Name: Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War
Release Date (JP): May 14th, 1996
Platform: SNES
Score: 99
Beat: July 9th, 2015
Written: April 28th, 2021
Right away, I just want to say: While I first beat FE4 in 2015, I have replayed it numerous times since then. Ok, with that out of the way, here we go. Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War (ファイアーエムブレム聖戦の系譜 Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu) is the fourth entry in the Fire Emblem series and released exclusively in Japan in 1996. In August of 1996, Nintendo Power did run an article on the game, which reads like one big tease as it hypes up this epic series of strategy games in Japan but then states at the very end there are no plans for localization at that time. And that wouldn't change until 2003. It's also a legendary article. While none of its information is technically wrong, it features wonky translations and captions describing certain mechanics that should not have been paired with the screenshot it was, like how the article describes the lover system next to a screenshot of Eltshan and Lachesis talking. For those unaware, those two are siblings. That article is the source of Serlis and Zigludo, the "localized" names for Celice and Sigurd respectively. It's saddening that Treehouse opted to make up their own garbage for Celice, but at least they kept Sigurd (though Siglud would have been acceptable... lol.) Alright, I keep getting sidetracked.
FE4 was a very important entry for a variety of reasons. It was the first game in the series to have a deep and complex lore with equally complex characters and storytelling. This game also marks the first appearance of the weapon triangle, the rock-paper-scissors of weapons, which would go on to become a series staple until Fates made it stupidly complicated and Three Houses removed it outright. This is also the first appearance of the "modern" weapon proficiency system, as in it's no longer based on numbers but rather letter grades. In this game the only way to raise said proficiency is to promote, though some characters can never use the highest ranked weapons. Also, this is the first FE game where characters can talk to each other outside of recruitments or story events. It's a little awkward as only the character that's marked as wanting to talk to another character can actually initiate the conversation, which makes sense, but it's a little annoying from a gameplay standpoint. These conversations can sometimes yield bonuses, such as items, lover points, or even unique weapons. Lastly, FE4 also marks the first appearance of the Lover system, while barebones in this game, they had to start somewhere. Basically, characters have a set amount of points their affection towards another character will grow per turn and standing next to said character yields a five point bonus. Some characters have conversations that give a large amount of lover points, though some characters can fall in love without uttering a single word to each other. Three pairings per female character have a special conversation in Chapter 5. The ones that don't have a conversation... it's kinda awkward. What can also happen is two lovers that stand next to each other have a chance of performing a critical, indicated by hearts appearing over both characters when the battle starts. A similar mechanic exists for siblings in the second generation. Enough about new mechanics, time to dive into some other things.
The music in the game is wonderful. Yuka Tsujiyoko was at her best for this game and it really shows. Each chapter theme is distinct and fitting. There are several army themes that are all great and do not sound the same (except for the Grandbell Army themes, where I imagine it was intentional.) There are also a lot of great character themes and Castle Town songs, along with the wide array of country themes, most of which are sadly only heard in the game's ending. I could go on and on about each song (yes, all 114 of them, 113 of which are used) but I won't. The music really enhances the game, to put it succinctly.
As mentioned before, the story, nay, the writing in general in the game is a huge improvement over the previous entries. Gone are characters that join without uttering a single word, gone are characters that are obviously just there to replace an earlier one if they died, instead every character has their own story, their own motivations, and their own personality (and unique portrait, though this DOES NOT apply to generic bosses in the game, more on that in a second.) It is a welcome improvement! I don't fault FE1 especially for its gross asset reusage, as it is a rather ambitious NES game and I imagine they had to squeze everything they did into the cartridge. Right off the bat there is a ton of worldbuilding that occurs, laying out the political landscape of Jugdral and touches on its complex history. Almost immediately the player is thrown into conflict with the neighboring kingdom of Verdane. Sigurd rushes out to save the day, ends up meeting the love of his life, then gets caught in a plot that costs him his life... The newely formed Grandbell Empire reigns for 17 years unchallenged until Celice's liberation army rises up in Isaac along with the children of the first generation characters, if they had any. If not, their substitutes join instead. This part of the game is a little more straightforward as it's "underdog good guys versus evil empire," but it's still a deeply engrossing game. Chapter 5 in particular is the greatest chapter in all of Fire Emblem. It features subtle hints that things will not go well for Sigurd and company, from the ominous world map music to the name of the chapter itself, "Doors of Destiny," the chapter theme itself, plus some of the character conversations after a certain point in the chapter all provide hints that the end for Sigurd is coming. To end it off, Sigurd finds Deirdre, his missing wife, albeit amnesiac and now the wife of Alvis, who is very shortly going to personally execute Sigurd for treason that he did not commit. Just one last punch to the gut after seeing his father Vylon die right before his eyes, then hearing about Cuan and Ethlin dying in the desert.
The graphics are hugely improved over FE3. The map sprites are no longer awkwardly animated and the very dark palette of the previous game are gone and replaced with nice map sprites and a much brighter color scheme. The battle graphics are better in every way. Characters actually have unique palettes in battle, so every healer doesn't look like Maria or Lena while healing anymore, for example. The battle sprites also run, dash, leap, fly high, and ride along the screen. Battles are much more lively and exciting, partially owing to the fact that the narration box was removed. The critical rate is no longer abbreviated as CLT "unfortunately," which when I noticed that in FE3 I got a good laugh, as critical hits work a little differently in FE4 and are not displayed in battle at all. The menus and dialogue boxes are given designs so they are not just abysses of the same color and as a result are less bland. I will say, the FE3 text boxes have a classic "charm" not unlike the classic blue Final Fantasy text boxes. The portraits are interesting. They all have the epic 80s hair that was prevalent in 90s anime so they all have huge amounts of hair, provided they have hair at all. Unfortunately, FE5 discards the 80s hair for more "normal" portraits. Every playable character has a unique portrait, though some are similar. For example, Ayra's and Lakche's portraits are extremely similar, as well as Eltshan and Aless's, and Lachesis's and Nanna's, but that could be explained as those are parents and their kids so it's no surprise they look similar. The enemy portraits do reuse portraits, but some one-off antagonists do have unique portraits, like MacBeth and Ovo. A notable example of portrait reusage is Zyne and his endless amount of brothers throughout Jugdral. I don't really think it's a negative strike as FE4 is a massive game that was stuffed into the cartridge so space was saved when possible. FE4 also takes a different approach to the world map compared to previous games, now it is much more like a map, complete with latitude and longitude lines, seeming points of distortion, and a more parchment-like color scheme. I don't think what previous games did was wrong or bad, but just different. Lastly, the graphics in the opening upon immediately booting the game are really great. And they may be familiar if you play far enough into the game, provided you didn't turn off the battle animations :)
Whew, I had a lot to say. To conclude, I like FE4 a ton. There's endless replay value with tons of different pairing combinations, or no pairings to get substitutes, each playthrough is unique. I've played it several times, I have memories of watching my brother play the old J2E patch on our Grandpa's old XP computer (which if DarkTwilikitri's patch irritates people, just wait until they see J2E's patch!) which at that time said patch was the newest patch for the game. I would never seriously try to play through it until it was revealed to me that you can, in fact use emulators on iOS. The version of Provenance I had used had some issues, namely Layer 3 loved to start flickering for no reason, but it was awesome. Eventually I would get better devices but it was all I had for portable SNES games at the time. I've even played through the game on the SNES using my brother's cartridge. It's a game I have a lot of history with, two other FE games that are in a similar position are Fire Emblem and Path of Radiance. I'll talk about those two another day though.
-Hat Kid
This space will later be used to talk about favorite moments during playthroughs and such, but for now is blank. Motivation, yo.