Sadly this game is highly unlike the others. One of the first things that bugged me was the fact that there was no "rescue" command. The second was that unlike other games where you had to meet a turn limit or kill somebody or visit a village, you have the burden of wiping all of your recruits you don't like to get to the extra chapters. I mean the chapter before one of the gaiden(extra) you get like six recruits in one battle!

The maps are harder than in the other versions (navigation+isolated areas) and fighters will swarm out of fortresses which is new. There is a much larger variety of magic (yeah!) and more story paths. I liked the inclusion of the forge and reclass(you can change almost any unit's class to a set of different ones). The game is of decent length 20-30 hours tops, dependant upon difficulty, if you get gaiden chapters and such.

I have not tried the WiFi play yet, which i am very excited about (completed game and ended up with sucky team not worth time on normal difficulty). All in all, the game is fun, but does not quite live up to its other versions such as Path of Radiance and the original GBA, however, still worth playing. Keep in mind this is a REMAKE of an old game that they changed AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE TO PRESERVE ITS ORIGINAL PLAY.

In comparrison to its GBA versions, this one is definately the weakest of the pack. First of all, all the missions are "Seize the thrown". Nothing else. No "save the villagers" or "Defeat such and such in 20 turns". Second, there was no Rescue command! This i found was very helpful in the other versions but it was taken out and i was sad. Another things is the new reclass feature where u can make a mage an archer or something like that. Its good in theory but its not very useful. I only class changed one person and got through the game fine. Also, in this one ur units dont automatically class change at lvl 20 or 21. u HAVE to use a Master seal to class change them (which isnt to much of a problem since there are about 20 throughout the whole game). My final complaint is the number of units u can recruit. Its just to many considering u can only take an average of 15 with u on each mission. If u want to try the final emblem series, this is not a good place to start. Try some of the GBA versions, or even the wii and gamecube versions werent bad.