FIRE EMBLEM: The Sacred Stones

Reviewed by Tim Velgos, Lead Games Reviewer, The Review Zone.com

About a year ago,Fire Emblem was a blazing hit for the Nintendo Gameboy Advance. Many people believe that Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones is the sequel to Fire Emblem. But, no, this is not true. The Sacred Stones is an entirely different game and story.

The world of Fire Emblem was once at a steady pace.....occasional fights between countries, but no large threats. Ephraim and Eirika are the heirs to the throne of Renais. Things were fine, until allied country Grado started to attack. Eirika is attacked at the castle, and flees with a Paladin Seth, while Ephraim is claimed missing. To say any more would spoil the game, so the game itself will be discussed instead.

The great thing about Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, are new classes, with the new feature of branch promoting. Branch promoting is having more than one choice when you promote. And promoting a class, is when it reaches over level 10, and using its special item to achieve the next class. Doing so yields stat changes, and sometimes new weapon skills!

This game also contains the feature of Map battles, where you can roam on the map and defeat monsters; essentially being able to max out every unit's level. Of course, the weapons in this game cost weapon uses, when you run out you need to buy a new weapon....or else the unit can't fight! Although this game is rated E for Everyone, it does contain what is considered "fantasy violence". Kids over 10 years old should be fine playing it.

The graphics in the game are quite remarkable! The fighting scenes use sprites attacking each other close up so you can witness the action. And if you have a friend who has the game, you can link up and have a go at one another! But don't take my word for it, get the game and see for yourself! It's good versus evil in this awesome RPG (role playing game). Often, this game is very hard to stop playing, so buy at your own risk!