How difficult is Fire Emblem as a series?

[The Void]

1. Do you say it's difficult enough?

2. Among other games you have played, both in FE's genre and out of it, where does it rank on the difficulty list?

3. Overall, how difficult would you say FE is overall?

[Redwall]

It could stand to be a bit more difficult, though I would still want an occasional easy level to provide a bit of a breather. FE certainly isn't as difficult as Advance Wars' Advance Campaign; I think the Advance Campaign's difficulty and emphasis on positioning is a good target for FE (but with fewer Fog of War maps).

[Randa]

1. I believe it can be an adaquete challenge with the right restrictions.

2. The entire series is just below the advanced wars series. I will occasionally find a few games harder but these two series can always be a challenge with every installment. This is a stark contrast with most series where some games are difficult are some are just loleasy.

3. On a scale of 1-10 with ten being the hardest, it would get a solid 6 on average. Of course some can reach as high as a 9.

[Hawk King]

There are 13 entries in the series. From FE 6 on each game has multiple difficulties, and each game's difficulty varies from game to game. If you play on nothing but the easiest difficulty the games can be mindlessly easy. On the hardest difficulties, the games range from "not hard" to "stupid this game cheats".

To sum the entire series up is pretty dumb, and extremely inconsistent.

[General Banzai]

Waaaaaaay more difficult than Shining Force, that game is a joke

[Tables]

The thing a lot of people seem to forget is, FE is a turn based strategy series. When you know what's coming, and have a good idea of the strategies needed in the games, they become a LOT easier. If you don't know any of the strategies, the games can be very difficult. But most people here have already played a lot of the FE games - even with no external information, we know roughly what's coming, what's going to happen and the general strategy which applies to most FE games (small team, bases > growths, that kind of thing). As a result, we tend to find them fairly easy, while newcomers still struggle.

I think that the recent FE's hardest difficulties are a good challenge, most of the time. It does seem, however, that most of them have always been front-heavy with the difficulty - early chapters are insane (hello FE11H5 chapter 1+2, hello FE13Luna+ chapters 1-2) while lategames are usually relatively easy (hello FE11 warp staff, hello FE13 Galeforce). A little tweaking of the game balance, and those top difficulties will be pretty much perfect, while offering lower difficulties to still challenge players.

[Zerker]

Strategy games are always a joke to me

even on the hardest difficulties

[amadeuscho]

1) Yes its difficult enough. Even the games with grinding become harder if you choose not to.

2) I think this and Advance Wars are the only strategy games I play. I think AW is harder. I would say it ranks on the normal side when it comes to playing on the default setting for most games. It would probably be a 6 on the default setting.

3) A 6. On the hard modes (aside from Awakening), they are usually an 8ish. I find Awakening's Lunatic Mode impossible without DLC.

[Nobody]

The thing a lot of people seem to forget is, FE is a turn based strategy series. When you know what's coming, and have a good idea of the strategies needed in the games, they become a LOT easier. If you don't know any of the strategies, the games can be very difficult. But most people here have already played a lot of the FE games - even with no external information, we know roughly what's coming, what's going to happen and the general strategy which applies to most FE games (small team, bases > growths, that kind of thing). As a result, we tend to find them fairly easy, while newcomers still struggle.

I agree with this, FE is the kind of game that gets significantly easier when you learn how to play. For a person who have never played a FE game before, even the easiest difficulties might be difficult, while for a veteran, even the hardest difficulties are reasonable.

I think that the recent FE's hardest difficulties are a good challenge, most of the time. It does seem, however, that most of them have always been front-heavy with the difficulty - early chapters are insane (hello FE11H5 chapter 1+2, hello FE13Luna+ chapters 1-2) while lategames are usually relatively easy (hello FE11 warp staff, hello FE13 Galeforce). A little tweaking of the game balance, and those top difficulties will be pretty much perfect, while offering lower difficulties to still challenge players.

This isn't really new. Just look at FE6 hard mode. Some chapters in the early game are really, really hard (like 4 and 7), while the endgame is quite easy, especially the last 2 chapters, which are a joke.

Edited August 27, 2013 by Nobody

[Vorena]

1. Do you say it's difficult enough?

2. Among other games you have played, both in FE's genre and out of it, where does it rank on the difficulty list?

3. Overall, how difficult would you say FE is overall?

As a whole, the games operates under limited resources. Limited experience to distribute among units. Funding and other rare resources are in short supply as well. In this regard, I believe for a strategy game it probably fits around a mid-range difficulty. Any RPG/Strategy game that has unlimited resources such as infinite monster slaying in short is not going to be difficult for completion as with the proper amount of time you can forge forward anyway. FE generally does not allow that. It does offer you the abilty to have infintie resources at some points in the game and some games as a whole FE8. However, even the limited resources sections are quite generous at giving you funds and other allocations.

[RJWalker]

Newcomers tend to find it extremely difficult.

[Irysa]

Its reasonably difficult when considering the fact that outside of one or two titles, you don't have readily available facilities to gather resources indefinitely. Key mistakes in losing some units or not distributing EXP properly, not finding/buying all the important items cannot really be undone once you've moved past them, so the game has to have some leverage considering that not EVERYONE plays FE with efficiency, no deaths, and all recruitments. If you become proficient at the games and understand how to optimise, then this leverage becomes generally rather abusable.

Advance Wars is harder because individual units aren't really getting stronger or weaker, and your available resources on any given map are already planned out. Every map can be designed on what's available, not on what you can hope to expect the player has available. This is why also I personally tend to enjoy the early chapters of an FE game the most because they have to basically guesstimate a lot less based on what a player has available, making early maps feel a lot more "puzzle like" than endgame sprawly stuff.

Shadow Dragon's system of Gaidens is sort of an attempt to alleviate this problem, because you do not get access to extra resources of Exp and extra characters/items if you have not lost enough units to probably require some help. Everyone hates it though.

I think FE is sort of held back by it's own pioneering. The randomness of the game promotes replayability and unique experiences, choices on who to use and the like too. But these inconsistencies mean it's hard for a developer to say something like "you should definitely have a trained dark mage for this map" without it giving you an acceptable candidate (prepromo or bases or a quick reclass etc) or making it more flexible.

Yggdra Union (probably my fav SRPG), as a character growth style game without grinding, pulls this off pretty well. Characters have set level ups, but the MVP system and Items allow for a degree of flexability and randomness for each playthrough. There's also far less units, but greater distinction between all of them (although honestly that's a defining trait of most of the game period, they cut down on LOADS of flack to focus on the puzzle/strategy elements and optimisation). The game is challenging enough because of your limitations in card use/turns, but it's very hard to totally screw yourself over since cards are only a limited resource on a map, not between them all, and their base power and abilities mean you should never be completely screwed.

To be honest I could write for ages about all the neat things in YU, and I almost did before I realised this post was getting REALLY WORDY so I stopped.

Edited August 28, 2013 by Irysa

[Knight]

It's definitely a game series that gets easier as it's played more. As you begin to understand mechanics, recognize patterns, etc.

[JSND Alter Dragon Boner]

"1. Do you say it's difficult enough?'

Yes, because Im a terrible player

"2. Among other games you have played, both in FE's genre and out of it, where does it rank on the difficulty list?"

Its pretty high because my scope of games are pretty small overall. Its definitely harder than some SRPG that I have played, but its "easier to play" because of the convenience factor. Games like say.... FFT lacked this convenience factor that make FE fun, and sadly a lot of games does not have it.

"3. Overall, how difficult would you say FE is overall?"

Speaking of personal experience, I say its hard enough. It punish dumb steps/mistakes and whatnot. Of course there is the whole problem with the entire Random amount of resource you can acquire and utilize factor.

Granted I was mainly an SRW player, and my first experience with FE was when I got stuck at FE7 Eliwood Normal Mode chapter 14

[The Void]

I played Yggdra Union.

Wasn't too bad.