What's the harm in a little reckless besieging? Let's Play FE: The Sacred Stones

The 3rd GBA Fire Emblem and 2nd one to come West. My first Fire Emblem and also my first Let’s Play. I am not exactly a Fire Emblem expert, but I would say I have distinctive style of play. By distinctive I mean that I am actually sort of bad at the games, but I muddled through anyway. In this Let’s Play I intend to recruit all the characters and allow death of non-essential characters. Essential characters are the Lords, of course, as well as the thief and one or two other favorites. If you have a certain favorite character or support pairing suggest that. I have a few that I am definitely going to do, but otherwise I am open to suggestion. Also should I go Eirika’s or Ephraim’s route? Both will be done, but which path will I follow for the main part of the LP?

The Sacred Stones has something of poor reputation for a Fire Emblem game for its lessened difficulty and for being somewhat buggy. It plays identically to the other GBA Fire Emblems, so if you’ve read either of the other, almost certainly better LP here then you know what to expect. It is easier than the previous two, but it also has some changes that I find to be improvement that have been sadly ignored since this entry in the series. The first change is the addition of a navigable world map, which can destroy the balance of the game by letting the player grind levels if they choose. But it can also be ignored and I do not see it at all as detrimental. The 2nd big change is giving the player some choice in what class each character chooses. They are still stuck in basic areas, you are not going to turn a mage into a Paladin, but it does give meaningful choices. There are a several other changes, but I’ll deal with those later.

The previous 2 games took place in the same world, but the Sacred Stones has a new world. Gone are Roy and Eliwood and all that crap. This also means a change in some of the classes. There are no more Nomads, for instance, but now some characters can become Rangers, which are very similar, but not identical. This game stars L’Arachel



as she travels the continent ridding it of evil. Sometimes she is helped by the Prince and Princess of the country of Renais Eirika and Ephraim.



At least that’s how I remember it. It might be somewhat different in truth. Let’s play the prologue.



I briefly considered playing on difficult, but I pansied out and decided to play on normal difficulty.



Here is some generic ancient evil suppressed but not destroyed.



These stones may come up later in the story.



Nothing special here, we’ll move along to the world in which this game is played.



For some 800 years, a quiet peace reigned in the absence of the terrible darkness.

The Sacred Stones have been passed from generation to generation.

Nations have been built around their power and their legacy.

Let’s hope nothing has happened to disturb this peace and cause a continent spanning war.

One stone to a country, spread around the continent. In order for anybody to make use of these stones, they would have to conquer the whole continent. So it seems that the stones are safe and no one will be able to awaken the ancient evil that they seal. Good thing, too.



Oh and there is this much less important little country. They don’t even have one of the Sacred Stones, though I bet they fashioned themselves a knock off stone so they don’t feel bad about being the only country without an ancient magic rock and therefore not invited to the other countries tea parties where they discuss having to protect ancient powerful rocks.



In an instant, the whole of Magvel is threatened by an unexpected atrocity.

The Grado Empire, the largest of the Sarced Stone nations, has invaded the country of Renais under orders from Emperor Vigarde.

A long time ally of Grado, Renais is caught off guard, unable to mount any resistance.

Grado’s forces move quickly, seizing one territory after another.

We start in Renais’ throne room with the King and his remaining child.



Soldier: Emperor Vigarde’s forces are within the castle walls.

King Fado: I understand.

Soldier: The garrison has fallen. We’ve lost contact with Prince Ephraim and can expect no aid from his men. Your Majesty, what are we to do?

King Fado: …What else can we do? Order your men to lay down their arms.

Eirika: Father…



That’s an odd thing to mention at a time like this, but I am sure its not important and will in no way come up again.



King Fado: King Hayden is an honorable man. I trust he will keep you safe.

Seth: Understood. And what of Your Majesty?

King Fado: Me? I shall remain here. We have long held Grado among our dearest allies, yet now, they attack? I must know why. Renais is mine to guide… How could I have failed here so?

Eirika: Father, you can’t stay! You mustn’t!




I need a lot of pictures for this start, but I don’t have much to say about the story here. Its neither bad nor great, but it gets the job done. Enjoyment on the story side of Fire Emblem is not from the always generic plot, but in the usually interesting characters. Sacred Stones does not disappoint on the character side, but it also seems to try a little harder on the plot side, to little effect though.

Meanwhile, outside the castle:



Seth: A single rider has better odds of passing unseen by Grado’s men. Convey to the throne all that has happened here and petition for reinforcements.

Franz: U-Understood!



I am gonna go out on a limb and guess the evil looking dude here is not a good guy. No one that uses the word wench can be a good guy.




Seth is the Marcus equivalent in this game, except he is actually not bad. You still do not want to use him too much early, but at the end of the game he can be useful unit. I really like this explanation for why he starts somewhat weak, that he sustained grievous injuries escaping with Eirika.

Valter: Such terrible wounds, and still he holds to his duty? How entertaining. Fly away, little man. Fly away. Try to outrun death. More time to savor the hunt… and the kill.



Eirika: Don’t be foolish Seth. If it weren’t for you, I never would have made it out of the castle. You are the reason I’m still alive. You have my gratitude. And whoever then man was, he was clearly after me… It’s my fault you received such a grave wound.

Seth: Your Highness, I can’t allow an injury like this to be an obstacle. We have more important matters to attend to. We must press on to Frelia. We must fulfill His Majesty’s wishes.

Eirika: I wonder how my father fares alone in the castle. Do you think he’s safe? And what of my brother on the Grado front? We’ve heard nothing from him for days.

Seth: King Fado and Prince Ephraim are both valiant and brave men. I doubt even the might of the Grado Empire can hold them in check. More important to me, Your Highness, is that you look to your own safety. How sad the two of them would be if something were to happen to you. We must reach Frelia to ensure the day of your happy reunion.

Eirika: Yes, of course. You’re right. Until I’m reunited with my father and brother, I must not despair. Come Seth. Let us go.

Yawn. I’ve used Seth an several playthroughs and there is not much more to him than this Knight of duty act.

Later, near the Frelian border:




Yes like the previous lords Roy and Eliwood, Eirika uses the rapier. With its strength against mounted and armored units, the rapier makes Eirika, even if she does turn out bad, a useable unit.





I was going to make a joke about the possible multiple meanings for “swordplay” given what we will learn about how close these siblings are, but I intend this to be a classy lets play.

Finally, time for the first battle, though it is insultingly easy. Here is map 1:



Somewhat harder then Lyn’s first chapter, the Prologue battle here is painfully easy. Thankfully, unless you are playing on easy, the game lets you attack the map how you want to, though your options are limited at this point. My strategy is going to be ignoring Seth for now and get Eirika some experience.


First, let’s take a look at Eirika and Seth



Like Lyn before her, Eirika is basically a myrmidon with a special sprite. Her speed will be no problem, but she can struggle with strength. I really like her fencer-like attack animations. Being a lord, we will be seeing Eirika for the whole game.



Seth is much like Marcus, except for the fact that he’s actually fairly good. His stats are nothing special, but his growths are solid. At level twenty he will most likely not be your best Paladin, but he has a legitimate shot of maxing a stat or two. Still, it is unwise to use him more than necessary in the early chapters because he sucks up the exp something fierce. I will not be using him at all on this first map.



I did not expect any of these guys to actually hit me, but it should not be a problem.



All goes as planned on the enemies’ turn as Eirika dispatches the first fighter.



This, however, makes me feel like an idiot, especially after I called this map insultingly easy. This does not fill me with confidence for the future of this Let’s Play. Remember if a character dies, I plan to leave that character dead. This obviously excludes Lords, so this death will have to be fixed, but it also excludes my thief, because I need a thief. Just about everyone else is expendable, though.

Just remember that there is one rule that must be followed in all Fire Emblem LPs. You must show all the level ups.

Every time this happens, restart the game.

Whoo! I got a lot of love for Fire Emblems. I'm kind of ashamed to admit that I haven't finished SS...

This (or rather, just the chapter), especially if it's Lute. If you leave her to die, I will find you.

Anyway, looking forward to this! SS is a bit uneven at times and plays fast and loose with the mechanics, but it's an interesting little entry in the series. And the characters! Good lord, you've got some of the best supports in the series, right here. Lute/Artur is A+++, so let's start with that.

One of the thing I like most about this game is how it tends to my obssesive-compulsive leveling tendacies, unlike most FEs, by giving you places to grind.

That said: If anybody dies (especially the trainees) I may or may not hunt you down and KILL YOU.

Yeah, the trainees are aces, especially Amelia. I'm not sure how I feel about a game of Fire Emblem that isn't all NO MAN LEFT BEHIND, but I'll roll with it.

Aw, I was hoping for some Joshua/Artur. It's not a Fire Emblem game without a rogue-ish swordsman and a pretty magic user getting all homoerotic!

Hey, it's not my fault. Tanto spoiled me with Raven/Lucius.

Sir, you have clearly not experienced the unbridled terror that is the Lute/Ross support. Criticals. Criticals everywhere.

Anyway, I recommend taking the Ephraim route since you get to see a fair bit of Eirika before the path split. Not to mention that Ephraim is an absolute beast while Eirika has a habit of getting strength-screwed much like Lyn.

Ugh, can't stand Lute. If you ask me, the only time she is redeemable is during the Artur support, and we have better options for Artur.

No seriously, I only lost one unit in my playthrough, and that was when I didn't like where Ross' support was going.

Are we voting? I want to vote for Ephraim's route, too. As nice as it is to have the girl actually be the leader for a change, Ephraim's route makes the plot (and the eventual villain) a bit less painful to read.

Ah, FE8. You've got the best font in the series, and nothing else.

Ima vote for Eirika's route, because as far as I know that's the only time in the whole series where you can have a female Lord without having her get demoted to second-stringer ten chapters in. Plus Ephraim's kind of a jackass -- "Oh, my country's being attacked; I'll take a skeleton crew into the heart of enemy territory and get myself killed instead of staying behind to defend the homeland." You fucking suck, Ephraim.

As for supports, I'll say Joshua/L'Arachel.

So beginning again



This time he missed, though I did not get a picture of it.



The enemies’ turn goes very well for me, as Eirika finishes two of the fighters, the first with an unnecessary critical.



Seth assumes that either I or Eirika is blind and needlessly informs us that there is only one enemy left. I move Eirika to the trees for the added evasion bonus.



O’Neill is rather disdainful of our young lord’s martial prowess, but fortunately for me he does not understand the weapons triangle.



He proves unable to connect, but he is fast enough that Eirika can’t double him so it takes a couple rounds to finish him. And O’Neill’s death leads us to our first



And boy is it a good one. Eirika tends to really struggle with strength, so any level with that is good for her, but she also is somewhat weak in the HP department, but an Angelic Robe should cure that.

Eirika: I never thought-- I didn’t know it would be this… savage. Are words useless? Is strength all that matters? Its so sad… Why would the Grado Empire do this? To what end would they start a war?



And so ends the Prologue. Shaken but not broken, Eirika is ready to begin her quest to save her home and family. Let's hope I can keep her alive long enough to continue her quest.

It will be a while before any character requests take effect, as I'm close to the path choice already.

I insist that you have Amelia and Duessel support each other.

Failing that, Amelia and Ross.

(I have yet to see a game where Amelia didn't support anybody)

That would require actually using Duessel, though.

And this is a problem how?

WOOT! I havn't seen SS in ages and have ALWAYS had a character die RIGHT BEFORE the character path... also, I vote Eirikas path and that you keep Joshua as non-expendable =D

One of the main things I hated about this game is how few double endings there are.

Probably the biggest problem for me was that there was no Ross/Lute ending.

I mean... really?

Oh god, that level up screenshot. It...triggered something in me. I now have an inexplicable urge to to play a few chapters into one of the games and then never finish.

If we are indeed voting, I'll have to go with Ephraim. As Captain Keene pointed out, you have Eirika for a good while before the choice comes, anyway.

Ephraim's side of the tale sucks super hardcore, both in terms of narrative and map design, so I'm voting that we go with Eirika. I mean, it's cool that we'd get a Halberdier to play around with earlier, but, as Tanto pointed out, Ephraim's kind of dumb. :\

It should be mentioned that Eirika didn't always have the stereotypically-feminine battle sprite she has in game. In the beta version of the game, her sprite was actually quite a bit buffer, to wit:


Made this myself, I did. Ah, the lazy days of yesteryear.

It's a shame we didn't get this version; warrior queen Eirika is so much cooler.

...that went radically different from when I tried doing a let's play of this game.

It kinda went like this: all the fighters attacked Eirika and got a critical hit to the nads in response. ALL OF THEM.

Also, I fully support the use of L'arachel!

EDIT: Nevermind! You're doing both routes?

I vote for this too. It'd be a shame to lose L'Archel to a random critical somewhere.

Eirika and Ephraim support.

I don't think you guys understand me. I meant restart the entire file.

This is how manly, manly men react to Neimi getting an axe stuck in her face.

Manly men never lose characters, ever. But we've set a precedent by having Eirika die in the Prologue, so I suppose I can settle for simply restarting the chapter when necessary.

Anyway, I think I'm going to play along on my first Hard Mode run. I'll be doing Eirika's route, since I haven't done that in a while (and so I don't have to deal with Phantom Ship), so my vote goes to Ephraim.