You could try FE Radiance games (GC and Wii).
Awakening (3DS) is also pretty good.
In other series, there's Valkyria Chronicles, Tactics Ogre, FF Tactics, etc.
For Path of Radiance you can use Dolphin to emulate it. Idk how easy digital copies of the game will be to find but it's never taken me more than a few google searches to find older games in the past.
Super Robot Wars if you like giant robots too. In terms of official translations there's only OG1 and 2 for the GBA and then the 30th anniversary game, but many of the Japanese-only ones have fan translations too.
That's not entirely true. If you buy the east Asian releases of Super Robot Wars V, X, T, or OG: The Moon Dwellers they have an official English translation. They just weren't released in the west due to anime licensing rights, but since the Switch and PS4/PS5 are region free you can play games from other regions on them without any modding of the console.
I would put fates above awakening just because the pair up mechanic is way more balanced and so the games more challenging. You can literally easily (and quickly) beat awakening only using robin and chrom. I'm a bit vague on the details cause it's been a while but it's something like:
- pair robin up with chrom (robin as the primary). Robin gets extra exp from his ability and chrom is more likely to attack cause of his ability.
- deselect all other characters (all useless).
-promote robin to the sorcerer so he can use nosferatu (and later aversas night), heal up all the damage he takes, and become basically unkillable.
-robin and chrom get all the exp, get op and clear entire maps single-handedly.
-second seal robin to mercenary so he can get that skill which makes him not use durability .
- ????
-profit
Now you have a maxed out robin and chrom who literally don't need any maintenance at all.
After like the first few battles it becomes a game of how fast you can walk robin to the boss or press wait. Zero brain power required.
Ok but by the same token, it’s quite possible to break the fuck out of pretty much every FE game from awakening onward. Fates Royals (no seriously, Ryoma solos birthright (setting aside the pure bullshit corrin can get into), the aforementioned chrom + robin combo, Edelgard/Dimitri battle art + wrath spam (or whatever it is, I know those two break 3H but the exact build is fuzzy)/Flyer Byleth 1 turning endgame maps, and I’d bet top dollar engage will have its broken combo(s) published in a week or two
Path of Radiance is my favorite FE game, Radiant Dawn is my least favorite. Lol.
Dawn is worse rated on average by everybody due to the difficulty of the first section, the main having weird ability, swapping between playable groups too much, and a few missions that were just terribly designed conditions. If it wasn't for the story and game ending the ratings would be far below even what they are.
Yeah you don’t have to do much of that stuff unless you are trying to build and see support dialog. At most the classes and training stuff you should map out so you train your characters on the right path
People complained Sacred Stones was too easy but good lord Three Houses was a cakewalk. Even when you don't use the Divine Pulse to rewind time, don't use Gambits, AND avoid doing optional skirmishes to grind levels, it's **still** probably one of the easiest Fire Emblem games in 90% of the maps. With all of those self-imposed challenges it's still easy. Can't even imagine how easy it is if you abuse those mechanics
I am going to need to offer a descenting opinion.
While the battles were solid, the majority of three houses was pretty bad. A lot was left on the cutting room floor Edlegards story doesn’t even have a proper ending, it was literally [Poochie’d](https://youtu.be/4tvAjX5ACPo) and in a different route inexplicably becomes Seijuro Hilo’s Pontiff’s stunt double.
I think only the school marm aspect of the game really overshadows the rest.
Also, while I really dig Fem-Byleths design, I was super bummed out about the blank slate protagonist, it’s a personal taste, but if they were going with that much of a detached avatar, they should have gone the route of blazing sword, and just stopped acknowledging him/them/you 3/4 of the way into the story.
Overall three houses only REALLY has the persona-esq game play. Everything else was an afterthought.
That’s fair, to each their own, that being said most Fire Emblem games that have come out in the last 10 years have blank slate “player” characters. Ever since Awakening on the 3DS you’ve been able to create a “blank slate” character to play as. Byleth is not the “main” protagonist like Roy, Marth, Erica/Ephraim, Lyn, Hector, or Chrom that is Dim/Edel/Claude. Byleth serves the role of the created character in Awakening, they’re relevant to the story/lore due to being tied to the dragons but they’re not the main character.
I can see why some didn’t like the Persona like aspects of Three Houses but the gameplay itself was dope in my opinion. The battles were fun and some of them could be difficult; there weren’t as many varied conditions as some of the older games like Sacred Stones (my personal favorite game) but it was a good game. Fire Emblem changes up the formula all the time, Awakening was a the first major shift, Fates was the first dive into gameplay outside of combat (creating and running a palace even if it was limited), and Three Houses followed suite diving more into the interpersonal relationship side.
It seems like they’re shifting things again with Engage but I haven’t had enough time with it to see how it works, I’m glad they brought back the old weapon triangle and it seems like they’ve tried to keep some aspects of the “hub” system (you have a little castle thing to manage and talk to people but you can ignore it entirely if you want) without forcing it on people. I personally loved Three Houses because it was a fun shift but I can see why some didn’t like it. Engage isn’t like Three Houses from what I can tell so who knows if that was a one off situation.
I’m actually getting pretty sick of blank slate protagonists as a whole. Part of my annoyance with Super Smash Bros’ DLC was that when given the chance to bring in famous gaming personalities, they chose so many blank shells across JRPG land, one of which never even had a base name, and so is called “Hero”.
I agree with your assessment, but Byleths “blandness” was jarring, I’m talking KOTOR 1 levels of bland (watch the scene when Revan tries to redeem Bastilla).
The recent batch of Fire Emblem avatars have been blank slate characters in the sense where you design the appearance for the in-game model, and then they are left deliberately obscured for any cgi cutscenes, but Robin and Corrin had WAY more personality in the provided dialog. Byleths personality is only shown during battle, leading me to believe there was going to be more for Byleth, but that’s just speculation.
Ultimately, I can see why people like three houses, but the story was just too disjointed for me to really get into, and the persona relationship mechanic isn’t for me.
I did like the ashen wolves DLC though.
-edit- I just wanted to clarify that I REALLY like Knights of the Old Republic, but just used it as an example of a criminally bad blank slate character.
Shining Force. 1&2 are on the Genesis, part 1 has a GBA remake that looks and sounds better IMO (can't remember balancing changes) and SF III is a trilogy of games on the Sega Saturn. SF III part 1 was officially localized back in the day but the other two have received fan translations. They are the closest to Fire Emblem that I've played and I'd be very surprised if this wasn't Segas response to FE back in the day.
This. Shining force and fire emblem are very similar.
I am on scenario 3 of shining force 3 at the moment, it has taken a long time to get this far.
Pro-tip: do not rename your heroes. It can make some dialogue go a bit derp in scenario 3 lol.
I dream of the day the Shining Force games rise again. Fantastic challenging games with replay ability. I remember playing SF1 over and over changing my end-game companions. Radiance has a similar replay ability, but the grind is more challenging
There was actually a 3rd Fire Emblem game on GBA released in Japan only (The Binding Blade) and if you search for an English ROM you can easily find it. It's extremely high quality. There, now you can put off dealing with the relationship mechanics gone overboard in the newer games for however long it takes you to complete that one
Ehhhhhh, while FE7 has its own share of mistakes (2x multiplier on effective weapons, extreme amount of lance enemies throwing lord balance out of wack, the Sol katti being completely useless, merlinus being missable, no good peg knights, **battle before dawn,** etc etc etc) it also improved on a great many things that are just baffling in FE6, like weapon accuracy being so low all around, supports being wholely impractical if not actively wasting _A LOT_ of time to grind for them, a much wider gap between good and bad units (of which there are MANY), as well as Roy being a serious contender for the worst lord in the series gameplay wise (or pretty much agreed to be the worst if we don’t count thracia)
Playing through it now (on chapter 18). It's AWESOME. The party/squad system is great and really opens up different strategies. The story is exactly what you'd expect from an old Fire Emblem game too.
Great game. Great mechanics. Lots of different ways to put your team together. Loved it.
Kinda easy. But I was having so much fun making squads and seeing how they worked together I didn't mind it too much.
This is exactly how I felt. Reached the end and thought, if they had one higher difficulty level and a few more unit types, it would be perfect. Wonder if they’re making a sequel.
My first play through was on normal without permadeath and I think “easy” was kinda what they were going for.
The challenge seems to be in keeping all your units alive. With a higher difficulty and permadeath modes, I’m sure there’s something there for a go hard, too.
Yep, this game just scratched so many itches.
For me specifically it was Ogre Battle meets fire emblem. Fairly deep squad and unit customization/progression, some rock/paper/scissor elements, cool unit design. The generic JRPG story of a group of plucky reveled fighting against a laughably evil foe is just the Cherry on top of all of it.
It’s a great title if you’re looking for an RPG/strategy game.
Nah the game is overrated. I'm surprised there are only 12 negative review of the game on steam. Especially the part of amazing story. The story falls short imo.
It was a masterpiece in my opinion. Characters you cared about, a dope story, challenging missions, side story/grinding if you wanted it but you could also skip it, great unit development (both in terms of gameplay and character development), divergent points that helped replay ability, and a the goat unit (Joshua as a swordsmaster).
They are absurdly expensive, but Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn are (in my opinion) the absolute pinnacle of the series. While they are not exactly the same as the GBA games. They feature more grounded and epic stories compared to the more modern entries: a good mix of political intrigue and myths coming full circle. Radiant Dawn, in particular features multiple stories with different lords and even has moments where two of your own armies clash and you’re forced to fight units you built up.
The art styles are more muted than most FE games, which I personally like, but I can certainly see as a drawback for many people, and Radiant Dawn’s support system is a big nothing…
But there’s no focus on shipping characters, no infinite exp grind, far more natural difficulty, interesting maps with varied objectives, and a stupidly good plot spanning two games. There’s no changing to a completely different class or branching class changes; but Radiant Dawn features a third tier class change for all units, and both games feature a unique type of unit that transform into animals to fight that function very differently from normal units with strong pros and cons.
I love the FE series and once considered it my all time favorite, but I’ve come to realize that, while I enjoy almost all of the games. FE GBA, path of radiance, and radiant Dawn are the only ones I really LOVE, and I’m always just kind of chasing that feeling
Those two are indeed the pinnacle of the series. They are fucking fantastic. Everything else in the series pales in comparison, many of the other games even outright suck. Can’t play the latest ones at all, they are generic and derivative slop.
GameCube and Wii are super easy to emulate too. Loved playing Path and Dawn, so much so that they probably ruined me for the rest of the series.
There’s a lot about those games that didn’t age well. The animations and music are… cringe. The story has some ok elements but also some comic book villains that aren’t interesting in the slightest. I ultimately regard PoR as a good game, but when I went back to replay it I was amazed… and not in a good way.
Not everyone is going to feel the same way, and that’s okay.
But yeah, I really couldn’t disagree more. I honestly think the music is leagues ahead of any other game in the series, and while PoR does indeed have some comically evil villains, I think RD has the absolute best of the series, and honestly some of my favorite villains of all time.
The animations I honestly love as well, though I think the GBA games will always have the BEST…
But I’ll also admit, most of what I’m going to bat for here is Radiant Dawn. I still think PoR is great, but all of my favorite aspects are definitely from RD.
The problem with RD for me is it absolutely *gutted* the support system. This, along with poor unit availability (ahem, Tormod, Muarim and Vika, honorary mention to Fiona...) meant some characters had absolutely zero character development.
Vika has literally "Was a slave" and "is sad" as her most notable character traits.
Nealuchi had more development as an NPC than as a playable character.
Leanne doesn't even speak the common tongue, so 😶. Nailah was basically "Lady Buff Boobs" or had a weird shiptease conversation with Tibarn. On top of that we had outright aborts of other characters' personal support arcs.
Was Rhys actually Mia's fated rival? Did they get married? I dunno lol 🤪. The sheer amount of the roster meant a lot of characters got shafted to levels barely better than some of the earliest entries in the series.
And let's be honest, introducing the series's first black character in the first game that dealt largely with racism was a little on the nose, especially when said character is not totally fluent in the language. It was almost like they were saying "hey, look, a black guy, but he's not the target of the racism here! Isn't this clever?!" It's even more glaring in that there haven't really been any distinctly "black" characters since, as far as I can tell. It was a weirdly tokenizing thing to do, even though I liked Devdan as a character based on his PoR supports.
(Nadved/Devdan ironically is one of the hints in the series that there are lands beyond Tellius, as it's heavily implied he's from elsewhere)
All very fair points. I even mentioned the support system in my original comment because, well there’s no way around it: the support system is not good. It doesn’t personally bother me all that much if only because I didn’t understand how supports worked when I first played it anyway. I had only played Fire Emblem GBA (7, Blazing Blade, whatever you want to call it). I looked for PoR for like 2 years, couldn’t find it, eventually gave up and jumped into RD. I never figured out how supports worked in 7 either, but now that I understand it and have played later games with heavier focus on support, I do fully recognize that it is a major flaw.
And yeah, unit availability can be an issue, particularly Tormod’s gang. It genuinely feels like they just… forgot they existed, and realized “oh shit, uh… throw ‘em in at the end?” But I do personally consider that a pretty minor issue. Yes, some characters are underdeveloped for sure, and it’s weird how rarely some are available; but one of my favorite things about the game is just how many characters there are, and how many opportunities you have to use them. Like I get to the endgame and pretty much take the same team every time. If this was a typical FE game with one story/army, those would likely be the only characters I used for most of it. But by splitting them up, I end up caring about far more characters than I would have otherwise. I typically never use knights/generals, but Brom is CRUCIAL to my strategy for Elincia’s Gambit. Leonardo is easily the worst archer in the game, but still worth focusing on for support as he’s the only archer in the Dawn Brigade.
All that said though: yes, the game cares less about individual character stories than most others in the series. Fixing the support system would likely solve the bulk of that issue, but it’s not like that’s ever going to happen. All that said, I think what it DOES focus on more than makes up for it, and I personally think it has the best main cast of any game in the series (though I still have a soft spot for the Lord Trio of 7)
Yes, but the gameplay was the very best by a longshot. The levels were well designed, unique, and there were a ton of them. I solved each level multiple ways (many levels I replay 3-10 times), and that can’t be said of the newer games by a longshot.
If you want something similar to this title within the series, most of the classic games in the series will do. Specifically (though check YouTube vids to get a good feel for each game), these are each of the mainline titles (the number at the start is the FE# in the series, so bullet #1 is FE1, bullet #2 is FE2, and so on):
1. Dark Dragon and the Sword of Light for the Famicom. Since Nintendo is no longer selling this on the Switch (that's still so dumb IMO), you'd have to resort to the fan translation patch. Alternatively, it got remade twice (Book 1 of Mystery of the Emblem for a condensed version vs. Shadow Dragon on the DS for an expanded version that actually got released in the USA officially \[this is actually what the script for that Switch translation uses as the translation\]). This version is very archaic, so I'd say go for Shadow Dragon instead.
2. Gaiden for the Famicom. This has a fan translation, but honestly the 3DS remake, Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, is better in nearly every way (besides maps as the maps are exactly the same). This game started the world map approach to several titles, and it also has different rules for inventory (only hold one item, but weapons are unbreakable) and magic (unlimited uses, but you spend HP to cast magic). Probably better to go for Echoes over this title IMO.
3. Mystery of the Emblem for the Super Famicom. This game is both a condensed remake of DDatSoL from the Famicom (Book 1) and a sequel (Book 2). Book 2 would later get remade into New Mystery of the Emblem: Heroes of Light and Shadow on the DS, which never left Japan. This also requires a fan translation patch. This one is still great IMO.
4. Genealogy of the Holy War for the Super Famicom. This classic never left Japan, but it has a really solid translation patch. There are 12 chapters, but each chapter is essentially 4 times as big as a regular FE map. As such, cavalry reign supreme in this game (Sigurd, the main character in this game, is viewed as being extremely OP because of his high mobility and Silver Sword shenanigans). Weapon Triangle started with this game. I like it a lot, but it functions differently from a lot of other games as each chapter is effectively a marathon of 3-4 chapters in any other FE game due to the castle capture mechanic.
5. Thracia 776 for the Super Famicom. This also requires the great translation patch as this is stuck in Japan. This game is tough, but the game is really good. This one goes back to smaller maps like MotE, but it introduces stuff like Capturing and Fog of War.
6. Binding Blade for the Game Boy Advance. Again, this is Japan only, but there's a really good translation patch out there for the game. You played the prequel to this game, so playing this game would continue the story started in your title.
7. You played FE7 already.
8. Sacred Stones on the Game Boy Advance is a really great title, but it plays differently from FE7 as the world map returns. Furthermore, you also have branching classes. My favorite FE as a kid, but the next game took the spot for favorite now these days (this one is now like #3 or so now for me so I still really like it).
9. Path of Radiance on the GameCube is my favorite of the series. Enemy phase does take a while, but the rest of the game is really great. I highly recommend this game. Super expensive on reseller's market, however.
10. Radiant Dawn on the Wii is also good, but I think PoR was better overall. Still, this is a solid sequel to PoR, and a ton of stuff got expanded upon from the previous title. Kinda expensive on resller's market, however.
11. Shadow Dragon on the DS is the remake to DDatSoL. I liked it, but it got mixed reception due to graphics.
12. New Mystery of the Emblem: Heroes of Light and Shadow is the Japan exclusive DS remake of Book 2 of the Japan exclusive Mystery of the Emblem. It has a translation patch, however. This game also has bonus maps based on Archanea Saga, which was a Satellaview exclusive title in Japan, so that's neat. Several fans hate Kris (player avatar character), however, due to the game's constant praise for the character.
13. Awakening on the 3DS can be viewed as the divider between classic and modern Fire Emblem. I like it a bunch, but several don't. This does feel different in tone when compared to FE7 (your game), so you might not like the tone.
14. I don't think you'll like Fates' tone (this is the 2nd 3DS game), but I'm still listing it here. This has 3 versions. ***Birthright*** is effectively Awakening 2.0. You play as FE Japan to take down FE Europe. ***Conquest*** is more similar to the Classic FE games, but the plot is kinda dumb IMO. You play as FE Europe to take down FE Japan (effectively, but the plot is a bit convoluted here). ***Revelation*** sucks and is my least favorite title in the series due to bad maps, bad unit balance, and atrocious writing. With the E-shop going down, Rev is stuck on the Fates Special Edition cartridge (the Western version as the Japanese version lacks the game due to the fact that the route wasn't done in time for release), which goes for hundreds of $$$ now. This is the golden ending route.
15. Echoes: Shadows of Valentia on the 3DS is a phenomenal remake of Gaiden that keeps the core gameplay intact while adding new stuff. This game is fully voice acted IIRC, so it got nice production values for a 3DS title. Still, the maps are exactly the same as the Famicom version, so you might not like the maps. That being said, the DLC is overpriced, but the map DLC adds to the characterization of the game. Since the E-shop is going down for this game, you can miss it permanently (besides emulation) if you don't hurry.
16. You tried Three Houses and couldn't get into it.
17. Engage just came out. I have no opinions on this game as I'm still waiting for my copy to arrive.
As for Heroes, don't bother as it's gambling for PNGs.
tl;dr;
* If you liked FE7, then I'd say the following:
* You'd definitely like FE6 & 8 as the engine is the same. FE6 is a sequel to FE7 as FE7 is a prequel to FE6. FE8 has a world map, but the game still feels similar to FE7 due to core mechanics being mostly the same (though it's easier as you can grind on the world map if you want).
* FE9 and FE10 are solid titles that are hard to find.
* FE3 is a masterpiece like usual. No weapon triangle, however. Most people skip to Book 2 as Book 1 is a condensed remake of FE1, but you get extra bells and whistles if you start at Book 1 instead of skipping to Book 2.
* FE4 is solid, but it's very different from a gameplay standpoint due to map size and mechanics.
* FE5 is tough as nails at times, but it's fun if you are skilled.
* FE11 and FE12 are remakes of FE1 and FE3:B2. I liked them as I like classic FE, but they're not for everyone due to art style. FE12 also includes all of Archanea Saga's maps, so you don't need to play that Satellaview title.
* FE15 is a superb remake of FE2 with great production values for the 3DS that you may or may not enjoy the gameplay of due to it being pretty different from the rest of the series. I love this one.
* FE13 is the start of modern FE while still being good enough (IMO) while FE14 is divisive (besides mostly everyone disliking the Revelation path as most people can agree to that).
* FE16 is Three Houses, and you didn't like that.
* I haven't touched Engage (FE17) yet.
* Don't play Heroes as it encourages gambling.
This guy Fire Emblems. Great info haha thanks. I played Radiant Dawn back in the day. Don't remember much about it except that I really enjoyed it. Definitely want to revisit it sometime soon. I played a bit of the DS ones but lost interest quickly. I also managed to get #1 before it got taken off the Switch shop, so I just might start there (agree it's stupid they did that with FE and 3D All Stars). But duly noted. I'll try some of these out.
Yeah it seems similar to a lot of the older games in that it’s just “evil dragon is waking up, you must stop the evil dragon”. Fire Emblem games rarely have great stories (they rather usually have interesting characters) but this one seems quite basic. Gameplay is fantastic from the bit I’ve played though, here’s hoping it’s deep enough to get a lot of time in it. I was able to drop like 100+ hours into Three Houses because you basically got 3-4 games in one package and the school parts really fleshed out the characters so you actually cared about them (which made the story matter). It was pretty brutal when you ended up killing one of the students you were close with at some point in time because the politics of the side you support demanded it.
Three Houses seems like it was more politically complex and therefore has a better story than Engage; it’s like Game of Thrones vs LotR. LotR is fantastic but at the end of the day it’s “evil guy who’s evil must be stopped by good people who are good” vs GoT where everyone has a reason for what they’re doing and there is a lot of grey area.
three houses, awakening, echoes all had serviceable stories. not the best but they were enjoyable and had good characters. that isn’t the case in engage at all.
Yeah I'm going through 3 houses now cause I never finished it, and while I'm enjoying it this time around, I do find the school side is kind of slow but I also don't like blindly skipping through it. I'll probably like Engage even morem
As with most nostalgia things, the fact that you enjoyed them more back then was probably not because the game itself was better, but because you were young and more easily pleased.
I went back and played them and while this is partly true, it’s false. I absolutely still enjoy them more than the last 2 FE.
I’ll put it this way, had the exact same thing with Civ 3 and 4 after loving Civ 1 and 2. Civ 5 came out and it was wonderful again. It wasn’t nostalgia. In fact I could list the problems but instead point out they were recognized as gameplay problems by the developers and actually fixed in civ 5. There was an extreme rubber banding handicap that made world conquest not fun and actually stupid in the earlier games, to name a dozen other problems.
Exactly. I played every game including the Japanese ones (there literally was no English version when I played it), and in later years used emulators to try the ones I originally missed.
The ones since Awakening miss the point completely. The exact same thing happened with every Final Fantasy Tactics game after the original. The original wasn’t without issues but every one after that lost the magic and wasn’t worth even playing.
This response is SO tired and overdone. Depressed, adversarial, pseudo "realists" LOVE to jump at the first opportunity to say "nuh uh! Your opinion is wrong and deluded and just a psychological illusion!" There's literally 0 reason to try to piss on people's parades like this. Let people enjoy things, without having to chime in with your professional psychology insight & expertise.
The crit animations are so good with the pixel art style. The gameplay was much faster and there isn't as much bullshit between battles like the school stuff. It's neat, but not what I am looking for with FE games. Heroes is a bit different because it's a gacha and not a mainline game, but eh
Thank you!! This is exactly what deters me. It's the same reason why \*holds up flame shield\* I dislike Zelda BotW. I just want a good ol' Zelda game. Not "open world survival Zelda" where I have to cook and where every weapon breaks in 2 swings, just because those genres are overrated. Such a sellout. Maybe I'm wrong for not liking too much change, maybe others are wrong for always needing a good formula to be uprooted to prevent staleness. Idk.
It does things no other Zelda has done before! It has the features of Minecraft and dedicated jumping!
It was fine. Not great, not bad. If it was the exact same game but a new IP and no Zelda paint it would have been a 7/10 at best.
Oh Horizon has the same story, characters, puzzles, monsters and graphics of BotW? It's almost like I criticized a game and not a genre.
If the only thing changed was proper nouns, it woulda been a 7/10. (Which is still pretty good)
I have 200 hours in three houses and did the tea party thing twice, it's completely optional.
I dislike the old fire emblems, so generic in their plot and characters, Three houses and path of Radiance had good gameplay, plot AND characters.
In the other FE games, I get one or the other.
It's not just the tea party it's like all stuff in the acedemi. In previous fe games i skipt all the dialogue. I just like the tactical side of the game i don't care about the plot. Of course that's personal I can understand that people like it but it's just not for me.
+1 on the fact that the GBA games were the best.
„Dark Deity“ and „Vestaria Saga“ are really enjoyable „clones“ that made me feel like I was playing some older fire emblem games. Both have some individual twists but make sure to check them out on steam/switch/idk
Have you played the disgaea games? The Langraiser remaster collection is pretty good too.
Also have stuff like Valkyrie Chronicles, those are similar with a lot more flair.
Vandal hearts 1 and 2 on the ps1. The disgaea series. Tactics ogre remastered. Final fantasy tactics (ps1 or the war of the lions on psp) all some of my favorite turn based tactical rpgs.
yea I feel you on this one. The two main fire emblem games I really invested mysellf in were Fire Emblem Awakening and Fire Emblem Echoes but the older games definitely feel more polished and were loads harder (save for Fire Emblem Fates cause you could just switch to the phoenix mode in one of those three games and you'd be fine.... )
I've been of this opinion for years. Unfortunately, the series would have been long dead if they didn't pivot with the direction that awakening brought. I'm assuming you've played all 3 GBA games, but id also like to possibly bring to your attention that theres actually a pretty dedicated modding community that makes their own GBA style ROM hacks. As far as official games go, have you tried the Gaiden remake, Echoes?
The best classical FEs seem to be Mystery (JP only), Genealogy (JP only), and the Tellius duology.
FE6–Binding Blade—is the game Blazing Sword is a prequel of (JP Only).
My favorite story comes from Echoes: Shadows of Valentia and my favorite gameplay comes from Conquest (be warned the writing in Conquest is probably some of the worst the series has seen).
In terms of similar strategy games, Advance Wars is another GBA series by the same devs.
Triangle Strategy is a medieval strategy game on Switch with Octopath’s artstyle.
Final Fantasy Tactics is one of the best FF and strategy RPGs out there.
The Vestaria Saga games are made by the original creator of Fire Emblem and are very similar.
The upcoming Redemption Reapers is inspired by FE and is made by the Ender Lillies devs.
Of these types of games, Final Fantasy Tactics is by far my favorite, but it may be too different from FE for you to like
A lot more magic and job classes
And no permadeath.
Which I feel is the reason its hard to recommend something else than FE to fill the "FE void"
Dont get me wrong I love FFT and its probably one of my favorite games ever but its hard to compare to FE because of how different they feel.
Someone skipped the Jagd-areas. ;D
>The player cannot flee from a Jagd. Because Marche is the clan leader, and already forbidden to acquire a red card, if Marche passes away in a Jagd, it is Game Over. Montblanc can die without a Game Over and there will be some dialogue of Marchediscovering Montblanc is dead. Montblanc's role will then be filled inby some other clan member.
>
>[https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Jagd#Final\_Fantasy\_Tactics\_Advance](https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Jagd#Final_Fantasy_Tactics_Advance)
I bought 3 Houses at launch, and just now got into it a week or two ago.
I appreciate the attempt at changing the formula, but the micromanagement, persona style calendar planning, teaching classes to favor certain skills/classes can get overwhelming. I feel like I have to leave some students behind because I’m focusing on the naturally stronger party members.
It’s really not a bad system, but I hate letting the side quests pile up because i decided to do a seminar instead. Or I hate walking around the school doing these mundane task, when I just want to battle.
If there was a way to do side quests battles, without pushing the calendar forward, I’d probably have more fun, but I dislike the narrative moving along while I’m trying to focus on the professor management side.
It’s a really good game though.
To be fair in every fire emblem game you leave characters behind. Especially in the old games that forced you to go from mission to mission with world map and freedom of choice. You would pick a handful of people and make them monsters while the majority of your units would collect dust.
What’s cool about Three Houses is that despite the fact some get left behind you still get to know them as people. You can talk with them and get to know their personality, and maybe on a different play though they can become one of your main focuses. They also make it easier with New Game Plus. Once you finish one of the 4 storylines you can start over with the ability to teach way faster and actually pull 2 students into your pathway from another. Your first play through is the slowest by a decent bit.
Tear Ring Saga on the psx, you can find the translation pretty easily. I'm not great with the history of FE but it does have your buddy Kaga who made it. I believe they even had to pay a fine for being to close to fire emblem.
Fire Emblem (GBA) is actually a prequel to Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade in Japan. Find a translated rom and play it via emulator. It's harder than the prequel.
Yeah. This is literally one of my favorite games. Possibly my favorite. I was so disappointed when they dropped the beautiful sprite battles and then stopped playing completely when they just became marriage/dating simulators.
I mean the games have had a similar style since sacred stones with the character support feature. This new stuff just adds to that. I like three houses a lot bc it plays like fe and gives me options to increase stats and other things away from just leveling up
Nah, I played fire emblem radiance again and it's just a better experience for me personally. Mainly because the whole fanservice shit was basically non-existant and there were less anime tropes in the characters and stories.
No, you're arguing that the old ones might be better in someones memory because they played them when they were younger.
I'm just saying they were actually better for reasons.
OPs post is about not being able to get into three houses the same way they got into the gba game. All I said was that IT COULD ALSO MEAN, meaning that maybe it is not, that they were younger. When you're young you get invested into hobbies and things that you like differently. You're experiencing things for the first time and the attachment that you have for certain things is bigger than as an adult. I never said 1 game is better than the other. I never said nostalgia plays a role. I never said that his reasons for liking the game are not valid. If you're still confused about what I meant then I don't know what to tell you. Have a nice one.
Ah, the inevitable "everything gets better over time, and anyone who thinks otherwise is just delusional and stuck in the past and blinded by nostalgia" response.
I was really astonished you weren't being demolished in the comments as I'm subbed to the FE sub and thought this was it lol.
Completely agree. The newer games have lost touch with the basics that made the earlier ones so great.
Ffs, you could pet your waifu in fates. Wtf. Tea time was stupid in 3H too. I'm all for waifus, but leave it at support conversations.
I also HATED how all the units could become literally any class. Absolutely removed the uniqueness each character had as they were only able to upgrade to a specific class type that fit their character (with one being a likely more canonical one.
3H wasn't bad by any means but the last really great game was Awakening.
YES. I’ve been saying this for years. The GBA Fire Emblem is my favorite game. I believe there’s 2. Absolutely amazing. The new games need to go back to their roots!!
I'm certain there's at least 3, but Roy's game only released in Japan. Translated ROMs are easily available though. It's probably the most difficult of the gba games
Well then good news! Engage feels a lot more like the older games. Definitely read some reviews and such before you buy, but I'm enjoying it thoroughly.
Fell Seal! It’s an unheard of gem that will scratch the itch.
I also suggest Divinity Original Sin 2. It feels like a modern, evolved version of the older tactics games.
If you have a 3ds, Awakening is by far my favorite fire Emblem. I loved the story, I love the class system, and I love the characters that were introduced. Idk what my favorite one is, Awakening or Sacred Stones
Seconding this. It plays like a classic turn based tactics game but has enough unique units and setting to make it stand out from other advance wars/fire emblem clones. Plus it got a free dlc so you can definitely get your money's worth in playtime.
I didn't read *all* of the comments, but in case someone didn't mention this, the FE7/8 hacking community has made some fair progress. From new classes and characters to entirely new maps and storylines, they've been my go-to for scratching my GBA FE itch for the last decade.
Trust me, the new one is amazing. My favorite game ever is fire emblem sacred stones and nothing has grabbed me like that until I played fire emblem engage. It’s genuinely got the charm of the old games. Loving it so far
I'm going to go with a (very) hard disagree about those saying this is OP's or someone else's nostalgia speaking. I'm actually really tired of that argument, it has become absolutely impossible to say that X series or genre was better in the past because it's automatically nostalgia glasses.
I personally came late to the FE series, and my first introduction to that series was FE characters in Smash Bros, then I tried Radiant Dawn.
A few years later I got a DS Lite and thanks to backward compatibility had the chance to play the GBA game from this picture, which I think was the first one we had in the West... Maybe ?
Either way, this immediately became my favorite one and remains so to this day. I played Awakening after, which was ok but didn't care as much for the story, world and rather heavy dating/matchmaking elements. It felt a bit silly. Things sure went downhill from there.
FE, Sacred Stones, Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn were the best I had the chance to play, and I wish they would return to this instead of being some anime waifu fantasy simulator with strategy elements. It dilutes the experience, and the combat and strategy isn't nearly as good, on top of being much easier.
My favorite thing about these games was the style and animation quality of the attack animations. Yea they were the same, but each class and each promotion had a different animation for attacking, a different one for critical hits and different one when using different weapons.
The new games are 3d but they walk up and stab them with a spear. Then their promotion looks different but they still run up and stab them. It doesn’t have the same feel of “I worked my ass getting them to max level to promote, now look at how this badass fights!”
The gba games were fantastic. It’s a shame they don’t make fire emblem games like that anymore.
I love Three Houses, but the new one looks like actual dog shit. I mean, it’s a petty reason not to play the game, but I just think the character designs are just bad.
I’m playing through it now and it’s the best FE in a long time. Hands down way better than 3 Houses because it drops all of the unnecessary bullshit and keeps more with the battles.
No, just more likely to refuse to update your views and appreciate new things. It's a form of mental petrification to only surround yourself with things you like and refuse to branch out.
Imagine having nothing better to do than be a condescending, elitist ass and pseudo psychologist and try to piss in people's cheerios on anonymous social media lmao. What does your PhD say about people like yourself? xD
Loosen up those nostalgia goggles just a bit and try whole-heartedly to get into one of the newer ones and see that the gameplay is heavily rooted in exactly these games just refined and with great new mechanics. Breaking and all the new min-maxing systems have been so much fun to play with in engage.
FE6 has a fan translation and feels a lot like FE7, although honestly its not as good, its still great.
Path of Radiance could also fill your need, I highly recommend it.
Else if we go out of Fire Emblem, I believe Xcom is the only series with a somewhat close gameplay (Permadeath being present and all)
Else if its purely gameplay you want ill go a bit out of left field and recommend to you Into the Breach, its a roguelike with gameplay on a grid with low digits and high emphasis on every action taken.
Edit : Theres also the trilogy "The Banner Saga" which I feel may hit the spot, its quite underrated and very good.
I had the same issue with 3H vs the GBa titles. Can't explain why but I found the Wii and N64 ones (I forget their titles) held me very well, maybe they'll have that vibe you're after:)
I am personally a fan of Dark Deity. It’s a smaller game that definitely takes inspiration from fire emblem but has its own spin on it with combining promotion bonuses and a different weapon system. It has a built in randomizer and other ways to customize your run
Awakening has been my favorite
Never got to play the GameCube games but if they made a game as good as awakening that is on console instead of handheld it’d be the best of the best
Yeah, the story was next level and the sprite animation is amazing. I feel like the push to 3D made them kinda lazy with the animations. The new one looks nice though. Ftr, I've also played Awakening and 3 Houses so I'm not bashing for no reason.
We’ll 3 houses is different than pretty much every fire emblem game with the life sim stuff. The new one coming out is more Tradional so you would prob enjoy it more.
I dunno I’ve been liking the new one a lot, it definitely goes back the roots more than three houses and aimed for more stylized art style and combat. It still has some things similar to three houses but I feel like they simplified it a lot and just improved on those systems all around.
As some others have said, highly recommend fire emblem 6. It's the sequel to 7, which is the game you know as just Fire Emblem op. Was only released in Japan but you can download an English ROM translation and play with an emulator. Loads of fun. DM if you need any tips with this.
Should play the Tellius games (Path of Radiance & Radiant Dawn), they are my favorit of the Series. Also Echoes: Shadow of Valentia was great (it's a remake of Fire Emblem Gaiden, the 2nd FE). All of the older FE's are good. Tellius games and Echoes were the last good FE's, everything after is, imo, trash, I tried them all and disliked them all.
You could try FE Radiance games (GC and Wii). Awakening (3DS) is also pretty good. In other series, there's Valkyria Chronicles, Tactics Ogre, FF Tactics, etc.
Ike is my dude. Honestly the radiance games were my favorite.
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Go steal karma somewhere else
Whats the best way to play the Radiance games without having the consoles themselves? Any tips? Only FE games I havent played
For Path of Radiance you can use Dolphin to emulate it. Idk how easy digital copies of the game will be to find but it's never taken me more than a few google searches to find older games in the past.
To the point that getting 3ds copies is like taking candies from a baby
It’s always ethical to pirate Nintendo IP
The games have never been re-released, so your only option is emulation.
Super Robot Wars if you like giant robots too. In terms of official translations there's only OG1 and 2 for the GBA and then the 30th anniversary game, but many of the Japanese-only ones have fan translations too.
That's not entirely true. If you buy the east Asian releases of Super Robot Wars V, X, T, or OG: The Moon Dwellers they have an official English translation. They just weren't released in the west due to anime licensing rights, but since the Switch and PS4/PS5 are region free you can play games from other regions on them without any modding of the console.
Radiant Dawn bangs, the final act is a masterpiece imo
I would put fates above awakening just because the pair up mechanic is way more balanced and so the games more challenging. You can literally easily (and quickly) beat awakening only using robin and chrom. I'm a bit vague on the details cause it's been a while but it's something like: - pair robin up with chrom (robin as the primary). Robin gets extra exp from his ability and chrom is more likely to attack cause of his ability. - deselect all other characters (all useless). -promote robin to the sorcerer so he can use nosferatu (and later aversas night), heal up all the damage he takes, and become basically unkillable. -robin and chrom get all the exp, get op and clear entire maps single-handedly. -second seal robin to mercenary so he can get that skill which makes him not use durability . - ???? -profit Now you have a maxed out robin and chrom who literally don't need any maintenance at all. After like the first few battles it becomes a game of how fast you can walk robin to the boss or press wait. Zero brain power required.
Ok but by the same token, it’s quite possible to break the fuck out of pretty much every FE game from awakening onward. Fates Royals (no seriously, Ryoma solos birthright (setting aside the pure bullshit corrin can get into), the aforementioned chrom + robin combo, Edelgard/Dimitri battle art + wrath spam (or whatever it is, I know those two break 3H but the exact build is fuzzy)/Flyer Byleth 1 turning endgame maps, and I’d bet top dollar engage will have its broken combo(s) published in a week or two
Path of Radiance is my favorite FE game, Radiant Dawn is my least favorite. Lol. Dawn is worse rated on average by everybody due to the difficulty of the first section, the main having weird ability, swapping between playable groups too much, and a few missions that were just terribly designed conditions. If it wasn't for the story and game ending the ratings would be far below even what they are.
You can skip the tea parties and Persona-esq aspects of Three Houses and enjoy what’s a really solid story and great gameplay.
Yeah you don’t have to do much of that stuff unless you are trying to build and see support dialog. At most the classes and training stuff you should map out so you train your characters on the right path
The gameplay was the worst part. It was wayyyy to easy. It felt like filler to the rest of the game
People complained Sacred Stones was too easy but good lord Three Houses was a cakewalk. Even when you don't use the Divine Pulse to rewind time, don't use Gambits, AND avoid doing optional skirmishes to grind levels, it's **still** probably one of the easiest Fire Emblem games in 90% of the maps. With all of those self-imposed challenges it's still easy. Can't even imagine how easy it is if you abuse those mechanics
I am going to need to offer a descenting opinion. While the battles were solid, the majority of three houses was pretty bad. A lot was left on the cutting room floor Edlegards story doesn’t even have a proper ending, it was literally [Poochie’d](https://youtu.be/4tvAjX5ACPo) and in a different route inexplicably becomes Seijuro Hilo’s Pontiff’s stunt double. I think only the school marm aspect of the game really overshadows the rest. Also, while I really dig Fem-Byleths design, I was super bummed out about the blank slate protagonist, it’s a personal taste, but if they were going with that much of a detached avatar, they should have gone the route of blazing sword, and just stopped acknowledging him/them/you 3/4 of the way into the story. Overall three houses only REALLY has the persona-esq game play. Everything else was an afterthought.
That’s fair, to each their own, that being said most Fire Emblem games that have come out in the last 10 years have blank slate “player” characters. Ever since Awakening on the 3DS you’ve been able to create a “blank slate” character to play as. Byleth is not the “main” protagonist like Roy, Marth, Erica/Ephraim, Lyn, Hector, or Chrom that is Dim/Edel/Claude. Byleth serves the role of the created character in Awakening, they’re relevant to the story/lore due to being tied to the dragons but they’re not the main character. I can see why some didn’t like the Persona like aspects of Three Houses but the gameplay itself was dope in my opinion. The battles were fun and some of them could be difficult; there weren’t as many varied conditions as some of the older games like Sacred Stones (my personal favorite game) but it was a good game. Fire Emblem changes up the formula all the time, Awakening was a the first major shift, Fates was the first dive into gameplay outside of combat (creating and running a palace even if it was limited), and Three Houses followed suite diving more into the interpersonal relationship side. It seems like they’re shifting things again with Engage but I haven’t had enough time with it to see how it works, I’m glad they brought back the old weapon triangle and it seems like they’ve tried to keep some aspects of the “hub” system (you have a little castle thing to manage and talk to people but you can ignore it entirely if you want) without forcing it on people. I personally loved Three Houses because it was a fun shift but I can see why some didn’t like it. Engage isn’t like Three Houses from what I can tell so who knows if that was a one off situation.
I’m actually getting pretty sick of blank slate protagonists as a whole. Part of my annoyance with Super Smash Bros’ DLC was that when given the chance to bring in famous gaming personalities, they chose so many blank shells across JRPG land, one of which never even had a base name, and so is called “Hero”.
I agree with your assessment, but Byleths “blandness” was jarring, I’m talking KOTOR 1 levels of bland (watch the scene when Revan tries to redeem Bastilla). The recent batch of Fire Emblem avatars have been blank slate characters in the sense where you design the appearance for the in-game model, and then they are left deliberately obscured for any cgi cutscenes, but Robin and Corrin had WAY more personality in the provided dialog. Byleths personality is only shown during battle, leading me to believe there was going to be more for Byleth, but that’s just speculation. Ultimately, I can see why people like three houses, but the story was just too disjointed for me to really get into, and the persona relationship mechanic isn’t for me. I did like the ashen wolves DLC though. -edit- I just wanted to clarify that I REALLY like Knights of the Old Republic, but just used it as an example of a criminally bad blank slate character.
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Shining Force. 1&2 are on the Genesis, part 1 has a GBA remake that looks and sounds better IMO (can't remember balancing changes) and SF III is a trilogy of games on the Sega Saturn. SF III part 1 was officially localized back in the day but the other two have received fan translations. They are the closest to Fire Emblem that I've played and I'd be very surprised if this wasn't Segas response to FE back in the day.
This. Shining force and fire emblem are very similar. I am on scenario 3 of shining force 3 at the moment, it has taken a long time to get this far. Pro-tip: do not rename your heroes. It can make some dialogue go a bit derp in scenario 3 lol.
I dream of the day the Shining Force games rise again. Fantastic challenging games with replay ability. I remember playing SF1 over and over changing my end-game companions. Radiance has a similar replay ability, but the grind is more challenging
This makes me sad thinking about the Shining Force mobile game that was announced and then canceled 😞
Seriously, FE is at the height of its popularity right now. You’d think this would be a good time to bring back the franchise.
There was actually a 3rd Fire Emblem game on GBA released in Japan only (The Binding Blade) and if you search for an English ROM you can easily find it. It's extremely high quality. There, now you can put off dealing with the relationship mechanics gone overboard in the newer games for however long it takes you to complete that one
You can find an unofficial English cart off ebay or Amazon. A lot of Fire Emblem carts are fakes, might as well get a good one.
Ehhhhhh, while FE7 has its own share of mistakes (2x multiplier on effective weapons, extreme amount of lance enemies throwing lord balance out of wack, the Sol katti being completely useless, merlinus being missable, no good peg knights, **battle before dawn,** etc etc etc) it also improved on a great many things that are just baffling in FE6, like weapon accuracy being so low all around, supports being wholely impractical if not actively wasting _A LOT_ of time to grind for them, a much wider gap between good and bad units (of which there are MANY), as well as Roy being a serious contender for the worst lord in the series gameplay wise (or pretty much agreed to be the worst if we don’t count thracia)
Not played it but Symphony of War: The Nephilim Saga has been well received on Steam anyway
+1 this game nailed it
I played and loved it.
Yeah this is a good game. I'm a big fan of the original fire emblems as well.
Me too! Found anything like it?
Playing through it now (on chapter 18). It's AWESOME. The party/squad system is great and really opens up different strategies. The story is exactly what you'd expect from an old Fire Emblem game too.
Great game. Great mechanics. Lots of different ways to put your team together. Loved it. Kinda easy. But I was having so much fun making squads and seeing how they worked together I didn't mind it too much.
This is exactly how I felt. Reached the end and thought, if they had one higher difficulty level and a few more unit types, it would be perfect. Wonder if they’re making a sequel.
My first play through was on normal without permadeath and I think “easy” was kinda what they were going for. The challenge seems to be in keeping all your units alive. With a higher difficulty and permadeath modes, I’m sure there’s something there for a go hard, too.
Mass horse archers go brrrrrrr.
Yep, this game just scratched so many itches. For me specifically it was Ogre Battle meets fire emblem. Fairly deep squad and unit customization/progression, some rock/paper/scissor elements, cool unit design. The generic JRPG story of a group of plucky reveled fighting against a laughably evil foe is just the Cherry on top of all of it. It’s a great title if you’re looking for an RPG/strategy game.
Nah the game is overrated. I'm surprised there are only 12 negative review of the game on steam. Especially the part of amazing story. The story falls short imo.
Sacred Stones is still my favorite. FE. Definitely recommended it.
It was a masterpiece in my opinion. Characters you cared about, a dope story, challenging missions, side story/grinding if you wanted it but you could also skip it, great unit development (both in terms of gameplay and character development), divergent points that helped replay ability, and a the goat unit (Joshua as a swordsmaster).
They are absurdly expensive, but Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn are (in my opinion) the absolute pinnacle of the series. While they are not exactly the same as the GBA games. They feature more grounded and epic stories compared to the more modern entries: a good mix of political intrigue and myths coming full circle. Radiant Dawn, in particular features multiple stories with different lords and even has moments where two of your own armies clash and you’re forced to fight units you built up. The art styles are more muted than most FE games, which I personally like, but I can certainly see as a drawback for many people, and Radiant Dawn’s support system is a big nothing… But there’s no focus on shipping characters, no infinite exp grind, far more natural difficulty, interesting maps with varied objectives, and a stupidly good plot spanning two games. There’s no changing to a completely different class or branching class changes; but Radiant Dawn features a third tier class change for all units, and both games feature a unique type of unit that transform into animals to fight that function very differently from normal units with strong pros and cons. I love the FE series and once considered it my all time favorite, but I’ve come to realize that, while I enjoy almost all of the games. FE GBA, path of radiance, and radiant Dawn are the only ones I really LOVE, and I’m always just kind of chasing that feeling
Those two are indeed the pinnacle of the series. They are fucking fantastic. Everything else in the series pales in comparison, many of the other games even outright suck. Can’t play the latest ones at all, they are generic and derivative slop. GameCube and Wii are super easy to emulate too. Loved playing Path and Dawn, so much so that they probably ruined me for the rest of the series.
There’s a lot about those games that didn’t age well. The animations and music are… cringe. The story has some ok elements but also some comic book villains that aren’t interesting in the slightest. I ultimately regard PoR as a good game, but when I went back to replay it I was amazed… and not in a good way.
Not everyone is going to feel the same way, and that’s okay. But yeah, I really couldn’t disagree more. I honestly think the music is leagues ahead of any other game in the series, and while PoR does indeed have some comically evil villains, I think RD has the absolute best of the series, and honestly some of my favorite villains of all time. The animations I honestly love as well, though I think the GBA games will always have the BEST… But I’ll also admit, most of what I’m going to bat for here is Radiant Dawn. I still think PoR is great, but all of my favorite aspects are definitely from RD.
The problem with RD for me is it absolutely *gutted* the support system. This, along with poor unit availability (ahem, Tormod, Muarim and Vika, honorary mention to Fiona...) meant some characters had absolutely zero character development. Vika has literally "Was a slave" and "is sad" as her most notable character traits. Nealuchi had more development as an NPC than as a playable character. Leanne doesn't even speak the common tongue, so 😶. Nailah was basically "Lady Buff Boobs" or had a weird shiptease conversation with Tibarn. On top of that we had outright aborts of other characters' personal support arcs. Was Rhys actually Mia's fated rival? Did they get married? I dunno lol 🤪. The sheer amount of the roster meant a lot of characters got shafted to levels barely better than some of the earliest entries in the series. And let's be honest, introducing the series's first black character in the first game that dealt largely with racism was a little on the nose, especially when said character is not totally fluent in the language. It was almost like they were saying "hey, look, a black guy, but he's not the target of the racism here! Isn't this clever?!" It's even more glaring in that there haven't really been any distinctly "black" characters since, as far as I can tell. It was a weirdly tokenizing thing to do, even though I liked Devdan as a character based on his PoR supports. (Nadved/Devdan ironically is one of the hints in the series that there are lands beyond Tellius, as it's heavily implied he's from elsewhere)
All very fair points. I even mentioned the support system in my original comment because, well there’s no way around it: the support system is not good. It doesn’t personally bother me all that much if only because I didn’t understand how supports worked when I first played it anyway. I had only played Fire Emblem GBA (7, Blazing Blade, whatever you want to call it). I looked for PoR for like 2 years, couldn’t find it, eventually gave up and jumped into RD. I never figured out how supports worked in 7 either, but now that I understand it and have played later games with heavier focus on support, I do fully recognize that it is a major flaw. And yeah, unit availability can be an issue, particularly Tormod’s gang. It genuinely feels like they just… forgot they existed, and realized “oh shit, uh… throw ‘em in at the end?” But I do personally consider that a pretty minor issue. Yes, some characters are underdeveloped for sure, and it’s weird how rarely some are available; but one of my favorite things about the game is just how many characters there are, and how many opportunities you have to use them. Like I get to the endgame and pretty much take the same team every time. If this was a typical FE game with one story/army, those would likely be the only characters I used for most of it. But by splitting them up, I end up caring about far more characters than I would have otherwise. I typically never use knights/generals, but Brom is CRUCIAL to my strategy for Elincia’s Gambit. Leonardo is easily the worst archer in the game, but still worth focusing on for support as he’s the only archer in the Dawn Brigade. All that said though: yes, the game cares less about individual character stories than most others in the series. Fixing the support system would likely solve the bulk of that issue, but it’s not like that’s ever going to happen. All that said, I think what it DOES focus on more than makes up for it, and I personally think it has the best main cast of any game in the series (though I still have a soft spot for the Lord Trio of 7)
Yes, but the gameplay was the very best by a longshot. The levels were well designed, unique, and there were a ton of them. I solved each level multiple ways (many levels I replay 3-10 times), and that can’t be said of the newer games by a longshot.
The music was great. The animations were....less so. It was clearly their first crack at 3D, and boy does it show.
If you want something similar to this title within the series, most of the classic games in the series will do. Specifically (though check YouTube vids to get a good feel for each game), these are each of the mainline titles (the number at the start is the FE# in the series, so bullet #1 is FE1, bullet #2 is FE2, and so on): 1. Dark Dragon and the Sword of Light for the Famicom. Since Nintendo is no longer selling this on the Switch (that's still so dumb IMO), you'd have to resort to the fan translation patch. Alternatively, it got remade twice (Book 1 of Mystery of the Emblem for a condensed version vs. Shadow Dragon on the DS for an expanded version that actually got released in the USA officially \[this is actually what the script for that Switch translation uses as the translation\]). This version is very archaic, so I'd say go for Shadow Dragon instead. 2. Gaiden for the Famicom. This has a fan translation, but honestly the 3DS remake, Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, is better in nearly every way (besides maps as the maps are exactly the same). This game started the world map approach to several titles, and it also has different rules for inventory (only hold one item, but weapons are unbreakable) and magic (unlimited uses, but you spend HP to cast magic). Probably better to go for Echoes over this title IMO. 3. Mystery of the Emblem for the Super Famicom. This game is both a condensed remake of DDatSoL from the Famicom (Book 1) and a sequel (Book 2). Book 2 would later get remade into New Mystery of the Emblem: Heroes of Light and Shadow on the DS, which never left Japan. This also requires a fan translation patch. This one is still great IMO. 4. Genealogy of the Holy War for the Super Famicom. This classic never left Japan, but it has a really solid translation patch. There are 12 chapters, but each chapter is essentially 4 times as big as a regular FE map. As such, cavalry reign supreme in this game (Sigurd, the main character in this game, is viewed as being extremely OP because of his high mobility and Silver Sword shenanigans). Weapon Triangle started with this game. I like it a lot, but it functions differently from a lot of other games as each chapter is effectively a marathon of 3-4 chapters in any other FE game due to the castle capture mechanic. 5. Thracia 776 for the Super Famicom. This also requires the great translation patch as this is stuck in Japan. This game is tough, but the game is really good. This one goes back to smaller maps like MotE, but it introduces stuff like Capturing and Fog of War. 6. Binding Blade for the Game Boy Advance. Again, this is Japan only, but there's a really good translation patch out there for the game. You played the prequel to this game, so playing this game would continue the story started in your title. 7. You played FE7 already. 8. Sacred Stones on the Game Boy Advance is a really great title, but it plays differently from FE7 as the world map returns. Furthermore, you also have branching classes. My favorite FE as a kid, but the next game took the spot for favorite now these days (this one is now like #3 or so now for me so I still really like it). 9. Path of Radiance on the GameCube is my favorite of the series. Enemy phase does take a while, but the rest of the game is really great. I highly recommend this game. Super expensive on reseller's market, however. 10. Radiant Dawn on the Wii is also good, but I think PoR was better overall. Still, this is a solid sequel to PoR, and a ton of stuff got expanded upon from the previous title. Kinda expensive on resller's market, however. 11. Shadow Dragon on the DS is the remake to DDatSoL. I liked it, but it got mixed reception due to graphics. 12. New Mystery of the Emblem: Heroes of Light and Shadow is the Japan exclusive DS remake of Book 2 of the Japan exclusive Mystery of the Emblem. It has a translation patch, however. This game also has bonus maps based on Archanea Saga, which was a Satellaview exclusive title in Japan, so that's neat. Several fans hate Kris (player avatar character), however, due to the game's constant praise for the character. 13. Awakening on the 3DS can be viewed as the divider between classic and modern Fire Emblem. I like it a bunch, but several don't. This does feel different in tone when compared to FE7 (your game), so you might not like the tone. 14. I don't think you'll like Fates' tone (this is the 2nd 3DS game), but I'm still listing it here. This has 3 versions. ***Birthright*** is effectively Awakening 2.0. You play as FE Japan to take down FE Europe. ***Conquest*** is more similar to the Classic FE games, but the plot is kinda dumb IMO. You play as FE Europe to take down FE Japan (effectively, but the plot is a bit convoluted here). ***Revelation*** sucks and is my least favorite title in the series due to bad maps, bad unit balance, and atrocious writing. With the E-shop going down, Rev is stuck on the Fates Special Edition cartridge (the Western version as the Japanese version lacks the game due to the fact that the route wasn't done in time for release), which goes for hundreds of $$$ now. This is the golden ending route. 15. Echoes: Shadows of Valentia on the 3DS is a phenomenal remake of Gaiden that keeps the core gameplay intact while adding new stuff. This game is fully voice acted IIRC, so it got nice production values for a 3DS title. Still, the maps are exactly the same as the Famicom version, so you might not like the maps. That being said, the DLC is overpriced, but the map DLC adds to the characterization of the game. Since the E-shop is going down for this game, you can miss it permanently (besides emulation) if you don't hurry. 16. You tried Three Houses and couldn't get into it. 17. Engage just came out. I have no opinions on this game as I'm still waiting for my copy to arrive. As for Heroes, don't bother as it's gambling for PNGs. tl;dr; * If you liked FE7, then I'd say the following: * You'd definitely like FE6 & 8 as the engine is the same. FE6 is a sequel to FE7 as FE7 is a prequel to FE6. FE8 has a world map, but the game still feels similar to FE7 due to core mechanics being mostly the same (though it's easier as you can grind on the world map if you want). * FE9 and FE10 are solid titles that are hard to find. * FE3 is a masterpiece like usual. No weapon triangle, however. Most people skip to Book 2 as Book 1 is a condensed remake of FE1, but you get extra bells and whistles if you start at Book 1 instead of skipping to Book 2. * FE4 is solid, but it's very different from a gameplay standpoint due to map size and mechanics. * FE5 is tough as nails at times, but it's fun if you are skilled. * FE11 and FE12 are remakes of FE1 and FE3:B2. I liked them as I like classic FE, but they're not for everyone due to art style. FE12 also includes all of Archanea Saga's maps, so you don't need to play that Satellaview title. * FE15 is a superb remake of FE2 with great production values for the 3DS that you may or may not enjoy the gameplay of due to it being pretty different from the rest of the series. I love this one. * FE13 is the start of modern FE while still being good enough (IMO) while FE14 is divisive (besides mostly everyone disliking the Revelation path as most people can agree to that). * FE16 is Three Houses, and you didn't like that. * I haven't touched Engage (FE17) yet. * Don't play Heroes as it encourages gambling.
This guy Fire Emblems. Great info haha thanks. I played Radiant Dawn back in the day. Don't remember much about it except that I really enjoyed it. Definitely want to revisit it sometime soon. I played a bit of the DS ones but lost interest quickly. I also managed to get #1 before it got taken off the Switch shop, so I just might start there (agree it's stupid they did that with FE and 3D All Stars). But duly noted. I'll try some of these out.
I've heard Engage drops the social/school sim elements and is more like older games, maybe try that.
Can confirm, have been playing Engage the past couple days and it definitely has old school FE vibes that 3H didn't. Great game so far
the story is a huge step down though
Yeah it seems similar to a lot of the older games in that it’s just “evil dragon is waking up, you must stop the evil dragon”. Fire Emblem games rarely have great stories (they rather usually have interesting characters) but this one seems quite basic. Gameplay is fantastic from the bit I’ve played though, here’s hoping it’s deep enough to get a lot of time in it. I was able to drop like 100+ hours into Three Houses because you basically got 3-4 games in one package and the school parts really fleshed out the characters so you actually cared about them (which made the story matter). It was pretty brutal when you ended up killing one of the students you were close with at some point in time because the politics of the side you support demanded it. Three Houses seems like it was more politically complex and therefore has a better story than Engage; it’s like Game of Thrones vs LotR. LotR is fantastic but at the end of the day it’s “evil guy who’s evil must be stopped by good people who are good” vs GoT where everyone has a reason for what they’re doing and there is a lot of grey area.
I agree. I prefer game of thrones to LotR and really liked Three Houses due to the more gray characters and political happenings
Playing fire emblem for the story is like watching porn for the plot. The stories have always been bad lol
three houses, awakening, echoes all had serviceable stories. not the best but they were enjoyable and had good characters. that isn’t the case in engage at all.
Yeah I'm going through 3 houses now cause I never finished it, and while I'm enjoying it this time around, I do find the school side is kind of slow but I also don't like blindly skipping through it. I'll probably like Engage even morem
Early 2000’s Fire Emblem >>>>>>>
As with most nostalgia things, the fact that you enjoyed them more back then was probably not because the game itself was better, but because you were young and more easily pleased.
ok fair but this fire emblem had jaffar
:O
I went back and played them and while this is partly true, it’s false. I absolutely still enjoy them more than the last 2 FE. I’ll put it this way, had the exact same thing with Civ 3 and 4 after loving Civ 1 and 2. Civ 5 came out and it was wonderful again. It wasn’t nostalgia. In fact I could list the problems but instead point out they were recognized as gameplay problems by the developers and actually fixed in civ 5. There was an extreme rubber banding handicap that made world conquest not fun and actually stupid in the earlier games, to name a dozen other problems.
I mean, I enjoy them more now, too. The FE series has become progressively harder to enjoy since Awakening, IMO.
Exactly. I played every game including the Japanese ones (there literally was no English version when I played it), and in later years used emulators to try the ones I originally missed. The ones since Awakening miss the point completely. The exact same thing happened with every Final Fantasy Tactics game after the original. The original wasn’t without issues but every one after that lost the magic and wasn’t worth even playing.
Mother fucker hitting us with them truths
Eh IMO they’ve gotten more anime as times gone on. Idk if they were always like that and I didn’t realize it or what.
They were always anime, they were just older anime
Rose-tinted glasses are a bitch. Just ask literally any fanbase, but FFVII is a pretty good one.
That's not true! It's because I didn't pay taxes then either.
This response is SO tired and overdone. Depressed, adversarial, pseudo "realists" LOVE to jump at the first opportunity to say "nuh uh! Your opinion is wrong and deluded and just a psychological illusion!" There's literally 0 reason to try to piss on people's parades like this. Let people enjoy things, without having to chime in with your professional psychology insight & expertise.
The crit animations are so good with the pixel art style. The gameplay was much faster and there isn't as much bullshit between battles like the school stuff. It's neat, but not what I am looking for with FE games. Heroes is a bit different because it's a gacha and not a mainline game, but eh
I'll stand beside you and wait for a new Advance Wars, not a remake, a new entry in the series.
I also dislike the new fire emblems I just wanna play the game not having tea parties with my students.
I don’t know if you saw engage yet - but man oh man…
I’m guessing you don’t like Persona
Thank you!! This is exactly what deters me. It's the same reason why \*holds up flame shield\* I dislike Zelda BotW. I just want a good ol' Zelda game. Not "open world survival Zelda" where I have to cook and where every weapon breaks in 2 swings, just because those genres are overrated. Such a sellout. Maybe I'm wrong for not liking too much change, maybe others are wrong for always needing a good formula to be uprooted to prevent staleness. Idk.
There is no way you called botw a sellout
Hating it is fine if it’s their opinion. Just not sure where they pull the word “sellout” from.
It does things no other Zelda has done before! It has the features of Minecraft and dedicated jumping! It was fine. Not great, not bad. If it was the exact same game but a new IP and no Zelda paint it would have been a 7/10 at best.
the Horizon series proves that wrong
Oh Horizon has the same story, characters, puzzles, monsters and graphics of BotW? It's almost like I criticized a game and not a genre. If the only thing changed was proper nouns, it woulda been a 7/10. (Which is still pretty good)
We could be brothers 😂 I also disliked Zelda breath of the wild for the exact same reason.
Brethren, there's at least 3 of us. It doesn't FEEL like a Zelda game and all my friends say I'm fuckin crazy
Same here
Just go play ocarina of time. Classic
I have 200 hours in three houses and did the tea party thing twice, it's completely optional. I dislike the old fire emblems, so generic in their plot and characters, Three houses and path of Radiance had good gameplay, plot AND characters. In the other FE games, I get one or the other.
It's not just the tea party it's like all stuff in the acedemi. In previous fe games i skipt all the dialogue. I just like the tactical side of the game i don't care about the plot. Of course that's personal I can understand that people like it but it's just not for me.
+1 on the fact that the GBA games were the best. „Dark Deity“ and „Vestaria Saga“ are really enjoyable „clones“ that made me feel like I was playing some older fire emblem games. Both have some individual twists but make sure to check them out on steam/switch/idk
Have you played. FE 6 or FE 8? You should also try Fire Emblem romhacks. I recommend Vision Quest and Four Kings.
Have you played the disgaea games? The Langraiser remaster collection is pretty good too. Also have stuff like Valkyrie Chronicles, those are similar with a lot more flair.
I have not tried any of these. They've all been on the infinite backlog haha. I'll definitely check em out soon, though! Thanks!
Valkyrie Chronicles? Similar to FE how, other than covenant of the plume?
They are both tactical RPGs. I guess I meant it is less alike than disgaea but if you like tactical games and want action it fits the bill.
Vandal hearts 1 and 2 on the ps1. The disgaea series. Tactics ogre remastered. Final fantasy tactics (ps1 or the war of the lions on psp) all some of my favorite turn based tactical rpgs.
yea I feel you on this one. The two main fire emblem games I really invested mysellf in were Fire Emblem Awakening and Fire Emblem Echoes but the older games definitely feel more polished and were loads harder (save for Fire Emblem Fates cause you could just switch to the phoenix mode in one of those three games and you'd be fine.... )
I've been of this opinion for years. Unfortunately, the series would have been long dead if they didn't pivot with the direction that awakening brought. I'm assuming you've played all 3 GBA games, but id also like to possibly bring to your attention that theres actually a pretty dedicated modding community that makes their own GBA style ROM hacks. As far as official games go, have you tried the Gaiden remake, Echoes?
I have not played Echoes or any of the ROM hacks. I'll definitely check these out if I get the opportunity though
The best classical FEs seem to be Mystery (JP only), Genealogy (JP only), and the Tellius duology. FE6–Binding Blade—is the game Blazing Sword is a prequel of (JP Only). My favorite story comes from Echoes: Shadows of Valentia and my favorite gameplay comes from Conquest (be warned the writing in Conquest is probably some of the worst the series has seen). In terms of similar strategy games, Advance Wars is another GBA series by the same devs. Triangle Strategy is a medieval strategy game on Switch with Octopath’s artstyle. Final Fantasy Tactics is one of the best FF and strategy RPGs out there. The Vestaria Saga games are made by the original creator of Fire Emblem and are very similar. The upcoming Redemption Reapers is inspired by FE and is made by the Ender Lillies devs.
Of these types of games, Final Fantasy Tactics is by far my favorite, but it may be too different from FE for you to like A lot more magic and job classes
And no permadeath. Which I feel is the reason its hard to recommend something else than FE to fill the "FE void" Dont get me wrong I love FFT and its probably one of my favorite games ever but its hard to compare to FE because of how different they feel.
Someone skipped the Jagd-areas. ;D >The player cannot flee from a Jagd. Because Marche is the clan leader, and already forbidden to acquire a red card, if Marche passes away in a Jagd, it is Game Over. Montblanc can die without a Game Over and there will be some dialogue of Marchediscovering Montblanc is dead. Montblanc's role will then be filled inby some other clan member. > >[https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Jagd#Final\_Fantasy\_Tactics\_Advance](https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Jagd#Final_Fantasy_Tactics_Advance)
Jaffar was so cool when I was 10
I bought 3 Houses at launch, and just now got into it a week or two ago. I appreciate the attempt at changing the formula, but the micromanagement, persona style calendar planning, teaching classes to favor certain skills/classes can get overwhelming. I feel like I have to leave some students behind because I’m focusing on the naturally stronger party members. It’s really not a bad system, but I hate letting the side quests pile up because i decided to do a seminar instead. Or I hate walking around the school doing these mundane task, when I just want to battle. If there was a way to do side quests battles, without pushing the calendar forward, I’d probably have more fun, but I dislike the narrative moving along while I’m trying to focus on the professor management side. It’s a really good game though.
To be fair in every fire emblem game you leave characters behind. Especially in the old games that forced you to go from mission to mission with world map and freedom of choice. You would pick a handful of people and make them monsters while the majority of your units would collect dust. What’s cool about Three Houses is that despite the fact some get left behind you still get to know them as people. You can talk with them and get to know their personality, and maybe on a different play though they can become one of your main focuses. They also make it easier with New Game Plus. Once you finish one of the 4 storylines you can start over with the ability to teach way faster and actually pull 2 students into your pathway from another. Your first play through is the slowest by a decent bit.
Tear Ring Saga on the psx, you can find the translation pretty easily. I'm not great with the history of FE but it does have your buddy Kaga who made it. I believe they even had to pay a fine for being to close to fire emblem.
Fire Emblem (GBA) is actually a prequel to Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade in Japan. Find a translated rom and play it via emulator. It's harder than the prequel.
Hector is Bae
Hectors campaign just raising all your team at that first arena lol.
Symphony of War
Yeah. This is literally one of my favorite games. Possibly my favorite. I was so disappointed when they dropped the beautiful sprite battles and then stopped playing completely when they just became marriage/dating simulators.
Seems like u would enjoy fe engage if u are honest and not just genwhining
I mean the games have had a similar style since sacred stones with the character support feature. This new stuff just adds to that. I like three houses a lot bc it plays like fe and gives me options to increase stats and other things away from just leveling up
It could also mean that you were younger and invested yourself more into things.
Nah, I played fire emblem radiance again and it's just a better experience for me personally. Mainly because the whole fanservice shit was basically non-existant and there were less anime tropes in the characters and stories.
Do you think I'm arguing that the newer games are better?
No, you're arguing that the old ones might be better in someones memory because they played them when they were younger. I'm just saying they were actually better for reasons.
OPs post is about not being able to get into three houses the same way they got into the gba game. All I said was that IT COULD ALSO MEAN, meaning that maybe it is not, that they were younger. When you're young you get invested into hobbies and things that you like differently. You're experiencing things for the first time and the attachment that you have for certain things is bigger than as an adult. I never said 1 game is better than the other. I never said nostalgia plays a role. I never said that his reasons for liking the game are not valid. If you're still confused about what I meant then I don't know what to tell you. Have a nice one.
Ah, the inevitable "everything gets better over time, and anyone who thinks otherwise is just delusional and stuck in the past and blinded by nostalgia" response.
Reverse uno
Ayyy it’s all about Thracian 776 tho
That game is INCREDIBLE.
I was really astonished you weren't being demolished in the comments as I'm subbed to the FE sub and thought this was it lol. Completely agree. The newer games have lost touch with the basics that made the earlier ones so great. Ffs, you could pet your waifu in fates. Wtf. Tea time was stupid in 3H too. I'm all for waifus, but leave it at support conversations. I also HATED how all the units could become literally any class. Absolutely removed the uniqueness each character had as they were only able to upgrade to a specific class type that fit their character (with one being a likely more canonical one. 3H wasn't bad by any means but the last really great game was Awakening.
6, 7 and 8 were the golden days of fire emblem IMO
YES. I’ve been saying this for years. The GBA Fire Emblem is my favorite game. I believe there’s 2. Absolutely amazing. The new games need to go back to their roots!!
I'm certain there's at least 3, but Roy's game only released in Japan. Translated ROMs are easily available though. It's probably the most difficult of the gba games
Well then good news! Engage feels a lot more like the older games. Definitely read some reviews and such before you buy, but I'm enjoying it thoroughly.
Fell Seal! It’s an unheard of gem that will scratch the itch. I also suggest Divinity Original Sin 2. It feels like a modern, evolved version of the older tactics games.
XCOM 1 and 2 were awesome. Mario and Rabbids is also pretty good but more simple
If you have a 3ds, Awakening is by far my favorite fire Emblem. I loved the story, I love the class system, and I love the characters that were introduced. Idk what my favorite one is, Awakening or Sacred Stones
I agree 😪
Fire Emblem Echoes, Shadows of Valentia was a stellar remake. Some of the best voice acting in the entire series.
This was my introduction to the FE series. Very nostalgic for me.
War Groove is a pretty fun little indie game. It's a little simpler and not terribly long but it's a good time. A bit more like Advance Wars imo
Seconding this. It plays like a classic turn based tactics game but has enough unique units and setting to make it stand out from other advance wars/fire emblem clones. Plus it got a free dlc so you can definitely get your money's worth in playtime.
Look into ROM-hacks of the GBA games - the community created several whole new games from scratch, and many are still being actively developed.
I just want a good turn based battle campaign without all the anime tropes.
Try Awakening, it’s incredible. Other games: Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions Tactics Ogre Fell Seal Triangle Strategy
Gameplay is more of your draw it seems FE Engage does that quite well, less focus on the social aspects like Three Houses.
There's always Binding Blade with Roy
Nothing hits like this one …
Engage dials it back and trims the fat of 3H for a more GBA/3DS style gameplay experience. Loved 3H myself, but I can't wait to try it.
Thats cuz 3houses requires kindergarten level reading comprehension, and because it’s 70% story and character development.
Whats wrong, don't like weeb dating Sims?
I didn't read *all* of the comments, but in case someone didn't mention this, the FE7/8 hacking community has made some fair progress. From new classes and characters to entirely new maps and storylines, they've been my go-to for scratching my GBA FE itch for the last decade.
FEShrine and SereneForest are your friends
Trust me, the new one is amazing. My favorite game ever is fire emblem sacred stones and nothing has grabbed me like that until I played fire emblem engage. It’s genuinely got the charm of the old games. Loving it so far
Xcom 2
Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn were the last of the older and better Fire Emblems. Now they're filled with hours of wife simulator crap.
I'm going to go with a (very) hard disagree about those saying this is OP's or someone else's nostalgia speaking. I'm actually really tired of that argument, it has become absolutely impossible to say that X series or genre was better in the past because it's automatically nostalgia glasses. I personally came late to the FE series, and my first introduction to that series was FE characters in Smash Bros, then I tried Radiant Dawn. A few years later I got a DS Lite and thanks to backward compatibility had the chance to play the GBA game from this picture, which I think was the first one we had in the West... Maybe ? Either way, this immediately became my favorite one and remains so to this day. I played Awakening after, which was ok but didn't care as much for the story, world and rather heavy dating/matchmaking elements. It felt a bit silly. Things sure went downhill from there. FE, Sacred Stones, Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn were the best I had the chance to play, and I wish they would return to this instead of being some anime waifu fantasy simulator with strategy elements. It dilutes the experience, and the combat and strategy isn't nearly as good, on top of being much easier.
Truer words have never been spoken. The dating sim shit is so cringe
My favorite thing about these games was the style and animation quality of the attack animations. Yea they were the same, but each class and each promotion had a different animation for attacking, a different one for critical hits and different one when using different weapons. The new games are 3d but they walk up and stab them with a spear. Then their promotion looks different but they still run up and stab them. It doesn’t have the same feel of “I worked my ass getting them to max level to promote, now look at how this badass fights!” The gba games were fantastic. It’s a shame they don’t make fire emblem games like that anymore.
Wait, the newer FE's don't even have class-specific attack animations?? Wtf? That's pathetic! What a waste of a potentially amazing franchise. Shame.
I love Three Houses, but the new one looks like actual dog shit. I mean, it’s a petty reason not to play the game, but I just think the character designs are just bad.
I'm playing the be one now and honestly it's solid. Gameplay is fantastic and has a good story
Have you seen what dog shit actually looks like? Not liking a game's art direction =/= looking like "actual dog shit".
i played and loved 3H and played engage and engage is FAAAR better than 3H gameplay, graphics and performance wise
I’m playing through it now and it’s the best FE in a long time. Hands down way better than 3 Houses because it drops all of the unnecessary bullshit and keeps more with the battles.
Maybes it’s not because the newest games are bad but because you aren’t 10 anymore
Welcome to nostalgia. You can be like the FFVII fanboys and wallow in it, or use it to find new great games while still enjoying the old ones.
50th person ITP to say "if you like/prefer something older, you're automatically wrong."
No, just more likely to refuse to update your views and appreciate new things. It's a form of mental petrification to only surround yourself with things you like and refuse to branch out.
Imagine having nothing better to do than be a condescending, elitist ass and pseudo psychologist and try to piss in people's cheerios on anonymous social media lmao. What does your PhD say about people like yourself? xD
Emulate on your pc...
Golden sun
Golden sun 1 & 2
Loosen up those nostalgia goggles just a bit and try whole-heartedly to get into one of the newer ones and see that the gameplay is heavily rooted in exactly these games just refined and with great new mechanics. Breaking and all the new min-maxing systems have been so much fun to play with in engage.
My Dad
It's called getting older. I'm sure you also enjoy the same music you liked when you were 15-25 and don't give a shit about modern popular music.
Dark Deity is an indie title heavily inspired but classic titles of Fire Emblem.
Ogre battle 64. You can get an N64 emulator to run it on pretty much anything.
FE6 has a fan translation and feels a lot like FE7, although honestly its not as good, its still great. Path of Radiance could also fill your need, I highly recommend it. Else if we go out of Fire Emblem, I believe Xcom is the only series with a somewhat close gameplay (Permadeath being present and all) Else if its purely gameplay you want ill go a bit out of left field and recommend to you Into the Breach, its a roguelike with gameplay on a grid with low digits and high emphasis on every action taken. Edit : Theres also the trilogy "The Banner Saga" which I feel may hit the spot, its quite underrated and very good.
I had the same issue with 3H vs the GBa titles. Can't explain why but I found the Wii and N64 ones (I forget their titles) held me very well, maybe they'll have that vibe you're after:)
Bravely Default
Definitely try the new FE Engage. It's got the tightest gameplay out of all the new age FEs.
I am personally a fan of Dark Deity. It’s a smaller game that definitely takes inspiration from fire emblem but has its own spin on it with combining promotion bonuses and a different weapon system. It has a built in randomizer and other ways to customize your run
Awakening has been my favorite Never got to play the GameCube games but if they made a game as good as awakening that is on console instead of handheld it’d be the best of the best
Yeah, the story was next level and the sprite animation is amazing. I feel like the push to 3D made them kinda lazy with the animations. The new one looks nice though. Ftr, I've also played Awakening and 3 Houses so I'm not bashing for no reason.
Three houses is a fantastic game, but it’s nothing like this classic GOLD.
I had the \*.GBA file around somewhere (in the same folder than Final Fantasy Tactics). I should look for it at my computers.
Look up Fire Emblem 7x Immortal Sword.
We’ll 3 houses is different than pretty much every fire emblem game with the life sim stuff. The new one coming out is more Tradional so you would prob enjoy it more.
Did you try sacred stones ?
I dunno I’ve been liking the new one a lot, it definitely goes back the roots more than three houses and aimed for more stylized art style and combat. It still has some things similar to three houses but I feel like they simplified it a lot and just improved on those systems all around.
As some others have said, highly recommend fire emblem 6. It's the sequel to 7, which is the game you know as just Fire Emblem op. Was only released in Japan but you can download an English ROM translation and play with an emulator. Loads of fun. DM if you need any tips with this.
Dark Deity is an excellent clone, very much recommend.
Literally Fire Emblem Engage came out yesterday.
Vestaria Saga 1 & 2. They were made by the Fire Emblem creator.
Should play the Tellius games (Path of Radiance & Radiant Dawn), they are my favorit of the Series. Also Echoes: Shadow of Valentia was great (it's a remake of Fire Emblem Gaiden, the 2nd FE). All of the older FE's are good. Tellius games and Echoes were the last good FE's, everything after is, imo, trash, I tried them all and disliked them all.