I think Fire Emblem still looks pretty bad. The GameCube and Wii versions look like ass considering the hardware.
I know it's not the main draw for something like FE, but damn.
That's a Wii game...
I came in to say Fire Emblem. Now here is the best part for that particular game
the Japanese version was not in 16:9. Also given how near the Wii launch it came out (in Japan) it is very clear that it is a Gamecube port, 4:3 only made that clearer so maybe it is best to see it for what it really is, a Gamecube game moved platforms last minute.
Totally agree about graphics not being the main draw of the games but it can sometimes be a bit off-putting.
In general Fire Emblem has never been the best looking game on the block in the genre. Comparing FE3 on the SNES to FEDA the Emblem of justice is a good example. Let's see a battle scene...:
A still image is not really working here to convey things...sorry
Later SNES FE games were better with lots of dynamic animations (and especially the maps) but other franchises tend to go SD (like Super Robot Taisen) for allowing characters to be told apart.
The GBA games are where the sprites started to feel good with somewhat exaggerated animation, yeah these are good but even then animation-wise Super Robot Taisen really destroyed them:
Again still images is not doing it. But I happen to have
a SRT video handy (maybe that is slightly unfair as the GBA SRT really evolved in animation capabilities while FE was stagnant).
Shadow Dragon was a low point though. The pre-renders sprites sure were smooth but:
They just felt bland like the FE3 sprites were.
Awakening is starting to go places (portrait cut-ins for critical hits), camera angles in battle and the like:
Still feels like it is somewhere between DS and 3DS though...