Gemfire

"Tragically overlooked strategy title..."

If you want old-school, console turn-based strategy, there is only Koei. Most well known for their Nobunaga's Ambition and Romance of the Three Kingdoms series, the strategy giants quietly put out a medieval fantasy-themed strategy game called Gemfire. There was no gaming experience like it on SNES at the time, and so you might expect the niche-filling title to get some recognition. This didn't happen. Gemfire quickly faded into obscurity, but not before I got my hands on a copy. How could such a fun, addictive little game not become popular? Who knows?

Graphics: 9/10

Simplicity is the order of the day. The majority of the game is spent looking at a fairly drab-looking map of the game world. The portraits of your leaders look good, however, and the visuals in the ''event'' sequences are good too. They effectively convey the medieval fantasy look of the lands you are trying to conquer.

The rest of the game takes place in battles, where you lead small figures(representing a great number of soldiers) into battle. When you encounter another unit on the battlefield, the game cuts to a close-up action sequence, which is also well rendered.

Graphics aren't high on the list of priorities when it comes to strategy games, but Gemfire delivers well enough.

Sound/Music: 9/10

If you're going to be looking at a world map for hours at a time, you tend to hope that the background music will be catchy, or at least passable. Gemfire's music is excellent. It's not on a level that would persuade you to listen to it outside of the game, but it sets the mood appropriately. The world map themes(thankfully, there are several...one single theme, no matter how good, would grate after a while) are relaxing, and the battle music successfully builds tension. I haven't played the game in a year or so and I can still remember some of the music, so that is a testament to its quality. Or maybe not.

Gameplay: 9/10

The bread and butter of any game, but especially a strategy game. The gameplay. In Gemfire, your job, as the leader of one of several ruling families, is to snuff out the other factions and bring peace to the world. The centerpiece of the story is the legendary crown of Gemfire, which once held six jewels in it, each containing a beast of great power. One day, the Princess broke the crown(or something like that) and scattered the jewels throughout the kingdom. As it happened, one jewel went to each faction. The Blanche family, for example, gets the green jewel, which contains Zendor, the lightning wizard. King Eselred, however, kept the crown itself, which contains the Dragon(which you will come to fear after it takes out entire units with one attack).

How you accomplish your goal of conquering the other families is somewhat up to you, although diplomatic means are somewhat limited. You can form alliances, try to force enemy forces to surrender, and even attempt to bribe enemy officers to come to your side.

Ultimately, however, you will have to use force to accomplish your objective. When you invade, the game takes you to a battlefield, where you have four sets of soldiers: a Horsemen unit, an Attack Knights unit, an Archers unit, and a Defense Knights unit. The units all have differences. The horsemen can move three squares per turn. Archers can attack from two squares away.
Making things more interesting - if you have one of the aforementioned Jewels, you get a fifth Unit, also. When one of your units encounters an enemy unit, there is a brief battle animation. Taking into account the number of troops involved, the quality of the leadership, and the position from which the attacking unit originated(attacks can be, in order of increasing quality, frontal, flanking, or rear.) the game will calculate casualties, and then return you to the battlefield.The point of the battle scenes is to either (1) eradicate enemy forces, or (2) capture their flag. If you're the attacker, and you win, the territory in question becomes yours. If you lose, your leader may be captured, and will sometimes even join the enemy. It works both ways, kids. When you wipe out an entire rival faction, you get their jewel, meaning your army grows more powerful when you expand.

There is much more to this game that I haven't listed. This is because Gemfire is what it is supposed to be-as deep a strategy game as you could hope for on a console. If you thought Romance of the Three Kingdoms looked interesting but you couldn't get into it because of the Asian feel, pick up Gemfire.

Bottom Line: It's sad that seemingly no one has played this game. You can get it at Funcoland for under ten bucks, and since it's better than most new games that cost $50, it's hard not to give this a big thumbs up.

Strongly recommended. But watch out for Eselred's dragon.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 06/13/01, Updated 06/13/01