Well, as this is my first Review, I’ll try to make it as good as I can. Okay, I’ll be reviewing Fire Emblem for the Gameboy Advance. This is the seventh game in the Fire Emblem series for Japan and the first for the USA. Up to four players can play in link battle.

I’ll have a scale of 0 to 20, for the highest level you can reach in a class. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the Review.
 

Graphics: 19

All I can say is, yikes! This has some insanely good graphics for a Gameboy Advance game. The battle map graphics aren’t what you'd call perfect, and it’s hard to tell who’s who on your side because they’re all the same color and people in the same class (I’ll get to that later) look the same. That all changes when the characters enter battle…

The attacks are a work of art on their own. Watch Nergal’s Ereshkigal or Athos’s Foreblaze spell in battle and you’ll just be dumbfounded. Criticals are the best part of the animation, and they’re quite cool. However, I’m not too fond of seeing black dots for eyes in battle.

In cut scenes, there are a few parts where we see an actual art depiction of the scene. These pictures appear as if they were taken from an anime cartoon. Even anti-anime people will appreciate the art in the game.

I took off a point for the battle map graphics and the character graphics in battle, but nonetheless, this is excellent.
 

Music: 20

It’s like an orchestra in your Gameboy Advance! The songs aren’t just tunes that play over and over and over and over again, not at all! These are great tunes. Marth and Roy’s theme from SSBM still sounds great on the Gameboy Advance, maybe even better. There’s no way that this can’t get a perfect score. Golden Sun doesn’t even live up to Fire Emblem’s music rep.
 

Levels/Missions: 18

Levels, rather known as chapters, are where you fight. In this game, you are never in a safe place where enemies don’t roam. Each chapter has enemies roaming freely under the boss’ commands. I took off points for two reasons. The first reason is because of the graphics in the battle map as I stated earlier. The second reason is that all of the chapters are just moving your units and attacking. It would be nice to move around in a place and solve puzzles in some parts.

Each chapter has a mission. While you may think all of the missions are destroying all the enemy units, you are wrong. There are plenty of different missions to suit any person. In some chapters you must defend the throne from the enemy, seize the castle, and in some chapters you are supposed to protect an innocent person on the battlefield. All in all, the missions are interesting and entertaining.
 

Classes: 15

You only have three units in Chapter 1: two cavaliers and one lord to command. However, as you progress, more people join your growing army, and you’re presented with different character classes.

Each class has different functions in your army. The cleric and troubadour can’t attack enemy units or defend. However, they heal units that are close to death. Archers can deal critical damage to Pegasus Knights and Wyvern Riders, but are sitting ducks if an enemy fights them head-on. Thieves are the only people who can steal from the enemy and loot treasure chests without a key.

When one of your units reaches level ten, you can use a special item like a Elysian Whip, Knight’s Crest, Heaven Seal, Hero’s Crest, or Earth Seal (obtainable along your journey) to have the unit go up in class. There are two classes (Thieves and Pirates) who need two one-of-a-kind items that can only be found in one place each (minus the secret shop). Archers become Snipers, Shamans become Druids, Monks become Bishops, Thieves become Assassins, and so on and so forth. However, it is recommended you wait until level 20 (the highest) before leveling them up to have the highest stats.

I took off points for the fact that most of the characters look the same and it’s hard to tell them apart. Sometimes that can be the difference between life and death if one of them is a low level and you wanted the higher level to attack. I wish there was a way to distinguish them.
 

Bosses: 20

Every chapter has a boss. In Fire Emblem, a boss is an enemy unit with stronger weapons, higher levels, and higher stats. Bosses, of course, aren’t just called ‘bosses’ or ‘enemy units’, they have names and reasons for fighting, which is good, because I don’t like random bosses with no reason whatsoever to fight.

What I like about the bosses is that if you use a certain character of yours to attack them, this will replace the boss’ regular opening battle taunt with a short conversation between the two (for example, use Lyn, Sain, or Kent against Lord Lundgren in Chapter 10 to trigger the conversation). Pay attention and find out whether any of your are related to the boss in any way.

You don’t have to defeat the bosses in all of the chapters, although they can net you good experience. Sometimes, it’s good to let them be. In one chapter, you have to spare the Wyvern Lord boss if you want to have her join your team in a later chapter. The bosses aren’t all mindless killers. I like bosses with personalities.
 

Characters: 19

Characters will join your army throughout the entire game, and it is your job to recruit them. Some characters need someone to talk to them before they join, some will join automatically, and sometimes you are faced with two different possible recruits and you can only pick one (ex. Karel and Harken, Wallace and Geitz). Recruiting is essential through the entire game, so make good use of it.

The characters all have personalities. Sadly, I had to take a point off for cutscenes with characters. We only get to see the characters’ heads (why is that?) when we don’t see that anime-style art, and they sometimes don’t display the right facial expression when needed. It is quite humorous to see one of your units die but have a joyous smile on their face while saying their last words.
 

Character Interaction: 20

I haven’t seen a game where characters can interact in such a way (well, other than online MMORPG’s and Sim games) as they do in Fire Emblem. If you keep two characters on the battlefield close to each other for a while, they will have the option to support each other. When you choose the support option, your characters will talk to each other, and the conversation will be saved and can be watched again in the Extras section on the main menu.

The support option will be very useful once you support the same person three times. When the characters remain close to each other after that, their stats will be boosted, giving them an advantage in combat. Also, but not as important, the characters can have special endings.

Also, there’s the talk command. Sometimes it’s important, sometimes it’s not. The talk command may need to be used to recruit someone, but sometimes it’s just there in a certain chapter for your entertainment. Character interaction is two thumbs up.
 

Storyline: 20

There are two main storylines. Lyn’s Campaign and Eliwood’s Campaign are your two storylines (Hector’s Campaign is just a different view of Eliwood’s Campaign along with more chapters and a greater challenge). In Lyn’s Campaign, you are a tactician (your name, gender, and birth month decided by you) who is rescued by a nomadic girl named Lyn. Soon, two knights come and discover she is the granddaughter of a king. However, the king’s brother wants the throne to himself now that the rightful heir, Lyn, is gone. Your mission is to get back to the kingdom and defeat Lyn’s uncle.

That may seem like a drop-dead bad storyline alone, but then Eliwood’s Campaign comes up. A year later, Eliwood (Roy’s father, in case you didn’t know) has gone on a search mission to find his missing father. Soon he teams up with his best friend Hector, and later he teams up with Lyn also. However, trouble lurks, and it’s not as straightforward as it seems.

An assassin’s guild known as The Black Fang has Eliwood’s father on the line, and he is a threat to their major plan: bringing back dragons to the world. Eliwood has to go through The Black Fang, but things get more complicated. When Eliwood discovers a girl and her brother near the Black Fang’s hideout, Eliwood gets that strange feeling of, you guessed it, love. However, the girl hides a secret, and the Black Fang seeks that secret and the girl. It’s Eliwood’s mission to stop the Black Fang, but is the Black Fang the real threat, or is there more?

With more twists than a pretzel, this is a rollercoaster story that will please you tremendously.
 

Strategy: 19 1/2

As this is a Strategy RPG, this should be discussed. Your role is a tactician whose purpose is to guide the soldiers through this giant war. You must know your plan of strategy. If one of your soldier’s dies, they don’t come back, so watch your moves closely.

The enemies move on their own, and they seem to have a mind of their own. They know how to counter your strategy, and you should be aware. Use weaknesses to your advantage to win. In Fire Emblem, you have a weapon triangle and a magic trinity. Axes beat lances, lances beat swords, and swords beat axes. For magic, anima beats light, light beats dark, and dark beats anima. It should be noted that some weapons have the ability to turn the entire triangle around as an advantage or disadvantage.

You also have to watch out for your Lords. If one of your three Lords is killed, then it’s game over. Use strategy, and watch your enemy movement.

I took off half a point because you have no control over what happens in battle. It’s automatic, but watch the two different advantage triangles and use your stats in battle. You must also know who to send into battle. You can’t send everyone, even if the enemy has 70 people and you have 14. Still, this is better than any Strategy RPG I've ever played.
 

Link Battle: 10

In Link Battle mode, you devise a team of five and pit them into a battle arena. Here, you pick a person on your team, choose their weapon to attack with, and then choose who you attack. You can link up with four people to fight in a battle arena. This is not like 1-player mode, because you don’t move around on a battlefield. Just pick who you attack, and unleash your fury on them.

This is nothing special, which is why it got a 10. Still, you can have fun with your friends here. It’s not that bad that you should ignore it.
 

Replayability: 14

After beating the game, you can play Hector’s Campaign, a harder and different outlook of Eliwood’s Campaign. Also, Hard Mode is available for Eliwood’s Campaign and Lyn’s Campaign, and later, Hector’s Campaign. You can then view your support conversations and see your records. You can also try to improve your stats and levels in Normal Mode.

Other than that, everything is the same. The replayability isn't that bad, but neither is it the best.
 

Overall: 18 ½

All in all, Fire Emblem is one of the best Gameboy Advance RPGs out there so far. Although there are a few drawbacks, nothing should hold you away from this game. Swords, axes, lances, and one medieval fiasco not enough? Great music, graphics, and character development will delight you.

A great game to play on vacation or when you have some spare time. Fire Emblem proves that it is a quality Strategy RPG.

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