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Very difficult game ...not for wussies!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: January 12, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I reached The final chapter in Eliwoods story today and I smashed the LCD screen on my GBA in frustration!! I now have to go out tomorrow and buy another system. This game is not for people who easily get frustrated. Later in the game if you dont level up the right characters , things can get bad. Tomorrow I will beat Eliwoods story with my new GBA..No ifs ands or buts!
I think this could be the BEST RPG ever!! It really makes you think on your tactical manouvers, you cant zone out like in Final Fantasy games, because this is how RPGs should be. If you cant play right, then get some wussy RPG with Revive and unlimited lives and go on autopilot. This is the game to get..I cant emphasize enough of how much you will be into this game..its just spectacular! Finally a game that makes you plan and think ahead. Take the challenge and buy it!

A great game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 9
Date: December 14, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This game is great. IF you love strategy/RPG games and you have about 20 to 30 hours to waste, check out Fire Emblem. There are all types of quality stuff, and each unit has their own distinct personality. The graphics are good, but they could have looked more like Advance Wars. The battle system is strategic based, as you'll need to use the weapon triangle and the Trinity of Magic if you want to get the better of your enemies. The game is seriously addictive, beginning witht he first mission. You'll find yourself constantly trying to beat just one more mission. One of the most unforgiving aspects of Fire Emblem is that if one of your members die, they will be gone forever. I often found myself restarting a mission so I wouldn't have to lose a vital character, and if I did, it was a painful fairwell. In essence: if you need to play a mission ten times to keep one of your members alive, do so, as they may become an integral part of your journey later on. All in all, this game along with Final Fantasy Tactics Advance should be on your wishlist. You owe it to yourself to play this awesome game.

Can't put this game down

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: November 22, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This is one of the most addictive and fun games out there. There are lots of cut-scenes with great graphics. I can easily play this game for hours non-stop. The story also is very well constructed, you will be soaked in into the plot. It's not a typical RPG but more like a strategy game. Highly recommend it!

It would be great if it were just a little easier

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: April 28, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Fire Emblem is an interesting title. Although it bears RPG-like elements, such as weapons to hold and leveling up, it's actually a strategy game, in which you constantly are in battle against various enemy armies, mostly the notorious Black Fang. You can buy stuff, earn money (well actually find it), and slowly level up your fighters and progress with the storyline. Actually you won't be able to do much else, and practically all the time you'll either be battling enemies, buying equipment, or watching cutscenes, and it gets repetitive after a while, but not actually boring.

As for the graphics, they're not the best, like those of Golden Sun, for example, but they're not bad. The graphics on the battlefield are small, but I don't mind them. The character portraits and character sprites themselves, which are used for talking, are all very nice. There's a lot of music, 94 pieces in fact, and most of it's good stuff.

The game is presented in the form of chapters. Each chapter starts with a cutscene in which your main characters and occasionally other characters talk, then enemies appear and you must complete the chapter goals, usually to defeat the all the enemies. At the end of the chapter, there's another cutscene, then we're on to the next chapter. And, except for the preparation screen that you get to use a little ways on in the game before each chapter, there's no break from fighting - item-buying, talking with other characters, and visiting houses, everything is done on the battlefield. So that naturally makes the game a little difficult. But the most annoying thing is that, after the first ten chapters (the "tutorial") pass, when you lose a character, you lose him/her FOREVER. You never get him back. So you'll end up playing each chapter many times, trying not to lose anyone. And, some characters are required for recruiting other characters later on, so you definitely never want to lose anyone. Very challenging, especially in the later chapters.

So all in all, Fire Emblem is certainly a challenging game, but it's also quite fun, with a very involving storyline and fun characters. If you don't mind not really having the freedom to "roam the world map" like you do in RPGs, and never being able to leave the battlefield, and basically playing a very storyline-oriented game, which means there isn't much replay value, you should pick up Fire Emblem. It's still a great game despite its faults.

awsome strategy game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: February 27, 2004
Author: Amazon User

if you have ever played advance wars 1 or 2 (i feel they are the best games on gba) this is made by the same group. Its kinda like advace wars except more like zelda. There are tons of things you can do. When you play the levels you can talk to enemies and you can get them to join you. You can buy weapons, upgrade peole and make them superstrong, level up people or weapons and other stuff like that. There are specialties (kind of like pokemon)where weapons are stronger than other weapons or magic stronger than other magic so it keeps you thinking. Now to the ratings.
graphics: 7/10
gameplay: 8.5/10
length of game:10/10
storyline:5/10 there isn't really any obvious storyline but good enough to keep you going
characters:7/10 they all look different(except enemies) and have their own way of attacking
To tell you the truth i would have gotten the gba just to play fire emblem and advance wars. this game is worth every buck.

Fire Emblem: The Blazing Sword

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: December 18, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I have mixed feelings about this game. The graphics and music aren't bad, and the writing is very well done, but I wouldn't recommend it for younger gamers. Each level begins and ends with a "cinema scene", which shows you more of the storyline, but sometimes it can be very disturbing, especially in the final chapter, when someone kills one of the bad guys. The game can be extremely difficult, so you will probably need a strategy guide, unless you're experienced with this kind of game.
You might not want to buy this if you're younger or more sensitive, though. Like I said, the writing is very well done, but THEY NEVER STOP GOING ON ABOUT DEATH, and it can get rather depressing after awhile.
Overall, the game isn't bad, if a bit frustrating at times.

An amazing tatical fantasy game with an ubeleiveable story

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: April 12, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game boasts great graphichs, story, gameplay and interactions with your characters. The game is fun, very much so, and while in battle you can have certain characters interact through supports. There are many types of characters to choose, and they all are good to use. The hardest ones to level become your best and sometimes, even those who seem to be weak in the beinning become strongest at the end. This is a great game for everyone to enjoy.

A fantastic title for GBA

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: May 15, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Yes, just as the title of this review suggests, Fire Emblem is a fantastic game. If you have played the Golden Sun titles, then you would know how the basic battle system and character control works. However, there is a slight twist. Unlike in Golden Sun, in which you could regain lost minor characters, once a character's HP reaches zero in this game, they are gone forever. The only exceptions to this rule are the first ten missions.

There are many factors that make this game, what I think, is one of the best games for the GBA system. First off, this game is a game in which tactics plays a vital role. This means that serious thought is required while playing the missions.

You may be wondering why this is. Usually, games have a mindless AI that just seems to play harder when the difficulty is increased. The major twist in this game is that when you close distance between enemies, they will start to play according to how you play, trying to intimidate you, which sometimes works, and trying to exploit your fighters' weaknesses. If they can't do that, they do the next best thing, which is to go for whoever is closest.

Speaking of the fighters you get, there is a wide range of the kinds of people who will join you. The kinds of combatants are: Lord, Cavalier, Knight, Pegasus Knight, Fighter, Mage, Archer, Monk, Cleric, Trobadour, Mercenary, Myrmidon, Druid, Dancer, Bard, Wyvern Rider, Pirate, and more. On top of that, when characters reach a certain level, they can be promoted to a higher class, making them much more versatile and powerful than before. Each class has its own strengths and weaknesses, so thought must also go into who fights in what battle. Also, there are more than 25 playable characters in all. Wow!

Although this is a game of tactics, it also plays somewhat like an RPG. Characters gain experience at the end of a battle, and when their experience is high enough, they gain levels. The producers have managed to cram two types of games in one.

My one and only problem with this game is that after doing a few missions, you may feel compelled to take a break from the game because you may find the proceeding mission to be a little bit of the last mission, with the exceptions that the objective may be different or that there are different enemies involved. However, during the first few missions, I felt strongly compelled to take breaks from the game for this very reason. However, the repetativeness begins to show signs of fading a little later on, so this isn't too big a problem.

Would I recommend this game to anyone who owns a GBA? Absolutely! Not only is this game a lot of fun, but, unlike most other games, it requires you to think and plan ahead. Fire Emblem is a great title to add to your GBA collection if you are a fan of tactical/RPG platforms.

Definitely NOT For Especially Sensitive People

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 8
Date: June 22, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Fire Emblem: The Blazing Sword, as it is called in Japan, was the seventh game (I think) in the Fire Emblem series and the very first Fire Emblem game to be released in North America (unless you count Super Smash Bros. Melee).
In this game, the player does not play as any of the protagonists, but as a tactician who gives orders to the characters. This is not a bad thing, because occasionally the characters will speak to the tactician, making it feel as if the player is really part of the story.
The story is in told three arcs. The first arc of the story, "Lyn's Story", revolves around an eighteen-year-old swordfighter named Lyn, who is an orphan, as her entire tribe was slain by bandits. She goes off with the tactician (i. e. the player) in search of adventure, and, meeting two young knights, learns she is heir to the throne in a far away kingdom. However, her grandfather, the marquess, is being poisoned by his evil younger brother, who hungers to usurp the throne, and it is up to Lyn to save her grandfather.
The second arc of the story takes place a year later and centers around Eliwood, a young noble whom Lyn met earlier on. Eliwood is searching for his father, who disappeared a month before.
Along the way, Eliwood's best friend Hector shows up, as well as Lyn, and together they learn of an insanely powerful madman's heinous and diabolical plot to embroil the world in chaos. It is now up to them, and friends they have met along the way, to save the world.
The third arc of the story is basically Eliwood's story, but told from Hector's point of view.

Fire Emblem is by no means a bad game, but there is no way whatsoever I would recommend it for everyone, because once you reach Chapter 18 or so of Eliwood's story, things start to get really dark. Also, there are times when the characters never stop going on about death, which really could be done without, in my opinion.

Here are the pros and cons of this game:

Pros:

1. The graphics and music are quite good, especially the music.

2. The dialogue between characters is very well-written, although there are occasions when the dialogue will become rather corny. But I did pick up a few new words from this game.

3. There are these "Support Conversations" between characters which can be rather clever and/or funny. Unfortunately, they are very difficult to unlock, and you can only get a limited number of them between each pair of characters.

4. You can play as your own gender. This changes some dialogue in cinema scenes, particularly from this one character who tends to flirt with girls.

5. The game has a Sound Test (an area where you can listen to all the music from the game), which becomes available once you beat Lyn's Story for the first time.
However, you can only access the music once you've already heard it at one point or another in the game.

Cons:

1. The game can be very morbid, as I said before. I wouldn't recommend this game for anyone especially young and/or sensitive. Of course, sometimes sensitivity has nothing to do with age; speaking as a rather sensitive teenaged person, sometimes I almost wish I hadn't bought it.

2. Sometimes the game can be ridiculously hard.

3. You can't save the game at particular points--so if you lose a character, you can only get the character back if you start the WHOLE DARN CHAPTER OVER. So you can't save just before a boss battle and then try it over and over and over again different ways, which would help immensely.

In conclusion, Fire Emblem isn't a bad game, but I wouldn't recommend buying it unless you aren't fazed by characters dying. If you ARE fazed by such things, I'd recommend getting a Pokemon game instead.

Comparison to Advanced Wars I and II

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 6
Date: December 20, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Overall, this is a good game. I am a big fan of both Advance Wars games and hoped that this would be like Advanced Wars with fantasy based units (similar to the Heroes of Might and Magic series). It isn't though.

The major difference is that you have to rely on units that you encounter along the way. These unique NPCs become part of the potential list of people you can select from for future battles. Each is unique and several are key to the plot, so if you lose them, you have to restart the chapter.

The chapters themselves are like maps in the campaign mode in Advanced Wars. The major problem here is that you can't save in the middle of a chapter and go back to that point if you fail (like your key party member dies). There is also a lot of cut scene/plot before each chapter...so if you need to restart a chapter for some reason, you have to go through several minutes of plot each time.

I like the experience system, level advancement, and weapon/magic triads. They are a welcome level of complexity compared to the simple power/unit type in Advance Wars. However, even at high levels, characters have relatively few hit points and are therefore susceptible to die in one or two well-placed attacks. In short, to win this game, you have to absolutely slaughter your opponents to be successful.

My final comment is that you can't really choose your allies... if you want another shaman or priestess in your party, you can't just hire one. You have to hope that you run into one along the way. And unlike other RPGs, you can't run around for a while and hit random encounters to level up your people for a while.

To sum up, it's a pretty good game, but it could be better. You will feel attached to all of your allies over the course of several chapters. However, if you're looking for a GBA game like Advanced Wars, then I recommend Ogre Tactics as an alternative (maybe Final Fantasy Tactics as well...I don't have that one yet).

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