Nowadays, the games are mostly known for their anime aesthetic, strategic gameplay, relationship between characters and simple stories; in part thanks to Fire Emblem Awakening, the thirteenth entry, which greatly popularized the series. However, before that, Fire Emblem mostly had a niche following, in part because of poor marketing and overall unpopularity of tactical RPGs, especially in comparison to how it is now.
Currently, there’s 17 games plus some spin offs, which I’m not including (mostly because they don’t meet the standard of quality present in mainline games). It’s important to know that some entries are actually remakes of earlier games, such as with New Mystery of the Emblem or Shadows of Valentia; and that each game is accompanied by subtitles, but they are usually referred to by their number, as they are much easier to remember this way.
Without further ado, here’s my choice for top 10 best games in the Fire Emblem series.
10. Fire Emblem: Awakening (13)
Awakening is commonly known as the game that saved the franchise. Whether I like it or not, this is true: Awakening was so successful that it convinced Nintendo to not cancel the franchise (which, up to this point, it usually sold poorly) and keep producing new games. In exchange, the perception of the franchise and the design philosophy changed greatly. Whether this is good or bad, that’s up to the reader.
At any rate, the appeal of Awakening comes from the simple fun it provides. Every character can build supports with everyone, and your customizable avatar can marry almost anyone, if you care about that. This supports aren’t just pretend, as later on in the game you can gain new playable units whose stats and skills are dependent on the paired units. The gameplay is as fun as usual, although the pair up system is broken and can trivialize a lot of the ordeals the game provides, especially with playable avatar and the protagonist Chrom. The story starts off pretty strong but falls off after the defeat of the first antagonist. A shame.
It might seem hypocritic of me to put this game when I don’t even like it, but I wanted to at least mention it, out of importance.
9. Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones (8)
8. Fire Emblem: Three Houses (16)
The monastery serves as a hub that's very similar to the town of Shibuya in Persona 5 (gameplay wise, of course, as Shibuya looks cooler). In the monastery, you can interact with your units, form bonds with them and train them in many ways (as well as your customizable avatar). It’s also a source of exploration, allowing you to find items that are scattered throughout the chapters. While on paper this sounds great, as it’s the main way of characterizing the characters, it becomes repetitive and boring later, and it bloats the game by making it much longer than it needs to be.
The game sports four routes (five if you count the DLC) of varying quality. Although all of them have different storylines, they all share the same prologue, and it’s not a small one, so you will have to repeat the same story section several times to get the most out of the game.
The gameplay (as in, the combat) is actually pretty good. The weapon triangle is ditched in favor of… nothing; and each unit can be built whichever way you want thanks to a particular Monastery feature. Granted, there are more optimal choices than the others, but the fact that you can build them however you want is great. Sometimes, it’s all about the possibility, not the result.
Overall, the Monastery is so intrusive that it ruins the Fire Emblem experience, but don’t let that discourage you. It’s still a really fun game, and when you’re in the middle of war, it’s as Fire Emblem as Fire Emblem can be.
7. Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War (4)
The biggest strength of GotHW is its story. Set in medieval times, it’s filled with alliances, betrayals, love, evil magic, kings, princes and other topics, some more controversial than others. A lot of people compare it to Game of Thrones, and with good reason. To complement this story, it has plenty of characters that fit the tone perfectly, but being a Fire Emblem game it also has some characters that serve no purpose other than being your soldiers. The gameplay has some unique quirks, such as the inability to trade weapons (which means a character will probably use the same weapon for the whole game unless they receive a new one).
Its main weakness is that… it’s not very fun to play? Because of the length of the chapters, it can draw out quite a while, which makes it very boring. The maps are immense, and going from one place to another, especially with infantry units, takes a while. It also has a lot of secrets that are impossible to find without a guide; and some of them vastly improve the characters one way or another. At times it feels like the game toys with the player.
This is definitely a game to be experienced once and never again. It’s worth it, though, just for the story and characters. And the vibes.
6. Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia (15)
The same can’t be said for the gameplay, however. The combat itself is fine, even if it has some odd quirks such as bows having insane range but terrible accuracy. The main problem lies in the map design, as it is translated from the base game one to one. You know what the base game had in terms of map design? Plains with nothing on them, deserts with nothing on them and swamps with nothing but poison on them. The bottom of level design, in my opinion.
Aside from that, the game is great. The story is really good, mostly thanks to the addition of the new character Berkut, but also because of improved characterization for a lot of the characters. It features a world map and places where you can grind you units, so if you played Sacred Stones you will see some similarities. Much more playable than the original one, that much is certain.
5. Fire Emblem: Blazing Blade (7)
Blazing Blade features three routes. Unlike other games in the series, each one follows a natural progression. Lyn’s route, which also serves as a tutorial, is the shortest, easiest and sets the actual events in motion. Eliwood’s route serves as the main story and is unlocked after completing Lyn’s story. Finally, Hector’s route serves as a “what-if” of sorts. Although some things are different, it shares the most important plot points with Eliwood’s story. It’s also a bit harder, so it serves as a more difficult alternative if the Hard mode scares you.
The game is probably the most vanilla of the series. It doesn’t have any unique mechanics, mostly focusing on what Binding Blade (the sixth entry, as well as sequel) did while fixing its problems. The story is decent and characters, for the most part, are serviceable. As a result, it ends up being the most unremarkable of the bunch. On the other hand, it’s well rounded, a good entry point to the series because of its balanced difficulty, most of the characters are usable and has a unique (or not so unique, as it was also present in Binding Blade) ranking system to challenge your management of resources and time.
Not the best, but very solid and important. You won’t be disappointed.
4. Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem (12)
Frankly, New Mystery of the Emblem is a really, really solid game. In comparison to the previous entry, Shadow Dragon (which is also its prequel), the game is much more fun. Better map design, more interesting units (from a playable standpoint), a more compelling story and… a playable avatar. Yes, the first instance of such appeared here. Just like later avatars, you can customize them in many ways: hair options, facial expressions, name and starting class. Simple, but engaging enough.
I have trouble thinking of actual flaws in this game, aside from ugly visuals (which were also present in Shadow Dragon) and the harder difficulties being unfair and unbalanced (in the hardest difficulty, the tutorial is pretty much a puzzle that you have to do in a specific way, which greatly gimps the freedom and makes it much harder than it should be). Also, it’s a direct sequel to Shadow Dragon, which isn’t as savory, but you have to play it because the stories are interconnected. Other than that, New Mystery is very good. It just lacks that little something that allows it to compete with the top 3.
3. Fire Emblem: Thracia 776 (5)
It's really hard and you will want to tear your hair out, so it’s not very accessible and should be your very last game. But trust me when I say: it’s worth it. Very worth it. You will utter “Curse you, Kaga!” or something worse a lot of times. It could be the best game in the series if it weren’t so unforgiving.
2. Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn (10)
Honestly, if it were on its own, Radiant Dawn wouldn’t be given much thought by any player. Sure, the story is good, intriguing and engaging (albeit it has one plot device that sucks badly), but most of its qualities are inherited from Path of Radiance.
In fact, Radiant Dawn does some things that feel, or even are, wrong. The narrative interferes with the gameplay, making some playable units worthless because they are available for a very short amount of time and then come back at the end severely weakened in comparison to the rest of the characters. There’s a huge imbalance between parts: part 1 is noticeably harder than part 3, because of the playable units. The conversations that come from supports are completely gone, as every unit can support with each other and it would be very difficult to write quality dialogues with so many characters.
Despite everything, Radiant Dawn is a magical experience. As I mentioned, the story is worthwhile, the music is the best in the whole series, the character writing is still superb and you can even get some bonuses from transferring your save file from Path of Radiance. Also, bonus experience (an honestly great mechanic) is back from Path of Radiance, albeit a bit different. Definitely, the pros outweigh the cons.
1. Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance (9)
For starters, it has THE best world building in the franchise. Tellius is a great setting, with rich geography, countries and factions; all of them thoroughly explained and well introduced. Radiant Dawn also has that great world building, but in that case, it exists BECAUSE of Path of Radiance. Unlike Radiant Dawn, however, the supports are great. They are charismatic, funny and help understand the characters and their personality. In fact, they are so good that they help contextualize Makalov, which is one of the most hateable characters because of how sleazy and lazy he is.
In terms of gameplay, it’s classic Fire Emblem combat. Skills are back, with the difference that they can be taught (through scrolls) and even removed (if they are negative). Some skills even bring utility in the field (of special note is Smite, which pushes an unit, either ally or enemy, two spaces away). However, what differentiates Path of Radiance is bonus experience. When you complete a chapter, you earn experience that can’t be used right away, but rather at the base of operations. You can give any unit in your team as much of this bonus experience as you want and make them level up. The reason why this mechanic is so great is due to two reasons:
- It eases the process of forcing good growths on an unit.
- It helps bring initially weak units up to speed.
The story is good, albeit simple. It’s mostly elevated by the character writing, really, but it’s still very enjoyable.
I could go on and on about why Path of Radiance is so good, but the article wouldn’t see the end. So what about the cons?
Well, there’s only one, and that’s the combat animations. They are… slow. This game is not ADHD friendly. It’d be best if you turned them off as soon as possible. And… that’s it. Well, there’s also the fact that it’s a very easy entry, but I don’t think that’s bad. In fact, that just makes it a great entry point.
Conclusion
Me: Damn I wish I had a cool design to represent the series and end the article with.
The humble Black Knight:
Please do give these games a try. Just in case it wasn’t clear, the best ones to start are Blazing Blade, Sacred Stones and Path of Radiance. Any of these three will do. But, really, as long as you don’t start with New Mystery of the Emblem, Radiant Dawn or Thracia 776, you’ll be fine.
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