The Story Timeline Order of Fire Emblem Games

What Are Fire Emblem Games Like?

Fire Emblem is a franchise of strategy role-playing video games, with multiple games released over the years, while retaining the core strategy role-playing gameplay for which the series has become known for. Over time, the Fire Emblem video games have set a new standard for the industry in the strategy RPG genre, and have become known across the world for their quality. Even more so, in some places of the world, the Fire Emblem franchise has become a synonym to its genre of video game, much like World of Warcraft has become a synonym to the MMORPG genre.

Fire Emblem video games typically feature turn-based strategy gameplay, story rich narratives and permanent death of game characters. Due to the turn-based strategy elements as well as the permanent death of characters, Fire Emblem is often compared to XCOM. However, Fire Emblem games generally take place in a medieval fantasy setting, while XCOM games generally take place in a near-future sci-fi environment. For this reason, Fire Emblem characters will often use swords and other medieval weapons, while XCOM characters will often use firearms and other near-future weapons.

What is an SRPG?

Strategy role-playing games, frequently abbreviated as SPRGs, which in some cases are also called tactical role-playing games, abbreviated as TRPGs, are a particular sub-genre of RPGs that emphasize strategy gameplay while also retaining RPG characteristics, such as, for example, a storyline, unique characters, and character development. While these games are not completely similar to Fire Emblem, perhaps some examples of Western strategy RPGs of the late 1990s and early 1990s could be Disciples, Heroes of Might & Magic and Age of Wonders.

Is Fire Emblem an RPG or a Strategy Game?

Such as other strategy RPG franchises, it is debatable whether Fire Emblem should be considered strictly either an RPG or a strategy game. In my opinion, it doesn't make a lot of sense, and there isn't a necessity to categorize Fire Emblem as either being strictly an RPG or a strategy game; instead, it is reasonable to consider Fire Emblem to be a strategy RPG, or an RPG with strategy elements, or a strategy game with RPG elements. Either way, it can certainly be played as either an RPG or a strategy game. I believe that the SRPG sub-genre, or TRPG sub-genre, can be a sub-genre to both the strategy genre and the RPG genre, as these games can be played either way: as RPGs or as strategy games.

Are Fire Emblem Games Set in the Same Place?

It depends. While some Fire Emblem video games are set in the same world, and are actually connected chronologically, there are also many Fire Emblem games that have no clear connection at all, either in story or in being clearly in the same universe. When different games belong to time periods and worlds that are not clearly related, it's usually said that these games belong to different continuities, because they don't continue each other. One famous example in which this happens is in some Final Fantasy games, in which case many Final Fantasy video games are not clearly set in the same world. Likewise, in the case of the Fire Emblem series, some games belong to the same continuity, in other words, they continue each other because they are set in the same world, and other games of this series are set in completely different worlds and have no clear relation between each other. In this article, the games that are directly related story-wise or set in the same world are shown, and the games that belong to a different continuity are differentiated.

The Story Timeline Order of the Fire Emblem Video Games

Many of the first Fire Emblem video games are set in the same world, as well as some video games of the series that were later released. The first Fire Emblem game to be released, Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light (1990), is set in the same world as its subsequent games, Fire Emblem Gaiden and Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem. After some time, more games were released in this same continuity: Fire Emblem; Genealogy of the Holy War, Fire Emblem: Thracia 776 and Fire Emblem Awakening. All of these Fire Emblem video games are set in the same world, in the same continuity, and they were organized in chronological order in this list.

Considering that the Fire Emblem video games are often set in completely different locations, and in many cases it is not clear if the games belong to the same continuity, continent, or universe, it makes sense to organize these different games according to their location and continuity, in which the games that clearly belong to the same continuity are in the same part of the list, whereas games that take place in a different world or continent (or are otherwise not clearly related to other Fire Emblem games) are in another part of the list. To keep things organized, I have separated the list in multiple parts according to the location in which the games are set, which in many cases can be the continent or kingdom in which the story events take place.

In some cases, a certain Fire Emblem video game received a remake. However, considering that the remake is a different game but tells the same core story, I have included both the original game and its remake as one entry in my story timeline order list; in other words, I have included both names of the original game and its remake, but they have the same placement in the story timeline order because they tell the same story, their story position is the same in the continuity. In the cases in which a game received a remake or in which a game may have a similar name to another game in the same Fire Emblem series, I have also included the release dates of such games to make a clearer distinction betweem them and to leave no doubts that these are indeed different video games.

Fire Emblem Games in the Continent of Archanaea

Even though not all of these games are set in the continent of Archanaea, they belong to the same continuity, because they feature elements, characters or kingdoms that appear in multiple games. In other words, while they may not all be set in the same continent, they are set in the same world, and for this reason I've included all of them in the same part of the story timeline order list.

Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War

Fire Emblem: Thracia 776

BS Fire Emblem (1997)

Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light (1990) | Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon (2008)

Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem (1994) | Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem (2010)

Fire Emblem Gaiden (1992) | Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia (2017)

Fire Emblem Awakening

Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem is a direct sequel to Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light, even if it includes a retelling of that first game. More precisely, Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem features a part that is a retelling of the events of Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light (1990) and it also features a part that is a direct sequel to the events of that game. For this reason, I included it immediately after Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light (1990) in my story timeline order list, because I view it as sequel to Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light (1990), even it contains part of the story that are retold.

Fire Emblem Gaiden is set in the same universe as Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light (1990) and Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem (1994). Considering that Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem (1994) is a direct sequel to Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light (1990), it is reasonable to say that Fire Emblem Gaiden doesn't take place between these two games. However, it could still take place after Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem (1994) or before Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light (1990). Unfortunately, with the available information, it is not clear to me which one is the case. My personal suggestion is to play this game either before Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light (1990) or after Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem (1994).

Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia is a remake of Fire Emblem Gaiden. For this reason, while these are different games, they essentially tell the same core story, and for this reason I have included them in the same entry in my story timeline order list of the Fire Emblem video games.

Fire Emblem Games in the Continent of Elibe

Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade

Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade

Fire Emblem Games in the Continent of Magvel

Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones

Fire Emblem Games in the Continent of Tellius

Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance

Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn

Fire Emblem Games in Bottomless Canyon

Fire Emblem Fates

Fire Emblem Games in the Kingdoms of Askr and Embla

Fire Emblem Heroes

Fire Emblem Game in Aytolis

Fire Emblem Warriors

Fire Emblem Warriors features multiple characters of Fire Emblems games Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light (1990), Fire Emblem Gaiden, Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade and Fire Emblem Awakening. For this reason, while it is not clear to me in which time period this game takes place, or if it is supposed to be set in an alternate continuity, considering that this game features characters from those other games, it would necessarily take place either after Fire Emblem Awakening or in a completely separate continuity. Considering that Fire Emblem Awakening is set thousands of years after Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light (1990), then I assume that Fire Emblem Warriors is set in a separate continuity.