Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War
released on May 14, 1996
Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War is a Japanese Super Famicom tactical role-playing game developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo. It was released on May 14, 1996 in Japan. It is the fourth title in the Fire Emblem series, the second Fire Emblem title for the Super Famicom, and the last game produced by the late Gunpei Yokoi. It was released on the Japanese Virtual Console service on January 30, 2007. The game was originally to be titled as Fire Emblem: Light Inheritors.
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Fire Emblem owes so much of its identity and gameplay to this excellent title. This is the most engaging story in the series and characters really pop despite having so few conversations. They make up for it by having most of those conversations matter a lot both in story exposition and conveying personalities and feelings. A shorter chapter count isn’t even an issue because every mission is so dense with content that you’ll be there for hours. The challenge of each mission makes great pop-offs when things work out. Promotions are very strong and well worth the effort invested into each and every character. The skill system was a bit finnicky as a first attempt but still very fun to play around with. I’m stunned this game was born so early in the series lifespan. It’s nothing short of a masterpiece.
If I were to name downsides, one would be maps so expansive that units without horses struggle to keep up with the ebb and flow of your army, enemy armies and changes in the battlefield. This isn’t as bad in generation 2 where pairings are more of an afterthought, but in generation 1 this results in leaving certain units out of the fight until their pairing is done; further crippling your offensive and defensive capabilities. The other main issue I encountered was boss balance varying wildly, namely the ones with holy weapons. Their stat leaps are far stronger than your own to the point almost every unit you have is guaranteed to die without some major luck involved.
If I were to name downsides, one would be maps so expansive that units without horses struggle to keep up with the ebb and flow of your army, enemy armies and changes in the battlefield. This isn’t as bad in generation 2 where pairings are more of an afterthought, but in generation 1 this results in leaving certain units out of the fight until their pairing is done; further crippling your offensive and defensive capabilities. The other main issue I encountered was boss balance varying wildly, namely the ones with holy weapons. Their stat leaps are far stronger than your own to the point almost every unit you have is guaranteed to die without some major luck involved.
i like the premise but MY GOD playing this game feels like carving brick wall with a fork
This game is a one of a kind expression of some mad genius of game design but i don’t think I’d ever play it again
For context this is the oldest Fire emblem I have played so far (the others being 7,8,13-17) so forgive me if I am just talking about classic FE and not this game specifically.
It's a hard game to rate, but I think It was fun in a challenging masochistic way, because every time I got frustrated with the game I always made it through the challenge being to figure out the strategy to win, which is probably just the appeal for the series.
what makes this one unique is the size of the maps and its time skip being split between gen 1 and gen 2. The large maps are also to make up for this game having less chapters but I liked how it made each chapter feel like little story in that continent and capturing bases and having the enemy armies respond while this is cool it does mean most of the game is moving units around and if they aren't on horse it will take extra long.
This series has always been good at tying narrative and gameplay but this game is on another level especially with the twist of gen 1.
The time skip works for both narrative and gameplay, pairing gen 1 units together for insanely overpowered units in gen 2 as well as the games theme of fixing the problems caused by the previous generation, and for a SNES game it's very impressive for what it does with its story, world, and in game politics.
My only major issue is I felt like it was hard to grasp the mechanics of the game, they don't explain it very well
But overall I enjoyed my time with it and can see its influence in the rest of the series and can see why its a fan favorite.
It's a hard game to rate, but I think It was fun in a challenging masochistic way, because every time I got frustrated with the game I always made it through the challenge being to figure out the strategy to win, which is probably just the appeal for the series.
what makes this one unique is the size of the maps and its time skip being split between gen 1 and gen 2. The large maps are also to make up for this game having less chapters but I liked how it made each chapter feel like little story in that continent and capturing bases and having the enemy armies respond while this is cool it does mean most of the game is moving units around and if they aren't on horse it will take extra long.
This series has always been good at tying narrative and gameplay but this game is on another level especially with the twist of gen 1.
The time skip works for both narrative and gameplay, pairing gen 1 units together for insanely overpowered units in gen 2 as well as the games theme of fixing the problems caused by the previous generation, and for a SNES game it's very impressive for what it does with its story, world, and in game politics.
My only major issue is I felt like it was hard to grasp the mechanics of the game, they don't explain it very well
But overall I enjoyed my time with it and can see its influence in the rest of the series and can see why its a fan favorite.
What a game. One of the best Fire Emblem stories to date. Its mechanics are surprisingly very interesting, even today. It is the progenitor of modern Fire Emblem and its dating mechanics. Go in blind, and just enjoy the ride. Also, the maps are really long, but doesn't that just mean more game?
A phenomenal game that aged better mechanically than you would expect. The world building, story, characters, presentation, writing, music, and scope of the game are honestly stellar and incredibly ambitious especially for the time. Should note that I did do a bit of research into specific items, but I had a great time regardless. Sigurd and Seliph's story are just great to see unfold and it's amazing how the worldbuilding is put into the gameplay as a reward for helping save villages.
I definitely don't think this game will be for everyone in regards to its gameplay, especially with how later games would improve upon it with a lot of quality of life features such as trading. However, a lot of the gameplay mechanics were carefully picked to give a lot more strategic depth and management, especially for the preparation stages of chapters. I do also really like how this game incentivizes to replay the game again to get the most optimal route, as well as fully understanding the grand story that the game wants to tell.
All in all, this was a fantastic game all around.
I definitely don't think this game will be for everyone in regards to its gameplay, especially with how later games would improve upon it with a lot of quality of life features such as trading. However, a lot of the gameplay mechanics were carefully picked to give a lot more strategic depth and management, especially for the preparation stages of chapters. I do also really like how this game incentivizes to replay the game again to get the most optimal route, as well as fully understanding the grand story that the game wants to tell.
All in all, this was a fantastic game all around.