Inference

Rating in the order that I've played them: FE9: 8.5/10 This was my introduction to the series, and a pretty stellar one at that. The moment you start this game up, it flexes its atmosphere building with a flawless introduction that gives you the impression that you're about to embark on an epic journey. The introduction also gives you a taste of its soundtrack to come, which is easily the best in the entire series. Path of Radiance's major story events are audibly driven by brilliant sound direction, having the perfect tune for each occasion, or sometimes, a stalking silence to convey the severity of what has transpired. Aside from the music, the gameplay is every bit Fire Emblem as you'd expect with over-the-top animations offsetting dull visuals, and reasonably balanced gameplay on the first run through. I can't name off the top any maps that annoyed me in particular, but I will say that around Day Breaks when everyone begins to promote, the game feels a bit more fun. Overall, it's a gripping tale disguised as a fun strategy game. FE7: 9/10 Powerhouse entry in the series for story. Some may criticize Lyn's tale as unneeded, but I think it does a fair bit for world and character building that the story needs. Three lords, three friends, going on a journey to tear shit up. Though not my first, this is the standard to which I compare all Fire Emblems. Showy animations and gameplay are at their best, the character development is real, and maps are varied and tie seamlessly into the story. Honestly, the music is pretty average for Fire Emblem standards, but they could do a lot worse. Some tracks I like are Dragon's Gate II, Softly with Grace, and Rise to the Challenge. I've always mused on the idea of an FE6 + 7 remake so that FE6 could get the game it deserves, and we can see a great entry like FE7 enter the modern era. Though I doubt it will happen, I'll even accept a nod to FE7 with three Lord/main characters in the next game. FE8: 6/10 It's not bad, but not terribly good either. It has all of the makings of your average Fire Emblem entry with a solid soundtrack befitting the adventure, a few interesting characters to lighten the mood, and some unique gameplay mechanics for its time but the gameplay itself is C-grade. Extremely unbalanced and hardly challenging even on its highest difficulty, you'll have no trouble clearing it even if it's your first run and you're using all of the trainees. It offers the least replay value of any Fire Emblem due to its utterly non-existent difficulty. Still, it has its charms, and the story is noticeably different from both lead character's perspective. Good for a couple of playthroughs, at least. FE6: 6/10 I don't feel I'm giving this game a fair score, due to its lack of a proper localization, and thus, no credible dialogue crafted for English-speaking fans. As such, most plot-related aspects of the game seem fairly banal to me, aided little by the poorly edited translation patch I was playing at the time. On the upside, the music is quite good, and the main game is one of the more challenging ones in the series, giving you some incentive to play once in a while on a purely strategic level. Flavor-wise, it has little to offer. I feel it could have been worth a 7 under different circumstances. FE10: 4/10 It's pretty bad. Aside from getting to see all of your favorite Path of Radiance characters again, most original aspects of this game are a net negative, including, but not limited to: soundtrack, visuals, gameplay structure, storyline progression, and characterization. It's a step down from Path of Radiance in all aspects, and a step back for worldwide Fire Emblem releases. FE11: 8/10 This one is beginning to rival FE7 as my favorite Fire Emblem game. Its approach to story and characterization are some of the best yet. Rather than relying on lengthy support conversations to establish character, most can be figured out by the manner in which they are introduced. Hardin, for example, is painted perfectly within the confines of Chapter 5. His courage, humility, and loyalty to Nyna on a more personal than knightly level are all conveyed well by way of pre-chapter narration and his brief dialogue with Marth during the map. The dialogue in this game is well-written all around, and most characters, important or otherwise, have memorable lines. The soundtrack is more than serviceable, and the setting feels very authentic compared to other games. Even its predominantly gray-washed art style lampshades the adventure that follows akin to a storm cloud. Its main downfall, I feel, is its utter lack of regard to gameplay balance, severely undermining its difficulty on subsequent attempts, and making certain aspects of the game more bothersome than necessary (the annoying scarcity of Master Seals, for example). Even the gameplay, however, is not entirely flawed, with class changing revolutionizing games to come, and giving you some time to sit and listen to the awesome Preparations theme while you're deciding who you want to do what. Overall, the game gets most of its points as an artistic triumph, and the crucial addition of reclassing gives you more options in how you want to complete the game. It'd be worth a nine were it not for the issues in gameplay. FE12: 5/10 Building and training the Avatar is the best part of the game. Everything after Prologue is a downhill spiral in terms of story and gameplay. Standout tracks are Liberation, Expedition, and the ones that return from Shadow Dragon. Completely unnecessary game, and one that didn't need to exist if Shadow Dragon had an Avatar creation system. It does have a good deal of replay value for completionists with its many difficulty levels and considerable challenge on Lunatic modes. FE13: 7/10 One of the weaker Fire Emblems for narrative, but thank God none of the gameplay is compromised. It can be summed up as a love letter to Fire Emblems of yore, amalgamating decades-lost gameplay mechanics for one final hurrah. The pairing system, however, is something I'd rather see remain exclusive to this game. It's a unique mechanic, and adds a layer of strategic depth, but it also cuts a fair bit of difficulty from the game. And while we're on the subject of difficulty, that, too, can be customized to your liking. If you fail to take advantage of any of the wireless features or sidequests, Lunatic and beyond will take it to you.

Awakening is fine for what it is, but I'd rather it not have a sequel at all, much less a joke character at the head. It worked wonders for the franchise, no doubt, but shouldn't this be IS's opportunity to express some creative freedom with a brand new world? To have my cake and eat it too, I would also like a good remake of FE6 and 7 in one game sometime soon...

Could have done better with Lucina, that much is certain. She emulates the Hero-King to a certain extent in the story, but I'm not keen on copying his moves. That. to me, just seems like a shortcut conveniently covered by canon. What a cash-in. Robin, on the other hand, looks extremely interesting. I want to know the full list of tomes at his disposal, what each of them can do, and how they're willing to implement the 'weapon uses' gimmick (since, judging by what was said in the trailer, that seems like what they're going for). And why are people surprised that Captain Falcon is in the game? -__-

My opinion of it, having played through it once last year: good. My opinion of it, having played through it a couple more times since then: still good. It's a fun strategy game that almost feels limitless. I'm constantly coming up with new ways to beat it on Hard and Lunatic. I haven't gotten around to caring about Lunatic+, though.

The one track that gets me thinking about this game over and over again is Preparations. I've sat and listened to that theme for cumulative hours, trying to figure out who I want reclassed to what. In a way, I treat it like Shadow Dragon's main theme. All in all, Preparations is great thinking music and one of my favorite things about Shadow Dragon.

We should stop here.

"Hmm, what if my Avatar joined halfway through the game with good bases?" You get Mr./Mrs. Broken, the dynamic duo from parallel worlds but never together. Kings of the army who do as they please with constant levelups and any skills they feel like getting. If turns are your thing, just recruit Morgan on Turn 1 and Rescue skip to the boss. I don't care what you do, just recruit Morgan and watch as the game bows down to him/her. ... Ha ha, let me get serious for a moment. I'm giving Morgan a perfect score, just like I did Cordelia and Lucina. A unit that basically defines offense from their join time all the way up to the end is deserving of that score. Similar to Avatar, any perceptible flaws Morgan may have are rectified by the blazing, hurricane-like speed of his or her level ups. If you didn't get what you wanted last time, don't worry, a good one is right around the corner. The speed of your levelups is rewarded with any gamebreaking skill of your choice, in addition to the two most broken skills in the game (Galeforce/Veteran). You do not have to optimize Morgan's skills to make them good, but when you do, their only competition is their mother/father. 10/10 for inheriting godliness and using it to its full potential.

Inigo's paralogue is doable from the time of its availability, to be certain, just very annoying and not worth the trouble for the reward of simply recruiting Inigo. I will grant, however, the temptation of those Speedwings, but that requires a task far more arduous than the chapter itself. Reminiscent of recruiting Donnel, even.

1/10 His Mom won't pass down any good stats to him any time soon. And honestly, just skip his paralogue.

A couple of tens for Severa. Oh my. Must be unstated bias.

I would sternly disparage the use of -Def on Female Avatar. Even if you are not using that attribute, I am led to believe through experience that she is hard coded to ignore Defense on most of her level ups. As frustrating as it is now, you do not want to lock her with like 4 Def for the rest of the game unless you want to sandbag with a Knight reclass or something later on.

There's nothing special about Severa other than the fact that her mother gets Galeforce. C swords, no mount, doesn't contribute to the team that much. Galeforce is a big deal, but so is her utter lack of an arsenal or standout attributes. 5/10, but 4/10 with bias because her personality is a boring, overly used archetype in anime and manga. Everything she says is predictable and uninteresting to the point of parody.

The first thing I imagined after reading the OP is Caeda flying down gracefully from her pegasus to ask the player character if he/she needs a hand. Then she'll float beside the player character, swooping down at the enemy with her Wing Spear every now and then in the battle sequence. IMO, Caeda is the definitive pegasus knight of the franchise, with her beauty and charisma being unmatched by any other peg. knight in the series, and if anyone were to appear in that sequence the developer outlined, it'd be her. That being said, I am very interested in the gameplay and mechanics above all else, but it is likely that we will know nothing of those things until release. I will go back to ignoring this game until we get something else to chew on.

Seals are available, but of all the units you could be using for combat, why Brady? His growths are well below average, his base speed is abysmal, and he starts off with an E in everything. What part of that deserves a 5?

Enemies in Radiant Dawn were too defensive for the way Crossbows were designed in that game. I reckon they'd do well in other games if regular might attributes were applied. Also, it's been proven that bowmen with good stats can perform well in Fire Emblem, but they're still at an inherent disadvantage from other units and have to work a bit harder to make up for it. FE10 Shinon, for example, had stats that rivaled even Ike's, but was considered 'good' at best, while Ike was 'very good' at the least. Innes joins with a similar situation in FE8, having awesome stats and every right to be a godly unit, but the wrong class in which to use those attributes. Also, in Awakening, Wind tomes were extremely cheap and always available. With a slight forge buff to even its most basic tome, you really don't ever need an archer in that game. My overall point being, the overall archer class is due a buff as well. I shouldn't have to think twice about my bowman going in to snipe a mage who can retaliate harder and do everything better than the bowman planned to do in the first place. A few 1-range options here or there would even the playing field, and inherent 3-range to avoid counterattacks from mages and throwing weapons would provide a legitimate niche.

Brady is lol, even at Rescue. He had Donnel for a father on my run and still didn't turn out well. Wtf.

Maribelle doesn't have a difficult time with supports, provided she's sitting behind Avatar doing nothing while somebody else heals! Brady is a unit I've tried to make worthwhile, what with a babied Donnel, Aptitude inheritance, and a trained Maribelle, but none of those things can change the fact that a late Priest simply isn't worth a dime. He's the only 2nd gen unit not even Avatar can save. .5/10 because he Rescued on a couple of maps in my playthrough. .25 for each of 'em. EDIT: Oh, wait, he really is D staves? Forget what I said about the Rescues. Terribly sorry, folks. 0/10, no bias.

That still leaves you with six solid chapters of Lord Chrom, and when I get to that first Seal, I'm definitely not thinking about Chrom. More specifically, Panne, Sully, and Avatar take higher priority for Seal usage. FemAva should always get the first Seal, IMO.

You misunderstand; Chrom and Gaius's Pair Up bonuses are useless for Sumia. She gets five potential husbands, but the only two who give her the stats she needs (particularly defense) are Freddy and Henry.

Radiant Dawn was onto something. Crossbows, crit, and 2-3 innate range after promotion need to come back.

Always Lissa and Maribelle. On top of having amazingly terrible bases, their level ups are hardly prolific. Thankfully, I learned to heal less and drop them both quickly on my most recent runs.

Still, we're talking about the child of a unit who's never wanting for experience. In my current run, Fem Ava received Galeforce right on Ch. 13, which turned Morgan's chapter into a one-pair massacre, featuring Lucina.

Oh, goodness, Sumia's support list is even worse than I remember. Chrom and Gaius give her nothing, Henry is late (working on it now, in fact), Frederick is heavily contested, but still godly, and her best overall support is female (SullyxSumia were my dynamic duo until Henry showed up). Getting a good father for Cynthia really IS a pain.

In my opinion Pegasus Knight is THE best unpromoted class in the game. Flight, move, superior offense with a wide range of suppots, only weak to bow and Wind magic users that no one cares about, and exclusive access to Dark Flier, hands down the best overall class in the game. Based on those points alone, Cynthia does not have to use a lot of resources in order to be good. Avatar Dad will make catching up a piece of cake. Her only problem is that her mother's bases are going reflect similarly on her own: weak and frail without supports unless you were lucky. She can be a great battering ram with Galeforce, but her enemy phase will always be weak. 6.5/10, has an easier time circumventing her inherent flaws than the other 2nd gen units do.

Kjelle is entirely dependent on her father in order to stand out, having a similar class set to her mother, and no outstanding skills to inherit. Veteran from AvaDad is an obvious choice, as he's the only unit who can make Kjelle anything more than redundant. Even with increased experience gain under her belt, it's not likely she'll outperform the rest of the party any time soon, or any other child with an Avatar parent. Kjelle is a good unit, but nothing special. 6/10