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How do I get into the 3DS Titles?


Eske
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So far I've only played the GBA Fire Emblem games and I was wondering what order you guys think I should play the 3DS games in. I'm a bit concerned about the fact that apparently Awakening has spoilers for previous titles? I'm not really looking to go back and play the older games in that series anytime soon but will it ruin the whole plot of those games?

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Whole plot?  Not necessarily.  If you're worried about any sort of spoilers, don't touch the Streetpass characters/DLC.  I'd go Awakening, then Fates, then Echoes.  Awakening's the closest bridge between the older games and the 3DS ones, and Fates introduces some things that show up in Echoes (plus, you'll end the 3DS era on a higher note).

But IMO, if you play Heroes, you were probably spoiled worse.

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Awakening has excellent characters and supports, but awful level design and character balance. It's still playable, but it can be really frustrating at times. The story is nothing special.

Fates has great mechanics (best in the series, in my opinion) but some of the levels aren't great, and I trust you know about the story's reputation.

Echoes has a pretty good story, but no level design.

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you don't and you go play something better Awakening, Fates: Birthright and SoV are more similar to Sacred Stones, meaning that you have a world map and you can pretty much do whatever you want between story events, and no one's gonna tell you that the world must be saved because appearently you're secretly the ruler of the world and you have better things to do anyway

Peculiarities: Awakening's map design and difficulty are pretty much non-existent, just like chrom's intelligence, and its gameplay is broken af due to the pair-up mechanic; characters are much more animu and onesided than older fire emblem titles, but they're still appreciable

Fates: Birthright: Birthright's map design and difficulty are pretty much non-existent, but its gameplay is not that much broken due to the pair-up mechanic as Awakening's is, since they fixed it a bit; characters are as deep as and interesting as a dry puddle because the devs decided that quantity was better than quality

SoV: no avatar, no weapon triangle, no pair-ups nor skills, but it does have combat arts, special attacks that you can perform at the cost of some hp (magic take you hp too), and they vary depending on which weapon units use, also the map design is pretty bad but i personally can forgive it because Gaiden (SoV is Gaiden's remake) is 27 years old; characters are good and they actually seem like human beings, thanks to the excellent full voice acting

 

Fates: Conquest instead is more strict from this point of view, so it's similar to older fire emblem titles, but occasionally you can still participate to extra battles, for example in order to recruit child units and maps are stupidly gimmicky

Peculiarities: Pointlessly frustrating, even though some maps are pretty cool, and the story is incredibly badly written

 

just as Gregster said, you should start with awakening (which you'll probably fall in love with, since pretty much everyone loves awakening after the first playthrough), then save 90+$ and finally play SoV

Edited by Yexin
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Play Awakening, Conquest, then Echoes.

Only play Birthright and Revelations if you're really bored honestly... or a completionist.

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I'd recommend you play all three of them, and in the order of release too. Just don't start with SoV, because you'll get spoiled by the full voice acting and stuff and can't go back. Story wise, none of the three are really that great.

Also, unless you really got hooked on Fates, Revelation is a bit of a waste of money. It was very clearly a rushed product. I'd recommend you buy the Heirs of Fates DLC over Rev (and maybe Hidden Truths if you want).

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15 minutes ago, SatsumaFSoysoy said:

I'd recommend you play all three of them, and in the order of release too. Just don't start with SoV, because you'll get spoiled by the full voice acting and stuff and can't go back. Story wise, none of the three are really that great.

Also, unless you really got hooked on Fates, Revelation is a bit of a waste of money. It was very clearly a rushed product. I'd recommend you buy the Heirs of Fates DLC over Rev (and maybe Hidden Truths if you want).

Hey man, SoV's story is pretty good. Like, it's actually good compared to the other 3DS games

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Just now, Gregster101 said:

Hey man, SoV's story is pretty good. Like, it's actually good compared to the other 3DS games

Is it better? Maybe. Is it good? Not really. But that's off topic.

Edited by SatsumaFSoysoy
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You just buy the games and play them, duh.

Best recommendation is to just play them in release order. Awakening -> Fates (Birthright or Conquest first, the other second, Revelation third) -> SoV.

Fates improves on the bigger gameplay elements from Awakening, so it might feel awkward to go back to Awakening after Fates. On Fates, if Birthright and Conquest don't really impress you, you could really just skip Revelation, as it's the weakest Fates game both in story and gameplay (I still find it fun to play, but not everyone does).

Shadows of Valentia is quite different not just from the other 3DS titles but from anything else in the series. You can really just play it whenever you want.

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1 hour ago, Eske said:

So far I've only played the GBA Fire Emblem games and I was wondering what order you guys think I should play the 3DS games in. I'm a bit concerned about the fact that apparently Awakening has spoilers for previous titles? I'm not really looking to go back and play the older games in that series anytime soon but will it ruin the whole plot of those games?

both Awakening and Echoes do have references to Shadow Dragon, but it's only that: references.

you will not loose anything if you haven't played that game before, so don't worry about spoilers, there's none.

Awakening/Fates have pretty much the same gameplay mechanics, while Echoes has its own system, partially borrowed from Gaiden(FE2).

 

i would suggest to start with Echoes, it's a decent game with solid and simple mechanics. after that, you could move on to Awakening, followed by Fates~Conquest.

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Play Awakening, because its a fine enough game, the first of the 3DS ones, and already being a good entry point to the series.

If you are willing, play Fates: Conquest since its the only good route. They had actual map design (usually) and they at least attempted to have a decent story (even if they spectacularly failed). Playing it is by no means essential though, unless you want to see the cast of Fire Emblem Heroes in action more.

Skip Fates: Birthright, because both the gameplay and the story could be better made by a 4th grader. Ok, maybe a 7th grader.

Skip Fates: Revelations because its only fun for being the "true" end route to Fates, but has even worse writing than any of the other routes, maps that are only interesting for 5 seconds and then annoying, and really only has value in being able to play all the important characters on the same route.

Play SoV because its different from any other FE game. Its plot and maps are both unremarkable, and its characters show the signs of being originally an NES game, but its still unusual enough gameplay that its worth a go. Plus, you might as well play it rather than Gaiden.

Edited by alatartheblue42
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While other players who have played more games will be better suited to tell you whether or not Awakening does spoil other games, I did not notice the references. This is, I did not feel that the game stressed an event of a former one.

About the order to play the 3DS games, I think that it depends on what experience you are looking for. I believe that Awakening and Birthright play more like a JRPG than a tactical one. Yes, they take place on a grid, but no tactic is really necessary to progress. The focus is more one the story (generic, by the way) and character interaction. No map design, no objective diversity, no balance. And you can grind experience infinitely.

Conquest's gameplay, I argue, is more focused on the tactics. It still has supports, children, My Castle and all the 'social' activities of the other games, but its map design is way more refined and has various objectives. It can be difficult, but it also is engaging. Its story is super silly, like that of the other Fates routes.

Shadows of Valentia is a different animal. It has great presentation and no tactic, but it at least does not break itself like Awakening or Birthright. In a sense, its battle mechanics are simpler and the gameplay could have been more engaging if the map design were not terrible. If anything, it should be tried once because of how well presented it is.


I do not know if video game rental still exists, but if you do not want to spend a lot of money based on other's recommendations, it is rather simple to hack your 3DS these days. Then you will be able to try them all and later purchase the one(s) you actually like. Fun is always subjective anyway.

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I'd say play them in this order:

Awakening -> Birthright -> Conquest -> Revelations -> echoes

Well okay Awakening and echoes can be swapped if you want but Fates must be played in that order for the you to get the most out of the story which I don't think it's as bad as people say it is. Honestly Fates's story is better than SoV's story if you take everything into account in my honest opinion. SoV's story is just not at all good if you ask me but that's a rant for another time. Oh is it a rant for another time

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Awakening has a surprising amount of references and callbacks to past games in the series, but they may fly over your head if you don't catch them. To my knowledge, none of them spoil any huge story moments from the past games, so you don't need to worry about that.

As for gameplay, Awakening is fun but flawed. The ginormous amount of freedom you're given to play as you want is my favorite aspect about the game, and it's main reason I keep replaying it. You can straight up ignore certain mechanics, and I have a ton of fun doing challenge runs and trying to use characters I didn't use much last time or even just playing through normally to see what happens differently this time around. The biggest downside is the wonky difficulty. Best way I can describe it is that the game alternates extremely quickly between being too easy and being too difficult, and it's often for the wrong reasons. It's also infamously easy to break, to the point where Lunatic difficulty may as well be the ultimate test on one's knowledge of how to do so.

Awakenings story is alright. It has its moments, and you won't find me complaining about the dialogue or character interactions, but it's really nothing special at the end of the day. The cast of characters is great, but I will warn that they follow the "looks like a one-dimensional gimmick at first, but in truth they are three dimensional characters" style of writing. It makes unlocking even average supports satisfying as you get to see more of their depth, but it also means that you have to deal with a questionable first impression for a while, and you won't know a whole lot about the characters you don't use. The overall support quality is great, but don't be surprised if you jump from an amazing support to an average or even lackluster one and back again. That's just the way the support system is set up.

The "shipping emblem" aspects, while present, are overblown, if you ask me. You can pair two characters up for purely gameplay reasons, or for because you want to see the character interact one last time even if you have no interest in romance. On the flip side, while there are some neat dialogue and ending changes depending on whether or not a character is married, it doesn't have a huge impact writing-wise, if you were hoping for that.

 

In the middle of playing Conquest for the first time myself, so I can't comment on whether or not it's a good investment yet. I will say that if you care a lot about gameplay and can overlook the story, it might be worth checking out.

 

One of Shadows of Valentia's main selling points is that it puts a spin on a multitude of the series mechanics. The weapon triangle and weapon durability are gone, but each character can also only equip one sword or lance at a time. Magic costs HP to cast, but each character has their own unique spell list, and there are a plethora of ways to heal despite the game not having traditional vulanaries and concotions and the like. I could go on, but it worth checking out for yourself. I would recommend doing your research before playing, but going in blind is perfectly okay.

Some people love Echoes story. Others hate it. Several are in-between. It depends upon whether certain moments, scenes, and flaws bother you or not. The presentation is top-notch, and I would almost say that the voice acting alone is worth the purchase. The characters aren't the deepest or most entertaining, but they are very down-to-earth and extremely likable. There game has very few supports, but it's surprising just how much you'll learn about a character from how they talk and what they say.

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32 minutes ago, Ottservia said:

I'd say play them in this order:

Awakening -> Birthright -> Conquest -> Revelations -> echoes

Well okay Awakening and echoes can be swapped if you want but Fates must be played in that order for the you to get the most out of the story which I don't think it's as bad as people say it is. Honestly Fates's story is better than SoV's story if you take everything into account in my honest opinion. SoV's story is just not at all good if you ask me but that's a rant for another time. Oh is it a rant for another time

What the fuck did you say m8?

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31 minutes ago, Ottservia said:

Honestly Fates's story is better than SoV's story if you take everything into account in my honest opinion.

whoa there, that's some serious and risqué stuff to say

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Just now, Yexin said:

whoa there, that's some serious and risqué stuff to say

3 minutes ago, Gregster101 said:

What the fuck did you say m8?

Like I said that's a rant for another time but to keep it brief at least I can understand and appreciate the narrative decisions made with fates's story and why it was written the way it was. Echoes I can't do that. I won't go too deep into it here but I'll leave you with this fun little analogy that accurately summarizes my thoughts regarding SoV's story:

Okay so you wanna bake a cake, right? Well then why the hell did you just dump two whole bars of soap into the batter that's just gonna make it worse!!

So yeah that pretty much sums it up.

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1 minute ago, Ottservia said:

Like I said that's a rant for another time but to keep it brief at least I can understand and appreciate the narrative decisions made with fates's story and why it was written the way it was. Echoes I can't do that. I won't go too deep into it here but I'll leave you with this fun little analogy that accurately summarizes my thoughts regarding SoV's story:

Okay so you wanna bake a cake, right? Well then why the hell did you just dump two whole bars of soap into the batter that's just gonna make it worse!!

So yeah that pretty much sums it up.

Shut the fuck up! Fates' story is not better than Echoes you dumbass!

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2 minutes ago, Gregster101 said:

Shut the fuck up! Fates' story is not better than Echoes you dumbass!

Hey I ain't looking for trouble here just stating my opinion on the matter. You can think what you wanna think I ain't gonna try and change your mind on that

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1 minute ago, Ottservia said:

Hey I ain't looking for trouble here just stating my opinion on the matter. You can think what you wanna think I ain't gonna try and change your mind on that

Fates' story just hurt me cuz of how much of a fucking train wreck it is. To see you say that it's better than Echoes' story, which I think is actually good, just sickens me

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32 minutes ago, Gregster101 said:

Shut the fuck up! Fates' story is not better than Echoes you dumbass!

Dude, you need to take a chill pill.

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