Gaiden is a game that’s very obviously trying to lean harder into the RPG side of its SRPG genre, and uses it to explore a host of strange and experimental mechanics that try to bring the two together. The end result is an incredibly unique, albeit somewhat flawed, Fire Emblem experience that is just as intriguing and inspiring as it can be downright exhausting.

The differences are strikingly clear as soon as the game begins in an overworld village instead of an introductory chapter. Stat-boosters are steady and rewarded at the end of dungeon-crawls, units have a single gear slot instead of a five-slot inventory, map designs aim primarily to smash a bunch of units into each other with the victor being the one with the highest stats; all these give it that more well-defined ‘RPG’ feeling. Rather than finding the easiest way to drop Marth on the throne while safely soaking as much exp and bonus items as possible, the ‘strategy’ aspect focuses more on optimising those giant brawls to remove as many enemies as possible before they can reach your frailer units - it’s far from the most interesting SRPG gameplay out there, but aside from some real stinkers it never felt quite as sluggish as some people seem to find it (at least in that regard). The real joys of Gaiden, though, are in some of its other mechanical changes - archers have 1-3 range which boosts to 1-5 while holding a bow, pegasus knights aren’t weak to unequipped archers, spell casts are infinite-use and only cost health, my healer can summon an entire standing army of AI-controlled cannon-fodder for some reason?? I can intentionally let a unit die and use a revival fountain to revive them into the other army??? It’s awesome, even once the novelty wears off.

Sadly, the combat is plagued by what might be the most suffocating RNG I’ve ever experienced in a game. Similarly to FE1 it uses the 1RN system (rolls aren’t weighted in any way; later games would weight high rolls higher and low rolls lower) and has no weapon triangle to let you push hitrates in your favour. Terrain bonuses can get freakishly high, and some terrain types that have no business doing anything boost avoid (floor tiles in a fort give avoid?? Come on????). You’ll be lucky to see something resembling an 80% hitrate, and you still won’t be happy to see it because if your luck is anything like mine you’ll be consistently missing those. And that’s not even to mention Cantors - enemy summoners that on any given turn might do absolutely nothing, or might just decide to spawn seven(!!) extra units at once. For every cool mechanic and idea explored, for every time I’ve spat out endless illusions to safely pull the entire map, I can’t help but think about every time I threw five attacks into a unit without terrain and missed all of them.

Gaiden retains the stellar presentation quality set by FE1, and its new perspectives allow for surprisingly powerful environmental storytelling. Two protagonists driven apart both in story and gameplay - dear to each other, yet driven apart by incompatible worldviews. Alm, eager to solve Zofia's problems through warfare, faces warfare: open fields make way for swarms of Rigellian knights. Celica instead sees a country withering from divine neglect: crops failing to grow as pirates rule the resulting wastelands, and the dead rise again as monsters. Both of their threats are legitimate, but neither are able to understand the motivation of the other. A tale of two heroes off to save the world that ends up more somber than heroic, a feeling further driven by the encounters - no "Chapter X" fanfare nor cute conversations at the start, just constant, thankless fighting. All punctuated by a surprisingly potent soundtrack that hits the emotional beats just as well as it needs to - sometimes even hitting harder than the remake.

But the story directly told is unable to live up to that of the environment, as the game is unable to treat Alm and Celica as equals. Alm’s goals evolve over the course of the story, but are always clear and important - push back and defeat Dozer’s army, invade Rigel to prevent an invasion, topple their king, slay their god, and ultimately save the continent from ruin. Celica’s goals are much less clear and concrete - she sets out to investigate Mila Temple, accidentally defeating a pirate gang along the way, and once she finds her answer there, she pushes into Rigel without much reason other than an implied ‘see what’s going on’*. Because her goals are so nebulous, nothing she does is able to serve the plot on a fundamental level - she isn’t even allowed to finish her own plotline involving the gods, as Alm is the one who learns that the gods aren’t necessary, and Alm is the one to bring down the god of Rigel. Celica is only able to contribute through written-in contrivances - opening her side of the sluice gate, and saving Alm from Dragon Mountain - and notably, one of these *only* helps Alm, and actively harms herself. Her goals aren’t made clear again until the final battle, where she reveals that, instead of leaving to investigate Mila’s disappearance, the actual reason she set out on her adventure is because she had a premonition that Alm would be in danger, and she just loves him so very much that she couldn’t stop herself tearing up half the continent to help him! How cute!

Despite putting me through some of the most gruelling and frustrating sections I’ve played in a Fire Emblem game, down to a mix of stat-screwed units and RNG hell, I still can’t find it in me to dislike this game. Fire Emblem is a series that constantly iterates and evolves, and yet the ideas here feel raw and experimental in a way that I feel like we wouldn’t come close to after Thracia, and it has an ambitious story that still conveys itself impressively, despite falling apart as soon as anyone starts talking to each other. It’s a real shame that an issue as simple yet integral as its RNG is what brings it down, because looking past that it’s clear that they had something really great going on here. It’s just hard to blame anybody if they can’t look past that.


Postnotes
-* I don’t actually remember if her ch4 goals are ever stated, sorry everyone my credibility is ruined, but considering I was paying particular attention to the story I think I would have remembered if they were. To be honest if anyone can show me a bit of dialogue where Celica states or is told to go do something about the Faithful then I'll happily give her a fair bit more slack lol
- The story doesn’t really bother me all that much realistically, but I never liked it that much even when I played SoV back when it launched and it always surprised me seeing so many people praise it like they did, so I wanted to pay particular attention to it this time.