How did everyone get into Fire Emblem games

[bottlegnomes]

On a class trip a friend had FE7. I thought it looked interesting, so he let me try it. Like Guy Starwind's case, he never saw it again, though he didn't really like it and got my Wind Waker guide, so I don't feel bad.

[Paper Jam]

I used to like Nintendo when I was a kid, and then I somehow lost interest in it when I was a teenager. Then, in 2006, I became interested again; one of my roommates had a N64 with Zelda: Ocarina of Time, which I played for a while and enjoyed much more than I thought I would.

Then I got a Gamecube and a GBA of my own, and one of the games that I got on the Gamecube was SSBM; I think that's when I started reading a lot about some "Fire Emblem."

One day, when I was browsing at my local game store, I saw a copy of Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, and while I didn't know anything about its gameplay, I decided I would like to find out. So I bought it, and I got hooked.

A few months later, I went back and saw Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance for sale (and pretty cheap, too), and I bought it as well. So I guess my first impression of the Fire Emblem series was that each game was set in its own universe, and that they had nothing in common except the gameplay mechanics. Around this same time I had also read about Fire Emblem: Rekka no Ken (though I didn't know that it was called that at the time), which sort of reinforced this idea; none of those first three Fire Emblem games had any characters or settings in common.

Then I started wondering about Marth and Roy, did some further research, and learned about the six games that didn't get released outside of Japan, and that Marth was the main character of the first and third games and Roy the main character of the sixth.

In short, my introduction to the Fire Emblem series was FE8, and then I played 9, 7, 6, 3, 4, 10, 11, and 12. I have not yet played FE1, 2, 5, or 13, though I will play 13 as soon as it's released in the US.

[MacLovin]

VBA, fe7&8.

First run of fe7 involved massive Lowen, Dorcas, HAwkeye, Pent, and MArcus use and no promo items

Also, I happened to like the artwork of the FE series stickers from SSBB and looked up the series, got into the "sites" and then played them on VBA.

[Doga]

My friend got FE7 for his birthday in 2003, and I saw him play a bit of it. Was mildly interested.

Years later, it was my birthday and I had money to buy a game from Gamestop. Saw FE9 for sale, as it has just come out a week or two prior, and got that.

Edited January 10, 2013 by Doga

[13th]

I lurked GFaqs for 6 YEARS without making an account. I was on the FFTA boards, read something about this Fire Emblem game, looked it up. Picked up FE7 and FE11 within 2 weeks of each other. Got put off by FE7's difficulty (on ENM :/ I sucked) and loved Shadow Dragon so much. Found my way here through the FE boards on GFaqs. Became Notorious as the WORST drafter on the board.

[ThatLaguzFan]

Wrote a Secret Santa story for my friend about FE, and she then convinced me to get FE9. I was instantly hooked, so then I played FE8. Then FE7, FE6, and FE4.

I got lucky.

Reading this story always makes me feel so cool... XD

As for myself, I have this thing called a brother. He heard of Fire Emblem from a friend, bought it for himself, and loved it. I was little when he did, so I only got to try the first level since my brother figured I'd get confused by it, and I wasn't particularly interested after the first level anyways.

A few years later, my brother bought Path of Radiance and loved it. I was still kind of young at this point so I wasn't allowed to play it, but I do have extremely fond memories of watching my brother play and falling in love with the fantastic characters.

Later on, when we had just gotten our wii, we got Radiant Dawn. I still just enjoyed watching my brother play, but I did finally get to play this one when I was 12 or 13. I was really bad at it, but it was amazing. I was completely hooked, and FE has been one of my favorite game series' since.

...I'm still really bad at the games, though XD

[riariadne]

My friend was all "you should try this" so I did

[Komeiji Koishi]

Played Melee, thought Marth and Roy were cool. Saw Shadow Dragon advertisement in Nintendo Power several years later, bought it later, thought it was difficult but fun. Played Brawl, thought Marth was still cool, and Ike was badass. Several more years later, got lucky enough to find Path of Radiance at the local farmer's market, and bought it for ten or twenty dollars. The rest is history.

[Zanarkin]

I saw a PoR trailer in Walmart once, then months maybe a few years later (the price had been reduced to about 17 or so dollars at gamestop) I saw it again and i was like "hey that looks pretty cool gonna go get it".

[Knight]

I played SSBM, I thought it looked cool, but didn't go looking for it. Then I saw someone playing FE7 on his GBA, he told me what it was and what it was about and I vowed to get it. Then, one day I came across Radiant Dawn as a new release at the local superstore. I remembered the title and bought the game, well, begged my mom to the point it was embarrassing. It wasn't until a year later I was reunited with FE7, I had looked everywhere in my small city and couldn't find it, but when I was visiting my dad in Calgary, I found it among the shelves of an old game trader. $70, too expensive at the time, so I asked my mom for it as a Christmas present. I was astonished my mom actually drove out of province to find the game, it was the best Christmas ever.

[Silith]

Found my gameboy advance cartridge on the streets during heavy rain on the day before my birthday. I also met my current girlfriend on that day for the first time. (Though our relation only started 2 years later.)

[Emeraldfox]

Played Melee, liked Marth and Roy(specifically, their backstories in the trophy section)

Saw a pamphlet advertizing upcoming GBA games, FE7 was in it. I never got it unfortunatly

Years later dad suddenly came home with Path of Radience

We played it, but he stopped on chapter five(he did start on hard mode for some reason, fog of war I think luuul)

I beat it and loved it and I was sad Ike and Marcia couldn't support

And after that I obtained Sacred Stone and beat it, found SF and here I am~ By the way, my turn counts are high in drafts. I actually think I've never completed an FE related draft luuuuul.

[B00TE]

Started poking around after my brother and I became enthralled by Marth and Roy in SSBM. It went from there, not much else to say. Played the GBA ones, then PoR came out and played that to death.

Ended up marathon playing all the english games last summer, and am currently reading an LP for Thracia 776. Will continue from there for the older games.

Though for all the time I've played the games, I never knew much about the systems until last week. Like About growth rates and such. Mind blown.

[Fateborn]

Played SSB Melee. Saw Roy and Marth.

Became interested.

Found Fire Emblem at some store.

Addicted ever since.

[Zarb]

Heard about the series, don't quite remember where, so I decided to try Sacred Stones...

That's when everything changed.

[Zera]

I once saw FE11 on sale at a store for $10. I thought, "It's published by Nintendo, so it must be good. But I haven't read a review yet. Gotta be safe." That was a bad decision.

A year or two later a friend lent the very same game to me, and now I am an FE fan. Can't wait for FE13!

[Djeets]

i saw a FE video on youtube (idoun gets beaten 3x if i remember correctly), which makes me saw any other FE videos,, out of interest, ended up playing my first FE on VBA (Rekka no ken), my eliwood and hector is really screwed that his max hp and res not enough to survive nergal's attack and won't be able to survive the last chapter were it not athos's elixir spam when facing dragon. :P

[Lauren]

I was a Marth player in SSBM, so I jumped on Blazing Sword right when it was released :) . So glad Nintendo brought FE to the states.

[Shroom]

Knew Roy and Marth from SSBM. Saw Radiant Dawn in Gamestop used, decided to try it. Been in love since.

[Faye]

Started with being intrigued by Marth and Roy in Melee around 2005ish. I was like "yo, Fire Emblem, never heard of that", so I go to my local GameStop and find "Fire Emblem" for the GBA! I was so stoked and took that shit home, right? I was like "sweet, gonna see Marth in his home game!" Started with a general "noob" FE fan-mind, and kept wondering "Well, where are Marth and Roy??" Eventually I gave up because the game was too hard, and I forgot about it for a bit. Cut to a few years later, where I get Sacred Stones for Christmas, and decide to sit down and play it. Realizes that each game has different characters, researches Fire Emblem on the internet, becomes determined to finish Sacred Stones. The day I finished Sacred Stones, I became a fan.

[Lauren]

^Do not lie! You gave up, because there was no Marth ;D !

Edited February 1, 2013 by Lauren

[braiel]

A friend of mine in highschool was playing fe7 during lunch I got interssted in it after watching him for a while found pretty much the last new copy in the city in the discount bin at toys' r'us and loved it ever since

[Prax]

Heard about it from Nintendo Power (RIP) Volume 87 (1996!!) back when they had the EPIC CENTER (rip!) and covered Fire Emblem as one of those Japanese-only games where they discussed the unique aspect of the game's permadeath system and romancing and offspring!!! They covered FE4 (Genealogy of Holy War / Seisen no Keifu).

And I also saw the artwork.

And then I knew I had to one day play this marvellous game!

I don't know when I did start playing it, but when I eventually did, I was hooked and knew this was going to be my favourite series forever~~

And then OMG they eventually brought it over to North America with FE7 / Blazing sword! *___* So much EXCITE I had!

[Superbus]

I've told this story over the years, but a lot of people here didn't know me from the FESS era, so I'll do it again.

I was about to go underweigh for a few weeks (ex-Navy) back in 2003, and was looking for something to play on the trip. I found Fire Emblem in EB Games (EB was still around), and figured "woah, it's Advance Wars, with a medieval theme and experience points. SOLD." I learned some hard lessons those weeks. "Hey, why is Marcus not keeping up? This is getting hard! Hey, looks like I lost some units. I'll be able to revive them, right? Uh, where is the revive item? NO SERIOUSLY, WHERE THE FUCK IS THE REVIVE ITEM!?!?!" I'll have to get back on my old cartridge and see just how bad my party that I beat the game was, but I made all of the rookie errors; promoted units too early, let other good units die off, prominently used Marcus (I seriously could not have beaten this game if Marcus was a "classic" Jeigan in the "he is 100% useless" sense, like the actual Jeigan and Alan). you name it. It's almost impossible at this point to come into a major game the way I came into Fire Emblem: completely on a whim, with no knowledge of what I'm getting into.

I separated late that year, and while home on vacation, decided to look for assistance with the game. I went to the old, Proboards FESS. The rest, as they say...

[Bagfisch]

Looked for a new Let's Play to watch. Thought about that Fire Emblem thing. Watched it. Got hooked.