Tell me your FE _____ takes

I actually disagree. Project Ember, while good, has some glaring issues, mainly armors being too damn OP and generally stats bloat making every single character very good.

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I very much agree.
But despite this (and other flaws), I still find the overall gameplay of having everyone be viable and unique through personal weapons to be much more appealing.

I know that some people enjoy the power-level settings of FE6 were not everyone is equally as strong but using good units in Fire Emblem is always more infinitely satisfying than using bad/average units.

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Then there’s a reason to go back and play it.
I have the same issue with people saying that there’s no reason to play Metroid when you have Zero Mission. Just… no.

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  • TearRing Saga would be a mid-bottom tier Fire Emblem game if it was part of the main series.
  • There’s nothing wrong with grinding if it’s something the designers put in the game for you to use. You’re not a scrub if you use the Tower of Valni, for example.
  • The Blood Pact is just the predecessor to the Valla curse.
  • FE8 names for items > FE7 names for items. Swiftsoles all the way.
  • FE6’s palettes are garish.
  • The DS games’ graphics are actually pretty solid.
  • Paladin Jagens are boring. Give me more Swordmaster Jagens and Warrior Jagens.
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I’ve played and beaten TRS, Berwick, and VS1 (I haven’t played VS2 since it has no english translation yet), and I still wouldn’t rank them very highly among the FE games. They’re kaga getting progressively more ridiculous and unhinged with his ideas and the games suffer for it. Berwick is definitely not the masterpiece some claim it is.

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The concept of battle before dawn is amazing for a defend map. Where the player has to race down to the defend point away from enemies that spawn much closer.

The execution leaves a lot to be desired for OBVIOUS reason but like lets be real

It’s really not that hard everyone. Just use your free hand outs and walk forwards to recruit Nino with Pent/Hawkeye/Marcus/other paladin/ur probably busted flier and maybe Harken.

(Just also remember to do your arcane rituals to not get Nino Crit)

Cog of destiny (ie the next non gaiden map) is so much worse on HHM its disgusting yet these two are grouped together as equally bad somehow.

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Honestly, the only Post FE Kaga game i would put in high tier is Berwick, and even that has quite a few “Kaga why?” decisions

Playing through atm using the spreadsheets and the way i would describe it so far is Thracia on steroids, for better or worse. It definetly is much more into “Kaga surprises” territory than VS1 is. Do you like RNG based reinforcements? Normal reinforcements and ambush spawns in the same turn (in a worse way than VS1)? Or 100% Adept Ballista? Or a summoner that can summon 3 range Archers that can kill your promoted armor unit?

That game is fun, but it does ruin one’s mood quite a bit with it’s Kaga surprises

these are indeed hot takes, burning, I’m going to need some ice

I’m almost convinced that this is a shitpost

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Forced dismounting is the thing that keeps hitting me in the face when I want to like Mistery of the Emblem. It’s just terrible.
There should be no other game like 3H. Please, I don’t want to return to the monastery ever again.
Manfroy is not as bad of a character as people say. Gharnef’s still better tho.
FE8’s map design is hot garbage in Eirika Route. At least we get to see more of Saleh and Innes.
3 range bows is the worst thing that Project Ember could’ve done.
Roy is worse than Leif in every way possible.
The christmas cavs are only fun to use on the DS games.
The battle platforms on the battle screens of the GBA FE games are the worst. The battle screens look so much better in the DS games (and the arenas of the GBA entries) since at least the background is not a still image.
The music in SoV is so much better than in 3H.

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FE3 is awful and extremely overrated, lacking the simplistic charm and decent gameplay of FE1 and the fast and fun gameplay of FE4 and FE5. It gives me eternal pain when people knock DSFE for being ugly and use it as a reason why FE3 > FE12 when FE3 is WAY uglier.

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I thought most people felt this way? Leif generally doesn’t get the rough reception Roy does anymore, at least.

So hottakes, especially in the context of this community are a bit misconstrued, as of course the term refers to an opinion of yours that others would disagree with and would thus be an unpopular opinion or hottopic of discussion.

And while i certainly have takes on gameplay elements that some would disagree with, i don’t think the notions are interesting enough to talk about, so instead ill discuss something that i never discuss around here. And that’s Story Integration.

Now i am not a writer by any means, although considering what we tend to do in this community, i should probably give it a shot regardless. But I do have some takes that might be hot for this discussion.

And in terms of the Main Games the stories are executed in different ways but they have very similarly unintriguing premises. That or the premise isn’t bad but the fantasy elements or uninteresting map designs lend it to being a basic experience. And while i think Hacks do make an effort to improve apon this, they are still significantly guilty of replicating typical methods of Japanese story telling and thus endup in a trap of being something rather typical with a typical artstyle.

I’m probably doing a terrible job of communicating what i feel is wrong here. But perhaps i should give an example for this. Perhaps the most common example is that the typical fire emblem story is a Noble having to leave his kingdom for whatever reason and go on an expedition of support before coming back to save his kingdom or potentially the whole continent, trope. And while i don’t think the premise itself is bland or boring in anyway. I do think the way fire emblem executes it lends itself to being a rather shallow message when it involves a black and white story and setting. Which is to say innocent lordy two shoes and an evil emperor or dragon trying to conquer/destroy the world.

And while i don’t think you necessarily need to make an ultra political message to craft a good story out of this. I do think its important to have some kind of historical or political motive to tell. Perhaps this has more to do with the fact that fire emblem and many other Japanese stories are kindive basic level fiction with their narratives. While personally i enjoy narratives based in some kind of a historical reality weather its the setting or it involves real people. So I would urge many of you to read up on some historical time periods and particularly people. As you may get some good story inspiration.

But I should probably also mention the gameplay roles of this. And part of what makes FE Games & Hacks bland to me, is the story of the maps themselves. In that 98% of maps generally speaking end in you either running away, annihilating’s the enemy or capturing a castle. And most of the time this while involve zero causalities on your part. This I believe could use a branch out. In that part of what makes a game or movie story fun to experience the first time is that you hopefully won’t be able to whats going to happen to the characters you are following, and i believe fire emblem has a good potential to do this if you take a potential risk in gameplay. Part of what makes radiant dawn so interesting is this very reason. Party members come and go, and this could be portrayed more often, weather its in the form of betrayals or scripted deaths. Or that a map is designed to be difficult in such a way that some of your units are probably going to be dead. Or the story not having a happy ending for our protagonist, or potentially said protagonist is far from being a hero in his own story.

Idk something to consider, i think I’ve rambled enough about this.

Edit: Also on an completely unrelated note, I don’t like GBA music at all as far as computer instrument music is concerned, and thus I don’t understand why people go through so much hassle to produce a mediocre sounding results.

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excuse me I need to go grab some ice to treat these burning scars I have from this burning hot take


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what, he literally has as little character as possible, how is he good

huh

Fire Emblem Gaiden is actually a good game that’s worth playing and is absolutely NOT the worst Fire Emblem game when FE1 exists. Y’all just need Easy mode and Speedup (+Look at Serenes Forest for info that would normally be in the manual anyways.)

Genealogy’s story isn’t actually that good. Gen 1 has a great narrative (with some flaws), but whenever this discussion comes up people only ever bring up events from Gen 1 and rarely ever mention Gen 2. That’s literally leaving out half of the game!

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Growths are a pitfall is a bad take.

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TBF, both FE1 and Gaiden aren’t all that bad.
They are enjoyable to play but not for too long because of how slow they can be.
FE1 is quite unique gameplay-wise and it’s got some awesome designs that were never used again (honestly this Marth is my favorite).
Animations and music are also great.

Only issue I see with Gaiden that may not make people return to it is that it is almost entirely eclipsed by Echoes.

FE1 at least is its own game. Worst thing I can think about it are the shopping lines.
But hey! At least you get to buy Rapiers, Silver and Killer weapons fairly frequently and early on!

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Bro that’s the complete opposite of a hot take