Is it just me, or do the GBA FEs feel kinda samey?

[Katie]

They share (or have similar) waaaaaaaaaaay too many things, such that when you play them, it almost feels like you're playing the same game, just with a different plot, characters, and maps. Like, the base stats of most classes are the same or similar, the animations are exactly the same, the stats of most weapons are the same or similar, etc. It's most noticeable when you play the different GBA games within a short time span. Other than the DS era, which actually has this same problem, the GBA era is probably the least varied era. It's arguable which is more varied between the DS and GBA eras though, and I'm not even sure myself. It's most egregious with the Sacred Stones, as while FE7 and 6 have the excuse of being a prequel and sequel of each other, respectively, and even that's not much of an excuse, considering the Tellius and Jugdral duologys lack this problem, and FE7 actually shares more with FE8 than it does with FE6! This is mainly because FE7 made slight changes to the stats of most weapons(usually an accuracy boost, but sometimes it did more than that), which FE8 kept for the most part. And strangely enough, FE8 feels the most unique out of all of them, not only because it has a different setting, mainly because it brought more to the table, whereas FE7 didn't (re)introduce much other than a tutorial, map variety, and multiple lords/storylines. Now don't get me wrong, I love the GBA FEs(except FE6, which I merely liked, though I would love it if it had better balanced gameplay, especially character-wise), but I can't help but notice this whenever I play two or more of them in a short timeframe. I do understand why they did this though, as they were just reusing assets, which helped them develop the titles quicker. And as I mentioned the DS titles have this problem too, so don't think I'm letting them off the hook, and you can discuss them here too if you like.. What do you guys think? Am I the only one that feels this way?(Probably not)

[Dr. Tarrasque]

They are "samey". Specially if you look at just FE6 and FE7. FE8 at least has several differences going for it.

[Jedi]

To be fair at 6 and 7 being samey, Kaga had just left, and they needed to rework their formula and they did it quite well, 6 and 7 are also in the same world, if that helps.

I agree with Sirius on 8.

Edited May 6, 2016 by Jedi

[Lord Raven]

Keeping in mind that we got 3 GBA FE games between 2002 and 2005

I think FE13/14 reuse a lot of similar things too

[Rezzy]

Keeping in mind that we got 3 GBA FE games between 2002 and 2005

I think FE13/14 reuse a lot of similar things too

Pretty much, I don't think being that similar is necessarily a bad thing. If it's not broke, don't fix it. Even now, the GBA games hold up in their simplicity.

FE11/12 are pretty similar as well, but I like the GBA games better than them.

I think most of the changes that Radiant Dawn actually hurt the experience, and I prefer Path of Radiance.

I haven't played FE1-5, so I can't speak on them.

[The Geek]

They were all released within a year of each other and use the same engine. So it kind of makes sense that they're really similar.

[X-Naut]

It's just you.

As everyone else said all three were released on the same system in a short time span, and there were never any glaring flaws in the engine they saw fit to correct. FE6/7 share a continuity and FE8 was a late addition and back-burner project compared to FE9.