This is an interesting game in the series.
Structurally it borrows a lot from FE2 with it's dual protagonists, abundance of monster enemies, and it's world map layout allowing you to grind freely if you wish, with a tower that helps incentivise that even more.
Personally, I have always felt that the structures and mechanics borrowed from FE2 were implemented in a way I didn't like as much. Take the dual protagonists for example. Here you follow Eirika for the first 8 chapters with one Ephiram side chapter thrown in before the two decide to take on different challenges for the next 6 chapters before meeting back up for the final few chapters. Unlike FE2 were you would play as Alm and Celica at the same time, interchanging as you progressed, here you're forced to pick one sibling to follow while the other has to played on another save file. It's frustrating to have a sizable part of the narrative locked away during a playthrough, losing important context. Where this route split does work though is in the final set of chapters when the twins are back together and you get to experience the story from either perspective. Here they alter a few scenes that really add to the characters and narrative of FE8 and that's where I can appreciate the route split.
Other things added into this game are skills making a return. These are locked to a few promoted units and are utilised pretty well. Promotions now split into two different classes allowing you to diversify your multiple playthroughs (eg, pegasus knights can promote into either falcon knights or wyvern knight)
Other than that this is mostly building off FE7 with a variety of map styles coming back and more of that good old GBA Fire Emblem animation.
It also kinda suffers with being the third GBA FE too. Graphically and artistically it looks very similar to the two games before it and it does feel a little tired. Even it's music I sometimes mix up with FE7 because the GBA really limits how different the music can sound.
While the SNES and 3DS have both had 3 FE games too, these games managed to differentiate themselves enough to prevent that feeling of fatigue setting in while Sacred Stones struggles a bit with that for me.
That's not to say FE8 is a bad game though, far from it! It still manages to craft an engaging experience that is fun to play. The story is interesting enough while not being super exciting, it does however manage to craft a lot of wonderful and interesting characters. The villains in Sacred Stones are really well done, with each of Grado's generals having great development and contrasting ideals from each other, making the likes of Selena and Valter pretty memorable. Lyon is really well done, and when you have the full context from both story routes, you find a tragic character that you can't help but feel for. And the supporting cast is really good too! L'Arachel is an incredibly fun character and Joshua gets some great story beats too.
The lords as individuals don't land high up for me, but together with Lyon there's a nice dynamic between the three that lets them shine as a group.
FE8 also has a cool piece of post game content that lets you recruit and use some of the enemy characters from the main game. It's not something I've personally looked into yet but I think it is an exciting piece of content that adds a bit more to the package.
Ultimately Sacred Stones is a very solid and fun FE title. It doesn't hit it's potential to be one of my favourites in the series but it still manages to craft an experience that is fun and enjoyable for me and at the end of the day, that's all that really matters
Structurally it borrows a lot from FE2 with it's dual protagonists, abundance of monster enemies, and it's world map layout allowing you to grind freely if you wish, with a tower that helps incentivise that even more.
Personally, I have always felt that the structures and mechanics borrowed from FE2 were implemented in a way I didn't like as much. Take the dual protagonists for example. Here you follow Eirika for the first 8 chapters with one Ephiram side chapter thrown in before the two decide to take on different challenges for the next 6 chapters before meeting back up for the final few chapters. Unlike FE2 were you would play as Alm and Celica at the same time, interchanging as you progressed, here you're forced to pick one sibling to follow while the other has to played on another save file. It's frustrating to have a sizable part of the narrative locked away during a playthrough, losing important context. Where this route split does work though is in the final set of chapters when the twins are back together and you get to experience the story from either perspective. Here they alter a few scenes that really add to the characters and narrative of FE8 and that's where I can appreciate the route split.
Other things added into this game are skills making a return. These are locked to a few promoted units and are utilised pretty well. Promotions now split into two different classes allowing you to diversify your multiple playthroughs (eg, pegasus knights can promote into either falcon knights or wyvern knight)
Other than that this is mostly building off FE7 with a variety of map styles coming back and more of that good old GBA Fire Emblem animation.
It also kinda suffers with being the third GBA FE too. Graphically and artistically it looks very similar to the two games before it and it does feel a little tired. Even it's music I sometimes mix up with FE7 because the GBA really limits how different the music can sound.
While the SNES and 3DS have both had 3 FE games too, these games managed to differentiate themselves enough to prevent that feeling of fatigue setting in while Sacred Stones struggles a bit with that for me.
That's not to say FE8 is a bad game though, far from it! It still manages to craft an engaging experience that is fun to play. The story is interesting enough while not being super exciting, it does however manage to craft a lot of wonderful and interesting characters. The villains in Sacred Stones are really well done, with each of Grado's generals having great development and contrasting ideals from each other, making the likes of Selena and Valter pretty memorable. Lyon is really well done, and when you have the full context from both story routes, you find a tragic character that you can't help but feel for. And the supporting cast is really good too! L'Arachel is an incredibly fun character and Joshua gets some great story beats too.
The lords as individuals don't land high up for me, but together with Lyon there's a nice dynamic between the three that lets them shine as a group.
FE8 also has a cool piece of post game content that lets you recruit and use some of the enemy characters from the main game. It's not something I've personally looked into yet but I think it is an exciting piece of content that adds a bit more to the package.
Ultimately Sacred Stones is a very solid and fun FE title. It doesn't hit it's potential to be one of my favourites in the series but it still manages to craft an experience that is fun and enjoyable for me and at the end of the day, that's all that really matters