Rate the Fire Emblem games

[momogeek2141]

FE2: Didn't like the game very much. There was barely any story, movement and pacing was really slow. Nerfed growth rates. It's hard to grind alm's route as well. So, I didn't think it was good. 2/5 for having Est in it.

FE4: Excellent story. Each unit had a lot of characterization, and the plot is built up in a way so that you feel sad for the characters at the end of ch5. (IMO the saddest cutscene in all of FE.) Then there is a second generation where kids fight for their parents. Good level design as well, and the battle animations and pace were good too. 5/5. I can't take off a .2 for a frozen ending, because that's a problem with the patch, not the game.

FE5: Difficult, but introduces game mechanics that either influenced other FE games, or are unique to it. The story was okay, but the patch severely limited some of the text. Good units, but some units like Robert literally have no lines in the game. 3/5

FE6: A good challenge. Decent story, good characters, reasonable game mechanics. Definitely not newbie friendly because the tutorial literally explains nigh nothing but the obvious. Which is a problem when you have items you don't know how to use. Needs some more endings as well, but overall was pretty good. 4/5

FE7: A balance between FE8 and FE6 in terms of difficulty. Story is really good, although somewhat random (nothing is mentioned of Roy's father fighting for a cause in FE6.) Same mechanics as FE6, only the tutorial was stretched by 9 chapters, and the player is given a little of everything. 4.5/5

FE8: Great for beginners. It doesn't have a specific tutorial, but it teaches the player as the game progresses. The story could use some improvement, however. It has some new game mechanics, such as branching promotion and class skills (which wasn't reintroduced since FE5). Overall pretty good. 4/5

FE12: Has a tutorial. Introduces a playable player unit (MU) which I think is pretty awesome (he/she could use some characterization though. All characters but marth and Jagen could use some.) The game has varying difficulties, based on the whims of the player. Story could use some improvement, but is pretty good nonetheless. 4.5/5

[Inference]

Rating in the order that I've played them:

FE9: 8.5/10 This was my introduction to the series, and a pretty stellar one at that. The moment you start this game up, it flexes its atmosphere building with a flawless introduction that gives you the impression that you're about to embark on an epic journey. The introduction also gives you a taste of its soundtrack to come, which is easily the best in the entire series. Path of Radiance's major story events are audibly driven by brilliant sound direction, having the perfect tune for each occasion, or sometimes, a stalking silence to convey the severity of what has transpired.

Aside from the music, the gameplay is every bit Fire Emblem as you'd expect with over-the-top animations offsetting dull visuals, and reasonably balanced gameplay on the first run through. I can't name off the top any maps that annoyed me in particular, but I will say that around Day Breaks when everyone begins to promote, the game feels a bit more fun.

Overall, it's a gripping tale disguised as a fun strategy game.

FE7: 9/10 Powerhouse entry in the series for story. Some may criticize Lyn's tale as unneeded, but I think it does a fair bit for world and character building that the story needs. Three lords, three friends, going on a journey to tear shit up. Though not my first, this is the standard to which I compare all Fire Emblems. Showy animations and gameplay are at their best, the character development is real, and maps are varied and tie seamlessly into the story. Honestly, the music is pretty average for Fire Emblem standards, but they could do a lot worse. Some tracks I like are Dragon's Gate II, Softly with Grace, and Rise to the Challenge.

I've always mused on the idea of an FE6 + 7 remake so that FE6 could get the game it deserves, and we can see a great entry like FE7 enter the modern era. Though I doubt it will happen, I'll even accept a nod to FE7 with three Lord/main characters in the next game.

FE8: 6/10 It's not bad, but not terribly good either. It has all of the makings of your average Fire Emblem entry with a solid soundtrack befitting the adventure, a few interesting characters to lighten the mood, and some unique gameplay mechanics for its time but the gameplay itself is C-grade. Extremely unbalanced and hardly challenging even on its highest difficulty, you'll have no trouble clearing it even if it's your first run and you're using all of the trainees. It offers the least replay value of any Fire Emblem due to its utterly non-existent difficulty. Still, it has its charms, and the story is noticeably different from both lead character's perspective. Good for a couple of playthroughs, at least.

FE6: 6/10 I don't feel I'm giving this game a fair score, due to its lack of a proper localization, and thus, no credible dialogue crafted for English-speaking fans. As such, most plot-related aspects of the game seem fairly banal to me, aided little by the poorly edited translation patch I was playing at the time. On the upside, the music is quite good, and the main game is one of the more challenging ones in the series, giving you some incentive to play once in a while on a purely strategic level. Flavor-wise, it has little to offer. I feel it could have been worth a 7 under different circumstances.

FE10: 4/10 It's pretty bad. Aside from getting to see all of your favorite Path of Radiance characters again, most original aspects of this game are a net negative, including, but not limited to: soundtrack, visuals, gameplay structure, storyline progression, and characterization. It's a step down from Path of Radiance in all aspects, and a step back for worldwide Fire Emblem releases.

FE11: 8/10 This one is beginning to rival FE7 as my favorite Fire Emblem game. Its approach to story and characterization are some of the best yet. Rather than relying on lengthy support conversations to establish character, most can be figured out by the manner in which they are introduced. Hardin, for example, is painted perfectly within the confines of Chapter 5. His courage, humility, and loyalty to Nyna on a more personal than knightly level are all conveyed well by way of pre-chapter narration and his brief dialogue with Marth during the map. The dialogue in this game is well-written all around, and most characters, important or otherwise, have memorable lines.

The soundtrack is more than serviceable, and the setting feels very authentic compared to other games. Even its predominantly gray-washed art style lampshades the adventure that follows akin to a storm cloud. Its main downfall, I feel, is its utter lack of regard to gameplay balance, severely undermining its difficulty on subsequent attempts, and making certain aspects of the game more bothersome than necessary (the annoying scarcity of Master Seals, for example). Even the gameplay, however, is not entirely flawed, with class changing revolutionizing games to come, and giving you some time to sit and listen to the awesome Preparations theme while you're deciding who you want to do what.

Overall, the game gets most of its points as an artistic triumph, and the crucial addition of reclassing gives you more options in how you want to complete the game. It'd be worth a nine were it not for the issues in gameplay.

FE12: 5/10 Building and training the Avatar is the best part of the game. Everything after Prologue is a downhill spiral in terms of story and gameplay. Standout tracks are Liberation, Expedition, and the ones that return from Shadow Dragon. Completely unnecessary game, and one that didn't need to exist if Shadow Dragon had an Avatar creation system. It does have a good deal of replay value for completionists with its many difficulty levels and considerable challenge on Lunatic modes.

FE13: 7/10 One of the weaker Fire Emblems for narrative, but thank God none of the gameplay is compromised. It can be summed up as a love letter to Fire Emblems of yore, amalgamating decades-lost gameplay mechanics for one final hurrah. The pairing system, however, is something I'd rather see remain exclusive to this game. It's a unique mechanic, and adds a layer of strategic depth, but it also cuts a fair bit of difficulty from the game. And while we're on the subject of difficulty, that, too, can be customized to your liking. If you fail to take advantage of any of the wireless features or sidequests, Lunatic and beyond will take it to you.

Edited November 3, 2014 by Inference

[FranRedStar]

Gaiden: 3.5/5. I find the game good, it was a bit tedious though, with some (or half) of the maps not interesting or fun. some of the classes are really cool in my opinion, for example the villager. story was rather decent, difficulty is rather tedious as well, but overall, it's fun.

Genealogy of the Holy war: 4/5. LOOOONG as hell, even with just 10 chapters, you have to seize multiple castles (which is fun) n stuff, alot of stuff is overpowered (Sigurd op, nintendo plz nerf) and it's very hard too, and also another thing that i thought was awesome is that you can do alot of stuff with your units in your main castle (especially the arena) and some of the classes are really cool too (though i'm not sure why Heroes are called "Forrest"). but overall, very fun

Sword of Seals: 3.2/5. it's fun, story is interesting, gameplay is great as always. but there's some stuff i do not enjoy, alot of the characters you get have either very good stats, or very bad stats. most of the weapons have very low hit rate, especially axes (poor axe units ;-;). Difficulty is sometimes overwhelming, but all in all. it's fun as well (Also, doing every gaiden chapter to get the best ending is a bit dumb in my opinion)

Blazing Sword: 3.4/5. Story was kinda meh, gameplay is very great. some of the characters are very great too (stat wise). Level design was really cool too. and overall, good game.

Sacred Stones: 4.3/5. My second favorite. story was interesting, mostly every unit is fun to use. the addition of a world map was great as well. Each chapter was fun (albeit alittle short. in fact, the whole game is rather short) and some are challenging. and the Creature Campaign, very great addition too. adds a little more of post-game content. overall, very great game

Shadow Dragon (Fe11) : 2.6/5. my least favorite. it just, wasn't that fun and it's mostly boring, the first remake (Mystery of the Emblem) was better.

New Mystery of the Emblem: 4/5. a better remake than shadow dragon. more interesting characters and development. also the addition of the MU unit was awesome (since i very like character creation). Gameplay was better than Shadow dragon and overall, great.

Awakening. 4.4/5. Gameplay wise, one of the bests of the series. Story wise, uninteresting. simple as that.

[Sentacotus]

I'll rate the ones I've played

FE 11 (Shadow Dragon on DS): 2/5 Not a bad game but as far as Fire Emblems go probably the weakest. Lacks supports and many of the features in the GBA games although learning where Marth came from was really cool.

FE 10 (Radiant Dawn): 5/5 Hands down my favorite FE game. Yeah there's a lot of characters you won't use them all but the story is told from different angles and really captures the world of Tellius. Epic Endgame and best boss in the series. Difficulty can be very punishing but addition of battle save and BEXP is a godsend Also we like Ike.

FE 7 (Blazing Sword): 3/5 I enjoyed this one and was my first ever FE title. That being said I also thought this one was the most difficult for me probably because it was my first and I played it when I was particulary young. I really like the characters in this one. First ones that come to mind are Hector, Lyn, Jaffar, and Matthew.

FE 13 (Awakening): 4/5 My second favorite FE. The characters are awesome and each has their own compelling personalities. I for one think the story is ok not bad but not FE's best either. Having your own character customized how you see fit is a big plus for me. Option to play with or without permadeath so it can appeal to anyone. Addition of DLC gives alot of replayability. Presentation and OST is the best in the series.

Haven't played sacred stones or path of radiance but from the looks of it I'd probably really like PoR alot.

Edited December 7, 2014 by TacoMan42

[NobodiePichu]

in order of the ones i played

fe11: 7/10 - I really personally enjoy this one, mostly due to what it gets right, that being the gameplay. The thing that hurts this game the most is it's simple lack of dialogue to convey the world, however i will say that the dialogue that is there i feel do convey certain aspects rather well (such as Marth's personality, and the main ethical ideas of the story/game), but it still is rather weak in fact the most story comes from the side quest chapters, however i would also say that most of the side quests are the most boring aspects of the game simply because they don't really challenge at all. however the main game i like simply because it feels challenging without being ridiculous, and each chapter has a relatively unique idea for it's unit set up. overall it's my personal favourite despite it's flaws.

Fe10: 6.5/10 - An okay game, another more personal one for me but i rate it lower due to it mostly being an ehhhhh game in my opinion. It has a lot of mechanics i love, and a large mostly flexible cast. however it hurts itself in certain important aspects including story, and game play. story the game hurts itself less from it's events (shit certainly goes down) but simply the lens of characters we are allowed to see it through, or in other words the main characters. Miciha is simply laking in identity, and is not interesting enough to hold a game (at all), Elencia though now an awesome character now doesn't get enough chapters in protagonist status to leave an impact, and Ike seems watered down slightly from his previous incarnation (and personally i don't like his design in RD), and the scatter shot protagonist style in part 4 is just exhausting. Game play wise RD suffers from certain chapters feeling unneeded, certain chapters grinding on too long and others not long enough, and having a COMPLETELY unneeded part 4.

FE8: 8/10 - first off love the official art style of the game it looks lovely, secondly I love the protagonists, there some of the only lords aside from fe1 marth that get shit done despite emotional conflict and *gasp* are not mercenary's! The game play itself feels unchanged from fe7, aside from having some new sprinklings of flavour and in my opinion more chapter variety. the games biggest problem is that it's rather short, and requires two play through's to get a better idea of both protagonists. also prologue to ch 7 (or whatever chapter the route split happens at) could have been cut or reworked.

fe7: 6.5/10 - the game play is fine, chapter variety is uninteresting, characters fine, and story soooo dull. at the end of the game it honestly felt to me like nothing happened. other then that an okay game worth to play through at least once.

fe9: 7/10 - the mechanics are lovely, and the chapter variety is. . . ehhh. some chapters felt way to similar to others and nothing really stood out as challenging or really that different. the games strength is it's story which is well presented, and it's characters which are probably some of the best of the series with a few exceptions (cough fe9 elincia, ena, griel cough) and one of the more interesting protagonists. Ike stands out to me due to his personality, and mostly his ethics. overall a good game if marred slightly by a few things here and there.

fe13: 4/10 - dull, dull, dull, dullllllllllllllllllllll. dull gameplay, dull art style, and especially dull protagonists, theres no life to the game, and at no point did i feel the game really shine. and the worst aspect is the characters in my opinion, there one note and when that would be fine if they were minor characters that didn't really talk very often, the game instead pulls it front and centre and excpects you to praise them. of the characters i'd say only 3-4 characters i actually liked. oh and the story is atrocious. it's a cold game cynically designed to make money off of, and one id say people to give a pass. it is functional though i'll give it that.

the others i haven't played all the way through.

[Axie]

FE1: didn't play/5

FE2: 3/5 - it hasn't really aged gracefully but it has a bunch of things I like: Celica and Alm, the Arrow spell animation, some of the weird ass effects such as Angel Ring giving +2 to a stat on level up. it's a random and mostly fun experience

FE3: it's like I didn't play/5 - I have no idea why this game fails to grab my interest to the point that I never finished it but I'm determined to fix that someday; since I liked FE11/12 I'm sure I'll enjoy this one once I get with it

FE4: 4/5 - I definitely do not think it has the amazing storyline most people believe it does but I do like the cast of characters and the gameplay is fun enough to make it a great game *mount rushes every chapter*

FE5: 4/5 - fun, unique, an actually interesting cast, didn't age that badly for a SNES game. It would get a higher rating if a) the translation patch was better, b) I wasn't a complete and utter scrub at this game lol

FE6: 5/5 - one of my favorite games of all time, I've finished it more times than any other FE, I love the characters, the storyline (even if it is FE1 and FE3 rolled into one), the gameplay (it's the second hardest FE for me but not frustratingly so), etc

FE7: 4.5/5 - I love Elibe and while I find FE6 better in most aspects I still really like it; it was also my first FE game and that's important

FE8: 4.5/5 - I used to dislike it because the lack of difficulty made it boring, but it has such good characterization and writing that it's grown on me a lot

FE9: 4.5/5 - It has the same qualities (amazing characters and story) and flaws (piss easy) as FE8, but since I only got to play it way after it was released I already knew better and liked it from the get go

FE10: 3.5/5 - I didn't really have many chances to play this game properly (I can't emulate it well on my old ass PC), but it didn't really impress me anyway so it's not like I'm trying hard to play it again; as challenging as the gameplay looks the storyline is such a ridiculous mess that it actually bothers me a bit

FE11: 3.5/5 - it obviously feels old even though it's on the DS and not much was done to modernize it but it still had fun gameplay

FE12: 5/5 - amazing in every aspect; I absolutely loved the Katarina subplot, Avatar does not bother me as it does other people, the supports are great and really made me love many of the Archanea characters, the storyline is really good, and most importantly gameplay is phenomenal and can be either the right amount of easy or pretty challenging depending on the mode you choose

FE13: someone give me a 3ds/5

[Luchi]

I'll list them in the order I played:

FE7:

Probably still my favourite FE ( until I finish Geneology, in any case ) of all time. Lyn Mode, while short and a bit of a slog to go through, was still a nice way to introduce first time FE players to the series. Don't get me wrong. I liked it so much that when the tutorial came to an end, I thought that was that and I was telling myself "No, this can't be the end. It's too short!"

Then Eliwood Mode came along and the real fun began. Loved the characters ( Pent is one of my all time favourite mages/units and everyone knows how badass a SPD-blessed Hector is. Oh, and Raven too. And OsWIN ), gameplay was fun, plot was engaging, 'nuff said. For a GBA game, it was pretty lengthy ( I clocked in at around 24+ hours on my first playthrough ). This was also the only FE where I didn't dislike/hate a single unit.

9/10

FE8:

Meh.

6/10

FE6:

I really can't remember this one. All I remember is that it was pretty darn difficult, Roy was nothing like his daddy ( personality-wise, Eliwood is still one of my favourite Lords, but he takes 2nd place behind Hector ) and Marcus curb-stomped everything. Oh, and more than half my units were dead by the time I got past Murdock, so I stopped playing and never went back. I know there are supposed to be some interesting units if you read into the support convos, but believe it or not, I don't care for that crap.

Yeah, I pretty much played all the GBA games without supports ( or if I did, I can't remember any of them, save maybe the Lords support convos in 7 ).

Not rated, because I didn't finish.

FE9:

Hoo boy. The Tellius games. I have a love/hate relationship with those games. On the one hand, I really want to like them and put them in my top games of all time, but Ike's existence destroys it. I hate the guy. He is the most boring, dullest, Stu-ish Lord in the entire goddamn series. IS gives this dude so many favours its not even funny.

It's like they were already trying to build up this Radiant Hero bullcrap in FE13 because of his feats. The only beorc who can damage Ashnard? Ike. The only beorc who gets the upper hand over Burger King? Ike. The most over-hyped unit in the entire series? Ike. The most overpowered sans-Sigurd/Celice unit in the series? Ike. And players can't relate to the guy because of his 'larger than life' feats. So I don't blame some players for outright disliking him. what makes/breaks a main character in any game, regardless of its genre, is relatibiliy ( I come from an RPG background, that's why my scorn for Ike is absolute ).

Urgh. Add in the GMs and... no, I'm not going to talk about this anymore. It's going to drag out things that should best stay repressed.

But yeah. Gameplay? Who needs units if you just let Marcia, Jill, Tits and Ike beat the game for you? ( Not that I used Jill/Marcia ). And those map graphics/models are fugly as hell. Lucia/Elincia's ( my 2 favourite FE characters and I ship them as well ) existence in this game stops it from plummeting to 5. And the music is good, at least. But nothing on FE4's Arranged Soundtrack.

6/10

FE10:

If this game had ONLY focused on Micaiah and Elincia's arc, it would have been a gem. If you ask me, taking down a tyrant who is trying to oppress your homeland is a hellava lot more interesting than taking down a bloody goddess ( Good Lord, what were they smoking in Part 4?! ). THAT, if you ask me, is far more epic. A lot more epic. And you can relate, because you'd have a bunch of units fighting to protect the homeland they love ( all of us have some sort of patriotism inside of us, after all ) instead of what RD decided to do.

Balance in this game? Non-existant. Decent amount of playable characters? Only if you're counting the DBs and GMs. So no. Suppports? Atrocious, but everyone knows that. No need to beat an old horse to death. Voice acting. Appalling. Only Shinon's English VA was decent in any way ( and he's the only GM I really like ). A crapton of Eleventh Hour Rangers who appear in Part 4-Endgame?

Humiliating. It's like the game is insulting you for putting in over 30+ hours training your units into battle gods, and then those guys show up.

Urgh. Bottom of the heap.

3/10 ( Part II, L/E, great OST saves it from being a 1/10 ).

Thanks for destroying the FE experience for me, RD. I'm going off to make my own FE-inspired RPG now ( actually, I've been working on it for more than a year ).

[Bankai]

FE4 - 5/5 My favorite FE because of the story and characters.

FE5 - 4.5/5 2nd favorite and one of the first one's I played Fin is my favorite character I want the Fog of War from this game again.

FE6 - 3/5 Good for what it was but it got boring in the middle.

FE7 - 4/5 It really set the stage for 6 and introduced the assassin class the story was pretty good for the time.

FE8 - 3/5 My least favorite of the GBA FE's it did have some good features and characters it kind of ended in a cliffhanger in my opinion.

FE9 - 3/5 While FE 9 had it's moments it wasn't a great game in the long run features my least favorite lord in the series.

FE10 - If I was only counting parts 1 and 2 it would be 4/5 but part 3 and 4 puts it at 2/5. By the end of part 3 I felt like it was a game just to worship Ike who I already disliked.

Fe13 - 3/5 FE13 is a good game and has some good parts but the things that hurt it the most was the Valm arc, some of the map design, no Fog of War and the extra bonus characters mainly Priam he felt like a really bad Fanfic character. to me.

[Sweet_Basil]

FE6: 3/5 Chapter goals are very lacking, story was lackluster, but it's a challenging and fun game.
FE7: 4/5 Good idea with the whole three protagonists having their own modes.
FE8: 5/5 Although it's too short I like what this game offers the most, I'd much rather have a world map than not, the class system was a good idea. The characters in this game are my favorite of the series. The post game also sort of makes of for its short length.
FE9: 3.5/5 Good game but a letdown in visuals coming from the gba games.
FE10: 3/5 I like that it tries to do new stuff with the different parts but it's too unbalanced and lots of things felt rushed mainly the supports.
FE11: 2.5/5 Letdown in visual, and lacking. The least impressive but i'd still say good game.
FE13: 3.5/5 Suffers from what FE6 suffers and that's lack of chapter goals.

[OrangeCrush980]

FE4 - 5.5/10. Eh, it has a lot more problems than its fans are willing to admit. Granted some of them are due to the patch, and playing it on a PSP probably didn't help. It took me a long time to get used to it, but halfway through gen 2 it clicked for me and I started having a lot more fun. I probably need to replay it someday to get a better opinion.

FE6 - 5/10. It's alright, but feels boring, bland, and not very fun overall.

FE7 - 10/10. The only Fire Emblem to actually get the basics nailed down right, along with great balance. Combine that with supports, good characters, and an alright story, and it's the best.

FE8 - 8.5/10. It has it's issues but it's fun.

FE9 - 9/10. Really well-rounded and well-designed, although I feel it doesn't hold up as well after a few playthroughs.

FE10 - 7.5/10. Was one of the most ambitious FEs, but also one of the most unpolished and broken.

FE11 - 3/10. This just sucked.

FE12 - 7.5/10. Like 6 and 11, it's on the bland and boring side. However, 12 is a lot better polished and funner, so the good outweighs the bad this time.

FE13 - 8.5/10. It has it's issues but it's fun. Bad enemy phase reinforcements stops it from being significantly better than FE8 though.

[Anacybele]

And players can't relate to the guy because of his 'larger than life' feats.

*taps shoulder* Pardon me, but I can relate to him, somewhat. Sure, I don't body build or have a big appetite or love meat or anything like that. But like Ike, I'm kind of blunt, I'm not afraid to speak my mind (well, truth be told here, this is also not true at the same time. In real life, I can be shy and afraid to speak up. But in certain conversations, I sure as hell will start putting in my two cents), and I grew up with only one of my parents. Well, I do have a stepfather, but sometimes I don't feel like I know who my biological father is because I've not gotten to know him very well. My mom divorced him when I was four.

Ike also hates the nobles, who are the government, and a lot of Americans probably hate their government too. I hate some parts of it myself.

Ike, to me, represents someone who grew up on simple and good ideals, and wants to fight for their country and is often against the government's ideas. Many soldiers in the army can probably say they are like this! At least in countries that have a crappy government (like this one).

Oh, I also share Ike's passion. He's very passionate and dedicated anyone who knows me well knows I'm just like that.

Check out this video here. This guy gave the perfect analysis of Ike and pretty much sums up why I'm a big fan of his (aside from my opinion that he's sexy as hell, but that's not really relevant to what the guy is trying to get at).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joPOFHTItF0

Edited December 9, 2014 by Anacybele

[Moliblazer]

I'll just review the games I've beat.

FE4: 5/5 Easily my favorite game in the franchise. It has almost everything I look for in a game: A great story, great characters, an amasing soundtrack, some replayability, deep gameplay, etc. It's only fauts are in the poor pace of the gameplay (which never once bothered me), the very poor balance (which kinda enhances the experience in my opinion) and hte poor replayability of the first half of the game.

FE5: 1/5 As a stark contrast to FE4, FE5 is my least favorite game in the franchise, mostly because I'm NOT a masochist (which kinda makes me question why I'm a part of this fanbase in the first place). This game's difficulty is often unfair and it'll be that way no mater what you do: even a fully capped unit can get 2HKOd. I also don't like this game's story that much, because it retcons some of FE4's and kills any sort of impact the player could have had in the story, by making certain pairings cannon, for example. That's not to say this game doesn't have it's merits: it introduced the Rescue mechanic, which was a very welcome addition to the series, and I still hope the Capture mechanic will make a return someday.

FE6: 3/5 I have a neutral opinion of this game: certain things it does - like the lackluster story, poor balance and the overal character of Roy - really piss me off, but I love other things - like the character roster and support conversations. Overall, I had fun playing through this game.

FE7: 5/5 I really enjoy this game. Aside from the absurdly long tutorial, there almost nothing wrong with this game. The characters are lovable, the gameplay is good, the story is passable, etc. For me, this is the game you should play first.

FE8: 4/5 FE8 is a very hit-or-miss game: for many people, it's too easy and the world map breaks the game, for others the world map just gives you more freedom and makes the game more acessible. For me, this game's a hit: I don't need a game to be hard for me to enjoy it. All the other aspects of this game are passable: the story, the characters, the overall gameplay, etc, so there really isn't much to more to say.

FE10: 2/5 FE10 is a weird case, almost nothing of what it does right appeals to me - I don't care about the graphics, for example - and most of what it does wrong really bothers me. This game has no sense of balance: half of the cast is completelly useless; this game has horrible characters: face it, if it weren't for PoR, you wouldn't care for any of these people; it has a horrible overcomplicated story wich is solved by an Deus Ex Machina, well, kinda; they completelly ruined almost everything that was cool about the support system; the soundtrack was kinda forgetable; and the gameplay was nothing special. The worst ofender, however is the Part 4 Endgame, with killed any care I have for this game and made my wish it would die in a fire. Overall I really don't like this game, but my review painted it in a more negative light then I had intended.

FE11: 2/5 This was the first Fire Emblem game I've played, my gateway to the series, and for that, I'm very gratefull, however, when you analise it at face value, it's not very good. The story, the characters and the gameplay are all just bad, the only redeming things I can think about this game are that the soundtrack and the overall atmosphere of the game are awesome. Overall, this was too faithful of a remake.

FE12: 3/5 I wanted to like this game, I really did, but I just felt very detached from everything it had to offer: it is a definite step up from FE11 in almost every way: the story, the characters and the gameplay are all better, but they are still pretty bad. Everything else was just the same as Shadow Dragon. Overall this game was just meh.

FE13: 3/5 I have a love-hate relationship with this game: on one side it is my most played Fire Emblem game of all (I've dumped almost 300 hours onto it) on the other side it's worse to most Fire Emblem games in almost every way: the story is horrible, the gameplay is atrocious, the characters are kinda good, the soundtrack is good, the artistic style is hit-or-miss, the level design is the worst yet, etc. The Pair-Up system is just broken and removes any tactical depth this game might have had, the support system is the best yet the world map returns more polarising than ever. Usually I love grinding in games (which is why I find this game so addicting), but this game is so easily broken its not even funny. The DLC is hit-or-miss, the gameplay balance is bad, etc. Lunatic+ also destroys any credibility this game might have had in my eyes.

[Shin]

I never really finished FE1, 10 or 13 but I played enough of them to form some sort of opinion.

FE1 - 2.5/5 - Whilst probably alright for the time, the game's aged horribly and the interface is painful to use. There's also the fact that there have been two superior remakes of the game. There's also a few oddities such as no XP for healing, weird trade system and the like which aren't that great.

FE2 - 2.5/5 - Another game that didn't age well. Still, there are a few nice concepts and it's not awful to play. I have to say that the map design is pretty poor and levelling is slow.

FE3 - 4/5 - This probably holds some bias as my first FE game. It's still a little clunky but the main staples of the series are starting to come through. The orbs do make the game pretty easy, but it wasn't that hard to start with. The plot and writing is pretty cliche, but the cast are amusing enough - especially when it comes to headcanons.

FE4 - 4.5/5 - Loads of unique mechanics, introduced loads to the series too. Probably one of my favourite plots and casts, the only thing I can really complain about is the blatant disregard for balance. I also really liked the sound track and art style.

FE5 - 4.5/5 - Combines the aesthetics of FE4 with a more classical FE formula. The game's pretty challenging but only occasionally throws something completely awful at you with no warning.

FE6 - 3/5 - Really barebones, the story's basicall a rehash of Marth's titles and HM is legitimately awful at times. Some of the cast are cool, but a lot of them are really generic. There's also the fact that swords are the only things that ever hit.

FE7 - 3.5/5 - A fairly average game. I can't really flaw it for much but I can't really think of anything that stands out massively. Elwood and Lyn were kinda lame as protagonists but hey.

FE8 - 3.5/5 - The cast's way better than 7 but the plot and actual gameplay are kinda weak. The game's too short and easy for my liking.

FE9 - 4/5 - Generally a very well presented game. The plot, characters and gameplay are pretty solid. I can only really criticise it for its lack of difficulty and some of Ike's characterisation.

FE10 - 1.5/5 - Probably my least favourite game of the series. I really disliked the Dawn Brigade and found the gameplay really tedious. The only good think of it was confirming one of my FE9 OTP's as canon.

FE11 - 3/5 - Again, very barebones, but it's enjoyable enough. It does seem like a step back though, I'd have expected something like this like 10 years earlier.

FE12 - 2/5 - This is what happens when you try to do too much with a remake. MU was an awful idea, distorting the plot and the entire assassin subplot was pretty lame too. The gameplay's alright except that everyone beyond like chapter 7 or so is worthless.

FE13 - 3/5 - Well presented but it tries to do too much. Too much self insert, anime-esque characters and poor costume design for my liking. The plot's kinda weak and tries to do too much. The whole waifu thing sucks too.

[General Banzai]

FE4: 2/10

Goon squad trash, incomprehensibly boring first half with worse love story than Twilight, stick figure characters, trashcan balance, ambitious gameplay elements squandered by godawful level design and aforementioned balance issues

Music is good

FE5: 9/10

Spectacular level design, more interesting mechanical innovations that are much more competently incorporated than its predecessor, none of the monomythic bullshit from 4 with a tighter focus on one dumb hero and his seedy advisor. Much better at depicting a minor struggle than FE4 was at depicting a grand one

FE6: 5/10

Gameplay and story are the same: mostly bland, with flashes of brilliance

FE7: 4/10

I made a thread about this one. At its core this is a bad story confined by prequel status with weak characters all around. The most memorable villain is Denning

FE8: 10/10

Easily the least flawed FE, but that doesn't necessarily make it the best. Fortunately, FESS exceeds just good in most categories, including its music and its villains. Also very good level design. So yeah its the best

FE9: 8/10

Oh man such good story, such good characters, such shit gameplay and graphics and an obviously unfinished ending

But the story and characters

FE10: 7/10

It's ambitious. It doesn't always work. The writing took a steep downward spiral from PoR. The characters don't do as many interesting things and they shouldn't have all returned. But the things that work hit harder than anything else in the series. Like whoa

FE11: 7/10

Tight and focused, pretty much the polar opposite of FERD. It succeeds where FERD fails and vice-versa. High replayability.

FE13: 8/10

Best gameplay in the series, the so-called "gamebreaking" aspects aren't so gamebreaking when you get into Luna+. The characters are great I love them all. Well most of them. Well Henry. I like how they say stuff while they fight though, makes enemy phases so much better.

Summary: 8 > 5 > 13 > 9 > 10 > 11 > 6 > 7 > 4

[Wormbait Blues]

Sure. EDIT: BTW the number scores are on the scale of Fire Emblem games, not normal games. I enjoyed all these games, though the last two barely so.

FE4: 7/10 Probably the most "mature" story told in a Fire Emblem game (though nothing great) with awesome music. I liked the graphics and the animations are really good. However there were serious balance issues and while I liked the idea of huge maps it made you basically have to babysit the infantry if you wanted them to get any action. Ambitious but I'm honestly glad most of its changes weren't implemented in the future.

FE5: 6.5/10 Sort of cheating since I'm still playing it but I have mixed feelings so far. I really like some mechanics, like fatigue, the hard fog of war, and the great map design. The story is also the best in the series at portraying a realistic rebellion (the game mechanics just add to that feeling) and the music's probably my favorite in the series. I really can't deal with the difficulty though. I have fun when I abuse savestates but I shouldn't have to do that to enjoy a game. Maybe I'm bad but Shield of Thracia still gets me salty.

FE6: 4/10 One of my first so I'm fond of it but it's not very good honestly. Story is a bland retread that only picks up at the very end, it's unbalanced as shit, most of the characters are boring, and there's too many goddamn wyvern knights.

FE7: 8/10 Fun game. Story's pretty good (thank god there's no "must-visit-every-place-on-the-map" syndrome,), music's great, gameplay's better than FE6 in basically all respects, and Hector's a bro. The characters in general are much more fleshed out. Simple but polished to a shine and really good.

FE8: 6.5/10 My first game. I liked branching promotions, the darker color pallet, and the music, but it's way too easy (even if you don't grind) and short. Also the characters are all pretty bland honestly. Gets a .5 for having a lance-wielding infantry lord.

FE9: 9/10 My favorite game, combining the best of the GBA games and the SNES games for an experience that's incredibly fun. The revamped support system, base, and bonus experience are all great additions (even if bonus experience can be abused) and it has a great supporting cast. It's just the right difficulty (on hard) and pretty well balanced (laguz are pretty bad though). Also shoving is awesome and should make a return past the Tellius games. I can't really think of anything very negative to say. Sort of annoying that you can't get back skills once you assign them. Story's pretty bland but that's the case with basically all Fire Emblem games. It isn't actively offensive and Ike's coming-of-age arc was pretty well-done. EDIT: I forgot, it added furries and clumsy racism morals which is pretty annoying. I was able to safely ignore it for the most part though.

FE10: 7/10 An ambitious experiment that I enjoyed, but I recognize it as incredibly flawed. I liked that it added in some more features from the console games like three tiers and leadership stars, but the multiple story system, while interesting, is inherently flawed and reduces some characters' usability just because they don't show up enough. I liked the story until all of the interesting things froze near the end. Getting rid of supports was a huge mistake and laguz are still bad. It got an extra .5 because Gatrie's my favorite character in the series (I know he's not the best unit by far but 60% strength and speed on an armor knight damn son.)

FE12: 6.5/10 Thank god it added back supports (I could never get through Shadow Dragon because of the lack of them) but it still has problems. I didn't like that all the characters had ridiculously high growth rates, the graphics are still pretty ugly, it inherits some bad map design from FE3 (seriously fuck that mission where you go around in a spiral and waste like twenty minutes), and it introduced the Avatar.

FE13: 2/10 This game gets me salty. The story is horrible and split up three distinct arcs into 25 chapters, meaning none of them had any time to develop well. The balance is all sorts of fucked and pair up is OP. The characters are cardboard cut-outs (the children are a little better, Owain and Inigo are pretty great) who had tons of support conversations, but none of them were interesting. Nothing like Matthew confronting Jaffar, Zealot and Noah discussing the hardships of being a mercenary, Mist and Rolf trying to deal with the horrors of the war, or Astol telling his former wife Igraine to forget about the life they once had. Instead it's all generic and boring (once again, the children are better) plus totally inappropriate lead-ups to fucking marriage. Most of the mechanics that give Fire Emblem it's strategic depth, like limited ultimate weapons, non-repeatable maps, and limited skills and classes are repealed in favor of grinding and a shitty class and skill system that pales in comparison to Final Fantasy Tactics, a game released more than fifteen years ago. Sure you can ignore the grinding but then you're confronted with how shallow this game really is, with boring, featureless levels that made me realize how good Thracia's are. From the dumb children subplot to the fanservice (which includes little girls, ugh) to the fucking mary sue fanfic bait Avatar, this game reeks of desperation, which makes sense since this was going to be the last game in the series unless it sold well. And it did. I'd be cool to forget this game as long as the next one discarded most of it's features but I fear it isn't going to happen. The Avatar is almost certainly here to stay and the fanservice will probably stick around, maybe increase if anything. I'm glad Fire Emblem is still alive and I'm happy this game was a success but I have some serious reservations for the future.

Tearring Saga: 2/10 Horrible, and really illustrates the similarities between George Lucas and Shouzou Kaga: they can make great stuff if you don't let them do whatever they want. Game balance is the worst in the series with characters and classes being either godly or horrible with little inbetween, weird map designs with some taking too long and being too large and some taking literally minutes, terrible anime drawings that look like they come from a Chinese bootleg game, and cringe-worthy growth rates (that one's subjective I guess). I liked the idea of most of the enemies, even the evil empire, being sympathetic, but the game wasn't written well enough (at least from what I could tell) for it to matter. The translation is obviously horrendous but I'm not going to rag on the translators for that. The only saving graces are the music and the animations which are my favorite in the series (seriously, archers actually shoot in an arc!)

Edited December 11, 2014 by Wormbait Blues

[Ema Skye]

FE2: 2.5/5

Interesting mechanics to say the least, but it can, understandably, be offputting to some. It's something I come back to every once in a while but I can't exactly imagine myself playing it frequently.

FE4: 4/5

I really like this one. The story is really interesting and the gameplay is really interesting while not being as offputting as Gaiden.

FE5: 3.5/5

I also really like this one though I'm, admittedly, crap at this game. I think it's the best example of a FE game where gameplay is at the top priority.

FE6: 3/5

I also like this one. It's really barebones, even for an FE game, but the story is decent. The characters are really boring and lame and all kinds of bad things.

FE7: 1/5

Seriously don't get what people like about this game and probably never will. I can't ever finish it anymore because it hurts to play this game.

FE8: 2.5/5

Branching classes are a lot of fun but that's about all I like in this game. It's painstakingly easy.

FE9: 2.5/5

lmao this character balance. Characterization is meh at best and gameplay feels very rigid. Character animations honestly look like cardboard. They're that stiff.

FE10: 1.5/5

lmao this character balance: The sequel. Characterization is honestly about as good as FE6s (as in, characterization barely exists). Diverse objectives are kinda cool though. I have no idea why I actually like this game though because there's nothing I like about it. Maybe it's that first game bias.

FE11: 0/5

Absolute faithful remakes are my least favorite kind of remakes. Playing this game really feels like I'm playing the original 1990 game only with better graphics and better sound.

FE12: 2/5

Gameplay wise it still feels like I'm playing a game from 1990. But the characterization is such a massive improvement that it's a noticeable improvement to this game's score.

FE13: 3.5/5

Story is balls. Gameplay is one of the best in the series and characterization is the best I've ever seen in the series.

[Florete]

I've probably done this at least three times before but meh, I'm bored, so here we go one more once:

FE4 - 7.5/10

It's a pretty good game overall. The story was kind of killed for me by the love-at-first-sight crap, though, and it lacks replay value. I feel it doesn't use its big maps very well, because they often feel like multiple smaller maps just combined into one.

FE5 - 5/10

I never finished this game. Maybe it was the patch I used, but I just found a lot of the mechanics and design really frustrating. I started skipping the story around the halfway point because I realized that it had done so little to grab me that I didn't even know what was going on.

FE6 - 7/10

A good but flawed game. I like a lot of the characters, but the gameplay isn't the most polished and the story is boring.

FE7 - 9/10

Possible bias due to it being my first FE game; very solid with a good cast and decent story. It also has the best ranking system in the series imo.

FE8 - 8/10

A very good game that's a little short and a little too easy. This was the worst game to put branching promotions in since it had the smallest cast, which is a shame because it's a great concept.

FE9 - 8/10

It's kind of hard for me to feel like I can accurately judge this game. I really liked it when I first played it, but then after playing RD and on subsequent replays...my opinion of it changed pretty drastically. The animations make replays a chore, the balance is not particularly good, and the story is average.

FE10 - 10/10

It may not be 100% perfect, but aside from the lack of full support conversations, it may as well be for me. Every aspect of gameplay is better than its predecessor and I, at least, found the story to be very good. In fact, it's the only story in the series that kept me hooked so well there were times I didn't even want to play out a map because I wanted to continue the story.

FE11 - 6/10

It's not bad...but it's not that good, either. Even though I got when it first arrived, it still felt old to me, which means they didn't update it very well. Story was worthless.

FE12 - 7/10

I like it more than Shadow Dragon even though I still haven't finished it...dunno why, really.

FE13 - 8.5/10

This game does a lot of things right and a lot of things wrong, the story and characterization probably being at the bottom, but with gameplay at the top. There are a lot of ways to play this game, and although it's pretty unbalanced overall, it makes up for it with the sheer amount of ways you can choose to play it. I also do not find it at all surprising that the biggest critics of this game are the FE veterans. It's that kind of game.