|
Thursday 6 March, 2008
Game Log 2
Game Play
My second round of playing was not particularly more fruitful than the last. Despite the fact that I know that this game was built to be difficult the fact that I also know that this is among the least difficult of the series, and my inability to proceed through a single stage without over twenty consecutive tries at the least put a slight damper on the attitude in approaching the game. Due to the constant replays of sessions you acquire naturally, a very good idea of what to expect next, but whether or not you can rise to the occasion and rule out anomalies is another matter entirely, something that proved quite evident when my enemies scored criticals or my own characters missed. Despite the relatively low energy and slow paced game play, adrenaline pumped just as for a game riddled with high action and suspence as Resident Evil Four.
Design
Fire Emblem and the Sacred Stones possesses a tried and true system hailing back from the original of the series. The combat system is a combination of turn based rpg and strategy. A grid system is implemented with details given about units regarding weaponry and other statistics provide more ability for strategy, as does the built in power circles balancing out a trio weaponry and a trio of magic. The easily expended weapons and magic forces the player to ration and predict when certain weapons will be more valuable and when they should be more used.
Because gameplay is saved after every turn one wrong move could be fatal, and result in the permanent death in one of your characters forcing you to either restart the chapter or simply proceed without the character in your party, which could depending on your style of strategy either do nothing or seriously cripple you.
Characters follow a tree formation for changing classes and the player has the choice on whether or not to change their class, what class to change them to, and when.
The story and characters are not perhaps as fleshed out as in most rpgs, but that actually provides much more freedom in your choices. As you can determine whether or not characters live or die, and who builds a relationship with who your ending can be drastically different every time you choose to play.
The difficulty curve is either ridiculously difficult or irritatingly simple depending on your affinity and experience with strategy games, but does leave room for a middle ground for a large amount of players. While this game doesn’t bring anything new, it is still a fine example of the strategy rpg genre and a great installment of the Fire Emblem series.
|
