Your Favorite FE

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So I’ve noticed that recently a lot of very negative threads have surfaced, particularly around the state of the series. I personally don’t buy it but we’re all free to have our own takes, I’ve made my stance on such negativity clear in the past.

So I thought that opening up a thread for us all to gush about our favorite games in the series or aspects of it would be a good idea, to lighten the mood up a bit, add some positivity. Every FE is someone’s favorite so let’s find out why.

We’re all here because we love Fire Emblem so let’s talk about the parts that we like about it, it’ll give us romhackers information on what everyone likes in their favorites too!

To start I'll go ahead and talk a bit about Engage

Engage is a game that had me hooked ever since the reveal trailer, it had a gorgeous artstyle and really fun designs for its characters, and as more information came out about it the more hype I got for it. The shrunken down monastery ala Three Hopes, the Emblems as a mechanic, multi weaponed classes, it really was shaping up to be an incredible entry.

Then I played it. Then again. Then again. Then by the fourth time burnout hit a bit, I’m the kind of player who really really gets attached to certain units, in particular I have a fascination with Etie, Alfred, Framme, and Rosado both as units and characters. This in tandem with the homogenized strategy brain starting to kick in after being exposed to the “meta” led me to drop the game for a bit.

After coming back though holy fuck this game is gooooood!
Engage I feel is at its best when you’re not out to win, you’re out to use the sandbox the game gives you to win in the most creative way possible, very Bloons TD6 vibes to reference a non-FE game. While this is in part due to the game giving you the freedom to use it’s best options without restriction, it also just has a metric ton of skills and items! Some that are rng dependant like the bond ring skills which makes every playthrough unique as you have different tools to work with, maybe in one run I go with bow knight Etie because I pulled Claude’s ring which increases bow range but the next I stick with warrior due to its superior stats.
One of my favorite builds was swordmaster Citrinne, making use of her high magic she was able to one round pretty consistently with alacrity and a Levin sword in the mid game, while needing either speedtaker or Lyn to do the same later on. Although using Lyn also opened her skill slots up for vantage and hold out, allowing her to make up for her poor survivability.

The game’s characters are also absolute treasures, they’re all such bundles of hopes and dreams that most simply can’t help but make me smile. Rosado learning to cook from Goldmary, Clanne helping Etie with her workout routine by making her pickles, Celine and Alcryst comforting each other through their recurring nightmares of loved ones being taken from them. Nearly every character is good at heart and aid one another, it makes the Somniel feel a lot more homely.
It’s that sort of cozy vibe that really ties Engage all together for me, it’s a unique vibe for the series that works well in giving the game its own identity.

There are so many little details I can go on and on about too, the thematic through line of the story and how despite being at times sloppily paced still conveys a genuine passion.
The beautiful music that for me fits right into the games vibes.
The way the dlc further adds to the sandbox in interesting ways that can for the most part be entirely avoided.

I can go on all day but I think I’ll stop here, while Engage isn’t the evergreen game that Fates may be with how tight of a game Fates is, Engage still manages to stand out from its peers as a genuinely comfy game to kick back with, enjoy the vibes, and have fun with the characters in spite of the dark conflict that looms overhead with the games narrative.

I’m very excited to hear what everyone likes about these games :smiling_face:

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I’m a believer that most FEs are fundamentally, pretty consistently, 8/10 games carried by an exceptional core gameplay loop, and favourites are not so much about which is the strongest or weakest but about which hooks us most and which sins we forgive.

10 is mine. Most of the criticism it receives is accurate; I don’t care. A lot of the things it does - low-impact skills, procs, forging, tier 3s - I don’t normally care for or actively dislike, but it works because it’s in FE10. There’s contrivances to mash together story elements they need to justify big sweeping strokes and they’re pulled off with enough panache I don’t care. It tells a story I care about and that resonates with me, and has inventive maps with varied objectives and a significantly underrated use of verticality. Easily at the top of my list. Still not touching Hard Mode, though.

Honourable mention goes to 15. Disillusioned and without a 3DS, with the back-to-back-to-back set of 12 never being localised and 13/14 not at all being what I was looking for, I drifted away from the series for years. 15 brought me back.

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Thanks for making this thread! I’ll confess I’ve had my finger hovering over the mute button for the “Community” tag for the last week thanks to weird threads.

I don’t have the time to gush about my favorite games right now but I’ll just comment that I like way more of the vanilla games than I don’t. This series is great.

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Radiant Dawn is in my top 5 favourite games of all time. It might be due to my nostalgia but hear me out.

The visuals are amazing. The music is the best one of the series. It has some of the best characters. The animations, if you have the patience for them, are underrated and incredible.

The tone is great for the first three parts. For a newcomer, going from playing as a small guerilla group in part 2 to what feels to you like a proper army in parts 2 and 3 is such an amazing feeling I won’t forget.

I’m actually a Dawn Brigade enjoyer. Of course, most of the units are unusable, but there are some really good maps in there

It has the right amount of base management. You can forge, give xp and skills, read the library (which helped me understand the story, because I didn’t play FE9 at the time), and read the base conversations which are one of the best things a Fire Emblem game can have.

Is the story messy? Yep. Everyone here knows the issues with the blood pact and part 4. It’s a flawed masterpiece, more interesting than the “just kind of good” type of games.

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My personal favourite is FE6. It’s the most ironman friendly game in the series, which is my favourite way to play and the low hit rates always add flavour to each playthrough. I like how if you lose some of the stronger units, you must resort to making do with weaker units, and it’s always so satisfying when you can make the terrible ones work. I also think it has the perfect difficulty level. It gives a challenge but is not ridiculous like the highest difficulties of FE11, FE12 and FE13.

One of it’s common criticisms is the low hit rates and how they force you to take a more boring and defensive playstyle, but I think this is the wrong way to look at it. All it requires is some risk management. If I have 3 units with a 60% hit rate that can kill an enemy, I know that it’s more than likely that at least one of them will hit, so it’s a risk I’m willing to take. And if it doesn’t work out, then I’ve lost Marcus and it makes for a more interesting playthrough. I like that level of uncertainty that it has where any unit can die at any time, and that nothing is ever entirely in your control as 100% hit rates are rare in FE6.

It’s other common criticism is the poor unit balance, but I think this serves more good than it does bad. We see in some of the later entries with much more balanced units that units tend to feel a lot more homogenised in their gameplay. It’s fun if I train up Lot and Wade to be powerhouses with an A support and the Armads because they start off terrible. If they were as strong as Rutger out of the gate, it wouldn’t be nearly as fun.

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Shadow dragon fr shitted in the mother toilet I love it so much. It’s easily the best ironman game in the series and I love the horde of dogshit units with 2 lines of dialogue the game throws at you. The free reclassing is also so stupid it’s fun, my favorite unit I’ve ever had is prob the insanely strength blessed warrior Castor I had in my last ironman run. People always hate on the graphics but I lowkey love the shitty 2010 aesthetic it has going on for some reason, maybe it’s nostalgia or something idk

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I cannot stress enough how much I love Thracia/Engage as games

Thracia

Personally, Thracia excels at combining both gameplay and story insanely well. It perfectly grasps the struggle that Leif has as the Heir to Leonstar and shows him growing thanks to characters like August or Dorias guiding his hands. Gameplay is unpredictable, which is exactly what the likes of Leif’s journey is as a fletching leader. Leif’s army being forced to use enemy weapons or simply constantly on the run also shows how pitiful and outmatched Leif was until Seliph bails him out from the Leonstar Siege. Great game, 10/10

Engage

Engage has such a special place in my heart. Even if it wasn’t perfect story wise, gameplay and the simple heart it was given really shines when considering it was meant as a celebration for FE as a series. The characters are so over the top its hilarious, and each trope feels like it was maxed out for satirical purposes. Gameplay wise it definitely did a lot of things right and allows essentially anyone to be fun to make. I really liked turning Celine into a hero with a levin sword for Fixed/Lunatic runs and that’s been a blast. Engage as a whole has been underrated and I sincerely hope people give the game the chance that it deserves

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FE6 all the way. With FE11 creeping up.

FE6 and I go way back. I’d wanted to play that bad boy for so long ever since that last cutscene from FE7. After many weeks of research, I’d figured it out and had a blast. And after another half-dozen playthroughs, I can for sure say it’s my favorite.

The presentation is excellent. The bright, colorful portraits and palettes just stood out amongst the crowd of more darker looking FEs. It is seriously really pleasant to look at in my opinion. The music sets the tone perfectly in every scene, and it contains some of my favorite tracks in the series. Bangers like One Will, Within the Magnificent Nature, The Path To Greatness, In The Name Of Bern, Battle For Whom, I could go on!

The gameplay and difficultly is peak. Seriously, the best gameplay to the series. The maps are all incredibly memorable and fun, it has the best route split in the series, the best Anima magic setup, and the best cast. The enemy placement especially feels very tight and well tested in my opinion.

The game has some really great characters, like Saul and his funny, but pretty layered personality, Zelot, with his extended friends and family, Trec and his tartyness on the battlefield, Noah, and his idolatry of Karel, Gonzalez and his unique design and personality, Igrene and her tragic backstory with Astolfo, Hugh, and his humorous relationship with Niime, Narcian, and his flamboyant and prideful ego, and even Roy. There’s a great video I found that talks about it very thoroughly which I’ll link to here.

Edit: Forgot to talk about the story! The story is actually pretty decent in my opinion. It has a grand sense of scale and very high stakes not really emulated as well in other Fire Emblem games. It really feels like we’re going up against an entire continent!

Sure, the game has low hitrates, which at times aren’t fun, Gwendolyn and Sophia are some of the worst units in the series, unit balance kind of doesn’t exist, the ambush spawns are really draining, most of the characters I’ve mentioned are only notable because of their supports, and chapter 14…exists. But I’m willing to overlook those flaws when a game can deliver on a very fun and fulfilling experience.

…That said, FE11 offers a lot of what FE6 has, but FE6 still hits it over the edge for me.

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FE6 is my favorite now, due to me having recently finished a run with the true ending for the first time. That bumps it up enough in the story department for me to say it’s my favorite. Several others have described FE6 as their favorite in this thread already, and I like it for most of the same reasons they’ve mentioned.

But in the past, I probably would have said SOV. Even though I prefer FE6 overall, I think SOV has superior game feel and presentation, the animations are really nice and dynamic, and it feels (at least to me) very “Fire Emblem-ey”. As in, it resembles the older games’ aesthetics but in 3D, which none of the other modern FE titles really do. Also the soundtrack is HEAVENLY.

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Thank you for this thread.

My favorite FE game is…

Radiant Dawn. (FE10)

The game does too many things I like for it to not be my favorite, even though I acknowledge the issues it has.

  • Shifting perspectives. I love this. Keeps things fresh with different casts of characters (and in a gameplay sense, different groups of units). Allows to present a sprawling story with more context (you get to play the battles of multiple factions instead of them being off-screen).

  • Shopping is excellently handled. You have the regular shop, but you also have Amy’s Bargains, a shop with a limited, unique inventory that changes every chapter. And you don’t get enough money to always buy everything you want, between the existence of these shops and forging. Awesome.

  • The Tellius promotion system is my favorite in the franchise, and it’s in this game! I like there being a reward for getting a unit to very high levels, instead of hitting the level cap and gaining nothing. The fact the traditional option also exists is also great, because it lets you get some more use from the units you can’t get to level 21.

  • I like the three-tier class progression. Makes sense for a bigger game like RD! It also really makes units feel powerful when they reach tier 3, with the proc skills that they receive.

  • The game has a ton of unique ideas for both story and gameplay. You start out as a resistance group in… the country that you defeated in the previous game? A resistance group that fights against the country you sided with before? Micaiah DISLIKES Ike (for understandable reasons)? Now that’s a hook I can get behind. A certain prominent enemy actually joins you this time instead of being your foe? Holy SHIT. Thief (Rogue) Jagen? And it’s a unit that was easily among the worst in the previous game? Talk about a glowup, and also, awesome (FE has never done this since). Maps with large allied AND enemy forces that really make you feel like this is a gigantic war? Awesome for story-gameplay integration. Then you have 3-E, which does something that I find absolutely amazing in terms of story-gameplay integration, but which I don’t want to spoil for the people who haven’t seen or played Radiant Dawn.

  • I actually like Part 4 being largely comprised of rout maps, which I realize is an unpopular opinion. The reason I like it is that it feels like a culmination of your unit training throughout the game. You get to kill a bunch of stuff! And then you have the tower, where you pick your favorites and/or a set of units that will be good no matter what you’ve been doing throughout the game. It’s a great endgame sequence, in my opinion. Very memorable and distinct from other FEs.

  • I like the fact the Dawn Brigade sucks and the Greil Mercenaries are pretty strong. Again, gameplay-story integration, and not in a way that’s as annoying as Thracia can sometimes be. The Dawn Brigade is a ragtag resistance without a lot of resources, reach, or power. The Greil Mercenaries are an experienced mercenary group that had just fought in a major war. Of course the Mercenaries are going to be epic while the Dawn Brigade is struggling. That’s why the Dawn Brigade receives several allies that prop it up.

  • I love the BEXP system. I think it’s more balanced in this game than in Path of Radiance (FE9), and I like the way it interacts with capping stats, as well as the three-tier class progression system.

  • As unbalanced as unit availability is in this game, the way it’s structured guarantees that you’ll use most units at least once throughout the game. This is a very good thing. I think that even if a unit only ends up being deployed once, it’s fine as long as it’s impactful. And in RD, it’s often impactful, because you frequently don’t have anyone else to lean on.

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Oh man, favorite FE? It would have to be Fire Emblem Path of Radiance. I absolutely loved the transformations into all the different animals(Laguz). As a kid I fauned over Tibarn and Ranulf. I would imitate their attacks as they were doing them. The first 3d fire emblem blew me away and cemented my love for the series. The extensive lore, the conflicts of different nations, everything just drew me into the world. Ike was such a likable character for me. It’s the only fire emblem I played over 10 times. Titania is my all time favorite jeigan and I use her through till the end in every playthrough. I could gush about this game until the end of time!

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can we include hacks?

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Mine would be FE9. The gameplay, story and art are all great. Other games may be better than it in certain areas but as a whole package FE9 is just the best for me.

Also honorable mentions to 10 and 15.

FE10 has many highs, such as better visuals and core gameplay than 9 and lots of interesting chapters (Elincia’s Gambit my beloved), that would easily put it ahead of FE9 if it wasn’t for all the lows that game makes you put up with (yes, I am talking about the Dawn Brigade). For now it’ll have to stay at second place.

15 is kinda not that good if you think about it. Most of the maps are pulled straight from Gaiden and only minimaly changed (this is bad), the story is mid, and the core gameplay is fine but dragged down by the awful maps. The game really gets saved by the presentation, and boy do the visuals, music and acting in this game make me almost forget all the bad stuff I just mentioned, at least for an hour or so before I decide to put the game down for today after one or two completed chapters.

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Radiant dawn.

It’s the ONLY physical video game I still own.

One of the biggest things that happens with fire emblem is the one party system usually ends up resulting in spamming you with characters relentlessly over the first 10 or so chapters. So for instance, fire emblem 6, by chapter eight we already have like 30 characters in the roster with only about 10 spots for deployment and still spamming more characters into the roster. So you end up in this awkward funk if you’re like me where you spend between chapter starts maybe 30 minutes. Sometimes just debating on which units you want to take. Radiant. Dawn doesn’t do that.

With every single chapter, you get the opportunity to diversify your party and forcibly the game makes you not just soft lock yourself into your top 10. It’s one of the biggest things that I like about it is that I’m actively forced to use pretty much the entire roster. It gives me plenty of opportunities to see which character stack up. And yes, there’s a lot of characters who don’t have a chance to be end game roster material. But that’s okay, that’s life. You shouldn’t have every single character stack up against every single character. Radiant Dawn does a great job of teaching you in the game. Which characters are the beast mode Homie sauces and which ones suck Taco Bell. And that’s plenty okay

You have also the god tier big chickens that literally break the game wide open. Tibarn, caneghis, giffca, naesala, nailaigh. Like baby girl let’s go!!! It’s so much fun just seeing those dudes. Just rip lines apart. And they are spaced out accordingly. Part four parties are so much fun because you get to see a whole lot of dynamics come about.

Honestly to me the only thing that would have made the game better would have been during the end game chapters to have between dragons and lehran. Have A quick defeat x number of enemies chapter with all of the characters that you left behind at the gate of the tower because if we remember correctly they are having to hold off advances from disciples. Which would have been fun to get pushed back to that party that you didn’t bring and have to make them work.

I loved that supports weren’t 400 page conversations. And that you can also see exactly what that support does well at the same time, not being the annoying awakening and fates type supports where you just become one unit without becoming one unit. Lol. Hated that.

Radiant dawn also had a good number of defense maps. Personally I love defense phase or enemy phase maps I appreciate it. A whole lot more when I’m having to build my roster and strategy to hold out through enemy phase rather than punch through on a player phase. To me it’s just more fun and a lot of the chapters that people complain are really tough are just defense maps and I love them because of that.

Like I said game is literally the only game that I still physically own a copy of and I still own my Wii because of it.

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I am somewhat biased by first-game exposure with the GBA era being the first games I did play, as well as not having gotten the chance to play the Tellius saga (which would probably be my favourite by default then), so I lean back towards Fe6/8.

There is a bit of nostalgia factor attributed to it, but one of the things that truly sold me off at the time were the recruitment themes, specially Fe8’s. The emotions I felt the day I heard it for the first times across a blind playthrough somewhat evoked something in me. This decision is very biased by nostalgia, but this is somewhat where my preferences lie at.

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I play through Radiant Dawn front to back about once a year. It has some of my favorite characters from any video game franchise and holds some of my favorite FE maps.

  • The scale of the game feels larger than any other FE game I’ve played. I can admire every characters role in the story, even the ones I don’t particularly care for.

  • The history with the laguz tribes is probably my favorite lore from any FE game, especially the bird tribes.

  • I like the route splits because it allows you to simulate the “early game” feeling again with tight maps and controlled unit stats.

  • Tier-three classes are fun and absolutely blew my mind when I played this game the first time as a kid.

  • The skill system in general is very fun to play with and further increases unit diversity. Some people may be tired of seeing skills in hacks or other vanilla games, but I think the FE9/10 system does a good job of keeping things from feeling bloated.

  • Forging and skill scrolls increase item complexity and adds another layer to gold value outside of vanilla weapons and consumables.

There are a lot of things that FE10 does that I would hate to see in any other game or hack, but because it’s FE10 it works.

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Conquest and Engage.

Why?

Simple. Gameplay Gameplay Gameplay. They’re some of the most fun games i’ve ever played, and not just FE, but in general.

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I absolutely adore FE4

The story is amazing and i really like the cast of characters this game has. In fact i’d say most of my favorite fe characters are from this game. Characters
like Sigurd, Quan, Finn, Leif but also great antagonists like Travant and Arvis.

The gameplay may not be the best in the series, but it’s starting to grow on me ngl. Crafting the most broken gen 2 units and watching them destroy everything with ease is so fun. The cryptic secret items are also a nice touch, and can make some meh units into absolute monsters (Lex with a brave axe).

I really like the support-style conversations this game has. It’s not the best since it’s very limited, but it works pretty well at characterising most of the cast.

The item management systen is kinda weird at first, but it makes the weapons certain characters get feel a lot more special (like the brave lance feeling a lot like Finn’s prf).

I also really love the arena in this game. Certain matches become so stupid it’s downright hilarious (like battles where both opponents have bad hitrates). It’s fun seeing certain characters break the arena (my leif landed a crit in every match despite not having a light brand with 50 kills).

I think that’s it. I really love FE4 and i pray this game gets a remake eventually

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My favorite Fe is 8 due to it being more of a beginner friendly game, and I love all the characters in it. Sure it’s an easy game but I think It has some charm to it. For example, you are not really required to think of a strategy that requires a lot of brain power and you can just be a casual in it.

Despite what people say about the story being bland, i don’t really need a complicated story to enjoy it, sometimes being simple is more rewarding and satisfying, rather than make it more complicated to that you have do all over again.

For the characters (more on the support side) I like how they have more emotion in the supports than in the story itself. Jokes aside, the characters are all great, all of them have their perks, personalities, lore, etc. My favorite is Dozla, he just brings that bright uncle energy, he is always positive, ready for battle, strong and caring.

Finally, it’s easy to hack. Lots of great hacks have been made with this game and it’s so satisfying to see people make ROM hacks who put their heart and soul in it. Some have great stories, great mechanics, great gameplay and many more.

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Sure man go for it, we’re here for the hacks too

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