  Syrene brawls with a "Monster" carrying one HUGE freaking axe in Fire Emblem: Sacred Stones. |
Playing 'Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones' on the Game Boy Advance is like scoring one of those treasure or loot bags when you attended a birthday party as a kid. Some of the items were definitely keepers. The rest you toss into the assorted "crap and corruption" drawer at home. The "crap and corruption" drawer was the death row for toys.
'Sacred Stone' is a mixed bag to be sure. Some aspects of the game are engrossing while others are so darn tedious you want to sit back and allow the dastardly demented Demon King to rise again so he could barbecue the entire continent of Magvel and all of its galling inhabitants.
An RPG with pre-generated characters, 'Sacred Stones' begins with you playing the blue-haired Princess Eirika. Though it is pretty cool to see a strong female hero who kicks serious tail, Eirika, like the game itself, is sort of schizophrenic. She is a die-hard pacifist who still manages to dole out some serious whoop ass with her trusty rapier. She's got Zelda beat there. Eirika's kingdom of Renais has been besieged by one of its neighbors. With the invaders at the gate, Eirika is secreted away while her dad, the king, makes his last stand against the enemy.
Of course, the plot is a lot more complicated than that, as Eirika soon discovers. Some nifty sacred stones were created eons ago to keep the despicably depraved Demon King at bay. Now, someone is trying to acquire the mystical pet rocks and destroy them. Hmmm. I wonder why?
As Eirika travels around Magvel searching for her twin brother, Prince Ephraim, and accepting an assortment of shamefully noble quests, she encounters a dizzying horde of characters who join the party (army). You will never be able to keep their origins or their names straight so don't bother. Just be thankful you are acquiring some more muscle to trash the minions of the sadistically sinful Demon King and leave it at that.
After you have bumbled around a bit as Eirika, the storyline takes a surprising and welcome detour and you begin playing as Prince Ephraim. Ephraim has been missing in action. He was out of town doing...well...whatever Princes do...when the invasion occurred. Busting butt apparently runs in the family, as Ephraim is truly exceptional at carving the enemy up with his blade too.
Fundamentally, the game play consists of you being presented with a battle scenario in a town, castle, wilderness or wherever. Like Warcraft, you strategically advance your troops, decide which weapons or magic to use and then attack, attack and attack or move, move and move until you've completed that mission's goal. As you battle or move forth, you can unlock treasure chests, upgrade your weapons or discover magical items. As you can tell, things get quite predictable in a hurry especially if you have played similar games that are assuredly more advanced in every respect.
What might keep some gamers engrossed though are several tweaks in the combat system and the lively animations. 'Sacred Stone' follows the same path as most RPGs based on the 'Dungeons and Dragons' concept do. There are different character classes with diverse abilities and restrictions. When it comes to combat though, 'Sacred Stones' is a little different. Most weapons have a "Durability Ranking". That means every time you strike with a weapon, it's "Durability" decreases until it becomes nothing more than a well-crafted but blunt gardening tool. That alone throws a wrench into the works. Also, certain weapons are better than others when it comes to dueling. Lances beat swords. Swords best lances and axes. Axes slam dunk lances. You get the picture.
 |
| Possibly the shortest conversation you will find in the yackity-yack-yacking 'Sacred Stones'.
|
While you do pick which weapon your "unit" or "character" will use in combat, you don't actually get to participate in the throw down itself. The screen enlarges to show the two combatants as they duke it out, turn by turn. Like 'Battle Chess', 'Sacred Stones' has some wickedly animated combat sequences that are just too cool for words. The detail put into such pint-sized warriors with attitude is marvelous.
In addition to the cyclical game play, another letdown is the intrusive cut scenes that literally drag on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on. I appreciate an intricate storyline as much as the next guy but this is ridiculous. As the talking heads babble back and forth throughout the game, all you can is deeply sigh and pound that "Start" button hoping the inane jabbering will finally cease and you haven't missed an important plot detail as the next skirmish lurks on the horizon.
'Sacred Stones' is all about tolerance and patience. If Warcraft-like turn combat is your cup of tea and you get a thrill out of assessing the "lay of the land" and advancing your troops accordingly then you should fire up the kettle. If not, you best make some room in that "crap and corruption" drawer.
