Fire Emblem: Binding Blade

                      

                           Nickname: Boring Kids / Not-As-Good-As-Their-Parents-Emblem (if you have an idea for a better nickname I’d love to hear it)

                      Binding Blade is one of those games where people usually seem to like it but it’s usually not somebody’s favorite. I’m generally of that same mindset, although I don’t like it AS much as other people do. I still can’t deny that I had fun beating this game multiple times so clearly it did something very well. Let’s take a look at that something shall we?

                         Plot & Characters: Okay…not the the best categories for this game. The plot, I’ll admit is rather bland and forgettable.

                        Quick Plot Summary: “Bern has declared war on Elibe. Prior to the start of the game they have already conquered Ilia and Sacae. Our main hero, Roy, has to lead the fight against Bern after the former leader of Lycia, Hector, dies. From here Roy and company gallivant across the continent wrecking Bern scrubs as they go until they eventually kill King Zephiel and the incredibly underwhelming Idoun.”

                         Yeah even RPGamer wasn’t thrilled with this story either: “most of the plot is a fairly standard slew of locations with bad guys who must be shown the sharp end of a blade before they get the point.” (Source: https://www.rpgamer.com/games/fe/fe6/reviews/fe6strev1.html)

                         There really isn’t much to say about this game’s plot other than the fact that it’s bland and forgettable. Unfortunately it’s cast isn’t all that great either. Despite being the first game to have actual support conversations most of these characters have shallow personalities. The support conversations were written poorly and the only reason why we tend to remember these characters is because of either their connection to the characters in Blazing Sword or because of their battlefield performance, not because of their backstories, motivations or personalities. This cast is pretty underwhelming.

                     Soundtrack:  In my opinion this game’s soundtrack is the worst of the three GBA games and doesn’t hold up very well in comparison to the other games in the series.

                   Gameplay: The reason why people like this game is because of how good it’s gameplay is. To be fair, Binding Blade does a lot of things well which earns it its positive reputation.

                   For starters the map design of this game is pretty good. In fact, I’d say it’s arguably in the “Top 5 Best Map Designs in the Entire Series”. The first map doesn’t treat the player like an idiot, which I always appreciate, and most levels make a fine use of terrain and chokepoints to make the game fun.I also agree with RJWalker’s opinion of this game’s map design:

                       “I've come to appreciate the excellent map design that rewards quick thinking and decisive actions rather than turtling in your spawn point. Turtling is a worse idea than charging forward in almost every map, even putting aside the turn limits required to get the bonus chapters. The maps are designed so that if you move forward at a brisk pace, you'll have a much easier time. If you charge without thinking, you'll get destroyed but if you play too cautiously, you'll find yourself faced with too many enemy units for you to handle. This is especially prominent in the early to mid game. I'd say it has much better map design than even FE7 and FE8, the latter of which is one my favourites in the series.” (Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/fireemblem/comments/2ecc0n/what_are_your_opinions_on_binding_blade/) 

                   This game also got difficulty done right. It can be a challenge that actually requires the player to think while still being fair. The secret shop towards the end of the game is also extremely fun to abuse too. Buying crap tons of boots and other stat-boosters makes the endgame a total joke and I love it.

                    That being said I would be remiss if I didn’t talk about some of the game’s flaws. This game has ambush spawns and those are pretty lame and take away from the strategy of the game. This game suffers from having a huge cast, meaning that there will be a lot of meh to crappy units that aren’t worth putting any effort into at all. The hit rates for certain weapons in this game aren’t very good which makes getting RNG screwed more feasible here than in other games. I personally haven’t gotten RNG screwed that much in this game (that’s what Gaiden, Thracia 776 and all 3 Fates games are for) so I can’t complain much about this game, but the fact that lots of other people do whenever this game is mentioned tells me that something seriously wrong happened.                             Still, I think the map design and the difficulty outweigh the negatives of this game’s overall design.

                            Overall Thoughts: Despite the fact that my opinion of this game has changed for the better I still stand behind an initial statement that I made when I reviewed this game 2 years ago: “I still think this game represents a step backward from Thracia 776 (the game that came before this one)”. Binding Blade may be a little too simplistic for my tastes but it does enough right for me to ignore its flaws. The wonderful map design and difficulty are enough for me to like this game as much as I do. However, there are six other games in this series that I like far more than this one.