The early part of the video has some mistakes: - My main gripe with this video is the treatment of the third game as just a remake with some bonus content. It is primarily a sequel, while also including a remake. It is also one of the most influential games of the series, and still the most sold one in japan to this day. - FE1 had classes that promoted into different classes. What Gaiden added was characters where you could choose which class they would become. - FE1 and Gaiden do not take place on the same continent, but on adjacent continents in the same world. - "Heir to the republic of Manster" makes no sense, a republic by definition doesn't have heirs. Leif is heir to the kingdom of Leonster. - Roy and Lilina knew each other before the start of Binding Blade, as is shown in that game's tutorial and in the epilogue of Blazing Blade. Let me just say that I did enjoy the video, these were mostly little things in a video that was over an hour of mostly good stuff presented nicely and concisely.
Honestly I feel like you shouldn't have skipped mystery of the emblem, sure part of it is a remake of the first game, but part of it has a new story, so I think it should be considered it's own game
Playing through a 2nd playthrough of Echoes right now and it’s really interesting to see how the original looked. I think they did a great job adapting the designs to the beautiful artstyle of the remake
@@dustingonzalez8080 it’s my boyfriend’s too. The artstyle was the best i have seen for a Fire Emblem, the voice acting is great, the few support conversations are really good and the combat is very fun (each unit having one very specific build being only able to hold one item really makes you think what would be the best synergy for that specific unit). All in all an amazing game!
I watched this video front to back and this was an immaculate creation. This shows how incredibly deep the well of Fire Emblem is and details its history really well. Thanks for doing this as I am not exceedingly knowledgable about its past. As someone who has the Divine Edition of Fire Emblem Engage due to show up soon, this couldnt have been better timed. Great work TGS!
Same here. I started with Path of Radiance back in 2005 as well. Been a huge fan of the series ever since. My personal favourites are Path of Radiance, closely followed by Radiant Dawn. By far one of the finest in the series when it comes to world building and story presentation. Apart from the Tellius series, I also really liked Fates Special Edition.
Such a wonderful retrospective! This started playing on its own after an Arlo vid I was watching and I was so impressed! I loved how you included the story elements in addition to the company details!
This is a PERFECT Retrospective imo!!! Short,sweet & right to the point & NO spoilers lol I wish all VideoGame Retrospectives were like this Excellent work dude!
My first game in the series was sacred stones when I was in high school. I fell in love with the game and have been an avid fan since. Thanks for making this wonderful video!
The inclusion of the casual mode in Awakening made the series much more enjoyable for me. I played quite a few of the older games in the early to late 2000s and did love the series before playing Awakening. I really loved Path of Radiance. Definitely leaning towards purchasing Engage when I get paid Friday.
Yes, me too. My husband complains about it, saying they ruined it by giving the choice to the gamers... But I disagree, why not give everyone what they want if they can? I love playing in casual mode. Sure I love the strategy of combat in FE but I really like my units and sometimes I can't really stomach losing them when I'm careless.
@@maomi1852 People who complain about the game's ease and accessibility need to sit down and be quiet, because they are a loud minority that can't understand that FE would straight up not exist anymore without a lower difficulty. Every time they make the game easier and more accessible, it makes tons of money, which is far more important for future games than their fragile elitist egos.
@@jeremiahstenzel789 I don’t think it’s fair to tell people who don’t like the modern direction to just "be quiet" in the name of accessibility, it’s the same reason Fromsoft fans are adamant in believing that the games shouldn’t have an easy mode, because it takes away from the game’s original vision. Plus let’s not pretend Fates did so well because of Phoenix mode, which is also an addition made to make the game more accessible.
As I’m new to the series after playing Three Houses, and will be playing Engage by tomorrow I must say, you did a fantastic job with this retrospective. Very entertaining, well edited and so much to learn from past entries, on what they brought to the table. It was magnificent! Keep up the good work, mate!
As expected from a grumpy old man like me, I used to shun the new entries of FE past Kaga's era, but over the time, and seeing how today success and survival of the series are merits of the new(and old) Intelligent Systems team, and the direction of people like Narihiro Toru and Horikawa Masayuki, I came to understand that they made FE their own with their hard work over all those years. FE4 still my favorite in the series but I'll always be happy with every new release and I'll always try it with an open heart.
Amazing time-consuming work that covers a great deal packed in just a little over an hour. It's great to see you succeed in making this a full time job and look forward to what you have in store for us through the year. Especially if we get to see more Complete Series History of franchises that get much less attention than FF and Tales.
Hey. I don't normally comment on videos. But I'd like to thank for you taking your time to puting all of this together. It's a very well done and informative video. Thank you, @The Gaming Shelf!
@@TheGamingShelf You're very welcome. Actually, although I'm a fan of JRPGs and grew up playing some of the greats like FF and Chrono Trigger... I've never played any Fire Emblem so far, and I looked for a video like yours specially for that reason. I'm currently playing a game that was inspired by FE, which is called "Symphony of War" - you should look it up, it's a fun game. I'll probably get my hands on the Switch version of FE soon, as well as the SNES version, which were the 2 that caught my attention the most!
First thing I see when I get home is this amazing video. Its funny because I remember watching the retrospective playlist you have like a week ago! Great video
Absolutely fantastic video. I love this kind of thing. I nerded out so hard on this video. I've played Fire Emblem and Sacred Stones for the GBA. I played shadow dragon for the DS. I played radiance and radiant. And Awakening. I actually still own my copies of each as well. My favorites were Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn.
great work on the video! i only started playing fire emblem since FE: Fates (Conquest) and then played their main titles from then on... i'd say, i had good time playing the games and am really happy that these game franchise survived and will continue to live on in the coming years
Cool video. I do agree with others that the remakes should have been included chronologically as they are important pieces of how the series developed over time. Especially for FE3 which was mostly a new, sequel plot - the remake portion being a truncated part at the beginning to catch up new players. I also find that how the remakes were handled speaks a lot about where the series is at for each point in time. For my favourite game in the series, I can't pick one because despite them being obviously similar, each game really does have its own strong identity. PoR has a special place in my heart as the first game I played, with my favourite characters and settings with one of the series' best plots. Thracia is also way up there for the gameplay being really engaging (though nobody should ever play this blind - have a spoiler-free guide on hand) and the plot also being phenomenal in a different way to PoR. But I think Conquest has eclipsed Thracia for my favourite gameplay. Engage has been really good in that regard, but we'll see how the replayability meta evolves for that over time.
I'm just a quarter way in to your video but I can't help but have to comment with gratitude, I've never played any games from this franchise other than a bit of Awakening and now I'm having the best of my time with Engage. Thank you for letting me have a glimpse of who those Emblem ring characters are in their original debuts. I can imagine the nostalgia and appreciation those Emblem characters would have for longtime fans of the series. This is truly quite an amazing piece of art. P:S 3/4 in: I didn't know that Awakening was a breaking moment for the Franchise, it was my first Fire Emblem game and I loved it so much. So happy that I actually contributed in a very miniscule way in the effort to continue the franchise 😭
@@TheGamingShelf Awakening was me at my early 20s looking for something similar to FFT, i didn't know that Fire Emblem was the inspiration. It gives me so much appreciation for this franchise
I can easily say that my Top 3 Favorite Strategy RPG series were the Eastern Strategy RPG Trinity basically the Shining Force series - 1, the Fire Emblem series - 2, & the Langrisser series - 3.
Wish Shining Force would come back, especially a full port or remajebof all 3 parts of 3. But, Camelot is more likely to fo Golden Sun than Shining Force (I love Golden Sun as well).
Such a well put video! I only find it unfortunate that it is now after knowing this series since 2006 that I was spoiled here on why there is a generation shift in Fire Emblem 4. Totally my fault as this is a complete retrospective on the series, but I do wonder if it needed to be included on what happened to the first generation (but that is not to take away its importance for the mechanic being introduced). For context the only games I have not had time to play were FE 4 and 5. Regardless thank you so much for your time and effort in the making of this video! It was such a an amazing watch as the time flew by.
I love people saying Awakening is too easy because, yes, my 12-yr-old cousin finished her first normal casual run in a week or less time, however, it was my first FE but I was determined to play on Hard Classic and it took me 3 years 😂 to complete my playthrough so definitely depends on the gamers involved, this game series is so great and it reminded me of how much I loved those 3DS entries so very dearly again
Still watching through the video, but can I just say that the ending to Fire Emblem Blazing Blade drove me crazy as a kid. I absolutely loved the game to bits, but I remember that cliff hanger ending of Zephiel talking to the dragons. Wasn't aware it was a prequel until SO much later, so for years I was left wondering why they left the story there of all places.
Regardless of what's to come for the Fire Emblem franchise, just hope they continue to implement legacy features and not abandon it later on. There's nothing that points to this happening of course, but my favorite thing about franchises as big as Fire Emblem are the constant callbacks to past protagonists and stories, so I'm just hoping they continue to keep legacy characters moving forward. I especially like how they're handling it in Engage, though most of these characters should be long dead, Engage versions of them can be summoned kind of as guardians to fight alongside and bond with those who wield their ring. It doesn't mess with story continuity and it doesn't dabble in time travel/dimensional travel shenanigans, yet it can still recall past protagonists all the same. I cannot wait to see where this franchise goes, even though 3 Houses was my first game played I've always loved how unique each game felt with their stories and characters. Here's hoping that charm never goes away
This was great, I started with the Gba fire emblems currently playing engage. You sir have earned a sub because of this video. My favorite is path of radiance.
Sacred Stones was the game that got me into the series and I'll always go back to the amazing 2D sprite art of the GBA entries. I missed out on getting to play Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn unfortunately. Awakening, Fates, and Echoes were extremely enjoyable to me when they released and I was just so happy that the series didn't die out (although Pair Up was super busted in Awakening lol. Pretty happy with how it was implemented in Fates). 3 Houses was a long experience but very fun overall. The arguments in the fandom over the various factions was quite a wild time.
im late but this was well done. appreciate you making this taylor. my first fire emblem game was path of radiance and ever since then i was hooked. some of my faves are radiance , awakening , dawn and now 3 houses! i need to catch up.
I'm surprised I didn't hear any mention of a third tier for promotion in RD (Trueblade, reaver, whisperer, etc.). Those were literally ALL the hype to me. I wanted a cape because of them 😭
Thanks for the little history lesson. I started with Awakening and have played 3 other games in the series since. I’ve been wanting to play the other/older games!
Wonderful video! But it should be pointed out that the Famicom Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light did receive an international release when it was ported and temporarily available on the Nintendo Switch.
Fire emblem has become my favorite series over the years. It’s not the best for sure for lots of people, but I love it and all the characters it brought and mechanics.
Oh boy I'm ready to watch through this whole thing. I'll just say from the start that Path of Radiance is my favorite in the series (along with Radiant Dawn) by an enormous margin. POR is definitely in my top 10 video games of all time. Thanks for making this awesome video!
I know you've said this took a long time to make, but it's one of the best videos you've ever put out. If you find the time to create similar videos for other series, I think it will be well worth it. Good luck!
@@TheGamingShelf I was pretty blown away by the amount of detail you gave for each game, maybe not as comprehensive as you'd get from a full retrospective on each individual game, but way more than you normally get from similar videos. Most "evolution of/series history" type videos just give small clips of each game that aren't always even good at representing the game, and you never really learn anything from them like I did from this one. To be honest, I don't think you even need to do another video just like this for another series, as long as every few months between your regular content, if we get one of these well thought out and researched videos, your community will be very happy. Definitely have fun with it and don't let yourself get bogged down by the content you're "supposed" to do
I think is weird Mystery of Emblem got skipped out (the game is half remake sure, but it's also half new game), considering how the game is so remarkable from a cultural and commercial view considering how it used to be the best selling game, and didn't have competition for that position (even from games with western releases) until Awakening; which give it a special place in the series' story. Before Awakening, Mystery was the most likely game to be referenced in conversation, and segmented the popularity of the Archanea's staples.
I've been a fire emblem fan for quite a while but I gotta admit i didn't pay attention to the story for the FE games I played as a kid. Thanks for the recap!
What a freaking awesome video. Was gonna play a game. Then saw this video and had to watch it. Hope this is a franchise that will continue with Dragon Quest, Persona and other JRPG franchises.
FE fates is my fav. I start Awaking first but then I played along, and I love Fates more. I have finished fates more then 10 times, because I was waiting for Three house back. I just have finished Engage yesterday, and I love it so much, and I also think will finish Engage more that 10 times too, just waiting for editor tools.
I love Fire Emblem, I really love Fire Emblem, I think Awakening is my favorite although my first game was Blazing Blade. I loved that game too but Awakening is what made me fall in love with the series. Did I mention that I love Fire Emblem?
1:00:00 you also forgot to mention Byleth made it in SSBU as well, as the most hated DLC character in the smash community, granted I love Byleth in the game.
It’s kinda late to point out but I looks like you forgot to mention byleth’s inclusion in the smash series. Great video by the way for one of my favorite video game series! Thank you!
I'm still impressed on how they can continually create new characters that feel original and have distinct personalities despite being different from game to game. Conversely, I would love a fire emblem series that focused on the same characters between three or four games
I realized something funny about Fire Emblem Engage and the order that the previous FE characters appear in the game. The game kind of has two halves and in the first, all the emblems you meet are from the older generation of games. I’m the second half, you meet the more modern characters. At some point, you actually gain two emblems at the same time and they’re both from the same group of games that shared the same plot line. I wonder if that was all coincidental.
Not sure if I want to play Engage, Awakening or finish my Golden Deer route in 3H. Loved three houses, but I don't have native hardware for Awakening and emulation seems to have a lot of slowdown no matter the hardware. This video really comes in clutch though! Thanks!
@@TheGamingShelf I'm loving it!!!currently at chapter 14 on engage. I skipped buying 3 houses because it felt complicated because of the social aspect. I like engage more cause it reminds me of echoes. As I was playing it, the interest of the older titles grows and that led me here on your video. Really nice job covering the past games and its history.
This is brilliant! I love the commitment to detail. I didn’t know Lyn’s story was the prequel to Roy’s, having sadly never played that game. My only real point of contention is the pronunciation of Eirika and Ephraim. Am I the only one who always pronounced it like “Erica” and “Ef-rum”?
I really wish Intelligent Systems and Nintendo would make the old games more accessible on modern hardware. *For Western audiences.* I can't believe what they did with the original Fire Emblem for Switch. There wasn't even a cart in that huge box!
I feel you missed the mark a bit by completely skipping over how controversial Fates was among the pre-Awakening fanbase. Though you're right in saying part of the hardcore audience has since come to appreciate Conquest's difficulty and customization, the Fates trio is still by far the most hated part of the franchise among many fans, more than any game that came before or after. The FE fanbase has always been divided since the series has such clear distinct 'eras', but the one thing that brings Kaga, Tellius and GBA fans together is their mutual hatred for Fates. Apart from that this was a great high-level rundown of the series.
How do you keep the little subscribe square button from popping up in full screen on mobile? I don't want screen burn in and an hour of that static image will do it.
12:20 that’s not the Yied Massacre. The Yied Massacre is when Quan and Ethlyn were killed. This event is the Battle of Belhalla or the Belhalla Massacre.
So I want to get into Fire Emblem but not sure where to start. I wanted to start with Awakening, but don’t have the console to play it: so out of the 3 recent ones, Houses, Hopes or Engage, which one should I play first?
Three holes is a Warriors spinoff so I wouldn’t start there. Of the other 2, Three Houses is probably easier and doesn’t require some of the background knowledge of the series that Engage does.
