Board 8 > I think it's about time I try Fire Emblem

(+) Yeah! (+)

How many games have been released outside of Japan and what are they? I only have access to Nintendo's portable systems though.

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My Little Phineas and Ferb: Summer is Magic!

Fire Emblem (7th in the series, 1st in the US, best one imooo, for GBA)
Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones (8th, GBA)
Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon (FE1 remake, DS)

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I'm too tired to drive anywhere, anyway, right now, do you care if I praise Black Turtle?
Call me numbers.

and there's FE9/10 for GCN/Wii but since you don't have those I didn't mention them

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I'm too tired to drive anywhere, anyway, right now, do you care if I praise Black Turtle?
Call me numbers.

Just those 3 then? Alright, time to look for them.

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My Little Phineas and Ferb: Summer is Magic!

Yeah, play the first GBA Fire Emblem to start

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We are thought, and reality, and concept, and the unimaginable

Should start with either the first one released outside Japan (just titled "Fire Emblem" in English speaking places) or Shadow Dragon (which is more basic due to being a remake of the original game).

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We clasped our hands, our hands in praise of a conquerors right to tyranny

Don't start with Shadow Dragon. Honestly, I think the only reason I really enjoyed that game at all was because I was already more than familiar with the series. They did some wonky things with it.

But FE7 (simply Fire Emblem in US) is great to draw you in. Definitely play that one.

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"I can already feel my Dumey Lust kicking in." -MistBiomeZ

Sacred Stones is also a decent starting point just because it's really easy (and standalone, plot-wise), but I'd still recommend FE7 instead. If only because Sacred Stones has some weird mechanics and FE7 has a tutorial to help ease you in.

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"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma

Reclassing would probably be more confusing than any features that aren't in Shadow Dragon but are in Blazing Sword. Then again, if you just ignore reclassing, Shadow Dragon in normal mode is about the most basic, easy FE experience you can get.

Shadow Dragon isn't exactly wonky at all <_< There's no Lockpicks to keep track of, no rescuing, an armory in the pre-battle menu (while FE7 is actually in the minority for not doing that in some way), no wacky requirements for important side quests (instead it has stupid requirements for unimportant ones), no fog, etc. Aside from reclassing and forging it's pretty much as basic as you can get for the series short of going back to the original two NES games.

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We clasped our hands, our hands in praise of a conquerors right to tyranny