Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade

Fire Emblem: Binding Blade (ファイアーエムブレム　封印の剣, Fire Emblem: Fūin no Tsurugi, lit: Fire Emblem: Sword of Seals, sometimes translated Fire Emblem: Sealed Sword and Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade in the official website for Fire Emblem: Rekka no Ken and Super Smash Bros. Brawl) is a Japanese tactical role-playing game developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo. The game was released on March 29, 2002 in Japan, is the sixth game in the Fire Emblem series and the first of three games in the series that have appeared on Nintendo's Game Boy Advance handheld. it was the last Fire Emblem game to be released exclusively in Japan until the release of Fire Emblem: Shin Monshō no Nazo ~Hikari to Kage no Eiyū~. Its previous title was Fire Emblem: Ankoku no Miko (暗黒の巫女 Maiden of the Dark). In Super Smash Bros Brawl, the stickers of Roy, Lilina, Rutger (as Rutoga), and Dieck (as Deke) state that they are from Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade. This is possibly the official Nintendo translation of the game's title.

Setting
The game takes place in the fictional continent of Elibe, which is split into five nations of diverse ruling styles: Lycia, Bern, Etruria, Sacae, and Ilia. There is an archipelago to the northwest called the Western Isles and is composed of Caldonia, Dia, and Fibernia. There is also a lone isle to the south of Lycia known as Valor and a desert peninsula called Missur to the southwest.

Lycia is ruled by a collection of noble houses that include Ostia, Pherae, Thria, Laus, Worde, Khathelet, Araphen, Caelin, Ryerde, Santaruz, Tuscana, Tania, Badon, and formerly Cornwell. Each one is ruled by its own Marquess. Ostia, the most militarily powerful territory within Lycia, functions as the central ruling territory. This system of government, known as the Lycian League, was founded by the Champion Roland, one of the eight legendary heroes after the Scouring. The country is fighting a huge scale war with Bern.

Bern is a monarchy notable for its powerful military, located in the southeast mountains of Elibe. It was founded after the Scouring by the Hero Hartmut, one of the eight legendary heroes. It is the only nation in all of Elibe that employs Wyvern Riders in its army. It was also the home of the Black Fang mercenary company. It is revealed in the game that King Desmond was killed by his son Zephiel after Desmond's attempt to assassinate Zephiel failed.

Etruria is the base of St. Elimine’s church. Most of the nation's residents are naturally blonde; a trait passed down to them as descendents of Elimine, one of the eight legendary heroes. Saint Elimine herself founded Etruria after the Scouring, and her legacy continues to live on in her people. It is home to many sorcerers and monks that have spent their lives studying the magical arts.

Sacae is a country of nomadic clans such as the Lorca, the Kutolah, and Djute that roam the land on horseback; Sacae is known for its vast fields and open plains. Most of the nation's residents are naturally green-haired. It is the final resting place of Hanon, Sacae's founder and one of the eight legendary heroes. It has no central government, but a number of clans that govern themselves. The mountains that separate Sacae from Bern house several bandit groups that lie in wait to prey upon unsuspecting Sacaeans. It is said that the people of Sacae are unable to ever be dishonest.

Nabata is a massive desert covering the entire peninsula of Missur, the Nabata Desert is home to the hidden village of Arcadia. This oasis utopia is populated by both humans and dragons in harmony. The region was also home to the archsage Athos, one of the eight legendary heroes. The ruthless desert climate deters most travelers from visiting the region, serving as a perfect natural defense for Arcadia.

Ilia is a snowy climate that hampers agricultural development, and as a result, the nation's citizens commonly live mercenary lifestyles in order to survive. It is home to the renowned House of the Pegasus Knights. It was founded by the Great Knight Barigan, one of the eight legendary heroes, after The Scouring had ended. Ilia is located in the northeastern fraction of Elibe, and it is known for its beautiful pegasi that roam the lands freely.

The Western Isles, located in the northwestern ocean, house several bandit groups. Durban the Berserker, one of the eight legendary heroes, founded the warrior clan here and retired here a while after The Scouring. It is currently run by the pirate clan, vicious warriors known for their brutal strength. Fibernia and Caledonia are the most important regions of the Western Isles.

Valor, also known as the Dread Isle, is a small island that is feared by most seafarers. Covered in dense fog is the Dragon's Gate, a mysterious portal to the realm of dragons. The Enigma Bramimond, one of the Eight Heroes, gained the power to best dragons in combat here by sacrificing his humanity; for this reason, the sprawling ruins of Valor are frequented by many practitioners of Dark magic.

Chapters
List of chapters in Fire Emblem: Binding Blade

Storyline
Binding Blade takes place on the fictional continent of Elibe and stars Roy, the son of Fire Emblem: Rekka no Ken protagonist Eliwood. Roy leads the League of Lycia's army against the forces of the militant country of Bern shortly after his father falls ill.

It has been 1,000 years since the end of the war known as the Scouring. The continent is by and large at peace. However, this peace is soon ended when Bern suddenly invades Sacae and Ilia and swiftly takes control of the two countries. They then turn towards the small country of Lycia.

Roy, the son of Marquess Eliwood of Pherae, a district of Lycia, is studying in Ostia, Lycia's capital, when he is called back home to lead Pherae's army to join up with the rest of Lycia's armies at Araphen, in order to defend against possible attacks by Bern, Eliwood being too ill to lead the army himself. Upon arriving in Pherae, he finds that the castle and surrounding villages are under attack by bandits. Eliwood is defending the castle as best he can, but his illness is preventing him from being very effective. Ostia's Princess Lilina, a young mage who had gone to Pherae ahead of Roy, is also holed up in the castle. Roy must fight to save his father and friend.

After defeating the bandits, Eliwood charges Roy with taking Pherae's army to Araphen, and provides him the services of Merlinus, a merchant who works for Pherae. Meanwhile, Lilina returns to Ostia. Roy heads north towards Araphen, and stops at a village near the Bern border to wait for some reinforcements. While he is waiting, a young cleric named Elen runs into him and begs him to help her save her mistress from a nearby Bern castle. Merlinus doesn't like this, but then Bern soldiers appear and they become forced to fight. During the battle, Dieck's mercenary group arrives to bolster Roy's forces.

It turns out that Elen's mistress is none other than Princess Guinivere of Bern. She wishes to meet with a Lycian leader to see if there is anything she can do to avoid the outbreak of war, and Roy offers to take her to see Hector.

Once they reach Araphen, though, horrible news is waiting for them: Bern's army has already attacked and obliterated the combined forces of most of the Lycian territories. Roy's army is able to retake Araphen Castle, and they find Hector locked up in the dungeon -- however, his wounds are too serious for him to live much longer. He informs Roy that the major reason for the horrific defeat was that Bern was using Dragons, and tells Roy that he must become the leader of what remains of Lycia's armies, before passing away. Roy decides to head to Ostia to regroup, and inform Lilina about her father's death.

With the Lycian alliance in shambles, the Marquess of Laus, Erik, makes a pact with Bern and the Dragon General Narcian and betrays the Lyican alliance. Roy and his army later travel through Laus's territory and are attacked by Erik and Laus's army, but the latter is soundly defeated.

On the way, they save a village from bandits, and are met by Saul, a representative of the Elimine Church. He reveals that Guinivere has actually stolen the Fire Emblem from Bern, and questions her as to why. He and his bodyguard, the archer Dorothy, join Roy.

Passing through Thria, they stop at Thria Castle in order to pay respects to Hector's cousin Orun, who runs that area. However, treachery is afoot and Orun's advisor, Wagner, has assassinated Orun and taken control of the castle, also taking Sue, a Sacaen Princess, who was under Orun's care, prisoner. He attempts to ambush Roy, but Roy is warned of his plans by a thief in the area, Cath, and he is able to defeat Wagner and save Sue.

Having arrived in Ostia, things are not looking well. General Leygance has revolted and taken control of the city, along with most of Ostia's remaining army, and taken Lilina prisoner. He's planning to keep Lilina as a hostage only for a short time, though; secretly, he wants her to be murdered during the fray. Roy first has to make it to the castle, as the streets of Ostia are swarming with Ostian rebellers, as well as a Wyvern Rider unit lent from Bern. Fortunately, he has some help from some Ilian mercenaries led by Zealot, who were hired by Hector and have refused to join the rebellion. Once he finally makes it inside the castle, he gets further help in the form of Barth's unit of Ostian loyalists, saves Lilina, and defeats Leygance, putting an end to the rebellion.

Lilina joins Roy's quest and tells him that she was entrusted with information as to the whereabouts of the legendary sword, Durandal, by her father. So they head the cave it is kept in to retrieve it. While the are gone, however, Narcian and a Bern Wyvern unit overrun Ostia. It seems that the recovery of the city was for naught; however, shortly afterwards, Etruria's Mage General Cecilia and Knight General Perceval bring several divisions of Etruria's army to the city and force Narcian to leave. Having only a fragmentary army, Roy places Lycia under Etrurian protection for the time being.

As part of the deal, Etruria is allowed to use Lycia's army for its own purposes. And so they send Roy and the army to the Western Isles to deal with the numerous bandit problems they are having. Guinivere is left in Cecilia's care. Bandits do indeed seem to be a big problem on the Isles, as just as soon as they arrive, they come under attack by a group of them. But things are not always as they seem, and after speaking to locals of the area, Roy discovers that it is actually the Etrurian nobility on the isles that, in most cases, is behind the bandit activities. Roy heads to various areas on the Isles to help the citizenry, where he meets the bard Elphin and the dancer Lalum, along with other members of the force resisting the Etrurians on the islands, who confirm that this is indeed the case. And so Roy heads to the capital, Jutes, to end the oppression. It was here where Roy first saw for himself one of Bern's Dragons.

After crushing the head of Etrurian corruption in the Western Isles, Roy begins to return to Etruria to make his report to Cecilia. Before that, however, first they visit a cave near Jutes in order to search for another one of the Divine Weapons, the Thunder Axe Armads. Upon leaving the cave, having found the weapon, though, they are greeted with terrible news: Etruria's Roartz and Arcard have overthrown King Mordred and given Etruria over to Bern. Cecilia has been forced to escape from the capital with Guinivere, and Percival and the Great General Douglas have been forced to work for Roartz lest they want the King killed. Cecilia is gathering an army to fight Roartz in Missur, but Bern's armies are closing on her position. So Roy immediately heads to help her.

But it seems they are too late, as King Zephiel defeats Cecilia in one hit, seriously injures her, and captures his sister Guinivere. However, all is not lost. Zephiel makes the mistake of leaving the defense of Missur to Narcian, who leaves for other places, leaving his lieutenant Flaer in charge. Furthermore, he leaves Guinivere in the care of her personal guard, Miledy, who cares more about Guinivere's wishes than Bern's. And so Guinivere convinces Milady to join the Lycian Army, and Roy retakes Missur. Cecilia's wounds have been treated by Sophia, a Shaman from Arcadia, who was locked in the dungeon with her, and she is well enough to join the army along with Sophia as well.

Bern's army is attacking Arcadia, the City of Dragons. Roy heads to their rescue. A blinding sandstorm reduces visibility and makes it hard to move, but the Lycian Army manages to make it to Arcadia and defeat the occupying force before Bern's reinforcements arrive. While there, they retrieve the Divine Anima magic, Forblaze, from the temple, and learn more about Dragons and The Scouring from the elders.

Roy sets off to return to Etruria to put an end to Roartz's rebellion. However, Fae, a young Manakete from Arcadia, tries to follow him and ends up being captured by Bern forces, resulting in Roy having to go to her rescue. Elphin also manages to convince Perceval, who had come to attack the Lycian Army under orders from Roartz, to join Roy's side, by revealing his secret identity.

Dragon General Murdock informs Narcian that King Zephiel is furious with Narcian for failing to take the Western Isles, Arcadia, and failing to detain Guinivere, and is ordered to take charge the defense of the capital of Etruria, Aqueleia, as well as demoting him from Dragon General and promoting Galle in his stead. As Roy's army storms the castle, Roartz and Arcard escape out a secret entrance. Narcian falls, and Roy and Douglas reinstate the King. Douglas and the head of the Elimine Church, Yodel, then take Roy to the Elimine Church's tower, also known as the Pinnacle of Light, where the Divine Light magic, Aureola, resides.

Having returned Etruria to its own control, stifled the corruption on the Western Isles, and with Lycia still under Etrurian protection, there remained the occupied countries of Ilia and Sacae, along with Bern itself, still hostile. Roy led the combined might of the Lycian and Etrurian armies through either Sacae or Ilia (depending on certain factors of your gameplay), to hit Bern from the north. Along they way, they fought Roartz and Arcard, left by the Dragon Generals Brunya or Murdock (Brunya if in Sacae, Murdock if in Ilia) to guard locations in those countries in return for running away from Etruria. During the trip, they acquired one more Divine weapon, and at the border of Bern, Yodel came to join the party with another; the bow, Murgleis (if you went to Ilia), or the lance, Maltet (if you went to Sacae), he also carried with him the Saint's Staff.

Progressing south through Bern they come across the Shrine of Seals, guarded by the Dragon Generals Murdock and Galle. It is a difficult fight, with masses of Wyvern reinforcements, but Roy prevails. And upon reaching the shrine, they find an entrance into its eerie depths... within, they find the seventh Divine weapon, the Dark Magic Apocalypse. Upon returning to the surface, Roy proceeds to the altar containing the Sword of Seals and places the Fire Emblem into the handle, unsealing the sword. Through its power, he is spontaneously promoted to Master Lord.

The army then assaults the capital of Bern. Roy and company invade the castle, and find that Zephiel has locked himself in the center of the castle, in an area which can only be opened from the outside by the Fire Emblem. Unfortunately for him, Roy has the jewel, and Zephiel falls. Taking possession of Zephiel's Eckesachs, the eighth and final Divine weapon, causes the set to resonate and show Roy the location of the Dragon Temple, where Idenn, the Demon Dragon responsible for creating Bern's War Dragon army, resides. They immediately set off for this location, to try to stop Idenn from carrying out Zephiel's orders even after his death.

Along the way, they run into Brunya, the last Wyvern General standing. She attempts to stop Roy from entering the temple, but ultimately fails, and the last of Bern's resistance dies with her. However, a more fierce opponent awaited them inside the temple: Jahn, a real Manakete, not one of Idenn's War Dragons. He had remained hidden here for a thousand years regaining his strength after taking a grievous wound in the Scouring, and was the one who informed Zephiel about Idenn's existence. However, even he was as nothing compared to the power of the 7 Divine weapons.

Finally, Roy entered Idenn's chamber. He attempted to persuade her to stop following Zephiel's orders, but in her soulless state, that was not possible. There was no choice left but to fight her. Striking the final blow with the Sword of Seals, which had sealed her 1000 years ago, there was a flash and her draconic form disintegrated, leaving her in her human form, unconscious. Without the power of the Dark Dragon to keep it stable, the weight of 1000 years came down on the Dragon Temple, causing it to fall to pieces.

Guinivere became the new ruler of Bern, despite her fears that she would be despised by the populace for her 'treachery'. Lilina took up her role as leader of the Lycian League and Elphin returned to Etruria. The world was at peace once more, but the work had just begun. There was much repair work needed for areas which had been struck by the war, and many positions previously filled by traitors such as Roartz needed to be refilled.

Idenn was taken to Arcadia, where the elders restored her soul to her body. Despite this, it was expected that she would never recover from over a millennium as a Demon Dragon. However...

Connection to Rekka no Ken

 * Binding Blade is set twenty years after its prequel, Fire Emblem: Rekka no Ken.


 * Many characters from the former reappear in the latter in younger forms, including Hector, Eliwood, Bartre, Karel, Merlinus, Murdock, Marcus, Erik, Zephiel, and Guinivere.


 * Among the playable characters are several relatives of the Rekka no Ken cast: the Lord Roy is the son of Eliwood; the mage Lilina is the daughter of Hector; the archer Wolt is the son of the archer Rebecca and nephew of the pirate Dart; the swordswoman Fir is the daughter of Bartre and Karla and the niece of Karel; the twins Lugh and Raigh are the sons of Nino; Klein and Clarine are the children of Pent and Louise; the nomad Sue and the nomad trooper Dayan are the daughter and father of the nomad Rath, respectively; the mage Hugh and the druid Niime are, respectively, the son and mother of Canas; Igrene is the daughter of Hawkeye; the pirate Geese is the younger brother of Geitz.


 * The playable characters Sophia and Fae from Binding Blade also make cameo appearances in Rekka no Ken chapters, but are not playable.

Because Rekka no Ken takes place two decades prior to Binding Blade and was designed to introduce western audiences to the gameplay of the Fire Emblem series, its plot is structured so that no knowledge of Binding Blade is required to enjoy the storyline.

Characters
See main article: List of characters in Fire Emblem: Binding Blade

Fire Emblem: Binding Blade has an immense number of playable characters. There are quite some amount of young units (approximately under 16) like Roy, Lillina, Lugh, Chad, and Ray. Including usable units in both the main game and in the Trial Maps, the number of players totals 62, which had the largest number of players in any Fire Emblem handheld game until Fire Emblem: Shin Monshō no Nazo ~Hikari to Kage no Eiyū~. Each class is represented by many units, usually including "prepromoted" units. For example, there are four recruitable cavaliers and three paladins, three recruitable knights and one general, four axemen, one warrior, and one berserker, and two pegasus knights and one falcoknight. Certain classes, like the Lord and Holy Dragon, serve as exceptions with only one unit in each. This vast collection of characters makes Binding Blade one of the most replayable games in the series.

Musical score
The soundtrack was composed by series mainstay Yuka Tsujiyoko. In addition to its original music, Fire Emblem: Binding Blade also features versions of songs from Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War; the character recruitment theme of Genealogy of the Holy War is reused as is the general battle theme, which is used as Binding Blade's arena and multiplayer battle themes. The player turn's music for the Trial Maps was also taken from the player turn's music from Fire Emblem Gaiden.

Relation to Super Smash Bros. Melee
Roy appears as an unlockable character in the Nintendo GameCube brawler Super Smash Bros. Melee. He was originally intended to be included in the Japanese version of the game in order to promote the upcoming release of Fire Emblem: Binding Blade along with Marth, the classic protagonist of the first and third Fire Emblem titles. Both characters were expected to be dummied out of the U.S. release of SSBM, but their popularity proved to be great enough in the west that Nintendo of America included them in the U.S. release as well. The appearance of Roy and Marth in the game can be credited with helping bring Fire Emblem games to North America, beginning with Fire Emblem: Rekka no Ken (Just Fire Emblem in America). Both Roy and Marth speak Japanese in the North American version to reflect upon the fact that the games they appeared in were only released in Japan. Unlike, Marth, Roy did not return in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, possibly due to the fact that he was a "Clone" of Marth with the only differences being slight technical and animation ones, as well as the fact he was an advertisement for his then upcoming game. He was replaced with Ike from Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn.

Fan Translations
While the game is only released in Japan, there are many YouTube videos that features the game in English. This is not Nintendo's official translation, but rather a fan-based translation, so it may not be completely accurate. In addition, many of these videos use emulators such as VisualBoyAdvance, which are currently in legal limbo as well as Nintendo's policy officially opposes such programs.

Trivia

 * Like its prequel, Fire Emblem: Rekka no Ken, Binding Blade draws heavily from Arthurian mythology and the Song of Roland. Characters in FE6 whose names are inspired by Arthurian characters include: Guinivere, Bors, Perceval, Igrene, Gorlois, Niime, Narcian, and Lance. Characters inspired by the Song of Roland include the Eight Legends and Ogier.
 * Binding Blade is the first Fire Emblem game to have absolutely no relation to the continent of Akaneia. Gaiden was connected through Palla, Catria, Est, and Zeke (real name Camus), and the Jugdral Series features Naga.

Gallery
ファイアーエムブレム 封印の剣