The Fire Emblem Thread

[spekkio]

Try FE5 - Thracia 776, should be edgy enough for you.

 

[Endemic]

Awakening and Conquest are the two worst in that regard. Try Thracia 776.

 

[Reality]

I've never played Thracia 776 on the new translation (only finished 2019 iirc) but I remember that the old translation had memes and some glib dialog (mostly the generic village dialog when using the rescue command)

Also the Pahn-Tina dialog is pretty terrible in both English and original Japanese, and recruiting Rifis is kind of charather breaking... Kind of awkward that the two theif charathers in the only game in the series designed around stealing mechanics (granted outright capture to steal entire inventories is more important than using steal) are the ones who fit the worst in the setting.

I mean as far as the main story, I think it's above average for the setting, it gets points for having the main charather punished for his decisions storywise, although I guess it also loses points for having the religous cult from (FE4) show up for the final map when the charather journey is basically finished when you kill the non-magical Usurper who your charather actually has a charather history with in the previous map.

FE4 hangs over this game in a couple other places as well, even though this game about taking back a single 'backwater" country is more thematically interesting than the continent wide shenanigans in FE4 anyway.

 

[Endemic]

I've never played Thracia 776 on the new translation (only finished 2019 iirc) but I remember that the old translation had memes and some glib dialog (mostly the generic village dialog when using the rescue command

Project Exile fixes that and has some QoL updates. I don't care for a few changes it made, but overall it is 1000% better than the unfinished patch from 2008.

are the ones who fit the worst in the setting.

I don't see why recruiting Lifis is that much more questionable than having August as an advisor (who worked for pirates and tortured people).

Which conversation with Tina do you mean?

 

[Reality]

The difference is that Lifis is caught in the act while August succesfully lies to your charathers - I think the full implication of being an exiled priest of Blagi given the position of other sages/bishops is that he was trained as a tactican / old imperial era offical legitimately, and presumably he has mercenary motives in attaching himself to Leaf, having lost favor with both his own faction due to his methods, and then his faction falling out of favor entirely due to the new state religion of Lopuso - He has premediated attaching himself to Leaf (although based on comments much later he would have posibly settled for other "figureheads")- I believe he is a methods justify the means person and DID commit atrocities to support the pirates during his time with them, but probbably to stay in a position of information, and to a lesser extent may not be helping them fully if Lifis is still keeping him at best 3rd in command

The Leaf - August - Dorias triangle is probably the best writing in mainline Fire Emblem.

Additionally I kind of think that pre-chapter 5 the party's decision making feels like it is jointly between Leaf and Evvyl (as temporarily the most important mentor) and she definately seems in opposition.

As far as Tina - Almost of it, but the 12x chapter start dialog for a start.

 

[Endemic]

That's all correct, though I will point out that Lifis is optional. In gameplay terms he does thief stuff and that makes him useful, however morally dubious it is to recruit him in-story. If nothing else, you can use him as capture bait to weaken enemies.

The Leif - August - Dorias triangle is probably the best writing in mainline Fire Emblem.

I don't think it's a coincidence that the series sharply declined for a while after S.Kaga and some of his co-workers quit to form Tirnanog.

Additionally I kind of think that pre-chapter 5 the party's decision making feels like it is jointly between Leif and Eyvel (as temporarily the most important mentor) and she definitely seems in opposition

Eyvel is the leader of the Fiana militia, although obviously that becomes irrelevant post-ch5. Speaking of Fiana, it's one of the many references\inspirations from Irish mythology in FE5: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fianna (I can see why Judgral's Finn doesn't have that guy's surname).

As far as Tina - Almost of it, but the 12x chapter start dialog for a start.

I'll have to look at the script and get back to you on that.

 

[thesecret1]

Awakening and Conquest are the two worst in that regard. Try Thracia 776.

Thanks for the recommendation. I mentioned this to a friend, however, and he started gushing about Three Houses so much that I'm stuck with playing that now, I guess. On a side note, I'm really impressed that Switch emulation on PC is a thing already.

 

[Endemic]

On a side note, I'm really impressed that Switch emulation on PC is a thing already.

Last time I tried that, performance was very poor. Only a few homebrew games worked properly.

 

[thesecret1]

On a side note, I'm really impressed that Switch emulation on PC is a thing already.

Last time I tried that, performance was very poor. Only a few homebrew games worked properly.

Trying it right now on Yuzu, and it works like a charm so far. Only issue I've noticed is that the audio is a bit fucky – the music and sound effects and everything are fine, but every time someone speaks, his voice has an echo, so it always sounds like you're having a conversation in some big cave or something. Still, that's pretty minor.

 

[Thorakitai]

Currently playing Thracia 776 and I really love how surprisingly fun and "balanced" this game is.

Sure, the RNG and the game difficulty can really screw you over but the game also gives you the opportunity to become overpowered as well (ability to capture an enemy so you can steal all their weapons, stat scrolls that enable your units to gain great stats in level ups, staffs being ridiculously cheap like the ability to warp a unit or a caster from anywhere).

The gameplay also ties quite nicelessly with the story. Turns out fighting to liberate your homeland from the evil empire occuping it is just as difficult as it sounds.

 

[Matador]

Thracia is a masterpiece.

Nasty and fun encounter design and variety of scenarios. You have very powerful units, each one excelling on its area. You get the tools to face the hard battles.

Asbel is a monster boss killer, Leif is a great lord with its support bonuses and great personal weapon, the Wyvern rider is a beast, and the essential staff user waifus.

PD: I forgot how Powerful can be the thiefs on this game, stealing flaming swords and great stuff.

 

[Endemic]

Currently playing Thracia 776 and I really love how surprisingly fun and "balanced" this game is.

Sure, the RNG and the game difficulty can really screw you over

The only "bullshit" stuff I remember offhand is chapter 4 (enemy quality suddenly through the roof while most of your group is unavailable or relatively weak), and chapter 24x (but the translation patch adds an explanation for that anyway). Getting two 99 misses in a row is vanishingly rare as well (1 in 11,400 chance iirc) so even the hitrate cap can't screw you over that much.

 

[Reality]

It's rarer but enemy leadership stars can let them move a unit twice. Also the 2 levels with Cyas while cool, are kind of wonky (10 leadership when it's capped in the 0-5 range for other bosses) because the attack preview (at least in the older version I played) does not really reflect the inflated stats given to all the generics, which never happens in other levels because of other bosses' low leadership.

More minor bullshit is that a couple of levels start your units split into multiple groups (Such as Chapter 24)... I think the Low Turn Count people confirmed that even deselecting everyone and selecting them in order cannot let you pick the left/center/right groups from THAT MAPs prepartion screen - only the order from the last map matters for how the game determines it (even for charathers you didn't use in last map at all .... I think GBA and onward fire emblem games kind of just let you reposition people in levels like this during the setup/deploy screen.

Some of the recruitment stuff is kinda designed to get optional charathers killed (Dagda's re-recruitment gaiden comes to mind)

Game is definetly not as hard as it's reputation, mostly because you get plenty of strong "enemy phase" fightning people , but the bs is kind of justified it helps that the most silly stuff happens in gaidens who a true blind player anyway won't see because their pre-requisites are unnatrrual.

 

[Endemic]

It's rarer but enemy leadership stars can let them move a unit twice. Also the 2 levels with Cyas while cool, are kind of wonky (10 leadership when it's capped in the 0-5 range for other bosses) because the attack preview (at least in the older version I played) does not really reflect the inflated stats given to all the generics, which never happens in other levels because of other bosses' low leadership.

Fair enough, but the stars themselves are visible to the player (unlike the Manster prison ambush). The QoL updates in the translation patch expand info on stat screens - PCC for example.

More minor bullshit is that a couple of levels start your units split into multiple groups (Such as Chapter 24)

The most recent version of Miacis' patch changes the deployment system to that of the later games. For the worse in a few cases, IMO.

Some of the recruitment stuff is kinda designed to get optional characters killed (Dagda's re-recruitment gaiden comes to mind)

I don't think that's anywhere near as bad as FE6 chapter 11A, where multiple recruitable units can literally bug out 10% of the time and don't move. Don't start me on how annoying it is to save all of the NPCs.

Game is definitely not as hard as it's reputation, mostly because you get plenty of strong "enemy phase" fighting people , but the bs is kind of justified it helps that the most silly stuff happens in gaidens who a true blind player anyway won't see because their pre-requisites are unnatrrual.

You can also capture bait the AI with a dancer\thief (to take advantage of that stat nerfs it causes). This even works against Galzus in chapter 6.

 

[Puukko]

I've been playing 3H on Ryujinx. I'm up to the 11th chapter on Blue Lions and decided to do the side DLC. I really wasn't sure what to expect, but man have I been positively surprised so far.

I have no idea what the general consensus on this DLC is or how many people actually played it, but so far it is the most engaging content gameplay wise. It's like they took the complaints about the lack of difficulty to heart because this is how Hard should be tuned.

It's 7 chapters long and unlocks four new classes (trickster, valkyrie, dark flier and war monk) as well as 4 new units that match those classes for the main game who also carry over past the time skip, as well as some items. You go in with a predetermined party of mixed house members and gain control of the four new characters in the second chapter. The limit on resources combined with the increased difficulty promotes very different planning than I have been used to so far. I'm having to ration weapons and make the most out of gambits.

The second chapter specifically was the longest and most demanding FE mission that I have beat to date on my rather short career. A large arena with 4x a dozen or so enemies coming in waves. They're all a fair bit higher level, promoted and ready to fuck up your squishies at every opportunity, with a bonus appearance and an objective tweak at the end. You'll also be learning the ropes with the new units who are all fun to use thanks to their skills and spells.

I only wish the main story missions were tuned like this. The paralogues are at least a bit more tightly tuned, but so far this DLC is how it should have been across the board.

 

[Ventidius]

I have no idea what the general consensus on this DLC is or how many people actually played it, but so far it is the most engaging content gameplay wise. It's like they took the complaints about the lack of difficulty to heart because this is how Hard should be tuned.

It was discussed for a bit in the Three Houses thread a while back. It is indeed considered more challenging than the base game by most people that I've seen talking about it. Personally, I think it's even above average - by the franchise's standards - in terms of balancing elegance and difficulty. It's a shame it only has seven chapters, but on the flipside, the quality is very consistent and there are no maps that I would consider gimmicky or weaker (the first one is on the easier side, but that's to be expected). Honestly, as I point out in the linked post, I think the biggest difference really comes from the limitations to character building, but the map design is definitely on point.

Intelligent Systems seems to have adopted a policy of throwing more challenge-hungry players a bone, even as they become more mainstream, at least if both Cindered Shadows and Conquest are any indication. That's why I wasn't entirely surprised about this. Still, it's very much welcome.

Oh, and I had a blast using the three Lord units at the same time. It's funny how they don't come even close to breaking the campaign, despite the impact a single one of them has on the regular routes. Tank-Edelgard was especially fun.

 

[Puukko]

This map is where the game starts playing dirty and throws you into the dark. If you know the objective, it's simple enough, but chances are you'll go in thinking you should rout and spend a decent while trying different approaches. In practice, you won't kill even half of the enemies, and you just want to reach the back of the map and pull a lever. There's three, and I was prepared for the game to tell me to pull all of them and maybe force me to fetch the item afterwards, but simply pulling one ended the map. Huh. That was a bit anticlimactic. Did I get lucky and pick the right one at random, or does it not matter? It is a mystery.

Getting there though? Prepare for ambush spawns and a constant supply of new golems. You need to kill a stronger golem for the key and then beeline it to the back before you get overwhelmed. The regular golems are manageable with one or two regular enemies on the side, though you'll want to spend a gambit or two. The stronger variant? It'll tear your units a new one and absolutely has to be focused down with plenty of gambits to prevent counters. On the plus side, this was the first map where I actually learned how beast units work.

This next map looks too easy. A modest number of enemies in an area where you can easily choke them? No way that's all there is to this. I didn't start it yet, so place your bets on what the gimmick will be.

 

[Puukko]

Side story complete. The moral of the story is don't be a cuck simp.

I was a bit disappointed when two of the maps were reused from the main story but at least they had a story justification. The difficulty really didn't let up and if anything the enemies kept outpacing me in levels. Going back to the base game's difficulty was a damn whiplash too.

The final boss had a couple twists to it but wasn't gimmicky. Overall it was a very worthwhile 25 hours (at my slow pace). Whether it's worth 25 Nintendo funbucks on OG hardware, that's a tougher sell. That's the price that would have gotten you the TW3 expansions if we were to compare full price expansions. Also, it is weird that this is considered non canon and the new units act like you've never met before when you go recruit them in the main story afterwards. Some of them also come with E's in skills they need to have to promote to the classes they came with in the side story...

 

[deuxhero]

I like to have some good, fun story to go with my games. Not necessarily anything great, just decent. Is there a single Fire Emblem game that isn't complete garbage in this regard? I've tried Awakening and it was retarded to a level I didn't think was possible. I tried Conquest next and got what's on the level of a bedtime story for little kids, with MC winning battles without causing a single casualty and literally sobbing and crying whenever anything bad happened.

Is there any FE game where I don't have to suffer someone's mental diarrhea?

You played the worst two FEs, by far, in terms of story (and Awakening is one of the worst in terms of gameplay too).

 

[Puukko]

I liked Awakening for the gameplay, but as a one off really. I wouldn't want all of these games to be about unit stacking into eternity. Storywise it was just unfocused and lacking.

 

[deuxhero]

Awakening is trash in gameplay too. Terrible map design, horrible unit balance (MU can solo the game, even on harder difficulties), and bad mechanics.

 

[Matador]

Awakening is very bad in all aspects compared to any decent Fire Emblem entry. The only bad game I played from the franchose.

My Tiers from the ones I played:

S:

FE 5: Thracia (Classic, the one to play if you have to choose one)

A:

FE 4
FE 7
FE 6 (Has S moments and D moments)
FE Path of Radiance

B:

FE 8
FE Radiant Dawn

E:

FE Awakening

 

[spekkio]

^
I've played 3-4-5 for Snes, 6-7-8 for GBA and PoR (9) for NGC. And I would agree with you mostly, with Thracia being the best (but 4 is almost as good IMO - bonus points for playing a matchmaker), and Radiant Dawn being the worst.
Currently slogging through it (FE10), and it's the first FE I don't like that much. Just too many bad design decisions (too long, three "armies", meh story, forced furry superunits, must be played multiple times for best ending, etc.).

Still, fantastic series. Gameplay is simple, yet somehow satisfying. And I still have 6 more games to play. Some of them supposedly shit, though.

 

[Endemic]

Still, fantastic series. Gameplay is simple, yet somehow satisfying. And I still have 6 more games to play.

New Mystery (FE12) on Lunatic difficulty should keep you busy for a while

 

[Morality Games]

Awakening is objectively a terrible Fire Emblem game and an an average sRPG at best, yet I somehow prefer it to Fates. The fun is in acquiring new feats and making your units insanely, crazy powerful, it's the epitome of a guilty pleasure.