Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones

"Not quite as good as its predecessor, but still awesome."

When this game came out, I had already played through the first GBA Fire Emblem a couple of times, and was pretty darn eager to get this game. I had it reserved a long while before it got to the shelves of my local Gamestop, and I decided to deem it my precious when it came. Upon finally picking it up, I went home, opened it, and locked myself in my room for several hours. It's very similar to the first FE (obviously...), but it had a few differences, some of which I ended up liking, some of which I didn't like at all (such as the removal of the tactician). It also is totally unrelated to its predecessor, at least storywise. Alright, now that we've got that bit out of the way, let's move on to the actual review...

Gameplay: 9/10
This part of the game is beauty in a barrel, pure and simple. For those of you who haven't played the first GBA Fire Emblem or any of the Advance Wars games, the game is basically a square-based, turn-based, RPG-type strategy game. You have ye olde units (which, by the by, you're not allowed to lose, or else they're gone forever. It's reality, people, so deal with it and don't make stupid mistakes) which you equip with weapons of iron and steel and, oddly enough, silver (who was it that thought that silver was stronger than steel?) and use to kill other units that are red. You've got your basic bunch of warriors (cavaliers, knights, mercenaries, the like) and you have your mages (monks, shamans, and actual mages). Also included in your little posse are things such as archers and flying units like Wyvern Knights and Pegasus Knights. The progression of the game in The Sacred Stones is much unlike the first FE, as you're free to move around the map and encounter monsters and visit shops you've been by before. Ah, yes, the monsters. I forgot to mention them earlier. They're probably the reason I'm giving the game a 9 and not a 10. These monsters, you see, are either stupidly strong or stupidly weak and easy to kill. Early in the game, when you're facing a horde of these things, you're bound to take some pretty darn serious damage. However, by the end of the game, you either take no damage whatsoever from them or your characters are simply too fast for them to hit you at all. It gets rather monotonous and annoying facing these monsters, and I can guarentee that you'll be fed up with them as well by the end of the game. I think that's enough ranting about the monsters for now, so let's move on to...

Story: 8/10
The stories in these kind of games can be looked at as one of two things: it can be the driving force of the game, or it can be a little amusement factor that goes along with the strategy. I tend to look at it as a bit of both, but that's irrelevant. Anyway, the story starts off with the contintent of Magvel, which is divided into five different nations: The Grado Empire, the Kingdom of Renais, the Kingdom of Frelia, the Theocracy of Rausten, and the Kindgom of Jehanna. Also, there's a sixth emerging nation, known as the republic of Carcino. You are Rather Dashing, a peasant...oh, wait. Nevermind. ANYWAY...you start the story as Eirika, princess of the newly invaded Renais. You attempt to escape from your castle (which, by the way, is being beseiged by the Grado Empire) and try find a way to stop all the madness. You later meet up with various other characters, including your dear brother Ephraim, prince of Renais. The game progresses nicely, although, like its predecessor, it seems to really pick up the pace in the last couple of chapters rather than have equal distribution of progression. The ending is cheesy, but I'm not about to spoil it for you...even though it's the reason the story gets an 8 instead of a 9. So there's your story.

Sound Effects/Music: 9/10
Nothing too much to say here. The music is amusing, for the most part, but gets repetative after a while. The Tower of Valni's Enemy Phase music is great, though. Otherwise, you've got your typical stupidly heroic music going on in the background, which I'm fine with; I don't care too much about the music unless it's really good or really, really bad and annoying. The sound effects all fit with their repective situations, and there's absolutely nothing more satisfying than hearing the distinct BAM of a critical hit. Additionally, I like whir of the lance that occurs during most lance wielders' critical hits.

Graphics: 10/10
For GBA, the graphics on this game are excellent. During cutscenes, the characters look very detailed and appear very much to be realistic (except Myrrh. She has wings). In-game graphics are fine, especially battles; everything is done very well and I only found two animations where the framerate appeared to slow down a tiny bit. Animations for the later magic tomes you receive are nothing short of eye candy in awesome form (you gotta love Gleipnir and Fenrir, people), and critical hit animations are to die for...especially when it comes to your opponents ;-). Overall, they're hard to top.

Replayability: 10/10
If you can get hooked on this game the first time you play through it, then you're bound to be able to play through it again and again and again. There are tons of things you miss the first time you go through (especially the support conversations - you have to play through the game at least 5 times to get all of those...) and the experience is worth another go. You can also build teams for playage against your friends, so you can go through again to craft yourself the perfect team.

Final Words of Wisdom (or not):
Overall, this game is easily worth its $30 or so that it costs. I spent 27 hours on my first runthrough of the game, trying to get all the stuffs I could. I'm sure that more will be spent in the future. I would encourage you to get this game and will say that I thoroughly enjoyed it. For now, I must depart, so I give a final Huzzah for Nintendo and some things related, and bid you all farewell.

~SirBartok~

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 06/12/05