Fire Emblem: Binding Blade

Maybe the problem is with me, because I only played 3 Fire Emblem games before this one. But this one was a headache!

One of the most uneven games in an already pretty uneven series. Some maps have incredible replayability and some are horrendous slogs. The obscene variety of playable characters is undercut by how some are practically mandatory on hard mode and some are near-worthless even on normal mode. The story is pleasantly conventional with a lot of potential for great worldbuilding, but it doesn't really do anything all that interesting or unique with its premise until the penultimate chapter of the true ending... Unless you read the deceptively deep supports, which take roughly 10000 turns of idling to unlock. The main villain is refreshingly an actual person with agency rather than something supernatural and unknowable, but I can't say he's anything special without his expanded-upon backstory in FE7.

For everything Binding Blade does well, there's something it does equally badly, with two key exceptions that make it worth playing if you're a strategy game aficionado. Exception 1: maybe it's just the combat animations, but FE6 has a very strong sense of personality that keeps me engaged with the greater world it creates. Something most strategy games (and JRPGs in general) fatally fail to accomplish in my eyes. Exception 2: FE6's hard mode is one of the only consistently tough but (mostly) fair campaigns in all of Fire Emblem. Even its awful maps are more just drawn-out than outright bullshit (I like Chapter 14 though, so make of that what you will). With that in mind, FE7, even with Lyn's 10-chapter tutorial grinding all fun to a halt, is still the much better starting point for the Elibe saga.

Shoutout to my man Bartre, the best dad and only good axe-user in the game. Fuck FE7 for making him a terrible unit.

(Please look up a guide for the true ending because you probably definitely won't get it going in blind.)

The base game is kinda whatever: the story isn't bad, the characters can be fun, and the animations (like always for the GBA games) are the best in the business. At the same time, you will miss 60 percent of your attacks all game and have about 6 viable units to work with throughout Roy's entire journey, so you can expect a lot of frustrating resets. With mods its a lot better so I'm just giving it a 3.5 as a whole (probably a 3 without mods, 4 with a good mod). If you're a huge fan of the series, try this one out and especially take a look at some of the mods like project ember, but otherwise, stick with the other GBA titles. They will prove a lot less frustrating and will give you a lot more freedom with how you want to play.

Review #1