User Reviews (11 - 21 of 52)

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I love this game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: July 20, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This is the first Fire Emblem game that I have played, and I was surpised at how similar it was to Advance Wars (which is another game that I heart deeply). The first 20 minutes I was playing though, I was bored and about to give up on it already, but then when I actually got into gameplay, I fell in love with it. It's turnbased tactical stradegy like Advance Wars and Final Fantasy Tactics. The graphics are pretty good for a GBA game and a feature in this game that makes it more real is that if a character dies in battle, you lose him forever, you can make him come back but only if you retstart a chapter, and sometimes that's not a good thing to do if you've pt 20 minutes of effort into it. Also, you can only use a weapon a certain amount of times which gets annoying. Still, this is defiennetly on my top 10 GBA game lists, I've only put 4 hours into the game and i'm certainly looking forward to putting a hundred more into it.

A great game, one of my favorites!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: June 11, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game is great! Most people may not find it as important to play this game like i did. I have been playing this game for 37 hours and 43 minutes so far! This game is amazing, how it takes final fantasy tactics and some things from the old fire emblem game, and puts them together to make this great game. The graphics may make some people put it back down, but I kind of like them. It has a great story line, and tons of characters that you can unlock or recruit. Also one thing they added was the freedom to choose between two classes that you can upgrade your character to. One other thing is that you can get extremely weak characters like Ross, Amelia, and Ewan, and make them one of your strongest characters. This is a great game, and I would recomend it to anyone!

Fire Emblem : The Sacred Stones

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: August 21, 2005
Author: Amazon User

When I heard about Fire Emblem : Seimi no Kouseki's (Fire Emblem : The Sacred Stones or FE8) release, I was pretty excited. If you have played other Fire Emblem titles, you know what to expect. Units may now be promoted into one of two different classes. There are several new classes, including Summoners, Great Knights, Trainees, Rouges, and, by personal favorite, Wyvern Knights. Also Manaketes from Fire Emblem : Fuuin no Tsurugi (Fire Emblem : the Sword of Seals, or FE6) have returned. Maps with monsters such as Bonewalkers, Gorgons, Gargoyle, and Cyclopses. One of the biggest additions is the ability to go to cities and battlefields of cleared chapters to buy and sell items as well as fight monsters, including to multilevel maps, the Tower of Valni and the Lagdou Ruins. All the great weapons are back, and there are some new ones, such as the Wind Sword, which is similar to the Air Calibur tome from Fire Emblem FnT. The Pegasus Triangle Attack is back, and there are special abilities, such as Summon, Pierce, and Pick. The only thing I didn't like was the number of units; there are only 31 units taht you can get during the main storyline, and 10 secret units you can get from the tower and ruins after completing the main storyline(and these ten can't be used for link battles), compared to 54 units and 8 secret ones (which could be used in link battles) in Fire Emblem : Fuuin no Tsurugi and 43 units in Fire Emblem : Rekka no Ken (or just Fire Emblem in the US or FE7). It seems like there are too many classes and not enough units. However this is still an excellent game; probably the best hand-held title so far this year. Once again, Intelligent Systems has out done itself with Fire Emblem : The Sacred Stones. NOTE : If you like Advance Wars, you while probably like this game, and vice versa.

Fire Emblem 2 Sacred Stones Rulez!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: July 16, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I like it because it has a great plot is challenging but not to challenging and is a puzzle and action game. It's great for people who like chess and checkers and even my friends who don't still love it. It has fantasy and realistic things. But, there is also a great level up grid allowing you to always have choices on what to do next.There is also magical people and dragons and zombies. It's great because there is no blood and yet there IS lots of action. It has one nice feature that the first Fire Emblem didn't have in the first you had to beat the game before you could play any rate after easy but in Fire Emblem 2 you autimatically have the rate choices easy,medium,and hard. I have already probably wasted three days of my life on that game already. This is what I think of Fire Emblem 2 Sacred Stones.
WARNING IT IS VERY ADDICTING!!

VERY FUN!!!! (dont know why i sold it though)

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: July 28, 2006
Author: Amazon User

The game is very fun but sadly i sold it a while ago i regret that because the game was AWESOME!!!!! Sad thing is if you lose a character you have to redo the chapter if you really want him back but for me if they were bad i would just keep going :)
I haven't played the first fire emblem (want it really bad)
The game can get really hard to the end and so overall as i said before.........this game is........REALLY FUN!

excellent

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 8
Date: December 25, 2005
Author: Amazon User

(im not a kid, i just dont feel like regestering with amazon) if you buy this game you will not regret it, half way through the game i thought that who ever loved this game was crazy, after a few chapters i relized i was why wrong, buy this game (and Path of Raidence 4 gamecube) they are both awesome

Wow

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 6
Date: May 29, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game had pretty big shoes to fill from the first fire emblem for gba but it certainly filled them. I really liked the choice for promoting units and the extra battles for level ups.

Fire Emblem Sacred Stones

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: September 10, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game is better than all of the reviews that I've read say. It is a must-have. I liked Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, but this game puts a new definition on the phrase RPG - no, not rocket propelled grenade. It has a perfect blend of difficulty and fun, so that the game isn't too easy just to make it more fun, nor is it too hard to be fun. It's just perfect. This game is just amazing - if you liked Fire Emblem, Golden Sun, or Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, you have got to get this game.

First Experience at RPGs

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: January 08, 2006
Author: Amazon User

WOW! This was my first experience in the wonderful world of RPGs and I've been enchanted. The characters interact in a way that draws you into the game, the turn-based style gave me time for strategy, and logic in gameplay is neccessary and enjoyable. I guess what I mean by that is, you use your brain.

But beware: each time a character dies, you'll feel the impact. Or maybe I'm just an over-imaginitive, sensitive little person.....

I was a little irked that there was so much to go back and forth acroos the main map (a plot that lets you choose whether to move the the next battle or to a monster-infested place or trainin area) and do while I still wanted to continue the plot. Also, one of the very main characters, the princess Erika, seemed shallow. It was also difficult to make her stronger; I just didn't want to put her in harms way for her weakness.

But, overall, the RPG was highly enjoyable, though I can't compare it to the original.

My first favorite Strategy RPG.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: February 24, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I will admit that, overall, the strategy-RPG genre has been very hard for me to get into. My first entry into the genre was with Tactics Ogre on the Gameboy Advance, which I thought was merely O.K., yet not enough for me to keep (that says a lot, since I rarely get rid of games). Final Fantasy Tactics on the PS1 I found rather... unbearable, to be quite frank, since it seemed to me to require more tedious power-leveling (e.g. beefing up your character's strength) and less strategy.

Considering these views I had of the genre, it's easy to see how I could be apprehensive about getting another one, not to mention I wasn't too keen on Advance Wars either (which actually shares some similarities to Fire Emblem, including the same developer). Suffice to say, I was pleasantly surprised twice over!

For those that don't know, Fire Emblem is, at its core, a turn-based strategy game in which you control a small army to complete certain objectives, which of course means you'll often fight your way through plenty of enemies. Initially you start with your main character, which in this game is Eirika (you have the option to switch to Ephriam after a handful of missions). As the game progresses, more and more characters will join your group--some automatically, some after you talk to them with the right character (the game will sometimes drop hints about who should talk with who by using dialogue)--which each have strengths and weaknesses of their own. For instance, in what has been dubbed the "weapon trio," there is somewhat of a "rock, paper, scissors" format. In this case, sword beats axe, axe beats lance, and lance beats sword. Bear in mind that it isn't nearly as simple as that. This only determines the initial advantage one has over the other, but a character's strength can be enough to go against the grain of this. Not to mention there are a few other items that have their own unique properties that are more or less effective depending on what they are used against, but the game does an extremely good job of telling you all these nuances and even has a guide handy that is accessible during missions with quick, concise info. In fact, pretty much anything you can highlight with the cursor has a quick access help topic associated with it that's as simple to use as pressing the R button--everything from getting info on ally or enemy units, right down to something as dumb as finding out what certain terrain does.

Being able to learn the ins and outs of the game in such an easy manner is certainly a good thing, because there is one aspect of the game that is unrelenting and brutal. If you lose one of your characters, they are gone forever. Granted, you do have the option of not losing them... IF you don't mind starting that particular mission all over again. It seems like a perfectionist's nightmare, yet I didn't have that must problem with that aspect. If you're think you might be worried a lot about losing characters, start the game on Easy. The game will still provide a challenge without being overly gruelling (well, the last battle will still be pretty hard). However, for those who are a bit more confident, the game offers up Normal and Difficult settings, the latter of which I've heard can be especially brutal.

Now, as far as visuals go, it's a bit of a mixed bag, but at the very least it's functional. The maps, which are setup in a chess-like grid with a bird's-eye view, are clear and concise. However, they lean a bit on the simple side, including how things are animated. Still, I actually prefer this setup compared to something like Tactics Ogre or Final Fantasy Tactics. One of the better parts of the visual presentation are the little attack animations that happen when two units fight each other. The game "zooms in" on the units, producing two characters that attack, the animation of which is insanely smooth and quite impressive (some of the critical hit animations drive home just how devastating the attack is, in a way surprisingly good for an E-rated game). The funny thing is those animations are entirely optional. They can be disabled through the menu, or you can even assign the game to allow animations for only specific characters that you chose.

Sound, like the visuals, is also more functional than spectacular. The sound effect are geared more as a secondary way to tell you what's going on on the screen, which, despite being simplistic, adds surprisingly well to the effect. The music also blends well to the game, though I found a few tracks to be especially good in their own right.

Oh, on a side note, there's one thing I really loved about this game in the technical aspect. It has one of the best quick save systems I have ever seen. The game sports a normal save system in between missions, but during missions it has a unique quick save feature that is so good that it saves automatically when you turn off the system. Seriously! No buttons to press, no menus to dig through. Just power off the system and you'll be able to start again from that same point (unless you decide to erase the save). Ironically, this save system is annoying in a way that is clearly intentional. If you ever get one of your characters killed and power off the system at that point, you'll find that upon starting the quick save that it saved right before that specific enemy unit's action, meaning you are left with two options. Either proceeding on without that character or restarting that mission from the start. It's harsh, but you didn't expect them to make it easy, did you?

So, here's my summary of the pros and cons.

Pros:

+ Simple, yet surprisingly in-depth strategy gameplay.
+ Game eases you into the controls, which will become second-nature quickly.
+ Great cast of characters, representing some well balenced classes with their own strengths and weaknesses
+ Challenging, yet rewarding.
+ Smart AI that tends to target weaker characters, making you think.
+ Surprisingly intelligent dialogue despite the broad audience (the fact that it's rated E).

Cons:

- Can be a bit of a perfectionist's nightmare

In short, I recommend it to strategy fans out there.

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