Which Fire Emblem to get for 3ds?

[ore no stando da]

Hey guys, my name is Slow, last name Poke. In a couple days I'll get myself a New 2DS XL and for the first game I play on this new platform I want it to be a Fire Emblem.

I've heard awesome things about Fates, but also heard that Corrin is dumber than Patrick Star. I do like Lucina's character, but I would rather have good gameplay.

 

The thing I'm looking for THE MOST, however: (in order)

1. Best Avatar customization - I wanna be a Fighter. Just one axe, nothing else. Looking the part is a huge plus, not sure how it works with the avatar sprite.

2. A place to grind XP. I absolutely adore setting my own pace and having like an overworld of sorts. Being able to grind up units that are behind and just overall not have to go from battle to battle without a break. (Looking at you, Blazing/Binding Blade)

3. Post-game, or somewhere to stay around and max out stuff. It can also be like in Megaman.EXE, where once the final boss is over it's over, but you can hang around before that and all the secrets really open up right there, because that's the "endgame". Same thing happens with Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, where you finish the game, reload your save file, and the true endgame begins. (lore wise you can still go fight the final boss, but you just unlocked a bunch of stuff by reaching postgame)

 

Thanks a lot, just want my first 3DS FE to be a great experience. Have fun!

[Magical Glace]

Well, for Avatar customization, both Awakening and Fates require reclassing for an avatar to be a fighter.  The only game they can be a fighter by default is the Japan only New Mystery of the Emblem on DS.  There is no Avatar in Echoes, as the devs wanted to focus on Alm and Celica.

Grinding EXP is possible in all the 3DS games, aside from to an extent Conquest (requires DLC to EXP grind).

For postgame, best is probably either Awakening or Echoes.

 

As far as gameplay/map design goes, Conquest is easily the best one, but it's also designed to be played with no grinding.

 

Hope that information helps.

Edited October 4, 2017 by Glaceon Mage

[JimmyBeans]

33 minutes ago, ore no stando da said:

Hey guys, my name is Slow, last name Poke. In a couple days I'll get myself a New 2DS XL and for the first game I play on this new platform I want it to be a Fire Emblem.

I've heard awesome things about Fates, but also heard that Corrin is dumber than Patrick Star. I do like Lucina's character, but I would rather have good gameplay.

 

The thing I'm looking for THE MOST, however: (in order)

1. Best Avatar customization - I wanna be a Fighter. Just one axe, nothing else. Looking the part is a huge plus, not sure how it works with the avatar sprite.

2. A place to grind XP. I absolutely adore setting my own pace and having like an overworld of sorts. Being able to grind up units that are behind and just overall not have to go from battle to battle without a break. (Looking at you, Blazing/Binding Blade)

3. Post-game, or somewhere to stay around and max out stuff. It can also be like in Megaman.EXE, where once the final boss is over it's over, but you can hang around before that and all the secrets really open up right there, because that's the "endgame". Same thing happens with Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, where you finish the game, reload your save file, and the true endgame begins. (lore wise you can still go fight the final boss, but you just unlocked a bunch of stuff by reaching postgame)

 

Thanks a lot, just want my first 3DS FE to be a great experience. Have fun!

Fates is my favorite out of the three because of game play but I would definitely recommend your first 3ds FE to be awakening as I think fates is kind of an odd first FE, Awakening also has some stuff you can do after you beat the game along with some grinding and such. While not having a "post game" the game opens up and lets you pretty much anything while leaving the endgame there to let you repeat whenever you want. While you will see a lot of criticism of awakening and people talk about it's flaws (me being one of the critics) I still think it is an excellent FE to start for not only people new to the 3ds emblems, but to people new to FE in general. There's my 2 cents.

[Rezzy]

33 minutes ago, ore no stando da said:

Hey guys, my name is Slow, last name Poke. In a couple days I'll get myself a New 2DS XL and for the first game I play on this new platform I want it to be a Fire Emblem.

I've heard awesome things about Fates, but also heard that Corrin is dumber than Patrick Star. I do like Lucina's character, but I would rather have good gameplay.

 

The thing I'm looking for THE MOST, however: (in order)

1. Best Avatar customization - I wanna be a Fighter. Just one axe, nothing else. Looking the part is a huge plus, not sure how it works with the avatar sprite.

2. A place to grind XP. I absolutely adore setting my own pace and having like an overworld of sorts. Being able to grind up units that are behind and just overall not have to go from battle to battle without a break. (Looking at you, Blazing/Binding Blade)

3. Post-game, or somewhere to stay around and max out stuff. It can also be like in Megaman.EXE, where once the final boss is over it's over, but you can hang around before that and all the secrets really open up right there, because that's the "endgame". Same thing happens with Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, where you finish the game, reload your save file, and the true endgame begins. (lore wise you can still go fight the final boss, but you just unlocked a bunch of stuff by reaching postgame)

 

Thanks a lot, just want my first 3DS FE to be a great experience. Have fun!

1: Awakening and Fates are tied to an extent.  Awakening gives you access to all classes right away, while Fates, you pick one class to have access to and have to buddy up with another unit to get access to their class.  Both require a Seal, but you get those relatively early.  In Fates, you can also visit other people's castles to buy skills for your avatar.

2: All three games let you grind.  Fates Conquest requires DLC to grind, as mentioned.  If you play Lunatic in Awakening, you'll have to pay for DLC to grind, but on Normal and Hard, you can use the items in game for grinding XP.

3: I will second Glaceon Mage.  Awakening has lots of great DLC post game, and Echoes has lots of DLC as well as a post-game dungeon (which I think is free, if you don't want top spend money).

Fates post game, DLC or otherwise was a massive let down, in my opinion.  There was no proper Apotheosis like map, and most of the units don't even let you use your own units.

 

Going by those criteria, I would recommend you start with Awakening.  It seems to hit all three points you want in a game.

[ore no stando da]

Nice, votes for awakening!

 

19 minutes ago, JimmyBeans said:

While you will see a lot of criticism of awakening and people talk about it's flaws (me being one of the critics) I still think it is an excellent FE to start for not only people new to the 3ds emblems, but to people new to FE in general. There's my 2 cents.

Also I have played FE games in the past, namely SS, Blazing and Binding Blade, Shadow Dragon (to some extent) and Heroes if that counts for something.  So I'm just getting the first "next gen" FE title :D

 

19 minutes ago, Rezzy said:

1: Awakening and Fates are tied to an extent.  Awakening gives you access to all classes right away, while Fates, you pick one class to have access to and have to buddy up with another unit to get access to their class.  Both require a Seal, but you get those relatively early.  In Fates, you can also visit other people's castles to buy skills for your avatar.

2: All three games let you grind.  Fates Conquest requires DLC to grind, as mentioned.  If you play Lunatic in Awakening, you'll have to pay for DLC to grind, but on Normal and Hard, you can use the items in game for grinding XP.

3: I will second Glaceon Mage.  Awakening has lots of great DLC post game, and Echoes has lots of DLC as well as a post-game dungeon (which I think is free, if you don't want top spend money).

Fates post game, DLC or otherwise was a massive let down, in my opinion.  There was no proper Apotheosis like map, and most of the units don't even let you use your own units.

 

Going by those criteria, I would recommend you start with Awakening.  It seems to hit all three points you want in a game.

Awesome. I think Awakening will be the one I get then. I do want to see the whole Masked Marth thing with my own eyes. Shame I'm not a fan of time traveling. But it seems like Awakening will be perfect, specially since I'm not too interested in having to get support ranks up just to get access to classes.

[Ertrick36]

It sounds like either Awakening, Fates: Birthright, or Fates: Revelation might be up your alley.

- The only 3DS FE game that doesn't have avatar customization is Echoes.  In both Awakening and Fates, you can create your own avatar and have them take on almost any class.  In Awakening, females can't be fighters/barbarians, males can't be pegasus knights or troubadours, and the avatar can't reclass to manakete, taguel, dancer or villager.  In Fates, the only gender exclusive class seems to be villager (which is kind of odd since there are generic male villagers), and while you do get to be a manakete, you still don't have access to other shape-shifting classes or songstress (the dancer class of that game).

Cosmetically, it's all subjective.  Though in Awakening, you can create a character that looks either like a child, an adolescent, or an adult, while in Fates, you can only make a character that looks like a younger or older adolescent.  Some examples below...

Example Awakening Avatars:

Spoiler

All of these are images from the Nintendo Website

Example Fates Avatars:

Spoiler

These were avatars I made... with the randomizer option, mostly.

New Mystery had kind of limited customization comparatively, but appearance did somewhat change depending on class.

If you'd like to see more options for the 3DS games' avatar customization before you buy either, check out either the Robin Customizer or the Kamui Customizer, both courtesy of SF's very own Thor Odinson.

 

- All the games I recommended let you grind, though you either have to wait or pay some in-game currency to get enemies to spawn on the map.  Awakening's the closest to Sacred Stones in this regard, letting you traverse across a map and find enemies, though that's mostly an aesthetic appeal.

 

- Awakening has the most endgame content.  Fates has practically no endgame aside from either grinding for more supports, doing self-imposed challenge runs, or buying one of the other paths.  Another thing to note in regards to Fates: if you want to get Revelation, you first need to buy either Birthright or Conquest.  So don't think of it as an alternate option rather than a game attached to another game.

 

I'd also like to point out that Fates changes quite a few things.  It's better balanced, but there are certain things that are quite different from the standard FE fare.  As Awakening is probably the closest to a traditional FE experience you can get (and, imo, has a better story), I'd recommend it the most.

[ore no stando da]

17 minutes ago, Ertrick36 said:

It sounds like either Awakening, Fates: Birthright, or Fates: Revelation might be up your alley.

- The only 3DS FE game that doesn't have avatar customization is Echoes.  In both Awakening and Fates, you can create your own avatar and have them take on almost any class.  In Awakening, females can't be fighters/barbarians, males can't be pegasus knights or troubadours, and the avatar can't reclass to manakete, taguel, dancer or villager.  In Fates, the only gender exclusive class seems to be villager (which is kind of odd since there are generic male villagers), and while you do get to be a manakete, you still don't have access to other shape-shifting classes or songstress (the dancer class of that game).

Cosmetically, it's all subjective.  Though in Awakening, you can create a character that looks either like a child, an adolescent, or an adult, while in Fates, you can only make a character that looks like a younger or older adolescent.  Some examples below...

Example Awakening Avatars:

  Hide contents

All of these are images from the Nintendo Website

Example Fates Avatars:

  Hide contents

These were avatars I made... with the randomizer option, mostly.

New Mystery had kind of limited customization comparatively, but appearance did somewhat change depending on class.

If you'd like to see more options for the 3DS games' avatar customization before you buy either, check out either the Robin Customizer or the Kamui Customizer, both courtesy of SF's very own Thor Odinson.

 

- All the games I recommended let you grind, though you either have to wait or pay some in-game currency to get enemies to spawn on the map.  Awakening's the closest to Sacred Stones in this regard, letting you traverse across a map and find enemies, though that's mostly an aesthetic appeal.

 

- Awakening has the most endgame content.  Fates has practically no endgame aside from either grinding for more supports, doing self-imposed challenge runs, or buying one of the other paths.  Another thing to note in regards to Fates: if you want to get Revelation, you first need to buy either Birthright or Conquest.  So don't think of it as an alternate option rather than a game attached to another game.

 

I'd also like to point out that Fates changes quite a few things.  It's better balanced, but there are certain things that are quite different from the standard FE fare.  As Awakening is probably the closest to a traditional FE experience you can get (and, imo, has a better story), I'd recommend it the most.

Thank you so much, that character creation tool is fun to play with, and it's pretty much set my choice. Additionally, yeah, the more traditional it feels, the more close to home I will be! Awakening, here I come.

Side note: I wanted to be a super Fighter, but there's no gruff looking faces for adult male Robin :( Do the robes go away if you choose a different class, at least?

[Ertrick36]

1 minute ago, ore no stando da said:

Side note: I wanted to be a super Fighter, but there's no gruff looking faces for adult male Robin :( Do the robes go away if you choose a different class, at least?

The portrait doesn't change unfortunately, but your character's sprite and battle model do change accordingly.

[Rezzy]

12 minutes ago, ore no stando da said:

Thank you so much, that character creation tool is fun to play with, and it's pretty much set my choice. Additionally, yeah, the more traditional it feels, the more close to home I will be! Awakening, here I come.

Side note: I wanted to be a super Fighter, but there's no gruff looking faces for adult male Robin :( Do the robes go away if you choose a different class, at least?

You'll still wear robes in the portrait, but the old male version is probably your best option for gruffiness.

[ore no stando da]

I see.

Well, I know what to do now.

 

Everyone shall fear the Robed Axe.

[Zapp Branniglenn]

Axe maniac Robin sounds fun. One cool thing you can do on separate playthroughs is recruit previous Avatar characters into your army through the Avatar logbook, the same way you can recruit other players' streetpass avatars after you beat their team. They'll be be super expensive to recruit, but it's fun to use an army of Robins in post-game, even if they can't have support conversations.

Fates can do that too, but I think you need to beat the game before you can add a character to the logbook, which makes it tricky when attempting to create low level units to recruit as specific classes. I could be wrong on that though.

[eclipse]

I will also point out that Awakening's inventory system is probably what you're looking for.  It's my personal favorite, despite being an old fart whose been around a bit too long.

In terms of over-leveling for giggles, Awakening takes the cake and runs with it.  It's plenty possible to get all of your units to fully maxed stats, even if it'll be somewhat tedious after a point.  Honrable mention to Echoes for a proper post game area, though.

[Nobody]

If you want good gameplay and a nice challenge, I definitely recommend Conquest.

[Rezzy]

3 minutes ago, Nobody said:

If you want good gameplay and a nice challenge, I definitely recommend Conquest.

I'd recommend against trying Conquest as your first Fire Emblem.  It's more in line with classic FE games, but the difficulty could scare newcomers away, plus it doesn't allow for grinding without DLC, which he wanted.

I'd recommend playing the games chronologically for newcomers, actually.  Awakening -> Birthright -> Conquest/Revelations -> Echoes.

[Nobody]

4 minutes ago, Rezzy said:

I'd recommend against trying Conquest as your first Fire Emblem.  It's more in line with classic FE games, but the difficulty could scare newcomers away, plus it doesn't allow for grinding without DLC, which he wanted.

I'd recommend playing the games chronologically for newcomers, actually.  Awakening -> Birthright -> Conquest/Revelations -> Echoes.

it wouldn't be his first fire emblem, though. He mentions that he wants the game to be his first 3ds game, not fire emblem game. Otherwise, he'd not have FE8 as his favorite on his profile, which means he played at least that one.

Edited October 5, 2017 by Nobody

[Rezzy]

2 minutes ago, Nobody said:

it wouldn't be his first fire emblem, though. He mentions that he wants the game to be his first 3ds game, not fire emblem game. Otherwise, he'd not have FE8 as his favorite on his profile, which means he played at least that one.

Going by that, Sacred Stones probably has the more in common with Awakening and Echoes than it does Conquest.

Conquest was my favorite of the 3DS games, but it's something I'd work up to, rather than diving right into.

[ore no stando da]

Y'all so helpful I'm moved ♥ 

What's the differences between Awakening and Fates tho? Since I'm getting Awakening I just want to know what Fates would be like.

[eclipse]

5 minutes ago, ore no stando da said:

Y'all so helpful I'm moved ♥ 

What's the differences between Awakening and Fates tho? Since I'm getting Awakening I just want to know what Fates would be like.

Oh man. . .essay time~!

- Fates got rid of weapon durability.  So that one Iron Sword you picked up way back when will be with you, for as long as you want~!
- There's three different Fates paths, with one being "locked" behind the purchase of another.  The classes, weapons, and enemies vary greatly.
- Pair-up works very differently in both games.  Awakening's stat boosts are easier to figure out.  Fates' guard rates are better.
- Robin is a secondary character to Chrom in Awakening.  In Fates, it's The Corrin Show.
- Fates threw bows into their own weapon triangle.  It's painful.  I still haven't recovered.
- Weapons in Fates have a bunch of modifiers, many of which are generally unhelpful.  Awakening's will look more familiar.
- Forging in Awakening is somewhere in between Tellius and the DS remakes.  Forging in Fates is a headache.
- Class inheritance is easier to figure out in Awakening.  Somewhat.
- While I'm not overly fond of either cast, I think that Awakening's cast is better-written.
- Part of Fates' difficulty is the relatively low HP totals on everyone. I think it's one of the stronger points of the game.
- Fates has better game balance, but it's not an easy learning curve.
- It's easier to grind in Awakening, unless you're on Lunatic.  Hoo boy, Lunatic. . .
- Awakening has a TON of things that call back to the previous Fire Emblems. See if you can find them all!

If you want a Fire Emblem that'll give you a run for your money, you'd probably like Fates, once you figure out how all those mechanics work.  If you want something that's both insanely replayable and has elements that won't leave you scratching your head, go with Awakening.

[Interdimensional Observer]

13 minutes ago, eclipse said:

Fates threw bows into their own weapon triangle.  It's painful.  I still haven't recovered.

Putting Bows in the Weapon Triangle wasn't a problem for me, it made Takumi and Niles useful as an anti-Ninjas at least and even better vs. Sky Knights. I more disliked Tomes getting put in the triangle, that hurt mage damage and accuracy vs. one of their traditional strong suits- armors.

[Captain Karnage]

I'd say start with Awakening, then get Echoes, and BR or CQ, but I highly recommend skipping Revelations