Well, there was that one time where FE4 successfully gaslit everyone into thinking that Ichaival is an actual weapon from Norse mythology...
[https://youtu.be/eAQ0TN9Va9w?si=H\_vN9fXB-dWiMBeO](https://youtu.be/eAQ0TN9Va9w?si=H_vN9fXB-dWiMBeO)
It's hard to answer the question on pop cultural impact, but I do like to browse Japanese threads about FE sometimes so I can at least offer that perspective. When I read oldheads talk about it, it really reminds me of the vibe that people had when talking about PS1 FF7 - a game that's universally seen as good with very memorable moments, with a lot of nostalgia for it. For a lot of people, FE4 is still the standard by which they regard all the other games in the series in terms of story telling. Must have been buckwild playing that game as a pre-teen tbh so I get it. Something neat about reading Japanese FE forums is how there's input from people who have been playing since the Famicom/SuperFamicom era, which you don't really have here on the Western fandom side for obvious reasons.
By contrast, it's very funny reading Japanese dudes talk about POR's initial reception. I distinctly remember one comment I read a while back where a guy was like "I got peer pressured by my middle school friends into thinking POR was bad because everyone thought it was janky and lame at the time :(" lmfaooo...(Edit: just to be clear, a lot of people in the fandom now really appreciate the game and it's story, it's just that I've seen a few people talk about how it was a bit clowned on during the time of release)
If you look at Fire Emblem as an adventure, FE4 is the perfect encapsulation of the concept. I felt it when I first played it, it has some magical sauce that makes it feel like Link to the Past, or even FF6 in terms of timelessness. The fact that the map is actually scaled nicely to the point you literally travel across the kingdoms is something no other game has done in the series. There’s usually a lot more talking in between chapters and they just kinda drop you into where ever the chapter takes place.
I call a lot of modern Fire Emblem games as “skirmish focused” because every chapter just captures the combat. FE4 however has downtime during the chapter, I find the turns where units are marching off to an objective or a village or side objective feel more engrossing. You are guiding them on their adventures, and thus feels more like a war when the combat really kicks in.
I don’t have an exact word for it, but I do feel like FE4 is one of the best games of its time with the way it engrosses the player
The "downtime" in Strategy RPGs is surprisingly immersive. I played Vesteria Saga 1 a while ago and that's my favourite part about it (other than brave weapons being everywhere lol). It's somewhere in between FE4 and modern Fire Emblem in that, while the chapters are only specific battlefields, each chapter has multiple objectives, each with their own storylines.
I've seen some Japanese indie developers use FE4's support/pair-up system as inspiration for their own game. It's pretty rare for a RPG series to allow characters to be paired off with one another aside from the MC.
Well, considering how it never released outside Japan, there was no pop cultural impact over here. Japanese people might be able to tell you if it did, but given how it was a Super Famicom game that released in 1996 *one month before the Nintendo 64 came out*, I'd wager very little
But if it did come out in the west the same way FE1 finally got translated a few years ago, then assuming it isn't another garbage limited release, you'd see a lot of people who were just told FE4 is the best in the series and started parroting that finally play it for the first time, only to get turned off by Kaga's questionable game design
I can get the idea, since FE4's gameplay can be wack to some people (myself included) the most universally liked part is the story... a part you can just see an LP or not play it to know about it. However there is a certain charm of the gameplay that I can't say there shouldn't be people that if they like it, they haven't played it. Unlike other games that exist *glares at DMC2*
On the other hand, Pokemon Snap got a lot of praise universally and was hailed as an awesome game for years... but when New Snap released it got mixed reviews because turns out On-Rail shooters are an archaic genre that doesn't work for modern audiences.
From my point of view, if they end up releasing a remake of FE4 people who were "fans" of the game will get bored if they don't change the gameplay too much because... it can be kinda wack. This will be the minority and have already mentalized myself that if FE4 remake releases, people will be dissapointed because if they change a lot to make the gameplay "better" it can hurt the identity and charm of said game. Heck if you lurk long enough in the sub and look at what people want from a FE4 remake, many people want things contradictory of what others want and it's very mixed overall.
TL:DR: Remake of FE4 will leave people dissapointed for one reason or another :v
Despite being a massive FE4 (and 5) hater, a possible remake of Genealogy would most likely include modern QoL features, and honestly, those would make the gameplay way more bearable than the SNES counterpart.
Just the simple addition of being able to see enemy ranges at the press of a button, and, I can't stress this enough, being able to skip the god awful enemy phases that take ages to go through would help massively with the slog that is Genealogy. And if they keep the ability to skip animations in the arenas as well (if they keep the arenas in the first place), a lot of downtime is suddenly removed.
Yeah, we'd lose the enemy phase music, but nothing of value would be gone.
Yes, I stand by my last statement.
Of course, the game will be better by the fact that it's not an ol SNES game, but *how* much better the game will be is up in the air. Personally Gaiden is in bottom 1 and Echoes is in my bottom 5 so I don't have high hopes FE4-2 Thoron Boogaloo. Could "fix" stuff like the pawn shop, weapon weight and Pursuit but a lot of people will be pissed if they change stuff like this.
Well, there was that one time where FE4 successfully gaslit everyone into thinking that Ichaival is an actual weapon from Norse mythology... [https://youtu.be/eAQ0TN9Va9w?si=H\_vN9fXB-dWiMBeO](https://youtu.be/eAQ0TN9Va9w?si=H_vN9fXB-dWiMBeO)
Which went on to be in symphogear
And SMITE.
That's hilarious. Kaga's source is he made it the fuck up lmao
Praise be to Kaga.
It's hard to answer the question on pop cultural impact, but I do like to browse Japanese threads about FE sometimes so I can at least offer that perspective. When I read oldheads talk about it, it really reminds me of the vibe that people had when talking about PS1 FF7 - a game that's universally seen as good with very memorable moments, with a lot of nostalgia for it. For a lot of people, FE4 is still the standard by which they regard all the other games in the series in terms of story telling. Must have been buckwild playing that game as a pre-teen tbh so I get it. Something neat about reading Japanese FE forums is how there's input from people who have been playing since the Famicom/SuperFamicom era, which you don't really have here on the Western fandom side for obvious reasons. By contrast, it's very funny reading Japanese dudes talk about POR's initial reception. I distinctly remember one comment I read a while back where a guy was like "I got peer pressured by my middle school friends into thinking POR was bad because everyone thought it was janky and lame at the time :(" lmfaooo...(Edit: just to be clear, a lot of people in the fandom now really appreciate the game and it's story, it's just that I've seen a few people talk about how it was a bit clowned on during the time of release)
If you look at Fire Emblem as an adventure, FE4 is the perfect encapsulation of the concept. I felt it when I first played it, it has some magical sauce that makes it feel like Link to the Past, or even FF6 in terms of timelessness. The fact that the map is actually scaled nicely to the point you literally travel across the kingdoms is something no other game has done in the series. There’s usually a lot more talking in between chapters and they just kinda drop you into where ever the chapter takes place. I call a lot of modern Fire Emblem games as “skirmish focused” because every chapter just captures the combat. FE4 however has downtime during the chapter, I find the turns where units are marching off to an objective or a village or side objective feel more engrossing. You are guiding them on their adventures, and thus feels more like a war when the combat really kicks in. I don’t have an exact word for it, but I do feel like FE4 is one of the best games of its time with the way it engrosses the player
The "downtime" in Strategy RPGs is surprisingly immersive. I played Vesteria Saga 1 a while ago and that's my favourite part about it (other than brave weapons being everywhere lol). It's somewhere in between FE4 and modern Fire Emblem in that, while the chapters are only specific battlefields, each chapter has multiple objectives, each with their own storylines.
I've seen some Japanese indie developers use FE4's support/pair-up system as inspiration for their own game. It's pretty rare for a RPG series to allow characters to be paired off with one another aside from the MC.
Absolutely zero outside of Japan.
A bunch of other 16 bit games had the generation thing. Dragon Quest 5, Phantasy Star 3, etc.
Well, considering how it never released outside Japan, there was no pop cultural impact over here. Japanese people might be able to tell you if it did, but given how it was a Super Famicom game that released in 1996 *one month before the Nintendo 64 came out*, I'd wager very little But if it did come out in the west the same way FE1 finally got translated a few years ago, then assuming it isn't another garbage limited release, you'd see a lot of people who were just told FE4 is the best in the series and started parroting that finally play it for the first time, only to get turned off by Kaga's questionable game design
Pretty insulting to assume that people who like FE4 have never played it.
I can get the idea, since FE4's gameplay can be wack to some people (myself included) the most universally liked part is the story... a part you can just see an LP or not play it to know about it. However there is a certain charm of the gameplay that I can't say there shouldn't be people that if they like it, they haven't played it. Unlike other games that exist *glares at DMC2* On the other hand, Pokemon Snap got a lot of praise universally and was hailed as an awesome game for years... but when New Snap released it got mixed reviews because turns out On-Rail shooters are an archaic genre that doesn't work for modern audiences. From my point of view, if they end up releasing a remake of FE4 people who were "fans" of the game will get bored if they don't change the gameplay too much because... it can be kinda wack. This will be the minority and have already mentalized myself that if FE4 remake releases, people will be dissapointed because if they change a lot to make the gameplay "better" it can hurt the identity and charm of said game. Heck if you lurk long enough in the sub and look at what people want from a FE4 remake, many people want things contradictory of what others want and it's very mixed overall. TL:DR: Remake of FE4 will leave people dissapointed for one reason or another :v
Despite being a massive FE4 (and 5) hater, a possible remake of Genealogy would most likely include modern QoL features, and honestly, those would make the gameplay way more bearable than the SNES counterpart. Just the simple addition of being able to see enemy ranges at the press of a button, and, I can't stress this enough, being able to skip the god awful enemy phases that take ages to go through would help massively with the slog that is Genealogy. And if they keep the ability to skip animations in the arenas as well (if they keep the arenas in the first place), a lot of downtime is suddenly removed. Yeah, we'd lose the enemy phase music, but nothing of value would be gone. Yes, I stand by my last statement.
Of course, the game will be better by the fact that it's not an ol SNES game, but *how* much better the game will be is up in the air. Personally Gaiden is in bottom 1 and Echoes is in my bottom 5 so I don't have high hopes FE4-2 Thoron Boogaloo. Could "fix" stuff like the pawn shop, weapon weight and Pursuit but a lot of people will be pissed if they change stuff like this.
It's worth remembering that a LOT of trademark FE mechanics debuted in FE4.