System: Gameboy Advance
Genre: Strategy RPG
A totally unexpected Christmas present from Anto became a totally unexpected hit as I quickly fell in love with Fire Emblem's blend of precision strategy and character recruitment. The attachment to each individual unit and my total willingness to replay a 2 hour level because someone died towards the end is the key to what makes Fire Emblem my favourite strategy series. The first GBA game is the clear winner for me, not only because it was my first one but also because it had a great tutorial in Lyn's chapters and Lyn, Eliwood and Hector are my favourite group of Lords. More impressive is the sheer number of support conversations between the characters that do a really good job of fleshing them out and making you care about them all the more. It also makes allowing them to be brutally slaughtered during the final battle all the more fun, mwahaha!
