Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

40 to 100 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Masterpiece"

Fire Emblem had nearly everything i hoped for when I bought it. The tutorial levels were perfectly suited to teaching you the game at the perfect pace but they are also great fun, which actually is quite rare it seems in most games.

As for pacing of the game, the game will give you the option of whether to have battle animation or not, and you can skip any cut scene you want. These may seem small at first, but after you're first play through, (and trust me in saying you will play through this more than once to find all the secrets in the levels and try to beat the game without anyone dying, etc) they will come in handy.

Difficulty is also just right, the AI won't play too many cheap tricks on you, but neither will they ignore a hole in your defenses. If you stick your pegasus knight in a grove of archers, it will die. Fire Emblem is also unique in that death is permanent, you either will have to restart the level or go along if one of your characters die. This seems intimidating, but it makes you think and your characters will be able to take one or two hits, so you are not going to tear your hair out.

Graphics and sound are both above average, and considering this is the GBA they are excellent, plus the addition of the sound room is a good plus.

Overall, I would recommend this game to anyone who is even remotely interested in the genre, and it is a good game to introduce others to the genre.