Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones

This page details one or more prototype versions of Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones.

Debugging FunctionsBrought to you by random button mashing! Maps and ChaptersMost of the final game's chapters are here, in varying states of completion.

Weapons#

The items in the prototype as of this revision are identical to Fire Emblem's weapon and item set, though two new weapons have been added at the end.

Portrait Differences#

A large majority of characters have a dummy silhouette portrait with a white question mark. The characters that do have non-placeholder portraits are of varying levels of difference to final.

All portraits use a more washed-out palette style and were updated to darker palettes for the final game.

Name	Proto	Final	Notes
Eirika			Design-wise, Eirika's pretty much the same as the final version, though her portrait was touched up, particularly her hair.
Ephraim			Ephraim received general structural touchups all over the place. Even accounting for the general stylistic palette shift across all the mugs, Ephraim's armor was originally a lighter blue. Interestingly, this portrait snuck its way into the game's Japanese and US manuals.
Seth			Seth received only a palette update.
Franz			...as did Franz...
Gilliam			...and Gilliam.
Moulder			Moulder's clothes were changed, his face received some touchups, and he was given a bit more jaw. His portrait is a bit shorter in the final game.
Vanessa			The shape of Vanessa's hair was adjusted and her face was touched up. A pixel of shading in her left eye was changed.
Ross			The back of Ross' head, a bit of his jawline, and the positioning of his shoulder were adjusted.
Garcia			Garcia's hairline, beard, and pupil were adjusted. His armor received very minor touchups.
Innes			Innes' clothes and a portion of his hair were touched up.
Lute			Lute was given bits of longer hair and her shoulders were made slightly wider. Her near eye was changed, and she received shading touch-ups all over the place in general.
Forde			Forde's armor was changed and he was given longer hair. As a character, he acts and mentions that he is often sleepy in the final version of the game, which seems to be somewhat more reflected by his messy hair and darkened eye-bags in the prototype portrait.
Kyle			Kyle and Forde swapped outfit colors. Kyle's head, face, and hair were pretty much changed to a new character entirely, though both have a similar "serious business" vibe, like the character's personality in the final version of the game. This revision of Kyle's portrait has animation frames from Kent, a character in the previous game.
Amelia			Amelia's armor was touched up quite a bit, as was her hair.
Dozla			The palette of Dozla's hair and outline was updated for stylistic reasons. Otherwise, the portrait is the same.
Rennac			Rennac got general touch-ups all over. His hair was also changed slightly near the headband.
Ewan			Ewan is one of the least changed. His portrait got updated to change the outline color to the standard one used by all other final portraits.
Myrrh			Myrrh's hair was a bit more on the blue side and her eyes were originally purple. She received minor touch-ups to her face and collar. Interestingly, this portrait snuck its way into the game's Japanese and US manuals.

Name	Proto	Final (L'Arachel)	Final (Tana)	Notes
L'Arachel				L'Arachel's prototype design was edited and given to Tana for the final version. She received an entirely new design for the final game.
Name	Proto	Final (Tethys)	Final (Neimi)	Notes
Tethys				Tethys got an entirely new portrait for the final game. Her old portrait was edited and given to Neimi.

Battle Animation Differences#

To do: Video would likely be a better demonstration for these.

While many battle animations are missing, there are three new animations implemented, though they are all in rough shape, being a bit unrefined in both movement and shading.

Characters using animations from previous games do not yet have their personalized palettes, and use generic palettes.

Eirika (Lord Class)#

Eirika has a completely different battle animation. Its overall movements are different, and is in general unpolished. It made a handful of appearances in Japanese preview magazine articles.

It also does not have any associated sound effects, aside from the sound effect that plays when she hits an opponent. It is complete with an attack, dodge, critical, unarmed, and magic sword animation.

Revenant#

The Zombie (known as Revenant in the English release) has a rough animation inserted. It is complete with an attack, dodge, critical, and unarmed animations. It is... very squishy.

It also does not have any associated sound effects, aside from the sound effect that plays when it hits an opponent.

Bonewalker#

The Skeleton (known as Bonewalker in the English release) has a rough animation inserted. It is complete with an attack, dodge, critical, and unarmed animations. It is missing magic sword animations, so it freezes the game when animations are on and it attempts to use a magic sword.

It also does not have any associated sound effects, aside from the sound effect that plays when it hits an opponent.

Miscellaneous Graphics#

To do: Need "congratulation" banner for ruins/tower.

Proto	JP Final

The promotion screen uses a font from the previous game as a placeholder.

Proto	JP Final

The banner that appears when completing a floor in the Tower of Valni or Lagdou Ruins is clearly a placeholder.

Game Script#

The character dialogue and scenes for the first eight chapters is implemented. While the gist is the same as the final game, it features various differences and uses placeholder names and designations. For instance, some bosses are called "Evil" in dialogue, and it seems that "xx" may be used for placeholders of other things. Some lines of dialogue have "Temporary)" written at the start.

Names#

Class Names#

A few of the classes have different names than the final version.

Character Names#

Only two playable characters have different names than they do in the final, although a few names that go unused in the final were also changed. Also of note, all the bosses in the game are named イビル (Evil).

One of the protagonists, known as Ephraim in the final, is called "Irzark" in debug materials. This name change seems to have been made very early and before this revision, as in all gameplay he is called Ephraim.

Perhaps worth noting, considering how much inspiration The Sacred Stones takes from Gaiden: Boruba's Japanese spelling, ボルバ, is バルボ (Barubo), the Japanese name of Valbar from Gaiden, backwards, akin to naming the character "Rablav" in English. Interestingly enough, his final name, Garcia (ガルシア), directly matches the name of a character from Gaiden with no modification at all, both in Japanese and, eventually, English. Granted, the character in question is simply a throwaway Cantor boss fought by Celica's army during Act 4 rather than a party member.

Guide#

To do: Looking through the game script, there seems to be more text present for the guide. Should check if it is particularly different from final.

The guide feature is present, and functionally and graphically seems to be fully implemented. It doesn't cover much material at this point, however, only featuring very short text about breakable walls. The guide is also a bit shy, and only appears in the map menu sometimes; entering skirmishes seems to make it appear, though. Visually, it is exactly as it appears in final.

Image	Translation (section)	Translation (body)
	Game Mechanic	Breakable Walls Break down a wall, make your way through

World Map#

The world map is largely the same as the final release, however it has a slightly different palette and slightly different paths. There is one location not featured in the final release. The Demon's Forest location was essentially merged with the Black Temple location in the final.

Magvel, the continent itself, is also shaped slightly differently, being somewhat less detailed in the prototype, missing features like some of the mountain ranges, rivers, forests, and the like.

Proto	Final

World Map Location Names#

Nearly every location name in the prototype is different from the final.

Supports#

There are three support pairs implemented, making for a total of nine conversations. For whatever reason, support points do not increase in gameplay, so these conversations need to be unlocked by using the the debug stat screen to increase support points.

The three pairs are Eirika x Seth, Eirika x Franz, and Seth x Franz. Interestingly, the Eirika x Franz pairing does not exist in the final release at all.

All nine conversations feature placeholder dialogue. They also claim that the conversation is occurring between Eirika and Seth (the first two characters recruited in the game), though it is possible for this to not be the case.

The level 1 message appears in C rank conversations, the level 2 message appears in B rank conversations, and the level 3 message in A rank conversations. All of these conversations load Eirika on the left as the speaker and Seth on the right (he doesn't say anything).

Music#

Absolutely no new songs are implemented yet, the prototype still features the entirety of the previous game's soundtrack.

Differences from the Final#

• Lots of content from Blazing Sword, such as the title screen, all the music, map tiles and etc. is in the prototype ROM.
  • The mode select from the previous game is present, amusingly featuring Eirika and... Eliwood and Hector.
• Tons of placeholder graphics and data, such as character portraits, enemies and bosses on the map.
• Amelia has Tana's role; her class was planned to be a flying Trainee.
• L'Arachel has a variation of Tana's portrait, while Tethys has a variation of Neimi's portrait.
• There was a Wyvern Rider called Nate planned.
• Some characters have different classes, eg. Innes (Monk), Forde (Ranger), Cormag (Mercenary), Tana (General), Joshua (Swordmaster).
• In Chapter 6, after Eirika hands over her bracelet, the Grado soldiers kill the civilians immediately and they cannot be saved.
• Chapter 5x and Chapter 11 (Creeping Darkness and Phantom Ship) in both routes are absent.
• Melkaen coast, while existing as a location on the world map, does not yet have its actual map implemented yet.
• After Chapter 8, there are no more story events.
• Eirika promotes at the beginning of Chapter 17.
• The Final Chapter is comprised of just one map.

Oddities#

• Both L and B will back out of the options menu, though the former does it silently while the latter plays a beep. This is not present in the final release. Did a developer really not like the sound?