Fire Emblem for Game Boy Adv Reviews by Gamers

I have owned Fire Emblem ('FE: Blazing sword' in Japan) for nearly 5 years now, and it is still as awesome today as it was then. Heck, most of the FE games have that quality.

Genre: TBS/RPG

Avg. completion time:15-25 hrs.
NOTE: these times are based off the in-game clock, if you end up replaying a chapter to get a new character or something expect 2-3 times that overall

Play if you like: Amasing storyline with plenty of medieval 'politics' and a plot that never gets old; Turn-based strategy in general; Complex characters with equally awesome back/side stories

Don't play if you hate: Thinking/planning/tactics; games that take a long time to complete; the difficulty level -on normal, this would be medium-hard for most-

Good:
-The characters are truly likable. I found myself becoming attached to each and every character as I discovered their backstories through the Support conversations.

-For all its seriousness -it gets deep later on- the game still manages to keep a note of humor

-Once you get the hang of it, (2nd + playthrough) the difficulty is negligible on Normal. You figure out who becomes the all-pwning tanker and who becomes the compete noob.

-each chapter is unique, the battles never feel old due to many possible winning strategies

Bad:
-The support conversations, which provide an amazing amount of secondary story and humor, are -usually- sadly neglected in the first playthrough or two,

-Hard mode -especially Hector's hard mode- is truly devastating. On a recent playthrough (7th or so) I had to repeat a chapter 15 times to make everyone survive.

-If you do not plan moves out and the enemy boss/etc. takes out a valuable character, the game will downright suck. if the person is easily killable, MAKE SURE THEY CANNOT GET ATTACKED (hitting A over an enemy shows their attack range)

-The permanant death causes many replays in some people

SCORE: 10/10
for all its annoyances, this is a game that you do not want to miss