Tales of the Fire Emblem is a hack of Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones. It replaces all playable characters with ones from the Tales series of role-playing games. There are also new items and old, renamed items, being able to recruit bosses, plus an increased difficulty. Of course, there's a problem: I have never played a Tales game. I am unfamiliar with the characters, settings, items, etc. I did a little research, though, so don't worry. I understand the basic premise. Without further ado, let's review Tales of the Fire Emblem. Graphics - 6
The graphics for this hack are okay. They're not great, just okay. What remains of the original game's graphics still look amazing. I don't think I can say that for the mugs, however. Some mugs were left intact, so you would have to use your imagination in seeing them as their character. The changed mugs are not too amazing. They are mostly edits of mugs from Fire Emblems 7 and 8, and maybe 6. There were some mugs I did not recognize as being spliced, so those were probably original. One of the main problems is with the sloppiness. The colors were rather bright and painful to look at on some, and others just looked like a mess, especially the splices. Since the overall graphics weren't horrible, however, I'll give this area a 6. Sound - 9
The music as far as I know is unchanged, and thank goodness. The Sacred Stones soundtrack is one of my all-time favorites. Almost every moment is a gold mine of amazing music. If I had any complaints, I somewhat wish the author could have inserted some songs from the Tales series to give the game less of a "re-skin" feel. I have a feeling this was from the early days of hacking when you couldn't do that, so I'll give that a pass. The sound gets a 9. Addictiveness - 7. This the kind of game I COULD go back to, but I don't necessarily know if I will. The game is certainly good enough to warrant a replay. Plus, with the new characters and items, you could theoretically use any number of characters to get through the game. You could use Guy as your Swordmaster one playthough, then use Lloyd on the next one. Since all characters sans Shirley and Senel join promoted, none of your characters are particularly bad. This, combined with the post-game cause me to give the Addictiveness a 7. Story - 7
The story is, as far as I can tell, exactly the same as The Sacred Stones. The only real difference is that all playable and important enemy characters are replaced with Tales series characters. For example, Eirika is Shirley Fennes, and Ephraim is Senel Coolidge. I have no real strong feelings towards the story of The Sacred Stones, other than that it's simple, yet sweet. I give the story a 7. Depth - 7
This game is about as long as the original game it's a hack of. You play through 23 chapters in one go, though there are 29 in total. You play through the Prologue, and chapters one through eight plus a bonus chapter with Shirley. Once you clear chapter eight, you get a choice of who your main character will be through the next six chapters. This is where those six extra chapters come in; whichever character you choose will determine which six maps you will play through. This means you will have to play the game at least twice to see all the chapters. Even when you beat the game, that's not all. You have the eight-floor Tower, the one-map Melkaen Coast, and the ten-floor Lagdou Ruins, your ultimate challenge. Beating these maps through the Creature Campaign will unlock new characters to use in that mode. These new characters are characters you never got the chance to play with in the main game. I give the depth a 7. Difficulty - 6
The difficulty is, of course, increased from the original game, which is widely considered to be one of the easiest in the Fire Emblem series. Still, though there is a challenge, it is not unfairly-hard. If you are skilled, you can get through the game without too much challenge. Of course, the post-game is rather tough, but assuming you know how to play the game right, you should be able to beat the game with only a few resets. I give the difficulty a 6. Overall - 7
I would probably have liked this game more if I had actually played any Tales games beforehand. Alas, I have not, and thus I must judge this hack on its own merits. Tales of the Fire Emblem is a good, albeit not amazing hack that I would recommend to anyone, even if only for two playthroughs. If you like the Tales series and would like to see your favorite characters in a Fire Emblem game, more power to you. Give this one a shot.
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