This installment of the longrunning series continues it's excellence with an interesting story and foolproof gameplay.
Fire Emblem tells the story of the Greil Mercenaries, an elite and respected group of mercenaries in the nation of Crimea. They get pulled into a war with an aggressive neighboring country, and their story begins. It’s a long story spanning several months and continents, and isn’t afraid to take a lot of time developing its cast. It does this for a reason. We’ll get there later. The gameplay is that of your typical strategy game, but it seems to be playing on a higher level than other strategy games, like Final Fantasy Tactics. Characters are mobile, and considering the genre fighting is fast-paced. You have many people with many uses, and you’ll have a blast reaching the goal of whatever level you’re on. The fun factor of the game never drops, although you may go through a few sleepless nights, for several reasons. One is because you can’t put it down, and the other is because your conscious is weighing on you. Because, you see, in Fire Emblem, when a character dies, the character’s dead. There are no Phoenix Downs, so you have to make a decision. Take the sacrifice or be willing to replay the level. I only lost a few characters, so I didn’t feel too bad. This here is why it takes so long to develop the characters. You get attached. This isn’t Final Fantasy Tactics create a walking sack of meat. These are well-written chaps you feel for. There isn’t a moment of this game’s story of diamond-hard gameplay that’ll let you down, so expect to love every minute of it.
The graphics of the game are a mixed bag. On one hand they are in typical Fire Emblem fashion. Still screens, moving mouths. Not very impressive. But the in-game graphics look nice, and the cut-scene graphics sweeter still. The cut-scene graphics are a beautiful mesh of CGI, anime, and cel-shading, and next to Metroid Prime and Resident Evil 4, are some of the best you’ll see. Graphics going from a 5 to an 8 to a 10 is a weird thing to call, so I went ahead and decided 7 was the safe way to go.
The sound is the same way. The music is fine, but nothing special. The sound effects are fine, but nothing special. There is little voice acting, but what is in the games cutscenes, the game's few and far between cutscenes, is pretty good.br />
It’s a fairly lengthy game that ought to satisfy. It isn’t as long as most RPG’s, but what is there isn’t filled with any of those little sections you just hate to do.
Fire Emblem is another great GameCube game for the rather underappreciated little dude. It’s another great game this generation on all consoles, and an outstanding addition to the series.