The Genius of Genealogy of the Holy War's Prologue 

You forgot to mention the most important lesson the prologue teaches the player! Arden should stay at the Castle.

Back in the day, when we used to buy games, I always used to look forward to cracking open the box and pulling out a little thing called a "Player's Guide". While I cannot say that Genealogy as a game does a good job at explaining it's own mechanics, because let's be real, it most certainly does not. However, that strategy guide there would have had ample information for the player to learn about the majority of the mechanics. We oftentimes forget that, and so we judge most games unfairly from a mechanical perspective as being unforgiving and unfriendly to new players. It's an almost 25 year old game that we can only access in English though certain methods, but in context, it did probably do a good job at what we criticize it for. I jumped a little ahead in my comment because that's the complaint that I see a lot that I think is unfair. Anyways, I think you did a great job in talking about the "map story" in terms of a gameplay story being written and how you need to split your teams. A lot of this is a "show, not tell" with Genealogy that it tries to teach the player and you managed to highlight that beautifully. Unfortunately, Chapter 1 doesn't entirely capitalize on that and like you said, eventually funnels everyone down one road. However, most of the "bloat" and "backtracking" that people experience, mostly in Ch 2 and 4, can be remedied by looking ahead and thinking "Gee, I see that castle down there, I wonder if I should leave some people down there since I'm gonna have to come back and capture every castle on the map right?". Maybe it's asking too much of the player to think that far ahead with the masses of enemies you're facing, and the incentive to rush ahead with cavalry, but there is an art to playing FE4 quickly that I will admit is probably not easily picked up on in a blind playthrough and will result in a certain amount of bloat. And naturally, I must mention how FE4's gameplay and layout is mostly tied to story rather than the other way around. I know you didn't talk about it in this vid, but if you eventually make your "Here's 5 reasons why I hate genealogy and LinkKing7" video, it's nice to take a look at the Jugdral map, and realize that you traverse the entire continent through the 12 maps played, giving you a larger sense of story and lore immersion, even if you're not feeling it with the gameplay! But I digress, and you know where to find me if you ever wanna chat FE4 :P. Also, that Arvis guy is mighty nice for giving you a nice OP sword to help you on the way! What a swell dude.

The Geniusalogy of the Holy War

this map is where noish is introduced thus making it the best one

That fucking map music though. Always a goddamn bop.

Did we really only get a 16 minute thesis on why Midir is the most broken unit ever?

Genealogy is such a unique and interesting Fire Emblem experience. I've started making orchestral covers of its map themes so I can also get a feel of what the remake might sound like; we've got to have that remake on the next Echoes game!

The pivot away from the hottest take possible made me wonder if Bopper had been bodysnatched. Until I heard that "sparesly" and I knew everything was fine.

I always feel really bad about Genealogy because I know and really do enjoy the story it tells, it really is Shakespeare in Fire Emblem, but every time I've ever tried to sit down and play it, I just get bored and decide to do anything else.

Not watched yet but I will guess that you’ll mention the fact that two cavs exactly kill one brigand combined.

Definitely one of the best and most thorough look I've seen so far on the strength of the FE4 prologue! Despite the fact that game manuals taught people how to play games in FE4's era, the prologue nonetheless goes out of its way to present teaching moments to the player. And arguably this continues into Chapter 1 with Ayra's recruitment and Chapter 2 with how different parts of the map will open up as you complete objectives, but these are arguably more on the "advanced course" side of things. Fun fact related to talk conversations: The Sigurd-Arvis conversation is slightly more awkward if you manage to get Azel killed first.

Really cool analysis! On the topic of chapter 2: the only reason my run didn't end there is the music, and I am not exaggerating

I feel like when everyone complains that the maps are too long they keep forgetting the way saving works in the game. A lot of game have long maps, and pretty much all maps are divided in little acts that you can just do separately with no problem. It all depends on how much you want to play, after all.

As an aspiring game designer, I love your videos given how you look at games with an analytical eye! This channel is definitely underrated, I hope it grows bigger!

Damn booty bopper lives in my head rent free, time to think about this video essay for another week.

As someone who just started playing Genealogy for the first time, I had a slightly different narrative for the second half. I had someone (I think Lex?) fairly close who pulled the enemies across the bridge pretty quickly, while most of my forces were still off to the east. Instead of using chokepoints I did a controlled retreat with some hit-and-run and calculated enemy phase combat (hanging out in range of just an enemy or two) until I could get my whole force together to engage them in a mostly open field (with some minor help from forests). This taught me a different lesson: just how dank canto is in this game. Now I just really wish the game had prepared me for how to deal with a certain boss with like 10 move, 20 million attack and FREAKING CRIT ON HIS WEAPON THAT ALWAYS PROCS without just save scumming

This video and your First Level video made me reconsider Radiant Dawn's prologue, and I think instead of the first map acting as a tutorial, it's like the whole first Part serves as the tutorial instead. 1-1 in Radiant Dawn on Normal Mode is my favorite map because of how much it teaches the players in such a confined space with a hard turn limit.

My story with this map is so funny i was like: THE HELL IS THIS WHY IS THIS MAP SO FUCKING BIG, I HAVE TO SEIZE 2 TIMES, THIS GAME IS IN ENGLISH ... I DONT KNOW ENGLISH, WHAT THE FUCK IS A SKILL, charge? THE HELL IT DOES, WHY ARE THE VILLAGE GIVING ME MONEY AND NOT OBJECTS?, WHY ARDEN IS SO BAD? AND DOES HE USE SWORDS,this battle animations sucks dude can i go back to the GBA games?, WHY THEY ARE SO MANY PLAYER UNITS THIS IS THE FIRST CHAPTER, WHY DIES NOIESH DONT DOUBLE HE HAS MORE SPEED THAN THE BRIGAND?, unpleyable I'm going to look for a guide, the next maps have to better rigth?, IS FUCKIN BIGGER THAN THE FIRST ONE, and of course the most important mechanic of the game: WHY DOES SIGURD, NOIESH, ALEC, QUAN, LEX,FINN, ETHELYN CAN MOVE AFTER ATTACKING,I'm never going to play this game ever again, 4 turns Is all that i need to play this stupid game.... 1 year later i came back to the game and now i love it

Also, Sigurd Ethlyn and Quan are your chance to see Sibling and Lover Crit working as early as the prologue, and now you know that Adjacent Siblings and Adjacent Lovers can proc crits.

Great video!

"If you don't have anything nice to say, you're probably thinking of genealogy of the holy war" Truer words have never been spoken.

Quality content as always

Was blown away how large the 1st level is. I think it's bigger than every final map in the series. Big maps something we all had to get used to. Throws you lots of characters who all stand out in there own way. Azel can kill the axe dudes with ease but the high weight of fire tomes means he joins with negative avoid, Alec can double thanks to pursuit but has low strength while Noishe has critical and charge to make up for lack of pursuit, Lex gets double exp but it will be a while before he acquires the brave axe, The two lance users deal damage reliably and sure this game introduced the weapon triangle but they still hit in the 80+ range, Ethlin's your first healer and the fact she's mounted is a huge plus. Sigurd has got to be one of the most OP characters in the series. High bases, holy blood boosting growths, only instance of pre-promote/starts out on horse main character, max sword rank, leadership stars and sibling crit with Ethlin. Oh ya forgot about Midir. I like bow users with the pursuit skill combined with charge (hope that's not weird lol). The fact he's on a horse means he can kill dudes and retreat to safety. onto the map stuff. Silver sword early access accelerates Sigurd's future brokenness, Arden is ugh your castle protect guy unfortunately, speed ring gives a nice +5 speed which is a big boost to Finn or Sigurd regarding inheritance, big learning lesson is it takes I think 10 turns before a village is completely razed so you gotta approach rescuing towns differently, seizing castle activates next setup of goons you gotta fight so seize when ready, churches are full heal motels etc. Gotta say that now that I'm older this game you can analyze over and over again.

I had a mental breakdown, issues getting the game to work, a computer crash, and language difficulties, all before even starting the game. That was my prologue.

did you just line up chads from gen2 and didnt include Ares?

Aside from the fact that the mere size of the map just turns certain people off from trying it, I think it’s probably the best it could be at teaching players how it works. On a side now, I’ve always held that Geneaology is best on subsequent play throughs because of its map design. Chapter 3 on a second or third play through is probably my favorite fire emblem chapter period. Intercepting all of the side objectives and preparing for the next one in a timely matter feels amazing when you get it right, but it definitely doesn’t happen like that on first time.

2:07 Hey, I love Noish! Probably one of the best contenders for the pursuit ring in my opinion. 2:40 I personally love this, opening maps should be strategic enough to new players so that the experience isn't too dull (i.e Lyn mode's opening chapter having literally an enemy and boss) but not overly frustrating where it'll be too frustrating for new players. 4:16 Funny enough, on my first playthroughs I'd always perform the opposite and send Sigurd the other way. Never knew why I did this, something was drawing me the other direction I suppose. 6:03 Huh, I never thought of the forest placements like that. I love maps that combine story and gameplay experiences like this, and this is a terrific example of it. 11:11 I agree! That's why I think the early-mid game, specifically Parts 1, 2 and first half of 3, are terrific as having constrained resources makes creating unique strategies and optimization a lot of fun. 14:52 While I think that would be open to interesting discussion, I'd love a discussion video regarding the money system in Genealogy, as you were definitely tip toeing into interesting commentary about one of Genealogy's most unique game mechanics earlier on.

Love the vid! Even with maps that drag out forever, the opening map is so great you can replay it and have different scenarios happen. What if Arden took care of all the bandits? Azel defeats the bosses as he is desperately trying to find Aideen. It really does a fantastic job for setting up fire emblem maps in a large overarching saga. Hope to see more vids like this analyzing maps and stuff!

I love genealogy. And would argue that since it's a game with massive maps and since there is a strong divide between Chad mounted units and virgin walkers, you end up splitting the armies organically. Which actually ends up being quite good, as despite me calling walking units lame, they end up pairing with each other and growing into very powerful albeit slow units. It's a interesting dynamic of trying to attack and avance with your frail but quick cavalry and defend with your slow but buff infantry. And since villages are on risk and money ia scarce, you must play offensively.

Yaay analysis vids!

As for someone who hasn't played this and only seen gameplay from other creators this was a very nice summary, this game was always very confusing to me. Also darkeater midir reference! He is my favourite boss from ds3 :)

The one thing the prologue didn't teach is that I have to seize the castle in order to make the bridge appear, I spent way too long trying see who can cross rivers before thinking of putting sigurd on the castle

The fe4 Prolouge is One of my favorite map in the series. I replayed it so much and there are just so many cool mechanics the Player can discover just by expiramenting. My favorite has to be the Alec/Noish combo that allows you to kill almost all units in the beginning of the map.

“No other maps really go this route” Hard disagree. Chapter 1 is definitely super linear, but it gives you certain tools you’ll need later like the return and Warp staffs? As well as showcasing that you’ll likely need to protect your own castle through the gameplay, as a reminder of the dialogue from chapter 1, or to teach people who skip the story. The tools for transporting your units across the maps, as well as the ability to reforge staves, dance for 4 units at a time, as well as all the side objectives in a given map make them all odd takes on the prologue that I think you should pay more attention to. The maps are still way too fuckin big tho, good LOR-

who DARES dislike a booty bopper video, let alone 2 PEOPLE?

If I may critique one big thing: Don't dismiss the prologue not teaching you the lover mechanics as "You don't need them to beat the game." That is like saying you can beat Thracia without Warp Staff abuse, or the GBA games without using your Jagen archetype. Sure, both technically possible, but it makes the games way more of an unfun slog, and when you actually use the mechanics you feel like a fool for not utilizing them sooner. Not to mention this was one of the game's MAIN SELLING MECHANICS.

Chapter 1 is my favourite chapter of the game. Its just set up so perfectly

And so it begins. Mr. Bopper is going to end up loving this game like everyone else.

The prologue is the only map where all the enemy units aren't clustered in one place. This game has 15 turns of literally nothing, then 1-3 turns of facing 30 canto units.

Now let’s just hope they keep the prologue like this if they hopefully do a remake soon

Lmao I love bootybopper's sense of humor. "If you don't have anything nice to say, you're probably thinking of Geneology of the Holy War"

I loved the video but i just want to note on the CH2 is similar idea since you want to save all green units and the villages but there is no time so you are left with half of your army to reach Nordion in time, and even then you must rush to the castle to make Lewyn and Silvia join in and which means passing thru balistas and a wall of enemies, i guess CH 2 forces you to use Canto more then teaching you to mobilize units.

Well you showed it but I was hoping you'd talk about why Finn is the best recipient of that town's Speed Ring.

I'd imagine there was some push to make an impressive opening after the opening chapters to FE 3 Book 2 were all so toxic to new players

Thank you for roasting chapter 22 of fe6, it deserves it.

Genealogy has it's moments, the pairing system is fun and the holy weapons are fun to use too, it also has some of the most fun "Trainees" to play with ever (rachesis/leif). The thing that kills the game for me though is just how bad the unit balance is, anyone who doesn't have a horse is really situational or just not worth using. Sigurd is also so strong in his chapters that the game warps around him if you are trying to play fast, you're rewarded for spamming him and his silver sword too since all his stuff goes to his son who becomes a god if you get over 50 kills on his sword. Also swords being almost as strong as spears but weighing 1/3 as much was pretty bad and made spear users feel like shit, not even gonna get into axes since like 3 people use them and the game stops offering them to you after a certain point because they suck that bad (except the hero axe ofc). There's a lot more good than bad though, and the good units are REALLY good especially later on when it becomes dragon ball Z with your super children.

Now talk about how much Master escape slaps

The best Fire Emblem!

Omg the thumbnail...

It's now in my top 3 SNES games alongside Super Metroid and Lufia 2

I recently played Geneology of the Holy Snore for the first time and agree that it has some massive flaws that need to be discussed. Looking forward to when you talk about it.

sooo. about the whole "taught to split your army" stick.... i didnt do that on my playtrough in the prologue.. i kept them all together till we reached the road that split to the top down, and the middle town towards jungby and that town.. and i only send 2 units up to deal with that one town.. i dont think the game did a good job at teaching me to split up.. contrary the way the enemys stormed out of the castle lining up made it pretty clear in my mind, that sticking together and potentially risking the anihilationg of a single vilage was the correct choice... HECK The town being that close to jungby made it seem to me like that was what the game was trying to teach me "you cant always save everyone". the way directly to jungby is far stronger defended on first glance, more enemys etc. while the top path, while not weak, is not nearly as heavily foritifed leading to 2 bridges easily used as chokepoints, then every reinforcements either arive from the top or the your own castle, and it was almost certain this was what the game was trying to teach me...

Now I want a hack whose only changes is replacing Midir with Darkeater Midir.

I think the original title is pretty accurate

Genealogy is a great game, I can just never get past chapter 2, and its been a legitimate 3 years

Would the awareness of funds not be an issue when a player would naturally be curious of skills?

A map that doesn't encourage moving as a simple humongous death ball? I refuse to believe that such a thing exists.

Have you tried Iron Manning FE4 Professor?

WHATS THE SONG AT THE BEGINNING,

I really liked this video, wanna take bong rips behind CVS when pandemic is over?

that's it i need to join the 1 dollar patreon dammit

As a pretty casual Fire Emblem player who hasn't played any of the older titles, holy shit those maps are humongous.

"Here's a silver sword I traveled across Grannvale to give you. It's broken and I didn't bother fixing it myself even though I have the money right here, but you know what they say, it's the thought that counts" In all seriousness that's a good idea, but to keep it story relevant maybe having it at 20 or so uses left so the player can still use it right away in that chapter. Perhaps giving it some sort of historical relevance as to why its in the state that it's in and would still be considered a thoughtful gift that arvis would go so far out of his way to personally deliver to sigurd.

Prologue is peak fe because alec and noish exactly combine kill the level 1 fighters

It's hard to agree with some of your opinions but yeah this is a good one.

hey its ok if you dont like Genealogy we cant all be correct. anyway great video I give it an Arden out of 10

Very subtle thumbnail you got there.

Even a denier has to accept true greatness

yeah, you lost me when you said that the Geneology prologue was a better map than Port Warren

This chapter fixes the bridge for you automatically, which doesn’t prepare you for the incredibly sensible and intuitive act of of Dew being able to lockpick a bridge to repair it in chapter 4. 0/10 worse than Arcadia. Also Midir sux because he’s the only female who doesn’t have kids. MACHINE GUN JAMKE FOR LYFE.

Makes sense that I love FE4 and the prologue is the least interesting map to me, whereas you hate FE4 and your favourite map is the prologue! Goes to show how different criteria lead to completely different enjoyment of a game.

Sigurd bbq memes

Ok but the real question I have is, why does genealogy give so many fucking mounted units in the first chapter?

Is it a hot take to question how good this game (and others) are at teaching the player things?

Ure wrong, fe4 best game ever!!!!!!! Jk. I actually remember Mekkah saying in one of Don Don's LTCs during that he actually considered Genealogy a bad game? I dunno if changed because of over time or something, but thats something he said. Idk if it's the ending of Don Don's Binding Blade series, or SD, but it's a line he said, so he won't kill you for disliking Genealogy! Instead it will be for a random pitfall you fell into.

Genealogy is tedious, I'll admit, but I guess since you can save nearly as much as you want, you can take your time.

should've kept the first title.

While I would like to seriously consider your opinion, you used the wrong "you're" in the opening, meaning you are nitpicking and biased.

Too bad about the rest of the games maps

TIL The three act structure of the first map of genealogy of the holy war

Ok boomer

Fire emblem bad lmao

I dunno about it, chief. I felt it a slog to play through this map. I didn't care at all about splitting my units. The game did it for me after sending Azelle and Lex north. I didn't have them do much battling to keep them safe, and didn't lose the villages anyway despite my slower playstyle. Felt no pressure to save Lex and Azelle, felt no pressure to save the villages... Guess I missed the point. That said, I do see what you mean by encouraging fast-paced gameplay. I guess I didn't get on with the program, and I would say the chapter didn't quite accommodate for the good ol' turtling gameplay. Birth of the Crusader, and Genealogy in general, taught me what I don't want in Fire Emblem game.

Honestly this entire system really is just one of the even bigger reasons why people think it needs a remake. The gameplay is kind of fun once you've learned how it's system works, and it has some pretty cool features. Thing is that it was simply way too ambitious for that time period, but now with all of these new three houses mini features there's so much that they can actually do with it to improve and remake some of these gameplay features.

I dislike Geneaology too youre not alone.

I still remember when it said A terrific start to a Terrible game

Geneaology suffers a really bad rep, its true that it has some HORRIBLE maps that are slow and impossible to play without fastforwarding in an emulator, but people never talk about how the prologue and the three last maps are actually really good

FE4 is not at all perfect it is most defintly not my favorite Fire emblem game like all games it has its flaws HOWEVER i do think its still a very good game for me its about in the middle of all the games

And then Ch 1 ruins it

Prologue, more like, boss abuse with lex until he promotes

Prologue is great. Teaches you that everyone not named Sigurd sucks and makes the game 10x harder so don't bother and just Sigurd solo. I'm realizing more and more that I actually hate this game

The lack of item management doesn't make the game simple - it makes it more frustrating :/ I hated the lack of a Convey and Trade feature. I hated that you had to sell something to a Pawn Shop just to give it to someone else, basically punishing you for not getting the item with the "correct character" in the first place. This kind of meta planning makes a blind playthrough feel bad because it's so invasive to fix it. I generally don't like maps that make me go, "If I had know THAT (whatever "That" is), I would have played this map a lot differently". That's designing an unfair map that heavily favours making decisions around a meta. In Geneology, the item and gold management causes this problem, just as not knowing which units to use to talk to characters (a Problem in anything Pre-Awakening). Ambush spawns cause this problem too. I just find these things annoying because I don't like guides and I hate restarting a map because I didn't know some bit of hidden information.

Just be honest, the gameplay of Genealogy was god awful lol.

fe4 does suck

The fact that you're promoting a guy accused of rape like choop on your channel is kinda gross tbh

I don't like the maps it's too big 0/10 Edit: oh wow you too huh? (I guess because you said you don't like the game lol)