Favorite 3DS game and why?

[𝐍𝐲𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐥]

So I've been playing Awakening recently and it's been reviving my interest in Fire Emblem again, so I started watching old Awakening and Fates videos that I used to enjoy (mostly from shadowofchaos and Ghast) and out of nowhere I noticed that a lot of people got into FE around this time (including me) and that certain games were controversial due to the new fans rustling a few FE veteran's jimmies and it's got me curious, which game on the 3DS is considered the most liked by the people on SF and why? 

[Zanarkin]

Note: I mostly remember the impressions left by the games. I can't pinpoint more specific stuff since it has been a while since I played them.

I can't speak for everyone, but I found Shadows of Valentia the best 3ds fe game. Personally, I don't give two shits about a lot of the mechanics games like Fates and Awakening have. The marriage+kids stuff feels exceedingly contrived and distracting, and speaking for fates specifically, the amount of fan service and frankly creepy petting zoo was kinda off-putting. I much prefer the simpler post battle menus of FE PoR and RD, which maybe due to them being my first games. Either way, I much rather they have a focus on battles and maps than spend resources trying to get everyone to bust a nut. Fates was good in terms of combat, but there was stuff that made it frustrating. I found it very annoying that my units could have great stats, but then in comes this enemy that can inflict massive debuffs, and now my unit has to cower and run away. Whats the point of having a good growths, if the enemy can lower your offensive/defensive level for a good chunk of the turns. And yeah rally exists, but not having a way to get rid of it immediately is still very annoying. Debuffs themselves are fine, like in engage, but there you have legitimate ways to counter them. Shadows of valentia felt like the most straight forward turn based game of all the 3ds games, and I had a lot of fun playing it to the end.
 

[JimmyBeans]

I absolutely adore Shadows of Valentia, and while I think it does get a lot of flak for story decisions, it scratches an itch that I have wanted for FE for a long time.

[Fire Emblem Fan]

The best 3DS Fire Emblem game? Awakening, definitely. It has some issues with its story and there are a couple character I do not like, but the vast majority of it is just so darn good, in my opinion. It's fun to play and I do like most of the cast. Shadows of Valentia takes second place, and Fates brings up the rear. Or, if you want to split the three Fates routes, I'd rank Revelation as the best Fates route (yes, really), Birthright as the middle, and Conquest as the worst...but all three are still behind Awakening and SoV.

[Eltosian Kadath]

Conquest is fairly popular thanks to it having some of the best gameplay in the whole series. Also of note, Revelations is more popular around these parts than it probably is in the fandom as a whole.

[Yexin]

Shadows of Valentia, for me

i love everything about it: the music, the new character designs, the animations, the explorable dungeons, everything

[Shrimpica]

Fates, easy. Not only is Conquest gameplay still peak Fire Emblem, even other routes have something to offer with how different each route is. The Fates base mechanics are super robust

[Azz]

If I had to rank them it would be SoV>Awakening>Fates.

Shadows of Valentia bar none. I liked Gaiden even before SoV was announced so seeing it updated to SoV was amazing. The music is gorgeous, the art is fantastic and I love the more RPG-esque features like dungeon crawling and town exploration. While its maps aren't the best and the story is rather basic and you can tell its from the 90s, I still really enjoyed the game for its presentation and other gameplay aspects.

Awakening was my first FE like many so I hold it quite dear to me. It definitely has its issues, however, it has a charm to it and I really do enjoy it, tho I do prefer SoV.

Fates is ehhh. From a gameplay perspective, Conquest is one of the best in the series bar none. However Birthright is bland and Revelation is far to gimmicky imo. I do think my opinion of Fates was extremely soured due to pre-release hype that was not met. I don't have as negative an opinion on it that I used to but I still think that it essentially feels like a 'Awakening did this and that was successful' kind of game when I wish it just tried to stand on its own. Though, like I said, I will always stand by Conquest having some of the best gameplay in the series.

[Lanko]

Going on playing time, I have over 650 hours on Awakening, only beat by Fates with over 660... but Fates is practically 3 games in one, so that speaks so much for Awakening.

I played ~20h of Echoes and dropped it... not because I didn't like it, but because I think I was burning out with leveling/skilling/roster management (specially after 1k hours doing so previously).

Haven't touched my 3DS in years, E-shop closure brought me back to it, and so much time away actually revived my interest, I'm finally playing Revelations (yes, 660h on Fates and still haven't done it) and after it I'll go back to Echoes to finally play it. I'm more fresh and will be a different take now.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Fates > Awakening > SoV, pretty clearcut for me.

Conquest is just a wonderful game mechanically. It takes the ideas of Awakening (pair up, dual strike, supports being really easy to get) and refines/improves on them, while having some very cool map design. Birthright is relatively less to my taste but I think it still plays a role of having the solid Fates engine combined with some much lower-stress gameplay and I think there's a place for that, too. Also, my somewhat unpopular opinion is that Fates also has the best story of the 3DS games (though admittedly, none of them are strong on this front).

Awakening is a game that got me back into Fire Emblem after the DS games did their best to drive me away. Charming characters and good pacing. I find the gameplay very janky, especially on its higher difficulties (Lunatic and Lunatic+), but it's still enjoyable enough that I played this one five times.

SoV I played once and never really looked back. To its credit, it has some neat ideas, I liked bows having huge range and magic being powerful but costing HP. Unfortunately the map design is incredibly primitive which can definitely make it a bit unfun at points. Its story is also a misogynist dumpster fire, but I do like some of the characters at least.

[nPhlames]

My favorite is Awakening, but Conquest is imo still the best gameplay in the series

[vanguard333]

Awakening is the only one that I thought was good, so Awakening would have to be my favourite 3DS FE game.

Fates was really bad; all three versions, in both story and gameplay.

Shadows of Valentia had some good ideas for improving Gaiden, but then it also made changes that were really bad and it felt haphazard in terms of what it chose to change and what it chose to adhere to. Basically, Shadows of Valentia felt like it was less than the sum of its parts.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

Echoes, because I hate good map design.

...Actually though, I like how varied a gameplay experience it is, combining traditional top-down turn-based strategy, third-person 3D dungeon-crawling, and adventure game point-and-clicking all into one package. It makes for a very atypical FE game, but a well-rounded and unique experience in its own right. Additionally, while there are strategic choices to make, it's not a game that plops hundreds in front of you (i.e. which weapons to buy, skills to learn, pairings to set up). This makes for a more "chill" experience, that doesn't leave me on the preps screen for a good thirty minutes before turn one begins. Finally, I love the jump to near-complete voice acting, and Hidari is one of the best character artists the series has ever seen.

[Samz707]

Echoes

To put it as simply as possible,  I completely despise AwakenFates, the characters are unlikable, the gameplay sucks and the stories gives me headaches with their awful plot-hole-ridden-clearly-just-copying-tropes-willy-nilly writing.

Echoes, has a cast of characters I actually like, the story only really has Celica being dumb at the very end as a negative and the gameplay is actually fun since it completely lacks all the awful mechanics introduced in the other 3DS games. (I would like to thank Pair-Up and it's effects on gameplay for single handedly being the worst god damn thing ever.) 

It also has no Avatar, which is great since I really hate the constant worship Robin and Corrin get alongside their godawful writing.

Echoes is a nice, simple well-made game that feels like it was actually made by people instead of randomly throwing stuff at the wall. 

Edited August 25, 2023 by Samz707

[MagmaRam]

Definitely Echoes. I actually like Awakening and Fates quite a bit, but I hadn't played Gaiden before Echoes came out, so its unique takes on the Fire Emblem formula were really interesting. The simplified inventory system removed a lot of between-chapters busywork, and dungeon exploration is a neat feature. Also, casting magic and skills from HP is just a cool concept in general, and I'm kinda disappointed no other game has used HP as a spendable resource in a similar way.

[MeteorPhoenix]

Still Awakening, and I fully admit it might be nostalgia. Liked Fates at the time, although I've never wanted to return to it, and Echoes never really clicked with me.