Found a smart person at Gamefaqs who reviewed Fire Emblem

Review by Dark Gaia
Well seeing as how I beat every single Fire Emblem out there(and yes I am very confident of my skills) I think my review will provide you with some more good points and bad points that the other reviews didn't point out.

Graphics - 8

Let's start with what's good. The background during the story elements are beautiful. The character design is excellent as always. They added more emotions for the main characters and improved the smiling from FE6. Heck they also blink now. I for one didn't really a problem with the simple battle map graphics though. I don't know about you but I sometimes get confused over who's on my side and who's on the enemy's side when I play games like FFT or Shining Force. The simple graphics and 4 color sprites makes it easy to tell who's on your side, who's on the enemy's side. Of course those cinema pics are just awesome.

Now the bad... if you look at every review you'll see people saying how good the battle animation is well guess what... I'm gonna have to disagree on that. This along with FE6 has some of the worst animation in the series. Every character has only 3 different animation and some of the most unoriginal critical attack animations. In the old games most units have more than 1 different regular attack animation and anywhere from 2-6 different critical attack animation. Like 80% of the critical attacks they spin their weapon. WHY!? The animation for some of the bigger mounted units are very jerky but are helped with the illusion of the action lines. Watch the cavalier attack and you'll notice how jerky it is. This is not an opinion it's a fact, if you don't believe me use an emulator and and hold the Ctrl key and keep tapping the P key to see every frame slowly. One frame the horse's legs look like they're galloping the next frame they're already in front of the enemy. Plus why do some of them look so silly? When a Paladin attacks it looks like they're about to fall over. Or when a fighter's axe hits the enemy they float in mid air for a second. Last but not least WHY DO THEY RUN FORWARD AND RUN BACK AGAIN!? This isn't NES, this is what the NES Fire Emblems look like. WHY GOD WHY did they choose to go back to the NES days? The battle backgrounds suck. They don't even look like they're part of the battle, just some cheap picture in the background the moves. This seems more like a rant than anything... ah well graphics isn't everything anyway but I feel like I just had to get that off my chest.

Plot - 9

This is a very freshing plot, it starts out simple but becomes very complex. The characters feel more alive than FE6. Not only that but this game's plot provides quite a twist. Technically you're the bad guys. Maybe not bad guys but more like misguided heroes, the ones responsible for unleashing a greater evil. You doomed the entire continent. Yes you heard right, most people who beat the game will think I'm on crack or I'm flat out lying. Those of you who played FE6 and FE7 will know exactly what I'm talking about.

Gameplay - 8

Fire Emblem is almost a perfect combination of careful planning and a bit of luck. It's just so perfect. See when you battle you're given the exact information and pretty much the entire outcome of the battle. With that information, you can plan your next move ahead of time. But there's a catch there's that bit of luck, that feeling of unpredictability. Sometimes the enemy might pull of a critical attack on you and end up killing you, or you can scream bloody hell watching enemies attacking your low HP character only to watch him dodge every attack that comes his way. This is the kind of excitement that really makes it fun. What I found funny was some of the people complaining about the autosave, deaths, and the shops. The autosave prevents people from cheating. They don't allow you to save and reset if you mess up. The whole point of the game is... STRATEGY. Another thing I found funny was people complaining about shopping where you have to shop during battle. They claim it's unrealistic. Ok... so a knight flying on a Wyvern is their definition of realistic? Once again they're forgetting that this is a STRATEGY rpg. You're suppose to use strategy. One of my favorite things about Fire Emblem is the way you equip people. I mean in most strategy rpg you just buy the best stuff the shop has and that's it. Buy the best weapon, armor, headgear, etc. Fire Emblem you can't just blindly buy anything. Each weapon has their own advantage and disadvantage. You can't just go, ''oh the sliver sword is stronger I'll go with that.'' It's not that simple. Each weapon has a different value for accuracy, weight, power, and critical rate. You equip a super powerful weapon but with it's heavy weight you can't use it effectively.

The problem with this game is that it's too easy and the AI while smarter than most strategy rpg, is still pretty stupid compare to the other Fire Emblems. Oh they know exactly how to pick out your weak characters or use the land to their advantage but when you send a lone powerful unit into the enemy, they'll blindly rush into their death. Plus the maps themselfs have been toned down and there really isn't any difficulty in recruiting allies that start out as enemies. The only one really hard is getting someone in Hector's hard mode... which is lame since it relies more on luck than on strategy. The Hard mode is pretty cheap too. Instead of making enemies smarter they just force you into battle with less characters and more powerful enemies. I mean sure this make the game harder but guess what, everyone agrees that Fire Emblem 5 is the hardest in the series yet some maps allow you to use up to 20 characters and enemies with average stats. It's smart AI, well designed maps that makes Fire Emblem so hard and rewarding, not just making the enemy more powerful. Trust me, if you claim to be a pro at games like FFT(PSX) or Shining Force but had problems with this game, please don't play the other Fire Emblems or you'll develop an eternal hatred for this series. I guarantee you'll not get past chapter 4 in Fire Emblem 5.

Sound - 10

This game's soundtrack is awesome. With 100(94 in game 6 special tracks) tracks of music, you're bound to find some favorites. Well I could think of one track that's... a disappointment and that's the Bern's General track. This is a remix from FE6 and was down right the coolest track IMO in the history of Fire Emblem. It doesn't sound as cool in FE7... ah well that's too bad. Fans of the old Fire Emblems will also find remixs from many of the older games as well like the battle theme from Thracia 776(in the arena), to the ally theme(used in FE1,3 and SSBM). The music really captures the mod nicely.

Replay Value - 8

There's lots to do and see in this game. First you won't see everything and get every party member by playing the game once. Second there's lots of CG scenes that requires you to play again in order to get them. Then there's the HUGE support dialogues. There's just so much to read and see. You'll find out more about your favorite characters. I mean you don't have to do it but it is kind of addicting.

Overall - 8.7(not an average and since Gamefaqs don't allow fractions I rounded it off)

This is a fine game to introduce US audiences into Fire Emblem but seasoned pros might be a little disappointed by the game's lack of difficulty. The complexity of the gameplay has also been toned down compare to the old games but there's still enough to keep you playing.

Dark Gaia seems to be one of the smarter reviews on Gamefaqs because 1. he used decimals and 2. He actually reviewed it in accordance to it's strengths and weaknesses and I've got to admit, the Bern General music was dumbed down to being several remakes and Hectors' tune was a really bad sucker when it came to dumbed-downness but compared to the other remixes, Unspeakable Faith is awesome. Not to mention that he even insulted Shining Force fanboys and other gamefaqs members who complain about it's difficulty. CodieKitty even mentioned of Dark Gaia's review of Shining Force in his review. And finally, No 3. which he didn't think that another FE is superior and judged them on an equal scale and didn't make obscure references to games like Sonic Heroes.

"CodieKitty even mentioned of Dark Gaia's review of Shining Force in his review"? I'm not sure if you're talking about Dark Gaia, or me, because you said "his" review. I'm a girl.

Yeah, I like Dark Gaia. He was the first to come forth and say Shining Force ripped off Fire Emblem. He seemed like a neat guy. I never directly talked to him, though.


Where are these lemmings going? The Super Nintendo Super Shire! Hop in line and follow them there!

I see CK and I aren't the only ones who think Shining Force is overrated, and that CK and I aren't the only ones who know Dark Gaia happens to be one of the few smart people on Gamefaqs, because in my review for shining force, I say "Codiekitty and Dark Gaia have it right".

"CodieKitty even mentioned of Dark Gaia's review of Shining Force in his review"? I'm not sure if you're talking about Dark Gaia, or me, because you said "his" review. I'm a girl.

Sorry, it's easy to get confused because the name Codie can be used to name either boys or girls, similar to the name Robin. I have a girl at my school that's named Codie and I have a male cousin who's also named Codie plus your posts can be monotonous enough to make you seem like you're a boy but that doesn't mean you should act more like HotD or any of the other girls on the forums.