As opposed to other Fire Emblem games where capturing the enemy's castle ends the chapter, Seisen no Keifu features several enemy castles per chapter, all of which must be captured to proceed.

Seisen no Keifu is the first installment of the series to assign special skills to individual units. Units may also gain skills by belonging to a certain character class. Personal skills may be activated by command on the field, activated automatically under certain conditions, or activated by chance. If units in the first half of the game fall in love, they will pass on their individual skills to their children in the second half. A similar skill system is used in Fire Emblem: Thracia 776, Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, and Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn.

Seisen no Keifu introduces a romance-based game mechanic to the series. The units in the first half of the game can fall in love after accumulating a certain amount of "Lover points". Units will build Lover points automatically, but they will gain more if the player ends the turn with the units adjacent to one another, and certain pairs have unique conversations at set points in the game, which give a large amount of Lover points. If two units are paired, and the mother survives the first half, the two parents will pass their weapons and personal skills on to their children, who are the majority of playable units in the second half. Weapons will only be inherited if the child can use it in their first class, unless it is a Holy Weapon, which is always inherited. The parents also pass on their Holy Blood and their stat growths, giving the player some manner of control over their units' growth rates. If some of the female player units in the first half die or do not fall in love, substitute player units appear in their children's place. The children can also fall in love. Units in love in either generation may activate random critical hits when they stand next to their lover.

Plot

Setting

Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu takes place in the continent of Jugdral (pronounced YOOG-drahl and based on the Norse mythological name Yggdrasil).

Jugdral is composed of eight countries which are the Kingdom of Grandbell, the Kingdom of Verdane, the Dominion of Agustria, the Republic of Manster, the Kingdom of Thracia, the Republic of Miletos, the Kingdom of Silesia, and the Kingdom of Isaac. They were founded by the Twelve Crusaders, who are Baldo, Tordo, Hezul, Noba, Neir, Noba, Heim, Fala, Ulir, Blagi, Sety, and Odo. Heim founded the central country Grandbell with the help of Fala, Baldo, Tordo, Ulir, Neir, and Blagi. Hezul helped found Agustria in the northwest. In the southeast, Noba founded Manster, and her brother Dain founded Thracia. Sety founded Silesia in the North, and Odo founded Isaac in the northeast. Between Grandbell and Isaac is Yied Desert, the home of the Loput Sect. Verdane, in the southwest, was founded by people outside Crusader lineage. At the end of the game, Leaf merges Manster and Thracia into New Thracia.

The Fire Emblem does not actually appear in this game, but it is mentioned as the family crest of Velthomer nobility.

Story

See also: List of characters in Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War

Hundreds of years prior to the game's present, the Gran Kingdom was founded, and decades later, it became Gran Republic. The Dark Lord Loputosu conquered the continent. Hundreds of thousands were massacred and sacrificed to the Dark God. However, the gods descended and blessed the Twelve Crusaders, who defeated the Lopt Empire. The Twelve Crusaders subsequently established seven dukedoms in Grandbell and five regional kingdoms.

At the beginning of the game, the Grandbell Empire is at war with the kingdom of Isaac in response to Rivough barbarians besieging Darna Castle. When bandits from the country of Verdane attack the relatively defenseless Empire, Sigurd of Chalphy arms himself to battle them while rescuing Aideen. In the course of fighting, he gathers many allies, several of whom are descendants of the Twelve Crusaders. While invading Verdane and after running into Isaacians Ayra and Shanan, he meets a mysterious girl named Diadora. She is revealed to be of Narga blood, a long-lost member of the Grandbellian royal family and the descendant of the Crusader with the power to defeat Loputosu. Sigurd and Diadora fall in love and marry, and Serlis is born in Agustria. However, scheming Grandbellian dukes, in a bid for the throne, murder the Grandbellian king and prince and frame Sigurd for their deaths. The Archbishop Manfloy of the Loput Sect, conspiring with Duke Alvis, also kidnaps Diadora and erases her memories in order to revive the dark dragon lord Loputousu. Sigurd, forced to flee into exile to Silesia, returns to Grandbell some time later and defeats the treasonous dukes; however, he is betrayed by Alvis, who has married Diadora and is now the Emperor of Grandbell. After Trabant ambushes Cuan and Ethlin, Alvis lures Sigurd's army into a trap and decimates them.

The second half of the game resumes seventeen years later in Isaac, where Sigurd and Diadora's son Serlis has formed a liberation army against the harsh rule of the Grandbellian Empire. Serlis joins up with surviving family members of Sigurd's allies and travels around the continent, freeing countries from Grandbellian rule. His final destination is Grandbell, where he must confront the forces of Emperor Alvis, his son Julius, the twelve Dark Warlords, and the Loput Sect.

Development

The game title was originally going to be entitled as translated Fire Emblem: Light Inheritors. The same title was used as the title of chapter 6, and a similar title was used in the manga adaptations. Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu was originally going to be divided into three parts, with Serlis's tale being the second part. The canceled third part was going to reveal the killings of some of Sigurd's generation and other issues. However, because of time constraints, it was shortened to two parts.

According to Shouzou Kaga, it was originally planned that in Serlis's tale, only one child would be born per parent with the gender being randomly selected, with the exception of Serlis, Yuria, Leaf, and Altenna. The third part was going to be a story of members of Serlis's party reuniting with remnants of Sigurd's army, and those who were not Sigurd's servants would be subjugated.

Legacy

Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu was the first Fire Emblem game to be featured in the Fire Emblem Trading Card Game. It was discussed in Nintendo Power Volume 87. Some songs from the game were reused in the Game Boy Advance Fire Emblem games. It was unofficially translated into English through emulation.

Since the release of Super Smash Bros. Melee, which includes Marth and Roy as playable characters, Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu has received positive reviews by non-Japanese gamers.

Twenty characters from Seisen no Keifu have since been released as extra playable characters in Fire Emblem: Awakening via SpotPass, with at least two more on the way. Serlis and Eltshan are also available as rewards for completing downloadable content packages in the same game.

Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu comics have been featured in the magazines Monthly Gangan Wing and Monthly GFantasy. There is also the Oosawa Mitsuki manga adaptation.

External links

• Template:Jp icon Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu website website at Intelligent Systems of Japan.
• Template:Jp icon Official Fire Emblem website at Nintendo of Japan.
• Template:Jp icon Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu website at Nintendo of Japan.
• Template:Jp icon VC Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu website at Nintendo of Japan.
• Template:Jp icon Fire Emblem Museum - Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu at Nintendo of Japan.

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• Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu at MobyGames
• Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu at SerenesForest.net
• Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu at Fire Emblem Wiki
• Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu at Fire Emblem Wikia