With the announcement of Fire Emblem Awakening's release date is finally on the horizon (February 4th for those who don't know), I feel the time is finally right for a retrospective on the Fire Emblem series. Also, I found several other topics to dive into in the Fire Emblem universe, so I don't think it would hurt to talk about them in addition to the five titles released westward. With that said, ready thy Delphi Shields, the Fire Emblem Retrospective is upon us!

FE7 is wonderful and still stands as the best in the series. The little tidbits of info they would drop for getting specific support convos, clearing specific missions, etc. added a nice touch, it had the best cast, the best story, and a good balance of difficulty. My first entry in the series and I still replay it from time to time.

FE8 is pretty good and probably my most played game in the series since I unlocked every character. I liked that I could revisit towns to buy weapons/magic when I needed to but the towers make it really easy to form an overpowered team. Didn't care for choosing which career to promote my characters too because there was usually a "right" choice and a "wrong" choice.

FE9 is great, the second best in the series. The main problem with it was that Laguz were useless. I think it introduced having an shop to buy weapons/magic before heading into battle which is a big deal to me. They also added bonus exp. points and IIRC, in PoR you could class change without needing another item, and they brought in skills. All four of these things should be staples in the franchise IMO. I lost my copy, though, so I haven't played it in a while.

FE10 is horribly unbalanced game with bad support convos, a sub-par storyline, poor pacing (last 1/4 of the game is a drag), and it has the most useless MC in the series. Just about all of the characters were recruited automatically (or with little effort) which I didn't like either. Still, I've replayed this a number of times and like PoR, it has great character art. I also vastly prefer its graphics/art direction to those in Awakening.

Shadow Dragon is the only FE game I never replayed. Did not like that game at all.

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READ THE BIBORAN!!! Ansha Abdul Brothers!!! BIBORAN!!!!

Never played Fire Emblem before, but Awakening has definitely caught my interest and I'm thinking of picking it up - especially with such a swift localization date! You think that since I haven't played the others I would be lost in the storyline? Or is each game its own tale, set in the same universe?

There are prequels/sequels like Radiant Dawn but Awakening has its own storyline.

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READ THE BIBORAN!!! Ansha Abdul Brothers!!! BIBORAN!!!!

FE4 aka The long one. The plot was a masterpiece after Akaneia and the Generation system was greatly implemented, adding a lot of replayability with the expirementing you can do with children units. The gigantic drawback is those huge boring maps as well as unskippable First Generation. One of the better ones for me.

FE6 aka The one with Roy. The plot felt like an Akaneia reimagining with reconquering the continent from a horrible villain with a bunch of dragon backstory. It also had unbalanced and lifeless character roster, dumbed down gameplay after the SNES titles, supports without a support viewer and an extremely luck based difficulty. Pretty bad, really.

FE7 aka The one that everybody has played. The plot was OK, the cast was nice, (though a heavy reliance on supports is quite visible with many characters) but that's about it, really. It didn't introduce any gameplay mechanics with the exceptions of Silencer skill and that two map weather system. Not my favourite and I can never understand the big praise the game gets, but oh well.

FE8 aka The easy one. FE7 with monsters, a world map and bland characters, as well as a lack of difficulty. One of my least favourites.

FE11 aka The DS remake. The plot, while being extremely simple, still keeps you entertained and has a pretty great climax, one of the best soundtracks in the series, reclassing gives a lot of replayabilty. Shadow Dragon also introduces the best face portrait style in the series and online battling. The only problem is that it is being too faithful to the original by leaving the map design and enemy characters completely unchanged. I, personally, enjoyed it.

FE12 aka That other DS remake. If Shadow Dragon was faithful to the original, this one felt very distanced. The game wasn't afraid of giving new classes, changing map design, introducing supports, giving a new assasin subplot with one of the most tragic FE villains, remake of Akaneia Saga chapters, three new downloadable maps, the best soundtrack in the series, prologue chapters. I could go on for hours as to why this game is my favourite in the series, but whatever.

Added after 6 minutes:

There are occasional sequels, but I can assure you that the story here is brand new. The only thing that is of any reference is that FE13 continent is the Akaneia continent hundreds years later, hence you see an older Tiki and Krom is Marth's descender.

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Just eat it, Lissa. Meat is meat.

Actually the first Fire emblem to have skills was FE4 and in FE8 they had the armories where you could buy iron weapons and the weakest tomes before battle

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3DS FC: 0962-9185-8403

Each one is set in their own universe, it's not like Legend of Zelda with multiple timelines, they each belong to their own universe.

Oh, and let's not forget: Fire Emblem: Seisen No Keifu was the first title to introduce the weapons triangle (One of the many reasons why it's often considered the best in the entire series). Also, Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones borrowed heavily from Gaiden wit its world map and random encounters. But let's save that for the retrospective now shall we?

I've only played FE8 (through Ambassador's program) and I still haven't finished it! It's more of a game I play on and off. And it's especially frustrating to have one of your units killed off and then having to start the mission all over again. You guys are all saying it's hard, but I'm on Easy Mode and I keep dying!

Nonetheless, I can't wait for FE13 and the brutal challenges that await. If only they'd back off on the paid DLC... (won't have enough extra money for that)

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Wii U NNID- acetrainerbob (notify me if you add me please)
My 3DS FC is 0216-0958-2586 please PM me if you add me!

I know what you mean with the DLC but as for FE 8, I can breeze through it on hard mode without an issue, just be careful with your moves and anticipate where the enemy will move next.

Do a Seth solo. If this fails, then you just suck at Fire Emblem. On a serious note, you can grind at the Tower of Valni or in Skirmishes if your team is underleveled, you can try turtling the chapters by making slow movements during the turns, so not many enemies will charge at you at once or you can speedrun them by having a flyer or a mount clear the path while someone like Seth or Duessel rescues the lord and carries him/her to the throne. Choose between these three if you can't go through the game causually. This FE isn't that complex.

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Just eat it, Lissa. Meat is meat.

Also, though I have almost all ideas planned out for the retrospective, if you have any suggestions, feel free to tell them, i'll consider them at the very least

The first FE I've played was FE8. I liked it, but wasn't a big fan. I later played Shadow Dragon and loved it. Marth is one of my favorite video game characters and this game got me into strategy games. I can't wait to see Awakening. I'm also gonna guess a character from the game will be on the next smash bros.

The first FE game I played was Sacred Stones and played alot of it (it WAS the ambassador version though) and has gotten me interested in the series. The best part about Awakening is that it comes out a few days before my Birthday.

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Diggersby tho

The first FE game I played was Shadow Dragon, I was pretty new to the series and I managed to kill some characters thinking that I'll be able to resurrect them later. Apparently, gaaaaaah permanent death!!

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When I was born I was so surprised I didn't talk for a year and a half

Ah, the joy of challenge that is perma-death

I've been playing Shadow Dragon. So far, no deaths. Had some close calls though (Damn it Merric, its a good thing you're one of my most powerful units, or I would have just let you die by now).

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I want my name to be Spaghetti

Never played a single Fire Emblem. Question: When I buy Awakening, am I going to be completely lost?

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Hello Darkness my old friend

fe in the west, huh?

well... uhhhhh...

7 was really good!

Nope, you'll understand more as it goes along.

So were 8, 9 and 11. 10 can go where the flames don't shine.

8 was ehhhhhhhhhhhh

hardly played much of the radiant games

shadow dragon was a broken ugly mess

7 is brilliant, though

Well, if I'm enjoying Shadow Dragon right now, does that mean I will absolutely love Awakening?

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I want my name to be Spaghetti

Who knows? I haven't played Awakening yet but i'm sure you and I will.

it means you will love the rest of the series!

i hear awakening is good so that should be included

find yourself a copy of fe7 on the spot!

I don't have anything that can play a GBA game, and I'm not an ambassador... OH WOAH IS ME!!!!

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I want my name to be Spaghetti

You could always try the Gamecube title, it's solid, the second best of the West in my opinion.