Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade pre-release information

An early promotional flier for the game, which features both an early design for Roy and screenshots which differ from the final game.

Prior to its release in 2002, Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade received previews in the Japanese gaming press and in other sources, including Roy's appearance in Super Smash Bros. Melee. Some of the screenshots of the game used in previews are comprised of preliminary content or data which is clearly different from the game's final form, especially in previews from earlier points in the game's development.

The game was, at one point, going to be released on July 2001, but it was pushed back to its final March 29th, 2002 release.

Early title

At an early point in the game's development, the game was titled Fire Emblem: Priestess of Darkness (Japanese: ファイアーエムブレム 暗黒の巫女). It was showcased under this title at Nintendo's Space World event in 2001, having been first revealed by this name in August 2000 in a list of games to be showcased at the 2001 Space World. The game did not gain its final title until July 2001. Priestess of Darkness was presumably named in reference to Idunn, who is known by that title in the course of the final game and her theme music is named as such.

Roy's design

Early footage and promotional material depicts Roy with a different appearance to that of the final game: although his basic color scheme is the same, he looks younger, his armor is different and his hair is styled vastly differently. Although this design was obviously scrapped and replaced with his actual design by late 2001, when Roy appeared in Super Smash Bros. Melee, his map and battle sprites in the finished game still depict him with the distinct oversized hair of this early design.

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  A pre-release magazine scan featuring the full artwork for Roy's old design.

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  Closeup of the early Roy artwork from The Binding Blade.

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  Roy's old design portrait, at Nintendo Space World in 2001.

Gameplay

Battle screen

The game's battle screen and its presentation of units' stats underwent a significant number of revisions throughout development. Curiously, screenshots and even GIF animations of most of these versions are still publicly available on the game's official website, mixed in with screenshots of the finished game.

	The earliest known battle screen differs greatly from anything seen in any other Fire Emblem game before or since. The earliest known instance of this screenshot is January 19 2001. Featuring a more exaggerated style to its HP bars, it gives little statistical information. Also of note is that both Shanna and the enemy female Bern mage have somewhat different battle sprites at this point. Source: Serenes Forest; Pre-release changes, via IGN
	The battle screen used in the version of the game shown off at Nintendo Space World 2001. It has a somewhat more traditional look than the previous one, but still shows little actual information; it shows the units' names, their current and max HP, and an HP bar at the bottom. Source: Nintendo Space World 2001, via IGN
	This version is clearly based on the style of the SNES Fire Emblem games, and shows both Atk and Def instead of just damage. Unlike those games, however, it omits mentioning the units' names, classes, or equipped weapons. It is also much more compressed than those games, letting the battle animations take up the bulk of the screen space. Source: Official website; "What is Fire Emblem?", page 3
	A variant of the above, which differs only by implementing name labels; it is unclear which is the earlier version. The labels are somewhat lower and longer than they are in the final release. Also note that during the Critical attack small flames appear, something not in the final version. Source: Official website; "What is Fire Emblem?", page 3
	This version is closer to that of the final release, albeit distinctly rearranged. The damage value for units that cannot counterattack is shown as "0" instead of the final game's "--". Source: Official website; "Special Terrain"
	The final release's battle screen, which remains unchanged in Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade and received only cosmetic changes in The Sacred Stones.

Status menu

One different version of the unit status menu is known to exist.

An early version as seen at Nintendo Space World 2001. The item icons are temporary placeholders, and appear to have been borrowed from Fire Emblem: Thracia 776: the Rapier borrows the Brave Sword icon, the three staves (Heal, Mend and Physic) all use the Iron Sword icon, and the Vulnerary uses its Thracia counterpart. This screenshot also features Roy's old design. Source: Serenes Forest; Pre-release changes, via IGN

The final release's status menu.

Dialogue scenes

The style in which dialogue in cutscenes is presented in speech bubbles is known to have changed at least twice.

	One of the earliest known screenshots of the game in general; almost nothing in this screenshot bears a resemblance to the content of the final game. The style and positioning of the text box resembles those of Genealogy of the Holy War and Thracia 776. Translation: "Bows are my specialty! Because I always go hunting in the mountains!" Source: Serenes Forest; Pre-release changes, via IGN
	An early dialogue style closer to the finished version, featuring Alen and a villager. It appears that at this point, each new speech bubble would cover up the previous one. This specific dialogue no longer exists in the final game. Source: Serenes Forest; Pre-release changes, via IGN
	A scene of dialogue in the final release, and by extension the subsequent two Game Boy Advance Fire Emblem games.

Coloring

Early screenshots depict the game with a somewhat darker and more subdued palette than the final game; this change was presumably made to aid visibility, given the Game Boy Advance's lack of a screen light. Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones would later adopt this coloring approach as part of its style, since by the time of its release, Nintendo was producing both the Game Boy Advance SP and the Nintendo DS, both of which feature a screen light.

	An example of the darker palette in action, in Dieck and Shanna's conversation in Chapter 2. The chapter's map is also slightly different from the final version. Source: Official website; "Characters", page 2
	The same scene in the final release. Shanna's dialogue is unchanged, save for adding an instance of the word "but" (でも) and removing the exclamation mark from the second sentence.

Chapter 2

A set of early screenshots appear to feature a playthrough of an early version of Chapter 2: Princess of Bern. This set of screenshots also demonstrates what appears to be an intermediate stage of coloring adjustments, with portraits matching the darker coloring, seen in earlier screenshots, and the maps being closer to the final game's lighter colors.

Chapter 2 screenshots
Pre-release	Final
The movement arrow appears to have not been implemented as of these palette revisions. This screenshot demonstrates more changes to the the map. Additionally, either enemy placement or the player unit's starting positions appear to be different, as getting the enemies into the positions in the pre-release screenshot in the final game would require deliberately manipulating their movements and not typical gameplay.
Some screenshots feature a different map palette from the darkened version and final; this was presumably an intermediate revision. The map has numerous small placement differences but features the same over all layout. The menu has several subtle differences.
Another instance of the darker palette style. The female villager on the right also has slight differences in her portrait; the top half of her head was made a bit smaller and her eye placement was adjusted. The houses in the background were made taller and the tree on the right was redrawn. The changed length of the text box implies that a line earlier in the conversation was changed. The button prompt is now as it appears in final.
Aside from the battle UI differences discussed in an earlier section, there is the additional difference of the character name labels remaining present during boss conversations; in the final game all the battle UI elements slide off screen upon the initiation of a boss quote. The battle graphics for the Knight and Mercenary are also both subtly different; the Knight's shadow changed shape and there are several differences in the Mercenary sprite as well, particularly on the clothing. Dieck's character palette is also different. The button prompt is missing from the pre-release screenshot though it is unclear if the screenshot was taken before it had a chance to appear or if it is truly absent. The dialogue of the boss, Ruud, is slightly reworded.
The last screenshot of this batch, featuring Roy preparing to seize the castle gate. This screenshot implies that the mountains and castle were moved up a tile or the top row of the map's tiles was trimmed.

Map

A large percentage of the map can be puzzled together from this set of screenshots. Unfortunately, none of the provided screenshots feature the very bottom of the map. The map in this set of screenshots differs from the Dieck and Shanna dialogue scene so that screen of the bottom portion of the map was not used for this reconstruction.

Chapter 2 map comparison
Pre-release	Final

Chapter maps of 1 through 13

The official site features images of the game's first 13 chapters, all using a slightly darker palette. Their presence here is mostly for complete documentation and the demonstrate no particular other major differences. Note that due to the large size of some maps they do not all display in full size; click them to view the full sized versions.

Chapter map comparisons
Website	Final

English release

As of mid-March 2002, Nintendo of America had publicly stated that they intended to release The Binding Blade in the United States. Needless to say, this plan never eventuated, with Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade taking its place as the first internationally-released Fire Emblem game. No evidence of any work by NoA on The Binding Blade is known to publicly exist.

Gallery

Main article: Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade pre-release information/Gallery