Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade is the seventh entry into the franchise developed by Intelligent Systems. It is the first in the franchise to receive an international localization with the name just being “Fire Emblem.” It is the second title to be released for the Game Boy Advance system. Many modern Fire Emblem games are known for the innovative changes to the Tactical RPG format. Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade stands as a perfect example of what defines Fire Emblem. It nails exactly what the Fire Emblem experience should be. It’s well balanced, it has a good story, and a nice variety of characters each with their own unique class.

The game starts off with a mandatory tutorial section that spans a prologue and 10 chapters. The tutorial takes you through the story of one of the three Lord units, Lyn, and how she claims her grandfather’s throne from her scheming uncle. The game inserts you, the player, into the narrative by giving you a character that is mostly unseen. Every once in a while you’ll see a character on screen but for the most part, the game just addresses you via the fourth wall. The tutorial is a bit lengthy but does a good job showing and explaining the game’s mechanics. It does leave out some mechanical details but those details don’t really come up until later into the proper narrative. Fire Emblem, as a series, has a long standing tradition of permadeath. During the tutorial section, however, any character that is defeated will return later during the proper narrative. Afterwards, any units that fall in battle are dead and will be gone for the remainder of the game.

Once you’ve completed Lyn’s story, your perspective is changed to that of a young Lord named Eliwood. Eliwood’s father, the Marquess of Pherae, has gone missing and Eliwood intends to go searching for him. During his search he is reunited with his best friend Hector, the prince of Ostia, and Lyn. The three Lords set out together to search for Eliwood’s father. During their search they uncover a plot being conducted by a man named Nergal to obtain ultimate power. The story is well put together, each plot point is strung together in a cohesive story that comes to a satisfying conclusion. Throughout the story the character development is mostly found on our main character, Eliwood. He starts off as an idealistic, if not a bit generic, young lord who learns what it means to be a leader. Certain events put his ideals to the test and we get to see him grow into a more confident leader. Although the game doesn’t put its focus on Eliwood’s character growth, they do a good job making you connect with him as a character and appreciate his struggles. You feel for him when his father dies in his arms. You believe in him when he returns home at journey’s end to take over for his father as Marquess of Pherae. You do get to know the other two lords and see them grow closer to each other but it feels like their personal growth has already been had. This is especially apparent with Lyn because we get to witness her growth during the tutorial chapters. We get to learn more about the characters though. Hector is a brash fighter who has a clearly defined vision of right and wrong. He questions Eliwood’s willingness to forgive characters and welcome them to the team, but ultimately he trust’s in Eliwood’s judgment. Lyn is a proud warrior from the plains. She has a high sense of morality and isn’t afraid to stand up to Eliwood or Hector for what she believes in.

Upon your first completion of Eliwood’s campaign, if you go back in to start a new game you’ll be greeted with a character select screen. You can choose to skip Lyn’s story and go straight to Eliwood’s story again with hard mode now available for both characters. Or you can play the game from Hector’s perspective. This gives you a few extra chapters and also grants you access to a couple of units that aren’t available in Eliwood’s story. Overall the added story content doesn’t really impact the narrative as a whole, but the extra chapters and units do give you some added flavor to the story. You also gain an advantage going into the final battle which you’ll certainly appreciate by then. If I were introducing someone to this game that has never played a Fire Emblem I’d encourage them to just play the regular story. For veterans of the series, Hector Mode offers a bit more of a challenge by being a bit more restrictive to how many units you’re allowed to bring to a battle and some of the character behaviors are different.

The map designs in this entry are interesting. We have a variety of locations ranging from towns, to deserts, to enemy ships pulling alongside the ship you’re taking passage on. Each map is well designed and suited for the mechanics that are present in the game and/or unique to the map itself. Fog of War maps limit your view of enemy units. In most maps you can see the placement of every enemy unit but in Fog of War maps you are only able to see as far as your units can see. This makes for a unique challenge that requires you to either take safer risks or play in a more defensive manner. There are a few of these maps throughout the story and they all make for an interesting challenge. The other interesting map based challenge takes place in the few maps that have precipitation as a factor. In these maps the movements of all units on the field are severely limited while the rain is pouring or the snow is falling. This can serve as a major impediment to momentum but it can also serve as a good breather where you can give healing to certain units that have taken a lot of damage. Personally I believe the precipitation effects lasted too long on the maps but I appreciate Intelligent Systems trying to implement a weather based mechanic.

Mechanics that aren’t unique to maps are the traditional rock-paper-scissors style weapon triangle and the magic triangle that seems to go away after entries. As is Fire Emblem tradition, your weapon triangle grants higher accuracy when using a certain type of weapon against another. Sword units have advantage against axe units, axe units have advantage against lance units, and lance units have advtage against sword units. The advantage is a gain of accuracy when attacking the enemy unit. The opposite is also true going the against the triangle. Attacking a unit that has a weapon with the advantage yields a lower chance of landing that hit. We have the same effect for magic. Elemental magic does better against Light magic, Light magic does better against Dark magic, and Dark magic does better against Elemental magic. This prompts the player to consider these weapon type advantages when preparing for battle. Players are encouraged to look at the battlefield and select their units based on what the enemy is carrying. The other point of note is that archers have a distinct advantage against flying units and although it’s not explicitly stated, mages typically do more damage to armored units.

Other mechanics here are the ability to rescue and transport friendly units, supports that increase combat related mechanics like accuracy when the characters are close to each other, and the occasional enemy unit that can be recruited to your side of the battlefield should you talk to them with the correct character. There are a variety of ways in which you gain units to join your army but it’s up to you to decide what units you want to use whether it be for tactical use, personal affection, or (because despite the low odds) they just keep landing critical hits. With so many different units and types of units that you obtain, no single play through the game is likely to be the same. Even if you roll with the same units every time, there’s no guarantee that those units will level up the same or score the same critical hits. It’s also possible that an enemy unit will score an unfortunate critical hit and kill your favorite character. With the game encouraging you to beat it at least four times it is important to give the player options so that the game doesn’t feel monotonous.

Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade offers players a fun and unique adventure that is appealing to new players, and veterans alike. Intelligent Systems stuck the landing with their first entry to the international stage as the game was well received and highly rated among fans and journalists alike. The success of this game goes on to spur another 10 games and multiple spin off titles and remakes. After playing some of these more mechanically intense games, it was refreshing to go back to a more basic and classic experience. The battles were fun, the story was gripping, and the music accompanied it well. Overall this is the Fire Emblem that I would recommend to a new player and I believe that the game deserves the praise that it receives.