Review: Fire Emblem
For those that are unaware, Fire Emblem is a long running, highly popular Turn Based Strategy/Tactics series in Japan that has been in existence since the Famicom days. The first appearance of anything Fire Emblem on the shores in the US came in the super hit Super Smash Bros Melee, with the appearance of Japanese fan favorites Roy and Marth , but this is the first appearance of a Fire Emblem as a game in the US without the use of an obscure reference.
Story:
You play as the noble youth of many nations that have come under attack of an evil wizard whom wishes to unleash Evil Dragons upon the world once more. Each character has their own rich and detailed story, and sub-stories that make you care about each character.
Graphics:
As GBA games go Fire Emblem is a good looking game, but by no means the best looking game on the platform, however the visuals are adequate enough to carry the game through, animations are excellent and fun to watch, and the large anime stills are very well done, dialogue episodes are done well and are fluid like most cut scenes.
Music:
The Music is good, well above many of the titles on the GBA, though I felt that the music could have been a little more varied, a few more tracks and I might have given the music my highest complements.
Control:
Control is what you would expect in a turn based strategy/tactics game with a few new hitches in the game play, but this is a unique experience for the GBA. The game is easy to learn, and pick up. The auto save feature is a good thing for gamer on the go, and will take you back to the last turn executed.
Game play: As I stated earlier there are not too many games like this on the GBA, and it is interesting because the game plays like a mix of Advance Wars, and Tactics Ogre, and does a wonderful job of it, Fire Emblem is easy to pick up, and nigh impossible to master especially if you want to keep all of your troops alive.
Design:
Over all the Design is Great Deep and fun. The world is big, the battles are good and require you to think before you move, the menus are easy to use and maneuver through, and the characters are all involving. There are a lot of missions to complete, and different campaigns to go through, and many new and different weapons add to the repeatability.
This being said I do have some gripes about Fire Emblem. I may be being overcritical here but these are a few things that bug me about the game. You do not get any generic troops to level up or sacrifice in lieu of loosing your more story based characters, I know that I am one of those commanders dosen't like to loose any troops, but if you slip up once someone is going to die I would feel better if I did not have to guard my guys like some treasure. And one more gripe is that there are no chances to level up in between plot stages, so you may have to take a weak character in your party just to get through the stage, need less to say having to baby-sit a character I don't like to use to begin with is not one of my more favorite tasks.
Despite my pathetic gripes, and nitpicking, this is one of my favorite games for the GBA I suppose that I am overly harsh because I love this game, and I recommend this game highly to anyone whom has a GBA or a DS that likes role-playing games, strategy games, or tactics games
Fire Emblem:
Pros:
Good overall design
Easy to lean controls
Long replayability
Cons:
One mistake can prove fatal
Graphics and music are good but could be better
Needs some generic battles to level up characters used less frquently