Customer Reviews: Read 6 more reviews...
 Intelligent Systems scores a 'critical hit' September 20, 2007
Knollster
Ah the Fire Emblem series. I'm guessing you never knew about it until Marth appeared in Super Smash Bros Melee, right? If so, I'm one of these people too and I got curious about the Fire Emblem series and eventually bought this as my first Fire Emblem game.
I'm so glad I did, I've been obsessed with it lately. You control a young mercenary named Ike and he will be the main character throughout the entire game. Thankfully, Intelligent Systems did us a favour and made him extremely powerful. Along the way you'll meet many other characters including the money grabbing, alcohol drinking, gambling Makalov, extremley dedicated Knight of Crimea Kieran who fears nothing. Not even an axe to his head. And my favourite, the lazy Wyvern Lord from Daein, Haar.
If you've played Fire Emblem 7 or 8 you might not be used to the stat system in this. Well, this is how it used to be. And it's much better. And thankfully, there's no more Con! So now our hero Ike can wield a Steel Sword as soon as he gets enough Strength to wield it. Which won't take long, believe me.
Besides the old stat system and replacing con, there are also new units, called Laguz. These people can transform into an animal after their meter fills. Which means utter destruction for the enemy army. And for the first time ever, a playable Soldier! Yes, although these were the runts of the army in the past, this unit is incredibly powerful. Which is Nephenee! They finally make a playable Soldier and she's awesome. Brilliant.
However, the graphics in this game are a tad lacklustre. They look a little choppy. Although this is Intelligent Systems' first attempt at a 3-D FE so I think we can let them off for now. Also if you're a fan of support endings, you might wince with annoyance with the lack of them in this game. I wanted an IkexLethe ending but unfortunatley it didn't happen. Would have been a bit wrong though with the tail and everything...
In my opinion the story is one of the better ones, rather than the cliche FE7 storyline. It's no FE4 story but it's full of twists and turns. I won't spoil it for you.
Overall, I'd rate this extremley high. It's a brilliant change from the GBA ones and it's a good change. Back to the basics is brilliant and the units in this game are amazing. Ike, Boyd and Jill are a few to mention. If you can ignore the graphics style (You really should, or you should get back to your Xbox. Providing it doesn't overheat :P) it's an enjoyable experience.
Also, this game might give a bit of background on Ike considering he's now in Super Smash Bros Brawl. Awesooooooooome!
Only for those who love grid based combat? May 19, 2006
C. O'Connor (Birmingham, UK)
7 out of 9 found this review helpful
Now, I do NOT like grid based combat games, but based upon rave reviews I saw for Fire Emblem, I decided to have a look, let me tell you what I found.
Ike is a young man, trained as a mercenary by his father, caught between two nations warring and a lost princess-WOAH, what a story line! This easily has the same depth as any other typical RPG (Role Play Game.) Yet, the way you become attached to the characters is almost beautiful, relying on them, knowing them, crying over them etc.
Graphically, the cut scenes are genious, characters are varied, (except for enemies) and the locations are nice, so the graphics aren't a problem here. If your going to have problems with this game, it will be the game play.
You control a number of characters, who as a team will need to either survive, kill or escape from a number of varying situations. There are a range of characters you can control, but they basically fall into divisions, i.e. healers, magic users, swordsmen, arrow users, horse back riders, lancers etc. Strategically, you move characters and decide what your going to do, and then the computer has a go. Does it work? Yes and no-the computer deliberately picks off your weaker characters first, naughty. Secondly, when you lose one, they've gone for good, (bad) but this only makes the game a more intriguing experience. However, all the game basically is is fighting, no exploration or anything else. Like a game of chess, it requires expert patience, but it rewards those who commit with gorgeous cut-scenes beautiful characters and fulfilling game play.
Awesome May 16, 2006
herdy1 (London)
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
This is an exceptional game. Good adult theme of politics, treachery, treason, slavery, etc. Lots of topics are touched on. Gameplay is brilliantly involving & relatively easy to pick-up. You basically start off as a relatively small group of mercenaries, and as you progress through the game you recruit allies. They usually start off with reasonably weak stats which you build up by defeating enemies. You also gain bonus EXP by meeting certain conditions during battle. You can then allocate this EXP between whichever character(s) you choose when back in your base. This is the first Strategy RPG I have played & have become addicted. Can see me playing many more (if many more get released in PAL region...) One thing to point out is that the game is very text-heavy, so if you don't like reading you may wish to look elsewhere. Otherwise, can't recommend this enough.
Brilliant April 5, 2006
1 out of 7 found this review helpful
I bought this wondering if i had made a mistake, but as soon as i started playing i realised i had stumbled upon a hidden masterpiece. Sure the graphics are bad but this game reeks of quality
One of those games that hardly ever comes out here March 14, 2006
michael myers
8 out of 10 found this review helpful
fire emblem came out with a list of excelent reviews following it where ever it went, having never played fire emblem i thought i would give it a try i wacked it in my cube turned it on and it was far better than i was expecting.The game revolves around a very entertaining turn based fighting system and a detailed story that involves you and your crew of mercenerys recapturing a country that was invaded buy a evil king. Fire emblem is a stratagy game containing 29 maps, your goal with each map is to either kill all the enimys or to seize the castle/throne or sometimes you are required to defend a area for a certian number of turns. The maps are well thought out and you will need to think about where you are going to attack from do you send every one foward and hope for the best or break up in to two teams and attack from front and back? or maybe you will hide archers in terrain that gives you more defensive protection(such as trees or mountain)and pick them out one by one with your bow. Each member of your army is a individual and comes along with his own personal story and stats, buy killing the computer players the individual who made the kill will power up however if one of your team dies he will dissapear from your army not to return,Along your journey you will beable to recrute more people buy talking to them and convincing them to join you aswell as receiving new members from alied nations. Whilst fighting all these wars your going to need a lot of new equipment right? so it's just aswell that you have a convoy travling with you where before each map you can restock equipment, create new wepons and buy posions and magic. The game will probably last the average player a good 30 or so hours of gameplay but the replay value is great and there are harder difficulties avalible.I would recomend this game to any one who likes rpg's or turn based stratagy such as advance wars or final fantasy tactics or the upcomming age of empires DS or to any gamers who want a good game. it's not often Nintendo releases these games over here so buy it whilst you can.
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