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The Lowdown
Pros: Long lasting gameplay, epic story, challenging battles
Cons: Dated graphics and presentation, lack of depth for character
development
 Purchase
at Play-Asia
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The Fire Emblem series since its debut on the NES, well Famicom since it
was in Japan, has been a hallmark of Nintendo and America is finally
getting a taste of it. Even though Fire Emblem was a hallmark game it
came over on these shores since the game was considered to strategic.
Like Advance Wars (if you don't know the first "Wars" game was Famicom
Wars), this series is getting its debut on the Game Boy Advance.
You're probably wondering what this game is like and what the big deal
is. Fire Emblem is a strategy RPG by definition. However, it doesn't
play like Final Fantasy Tactics Advance or Ogre Tactics. Imagine Advance
Wars with a fantasy RPG twist and you've got Fire Emblem. The story
involves a character named Lin, who's destiny happens to be ruler of a
country. After she nurses the player back to health Lin chooses to
enlist you as her military advisor. Nintendo doesn't let the story sit
on the sidelines, but we wont reveal any more since we don't want to
spoil it for you. We will say there are some points that will surprise
you and other points that will make you play through the game to see the
next part.
As Lin's military advisor you'll have complete control of the party
throughout the game. This means you get to position the units, choose
their attacks or spells and equip them. The battles work on a large
rocks, paper, scissors system. For instance swords are strong against
axes and weak against spears. Spears happen to be weak against axes and
strong against swords. While the system does work you'll be spending
time reequipping your characters so they'll have the advantage over the
other troops. The actual battles are very similar to Advance Wars with
more options. Besides from the standard fight, magic and move Fire
Emblem provides more options for your characters. You can steal from
enemies, use items and even locate shops. These commands provide more
possible strategies throughout the game. Also like Advance Wars terrain
plays an important role. Different terrain leads to increases in attack
or defense. The terrain advantages work out well because you can hide
ranged warriors and mages in terrain that increases their defense and
move melee troops to the positions where they have the most advantage
attacking.
The only minor gripe is the character building system. America just
got Final Fantasy Tactics, which has a wide variety of options for
character building. Fire Emblem features more classes than Tactics, but
leveling up is the age old experience system. Spells are obtained by
buying them at stores and Fire Emblem only has more classes because
there are class upgrades. Gamers that expect a strategy like Final
Fantasy Tactics may be disappointed in this aspect of the game.
Graphically, Fire Emblem seems a little dated. Fire Emblem: Sword of
Fire is actually the seventh game in the series and the uses the same
engine from the sixth game. Since the game didn't receive any graphical
overhaul other games like Sword of Mana and the recent Final Fantasy
Tactics overshadow this game. Still the attack effects and spell effects
are cool. The backgrounds are OK looking, but the overworld map looks
like a first generation GBA game. Music wise the game has a wider
selection of tunes compared to Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, which is
important since you'll be playing this game for a long time. None of
them are amazing, but they fit the job of background music quite nicely.
Finally, American players will get a chance to experience the Fire
Emblem series. Fans of Advance Wars and Final Fantasy Tactics will like
this game. While it may not be as deep in its leveling up system as
other strategy RPGS, the game features thirty chapters and 50 hours of
gameplay. Tack on side quests and you've got an epic game. What Fire
Emblem lacks in presentation it makes up for in gameplay.
Import Friendly?
This game suffers from the "must understand a lot of Japanese to play
the game" syndrome. Don't bother importing it since it has a definite
release date. If you really like this game and understand Japanese
consider Fire Emblem 6, which is also for the GBA.
US Bound?
This game kicks off Nintendo's "GBA epic releases" and is going to
be released on Nov, 3 2003.
Overall
From the Game Boy Advance's release date it has been a system for
people that love tactical games. Luckily, Fire Emblem fits this
demographic. It's not a game that is going to change anyone's mind about
strategy games, but is one that every strategy game fan will love.
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