GemFire

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a game by Koei
Genre: Strategy/War
Platforms: Sega GenesisGenesis, SNESSNES, NESNES
Editor Rating: 8/10, based on 8 reviews
User Rating: 8.0/10 - 2 votes
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Koei's mastered the fine art of squeezing massive, far-reaching, historical, geopolitical, military strategy games into NES games. Gemfire is their first foray into fantasyland, and it's one of their best games yet.

Precious Stones

During an awesome mystical war in Ishmeria, an evil wizard transformed six magicians and a Fire Dragon into seven magic Gems. You must find the Gems and reunite Ishmeria.

As with most Koei games, you get your money's worth here. Choosing one leader from six noble families, you manage a motley cast of nobles, while playing four lengthy scenarios.

ProTip: View often. Always be aware of your competitors' status.

To stay in tune with the political intrigue, you use an easy- to-read map screen which delineates the 29 provinces of Ishmeria. Adjacent windows enable you to issue four types of commands: Military, Domestic, Diplomacy, and Vassal.

You use Military to invade and conquer territory, recruit troops, hire monster mercenaries (nine types), and buy skilled fighters (six types). But to win, you must also use: Domestic to cultivate crops and passify the populace, Diplomacy to spy and to make alliances, and Vassal to keep your Lords and Ladies in order.

You face interesting natural disasters, such as Fire, Snow, and Plague. Gemfire also tosses 13 unnatural obstacles at you. Pixies tear up your crops, Hobgoblins steal your gold, and sometimes even your own Bugbear goes bonkers.

The game does a great job of orchestrating all the action and quickly calculating the appropriate consequences when you make a decision. Gemfire is also the best-looking 8-bit Koei game yet. Its battles are particularly well executed.

It's Magic

RPGs always demand a time commitment and Gemfire's worth it. It's the easiest Koei game to learn how to play. Gemfire's a gem.

Always spend bucks on Cultivation and Protection. It will carry you through hard times.

Download GemFire

Genesis

System requirements:

  • PC compatible
  • Operating systems: Windows 10/Windows 8/Windows 7/2000/Vista/WinXP
  • Game modes: Single game mode

Player controls:

  • Up, Down, Left, Right - Arrow keys
  • Start - Enter (Pause, Menu select, Skip intro, Inventory)
  • "A" Gamepad button - Ctrl (usually Jump or Change weapon)
  • "B" button - Space (Jump, Fire, Menu select)
  • "C" button - Left Shift (Item select)

Use the F12 key to toggle mouse capture / release when using the mouse as a controller.

SNES

System requirements:

  • PC compatible
  • Operating systems: Windows 10/Windows 8/Windows 7/2000/Vista/WinXP
  • Pentium II (or equivalent) 266MHz (500MHz recommended), RAM: 64MB (128MB recommended), DirectX v8.0a or later must be installed
NES

System requirements:

  • PC compatible
  • Operating systems: Windows 10/Windows 8/Windows 7/2000/Vista/WinXP
  • P-200, 32 MB RAM

Game Reviews

  • Koei / NES

Once upon a time, an evil wizard cursed a dragon and six magicians, sealing their powers in shining gems. The King of Ishmeria inlaid the gems in a crown he called Gemfire. Discovering that the crown held special powers to help his people, he worked great deeds to restore their towns and fields. But the day came when the crown passed to an evil King. He used the powers of the crown against his people until Princess Robyn released the gems.

Now, the spell of Gemfire is broken, and you are in search of its magical stones! As Prince or Princess of a noble family, capture the gems and unite them with the crown. You must return Ishmeria to peace!

Once upon a time, an evil wizard cursed a dragon and six magicians, sealing their powers in shining gems. The King of Ishmeria inlaid the gems in a crown he called Gemfire. Discovering that the crown held special powers to help his people, he worked great deeds to restore their towns and fields. But the day came when the crown passed to an evil King. He used the powers of the crown against his people until Princess Robyn released the gems.

Now, the spell of Gemfire is broken, and you are in search of its magical stones!

As Prince or Princess of a noble family, capture the gems and unite them with the crown. You must return Ishmeria to peace!

Koei's carved out a video game niche for itself by inundating our collective brains with massive reality-based RPG games based in exotic foreign locales and historical time periods. Now, they're into something we can all understand -- a good fantasy!

Stone Warriors

In Gemfire, the kingdom of Ishmeria is all fouled up, and you're a loyal Lord or Lady who's fighting for truth, justice, and the Ishmerian way. Once upon a time, the vile Fire Dragon blew its bad breath across the land. Six wizards of Ishmeria used seven magic gems to vanquish the dragon. To further protect the land, they bound the Gems into a powerful magic crown.

Then, a king dissed the crown, mucked around with the Gems, and got palsy-walsy with the dragon. A heroic princess cast the precious stones across the land to keep their power in check. Now, you must find the Gems and reunite the 30 provinces of Ishmeria.

A Hard-core RPG

As with most Koei games, you're in this quest for the long haul. If you can stick it out and have a mind for multi-character RPGs, you'll have a good time. You can play Gemfire solo, or you can recruit a pack of pals to take turns playing Ishmerian homeboys. The game features four extremely lengthy scenarios. You can play any leader of the six noble families and manage a motley cast of royals.

Gemfire looks great. In keeping with Koei's style, though, it's no animation tour-de-force. Still, it's one of the best- looking Koei games yet. The music and sound are okay, but you won't miss anything if you fire up your own tunes.

When you make a decision, Gemfire's brain does a great job of orchestrating all the action and quickly calculating the appropriate consequences throughout every province of Ishmeria. This feels like the fastest thinking Koei game so far, which helps make this long game more enjoyable.

In Your Interface

The interface is efficient and a snap to master. To stay in tune with the political intrigue in Ishmeria's 30 states, you use a typical Koei, province-by-the- numbers, map screen. Adjacent windows enable you to issue four types of commands (Military, Domestic, Diplomacy, and Vassal) that put 16 other subcommands at your disposal.

ProTips

  • View often to check your status, as well as your competitor's. It's free.
  • Use View to send out Searchers. Then write down what they find so you won't have to pay them again if you forget Searchers i.d. enemy monster units, and sometimes they snatch a Gem for you!
  • One month before attacking, Sabotage and Plunder any province you plan to attack. Assault them with as many of your provinces as you can.

You use Military to invade and conquer territory, recruit troops, hire monster mercenaries (nine types), and buy skilled fighters (six types). To win, though, you must also use Domestic to cultivate crops, protect the fields, and feed the masses. Diplomacy enables you to spy, make alliances, and negotiate surrenders. Use Vassal to help keep your Lords and Ladies in line.

  • Always save for a rainy day. For every province, regularly use some Gold for Cultivation and Protection. Also, stockpile cash and crops in a few provinces far within your borders by buying few soldiers and spending freely on Cultivation and Protection. You will then be able to transport riches to needy provinces.

Gemfire features a simple, easy-to- use, engaging battle system that enables you to orchestrate the strategy and tactics for your armies. On a battlefield, you and your opponent position icons representing five types of fighting units -- Horsemen, Archers, Soldiers, Mercenaries or Monsters (called Fifth Units), and Wizards. Then you take turns moving them like chess pieces.

  • Position your forces for the best strategic advantage. Flanking and Rear Assaults are the most effective. Ganging up on a single enemy unit is devastating.
  • When victory is imminent, keep damage to your forces at a minimum. This saves cash and troop-rebuilding time later. Don't try to wipe out enemy units that have no chance of preventing you from taking the Flag.
  • ALWAYS save your game before you attack.
  • Try to hire strong Fifth Units, such as the Fachan, Gunners, Uzards or Wyvem. To save Gold, dismiss other Fifth Units if you don't need them.

You recruit men for army as a whole and the computer allocates them to the units. Every unit has different attack ranges, patterns, and maximum strength points. The actual fighting is typically RPG-ish.

Declining strength points indicate the damage occurring in a battle, and the CPU does all the fighting calculation. Slick graphics and animation help illustrate the action.

Unnatural Disasters

The game spices up the scenarios with wicked wildcard events. Your provinces suffer indiscriminate natural disasters, such as Wildfire, Snowstorms, and Plague. But, Gemfire tosses 13 unnatural disasters at you, too. For example, Pixies trash your crops, and Banshees freak out your people. Sometimes even your own Bugbear parties too hearty.

Precious Gemfire

Few RPG games meld your mind with video game programming as well as Gemfire does. If you've never taken on Koei's unique RPG style, this is a good introduction that doesn't pull any punches. It's an epic RPG that takes an epic amount of time to play, but the journey's worth your efforts. Gemfire's a nice gem in Koei's RPG crown.

Those role play masters at Koei have created another huge journey filled with mystery and intrigue. It's called the Legend of Gemfire, and it's one intense journey. You have been chosen to search for six magical stones, if these legendary, magical stones are not retrieved and reset into the crown of Gemfire, you won't have the power to reunite the broken lands of Ishmeria. The people will then be forced to live forever under the evil rule of Eselred. Once you recover the stones and restore the power to Gemfire, you must first restore your kingdom's prosperity and then build a loyal army big enough and powerful enough to help you conquer the 30 surrounding provinces. This adventure's a real gem.

There was a time when Ishmeria was a land of peace and bliss, guarded from all evil by six mages. The king of Ishmeria, seeking to wield total control over his lands, used the power of the Crown of Seven Jewels to summon a Fire Dragon to enforce his absolute rule. Ever since, the open use of magic against the king has meet with swift retribution. Now, Princess Robyn has turned against her father's misdeeds and sent out a summons for the six mages and their allies to unite their powers and come to Gemfire for a showdown with the king. If they succeed, then Ismeria's curse will end. If not, well, better not to think about that.

Gemfire is a turn based strategy game where planning ahead is essential. Moving a certain amounts of your units around in your turn you can choose to do various actions. Once your turn is up you must wait for your opponent to take their turn. As you win more confrontations your units' abilities will get upgraded.

GemFire features:

  • 2D Turn-based strategy
  • Use magic and brute strength on the battlefield
  • Recruit all kinds of monsters to help you
  • Battery backup saves your progress

Gemfire is a medieval war game for the MSX, Nintendo Entertainment System, Super NES, Mega Drive/Genesis, and MS-DOS. The game was developed by Koei. It was released in Japan as Royal Blood, Super Royal Blood in its Super Famicom version. The object in the game is to unify a fictional island by force. Players use soldiers and knights, as well as fantasy units such as magicians, dragons or gargoyles in order to capture the castle needed to control that particular territory.

A long time ago, in the land of Ish-meria, there was a magical crown of magnificent power. One day, a woman, Princess Robyn, came to realize that the crown was being misused for vile acts and unsavory greed! She stole the crown and cast a spell that sent the seven gems affixed to the crown across the land.

Now, after many years have passed, your family seeks to restore the crown to its former glory! First, however, you must capture the seven pieces, which are now formed into six sorcerers and a dragon!

You need to build up your funds, your army, your province's strength and stop various natural disasters from reeking havoc on your people. Good luck, brave leader!

Snapshots and Media

Sega Genesis/Mega Drive Screenshots

SNES/Super Nintendo/Super Famicom Screenshots

NES/Famicom/Dendy Screenshots