Let's Warp to avoid Permadeath: The Fire Emblem thread

[Erik_Twice]

Today I beat Fire Emblem: Blazing Sword and I'm in a the mood for more so let's talk about this game series!

I don't actually have a lot of experience with it, I was one of those guys that first heard about it through Smash Brothers and I even cosplayed Marth before actually knowing anything about him (for shame!). My first Fire Emblem was Shadow Dragon, which is not really a bad game, but the tight design is hard to appreciate when the complete mediocrity of your characters makes battles so dull. It also suffers from the incredibly common issue of having a magic stat doubling as offense and defense which makes most of your troops useless against Wizards.

After that I tried out a couple games, I tried out Gaiden, which is kind of weird, I tried out Radiant Dawn, which gathers dust on my shelf because it's a sequel and a couple weeks ago I decided to play Blazing Sword and now I beat it. It's much easier than SD, way too easy, in fact (Too much experience, too much gold, too many fielded units). But it was fun so I'm looking for another game of the series!

Since I'll be emulating them on a handheld and I've already checked out a couple, I'm considering these three options:

Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War (SNES)
Fire Emblem: Thracia 776 (SNES)
Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade (GBA)

Of the three, I admit I'm most attracted to Thracia 776 because it has a reputation of being one of the hardest ones and because some of its mechanics sound really interesting. But I'm told that the only translation patch leaves quite a bit to be desired and it's a midquel to Genealogy of the Holy War so perhaps that's the better choice. It's the best selling game of the series, so it can't be bad, right?

The Binding Blade is the logical alternative to dated, Japanese-only games but I don't actually know how good it is and I'm told that axes are beyond useless. I could also do with a chance of pace, so it's not my biggest priority right now.

What about you? Do you like this series?

[MrPopo]

Shadow Dragon was unfortunate because it was basically the original game with a weapon triangle, but the story was still NES caliber. Radiant Dawn, in addition to being a sequel, is very hard because it expects you to import a Gamecube save AND the opening chapter gives you underpowered characters.

Blazing Sword was designed for series newbies; it even has a 10 map non-skippable tutorial (at least until a new game off of a cleared file).

Geneology is a great one, but it does have some weirdness you don't see in games past it (for better and for worse). The maps are huge and correspondingly there are a lot of enemy forces. Many times you'll have to carefully plan out a turn so as not to lose anyone when 8 enemies attack on the next turn (which gets MUCH harder when it's a cavalry group, since cavalry can move after attacking). On the flip side, it makes a lot of the battles more epic. Think of it like mashing three or four regular maps together; there are reversals where you have to scramble back to base because you're being attacked from another direction, and extra enemy forces can spawn after you take a castle (of which there are several). It's also the debut of the skill system, which can make potentially mediocre unit types better, and you can use the generation system to create really badass children (which you see in Awakening). The arena is native to your home base, so it can be easier to train up units that fall behind, but then there's the fact that everyone has their own persona gold supply and can't trade.

The things I've heard of Thracia is a lot of the mechanics that show up there and aren't repeated elsewhere seem good on paper but the execution is lousy.

[ninjainspandex]

Fire Emblem is probably my favorite game series, have you tried the Advance Wars games? Made by the same developer, intelligent systems. So if you enjoy the FE games you will most likely also love the AW series.

By Binding Seal do you mean Fire Emblem 6 the Binding Blade on the GBA that was the first one on the GBA only released in Japan? Definitely play that one and Sacred Stones. Also there was another one on the DS that was Japan only and has gotten a fan translation, I've been told it is very good and I really need to get around to playing it.

[Exhuminator]

I admit I'm most attracted to Thracia 776 because it has a reputation of being one of the hardest ones

If you want to play a hard FE game, play this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_Embl ... ding_Blade
http://serenesforest.net/forums/index.p ... opic=41095

The Binding Blade.

It is crazy hard, especially the final third of the game. I'd go so far as to say it's unfair hard. If you do play it, make sure you put everything you can into wizards. You'll need to be able to cast magic from screens away to have a chance against the CPU wizards who spam offensive magic from across the battlefield constantly.

Also, Blazing Sword was a prequel to the Binding Blade. So if you want to continue the plot and massively upgrade the challenge, Binding Blade is the way to go. And there's one other GBA FE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_Embl ... red_Stones

[noiseredux]

I kept permadeath on in Awakening. It was devastating.

[ninjainspandex]

I actually have a strange reason that Fire Emblem on the GBA is so nostalgic for me. I bought the game from Target with my best friend in highschool the day after I lost my virginity. It was 2004 and I was 17 years old, it was a Sunday and we skipped out on going to church. My friend had just gotten his drivers license the weekend before and all he wanted to do was just drive around in my Jeep. So we drove around out into the country and just talked about sex and just life in general while I sat in the passenger seat playing Fire Emblem. That whole day is just burned into my memory and along with it the memory of playing Fire Emblem. Sorry if all that seemed rather personal to share but that is how I remember the game haha and every time I play it I remember.

I actually have another funny story tied to the memory of Fire Emblem Path of Radiance of the Gamecube, it was 2005 and it was my first year of college. It was the day that the game released and I asked my roomate if he would drive me to the mall. He said sure and him and his buddy drove me in his pickup. He asked me on the drive over to the mall if I had ever smoked weed before and if I wanted some, me being an 19 years old was to prideful to say no as I wanted to seem cool. So I said "Hell yeah I smoke up all the time" when of course I had never. So we passed a joint around in the car and I took a few rather large drags but felt nothing. I just thought to myself, "Well weed is rather dissapointing I thought it be alot cooler than that" Well it wasn't until we arrived to the mall and I walked through the main door that the drugs took effect, that cold rush of air conditioning made me just cover in goosebumps, and then it hit me like a wave.
I suddenly became very very paranoid, I felt like everyone in the mall knew I was high and they were all staring at me, I told my roomate to hurry and we walked briskly to the Electronic Boutique. But once we got to the store I was so freaked out I was sure that the clerk would know I was stoned out of my mind so I had to explain to my roomate that I wanted him to buy the game for me, he found the whole thing very funny. But he agreed and I handed him enough money to buy the game and the players guide and he bought it for me. I don't recall that much about the drive back but I do just remember just zoning out looking out the window and when we got back to the dorms I rushed up to my room and popped the game in. I must of spent 20 minutes just being amused by the cursor on the main menu screen and then the effects of the weed finally started to wear off.

And there you have it, my strange Fire Emblem memories.

[mjmjr25]

I have too many signature options. My mind is melting. Thank you, Clifton.

[ninjainspandex]

Haha Thanks! true story, been wanting to tell that one for nearly a decade.

[Erik_Twice]

Fire Emblem is probably my favorite game series, have you tried the Advance Wars games? Made by the same developer, intelligent systems. So if you enjoy the FE games you will most likely also love the AW series.

I haven't played that series a lot but I was not too fond of it when I tried it. The thing is, I like Fire Emblem because its experience system and need to keep all your troops alive manages to elevate an otherwise really simple game. It adds a strategical layer to the otherwise fairly mundane tactics. Advance Wars lacks that so I'm not really into it.

By Binding Seal do you mean Fire Emblem 6 the Binding Blade on the GBA that was the first one on the GBA only released in Japan? Definitely play that one and Sacred Stones.

Yeah, sorry, I managed to mix both names

Everyone says that Sacred Stone is extremely easy and I'm looking for a hard game so I'm not considering it. Binding Blade has a better reputation and the fan translation is great so it's on my list already.

The things I've heard of Thracia is a lot of the mechanics that show up there and aren't repeated elsewhere seem good on paper but the execution is lousy.

Without having played it, I can already tell it will be a divisive title even if the execution is perfect so I'm intruiged.

[TSTR]

ITT: amazing tales