"SRPG addicts, here is your next fix."

Fire Emblem is a series which needs no introduction--unless you live outside of Japan. It is yet another one of those games which is Totally Awesome That You Have Never Heard Of, except that you may actually have heard of Fire Emblem by now since The Sacred Stones is the franchises second US release. And what a release it is--all new graphics, highly original storyline, twice as much gameplay... Wait no, scratch all that. Actually, Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones reuses most of the graphics from the last game, features an incredibly uninspired story, and delivers about the same amount of gameplay or less. And yet somehow it still manages to be fun.

The Sacred Stones takes place in the all new setting of Magvel, a continent ruled by five major countries enjoying plenty of peace and harmony. Ages ago however the Demon Lord (TM) threatened the world until he was sealed away by the power of the titular Sacred Stones. And well, wouldn't you know it, that nogood Archvillain is fixing for a return. Dark creatures stalk the land and the once peaceful Empire of Grado suddenly invades its neighbors. Enter Ephraim and Eirika, the twin Prince and Princess of Renais. The game begins as their kingdom is overrun by Grado, and you must help them battle to free their homeland, defeat the evil Empire, and just maybe thwart the return of an ancient evil or two (well only one). This game's story is not going to win any awards for originality, but it does have a fairly compelling cast of engaging characters, and is told through plenty of well-written dialogue. The Princess Eirika is your typical stalwart-but-innocent Anime Heroine, while Ephraim steals the show with his cool and calm confidence in battle. And then you have several dozen or more unique characters who will join your army and a whole gaggle of villains and henchmen. Most characters are stereotypical in some way, but they are good, well-done stereotypes. There is copious amounts of text for you to wade through, but the translation is solid and well-written.

Like its predecessors, The Sacred Stones proceeds as a linear series of chapters, each a single battle on a single, overhead map. You begin by deploying a certain number of units to fight with (dependant on the map, but usually twelve) and then the battle plays out in a strictly turn-based fashion. All your units get to move in whatever order you decide, then the enemies go, etc. When two units clash the game switches to a side view where you see them duke it out in fluid, detailed animations. Each map has its own victory conditions, such as simply defeating all enemies, defeating a boss character, or taking control of a castle or throne. Units gain experience points from winning battles and yes, level up, increasing their strength. The game has a zillion different class types; some very generic like knights and mages, and some a bit more exotic-sounding like myrmidons and pegasus knights. Battles are influenced equally by stats and strategy due to the game's classic rock-paper-scissors systems. Every Fire Emblem fan knows by now that swords beat axes, axes beat spears, and spears beat sword. Still, as your characters gain experience and levels they can be promoted to advanced units, and at a certain point in the game the strategy takes a nosedive as all your super-powered, promoted units just steamroll over all the hapless, underpowered opposition. The Sacred Stones is actually pretty easy by most standards, and especially by Fire Emblem standards. The game's AI will try and exploit the weapon-triangle when it can, but is usually set to one of two modes: it will either suicide-rush your group or do nothing until you approach. Even though you are always outnumbered on every map, and the enemy often receives numerous reinforcements, these do little other than give your characters even more experience and make them even more unstoppable.

However, the Sacred Stones has a few key features which can make the game more of a challenge. First, your character's weapons are good only for so many attacks, and then they break. Money is limited so saving and stockpiling your weapons is key. Second, every character that fights for you is unique, and if a character dies in battle, they're dead, end of story. You can always reset and play the chapter over again, but there is no in-game way to resurrect your fallen comrades. This means that if you take too many losses you may be unable to field enough units to complete the game; though this is rare as you commonly receive new characters every chapter. Still it often takes only a single mistake to lose one of your treasured units, and then you are faced with the choice of trying the battle over or forging ahead without them. Its a tough gameplay element which can be frustrating, but also adds a certain extra edge to the game, knowing your characters really are fighting for their lives.

But The Sacred Stones also adds many new elements which alleviates these issues, which may please newcomers but also irk the longtime fans as being almost sacrilegious to the series. For starters, this game has a world map, and in between chapters you can revisit old areas and purchase new weapons (Shocking!). You can also, get this, fight random battles for a bit of the old RPG standbys: money and levels. And while the number of chapters is a bit low, only 21 compared to the last game's 30 or so, there are two side-dungeons for you to explore, where you can fight enemies and collect treasures to your heart's content. Indeed, if one spends enough time power-leveling your characters the game becomes ridiculously easy. Finally, when you promote your characters as mentioned before, you can now actually choose from two different classes. Whereas before a Cavalier always became a Paladin, now they can become a Great Knight as well, sacrificing movement but adding more strength and defense. The Great Knight is actually a new class, one of about five or so, complete with new graphics and animations. This adds a lot more flexibility to the game as your options for your final team practically double, although many of the classes two promotion options are pretty similar. This along with the branching middle section (you choose whether to follow either Ephraim or Eirika and each has about seven unique battles), and the fact that you'll probably only use a third of the available characters, adds a good amount of replay value.

The graphics in the Sacred Stones are a bit of a letdown. As mentioned before, nearly all the sprites and animations from the previous game have been reused; only the new main characters and the handful of new classes have new graphics. Fortunately, the sprites are still pretty good, as they animate beautifully during the game's combat scenes. Critical hit animations are especially impressive, and accompanied by bright flashes and punctuating sound effects, letting you really feel how much that blow just hurt. Still, one would have hopes that the developers could have improved the graphics somehow, as it is it feels pretty lazy. And the animations for most of the new classes are not impressive at all. Eirika stabs her sword with none of Eliwood's flair or style, and the Great Knights have none of the Paladin's grace. There is however a whole host of new graphics for the new monster units (none of which you can use), so at least that's something interesting. The game's music is all-new as well; there are several different background tracks for battles, and none of them are grating or annoying, which at this point is all you can really ask for in a game.

The game will take around 20 hours for the average player to complete, though you could easily spend a lot more time fighting the random monster and dungeon maps. The game can get fairly addictive with its 'one more turn' appeal, keeping you awake for hours. The multiple story paths and plethora of characters give it enough value to warrant at least one more play-through, and there is a multiplayer mode to let you test your Fire Emblem-ing skills against a friend.

Score breakdown:

Story: 7 (Incredibly generic, but good characters.)
Gameplay: 7 (Some new stuff but plenty of old stuff)
Graphics: 7 (Looks good but its nothing new)
Sound: 7 (Nothing bad, nothing great)
Value: 8 (Should get a good amount of time wasted here)

Fire Emblemly-ness (Final Score): 7

While Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones breaks some new ground in the series, it's still thoroughly within the franchises' tried and true formula. The story is terribly trite and the graphics are mostly reused, but the core gameplay is intact and as satisfying as ever. Anyone looking for a fun, engaging strategy RPG on the go need look no further.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 05/31/05