Difficulty:

Hard

Time Spent:

40 to 100 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"All it's cracked up to be"

The first Fire Emblem game ever released outside Japan, which was simply named "Fire Emblem" in the USA, was a stupendous game, with very few short commings. The next game on the series offers the same amazing gameplay, with a completely new storyline, which will amaze you.

GRAPHICS:
While not a bad looking game, it looks identical to its predecessor, but still has nice enviroments and characters models. The characters faces in the cutscenes actually look pretty good. 3.5/5

SOUND:
The music is also very reminescente of previous entries, but still very fitting.4/5

GAMEPLAY:
The game is a strategy RPG. The game takes place on the fictional continet of Magvel, where the Grado kingdom suddenly invade its neighbor, Renais. So, one of our main heroid, Ephraim, goes out to see what the hell is going on. As he didn't came back, his sister Eirika goes onto the adventure. In the game, you'll meet with a lot of different characters, such as Innes, the prince of Frelia and L'Arachel, princess of Rausten. I never really payed much attention to the story, but it is quite interesting and though-provoking Each character has a different class to himself, such as Mage or Archer, and starting at level 10, can evolve in 2 different classes, a new feature in this game. It gives the game much more variety, as it introduces new classes, such as Summoner, which are very helpfull. Like its predecessor, your goal varies in each stage: in ones is to seize a castle, in other is to kill all enemies. The gameplay is for the most part the same, but the is some variety. The weapons play in a rock-paper-scissor type of way: lances beat swords, swords beats axes and axes beat lance, and in magic is the same, anima (fire, ice) beats light, light beats dark, dark beats anima. Bows/Arows and Staves aren't superffectivbe/weak agains anything. In reality, most of the characters use physical attacks, so you have to be more carefull with the mages, since, once the character dies, they will be dead forever, which sucks, but makes the game more strategic. At times, the game can be really hard, with a limmited battalion against a lot of tough enemies, but it is never impossible, but is unforgiving. It will take you a log time to pass the 20 stages in this game, easily 10 hours, and there is a lot of replayability. While the gameplay is mostly intact from pass entries, it still is very deep and engadging. Another addition is an endless play mode after you beat the game, which lenghthens up the game even more, and you will play for a few more hours at least after you've beaten it. 4.5/5

OVERALL:
The Sacred Stones might not have a lot of innovation, but still is very much worth your time, for the great gameplay it provides.

Pros and cons:
+Deep and engadging gameplay
+Nice details on the characters
+Deep storyline
+Lenghty
+Lots of different characters gives the game more replayability
-Barely no changes in gameplay for previous entries
-Music and graphics are a bit recycled