Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones Ranking: A
This is the eighth game in the Fire Emblem series and the second to be released in the United States. It features a completely new story and characters from Fire Emblem: Blazing Blade, which I have a shrine for. This game isn’t inferior to Blazing Blade at all – it just didn’t significantly innovate from it, which is why Blazing Blade gets a shrine and this game doesn’t.
That said, Sacred Stones is a solid and fun game. Many of the interesting characters are, ironically, villains: Valter, Selena, and Lyon. See, at the beginning of the game, the kingdom of Renais is allied with the kind Emperor Vigarde of Grado. Vigarde then invades Renais in force for some reason and, to make a long story short, you learn it’s because his son Lyon got possessed by a demon king. Lyon is a weak character both in mentality and in body. He wants to be as great a ruler as his father, but that goal is far from his reach. His father fell ill before the game begins, and he also wants to save his father, which led to him inadvertently calling upon the demon king. He’s in love with Eirika, princess of Renais, and is envious of her brother Ephraim as Ephraim is strong and confident and Eirika respects him. As such Lyon’s character was written very well as a human character, which is certainly a plus for a villain.
Valter, on the other hand, is this sadistic evil guy of evil. That’s all he is. The reason I mention him is that before the game begins, he actually was fired for being too evil, but in-game he’s in command of Grado’s military, which serves to drive home how far the empire has fallen. Selena illustrates this too in a somewhat opposite way – she serves the emperor out of honor and respect as the emperor once saved her town. Even when she begins to question the actions of the empire, she continues to obey the emperor (who is speaking as a puppet for Lyon, possessed by that demon king, remember?).
On the protagonist side, I think the most memorable character is Princess L’Arachel, who is basically Serra from Blazing Blade except I feel like if I knew her in real life, she wouldn’t annoy me to hell. Also, how could anyone not like her bodyguard Dozla? Gwah hah ha!
Gameplay-wise, this game has split promotions, which were cool; trainee units, which were cool but not entirely impactful; and the world map, which was highly impactful as you could grind the optional maps to achieve high levels. It’s not something I mind per se, but I will say this: while I’d recommend this game for a newcomer to the series, I would caution a newcomer to avoid grinding. If you simply overlevel the content, you won’t practice the strategy part of the gameplay and you’ll probably get destroyed in other Fire Emblem games that don’t allow grinding (which is most of them).
This is the eighth game in the Fire Emblem series and the second to be released in the United States. It features a completely new story and characters from Fire Emblem: Blazing Blade, which I have a shrine for. This game isn’t inferior to Blazing Blade at all – it just didn’t significantly innovate from it, which is why Blazing Blade gets a shrine and this game doesn’t.
That said, Sacred Stones is a solid and fun game. Many of the interesting characters are, ironically, villains: Valter, Selena, and Lyon. See, at the beginning of the game, the kingdom of Renais is allied with the kind Emperor Vigarde of Grado. Vigarde then invades Renais in force for some reason and, to make a long story short, you learn it’s because his son Lyon got possessed by a demon king. Lyon is a weak character both in mentality and in body. He wants to be as great a ruler as his father, but that goal is far from his reach. His father fell ill before the game begins, and he also wants to save his father, which led to him inadvertently calling upon the demon king. He’s in love with Eirika, princess of Renais, and is envious of her brother Ephraim as Ephraim is strong and confident and Eirika respects him. As such Lyon’s character was written very well as a human character, which is certainly a plus for a villain.
Valter, on the other hand, is this sadistic evil guy of evil. That’s all he is. The reason I mention him is that before the game begins, he actually was fired for being too evil, but in-game he’s in command of Grado’s military, which serves to drive home how far the empire has fallen. Selena illustrates this too in a somewhat opposite way – she serves the emperor out of honor and respect as the emperor once saved her town. Even when she begins to question the actions of the empire, she continues to obey the emperor (who is speaking as a puppet for Lyon, possessed by that demon king, remember?).
On the protagonist side, I think the most memorable character is Princess L’Arachel, who is basically Serra from Blazing Blade except I feel like if I knew her in real life, she wouldn’t annoy me to hell. Also, how could anyone not like her bodyguard Dozla? Gwah hah ha!
Gameplay-wise, this game has split promotions, which were cool; trainee units, which were cool but not entirely impactful; and the world map, which was highly impactful as you could grind the optional maps to achieve high levels. It’s not something I mind per se, but I will say this: while I’d recommend this game for a newcomer to the series, I would caution a newcomer to avoid grinding. If you simply overlevel the content, you won’t practice the strategy part of the gameplay and you’ll probably get destroyed in other Fire Emblem games that don’t allow grinding (which is most of them).