Simply put, Fire Emblem Blazing Sword is pure strategic bliss, a nirvana to fans of the genre and series alike.
The game starts off in the distant plains of Sacae, a land where nomads roam free. A woman who reveals her name as Lyn claims to have found your character unconscious out on the plains. Before the two of you have time to do much other than exchange names, barbarians from the Bern mountain range come within sight of Lyn's cottage. Lyn asks for your help, and you enter battle. Your role? Your in game character (who is basically non-existent in the story with the exception of a few occasions) serves as the tactician for Lyn and her eventual allies. After the barbarians are defeated, Lyn weaves a story about of her parents' deaths and how she plans to travel to visit her grand uncle. As you encroach on the Caelin border, Lyn learns that her grand0uncle Lundgren has been poisoning his brother (Lyn's grand-uncle) in an attempt to become the marquess. Additionally, Lyn runs into two mysterious characters, Ninian and Nils, who have even more mysterious powers, and a dark group attempting to capture them. After driving the dark-hooded band off, Lyn encounters Eliwood, the red haired son of Marquess Pherae, and neighbor to Caelin. Eliwood aids Lyndis, but without entering Pherae into the conflict with Lyn and Caelin. Lyn's story is considered to the tutorial, and can be skipped after completing the game once.
A year after the Caelin conflict, Marquess Pherae and a majority of his imperial guards go missing. Word of a rebellion against Ostia, the leading power of the Lycian territory, from Laus, an area within Lycia, causes great concern, and Eliwood cannot help but believe that the rebellion is linked to his father's sudden disappearance. After a short travel, Eliwood meets up with hector, his close childhood friend and brother to Marquess Ostia. Hector accompanies Eliwood to Laus, and the rest, well that's up to the player to find out. After completing the remainder of the game, the player can choose to play Hard Mode or Hector's tale, which is more difficult than Eliwood's and adds more chapters. Additionally, there is a multi-player option, but it is rather lacking.
As far as the gameplay goes, Fire Emblem has been the same for years. In other words, the player will be having different kinds of characters move across a chess board style map to complete a chapter to move the story forward. But it is not that simple. The map has certain kinds of terrain, as would be expected. Certain kinds of terrain give the characters evasion or defense bonuses, such as trees or pillars. Using these bonuses, the weapon triangle (that is swords beat axes, axes beat lances, and lances beat swords while bows are neutral), and the magic triangle (that is anima beats light, light beats dark, and dark beats anima while staves are neutral) to your advantage is a key to keeping all of your characters alive, which is more important than one might imagine. If any character dies in battle, they're gone for good and they will never come back. This element, that has been a cornerstone for the series since it's premier, makes planning moves that much more important than other strategy titles. When all of these elements come together, the final product is a fantastic strategy game with smooth gameplay and simple yet effective controls.
In between battles, the story is furthered through an abundant amount of text. The text itself is well written and well translated. However, the translators have edited out 'swear words' from the original Japanese version. The altered text can feel strange at times, because swearing would be expected, particularly in such a setting. Overall, the changes are not a huge issue, however the game's are somewhat hampered from the censors. Of course, if a player is interested in purely battles, they have the option of completely skipping the text by simply hitting the 'Start' button once the mouths start moving.
As in every Fire Emblem title, there is an extensive character cast. Every Fire Emblem title has a 'Lord', or main character as well. Blazing Sword has, not one, but three lords, each having a distinct personality. All of the characters obtained through the story usually play minor roles in one chapter and then fade away only to be seen on the battlefield, that is provided that the player wants to use them. A few characters do play slightly larger roles in the story, but it seems as though they are all eventually replaced constantly by someone new. Blazing Sword's villains are generally the same way, aside from the main ones. Each chapter's boss is usually only present for that one chapter, and then they disappear. Few villains remain prominent in the plot for long amounts of time, but for the most part they die to introduce a larger villain until the head honcho appears. After that point, the character development begins. Blazing Sword's main villain (whom I won't delve into at the risk of spoilers) is very well fleshed out.
Blazing Sword's graphics are virtually the same as it's predecessor, but the fact that Fire Emblem 6 had great graphics for it's time helps a bit. Battle animations are smooth and well done, and character sprites are detailed well enough for a handheld title as well. Sprites for characters of the same class, however, are reused and simply recolored. Outside of a battle scene, maps are overly simple. Sprites lack detail and the terrain is rather bland, aside from mountains which look surprisingly nice. Luckily, the graphics do nothing to deter from the enjoyment of the game and go rather unnoticed due to the rather impressive battle scenes.
As a series standard, Fire Emblem music is top of the line. Few games on the GBA have a soundtrack that could even dream to be compared to Blazing Sword. With almost one hundred tacks, all of which can be enjoyed outside of gameplay but must be unlocked to do so, the chances of the player becoming bored or annoyed of a track is highly unlikely, as the music switches frequently during the game. Sound effects are not quite as good as the music, but that isn't to say there is anything wrong with them.
Fire Emblem Blazing Sword is among the best titles available for the Gameboy Advanced. With classic Fire Emblem gameplay, an amazing soundtrack, and nearly infinite replayability, fans of the series and GBA owners alike can enjoy this classic title for as long as they own it. Simply put, Fire Emblem Blazing Sword is pure strategic bliss, a nirvana to fans of the genre of series alike.