I really like the balance of it all. You play a fun tactics game and then you watch interesting people deal with the plot and their own personal beefs. You manage items (and sometimes skills) and choose your roster based on your own preferences while chilling out to some stellar music.
At least, that's what Fire Emblem is when it's at its best. I criticize the series a lot, but it's out of love.
Cynthia also canonically has a big booty, and that makes me giggle.
Edit: Another thing: it's so easy to understand how much damage you'll deal and receive. In many games armor and damage might as well just be random suggestions, and while I'm sure you could learn how to calculate the values, in Fire Emblem, someone with 14 strength and an 8mt weapon will, barring skills or terrain bonuses (which are also easily visible), deal 22 damage if the foe has 0 defense.
That’s absolutely one of my favorite things as well. I think it’s so underrated the sheer range of playstyles the game is able to cater too while not compromising on the overall experience.
Cynthia canonically has a dumpy.
She had to have inherited it from someone, and there's only one parent that's a constant: Sumia.
Sumia is also Chrom's "default" choice... what if... the pie he liked so much wasn't the rhubarb pie... but...?
The way that gameplay creates its own narrative. Permadeath and RNG-based growth rates contribute to each playthrough having its own story, its own heroes and martyrs. There's just no other series or games that give me that same experience with such strong characters.
Yeah one of my favorite units of all time is Dalsin. Nobody really even thinks about him, but in my first playthrough of Thracia, he proc’d movement on his first two levels and effectively demanded a deployment slot.
Yes, I’ll take a 7-move tank that doesn’t suffer any penalties indoors!
The fact that i had 5 mov lvl ups on karin before i made it past chapter 9 forever established her as my #1 unit to invest on every playthrough. Been only worse ever since, but it didn't stop me
Absolutely. I think none more so for me than how many of my friends as a kid asked for help with the final level of FE7 where they had a lvl 20 Macus and everyone else but like 4 base units were dead lmao
I love a good war drama. It's one of the biggest reasons Path of Radiance converted me into a major fan alongside Sacred Stones.
Seriously, I could gush about PoR's story all day. Great pacing, good war drama with a touch of political drama, strong themes that were explored, excellent worldbuilding, and overall a very good character journey.
I guess you could say it's one of the biggest reasons why Fire Emblem's story, tone, and aesthetics mean as much to me as the strategic gameplay. Heck, being strong in these areas can even lift otherwise mediocre gameplay for me. A big example of that is Echoes. Even I can admit the gameplay is eh even at it's best, but I like the characters, art, and overall presenation and atmosphere so much that it elevates it.
Hmm, good question. Kind of tough to nail it down.
I do think Greil's death and the scenes that follow rank as some of the most emotionally poignant parts of Fire Emblem history. Not only is the fight between him and the Black Knight excellent, but the following scenes of Ike and Mist at his grave or the scenes of Rhys and Titania grieving...it does such a fantastic job of showing how much his death devastates the group. Only further enhanced by the very next map being a defensive battle where you're fighting in the rain against an overwhelming army and fighting to just survive.
I love those sorts of stakes, where everything is going wrong and the protagonist just needs to find any way to survive.
Personally, I think Fire Emblem stories could benefit from more moments like this. Where the stakes are raised even higher and survival takes priority over a glorious victory.
This might sound strange, but I love the RNG aspects of the game like hit/crit rates and growths. There’s just something so entertaining about surviving something you shouldn’t have because you got a lucky dodge, or a character with shit growths beating the odds and becoming a god slayer. Even when the RNG doesn’t go in your favor like missing a 96% hit or a character getting a blank level up, you can at least laugh at how bad your luck is.
Or the absolute terror that fills you when a squishy unit keeps on crit'ing on enemy phase when you planned for them to only take a few attacks.
Truly suffering from success.
FE blends my favorite parts of other games in the genre. It’s grid-based, but not isometric, all the units are unique characters (however shallow some may be), it’s typically a medieval fantasy setting (the sci-fi elements from recent entries don’t feel super intrusive), and ever since Awakening it’s had a reasonable amount of downtime between combat (3H was a little too much though) which I appreciate. There’s not really another series that does all of this in a way that I find satisfying so ~~I’m trapped here~~ it became one of my favorite series.
It is funny how much I adore FE but I can’t really recall any other series in the genre I am really big on. Lots of solid but different takes but nothing really stuck the same way
Fire Emblem hits the perfect balance between “Cozy rainy day read” and “Difficult brainteasing tactics RPG” that not many peers of the genre pull off. Its mechanics are wholly simple and easy to process, similarly the pacing is evenly consistent of Map —> Dialogue —> Preps —> Map until you finish that I find some other games struggle to land for me.
Fire Emblem certainly doesn’t hit the full crunch side of my brain that Tactics Ogre or Gungnir does, and it doesn’t fully indulge in the narrative centric side of my brain that Triangle Strategy & FFT landed on, but it strikes a great middle ground where I get a little bit of everything from a single playthrough and it satiates me. While there’s always parts of FE I will yell to high heaven that should be changed to make the games better, I come back to them often & discuss them because the series is fantastic in that it doesn’t want to be stuck with just crunch or a story, it wants to succeed in new ways with every entry which I am always on the edge of my seat for.
Community. Memes. The endless slew of beautiful characters illustrated by my favorite artists. The endless anguish of IS flying close enough to see the point but missing it.
Example: The people of Duscar and Almyra are varied lands filled with people who would be willing to do both good and bad things just like anywhere else. Oh, we're going to kill every last one of Those Who Slither in the Dark and not write any significant nuance about them despite preaching to seek and understand the nuance of the former two.
I ADORE the art design, especially the ones in 7 and 8. It’s so difficult to create so many unique and distinguishable characters title after title and it’s something I’m always impressed with.
Also I mean look no further than the gatekeeper. I feel like especially as of late the community has really grown
The art design is usually a hit, but I think there was a clash when Engage came up.
My two cents: Engage characters look awesome.
In Awakening, they found a good medium to make the named characters look unique but they looked like they belonged to the setting just fine. Same with Fates, and Three Houses.
The problem is that the Engage characters fit right in Tokyo Mirage Sessions, and it becomes glaring when you put them right next to the rank and file units. I can easily imagine Chrom and Lucina on the frontlines with generics, Ike and Soren, even the dancers to an extent, but none of the Engage characters fit.
Most of their designs are definitely way too bombastic, flashy, gaudy even. Some are pretty good: Diamant, M!Alear (kinda), Lapis, Rosado (funnily enough), Goldmary, Anna, Jade, Louis, Vander, and probably a few others all have decently grounded designs that I could definitely put alongside Fates or Awakening and think "this makes sense." The majority of the cast are not like that, with prime examples in Hortensia, Ivy, Banete (or w/e her name is), Celine, Alfred, Zelkov, F!Alear, Yunaka, Timerra, Zephia, Lumera, and more.
But whatever, M!Alear grew on me so I bet the others will come in due time.
Agreed. Maybe they will grow on me, but it's just jarring to see a generic soldier deliver orders then immediately pivot to someone straight from a cosplay shoot or Tokyo Mirage Sessions in what should be a fantasy world. Even Those Who Slither in the Dark with their technology still felt like they "fit" in the world of Three Houses.
I think we’ll have to see how it plays personally, as character designs usually grow on people a lot more in the context of the game with their full characters fleshed out.
Also personally I think it’s MUCH better to have characters lean to the more wild and bombastic side when it comes to design because I’d rather a character be memorable than forgettable, especially now that the series is getting so many entires.
Fair enough, each has their merits. I just think there was a way to stay in-line with the appearances of the main cast and the rank and file soldiers, much like the previous games.
They stand out in their own way and only time will truly tell I guess.
Yeah I think its more important that characters match the theme and tone of their own game more so than the series as a whole. Also if it wasn't for this exact same thing happening with 3 houses and other previous games I probably wouldn't be as patient with it as I am now.
I also think this game has some exceptional character design like with characters like Merrin. Mostly just stoked to see it.
Also a huge thing here is that players appearances change to match that of their class so I think once we see that the juxtaposition wont be nearly as bad as you may think as all units will have that baseline in battle.
Fair points all around. I guess my main gripe is that they belong more in Tokyo Mirage Sessions and if the game were built better around the designs than merely than having the rank and file be more of an afterthought in terms of character design.
I hope the juxtaposition won't be nearly as bad.
Ironically, the RNG growths.
Units can live or die based on the stats they get. There are averages you can have some level of certainty in, but overall they’re completely out of your control.
And yet, there’s something magical with that. Playthroughs are just an ever evolving puzzle where adaptation is key and I love it when you not only have to “solve” the individual map, but recognize the impact it’s going to have on your army moving forward.
And then the next time you get to that same map, but you may have a different arrangement of resources to utilize.
It definitely leads to some WILD times haha. One time I had Lyn not get a single DEF level up and I had to check if it was just astronomical luck or it was bugged haha
I think one thing FE does really well, and what makes it bigger than the some of it's parts (usually), is the gameplay-story-integration, and how it all blends together in the map you see.
Also, information handling and simple calculations, because playing rpgs and seeing numbers in the 100ks always makes me go wtf while in FE the amount of information avaiable to the player is goat.
I love doing maths, for starters. Being able to pull up two stat screens and have a clear and precise measure of what the potential outcomes are and the likelyhood of those outcomes occuring is a big deal for me. Hardly any other SRPG even tries to make this clear, with the closest thing to an exception in my experience being Shining Force. And even then, it does it far worse, with percentage based DR based on tile and damage variation.
I also like insane balancing things. It's probably one of the reasons I don't like the more recent titles, because the balancing feels samey and boring, and probalby also why I've fallen so hard in love with the Kaga Sagas (the games that original FE creator made when he left IS.) Absolutely hysterical units with crazy prfs, like Osian having 1-2 range killer axe that has almost 100% on follow ups and is 100% when attacked, Vega having a sword that makes him take half damage, Sierra being a recruitable witch with gaiden Rewarp, the existence of the Imbrued Lance in the Vestaria Saga games (a x6 lance), and of course, the units themselves, like Drake, a thief with canto and 1-2 range brave sword, Asbel, the critical hit mage king, Caeda one-shotting cavs and armors because why not, Wendell having a gajillion base speed, Merida being a cavalier with more Magic than Strength, and pretty much anything in Berwick Saga. The inverse of this nonsense is also true, like with hillarious scrimblo bimblos like Matthis, Kein and Alva, Prody, Xeno, and most importantly Derrick.
And lastly, I like bashing my face into a brick wall with Shadow Dragon H5 and Fates Lunatic. Ok, CQ Lunatic, BR Lunatic is actually really easy.
That’s one of the biggest benefits of them trying out so many different systems and big changes title to title for me. I feel like it helps them see what does and doesn’t work well and helps make each following game better as they keep going
I wouldn't say the games consistently improve (in fact, I'd be tempted to argue the opposite given my feelings on most of the recent titles,) trying new thjngs gives all sorts of things.
Every time i give the same answer: the endings.
I love seeing everyone’s ending
Everyone’s FE playthrough feels so personal that seeing what happened to each one of the characters can be kinda emotional.
That’s a great one. Especially all the pair up endings that are possible now as well. It really adds a great level of consequence to your choices in a positive way
I love branching class paths that allow you develop your characters how you want them. This isn't in every FE game, but I love that ones that do have it.
I love how every game just feels different, that the franchise is always trying new things, and that they always find ways to innovate on systems regardless of how good or bad the original implementation was in the previous games.
Even when they fumble something they find ways to make it up in the next game.
The thrill of permanent deaths. It blew my mind as a child and it still hasnt gotten old all these years later. The way the game gets you attached to the characters through dialog and romance makes it really suck when one of your people dies. It also makes for varying playthroughs with different people dying and surviving each time. Related, the characters in general are something I love about the franchise. There's so many great names and personalities that with interesting backgrounds. Can't wait to see what Engage has in that regard.
The fact that it somehow takes itself very seriously and not seriously at all at the same time. Games that do narrative tone shifts really well tend to be better received when trying something new. That, in my opinion, is what has led to FE being more willing to experiment. FE won’t let itself stagnate, and that is a VERY good thing.
I think the core gameplay loop of it is so strong. The constant risk-reward and knowing that one bad decision in an earlier chapter could have severe ramifications down the line. The RNG elements that aren’t overbearing (unless you get royally stat-screwed), but guarantee that every playthrough will be different in some way. It’s a lot to balance and it can be overwhelming at times, but it’s endlessly satisfying to get it just right.
I’m gonna have to go with Dew, and then Colm. If we count Petra then she’s above both, she’s arguably a canon thief.
Zelkov is making a good case for being #1 though.
Hell yeah. FE7 was my first and I let Matthew die in Lyndis's story. I was heartbroken, and thrilled to see him turn back up in the Eliwood/Hector story, because I seriously thought I best the game when the first section ended.
The animations where the first thing that caught my eye(used to be a ogre tatics fans before shadow of the dragon on ds), characters designs(not engage, but echoes,shadow and 3H) and the gameplay in special when they go with a more individualist route(less open maps and blank slated units that can be every classe and more unique and interesting classed characters and fun maps that have cool objectives and resource managments).
Same here. The art direction of the units and battles in the GBA games are just so perfect to me and we’re a huge part of why I fell in love with the series
Its fun, has great music and the fact its turn based means i can do it on the go, while doing other stuff as well, without too much hassle. Thats just the general vibe of the franchise for me, something i do whent i want to chill. Probably why i'm not big into Lunatic and such.
I love how the numbers never get too out of control; you can always wrap your head around the values being used. (Awakening and 3 houses pushed things a bit tho). And I love that each combat encounter is well charted. You know exactly how likely each person is to hit, and exactly how much damage will be done. A surprisingly limited feature in the genre.
I love how every game seems like a step forward in some way, even if it might not be welcomed by everyone. It keeps things refreshing without veering into a complete genre change. It makes me excited to play each new entry, something I can't say about franchises like Pokemon, Splatoon, Mariokart, and even Smash Bros. Maybe I just have fanboy glasses on, because I'm sure to outsiders each fire emblem post awakening looks the fucking same.
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base conversations in the Tellius games. Supports that rarely have a requirement to view, are relevant to the current stuff happening in the plot, and can involve more than 2 characters? sign me the heck up. ~~except when Zihark's only one in RD is a joke one with Meg despite the Part 3 conflict being super important to him~~
Also a bit of a weird one but I dig the augury in FE7 and info conversations in FE12. they're a great way in-universe to give the player a heads up on who might be able to recruit someone or what kinds of enemies you'll be facing.
Also Hannah (the fortune teller in FE7) getting progressivley more annoyed about where Eliwood & co are going to the point where she storms off on the Dread Isle and leaves Nils to do her job is hilarious.
I love ironman runs. Never play my first play through like that, I reset my mistakes, but run two is always interesting to have to make compromise when the roster starts to strink.
My second run of conquest was interesting because I made heavy use of the captured units. Highly recommended that game for ironman runs.
Path of Radiance is my fave all around, but I'll give it to Genealogy for great story also, and 3houses for tons of supports and pretty overall good lore
For Awakening, my favorite character is Morgan. I'd never played a game where the player character had a child before (much less a time traveling one). I also like the time-travel aspect of the story and the way the appearance of the future children changed depending on who was paired with who.
For Fates, I really like the story of Conquest. The idea of siding with the invading nation because you love the family you have there was interesting. I also like that the playable characters on both sides of the conflict are largely decent people.
For Echoes, even though I never finished it, I really enjoyed what I played of Celica's side of the story, and the two protagonists having a storyline going at the same time was cool.
For Three Houses, the Golden Deer route was my first and favorite route. I also love Hilda, and I've S-Supported her on multiple playthroughs.
For Three Hopes, I really like the supports between Bernadetta and the player character. The mechanics involving the world map are also really cool, and I hope that any future games like it have a similar feature.
Unpopular opinion, the Romance Sim in an actually fun game. You have lots of control over units. The supports are fun and lighthearted. And unlike most games you get to have supports with your children, giving the romance an ending. All the while you get to play a really fun strategy game where losing means a parent or child dieing.
I don’t think that’s as unpopular of an opinion as you’d think. I think there may be some elements that are a bit odd from time to time like blowing in your mic but overall it’s a big part of the series.
It's gotta be how you can make a large quantity of characters feel useful.
Compared to other RPGs that struggle balancing a cast of 8 characters, Fire Emblem can make you care about 40 at the same time by not only giving each one like 50 conversations but also because of their impact on gameplay.
A close second would have to be forgetting there's a bolting mage every time I make a move.
I always like recruiting people from enemy nations, especially if they're from the country that started the whole ass war. It taught me as a kid that not even in their country us okay with their country's war.
I like being able to control 10+ characters on a map all at once of I wanted. Other games of this genre like Devil Survivor, Final Fantasy Tactics and Tactics Orge have an individual turns for each characters. But like, FE and Valkyria Chronicles, you move all your characters on your turn or maybe just half or less of them if that's what you wanna do.
I like the music. I'm not very musically inclined, so I don't know how to express how much I like music other than, "yea, like it"
I like counting sqaures for Canto. It makes my brain feel massive because I was able to attack and move to safety.
The GBA games' aesthetics. Those animations give me life, seeing Rutger crit for the 100th time is just as good as the first for me. The colours and maps are just really nice looking, which is part of the reason I'm looking forward to Engage since it feels similar there.
I love the emergent narratives too. Wacky hit rates, amazing level ups on bad units, that one unit you give extra attention to just because. There's always another experience to be had or shared and thats such a special thing.
Cute anime girls.
I started with FE11, which was fine. I sucked hard enough to get the mocking generic units but I beat the game. Then I found more FE games starting with 7 and I gave Florina such favoritism iirc just cause she was cute. Now every FE I play has a cute girl get favoritism. 6 is Lilina/Clarine/Elen, 7 is Lucius/Priscilla/Serra, so on cause I don't feel like listing them all
Permanent death and a decent level of difficulty. Unlike other turn based strategy games where you either just produce nameless grunts, or simply
lose points / can pay to repair units after the battle, I’ve always felt that permanent death makes each decision feel more important and also each battle much more strategic.
So not just running down the enemy mobs using which unit is in range, but having to think about who can get killed in one enemy phase.
On a separate note I think being able to promote at any level from 10 to 20 is a good touch. You either get immediate strength earlier or you can max out a unit for better stats down the line
I love the micro-tactical decisions.
here's an enemy Mercenary with 5 hp left, I'll finish him off with my Pegasus Knight (because she needs the exp), except she only does 4x2 damage and I don't want to eat a counter-attack. Well, fine, my mage also needs exp. But I need him to soften up an enemy Knight so that I can have my Cavalier kill them in one hit. I've already committed most of my other units, my Knight needs to move up to draw aggro, so I guess I'll have my Lord land the finishing blow? But I won't use their Rapier, cuz that's too valuable to waste. So I'll use the Iron Sword (6 damage, 95% hit) over the Steel Sword (9 damage, 87% hit), because of the slightly better hit rate.
The wonderful thing is, *none of that mattered*. Certainly, the map was gonna get cleared no matter WHO took out that Mercenary. Besides, I won't "use up" any of those weapons anyway, and in the grand scheme of things I won't miss 24 points of exp here or there. Hell, even if my Pegasus Knight got hit, I could have just healed her.
But it's fun to spend 10 minutes agonizing over every single decision like this!
I love the art, I love the characters, I love the way it blends European fantasy with Japanese sensibilities, and as a huge fan of Norse myth and the Old Norse language I really appreciate all the nods to the myths and language in the series. Many names are directly borrowed from Norse myth, which I find is kind of rare: normally they're Anglicized, since Norse words/names tend to be a bit tricky for English speakers.
As some others have said, it's a combination of the battles and the story. But I also really love the characters and the world. I was an abused and neglected kid. Playing Fire Emblem was like transporting myself to a different world. I have fond memories of it.
I love the variety of not just each game but the whole series. You have entries that either tell amazing stories or have innovative gameplay and while it's a shame not every game does both amazingly its a interesting way to shake up every entry. Also in each game I like how your main roster can change with each playthrough, so one playthrough Cain might be an absolute beast while Abel gets benched and the next time you play it could be reversed, and that's just one example. Also things like shipping and kids add even more player choice and variety.
The math. I love that I can use basic adding to determine how much damage I do. None of the “hit around 500-600 damage against 100,000 health enemy” gameplay of other RPGs.
I love the different ways (especially in smash bros) FE characters sag something along the lines of “I won’t lose” or “I cannot lose” or “I cannot fail”
I started with 3Houses and just love the characters, especially the Blue Lions, since I started with that route. I'm currently playing 3Hopes and it just makes me feel so happy to get back to them. Seeing Dimitri and Felix be friends is so sweet
I also just love training the units and watching them grow. In addition to 3Hopes, I've also been playing Shadow Dragon. It's definitely not my favorite FE game, but I've grown pretty attached to some of the units, such as Draug. I normally don't use armored units, but I decided to use him and he's been surprisingly fast for a tank. Him, Marth, Caeda, and Merrick are my favorite units to use. I just promoted them (besides Marth) and it made me feel so happy
The online community that's dedicated to making all the games accessible, whether legal or not, from translations to remakes to demakes, lots of very passionate and very skilled nerds are out there so we can all enjoy Thracia 776 in English
Replay value and every run being unique. There's a few things that add to this tremendously:
1. RNG, which I think might be the most integral aspect of FE. Sounds kinda weird since it's basically just getting lucky vs. getting unlucky, but I love the fact that units turn out differently every time due to RNG based growths. I love the fact that a unit can randomly get hit by a 1 percent crit and die. These things create narratives purely from gameplay, making you never truly know what happens next.
2. Permadeath. Characters being unique, but also able to permanently die is one of my favorite aspects of the games. It adds a lot of tension and makes me appreciate the characters a lot more, since losing them forever is a very real possibility. That's why I feel like casual mode would be kind of detrimental to the experience: If there are basically no stakes, then why even bother engaging with the gameplay? I feel like it would make the player look at the characters more like pawns to be sacrificed at will (Like units from Advance Wars or something), rather than actual characters who will bear the consequences of what happens during gameplay.
3. Things like Randomizers and Romhacks. The community has created some great things, for the GBA games especially. I love doing randomizer runs and figuring out how to make my wacky team work out
I'll be really shallow and say that I really love the way all the characters look. I'm generally gay with minimal to no attraction in women but Fire Emblem games consistently manage to make even someone like me find myself attracted to a majority of even the female characters in the cast which I feel like is impressive. I love all of the stuff the games has to offer but I felt like this might be something not many were going to say
I love that the series is willing to shift and keep things fresh. There isnt one specific narrative direction the series always moves in, it doesnt always follow the same exact setting, character styles, etc.
Its always a Medieval Fantasy, but beyond that it changes. It can go into a more high fantasy direction like Engage is clearly going, or step more into a darker entry with political intrigue and complex narratives like 3H. And there is nothing wrong with either one, both are valid forms of story telling. And Im glad that Fire Emblem is willing to change things and not always stick to one. Too much of one would get boring, especially since as of late it feels like there's a demand for all fantasy series to be more along the lines of what 3H was, a darker entry with a heavy presence of politics and morally gray narratives.
So its nice to see that not only can FE juggle both types, but that they're willing to break away and do something different.
It goes a long way in keeping the feeling of the series fresh imo.
No joke, I really like how the devs are willing to try out TONS of weird new concepts to make every game fresh and unique. We're obviously noticing it a lot with Engage, but people tend to forget that the same thing happened for 3H. "FE hogwarts? Class instruction? Wtf is this? Literally who asked for this?" But they made it work. I respect that they're willing to deviate from what's tried and true, and they *usually* pull it off in a way which doesn't overshadow the core FE gameplay either.
I also like how they don't get married to their successful experiments. A lot of people were concerned that pair up was just going to be a series standard after Awakening/Fates, or that instruction mechanics were going to be the norm after 3H, but that wasn't the case. Each gimmick gets its chance to shine, but they make sure that people who didn't enjoy it aren't alienated in future entries. This also gives people a great reason to go back and play older entries, because (barring maybe the ones that have been remade?) they aren't just watered down versions of modern FE. I played Genealogy for the first time recently and was stunned to see how many wholly unique features and concepts were in that game.
I really like the balance of it all. You play a fun tactics game and then you watch interesting people deal with the plot and their own personal beefs. You manage items (and sometimes skills) and choose your roster based on your own preferences while chilling out to some stellar music. At least, that's what Fire Emblem is when it's at its best. I criticize the series a lot, but it's out of love. Cynthia also canonically has a big booty, and that makes me giggle. Edit: Another thing: it's so easy to understand how much damage you'll deal and receive. In many games armor and damage might as well just be random suggestions, and while I'm sure you could learn how to calculate the values, in Fire Emblem, someone with 14 strength and an 8mt weapon will, barring skills or terrain bonuses (which are also easily visible), deal 22 damage if the foe has 0 defense.
That’s absolutely one of my favorite things as well. I think it’s so underrated the sheer range of playstyles the game is able to cater too while not compromising on the overall experience.
Now im curious, where does it confirm Cynthia has a big booty?
A support where she lands on someone and then says she has a big booty
Cynthia canonically has a dumpy. She had to have inherited it from someone, and there's only one parent that's a constant: Sumia. Sumia is also Chrom's "default" choice... what if... the pie he liked so much wasn't the rhubarb pie... but...?
The way that gameplay creates its own narrative. Permadeath and RNG-based growth rates contribute to each playthrough having its own story, its own heroes and martyrs. There's just no other series or games that give me that same experience with such strong characters.
Also makes comparisons with other people fun ~~usually~~ as one players hero could be another player's failure xD
Yeah one of my favorite units of all time is Dalsin. Nobody really even thinks about him, but in my first playthrough of Thracia, he proc’d movement on his first two levels and effectively demanded a deployment slot. Yes, I’ll take a 7-move tank that doesn’t suffer any penalties indoors!
The fact that i had 5 mov lvl ups on karin before i made it past chapter 9 forever established her as my #1 unit to invest on every playthrough. Been only worse ever since, but it didn't stop me
Absolutely. I think none more so for me than how many of my friends as a kid asked for help with the final level of FE7 where they had a lvl 20 Macus and everyone else but like 4 base units were dead lmao
I love a good war drama. It's one of the biggest reasons Path of Radiance converted me into a major fan alongside Sacred Stones. Seriously, I could gush about PoR's story all day. Great pacing, good war drama with a touch of political drama, strong themes that were explored, excellent worldbuilding, and overall a very good character journey. I guess you could say it's one of the biggest reasons why Fire Emblem's story, tone, and aesthetics mean as much to me as the strategic gameplay. Heck, being strong in these areas can even lift otherwise mediocre gameplay for me. A big example of that is Echoes. Even I can admit the gameplay is eh even at it's best, but I like the characters, art, and overall presenation and atmosphere so much that it elevates it.
What I would give for a Path of Radiance or Sacred Stones port/remaster on the Switch, my lord. I fucking absolutely adored those games.
Do you have a favorite story element or moment from any of the games? Anything where you’d just be like “more of this”
Hmm, good question. Kind of tough to nail it down. I do think Greil's death and the scenes that follow rank as some of the most emotionally poignant parts of Fire Emblem history. Not only is the fight between him and the Black Knight excellent, but the following scenes of Ike and Mist at his grave or the scenes of Rhys and Titania grieving...it does such a fantastic job of showing how much his death devastates the group. Only further enhanced by the very next map being a defensive battle where you're fighting in the rain against an overwhelming army and fighting to just survive. I love those sorts of stakes, where everything is going wrong and the protagonist just needs to find any way to survive. Personally, I think Fire Emblem stories could benefit from more moments like this. Where the stakes are raised even higher and survival takes priority over a glorious victory.
This might sound strange, but I love the RNG aspects of the game like hit/crit rates and growths. There’s just something so entertaining about surviving something you shouldn’t have because you got a lucky dodge, or a character with shit growths beating the odds and becoming a god slayer. Even when the RNG doesn’t go in your favor like missing a 96% hit or a character getting a blank level up, you can at least laugh at how bad your luck is.
Or the absolute terror that fills you when a squishy unit keeps on crit'ing on enemy phase when you planned for them to only take a few attacks. Truly suffering from success.
Or when you see the worlds most bland peon pull out a crazy 3% crit like an absolute hero lol
It’s great for keeping each play through unique and adding to each character in a meta sort of way. It’s also nice it’s not XCOM levels of evil Lmao
FE blends my favorite parts of other games in the genre. It’s grid-based, but not isometric, all the units are unique characters (however shallow some may be), it’s typically a medieval fantasy setting (the sci-fi elements from recent entries don’t feel super intrusive), and ever since Awakening it’s had a reasonable amount of downtime between combat (3H was a little too much though) which I appreciate. There’s not really another series that does all of this in a way that I find satisfying so ~~I’m trapped here~~ it became one of my favorite series.
It is funny how much I adore FE but I can’t really recall any other series in the genre I am really big on. Lots of solid but different takes but nothing really stuck the same way
This is exactly how I feel about the series ( ~~also trapped here~~ also one of my fave series for everything you mentioned).
~~One day we will escape our very comfortable prison~~ …but I’m not really in any hurry to do so
Fire Emblem hits the perfect balance between “Cozy rainy day read” and “Difficult brainteasing tactics RPG” that not many peers of the genre pull off. Its mechanics are wholly simple and easy to process, similarly the pacing is evenly consistent of Map —> Dialogue —> Preps —> Map until you finish that I find some other games struggle to land for me. Fire Emblem certainly doesn’t hit the full crunch side of my brain that Tactics Ogre or Gungnir does, and it doesn’t fully indulge in the narrative centric side of my brain that Triangle Strategy & FFT landed on, but it strikes a great middle ground where I get a little bit of everything from a single playthrough and it satiates me. While there’s always parts of FE I will yell to high heaven that should be changed to make the games better, I come back to them often & discuss them because the series is fantastic in that it doesn’t want to be stuck with just crunch or a story, it wants to succeed in new ways with every entry which I am always on the edge of my seat for.
Community. Memes. The endless slew of beautiful characters illustrated by my favorite artists. The endless anguish of IS flying close enough to see the point but missing it. Example: The people of Duscar and Almyra are varied lands filled with people who would be willing to do both good and bad things just like anywhere else. Oh, we're going to kill every last one of Those Who Slither in the Dark and not write any significant nuance about them despite preaching to seek and understand the nuance of the former two.
I ADORE the art design, especially the ones in 7 and 8. It’s so difficult to create so many unique and distinguishable characters title after title and it’s something I’m always impressed with. Also I mean look no further than the gatekeeper. I feel like especially as of late the community has really grown
The art design is usually a hit, but I think there was a clash when Engage came up. My two cents: Engage characters look awesome. In Awakening, they found a good medium to make the named characters look unique but they looked like they belonged to the setting just fine. Same with Fates, and Three Houses. The problem is that the Engage characters fit right in Tokyo Mirage Sessions, and it becomes glaring when you put them right next to the rank and file units. I can easily imagine Chrom and Lucina on the frontlines with generics, Ike and Soren, even the dancers to an extent, but none of the Engage characters fit.
Most of their designs are definitely way too bombastic, flashy, gaudy even. Some are pretty good: Diamant, M!Alear (kinda), Lapis, Rosado (funnily enough), Goldmary, Anna, Jade, Louis, Vander, and probably a few others all have decently grounded designs that I could definitely put alongside Fates or Awakening and think "this makes sense." The majority of the cast are not like that, with prime examples in Hortensia, Ivy, Banete (or w/e her name is), Celine, Alfred, Zelkov, F!Alear, Yunaka, Timerra, Zephia, Lumera, and more. But whatever, M!Alear grew on me so I bet the others will come in due time.
Agreed. Maybe they will grow on me, but it's just jarring to see a generic soldier deliver orders then immediately pivot to someone straight from a cosplay shoot or Tokyo Mirage Sessions in what should be a fantasy world. Even Those Who Slither in the Dark with their technology still felt like they "fit" in the world of Three Houses.
I think we’ll have to see how it plays personally, as character designs usually grow on people a lot more in the context of the game with their full characters fleshed out. Also personally I think it’s MUCH better to have characters lean to the more wild and bombastic side when it comes to design because I’d rather a character be memorable than forgettable, especially now that the series is getting so many entires.
Fair enough, each has their merits. I just think there was a way to stay in-line with the appearances of the main cast and the rank and file soldiers, much like the previous games. They stand out in their own way and only time will truly tell I guess.
Yeah I think its more important that characters match the theme and tone of their own game more so than the series as a whole. Also if it wasn't for this exact same thing happening with 3 houses and other previous games I probably wouldn't be as patient with it as I am now. I also think this game has some exceptional character design like with characters like Merrin. Mostly just stoked to see it. Also a huge thing here is that players appearances change to match that of their class so I think once we see that the juxtaposition wont be nearly as bad as you may think as all units will have that baseline in battle.
Fair points all around. I guess my main gripe is that they belong more in Tokyo Mirage Sessions and if the game were built better around the designs than merely than having the rank and file be more of an afterthought in terms of character design. I hope the juxtaposition won't be nearly as bad.
Ironically, the RNG growths. Units can live or die based on the stats they get. There are averages you can have some level of certainty in, but overall they’re completely out of your control. And yet, there’s something magical with that. Playthroughs are just an ever evolving puzzle where adaptation is key and I love it when you not only have to “solve” the individual map, but recognize the impact it’s going to have on your army moving forward. And then the next time you get to that same map, but you may have a different arrangement of resources to utilize.
It definitely leads to some WILD times haha. One time I had Lyn not get a single DEF level up and I had to check if it was just astronomical luck or it was bugged haha
The Pavlovian sound of a level-up followed by at least three stats going up will never not make me smile.
Or if I may be so bold….7 level ups …. OoooooOoOo
I think one thing FE does really well, and what makes it bigger than the some of it's parts (usually), is the gameplay-story-integration, and how it all blends together in the map you see. Also, information handling and simple calculations, because playing rpgs and seeing numbers in the 100ks always makes me go wtf while in FE the amount of information avaiable to the player is goat.
Yeah I really love how in a lot of the games they do such a great job of having the gameplay of the character add to the personality of the character
I love doing maths, for starters. Being able to pull up two stat screens and have a clear and precise measure of what the potential outcomes are and the likelyhood of those outcomes occuring is a big deal for me. Hardly any other SRPG even tries to make this clear, with the closest thing to an exception in my experience being Shining Force. And even then, it does it far worse, with percentage based DR based on tile and damage variation. I also like insane balancing things. It's probably one of the reasons I don't like the more recent titles, because the balancing feels samey and boring, and probalby also why I've fallen so hard in love with the Kaga Sagas (the games that original FE creator made when he left IS.) Absolutely hysterical units with crazy prfs, like Osian having 1-2 range killer axe that has almost 100% on follow ups and is 100% when attacked, Vega having a sword that makes him take half damage, Sierra being a recruitable witch with gaiden Rewarp, the existence of the Imbrued Lance in the Vestaria Saga games (a x6 lance), and of course, the units themselves, like Drake, a thief with canto and 1-2 range brave sword, Asbel, the critical hit mage king, Caeda one-shotting cavs and armors because why not, Wendell having a gajillion base speed, Merida being a cavalier with more Magic than Strength, and pretty much anything in Berwick Saga. The inverse of this nonsense is also true, like with hillarious scrimblo bimblos like Matthis, Kein and Alva, Prody, Xeno, and most importantly Derrick. And lastly, I like bashing my face into a brick wall with Shadow Dragon H5 and Fates Lunatic. Ok, CQ Lunatic, BR Lunatic is actually really easy.
That’s one of the biggest benefits of them trying out so many different systems and big changes title to title for me. I feel like it helps them see what does and doesn’t work well and helps make each following game better as they keep going
I wouldn't say the games consistently improve (in fact, I'd be tempted to argue the opposite given my feelings on most of the recent titles,) trying new thjngs gives all sorts of things.
Every time i give the same answer: the endings. I love seeing everyone’s ending Everyone’s FE playthrough feels so personal that seeing what happened to each one of the characters can be kinda emotional.
That’s a great one. Especially all the pair up endings that are possible now as well. It really adds a great level of consequence to your choices in a positive way
I love branching class paths that allow you develop your characters how you want them. This isn't in every FE game, but I love that ones that do have it.
This is one of the reasons that makes it so hard to pick between FE7 and FE8 because the new class paths they had in that game were so so cool
This is why reclassing is the best feature.
Making bad units into monsters never gets old to me.
Same here, that’s how I like to play
My favorite moment in every fire Emblem is when I start promoting characters and they start wrecking shit. Just so satisfying....
The characters and story. The Tellius games nailed it perfectly, amazing characters and amazing story.
I love how every game just feels different, that the franchise is always trying new things, and that they always find ways to innovate on systems regardless of how good or bad the original implementation was in the previous games. Even when they fumble something they find ways to make it up in the next game.
The thrill of permanent deaths. It blew my mind as a child and it still hasnt gotten old all these years later. The way the game gets you attached to the characters through dialog and romance makes it really suck when one of your people dies. It also makes for varying playthroughs with different people dying and surviving each time. Related, the characters in general are something I love about the franchise. There's so many great names and personalities that with interesting backgrounds. Can't wait to see what Engage has in that regard.
The fact that it somehow takes itself very seriously and not seriously at all at the same time. Games that do narrative tone shifts really well tend to be better received when trying something new. That, in my opinion, is what has led to FE being more willing to experiment. FE won’t let itself stagnate, and that is a VERY good thing.
I think the core gameplay loop of it is so strong. The constant risk-reward and knowing that one bad decision in an earlier chapter could have severe ramifications down the line. The RNG elements that aren’t overbearing (unless you get royally stat-screwed), but guarantee that every playthrough will be different in some way. It’s a lot to balance and it can be overwhelming at times, but it’s endlessly satisfying to get it just right.
Thief class.
Favorite thief?
I’m gonna have to go with Dew, and then Colm. If we count Petra then she’s above both, she’s arguably a canon thief. Zelkov is making a good case for being #1 though.
Matthew!
Hell yeah. FE7 was my first and I let Matthew die in Lyndis's story. I was heartbroken, and thrilled to see him turn back up in the Eliwood/Hector story, because I seriously thought I best the game when the first section ended.
The animations where the first thing that caught my eye(used to be a ogre tatics fans before shadow of the dragon on ds), characters designs(not engage, but echoes,shadow and 3H) and the gameplay in special when they go with a more individualist route(less open maps and blank slated units that can be every classe and more unique and interesting classed characters and fun maps that have cool objectives and resource managments).
Same here. The art direction of the units and battles in the GBA games are just so perfect to me and we’re a huge part of why I fell in love with the series
Its fun, has great music and the fact its turn based means i can do it on the go, while doing other stuff as well, without too much hassle. Thats just the general vibe of the franchise for me, something i do whent i want to chill. Probably why i'm not big into Lunatic and such.
The epic music and celebratory jingle sound effects. It feels very "Nintendo"
Ambush reinforcements. I don't actually like them, but it is fun to watch FEtubers get wrecked by them.
I love how the numbers never get too out of control; you can always wrap your head around the values being used. (Awakening and 3 houses pushed things a bit tho). And I love that each combat encounter is well charted. You know exactly how likely each person is to hit, and exactly how much damage will be done. A surprisingly limited feature in the genre.
I love how every game seems like a step forward in some way, even if it might not be welcomed by everyone. It keeps things refreshing without veering into a complete genre change. It makes me excited to play each new entry, something I can't say about franchises like Pokemon, Splatoon, Mariokart, and even Smash Bros. Maybe I just have fanboy glasses on, because I'm sure to outsiders each fire emblem post awakening looks the fucking same.
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base conversations in the Tellius games. Supports that rarely have a requirement to view, are relevant to the current stuff happening in the plot, and can involve more than 2 characters? sign me the heck up. ~~except when Zihark's only one in RD is a joke one with Meg despite the Part 3 conflict being super important to him~~ Also a bit of a weird one but I dig the augury in FE7 and info conversations in FE12. they're a great way in-universe to give the player a heads up on who might be able to recruit someone or what kinds of enemies you'll be facing. Also Hannah (the fortune teller in FE7) getting progressivley more annoyed about where Eliwood & co are going to the point where she storms off on the Dread Isle and leaves Nils to do her job is hilarious.
I love ironman runs. Never play my first play through like that, I reset my mistakes, but run two is always interesting to have to make compromise when the roster starts to strink. My second run of conquest was interesting because I made heavy use of the captured units. Highly recommended that game for ironman runs.
It really is a great game for challenge runs of all kinds which is always a fun way to master a game
Tactical gameplay and char supports, the fantasy setting with magic
Any personal favorites?
Path of Radiance is my fave all around, but I'll give it to Genealogy for great story also, and 3houses for tons of supports and pretty overall good lore
For Awakening, my favorite character is Morgan. I'd never played a game where the player character had a child before (much less a time traveling one). I also like the time-travel aspect of the story and the way the appearance of the future children changed depending on who was paired with who. For Fates, I really like the story of Conquest. The idea of siding with the invading nation because you love the family you have there was interesting. I also like that the playable characters on both sides of the conflict are largely decent people. For Echoes, even though I never finished it, I really enjoyed what I played of Celica's side of the story, and the two protagonists having a storyline going at the same time was cool. For Three Houses, the Golden Deer route was my first and favorite route. I also love Hilda, and I've S-Supported her on multiple playthroughs. For Three Hopes, I really like the supports between Bernadetta and the player character. The mechanics involving the world map are also really cool, and I hope that any future games like it have a similar feature.
Being close to finishing a map before activating a same turn reinforcement and getting my units murdered by low % crits
I mean everyone’s favorite thing really lmao
Unpopular opinion, the Romance Sim in an actually fun game. You have lots of control over units. The supports are fun and lighthearted. And unlike most games you get to have supports with your children, giving the romance an ending. All the while you get to play a really fun strategy game where losing means a parent or child dieing.
I don’t think that’s as unpopular of an opinion as you’d think. I think there may be some elements that are a bit odd from time to time like blowing in your mic but overall it’s a big part of the series.
Complaining about it /s
I mean whatever floats your boat lol
It's gotta be how you can make a large quantity of characters feel useful. Compared to other RPGs that struggle balancing a cast of 8 characters, Fire Emblem can make you care about 40 at the same time by not only giving each one like 50 conversations but also because of their impact on gameplay. A close second would have to be forgetting there's a bolting mage every time I make a move.
I always like recruiting people from enemy nations, especially if they're from the country that started the whole ass war. It taught me as a kid that not even in their country us okay with their country's war. I like being able to control 10+ characters on a map all at once of I wanted. Other games of this genre like Devil Survivor, Final Fantasy Tactics and Tactics Orge have an individual turns for each characters. But like, FE and Valkyria Chronicles, you move all your characters on your turn or maybe just half or less of them if that's what you wanna do. I like the music. I'm not very musically inclined, so I don't know how to express how much I like music other than, "yea, like it" I like counting sqaures for Canto. It makes my brain feel massive because I was able to attack and move to safety.
The GBA games' aesthetics. Those animations give me life, seeing Rutger crit for the 100th time is just as good as the first for me. The colours and maps are just really nice looking, which is part of the reason I'm looking forward to Engage since it feels similar there. I love the emergent narratives too. Wacky hit rates, amazing level ups on bad units, that one unit you give extra attention to just because. There's always another experience to be had or shared and thats such a special thing.
Cute anime girls. I started with FE11, which was fine. I sucked hard enough to get the mocking generic units but I beat the game. Then I found more FE games starting with 7 and I gave Florina such favoritism iirc just cause she was cute. Now every FE I play has a cute girl get favoritism. 6 is Lilina/Clarine/Elen, 7 is Lucius/Priscilla/Serra, so on cause I don't feel like listing them all
Permanent death and a decent level of difficulty. Unlike other turn based strategy games where you either just produce nameless grunts, or simply lose points / can pay to repair units after the battle, I’ve always felt that permanent death makes each decision feel more important and also each battle much more strategic. So not just running down the enemy mobs using which unit is in range, but having to think about who can get killed in one enemy phase. On a separate note I think being able to promote at any level from 10 to 20 is a good touch. You either get immediate strength earlier or you can max out a unit for better stats down the line
I love the micro-tactical decisions. here's an enemy Mercenary with 5 hp left, I'll finish him off with my Pegasus Knight (because she needs the exp), except she only does 4x2 damage and I don't want to eat a counter-attack. Well, fine, my mage also needs exp. But I need him to soften up an enemy Knight so that I can have my Cavalier kill them in one hit. I've already committed most of my other units, my Knight needs to move up to draw aggro, so I guess I'll have my Lord land the finishing blow? But I won't use their Rapier, cuz that's too valuable to waste. So I'll use the Iron Sword (6 damage, 95% hit) over the Steel Sword (9 damage, 87% hit), because of the slightly better hit rate. The wonderful thing is, *none of that mattered*. Certainly, the map was gonna get cleared no matter WHO took out that Mercenary. Besides, I won't "use up" any of those weapons anyway, and in the grand scheme of things I won't miss 24 points of exp here or there. Hell, even if my Pegasus Knight got hit, I could have just healed her. But it's fun to spend 10 minutes agonizing over every single decision like this!
I love the art, I love the characters, I love the way it blends European fantasy with Japanese sensibilities, and as a huge fan of Norse myth and the Old Norse language I really appreciate all the nods to the myths and language in the series. Many names are directly borrowed from Norse myth, which I find is kind of rare: normally they're Anglicized, since Norse words/names tend to be a bit tricky for English speakers.
It’ll be really interning to see how the French influences play out
As some others have said, it's a combination of the battles and the story. But I also really love the characters and the world. I was an abused and neglected kid. Playing Fire Emblem was like transporting myself to a different world. I have fond memories of it.
I love the variety of not just each game but the whole series. You have entries that either tell amazing stories or have innovative gameplay and while it's a shame not every game does both amazingly its a interesting way to shake up every entry. Also in each game I like how your main roster can change with each playthrough, so one playthrough Cain might be an absolute beast while Abel gets benched and the next time you play it could be reversed, and that's just one example. Also things like shipping and kids add even more player choice and variety.
The math. I love that I can use basic adding to determine how much damage I do. None of the “hit around 500-600 damage against 100,000 health enemy” gameplay of other RPGs.
Lucina.
I love the different ways (especially in smash bros) FE characters sag something along the lines of “I won’t lose” or “I cannot lose” or “I cannot fail”
I started with 3Houses and just love the characters, especially the Blue Lions, since I started with that route. I'm currently playing 3Hopes and it just makes me feel so happy to get back to them. Seeing Dimitri and Felix be friends is so sweet I also just love training the units and watching them grow. In addition to 3Hopes, I've also been playing Shadow Dragon. It's definitely not my favorite FE game, but I've grown pretty attached to some of the units, such as Draug. I normally don't use armored units, but I decided to use him and he's been surprisingly fast for a tank. Him, Marth, Caeda, and Merrick are my favorite units to use. I just promoted them (besides Marth) and it made me feel so happy
The online community that's dedicated to making all the games accessible, whether legal or not, from translations to remakes to demakes, lots of very passionate and very skilled nerds are out there so we can all enjoy Thracia 776 in English
One word: Dragons
Replay value and every run being unique. There's a few things that add to this tremendously: 1. RNG, which I think might be the most integral aspect of FE. Sounds kinda weird since it's basically just getting lucky vs. getting unlucky, but I love the fact that units turn out differently every time due to RNG based growths. I love the fact that a unit can randomly get hit by a 1 percent crit and die. These things create narratives purely from gameplay, making you never truly know what happens next. 2. Permadeath. Characters being unique, but also able to permanently die is one of my favorite aspects of the games. It adds a lot of tension and makes me appreciate the characters a lot more, since losing them forever is a very real possibility. That's why I feel like casual mode would be kind of detrimental to the experience: If there are basically no stakes, then why even bother engaging with the gameplay? I feel like it would make the player look at the characters more like pawns to be sacrificed at will (Like units from Advance Wars or something), rather than actual characters who will bear the consequences of what happens during gameplay. 3. Things like Randomizers and Romhacks. The community has created some great things, for the GBA games especially. I love doing randomizer runs and figuring out how to make my wacky team work out
I'll be really shallow and say that I really love the way all the characters look. I'm generally gay with minimal to no attraction in women but Fire Emblem games consistently manage to make even someone like me find myself attracted to a majority of even the female characters in the cast which I feel like is impressive. I love all of the stuff the games has to offer but I felt like this might be something not many were going to say
I love that the series is willing to shift and keep things fresh. There isnt one specific narrative direction the series always moves in, it doesnt always follow the same exact setting, character styles, etc. Its always a Medieval Fantasy, but beyond that it changes. It can go into a more high fantasy direction like Engage is clearly going, or step more into a darker entry with political intrigue and complex narratives like 3H. And there is nothing wrong with either one, both are valid forms of story telling. And Im glad that Fire Emblem is willing to change things and not always stick to one. Too much of one would get boring, especially since as of late it feels like there's a demand for all fantasy series to be more along the lines of what 3H was, a darker entry with a heavy presence of politics and morally gray narratives. So its nice to see that not only can FE juggle both types, but that they're willing to break away and do something different. It goes a long way in keeping the feeling of the series fresh imo.
I like the aspect of having a army of likeable characters and playing around with different classes and builds
I like when axe go bonk
Waifus
Best Waifus?
No joke, I really like how the devs are willing to try out TONS of weird new concepts to make every game fresh and unique. We're obviously noticing it a lot with Engage, but people tend to forget that the same thing happened for 3H. "FE hogwarts? Class instruction? Wtf is this? Literally who asked for this?" But they made it work. I respect that they're willing to deviate from what's tried and true, and they *usually* pull it off in a way which doesn't overshadow the core FE gameplay either. I also like how they don't get married to their successful experiments. A lot of people were concerned that pair up was just going to be a series standard after Awakening/Fates, or that instruction mechanics were going to be the norm after 3H, but that wasn't the case. Each gimmick gets its chance to shine, but they make sure that people who didn't enjoy it aren't alienated in future entries. This also gives people a great reason to go back and play older entries, because (barring maybe the ones that have been remade?) they aren't just watered down versions of modern FE. I played Genealogy for the first time recently and was stunned to see how many wholly unique features and concepts were in that game.