Fire Emblem: Fuuin no Tsurugi

"A beautiful game for a true gamer."

Fire Emblem: Fuuin no Tsurugi, or more commonly known as Fire Emblem: The Sealed Sword, is an amazing example of a true strategy game. This game has been beautifully made, and even if you can not speak Japanese you can easily master the main aspects of the game with simple trial and error techniques. One amazing game it is, it is.

Story: 10/10
An interesting story that keeps on giving and giving. It seems as once you figure out something in the game, something even more confusing comes up that you need to figure out. It is quite an interesting story that continues to unfold as the game goes on, and if you do the right things you can discover more.

Controls: 10/10
Even if you need to know so much, it's easy to learn and remember as what you do is repeated, so its repetition embeds it in your mind, but even in its repetition it never gets boring, well until your 3rd play through of the game (lol). It's as I said earlier trial and error.

Graphics: 9/10
The graphics are beautiful, just beautiful, but after a while you get sick of seeing the same old plains, mountains, and forests. This category is almost at 10 but I truly think that a little more effort could be put in them, as some battle sprites and animation can be rather bland and boring. Also when looking at the pictures of characters with the cursor over them (not the info when you press R), none of them (except with Wario... I mean Barthol) have noses! Besides that everything looks good.

Music: 9/10
The music in the game is good, and sees to always be different, with this game featuring around 100 different sound tracks EASILY. Actually I thinks its less but it feels like that much. The music never gets choppy, and even though it is repetitive you can easily ignore it if you pay attention to the game, loosing the 10 because its easy to shut out even if the volume is at the max.

Sound Effects: 10/10
Wow. So many sound effects... so many beautiful sound effects... As you can tell they're all good. Attack sounds, menu selections, critical hit sounds, so many beautiful little sound it effects. Its all good.

Extras: 11/10
Yes, there are that many extras. Its amazing how much the avid player can unlock in this game. If you know how there are 7 secret levels in the game holding secret weapons, you can extend the games length with a true ending. Also special battle maps, special battle map characters, wow, its a lot. Also a Hard Mode to challenge even the best of the players. So much, so much....

Difficulty: 10/10
This is a very challenging game, and you need to be persistent to beat this game fully. It takes a lot of work and a lot of time to get the most out of the game, and let me tell you, to get the most out of it all takes a lot of hard work, a lots of luck, and a few miracles. I mean it. Take this game if you need a true challenge. And if you think the game is easy try hard mode. It lives up to its name.

Replayability: 10/10
If you want to get the most out of this game, you have a lot to do i tell ya, a lot. Beating the game around ten times in order to unlock all the battle maps characters? Beating Normal Mode and Hard Mode with and without the secret ending? Also a multiplayer, which I haven't tried so I can't say anything about. What about getting all the characters? All the support conversations? It'll probly take you a while. Want to get all characters 10 20/20 levels, maxed out stats, and max gold? As you can see, there is a LOT.

As you can see, this game is worth every little penny. Now for a recap on the scores:

Story: 10/10
Controls: 10/10
Graphics: 9/10
Music: 9/10
Sound Effects: 10/10
Extras: 11/10
Difficulty: 10/10
Replayability: 10/10

Average score: 9.875/10

Since I can't give fraction scores, I give it, which it truly deserves, a:

10/10

Now you ask this: Rent or Buy?

BUY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well its your choice but really, buy this game!

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 08/19/03