Fire Emblem: Thracia 776

"Solid, but essentially for Hardcores only."

Introduction: This IMO was the last FE game with a true mature feeling. The later FE game still had a FE feeling, but felt slightly more cartoonish. As for the actual game, it's essentially a parallel (not side) story to FE4. If you haven't at least gotten to the half way point of FE4, DO NOT play this because this essentially runs along (with a little variation) FE4 and you'll be ruining a masterpiece if you don't heed my warning. Now onto the actual review.

Gameplay: For the hardcores who are reading this, this to FE4 is in many ways similar to how FE Radiant Dawn is to FE Path of Radiance. I'm not talking about the direct connection between the games, but the game itself. Difficulty? +10. Strategy? +10. The reason I addressed this to the hardcore fans is because this may be good thing to the thin population of hardcores out there and a bad thing for this game in the general rating sense to the general audience. First of all, the strategy is SO heavy in this game that there are times where there is ONE route you can choose or else casualties guaranteed. And no..., the strategy is not for dead-brains, it's actual thinking. In other words, it's incredibly, frustratingly difficult. I'm willing to bet most people will be turned off by the difficulty so much as to dump the game (the story doesn't help at all). In addition, by heating up the difficulty to the point of ONE path, you essentially make this a dead game. Dead game as in you don't have any choices but to follow what the game tells you or else suffer casualties (which most people won't be willing to take). This game essentially becomes linear to the extreme (as opposed to the other less harder FE games where you have more options). Now, even if we were to look at this from a hardcore's perspective, the difficulty would still devalue the score of this game because if you have ONE way, the next time you play through it, you most likely will still play through that ONE way. In other words, a chunk of replayability (which is what FE is known for) is also destroyed by its difficulty and one way strategy.

For example, in one of the later chapters, you have to just literally sit at the startpoint because there is one character in the map that gives all the enemies on the map +50 attack% and +50 evade%. You essentially have a normal cavalry units become units that can easily match or sometimes surpass your front line elite units. Once you hold off the assault, you have to literally think and transport one of your elite units to a fort (not in a HERE I AM location) and withstand more assaults. The "dumb" way would be to literally wait 70 turns (which messes up your ranking and most people wouldn't know that he will leave in 70 turns) and get that strategist to leave. All I mentioned was half of the chapter, but it should give you a general sense of what I mean. The difficulty of the game limits your options tremendously unless you seriously don't mind losing 3/4 of your units for that chapter.

With that said, that's not to say there aren't any bright spots for this game. For gameplay, you have several innovations (but not as big as FE4) such as Fog of War, the fatigue system, the capture command, and the Help/Rescue option. While none of those are truly mind blowing, but those are nice additions that make the game more realistic. Disappointingly, the relationship system in FE4 was removed and was replaced with....nothing(FE6 would bring it back in a more detailed support system). All relationships are preset.

While those innovations do deserve some credit, the overall difficulty+one way strategy mostly (not completely) overshadows all the good innovations this game made and makes the score suffer. And honestly, if you're anything other than a true hardcore, you'll most likely unable handle this frustration (since the story doesn't help) and definitely feel that it is anything but fun. I'll admit that even for a FE fan (not hard, hard core) like me wasn't pleased.
Gameplay: 8/10

Story:
Ignorable. That's all I need to say. Story? What story? The story is an absolute joke. First of all, the story in itself is boring to death. If you were telling it to kids, they'll all probably fall asleep from boredom. Second, the story with maybe the exception of one point (and even that is not much to rave about) is completely predictable. Third, the story in NO WAY at all helps a typical player continue playing after getting frustrated repeatedly. Most would feel like that they're thinking out of their brains and yet the story has nothing intriguing to make them get past this level. For me, I was able to beat a chapter a day the first time I played FE4 (essentially 2-3 chapters for FE5 considering the size of the maps in FE4). For FE5, I took 2 days to beat a chapter. No, I wasn't because it was hard to that point (but hard nevertheless) but because I wasn't motivated to play on and find out more. It was almost chore-like and that's NOT how video game should be played. As a result, I didn't play nearly as much time a day as I did for FE4 or other masterpieces. As for a general audience, I'm guessing they would have dumped the game by now. There is not much of a story within the RPG element of the genre.

To be perfectly fair, the story slightly picked up near 4/5th of the game (which is far too late), but even then, the only reason I wanted to finish the game at that point was because I wanted to tie the loose ends in FE4. If it weren't for FE4's influence, the plot remains just as ignorable and pointless. To further top that, the game feels way too SMALL. Compared to all the other FE games, the story feels the smallest. All the big bad guys you face aren't at the top of the evil order and you only conquer about....1/10th (maybe less) of the true size of the continent.

And finally, within the RPG element, there are also character developments to consider. Well, like the plot, there ARE NO character developments. To give you a small sample. Your main characters lives with another girl. One conversation when you rescue her. And no conversation (at least anything meaningful or anything memorable) until you beat the game where they declare their love. Like I said, no development whatsoever. Furthermore, some characters actually have NO development at all. Some character's role is just to be an archer or mage. For example, there is an archer where you can recruit roughly 1/3 of your way through the game and his only conversation in the whole game is the recruitment conversation. Yep, no character development at all. To only add insult to injury, the relationship system no longer exists and that means everyone's lover is already preset. As I will once again say, you're not playing your way through the game, the game already placed the very rigid path for you to walk.
Story: 5/10

Graphics/Sound:
The graphics are essentially the same as FE4 and that's not a bad thing as it's pretty good for a SNES game. It's extremely good if you compare it to FE3, which is also run on the same system. Again, all characters have their own identity in their animations. If you wear red with a Brave Sword, you'll definitely tell the difference from someone wearing green with an iron sword. Well, first there is the color difference and then there is the sword. The Brave Sword is FAR larger and is curved like a blade while the iron sword is like an average typical sword. The sound isn't much to rave about, but overall still nice as all Fire Emblem games are.
Graphics/Sound: 9.75/10

Replayability/Play Time:
While this isn't the longest Fire Emblem game, but you'll most likely take plenty of time because it's extremely hard and BORING at the same time. It's not a game where it intrigues you to play more and more; therefore, you most likely won't be finishing it soon. In addition, since the story is ignorable and it's difficult (not a good combination), you most likely won't be replaying this game even if you do finish it (unless you're a FE freak). I'll admit there is some replay value as there is a chapter at about 6/10 through game where you can choose 2 paths, but even then the difference only lasts for 2 chapters and the recruitable characters are slightly different. Just to tell you the difference, one route is harder, but you get more character development for the ANTAGONISTS (not you) who aren't even in the game (they're characters from FE4). Other than that, there isn't much replayability as they even abolished the relationship system.
Replayability: 8/10

Reccomendation:
Don't play this if you're a general audience. If you're a general audience, make sure you play other Fire Emblem games and IF you fall in love with Fire Emblem then first beat FE4 (otherwise the masterpiece is ruined) and THEN play FE Thracia 776. If you don't heed my advice, you'll most likely abandon the game midway through. Furthermore, the only reason I find the story in anyway useful at all is just to supplement FE4, so if you haven't completed FE4, the story will go from ignorable with a star of hope to just plain ignorable. To essentially sum it up, this game doesn't deserve the RPG part of the Strategy RPG genre name.
Overall: 7/10

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 09/09/08

Game Release: Fire Emblem: Thracia 776 (JP, 01/21/00)