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Emblem Saga
The lost TearRing Saga (Part 1)
(1st revision)
Also known as the early stages of TearRing
Saga.
After Thracia 776, Shouzou
Kaga left Intelligent Systems to form his own company, Tirnanog. Their
first (and likely only) game was to be Emblem Saga-
the successor of the Fire Emblem
series- for the Playstation 1. Before
the game's release, Intelligent Systems filed a lawsuit for the
Tirnanog's usage of the word "Emblem", which was blatantly copied from Fire Emblem. They were
unsuccessful, but regardless the name was changed to TearRing Saga. Interestingly a
later lawsuit was successful and Intelligent Systems managed to sue
Enterbrain (the publisher).
Anyway, the purpose of this article is to show what Emblem Saga could have been like...
Hidden (not so deeply) in the TearRing Saga files is this promotional
logo
Actual information on Emblem Saga is sparse-
probably because of its lack of (Western) popularity. Also a lot of
information that is available is for aspects of the game that remained
the same in the
finish product. As such, whats follows contains quite a bit of
speculation.
Runan's change
Runan was one of the main characters of the game. Initially he had blue
hair and was of the Lord Knight class. However he ended up with brown
hair and started off as a Knight Lord instead. The hair colour change
was probably because the previous Fire Emblem heroes mostly had blue
hair (eg. Marth, Arum, Sigurd), but then again the brown hair makes
Runan look like a total Leaf (the hero of Thracia 776) clone... Also Sigurd
had the Lord Knight class.
An interview
In an interview with Japanese games magazine Famitsu, Shouzou
Kaga revealed several interesting information about the game, many
which were scrapped in the final product.
The game was to take place in the continent of Forceria (which became
Lieberia) and the main focus was going to be on the land's Mamkutes. I
am unsure of the exact details, but it seems the story goes that the
Mamkutes, citizens of the ancient dragon tribes, were an advanced and
prosperous civilisation. However their civilisation eventually came to
ruin, and humans ruled the lands instead. The Mamkutes hid their form
on the earth, in order to find eternal sleep. However the Mamkutes had
a grudge against humans and, so that evil humans may not use their
powers, they sealed their powers within temples guarded by Holy
Guardian Dragons. These Guardian Dragons become key to the story of the
game (and they did appear in the final game).
A couple of characters were mentioned, although no names were given.
They included an Arabian-style youth, a youth who can transform
(perhaps like a Commando), a mysterious bard and a Sage. A female
character called Faris could be seen, as well as a Social Knight and
Tactician, Warner, and a Prince, Reitel. The latter two characters both
had Julius' portrait, which maybe a placeholder image.
Players could form armies, which held a maximum of 8 characters. It
seems many different armies would be playable, with different leaders
and sub characters, and each had a different focus on fighting. To
recruit characters you must pay for them with your army's funds- the
amount depending on that character's Cost stat. Emblems could also be
obtained, which give a boost to funds each turn. In TearRing Saga's data, there is an
unused Emblem, which states that it has this effect (although it
doesn't appear to do anything).
In a screenshot right below HP is an stat named "SP", which may have
been used to use Skills or cast magic. Characters could build up weapon
resistance, for each weapon type, which increases their defences when
fighting an enemy that is using a particular weapon type. Fatigue, from
Thracia 776, was also set to
make a return. Like previously, characters would get tired by
performing actions such as fighting. However they also get more tired
if they get damaged by enemies. When a character's Stamina goes under
half, their fighting stats are lowered. When it reaches zero, the
character cannot move or act.
Unlike the Fire Emblem games,
growth rate percentages were planned to be scrapped. Instead growths
would follow a fixed curve, with two different types- Fast grower
(gains lots of stats initially, but the gains slow down at later
levels) and Slow grower (the opposite, where characters gain few stats
initially and then lots at later levels).
At the end of the interview, Shouzou Kaga makes a remark about how he
would like to have the story so that the initial characters would pass
on their attributes to their children. In other words the two
generation system of Genealogy of
the Holy War, had a chance of appearing.
Part 2
So that is all that I know about Emblem
Saga. In the next part (coming not so soon), I will look into
other unused data that can be found in TearRing Saga.
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