here is no denying that I have been waiting for years (almost a decade) for Fire Emblem to come to the States. Created by Intelligent Systems, the same developer that gave us the wonderful Advance Wars 1 & 2, Fire Emblem is a series that has its roots on the Super Famicom, but this edition is a remake of the 2001 Japanese Game Boy Advance release.
As you would expect, Fire Emblem offers some great strategic play. The biggest problem with it, however, may be the fact that it takes close to four hours to get past all the training exercises and get to the meat of the 22 chapters found in the single-player game.
In fact, it almost speaks to you like you are a complete moron. Now, I realize that strategic role-playing games like this one require a certain amount of hand holding, but I feel the genre has been around long enough that companies no longer need to treat us like children when explaining the game.
For example, in one scene it literally says, "Wil is an archer, he uses a bow to fight." Well, no $%&$! You mean, he can only attack from long range, and can’t use short-range attacks? Unbelievable! I know myself and others were annoyed by this in Advance Wars 2, but this level of drivel is getting out of hand. I’m all for tutorials, but I’m going to make a plea that all future Fire Emblem releases place them into its own mode for those interested in learning the basics, so experienced players can quickly get to the heart of the game. You can press Start to go past many of the training portions, but you also miss many of the story elements which are one of this game’s high points.
That complaint aside, Fire Emblem does a wonderful job of introducing some interesting new features to the genre. Overall, Fire Emblem has more RPG elements than a game like Advance Wars (even though they do share many similar tactics), since the characters can level up in both hit points and statistics as they advance in the quest.
It’s also very RPG-like in that its battle system uses a weapons triangle, which is basically a version of scissors, rock, paper. Swords best axes; axes best lances; and lances best swords – much like the water-beats-fire elemental structure found in most RPGs.
The most interesting twist that Fire Emblem brings, however, is that any member of your party that dies during battle is gone for good. This element alone puts some serious pressure on you as the tactician to think ahead and make wise use of your resources. It also gives completists like myself heart attacks.
In fact, this area of the game bothered me more than it entertained me. Every time I would screw up and someone would die, I would restart. Not that I was losing, but that I just couldn’t stand to lose any characters. Unfortunately, many times it is in your overall best interest to sacrifice characters to gain new ones or pass certain difficult portions of the quest – something I have a hard time doing.
Fire Emblem is a great strategy/RPG, but personally I prefer the fodder found in a game like Advance Wars or the ability to revive characters like in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. Don’t get me wrong: Fire Emblem is good, but be prepared to sit through some boring tutorials, restart often, and cry like a little girl when you lose a key member of your party.