The game that essentially created the strategy RPG genre for consoles has embraced us with arms wide open! Although it did take 13 years for English speaking nations to finally receieve a game (and wonder why the hell it sold so well in Japan), Fire Emblem crosses the shores with trumpets blowing and banners blazing.
Western gamers jump on the bandwagon
After Intelligent Systems received a good pat on the back with their releases of Advance Wars and Advance Wars 2 in their "Wars" series, Nintendo have finally puffed their chest and decided to release one title which no hardcore gamer thought would ever reach Western audiences. Welcome to the world of Fire Emblem.
Fire Emblem has had a long history and is well worth looking into. Still one of the most successful strategy RPG's in Japan, it's life was spawned on the Famicom. Certain people may believe that Famicom Wars was based on the original Fire Emblem but surprisingly it's the other way around. After the moderate success of Famicom Wars, Nintendo entrusted a new idea from Fire Emblem series creator Shouzo Kaga. One which played a lot like it's spiritual older brother, but had more differences to set it apart from anything else back then. You had control over a limited number of soldiers (each with personalities to bring them to life) that conquered through legions of enemies, weapons became unusable after a certain amount of time and if your best friend was slain right next to you on the battlefield, don't expect him to get up. Another interesting point to note is that it's difficulty is also famous as a trademark to the series; you weren't ultra cool if you didn't finish Fire Emblem: Genealogy of Holy War on Super Famicom back in those days!
Where are you Marth??
Our first glimpses into Fire Emblem was through the insanely popular Super Smash Bros. Melee on GameCube. Two mysterious figures featured in the unlockable characters list, those being Marth and Roy. As of yet, Western audiences still have no idea who these people are, other than the fact that they're both from Fire Emblem. Little history lesson time. Marth was the first hero in the series, titled Fire Emblem: The Sword of Light and The Dragon of Darkness as well as the Super Nintendo version, Mystery of the Emblem. Heir of the throne to Aritia, his father dies at the hands of an evil magician on a mission to ressurect the dark dragon Medius. After escaping to a far off island planning for revenge then reclaiming the throne, his one time comrade backstabs him to fuel another war. For those that have always wondered; why does Marth wear a tiara? He wears it to remember his sister.
Which brings us to Roy, who is Eliwood's (our main hero of Fire Emblem on GameBoy Advance) son and hero of Fire Emblem: The Sealed Sword; the first Fire Emblem title on the GBA. Rumours persist of Nintendo releasing the "sequel" to Fire Emblem over here to complete the story. Side-note: Fire Emblem has a tradition of using 2 games per world, meaning the next Fire Emblem will be in a completely different land with all new characters.
Dragons and beasts, oh my!
The game starts off with a prologue description depicting a great war between humans and dragons called "The Scouring." After many still-shots and history lessons later, you begin. Awakened on the Sacae Plains by a beauty called Lyn, you realise that you're an apprentice tactician travelling the world of Elibe in search of training your occupation when straight away you're thrown into combat, helping Lyn defeat the local bandits terrorizing a nearby village. Later on you'll learn that Lyn is destined on her way to be heir of a Lord in the Lycian region of Elibe. After battling her way to Caelin castle where her mother was born, the "tutorial" ends (11 missions) for you to then later run into Eliwood whom you had encountered earlier during the game. This is where the story starts to gain more of a seriousness edge to it.
Fluid and pretty sprite animation work = amazing
Graphics overall are very pleasing to the eye, the overworld sprites are simplistic in nature yet retain a certain charm that doesn't make you want to revolt in anger. However, a lot of gamers may hate it as it does look primitive compared to even Advance Wars where the little men of might were in a stylish super-deformed characteristic. The battle animations are by far some of the most beautiful sprites ever seen in a 2D game. Watching fight after fight just never seems to detract the value of the motions in your characters. Spinning lances during super hits look unreal and cloaks as well as robes flow as they should when jumping or spinning around.
Throughout the battle and during storyline sequences, portraits of our heroes and allies will pop up and talk to each other, sometimes even turning towards the screen to talk to those that are playing; since essentially you are performing the role of their tactician therefore they need your guidance. It's a nifty little way to be more compassionate towards your army and to learn more about their personalities as everyone is different. Still-shots like those found in the intro will also be found during the game, usually during important breaks or at the end of a valuable mission chapter which you've just won. The artwork itself takes on a water paint style to it and is beautiful to gaze at, although not necessarily needed for the game it's a nice touch.
A lot has been said about the primitive technical ability of the GameBoy Advance's sound output, especially compared to the glorious and pumping Super Nintendo musical prowess when people hear Final Fantasy VI or even Chrono Trigger. Yet there have been a few who have definitely mastered the limited memory for sound and music. Motoi Sakuraba is one for his beautiful and sweeping work on both Golden Sun games, Kenji Yamamoto and Minako Hamano respectively on both brooding Metroid titles, and Michiru Yamane for her excellent work on Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow which lifted old school fanatics after the disappointing Harmony of Dissonance.
Now we can add another to the list. Yuka Tsujiyoko's compositions are simply outstanding. You have to listen to the full Fire Emblem theme to understand it's glory. The music itself doesn't sound terrible at all and has a constant high level of quality throughout the entire game. Sound effects compliment the music and are as they should. If a swordsman tries to cut through your Knight in full armour, he won't penetrate at all making an uncomfortable clanging noise whenever sword hits steel. When a paladin does a super, it shows his mount galloping on the spot with the right effect of hoofs pounding on a meadow charging for their foe.
I've been here before..
Fire Emblem uses the same control system found in Advance Wars to a degree that they are basically identical. Not to say this is a bad thing at all, quite the opposite. So fans of Advance Wars should feel right at home in a fantasy world full of dragons and pegasus' instead of tanks and fighter jets. The battle system uses a simple yet very durable "rock, paper, scissors" scheme. Swords over axes, axes over lances, lances over swords. Of course there are variations depending on your class, such as Archers being able to topple Pegasus Knights at ease with a flurry of arrows. A magician of light will be able to deal more damage to a shaman who practices in the dark arts. Throughout the game it will provide you with hints as to which is best on what opponent. Just don't think that since you have both Eliwood and Hector (who are Lords with special abilities) that you can simple waltz through the defence line and expect to survive. A battle is won on team spirit, not on individual heroes.
Many will scoff at the considerably low mission numbers, but it's quality over quantity here people. Having to verse the same band of enemies over and over can get rather tiresome. Whilst you battle through under 30 missions, you are given the option to do side-missions however (which some can be extremely hard), and to just give you more of an extra challenge we have the nifty hard mode difficulty. Welcome to the real Fire Emblem. Be prepared to be spending hours on single missions alone and at the same time get through them without a fatality to your army. Survival of the fittest.
Intelligent Systems have developed wonders time and time again on the little handheld that could and this was their latest stellar performance before Metroid: Zero Mission. They've done themselves proud on creating such a ground-breaking game that may or may not receieve the popularity that Advance Wars achieved, but it is definitely a good breath of fresh air in the strategy RPG market where various amounts of games in the genre are becoming closer and closer together that it's hard to tell them apart. Well done to them yet again and let's hope for another Fire Emblem release for Western audiences.
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