So, which Fire Emblem is the best story wise.

[Bagfisch]

In my opinion Fire Emblem has always been rather weak when it comes to story.

It mostly boils down to flee/defend home, get holy weapon, kill evil Dragon/Emperor/God.

Personally I find Fe4 to have the best story as it goes much deeper in terms romance, intrigue, (dynastic) politics and has generally a more darker tragic tone.

[NekoKnight]

It's going to be pretty subjective because what one likes in a story might differ from what is structurally the best story. My personal favorite is Blazing Sword because I like the characters, the political intrigue and how personal the tale is. Path of Radiance is also a well put together story with a lot of world building and a solid character arc for the protagonist.

[Azz]

This is pretty difficult.

Tho, I would say FE4. Despite Gen 2's flaws, Gen 1 is amazing IMO.

[bethany81707]

Genealogy- on occasion, I feel as if the story takes a hit to support some gameplay mechanic. Genealogy lets the opposite happen. Thracia, too, to an extent, but I prefer the story content in Genealogy.

[RJWalker]

I would go with either Genealogy or Mystery of the Emblem. Not the remake for the latter though.

[blah the Prussian]

Either Mystery of the Emblem or Sacred Stones. Sacred Stones has a simple story that manages to stay extremely focused, with good writing in general. Lyon is easily the best written villain in FE, although unfortunately that isn't present on Eirika's route. Eirika is a better protagonist than Ephraim, though, so it evens out. 

[Luchi]

Probably FE4. It has everything I want from FE: Political intrigue, romance, backstabbing power-mongers and of course, the tragic hero. The huge maps may be a drawback for most people, but that's part of what makes it epic.

Now just bring on Yatsumi Matsuno as a writer, Sachiko Wada as art director/lead artist and Sakimoto ( FFT/FF12/Vagrant Story) as a composer and that would be a perfect FE4 ( in my dreams yeah XD ).

Edited February 4, 2017 by tailfin

[Slumber]

The Jugdral games, but 4 beats out 5 for the sheer personal involvement and grand scale of the story.

Edited February 4, 2017 by Slumber

[Thane]

In spite of its many flaws, I think Radiant Dawn wins purely by the quality of the character interactions. I love how the many subplots collide and how old cast members meet new ones; it's a really ambitious title that falls a bit short but still delivers in what might be the most important area. 

Honorable mentions to Scared Stones for Lyon, who's the best written Fire Emblem villain, and Future Past for more awesome character interactions.

Edited February 4, 2017 by Thane

[Salamud]

Sacred Stones. With Path of Radience and Thracia 776 as runner ups.

The Kaga Archanea to Judgral games are dated if workable for their times and are held back by how much backstory Kaga delegated to outside sources. Binding Blade has Yahn do a huge plot dump and Blazing Blade doesn't hold up too strongly. Tellius starts off strong if flawed but goes downhill at Radiant Dawn. The DS remakes either don't go far enough at including background info and fleshing out the cast or go too far in changing plots up (see Kris). Awakening suffers from having to juggle at least 3 plot directions (Ylisse VS Plegia, Ylisse VS Valm, The Children VS Grima) that are really loosely connected, among other issues. Fates' plots are a meme by this point.

Sacred Stones has a solid enough Lord, does a decent enough job at making the playable cast relevant, and while Fomortiis might not be the most rounded villain he works as a Devil who tempts Lyon. The Chapters aren't filled with too much filler or meandering. 

Edited February 5, 2017 by Salamud

[SullyMcGully]

I personally prefer Blazing Sword's story. While it suffers from some linearity and the writing falls flat at some tense moments (I'm thinking about the Ninian death scene here), I enjoy the character interactions, especially those between the three protagonists. I also like the "secret mission" feel of the plot. Other Fire Emblem games usually focus on a conflict that catches the attention of an entire continent, but in Blazing Sword, you carry out an entire war in secret, and your enemies are shadowy assassins rather than a large, formal army. While Nergal doesn't get fully fleshed out without playing through all of the gaiden chapters and jumping to a lot of conclusions, the better-written Black Fang members make up for the villain deficit. Finally, Elibe is one of the best worlds in series history, with a lot of different elements that fit together quite nicely in the long run.

[Enaluxeme]

40 minutes ago, SullyMcGully said:

I personally prefer Blazing Sword's story. While it suffers from some linearity and the writing falls flat at some tense moments (I'm thinking about the Ninian death scene here), I enjoy the character interactions, especially those between the three protagonists. I also like the "secret mission" feel of the plot. Other Fire Emblem games usually focus on a conflict that catches the attention of an entire continent, but in Blazing Sword, you carry out an entire war in secret, and your enemies are shadowy assassins rather than a large, formal army. While Nergal doesn't get fully fleshed out without playing through all of the gaiden chapters and jumping to a lot of conclusions, the better-written Black Fang members make up for the villain deficit. Finally, Elibe is one of the best worlds in series history, with a lot of different elements that fit together quite nicely in the long run.

This, so much.

I love Genealogy, but I find Blazing Sword to have a radically different plot from the rest of the series, and with FE in general being weak on plot, that's certainly a good thing.

[Etrurian emperor]

2 hours ago, SullyMcGully said:

I personally prefer Blazing Sword's story. While it suffers from some linearity and the writing falls flat at some tense moments (I'm thinking about the Ninian death scene here), I enjoy the character interactions, especially those between the three protagonists. I also like the "secret mission" feel of the plot. Other Fire Emblem games usually focus on a conflict that catches the attention of an entire continent, but in Blazing Sword, you carry out an entire war in secret, and your enemies are shadowy assassins rather than a large, formal army. While Nergal doesn't get fully fleshed out without playing through all of the gaiden chapters and jumping to a lot of conclusions, the better-written Black Fang members make up for the villain deficit. Finally, Elibe is one of the best worlds in series history, with a lot of different elements that fit together quite nicely in the long run.

That's generally my take on the matter when it comes to Blazing sword. The world building seems to be one of the stronger ones, though it loses out to Tellius and it being a story about three lords on a more intimate personal quest makes the story stands out when compared to the other games. 

I also think the pacing is pretty competent. You start out with bandits, then move up to corrupt nobles, an international mercenary guild and finally a mad sorcerer and his band of freaks. Its a believable escalation of events.

Nergal may be criticized a lot for not killing the heroes but his frequent encounters help to strengthen the personal touch the story is going for. To the heroes Nergal is a very personal enemy and both sides clearly hate the other a lot. Nergal is fairly unique in this as far as Fire emblem villains go. You got Ike and the Black knight, as well and Lyon and the twins(though that's a different kind of personal) of course but that example aside most villains just stay in their castles the entire game and have a very impersonal relation with the heroes. 

I'm surprised that Blazing sword sits on second place. The story seems to have grown somewhat controversial lately. 

Path of Radiance also deserves a very honorable mention for having strong world buildings, good character development for Ike and following a known formula so well no real flaws stick out. 

[General Banzai]

Looks like I'll need to write an 11k essay on how bad FE4's story is...

I'd say FESS. Solid execution with few flaws, plenty of subtleties and strong atmosphere/tone/theme. The only other contender is PoR but it has some serious issues with anticlimax.

I also think Thracia's story is underrated, although it's difficult to truly extol it because the current translation is so garbanzo if you know what I mean.

[Anacybele]

PoR, no contest (though I like RD's and Sacred Stones's stories too). It tackles the issues the story presents pretty well, like racism and such. The world building of Tellius is excellent and by far the best in the series as well. It also has good villains too, unlike most of the series.

I've not played the Japan-only FE games though, so I can't give an opinion on their stories. However, I'm definitely interested in FE4 and 5 mainly for this.

[fangpoint333]

Gotta give it to Blazing Sword. FE4 Gen 1 has an amazing plot but Gen 2 falls pretty flat in comparison which is half the game. FE8 felt a little formulaic to me. Look for  the Macguffins, Macguffins get destroyed look for next one and fight one of the 6 elite generals. Repeat until you run out. Lyon is a fine villain but he's the real only interesting thing to me. FE9 is pretty by the numbers, but it's told well. FE10 tried an interesting take on the story by having multiple groups running around doing their own thing which was fun but got ruined by blood pact and having all of the senators be responsible for everything and making the laguz villains be villains because of the senators actions kinda ruined the racism thing.