Backstory: When I was younger I would put an obscene amount of video games on my Christmas list each year (I still do, but that's completely irrelevant). In 2003, at the tender age of 11, I was perusing the Black Friday ads on Thanksgiving to find toys and video games that would make the final cut for my Christmas list when a little game called Fire Emblem for the Game Boy Advance caught my eye. I knew next to nothing about it, but the cover art looked cool and my library of GBA games was pretty minimal, so I added it to my list on an impulse and completely forgot about it. Cut to Christmas morning a month later where I opened up my copy of Fire Emblem and found myself a little bit surprised that I now owned a game that I had completely forgotten I had even said I wanted. However, I popped the game in that evening and I was instantly hooked. Over a decade later, I now consider myself to be a huge fan of the Fire Emblem series and am grateful to whoever designed that original GBA box art that stood out to a young kid and made him add a random game to his Christmas list back in 2003.
Review: Fire Emblem: The Blazing Sword (or just Fire Emblem, as it was titled for Western audiences) is the seventh entry in the long-running strategy RPG series developed by Nintendo and Intelligent Systems. What's interesting about this title is that it is only the second Fire Emblem game to ever be developed on a handheld console, yet many in North America and Europe consider the Fire Emblem franchise to be a staple in the Nintendo portable library. This is largely due to the fact that after thirteen years of Fire Emblem games, this was the first one to be translated and ported over to Western markets. Even without prior experience with Fire Emblem console games, Blazing Sword became a huge hit with European and North American consumers, and it is one of the main reasons why the series is now a well-known and beloved IP worldwide.
The game's story is laid out over two main arcs, the first consisting of an extended 10-chapter tutorial arc following the main character Lyn, while the second can be considered the main game that centers around Prince Eliwood. A third option becomes available after the game has been completed that follows the third main character, Hector, and this serves as a hardmode variant of the Eliwood story seen from Hector's perspective. Lyn is a young woman who who lives a nomadic life on the plains of Sacae, and after her parents are murdered by bandits discovers that she has a noble grandfather in the faraway region of Caelin. Her story focuses on her travels across the continent of Elibe to rescue her grandfather from his evil brother Lundgren who has eyes on the throne of Caelin. Eliwood's story also begins as a rescue mission, as he sets out to find his missing father and discovers a sinister plot along the way by the sorcerer Nergal to open a portal that will bring monstrous dragons back to the world of Elibe and start a war. Eliwood must battle bandits, corrupt soldiers, and the ruthless faction known as the Black Fang across the continent in order to defeat Nergal and end his cataclysmic schemes.
While the overall storyline of Fire Emblem is pretty cut and dry for a fantasy RPG, it still has many redeeming qualities and some twists and turns that make it feel like an epic adventure. What really shines throughout the game is the strong emphasis on character development, and each enemy and ally that the player meets along the way feels truly unique and alive. The player will recruit an overwhelming amount of allies throughout the campaign, and each of them feels distinct, despite the fact that they are categorized into classes. For example, the thief Matthew who can later be promoted to an assassin is a carefree pickpocket who provides comedic relief with his lighthearted personality throughout the game, while the assassin Jaffar is a nearly silent tool of murder who puts little thought into his own life or the lives of others, at least until his turning point later on in the game. Both of these characters have the same skills at their disposal and are used similarly in combat, yet they both feel like entirely different people.
The gameplay mechanics of Fire Emblem may seem strange to someone who has never played a strategy RPG, but they work excellently. The player must move his or her units around a grid-based map strategically in order to complete the mission's objectives. Upon entering combat, the camera zooms in on the two units battling and they each get a chance to attack the other. There is a rock-paper-scissors system in play in which swords best axes, axes best lances, and lances best swords, which means that using the right units in the right situations is the only way to ensure victory. A similar system works to balance out the different types of magic used in the game: anima over light over dark. Additionally, there are flying units that can move anywhere but are weak to ranged attack, and there are heavily armored units that must be weakened by magic. Needless to say, there is a lot going on in each mission and the player must pay careful attention and use caution to claim victory, which ultimately makes each encounter feel extremely tense.
The tension only builds from there due to the fact that Fire Emblem uses a permadeath system. Yes, this means that if one of your units dies in any of the missions you use it in, they are gone for good. This may sound harsh, but overall it is what makes Fire Emblem such an amazing game. The player will grow to care about the units in his or her army and inevitably will have favorites, which means that careful planning and some risk taking will be necessary in order to make sure their favorite characters live to fight another day. Ally units level up and become increasingly more powerful throughout the game, but so do the enemies, so no matter how strong one of the player's units is there is always a chance that they could lose them forever.
The gameplay of Fire Emblem is surprisingly complex, but the appearance of the game is not. The game uses a 2D sprite-based art style that generally looks pretty good, but there are definitely some better looking games on the GBA. The story is told through text-based cutscenes, but these mostly consist of a couple character portraits on screen talking to each other. All of the action takes place during the course of missions which means that some of the lengthier dialogue segments can become a bit dull, which is a shame because the writing in the game is pretty solid. There is no voice acting in the game to be found, so Intelligent Systems compensates with a musical soundtrack that is quite excellent. A wide variety of songs play throughout the course of the game, and from combat to cutscenes none of them ever felt too repetitive. In fact, songs like Ninian's theme and the music that plays when a new ally is recruited are wonderful pieces of music and show how much passion the composers put into the game's soundtrack.
Fire Emblem is a solid entry into the GBA's portable library, and while it's fun and engaging, it's definitely not perfect. Sometimes the game feels harsh, and there's no worse feeling than when a character you've spent a dozen hours powering up gets killed by a cheap shot from a reinforcement unit that randomly spawned at the end of your turn. Also, the objectives of missions which range from seizing a throne, killing a boss, killing all units, or surviving for a set number of turns can become somewhat tedious, and a little more variety would've gone a long way. Additionally, the game boils down to a numbers game, and when those numbers are not on your side it can be frustrating beyond belief. When an enemy lands a critical hit with a two-percent chance, an ally levels up and his or her stats barely increase, or an enemy camps a piece of terrain that makes their evade rate skyrocket are all examples of how the numbers can betray you and make an otherwise tactical game boil down to little more than chance.
Despite these few gripes, Fire Emblem remains a great game overall and it's one of the best games in the GBA library. The gameplay is engaging and complex, the story is enjoyable, and the soundtrack is exquisite. It may not be for everyone due to its punishing permadeath system and requirement of the player to use strategy, but with a little luck and a lot of smart decisions, Fire Emblem can be enjoyed and conquered by anyone.
Why you should play: This game will make you think and it will make you plan. It makes you play smart or lose everything, especially on the harder difficulties. If you like strategy, fantasy RPG's, board games like Risk or Settlers of Catan, or just games that really make you think intelligently, Fire Emblem is for you.
Why you shouldn't play: Fire Emblem is hard (the Japanese version is even harder) and the permadeath system feels extremely unfair at times. The story is entirely text-based, so if you don't like reading you won't like it. Additionally, people who don't enjoy sitting back and planning their moves and visualizing the best way to win won't enjoy Fire Emblem, as the combat isn't exactly fast-paced.