Fire Emblem: Shin Monshou no Nazo: Hikari to Kage no Eiyuu

Fire Emblem: Shin Monshou no Nazo
Developer	Intelligent Systems
Publisher	Nintendo
System	Nintendo DS
Release Date	JP July 15, 2010

Fire Emblem: Shin Monshou no Nazo ~Hikari to Kage no Eiyuu~ (the subtitles translating to New Mystery of the Emblem ~Heroes of Light and Darkness~) is the twelfth game of the Fire Emblem series which was also the second and last for the Nintendo DS. It is a remake of Book 2 of Fire Emblem: Monshou no Nazo and directly follows up the previous DS remake, Shadow Dragon. It is known for having a substantial amount of original content, particularly compared to the preceding remake.

Story

This game follows Marth's campaign in the War of Heroes which pits him against his former friend, Hardin. The new subplot follows the My Unit character, a youth who decides to train under Marth and would eventually become the Hero of Shadow who supports Marth from the background without being recognized in history, while another connected subplot involves a mysterious order of assassins.

Gameplay

The most notable addition of the game is that of My Unit, a fully customizable character who acts as the player's avatar and acts as the game's second hero character. The game is expanded with a new prologue and sidequest chapters, and it is possible to deviate from some plot points in the previous game. Several original characters have been added, and the characters who were introduced in Shadow Dragon also return. Shin Monshou no Nazo also takes cues from some of the later Fire Emblem games by bringing back Support conversations along with Base Conversations with a total of over three hundred possible conversations.

One new feature is a choice between Classic and Casual Modes. Within Casual Mode, all character death is temporary, and fallen units will return by the next chapter, while Classic Mode follows the traditional rules of units undergoing permanent death. There is also the usual selection of difficulty levels: Normal, Hard, Maniac and Lunatic. Like Shadow Dragon, Shin Monshou no Nazo is capable of connecting to the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection through which special items could be downloaded, as well as three special extra chapters which are set between the two DS games.

This game also contains all of the chapters from BS Fire Emblem as an extra, and they are unlocked by completing the main game's prologue. The BS chapters are primarily modified to match the gameplay of standard chapters, and the voice acting is omitted.

Legacy

The game has not been announced for release outside of Japan and the winding down of releases of DS titles lessen the chances of Shin Monshou no Nazo reaching an international release. This would notably make it the first Fire Emblem game since the series went international with Fire Emblem to only be released in Japan.

Sequels

The next game to be released will be Fire Emblem for the 3DS, although it has not yet been confirmed which continuity it will be set in.