Let's Discuss Fire Emblem.

Fire Emblem the Sacred Stones, to be precise, which I understand is really Fire Emblem 8. Compared to the first American Fire Emblem, the game is actually quite easy. But this is speaking relatively, mind; the game is still hard enough to make your digestive system collapse. I have been known, while playing it, to throw my Gameboy across the room and speak in tongues for the next few hours.

And now, consider how hard the FIRST Fire Emblem must have been. It boggles the mind. The second Fire Emblem has a few features that the first one lacked; a map screen, most notably, and unlimited access to shops. In addition, you are also given opportunities to fight enemies ad infitum, thereby making all money, experience, items, stats, et cetera, effectively unlimited. It's a nice thought, but I've had enough of the game for now. There are secret dungeons which you can attempt on completion of the story, but you're expected to trudge through them three times to unlock everything, and once you do, you can't use the unlockables in the normal game anyway. Maybe if they let you use your God-characters in story mode, it'd be worth something.

Not to say that there aren't God-characters; there are plenty. The more hardcore will tell you that you have to use characters with very high luck, skill, and speed stats, while sacrificing pure strength and defense. These types are talking about the link battle mode, though, so if you don't have any friends or just want to beat the game, then there is a much easier way of building God-characters. In fact, you really only need one character, and his name is Gilliam. All others are supplementary.

Gilliam has the highest defense out of any unit in the game, which means that most enemy units won't be doing a great amount of damage to him most of the time, unless they use magic. But when Gilliam hits about level 15, feel free to take a break from the main story and enter a skirmish with an enemy band on the map screen. Send Gilliam in with a couple of Iron Lances (the workhorses of this game), and a Knight Crest. No other characters. Then place Gilliam near the middle of the map and have him wait. Now watch in awe as every last enemy unit rushes to attack him, resulting in all of their deaths. He should level out, and when you make him a General, well, the rest of the game won't be as much fun.

That's my take on it. Overall, the game isn't as full or rich as it's predecesor; the story is lacking, and there aren't nearly as many missions. The difficulty has been scaled down significantly as well. But it's still better than most of the trash out there, so pick it up. NOW.

You may be wondering, who is that man in my avatar? Why, that is Ashtar, the Emporer of Darkness. Don't mess with him. Seriously. He's the arch-nemesis of Seth. Seth has faced Ashtar many times in combat, his Dragon Sword clashing with Ashtar's Sword of Darkness, hewn from the bone of the Demon Jashin itself. Yet neither has yet fallen. And still, there are rumors of one stronger than even Ashtar, one who commands the full strength of the Underworld...

Why don't I have a picture of Seth? Because he never allows himself to be photographed, duh.