Fire Emblem Genealogy of the Holy War: Its Importance, Flaws, & Potential for a Remake

January 28th, 2022

Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War (alternatively, Fire Emblem 4) was released in 1996 for the Super Famicom. For those who are unfamiliar, Fire Emblem is a popular Nintendo franchise where the general premise is that you command soldiers in a fantasy world on a chess-like grid. Most games are self-contained and take place in their own separate canon, with titles in the same universe being easy to pick up even if you haven’t played the predecessors.

Having hundreds of characters split across a total of 20 games, the franchise had a niche-yet-devoted fan base before skyrocketing in popularity thanks to Fire Emblem Awakening in 2012. However, while the series is now released internationally, the first six games were Japan-exclusive, making fan-translations like Project Naga the only way to experience Fire Emblem 4 in English.

With development starting right after the release of the third Fire Emblem game (Mystery of the Emblem), it was envisioned as an ambitious title to redefine what the series had seen before. A higher emphasis on story, more detailed and grounded characters (with several manga series that expanded upon them), significantly larger battle maps, and more.

You play as both Sigurd and Seliph across the game as the main “Lords,” an important character whose death results in a game over. While the plot has its flaws, I dare say it’s the first legitimately great Fire Emblem story that still stands to this day. There were even a few moments where I teared up! This is further reinforced by the addition of optional support conversations. They were simple and sometimes kinda stupid, but helped at developing the characters and setting up the groundwork for future games.

In spite of creative differences and a turbulent development revealed in an interview (translated by XKAN; the whole thing is worth reading), the game eventually settled on having grandiose maps and more complex unit types while keeping the same gameplay formula previous titles established. In addition, there’s a “romance” system where units in the first six chapters could get married and have their stats impact kids — them being playable in the latter half of the game. This would later be revisited in FE Awakening and FE Fates ~16 years later.

Not to mention it establishes mechanics later games would adopt or expand upon, such as the series staple weapons triangle, character skills, light base management, having multiple generations, streamlined class promotions, and more. While it’s often overlooked by general audiences now, it heavily influenced how the series would function going forward (even if in a primitive manner).

However, while I loved my time with the game, it’s not perfect. Far from it, in fact, to the point where I had to frequently take breaks due to how overwhelming it could be. As such, I’ve composed an in-depth essay on what the developers did right, the more problematic aspects, and how everything could be improved without changing the original experience. This is mostly spoiler-free and doesn’t give away anything too major, however I will allude to plot elements and reference aspects of gameplay.

The Issues with Extreme Scale

If you’ve seen or played the game for yourself, you’ll undoubtedly understand how daunting it can feel at points — especially to newcomers. u/TheEntireRomanArmy did an analysis of the map tile sizes in the FE franchise, with Genealogy’s average being more than 4x the size of the 2nd-largest game: FE3.

Even taking into account the need for translation, FE4’s biggest turn-off to Fire Emblem fans is its daunting size and length. While there are only 12 chapters total, each one is formatted into 3–5 sections that are roughly the size of a traditional Fire Emblem chapter. Simply get Sigurd or Seliph to the castle while fending off enemy troops to progress the story…except there are a LOT more enemies present than most FE titles.

It’s evident from the very start of Chapter 1 when it opens with troops rushing your home castle that can easily slaughter your forces, whilst simultaneously trying to protect two new fragile units on an opposing end of the map that are being hounded down. Those familiar with the game probably know there’s a trick to cheesing this, but to newcomers it’s a quick stab in the gut after a mostly-easy prologue chapter.

Questionable design choices are littered throughout the game in a manner that may not bug hardcore fans, but further drives fear into outsiders. Chapter 2 is almost undoubtedly the worst in the game, forcing the player to make a mad rush at the beginning to save Lachesis, followed by heavily defensive enemies up north, and ending by forcing the player to backtrack their entire army to a different side of the map. It hides information from the player, it’s tedious, and it’s not fun at any point.

In spite of all these issues created by the large maps, I wouldn’t say they’re inherently a problem. The real issue was poor pacing and utilization of said levels, so scrapping them in a remake would be wasteful of what the game was trying to accomplish. Problematic parts are thankfully much rarer than the great level design, but because of how long the game is, they stick out far harder than a typical standalone FE chapter.

Many people have suggested breaking up these mega-chapters into smaller, more bite-sized levels akin to typical Fire Emblem games. And while that would work for some maps, what some don’t realize is that the game doesn’t just instantly forget that the previous castle doesn’t exist when you capture another.

The devs were well-aware of the potential ginormous maps have, and occasionally throw curveballs your way that need to be countered fast before things go from bad to worse. Sometimes it’s enemies trying to skirt around you on an open field, or fliers going over mountains to crush your home castle while the bulk of your army is away. And other times it’s simple things like trying to crush you on multiple fronts. The early chapters ease off of things like these and slowly build into them, but a lot of outsiders seem to think that the giant space isn’t utilized.

So, what’s the solution? Making smaller maps would ruin the original vision, but the larger maps can be painful even in the most streamlined of levels. Rather than outright changing level design in most cases, a simple feature would help solve a lot of these issues: auto-movement.

The premise is simple: a player can set a point on the map for deployed units to go towards if the turn ends. A universal one can be created for all units out on the map, or individual ones if you want some to take a slightly different path. This would only go into effect if you have the feature on and haven’t already done something with a character manually. Characters won’t attack enemies or rescue civilians unless you manually select them, but counterattacking will still be a thing, of course. This is to help streamline movement and make it significantly less tedious for beefy maps, while still not having it be brain-dead and force the player to still come up with formations.

I envision it being something like a quick button press to enable or disable, like using one of the shoulder buttons (or selecting a unit to manually set a custom waypoint). Have a red square to indicate that’s the target area for all units to herd towards, and a second time to turn off. Or, if a unit’s space is highlighted, the second press will change it to purple and have everyone follow said unit. Then of course the third press would turn it off like normal. A feature like this wouldn’t make the game easier, it would help streamline and turn it into a far more enjoyable experience.

And as a quick little addition to wrap things up, level design changes I would like to make. As stated earlier, Chapter 1 rushes the player a little too hard at the start. Newcomers Dew and Edain can still be chased by a small militia since they’ll inevitably run back to your group, but the squadron bombarding the player right at the start should be toned down a little bit. Chapter 2 flat-out needs new paths or something to make the north-west corner less of a pain to come back from. And Chapter 4 suffers in a similar way, along with having a weird drawbridge mechanic that should be scrapped since it’s never mentioned again. Everything else is actually quite solid, and almost makes me think they designed as they went along and got the hang of things around Chapters 3 and 5.

The Story

As much as I enjoyed the plot as a whole, that doesn’t mean there aren’t a few rough patches in certain parts of the story. This can be boiled down to five major aspects: exposition dumping, Sigurd and Deirdre, worldbuilding improvements, incest, and Lewyn. For those unfamiliar with the plot, yes, you read that right.

Exposition dumping is the most obvious issue in the game with how long the start of most chapters can be (especially when first booting up the game). The world is interesting, but unloading too much at one time will bore the average reader and just make them want to skip ahead because it doesn’t seem important. I feel like having a prologue to the prologue would help better pace things, perhaps putting you in the shoes of Finn, Ethlyn, and Quan as they race to meet up with Sigurd in the original prologue. Something short, relevant, and engaging enough to be a worthy addition while still keeping the same information.

Most of the other chapters are “fine,” but can still be a lot to unload at once. The one chapter that justifies this is Chapter 6 since it marks the start of the 2nd generation, but there are many instances where the game unloads about several bosses who ultimately have no relevance. Some are more integral to the plot (Chapter 4 being a prime example), while others are random thugs you need to read a paragraph about. Trim the fat. Sum up the bosses as existing in the intro for most cases, and save the real meat for during gameplay.

Next, Sigurd and Deirdre’s relationship. They’re no doubt a cute couple, but also a rushed one. Going from meeting, to “I love you,” and “I’m pregnant” all in one chapter is more comical than endearing. Instead, I feel like a slight rewrite could fix a lot about this relationship. First, have them meet during the prologue chapter (not the hypothetical prologue to the prologue, just the regular one). Quick hello’s to have them be introduced, and show that Sigurd got a bit of a crush.

They can properly get to know one another in the original spot during Chapter 1, with Deirdre offering to guide them. They can start dating in the magic forest, and then fast forward to the start of Chapter 2 where the “I love you’s” should start. Have more banter to show the two of them developing, and have her drop the “I’m pregnant!” at the end of the chapter. Since several months pass between Chapters 2 and 3, it would still work out having her give birth to Seliph in the original spot. Bing bang boom, better pacing achieved.

Next up, worldbuilding improvements. The story is there, however adding more details to the world or changing the environment in certain areas would go a long way in my opinion. The 1st generation is mostly fine since nothing too dramatic happens at the start, though I wouldn’t mind showing the effects of war on the villages. The worst that ever happens is villagers scolding you for being a soldier, which is fine but doesn’t amount to much. Have more razed villages, show desolate cities that were pillaged for war efforts, make it clear that propaganda is going around. Things that will help at foreshadowing without altering too much for the game itself.

The 2nd generation has a lot more going on in the background, and I have to admit I was a bit more disappointed that it was all told and rarely shown. The best example of the game making it clear is when you rescue a group of kids at the end of Chapter 10, but that’s a one-off moment. Show the dungeons alluded to in Chapter 7 where kids are held captive in. Sprinkle pikes around the enemy nations, alluding to the atrocities they’ve committed. Have burnt forests made from the dark church trying to weed out escapees. Make a weird altar area with unknown symbols and allusions of holy blood. Swap the camera over to Julius and his reign of terror more often. ANYTHING other than pure text.

I’m willing to forgive the game due to its limitations, but a remake should absolutely have some of these things and expand upon them. I don’t want to see anything grotesque, but hints and pieces that something horrifying is going on in the background. Because from what everyone is saying — it’s REALLY bad. The final chapter should also look a bit more sinister in my opinion. Not too much to avoid having it look cheesy, but I’d like things such as more ruins or broken areas to show how badly the empire has ruined Jugdral.

Alright, I’ve danced around this for long enough: the incest. It is here, it exists, and it’s probably the biggest joke behind the end of Chapter 5. Eldigan and Lachesis are great characters on their own, but are also heavily hinted at being lovers. They’re also half-siblings. Get rid of that. There is absolutely no point to them being lovers, so it should just go and be replaced with them being close siblings. Same with cousins being able to marry in the 2nd generation. Thankfully brothers and sisters are unable to marry, but in literally any other game that would just be a given. Make it all blocked off.

And while we’re at it, let’s not stop with incest. 27 and 16 year-olds can marry. No. Just, no. If marriage is going to be a thing, age up the underage units and lower Claud’s age to something like 23 since he sticks out like a sore thumb at 27. And in the 2nd generation, have Finn, Shannan, and Hannibal be blocked off from marrying anyone since they’re all far older than the other 15–17 year-olds.

Lastly, Lewyn. For those who are concerned with spoilers, I advise you to skip ahead to the next section since this is the very last twist in the game. Everyone else ready? Good. Because Lewyn’s character arc being completely replaced by Forseti reviving and possessing him kinda ticks me off. Abandoning his nation Silesse? His wife? His children? Everything??? It’s such a hard 180 and while the reveal explains a lot about his change in character, it’s also STUPID and undoes everything that made him so interesting in the 1st generation.

I’m just going to assume he marries Erinys because that makes it easier to write out. Keep the plot point of him being revived to act as an advisor, but let him remain in control. Erinys can still die from disease if they really want to keep that, but rather than Lewyn leaving and going “didn’t ask, don’t care,” let him have bottled-up grief and his children misplace their anger onto him. Silesse is heavily alluded to be unstable beyond belief, so fleeing isn’t the most outlandish thing. And it’s a hell of a lot better than him ditching it because he doesn’t care about his people and loved ones. I’m just…so tired.

Weapon Balancing

The weapon balancing ranges from pretty good to pretty dang stupid, and the devs seem to be fully aware of this. Weapons generally go in the tiering of iron, steel, silver, and legendary (except for staffs). They also all have “weight,” which when factored with speed, can determine how many times someone can attack in a turn + likelihood of dodging. In addition, there are a few unique variations for each weapon type that change or add mechanics (such as slim weapons being very weak but light, or brave weapons guaranteeing follow-up attacks).

I’d like to call silver axes good, but even they can be hit-or-miss since the user generally has such low speed (minus Lex/Ayra pairing) that they can’t be used effectively. Iron, steel, and hand axes fall into the same boat of not really being up to snuff for various reasons, making brave axes the one viable option. While this may make Lex with a brave axe even more of a powerhouse, I wouldn’t mind if they reduced the weight on them a little bit to have them be more viable.

Swords? Check for yourself. I could write a small essay on how versatile swords alone are, especially since it has a whopping 3 legendary weapons that are all available to the player. They are well-rounded weapons and similar to lances in that they’re always viable, but there are also so MANY. Give axes and lances some love instead of having triple the normal weapon count.

Bows and staffs are fine. I can’t think of many changes I’d make to them since they cover all bases their roles are supposed to fulfill. Some magic bows would make for a cool addition and add more versatility, but they’re not needed.

Fire, thunder, and wind magic, however, kinda bug me. While they don’t go by metal types, they each follow the same pattern of having a weak, medium, and strong version. They still progress in strength with lower chances of hitting acting as a means of balancing, and all three magic types have the same hit % and strength as one another in each tier. Except the main difference is that wind is the lightest, thunder is in the middle, and fire is the heaviest.

So when they all do the same thing, and all have roughly the same stats, why the heck is wind the objectively better one since it allows users to attack more often? It’s a simple fix in my opinion; simply make wind the weakest and fire the strongest while still keeping the weights as-is. It isn’t a game-breaker since the magic triangle still forces you to switch things up against enemy mages, but it’s still such a strange oversight.

Lastly, legendary weapons are too powerful. I get it, they’re intended to be ultra-powerful items to give the player a power trip, but they almost succeed a little too well and trivialize later fights. Maybe cut their stat boosts in half to still have them be almighty weapons, but not game-breaking.

The Class System

While the number of classes may seem a bit daunting to newcomers, I’ve actually come to like and appreciate how versatile nearly every single character is. It’s very rare when two characters in the same generation have overlapping classes, and even then they usually fulfill different roles. However, not everything is quite as tight as it could be, and may lead to a bit of extra confusion.

Fire Emblem 4 has a lot — and I mean a LOT of classes. There are a total of 44 playable ones in the game, including base and promotions. To put that into perspective with past games, Three Houses (2019) has 45 playable classes total with the base game + DLC. Echoes (2017) has 35 playable classes in the game + DLC. It sounds neck-and-neck with modern games, right? Not quite.

Echoes has a system where you can change classes with a few vanilla base ones. The main classes all have specific paths they follow, with a base form, upgraded, and Overclass, meaning there are 10 paths total. Three Houses employs a similar system, with there instead being default, Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, and Master classes, with once again, 10 paths total.

Fire Emblem 4 has 22 paths total, and not all of them are used effectively. Needlessly gendering classes is the biggest culprit, and the more I looked into it, the more confused I became.

Wind Mages and Thunder Mages exist, and both promote into Mage Fighter. Except depending on the gender, they’re either Mage Fighter (m) or Mage Fighter (f), in which female Mage Fighters get to use staffs. Paladins are almost the same, except they’re obtained by promoting Cavaliers and Troubadours.

Swordmasters and Heroes are weird, because they almost follow the same logic of the former being all women and the latter men. Both start off as Myrmidons and promote into their respective gendered class except for Shannan, who comes to you as a Swordmaster. I don’t even like that they’re divided, but that’s just weird.

In my opinion, things just need to be streamlined a bit. Merge Swordmasters and Heroes, because the former is an objectively better class due to getting a busted skill (Pursuit). Mage Fighter? Paladin? Merge ’em and let them both use staffs. As much as I want to merge the Mage, Fire Mage, Thunder Mage, and Wind Mage, it was actually explained why certain characters could only use some spells. But they’re still on thin ice and I wouldn’t mind having them be globbed together as just Mage.

The rest I’m honestly fine with, since they each serve a unique gameplay or story purpose for why they exist. The only thing I wish to add is a promotion to dancers that lets them use better swords/spells. Let Silvia and Lene girlboss.

Additions, Changes, and the Rest

Overall, I still stand by my belief that Fire Emblem 4 is a really good game and holds up shockingly well. However, as Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia added new chunks to turn a meh story into a grand spectacle, Genealogy of the Holy War could use the same.

Out of all the non-playable characters, Ishtar is probably at the top of the list of those I’d want to be turned into a recruitable unit (along with Ishtore for story reasons). Julius effectively forces Ishtar into an abusive relationship with him, and it’s noted throughout the story that she performs acts of kindness that work out in your favor. However, by the final chapter, she’d rather die fighting than try to escape Julius because of how terrified she is of him. And yeah, you kinda have to because she’ll obliterate your troops otherwise. To put this in the lightest way possible, it’s a bit of a bummer.

Instead, I’d like it if she was the last possible character you could recruit in the game during the final chapter or very end of Chapter 10. She already goes against Julius in both the background and gameplay, and FE4’s themes involve defiance and divided backgrounds coming together for doing what they think is right, so I’d love to see her be the final key to that. Ishtore is in the same boat and is hinted to actually be a chill guy in a bad position, so I’ll lump him in too for funsies. Tine/Linda can recruit Ishtore for story reasons, and Ishtore could convince Ishtar to rebel against Julius.

Next up, I’d like to introduce much smaller-scale side missions in-between chapters that the player can do depending on where they are in the story. They can be something like simple bite-sized ~10×10–15×15 grid maps as a breath of fresh air from the normal gargantuan maps. Alternatively, they can be something like simple fetch-quests of challenges to complete. While they’d become unavailable once you progress to the next chapter, getting to the end of the game would have them all reopen along with a few extra post-game stuff. On top of adding some more worldbuilding, it could help be something more chill or compact to juxtapose the rest of the game’s scale.

Explorable castle hubs. Yes.
I don’t want something the size of FE Three Houses’ monastery since that’s too big, but maybe on the more compact end. There could be a central chamber you explore, a few NPCs milling about, and a few extra rooms for story-important castles. Something the size of a suburban house with a bit of room for hidden extras or secret chambers.

You know how earlier I mentioned how they should show the children’s scribbles that were said to be in a dungeon? Yup. Do that here. Have the player read for themselves at their own pace so they can soak it all in. Lewyn’s childhood bedroom for when you get to Chapter 4? Yes please. Julia’s legendary spell having a dedicated chamber in the final chapter? Absolutely. It’d be a seemingly minor but fun addition to spice up the world.

One final, final thing: fix experience distribution and/or nerf the arenas. This doesn’t really fit into any other area, but the game borderline requires you to grind your units in arenas so they stay afloat every chapter, and it sucks. It breaks the pacing in almost every way, and it was a huge time sink for my playthrough. The game should be paced in a way so the arena can help weaker units catch up, not be near-dependent if you want to use a lot of your units.

Closing Thoughts

Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War was a massive project for me, taking a whopping 88 hours according to the in-game clock. And while some of that stems from abusing emulator speed-up functions and arena grinding, a lot of it was from tedium. The game is amazing, but can be streamlined into something any audience could enjoy with some modern improvements, and I truly hope that FE4 can receive that treatment some day. Thank you so much for reading!

Images used in this essay are screenshots from Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War, Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadow of Valentia, Fire Emblem WOD, and the Fire Emblem Fandom site. All rights to their respective owners.