The moral of the story is don't host a Killing Game and do a Garrison at the same time.
East Chemblem is one of the older Touhou games out there, and my first true introduction to Fire Emblem. I just said "hey this looks interesting" and picked it up despite it being untranslated, and here we are!
![[Image: j3lZKho.png]](https://i.imgur.com/j3lZKho.png)
Playing like a classic Fire Emblem game (VERY classic) it's got the original materials. Axe, Sword, and Spear weapon triangle, magic weapon triangle, bows off on their own, and all that good stuff. The combat is pretty much the same as any Fire Emblem game, with the usual tactical strategy action, the permanent death of any unit you lose, and the general map design. Several of them are directly inspired by classic maps, especially from Shadow Dragon or Fire Emblem 12, and show the elements of their source material as you keep going. And a few of them have neat tricks - for example, maps 9 and 11 are the same area, but fighting inward in one map and back out in another.
![[Image: RoliSM3.png]](https://i.imgur.com/RoliSM3.png)
The story, too, is very Fire Emblem. Chen is driven out of her home nation along with a couple loyal guards and has to fight her way through a series of enemy maps in order to retake her homeland and defeat the dark magic plans of the enemy that seek to crush everyone under their heel. By fighting through she can either turn opponents to her side with words, or have them join up automatically... mostly join up automatically. There's only like 15 of the many units who are talked out of fighting you rather than simply joining up automatically or visiting a city or something. Chemblem really loves to dump units on you... maybe they expect you'll lose all of yours?
![[Image: HZJveRI.png]](https://i.imgur.com/HZJveRI.png)
If there's one thing I appreciate, it's the sheer number of units. Even though this game is too old to have anyone after Touhou 11, they still incorporate basically the entire windows cast, resulting in 56 playable characters total (well, 58, but two can only be gotten by sacrificing other units...) that cover everyone from every game between 6 and 11 (with a couple spoilery exceptions). For classes, there's a surprisingly rigid form compared to most other Fire Emblem games - There's nine classes that can promote, each of which has one and only one dedicated promotion, all of which use the Master Seal, and seven special classes that just go up to level 30. Unfortunately, this does give Chen the Roy Problem of capping early...
![[Image: LkLTNzc.png]](https://i.imgur.com/LkLTNzc.png)
If we're talking negatives... I'm sad to say there's a lot. Chemblem has a map design that's often designed against the player, with enemy AI and positioning that encourages setting up chokepoints and holding forts, only to suddenly spring tidal waves of reinforcements that will strike from behind, encouraging instead charging forward to huge numbers of hostiles. Add on a lack of variety - every single map is a seize map. Every single one. No rout, no defend, no anything - it's all about just going on and plowing forward heedless of the dangers, just like Fire Emblem 6. And on top of that? There's some bad RNG with stats all the time. I've seen far more empty levels in Chemblem than I ever have in any other game.
![[Image: 4SwaW8P.png]](https://i.imgur.com/4SwaW8P.png)
Overall, while Chemblem was a good intro to Fire Emblem... it definitely wasn't as a good an intro as Shanghai.exe was to Battle Network.
Unless you count me playing 6 later on.
(It seemed like a good idea at the time.)
THE VERDICT
While it holds some nostalgia value for me, returning to the game and reflecting on why I consistently had trouble advancing helps me realize that part of it was trying to vary my army too much, but part of it... is just the game itself! Maps designed to be long slogs with every objective being seize, low stat levels being the norm, and some ridiculous enemy shenanigans (looking at you 9 brigade) make this one feel balanced against the player. As much as I have fond memories... 3 Reimus out of 5.
...I should see if their later Fire Emblem-likes were any better.
East Chemblem is one of the older Touhou games out there, and my first true introduction to Fire Emblem. I just said "hey this looks interesting" and picked it up despite it being untranslated, and here we are!
Playing like a classic Fire Emblem game (VERY classic) it's got the original materials. Axe, Sword, and Spear weapon triangle, magic weapon triangle, bows off on their own, and all that good stuff. The combat is pretty much the same as any Fire Emblem game, with the usual tactical strategy action, the permanent death of any unit you lose, and the general map design. Several of them are directly inspired by classic maps, especially from Shadow Dragon or Fire Emblem 12, and show the elements of their source material as you keep going. And a few of them have neat tricks - for example, maps 9 and 11 are the same area, but fighting inward in one map and back out in another.
The story, too, is very Fire Emblem. Chen is driven out of her home nation along with a couple loyal guards and has to fight her way through a series of enemy maps in order to retake her homeland and defeat the dark magic plans of the enemy that seek to crush everyone under their heel. By fighting through she can either turn opponents to her side with words, or have them join up automatically... mostly join up automatically. There's only like 15 of the many units who are talked out of fighting you rather than simply joining up automatically or visiting a city or something. Chemblem really loves to dump units on you... maybe they expect you'll lose all of yours?
If there's one thing I appreciate, it's the sheer number of units. Even though this game is too old to have anyone after Touhou 11, they still incorporate basically the entire windows cast, resulting in 56 playable characters total (well, 58, but two can only be gotten by sacrificing other units...) that cover everyone from every game between 6 and 11 (with a couple spoilery exceptions). For classes, there's a surprisingly rigid form compared to most other Fire Emblem games - There's nine classes that can promote, each of which has one and only one dedicated promotion, all of which use the Master Seal, and seven special classes that just go up to level 30. Unfortunately, this does give Chen the Roy Problem of capping early...
If we're talking negatives... I'm sad to say there's a lot. Chemblem has a map design that's often designed against the player, with enemy AI and positioning that encourages setting up chokepoints and holding forts, only to suddenly spring tidal waves of reinforcements that will strike from behind, encouraging instead charging forward to huge numbers of hostiles. Add on a lack of variety - every single map is a seize map. Every single one. No rout, no defend, no anything - it's all about just going on and plowing forward heedless of the dangers, just like Fire Emblem 6. And on top of that? There's some bad RNG with stats all the time. I've seen far more empty levels in Chemblem than I ever have in any other game.
Overall, while Chemblem was a good intro to Fire Emblem... it definitely wasn't as a good an intro as Shanghai.exe was to Battle Network.
Unless you count me playing 6 later on.
(It seemed like a good idea at the time.)
THE VERDICT
While it holds some nostalgia value for me, returning to the game and reflecting on why I consistently had trouble advancing helps me realize that part of it was trying to vary my army too much, but part of it... is just the game itself! Maps designed to be long slogs with every objective being seize, low stat levels being the norm, and some ridiculous enemy shenanigans (looking at you 9 brigade) make this one feel balanced against the player. As much as I have fond memories... 3 Reimus out of 5.
...I should see if their later Fire Emblem-likes were any better.
![[Image: s2n7oi.png]](https://files.catbox.moe/s2n7oi.png)