Fire Emblem: Thracia 776
Thracia 776 is a pseudo-sequel to Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War, taking place during the main campaign of the previous game. The game takes place on the Thracian Peninsula of Jugdral, focusing on a young man named Leif during the events between chapters 5 and 8 of Genealogy of the Holy War.
There are many returning characters and familiar faces, as well as quite a few similar gameplay systems. Things like the weapon triangle and chapter format become staples, and Thracia 776 introduces a few new ideas that make it an immensely challenging game. Fog of war now plays a part on certain maps, and there are also escape missions that task you with quickly moving all of your units to an escape point. These are both features that would return again in the series at various points. At the same time, Thracia 776 also introduced something that we’d see again in Shadows of Valentia, a fatigue system.
As units fight in battle they accrue fatigue points, and if their fatigue is higher than their maximum HP at the end of battle, they cannot participate in the next one. This encourages players to use a more diverse battle plan, and not just focus on using the same few powerful units the entire time.
Another staple moving forward in the Fire Emblem franchise was introduced with Thracia 776, Gaiden Chapters. By completing certain objectives in some battles, you’d be taken to optional battles that reveal new pieces of the plot or a chance to recruit new characters.
Just like Genealogy of the Holy War, western audiences never got the chance to experience one of the games that really helped shape the Fire Emblem series. A fresh remake would help update the challenging title for modern audiences, while introducing some key gameplay changes to smooth things out. Maybe Nintendo and Intelligent Systems could even consider releasing the two titles in a dual pack, really giving Fire Emblem fans something to be excited about.