Fire Emblem's History Analyzed

An anonymous reader writes "N-Philes just finished up a 10-part history of Nintendo's Fire Emblem SRPG series, which we Americans just got a taste of for the first time, this past Fall, courtesy of the GBA version. You can check out the history at N-Philes and learn about the game I can't stop playing." I've yet to play this, but Hemos has been playing it almost since it shipped and tempting me with it.

Complaints, complaints, complaints.

[GaimeGuy]

In response to the people who complain about the fact that the game saves after every turn: If you screw up, restart the level. This feature was implemented so players couldn't simply play one turn flawlessly, save, then use trial and error along with resetting until the next turn was flawless, save, and repeat the process. The feature makes it so that you actually have to *gasp* strategize your way through the strategy RPG! If you don't like having to come up with a strategy, then maybe a game like this isn't for you.
If you're having to use your brain to beat the game, and if you have to restart a couple times, that's GOOD. It shows that the game is challenging. If you think that THIS Fire Emblem is hard, you should try out Fire Emblem: Thracia 776, the most difficult game in the series!
The Fire Emblem series is popular for a reason: It gives the player a challenging game with great all-around value. If you find it annoying that you have to think a bit, then you shouldn't have bought it.
And to whomever may find it annoying that you can only have one chapter in-progress at a time: It's like this in many GBA games with a quick save feature. Once you access this quick save, which can be made at any point, except cutscenes, usually, the data is erased. It's a temporary save file stored inside the cartridge's memory, and hardware limitations prevent there from being multiple quick saves stored at one time.
Visigothe, you get a merchant to store and organize your items very early in the game. I don't know where you are, but in chapter 13x, your problem is solved. Frankly, you shouldn't be doing TOO much item buying up to this point.
And you can redo battles. You just can't choose to play chapter 11 in a save file where you're at chapter 15. It wouldn't make sense to be able to go back and replay missions in the same quest file, due to the nature of the game. Think about it: If you could go back to chapter 11 with level ten promoted characters from level 20, there wouldn't be much strategy involved in chapter 11, now would there? Not to mention the fact that the game's plot wouldn't permit that.
Sheetrock, you don't HAVE to use walkthroughs. The game gives very subtle hints as to how to find these secrets (such as a dialogue mentioning a certain character in your army's name, or a villager mentioning seeing something suspicious near a pile of bones in a desert). If what you're referring to is the support convos, dont' worry: Once you beat the game, once, and/or get five support conversations, you can see a full list of characters, the characters they can have support conversations with, and you can also view any conversations you have already obtained with that character.
Ok, I'm done. Now, back to gaming.

Re:GBA = The new home for turn-based strategy game

[PainKilleR-CE]

I think its fair statement to say that the GBA will probably be home to the 'next-generation' of turn based strategy games. The successes are hard to deny; Advance Wars, Advance Wars 2, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, and now Fire Emblem (Zero for long time fans).

If you haven't checked them out yet, you might want to try Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis and Onimusha Tactics for the GBA. Both are more in the style of FFTA, but offer significant differences to justify owning each of them (assuming you're enough of a strategy RPG junky to play through 4 or 5 of these games at a time). I'd be hard pressed to choose one over another, though I've probably spent the most time with Tactics Ogre (which is significantly better than the PS1 game I have in that particular series).