Collection essentials #61: Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light / Fire Emblem: Ankoku Ryu to Hikari no Tsurugi (NES)

The original Fire Emblem is a pioneer, basically combining elements from other games and establishing a new turn-based strategy RPG genre. Strategy games and RPGs of course had existed before, and sometimes some of their concepts were even implemented in the same game, but Fire Emblem did it in a new way that provided a blueprint for a whole genre going forward. I haven’t discussed any strategy games up to this point, so to explain briefly, picture something comparable to chess; a turn-based game on a grid where you control a series of units, which will fight enemy units once they reach an attack range. Fire Emblem combines that sort of gameplay with RPG elements such as characters that gain experience and level up to increase their stats.

Strategy RPGs like this are complicated, so I’m not going to explain the gameplay in depth. But basically, in Fire Emblem, you can move and do something with all of your units on each turn, while the enemy team does the same on theirs. There are many different characters you can recruit and use on your team, as well as many different weapons and items that you can freely distribute among them. There’s all kinds of gameplay mechanics to take into consideration too, such as villages you can rescue for additional rewards and terrain that affects how well units can dodge attacks, among many other things. Fire Emblem as a series is also known (at least the earlier installments) for having permanent deaths, as once one of your characters dies, they are permanently dead and you’ll have to start the battle over if you want to “save” them.

Fire Emblem is not really comparable to something like Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest at all. That type of JRPG lets you freely explore the world, venture through dungeons, and visit towns to rest and shop. Fire Emblem is nothing but battles. I’ve mentioned before that old RPGs tend to involve a lot of grinding. Fire Emblem flips this on its head by having this gameplay style, which makes grinding literally impossible. When you win a chapter, you move on to the next one and then have to tackle it. There’s no going back and fighting battles and/or enemies you’ve already defeated to try and get stronger. This means that basically everything you do counts on this game. Enemies can almost be seen as a precious limited source of experience points, and you have to decide what units you want to fight and invest those experience points into. I really like this design and the unique challenge it poses.

I have mentioned that RPGs from this era tend to age the poorest of all genres. Considering that fact, Fire Emblem 1 has actually aged decently well. Don’t get me wrong, there are definitely times when it feels dated, and at times it can be a slog, but it’s pretty surprising and impressive how much they got right in their first shot at making one of these games. But Fire Emblem 1 also has two remakes available that have more polish than this release, so you’re most likely better off playing one of those. 

Fire Emblem, as you can tell, was a Japan-only release, and I would speculate that this is because Nintendo thought it was too complex for the young player base in America. And, tragically, the series would be stuck in Japan for 13 whole years. It was 2001’s Super Smash Bros. Melee, which included two Fire Emblem characters including Marth from this one, that got American gamers (myself included) to take notice of this series and induce a hunger for a chance to play it. It was one of those mid-2000s localized games that I finally got to try, and I quickly fell in love with the series, which made me highly interested in its roots. My younger sister Rebecca, when she got into gaming in the 2010s, also became a Fire Emblem fanatic once she played what was then the series’ latest entry. The original game that paved the way, then, of course, must be an essential.