Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade (lost promotional DLC of Game Boy Advance tactical role-playing game; 2002)

Screenshot of the Graizel Execution Court map.

Status: Lost

Sometime during 2002, special cartridges of Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade that contained at least one of four new trial maps were given out on two promotional events to select winners. The first three were rewards for a Champion's Sword event hosted by Japanese manga magazine V-Jump, while the last one was part of a ranking tournament on the official website. These maps were "Graizel Execution Court", "V-Type Original Map", "J-Type Original Map", and "Defeat Bandits". The first map was based on a location exclusive to Champion's Sword. The second and third maps were shaped like the letters V and J respectively, hence their names. The last one, judging by its name, seems to involve defeating bandits. ^[1] The way the maps are obtained is completely different from other downloadable content in later Fire Emblem games, as well as the more obscure Archanea Saga, in that anyone who owns copies of The Binding Blade must send them in order to have the maps installed.^[2]

For the V-Jump event, 50 winners could get a cartridge containing "Graizel Execution Court", while 10 could get both the V-Type and J-Type maps. For the Ranking tournament, the highest-ranking winners could get the "Defeat Bandits" map. Due to the status of these maps, they are not present in the original game, and as mentioned above, were installed with the game's special cartridges instead.^[3] They are also absent from the Wii U Virtual Console port. These maps seem to use the XMAP data, which is a system that adds an additional sixth trial map from save data.^[4]

So far, information regarding these trial maps, as well as both promotional events, are extremely scarce, and none of the cartridges containing them have been known to be dumped online or, at the very least, still exist in some capacity. The only proof of these maps' existence are a single screenshot of the first map and its set amount of Player and Enemy units, as well as a few magazine scans containing images of the first three maps. The last one has no surviving images left.

Promotional Trial Maps

Title	Status
Graizel Execution Court	Lost
V-Type Original Map	Lost
J-Type Original Map	Lost
Defeat Bandits	Lost

Gallery

Videos

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Images

Magazine scan of the Graizel Execution Court map.
Sprite reconstruction of the Graizel Execution Court map found in the Serenes Forest website.
The Graizel Execution Court as it originally appeared in Champion's Sword.
Magazine scan containing images of the V-Type and J-Type trial maps.