confidentialmisanthropy

I've got a literal trifecta of Fire Emblem going on right now.

I haven't quite wrapped up Sacred Stones yet, but my curiosity dragged me back to Rekka no Ken. I had to practically wrestle it back from James, who I'd lent it to. He'd had it for quite a while but he'd been busying himself with gems like Coded Arms (sarcasm), so I figured I'd get it back given my recent interest in the series. He objected. I suppose I can't blame the guy though, I've been talking up Sacred Stones alot.



Took me only a few battles once I got it back to remember why I wasn't feeling it the first time around. Rekka no Ken starts out slow as shit. It treats you like a friggin' idiot for pretty much the entire duration of Lyn's chapters. I was unaware back when I got it that this was all serving as a prologue/tutorial; I figured the whole game kinda ran like that, which got me fed up real quick.

Major pet peeve of mine: when games hold my hand.

Keep your fucking pro-tips. This is what I do.

Moving right along; soon as Lyn's chapters wrap up, Rekka no Ken shows it's true colors: red. Blood red. Sacred Stones is no slouch in the difficulty department, but you can get in random battles to beef up your characters if you find the latter battles too tough. Rekka no Ken doesn't give you that option, making it more challenging by default. The characterization is alot better in this one too, but the game panders so much to it's own archetypes.

Blindly noble knights. Check.
Womanizing cavaliers. Check.
Mercenaries with morals. Check.

With Fire Emblem, character archetyping isn't stagnation, it's tradition. I can stomach it though. Like Bill said, it's a moot point. The gameplay, as sound as it is, makes everything okay.

It's been recently brought to my attention that Rekka no Ken is a prequel to an earlier GBA Fire Emblem staring Roy (of Smash Bros. Melee fame) who happens to be Eliwood's (Rekka no Ken) son. I picked it up a couple days ago and downloaded a translation via Gamefaqs so I'm not Emblem-less when I get underway again. I'll let you know how it goes.