Is it worth trying to play every single FE to date?

[albert]

So, do you guys think it's worth it trying to play every single FE out there?

I only ask because I've only played a handful of them over the years and, well, I really want to do this just for the sake of doing it.
I think I can do most of them except for maybe the Wii titles but, has anyone done this, years after they've all been released and you didn't have a chance to play them?

[Zasplach]

1 hour ago, albert said:

So, do you guys think it's worth it trying to play every single FE out there?

I only ask because I've only played a handful of them over the years and, well, I really want to do this just for the sake of doing it.
I think I can do most of them except for maybe the Wii titles but, has anyone done this, years after they've all been released and you didn't have a chance to play them?

I'm sure there are quiet a few people on the site who have played all of the FE games, most of them playing at least several after the title was released (heck, fire emblem turns 30 relatively soon).  Personally, with the release of SOV, I've now played all of the Fire Emblem stories (I haven't attempted to play FE1 or FE2, but FE11 and FE15 is basically those games and I've never had access to FE12, but I've played FE3).  It might worth it to try playing all the titles, but I don't have the patience for slow the NES is and FE12 is a pain to emulate.  In terms of playing POR and RD, it's probably easier to do if you have access to the physical copies, I was lucky enough to buy them when they came out so the problem of scarcity wasn't present for me.

I think playing every title is an interesting goal, but not one I'm probably going to pursue. 

[Harvey]

Depends on you as a consumer & gamer first and foremost. 

If you like FE as a whole, then get them all as much as possible. Some might have outdated gameplay but they all have different things to offer which makes them stand out. To date, not a single FE game has borrowed elements form FE5 and even then, its not exactly polished.

Also, there is only one Wii title. And while Radiant Dawn isn't hard to get, Path of Radiance is the hardest one to get since its on Gamecube and the price of the game is pretty steep unless you save a lot of money.

 

[Punished Dayni]

3 hours ago, albert said:

So, do you guys think it's worth it trying to play every single FE out there?

I only ask because I've only played a handful of them over the years and, well, I really want to do this just for the sake of doing it.
I think I can do most of them except for maybe the Wii titles but, has anyone done this, years after they've all been released and you didn't have a chance to play them?

I've only been able to play most of the series because of emulation, late as I was. I think trying at least one version of each setting would be the way to go about it (e.g. don't bother with the NES titles unless you really want to see what those are like as the DS remakes are mostly the best versions to work with)

I recommend reading up on the titles and seeing what you might like about them before diving right in.

[TheRJKid]

2 hours ago, Harvey said:

To date, not a single FE game has borrowed elements form FE5 and even then, its not exactly polished.

 

Didn't FE5 introduce differnet objectives and the rescue mechanic? Not 100% sure but I think weapon weight before was just a speed penalty  (build can reduce it)

Edited November 20, 2017 by TheRJKid

[Reality]

I went through "the plunge" 3 years back. I don't remember how I felt about it at the time, but nowadays I tend towards dissatisfied.

I think that the people who restricted themselve to just the "English  releases" have a better relationship to the franchise tbh. 

If you have a very wide general RPG knowledge, you can knock out a lot of the Famicom / Superfamicom games with a deceptively short in-game playtime. FE4 and FE5 might have annoying moments, but it really won't take more than a week and a half at most.

I do think that "marathoning" should only really be practiced in pure form with the early games, because they only had 1 difficulty mode. Later games have multiple difficulty modes, but other than Radiant Dawn / New Mystery / Conquest, playing them on Normal mode provides an experience that is easier than Dragon Quest / Pokemon. It's very useful if you want to see the story, but I like the game play to have some "meat" to it. A lot of them really demand replaying (or starting on) higher difficulties unless you want to go away with the impression that those games have no substance at all as SRPGs. 

The GBA games can be played at a very fast pace (on normal mode).  Of the DS games, Shadow Dragon can be played faster, NM new Mystery should only give a little more problems than NM FE6, but is still relatively free (compared to what Shadow Dragon and New Mystery are like on their hardest difficulties). You can definitely get sub 20 if not 15  Hours even in a blind casual playthrough. of these 5 games on Normal Mode difficulty.

Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn take the longest amount of hours to play, because their idea of "turn off animations" is to "watch an alternative animation on the map screen that still takes 2/3rds as long". Both games are carried by their story, and Radiant Dawn also benefits from good gameplay. Path or Radiance is enjoyable to play through, but exceptionally easy even on its Hard mode. 

Playing the 5 3DS games lets you discover things that aren't really apparent- Birthright and Revelations, for all the flack they get, STILL keeps the low HP Stat growth that Conquest does, and it can come into play on Lunatic mode at times, although it isn't quite enough to make the level design intelligent. unless we compare it to GBA idea of Hard Mode.  That said I consider that to have been very expensive trivia to learn. Awakening and Shadows of Valentia thankfully don't overlap so much as to make you feel guilty for your spending habits.

These are gameplay thoughts- story wise I was very happy or happy enough with every game starting with FE5 * , but, but if I were new to the franchise that wouldn't sell me on it over a rival series with more intense mechanical and level design. 

* I like FE3 and FE4's scripts  but honestly I don't think that playing the game's actually added to my appreciation of their story  compared to reading them online in the same way as FE5 and FE6- perhaps the dissonance between hard gameplay matching the charathers panic in those stories / compared to FE 3-4 being in control of a group of supersoldiers gameplaywise who still claimed to be underdogs "lore-wise" got to be too much. (perhaps due to different quality of translations)

[Jotari]

What do you mean by is it worth it? You won't get any money for it and if you're looking for prestige I doubt many people here actually care about how much someone has played. What worth you can get from it is entirely up to you. If you genuinely enjoy these games then go for it. Every single game in the series manages to be distinct and varied in some way so if you're really into the core mechanics you'll find yourself enjoying almost all of them. However if you do start playing a game and it just doesn't bring you any pleasure, just give up on it.

Speaking from personal experience I've played through all the games save 1 and 3 (so like many can tick off the box of having played every story). I do have some inkling to get around to them at some point (and Tear Ring Saga which is pretty highly rated among those who've played it) but I don't feel any express rush to do so.

[LucarioGamer812]

I've played about half of the series. I've played every entry from shadow dragon to now along with sacred stones, and will eventually go back to playing 7 and 6 (via emulators). I do plan on playing the two tellius games one day, and I'm just waiting on a genealogy and/or thracia remake. (I have no desire to go back and play 1-3 since I've played their remakes)

3 hours ago, Zasplach said:

FE12 is a pain to emulate

Just asking, how so? I just used a DS emulator, got a version of fe12, applied an english patch to it (which created a seperate game file) and then loaded it with the emulator. Played fine and took maybe 10 minutes tops. I'd say it's worth it as 12 is pretty good.

[HK Motendra]

45 minutes ago, LucarioGamer812 said:

Just asking, how so? I just used a DS emulator, got a version of fe12, applied an english patch to it (which created a seperate game file) and then loaded it with the emulator. Played fine and took maybe 10 minutes tops. I'd say it's worth it as 12 is pretty good.

Not everyone has a comp powerful enough to handle DS emulation. Its why, despite it being my favorite for a long time, I've only ever completed 2-3 playthroughs at most for fe12

[familyplayer]

I think it's worth it. You get to see a lot of cool characters, see why people may love or hate some games or mechanics, etc. If you want to do it, I highly recommend it through emulation for the older games. No one will really shame you for it and it's the only way to play 1-6 easily with a translation. Speaking of translations, you may want to wait on FE5 until the new patch comes out as the current one, while adequate, has some huge bugs.

[Miky225]

Well it's worth to play all of them well except the Nes Era,but there are remakes for it.

[Gebby]

Depends on how you mean.

If you want to play every individual title released, the I'd say no, seeing as FE1 and FE2 both have higher-quality remakes, and FE3 is debatably not worth it for the same reason. I'd only really say that you should play them if you just have some free time on your hands that you wouldn't want to spend playing something else.

If you want to play every STORY, then hell yeah, go for it.

[De Geso]

Every time I play a game in the series I haven't yet I experience one of two emotions:

For some games I've thought, "Why haven't I played this before? This is awesome!" For others I've thought, "This is complete garbage, why do people like this so much?"

It really depends on your preference. If you just like the series in general, then it could be worth it to at least try them all. But I don't think it's worth playing a game that you hate just to say you did it/feel like you have a complete grasp on the series.

[sirmola]

There is no reason not to try. Put in a few hours and see if you like them. I find the fun i have on the first few chapters to be representative of the full experience (except for fe5, where the first few chapters are comparatively really easy). FYI, I have a comp that was highish end 4 years ago, and it has no issues emulating any game except RD, which has annoying slowdown. I have played every fe game except for the first, and book 2 of the third, and finished all of them except for gaiden (which just hasn't aged well), and RD (which I gave up when i discovered that i had missed the brave bow, which is buried treasure on a non-desert map, and would have to replay several chapters because i had saved over the file.)

 

9 hours ago, Harvey said:

To date, not a single FE game has borrowed elements form FE5 and even then, its not exactly polished.

This is simply not true. FE5 is the first game with fog of war, rescuing, the build stat, weapon exp (fe4 introduced weapon ranks, but they were fixed unless you promoted, or used a father with different holy blood), fatigue(although only echoes used that), the entire wind magic type being super effective against flyers (although fe 1 and 3 had wind tomes with this property.), other objectives, like defend and escape (although you could argue that fe4's "enemies destroying the home castle means game over" mechanic is a direct precurser to defend, even it it only really gets used once), almost everyone promoting using a master seal (as opposed to a variety of promotion items, or going to a specified location), adn the capture mechanic. Every single later fe game has borrowed at least one (and usualy more) of the elements on that list.

Edited November 20, 2017 by sirmola

[Randoman]

I thought I'd post and add a different perspective from those people that are saying "don't bother with the FEs that have remakes", since I thought that for the longest time about FE1 for the NES (especially since my first FE was FE3 Book 1). With me completing a playthrough of FE1 this year, it was quite the educational experience and it was really neat to see how the Fire Emblem series started, how it evolved from there, and how advanced the first 3 FE games were for their time. The gameplay between the remakes and originals differ a lot more than you'd think (such as ballistae in FE1 being much less annoying and cheap, the crazy "must kill Marth and nothing else matters" mindset of the enemy AI in FE1, and FE3 Star Orb and Star Orb shards giving really awesome stat growth boosts). So if you're really wanting to experience as much of Fire Emblem's history as possible, I'd personally go all the way and play both the remakes and originals.

[LucarioGamer812]

13 hours ago, Motendra said:

Not everyone has a comp powerful enough to handle DS emulation. Its why, despite it being my favorite for a long time, I've only ever completed 2-3 playthroughs at most for fe12

My computer can barely play minecraft on conservative settings, so yeah, heck even watching a video on youtube tends to crash it.

[albert]

Great responses from everyone and thanks! 
There seems to be a lot of opinions on the matter so let me go ahead and try to explain.
As for me doing this, or at least thinking of doing this for any money or for the prestige, that really isn’t the case at all and I know I won’t receive anything. Not only that, I don’t think I’ll even mention this to anyone as none of my friends/family play this game. I do have a genuine love for the game and don’t want to play these games “half-assed” and just give up. But like Randoman and others have said, I want to do this really just for the educational purposes and to see how FE has evolved over the years, including how the remakes compare to the originals. And who knows, maybe the NES titles will be enjoyable…

I still have a long way to go to have even half the knowledge you guys half so that’s another reason why as I don’t want to be another casual (I do have some knowledge of the game but want to get deeper into it)

My main ports for playing most of these games will probably be emulation save the DS/3DS titles. It’ll probably take a few years, but seems like a fun project to take on. 

But, very very interesting to see everyone`s input. I am learning a lot about each game and the stories just by these posts. I’ll go through them again and if there are other opinions or anything, feel free to post. 

[Jotari]

6 hours ago, albert said:

Great responses from everyone and thanks! 
There seems to be a lot of opinions on the matter so let me go ahead and try to explain.
As for me doing this, or at least thinking of doing this for any money or for the prestige, that really isn’t the case at all and I know I won’t receive anything. Not only that, I don’t think I’ll even mention this to anyone as none of my friends/family play this game. I do have a genuine love for the game and don’t want to play these games “half-assed” and just give up. But like Randoman and others have said, I want to do this really just for the educational purposes and to see how FE has evolved over the years, including how the remakes compare to the originals. And who knows, maybe the NES titles will be enjoyable…

I still have a long way to go to have even half the knowledge you guys half so that’s another reason why as I don’t want to be another casual (I do have some knowledge of the game but want to get deeper into it)

My main ports for playing most of these games will probably be emulation save the DS/3DS titles. It’ll probably take a few years, but seems like a fun project to take on. 

But, very very interesting to see everyone`s input. I am learning a lot about each game and the stories just by these posts. I’ll go through them again and if there are other opinions or anything, feel free to post. 

If you are going to jump headfirst into the series, I reccomend you play FE7 first (the first one released abroad, simply called Fire Emblem). Because that has an unskippable tutorial at the start (at least it's unskippable the first time you play through the game). It's probably fine for newer players that have only played one or two games but I, at least, found it very grating when I got to it after playing most games in the series.

[Vince777]

Yeah. I've played all of them, even including the 4 short chapters on snes satellite view.

I still would not recommend the original games if they've been remade. Just play the remakes. 

(and also play Tearring Saga, because that is essentially a Fire Emblem game and it's a great one)

Edited November 24, 2017 by Vince777

[Wist]

On 2017/11/20 at 10:18 PM, Motendra said:

Not everyone has a comp powerful enough to handle DS emulation. Its why, despite it being my favorite for a long time, I've only ever completed 2-3 playthroughs at most for fe12

It's odd how slow DS emulators for computers still are. On my laptop (which has Chromebook specs) DraStic running in an Android emulator was twice as fast as DeSmuME. It's a pain to set up, but if you're itching to play some more FE12, it might be worth trying.

[Azz]

It depends. Personally, I have played them all, even the original NES titles, and I think it was worth it, but I do recognize, they are slow and a slog to playthrough, especially compared to their remakes.

If anything, I would say FE3 upwards is worth the play, FE1 and FE2 are debatable. It's fun to see how far the series has come but yeah.

[edgelordweeaboo]

It's worth playing SoV, Awakening, Genealogy, Thracia, Binding Blade, Blazing Sword and Sacred Stones. According to most people it's worth playing PoR but that game is one of the worst in the franchise imo. Radiant Dawn is worth playing if you can deal with the extremely low lows of the game. All the fates games are decent enough but the stories suck. Conquest map design is good. You've probably played them already though

[Shadow Mir]

Personally, I think it isn't worth it. Frankly, the earlier FE games, for the most part, have some issues that might make them difficult to tolerate, ESPECIALLY the Jugdral games.