13 years late to the party

[Ronnie]

Blazing Blade is surprisingly difficult and pricey to get the physical copy. Glad Sacred Stones was more on my price range.

I'm the type of gamer that likes to judge a game by its soundtrack so when I heard the recruitment theme I knew I needed this game. I'm not one to harp about other people's judgment but at least no one can get on my case for only playing the 3DS games lol. I could get Blazing Blade on Wii U along with this game for way cheap but I'm a sucker for using original hardware. Looking forward to playing this game after beating Echoes.

[Dragoncat]

Have fun! 

Don't use Orson when he appears and take all his stuff and give it to Ephriam. You'll see why.

[Interdimensional Observer]

The recruitment theme for SS is indeed rather good, I just wish it got a modern remix, since the GBA has poor sound quality. 

Another tip, like if you aren't aware already, eventually you'll have to pick between following Eirika or Ephraim. Unlike the game of its inspiration Gaiden, you don't get to play as both simultaneously, and while they reunite much sooner than Alm and Celica, you have to play the game twice to see all of the plot and gameplay- once on each route. Ephraim's path is loosely like Alm's a fight right into the heart of a powerful evil empire led by a pretty strong emperor. Eirika's journey loosely mirrors Celica's- no search for a goddess or pursuit of a way of peace, but all of the fighting is coincidental to what is supposed to a peaceful diplomacy mission by a small handful of soldiers. 

In terms of difficulty, everyone generally agrees Ephraim is the harder of the two routes. No Invoke spam in this game, but do buy a Restore staff or two to counter the nuisance on Ephraim's route. Eirika's quest isn't devoid of difficulty, but on the whole her maps are easier.

Like in more modern games, you can grind in map battles, but note that once you enter a story battle there is no withdrawing from the preparations screen, so save on the map and never on the prep screen. And sometimes you'll have to fight back to back battles with no chance to shop or grind between them, but generally this is never too bad. Also, gold might become an issue if grind too much since you'll need to buy fresh weapons. Fortunately, the third floor of the Tower of Valni has a chest with a guaranteed 3000 gold, just repeat this as much as needed.

[anniec8711]

Sacred Stones is fun but on the easy side, especially with unlimited grinding once you gain access to the tower of Valni (think Sacred Stones as GBA Birthright and Blazing Blade being its Conquest counterpart).  Some things to note:

Ross, Ewan, and Amelia are special characters because they join in their trainee classes.  This means at level 10 of their trainee class, they promote to their base class branch.  With an extra 9 level-ups to gain stats, they can become some of your best units.  But keep in mind they are extremely weak when you get them, so you have to baby them like crazy to get them off the ground.  It's worth it though.  Here are the promotion paths I chose for them:

1) Ross: Journeyman ---> Pirate ---> Berserker (turns Ross into a crit machine with Killer Axe and the right supports)

2) Amelia: Recruit ---> Knight ---> General (you lose out on movement but General gives her the best stats and the Great Shield ability)

3) Ross: Pupil ---> Shaman ---> Summoner (Druid is a better overall class, but I love the ability to summon phantoms)

Also consider using Bishops on your team.  They get the Slayer ability which triples the might of light tomes when fighting monster enemies.  This is a great ability to have since the late chapter maps, Tower of Valni, and Lagdou Ruins contain nothing but monsters.  The 3 potential Bishops in your party are Natasha, Artur, and Moulder.  I personally made all 3 of them Bishops but it's your call. Having at least one though is a good idea.

[Shadow Mir]

I wouldn't expect too much from the story if I were you... Anyway, several things to note:

-Like stated, don't use Orson when the focus abruptly shifts to Ephraim. Pilfer his Silver Sword instead.

-There are several trainee units in this game. They're extremely weak, and will likely need some time in the Tower of Valni once it unlocks to get going. Once they hit level 10, they get to promote into a "normal" class before the next prep screen. My personal recommendations for them, if you use them, would be:

Ross: Fighter > Hero (some would argue that Pirate > Berserker is better, but it requires an Ocean Seal; more on that later)

Amelia: Cavalier > Paladin (there's practically no reason to go Knight for her, since heavy armor is a hindrance and not much else in SS, and  if you were hell-bent on using a knight, you get a perfectly serviceable one early on anyway)

Ewan: Mage > Sage (imho, dark magic isn't worth it in SS)

-Since the Fell Contract doesn't exist in SS, thieves (read: Colm) will need an Ocean Seal to promote; you only get one of these, hence my recommendation for Ross

-A recruitable character will show up several turns in in Eirika route chapter 13; he'll come in from the bottom left

-Pay attention to the weight (Wt) scores of weapons and the Con scores of your units; anyone using a weapon whose WT is higher than their Con gets a speed penalty.

-You can only get one Orion's Bolt in the game; you get it in chapter 6 if all the villagers survive

-Certain classes need certain items to promote in this game (e.g. cavaliers and knights need a Knight Crest, mages and healers need a Guiding Ring)

[Paper Jam]

Your mileage may vary on whether it's worth it or not to train the trainees. Quite a few people say it isn't, particularly since Seth never outlives his usefulness.

[MacLovin]

You get the best character in the game in the first chapter, alongside the lord.

By best, we're talking about a dude who can solo the game. Also, play it on hard setting since SS is really easy.

Oh and I suppose you'd also like to know that Bishops get effective damage against the monster enemies in the game. It might be handy to know that

Literally everyone is usable in the game, you even get a grinding spot in Valni and you get promotion items relatively fast. 

While Seth/Franz are both incredibly good, that doesn't mean the others aren't worth using! Forde, Kyle, Gilliam, and Amelia all get varied promotion routes.

There's a glitch regarding wyvern knights and pierce ability.

Cormag is the only possible wyvern lord you'll get. He's pretty rad in emphraim route. Then again, it's fe8 and every flyer is incredibly useful. Especially when it comes to poking gorgon eggs

You get really good prepromoted units in this game. Innes, Duessel, and Salah  are all decent and get more mileage if you pick routes that get certain ones early. (Ephraim vs Eirika routes.)

[ping]

57 minutes ago, Skurge said:

There's a glitch regarding wyvern knights and pierce ability.

Since this is a game-freezing bug: If you promote on of your flyers to a Wyvern Knight, you might want to deactivate their animations to prevent that from happening. Basically, the game might freeze if a WK doubles an enemy who cannot retaliate (or uses the Brave Lance) and procs Pierce (which is a class-specific skill with [Level]% activation rate) on the first hit. But since it's related to the animation, you can avoid it by deactivating those.

[Ronnie]

8 hours ago, ping said:

Since this is a game-freezing bug: If you promote on of your flyers to a Wyvern Knight, you might want to deactivate their animations to prevent that from happening. Basically, the game might freeze if a WK doubles an enemy who cannot retaliate (or uses the Brave Lance) and procs Pierce (which is a class-specific skill with [Level]% activation rate) on the first hit. But since it's related to the animation, you can avoid it by deactivating those.

Thanks for letting me know! That's a real bummer. Is this a PAL bug or does it affect NTSC copies too?

[Mandokarla]

Sacred Stones is my favorite FE game for a lot of reasons, but I will never say it isn't easy. If you want to play SS and have an experience similar to Blazing Sword Eliwood Hard Mode, I would suggest not using the Tower of Valni or map encounters AT ALL. No grinding. None. Zip. Nada. That makes the game's difficulty a LOT more on par with the rest of the franchise. 

I disagree with Levant regarding story, I think SS writing is pretty good. The plot is simplistic and there are some flaws, but the strength of SS writing is in the characters and the supports. Those are some of the best in the franchise IMO. 

I find that Ross is the only trainee that might be worth it, but honestly you don't need them. You get Seth and Franz (God and his Son) in the first couple chapters. 

[Shadow Mir]

2 hours ago, Mandokarla said:

I disagree with Levant regarding story, I think SS writing is pretty good. The plot is simplistic and there are some flaws, but the strength of SS writing is in the characters and the supports. Those are some of the best in the franchise IMO. 

My big issues with Sacred Stones in terms of story tend to be the fact that you have some characters who feel like they SHOULD be important to the story, but aren't, and the fact that the story goes downhill after the route split; it doesn't help that Eirika's route felt more like a filler arc than anything else for the most part. There's also the part where the main cause of the war is a really big case of stupidity, as well as the fact that the game's much too short. As for the supports, I'd say that's really dampened by the fact that supports are a pain in the ass to unlock, and character wise, outside of L'Arachel, too many of them either felt forgettable or were memorable for all the wrong reasons.

Edited January 8, 2018 by Levant Mir Celestia