Fire Emblem Thracia 776: A Hard Mix of Brilliant and Grueling

September 22nd, 2022

Fire Emblem: Thracia 776 was the 5th game in the series thus far, released on September 1st, 1999. It stars Leif, a young prince cast from his kingdom and forced to hide nearly his entire life from the corrupt Loptr church and nation of Thracia. In the year 776 his peace is abruptly halted, and so begins his rise to power as he slowly amasses an army to unite the nation.

Thracia 776 was a finale in two ways, acting as the last new game set in the world of Fire Emblem 1–4 (until Awakening in 2012), as well as the last title developed by series director Shouzou Kaga before departing to make his own tactical RPGs. Being a TRPG, you control an army with a set number of soldiers on a grid-based battlefield not unlike chess.

Many fans praise it as the greatest game that shaped the rest of the series; shining over the franchise’s legacy over two decades later. Others see it as archaic, taking steps backwards from Genealogy of the Holy War (FE4) in favor of having poorly explained gimmicks and cheap level design. And after playing through the whole thing — all 35 chapters and split route maps — it’s a weird mesh of both.

Initially treated as a supplementary title before the canceled Fire Emblem 64, Intelligent Systems eventually went all-in on Thracia after the former was officially axed. It released fairly late for a Super Famicom title in September 1999 via the Nintendo Power service, where people could use a blank cartridge to download the game. A physical release was put out a few months later in January 2000, which is what most people are familiar with.

To put that into perspective, the PlayStation 2 would be releasing just a few months later in March 2000 — a whopping two generations ahead. While the game still sold around 160,000, it wasn’t nearly as popular as Genealogy’s ~500,000 around 3.5 years prior. For a Japan-only game on a near-two generation old system, those numbers are far from bad. But regardless, it was the lowest-selling entry at the time with nearly double the time between entries.

While niche in the mainstream the game is famous in the fandom for a variety of reasons, ranging from how it expanded on the Jugdral region, its heightened difficulty, and setting series staples like greater variety in gameplay. But it’s also received more modern press, like the recent Lil’ Manster translation with great quality of life tweaks, fandom drama and memes, and the mobile game Fire Emblem Heroes making a minor antagonist into one of the most broken characters for years.

It takes place in-between Chapters 5 and 6 of Genealogy where there’s a 17-year time skip, and as such has spoilers for the game. These will be kept to a minimum since FE4 is still an amazing title in spite of its age and flaws, but a few minor details are inevitable.

A Return to Form and Then Some

Fire Emblem 4 was a huge change of pace for the franchise in terms of both structure and content, having a mere 12 maps yet around double the length of previous entries due to its grand scale. Thracia 776 goes back to how things were in FE 1–3, with linear, smaller maps ranging in size and one generation of units.

Despite being half the size of Genealogy, Thracia 776 is by no means small and still packs quite a punch with its map design. Having 27 mainline chapters, 8 optional, and a branching path around 2/3 through the game, it’s easily the meatiest a traditional Fire Emblem game has been so far.

Cryptic customization of units via pairing two characters and guessing their class and skills are gone, now replaced with set-in-stone skills, Skill Books, and the Crusader Scrolls. Skill Books are pretty self-explanatory, rare items you can find that you can give to whoever you want to grant a custom skill.

Crusader Scrolls are a bit more interesting, impacting your unit’s growth rates by set amounts. A growth rate is an invisible percentage every unit has for each stat that determines how likely it’ll be to go up by 1 (or more if over 100%). You can generally guess which will be high or low based on their class (and fans have compiled them for optimization’s sake; see below), but now you can directly manipulate how good your unit’s stats will be.

While in past games the RNG could make a solid unit pitifully weak, now at least you have some level of control. You’ll have a pretty frail team in the early stages, but by the end you can have a diverse roster of powerhouses ready to be swapped in and out. Speaking of swapping, the Fatigue mechanic!

For every action a unit does (other than movement), a character will gain set amounts of fatigue points. In most cases it’s 1, but special staves can give up to 5. If a character’s fatigue exceeds their max HP, then they get the Fatigued status and have to sit out for a chapter. With no way to reduce Fatigue (other than a rare Stamina Drink), this incentivizes players to mix things up often and not overly rely on the same few units.

At first this may sound a bit daunting, since previous entries weren’t the greatest at letting you help weak units catch up. That said, Thracia not only has a mix of weak and strong enemies and lets you know in advance which are which, but it actually has a canon reason for it!

Since the Thracian peninsula is in an all-out war to take land for themselves (divided between the North and South Friege banner, Travant’s dracoknights, pirates, and the Loptr Church), citizens from all over are forced into battle. Some are eager to fight, having been stuck in barren mountains for centuries with little-to-no crops. Others are dragged in by major powers against their will, just trying to survive or provide for their families.

With so many people having their lives uprooted, it only makes sense that the characters stop to feel sorrow at the dire state of everything. While this’ll be covered more in the story segment, Leif himself is very sympathetic to the people and does his best to protect or save as many as possible. And, with some help from a friendly old man, one of the best mechanics in Fire Emblem history is born: mugging.

If a unit has a higher CON stat than the enemy (or is mounted), they have the option to try and capture the enemy instead. You’ll have reduced stats when fighting, making it a riskier option, but you can help yourself to all of their items if successful. Wimpier units will just have plain old spears and swords, but more powerful enemies can have things like late-game weapons, Skill Manuals, and in a few cases, Crusader Scrolls. Money and weapon variety will be very tight for a majority of the game, making capturing an invaluable option. It’s also just plain funny to release a boss and read them go “…Why?”

There are also a few new gameplay elements to spice things up, such as having objectives other than capturing a point or killing a boss. Escaping is heavily featured in the game, with there being set points you need to reach and have units permanently leave the map one by one. Having Leif go any earlier will cause the rest to be left behind, captured but still savable on the later Chapter 21x (though this isn’t mentioned earlier). Fog of war is also a new mechanic where the entire map is blacked out other than where your troops are, making things extra treacherous.

As for miscellaneous gameplay tweaks, the simplest and easily my favorite is that missing an attack and dodging will no longer use up weapon durability. It took 5 games to get there, but hooray! Arenas also no longer use up durability (but still give fatigue points), making them more accessible for grinding. Lastly, money went back to the way it was before FE4 where your army shares a budget, and you can trade items among your units.

From a gameplay perspective, Fire Emblem has never been smoother up until this point. Everything is faster and more streamlined, mechanics are generally more clear to the player, and it improved upon its predecessors. However, good gameplay can only take a title so far. The skeleton may be great, but what about the maps connecting everything together?

A Challenge, A Breeze, and Everything In-Between

As alluded to previously, Thracia is widely regarded as the cruelest game in the series both in a joking sense and in legitimate discussions. It’s hard to get an objective view of something that’s down to opinion, but based on the multitude of lists and posts saying Thracia 776 is one of if not the hardest, that’s worth something. But where does that belief stem from? Why do some people say it’s only hard blind? And can new fans go back and enjoy it?

In my own opinion, I did find Thracia quite challenging. So much in fact that I had to take breaks at several points and eventually had to force myself to finish it. A factor is definitely burnout from playing several games of the franchise right in a row. But even ignoring that, it can be quite brutal and — in some cases — really annoying.

The early segments are some of the roughest parts, and to a degree that feels intentional. Resources are tight, Leif is desperate to grow strong quickly, and the story makes sure you have as bumpy of a ride as possible. While there are a lot of weaker units, enemy generals are stronger than ever with them usually having +10 defense and a +30 avoid bonus due to them resting on thrones/gates. Early on, most units won’t even be able to damage them unless they get lucky with a critical hit. Later on, only the units you’ve extensively trained will be able to damage them. And that’s on a good day.

The prison escape arc spanning Chapters 4–7 has some of the most widely loathed maps due to how…naked you feel. In Chapter 4 you barely have any items or units, so sometimes the game will just kill a person and you can’t do much about it. Chapter 4x has fog of war and is littered with strong enemies. Chapter 6 is great in its own right, but not knowing about certain reinforcements can screw you over. Chapter 7 is another one with a slight trick where killing the head honcho makes everyone flee, while letting them live has backup appear in droves. Unfortunately, I was stupid.

In a game with a dash of dark humor here and there, RNG is quite possibly the biggest joke of them all. The amount of times my units had a 60% chance of hitting basic enemies on a good day was higher than I’d like to admit to anyone who hasn’t played the game. The upside is that enemies generally had 20% less, but the immediate downside is that they seemed to wail on my troops far more. There was one point where I had a 99% chance to dodge against a group of enemy mages, and I can’t help but question if there’s a stack underflow glitch because they just obliterated me.

1% critical hits nailing you isn’t a rarity, it’s an expectation. And while it’s not the end of the world to lose one great unit thanks to the Fatigue mechanic and Crusader Scrolls, it feels cheap. It’s less of a challenge and more of trying to prevent the inevitable, which makes me feel a lot less guilty abusing save states to make random crappy moments less grueling.

One of my least favorite chapters in the entire franchise is Chapter 19. After Leif accomplishes a major goal in the story and finally promotes, the downfall arc of the plot immediately kicks off. It tries to do something very similar to FE4 by having the story take away units you’ve come to love, being allowed to bring 16 units minimum and 20 maximum. Half are near the top of the map by an escape point, with the other half by the bottom, surrounded by a platoon of deadly knights with powerful spells, silver and killer weapons, thieves robbing you, and eventually, ballistas.

A lot of people tend to write off the difficulty as a beginner’s trap — and that by replaying the game it’ll be a breeze due to knowing most of the tricks. To an extent yes, a lot of the difficulty stems from how experimental map design is. But then there’s things like obtuse recruitment methods, map design that needed 5 more rounds of playtesting, and the insane RNG that makes it feel closer to an ordeal than a game at points.

And it’s such a shame the game has these sour moments, because there are fantastic maps right alongside them — some of the best in the franchise so far!

Defense maps were a brilliant new inclusion that built off of what Genealogy sort-of had with controlling multiple castles. They’re exactly as they sound: you need to defend a point on the map until a certain criteria is met, otherwise it’s all over. Only two of them are in the game, Chapters 14 and 20, with both of them acting as a nice change of pace from the endless escape and capture maps.

Chapter 20 is a fairly compact map, with you defending the last corner of Leonster Castle while simultaneously trying to take out their general. It’s fast-paced with troops being carefully spaced out, there can be desperate moments with some of your troops locked in tight corridors, and most importantly, it’s fair.

Chapter 14 is significantly dicier, with many considering it one of the hardest points in the game. And for good reason, because the premise is that Tahra is under fire from every threat imaginable. The area is wide open with lots of room for experimentation, from trying to funnel the enemies, hole up by the defense point, bait and trap the bosses, simply kill anything in sight, etc. You only have to survive for 10 turns, but it makes sure to have them be the most blood-pumping 10 turns possible as armored units and mages try to make mincemeat of your units.

And while I do have gripes with the slight randomness of the prison escape arc, it isn’t without its golden moments. Chapter 6 gives you two basic options: help the nearby town, or do your best to quietly sneak by. Helping the town is high-risk and high-reward, giving you things like a Crusader scroll and a new unit. But, doing so will cause a chunk of ground troops to come after you, and potentially more dangerous ones if you stay longer than 13 turns. Sneaking by helps you avoid most of the danger, but can also shoot yourself in the foot since you’re low on supplies by this point.

Other personal highlights include: Chapter 12, a great fog of war map where the best strategy is to charge like a madman. Chapter 16A, the final showdown with Kempf that has a surprising amount of wiggle room for screwing around. Chapter 17A, a difficult map, but very rewarding to get just right. Some chapters end up being extremely easy, though at the very least they make for a nice breather. Lastly, the entire finale from Chapter 22 onwards. Yes, even 24x to those who have suffered through it. In my opinion Fire Emblem hasn’t had the greatest track record with final maps, but the designers truly made it feel like a triumphant ending that rewards you for having a diverse army.

But then there’s the stupid stuff — the things you can’t see coming.

Recruitment is a huge weird mish-mash of good and bad. Some make sense, such as Olwen requiring you to spare her comrade Fred in Chapter 11, then save her in 11x. Easy enough to figure out, but not spoon-fed to you. That and the numerous units you get simply by starting the next chapter for varying story reasons.

Then there’s the slightly more obtuse requirements, like having to talk to Marty with Osain or Halvan in Chapter 8 because he defected for…reasons, all while he runs head-first into your army. Sara is also strangely tucked away despite being critical for Chapter 24x — and in terms of story significance. You either have to visit a random church as Leif in Chapter 17A, or talk to her as Leif in Chapter 16B while she’s an enemy and teleporting randomly. The game also doesn’t imply Sara is important, you just might get a clue if you happened to play FE4 and noticed she looks like Julia.

To wrap things up, there’s one unit who stands out above the rest: Xavier. He’s infamous for being one of the dumbest recruits in Fire Emblem history, forcing you to herd 8 defenseless villagers up to the boss’ chamber, unlock it, then try to drop them off to a corresponding soldier before they can rush out and retaliate. The 8 good soldiers won’t harm them, but there are an extra 8 who will gladly take their head off.

You could try to fight with offensive magic and dance a dangerous act, but I gave up and burned through my sleep staves to put them all to rest. Then and only then will you be able to talk to Xavier with Leif, who will join your army as a General. To be fair, he is a great unit. But when dependable strategy guides recommend abusing save states, you know you have a problem.

I could go for hours. That said, I hope this painted a clear picture of why Thracia 776 can be so polarizing. Overall there is definitely more good than bad, but the bad can leave a very bitter taste in your mouth before you can even get to the grand finale. If you do decide to play it, my advice is to look at a guide to check recruitments and see if there’s some hidden trap, then make up your own strategy. While that mitigates some of the challenge from reinforcements, you can really tell the game went back-and-forth for years from the odd difficulty spikes.

Juggling Stories in Jugdral

Rather than having a grandiose tale spanning two generations and covering a whole continent’s worth of lore, Thracia 776 goes back to the tried and true formula of focusing on the main Lord’s personal journey dealing with battle and what led up to it. In addition, it takes a few cues from Genealogy by giving the spotlight over to minor characters and their smaller arcs, giving the story a healthy amount of variety. While the plot’s not my favorite in the franchise, it does its job well.

Leif’s character arc feels extremely similar to Marth’s, but a more refined version. A young prince cast from his castle and losing his parents due to war, he lives on the run for years until he eventually decides to launch a counterattack. With help from strategists assigned by his caretakers, he sets off to both reclaim the throne and hope to unite Thracia into one country again. While a simple story, it’s by no means a bad one and allows for it to be driven by smaller moments helping Leif grow and have the dramatic scenes truly shine.

His bond with Eyvel and Nanna served as a great starting-off point, and it slowly turning into a story driven by grief and loss felt like a natural progression. After years of living in comfort, the reality of almost everyone around him suffering and the sheer corruption of the church felt like a great way to take things. I also appreciate the writers going out of their way to explain why the Loptr priests are allowing him to conquer Friege territory, which was a nice touch.

Another nice change of pace is the greater emphasis on side stories starring minor characters. While the attention isn’t spread equally, Nanna, Eyvel, Karin, Mareeta, and Olwen all have a decent bit of dialogue for a quick little plot. I’m particularly fond of Reinhardt and his dynamic with Olwen, and the showdown that takes place in Chapter 22. For a minor boss, the game does a great job of hyping him up throughout the game with other villains like Kempf and the Church itself.

Of course, this is all assuming these characters actually live to see their natural conclusions, but the extra effort is still appreciated. There are also plenty of other characters who get an extra few scenes like Dagdar, Lara, Selphina, Misha, Salem, Safy, Lifis, etc. And of course Finn, who’s one of the few people to survive the traumatic experience of both FE4 and 5.

That said, while there’s definitely a greater emphasis on self-contained arcs, I was a bit surprised by how most characters just don’t speak after a bit. Other than recruitment, the vast majority of the optional conversations happen either during recruitment, Leif talking to a relevant character, or happen before Chapter 10.

This isn’t the end of the world, but I would’ve liked more of what FE4 did with more bite-sized slice of life stuff to see how everyone is doing. Getting people’s reactions to what’s going on in the story — good or bad. I appreciate that Leif has a bunch of smaller moments, but I don’t think that needed to be at the expense of other characters being able to shine a little more. In a game with 52 characters, the love obviously can’t be spread evenly. But I’d appreciate seeing more of the noteworthy ones like Asbel, Perne, Miranda, Tina, and especially Xavier for all the grief you go through to get him.

There’s also one weird plot point that’s brought up and kinda just dropped a few chapters later. There’s a moment where Augustus, Leif’s advisor, makes a statement about how Seliph was intentionally molded to be the hero all of Jugdral needs. Raised to hate the Empire, shown to the world at just the perfect time to rally support, and encouraging propaganda about Sigurd’s legacy.

It’s a weirdly unsettling moment in what’s mostly a story about a fallen prince rising to power, and Leif almost immediately recognizes that he’s in the same position. The Empire and Loptr Church are without a doubt the greater evil, but it raises a really good point about the morality of Shannan and Augustus coaching the Crusader’s descendants. Because yeah, it is pretty messed up that they grow up believing that stopping a larger than life army is THEIR responsibility, THEY have right to the throne, THEY should fight and possibly die because people will rally behind them.

The intention of this plot element seems to be the age-old “Nature vs. Nurture” debate, but that doesn’t change how bizarre the implications are. Leif writes it off at the end of Chapter 20 as, “I may have been encouraged, but I still picked my own path,” and to an extent, sure. However that doesn’t really change the fact that he was told to be a fighter, and has grown up being fed a lot of hatred. And I get it, this is a fantasy world, it’s set during older times where customs were different, etc. There isn’t much of a point in obsessing over it since the writers quickly dropped it, but still.

One last little nitpick is that the game seems a bit conflicted towards being a dedicated story about Leif and making sure it connects back to Genealogy of the Holy War. This becomes a lot more apparent once Seliph enters and Leif’s downfall arc begins in Chapter 19, but it is worth mentioning. If the game were to ever be remade or remastered, I’d love to hear a bit more about the outside world as the story goes along to make it feel more organic and not Leif suddenly hearing all about what Seliph is doing during the second half of FE4.

As a whole, Thracia 776’s plot is pretty enjoyable and serves as a good incentive to keep going when the maps decide to kick you in the balls. Leif makes for an engaging protagonist despite retreading on Marth’s character growth, taking things quite a bit further with more personal stakes shown to the audience. If you’re a Jugdral fan but don’t want to suffer through the game’s low points, it can’t hurt to look up the cutscenes online.

Closing Thoughts

Thracia’s a good game — a great game, even. But not the best one to start out with by a long shot. I feel as though a slight remaster would do the game a lot of good to even out the rough edges to make it more newcomer-friendly. To put it politely, Fire Emblem 5 is a “guide game” in that if you know what the game will throw at you, it feels fairly balanced. If you try to enter completely blind, then you’ll have a rough time.

Serenes Forest was a great resource for seeing how to recruit characters and view Gaiden Chapter requirements. While the latter may not seem too important, consider that magic is effectively walled off until Chapter 14 without them. Another is Fire Emblem WOD, mainly due to being able to view the whole map all at once. A little cheaty? Maybe, but I just used them as a tool to better plan out my attacks.

If you’re up for a challenge and love strategy games, then I highly suggest giving it a whirl with the aforementioned Lil’ Manster patch. The team behind it are highly talented and still cracking away at new features, so it’s worth keeping an eye on it. Also, if you didn’t click on the link earlier, this interview from Nintendo Online was translated in 2015 and was a nice eye-opener. While Genealogy had quite a few interviews ready for reading, this was the only one I could find in English, making it especially interesting to me. If you like reading about game development, then I suggest giving it a look.

With Jugdral still getting plenty of love in the mobile game Fire Emblem Heroes, it’s hard to say what’ll come of it in the future. Leaks and rumors love to say that Fire Emblem 4 and 5 will be coming soon, but it’s impossible to tell what will come of them in the future. Until then, thank you for reading about Leif’s journey!