Fire Emblem

"Best strategy game ever!"

Story- In any Role playing game story is very important, probably the most important aspect. Since RPGs don't have a fun gameplay like action games, the real motivation that keeps you hooked is the plot. Fire Emblem series is known for its amazing plots and characters, and dialogues. This one is no exception. In fact, this is the best fire emblem game ever, and it happened to be the first fire emblem to hit the United States. The games has three main characters, Lyn, Eliwood and Hector. All three of them come from noble families. Eliwood and Hector are best friends, then they meet Lyn and that's when the game begins. Eliwood's father has gone missing, you tell your mother to wait for you in the palace while you go looking for your father. Later on you encounter your friend Hector, and then Lyn joins you. Few chapters later you discover that an evil guy called Nergal has kidnapped your father, and now you go after Nergal. That does not sound very exciting, but that's because its only the background. The story develops into an epic tale of three friends, facing love, betrayal, and death. What really make the story something is the fantastic dialogue. This game has the best dialogue in any video game, its so well written that I found myself replaying chapters just so I can read it again. Overall the story is perfect, it can't possibly get any better.

Gameplay- Just because gameplay is not its best asset doesn't mean its bad. The gameplay is a standard turn based strategy game. Its not like advance wars, nor Final Fantasy Tactic Advance, its different. Better. There are so many factors, so many decisions its more complex than any other RPG yet its easy to learn. The game does a great job teaching you the basics. The first 10 chapters are basically a tutorial, it goes over the basics like movement and using weapons. Well calling it a tutorial is not accurate since it introduce you to one of the three lords and cover Lyn's story.

Unlike other strategy games, every character in fire emblem has his/her own personality. No random faceless NPCs. This is one of the main things that make fire emblem unique. As the game progress, you will be recruiting characters. Recruiting characters is not easy, since you will be doing it in the middle of battles. Yes, here is an example: you are on a map, attacking or defending, a character appears on the map. If its green, then its not an enemy nor an ally so it may be recruitable. You will have to talk to him/her with your main character and see what he/she has to say. Some key characters will join you automatically, without any requirements.

Recruiting characters is not an easy task, so you will want to take care of them. When a character dies in battle he dies for good. Yes, unless its one of your main characters (in that case, its game over) defeated characters don't return after the battle. Many times I found myself replaying an entire chapter just because one of my favorite characters died. This brings a whole new feel to the game. This is the first time I actually care for my characters in battles, so no more using them as a human shield or just leaving them behind, do that and they are gone forever. This makes the game even harder not just emotionally but strategically. If you keep losing characters, you will reach a point where you can't go on anymore, enemies will outnumber you. So you will want to keep them alive.

You can recruit more than 30 characters. Each character has a different class. Classes are what really make them unique. For instance, you have a thief, he is good for opening chests and doors but lack combat abilities. Sword masters are fast they can dodge attacks and hit at a high rate. Cavaliers are mobile, and have high strength . You can promote your characters once they hit level ten, by using certain items. A thief can be promoted to an assassin, making him much stronger and deadlier but taking his stealing/thief abilities way. There are physical fighters and magic users, magic user are good against high defense enemies but have low stamina and defense. A good strategy is to put your bow and magic users behind a wall of physical/high defense characters, this way you can use their long range attack and keep them safe. The key is to keep a well balanced team of magic and physical fighters.

Each character can be leveled up to level 20. Every time you gain a level, your stats grow higher, but its all random. You don't decide which stat goes up, so your Eliwood might turn into a tank first play through, and in your second play through he might become fast but low defense, each time is different. Sometimes you get RGN (Random generated number) screwed, basically your character gain low stats and you can do nothing about it. Well actually you can, few items can boost your stat, like speed , magic etc use them wisely.

The strategy does not end here. You can use the terrain to your advantage. For instance, placing your fighters on a fort will boost their defense and accuracy and heal them each turn by 20%. You can also use the weapons triangle system to your advantage. Swords are strong vs. axes but weak vs. lances. Axes are strong vs. lances but weak vs. swords. Magic has a similar system, light magic is strong against dark magic but weak against fire magic. This is a very important, because when you are at a disadvantage your hit rate will go down and most likely miss. Each weapon has a grade, all weapons start with grade C, the more you use it the higher it gets. So its important to focus on using one weapon (i.e. sword) and master it.

Before each battle you are given the choice to view the map, and decide who to bring with you. it's a good idea to check what weapons your enemies are using. Once on the battle field, you have the option to move, attack, or use items. When attacking the games zooms and shows an animation of your characters attacking, its cool but gets old quickly. Luckily you can skip it. Attacking is not always the best option, sine your enemy will counter attack if you are in range. A chapter is usually won by seizing the castle or killing the commander. Its not always like that though. Sometimes you will be asked to defend an ally, or a castle for a set amount of turns. Those are the hardest chapters in the game. The game uses a strange save system, it actually saves after each turn. So if you want to quit in the middle of a battle just shut the GBA down. However that also prevents cheating, if you mess up you will have to continue on or replay the entire chapter.

Fire emblem has the highest replay value of any strategy game. Once you beat the game, you unlock well another game. I don't want to spoil it but the unlockables are awesome. There is a rating system that tells you how well you did, so getting the best ratings isn't easy. If you want to complete the game 100% you will have to go through it several times. You have a complete set of soundtrack to complete. You also have support conservations to complete. There are just so many things to do after you beat the story. The replay value comes from its linearity. Fire emblem takes you from one chapter to another, so the only way to level up your characters is in battles. Leveling up everyone is impossible, so you will be playing it again and again each time with a different set of characters.

Graphically fire emblem is impressive. The in game graphics are good for the most part. Characters/sprites are way too small on the map, so don't expect much. Outside of battles, the story is told though a slide show of background and texts. The backgrounds look amazing, and very vivid.

The sound/music department deserves a ten. Each battle, situation and map has its own music. Once you beat the game you can listen to any one you want. Sound effects get the job done.

I highly recommend this game. If you never played fire emblem before, this is a great start. Fire emblem has the best story of any strategy game, it combines it with a deep gameplay and ultra high replay value. Usually linear games are bad, but fire emblem uses its linearity to make it the most replayable game ever. You will have a real challenge playing Hector route (I had to say it) which is much harder than Eliwood's. That's not all, you also unlock battle arena where you can build your team and compete against your friends. Its hard to find a game this good, it actually spoiled me.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 10/25/06