Noctis51

Motion Controls and the Wii-mote in the Wii Gen were a great idea and made for a lot of inspired games. (Kind of irrelevant for FE though) The N64 controller was similarly inspired and good for the rotator stick, and DS stylus only games like Spirit Tracks worked out just fine. The d cross is not all omnipotent. Playstation games are mainly just not good anime, but they filled the gap between gaming and anime so they had a role to play. Except for the PSP and Vita which were kind of gameplay-first platforms.

2 is the golden number for me. Suikoden 2, Breath of fire 2, sonic the hedgehog 2, Super Mario brothers 2 (NES), Super Mario World 2 (SNES era), Star Fox 64 (after Star Fox SNES), Tales of Destiny 2, Golden Axe 2, Shining Force 2, Illusion of Gaia (2nd in soul blazer trilogy), Sacred Stones (My 2nd FE after Radiant Dawn, and also the 2nd localized FE), Earthbound (2nd in mother series, even though I played Mother 1 2nd), Zone of Enders 2nd Runner, Metal Gear Solid 2, and possibly more. One thought I had a long time ago about trilogies (in movies or games, etc) in like college or something was like, in art, 1 is the creative get everything started hard work to get a good result, 3 is the get serious have to make a final statement, and 2 is just a party in between. I like the parties, not that I always play in order but often I end up doing that. Super Mario RPG is an exception I guess, but that's because I think Paper Mario was so not a true sequel in content.

Oh that's interesting, I read that part about Sacred Stones sort of recently because of the possibility of bonus battles, but I never heard that about Path of Radiance. I tried to get the high bonus xp on PoR and beat the BK in the duel and stuff which meant I kept myself busy with extra but not necessary stuff, under the belief it would be necessary for something gnarly later, which never really came, so if I hadn't bothered I suppose it could of been not very difficult, but well I didn't know that ahead of time so it felt like a challenging experience. That said, I don't necessarily count difficulty for or against a game that much though, Kirby is often "easy" but still pretty fun, but if thats what people say about Path of Radiance and Sacred Stones so be it I suppose. That makes me wonder about Fates (Birthright and Conquest) and Awakening, I paid close attention to everything like in every FE I play but I don't feel like in terms of difficulty they were harder than Path of Radiance or Sacred Stones. There was more planning and more energy put into it, because of relationship pairing and the children mechanics and skills and all that, but I didn't necessarily feel the need to pull off complex strategies or things like that to win in general. Which means if those games aren't necessarily hard your left with Blazing blade and the Switch FEs basically as hard (which I haven't played any yet). Edit: Or Radiant Dawn or non-localized ones. Well Radiant Dawn I played awhile back and did it with a lot less planning and care than I did with the other FE as it was my first FE, and somehow I managed the whole game and I don't really remember anything except the very final boss being a bit like "well thank god that's over" so it was a bit of a push. Radiance boss ended up being a joke by comparison I guess I see where this is all coming from. I just assumed that was because I hyper prepared though, whereas Radiant Dawn I don't really remember reading a guide or anything ever and just going for it.

This is just based on what I read, that Fire Emblem Gaiden is the black sheep of the franchise, but playing Echoes anyway, I think it's one of the stronger entries, possibly even as good as Path of Radiance or Sacred Stones which are often considered to be quite good. I like how it feels a lot simpler and straighforward without sacrificing any of the strategic depth of other FE. I think a knowledgeable playthrough might only take like 16 hours or less it seems to me, but it'd be very satisfying playthrough, without feeling any less satisfying than the grander, more epic and long experiences of say Fates and Awakening. Not that Fates and Awakening are un-fun though.

Well I kind of have like a lot of unpopular everything, because basically I don't have any preexisting formula for games I like or dislike. I like tons of considered to be very bad games like 30 to 60 metacritic games. Recently I finished and liked a lot Batman Dark Tomorrow which is considered to be really bad. Objectively, I can see why, it has like weird unbalanced things, strange gimmicks to beat bosses, it's both too easy and too hard, it seems too absurd on so many levels, but I was engaged, I had fun, I don't care if a boss needs a gimmick versus some steady progression where you have telegraphed moves to counter and it's all more engineered. So based on that for example, even though they're screwball, I like classic sonic more than Mario (but I like modern post DC Mario better than Sonic), but yeah the real unpopular opinion is I like the Turbografx platforming series Valis over Sonic and Mario. It's objectively not well made like Batman and yet I just had fun, I felt really satisfied playing the games that is just I don't understand why. Like I also like how Phantasy Star I to III have like no bosses, in a sense, that makes them easy, but I like the unpredictability of it, just no formulas really just going off of whatever idea and it just works for some reason. That said, I have conventional opinions like gameplay mattering more than high quality cinematics and stuff, which led me to get big into Nintendo over Sony in recent times. I think the gameplay addiction factor is higher across all Nintendo franchises, including FE and stuff even though they are RPGs. My favorite Nintendo franchises are probably Mother and Zelda, but Earthbound is no longer a thing and I have very mixed feelings about modern Zelda. So nowadays I got into FE because every FE I've played has been solid and interesting and consistent, so I look forward to those games probably the most. Um, TLDR: The Valis series is like one of the best platformers ever.