A map, units you learn to love, and the fear of losing them for good.

When the community decides on instinct, this Fire Emblem edges out just one game in ten. That's low. Really low. But look at the detail and the gap opens the other way. Attachment and the wish to rediscover it climb near the top, ahead of seven games in ten, the urge to take it to a desert island, the art direction and the sound hold just above the middle. Only the feel of the controller drops below the line, ahead of fewer than four games in ten. There's the real tension: criterion by criterion, the game bonds and lingers, but at the moment of the gut choice it nearly fades away. All of it on few votes, to confirm.

Against the more demanding or more modern tactical-RPGs, this one stays a gentle way in, accessible, endearing.

So, who's it for? For you if you love thinking turn by turn, growing attached to a squad, following a story that lasts. Much less so if you want the game you pick without thinking, the one that imposes itself at once.