Fire Emblem: Fuuin no Tsurugi (封印の剣), translated as Fire Emblem: Sword of Seals or Fire Emblem: Binding Sword, is a turn-based strategy RPG game released on the Gameboy Advance platform. You would have probably read about it in my previous post on Fire Emblem: Rekka no Ken. There are some interesting connections between Fire Emblem: Rekka No Ken and Fire Emblem: Fuuin no Tsurugi.
In terms of storyline, Fire Emblem: Rekka No Ken comes before Fire Emblem: Fuuin no Tsurugi. The main protagonist in Fire Emblem: Rekka No Ken, Eliwood, is the father of the main protagonist in Fire Emblem: Fuuin no Tsurugi.
However, in terms of production, Fire Emblem: Fuuin no Tsurugi was out in the market in 2002 while Fire Emblem: Rekka No Ken came out in 2003 (you didn’t expect that, did you? ;))
Due to the one year gap, there were not much differences in terms of gameplay (the style, etc). However, there were some minor differences that I’d noticed. For example, in Fire Emblem: Rekka No Ken, you can use Augury to get hints about who you could probably recruit in the next battle, and bring the correct people to the respective stages (so that you can recruit those characters and not miss out on them!), but not in Fire Emblem: Fuuin no Tsurugi. As a result, the difficulty level of Fire Emblem: Fuuin no Tsurugi is significantly higher — not because you were killed by the enemies, but because you have to restart chapter everytime you ‘realized’ that you forgot to bring out a certain character into the game to recruit some ‘recruitable’ character’.
If there is anything I’d like to complain and rant about the games in the Fire Emblem franchise, THIS is probably it. But not to worry, this issue is being corrected in ‘future’ releases. Hey, perhaps that’s why this problem was resolved when they release Fire Emblem: Rekka No Ken in the following year! 😉
Oh, and yes, I must say that another source of ‘higher difficulty’ actually came from the much bigger maps in Fire Emblem: Fuuin no Tsurugi. Almost all the maps are big as compared to its sequel, which only have some maps that were as big.
Another thing that was different is its management of equipments. In Fire Emblem: Rekka No Ken, whenever you get to a general store or weapon store, it is advised that you purchase enough weapons and items and stock them up in case you run out of weapons. Whereas in Fire Emblem: Fuuin no Tsurugi, it is not that important because you can always have access to the ‘shop’ option when you are in the ‘pre-battle’ screen; in Rekka no Ken, the game does not provide you with the ‘shop’ option. Well, maybe that is why you get to access the stores more often in Fire Emblem: Rekka No Ken during battle. 🙂
In terms of the usage of items, I would definitely prefer Fire Emblem: Rekka No Ken over Fire Emblem: Fuuin no Tsurugi because the former allow users to use item during pre-battle screen, unlike the latter which requires user to bring that character into a battle (with the item you intended to you, being already placed in their bag), and take a turn (yes, one turn during battle) to use one item… so if you stock up all your boosts and intended to give them to Roy, then you better use them quick or you will have turns when you totally don’t get to do anything at all (other than using/consuming items).
In brief, Fire Emblem: Fuuin no Tsurugi basically let YOU (the user) use Roy, the main protagonist, who will eventually (due to many events which I shall not spoiler you :p) leads the Lycia Alliance army (just like what his father, Eliwood did in Fire Emblem: Rekka No Ken) and fight against the Kingdom of Bern (the kingdom well known for its ability in military). The game starts when the Kingdom of Bern suddenly invades Sacae and Ilia, and then Lycia (an alliance of many smaller kingdoms), which was then led by Hector (you will know him if you played Fire Emblem: Rekka No Ken).
I will not go deeper into the specific things of the game like Weapon Triangle, Trinity of Magic, or Support system, and etcetera because I have already covered them briefly in my post on Fire Emblem: Rekka No Ken and they are the same. 😉
Like this game? Try the other Fire Emblem titles too:
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