Video Game / Berwick Saga

"For many ages, war has raged across this land. It was once ruled by a vast empire called Lazberia. The god-kings of Lazberia built their empire on the blood of enslaved citizens. For centuries, it stood untouchable. Yet still, time brought it to ruin...but the people lived on. From the ashes of Lazberia, they built two great nations. One, the Empire of Raze. The other, the Kingdom of Veria. But neither could accept the other. Endless blood was shed in the name of a holy war. Chaos, slaughter, destruction, and hate consumed the minds of the people.And now, a young man comes of age in these chaotic times. Perhaps he can be the hero this land urgently needs..."

Tear Ring Saga Series: Berwick Saga Lazberia chronicle chapter 174 is a 2005 video game created by Shouzou Kaga, the creator of the Fire Emblem series, and his company Tirnanog for the Playstation 2. The legal mess caused by TearRing Saga prompted him to radically change his SRPG formula into his next game. The result is a vastly different and complex game while maintaining the superficial elements to the Fire Emblem series.

The story of Berwick Saga takes place in the continent of Lazberia, in the same world as Lieberia from Tear Ring Saga, but roughly a millennium after the events of that game.

It has been over a decade since the beginning of the most recent in a long history of bloody wars between the Berwick League and their bitter enemy, the Raze Empire. The Berwick League, led by the Kingdom of Veria, quickly falls apart after the death of King Mordias IV of Veria, and more than half of the League's lands are swiftly occupied by the Raze Empire. Due to a relatively recent civil war among the nations of the Berwick League, several of its members decide to defect and assist the Raze Empire in its invasion.

Mordias's son and successor King Volcens flees with his court to the Duchy of Narvia, the land of his loyal vassal Duke Roswick, where he attempts to rebuild the Berwick League and prepare for a counterattack against the Raze Empire. Volcens calls across the land to all remaining loyal members of the League to join him in his fight. In answer to the king's call, Reese, the son of a nobleman in the frontier lands of the Kingdom of Veria, arrives in the Duchy of Narvia with a small company of knights. However, beset by enemies both external and internal, the revitalized Berwick League is in danger of falling apart once more.

While officially a sequel to Tear Ring Saga, the games are not significantly related by plot and barely resemble each other in terms of gameplay.

An English fan translation has been completed, and you can grab it here.

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Berwick Saga contains examples of:

• The Ace: Paramythis is a legendary figure who is described as an expert in physical and magical combat fitting for the Gotoh like unit of this game.
• Action Girl: Chris, Sylvis, Ruby, Faye, Aegina, Larentia, Enid, Alvina and Lynette are all female warriors capable of fighting on the front lines. But Paramythis is a league above them all, as she is famed in-game as a master fighter who wields both swords and magic.
• All Swords Are the Same: Averted, as weapons have subcategories that only specific characters or classes can use. Swords have Blades (mostly infantry), Maces (Raze Monks), and Daggers (Thieves). Spears have Lances (Lance Knights), and Bows have Crossbows (Gunners, but Chris can use them despite being mounted) and Ballista (Ballistician).
• All the Other Reindeer: The Forever War between the Berwick League and the Raze Empire has produced a lot of bad blood between each other. Both of it's citizens regard the other with fear and suspicion and they fight to protect themselves from getting killed.
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us: Navarron is finally overrun by Imperial Forces in the final chapter, thanks to Volcens surrendering the city to the Raze Empire in exchange for their protection, driven by sheer paranoia regarding Duke Bernard and the defections of Reese, Vanmillion and Vester.
• Ambition Is Evil: King Mordias IV's cruel lust for power shaped his actions and the state of the continent as a result, whether it's requesting the aid of his ancestral enemy, the Raze Empire, in order to win the Civil War or assasinating the Apostle and blaming it on the Raze Empire to cement his position as King.
• Anti-Armor: Weapons and ammunition such as the Rapier, Estoc and the Bodkin arrows are able to bypass the target's shield and directly deal damage, and some weapons such as the Breaker Axe and the Shield-Breaker arrows are able to destroy shields instantly, although they need to inflict damage or else the effect will not work. The Hammer, however, not only bypasses shields but also negates the defense of Armor class enemies.
• Anti-Cavalry: The Zanbato blade ignores the defense of horse riders and bypasses their shields, while the Poleaxe and the Horse-Killing arrows will instantly kill the target's horses on hit, but only if they inflict damage or else the effects will be negated if the attack dealt no damage.
• Anti-Frustration Features: Berwick Saga eases the player with certain mechanics.
  • If your units gets captured by the enemies (whether in battle or if a unit is unable to retreat in time during escape chapters), their inventory is retained and they will only require a ransom. Also, during missions where you fight the Imperial Army, they will be compelled to capture units that are crippled rather simply killing them, allowing the player to save them through ransom.
  • If one of your units dies, the player is able to retrieve the deceased's items by entering the cemetery and visiting their graves.
• Anti-Grinding: Berwick Saga has an even stricter system of gaining experience. For starters, the only way to gain exp is by killing an enemy unit or by leaving a playable unit totally unused, letting them earn exp during the transition to the next chapter, although if their exp cap is at 99, the player must deploy that unit and let them kill an enemy unit to level up. Also, the game both adds and deducts earned experience points from the unit if their levels are lower or higher than the target killed, and enemy classes have specific amounts of exp gained, with bandit classes giving out lower exp when compared to enemy soldier classes.
• Armor Is Useless: Averted. Unlike the Fire Emblem series in which defense is based entirely on character growth and class-based caps, rather than what armor a character is physically wearing, Berwick Saga has units able to equip shields that are able to greatly reduce incoming physical damage, and the shield's defense stat stacks with the unit's defense stat, enabling them to even completely take no damage if high enough and able to perform a counterattack as if they evaded. Also, heavily armored units are able to equip far stronger shields that, alongside their naturally high defense, enable them to be completely immune to physical attacks and require weapons that bypass shields or magic to defeat them.
• Attack the Injury: To capture a unit, a player must repeatedly attack a target in order to force an injury state out of them, then deal massive damage to the injured unit but not enough to outright kill them to cripple it, allowing the player to properly capture the unit. Certain weapons (Knives, the Harpoon spear and the Blizzard spell) and skills (Flourish and Maim) have a high injury rating that increases the chances of forcing an injury state on the target.
• Back from the Brink: Subverted. Duke Bernard and Margrave Bernstol's initial victories against the Raze Empire and a powerful La Résistance led by The Choosen One attempt to turn the war in favor of the Berwick League, but the presence of a mole leaking information and influencing the already unstable King Volcens to make terrible decisions foils any further chances of doing so. In the final chapter, the Berwick League is finally defeated when Volcens decides to surrender to the Raze Empire.
• Badass Army: The Sinon Knights eventually become a powerful army to be known, starting with how they beaten back a much larger Bornian army on their way to attack Navarron.
• Bad Luck Mitigation Mechanic: Unlike with it's predecessor TearRing Saga, it's level system prevents the characters from receiving empty stat gains and it will always guarantee at least one stat will increase.
• Big Badass Battle Sequence: Certain chapters have you fighting against massive armies in a dramatic high stakes battle. The first chapter that fits this best is Chapter 5: Hold the Fort in which the Sinon Knights and the Navarron Garrison fight against a massive Bornian army.
• Big Brother Instinct: Or rather, Little Brother's. This is Zephyrus's core motivation. All of his actions and goals are motivated by his wish to protect and ensure the safety of his older sister Empress Anastasia and nephew Manaris. This also applies to his elder brother Bernard. When he hears that King Volcens intends to execute him on Berwick Isle, he immediately goes and slaughters the guards inside the prison, unaware that the Sinon Knights are also intent on saving his brother.
• Black Knight: A enemy-only class which is highly dangerous due to being mounted and equipped with lances (powerful spears that have higher might depending on how far the user has moved). Additionally, they carry black shields which have a %chance of reflecting damage taken back to your unit.
• Blocking Stops All Damage: Equipped shields are able to reduce damage from incoming physical attacks and if the defense total of both the character's defense and the equipped shield are higher than the blocked attack, no damage is dealt and the receiver will be able to inflict a counter attack as if they evaded the strike.
• Breakable Weapons: Unlike the Fire Emblem games and Tear Ring Saga, Berwick Saga has a unique system in which every weapon and shield has a set durability of 101, with it's durability class reflecting on much points is reduced with every strike, ranging from S to F. The colored indicator next to the weapon tells how much durability points remain and the chances of it automatically breaking when used.
• Breaking Old Trends: The game's defining feature. Unlike it's predecessor Tear Ring Saga, which is essentially a Fire Emblem clone, Berwick Saga features many innovative gameplay mechanics and elements that makes a different game yet still has the familiar Fire Emblem gameplay.
• Can't Drop the Hero: Zigzagged, as while the main chapters require Reese's presence, he and Ward aren't allowed to participate in the side chapters, with the only exceptions being the mandatory Exile Island and Heretic God.
• Capital Offensive: Averted. Unlike most Fire Emblem games where The Hero and his forces take the fight to the enemy faction's capital, Reese and the Sinon Knights never even get the chance of invading the Raze Empire. Instead, the enemy manages to successfully take over their capital and the final objective is to liberate it.
• Cast of Snowflakes: Just like with the Fire Emblem series, Berwick Saga's playable characters, side characters and even the npcs all look different from each other. Even some of the generic mooks are given some unique dialogue and a few skills that may spell doom to the player if they don't bother checking the unit before attacking.
• A Child Shall Lead Them: The Current Apostle and Leader of the Verian Church is the 15-year-old Sanacia Fille Brontë aka Saphira.
• The Church: The Verian Church for the Berwick League who worships Veria, the Earth Mother and Goddess of the Day and Rebirth, and the Raze Church for the Raze Empire who in turn worships Raze, the Sky Father and God of the Night and Death. The two were formerly of the same religion in the Lazberian Empire (With the two gods originally just two aspects of the same god) but a schism occurred and eventually the Veria sect was sidelined and exiled by the Empire who preferred the powerful god of darkness.
• Church Militant: The Shining Knights, the Magic Knight protectors of the Apostle of the Verian Church. On the side of the Raze Church, they have the War Priests and the Dark Templars.
• Civil Warcraft: Just from the very first chapter of the game, Reese and his knights end up fighting Verian troops who have resorted to banditry after being evicted from the city of Navarron for their actions. Later on, The Duchy of Bornia sides with the Raze Empire during the middle stages of war, with it's troops being the enemies of the Sinon Knights in some of the main chapters.
• Climbing the Cliffs of Insanity: Every non-armored foot units (including dismounted units) can cross cliffs but it costs a lot of movement points to move onto and the unit will suffer having their Avoid stat reduced to zero unless they have the Hiker skill.
• Collector of the Strange: One citizen request has a collector obsessed with finding rare items, often requesting you to find certain items and weapons on the battlefield in exchange for money.
• Color-Coded Armies: The player's units are colored blue while the enemies are colored red. Green units are required to be protected by the player as part of the chapter's objective while yellow units are either allied units or neutral units that are optional enemies not related to the chapter.
• Companion-Specific Sidequest: Some sidequests and even some side chapters require a certain character is alive, otherwise the sidequest is unavailable. Paralogues are unlockable side chapters that are focused on a particular unit.
• The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: Averted. The enemy AI is placed in the same rules as the player during fog-of-war missions and also can't see your units that have the Hide ability.
• Controllable Helplessness: A player unit inflicted with the Crippled status has them suffer a great penalty to all of their stats and leaves them unable to due anything except moving and even that has a random chance of being forced to end their turn regardless of their remaining movement points, leaving them at the mercy of being attacked or captured by the enemy. The only way to cure it is through an extremely rare item or through the Rehabilitate orb that can only be used by a promoted Izerna.
• Counter-Attack: Unlike in the Fire Emblem games, a unit who has received damage during a fight is unable to counterattack, making it quite dangerous to place a character near multiple enemies that risks death if they are repeatedly hit. Certain skills such as Counter, Vengeful, and Pursuit, and equipping weapons that grant the user additional strikes allows the user to attack despite taking damage.
• Crapsack World: The continent of Lazberia is plagued with an ongoing Hopeless War between the Berwick League and the Raze Empire, and even that doesn't stop the constant Civil Wars and conspiracies that plague both countries. The common citizens not only have to suffer the ravages of war that the two sides of inflicted upon each other, bandit and pirate gangs take advantage of the chaos to Rape, Pillage, and Burn.
• Crutch Character:
  • Ward, who averts this. While not flashy, his stats and weapon versatility enable him to last until the end of the game.
  • The two cavaliers, Leon and Adel perform quite well in the early-game due to their impressive set of skills, but their usefulness lessens as the game goes on due to their average base stats and growth rates hampering them.
  • Izerna is the first healer you get early on and only until Chapter 4 you get more healers that outclass her in use.
• Cycle of Revenge: The Forever War between the Berwick League and the Raze Empire has essentially produced this, which is best exemplified in the conclusion of Dean's recruitment sidequest. Both he and a retired Raze Soldier named Fraus have suffered horribly at the hands of soldiers (Dean's family was killed by soldiers of the Raze Empire while Fraus' hometown has razed and massacred by soldiers of the Kingdom of Veria), and both joined the war in order to kill as many Raze/Berwick soldiers as possible.
• Dangerous Deserter: The very first chapter of the game has you fighting a small army of Verian troops who resorted to banditry after being forcibly barred from the city of Navaron for their trouble-making ways.
• Darker and Edgier: When compared to TearRing Saga and to most Fire Emblem games. While both games starts off with their side being mostly good aside from a few traitors, Berwick Saga starts off with with Reese and his knights fighting off deserters from his own side, and upon entering Navarron, both he and player slowly realize that the The Empire isn't the only enemy that have to worry about...
• The Darkness Before Death: If Sylvis gets killed in battle, she comments that her vision is darkening, sorrowfully saying she can't use her bow anymore.
• David Versus Goliath: The Sinon Knights, who number approximately 100 men, are able to routinely defeat bandit gangs and enemies armies twice their number, but this is later averted in Chapter 13 where the Sinon Knights' 500 is forced to delay the Imperial Army that numbers a 10,000, and while they are able to fight well, by the end of the fight are nearly overrun by swarms of Elite Mooks, which would've resulted in an absolute defeat for them if it weren't for the armistice forcing the Imperials to retreat.
• A Day in the Limelight: The sidequests puts some focus towards your default and mercenary units with their own stories to tell. Some of these are required in order to permanently recruit the mercenaries.
• Death or Glory Attack: The command activated skills Desperation and Pulverize. The former grants the user an additional +22 hitrate to their attack and grants an additional attack if the user's attack speed is higher than the target, yet the user's defense is reduced to zero and the target is guaranteed to counterattack. The latter has the user's attack double at the cost of the user's defense being reduced to zero and it can only be used in place of moving.
• Devious Daggers: The main weapons of thieves and they have an increased change of inflicting the Injury Status, can ignore a victim's def stat and their damage is calculated by the weapon's might + a random number between 1 and the unit's strength.
• Disc-One Nuke: Powerful mercenaries such as Volo, Sherpa and Clifford are available in the early chapters and possess powerful skills and base stats that enable them to be useful all throughout the endgame even if you don't use them very often.
• Dragon Rider: Unique in that in this iteration of flier units, they have new rules and mechanics about them. First, land units and flier units can pass through each other regardless of affiliation. Second, melee land units cannot initiate combat against them (unless using a mid-range weapon like a hand axe or javelin), but can counter provided they don't get struck or take damage.
• Easy Logistics: Averted. It is used to justify why only the basic weapons and shields can be bought in the early chapters due to King Volcens using them for his army, and the Atelier sidequests sometimes give you the tasks of obtaining imperial weapons from the battlefield to repurpose them due to the ongoing war depleting resources, and a sidequest chapter has the Sinon Knights hunting down an Imperial Squad using guerrilla tactics to damage supply lines. In-game: money is not easy to earn and the player needs to learn when and what to use their limited amount of funds to use for their army and which mercenaries to use since their hiring fees rise with each successive level up.
• Elemental Weapon: Certain weapons and arrows do additional elemental damage alongside their physical damage, which can be quite useful against units with shields and high defensive stats such as Knights.
• The Empire:
  • The Raze Empire. While initially presented as an antagonistic evil empire, further information of them as the game goes on reveals a far more complex picture, with the fact that they were exacting retribution against the aggression of the Berwick League.
  • The Lazberian Empire plays this straight. An empire founded by the remnants of another evil empire that considers its pure-blooded citizens the Master Race to such an intense degree that they practiced slavery against the lower classes and enacted laws that further distanced themselves from the lower classes, such as forbidding mixed-race marriages and exiling dissenting citizens from the capital.
• Empty Levels: Averted. The game uses a pseudo random system called "bracketed growth". Basically, each time a unit levels up, there's a chance of each stat going up. In addition to that, each character has maximum and minimal expected stats for a given level. The game will not allow a unit to have a particular stat to be too high or too low. This prevents balance issues and ensures that characters function in their respective roles as designed.
• Enemy Chatter: Unlike in the Fire Emblem games (until Three Houses, years later funnily enough), even the lowliest Mook are given their own dialogue that mostly humanizes them. This is best shown in an early sidequest against an imperial supply convoy; most of them are just regular people doing their duty.
• Escape Sequence:
  • A common chapter objective just like with the Fire Emblem games but with a unique twist in that sometimes it is combined with Hold the Line in which the Sinon Knights have to buy time in order for defenseless civilians or wounded soldiers to escape, then they themselves must escape in time or else the mission is a failure (if the Lord character fails to escape in time) or any remaining straglers are automatically captured by the enemy, forcing you to pay a ransom.
  • One level has you assaulting a heavily guarded fortress to rescue a highly valued ally and his comrades, then you have to protect them from incoming enemies in order for them to escape while ensuring your forces have enough time to escape themselves.
• Expy: Not to the extent of its predecessor, as the gameplay is mechanically different. The first few chapters have extensive hints to explain new and unique mechanics.
• Extra Turn: Aside from the usual Fire Emblem system of horse and flying units move again after attacking (unless they take damage after a battle), Sherlock has the One-Two skill has allows him to attack again, letting him attack an enemy the second time or choose a different enemy to attack.
• Fantastic Caste System: The society of the Raze Empire is stratified into a number of social classes, the lowest of which are slaves. However, while there are slaves, the majority of the nation are made up of " Free Citizens" (in the feudal sense) that consider the Raze Empire as a nice place to live in.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture:
  • The Berwick League is modeled on the Delian League, an alliance of Ancient Greek city states united against the Persian Empire, with the Kingdom of Veria being the Athens counterpart.
  • The Raze Empire has explicit parallels with the Ottoman Empire, both being a large and prosperous empire that has a heavily stratified society.
  • The Raze Church is modeled after the Catholic Church (original and hierarchical) and the Verian Church is Protestant (separatist and reformist).
• The Federation: The Berwick League is founded and led by the Kingdom of Veria in order to combat the expansionism of the Raze Empire. Just like the Raze Empire however, further information as the game goes on reveals that Berwick League is far from virtuous as it appears with the revelation that they were the aggressors in the latest war of the Verian-Raze conflict.
• Final Solution: The ultimate goal of Pope Urbanus IV is to kill off or convert every single believer of the Verian Faith, which is basically the entire western part of Lazberia, and what's worse is that it's already in the process of happening as the Raze Empire expands their control over the territories of the Berwick League. This is essentially what drives Larentia to defect to the Berwick League out of disgust towards the above and her own father turning a blind eye towards it.
  Larentia: (As she answers Reese's questions of her defection) Reese of Sinon... I see... Then you are the Margrave's son. Let me ask you this, Reese of Sinon. If your father became a worshipper of Raze and joined the Empire, would you simply abandon all that you hold dear in blind obedience? Destroy the temples of Veria...Burn down entire towns and villages who still believe in the League... Would you really be willing to do all that, even for your own father?
• Forever War: The history between the Berwick League and the Raze Empire in a nutshell. What began as a series of territorial disputes over the hemogeny of the three eastern countries spiraled into a conflict that lasts four and a half centuries, with both sides unable to achieve an official end to the war due to the amount of bad blood developed between them and machinations of certain powerful individuals.
• Good Republic, Evil Empire: At first this seems to be played straight and indeed, the Berwick League was originally founded to protect the Eastern Three Kingdoms and themselves from the expansionism of the Raze Empire. This is subverted in the latest conflict, where the League is shown in a far more negative light than the Empire as a whole.
• Government in Exile: King Volcens and his court flees to the Duchy of Narvia in order re-establish the Berwick League from there and continue the fight against the Raze Empire.
• Greater-Scope Villain: King Mordias IV and Pope Urbanus IV. The former's actions (ordering the assassination of the Apostle, imprisoning of Prince Bernard and his defeat of the Eastern Kingdoms, and him starting the war against the Raze Empire) results in the terrible state of the Berwick League at the start of the game. The latter is responsible for the former becoming king, not to mention Reese ends up fighting with the forces of the Raze Church over the course of the game.
• Grey-and-Gray Morality: Both the Berwick League and the Raze Empire have both their good sides and bad and complex motivations that drive their actions, with the exceptions being Prince Faisal and his allies, as well as Pope Urbanus IV and his extremist followers who basically want the extermination of the Verian Faith.
• Guide Dang It!: Certain foods from the Kingfisher Pavilion bestow unique effects for the unit, like healing their horses' HP to increasing their weapon ranks. The game doesn't tell you which food has them. It also doesn't help that each unit has their own list of liked or disliked food, where feeding them the right one has them gain better bonus effects but the wrong one has them suffer a slight penalty to one of their stats.
• Heel–Face Turn: Larentia deserts her country to join yours after being disgusted with their alliance with the Raze Church.
• Hellhole Prison: The Berwick League POWs of the Raze Empire are placed into these, one of which the Sinon Knights raid in a side chapter in order to rescue the captives.
• Hero of Another Story: The game makes it quite clear that Reese and the Sinon Knights' battles are minor in comparison to the rest of the heroes, such as Duke Bernard fighting the Raze Empire in the front lines, Lanette becoming the Chosen One and establishing a powerful resistant army that nearly reverses the war in favor of the Berwick League, and General Zephyrus fighting against Prince Faisal and Pope Urbanus IV, although it's also clear that they're not insignificant either.
• Hit-and-Run Tactics:
  • Just like with the Fire Emblem series, mounted units are able to use their remaining movement points after attacking, perfect for avoiding incoming enemy attacks.
  • Cavalry units that uses Spears and Lances gain additional damage for every used movement hex used.
• Hopeless War: The game starts off with the Berwick League suffering massive defeats and the loss of the Kingdom of Veria at hands of the Raze Empire. It doesn't help that King Volcens's poor military decisions makes things even worse for the League as the game goes on. The Berwick League is finally defeated in the final chapters, with Navarron being taken over by Imperial Forces.
• Infinity -1 Sword: Reese later gains the Gram sword as a present from Lanette in Chapter 5, a powerful sword that has great stats, grants a +18 crit rate, gives him an additonal strike to his attacks and acts as a Miracle Charm in which it allows him to escape a fatal blow at the cost of it being instantly broken yet it can be repaired with a repairstone.
• An Interior Decorator Is You: Reese's office in the city of Navarron. While at first only the curtain' color can be changed but later you may able to acquire furniture items that also offer positive buffs and benefits, mostly to Reese himself who gains useful skills.
• Invulnerable Horses: Averted. Horses can and will die during the course of a battle and the rider will be dismounted as a result. Different horses also have different HP values and some even offer stat bonuses. There are (limited) ways to heal them between battles.
• I Shall Taunt You: The Provoke skill draws the attention of a single enemy unit towards the user and can be quite effective at shielding weaker units, especially from ranged units like ballistas.
• Item Crafting: Unique weapons can be crafted from required materials that can be brought or be taken/dropped by defeating certain enemy units.
• It's a Wonderful Failure: If you fail to seize the fort in time during Chapter 14, a special cutscene occurs in which Lanette is burned alive by Cardinal Gordova and his lackeys, with the former sadly muttering Reese's name as the screen Fade to White.
• Jousting Lance: Lances are a sub-weapon of Spears usable only by certain mounted classes. Lance type weapons cannot counter or be countered, but deal greatly increased damage based on a charge which is how much the unit moved before initiating the attack. Spears operate like this as well, but to a less exaggerated extent, can be used any spear using class and can counter provided they either dodge or take no damage.
• Knighting:
  • Instead of a character merely changing their model after promoting to a class, the promoting character goes through a ceremony held by Reese and the Sinon Knights. The Mercenary characters also go through a similar ceremony by being granted a title by the Mercenary Guild and his/her fellow mercenaries congratulating the promoted character.
  • Reese himself goes through a ceremony once he becomes a Knight Lord before King Volcens, who is forcibly convinced by Duke Roswick and Bishop Lebough that Reese has accomplished so much that he deserves a promotion.
• Level-Locked Loot: Unlike in the Fire Emblem series, the user's level determines whether they are able to actually equip a certain weapon/shield, otherwise if they equip a weapon/shield higher than their own level, they will suffer equipment failure and they will not be able to use the additional effects of that weapon/shield.
• Light Is Not Good: Certain side chapters have Heretic Verian Priests fighting and using their elemental and healing for the bandit gangs they work for.
• Low Fantasy: More so than Fire Emblem series and this game's predecessor Tear Ring Saga. It's a human affair from start to finish due to the lack of divine beings or supernatural threats influencing the conflict.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Unlike in the Fire Emblem series, shields will reduce incoming damage (depending on the shield's Defense stat), with the Shield weapon skill and Skill stat of the character affecting the chance of activation. Some shields go as far as increasing the magical resistance against a certain element or even reflecting damage back to the attacker.
• Marathon Level: Most of the main chapters are quite long, which makes the 5-turn save function quite handy.
• Mercenary Units: Most of the available characters are mercenaries that require a price for their services if you want them to participate in a battle. Completing certain requirements (such as increasing their happiness stats) enables them to be permanently recruited to your army without cost.
• Meteor-Summoning Attack: The Dark Orb spell, Wormwood, summons meteors to damage a unit and it has an unlimited range [[HP to 1 but it cannot kill a unit]].
• Motive Decay: The Berwick League was founded in order to protect the three eastern kingdoms of Pesil, Ish and Leia from the expansionism of the Raze Empire, but later on in it's history, King Mordias IV convinces the Raze Empire to help him win the civil war against the three eastern kingdoms in a great perversion to the League's original goals.
• Nemesis Weapon: Chaos wields the Vajira, one of the two legendary divine blades that he stolen from his master, Cowen, the father of Faye. Vitra, the other half of the pair and the only one to nullify the protection of the sword, is under the posssession of Jacharam, who uses it to keep him under control.
• Nintendo Hard: Given its similarities to Fire Emblem: Thracia 776, this goes without saying. And it's not just limited to navigating difficult maps but also managing your equipment and money to ensure you come out on top.
• No Curefor Evil: Averted with the Raze Church clergy having the Darkmend Orb at their use, while certain bandit gangs have Heretic Priests using the same healing orbs used by the Verian Church.
• Non-Combat EXP: Playable characters (including mercenaries) who are benched gain experience points in between chapters, although they will not level up, being stuck at 99 experience unless you use them in battle.
• Non-Linear Sequel: While marketed as a direct sequel, Berwick Saga only has a limited connection with TearRing Saga. The ancient Lazberian Empire was founded by Zoan pilgrims who fled after the fall of the Zoan Empire in Lieberia. They easily conquer the continent of Lazberia though superior technology.
• One-Man Army: Averted. No single unit will be able to take on more than a handful of soldiers by themselves, unlike in Fire Emblem or Tear Ring Saga. The new mechanics to the countering system (if a unit gets hit during combat, they will not counterattack unless they have a certain skill) and the chance that a unit may have their equipment be forcibly unequipped or the worst-case scenario of being crippled and rendered effectively helpless.
• Orcuson His Throne: Averted. Enemy bosses will leave even their defensive terrain if they catch your unit in their attack range.
• Our Dragons Are Different: Unlike the Fire Emblem series, the dragons in this game are just dangerous wild animals and are irrelevant to the plot. In-game, they function as extremely powerful bosses that give you a Wyvern Scale as a reward to craft powerful weapons and shields.
• Permadeath: It wouldn't be a Fire Emblem inspired game without it.
• Piñata Enemy: On certain missions, enemy caravan units carry extremely rare and valuable items and weapons, but they are usually well-protected while they make their way towards the end of the map in order to escape. Also, certain enemy units hold coins that add money to your purse and treasure items that are worth 5000g when sold.
• Point of No Return: Advancing to Chapter 14 removes access to the City of Navarron and the West House, with the latter only available for the final chapter.
• Power Crystal: Instead of scrolls or tomes, the mages and clerics seal raw magical energy into orbs which would then be released by reciting the proper chants that basically act as a password to activate the spells. Some orbs replenish their uses between main chapters.
• Prestige Class: Just like in the Fire Emblem series, most of the character can be upgraded into stronger versions of their standard classes. Unlike with the former, they don't need an item to promote and they usually require hitting a designated level and a certain statistic. Others have more complicated requirements such a completing or viewing their events and personal sidequests.
• Pretext for War: King Mordias IV has the Apostle Silpha assassinated, in order to rid himself of her meddling and to unite the Berwick League against the Raze Empire.
• Prisoner Exchange: Captured imperial soldiers can be ransomed and exchanged for money, with generals and knights having a higher ransom reward than the common spearmen. You will also be forced to pay for the lives of your units if they get captured by the enemy.
• Pseudo-Crisis: In Chapter 13, the Sinon Knights participate in a grueling mission in which they must Hold the Line against a massive Imperial Army in order to protect the defeated Navarron Army. By Turn 14, they are assaulted by multiple Elite Mooks such as Dragon Knights and Black Riders, each led by a powerful boss on both sides, and the player has already endured a grueling siege and prepares for the worse, but on Turn 15, the enemy units suddenly decide to retreat and the mission ends. The Sinon Knights are confused by this, and it is later revealed that the Berwick League and the Raze Empire have signed a truce.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Downplayed. The Sinon Knights are all professional soldiers and most of the default recruitable units are either royalty or soldiers themselves. Only the mercenary units apply for it and even then they are less quirky than the usual examples of this trope.
• Random Number God: Like the above, it has a lot of RNG. There are many ways to modify hit rates in your favor, though. There is also RNG involved in weapons breaking below a certain durability threshold, which has proven to be a controversial design decision.
• Redshirt Army: Averted. The green unit allies usually can take care of themselves and not end up being wiped out too quickly, although care must still be given to make sure they don't throw themselves towards a group of enemies.
• Relationship Values: While Berwick Saga doesn't have a lover system, it does have a happiness value for mercenaries that is usually a requirement in order for them to be permanently recruited to the Sinon Knights.
• Religion of Evil: Averted with the Raze Church. Dark Is Not Evil applies to them until the reign of Pope Urbanus IV and even then he is quickly ousted out of power at the end of the game after his coup'd'eat is foiled. Even his rise is said to have been fueled by decades of the Verian kings' own misdeeds, and the Verian Church being willing to forgive them.
• Shades of Conflict: And unlike in Fire Emblem, it's not limited to the named characters. It's very rare to find a character who is truly good or evil in this war.
• Sidequest: In-between the main chapters are optional side chapters, and the catch is that neither Reese or Ward are allowed to participate in these missions. Adding to that is the various citizen requests that usually requires finding or retrieving an item in the main chapters or the side chapters themselves.
• Siege Engines: Just like in the Fire Emblem games, ballistae are used as long ranged artilery. Unlike the former, they can move but very slowly, have a unique turn system where they need to face the right direction to actually fire on enemies and are quite deadly and accurate.
• Slave Mooks: To further bolster their already impressive military, the Raze Empire forcibly turn the citizens and the military of its recently conquered territories into unwilling soldiers by keeping their families hostage and threatening them with death by burning at stake if they ever desert or surrender, and only with their death will their families be freed.
• Soiled City on a Hill: In the backstory, the Lazberian Empire, an empire that ruled through fear and slavery of its lower-class citizens, collapsed when it's capital city was sunk by a great earthquake and with it most of its pure-blooded citizens. The rest of the civilization is destroyed by the revolt of the slaves and the invasion of barbarians from the north.
• Spreading Disaster Map Graphic: To show off the Hopeless War that is the Berwick-Raze Conflict, each main chapter shows off how the Raze Empire is expanding and conquering bit-by-by the individual nation states of the Berwick League.
• Succession Crisis:
  • In the backstory, the death of King Harmel VII of Veria results in the Berwick League being split into two factions (The Eastern Powers and Western Powers) and waged a bloody war that lasted for nearly four years, that led to the defeat and destruction of the Eastern Kingdoms of Pesil, Ishs and Leia as well as the imprisonment of Duke Bernard.
  • Much later in the game, the Raze Empire also experiences one as well upon the death of Emperor Cleiman VI, with General Zephyrus supporting his nephew, the newly crowned Emperor Manaris and his mother, Anastasia, who is also his older sister, against the forces of Prince Faisal and Pope Urbanus IV. This ends with Zephyrus emerging victorious against the duo, killing the former while the latter and his followers are ousted from the Raze Church thanks to his second-in-command Arcturus.
• Suspiciously Small Army: Due to hardware limits, a group of seven knights in-game is considered to be an army of a hundred men in-story.
• Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: Averted. Just like with it's predecessor Tear Ring Saga, Berwick Saga has no Weapon Triangle unlike in the Fire Emblem games.
• Taking the Bullet: The skills Guard and Provoke but in different ways. The former protects the selected ally by forcing the enemy to initiate combat with the user but at the cost of halving their defense and speed, while the latter enrages the enemy to immediately target the user if possible and ignore weaker targets.
• A Taste of Power: At the start of the game, Reese and his knights ride the Sinon Stallions, horses with good HP and grants the rider an additional +2 to their agility stat. Unfortunately, they get stolen right after entering the city of Navarron and you'll have to buy regular horses from the town stables. You do recover some of the horses in a later sidequest, but you'll be able to recover 3 of them at best.
• Through His Stomach: One of the ways of increasing the hidden affection stat of the mercenaries is feeding them food from the Kingfisher Pavilion, and the amount increases or decreases depending on the rank of the food and whether they liked it or not.
• "Wanted!" Poster: The mercenary guild introduces a bounty hunting system, complete with posters that identify the targets. Capturing bounty targets alive pays double the listed rate.
• War Is Hell: In a Crapsack World like Lazberia, such is common with citizens being kidnapped and sold to slavery, orphans who lost their parents in the long war, being forcibly conscripted on to the front lines, etc. Aside from the usual horrors of war, the game does a great job of depicting how war affects every level of society, from the nobles and royalty to the common citizens. Even the ending spends a lot of time dwelling on this issue.
• War Was Beginning: The game starts off with a long intro that details the starting events of the current Berwick-Raze Conflict.
• Water Source Tampering: An early side-chapter has the Sinon Knights investigate the poisoned river which affected some orphans, only to find out that a Raze Priest and his underlings were trying to strike the City of Navarron by poisoning their water supply.
• Weapon Grip Failure: During combat, there is a chance that an attack forces a unit to lose their grip over their weapon or shield, leaving them in an unequipped status until they can reequip during their next turn. Axes have a great chance of knocking away a unit's weapon and/or shield while those with the skill Knock Away can also forcibly unequip an enemy's shield.
• We ARE Struggling Together: Despite the threat of the Raze Empire, the 24 nations of the Berwick League are constantly squabbling with each other, either with complex political gambits or petty feuds that do nothing but waste valuables resources and erodes the morale of soldiers, resulting with the utter collapse of the League by the endgame. Reese gets the brunt of this from either King Volcens' himself and/or his two advisers Herman and Padolf, usually mocking Reese for his humble origins or forcing him to return on time while he and his knights are participating in dangerous military operations or else he'll be immediately branded as a traitor.

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