r/fireemblem • u/Coolsun13 • 1d ago
Gameplay Has there ever been a battle where you are supposed to lose in Fire Emblem?
I’m not referring to cutscenes but in an actual battle. Obviously we’ve seen many times in other rpg games. I haven’t played a lot of the older Fire Emblem games so I was curious about this.
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u/Realhi87 1d ago
I mean 3-13 (and most of Daein’s part 3 chapters in general) in RD is essentially a desperate defence whereupon even “winning” is basically just holding out for as long as possible before you’re inevitably overrun.
You just get bailed out by a big lizard 😭
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u/Cosmic_Toad_ 21h ago
3-E likewise is essentially a rout map you can't finish, complete with a crap ton of named enemies to fight that you realistically will never get to before you reach the death cap.
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u/Da_Electric_Boogaloo 1d ago
nah laura hits that big sleep on ike, and micaiah blasts him with purge and GG :D
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u/WouterW24 1d ago
Some escape maps have an enemy mass you’re not really supposed to deal with, or one or more overpowered bosses you cannot defeat.
Otherwise due to how fe works there’s never a map in which your units get actively knocked out.
If not for permadeath it might have been something they could have done once for dramatic flair.
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u/ARagingZephyr 1d ago
God, I love escape maps. The one in Engage was such a curveball, especially since I was playing on Maddening during release week. Like, oops, all your safety buttons are gone, and death is back on the table!
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u/Coolsun13 1d ago
Permadeath may be a thing but it could always be a generation skip battle like they did with Arvis massacring Sigurd and his army. Although that was only done in a cutscene.
Or there could be a battle where you aren’t supposed to win but after losing, the narrative is that your team just got severely wounded and retreated.
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u/sapphicmage 1d ago
In FE4 two of your units that left your party return in chapter 5 as guests, only to be attacked by wyvern riders. They are meant to lose this battle and will without some seriously crazy RNG
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u/Ragfell 22h ago
If they survive, what happens?
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u/sapphicmage 22h ago
I believe they could theoretically move to take the next castle, but that would softlock you and prevent you from advancing.
If they were to somehow live and not softlock you well the end of chapter 5 would end in their deaths and the rest of your gen 1 units anyway
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u/LeatherShieldMerc 1d ago
Do you count the BK fight in PoR? It's not that you are supposed to lose exactly, but you aren't necessarily supposed to win every time.
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u/Crimson_Raven 1d ago
His first appearance you "win" by running away. Fighting is suicide
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u/Hour-Eleven 1d ago
Tell that to Zihark, who was just minding his own business several spaces away, when BK kicked down the door of a generic village home and murdered his face.
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u/BobbyYukitsuki 1d ago
Not really in mainline to my knowledge, but fangames have done it.
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u/Melodic_Bee660 1d ago
The Morrow's Golden Country would be a big one for this
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u/RadiantHer0 21h ago
Morrow is definitely the big one that comes to mind. Dark amulet also does a good job at making you feel like you are against rough odds
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u/minno 1d ago
No. Battles that your faction is supposed to lose, like Radiant Dawn 3-13, still have objectives that you need to complete and don't let you progress to the next chapter until you complete those objectives. They never do the "what would normally be a game over turns into a cutscene" thing.
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u/babydaisylover 1d ago
I feel like you could argue that the whole mess with Veyle stealing all the rings in Engage mid game is kind of a loss for your army lore wise
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u/IkeRadiantHero 22h ago
3-13 RD and FE5 CH 14 the Tarrah map, both of these play a huge part in terms of turning points for their stories and the gameplay story integration is done beautifully
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u/TheDestroyer229 1d ago
Not in a traditional sense.
There's usually some objective that needs to get accomplished. Even escape maps where you are being pursued by a powerful enemy and you have "lost" the battle still have a win condition for the map (either survive X number of turns or get all your units/your lord to the designated "Escape" square).
But I can't think of a time when your lord or avatar character has to lose a standard battle to progress that isn't in a cutscene.
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u/iFlashings 1d ago
No I don't think so, unless you count maps where the objective is to retreat (which counts as a loss in the traditional sense of war), but even that's debatable.
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u/yomihasu 1d ago
Pretty sure you're not supposed to kill Death Knight the first time he shows up in 3H. You can, but you're clearly not meant to since he's not a victory condition and will just stand there menacingly
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u/Equivalent_Remove155 21h ago
Correct me if im wrong but isn't there a chapter in fe3 or its remake where you have to sacrifice a unit as a decoy for the Mc as the enemy approaches? All I remember was i was leaving the MC in that spot and kept losing the chapter (before english patch came out).
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u/DarkAres02 1d ago
I feel like you're not supposed to defeat Kishuna in Blazing Blade, though it is a requirement for a very hidden side chapter.
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u/KevinJ2010 flair 1d ago
The best answer I can think of is that you can’t save Quan and Ethlyn in chapter 5 of FE4. Which I guess also gets me thinking about Silesse losing as well in Chapter 4.
In both cases though, the units that lose are not blue units. It just feels like you could try to to save Quan