Collection essentials #521: Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones (GBA)

The third and final Game Boy Advance Fire Emblem game looks and plays very similar to the previous two entries, but it’s an entirely new story not connected to any other game in the whole series. It takes place on the continent of Magvel, and the two main characters are the prince and princess of one of five kingdoms on the continent. Trouble brews when one of the five kingdoms begins invading the others and destroying sacred stones which protect against a supposed mysterious evil demon. The two blue-haired royal youths set out on a journey to stop them, gain allies and find out what the deal is with Grado.

While the gameplay basics are pretty much the same for the third straight entry, that doesn’t mean there’s nothing different about Sacred Stones. It seems to take some ideas from the second Fire Emblem game, Fire Emblem Gaiden, which was a highly experimental title that had done a lot of things differently from the rest of the series. Perhaps the coolest Gaiden-inspired gameplay change was giving players choice over what character class their units promote into. In most other Fire Emblem games up to this point, every unit gets to “promote” to a new character class in the middle part of the game, and the class they change into was predetermined. For example, cavaliers always promoted into paladins. But in Sacred Stones, now each unit will get a choice of two classes to promote into, so cavaliers can choose to become either a paladin or a great knight. There are even three units in Sacred Stones who are “trainees” and start in special “beginner” classes and thus can promote twice, giving them an even wider pool of potential classes to grow into.

Another Gaiden-inspired thing that I’m not a huge fan of is that this game now has a world map, and gives a player a location that they can go to and fight monsters to grind for experience points. I don’t like this because to me it goes against the spirit of classic Fire Emblem. I like the challenge of having a limited amount of experience points available and having to level up your units wisely with the opportunities you have. But grinding takes that away by just letting you buff up your characters to your heart’s content.

One pretty significant problem with Sacred Stones, separate even from the grinding, is that it’s just too darn easy. If you’re used to other classic Fire Emblem games, then Sacred Stones will feel like a total cakewalk. Of course, you can play on hard mode and choose not to grind, and while some of the battles in the early portion of the game are tough in those circumstances, in the long run the game still just isn’t too difficult. 

Sacred Stones is definitely a special Fire Emblem game to me, because it was the first one I ever played. In the summer of 2005 while on vacation, I decided it was time for me to try the series out, and Sacred Stones had been released not too long earlier. I remember buying it at GameStop, and telling the cashier that I wanted to get it new and not used because then it would come with the box and manual (pictured above), and he remarked that I’m one of few who actually cares about that sort of thing!

I expected Sacred Stones to be good, but I quickly found myself totally hooked. I knew right away that I needed way more Fire Emblem in my life, and I became a permanent series fan. Sacred Stones was a pretty good one to start with, too, since it’s so easy. I revisited it in the 2010s for a second playthrough on hard mode. There’s no way that Sacred Stones comes close to being my actual favorite Fire Emblem game, unfortunately, as the low difficulty alone is enough to disqualify it. Still, for being my gateway drug, it’s earned its spot as one of Sam’s collection essentials.