"You only live once"

What do you get when you cross an S-RPG with Advance Wars-tactics and meld the two together with some medieval fantasy? Some folks did this a wee while ago and many games later the formula has churned out this monster of a portable. Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones is the 8th title in a long lineage of games that were previously Japan-only. Veterans claim that this is not the best of the portable bunch by far, but for me, a novice FE'er, it is still one of the top strategy games available for something other than a PC.

Visuals – 6
Sound & Music – 8
Gameplay – 8
Controls - B
Longevity – A (20+ hours)
Replayability – A
Difficulty – Moderate

Tactics – 8
VERDICT – 7.5

Red vs. Blue
Following in the footsteps of its sister games, Famicom Wars, or Advance Wars in recent times, Fire Emblem looks just like a fantasy version of its more modern sibling. Instead of having tanks and footmen, here we have cavalry and dragons. During the battle phases, the units you command move about a plain grid, just like in that other game. And just like that other game, your units are all colour-coded according to what side you are on; in the single player campaign this means you are red, the enemy is blue, and neutral characters are green.

This makes for a very simplistic palette which is no doubt effective in distinguishing foe from friend, but at the same time it makes all your units look too samey. This style worked well in Advance Wars with its vehicles and military uniforms, but in this fantasy setting it does look odd how every man, woman and beast all don the same coat of paint.

The character dialogues that break up the battles are accompanied by some nice looking portraits of the varied cast. Here you can see each person for who they are, and the stark contrast to the in-battle sprites makes it all bittersweet. The third graphical area concerns the battle animations that occur during unit encounters. These duels take a turn-based approach (even though all you are doing is just watching) and they do display some cool effects sometimes, but there just isn't enough variety, and even then there are many missing frames of animation in the ones there, making these ‘epic battles' look rather stilted. Good thing that you can turn them all off then! The episodes progress much smoother without these weak ‘interruptions', and sometime early on you will no doubt choose to forgo these optional scenes. But then why were they even there in the first place?

Failure to prepare is preparing to fail
For those familiar with Advance Wars, you already know how to play this game. In a nutshell, your goal is to secure the enemy fortress and/or defeat all enemies on the map. Before you even get out there in the thick & rough, you can choose what units you will bring with you as well as manage your inventory and equipment. Once the game begins you will take turns to advance your units along, disposing of any opposition in your way, perhaps gaining a couple of new allies along the way, before completing your goal.

Movement is simple enough with the grid-based maps and Nintendo's patented d-pad, lucky since there is a lot of moving to be done here! It can get tiring to have to move each unit individually bit by bit, especially through the numerous tight corridors which were definitely absent in a good way from the Advance Wars series. Once your turn has ended, the other teams then have their own go. Each unit moves one-by-one so that you can catch where everything is headed, but it would have been nice to be able to manually skip this process during times when we don't care where they move to.

As you encounter the enemy, you can have your heroes initiate mini-duels armed with whatever weapon you choose (assuming that character has it currently on them). This is where the famous weapon triangle comes into play. Swords beat axes beat lances beat swords. And in the realm of the mystical arts, light beats dark beats anima beats light. This is the essence of Fire Emblem. There are other factors of course: archers can easily take down winged creatures, magic bypasses any physical defenses a unit may have, and you can even reverse the foundational weapon triangle with uniquely crafted arms. It is a simple concept to grasp, but like all good things, tough yet rewarding to master.

The strong become stronger and the weak stay weak
The rules look solid, and they are, but there's something about this game which sort of messes with the formula at times. I'm talking about the RPG elements here. See unlike Advance Wars, each unit you have is a single unit, and not a representation of a group of them. Each unit here, just like in any RPG, has its own individual stats and as they perform in battle and gain experience, they level up and get stronger and stronger. This means that you will have some units that overpower the rest, and so will dish out the most hurt, hence receiving the bulk of the experience to further their prowess. This tips the balancing scales a lot and this is what nearly breaks the game.

Your weaker units will always be targeted by the enemy AI present here. Because of the aforementioned level discrepancy that will arise, you weaker characters will really be that weak, and a well-placed offense by the enemy will quickly see their downfall. You could of course avoid this by aiming to equally level up all your characters, that is not always bringing your strongest warriors into big battles, but why would you want to do this?!

So your weak units die, big deal. Well it is, because in another Fire Emblem twist…

The dead remain dead
As you journey through the lands of the sacred stones, the aftermath of battles is vital to future successes. You may have the victory today, but sustain too many casualties and you will have a seriously tough time later on. As you comrades bite the dust, you can no longer use them. It is an automatic game over if your leading lady (or guy…) falls, but every other character's death will see a small mourning followed by a surge of determination to carry on with greater fire. Not only will the story change accordingly, but you will have to rethink your strategy come later episodes; without any magic users you are going to have a tough time if you come across a bunch of wily mages!

This element means that every decision you make is critical; a poorly thought out plan will lead to unnecessary sacrifices. But as I mentioned before about those weaker characters dying too easily, you will hate the system at times after managing to claim victory, only to find that you have a next to 0% chance of completing the next. You can of course replay these levels again so that your end results are more reasonable, but this can get repetitive, and it only works if you haven't screwed up too much before deciding to do so. It is a problem which some of you may never encounter, and which I only did once, but there is plenty of room for error especially for newcomers.

Lots to see and do
Since the introduction of the GBA system, we have seen many portable strategy games appear on the market. The slow-paced tactical nature is perfect for gaming on-the-go. In Sacred Stones, just like nearly all other portable strategy games, quick saving/loading makes diving in and out a breeze. The quest is a lengthy one, and coupled with minute bites of play (highly recommended to NOT rush through this one), it will last you a long time. Depending on much of the rules you efficiently absorb, your times will vary from 20-30 hours on your first playthrough. Once done you can take a break (or not) before tackling the hard mode, which is worthy of its title. Remember how there was that part where you had to select whether to follow the prince or the princess? Well the game branched at that point, and so even though you completed 21 chapters to finish the game, there's still another 6 that you missed the first time around. I guess your hard mode play through may have to wait a bit longer yet!

There is also a link mode available (which can also be practiced solo vs. CPU), but it's not what it could have and should have been – proper team battles. Instead you choose from just 5 units from your current save file, and take turns in choosing who duels with whom. I really don't see this mode as anything more than a bonus tease of what is to come for the next instalments. Out of the tens of hours you can hope to spend with this game, only one or one more will be spent here.

All the … small things
To tie up some loose ends, I have to first mention the storyline of the Sacred Stones. Set in a whole new world from the previous games, the plot starts off relatively heavy and rather boring, but it does get better so sit through the dialogue instead of skipping it. I have to commend the variety of characters available to you throughout; a lot of them you will miss as they are optional characters which you must talk to with certain others in order for them to join your cause. Add to all those unique individuals with a large selection of classes to upgrade them into, from pirate to assassin, and you've got a lot of potential candidates for you next battle! Support conversations play a role in buffing characters when they are nearby to chummy teammates. It is yet another important gameplay feature, but the dialogues that take place are interesting and funny enough to go through as well.

As for some things I didn't like too much, I have already mentioned the double-edged nature of the “you only live once” mechanic, and the boring dialogue at times, the too-vanilla graphics and the plodding movements (why has no DS version been announced yet!?). The bosses were an interesting concept to the strategy genre, but they are not threatening enough I say. Most of them can be toppled by ganging up on them with all your characters in one or two goes. Their henchmen will come after you, but for some reason, they will almost never ever move from their post, and so you can just go after them once everything else has been taken care of. What kind of leader is really that confident in going solo versus an army of 15+? The music is quite good with a lot of different tracks featured, but the limited field themes are overused. The sound of “sprooching” could definitely been much better.

I had a hard time in deciding what to score The Sacred Stones in the end. Though the quality is good and the replay value is outstanding for a portable, there are a couple of issues which I felt toned down the experience as a whole. This is supposedly one of the easier titles in the series, but I still see a solid challenge here. There is a lot of meat here, although it can be tough to chew some parts, but once done you will feel full. But for me, I would've liked some more flavouring just to indulge a little more:P

7.5/10 – Not spicy enough!

My Score System – a score of 7 from me denotes a good, solid game. Excellence earns a higher grade, whilst 4-6 reflects a below average product; glitchy, unplayable games deserve less.

30/01/07

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 02/06/07