Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance

In the Fire Emblem series' first foray into 3D, Ike must bridge a centuries-old racial divide between humans and shapeshifting furries to stop a madman from abusing a glowing lump of blue metal.

Sub-Pages#

Prerelease Info Regional DifferencesLots of messing around with the difficulty. Unused Classes"No, I'm not talking about school. Sheesh!" Unused ItemsAll the items you'll never need. Debug MenuFeaturing ominously rotating cutscene backgrounds! Battle PreviewerA model viewer lurking in the game's files. Test MapEver wanted to climb a gigantic staircase that leads nowhere? Now's your chance.

Internal Project Name#

The game's internal project name is "FE8", judging by several important files which bear this label. This seems a bit odd at first glance, since Path of Radiance was the ninth Fire Emblem game to be released, but evidence suggests that it was in development long before Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, even though The Sacred Stones ended up being released first.

Unused Text#

Retreat Dialog#

In the Japanese version, almost every playable character (plus the NPCs Leanne and Nealuchi, for some reason) has a dialog string for when they are retreating from a map in the common.m file, but since Chapter 10 is the last regular map with a retreat objective, 29 of these strings are left unused. The localization completely removed all of these strings and internal references to them, so no text box will play at all if you retreat with any of these characters (e.g. by using a chapter select code to take them back).

Death Dialog#

Two NPCs, Nealuchi and Leanne, have death quotes in the Japanese version. Like all the retreat quotes, both the text strings and any reference to them were removed from the localizations.

Cutscene Dialog#

To do: Find out what causes English subtitles to not be displayed in the European version and if there is a way to forcibly activate them.

In non-Japanese versions, scripts for the English dubbed cutscenes can be found in the mess\common.m file. In the European version, localized versions of these scripts in Spanish, Italian, French and German can be found in s_common.m, i_common.m, f_common.m and d_common.m, respectively, where they are used as subtitles when the game is set to those languages. However, the original scripts go completely unused, as subtitles are not displayed at all in cutscenes when playing the game in English. Some of the scripted lines also do not match the actual spoken ones.

Deleted Messages#

In the Japanese version, the following message string can be found in many chapter script files, as well as the common.m file, as a placeholder for dialog sequences that once existed but were scrapped. Unsurprisingly, the localizations removed almost all of these, but exactly one instance survived in the script for Chapter 28 and was made... much angrier.

Deleted Supports#

In the Japanese version, the support script file (yell.m) contains a large number of empty message entries for 32 abandoned support pairs. The localizations removed all of these entries.

• Ike and Zihark (MYELL_IKE_ZIHARK_C, MYELL_IKE_ZIHARK_B, MYELL_IKE_ZIHARK_A)
• Boyd and Devdan (MYELL_BOLE_DALAHOWE_C, MYELL_BOLE_DALAHOWE_B, MYELL_BOLE_DALAHOWE_A)
• Oscar and Astrid (MYELL_OSCAR_STELLA_C, MYELL_OSCAR_STELLA_B, MYELL_OSCAR_STELLA_A)
• Shinon and Mist (MYELL_CHINON_MIST_C, MYELL_CHINON_MIST_B, MYELL_CHINON_MIST_A)
• Gatrie and Bastian (MYELL_GATRIE_ULYSSES_C, MYELL_GATRIE_ULYSSES_B, MYELL_GATRIE_ULYSSES_A)
• Marcia and Mia (MYELL_MARCIA_WAYU_C, MYELL_MARCIA_WAYU_B, MYELL_MARCIA_WAYU_A)
• Mist and Tormod (MYELL_MIST_TOPUCK_C, MYELL_MIST_TOPUCK_B, MYELL_MIST_TOPUCK_A)
• Mist and Volke (MYELL_MIST_VOKE_C, MYELL_MIST_VOKE_B, MYELL_MIST_VOKE_A)
• Kieran and Lethe (MYELL_KEVIN_LETHE_C, MYELL_KEVIN_LETHE_B, MYELL_KEVIN_LETHE_A)
• Brom and Geoffrey (MYELL_CHAP_GEOFFRAY_C, MYELL_CHAP_GEOFFRAY_B, MYELL_CHAP_GEOFFRAY_A)
• Brom and Makalov (MYELL_CHAP_MAKAROV_C, MYELL_CHAP_MAKAROV_B, MYELL_CHAP_MAKAROV_A)
• Nephenee and Mia (MYELL_NEPENEE_WAYU_C, MYELL_NEPENEE_WAYU_B, MYELL_NEPENEE_WAYU_A)
• Astrid and Tanith (MYELL_STELLA_TANIS_C, MYELL_STELLA_TANIS_B, MYELL_STELLA_TANIS_A)
• Stefan and Tauroneo (MYELL_SOANVALCKE_TAURONEO_C, MYELL_SOANVALCKE_TAURONEO_B, MYELL_SOANVALCKE_TAURONEO_A)
• Muarim and Stefan (MYELL_MWARIM_SOANVALCKE_C, MYELL_MWARIM_SOANVALCKE_B, MYELL_MWARIM_SOANVALCKE_A)
• Devdan and Makalov (MYELL_DALAHOWE_MAKAROV_C, MYELL_DALAHOWE_MAKAROV_B, MYELL_DALAHOWE_MAKAROV_A)
• Reyson and Ulki (MYELL_RIEUSION_VULCI_C, MYELL_RIEUSION_VULCI_B, MYELL_RIEUSION_VULCI_A)
• Janaff and Reyson (MYELL_JANAFF_RIEUSION_C, MYELL_JANAFF_RIEUSION_B, MYELL_JANAFF_RIEUSION_A)
• Janaff and Sothe (MYELL_JANAFF_SOTHE_C, MYELL_JANAFF_SOTHE_B, MYELL_JANAFF_SOTHE_A)
• Tanith and Volke (MYELL_TANIS_VOKE_A MYELL_TANIS_VOKE_B MYELL_TANIS_VOKE_A)
• Calill and Shinon (MYELL_CALILL_CHINON_C, MYELL_CALILL_CHINON_B, MYELL_CALILL_CHINON_A)
• Ranulf and Tauroneo (MYELL_LAY_TAURONEO_C, MYELL_LAY_TAURONEO_B, MYELL_LAY_TAURONEO_A)
• Haar and Sothe (MYELL_HAAR_SOTHE_C, MYELL_HAAR_SOTHE_B, MYELL_HAAR_SOTHE_A)
• Haar and Ulki (MYELL_HAAR_VULCI_C, MYELL_HAAR_VULCI_B, MYELL_HAAR_VULCI_A)
• Lucia and Titania (MYELL_LUCHINO_TIAMAT_C, MYELL_LUCHINO_TIAMAT_B, MYELL_LUCHINO_TIAMAT_A)
• Geoffrey and Kieran (MYELL_GEOFFRAY_KEVIN_C, MYELL_GEOFFRAY_KEVIN_B, MYELL_GEOFFRAY_KEVIN_A)
• Geoffrey and Bastian (MYELL_GEOFFRAY_ULYSSES_C, MYELL_GEOFFRAY_ULYSSES_B, MYELL_GEOFFRAY_ULYSSES_A)
• Elincia and Jill (MYELL_ERINCIA_QUEEN_JILL_C, MYELL_ERINCIA_QUEEN_JILL_B, MYELL_ERINCIA_QUEEN_JILL_A)
• Elincia and Lucia (MYELL_ERINCIA_QUEEN_LUCHINO_C, MYELL_ERINCIA_QUEEN_LUCHINO_B, MYELL_ERINCIA_QUEEN_LUCHINO_A)
• Elincia and Muarim (MYELL_ERINCIA_QUEEN_MWARIM_C, MYELL_ERINCIA_QUEEN_MWARIM_B, MYELL_ERINCIA_QUEEN_MWARIM_A)
• Elincia and Nephenee (MYELL_ERINCIA_QUEEN_NEPENEE_C, MYELL_ERINCIA_QUEEN_NEPENEE_B, MYELL_ERINCIA_QUEEN_NEPENEE_A)
• Elincia and Tauroneo (MYELL_ERINCIA_QUEEN_TAURONEO_C, MYELL_ERINCIA_QUEEN_TAURONEO_B, MYELL_ERINCIA_QUEEN_TAURONEO_A)

Zihark Ending#

The epilogue script in mess\c31.m contains a slightly extended version of Zihark's farewell. Considering it has him talk about a future duel with Ike that comes up at no other point in the script, and that all other alternate versions of character farewells are related to support relationships with Ike, this may have been intended as the endpoint for the cut support between the two characters. Oddly enough, the localization translated it and left it in.

Bonus Experience Criteria#

While the final game features a rather limited and repetitive selection of achievements which reward the player with bonus experience, the Japanese version's mess\common.m text file suggests that many, many, many more were planned, covering a wide variety of activities. All of these strings were removed from all localizations of the game.

Menu Leftovers#

The common.m file has a handful of miscellaneous leftover strings, occasionally pointing to features that didn't make it into the final version of the game.

Unused Graphics#

This needs some investigation. Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page. Specifically: Investigate window/butai.tpl, which may include development remnants.

Character Portraits#

Fire Emblem's traditional silhouette placeholder makes its second appearance. The writing says "絶賛制作中" ("Work in progress"), and is slightly squished in the profile screen version to prevent being cut off.

A spare portrait set for Ike in which he is facing the camera, like what Lyn, Eliwood and Hector occasionally did in the seventh game. Includes all of the necessary eye and mouth animation textures.

An alternate portrait set for Soren with his hood raised, including all of the necessary eye and mouth animation textures.

An alternate portrait for Anna, which is identical to the used one except that she's positioned higher and more of her waist is visible. Unsurprisingly, it has no profile screen counterpart, since its only difference wouldn't be visible at all in the profile view. Includes all of the necessary eye and mouth animation textures.

A portrait set for Renning, including all of the necessary eye and mouth animation textures. Renning is only ever seen as a background illustration in narration scenes. Of particular interest is that both his face and overall pose are exact matches for the portrait of his Bertram identity. Perhaps one portrait was used to create the other?

Two variants of a generic portrait for thieves. Both have eye animation textures. They have no full-sized equivalents.

Experience Meter#

Graphics for an older version of the experience meter are located in window/exp.tpl, whereas the used graphics are in window/expup.tpl. Interestingly, the numeric font resembles the font used for characters' health points in prerelease images.

Icons#

There are a handful of unused icons for items, skills and parts of the interface in the window/icons.tpl file.

The item sheet (Texture0) has a set of what look like early icons for unit weight types. From left to right: armored, cavalry, pegasus, wyvern, a blue tent, beast laguz, dragon laguz, bird laguz. The actually used ones are on the skill sheet (Texture1) and are much larger than the unused ones. The cavalry, pegasus and wyvern ones from this set more closely resemble their counterparts from the GBA games, while their used counterparts are less stylized.

The tent one is unusual since it has no obvious link to anything in Path of Radiance. Its design is identical to Merlinus's transporter tent from the seventh game. It's worth noting that Path of Radiance is one of only a few Fire Emblem games which does not give the player any means of accessing the surplus item convoy during maps, a la Merlinus's purpose, whatsoever.

Two placeholder icons in the item sheet: a beige box in the shape of the status affliction icons repeated 19 times, and the kanji 空 ("empty") repeated 15 times.

Three more placeholders for the skill sheet: a skill icon frame with a black fill repeated 8 times, another skill icon frame with a beige fill repeated another 8 times, and a weight type frame.

Another instance of the blue Merlinus tent, sitting in the middle of the weight type icons on the skill sheet. There's nothing else in the game's interface that has an octagonal shape like it.

Help Window#

Some of the options for the simple controller help window in window/ctrlinfo.tpl are unused. "Other Unit" is replaced by "Next Unit" in-game, whereas "Show Range" is replaced by a toggle between "Range: On" and "Range: Off". "Order" seems to be a reference to Ike's Order ability, which is done in a menu after moving instead.

s\1we#

An alternative title screen featuring a preliminary English logo. Note that Lehran's Medallion is part of this logo - that's where it is in the Japanese logo, but the final English one omits it entirely. Naturally, this file is only present in the localized versions.

Fuuin no Tsurugi Illustrations#

Because it was never released outside Japan, the localizers had to disable link access to Fire Emblem: Fuuin no Tsurugi in the North American and European versions of Path of Radiance, and its section in the Illustrations gallery was completely removed. However, all 64 of its illustrations are still on the disc in the illust/gba1 directory, completely unedited.

Miscellaneous#

These files can also be found unused in the sequel, Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn.

etc\Icon.tpl#

This file contains the full set of item and skill icons from Thracia 776, plus a few from Seisen no Keifu, albeit with a different palette from the original games. They were probably used as placeholders before the final icons were drawn out; early screenshots of Fuuin no Tsurugi also show these icons being used as placeholders.

etc\tobecontinued.cms#

An image of Lehran's Medallion, captioned To Be Continued.... This file is only present in the localized versions. It may have been created and used for an as-yet unidentified, and presumably American or European, demo release.

etc\phase.tpl#

These look like placeholder graphics for announcing player and enemy phases. There aren't any equivalent images for the partner and other phases.

etc\gameover.tpl#

These look like placeholder graphics for the game over screen and, presumably, the end of a demo build.

Hidden Details#

Ilyana's unpromoted model has a bow, composed of a whole 12 pixels, textured onto her underwear. Technically used, but the placement renders it impossible to see in-game.

Unused Growth Rates#

Some playable characters have growth rates, despite joining at the maximum possible level, meaning they never get to utilize them. Oddly, Giffca's stat screen shows an experience value of "0" instead of "--", suggesting that he had the ability to level up at some point during development.

In fixed mode while most other classes with no enemy units are assigned to yield 0 growth points across the board when killed, Valkyries do have a unique spread of growth points to award despite no enemy Valkyries appearing. Princess Crimea also has growth points assigned, but these are identical to the other Pegasus Knight classes. Female classes also have growth point yields assigned despite most never appearing as an enemy and being technically an independent class (Mage, Wyvern Rider/Lord, Red Dragon, and Lance Paladin being the only used ones), but these are identical to their male counterparts.

Unused Characters#

Numerous NPCs have sets of stat data that either the player never sees or are never loaded into the game at all.

Note that the way Path of Radiance works with character stats is, it stores a base stat individual to a character and adds that to their class's base stats to produce the total stats the player sees them with. The base stats for these characters are listed in parentheses after their total stats.

Nealuchi#

Nealuchi is briefly seen on the map during a cutscene in Chapter 28, but never remains there in gameplay so his stats can't be seen. Given that he also has retreat and death dialog, he might have been intended to be playable at some point; the same indications are there for Leanne. He doesn't have a unique battle model.

Nealuchi is playable in Radiant Dawn.

Caineghis#

Caineghis's stats are remarkably similar to those of his bodyguard, Giffca. Radiant Dawn adds him as a playable character.

Zelgius#

Many of Zelgius's stats - growth rates, weapon levels and affinity - are identical to those of the Black Knight, which early data-miners took as one of the first hints that they are, in fact, one and the same person before Radiant Dawn confirmed this.

Sigrun#

Sigrun is briefly seen on the map during a cutscene in Chapter 13, but never remains there in gameplay so her stats can't be seen. Although she has a unique map model, it only covers her using swords, so having her equip a lance will crash the game. Unsurprisingly, her battle model is just the default.

Sigrun appears as both a playable unit and a boss in Radiant Dawn.

Lekain and Hetzel#

Even though both are very minor characters as far as Path of Radiance is concerned, appearing only in one cutscene, both Lekain and Hetzel have a set of stats apiece, although all of their data (aside from affinity) is identical to that of both each other and Oliver. Neither of them have unique map or battle models.

Both characters appear as bosses in Radiant Dawn, with a greatly expanded role in the game's story.

Heather#

Heather (ヘザー) is a female sword knight. Unsurprisingly, she doesn't have any art or model assets of her own and just uses the generic Begnion enemy crest for her portrait; also, the localizations completely removed her name string. She shares her base stats and growths with Tanith's pegasus knight reinforcements.

Radiant Dawn has a playable character called Heather, but she doesn't otherwise have much in common with what few distinguishing features this Heather has (rogue with a fire affinity compared to a sword knight with a light affinity).

The behind the scenes book Tellius Recollection Vol. 2 includes a portrait of Heather among the early Path of Radiance portraits.

Leftover Names#

The Mess\common.m file has a fair few name string entries that have no other associated unit data and are not called to be displayed in dialog scenes' name tags. Yet again, the localizations removed a fair few of these.

Cutscene Stand-Ins#

Oddly enough, whenever characters appear in cutscenes acted out on the maps, the game doesn't use their actual playable/boss selves from gameplay. Instead, the game uses duplicates of those characters, with very different stats and inventories from the actual ones, as stand-ins. There's an absolutely huge number of these but they're individually not all that interesting other than the fact that they exist.

Unseen Class Data#

Bandit Promotion#

Despite being enemy-only, the Bandit class has fully-functional promotion data. They promote into Berserker, with the following stat gains:

Fog of War Vision#

To do: Test and confirm the vision stats for Bandit (the wiki lists it as 5 on the fog of war page but as 3 on the page for the class itself) and the unused classes.

Uniquely to this game and Radiant Dawn, every class has its own set vision range for fog of war maps. This includes classes that are never playable on a fog map without hacking:

Unused Skills#

There are a large number of unused skills, and like the cut items, none of them have much in the way of associated text.

Debug No.	Icon	Skill Name	Effects	Cap.	Help Text	File name	Notes
13	(N/A)	値切り (Bargain)	Reduces item prices at base shops by 50%	1	(N/A)	SID_BARGAIN	A skill from Seisen no Keifu and Thracia 776. Unlike in those games, it drops prices for all units, not just whoever it's equipped to. Not visible in stat screens, aside from the increase to the capacity gauge.
15	(N/A)	大魔法 (Big Magic)	Has no observable effect.	20	(N/A)	SID_WLUPTOS	Its file name suggests it might have originally enabled weapon levels to reach S rank, but in the final game that function is actually handled by a different hidden skill (SID_HIGHER) which covers all class change functions. Not visible in stat screens, aside from the increase to the capacity gauge.
17		鉄壁 (Iron Wall)	Has no observable effect.	5	Mess_Help_skill_Impregnable	SID_IMPREGNABLE	The only unused skill that displays properly on stat screens, the only one with an icon, and the only one with a matching scroll item.
20	(N/A)	飛行 (Flight)	Has no observable effect.	0	(N/A)	SID_FLYTHRU	Not to be confused with the hidden skill SID_FLY, which disables terrain effects on flying classes. Not visible in stat screens.
21	(N/A)	突破 (Breakthrough)	Has no observable effect.	0	(N/A)	SID_WALKTHRU	Not visible in stat screens.
25	(N/A)	ＨＰの歌 (Song of HP)	Has no observable effect.	0	(N/A)	SID_CHANTHP	These may have been special counterparts for Canto that temporarily gave stat boosts, similar to the dancer rings from the seventh game. None of them are visible in stat screens. Radiant Dawn didn't use any of these specifically, either, but it did reintroduce the idea of galdrar with effects other than allowing allies to move again.
26	(N/A)	力の歌 (Song of Strength)	Has no observable effect.	0	(N/A)	SID_CHANTSTR
27	(N/A)	魔力の歌 (Song of Magic)	Has no observable effect.	0	(N/A)	SID_CHANTMPOW
28	(N/A)	技の歌 (Song of Skill)	Has no observable effect.	0	(N/A)	SID_CHANTTECH
29	(N/A)	速さの歌 (Song of Speed)	Has no observable effect.	0	(N/A)	SID_CHANTQUICK
30	(N/A)	幸運の歌 (Song of Luck)	Has no observable effect.	0	(N/A)	SID_CHANTLUCK
31	(N/A)	守備の歌 (Song of Defense)	Has no observable effect.	0	(N/A)	SID_CHANTDEF
32	(N/A)	魔防の歌 (Song of Resistance)	Has no observable effect.	0	(N/A)	SID_CHANTMDEF
54	(N/A)	混沌 (Chaos)	Has no observable effect.	8	(N/A)	SID_CHAOS	Not visible in stat screens, aside from the increase to the capacity gauge.
64	(N/A)	絶対移動 (Absolute Move)	Has no observable effect.	5	(N/A)	SID_ABSMOVE	Not visible in stat screens, aside from the increase to the capacity gauge.
66	(N/A)	一騎討ち (Single Combat)	Has no observable effect.	0	(N/A)	SID_CONFRONT	Not visible in stat screens.
71	(N/A)	邪眼 (Evil Eye)	Has no observable effect.	10	(N/A)	SID_EVILEYE	Not visible in stat screens, aside from the increase to the capacity gauge. Used in Radiant Dawn as Glare, Nailah's unique skill.

Other Leftovers#

The common.m file contains a separate set of name strings for various skills earlier on in the file than the actually used ones. Both the English and Japanese sets feature some odd differences from what they're actually known as in the finished game. What these strings would've been used for, if anything, is anyone's guess.

The model viewer mode contains two unused start-up flash effects for mastery skills. Both even have unique unused sound effects.

• One for a separate mastery skill for wyvern lords; in the finished game, their mastery skill is Stun, the same as falcon knights. This effect is a red recolor of the Stun effect.
• One for the recurring Pavise/Great Shield skill from other games; the hawk laguz mastery skill, Cancel, is identical to Pavise but uses completely different visual and sound effects when it activates.

Additionally, the Colossus skill's activation sound effect is named "SFX_BTL_SPECIAL_ANGER1", while the Battle Previewer calls its effect "Mastery: Wrath". This seems to suggest that at some point, Wrath was meant to be a mastery skill, before becoming a regular skill with the generic activation sound and visual effects.

Unused Models#

Map Models#

To do: Serenes Forest used to have images of these models, but they were never archived (and were of poor quality anyways). Hack the game to make these appear, verify, and get clean images. Get footage of Greil/the Hero class's unique Aether animations.

There are a handful of unused map models that are just sort of sitting by themselves, unconnected to any unused characters or classes.

• Deghinsea
• Caineghis
• Sanaki as an adult. This one actually has a slightly more complete set of animations than Sanaki's actual, used ten-year-old model, including having a proper animation for casting magic. Concept art for this Sanaki design was published in the Tellius Recollection art book.
• Sothe as an assassin. Oddly enough, if the game is hacked to promote Sothe into an assassin, he just uses the generic class model rather than this one.

Black Knight with Lances#

As a boss, the only weapon the Black Knight is ever seen wielding is his sword, Alondite, but since he's a general he is able to wield lances as well. As it turns out, his map model for when he has a lance equipped features a very elaborate lance design that's seen nowhere else! His battle model's lance-wielding is less interesting since, unsurprisingly, he just uses the same lance animations as regular generals.

For what it's worth, Radiant Dawn does allow the player to mess around with giving the Black Knight lances during the brief periods in which he is playable.

Leanne#

Leanne has a complete, unique untransformed battle model, although her wing textures are a bit buggy. The player never gets a chance to see this at all in the maps where she appears as a NPC, since a) Ike is carrying her the entire time and is not allowed to drop her, and b) even if he could, NPCs never play battle animations.

Unshifted Red Dragons#

Generic red dragon laguz have a complete battle model for their humanoid state. This is never seen because the only generic red dragons ever encountered in gameplay are Feral Ones, who never revert to humanoid form. Their battle model for their humanoid state is used in Radiant Dawn.

Unused Cutscenes#

Movie/dummy#

A one-second-long clip of the Black Knight taken from the "Greil's Fall" cutscene, with the addition of two instances of the word "DUMMY" fading in and out on top of it. It doesn't have any audio. The clip is also in Radiant Dawn, completely unchanged.

If the game attempts to play a movie file that doesn't exist in the game data, it plays this movie instead, although this cannot occur in the final game without hacking.

Movie/s01_E3.thp#

The script for the Prologue chapter contains a check for if the game is an E3 build, and if so, would play an E3 version of the introduction movie. Naturally, the check always returns a false value in the final game, so the game always plays the used movie, movie/s01.thp, instead. The E3 file, movie/s01_E3.thp, doesn't exist in the game data, so even if it is scripted to play by hacking, it just plays the "Dummy" movie detailed above.

Unused Sounds#

Mastery Skill SFX#

There are several unused sound effects among the batch of mastery skill activation sound effects, whose file names hint at abandoned plans for mastery skills.

SFX_BTL_SPECIAL_DRAGON1 The accompanying sound effect for the wyvern lord mastery flash.

SFX_BTL_SPECIAL_PRIEST1 A leftover from a separate mastery skill for bishops. In the finished game, their mastery skill is Flare, the same as sages. Radiant Dawn gives a unique mastery skill, Corona, to the bishop class family.

SFX_BTL_SPECIAL_OOTATE1 The accompanying sound effect for the Pavise mastery flash.

Unused Music#

gcfe_bgm_evt_comical1_32k.stm#

An unused theme for funny cutscenes.

gcfe_bgm_gameover2_32k.stm#

An alternative game over theme. Radiant Dawn later recycled this for its game over screen.

Debug Menu References#

The listings in the debug menu's BGM player contain references to numerous music tracks that don't exist on the final disc at all, which hint at some abandoned concepts.

• BGM_BTL_BEUFORRES1
• BGM_BTL_ENA1
• BGM_BTL_PRAGUE1
• BGM_BTL_MAGIC1

Evidently, individual battle themes were planned for the bosses Bertram, Ena and Petrine at some point. In the finished game, all of them use the standard "A Mighty Foe" theme shared with most important bosses. What the "magic" battle theme listing could have been is anyone's guess, though.

• BGM_OPENING1
• BGM_OPENING2
• BGM_OPENING_SHOW

Path of Radiance is the only Fire Emblem game where no theme songs are played on the title screen, aside from the brief jingle played when you press Start. It's also one of the few Fire Emblem games to not have a "class roll" attract mode introducing all of the game's classes. However, these three listings seem to suggest that both a class roll and a musical accompaniment for the title screen were planned at some point.

• BGM_EVT_FATHER1
• BGM_EVT_JOY1
• BGM_EVT_ASTARTE1
• BGM_EVT_SEPHERAN1

A few abandoned themes for cutscenes, including leitmotifs for Ashera and Sephiran, both of whom received used songs in Radiant Dawn.

• BGM_PRO00
• BGM_PRO04
• BGM_PRO05
• BGM_PRO06

Four more themes for the world map narration sequences were evidently planned.

• BGM_COLOSSEUM_BTL1
• BGM_COLOSSEUM_FF1
• BGM_COLOSSEUM_INFO1

Path of Radiance is one of only a few Fire Emblem games not to have an arena minigame for training units, but there are listings for abandoned arena tracks. The 25th anniversary "Making of Fire Emblem" book confirms that an arena facility was planned for the game.

Oddities#

Watch on YouTube

• In the final chapter, Ashnard can only be damaged by Ike (wielding Ragnell), Nasir/Ena (depending on your actions in Chapter 27), and the Laguz royal you brought to the chapter (either Tibarn, Naesala, or Giffca). They also have their own unique battle dialogues against him. Strangely, a number of other characters also have such dialogues themselves despite never actually being able to damage Ashnard. Some of these (Elincia, Haar, Tauroneo) specifically reference attacking and defeating the final boss, suggesting it was once possible for all units to be able to damage Ashnard. And yes, Reyson does have a battle quote against a boss who can one-shot him.
• Although the Vortex skill can theoretically be learned as a mastery skill by using an Occult scroll, doing so is effectively useless as the only playable raven (Naesala) already has the skill when recruited. Additionally, Vortex cannot be learned as a mastery skill by using an Occult scroll without hacking as Naesala gets recruited during the middle of the last chapter.