In 2004, I borrowed my friend's copy of Fire Emblem on Game Boy Advance. Being the first entry in the series released in North America, it was my first experience with the celebrated strategy RPG. I was pumped. I was also in high school at the time, and being in the throes of my junior year, I took to playing Fire Emblem during my Economics class.

My teacher, who later left the school in some sort of disgrace after dating not one but two students (he might be working in politics now...), seemed to not give a crap about the kid who sat to the side of the class who perpetually had an old Arctic Game Boy Advance out the entire class, joyously defeating hordes of enemies with his burgeoning cast of heroes. The weirdest thing about the whole situation? I still participated in class. Since Fire Emblem was a turn-based game, I'd usually do a few turns with an ear towards the class, and drop in with a comment and answer a question every now and then. I don't really know why I could do this, or even what led me to chance the trouble in the first place. I think I got an A in the class when all was said and done.

This lasted for a few weeks until I finished the game. To date, it's the only Fire Emblem game I finished completely. I put substantial time in Radiant Dawn and Shadow Dragon, and dabbled a bit in The Sacred Stones courtesy of the 3DS Ambassador program, but I guess I just didn't have the urge to finish the game as a solution to get me through a boring high school class.

I've considered enrolling in a high school class, maybe some sort of History class, when Fire Emblem: Awakening comes out on 3DS on February 4. Though I hope that I don't need that push to put a ton of time into a game that I've become really hyped for since a knock-out demo last week.