Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones: Difference between revisions

The story takes place on the continent of Magvel, as the southernmost country, Grado, attacks Renais. Renais had been allies with Grado for years, and was caught completely off guard. The game itself starts with Renais' princess, Eirika, fleeing from her castle as it is overrun. She then goes off in her search for her brother Ephraim, and her childhood [[Unlucky Childhood Friend|friend]], Grado Prince Lyon in hopes of finding out why Grado attacked, and how to stop the war.

* #1 (Prologue - Chapter 8).: Eirika serves as the protagonist, and most chapters are based in Renais. Ephraim and his men are used instead during the game's only Gaiden Chapter.

* #2 (Chapter 9 - Chapter 16): This point allows you to choose which of the twins will be your main Lord gameplay-wise for the remainder of the game. Chapters 9-14 each feature a different route before both twins reunite. Whichever route you choose to follow, the army thus far will follow that Lord, and though all recruitable characters are the same, they are received at different points in-game depending on the route chosen. After Chapter 16, you will be able to promote your Lords.

The game shares some mechanics not seen since ''[[Fire Emblem Akaneia|Fire Emblem Gaiden]]'', the biggest of which is the ability to traverse the world map. Instead of going to the next story point immediately, the player can fight the monsters roaming the map, or can visit monster-infested areas. This allows for [[Level Grinding|easy grinding]]. Additionally, it has a unique branching class tree, giving almost every unit multiple class options for promotion.

* [[Alas, Poor Villain]]: A high number of villains are portrayed sympathetically, as good people who are misguided or taken advantage of. Selena, Carlyle, Zonta, Aias, {{spoiler|Orson}}, and of course Lyon.

* [[Badass]]: Ephraim, Gerik, Joshua, Marisa, Cormag, and Innes. Caellech counts for the villain team.

** [[Badass Adorable]]: Amelia, Ross, and Ewan are very cute kids (none of them is over 16), but if properly leveled and promoted, they can kick your ass.

** [[Badass Beard]]: Garcia, Gilliam, Dozla, and Duessel sport some awesome facial hair.

** [[Badass Bookworm]]: Knoll, Lyon, Saleh, Artur, Lute. Ewan is on his way to become one through [[Magikarp Power]].

** [[Badass Preacher]]: Artur, Natasha, L'Arachel, and Moulder. Riev counts for the villain team.

** [[Badass Princess]]: Eirika, Tana, and L'Arachel.

** [[Badass Teacher]]: Saleh (as Ewan's magic instructor).

** [[Four-Star Badass]]: Ephraim, Eirika, and Innes are by virtue of commanding their nation's best fighters and by being the ranking combat worthy nobles. Duessel was already one when he joins your cause.

* [[Blood Knight]]: All Valter cares about is being able to keep on fighting forever... [[I Have You Now, My Pretty|and raping Eirika.]].

** 1st Story Arc: Tirado (Chapter 8).

*** (Chapter 14): Carlyle (Eirika's Routeroute) & and {{spoiler|Vigarde}} (Ephraim's Routeroute).

*** (Chapter 16): {{spoiler|Orson}}.

** 3rd Story Arc: Lyon (Final Chapter).

* [[Crutch Character]]: Seth, but of the Oifaye subtype rather than the Jeigan (meaning that while he does hog experience early on, he has good growths making him viable later in the game.). Averted in that even though he ''does'' take experience, thereisthere is an infinite amount of experience to be gained so you can just get it better.

** This is pretty much standard for Paladins in the ''Fire Emblem'' series. They are very powerful in the beginning or when they join you, then slowly become more balanced with the rest of the party.

** By the end of the game, when Myrrh decides to fight for Ephraim, you'll probably be using her most of the time, because of her ability to one-hit most enemies, including bosses. She's kind of a Late Game [[Crutch Character]].

** This is probably ''most'' played with {{spoiler|Orson, who performs a [[Wutai Theft]] on you.}}.

* [[Dark Is Not Evil]]: Knoll, Ewan if made a Druid or Summoner, Lyon before hitting the [[Despair Event Horizon]], and the Sacred Twins of Grado: Thethe Black Axe, Garm, and a dark magic tome, Gleipnir.

* [[Dark Magical Girl]]: Oh, Selena. In terms of personality, she's actually a decent person, just chained by [[My Country, Right or Wrong|Grado's will.]].

* [[Demonic Possession]]: {{spoiler|The Demon King attempts to possess Lyon through the Dark Stone, how succesful he is depends on which character route you chose. During Eirika's route, he completely controls Lyon and devours most of his soul, occasionally mimicking the Princes' softer personality to emotionally manipulate Eirika.}}.

** [[Not Brainwashed]]: {{spoiler|In Ephraim's route, Lyon is instead manipulated more subtly by Fomortiis, who manipulates his fear of being a weak leader, his love of Eirika, and his jealousy of Ephraim in order to trick him into serving his ends.}}.

** [[Big Bad]]: Lyon.

** [[Bigger Bad]]: Fomortiis.

** [[The Dragon]]: Riev.

** [[The Evil Genius]]: Caellach.

** [[The Brute]]: Valter.

** [[The Dark Chick]]: Selena.

** [[Sixth Ranger Traitor]]: Duessel and Glen.

** [[The Mole]]: {{spoiler|Orson}}.

** [[The Big Guy]]: Myrrh ([[Killer Rabbit]] version: she's a tiny little girl with wings... and you KNOW what that means in ''[[Fire Emblem]]'').

** [[The Smart Guy]]: Innes ([[The Strategist]] ''and'' [[The Archer]], handles the spy network of Frelia and sends out Peg Knight messengers to keep all of their allies communicated).

** [[The Chick]]: L'Arachel (a [[White Magician Girl]] as well as [[The Heart]] of the group, who {{spoiler|pulls Eirika out of her [[Heroic BSOD]]}} and once this is done, offers shelter in the Rausten palace.).

** [[Sixth Ranger]]: {{spoiler|Joshua (no one knows he's the [[Rebel Prince]] of Jehanna until the end of Eirika's route, and it's strongly implied his identity is ''not'' officially revealed in Ephraim's.)}}.

*** {{spoiler|Joshua's [[Where Are They Now? Epilogue]] reveals his identity in Ephraim's route too, if he isn't paired with Gerik or Marisa.}}.

* [[Fragile Speedster]]: Marisa in particular falls into this;: she'll often be one of your fastest characters, but have some trouble doing and taking damage without good weapons and supports. Rogues in general fall into this as well, being quite speedy and good at dodging but not much use in a fight compared to Assassins.

* [[Freudian Trio]]: [[Three Amigos|Ephraim, Eirika and Lyon.]].

* [[Gameplay and Story Segregation]]: The Grado Empire {{spoiler|is defeated halfway through the game, rapidly dwindling their forces to Lyon, Riev, and what remnants the army has left}}, yet is still capable of throwing massive swarms of enemies at you, particularly in [[Hold the Line|Chapter 19]].

** The world map feature also causes this,according to the story your army is in a campaign, having to press on and deal with the circumstances, the twins being worried about each other, but to busy dealing with their own troubles to help each other out, yet (with a few exceptions) after each chapter, you can traverse the world map at will, which for some players will amount to returning to the tower of Valni (said tower being in Frelia, which is quite a trip distance wise) every time you get some new characters to grind them up.

* [[Genki Girl]]: L'Arachel, Tana.

* [[It's a Wonderful Failure]]: Lute's death quote seems to be the prototype for the [[Fire Emblem Tellius|9thninth and 10thtenth games]] very disturbing death quotes.

* [[Level Grinding]]: The primary reason fans dislike this one, as every other game (bar ''Gaiden'') has only Arena Abuse (risky without save states) Boss Abuse (takes forever, also risky and limited by weapon durability) and infinite reinforcements (very rare, generally happens very late or is intended to be very dangerous and also limited by durability) allow for more XP than "normal".