What is the Best Thing About Every Fire Emblem Game?

[@GenMars]

finally a positive FE video

[@Trederator5876]

I totally agree with what you said about Engage's graphics. The environments are gorgeous, colorful and feel so alive in my honest opinion. But, I would also like to highlight the pre-rendered cutscenes which are so expressive and some of the best I've seen in a Nintendo game.

[@tanner6260]

One of my favorite parts is how the characters look - they all look so great, and that's true for cutscenes and in battle (something that other games don't always do well). Additionally, the battle animations all look amazing, and it's so fun to see them all with the different rings.

[@finalmix4375]

19:14 I think the "Alear is the Fire Emblem" is actually pretty cool in concept. Since Alear is an avatar, you're likely to give them your own name, which transforms "Alear is the Fire Emblem" into "You, the player, are the Fire Emblem". I see this as Intelligent Systems expressing gratitude to the fans for playing the Fire Emblem series and acknowledging that there wouldn't be a Fire Emblem without their support.

[@MercuryA2000]

Yea I think it could have worked, but the story for Engage just wasn't good enough to make that pay off.

[@luxarcanae]

Dungeons from FE echoes. easilymy most wanted thing to return. I love them so much. I love the battles, running arround, looting chests, lootgoblining the crates n stuff. I love dungeons.

[@robertm5110]

I loved the voice acting in Valentia

[@gundamuser]

It was always weird to me people credited FE7 for the GBA artstyle when FE6 was the one that did it. Really glad you brought it up.

[@GenMars]

thats the west for ya

[@JA432123]

For the west it was; most of us didn’t play 6 until Roms were readily available

[@ModificationAlpha]

Take a drink every time he says “That said”. I’m glad someone else likes Radiant Dawn switching armies, cuz I always hear it as a complaint like “oh great I have to use the Dawn Brigade again” but it really drives home how much is going on narratively, and it also connects you to the characters more since everyone gets a chance to shine. Even Makalov, whom I’d never consider using, has a couple chapters to play his part for once. Most games only let you use 14~ characters seriously while RD gives you the chance to raise 40~ units, and that’s 2/3 of the cast

[@NagapediaFE]

That said, you may not survive that lol

[@moritz7521]

Totally agree! I can see why from a replay perspective it might be annoying to have to invest time into some characters when you know that they will not be relevant or impactful later on. However, it really makes it so that you actually get to use (or have to use) a lot more units rather than focusing on a few favorites. And on a narrative level, this change of perspectives really does wonders for the game.

[@Masterblader158]

For the Tellius Duology the part of it that really helps sell the story, the main best part of them, is the use of the in between chapter maps showing the borders, movements of armies and the voice over as icing on top for Radiant Dawn. Really helps sell the story being more dynamic and feels like a history documentary on a middle ages war. The amount of nations and armies we follow means it does it better than Three Houses dipping its toes into that method of extra story telling.

[@Spiresbeyond]

The war phase of three houses would’ve been well served by FE10 style narration of army movements. Never thought of this before but you’re totally right

[@moritz7521]

Historical documentary is actually a great term to describe that! 😂 And I totally agree, 3H really fell short in that regard. I never really felt that the world of 3H was fleshed out, at least in my head I have a hard time putting it together - whereas with Tellius I have a much clearer understanding of the different nations and peoples.

[@Ethan-dj2hl]

I love this list! I think for me, the best thing about Engage is the emblem mechanic. Having these 12 (19 with DLC) rings that can change how every character players whilst also being faces of beloved characters is so awesome, as well as them all (besides Edelgard)having a returning map from their game is huge! Engage honestly feels so amazing to play and does so many things well despite it being relatively poor in terms of world building, especially compared to FE3H. Hoping the next game has FE3H worldbuilding with Engage gameplay fr

[@MercuryA2000]

The emblems were an incredible mechanic imo. I freaking loved them, both when I had one and the maps where enemies were using them. They all felt powerful and map warping, which is exactly what they were meant to be, and I think engage nailed it. They also tied emblems into so many other mechanics, which just made them even more interesting to me. I finished a run and immediately wanted to play it again and try things I hadn't thought of in my first playthrough. The only other games in the series that came even close to that are awakening (my first game in this entire genre) and fates (where I wanted to try new units and finish the story), and both of those got massive buffs from me being a kid with more free time than games. Honestly, my biggest problem with the engage's gameplay is probably that, because the player needs to be able to collect them all and have time to use them, the endgame feels a lot less threatening than the midgame. My biggest gripe with the game is legit just that I want MORE of this mechanic. It's a lot of work, but I think making enemy only rings for the franchise's most iconic villains would have done so much for Engage. Especially because enemy only rings would let them have a lot of fun making things that they could never give to the player, either because of balancing or because it plays on mechanics in a specific way that only effects the player. Things like hiding information, adding IRL time limits, or taking away safety mechanics would be phenomenal to give to a boss in order to make their map feel distinct. I'm legit sad that emblems as a mechanic are going to be difficult, maybe even impossible, to bring back. Part of the reason they worked so well was because Engage was a celebration of the series. They'd have to either make entirely new characters for the rings (which loses a lot of the appeal) or figure out a new excuse for characters to show back up. Something like saying "The memories of heroes linger in this world" and putting shadow dragon and gaiden characters as emblems in Awakening. But then it also runs the risk of feeling as forced as child units were in Fates.

[@Ethan-dj2hl]

@MercuryA2000 fully agreed! I'd live this mechanic to return so much

[@moritz7521]

My personal favorite FE is Radiant Dawn ❤ It has it's problems and could certainly benefit from some updates (remake when??), but the grand story the game is telling (together with PoR of course) and seeing it unfold from different factions that you actually play as is what elevates the game imo. My personal highlight is during chapter 3 when the dawn brigade clashed with the mercenaries. I think the game could have even taken it further and maybe have Ike kill Sothe or something like that to really emphasize the madness and tragedy of war.

[@gamermusiclover8883]

I love how there's no drama in the fandom ever. But I would point out a really cool thing about Mirage Sessions is the FE Theme is the ultimate weapon to defeat the big bad guy.

[@MercuryA2000]

Yea, making the FE Theme into the Fire Emblem is such a stupid idea, but it is absolutely perfect for the freaking idol game. No notes.

[@greenpoolball5136]

If sacred stones got a remake, it should have more branching promotions but is limited, I'd say 2 more additional classes that are set for each class or specific to each characters.

[@DSeditor22]

Aright here are my personal favorites :> Awakening: I think I’ll stick to your opinion on the class-changing system since I actually can’t think of a personal favorite haha despite enjoying it as my first FE game. But yeah the replayability is awesome! Fates: again hard to choose, but I’d say MyCastle was done well in this game. Do I love it? Nope. But when comparing to ThreeHouses (which I love best game wise) and Engage, I think I like Fate’s hub best BECAUSE it’s plain & simple. It’s also great how you can do castle invasion missions while apparently the Monestary and Somniel barely gets attacked ThreeHouses: aside getting most connected to the story & characters (though I’m sure older games did it better), I actually like this game’s support system most. 1: while Fates had A+ supports without dialogue, ThreeHouses gave dialogue for A+ (YES I know for Fates, A+ replaced S), 2. I just found most supports in this game AWESOME. Were all best? No, but more were good than bad. And 3. I LOVED how some supports were locked to indirectly communicate the story, or instead of locked, one support conversation could be mentioned in another (Marianne notes to Ashe about smiling as Sylvain taught her in their B support). Yes I did feel a bit bad how not all characters had A supports but the quality was good enough for me. ThreeHopes: there were a handful of nice things here, and again this may be surprising/random, but I loved how the Expeditions were a LOT BETTER than ThreeHouses’ Tea Time. 1. It feels sweet and epic to pick a location to ride with your unit by horse 2. I love the option to ask the unit personal questions like their backstory, fears, interests, family, etc, and 3. I believe you’re not timed to respond to the unit while you had limited time in Tea Time lol. Engage: Not done with it currently, but already received spoilers for its whole story and DLC, and playing it so far… Yup, the gameplay is SO AWESOME but what I like about it most is the Emblem concept. LOVE doing Great Aether with Ike and using Astra Storm with Lyn, just the sync designs are SO EPIC. I’m usually a person that cares about a game’s story & characters, but I can give Engage a pass for its gameplay. In the meantime I’d say I’m enjoying Zelkov, Kagetsu, Ivy, Amber (some may disagree with me ha), Jean, and Seadall. Hopefully I’ll get used to some more characters, but in the end I’d say Engage is fine enough overall

[@MercuryA2000]

Ike's great aether was my freaking drug in my first run. When I wanted to show my friend how bonkers the emblems were I used a clip of Pannette doing like 60 damage to 7 units and soloing half the map. She used that ring so well I legit didn't realize "Run while you can" and "Better to act than to worry" were lines she only got while using Ike. I really hope they figure out a way to retain at least some of the emblem mechanic. I know they can't just copy paste it since Engage was meant to be a celebration, but that mechanic is way too good to leave in just one game.

[@moritz7521]

It's really nice to think about how every FE game has contributed to the evolution of the series and has brought it's own unique ideas 😊 Personally I would love if there was something like a FE "spinoff" that is aimed explicitly towards an older audience to be able to tell a more advanced story and focus on exploring difficult topics. But I suppose there's not enough of a market for that on Nintendo's consoles.

[@Tearintime]

My favorite part about engage is the Engage mechanic. That is my favorite mechanic in a fire emblem game to date

[@klissattack]

Im a big fan of the branching class choice that sacred stones does. Hacks that copy that are great

[@jive238]

I like that engage brought the battle animation back to at least the level and flow of animation that was seen in shadows of valentia, where you even have specific animations for like counter attacks after dodging. I think it was mercenaries who flip into the air to dodge but if they still have an action they just hit the enemy one the way down and Alm like leaps to the side while taking a swing at them if he still has an action, Echos was just the best at animation flow and engage is right behind it.

[@HectorT52]

One of my favorite things about awakening was its use of Tiki and the manakete class not other game since then has let us play a manakete like that and I wish we had more of them (preferibly not with the but she is 1000yo trope)

[@riemaennchen]

Man I would give a kidney for a Fire Emblem Radiant collection with Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn.

[@TheGamersState]

Alright, I'll do the same again as I did before. Fire Emblem Awakening - There is so much I can list to what I love about this game but--Cordelia. It's Cordelia, she's best girl. End of story. Fire Emblem Fates - I admit I have not played this in a while but when I think about what I love most the first thing that comes to mind is the music. I still listen to the music on my PC from time to time and I still love it so much. Won't lie though; I did enjoy the gameplay for the most part. Fire Emblem Echoes Shadows of Valentia - I think my personal favourite thing about this game is how subtle changes can happen if things go a certain way. For example; If you let Mathilda die in the chapter you rescue her, Clive literally goes off on Alm and takes it out on him. This shocked me when I first saw it as it didn't feel like something Nintendo would green light but when you really think about it, it makes sense. I love small changes like that in games, it really helps make the world feel alive. Fire Emblem Warriors - *Sigh* I love this game and I hate that it came bundled with troubles. But I think what I loved the most about this game was---Cordelia. It's Cordelia, she's best girl. End of story. Fire Emblem Three Houses - The characters are the best thing to me in this game. Dimitri is literally my favourite Lord in the series, Claude is a lovable guy that you just always want around, and Edelgard....erm....she's got a nice design? Yeah no, sorry, I do like her character and design but I really feel like the story didn't treat her right as to this day people can't seem to agree on what exactly she was trying to do. Fire Emblem Warriors Three Hopes - For me; it has to be the way it handled the classes. The worst part to the first game was how cloney a lot of the cast was. This game, to me, did what the first 1 should have and allowed you to choose what moveset they had by changing their classes. Fire Emblem Engage - Has to be the gameplay, story is meh, worldbuilding is horrible, and the villains are lame. But my gosh I loved the gameplay.

[@MercuryA2000]

Engage's gameplay is so good I legit just- don't understand the hate it gets. I get that everything else is controversial at best, but shouldn't the most important thing in a game be, I dunno, the gameplay? Engage is the only game in this franchise that I beat and immediately thought "I wanna go again." I've done multiple playthroughs of the other games sure, but I finished engage and my mind was buzzing with ideas for another run. The closest thing to it are awakening and fates, but those got carried by me being a kid with more free time than new games. I had to milk them for all they were worth.

[@CatsLilaSalem]

The FE7-FE6 (reverse because i played 7 first) connection does some interesting things i think. Like Zephiel being a good kid you must protect with Eliwood and team, just to have him being the main villain in FE6 which you must fight with the son of Eliwood (Roy) and team. Murdock being close to Zephiel in both games. Hector being cursed to die in battle in order to use Armads in 7, and dying in 6 becuase of the aftermath of battle. Marcus being the Paladin in both games, Marcus being too strong in 7 while being perfect in 6 for setting up kills, because he is older there. Also interesting you could skip Lyn mode with FE6 Data, Lyn mode was made to make a slow introduction to Fire Emblem in the west which was a fine idea, but it is way to slow once your used to Fire Emblem. Also the first time i played i thought dead units would always come back

[@lancejburns]

Rather than necessarily best, here's some aspect/feature of each that I think is unique or it does better than most or all other games in the series to be worthy of mention (doing this before watching so your opinions won't impact mine): FE1/11: Ballisticians FE2/15: Dungeons FE3/12: High, but balanced difficulty FE4: The grand scope and scale FE5: The feeling of being an underdog FE6: How many ways you can break it FE7: A good introductory game without being dumbed down FE8: Branching promotions for customization, but with restraint FE9: Innovations without feeling too gimmicky FE10: Massive cast FE13: Eugenics minmaxing FE14: Map design (when they're not too gimmicky like shoveling snow) FE16: The presentation of only parts of the story, leaving it up to the player to "collect" as many parts of it as they can and piece it together FE17: Exploring maps after the battle

[@sam7559]

FE1: freelancer has actually been done again in Tear Ring Saga.

[@SeraSer4phic]

Tokyo Mirage Sessions also have absolutely amazing songs if you're into Jpop. Everyday I mourn how we will never have new songs from the characters pf that universe. I was so happy when Encore gave us a new song She Is (despite being relatively mid).

[@MugenCannon97]

The best part about FE:W you probably didn't touch on since you're probably not a musou-head, is that the moveset quality and game flow relative to its speed and pace is really good. Animations flow smoothly, the gameplay, especially with Astra, is slick an fast, meaning maps themselves are quick to play, and combat has a proper tempo to it where the player has a lot of freedom for control and style. 3 Hopes by contrast is significantly slower a game, with overall worse movesets themselves, and the moveset animations definitely lack the comparitive smoothness of FE:W.

[@damoscamos8039]

I really, REALLY hope that the team at koei tecmo becomes a 2nd FE developer or at least continues to make FE games in a similar way to how Monster hunter games are made. For those unaware, MH has two teams constantly making MH games. The 1st is team 1 that makes the big mainline games, stuff like MH world and the upcoming MH Wilds, meanwhile the 2nd team does/did the portable entries MH generations and Rise. Team 1usually focuses on core gameplay and graphical innovations/expansions whilst team 2 tends to focus on experimentation and going all in on wild ideas. This means that not only do we not have to wait to long between entries, but that each team gets to flex their muscles in distinct ways. While both 3h games certainly have their issues (houses from its budget and development cycle and I absolutely hate the second half of azure gleam) its clear that KT was incredibly ambitious/passionate and put their all into both games. Either way I'd love to see what the team at KT would do with another FE whether that be a prequel/sequel to 3h or a completely new world and setting.

[@I-eat-Chives]

I think when it comes to customization , I engage got it. Yea other games like 3h have a lot of customization, engage is unique with the different class typings having different unique overall effects with the emblems. And that is even before talking about the emblems a there individual unique differences. A martial monk and heal but a martial monk with Michiah is a suped up healer with a powerful universal heal/ statues cleanser

[@metrux321]

I kinda agree but kinda disagree... Yes, it does give you more customization, but for me the fact you are actually training and studying the skills that the classes use was great in 3h, it felt so much better that it isn't just "he's more experienced, so he gets to become stronger", it feels like you are actually using and training the skills you need to learn new skills, although if you could put that together with something like the emblems idea... Man, that'd be a dream. Another thing I only noticed with the DLC, is that it's kinda fun having faceless mooks amidst your heroes, from the summons. Imagine if you could have both those systems, and then recruit normal units besides your heroes? Things like soldiers and thugs, who aren't story important, but can compliment your squads or something, and you won't be too sad if you have to sacrifice them.

[@MercuryA2000]

@@metrux321 The biggest problem with 3H customization for me was that it felt like it took forever to GET the customization. If you want to, I dunno, try and make a vantage mage with desperation and quick riposte, you need to either spend two hours letting them get attacked by a weak enemy to master classes or spend several chapters locked into classes that can't use magic and your unit probably sucks as. (plus they don't help your magic growth). Either way you need to spend a lot of resources on weapon ranks you don't want to use, which means by endgame my magic rank is probably not good so I'm stuck with low level magic. And if i do that only to find out that it either doesn't work how I thought it did or it just underperforms, I've essentially bricked a unit. I think if they made ranks a little bit easier to farm and/or made some way to passively get mastery skills (like if someone with a skill could tutor them in it) I would have loved building my own characters a lot more. But I felt like I was always struggling to level up ranks and masteries for classes I natively wanted to be in anyway, so skill hunting wasn't in the cards. Maybe I was doing something wrong, I dunno, but that's what it felt like to me. I do love the concept of building your own units so I'd love to see it refined a bit. How about this as a thought for blending 3H unit growth with the emblems: You level up ranks like in 3H. But each emblem when equipped gives you an 'effective' rank in one or two skills and boosts how fast they level up those ranks. You can use them like a crutch in the early game or in mid/late game if you really need Alear to use a beast slayer for a chapter. And while you have the emblem you can level up the ranks quickly while also trying the build out to make sure it works. As a trade off you aren't getting the emblem's benefits elsewhere. If you want to make a harsher penalty you can make every other rank level up slowly. If you want to make someone who works just like Ike, great. But if you want a bow knight you probably need to juggle the Claude and Sigurd rings to get EXP in bows and mounted. This also means if the character somehow gets bricked, you can give them a random utility emblem so they aren't completely useless. Or you can pivot by swapping Claude for Micaiah or Celica to turn them into a troubadour or mage knight. You borrow the emblems ranks t first so you can contribute, but in order to get the high power stuff you still need to get the proficiencies.

[@Commentingbad]

I do agree with the Sacred Stones point. I think that TOO MUCH customization kinda defeats the point. Just see 3H with the "Oops! All Wyverns" strategy. And in Engage the rings kinda strips all the uniqueness of the units. The perfect game for this exact thing is Fates, funnily enough. Two class lines, can be expanded if grinded supports, doesn't reset levels and is easier to track. Shame about the...fates around it

[@CasualFehPlayer-rf6sl]

12:34 “You can play this game until the end of time” Me who’s 3DS is in life support and can barely function😭😭😭 I miss being able to play them. While I won’t complain about getting a FE4 remake as heroes has made me like the Jugdral cast a lot more than I thought I possibly could, I’d still personally rather see Sacred Stones get a remake, Magvel got barely any world building which makes me sad. Maybe they could do it like FE3, remake the first game as one book then give us another story years later as the second book.(I think this is right please tell me if I’m wrong I just remember reading it somewhere before hand) I’ve played three hopes more than three houses, I don’t hate 3Houses but for me it feels too big and slow but yeah the world building was great. Engage had some amazing animations like deflecting arrows with weapons and stuff was for me at least visually more fun to watch and look at than 3Houses.

[@TheYellowCat777]

Very nice video

[@GenMars]

I dont think tokyo mirage sessions should be in the list, it's an Smt game with barely anything fe related in it

[@crimson1194]

Fates has very fun gameplay and Class accesebility And also Children Let me play matchnaker again.

[@metrux321]

i don't know, I wouldn't think the best hing in engage is graphics, although it looks good on paper... There is just so much strange clothing and too much detail in too little space... That said, yes, it's a good game, but feels bad when you see what they already did before it, mostly in the story for me, like, the gameplay is solid, but the characters just feel hollow 99% of the time, and thus the story ends up feeling just as hollow.

[@Phrax_loop]

My personal favorite thing in three houses is by far the replayability The different routes you can play through are alone 4 playthroughs you can do without it getting boring The teaching system just lets you do whatever you want with the units and has imo even more freedom than awakening Make raphael a mage? Sure why not Make mercedes a great knight? Yeah go for it Make every unit possible into a wyvernlord? Probably the funniest thing you can do in this game Combine these two factors and you easily have over 200 hours of playtime. Although I love the worldbuilding itself, I think the actual story of three houses brings it down For fates, I agree that the map designs are the best thing about this game It's the first FE I ever played and still my favorite (even despite some obvious flaws) and I think this is due to the map design and general gameplay Every fe game I played after it was nice and all, but every map felt the same after a while Also I love the characters in fates Not that they're really good written or anything (they aren't), but rather how goofy some sides characters are They're so unserious and I love it Some interactions between them are just amazing

[@IslemSissou7707]

Yes

[@tomo8940]

The answer is always...the waifus, the waifus, the waifus, the waifus, and sometimes the husbandos.

[@renren5660]

Engage : emblem mechanic. Battalion 2.0

[@lilsunny7399]

Fates has great map design? no. Conquest has great map design. Birthright's maps are alright but naga help me if you try t d efend Revelations' elevator maps, megal gear fire emblem, snow shovelling and everything else in Valal. You're just wrong.

[@slenderMax28]

You might've just convinced me to give Three Hopes a try. I tried the demo, it ran like shit, and I don't really like Warriors games. Because of Age of Calamity, I assumed that Three Hopes' story would also be non-canon spinoff trash, and it's nice to hear that that assumption was completely wrong.

[@be2957]

I hate Marth