Fire Emblem series

[Sushi_b]

How do you feel about the Fire Emblem series of games?

I personally have only played both games for the GBA (Fire Emblem and Sacred Stones) but I really enjoyed them a lot. I like the simple but refined gameplay a lot. I've just picked up Radiant Dawn for the Wii, but haven't played it yet.
Characters dying during the game makes it more challenging and difficult at times to play but it's a nice change from other RPGs which just allow resurrections.

I'm glad to see that Nintendo has finally been localizing them for North American audiences after so many years of never seeing them come over (we had the Shining Force series at least for the time being before it crapped out). Hopefully we will continue to see them all in the future as well. Looking forward to playing the DS remake.

How do you feel about the series?

[Blackdragon]

I love Fire Emblem. I've played most of the GBA games, both the GC and Wii titles. I never got around to finishing the ones on SNES, but with the remake of the first one coming out, I'll get the chance to use Marth like I've been meaning to do.

Some people gripe about the perma-death, but it's something I've gotten used to. The story and gameplay draw me in, and I try my best to finish the game with the most uber team possible. Seriously, a maxed out Swordmaster and Hero with support from each other...untouchable swords of death.

[Void]

I've only played the first one for the GBA, and a little bit of Sacred Stones. Awesome stuff, but very difficult. I've come to find that Super Robot Taisen and Advance Wars are more my style.

[Contagion]

I've played the last 2 that were released and a few chapters in one of the GBA games. Very awesome series, though I hate permadeath, but it makes you think alot harder than most other SRPGs.

[Cyrus the virus]

I really enjoy the GBA ones, but haven't tried any others.

I like that the deaths make me take things slow and calculate a lot. In FFT I could just rush and overcome the enemy with pure offense before my dead crystal dudes faded away.

[Jarrid]

I think I have only played one Fire Emblem, and it was for the GBA. I thought it was pretty fun, but I never finished it for some reason. I am really bad about starting games and not completing them. Other than that, I am really looking forward to the DS Fire Emblem. Sounds like I will have a good time playing it.

[Sushi_b]

I thought there was a lot more love for the FE series here. Maybe that was some time ago. Has anyone played the older games that never were released here? FE is one of the few series of games that I know very little about regarding the games that were never brought here. The only one I know is that the first game was completely ripped off by SEGA with the first Shining Force game, which we actually got localized and was our "first" console Strategy RPG.

[Isama_Suhern]

Fire Emblem is one of my favorite game series. I played most of the Fire Emblem series even the Japan only ones (except for the first FE but I played the 3rd which is a remake of the it). I didn't start playing the games thought until after Marth and Roy showed up in Super Smash Bros. Melee. My favorite game of the series is Thracia 776 which only came out in Japan for the Super Famicon.

[Blackdragon]

Heh, same for me really. When I played Melee, I decided to heck out this Fire Emblem series thing. Turns out I was hooked for life. I played the one with Roy in it, which was Japanese only. Sucks that I missed out on the story, but it was fun playing the game with my then favorite Melee character. Sword Of Seals I believe it was called. I never got to playing the others, because I hated using a guide to make sure I wasn't missing anything. Though it was probably silly of me to play my first FE in Japanese. Being new to the series and not knowing what's going on was a pain.

[Lodis]

I'm currently playing Path of Radiance, my first Fire Emblem game, and am nearly finished it. I'm enjoying it a fair bit. The gameplay isn't as deep as it could be, but it doesn't seem like the game itself is long enough for that lack of depth to trigger boredom and complacency. I'm fairly impressed with the story actually. While it's nothing extraordinary, my expectations were extremely low I suppose because it's a Nintendo game. So once the story got going and I found that the character dynamics actually had some punch to them, I was pleased.

I guess Radiant Dawn is next on my list. Followed by the remake for the DS.

[Sushi_b]

Nice to hear about PoR. It's one of the few Gamecube games I missed out on that I've really really wanted to get. The price has always been so high for it though so I neglected to pick it up. I suppose now is as good as any time to see if I can. I'm sure you'd like Radiant Dawn as well, if you liked the GC game.

[Lodis]

A friend of mine completely lucked out and found a near mint used copy of PoR at a local EB Games. So I've been borrowing it from him.

[Lodis]

So I finished Path of Radiance a little while back, and have now begun Radiant Dawn.

PoR was solid. Not great, but I enjoyed the play through. The story had its moments for sure, and Ike's whole development arc and the various influences he encounters were surprisingly well portrayed. I have some gripes though concerning the Black Knight. I couldn't believe how easily cast aside his character was. You battle him and he's just thrown adrift and never spoken of again. Who the hell was he?! I wanted far more of his connection to Greil reveiled. For someone so seemingly relevent to everything, why was he so disposable?

Other things to note are how pitiful the presentation values of the game were. I guess Nintendo is trying to not stray far from the historical Fire Emblem aesthetic, but man... the graphics and art design suck. The GameCube and Wii are capable of so much more. This holds true to the upcoming DS remake. The graphics are awful, and Nintendo really doesn't have any excuse. Throw some more money at this franchise, it's worth it and the DS can handle it.

[Sushi_b]

I'm not sure why Nintendo has decided to water down the graphics and leave them as is. Fire Emblem is their premier RPG series (Aside from the Mario titles) and does deserve to be showcased off well. Perhaps they believe that only a select few players will have interest in the game regardless of how it looks but that doesn't give them an excuse.

Strange that the DS title doesn't look very good because the GBA titles had lush colours and sprites. Don't expect any changes though since the game has already been out in Japan for a number of weeks.

[Jarrid]

I agree, Sushi. There is not even a release date out for the game in North America and other areas as well, right? I just see the August 7th release date for Japan, and that is it. Hrm. . .

[Lodis]

Playing Fire Emblem has made me realize just how out of the strategy-RPG loop I've become in the past few years. I've become so accustomed to action games, seeing as that's the industry norm now, that I do not have the patience for a slow plotting game like this now. I make mistakes by the bucket load, leaving a healer vulnerable simply because I wasn't paying 100% attention to enemy placement. And since this game is so damned merciless, any pitiful unit can walk up to a healer and one-hit-kill them with ease.

[Blackdragon]

That happens sometimes. Just takes a little patience really. Trying to advance and take care of weaker units who need levels desperately makes up a lot of the challenge of these games.