The Battle Before Dawn (FE7) is my favorite map
Good morning, afternoon, or whenever it is that you read this.
Like many millennials, I found Fire Emblem through the Super Smash Brothers: Melee pipeline. Two of the secret characters in that game were Marth and Roy. Marth was the series' poster boy, and Roy was the protagonist of the most recent installment of the series, which to that point had only been released in Japan.
My friends and I were intensely curious about who these two swordsman. Then Nintendo Power announced the next game would also be when the series was exposed to the world for the first time.
Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade (released as just Fire Emblem, and also known as FE7) was a day of release purchase for me, and I was in love with it from the title screen.
Battle Before Dawn
Battle Before Dawn is the map that kicks off the game's final act. It is either Chapter 26 or Chapter 28 depending on if you are playing Eliwood Mode or Hector Hard Mode (HHM).
It is a fairly controversial map in the Fire Emblem fandom. Some find all the heaping bullshit makes the map unpleasant. Others really enjoy the map.
As for me? I adore this map and its underlying philosophy is one which I try to invoke in the TTRPG games I run. By forcing the player to focus on multiple variables at one time, you can force them to feel the mounting tension. With so many balls in the air, it's hard to approach this map with routine. This is great, as the stakes for this map's story are extremely stressful.
There will be a few spoilers ahead. Be warned!
The story
A young girl we've seen before, Nino, is sent on a mission by her abusive 'mother' Sonia. Sonia, as it turns out, is actually manipulating the Black Fang. Sonia orders Nino to assassinate Prince Zephiel of Bern. Sonia also orders fellow Black Fang member Jaffar to kill Nino so she can be a scapegoat for the assassination.
When Nino sees Prince Zephiel unconscious, Nino can't bring herself to kill him. Jaffar desperately urges her to go through with it, but she can't. Nino knows the price of failure, and offers herself to be slain.
They are surrounded on all sides by Black Fang storming the castle. They will be killed if the Prince lives.
Jaffar has a conflict of conscience. He tells Nino to flee, and disappears into the castle to take out as many of his former gang members as he can and buy time for Nino to flee to safety. Nino can't abandon Jaffar either, however.
This sets off my favorite map in FE7: Battle Before Dawn. There are multiple objectives, but only one of them is required. Rather than having to deal with unique mechanics for a single map, it's all about being adaptable and, especially on HHM, luck.
Objectives
Your army is outside of the castle while the attack is already happening. To win, you have to find Zephiel in the heart of the castle and defend him for 15 turns against the bad guys. He is a green unit, meaning he isn't under your control, but is allied. To his credit, the first thing Zephiel does when he regains consciousness is park himself on a pillar where he can better dodge attacks. This is the only objective you need to fulfill to win the map as, if Zephiel dies, then FE6 can't happen as he is the antagonist in that story.
You do have to hurry, but there's no enemy units directly after him in the first two turns because of a different green unit: Jaffar. Jaffar is to the left of Zephiel's chamber, fighting in the dark against multiple Fang. Jaffar is the strongest assassin in game and a very solid unit. With his Killing Edge and high dodge chance, he'll hold his own pretty reliably outside. That is, until his Killing Edge breaks. He's got twenty hits to land before it shatters, leaving him defenseless. I usually have a paladin like Sain or Kent charge to his aid, then 'Rescue' him to keep him from running away and getting himself smoked.
On the other side of Zephiel, you have Nino, who is also a green unit. Nino only has one enemy near her who she has an advantage against in the game's magical Rock-Paper-Scissors triangle system. But Nino is level 5 and unpromoted in the end game, and she won't be able to hold her own forever. Speaking to her with a lord will recruit her to your army, then she can talk to Jaffar to open up his recruitment for the following chapter (and a bonus level). Despite her low level, she's got some insane growths fitting what's called the 'Est' archetype. In Fire Emblem, this is a character who is recruited late into the game at a low level, but some of the highest growths on the roster. People either love Ests or they hate them. Nino is my favorite character in FE7 (which I already adore the cast of), so I always use this map to let her gain some easy levels and begin her path to magical powerhouse.
The fourth objective is the loot. This map has some of the best items in the game as treasure - a rare set of boots (increases movement by 1), the only Brave lance in the game (enables extra attacks), a rare and always valuable Rescue staff, and the game's only Delphi Shield (which negates bow bonuses against fliers, such as Florina). These are nice to have, and there are thieves scuttling in the shadows, attempting to steal them for easy coin before they disappear with this valuable loot forever.
Challenges
You're storming a dark castle in the dead of night, so fog of war is absolutely present on this map. Green units don't reveal the map for you - that's only for your guys. This gives even more tension to the conflict deeper in the castle. You hear the sound of units moving about on their turns, interspersed by battles where you get to see Jaffar fighting desperately in the dark. And it is alarming the first time you see Nino get targeted.
Hope she dodges. Luckily, she's super fast, so she probably will be fine. As said earlier, the enemy she is fighting is a monk, so her anima magic trumps his light magic. But he is still eight levels higher than she is.
The other challenge is that the boss of the map, Ursula, has a Bolting tome. This gives her the ability to hit you from across the map. Remember, you don't know exactly where she is because of the fog of war. Even if you have the enemy movement highlighted, you won't know you're in danger until you enter a battle and she's chucking a lightning bolt at you from across the map. If you're patient, baiting her into wasting her bolting uses on a character likely to dodge, or tank it, is probably the safest bait.
This is all much harder in HHM where all the enemies have inflated stats.
Final thoughts
I really like Battle Before Dawn. On my normal play-throughs, this map is the one that leads to me rounding out my main party roster. It's when I can start focusing on resource allocation and growing my units and finally get them all ready for end game.
I also just admire it. I don't want every map to be like it, but for me it's the perfect level of bullshit to match the story.
Because the whole situation in the story? Your protagonists are rushing through the dark to try and stop an assassination that will shatter the fragile politics of a continent at war. A pair of innocents are alone in the dark, vulnerable and afraid. And a murderer is making his last stand because his conscience won't let him betray the first person who treated him like something other than a weapon.
Shit is hitting the fan.
Thanks for reading! I hope you had fun~