Based off of the Nintendo Entertainment System game: Fire Emblem: Ankoku Ryu to Hikari no Ken (Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragons and the Blade of Light) released in 1990. The game was remade for the Super Nintendo as Fire Emblem: Monshou no Nazo (Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem) in 1994, then again for the Nintendo DS in Fire Emblem: Shin Ankoku Ryu to Hikari no Ken
; to Hikari no Ken (Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon) in 2008.
The English-dub voice actor for the character of Mars is Spike Spencer. Spencer later voiced the character of Excellus in the Fire Emblem video game, Fire Emblem: Awakening, for the Nintendo 3DS.
The series was licensed and distributed in North America by ADV Films in the late 1990s on VHS in English dubbed and subtitled formats. Because none of the games in the Fire Emblem series had been officially released outside of Japan at that point, the anime became the first licensed Fire Emblem property of any sort to see an official international release.