ARGHHHH

Sain died. Stupid Endgame level on Fire Emblem. It's late, I'm not tired, no one is on MSN, I don't feel like recording mission 15 and I need a break before I try the level from hell again. So I came here to complain about it. Yay!

Yeah so this is the last level in the 2003 Gameboy version of Fire Emblem, which is pretty amazing I must say....but I think that about all Fire Emblem games I come across...so far. That is the game is amazing and not the level, although I do get a pretty intense adrenaline rush.

*Spoiler alert*

In case you haven't played the game and want the ending to be a surprise, I'd stop reading because I'm going to be complaining about it in detail for the next few paragraphs.

ANYHOW. I sit down, turn up some epic music on my laptop and then put my headphones on when I began to get complaints seeing how it was past midnight at the time. I pick all my favourite/tough units and prepare myself for what is to come. The level is a "surprise", so you don't get to view the map before playing (although you can just start the level, have a good look and restart if you wish to do so). I threw weapons, elixirs and items at my dudes and prepared myself for what turned out to be a very long cut scene, followed by one of the more difficult final levels I have ever played. I really should make a top ten hardest final boss/endgame level list. Out of other Fire Emblem games that I have played so far I am guessing Radiant Dawn would be another hard one...because I never really reached the end because of the level before it. Sacred Stones and Path of Radiance weren't that bad. I'm currently on the final level in Shadow Dragon, but I haven't finished it yet. I'm not sure how hard Medeus is yet. The boss for Lost Kingdoms on the Gamecube would probably take number 1 and I could probably rant for hours about that as well...BUT THIS IS ABOUT FIRE EMBLEM! FOCUS!

So I watched the cutscene involving weeping merchants, a touching speech about companions and friendship by Eliwood and Nergal spewing something about power, death, my inevitable defeat...blah blah blah. I was then taken to a medium-sized rooms with seven locked doors. Three on each side and one at the very end. Nergal left you to play with his "morphs", which are like undead versions of a handful of bosses you have defeated throughout the game...with super advanced weapons, stats and skills. Imagine a tough boss, multiply it by eight (how many there are), add each weapon class (sword, axe, lance, bow, magic), throw in a couple of tough goons and it all equals to a bucket of sweat and swearing.

Every turn one of the doors is unlocked and the units in each room are unleashed. Nergal doesn't like to wait for you to finish up with the rooms one at a time. If you don't defeat the units in the room when it opens, they will continue to come after you as other doors open. Well all except the bishop dude (forget his name). He just sat there and picked his nose the whole time. Instead one of his sages ran around trying to electrocute Sain the entire time. I defeated 5 of the 8 bosses quite well. The only things effective against them seemed to be the legendary weapons and high level weapons effective against what ever weapon type the bosses were wielding. Then Linus and Lloyd came. Only about three of my units could do considerable damage against them...so an attack was inevitable during their turn. I ran out of space to run, so I decided to attack with everything I had. Athos does a lot of damage, but not enough to kill one or the other. The only chance would be if he did critical damage on his attack and killed one of the units while I focused the rest of my power against the other. I think it was Lloyd who had the brave sword....but it allowed him to attack maybe about 3/4 of my units FOUR TIMES. I can survive 2 maybe...not 4. Not only that I had no one adept with lance...meaning no one with level S lance. That would be the only other thing effective against Linus and Lloyd whom are both sword-wielders. Man...

Also...NILS IS TOO SQUISHY. You are forced to take him along, which makes sense since he's a key story character, but it doesn't really work for my strategy. I was really aggressive in this Fire Emblem. I liked to smash, squish and run-over before asking questions. In other words I'm in favour of the "rush and crush" strategy (which I mentioned on YouTube, and fail to apply in games like Starcraft...). He is a useful unit in that he can buff your units, give them extra turns etc., but he is easy to kill. When the sage pops out to fry your units with lighting, Nils is at high risk. Not only that other ranged bosses will try to kill him as well. For a short time I needed to rescue Nils. I have a feeling he is the key to defeating Lloyd and Linus, but unfortunately Lloyd killed Sain before I could play with it a bit. Why did he die? Well, let me just say I learned a valuable life lesson. 19 + 19 does NOT equal 36.