What makes your favorite FE, your favorite?

[Jedi]

I know there was a thread like this some months back, I believe it faded out some pages ago however, so I'm gonna bring some life back into this type of conversation.

What makes the game you have listed as your favorite FE game, your personal favorite?

FE6 and I have a bit of a weird history, I got FE7 bout 13 years ago now, and I learned Roy was in the game before, so I imported it for the GBA and played it through, making kind of my own headcanon for characters, I also read the Manga that Roy appears in every now and again which shows a bit more of his character, (careful thinker, lover not exactly a fighter). He's his own tactician for the most part, something most other lords couldn't do, although his unit results are arguably the weakest in the series when it comes to how good lords are overall.

Now for the game itself, I know FE6 is by no means perfect, but its simple, the world (Elibe) is one of my personal favorites in the series, the characters when you delve into a number of supports have some interesting history and backstories (shame about the support mechanic in general).

The maps are also fun to me, I like when battles feel grand, big and well army like, some later FE's feel a bit too closed in and not very force vs force and more, personal militia vs bandit jerks. But hey, different opinions. Unit balance is a tad wacky, but for the most part a good chunk of the units are usable on Normal Mode, although possible on Hard Mode as well, you have to really work for it. The game isn't punishing to the point of not giving you some nukes down the road, and while axes are a bad weapon type in this game at least we have 2 decent users of them, namely Gonzales and Bartre, (Echinda is way better with swords imo). But people also oversell how bad axes are, sure their hit rates are bad, but when a good chunk of enemies in early game and later game use lances, it doesn't matter nearly as much in those cases, swords dominate of course, and the game overall has some of my favorite characters, namely Igrene, Cecilia and others.

I just really enjoy the simplicity of it, and the varied locales, I also like how you get the legendary weapons as a reward for being fairly adept at the game, although some of the chapters are mildly frustrating.

Edited May 2, 2016 by Jedi

[bethany81707]

I think I like Genealogy quite a bit because it really sold the idea that it was a story of a war. The chapters and story spanned decades, and even required you to have children to continue fighting once the first generation died off. The system was much neater than Awakening and Fates "give you the children whenever" (Fire Emblem is not a non-linear game), and the characters, despite this predating supports, were still fleshed out and lovable in their own right.

Ishtar quickly became my favourite character in the entirety of FE after seeing that game for the first time.

[MCProductions]

I consider my top 5 FEs near equal in terms of quality, so I'll spout words about all of them

Fates: Conquest's map design

Inf. weapon durability

Beruka and Conquest!Corrin

High replayability

FE3: How absurdly broken staves are

How dragonstones work

Did multiple games in one before Fates without resorting to DLC

FE7: Lyn

EliwoodxLyn is an option, and that is my second favorite FE pairing ever

Map design

FE6: Map design

Roy

High replayability

FE2: Infinite Weapon Durability

2 routes at once

1-5 range bows

[Anacybele]

RD has the best gameplay mechanics in the series, imo. I love the skill system, the ledge mechanics, the weapon triangle and magic triangles, unique objectives, etc. The game wasn't too easy either, even on the easiest difficulty. I also think the story is pretty good, though it could use some polishing here and there. I like that we get to see the story from different points of view. It helped humanize more characters and give more insight to all the Tellius nations. The graphics and cutscenes are beautiful too. And lastly, RD Ike is the sexiest thing in video games. <3 He's also rather funny. lol

Edited May 2, 2016 by Anacybele

[Alex95]

I like Ike.

The characters are well done, even the ones I don't like too much. I love the music and the maps. And the mechanics were simple, though I never understood the biorythm much.

A very good game all around.

[Jedi]

The characters are well done, even the ones I don't like too much. I love the music and the maps. And the mechanics were simple, though I never understood the biorythm much.

Biorhythm is basically based on well, the theory of Biorhythm.

"According to the theory of biorhythms, a person's life is influenced by rhythmic biological cycles that affect his or her ability in various domains, such as mental, physical and emotional activity. These cycles begin at birth and oscillate in a steady (sine wave) fashion throughout life, and by modeling them mathematically, it is suggested that a person's level of ability in each of these domains can be predicted from day to day. The theory is built on the idea that the biofeedback chemical and hormonal secretion functions within the body could show a sinusoidal behavior over time."

This is one of the few times I appreciate Wikipedia helping me remember little details. Although I learned this theory last quarter of college proper haha.

So every character has a bit of a different cycle and depending on the turn, and their biorhythm is good, bad or neutral, this effects hit rate, damage, (I think avo too), but there is some noticeable effects, even if I didn't notice em at first either, but its basically a cycle or pattern.

Edited May 2, 2016 by Jedi

[Alex95]

Okay, let me reword that. I get biorhythm, it just doesn't seem to effect much on my playthroughs, so it's mostly redundant or useless to me. Or perhaps I just don't notice it and don't give it a second though.

[bethany81707]

Okay, let me reword that. I get biorhythm, it just doesn't seem to effect much on my playthroughs, so it's mostly redundant or useless to me. Or perhaps I just don't notice it and don't give it a second though.

Well, it's about as big an impact as the weapon triangle in hit/avoid chance, and slightly changes skill activation and finding hidden item chances, so it really isn't that big a deal unless you're playing Maniac mode.

[Jedi]

Okay, let me reword that. I get biorhythm, it just doesn't seem to effect much on my playthroughs, so it's mostly redundant or useless to me. Or perhaps I just don't notice it and don't give it a second though.

It seems to be more noticed by those who do LTC (Low Turn Count) runs and Hard Mode Radiant Dawn runs. From my general experience.

phineas ninja'd part of my post haha, thanks for mentioning maniac.

Edited May 2, 2016 by Jedi

[eclipse]

Shadow Dragon. . .oh man, this game and I have a history!

When I first picked up this game, I managed to make it something like 100 feet before my car died - in the middle of a busy shopping center parking lot. Car dying wasn't cool, the guys who helped to push my car out of the way were amazing. My introduction to Marth was in the lobby of a repair shop. Played through SD a bit, then got bored, so did other stuff.

Fast forward a bit, and someone on SF wants to host a SD tourney. I thought it was cool, so I dusted off my account and started posting. Tourney never happened, but I stuck around here. THEN, drafting became a thing, which breathed new life into playing SD, which is why I continue to play it despite the generally meh reaction to it.

Oh, right, what I actually like about SD, which boils down to reclassing, story, and characters. Reclassing allows for some pretty funny gimmick builds, and dynamic leveling is something that I really want to return. The story's simple, and it doesn't try to run in a million directions (Awakening) or attempt to make the main character some sort of perfect paragon (Fates). The characters aid Marth, but never try to steal the spotlight from him - hell, some of 'em don't even bother introducing themselves before they join his army! There's some small extra convos that help to flesh certain people out. Others. . .I swear they're in there for comic relief (ROGER). However, the death quotes show some personality, and for a game where Marth is leading an army, that's enough for me.

[Jedi]

Shadow Dragon. . .oh man, this game and I have a history!

When I first picked up this game, I managed to make it something like 100 feet before my car died - in the middle of a busy shopping center parking lot. Car dying wasn't cool, the guys who helped to push my car out of the way were amazing. My introduction to Marth was in the lobby of a repair shop. Played through SD a bit, then got bored, so did other stuff.

Fast forward a bit, and someone on SF wants to host a SD tourney. I thought it was cool, so I dusted off my account and started posting. Tourney never happened, but I stuck around here. THEN, drafting became a thing, which breathed new life into playing SD, which is why I continue to play it despite the generally meh reaction to it.

Oh, right, what I actually like about SD, which boils down to reclassing, story, and characters. Reclassing allows for some pretty funny gimmick builds, and dynamic leveling is something that I really want to return. The story's simple, and it doesn't try to run in a million directions (Awakening) or attempt to make the main character some sort of perfect paragon (Fates). The characters aid Marth, but never try to steal the spotlight from him - hell, some of 'em don't even bother introducing themselves before they join his army! There's some small extra convos that help to flesh certain people out. Others. . .I swear they're in there for comic relief (ROGER). However, the death quotes show some personality, and for a game where Marth is leading an army, that's enough for me.

Oh wow, quite the backstory with the game. I remember when I first started drafting, and you helped me with SD in particular haha, and showed me the wonders of reclassing people like Wendell.

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

I focus on mechanics and in this point FE5 + 10 did the best job.

Thracia still feels like a super modern game for me, much fresher than FE11-13.

It introduced so many new and great mechanics like

1. capturing
2. new mission objectives like defend and escape
3. fatigue system
4. new staves (which were unique particullary)

Escpially stave combos are very important.

The excellent skill system from FE4 was overtaken.

However it also has its flaws like

1. no guarantee hit and miss
2. door keys or a thief with lockpicks are necessary to beat the game
3. weird RNG (it's easy to miss with 99% and getting hit with 1%)
4. sleep and silence hurt you much harder and last till the end of the chapter

FE10 comes to close to FE5, but it's implemented better.

Capturing and fatigue don't exist unfortunately but therefore ledges and biorhythm (I like it) are introduced instead.

It also has a few more new mission objectives (like turn limit missions).

The only real flaws in FE10 are the missing weapon triangle on hard mode and the unbalanced characters' availibility

These both games are pretty much my favorite FE games.

Edited May 2, 2016 by Ayama Wirdo

[Pretty Cool Guy]

FE10 is my favorite because I love the aesthetics of everything from the great character designs and artwork, and the gameplay is great, with some interesting mechanics that I wish would return (ledges). Ike is also my favorite lord. Having multiple armies lets you use and experiment with lots of units to see which ones you want to use for endgame. I really want to say Path of Radiance is my favorite, since it is what introduced me to the series, and has a superior story, but I think the more balanced and challenging gameplay gives Radiant Dawn the edge. It's really close though, I bought POR on a whim at a gameshop for $45 (Which is a steal now!) and fell in love with the series ever since

[Dr. Tarrasque]

FE5. All the others seem too straightforward to me and I just don't find much fun in playing them again. Capture resulted in subsequent playthroughs of FE5 being more interesting because of the item accessibility its got going which allows for some fun with the Sleep Sword, Blizzard, making certain characters easy to use and other shenanigans like capturing Galzus.

In the other games you're pretty much limited to items the enemies drop and thieves have way restrictions on what they can steal compared to this game. There's also the special cases like Cyas' appearances, infinite reinforcement escape chapters, etc. I know how to deal with those things but even then, I can choose to play such situations depending on what I want in this playthrough. Do I want a challenge? I'll take on Reinhardt and his stupid army with Cyas' presence. Do I wanna watch enemy armies die to their own command? I'll setup a Berserk staff use and enjoy the fireworks.

[maybe]

it's fun

[Light Strategist]

Awakening's my favourite.

Initially, I wasn't too hooked on the franchise, truth be told, I didn't know what to make of it, kinda boring somewhat early on, but I just stuck with it, for one reason or another... then, I got to chapter 9, witnessed the cutscene after the chapter and felt obligated (and much more willing) to continue. I suppose in a way, the best way to describe it is that I felt like I had to be there for the characters.

Roll on Chapter 13. I completed that and then of course what followed was Lucina's revelation of who she was, everything that had happened to her and so on. For the first time in my life, I was attached to the characters of a game. I've been gaming for the better part of my life and I was just very attached to the characters. Heck, Lucina's story brought tears to my eyes and just made me want to protect her from everything.

I guess I just felt like I was a part of the story. Even my Avatar basically translated my thoughts to the characters by everything he said at the time.

I guess Awakening's my favourite because the characters felt like real people to me in my original playthrough. I was lost in their world, just wanting to help and make a difference.

Sure, it's my entry to the franchise but... that's not stopped me from going back and completing 7, starting 6, 11 and 12 and almost finishing 9.

[Inference]

I thought you'd never ask.

It's so hard to talk about FE7 these days without retreading covered ground or defending its flaws from various detractors. It's such a landmark entry, and one that nearly everyone here has played... I feel overwhelmed even beginning to type my journey with this series, and how FE7 fostered the sheer love I have for Fire Emblem and other strategy games. We all love the characters of Fire Emblem, and connect to them for various reasons, be they aesthetics, gameplay, personality quirks, or a handful of really great lines that define them. FE7's characters are in no shortage of any of these things. This is the defining game for character writing.

Going on at this point would require my own thread.

[TheSilentChloey]

Hmm. What makes Fire Emblem Awakening my favourite you ask? Well a lot of things actually.

Fire Emblem Awakening was my first game in the series as a whole. I saw the box art and thought that it was interesting and the game might be fun. Then I got the game. It should have been simple enough to understand the game mechanics but for someone like me that really doesn't matter. After all I came over from Pokemon where every single game added a new mechanic so it all feels so gimmicky and meh to me. I also I kind of understand things similar to it (and I have played Pokemon Conquest which is very similar to Fire Emblem games and was the first that I'd heard of Fire Emblem at the time).

When I first played Awakening I can tell you that no matter what I tried I couldn't get past Marth's underlings and kept losing Robin or Chrom (very heart breaking) for a good part of two solid years. Then I finally cleared the chapter and continued the game, surprising myself with just how I pulled through it. The pairings were not "optimal" but I loved them all the same (Chrom/Avatar was a complete accident, Frederick and Panne had a cute support and Henry was one cunning man indeed getting the perfect ring without Sumia noticing. This was of course the run where I accidently killed Tharja and Gaius so they would have been a couple more than likely), I liked it when Lucina got to hug her mother in chapter 13 and it resulted in a scene similar to my current playthrough:

)

Basically what drew me into the game was the characters and save for some exceptions (Tharja mostly...and Validar and Grima take the cake of hate for me) it will continue to be what draws me to keep playing the game again and again.

[Magical Glace]

For FE6

Best maps, one of the best protagonists, favorite lore/backstory, best mechanics (shared with 7/8), and Wolt.

[blah the Prussian]

Genealogy made the right move by having its chapters feel more like campaigns than battles; the effects of this was allowing the player to actually see why each castle is so important to seize. It also has a good story. POR has the best story in all of FE and the best main villain ever; too bad RD's revisionism blamed most of Ashnard's crimes on Lekain.

[whase]

Path of Radiance

- has the best story in any Fire Emblem

- has some really interesting chapter objectives

- has the best lord in all of Fire Emblem

- has a skill system that is not too broken

- has the best way to handle supports

- has a transfer system to Radiant Dawn that is amazing for a stat-junky like myself

- has Laguz, and they can actually survive while unshifted

- has herons, that work far more believable than dancers

[Quintessence]

FE7.

One word: childhood/nostalgia. Nothing else.

It's so emotionally hooked that even by playing Fates, Radiant Dawn or any other FE, I miss Blazing Sword.

[Jedi]

FE7.

One word: childhood/nostalgia. Nothing else.

It's so emotionally hooked that even by playing Fates, Radiant Dawn or any other FE, I miss Blazing Sword.

You're just absorbing their quintessence for Lord Nergal, who awaits you on the dread isle

[Locke087]

FE 7 is my second favorite game of all time so for me it has...

The best map design.

The best story.

The best characters.

My favorite world (though it's pretty much tied with Tellius).

And I really love it's relatively simple and balanced gameplay, FE 7 has no fat or nonsense.

I also have no small amount of nostalgia for it.

This wouldn't be my second favorite game of all time if I didn't love almost everything about it.

Edited May 2, 2016 by Locke087

[Quintessence]

You're just absorbing their quintessence for Lord Nergal, who awaits you on the dread isle

Well thought theory Jedoof! I'd die if I ever see an FE7 remake omg I'd be the happiest person in life!