Phantasy Star: Fringes of Algo

by **Thoul** » Wed Apr 11, '07, 2:41 pm

Is anyone familiar with this series of strategy games from Nintendo? I understand there are several titles in the series, but only about three have been released outside Japan. I received Path of Radiance for Christmas, so I've been playing it a little.

When I started playing it, I was struck by how similar the game is to Shining Force. The battles feel a lot like those games.

I miss being able to revive characters that fall in battle. Unlike SF, in these games when a character dies they are gone for good. I usually reset when that happens, which means I played a lot of battles over and over.

by **Zafneir** » Wed Apr 11, '07, 2:50 pm

Fire Emblem's also another favorite series of mine. (Man, I have quite a few of those, don't I? :lol:

) Personally, I enjoyed that not only were characters unrevivable, but also that the game kept track of how many times they died in a gameplay. Made it more demanding strategically, which is something that I highly enjoy. I love these games for making me have to actively think of what I'm doing and how I'll be executing my moves in relation to how the enemy will be trying to attack me, while keeping a zero death count.

by **Thoul** » Wed Apr 11, '07, 4:25 pm

Yep, it definitely does make you think about strategy more. At first I thought it would be kind of like some parts of other strategy games - plow through the enemies that aren't much of a threat and heal every now and then. The game relieved me of that notion very quickly. :wink:

I've gotten better at the battles and anticipating how much damage my characters can take and when to pull back and heal. I still get a few killed now and then, though. :lol:

by **Zafneir** » Fri Apr 13, '07, 5:00 am

Yeah, unfortunately, the enemy will still get a few lucky kills in. It's the worst when you try to power level in the arenas. You spend an hour trying to pump up your best team, and then WHAM, some idiot gets a lucky crit that kills you outright. Ah, good times.

by **Thoul** » Wed Nov 14, '07, 11:55 pm

So, the other week I noticed a new Fire Emblem for Wii in a salespaper for some store. Anyone planning on getting that one? I can honestly say this is the first Wii game I've heard of that really makes me want to get the system.

by **LordShibas** » Mon Dec 24, '07, 3:26 pm

I just ordered the original Fire Emblem from Ebay complete for $50. I picked up the Sacred Stones for $9.99 as well. I've never played a Fire Emblem game, but I've heard from many people that the original GBA games were the best. Can anyone verify that? What makes the newer games different? How similar is Fire Emblem to Dragon Force?

by **Thoul** » Tue Dec 25, '07, 12:57 am

Alas I can't really say; so far I've still only played the GameCube installment. I never played Dragon Force, either.

by **Atolm** » Wed Dec 26, '07, 11:26 pm

The boyfriend is a huge fan of the games, we even have the ones from Japan that cost an arm and a leg on ebay. I have not played them myself though.

by **LordShibas** » Fri Jan 11, '08, 3:34 pm

Well I finally got fed up with Fire Emblem, and I no longer feel like playing it. I was very disappointed.

Full review: http://www.gamefaqs.com/portable/gbadva ... 21584.html

In case anyone is bored and wants to read it.

by **Thoul** » Sun Jan 13, '08, 11:10 pm

That's a good review. You listed a lot of the positives and negatives quite well.

Since the review says you found a copy of Sacred Stones, you might want to give that a try sometime. It has a few improvements on the negatives you mentioned. Items can be bought between battles and there are opportunities to train between story battles. The training doesn't really come into play until about halfway through the game, but eventually it does give you the option to replay certain maps, usually with different enemies on them.

Aside from that, I'd say your review applies pretty well to Sacred Stones, and also to the GameCube game, which was more of the same (except it had 3D graphics in battles).

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