Seth takes the lead in the Paladin league

I have recently acquired Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, which I consider to be the 8th game in the series. I seem to recall, that The Sacred Stones was released on the same date as Path of Radiance in Europe, but since The Sacred Stones was released many months before Path of Radiance in Japan, it seems reasonable to consider The Sacred Stones as Fire Emblem 8. Yes, I am well aware, that I could have saved both time and effort by referring to the games as SS and PoR, but I'm just not into that kind of stuff.

After playing through the first ten levels of The Sacred Stones, the game has proven to be every bit as entertaining as its predecessors, although it is, of course, pretty much exactly the same, just with a new story and new good-looking characters. There are a few new additions however. The level-up system lets you make some choices, and there are also a few new classes and a bunch of scary monsters.

The most impressive thing about The Sacred Stones is of course its initial Paladin - Seth. Seth is a fascinating character. He is devilishly handsome and even calmer than most of his paladin colleagues.

Everybody who has played more than one Fire Emblem-game will know that the game usually supplies the player with a powerful Paladin to help out the weak level 1-heroes, who might have a hard time surviving the first couple of battles. These paladins are always remarkably cool, calm and extremely loyal veterans, who will gladly give their life for the hero. The first of these paladins was the now renowned Jeigan from Fire Emblem 1, here seen as he appears in Fire Emblem 3 (which includes an enhanced remake of the first game).

Most players will probably be more familiar with Marcus, the paladin from Fire Emblem 7, which was the first Fire Emblem to be released outside of Japan. First-time players will likely fall into the trap - I know I did. You field Marcus in every battle and let him level up to level 20, only to find out, that he cannot change class - he is pre-promoted. In the end, he's just plain useless compared to most other characters, and you will regret that you let Marcus have so many of the precious experience-points, instead of giving them to the little girl, who was so weak at level 1, but who would have ended up killing the final boss with a single blow. But of course, getting "tricked" by the game this way makes it all the more fun, and you just cannot stop loving those paladins.

Since The Sacred Stones was my... 4th Fire Emblem game, I was, of course, not fooled this time. Although I love looking at Seth, I am not going to let him have a single experience point. Or is this the one game in the series, where the paladin actually ends up as the strongest character?

... Probably not.