Allarion fucked around with this message at 10:59 on Nov 7, 2020

Fangz fucked around with this message at 14:49 on Nov 7, 2020

• FE1 (Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light) and 2 (Gaiden): Slow as hell. Fun for seeing where the franchise got started (and with FE2, where the deviations started, like with a number of other Nintendo sequel games at the time), but both games have since gotten remakes that are much better. The beginning of the Archanean Saga (FE1) and a side story (FE2) focusing on Archanea's westerly neighbor across its ocean Valentia.
  

• FE3 (Mystery of the Emblem): Honestly my favorite way to experience Marth's tale/the Archanea Saga in its entirety, since "Book 1" is basically a slightly abridged remake of FE1. It's fun and, while showing its age, it has aged much better than the NES/Famicom games (not that said thing is hard).
  
• FE4 (Genealogy of the Holy War): My absolute favorite. The first entry into the Jugdral Saga. It's weird, uneven and fucky (or in more common parlance, "janky"). It tells you very little, hoping you are the curious sort to poke and prod. Probably my favorite way to create absolutely broken-rear end characters. While Awakening and Fates streamlined the support conversation/2nd generation thing into something sensible, the 2nd gen units in here are my precious children and I will protect them like nobody's business. Has a Top 3 antagonist. Story can get dark (almost mean-spiritedly so) at times, though, so be warned.
  
• FE5 (Thracia 776): The second entry in the Jugdral Saga and a midquel/expansion of sorts, focusing on the arguably second most important character of Genealogy's second generation. This used to be tied with another one for my 2nd favorite. Now it's like #4. Again, it's weird, uneven and fucky, telling you very little and hoping you are the curious sort to poke and prod to find poo poo on your own. Has some fun mechanics and playing like a scumbag motherfucker is encouraged. Some design decisions are straight up loving dogshit, though (just like in FE4). Also, plenty of WTF moments abound, which is an FE tradition at this point, especially if you look at the lore of the games.
  
• BS FE (Fire Emblem Archanea Saga War Chronicles): A limited release in Japan that was later integrated into FE12's remake of everything War of Heroes-related (FE3 "Book 2"). It's like 5 chapters. A fun, if brief, romp.
  

• FE6 (Binding Blade) and 7 (Blazing Weed Blade): The Elibe Saga. Good starting points , and while visually it's still a pretty dang fun experience, they're just sorta OK. Arguably among the best (if not the best) bromance in the series, bar none.
  
• FE8 (Sacred Stones): The standalone An OK starting point. Pretty "boilerplate" Fire Emblem story, even if one of the routes works in its detriment (the other one makes up for it, though). Also has among the best cast of villains in the series. A couple of incredibly WTF moments, so be warned! Also my third favorite.
  

• FE9 (Path of Radiance) and 10 (Radiant Dawn): The Tellius Saga. Interesting story structure and overall story arc. Could've been better in execution. Still fairly fun to play. I don't know. I fight for my friends, so quit harshing my mellow, man!
  

• FE11 (Shadow Dragon) and 12 (New Mystery of the Emblem): Remakes of FE1 and FE3. Both are relatively easy to obtain legally and both are fine. They are OK. FE12 was also the first game to add a player avatar unit. Fans of the series insist that I mention this under the threat of outing me as a filthy waifu-lover.
  

• FE13 (Awakening): What was originally meant to be the swan song of the series and which ended up being its first (or arguably second?) revival of sorts. It sold like hot-cakes. Sorta a far-into-the-future continuation of the Archanea Saga, with the continents of Archanea and Valentia now being called Ylisse and Valm. It renewed the series and helped a portable console that seemed to be floundering find solid ground. Has a pretty solid 1st arc. Not so much a 2nd or 3rd ones. Pair-up as a game mechanic is absolutely broken this time around. Support conversations are fine, just don't try to do them all in one go.
  
• FE14 (Fates: Birthright, Conquest & Revelation): It sorta consists of three campaigns. Taking place in the neighboring continents of Nohr and Hoshido. Birthright plays much like Awakening with all the pros and cons that entails. Conquest plays a little closer to a "linear" Fire Emblem game. Revelation feels less polished than some fan-hacks at times and some gameplay decisions feel baffling and it's just kinda feel like it's there if you have exhausted all your fun with the other two campaigns/games (much like it's much successful cousin Pokémon, FE14 was released in two cartridges as a standard edition), hence why some players treat it as though it were the Tsukihime anime and claim it don't exist. Overall Birthright and Conquest are playable + enjoyable. Unfortunately, the story is kinda garbage and it has the worst lord/protagonist of the bunch (they are pretty loving dumb). A lot of wasted potential.
  
• FE15 (Echoes: Shadows of Valentia): A remake of Gaiden. I am not going to be objective about this one since I have, after all, one of its two protagonists as my current AV (and hopefully it'll stay that way for some time) and commissioned fanart for them both. It is my second favorite game in the series. That being said: It is, perhaps to its detriment, a little too much of a stickler for its source material at points, with the maps being kinda uninspired, the number of classes being rather limited, the support conversations being rather limited, plus a number of changes that didn't mesh well with the story rewrites. That being said: It has some of the best presentation in the series, the localization made the grand majority of the playable characters and a number of NPC's/Enemies feel much more realized/endearing than in the rest of the series as a whole, what little support/base conversations that are there, some are really good and a few quality-of-life improvements did make wonders in helping the game much friendlier than the original. It's also a game that you can, without all that much effort, finish in around 20-something hours, so it feels much more tackleable than a few of the last games since you can finish it in a week or two without much effort.
  

• FE16 (Three Houses): People say that it's Fire Emblem: Romance of The Three Kingdoms. Those people are wrong. Listen to me: It's Fire Emblem: The Last Airbender. In a (very-)slightly more serious note, it's a good game with some even better realized characters than the previous in some cases which is unfortunately bogged down by a myriad of problems that make it difficult to replay without having to somewhat "weather" the first half of the game. This is the one game where it feels like they did both too much streamlining in some things yet not enough in others. It has 4 routes, which all have their own share of troubles, but also strengths, and since everyone talks poo poo all the time, let's talk some fun times: - Black Eagles/Crimson Flower: Feels way too short on its second half, but arguably works well despite that. Has the most visually-interesting and a fairly ambitious lord and my favorite retainer character in the game. - Golden Deer/Verdant Wind: The most complete lore-wise of the three campaigns. It also has the best ensemble cast of the bunch, which also includes his scheming but charming lord, and it's probably the best "feel good" of the three main-ish campaigns. Blue Lions/Azure Moon: It goes into some really hosed-up places (not that the other routes are bereft of hosed-up plot/story beats, mind you) but it has some of the best character development and Dimitri is probably the closest to a visual encapsulation to what I still hold as my favorite opener to a metal record of all time. It was also the last route I played before I became completely burned out with the game and have yet to tackle its 4th campaign + the DLC. No plans to do so at the time of this writing. So all in all a mixed bag.
  
• TMS (Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE): Technically a sorta crossover between the FE and Shin Megami Tensei franchise. The game plays a lot similar to a Persona game, with some FE elements. It's a fun game and the Switch remaster (it originally came out for the Wii U in 2016) made had enough QOL improvements to warrant a playthrough.
  
• FEW (Fire Emblem Warriors): A Musou/Warriors game. Incredibly simple and with not a lot of variety on movesets/a lot of cloned-movesets. Some of the support chains are fine and it helps round-up/give some depth to a couple of the flatter characters in their respective games, but it honestly doesn't amount to much.
  

• FEH (Fire Emblem Heroes): A gacha. Has started fixing some of its issues with regards to its lackluster supports/story/character development events, but it's pretty much hit-or-miss. Again, it's a gacha, and if you are prone to having gambling issues/an addictive personality, steer the gently caress away from it and ignore this entirely.
  

1. Genealogy of the Holy War: Fun game. Easy to break in half once you figure its janks and play it to your strengths. Also fun to chaos-play blind. Lachesis, Ayra, Tailtiu and Lene are best girls. Sigurd and Arvis are best trashmen. Oifey, Shannan and Finn are the best dads in the franchise. Fight me.
   
2. Shadows of Valentia: One of your two mods is a filthy CelicAlm stan. It me.
   
3. Sacred Stones: Pretty streamlined and "easy" Fire Emblem, but it arguably has some of the best antagonists/villains in the series, plus fun post-game shenanigans.
   
4. Thracia 776: Leif spends his teenage years being surrounded by terrible people and occasional good bois and girls.
   
5. Path of Radiance: Ike's power hour. Best birds.