Fire Emblem (2003)

I've been wanting to try out the Fire Emblem games for some time, but wasn't sure what to start with as an entry point. I reconciled to start at the beginning (of the NA releases at least) since playing more modern entries in a series often makes the lack of polish and quality of life features of earlier games more apparent. Starting early and working forward gives a more natural feel of game design evolution and doesn't take away any of the enjoyment from the earlier titles.

That being said I still wasn't expecting to enjoy this GBA title as much as I did right from the start. The depth of the game is only as deep as the player wants it to be. I found myself replaying some chapters a dozen times to really get the perfect run down, and haphazardly running through others with a character dying because they didn't interest me or I was too focused on others. The simplistic rock paper scissors type weapon system continues to add to itself naturally throughout the game to keep it from getting stale, and gives the player a good reason to constantly try out new unit combinations rather than keeping a constant stable of over powered characters. Occasionally an enemy boss would one shot one of my guys, prompting a bout of frustration and a chapter restart, but it almost always felt like it was my own fault. More often than not losing a character is due to impatience; overreaching into the map and failing to read a situation being the leading causes of a unit's demise.

On the surface story wise the game is yet another "unassuming heroes struggle to upend big bad's world domination plot." But along the way I found myself more attached to some characters than others because of their role in combat or some of their general dialogue. The wide cast of characters are mostly two dimensional and rely heavily on tropes, but it's still hard not to pick a few favorites. The true character the stands out is the world which has seemingly unending backstory and dictates attitudes of many of the cast towards each other. I found myself more interested in some of the political intrigue that was hinted at than a lot of the core exposition.

As is expected for a game of this era the interface leaves a lot to be desired. For a game that gives you control over dozens of characters, each of which needs to be individually outfitted, the inventory management system is abysmal. Even after unlocking the merchant it's a complete chore to swap, use, and manage inventory on each character. The micromanagement at the start of a chapter should have felt like a grand preparation for battle, but instead felt like it's own battle against the games lackluster UI. While it wasn't enough to lessen my enjoyment of the game, it was a lone annoyance in an otherwise great gaming experience.

This game absolutely holds up today and was a completely enjoyable experience that kept sucking me back in until I finally beat it. There are a lot of recommendations I've found to start playing Fire Emblem with the 3DS titles but I don't think anyone would have issues getting drawn into the series with this title.