User blog:Nauibotics/Naui's Fire Emblem Game Opinions

Hello everyone. As of today, we are merely 5 months away from the sixteenth installment. With this, I'll have officially played 9 titles with Three Houses being my tenth main series title. I thought I'd go back in time and relive my memories of all 9 games I've officially played and share my thoughts on each.

Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade
More or less, I owe Super Smash Bros. Melee for introducing me to the franchise and also Advance Wars for getting me into tactical RPGs in general. Fire Emblem Blazing Blade is my first Fire Emblem game and needless to say I was hooked in thanks to a very great Tutorial story that nicely introduces every mechanic in the game while also having a half decent story. Lyn is always going to have special place in my memories as my first Lord.

Then we get into the real story with Eliwood/Hector's stories. While Hector's is great and a top tier Lord character in my book, I feel many people don't appreciate Eliwood's story as much. He's a very idealistic thinker and he goes through a very tough transformation during the events of his story. My true OTP in the FE series has always been Eliwood and Ninian. I feel that their romance if pursued is one of the best written ones in the entire story. The ending is a bittersweet one knowing what happens in Binding Blade.

Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones
Sacred Stones was very dark...or at least one of the darker titles that are here in the West. I feel that this game had one of the better stories overall and has a host of great characters. While I think Ephraim is boring as a character, I do like Eirika more for her growth in the story. At least for Ephraim he is another unique lord like Hector. L'Arachel and Joshua were great characters and Lyon is by far the best human main villain in the series.

Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance
Aside from graphics which are pretty dated, this game does not receive much flame from people who have played the game. This game strikes a nice balance between characters and story. Neither feels weak nor strong and Ike is a pretty well written dynamic character in the plot. Many of my favorite characters come from this game both gameplay wise and story wise (even though Radiant Dawn messed up a few of them).

I also learned to fight for my friends.

Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn
A massive tale of three kingdoms and three different wars where all three come together in the end to defeat the final one...methinks Three Houses will go this route too, though Radiant Dawn at least starts off with one chapter set triggering the next for the others to deal with, making the dynamic of friend one chapter and foe the next extremely exciting. I see why people hate Micaiah, but I always thought that she was okay. Not the best in the series, but at least okay.

Probably one of the most balanced an approachable ones without being overwhelmingly difficult or incredibly easy. I stand by my guns that this game did well and you should play it despite the hate.

Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon
Hey I finally got to play Marth's story and he's actually a pretty good character without being boring. Given that it is a remake of the first game, I could care less that there are less things in it than most of the previous titles such as no supports as it just feels like a faithful recreation with "better" graphics. A remake does not always need shiny new toys. Those are meant to enhance. But Shadow Dragon just feels like I'm playing the original that I could never play.

Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem
Granted, I only played this with a translation next to me, but I feel that this game did a remake wonderfully with new characters and a new subplot with the assassins. Katarina is one of my favorites. This is perhaps one of the most difficult FE games I've ever played and I felt satisfied from a gameplay point at the end, even though I was basically forced to use a core set of characters and literally ignore everyone else given to me around the mid-game forward.

The Avatar was a cool thing...but I feel that their inclusion was more invasive than helpful as it probably impacted Marth's ability to be truly the Hero King he is stated to be. It felt more like a "he's only good because of me" and I became more important in the end than he was. Made further worse with your character going "No Marth, the world needs one hero, not two." Please, Marth is the one with the power in the end and all i did was support. At least let me be a footnote in the legend dammit!

Fire Emblem Awakening
Awakening was the starting ground for many of the modern Fire Emblem fans and I feel that it is probably one of the easiest ones to help you get into the series. However you will not get a true Fire Emblem experience from this one nor the next. That is not to say that the game is not without its merits because the game is easily one of the most replay-able ones from a gameplay standpoint of mixing and matching pairs for Pair Ups and marriages.

It is a FE game I cared more about the characters than the story which in itself a victory. Some people hate the Children characters. I actually liked them. I think Cordelia is fine if a bit boring, but damn is Severa too adorable for a daughter and a sister. I feel that the inclusion of children was well justified and am glad they were a nice extra that made sense...unlike the next game.

Chapter 11 is probably one of the best maps ambience wise. Definitely the most soul-stirring chapter in the franchise for western players who never experienced FE5 like I have.

Fire Emblem Fates
Basically an interesting concept and I'm putting all three routes into one section because really, it is better to talk about it as a whole than in individual parts.

The Nohrian side has much more interesting characters and much more fun maps from a tactical standpoint. It is only bogged down by being the "we're the evil side, but we aren't ALL evil" storyline of Conquest and me thinking that Corrin is a dolt. Birthright has the most sensible storyline but the Hoshidan characters has mostly boring characters and I really do not resonate with any of the non-royal characters (even though I thoroughly enjoyed marrying Setsuna and thinking of everything I'd have to go through with a wife like that), but felt satisfying. Revelation is a nice reward if you play both routes and go, "well here's the happy ending for everyone (except for you Scarlet), screw the story."

I felt that the Kids were okay, but not necessary. I would have been fine without them or at least not explained with the baby dimension that insta-grows them into teenagers. I also have gripes with the returning Awakening characters and the pseudo-clones. I would have preferred if they stayed out and they made 6 new characters. I feel that their inclusion were way too weird for me since they gave such a lofty explanation as to why they were there.

Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia
Finally Echoes the most recent title and remake. This is probably a big contender for best story, best Lords, best Villain, and best supporting cast out of all games. Even though it is the most non-Fire Emblem game of the lot, it still has slivers of what you know and love, just done slightly differently. The split story of both Alm and Celica's journeys were great and I have to admit that the split forced me to use everyone and each member of both armies became important.

This is what New Mystery tried to be and I am happy that there was no Avatar in this one. Sure Faye was okay as an addition, but the integration of both Berkut and Conrad felt like they were always meant to be in the story. All of the changes to the story, I felt, made it better.

Alm has probably one of the most glorious finisher attack in any Fire Emblem game ever in this game.