What you need to know about Fire Emblem Fates Special Edition

 

Around June of last year, after about 15 months…. I finally got my hands on a Fire Emblem Fates/IF Special Edition cart.

Got it, researched it and resolved many questions about it.

Since all gaming publications are gagged on telling the truth about this particular cart compared to the General Release versions, here is what you need to know from what they won’t tell you.

The full game is on the cart as advertised for the U.S. and European releases.

No stupid download code for the Valla third as to what people in Japan had to deal with.

The cart will recognize all FE14 related data on your SD card.

DLC, Branch of Fate, and all extra save states for those who got a General Release cart and were forced to download the other two-thirds.

The cart however will not recognize that you have beaten the game on another cart as that data is not saved on the SD card, unless you beat the final chapters again while using this cart. This also includes support conversations.

But the records hall will still indicate you have unlocked those characters in the unit roster provided that you have done so on that other cart, and have that save state on your SD card upon accessing it with your Special Edition cart.

It’s hard to show photos and video of this since I’ve re-unlocked them for this Special Edition cart. But can still be replicated.

This is in addition to it recognizing FE13 Streetpass data if any is stored on the system.

So there are things that are saved directly onto the cart and things that are saved on the SD card.

But what makes things more interesting about this cart is how it registers itself in the software library of your Activity Log.

While the General Release Version will register as “Fire Emblem Fates” followed by which third you bought physically or through the e-shop. The Special Edition cart will simply register as simply “Fire Emblem Fates.” If you happen to have both General Release and Special Edition, the system will register them as separate entities.

Alex Handy, the Director of the Museum of Arts and Digital Entertainment (MADE), found this particular discovery interesting when I showed it to him during a verification check for all the research above.

I’m happy with the purchase.

Sure, it’s disappointing that it didn’t come with the case and the factory extras. As long as the cart is the real deal we’re in good hands.

But what I’m not happy about is the amount of time it took for myself to own the full game on a physical cart. 15 months is a lot of time when this cart should have been General Release.

This is in addition to all of those who will never get to experience the game in full, if Nintendo decides to shut down the servers for the 3DS in the future.

Which is why everyone was against FE14 being cut up in the first place.

On a side note, the last owner of this Special Edition cart was horrible at the game.

Because when I accessed this cart for the first time, there were two save states: Path is Yours and the first chapter to the Hoshido Route: both on Phoenix mode. Having barely played the game and in that mode speak for itself.

Other information indicated that he was also a lucky pre-order holder, but then lost interest for whatever the reason.

Yet that person still has to be commended for saving me the hassle of scanning in Amiibos onto the cart.

In his logbook, through his Hoshido file, both Marth and Ike were registered in with the Lucina chapter yet to be completed. Marth was active in his party with Ike tucked away.

He also had some Streetpass data that he never registered in from his Plaza.

The previous owner’s save states have since been deleted, and replaced with a Lunatic file from Branch of Fate. I then re-beat the final chapters of all my Lunatic files that were still saved on the SD card to solidify my position. Then I scanned and registered my Lucina and Robin Amiibos to complete the set.