Current Events > What's the best pre-Awakening Fire Emblem?

(+) Yeah! (+)

i want to try one, preferably with a good story

Thracia 776

Best for me is Fire Emblem 7: Blazing Sword. If its mostly story based then Im not really sure. FE7 had an enjoyable story to me but it definitely had some issues as well

Genealogy of the Holy War, The Blazing Blade, or Path of Radiance.

Path of Radiance

Thracia 776

Blazing Blade was my first FE and I think it's a good starting point. Not too hard but not piss easy, fun enough story.

If we're talking challenge, thracia 776
If we're talking story, genealogy of the holy war
If we're talking about overall package, path of radiance

I'd only recommend thracia and genealogy if you truly want to experience fire emblem, but God damn be prepared to use save states a lot because some fights are just... sadistic.

7 & 8. 8 is quite easy, but aside from that it's excellent.

Blazing Blade(7)

Genealogy

Rekka no Ken

Think Ill start with 7 and then try Genealogy after if I like it. I suck at the strategy parts so if that ones harder Ill definitely need the warm up. Id love to try PoR but its expensive as hell for an actual copy and my laptop is too shitty for dolphin

Controversial take but if youre new go play Sacred Stones

Sacred Stones for me

I like Blazing blade but SS was my first FE and I still love to replay it

I haven't played 4 or 5.
Given that, best is probably 7 or 9. Only thing about 9 is that it's laughably easy.

Genealogy, but start with FE7 first.

Oh yeah I would echo starting with one of the GBA games, they're easy to get into and straight forward. I would suggest Sacred Stones, it doesn't have the stand out bad maps that FE7 has or the awkward "no item use in prep menu" thing Binding Blade has. Also lets you start on its hard mode from the first playthrough, which is not going to be hard for anyone who has played a Fire Emblem before but is more engaging than FE7 normal mode which is a joke.

discodancer77 posted...

Controversial take but if youre new go play Sacred Stones

Aitz posted...

Sacred Stones for me

I like Blazing blade but SS was my first FE and I still love to replay it

These. Great intro for me. I loved the branching class promotions.

Panthera posted...

Oh yeah I would echo starting with one of the GBA games, they're easy to get into and straight forward. I would suggest Sacred Stones, it doesn't have the stand out bad maps that FE7 has or the awkward "no item use in prep menu" thing Binding Blade has. Also lets you start on its hard mode from the first playthrough, which is not going to be hard for anyone who has played a Fire Emblem before but is more engaging than FE7 normal mode which is a joke.

If I remember right, Hector Normal mode was more difficult than Sacred Stones Hard mode

So I went with 7 and assuming I like it Ill probably get around to all the ones mentioned in this topic. Is binding blade worth playing at all? Id assume I should play it right after if it is

Tropendrope posted...

Think Ill start with 7 and then try Genealogy after if I like it. I suck at the strategy parts so if that ones harder Ill definitely need the warm up. Id love to try PoR but its expensive as hell for an actual copy and my laptop is too shitty for dolphin

For what it's worth I actually thought Genealogy was pretty easy. There was like, one chapter I kinda struggled with (Chapter 3), but aside from that your units are so OP in this game that only Holy Weapon users should be even remotely threatening. Honestly the hardest part is getting burned out after forgetting that you can save at the start of every turn and you're totally not expected to clear the huge maps of Genealogy in one sitting. Gotta take your time with that game, like, take a break after every castle you seize because each map is about the size of several chapters in most other games.

Tropendrope posted...

So I went with 7 and assuming I like it Ill probably get around to all the ones mentioned in this topic. Is binding blade worth playing at all? Id assume I should play it right after if it is

Binding Blade is pretty fun. I played the fan patch after I finished 7. 7 is actually a prequel to Binding Blade.

I started with FE7, so it has a special place in my memory, but Path of Radiance was my favorite Fire Emblem for a long time. Definitely play PoR if you ever get a chance. It's unfortunate that it's become so expensive.

PoR and RD are unquestionably the best story in an English FE by a mile. They're in a tier of their own. They're also really fun, though PoR is a bit easy

Which ever one has Lyn.

4, 5, 6, 7, and 9 all fucking rule. I don't care much for any of the other ones but those are fantastic

Tropendrope posted...

So I went with 7 and assuming I like it Ill probably get around to all the ones mentioned in this topic. Is binding blade worth playing at all? Id assume I should play it right after if it is

It's ok but worst of the 3 GBA games in my opinion. It has same turn reinforcements where enemy units appear at the beginning of the enemy phase and move right away, so you have no chance to adjust to them and have to just suck up their attacks. So, you reset when they invariably kill a vulnerable unit (trial and error), save state abuse, or look up a guide. There's also a decent amount of bad units to recruit so looking up a guide to know who is worth using and who to bench is also advisable.

Pitlord_Special posted...

It's ok but worst of the 3 GBA games in my opinion. It has same turn reinforcements where enemy units appear at the beginning of the enemy phase and move right away, so you have no chance to adjust to them and have to just suck up their attacks. So, you reset when they invariably kill a vulnerable unit (trial and error), save state abuse, or look up a guide. There's also a decent amount of bad units to recruit so looking up a guide to know who is worth using and who to bench is also advisable.

No it doesn't dude, you're probably thinking of 6. There are some bad units in 7 but none that aren't usable if you want to.

DarkChozoGhost posted...

No it doesn't dude, you're probably thinking of 6. There are some bad units in 7 but none that aren't usable if you want to.

He's talking about 6... The person that he's responding to asked if 6 was worth playing.

Path of Radiance

Tropendrope posted...

Think Ill start with 7 and then try Genealogy after if I like it. I suck at the strategy parts so if that ones harder Ill definitely need the warm up. Id love to try PoR but its expensive as hell for an actual copy and my laptop is too shitty for dolphin

Genealogy isn't super difficult, though it can be easy to screw yourself over with bad romantic pairings.

Radiant Dawn

This topic got me to start shadow dragon. I hear it's not the best one, but I've wanted to play it.

Jabodie posted...

This topic got me to start shadow dragon. I hear it's not the best one, but I've wanted to play it.

It's still tolerable, just fairly bland. Works well enough and class changing can be fun

If you're looking for story Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn are the best ones by far. Still two of my favorite games ever.

I wish the Ike games were on Switch or something. It's a lot easier for me to play portable FE for whatever reason.

PoR and RD are unmatched in story, at least until Three Houses (and that's post-Awakening).

I thought 7 was decent with a very average story.

Jabodie posted...

This topic got me to start shadow dragon. I hear it's not the best one, but I've wanted to play it.

Yeah, it's not bad at all, just very very bland and forgettable.

The one thing I really don't like about PoR and FE7 is 2x effective weapons instead of 3x. Started playing FE7 with a gameplay reversion patch and now I can't go back.

Genealogy and Path of Radiance are my favorites in terms of story and gameplay

Path of Radiance > FE7 > Radiant Dawn > Sacred Stones > Thracia > Binding Blade > Genealogy > FE3/12 > Gaiden (non-SoV) > FE1/11

I think PoR is the flat-out best FE. Great story, top tier cast, all-around very solid gameplay.

FE7 is just a pound-for-pound really really good FE. It's one of the best 'standard' FE experiences without a lot of extra gimmicks to it.

RD is a direct sequel to PoR. It's a fun game, but the story gets a bit messy, and the game has a lot of extra mechanics to juggle. It's a good followup to PoR if you play it.

SS is great, but a little bit on the short/easy side.

Thracia is basically a fan hack Fire Emblem. Really fun game, but very very goofy and unusual.

Binding Blade is a personal favorite of mine, but I'll also admit that it's flawed. Namely, it has huge balance issues, a lot of its cast isn't that memorable (though it has some great standouts, and I love Dorothy/Zeiss/Elffin/Geese/Hugh in particular), and the RN system means that a lot of characters are really prone to missing constantly, especially with the overly-strong FE6 thrones.

Genealogy has a fantastic story, but its gameplay can become a slog. The maps are absolutely massive and moving around takes ages. It's also a bit dated, and you have to manually calculate a lot of things. I really like FE4, but I'll admit that it can get sort of tedious to play out.

I'd recommend against the DS remakes and the original Gaiden overall. OG Gaiden is just very dated, as are the original FE1/3, and I'm not personally the biggest fan of the DS remakes. They just kind of ended up being sort of bland in both plot and overall presentation and weren't that interesting to really play out.

averagejoel posted...

Genealogy isn't super difficult, though it can be easy to screw yourself over with bad romantic pairings.

You have Seliph, Ares and Leif no matter what, as well as Oifey to carry early on. Nanna also does the important part of her job regardless of father. The kids you can modify are almost all just the backup brigade, only a couple can ever be serious difference makers.

Garlands_Soul posted...

4, 5, 6, 7, and 9 all fucking rule. I don't care much for any of the other ones but those are fantastic

You literally skipped over the best one, which is FE8

Riev posted...

You literally skipped over the best one, which is FE8

I love the class system in FE8 and a lot of the stuff in it, I just don't think the world map works for the game with the constant zombies and monsters. Also has a decent story and great music. It would probably be next if I continued the list, then radiant dawn

Riev posted...

You literally skipped over the best one, which is FE8

No. I like FE8 but no way in hell is it the best

7 and 8 are great, 6 is definitely worth playing too. Haven't played the others.

Got lazy with unit placement in chapter 5, 2 of my favorite units get one shot... smh

Thracia 776 and Radiant Dawn

Jabodie posted...

Got lazy with unit placement in chapter 5, 2 of my favorite units get one shot... smh

Do you just power through when losing a unit instead of resetting? Id run out of units before getting halfway through the game if I did that lol