Collection essentials #519: Fire Emblem: Fuuin no Tsurugi / The Binding Blade (GBA)

Here we have the sixth entry of the Fire Emblem series, and the first one made for a Game Boy system, and it’s perhaps surprising that they waited so long considering that turn-based games are a good fit for portable gaming. And they wouldn’t stop here, as this is the first of three consecutive Fire Emblem games on the Game Boy Advance. I considered covering all three of them in one post, but decided that each one deserved its own spotlight individually. In this game, you play as Roy, son of the marquess of the land of Pherae, as he leads an army to oppose the kingdom of Bern’s conquest of the region.

Binding Blade keeps much of the same basic design as the odd-numbered Fire Emblem games (since the even-numbered entries were more experimental). It’s a strategy RPG, where you and the enemy team take turns. Each player moves all their units in a given turn, as opposed to some other strategy RPGs where each individual unit gets their own turn. The “weapon triangle”, first introduced in Fire Emblem 4, has by now become a defining feature of the series. This means that swords have an advantage against axes, while axes do well against lances, and lances have a favorable matchups with swords, giving a fun bit of “rock-paper-scissors” to gameplay. There are of course many other gameplay elements to consider that I’m not going to fully describe in a brief post like this. The game is strictly linear and gives the player no ability to “grind” endlessly to make their units stronger, so the player must be wise in how they use their units and distribute the limited amount of experience points available. Unlike other RPGs, almost everything takes place during battle, such as visiting shops which can be found on the game’s maps. 

Binding Blade introduces a series of changes and design differences from past games, making it feel very different despite appearing quite similar at a glance. With this game, everything feels a little “streamlined” compared to the previous two entries. The storyline is more straightforward, and there aren’t a whole lot of major new gameplay elements that the player has to keep track of. The “rescue” feature from the previous game is present (allowing you to literally pick up an ally off of their position on the map), but many many other previous features were scrapped, such as capturing enemies, skills, scrolls which influence level-ups, and fatigue. A tutorial is available in the game’s menus to make it easier for first-timers to jump right in and feel at home. There are multiple difficulty settings for players of different skill levels, a very welcome feature.

A great thing introduced in Binding Blade is the “support” system. All of the recruitable characters in this game have a list of certain other party members who they can “support” with after spending a certain number of turns next to them. Once they have reached the threshold, the player can choose to initiate a “support conversation” during which you will see the two units have a unique conversation. Each pair can have up to three support conversations. Building these relationships among your characters not only has gameplay perks, but it provides a whole lot of bonus dialogue between characters which greatly fleshes them out, helping players learn more about them and their backstories. There was some precedent before this game for conversations between characters, most notably the ability to marry units in FE4, but this was the first time a system like this was fully and properly implemented. This wound up being a very popular feature with fans and a staple of the series going forward.

As for my personal history, when I first fell in love with the Fire Emblem series, I knew I had to check out the entries that were exclusive to Japan, so I soon imported this one. There was a complete English script available on Gamefaqs I used, and the menus were basically the same as in the English Fire Emblem games so they weren’t too hard for me to navigate. The copy in the photo is my original, which I wish I had kept in better condition.

There are a lot of imperfections in Binding Blade. For example, there are enemy reinforcements that appear out of nowhere at the start of an enemy turn able to attack you, and thieves can’t be promoted and thus are stuck being really weak in the late game. There’s not really a clear consensus among fans as to which old school Fire Emblem game is the best, and you’ll find some people who really like Binding Blade while others don’t care for it too much. But as for me, I love it. I’m a big fan of the old school Fire Emblem formula, which this game exemplifies very well. I appreciate the game’s effort to be a little more approachable and less complicated, finding a good middle ground where it still doesn’t feel too simplistic or easy while still being a game you can comfortably jump right into. 

Sadly there still has never been an official English release of this game in any form, which is a little surprising. But fan translations have been available for a long time, so it’s accessible for fans regardless. If you’ve never played a classic Fire Emblem game before, I’d actually recommend starting with the one I’ll be covering in my next post. 

It’s hard to say definitively what my Fire Emblem game is and I’d likely have to replay them to really decide, but Binding Blade is one of the top contenders. It’s one of my all-time favorite strategy RPGs and is a no-doubt essential in my collection.