Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones (Japanese: ファイアーエムブレム 聖魔の光石, lit. Fire Emblem: Shining Stones of Holiness and Evil) is a 2004 Game Boy Advance game. It is the eighth installment in the Fire Emblem series, the second installment to be released internationally, and the third and final installment released for the Game Boy Advance. The game is the only completely isolated title in the series, set in a completely separate world from all the others: Magvel. It stars Eirika and Ephraim, twin heirs to the kingdom of Renais, as they combat the sudden aggression of their southern neighbour Grado and investigate the dark forces that have caused their former ally to so swiftly turn on them and the rest of the continent.
In 2011, The Sacred Stones was given a free limited reissue to early adopters of the Nintendo 3DS, under the Nintendo 3DS Ambassador Program. As with the other Game Boy Advance titles reissued under the program, Nintendo has stated that there are currently no plans to give them a wider release as a full Virtual Console set of titles. The game was, however, released for the Wii U Virtual Console, in Japan in 2014, and internationally in 2015.
Gameplay
A turn-based strategy game as with the rest of the series, The Sacred Stones is built on the same engine as Blazing Sword and The Binding Blade, but features a number of unique features which have only been seen before in Fire Emblem Gaiden and since in Fire Emblem Awakening.
Branched class change
In this game, all units except for the lords have two choices for changing their class. For example, a myrmidon can change class to either an assassin or a swordmaster. In addition to these branched promotions, there are also "trainee" classes, which start out with low stats and are in a stage even lower than normal units. However, they gain experience quickly and after reaching level ten, they can become normal units at the beginning of the next chapter. For example, Ewan starts out as a pupil, but after reaching level 10 he can become a mage or a shaman.
Monsters
Since the Sacred Stones are being destroyed, monsters have appeared in Magvel. There are many types of monsters, and they usually have inferior stats. All are only enemies. There are promoted forms of other monster classes, although no monster class changes are seen; for example, a wight is a promoted form of a bonewalker. Monsters appear in some chapters, rarely alongside human fighters. Some can use regular weapons, but others use special monster weapons. Some of these monster weapons appear as items but seem to be some innate ability of the monster, such as Rotten Claw. Others are affiliated with dark magic, such as Evil Eye or Stone.
World map
In this game, like in Fire Emblem Gaiden, the game's world map is manually traversible by the player. Sometimes monsters will appear in certain locations; traveling to these locations will result in a skirmish, a brief battle with monsters. The player can retreat at any time, ending the battle. In addition to skirmishes, the lord can go to armories and shops in towns and buy weapons and supplies. However, secret shops and arenas cannot be accessed from the world map. The next chapter's location is marked by a flag; after the chapter is cleared, another new point appears.
Infinite experience points
In this game, there are infinite chances for training units, which drastically lowers the difficulty of the game. Skirmishes always continue to appear on the map. Additionally, the Tower of Valniis a tower located near Frelia's castle which monsters have dominated. It has nine floors, but the player can retreat at any time. Similar to the Tower of Valni is the Lagdou Ruins, unlocked later in the game. It also has nine levels, but it has much stronger monsters. These methods of training never run out, so one can endlessly train units with low risk.
Creature Campaign
The Creature Campaign is a post-game mode, similar in vein to the Trial Maps of earlier and later games, in which the player can train the characters endlessly in the above methods. Special characters can be unlocked for use such as Fado, Ismaire, and Lyon. Skirmishes continue to appear, and in the Lagdou Ruins, many different rare items can be found.
Chapters
Characters
The main story mode of The Sacred Stones features 34 playable characters, with an additional 9 characters that can be obtained in the Creature Campaign.
Support Conversations
Pre-release information
Prototype builds
A prototype build of the Japanese version of The Sacred Stones was leaked to the public in 2008 and is available in patch form via Serenes Forest. The prototype is dated at five months before the Japanese retail release of the game, and compared to the leaked Blazing Sword prototypes, it is vastly incomplete and prototypical. At this stage in development, the game is largely unmodified from Blazing Sword with all of that game's graphics and music. Only the first eight chapters are even remotely started on, with only the barest infrastructure existing for the rest of the game, and only a handful of characters have portraits, some of which are vastly different from the finished release.
.jpg)
