Overview

In the Fire Emblem The Sealed Sword & Blazing Sword Original Soundtrack, you will hear some of the best non-arranged Fire Emblem music to date. This is a strong feat considering the music is from the Nintendo Game Boy Advance games! Like always, the composer is Yuka Tsujiyoko, who has been the main Fire Emblem series composer to this day. The Blazing Sword always had a much stronger line up than The Sealed Sword, which is why I'm glad that the majority of these are Blazing Sword tunes. I'm guessing there was some extra effort put into these soundtracks since they were the first Fire Emblem games to have worldwide releases.

Body

The album actually starts with the Blazing Sword version of the series' main theme and then moves on to the Sealed Sword material until track fourteen. The Fire Emblem theme is in great quality, but the composition has been recycled many times. There's nothing special to hear. Most of the Sealed Sword tracks are surprisingly short but a couple of tracks stand out. There seems to be a great balance of "dark" and "light" music in both the Sealed and Blazing Sword sections and I think it helps pull this album through in the end. "II Regaining the Capital" is a very light track, but it's also mature and composed unlike your average silly thirty second Fire Emblem potion shop track. "Eternal Wind" is also a nice ballad but it comes nowhere near the level of Blazing Sword's final ballad.

Looking at The Blazing Sword's soundtrack, there seems to be a variation of light, medium, or heavy grandeur along with a nice balance of dark and light as previously mentioned. The character themes showcase the great deal of variation that is seen throughout this album. The melody for all of these themes is the same and it's sort of the main theme for this album. It's very catchy and has a noble feeling, which fits since it's all of our heroes' themes. I like how it is varied so much on this album and never gets old.

First there's Lyn's style of music, which takes up a fourth of the album. This style involves much more woodwind instruments and less brass, but usually have a grand and catchy melody. "Girl of the Plains" basically sums this idea up and you can hear it in other tracks such as "Wind Across the Plains". Both of these tracks work extremely well especially since the GBA has great capabilities when it comes to woodwind instruments. Hector's version of the theme, "Loyalty", certainly is a hardy version and fits his character in the game, but it is the most lackluster version on the album. As for Ellwood, "One Heart" is kind of what you'd get if you mixed Hector and Lyn's themes together. This style has a classic Fire Emblem feel to it, and I like the extra bells that were added to this version. "Lyn's Desire" also uses the variation in simple music box form and it works great.

Blazing Sword also some nifty battle music. Though short, the battle music is fun and really gives that action feel. "Rise to the Challenge" has a great intro that will get your pumped and "Strike" is also very catchy. Both are a little on the short and repetitive side though. Speaking of repetitive and short, I wonder why tracks like "Ride the Wind" don't get full compositions. I was listening to the track expecting a nice melody to overcome the repeating riff. By the time I starting expecting the melody, the track ended. The same things apply for tracks like "Merlinus" and "Happiness Abounds" but I understand they don't play major parts in the game. However, just because something is less important in the game doesn't mean the musical piece needs less attention. I've noticed Yuka Tsujiyoko has disregarded fully composing the less prominent pieces ever since the beginning.

The final track "Treasured Hope" is a pretty amazing composition for a GBA game. However, I think it should have been split into two different tracks since it is two completely different variations. It's another remix of the album's recurring theme that I mentioned earlier and it's a great variation. The first half has some nice brass and woodwind work. I'm happy that there isn't a surplus of filler orchestra chords like there tends to be on many Fire Emblem soundtracks. The string instruments work nicely wherever they are used. It's a good thing I can easily differentiate these instruments as it shows there really is some nice sound quality. The second half of Treasured Hope makes it a great exit piece for this album. The instruments remind of Super Mario 64's "Dire Dire Docks" and give off that same atmosphere which is a great exit atmosphere for an album of epic battle tunes and what not. It also shows that the melody is a very universal melody and makes it work as a theme so well.

Summary

This album displays sound and composition quality that many Game Boy Advance games could only dream to match, especially for such a large amount of tracks. The choice to pick more from Blazing Sword was a good one and the few they picked from Sealed Sword were great. Though it still comes with its poor and repetitive tracks, this album as a whole is not just exceptional for Game Boy Advance music, but for game music in general.