All Fire Emblem Games Ranked Worst to Best 

I've never heard someone have such spite and anger toward Echoes that was wild to hear.

"Normal mode felt more like Hard mode." Umm, does anuyone want to tell him?

Actually enjoyed echos a lot, but I’m with you on hating witches, necrodragons, and cantors

Dude really went off on Echoes. I really like that game. The new mechanics, the difficulty, the artstyle, story and the full voice acting really works for me.

I have been on a fire emblem kick lately both on RU-vid and actually playing the games, so this came at the perfect time. Also seeing Three Houses beat Path of Radiance reminded me that it's been half a decade since your last top ten games of all time video. We might need it to be remade.

Also to address your comment on RD “normal mode felt like hard mode” that’s because it is. In Japan, the three difficulties are Normal, Hard and Lunatic. However, in the Tellius games, Lunatic was removed and replaced with easy mode. However when localizing RD, they programmed the handholding stuff into the easy mode but the rest of the stuff plays like the Japanese normal mode. Henceforth, normal is hard and hard is lunatic.

This list hurts my head so friggin much. Echoes is such a beautiful game in both story and presentation. I know people complain about the maps a lot but honestly I think the problem is that people want echoes to be something it just isnt. Echoes is a game about skirmishes and dungeon crawling, there are few actual legit planned battles that feel at home in a fire emblem game and this is on purpose. You start as a ragamuffin group of people fighting in skirmishes and advance to armies in the end game fighting on maps that better resemble the main series ones people expect. It's just so great and it's a shame to write it off completely for some minor hiccups at the start

About the difficulty in Radiant Dawn: Normal Mode is as hard as it is because our Normal Mode was actually Japan's Hard Mode. Easy is Normal, and Hard is what was the Japanese Maniac mode.

Finally, another Setsuna enjoyer. I will take your opinion as fact based on this alone

The difficulty bad translation on Radiant Dawn got him.

For me the three GBA Games are outstanding and timeless Masterpieces

Radiant Dawn BEXP actually only gives 3 stats per lvl and are generally the highest growth rate stats. The idea behind it is you cap some stats then use BEXP to help out the lower stats. Fiona has a bad strength growth but high hp, luck, speed, and res so yeah I get the annoyance about it

Sacred stones was fun too. If I remember correctly they added two upgrade paths per character which was awesome! Erika is also cute as hell. I also enjoyed the fact that they start you with Seth but if you avoid using him the rest of the crew get's to catch up but he is always there to solve any issues you might face, such as everyone almost dying. Seth saved the day many a time for my 3 attempts at finishing the game, which I don't remember doing.

You can actually double easily in Fates with Silver sword. Steel are the one that give speed penalty. But pair up and tonic usually enough to cover your speed to reach doubling threshold. Unless you're an armor Knight.

Timestamps: (spoiler warning for video) 0:57 Shadow Dragon (DS) 1:19 Echoes (3DS) 3:25 Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade (GBA) 4:08 Fates (3DS) 6:18 Sacred Stones (GBA) 6:57 Awakening (3DS) 7:59 Radiant Dawn (Wii) 10:45 Path of Radiance (Gamecube) 13:00 Three Houses (Switch)

Was I the only one that really enjoyed echoes?

So, the Tellius duo are without question my favorite games in the franchise (Despite all the great things 3H did, I can't look away from the many many glaring flaws in the game that is on average, twice as long as the 2nd longest game in the series) and I know way too many things about it. So here's all the relevant information I can think of on the spot. Classes matter a lot in Radiant Dawn, as not only does it determine givens like weapon types and movement, it also determines maximum weapon levels and stat caps. (Stat caps are one of the 2 reasons mages suffer. They have a low Spd cap. The other is that their main prey no longer has abyssmal Spd and also has a respectable Res stat, as you mentioned) This comes into play with the BEXP because in this game you will always get 3 stats based on highest growths, unless the unit has 2 or fewer uncapped stats. For example, my personal favorite FE character Nephenee is incredibly likely to cap Skl and Spd naturally. This means I can then use BEXP to force stat gains in weaker growth rates. Path of Radiance just makes it a standard level full of RNG, but Radiant Dawn's system is more consistent and easy to manipulate when you have that knowledge. Biorhythm in Path of Radiance may as well not exist, it does so little. Biorhythm in Radiant Dawn will only make an impactful difference on Hard and in the early game. This is especially true if you use your herons and obtain the Bliss galdr at what I think is level 15 or 20, as it lets you set a unit(s)'s condition to best. In chapter 1-4 there is a hidden item Beastfoe scroll that you can obtain and use primarily for chapters 3-6 and 3-13, as it grants the unit effective damage to cats, tigers, and lions. This is not something you would know on a blind playthrough, but it's not in such a strange location as the locations you recruit Stefan in both games. Effective damage is usually triple the weapon's Mt stat. This is also Radiant Dawn's effective damage, Path of Radiance is only double. The reason why crossbows specifically benefit so much is because crossbows ignore the user's Str stat and instead use only the weapon's Mt. This means that instead of something like 16 Str + 8(3) Mt = 40 Atk you have 0 Str + 24(3) Mt = 72 Atk. Path of Radiance does have base conversations that foreshadow what's to come, and I do believe it helps with recruiting a few people, though Stefan is more of a curiosity thing oh wait I need to use a laguz next time. Now a short criticism of 3H: NG is a pain, I never want to play through White Clouds (academy phase) ever again it's so bland and empty. NG+ despite being broken as hell is super dope since it takes out a good chunk of the tedious stuff. Finally, it feels like they had a vision and just stopped part of the way through it. Like, they went for the freedom to choose any class but then decided males can't be these classes and females can't be those classes, like c'mon go all the way or not at all.

I absolutely love Three Houses and it's one of my favorite Switch games of all time. I would like to try out others Fire Emblem games.

I actually enjoyed the biorhythm effect as an idea, but you’re right to say it affected too much. That could be improved somewhat if they attached it to your characters social aspects. Maybe if an A support was close the biorhythm would be high, or if killed it dropped. The idea of having human emotion effect performance could really be incredible gaming experience

I love how they talk about a ton of different things in the games that I never really took account of when playing the games (like the speed thing in Fates or how biorhythms actually work). Will totally agree on Path of Radiance making me paranoid in unit placement though

Im so happy the Telius duology is getting some love. Especially the narrative. I feel like most FE games since Awakening have had some pretty mediocre plots and shoehorning avatars doesn't help. Telius had some great characters with a real story and the I found the gameplay really rewarding, if sometimes really tricky. Mostly in a good way!

Dude, absolutely loved this. I've been playing FE on and off for years now. I totally agree with your points on Modernisation and Quality of Life, I never played path of Radiance or its sequel so its great to hear about that. Shadow Dragons was so old I couldn't enjoy it at all. Your guide straight to the point, bought up relevant subjects, which literally make or break for some players and your were funny whilst doing it.

i played Binding Blade, Blazing Blade and Sacred Stones on emulator, which one should i play next?

I honestly can’t believe I passed up on this game when it came out. What made me take a look at it now is the new warriors game that’s coming out soon. I think I’ll skip the warriors version and pick up this one with the season pass. Anyone think this one will go on sale? Digital version with season pass is like $86 usd or in that area.

I agreed with litterally every word.. If Nintendo stops being selfish they’d make a solid 60fps remaster of The Radiant Collection I would purchase the collectors edition day 1

Hey I realize I’m super late to this video lol but where would you rate engage?

Been real into Fire Emblem lately, quite an interesting list. Shadow Dragon: Yeah, I like it, but I can clearly see why people don’t. Minimal story, no supports, bland characters. The gameplay is really fun if you’re willing to get down and dirty with reclassing and forging, but it’s a hard game to get into. Echoes: First off, Gaiden’s mechanics are mostly unique and bad, but rather than never being used again, most of those things have come back up in the series much later, like split promotions in sacred stones and the magic system in three houses. Also, while the game could’ve balanced the starting classes better, there is a pretty clear indication that picking all mercenaries is not the right choice. Mages are good against pretty much everything, archers have ridiculous range in this game, and cavs have superior movement. Also, swords are far from common in this game, you get like 3 good ones on Alm’s route, and one of those is going to Alm, so you are encouraged to not load up on one weapon type. Mages have predetermined hit rates, but it’s not always 80% and that number can be increased by supports. Witch AI sucks, but it is fairly predictable (they always teleport around you, but almost never within 3 squares of one of your units, meaning if you have the mage-weak dude not on the back lines, he will almost never be targeted. Necrodragons are bad at the dragon shrine, but any decently powered physical unit can chip them and any decently powerful magical unit can annihilate them by the 2nd/3rd time you see them. Most people like this one predominantly for the story, but a lot of the gameplay issues you brought up do have answers. FE7: Based. Fe7 is really decent, and that’s pretty much it. FE14: Okay, pretty much only here because of waifuism, got it. Real talk, story really really bad, mechanics good, gameplay bad on two routes and fantastic on the other one, characters bad, etc. Also yeah, the castle sucks. Sacred Stones: The first truly modern FE game. Really solid game, has a ton of cool quality of life stuff, and it’s also one of my favorites because of how easy it is to hack and make a better game out of. Awakening: Awakening is like FE4 but modernized and simplified. It Saved The Series/10 Radiant Dawn: Yeah, the class balance is ridiculous, wyverns are insanely powerful. The army swapping is really interesting, and I agree that the game is a bit too hard. Also bEXP always gives 3 stat levels PoR: Biorhythm sucks, the game is slow, fun while not resetting. Also, the recruitments are funny Three Houses: New Game + is excellent, although the monestary sucks Interesting list, fun watch

I'm still kinda new into FE (I started to get into the series with Fates but have played every game after that) and I will say Echoes was extremely fun. I enjoyed it so much.

My favorite is still Fire Emblem. The one with Eliwood and Hector. Loved the story and characters I struggled with Three Houses. The stuff at the monastery just takes too long and is not interesting to me. It just drags, and playing through the game three times is such a chore as a result

Im nostalgic af towards fire emblem blazing sword or whatever on the gba. I remember learning about fire emblem from playing smash bros melee a ton and when i heard it was finally coming to the west on gba i was excited to play it. still one of my favorites to this day. Three houses is great, but i really disliked the whole teaching and school stuff. I like playing fire emblem games because i enjoy the tactical gameplay of it and everytime i had to go back to the monastery to cook or do mundane tasks, it just took the wind out of the games sails. They could have easily just had all the character progression within some menus and shortened the time spent doing all that stuff, instead I had to waste time running around a very uninteresting 3d world doing stuff while wondering why im not playing actual fire emblem missions..... that aside, the actual missions were very fun. I think the map layouts were kind of dull overall, especially with so many reused maps, but still a great game. I think fire emblem awakening is my favorite overall. just a well made fire emblem game that doesnt have a ton of BS and has tons of interesting and fun missions with great character progression. The introduction to a casual mode where units dont permanently die certainly got a lot of casual fans into the game series.

Sacred stones and Awakening are my favs. I still haven’t finished three houses and I bought it the day it came out 😅

So where is Engage going to be at on the update video

Do you plan to do a rating of the hardest bosses u ever fough, by that i mean all the games

Such a great series I wouldn’t mind if in the afterlife we all played it constantly😂

Fire Emblem: Awakening was the best of times. Played it on a 3ds xl all the way through and I fking loved it! So fun to go through it all with the story, the items, building your own playable character how you wanted em, learning and using the abilities and passives, and I felt like the story was a perfect mix of serious and silly. It never went full anime stupid other then in the character interactions which was fine. I absolutely loved min/maxing my crew. Spending hours just planning how to build em all. Loved the support system as it was made so strong and made it really matter, both in story and in combat which was really fun. It was not as memorable as Blazing blade, but a better game no doubt. My absolute fav Fire Emblem played to date. The only negative I have is the tiny feet on the characters... looked so fking dumb, but the gameplay and story carried the stupid art style.

Binding Blade is good, Thracia 776 is unforgiving, but has a good story.

You made me laugh multiple times so this was a good video. Thanks for making it.

About Fates: Yes, Setsuna is the real waifu, but also Hoshido (the so called good guys) killed the entire family of their enemies, while Nohr (the supposed bad side) spared everyone's lifes and took them as prisoners. I'd say it wasn't as obvious as you stated.

Three houses is actually my first fire emblem game in the franchise.

Fire Emblem Three Houses is in My Top 10 VideoGames of All Time and my 1st Fire Emblem Game that I ever Played

Weird timing considering i just started a run of all the English FE games like last week... but this channel is always on some funky shit so i guess that mind read was par for the course 💪

A little detail I really like in Three Houses is, when the turns ends, there is a "battle cry" like "HEY!". I don't know, it turns it more epic or something.

Dude, what do you think of Engage? I don't think it's a terrible game but I didn't end up beating it. I put it down about 3/4s of the way through and didn't pick it back up. 3H isn't my favorite but I think it's significantly more fun than Engage.

Radiant Dawn Normal is actually hard mode. See, in Path of Radiance, japanese copies had three difficulties: Normal, Hard, and Maniac. But here in the west, maniac was bumped and we got a new Easy mode. But when Radiant Dawn came around, they nixed the easy mode, but in the west, for continuity's sake I guess, they renamed normal to easy, hard to normal, and maniac to hard. And this is actually really annoying, because I suspect Radiant Dawn was designed around japanese normal/western easy. See, in that difficulty mode, for part one specifically, you get utterly juiced with exp, ~45 per kill if your level is equal to the enemy, so they're not so far behind the Greil Mercenaries when they show up.

10:15 Because translation error, "Normal" Mode is Hard Mode

I don't love how negatively charged the criticisms are. It's okay though, just maybe not a channel for me. Echoes is my personal favorite FE, followed by the radiant duology. Glad we at least share a love for Tellius!

Fire emblem path of radiance is the game that got me into the series when I first had a Nintendo game cube years ago.. I would watch my buddy play it and make fun of it thinking it was stupid up until I played it myself and completely became hooked!! Absolutely loved every moment of it and did not stop playing once it got me about 30 minutes in!! I’ve been looking for either a Nintendo 3DS or another switch to buy for a handheld fire emblem like path of radiance?? Maybe a remaster or just a decent port? It’s the only fireman game I ever got to play and I absolutely loved it and it’s the reason I play strategy RPG games today!

Radiant dawn has difficulty translation errors (normal is hard mode) and boy the the hard mode we got is no joke. The trial and error is absolutely criminal.

So about the normal feeling like hard mode that's actually the case in the Japanese version there was normal mode, hard mode and maddening mode like 3 houses so if you picked normal you are actually playing hard mode

I wish I didn't give this video a view. Ignoring the hot take on the very positively reviewed Echos game, starting with "I don't like these first two because my characters die" was eyebrow raising until later in the video "I prefer to play Fire Emblem games on the Easy difficulty" made this an insanely poor list.

Fire Emblem Blazing blade was the most classic of all the classics. I am so proud over my younger self for finishing it! I mean the big bad is a green dragon. How much more classic can you get? And all the characters were so memorable I still have fond memories of them all. Was such a pretty game too at the time I played it on the GBA! So unique style of a game for me at the time it really drew me in. I still remember how badass the first axe man was, who was just a lumberjack named Dorcas but he seriously carried me through the game more then Hector. The moment he had a class upgrade, nothing had a chance! Great times!

FE7 Blazing Blade will forever be my favorite game.

holy fuck that was hilarious. get this guy more subs!! his comments are legendary

Echoes had this chapter where enemies were at the top of this hill and the boss would use a spell to bring any unit that entered their range to 1 hp and then endless flying enemies spawned and would 1 hit kill whatever the boss weakened. The ONLY WAY I manages to beat the chapter was by warping alm to the boss and one shoting it just to have everyone else rush the hill as best the could to make sure alm didn't die

Wow this echoes slander is disgusting, its legit one of the best remakes in the franchise

I’m so glad someone spoke up about Echoes. I tried so hard to get into it but was bored by the characters and frustrated by the gameplay. Then when I was like “Man, what a bad game…” and went online to see everyone raving about it, I kept my mouth shut lol.

Never played any FE. Actually the last tactics genre game i played was ff tactics advance on gba/gba sp and it still works today. Glad i made a good decision of buying a Pre-Owned fe3H for myself this christmas.

The thing about Normal and Hard mode in Radiant Dawn is that there was a translation error for the international release. So easy mode is actually normal mode, normal mode is actually hard mode, and hard mode is actually lunatic/maniac mode.

10:13 normal mode IS hard mode there was a translation error and it made jp 'hard' to english 'normal'

Gotta be real with you, chief. NG+ is not enough to carry 3H's middling map design, poor gameplay pacing and wildly imbalanced difficulties. Can tell that you're probably coming off of having not played many games in this style before FE so I get it, you're priorities just aren't there. Would recommend FE4 and 5 if you're ever in the mood for more.

"I value modernization and QoL Improvements" Thank you for speaking for everybody who loves FE fates

Any of these new FE games similar to the of Fire Emblem of sacred stones? Wanting to get back in, those are my favs

Bro saying Echoes is unfair but I find it more forgiving than any FE GBA games.

Sooner or later we all expect a waifu tier list Someday

Cares about gameplay above all else, also puts three houses and awakening above fates.

PoR is my favorite game of all time. I haven't played Three houses much yet, maybe I should get into it.

Feel like this is a flex right before three hopes, even know to be able to do well on three hopes you have to strategize. Eh either way agree, three houses are imprinted on me at this point. Good list.

I feel like the Tellius games are the best even after multiple play throughs unlike 3H for me. After the first play through in 3H, it just gets boring and the monastery becomes a chore. Also the reusing of maps doesn’t help at all. The 3 routes don’t feel different enough to me and wish they just used all the unique maps to actually make a better story also. The characters are pretty good though although I still feel like the characters in both Tellius games are still better. Good list otherwise

I def think you should try to play on harder difficulties. It really changes what fire emblem is when you turn on the heat. A good game to start with is fe 8 or maybe fe 9. Its cool playing on whatever difficulty you want, but i do think playing on hard is largely considered the best experience by the fe community

Very incomplete list, what hapoend with binding sword, snes fe (holy war and tracia) also nes fes?

Fire emblem fates was my first fire emblem and it got me into the series so even though its bad it has a special place in my heart

Mostly agree with the list, other than Sacred Stones not being the top 3 based solely on the story and characters alone. I can remember so many characters from the game, whereas in other ones I can usually only remember the names of the main characters.

Another Setsuna enjoyer I see Is it just me or the best characters are archers or weild bows Takumi Setsuna Claude Bernadetta Ashe Shamir On a side note once I spoke to invisible Raphael in the Monastery

Great list. I love when you make videos on fire emblem and Kingdom hearts

FE7 and Sacred Stones both felt like the best character recruiting imo, at least for the pre three houses traditional style.

Three houses was thag good?

Yeah I LOVE fire emblem but man… 3 houses I played for 2 hours and got tired of running around that intro (the monastery) and just never got around to playing it again.

I flip back and forth on path of radiance and tales of symphonia for my favorite gamecube game so it doesn't surprise me on its placement

I laughed pretty hard when hearing you talk about echoes 😂 I beat the entire game but I remember playing through the game like hating all the same stuff .

I don't agree with your list because Fire Emblem 7 is actually fantastic! The problem the game has, is the character writing.

I've been recently getting into Fire Emblem and right now I can proudly say that my first game has been Three Houses, I do plan on playing the other games in the future at some point! 🤞🏼🙌🏼

this was uploaded the same day i was googling this question and im scared

The Tellius Duology are my all time favourites. My first ever was Path of Radiance back in 05. I was in my late teens. Been a fan of FE games ever since. But speaking for myself, the story and the narrative were at their best on PoR and RD.

>doesn't even mention FE4 or 5 >video immediately ignored

my favorite fire emblem games are Fire emblem three houses, awakening and fates for me these are the best games of the saga i really like them :D

I get this is a US list but you've got to play FE 5 the most difficult and FE 6 on GBA with the characters of FE 7 but older.

Did you end up playing engage?

Who's gonna tell him he's missing a few? Also, HOW does Three Houses get top? Am I really the only one who thought the teacher/student vibe was odd? I know I'm your teacher, but it's not an abuse of power and influence to get that S rank relationship... it's not creepy right?

I would never have guessed that FE would be one of my favorite series growing up, but here we are. My personal ranking (for the games I’ve played) from worst to best. FE1 (worst) Sacred stones Blazing Sword Binding Blade Echoes Geneology Radiant Dawn Shadow Dragon Awakening Path of Radiance Three Houses Fates Revelation Fates Birthright Fates Conquest

I think you should give mention of honors for fire emblem engage

Darn, I loved playing shadow dragon :(

I’m not the sort they enjoys just being able to “3D print” my heroes to make them whatever I want, I enjoy using a character for what they are, how they were established, and when they don’t have that ground level, it makes me feel detached from the character because now they feel like a character I made, but also didn’t make at all. I really dislike the modern fire emblem character designs and I think that adds to my distaste for the games as a whole. In my personal opinion the last good games were path of radiance/radiant dawn strictly from a story and character design standpoint. Those games make me feel genuinely invested in the characters and I want to see them all succeed and grow. The new characters offer so little to invest in because many of them look like randomly generated anime characters that have little to no defining features that make me want to care about them as a character. Byleth is a husk and offers nothing to make me think of them as anything more than just another Mary-Sue avatar protagonist that offers no more than being the poster character for the game. I genuinely laughed when byleth died and wanted them to stay dead, but was sorely disappointed when they came back EVEN STRONGER for no good reason.

“Babe, wake up. New Albino ranking dropped”

So Radiant Dawn had Localized Translation Error with the difficulty Easy = Normal Normal = Hard Hard = Maniac

Your reasons for disliking Echoes are some of the reasons why I love the game. It forces you to think with your choice of units and their classes and not rely on map or pair-up gimmicks. Here’s my list: 9. Fates (great concept, horrendous execution) 8. Shadow Dragon (Received a nice coat of paint with the graphics and music, but mostly keeping the writing from the original holds it back) 7. Awakening (Decent as an ending to the Archanea saga, but I can’t stand the character archetypes and the waifu-like supports) 6. Sacred Stones (The supports, glitches, and promo choices help keep FE8 at this spot. Story is good at times, but mostly bland, gameplay is absurdly easy, and the final boss is a joke) 5. Three Houses (Despite its repetitiveness, the teacher mechanics and the branching stories helped me connect further with the characters. P.S. Golden Deer is best house) 4. Radiant Dawn (Even with challenges in the plot and voice acting, it’s still a great sequel and the music is fantastic) 3. Echoes (Took Gaiden and made it so much better: Fleshed out characters, fully voice acted, and a challenging, but rewarding strategy) 2. Path of Radiance (Introducing FE5 map strategies to Western fans along with a spectacular coming-of-age story) 1. Blazing Sword (best story, best tutorial, best replayability; simply the best)

Only thing I don't like about 3 houses is the game forcing u to replay the story. I like being able to grind all my units to max, or just about. Kinda like pokemon. It's annoying having to constantly redo story to max all the units

The "nintendo need to up their standart" on the tech side is soooo true. Everytime I launched Hogwarts Legacy I was thinking, damnnn, imagine Fire Emblem TH BUT with this tech ._.

I don't think I have ever disagreed so much with a list that I couldn't even finish the video. It says all fire emblem games ranked and you literally exclude loads of them. I am so angry, oh my god. Also Echoes and Shadow dragon are some of the best FE games, for different reasons.

I always wondered if people liked echoes just because of the visual novel experience rather than the gameplay. Cuz as you said, the gameplay sucks a ton. The only time I actually felt like I was strategizing was figuring out how to take on Jedah, which isn't even necessary to do for either of his appearances in order to beat the game. Also the story isn't all that either but since it's a step up from the writing in fates I guess people really liked it. Or maybe it's just a matter of taste or something. I find most of the cast boring and the supports feel more bare bones than the gba games that came out a decade earlier. The music was good tho, but like every fire emblem game has good music. With all that said, I really do just think it's the visual novel style of the story telling that people really like. As a game tho? It really isn't good game.

I enjoyed the videos and can see some valid point , though I feel like you should have ranked blazing blade higher since you talked about it having nothing negative and being a solid game Than had negative remarks about the next to games after.. Personally I would put radiant dawn as number 1 but I value that as #1 because of how well the story is out together by far the best story and lore in all the fire emblem games.