Fire Emblem: The Sword of Seals, one of the only six Fire Emblem games never to be released in America. It came out in Japan for GBA shortly before Smash Brothers Melee, time enough for the hero, Roy, to be a character in the fighting game. Should it have been released in America? Let's take a look.
Gameplay: Like all Fire Emblem titles, this one is a turned-based SRPG, where you control a number of units to move in certain patterns across a chessboard-like map, to either fight, wait, use magic, and so on. And also, if you lose a unit, it dies forever. That's a feature of Fire Emblem that probably no one likes, but it adds to the suspense of it. You feel a sense of accomplishment when you use a character for an extended period of time, change their class (which I will explain momentarily), and have them walk into the middle of the battlefield, knowing that they will annihilate any enemy they fight.
Like I said, the characters change class. If you have a certain item, you can change them from Mercenary (a sword user) into a Hero (for example), and their stats will go up from the change. There is also a weapon triangle, where swords best axes, axes best lances, and lances swords. I could go into greater depth, but it plays like any other Fire Emblem. The only real difference is that there is only one goal in each chapter, which is to capture the throne. This makes it somewhat monotonous, as in previous and later titles there are other goals (such as protecting the throne).
Story: Ugh. The story is really boring in this one. You go through it, with boring political regimes being the focal point for the longest time. X is in cahoots with Y, and you must stop them from doing Z, and so on and so forth. I would just skip the story if I were you. The motive of the main villain is actually quite poignant, though. And a little nihilistic. You'll find out if you play the game.
Music: Typical Fire Emblem fair, here. Nothing too stimulating, and when the music that is stimulating plays, it only lasts for half a second. It's less impressive than the successor, Fire Emblem the Blazing Sword (which came in 2001, and was the first Fire Emblem in America). Really nothing much to talk about here.
Overall: Really, you should only play this game if you are a Fire Emblem fan. It's kind of tedious to get through it (especially without Gamefaqs, I couldn't have done it without). The only way to play it in English to download a ROM and find an English patch, or you can buy it imported, which would be insanely high (I think the one I found was like 140$). So should it have come out in America? Well, maybe, and I would say that of any Fire Emblem game. They will go down into history as some of the best SRPGs made, if not for their depth, then for their simplicity.
-EJ
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