Fire Emblem

"One of the best Strategy RPGs ever."

I don't remember what year it was exactly, only it was a little before the Nintendo 64 was released. I was reading a Nintendo Power, and they had information about a game from Japan called Fire Emblem IV. I had never heard of Fire Emblem, so I read up a bit on it. Sounded pretty nifty, but seeing as how it was Fire Emblem IV I had little hope of it being released here in the United States. I didn't hear about Fire Emblem again until Super Smash Bros. Melee came out for the GCN. There were two characters from the Fire Emblem series in the game (from the First game and latest at the time). This gave me a spark of hope. Maybe, just maybe, we'd finally get Fire Emblem here in the US. Well, a year later, my hopes were realized.

Burn, baby, burn

So, years after my initial knowledge of the series, I finally get to play one of the series. Did it live up to my expectations? Not exactly. I was expecting quite a different game than the one I got. My idea's were more like a cross between Ogre Battle and Dragon Warrior. But I digress. It isn't that. What it IS is a phenomenal Strategy RPG.

In Fire Emblem, you play the part of Eliwood (and sometimes Lyn and Hector, your companion lords) the son of the Marquess of Pherae. The game first walks you through a ten chapter tutorial of sorts with Lyn, then turns you lose with Eliwood as he goes on a journey to find his father who disappeared on a journey. What does this mean? It means lots and lots of battles. On the normal route of Fire Emblem, there are thirty one chapters, and each chapter has one battle. There are a couple paths, but we'll get to that later…

And before I get any farther, I DO have to say this, Marth makes NO appearance in this game. Yes, he is the main character of Fire Emblem, but this, in reality is Fire Emblem 7. That means no Marth. As for Roy, he does make a momentary appearance in this game, but only during the ending, so no he's not playable, he's the star of Fire Emblem 6 (Also for Game Boy Advance, though not in the US as of now) so just too bad all you Smash Bros. Melee fans.

Battle is what Fire Emblem is about. No exploration, just battle. But it does this quite well. Battle is divided into phases, first you get to move your troops, then the enemy, then any other units that are on the field. Engaging an enemy is quite simple, you just walk up to him and select a weapon to attack him with. You'll be taken to a nifty engagement screen where you'll attack the enemy, and then, they get a chance to counter attack! That's right kid; every attack can be countered, assuming the enemy is equipped with a weapon that has a range that can hit you. What this means is that every engagement has two stages. This forces you to weigh your actions more carefully, since you can end up taking more damage than you give.

All of the encounters are rendered in this beautiful 2-D animation that is quite good. What isn't too good is the graphics outside of these encounters. They're very small basic sprites that leave a lot to be desired. I do understand the need to conserve memory, but it doesn't even really look like they tried to work on those.

Fire Emblem is supposed to be a strategy RPG, and it is very good at forcing you to use strategy. The standard charge in with guns blazing approach will NOT work here, plain and simple. Oh sure, you'll get away with it a couple times, but more often then not, you'll end up getting one of your characters killed in the process. So what you say? Did I mention that when a party member dies, he dies for GOOD? That's right, kids, no Phoenix Downs or Life potions or nothing around here. We play for keeps! Now, mind you, MANY more characters will join you than you can take into battle, but since each character has specific abilities, you probably want to keep them all safe.

Which brings me to your party. In Fire Emblem, there are no generic soldiers. Each of the party members that join your party has a unique background and have a set class. Around thirty characters will join you, but you'll usually only be able to take about 11-15 in at a time. So you'll have many options as to who to take into battle and who gets to sit on the bench. The classes are varied and for the most part do all have a unique function. In addition, each class has an upgraded class that they can achieve by being at least level 10 and using a special item.

The final interesting aspect about character selection is that certain characters can “support” each other. By staying near a certain other unit, some units can activate a support conversation. This launches a little conversation between the characters (sometimes funny, sometimes sad) and increases the support level between the characters. Characters who have a support level with another character with have boosted performance as long as they are near that character. Nifty, huh?

What is this thing you call, outside?

Fire Emblem is, shall we say…a bit addictive. Once you start playing, you'll want to keep going battle after battle. Even when you lose, it takes a few losses to convince you to give it a rest. And oh, will you lose. Now, to be fair, if you're not a perfectionist, then you won't have to restart near as many times as I did. See, I refuse to let someone die, so if one did….RESET! Getting through each chapter without suffering a casualty requires patience and careful planning combined with power and a little bit of risk taking. Fire Emblem is NOT an easy game. I remember very vividly a couple of battles that it took me a week to complete. Then, after restarting for the 582nd time, I was able to pull through. You'll learn from each battle, but new things tend to go wrong at every turn. But this isn't really a bad thing, it just adds to the challenge (and yes, the frustration) of Fire Emblem.

Now, I know that 31 chapters doesn't seem like a WHOLE lot, since there's only one battle in each chapter, but each battle takes anywhere for 1-3 hours! That's not including the extra chapters that are sprinkled about throughout the game. These extra chapters are usually just as long as your standard mission, it's just that you can choose to skip over them.

Plus, after you finish the game normally, you get a few options when starting a new game. You unlock hard mode for the normal part of the game, AND you unlock Hector mode, which allows you to play through the game from Hector's viewpoint. Hector's mode has new scenes and even a few new battles to go through. Once you complete that, you can play the hard mode for Hector too. The only disappointment is that the vast majority of the game is still the same. Outside of the added battles, you go through the same game, and there's like one battle that gets replaced. The only other change is that Hector gets the story promotion with Eliwood getting the standard one (they promote the same, just a different times in their own mode)

If you're still not bored with the game after all that (though you can do this anytime…), you can grab a buddy and Link battle him using a team of five of your characters. You can actually do this with up to three other people, and have a four team battle royal. So, Fire Emblem will keep you occupied for quite a long time.

Oh, and after you beat the game, you unlock a sound test and the ability to look at all the support conversations you've had with characters. Fire Emblem has an excellent musical score that is definitely worth listening to and if you're really hardcore, you can collect all the support convos. Though, that would numerous playthroughs, and even I don't have the patience for that.

Oh yeah, it's Hot Hot Hot…

Pros

+++ Excellent Battle System that forces you the think
+++ Challenging Gameplay that keeps you in the game
+++ Many different modes and the overall length add up for a LONG playtime
++ Different Modes add Replay
+ A decent Musical Score

Cons

- Graphics in the map screen leave something to be desired
- Difficult battles sometimes burn you out with too many restarts

And so there you have it. Fire Emblem. It took years and years of waiting and speculation, but we finally got a Fire Emblem here in the United States of America. Mind you, it's really Fire Emblem 7, but we shouldn't focus on that too much. With this first one out, we may get more, and if this first one is any indication, that would be awesome. Fire Emblem is an incredibly fun Strategy game that I believe every gamer would do well to own. Even if you're not into to heavy strategy, this could get you into the genre, it's really that good.

So, now that you've read this, go out and buy Fire Emblem. Or you could order it online, all that matters is that every gamer should own Fire Emblem for the GBA. It's worth the 50 bucks and the 1000 hours you'll put into it.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 05/09/08

Game Release: Fire Emblem (US, 11/03/03)