"Fire Emblem. I think that says it all."

Intro: This is the 9th Fire Emblem game to be ever made and its the 3rd game released in america. If you don't know what fire emblem is, I'll tell you now. Fire Emblem was originally a series in Japan that was incredibly famous and well played. It started with Fire Emblem 1 which has to do with the character Marth. Fire Emblem 2 had to do with Alm and Celica. Fire Emblem 3 came back to Marth. Fire Emblem 4 was one of the best fire emblem games and it had Sigurd and Celice. Fire Emblem 5 had Leaf as main character. Fire Emblem 6/7 were corelating fire emblems. 7 was the prequel. 6 had Roy as the main character while 7 had eliwood, hector and lyn. Fire emblem came to smash brothers melee. Marth and Roy came as playable characters. Then fire emblem 8 had eirika and ephraim as main characters. You should check everything out but only 7 - 9 came out in america.

Fire Emblem 1: Dark Dragon and the Sword of Light
Fire Emblem 2: Gaiden
Fire Emblem 3:Mystery of the Emblem
Fire Emblem 4: Genealogy of the Holy War.
Fire Emblem 5:Thracia 776
Fire Emblem 6: Sword of Seals
Fire Emblem 7: Blazing Sword
Fire Emblem 8:Sacred Stones
Fire Emblem 9: Path of Radiance
Fire Emblem 10: Goddess of Dawn

Story - 7/10
The story begins with a blue haired lad named Ike who is the son of a mercenary commander. Anyways, Ike joins the mercenaries. On one of his jobs, he finds a mysterious girl whom he doesn't recognize at first but later is found to be the princess. The princess and he plans something out. Its a very cliched story really. But its worth finding out what happens and what is everyone's past. Good Vs. Evil this time. Its really about a boy who needs to avenge his father while serving as mercenary leader.

Gameplay - 10/10
As one of the Fire Emblem games, it has one of the best gameplay values in all of gaming history. Its a strategy RPG which means that we have bird-eye view of the characters. Each character has a different class and each character has a different personality. This allows fire emblem to have support conversation which is conversations that give special bonuses. So if the main character, Ike, dies, its gameover. And if a character dies, they're gone forever. Each weapon has different values and each weapon has durabillity. Which means that every normal weapon breaks. Finally this game has the weapon triangle and the magic triangle. The weapon triangle is this Sword > Axe > Lance > Sword and so forth. This means they have a bonus when your weapon has an advantage over your enemy's. The magic triangle is the same concept as weapon triangle except it has different weapons. Fire > Wind > Thunder > Fire and so forth. This made Fire Emblem unique from the other strategy RPG games. There are skills in this game but you need to acquire them by finding them in chests or villages and whatnot. Master Skills are gotten by the Occult Scrolls. There are 4 occult scrolls in the whole game, so you have to be conservative. Each class has different Master Skills which go from healing the amount of damage dealt and instantly killing the foe. In this game they removed Dark Magic and replaced with Light Magic. They also included a new type of weapon called knives which can be used by thieves, assassins, and sages.
Finally there are Trial Maps. Trial maps are recieved after finishing the game a number of times or inserting fire emblem in your game. Trial maps give you something to do with your characters after you finished the game. Trial Map exp doesnt save over your character so beware.

Graphics - 6/10
The graphics arent exactly up to par with the gamecube's capabilities. The battlefield graphics are horrendous. I gave this a 6 and not a 1 because it has good in battle graphics and it has movies. The graphics in those are pretty decent. Too bad theres only 6 of the movies. There are CGs in this game and they're really good.

Sound - 10/10
The music in this game is magnificent. It has one of the best music in Fire Emblem history. Theres one song that is sung in galdr (you'll find out as you play the game) but its actually japanese sung backwards. There is over 50 tracks in this game and you'll love each and every one.

Replayability - 9/10
It can be replayed many times over and if you keep replaying the game, you get rewards. You might even get a secret character. Its really good. Try playing the game 15 times over and over again and you'll be rewarded handsomely. You can play trial maps if you have nothing else to do.

My thoughts: I definitely suggest that you get this wonderful game. Its definitely worth your money. And if you are going to check out this game, also check out Fire Emblem: Goddess of Dawn for the nintendo Wii which is a sequel to this game and you can transfer your character's stats to that game. I really recommend that you check it out.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/24/07