Why Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones is ACTUALLY the Best Fire Emblem - BeyondPolygons 

What's so weird to me is that *no one* can agree on what the best FE game is. It just goes to show that we all play this series for different reasons and that all the games have their own strengths and weaknesses!

Eirika's route fleshes out Cormag and Joshua, while Ephraim's route fleshes out Lyon. I wouldn't suggest playing FE5 blind...but you can if you want to... Just remember that the game never gives you money. EVER. The only way to get money is to sell stuff. I call it Poverty Emblem.

1. Summoner is a fine choice for Ewan. 2. I disagree on the story. There are great moments for some characters, (Joshua, Cormag, Myrrh) the villains are compelling (Valter, Caellach, Selena) and Lyon's corruption is tragic.

No mention of Joshua FeelsUnluckyMan

Also the art is absolutely fantastic! Every character looks super cool and the UI is classy

>Lyon is a cliche character *heavy breathing*

Let's be honest: L'Arachel should've been the main lord, anyway.

My favorite Fire Emblem. God, I mean, it has its faults, but it was my first... Well, the first one I finished, becuase I played FE6 first, but I found the characters in 8 more likeable, visually and as their characterization. I really have a strong bias for this one. Eirika is just a piece of wholesome, despite being a little too naive and dumb, but hey, she didn't invade Hoshido to save Hoshido, and her smile is worth protecting. Ephraim is badass [Ephraim for Smash, indeed], and, well, Lyon as a villain makes sense, once you get to analyze him. And it has Forde. He may be crappy, stat-wise, but he is a fun fella. And god. The music. If they ever remake Sacred Stones with the level of mastery of Echoes compositions, it'll be the day when my ears will hear heaven.

“Don’t make ewan a summoner” WHAT

"Don't turn Ewan into a summoner"Excuse me w h a t

Yes! Someone who agrees with me that Ephraim should be in Smash!

For as cliched as a villain Lyon may sound on paper, I think he’s arguably one of the best written Fire Emblem villains that’s out there. I much prefer his character arc in Ephraim’s route since it plays on his personality a lot better than Eirika’s. He is every bit one of those stereotypical tragic villains but he’s done so well that that fact can be put aside. The setup from the flashbacks, learning about his past and grasping his character is what makes his final battle all the more painful I feel. Especially since it plays on his low self confidence and insecurities. A prince driven to madness by his own self deprecation. Formotiis acts as a catalyst for his decisions and thought process, amplifying it like a parasite. What was once admiration for Ephraim turns to jealousy, and Lyon is able to use what merits HE has to rile up Ephraim. I really just love how his character plays out, his fall from grace if you will. Whilst people may not like the Sacred Stones story, I think a lot of us agree that Lyon is a well written and thought out character. Also his final battle music is amazing.

Sacred Stones did too many things right and became too easy.

I still really like Sacred Stones' story better than other games though I don't like how the game makes Ephraim top dog throughout most of the story. At least the other lords were more engaging seeing them develop but with him he's basically the same as he started except now he's going to be king.

Path of Rad and Radiant dawn are my favs but SS is definitely a close second.

Y'know what's weird? The branching classes and trainees are my favorite parts of SS, but I've only ever used Ross as a berzerker cause he's so OP as one

#EphraimForSmash

sacred stones WAS my fav, until i got echoes, and lost my copy of awakening, so i played echoes front to back 8 times, and hey its my favorite now for the same reasons sacred stones was my fav before

Recruits=pre promotes *claps*

A video about Thracia 776 would be good

These videos make me wanna play all of them. It would be great to see Sacred Stones get a badass rework like Echoes.

>fe8 has a forgettable story *growns of increasing discomfort*

Actually if I'm not wrong Ghast's favorite FE unit is Duessel from this game lmao He really needs to do a support science on him

I'm pretty sure Ghast also covered two other Sacred Stones character, Forde (One of Ephraim's knights) and Lyon (the main villain), in Support Science. I do still agree with your point about the game being piss easy though, being able to grind messes up the progression but it's far too tempting not to. Also Seth breaks everything at base level.

If the Sacred Stones ever get a remake I'll name my first daughter Eirika

"Plucky prepromote units"

SS was my first FE and I've played every game since. I still remember those days, staying up way past my bed time playing it. My playthrough was essentially Colm dodge tanking and criting or procing silencer on everything. I have loved thief/rouge characters since Locke in FF6 so when I met Colm I knew what I had to do... So I gave him literally every stat booster and more kills than anyone else and he ended up hard carrying me the entire game. I'm probably remembering this wrong but I think I remember my Assassin Colm procing a Silencer on the final boss. Part of me is saying "No that didn't happen because the final boss should be immune to the instant death skill" but the other part remembers the start up animation for Silencer, the purple flashes, and me literally jumping with joy because I beat the game.

Nintendo switch remake of sacred stones or something similar would be so amazing. Ephraim for smash would be also be amazing. I feel like sacred stones was an excellent step for the series and offered some great gameplay and even chapters and could use a revamp of story of the game on the same continent ! Ephraim could really be a big franchise character given his unique use of lance and potential adaptation of him into Smash and further developing his and Erika’s story in a switch remake 👏

I genuinely enjoy Sacred Stones, I really do. It's probably still my favorite in the series. But I don't think I could ever say that it's the best in the series. I think Sacred Stones is best explained as marred by choices. It tried to do so much, and in the end, a lot of it ends up clashing. The best example being the world map, and the ability to grind freely. On the one hand, it does allow you to completely hand tailor your team to do whatever you feel like. But it also completely, and I do mean completely, removes any sort of difficulty from the game. It makes you choose between allowing yourself complete freedom of choice of units, and the integrity of the game itself. I'm not saying Sacred Stones is hard, it's actually extremely easy even on the highest difficulty. But the option to grind, while it allows you to use whoever you want, it makes the game feel stale, when you would think the customization would do the opposite. The story is honestly just bland. Nothing that happens in the game has any real weight to it. The twins struggle with fighting against their friend Lyon feels completely artificial, mostly because we don't actually see Lyon properly interacting with the twins, we don't get to really feel how strong this bond of theirs actually was. Lyon envied Ephraim and fell in love with Eirika, and we never really get to understand why outside of Ephraim being strong and Eirika being beautiful. The major plot of the story revolves around these three characters, and they feel lost in the war. There is one really important piece of information that is dropped during the story, and it _only_ comes to light if you play Ephraim's route, which is how Lyon came to be possessed by the Demon King. The route split itself also hurt the story by splitting up information like this. The last thing being Lyon himself; the route split essentially makes you choose between Lyon and the Demon King. As pointed out before, we don't really know Lyon outside of the _very_ little we know of his friendship with the twins. You can almost argue that we know more about the Demon King, the greatest evil to ever walk Magvel, who the five heroes with the Sacred Stones, could only seal away at the cost of many, many lives. But because Lyon is essentially at this point, two different characters, we never get to Lyon. You can even argue that the bit of Lyon that we get in Eirika's route is the Demon King just messing with Eirika the entire time. But I feel like even that loses it weight because we never got to the real Lyon. Him as the vessel for the Demon King feels incredibly hallow. And that's what I get from Sacred Stones for the most part, hallowness. There are characters I love in this game, music I love, mechanics that I love in this game, but I feel like there are so many issues that hold this game back from being the really great FE that a lot of people agree that it is. I genuinely love this game, but there are enough flaws that I don't think it could ever be the best in the series.

path of radiance next! that one's my favorite!

Summoner is one of the best classes in the game. Free exp every turn, free meat shield that enemies target with priority. Don't know why some people think it's bad.

There is another big reason why Sacred Stones is the best Fire Emblem game. It has the best waifu, Eirika, and the best villain, Lyon, in the game.

Subscribing and notifications on, I really love your way of presenting these videos, I can't wait to see your rising even more, I am sure you'll be skyrocketing in no time with subs and other great content!

This was my first fire emblem game and tbh I love it ! Of course nostalgia is playing a part on that but like I said this introduced me to this awesome series So yeah I would love a second game in Magvel And Ephraim for Smash!!

I love Sacred Stones, it's one of my favorite games in the series.

One thing lost in the fog of unspecific world building, is it's strongly implied that the reason most nations did not live in fear of the Grado Empire is in the name itself. Grado was founded by the hero Grado, and the other nations by his henchmen... Renais, Frelia, Rausten, Jehhana, these nations were all vassals of Grado to start with. Grado's invasions of the other nations were not driven by standard desires for conquest, but by a combination of darker factors. The realpolitik of the other nations not actually being under Grado's control corresponding to a cultural distance growing between the nations, gives the Gradoi* a rather nasty chip on their shoulders which sees most of them way too eager to exterminate the Renaites* once the order is given. Then the desire to undo the power of the sacred stones necessitates invading the other nations to get to their stones. *Yeah! I made up demonyms for the nations of Magvel(Willing to bet a C-note that when an official pronunciation comes out it'll be "Mag-well") because, aside from Frelia with the Frelians, they literally never Gave us any. So I just found myself saying Gradoi for people from Grado. Renaites for Renais, Jehennites or Jehennese for Jehenna, Raustenese for Rausten, Carcinoi for Carcino.

Hey man. I know you're not doing youtube right now but I rewatched this tonight. You are knowledge and have hilarious delivery. If you ever come back, I'm here for it 100%. Hope you are doing better.

I'm surprised you're not a fan of FE 6. If you ever deign to give it a try again, I'd suggest playing it while keeping the map design in mind. It has some of the best maps in the series with multiple objectives per map and incentives for efficient play. In this way, I'd say it's pretty much the perfect opposite of 8 or Echoes. It's got some of the most thought put into how the player will/should play the game, but unfortunately suffers from some quality of life, playtest, and minor balance issues. Of course, take this with a grain of salt, as this is all coming from someone who loves old Fire Emblem and loathes, as you put it, the newer RPG mechanics. The way I see it, I have countless games where I can grind and teambuild, but only classic Fire Emblem manages to pull off tactical gameplay and resource management in such a perfect convergence. Anyways, thanks for the video. I think you're criminally under-watched and have especially been enjoying your FE content.

My first fire emblem ever. Remember replaying this trying to do perfect runs even if it takes me fuckton of tries

My favorite fe game, although also my first so might be biased. Although no denying joshua best swordmaster ever

How am I only finding out about this channel now? Amazing video, immediate subscribe and I'm gonna start binging the channel's videos.

Special place in my heart for sure. Sacred Stones was my introduction to the series when I was in Junior High. I'll go back and play that game forever ❤

I came here with ideas on points to give as to why I put SS in my least favorites but ended up hearing them from the video (the story, characters and the grinding that returned on future games). I may excuse the not-so-outstanding presentation of the Tellious games but for me got the problems on this one right, the Bexp is the best for getting some levels but is a reward for performance or choices made in the battle. All the options for future videos sounds good, might prefer hearing about your opinion on 6, since I like it the most out of the GBA games. The side objectives and maps are funnier but it isn't the most replayable because of too many characters not being viable to use. Also, the story is quite good, but Roy is not that fleshed out. Thinking of some characters as the child of many in the previous game is interesting too, as Raigh and Lugh (Jaffar&Nino) and the shy and polite personality in Lilina from her mother Florina (death to the LynxHector shippers)

You're really entertaining and accurate at the same time. Subscribed! :)

Sacred stones was my fave when I was a kid. Part of me forgets the ending, the characters were great in my opinion, and the animations for crits were fantastic, but HOLY SHT! Im just now putting two and two 2gether to realize...Ephraim WAS the only lord with a spear...and they should've put him on smash.

Just discovered your channel and I appreciate the FE retrospects. Also, Comrades is an amazing track!

After being completely blown away by awakening, (first FE game to be fair) Fates taught me to never get too hype for a game on the off chance it might not be worth all the hype. It was a very painful lesson...

I can't say that the Characters don't have "Character". Gilliam is an example, and I personally think that he his one of, if not, the best character for a knight in the series.

Fácilmente he terminado más de 5 o más veces este juego y simplemente puedo decir que es perfecto, hay que decir que si tiene una historia muy cliché como cualquier libro de literatura de aventura, pero por dios, los personajes, la música, los villanos y los escenarios son oro puro, y volver a jugarlo con otras unidades completamente diferentes a otras partidas le daba rejugabilidad inmensa incluyendo asi la división de historia que sucede entre Eirika y Ephraim, simplemente en la nostalgia y si pueden decir que es fácil, pero recuerdo haber llegado al bosque donde luchas contra el padre de Myrrh con solo 8 unidades ajajajjaajaj para mí era lo más épico recuerdo sacrificar a Saleh para vencer al padre, y de pequeño me quedo la espina de que nunca lo pude pasar, y lo recuerdo con mucho cariño la verdad! Videojuego de mi infancia! 😫

1:31 Here's a moveset idea for Ephraim: Stats: Ephraim will be a medium-weight character along the lines of Roy and Chrom. His walk speed will be similar to Ike, but his dash speed will be exactly the same as Marth. His air speed will be similar to Sonic. He will be a spacer similar to Marth, with good combo potential. However, some of his moves will have quite a bit of endlag. Now onto his moveset: Jab: Ephraim will first strike his opponent with the blunt end of Reginleif, followed by a slash from its pointed end, and then start a rapid jab with his lance. Forward Tilt: Ephraim will swing his lance like a Naginata, having quite a bit of reach, but also having endlag. Up Tilt: Ephraim will swing Reginleif upward, which will have a pop-up effect, setting Ephraim up for follow-ups. Can kill at high percents. Down Tilt: Ephraim will thrust his lance downward, similar to Marth's down tilt, but with more reach. Dash Attack: Ephraim will lunge forward with his lance reaching forward, having heavy knockback and kill power. Forward Smash: Ephraim will Thrust his lance forward, dealing heavy damage and knockback. Up Smash: He will twirl his lance above his head like a helicopter, having a multi hit effect. Down Smash: He will first thrust his lance forward at a low angle, then swing it backwards at a low angle. Neutral Air: It will be similar to Palutena's Neutral Air, but without the magic effect. Forward Air: Forward lance thrust Back Air: Backward Lance Swing (can spike Up Air: Upward Lance Thrust Down Air: Downward Lance Swing (similar to Ike's Down Air, and can spike) Neutral Special: Ephraim throws a Javelin. Holding down the B button will charge up the Javelin, allowing it to go further. Side Special: Similar to Ike's Side Special, but with a lance thrust. Up Special: Ephraim twirls his lance like a helicopter, propelling him upwards, puuting him in freefall at the apex of the move. While the lance is twirling, any fighters caught will be locked in a multihit effect. Down Special: Counter Final Smash: Ephraim will dash forward with his lance, and any one fighter caught will be the one afected. The move cuts to a cinematic where Ephraim's horse runs over the opponent, then Ephraim mounts the horse and deals a devastating blow with the Sacred Twin Lance, Seigmund. The cinematic ends and the opponent is launched offstage.

Sacred stones was my first, so it will always have a place in my heart near the top of the list. I still need to get around to playing the others, but emulations are pretty tricky to deal with, and I can't even entertain the idea of buying them.

I haven’t played a ton of Fire Emblem games, but I have played the Sacred Stones and Awakening. The Sacred Stones was amazing! Granted I was like 10 when I bought it, but I sunk hundreds of hours into the tower and ruins. The post game is awesome. I spent many hours unlocking the leaders, and Lyon btw does not disappoint. Seeing this review makes me wish I still had my GBA. :(

This was my first fire emblem game and my first game boy advanced game. This is one of the few games I beat when I was really young. So this game has a special place in my heart

You're forgetting the fact that Lyon was only pretending to be controlled by the demon. That's the big twist. He was in control the whole time.

I saw a video about most powerful rpg characters and they had Seth on there. After seeing that I downloaded this game on my phone emulator. I enjoy everything except the permanent death. The fact that just by seer luck you can lose any unit sucks. Other than that I'm enjoying the game.

Theres at least a second Sacred stones video about Forde by Ghast. Also, Do Awakening or PoR next.

So Sacred Stones was my intro to the franchise, after being introduced to FE characters through Melee. This game will always have a place in my heart, and was actually my fav until awakening, because I like variety, and having options. This was the only game until awakening that let you choose class changes, like you said, and I love that.

Cuz of my childhood and the cool characters the monsters and stuff, i love dat game the most

Path of Radiance please. It's my favorite FE game

what are the extra classes for the recruits? I can't find anything on google or youtube about it.

i like that you can freely move on world map and it was first game i think to get this anyone know which parts also have this feature? awakening i think also

Think they could do a remake of this one? I think they could do what they did with Echos; flesh out the story a bit more, add voice acting & more depth to characters, hell, I'd say expand the story a bit too. I personally think they could cut back with the monsters that show up between chapters, because after you beat one a few times another one appears. I say have a set number, like 1-2 skirmishes, between each chapter. That would balance out the grind with the story a bit better (I remember getting like 3-4 a few times and they just kept popping up). However I do like this game in general, it was my introduction to the series, so I got a soft spot for it

Shadow Dragon is a solid game. Strange for you that it seems you don't really care about it when you proclaimed that you're a fan of the "less is more" style. It absolutely rocks that simplistic style and owns it.

I love this game through and through. Replaying for the some dozenth time just for inspiration for DM material as I just started running dnd.

I just can't stand the idea of grinding in a fire emblem game. The way you decide who gets what kills and how rewarding it is to actually train a weak unit when doing so is difficult is just infinitely more rewarding in my opinion.

Radiant Dawn is still my favorite.

A recommendable game. Thank you for your persuasive piece.

This video has got me wanting to replay the series. Haven't touched the GBA games since I was a kid and, I'd like to assume, I'd get even more out of it now that I'm older.

*When people talk about the Gerik support science that Ghast made but no one notices he's done Forde before* Cries in Cavaliers.

13:23 have you ever tried playing Garcia?

shadow dragon was the first one i played and it got me hooked so it will always be special to me in that regard

I would be that strange person who likes shadow dragon the most out of the series despite having a fe8 character. Good vid keep doing your thing

My favorite GBA Fire Emblem is The Binding Blade.

Sacred stones was my first game and I love it. I love the recruit units and the music. I love the art. Ephraim is one of my favorite characters. Also cormag looks cool

19:00 I have a soft spot for Fates, the story IS bad but it has so much potential, in both story and characters, and I love it for that much at least.

Awakening is my favorite because it was my first but I loved playing through Sacred Stones. I don't grind because I don't have enough gold to but more weapons.

Finally, a man of taste.

You're the first game content creator I've seen other than myself who uses an SM58 mic. I stream games with one. Very good taste, I must say. Don't know about you, but the reason I use an SM58 and not a more typical condenser mic is that I started out as a music recording hobbyist and then transitioned into streaming. I originally got the SM58 because it was good for loud rock or metal vocals, but I found it was plenty sufficient for recording high quality commentary as well. What a classic, cool microphone. Only cool people like us use it.

Path of radiance and radiant dawn are my favorite, I really want a radiant collection on switch

Great video, love the analysis! But I have to respectfully disagree with you on Ephraim and Eirika being bland lords. Ephraim, in my opinion, is one of the best lords and one of my favorites in the series along with Ike and Roy. I think he is beautifully fleshed out in the flash back scenes with Lyon where we see, as we do in the present, that he is quite hard-headed and not well-read. We see him being brash a lot in the story, too, when he goes to Renvall and is a complete badass there. We also are treated to the fact that he didn't seem to get along with King Fado and didn't seem to want to be king near the beginning of the story--he even says in one of the flashbacks that Eirika would be a much better leader. In contrast, as the game goes on and he gains control of the army and his dad dies, we see him become more and more responsible and more of a leader. Eirika is really great, too. We see her go from needing to be defended all the time to actively stepping up both in flashbacks with Lyon and in the present to learn swordplay (something she isn't fond of) to become a better fighter and not a nuisance. And Lyon is sincerely one of my favorite villains in the series and maybe one of them in general. I think the heart of the story is really the friendship between Eirika, Ephraim, and Lyon, and it really is a touching, well-written story. It hits me hard both as an adult and when I was a kiddo. As a side note, Ephraim and Eirika also have some of my favorite supports! I loved seeing how awkward he was around Tana in their support and how snide Eirika could be in her support with Innes! I rambled a bit here, and it's probably obvious, but I adore this game through and through and it will always be a favorite. ^u^

Sacred stones was the game that made me fall i love with the series and is still my favorite to this day even if I admit it isn't the best storywise. Also please do a Cipher video I love that game but it's hard to get my card game buddies to give it a try.

I loved Lute so much when I got Awakening I modeled my Robin after her. Full mage named Lute with purple hair.

14:40 the point, other than completionism, is that a long time ago there was the possibility to challenge your friends on near GBAs to battles with your units. So unlocking the whole roster was a matter of having the most diverse and powerful set of units available.

FE7 and SS are amazing, loved them both on Wii U.

I have played two fe games so far. I am not sure what its called but its the one with the leader wearing a chinese blue dress thing. That was fun but it doesnt hold a candle to five stones. Once i got a phone emulator i just dived into it in all my spare time. I do a ton of grinding and just wipe an army with a couple chars. Ive leveled all the mages. Cavaliers and archers all that to 20 and then promoted. Ur right in saying it lowers difficulty a great deal but then there are map objectives like recruiting and getting all the treasures. So i focus on tearing up the enemy tissue paper and getting everything i can. Only at chapter 18 or 19 i think and about to get amelia to lvl 20 and make her a paladin to go with frans. This is my third playthrough

Since it's the only mainstream fire emblem I've played yes it's my favourite also I grind in pokemon soo yeah I really love this game

I love all of the gba fire emblem games. But for some reason 6 and 8 have more chapters that I find tedious. Whereas 7 might have one or two of those, 8 has about five or six. And 6 has about ten. Either way , they are all extremely fun and have amazing replayability. I have been playing these same gba games since 7 came out, and I'm still playing all three. Love this video man keep up the great work

The mods using FE8's engine are amazing too

"Frankly, it's forgettable" uhhhh what? Sacred stones has one of the best stories in the series, the emotion, villains, and stakes are all great

Has anyone here shown this to Ghast yet? Because I love Ghast's videos. I wonder if he saw this, maybe he would do more support science for Sacred Stones

16:28 Funny thing is, I feel the same about the Fe7 cast XD

Ghastation actually did a support science on another Sacred Stones character: Forde. Granted, you'd probably forget Forde existed if not for his character, since his stats are… pretty bad

I see mentioning the best fe RU-vid in existence ghast I love ghast so much oh my lord

i do wish they go back to SS but set in like a 200 years or something like that

I My first fire emblem I played was Sacred Stones I liked it so much, it has a lot of negative points, but the story I love, I love the characters I wanted a remake of it so bad

Dude I agree. I've been saying that Ephraim should be in smash. Now that echo fighters are a thing toy can add both Eirika AND Ephraim.

Sacred Stones has a lot that is lackluster but I will always defend it for its characters. In particular is the story arcs for Joshua and Cormag. Even with little in the way of in story attention they have amazing arcs.

My Moulder came out as a tank with 15+ defense. Colm became Tanky too... Favorite thing is making Tana a wyvern Knight to take advantage of pegasus knight's natural resistance.

Who's your favorite character in the whole franchise? Mine is Titania and Lute.

Ephriam for smash... been saying it for years. THANK YOU