Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

10 to 20 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Grows on you"

You begin Fire Emblem as a nomadic girl named Lyndis, now on her own being the only survivor after bandits had destroyed her town. Under attack by bandits Lyndis and a strategist come out victorious but are confused as to why she is pursued. Soon after she meets two knights who join her and tell her that her mother was the daughter of a powerful lord of a region and with her grandfather on his deathbed she is his only heir. Being raised in a monad tribe by her mother she had no clue she was in a powerful family, with this knowledge she decided to go meet the family she didn't know she had.

Being pursued by her grandfather's brother who wishes to steal his power Lyndis is in great peril on her adventure. Although you start as Lyndis you also play the majority of the game as Eliwood and his friend Hector who is in search of his father who mysteriously went missing. With the only clues to go off of is a mysterious organization called the "Black Fang" and a named they set off in pursuit of this mystery which unfolds into a large adventure.

The storyline of Fire Emblem revolving around Eliwood, Lyndis, and Hector is very well made and cut into separate segments to get a better understanding of each characters personality. The impressive character development and classic Fire Emblem style makes playing the game a blast for both veteran and beginner. Keep in mind although named Fire Emblem this is not the first installment into the series, it is just the first part of the series on the Gameboy Advance there are actually many Fire Emblems.

The combat of Fire Emblem is a grid based strategy combat with a rock, paper, scissors weapon system. Spear beats sword, sword beats axes, and axes beat spears through this system is the basis of combat forcing you to strategically fight your battles. There are many weapon exceptions and special types such as bows, light magic, dark magic, and elemental magic to complicate things and add more strategy to the game. With a large cast of characters and a wide array of classes such as archers, mages, healers, cavalry, pirates, myrmidons, and much more there is a great variety of customization in the teams you use and how you fight your battles with them. The excellent combat system of the Fire Emblem series never disappoints.

The game looks like most of the other Fire Emblem games with recycles class sprites as well as new ones along with nice and clear animations. Although the battles don't look fantastic it gives a great base for the strategic combat and the art used in the game looks fantastic. The music of Fire Emblem is also of great quality with a large variety of battle music for bosses, sieges, and many other circumstances. Being a Gameboy Advance title it lacks the voice acting many similar games have but that doesn't change the games quality you just cannot expect the same features of console games on a handheld.

Although the Fire Emblem series may be large in Japan it is fairly small here so we haven't gotten many of them. If you are a fan of strategy games you must play this series it is a staple of the strategy genre. With a good storyline and a great and fun strategic combat system with a large cast of characters to support it I would rate Fire Emblem a 8.5 out of 10. This game is a fantastic title and anyone with a Gameboy Advance should pick it up or at least try the series out for themselves. There are also newer Fire Emblems on the Gamecube and Wii if you are interested in the series.