A Paralogue (also known as a Sidequest, particularly in the Japanese version of Fire Emblem Awakening and Side Story in the European version of Fire Emblem Awakening) are extra chapter battles in certain Fire Emblem titles.

Prior to the standardization of this term, Gaiden (外伝 lit. side story) and Extra Chapter were used by fans to denote these types of Chapters. This page uses gaiden chapter or side chapter when referring to such chapters in games prior to Awakening.

Overview

A Paralogue is a side chapter within a game that is not mandatory, but contains a contained story unlike a Bonus battle. In earlier titles, these could only be accessed by fulfilling certain conditions and often have only minor, if almost completely no impact on the grand scheme of the game's storyline as these are considered optional in all iterations, and were sometimes purposefully able to be missed due to rather harsh conditions needing to be met to access them.

Thracia 776-Sacred Stones and New Mystery

This feature was first introduced in Fire Emblem: Thracia 776. Gaiden chapters in these games are denoted by an "x" after the previous chapter's number, such as "17x" or "20x". Most of these gaiden chapters require certain side objectives to be fulfilled in the previous chapter, such as keeping NPCs alive or finishing the previous chapter in a certain amount of turns. The only exceptions to this rule are Chapter 29xE/31xH of Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade and Chapter 5x of Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, both of which are unlocked automatically. These gaiden chapters provide items, recruitable characters, as well as extra EXP for the player's army.

In Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade, each gaiden chapter gives the player a legendary weapon. The player needs to obtain all of the legendary weapons and keep them intact all the way through Chapter 22 to unlock the "true" ending and the last few chapters of the game.

In Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem, the gaiden chapter conditions are slightly different in that there are 2 of them, but only 1 has to be fulfilled to access the gaiden chapter.

Shadow Dragon

The Side Chapters of Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon are all completely optional and are denoted by as a Chapter #X. Most are only accessible if the player's army falls below a certain number by a certain chapter. These side chapters are noted to be the only way for the player to recruit a Shadow Dragon original character that did not exist in the original Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light.

The sole exception is Chapter 24x which is only accessible if Tiki is dead and Falchion is lost and does not take any other army count. It is notable out of all the side chapters of Shadow Dragon as not only is it the only way to get Nagi, but also it is the only way to get her special version of Falchion.

Awakening

Fire Emblem Awakening is the first title to formally use the term Paralogue as part of the battle's tittle. Due to the overworld mechanics of Awakening, players unlock several Paralogues on the World Map after specific chapters have been completed. These mostly reward bonuses for completing including new characters such as Donnel, Anna, and Tiki. There are twelve additional Paralogues that are unlocked whenever a specific first generation character achieves an S-Support, resulting in their child from their future becoming accessible. The player must complete Chapter 13 to access these chapters, even if a character has achieved an S-Rank. Only Lucina is exempt from this as she is recruited in Chapter 13 as part of Awakening's story. Six additional Paralogues are unlocked via SpotPass which were released on specific dates. These Paralogues cannot be initiated until the player completes Chapter 25.

Fates

Fire Emblem Fates adopted the Awakening Paralogues and features 22 of them. Only one Paralogue is unlocked by completing a specific chapter. The other 21 Paralogues are achieved once a specific male character, Azura, or Corrin has achieved an S-Support. In these Paralogues, the player can recruit the child units of the parent characters in their army.

Depending on the route the player has picked, only certain Paralogues are available in Birthright and Conquest. Since all parent characters are playable in Revelations, the player is able to access all the Paralogues in that route.

It should be noted that in Birthright, Midori's paralogue cannot be played until after Chapter 15, even if Kaze already has an S-Support. In order for the Paralogue to be playable, the Avatar must have an A support or higher with Kaze before the chapter is completed.

Heroes

Fire Emblem Heroes has Paralogue chapters that are released from time to time which also feature events that lie outside of the main storyline. These generally involve Seasonal Heroes and related festivals, others are side stories involving normal Hero units. Each Paralogue Chapter has three sub-chapters compared to the Main Story which normally has five sub-chapters.

Three Houses

Fire Emblem: Three Houses sees the return of Paralogue chapters, but are tweaked in purpose: they are found in the Battle section of the menu, alerted on the Calendar as a green exclamation mark. Paralogue battles cost a Battle Point and are first unlocked following the events of Chapter 5. In Part 1 Paralogue battles are unlocked by having at least one of the required characters recruited, but in Part 2 all required characters must be in the player's roster for the paralogue to be available.

Completing Paralogue battles nets the player specific rewards tied to the required units. However if the required units are just part of Byleth's army under Mission Assistance, the reward tied to them is not gained at the conclusion of the battle and is lost to Byleth.

Additionally, much like before, Paralogue Battles are under a time limit. During the Academy Phase, nearly all of the Paralogue battles last until the end of the Pegasus Moon (2/22), excluding Byleth and Sothis' Paralogue, which expires the month before (1/25). During the War Phase, there are Paralogue battles that are either exclusive to a route, or barred from a route.

Engage

Engage features fifteen Paralogue chapters and, like Awakening, are accessible on the overworld map and can be completed at the player's leisure once certain chapters have been completed. The first two Paralogues are bonus chapters that reward the player with two optional playable characters Jean and Anna. The remaining thirteen Paralogues are associated with the Emblems. These Paralogues are unlocked whenever the player receives a Emblem Ring after Chapter 11. Completing Paralogues 3 to 14 unlocks the associated Emblem Ring's Bond Rank cap to Level 20. The the final Paralogue gifts the player the Pact Ring, granting the Ring-Rank between Alear and a character of the player's choice.

Warriors: Three Hopes

Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes Paralogues work similar enough to how they work in Three Houses, where they are unlocked as the story progresses and Shez recruits more units to their side.

Completing Paralogue battles nets the player special rewards, one for the first time clear and one for the S-Rank Clear. Much like the War Phase of Three Houses, there are Paralogue battles that are either exclusive to a route, or barred from a route, but there are also Paralogue missions that become available by recruiting New Game+-exclusive units.