History VideoGame / FireEmblemThracia776

* RandomNumberGod: It may just be at it's worst here, the numbers will never reach either 0 or 100, meaning there's never a guarantee of hitting and missing, and the numbers in-between can be a wonky measure of the outcome.

* BonusBoss: In Chapter 5, 6 and 24, you can decide to either let Galzus live or attempt to kill him. In his first appearances, it's mostly a HopelessBossFight, and while you can beat him with some luck and abusing the capture mechanics, it's ''really'' not recommended, as it means he can't [[spoiler:join you]]. In Chapter 24, he's off to the side, meaning you can ignore him--though, again, he's a harder fight than his actual boss, and if he can proc either of his skills, it will usually mean instant death.

-->--'''Opening demo''' (completely untranslated in a Japanese game)

-->--'''Opening demo''' ([[SurprisinglyGoodEnglish completely untranslated in a Japanese game]])

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: There's '''''52''''' playable characters in this game. Befittingly, this army is full of MakicarpPower, but a lot of mostly useless characters as well. The game seems to expect you to lose a lot of them given how many you get and how NintendoHard the game is.

* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: The Grannvale Empire summons armies from across the continent (including the House Friege's elite squadron, the Gelbenritter), all to attack the city-state of Tahra. And this isn't even mentioning [[spoiler: calling both the Thracian Dragon Knights and Schwarze Rosen, the elite division of the Loptr Church, as reinforcements.]]

*** Additionally, if you didn't recruit Olwen in Chapter 12x (or if she was killed), the Ilios can join your army in Chapter 16A as a [[SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute replacement]]; he has better stats and skills than Olwen right off the bat, but lacks her personal weapons and story relevance.

** The character menu in this game is somewhat odd, and can [[DamnYouMuscleMemory trip up veteran players]] if not adhered to. For one, the "Wait" option is the very first option on the menu. Also, you cannot select your character's starting location on the Battle Preparations screen; in order to put a character elsewhere, you need to change the order of the characters on the unit deployment screen.

* CharacterCustomization: You can bestow several specific skills on any of your units via a Skill Manual, and you can also boost some stats with special rings. Since all units have completely unchangeable traits (skills and [[WeaponOfChoice weapons of choice]] among them), this can give a unit with no skills or a low starting level some extra leeway. There are only one of each kind of manual/ring available in the game, however.

''Fire Emblem: Thracia 776'' is the fifth game in Creator/{{Nintendo}}'s ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' series, released only in Japan on the [[UsefulNotes/SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem Super Famicom]] on September 1, 1999[[note]]The game was initially only available by downloading it to the Nintendo Power cartridge, with standard carts made available on January 21, 2000.[[/note]]. It is the last ''Fire Emblem'' title that series creator Shouzou Kaga worked on before leaving developer Creator/IntelligentSystems.

* KonamiCode: A "Paragon Mode" can be unlocked by highlighting an empty save slot, then pressing right, left, right, left, right, left, right, and right. This gives all units the effects of the experience-boosting Paragon skill, and it also stacks with those with that skill naturally.

* HijackedByGanon: The last chapter reveals that [[spoiler:the Loptous Sect manipulated Travant into killing Quan and Ethlyn.]]

* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: The Grannvale Empire summons armies from across the continent (including the House Friege's elite squadron, the Gelbenritter), all to attack the city-state of Tahra. And this isn't even mentioning [[spoiler: calling both the Thracian Dragon Knights and Schwarze Rosen, the elite division of the Loptr Sect, as reinforcements.]]

* NintendoHard: The series is normally pretty hard itself, but in a game where Heal Staves can miss, ''Thracia 776'' turns it UpToEleven. The game relies on surprise factor and some clever map design for most of its difficulty, but also utilizes its unique mechanics to make things overly challenging even by the series' standards.

* AdultFear: [[spoiler:Mareeta]]'s backstory involves a lot of these. [[spoiler:She was an innocent girl living in hiding with her {{fallen prince|ss}} father, who did what he could to keep her safe and next to him. They were doing fine as travellers, but once Galzus was distracted for a mere second - BAM! Young Mareeta was kidnapped by slave traders and taken into a slave market. Thank God [[MamaBear Eyvel]] was there for her, but if she wasn't...]] This is invoked again at the beginning, when [[spoiler:Mareeta and Eyvel's ''other'' daughter Nanna get caught by the enemy, and you have to ''fight a BrainwashedAndCrazy Mareeta'' who's under the influence of an EvilWeapon...]]

* EmptyLevels: Present here just as the rest of the series, but they are not as undermining, as the stat cap of 20 implies that sporting good bases AND/OR good skills would automatically infer that such one character would have a better use short/long term than another one (for example, even a very screwed character such as Sara would be extremely useful thanks to good bases, skills and weapon levels).
* FakeDifficulty: A few maps, notably ch4x, are utterly dependent on RNG and luck rather than good strategy.

''Thracia 776'' is both more like a normal ''VideoGame/FireEmblem'' game than its predecessor and quite different to most others -- it returns to normal-sized chapters and maps, but it implements a few new gameplay mechanics like the FogOfWar and the completely-forgotten fatigue meter. It's also notoriously NintendoHard, even by the standards of the franchise as a whole.

* DummiedOut: Many items, weapons and characters have been jotted from the game before it was released (there would have been more varied Fire and Light magic, for example).

* NoFairCheating: Gungnir exists, but is DummiedOut. [[EasterEgg It has a description telling you not to hack.]]

* DarkIsNotEvil: Courtesy of the Loptous Mage Salem, who is also the very first playable dark magic-wielding character in the series. He is one of the few who have escaped the wrath of the Loptous sect, ultimately joining Lief's army out of [[TheAtoner atonement]] for his time with them, and his ending involves him writing memoirs that bring to light of what the Loptous Church was actually like.

** The Vouge, a special hand axe that's lighter, more powerful, almost twice as accurate, and comes with a greatly increased chance of landing a critical hit.

** The aforementioned FogOfWar is pitch black, likely due to mechanical limitations, meaning that not only can the player not see any enemies enshrouded in it, but they cannot see ''any'' parts of the map that is enshrouded either. What's more, thieves do not get any additional sight in the fog, and aside from Chapter 12, FogOfWar only occurs during the Gaiden chapters.
** Like in ''Genealogy'', skills tend to be more character-based than class-restricted: some characters come with a plethora of skills, while others have none at all. Attack-based skills in particular are much stronger than their later incarnations (Sol, for example, heals ''all'' damage the attacker has inflicted as opposed to half). Similarly, characters that may start in the same class will not always promote to the same advanced class (Mages Asvel and Miranda respectively promoting to Sage and Mage Knight, for example); all other games either have one promotion per base class or bestow more options.

** This game's Dancer starts off as a Thief. The only way to promote her into a Dancer is to have her talk to the boss in a gaiden chapter; if she does not meet this requirement, then you lose out on it. If you ''do'' manage to obtain this, you can freely promote her back and forth between Dancer and Thief/Thief Fighter though.

* ForScience: Since Cirosan disliked the blandness of the M-Up/Ensorcel Staff dialogue even in Japanese, ''Project Exile'' adds a detail about how some random peasant would have such an item. Turns out, said peasant is a wannabe botanist, and he wanted to see what would happen if you were to use Pure Water - medicine that raises the drinker's magic - to water garden plants. As it turns out, Pure Water transforms plants into Ensorcel Staves. [[DidntThinkThisThrough Oops.]] At least it's something to give to random resistance soldiers...

* HeroicBastard: Fergus and Saias. The former is the bastard son of [[spoiler:Beowolf and an unnamed princess of Conote,]] while the latter is [[spoiler:the bastard son of none other than ''Arvis'', who at this point in time is the Emperor of Granvale, and his NumberTwo, the Mage Fighter Aida. Saias' parentage also notes that he's the one who inherited his father's [[HeroicLineage Major Fala]] blood, as Arvis' two other children have the Major blood markings of Naga and Loptous instead.]]

** Leif's in particular has been a source of anguish for most of his life. As Quan's son, the true heir of Leonster, and a carrier of the bloodlines of Noba and Baldur (it's his older sister who has Quan's Major Noba blood, but at this point, she's been raised as a princess of Thracia from youth), enemies await him at every turn. The story is set in motion primarily because Leif is completely fed up with the Empire's tyranny and the suffering that his heritage has caused others. His knight and caretaker Finn has been sheltering him and suffering for it since the boy's youth, and many parts of northern Thracia have been torn apart in his name, with the biggest being the Ulster District. Miranda, Ulster's princess, holds a massive grudge against Leif due to her kingdom falling and the fact that her father was executed for hiding Leif at one point.
** Several members of Leif's army are descendants of the Twelve Crusaders. Nanna and Dermott are Princess Lachesis' children and possess minor Hezul blood; Linoan, the duchess of Tahra, is a descendant of Heim, and thus possesses minor Naga Holy Blood; and you can optionally recruit Ced, the son of Lewyn and Erinys, and the holder of major Forseti Blood. You also briefly meet Hannibal's son, [[VideoGame/FireEmblemGenealogyOfTheHolyWar Coirpre]], who posesses Minor Bragi blood. [[spoiler:Dialogue between Raydrik and Veld reveals that Mareeta is of Od's bloodline (thus Galzus is by extension, as he's the former Prince of Issach's Rivough Castle and her father), Eyvel is actually Briggid, the rightful heiress of Jungby and holder of major Ulir blood, and finally, Saias is the one who inherited Arvis' Major Fala blood; see HeroicBastard above]].

* InfinityMinusOneSword: Pretty much every character exclusive weapons count as one. Theres also the Brave Weapons which also counts as DiscOneNuke thanks to how early they are acquired in the game.

** The [[CoolSword Blaggi Sword]] (also a SwordOfPlotAdvancement of sorts) is a 15 MT weapon with Armor slaying capabilities and plenty of usage. It also gives the Miracle ability, and negates the damage halving ability of the Loptous Sword. [[GameplayAndStorySegregation While it supposedly can be used by anyone with a Holy Blood]], only Leif, Nanna, Fergus, and Dermott can use the sword.
** Last but not least, is the [[BlowYouAway Forseti]], which is equipped by the EleventhHourRanger Ced. It gives the wielder an extra 20 in skill, and 20 in speed (a total of 14 thanks to its weight), alongside 20 MT with 30% critical rate and can be used 50 times. Ced equipped with the Forseti can one round pretty much every single enemy in the remaining chapters with or without an M Up/Barrier or Holy Water boost, and can only be killed if you are REALLY unlucky against Physical Attacks.

* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: The Grannvale Empire summons armies from across the continent (including the House Friege's elite squadron, the Gelbenritter), all to attack the city-state of Tahra. And this isn't even mentioning [[spoiler: calling both the Thracian Dragon Knights and Schwarze Rosen, the elite division of the Loptyr Sect as reinforcements.]]

* KonamiCode: An "Elite Mode" can be unlocked by highlighting an empty save slot, then pressing right, left, right, left, right, left, right, and right. This gives all units the experience-boosting Paragon skill, and it also stacks with those with that skill naturally.

* LethalJokeCharacter: With the help of scrolls, it is possible to makes any terrible units into great units. Case in point, Marty and Shannam could easily be your best units with abusing scrolls.

** Played really straight, in a much bigger extent than the rest of the game in the series. Late game warriors can kill an enemy, and be a target for status staves. Late game Sages/High Priest kill an enemy, laugh at the status staves, and played a practical joke with the game as a whole. Its not an exaggeration to say that most of the late game chapters are pretty much Staves vs. Staves combat.
** Pretty much every character with reasonable Staff Rank and/or High Magic Stats can be this. ''Thracia'' takes this trope to an absurd length, so much that late game chapters can be utterly trivialized by using the right Staves at the right time. Anyone who promotes into a Sage counts as one, thanks to the ridiculous promotion gains the class offers.

* MercyRewarded: Capture causes your stats to be heavily lowered, but you can capture the defeated enemy and seize their items, as well as access to the secret shop being limited to players who only captured Lenster soldiers in ch19. This is very useful since equipment is expensive and not very durable.
* MergingTheBranches: While Ced's dad is pretty much set in stone, Delmud and Nanna's dad is... weird. It's all but stated that Nanna's dad is Finn, but it's also all but stated that Delmud's dad is Beowolf. There's an implication in ''Genealogy'' that Beowolf broke up with Lachesis, making her romance with Finn a SecondLove, but this isn't possible to do in-game.
* MutuallyExclusivePartyMembers: It is either Olwen (two unique weapons) or Ilios (better stats all around, but joins slightly later); it is either Miranda and Conomore (a mage princess and her guardian) or Amalda and Sleuf (a quite venturesome yet affected by the child hunt woman general and a dedicated priest to the right cause).

** Lewyn x Erinys was canonized in '''Thracia 776''' through the presence of Ced ''and'' Forseti in the game. [[spoiler:[[ShipSinking The marriage didn't end very happily though]], due to either personal difficulties or Lewyn having his memories and/or personality messed with upon being revived/possessed by Forseti]].
** Also, this game strongly hints at Lachesis/Beowolf and Lachesis/Finn - yes, both of them, as Beowolf is Diarmuid's daddy and Finn is Nanna's. Also, Beowolf seems to have ''another'' son with an unnamed noblewoman of Conote, Fergus, who's a playable character here. This makes Diarmuid, who already has Nanna as a maternal half-sister, have ''another'' half-sibling on his dad's side. Yes, the families in this game are really fucked up.
** [=Nanna/Leif=], assuming Nanna doesn't die during the course of the game. [[GameplayAndStoryIntegration This is reflected in their]] [[SupportPower support bonuses]]: for all the characters that Leif is able to provide bonuses for, the only one to provide ''him'' a bonus is Nanna.
** Likewise, Fred and Olwen marry if neither kicks it. Same goes to Machyua and Brighton, and Tanya and Orsin. [[spoiler:While not ''as'' openly stated, Princess Miranda is hinted to have married Conomore, which doubles as MayDecemberRomance since he was her ''father's'' retainer.]]

* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: The army consists of anyone who has a loose reason to fight against the Empire, some who are persuaded by someone in the army, or ''people Leif's army kidnapped''. An early indicator is [[TokenEvilTeammate Lifis]], the first thief to join the game. Thieves in ''VideoGame/FireEmblem'' games before and after ''Thracia'' lean towards LovableRogue. Lifis is a pirate who pillaged villages, tried to maniplate Safy into sleeping with him and joined because he would have been executed otherwise.

** Leif's entire army could count, as when Leif was first encountered in the previous game he only had Finn and Nanna at his side, while in this game he has them and then some with an army that rivals, if not surpasses Seliph's.
** Ced being the son of Lewyn is the most noticeable one. While it was a fairly common pairing at the time of ''Holy War'' there was nothing making it any more canon than the other pairings. Now Ced being royalty and Forseti-wielder is a trait of his.

** Main Characters - On the white end of the scale you have the heroic and sheltered Prince Leif and the remnants of the Leonster Knights. Around the grey area you have you have Lifis who wreaked havoc on Thracian civilians, Pahn who's a thief, albeit a good natured one. Not to mention there's a couple of [[PunchClockHero Punch Clock Heroes]] that join just because they're there at the right moment (Fergus, Shiva, Trewd, and Ralph). Also, there's the Bishop August who seems to have a morally ambiguous past and holds a cynical view towards the Munster nobles.
** Enemy Characters - Around the Grey end, there's a good amount of enemy bosses who fit here such as Largo (Dorias even commends Leif if he captures Largo instead of killing him), Rumay, Gomes (a bandit no less), and Reinhardt. Around or near the black area is Kempf (a man who even his fellow commanders view with disgust), Raydrik, and Veld.

* UnblockableAttack: The "Luna" Skill allows any unit that possess it to have a top 20% (25% if wielding a skill boosting weapon) chance to not miss the attack and deplete the enemy of all defense (either magical or physical) for that one attack; same concept applied for the "Solar" Skill, but instead of neglecting the enemy its defense, the amount of damage inflicted will be absorbed by the attacker.

* VideoGameStealing: This game is notable for being the only ''Fire Emblem'' game where thieves can steal ''anything,'' even the weapon your opponent has equipped (if they have enough strength and speed). This makes them some of the most valuable units in the game, behind staff users.

* GameplayAndStoryIntegration: One of the more famous examples of this in the series--chances are, if a character or story element is mentioned, it pops up in the gameplay, and the gameplay design of characters tends to reflect their displayed personality traits. There are also many story elements that are primarily implied through gameplay, such as Fergus's status as a possible HeroicBastard. More than that, the story's themes of pragmatism, WarIsHell, and not needing to be a great crusader to be a hero are generally carried through in the gameplay, where the player endures difficult and chaotic challenges that can easily go wrong, relies on trickery and theft, and finds that just about every character is usable.

** Until the release of ''Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia'' (itself a remake of the second game, ''VideoGame/FireEmblemGaiden''), this is the final game in the series to use a single-number RNG for attack accuracy.

** The climax of ''Thracia 776'' takes place at Manster ''after'' Leif joined Seliph's liberation. To not make the end of the game filled with several new units, the game instead has Leif split up and seize Manster with his personal army.

* WalkIntoMordor: Implemented as a game mechanic, as mounted units are forced to remain dismounted for indoor chapters, which includes [[TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon Manster Castle]].

* DiscOneNuke: Finn's Brave Lance allows him to attack twice in one turn, so he can crush the first arc of the game with it.
** There's also the Vouge, a special hand axe that's lighter, more powerful, almost twice as accurate, and comes with a greatly increased chance of landing a critical hit.

** Like in ''Genealogy,'' skills tend to be more character-based than class-restricted: some characters come with a plethora of skills, while others have none at all. Attack-based skills in particular are much stronger than their later incarnations (Sol, for example, heals ''all'' damage the attacker has inflicted as opposed to half). Similarly, characters that may start in the same class will not always promote to the same advanced class (Mages Asvel and Miranda respectively promoting to Sage and Mage Knight, for example); all other games either have one promotion per base class or bestow more options.

** Until the release of ''Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia'' (itself a remake of the second game, ''FireEmblemGaiden''), this is the final game in the series to use a single-number RNG for attack accuracy.
* EmptyLevels: Present here just as the rest of the series, but they are not as undermining, as the stat cap of 20 implies that sporting good bases AND\OR good skills would automatically infer that such one character would have a better use short\long term than another one (for example, even a very screwed character such as Sara would be extremely useful thanks to good bases, skills and weapon levels).

* ForegoneConclusion: The entirety of this game is set in between Chapters 6 and 7 of ''Genealogy of the Holy War''. Naturally, certain characters survive, and [[spoiler:players who have played ''Genealogy'' will know that Leif's victory at the end here is fairly brief; while he has liberated Manster, he winds up struggling against Southern Thracia until Seliph's army appears to save him.]]
** GameplayAndStorySegregation: Despite the ending, it's possible to have Finn, Nanna, Diarmuid, and Ced die during the game (and it is told as such if they do), despite the fact that all of them canonically survive long enough to fight during the events of ''Genealogy.'' The same goes for [[spoiler:Eyvel, should she be killed after you free her in Chapter 24x. Her ending states that she reunites with Febail and Patty after the Final Holy War, and WordOfGod via a guide confirms that she does, in fact, survive.]]
* GameplayAndStoryIntegration: One of the more famous examples of this in the series--chances are, if a character or story element is mentioned, it pops up in the gameplay, and the gameplay design of characters tends to reflect their displayed personality traits. There are also many story elements that are primarily implied through gameplay, such as Fergus's status as a possible HeroicBastard. More than that, the story's themes of pragmatism, WarIsHell, and not needing to be a great crusader to be a hero are generally carried through in the gameplay, where the player endures difficult and chaotic challenges that can easily go wrong, relies on trickery and theft, and finds that just about every character is usable.

* LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards: Played really straight, in a much bigger extent than the rest of the game in the series. Late game warriors can kill an enemy, and be a target for status staves. Late game Sages/High Priest kill an enemy, laugh at the status staves, and played a practical joke with the game as a whole. Its not an exaggeration to say that most of the late game chapters are pretty much Staves vs. Staves combat.

* OfficialCouple: In ''Genealogy of the Holy War'', all pairings except Sigurd/Deirdre, Quan/Ethlyn [[spoiler:and Arvis/Deirdre]] were optional and customizable. However, Lewyn x Erinys was canonized in '''Thracia 776''' through the presence of Ced ''and'' Forseti in the game. [[spoiler:[[ShipSinking The marriage didn't end very happily though]], due to either personal difficulties or Lewyn having his memories and/or personality messed with upon being revived/possessed by Forseti]].

** Main Characters - On the white end of the scale you have the heroic and sheltered Prince Leif and the remnants of the Leonster Knights. Around the grey area you have you have Lifis who wreaked havoc on Thracian civilians, Pahn who's a thief, albeit a good natured one. Not to mention there's a couple of [[PunchClockHero Punch Clock Heroes]] that join just because they're there at the right moment (Fergus, Shiva, Trewd, and Ralph). Also, there's the Bishop August who seems to have a morally ambiguous past and holds a cynical view towards the Manster nobles.

* CharacterCustomization: You can bestow several specific skills on any of your units via a Skill Manual, and you can also boost some stats with special rings. Since all units have completely unchangeable traits (skills and [[WeaponOfChoice weapons of choice]] among them), this can give a unit with no skills or a low starting level some extra leeway. There are only one of each kind of manual/ring available in the game, however.
* CriticalHit: It works differently than the other games in the series (minus ''Genealogy of the Holy War'' which shares the same mechanic as here): critical hits here deals straightly double the damage shown into the fighting window (which means that 20 attack vs 20 defense = 20 damage because 20x2= 40, instead of 0x3= 0 because 20-20=0).

-->"Tch... Being at the mercy of an enemy... I've fallen so far..."

** There's also the Bhuj, a special hand axe that's lighter, more powerful, almost twice as accurate, and comes with a greatly increased chance of landing a critical hit.

* KilledOffscreen: [[spoiler: Galzus,Dagdar,Eyvel,Sara and Lifis always become deadlords if they aren’t recruited even if they don’t die in the chapter they can be recruited in.]]

** Leif's in particular has been a source of anguish for most of his life. As Quan's son, the true heir of Leonster, and a carrier of the bloodlines of Noba and Baldur (it's his older sister who has Quan's Major Noba blood, but at this point, she's been raised as a princess of Thracia from youth), enemies await him at every turn. The story is set in motion primarily because Leif is completely fed up with the Empire's tyranny and the suffering that his heritage has caused others. His knight and caretaker Finn has been sheltering him and suffering for it since the boy's youth, and many parts of northern Thracia have been torn apart in his name, with the biggest being the Alster District. Miranda, Alster's princess, holds a massive grudge against Leif due to her kingdom falling and the fact that her father was executed for hiding Leif at one point.

** Pretty much every character with reasonable Staff Rank and/or High Magic Stats can be this. Thracia takes this trope to an absurd length, so much that late game chapters can be utterly trivialized by using the right Staves at the right time. Anyone who promotes into a Sage counts as one, thanks to the ridiculous promotion gains the class offers.

* StrongFamilyResemblance: Leaf looks extremely similar to Quan. Hannibal mentioned this during their conversation.