Fire Emblem

Wow, two posts in one one week, that was a long time. It's almost I can remember when it was one input a day. Those were the times. The reason for that is I feel it goes my way at the moment. Yeah, searched several possible jobs today that I guess will lead to nothing (it hasn't done it for the last 12 months), but when I went to get groceries I found they had once again began selling fil with strawberry flavor. It's the small things in life that matters. Hm? Oh yeah, I also got an internship... what?

Leaving my personal search for a job aside, I would like to write about a gaming series I am very fond of. No, not Golden Sun. It's about Fire Emblem. A turn-based strategy RPG set in different medieval fantasy settings were you guide a lord (mostly lords, the GameCube and Wii didn't) to a certain goal (mostly a quest to prevent dragons from destroying the world they live in, again there is exceptions). Anyway, this series is a really old one, but the first western release wasn't until 2004 in Europe. I don't remember why I bought it, what I've had read. I can probably guess it came down to it being a fantasy RPG with similar gameplay as Advance Wars from 2002 and made by the same studio. Since I liked that game I probably didn't mind to much. I got it and the instant I put it on I could feel that it was well worth it. The intro music is a really haunting piece that conveys sadness over what has been lost as well as anger over it. A beautiful piece and that's only the intro. The music score in the whole game is fantastic and doesn't get boring even though you play the same damn map over and over again for days. There was likable characters that you cared about and you would do anything to see them live on, watching them grow as persons and together with each other. And that demanded some sacrifices from the player since this game is famous for it's "killed off for real". And for a game completionist that is a case of several rage quits. With death ever present the story reaches a new level on how much feelings you put into the characters (although when your slowest unit gets doubled by a 30 % critical hit for the 10 time you start to hate that character). A bright future was upon us.

 

Then they released the next game. Not set in the same world, you now battled an evil empire bent on releasing the demons banished 800 years ago while monsters roam the world harassing the populace of your ruined country. Improvements was that they didn't have the linearity from the first game with two branching paths in the story as well as a branching path with the promotions of character give it a wider difference in every game session and you could roam the map and visit old places fighting monsters. The problem is a weaker story and I guess it would be due to the branching path. Too much gets lost when you play the chapter as either character and need you to play the game twice and much get lost, especially in that you meet the same characters, but for different reasons and you feel that in one path it's obvious why they are there while the other just makes it feel out of placed. What they should have done was to play the chapters side by side showing their struggle on both sides and building up more tension against those who hunt you. The other problem is that it is to easy due to the fact with the monster encounters and "training stages" where you can level up all of your characters beyond the least amount of levels needed to beat the enemies. That also means that I don't seem to invest more into the different characters since, if one dies I just level them up and redo it instead of more strategy. All in all, a bit of disappointment compared to the shining star the first game was. I can't even remember any special tunes compared to the first game.

 

Next followed the GameCube game Path of Radiance. A step up with good voice acting in certain cut-scenes  (which by the way were gorgeous looking), some gameplay changes with the ability to move units on steeds again after the attack creating a new tactic of hit and run, a new race of shape-shifting animals (which was just the next step from the manaketes from the earlier games). The support system from the old games changed from amount of turns next to each other to how many maps they fought together simplifying it and make it easier to talk with them. A great story once again where you invested much more into the characters as they were hunted down by the dark empire as they seek shelter with the last heir to the crown of what the mercenary group can call their homeland. The hero fight for ideals he believe in as well as trying to find revenge on the person who killed his father, the Black Knight, one of the highest ranking generals in Daein. You have slave trade, corruption, genocide, racism, isolation and inhumane experiments on animals, beorcs and laguz. Subject still interesting. What is then the problems? Well, the graphics are not as nice, the 3d character models are a bit... blocky? Blurry? They still had the 2d (cell-shaded?) character portraits and they were as good as ever. The other is that the laguz is not that good. They can't promote beyond their first class so they get 40 levels instead of the 20 for any other class, but you still don't want to use them since they hog experience compared to every beorc and they aren't that useful when they only can fight at certain intervals in the battle when they are in their animal form when they have to avoid battle as they are defenseless in human form. No wonder they are discriminated.

 

The following game was the continuation of Path of Radiance in Radiant Dawn. Same everything except more characters, improved the use of laguz by at least give them some defence mechanism with claws and a larger story. Still, almost the same subject, but they changed the order a bit. The game is separated in parts with the first part being the liberation of Daein with a underground resistance group challenging the oppression of the invading army from the last game (not the army you lead in the first since you gave up the command to the empire of Begnion that supported you, a bad move in hindsight with all the corruption and extremism in the Senate). The second follows the unrest in the struggling kingdom of Crimea under her new Queen as she fights a conspiracy of nobles trying to take the power in a civil war. The third part is back with the hero from the last game as he and his mercenary team is enlisted in the war between the laguz and Begnion. All the struggle awakens the two opposing gods, one of chaos and one of order (in a "twist" the god of chaos is more good since order means the destruction of all living things since they are "unpredictable" and therefore chaotic). Next part is when all those forces you have been playing are united and decides to vanquish the god of order, fighting their way trough imperial soldiers pushed on by their mislead and corrupted leaders. Still, same problems as the last game although small improvements, but some new problems arrived. For example the support system was gone, but at least you could still interact with the characters giving it flesh on the story bone. Then we have the story structure, good that we could see all sides, bad that many of the characters you played with in part 1 disappeared until part 4. That's too long of a break to build a lasting relation with them. People I liked in the first part was forgotten when I got back and left me with the hero from the last game as my favorite, since I played him the most (his story part was the longest of them). Too fix that it would have to been a longer campaign with more character development in the last chapters to remind me why I like these new character more than the old ones I played for almost 3 years.

 

At least that game was better then the remake of the first game. The story is pretty normal for a Fire Emblem-game, but where is the filling? There is no support system so you don't know more about the characters than their joining commentary, what's their motives? What's their background? What are the relation with the other characters? Then we have the graphics. The maps and movement models of the characters are OK, but the fighting stage? Same problem as the 3d games (well, obvious since they also are 3d models). The GBA-era had distinguishable faces (maybe not the best, but you saw eyes and mouths). Not in this, blank faces. It just makes the characters... inhuman. And the characters portrait, GOD the characters portrait. They at least have faces... but not the townspeople. They have eyes, and yet not. Empty sockets that stare at the gamers. Yes, they stare at the gamers while playable characters and enemies look at each other in the corner of their eyes. What the HELL? What happened? Boring story, ugly character graphics and scary portraits, it couldn't get worse.

And it didn't, the next game fixed most problems and was a remake of the second part of the Marth story. You created a character that was your avatar and could interact with the others (probably a throwback to the first international released Fire Emblem with its Tactician character), the support system was back. Still not satisfying graphics, but the story was said to be more fleshed out. Was said? Yeah, they haven't released it outside of Japan yet, and that came out more then a year ago and now the rumors is up for Fire Emblem 3DS, more or less implying we won't see that story. Europe (and the US) gets screwed over once again. Why, oh why?