Tutorial Mode

This is a sub-page of Fire Emblem: Thracia 776.

Thracia 776 has an unfinished Tutorial Mode menu, an in-game help feature similar to the Guide later introduced in Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones. It was evidently planned to be very detailed and expansive in its scope, but unsurprisingly they never finished writing a good chunk of it. Almost everything that it describes is a dead ringer for the content of the final version of the game, rather than providing insight into lost or substantially changed features.

Note that all punctuation and several kanji fail to display properly in this menu, instead rendering as empty spaces, glitchy tiles or (on rare occasions) the wrong kanji/miscellaneous symbol entirely. This is usually because the affected glyphs simply do not exist at all in the menu font's character set as it stands now; none of them are used anywhere else in the final game's menus, so they were omitted from the character set due to strict space limitations. There's no way to know whether the correct glyphs were present in earlier builds and removed when the Tutorial Mode was abandoned, or if they simply never got around to implementing them in the first place.

The menu can be accessed in-game by altering these bytes in a hex editor:

• 00050316: Replace FF with 1A
• 00050317: Replace 84 with 87

After making these changes to the ROM, selecting the Status menu option in gameplay will take you to the Tutorial Mode instead.

Controls#

• D-Pad:
  • Up and Down scroll through the menu options on the left when one isn't selected; when an option is selected, they scroll the body text on the right.
  • Right selects the highlighted menu option, bringing up a second screen of more detailed explanations.
• A: Also selects the highlighted menu option.
• B: Backs out of a selected menu option.
• Start: Quits the Tutorial Mode and returns to gameplay.

Contents#

How to Operate (そうさほうほう)#

When scrolling through the menu options, this first page is what you see when hovering over it.

Selecting this entry with A or Right brings up a page with this more detailed explanation. Notably, this page lists several debug button press combinations that are no longer usable in the final game.

Saving and Loading (セーブとロード)#

Game Flow (ゲームのながれ)#

Victory and Defeat (勝利と敗北)#

Selecting this option brings up a submenu with two further options.

Victory Conditions (勝利条件)#

Defeat Conditions (敗北条件)#

There is no accessible selected page for this entry in-game, although there is a text string near the unselected page's text that seems like a plausible fit for such a page.

Preparations Menu (進撃メニュー)#

Unit Menu (ユニットメニュー)#

Selecting this option brings up a submenu with three further options.

Regular Commands (共通コマンド)#

Selecting this option brings up another submenu with 11 options.

Attack (攻撃)

Capture (捕える)

Wait (待機)

This entry has no selected page.

Item (持ち物)

This entry has no selected page.

Transfer (人交換)

This entry has no selected page.

Trade (物交換)

This entry has no selected page.

Animation (アニメ)

This entry has no selected page.

Talk (話す)

This entry has no selected page.

Visit (訪ねる)

This entry has no selected page.

Note that rather than being seen as garbled tiles when viewed in-game, the kanji for "dwelling" (民家) in this passage are instead displayed as "射＋". This is because of how Thracia 776's menu font tileset works: in addition to a main body of universally relevant glyphs (hiragana, katakana, numbers, important kanji, Latin letters A-E), it temporarily loads chunks of extra, less critical kanji and glyphs which overwrite part of the main body. The Tutorial Mode does not load these extra chunks, but the kanji in "民家" only appear in a chunk, so instead the game displays the two glyphs that occupy the position "民家" would be in if its chunk were loaded, which happen to be "射＋".

Release (かいほう)

This entry has no selected page.

Rescue (かつぐ)

This entry has no selected page.

Terrain Commands (地形コマンド)#

Selecting this option brings up another submenu with 11 options.

Armory (武器屋)

This entry has no selected page.

Vendor (道具屋)

This entry has no selected page.

Arena (闘技場)

This entry has no selected page.

Supply (預かり所)

This entry has no selected page.

Secret Shop (秘密の店)

This entry has no selected page.

Escape (離脱)

This entry has no selected page.

Convoy (輸送隊)

This is the only case of the tutorial mode referencing a function that does not exist in the final game: accessing an item convoy tied to a unit, like in Monshou no Nazo and the majority of subsequent games. Instead, item storage access during chapters is handled exclusively through supply outlets (see above). Judging by what is written here, the developers already knew it wasn't likely to be in the finished product. The final game does, however, have an unfinished menu screen that was once for the convoy.

This entry has no selected page.

Seize (制圧)

This entry has no selected page.

Door (扉)

Oddly enough, this and the next few entries neglect to mention that regular units can unlock doors and chests with specific keys, instead treating it as something only thieves can do, a restriction that's never been in place in any Fire Emblem game (not counting Dew's event with the Chapter 4 drawbridge in Seisen no Keifu).

This entry has no selected page.

Bridge (はね橋)

This entry has no selected page.

Chest (宝箱)

This entry has no selected page.

Class Commands (兵種コマンド)#

Selecting this option brings up another submenu with two options.

Staff (杖)

This entry has no selected page.

Dance (踊り)

This entry has no selected page.

Map Menu (マップメニュー)#

This entry's selected page contains another reference to a cut convoy function. Monshou no Nazo also had a map menu option that brought up a list of its present contents, so it seems likely that the same was intended here.

Units (ユニット)#

From this point onward, the contents are far less complete and often consist only of brief placeholders (this one included).

This entry does have a selected page, but it's completely blank. Its controls are also a bit buggy, in that pressing B won't back out of it; instead you have to scroll to another menu option to escape.

Items (アイテム)#

The contents of this one suggest that one of Intelligent Systems' programmers was a bit grumpy about the rise of online walkthroughs at the time... Selecting this option brings up a submenu with two further options.

Weapons (ぶき)#

This entry has no selected page.

Items (どうぐ)#

This entry has no selected page. Note that when viewed in-game, パラメータＵＰ系 (stat boosters) is erroneously displayed as "パラメータ団Ｐ系": another victim of glyph tileset swapping.

Terrain (ちけい)#

It looks like they just completely gave up on this one... The selected page has the same buggy control issue as the units entry.

Shop (みせ)#

Beginner's Center (初心者の館)#

This would presumably have been a section for simpler, more beginner-friendly explanations. As it stands, though, it's nothing but quick placeholder text. The selected page has the same buggy control issue as the units entry.

Advice (アドバイス)#

Selecting this option brings up a submenu of three relatively lengthy explanations of specific mechanics new to Thracia 776 and their potential applications. However, only the options change, not the actual page contents, until you select from that submenu. Returning from any option still doesn't update the right text, interestingly.

Advice 1 (アドバイス１)#

Advice 2 (アドバイス２)#

Advice 3 (アドバイス３)#