Which Game Handled Permadeath the Best?

[Hawkwing]

Its no secret that permadeath has been a major part of Fire Emblem since its inception. Indeed, it took at least 12 games before casual mode was even conceived. There is, however, the question of whether or not the series has always incorporated it well.

For this poll, I am asking which Fire Emblem game did you think handled the permadeath aspect of the series the best. As a mechanic, which game, both in theory and in practice, did you think simultaneously punished the player for losing a unit while allowing them the chance to still compensate for the loss in some form.

For the personal side, I am asking when permadeath actually enhanced a gameplay session. Whether choosing which game was the most fun to ironman through, or when you having to choose between resenting a good run or continuing on without the lost unit was a high point of your playthough. As long as permadeath played a factor, the reasoning can be as broad as you want.

I personally believe that Mystery of the Emblem handled permadeath the best both personally and as a mechanic. Although I can play through Awakening on classic without worry, they feel more like perfectionist runs, as I can't get the thought out of my head that every first generation female is technically two units, you spend a minimum of half the game to get the children, and you can only spare 1 to 3 first-gen males (depending on your avatar), and who would those be? Although I love that the smaller cast in Echoes means that nobody is completely useless and everyone has the potential to shine, if the turnwheel uses run out, the amount of units I can continue without could be counted on one hand.

In contrast, Mystery of the Emblem gives more units that you would probably need, with quite a few cavaliers, mercenaries, and even an extra thief. However these later units tend to have more average growths and bases. This both means that the player is not at a loss of units if someone dies, but they may have to work with a less remarkable character to compensate. It actually brought up the thought of whether or not to bring in my more powerful units to ease the difficulty on a more challenging level, but risk them dying, or to bring in a less powerful, but expendable unit in case things go awry.

It wasn't implemented perfectly, however. If Caeda dies early on, you've just locked out a crap ton of recruitable units. Draug is also the only knight for quite a long time, and if he dies, you've just lost one of the few tanks in a gamewhere they actually have there uses, and where everyone units have middling to low defense stats.

So that was my opinion on the matter. What are your thoughtsr?

[Slumber]

It's tough to say, but any of the games that had limited revival.

FE1/11 - You get 1 revival through the Aum staff, then it breaks.

FE2/15 - You get something like 9 revives, which seems a little overkill(heheh). Mila's Turnwheel was a good way to mitigate resets/deaths, but it should have been more limited than it was.

FE3/12 - You get 5 free revivals with the Aum staff, then it breaks. 5 is a lot more reasonable than 1 or 9, so I'd say this has the edge over FE1/11 and 2/15.

FE4 - You theoretically have infinite revives, but you'd be hard-pressed to actually utilize the Valkyrie staff more than once or twice due to the steep repair cost.

I like Mila's Turnwheel, I like the FE3 Aum, and I like the Valkyrie Staff. My ideal would be a mix of all of them, perhaps, maybe even bringing the Aum down to 2 or 3, and keeping a steep repair cost. Or lower the repair cost of the Valkyrie. Also, Mila should be limited per-battle. Maybe 1 or 2 uses for any given battle, rather than a dozen in between Mila statues.

Tough to really pick one.

Edited November 6, 2017 by Slumber

[Dandy Druid]

I feel like this is a weird question... mainly because the effect is the same no matter which game you play.

Personally I really liked Mila's Turnwheel to help you during Classic Mode. It was a way to correct a mistake without soft resetting. I found it very useful. It sort of made Gaiden's revival system kind of moot, but I really liked this mechanic.

I'm against any game with a sequel with permadeath, mainly for storytelling reasons. Such as, if Oscar dies in PoR, but comes back in RD, it's sort of weird if you ironmanned one and went straight to the other.

[Gebby]

You're all fucking stupid, clearly Heroes has the best permadeath system.

[Sire]

Voted for Shadows of Valentia for both.

As an "Old School Classic Reset Guy," I love Mila's Turnwheel as I can simply re-think my strategy a couple moves back instead of restarting the entire chapter. However, I also enjoy the implications if one goes for an Ironman run, such as if Gray dies and how it affects Tobin.