Fullmetal Alchemist: Stray Rondo

Fullmetal Alchemist: Stray Rondo is a role playing game for the Game Boy Advance published by Bandai. It is one of two FMA games for the GBA that were only released in Japan. This is the first game chronologically out of the two, the second being Sonata of Memories.

System
The game uses a turn based battle system along with cards that are used for performing alchemy. There are 4 different options to choose from, these are: Attack, Alchemy, Items and Handbook in the case of Ed or Attack, Special Moves & Items in Al's case.

There are 3 types of numbers on the card: mass (left), value (right), and a roman numeral indicating the number of times the card has been combined. The cards can be combined maximum 4 times and no card with mass or a value number greater than 7 be created.

There are 50 Ed alchemical moves in each of the four categories: Metal, Nature, Stone and Darkness. As the player uses a new move, Ed records it in his notebook. Completing all the 200 moves unlocks a party picture.

The infamous Cat hunt is also included which increases the strength of Al's certain special attack.

Playable Characters

 * Edward Elric: The youngest person who obtained the qualifications to become a state alchemist at 12 years old. A talented alchemist. Possessing a tragic past, he shows a firm face but, he is actually cheerful and kind as an older brother who thinks of his younger brother. Having a great determination, he continues on a journey to find the Philosopher's Stone with his brother. His second name is "Full Metal Alchemist". He is a 15 year old who is concerned about his own short height and does not like milk.
 * Alphonse Elric: 4 years ago, he lost everything due to the price he had to pay for human alchemy. Thanks to his brother, his soul now dwells inside a suit armor and lives. Compared to Ed, his speed is inferior but he has skill. In addition to that he has good defense, reflecting bullets due to his armored body and he is never tired. He is the one who understands Ed the most and sometimes, he takes the role of calming his older brother. He is 14 years old.
 * Roy Mustang: The "Flame Alchemist" who can control fire at will. With his exceptional success in his career, he was aiming for the Central. While he is young, he is a sharp and able person. He is someone who handles his duties easily and in his heart, he has the ambition to become the greatest authority in the military. His rank is colonel.
 * Alex Louis Armstrong: Both his hairstyle and appearance portrays him as a powerful alchemist. He has a name that suits the sort of alchemy he uses well but, on his other side he is someone who is deeply emotional and tearful. He was born in a family with a great history. His rank is major.
 * Riza Hawkeye: Colonel Mustang's trusted retainer. She has a calm composture and there are those around her who trust her along with those who fear her. Skilled in guns, she has the duty as the colonel's bodyguard. She was willing to join the military due to her firm believe in protecting a certain man. Her rank is First Lieutenant.
 * Corniche R. Royce: An alchemist who excels in the field of medical alchemy. A young lady who grew up in the care of her home and has never left it before. Relishing her older brother's favorite phrase, "Alchemist, Be Thou for the People", she wants to be of use to more people. Wanting to become a state alchemist, she heads to Central City. Although she has quick wits, sometimes she would  be out of it and burn with pure naive. She is 18 and her hobby is darts.
 * Aston Martins: The Alchemist of Thunder. He's a state alchemist but, just like a wolf in a Kabuki play he would usually go after a girl without thinking. However, in battle he becomes a calm person who is quick with the sword. He has a great interest and some confused knowledge in the Samurai code but, you don't hear it from him much. He is 29 and his rank is Lt. Colonel. He is a Katana maniac.

Non-playable Characters

 * Maes Hughes: A military man who's family is the most important to him. Due to his average appearance, it can't be imagined what a clear mind Lt. Colonel Hughes has.
 * Jean Havoc: With his light-hearted conduct, he gains trust from his subordinates. Smoking tobacco is his trade mark. His rank is second lieutenant.
 * Lust: A member of the mysterious organisation who has the tattoo of the Uroboros. To her, the priority in the things she should do first is to execute her "plan". Prepared to use ruthlessness as her power, she has a near immortal body, claws that transform at her will, she continues to create history.
 * Gluttony: A member of the mysterious organisation who has the tattoo of the Uroboros. All his actions are caused by his apettite. The things he can eat are humans, beasts and any similar living things. Due to that, his power is second to none.
 * Lincor: He has the power of chimera alchemy. Originally a state alchemist.
 * Randy Rover: A civilian alchemist. Due to an uprising, his territory is in ruins and now only the name of his noble family remains with him in poverty. On the verge of death, he was saved by Lincor and so as a debt of gratitude, he is willing to serve him with his loyalty. He is 25 years old and his hobbies are sports and hip hop.
 * Cate Rham: A civilian alchemist. Due to the fact that she grew up as a young child without the love of her parents, she played only with dolls. One day, she was able to make dolls that move and talk with her alchemy. After that, her parents died in an uprising. Now her only friends are Lincor and Randy. She thinks of her dolls as the next most important thing. She is 16 years old and her hobby is playing with dolls.

Locations
Various familiar locations from the anime series and a few new locations are available.

Locations from the Anime:
 * Liore
 * Central City
 * East City
 * Resembool

New Locations:
 * Vivas
 * Redendo
 * Solin
 * Daimler's Mansion
 * Ruins of Cruz
 * Castle Olhentinos

Plot
The game starts of with the two boys [ Edward and Alphonse Elric] performing a Human Transmutation to revive their dead mother which results in failure and skips ahead to their mission involving the false prophet Cornello to find the fabled Philosopher's Stone to amend for the things they lost in the failed Human Transmution [Alphonse's body and Edward's limbs]. They succeed in proving him as a swindler but find the Philosopher's Stone to be fake. The brothers head back to Central to report it when the train gets hijacked by Bald 's group which threatens with a hostage. The Elric brothers rescue the hostage who reveals herself as Corniche Royce and find that the boss was merely an imitation of Bald. The Elrics learn that the girl possesses ability to use healing alchemy and is heading towards Central for State Alchemy Exam. Corniche decides to tag along Elrics as she hasn't traveled before. The train gets attacked by a Chimera and stops at a town named Viva. The trio rescues the town which is swarming with Chimeras but fail to find the culprit. They continue their journey towards the Central.

After reaching central Corniche goes to the Military Headquarters for her exam but realizes that she has forgotten her essay. While she is insisting on her participation, King Bradley appears and sets up a condition for her certification- to beat Major Alex Louis Armstrong. Corniche fails and Edward is summoned by King Bradley for Chimera's extermination in East City mission. Edward is also given a permission to form a 'Special Squad'. After much insistence from Al and Hughes Edward agrees to recruit Major Armstrong and Colonel Roy Mustang in the special squad though he despises the idea of working with the two. The party takes Major Armstrong from the Central and heads towards the East City where Colonel is assigned and mission to be executed, but on their way the train gets hi-jacked again by real Bald's group who threaten with the life of all passengers. The party defeats the culprits and reach the East City and travel directly towards the Colonels office.

Colonel Mustang refuses to join and leaves for a surveil which makes Edward more determined to recruit him. The party chases Mustang and challenges him with a fight to decide his enlistment. After being defeated Colonel is forced to join and Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye volunteers to help for Colonel's safety. State Alchemist Lieutenant Colonel Aston Martins also known as The Thunder Alchemist is enlisted upon Mustang's insistence. Mustang leaves his paperwork on East City Chimera's case to Havoc and heads towards Redendo along with the rest of the party.

The party solves the robbery case at Redendo but comes empty handed with their true assignment. Back at the East Military Headquarters Party learns about a case of two people described as one short and one in armor causing disturbance at a town named Solin. Hoping that it would lead to some kind of clue to Chimera case and dubious of perpetuators identity party travels to Solin. There the party learns that the people causing trouble indeed look like Elric Brothers and in fact call themselves Elrics too. Infuriated with their name being disgraced again by impostors, the Elrics decide to catch the charlatans. Once they capture and defeat the impostors, the party learns that are merely alchemist created manikins again and the alchemist is no other than a young girl aged 16 who reveals her name to be Cate Rham. Cate makes a brief encounter with the party and then flees saying that they'll again someday. With the fakes revealed and still clueless about the Chimera's case the party returns to the East Headquarters again.

Once back at the East Headquarters the party learns about an eccentric alchemist living in a mansion who is assumed to possess skills in body alchemy. Suspicious, the party head towards hermit's mansion and learns that the strange man is indeed involved in Chimera's case, but before they can arrest him, they are attacked by a Chimera and the suspect flees. Colonel contacts the HQ and learns that the man is named Dalt Daimler and he's heading towards Edward and Alphonse hometown Resembool.

The party fails to find Dalt in Resembool but Ed gets his maintenance. The party head towards ruins near Resembool where Dalt is likely to be. While chasing Dalt the party meets up with two of the Homunculi: Lust and Gluttony whom they defeat. After defeating the Homunculi Edward mentions his suspicion to Alphonse about Philosophers Stone presence in ruins as the homunculus were around. However, the brothers agree to keep this theory a secret. The party finds Dalt corpse which is missing a bag that Dalt was carrying. The party moves on to find out the murderer who turns out to be Randy the robber at Redondo. The party defeats Randy and starts to interrogate him about the surrounding situation before Cate intervenes along with a masked alchemist named Lincor whom Colonel Martin seems to know as Licor takes Dalt's bag from Randy and uses a tremendous power to unleashe a powerful attack on the party and earn enough time to escape with his group. Ed conjectures that Licor was using a Philosopher's stone in Dalt's bag to wield such power.

Meanwhile, Mustang and Martin discuss that how strangely Linor's presence resembles that of State Alchemist Colonel Seraphy Royce. Mustang tells Ed about Seraphy Royce's history who was a healing State Alchemist [The Tuning Alchemist] whose qualification was about to be taken from him before he was reported dead in Ishval War. The trio suspects if he was the one responsible for recent Chimera's outbreak and if Corniche Royce is really Lincor's sister.

The party receives information about Licors hideout in East City Sewers and goes there. Though it's unable to find Lincor, the party encounters Lincor's associates Cate and Randy again and a a man with a scar on his forehead who vaguely claims to pass down the god 's judgement. Colonel Martin is reluctant to fight his 'old friend' so he suggests the party to retreat as they are unlikely to find Lincor.

As the party is heading towards HQ, when it learns about Chimeras assault on HQ from Hughes. The party exterminates Chimera's from the base mainly to safe Mustang's address book in his office. While still in Mustang's office, the party further discuuses Lincor's case where Corniche learns about her possible relevance to Lincor. Ed encourages her to believe in her brother which Corniche accepts to do. After the party rescues the HQ, Mustang gets caught up in restoration paperwork with Riza by his side. Other military members also get engaged leaving Ed, Al, Corniche and Colonel Martin (as their bodyguard) to have a break. The group decides to spend the night at Inn. At that night Martin asks Edward his reason for being the Dog of the Military. Edward explains about his failed human transmutation and his determination to restore his younger brother's body back. Corniche tells the brothers that she believes they'll succeed in achieving their goals and then the group has a dinner.

The next day, the group decides to head back to HQ as there might be new info on Lincor's case. The whole party assembles again and head out to a castle in southeast where Lincor's sightings have been reported. The party meets Lust, Randy,and Cate again all of whom they defeat again separately. On there way to meet Lincor Mustang mentions his suspicion on Martin who openly refuses the charge. The party finally catches up with Lincor. Ed provokes Lincor to reveal the Philosopher Stone in the bag but Lincor opens the bag and unleashes a giant ultimate Chimera instead. The Chimera keeps regenerating .With no other option at sight, Martin sacrifices his own life to defend his party.

With a dear friend sacrificed, Ed gets agitated and questions Lincors motives to hurt his very own friend and sister to which Lincor answers by saying that something valuable is a necessary price to protect something and Martin was fool not to understand that. Ed attacks Lincor who drops a locket which holds his and Corniche's photo. Corniche questions Lincor if he really is her brother who would hold the words 'Alchemist, Be Thou for the People' dear but Linor bluntly refuses of having any recollection of her and violently attacks the party. The party defeats Lincor but he refuses to give up. Ed sums up all the events and concludes that the power Lincor possess is not by using the Philosopher's Stone but by trading his precious memories with his sister.

Licor makes one last attempt to annihilate the party by merging himself with the whole castle. Corniche remembering Martins words to stay strong to be State Alchemist heals the whole party which emerges victorious again. Lincor recalls his remaining memories of his mother and feeling that he traded everything for peoples' welfare dies comfortably. The party once again heads back to HQ.

Back at HQ, the party recovers from their former friend's death and Corniche is finally allowed to retake State Alchemy Exam. Corniche passes the exam and earns her brother's title 'The Tuning Alchemist'. She gladly accepts it and decides that she would recompense for her brother's wrongdoings. The story comes to an end with Corniche separating from the Elric brothers for her hometown and everyone else settling back their normal lives.

Side Quests (Collecting 10 proofs)

 * 1) Ed is enlisted in a Martial Arts Tournament and faces Macho, Bald, Al, Cate, Armstrong, Randy, Scar, and Mustang.
 * 2) Al gets shattered by Bald and Ed goes on to search his armor limbs.
 * 3) Sheska has trouble keeping the kittens she has gathered so she gives them to Al after he answers a few Alchemy related questions correctly.
 * 4) Elicia goes missing but the Elrics are able to find her.
 * 5) Bradley wants the Elrics to obtain a flower from Lincor's castle top floor. He later asks them to put the diligently procured item on their mother's grave as a form of a promise.
 * 6) Winry asks the Elrics to collect materials for upgrading Ed's automail.
 * 7) Black Hayate goes missing and Elrics help Riza find it.
 * 8) Cate's Bald doll goes berserk again. Mustang, Riza, Edward, and Alphonse go to defeat it.
 * 9) Havoc seems to have a problem. Elrics find out that his girlfriend needs to give her cat to someone. Al accepts it.
 * 10) Mustang goes on Chimera extermination to show that his not worthless.

If the player collects all the 10 proofs, a battle with a tough Ed doll gets unlocked.

External Link

 * Official Site (Japanese)