Fire Emblem: Fuuin no Tsurugi

"Possibly one of the best Fire Emblems ever made"

This Review is NOT completely reccomended to those who've never played a Fire Emblem before.

To those who are wondering, yes Roy IS in this game.

Finally.

But just because this game has Roy doesn't mean there's more to it. Fire Emblem Fuuin no Tsurugi (also known as Sword of Seals) created the engine that the other two Fire Emblems on the GBA use. You can control mages, healers, knights, thieves, swordfighters and more.

Fire Emblem SoS (stands for Sword of Seals) plays exactly the same as Fire Emblem so look up that game to learn how to play this one. Of course you're problably wondering, if the two games play the same, then what's the point of buying this?

There are two classes that Fire Emblem doesn't have and they're pretty darn cool if I say so myself. The first is King. It's the class that the main villain, Zephiel, has. You can't actually use it except in the trial maps (more on that later), but he still looks really nifty. The other class is Mamkute. You fight a LOT of these later on. They can transform into dragons if they have their dragonstones and they have pretty high stats. You get a mamkute of your own late in the game, but her own dragonstone (which is unique) can only be used so many times unless you use a cheat. As you expect, they are REALLY cool to see.

The other differences are mostly minor, but if you know how the calculations in Fire Emblem work, you'll find many of them are different then in the others on the GBA. Have fun figuring them out.

The graphics look really good in this Fire Emblem and are neatly polished. The dragons and Zephiel look especially cool. The spell effects also look good. Unfortunately among bosses, there's not much of a difference in their appearences than from the other enemies. Also a few of the palletes don't look that nice.

The music is by far the best in the Fire Emblem series. It's so good in fact, that I always turn down the sound on the other Fire Emblems and hum the corresponding tune. The best would be the last two stages in the game plus Narshen's boss theme. And the fog maps. Enough said there. There should be at least one song for you in this game.

Now for the story. The game takes place 20 years after Fire Emblem (this game came out BEFORE Fire Emblem, so that one's a prequel). It follows Roy, a young chap (also a womanizer IMHO) with a strong sense of justice. His homeland and the rest of the world (with the exception of a Etruria) is invaded by Bern and he fights their army. The king of Bern is Zephiel, who appeared in Fire Emblem as a major character. Anyway, he's big, he's mean, and he's insane. The reasons behind his motives may not be the best, but that's ok. He's still is an interesting villain anyway. Along the way, Roy uncovers conspiricies and fights with pretty much all the nations in at least one form or another. Much of it is caused by Narshen, a villanous general of Bern. He's also the best villain in the game and is one of my favorite characters. The characters in your battle party are also good, my favorite being Ray. Many of the characters in this game are the children (or family) of Fire Emblem so it's alot of fun to guess who's related to who.

For replay value, there's a helluva large amount in here. With three differnet endings, various optional maps and characters, trial maps and secret characters and a hard mode. Once you beat normal mode, you have the option of playing two trial maps (three if you got the true ending) on your completed save file. You try to beat your time and fight with style on these maps. Each have a certain theme and unique objective. You unlock a number of secret characters to fight with you on these maps. The more times you beat the game, the more characters you get.

Finally there's the difficulty. Let me just tell you this. Fire Emblem Sos is HARD. It's hard enough on normal mode (equal to some of the other GBA Fire Emblem hard modes) but playing hard mode is a masochistic task for the most skilled players. If you are the tyed of person who throws their games against the room from seething frustraion, I can't stress this enough.

And yet, maybe that's the reason why the game is so fun. You have an excellent cast of characters, super graphics and music, high difficulty, a compelling story and a host of extras and this game should keep you busy. To those who can remember icons or don't mind flipping through one of the scripts here at Gamefaqs, this game is a must have. Truly, in almost every way, Fire Emblem SoS is a true masterpiece.

Graphics- 9/10
Music and Sound- 10/10
Gameplay- 10/10
Difficulty- 8/10
Story- 9/10
Characters- 9/10
Replay Value- 10/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/27/09

Game Release: Fire Emblem: Fuuin no Tsurugi (JP, 03/29/02)