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Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon is a remake of the original game in the series, and this means English speakers will soon or, across the Atlantic, already have gotten the chance to play through Marth's story. I am a bit disappointed Intelligent Systems did not go on and remake Fire Emblem: Monshou no Nazo because that game, while shortening the original title's story by about 20%, made up for it by adding an entirely new second story featuring Marth - perhaps that second story will later be foisted upon English speakers in a new release if Marth proves quite popular. There is one Fire Emblem title that deserves a remake more than any other to enable English-speakers to play it, and the remaking of the original game seems to indicate that Intelligent Systems is open to the possibility. The game audiences outside Japan deserve a chance to play, in a new version that updates the original and adapts its ill-advised inventory fiasco, is Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu, or Genealogy of the Holy Wars.
The fourth title in the Fire Emblem series stands apart from all the others for its many innovations, some of which have remained with the series ever since and some of which were discarded, never to be seen again. One of its biggest innovations, literally, is the size of the battle maps. Though there are only twelve in the entire game, all but the first are bigger than anything seen before or since in the series. All maps in Seisen no Keifu feature multiple parts each dominated by castles - upon seizure of a castle by the lord, a new area of the map will become accessible along with new enemy forces. These mammoth battlefields make for a different experience than other games in the series, because there is no moving about involuntarily from battle to battle - the next battle map begins where the final castle seized in the prior battle was. This sense of not taking part in a number of battles but instead being a continuous campaign is fascinating, and unique in the annals of Fire Emblem.
The amazing amalgam of classes in this game also deserve to be experienced by non-Japanese speakers. Sylvia the dancer not only refreshes all characters standing alongside her per turn instead of just one (meaning four characters can move again thanks to her), but she is armed with a sword. Her statistics are terrible for combat and letting her fight often is a terrible idea, but being armed and able to refresh four instead of one makes her vastly superior to later Dancers. Far more changes to the standard class structure exist in this game however, partly thanks to every character having both strength and magic statistics. The English games have no use for both, but their twin presence in this game allows for characters who can perform tasks impossible in the later games. Nanna the Troubadour starts by being able to use Staves, yes, but she also wields swords and had better strength and defense growth for me than her magic and resistance growth (by a fair margin). After promotion she can use lances too. Arthur the mage after promotion gains the ability to use swords, Fury and Fee the pegasus knights can already use swords along with lances before promotion, gaining the use of staves afterward. Leaf, prince of Lenstar, represents possibly the most dramatic demonstration of how broad the classes in this game stretch. Prior to promotion he is a pretty good foot soldier using swords, with good statistics. Upon promoting to a Master Knight, he gains the use of lances, axes, bows, staves, elemental and light magic. With such a vast array of choices it becomes clear why every character can carry seven items simultaneously.
Skills made a resurgence in Fire Emblem: the Sacred Stones, but their primacy in Seisen no Keifu puts them at a different level of importance. Having the Pursuit Skill should probably be excised from any remake of the game, because without this Skill characters (and enemies) are unable to attack twice in a combat round if relative speed permits. Other Skills are fascinating however, and allow for interesting scenarios. Continue, for example, allows a character to use a successive attack without the enemy getting a chance to respond. Coupled with Pursuit in this game it can allow for four attacks in one combat phase. This can be increased still further by Ayra's amazing Moonlight Sword Skill, which if it kicks in allows for five consecutive attacks before the enemy can respond. Thieves have the ability to steal money from enemies upon attacking them, a very useful Skill. Charisma works akin to the Support system in later Fire Emblem titles, with any character possessing it offering a boost to hit and evade. Elite doubles the experience a character receives, useful for quickly powering up people. Wrath is a Skill that makes characters under half HP very dangerous, with all their attacks being critical. Awareness is the counter to Wrath, as it negates all critical hits (and if on Fee the Pegasus Knight makes her no longer need to fear archers).
Fee can attain Awareness (and a variety of other Skills) thanks to the love system in Seisen no Keifu. Stick a male character with a female character long enough (akin to the Support system in the GBA titles) and in most cases the two will fall in love. In battle this can and does result in constant critical hits when lovers stand next to each other, with a big heart commemorating the event. In the game's second half, however, having characters fall in love proves to be of the utmost importance. Each woman on Sigurd's team in the first half (save for Diadora, who Sigurd falls head-over-heels for and fathers Selice with) can fall in love and have two children, one male and one female. If the woman in the first generation does not fall in love, she will not have children and replacement characters will take their place in the second half. The reason one would not want to try these replacement characters out is because of how interesting the development of Edeen's, Bridgit's, Fury's, Sylvia's, Ayra's, Lakesis's, and Tiltyu's children is dependent upon their father. The parents will pass down their Skills to the children, and their statistic growth rates are also a combination of their parents': the daughter has her mother's growth rates plus 50% of her father's, the son has his father's growth rates plus 50% of his mother's. There are some unwise pairings and some dynamite ones, but the experimentation afforded by this system is unique in the series' annals.
SPOILER: Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu's story is also interesting thanks to a defining event in the middle of the game. The story's progression is already different thanks to the castle seizure system and the mammoth battlefield size, but halfway through the game roughly 20 years pass and only one character (Finn) who fought in the first half returns to fight for the second. The reason is simple: at the end of chapter 5 Alvis springs a trap that kills off Sigurd and almost all of his army, making it impossible to play as them anymore. This is a move few RPG's would dare to perform even now, having almost the entire cast killed off, and it changes the game's tone substantially. END SPOILER.
The only feature of this game that really should be gutted is its terrible inventory system. Items cannot be traded between characters - the closest the game comes to this is passing down weapons parents had to their children. To give an item to a character not currently possessing it requires that it be sold by the character who has it, and bought by the character who needs it (with the buying price being twice the selling price, naturally). Each character has his/her own money supply, and money can only be traded between lovers or thieves, and then only the full amount possible up to 50,000 (the player cannot decide how much money is being traded). Money can be gained either from fighting in the Arena (and the Arena has exactly seven opponents in each chapter, limiting money to be obtained from this) or from saving villages if trading is impossible. There is also a finite number of weapons in the game, with the player needing to repair wear to these weapons. The stores do get new stock, but once a spear or magic tome is purchased there are no replacements. To keep weapons usable requires money, viciously circling back to the enormous pain of monetary possession. Gut this system and revamp it in the fashion of later titles (or earlier - Monshou no Nazo has an actual inventory).
The inventory system demands a redo, but there are some other less pressing issues a remake of Seisen no Keifu would be well-advised to deal with. Enemies have no endurance rating for their weapons, which is unfair - long-range magic spells in particular are aggravating when the enemy has an infinite number of shots with them, although since the player never gets any it could be that long-range magic never runs out in this game. Enemies are also able to cheat by magically equipping any available weapon as the situation warrants, instead of being stuck with either their ranged or melee weapon until the next turn. Not much is made in the plot of the second half about who the parents of characters were, or at least much more could have been done with this. The interface deserves a little modernization given that there is no way to calculate whether a double attack will result until actually testing it out - the weight of weapons cannot be observed on enemies or on player characters when on the field. It would be nice also to view critical chances prior to initiating a combat round, because as it stands there is no way of doing so. The game does not make it clear what statistic caps for classes are either, simply having a stat stop rising with level-ups even though there appears to be plenty of space left for it to grow. And in its final feature that could stand a revamp, characters can promote at any time after they hit level 20 but level 30 is the maximum: this means either a LOT of wasted experience or not much time with the promoted classes, which as mentioned above are so different and entertaining. With an updated interface and perhaps some refinements to its story (Support conversations would be very helpful here), Fire Emblem 4 deserves the chance to be experienced by non-Japanese speakers in a new version.
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