Fire Emblem – The Dark Amulet is built around establishing a deep story that takes itself seriously and engages the player, but doesn’t drown anyone in overwhelming text or exposition. Characters are, to the greatest extent possible, fleshed out and have roles to play as the story unfolds. This is not about a hero and a bunch of nameless allies with stats. My hope is your band of heroes (and the villains, too) all drip with personality, and you cheer on their victories and empathize with their struggles.
The game should start straightforward (but tough) and gradually get harder. Juggernaut-ing with a few units wielding 1-2 range weapons shouldn’t be viable. Enemies are bulky and hit pretty hard. Underestimate them at your peril. Each unit in your party has a niche and a role to fill. There is no redundancy here. Literally, there are no duplicated classes once your units are promoted. There are very few duplicated pre-promoted units, but each character promotes to a different final class.
For example, there are 2 cavaliers, but one promotes to Paladin, the other to a custom class called the Shadow Knight. Skills are included to deepen the individuality of each unit, but reasonable limits are placed on them. Each unit has 1 personal skill and gains 1 skill upon promotion. There are very, very few proc skills. Enemy units usually have no skills, and definitely have no proc skills. Melee infantry have shove. Cavalry/ fliers have canto.
Plot
The great kingdom of Redenze is on the edge of a crisis. Its largest duchy, Westmarch, looms over the brink of civil war. Duke Tordred has died, leaving two sons who both claim to be his heir. Forness, his trueborn son, and Zeddard, his eldest but born out of wedlock, seem unable to compromise. The succession crisis can only end in bloodshed. Sensing his own forces will be insufficient to defeat his older brother, Forness has hired the Phoenix Blade Mercenaries.
These hired blades, led by the shrewd Commander Fenix, may just tip the balance of the upcoming war in his favor. Our story begins with the newest captain of the Phoenix Blades, a young man named Edric, as he sets out to prove himself to Forness and Fenix. Soon, he’ll learn that not all is as it appears in the Duchy of Westmarch. In fact, this succession crisis has the potential to bring the entire kingdom to ruin…
Features
- Story set on a new continent that has no name because it doesn’t matter what its name is.
- A fun plot full of twists and turns. It takes itself seriously, but definitely revels in some classic Fire Emblem tropes.
- 30 chapters – 1 prologue, 25 main chapters, 1 final chapter, 3 gaiden chapters
- Balanced around hard mode. Normal mode is pretty relaxed. Easy mode doesn’t exist.
- 30 playable characters with essentially no class redundancy
- Many plot essential characters. Not iron-man friendly.
- Supports are fully developed and written for all player characters
- Tellius / Vision Quest style supports
- Unlimited B-supports per character, but limited to 1 A-support per character
- Custom weapons and many fun PRFs to be found
- 2 Warps, 2 Rescues, 2 Hammernes – enough that there’s no need to hoard them until the very end. In fact, later game maps are balanced around using them.
- Custom classes, many of them familiar, a few of them pretty unique
- Player units have 1 personal skill and gain a second on promotion
- There are only a few fog maps, and the fog is weak (you can still see out 4 spaces)
- Music is mainly from Sacred Stones but with some fun additions from other games
- Talk and support do not take your turn to complete
- Viewable growths
- Maps usually have anti-turtle measures like time limits, chests, villages, NPCs in need of saving, and nasty reinforcements
- Javelins and Hand Axes are not sold in shops until the mid-game. They have also had their might reduced by 1. Still very useful, just not quite as dominant as in vanilla.
Recruitment Guide
- Edric (Captain->Commander): Recruited automatically at the start of the Prologue
- Shorn (Myrmidon->Trueblade): Recruited automatically at the start of the Prologue
- Miley (Archer->Deadeye): Recruited automatically at the start of the Prologue
- Catrine (Cleric->Seer): Recruited automatically at the start of Chapter 1
- Hilda (Recruit->Cavalier->Paladin): Recruited automatically at the start of Chapter 1
- Griss (Defender->Bulwark): Speak with Edric, Catrine, or Hilda in Chapter 1
- Dwalt (Fighter->Warrior): Recruited automatically at the start of Chapter 2
- Harlan (Thief->Assassin): Recruited automatically at the start of Chapter 2
- Elyse (Mage->Witch): Recruited automatically at the start of Chapter 3
- Galen (Cavalier->Shadow Knight): Recruited automatically at the start of Chapter 3
- Nadya (Sky Mage->Seraph Knight): Speak with Edric, Catrine, or Miley, or Elyse in Chapter 4
- Rowan (Shieldbearer->Warbringer): Speak with Edric or Griss in Chapter 4
- Julia (Troubadour->Holy Maiden): Recruited automatically at the start of Chapter 5
- Rivkah (Axe Cavalier->Great Knight): Speak with Dwalt in Chapter 6
- Freya (Pegasus Knight->Falcoknight): Recruited automatically during Chapter 6
- Donnal (Tracker->Ranger): Recruited automatically during Chapter 8
- Sheila (Thief->Rogue): Recruited automatically at the start of Chapter 9
- Gareth (Lancer->Halberdier): Speak with Edric, Shorn, or Miley in Chapter 10
- Tancred (Shaman->Druid): Recruited automatically during Chapter 10
- Eleanora (Dancer): Recruited automatically at the start of Chapter 12
- Ruslan (Wyvern): Recruited automatically at the start of Chapter 12
- Alexias (Pupil->Mage->Sage): Recruited automatically at the start of Chapter 13
- Leandra (Light Mage->Valkyrie): Recruited automatically at the start of Chapter 14
- Hadima (Wyvern Knight->Wyvern Lord): Speak with Galen in Chapter 14
- Sophia (Mage Knight): Speak with Catrine in Chapter 16
- Morgana (Defender->Sentinel): Speak with Edric, Tancred, or Rowan in Chapter 17
- Edgar (Sniper): Recruited automatically at the start of Chapter 20
- Hadrian (Radiant Knight): Speak with Edric or Galen n in Chapter 21
- Fenix (Hero): Recruited automatically at the start of Chapter 23
- Othello (Dark Flier): Speak with Sophia in Chapter 17, then speak again with Sophia in Chapter 23
Changelog
V1.6
- Fixed Hilda’s paladin pallette
- Gave Alos a custom pallette
- Cleaned up some of the earlier maps
- Fixed various typos
V1.5
- Increased the base stats and growths of unpromoted monster units, specifically to make Chapter 12, Chapter 14, and Chapter 15 more difficult
- Increased the SKL base stat and growths for many basic enemies
- Added a new tier of weapons between Steel and Silver called Mithril. Mithril swords, lances, axes, and bows. They are as light as iron and as strong as steel. Many enemies in the Mid Game have them, increasing the difficulty of Mid Game chapters.
- Reduced the critical chance of Alos, a boss in Chapter 15
- Removed Edric’s leadership star – his Charisma skill already offers a significant boost to hit and avoid, but there’s no longer a map-wide bonus for player units
- Nearly every player unit HP growth has been reduced by 5%
- Hilda’s STR base has been reduced from 5 to 4. She’s supposed to be the speedy cavalier, not the incredibly strong cavalier. She’s still very good, but she won’t be consistently one-rounding enemies quite as often as before unless she gets lucky STR growths.
- Alexias’s SPD growth has been reduced by 5% from 40% to 35%. He can attack from 3-range – he doesn’t need to double quite as often as he does.
- Freya gained +1 base STR.
- Zeddard’s sword, Judgement, no longer has a base critical boost. He’s strong enough without randomly one-shotting people in the final chapter.
- Slightly weakened Forness in Chapter 10
- Slightly reduced reinforcements in Chapter 1
- Slightly reduced reinforcements in Chapter 2
- Slightly reduced reinforcements in Chapter 3
- Reduced reinforcements in Chapter 6
- Slightly reduced reinforcements in Chapter 7
- Reduced reinforcements in Chapter 8
- Reduced reinforcements in Chapter 10
- The Chapter 10 defend map only lasts 12 turns, instead of 14
- Reduced reinforcements in Chapter 12
- Changed the weapon load out of enemies in Chapter 15. Less 1-2 range, but the centaurs now wield a more accurate version of the hammer. Expect higher hit percentages against your units.
- Slightly reduced reinforcements in Chapter 14
- Slightly reduced reinforcements in Chapter 16
- Slightly reduced reinforcements in Chapter 17
- Reduced reinforcements in Chapter 20, specifically the number of monsters that spawn during a certain story moment. It’s still a lot, but there will no longer be a siege tome monster to contend with.
- Slightly reduced reinforcements in Chapter 21
- The Gargoyles in Chapter 25 have traded their steel lances and javelins for silver lances and spears
- Slightly reduced reinforcements in the final chapter
- Fixed Ruslan’s portrait. He’s still a bit lower than intended but random pixels don’t bounce across his sprite anymore in the status screen
- Improved Shorn’s unpromoted palette
- Improved Miley’s unpromoted palette
- Improved Griss’s unpromoted palette
- Improved Harlan’s unpromoted palette
- Improved Eleanora’s palette
- Improved Tordred’s palette
- Alexias now has a custom sage animation – he keeps his conical kat! Many thanks to SagaGoblin for this improvement and the palette fixes.
- Fixed various typos
- Changed the final dialogue in the Epilogue. It’s essentially still the same conversation, but I’ve fixed it so that no one behaves cartoonishly evil. Instead, we see a harsh and human side to an antagonist as she reveals the true reasoning behind her actions. This more closely aligns with her established character and better sets the stage for the sequel’s plot, and her role within it.
