Introduction

Fire Emblem 8 is a curious entry in Intelligent Systems' flagship tactical RPG series. Released for the Gameboy Advance in 2005, it was only the second game released in the United States, and had a lot to live up to, due to the overwhelmingly positive reception of its predecessor. And so far as gameplay is concerned, I believe it improved immensely. Based heavily on Fire Emblem 2: Gaiden, the Sacred Stones added (or reintroduced) branching story paths, a world map with random encounters, optional dungeons, new character classes, and an entirely new game mode, unlockable after beating the game. In almost every way, the game either kept the gameplay from Fire Emblem 7 or added more features to it, so everyone thought it was the best thing ever, right?

Well, no. You see, there are two things the game can't match Fire Emblem 7 in: difficulty and story. Rather than forcing the player along a fixed progression of levels with a steadily increasing challenge curve, the inclusion of random encounters and dungeons allows the player to gain effectively an infinite amount of experience between story chapters, removing a lot of challenge from the game. In addition, since characters have generally better stat growths in the Sacred Stones, combat is a bit easier and less risky than in Fire Emblem 7. As for the story, we'll get to it when it comes, but the plotline and characterization feel, overall, a bit weaker than the game that came before it. It's not horrendous, by any means, and there are bright points to it, but it's very generic and predictable. Not bad, per se, just dull.

So why LP it? Partially because everything else has been done, and partially because I absolutely love this series. Warts and all, I still enjoy the Sacred Stones, and I feel that the lower difficulty gives the game an unfairly poor reputation. That's what got me to thinking about a way to present the game that preserves a bit of challenge but allows me to show everything off, which brings me to my next point:

How will we avoid trivializing the game?

First, I'll be skipping the random encounters. All experience I gain will be done in story chapters. Effectively, we'll be playing this like every other game in the series, going directly from story battle to story battle, with no stops in between. To that end, I'll also be saving the dungeons for post-game, but rest assured, I will be showing them off.

Since the plot of the game does change somewhat depending on which story path we take, I'll be doing two runs of the game, going down one path on Normal and down the other on Hard, showing off all the differences between the two difficulties along the way.

Fair warning to veterans of the series, I will be going over a basic explanation of how the game works, so a lot of the information in the first few updates may be eye-rollingly obvious. You have been warned.

I also highly recommend that people check out other LP's of the games in the series. Those are:

Fire Emblem 1: Dark Dragon and the Sword of Light (by DKII)
Fire Emblem Gaiden (by Hafl)
Fire Emblem 4: Geneology of the Holy War (by Wind God Sety)
Fire Emblem 5: Thracia 776 (by Cake Attack)
Fire Emblem 6: Sword of Seals (by Artix74)
Fire Emblem 7: Blazing Sword (also by Artix74)
Fire Emblem 9: Path of Radiance (by Fedule)
Fire Emblem 10: Radiant Dawn (also by Fedule)
Fire Emblem 11: Shadow Dragon (by TenaCrane, requires archives)
Fire Emblem 12: Heroes of Light and Shadow (also by TenaCrane)

Some of these are still being developed, and others are probably in the process of being archived, so I'll change the links when appropriate.