The whitewings should be in every fire emblem game. And there should also always be an est rescuing detour. “mauvier kidnapped our little sister est in order to steal her wallet. Will you help us rescue est from mauvier’s big gaudy mansion?”
Too much effort to actually order them all, but I can split them into categories. Like: Shadow Dragon, sacred stones, 3 houses, engage, PoR, radiant dawn, blazing blade (borderline) Mixed: binding blade (borderline), genealogy Dislike: new mystery, awakening, birthright, fe1 Haven't played: gaiden, echoes, fe3, thracia, conquest, revelation Random thoughts I had during the video: - Shadow Dragon was my 1st game and is still one of my faves. Just FE gameplay refined to its core elements, all killer no filler, doesn't waste your time, and severely underrated writing. I know most people hate it because of how many features it stripped away from the prior games, but that's not a problem for me because for me it's essentially the origin point of the series. Gotta appreciate it for being the first game to live up to modern standards to QoL too (seriously, why is weapon merging not an evergreen mechanic?). It has the least writing of any post NES game, but all of the writing that's there is absolutely god tier; I honestly think some of the more recent games could stand to learn a thing or two from shadow dragon when it comes to efficiently conveying information. No supports is kind of a shame, but the added talk convos between key characters do a lot to establish a baseline characterization, then allowing the player to fill in the gaps based on unit gameplay performance and their own imagination. I know I have many more positive feelings towards the cast of Shadow Dragon than I do towards the casts of many of the games with much more dialogue. Reclassing is kinda stupid, but I almost never use it for anything other than swapping between dracoknight and paladin depending on the map or maybe making Cord into dark mage if I'm feeling spicy, so it doesn't bother me. Locking gaiden chapters behind killing half your units was another odd choics but again doesn't take away from the experience. Really think it deserves to be on the shortlist of recommendations for people's first FE game; give people a chance to see if they can enjoy the core mechanics without requiring them to go through 17 hours of cutscenes. Also, Shadow Dragon's prologue is the best tutorial sequence in the franchise and possibly one of the best in gaming as a whole, really wish you had the option to play the prologue in hard mode. - Fe12 was my second game, and I fucking hate it with the burning passion of a thousand suns. Normal is piss easy, and anything harder than that is completely unfair, unrewarding exercise in frustration. I should not need a fucking PHD in AI manipulation to finish the FUCKING PROLOGUE no matter WHAT difficulty I'm playing on (conversely to shadow dragon, I really wish they would just let you skip the prologue on hard). People always talk about Kris ruining the story, but imo the story of FE3 was already kinda dogshit, so there's not much there to ruin. Like, why does it go out of its way to undo all of the consequences of the previous game by bringing back every single player unit AND villain? Why establish an interesting conflict between former allies where you're a true underdog only to completely abandon that plot for half of the game so you can fuck off into the mountains and kill 5 million identical dragons and listen to a rotating cast of NPCs monologue exposition at you, then return to the main plot and have the big menacing evil empire completely fold like fucking tissue paper over the course of like two chapters? Why does everybody treat Marth like some naive, untested teenager instead of a decorated war hero/dragon slayer? And why does Marth go from an actual character with a personality to a complete non-entity whose only role is to prompt NPCs for exposition about things he should already know? Matter of fact just about the only part of the story that did anything for me on first playthrough was the dynamic between female Kris and Katarina, and that's only because I was a repressed 15 year old transbian who had never watched an anime and was so flabbergasted by the mere possibility of being gay in a nintendo game that I completely fell for the self-insert waifu bait. Granted, a large part of my deeply personal hatred for this story comes from the fact that I read a plot synopsis online before playing it, got massively hyped for the concept, then horribly disappointed with the execution. There are worse FE stories, but this will always be my least favorite. - Fe7 at rock bottom is a spicy take, god damn. I can't fully disagree with anything you said, but I guess most of the maps just don't really bother me that much. As someone who's perpetually cycling units in and out of deployment to try and train as many as I can, weak enemy spam is honestly kind of a plus for me sometimes. The gimmick maps and nonsensical story do kind of lessen my desire to replay it compared to the other games in "like" tier, so maybe I should move it down. - Binding Blade more like Binding BLAND amirite? fuckin gottem ...alright, I know that's rich coming from a shadow dragon apologist, but at least shadow dragon has good QoL features and doesn't lock the ending behind shitty gaiden chapters with invisible requirements. (at least with the star shards in fe3/12 you're motivated to get them inherently because ooh shiny item and it tells you they're important fairly early in the game, I swear in Fe6 the legendary weapons aren't even mentioned a single time outside of the chapters where you get them) - Genealogy is cool in so many ways but man is it a slog. Would be vastly improved if thieves could actually choose how much gold to give instead of having to dump it all on one unit - Have never actually managed to finish a 3DS fe game because they fuel my bad habits of compulsively keeping every single unit in my army the same level while also designing the maps such that the optimal strategy is to funnel all of your resources into 1-2 units and have them solo the game. Also, I never got much out of the reclassing/skill builds/eugenics simulator aspect; optimizing games to that extent always kind of takes the fun out of it for me, and tying reclasses to an item makes me never want to do it out of fear of making an irreversible bad decision - I genuinely don't understand why people complain so much about the monastery in 3 houses??? On new game plus you can basically speed through all the necessary activities in like 10 minutes if you make good use of fast travel, and there's literally no reason to ever not play on new game plus once it's available. Also 3H is definitely my personal favorite cast, though PoR might be up there if it actually let me read more than 5 supports per character. - Interesting that you singled out Birthright's story as bad and boring when that's how I feel about Engage. I swear, it feels like the writers for Engage were deliberately trying to make the story as predictable and uninteresting as possible. Also, the Somniel is infinitely worse than the monastery, it's fundamentally at odds with the old school design philosophy of the maps and feels like it was only added out of obligation because 3H sold so well, the smaller size doesn't even help cut down on time because the fast travel system is less functional and most of the important stuff is behind additional loading screens. Also, why is the support viewer tied to specific save files when they made it literally impossible to grind every support in a single playthrough? Between that, the SP system, and bond rings, Engage would REALLY benefit from a 3H style NG+ ...I really said it was too much work to order my tier list and then typed an entire essay, huh. Need more irl friends to talk about fire emblem with
Honestly when it comes to being overly quirky in Three Houses, the only one I really get that with is Bernadetta. Everyone else in the cast feels super grounded. Also yes, Tellius love forever.
I'm so glad someone out there also has my Thracia take of "i really like this game for a myriad of reasons but wow playing it is something personally difficult" because it's my third fave FE game but I have only played it twice unlike #2 and #1
your binding blade take is BASED. i've developed a weird appreciation for the sheer variety of ways that the game tells you to go fuck yourself. ambush spawns at the starting position, siege weapons and wyverns in fog of war - it's incredible. i love it. i've started seeing it as gigantic jokes and am laughing at my own expense. with units like fir, the objectively worse rutger, or the double whammy of really good unit cecilia introduced in the worst possible map for her alongside "top candidate for worst unit in all of FE" sophia, it's a really really funny game. the story is Weak and i won't fight that but i appreciate how coherent it is. every name that's mentioned actually makes an appearance at some point, the final resolution leaves no holes, i love the concept behind idunn and roy's efforts to spare her. it and blazing blade are the opposites in the story department. whereas binding blade has a logical story with a weak cast (sparing ch24's exposition dump and suprise villain), blazing blade has the silliest story ever featuring "teleports behind you" nergal and an incredibly charming trifecta of protagonists. the retcon potential of dragon roy is also just incredibly hilarious considering fe6's plot. "i wonder what happened to the dragons." my dear boy, you're one of them. listen, intsys, if you're willing to listen to me, here's my twenty page outline on theming and plot changes for an echoes style fe6 remake-
A little late, but Sacred Stones is my favorite game, mainly because of just how comfy it is to play, and its super satisfying. It feels the most replayable, and its like the comfort food of the series and for me its the one I always go back to when I want to play some Fire Emblem.
@@DaniDoyleliterally the reinforcements on br 26 alone make that game dogshit Also I think part 4 of RD works better if you consider that the release of Ashera (and Yune who we thought was the real big baddie trapped in the medallion) HAS been foreshadowed for literally the entirety of two full length visual novel video game experiences and I feel like it would’ve been actually worse if there was no payoff for that plot point that if every nation in Tellius ever engaged in war it would be judgement day
enjoyed this video even though my list is probably the opposite of yours as you can tell from the Arden pfp lol but I really like how there is a fire emblem for everyone I love hearing peoples different fire emblem rankings
Honestly Genealogy and Thracia feel like completely different games from the rest of the series for me. If I had to compare it it would be like starting an engage play through right after beating three houses (they still rank in my top 5 favorite Also congrats on 1k subs
Etie Sigurd, based Dani Ok, I was surprised to see FE6 at 5th. I'm a FE6 fanboy, and I'm used to FE6 being low lmao. but yeah, you talked what I love about FE6. Sofia is bad or Apocalipse time XD. Well, I think FE12 is a great game to play on hard mode. It's the perfect balance of difficulty and customization for me. OHHHHH MY GGOOOOOOD FE8 is the top 1 Based Dani FE8, the cutest and most enjoyable FE The game I played the most. And I still have fun playing it. Oops all archer evolved draft the next run I will play. FE9 is a strange game for me. The game I love even if not being challeging I like FE5, but every time I think about it, I remember the endgame will be the same staff spam because it's thracia
was replaying awakening while watching this and it's so funny that i agree on all points, i just found the emotional core of the story appealing enough for it to carry me through it all (also i love grima and insane amount). the midgame is Mid. it's so mid. act one is Amazing imo, and act three has its moments, but especially how all over the place lucina's involvement is... her greatest contribution to the plot are telling basilio to not die and defeating that one assassin and that's it. the future children have such squandered potential, cuz they're all optional. the pair up system is a ton of fun in how broken it is. strats like nos tanking arent even necessary when freddie can just steamroll everything (or give somebody +6 def so THEY can steamroll everything.) the inheritance system is something i've only started playing with in my second playthrough but i can see the appeal (if you consult a wiki page on which classes have which skills). it just drops the ball in so many aspects. the earlygame is the best the story gets and it has the highest difficulty with actual challenge. but then you get your chrobin sweep going and that's it. game's a joke now. in the end it's just how we differ as people that i have the same complaints but walked away with an all around favourable view of it. awakening is baller and it's because i'm bringing a shovel and am ready to dig. great video. 👍
My favorite thing about Gaiden is that Triangle Attack can proc on enemy phase and that’s maybe one of the funniest things that ever happened to me in FE gameplay; I was c a c k l i n g!
I've been binging these rankings lately, and it's interesting to see how varied they are. Sure, Birthright gets dumped on pretty consistently, but there are still massive discrepancies. There's definitely a big range of things different fans want out of this series. (I'm a big 3H fan myself.) And it's cool that IS has provided all those different things. Now if Nintendo and IS could see fit to release them all for a decent price on a modern system so newer fans can also find the right game for them. And if they decide it's not worth selling those games, at least stop the ROM witch hunts.
Currently on the revelations section and honestly ALL OF THIS. The appeal of revelations isn’t good balance, story, or difficult map design. It’s all about flexibility and doing whatever you want and just having a good time while you do it. It’s all about just sandboxing with your units and doing cool shit like making Cordelia the grandmother of caeldori. Is it good? No. Is it fun? Absolutely
The funny thing with Birthright is that a good portion of its maps are kill boss. It's just that it in my opinion has the worst handling of rout maps in the series. Where after a certain turn there will be reinforcements on a side of a map that none of your units are at. So you move units to reach the enemies and more enemies spawn. And then it just spills over and becomes overwhelming. Some might say it's an incentive to play fast, but in reality it's more not playing fast enough will make the map more tedious. Also the FE4 reasoning was interesting because it reminded me of one of my favorite things about the FE franchise. where you can have the same games and different people liking them for different reasons. Because FE4 is a personal favorite but I also agree with every single one of your critiques. So it's interesting seeing how other people prioritize certain things.
I actually think there's not that many kill boss maps. Hans, Iago, Xander, and Final are kill boss and Opera house is Escape but all others maps in the game are route maps.
@@DaniDoyle Funny enough I did a reddit post a couple of years ago breaking down map objectives in every FE game and how frequent they were. Birthright has 43 maps, 24 maps are rout with 9 being paralogues. 16 maps are defeat boss with 5 being paralogues. So only counting maingame there's 29 maps, 15 being rout and 11 being kill boss. For context the kill boss maps, for post route split, are chapters 6, 14, 18, 20, 21, 24, 25, 26, 27 and endgame. The thing is that A. a lot of these kill boss maps throw so many enemies that it sorta feels like a rout map. Chapters 14, 20 and 21 (being the first map with ryoma, the faceless map and the stoneborn map) are the most egregious offenders. And B. there are so many rout maps back to back, with said rout maps being so obnoxious, that their presence feels egregious. For clarity I'm not contesting your opinion on Birthright because I agree. I just find it funny how annoying Birthright rout maps are and how the map design is so lame that even when a good portion of maps are kill boss, it doesn't even feel that way. Post in question: www.reddit.com/r/fireemblem/comments/ghu02j/list_of_fire_emblem_game_objectives_and_the/
@@DaniDoyle you’re forgetting a few maps. Ch. 6, Ch. 14, Ch. 18, Ch. 20, and Ch. 21 are all kill boss maps. It’s pretty even between kill boss and rout tbh excluding Paralogues. Most of the exclusive Paralogues are rout to be fair but all the CQ exclusive ones are rout as well, and there are 4 shared kill boss paralogues as well. It does have significantly more exclusive rout maps than CQ (22 vs 14, not counting Ch. 6 CQ which is basically rout) but there are plenty of non rout maps
11:30 > FE7 critique FE7 stan hear... I agree entirely. ESPECIALLY the points on enemy spam, and of course Battle Before Dawn. The game is really held up by its large fun caste and lengthy campeign. I feel the enemy spam indicates the devs trying to assure armies that had lots of deaths were still able to deal with enemies. IMO the game was designed to cater to Devs/Producers ideas of what the Western RPG market wants/needs, and that usually means making things easier and more flexible when it comes to things like units dying or missed objectives. Designing from that framework, you have weak armies still able to pull through while armies with few depths feel like powerful badasses mowing. Like remember, you're playing the game with years. With that said - optional objectives **designed to hard to reach or missible** like Kishuna and saving both Nino and Jaffar. I personally took that chapter as choice presented by the devs - save Nino or Jaffar. Because getting to one character, even through the BS sige magic and the roving bosses is super doable if you dedicate most of your resources to saving one. Dragons Gate. I agree. Its my favorite Room-By-Room / Fortress map.
FE 12 is goated for simple fact that it is one of the few games that forces you to use an actual strategy instead of handing your favorite carry a Handaxe/Javelin and watching them kill 3 dozen guys in a 5 minute enemy phase.
i only started Engage recently and the biggest issue i had is Lumerias death. the game doesnt give us time to connect to her. and Alear having such a rough time with her death just feels hamfisted in with how little we got to know her. i did like where her character was going but they should have given us an extra chapter or two with her around to really build that motherly feel with so that her death actually had some impact on the player and not just the characters.
Commenting to say this is easily the most measured and reasonable opinion on Three Houses I've ever heard, and I needed that amidst the constant deluge of "Three Houses is PEAK Engage fans need to die" vs "Three Houses is overrated trash". I also agree that Engage's plot was serviceable up until Chapter 22 and only falls apart afterwards. The other problem I have is this is ALSO where the map design falls apart a little. Every chapter up to 22 had at least one "cool new thing" to keep you hooked, either a new unit, Emblem or a cool boss you'd never fought before. From 23 onwards there's no more of that, combined with a weaker story and back-loaded Paralogues this is often where my love for the game flags a bit. I agree with Pelleas' blood pact fitting his naivety. One other thing about the "you control a bunch of racists" part I find interesting is, part of what makes Micaiah so horribly conflicted by what she's doing is that, while SHE and her allies are not racist, many of the rank-and-file soldiers she's leading ARE and use her war as an excuse to indulge in it. As much as she knows she's only doing "evil thing" because she's forced to, she's legitimizing a bunch of awful people by doing so and that weighs on her. In Awakening, I was always under the impression that Lucina joined the Ferrox tournament because Chrom DIDN'T win in the original timeline? It's been a while so I forget. Though really, we all know it's so they could do cool "Chrom vs Masked Marth" trailers. That whole fight makes very little sense when you think about it too hard. (Lucina can KILL CHROM) The thing about visiting Archanaea in the future has one other problem I notice: most fans of Awakening don't seem to care. Because it was far less in-your-face about the nostalgia pandering than Engage was, it flew over the heads of the audience Awakening ended up succeeding with, and only the most die-hard of old fans got it. While in theory I prefer nostalgia baiting to be kept subtle, I just find it a shame the "heavily timeskipped old setting "aspect of Awakening flew mostly under the radar due to the circumstances of its series (the old setting it timeskipped was mostly Japan-only).
as someone whose fav FE is also sacred stones (I am currently writing an essay analyzing the themes of grief/loss across many of its characters because I love it so much), the number 1 spot for sacred stones was a very welcome surprise :D also, totally agree about the exhaustion of the monastery segments in 3H, especially playing on new game+. Having maxed out professor rank from the beginning feels more like a curse than a boon because I am stuck between actually progressing and maximizing all of the time I have in the monastery, and it gets SUUUUPER exhausting
As someone who vastly prefers Engage to 3H, I find it very hard to argue both aren't very well designed. The monastery, to an extent the maps, and (to me, at least) the silent protagonist hold back 3H a fair bit, but the unit customization, social sim elements, and pretty stellar cast easily still make it hold up. I think Engage being better (IMO) mostly just comes down to it building off of what 3H established, so I think there's a lot to respect about 3H in that regard.
Tokyo Mirage Sessions is ranked higher than Awakening? Hoo boy, that’s a spicy meatball I agree tho lol, TMS is way more fun than I ever would’ve guessed based off the bizarro premise. I hope more people try it out!
I have a really hard time ranking the Fates games because despite Conquest having the best gameplay, it only has like 5 characters that I don’t actively hate, whereas I love almost everyone in Birthright. It’s a shame because for me both games are really good in either gameplay or characters but really terrible in the other. That’s why I also like Revelations more than most other people do. It at least partially combines what I like about both games, although it definitely doesn’t reach the best of Conquest gameplay for me. Also that’s cool that you like Three Houses more now, but I actually had pretty much the opposite experience. I got huge burnout shortly after it released which made me mostly dislike it, but then when I returned to it years later I found that it was actually way worse even than I remembered. I don’t want to get into the details of it due to the risk of starting “discourse” but it’s at the bottom of my list by a pretty big margin, and as much as I want to like it, I doubt that will ever change.
Omg I feel the same way about Three Houses. I absolutely loved it at launch but I've progressively disliked it as time passed by. It's just a slog to play for me. I still love the characters and the story but the gameplay is so mundane after beating every route and the graphics are hideous.
Same on the Three Houses thing. I don't HATE the game, and I still like the characters and (half of) the story, but its just so hamfisted in gameplay execution imo. Absolutely massive slog where 50% of the gameplay is in the monastery, which got boring halfway through my first playthrough. And when you actually get to the fun stuff, the maps are garbage and there's only like two dozen of them across all four routes It's like Fire Emblem without any of the Fire Emblem and that is NOT a compliment. Again I don't HATE the game, but it is by far my least favorite game in the entire series (aside from FEH)
Birthright has its pros that are a reinterpretation of Dani's cons. It's fun as an enemy phase skill emblem. It's fun to take full advantage of skills grinding and reclassing in a setting that pushes enemy phase juggernauting. The more unique classes adds a new flavor to it too. Lastly It's on the best system for it. Dual screens with a fast forward button and online connectivity. Lots to have fun with despite the goofy story and lack of a strong push for player phase
I actually agree with your take regarding Three Houses gameplay. Is it unbalanced? Yes, but most FE games are. Is the Monastery tedious? Yes, but I think it was an interesting thing to try. Is the actual battle system itself bad? Not at all. Some of the old school formulas for hit and crit rate are cool, battalions aren't as well done as Emblem Rings but I like them more than even Fates's version of Pair Up since it increases the power of your player phase. Combat Arts are hilariously unbalanced (Vengeance at C+ vs Glowing Ember at A), but they once again give your Player Phase more power. Etc. That said, I think the main reason people don't like these things is that the map design is pretty bad. There are the typical handful of "worst maps in the series" contenders that a lot of games have (chapter 5, HBD, Anna paralogue), but most of the maps are just big and flat. You don't really think a ton about strategy in most of them as much because the game's idea of difficulty is gigantic stat inflation and super good skills on Maddening. I think it's a lot like some of Awakening's systems, which were bad in that game but some extra polish and better maps made them really fun in Conquest, another game in the Three Houses formula but without the boarding school gimmick could be really really good. Being able to use any weapon in any class sort of homogenizes unit archetypes, but I don't think it is anywhere near as broken as people make it out to be. With no Weapon Triangle, it's basically limited in actually relevant viability to carrying around Bows for 2 range/killing fliers, otherwise you stick to your main weapon anyway.
Shin is the fifth "leg", the tail. I feel like Radiant Dawn potentially suffered of trying to connect the opposing factions together; I think the literal Deus Ex Machina of Ashera essentially ending the world definitely was always the idea, considering how PoR teases a lot how a full war among all the ruling forces would awake the Evil God in the Fire Emblem and destroy everything (and Sephiran not-so-subtly telling during the epilogue that this is gonna happen); but I guess they struggled to make the story go from this point to the battle in the tower against Lekain, Sephiran and Ashera... So it ended up giving us this very awkward section where this just happen.
it really sucks that heroes has the whole gacha thing going on, since imo the regular fire emblem-y gameplay of heroes is pretty cool, and ironically involves 0 rng. someone needs to make a heroes type game, but without any of the gacha bullshitery
Just started the video but still watching, I wanted to say that Fire Emblem 7 is the first and only Fire Emblem that I've played so I'm very biased in its favor but can't really disagree with anything that you said. I'm planning on buying another Fire Emblem game once I have some money lol. I still think it's SO fun, and since I mainly play on normal mode I think that maps like Dragon's Gate are very fun. In normal mode the tight time constraint on getting to certain objectives, even in Battle Before Dawn, feels fair if you have the knowledge that these objectives exist. That said, it's been years since I first played the game and can't remember, but those tight time limits seem... unreasonable for a new player even on normal mode. I just played the Dragon's Gate map in Eliwood normal mode a few hours ago actually and I barely managed to recruit Legault purely because I nearly forgot he'd go west after stealing the treasure in the east. I don't think a new player could successfully adapt to these situations without having to restart the level, and that seems like a negative to me. I like that the beginning of the game feels strategic, but don't like that the later portions of the game feel so easy. I'd have fun with one or two chapters where you feel very powerful, but it gets so excessive with chapter after chapter where your units are incredibly strong. I recently did a playthrough where I wanted to use Geitz and Farina, so (since I'm bad at money management) I had to do a lot of arena grinding for money and for my lords to be at a high level, and it really broke the game. I don't know if other Fire Emblems do this, but something I love about The Blazing Blade is that it keeps track of every support you've ever seen and shows you which supports you're missing in the extras menu, so I like to create my teams around which supports I want to see for the first time. I guess I'd sum up my thoughts as: I agree with your criticisms and I can totally see how they make the game unfun for you, but it's still extremely fun for me despite them.
Love seeing Fe tier list cause it's just different every time I see one. Finally found a fan of Engage that rated it highly even the story! Though actually like the story from start to finish. Perfectly describe why I love Sacred Stones as well!
I just wanted to mention this (im at the awakening portion) but i really really like Walhard and i think he would have been a interesting foe in a FE game whose main plot isn't centered around time travel/apocalypse.
hearing your opinion on the FE6 gaidens just reminds me of the: Who invited blud, bro thinks hes on the team. Meme. I personally actually have barely any problems with Engage outside of it tiring me out circa the solm arc, one thing i do want to mention regarding the third arc is: They had no right making Lumeras map theme go so hard.
So i just have to mention this in regards to RD, I absolutely despise locking Pelleas till NG+, but what i hate even more is that his Noble and genuinely (in my opinion) great sacrifice scene is marred by the fact that it doesnt mean anything, The Blood pact is still on going and i just really hate that. Also Micaiah being racist is a plotpoint that could have worked, though it would require some rewrites, the basis is there already., which guess what doesnt even matter because afterwards Ashera comes out of her tower and just petrifies everyone.
Honestly, I'm not good at picking favorites in a definitive, linear sense... I tend to like games in a given series for reasons that are, if not entirely different, at least not interchangeable with one another. Basically, every time I try to declare a definite favorite, there's always a part of me that goes "oh, but, hmm... what about this other thing I ALSO really like... do I really like the first thing MORE, or..." in an infinite loop, so I guess I'll just share some general opinions! Note that I have not played enough of the Jugdral or Tellius duologies to feel I can fairly weigh in on them, but I have liked what I've played and I do intend to play more. Firstly, I am actually a massive Fire Emblem 7-lover. It's sort of to me what I gather Path of Radiance is to you; a game in the series I have a ton of fond memories of and can probably never fully untangle my feelings about from that nostalgia I have for it. Nevertheless, if I am to just share which games I subjectively like the most, it's definitely up there for me. The gameplay really doesn't bother me all that much, personally, and I love the story, cast, and world. I've always appreciated the more "zoomed-in" scope of the story, and how it involves mainly stuff that's happening kind of in the dark underbelly of Elibe rather than the overt geopolitical stuff that most Fire Emblem games focus on. It's one of those games where, since it was my first, I don't really think of it as unusual, but in retrospect and with a fuller understanding of the series's history, there's actually a good deal unique about it. Maybe a strange opinion, but after playing FE1 all the way through, I absolutely maintain that it's one upgrade to the series' modern UI and "control feel" away from unironically being a top-tier Fire Emblem game with zero other mechanical changes necessary. What was originally the "early-installment weirdness" resulting from it being the very first game where the developers were still feeling out basically everything about Fire Emblem's identity nowadays metamorphoses into the game have its own pretty distinct and surprisingly-solid mechanical identity. I also just really dig the vibes of the Archanea-Valentia trilogy and setting, and "vibes" are really important to me in... really just games in general. I'm willing to put up even with game design most people hate as long as the overall vibes of the experience (said game design included) click with me. Following from that, FE2, 3, 15? All games I like quite a bit! I haven't played the DS remakes of FE1 and FE3 in a hot minute, but I actually find myself preferring a lot about FE1 and FE3 to them. I understand the why of it, but I think that "updating" a lot of the game's mechanics to work more similarly to how Tellius and GBAFE handled things wasn't really the right call, especially considering that FE11 does NOT properly correct for the addition of the Weapon Triangle to a game the enemy formations in which were designed around not having a weapon triangle. Circling back to the vibes thing, though, that's one area in which Echoes absolutely EXCELS for me. I'm really meh on some of the changes they made to the story (mostly the same ones you mentioned or alluded to), but aside from that, the setting is lovely, pretty much every presentation aspect is gorgeous, and the game just feels great to play. Criticism of the map design IS warranted, IMO, but it's not a dealbreaker for me personally, and I still like the game overall, even if I do feel its map design is one of its weakest areas. FE2 is one of those games where a significant part of my affection for it is drawn from how it just radiates passion and ambition to me. Even now, it's still a pretty unique game... really just in general, not even limiting comparison to other Fire Emblem titles. For the NES, it's astonishing what they managed to achieve with it. I have a massive soft spot for "to hell with the hardware limitations, we're shooting for the stars anyway" games, and Gaiden ABSOLUTELY falls into that camp for me. FE1 falls somewhere around there, too, come to think of it, but FE2 especially. FE3 just has a very classic, "quintessentially-Fire Emblem" feel to it to me. The sense of a large-scale continent-wide epic laced with drama and tragedy is in full force, and I think it iterates on FE1's mechanics in some pretty nice ways. Universal 20 caps is an approach that has its weaknesses, for sure, but I appreciate the lower stat scaling it facilitates, and I think 3 is a perfect sweet spot for the Attack Speed lead needed to double in that system. The way it handles weapons is pretty interesting, too, actually. As opposed to most games making swords the "lightweight" melee weapon type, axes the "heavyweight", and lances the "middleweight", FE3 instead goes with swords = speed, axes = power, and lances = accuracy. Having no axe-users in Book 2 is a bummer, but I think that approach to the three melee weapon types is cool even so. Dismounting is actually a mechanic I'm... mixed on. I think the IDEA of it has merit, and it's actually quite fun in outdoor maps, but indoor maps forcing a huge chunk of your army into a class that is, bereft of its ability to hop on a steed, just a worse Mercenary, is quite NOT fun, especially with one less infantry class to use in Book 2. Not enough to make me not like the game, though. Honestly the only negative opinion I really have to put on this list is that I don't like the Fates trilogy at all. I've tried multiple times to play them, and I cannot FORCE myself to get past, like... I think the furthest I got was Chapter 12 in any route. They're AESTHETICALLY very nice and I guess a lot of people really like the game design of Conquest, but actually PLAYING everything in its full context, including the story surrounding it, just puts me off the games so much. I've heard people "defend" the games by saying that you can skip the story, which is true, but when the story was such a big part of the games' marketing, I can only conclude that the intention was that it be a major part of the experience. I don't think I can in good conscience consider "you can skip something the developers intended to be a big part of the overall package" to be a defense rather than an indictment in this context. "Skill Emblem" as you've called it here also just... really doesn't do it for me as a gameplay style for the series as much as its predecessor styles. I consider the relative simplicity of earlier Fire Emblem games to be one of the series' strengths rather than a weakness to be corrected. I am also admittedly not a big-brained pro gamer looking to up the ante after growing bored of 0% growths ironman LTCs of FE12 Lunatic Reverse, so the number of factors I need to keep track of at once can kinda just get overwhelming to me. I much prefer the way Jugdral and Tellius incorporate skills, from what I've played of them.
the "you can skip the story" for Fates isn't a defence, it's a warning (intended for people like me that mainly play for the gameplay but never skip the story bahaha). The story is absolutely horrible (the supports are alright (except the Corrin+Camilla ones)) and you skip all of it. Still though I (for example) really enjoyed some of those maps (I only played Conquest) and I didn't have to see much shitty story to get there. If you didn't like the gameplay anyway then it must be befuddling to see people rate so highly such an obviously terrible game in so many aspects bahaha
1:29:20 Yeah, but the unholy trinity of Rutoga, Percival, and Melody can kinda destroy the difficulty with their mere existence, plus once Roy promotes, basically no one can reliably hit him and the Sword of Seals eats everyone alive.
I'm probably in an odd place for FE players, as I didn't finish (or start, even) my first FE game (which I... think... was FE7 but it was quite a long time ago) and I came back to the series much much later with Awakening only a few years ago. So, there's still a few games I haven't played (I'm missing out on 1-3, 6, Tellius, remakes, Rev, Three Houses). And my first game, Awakening, was probably my least favourite. My current favourite is probably split between Engage and Thracia, for completely different reasons. I adore Engage's minute-to-minute gameplay, the emblem rings... whereas Thracia I'm more fond of the mechanics in general.
My first FE was FE7, and I never finished it as a kid because I thought Eliwood mode was just extras content and decided not to play it lol. Finished Lyn mode and thought I was done with the game In my defense I was like 8 years old
I heavily disagree with a lot of this list (and even the ones I agree with the placement of, I disagree with the specific points you mention), but you know what? I sincerely respect the guts you have to post a list that, to me, feels like it's super controversial in the current landscape of the FE community. Good to see people willing to say things that the majority may disagree with
I mean just because you disagree doesn't mean it's a majority opinion I think everyone has different feelings on what games are good versus bad, and I think what games people like mostly depend on what people are looking for in fire emblem
@@DaniDoyle oh no, that's not what I meant, I wouldn't dare to say my opinion is that of the majority of the fanbase. I don't think MY opinions line up with the majority either, I just think this is one of the more "controversial" rankings I've seen (my own personal list would likely be just as much so, for different reasons) and so I heavily respect it, even if I disagree with a lot of it, just by merit of the fact that you posted it despite in several parts of the video mentioning the amount of backlash you expected
Just to clarify, I absolutely adore Sacred Stones and Engage, but at the same time I also love FE7 a lot. I just found it funny that the first two were by the top of your list while the latter one was at the very bottom
My first ever fire emblem game was fire emblem three houses. Before three houses i watched a lot of fire emblem content and always wanted to play it, but didn't have acess to play any of the other games before, due to not having the console for it or the cost being to high for some games (tellius) I played all the routes on three houses on hard mode some multiple times and i had a lot of fun with the game, but the monastary got tiring really fast. for me at least. And after playing all the routes on hard mode i tried out maddening and it was such a stupid difficulty spike. I didn't have to much problems on hard mode and went through the game relativly easy. Maybe it is a skill issue, but maddening was just rough. I played blue lions till the final chapter and got stuck on it. Still haven't finished it (which skill issue tbh) In comparision fire emblem engages maddening felt more managable. It was still a challenging experience, but i had fun with it. I went into it thinking it would be as brutal as three houses, but it wasn't it was a difficulty level that was really well handled imo.
I'm glad someone else shares the same opinion I have on Blazing Sword, it's just so clunky and I find it very overrated, which happened because, like Awakening, it was a lot of people's first Fire Emblem. It's challenge is just all over the place and while the characters are fun, the story they tell with them just feels like a huge wasted opportunity, especially how you could delete Lyn from the story after the prologue and nothing would really change. If you want a GBA FE with a good, fair, difficult challenge, there's FE6, and if you want a GBA FE that's a bit easier while not devolving to just being simple, there's FE8
@@DaniDoyle It was just really funny cuz like beat for beat, you would have a specific take within a game like ‘I hate this element, but love this one’ and it was almost comical how completely juxtaposed we are in every way as FE fans lol. I’ll admit, it was frustrating, but in like a ‘discourse with your friends’ way hahaha I think the only things we do agree on: -Ranking-wise, Heroes at bottom and Path being in the top 2 -The voice acting/casts in Echoes and 3H’s being incredible (anyone would be hard-pressed to fight this) -She’s not top of top for me, but Jill being one of the best characters in FE. In particular, the way that game’s dialogue system/structure allows her to be a full-blown subplot that echoes the core themes of the Tellius games’ complex, fucked-up narrative. but I’m happy to say we agree on the best thing to agree on -Ike is best Lord. Easily. He’s the Lord who doesn’t wanna be a Lord and he’s amazing. Ike is my second favorite main character in any story told and I usually haaaate main characters. (Especially when compared to the side characters)
Goes to show a belief I've held for a while. There's no FE canon, beyond MAYBE Path of Radiance is good. Because I had no idea what to expect coming into this list, but even I couldn't have predicted that I would see my opinions on FE7 and FE8 just completely reversed.
I know this would probably take a lot of work but it would be really helpful if you could cut to footage or even just an image of the maps that you're talking about. For the games that I know well I would also have opinions on the maps that you're talking about, but without context clues it's hard to know which maps you're talking about unless they're extremely notorious and/or memorable (i.e. Battle Before Dawn).
I present to you all: a pretty goddamn long list of my general thoughts for the purpose of discussion. I know the first half of this is mostly negative but I swear I get more positive after that: -Part of me thinks I must be really really bad at FE because I played Birthright on hard and some chapters just felt frustratingly hard. It's like a year since then but I remember chapters 10, 12, 21 and 25 being particularly irritating. Is it because I didn't do many skirmishes? I have a feeling that's not the reason. Similarly, Conquest just feels unfair most of the time. Like, chapter 10 even on hard felt like I was just getting straight up out-stated and I just couldn't do anything, particularly after they recede the water. Also, archers with counter? Seriously, why? Thracia was pretty hard but it at least felt like fun-hard most of the time, Conquest just makes me feel like it wants me to stop playing at any cost. -I agree on a lot of story related points: Engage has some contrived bullshit but also this is Fire Emblem where that happens basically all the time, Path of Radiance and Thracia have the best character writing in the series by far imo, Radiant Dawn's story is one of the best with a few aspects that are exceptions (me, a writer running a Tellius TTRPG game, desperately trying to find a way to write out or at least never ever bring up the blood pact). -I also agree Three Houses is pretty overrated in the regard of plot, but this might be a personal thing. I never got very connected to the cast, and my first playthrough was Black Eagles and I had bought into the marketting as "you'll get to choose your side in this conflict" but then when I was forced into Silver Snow I didn't feel like I ever got the chance to do that because I didn't see the dialogue you need to get with Edelgard to unlock Crimson Flower, which was because I had stopped doing the exploration stuff at the monastery, which was because I was getting burned out so hard from it by even just chapter 11, so I dropped the game. I tried to replay it on Verdant Wind because my boyfriend loves Claude and I want to experience that with him more but I made it to Chapter 17 and most of my characters still felt like they weren't coming together and the map design+gameplay was just so boring to me so I dropped it again. Have yet to actually finish it, other than FE 1-3 and 12 it's the only one I haven't beaten yet. -Similarly, Echoes is my least favorite in the series by a massive margin, partially due to Sexism Things(TM) that you mentioned but also the characters all feel so flat to me, like my favorite playable character is Tobin because he's voiced by Robbie Daymond and that's literally the only thing I have to distinguish him from everyone else but it's more than most characters get. And the map design is so god-awful with constant summoner spam, like who thought Nuibaba's Abode was a good idea? -I'm really sad that I've soured on Awakening a lot over the years, I played it when I couldn't sleep at night when I had a bad bout of depression in high school and it was my first FE game, so it's upsetting that I just don't really have fun with it anymore. In general I have an issue where I want to like something really bad but it won't happen and I need to find a way to get over that, but that's a whole other can of worms that I will promptly close. -On the positive side though, Fellow Jill Enjoyer!!! She's my girl, give her all the favoritism I can on every playthrough of either Tellius game, nobody can stop me, least of all myself. Path of Radiance is definitely my favorite, if it had just a few of the features that RD had (being able to move around skills, the height advantage stuff) and refined some of the maps (like The Bridge and Eat Rock) it would be the perfect Fire Emblem to me. Radiant Dawn would probably be my favorite if unit usability wasn't wildly imbalanced not only within armies but between them, don't mean to beat a dead horse but the Dawn Brigade is so bad. Recently I've been playing a fanmade rebalance of RD just called Radiant Dawn +, and man it's so good, I've been having a lot of fun training units like Fiona and without it being true agony. If it tells you anything, Ilyana was my first Tier 3 unit, Micaiah can use dark magic and I think that's cool as hell, and I'm planning on bringing Lyre to endgame if she keeps up at this rate, I think I'll only be able to play RD like this for the rest of my days. Speaking of which, RD also has the coolest Endgame set up and I wish more games in the series did this. -Sacred Stones and Thracia are close behind in 2nd and 3rd, Sacred Stones has a pretty simple but solid setting and though not many of the characters are among my favorites, Joshua, Knoll, and L'arachel exist there and I'll give them favoritism every time I can (I, uh, really hate Ephraim tho lmao). I also like how it did the split promotion paths but not having reclassing, and honestly I kind of prefer not having reclassing? I see why people like it but I'm almost never interested enough to bother with it. Thracia gets more fun the later you get into it IMO, the first few chapters are kind of slow, the Munster Arc is absolute agony, then it starts to go up from there until you get to the point where you have a truckload of staves and the game is very very fun now. It also, as I said, has some of the best written characters in the series, like it adds a lot of cool depth to Ishtar, Leif, and Ced, and then Eyvel, Mareeta, and Sara are top-top tier characters to me. Like I have a hugee character tier list I sort through sometimes and the top most tier are the six from Thracia I just mentioned, Joshua, and then Ike, Soren, Jill, Lucia, and Elincia. -Shadow Dragon I liked because I got to make a few specific units broken, and honestly I think I mostly like characters for the depth that I give them in my head as opposed to the depth they actually have so I have found people to latch onto despite the lack of character interactions, like Caeda is swiftly becoming one of my favorites for the few moments where she's really tactical and calculated instead of just Girl The Character. And then I'm pretty mid on FE6 and 7, and FE4 is ehhhhh I see why people like it but not for me, also the character writing is way worse than FE5. And in New Mystery I'm at like chapter 13. So that's all! My thoughts are not more special than anyone elses but they are mine and I gift it to you on a plate.
Honestly as much as i love FE12 if it was my first fire emblem I would hate this series forever. Thankfully it was awakening as my first FE. However, recently i did lunatic run on FE12, awakening and birthright. The lunatic experience actually elevated my value on FE12 and birthright while awakening lunatic kinda ruined my childhood first love. I do agree for FE12 i could not bring myself to play it constantly on H3. It was draining and tiring but in the end satisfying. On the other hand finishing awakening made me feels dirty because it just chrobin turn based musou at the end. I tried lunatic+ and yeah i hate it. I would rather play FE12 H4 than lunatic+ awakening. Currently my top 3 FE: 1. 3H 2. Engage /3hopes (surprised me as i dislike warriors game in general) 3. FE12
I feel like what makes Fire Emblem so interesting and special is that no matter your play style, no matter your experience with the series, there’s a game in here for you. And that’s what makes subjective rankings like this so interesting. Because everyone’s list is going to be wildly different. I usually value the story of a Fire Emblem game because I like having that motivation to keep going. Like oh no! It’s Sacred Stones are we have to rescue our brother! Let’s go! It’s why I put down Conquest extremely early (like just after the route split) because the story was entirely nonsensical at that point and was honestly just badly written. Even though Conquest is touted as the good Fates entry, I would still put it extremely low on my list because of the story. I think FE4 has the best story in the series (unless we count Tellius as one story instead of two games, but even then Radiant Dawn has some issues there too). It’s why I don’t mind the map sizes and the length of a single chapter because the story and the characters are so engaging and endearing. That said, I still totally recognize that FE4 doesn’t have universal appeal because of its slow nature and large maps with several turns of nothing happening (Chapter 4 is the most egregious at that). I also like these kinds of lists because they help foster discussion. Oh, you don’t like FE7? Well I like it for x,y, and z. And we have a chat about it where maybe I’ve been overlooking something because it’s one of my favorite games, or maybe I help you see certain maps and mechanics in a different way that helps you appreciate them more. I’m so glad RUclips recommended your videos to me. You’re extremely articulate, your videos are interesting, and it’s nice to see other FEtubers outside of the BIG ONEs lmao. Keep up the great work! (I say on a video released months ago 😅)
Based for saying Echoes' story isn't a complete improvement over Gaiden's, and I agree with your points. Though it never occurred to me that nearly every woman in Gaiden is either damseled or obsessed with a man. And we can't even blame Kaga this time! I was about to say I like Clair as a character, but... I think she's damseled? Is Genny damseled? Because she's not obsessed with a man until the epilogue. Mae's a pretty solid character too and I wouldn't say being Boey's love interest dominates her whole character. I also REALLY dislike how Echoes portrays Mila and Duma. Making them dragons was unnecessary, when they were originally unique for being rare divine beings in FE that WEREN'T dragons. But they also blame all their problems on "dragon degeneration", which got retconned ever since Fates (and kind of Awakening? Some Nah supports hint at it) to be inherent in all dragons rather than something that can be avoided with Dragonstones (thankfully Engage walked that back). Duma also didn't demand sacrifices (of, guess what, women) in the original. (Jedah tries to sacrifice Celica's party to him but it seemed like something he came up with on his own?) I always liked the twist in his death quote that Duma was actually not that bad of a guy and the real problem was his followers taking his ideology to extremes, which was implied with Mila too. (Zofia twisting Mila's "kindness" ideology into hedonism was also a twist I don't see done often) The original theme was Celia and Alm were supposed to be "Mila and Duma done right". But then Echoes says Mila and Duma are entirely bad while also retconning their lore.
I was willing to let the Revolutions take slide (I'm not mad just confused) but will die in the hill that Radient Dawn part 4 is good. The massive maps add to the epic scale of the story and is your last chance to train up your growth units. The fact that yiu have to split up your units into armies is really cool because it forces you to use units you wouldn't other wise and getting your part one units to the point where they can stand toe to toe with the Greil Mercenaries is very satisfying. I agree the story is a deus ex machina, but am willing to let this slide because it is actually foreshadowed and is consistent with the stories theme that war brings common ruin to all, while still letting the two sides team up.
Sealed Sword was the first FE game I played and honestly I think it is my favorite in the series, and definitely better than Blazing Sword, but I feel like my opinion is typically an odd one. You and Mangs are the only people who I've seen who see Sealed Sword as better than Blazing Sword.
I think that's partially because not a lot of people have played binding blade (sorry but I have to call it binding blade from now on or I get VERY confused). In lists where said person has actually played every fire emblem game I find people either usually put it in C tier because: the story is kind of just Roy+Merlinus, they have no nostalgia for the game and the game doesn't have any shiny stuff like weapon forging, pair up, dungeons etc etc or they put it in A tier usually because they find the gameplay really engaging. Binding Blade is my favourite FE game by quite a margin, It's the only FE game I finished (I get VERY bored after midgame in most Fire Emblem games) until just recently where I finished Conquest and even in Conquest I was just trying to get it over with in the last 3-4 chapters. Honestly it probably rebooted my interest in the franchise, before then Fire Emblem was a Franchise I enjoyed for 15 chapters then got bored.
@@yaboykirby7789 Yeah, I feel most people played Blazing Sword first, sometimes even as their first game, so when people compare it to it's much more difficult predecessor, FE6 is seen as less refined. Also, FE6 has the disadvantage of being the first GBA game, meaning first game syndrome is real, and the devs had no way to get feedback on the difficulty, (Which by the way, Sealed Sword was said to be intentionally toned down in difficulty from Thracia 776, so that just goes to show how hard Thracia is.) which might have been a turn off for more casual fans. However, I still think Blazing Sword's map design is horrible and I can barely tolerate playing Lyn mode, which newcomers are forced to play, so I think FE7 also has plenty of turnoffs.
i recently wrote a decently long review on why i kinda hate sov(haven't played gaiden), and one of my biggest critiques was the story and you really highlighted exactly what i said with the nobility subplot it just UGH
The Three Houses slander hurts my soul. The idea that anyone can look at Binding Blade, Thracia 776 and Three Houses, and come out with the understanding that TH is the weakest game completely baffles me. Just goes to show how different and diverse us weird humans can be.
@@lspuria8440 No, I am serious. I honestly disagree, and really can't see that viewpoint. Like I said, we're all different, and that's what I am reminded of here.
Alm's victory in Shadows of Valentia is presented specifically as the triumph of humanity over the gods - they're not exactly subtle when they call the finale's soundtrack 'Twilight of the Gods'. Alm and Celica becoming king and queen of a united continent when so much of the story is about the false dichotomy formed by the male/female war/peace duma/mila rigel/zofia divide works quite well, but Alm's concerns about the role of the nobility just draws attention to the parts that don't work (because he kills all his enemies and becomes king anyway, like most fire emblem protagonists do). I think an overlooked aspect of why this doesn't quite work is that the story is quite derivative of the original trilogy of Star Wars, and not just in the sense that it's doing a Campbellian hero's journey - the specific plot beats and character dynamics are very similar outside of Alm and Celica's relationship staying romantic rather than becoming familial because George Lucas decided not to make three more movies right away (long story). The problem this creates is that the dynamic between Luke and Darth Vader is very different from that between Alm and Rudolf. Luke is crushed by the revelation that his father is Darth Vader because it reveals that all his hopes and dreams are lies. Alm is upset that Rudolf is his father because he's in the way of him killing evil god and becoming king. Luke killing evil god and becoming king is presented as the worst possible outcome in Star Wars, but it's Alm's ultimate triumph because the story's politics and themes are fundamentally quite different despite their similarities.
Honestly I'm... a little surprised at the 3 houses placement? Not because I have an opinion on the game (never played, I played Geneology, Awakening, Birthright, and Conquest), but because you spend some 75% of the time talking about the game in a very negative sense (story, fiddly inbetweens, exceptionally unbalanced at higher difficulties, etc etc) and only really spare a couple sentences to be like 'but I like the characters' and 'the actual gameplay is fun!' Not saying fun can't be the ultimate decider, just weird hearing someone spend 5 (of 7) minutes complaining and then turn around and call it 9.5/10, lol
probably not that surprising, but I love shadow Dragon, and fe1 and 3 feel like fun side grades. I also quite enjoy birthright and revelations as well. I really just have a hard time criticizing any fire emblem game. every single one I'd consider one of my favorite games of all time in the grand scheme of things
So, I HAVEN'T played all FE games... however, especially talking to your top 3, that's roughly the same order I'd have placed them in... I'm working my way through FE6 right now, I actually probably would have placed FE7 in MY top 5, but that's primarily due to it being the only other FE game I had access to until Path of Radiance... so, I originally just picked up FE8 because it was for GBA specifically and because I was the oldest of 3, I had first dibs on the living room TV UNTIL my sisters got home... then they got dibs and same for the parents, if they wanted to use it you were SOL... however, I am going to say that I almost entirely, until my Grandma bought me a GCN for Xmas, I essentially lived on FE8 and FE7, then I got PoR, and then I eventually got RD, immediately hated Act 1 in like, the treasure room map... and I think that was because iirc, Hard=Lunatic, Normal=Hard, Easy=Normal as the game lacks an easy mode, again, iirc. Either way, I wasn't proficient enough in FE to enjoy playing it and gave it up until more recently. I'm taking a pause before Act 3 because, if I could sleep with an FE character, it'd be him... and yeah, if I could see two units kiss, it'd be Ike and Hector, you sold me on that... though Lynn is my second pick for "if you could sleep with." Anyway moving on, I was surprised to see my first FE at the top of the list alongside my 3rd FE in the series... it was honestly, kind of like "outside of FE7, a kindred spirit who loves PoR and FE8 as much as I do!!!" Which is what I just really wanted to say, I get that you don't like FE7 because you don't like things that are specific to FE7, I can understand that view. Just as much as I can appreciate what Conquest does... I'd honestly put it on borderline Top 5 FE, like my 5th. I'd probably swap up Rev a bit and definitely bump FE7 to 3 and 4 for me, but that's because I love Hector, Lynn and Eliwood, and Rev is what I call "Kiss Kiss Simulator 9000." As in as you put it, anyone can be anything and that's really the only reason I play Awakening anymore is to play "Kiss Kiss Simulator 2000." So yeah, like for me, just the stuff where you can essentially feed Ike like 3 levels and he can start to Solo maps and even more so if he promotes to Lord at 20 (which he's usually level 20 anyway from soloing like 3 or 4 maps with him and a few chokepoint holder units) as I effectively let him get like 2 or so levels normally and play actual PoR for a bit before um... yeah, just, bridge map... it is always my go-to bring Jill and crew and wait for Haar and let Ike do the entire map himself. I believe he's always hit cap on the bridge map every single run. But yeah like top 3 Lords? Ike, Ephraim, and Lynn in that order. Hence why FE7 would be a higher tier for me than for you, but we both have our reasons, I had no other games outside FE7-FE9 until I got my hands on a copy of RD for 20 bucks due to a video rental store was shutting down (not Blockbuster, idk about anywhere else, but the competitor was Hollywood Video which had a substore called Game Crazy), and even then I barely touched it until now... which is well over a decade later... it wasn't until FE11 and later games that I'd really get a feel for how the games work on a broader scale... and I might try my hand at the pre-FE4 games... but I doubt it, I don't even think I'll play FE4 or 5 unless the get remakes... looking at those even older than GBAFE was really hard to do...
Wait, what Fire Emblem characters are even 10 or under? Besides Mamori and characters people just think look 10, because that's super subjective especially with anime art styles. I didn't think there were any because that'd be asking for a controversy about Nintendo/IS endorsing the use of child soldiers.
I am actually a new Fire Emblem Fan. Smash bros. introduced me to the characters, Heroes introduced me to the gameplay, and Warriors and Three Hopes got me hooked into the series so much that I decided to try Three Houses and Engage. Now you can officially call me a Fire Emblem fan. In fact I now like Fire Emblem way more than the Mario and Pokemon series. I still like the Donkey Kong Country and Kirby series more than Fire Emblem though. Hyrule Warriors didn't hook me on the Zelda series the way Fire Emblem Warriors did. So my ranking will only feature the games I just mentioned, since I don't have the respective consoles to play the other games in the series. 1. Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes 2. Fire Emblem Warriors 3. Fire Emblem Engage 4. Fire Emblem Three Houses 5. Fire Emblem Heroes I love all of these games to a point that I lost count as to how many playthroughs I've had with each game, it's just I enjoy the Warriors games more.
Personally I play rev the most of the fates games, because I get alot out of the customization, the snow map is tedious but really easy, so it’s not that bad, I hate the fuga map the most. In rev, they could’ve just called “valla” “balla” and it would’ve avoided the curse.
My favorite part of FE 12 is the prologue. Since it’s all new content Kris doesn’t feel out of place and the whole thing is a great introduction to Archanea. Unfortunately, after that Kris being shoehorned into every scene just took me out of the story. With games that are as long as Fire Emblem I just can’t get engaged without a story to hook into.
Also I'm finishing my first run in FE4 and I feel this. There's so much i love and I'm excited to play more but man the arena setup every chapter and mid map movement turns seem fine on paper until you're doing them and emulator speed up doesn't fix the fact you have to make decisions.
agree with the spicy(?) fe4 and fe7 placements. the most common one-line review of fe4 i hear is that the gameplay is a bit slow and tedious, BUT THE STORY. but i dislike the story? a few nice moments, but it's presented largely thru infodumps, and mostly doesn't exist in part 2 presumably because they bit off more than they could chew. and while it's held up as this very serious political epic with very serious themes, as a contrast to "modern FE," i found it more saturday morning cartoony than its reputation, and not in an entertaining way. lots of villains-of-the-week cackling in their castles and being ridiculous, and such. then there's manfroy being an awful antagonist, and some other issues and blah blah. really want a remake tho.. tbh.. the maps in fe7 are such a shame, because a pick-up-and-play FE with rescue dropping is a very appealing package. for me it's the string of maps after the heath/isadora one (a good map with an actual decent gimmick with the reaver spam): fog desert map (boo) genesis (as if i'd try to unlock this) fog lloyd map (boo) crazed beast (slog) vaida defend map where the wyvern ai seems to be broken (boo) snow map (boo) battle before dawn (yelling at the tv) night of farewells (slog) slog of destiny (cog) maybe the lategame is secretly good, but by that time i'm done with fe7. i really like *some* of the earlygame maps, and the allure of gba mechanics is real, but i have a hard time picking this one back up despite its pros and its surface similarity to fe6 and fe8. clearly i need to revisit fe8. barely remember the story but i hear a lot of praise for it, and the game has better maps than fe7. a rare story playthru of a fire emblem game may be in my near future.
it's worth noting there are other issues with the tellius game's depiction of racism. it gets a lot of points but it definitely makes massive mistakes like you mentioned. one additional thing is how the laguz are generally stronger than beorc physically which is a common stereotype of black people in particular.
Yeah there's a lot of issues. Animal racism, the Shinon problem, Lethe being presented as equally wrong to Jill, the list goes on. That said, it does deserve props for what bit does right too.
I don’t think the laguz are supposed to specifically parallel black people, especially considering it is a game from Japan, I think they were trying to tell a more general story about racial and cultural discrimination. Not saying the game is perfect but I think it’s unfair to say that the game is rudely comparing laguz to black people when the game doesn’t seem to make that comparison itself.
Engage’s story is super basic, though the last bit of it feels a bit like filler, the time crystal seems just like it is just so that they can just fight past alear. The pit they fell in was a need for them to make the four winds sympathetic, and even sombron a little. Marnie being a weird peri-like character and then having a moral 180 because she thinks veyle’s backstory is so sad. And zelestia having a whole exposition “we could’ve been allies but actually I didn’t want to be but now that I’m dying I may as well.” Is just so bizarre. Griss is the only one who dies without sacrificing his villainy. And he still has a sympathetic backstory exposited on us. After that map, the last few maps fell like they are basically filler story wise which is weird considering that they’re actually the final parts of the story. I do think the way Alear came back to life is both clever when veyle raised them as a corrupted, and it is foreshadowed that the Emblems could bring someone back to life. I still like engage a lot more than three houses though, because that game’s story is imo more offensively bad and the gameplay isn’t as interesting. Also it’s really ugly.
This list is very interesting, most of the rankings seem pretty good aside from a few controversial picks very low (holy war & blazing blade). With that said sacred stone as number 1 i did not see coming. Personally its one of my least favorite games in the series. I simply find it forgetable. In fact its so forgettable to me, i played the game a few years ago as i was convinced i had never played it, a few hours in i realised i totally had played it before. And honestly even now i could tell you anything about the story or the characters. As for game play its very similar to blazing and binding blade so thats another reason it simply doesnt stand out to me. Idk maybe ill replay it now and see i like it better
How could you claim that Thracia isn't number one when the gameplay footage you used shows that it's clearly the best in the series
It's because I am a fake gamer and I stole that footage from a better RUclipsr
1:11:57 "Sigurd made some mistakes and got punished for them" is the understatement of the century.
The whitewings should be in every fire emblem game.
And there should also always be an est rescuing detour.
“mauvier kidnapped our little sister est in order to steal her wallet. Will you help us rescue est from mauvier’s big gaudy mansion?”
Too much effort to actually order them all, but I can split them into categories.
Like: Shadow Dragon, sacred stones, 3 houses, engage, PoR, radiant dawn, blazing blade (borderline)
Mixed: binding blade (borderline), genealogy
Dislike: new mystery, awakening, birthright, fe1
Haven't played: gaiden, echoes, fe3, thracia, conquest, revelation
Random thoughts I had during the video:
- Shadow Dragon was my 1st game and is still one of my faves. Just FE gameplay refined to its core elements, all killer no filler, doesn't waste your time, and severely underrated writing. I know most people hate it because of how many features it stripped away from the prior games, but that's not a problem for me because for me it's essentially the origin point of the series. Gotta appreciate it for being the first game to live up to modern standards to QoL too (seriously, why is weapon merging not an evergreen mechanic?). It has the least writing of any post NES game, but all of the writing that's there is absolutely god tier; I honestly think some of the more recent games could stand to learn a thing or two from shadow dragon when it comes to efficiently conveying information. No supports is kind of a shame, but the added talk convos between key characters do a lot to establish a baseline characterization, then allowing the player to fill in the gaps based on unit gameplay performance and their own imagination. I know I have many more positive feelings towards the cast of Shadow Dragon than I do towards the casts of many of the games with much more dialogue. Reclassing is kinda stupid, but I almost never use it for anything other than swapping between dracoknight and paladin depending on the map or maybe making Cord into dark mage if I'm feeling spicy, so it doesn't bother me. Locking gaiden chapters behind killing half your units was another odd choics but again doesn't take away from the experience. Really think it deserves to be on the shortlist of recommendations for people's first FE game; give people a chance to see if they can enjoy the core mechanics without requiring them to go through 17 hours of cutscenes. Also, Shadow Dragon's prologue is the best tutorial sequence in the franchise and possibly one of the best in gaming as a whole, really wish you had the option to play the prologue in hard mode.
- Fe12 was my second game, and I fucking hate it with the burning passion of a thousand suns. Normal is piss easy, and anything harder than that is completely unfair, unrewarding exercise in frustration. I should not need a fucking PHD in AI manipulation to finish the FUCKING PROLOGUE no matter WHAT difficulty I'm playing on (conversely to shadow dragon, I really wish they would just let you skip the prologue on hard). People always talk about Kris ruining the story, but imo the story of FE3 was already kinda dogshit, so there's not much there to ruin. Like, why does it go out of its way to undo all of the consequences of the previous game by bringing back every single player unit AND villain? Why establish an interesting conflict between former allies where you're a true underdog only to completely abandon that plot for half of the game so you can fuck off into the mountains and kill 5 million identical dragons and listen to a rotating cast of NPCs monologue exposition at you, then return to the main plot and have the big menacing evil empire completely fold like fucking tissue paper over the course of like two chapters? Why does everybody treat Marth like some naive, untested teenager instead of a decorated war hero/dragon slayer? And why does Marth go from an actual character with a personality to a complete non-entity whose only role is to prompt NPCs for exposition about things he should already know? Matter of fact just about the only part of the story that did anything for me on first playthrough was the dynamic between female Kris and Katarina, and that's only because I was a repressed 15 year old transbian who had never watched an anime and was so flabbergasted by the mere possibility of being gay in a nintendo game that I completely fell for the self-insert waifu bait. Granted, a large part of my deeply personal hatred for this story comes from the fact that I read a plot synopsis online before playing it, got massively hyped for the concept, then horribly disappointed with the execution. There are worse FE stories, but this will always be my least favorite.
- Fe7 at rock bottom is a spicy take, god damn. I can't fully disagree with anything you said, but I guess most of the maps just don't really bother me that much. As someone who's perpetually cycling units in and out of deployment to try and train as many as I can, weak enemy spam is honestly kind of a plus for me sometimes. The gimmick maps and nonsensical story do kind of lessen my desire to replay it compared to the other games in "like" tier, so maybe I should move it down.
- Binding Blade more like Binding BLAND amirite? fuckin gottem
...alright, I know that's rich coming from a shadow dragon apologist, but at least shadow dragon has good QoL features and doesn't lock the ending behind shitty gaiden chapters with invisible requirements. (at least with the star shards in fe3/12 you're motivated to get them inherently because ooh shiny item and it tells you they're important fairly early in the game, I swear in Fe6 the legendary weapons aren't even mentioned a single time outside of the chapters where you get them)
- Genealogy is cool in so many ways but man is it a slog. Would be vastly improved if thieves could actually choose how much gold to give instead of having to dump it all on one unit
- Have never actually managed to finish a 3DS fe game because they fuel my bad habits of compulsively keeping every single unit in my army the same level while also designing the maps such that the optimal strategy is to funnel all of your resources into 1-2 units and have them solo the game. Also, I never got much out of the reclassing/skill builds/eugenics simulator aspect; optimizing games to that extent always kind of takes the fun out of it for me, and tying reclasses to an item makes me never want to do it out of fear of making an irreversible bad decision
- I genuinely don't understand why people complain so much about the monastery in 3 houses??? On new game plus you can basically speed through all the necessary activities in like 10 minutes if you make good use of fast travel, and there's literally no reason to ever not play on new game plus once it's available. Also 3H is definitely my personal favorite cast, though PoR might be up there if it actually let me read more than 5 supports per character.
- Interesting that you singled out Birthright's story as bad and boring when that's how I feel about Engage. I swear, it feels like the writers for Engage were deliberately trying to make the story as predictable and uninteresting as possible. Also, the Somniel is infinitely worse than the monastery, it's fundamentally at odds with the old school design philosophy of the maps and feels like it was only added out of obligation because 3H sold so well, the smaller size doesn't even help cut down on time because the fast travel system is less functional and most of the important stuff is behind additional loading screens. Also, why is the support viewer tied to specific save files when they made it literally impossible to grind every support in a single playthrough? Between that, the SP system, and bond rings, Engage would REALLY benefit from a 3H style NG+
...I really said it was too much work to order my tier list and then typed an entire essay, huh.
Need more irl friends to talk about fire emblem with
i like how the Thracia footage is just Leif
It's the secret gaiden you get for saving Eyvel in ch5
Honestly when it comes to being overly quirky in Three Houses, the only one I really get that with is Bernadetta. Everyone else in the cast feels super grounded. Also yes, Tellius love forever.
I'm so glad someone out there also has my Thracia take of "i really like this game for a myriad of reasons but wow playing it is something personally difficult" because it's my third fave FE game but I have only played it twice unlike #2 and #1
I'm curious, what are your #1 and #2?
#1 is Engage, #2 is Conquest (i am one of the people who puts it on like a glove)
your binding blade take is BASED. i've developed a weird appreciation for the sheer variety of ways that the game tells you to go fuck yourself. ambush spawns at the starting position, siege weapons and wyverns in fog of war - it's incredible. i love it. i've started seeing it as gigantic jokes and am laughing at my own expense. with units like fir, the objectively worse rutger, or the double whammy of really good unit cecilia introduced in the worst possible map for her alongside "top candidate for worst unit in all of FE" sophia, it's a really really funny game.
the story is Weak and i won't fight that but i appreciate how coherent it is. every name that's mentioned actually makes an appearance at some point, the final resolution leaves no holes, i love the concept behind idunn and roy's efforts to spare her. it and blazing blade are the opposites in the story department. whereas binding blade has a logical story with a weak cast (sparing ch24's exposition dump and suprise villain), blazing blade has the silliest story ever featuring "teleports behind you" nergal and an incredibly charming trifecta of protagonists.
the retcon potential of dragon roy is also just incredibly hilarious considering fe6's plot. "i wonder what happened to the dragons." my dear boy, you're one of them.
listen, intsys, if you're willing to listen to me, here's my twenty page outline on theming and plot changes for an echoes style fe6 remake-
A little late, but Sacred Stones is my favorite game, mainly because of just how comfy it is to play, and its super satisfying. It feels the most replayable, and its like the comfort food of the series and for me its the one I always go back to when I want to play some Fire Emblem.
Rev at #11 I used to pray for times like these 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽
90% of people who who say Rev is worse than Birthright haven't played both games
@@DaniDoyleliterally the reinforcements on br 26 alone make that game dogshit
Also I think part 4 of RD works better if you consider that the release of Ashera (and Yune who we thought was the real big baddie trapped in the medallion) HAS been foreshadowed for literally the entirety of two full length visual novel video game experiences and I feel like it would’ve been actually worse if there was no payoff for that plot point that if every nation in Tellius ever engaged in war it would be judgement day
@@DaniDoyle Based, Rev gaming my beloved
enjoyed this video even though my list is probably the opposite of yours as you can tell from the Arden pfp lol
but I really like how there is a fire emblem for everyone I love hearing peoples different fire emblem rankings
Honestly Genealogy and Thracia feel like completely different games from the rest of the series for me. If I had to compare it it would be like starting an engage play through right after beating three houses (they still rank in my top 5 favorite
Also congrats on 1k subs
Etie Sigurd, based Dani
Ok, I was surprised to see FE6 at 5th. I'm a FE6 fanboy, and I'm used to FE6 being low lmao.
but yeah, you talked what I love about FE6. Sofia is bad or Apocalipse time XD.
Well, I think FE12 is a great game to play on hard mode. It's the perfect balance of difficulty and customization for me.
OHHHHH MY GGOOOOOOD
FE8 is the top 1
Based Dani
FE8, the cutest and most enjoyable FE
The game I played the most. And I still have fun playing it. Oops all archer evolved draft the next run I will play.
FE9 is a strange game for me. The game I love even if not being challeging
I like FE5, but every time I think about it, I remember the endgame will be the same staff spam because it's thracia
Sigurd should go to Alcryst
Big agree on the thracia and fe12 sections. Theyre interesting challenges but really exhausting to play
I’m so happy the algorithm blessed me with you popping up looking forward to more videos.
was replaying awakening while watching this and it's so funny that i agree on all points, i just found the emotional core of the story appealing enough for it to carry me through it all (also i love grima and insane amount). the midgame is Mid. it's so mid. act one is Amazing imo, and act three has its moments, but especially how all over the place lucina's involvement is... her greatest contribution to the plot are telling basilio to not die and defeating that one assassin and that's it. the future children have such squandered potential, cuz they're all optional.
the pair up system is a ton of fun in how broken it is. strats like nos tanking arent even necessary when freddie can just steamroll everything (or give somebody +6 def so THEY can steamroll everything.) the inheritance system is something i've only started playing with in my second playthrough but i can see the appeal (if you consult a wiki page on which classes have which skills).
it just drops the ball in so many aspects. the earlygame is the best the story gets and it has the highest difficulty with actual challenge. but then you get your chrobin sweep going and that's it. game's a joke now.
in the end it's just how we differ as people that i have the same complaints but walked away with an all around favourable view of it. awakening is baller and it's because i'm bringing a shovel and am ready to dig. great video.
👍
As a king who loves story, you are WILD for where you put Three Houses and Engage...love the video regardless. Nice insights.
My favorite thing about Gaiden is that Triangle Attack can proc on enemy phase and that’s maybe one of the funniest things that ever happened to me in FE gameplay; I was c a c k l i n g!
I have to respect the absolute confidence with which you said FE4 is getting a remake
That was a meme, I actually have a video about why we're NOT getting a remake
ruclips.net/video/mHadHaDXVfU/видео.html
I've been binging these rankings lately, and it's interesting to see how varied they are. Sure, Birthright gets dumped on pretty consistently, but there are still massive discrepancies. There's definitely a big range of things different fans want out of this series. (I'm a big 3H fan myself.) And it's cool that IS has provided all those different things.
Now if Nintendo and IS could see fit to release them all for a decent price on a modern system so newer fans can also find the right game for them. And if they decide it's not worth selling those games, at least stop the ROM witch hunts.
Wow I can't believe Kaga's sagas won! Happy pr(1K)de month!
Currently on the revelations section and honestly ALL OF THIS. The appeal of revelations isn’t good balance, story, or difficult map design. It’s all about flexibility and doing whatever you want and just having a good time while you do it. It’s all about just sandboxing with your units and doing cool shit like making Cordelia the grandmother of caeldori. Is it good? No. Is it fun? Absolutely
The funny thing with Birthright is that a good portion of its maps are kill boss. It's just that it in my opinion has the worst handling of rout maps in the series. Where after a certain turn there will be reinforcements on a side of a map that none of your units are at. So you move units to reach the enemies and more enemies spawn. And then it just spills over and becomes overwhelming. Some might say it's an incentive to play fast, but in reality it's more not playing fast enough will make the map more tedious.
Also the FE4 reasoning was interesting because it reminded me of one of my favorite things about the FE franchise. where you can have the same games and different people liking them for different reasons. Because FE4 is a personal favorite but I also agree with every single one of your critiques. So it's interesting seeing how other people prioritize certain things.
I actually think there's not that many kill boss maps. Hans, Iago, Xander, and Final are kill boss and Opera house is Escape but all others maps in the game are route maps.
@@DaniDoyle Funny enough I did a reddit post a couple of years ago breaking down map objectives in every FE game and how frequent they were. Birthright has 43 maps, 24 maps are rout with 9 being paralogues. 16 maps are defeat boss with 5 being paralogues. So only counting maingame there's 29 maps, 15 being rout and 11 being kill boss. For context the kill boss maps, for post route split, are chapters 6, 14, 18, 20, 21, 24, 25, 26, 27 and endgame.
The thing is that A. a lot of these kill boss maps throw so many enemies that it sorta feels like a rout map. Chapters 14, 20 and 21 (being the first map with ryoma, the faceless map and the stoneborn map) are the most egregious offenders. And B. there are so many rout maps back to back, with said rout maps being so obnoxious, that their presence feels egregious.
For clarity I'm not contesting your opinion on Birthright because I agree. I just find it funny how annoying Birthright rout maps are and how the map design is so lame that even when a good portion of maps are kill boss, it doesn't even feel that way.
Post in question: www.reddit.com/r/fireemblem/comments/ghu02j/list_of_fire_emblem_game_objectives_and_the/
@@DaniDoyle you’re forgetting a few maps. Ch. 6, Ch. 14, Ch. 18, Ch. 20, and Ch. 21 are all kill boss maps. It’s pretty even between kill boss and rout tbh excluding Paralogues. Most of the exclusive Paralogues are rout to be fair but all the CQ exclusive ones are rout as well, and there are 4 shared kill boss paralogues as well. It does have significantly more exclusive rout maps than CQ (22 vs 14, not counting Ch. 6 CQ which is basically rout) but there are plenty of non rout maps
11:30 > FE7 critique
FE7 stan hear... I agree entirely.
ESPECIALLY the points on enemy spam, and of course Battle Before Dawn.
The game is really held up by its large fun caste and lengthy campeign.
I feel the enemy spam indicates the devs trying to assure armies that had lots of deaths were still able to deal with enemies.
IMO the game was designed to cater to Devs/Producers ideas of what the Western RPG market wants/needs, and that usually means making things easier and more flexible when it comes to things like units dying or missed objectives.
Designing from that framework, you have weak armies still able to pull through while armies with few depths feel like powerful badasses mowing. Like remember, you're playing the game with years.
With that said - optional objectives **designed to hard to reach or missible** like Kishuna and saving both Nino and Jaffar.
I personally took that chapter as choice presented by the devs - save Nino or Jaffar. Because getting to one character, even through the BS sige magic and the roving bosses is super doable if you dedicate most of your resources to saving one.
Dragons Gate.
I agree. Its my favorite Room-By-Room / Fortress map.
Three houses is def one my fav would love to see a full review videos on it lol
FE 12 is goated for simple fact that it is one of the few games that forces you to use an actual strategy instead of handing your favorite carry a Handaxe/Javelin and watching them kill 3 dozen guys in a 5 minute enemy phase.
you have my respect for putting binding blade so high, honestly my favorite fire emblem game for many reasons
i only started Engage recently and the biggest issue i had is Lumerias death. the game doesnt give us time to connect to her. and Alear having such a rough time with her death just feels hamfisted in with how little we got to know her. i did like where her character was going but they should have given us an extra chapter or two with her around to really build that motherly feel with so that her death actually had some impact on the player and not just the characters.
The game felt more focused on zooming in on her tits than actually making us care about her.
When this is meant to be our mom
Commenting to say this is easily the most measured and reasonable opinion on Three Houses I've ever heard, and I needed that amidst the constant deluge of "Three Houses is PEAK Engage fans need to die" vs "Three Houses is overrated trash".
I also agree that Engage's plot was serviceable up until Chapter 22 and only falls apart afterwards. The other problem I have is this is ALSO where the map design falls apart a little. Every chapter up to 22 had at least one "cool new thing" to keep you hooked, either a new unit, Emblem or a cool boss you'd never fought before. From 23 onwards there's no more of that, combined with a weaker story and back-loaded Paralogues this is often where my love for the game flags a bit.
I agree with Pelleas' blood pact fitting his naivety. One other thing about the "you control a bunch of racists" part I find interesting is, part of what makes Micaiah so horribly conflicted by what she's doing is that, while SHE and her allies are not racist, many of the rank-and-file soldiers she's leading ARE and use her war as an excuse to indulge in it. As much as she knows she's only doing "evil thing" because she's forced to, she's legitimizing a bunch of awful people by doing so and that weighs on her.
In Awakening, I was always under the impression that Lucina joined the Ferrox tournament because Chrom DIDN'T win in the original timeline? It's been a while so I forget. Though really, we all know it's so they could do cool "Chrom vs Masked Marth" trailers. That whole fight makes very little sense when you think about it too hard. (Lucina can KILL CHROM)
The thing about visiting Archanaea in the future has one other problem I notice: most fans of Awakening don't seem to care. Because it was far less in-your-face about the nostalgia pandering than Engage was, it flew over the heads of the audience Awakening ended up succeeding with, and only the most die-hard of old fans got it. While in theory I prefer nostalgia baiting to be kept subtle, I just find it a shame the "heavily timeskipped old setting "aspect of Awakening flew mostly under the radar due to the circumstances of its series (the old setting it timeskipped was mostly Japan-only).
as someone whose fav FE is also sacred stones (I am currently writing an essay analyzing the themes of grief/loss across many of its characters because I love it so much), the number 1 spot for sacred stones was a very welcome surprise :D also, totally agree about the exhaustion of the monastery segments in 3H, especially playing on new game+. Having maxed out professor rank from the beginning feels more like a curse than a boon because I am stuck between actually progressing and maximizing all of the time I have in the monastery, and it gets SUUUUPER exhausting
Harrrd disagree on fe7 and fe4 being worse than revelations, but I respect a different opinion. I’m definitely subbing after this.
you are probably the only person I've seen who unironically praises both engage and 3H lol
They're both really good!
As someone who vastly prefers Engage to 3H, I find it very hard to argue both aren't very well designed. The monastery, to an extent the maps, and (to me, at least) the silent protagonist hold back 3H a fair bit, but the unit customization, social sim elements, and pretty stellar cast easily still make it hold up. I think Engage being better (IMO) mostly just comes down to it building off of what 3H established, so I think there's a lot to respect about 3H in that regard.
Tokyo Mirage Sessions is ranked higher than Awakening? Hoo boy, that’s a spicy meatball
I agree tho lol, TMS is way more fun than I ever would’ve guessed based off the bizarro premise. I hope more people try it out!
I have a really hard time ranking the Fates games because despite Conquest having the best gameplay, it only has like 5 characters that I don’t actively hate, whereas I love almost everyone in Birthright. It’s a shame because for me both games are really good in either gameplay or characters but really terrible in the other.
That’s why I also like Revelations more than most other people do. It at least partially combines what I like about both games, although it definitely doesn’t reach the best of Conquest gameplay for me.
Also that’s cool that you like Three Houses more now, but I actually had pretty much the opposite experience. I got huge burnout shortly after it released which made me mostly dislike it, but then when I returned to it years later I found that it was actually way worse even than I remembered. I don’t want to get into the details of it due to the risk of starting “discourse” but it’s at the bottom of my list by a pretty big margin, and as much as I want to like it, I doubt that will ever change.
Omg I feel the same way about Three Houses. I absolutely loved it at launch but I've progressively disliked it as time passed by. It's just a slog to play for me. I still love the characters and the story but the gameplay is so mundane after beating every route and the graphics are hideous.
Same on the Three Houses thing. I don't HATE the game, and I still like the characters and (half of) the story, but its just so hamfisted in gameplay execution imo. Absolutely massive slog where 50% of the gameplay is in the monastery, which got boring halfway through my first playthrough. And when you actually get to the fun stuff, the maps are garbage and there's only like two dozen of them across all four routes
It's like Fire Emblem without any of the Fire Emblem and that is NOT a compliment. Again I don't HATE the game, but it is by far my least favorite game in the entire series (aside from FEH)
Birthright has its pros that are a reinterpretation of Dani's cons.
It's fun as an enemy phase skill emblem. It's fun to take full advantage of skills grinding and reclassing in a setting that pushes enemy phase juggernauting. The more unique classes adds a new flavor to it too. Lastly It's on the best system for it. Dual screens with a fast forward button and online connectivity.
Lots to have fun with despite the goofy story and lack of a strong push for player phase
I actually agree with your take regarding Three Houses gameplay. Is it unbalanced? Yes, but most FE games are. Is the Monastery tedious? Yes, but I think it was an interesting thing to try. Is the actual battle system itself bad? Not at all. Some of the old school formulas for hit and crit rate are cool, battalions aren't as well done as Emblem Rings but I like them more than even Fates's version of Pair Up since it increases the power of your player phase. Combat Arts are hilariously unbalanced (Vengeance at C+ vs Glowing Ember at A), but they once again give your Player Phase more power. Etc.
That said, I think the main reason people don't like these things is that the map design is pretty bad. There are the typical handful of "worst maps in the series" contenders that a lot of games have (chapter 5, HBD, Anna paralogue), but most of the maps are just big and flat. You don't really think a ton about strategy in most of them as much because the game's idea of difficulty is gigantic stat inflation and super good skills on Maddening. I think it's a lot like some of Awakening's systems, which were bad in that game but some extra polish and better maps made them really fun in Conquest, another game in the Three Houses formula but without the boarding school gimmick could be really really good. Being able to use any weapon in any class sort of homogenizes unit archetypes, but I don't think it is anywhere near as broken as people make it out to be. With no Weapon Triangle, it's basically limited in actually relevant viability to carrying around Bows for 2 range/killing fliers, otherwise you stick to your main weapon anyway.
Shin is the fifth "leg", the tail.
I feel like Radiant Dawn potentially suffered of trying to connect the opposing factions together; I think the literal Deus Ex Machina of Ashera essentially ending the world definitely was always the idea, considering how PoR teases a lot how a full war among all the ruling forces would awake the Evil God in the Fire Emblem and destroy everything (and Sephiran not-so-subtly telling during the epilogue that this is gonna happen); but I guess they struggled to make the story go from this point to the battle in the tower against Lekain, Sephiran and Ashera... So it ended up giving us this very awkward section where this just happen.
Congratulations on 1K! This was a real fun video to watch the top 15 especially
-Three Houses
“I like maddening”
🤥
Good list, Cheers to 1000,
it really sucks that heroes has the whole gacha thing going on, since imo the regular fire emblem-y gameplay of heroes is pretty cool, and ironically involves 0 rng. someone needs to make a heroes type game, but without any of the gacha bullshitery
Just started the video but still watching, I wanted to say that Fire Emblem 7 is the first and only Fire Emblem that I've played so I'm very biased in its favor but can't really disagree with anything that you said. I'm planning on buying another Fire Emblem game once I have some money lol. I still think it's SO fun, and since I mainly play on normal mode I think that maps like Dragon's Gate are very fun. In normal mode the tight time constraint on getting to certain objectives, even in Battle Before Dawn, feels fair if you have the knowledge that these objectives exist. That said, it's been years since I first played the game and can't remember, but those tight time limits seem... unreasonable for a new player even on normal mode. I just played the Dragon's Gate map in Eliwood normal mode a few hours ago actually and I barely managed to recruit Legault purely because I nearly forgot he'd go west after stealing the treasure in the east. I don't think a new player could successfully adapt to these situations without having to restart the level, and that seems like a negative to me. I like that the beginning of the game feels strategic, but don't like that the later portions of the game feel so easy. I'd have fun with one or two chapters where you feel very powerful, but it gets so excessive with chapter after chapter where your units are incredibly strong. I recently did a playthrough where I wanted to use Geitz and Farina, so (since I'm bad at money management) I had to do a lot of arena grinding for money and for my lords to be at a high level, and it really broke the game. I don't know if other Fire Emblems do this, but something I love about The Blazing Blade is that it keeps track of every support you've ever seen and shows you which supports you're missing in the extras menu, so I like to create my teams around which supports I want to see for the first time. I guess I'd sum up my thoughts as: I agree with your criticisms and I can totally see how they make the game unfun for you, but it's still extremely fun for me despite them.
Love seeing Fe tier list cause it's just different every time I see one.
Finally found a fan of Engage that rated it highly even the story! Though actually like the story from start to finish.
Perfectly describe why I love Sacred Stones as well!
I just wanted to mention this (im at the awakening portion) but i really really like Walhard and i think he would have been a interesting foe in a FE game whose main plot isn't centered around time travel/apocalypse.
hearing your opinion on the FE6 gaidens just reminds me of the: Who invited blud, bro thinks hes on the team. Meme. I personally actually have barely any problems with Engage outside of it tiring me out circa the solm arc, one thing i do want to mention regarding the third arc is: They had no right making Lumeras map theme go so hard.
So i just have to mention this in regards to RD, I absolutely despise locking Pelleas till NG+, but what i hate even more is that his Noble and genuinely (in my opinion) great sacrifice scene is marred by the fact that it doesnt mean anything, The Blood pact is still on going and i just really hate that. Also Micaiah being racist is a plotpoint that could have worked, though it would require some rewrites, the basis is there already., which guess what doesnt even matter because afterwards Ashera comes out of her tower and just petrifies everyone.
Honestly, I'm not good at picking favorites in a definitive, linear sense... I tend to like games in a given series for reasons that are, if not entirely different, at least not interchangeable with one another. Basically, every time I try to declare a definite favorite, there's always a part of me that goes "oh, but, hmm... what about this other thing I ALSO really like... do I really like the first thing MORE, or..." in an infinite loop, so I guess I'll just share some general opinions!
Note that I have not played enough of the Jugdral or Tellius duologies to feel I can fairly weigh in on them, but I have liked what I've played and I do intend to play more.
Firstly, I am actually a massive Fire Emblem 7-lover. It's sort of to me what I gather Path of Radiance is to you; a game in the series I have a ton of fond memories of and can probably never fully untangle my feelings about from that nostalgia I have for it. Nevertheless, if I am to just share which games I subjectively like the most, it's definitely up there for me. The gameplay really doesn't bother me all that much, personally, and I love the story, cast, and world. I've always appreciated the more "zoomed-in" scope of the story, and how it involves mainly stuff that's happening kind of in the dark underbelly of Elibe rather than the overt geopolitical stuff that most Fire Emblem games focus on. It's one of those games where, since it was my first, I don't really think of it as unusual, but in retrospect and with a fuller understanding of the series's history, there's actually a good deal unique about it.
Maybe a strange opinion, but after playing FE1 all the way through, I absolutely maintain that it's one upgrade to the series' modern UI and "control feel" away from unironically being a top-tier Fire Emblem game with zero other mechanical changes necessary. What was originally the "early-installment weirdness" resulting from it being the very first game where the developers were still feeling out basically everything about Fire Emblem's identity nowadays metamorphoses into the game have its own pretty distinct and surprisingly-solid mechanical identity. I also just really dig the vibes of the Archanea-Valentia trilogy and setting, and "vibes" are really important to me in... really just games in general. I'm willing to put up even with game design most people hate as long as the overall vibes of the experience (said game design included) click with me.
Following from that, FE2, 3, 15? All games I like quite a bit! I haven't played the DS remakes of FE1 and FE3 in a hot minute, but I actually find myself preferring a lot about FE1 and FE3 to them. I understand the why of it, but I think that "updating" a lot of the game's mechanics to work more similarly to how Tellius and GBAFE handled things wasn't really the right call, especially considering that FE11 does NOT properly correct for the addition of the Weapon Triangle to a game the enemy formations in which were designed around not having a weapon triangle.
Circling back to the vibes thing, though, that's one area in which Echoes absolutely EXCELS for me. I'm really meh on some of the changes they made to the story (mostly the same ones you mentioned or alluded to), but aside from that, the setting is lovely, pretty much every presentation aspect is gorgeous, and the game just feels great to play. Criticism of the map design IS warranted, IMO, but it's not a dealbreaker for me personally, and I still like the game overall, even if I do feel its map design is one of its weakest areas.
FE2 is one of those games where a significant part of my affection for it is drawn from how it just radiates passion and ambition to me. Even now, it's still a pretty unique game... really just in general, not even limiting comparison to other Fire Emblem titles. For the NES, it's astonishing what they managed to achieve with it. I have a massive soft spot for "to hell with the hardware limitations, we're shooting for the stars anyway" games, and Gaiden ABSOLUTELY falls into that camp for me. FE1 falls somewhere around there, too, come to think of it, but FE2 especially.
FE3 just has a very classic, "quintessentially-Fire Emblem" feel to it to me. The sense of a large-scale continent-wide epic laced with drama and tragedy is in full force, and I think it iterates on FE1's mechanics in some pretty nice ways. Universal 20 caps is an approach that has its weaknesses, for sure, but I appreciate the lower stat scaling it facilitates, and I think 3 is a perfect sweet spot for the Attack Speed lead needed to double in that system. The way it handles weapons is pretty interesting, too, actually. As opposed to most games making swords the "lightweight" melee weapon type, axes the "heavyweight", and lances the "middleweight", FE3 instead goes with swords = speed, axes = power, and lances = accuracy. Having no axe-users in Book 2 is a bummer, but I think that approach to the three melee weapon types is cool even so. Dismounting is actually a mechanic I'm... mixed on. I think the IDEA of it has merit, and it's actually quite fun in outdoor maps, but indoor maps forcing a huge chunk of your army into a class that is, bereft of its ability to hop on a steed, just a worse Mercenary, is quite NOT fun, especially with one less infantry class to use in Book 2. Not enough to make me not like the game, though.
Honestly the only negative opinion I really have to put on this list is that I don't like the Fates trilogy at all. I've tried multiple times to play them, and I cannot FORCE myself to get past, like... I think the furthest I got was Chapter 12 in any route. They're AESTHETICALLY very nice and I guess a lot of people really like the game design of Conquest, but actually PLAYING everything in its full context, including the story surrounding it, just puts me off the games so much. I've heard people "defend" the games by saying that you can skip the story, which is true, but when the story was such a big part of the games' marketing, I can only conclude that the intention was that it be a major part of the experience. I don't think I can in good conscience consider "you can skip something the developers intended to be a big part of the overall package" to be a defense rather than an indictment in this context.
"Skill Emblem" as you've called it here also just... really doesn't do it for me as a gameplay style for the series as much as its predecessor styles. I consider the relative simplicity of earlier Fire Emblem games to be one of the series' strengths rather than a weakness to be corrected. I am also admittedly not a big-brained pro gamer looking to up the ante after growing bored of 0% growths ironman LTCs of FE12 Lunatic Reverse, so the number of factors I need to keep track of at once can kinda just get overwhelming to me. I much prefer the way Jugdral and Tellius incorporate skills, from what I've played of them.
the "you can skip the story" for Fates isn't a defence, it's a warning (intended for people like me that mainly play for the gameplay but never skip the story bahaha). The story is absolutely horrible (the supports are alright (except the Corrin+Camilla ones)) and you skip all of it.
Still though I (for example) really enjoyed some of those maps (I only played Conquest) and I didn't have to see much shitty story to get there.
If you didn't like the gameplay anyway then it must be befuddling to see people rate so highly such an obviously terrible game in so many aspects bahaha
1:29:20 Yeah, but the unholy trinity of Rutoga, Percival, and Melody can kinda destroy the difficulty with their mere existence, plus once Roy promotes, basically no one can reliably hit him and the Sword of Seals eats everyone alive.
Not related to the video, but in a 0% growths run of Thraccia 776, would the scrolls still improve stats?
No
They would stop crits, though
@@DaniDoyle So basically 12 Hoplon Guards
Yes
I'm doing a no reset run of Birthright, and can very much agree about the massive difficulty spike.
Ah yes an hour long revelations segment. Thanks auto generated chapters.
There is no escape from rev
I'm probably in an odd place for FE players, as I didn't finish (or start, even) my first FE game (which I... think... was FE7 but it was quite a long time ago) and I came back to the series much much later with Awakening only a few years ago. So, there's still a few games I haven't played (I'm missing out on 1-3, 6, Tellius, remakes, Rev, Three Houses). And my first game, Awakening, was probably my least favourite. My current favourite is probably split between Engage and Thracia, for completely different reasons. I adore Engage's minute-to-minute gameplay, the emblem rings... whereas Thracia I'm more fond of the mechanics in general.
My first FE was FE7, and I never finished it as a kid because I thought Eliwood mode was just extras content and decided not to play it lol. Finished Lyn mode and thought I was done with the game
In my defense I was like 8 years old
@@juicyjuustar121 I borrowed someone's gameboy and played about one chapter and probably fucked up their playthrough spectacularly.
Gaidens speed ring doesn’t give +5 move, it sets it to 15
Here's how I'd rank the games I've played, from worst to best:
20. *Fates: Revelation*
19. *Warriors*
18. *Heroes*
17. *Three Hopes - Golden Wildfire*
16. *Fates: Conquest*
15. *Fates: Birthright*
14. *Three Houses - Silver Snow*
13. *Engage*
12. *Shadow Dragon*
11. *Three Houses - Crimson Flower*
10. *Three Houses - Verdant Wind*
9. *Three Hopes - Scarlet Blaze*
8. *Awakening*
7. *Blazing Sword*
6. *Three Hopes - Azure Gleam*
5. *Echoes: Shadows of Valentia*
4. *The Sacred Stones*
3. *Three Houses - Azure Moon*
2. *Path of Radiance*
1. *Radiant Dawn*
Really holding out hope that we'll get that FE4 remake announced soon.
I heavily disagree with a lot of this list (and even the ones I agree with the placement of, I disagree with the specific points you mention), but you know what? I sincerely respect the guts you have to post a list that, to me, feels like it's super controversial in the current landscape of the FE community. Good to see people willing to say things that the majority may disagree with
I mean just because you disagree doesn't mean it's a majority opinion I think everyone has different feelings on what games are good versus bad, and I think what games people like mostly depend on what people are looking for in fire emblem
@@DaniDoyle oh no, that's not what I meant, I wouldn't dare to say my opinion is that of the majority of the fanbase. I don't think MY opinions line up with the majority either, I just think this is one of the more "controversial" rankings I've seen (my own personal list would likely be just as much so, for different reasons) and so I heavily respect it, even if I disagree with a lot of it, just by merit of the fact that you posted it despite in several parts of the video mentioning the amount of backlash you expected
Just to clarify, I absolutely adore Sacred Stones and Engage, but at the same time I also love FE7 a lot. I just found it funny that the first two were by the top of your list while the latter one was at the very bottom
My first ever fire emblem game was fire emblem three houses. Before three houses i watched a lot of fire emblem content and always wanted to play it, but didn't have acess to play any of the other games before, due to not having the console for it or the cost being to high for some games (tellius)
I played all the routes on three houses on hard mode some multiple times and i had a lot of fun with the game, but the monastary got tiring really fast. for me at least. And after playing all the routes on hard mode i tried out maddening and it was such a stupid difficulty spike. I didn't have to much problems on hard mode and went through the game relativly easy. Maybe it is a skill issue, but maddening was just rough. I played blue lions till the final chapter and got stuck on it. Still haven't finished it (which skill issue tbh)
In comparision fire emblem engages maddening felt more managable. It was still a challenging experience, but i had fun with it. I went into it thinking it would be as brutal as three houses, but it wasn't it was a difficulty level that was really well handled imo.
I'm glad someone else shares the same opinion I have on Blazing Sword, it's just so clunky and I find it very overrated, which happened because, like Awakening, it was a lot of people's first Fire Emblem.
It's challenge is just all over the place and while the characters are fun, the story they tell with them just feels like a huge wasted opportunity, especially how you could delete Lyn from the story after the prologue and nothing would really change.
If you want a GBA FE with a good, fair, difficult challenge, there's FE6, and if you want a GBA FE that's a bit easier while not devolving to just being simple, there's FE8
Wonderful video, I disagree with almost every ranking and point you said.
People are just so different lol
So true!!! That's one of the things I love about the franchises everyone's going to enjoy different games because so many offer different things
@@DaniDoyle It was just really funny cuz like beat for beat, you would have a specific take within a game like ‘I hate this element, but love this one’ and it was almost comical how completely juxtaposed we are in every way as FE fans lol.
I’ll admit, it was frustrating, but in like a ‘discourse with your friends’ way hahaha
I think the only things we do agree on:
-Ranking-wise, Heroes at bottom and Path being in the top 2
-The voice acting/casts in Echoes and 3H’s being incredible (anyone would be hard-pressed to fight this)
-She’s not top of top for me, but Jill being one of the best characters in FE. In particular, the way that game’s dialogue system/structure allows her to be a full-blown subplot that echoes the core themes of the Tellius games’ complex, fucked-up narrative.
but I’m happy to say we agree on the best thing to agree on
-Ike is best Lord. Easily. He’s the Lord who doesn’t wanna be a Lord and he’s amazing. Ike is my second favorite main character in any story told and I usually haaaate main characters. (Especially when compared to the side characters)
Goes to show a belief I've held for a while. There's no FE canon, beyond MAYBE Path of Radiance is good. Because I had no idea what to expect coming into this list, but even I couldn't have predicted that I would see my opinions on FE7 and FE8 just completely reversed.
A lot of people hate fe9 though
I know this would probably take a lot of work but it would be really helpful if you could cut to footage or even just an image of the maps that you're talking about. For the games that I know well I would also have opinions on the maps that you're talking about, but without context clues it's hard to know which maps you're talking about unless they're extremely notorious and/or memorable (i.e. Battle Before Dawn).
Play Gaiden
The liking Thracia in concept more than playing it is super understandable. I feel the same way for the most part.
Congrats on 1k ❤️❤️❤️
I present to you all: a pretty goddamn long list of my general thoughts for the purpose of discussion. I know the first half of this is mostly negative but I swear I get more positive after that:
-Part of me thinks I must be really really bad at FE because I played Birthright on hard and some chapters just felt frustratingly hard. It's like a year since then but I remember chapters 10, 12, 21 and 25 being particularly irritating. Is it because I didn't do many skirmishes? I have a feeling that's not the reason. Similarly, Conquest just feels unfair most of the time. Like, chapter 10 even on hard felt like I was just getting straight up out-stated and I just couldn't do anything, particularly after they recede the water. Also, archers with counter? Seriously, why? Thracia was pretty hard but it at least felt like fun-hard most of the time, Conquest just makes me feel like it wants me to stop playing at any cost.
-I agree on a lot of story related points: Engage has some contrived bullshit but also this is Fire Emblem where that happens basically all the time, Path of Radiance and Thracia have the best character writing in the series by far imo, Radiant Dawn's story is one of the best with a few aspects that are exceptions (me, a writer running a Tellius TTRPG game, desperately trying to find a way to write out or at least never ever bring up the blood pact).
-I also agree Three Houses is pretty overrated in the regard of plot, but this might be a personal thing. I never got very connected to the cast, and my first playthrough was Black Eagles and I had bought into the marketting as "you'll get to choose your side in this conflict" but then when I was forced into Silver Snow I didn't feel like I ever got the chance to do that because I didn't see the dialogue you need to get with Edelgard to unlock Crimson Flower, which was because I had stopped doing the exploration stuff at the monastery, which was because I was getting burned out so hard from it by even just chapter 11, so I dropped the game. I tried to replay it on Verdant Wind because my boyfriend loves Claude and I want to experience that with him more but I made it to Chapter 17 and most of my characters still felt like they weren't coming together and the map design+gameplay was just so boring to me so I dropped it again. Have yet to actually finish it, other than FE 1-3 and 12 it's the only one I haven't beaten yet.
-Similarly, Echoes is my least favorite in the series by a massive margin, partially due to Sexism Things(TM) that you mentioned but also the characters all feel so flat to me, like my favorite playable character is Tobin because he's voiced by Robbie Daymond and that's literally the only thing I have to distinguish him from everyone else but it's more than most characters get. And the map design is so god-awful with constant summoner spam, like who thought Nuibaba's Abode was a good idea?
-I'm really sad that I've soured on Awakening a lot over the years, I played it when I couldn't sleep at night when I had a bad bout of depression in high school and it was my first FE game, so it's upsetting that I just don't really have fun with it anymore. In general I have an issue where I want to like something really bad but it won't happen and I need to find a way to get over that, but that's a whole other can of worms that I will promptly close.
-On the positive side though, Fellow Jill Enjoyer!!! She's my girl, give her all the favoritism I can on every playthrough of either Tellius game, nobody can stop me, least of all myself. Path of Radiance is definitely my favorite, if it had just a few of the features that RD had (being able to move around skills, the height advantage stuff) and refined some of the maps (like The Bridge and Eat Rock) it would be the perfect Fire Emblem to me. Radiant Dawn would probably be my favorite if unit usability wasn't wildly imbalanced not only within armies but between them, don't mean to beat a dead horse but the Dawn Brigade is so bad. Recently I've been playing a fanmade rebalance of RD just called Radiant Dawn +, and man it's so good, I've been having a lot of fun training units like Fiona and without it being true agony. If it tells you anything, Ilyana was my first Tier 3 unit, Micaiah can use dark magic and I think that's cool as hell, and I'm planning on bringing Lyre to endgame if she keeps up at this rate, I think I'll only be able to play RD like this for the rest of my days. Speaking of which, RD also has the coolest Endgame set up and I wish more games in the series did this.
-Sacred Stones and Thracia are close behind in 2nd and 3rd, Sacred Stones has a pretty simple but solid setting and though not many of the characters are among my favorites, Joshua, Knoll, and L'arachel exist there and I'll give them favoritism every time I can (I, uh, really hate Ephraim tho lmao). I also like how it did the split promotion paths but not having reclassing, and honestly I kind of prefer not having reclassing? I see why people like it but I'm almost never interested enough to bother with it. Thracia gets more fun the later you get into it IMO, the first few chapters are kind of slow, the Munster Arc is absolute agony, then it starts to go up from there until you get to the point where you have a truckload of staves and the game is very very fun now. It also, as I said, has some of the best written characters in the series, like it adds a lot of cool depth to Ishtar, Leif, and Ced, and then Eyvel, Mareeta, and Sara are top-top tier characters to me. Like I have a hugee character tier list I sort through sometimes and the top most tier are the six from Thracia I just mentioned, Joshua, and then Ike, Soren, Jill, Lucia, and Elincia.
-Shadow Dragon I liked because I got to make a few specific units broken, and honestly I think I mostly like characters for the depth that I give them in my head as opposed to the depth they actually have so I have found people to latch onto despite the lack of character interactions, like Caeda is swiftly becoming one of my favorites for the few moments where she's really tactical and calculated instead of just Girl The Character. And then I'm pretty mid on FE6 and 7, and FE4 is ehhhhh I see why people like it but not for me, also the character writing is way worse than FE5. And in New Mystery I'm at like chapter 13. So that's all! My thoughts are not more special than anyone elses but they are mine and I gift it to you on a plate.
1:26:51 whatever it is, apparently the 2D Mario team got some of it
Honestly as much as i love FE12 if it was my first fire emblem I would hate this series forever. Thankfully it was awakening as my first FE.
However, recently i did lunatic run on FE12, awakening and birthright. The lunatic experience actually elevated my value on FE12 and birthright while awakening lunatic kinda ruined my childhood first love. I do agree for FE12 i could not bring myself to play it constantly on H3. It was draining and tiring but in the end satisfying. On the other hand finishing awakening made me feels dirty because it just chrobin turn based musou at the end. I tried lunatic+ and yeah i hate it. I would rather play FE12 H4 than lunatic+ awakening.
Currently my top 3 FE:
1. 3H
2. Engage /3hopes (surprised me as i dislike warriors game in general)
3. FE12
I feel like what makes Fire Emblem so interesting and special is that no matter your play style, no matter your experience with the series, there’s a game in here for you. And that’s what makes subjective rankings like this so interesting. Because everyone’s list is going to be wildly different. I usually value the story of a Fire Emblem game because I like having that motivation to keep going. Like oh no! It’s Sacred Stones are we have to rescue our brother! Let’s go! It’s why I put down Conquest extremely early (like just after the route split) because the story was entirely nonsensical at that point and was honestly just badly written. Even though Conquest is touted as the good Fates entry, I would still put it extremely low on my list because of the story. I think FE4 has the best story in the series (unless we count Tellius as one story instead of two games, but even then Radiant Dawn has some issues there too). It’s why I don’t mind the map sizes and the length of a single chapter because the story and the characters are so engaging and endearing. That said, I still totally recognize that FE4 doesn’t have universal appeal because of its slow nature and large maps with several turns of nothing happening (Chapter 4 is the most egregious at that). I also like these kinds of lists because they help foster discussion. Oh, you don’t like FE7? Well I like it for x,y, and z. And we have a chat about it where maybe I’ve been overlooking something because it’s one of my favorite games, or maybe I help you see certain maps and mechanics in a different way that helps you appreciate them more.
I’m so glad RUclips recommended your videos to me. You’re extremely articulate, your videos are interesting, and it’s nice to see other FEtubers outside of the BIG ONEs lmao. Keep up the great work! (I say on a video released months ago 😅)
Based for saying Echoes' story isn't a complete improvement over Gaiden's, and I agree with your points. Though it never occurred to me that nearly every woman in Gaiden is either damseled or obsessed with a man. And we can't even blame Kaga this time! I was about to say I like Clair as a character, but... I think she's damseled? Is Genny damseled? Because she's not obsessed with a man until the epilogue. Mae's a pretty solid character too and I wouldn't say being Boey's love interest dominates her whole character.
I also REALLY dislike how Echoes portrays Mila and Duma. Making them dragons was unnecessary, when they were originally unique for being rare divine beings in FE that WEREN'T dragons. But they also blame all their problems on "dragon degeneration", which got retconned ever since Fates (and kind of Awakening? Some Nah supports hint at it) to be inherent in all dragons rather than something that can be avoided with Dragonstones (thankfully Engage walked that back). Duma also didn't demand sacrifices (of, guess what, women) in the original. (Jedah tries to sacrifice Celica's party to him but it seemed like something he came up with on his own?) I always liked the twist in his death quote that Duma was actually not that bad of a guy and the real problem was his followers taking his ideology to extremes, which was implied with Mila too. (Zofia twisting Mila's "kindness" ideology into hedonism was also a twist I don't see done often) The original theme was Celia and Alm were supposed to be "Mila and Duma done right". But then Echoes says Mila and Duma are entirely bad while also retconning their lore.
I was willing to let the Revolutions take slide (I'm not mad just confused) but will die in the hill that Radient Dawn part 4 is good. The massive maps add to the epic scale of the story and is your last chance to train up your growth units. The fact that yiu have to split up your units into armies is really cool because it forces you to use units you wouldn't other wise and getting your part one units to the point where they can stand toe to toe with the Greil Mercenaries is very satisfying.
I agree the story is a deus ex machina, but am willing to let this slide because it is actually foreshadowed and is consistent with the stories theme that war brings common ruin to all, while still letting the two sides team up.
I'm glad you enjoyed part 4 but i don't think enemy spam is good map design
#BringBackLedges all the way. (How badly Engage ruined Micaiah's Paralogue by removing ledges says it all)
fe4 will always be my favorite in the series i understand why many dislike it tho
Sealed Sword was the first FE game I played and honestly I think it is my favorite in the series, and definitely better than Blazing Sword, but I feel like my opinion is typically an odd one. You and Mangs are the only people who I've seen who see Sealed Sword as better than Blazing Sword.
I think that's partially because not a lot of people have played binding blade (sorry but I have to call it binding blade from now on or I get VERY confused).
In lists where said person has actually played every fire emblem game I find people either usually put it in C tier because: the story is kind of just Roy+Merlinus, they have no nostalgia for the game and the game doesn't have any shiny stuff like weapon forging, pair up, dungeons etc etc or they put it in A tier usually because they find the gameplay really engaging.
Binding Blade is my favourite FE game by quite a margin, It's the only FE game I finished (I get VERY bored after midgame in most Fire Emblem games) until just recently where I finished Conquest and even in Conquest I was just trying to get it over with in the last 3-4 chapters.
Honestly it probably rebooted my interest in the franchise, before then Fire Emblem was a Franchise I enjoyed for 15 chapters then got bored.
@@yaboykirby7789 Yeah, I feel most people played Blazing Sword first, sometimes even as their first game, so when people compare it to it's much more difficult predecessor, FE6 is seen as less refined. Also, FE6 has the disadvantage of being the first GBA game, meaning first game syndrome is real, and the devs had no way to get feedback on the difficulty, (Which by the way, Sealed Sword was said to be intentionally toned down in difficulty from Thracia 776, so that just goes to show how hard Thracia is.) which might have been a turn off for more casual fans. However, I still think Blazing Sword's map design is horrible and I can barely tolerate playing Lyn mode, which newcomers are forced to play, so I think FE7 also has plenty of turnoffs.
i recently wrote a decently long review on why i kinda hate sov(haven't played gaiden), and one of my biggest critiques was the story and you really highlighted exactly what i said with the nobility subplot it just UGH
I see you, using your No Redundant Units footage, you aren't slick
EDIT: oh, you mentioned it at the end. Never mind, carry on
I didn't have any other fe6 footage and I didn't want to start a second playthrough side by side haha
The Three Houses slander hurts my soul. The idea that anyone can look at Binding Blade, Thracia 776 and Three Houses, and come out with the understanding that TH is the weakest game completely baffles me.
Just goes to show how different and diverse us weird humans can be.
@@lspuria8440 No, I am serious.
I honestly disagree, and really can't see that viewpoint. Like I said, we're all different, and that's what I am reminded of here.
play gaiden
play gaiden
play gaiden
play gaiden
play gaiden
No 🤬
Alm's victory in Shadows of Valentia is presented specifically as the triumph of humanity over the gods - they're not exactly subtle when they call the finale's soundtrack 'Twilight of the Gods'. Alm and Celica becoming king and queen of a united continent when so much of the story is about the false dichotomy formed by the male/female war/peace duma/mila rigel/zofia divide works quite well, but Alm's concerns about the role of the nobility just draws attention to the parts that don't work (because he kills all his enemies and becomes king anyway, like most fire emblem protagonists do).
I think an overlooked aspect of why this doesn't quite work is that the story is quite derivative of the original trilogy of Star Wars, and not just in the sense that it's doing a Campbellian hero's journey - the specific plot beats and character dynamics are very similar outside of Alm and Celica's relationship staying romantic rather than becoming familial because George Lucas decided not to make three more movies right away (long story).
The problem this creates is that the dynamic between Luke and Darth Vader is very different from that between Alm and Rudolf. Luke is crushed by the revelation that his father is Darth Vader because it reveals that all his hopes and dreams are lies. Alm is upset that Rudolf is his father because he's in the way of him killing evil god and becoming king. Luke killing evil god and becoming king is presented as the worst possible outcome in Star Wars, but it's Alm's ultimate triumph because the story's politics and themes are fundamentally quite different despite their similarities.
Based #1 Jill haver 🤝
Honestly I'm... a little surprised at the 3 houses placement?
Not because I have an opinion on the game (never played, I played Geneology, Awakening, Birthright, and Conquest), but because you spend some 75% of the time talking about the game in a very negative sense (story, fiddly inbetweens, exceptionally unbalanced at higher difficulties, etc etc) and only really spare a couple sentences to be like 'but I like the characters' and 'the actual gameplay is fun!'
Not saying fun can't be the ultimate decider, just weird hearing someone spend 5 (of 7) minutes complaining and then turn around and call it 9.5/10, lol
Ayo what? Ced is the goat >: (
Hawke Gaming Hours
probably not that surprising, but I love shadow Dragon, and fe1 and 3 feel like fun side grades. I also quite enjoy birthright and revelations as well. I really just have a hard time criticizing any fire emblem game. every single one I'd consider one of my favorite games of all time in the grand scheme of things
Those who complain about turnwheel or midmap saving going against the spirit of the game haven't played through a geneaology map...
So, I HAVEN'T played all FE games... however, especially talking to your top 3, that's roughly the same order I'd have placed them in... I'm working my way through FE6 right now, I actually probably would have placed FE7 in MY top 5, but that's primarily due to it being the only other FE game I had access to until Path of Radiance... so, I originally just picked up FE8 because it was for GBA specifically and because I was the oldest of 3, I had first dibs on the living room TV UNTIL my sisters got home... then they got dibs and same for the parents, if they wanted to use it you were SOL... however, I am going to say that I almost entirely, until my Grandma bought me a GCN for Xmas, I essentially lived on FE8 and FE7, then I got PoR, and then I eventually got RD, immediately hated Act 1 in like, the treasure room map... and I think that was because iirc, Hard=Lunatic, Normal=Hard, Easy=Normal as the game lacks an easy mode, again, iirc. Either way, I wasn't proficient enough in FE to enjoy playing it and gave it up until more recently. I'm taking a pause before Act 3 because, if I could sleep with an FE character, it'd be him... and yeah, if I could see two units kiss, it'd be Ike and Hector, you sold me on that... though Lynn is my second pick for "if you could sleep with."
Anyway moving on, I was surprised to see my first FE at the top of the list alongside my 3rd FE in the series... it was honestly, kind of like "outside of FE7, a kindred spirit who loves PoR and FE8 as much as I do!!!"
Which is what I just really wanted to say, I get that you don't like FE7 because you don't like things that are specific to FE7, I can understand that view. Just as much as I can appreciate what Conquest does... I'd honestly put it on borderline Top 5 FE, like my 5th. I'd probably swap up Rev a bit and definitely bump FE7 to 3 and 4 for me, but that's because I love Hector, Lynn and Eliwood, and Rev is what I call "Kiss Kiss Simulator 9000." As in as you put it, anyone can be anything and that's really the only reason I play Awakening anymore is to play "Kiss Kiss Simulator 2000." So yeah, like for me, just the stuff where you can essentially feed Ike like 3 levels and he can start to Solo maps and even more so if he promotes to Lord at 20 (which he's usually level 20 anyway from soloing like 3 or 4 maps with him and a few chokepoint holder units) as I effectively let him get like 2 or so levels normally and play actual PoR for a bit before um... yeah, just, bridge map... it is always my go-to bring Jill and crew and wait for Haar and let Ike do the entire map himself. I believe he's always hit cap on the bridge map every single run. But yeah like top 3 Lords? Ike, Ephraim, and Lynn in that order. Hence why FE7 would be a higher tier for me than for you, but we both have our reasons, I had no other games outside FE7-FE9 until I got my hands on a copy of RD for 20 bucks due to a video rental store was shutting down (not Blockbuster, idk about anywhere else, but the competitor was Hollywood Video which had a substore called Game Crazy), and even then I barely touched it until now... which is well over a decade later... it wasn't until FE11 and later games that I'd really get a feel for how the games work on a broader scale... and I might try my hand at the pre-FE4 games... but I doubt it, I don't even think I'll play FE4 or 5 unless the get remakes... looking at those even older than GBAFE was really hard to do...
My only wish in FE is that we eventually get playable spiders and mogalls.
Hopefully Rom hacks will
Totally agree with 3 houses part. Maddening mode & monastery really bad. I don't like the durability weapons too. Other parts are perfect tho.
Wait, what Fire Emblem characters are even 10 or under? Besides Mamori and characters people just think look 10, because that's super subjective especially with anime art styles. I didn't think there were any because that'd be asking for a controversy about Nintendo/IS endorsing the use of child soldiers.
Okay but where would you rank the Cipher card game?
776/777 stars
1:06:18 my wife appears, best girl forever
I am actually a new Fire Emblem Fan. Smash bros. introduced me to the characters, Heroes introduced me to the gameplay, and Warriors and Three Hopes got me hooked into the series so much that I decided to try Three Houses and Engage. Now you can officially call me a Fire Emblem fan. In fact I now like Fire Emblem way more than the Mario and Pokemon series. I still like the Donkey Kong Country and Kirby series more than Fire Emblem though. Hyrule Warriors didn't hook me on the Zelda series the way Fire Emblem Warriors did. So my ranking will only feature the games I just mentioned, since I don't have the respective consoles to play the other games in the series.
1. Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes
2. Fire Emblem Warriors
3. Fire Emblem Engage
4. Fire Emblem Three Houses
5. Fire Emblem Heroes
I love all of these games to a point that I lost count as to how many playthroughs I've had with each game, it's just I enjoy the Warriors games more.
Personally I play rev the most of the fates games, because I get alot out of the customization, the snow map is tedious but really easy, so it’s not that bad, I hate the fuga map the most.
In rev, they could’ve just called “valla” “balla” and it would’ve avoided the curse.
I think I play rev the most too, though i enjoy CQ more. IDK the fates games are weird
whats lunatic reverse?
Hey, just wanted to say the chapters seem to break after Revelations.
My favorite part of FE 12 is the prologue. Since it’s all new content Kris doesn’t feel out of place and the whole thing is a great introduction to Archanea. Unfortunately, after that Kris being shoehorned into every scene just took me out of the story. With games that are as long as Fire Emblem I just can’t get engaged without a story to hook into.
Just unreal to me that people exist that prefer fe6 to fe7
Fe6 has its problems but fe7 is just meh.
"Everyone has a bad parent which manifests itself in a different anime trope." EXCUSE ME BUT MERCEDES IS A PERFECT PARENT TO EVERYONE
/s ;)
Also I'm finishing my first run in FE4 and I feel this. There's so much i love and I'm excited to play more but man the arena setup every chapter and mid map movement turns seem fine on paper until you're doing them and emulator speed up doesn't fix the fact you have to make decisions.
I love Mercedes 💜
@DaniDoyle she is HER
agree with the spicy(?) fe4 and fe7 placements.
the most common one-line review of fe4 i hear is that the gameplay is a bit slow and tedious, BUT THE STORY. but i dislike the story? a few nice moments, but it's presented largely thru infodumps, and mostly doesn't exist in part 2 presumably because they bit off more than they could chew. and while it's held up as this very serious political epic with very serious themes, as a contrast to "modern FE," i found it more saturday morning cartoony than its reputation, and not in an entertaining way. lots of villains-of-the-week cackling in their castles and being ridiculous, and such. then there's manfroy being an awful antagonist, and some other issues and blah blah. really want a remake tho.. tbh..
the maps in fe7 are such a shame, because a pick-up-and-play FE with rescue dropping is a very appealing package. for me it's the string of maps after the heath/isadora one (a good map with an actual decent gimmick with the reaver spam):
fog desert map (boo)
genesis (as if i'd try to unlock this)
fog lloyd map (boo)
crazed beast (slog)
vaida defend map where the wyvern ai seems to be broken (boo)
snow map (boo)
battle before dawn (yelling at the tv)
night of farewells (slog)
slog of destiny (cog)
maybe the lategame is secretly good, but by that time i'm done with fe7. i really like *some* of the earlygame maps, and the allure of gba mechanics is real, but i have a hard time picking this one back up despite its pros and its surface similarity to fe6 and fe8.
clearly i need to revisit fe8. barely remember the story but i hear a lot of praise for it, and the game has better maps than fe7. a rare story playthru of a fire emblem game may be in my near future.
Stopped what I was doing to watch this video
Hopefully what you were doing wasn't saving a drowning kitten
@@DaniDoyle I was playing project ember lol
Why is Corrin marrying Ryoma good when they’re supposed to be siblings?
They're secretly not actually related because the devs wanted to appeal to the incest crowd
I wish i was joking
"We have enbies at home"
Enbies at home: 1:52:54 EMB *He*
Huh?
@@DaniDoyle The Fire Emblem Heroes logo, getting cut off as it deserves
it's worth noting there are other issues with the tellius game's depiction of racism. it gets a lot of points but it definitely makes massive mistakes like you mentioned. one additional thing is how the laguz are generally stronger than beorc physically which is a common stereotype of black people in particular.
Yeah there's a lot of issues. Animal racism, the Shinon problem, Lethe being presented as equally wrong to Jill, the list goes on. That said, it does deserve props for what bit does right too.
I don’t think the laguz are supposed to specifically parallel black people, especially considering it is a game from Japan, I think they were trying to tell a more general story about racial and cultural discrimination. Not saying the game is perfect but I think it’s unfair to say that the game is rudely comparing laguz to black people when the game doesn’t seem to make that comparison itself.
I just can't play FE12 because I played FE3 first and the remake's aesthetic is awful. How did they do that???
Ike and Hector kiss?
Sir or madam, please do not re-ship Soren's husbando.
He's had a hard enough life.
But what if all 3 of them kiss?
@@DaniDoyle Fire Emblem: 3 consents
Soren lives his dream being the bratty twink to two beefcake lords 😳
1:14:44 *gulp*... a-all of them?
Engage’s story is super basic, though the last bit of it feels a bit like filler, the time crystal seems just like it is just so that they can just fight past alear.
The pit they fell in was a need for them to make the four winds sympathetic, and even sombron a little.
Marnie being a weird peri-like character and then having a moral 180 because she thinks veyle’s backstory is so sad.
And zelestia having a whole exposition “we could’ve been allies but actually I didn’t want to be but now that I’m dying I may as well.” Is just so bizarre.
Griss is the only one who dies without sacrificing his villainy. And he still has a sympathetic backstory exposited on us.
After that map, the last few maps fell like they are basically filler story wise which is weird considering that they’re actually the final parts of the story.
I do think the way Alear came back to life is both clever when veyle raised them as a corrupted, and it is foreshadowed that the Emblems could bring someone back to life.
I still like engage a lot more than three houses though, because that game’s story is imo more offensively bad and the gameplay isn’t as interesting. Also it’s really ugly.
This list is very interesting, most of the rankings seem pretty good aside from a few controversial picks very low (holy war & blazing blade).
With that said sacred stone as number 1 i did not see coming. Personally its one of my least favorite games in the series. I simply find it forgetable. In fact its so forgettable to me, i played the game a few years ago as i was convinced i had never played it, a few hours in i realised i totally had played it before. And honestly even now i could tell you anything about the story or the characters. As for game play its very similar to blazing and binding blade so thats another reason it simply doesnt stand out to me.
Idk maybe ill replay it now and see i like it better