SF's opinion on FEs 6-10

[PKL]

Second part of the other poll: http://serenesforest.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=46464

From the other poll, it seems both Judgral games are liked by 26 SF'ers, Mystery of the Emblem is generally well-received, Gaiden is doing decent too, surprisingly and the first game is viewed by the majority as Mediocre or bad.

This time it's Fire Emblems 6-10.

Binding Blade, Blazing Sword, The Sacred Stones, Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn.

[Anacybele]

I've never played FE6 due to it being Japan only, so I can only comment about the others. :P

Blazing Sword is okay, not anything real special, imo. I do love one thing about it: Sain. <3

Sacred Stones is awesome, I like this cast and story way more than that of FE7! I'd like to finish it, but I just kept feeling more like picking up other games. :P Also, Ephraim is my second favorite lord after Ike. :3

Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn are my favorite games of all time! I got addicted to both the first time I picked them up! The story and characters are wonderful, Ike is my favorite game character ever next to Luigi (I LOVE him to pieces. ), the gameplay is really fun, and RD added some really cool new things to it, like climbing and using ranged attacks from ledges, unique chapter objectives, and more. RD's support system is rubbish, but PoR's is awesome. And I like how RD is divided into parts. I just wish it had been a little longer to give certain groups of units more screen time. One reason I dislike the Dawn Brigade is that you don't get enough time to properly train them. They can never be on par with Ike and his mercenaries. But besides that, I love both these games!

[Jedi]

Binding Blade is my favorite in the series and I have personal bias towards it, I find it fun and I have extensive head canon

Fe7 was my first fe and one I still play fondly. Eliwood remains my favorite lord and Matthew my favorite character in the franchise.

Fe8 I have fun with and it has some nice throw backs to Gaiden. I like the concept of Trainees and the tower, despite the game being easy.

Fe9 has my favorite story and overall my favorite characters, the story of Ike and his companions will always be one of my favorite ventures on the Gamecube.

Radiant Dawn while its story becomes flawed mid part 3. It served like Thracia before it for one of the best games gameplay wise despite some of the more broken options in it

[Alfred Kamon]

Binding Blade was not bad, but it definitely lacks something that FE7 covered up for.

Blazing Sword is, in fact, one of the best FE games ever made imo. The characters are fantastic, the plot is not bad and the gameplay is simply awesome.

FE8 imo was mediocre, and terribly disappointing. It had so many adds and good ideas and concepts, but it executed them pretty poorly. The story seems rushed, some characters are really boring, and the gameplay is far too easy despite having some really good adds.

I remember FE9 came out the same day as FE8 here. I picked FE8, while a friend of mine bought FE9. I was so terribly jealous because I realised FE8 wasn't as good as expected while FE9 was literally awesome (especially back then, it was probably one of the best games on the Gamecube).

FE10 is really good, it has a solid plot and gameplay is ok, but graphics and controls could have definitely been better for a Wii game.

[Florete]

Binding Blade: Mediocre. It has a multitude of problems but I still found myself able to mostly enjoy it overall and play through it a couple times.

Blazing Sword: Great. There may be personal bias due to it having been my first FE, but it's a good introduction to newcomers with just the right amount of simplicity and neat features and enough modes to keep you playing.

Sacred Stones: Good. A good game for sure, but sometimes just feels like a watered down FE7. My biggest disappointment is that they introduced branched promotions but gave it one of the smallest casts in the franchise to use it. Such a waste.

Path of Radiance: Good. A good game, but needs a polish.

Radiant Dawn: Great. PoR with the polish.

[JSND Alter Dragon Boner]

A bunch of mediocre games and game that I have not played!

Yes, IMO FE7 is actually kinda mediocre. I still like it though

[MJThom_2009]

FE6: I did enjoy the game and hard mode was pretty tough.

FE7: I've played the prequel before 6 and I like Hector's side of the story.

FE8: I've heard this game was the easiest but I'm not really sure about it.

FE9: This is the second FE game I've played and I got nothing to say.

FE10: Favorite game of all time because of the story.

[Jedi]

Warms my heart to see that Sf views Binding Blade a bit more positively then when I first arrived

[ZemZem]

FE6: Good.

FE7: Great.

FE8: Great.

FE9: Great.

FE10: Haven't played.

[Just call me AL]

FE6: Good. Could used some balancing here and there, removal of supports per chapter restrictions, and a support log.

FE7: Best game in the series, IMO. Great characters, great story, most balance in an FE game without having to split apart the team. Just give it FE9 skills, and it would be perfect.

FE8: Mediocre. I don't deny that it's a good game. But when compared to other games in the series (bar FE11 and FE13), it falls kinda short. Story could have been a little better, and the cast didn't really appeal to me. To leave it brief, it felt rushed. And the ideas in it, while great, were poorly executed. Its difficulty (or lack thereof) doesn't really help this.

FE9: My gateway game into the series. And frankly, one of the only few FEs that could be worthy of the title of "best FE" next to FE7. It's pretty much like FE7, only easier.

FE10: It honestly left a bad taste in my mouth. Sure good story. But I feel like it could have been better. While I'm glad the localization included a support log for FE9, I felt like there should have been more unique conversations between the characters aside from "Hey! How are you doing? I'm fine! How about you?" The Dawn Brigade could have gotten some more screentime and development. Same with the Crimean Knights. And the game could have also used some more support endings. (Especially since, if I recall, not many fans over on the eastern side of the Pacific were happy that Astrid could only wind up with Makalov, or that Mist could only wind up with Boyd.) It may not have been rushed, but it sure felt like it.

[Phoenix01]

FE6: I'm glad I played it after I finished FE7, because I wouldn't have understood a lot of it. The story's good, difficulty is much higher than the other GBAs which is refreshing, but suffers from some problems like the "only x support points per chapter" and the fact that most took ageeees to achieve. Most of the characters were notable subpar to the same classes from Blazing Sword (Peg Knights, for example), which added to the difficulty a bit, so some balancing is needed. However I'm still happy that my Wolt turned out good <3

FE7: My favorite FE. One of the things I've admired about this is how the story ties in to FE6's and leads up to it but doesn't give much away. I love the characters, it improved on many aspects from FE6, and just <3. It was also my first one, so I guess I have a bit of inherent bias, but w/e it's still awesome.

FE8: I liked the dual-promotion and reintroduction of trainees, and there were a couple other minor areas where it improved, like the text, but it just wasn't as great as 7, imo. It wasn't bad, just not a lot really stood out to me.

FE9: Haven't played much of it, but I read a LP of it and liked what I saw. It does seem like a lot to get into with forges and the skill system and all of that after playing the GBAs.

FE10: ^^^, except I haven't played it yet. It looks even better than PoR, though.

[Hamicsat]

FE6: Hitrates are frustrating and axes need a buff, but otherwise this game is pretty good stuff. The difficulty is sometimes unfair, what with reinforcements appearing and acting on the same turn, but I like the fact that the enemies have at least decent stats, rather than their FE7-8 counterparts.

FE7: Nostalgia glasses activate! This is my first RPG ever, so my bias towards it is obvious, but I think this is the best in the series. The characters are well written (with some exceptions), the balance is a massive improvement over FE6, the soundtrack is god-tier and the maps are well-designed, sans Living Legend (why does there have to be a desert chapter in every game...) It's got some glaring flaws, though; some of the Gaiden chapter requirements are flat-out dumb (looking and you, 19xx) and I feel like the lords are bland in terms of personality; Hector's character development in his mode is really well done, but the other two have got nothing. Still, perhaps my favorite game of all time.

FE8: Also a great game, but I have a lot of problems with it. Characters didn't seem quite as interesting in this game (except Joshua, he's a boss), though that may just be more bias on my part. Being forced to choose between Eirika and Ephraim's paths annoys me, especially given the game's length; allowing the player to play both chapters would compensate for that fact. The soundtrack wasn't quite as good as FE7, though it is still very good. The portraits seem really weird to me; maybe it's the shape of the noses? IDK. I think my biggest problem is the fact that fighting monsters is REALLY boring. They pose no threat whatsoever on Normal Mode, and don't improve much on Hard Mode. They get doubled by almost anyone, with some exceptions, and very few of them do significant damage; only the Dracozombies are actually threatening. If the monsters were tougher, I might take the Demon King more seriously; as it stands, his minions suck...

FE9: Another great game. A tad easy, if I do say so myself (keep in mind that I've never fought Berserk Ashnard, so I'm not the greatest authority on the subject), but not to the point of losing my interest. Soundtracks great, the portrait art is great, the character development is great; pretty much everything is fantastic. Not being able to control Laguz transformations is an annoyance, for sure, but I have no other significant problems with the game.

FE10: It's FE9, but with mandatory Dawn Brigade sections. Yippee. Controlling Laguz gauges is convenient, being able to re-apply your units innate skills is a definite advantage, and the new BEXP system makes a lot more sense in my mind compared to FE9. The Part 4 section where you have to split your army into three smaller forces was a really interesting system, and I would've loved it if half of the cast wasn't pure garbage. Character development is nigh-nonexistant; new characters have no characterization, and returning veterans have very little going for them (lol Ilyana, lol Tormod, etc). Fun game, but Micaiah's in it, so it can't possibly be good.

[BrightBow]

FE6:

I would really like to know what the idea behind FE6 was. It feels kinda like a remake of FE3 that was changed to be something new halfway through development when the entire story and character designs wera already done.

The opening suggests that the idea might have been "Akaneia with a twist", seeing how it paints a very similar backstory but with the humans as the bad guys.

But that would kinda require that the actual game would acknowledge it rather then praising the divine generals to he heavens while not showing anything to the player that makes them more but the driving force behind a worldwide genocide.

Fittingly the mechanics have also been downgraded to FE3 level. Except even worse, now that you have to actual grind for supports in a game that is entirely linear.

Still, the gameplay is pretty solid. The instantly moving reinforcements are back but thankfully they shouldn't spawn right next to the army. Also hard mode is a bliss to play.

The characters and countries are also surprisingly well developed ...except for Roy. So this is sort of a case of having good worldbuilding in an otherwise crappy story.

Also, the battle animations. Back when I only played the GBA games, I was thinking about how cool it would be if the game wold use the data to simulate an actual battle rather then simply performing the animations on the spot.

And then I played the older games and I saw that they actually did do that before. Just why did they give that up in exchange for this primitive system?

FE7:

Continuing the trend of games that confuse me, FE7 has effectively the same opening as FE6.

But hey, all the very important NPCs are related to the Scouring. The villain and the siblings are victims of the war and Athos is one of the Divine Generals.

However, instead of exploring these events, the Scouring is actually completely unrelated to the actual story. Nergal should hate Athos for the death of his wife but he hates him for an entirely unrelated event.

His actions in the present are completly unrelated to his past. That connection had been lost when his backstory said "he went gaga" and became a shallow cartoon villain.

The twins could have been replaced by two different dragons too. Nothing in the story depends on those people being connected through the Scouring.

It doesn't even make sense to have a character like Athos unless you would want to bring up the Scouring. So why did things turn out this way?

There isn't even anything that does as much as hint on these absurdly hidden background trivia pieces either. In fact, the game actually adds brief dialog once the levels are unlocked, like lengthening Nergal's death quote to reference his wife.

The actual story is utter crap too. It's effectively just a collection of random (and stupid) events until the evil wizard dies in the end. There is no point to it beyond that.

The gameplay is effectively unchanged from FE6. But now you have to force yourself through Lyn's mode: A godawful and lengthy tutorial that often ends up being misleading.

Also, the introduction of the Tactician. So there is lots of embarrassing ass kissing going on.

Overall, a crappy successor to an already lackluster game.

FE8:

At last a game with an actual direction. A character driven story that is about so much more then just killing an evil wizard.

You know, I can understand when a story with an actual theme sometimes has to put logic aside in order to execute it's plot points but FE7 simply has no point. So there is no excuse for stupidity.

But of course, making sense is always a good thing and Sacred Stones does this good for the most part.

In fact, I think this is the game with the most intelligent villains:

First, Grado tries to subdue the other countries with a Blitzkrieg. But once they lost momentum, they executed alternative plans to bring down the countries or to at leas destroy the sacred stones.

Frelia's stone was destroyed by a commando team and Jehanna was brought down from the inside. Unfortunately Rausten wasn't brought down.

That is not Vigarde's fault, though. He did order him to come up with something very early one. Rief seems to be quite a slacker. So some stupidity is unfortunately still present.

The game reintroduces lots of elements from Gaiden but they are for the most part badly executed.

The road split was done well, though. Both of the siblings have their own story, even when traversing the same maps for the most part.

Still, the engaging world, plot and characters make this game stand out from the rest of the GBA era.

FE9:

This game has to feature the best worldbuilding and storyline in a Nintendo game ever. Well, that is kinda a narrow superlative.

Still, it is pretty great. There are so many factions and characters and so much backstory. And yet in the end it comes all together. It is truly a masterpiece and incredible engaging.

Contrary to common perception, good stories don't get worse by experiencing them repeatedly. They get better. And man, this game has gotten better and better with every replay.

Unfortunately, the mechanics aren't quite as refined as the plot. The game brings back old mechanics with mixed success and the Laguz are executed rather poorly too.

Also Biorhythm. Like WTH Biorhythm. Seriously.

Fortunately, the game does have some good ideas on it's own.

Bonus exp is great because it adds a motivator or finishing maps quickly without making it mandatory and you no longer need to glue units together to raise supports.

And Info conversations are the best Fire Emblem mechanic ever. They allow for actual story relevant character conversations. It's effect is absolutely incredible.

Quite frankly, I think the base menu itself is an amazing idea. It allows you to maintain the army in an appropriate atmosphere.

And something as simple as the changing backgrounds give you the feeling that you are actual traveling over this wide world.

Of course, four games later we are back to gluing units together to raise supports, Info conversations are completely gone, BEXP is completely gone and the army is maintained on the world map while the so called "base" serves no purpose but to hand out random goodies... ...this game really has gotten better over time.

The map design is also quite diverse. It's trivialized by the easy difficulty but I don't penalize the games for localization changes.

The 3D environments look really nice too. I like how the background during battles is effectively a recreation of the map itself and will position the characters depending on their position on the map.

It keeps things dynamic as you progress. Unfortunately, the animations of the units are rather clunky. It has good concepts for it's visual presentation but it's nevertheless quite apparent that this is the series' first step into 3D.

And the tutorial is amazing. It doesn't force itself on you like in FE7 and forces tons of information down your throat which you will inevitable have forgotten by the time it is actually relevant because of the absurd volume and because the useful parts are buried under tons of completely useless flavor text. This one is always ready when it is needed and can be watched as often as necessary.

FE10:

FE10 follows in FE9's footsteps and brings back even more old mechanics and executes them poorly, like Leadership. And it introduces even more stupid mechanics, like Map Affinity.

Confusing mechanics aside, the game is extremely fun. And man, the battles look gorgeous now.

I originally considered the story to be a medium disappointment but as time went one and I learned about the extended script, I realized that the plot was better put together then I initially thought.

Sure, the abridged script we got sucks but I don't penalize the games for localizations changes. I just wish we got more chapters translated.

But abridged script or not, this game is not quite on PoR's level either way. Except for Part 2. That part is truly excellent in a vacuum.

Edited February 27, 2014 by BrightBow

[PM ME MARIANNE ART]

FE6: My words can't describe how amazing this game is. Currently my favorite game in the series.

FE7: Also completely fantastic, but not as much challenge and MAN OF STEEL as FE6.

FE8: Good one for replayability, but I'm not a huge fan of a lot of the characters. The ones I do like are super awesome, but eh.

FE9: Would probably beat out FE7 if it weren't for the animations. But dat story...

FE10: My copy is sitting on my desk unopened. I really need to play it.

[Anacybele]

Sure, the abridged script we got sucks but I don't penalize the games for localizations changes. I just wish we got more chapters translated.

Wait a minute, are you KIDDING me? Japanese RD actually has MORE chapters? What the hell, NoA.

Edited February 27, 2014 by Anacybele

[Florete]

Wait a minute, are you KIDDING me? Japanese RD actually has MORE chapters? What the hell, NoA.

No, it doesn't. He's just referring to some of the extended scripts.

[Anacybele]

No, it doesn't. He's just referring to some of the extended scripts.

Oh, I was about to say. I did know of the script that isn't present in the NoA version, I just thought BrightBow was saying they cut some chapters too. xP

[Just call me AL]

EDIT: I was ninja'd on my response to the "more chapters" thing. But since Red Fox covered what I wanted to say...

FE7:Nergal should hate Athos for the death of his wife.

Except why should he? I'm pretty darn sure that Nergal would know full well that Athos isn't to blame for his wife's death. The fact that Athos was fighting during the Scouring doesn't automatically make him a bad person, as we plainly see in the game itself. Edited February 27, 2014 by Just call me Al

[BrightBow]

Except why would he? I'm pretty darn sure that Nergal would know full well that Athos isn't to blame for his wife's death. The fact that Athos was fighting during the Scouring doesn't automatically make him a bad person, as we plainly see in the game itself.

This is not about in-universe logic. It is about why the story was written the way it is.

Nergal is limited to being a boring 90s cartoon villain with no depth when his backstory gives so much better material to work with:

The loss of his entire family and the grudge of an millennium as the humans responsible for his suffering spread about the continent and glorified their atrocities over the course of the following centuries.

In terms of backstory, he is effectively Lehran.

Edited February 27, 2014 by BrightBow

[Silver Lightning]

FE6: Mediocre. And it will continue to be mediocre until I can finally get unstuck. I wanted to like this game (its what brought me to SF when looking for a fan patch) but its been the least fun of my FE experiences with all those god awful hit rates; only FE game that has made me rage quit for over a year and a half. May change to "Good" if I can ever be persuaded to get off my duff and either try to continue or restart. Oh well, at least I do like some of the characters and the supports, while not amazing, are miles better than FE10's...

FE7: Good. First FE game ever and one that I've been regularly replaying when bored lately, and I enjoy the characters and story a lot; only thing keeping it from Great status is the existence of my least favorite FE character in this game. XP

FE8: Great! Favorite FE game next to Awakening; awesome plot, great cast of characters, and IMHO has the best antagonist in the series. Definitely had some flaws, but I've had the most fun playing this game, and I've replayed it the most. I hope Magvel gets another game connected to it in the future.

FE9: Good. I have fond memories of this game and it characters. Plot was good, gameplay was nice; other than the less than stellar voice acting, the cutscenes were fun to watch too. Ah yes, and I can't ever forget the amazing music the Tellius era brought. GBA music was nice, but I really loved the actual instrumental pieces in FE9. And I liked the Laguz concept, though I may be alone in that...

FE10: Good. Probably my favorite after Sacred Stones. Took most things from FE9 and made it eve better. I loved the beautiful graphics, cutscenes, and music. Character cast was great and the plot, while not perfect, was interesting to see unravel. Probably played and replayed this game the most besides FE8. Would've been "great" if it had full blown supports, but alas....

[edza90]

Binding Blade: Fire Emblem 4 Maps Light, terrible balance, good music, basic plot and characters... Mediocre.

Blazing Sword: Thracia 776 light (map design reminds me of Thracia 776 for placement is more important than raw stats here), identical to Binding Blade in weapon concept but few differences make it more refined (S level gives a needed +5 crit)

Sacred Stones: Gaiden V.3, skills are back for some classes, lots of customing due to branch classing, bonus dungeons, monsters, possibility to grind if you want (facultative), lot's of weapon, better characters than FE7, a whole new world compared to FE Elibe

Path of Radiance: Thracia 776 light but better than Blazing Sword, excellent characters, forging, growth scrolls now are special items, new weapon types, Titania is what Eyvel would have been if she was good (motherly figure that starts good and stays good instead of the same but starts godly and ends up average)

Radiant Dawn: Thracia 776 0.9, swaps capture for free skills distribution, no movement stars, almost as profound, has almost everything that the best Fire Emblem had.

Fan Games:

Dream of Five - interesting map desing, interesting characters, custom music and graphics here and there, it's FE7 1.5

Last Promise - see above but different setting, voice acting at special happenings and some custom classes

FE Girls - Radiant Dawn on GBA, lots of nostaglia map from older games. No elemental magic triangle, no capture command, no movement stars, no forges but predates some concepts that are present in FE Awakening (class swapping via special Seal Item)

Edited February 27, 2014 by edza90

[Just call me AL]

Nergal is limited to being a boring 90s cartoon villain with no depth when his backstory gives so much better material to work with:

The loss of his entire family and the grudge of an millennium as the humans responsible for his suffering spread about the continent and glorified their atrocities over the course of the following centuries.

In terms of backstory, he is effectively Lehran.

I fail to see how Nergal is "a boring 90s cartoon villain with no depth" when one, there are other FE villains that fit that description so much better, and two, there's really no other justification for his actions. It's even outright stated in-game (by Canas specifically) that pursuit in the dark arts can eventually cause the user to lose himself (or herself). That's exactly what happened to Bramimond when creating the Apocalypse tome. It's not really outlandish to assume that same pursuit is what caused Nergal to end up how he is in FE7. He did have different reasons from Bramimond to want to pursuit down the path he did, but that's not the point here. It wouldn't make much sense for him to hate Athos for any other reason than the fact that he felt betrayed when Athos did what he had to in order to stop him. Especially if the reason involved Aenir and the fact that Athos participated in what can easily be described as a fight for survival between two races.

[Anacybele]

And I liked the Laguz concept, though I may be alone in that...

Nope! Call me a furry if you want, but I love the laguz and really want to see them again! Especially dragons and wolves. :3 Ranulf is one of my favorite characters in the series too, though he's neither dragon nor wolf. lol

[BrightBow]

I fail to see how Nergal is "a boring 90s cartoon villain with no depth" when one, there are other FE villains that fit that description so much better

That really doesn't make it any less so. This is about Nergal and not any other villain.

, and two, there's really no other justification for his actions. It's even outright stated in-game (by Canas specifically) that pursuit in the dark arts can eventually cause the user to lose himself (or herself). That's exactly what happened to Bramimond when creating the Apocalypse tome. It's not really outlandish to assume that same pursuit is what caused Nergal to end up how he is in FE7. He did have different reasons from Bramimond to want to pursuit down the path he did, but that's not the point here. It wouldn't make much sense for him to hate Athos for any other reason than the fact that he felt betrayed when Athos did what he had to in order to stop him. Especially if the reason involved Aenir and the fact that Athos participated in what can easily be described as a fight for survival between two races.

Again, this it isn't about in-universe logic but why the story is written the way it is.

It doesn't matter how many NPC's say that dark magic users loose their sense of self. All it matters practically is that the Nergal of the present is entirely disconnect from the potentially more interesting Nergal from the past.

Present Nergal only seeks power for it's own sake and is consequently a boring antagonist.

And a being like Athos has no business in the story unless he is used to deal with the Scouring.

They even made up this nonsense about him being 1000 years old just so that he can still be around. That is a lot that the story expects it's audience to swallow for an NPC that could have been replaced by anybody.

And I don't care about what Athos is nor is not responsible. I care about the writers ignoring the opening that they used in two successive games. An opening that promised a way more interesting story then what we got.

Edited February 27, 2014 by BrightBow

[lazydoggamer]

FE6 never played

FE7 Hated Lyn's mode but otherwise solid game

FE8 Liked a lot of the characters in this game but meh otherwise

FE9 My favorite in the series in terms of story and characters but I hated the approach to the skill system, biorhythm, and Laguz units

FE10 Loved how much better the gameplay was but I hated how part 4 was handled storywise.