#fire emblem fates: birthright for the 3ds is also great for beginners

[mirensiart]

Hii hello sorry to bother you, but can you recommend which part of the fire emblem is best for first diving into the series, or maybe what was your first fe game?

Hello!!!!!

Ok so, fire emblem is pretty easy to get into since each game is it's own contained world/continent, so you can practically start with almost any title, there are currently 17 fire emblem games lmao (there are some games who have sequels/happen in the same continent but they're not the norm)

I personally started with fire emblem: awakening for the 3DS! I feel it's a pretty great starting point to the franchise!

If not then all the Gameboy advance games are also pretty friendly for beginners! My personal favorite is fire emblem: sacred stones! You can emulate it practically anywhere lol

If you have a switch, then I have a small disclaimer for the 2 fire emblem currently for the switch:

Fire emblem: 3 houses is kinda like the botw of fire emblem lol in the sense that is the most popular in the franchise but the most different when it comes to mechanics/overall plot

So if you start with fe: 3 houses it might be hard to get into the older titles! Since it does things VERY differently, and I've had friends struggle later with the older ones. Like having botw as ur first zelda might make u dislike the older zelda style kinda deal

It is a fantastic game though, so if you want to start with it then go ahead lol

And then there's fire emblem: engage who goes back to the classic gameplay/plot style as older titles, but since it's an anniversary game, it references almost all the old games, so it might be a little overwhelming to a beginner

BUT it has the best maps and the most genuinely fun gameplay in the franchise by far! If you start with engage you just have to know that the characters are able to summon "ghost" versions of the main characters of every older fire emblem game

I do know people who started with engage and interacting with the ghosts of the older games' main characters is what got them interested in playing the older games, so it might work for you!

I'm personally A BIG fire emblem engage enjoyer, I had SO MUCH FUN with it lol

My personal top 3 when it comes to fire emblem games are:

Fe: awakening (3ds)

Fe: sacred stones (gba)

Fe: engage (switch)

So since I'm biased, those are the games I recommend the most lol

[spadefish]

how do i get into fire emblem? it seems neat but idk anything abt it!!!

In my opinion, fe13 is the best starting point!! (I’m shot to death from eighteen hundred different directions) 

Fire Emblem: Awakening is the thirteenth game in the series. It’s for the nintendo 3ds, and comparatively speaking, it’s one of the easiest fire emblem games. It was basically made as a tentative sendoff for the series-- if it didn’t sell well, the FE franchise would stop producing games. Because of that, it’s EXTREMELY beginner friendly- you don’t need to know anything about previous fire emblem games, for one. It also introduced ‘casual mode’, which means that your characters aren’t permanently dead if they fall in battle. 

After you’ve played 13, skip ahead to 15 or 16. 16, Three Houses, is the most recent installment in the series and it’s a LOT of fun. There’s a lot more to do in it compared to other FE titles, and it’s more of a challenge than Awakening. You can also go back to any of the previous FE games!! They’re still great games in their own right, just understand that permadeath is the only game mode available. (I personally REALLY mean to get around to playing 6 and 8.) 

If you want to play 14(fates), it’s split up into three separate games. I strongly recommend skipping Birthright and Conquest and just playing Revelations, since it’s the only “canon” route and also the least heartbreaking. BR and CQ both make me wanna pull my hair out, but that’s just my opinion. 

Lastly, there’s the mobile gacha game, Fire Emblem Heroes. It’s basically super condensed fire emblem with a lot of really wild tiny rules. 

Sorry this got long, but I hope it helps!! Feel free to ask more questions!

[fayesdiary]

On it!

GBA Trilogy

The GBA titles are one of the best places to start- they're easy to, er, get, their spritework is gorgeous, they have a good chunk of the many mechanics you'll encounter throughout the whole series and their difficulty is relatively tame.

Blazing Blade is considered the vanilla FE experience, but Sacred Stones is self-contained and feels a bit closer to modern FE titles, since it has a route split and multiple class promotions. And again, very beginner-friendly. I'd recommend you save Binding Blade for later though, I heard that game is a bit unfair and janky.

The Marth/Archanea games

If you want to start at the very beginning with Marth's games I'd reccomend playing Shadow Dragon on the DS - the original one on the NES has aged as well as you'd expect and I wouldn't recommend playing it unless you hate yourself, you're adamant to play Fire Emblem's very modest roots or have access to the 30th Anniversary Edition on Switch.

Fun fact I've finished Shadow Dragon like last week

Mystery of the Emblem obviously comes later since it's a sequel, and you can choose which version to play: the original on the SNES (it also has an abridged remake of FE1 if you want to do both in one go), or the Japan-only remake on the DS.

Be warned though that unlike FE11, which is a faithful remake of FE1, FE12 does take some liberties in remaking Mystery's plot- mainly due to it including the first playable avatar- and the changes have been controversial.

But assuming you play the two games on the DS- it is good and relatively beginner-friendly, but the presentation is shit and it feels a bit clunky at times with it having no ways to transport slower units besides Warp and being forced to visit the villages with Marth.

...Don't worry about permadeath, though- you get a truckload of characters in both games, most of them have two lines of dialogue at best and even if you somehow get everyone killed they give you generic units as a replacement.

Jugdral

Unless you've already some experience playing Fire Emblem, this is gonna be a big fat no for now. These games are not beginner-friendly at all.

Geneaology has a great world, story and characters, but it plays unlike any other game with its 12 chapters and gigantic maps. And worse, its gameplay is clunky and dated as hell (as one example, you can't trade items and weapons and to pass a weapon to another unit you're forced to use a workshop), and many times it feels like the game is deliberately wasting your time.

Thracia is a midquel to Geneaology and as such you shouldn't play it before Geneaology. Its gameplay is much better and closer to a GBA titles though, but be warned that it's really hard, especially if you're blind. The latest translation did include a lot of QoL changes, though.

I know I've made these two games look a bit bad, but I really recommend you play them one day- emphasis on play them, because their gameplay-story integration is almost unparalleled.

Just... not as the first games for a newcomer.

The 3DS games

I'd recommend you play Awakening first- it's a shorter, more streamlined experience, it's easy on normal difficulty, it lets you disable permadeath and lets you turn your units into unstoppable monsters if you're that kind of RPG player, and most important of all- it's really, really cool.

Fates' gameplay is much like Awakening's but with a lot more polish, and while the rest of the games are... divisive, it's way better than people give it credit for. The recommended order to play the games is Birthright>Conquest>Revelations, but you can play them in any order you want. You should still keep Rev for last though, the game itself says so.

As for which game to play first between BR or CQ: Birthright's design is a lot simpler and it lets you grind infinitely, while Conquest requires a lot more strategy, given that you have limited resources, the enemies are packed with strong skills and almost every map has a unique objective. Personally I found Conquest to be a lot more fun.

If you're still not sure, you can always decide if you feel more like Nohrian Scum or Hoshidan Filth.

But if you want to play all the three Fates games in a row, take a break in-between or you're likely going to burn out. I know I did.

Shadows of Valentia is the objectively best game in the franchise really good! Its presentation is one of the best and comes the closest to Three Houses, its gameplay is a lot simpler since you don't have too much stuff to keep track of but still a lot of fun, you can grind and rewind turns, and its characters are as charming as they get!

If you're a madman like me, you can try the original game on the NES, Fire Emblem Gaiden. Maybe after you play Echoes though.

TL;DR: The GBA and 3DS games are the best places to start, you should avoid the Jugdral games for now but absolutely play them one day, Marth's games are best played on the DS versions and you should check the NES titles only if you're masochistic or curious about Fire Emblem's beginnings.

Oh, also, I'm gonna assume you're emulating these games, so a word of advice:

Save states and the fast-forward buttons are your best friends!

so i now have the capability to play all the old fire emblems besides the ike ones. i don’t even know where to start honestly (this is me asking for suggestions)

Oh that's a good question, and it probably depends on your personal preferences!

If you want to see how the series got its start, there's always Shadow Dragon and New Mystery of the Emblem! They got a 3DS update at some point, if I'm not mistaken (though I haven't played them), but Marth's games were the origin of the series.

From what I understand, Gaiden is a lot more experimental in format than most other games: it includes actual dungeon crawling portions (which are faithfully incorporated in the 3DS remake) -- but this is another one I don't have first-hand experience with, so I can't say too much about it.

I haven't played the oldest games like Genealogy of the Holy War and Thracia 776, but I have heard generally good things about Genealogy's story and overall handling of its themes. It's also pretty brutal in its difficulty, from what I understand, so if you're particularly good at tactical RPGs in the vein of Fire Emblem it might be a good starting point -- or if you're like me and terrible at them, maybe skip them for now.

Blazing Blade was actually my first introduction to the series, and I really enjoyed it -- one of my favorite things about it is actually the sprite animations, which is just lovely. Funny enough, I never finished it (I got through the prologue with Lyn multiple times but never got more than one or two chapters further), but the characters were really fun and it's one of the games that pops instantly to mind when I think of "classic Fire Emblem," for better and worse (RIP me permadeath is mandatory and unit management is painful).

I have such a weird relationship with Sacred Stones because I know I have played this game. I have evidence that I have played this game. I remember absolutely nothing about it. I have the vaguest memories of Myrrh and running low on her dragonstone charges and that is it. Even so, it's another good game with strong characters and more of those excellent sprite animations (but also it still has the permadeath and units you don't use will fall further and further behind).

Unfortunately it wasn't until the 3DS generation that we started getting some major quality of life improvements: Awakening is where we got optional skirmishes to help with leveling units, making unit management easier since you can keep everyone roughly equivalent in level and have a wider roster to use; I believe it's also the first game where permadeath was optional rather than the default, so along with varying difficulty options it's a lot kinder to people that aren't excellent at the game like me, I am a filthy casual and I feel no shame. Later games like Shadows of Valentia (the Gaiden remake) even include an option to rewind turns so you don't have to make quicksaves and restart if you want to avoid units falling (which, yes, I do even if I have permadeath off I don't want anything bad to happen to my friends okay).

I know @fayesdiary has a lot of experience with the older games -- any advice for someone looking for a place to start?

[startselectscreen]

Fire Emblem Three Houses Video Game Review

FOUR STARS OUT OF FIVE Ever since the GBA version of Fire Emblem, I instantly became a fan of this franchise because it’s an anime RPG and tactics game done right. Granted there a number of other great tactics games out there like the X-COM franchise or Into the Breach but they never clicked on me, the fact that, within every Fire Emblem game, whether it’s the cast of characters that you S-Link with or trying to rather be rash on your decisions and kill off your characters in a fantasy-related setting is the reason why I love this series. The fact is that back in the GBA games, it autosaves every single time you move/attack the opponent or make one wrong move and one of your characters will receive a fatal blow just put me on the edge. I just love the meticulousness to it, it’s like a game of chess without the timer.

When I heard that Fire Emblem was coming to Switch, I was overjoyed, the previous 3DS games, Awakening, Fates and Echoes has been fantastic and never ceased to amaze me. It is a shame that Fates has multiple versions that you have to purchase (Birthright, Conquest and Revelation which is DLC) to play in new playthroughs much like the Pokemon games. However it does not fault the immense rich anime medieval fantasy story with a set of lovable characters with a support system, excellent music and sound and tactful situations in the battlefield where you have to think on your feet to counter your opponents utilizing the strengths and weaknesses of the weapon triangle (sword > axe > lance) and magic/others as well. These games just make great decisions on their tactics-based system, you have to really think before you act and mobilize your units carefully without the threat of getting flanked by wyverns/pegasus or have mages trying to pick off your units during their turn.

Now released to the Switch, Fire Emblem: Three Houses is the sixteenth main game to the FE franchise with a plethora of new features capable of the switch hardware. The story plays like the other games, as Byleth (which is the default name whether male/female) who comes off like the stereotypical amnesic but in a dream encounters a mysterious, green-haired girl, Sothis who has the ability to rewind time. This is caused by Byleth’s rash decision after defeating most of the bandits with the help of your mercenary father, Jeralt and three companions from the officer academy in Garreg Mach Monastery, Edelgard, Dimitri and Claude - by sacrificing yourself when the bandit leader almost strike down Edelgard which prompts Sothis to rewind time so that you can make a better decision (pretty much similar to the game play). Anyways, under a number of circumstances, the three persuades the player to become an instructor in this monastery academy where you have to teach students from three specific houses that of which you have to choose; whether it’s Edelgard’s Black Eagles, Dimitri’s Blue Lions or Claude’s Golden Deer, the choice is up to the player to decide. It has become apparent that this crucial choice will affect all of these ruling nations that surrounded this educational and religious institution where you have to instruct and level up your students against the impending enemies that terrorized it.

With that aside, it feels like an anime Game of Thrones in which “if you play GoT, you’ll either win or die” attitude going on with this game. It’s pretty much Lannister against Baratheon against Targaryen, all done with to political maneuvers and intrigue than differs from the fairy-tale, evil versus good, that the other games have. It starts off as innocent, you’re an instructor in this academy teaching your students to become nobles or join the ranks in the army and then fight off bandits but then slaps you with this and decides to take a dark turn. I mean, after beating the game, there are many questions that are left unsolved, questions that other FE games have answered with NPCs that “seems” to be the villain but then it feels like some sort of red herring to the actual part of the story that you decide to take. With the story involving crests, much like bloodlines from the previous games, it feels like only bad shit will happen with nobles in your house that you chose that transform people into monsters.. Well less bloodlines from the previous games, I have to admit. It’s just upsetting to me that the story doesn’t have their priorities straight and will have some main threat disappear within half of the game and never mentioned and crests are to blame for the stories’ decision to have fatal and nonsensical decisions in which that game have less of a recruit option but I guess that’s the result of the lack of befriending them in the first place in free roam. 

It does not hinder the cast of characters that you decide to pick when you chose a specific house. The Black Eagles, as dark and evil looking as they are, has the most entertaining and wide arrange of characters that you can befriend with the support system whether in the battlefield or in this new free roaming feature where it plays like an JRPG in which you can travel around the monastery doing quests from NPCs, increase your skills’ stats from other instructors, motivating and increasing support, your students by gifting them items, eating together, sharing tea, participating in weapon tournaments, gardening, choir singing to increase your magic skills  and so on. Although this is limited by a number of activity points that you will receive by professor level which is just like your other skills’ stats, gaining experience from some of these activities. Speaking of, roaming around the monastery feels like a boring thing to do, so they included fast travel to any parts of the map, provided that you discovered it or any quest givers that give out missions for you to do. After spending all your activity points, you can end the day 

I also forget that like an RPG, there are dialogue choices which can affect the game in crucial moments during the main story. It’s like the Bioware games, where you can be locked out in this particular story thread losing potential characters. It can also affect character’s motivation based on the correct dialogue and other perks and downsides. It’s a nice touch to have these dialogue options but Byleth, the character that you are playing seems to be this toxic or less uplifting character that you really can’t have the freedom to make to desire choice and it’s frustrating to hear his/her responses to those moments. 

As an instructor, you are tasked with teaching your students, every start of the week, in this new mode where you can increase your students’ grade skills ranging from weapons, magic, riding and so on. They gain XP based on their motivation meter (white, red, yellow and green) to learn that you can increase with activities and gifts within your free-roam in the monastery. When you and your students in the battlefield level up, you will gain seals that will change their unit class, which all of your students start off as commoners and nobles. There is a certification exam, alongside with the appropriate, minimal level that you get successfully upgrade your unit into a different, more powerful class. Now, each seal have four tiers (beginner, intermediate, advanced and master) that will unlock once you hit the appropriate level and the percentage is judged by the skill requirements of that specific class to unlock whether its upgrading from lance soldier to a cavalier or a mage to a warlock, it’s like the previous games but with some more requirements. In addition, there are seminars where you can increase you own skills by placing one of students or other recruitable NPCs, increasing your skills. Also, if one of your students increase a specific skill whether its in battle or during lecture, they will decide on a class-specific goal where they need your approval, through dialogue to either change and go back to the original goal of becoming a new class or not.. 

The game feels like a vision of real life fantasy featuring this somewhat Calendar feature where you attend class from Monday and Friday and then have a day off to free roam around the campus/monastery. Specific dates on the weekends (my guess is Saturday) have different events whether it’s a class-based tournament that will reward you items or any related activities that will greatly affect your student’s motivation and skills. And also there is activity points separate from free roam in Battle Mode where you can able to spend on paralogue missions or given by quest givers. 

The battle system is fully 3D much like Radiant Dawn for the Gamecube where you can change camera perspectives from top down to third person as detailed as ever. The gameplay feels like the previous Fire Emblem games, at the start you can change and pick whatever characters fits for the mission and see your opponents are in the map. Each class your opponents has on the battlefield has its strengths and weaknesses and you have to combat them with the right class (for example; archers are effective against fliers and armored units are weak against magic). As it is a Fire Emblem game, there are not only class-based units that you fight against, there are monsters/demons that can prove to be a challenge. They are called crest monsters that range from giant wolves, birds to loathsome, towering golems that not only have multiple health bars to kill them but a barrier around them that will soften your attacks before damaging you very hard. It makes the gameplay more challenging even on normal mode where you have to pick what units that have strong stats (even though you can rely on your two main characters) and support units to break down those barriers before you go for the kill and even then, you have to do it two or three times. 

 It is also noted that during missions, the weapon triangle is less of an importance which was the “cream-crop” of these games and based it more towards the combat arts that can increase your damage against specific classes (rider classes or magic users), sacrificing your weapon’s degradation in return by a lot. However, after beating the game, the combat arts just feels useless to me as normal attacks do more damage when wielding better weapons, so that they don’t deteriorate and break down. This game removes the link together units to boost support link as well as stats in battle, they introduce a battalion feature where you can recruit a specific force that can also gain levels alongside stats to boost the effectiveness of your core units. Furthermore, each battalion has a specific gambit perk that will either damage and stun your enemies, breakdown the monster’s barriers or increase the number of steps. It feels like they remove this so that players can’t cheese around and combine weak with strong units that can devastate bosses with fatal blows. The rewinding time feature is back from Echoes as Sothis’ Divine Pulse in which you can rewind time during the gameplay. However, it seems like they made it easier for the player with perks from the four weapon-based statues that give me more charges as well as other benefits to boosting XP when Instruct your students. Even though I played in Normal/Classic mode, I only used a couple of those charges and they replenish after battle so it doesn’t matter. 

Graphically speaking, it looks like a last-gen game. It just looks like a mix between Radiant Dawn and Final Fantasy 12 with its 3D environment when you’re free roaming or on a mission. Just roaming around the monastery just feels mundane with its large map design where a couple of activities separated in different parts of this main hub. It’s just spread out and just visually, it just looks kinda ugly-looking like PS2 graphics. There is also not really a wide arrange of map designs either, it feels like they only have a few set pieces specifically on any missions, unlike the previous games. However with the new battalions, you can zoom into your unit and you will see an army of units surrounding your core unit. It’s like Advance Wars but if they put in on consoles, it’s not much thoroughly detailed as you expect but it’s pretty nice, although you don’t really notice it that much when you focus on the tactical aspect of the game. From a sound and music standpoint, it just the opposite. I really love that the game is fully voiced, with hours of recorded dialogue from all of the NPCs and characters that you recruit. I mean, each of every student in all three houses are fully voiced with their own story to tell and the wide arrange of talent is impressive, at least for the Japanese cast. I specifically adore the voice of Bernie who is just as lovable and funny, constantly panicking during cutscenes whether its S-Links or throughout the main story. The music is orchestrated greatly as well, it is somewhat repetitive to hear the same score over and over but those moments are great with the music. Oh and I like the Fire Emblem theme when you start free roaming, a nice little tidbit. 

Overall, despite its flaws, Three Houses is still a satisfying game to play, the tactical aspect of moving around the battlefield during turns is just rewarding if done right. It’s these games that I enjoy more than any other tactics game. The difficulty improve since the 3DS with the introduction of crest monsters and the removal of linking units together resulted in a calculated, tactical strategy component of the game that adds a new layer of intensity. It is just sad that the story isn’t that remarkable with its forgettable and clear objective that the game, mysteriously changing to the three houses waging war against one another. That and the game can be beaten multiple times by picking one of the three houses and branching paths throughout the later course of the game. Other than that, the gameplay promises to be one of the most exciting moments that I played this year.