Strange FE9-pic

[Lemurian]

Found this pic while I was browsing through a list of Video Game Barrels. It says it's from Path of Radiance, but I can't make heads nor tails of it.



It looks like Soren casting a fire-spell on a fighter...who's carrying a lance. I also can't recognize the map.

Anyone help me by shedding some light on this?

[caleb723]

Actually, I do remember seeing something similar to this a long time ago.  Where did you find that picture?

As for its origins or purpose, I have no clue.  I don't think it's a doctored photo though.

[Kahane]

BoNam'oLafs

Looks like one of the very early screens of the game when it was still FE8.
I can also remember an in-battle screen with Ike's sword leaving a bright blue trail.

[EDIT:]
IGN actually still has all of them.

Ike fighting with Estoc.

[VincentASM is too important to have a messed up name]

Yeah, it's from one of the early builds of FE9.

There's some similar screens where Marcia's model has blue hair and Rolf's has blonde hair (and I've seen a few people mistake them for Sigrun and Leonardo respectively).

[SlippyToasterTrooper_UK]

Not to mention the old background for the unit stats page...it is the Tower of Guidence...probably because that was the only CG they had made and implimented...

IGN seem to be missing a few like the earliest verison of the world map which is best noted for having an Island called Est Here we go...

^ The terrain is basically the same but the countries have mostly moved...some have even vanished RIP Est...
I also found the title screen...

Bah the logo is the same unlike FE10 which was completely different!...is it me or is that background similar to the one used in parts of Sacred Stones...

[caleb723]

That's an interesting map, and those battle maps look interesting too.  No Kilvas, and Est?  Hmmm.

[Black Knight]

Is it just me, or is every Fire Emblem map is the same? Tellius, Magvell, Elibe? They're all the same map! I feel like I'm taking crazy pills here!

[caleb723]

Is it just me, or is every Fire Emblem map is the same? Tellius, Magvell, Elibe? They're all the same map! I feel like I'm taking crazy pills here!

I couldn't make an accurate judgement based simply on memory.  I could look into getting the rest of them for some side-by-side comparisons but...

[General Narshen]

Can you please, because I think the newer world maps have similar designs to them.

[Charliecane]

Elibe
Magvel
Tellius

Tellius looks kind of like an upside down version of Magvel with a larger landmass connected. Elibe looks kind of like Europe.

[caleb723]

Magvel is kind of like the mirror image of Tellius, and vice-versa.

Elibe... Shares no connection that I can see.

Thanks Cascade; I was just getting on to do that... T.T

[General Narshen]

I was playing around with the Elibe map, and if you rotate it to the left, and squeeze it top to bottom, it looks somewhat like old Tellius. However, I could just be trying to stretch the connections.

[Neofox]

Am I the only one who doesn't find them all that similar?

Turn Tellius upside down and remove the plot-important desert of death and it still has several islands in the middle that Magvel doesn't have...

[Pukachi]

Elibe looks like Europe, Magvel looks like Australia, and I'm not sure about Tellius.

[Black Knight]

Here, I've created some diagrams for you to gander at (thumbnailed, click to enlarge), which I think point out undeniable geographical similarities and political borders:

Elibe vs. Tellius


Tellius vs. Magvell: As said before, flip Tellius upside down, and then the magic starts


Elibe vs. Magvell: this one was a little harder, but the flippy magic the trick again.


Conclusion: Magvell is the most original continent because the developers made the inspired choice to flip it upside-down so everything in our brains would go kablooey.

[Neofox]

-Northern reigons are naturally going to be colder, that's how geography works.

-Nabata isn't a "desert-like reigon", it's a legitimate deset. Goldoa, on the other hand, is forests and mountains as seen in FE10.

-Begnion isn't protected by mountains, it's protected by a river.

-Ike and co. weren't approaching Phoenicies, they were passing around by Goldoa.

-Several similarities only exist between two of the countries, but not all three.

I admit they're similar, but you're acting like they're all carbon copies of one another...

[SlippyToasterTrooper_UK]

I've always felt Elibe is as much Eurasia as it is Europe.

Think of Sacae as China or Mongolia. It fits Mongolia with the Nomads and that while the Wa Dao (Sacae is famous for Swordmasters as well) is a Chinese sword from what I remember.

I wonder what comes first in development. The world map or the plot outline of where the heros will be going. Looking at FE9 i'd say it was the map but plot development work meant it had to change...

[Black Knight]

-Begnion isn't protected by mountains, it's protected by a river.

... So Elincia and Co. decided to take a boat to Begnion and circumnavigate the entire continent, rather than cross a river that goes about knee-deep (as seen in FE10) which would have taken them directly into Begnion? No, the river was just a feature and landmark of that battle during the retreat. Except for that Southern pass in Crimea, Begnion is completely surrounded by an impassible mountain range (hence why Ike and Co. go through the tunnels in the mountains that spit them out in Goldoa, and why there were so few places to attack Daein from in FE9 from Begnion, and why Begnion needed to go through Crimea to reach Gallia in FE10). It's pretty obvious if you look at the map.

They're not "carbon copies", but they are very similar and generic, and in general show the fire emblem mold (desert level, forest level, icy level, fiery level, ship battle somewhere, etc...), every continent shows the same traits. Why can't there be some sort of archipelago continent or perhaps a large landlocked region? In general, all the Fire Emblem maps are giant isolated landmasses mostly surrounded by water, and roughly squarish in size, and conveniently fitted to nearly fill up a gameboy screen. I'm not insulting the game, or saying anything else about Fire Emblem is repetitive or redundant (although...), and it's not a remark that's unique to Fire Emblem (lots of games in a series have redundant maps), it's just a comment on something that's pretty undeniably true about the series.

[Neofox]

... So Elincia and Co. decided to take a boat to Begnion and circumnavigate the entire continent, rather than cross a river that goes about knee-deep (as seen in FE10) which would have taken them directly into Begnion?

In case you hadn't noticed, that route is directly south of Daein, meaning that had they taken it they risked Daein performing a quick ambush with a large army to try and take them out. The long way was safer since, at worst, they'd just hit some small batches of Daein's military (which they did) and not the full force of their army.

[Black Knight]

In case you hadn't noticed, that route is directly south of Daein, meaning that had they taken it they risked Daein performing a quick ambush with a large army to try and take them out. The long way was safer since, at worst, they'd just hit some small batches of Daein's military (which they did) and not the full force of their army.

This isn't worth arguing about, but you're completely flip-flopping your position here. If the Begnion was only protected by a river, as you maintained earlier, then Elincia could have entered from Begnion from Gallia (which is where she was when they planned to go to Begnion) or any number of places along the huge Begnion border, and once she was in Begnion she would have been safe. Now, the fact that you acknowledge that the only way into Begnion was the southern pass in Crimea just shows that you acknowledge the fact that Begnion is completely surrounded by mountains...which was my original point... and I already stated that they had to take the boat because the only way into Begnion through Crimea was blocked (you appear to be trying to disagree with me on a post we 100% agree on...), so what are you trying to prove? You're all over the place.