Favourite Fire Emblem Game and Why?

[Coreyographed]

Also, leave a comment saying why you prefer it. Not just "it's fun," but what makes it different than the others.
For instance, I like Holy War the most because of the intricate detailing, Celtic influences, and mature, well-thought-out plot.

Edited September 7, 2013 by Coreyographed

[ZemZem]

Blazing Sword because it's the one I replay the most and I rarely get bored of it.

[Nicolas]

FE8, because awesome characters, awesome units (almost everyone is usable), awesome class system and CC.

Second favorite is Thracia. I don't end FE5 jet, but difficult looks great! And ch4 is nice indoor chapter.

[DancingDanny]

I really like Sacred Stones because of the characters, and I really like how much re-playability it has.

[Fírnen]

My favorite's Radiant Dawn, my first FE game. It has the best graphics of the FE games I've played, it isn't too easy, and the main character is a Magic user until Ike pulls a ganon and takes over the plot. Also, I like the way it switchs between groups of characters so you can't just train one or two characters and ignore the rest. Plus there's the Laguz, which I'm dissapoined never apeared in any none Tellius games. Plus I prefer the way the Weapon Weight works in the Tellius games. Support can be made between any character, though at the cost the support conversations, though the base conversations make up for it. And it has Soren in it

[Quintessence]

Pretty much echoing what Shurikan said.

My favorite FE game is RD: I love the way how you see the story in different perspectives and, imo, dividing the game into different parts that converge in the end is the best way to handle this type of games, and not just take the role of pristine heroes against the undeniable evil/villains. I hate how games take a static position and "force" you to see events in a specific way.

I also like it due to its BEXP system, it's pretty balanced even though abusable. I like how the support system worked, units raised their ranks with just fighting together in the chapters and not stupid, turn-consuming criteria; however, it lacks consistent conversations.

Despite it being goddamn long, I love playing it over and over again, specially because of its wide character cast, and different alternatives/combinations of strategies to be implemented on all parts, which reduces the monopolization of strategies, although some chars still have uniqueness in this aspect.

Edited September 7, 2013 by Quintessence

[RJWalker]

I won't vote until you correct 'Sacred Stone' to 'Sacred Stones'. It's my favourite because the plot is well written and the characters have a great dynamic with each other.

My second favourite is Shadow Dragon. It may not have a great deal of character development but it has enough of it to let the player fill in the blanks which I enjoyed a lot. I'm not saying that less plot=bettter game but in this case, it just works. It somehow has a better plot and more character development than Awakening.

[Icon of Sin]

5 added the most interesting features and actually feels like you're fighting a prepared and well funded enemy with its siege weapons and added commanders. Meanwhile, you start as a lord in exile with his most faithful knight, but most of the cast you end up getting with are villagers, common thieves, resistance members and the occasional rebel.

The map design and its own quirks make it even better, but it does get fairly easy on subsequent playthroughs once you know the mechanics.

Edited September 7, 2013 by Woodshooter

[JSND Alter Dragon Boner]

New Mystery of the Emblem

Its just... I don't know, for a simple game, it have a lot of interesting feature to play with, and unlike Awakening manage to have a reasonably challenging gameplay to go with it, at least for the lower difficulty. And in case you want to be a masochist, Lunatic Mode is ready to kick your nuts over and over again.

Shadow Dragon, Thracia, and Blazing Sword is a runner up in BS > Thracia > SD order.

I am biased to Blazing Sword because it is my first game, while Thracia is my second game that I finished fairly. And there is a lot of things that can be said for Shadow Dragon

[General Banzai]

FESS

Good characters, good story, good atmosphere, great villains, postgame, replayability, crisp clean graphics, good music, none of the really huge pratfalls that tend to plague other FEs, a large amount of polish

[Jedi]

FE6 because the characters and the supports being really good, has 2 very different difficulties instead of normal and hard just being slight changes it's vastly different. Also trying some new concepts ie. Fog in Desert, a tower with magic projectiles, enemies in treasure chests, the pick the right tent objective even if it was just a glorified seize, it played with the concept. Multiple multiple paths

The music is pretty grand for the GBA and a first try at it for IS.

Edited September 7, 2013 by Folgore Red II

[Xinnidy]

We literally have an option to display our favorite Fire Emblem game in our user info if you want to know.

If you want reasons, I'm someone that's still deeply enamored with FE5's mechanics, originals and reused both. I'm a sucker for this kind of thing.

I was also fond of Leaf having played FE4 first so I enjoyed the story, even if I myself don't think it was anything spectacular. I still think it worked and the setting was nice to be absorbed to.

[Gregosa]

Awakening for the moment.

It's got some of the best features in the franchise woven into one and is a great homage to the series overall. Personally I think it surpassed how previous games handled there most iconic features. For example, I preferred how marriage operated in this game instead of Genealogy because it had more clarity, didn't take an arbitrary amount of time to build up a support and it didn't feel like I was shooting in the dark. I really liked the world map and branching promotions in Sacred Stones, but I think the way both features were handled in Awakening offered a much better time sink experience. I really appreciated the great sense of freedom the game offered including the fact you could handle paralogues out of order or all the classes/skills you could mix and match.

As for new stuff I really liked the pairup feature. I really enjoyed combining characters whose stats often contrasted with one another (i.e. pairing up a pegasi with a knight). The fact your pair-up partner offered some moral support, intervened in combat and sometimes offered miraculous saves made battles exhilarating to watch. From a logistics standpoint I really liked pair-up because many characters had different gaps in their mobility so this made establishing supports less of an issue than previous games. I'm not sure if pairups should become a permanent feature but they were a nice take on a classic formula.

I'm not gonna go into heavy detail about the cast but I will say they were highly likable. They all had some nice gimmicks and characterless that set them apart. One thing I loved about playing Genealogy was the fact it hurt a bit more when a playable character died because they all felt like one big family, this same principle also applied in Awakening. I really loved the fact parent and child could fight side by side.

[amadeuscho]

My favorite has to be Fire Emblem: Awakening. Just looking at the amount of hours I've poured into it. The game just has this easy replayability that no other FE game has. And the game is so customizable. It is really fun to set up challenges for yourself. All the characters have their own unique quirks and personalities. There are no boring of filler characters. I've gotten attached to each character on some level through supports and using them.

Still, my second favorite and the best has to be Radiant Dawn. The scope and soundtrack to the game was amazing. It was really the right difficult for me, and getting to the ending was really satisfying.

[BrightBow]

My favorite is Path of Radiance. Hmm, it feels kinda odd writing that when it's written below my Avatar.

It's not my first Fire Emblem game but it's definitely the main reason that I am in love with the franchise.

This is mostly because the worldbuilding is absolutely excellent.

You would think that with so many factions and characters, the story would turn into a complete mess. But everything ends up fitting perfectly together.

There was so much stuff going on when the party wasn't involved, that it really felt like an actual world with actual people.

It is absolutely captivating and gets better every time you play it, because of all the details you will no doubt have missed.

It's so amazing seeing the world becoming more whole on every playthrough.

PC characters are all well integrated into the world. Most of them even play main characters for a while.

And especially after the inevitable info conversation, they really feel like they are part of the group. That they have a reason to be there, even when they no longer talk all the time.

But it's not just about the writing itself but also about the way the game design complements it that makes this game truly shine.

Like with the info conversations. They have to be the best addition to the series ever.

It gives characters the opportunity to do things without being ordered and to react to current story events. In other words: Actual people and not puppets controlled by the player.

And of course, it makes the world feel so much more alive, etc...

You know, I absolutely love the whole freaking base menu. It grants a nice relaxed atmosphere, that is perfect to take care of all the stuff.

The changing backgrounds are a really nice touch. Along with the game's linearity, it's a nice reminder that you are slowly traveling this huge big world.

Supports conversations are also cleverly written to feel relevant, since they tie nicely into the setting.

They really took advantage of the fact that they knew the minimum amount of chapters to reach certain supports and wrote them to take the story into account.

And if that wasn't enough, there are even some variations of the same supports, to take the story into account.

Aaaaaaand of course, consequently it makes the world feel so much more alive, etc... etc... etc...

The story was good too.

For one thing, because the characters felt real, it's easy to give a shit about what happens to them.

And having this huge, well developed world means that it was hard to predict how the story would develop, That kept things tense and exiting.

The themes were .relevant. And I found it particularly surprising that the story was not really about racism.

But instead about the worth of a person based on social standings.

Making the worth of a person dependent on race is really just one single aspect from that.

They really took a good look at the bigger picture. That truly impressed me.

Still, story isn't something I feel all that much like gushing about. It's the freaking world in all it's vibrant colors that made this game such an unforgettable experience.

Edited September 7, 2013 by BrightBow

[Carter]

Sacred Stones.

First one I played.. and they have Lute & Marisa.

[Anacybele]

Radiant Dawn, mainly because of the story and the gameplay and the PoR characters came back even more awesome than before for the most part. Part 3 is the best part of any game I've ever played. It's so epic. Part 2 is pretty cool too. Parts 1 and 4 are just okay, aside from Ike being able to promote and get Aether in the latter. I also like how long RD is, though it should've been a bit longer because some characters just didn't get enough availability. RD is also the hardest game so far, imo. I love the challenge the difficulty presents. :D

Awakening and Path of Radiance are close behind though! In fact, Awakening almost managed to surpass RD for me. Almost. :P

Edited September 7, 2013 by Anacybele

[Nicolas]

Blazing Sword - 2 votes

The most overrated FE game ever .

*Activate flame shield*

[Silver Lightning]

For the longest time Sacred Stones was favorite; I loved being able to use the world map to level up all of my characters, something that was basically impossible in all other FE games until Awakening. It also has my favorite villain and story in the series; I only wish it were longer. We really need another game set in or around Magvel.

However, my current favorite game is Awakening, not because it totally beat out Sacred Stones (its still a close second), but because it combines everything that is good from all of the previous games. So much replayabilty; I already have 350 hours logged in the game across my files.

Since I haven't played all of them (I've only recently begun my foray into the Japan games with FE6 and FE4), I can't compare all of them, but for the ones I have:

1. Awakening

2. Sacred Stones

3. Radiant Dawn / Genealogy of the Holy War (tied for third)

4. Path of Radiance

5. Blazing Sword

6. Binding Blade

7. Shadow Dragon

Have not yet played: FE2, FE5, FE12

[shadykid]

Blazing Sword - 2 votes

The most overrated FE game ever .

*Activate flame shield*

I was just about to say that!

[Knight]

I have to say it's a tie between Blazing Sword and Path of Radiance, for many reasons. First of all, Blazing Sword, the plot isn't stupid, it's entertaining and enjoyable, it ties up nicely, and most importantly, you don't sit there and question it. Also, a lot of people die, nice people, like Elbert and the Reed brothers, and some people are not so nice. It's a nice tale of corruption in nobility, and a power hungry villain, and although FE4 does this story better, this game does a lot of other things good that FE4 lacks. For example, balance, all the characters are at least usable, unlike a lot of earlier games, and you don't get many overpowered weapons early game. And finally, chests and villages, the map design of this game, and the other GBA games, usually have a lot of these, and I love them, little side goals to go for in each chapter, and I get a great feeling when I unlock a chest or save a village, even if it results in a crappy item.

Then Path of Radiance, this game has a good amount of chests and villages, but it's more about the uniqueness of each chapter that makes this game. I also think this game has the best plot of all Fire Emblem games, the epic tale of Ike's redemption and avenging his father is a great one, especially with all the ordeals he must endure. The characters are nice and varied, and I don't have to remember their birthdays, and this game isn't short of good villains.

Edited September 7, 2013 by Knight

[PKL]

New Mystery of the Emblem Heroes of Light and Shadow for me

The gameplay felt really cool to me, what with the progression of the enemies and each chapter feeling more difficult as I progressed instead of the usual FE where the ending is so easy. It felt like the enemies were still challenging and more dangerous than ever. I love a lot of the cast. Having some of my favorites in the series, the elder pegasus knight sister from Macedon that took of her sisters growing up as orphans, Palla. The shy archer recruit from the 7th platoon, Ryan, the lord of the game, hailing from Altea with a new, awesome, foxy sprite, Marth and the pegasus knight princess from Talys and Marth's love intereset. I also love most of the cast thanks to the base conversations they added for them. It was a nice touch and made me know a lot more about the characters from SD. The maps were pretty clever and well designed. The music...is absolutely insane. My favorite OST in the series for sure. It sets the tone in each map and stuff pretty well. It added stuff like the Drill Grounds that I really enjoy and I feel like I have a lot of options in general to tackle it, what with it's 5 difficulties. Want a more casual experience and use any character you want and have a good time? Play Normal mode. Want a slightly more challenging experience and still use a lot of characters? Play H1. Want an actual challenge almost on par with Lunatic? Play H2. Want a challenging time and don't care about the character balance and just want to enjoy clever, challenging maps? Play H3. Do you like Vantage? You won't like it in H4 :p.

Edited September 7, 2013 by PKL

[ZemZem]

Blazing Sword - 2 votes

The most overrated FE game ever .

*Activate flame shield*

what are you talking about

[Leinex]

Path of Radiance was my favorite for a long time, because of how vivid the world and characters were. Also, it was my very first FE experience. Even now, it holds a special place in my heart. I wish I could play it again...

Shadow Dragon grew on me for its simplicity. There's a lot of room for headcanon, and I found the script, while short, to be amazing. The gameplay is nice, the animations are smooth, and I love that soundtrack. Plus, playing with reclassing is so much fun.

As for the other two I've played, Sacred Stones beats Awakening any day. Awakening actually managed to break my willing suspension of disbelief. I found Sacred Stones's plot and characters a lot more likeable.

[Jedi]

Path of Radiance was my favorite for a long time, because of how vivid the world and characters were. Also, it was my very first FE experience. Even now, it holds a special place in my heart. I wish I could play it again...

Shadow Dragon grew on me for its simplicity. There's a lot of room for headcanon, and I found the script, while short, to be amazing. The gameplay is nice, the animations are smooth, and I love that soundtrack. Plus, playing with reclassing is so much fun.

As for the other two I've played, Sacred Stones beats Awakening any day. Awakening actually managed to break my willing suspension of disbelief. I found Sacred Stones's plot and characters a lot more likeable.

Path of Radiance is my 2nd favorite ^^, my Mother and I played through the game alot. Love the story and characters alot.

Also props for mentioning part of why Shadow Dragon's characters are so fun, headcanon! :D. I completely agree with it