VideoGame The Middle Ain't A Bad Place To Be
Sacred Stones is one of those FE games that nobody seems to really hate, but few people seem to truly adore. It's not quite experimental, but it's not quite Strictly Formula. People seem to have a hard time placing it, and so do I, frankly—but I still find it, on balance, a pleasant time.
The main talking point with SS is its difficulty, and... yeah, that's not great. Approachability is one thing, but even Hard Mode feels very undertuned. Even avoiding all grinding, it feels like there's rarely a point in the game where "throw strong unit with 1-2 range weapon at the enemy and watch them all kill themselves" isn't the perfect solution. It does make it a good pick for a first game, especially since the tutorial is actually pretty well-handled, but it's not something I'm fond of. Unfortunately, I fear that some things were sacrificed in the name of the dungeons and postgame—and to its credit, they're very extensive, and I don't begrudge the idea, but I also recommend avoiding them. They serve more to max out your units further than provide a fun challenge; they do feature some of the more dangerous enemies, but they're little more than slugfests and don't tend to test much beyond patience.
That said, the pacing and difficulty makes it a pretty comfy game, helped by its cast. They're honestly my favorite of the GBA games—the two leads have some issues, but everyone else has a lovely vibe, with a diverse mix of personalities that feel fleshed-out and grounded, and even a solid villain. The plot does a decent job of connecting the dots and stays snappy. While the map selection isn't amazing, there's enough high points (Duessel's recruitment, the desert, the gorgon eggs, the endgame) to not get too boring, with it frequently taking maps that look like they'd be slogs and livening them up enough to be fun and satisfying. It moves along at a brisk pace, and the route split and promotions give a lot of options for replay value or challenges. Combine that with lovely art direction and the core GBA engine being as strong as ever, and it's just very pleasant to look at and play, despite a rather grim story.
Sacred Stones is a game that gets used a lot for mods, and it's easy to see why, as there's a lot on display. The class selection is wider, there's neato tricks like summoning and monster-slaying, and monsters liven up the enemy lineup a fair bit. The dual protagonist angle carries into this feeling of greater variation. But at the same time, I also feel it doesn't quite live up to its promise, since it never really pushes the potential of its diversity. Despite tinkering with the formula, it still feels too close to its predecessors, in both story and gameplay. Of course, the core GBA loop and its solid writing mean that it rarely ever becomes bad, but that also means it doesn't ever really get past "pretty good." There's a lot of tools in here for a truly fascinating game, and you frequently do see sparks of it, but I wish it were a bit more.
VideoGame This Game Rocks
...sorry.
Sacred Stones is the eighth game in the Fire Emblem series, the third released for the GBA, and the second released in America. In this game, war has suddenly enveloped the continent of Magvel, and the royal twins of Renais must raise an army to defeat the Grado Empire and the ancient evil behind its invasion. Although not an original plot, the story's strength is in not shying away from the enemy's humanity. Recruiting enemy units to the player's army is standard for Fire Emblem, but even many NPC Grado characters are good and sympathetic people, and their deaths at the heroes' hands are treated as tragedies. That said, Eirika's dissertations on the awfulness of war can border on insulting the player's intelligence.
Once again, the Support System is one of the best features of the game, allowing every player units from the normal campaign to grow into fleshed-out, likable, and memorable characters through their developing relationships and subplots, and the character designs are well varied and appealing. The addition of allowing units to choose between two different classes when promoted also adds a greatly appreciated layer of customization to otherwise linear character growth.
The best addition to Sacred Stones is the Creature Campaign: a post-game feature where the player may continue to play with their victorious army against random battles on the map, or in two guantlet-style dungeons, the latter of which unlocks playable versions of various NPCs from the normal campaign. It's hard to convey just how welcome the ability to continue playing with the same army the player has grown, guided, and developed over the course of the normal game past The End is to someone who hasn't experienced having to abandon that army in other entries in the series first-hand.
Other improvements from previous games include the supply convoy being linked through the main lord instead of a vulnerable non-combat unit, the ability to revisit equipment and item stores from previous chapters, the ability to buy basic weapons on the pre-battle screen, and increased ease of raising Support Levels thanks to random encounters and the Tower of Valni. On the other hand, these features also take away some of the challenge of previous games, so Your Mileage May Vary.
Sacred Stones is a worthy addition to the series, and highly recommended.
VideoGame Not the best or worst Fire Emblem
I've noticed that while Sacred Stones has its share of fans and detractors, not all that many people consider it the best or worst Fire Emblem game, myself included.
The plot is relatively standard Fire Emblem fare, since it involves Eirika and Ephraim, the princess and prince of Renais, fighting to reclaim their homeland from The Empire of Grado, as well as preventing Grado from destroying the Sacred Stones sealing a demon king away.
The story branches midway through, and you can choose to spend the middle third playing as Eirika or Ephraim, with the other twin's adventures happening offscreen, before they reunite for the last act. Since both routes' last acts are mostly the same, perhaps the game would have been better off doing the separate parties mechanic from Fire Emblem Gaiden.
Now for the characters. Eirika is definitely a "love her or hate her" kind of Lord since, not unlike Celica, she makes several foolish decisions, and while some are understandable given her personality, others are not. Ephraim is somewhat less controversial, but he doesn't seem all that interesting in my opinion, at least compared to a character like Dimitri, who deconstructs some of the tropes Ephraim plays straight. Lyon is one of the most complex, tragic and well-written characters in Fire Emblem, although I personally prefer his portrayal on Ephraim's route, which goes into more detail about his backstory and gives him more agency.
The supports are reasonably well-written and interesting, but there are a few problems. First, the conversations have to be done in battle, and you don't know whether two characters can support unless you open the action menu while they're next to each other. Second, the five-support limit mans it will take several playthroughs to see all the supports. Third, supports take forever to level up. As such, you're better off watching them on YouTube.
Now for the gameplay. The game has a reputation for being easy given that you can level grind if you're stuck(which I don't consider a bad thing). However, not only do several maps have Fog of War or other frustrating features, but the game lacks some features that make newer Fire Emblem games less frustrating, such as the ability to turn off permadeath or to see all enemy units' ranges at once.
The character progression is standard Fire Emblem fare, with a level cap of 20 and units being able to promote into more advanced classes at Level 10. Unfortunately, there isn't much to distinguish units apart from their starting classes and growth rates, due to the absence of class or personal skills, limiting character customization and making it harder to choose between similar characters.
All in all, Sacred Stones is a good game in its own right, but newer Fire Emblem games may prefer the more recent games due to their quality of life improvements, while older fans may prefer some of the more Nintendo Hard entries.