Let's Rank the FEH Books!

[Mercakete]

This is meant to be totally subjective, so you can rank the books based on whatever criteria you'd like. If you want some direction, though, you can go ahead and copy my own ranking system. You guys can discuss opinions if you'd like, but please be cordial about it.

As for me, I'll kick us off with my own ranking system!

Theme: The overarching theme that the book adheres to. For example, Book 2 had a "fire and ice" theme, book 3 had "undead" as its theme, and so on.

World: How did you like the world in which the story took place? Did it have an immersive aesthetic you enjoyed? As an example, there were 2 new worlds introduced in books 2 and 4 (Nifl + Muspell, and the dream world + the nightmare world.) Maybe you really liked the nightmare world but weren't too keen on the dream world. The nightmare world, perhaps, impressed you enough to make it your favorite. In this case, book 4 would be your favorite book for this criterium because it contains your favorite world, even though it also contains a world you didn't really care about.

Character Design: Pretty self-explanatory. These characters have distinct looks depending on where they each come from. Which place has the coolest designs? This can be a general design, or the design of a specific character.

Characters' Writing: How good was the writing for the characters (separate from the writing for the overall story)? Maybe there was a character arc you really enjoyed, or one character felt very realistic to you. Perhaps a character remained consistent, and that's what you liked. Maybe you enjoyed seeing character development. That's what this section is for! Name the book that you think had the best character-writing!

Story: Similar to the above, this section deals with the plot line. How well-written was the story? Was the pacing okay? Was there a twist you didn't expect? Did the canon all line up, or were there inconsistencies? This section deals with the bigger picture instead of focusing on the characters' individual paths.

Music: Pretty straightforward. Of the books, which one has the music you enjoy the most? Maybe you'd rather decide which music fit the book's theme the best.

Cutscenes: Was there a cutscene which had cinematography you enjoyed better than others? Maybe the lighting effects or how the scenes flowed impressed you.

Voice Acting: This criterium is for when the voice acting in a particular book really got to you. Generally, this only really applies when there are voice lines in cutscenes.

Gameplay: Maybe there was a particular map you really enjoyed playing through, or the book introduced a unit you really like using. That's what this part is for!

Based on these criteria, it seems like my overall favorite book in FEH so far is... and you just fill in the blank with whichever book came up the most in your answers!

 

As an example, I'll fill this out myself. You don't need to give any explanation for why you picked which book if you don't want to. If there's a criterium you'd like to skip, just put N/A or don't include it in your list. Let's have some fun with this!

Theme: Book 1. Yeah, kind of weird, right? But really, it was the premise of all these characters from all these worlds coming together in a massive collaboration which drew me to the game in the first place, so Book 1 deserves some props for that. It also set everything up for all books to come, so I have to give it some credit. Without Book 1, nothing else would make any sense.

World: Book 3. This was a bit tough to call, since I really like the nightmare world, too. (It's so pretty!) The thought of nightmares chasing me around is too freaky, though. The world of Hel is also eerie and beautiful, but in a calmer way, with all that mist flowing around.

Character Design: Book 3. I absolutely love the designs for Lif, Thrasir, and Hel. The bright colors on black, gray, and white, for one, but also the use of glowing, colored ballistics gel as a new, practical take on displaying characters as undead... And yeesh, you really need a mastery of understanding anatomy to be able to make those designs make sense. No fudging allowed. I think that these designs really show off the artists' skills -- both the 2D and 3D artists.

Characters' Writing: Book 3. This one was tough since I actually think all of the characters in FEH have pretty good writing (though sometimes they suffer from not enough screen time.) They remain consistent with their characters and all of them have personal motivations which make sense for each one of them. So, I have to fall to which ones I personally like the best. Specifically, the development with Lif and Alfonse. That said, Fafnir's story is really intriguing me, so Book 5, despite only having 2 chapters out, was actually a close contender.

Story: Book 5. I know, it's only just come out and is hardly even into its plot, but there's a lot of potential here, and I can't ignore how much theorizing I've been doing. That this story has prompted that much out of me already (similar to what Book 3 did for me when it was new) is a really good sign, and it's the one I'm the most excited about right now. If this book disappoints me enough, though, this is shifting back to Book 3.

Music: Book 3. Again, this was really tough to choose. LOVING Book 5's music so far, but there's so much story meaning in Book 3's lyrics, and it's music I actively look up to listen to, and have for a while now.

Cutscenes: Book 3. Personally, I think these are just really good overall, but Book 3's really did a great job telling the story, and that's what I like the most.

Voice Acting: Props to VA's who have to match Japanese lip flaps while still acting in-character and conveying said character's emotions with English voice lines. I don't think I can possibly choose a particular book that had the best voice acting.

Gameplay: N/A; I play the game to get to the story points, not to play the game.

Based on these criteria, it seems like my overall favorite book in FEH so far is...Book 3! No surprise, there. XD

 

Now, onto a straight-up, much less in-depth ranking, with 1 being the favorite and 5 being the least favorite.

1. Book 3 (Really enjoyed this one.)

2. Book 5 (It's shaping up to be pretty good!)

3. Book 2 (I liked this one, and the new worlds it brought in. The characters all had/have different destinies, and it's interesting to think about where they'll go from here.)

4. Book 1 (Introduced the game and set up all future books. I wish it didn't try to focus on the non-FEH FE games so much, though. Somewhat forgettable, but still has some plot points in play to be resolved later.)

5. Book 4 (Jarring and frustrating. Freyr, Kiranfonse, and that pretty nightmare world were pretty much the only things I liked about it. I guess I liked being surprised by fairy goats, too.)

Edited June 11, 2021 by Mercakete

[Etrurian emperor]

6 minutes ago, Mercakete said:

Book 1. Yeah, kind of weird, right? But really, it was the premise of all these characters from all these worlds coming together in a massive collaboration which drew me to the game in the first place, so Book 1 deserves some props for that. It also set everything up for all books to come, so I have to give it some credit. Without Book 1, nothing else would make any sense.

I kinda always found it the big weakness of book 1 that it rejected this premise. Its not the characters from all Fire Emblem worlds coming together. Book 1 takes the stance that its not about the Fire Emblem Worlds. Its neither Archenea nor Hoshido but instead ''the world of Mystery'' and ''the world of Birthright''.

As for the rankings. I kinda feel I'd save myself a lot of time by just saying Book 3 wins most of those categories. As far as writing goes I think its a step above the rest. It maybe has more to do with the rest of the books but its still a clear winner in terms of writing, character design and music. 

I guess the only places where book 3 doesn't win is its theme because it kinda squanders that. The theme of the book is death. We're fighting the realm of the death, the incarnations of death and an army of the dead. That was the general idea but it never came across. Aside from Gustav we never get to fight any dead figures from the series. Neither tragically fallen Heroes like Eldigan, Emmeryin or Greil, or even the dead Fire Emblem Heroes OC's like Surtr despite this being foreshadowed at the end of book 2. And while fighting future versions of Alfonse and Veronica is a twist that paid off I would argue that it does take away from the theme that you're not fighting the dead former sovereigns of Askr and Embla. I guess the realm of the death just being a boring swamp with some torture equipment laying around also isn't helping to show that Alfonse really descended into the underworld. 

For theme I think I'd give it to book 4. It feels weird and out of place but its also refreshing. It would have been boring and downright silly if after Surtr and Hell there immediately appeared yet another inter dimensional conqueror to fight Alfonse. I think the story needed a break from that sort of plot. The story also took more advantage of its theme. Book 3 refused to bring back zombie Surtr but book 4 did bring him back as a nightmare that someone from Askr might have after Surtr ran around burning the kingdom for a bit.

 

[omegaxis1]

39 minutes ago, Etrurian emperor said:

I guess the only places where book 3 doesn't win is its theme because it kinda squanders that. The theme of the book is death. We're fighting the realm of the death, the incarnations of death and an army of the dead. That was the general idea but it never came across. Aside from Gustav we never get to fight any dead figures from the series. Neither tragically fallen Heroes like Eldigan, Emmeryin or Greil, or even the dead Fire Emblem Heroes OC's like Surtr despite this being foreshadowed at the end of book 2. And while fighting future versions of Alfonse and Veronica is a twist that paid off I would argue that it does take away from the theme that you're not fighting the dead former sovereigns of Askr and Embla. I guess the realm of the death just being a boring swamp with some torture equipment laying around also isn't helping to show that Alfonse really descended into the underworld. 

That's the problem with this game. Chapters are always released with conjunction to the release of new heroes.

[Etrurian emperor]

10 minutes ago, omegaxis1 said:

That's the problem with this game. Chapters are always released with conjunction to the release of new heroes.

True but it wouldn't be hard to replace a generic mage accompanying the new heroes with Ishtar or a generic wyvren rider with Laegjarn.

Even tying in the new heroes with the theme shouldn't be hard. Even the one sentence each of em get before a mission would be enough. Just have Lugh says he's mortified about fighting for the realm of the dead, or how commander Lif is rough around the edges but that he can feel he's a nice guy deep down. Though that's really a problem all the books have. Those Black Fang members that show up in Surtr's palace could easy have a token line about being hired to fight, or Loki telling em Alfonse is a bad prince. 

[omegaxis1]

1 minute ago, Etrurian emperor said:

True but it wouldn't be hard to replace a generic mage accompanying the new heroes with Ishtar or a generic wyvren rider with Laegjarn.

Even tying in the new heroes with the theme shouldn't be hard. Even the one sentence each of em get before a mission would be enough. Just have Lugh says he's mortified about fighting for the realm of the dead, or how commander Lif is rough around the edges but that he can feel he's a nice guy deep down. Though that's really a problem all the books have. Those Black Fang members that show up in Surtr's palace could easy have a token line about being hired to fight, or Loki telling em Alfonse is a bad prince. 

That's a fair point. They always just focus on the new heroes, but they could stand to place in other heroes now that we have so many characters at this point.

[Mercakete]

1 hour ago, Etrurian emperor said:

I kinda always found it the big weakness of book 1 that it rejected this premise. Its not the characters from all Fire Emblem worlds coming together. Book 1 takes the stance that its not about the Fire Emblem Worlds. Its neither Archenea nor Hoshido but instead ''the world of Mystery'' and ''the world of Birthright''.

I think I should clarify what I meant here, when I chose Book 1. I mean that Book 1 explains how and why all these guys are here, and how Askr/Embla/the Order of Heroes works. "Everyone is all here!" is the theme of Book 1, but not its purpose. Its purpose is to set up for its own story, which comes in all the books that follow Book 1. If you don't understand the portal-opening powers of the Askran royalty, the portal-closing powers of the Emblian royalty, the role (summoning heroes from other worlds), origin (Anna summons the summoner then gives him a summon gun), and purpose (fill the ranks of the Order of Heroes and sometimes baffle deities) of the summoner, and what exactly the Order of Heroes is, then all these heroes from other worlds being around isn't going to make sense, and all those characters are going to be fighting for superiority in importance in the players' minds. There needs to be a unifying/main group here, and that's FEH's own cast, especially since all the other ones have their own games to be main in. The player needs a guide, and FEH's own characters fill this role excellently. The purpose of Book 1 was to explain all this and familiarize players with the FEH world because FEH is its own FE title. Also, IS is very bad at leaving things surface-level and feels the need to write narratives (which I am happy about, honestly (and actually find kind of endearing. Even when they try to make a self-insert-style character such as Robin or Kiran, they can't help but make a full character out of him/her with choices and written lines and everything.) If this was just unit-collecting/fighting without a story attached, I'd get pretty bored pretty fast.)

[kradeelav]

Personal book rankings (Mercakete, I'll use an abbreviated version of your scoring, love the detail there!) :

Characters/Story: B3. This book absolutely stuck to the landing and got several of my first 'oh holy shit this got real' moments as far as story goes; there was more to fear than just "death" of the characters (since you knew the characters couldn't actually die because #gacha waifu money) - but corrupted(?) versions of themselves that really did loose everything they loved and held dear ... not to mention Lif/Thrasir finding at least company in each other ... Hel being a badass of a character and a design... Alphonse being one of the smarter FE lords that I've seen by outwitting Lif when was trying to do the trap...  It wasn't the most creative story but it hit the beats that matter. (I also actually did love that the FE characters that did get in were a bunch of the laguz and gave nods to the Death world - Lethe = the River of Death in Greek mythology, for one.)

Gameplay: B2. Sutur being invincible actually added a lot of weight to the 'we running away from this terror!' and was probably the first time I actually got semi-invested in the main story. This was also right around the first time i started noticing IS play with different map goals - like 'survive for x turns' rather than a route map every goddamn time. Good on them for shaking it up here.

Visuals/Theme: B4. Talk about a cool acid trip!  Giant mobs of fairy goats that will kill your OP units! (God damn that one chapter where Freyja siccs all of the goats on you, though i say that somewhat lovingly since it was so nuts). Succumbi! Sparkly purple fairy world mixed with the steel world!  Dreams and nightmares! All the cutscenes were rather gorgeous here too, so it showed me IS really hit their stride as far as art-directing a contained world here.

All in all they're not terribly deep and I could mention a whole load of improvements they could've done in addition to what y'all have mentioned, but it's way more than I ever expected a gacha game to have.

[Fabulously Olivier]

1 >>>>>>>>>>>>>> 3 >>>> 4 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>2.

[XRay]

Story wise, Book III is my favorite. Book I, II, and IV are all about the same to me, but I think Book IV is slightly ahead of the first two cause the ending is pretty nice.

In terms of characters, Plumeria is my favorite, so Book IV leads in that. My next favorite be would Laevatein and Laegjarn, so next is Book II. The other books are okay in terms of characters.

For drawing the most emotion out of me, I have to say it is Book II, cause Surtr is an asshole for killing Gunnthrá in front of you.

For music, Book III is my favorite.

Book I got the best dorky television ad with Brave Heroes. Oh, and Book I should be credited for turning Reinhardt into a household name. In my opinion, Reinhardt is probably the most famous character in Heroes. You cannot call yourself a Heroes player if you do not know about "Magic is Everything!"

[Baldrick]

4 hours ago, XRay said:

Book I got the best dorky television ad with Brave Heroes. Oh, and Book I should be credited for turning Reinhardt into a household name. In my opinion, Reinhardt is probably the most famous character in Heroes. You cannot call yourself a Heroes player if you do not know about "Magic is Everything!"

That’s exactly why Book 1 is the worst. Reinhardt is just a meme, instead of tying into the overall plot of Thracia (and Judgral in general) and breaking the negative feedback loop concerning its lack of exposure and popularity. Granted, he had very little to go on, being a late game mini boss with no character development, but they didn’t even try.

He also killed any hype for Leif and Finn’s debut (the best chance to give the plot of Thracia exposure) by making the former the “wrong” red focus unit, and a generic Brave weapon reimagined as a prf Brave weapon while the latter, who canonically has a prf Brave weapon, gets a generic Brave weapon.

Thracia remains the poorest represented mainline game in both absolute and relative terms, and Thracia has got absolutely nothing this year, not even a seasonal.

[XRay]

40 minutes ago, Baldrick said:

That’s exactly why Book 1 is the worst. Reinhardt is just a meme, instead of tying into the overall plot of Thracia (and Judgral in general) and breaking the negative feedback loop concerning its lack of exposure and popularity. Granted, he had very little to go on, being a late game mini boss with no character development, but they didn’t even try.

He also killed any hype for Leif and Finn’s debut (the best chance to give the plot of Thracia exposure) by making the former the “wrong” red focus unit, and a generic Brave weapon reimagined as a prf Brave weapon while the latter, who canonically has a prf Brave weapon, gets a generic Brave weapon.

Thracia remains the poorest represented mainline game in both absolute and relative terms, and Thracia has got absolutely nothing this year, not even a seasonal.

I think turning an obscure character into a household name is a good thing in my opinion. I cannot think any other Books turning any other obscure character into a celebrity. The closest celebrities would maybe be VS!Azura and BH!Ike for how bonkers they are, but I do not think they can rival Reinhardt.

Book I might not have generated much interest for Thracia, but none of the other Books managed to generate any notable interest in any main series game either.

[Baldrick]

16 minutes ago, XRay said:

I think turning an obscure character into a household name is a good thing in my opinion.
 

Agreed, but Thracia itself is obscure. As a fan of Thracia, I was excited for the potential for Thracia to get attention, which could inspire players to start playing and discussing FE5, which could justify IS decided to give it an official translation and release, or even a remake like Gaiden.
 

Reinhardt is such a minor character that he does not inspire much interest in Thracia itself; anybody considering playing Thracia because they have heard of Reinhardt would probably not bother since he only appears in chapter 22 and isn’t recruitable.

Quote

Book I might not have generated much interest for Thracia, but none of the other Books managed to generate any notable interest in any main series game either.

Book 1 was the easiest time for a character to make an impact on the meta. FEH still had the novelty factor and there were less units around.

Edited December 15, 2020 by Baldrick

[Jotari]

Book 1: Hey, this is pretty cool...is anything going to happen? No? Really?

Book 2: Surtr is mai boy.

Book 3: Yeah I'm past caring at this point. Whoop it's over already.

Book 4: Hey wait this is actually a bit interes- oh wait the ending sucks. Well no one is surprised by that.

[Fire Emblem Fan]

Honestly, Books 1, 2, and 3 are all pretty close together for me. Not a single one is spectacular, but I'm not sure I'd say any of those first three are outright awful, either. 3 was probably the most intriguing, and I actually liked that weird metal introduction video. I didn't mind a lot of things in 2, and it gave us one of the best OCs in Helbindi. 1 was good enough to kickstart Heroes. 4 is absolutely the worst one so far, though, and it's way too early to say anything about 5 (aside from "oh goody another free lady OC" with sarcasm).

[Michelaar]

Book V seems very promising to me but I can't rate it yet according to the other books. I also dislike when people say ''Book x is the worst by far'' because it's such an extreme statement and would suggest that others are wrong for thinking that it could be better. For me it would be 4 > 3 > 2 > 1. I'm really curious to hear from people who think 1 is the best to hear why they think so because in my eyes nothing really constructive happened until the very end and even then the book didn't really get a satisfying ending, or really much of an ending at all.

[Mercakete]

On 12/14/2020 at 10:54 AM, kradeelav said:

Personal book rankings (Mercakete, I'll use an abbreviated version of your scoring, love the detail there!)

Thanks! 🙂

@Michelaar

Yeah, I know what you mean, regarding people saying subjective things as though they're objective. As for book 1, I think it was meant to be more of an introduction than its own, complete story, really.

[Fire Emblem Fan]

Well since "Book x is the worst by far" is basically a direct quote of me, I guess I'll respond: If you can't tell that someone is giving an opinion on a forum built around discussing opinions, maybe you shouldn't be on any forum. People aren't gonna write "imo" before/after every single little thing they say. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Hilda]

13 hours ago, Fire Emblem Fan said:

Well since "Book x is the worst by far" is basically a direct quote of me, I guess I'll respond: If you can't tell that someone is giving an opinion on a forum built around discussing opinions, maybe you shouldn't be on any forum. People aren't gonna write "imo" before/after every single little thing they say. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

This reminds me of the episode from The Good Wife - "Is that your opinion?" "Your Honor in my opinion!"

[Rosebride]

Book 3 will always be my favorite. It started just in time when I came back to feh after a break and I love it’s story and especially the dynamic eir and hel have. It definitely does get kind of bumpy at the end and the end does feel kind of rushed but the buildup to it is amazing. 

Book 2 and 1 are around the same for me, book 1 is fairly basic but it was the first one we got and I think it works for the better for people to get used to FEH. No dream within a dream or goddess of death shenanigans. Just good old good guys vs bad guys, if anything it really reminds me of the fire emblem cliche of “main characters originally begin quest to do simple task but it eventually ends in killing the big evil dragon god.” In the best way possible. Book 2 is the same for me but I do think book 1 is a little higher for me just bc i haven’t thought about book 2 in a hot minute. 

book 4 sure does exist. I love the character design and actual characters in it and the design is breathtaking....but everything else isn’t the strongest. I don’t think there’s a book that’s objectively “bad” but I definitely think its the weakest. 

don’t really have anything to say about book 5 atm bc were so early on and it really turn could into anything at this point but I hope the story quality is a little bit better than 4 at least. No more confusing magic mind games please

Edited December 30, 2020 by Rosebride

[Metal Flash]

Alright, I`ll give this a shot

Theme: It`s between Books 3 and 5, if the theme is what I think it is.

World: I like the look of Nidavalier, so I guess Book 5 wins this category.

Character design: Overall, I liked the character designs in Book 2 the best. The contrasting colors between the Nifl and Muspell uniforms is nice. I also like Fafnir`s design

Character writing: Aside from Alfonse, I would say it`s between Helbindi, Laegjarn and Fjorm

Story: Oddly enough, I enjoyed Book 4`s story the most. Maybe because it provided a nice contrast to the more

Cutscenes: Book 3, in hindsight at least. The hints they dropped in the opening cutscene were  cool, even if the twist itself felt like a cop-out

Voice Acting: Unsurprisingly, Ray Chase is my favourite vA for the Heroes OCs. I also like Sharena and Fjorm`s voices.

As far my overall ranking

Book 5: looks promising so far

Book 3: while the twist felt a it cheap, I liked most of it besides that

Book 2: okay, dragged a bit towards the end

Book 1; what started Heroes, alright

Book 4: looked interesting, but ended up being rather mediocre. Ending cinematic softened the blow somwwhat

[Mercakete]

22 hours ago, Casel Romando said:

I like your ranking system! Although the final list of my preferences would look a little different.

Thanks! Feel free to rank the books according to your preferences however you'd like. 🙂

Man, it's been a while, but it's nice to revisit what my thoughts on this were half a year ago. Hmm maybe I'll see if my rankings change after book 5 is done.

[auwebber23]

On 6/10/2021 at 4:05 PM, Casel Romando said:

I like your ranking system! Although the final list of my preferences would look a little different.

I would be interested to hear what your final list is. Because I completely like the list from the author of the topic!

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Edited July 8, 2021 by auwebber23