Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu

The Good
On the surface, Seisen no Keifu may seem like another 16-bit medieval-themed throwaway of a title. Though, if you look closer, there is a hidden brilliance within this game.

Having been released after the Nintendo 64 made its debut, Nintendo still decided to release this game in 1996, and it was the right decision in every way. There is so much good about this game, you can definitely tell the staff working on this game were passionate about what they were making.

In Seisen no Keifu, you are given a tile-based map littered with swaths of enemies, and you are left to your own devices to decide how you will fight them. You are given an army filled with units wielding weapons on horseback, pegasi, and on foot. Sword users, axe-wielders, lance-brandishing cavaliers, archers, magic users and more. Each character is unique and has a specialized skill set. You can decide any manner of movement, attack, or strategy to best rout the enemy in every level, as well as improve your own units at various rates.

All of the previous concepts of Fire Emblem make their return, but this time cranked to an 11. The large pool of characters with different back-stories, is made even larger, as you may meet as many as 63 different characters that may be in your army, as well as many many more who show up as antagonists or neutrals. Accordingly, the map size also increases, with maps typically being over 100 tiles across. The attention to detail in this category is stunning as well, as the maps flawlessly bleed into each other. Where you end in one chapter is where you will start in the next.

Possibly the biggest highlight of this game is the time skip and all the associated mechanics that go along with it. The player has many options to customize their team post-time skip, all with their own levels of risk and compromise. Your decisions in the first half of the game largely come back to you in the late-game, as the pool of units available to you, their stats, their unit type, and their back-story all change depending on how you play. All of your characters have back-stories, as well as a variety of dialogue, so it is very easy to get immersed in the world as a first time player, and incentivizes the player to unlock new dialogue with every playthrough..

The Bad
Like all the games preceding it in the series, Seisen no Keifu tends to cause a high rate of resetting the game, as when one of your units dies, it is permanent (for the rest of the game). This could be a potential problem for players new to the series. Though, in spite of this, there is a save function that gives the option to save at the beginning of any turn. The large map size (200 * 200 tiles on average) may also cause some players to grow tired of the tedium. While these would be non-issues if an easy mode were introduced, the game's size largely compensates for this.

The biggest issue for players in general, whether new to the series or veterans, is that you will likely need a strategy guide to complete this game. It is very easy to lose a character that soon becomes vital to the gameplay, or to have your characters too under-leveled for a given chapter. There are also a number of factors relating to the time skip, and how to bridge it effectively. While you can play this game without a strategy guide, to avoid having to reset or start a new game, using a guide is recommended. As this game was never released outside of Japan, a basic knowledge of the hiragana and katakana alphabets are necessary.

The Bottom Line
You will love this game if you love farming for experience or other stats, or if you like a strategic challenge. It is 12 chapters of customizing your team, and finding new ways to build up your characters. Some characters are harder to level up than others, though there is a wide array of options to farm your units, and an end-game that perfectly complements all of your efforts.