Nothing makes a gamer feel older than when a favorite game or series reaches a landmark anniversary. Try on this one for size, strategy fans: Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light, the first release in Nintendo’s beloved Fire Emblem series, is now 35 years old.
Granted, it was considerably longer before the games left their native Japan, with the first Western release being 2003’s Fire Emblem. By this time, Super Smash Bros. Melee players (just about everyone that came within a two mile radius of a GameCube) had been afforded ample time to wonder who these mysterious swordsmen, Marth and Roy, were.
If they ventured into the Fire Emblem series as a result of that curiosity, just as I did, they would learn when so many Japanese fans already knew: Permadeath is a harsh, harsh mistress in a tactical RPG.
All these years later, most of us know the drill when it comes to the ever-popular Fire Emblem series. The grid- and turn-based action, the character classes, the weapon triangle, and the general Medieval fantasy vibes have all come to broadly define the games.
So, too, has the fact that losing a favorite unit...
