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[Killer7]

1

Reader Reviews / Killer7

« on: July 14, 2005, 07:27:28 AM »

God and the pigeons are one. Trust in the pigeons.

Killer7

Genre Action | Publisher Capcom | Developer Grasshopper | ESRB Mature

(author’s note: The slowdown and long load times do not plaque the GCN version. This review technically covers the PS2 version, but the above is the only difference)

There are some games that split user response in two. Generally it can be due to a new, unique way to play, or in the case of some RPGs, the story direction. Killer7 has appeared to do the same. If you are looking into this game and have read the various reviews out there, you have already realized that some people despise the game for having such a simplistic gameplay design. Others realized that this was the only way you could explain the story and keep this wild style of graphics, sound design, and other parts of gameplay. I am part of the latter.

The reason this game is so unique is due to a few factors. If you check out a few of the screenshots, you will see that the art style used to portray the game is wildly different then anything we have seen before. Still, after playing a few hours with this style, it is easy to see that there would be no other form of graphics that would portray the image Suda 51 and Grasshopper were trying to show you. When killing off Heaven Smiles, the game’s central enemies, about 30 holes will open all of their bodies, and blood will pour out of their wounds as if their body was a showerhead of blood. When they finally fall, the body explodes into little colorful particles.

These Smiles, who never stop smiling by the way, are the central figure of the story. You play as the Killer7, a group of assassins all seemingly sharing one body. Harman Smith has seven personalities in addition to his own: Garcian, Dan, Kaede, Kevin, Coyote, Con, and Mask. Our dysfunctional bunch here is the Earth’s main resistance to the Smiles. This is fairly expected, because the man who controls the Smiles is Kun Lan, Harman’s main adversary. While the game starts out seemingly as these two groups fighting, your “assignments” will be to kill other various political figures. All are unique, and range from a man who likes little girls to a gang of Power Ranger-rip offs. In the end, this all ties together to somehow explain the past of the Killer7, as well as some very messed up political ideas. All of this adds up to one of the best stories in video games. Do I fully understand what went on in Killer7? No, not really. I get the overall idea of it, but a lot of details are still confusing. Don’t worry though; it only adds to the mystique that is Killer7.

Well, this story needs a vessel to get to you with. That vessel is the distinctive gameplay, although some say it is too simplistic. Yes, it is simple when you first look at it. The game is almost like a rail shooter. You press one button to go forward, and one will turn you around. At intersections, you choose where you want to go next with the left analog stick and continue down that path. Combat involves bringing up your weapon into a first-person view and scanning whenever you hear the Smile’s screams. This makes them visible and open targets to your gun (or knife) fire.

What really makes it unique is the variety of Smiles, ways to kill enemies, the level design, and the light RPG elements that accompany all of this. You control seven personalities, although Garcian can not be upgraded (and you won’t use him much either). They each have their own weapons that are generally unique: Mask’s dual grenade launchers that require a reload after every round to Con’s automatics that are amazingly fast to Kevin’s knives which have no reload time. Using these weapons, you can target the weak points of the Smiles, which sometimes are shown glowing yellow (in the easiest difficulty) and other times they are fairly obvious and are not directly denoted.

Every time you hit a weak spot, or shoot off a limb, the Smile will spout blood. Blood will be collected, and comes in two forms: thin and thick. Thin blood will be used for healing and special attacks, like charge shots. Thick will be turned into serum at TVs, where you save and can change to Garcian, who you generally only use to resurrect fallen personas. The serum is then used to upgrade four categories: Power, Speed, Waver, and Critical. Mask and Kevin have slightly different upgrades, but they work the same way. Anyway, this is how you shape the characters you like. Say, you really like Dan. However, his arm tends to shake a little when aiming. So you upgrade your Waver to level 3. Now, Dan’s aim is near steady. It is not perfect, but is a lot better than it was. Now, you focus on the other statistics. When you get each of them to level 2, Dan gains his counter attack ability. Whenever a Smile gets too close, you can time a press of the counter button and Dan will grab the Smile and shoot him dead. You get no blood out of the deal, but it helps against damage. These abilities come from certain level requirements. You can get the counter attack, which most of the personas can get, or get a Head Lock-on with Dan, which will automatically target the head of the Smile nearest to you. There are several of these abilities, but you never really know when you will get one, so it’s basically going by luck when choosing upgrades that you get the ability.

The last bit of gameplay to work into Killer7 is the puzzles. You can whittle most of the puzzles to their core, which almost always are finding the right piece and putting it in the right place. Whether it is finding an engraving to open a door or seeing how many transformations a toy has on a poster and then imputing that number into a computer, they all revolve around a key to a lock. Some will get more complicated and force you to backtrack and check things, then go back to the lock and open it with the information you hopefully remembered. Still, you can always look at the bosses as puzzles, because as they are generally human, they each have their own unique way to go down. Sometimes you have to shoot at the precise time in a stand off, or others you just have to find the weak point and exploit it. None are ever really the same, and make for some of the more unique experiences during gameplay.

As I said before, the presentation is probably something you have never seen before. Aside from the colorific regular graphics, the game uses two other styles of cutscenes. Both are actually anime, but the way they are drawn and animated is completely different. They are used in sections also, as one appears in the first half and the other appears in the second. I’m not exactly sure of the reason for this, but it may have been used to switch things around. Anyway, on the music front, everything is a little toned down. Nothing is real eccentric like the rest of the game, except for the disco theme after the gatekeeper, which I personally love. However, where it lacks that “edge” in the music, it gains in the sound design. From the laughs of the Smiles as they explode in your face to the arcade-like kill sounds every time the Smile erupts in blood, nothing is short of uniquely brilliant. Even the voices of the dead ghosts that come back to help, or haunt, you speak in a weird gibberish with the help of subtitles. Don’t worry, the rest of the voice-acting is all real English, and is actually fairly well done.

While it may surprise you, Killer7 can last about 15-20 hours. It only has seven missions, but each one tends to last about 2-3 hours long, excluding the last one. Oh, and there are two different ways to play the game. Technically, they are different difficulties. But the differences are really whether you want to be really challenged or if you want the game to be there for help if you ever need it. On the easier difficulty, most puzzles are denoted on the map with the persona/item to use for it. There are also key locations and things that should be checked out shown on the map as well. Probably the biggest change is the fact that only on the easiest difficulty you will be shown the enemy’s weak points on regular Smiles. That yellow glow I mentioned earlier, it isn’t shown on the hard difficulty. Plus, the enemies are harder. Again, if you start with the harder difficulty, you’ll probably have a tough time getting used to the game.

Aside from the puzzles, the only real flaws you can find in this game are due to the Playstation 2’s hardware. Unfortunately, gameplay will get slowdown when a few Smiles get close to you, or sometimes even with the death of a Smile. There is also about 10 second-long cutscenes between doorways and changing personas. You know that static you get on your TV when the channel doesn’t work? Imagine the camera is zoomed in and the color is hued to blue. Get used to that image, because you will be seeing it a lot.

Overall, I really had a good time with this game. If my score was based on personal fun with the game alone, it would be near perfect. Still, Killer7 is a wildly unique game that won’t please everyone. I definitely recommend renting this title due to the storyline and uniqueness that accompanies most things you do. Trust me; your time will be unlike anything you have done before.

Gameplay...8
Graphics...9
Audio......9
Worth......8
Overall........8 /10

+ An experience like no other
+ Schizophrenia has never been so much
- Puzzles are almost all, at their core, key and lock related
? Why must the story confuse me half the time?

originally posted at http://www.gamexc.com

[Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory]

2

Reader Reviews / Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory (DS version)

« on: July 05, 2005, 05:17:26 PM »

Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory

Genre Stealth-Action | Publisher Ubisoft | Developer Gameloft | ESRB Teen

I was always one who scoffed at the Splinter Cell games. Coming through this generation with a healthy serving of swordplay games like The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, God of War, and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time; I always tended to believe Sam Fisher was a pansy for not fighting enemies like a man. Recently, I finally got past that belief and rented Chaos Theory for the GCN. The adrenaline rush coming from sneaking up on an innocent mercenary and bringing my knife right to his jugular was something completely different then fighting an enemy face-to-face in my before-mentioned games. As I passed through the game, I learned to love the ways of Sam Fisher’s infiltration, data retrieval, and extraction.

Unfortunately, that was only a week-long rental. Soon, I learned that Ubisoft had announced the Nintendo DS is going to receive a version. I became very enthusiastic for it, as the DS would now be capable enough to handle a 3D version of the console game I loved so much. If you were thinking that the DS would not be able to handle the myriad of options available to Sam in his latest console hit, you were right. Problems appear in this version of Chaos Theory around every turn.

At its core, the DS version retains that ability to sneak up on enemies and bring your knife to them, or silently cap some heads with your handgun. Admittedly, those abilities are still present, as well as the excitement that revolves around doing them. The problem lies in the fact that getting to the exciting parts requires digging through a lot of bugs, troublesome controls, problematic graphics, and, mainly, a dumbed-down adventure.

These problems start with the presentation. The graphics do look sort of good for a DS game, but the real problem lies when they are in motion. Running is really annoying because Sam tends to lack every fifth frame or so. Sam’s different view options, thermal and night vision, experience that problem with everything Sam does. What’s worse about those view options is that they will cause the screen to shift from left to right in a glitch-like manner, while sometimes only shifting one third of the screen in a completely different direction then the other. So while the DS does showcase some fairly decent models and details, they weren’t just able to flow smoothly during gameplay. Even the rare, FMV cutscenes can be fairly ugly to look at.

The audio portion of this game fairs a bit better, but still suffers its own problems. The score from Amon Tobin is replicated nicely and sets the mood for the levels at first. Then when you hear the same 2-5 minute clip repeated over and over again throughout the entire level, it just becomes annoying. Ubisoft was nice enough to change the music speed when an enemy spots you, but it still is enough to just force the volume to go down. All the effects are pretty much forgettable, and voice-acting is rare. In fact, the same voices are used for every guard in the entire game. It may be because the only lines shouted in gameplay are: “Must have been nothing” and “Hey you!” or that all the guards have no personality.

If you played this game on the consoles, you may be thinking that the stealth-gameplay experience is still a great reason to buy the game. No, silly, the graphics weren’t the only thing to take a toll. I’ll make a list in the upcoming sentences about everything taken out or annoyingly condensed.. The levels are no longer open-ended; Sam is forced to follow one route. The enemies are stupid in a number of ways: 1) You can make a small noise in the dark by running, have a guard come to check out the disturbance, and then grab him by the back. Repeat for all guards in the area 2) Three guys in the same room won’t notice each other getting shot in the head 3) “Hey, I just felt a bullet whiz past my ear, maybe I should stop walking and become an easy target for them to hit my ugly face.” Oh, and interrogations are almost completely gone. The rule of thumb is that if you aren’t asked to interrogate the enemy (by grabbing him and not killing him right away), then you won’t be able to anyway. If an enemy sees you, you are dead. No questions asked, as by the time it takes for you to draw your weapon, assuming you have the right thing equipped, and aim right at the enemy, he will already have killed you. Probably the most painful thing cut out was the ability to run up to an enemy and pimp-slap them to knock them out. Nope, you can’t even run up and knife a guy without grabbing him first.


While the above make Sam’s entire journey an annoying and boring one, the thing that hurts the most is the controls. Moving Sam is on the d-pad, and you can slow your speed by holding the L-button. This is manageable, all it takes is a good 10 minutes to get used to Sam’s movements and the rest of the game would be fine. However Ubisoft decided to drop a turd and use it as a camera for the game. Honestly, every freaking corner you have to rotate the camera. No, they couldn’t help with the camera a little in the needed places like corners. They only decided to rotate it when you are running down a straight hallway. All other controls can be best described as weird and annoying.

You should take note of a few things if you are considering this purchase. First of all, some of the console versions are cheaper than the DS version at this point. Secondly, the storyline remains the same, but the lines are changed and you will most likely not understand a lot of events without reading a FAQ. The levels share the same names and some objectives, but level design is again linear and completely different from the console versions. If you are catching my drift, then you should know that a better purchase in most, if not all, regards is the console version. While the DS version does have the “Spies vs. Mercs” multiplayer (which I was unable to test), it requires another copy of the game for each player. From what I heard, the multiplayer is just as problematic as the single, but Mercs are limited to aiming mode only (first person view). This can be a good thing, because if you use your stylus to aim, the game becomes similar to a FPS using a mouse and keyboard.

I honestly see no real reason to buy this game. Unless you only own a GCN and desperately want to play the Spies vs. Mercs minigame, then I’d really advise to get the console version. If you do get this game, there will be a lot of things to deal with. If you can get past the bad camera, weird controls, messed up graphics, repetitive sound, linear gameplay design, and a lot of other condensed features, you will still get Sam’s Stealth Happy Time. It could be worse, luckily, but I have a feeling all the problems with this title, including the lagging menu screens, should turn consumers towards the better console version.

Gameplay...5
Controls...4
Graphics...6
Sound...7
Lasting Appeal...6
Overall...5.6 /10

[Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory]

3

Reader Reviews / Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory

« on: May 07, 2005, 02:02:33 PM »

Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
Ubisoft
Stealth
1-2 Players
ESRB: Mature

I have almost intentionally stayed away from the stealth genre up to this point. Stealth parts in games like The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker and Beyond Good & Evil were very frustrating for me. I am not one who likes “sneaking”. I prefer a clash of action and strategy, but very less so the whole stealth portion. I knew that I would have to try a stealth game at least some time, so I figured I’d start with the recently released Chaos Theory. I am now officially changed. The fun of playing with the minds of my enemies without ever revealing Sam Fisher (protagonist for you who don’t know anything) is much more exciting than I had first thought. Also, Chaos Theory tends to take an almost direct tactical approach. I mean, this could be a real-time strategy game featuring one unit, and it would probably pass. That might sound strange, but I will explain…if you read the review.

Chaos Theory details the further missions of Sam Fisher, a “Splinter Cell” for the government. His job is to covertly fill out objectives without allowing his persona to be discovered and prevent having a full assault take place on various locations. We start out seeing Sam try and rescue a prisoner being tortured for information. This information will pretty much be your goal throughout Chaos Theory, as it has almost infinite capabilities in information warfare. For a few missions, Sam is sent in trying to eliminate all people who would know of that information (as the prisoner squealed before getting electrocuted to death). However, many twists lie along this road. An old friend of Sam’s, Doug Shetland, owns a security agency that has an odd tendency to show up protecting the men who know the dangerous information. Oh, and North Korea is about on the verge of starting World War III. While Sam doesn’t see any frontline action, he is usually between the main troops and support of North Korea, during the war missions. Shetland’s company, World War III, and the information warfare are a perfect mix for this Tom Clancy-style story, and it works pretty well in during the missions.

That is the only strange thing though, as the story is told in a better fashion during the missions themselves, rather than during in between cutscenes. This is only because Sam is the one who uncovers all the information, interrogates the enemies who usually know something, and eavesdrops on the more important and secret meetings. Then Sam usually gets a little call from his friends back at Third Echelon (the division he works for) that explains the more technical terms you/Sam may not understand. Oh, and there is some pretty good dialogue between Sam (who’s getting pretty old for the job) and Grim (who’s a pretty young ‘un). A nice one details how Sam was having a bad year in ’89 having to camp out avoiding troops while Grim was having a bad year as well. It was tenth grade for her.

Anyway, as the year is 2007, our boy Sammy has some good things in his belt. First off, he has those three glowing lights that no one in the game ever seems to catch the glow of. This gives Sam night vision, thermal vision, and EMF vision (which basically highlights everything that Sam can screw up, like computers, lights, etc.). His other handy gadgets usually remain from the beginning to the end, but their uses become more often used in the later missions. Hand, flash, smoke, and gas grenades can all be a part of your arsenal, but whether they are or not depend on what setting you chose before each mission. There are three: stealth, assault, and Redding’s Recommendation. Stealth and Assault usually have more items of their designated strategy. Stealth holds more sticky shockers (knock out enemies on impact) and sticky cameras, while Assault gives almost all the grenades. Redding’s usually features a combination of both, although it changes depending on the level. The only problem with this is that you will soon realize stealth is easier to manage once you get the hang of the game, and having more sticky shockers is always the best idea possible. Oh, and you almost rarely pick up ammo and gadgets off the ground, so what you have is usually what you can only use. This all pretty much reduces use of grenades, as it will easily alert other guards in the general vicinity to your presence.

Luckily, Sam has everything to not alert those troops (unless you want a fire fight, which is something Sam can get mowed down in easily). New to Chaos Theory from previous editions is the sound meter, which will calculate how much sound you are making, compared to how much the ambient sound is coming from the environment. So when there is dead silence, walking really slowly is often times the wise decision, unless you want an AK-47 blasting in your direction. Also, if you are smart enough, you can shoot a few guards in the head while something really loud (like thunder) roars in the background as to not alert any of the other guards. You also can silently grab an enemy from behind and drag him into darkness to interrogate him.

Darkness is actually one of the bigger concepts in the game; a concept that some like and some are having trouble with. I frequently hear that on this version the game is too dark and you often times have to play with your night vision. Oddly, I never really had this problem. I thought it was too light, only to see that my light bar (like the sound meter, but calculates how visible you are to the enemy) was in the darkest section available. However, there is a darkness-lightness meter which you can change in the options menu, if you do encounter this problem.

Some of your other stealth features are pretty nice to have, so I better mention them. Hacking, while very confusing to learn, is easy to master and will make many things a breeze nowadays. Having trouble with a retinal scanner or keypad? Just hack into the device to easily open it. However you are timed and you have to pick a set of four numbers out a list of about 20 sets, so you generally have to be quick to eliminate sets. Oh, and this can be done for computers, which is the basic way to get high-profile intelligence in Chaos Theory.

There is also something that I actually never noticed until the third mission (no manual, forgot it was even there). It is pretty much the replacement of the camera scrambler, and it comes with your handgun. Instead of shooting out lights that will always attract the attention of guards, you can scramble a light to make it shut off for awhile, and then proceed in the dark. This is the same for cameras, which are usually placed in annoying places and hard to get around otherwise.

Okay, let’s say you do catch the attention of the guards. However, they haven’t seen you, but they think they heard something. There are several paths that can happen. 1) You move away slowly and quietly, staying in the shadows and sneak past them while they are still investigating. 2) You back off like before, but instead of sneaking away you shoot out the lights and further bewilder the guards. They can’t see you in the darkness, and won’t open fire unless you shoot in their general vicinity. So you sneak up on a guard’s back, grab him, and drag him to a corner. There you can either kill him or knock him out. Killing detracts from your final score, but if another guard finds a knocked out buddy, he will wake that guy up and you have some alert guards on your hands. Anyway, after taking out the first guard, you sneak up on the other and instead of grabbing him (you are positioned wrong); you just knife him for a kill. 3) You try to sneak away, but you either enter a light and are seen, or make a loud footstep by accident and the guards send fire in your position. The majority of the guards hold automatics, which can mow Sam down in 2-5 seconds. You can fire back, but you become open even when shooting from behind cover, and your weapons are single shots (weak, by the way). If the guards didn’t directly see you, they will shoot where they last heard you, but you can still sneak behind them and they won’t ever notice. If they see and know your position, they will advance on you with advanced AI mechanics. This is a pretty nifty feature, as the mercenaries show much more intelligence on taking you out through several techniques, as opposed to the regular guards just trying to shoot you down. However, the strange thing is that guards never seem to notice that their buddies are gone unless they see the body. I was in a small room with a few boxes, and there were two guards. They were in a bit of conversation, so I waited until that ended and then knifed one of the guards. The other continued a patrol, and never even bothered to think of where the other guard may have gone.

While the mechanics are all pretty good (despite the few small quips I had here and there) controls take a little getting used to. On the GCN’s lack of buttons, you have about eight functions assigned to the Z button + something else feature. This doesn’t generally apply to the more important actions like shooting, aiming, etc. However it generally requires you to use the small d-pad and 50% of the buttons with the Z-button to do one of Sammy’s various actions. It is annoying for the first few levels, but as you get the hang of it the annoyance will go away. Unless you are too used to the plethora of buttons on the PS2’s controller.

Let’s go back to that setting of getting the guards to notice you. Now before that, the music was off. Everything playing was an ambient noise that related to the environment, like a slow rumble of a machine or whirring of a computer. When those guards notice you, this music will suddenly start to come blaring out of your speakers like the whole world is about to collapse. The good thing is that this music is actually very well done and of high quality. It easily fits the situation at hand, as a spy being noticed, and never seemed to disappoint. I mean, I heard all sorts of instruments coming out during some of the exotic locales where I was seen at. And of course, as soon as you neutralize the situation, the music dies down suddenly and it is back to the solitude of nature.

However, the sound is actually more important than the music quality. As it directly ties in with your sound meter, you have to be always listening to what is going on in the background so you can quicken your pace and risk a bit of sound with your footsteps. There are times where you can turn on or off fans, radios, or computers just so the sound will be able to hide your presence. I’m glad to see Ubi Soft greatly emphasis the sound portion of stealth, as it is a great way to know more of how much your presence is known to the enemy at all times.

Also dealing in with the stealth gameplay is the graphics, which on the GCN have disappointed many. First off, the graphics have created some very extensive load times (along with the fairly large levels). You have load times for each area (about three-five per mission), saving times which last a minute or so, loading times for starting a game or loading a save. It just creates a good amount of time loading, which can be very annoying to many. I wasn’t too bothered, as I know that one of the virtues is patience, silly head. Anyway, the graphics are better than some of the games on the market. However, you just sometimes feel the Gamecube could have done much more. The Xbox version is out and it looks much more beautiful, but a high-class game from Ubi Soft should at least have some more impressive graphics. The models are okay, as Sam’s is very good while the guards lack in some areas. Animations work in the game, but during cutscenes they are a bit robotic. The detail in the environment is probably the best feature, and the lighting is fairly impressive as well. Some of these surfaces just seem to come alive when you have a good light shining on them, strangely. It has its faults, and it isn’t as good as you would think it would be, but the graphics, as the great Larry the Cable Guy says, “Git ‘r done!”.

Now, you might not like the following fact, but the GCN has probably the worst offering of all the platforms. It isn’t as pretty as the Xbox, and doesn’t have the quite innovative online versus mode of both the PS2 and the Xbox. However, those who have owned the GCN for awhile should be past the fact that Nintendo won’t go online with this console, and will probably have realized this already. There is a still a co-op mode, which adds another four hours onto the ten hour single player campaign, and is pretty good. It uses most of what Sam has in single player, but gives you more options with two players. It also ties directly in with the single player plot at a few places, so it makes it seem more important than a side feature.

The most replay value will probably come from the open-ended environments though. Oddly, even in the small confrontations with multiple guards, there are many possibilities for completing your objectives. Should you try and interrogate every guard before proceeding, or avoid any risky confrontation and sneak by them while giving them a good knife in the back? There are also multiple paths to get through areas. You can even bypass a good few rooms full of enemies by taking a detour through a ventilation shaft. This can also place you in better starting places, so instead of approaching a guard from a door facing him, you can take a vent to the storage room behind him and then grab him while it isn’t expecting it. The possibilities aren’t endless, but they are fairly close.

Overall, Chaos Theory is a title that shines through its faults. I have never played a stealth game thoroughly before, but Chaos Theory was able to take me behind the shed and…well show me the ropes. It is sort of like hacking in the game: hard to learn, easy to master. As soon as you can get the hang of grabbing guards and completing the objectives, the game will fly by in a whirl of fun. I absolutely love this game now and somewhat wish I hadn’t only rented it.

Gameplay: 9
Controls: 7
Graphics: 8
Sound: 9
Lasting Appeal: 7
Overall: 8

[Fire Emblem]

4

Reader Reviews / Fire Emblem

« on: March 22, 2005, 05:45:30 PM »

Fire Emblem

Like Advance Wars, but different

Intelligent Systems has become one of my favorite developers. I've played Advance Wars and AW: Black Hole Rising, and for the fourth time (which isn't saying much compared to many), I've beaten Fire Emblem. From when I first met Lyn as a traveling tactician to when I felled the fire dragon that broke into my realm, the game has amazed me.

As I do enjoy it, I find the plotline to be the weakest part of Fire Emblem. First of all, it feels too similar, as many RPGs recently have felt. There are two parts to it, the first being a 10 (possibly 11) chapter tutorial, which goes over the basics early on, and then puts your brain at the helm for the last few chapters. Tutorial may be a bit harsh of a name, as the instructions do not dictate your commands heavily after the fourth or fifth chapter, but every chapter will begin with a few instructions as how to progress. The second part is the main story (first part introduced a few key characters, yet only really detailed an event that didn't tie in too much with the general plot) with Eliwood as the center of attention. Basically, your father has gone missing, and young Eliwood is off to find him. Upon finding his father several chapters later, Eliwood learns of an evil man, Nergal, who is planning on unleashing ancient dragons unto the world with the power of a mysterious dancer and bard. Your goal is to aid Nergal.  Okay, not really, but wouldn’t that have spiced things up a bit?  You need to stop Nergal, duh.

As I mentioned, this is all slightly familiar. Save the world from an evil magician who has corrupted many people and also did a few other nasty things. Probably the saving grace is that you, the player, take a role as the traveling tactician who guides our young Eliwood and company through battle. You never really appear during battles, but an icon will show the personification of you during cut scenes of decent importance. Yes this is similar to the original Advance Wars, and it is a unique concept. Too bad we won't see this again in Sacred Stones.

Speaking of cut scenes, the story is portrayed in an interesting manner. Whenever two people start talking, a screen pops up with a background (changes depending on location) and the upper portion of their body appear and act out the scene. While the sprites of these people never really change (outside of very subtle facial expressions and the mouth moving), the entire sprite itself with move across the screen, behind people, or make quick dashes to indicate a duel as to give you an imitation of a real cut scene. This method of storytelling is used in Fire Emblem about 95% of the time. The other 5% belongs to some insults (or bribes) thrown from enemy boss characters to members of your own team before one assaults the other in combat. Strangely enough, these detail some more...interesting history about the lesser known combatants you control.

The graphics in those cut scenes are better than what we've really seen in a tactical RPG up to that point. The sprites are clean and clear, and move flawlessly during their actions. The backgrounds (if turned on) are nice little shadings and are accurate, although they aren't really too special and can be ever so familiar as you pass the halfway mark. If you've played any of the Advance Wars games on the GBA, then the scenario graphics will be very familiar. The real beauty to be found here has to be in battles. The animations are simply adrenaline-rushing, clean, beautiful, and remarkable. Basically, when a battle pops up, your fighter is on the right and the enemy is on the left. Depending on who is attacking, the statistics of the two buddies, and any weapon-enhancements; the number of times attacking and any critical hits scored will differ. Yet seeing Eliwood take his rapier and stab it through an enemy with lightning speed is just hard to describe. You wouldn't think it was so interesting from a written description, but the action is nonetheless wonderful.

Being that the battles are beautiful, and you have the 10 chapter tutorial, some of the gameplay might have been realized by now. It is a tactical RPG, much like the Advance War series. In fact, so much borrows from that series that Fire Emblem almost feels like a side-story to Advance Wars. However, there are differences. In Advance Wars, your units were expendable and replenish-able. Fire Emblem gives you a set force that is generally more powerful than your average enemy, and can counter tougher boss characters as a group. However, losing one in battle will result in death (or serious injury to those important, plot-wise), and you won't be able to use them again. Frustration will come to those who do not think out their actions before doing them, because losing a powerful ally is something that will generally make you reset that chapter. Oh, I guess I should say that there is no saving during battle. If you turn off your GBA during any part of the battle, the game will automatically save at that specific point and replay any of the battles you tried to avoid. That means if you know a character of yours will die and you want to prevent it by quickly resetting, the game will remember where you are, and will repeat the same results of that battle. Restarting a chapter will occur often to prevent character death will most likely happen often to greenhorns.

If you aren't so worried about losing a few characters, there are plenty to fall back on. The game starts you out with a few characters, and you generally average one new character per chapter. Every character can be leveled up to 20, and can change their low class to a high class anywhere from level 10-20. Doing so will reset your level back to one, and allow you to work back up to 20 again. So you must remember that being a tactician, you want the strongest abilities to come out of your characters. Yet sometimes you want to up the class level right away, which of course is foolish and only done by a novice, you silly person.

Scenarios progress in turn-based combat, and every character on the map gets one turn. The movements are all grid-based, and different environmental obstacles (trees, mountains) affect how far you go each turn. Intelligent Systems made an incredibly deep system here with all the abilities and restrictions during battle. Fire Emblem is one of those games that will require you to read the manual; otherwise you will be completely lost. For a complex thinker like I am (selfish, yes sir!), this is a great way to blow a few hours whenever I need to. The actions you take have so many different possibilities that it is hard to know which one will give the greatest results, but by the end of the tutorial (if you pay attention to what people say) you will know what and how to do things appropriately.

Music supports the different battle scenarios and story changes appropriately. Several are catchy tunes, I must admit. Some are a bit...ugh, but at least Intelligent Systems gave themselves a good pool to choose from. There are at least 50 songs (all playable in a Sound Room), and there are multiple songs for any given situation, depending on the circumstances. The Fire Emblem theme, which was loved by many in Super Smash Bros. Melee, makes a great return, along with a few variations if you listen closely. You would be hard pressed not to find a song you really like in this game, as the quality seemed to surpass many themes I've heard in other GBA games.

All interfaces are easy to get through and the controls aren’t slippery.  Menu screens, even for a complex game like this, are easy to find, easy to read, and everything becomes second nature after the tutorial.  Then again, some of you human refuse (a la Sonia) might not be able to comprehend the intricate details of Fire Emblem.

To finish up, replay has a high factor in this game. After you defeat Fire Emblem on your first round through, I am almost completely sure you will want to play again. However, there are benefits. Beating the game unlocks Hector's Story, which will replace Eliwood with Hector (best friend, axe-wielder) as the central hero of the game. Most events stay the same (it still starts with Lyn's Story, unchanged), but there will be a few unique chapters and the plot will shift focus from Eliwood's emotions to Hector's trials. Add to that the many characters that aren't available in one play through, plus any extra chapters you may have missed and the game will undoubtedly keep you playing.

I must say the overall package adds up to something great. Some will complain that it feels too much like an Advance Wars without the expendable units, but I'm sure that will be a minority. Fire Emblem is a great game to have on the handheld, and a better game that most others out there. With Sacred Stones coming out in May, be sure to pick up the original in case that sequel pulls a Devil May Cry 2 (or Xenosaga II, as we now know).

Gameplay 9
Controls 10
Graphics 9
Sound 9
Lasting Appeal 10
Overall 9.4