Samz707

I won't name names to avoid a war but I do feel even some Fire Emblem games fall into that "More like "regular" RPGs" trap, where it feels more like stats than strategy. Even some SRPGs I like such as Fallout Tactics or Silent Storm do suffer from not encouraging "non-standard" tactics as much. (Just look at alot of SRPGs set in the modern day like Jagged Alliance where equipment such as mines would in theory add strategy but in reality there's little-to-no use in actually using them, Fire Emblem Blazing Blade having most enemies be melee actually made them more useful than most SRPGs.)

GBA definitely imo. 3H has strong designs but the actual graphical implementation isn't the best. Echoes is great but it's right next to some truly awful stuff from the other 3DS games.

Indeed Narcian is the best, FE6 remake having voiced Narcian would make it the objectively best Fire Emblem game and officially give Heroes no reason to exist anymore outside of breadcrumbing me more SOV. (It always bugs me how people and the game act like Mustafa is an complete innocent when his entire goal is to essentially get the shepherds executed without a fight so his conscience is clean despite the fact he'd still be responsible for their deaths.)

I found Mustafa's whole thing to fall incredibly flat to the point where he actually came off as less sympathetic. He basically causes his own death with his stupidity at worst and at best is a coward who'd rather see the Shepherds captured and executed because he doesn't want to kill them himself but still too much of a coward to attempt letting them go, essentially coming off as incredibly slimy or incredibly stupid to me. I am genuinely baffled anyone felt bad for killing him. I honestly respect outright villains like Narcian more than him.

Outside of maybe references with similar but clearly not intended to be literally the same characters, not really. I like FE being standalone and it doesn't help I did not like any of the characters that returned in Fates. At most, I'd like a small joke where you meed an NPC who's suspiciously similar but not supposed to literally be them as an in-joke. As people mentioned, it at least makes sense in Shadows of Valentia/Gaiden because those are explicitly the same universe and the fact they travelled to Valentia has an actual reason. As opposed to the Awakening characters who are in Fates purely because popular and with (from what I've seen) a half-assed excuse locked away in DLC. I only want to see any returning characters if it makes sense (Like SOV) instead of more multiverse nonsense.

I like the 3H system with how understandable it is (as well as no limits) but I have a soft spot for SOV, mainly because Alm and Faye actually has a negative support effect as Faye loses dodge when close to Alm. It helps sell how obsessed she is.

I personally despise the gameplay and maps, I've only played Conquest.

It's happened for a few: Devil May Cry: Only played the HD Collection, DMC1 was my favourite as I felt it was well designed and extremely fair outside of two bosses, I played it first and really liked it, DMC2 was flawed but at least not too frustrating, DMC3 I felt was awful, it had alot of the same issues as Devil May Cry 2 plus new ones like a unfair difficulty and somehow even worse designed enemies. (I hate 3 so much that I'm genuinely considering dropping the series if this is the "best" one for the post DMC-1 games and I don't want to replay it for Vergil mode despite the fact I did both characters in DMC2.) ARMA/Operation Flashpoint: The original ARMA/Operation Flashpoint (There was a name-change post-release) has one of the strongest campaigns in the series and is ironically one of the more stable games in the series, later campaigns suffer from feature creep, buggy mission scripts and some awful at times design. Sniper Elite: The first game has a unique atmosphere and game-play design that the sequels pretty much abandoned, they also adopted an over-the-shoulder camera which I really, really hate. Resident Evil: I can't remember which I exactly played first but I know the Wii ports of Zer0 or Resident Evil 1 remake (not sure which I got first) and Darkside Chronicles were my first Resident Evil games and I love both Resi-remake and Zer0. And of course not at all for a few: Tomb Raider: I started with Tomb Raider 3 but it's honestly one of my least favorite now, I prefer most games in the series over it, it's simply badly put together with some unfair traps. (It got different developers internally compared to the previous two and it shows.) Fire Emblem: I started with Awakening, I hated it then and I only hate it more now with my second game, Blazing Blade being what actually got me into the series.

Terminator: Dark Fate - Defiance Been playing this, it's a pretty good RTS so far, it's on the same engine as the "Warfare" series of old RTS games so it's a fully featured realistic tactical RTS. (infact they've actually made things more complex it seems.) You can capture vehicles to bring them into later levels for instance and vehicles have realistic armor.

I guess this is unpopular as I seem to be the only person whoever brings it up: Faye really should have had a boss convo with Slayde. Him nearly killing her as a kid and Alm punching him seems like something that'd turn her crush into full on obsession but the fact Slayde was going to kill her specifically never comes up again. It would have been great if she had a special boss convo with him and it's one of my biggest dissapointments with Echoes that she doesn't.

Now I'm just imagining the Swamps as the word's worst boy scouts field trip. You will learn how to swim in filthy swamp water and you will like it. Alternatively it's intended as some sort of defensive area, like building a castle or fort but more poisonous.

Yeah I assumed they still had food in reserve but had either little or no actual overall increase in their surplus. AKA: They would run out or have to ration food if it kept up. Since otherwise they'd be kinda screwed at the end of the game if they were about to all die from famine. (Even with Alm saying how he'll toil the fields myself, which brings to mind the glorious mental image of Alm forcing all the nobles who were sitting on their asses and eating alot to actually help farm.) And of course, trading with Archanea may have helped. (Why didn't we see that you had one job IS.) You can honestly see this lack of thought in IRL situations, where people will see people having food or a food cart and then proclaim that "X country having food issues isn't real" on social media.

I'm of the opposite opinion, I believe Heroes should have used versions of these characters with a few of their alternative design/personality choices in Heroes, it's a god damn multiverse where the Heroes aren't even from the same timeline as each other, I see this less as "customization is bad" and more "Heroes being lazy". If anything I'm dissapointed we never got a more "cold" Byleth in Heroes. (The kind that would pick B in that Linhardt support choice that he finds revolting.) If it's a multi-verse where even the exact same character is from a different universe in an alt, they should have honestly played with that.

And they do incredibly dumb things. Like Corrin There is no way you can write stuff like that and not have me eventually just think that this character deserves to die for their stupidity. Corrin also says alot of dumb things which makes it hard for me to root for them, the 4 hours I managed to play of Valkyria Chronicles had this issue where Welkin was an unlikable dumbass for me which is part of why I dropped it. (He unironically tries to say something among the lines of "we should all get along like animals in nature" to be anti-war, which is objectively wrong, he is also supposed to be someone who's knowledgable on nature.) If I don't like the main character, it gets alot harder to enjoy something. (And both games not having good gameplay didn't help.)

At least so far, I can't recall as many of them feeling as drastic as the Linhardt one, Shez just feels more like a predefined character to me. It's still better than the 3DS Avatars but I feel that more's condemning just how shallow and terrible they are than any real praise for Shez. 3H would have been peak if we let Byleth be more "Ashen Demon" like in that Linhardt support. Yeah Corrin is just flatout a fixed character and not even remotely a likable one like Shez is.