Wryviews were created in the face of the illogical manner in which video game reviewers score games. In principle they are meant to strike out the bias inherent in most video game reviews by judging a game on what it aspires to be, as opposed to what the reviewer regards it should be. They are meant to inform the readers, and especially so not try to make decisions for them.



Welcome to another Wryview; my continuing challenge to objectively judge games by what they set out to be, and not what I might prefer they be. For the first time we're going to jump into the handheld ring and go over Fire Emblem - The Sacred Stones for the Gameboy Advance. Before going into this I knew next to nothing about this series aside from one major point: It's a Strategy RPG and when one of your characters die, they stay dead. More so than anything else this seems to be the single tidbit of information everyone knows, and at first glance the Fire Emblem series doesn't do much to jump out and grab your attention. Most people simply know that the series is challenging, and it definitely is; but I don't believe the characters die simply for the sake of making the game harder. What most people won't tell you is that every character--keeping in mind I can only speak from my experience in Sacred Stones-- has a personality and unique traits. It breeds a sense of attachment and personal responsibility when even the weakest soldier in your army has a history. Every one of your characters represents a personal investment; if not in one way, then in another.

As far as the plot is concerned you follow Eirika, the blue haired princess of a crumbling nation. Her country has been invaded by a previously peaceful neighbor, and her father has commanded that she flee and request aid from other countries. Initially Eirika seems to play the role of the damsel, but though she's repeatedly told to keep herself safe she gathers up a small army and takes on dangerous missions to help save her country. There is more to the plot than just that and its by no means bad, but the premise isn't exactly a new concept. That aside, the massive cast present helps fill things out.

The plot is relatively simple, but teeming with new faces that play their own small role in the story. Sacred Stones is actually the sort of game where it's easier to appreciate the story on a second run after you've gotten to know everyone. Thanks to the sheer size and speed of which you're introduced to some of the characters, it's easy for things to initially fly over your head. That's not necessarily a bad thing as the game lends itself to having strong replay value. There's an alternate scenario you can embark on about a third of the way through the game, allowing you to play as Eirika's brother in an entirely different part of the plot. What's more the game has varying difficulty levels and far more characters than you can manage to fit in your party, even with the ability to swap out characters at any time.



The setting is a classic medieval fantasy world. When most people hear that phrase they tend to start thinking of a world populated by Tolkien styled Goblins, Elves, and Dwarfs. Sacred Stones is decidedly more classic, sticking almost strictly to human characters and a rag-tag army fighting to save several Kingdoms. The fantasy is still there with elements like Mages, Monsters, and the occasional Dragon and Pegasus; but these elements are in the minority. These sort of otherworldly elements serve to add variety to what would otherwise be a cast of stylish, but normal characters. I found this a refreshing change of pace. Both the plot and the world have a sort of classic styling to them, and fantasy settings rarely use fantasy itself conservatively. The character design doesn't suffer for it either. As I said, some of the game's designs are pretty stylish.

I'm sure most people are familiar with the concept of a Strategy RPG. It takes all the elements of a traditional RPG and transfers them to a glorified board game where you move your army along a large map. Sacred Stones does its best to likewise make those maps feel like a small part of the world, littering each level with forts, rivers, mountains, treasure chests, villages, shops, and more. Villages in particular are interesting, as the townsfolk within often have information or give you items as thanks. The terrain of each level is drastically different--which again--lends to replay value. Still what really sets this game apart from others is the way characters are approached.



Sacred Stones and Fire Emblem in general doesn't let you touch a single generic unit. Every character has their place in the story and is introduced to your army by the course of the plot. You can expect to be given the opportunity to obtain two or three new units in each mission, which adds up very quickly. Not only do all of these new characters have their own personalities, but they can form bonds with eachother. When characters with compatible personalities spend enough time near each other on the battlefield they can actually converse. Each of these conversations are very well written and greatly expand upon the already existing dialog in the game's main storyline. What's more characters with bonds grow stronger in eachother's presence.

I didn't deliberately seek out the conditions for conversations, and no doubt they would have helped me get through the game much more easily. I only unlocked about 15 conversations, and the game was kind enough to inform there were several hundred I'd missed out on. Close to three hundred in fact. It really goes to show that everyone in this game has a distinct identity, even if in the bulk of the game they amount to little more than pieces on a chessboard. As I keep on saying, this likewise lends itself to replay value. Not necessarily to collect every conversation (that's crazy talk), but to create a different army with different friendships. Even if you don't seek to get to know your army better from a personal standpoint, you will make yourself acquainted with these characters if you intend to see the game through. Through the normal course of events these units must be properly managed, and very quickly you'll become familiar with them on a first name basis if not just for that reason alone.

Each character has one of many classes, their own set of perishable equipment, their own potential bonds with other characters, and their own set of stats and levels. Let one of your units fall behind in experience and they'll grow weak. Let another unit's weapons wear out and they'll be defenseless on the field. You'll really kick yourself if you wear out a RARE weapon while you're at it. You even need to make sure to observe and train a character's weapon proficiencies so they can get more advanced equipment.

Actually playing the game is simple: Move allied unit; attack enemy unit. Thankfully it's not overwhelming at first, but all the information you need to follow and direct may take time to get used to depending on who you are. Eventually though you will have to enter a level of extreme micro-management to be effective. It can happen very naturally should you have a personal interest in the characters, but either way you'll become familiar with dozens of characters and guide them with careful consideration of their unique traits.



It's not going too far to say that when you choose to add a certain character into your primary platoon, you decide to make a personal investment. Aside from the fact that you put time into developing someone in your army; in a game of this fashion it's almost inevitable you'll be happy to see when two of your favorite characters become friendly, and worried when you take any risks that might endanger someone's life. The game isn't easy, and making mistakes can seriously cost you. Eventually any player will be hit with a scenario where they have difficulty winning without a unit dying. Players then have to make the choice to either move on or restart the level.

The level of investment you have to put into your army is actually why if one of your units dies, anyone with a sense of sentimentality is going to soft-reset the game by reflex. The interesting part is that because it's a strategy title, you won't exactly be doing the same thing over and over again even if this happens. You can't just do the same thing twice and expect it to work. Realistically you'll have approach the level from different angles and possibly with different characters. At the very least a dedicated player won't get bored anytime soon, even though it's possible they'll have to overcome a massive hurtle of a battle that can kill them over and over.

In my personal experience there were one or two characters that I let die out of some 30, but the characters are well made and pretty easy to get attached to. I only even let those characters die due to the circumstances. If you become fond of your hand picked army then playing through Sacred Stones will probably become a quest for perfection with no spilled blood. Realistically you could probably make it through the game with only about half of your characters, but I don't think many people would take that route.



There is an absolute massive amount of information to keep track of, and thankfully the game makes sure that all of it is easy to navigate. The R button in particular is extremely useful. Hovering over any unit and hitting the R button automatically sends you to a miniature three page manual of the character's information, and hitting the R button once more allows you to get explanations on just about every piece of that information in that manual to boot. If you ever don't know what an abbreviation means, you can find out. The game has a comprehensive guide available at all times as well. If you don't know how to play this game it's your own fault.

There's a variety of useful options as well, including the ability to suspend the game at any time and resume later. The animations that normally play as your characters fight can also be turned off, though to some this would be blasphemy. The battle animations are beautifully drawn and animated; but for those who want to get down the to actual strategy, turning them off greatly speeds up the game. The game's even kind enough to let you turn off specific characters' animations, in case there's one character whose fight scenes are just too incredible to pass up. The game does about everything it can to make itself easy to play, putting aside its difficulty and complexity. That much is just the nature of the beast.



At Sacred Stone's heart everything comes down to battle. Not counting all the times I restarted the game--which was frequent--my experience with the game amounted to over 20 hours of time on the battlefield. 20 plus hours of extreme micro-management. This is absolutely not a game for everyone. The required extreme attention to detail is a natural trade off for the level of detail each character has. The plot as I said doesn't introduce any really new concepts, but this game is all about the journey. It's an enjoyable experience to see your army fight onward, and the game itself is about as polished as a strategy title can be. Any of my complaints about untapped potential would be moot considering the limitations of the Gameboy Advance hardware, such as the limited manner in which cutscenes play out. Everything this game set out to do, it did so perfectly. Despite the decidedly complex nature of the game, it does everything it can to make the experience easy to enjoy.

I don't know if I could recommend this game to someone without a strong resolve as I never took the chance to play the game's easy mode, which is really only the beginning of what I haven't covered. The actual gameplay mechanics are something I've barely even touched, but that is also something just about any other review seeks to give in excessive detail. Let me just say that despite having a different format, almost all the rewarding elements from a traditional RPG are present in Fire Emblem - The Sacred Stones. What's more Sacred Stones and good deal of Fire Emblem in general adds its own unique touch to the genre. It's not just about a handful of unique characters, it's about dozens. It takes war to a personal level.

5 out of 5 stars
A 5 is a mark of a game that stands at the very top of its genre and gets just about everything right. It stands apart as unique and interesting without being bogged down by its own ideas. While a 4 is still a well regarded game, Wryviews do not hold a 5 as an unobtainable mark of perfection.

In short: The reviewer's calling this a masterpiece.