An informal Fire Emblem retrospective

I've been a Fire Emblem fan for something like 12 or 13 years. Like a lot of folks, I started with Fire Emblem on the Game Boy Advance--otherwise known as Fire Emblem: Rekka no Ken (or Blazing Sword). It was the first Fire Emblem game to be released in English despite being the seventh numbered entry in the series. I fell in love with its simple but satisfying strategic gameplay, emphasis on character development through support conversations, and challenging difficulty bolstered by a mechanic in which characters that are defeated in combat die--permanently. This adds an extra layer of tension to the series that is integral to its identity--and despite more recent entries offering the option to disable the feature, I never do. Not once. It's too important to the format.

After playing and replaying Rekka no Ken, I played Fire Emblem: Sacred Stones, last in a trilogy of games released for the Game Boy Advance--although it shares no storyline with the other two games. After that, I backtracked and played Fire Emblem: Fuuin no Tsurugi (Sealed Sword) which currently only exists as a fan translation. It is the sixth entry in the series but takes place chronologically after Rekka no Ken so playing it was an interesting experience. It felt like a sequel that took a lot of steps back. The gameplay itself was still satisfying, but the cast of characters was enormous and generally weak. Of course, it was a lot of fun to get more context on the storyline and to take the reins of Roy, whose appearance in Super Smash Bros. Melee puzzled a lot of gamers in America at the time.

After playing and replaying those three games, Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance came out (while I was still in high school!) and I pounced on it and devoured it. It was the first Fire Emblem title released for a console since Thracia 776 for the Super Famicom in 1999 (well into the N64's era). Although I missed the stylish 2D combat animations from the Game Boy Advance titles, I loved everything else about the game. The art style was polished, the music was effective, the support conversations were mostly well-written, and the tried-and-true gameplay was as addictive as ever. Radiance also brought back the skill mechanic from the SFC titles, adding another layer to the gameplay's complexity. It was my favorite of the series to that point.

Only two years later, a direct sequel to Path of Radiance called Radiant Dawn emerged--and it was an epic undertaking indeed. Not only did it feature every single playable character from Path of Radiance, but it also introduced a whole game's worth of brand new characters and weaved them into the storyline. Players alternately assumed control of Micaiah and her ragtag band of followers and Ike's mercenary group until the two become one. I've mentioned previously on this blog that I very much enjoy games in which a group of characters adventure separately until meeting up closer to the end, citing examples like Live A Live or Dragon Quest IV. Radiant Dawn is another really good example of this. Unlike Fuuin no Tsurugi's bloated roster of forgettable characters, Radiant Dawn delivers a gigantic cast of mostly solid personalities, some of which were previously established in Path of Radiance. Of course, Radiant Dawn isn't perfect and suffers from one critical flaw. Support conversations, critical to the series formula since Rekka no Ken--are with few exceptions very shallow and forgettable. It seems inevitable with such a large cast that such a thing would happen, but it's still a mechanic that I found myself missing a lot. Despite this issue, it's probably still my favorite game of the series.

Only a year later, an enhanced remake of the very first game of the series was released called Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon. Although many features were added in an effort to update the gameplay, it still came across as fairly dated, with vanilla gameplay in comparison to Radiant Dawn that was absolutely bursting with features. It was an enjoyable playthrough just for the sake of context, but it wasn't what I was waiting for. Of course, an interminable five years later, Fire Emblem: Awakening came out and it shattered all of Intelligent Systems' expectations and became the best selling entry of the series by far.

Awakening could have been the series' swansong. Intelligent Systems execs at the time admitted that if the game didn't meet their sales expectations, they'd conclude the series. As a rabid fan, this was definitely an upsetting prospect for me, so I awaited the game's release anxiously. I knew I'd enjoy it, but I wasn't sure Fire Emblem had the kind of broad appeal it would need to be successful. Boy, was I ever wrong, since Awakening went on to become the best-selling strategy RPG of all time (as far as I know). Of course, a lot of that had to do with Awakening morphing into a game with more broad appeal, which comes with both positive and negative qualities. The most welcome inclusion for me was the marriage system, in which characters with particularly close bonds can marry and produce children--which, through some bizarre and contrived time travel plot device, grow to adults instantly and can be recruited into your army.Of course, the game is also rife with online connectivity with loads of paid DLC, some of which is pretty low-effort. Additionally, the writing for support conversations is sometimes subpar, particularly in comparison to Path of Radiance. I still thought it was a great game, but couldn't bring myself to sing its praises (like the rest of the internet and all critics) since I could name at least two other titles in the series I felt were superior to it already, neither of which got the sales they deserved.

Of course, that brings us to Fire Emblem Fates, an ambitious new title released just last month. For the first time in the series, it is split into two different paths: Birthright, focusing on the Eastern-themed kingdom of Hoshido; and Conquest, centered around the Western-themed Nohr. Both paths share a handful of characters and the first six chapters, but for the most part, the storyline and characters available are entirely different. The Special Edition of the game comes with a third path called Revelations, which evidently unites the two armies. I've only so far completed Birthright so I can't speak too much on the whole experience--but I can say that I enjoyed the game a lot, even though I'm still disappointed by a number of things. The gameplay is as usual really solid, and the skill system is as robust as ever--but the writing itself is underwhelming, and not a lot of the support conversations jump out at me as having a lot of depth. Additionally, while the marriage system returns from Awakening, it has even less of a satisfying explanation. In Awakening, the system was at least loosely tied to the plot, but the explanation provided for children growing up instantly in Fates is hilariously contrived.

Still, the idea of assuming control of a character who must make a choice between two warring armies is at its heart a good one, and Birthright did a great job at delivering on that fantasy. I don't want to say a lot about my overall thoughts on the game yet, because I feel like I won't have a clear enough picture until I can compare and contrast it to Conquest and eventually Revelations. Considering Birthright took me some 60 hours to complete (on hard mode), I imagine I won't have the full picture for some time. Fortunately, I'm invested enough in Fates that I don't dread the opportunity to explore it further.

Zero's Saga Draws to a Close

I'm tentatively planning a weekly update schedule for these videos. It would have been really helpful if I'd spread the first few out, but that just means I'll have to work harder on the next couple. I haven't yet decided how I'm going to handle longer games, but I'm sure I'll figure it out. Without further ado, here's my video review of Mega Man Zero 4!

The Rise of Dr. Weil

Well, this has definitely become a trend. This is third in my new video review series and MMZ4 should be soon to follow. I'm unsure where I'll go after that, but new actual text articles should appear before long on some of the other games I've been putting off. Without further ado, here's my video for Mega Man Zero 3.

Zero's Return

Here we go again. For the. . .second time ever on Everything All the Time, I've done a video review! I think this one's probably a little better but certainly rough around the edges.

The Resurrection of Zero

For the first time ever on Everything All the Time, I elected to do a video review instead of a standard blog entry. Whether or not this becomes a trend is still up in the air, but I did have a lot of fun doing it!

Up to His Old Tricks

Way back in 2008, long before I'd conceived the idea of Everything All of the Time or become nearly as obsessive about completing games I played, I embarked on the first of many gaming marathons. I've discussed at length on this blog my multiple endeavors to play through game series entry by entry, back to back. One of the very first times I ever did this was with the original Mega Man series--and not in the Anniversary Collection either--I played the original NES versions, starting with the very first game and progressing all the way to Mega Man 8 and even Rockman and Forte. I had a ton of fun playing through these games and within about a week's time I became a dedicated Mega Man fan. After a short break, I tackled Mega Man 9, then recently released for WiiWare, Xbox Live Arcade, and the PlayStation Network. After finishing so many Mega Man games in a row, you'd think I would have been prepared for whatever Mega Man 9 could throw at me, but I was sorely mistaken. I found myself struggling to defeat even a single robot master. Discouraged, I left the game to stagnate in my backlog for many years.

Fortunately, the day has finally come for me to absolve myself of the shame I felt as I have just today completed Mega Man 9 some 8 years after it originally released. I supposed this should come as no surprise since I didn't play the original Mega Man series until 20 years after they released. Comparatively, I'm really ahead of the curve here. I still can't help but feel a disconnect between Mega Man 9 and the rest of the series--even from the first six games which it most directly emulates, with its retro 8-bit graphics and gameplay. I still can't say if it's just my imagination, but Mega Man 9's difficulty level is absolutely off the charts. I say this despite remembering keenly the frustration I felt when I originally tackled Mega Man all those years ago. As a person with meager action/platforming experience to draw on, I found it fiendishly difficult, if not incredibly addictive and rewarding. After conquering that title (and particularly the hellishly challenging Yellow Devil from the final stages), the rest of the series honestly seemed like a cakewalk--until of course I finally reached Mega Man 9. No more could I charge my blaster, no more could I cheekily slide around. It was back to basics again, and the difficulty hit me like a ton of bricks.

Let's step back for a minute and talk about what the Mega Man series is and what traditions are inherent to the series. As established in the very first title, Mega Man is an adorable childlike robot with a blaster arm. His goal is to defeat 8 robot masters (6 in the first game) assembled by the nefarious Dr. Wily for questionable reasons. Each of these robot masters adheres to a certain theme and possesses a weapon that Mega Man may take for himself. The order in which the player defeats these robot masters is a principal element to the strategy of these games as each robot master is weak to the weapon of another. Fans generally come to a consensus on which robot master is best to tackle first as it is the one Mega Man will have to fight with only the use of his standard mega buster. This formula is very consistent in the first six games of the series and in MM9 as well, although a few new features and mechanics are sprinkled in here and there, such as the introduction of Mega Man's robotic dog Rush in Mega Man 3. His ability to transform into coils, submarines, and jetpacks add an extra layer of gameplay to platforming. The ability to charge the mega buster to higher levels of power was also introduced in Mega Man 4 and was used in subsequent Mega Man titles. The charging mechanic (and the ability to slide) are conspicuously absent for Mega Man 9, suggesting perhaps that Inti Creates, the company responsible for this retro reboot, were interested in returning as much to basics as possible.

It is arguable that the advancements to the series made over the years were for the better or not. Is Mega Man 9 successful because it is so stripped down or would it have been a better game if it had picked up where the PlayStation's Mega Man 8 had left off? Mega Man 2 is generally regarded as the best the series has to offer--and Mega Man 9 shares the most similarities with it. It is elegant in its simplicity and brutal difficulty. Progressing through the game's stages takes significant amounts of trial and error and rote memorization. It is extremely rewarding to reach the point where you've learned a stage well enough that segments that seemed impossible at first can be conquered within seconds. This is a testament to Inti Creates level design--no surprise considering the developer consists of many ex-Capcom staff members.

One could regard Mega Man 9 as a return to form but it could just as easily be dismissed for drawing too heavily on its roots. Personally, I'm a fan of the entire Mega Man series and enjoyed most advancements that were made along the way--even when it resulted in a nerf to the overall difficulty. I appreciate Mega Man 9 for what it is, but it is just so hard that I'm not surprised I put off finishing it for this long. I can't dismiss it for being unfair, though. If I put enough time in, I could beat the entire game without relying on chugging energy tanks of storing up extra lives--but it speaks to my level of patience that I can't bring myself to do that. I found defeating Wily for the 9th time to be ultimately rewarding even so.

The Second Chapter

I was a tad late to the party on Nihon Falcom’s The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky. It was graciously localized by the team at Xseed in 2011, but I didn’t play it until this past September. I’d heard a not inconsiderable amount of praise for the game, but those voices never really came to the forefront until the impending release of Trails in the Sky Second Chapter. The project had been considered abandoned by the community due to a lack of communication from Xseed and the massive amount of text the company were tasked with translating. Fortunately, they did get the project done and Second Chapter was released this past October, not long after I’d finished its predecessor. Of course, I’d long since moved on to other games at this point and found myself working through titles like Final Fantasy Type 0 and Disgaea D2--but as soon as I was done there, I picked up where I left off.

I enjoyed the first chapter of the Trails in the Sky story a lot, but I have to admit it would have been incredibly disconcerting to experience that cliffhanger of an ending with no way to be sure a sequel would ever be released. In Japan, all three chapters of Trails in the Sky were released back to back. Xseed, appreciated as their efforts are, took four years to release Second Chapter--and this is a sequel to a game that was originally released in Japan in 2006. The graphics are certainly dated--and honestly, they probably weren’t all that impressive even for the time--but the gameplay, dialogue, and plot more than make up for that.

Second Chapter picks up just exactly where the first game left off. It’s such a seamless transition that I wasn’t surprised at all to learn that the two halves were originally intended to be one game. You’re even able to transfer save data from First Chapter in order to carry on with your characters’ statistics completely intact. Of course, there are some new mechanics introduced, mostly to accommodate the game’s much higher level cap. It is possible to equip higher level orbments--magical relics that boost statistics and unlock powerful spells for your characters. Party members from the first game will learn upgraded versions of their previous skills as well as frequently a few new ones. It is also possible to combine with other party members and unleash Chain Crafts, damaging area skills that affect a larger area based on how many members participate. The battle system is completely identical other than these few new features.

The First Chapter ended with some shocking revelations and much of the Second Chapter focuses on uncovering more information about those secrets and going in depth about the ancient artifact Estelle and her companions came into contact with underneath Grancel castle. She’ll find herself revisiting all of the principal locations from the first game. I was a little disappointed in the lack of new environments for the sequel, but the dialogue and interactions between characters kept me suitably entertained even so. Second Chapter also affords you the opportunity of having more control over your party’s composition, especially for the first 3/4ths of the game. This is a welcome change, particularly since the game boasts an impressive 12 character roster, several of which were not playable in the first game. Of course, a few of these are only available at very late stages of the game.

Second Chapter’s primary weakness is in its lack of variety compared to the first game. Almost no areas in the game are new save for a few dungeons. I was looking forward to venturing onto Erebonian soil or visiting Calvard--but the vast majority of the game takes place in Liberl in the very same towns Estelle and Joshua already visited. Of course, the breadth of character development, quests, and things to do are impressive--but it’s disappointing that they all take place in such familiar locations. It makes a lot of sense when you consider Second Chapter was released as an extension instead of a straight up sequel--but here in the States when the first game was released in English some four years ago, it’s jarring not to see more of an advancement.

Trails in the Sky Second Chapter is essentially just more of the same--but when you’re discussing games as good as these are, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I had a blast learning more about Estelle Bright’s motley band of companions and their various backstories and motivations. Characters that had never clicked with me before became more interesting due to events of the plot and how these characters played a part in it. Trails gives ample time to each of its characters and makes them important--or at least this is true for the vast majority of the game’s running time. Bizarrely, the game throws three new playable characters at you in the final dungeon. They are characters that have been around for awhile, but it’s strange that they weren’t made available prior to 60 hours of game time. It strikes me as poor planning, but I suppose it’s better than not including them at all. And hey, maybe they were being set up for inclusion in the Third Chapter, but it’s probably too early to even think about that receiving the localization it so desperately needs.