Fire Emblem: The World in Crisis

Since I have Fire Emblem to thank for getting me in to Japanese games and RPGs, today's post will be a toast to the game that started it all: Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones. As I said in my first post, I picked up Fire Emblem because I liked the cover. I was in sixth grade at the time, and liked to sketch anime-like characters in the margins of my notes, so I was drawn to the pictures of blue haired beauty Princess Eirika and slender hunk Prince Ephraim of Renais on the cartridge box. I flipped over the back and thought the fantasy-sounding plot had potential, so I decided to go for it. It's not like it would be a big deal if it didn't work out-- my dad was the one paying for it. Besides, even if the game stank, I could still keep the awesome cartridge package that had drawn me in in the first place!

To an eleven year-old nerdy girl, finding this is equivalent to getting a pair of custom Louboutins

I started playing as soon as I got home, and immediately got hooked on several of the elements. Unfortunately, I had no real mind for strategy at my young age, and there was no way I could have won at my current skill level. I put the game away for a few months, hoping to look at it with fresh eyes when I had the chance later on. The second time ended up being a more successful run through.

For those unfamiliar with the series, Fire Emblem titles are turn based strategy games that use a grid-like system for characters to move around in as they face enemy units. Player units come in all different types, and can evolve based on a two-tier class system when leveled up (although some titles have alternative or additional tiers). The main characters are usually lords, a class which offers specialized stats and abilities, but other options include healers, mounted knights, wyvern fliers, pegasus knights, mages, thieves, etc. The game usually starts off with a lord who is thrust into a continent-spanning war, and continues to follow the central protagonist as he or she is slowly joined by allies over time. The player can choose a team from the group of allies for each chapter, relying on a sound strategy and balance of skills and abilities to become the victor of each battle. And yes, strategy and leveling characters up consistently is very important. If an allied unit dies or is knocked out of a battle, they ain't coming back.

A sample of one of FE's many battlefields. This is where you move your characters and enter into combat.

It is all too simple for new players, like my sixth grade self, to get stuck in the rut of relying on certain characters too heavily or dismissing a character because they initially have low defenses. For example, when I first played the game I was fixated on Princess Eirika's paladin Seth, who started high level and was already in his second tier class, which meant his stats and mobility were stronger than the other characters. I overused him, allowing my other characters including Princess Eirika to become virtually useless, and wound up getting stuck when it got to the point where the world could not be defended by Seth alone. The key to being a good Fire Emblem player is finding balance, using a variety of different characters, and not being afraid to experiment. There are guides and walkthroughs made to help gamers point their teams in the right direction, but the real joy of Fire Emblem is winning based on your own efforts and skills.

General Seth is a skilled unit, but it's always a mistake to focus on one character to the exclusion of all else.

The Sacred Stones starts off in the Kingdom of Renais, one of the countries founded after a group of five Legendary Heroes sealed away the evil Demon King from the continent of Magvel. Renais has been a long time ally of the Grado Empire, the largest territory in Magvel, but something begins to seem fishy with Grado's Emperor Vigarde, and one day the Grado army shows up in Renais and begins seizing territory after territory for seemingly no reason.

Our heroine, Princess Eirika, is with her royal father when the Grado army reaches the capital. Her warrior brother, Prince Ephraim, is currently missing in action, and the capital city doesn't stand much of a chance at its current level of defense. The king, being a smart guy, sends his daughter off with the general of his armies, the aforementioned Seth, to seek sanctuary in the neighboring kingdom of Frelia while he stays behind to try and figure out what the hell is going on with Grado. Unfortunately, the generals of Grado aren't interested in a discussion regarding motives, and they promptly kill him off screen.

Princess Eirika, who defeats enemies by distracting them with her sexy miniskirt

Eirika and Seth flee, but quickly run into one of Grado's newest generals, the sick and sadistic wyvern knight Valter. Valter makes it pretty clear that he thinks Eirika is hot stuff and wants a piece of her before he takes her down, and the knightly Seth must step in to defend his lady, even though there is no way he is going to defeat the guy who looks suspiciously like a potential boss for later chapters. He sustains heavy injuries, but naturally can't allow himself to die and put his lady in danger. He snatches her up and makes a break for it while Valter chuckles to himself about how much he will enjoy hunting them later.

Just the kind of guy you want to bring home to meet the parents

After arriving in Frelia and learning that her father is dead, Eirika decides she wants to find and support her missing brother with troops so they can make a stand against the Grado Empire. The plot follows her as she builds a following and begins to learn more about Grado's motivations in their successive attacks against both Renais and Frelia. Apparently the Demon King that the Legendary Heroes defeated is sealed away by the powers of the Sacred Stones which each country in Magvel carefully protects. Emperor Vigarde has decided that he wants to destroy them, an act that would awash Magvel in evil and pretty much end the world for humankind. Eirika begins to fret that her BFF Lyon, Prince of Grado, is in serious trouble, and hopes that once she finds her bro, the two of them can get him to talk some sense into his father.

The young prince of Grado is at the center of the conflict, though whether for good or for evil is unknown by the twins

Eventually the game reaches a point where Eirika and Ephraim are reunited and the player can decide whether to follow Eirika as she tries to get word to the countries Jehanna and Rausten of Vigarde's evil plan or Ephraim as he heads into Grado to personally challenge Vigarde. I personally prefer Ephraim's route; he is my favorite unit of the twins, and I enjoy going into Grado and uncovering the big secret of Emperor Vigarde and Prince Lyon. However, going Eirika's route is the only way to discover the true identity of one of my favorite units Joshua, so if you're curious to learn more about him, following Eirika is the way to go.

The second hero option Ephraim dresses more chastely than his twin sister

Time for a quick SPOILER! The method behind Grado's madness is the Fire Emblem, the special name for the Sacred Stone of Grado which contains the sealed soul of the Demon King. Scholarly Prince Lyon realized his father was getting sick, and had begun experimenting on the spiritual powers of the Sacred Stone in order to heal him. However, Vigarde dies before Lyon's experiments can come to fruition, and Lyon's unyielding wish to resurrect him splits the Sacred Stone and creates a new gem entirely possessed by the Demon King called the Dark Stone. This is why you're not supposed to want to resurrect the dead-- bad things happen when you tamper with the taboo. Unfortunately for Lyon, he's convinced he can handle the Dark Stone and ends up getting himself possessed by the Demon King. Demon King!Lyon smashes the Sacred Stone, resurrects his father, and raises his army to destroy all the remaining Stones in Magvel. And though he was responsible for all of the horrific events in the game, both Ephraim and Eirika deeply struggle with the thought of having their best friend's soul consumed by evil and being the ones who are required to defeat him. SPOILER END!

For the most part, The Sacred Stones is a good title, and is an excellent introduction into the Fire Emblem series for potential new players. However, compared to the original North American title, Blazing Sword, and both Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn, The Sacred Stones is very easy due to the World Map feature and the always-available training arenas such as the Tower of Valni and the Lagdou Ruins. It will still take time to level up and work your way through the game, but there's nothing quite like the terror of Hector Hard Mode from Blazing Sword or playing Radiant Dawn without the save-game-during-the-battle option, so veteran players may very well be disappointed by how simple the game mechanics ended up being.

If you understand tactics and strategy, it may become a little too easy to fry giant spiders into oblivion

However, if you're like me and enjoy playing for plot and romance, The Sacred Stones does not disappoint. Fire Emblem games generally have a Support system, which creates bonds between allied characters, sometimes of friendship, sometimes of romance. As you get to know the personality of each character, you can play matchmaker and decide who you want to see with who. The support conversation are often very darling (Artur and Lute's are my favorite), and most pairs you support as either friends or lovers have a special ending where you learn what happens to them after the war is won. The in-game tutorial introduces how to go about making supports, which in the end comes down to having the characters constantly stand beside each other in the battle formation. Which is kind of funny if you think about it, especially when the player becomes an in-game character, the Tactician, in Blazing Sword. None of the characters seem particularly perturbed if the Tactician repeatedly makes them fight alongside the same person over and over again in hopes that they will take a break from battle and flirt with each other.

The ever amusing shipping mechanics of FE, as lampshaded  by Lute and Artur

I, of course, was daydreaming during that particular tutorial, and found out about supports in my first playthrough by having Seth constantly rescue Eirika because I never leveled her up and didn't want her to die. As soon as I realized I could make a lady-and-her-knight pairing (which I'm a complete sucker for, by the way), I was completely sold on Fire Emblem. Romance options all the way! The games also have supports that potentially have gay/lesbian subtext (depending on how you read it) but none of them particularly stood out to me in this game, unlike Ike and Soren or Heather and Nephenee from Radiant Dawn where they were practically oozing with subtext.

Ah, the memories of all the couples I brought together.

For anyone interested in tackling Fire Emblem, keep in mind that half the battle is understanding your units' strengths, weaknesses, and how best to play them on the chessboard of war. No unit can solve every problem, and each has things they're weak against as well as certain class specific vulnerabilities. If you play things well, becoming a master of Fire Emblem is no impossible dream, but I've met far too many people who rely too much on physically strong characters without paying attention to mages and healers, or who don't understand how to launch an offense without sacrificing units. Don't worry: it can be done! But you will have to use your brain, and even then, it might take additional playthroughs to perform to your best potential. And that's one of the things I love most about Fire Emblem. It's highly re-playable, and with each go through, you can focus on new characters and uncover even more supports and secrets!

Next up will be tearjerking classic CLANNAD (plus After Story). Thanks for everyone who continues to follow my posts!