Which generation of Fire Emblem games had the best artstyle?

[Revier]

Topic. Personally I've always enjoyed the dynamics of the GBA FE's sprites, and I've also had a soft spot for Genealogy's overall visuals, despite the rather wonky portraits, but I'm curious about your thoughts.

[ping]

I think I'd give Tellius the nod. Character designs and portraits are the best in the series, in my opinion. Although GBAFE is great, too. The battle animations are as fun as they go, and I actually like the map visuals a lot, too. Later games might have more "realistic" visuals, but GBAFE maps look good while also being very easy to read. In some of the later games, i sometimes struggle to see at a glance what terrain a specific tile is.

[Integrity]

non-coincidentally, the one that came out when i was sixteen

 

e: to be less pithy, i voted for tellius, but i specifically only mean radiant dawn

Edited April 23 by Integrity

[Zapp Branniglenn]

For me personally, the best looking Fire Emblems are Echoes, Radiant Dawn, and then the collective GBA era close behind the first two. Too bad it's a team based race huh? GBA era aesthetics have convinced me that they could release a modern day Fire Emblem all in 2D (Spritework battle scenes, spritework maps, 2D animated cutscenes, the return of character portraits, a Radiant Dawn menu-based base for doing between chapter business) and we'd all agree it's the best looking entry in years. Even if the character designs suck and spritework is just okay. Heck, you could argue Fire Emblem Heroes already proved me right in the most perverse way. They're just .PNGs!

Edited April 23 by Zapp Branniglenn

[Samz707]

GBA definitely imo.

3H has strong designs but the actual graphical implementation isn't the best.

Echoes is great but it's right next to some truly awful stuff from the other 3DS games.

[Yexin]

i honestly wouldn't complain at all if Senri Kita was the only character illustrator for the rest of FE's lifespan, i love her artstyle that much

i must say that i find the GBA's artstyle the most iconic one for FE, but i voted for the Gamecube/Wii era because i think it's a direct evolution of the GBA's

[Jotari]

The elitist in me is raging and crying, but I think I have to say the 3DS games. Not necessarily for the portraits or battle animation, but just for the overall aesthetic of the visual design. A bit hard to put into words, but, I guess, like, the menu icons, palette and the maps as something to just look at. Mila Tree, Hoshidan cherry blossoms, SoV just being generally pretty. That sort of stuff.

Edited April 24 by Jotari

[Fire Emblem Fan]

I think the GBA games have the best collective art style. All three games have great art and character designs. However, I also think that Shadows of Valentia and Radiant Dawn are equal to them, they knocked it out of the park in those games.

Edited April 24 by Fire Emblem Fan

[indigoasis]

FE6 through FE10 are consistently fantastic across all games, especially Sacred Stones and Path of Radiance. I'd pick Tellius as the overall best, and the GBA translates artstyles so beautifully.

However, I'd be lying if I said I didn't have a soft spot for Engage, especially the Emblems. I love how vibrant all the colors are, and I feel it's very reminiscent of the GBA era in that regard.

[Integrity]

3 hours ago, Jotari said:

The elitist in me is raging and crying, but I think I have to say the DS games. Not necessarily for the portraits or battle animation, but just for the overall aesthetic of the visual design. A bit hard to put into words, but, I guess, like, the menu icons, palette and the maps as something to just look at. Mila Tree, Hoshidan cherry blossoms, SoV just being generally pretty. That sort of stuff.

that's the 3ds games, boss

[Jotari]

11 minutes ago, Integrity said:

that's the 3ds games, boss

I don't believe in the existence of the digit 3!....or I forgot to type it, which ever makes me seem less of a fool XD Hey, at least I voted for the correct set on the poll.

Edited April 24 by Jotari

[Integrity]

2 minutes ago, Jotari said:

I don't believe in the existence of the digit 3!

what does 9 have to do with any of this i'm so cornfused

e: 3! is 6 and i completely fucked it up and posted 3^2. i am leaving my shame public.

Edited April 24 by Integrity

[Jotari]

31 minutes ago, Integrity said:

what does 9 have to do with any of this i'm so cornfused

e: 3! is 6 and i completely fucked it up and posted 3^2. i am leaving my shame public.

I didn't know exclamation points were even used in mathematics.

Edited April 24 by Jotari

[Zapp Branniglenn]

Fire Emblem players are only expected to know basic addition and subtraction. And the real nerds may know some stats. Like the odds of a 20% true hit, 30% crit hitting and also killing Rutger. 6% any time that berserker is alive to swing at him.

 

[Jotari]

25 minutes ago, Zapp Branniglenn said:

Fire Emblem players are only expected to know basic addition and subtraction. And the real nerds may know some stats. Like the odds of a 20% true hit, 30% crit hitting and also killing Rutger. 6% any time that berserker is alive to swing at him.

 

The only thing I can say for certain, is that 30%  of the time, Rutger crits every time.

[Imuabicus der Fertige]

Shadow Dragon and NMotE; you can actually tell what´s going on.

Something FE being 3D and good is mutually exclusive.

Edited April 24 by Imuabicus der Fertige

[ARMADS!!!]

For me, it's a tie between (or rather, my preference periodically changes between) FE5, BSFE, the gamecube ones, and the OCs of FEH (mainly the ones drawn by Kozaki Yusuke, Idk why but I find Kozaki's characters to look way better on feh than they do on Awakening or Fates, probably it's the character design, i don't know...). I'm also a sucker for the GBA ones, they look so different from one another, SoV is very pretty too (though I like the ones I said first better).

 I'm talking only about the portraits, if I have to consider official art and the like then it's harder. In terms of battle animation and sprites, it's definitly the GBA ones by a mile.

[Revier]

Tbh I kinda wonder what it is about the NES portraits that make them look so goofy. Theoretically they have the right overall shape, and not too bad shading. Perhaps it has to do with their chins being really large?

[Jotari]

3 minutes ago, Revier said:

Tbh I kinda wonder what it is about the NES portraits that make them look so goofy. Theoretically they have the right overall shape, and not too bad shading. Perhaps it has to do with their chins being really large?

NES portraits are just wildly variable in quality.

[ARMADS!!!]

25 minutes ago, Revier said:

Tbh I kinda wonder what it is about the NES portraits that make them look so goofy. Theoretically they have the right overall shape, and not too bad shading. Perhaps it has to do with their chins being really large?

 I agree with Jotari that they're wildly variable in quality. Buy yes, some do look a bit goofy and I think it's generally because they have sort of a baby face (large chin/round head+ very tiny mouth), sometimes characters that smile on the portrait have the mouth be too close to the nose (that is only a tiny spot for a lot of them) and some have different that looks a bit goofy on the eyes part too (like the eyes to close to one another, very long eyebrows,...). I don't think they're bad ("goofy" really is the right word for some), I like how they use a lot of different angles and how even back then, the characters used to have different facial expressions on the portraits (though, speaking if the angles, maybe it'd have been easier to make them look prettier if everyone had a standard angle like on the later games, idk, but I think the objective was to make them more reconizable- since there were so many characters- not prettier anyway).

Edited April 24 by ARMADS!!!

[Original Alear]

Switch for 3 houses mostly. I also kinda like engage art, but it's 3 houses i love best. Tellius a close second.

[link16hit]

pretty hard to choose, because FE art style is different like for each games. Probably either the 3DS or FE10

FE echoes had amazing character portrait.
Engage got it close.

[Revier]

I'm still conflicted on whether I should pick the SNES games or the GBA ones, the GBA games are certainly more polished, but they also feel a bit samey at times, if that makes any sense? Maybe watching/reading a Thracia LP could help me solidify my opinion(hurry up @ping!)