Best Starter/Beginner Route

[Lua]

On the danger of sounding cheesy, they should follow their hearts.

I'm not even kidding. You'll have to stick with your Lord the whole playthrough, so it'd be smart to pick the Lord that appeals to you most - In my case, that was Claude, and I wouldn't have wanted any other route as my first one. After that, I went AM -> CF -> SS.

Every route has its points that make them better in one aspect, but worse in another, so I'd say there is no single "best route" to start with.

Verdant Wind gives you a very good look into most of the lore. There are few questions left unanswered, thanks to Claude being curious as they come. And it's somewhat optimistic, but whether that's a pro or a con would differ from person to person. It's my favorite route, but I'm biased towards Claude as my favorite Leader.

Azure Moon is very character driven by Dimitri, so I would only recommend it as a first route if the person in question really likes Dimitri, at least from the bits you see before choosing. I was honestly surprised that AM is often called the best route, since... For me, it was honestly my least favorite. That's not to say I disliked it (I'm on my second playthrough of it, after all), but for my personal tastes, it was a bit too gloomy and dark for the first couple chapters after the Timeskip, especially right after Verdant Wind. Now that I was better prepared it's better, though. But while it's nice to dive deep into the characters, it leaves far more lore questions unanswered than the others.

Silver Snow is similar to Verdant Wind, since that, too, gives you a pretty deep look into the lore. It goes a bit more in depth about the religious aspects, and has a bit less info about specific characters than Verdant Wind does, so it's pretty equal there. It'd depend on what the player is looking for, and who they like, obviously. Someone who isn't too fond of Seteth and Flayn won't have much fun on Silver Snow, but that's the case for every route - If you dislike Claude, VW is going to be rather meh, etc.

Crimson Flower is cool because it's so vastly different from the others. It gives players a chance to see Edelgard's motives and character for themselves before having her as an enemy; however, there's quite a bit of misinformation in her route. So while Crimson Flower does give you a lot of lore, it's not necessarily correct information, albeit being close. And it also dives pretty deep into the characters. However, Crimson Flower has the problem of potentially getting locked onto Silver Snow, which could easily turn off players who've grown fond of Edelgard and/or Hubert.

 

If they've started with any route that's not Crimson Flower, I might recommend that one as a second route, precisely because it's so different and gives an insight into Edelgard's side of things, but that's about it. Aside from that, it just depends too much on what someone is looking for. I barely recruited until I got to Silver Snow (Bernie and Sylvain in VW, and Lorenz in CF), because I wanted to game to break my heart as much as possible. And killing a student - A student you might've seen Supports with, who you've given lost items back to, who you've talked to on free days - does that far better than killing nameless faceless mooks.

[kamineko]

It's tricky because you have to decide before you actually know anything about the characters.

I think AM works well as a self-contained thing that the other paths can expand upon. However, to keep SS and VW far apart, I'd go SS, AM, CF, then VW. Arguments can be made for either being last. The battle at the end of VW feels most like a *final* boss fight, and it answers the most questions. I think it should be last. CF is a good counterpoint to AM, and has a "the other side of the story" effect, so it works well there.

Just by dumb luck, this was the order I played in. I noped on Edelgard the first time around, which I'm glad--I don't think it would have made as much sense without context from other routes.

[SSbardock84]

For beginners Azure Moon. For regular FE players, I'd say Crimson Flower. Though I only say that since that's what I did first. If somebody is only going to play the game once though, I'd say Azure Moon. As I believe it's the best all round. Even though Edelgard is the best. I've heard people say that they're going to be biased to the playthrough they make first as being their favorite, but I definitely disagree with that. I liked Crimson Flower and I adore Edelgard, she's my favorite character in the game. But man, Azure Moon blew me away by how much better the story is. And tbh, there are more better characters you start off with too from the Blue Lions. Also, I was mainly referring to Part 2, but Part 1 for Azure Moon (though I guess it isn't called that in Part 1) is also more unique as it has more from the minor characters. Golden Deer is third choice no matter what and Silver Snow play last.

[scuttlingclaws]

i picked vw for my first run and i honestly wish i had done bl, since the flame emperor reveal is so much more compelling in that route. even in cf/ss it's kinda like edelgard pops up and is like lol it me. and i think it's the only route that actually has a cutscene for it? i don't remember vw enough to say it with more conviction than that. i do agree that going cf first helps a lot with understanding why edelgard does what she does, and it's a little frustrating to see how so many people just kinda....ignore her good intentions and characterization in favor of edelgard bad blehh blehh. but, on the other hand, getting cf has some requirements that could be missed by someone who isn't looking for them or be potentially spoiled/suspicious when they wouldn't otherwise be when told to look for those things. all in all though i did think blue lions was the best story in terms of involving all of the characters, but you get absolutely 0 lore which is a little annoying.

[Wuzzy]

Think for a first playthrough (both veterans and beginners) should go AM or VW. Both CF and SS have specific flags you need to find (C+ support with Edelgard, visiting the coronation, and sparing/not sparing Edelgard at the tomb) which may be confusing to anyone new to the game in general and, without that knowledge they may or may not have made a second save to go back if they chose to do so. 

I'd say AM would be the better 1st playthrough than VW mainly because White Clouds has a closer connection to the BL cast (Mercedes and Jeritza, Sylvain and Miklan, Felix and Rodrigue, Ashe and Lonato, and also Dimitri's reaction to Edelgard at the Holy Tomb). The cast of BL is also pretty diverse class wise (also having the biggest pool of recruitable characters as well), considering 5/8 of the cast has hidden talents and can go into multiple different classes without too much difficulty (except Sniper Mercedes). There also isn't too much overlap in terms of classes as there are like 1 infantry lance (or another paladin), 1 paladin, 1 swordmaster, 1 pegasus knight, 1 archer, 1 knight, 1 healer, and 1 mage which could be a good way to play a good number of the classes ig?

Edited January 7, 2020 by Lunarly

[Moltz23]

Oof. Those are tricky questions, not gonna lie. I'll give it a shot regardless:

Best route to do first - Any of them honestly. Each route for the most part provides a different experience so in that regard I'll normally suggest anyone to follow their gut feeling.

Best route for a FE beginner - Depending on the player's expectatives, I'll say it could be either Verdant Wind or Azure Moon.

• For those looking for a strong first impression, Verdant Wind is the route to go. The cast is pretty fun, lighthearted and has good moments during the story, most of the stuff set during part 1 gets a payoff eventually, and the production values are off the charts due the insane amount of cutscenes used (after the Holy Tomb chapter, Claude's route uses a whooping amount of 9 compared to Silver Snow and Azure Moon which use 6 at best). The route ain't flawless though: Claude's backstory is hurt a lot by 3H's "tell don't show" shenanigans, there are no route exclusive units other than Claude himself, the Flame Emperor's Death cutscene feels really out of place and Nemesis coming back from the dead is very hit or miss depending how much you dig stuff that happens mostly because Rule of Cool.
• For those looking for a self-contained story with an actual character arc, Azure Moon is perfect for that. The cast has pretty good chemistry and is quite active, part 1 makes a ton more sense on this route compared to the others due to having a direct connection with the Blue Lions in some way or another, and Dimitri's arc is the very definition of a rollercoaster for all the best reasons. As far cons go, anything involving the intro cutscene, Rhea or the "technologically advanced molemen" becomes irrelevant which hurts a lot for anyone expecting some sort of closure for those characters, the whole Patricia thing feels pointless by the time the plot's over, and the heavy use of CGs around the middle of part 2 can be pretty off-putting for some.

I would honestly love to recommend to a beginner either Crimson Flower or Silver Snow, but both routes have too many issues for my taste to go with it, especially if they're planning to give just one of them a try.