Fire Emblem

Fire Emblem is a series of video games realeased by Nintendo. Although most of the games have been realeased in Japan three games have been realeased in America. It used a combat system where the player had could give a set of commands to units on a battle field. It was turn based, similar to Lord of the Rings: The Third Age in combat.

Common Elements

Plot: The stories are ussually based around the quest of a group of nobles called lords. They go through a number of chapters whcih include an introduction to the chapter, an intial dialogue, a battle (which can also include dialogue), and an ending dialogue. The lords can recruit other people (through various means) to fight with them. In combat these people were expenable while the lords had to survive. These lords ussually had two specialty weapons a piece that only they could use.

Gameplay: The game had several unigue aspects that are not seen in any other games. First there was a weapons triangle. This meant that axes were strong against lances, lances were strong against swords, and swords were strong against axes. Bows were a weapon that was neutral in the triangle but had special charecteristics that the others didn't have. In a similar way there was a magic triangle where anima (nature) magic was stronger than light magic, light magic was stronger than dark (or ancient) magic, and dark magic was stronger than anima magic. Magical staves were used to heal people or confer a status ailment but were not usable in conventional combat.

The player could recruit people by talking to an enemy and convicing them to switch sides, or meeting an ally and convincing them to fight under your command. Some new units could be found in villages that were on the battlefield. These new units would stay with the party until the end of the story.