Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem

While you may think that in talking about Fire Emblem Mystery Of The Emblem I am talking about the Nintendo DS game released in 2010. What I am actually taking a look at is the original game that was released in Japan for the Super Nintendo. This is the third entry in the Fire Emblem series and the first on the Super Nintendo. This was a monster of a hit and had the biggest sales until Fire Emblem on the 3DS!

Two For The Price Of One!

One of the coolest things about Fire Emblem Mystery Of The Emblem is the fact that it has two campaigns for you to play through. The first one is a remake of the original game on the Famicom. This, as you would expect, does have much-improved graphics, but not all of the levels are here. Still, it is awesome to have this in 16-bit glory!

I do not want to spoil the story (and it is pretty convoluted to be honest) however if you have played a Fire Emblem game before you will know what to expect here. One thing I will say is that before each mission, it gives you a bit of dialogue that lets you know exactly what is happening. So true the story is a bit convoluted, but it is easier to follow than the two games on the Famicom. There is no official translation for this so you will have to play a fan-made hack, but that is easily done.

SNES Goodness

I think that the visuals here are great, even more so if you played the original game on the Famicom. There is a fair amount of detail here and while the follow up to this did make much bigger strides in terms of the characters. I do think this is still a great looking game. The battle scenes especially have a real slick presentation to them that gets you pretty hyped up.

Think Before You Act

As you know, Fire Emblem Mystery Of The Emblem is a tactic based RPG. This is a game that really does make you think, but they added in a lot of “quality of life” things to make the game not easier, but a more pleasurable experience. One way they have done this by not forcing you to have the max amount of units in a battle. If a scenario only requires 10 characters for example, you can just take in 10 and not the full amount like the previous game required.

There is just a lot more depth here compared to what the other games offer. Keeping characters alive, leveled up and making sure relationships are good are a huge part of the game. Much of what we take for granted in a Fire Emblem game today really got started here.

I think that Fire Emblem Mystery Of The Emblem is a very interesting game and for its time it was THE Fire Emblem game. It is a bit dated by today's standard, but it is still worth checking out as it is the first 16-bit Fire Emblem game. I am sure most people would rather play the remake on the DS, but do not be scared to check this one out.

Final Score: 8.5/10

Pros:

• The game has two campaigns
• It is challenging but fair
• Much more fun to play than the previous games
• The visuals are great, especially the battles
• Battles are a lot of fun

Cons:

• The game is not as good as its sequel
• You do need to get a fan translation to play it in English