What Fire Emblem Should You Play First?

Not rated within tiers, all my opinions, but hopefully with understandable explanations.
I see this question asked a fair bit, and considering I just had a friend start his very first Fire Emblem with Awakening (for various reasons), I feel like this is something that merits discussion.
I was originally going to do an edited video with the pros and cons of every game listed out, but that ballooned in scope and never got off the ground, so here's the rambling tier list version!
Music credits in order of song:
1. Druidstone title theme - • Druidstone The Secret ...
2. FamilyJules - Octopath Traveler: Enveloped in Kindness - • Octopath Traveler - "E...
3. FFXIV OST - Sea of Clouds - • FFXIV OST Sea of Cloud...
4. John Oeth Guitar - Welcome to our Town from Final Fantasy 4 - • Welcome to Our Town! (...
5. Chewie Melodies - FFxiv Endwalker piano collection - • FFXIV - Endwalker OST ...
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[@EnigmaticMrL]

I've played every main series Fire Emblem game, most on the highest difficulty. I've also experienced every route split and the like. It's my absolute favorite series, but I started with Awakening. So I'll always be labeled as an "Awakening baby."

[@MythrilZenith]

At least the labels are shifting newer! Now the baby FE players are the 3 Houses newcomers lol

[@xxProjectJxx]

People just say that because they don't like Awakening lol. No other game in the series will get you shamed if it's your first.

[@finaldusk1821]

@@xxProjectJxx Starting with Three Houses these days absolutely will. I've seen plenty of gatekeepers labelling 3H's newcomers as "tourists", in reference to it being the only FE game many people have played (i.e. the one with the most sales), sometimes blindly assuming that this must apply to most of 3H's fans.

[@dwbryant13]

It’s not a label. That’s who you are

[@MrStarman926]

I started my girlfriend on Three Houses cause I knew it was right for her. She had never played any kind of game even remotely tactics-based before. So the well-developed characters and mystery-heavy story drew her in for long enough for her to adjust to a whole new genre of gameplay. She’s about to finish her 3rd playthrough now and she loves it. Gonna put her on Awakening next, because it’s one I have east access to. I’ve told her the ways in which it’s different but I wouldn’t say she’d be deterred at all. She likes the series now.

[@NarrowSpark96]

A very agreeable list. I can see any game and agree that it belongs there. I'm kinda surprised you originally had Genealogy being in 1/2 caveats though. Genealogy may, debatably, be a great game, but it is undeniably not that great a starting point.

[@mediocreboi]

I started with GBA, then found Radiant Dawn used for 20 dollars and was hooked forever. And I've always been kinda disappointed because the others aren't like Radiant Dawn. I agree that Path of Radiance is probably the best start but you also have to recommend based on who's asking. My friend is very driven by visuals so I got him with Echoes and he loved it! But it is one of the less "traditional" ones

[@MythrilZenith]

Yeah, I'm workshopping my next video on how to cover player styles and interest, not just as a new player but in general, about various games in the series. I think I have a decent start for it but I'm gonna need to work a bit to get it through.

[@mediocreboi]

I also agree that three houses should be in probably not. A separate friend got into the game but they like all the social stuff, like they are a big fan of persona. They played all 4 routes and just didn't want to play any of the other games in the series because of how different it is.

[@MythrilZenith]

@mediocreboi Yeah, that was the difficulty with this particular video. How much weight do I put on "Will this game inspire players to play the rest of the series?" Because I feel like if that's your goal, the best place to start is somewhere very neutral like FE7, but if you just want someone to have the best time with a single game regardless of their interest in the rest of the series, then it's a perfectly acceptable starting point.

[@thomasmoreo3230]

I love that I watched this despite playing since FE7 released in NA lol

[@Necros554]

another good thing with sacred stones is that the game is rather short, which allows the newer player to complete something quickly and then tackle something else

[@Axel-1999]

Started with Conquest and now I'm a fan

[@murarmight]

I think Radiant Dawn is the single worst game for first timers, and I say this even though it is one of my favourites. But I 100% think Path of Radiance must’ve been played before, otherwise you miss so much and can’t really apreciate everything RD has to offer

[@sunnytaproom]

Hey great list! Idk if many people will agree with me but I've recently completed fire emblem 12 on normal mode and I honestly don't even want to imagine this game on lunatic since this is the only fire emblem game that I've played that gave me issues even on its lowest difficulty lol, (mainly the mid game where you start fighting the flying dragons, the only two that could handle them on my blind playthrough were my Kriss and Palla, for a first timer they are insanely annoying due to their range and stats) I would also put it on don't start here.

[@Venomdrad]

I would say good ones to start with are: Want a traditional experience, no grind? Play FE7 or Path of Radiance. Maybe Shadow Dragon (normal mode only) or FE3. Want a “Modern” experience? Awakening, Birthright, Three Houses and Engage. Has casual mode, options to grind etc. 3H and Engage are more complicated, but normal is easy enough to get into. Sacred Stones is a good middle ground since it’s easy, has grinding spots, and teaches the basics well. I would not recommend Thracia, Revelation, or Radiant Dawn to start at all. FE12 has an extensive tutorial but I recommend playing FE11 first at least once beforehand. FE6 is rather difficult for start with, even on Normal.

[@MaddMoke]

I started with Birthright and it was an awful choice. My buddy told me to try it for years and started there but I'm hooked by story and characters first. And fates story is awful and the characters are great but the birthright cast starting to try and romance their brother and the fact half the cast was unplayable behind a very hard partner version was off-putting. Three Houses brought me back and I loved it but it wasn't until I played the GBA games that I got what made the franchise so special. And now Fates is funnily enough a game I find myself wanting to go back into because there are so many ways to replay the game which really help their long term interest to me But overall I totally agree with the list! And specializing the recommendation for the playeris key. So many games go off on their own tangents and it's so refreshing as a fan now but sets up very bad expectations.

[@MythrilZenith]

Yeah, story is HUGE for the first impression of a game. You can get over it on replaying since oftentimes you're just skipping it anyway, but never underestimate the power a good or bad story has to make up for or ruin an otherwise boring or great game.

[@EmissaryOfSmeagol]

Me so far: Awakening -> 3 Houses -> Blazing Blade -> Binding Blade -> Genealogy BTW, music credits?

[@MythrilZenith]

Good point! Adding them to description now.

[@EmissaryOfSmeagol]

@@MythrilZenith 🙏

[@neongrey333]

you know, hearing you say outright how inscrutable fe4's mechanics are put me in mind of something i've encountered with a fair few 16-bit and earlier games. That is, I wonder what's in the manual. Maybe it doesn't explain anything usefully there either, but I sure have no idea what's in there at all. I've never seen a translation or even a scan of it anywhere (not that i've looked very hard). very few people who didn't play the game when it originally came out would have seen it, but i'm really curious what they did think you should know before playing. Same goes for 5, too, probably.

[@MythrilZenith]

The NES and SNES era were full of games that basically required the manual to be able to play, as they didn't take a lot of time explaining anything in-game. Doubly so for PC games of the time. Heck, a lot of PC games of the era were featuring physical copy-protection via in-box passcodes or puzzle solutions, so you physically could not play the game if you didn't have the box, manual and/or extra "feelies" they included.

[@neongrey333]

@@MythrilZenith oh yeah. my favourite is actually phantasy star 2 on the genesis-- it came with the usual-for-rpgs-at-the-time map with a spell chart on the back of course, but it also came with a separate 'hint book' which was a full-game walkthrough with extensive pictures.

[@neongrey333]

@@MythrilZenith also lol it turns out that scans of both 4 and 5's manual show up easily on google. bit awkward to try and google translate pdfs so i haven't done that but hey, at least they're there and that's neat.

[@Chorkly]

Personally i think you should start with the game i started with, then i think you should listen to my opinions on said game whilst i tell you everything wrong with it.

[@Bongyes]

Personally i started with FE8 and i think it might be great start. The plot is simple but well made with overall high heroic themes (saving the world and all) while having some darker themes. Gameplay is so easy you can truly use ANYBODY - double true due to tower of valni grind. Get your favourite and start rollin. Has all the good and complex gameplay (random lvls, rescue mecahnics, weapon traingle) but doesnt hide the bad stuff (the desertssssssss). Epic (well also easy) final boss. Theres even postgame in case you feel bummed out about not being able to crush everything with OP party for long time. And hey if you love it notnonky you are open to manymany other FE games but also fanmade FE games.

[@darkshot4424]

I started with radiant dawn, and at the time i had no idea what the deal was with fire emblem and made many mistakes like not recruiting Haar and giving sothe all the experience, i played for a while then just got busy, later on someone got me awakening and since playing thay game i have been hooked on fire emblem games from that point on.

[@rekenner]

FE6 is really hard into the Shows Their Age category for me in part because of the QoL features it doesn't have, like being able to use items in Preps, scarcity of shops and lack of prep shop, scarcity of items (you can't buy Light Magic until chapter 11, so if you want to promote Saul or Elen, get fucked nerd), Prep screens showing up so late, etc.

[@MythrilZenith]

Yeah it's all those little things that didn't exist until fe7 that I should have expanded upon more that put it into that category

[@Exisist5151]

A trend I’ve seen in other gaming spheres is that if you don’t show them the absence of quality of life features and they aren’t aware they exist in that series they don’t expect them. I started with FE6 and didn’t miss any of those things. It just becomes an accepted normal. It’s only really after people have been exposed to quality of life improvements that they’re likely to complain about the absence of them.

[@Flametix]

FE6 has a prep shop. FE7 doesn't.

[@BigKlingy]

I agree with you about the "bad faith arguments" about FE7's story. A lot of it feels like nitpicks, and scrutiny tight enough to make ANY story fall apart. My theory: I don't think it's a coincidence that most of these FE7 story nitpicks come from die-hard FE6 fans. Back in the day, people who started with FE7 were keen to check out its "sequel", only to be put off by its bare-bones story, weaker characters and high difficulty. This led to them branding FE6 a "bad Fire Emblem game" for a while. (I used to be one of those people) Later on a lot of FE6 fans gained traction on KZbin, and maybe they felt they needed to "hit back" after their game had been put down for so long. It comes with FE6 and 7 having vastly different "feels" despite being GBA FEs set in the same continent. On replaying FE6 a few years ago I've realized it's better-designed than I thought, but it's one of those FE games you NEED experience with the series to appreciate.

[@iamthehobo]

I agree that most criticisms of fe7's story are both valid and tend to be done by people with agendas . For example, I think three houses is the worst of the 13 Mainline games I played so anything I have to say after that is not going to be fair to it

[@MythrilZenith]

We're often meanest to the things we want to love because we want them to be better.

[@nikkof5384]

I started with 7 and my opinion on it is if you don’t start with 7 it is very hard to play later. It’s the most barebones besides the NES titles and includes a forced tutorial. It being on the switch gba store is also a saving grace because other than it and Engage/3H we’re talking about hunting down old hardware and copies in niche stores or online resellers with massive mark ups. In the case of Rev you would need to actually buy someone’s device with it already installed because Nintendo hates their customers.

[@lpfan4491]

FE7 is the starting point. Not because it is particularly better than the other ones at it, but rather that one wouldn't want to go into it later because the tutorial is forced.

[@BigKlingy]

I disagree that Engage's Emblem mechanic is just added on to the top and detracts from the core FE experience. In my view, every Emblem is built around one core FE mechanic and incentivizes and tutorializes this mechanic well. (Many of these are mechanics that aren't tutorialized in earlier games) Marth: Double attacking. Celica: Warping. Sigurd: Movement. Leif: Weapon triangle. Lyn: Speed. Ike: Tanking. Micaiah: Staff utility. Lucina: Supports. Corrin: Terrain and debuffs. Byleth: Non-combat utility (dancing and Rally buffs). And the 13th Emblem represents the Engage mechanic itself. Roy and Eirika are the only ones I find hard to place, Roy is just all-around frontline strength while Eirika... I guess you could say she's based around effectiveness, with her amazing anti-Corrputed weapons? But in general both just make a unit better at killing things.

[@aclashoffireandice4084]

I think you're on to something with Eirika - all three of her Engage weapons are effective, and between them they cover four effective damage categories. Best I can do for Roy is that he represents "damn, I've been defeated, etc. etc.".

[@juicyjuustar121]

I started with FE7 and then played Awakening a few years later. Thing is, I didnt even make it halfway through either of them (I didnt even realize Lyn Mode wasnt the main game mode of FE7, I was very very young), the first game I actually *finished* was Birthright. Nowadays, Ive played give or take half the games in the series, and Im slowly maling my way through the rest (mostly the early games)

[@christophercatheline8792]

Good list I would personally move up shadow dragon, I would recommend new players just ignore reclass and forging altogether (on normal its kind of overkill anyways), and the mechanics otherwise are very easy. Fe3 should definitely go down to "probably not" IMO. Fe3 in particular has very nasty earlygame maps (book 2), and is overall a little too clunky for beginners. On top of this, the true ending can be very easily gated by missing 1 starsphere shard, which I can definitely see a new player missing. Those were the only things that stood out to me in this list as weird.

[@thohillesland]

Really fun video to watch, and for the most part i agree with most of these placements. However, i do have 1 semi unpopular opinion here. While i think FE7 is a pretty good game, I do not think it is a good "Introductory game" to the series, in fact i'd say it is probably one of the worse introductory/beginner games. it probably was a great introduction at the time it came out, however, i just don't think this is the case anymore. The main goal of an introductory game isn't just to teach the player how to play. Rather the main goal should be to hook them, wow them, and make them interrested in trying out more games in the series. New players, especially if they are fans of other JRPGs, do not care about Map design, Side objectives, Varied map objectives, Economy, replay value ect. These things will NOT hook or impress a new player, who have no idea what a "good" map even means. What these people actually care about is that the game has a Memorable story, Interresting characters, good world building, and have fun mechanics to play and experiment with. These people are not comparing it to other Fire Emblem games, what they are comparing it to are stuff like Chrono Trigger, Xenoblade, Persona 5 or Final Fantasy 7. When you look at FE7 from this perspective, i don't think it succeeds at all. FE7's story and characters are just painfully average, especially when you consider that so much of it is locked behind Hector mode and supports, which most new players will never experience. Having so much lore and story content locked behind second playtroughs and hard to get optional content is not very beginner friendly at all. In the gameplay aspect, FE7 is also a bit basic and boring. No skills, no promotion trees, and there aren't a lot of items or weapons with interresting effects. This leads to a ton of units just feeling the exact same, only really destinguished by their stats, without a lot of fun or cool stuff to do with them. Don't get me wrong, FE7 is still a good game, some of its biggest strengths being in its good maps and great replay value. These are just strengths that doesn't lend itself to getting more beginners interrested to try the rest of the series. Games like FE4, FE9, Echoes, or even Three Houses are imo way better introduction games. They have stronger stories and characters, and a lot more fun stuff to play around with in their gameplay. For myself, the first two games i played was Awakening and FE7, which was two of the most reccommended games for beginners at the time. I had already played a decent chunk of RPGs before this, like Bravely Default, Golden Sun, Xenoblade, SMT3 and 4, Persona 2, 3 and 4, and most importantly Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. Both Awakening and FE7 left me quite dissapointed. Awakening had a mess of a story, while FE7 was just average all around, especially when i compared it to FFTA, which was the only other tactics game i had played at the time. I couldn't see what people saw in Fire Emblem, and was content that the series in general just wasn't for me. A couple of years after i decided that i wanted to give the series one final chance, so i searched up which game was considered to have the best story, and decided to try out FE4. I fell in love with FE4, its grand and epic story, fun skill system and broken legendary weapons sucked me right in, and is the reason why i am a Fire Emblem fan today.

[@jetkirby26]

So many mentions of game prices and Revelations availability and you neglect to mention hShop, Awakening, Fates, if, Echoes, all DLC for each, and Sacred Stones are very easily accessable, and DS Emblems, GBA Emblems, NES emblems, and SNES emblems are available with moderate difficulty.

[@MythrilZenith]

Look, this was stream of consciousness, I said things as they came to mind. If I wanted to do a full breakdown of every single point for every single game then I would. But I mention the price and availability and emulation bit mostly at the beginning as a general catch-all, to try to set the tone that I'm NOT going to be overly dwelling on availability and price and the like, and just commenting on it when it pops into my head. If you want a what game to play first purely on availability as a metric, I can do that, but it will vary based on where you live, what your budget is, how comfortable you are with emulation and translation patches, and will be defunct as soon as any change in the Nintendo online availability lineup happens.

[@jetkirby26]

@@MythrilZenith fair

[@EnigmaticMrL]

My two cents on the matter (not ordered within categories and not factoring in how difficult it would be to acquire each game): Highly recommended: Blazing Blade and Path of Radiance Solid Runner-ups: Binding Blade, Sacred Stones, and Awakening Mixed Feelings: Shadow Dragon (and the Blade of Light), Mystery of the Emblem, and Engage Outclassed: Genealogy of the Holy War, Birthright, Conquest, Shadows of Valentia, and Three Houses Don't: Gaiden, Thracia 776, Radiant Dawn, New Mystery of the Emblem, and Revelation

[@MythrilZenith]

SoV and 3H outclassed as first games, huh? Interesting. It seems pretty common that FE7 and FE9 are generally considered the best to start with though. The combo of generally simpler but still interesting mechanics combined with understandable and engaging story and fairly easy but not totally braindead difficulty do tend to make an attractive starting point for many. The difficulty of acquisition argument is definitely one worth having to some degree, hence why I mentioned it at least briefly, but I didn't want to dwell on it too much or let it severely impact my ratings because that will all change as time goes by. Who knows, maybe PoR will get its turn being the newest accessible game if the new Switch has Gamecube emulation on its online platform.

[@EnigmaticMrL]

@@MythrilZenith SoV and 3H both have unique mechanics that could set players up to expect something different. Shadows of Valentia doesn't have weapon durability (which is fairly unique), only allows for one inventory slot, and has dungeon exploration. Three Houses has one of the most open reclassing systems, every class can wield every weapon sans magic, and the game doesn't do a good job of allowing units to die to remain a valid option. Also, it might be beneficial to play Shadow Dragon or FE1 before Echoes in order to get to know the Whitewings and Zeke. Three Houses and Genealogy are the only ambitious FE stories IMO. Many people who started with Three Houses were disappointed with Engage, even though the latter had a more similar story to most FE games. Plus, most FE games don't have rewind.

[@jierdareisa4313]

I love ALL MythrilZenith videos!!!! ❤

[@IWestrada]

Do not start your friends on Sacred Stones. The gameplay is like watching paint dry compared to modern games. Pick Three Housee, Fates, or Awakening and let them get into the retro games on their own.

[@michaelfranklin6891]

Sacred stones is a terrible place to start! Because it gives you infinite experience and that’s not a good-d-uh- lesson to learn the rest of the series.

[@MythrilZenith]

Gonna assume you're sarcastically requoting the last ten years of FE KZbin pundits on that, but the real answer is that every game except fe4, 9, 10 and CQ has theoretical infinite exp if you include arenas / fe12 training ground, and if you don't then you still have 7 of the 17 that have at least near-infinite grind access on lower difficulties. To categorize the entirety of FE8 as "bad start for the series" solely because of Valni and skirmishes is to discount almost half the series for the same reasons.

[@lsrrr3857]

I started on Sacred Stones, and I picked up many bad habits: 1) I thought all fe games have open maps and can grind for exp or stock up inventory 2) I thought Jagens are good enough for the entire game 3)I thought there will be maps after the game ends where you can fight with your end game team for leisure

[@summerwinter89]

fire emblem radiant dawn. its the best.

[@Mr.Ben.]

GBA Fire emblem is the most Fire emblem in the fire emblem series. Fire emblem Path of Radiance and Fire emblem Radiant dawn are absolute banger (imo the best) Fire emblem games. TLDR: Fire emblem 7-8-9-10 peak

[@cyndit9054]

I personally would not recommend PoR to newcomers to the series since the story is just too good. If they play any other FE game, they'll realize that they (almost) all have the same basic plot, but PoR does it best, so they'll be disappointed. 🤣

[@cyndit9054]

Also, my order for playing the series has been: 3H -> Awakening -> 7 -> Birthright -> Shadow Dragon -> Engage - > PoR -> Sacred Stones -> Echoes. I've also started a bunch of the other ones but haven't finished them (Conquest, RD, 3, and 6).😅