FIRE EMBLEM

Despite first debuting on the Famicom in the early Nineties, it took another decade for Intelligent System's long-running series to appear in the West. This might explain why that first release now fetches a princely sum

- Words by Darran Jones

THE GAME

While Fire Emblem is a series that's now well known in the West, that wasn't always the case. The series first debuted on the Famicom in 1990, building on the mechanics that Intelligent Systems had first introduced with its Advance Wars series, but adding a Westernised fantasy setting and permadeath amongst other changes. Despite proving popular enough to spawn several sequels, the series never made it outside of Japan – that is until the release of Fire Emblem, which made its European debut in 1994, a full 14 months after its original Japanese release.

Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade (as it’s now canonically known) is actually the second game in the series to appear on the Game Boy Advance (the first being Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade) and it serves as a prequel to that earlier title. Set 20 years before that game's events, it sees you following the trials and tribulations of three protagonists with you taking on the role of a tactician who offers them advice and helps plan out battles. As Lyn, Eliwood and Hector pursue their story-driven adventures, you'll meet all manner of interesting characters, many of whom you can recruit, as you try to uncover the problems plaguing the continent of Elibe. With its endearing characters, an enjoyable (it rather conventional) plot and some epic, turn-based battles, Fire Emblem is the perfect portable game and we're not surprised to see it rising in price.