Stop Caring About Fire Emblem 

holy shit donlot mentioned Some things i would add: A good reason to not care about missing out on content is to think of it this way: If you enjoy the game a lot, you'll probably replay it and get another chance to see things you didn't get to see in your first run. If you didn't enjoy the game, why even bother trying to see everything for something you don't care about. Most FE games also give you more than enough tools, so be it units, items, etc to beat the game. People have solo'd many games with all kinds of units, so you can beat them even with a sub optimal team. Lastly this may sound a bit cheesy but i think generally you can say this for both FE and life in general: You can plan ahead for as long and as much as you want to, but once your plan makes contact with the enemy, it usually won't go exactly as you envisioned it. But that's life for ya. What's important is that you pick yourself up and just keep going if things don't work out. New plans can be made, new successes achieved, and unexpected heroes to be crowned, even in the darkest of hours. Only in very rare instances is it impossible to recover from failiure.

TLDR: Donlot is the ideal FE player.

Couldn't agree more, I've been saying this for years. Worrying so much about tier lists and which unit is better than what is silly in a single player non competitive game. If you're having fun playing that's all that matters and fun is unique for each player.

I've loved the Fire Emblem series for 15 years, and I've never cared about how you're "supposed" to play. It's the only way to ensure that the game is fun.

For a moment I was like "Is this a King of Skill video?" for a second.

Cope for bad math

Noooooo I must keep arguing online with strangers about my pixelated girls

Mangs: "Just use units you like." Thea: "I am literally a joke to you."

I kind of like caring. Part of the fun of an Ironman is getting attached to a unit only to watch them die to a 3% crit and then having to work with whatever scrubs/meat shields that are sitting on the bench.

Like Nintendo has already done?

"Don't replay the level to get the best ending, you can just replay the entire game later!" We're reaching levels of Mangs Math that shouldn't even be possible! 😱

Imo the problem is that the casual players only play FE once, hence you feel like you need to play optimally since losing a unit feels like a huge setback regardless if it is or not. For instance if you had a support you were really invested in at B rank and lost one of the two you can't see the support ever since you're not gonna play it again.

6: Either you Throw the Javelin, or the Javelin Throws You on the Bench. ~Lord Ephraim 7: Stop Hoarding the god damn Elixir or I'll shove YOU into an Elixir 8: As a Friend, you are, replaceable. ~War Criminal Marth

RU-vidr just said to stop caring about 90% of his content lol Jk.

I think the best travel advice I’ve ever gotten is “travel as if you’ll be back someday,” because otherwise the things you miss will weigh on you more than the things you enjoyed. I think this is often good advice for playing video games, as well. Play them as if you’re coming back for a second play through.

Nothing is fun when you turn it into a chore.

Xcom nation rise up

For me, the fun of FE is having units I like grow from nothing into absolute powerhouses (or whatever niche they have) and I like finding as many ways as possible to milk every bit of EXP I can (even the most time wasting, boring ways possible) and seeing how much I can break the game early on to make endgame a breeze. For example, in Chapter 6 of Andaron saga I spent over 700 turns power leveling Estelle and Lilinette to max so these otherwise niche characters could help out in the next chapters when it's really needed. That is the MOST fun I can think of. Or leveling Elise and Azura as much as possible so they can contribute more in chapter 10. You just gotta find your niche where you get the most enjoyment and go from there. Be sure to give new playstyles a chance too, as they may end up being your new favorite way to play!

Mangs trying to justify why he's lost Marcus at the arena twice in a row. I appreciate the advice, but we play games how we want to play them. I want to give Iron Man a shot, but in casual playthroughs I wanna play the game and experience as much as I can off the cuff.

"You can always replay the game later" See Mangs the issue here is that Fire emblem is not the only games I play, I'm not even done playing all of them how should I expect myself to replay the same ones several times ? If I let a character die it's over i'll probably never see his supports. It's a bit of an issue I see when taking advices from streamers, or peoples too passionate about one specific lisence, when you can afford to spend a lot more time than the usual player on a single game your vision of what's a good idea gets a bit different.

No. I don't think I will.

But Mangs, playing sweaty is part of my health routine. It helps my skin glow.

Impossible. If any unit dies I must restart the whole game.

So play like exemblem? Got it

I respectfully disagree. My fun is saving everyone. It is the pain you feel when a unit dies that is the joy you feel when you succeed. I am a completely opposite player, if a unit dies - no matter how useless, no matter how expendable, even if it was a unit I captured in Fire Emblem Fates, I will restart - even if it's Fuga's Wild Ride, even if it's Takumi's Nightmare Play House On Max Difficulty, I will restart for that unit. I play Roguelikes. It's one and done for me. If I play ToME and I die? Doesn't matter that I have 7 more lives, that character is dead. I die once on Elona? That character is dead. That's how I play, and without that stipulation I don't get the same level of excitement.

As Sonic says in that one song "It doesn't matter"

Wait, People still care about Fire Emblem? Isn't the game called "Waifu-Emblem" by now? EDIT after getting into the video: Okay I really like your points, Mangs. Iron-man is the true way to play Fire Emblem. Moving on after losing a Unit and go through the entire game even tho you cared about the unit, adds so much to this series. That is what makes Fire Emblem so fun in my opinion.

While I agree about all what's said about not caring that much for a random characters, stat boosters, and not desesperatly try to save them, I absolutely do not agree on the fact that you can give up on them if their death lock you out of the best ending. I say that mostly because, nowadays, we don't have the time to get back and play another FULL run of a game just to achieve something slightly different when it's not a shorter, narrative driven game (like undertale for example). I'm just a mere student, and I already don't have the motivation, or energy, to get back to 3 Houses. Despite having liked the Edelgard route alot, and immediatly started a golden deer route, I just stopped at chapter 5 of my first new game + or so because I simply had new video games coming out that I also liked alot, high school then engineering school take care of, and all that Jazz. So I can't imagine how much less time I'll have doing that with a full time job ! So sure, redoing a game to get a different ending that changes the narrative halfway through the game and makes a GOOD difference because you made some secret choices ? Of course I can do that. Doing a whole new game + with hours of grinding and newbie optimising trying to learn what's good and not to rush through the chapters until the game lets you save that unit you lost before ? I just can't, don't have the time, nor time to care, i'll just watch it on youtube at this point. So yeah that's why I just NEED to save these units, since I most likely won't be able to redo that route ever again or replay the game in a long time.

5:50 while I do see your point it's worth considering that a lot of people play through games only once either because they don't have that much time to play games in the first place and/or because they have other games they want to play instead of replaying a game they already played. Your advise makes sense for a Fire Emblem fan, a type of person who'll replay every FE game multiple times to see more of the game and to try different strategies. However if someone will only play through an FE game once and wants to see the true/best ending then it makes perfect sense to reset if they lose a character.

Here I thought this was going to be about how the series peaked with the Tellius games and is never getting back to that point.

To quote Draco from the Rocky movies: "If he dies, he dies." Resigning to the cruel whims of RNG is the way to go in Fire Emblem.

"Stop caring about being optimal, and do fun stuff," says man who refuses to use Mia in PoR, because she's "bad"

The last time I played Sacred Stones, I lost Saleh on the last turn of Chapter 19 because I forgot to unequip his bolting tome and get got doubled. Instead of replaying the entire chapter I just kept going and it was fine. It was a very freeing experience, honestly.

what if i have fun optimizing things though. people have fun different ways man. EDIT: I will say though, there is some good advise here. People worry way too much about really minor things like distributing a kill or two of exp. I'm still gonna reset if a unit I wanna use dies though cuz fuck that

I like how mangs phrased it: "Care less about mistakes use characters you like and be less optimal let go and fail take risks!" this, this makes me happy, like really happy. mind you, I just wanna play them cause it's fun! fire emblem fun plain and simple. take it another way, look at a glass of water, half empty and half full! games just be like that sometimes enjoy them! I mean, I played many fire emblem games, and now I realize that holy shit; I'm accidentally and unknowingly doing what everyone else does in the community optimal stuff blah blah and not going my own way which I like to call the "blah blah" plot and macguffin nuh uh frick that! guns blazing mode engage!!!!" and just rush in. I remember doing that and laughed so hard, but it was half not worth it and half so worth it!!! that I reset, and that made me realize this is what having fun genuinely looks like from time to time when people just don't care.

Playing FE1 and Shadow Dragon is the best way to not be afraid of losing units, most of the time you won't be arsed to reset for anyone

"Let them die!" - Captain Kirk, letting people know how to play Fire Emblem

Difference between Donlot's lack of fear to fail and Mangs': Mangs sometimes forgot what he learned from his mistakes, so much so that he makes a documented phenomena named around him See: Mangs Math and Mangs Infantry

I think the problem with the initial idea of the abundance of characters being meant as a punishment is that players will naturally be aftraid of the game snowballing with difficulty: You already lost a strong unit so it being replaced by a worse one might lead to you using losing even more strong units in the future. It's a looming slippery slope that most players instinctively fear.

There's always two playthroughs for me, one where I save everyone and one where I experiment with the gameplay. I love a good game for its story and memorable characters (of course this doesn't apply for every FE) but yeah, personally I prioritize story over gameplay

"the title is not clickbait" well kinda sorta? More like in the sense the real meaning you had is not the first thing that comes into mind when seeing the title, but otherwise nice vid. Yes I'm probably just nitpicky despite the fact it doesn't take away for me the enjoyment of the video ignore me

most people dont have time to play games more than once so you probably are going to want to optimise some things a bit so you get to see as much as possible but you have to know your limits there

I get it and agree with this. I usually lose 1 character early on, and then further in the game I'm way too attached to the characters and start resetting when something goes wrong time to break that habit, and lose more characters!

Video ending on the RIP Lilina moment is peak content.

Hey hey, Memes are the best part of fire emblem who could take this game seriously when my 10 year old Dragon that's actually 200 year old and could solo people wheeze

the best thing i ever did in my life was start to play fire emblem before seeing fire emblem channels. the power to be able to chose what unit you want to use without the influese of whats "good" and what is "bad" is liberating. my favorite units in fire emblem are colm and neimi. i always use archers in every fire emblem game. i use armor knight in every fire emblem games. i use mages on every fire emblem 9-10 playthrough. fire emblem games are more fun that way.

Just started FE awakening the other day and had to restart last night to save a character. I'm still really enjoying it but this is good to keep in mind that having fun is most important in my play through

Any unit dies: Meh, it is what it is My shaman dies: Bullshit death, i'm resetting

There are many people that role-play as commanders or generals, either consciously or subconsciously, and many of those people can’t stomach losing men. On the other hand, there are generals who don’t care about their men.

Honestly risks make things entertaining. What fun is there with no risk ever taken?

Part of my enjoyment with games I play is being a completionist, finding and doing the most stuff I can do in a single run. I like to keep all characters alive and doing the most of the game I can do. This is one of the reasons of why I abuse of savestates and resets in my runs, I like to experience everything a game can give me. The other reason is that I like playing games that makes my brain work. I hate to just press a button to win (like most games), the reason why I love Fire Emblem and other franchises of the same genre is because I can do just that. It is not that I care with bullshit like stats or growths, rather I would play a TRPG game because of the puzzles in the chapters, the strategy I need to do to overcome them and the rewards I get while doing that (character backstories, world lore, rare items, etc). Playing these hard games and challenging myself to best it in a "perfect way" helps me to release my stress, putting my emotions and brains to do something I know will reward me in the end, so it is never truly stressful, because I just need to hone my skills and do better next day.

This is why your FE livestreams are amazing and prove that you streaming strategy games while making them entertaining can be amazing. Whenever streamers focus too much on the best moves, they remain awkwardly silent and they forget to interact with the audience thus making some detachment.

It’s a video game. Just have fun

Alright, so I should just my stats boosters to the main lord since I'm going to stick with them, alright I'll give them to Baudimon .... This is why I have trust issues

I think the best thing to do is remember, at the end of the day, Fire Emblem is still a Nintendo game. It's allowed to be fun and colourful and you're allowed to play it for fun. Like Zelda or Pokémon there are challenges and completionism involved, but it's not the entire point of the game. Pokémon has always been best played by using the Pokémon you like the most, and Zelda you can play without fussing over getting absolutely everything to beat the game. The only game in the series I'd say you have to complete it 100% is Majora's Mask, and that's only because it really is that big a part of the experience. Either way, I've been wanting to get back into the series for a long time now, but I've been jaded by the absolutely horrendous fanbase ever since 2020, for you know what reason. But I think this gave me the push to finally try it again for real. Tusind tak :)

Nah. I'mma keep using save states. Because I only use the characters that tryhards tell me are the worst, specifically to make my life a living hell.

I designed my FE romhack under the sort of similar Kaga guidelines and told people to play it Ironman with a lot of mechanical facilitation for that (Near 50+ characters and items go to convoy when the character dies) - I wonder how many people did that? In playtesting I did it both ways (ironman vs. whatever some dude died I'm moving on) and the ironman run was actually way breezier.

9:10 wow.

Honestly reminds me of my binding blade ironman where I lost marcus and a lot of other top tier units on chapter 9 replaced them with "worse units " like zelot trec and oiger and all 3 became amazing units and its by far my favourite ironman experience to date. Love this video keep up good work.

This is pretty applicable to things outside of Fire Emblem

but .... but ... the weapon triangle is real life!

If I want play more recklessly I'll play Advance Wars since it's not so serious. I'll keep FE as my focus game. Also the dragon at the end of the Blazing Blade is unfair so I think I deserve to want to keep a few people alive.

To this day I never care about tier list or growth units. If I like that character I will make it work no matter how bad thier stats are.

Good advice and great video. I hate grinding or tainting to be optimal, and I enjoy focusing on the more enjoyable parts of the gameplay, so this really speaks to me in terms of encouraging playing FE. I think my biggest difficulty comes from trying to find motivation to play when you're otherwise spent from the grind of daily life. When you're tired and frustrated is also when it's most difficult to accept and swallow failure. I think in those circumstances it's good to allow yourself to return to the game with renewed energy and that acceptance in mind.

Ha ha, good video. _Continues to wait until units hit level 20 before promoting them (which admittedly wasn't mentioned in this video) and hoarding stat boosters until my main army is level capped_

I've had this thought for quite some time, but after ± 10 chapters I always get too invested and start resetting when someone dies. Thank you for making a video about this Mangs, now surely I will succeed next time.

I use favorites all the time it's how i play fe my favorite units are Castor, the fe4 gen2 axe infantry and playable generics. I also bench Kris and robin for Gregor and Horace

Avoiding all discourse and just enjoying the games has made it so much more fun, also this video is why i always use the entire dawn brigade+laura+aran+every light magic user in radiant dawns final tower, feels good making the scrubs strong and feels even better getting to use purge 7 times a turn vs the dragons

I've always played Fire Emblem recklessly while using every single unit. I lose more than half of them on each run, but it's fun

Kind of an odd question but will you ever be going back to finish your engage ironman run? I just recently picked up engage again and found it really fun to play if you just skip the story similar to fates. There's even a randomizer that you can try to spice things up.

Ditch fire emblem. Embrace unicorn overlord

I've played Fire Emblem (7 mainly) with my brother since we were kids. Honestly, I get this. Unfortunately, it wasn't until a few years ago (3 Houses, I think) I started to follow some of these rules, funny enough. I use stat boosters on my faves, shake my head when I make a little mistake and try to move on. I still reset if I lose a unit and I still hoard expensive weapons, but I do find it easier to play Fire Emblem and come up with new strategies and have fun. So, I agree with this, but I don't think I can completely follow the rules on this. XD

I like this mindset, I’m a person who likes to overthink things sometimes, and I play fire emblem to relax, so sometimes i consciously choose to play worse and take bigger risks, because there’s a certain satisfaction to clawing your way back to victory from a devastating loss or a bleak situation.

My Kieran died on chapter 20 PoR, last turn before winning the map. I sweared a whole bunch, said screw it. I have dragon boi now anyway, and pushed on. It was so close to a deathless run too.

This feels like more of "start enjoying fire emblem" than stop caring about fire emblem.

Indeed, the very first time I didn't care that much was when I was doing my 1st run in Radiant Dawn, I was restarting a lot whenever I lost a unit but there was a point where I lost Leanne in the bridge map by a bogus move and decided to keep going, and while I kept restarting here and there, I slowly started to play like (kinda) intended and got a lot of fun overall, and did some challenges here and there like my first run in Fates Revelation that a friend of mine made me do a Corrin+Sakura duo run and only I was allowed to use those two for the entire game, started to experiment a lot of stuff since then, like in 2022 I played Three Houses in Maddening for the Crimson Flower route and I got a funny situation where the usual good units like Byleth ended up sucking big time and forced to rely on Bernadetta who I had on the Gremory class as I just was playing the game with experimentations and somehow I managed to clear the game on a Loop 1 run, and yeah, I got very RNG blessed to have Bernadetta maxed out by the end of the game. I honestly never cared much about tier lists, like (again) my 1st run of Radiant Dawn I used units like Leonardo, Meg, Mist and Laura in the part 4 endgames. 8:59 Yup, I have been in this situations, and when I played with my friend my 1st run of Fates Revelation, I ended up having like 40+ times situations when I just let the game decide my fate by relying in the sub-optimal Miracle proc or having FE6 bad rng situations of high %hit-rate missing me. So yeah, when you don't put too much care, you enjoy the games more (of course that if it's your first time, you probably will care too much, especially if you want to experience the story, but once you do that, let yourself be free to experiment and all that, the ironmans are a clear example of how you can enjoy the games... especially if it's one you already have completed as you have experienced the story with everyone alive and now it could be a good time to have divergences, like how in Echoes some events change like if you fail to save Mathilda how Clive is pissed with Alm's failure, or heck, create our own fictions). Edit: seeing those 5 steps near the end of the video, No.1 I hardly reset nowdays unless I actually lose the map, No.2 I hardly need to use the expensive weapons, No.3 That helped me in that Rev. run I did back when Fates was released, No.4 Again... due to how I had to deal with the challenge my friend put me in Fates Rev. I sometimes end up relying on Miracle procs or unreliable dodges (that saved me like 40+ times in Fates Rev and around 5 times in my Maddening Three Houses run), No.5 that was exactly what I did when I lost Leanne in Radiant Dawn and recenlty I have been playing the games like an Ironman to some degree, I feel that at some point I'll be confident enough to do an actual Ironman run, but what game I could do... I dunno, but I would go for any of the DS/3DS games or the Tellius games like a starting point for myself.

Vandal Hearts on the PS1 taught me to not stress in FE. That game doesn't have perma death, but it does have the next worst thing. When a unit dies you take a large cut in the money you earn at the end of battles. Combine that with the loss of xp and you will struggle towards the end game. I highly recommend anyone who hasn't played it before and wants that FE feel to give it a try. It has some of the more fun map design in a strategy game and can test you if you want to do a perfect game.

9:50 Funny enough, when I was playing FE7 the other day : I played carefully, healed him even and Eliwood got killed. Rewinded time and played Recklessly, he dodged the attacks that would kill him. In a way, kinda true.

Ah yes. The good old Jobber Insurance of Kaga Emblems. Yeah. It is something I never realized why they are like that till recently. I can see why later games don't really have Jeigans as well as not have as huge of a roster as it once did.

Why would anyone wanna play like Donlot when PH exists? 😊

I’ll tell you right now, the last FE game I ever bought was Shadows of Valentia and I still own it too. When I lose units I just let it go and see it as “things happen for a reason” situation.

I feel the same way. As someone who’s play 3H way to many times I always use Felix. Not because he’s good but because I love his character and I love his supports. He’s easily one of my favorite units and I’m always excited to recruit him in each run.

This is like the bell curve meme where the two upper and lower extremes are "lol silly unit goes swoosh" and the midlet IQs is " nooooooo you have to use high base stats and mounted units only"

i just wish I could download save data to start out on hard mode in FE7 because all methods i find online doesn't work and forcing oneself to play easier to then repeat it is something that kills things for me, i need visual example "hands on" vs being told

I recently started my first run of FE6. The games I've played are primarily 7 and onward, so I'm used to the modern style, but I've watched a run of FE1 and took notes to shape my thinking on what this series is really meant to be. I know I can't play FE6 the same way I played FE7 when it was new. I lost a favorite unit or two to arena shenanigans, but I know I can carry on without them. I'm still resetting if I do something REALLY dumb, like losing a unit the chapter they're recruited, but all things considered it's a relaxed stroll to experience it and finally see what this one's all about. And I tell you, there's _no way_ I would've made it through with my sanity intact if I was trying to be completionist about it in my first run!

I wish I was more like donlot

Wait I'm already doing all of them. I usually give boosters on my lords on my no reset runs, the good thing if they are a bit too strong, npcs prefer to target others units and I avoid the game over screen.

I have two modes: reset and Ironman. Reset allows me to do suboptimal things like prioritizing low tier characters because I like them since I can reset of it all blows up in my face. I don’t worry as much about any individual decision because I can always try the chapter again. Meanwhile on Ironman I am far Morse guarded. I read guides I train and equip characters based on utility because if I don’t it will cost me long term and then I’ll have to play the whole game over which imo is far more stressful than replaying one measly chapter.

Second title of this video: The art of feeling stats

Thanks for the advice. I finally finished Conquest lunatic Mode by following these rules

Mostly agree. Though I must say carefully weighing each move of each unit and making minor cost/benefit calculations is what makes Fire Emblem so fun for me. I usually play only 10-20 minute sessions taking only 1-3 turns before closing the game and comming back to it another time. Almost feels like an asynchronous game of chess at times.

All these arguments are reasons why I love Fe4 a lot. The first one can be subverted with the Valkyrie staff allowing you to endlessly revive units so long as you have enough gold. Even then, FE4 has Turn saves but these turn saves would not save a unit if they are surrounded and guaranteed to die next turn, so you either reset the long dreaded maps of Fe4 or you just don't care about saving said units. Fe4 gives you the holy weapons which has infinite uses so long as you repair them, but they cost 50k, so every hit a holy weapon uses is 2% of a unit's gold. Holy weapons are super strong but there is nothing more exciting than your Forseti User soloing armies like it's another tuesday. While Fe4 has no stat boosters, it does have the Ring system, which is Superior IMO and the only game to bring it back in a way is Echoes/Three houses (Unless if you count Tonic which I don't but Tonics is a much more superior system). Either way, most of the time, these rings are overkill for certain thresholds on units, but in the right hands, it can complete a unit on reaching certain benchmarks in the arena and let them win a seemingly impossible fight through the power of One shotting vs Two shotting or Getting doubled vs not getting doubled. Risk is what makes FE. While Fe4 is one of the least riskiest games in the series, the risk level of certain enemies and squads always makes me dread facing them in a good way. The endgame Flier sisters in Fe4 are infamous for being one of the most dreadful obstacles in the game as it just seems like bad RNG will have them tear your army a new one, but every time I defeat them, I always feel good that I was able to overcome it somehow. I don't think there is a single unit that can have perfect accuracy against them without stacking all the hit buffs from Charm Users, Lover bonus and leadership. The funniest moments playing Fe4 for me has been realizing that Mages are utterly screwed if you let them get surrounded by even foot units, as they have 5 move while the mayority of non-armored units have 6 and more. The fact that Azelle can easily die in 2 hits and have no where to run in the prologue if you play recklessly is not frustrating, but comedic because Story wise, Azelle literally though he could Save Aideen when he is more of a liability than a asset to the army in the early game.Other moments includes Arden not leveling Defense ever and being 18 defense Promoted while Lex capped his defense 2 chapters ago. I think for this point, it's best to think of it that people should create their own stories, not just become frustrated that RNG screwed you over.

4:18 during my last FE3H playthrough, on the very last mission (AM) Ashe & Annette died. The thing is that I managed to keep everyone alive through the whole game (thanks, Divine Pulse!), but not them. Aaand they got the paired ending. You're kinda supposed to believe that no one of your students actually dies on Casual, but damn... That felt bittersweet.

I remember finding a tier list of all of the FE8 units and seeing Amelia and Neimi, two of the absolute all stars of my hard mode team, ranked as unusable trash. I understand that some units might be inherently 'better' than others. But I don't think that viability should be the defining factor in why you choose to field a unit. I think that a truly great fire emblem player can take the suboptimal units and make maximal use of them, undertaking an ultimate test of creativity. It's why I love Three Houses so much, if you can conceptualize it, you can probably build it, and making unconventional strategies work (some of my favorites being swordmaster Marianne, AK Annette, and mage Felix) is why I hold the game so dear.

Does me training every unit I get as equally as possible mean I take the game too seriously? Like, getting them through the classes ranks.

I find a lot of small niche and obscure players usually come up with their own strategies that the bigger players don't even realize exist because of the que-sera-sera attitude. The stuff you said about the "optimal solution" made me remember this. In FE7 I used Lucius a lot because I thought he was cool, though but all my friends said he was weak and oft died cause of his low con/stuff. That said, however.... I did an iron man of the o.g. Fire Emblem: Gaiden, so that ended horribly because there are few in terms of 'extra units' ... haaa.......... Shadows of Valentia where are youuu........... Ahem! I guess the tldr version is just; have fun!

I can understand the feelings in this video, though I find plenty of satisfaction in trying to get that perfect strategy and execution to get everyone through, alive and well (especially if you come up with creative solutions to accomplish it). That's a way I enjoy Fire Emblem. Your suggested way is definitely a lot more fun to watch though I'll admit, haha. I think the "optimal" ways to play the game are usually lame and I don't watch or pay much attention to trash like tier lists, I use the units/characters I care about and personally like. I don't think most people play optimally. I think they play some level of "trying your best from a casual perspective", myself probably included. Honestly, I also think that going through without resetting in most FE games would make the games too easy if I'm being honest. There's a reason Donlot does so many unusual challenge runs on his channel. Fire Emblem games aren't usually hard if your only goal is to get across the finish line (unless you make a careless mistake with your lord, which is honestly one of the most frustrating ways possible to lose all that progress). Most of the time you can just make a few juggernauts handle everything, especially if you use all resources available to you liberally. The games give you so much its crazy. If you don't care about things like side objectives it becomes even easier since most of the time those aren't worth the investment to bother with them. Plus, the idea of wasting an *entire* run in an ironman for literally nothing sounds way worse to me than just spending more time per chapter. 20 hours of progress that leads nowhere vs 20 hours of progress towards an inevitable completion. I don't have much time to spend on playing games, so just "losing" video games sounds like a waste. I don't have a stream of people to entertain with my failures, its just me staring at a screen. I've beat nu-XCOM ironman runs before and its a little painful to lose (strong) units you've built up in that game, but that's part of the experience and it also has no story consequences (plus the story doesn't matter). With Fire Emblem, losing units just feels like you're making things worse for no real reason. Also, in general I usually don't replay games that often. When I do its usually very rare and the game has to be *extremely* fun and also have unique replay value. I prefer to try new experiences when I can, so a game really has to wow me on my first playthrough to get me to replay it and even still its usually after some time passes. If Its a game I haven't played before, I intend to get the true ending on my first playthrough if that's an option because I want to see the best the game has to offer so I don't waste my time with some weak nonsense. FE7 was one of those rare games where I did replay it many times, but I can't say the same for the other FE games I've finished so far. Maybe its because I feel the characters of most FE games are weak/middling, writing-wise, and so I feel little attachment to them (and thus less reason to care about a game where things like story are a prominent aspect of the game). Maybe I'm just attached to my way of playing the game, I know I've gone through that tunnel vision. Ironmans are frustrating and annoying to me to play through in the past, but I might give it a shot. The message at the end of the video is well-taken :^) Oh, and since I didn't get a chance to say it after you came back: Congratulations again on getting married Mangs, when's the wedding video coming out? =p

While I think some of the rules you laid out just don’t work in some games (conquest literally breaks 2 of them with how you get late game units and how stingy money is), the last one about laughing at mistakes is soooo important. It works everywhere too, I do it when I play card games and it helps so much with bad luck and misplays.

I have a very fond memory of one of my first ever playthroughs of Path of Radiance. I lost oscar, boyd, mia, rhys and soren by the time the defense chapter rolled around. All I had was Titania and Ike. Somehow I managed to recruit ilyana, keep her alive, and complete the chapter. It was that playthrough that I used lots of funky units like mordecai, rolf, and mist because i didn't have anyone else. That was easily one of my favorite times playing fire emblem ever.

Game = fun