Why is your favorite Fire Emblem your favorite?

[sinfonic18]

Uh, title. 

I'd like to know your reasons why your favorite game in the series is your favorite. Is it the gameplay? Story? Characters? OST? Heroes can also be included (although I play it I'm not much of a fan of mobile games, even if they are entries of my favorite franchises.)
 

[lenticular]

For me, it's the characters and the world building. There are some other things I appreciate about Three Houses as well, but those are the two things that push it to its status as my favourite.

[whase]

Path of Radiance is my favorite mostly because of the worldbuilding. I also love the simplicity yet effectiveness of the story, and the characters are great. Besides that there's also the bexp system, the base conversations, and skills system. Ike is also my favorite lord, which helps in replayability (other FE's there's always the "oh I have to use this one again" moment, which made FE7 one of my least liked FEs).

I have to say Three Houses comes in at a close second though, for many of the same reasons.

[Anathaco]

Echoes for the presentation mainly. The story and characters are cool and all, but I reckon its carried a lot by the voice acting and art. The game also just gives me such a feeling of joy when I play it, so yeah.

[Yexin]

for me, Path of Radiance is peak Fire Emblem, from every point of view

its cast is amazing and memorable, the story is simple, good and well written, the worldbuilding along with RD's is still unmatched, the OST is superb, the Base is arguably the best and most efficient way to handle preparations between chapters, map design is good and there's a decent amount of map objectives and Bonus EXP pushes you to play optimally

Edited October 15, 2020 by Yexin

[Fabulously Olivier]

4 hours ago, Yexin said:

for me, Path of Radiance is peak Fire Emblem, from every point of view

its cast is amazing and memorable, the story is simple, good and well written, the worldbuilding along with RD's is still unmatched, the OST is superb, the Base is arguably the best and most efficient way to handle preparations between chapters, map design is good and there's a decent amount of map objectives and Bonus EXP pushes you to play optimally

I agree with all of this. 

 

I'd go as far to say as it has the best, most memorable cast and the best, most memorable maps.

[Shrow]

SoV is my favourite for a few reasons:
- Writing is extremely good. The way everything is presented is amazing; the art, the characters, the world.
- I love the the black sheep gameplay aspects like high range archers, mages with unique spells, clerics that can fight back and a reduced amount of classes.
- The simple map design surprisingly makes it play like core fire emblem, no gimmicks needed.
It makes me upset I will never see another fire emblem like it.

[NSSKG151]

New/Mystery of the Emblem since it has my favorite cast of characters and its story was classic and simple. I know there are other games people would rather see get remade but I would love for Mystery of the Emblem to get a remake and revamped to have more recent mechanics added to it and and so it would have a version of it that gets released outside Japan. 

Also Awakening since it also has interesting characters and is a fun game to just speed through.

[Samz707]

Echoes for several reasons: 

Death Reactions are finally a standard feature and character endings changing if their friends/lover is dead are great.

The archer/mage balance changes so they're now rather distinct useful classes now.

Music and voice acting is the best so far in my experience, same with the visuals. (Not played the GameCube/Wii games yet though.)

Less of a focus on Player driven romance. (Which is always a bit weak IMO)

Varied battle animations instead of the same ones over and over.

Slight C-RPG elements with how the game accounts for stuff like leaving/re-entering the thieves cave early, recruiting Faye and Kliff with Celica and a few more handful of ways the world reacts to your actions.

[Baron the Shining Blade]

Originally I had set my favorite as Radiant Dawn for its gameplay, engaging story, and particularly the combat animations which I grew really fond of. Then I set it to Awakening for its (now long worn-off) novelty of letting your Avatar marry and have children. I might've set SoV as a favorite, except I knew FE Warriors was on its way in the Fall of that year. A dream collab come true (albeit unfulfilled in the roster department) with excellent gameplay for a Warriors game. I got a Switch just so I could play it, and I already knew I would set it as my next favorite the first chance I got. And currently still is, unless we get an FE6 remake or a FEW2 with a more favorable roster. The latter would likely stay as my favorite for all time.

[Alastor15243]

Conquest for being the absolute pinnacle of gameplay, a standard the series may never reach again, and will definitely never reach in the same way. It's the only game in the series that is even remotely clever about the skills it gives its enemies, skills that will fuck you over if you aren't paying attention. But (and this is crucial) thanks to the dual screen system putting all of the information you need about a unit available at the simplest glance, paying attention isn't a chore. This allows Conquest to do some absolutely crazy stuff with its enemies without ever boring the player into complacency. There's more, of course. A lot of mechanics work together to make the game even more interesting, but that holy duo of interesting skills and near-flawless UI make this game easily the most interesting strategically by far.

[null]

Radiant Dawn for combining the excellent cast and world building of the previous game with the most unique map designs and best gameplay in the series. Tbh, the only gripe I have with the game is the lack of support conversations. Everything else is so well done though. Combat animations are snappy, difficulty is perfect, gameplay variety is on point, music is stellar, etc. It was an amazing experience from beginning to end.

Edited October 15, 2020 by twilitfalchion

[Benice]

If it counts, Berwick Saga for basically outdoing every FE I've played in every regard, pretty much. Superb gameplay, amazing story and cast, wonderful music...It is a masterpiece, pure and simple. It has a few flaws, but I can overlook those flaws easily because of how phenomenal the rest of the game is. It has a whole bunch of ideas that IS copied, and tbh I want to see IS copy more of Berwick's ideas.

If not, I really like FE6 because Marcus is a really fun Jagen on HM, I like the versatility of the cast and it is overall a really solid and fun game IMO, overcoming on HM it feels amazing. It is designed with ironmanning in mind, (ambush spawns aside) and I love it.

[Florete]

If I could list my favorite as "Path of Radiance + Radiant Dawn," I would. Ultimately I list the latter because I find it the superior game in almost every aspect, but it wouldn't be as good as it is without PoR as its predecessor, and I can't really go back to PoR after RD.

Those reasons include: 2nd best gameplay in the series (behind Fates), best story in the series, great worldbuilding, proper difficulty options, good maps and win conditions, good options, and the best finale in the series.

[sinfonic18]

On 10/15/2020 at 5:55 PM, Benice said:

If it counts, Berwick Saga for basically outdoing every FE I've played in every regard, pretty much. Superb gameplay, amazing story and cast, wonderful music...It is a masterpiece, pure and simple. It has a few flaws, but I can overlook those flaws easily because of how phenomenal the rest of the game is. It has a whole bunch of ideas that IS copied, and tbh I want to see IS copy more of Berwick's ideas.

If not, I really like FE6 because Marcus is a really fun Jagen on HM, I like the versatility of the cast and it is overall a really solid and fun game IMO, overcoming on HM it feels amazing. It is designed with ironmanning in mind, (ambush spawns aside) and I love it.

I actually don't know what Berwick Saga is, so I suppose it doesn't count. 

mod post merge:

Wow, thanks for your input everyone! If there is anything I learned from this thread it's that I need to find someway to play Path of Radiance lol.

Edited October 16, 2020 by Specta
double post

[defensedefumer]

Fire Emblem Conquest was my first and favourite game. 

It was really difficult, with limited opportunities to grind and punished you for not anticipating the enemy's offensive and defensive skills. In my first playthrough, I lost Mozu, Arthur and Leo before completing the game. Conquest forced me to be at my tactical best in almost all the maps.

If I had to rank the games I played it would be (1 being the best):

1) Conquest
2) Three Houses
3) Radiant Dawn
4) Path of Radiance
5) Echoes
6) Revelations
7) Birthright

[kradeelav]

On 10/15/2020 at 3:23 AM, whase said:

Path of Radiance is my favorite mostly because of the worldbuilding. I also love the simplicity yet effectiveness of the story, and the characters are great. Besides that there's also the bexp system, the base conversations, and skills system. Ike is also my favorite lord, which helps in replayability (other FE's there's always the "oh I have to use this one again" moment, which made FE7 one of my least liked FEs).

Yeah, you pretty much said everything I would've about PoR - it's deceptively "simple" on the surface, what with the story archetypes it presents you and the ease of the initial maps, but that almost allows it even larger of a sandbox to go real far in terms of depth.  For example, letting the gameplay be inherently part of the story in ... almost every chapter (Blood Runs Red what with the Black Knight popping up out of nowhere gives a palpable terror of 'o shit i can't match that/you!!')(Figuring out how you deal with Naesala in Daein means actually paying attention to the Hawk/Heron arc)(the inherent slog and exhaustion of fighting off waves and waves of Daeins in Despair and Hope, how the map itself "hid" Ena from Ike in the reveal later on in Daein... i could go on and on),

It's something I'm bitterly annoyed about in all of the latest games - there's little to no emotional connection to the maps. Likewise all the characters aren't one-note stereotypes (hello, Awakening) - Shinon's an asshole but then there's the side-plot with Rolf that's cute, let alone his camaraderie with Titania of all people and the why of why he's such a dick to Ike...

Memorable villains (and their designs) help, too. Even minor bosses like Petrine and Izuka get their time to shine in a meaningful way, often for whole arcs at a time.

[joevar]

Fire emblem 6 is my favorite. maybe because i play it in 15 years ago as elementary schoolkid ? but definitely not because its the first FE since i play all 3 GBA FE games back-to-back

the simplicity of Roy as sole protagonist opposed to multiple in FE 7 & 8 is easier to digest. Then the part that strike me the most is the villain (zephiel) doesnt seem like a villain (cant be helped, my English suck at that time, also translation not as good as now) and the last boss is something that the MC want to save because she is also a kind of victim in the story is very memorable to me  and almost make me cry because of the BGM while imagining the full backstory using my imagination (yes, its headcanon imagination but who cares)

so favoritism based on emotional not technical merit.

on technical side i tend to recognize the strong and weak point of every game so nothing really stands above other, but i like Echoes presentation the most its just pleasing to my eye for some reason

Edited October 27, 2020 by joevar

[Samz707]

On 10/15/2020 at 10:55 PM, Benice said:

If it counts, Berwick Saga for basically outdoing every FE I've played in every regard, pretty much. Superb gameplay, amazing story and cast, wonderful music...It is a masterpiece, pure and simple. It has a few flaws, but I can overlook those flaws easily because of how phenomenal the rest of the game is. It has a whole bunch of ideas that IS copied, and tbh I want to see IS copy more of Berwick's ideas.

If not, I really like FE6 because Marcus is a really fun Jagen on HM, I like the versatility of the cast and it is overall a really solid and fun game IMO, overcoming on HM it feels amazing. It is designed with ironmanning in mind, (ambush spawns aside) and I love it.

I know it's unlikely but I really wish Kaga's games would get English re-releases on steam (Even if there's probably some legal/tech nightmare on it) so they wouldn't be as obscure and I'd like to be able to actually support him in the process when I get around to playing them. 

Echoes, It has death reactions, how in the name of the goddess this story/character driven Perma-death series took this long to make sure everyone has a reaction to character's dying as a standard is a mystery to me as it's a really logical and natural fit, Archers/Mages are actually distinct instead of Archers being the "Worse mages but hey you can buy bows more often generally!" and it's got some of the best presentation (And unlike other games in other series I've played that tried to focus on presentation, doesn't sacrifice good gameplay for it.) on the 3Ds.

[Benice]

13 minutes ago, Samz707 said:

I know it's unlikely but I really wish Kaga's games would get English re-releases on steam (Even if there's probably some legal/tech nightmare on it) so they wouldn't be as obscure and I'd like to be able to actually support him in the process

Yeah, I agree. (Especially since Berwick runs really slowly on my computer.) Berwick Saga remake for switch when Kaga?

13 minutes ago, Samz707 said:

when I get around to playing them. 

Have some Berwick music while you wait:

Spoiler

 

 

Edited October 27, 2020 by Benice

[joevar]

6 hours ago, Benice said:

Yeah, I agree. (Especially since Berwick runs really slowly on my computer.) Berwick Saga remake for switch when Kaga?

Have some Berwick music while you wait:

shame that not many FE player know kaga and he seem doesnt have that many connection anymore after berwick saga. despite him one of the earliest case of "someone associated to an IP, then left big company that makes it possible" he's becoming a bad example of that

oh, also worth noting, when a creative director or equivalent make an "indie" game after left big studio they always have leeway to make something radical and more interesting one than what's popular in that genre. So while kaga games have interesting mechanic is true its nothing surprising at all to me. similar case happen more often than you realize in small obscure studio (by big names dev)

Edited October 28, 2020 by joevar