A great game for your GBA and one that I would recommend for any RPG/Strategy fan
User Rating: 9.5 | Fire Emblem: Rekka no Ken GBA
Fire Emblem is a long series, in Japan at least. This is the seventh game of the series and is the only one that has been released in the US. Story: The story starts off simple enough so I will try not to give much of it away. At the start of the game you get to name your tactician and choose if you want your character to be a guy or girl. You are a wondering tactician who is found unconscious on the Sacae Plains by a young girl named Lyn, a swordfighter. Soon after you wake up you are attacked by a small group of bandits. You must help Lyn defeat them by giving her commands; you are a tactician after all. The next morning she tells you of how her parents and most of her tribe were killed by bandits. She asks if she can travel with you, you agree. You soon stop at the town of Bulgar and meet two knights from Caelin, Sain and Kent, who have orders to find Lyn. This leads you on a quest to try to get Lyn to see her sick grandfather who is marquess of Caelin, a city in Lycia. You later learn that he is being poisoned by a man named Lundgren and you must defeat him and his soldiers. But that is only the first 10 chapters of the game and those 10 chapters serve as more of a tutorial for the other 20+ chapters. The story gets much more interesting. Gameplay: The game is a RPG/Strategy. For weapons there are Swords, bows, axes, and spears. For magic there is anima, holy, and dark. To add to the strategy of the game they use a weapon system that is set up rather nicely and works well with the game. Certain weapons and magic are good against others. Swords are good against axes. Axes good against spears. Spears are good against swords. Magic is set up in a similar way. There are also Staves that allow some characters that know how to use them heal others. There are 40 characters in this game each with his or her own personality. Characters can sometimes talk to each other in the middle of battles to raise their support levels. When two people are fighting in a battle and have high support levels they fight better. When you beat the game you unlock an option to view all support conversation and characters that have joined you. I've been playing the game over and over to try to unlock all the support conversations. Once you finish the game it will tell you what each character does afterwards, like the Suikoden series. Support conversation may change a characters ending. If any character dies in battle, except for the games main characters, they are gone forever. If you lose a main character you either lose the game or they survive but you are not able to use them in combat again. In the first ten chapters of the game if someone dies they are only wounded and can be used again when or if they are found in the last 20+ chapters but any levels gained from the first 10 chapters will be lost. I really enjoyed this feature; it made me think more about my strategies. Although it did get a little frustrating whenever I had to restart a long level because of it. Once characters reach a certain level they can be upgraded if you use certain items on them. The upgrade improves their stats, allows them to gain more levels, and it might let them use new weapons. If you complete certain requirements after a chapter you may unlock a sidequest which you can choose to accept or to just continue on with the main story. Sidequest allow you to gain new weapons, gain experience, use support with characters, or even gain new characters. After completing the first 10 chapters of the game you gain the control of a new lord Eliwood, who is a sword user, and you begin his story later you are joined by Lyn again and you gain another lord Hector, a powerful axe wielder. Once you beat the game you unlock the hard difficulty setting and Hectors story. Hectors story is almost the same as Eliwoods but has some new scenes, items, and levels. One play through on easy took me about 15+ hours to complete. That is without trying to get support conversations and without the hard difficulty setting and Hectors story which is a few levels longer then Eliwoods. Graphics: The graphics on the battlefield are only 2-D but they are well designed. When two characters fight it zooms in on the action the graphics are amazing. The cut scenes have nice backgrounds as well. Sound: The music that is present in the game is wonderful. And once you beat the game you unlock a Sound Room that lets you listen to the music that you have unlocked. The only problem is that the music does tend to get repetitive and some of the music does not sound very different from others. Value: The game is only around $20. It would be $20 very well spent. I would have bought this game when it first came out for much more. Tilt: One of the best Strategy/RPG games that the GBA has to offer. Difficulty: I found the game to usually be easy but after beating the game you unlock the hard difficulty setting. And my friends who have played this game seem to be having a hard time on easy. I really enjoyed this game. I now find myself playing my GBA more than I play my Xbox and PS2 combined. I highly recommend getting this game if you are a fan of Strategy games. Two more Fire Emblem games are to be released this year in the US, one for the GBA and the other for the Gamecube.
