Fire Emblem

Anyone who likes strategy games shouldn't miss this one.

Well, these 3, actually. Although the series consists of a total of 9 games to date, North American shores have only been graced with three of them. Remember Roy and Marth from Super Smash Bros Melee? Yep, that's where they come from. The three english games you can get are:

FE: Rekka No Ken (7) - GBA
FE: Sacred Stones (8) - GBA
FE: Path of Radiance (9) - Gamecube

Each has it's own setting, main characters, and plot, so you don't need to have played any of the previous ones to understand the story. The game pretty much consists of a story sequence, then having to fight your way through a battle. In this way, the game is broken down into chapters (one battle per chapter).

The biggest part of these games is the combat system. Before it begins, you choose which of your units you want to have participating in the battle. Each unit has it's own strengths, weaknesses, and personalities, even. Each can move a certain distance per turn, and there are different kinds, like mounted knights, heavily armoured knights, mages, staff-weilders, it's incredibly how much customization the game offers, really.

Tied in with battles, we get to the one thing that makes the game so much more challenging than most strategy games. In most games, if a character dies, there's a way to bring them back. In Fire Emblem however, if a character dies, they're gone forever. So if you meet this fate, you have to decide whether you can continue the game without them, or whether you reset the fight - This could be after doing that battle for close to an hour.

Units can also build up "Support" with other units. It gives a bonus to when they're near each other on the battlefield.

With an engrossing story and addicting battles, the Fire Emblem series is definitely one that an RPG fan wouldn't want to miss.