What I find interesting about Fire Emblem games is that I barely payed any attention to the stories, I mostly played them for the battles. Like, I remember the general story, but I just put most my focus on the gameplay.
Personally, I fully enjoy the stories but am very much there for the gameplay, which is why unlike Bo, Three Houses is my current favourite. I absolutely love how Three Houses Maddening more or less forces you to use everything the gameplay offers all the way into endgame.
I first played Awakening this past fall. I grew up on the gba trilogy during my teens. Awakening was a fun time, and also infuriating at times bc I played hard classic mode 😅 good video bo!
going back to awakening myself just now and stumbled onto this vid , great to see iam not alone in loving this game...I mean I knew I was not alone but this really made my day hahaha it is a great one! great vid
There are some funny parallels between us; I’m actually 10 years older than you and I got into Fire Emblem when it first came to the GBA in 2003 (almost exactly 10 years before Awakening was released. Also, like you I discovered FE through Super Smash Bros.
Got into it through Smash as well. FE7 (the one you mention) was also my first game but I played it for the first time less than a year before Three Houses released.
Fire embl Awakening was the game that made me fall in love with the series so much that I actually have every single one that came out in America even the special edition fates
I have never been into fire emblem, I've tried them and just got bored. I really wish I did enjoy them though because it seems really cool once you learn it. I've just given up every time I've tried it lol
Also btw your experience with this game, like not knowing what you're doing and taking a break and coming back, mirrors my exact experience with Awakening too lol
Funnily enough, I started replaying Awakening in December. I'm making my way through the DLC maps now. I think the first few maps are pretty basic but SPOILERS things really heat up when Emmeryn dies. The maps significantly improve, and I like how the narrative gets some more wrinkles with more kingdoms involved. My only complaint is that Grima is simply fought in his Robin form instead of dragon form. I prefer when you fight the actual dragon on the final map like in Shadows of Valentia.
I know time moves by fast. But when I finally got to play FE6 in 2011 and beat it with the true ending, it was about that old as well. Now its over 2 decades old with more installments after that.
ahh, you hit my weak Spot. Never finished it. Played maybe halfway through. Actually i only finished one Fire Emblem Game ever: Echos. And i liked it a lot.
FE13 aint Classic FE in its layout by a long shot. Its more akin to FE2 and FE8 up to that point in time with the overworld map, opportunities to grind for exp and gold, and make every unit in your army a super soldier if ya wanted too. The child units are there as a nod to FE4 and to a small degree FE6 as the developers knew this was gonna be the final FE game to which there may not be another chance to do something like that again. Classic FE is where ya have to kill everything ya see in sight for exp, manage your money and weapons carefully, and assure none of your units gets killed while duking it out with the enemy. Then if there are Gaiden Chapters, ya would have to remember all the insane conditions to unlock those chapters to reap their rewards or in FE6's case, faithfully finish the game. Its set up that way to force the player to think out all of their decisions than doing what Leeroy does. I remember going to GDC 2012 to do a verification check on whether FE13 will be released Stateside at all, while at the same time finding out why FE12 wasn't released outside Japan. Got a hold of a Nintendo rep, collected all I could from him regarding said things, then off camera he showed me the Ambassador program games he had on his 3DS from his pocket, then pitched me Xenoblade as he interpreted what I was doing was on par with Operation Rainfall. Luckily, since the 3DS wasn't doing too well followed by it being starved for original big 1st party games up that point. Is to which we can see why Reggie then made the decision to release FE13 Stateside. Sure Orcarina of Time was a good port for the 3DS, but it was more or less Nintendo buying time for the other 1st party games that weren't ready for launch. FE13 saved the 3DS from being a flop, but at the same time saved FE as a whole to allow more installments to be made after it exceeded all expectations on all fronts. I went to replay FE6 and FE11 to which both games still hold up as of now. Its just sad that not many people outside the hardcore base shall ever play FE6 at all, despite all Nintendo having every chance to bring it to the U.S. Online service. FE17 has its own challenges and features that make it unique upon itself. But I feel that on the harder difficulties they could have brought back the feature where your enemy gets reinforcements at the start of their turn than at the end of their turn. Yet I do commend FE17 having the maps from Chapter 20xB and Chapter 21 from FE6 in the main game. The reinforcement spawns for the FE17 version are dialed back, unfortunately, but all the triggers for those maps are nearly the same with nearly every other Ring map that is a throwback to an older FE game.
Fire Emblem Awakening is far and beyond my favorite in the series and favorite Nintendo game period. I agree 3H is very different, I do love it it's an amazing game but definitely different. I love stories and characters and to me Awakening is the perfect combo of great characters with a great story mixed with strategic gameplay and permadeath.
I was never been a fan of tactic style games but recently got a 3ds and tried out awakening. So far I love it! One question though… what happened to their feet? Lol
I was so bored one night and I decided to play the demo of Awakening. I knew the game was announced back in the Nintendo Direct of 2012 but I slept on it. I played the demo and I loved it and I bought the full game and it was the only FE title I played for over 1,000 hours throughout my 3DS days.
Streetpass was good on Awakening that I beat lunatic mode with avatars only with max stats. Smash 3DS was my second title to reach over 1,000 hours in total (I stopped playing it when ultimate came out)
Is so hard to believe it’s 10 years old but I still enjoy the game 😊 as it was my first Fire Emblem as well also don’t forget to get that a dlc for Shadows before the e shop closes soon I’ve also begun to look at fan made Fire Emblem games as well like Fallen Princess 👍
This coming from a person who despises every Fire Emblem game post New Mystery of the Emblem, the last True Fire Emblem game. I can't help but agree when you stated the irrefutable fact that Fire Emblem 16 is surprisingly susceptible to aging. It was released in 2019 and it's already starting to feel outdated thanks to the awful Monastery sections which I could not beat without a walkthrough. Awakening sucks sure, but at least its gameplay is functional, if poorly balanced/designed. I've played Engage and it is a marginal improvement to Three Houses in gameplay terms, but the writing has tanked significantly by comparison, even though I never found the Three Houses cast appealing/likable.
How is Awakening the best game? Story is average at best and while the supports are good, the map design sucks Seriously you can solo everything with Robin easily