What is your favorite Fire Emblem era?

[Shadow Mir]

On 12/18/2018 at 1:52 PM, Shakespeare1142 said:

just because a game is difficult doesn't mean it's poorly designed, it's a strategy game, you've got to think through it (Though sometimes in Geneology i feel like it eliminates the potential for tactical variety like there's only one practical way to complete an objective you know? and to me that flies in the face of the franchises design philosophy). I do agree that thracia is unforgiving though, it's debatably the most difficult game in the franchise and not in a good way, there are facets in there that don't really belong you know? As though like maybe they didn't have the tools to implement them in a player-friendly way, does that make sense? also, can I be honest and say that the finale of FE8 was kind of underwhelming i didn't really feel like the resolution was very cathartic or even emotional. 

See, when it comes to difficulty, there's being legitimately hard, and then there's fake difficulty, aka being hard for all the wrong reasons. Thracia leans waaaay more towards the latter, which is (part of) why I condemn it.

Edited December 20, 2018 by Shadow Mir

[Reality]

My favorite is the Original DS remakes, followed by the 3DS. I dislike the GBA games, and Kaga. Telius I remember fmore for silly commentary that my non-FE playing friend made on it than my own playthrough,.

My problem with many eras of fire emblem is that I play all SRPGs, so when it comes to Kaga, I think about shining force and Front Mission, 

I also don't really think the kaga games are particularly hard, since I played them mostly blind on an untranslated ROM, and still only had to restart like 2 maps. My main problems with them are that FE5 still allows you to do an enemy phase-focused playthrough, and that using the fancy new mechanics instead of only the GBA stuff I'm used to breaks the game or AI, which makes it feel like it's still designed around capture / status staves / steal, etc not being in the game, rather than a testing ground for them. I enjoyed it the most of the Kaga games, but I have far better non-FE options if I want a "Puzzle TRPG" and for that matter better FE options as well. 

FE4 is a game where even if you want to play it on Player Phase you still have to play it on enemy phase, because enemy groups are practically glued together in slowly moving quares of units and fighting one means stat checking against everyone in the group. Even using Canto or diving in with multiple units in a turn doesn't go all the way to alleviate the problem. The game also probably needs an across the boards 35% nerf to player charather Base HP. It just feels like a grindhouse (in terms of mashing things into each other, not level ups) in terms of being a tactics game, which I really don't like and which later games (esp GBA, POR , and Awakening) don't fully move away from. 

FE1-3 are also simple tactics wise but  FE1 kind of makes up for it by having a brisk pace and stands out as one of the only NES RPGs I can think of where you don't need to level up that much. FE2 is ironicaly the most inline with on-era NES RPGs, but doesn't reward mandatory grinding in terms of the player having fun the way early Dragon Quest  does. FE3 would have FE1's brisk pace, but I believe that it wasn't optimized for SNES hardware based on how it performs on a strictly accurate emulator and from what I've seen of other people doing imports … enemy phase turns should not be longer than FE4 despite a smaller number of units....

The Gba games are also kind of have too much of this DNA in them, but go a long way infusing a sense of fun into the game. 

Shadow Dragon and New Mystery don't stray from being bad tactics games on Normal mode, but the higher difficulties go a long way toward, the "every turn has signifigance" ideal of a puzzle-tactics game > RPG tactics games. The closest in the franchise even. Although SD still kind of allows for certain charathers to turn into enemy phase juggernaughts even on H5 if you don't restrict yourself.

Awakening I partly like because it's one of  the few times graphics mattered to me … I remember playing okamiden and most of the Nintendo DS remakes on the Original DS and having a negative view of "3D on a handheld" at the time, and Awakening was the first game pretty enough that I started to come around to the idea. Of course, it's normal and hard modes are bad, but it does bring Lunatic+ to the table... something more fun for making mini-tactics puzzles than FE5 and FE10 by a huge margin, although personally I have a the more raw influence of. Fates has Conquest (but even Rev and Birthright) to show a nice progression toward puzzleish SRPGs, but they feel a little too guided for me, although I appreciate that they were consciously made that way instead of being a happy accident like SD and New Mystery. I don't like Shadows of Valentia. 

 

 

[Azz]

For me I would say either GBA era or DS/3DS era. I enjoy all of the GBA games with Binding Blade being a favoruite of mine. The only down point for GBA would be Sacred Stones being rather meh, but I love pretty much all the characters in SS and that picks it up for me. As for the DS/3DS era, Awakening was my first FE and despite it's problems, I have a soft spot for it. Fates' gameplay is great and some of the best, if not the best in the series imo. SoV is my 2nd fav FE game so I think that explains that (also much like SS, it's characters supplement for it's flaws). As for the DS era, SD is my fav FE because Marth and despite the fact New Mystery does many things I dislike, I do enjoy the extra bits the Archanean cast gets that it is made up for.

The Tellius era is fine and all. Like I love PoR but in comparison to the other games, I haven't played it as much due to how difficult it is to do so and RD is just a bad game imo.

Kaga era is cool and all but FE1 and 2 are outdated (despite my love for Gaiden) and hard to go back to, especially when they have remakes. FE4 is just a slog to playthrough that even despite my liking of the story, the cast is meh and the game is way too slow for me. Thracia I liked, but it's not a game I would like to play through again due to it's difficulty and me needing a guide to not die. OG Mystery is really the only game in the Kaga era I can play regularly but even then, New Mystery, despite my grievances gives me a reason to not need to play it.

[Shakespeare1142]

1 hour ago, ΔZZ said:

For me I would say either GBA era or DS/3DS era. I enjoy all of the GBA games with Binding Blade being a favoruite of mine. The only down point for GBA would be Sacred Stones being rather meh, but I love pretty much all the characters in SS and that picks it up for me. As for the DS/3DS era, Awakening was my first FE and despite it's problems, I have a soft spot for it. Fates' gameplay is great and some of the best, if not the best in the series imo. SoV is my 2nd fav FE game so I think that explains that (also much like SS, it's characters supplement for it's flaws). As for the DS era, SD is my fav FE because Marth and despite the fact New Mystery does many things I dislike, I do enjoy the extra bits the Archanean cast gets that it is made up for.

The Tellius era is fine and all. Like I love PoR but in comparison to the other games, I haven't played it as much due to how difficult it is to do so and RD is just a bad game imo.

Kaga era is cool and all but FE1 and 2 are outdated (despite my love for Gaiden) and hard to go back to, especially when they have remakes. FE4 is just a slog to playthrough that even despite my liking of the story, the cast is meh and the game is way too slow for me. Thracia I liked, but it's not a game I would like to play through again due to it's difficulty and me needing a guide to not die. OG Mystery is really the only game in the Kaga era I can play regularly but even then, New Mystery, despite my grievances gives me a reason to not need to play it.

dude i completely agree with this almost entirely you are awesome and have earned a hug and my respect

[Lord Ice]

I feel like I'm obligated to say the Radiant duology, but in all honesty, it's a close tie between them and the SNES Kaga era.

[Lord Ice]

On 12/20/2018 at 2:58 AM, Shadow Mir said:

See, when it comes to difficulty, there's being legitimately hard, and then there's fake difficulty, aka being hard for all the wrong reasons. Thracia leans waaaay more towards the latter, which is (part of) why I condemn it.

The youtuber Tall Fox brought this up at the end of his review (he had the same gripes), but that artificial difficulty actually fits in with the theme of the game: starting out with nothing and no support and having to escape a lot in the early game until you can defeat an empire. Speaking of narrative, the bad design is probably also because Kaga didn't know what to do with a story, because Thracia was a side story that ended up becoming a whole game.