SF's opinion on FEs 6-10

[Just call me AL]

All it matters practically is that the Nergal of the present is entirely disconnect from the potentially more interesting Nergal from the past. Present Nergal only seeks power for it's own sake and is consequently a boring antagonist.

Isn't in-universe logic often applied to get a better understanding of how characters act the way they do, anyways? At any rate, the fact that Nergal even gets a backstory easily makes him a better villain than say Fomortiis, Manfroy, Loptyr, Validar, or Grima. It's really kinda sad when you think about how Nergal lost sight of why he even wanted to gain so much power in the first place. Edited February 27, 2014 by Just call me Al

[Nobody]

FE6: Love it. I don't really mind the bad hit rates, the story is good, I really like most characters, and I think the map design is my favorite in the series. Great

FE7: I also love it. While IMO the characters aren't as memorable as FE6 or FE8, I'd say it has the best gameplay in the series, being the most replayable fire emblem after awakening for me. Great

FE8: While on the easy side, this game is fantastic. I really like the story, it has for me the best characters in the series, and it's just a fun game to play. Great

Those 3 are almost tied as my favorite fire emblem games.

FE9: Another game that I really like. The best story in a fire emblem game. While IMO the characters aren't as deep as the ones in GBA games, they're still interesting, and the gameplay mechanics are pretty good, as are the maps. This game's biggest flaw is how slow it is. That alone keeps me from replaying it more, because I'm really impatient with this kind of stuff. Also Great

FE10: My least favorite fire emblem game, by far. I dislike many of its maps, since I dislike the general direction they took with them (some of the part 2 and 3 maps felt like filler, for example). I disliked the split teams, and the 3 tier classes weren't that good IMO. The story was ABSOLUTE garbage, which was even more of a let down after the phenomenal Path of Radiance. I also really dislike the lack of support conversations. I still had a fun with it, but it was a mediocre game.

Edited February 27, 2014 by Nobody

[NinjaMonkey]

FE6-8: Haven't played.

PoR: It was okay, but suffers from a severe lack of polish. Also, I wasn't much of a fan of its story.

RD: I thought is was a great game, especially its story, and the gameplay felt to be a lot more polished than its prequel.

Edited February 27, 2014 by NinjaMonkey

[BrightBow]

Isn't in-universe logic often applied to get a better understanding of how characters act the way they do, anyways?

Yes. And? This isn't what I am talking about and never did. I was talking about IS completely wasting Nergal's interesting backstory and the entire Scouring.

I think we are kinda talking past each other ever since you replied to me. Let me try to illustrate this:

It's the difference between arguing about whether IS should have written Radiant Dawn's story so that Micaiah and Ike don't fight against each other or arguing if Is should have used a better explanation to justify the fight then the Blood Pact.

Micaiah being forced to fight against Ike is the actual story. The Blood Pact is merely the in-universe explanation for the story is happening that way.

And I only care about the former discussion. aka, the story of FE7 being about an evil wizard who tries to obtain greater power for no real reason.

The latter discussion would be to argue why that evil wizard has no motivation for his actions. aka, his memories getting lost because of an overuse of dark magic.

And I don't care why that evil wizard has no real motivation. I care about the actual story. I am saying that he should have a motivation for wanting power. And that his backstory has tons of promising material to give him one.

And if you really do want to talk about in-universe logic, I don't get why you try to have that discussion with me of all people.

At any rate, the fact that Nergal even gets a backstory easily makes him a better villain than say Fomortiis, Manfroy, Loptyr, Validar, or Grima. It's really kinda sad when you think about how Nergal lost sight of why he even wanted to gain so much power in the first place.

The thing is, Lyon is the main villain of FE8, Alvis and Julius are the main villains of FE4 and Awakening's story is a pile of shit.

The Demon King, Manfroy and Loptyr are merely part of the in-universe explanation on why these people ended up as antagonists. They are the forces that corrupted their good intentions.

Well, okay not quite. The Demon King is the villain of Eirika's version of the story. And a very uninteresting one by himself. But that story is not about defeating the Demon King. It is about Eirika.

It is about her coming to terms with having to fight and kill when she desires peace and happiness for everyone. And the challenge of accepting the death of a beloved friend and keeping his spirit alive.

So while the Demon King is not interesting, he is still necessary so that a more interesting and engaging story can work.

Nergal's backstory is meaningless because it is disconnected from his actions in the present. The "darkness makes you forget" plotpoint is merely the explanation why we have a cardboard villain instead of a more interesting one. There are tons of ways to use his backstory for a more interesting plot that goes beyond merely stopping an evil wizard from destroying the world. And that none of them are used is exactly my complaint.

Edited February 27, 2014 by BrightBow

[Ema Skye]

FE6: I like the extra difficulty it has with the status staves and long range tomes. Best GBA game for gameplay imo.

FE7: I really don't get why people like this game. I think it's really bland.

FE8: Okay game. Characters are really hit (L'Arachel) or miss (Lyon) for me, and the game's difficulty is a joke even without grinding.

FE9: Decent, I suppose. Feels very clunky at points and the animations are horrendous.

FE10: I love the gameplay in this game, as it's something really new to the game. Unfortunately... that's about the only thing it does right. Characterization is laughable and the story is bland.

(For me, last poll was FE4>FE5>FE2>FE3>FE1. This time it's FE10>FE6>FE9>FE8>FE7)

[Icon of Sin]

6 : would've been fantastic, but the plot is a rehash of Akaneia's books and the mechanics/gameplay has been dumbed down from 5.

7 : remove Lyn, add more meat on the Eliwood's and Hector's stories, make it more like TRS (Hector would be a nice substitute to Holmes), and it would've been pretty damn sweet, but as it stands, nope.

8 : the core game is ok if short, but the monsters just don't seem right to me, even if the game is overall fun.

9 : it's average, as in the game didn't innovate all that much but did everything well enough for me to enjoy it, though the music is unmemorable. The Laguz feel less alien than the monsters but overall they wouldn't exist and I wouldn't mind that much.

10 : polar opposite of 9 oddly enough, and I LOVE it for breaking the FE mold with parts, your armies fighting each other and really awesome defense maps.

Edited February 28, 2014 by Woodshooter

[Magical Glace]

FE6 is listed as my favorite FE, of course I voted great! I am not sure why, but I love it to pieces. FE7/8 as well, though not as much.

FE9... that was mediocre. I'm not too fond of FE9 characters not named Rolf, Mist, or Elincia, Its story kind of sucked more than FE11, in my opinion, and it has my least favorite lord as its only Lord unless you count Elincia.

FE10 was my first FE, so I'm biased. Also, it had Micaiah and a pretty cool story.

[Nicolas]

FE6: Good game, but sometimes really disappointing and boring. It has some nice things in level design, some nice characters, but there are many dull guys and many boring chapters, which I don't want play. It could be really cool game if it IS wouldn't take off every nice thing from FE5. That's shame that fatigue and PPC and scrolls are gone. + support are pain to get.

FE7: Again, I like many things in this game, but other... Well, I hate many guys in this game: Eliwood, Lyn, Wil, Rebecca, Sain, Kent, Raven, Lucius, Serra. In other hand there are characters who I love like Canas, Rath, Lowen, Wallace (don't care he is carp), Legalut, Erk, Pent. Chapters are quite good. I don't recall any really bad (beside pale flower of darkness, and all Lyn's mode maps). But music... Agani I like some tracks, some of them makes me mute my VGBA... I hate halve things in this game and I love other so I pick mediocre option.

FE8: This game has everything which I love in FE7, but don't have many annoying things. Even if too shotr and too easy, it's great for me. And these classes... I love GreatKnights, even if they are much worse than Paladins.

[bookofholsety]

great/good/good/mediocre/great

i'm trying to not be totally pessimistic about FE9, but good grief it's hardly making a strong case for itself. the bullshit layout of stat screens is a pretty good metaphor for the state of the entire game: clunky, counter-intuitive and frustrating. the game's all-around lack of polish reeks of being rushed out to market to meet some deadline or another (and considering its Japanese release date was the 15th anniversary of FE1's release, that's not exactly a farfetched theory), though to its credit at least it's a complete game and hasn't suffered like so many other rushed games. maybe i was just spoiled by getting to FE10 first? idk. character designs are pretty great (at least outside of battle animations) and the writing's serviceable, if nowhere near as ball-bustingly amazing as is constantly being claimed (at least it's not FE13's story)

not much to say about the others except that i have a bit of a hard time caring too much about 7 or 8 these days, at least compared to the other three games in question here. not totally sure why

Edited March 1, 2014 by bookofholsety

[Loki Laufeyson]

FE6: Mediocre. This game should have been amazing but it wasnt. It really should have been though. Theres split paths that lead to replayability and a lot of wonderfully colorful characters. However, something just doesnt make it flow right. Its got all this color but acts like a brick. Its kind of depressing. I do like how we have requirements to get the good ending and stuff, but the game's mechanics are unpolished and hit rates...those hit rates. This game introduced supports so i cant hate on it too much. Plus Geese and Miledy exist in here.

FE7: Of course i voted Great. This is my favorite game in the series. Everything feels pretty amazing here (aside from Lyn mode's slog). Multiple stories, gaiden chapters, very fun characters, decent villains, supports, etc. Hector! I just cant think of more to say about it. The only beef is Lyn. She really doesnt NEED to exist...

FE8: Good. This one is good fun. Its too short in the main game though. We did get some interesting characters and a relatively decent story. I liked the world map thing so i could back and get items. Branching classes was wiggy too. Its just kinda lacking some of the length and oomph of FE7.

FE9: This is more like it! This game is my second favorite to be honest. So much was added. The Base was the best thing ever and i loved how it handled supports. The characters are awesome too including the villains. (who doesnt love some Petrine?) This game began a lot of fantastic world building that i felt even Elibe lacked. The story is the strongest aspect outside some of the mechanics. The only issue i had was the battle animation sequences didnt have the numbers displayed, rendering the sequences kind of useless in my opinion. And they were a bit too stiffly animated.

FE10: This one is good. The story expands from the previous game, but....doesnt retain the tight storytelling FE9 had. After Part 2, shit starts getting out of hand storywise. The Parts are pretty cool cuz we get to control and see other points of view. But the latter part of Part 3 and onward feels rushed in the storytelling department and thats just sad. I did like most of the new characters too. I hated what they did with the supports here though. HATED IT!!! It bothered me to hell and back that we dont get some extra character development especially with the Dawn Brigade. Mastery skills and three class tiers are cool but become a little superfluous as Endgame creeps closer and closer.

[Sasori]

Fe6: This one is actually one of my favourites. It was a bit of a return to the basics, but I don't see anything inherently wrong with that. It has a large cast of (mostly) useable characters and it was the first game that introduced support conversations in their current form.

Fe7: My first Fire Emblem game. I have many fond memories of the game, but my interest in the game has burned out a little. I played through the game many times and I'm not really interested in going back at the moment.

Fe8: Good enough on its own, but something felt lacking to me. The cast was all around good, but its was a little small an the monsters weren't the most interesting opponents to fight.

Fe9: A great fire emblem game. The main story was simple, but charming and had a lot of thought put in it in certain scenes.

Fe10: I enjoyed the game, but there where a lot of things bugging me about it in retrospect. No supports, problems with third tiers and a story that wasn't told as well as it should be. It also played the beorc/laguz conflict incredibly one sided with every Laguz being either good or having good reasons for their less then good actions. The Beorc side on the other hand is filled with pointlessly evil senators and the like.

I really liked Elincia's story though. I thought it was a shame the Crimeans did't get much attention.