Newbie, FE 1

[arromdee]

I recently started FE1 (and even reported some typos in the translation thread).

Thing is, I'm mostly unfamiliar with the entire Fire Emblem series. I am familiar with Shining Force and a few other strategy games, however. I decided to start with 1 partly because I like doing series in order.

One thing that bothers me about this game is the need for a guide, especially to know things like not to use Jeigan; it's either that or level up tons of useless characters and restart the game since you can't grind, so the experience is lost permanently. At least most of the characters are easy to get without a guide, but there was one point where I needed to use Medea to get a character and there's no way I could have known that apart from (possibly) remembering an arbitrary bit of conversation from previous maps. I also needed to use the guide to figure out weapon damage, what the requirements are to wield specific weapons, etc.

I also don't like the idea of not being able to save on maps combined with permanent death. This seems like a recipe for forcing the players to waste time replaying the same map so that you can claim the game contains a lot of hours of gameplay. At one point I died twice on the same map because of critical hits. And I can't count the number of times I died from making a stupid mistake on an hours long map. I'm not a robot, I'm a human being, and sometimes I make mistakes. There's also the fact that figuring some things out requires trial and error and I'd rather not kill a character against the end of map boss and have to restart the level from scratch.

At map 16 I gave up and began using save states.

Also, handling items is very tedious. You need to buy them with one character with a small inventory (especially if it's later in the game and you have to have the cards), then shuttle the items back to the storage or to the other characters. Why is there no way to buy or equip items between the levels, or at least to buy items and directly send them to storage?

Does this ever get better later in the series? It's my impression that many of these "features" are considered staples of the series.

[Book of Ereshkigal]

Ehhh, FE1 is definitely... old.

Play the remakes. They have the exact same story, and isn't as... old. XD

Some FEs have map saves(FE4, FE10, FE11, FE12). Some don't. Permadeath is optional in FE12(New mystery) and onward.

Edited May 3, 2012 by L95

[a.f.k.a. Howard Hughes]

Welcome to the era of Nes when games were actually hard and didn't hold your hand

Your suggestions are something newer than this game~

Play the remake if you have issues~

Jagen is awesome~ No dissing!

[Refa]

One thing that bothers me about this game is the need for a guide, especially to know things like not to use Jeigan; it's either that or level up tons of useless characters and restart the game since you can't grind, so the experience is lost permanently.

No character is useless, if you spend the time leveling up, they'll become good, or like Jeigan where they start good but become less useful as your other characters catch up.

Although Jeigan is pretty awesome most of the way through in FE1.

At least most of the characters are easy to get without a guide, but there was one point where I needed to use Medea to get a character and there's no way I could have known that apart from (possibly) remembering an arbitrary bit of conversation from previous maps.

Boah- Astram will be sad it you die.

*Literally the next map*

Oh hey, that guy is named Astram.

Seemed pretty obvious to me, I dunno, I think your problems are more with the interface than the game design (other FE games have a little popup telling the name of the unit your cursor is over, which makes finding recruitable enemies...much easier?).

I also needed to use the guide to figure out weapon damage, what the requirements are to wield specific weapons, etc.

Yeah that sucked.

I also don't like the idea of not being able to save on maps combined with permanent death. This seems like a recipe for forcing the players to waste time replaying the same map so that you can claim the game contains a lot of hours of gameplay.

No, it just makes the game more challenging...

At one point I died twice on the same map because of critical hits. And I can't count the number of times I died from making a stupid mistake on an hours long map. I'm not a robot, I'm a human being, and sometimes I make mistakes. There's also the fact that figuring some things out requires trial and error and I'd rather not kill a character against the end of map boss and have to restart the level from scratch.

Then leave them dead. That's the give or take of FE. Is your dead character REALLY that important to your team or can you live without him/her?

Also, handling items is very tedious. You need to buy them with one character with a small inventory (especially if it's later in the game and you have to have the cards), then shuttle the items back to the storage or to the other characters. Why is there no way to buy or equip items between the levels, or at least to buy items and directly send them to storage?

Yeah that sucked.

Does this ever get better later in the series? It's my impression that many of these "features" are considered staples of the series.

All of your user interface problems yes.

All of your other "problems" no.

[Baldrick]

FE1 has aged about as well as a gallon of milk. Play the slightly less crappy remake, or even better, play FE3.

In terms of user-friendliness, the first five games are all terrible. They weren't made for us spoiled, lazy Westerners. The best starting point of this series is FE7 (if only because LNM is tolerable if you literally know nothing about FE).

[Celice]

Welcome to the era of Nes when games were actually hard and didn't hold your hand

The original Fire Emblem wasn't NES-hard. It was stupidly hard due to pretty shoddy design (which, after looking at the level data, had no excuse for their bland and boring maps and enemy layouts). It was boring too. Shitty games on the NES are not representative of NES games :(

I would've, if I were you, skipped this one. It has two remakes of it already available, one on the SFC and on the DS. The second one is a much better game, both in design and playability.

[sunshineYON]

FE isn't really a series where you need to play it in order, it actually makes more sense to ease into them with the easier, later installments and then begin to appreciate the earlier, harder ones. That's pretty much what I'm doing now. I would also like to wish you luck, as a lot of people quit the series because they think stuff like normal mode FE9 is hard, can't imagine playing FE1 blind in a modern and western setting as far as gaming goes.

[arromdee]

I finished the game. Using save states. Most maps from stage 16 on required at least one or two.

The last stage is extremely cheap. Because it lays out your units in four separate places and doesn't let you reorder them, you are screwed if it decides to make one set consist of three clerics and a sniper, as actually happened to me. Also, my endgame strategy consisted mainly of putting units on the spawn points and having Chiki (who was level 20 and nearly maxed out on stats) kill all the minions near the throne (Chiki is most vulnerable to spellcasters and there weren't any in there). Woe would be me if I hadn't levelled up Chiki or not had at least two warps left. Stage 24 was also highly dependent on warping characters onto at least a few of the spawn points.

By levels 24 and 25 I was seriously low on lances, since the last stages don't contain a lance shop and I hadn't stockpiled enough. Characters who use them were the first to go on the spawn points.

I might add that although I'm new to Fire Emblem, I'm not new to this sort of game in general, or I probably would never have been able to finish it.

Edited May 7, 2012 by arromdee

[Celice]

Were you going to continue the series? It does get loads better as you move on. If not, another game you might be interested in is Just Breed on the Famicom and Bahamut Lagoon on the Super Famicom, both of which have English translation patches available.

[arromdee]

At some point I will continue, but not immediately. I'm playing Demon's Souls as my main game right now (just before the servers will be turned off).

I've already played Bahamut Lagoon.

[Quirino]

Like others said, play the remake (either SNES or DS) if you want those features you listed.

And not use Jeigan? It's a common mistake that Jeigan is your worst unit. He may be even a bit worse in this game than in the remakes (look at those growth rates), but at least for earlygame he'll make things very easy for you, with good base stats and a silver lance. He's definitely not a bad unit. Although you'll probably use Hardin once you reach chapter 5 as he's basically a Jeigan with growths by then...