Survey: sell your friend on Fire Emblem

[Zapp Branniglenn]

Okay, we've all been in this position before. A friend asks what you're playing, and you show them a map of Fire Emblem on your handheld. In addition to the poll questions, here's some more open-ended ones you can answer.

Q. Assuming they start on a game with Casual mode, do you recommend it over Classic and why?

Q. Your friend recognizes the name Fire Emblem as being "the game those sword dudes come from" in Smash Bros. How much do you feel the need to describe the characters of Marth, Ike, etc. like you would with Link or Samus?

Q: Are marriage and children units one of Fire Emblem's core features/selling point? Are you embarrassed or uncomfortable talking about shipping characters together in these games?

Q. Your friend owns no Nintendo systems, do you recommend emulation? Assume your friend has no experience with emulators. 

- Alternatively, would you let your friend borrow one of your systems to use?

Q: And most important of all, which game do you recommend they try out first, and why? (excluding Heroes since that's a separate poll question)

Q: Oh no, your friend killed their first healer and pegasus knight within their first two hours, they're willing to restart from the beginning, but ask you if they should or just continue. Should they?

Edited April 4, 2017 by Gustavos

[Slumber]

Yes, I probably could sell friends on Fire Emblem now. Yes, I have in the past(My Blazing Sword copy got around quite a lot in middle school). Sold them on the strategy/RPG aspects, since at least two of them were big Tactics/Tactics Advance fans. Sure, Heroes is a cheap way(Supposing your friends don't have overly addictive personalities) to dip your toes into the franchise in a simplified manner. And I let them explore.

For the follow-ups:

No, I'll recommend classic. Because I'll give them tons of shit otherwise. Basically "Man-up", "No balls", other sorts of ribbing and masculinity shaming.

None, the games explain themselves. If they play a game and go "Why aren't the sword dudes from Smash in here", I'll explain.

No, unless we're talking FE4. But since I'll let them figure shit out on their own, chances are they won't even realize marriage/children are in the game.

Sure. I'm no saint in this regard, and have played plenty of FE roms(Though I make sure to buy every game as they release). Emulators are easy to get a hang of these days.

If they wanted to play like, SS or BS, I'd lend them my Phat DS and give them the cartridges, sure.

Path of Radiance or Blazing Sword first. They're not overwhelming. PoR's simple and straight forward with fairly competent story-telling/world-building, and BS has a tutorial segment that works well, with a high difficulty ceiling if you get into it. These two do the best at showcasing FE's strengths without adding any frills that other games have. They're "pure", quality FEs.

I'd recommend they restart. Fuck that pegasus, your first pegasus is rarely your best(Unless you're playing Thracia or Tellius). The healer will probably be indispensable, though.

[Thinks Their Own Way]

I got my sister into heroes, and sacred stones for a little bit.

1. Depends on what they feel like. I prefer playing on casual, but classic mode wasn't an issue for my sister.

2. Depends, my sister didn't give a shit about the FE characters in smash; prefers playing as Zelda or Link. The most I've explained a character to my sister was how Eirika would be the type of girl to go into the basement in a horror movie with a slasher loose in the house.

3. Depends on the person; for example my sister would enjoy the shipping aspects and going off who she likes using in Heroes; I feel she would S-support Subaki in a god damn heartbeat.

4. You can get a game-boy advance emulator on your phone (not my method), no way in hell I'm lending anyone my 2DS. 

5. She tried out Sacred Stones on her own, I would recommend Sacred Stones or Birthright because I feel that their difficulty levels are the most accessible to new comers (those who know nothing what so ever). 

6. I would make them restart if they skip a chest, let alone a character dying.

[eclipse]

For "other", I hack out my 3DS and show them what it looks like.  Having Sakura shank things might have been an influence. . .

For the questions:

- Casual first, since it's a compromise over FE7's excellent tutorial (I think it was perfect for people who haven't picked up a Fire Emblem game, ever)
- I will tell them where Marth/Roy/Ike/Robin/Corrin came from, and let the poor sap figure it out
- Nope.  Marriage/children are a side objective at best.
- The only game I'd recommend an emulator for is Heroes, since it's a half-decent introduction to Fire Emblem.
- It has to be a GOOD friend before I consider letting them borrow my stuff.
- If I could recommend anything at all, FE7, just because of how Lyn Normal Mode holds your hand.  Otherwise, my recommendation is Awakening, even though pair-up is quite confusing.  If they don't have a 3DS, Heroes, due to ease of access.
- I'd recommend it, because Fire Emblem is about options, and killing off your options is bad.

[Res]

- Depends on how experienced they are with strategy games. Generally I'll recommend casual mode, yes.
- I couldn't really describe any of those characters, so...
- To some people they are. I had a friend ask for recommendations for dating sims that weren't too romantic/explicit so I mentioned Fates and it turned out she'd played FE7 but hadn't realized new games had been released for the 3DS and that it was precisely what she was looking for. So depending on what type of games people like I'll play up the marriage/children aspects as appropriate. 
- No, if they don't have the right systems I won't even suggest FE in the first place.
- I do occasionally let friends borrow my systems but only if it's an old system or maybe slightly broken, because I have never received one back. For example, one friend has had my PSP for 7 years and another borrowed my DS Lite with a crack in the hinge (still perfectly playable) 8 years ago. I'll happily lend out the games themselves, though.
- If they have a 3DS, Awakening; it's what I started with and it was easy to pick up. Otherwise FE7 is a great introduction.
- Yes, I'd recommend restarting. 

[Rezzy]

For some reason I thought this was going to be about selling Silas into slavery or something.

[Iris]

A. Depends on how experienced of a gamer they are. If they are a casual gamer, then I'll recommend casual mode. If they play other video games, I'd probably recommend Awakening and tell them to play it on Normal/Classic.

A. Not at all. I'll simply leave it as they are the main characters of their respective games.

A: I'm sure it is. 

A. Ahem, depends what kind of gamer they are and if they've emulated before, and their opinions of the ethics of emulating. I'd probably not recommend it off the bat, and assuming they're a close enough friend, I'd lend my 3DS or my games if they have a 3DS.

A. Awakening because I think it would be an easier time to recommend follow up games if they like Awakening, as opposed to recommending Fates Birthright first. Plus the story at least for me, was a huge selling point of Fire Emblem, and it's pretty WTF in Fates, and a bit more cohesive in Awakening. If they're down to emulate, and if they like "older" games, would recommend the Sacred Stones to them.

A. This is a hypothetical situation that would never occur if I recommended someone to play on classic because I'd probably preface the fact that 100% survival is coveted in FE games and that they should reset the chapter immediately if someone dies. In the hypothetical case that you've described, yeah, I would recommend restarting.

Edited April 4, 2017 by Iris

[shadowofchaos]

13 hours ago, Slumber said:

No, I'll recommend classic. Because I'll give them tons of shit otherwise. Basically "Man-up", "No balls", other sorts of ribbing and masculinity shaming.

I think it might be a joke... but just in case it isn't, this is exactly the type of stuff that caused my friends to shy away from Fire Emblem before casual mode came along.

[Captain Karnage]

I just threw Conquest at her

she enjoyed it

[Slumber]

23 minutes ago, shadowofchaos said:

I think it might be a joke... but just in case it isn't, this is exactly the type of stuff that caused my friends to shy away from Fire Emblem before casual mode came along.

Obviously you didn't question their masculinity enough. 

[shadowofchaos]

54 minutes ago, Slumber said:

Obviously you didn't question their masculinity enough. 

(Okay fair enough, it was a joke)

But they're a girl.

[Dragoncat]

I got an internet friend into it. She's the almighty Shadsie who you might know if you frequented Zelda Dungeon or fanfic sites, Archive of our Own etc, she also has a Deviant Art. She paints skulls, I kid you not. She's a bit older than me but she's awesome. 

How I got her into it is a funny story. Zelda Dungeon has a chat box like a lot of forums, and me and a bunch of people were talking about Awakening, specifically what Chrom's reaction might be if male Robin marries Lucina, I said he'd kick his butt, somebody was like "He wouldn't be able to, my Chrom sucks" and around this time along came Shadsie. She went "So if I play it, I should expect a lot of anger and weird relationships, right?" And then we told her Awakening was the only non Japanese FE at the time that you could pair up characters and get their kids. And even so, it hadn't been a constant thing, there was only one other FE that had it (Genealogy), but in Genealogy incest was possible. Then everybody started making incest jokes. Shadsie's were the funniest because she's just that awesome.

Fast forward, and I find Awakening fanart on her Deviant Art. I then got her to join a small FE RP community I'd frequented, but sadly it went under after she'd been there for like...a couple months. 

Okay so I know I didn't personally sell her on it, I had help from others and she had been considering it anyway, but yeah. In real life I never sold anybody on it. My friend sold me on it.

[Reality]

I generally tell people NOT to get into Fire Emblem. I do this mostly because I do not consider the series very "gamelike".

I did get 1 person into path of radiance, 3 people into awakening. 3 of these people brought up the topic with me (1 of which did not know I had ever played it). 

However, if someone MUST play an SRPG, I tell them to play FE. I do this on a failed attempt to get my niece to like FFT and on another occasion disgaea. I find that for people new to the genre, the stripped down interace is a major boon, and with other SRPGS, having to move>open command list with multiple options> pick facing at end of turn>etc utterly killed the pacing compared to the simple Fight vs Wait. 

Q. Assuming they start on a game with Casual mode, do you recommend it over Classic and why?

No. This is the position I have to take after arguing that FE does not make use of its strategy mechanics and is overly easy relative to other things in the genre.

Q. Your friend recognizes the name Fire Emblem as being "the game those sword dudes come from" in Smash Bros. How much do you feel the need to describe the characters of Marth, Ike, etc. like you would with Link or Samus?

I've had people recognize the guys from smash bros. 

Q: Are marriage and children units one of Fire Emblem's core features/selling point? Are you embarrassed or uncomfortable talking about shipping characters together in these games?

I know people who got into FE via deviantart or following artists on social media who believe this. I tell that it might as well be a selling point since you can marginalize the Strategy elements in most games if you wish too. I find it unusual to talk to these people because I do not understand how you can be a fan of characters in advance of playing the game yourself.

Q. Your friend owns no Nintendo systems, do you recommend emulation? Assume your friend has no experience with emulators. 

- Alternatively, would you let your friend borrow one of your systems to use?

Emulate- no mostly on grounds that if you take the trouble to emulate you should play good games on MAME Borrow- yes

Q: And most important of all, which game do you recommend they try out first, and why? (excluding Heroes since that's a separate poll question)

Awakening

Q: Oh no, your friend killed their first healer and pegasus knight within their first two hours, they're willing to restart from the beginning, but ask you if they should or just continue. Should they?

I do not think that FE 7-11 Awakening, or Birthright do very much to prevent you from surviving until the second healer on vulnerary power alone. (On normal mode) Continuing should be fine. Newcomers should play English releases.