Sacred Stones Act 1: Ephraim's Rescue

The first eight chapters of Sacred Stones represent a clear, distinct Act- Renais has been destroyed, Eirika flees to safety, but somewhere in the belly of danger is Ephraim, and Eirika can't have that! Moreover, with this act of the story complete, the story permanently diverges, making this a clear equivalent of the opening chapters of Fates- that bit of the game you have to repeat before you get to the new content of the other routes.

As a narrative, Act 1 is, while servicable, clearly the weakest of the respective sections. The two routes' versions of Act 2 show care for what they choose to reveal and what they choose to focus on, while Act 3 is heavily focused on characterising and showing off the game's iconic villain. Act 1 seems to have been put together with significantly less care- as a side project, perfectly understandable, especially when this is the only real traditional part of the story. When making a side project, there's a lot of care given to the exciting, new things you're developing, and relatively less given to the nuts and bolts needed to tie the project together and make it a cohesive product.

What we learned was a lot of world-building, but honestly, I feel like there's a lot more world-building they could've snuck into Act 1. We've got a heavy focus on the onset of monsters and the destruction of the Sacred Stones, but many of the characters the game shines brightly for including- L'Arachel, Lyon, Ephraim, the Imperial Six and even Innes- take side stage, leaving the burden of carrying the plot on Eirika and Seth's shoulders. Even at their best, these characters aren't the ones that attract attention- both prefer to be down-to-earth and playing the straight man. In addition, Saleh and Myrrh's relevance to the plot in the prototype that was removed from the final version can still be seen bursting behind the seams- there's clearly something the game wants to be showing you about those two and how Ephraim met them, but it just isn't there.

And that's not the least for mentioning the game's rampant sexism. I hesitate to say this was a product of the times in 2004, since I don't know much about what was going on back then, but when you've got a fan-made rewrite of the game almost solely dedicated to turning Eirika from a mindless pretty face to drag around into someone actually doing her stated job of being "the smart one", perhaps you know you've messed up somewhere along the way. There's a mass appeal of Eirika that's sunk into the fandom despite her abysmal first showing, and part of that is the fact the game gets to make up for it with her interactions with L'Arachel and Lyon later. But honestly, part of it feels like the players are just subconsciously reading Eirika as doing the Restoration Queen stuff when the actual game is making her come off badly.

In all, I think the phrase I would use to describe Sacred Stones Act 1 is "we're just as excited to get to Chapter 9 as you are." The stretch of the game leading up to it is necessary, to put the pieces on the board and get players acclimated to the game before some of the route split mechanics start to become a big deal, but it's a dangerous game, having the weakest part of a game being your opening. The players aren't going to think the same way unless they have a reason to do so.