[Nintendo 3DS] Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones ROM Download

Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones ROM Screenshots

Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones ROM Description

Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones is a tactical role-playing game where the player takes on the roles of Prince Eirika and Prince Ephraim in separate campaigns as they fight invading enemy forces and recruit allies they meet along their journeys.

The land of Magvel is navigated via an overworld map, with routes leading to different unlockable battle maps as the story progresses. In addition to story and dungeon maps, there are optional dungeons where selected units can freely fight enemies, gaining experience each time.

Whenever a unit earns 100 experience points, that unit levels up, and some stats increase randomly. All characters can progress up to a cap of level 20. After a character reaches level 10, they have the option to promote by using a class-specific item. A notable change from previous games is that there are more promotion options for each character class. For example, a knight can promote into a great knight or Paladin.

Battles use a turn-based system with allied and enemy units moving in turns on a grid-based battlefield. The player can end their turn at any time, after which enemy or allied units may move.

In each battle, the player commands a limited number of units with an objective to accomplish. A unit’s class determines their abilities, weapons, strengths, and movement range. For instance, mounted units can move again within their remaining range if they trade or support another ally unit within a shorter range.

Other units have the ability to rescue units, lowering their own strength to pull the rescued unit out of danger. Depending on class and stats, items can be used to heal or inflict status ailments like poison, losing health each turn, attacking adjacent units regardless of alliance, and debilitating things like sleep and petrify.

A key element of combat is the weapons triangle—the rock-paper-scissors mechanism that governs which weapon types are more effective against others. The different weapons range from close-combat weapons like swords and axes to ranged weapons like bows and magic staffs.

Various items collected from missions, like healing items and weapons, can be traded with other army units or sold to vendors on the world map. All items suffer durability wear with use and will break after a certain number of uses. Different weapons also have minimum skill levels required to wield them, requiring units to train with that weapon type to attain appropriate ranks, from E up to A, then S, the highest rank. When a unit reaches S rank with one weapon, all other weapon skills are locked at A rank.

Certain units with the same support rating can benefit from support conversations between battles after spending a number of turns adjacent to each other. They can initiate support conversations when occupying adjacent map spaces. Each pair of units can have up to three support conversations, with each subsequent conversation conferring better bonuses to both units in later battles if they are within three spaces of each other.

When a unit is defeated in battle, they permanently die and are removed from the campaign unless the player restarts the game from a previous save file. Certain character deaths, like those of Eirika and Ephraim, will end the game and require restarting from a save file.

In addition to single players, the game also includes a local multiplayer option where up to four players can bring selected units into the Link Arena. Victory goes to the last group standing or the group with the highest score, depending on battle conditions. Permanent death is disabled in the Link Arena.

Overall, FE: Sacred Stones received many positive reviews for its story, tactical battle system, and character development, although some criticized the game’s ease. It is a quality Fire Emblem entry on the Game Boy Advance platform for those who enjoy the tactical RPG genre.