Astral Dog
Member
Awakening was the most polished entry when released.score is still top tier
Two Stones(?) Had two whole campaigns to play
Two Stones(?) Had two whole campaigns to play
-
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Fire Emblem fans, I ask you to defend your favorite entry in the series.
- Thread starter SolVanderlyn
- Start date
The same happened to me, but SS remains my favourite, I think.
And yeah, honestly don't bother with Fates. It's the first FF game I couldn't bring myself to finish and I usually don't care about story in games... even for FE. I think what puts me off the most is that the entire cast behaves like in a bad dating reality show. This is no army, the moment two of your units start to get along, things quickly escalate from zero to marriage. This on top of the terrible story makes Fates one of my biggest gaming disappointments to date. I'm now a casual Fire Emblem fan in the sense that I won't buy every game released in the series - I want to buy Echoes, but I'll likely skip the Switch game that is bound to be a dating sim mess, lol.
And it sucks, because SRPGs are kind of dead unless you have a very high tolerance for a very particular kind of writing and art...
dragonlife
Member
Good post. I definitely agree on all parts, down to the bad. RD just felt so grandiose and epic... man, I think it's time for a replay.
SolVanderlyn
Thanos acquires the fully powered Infinity Gauntlet in The Avengers: Infinity War, but loses when all the superheroes team up together to stop him.
All this Radiant Dawn love is bringing a tear to my eye...
I wrote up an entire paragraph defending it before I changed my mind to PoR for setting its foundations and having an overall tighter cast, but the scope and scale of RD was something else. I would say the opening chapter with the Dawn Brigade did a way, way, WAY better job at dealing with living in a corrupt kingdom than Conquest did. I'm right there with all of you.
My boys Leonardo, Nolan, Sothe, and Micaiah, a mage-lord... hnnnng. And then when you get to Ike's team... HNNNNNG. And then it ramps up even further... *dead*
There's gotta be a Vince McMahon gif properly explaining the escalation in Radiant Dawn
I wrote up an entire paragraph defending it before I changed my mind to PoR for setting its foundations and having an overall tighter cast, but the scope and scale of RD was something else. I would say the opening chapter with the Dawn Brigade did a way, way, WAY better job at dealing with living in a corrupt kingdom than Conquest did. I'm right there with all of you.
My boys Leonardo, Nolan, Sothe, and Micaiah, a mage-lord... hnnnng. And then when you get to Ike's team... HNNNNNG. And then it ramps up even further... *dead*
There's gotta be a Vince McMahon gif properly explaining the escalation in Radiant Dawn
Most of the games before the Radiant Dawn were good, Fire Emblem 7 is still the best because it's perfect for new players and has such a gobsmackingly good story and fantastic characters.
A lot of the new games just add petting minigames and weird combat micromanagement that made characters feel less like a close friend you were fighting with and more of a 'build that's really OP I read online about'
Then there's the bride class *vomit*
A lot of the new games just add petting minigames and weird combat micromanagement that made characters feel less like a close friend you were fighting with and more of a 'build that's really OP I read online about'
Then there's the bride class *vomit*
Lord of Ostia
Member
Fates is worth playing if you enjoy the mechanics and gameplay of Fire Emblem at all, particularly the Conquest route. Some of the best map designs in the entire series are in that game. The story is complete garbage, most of the characters are awful, I totally agree with you about that, but they did fix a lot of the balance issues Awakening introduced. Conquest alone is worth playing through, Birthright and Revelations really aren't worth it.
Echoes is a good entry in the series, especially if you never played Gaiden. Very different than other games in the series, the maps aren't great, and it does feel archaic in some ways, but the story is traditional FE, the characters are better than Fates for sure, the art style is fantastic, presentation and music are phenomenal, it has the best battle animations of any 3D Fire Emblem with very natural and fluid character movements...its a great game. If you like classic FE, you need to play Echoes.
Yoshi
Headmaster of Console Warrior Jugendstrafanstalt
Where do I fall? My favourite Fire Emblems are Fates Conquest, Radiant Dawn and Path of Radiance, in this order. Not having played the SNES games yet, I can only say that I do not like the NES games as much as the games starting on GBA, but I think people who list the first two games as their favourites are rare anyway. Since no one has attacked my favourite, Conquest, I see no need to defend it 
.
.Zap Rowsdower
Banned
Path of Radiance is by far the best game and I don't think it will be topped. Though I admit I still need to play Awakening.
As previously mentioned its the best written, very accessible, and it feels like most of your party is super viable. Dawn was good too, but I felt it was weaker because it kept hoisting mechanically crappy teams that weren't the Greil Mercenaries on you.
As previously mentioned its the best written, very accessible, and it feels like most of your party is super viable. Dawn was good too, but I felt it was weaker because it kept hoisting mechanically crappy teams that weren't the Greil Mercenaries on you.
Ranmo
Member
I'm in a very Gray area as I really enjoy the gameplay and a lot of the characters from Waifu Emblem, but the stories aren't as enjoyable as West Emblem (but I really enjoyed fates conquest).
So my pick is West Emblem. Story was decent across the board and I especially loved the visuals for the GBA games. As for my favorite title...I'd have to say FE7.
Currently playing FE6 and it will probably de-throne 7 for me. But I'm not done yet. So for now it's 7.
So my pick is West Emblem. Story was decent across the board and I especially loved the visuals for the GBA games. As for my favorite title...I'd have to say FE7.
Currently playing FE6 and it will probably de-throne 7 for me. But I'm not done yet. So for now it's 7.
Lord of Ostia
Member
If Path of Radiance is your favorite, specifically for those reasons, Awakening will not top PoR for you. I still maintain that Awakening is a good game overall, but it started trends that Fates took to an awful extreme.
Why defend when I can attack?
FE1 - Outdated
FE2 - Bad and Outdated
FE3 - Outdated
FE4 - Really large maps, tedious gameplay
FE5 - There are some bullshit design choices
FE6 - Unit balance could be better
FE7 - Simplistic map design, too easy
FE8 - Very simplistic map design, very easy
FE9 - BEXP is broken, balance is poor, tedious gameplay
FE10 - Total mess
FE11 - Ugly, no supports
FE12 - Ugly
FE13 - Extremely simplistic maps, basic story
FE14 - Story and Writing are no good
FE15 - No longer outdated but the gameplay is still bad
COME AT ME FOOLS
FE1 - Outdated
FE2 - Bad and Outdated
FE3 - Outdated
FE4 - Really large maps, tedious gameplay
FE5 - There are some bullshit design choices
FE6 - Unit balance could be better
FE7 - Simplistic map design, too easy
FE8 - Very simplistic map design, very easy
FE9 - BEXP is broken, balance is poor, tedious gameplay
FE10 - Total mess
FE11 - Ugly, no supports
FE12 - Ugly
FE13 - Extremely simplistic maps, basic story
FE14 - Story and Writing are no good
FE15 - No longer outdated but the gameplay is still bad
COME AT ME FOOLS
Lord of Ostia
Member
So looking at this list...your favorite is probably FE5, FE7, or FE6?
KO Traveling Hobo
Member
The absolute madman.
FE14, FE6 and FE7 are my current top 3.
SolVanderlyn
Thanos acquires the fully powered Infinity Gauntlet in The Avengers: Infinity War, but loses when all the superheroes team up together to stop him.
KO Traveling Hobo
Member
FE10 is the best looking game in the series if you enable map-only combat animations.
How come FE11 got the ugly label but 9/10 didn't?
Those games are ugly, but FE11/12 are ugly ugly
(Besides, the FE9/10 portraits were good)
Lord of Ostia
Member
2 out of 3 ain't bad!
Geneology of Holy War for me.
Was the first one I bought and played when I first went to Japan when I was 16.
Loved the larger maps, which is still different from the other entries. I remember thinking I'd cleared out a map in the later game, only to see three of the "allied" castles all of a sudden turn enemy, and like 20 cavaliers run out to my horror.
Really hoping they do a remake (that does it justice) and bring it out in English.
Was the first one I bought and played when I first went to Japan when I was 16.
Loved the larger maps, which is still different from the other entries. I remember thinking I'd cleared out a map in the later game, only to see three of the "allied" castles all of a sudden turn enemy, and like 20 cavaliers run out to my horror.
Really hoping they do a remake (that does it justice) and bring it out in English.
Lord of Ostia
Member
Genealogy needs a remake the most out of all the games in the series. I still think the maps are too big though, game has a huge overreliance on mounted units.
SolVanderlyn
Thanos acquires the fully powered Infinity Gauntlet in The Avengers: Infinity War, but loses when all the superheroes team up together to stop him.
FE6 is a very good game, possibly my favorite GBA title, but I have a really hard time classifying it because
A) It still falls to trappings of older FEs like awful reinforcements and crushing difficulty
and
B) It was never released over here like the rest of the "classic' games
It kinda falls under both the Japan and West-emblem umbrellas. It would be right next to FE7 if not for the reinforcements problem. Roy is also a lackluster lord (disappointing considering his Smash Bros incarnation). Top tier villainous cast though, those generals of Bern were awesome.
A) It still falls to trappings of older FEs like awful reinforcements and crushing difficulty
and
B) It was never released over here like the rest of the "classic' games
It kinda falls under both the Japan and West-emblem umbrellas. It would be right next to FE7 if not for the reinforcements problem. Roy is also a lackluster lord (disappointing considering his Smash Bros incarnation). Top tier villainous cast though, those generals of Bern were awesome.
FE7 is great, but FE14 has some good maps and FE13 was very popular. FE9 and 10 were the best story though, but I also like FE8's gameplay. I should go and play FE4 sometime, but maybe they'll remake it like they did FE2 to FE15.
Lord of Ostia
Member
Maybe if Nintendo gave the games official western subtitles we wouldn't need to do this. On top of that, FE7 is confusing because if you just say 'Fire Emblem' no one knows if you are referring to the first western release or the whole damn series.FE7 is great, but FE14 has some good maps and FE13 was very popular. FE9 and 10 were the best story though, but I also like FE8's gameplay. I should go and play FE4 sometime, but maybe they'll remake it like they did FE2 to FE15.
Cow Mengde
Banned
It's quick and painless though. It's faster than typing out the title. When you say FE7, everyone knows it's Fire Emblem.
Edit - Damn, beaten like a Lance Knight against a Great Lord.
Well they did when they released Heroes. But most people don't use them cause it's a pain to write New Mystery of the Emblem when you can write FE12. Also FE7 is officially Blazing Blade.
Lord of Ostia
Member
Ah yeah, forgot they addressed this with Heroes. Point still stands though, it's easier all around.
SolarMystic
Member
West Emblem for sure. For some reason I just cannot get into the newer Fire Emblem games, perhaps the Switch will change that.
I love the GBA era games.
I love the GBA era games.
I could never get into West Emblem (not-Kaga Emblem). All of them felt like just cookie cutter rehashes of the Japanese Emblem archtypes, downgraded mechanically and plot-wise, restrictive in design and didn't get interesting (characters, world building, writing) until Tellius. In all of them you had the Marth, the Caeda, the Oguma, the Navarre, the Julian, the redeemed wyvern princess, the enemy general, the Camus and so on.
3DS at least tried new things by distancing themselves from established traditions and got its due reward.
I feel more attached to the original Japanese releases, especially Genealogy of Holy-War and Thracia 776, but I cannot go back to those mechanics. Let's hope more titles get the Echoes treatment. Overall, my favourites would be Genealogy of Holy-War, Path of Radiance, Conquest and Echoes.
3DS at least tried new things by distancing themselves from established traditions and got its due reward.
I feel more attached to the original Japanese releases, especially Genealogy of Holy-War and Thracia 776, but I cannot go back to those mechanics. Let's hope more titles get the Echoes treatment. Overall, my favourites would be Genealogy of Holy-War, Path of Radiance, Conquest and Echoes.
I'll take it that you hate the series? You didn't explain yourself very well.
I have absolutely no idea what games people are referring to when they do it numerically, even as a Fire Emblem fan.
There's certain things I've picked up from seeing characters from games referenced at the same time as numbers like FE7 being 'the one with Lyn', but it's really bad to assume that people know the numerical ordering of a series where a majority of the games never came to western audiences. This isn't like Final Fantasy where the numbering is part of the name and the fact that people have taken to counting remakes as separate number increments is disastrous.
Every single game has a western title in one form or another, even if it's just an unofficial translation of the Japanese title and some have received official titles such as Fire Emblem: Blazing Blade and Fire Emblem: Binding Blade in later titles such as heroes.
As for the argument that full titles are harder to type out: That is the entire purpose for abbreviations. FE: NME or FE:NMotE isn't that tough to type out and it's way easier to understand if you don't have encyclopaedic knowledge of the series.
This is a bit off-topic, but using a numbering system for this series is awful..
Basically this.
There's certain things I've picked up from seeing characters from games referenced at the same time as numbers like FE7 being 'the one with Lyn', but it's really bad to assume that people know the numerical ordering of a series where a majority of the games never came to western audiences. This isn't like Final Fantasy where the numbering is part of the name and the fact that people have taken to counting remakes as separate number increments is disastrous.
Every single game has a western title in one form or another, even if it's just an unofficial translation of the Japanese title and some have received official titles such as Fire Emblem: Blazing Blade and Fire Emblem: Binding Blade in later titles such as heroes.
As for the argument that full titles are harder to type out: That is the entire purpose for abbreviations. FE: NME or FE:NMotE isn't that tough to type out and it's way easier to understand if you don't have encyclopaedic knowledge of the series.
This is a bit off-topic, but using a numbering system for this series is awful..
Basically this.
The Kaga games had these same archetypes or slight variations of them throughout FE 1 and 3-5 along with their own faults, in fact the SNES entries were what cemented them as series archetypes after Gaiden's utter lack of character broke what became a series trend.
Your kin is not welcome here, heaven!
IrishNinja
Member
shining force III, not sure which scenario though
Sir Ilpalazzo
Member
Thracia 776 is the best from what I've played. Its high difficulty really pushes you to learn all the intricacies of its systems (and its fantastic maps), and I've always loved that it makes you feel like you're a ragtag band of rebels fighting for every inch against a superior foe (something which most of the other games in the series don't really capture).
Cow Mengde
Banned
Dawn Brigade!
Seriously, I really like the gameplay contrast between Dawn Brigade and Greil Mercenaries. It's not just the story telling you who is weak and who is strong. You feel it when you play the different groups.
I think you can tell from my favorite games of all time list what camp I fall into.
I am loving all the RD love. It seriously struck a great balance with the difficulty, in that you needed to utilize every unit in your army (even the bad ones) to make it through scenarios. That game is so much more about unit placement and actual strategy than character stats and that is why it is so amazing to me.
To me- Fire Emblem has always been about the balance between short term game (map objectives) and the long term game (allocating exp). Making concessions and sacrifices in the short term to fortify the long term- and vice versa is what makes the series so special. Which is why I feel I have a hard time getting into any of the open map style games.
By themselves, Genealogy of Holy War and Thracia 776 are fun. Putting them together, and it made for the best FE story.
Literally the main problem I have with FEs post-Thracia 776 is the battle animations as superficial as that sounds. For the SNES games, it actually looks like the characters are fighting, not just standing there waiting to attack or dodge or what have you. This didn't really change until the recent FE2 remake which I absolutely appreciate.
Literally the main problem I have with FEs post-Thracia 776 is the battle animations as superficial as that sounds. For the SNES games, it actually looks like the characters are fighting, not just standing there waiting to attack or dodge or what have you. This didn't really change until the recent FE2 remake which I absolutely appreciate.
Cow Mengde
Banned
POR and RD aren't like that too.
In FE4/5, you can tell how a battle plays out based on the animation for some classes. Like if a Swordmaster doesn't kill a unit with the first critical hit, it plays a different critical animation versus a unit that you can kill in the first hit. The same if it's a second hit, or a counter attack. You can tell based on the animation it plays. It's that good.
Radiant Dawn adds a lot more impact to the hits making the enemies recoil, or fall when they're hit by attacks. I love that feeling.
KO Traveling Hobo
Member
This. Radiant Dawn does a great job of using the medium to tell its story.
Good thread, though I honestly won't group the GBA games and Tellius games together as "West Emblem". Granted, I get what you mean, they are the first games to get released in the west and Roy, Ike in Smash and shit, but their similarity pretty ends right there.
Console FE games and handheld FE games are VERY different, cater to very different play-styles (theme, graphics, color scheme, play time allocation). There's no way you get similar feeling between Binding Blade and Path of Radiance.
That said, I have played every FE games in existence, including the original Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light (aka "FE1"). I have to say I vastly prefer the console installments over the handheld counterparts. My top 3 FE games are Genealogy, Radiant Dawn, and Thracia. Therefore I don't quite fall under any category the OP has outlined; guess I'm a Jugdral + Tellius guy then? I did enjoy Shadows of Valentia a lot though; it is easily my favorite handheld FE game, followed by New Mystery.
Console FE games and handheld FE games are VERY different, cater to very different play-styles (theme, graphics, color scheme, play time allocation). There's no way you get similar feeling between Binding Blade and Path of Radiance.
That said, I have played every FE games in existence, including the original Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light (aka "FE1"). I have to say I vastly prefer the console installments over the handheld counterparts. My top 3 FE games are Genealogy, Radiant Dawn, and Thracia. Therefore I don't quite fall under any category the OP has outlined; guess I'm a Jugdral + Tellius guy then?
I did enjoy Shadows of Valentia a lot though; it is easily my favorite handheld FE game, followed by New Mystery.Cow Mengde
Banned
That said, I have played every FE games in existence, including the original Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light (aka "FE1"). I have to say I vastly prefer the console installments than the handheld counterparts. My top 3 are Genealogy, Radiant Dawn, and Thracia. That said, I don't quite fall under any category the OP has outlined; guess I'm a Jugdral + Tellius guy then?
Same. I also enjoyed New Mystery of the Emblem.
I always found this not to be a problem starting from chapter 2 because you can separate your units in two groups (cavalry / infantry) and have them do their separate things.
Ex:
Chapter 2: Cavalry rushes to Anphony and save the villages while the infantry sets for Mackily. Once Anphony is captured, it's way faster to just warp Sigurd and have the infantry take down Mackily as opposed to do the long trek back with the cavalry / or waste turns warping all of them back.
Chapter 3 starts by having your castle surrounded from all directions.
Chapter 4 has your mounted units going for Thove while the infantry group waits at the bottom of the map to cross the mountains.
Chapter 5 has the desert.
Etc.
On top of that, they at least tried to balance it out by giving infantry the better stats and skills.
But different playstyles I guess. I don't really care about turn count in these games.
That said, I find the design decisions in 4 to be a lot more coherent as a whole than say, 5.
FE4 does the same with holy blood units. You can tell not balancing the units was a conscious decision, even if they went a bit too far with it admitedly. : P
I guess you can tell my GOAT from this lol
I still need to play 4 and 5 but For now things stand thusly.
Conquest is my fav game in terms of map design and combat. Particularly conquest lunatic which is a real prick in later chapters but still beatable in a lot to ways allowing for great replayabity. In general the openness of the fates games in terms of recording through heart/friendship/marriage seals means you can have lot of different runs with the same people keeping the combat fresh.
There is no defending the story in conquest other than your initial choice. In a state of shock and panic after losing Gunter and the wtf hey we are your real family whoops your real mom is dead. Damn straight I'm siding with the people I remember growing up with, the siblings who've already proven they truly care for me and my tender heart who won't kill beaten prisoners.
The rest of the story is garbage though, implementation of children story wise is dumb and supports make no sense since apparently your secret astral plane fort can be accessed by random bandits and you can go talk to units you havent recruited yet in supports.
Path of radiance has my fav story and supports. The combat is too easy and the non royal laguz are some of the most garbage units I've ever been given. I also find it to be pretty ugly as a game.
Fe7 has my fav art and animations and also the best port and boat maps. Anything short of Hector hard mode wants increased enemy growths for any real semblance of challenge though and having to drag late promoting often force deployed lords around is just as annoying here as in other gba games.
Conquest is my fav game in terms of map design and combat. Particularly conquest lunatic which is a real prick in later chapters but still beatable in a lot to ways allowing for great replayabity. In general the openness of the fates games in terms of recording through heart/friendship/marriage seals means you can have lot of different runs with the same people keeping the combat fresh.
There is no defending the story in conquest other than your initial choice. In a state of shock and panic after losing Gunter and the wtf hey we are your real family whoops your real mom is dead. Damn straight I'm siding with the people I remember growing up with, the siblings who've already proven they truly care for me and my tender heart who won't kill beaten prisoners.
The rest of the story is garbage though, implementation of children story wise is dumb and supports make no sense since apparently your secret astral plane fort can be accessed by random bandits and you can go talk to units you havent recruited yet in supports.
Path of radiance has my fav story and supports. The combat is too easy and the non royal laguz are some of the most garbage units I've ever been given. I also find it to be pretty ugly as a game.
Fe7 has my fav art and animations and also the best port and boat maps. Anything short of Hector hard mode wants increased enemy growths for any real semblance of challenge though and having to drag late promoting often force deployed lords around is just as annoying here as in other gba games.
Cow Mengde
Banned
Yup. I find the "map being too big" criticism silly. I play the same way as you do. I split my units up to get ready for the next fights instead of moving everything in one direction. Not to mention you get 2 different warp staves very early in the game to help movement even more. Not to mention they are great for leveling up your weak healers with how much experience a single use grants.
I also agree the balance of the units is the best. Infantry are clearly better stats than mounted. Mounted does travel further and faster. I love that balance. Other games don't balance their mounted units nearly as well. Like damn, Paladins are powerful in POR/RD. Fast and excellent stats.
Add me to the Radiant Dawn camp. Path of Radiance is my favorite but Radiant Dawn was also great and huge. Took me like 80+ hours first time - really exploited those bronze weapons lol. I more specifically want to defend Part I, Dawn Brigade. I loved it, I loved how right from the start you felt underpowered and especially in those first chapters you had plan very well each move.