Оттырар Қылыш: Fire Emblem

2002 video game

Fire Emblem: The Binding Bladeefn|Known in Japan as Fire Emblem: Fūin no Tsurugi (ファイアーエムブレム封印の剣) the first title produced for the system, and the first title to appear on a handheld console. It was released in Japan in March 2002. The Binding Blade is set on the fictional continent of Elibe, which has been dominated by humans for centuries following an ancient war between humanity and dragons. The story follows Roy, a young nobleman from the small independent nation of Pherae as he leads a growing army against the forces of King Zephiel of the kingdom of Bern, who is gradually taking over Elibe with the aid of a mysterious power. As with other Fire Emblem games, battles take place on a grid based map, with player units assigned character classes taking part in single combat with enemies and being subject to permanent death if defeated. The Binding Blade began development as a Nintendo 64 title called Fire Emblem: Maiden of Darkness, but internal changes caused the project to change its platform to the GBA, scrapping nearly all of its original content in the process. One of Intelligent Systems' main goals was to make the game more forgiving to newcomers than the notoriously difficult Fire Emblem: Thracia 776. Upon release, it was praised by critics and sold over 345,000 units. Despite never releasing overseas, Roy's appearance in Super Smash Bros. Melee contributed to the localization of its 2003 prequel, The Blazing Blade, released overseas as Fire Emblem.

Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade is a tactical role playing game in which players control main protagonist Roy and his growing army as they take part in battle across the land of Elibe. Gameplay is broken up into maps bookended by story sequences, with the completion of each map advancing the storyline. When the game is completed for the first time, a new difficulty level is unlocked. Villages found during map battles will be attacked; if defended by the player, non player characters within the village will give hints about future objectives or provide a reward. A map is cleared when the boss is defeated and Roy seizes the boss's location. The scenario was written by Masayuki Horikawa and series newcomer Kouhei Maeda. The character designs were handled by Eiji Kaneda. The music was composed by Yuka Tsujiyoko, who had worked on every title in the series up to that point. The Binding Blade began development as Fire Emblem: Maiden of Darkness, a Fire Emblem title intended for the Nintendo 64 and its peripheral 64DD. This version was revealed in 1997 by Shigeru Miyamoto under the working title Fire Emblem 64. When they were well into the development of Maiden of Darkness, the internal development structure at Intelligent Systems was changed, which combined with the poor sales of the 64DD resulted in the game's development being restarted in 2000 for the Game Boy Advance (GBA). Very little of the original Nintendo 64 game concept survived the transition. Aside from the characters Roy and Karel, most of the original game's characters were scrapped. The subtitle Maiden of Darkness remained in use as a working title up until 2001, when it became The Binding Blade. The game was the first title in the Fire Emblem series on a portable console. While development of a handheld Fire Emblem title had been considered for earlier games, the team felt available hardware lacked the expression to realize their vision. The GBA offered technical capacities superior to the Super Famicom, the release platform of the last Fire Emblem title Thracia 776, while also offering portability, making it more appealing to players. The platform was also chosen due to estimated development time and budget considerations. Developing for the new hardware proved challenging in some respects, and easy in others such as creating basic software. During development, two different versions were developed while the team were getting used to the new hardware. One of the main issues they faced was the limited resolution and screen size of the GBA. The game's combat animations were intended to evoke scenes from high fantasy, such as Record of Lodoss War and Slayers, contrasting with the equivalent styles of fantasy fighting in Japanese stories. The titular "Fire Emblem" is represented as a family crest. The character of Roy was designed to appeal to younger players, and was also given a strong character in contrast to earlier recent titles. He was also made to be a free spirited and emphatic character so he appealed to as wide an audience as possible. Also in contrast to earlier entries, particularly the notoriously difficult Thracia 776, the difficulty of The Binding Blade was intentionally lowered: the game was initially planned with three difficulties, with the final "Normal" mode being intended as "Easy" mode. Another new element included was counters for elements such as turn numbers. According to later comments from the staff, the game's official title was already under consideration at the time. To promote the game in Japan, a live action television commercial was created: standard 30 second versions mixed gameplay footage with the live action sequence, while the 40 second director's cut featured the full commercial without gameplay. The latter version was only available through the game's official website. The commercial was based upon the operatic commercial created for the first Fire Emblem title Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light. The game released in Japan on March 29, 2002. and The Sword of Seals. The Binding Blade became the more common modern translation, The game was later re released in Japan on Virtual Console for Wii U on September 2, 2015, and on Nintendo Switch Online's Expansion Pack service on June 23, 2023.

During its debut week in Japan, The Binding Blade reached #4 in the sales charts, with over 101,000 units. It was still in the charts in May, having dropped to #17 and reached total sales of over 220,000 units. By the end of 2002 the game sold over 345,000 units, ranking at #29 in the 300 best selling video games of the year. Famitsu was positive about the game. One reviewer noted the slight alterations to the series formula with the shift onto the GBA, but said that it was still unmistakably a Fire Emblem title. A second reviewer praised the game's pacing and the eased difficulty of missions allowed by the "rescue" function. A third reviewer praised the drop in difficulty from Thracia 776 despite preserving some challenge, and positively noted the fast reactions of the game AI, enabling a low stress experience for players. Combined with the positive reception and sales of Advance Wars, which altered Nintendo's view that tactical role playing games would be unsuccessful in the West, this resulted in the next Fire Emblem title being localized. This game, titled Fire Emblem: Rekka no Ken in Japan and released in the West as Fire Emblem, is a prequel to The Binding Blade set twenty years prior and following Roy's father Eliwood. While Nintendo of America was willing to localize The Binding Blade, the workload of localizing Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones meant that the idea needed to be scrapped, leaving The Binding Blade exclusive to Japan. All future Fire Emblem titles to date, barring Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem for the Nintendo DS in 2010, have been released overseas.