Favorite Fire Emblem Game(s)?

[Opossum]

Which are your favorites? Vote and reply with why!

 

[praline]

Path of Radiance, Sacred Stones, Blazing Sword and Awakening are my favourites. I just really enjoy the stories and characters. Also I feel like Eirika is underrated. She’s my favourite female lord.

Shadows of Velencia and Fates didn’t really jive with me... I don’t know why.

 

[Moydow]

Anyone who votes for BSFE is getting banned because I know you're lying

Path of Radiance wins it for me, I just felt like it struck the ideal balance between strong story, characters, and gameplay. Shadows of Valentia, New Mystery of the Emblem, and Genealogy of the Holy War are all pretty closely tied up in the runner-up spots, too.

 

[Deleted member]

>No one voting for BSFE
Smh this thread is bs

easy Sacred Stones, Blazing Sword and Shadows of Valentia for me, though I really need to play the console games

 

[AmericanDJ]

Blazing Sword would probably be my favorite of the ones that I've played. I personally just enjoy the story and characters the best in that one, with Hector being not only my favorite lord, but also my favorite FE character as a whole.

Shadows of Valentia is a close second though.

 

[Robert of Normandy]

Gonna be the one guy here who votes for FE3. :v

I don't really dislike any FE games so i went by which ones I've played the most. So FE3, FE4, FE6, and SoV.

 

[ChikoLad]

Birthright was my first game so I will always have a soft spot for it. I enjoy quite a few of it's characters and felt the culture of Hoshido was quite interesting. Also it has Rinkah, Ryoma, and Hinoka, who are probably among my favourite FE characters so far. The story isn't anything to write home about but it's the best one of the Fates trio and I really enjoy a lot of the support dialogue.

I feel obligated to include Heroes because I have put quite a lot of time into it and while I take breaks sometimes, I generally play it daily. It's the mobile game I'm most invested in (though recently, Kingdom Hearts: Union Cross has sort of been edging back into the spotlight, though I am mainly just focused on the story there as opposed to playing super seriously). I even don't mind spending some money on it with regulation and when I can spare it. I kinda feel like the game deserves some money from me every so often considering all of the time I put into it. I mainly like it because of how flexible it is compared to other gacha games, making it really fun to build your favourite units. Other gacha games tend to have a very strict powercreep,. A top tier "unit" (or whatever the game's equivalent is - for example, you pull for medals with artwork and renders of different characters in KHUx with abilities inspired by those characters, that your custom Avatar uses to fight) becomes totally obsolete every week or month or so and eventually you need to start pulling again in order to catch up and clear the game's content. While FE Heroes definitely has power creep, the Skill Inheritance system as well as things like Weapon Refinery, Blessings, and Supports, makes it so that most older units can always be useful in some way. Your favourite Fire Emblem characters can genuinely carry you for months, even years by the looks of it. As an example, Clair was seen as an overall underwhelming unit back when she first came out, but my Clair is now 5-Star +10 merge with a ton of amazing skill sets she can use. She's been an amazing, reliable unit for over a year now and gets better with age, as more powerful skills come out that she can take advantage of. Same goes for the other characters I build. Besides that, the game has made me much more interested in the series as a whole as it introduces me to more and more characters. I also like some of the original characters from the game, like Alfonse, Veronica and Laegjarn, and would honestly love to see them in a console Fire Emblem game, even if it's just a cameo through amiibo or something.

Shadows of Valentia though, is probably my all-around favourite so far. It's certainly the all-round strongest, well-balanced, and most enriching experience I've had in the series so far, and it was one of my favourite games overall in 2017 (which is no small feat because 2017 was a year packed with amazing games, including many from franchises I have a lot more history with and grew up with). It legitimately blew me away. I ended up liking and caring about the majority of the characters, many of which are passionate favourites of mine (Alm, Clair, Delthea, Gray, Saber, Mae, Boey, Leon, Sonya - honestly I could go on and on). The voice acting is some of the most stellar, memorable voice acting I've heard in a video game of recent memory. The story itself isn't amazing but is still pretty solid. However, the character interactions are incredible almost across the board.

Gameplay wise, it's a lot simpler in some ways than the other games I've played, but it still felt smartly designed a lot of the time and there are very few maps I don't enjoy. And I LOVE the dungeon exploration. As someone who generally likes having some kind of "exploration" mechanic even in games where that isn't the main focus, I was floored by how all-out they went with the dungeon exploration in this game, and it serves to make the game feel a lot less repetitive, especially since each dungeon often has it's own atmosphere and puzzles to tackle, and secrets to find. And while the same can be said of Fate's soundtrack, I personally really fell in love with this game's soundtrack and listen to it quite often. The game also has fantastic animations for the battle animations, especially considering it's on a 3DS - it's amazing to see someone like Saber, in the middle of normal battle, actually be registered as near a wall or tree on the map, and if the enemy pushes him close enough to that object and he dodges the attack, he will instead kick off the wall to do a flip over the attack and retaliate. Or when Leon dodges a melee enemy, jumps onto their weapon, and then flips off of it while shooting them in the face at point-blank. I only expect this excellently animated, raw kind of fight choreography from like, a Naughty Dog game on PS4, so it's amazing they pulled this off on 3DS. It makes the already intense feeling of nailing a Crit or a Dodge all the more satisfying. The graphics in general are pretty amazing all things considered (the game still looks great at native 4K in Citra Emulator, even), and the art style is probably my favourite of the games I've played so far.

 

[---]

Path of Radiance is my personal favorite. I find the story & characters to be the most fleshed out of the series due to avoiding series tropes and having a massive but tightly written script (Base Conversations!). The gameplay I find to be balanced in difficulty, has diverse chapters that take advantage of the 3D plain/camera, and is rewarding for players. Bonus exp is a fantastic mechanic that gives veterans more to do in chapters while rewarding newcomers for learning and giving them a leg up without having to resort to grinding. I really only find the graphics to be lacking and the pure randomness of the Black Knight fight (Aether!) to be my only complaints.

Echoes is probably 2nd due to memories of the original & the presentation. I find a lot of it's flaws to be a glass half empty type situation in light of the original game's ambition (seriously play both 8-bit titles and compare them) and as such I'm glad IS kept mechanics/ideas in tact even if they're not in line with what the franchise ultimately became. Turning dungeons into 3D environments was a fantastic idea and improvement that helped give dimension to the franchise. Even though I never personally used it, Mila's Turnwheel I think offers the best compromise to the series longstanding battle with permadeath & RNG.

Blazing Sword I think offers the most stereotypical experience one can expect from the franchise. I can't think of anything really good or bad to say other than it's a must play. I think the tutorial with Lyn is a good starting place for newcomers; just as long as they expect the rest of the game not to go easy on them.

Mystery of the Emblem I think shows it's age, but it oozes 16-bit/90s anime charm and offers the most bang for one's buck. I find both it and the two remakes to be worth playing.

EDIT: I have yet to playthrough the entirety of the Judgral games so I'm withholding my judgement.

 

[Swamp Sensei]

Path of Radiance and Awakening are my favorites.

Though I like every Fire Emblem game I've played.

 

[Schnee117]

Blazing Blade - Excellent entry to the series (Awakening serves as a better one but more on that later) with some well thought out maps and a cast of plenty of fun and great characters like Lyn, Hector, Nino and Merlinus Canas to name a few.

Sacred Stones - Mostly the characters here. Duessel, Cormag, Joshua, Lute, Eirika, Innes, L'Arachel and Tana were enjoyable. Also Lyon is a top tier villain in this franchise though that may be underselling him a bit.

PoR and RD - Feel I can combine these because RD is an actual follow-up and builds upon PoR a bit more. Honestly a fantastic cast of characters (aside from Makalov), the Laguz are handled really well, Black Knight is the GOAT, the connectivity between the games is neat and having a fair bit of replay value to it is nice.

Awakening - The best way to enter the franchise with much needed QoL and Accessibility updates that can help to ease people in. Anyone that knows me knows that I ****ing love Lucina loads.The way she and Chrom get handled, particularly when she reveals who she actually is, is pure excellence. That's probably one of my favourite gaming moments really along with Emmeryn's sacrifice and the map that follows said sacrifice. Other characters are really nice too, albeit some are one-note though I find people are a touch too harsh on some characters like Cordelia and Severa, though I find both somewhat relatable. It's also chock full of fan-service via spotpass and DLC letting you face and recruit many older characters.

SoV - Excellent remake that despite retaining some faults of the original, is able to provide boons elsewhere whether it be the Dungeon crawling, fully voiced lines or the extra content they added. I feel this is the strongest story in FE and it handles two separate armies at the same time decently. Again it's an excellent cast with Saber, Leon, Celica, Mae, Alm, Clair, Gray, Tobin, Genny and Sonya among others, though with a preference for Celica's side.

Warriors - I could write an entire Essay on Warriors and how it's actually great at representing Fire Emblem. Fortunately I'm on mobile right now so that Essay won't happen.
The tl;dr though is:
Game Development is hard, most clones make sense (4 archers with the same set is taking the piss though, at least have Hoshidan Royal Archers and regular Archers, and Celica as a Marth clone is Galaxy Brain ****), stats and skills are very well incorporated and FE has too many characters to put in a first Warriors game, they don't want to BvS it.

 

[Frizz]

I've really only finished 2 games—Awakening and New Mystery of the Emblem. I'm currently playing through Shadow Dragon, and I've played most of Sacred Stones, some of the Blazing Blade, and very little of the Binding Blade. Right now, Awakening is my favorite with New Mystery of the Emblem as a runner-up, but I heard that Genealogy of the Holy War and Thracia 776 are phenomenal games, so I'm looking forward to playing those eventually.

 

[Erureido]

My two favorite Fire Emblem games are a toss-up between Shadows of Valentia and Sacred Stones. Both of them have a very memorable cast of characters, great soundtracks, and some fun, simple, and enjoyable gameplay, though these two games that stand out from the other in regards to what I really enjoyed from them.

With SoV's case, while I didn't particularly care for the main heroes all that much and I found the villains rather lackluster, I loved the world that is explored. It felt like I was going on the journey of a lifetime, and the world-building was top-tier too. Playing SoV reminded me of why I loved Breath of the Wild so much: you get a very good feel for the continent that you explore, and you even get a good sense of how the people are like in various parts of the continent. If there's a Fire Emblem game that felt like an adventure to me, it was this game.

With Sacred Stones's case, while the world-building could've been better, I thought it had a pretty solid story. There were some pretty great and memorable moments throughout it. I initially didn't find Eirika's arc to be compelling, but I've grown to like it more as time went by and once I looked into and studied her actions more. Sacred Stones also has my favorite cast of villains in the franchise: Lyon is my favorite FE villain and one of my favorite FE characters overall, Valter and Caellach were great love-to-hate villains, the three villains that betray their army to join the player's army (Duessel, Cormag, and Glen) were cool people, and Selena was decent. The only villains that I wasn't fond of were Riev, Vigarde, and Fomortiis mainly because they were generic in their roles.

Honestly, my favorite FE game tends to flip flop between these two.

 

[Jojalole]

Tellius games take the cake for me easily, both Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn are the ones that struck to me the most out of every FE. I just love how they took lot of the stuff and made it unique, the presentation, the characters, the story, the gameplay elements... While I do think Path of Radiance in the end is better than Radiant Dawn (mainly because supports and the story structure), both games have some amazing stuff. I particulary like the map objectives in RD, the most diverse out of any FE game. I just think of the two as one singular game, one amazing journey, and a great experience overall.

I also love FE7, since it was my introduction to the series when I was reaaal young. I love the cast, and I think it's a great introduction for many players, setting the bases for most of the games after that. I also really like Awakening because that game got me back into FE back in 2015, and while it did many things differently (I remember I thought they were crazy by adding a casual mode lol), I liked it enough to go back and play all the oldest games, so that's pretty damn good.

 

[Fire Emblemier]

My first pick was both of the Tellius games, as I feel they deserve to share the spot as my favorite. Many here have already stated the reasons why its there favorite already. I really enjoy the more grounded in reality most of the Tellius cast id, sure there's oddball here or there like Devdan and Danved. They're completely different I swear. Yet, overall everyone's serious about the circumstances they are in, that being a massive continental war. Other games in the series have done this well too. Though Radiant Dawn is supplemented by the fact you switch perspective to other armies that even oppose one another at some points. It helps make the Tellius games feel grand and epic. The ochestral styled music certainly helps too.
I'll probably talk about the other games I voted for in a later post.

 

[Dan]

Smash Wii U is probably my favorite FE game.

 

[NSSKG151]

My favorite Fire Emblems are Fates: Conquest, Echoes, and Heroes.

Conquest for its difficulty, gameplay and map objectives (won't defend the story though).

Echoes probably has my favorite cast of characters in the franchise plus full voice acting is also a plus.

Heroes I like for being easy to pick up and play, is a good way to waste time and for bringing the all the characters from previous games so most people's favorites are there.

 

[TMNTSSB4]

Out of all the Fire Emblem games I’ve played, Awakening is my favorite followed by Echoes and Sacred Stone (and Lyn’s part of Blazing Sword)

 

[Moydow]

Huh, I only just realised the poll is multiple-choice.

I find it funny how FE1 has two votes. Did someone tick the wrong box? :p I mean, I actually like it better than its remake (if only because I find the flaws of an NES game more excusable), but barely anyone touches it these days outside of its remake.

Genealogy on 3 votes and Thracia on zero isn't exactly surprising; more people need to play these games.

Does Heroes having three votes mean we have three whales in the room and as a result they're the only people completely satisfied with their pulls? :p

also BSFE is on zero votes so unfortunately I can't ban anyone yet

 

[Fire Emblemier]

Huh, I only just realised the poll is multiple-choice.

I find it funny how FE1 has two votes. Did someone tick the wrong box? I mean, I actually like it better than its remake (if only because I find the flaws of an NES game more excusable), but barely anyone touches it these days outside of its remake.

Genealogy on 3 votes and Thracia on zero isn't exactly surprising; more people need to play these games.

Does Heroes having three votes mean we have three whales in the room and as a result they're the only people completely satisfied with their pulls?

also BSFE is on zero votes so unfortunately I can't ban anyone yet

Despite playing Thracia, I find some stuff about the game unenjoyable gameplay-wise, I enjoyed the characters and the overall plot though. Like the prison segment is really annoying, but I liked the story during it. Especially, the Eyvel stuff near the end.
I would feel bad for Gaiden, if SoV wasn't just it but better in pretty much everyway. The only reason I could think of voting for it is if you really like the 8 bit chiptune, or just have a lot fond of memories playing it before SoV existed.

I do wonder who else voted Warriors with me. As it's kind of a black sheep. Though I like Musou games so I voted for it despite its flaws.

 

[Moydow]

I do wonder who else voted Warriors with me. As it's kind of a black sheep. Though I like Musou games so I voted for it despite its flaws.

So can you not see the listings of who voted for what, or is that just a mod thing? I can click on each option and it'll show the list of people who voted for that option.

 

[Fire Emblemier]

So can you not see the listings of who voted for what, or is that just a mod thing? I can click on each option and it'll show the list of people who voted for that option.

Actually never knew about that, nice.

 

[Opossum]

It's lonely in the Shadow Dragon club lol.

 

[Q-Long]

Tie between FE7 and FE9. I think FE9 slightly has the edge tho

 

[Fire Emblemier]

It's lonely in the Shadow Dragon club lol.

I feel worse for the Binding Blade club, must be the sketchy hitrates in that game.

I chose:
FE9, FE10, Blazing Blade, New Mystery, SoV, and Warriors.
Makes sense that SoV is the most voted, it's one of the best even with it's Swamp and Desert map nightmare

 

[Opossum]

I feel worse for the Binding Blade club, must be the sketchy hitrates in that game.

I chose:
FE9, FE10, Blazing Blade, New Mystery, SoV, and Warriors.
Makes sense that SoV is the most voted, it's one of the best even with it's Swamp and Desert map nightmare

The weird thing is I honestly didn't mind the swamps too much.


...Deserts absolutely sucked, though. Looking at you, Archer Box.

 

[Fire Emblemier]

The weird thing is I honestly didn't mind the swamps too much.


...Deserts absolutely sucked, though. Looking at you, Archer Box.

The one saving grace of the archer box, is that archers without holding bows don't do effective damage to fliers, so Catria and Palla can do some hit and runs with less risk.
The one thing I didn't like was the low move on mages. 4 move isn't enough in the mid and late game when pretty much everyone else besides knights have like 5 or even 8 move.

 

[Frizz]

Currently playing through FE8, and I'm really enjoying it. It has a great early game, and it feels like the most polished out of the 3 GBA games overall.

Sorry FE12, but FE8 is my new favorite game aside from Awakening.

 

[NineLannister]

Man, Fire Emblem is probably my favorite game series of all time, so this is a hell of a challenge.

My first games were the Tellius games, so they're among my favorites partially due to the nostalgia factor, and partially due to the incredible story between the two games. Radiant Dawn definitely had some lackluster elements to its mechanics, as well as some pacing issues, but I consider those to be fair considering the massive scope of the game. It's one of those games that I can't really tire of playing, and Elincia's Gambit is probably my favorite map to play in all of Fire Emblem.

Genealogy of the Holy War probably wins the overall best story award for me. I would trade a picnic basket full of human souls for that to be the next remake/Echoes game (with maybe a couple updated mechanics). But woah, that game was intense and gorgeous, and in my view, should be a model for the series. Hopefully Heroes and the new fan love for Reinhardt, Olwen, Julia, and others will help spark a fanbase for that remake.

Sacred Stones is probably my favorite GBA game. Awesome story, great level design, and the branching paths were awesome. And that MUSIC.

Lastly, Shadows of Valentia stole my soul. I had played Gaiden before, but to see it re-created so beautifully was rad as hell. It has some story issues on Celica's side, but I had so much fun with it (except for Clive, that useless pustule). A+ best Endgame chapter/music.

 

[Phobos_Anomaly]

Awakening all day long for me. My third favorite video game of all time and probably the single only reason why I still have a Nintendo 3DS. Just so I can keep going back and play Awakening over and over. The characters really draw me in more than any other FE game I've played. Gameplay is supremely addicting.

Chrom's inclusion in Ultimate has me doing back flips off of a ten story roof. I might have to change my main now...

 

[shocktarts17]

Man apparently I need to take another crack at SoV, I just really couldn't get into it when I first tried it because it felt so alien compared to all the other games, but apparently everyone else really likes it.

 

[TuvyFE]

I'M. A. RETRO. BOY.
I'd rather play FE4 or FE5 over FE13 or 14 any day. Also, FE15 is a masterpiece.

I really really want to like FE9 and FE10, but:
1. I can't afford them, so the only way I can play them is on my crappy mac.
2. FE9's graphics have not aged well. Pixelated is timeless, but 3D ages.
And finally,
3. FE10 is dumb. Seriously, when I met the dawn brigade I fell in love with the designs of characters like Leonardo, Edward, and Aran,(Aren?) only to realize that I can't use them for the majority of the game? What the hell? Multiple armies was an interesting idea IS, but had terrible execution.

 

[NonSpecificGuy]

I'M. A. RETRO. BOY.
I'd rather play FE4 or FE5 over FE13 or 14 any day. Also, FE15 is a masterpiece.

I really really want to like FE9 and FE10, but:
1. I can't afford them, so the only way I can play them is on my crappy mac.
2. FE9's graphics have not aged well. Pixelated is timeless, but 3D ages.
And finally,
3. FE10 is dumb. Seriously, when I met the dawn brigade I fell in love with the designs of characters like Leonardo, Edward, and Aran,(Aren?) only to realize that I can't use them for the majority of the game? What the hell? Multiple armies was an interesting idea IS, but had terrible execution.

I could write an essay on how masterful the Radiance games are and how their core design is 100% focused on pure, raw strategy. The stages are crafted in a way that even if you didn't have the most preferable team stats there was still a wat for you to pull through. It might not turn out very pretty and you may lose a few of your friends along the way IF you're not smart.

Every Fire Emblem gane puts a LOT of focus on leveling up and gaining stats and what not, and the Radiance games do as well, difference being that because of the tight level design and the multiple armies in Radiant Dawn you're given exactly what you need to succeed in each map. No more, no less. The actual strategy matters in these games, more so RD than PoR, than probably any other game in the franchuse.

 

[slamallama]

Wow, why am I just now starting to take a real look at the FE subforum..?

Spoiler: Shadow Dragon spoilers

Brawl is what got me curious about Fire Emblem (plus a lot of Nintendo games I'd never heard of). I really liked playing as Marth, cause I was really into medieval stuff. I wanted to try out his game, but as a nine-year-old who never thought to look things up, I had no idea what game he was from besides "Fire Emblem." Then I got handed Shadow Dragon for my tenth birthday, and looking at the back found that it was not only a Fire Emblem game, it was Marth's game! I was like "Wow, how did you know?" to which my mom responded, "How did I know what?" Turns out, she just knew I was into knights and castles and things and had no other ideas for my birthday, so she grabbed the first DS game she saw with a sword on the cover.

Now, I was an incompetent kid who sucked at video games. I had no idea how stats actually impacted the game; all knowledge of my units and planning future moves was based on things like "Okay that strong-looking guy only did 1 damage to Draug. Draug must be pretty good." I still have no idea how I manage to stumble to the end credits (I never even retrieved Falchion, for crying out loud.)

But at the time I was also really into books (I was that little nerd in the fourth grade who got ranked as having a college reading level). So, despite having no idea what I was doing in Shadow Dragon- which normally would have made me put the game down- I fell in love with it, thanks to the characters, story, and writing. Gra's betrayal right at the beginning hooked me, watching as the young prince Marth was torn away from his family and kingdom. The many and diverse allies and enemies he made on the journey to reclaiming Altea made a huge impact on me. Camus the Sable in particular has become my absolute favorite Fire Emblem character. This enemy general, whose skill the enemies have been praising all throughout the game, calling him the greatest warrior to walk the earth, who betrayed his motherland and helped Nyna escape to join Marth's alliance. I'd been building up hope until the battle with the Sables that Camus would desert Grust and join my army, and his last talk meeting with Nyna before the battle wrenching my heart out, and it was wrenched once again when I struck him down. Same with Michalis: he was less sympathetic, but watching as Minerva was forced to overthrow her own brother made me wish I could've recruited him instead- plus, the dude seemed pretty cool, despite the whole murdered-his-father thing. By the time I got to Dolhr keep, I was pissed at Medeus for the whole war that made me kill those awesome characters.

I've replayed this game a bunch (more recently and with an infinitely better understanding of how to actually play it), and while I personally don't think it stacks up to my true favorites, it will always have a special place in my heart.

Spoiler: Pretty spoiler-free Shadows of Valentia

This is one of my true favorites. I never managed to make it all the way through the original Gaiden, but I liked what I did make it through. Echoes took things to another level, though.
The liberties this remake of Gaiden took were amazing- the devs really went the extra mile to truly remake Gaiden, rather than slapping new graphics and sounds on an calling it a day. The return and reimagining of dungeon-crawling made me geek way out. The characters are fleshed out and totally reimagined, and there were even new additions to the cast. Instead of it being a random enemy paladin inexplicably attacking you with only two troops, it's Berkut, a character who actually hugely impacts the story! The other additions to the plot were excellent- the Turnwheel was great, giving a look at the characters' newly-conceived backstories. Desaix's motives for taking over Zofia have real and honestly pretty understandable motivations.

Spoiler: In case you haven't played it, spoiler

Gradually leading the player to guess that Alm is Rudolf's son, just in time for Alm to kill him, was a genius plot move. The poeticism of Alm and Celica being childhood friends, neither of them knowing the other's lineage, was brilliant. The duality of Mila and Duma, and coming to realize that neither of them really did a great job of ruling their people, was also top-notch storytelling. (Keep in mind, I didn't finish Gaiden, so a lot of the twists in Act 4 were new to me as I played Echoes).

I can only hope that the next Echoes is Shadows of Elibe... I neeeeed a localized Binding Blade and desperately want a remake of Blazing Blade.

Spoiler: Pretty spoiler-free Blazing Blade

I'm getting tired of typing at this point, and anyway I feel like my reasons for having Blazing Blade as one of my favorites are probably shared with a lot of other people who like it, so I'll just focus in on the aspect that really does it for me: the Black Fang. Their quick appearance in Lyn's story had me spooked- who were these people? What's the deal with Ninian and Nils? Am I ever gonna find out?
Ooooh boy, I sure did find out. The story of the Black Fang might contend with the story of Camus for most tragic tale in Fire Emblem. It was saddening and bone-chilling, learning how the Black Fang started as vigilantes doing justice on corrupt nobles, acting as champions of the downtrodden and helpless, only to be corrupted by Nergal's puppeteering. And Nergal is one of few videogame villains who I can just burn with hatred for, because he's written so excellently to be hated. When

Spoiler: Everyone knows this anyway, but spoiler

he tricks Eliwood into killing Ninian

, I wanted him dead so intensely it was crazy. On top of Nergal being my favorite villain, Blazing Blade also has many of my favorite protagonists (who doesn't love Hector?)

Spoiler: Totally spoiler-free Radiant Dawn

This is gonna be lame, cause I'm really tired of typing... but if Blazing Blade has my favorite characters, Radiant Dawn has my favorite story. It's phenomenal. A compelling narrative seamlessly interwoven with tackling tons of social issues, namely racism. Just... go play it. I'd recommend playing Path of Radiance first, but I hadn't when I first went through RD and I still loved it. Wish I had done PoR first though... definitely would've been worth it for the full effect.

Also that art at the end of the credits nearly brings a tear to my eye every time. If you've seen it, you know what I'm talking about.