An extraordinary SRPG and the third in a streak of Greats from Director, Shouzou Kaga. The game as a whole feels like a ton of ideas that had been bottled up previously finally had the chance to come to fruition, following Kaga's departure from Intelligent Systems/Nintendo. In many ways, it's great to see this all realized and a refinement that takes from most every previous Fire Emblem game.
This game ultimately feels like it borrows most from Fire Emblem Thracia 776 and Fire Emblem Gaiden in its map/unit design and split paths respectively. One of my favorite aspects of Tear Ring Saga is how most units feel like they have a niche, and their own reason to be deployed, distinct even from characters in similar classes as them. This is a mark that continues to show up in Kaga's best works. You are constantly handed powerful units and/or powerful tools that only specific ones can use. It's very fun to mess around with Sierra's Warp, Raffin's Flight and Bulk, Plum's Dance, and the unique statlines of many other characters.
Throughout this game's longer-than-average runtime and with a whopping 40 main story chapters, you encounter many different map designs with smart enemy placements, fun side objectives, and tons of secrets that are fun to unravel. I enjoyed my time with most of the game's maps, though it is worth noting that some of Holmes' later maps definitely felt more worth a Warp Skip than the stronger chapters in the game.
I really love the story told in this game and the shifting perspective. The plot centers around what is effectively Medieval Mutually-Assured Destruction and seeing how the nations scramble to pick up the pieces and threaten use of such powerful deities and guardians makes a lot of sense. I also very much love how this game handles its "Fell Dragon" and "Evil Cult" compared to every single Fire Emblem game. Whereas Fire Emblem Genealogy of the Holy War touches on the persecution aspect, this game dives deep into it with a rich history of colonization and retaliation painting every side of the conflict. It's much more fascinating and enriching than the usual "Dark Cult evil just because" plot.
I won't go into full details but there are parts of this game that may necessitate trigger warnings for some players. Personally, I do think they bring up interesting gameplay ramifications and are realistic, grim parts of this world that absolutely would never have been explored in a Nintendo-published Kaga game, but I understand the perspective of people who think they are gratuitous as well. Still, it is very fascinating to me to give the player the choice to intentionally cause a very traumatic event to a character for no other purpose but a gameplay benefit. Usually games offer choices with equal gameplay trade-off, but this game tests the player and see if they're willing to make their digital characters suffer for their own benefit. It's something that feels very meta and modern, and I like that.
The game's biggest strength, can also be its weakness. Tear Ring Saga is very verbose. On the positive end, this means you get to learn a lot about EVERY last character in your cast (without it being relegated to optional or difficult to obtain conversations), every nation, and the history of this world down to the origin. On the downside, these tantalizing bits of information are not delivered in the most deft way possible. You will regularly be left with text boxes going back and forth for upwards of an hour at a time in some cases, 30 minutes on average in others.
Overall, Tear Ring Saga takes a lot of great aspects from a lot of great games and spreads its wings even further. For the Fire Emblem die-hard who's played every entry in that series, I would say this is a need-to-play. This game is an absolute joy to play and read.
This game ultimately feels like it borrows most from Fire Emblem Thracia 776 and Fire Emblem Gaiden in its map/unit design and split paths respectively. One of my favorite aspects of Tear Ring Saga is how most units feel like they have a niche, and their own reason to be deployed, distinct even from characters in similar classes as them. This is a mark that continues to show up in Kaga's best works. You are constantly handed powerful units and/or powerful tools that only specific ones can use. It's very fun to mess around with Sierra's Warp, Raffin's Flight and Bulk, Plum's Dance, and the unique statlines of many other characters.
Throughout this game's longer-than-average runtime and with a whopping 40 main story chapters, you encounter many different map designs with smart enemy placements, fun side objectives, and tons of secrets that are fun to unravel. I enjoyed my time with most of the game's maps, though it is worth noting that some of Holmes' later maps definitely felt more worth a Warp Skip than the stronger chapters in the game.
I really love the story told in this game and the shifting perspective. The plot centers around what is effectively Medieval Mutually-Assured Destruction and seeing how the nations scramble to pick up the pieces and threaten use of such powerful deities and guardians makes a lot of sense. I also very much love how this game handles its "Fell Dragon" and "Evil Cult" compared to every single Fire Emblem game. Whereas Fire Emblem Genealogy of the Holy War touches on the persecution aspect, this game dives deep into it with a rich history of colonization and retaliation painting every side of the conflict. It's much more fascinating and enriching than the usual "Dark Cult evil just because" plot.
I won't go into full details but there are parts of this game that may necessitate trigger warnings for some players. Personally, I do think they bring up interesting gameplay ramifications and are realistic, grim parts of this world that absolutely would never have been explored in a Nintendo-published Kaga game, but I understand the perspective of people who think they are gratuitous as well. Still, it is very fascinating to me to give the player the choice to intentionally cause a very traumatic event to a character for no other purpose but a gameplay benefit. Usually games offer choices with equal gameplay trade-off, but this game tests the player and see if they're willing to make their digital characters suffer for their own benefit. It's something that feels very meta and modern, and I like that.
The game's biggest strength, can also be its weakness. Tear Ring Saga is very verbose. On the positive end, this means you get to learn a lot about EVERY last character in your cast (without it being relegated to optional or difficult to obtain conversations), every nation, and the history of this world down to the origin. On the downside, these tantalizing bits of information are not delivered in the most deft way possible. You will regularly be left with text boxes going back and forth for upwards of an hour at a time in some cases, 30 minutes on average in others.
Overall, Tear Ring Saga takes a lot of great aspects from a lot of great games and spreads its wings even further. For the Fire Emblem die-hard who's played every entry in that series, I would say this is a need-to-play. This game is an absolute joy to play and read.