Map design in this game is so weird. You have maps which give you all these tools and incentives to go fast, and it's fun to go fast, and then it also has the highest density of "now sit here and do nothing for 8 turns" maps in the series.
In time I have come to see Blazing Blade as the most Just Okay Fire Emblem
Hector solos fiction.
Its good I guess!
Eliwood is a cool protagonist.
After taking a break from the overwhelmingly expansive, planning-heavy maps of Genealogy of the Holy war and the labyrinthian branching story paths that make up Three Houses, I was really in the mood of a more stripped back Fire Emblem experience. Once in a while, I don't want to worry about who is being reclassed to what, which skills I need to pick up at what levels, or which romantic pairings I need to build up enough rapport with to make the best "children" in the next phase of the game. I just want to hang out with memorable characters and enjoy the ride.
Thankfully, that's exactly what this game gave me. Eliwood, Hector and Lyn are already some of my favorite lords in the series, and I'm sure my opinion of them would be even higher if gaining support conversations weren't so bafflingly difficult to attain in this one. You have to put in WORK and waste many, many turns making sure two units end up next to each other again and again if you want a shot at even seeing the "C" level supports, which is a shame considering how likeable the cast is. Regardless, it's hard not to root for Eliwood and his crew throughout the 40 hour story. Even if the tale isn't anything revolutionary and has certain tropes that we'd continue to see echoes of in future installments, I think it hits all of those beats so well that they stand out on their own anyway. I genuinely got emotional towards the end knowing that my trio of multicolored-hair friends would be at the end of their journey once the big bad was vanquished, and Roy will certainly have big shoes to fill when I eventually start Binding Blade (I know it came before this one, but I'm playing in story order!).
The gameplay is extremely solid too. It's standard Fire Emblem--literally--but the progression of leveling up your units and skills just feels so good, and it's especially satisfying when you find new items and weapons to use via exploring towns or straight up stealing them from the enemy with thieves. The final map is the perfect blend of grueling and rewarding, using everything in your arsenal to survive a final boss that's almost impossible to kill, but not quite. Up until that point, the difficulty can certainly fluctuate more than some would like--I went from having to reset several times on a map where a magic user kept sniping me from the shadows to feeling overpowered and breezing through one laden with ballistae that didn't hit me a single time---but I see that kind of relief as being rewarded for slugging through the harder moments to find a feeling of empowerment on the other side. At the very least it's not as consistently easy to be over-leveled as it is in Sacred Stones.
With so many other supports to see, characters to try using, and a hard mode starring Hector, I'll definitely be coming back to this one in the future. Still a solid point to start in the series if you're curious.
Thankfully, that's exactly what this game gave me. Eliwood, Hector and Lyn are already some of my favorite lords in the series, and I'm sure my opinion of them would be even higher if gaining support conversations weren't so bafflingly difficult to attain in this one. You have to put in WORK and waste many, many turns making sure two units end up next to each other again and again if you want a shot at even seeing the "C" level supports, which is a shame considering how likeable the cast is. Regardless, it's hard not to root for Eliwood and his crew throughout the 40 hour story. Even if the tale isn't anything revolutionary and has certain tropes that we'd continue to see echoes of in future installments, I think it hits all of those beats so well that they stand out on their own anyway. I genuinely got emotional towards the end knowing that my trio of multicolored-hair friends would be at the end of their journey once the big bad was vanquished, and Roy will certainly have big shoes to fill when I eventually start Binding Blade (I know it came before this one, but I'm playing in story order!).
The gameplay is extremely solid too. It's standard Fire Emblem--literally--but the progression of leveling up your units and skills just feels so good, and it's especially satisfying when you find new items and weapons to use via exploring towns or straight up stealing them from the enemy with thieves. The final map is the perfect blend of grueling and rewarding, using everything in your arsenal to survive a final boss that's almost impossible to kill, but not quite. Up until that point, the difficulty can certainly fluctuate more than some would like--I went from having to reset several times on a map where a magic user kept sniping me from the shadows to feeling overpowered and breezing through one laden with ballistae that didn't hit me a single time---but I see that kind of relief as being rewarded for slugging through the harder moments to find a feeling of empowerment on the other side. At the very least it's not as consistently easy to be over-leveled as it is in Sacred Stones.
With so many other supports to see, characters to try using, and a hard mode starring Hector, I'll definitely be coming back to this one in the future. Still a solid point to start in the series if you're curious.
Eu não zerei esse, mas PQP, tenho umas boas 20 horas nele (nesse último save), além de que eu já havia o jogado até pouco mais da metade em outros tempos remotos. Excelente jogo de estratégia em turno, passava madrugadas jogando, mas não me vejo eu voltando pra ele novamente, talvez outro Fire Emblem...
FE7. Fun game. Fun storylines.
THIS IS SPECIFICALLY FOR HECTOR HARD MODE:
HHM turns the game into an annoying game of park the unit with good defense and/or speed on a forest tile and press end turn to get through a map which culminates in one of the worst endgames to play through with a smorgasbord of bad maps
The story also was very ehh tbh
I had fun with my Eliwood Normal run tho that was pretty decent
HHM turns the game into an annoying game of park the unit with good defense and/or speed on a forest tile and press end turn to get through a map which culminates in one of the worst endgames to play through with a smorgasbord of bad maps
The story also was very ehh tbh
I had fun with my Eliwood Normal run tho that was pretty decent
kinda awesome
Los personajes no crecieron en mi, Héctor y Lyn están muy maníos.
fun game, just extremely difficult. will return later
Still love this game, even after all of these years. It's just such a fun journey with a gameplay system that's infinitely replayable. Having three main characters is honestly a very welcome idea, with more main characters meaning more characters that can actually consistently have dialogue over the course of the story. Lyn, Eliwood, and Hector all bounce off one another well and the rest of the cast is easily one of my favorites in the series. While the story as a whole isn't perfect, there's a lot of great moments throughout that keep it enjoyable and exciting. I especially appreciate that even though there's a lot of neat connections in the cast, this game didn't shackle itself to just being "the prequel to The Binding Blade" and told a completely original, smaller scale story. The GBA games are also in my opinion, still the best looking games in the series and Blazing Blade might be the best, as I prefer its brighter palette over Sacred Stones. Some things I did start to notice on this playthrough is that a lot of the early maps can be really tedious. Pretty much the first half of the game is just flooded with forest tiles, rain, or other movement slowing design that makes moving your army a chore. Aside from that though, this is definitely a comfort game for me that I can come back to any day and just have a great time with.
This review contains spoilers
This was the game that introduced Fire Emblem to the western audience, and I gotta say, damn what a great first game. Going into it, I thought it would be a middle of the road, 6/10 experience, but it honestly surprised me that this game was excellent.
Yeah the story isn't really all that special and gets pretty after awhile, but the cast of characters is really strong. My personal favorites were Lyn, Hector, Sain, Matthew, Florina, Ninian, Nino, and Jaffar; all were excellent characters that had me invested in their stories.
The gameplay was also really fun. From what I've heard, this game is pretty much the most down to earth Fire Emblem game with its mechanics and combat. However, that didn't really hinder my experience. In fact, in ways, it was a bit of an improvement from Three Houses, which at times felt a little overcomplicated with its gameplay. That isn't to say that there isn't any strategy involved in this game, though, because you still need to think about your choices carefully due to some of the maps in this game being pretty difficult, which made it fun to play through.
The graphics also hold phenomenally well. The pixel art for each of the characters is gorgeous and battle animations are also really flashy and fun to watch. It kinda made me wish Fire Emblem nowadays was still a 2D game, not gonna lie.
I do have my issues with the game, though. As stated before, the story in this game got pretty boring by about halfway through the game, and, aside from Sonia (the evil bitch), none of the villains could distract me from the boring writing. The bloated tutorial also really didn't really give that good of a first impression since it was slow and tedious to get through (although once you finish Eliwood's story, you don't have to play through it again when starting a new game, which is a nice addition). Also, even though I love the characters in this game and their support conversations were fun to listen to, the support system in this game is whack. I only learned that there was one in this game through complete accident, and even then, the way you get supports (having two characters stand next to each other for a certain amount of turns) is unintuitive and having a limited number of supports for each character per a play through is really questionable.
Overall, though, this game was a lot greater then I thought it was going to be. It was fun going through the western FE game and learning why a lot of fans are fond of it and consider it their favorite game in the series. I still love Three Houses more, but I can understand the appeal of this entry and I would love to get around to Hector's story sometime in the future.
Yeah the story isn't really all that special and gets pretty after awhile, but the cast of characters is really strong. My personal favorites were Lyn, Hector, Sain, Matthew, Florina, Ninian, Nino, and Jaffar; all were excellent characters that had me invested in their stories.
The gameplay was also really fun. From what I've heard, this game is pretty much the most down to earth Fire Emblem game with its mechanics and combat. However, that didn't really hinder my experience. In fact, in ways, it was a bit of an improvement from Three Houses, which at times felt a little overcomplicated with its gameplay. That isn't to say that there isn't any strategy involved in this game, though, because you still need to think about your choices carefully due to some of the maps in this game being pretty difficult, which made it fun to play through.
The graphics also hold phenomenally well. The pixel art for each of the characters is gorgeous and battle animations are also really flashy and fun to watch. It kinda made me wish Fire Emblem nowadays was still a 2D game, not gonna lie.
I do have my issues with the game, though. As stated before, the story in this game got pretty boring by about halfway through the game, and, aside from Sonia (the evil bitch), none of the villains could distract me from the boring writing. The bloated tutorial also really didn't really give that good of a first impression since it was slow and tedious to get through (although once you finish Eliwood's story, you don't have to play through it again when starting a new game, which is a nice addition). Also, even though I love the characters in this game and their support conversations were fun to listen to, the support system in this game is whack. I only learned that there was one in this game through complete accident, and even then, the way you get supports (having two characters stand next to each other for a certain amount of turns) is unintuitive and having a limited number of supports for each character per a play through is really questionable.
Overall, though, this game was a lot greater then I thought it was going to be. It was fun going through the western FE game and learning why a lot of fans are fond of it and consider it their favorite game in the series. I still love Three Houses more, but I can understand the appeal of this entry and I would love to get around to Hector's story sometime in the future.
So I played this on the Switch Emulator thingy (it came with NSO). And to be honest, it's what got me into Fire Emblem as a whole. I honestly came out of it having a hard time picking a favorite character. Also try to get Ninian and Eliwood A Support or you'll feel bad, like I did.
Notably, the first Fire Emblem to be localized.
A friend got this for his birthday, and watching him play it, I was entranced. I eventually got Sacred Stones, but this was technically the game that sparked my obsession with Fire Emblem.
The three protagonist modes and ranking system add some replay value. Some of the maps in FE6 were weird looking due to layout and coloration and that isn't the case here. Units stand out from each other and others in the overall series. Overall a more polished game than FE6 and a promising step forward for the Fire Emblem series. I wish the GBA Fire Emblem support system wasn't so bad, Blazing Blade has some good ones.
A friend got this for his birthday, and watching him play it, I was entranced. I eventually got Sacred Stones, but this was technically the game that sparked my obsession with Fire Emblem.
The three protagonist modes and ranking system add some replay value. Some of the maps in FE6 were weird looking due to layout and coloration and that isn't the case here. Units stand out from each other and others in the overall series. Overall a more polished game than FE6 and a promising step forward for the Fire Emblem series. I wish the GBA Fire Emblem support system wasn't so bad, Blazing Blade has some good ones.
i fucking hate fire emblem
Fun fact about this game; play it
Eliwood, Hector, Lynn and most of the characters were fantastic. My first Fire Emblem game and still one of my favorites. I'm not sure if it is because of nostalgia, but I truly love this game.
I will always thank Shining Force for getting me into this game.
I will always thank Shining Force for getting me into this game.
A Fire Emblem game. Not much more to say. It's a great place to start, but after playing other games in the franchise, the milquetoast flavor of this game makes it hard to come back to. The story is often times nonsensical, a low amount of characters means little encouragement for replaying the game, and the game is fairly easy. Despite all of this, I can't help but feel the charm oozing out of this game.
A fine entry in the series.
it is called Fire Emblem: Blazing Sword and you can't take that away from me
Love it. Difficult and fun, the pixel animation in the GBA games is incredible.