What is Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War like?

[Busterman64]

Hi, I'm Busterman64 and I'm new to Serene Forest (the forums anyway). I've recently had a major Fire Emblem rush and have been playing it kinda non-stop the past couple of weeks (with the start of summer and all). (I beat Blazing Sword 2 weeks ago and I am currently playing Binding Blade, a game I love and kinda hate). Since I've been in a Fire Emblem mood, I've been hearing that FE: Genealogy of the Holy War is pretty good (and I think Thracia 776 too). For someone like me who's played FE 6-11 & 13, (and grew up on 7 & 8) What's it like? I hear there is a patch and I'm interested in playing, but I kinda want to know what to expect. Please and thank you!

[Mekkah]

It's different and it might not make sense at first. Less chapters than other games, but with more content each to make up for it. Make a choice on whether to play it as blindly as you can (for a real first-time experience you can never have again) or look some stuff up in advance to make it easier. I personally recommend the former.

[Busterman64]

Thank you, Mekkah. While I would like to go in blind, just to be on the safe side, do you know anything I should be worried about, cautious of doing, or just be ready for? Anything helps.

[Baldrick]

Stuff that's vital for a first-time player to know:

- There's a save system available at the beginning of each turn (before you move any units). You can't restart from the beginning of a chapter unless you load an earlier save file. So keep a save at the beginning of each chapter, and make a second save every time you conquer a castle.

- Your home castle is like the deployment screen/Base in the Tellius games. It has many useful options, some of which are available at your other castles.

- The arena, available from chapter 1, will reduce a unit to 1 HP instead of killing them if they lose. So there's no reason not to use it for free EXP and money, it's not gamebreaking since you can only have seven fights per unit per chapter.

- Look for any new talk objectives every time you conquer a castle.

- There are some hidden items you probably won't find without a guide. There's nothing you can't live without, but if you want to know, you can find out about them here. Be aware there are some plot spoilers in the link if you read ahead.

There's a lot of other things I could tell you, but you'll be able to figure it out as you go along.

Edited May 23, 2015 by Baldrick

[Busterman64]

Thanks Baldrick! I greatly appreciate the info/heads-up!