Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones

Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones is the second version of Fire Emblem released to the US. The Story follows Ephraim and Eirika, the prince and princess of Renais, attempting to stop a war against neiboring country of Grado. There are tons of characters in this game, so instead of a description of each, I will just add a description of each of their classes.

Lord: Ephraim and Eirika are the only Lords in the game. Eirika has a sword while Ephraim weilds a lance. They get upgraded towards the end of the game.

Great Lord: Upgraded Lord class. Superior abilities plus enhanced movement, due to horse.

Knight: Heavy armor and Hit Points makes this unit powerful. Only weakness is low accuracy and speed, although Amelia, if upgraded to a knight, excells in speed and accuracy, as well as later on defense and HP.

General: Heavily defended upgrade of Knight. Skill: Great Shield. Weapon Triangle.

Cavalier: Average stats. Mounted soldiers who weild lances and swords.

Paladin: Upgrade of Cavalier. Better stats and range.

Great Knight: Choice upgrade of either knight or cavalier. Combines average skills of both General and Paladin. Weapon Triangle.

Myrmidon: sword weilding soldiers who excell at critical hits.

Swordmaster: mirror images of mymidons with better stats.

Thief: weilds swords, with low stats, aside from speed. Can open locks with a lock pick.

Rogue: upgraded thieves that can open locks without tools.

Assassin: either thief or myrmidon can become. Excell at high speed and criticals. Skill: silencer.

Archer: bow weilding units that can only attack from two spaces away.

Sniper: upgraded archers. Skill: sure shot.

Mercenary: Highly skilled units that lay waist to all with swords.

Hero: upgraded mercs and fighters who also weild axes.

Fighter: high strength, low defense axe fighters.

Warrior: upgraded fighters who can also use bows.

Pirate: sea-faring axe fighters.

Berserker: axe weilding pirate captains.

Ranger: upgraded mercs or archers. weild both swords and bows, and are mounted.

Peguses knight: lance weilding flyers on winged ponies. high resistance.

Wyvern Knight: An upgrade of Peg. Knight. Weilds lances.

Peguses Lord: Upgraded Peg. knights that can als weild swords.

Wyverd rider: Dragon riders using lances.

Wyvern Lord: Upgraded Wyvern riders that also weild swords.

Mage: anima magic users. low defense.

Priest: stave using healers.

Bishop: monster slaying light magic and stave using units.

Sage: can use all typse of magic, save dark.

Light mage: uses light magic, low defense.

Dark mage: uses dark magic, with higher strength and lower speed than other mages.

Magus: upgraded dark mages. can use anima magic.

Summoner: uses black magic, anima magic, and can summon temporary allies to fight alongside of you.

Unit Specific Classes:

Journeyman: weak axe fighter. Ross is the only one in the game, but if properly trained, can surpass other similar units.

Recruit: young lance fighter. Amelia is the only one in the game. Can be upgraded to become incredibly strong.

Pupil: Mage in training. Ewen is the only one in the game. Can become a sage, or persue dark magic.

Dancer: support unit that can recover a units turn. Tethys is the only one in the game.

Great Dragon: Myrhh is the only one in the game. She uses a dragon stone, which has 50 endurance and is the only one in the game. Myrhh is argueably the strongest unit in the game, unstoppable and able to beat most bosses in one hit.

Necromancer: Leon is the only one in the game. He does not join the team unless the player, after beating the main story, goes through the ruins 3 times, then he is unlocked. Only unit able to have max HP over 60. Leon can have 80 max HP.

There are other non-playable units, but they are all monsters, and a bit overwhelming to add a description of each.

Gameplay:

The gameplay fo the origanol Fire Emblem was so good that, literaly, the second installment had absolutly no changes to it. Turn by turn, each team commands their units to move, attack, or use items. The goal of each chapter is one of a few things: defeat all enemies, defeat commander, capture throne, or survive. In each chapter, Eirika and Ephraim must survive. If any other character is lost, he/she is lost forever, and cannot be recovered, except for on certain special occasions. The story in this game was much smaller chapter wise than the others in the series, but the bonus dungeons and unlockable characters provide a much more "in control" perspective. Be careful though. If you think that graphics a vitaly important, this is definately not the game for you. The graphics are not meant to be good, as the battles are supposed to look similar to a chess board. Even the music somewhat resounded with me. I sometimes hum the songs when playing other games with the sound off. Plus you can take characters from all your different save files and fomr up to 5 player teams to link battle against a friends team, or against up to 3 other player or AI teams.

Main Characters:

Eirika: She is the commander of the first 8 chapters plus the prologue. The Princess of Renais, she holds the Lord class and fights to free her enslaved country, find her brother, and defeat the evil Grado.

Ephraim: Eirika's brother, and future king of Renais. He can be commander for ch. 5x and if chosen, from ch.9 till the endgame.

Seth: Seth is a Paladin and follows the heroes from the prologue. If Eirika has a support level of A with Seth, and he survives till the end, they will get married.

Lyon: The prince of Grado, and childhood friend of Eirika and Ephraim. He is kind by nature, but rumurs are spreading that he is behind the invasion and destruction of the continent.

Myrhh: She is called the Great Dragon, and is a manakete princess who joins with Ephraim. She lived in the Dark Forest.

Story Summary:

The continent lived in peace for years. Grado, the greatest of these countries, attacked and killed the king of Renais, their neihbor. Ephraim, the king's son, brings a small army to fight back Grado. Eirika and Seth escape from Castle Renais moments before it is taken, and Seth is injured by one of Grado's generals, Valter. After making their escape, the party makes it to Border Mulan, a castle fortress of their ally neihbors, Frelia. Border Mulan is under Grado attack when the party arrives. Seth, Eirika, and two new units take back the castle. King Hayden of Frelia gives Eirika a small party of vassals to join her. Eirika journeys from then on to find her brother Ephraim.She gains a small army of followers on her way into Grado. Meanwhile, Ephraim and three other knights are hiding in a forest outside of a castle, and decide to attack it. They take it, but after the battle, General Valter stops them, but Ephraim and the others escape. Later, when Eirika attempts to take the very same castle, she meets Orson, one of the knights accompanying Ephraim, who leads her towards the prison cell, who Orson tells the party Ephraim is there. Seth stops her from going with him, and asks Orson a series of questions that reveal that he is working for Grado. Orson escapes, and the party is forced to fight Valter's assistant, Tirado. A few turns into the battle, Ephraim and the two knights enter from another corner, and join the party. After taking the throne, the party returns to Castle Frelia. Eirika and Ephraim split here, and have two seperate stories until they reunite at chapter 23. The summary of those chapters is revealed when they meet. Lyon, their childhood friend and prince of Grado, is behind the whole war. Duessel, one of the four greatest generals of Grado, defected and joined Ephraim. The king of Grado, Vigarde, had died not that long ago, and Lyon did not feel he was fit to be king. The Sacred Stones are crystals that, in legend, hold the soul of the demon king. Each country has one, and Grado had destroyed the countries' stones that they had captured. Renais' survived because Eirika and Ephraim posses bracelets that are the key to unlocking the stone. Lyon had created a Dark Stone from the power of the Fire Emblem, which is the other name for the Grado sacred stone. After this Dark Stone was created, Vigarde died of an illness. The Dark Stones' power revived him, but now he was only an animated corpse. Lyon, for an unknown reason, controlled his father and invaded the continent. So the party continues on to take back Renais Castle, which is controlled by Orson, the traitor knight. After he is beaten, Renais rejoices. Now, at this point, the party searches for Lyon. When they track him down, he reveals that Lyon is no more, but that he is really the Demon King, but is using Lyon to awaken his mighty body, which was trapped in the Dark Forest. The Renais stone is destroyed shortly after they aquire it, and only one stone remains. It is the stone of Rausten, a country near to the Dark Forest. The party makes it there just in time to defend against an attack from Riev, Grado's last general and servant to the Demon King. He is fought off, and the party brings the stone to the forest. All of the demon king's minion, including a zombified dragon, who is Myrhh's father, and Riev. The party enters the temple where Lyon awaits. They defeat him once more, but this time the Demon King is fully revieved. Only the power of the last stone captures the Demon King's soul once more. But, his body is still there, and is about to attack the party. Using the Sacred Relic weapons of their ancestors, Eirika, Ephraim, and the others defeat, once and for all, the body of the Demon king, ending his reign forever. Depending on support levels, different characters can have different endings.

Writer's Opinion:

Because I'm sure you all want to hear it, I am going to get a bit personal. This was actually the first strategy game I have ever played. It stuck with me, as now strategy is basically the only genre I play. Since I first got it about 7 or 8 years ago, I have beaten the story mode at least 25 to 30 times. I have unlocked all the secret characters on multiple save files, and on my main save file, I have over 400 hours put in it, and every character is completely maxed out with stats. Believe me, if this game was just so-so, I wouldn't have flushed 800+ hours into it. My overall rating of the game should be obvious: 11/10 Happy playing!

Im my opinion, this game is ✝◎тαℓʟƴ ℮℘ḯḉ!