The "Okay, fine. I'll get Fire Emblem, jeez" thread.

[staindgrey]

I'm wondering if anyone else, after playing Smash since Melee and seeing the trailer for Lucina and Robin, is in a similar boat with me:

I just purchased my first Fire Emblem game.​

I've never bothered with the series. Never cared about it. Never played as Marth/Roy/Ike much. My little brother has begged me to try playing it. I even have a copy of some GBA FE game on my 3DS from being an ambassador, but I've never tried it. Yet for some reason, seeing the trailer and the reaction from fans and finding out that Awakening actually had a customizable player character and that not everyone in the game is a swordsman, I just... got excited. For some reason. And now I should have Fire Emblem: Awakening in my possession by next week.

So now I'm wondering if anyone else is in the same situation. Will you be getting your first FE game because of Smash 4? Have you been wondering why there never seem to be any casual FE fans-- they either really, really love the series, or they've never played it? Are you actually considering maining a FE character now?

Let's figure out why this series is so damn important together.

 

[Skyblade12]

Most of us probably already have figured that out. Awakening is one of the best selling titles on the 3DS.

But I hope you enjoy the series as much as those of us here do. It is awesome.

 

[Hong]

Many people will be going into Awakening first, as it's readily available on the 3DS eShop and that's where Robin, Lucina and Arena Ferox are from. I have some words of advice.

Awakening is an alright game to enter with. It has exceptional presentation. Good on the ears and eyes. Charming cast of characters, lots of content. You should have no problem beating it on Normal or Hard. Avoid Lunatic if you are new to the series, as it will just make the first three chapters frustrating. Awakening is nice because aside from the free chapters, characters and items you can download, you can also pay to get some more chapters if you want. The DLC is basically the cost of coffee, and you even save if you buy them in packs. That said, if you enjoy Awakening, you can get more Awakening to play for a reasonable price.

Just know if you go to another Fire Emblem game after Awakening, your positioning of your units will be much more important. Awakening has really bad map design, and aside from keeping squishes out of the range of enemies, it's not very technical compared to other entries. Still a lot of fun, however, and great value.

If you want a good entry point that will provide suitable difficulty for first-timers, Sacred Stones is another great game, especially if you are a 3DS Ambassador. The mechanics are basic and sound, and it has the kind of map design you would expect from Fire Emblem. Like Awakening, it is semi-linear and there are things you can do besides progression through the main game.

As someone who began with the third entry of the series and has gone on to play them all, I'll say Path of Radiance is the best in the series in my opinion. It's just difficult to get a hold of. That said, should you secure a copy, you'll be suitably sated. It has good chapter design, and probably the best story and cast of characters the series has ever seen. It marks the debut of Ike, who would go on to find a warm place in the hearts of many Fire Emblem fans. A lot of aspects of Path of Radiance, visuals and music aside, feel just right.

 

[sunshinesan]

I played FE7 because of Melee. I've been a fan since. Maybe Smash 4 can be that game for a lot of other people

 

[Morbi]

Honestly, I am past my "Awakening" stage. I purchased a copy around when I joined Smashboards as there was rampant speculation regarding Chrom vs. Roy. It was an enjoyable experience. I did not actually beat the title until my hype for Robin actualized (during the April Direct). I am currently replaying a Male Robin file, but it honestly feels a little redundant. So I might have to try out a different game to finally become a "Fire Emblem fan" as I interpret myself more as an "Awakening fan."

I might do as Hong suggested an get "Sacred Stones." If I enjoy it, "Path of Radiance" it is!

 

[Greda]

I'm wondering if anyone else, after playing Smash since Melee and seeing the trailer for Lucina and Robin, is in a similar boat with me:

I just purchased my first Fire Emblem game.​

I've never bothered with the series. Never cared about it. Never played as Marth/Roy/Ike much. My little brother has begged me to try playing it. I even have a copy of some GBA FE game on my 3DS from being an ambassador, but I've never tried it.

This is exactly me, word for word.

 

[staindgrey]

As someone who began with the third entry of the series and has gone on to play them all, I'll say Path of Radiance is the best in the series in my opinion. It's just difficult to get a hold of. That said, should you secure a copy, you'll be suitably sated. It has good chapter design, and probably the best story and cast of characters the series has ever seen. It marks the debut of Ike, who would go on to find a warm place in the hearts of many Fire Emblem fans. A lot of aspects of Path of Radiance, visuals and music aside, feel just right.

Path of Radiance is actually available at my local used game store, but it's $70. I assumed it was either rare or ****ing fantastic. Or both.

Thanks for the advice. If I turn out to love the game, I'll keep Path of Radiance in mind. I'll actually be trading in a large amount of my Xbox 360 games at some point when I'm done with that console (it seems on the verge of breaking, and when it's done, I'm not replacing it), so perhaps I could use that trade-in value toward Path of Radiance. We'll see if I like Awakening first.

Who knows. Maybe I'll become a frequenter in the Robin boards.

 

[sunshinesan]

Path of Radiance's story, characters and music are unmatched in the series. The gameplay was a little rough in my opinion, comparatively to say, Blazing Sword or Awakening. But it did introduce the best mechanic the series had ever seen. Shoving.

I'd say Blazing Sword is the most solid overall, I've played that game over a dozen times without hyperbole. Awakening is the most streamlined and content filled. Extremely easy to get into, excellent music (almost ties with PoR), and extremely fun marriage and children system.

Anything pre-7 is going to need prior FE experience imo. They are pretty Nintendo hard and have a few unintuitive mechanics. Genealogy of the Holy War's story is epic but it's pretty clunky imo. Sword of Seals is interesting, because it's the "sequel" to Blazing Sword, I would give it a try either before or after BS because seeing returning characters always gets my heart all fuzzy feeling.

(Sacred Stones is also good. It's somewhat of a black sheep, but it's extremely refreshing and original.)

 

[Mr. KoopaTurtle]

I'm a 3ds ambassador, so I got Sacred Stones automatically. I have to say, it is a really solid game. I enjoy the strategic gameplay and the storyline was compelling. I've only played some of Fire Emblem Awakening, not enough for me to be too familiar with the characters. I may play more Fire Emblem now thanks to Sakurai.

 

[SpatialPSI]

I already had Awakening downloaded, but after the Lucina/Robin/Falcon reveal I felt that I should probably own a physical copy. It is a really great game with a lot of replay value in my opinion. A must have for the 3ds.

 

[Skyblade12]

Personally, I'd rate Blazing Sword as the highest of the games before Awakening. Sacred Stones was good, and did have some improvements, but I thought a lot of the new content, like the monsters and the map travel, was just unpolished by comparison to what we had in its predecessor.

Path of Radiance was my next favorite. I really liked it, and it introduced us to the jaw-dropping potential of playable Soldiers (and the glorious battle-goddess Halberdier Nephenee), while also doing some nice precursor work with Skills.

Sacred Stones came next. It was a good game, I liked it, I just thought it felt unpolished, and was also somewhat lacking in fantastic cast members.

Radiant Dawn was next, and it was pretty good. I never got the chance to properly transfer my save file, though, which kept me from investing a lot of time into it.

I utterly loathed Shadow Dragon. By far the worst of the game's we've gotten.


But then Awakening came around. While I still don't think its cast was quite as good as the one in Blazing Sword, it's improved mechanics just scored such a sweet note in my head that it became my favorite game in the series. The fact that most of the awesome characters are available as DLC didn't hurt either.

 

[Sol0ke]

It was actually because of Ike in Brawl that motivated me to pick up and play Path of Radiance.

That was one of the best decisions I ever made.

 

[FalKoopa]

I've been playing Fire Emblem since FE7 because of Brawl.

I wanted to play the games in the order they were released, so yeah. I haven't looked back since then.

 

[False Sense]

So, Robin and Lucina's reveal made people who never cared about Fire Emblem before interested in trying the series out?

I thought that might happen, once people realized that Fire Emblem wasn't just a bunch of blue-haired swordsmen, and I'm glad to see that people are taking an interest in Fire Emblem. It's a great series, really.

 

[Malkior7]

Yea I never played Fire Emblem and I never will I hate the gameplay style

 

[FalKoopa]

Yea I never played Fire Emblem and I never will I hate the gameplay style

Not a fan of strategy games, I presume?

 

[Malkior7]

Not a fan of strategy games, I presume?

Afraid not. never had the patience for those kind of games.

(for the record no hate on Fire Emblem just the gameplay style)

 

[shrooby]

and finding out...that not everyone in the game is a swordsman, I just... got excited.

And that's why Robin is an amazing addition.

 

[Aninymouse]

I see topics posted every day since the Robin reveal on the Gamefaqs Awakening board from newbies who got into the game due to Smash Bros. hype. I'd say OP is in good company.

I started with Sacred Stones after seeing Marth in Melee, so I was once in y'all's shoes. I've been a FE fan ever since.

I almost hope they scrap the pair-up feaure for FE14, though. Next to impossible to balance the game with it as good as it is.

 

[Skyblade12]

I see topics posted every day since the Robin reveal on the Gamefaqs Awakening board from newbies who got into the game due to Smash Bros. hype. I'd say OP is in good company.

I started with Sacred Stones after seeing Marth in Melee, so I was once in y'all's shoes. I've been a FE fan ever since.

I almost hope they scrap the pair-up feaure for FE14, though. Next to impossible to balance the game with it as good as it is.

I think almost everyone in the US who plays Fire Emblem is playing due to Smash Bros hype.

I first heard of Fire Emblem long before Smash, as I was a dedicated member of a tactical RPG community. But even there, fan translations were rare, and Fire Emblem had a very niche (but dedicated) fan base within that already niche genre's fans.

Then Smash Bros brought us the translation of Blazing Sword. I would have never played the game if that hadn't happened, despite my love for the genre. I might eventually have tried a fan translation, but they are rarely the same.

I think you'll find we all share this story, it's just to WHICH Smash Bros game we owe our entry to Fire Emblem.

 

[sunfallSeraph]

I'd played Path of Radiance long before Smash 4 was a thing (gave up on Radiant Dawn pretty quickly because it kept kicking my ass), but the character hype has gotten me to break down and pick up Awakening. It's extra hype right now because my boyfriend just bought it too, so we're kind-of-but-not-really competing to see how well we both fare on Hard mode with permadeath. It's fun so far, but it gives me the usual turn-based strategy headache of overthinking every little thing. Sometimes it would be faster for me to just wing it, lose a unit, and restart than it would be for me to sit there and think my every move out in excessive detail. :b

 

[•Col•]

Marth and Roy made me buy Fire Emblem (7) as soon as it was released in the US.

......I thought that Eliwood on the cover was Roy.. Which is part of the reason I bought the game, honestly. After finding out that it wasn't actually Roy, I still enjoyed the game a lot.. Eliwood has actually became my favorite FE lord since then, and I've been a fan of the series since.

 

[ToothiestAura]

I'd played Path of Radiance long before Smash 4 was a thing (gave up on Radiant Dawn pretty quickly because it kept kicking my ***), but the character hype has gotten me to break down and pick up Awakening. It's extra hype right now because my boyfriend just bought it too, so we're kind-of-but-not-really competing to see how well we both fare on Hard mode with permadeath. It's fun so far, but it gives me the usual turn-based strategy headache of overthinking every little thing. Sometimes it would be faster for me to just wing it, lose a unit, and restart than it would be for me to sit there and think my every move out in excessive detail. :b

Radiant Dawn was my first FE game (brutal start) and I played the others from there.

 

[☆Jazz☆]

I tried out the demo, and love it. Smash introduced me to Zelda, Kid Icarus, Kirby, and Fire Emblem. So, yes I will be getting Fire Emblem : Awakening (and Kid Icarus: Uprising), after Smash.

 

[AustarusIV]

I got into Fire Emblem soon after Brawl's release in North America, because of how awesome Ike was in that game. I had already known about the Fire Emblem series's localization back in 2003, when Nintendo Power advertised FE7, but I didn't get into it back then because of its genre. At first, I assumed that it was part of the real time strategy genre, like Command and Conquer or Warcraft, not the TBS (turn-based strategy) subgenre like Disgaea and Final Fantasy Tactics, which I became fans of soon after getting into FE.

Path of Radiance was my first Fire Emblem, and it blew me away at how amazing the characters and the gameplay were. I already knew about some of the characters before getting it, like Nephenee and Elincia, but it had some of the best-written characters I have ever seen in a Nintendo game. The gameplay was actually pretty easy to understand, even though it kicked my ass from time to time, but I persevered to the end. Fire Emblem is now my second favorite Nintendo franchise (next to Metroid).

 

[Frostwraith]

Melee made me learn about Fire Emblem in the first place, as well as many other Nintendo series like Zelda, Metroid or Kirby.

So, I remember seeing Fire Emblem games for the GBA but never got any interest in them at the time. By the time Brawl was coming and Ike was revealed, it ignited (haha, pun!) my interest in the series and seeing I was lacking on Wii games, I decided to buy my first FE game: Radiant Dawn.

It wasn't exactly what I expected and got a bad impression from it, so I ended up not playing the game for a long while. Brawl eventually came out and after playing it a lot, I eventually decided to give Radiant Dawn a second chance.

I ended up liking it and enjoyed the story and characters. And that's how I became a fan of the FE series. When Awakening was announced, I started to look forward to it, eventually waiting more than a year for the game to come out in Europe.

The game had a lot of things Radiant Dawn didn't. While it wasn't without its flaws, it was still a great game.

Whenever Virtual Console releases of Fire Emblem games come, I'll be trying them out. And, of course, I will be looking forward to any future games of the series.

 

[Kevandre]

I indirectly got FE:A from Smash 4.. Really it was because of Smashboards. @ D-idara yelled at me and others in the stage creation thread for not playing it, so I did..

It's now one of my favorite games. It was really good, guys.

 

[sunshinesan]

I tried out the demo, and love it. Smash introduced me to Zelda, Kid Icarus, Kirby, and Fire Emblem. So, yes I will be getting Fire Emblem : Awakening (and Kid Icarus: Uprising), after Smash.

Oh yeah, I also got KI:U because of Brawl. Smash just introduce you to great games.

 

[SpaceJell0]

I got Fire Emblem Awakening before the Robin and Lucina trailer so I knew who they were. Unfortunately, I really suck at it xD even on Normal. I usually go trial and error for my strategies but that dang farmer kid early mission really pisses me off -_-

 

[Chaos Archangel]

Fire Emblem was the "ehhh.. Maybe" game for me for a long time.

... Then Robins trailer sold me. Gonna buy awakening with my next check. (Uprising too)

 

[Frostwraith]

Smash Bros.: making people buy games from Nintendo series they didn't know about since 1999.

That's the greatness of crossovers.

Hell, the Fire Emblem series owes its existence in the West to Smash Bros.

 

[Mr. Johan]

Smash Bros.: A better commercial than commercials are.

 

[D-idara]

Fire Emblem was the "ehhh.. Maybe" game for me for a long time.

... Then Robins trailer sold me. Gonna buy awakening with my next check. (Uprising too)

You're about to experience two of the best Nintendo games of this generation #BePrepared

I indirectly got FE:A from Smash 4.. Really it was because of Smashboards. @ D-idara yelled at me and others in the stage creation thread for not playing it, so I did..

It's now one of my favorite games. It was really good, guys.

:D
Now...I started being a Fire Emblem fan with Path of Radiance and then Radiant Dawn, god those games WERE TOUGH! And although I played them, I can still say Awakening's the best Fire Emblem game, and I won't go deep with game mechanics or technical positioning or strategies...it's just more fun, that's all there is to it.

 

[Chaos15]

I got Awakening on release date.
This is why more series should be rep in Smash. So people get into the game!

 

[Deathcarter]

My first Fire Emblem game was Path of Radiance around 2006-ish long after Melee but before Ike was confirmed for Brawl so I never really got into the series specifically because of Smash hype. Hell I never even knew the series was localized before then. I was absolutely hooked, so much that I preordered Radiant Dawn over Super Mario friggin Galaxy.

Probably my favorite time playing Fire Emblem (one of my favorite times playing Nintendo period) was when me and a young friend did a playthrough of Path of Radiance together and split the units down the middle to use how we see fit. Good times.

 

[False Sense]

I got Fire Emblem Awakening before the Robin and Lucina trailer so I knew who they were. Unfortunately, I really suck at it xD even on Normal. I usually go trial and error for my strategies but that dang farmer kid early mission really pisses me off -_-

Believe me, you want to train that guy up. He's bad at first, but his potential is incredible.

 

[praline]

Awakening is a good gateway into the Fire Emblem franchise but when you finish it go with Path of Radiance for the gamecube cause it's the best one.

 

[Ryan50]

My first Fire Emblem game was Path of Radiance around 2006-ish long after Melee but before Ike was confirmed for Brawl so I never really got into the series specifically because of Smash hype. Hell I never even knew the series was localized before then. I was absolutely hooked, so much that I preordered Radiant Dawn over Super Mario friggin Galaxy.

Probably my favorite time playing Fire Emblem (one of my favorite times playing Nintendo period) was when me and a young friend did a playthrough of Path of Radiance together and split the units down the middle to use how we see fit. Good times.

Heh, this is how me and a friend played (and almost beat) Radiant Dawn. Sadly, I have never actually got to play much of Path of Radiance. Stores were surprisingly never in stock of the game, so I had to do rentals for PoR, though it wasn't something I'd rent more than once without renting it over and over. I hate recalling details from something I may have not played for several months.

 

[Nat Perry]

People should really try to get the GCN and/or Wii Fire Emblems. Robin and Lucina are cool and all, but pretty much everything - story, music, emotion, gameplay, graphics, art style, difficulty - was perfectly nailed in Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn. It's worth the buy.

 

[SpaceJell0]

Believe me, you want to train that guy up. He's bad at first, but his potential is incredible.

Dammit xD I have to complete that mission in my new file now xD