Fire Emblem (game)

Fire Emblem
Developer	Intelligent Systems
Publisher	Nintendo
System	Game Boy Advance, Wii U Virtual Console
Release Date	Game Boy Advance JP April 25, 2003 US November 3, 2003 EU July 16, 2004 Wii U Virtual Console JP May 14, 2014 EU August 21, 2014 US December 4, 2014
Gallery	GH Gallery
Rating	ESRB: E

Fire Emblem (known in Japan as Fire Emblem: Rekka no Ken) is the seventh game in the Fire Emblem series and the second on the Game Boy Advance. Most notably, it is the first of the Fire Emblem games to be released in America, hence the lack of a subtitle in its American release. Storywise, the game acts as a prequel to Fire Emblem: Fuuin no Tsurugi, the previous game in the series.

Story

Men and dragons once lived at peace long ago until men started a war with the dragons, known as the Scouring. It ended with the dragons being defeated, with the aid of eight mighty heroes. These eight heroes founded the various regions of Elibe.

The game is set 980 years after this Scouring and is divided into three stories:

• Lyn's Story (Chapters 1-10)- The beginner story. This story features Lyn as she discovers her birthright and sets off on a quest to save her long-lost grandfather from his evil usurper brother.

• Eliwood's Story (Chapters 11-30)- Set one year after Lyn's story, this story follows Eliwood as he sets out to find his missing father. Along the way he winds up involved in the schemes of the mysterious organization called the Black Fang, which involve the dragons of the distant past.

• Hector's Story (Chapters 11-32)- A story that runs parallel to Eliwood's. It is told from the point-of-view of Hector, which results in several additional chapters and new characters, as well as more of a focus on Hector and the characters associated with him.

Gameplay

The gameplay follows the model of the previous games in that the player controls members of an army (or sometimes even just a single warrior) and moves them like figures on a chessboard in order to overtake enemies. This game also adds some new ingredients to the series formula, such as weather that affects the gameplay. There are also several tutorial levels found in Lyn's story (likely to initiate American newcomers).

Legacy

The success of Fire Emblem led to almost all subsequent games in the series being translated and released in America, with the only exception being Fire Emblem: Shin Monshou no Nazo: Hikari to Kage no Eiyuu. However, the previous games in the series (including the game that this game acts as a prequel to) remain unreleased in America.

Ports/Remakes

• In 2014, Fire Emblem was released for download as part of the Wii U Virtual Console.

Sequels

This is the last game thus far to feature Elibe. The next game in the series was Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, which was also for the Game Boy Advance and featured an expanded version of this game's gameplay while set in a new storyline.