Super Smash Bros. for Wii U (Wii U)

Happy Together!

So not only have I've been dusting off my old reliable Wii U, I also went through reading this old blog and realised that when I wrote about Smash Bros for 3DS I wrote that I would play the Wii U version, but I never wrote about it, mostly because as noted, I was a bit burned out by the series, and it has actually not been helped with Ultimate. So why didn't I play that instead? Well, I mostly played the Wii U version because it was the last game in the series as of yet to have trophies. And you couldn't transfer data between the version, what a huge hassle.

Cause what is there otherwise to talk about? It's a fighting game and works as much every other Smash game. Didn't help the Wii U that much, but introduced DLC where we finally got Roy back in the fold. As well as Mewtwo that you could get for free if you bought both games and registered it on some Club Nintendo site or such, unfortunately I bought the 3DS version in a Swedish shop meaning it didn't have the code so I had to buy it on the side. Well everything is bought online today so no problem with that anymore.

So I played through Classic Mode with every character, and some on All-Star Mode, but with this many characters it's a real pain getting through it. Also, All-Star mode is fine since it's pretty much the same as it always been, but Classic mode, what a downgrade from the original (now this might be just me playing it on easy since I want to get through it) but I recall Classic mode have different phases with metal Mario, large and small versions and such spicing up the gameplay, here it's just move around the board and choose a group of enemies. And why isn't there any Adventure mode like in Melee or Brawl? At least the 3DS had the great cave offensive or whatever it was called. So nothing special about, works like everyone else and if you have a couple of friends it's a great time, maybe not so much playing alone.

So why is trophies so important? Because it introduced me to a much larger world of games. In Melee you could get trophies from games that wasn't out yet and games that never was released in Europe or the US. The stickers in Ultimate doesn't tell me anything about the games they come from. I learned about Earthbound from the trophies, got me interested in Metal Gear before the Twin Snakes come out and something called the Famicom Detective Club... wait, that came out on the Switch some time ago. And I got it, might be a fun playthrough.

Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore (Switch)

Go Go Power Rangers!

Been a summer of remakes and remasters (as of writing, when this goes up we are in November) so the time came for this one I haven't played since 2016. I decided to play it on hard this time since why not? And after roughly 50 hours I wonder, am I actually good at this game? I finished it in less than 70 hours that I played the original game on Normal, where I also used the DLC to level grind since I couldn't bother with playing as intended at that time. The achievement trophies are also a lot more filled out. I presume maybe the level grinding made it possible to avoid all battles, but instead this time I got more performa and got more skills that enabled stronger characters, but lower levels? It could also be due to me much faster just read the text and skip the spoken words, which I can't understand and fasten the session attacks. Or the improved quality of life upgrades maybe did something for me, if I noticed it at all. The big one was that they actually made a movie menu where I can watch the music movies instead of replaying the game. Still, the game is really lacking a quest log to keep track on requests and such, side stories they have in Topic, but requests you gotta remember what to do or whom to talk too. It would have been easier if the maps showed all request locations on such, but it only works if you are in that area.

The biggest change is that, since you don't have the Wii U gamepad they moved all the Topic and maps and such to the start button. It's also better since I recall I often had stop the game to look at the gamepad in order to go through Topic every 5 seconds. More costumes added and they also added an "arena" where you can go through in order to get more costumes and session attacks from non-main characters plus some extra story bits about Itsuki, Kiria and Tsubasa. Mostly the same story bits as the main game if you ask me.

Overall, the story is the same as I wrote the last time and still holds up for what it is. The social commentary is still relevant and all that. Still the censored version, but I don't mind that. What I noticed though this time around is... whatever happened to the CEO of Daiba that were hinted as a probably main antagonist that just disappears just after he is introduced? Where that some cut content to get it finished the first time or was it as intended? Also, is it really that smart to make Itsuki the President of Fortuna Entertainment (... Fortuna Entertainment, FE... Fire Emblem... never got that the first time) when pretty much every female employe of that company wants him? I can see potential #Metoo-moments here... and it might be the employees that harass the employer.

Lastly, the main character Itsuki, I resonate more with him now than I did back in 2016. Mostly because I now acknowledge that I have some things in common with him (not the thing about every female coworker jumping after me, let's not be unrealistic here). More that, just like him, I just follow what happens, I haven't had some real ambition in life to where I wanted to go and just followed the tide and just like him I feel I've ended up at a good place. That feels rather nice.

Fire Emblem Warriors

Fates of Awakening

So since playing Switch is more and more fun and easier than the Wii U that is stuck near the TV I felt a small pull to play a Hyrule Warrior kinda game (I know it's the Dynasty Warrior franchise that started it, but I've only played the Zelda one) and since the preferred Dragon Warrior game for Switch aren't coming to the west at the moment I had to go to the next best thing, a fire emblem version. And it was fun, but boy, I who can stomach clichés starts to feel that Fire Emblem really need to change its game, and this isn't even a main game. 

So basically, the Outrealm gates that are established since Awakening turns up in the kingdom of Ayolies where the the twin prince and princess Rowan and Lianna are sparing with neighbour prince Darios. They escape with the Fire Emblem (shield) and a quest to find 5 heroes to fill the emblem with the jewels to gain the divine dragons strength. So obviously it's the damn shadow/chaos dragon from earlier games like Awakening and the remake of the first game (if it's the dragon of Fates as well I wouldn't know, I've still haven't finished all parts of those games) and Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE. I'm getting tired of this plot mostly because the enemies are so one-dimensional. It's always the dark dragon corrupting or manipulating everyone to release him and then I have to stop him as he just breaks free. I start to find that may be the reason I like the first western Fire Emblem and the Radiance duology more. The world is more complex in those with political themes and in ways the villains are sympathetic. In the first western one the bad guy is Nergal who pretty much went insane from losing his children as they were half-dragons and he didn't want one special dragon, he wanted to purge humanity and they discuss power politics of the nobles that effects the lower classes and so on. Same goes for the Radiance games, the bad guy is the goddess of Order who tries to bring order and stop her "sister", the goddess of chaos, that almost destroyed the world last time, but since both are split from the original goddess it is clear they are in reality unbalanced. She's helped by people that have lost faith in humanity due to prejudice and greed. And Ike is the first main character that isn't a noble, a person more to the ideals and incorruptible. I love those games.

Best blue haired main character

So it plays pretty much like Hyrule Warriors, but different attacks and characters. I found some improvements that are wonderful. For example you can switch (haha) between 4 characters on the field and all of your characters (even non-playable ally characters) level up on their own, meaning it goes faster to get characters higher level (I would suspect it might be due to more characters than Zelda). They also put in the weapon triangle from Fire Emblem and I can get behind that (maybe since I know it by heart), you know swords beat axes that beats lances that beats swords. Attacking with the right weapon gives you advantage and makes it easier to break their "shield". Which is probably why they have the switch-mechanic. Overall, it feels better and smoother.

So I like the gameplay and the story is boring. But there is glimmers for a fire emblem veteran. For example first meeting with the Awakening players is a recreation of the first scene of that game. And at first I wondered if it was the original voices and I just now checked it out, yes, many of them are the same, some are not, especially enigmatic with Fates characters that was released not that long ago. So you got to meet the different heroes, Chrom first, then Xander, Ryoma and Corrin and lastly Marth. And here is another problem, it's the same games over and over. Why three from Fates? Really, the hero of those games are Corrin while Chrom was Awakening and Marth is Marth, but why not from other games? They just released Shadow of Valencia, why not some cross-promotion? I still haven't got that one. And were is my Ike and Eliwood characters (I see Lyndis is somewhere in the game, I assume the history mode which I need to grind up the characters to be able to tackle).

At least the models look like their games

Also, the mind-control thing was weird in Zelda, here it's just irritating mainly because in the Fire Emblem games it's overused. It's been there for me since Sacred Stones (also, why didn't we use that game as base, there were twins as well?). I can't stand it since it's so obvious and tired. Then again, I've had a hard time to figure out if one of the main characters in this games actually was taken over or did it for himself. It's framed like he was taken over, but they don't act like it. Could also be that I saw the Robin turn and just waited for it to kick in so I could kick him out. And the Iago chapters. Hate that guy.

There is a two-player mode, but I haven't played it and frankly, at the moment without looking at the history mode doesn't feel necessary (like I felt to manage some missions on the Zelda game). The history mode is pretty much a map from different games where they put out some enemies that are missions you need to play in order to get to the end. The only one I watched was the Lyndis one where they reimagined the intro with characters from this game. A pity they didn't use the right class since I believe it was Will the Archer and not Mark the Tactician that gave the news about the layout of the map. At least the ending battle with the dragon was awesome.

Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright (3DS)

The goody-two-shoes Japanese edition

So there was a new Fire Emblem game and hooked as I am on the series I had to get it. Only one catch, they decided to split it in two and let the players choose which scenario they want to play. Goddammit, it’s the Pokemon-scheme. So Birthright or Conquest? Technically it doesn’t matter since you could download the other one and it was basically expected to download a third part named Revelation. But with limited online capabilities what does one do? Get the limited edition of course where all three is on the same cartridge together with concept art and a steel-case game box. So now it’s just matter of playing through each part from start to finish to get the full story.

I really gotta look out for more special editions if they come with this kinda extras

The core concept is that Corrin, a child in the Nohr Royal Family living hidden away in a castle were his/her (you can choose gender for the character) staff takes care and the other royal members visits and trains with Corrin. Xander, Camille, Leo and Elise. All children to the King of Nohr Garon. You know, it isn’t great when a ruler reminds me of Ganon from Legend of Zelda. Corrin is sent out on a mission to investigate a fort near the chasm between the countries Nohr and Hoshido. There Corrin is attacked and ultimately betrayed by a servant of King Garon and you end up in the Hoshidan capital were the big twist is explained. Corrin is actually from the Hoshido royal family that incidentally have the same amount of family members, and I can’t spell their names right from memory since Hoshido is based on asian (and particular Japanese culture) while Nohr is european. As Corrin accepts the situation and gets to know the Queen the dastardly plan of King Garon unleash. While performing a ritual in the capital square the sword Corrin have reacts and acts like a splitter-bomb and the Queen steps infant of Corrin to save her child. Corrin than turns into a dragon. The armies clash over this and you are confronted by the Nohr family you grew up with and the Hoshidan family that are your blood relatives, choose side. And from here you play either Conquest or Birthright.

The bad guy really have potential, a pity doesn't come forth in this version of the game

So the story of Birthright follows Corrin choosing the Hoshidan side and unites the sibling split during the war and leads them on a attack on the capital of Nohr to confront King Garon and dethrone him as the only way to achieve peace across the continent. And I gotta say, the game is rather boring. It might be that in my fantasy game I actually expect the medieval european setting so with weapons and armour designs I can’t quite grasp I feel a bit lost. And the story is a bit to formulaic. It feels like a rethread of the very first Fire Emblem (which was remade as Shadow Dragon for the DS) where your land have been conquered so strike at the heart, meet a sage that upgrades your weapon and fight the big bad and the innocent victims of his reign. And of course he turns into a dragon. It’s a Fire Emblem after all. But there is interesting things hidden here and there. Characters you actually play as dies in the story… I thought, turns out one particular character that died on one chapter could have been saved if I had gotten support A with Corrin. Game, you really try my patience here. So skip that. The other good things was that they mention that life in Nohr is harsh where no one leaves the towns since they risk being attacked by faceless ones, monster of clay and abominations. They aren’t explained in this. But it also told of Nohrs lack of resources like food which forces them to constantly fight wars of conquest to get more resources. Then it’s the hint about Garon’s changed personality and his different wifes. There are interesting stuff there, and certain scenes at the end leading up to the confrontation are really pulling me in. A pity that it’s chapter 36 or something and there are 37-38 of them. A bit late so to speak. You defeat Garon, and Azura, the Nohr nobility that Hoshido took instead of Corrin sacrifice herself to keep Garon calm with her song as she is this games dancer. Looks a lot like Ninian from Fire Emblem nr 1 in Europe. Hoshidian coronation and then hints that it is more to Azura and Garon and so on. Thank god its over.

I don’t know why but it felt like a slog to go through this game. It really didn’t grip me until the end it might have been due to seeing more of the Nohr family which is the more interesting one and I’ve heard Birthright was the worst part of this game. So Conquest next. I would assume the siblings would be reversed. Maybe Ryoma (the oldest one) goes insane after losing both his mother and sister again cause I wouldn’t get why I would fight Garon in Conquest or am I confronting him with some knowledge I will get? i assume Revelation will gathers all characters into one giant battle against the real evil behind this, Garon mentioned some god while changing to dragon so I wouldn’t be surprised if that is the great evil that unleashes the faceless ones. Better get going, wait they released another Fire Emblem-game, another remake from before the releases in Europe? Oh god, I will either be burned by this series if that turns out an disappointment as well or it might rekindle my lost passion for this series. Or maybe Blazing Sword and the Ike-games where the peak of the series.

Still best game in the series!

Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE

The game that really pushes the J in JRPG

This game... a game I wasn't gonna get, but as the release date came and went I looked at some reviews and after watching one trailer that had some really amazing music I couldn't resist so I got it. And immediately starting playing I wondered if I've made a terrible mistake. I knew getting in that it was a JRPG set in modern Tokyo so no problem there, although I prefer the more traditional fantasy setting, and as follows the kids are 18 year old high-school students... that are getting in the Japanese idol business. I assume my sister would find this game more enticing than me. But it is colourful and the music is really amazing. And as I play I realise that this is one of the best social commentaries of our modern world I've ever seen. It's even subtle. So basically the story starts as Itsuki (the main character) is hanging out on some kind of department store and waiting for his best friend Touma. Suddenly he is caught in a stream of kids all ages that are gonna try out some singing contest and there he spots Tsubasa, a childhood friend of his. He follows, she sings and suddenly the announcer is possessed by some ghost and kidnaps Tsubasa and take her into what we later learn is an idolashpere. Some kind of shadow place of the area we are in. Being the hero Itsuki jumps in afterwards. The idolasphere is dark, even creepy, filled with cloaked shadowy creatures roaming the corridors. He is attacked by one of them and... for some reason are able to infuse some strange light into the shadow and it appears it's Chrom from Fire Emblem: Awakening. They form a pact and rescue Tsubasa by infusing yet another shadow that turns out to be Shiida from Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon (the remake of the first game in the Fire Emblem-series). Touma appears to save them and it's revealed he had infused himself with Cain, the red knight from Shadow Dragon. They escape and Touma brings them to the attention of the president of Fortuna Entertainment, an agency for singers, actors and models.

... nice to meet you, miss President!

Itsuki and Tsubasa get hired and we launch Tsubasa's singing career while Itsuki does... support I guess. Really, it never fells like Itsuki is the main character of the game. It's mostly Tsubasa in the beginning with her search for her sister that disappeared 5 years ago  (that we rescue not long after) and her budding idol-carreer. Then it switch over to the last character to join the group, Yashiro. Yashiro is a male superstar that after some confrontations during missions joins their agency as he sees the best option to find out about his father that disappeared 5 years ago as well and his vengaence on the mirages who did this. The shadowy cloaked figures are mirages and are from another world. Images of the former heroes Fire Emblem, so besides those already mention there is Virion and Tharja from Awakening and Draug and Navarre from Shadow Dragon. As you can see, most characters are from Shadow Dragon and Awakening, but there are other references to the series. For example the waitress of the cafe in Shibuya is Illiyana from the Radiance-duology, the jeweller-sales woman gotta be Aime from the same game and both sales woman at the Ho He Mart is Anne that appears in several games in the series. Real satisfying when I realised that. Several of the games weapons are referenced and many villains of the series makes a return here. This is the setup, so what's the story? Gharnef, the evil sorcerer of Shadow Dragon has bonded with a human on earth and are about bringing forth the Shadow Dragon (from Shadow Dragon and Awakening) by stealing the performa (I would say something like talent and inspiration) of the humans and use it to resurrect Medeus. He failed 5 years ago due to Tiki's interference (the manakete from mentioned games) and are now doing it again. So you gotta stop him from stealing "performa". And here the subtleness of the game appears. It might be a sleazy contest holder that is corrupted, or a model photographer, or a TV/Movie director. People that some people put their trust in that can sometimes abuse that. The photographer example the easiest to remember due to that it originally was supposed to play up the "girls in bikini"-angle which they toned down in the west due to censoring over sexualization, of course taking away the message that you shouldn't always trust those that promises easy ways to stardom. Anyway, after figuring out who it is you decide that the only way to stop Gharnef is using the Opera of Light: Fire Emblem to counter the Opera of Shadow. You head in to a idolasphere of Tiki's memories and receive the powers of the ancient heroes that defeated Medeus before. Except the soul of Marth that Gharnef combines with his own in summoning the dragon. All seems lost, but Itsuki won't get down with a fight. They climb the final idolasphere and prepares to do the Opera of Light in hope that the stolen soul of Marth still would be triggered. And then...

WHOA!!! Did not see that coming!

If you can't see it's the reveal of Medeus and the first thing he does is fire a laser at Itsuki that kills him. We didn't even get to start the fight. Of courses friends mourn him and the soul of the other heroes emerges and attacks the dragon, releasing Marth's soul, turning Itsuki into Marth as they defeat the dragon and saves the world. Everyone become a giant star within their field and Itsuki takes over as president of Fortuna Enterprise since miss Maiko returns to her life as a model... well, she sure looks the part. It took me 70 hours to play through this game. And it's really mixed if I like it or not, I like the gameplay, fast and satisfying in battles, the music goes from awesome to so cheesy I can't help but like it, especially the songs they put in. And don't think I didn't notice the Splatoon reference in the game. Both songs and visuals. And as noted I liked the nods and references to the Fire Emblem-games, but the story. I liked the social commentary, and it's standard good vs evil, but the personal problem of the idols are boring as hell. It's about understanding "cute", "sexy", "how to be a hero", one has to learn about eating. Really, Yashiro don't get the concept of eating in regular intervals since that was what is assistant took care of. All I can say is that these character at least get character development from aliens and robots to somewhat functional humans. The only one that hardly get any is Itsuki. He's always the good guy or I at least I played him that way... with maybe a bit of flirtatious behaviour. Then again, he's constantly sexual harassed by Maiko so I don't know, maybe I played him with a bit of bad taste. Speaking of bad taste:

Goddamit Barry!

The most embarrassing character of the whole game. On one hand we have this death metal guitarist, former mirage master and the coach for everyone in Fortuna Entertainment. And the other hand... it's Barry Goodman. I don't mind his obsession with an animated kids show, hell, I've obsessed about nostalgic shows for me, but somehow Barry even grates on me. Then we have the love interest. It's obviously Tsubasa x Itsuki. But they don't get it, but everyone else see it. Doesn't stop every other girl for crushing on Itsuki. And the worst part? It actually feels like a better choice in some of them. Take Eleonoras side quest which is she needs help playing a young high-school girl that falls in love so she need Itsuki to go on a date with her so she can method act the role. The final side-quest is you doing those things again, but she quizzes you if you remember what you did. As to see if Itsuki actually played attention to her. And that is really sweet. I actually started to feel they belonged more together than Tsubasa and Itsuki. Sure, Eleonora was irritating at first with her "Hollywood" talk and boasting about her superior knowledge of the movie industry. But I still grew to like her and it really felt bitter-sweet that her dream become realised, she will go to Hollywood, but she will leave Itsuki behind.

Could be due to her being the most normal sized girl of them all around... the chest area

So the characters is hit or miss and their relationship between each other is mixed as well. Otherwise it's fun to play, and I really like the animated music videos (and most of the music ain't bad). Is it for everyone? No, I have a hard time myself with the modern world and the focus of the idol industry and frankly the idolaspheres mostly are dark and moody. They don't get better until the end when we finally have some forest and ruins that doesn't go in the colours black and purple. Still, would have preferred a more fantasy setting since there ain't no RPG for the Wii U in the west... can't wait for the Dragon Quest VII release.

Super Smash Bros for 3DS

I wasn't gonna write about this game until I got all the characters and their trophies in the single player modes, but after a while I realized I would have to play a lot more than I can stomach. Really, I've felt burnt out by the series since Brawl. Could be that I more or less played through Brawl twice, once at my family version and then on my own (had I copied over the save I might not have this feeling). Really, Melee was probably more fun to play with since it actually was me and my three sisters playing it and therefore we weren't burned out getting characters as Ganondorf and such who needed several hundreds of melee battles. Cause really, there is nothing wrong with the game. It's fun and works mostly the same and have the same modes and even some new ones that have my interest... but I don't feel like play it that much and when I do, maybe 30 minutes at the most. Maybe the small screen tires me out.

And really, this is an appetizer for the Wii U version that comes out at the end of November. Hopefully the data I accumulate here can be transferred to the Wii U and unlock things so I don't have to put another 40 hours into basically the same game to gain the same characters. If it isn't I get the feeling that this series will loose me. Another reason I might not like playing it that much is all the talk about playing to hard might break the control stick, which at the moment I don't have the spare cash to replace... or at least wait until the New 3DS comes to Europe. And thirdly... so many other games that doesn't feel like a chore to play through.

Fire Emblem: Awakening

 

So this last week I played the latest Fire Emblem, finishing it after 50-60 hours of gameplay on Normal Classic mode (meaning the easiest setting with "if a character dies it gone forever" mode). So, what did I think? It was a fun game, had that Fire Emblem feeling to it that makes you play all night and whispering "just one more turn" or start over and over each time one unit dies. The core mechanic is the same and works as good as the other games in the series (you can  read my thought on the western releases here). Graphically it's probably the best of them. You have beautiful anime cut-scenes, the battle 3d models is probably the best with distinguishable features on the characters and the character portraits looks alive. Musically, it's pleasant and work fine all around. Best is when you battle an epic boss fight and this choir starts chanting and music rises making you feel as it's now or never. Strangely enough it part of the opening scene. Doesn't beat the opening of the first western Fire Emblem though.

Gameplay wise, what's the difference between this one and the others? The easiest one to notice is that we once again have a world map which hasn't been seen since The Sacred Stones. And with it follows skirmishes against the undead as an easier way to gain exp and support between the characters. And the support system is probably the most important feature in this game, not only do you get bonuses between the characters and flesh out the story and characters, you also have an incentive as you gain new characters with it when certain supports lead characters to marry and have children together (which is a mechanic they used in one of the earlier Japanese-only releases). And now the best improvement of all, you can have more than 5 support conversations, the only restriction is 1 S-support per character. Finally. Also, a new feature to speed this process up is the pair-up system in which to character joins up in attack and defence. It seems also that this feature replaced the rescue ability.

Story then, the most important part of games like these. It starts with you (our your self-customed avatar, a more in depth character than your tactician from the first western released game) and a man named Chrom attacking this almost devil-like person on his throne. You kill him of, cut-scene and you get hurt as you show Chrom away from the final attack. As he stands over you saying it's finally over a dark power comes over you and you stab Chrom with magic. As he falls he says that it isn't my fault and that I should escape this place. Blackout and I awake in a field with this girl looking over me (throwback again to the first Fire Emblem released in the west?) and her brother... Chrom. As you can guess this entry contains time-travel. This makes the focused moral of this story, can we change our fates? Or are we predestined that trying to avoid the future it will always steer us back? A lot less social commentary also, except that war is bad, but sometimes the sacrifice is necessary. I think it also discussed why people follow leaders and different types of leaders. Charisma, fear or undying "love"/belief. Also, this game is set in the same world as the first Fire Emblem, be it with different countries and names on the dark dragon. The proof is that they mention Marth, Cain and Abel as well having one of the characters still living, Tiki. Main story a bit short with only 25 chapters, but there is enough side stories if you can unlock them and apparently a lot of downloadable content. So you probably will have your fill. The ending then after battling through a mad neighbor, a megalomaniac emperor and the devotees of a dark god is... interesting. There is two possible endings based on one answer to you as one of the main characters. I took the one I perceived as the most noble and it was emotional,  but I'm a bit sad they didn't have a "true good" ending if you did for example get all A-supports with your character. I will not say any more so that I don't spoil it for anyone. Well worth a play and it really pushes the one thing that makes it stand out among this genre, the characters. Don't know if this is better than the first Fire Emblem due to my nostalgia love for that game, but if GBA games doesn't get available on the 3DS then this game doesn't have anything to fear if I want a Fire Emblem dose.

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?