In non-Japanese versions of the game, Master Crowns are no longer needed for characters to go from 2nd Tier to 3rd Tier (they could promote by gaining 100 EXP at Level 21). As part of this change, the number of obtainable Master Crowns was reduced because there was less need for them, reduced from 13 in the Japanese version to just 5 in localized versions (3 of them were replaced with Arms Scrolls while 5 of them were removed with no substitutions). Similarly, Mist is now allowed to promote to Valkyrie by maximizing her level and does not need to use a Holy Crown in non-Japanese versions of the game.
The European version had some graphical changes made:
-The banners announcing phase changes had their animations changed. While the Japanese and US announcements had the words quickly rush in, the European release has a simple, static fade-in and fade-out. Also, the "Ally Phase" was re-labeled "Partner Phase", presumably to match Path of Radiance.
-The capitalization of the "Miss" and "No Damage" pop-ups was changed, going from all-caps in the Japanese and US versions to only capitalizing the first letter of each word in the European version. The European version even removed the exclamation marks for "Miss" and "No Damage".
-The Level Up screen was changed in the European version to capitalize the "P" in "HP".
-The banners announcing phase changes had their animations changed. While the Japanese and US announcements had the words quickly rush in, the European release has a simple, static fade-in and fade-out. Also, the "Ally Phase" was re-labeled "Partner Phase", presumably to match Path of Radiance.
-The capitalization of the "Miss" and "No Damage" pop-ups was changed, going from all-caps in the Japanese and US versions to only capitalizing the first letter of each word in the European version. The European version even removed the exclamation marks for "Miss" and "No Damage".
-The Level Up screen was changed in the European version to capitalize the "P" in "HP".
Early US copies had a few glitches that were fixed in later copies:
-When using the data transfer function, the game freezes if there are any Easy mode saves from Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance.
-In the glossary, viewing Muarim's description lists Mist's description instead.
-When using the data transfer function, the game freezes if there are any Easy mode saves from Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance.
-In the glossary, viewing Muarim's description lists Mist's description instead.
In the Japanese version of the game, an extended script is played instead of the game's regular script when the game is played on Hard and Maniac Modes. The extended script goes into greater depth on the game's story and lore than the regular script did. The localizations only use the regular script regardless of what difficulty you play on, with the extended script being cut entirely, amounting to a loss of roughly 5% of the game's story content.
Similar to Path of Radiance, "Normal", "Hard" and "Maniac" modes were renamed to "Easy", "Normal" and "Hard" mode for non-Japanese versions of the game. However, unlike Path of Radiance, the contents of the difficulty modes were not edited at all beyond their names.