History YMMV / FireEmblemThracia776

** You aren't allowed to reposition units before entering battle. The order in which they're deployed is based on their position in the unit selection screen, which is determined by the order of selection from the ''previous'' chapter. While generally a non-issue, a few chapters towards the end of the game forcibly splits your party members into generally less than ideal positions.

* VindicatedByHistory: For most of its lifespan, ''Thracia'' was mostly only remembered as "the really bullshit one", and though still one of the worst-selling and least well-known games in the franchise, ''Thracia'''s reputation amongst the fanbase has grown with time. Significantly improved translations and greater awareness of its mechanics made it much more approachable, as did recognition of the things it established in the franchise. Discussions of ''Thracia'' today tend to focus much less on its NintendoHard nature, and more on its impressively successful GameplayAndStoryIntegration, its great replay value, its surprisingly good unit balance, and its mechanics being incredibly fun to abuse. This is particularly evident with Leif, who went from being seen as one of the worst Lords in the series to being seen as one of the best examples of how to design one without simply making them into a killing machine.

* SequelDifficultySpike: Though its status as the most difficult game in the series is contested, and no longer clear-cut and widely-agreed upon, it's still quite different ballpark when compare to ''Genealogy'', which is already considered one of the more easier ''FE'' games.

** If it is waited until Ilios is obtained, by consuming the Wrath skill on him, it is possible to have a character with a 60% top chance to avoid ANY form of deadly attack whenever he is attacked + the constant chance to counter kill in one hit almost anything (preferably with a magic tome for 1-2 range attack) while having a 20% (25% if using the rare "Thunder Sword) to obtain back the amount of damage dealt to the enemy back to him.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: People tend to dislike the game for its many {{Scrappy Mechanic}}s without realizing just what a massive leap in complexity ''Thracia'' was over most prior entries. Pretty much every game in the series draws to some degree off mechanics established in ''Thracia'', from thief stealing to Constitution to automatic Lord promotion to the Rescue system to skill assignment to extra chapters to FogOfWar. In a lot of respects, it was less of an odd-one-out and more of a transitional game, and it laid a lot of the templates for both the GBA trilogy and the Tellius series. But when people go backward from those games, it ends up looking primitive and weird by comparison, probably due to most, if not all of its mechanics which returned in later games were polished and refined to some degree.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeArt: The game's art design is one of its most widely praised aspects, especially after the rather scattershot artwork of the prior games. The character portraits look excellent for a SNES game, lacking the weird proportions and baffling hairstyles of ''Genealogy'' while still being fairly distinctive and lively. And the character designs, done by Mayumi Hirota, are similarly beloved, looking characterful while still being clearly grounded in the rather gritty universe of the Jugdral games. Notably, it completely averts the trend towards {{Stripperific}} designs that cropped up in some games; even the female myrmidons all wear pants. Kaga clearly loved working with Hirota, claiming she was the first person to understand how he envisioned his characters and making her the lead character designer on ''VideoGame/TearRingSaga''.

** Lifis. On one hand, you have players that are kind of okay being an amoral asshole instead of a LovableRogue to put emphasis on just how desperate Leif's band of merry men are to liberate Thracia and Leonster (as well as adding another emphasis on Reinhardt's flaw as explained in DracoInLeatherPants) and he added variety in the type of people you recruit. On the other hand, you have players who just plain hate him and think he's absolutely unforgivable for being an amoral asshole, and especially when the favors he blackmailed Safy with was basically 'sexual favors' and he's not planning to honor her request to start clean (to the point that some are okay with [[spoiler:letting him turn into a Deadlord]]). Lifis was basically close enough to be a proto-[[VideoGame/FireEmblemPathOfRadiance Makalov]].

* CriticalBacklash: Its reputation as "the hardest game" has gotten this with time, with many fans pointing out that, in reality, ''Thracia'' isn't so much hard as it is somewhat obtuse (not helped by bad translation) and RNG-heavy, with most enemies being very weak and the player having ''many'' powerful units and abusable mechanics at their disposal.

** Mareeta is the only unit that can learn Astra, which is arguably the strongest skill in the game. While Galzus already comes equipped with the skill, he is only playable for the last three maps in the game. Furthermore, Mareeta comes with her own exclusive brave sword that has a critical of 20 and gives her Nihil. Plus, she is one of the few units that has a Pursuit Critical Coefficient of 5, which means her critical hit rate will be multiplied by 5 during a follow up attack. She also comes equipped with Luna, and if you take the harder route for chapters 16-17, then she can obtain Sol. When promoted to a swordmaster, she learns Adept, and skills can stack in this game, which means she has the potential to wipe out any unit in one turn.

** Dismounting. Mounted units specializing only in Lances or Axes spontaneously losing their ability to use their weapons and being forced to use Swords when they get off a horse is completely illogical. While this mechanic also appeared in ''Mystery of the Emblem'', it is not as debilitating there as that game doesn't have the Weapon Triangle and uses the Weapon Level system, which applies to all weapon types instead of having separate ranks for each weapon. While Warriors and Heroes can still use Axes indoors, Lances have no such luxury, as there are only two units who can use Lances indoors (Xavier and a promoted Dalsin), and they both start out with an E rank in them. It makes that weapon type BetterOffSold in the later chapters.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: People tend to dislike the game for its many {{Scrappy Mechanic}}s without realizing just what a massive leap in complexity ''Thracia'' was over most prior entries. Pretty much every game in the series draws to some degree off mechanics established in ''Thracia'', from thief stealing to Constitution to automatic Lord promotion to the Rescue system to skill assignment to extra chapters to FogOfWar. In a lot of respects, it was less of an odd-one-out and more of a transitional game, and it laid a lot of the templates for both the GBA trilogy and the Tellius series. But when people go backward from those games, it ends up looking primitive and weird by comparison.
* SequelDifficultySpike: Though its status as the most difficult game in the series has long been dethroned, it was definitely the hardest game upon its debut, especially given that ''Genealogy'' is considered pretty easy.

** While Canis is the strongest boss period, Gomes is considered notable for being far harder than her relative to the army at the time. He is a LightningBruiser par excellence, with great stats in just about every area barring Magic, including rather high Speed. Since he's on a throne, that's a free +10 Defense that makes him difficult for anyone except Asbel to do significant damage to him (and he's so fast that even a Speed-capped Asbel can't double him). His movement star (rare on bosses in general) just makes things even nastier, as it means that he has a small chance to get a second turn in on anyone within his range. And on top of all that, he's a warrior, which doesn't have a WeaponOfXSlaying, meaning that's hard to exploit as well. And let's not even get into the difficulty of taking him alive, VideoGameCaringPotential aside.
* ThatOneSidequest: A few units are extremely difficult to recruit in ''Thracia 776'', but Xavier is legendary for this. Each of his eight men has had a loved one taken prisoner by the enemy, and as such they're forced to work for them. You can free the loved ones (who take the form of extremely squishy [[NonPlayerCharacter NPCs]]), then talk to the men to get them to turn coat. Once each of them has talked to their respective [[NonPlayerCharacter NPC]] (yes, each one can only talk to one specific [[NonPlayerCharacter NPC]]), you can recruit Xavier. Note that while his men won't attack the [[NonPlayerCharacter NPCs]], other enemies in the stage will, and those who haven't been turned and those who have ''will'' attack each other. [[note]]Surprisingly, it's not the ones who haven't turned killing the ones who have that's the problem -- once they've turned, they're expendable. One of the ones who has turned killing one who hasn't, however, makes it impossible to complete the quest. Also? Same map has tons of chests AND the Member Card. ''Good luck completing all of them.''[[/note]]

* VindicatedByHistory: For most of its lifespan, ''Thracia'' was mostly only remembered as "the really bullshit one", and though still one of the worst-selling and least well-known games in the franchise, ''Thracia'''s reputation amongst the fanbase has grown with time. Significantly improved translations and greater awareness of its mechanics made it much more approachable, as did recognition of the things it established in the franchise. Discussions of ''Thracia'' today tend to focus much less on its NintendoHard nature, and more on its impressively successful GameplayAndStoryIntegration, its great replayability, its surprisingly good unit balance, and its mechanics being incredibly fun to abuse. This is particularly evident with Leif, who went from being seen as one of the worst Lords in the series to being seen as one of the best examples of how to design one without simply making them into a killing machine.

** The Fiana Militia are referred to as the [[AlliterativeName Fiana Freeblades]] in ''Awakening'', which many think sounds much cooler. Othin [[SpellMyNameWithAnS being spelled as]] "Orsin", meaning "bear", [[MeaningfulName is also an improvement]]. Sadly averted in the ''Fire Emblem Heroes'' Choose Your Legends poll, which renders Othin's name as "Osian."
** A fan-translation example: Chapter 24x is infamous for its gimmick of invisible teleport tiles that warp units into inescapable rooms where only teleport magic of your own can save them. This is also an Escape map, so anyone left inside these rooms when the map ends is considered dead. The Japanese version [[GuideDangIt gave no hints at this gimmick whatsoever]], which many agreed was far too sadistic even by this game's standards. The Project Exile and Lil' Manster patches add some extra lines of dialogue to the beginning of the map that hint at this gimmick, from Augustus, a character who already had several "thinly-veiled gameplay tips" speeches in the original Japanese.

** Mareeta is the only unit that can learn Astra, which is arguably the strongest skill in the game. While Galzus already comes equipped with the skill, he is only playable for the last three maps in the game. Furthermore, Mareeta comes with her own exclusive brave sword that has a critical of 20 and gives her Nihil. Plus, she is one of the few units that has a Pursuit Critical Coefficient of 5, which means her critical hit rate will be multiplied by 5 during a follow up attack. She also comes equipped with Luna, and if you take the harder route for chapters 16-17, then she can obtain sol. When promoted to a swordmaster, she learns Adept, and skills can stack in this game, which means she has the potential to wipe out any unit in one turn.

* SugarWiki/FunnyMoments: At one point in Chapter 4x, you open a door that appears to contain a few chests. You can't tell what else is in the room due to the fog of war. Upon opening it, you see a generic female mage and a knight alone together in there against the back wall while a pretty serious skirmish is going on right outside the door. It appears you may have walked in on a pair of lovers in the middle of a tyrst in the dark and the man seems pretty mad about being interrupted given that he charges at you with a devil's axe.

*** Yet again, Leif finds himself upstaged in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemEngage'', where not only is he one of the weakest Emblem rings in the game, but Olwen is inarguably the strongest and most desired bond ring, with many players joking about how she is the actual ''Thracia'' Emblem. It seems poor Leif will never escape the shadow of Dire Thunder. The fact that he's also the only Emblem in the entire game to get stolen ''twice'' [[spoiler:within the span of two chapters]] doesn't help.

* LowTierLetdown: Miranda is generally agreed to be the worst non-JokeCharacter in the game (whether she's worse than Shannam is a real question), and one of the worst "Est"-type characters in the series. Her standout growth rates scarcely matter in ''Thracia'', where stat caps are generally low and Crusader Scrolls can give anyone good growth rates, and Miranda has to deal with bad starting weapon ranks, bad starting stats, no unique weapon, a skill that requires her to get attacked when she has wet-tissue durability, and coming in at a point where just about anyone can handle the majority of enemies. To add insult to injury, if she promotes into Mage Knight, she actually ''loses'' movement on indoor maps (which is most of the remaining ones). And all that's on top of the fact that Sara shows up around the same time and is generally agreed to be one of the ''best'' Est-type characters, meaning you have a much better option to pour your work into.

*** Yet again, Leif finds himself upstaged in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemEngage'', where not only is he one of the weakest Emblem rings in the game, but Olwen is inarguably the strongest and most desired bond ring, with many players joking about how she is the actual ''Thracia'' Emblem. It seems poor Leif will never escape the shadow of Dire Thunder.

* LowTierLetdown: Miranda is generally agreed to be the worst non-JokeCharacter in the game (whether she's worse than Shannam is a real question), and one of the worst "Est"-type characters in the series. Her standout growth rates scarcely matter in ''Thracia'', where stat caps are generally low and Crusader Scrolls can give anyone good growth rates, and Miranda has to deal with bad starting weapon ranks, bad starting stats, a skill that requires her to get attacked when she has wet-tissue durability, and coming in at a point where just about anyone can handle the majority of enemies. To add insult to injury, if she promotes into Mage Knight, she actually ''loses'' movement on indoor maps (which is most of the remaining ones). And all that's on top of the fact that Sara shows up around the same time and is generally agreed to be one of the ''best'' Est-type characters, meaning you have a much better option to pour your work into.

** Though the fandom is pretty small, fans either hate Marty due to being a TierInducedScrappy, and what little characterization he's given to be a timid coward who easily caves into peer pressure. Others feel he's a LovableCoward with a gameplay purpose as a packmule, and like his implied relationship with Dagdar.

* TierInducedScrappy: Common consensus is that ''Thracia'' is one of the hardest games to be outright useless in--low stat caps mean that maxing out a character is pretty easy and pouring all your resources into already-good characters quickly becomes pointless, Crusader Scrolls, skill manuals, and high promotion bonuses can patch up most characters, Fatigue incentivizes regular unit rotation, and the average enemies are weak enough even in very late chapters that bringing a character up to the point of being able to fight them isn't too difficult. This is especially true in Paragon Mode, which causes characters to level up very fast, potentially turning a unit into a viable frontliner after only a few kills. That said, in terms of raw comparison, many units are just flat-out worse than their counterparts or struggle to fight at base level, meaning that they really only get raised for the sake of either having a spare combat unit or because the player likes them.
** Ronan, who's an Archer (in a game where bows are arguably the worst physical weapon), joins a chapter after a better-but-still-not-great Archer, Tanya, and has terrible Strength in exchange for better Magic, a stat that's nigh-useless for him because there are no bows that do magic damage. His only real saving grace being some sort of anti-magic unit, but there's units who do that better than him anyway. Though, he has some strange niches than actually makes him better than Tanya in [[{{Speedrun}} Low Turn Count]] runs; better base movement and three movement stars (15% chance of moving again after acting).
** Marty, who shares a class with the CrutchCharacter Dagdar, joins at the same time as him, and is completely inferior to him in every meaningful way; his base Speed and Skill are both ''zero'', and he has terrible growths in both areas. While his growths indicate he could become a decent StoneWall, his inability to hit enemies prevent him from gaining much experience, and his susceptibility to being doubled undermines his defensive potential. He does have the highest Build in the game, which allows him to carry heavier weapons with the least penalties to Speed and Skill, but what's the point if he doesn't have either to begin with? He can occasionally come in handy for capturing ''very'' early in the game, but even then Finn and Dagdar can do so better.
** Selfina, whose bases are barely adequate and whose growths are fairly bad, as well as her subordinates who join at the same time, who have even worse bases along with growths that are far from stellar. It doesn't help that two of them, Alva and Cain, are in the largely-redundant Lance Knight class, while Selfina and Robert are Bow Knights, and thus locked to the game's worst weapon type. Selfina can still be worth it for getting a free Brave Bow, which while not unique to her is best equipped to hold it (barring the hard-to-get Xavier), and the supports she receives from Leif and Glade, (who greatly benefits from a greater than average support bonus) who are among the best support-type characters in the game, but that still requires a large amount of investment that other characters could use.
** Eda, who joins at the exact same time as her far-more-useful brother. He starts out promoted, while she doesn't, and her bases are considerably worse than his as a result; the only stats she beats him in are Magic (and by only one point) and Luck. To make it worse, his growths are better than her in almost every area too, she has no skills to even the playing field, and he has access to a weapon, the Dragon Lance, while she gets nothing to compensate. She also has to compete not only with him, but also with Karin, who has similar bases and growths but joins significantly earlier, and Misha, who joins a little later but also has better bases and growths. She's not truly useless, but compared to the other fliers available she's fairly redundant.
** Troude, who's widely agreed upon to be less useful than most of the other Myrmidon/Swordmaster/Mercenary units. He's not necessarily bad, having competent bases and adequate growths. However, said bases and growths are very similar to Shiva's, and compared to Shiva's earlier join time and useful skill, Machyua's great promotion and eventual axe access, or Mareeta's crazy growths, powerful skills and unique weapon, he offers little that can't be done better by someone else. He also has the lowest PCC of the above, at 1, and his skill is also made completely redundant by the passive effect of the scrolls, unless you don't like using them for some reason. On top of that, he's also surprisingly difficult to recruit.
** Shannam, who's yet another Swordmaster in a game full of them, has completely terrible bases for his late join time, and a PCC of 0, making him the worst Swordmaster even compared to Troude. Of course, since he's a JokeCharacter, this is to be expected, and he does have a niche use thanks to his Bargain skill that lets him buy items for half price, as well as eventually teaching Mareeta Astra.
** Miranda is generally agreed to be the worst non-JokeCharacter in the game (whether she's worse than Shannam is a real question), and one of the worst "Est"-type characters in the series. Her standout growth rates scarcely matter in ''Thracia'', where stat caps are generally low and Crusader Scrolls can give anyone good growth rates, and Miranda has to deal with bad starting weapon ranks, bad starting stats, a skill that requires her to get attacked when she has wet-tissue durability, and coming in at a point where just about anyone can handle the majority of enemies. To add insult to injury, if she promotes into Mage Knight, she actually ''loses'' movement on indoor maps (which is most of the remaining ones). And all that's on top of the fact that Sara shows up around the same time and is generally agreed to be one of the ''best'' Est-type characters, meaning you have a much better option to pour your work into.
** [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] with Leif, whom one would expect to qualify for his MasterOfNone base stats, unimpressive growths, and largely one-sided support bonuses. However, the ''Thracia 776'' metagame heavily favors access to skills, personal weapons, and innate qualities over the aforementioned traits: to this end, Leif becomes far more favorable with his personal Light Brand, which he possesses from the start and allows him to attack on the magical end; the Adept ability, which allows him to attack twice as often as normal; and leadership stars, which improves the hit/dodge rate of ''all'' playable characters on the field. Despite his support bonuses being one-sided in favor of the other characters, there are a ''lot'' of characters whom receive these bonuses from being in close proximity of him, enhancing his support capabilities alongside his leadership stars. Ultimately, Leif is considered an invaluable asset to players less so as a fighter in his own right, but a SupportPartyMember with surprising capability in defending himself, with his forced deployment on each chapter (and immunity to the Fatigue mechanic) a blessing, rather than a detriment. Many CharacterTiers place him near the top of the list, with even the most unfavorable rankings considering him merely below-average, rather than outright abysmal.

** Ronan, who's an Archer (in a game where bows are arguably the worst physical weapon), joins a chapter after a better-but-still-not-great Archer, Tanya, and has terrible Strength in exchange for better Magic, a stat that's nigh-useless for him because there are no bows that do magic damage. His only real saving grace being some sort of anti-magic unit, but there's units who do that better than him anyway. Thought, he has some strange niches than actually makes him better than Tanya in [[{{Speedrun}} Low Turn Count]] runs; better base movement and three movement stars (15% chance of moving again after acting).

** The crowning jewel has to be escape chapters. Leif MUST be the last unit to exit the map. Any of your characters still on the map when Leif leaves are automatically captured by the enemy and cannot rejoin you until a gaiden chapter late in the game. The closest the game gets to telling you this beforehand is Leif's refusal to escape first, and in the Shaya patch, a [[BlindIdiotTranslation translation flaw]] causes it to be worded as "When I escape, so does everyone else!", phrasing which ''[[TheComputerIsALyingBastard implies that it's fine for Leif to escape first]]''. ''Project Exile'', of course, fixes this by rephrasing Leif's refusal as "I'll only [Escape] after everyone else has!"[[note]]The brackets [[BreakingTheFourthWall indicate a game mechanic]], not a synonymous replacement[[/note]], giving a far better indication that you shouldn't let Leif escape first, but that doesn't make these chapters any less inconvenient, especially since the game is punishing you for having Leif escape too quickly rather than rewarding you for letting other characters escape first like ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemPathOfRadiance Path of Radiance]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemRadiantDawn Radiant Dawn]]'' do.