It’s time to return to the world of Fire Emblem. I had a pretty good time with the first game and I can tell you that this one keeps going on the same level. The gameplay is missing a few quality of life updates that the first one I played had, but this one ultimately wins on the story and characters. You really get attached to the characters by the end and won’t be forgetting this title anytime soon.

The game starts off with a lengthy 10 chapter “tutorial story” where you play as Lyn and save her kingdom from a corrupt guy who tried to poison the King. You then play as Eliwood and get to the meat of the game. A war has suddenly broken out as usually is the case in Fire Emblem titles and a bunch of Kings are being manipulated by the man in the shadows. This has caused a lot of tensions and so they need to shut this group down. Eliwood is assisted by the noble prince Hector, as well as the return of Lyn. Together the three of them are considerably powerful and will meet a lot of other characters along the way to strength their forces. The stakes are high because if a character dies in a match, they die within the story!

That’s a mechanic that is famous in Fire Emblem and rightfully so. It added a whole lot of danger to the game because if you mistimed your action at all then you will end up being in a lot of trouble. Even the strongest of warriors can go down quickly if he walk into a trap and the same is true of the other side. You can bump off a powerful enemy with a “weak” fighter as long as the weapon and range are right. This s a true strategy game in every sense of the word.

Even inside of the levels there is always a constant strategy of protecting your forces vs going on the offensive. If you stay defensive for too long, then the villains will send in reinforcements to destroy you. Of course if you go too aggressive then you will leave your back row fighters vulnerable or will suffer heavy casualties. You don’t know where the reinforcements will come from or when either. It’s like a true war where surprise is always on the table. A single misstep and you are really toast.

Fortunately to make you feel okay even as you have to retry the mission over and over again, the game has a great soundtrack. You will recognize quite a few tunes from Super Smash Bros. I would say this might be the best Fire Emblem soundtrack so far as the tunes are all so good. You can easily bop to the kind of music that is being played here. Meanwhile the graphics are also really good. I loved the attack animations that would appear and the stages are really clear. They put a lot of effort into this one and it looks better than the average GBA title. The art style has aged really well.

One tip I’d give is to make sure you play the final side mission right before the final battle. Turns out that it is a restock mission to let you get new weapons and such. Without that you could find yourself soft locked on the final level. This is one thing that is annoying about the game. There are no shops in between levels anymore. So you have to really find the shops within levels in order to get new equipment or you are going to be in trouble. It’s tough to do this though because it does cost a turn each time and those are usually hard to come across in the story.

You definitely have to pay extra attention to your formations as a result so you don’t waste one of your stronger ones searching for shops. Then investigating homes will sometimes get you extra items and even new characters but they can also be empty so it’s a gamble. In an easier game this would be no problem, but again this game is actually rather difficult. So every action is just time away from your main objective of defeating opponents. Above all else, just remember to protect your healers. They are incredibly useful in this game. Your main fighters may get potions but it’s not the same since they have to use their turn up for that.

Also, don’t underestimate the bosses of each level. These guys can chew through all of your fighter’s health with ease. Sometimes they only need one turn to do the job and they tend to have massive range. At least their are counter strategies. The cheesiest enemy though is the long range red mage because I don’t know what you’re supposed to do about him. He can hit you from anywhere on the map which mind controls you for 3 turns and forces an ally to murder you or get murdered. Without rewinding and constantly changing formations, it just feels like this is a super cheesy “you lose” button that can happen in the last levels. Maybe there is a solution to this but otherwise I thought that was the only time the game wasn’t being a good sport. Ah well, the game is so long so only having one kind of really cheesy villain isn’t so bad I suppose. The final level’s boss rush felt more fair in comparison.

Overall, Fire Emblem is a pretty good game. The story is considerably long and I will also say that the game can be very difficult. Underestimate it at your own risk! All it takes is one well placed move by the villains to destroy one of your pieces. The Nintendo Switch Online allows you to rewind, without that you would really be in a tough predicament. I look forward to Nintendo adding the Gamecube Fire Emblem soon! That’ll be a really fun day but until then this is a title I would wholeheartedly recommend.

Overall 7/10