Opinions on FE1

[CatManThree]

Seriously, does anyone actually like FE1? Noone really talks about the darn thing and I'd thought I'd bring it up and ask what people honestly think of it, and if anyone actually enjoys playing the game. 

Personally, I love the thing for whatever reason. I think its mostly because of all it's corkyness. I'm also not really bothered by the controls.

[Logjam]

I never got into it because of the clunkiness of the older games (FE1-3). I just played the remakes. Do you think it's worth going back to play FE1 even though I've played FE11? I think that might be one of the main reasons people don't talk about it as much because it's easier to play the remake.

[Morswo]

I never played FE1, but I played Shadow Dragon (FE11) and enjoyed it.  I do not know how different FE1 from FE11 is, I guess FE1 is really quite good game, but I do not  suspect that FE1 is worth to be played after FE11.

[Magical Glace]

I haven't played FE1, the primary reason being how extremely outdated the FC interface is.  I did try playing Gaiden once, but I just couldn't do it.  

There's a lot of really odd stuff about it, from what I've seen, like Weapon level going up randomly (why), but overall I think the interface + FE3 Book 1/FE11's existence is the main reason people usually don't bother.

Edited January 16, 2018 by Glaceon Mage

[Reality]

FE1 is not worth playing. The clunky interface can be a turn off, but if you stick with it, you'll notice that the borked "do the math yourself" way of establishing battle damage doesn't actually cause that many problems, since player unit growths relative to enemy stats are totally absurd even leaving aside the "set" nature of promotion bonuses.

To the game's credit, it doesn't really waste your time and can be played in full in just one weekend. It is kind of ironic to think about it in the context of other NES RPGs, since being as easy as it is, it's kind of an outlier in the world of mandatory grinding / bosses that use full party attacks every turn / limited inventory space. Honestly, if it weren't for the fact that it's in the game's marketing (and this website's resources) you would never know that FE1 introduced permadeath to the series, simply because your units are too good to die through most of it.

Although FE2 is also problematic, it at least doesn't have that problem...

Edited January 17, 2018 by Reality

[Ertrick36]

On 1/16/2018 at 9:37 AM, Morswo said:

I never played FE1, but I played Shadow Dragon (FE11) and enjoyed it.  I do not know how different FE1 from FE11 is, I guess FE1 is really quite good game, but I do not  suspect that FE1 is worth to be played after FE11.

It's very different from the DS remake.  A lot more archaic, and you don't have all the difficulty options that the DS version has.

SD is good for what it was, but there were some strange quirks in it - almost as strange as the quirks that persist in Gaiden.  The strangest, imo, is the fact that healers could only level up by getting attacks; you couldn't gain levels simply by healing, which is what led folks to deliberately opening their healers to attack.  Also the fact that they didn't show you where you could move your units was another bane that made MotE superior.  Or that Armor Knights and Hunters couldn't promote into Generals or Horsemen, even though both of those classes exist as playable lategame units.  And like Reality said, there's almost no indication that any units who are killed are actually dead for good; no one has a death quote.

I'd say for a retrospective, SD might be... interesting to look back on it, but if you're only wanting to genuinely experience Marth's story or play a good retro FE, it's better to go for Mystery of the Emblem.  MotE is simple, but it is more playable than OG SD, even with the missing chapters in Book 1.  And plus, you don't have to make your enemies beat the shit out of Julian's girlfriend if you want to push levels out of her in the later games.

And this comes from a guy who has a tolerance for "archaic" games.

[Seafarer]

I played through it once. It was... well, it was Fire Emblem. That's probably the nicest thing I can say about it.

Its interface is not very responsive - not a big problem, given that it's a turn-based game, but it's still annoying, and contributes to the overall slowness of gameplay. Its using the cursor on Enemy Phase makes EP take far longer than it should. It has spawn-and-move reinforcements. Its plot is competent, given its era and the fact that I don't think the fan translation gives the full picture. It doesn't have Dodge, so there's always the risk of being crit-blicked. It doesn't give you any numbers, so you either have to look up the Might and Weight of any weapon you might see (other than tomes) or risk everything on a guess.

Gaiden has many of these problems, but it ditches the unresponsive interface and has the option to turn off animations, so it ends up much faster. Overall, I consider the NES games to be the worst in the series, due largely to their technical limitations, but I think Gaiden is better than FE1 (and, to be fair, I haven't played Jugdral, Elibe, Tellius, or MotE).

[Azz]

I'm quite neutral.

I can't really say I enjoyed playing through the game since it was a slog and I only did it so I could say I did, however, I had a great sense of fulfilment after beating it since it was the final FE game I needed to beat in order to have beat them all (Well before Echoes), and since SD was my first FE I completed I felt like it came full circle and I was really proud of myself.

So yeah, FE 1 is a shitty game and it was to hard to play, but I still look back on it fondly.

[JSND Alter Dragon Boner]

Perfect example of a game that is complete, utter, gutter trash but is old so many of its flaws could get shaved off from judgment

 

I enjoyed the game mostly because it have the most overpowered version of Marth who is flat out one of the most overpowered unit in the entire series, but for the most part FE3 is basically where i would go for FE1 experience(since the stage removed from 1 is shit anyway. LIke what the fuck is the point of Wooden Chariot in 1)

[Refa]

On 1/17/2018 at 1:03 PM, Ertrick36 said:

Or that Armor Knights and Hunters couldn't promote into Generals or Horsemen, even though both of those classes exist as playable lategame units.

Small correction, but you don't get any late game units that are Horsemen.  It was clearly intended to be an earlygame unit.  This is why in FE11, Wolf/Sedgar have insane growths because they weren't intended to be prepromotes, but the developers also didn't want to change their class.

[JSND Alter Dragon Boner]

1 hour ago, Refa said:

Small correction, but you don't get any late game units that are Horsemen.  It was clearly intended to be an earlygame unit.  This is why in FE11, Wolf/Sedgar have insane growths because they weren't intended to be prepromotes, but the developers also didn't want to change their class.

I'm somewhat sure they also only shows up early game too. LIke iirc they dissapear after like Aurelis? Which made sense since Horsemen are Aurelis main class(which is tied really nicely to the story)

 

The actual question is why Hardin did not have special Paladin with Bows class lol

[Refa]

Probably because all of the favoritism in FE1 was relegated to Marth.  Sure, there were a few other characters with Prfs, but you could tell who the devs REALLY liked.

[JSND Alter Dragon Boner]

8 minutes ago, Refa said:

Probably because all of the favoritism in FE1 was relegated to Marth.  Sure, there were a few other characters with Prfs, but you could tell who the devs REALLY liked.

Well yeah, FE1 is really Caeda/Marth/Camus

and then Kaga figures out "man i actually really like Hardin" and FE3 happened

 

Honestly with the way they did it i kinda wonder what went wrong with Olwen. She's clearly the devs favorite but Eyrios turns out as well as he did

Edited January 27, 2018 by JSND Alter Dragon Boner

[Ertrick36]

11 hours ago, Refa said:

Small correction, but you don't get any late game units that are Horsemen.  It was clearly intended to be an earlygame unit.  This is why in FE11, Wolf/Sedgar have insane growths because they weren't intended to be prepromotes, but the developers also didn't want to change their class.

I only referred to them as such because they appear as promoted units in the remakes, as well as the direct sequel.  Sure, they weren't lategame, nor were they technically promotes, but most folks who played the Archanean games think of them as prepromotes because of the later games.

Regardless, my point about lots of classes not having promotions still stands.  If anything, it just makes this an even stranger entry in the series for those who came into it later.  Although I guess some might see them more akin to the Nomads of the GBA games, except without a promotion...

[Darros]

I never even thought that Wolf/Sedgar weren't meant to be prepromotes - I guess that's what playing FE11 first like 10+ times did for me. You learn something every day. In any case, I didn't use them in FE1. The system is wildly different than FE11 to the point where it's really not the same game. I recommend it if you can get used to the UI. (I found it better than FE3 tbh)

[Azz]

14 hours ago, JSND Alter Dragon Boner said:

Perfect example of a game that is complete, utter, gutter trash but is old so many of its flaws could get shaved off from judgment

 

I enjoyed the game mostly because it have the most overpowered version of Marth who is flat out one of the most overpowered unit in the entire series, but for the most part FE3 is basically where i would go for FE1 experience(since the stage removed from 1 is shit anyway. LIke what the fuck is the point of Wooden Chariot in 1)

Uhhh to get Beck, the best character in the game, obviously. Cause we all know ballisticians are the best in FE1.

[Darros]

uh i believe the translation patch has them listed as SHOOTERS

 

its incredible

(and the class is incredibly bad but memetic - its fe1 so really they're just bad movement archers)

[Flee Fleet!]

I'm not a fan of 8 bit graphics and the amount of gameplay vids I watched of FE1 makes me not want to play it due to how clunky it can be. Same with Gaiden.

 

3 hours ago, Ertrick36 said:

Sure, they weren't lategame, nor were they technically promotes, but most folks who played the Archanean games think of them as prepromotes because of the later games.

I'm pretty sure Horsemen are promoted units seeing as hunters can promote into Horsemen.

Although dismounting basically allows them to go back to their original class, which is kind of weird, but oh well.

[Refa]

Hunters can't promote into Horsemen in FE1.

[Flee Fleet!]

9 hours ago, Refa said:

Hunters can't promote into Horsemen in FE1.

I was referring to FE3, FE11, and FE12, in which they can.

Edited January 28, 2018 by Flee Fleet!

[Midnox]

I've played Shadow Dragon, and while it shows at times some mechanics and elements of it's older predecessors that aged rather badly by our standards, I've enjoyed it nonetheless. However, I don't think I have the patience to play it's older counterpart, due to most of it's more outdated gameplay, not to mention it must be slow as hell   

[BlueCavalier]

I'm probably the only one here with this opinion, but I absolutely LOVE FE1. Yeah, the interface is really clunky and unit balance is not a thing (Saji is literally strictly worse than Barts in every way, WHY?), but the reason why I like FE1 so much is it's map design.

FE1 has some of the best maps in the franchise imo, my personal favorite being Champions of Orleans where you have to juggle between protecting Hardin and the Wolfguard, stopping two thieves from destroying a village, and recruiting Wendell. Also shoutouts to Oasis of Magic for being the only Desert map in the franchise that doesn't suck.

Plus, FE1 is both pretty easy and relatively short so you have liberty to use basically anyone you want. I use Daros on literally every one of my playthroughs and sometimes he turns out pretty good.

If you want the true FE1 experience, I'd recommend playing the game as intended: ironman. The game's still pretty easy, even if you do lose some of your best units and it allows you to use some unconventional picks. Roshe, Radd, and Caesar may not be as good as Abel, Navarre, and Ogma, but they can do some work.

[Ethan Brooks]

Anyone got any of the FE4/5 roms, really wanna play them, and it’s the only fire Emblem I haven’t played (in the official series) any help would be appreciated :)

[Punished Dayni]

41 minutes ago, Ethan Brooks said:

Anyone got any of the FE4/5 roms, really wanna play them, and it’s the only fire Emblem I haven’t played (in the official series) any help would be appreciated :)

1. Bit off topic, you could make a new topic.

2. You can't ask for ROMs on the site, it's against site policy for legal reasons. You'll have to figure out getting the ROMs separately.

[Ethan Brooks]

1 hour ago, Dayni said:

1. Bit off topic, you could make a new topic.

2. You can't ask for ROMs on the site, it's against site policy for legal reasons. You'll have to figure out getting the ROMs separately.

Apologies for that