Echoes is I think the best looking 3ds game, period, I love it. Looking at those character portraits is giving me the fire emblem itch. Maybe I’ll finally play Sacred Stones, hmmm…
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Marisa my beloved . . . . . .
Well I’ll share a couple of my Sacred Stones favorites just to rep da boyz
Valentia is a good game. It’s definitely the weirdest game in the series and also the straightest RPG, so those things can be up and down across the experience, but the writing is really good and the characters look great.
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There is a long out of print art book that I found a few scans of online that make it look very appealing, but the only prices I see are north of $200, which is way too much for me unfortunately. But who knows? Maybe a copy will show up for closer to its cover price someday?
I don’t personally find its maps to be that boring, but that might just be me! What I love about it is that it’s like an older FE but with some more modern trappings and QoL stuff. I’m one of those (apparently more common than I realized) weirdos who thinks Three Houses has so much choice to it that it becomes almost unmanageable for me. So Echoes is nice and constrained and as a result a lot more fun for me.
Thanks for the info on AW2!
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This sounds like both a good and bad thing lol. I got it locked and loaded on my 3DS by my bed for when I’m ready for it.
Funnily enough, for me, Three Houses is what reinvigorated the series for me. Fates Conquest was fantastic mechanically and art wise but just so weak in every other regard, especially writing. Dear lord.
Then Engage came out with the Fire Emblem BFF ring system and Colgate chan and Dentyne Fire & Ice san and I just don’t have any interest. The whole thing looks like a low budget clunky indie from inexperienced devs, not the 2nd party powerhouse series that it really is (in Japan). I’m told it’s fun, but I also dislike the extent Fire Emblem has gone through waifu-ification.
And this is coming from a guy that loves Genshin Impact AND Zenless Zone Zero.
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It’s not that I hate Three Houses particularly, it’s just not so much my thing, compared to the 3DS games in general, all of which I enjoyed. It’s just the raising sim aspects weren’t very much fun for me-- I prefer it when the game points me in a build direction for a character that’s relative constrained, rather than telling me I can make some spindly little lad into a brawler if I really want to. My partner loves that aspect of it (and as a result she’s played it like a dozen times).
I don’t think you would end up feeling any differently about Engage if you played it! And I’m kinda stunned that it’s the game Intelligent Systems decided to make as a follow up to Three Houses. I like a character design in it here and there, but nothing sits together aesthetically and everybody ends up looking like they were designed for different games. Gameplay wise it felt fine to me, but I’m not sure I’d ever go back to it.
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I feel you on the stuff in Three Houses. I liked it, but the monastery got tiresome and started to take a long time. So much so that it felt like more time was spent in the monastery than the traditional core loop. Never finished it but put around 60 hours in which is a lot for me.
I heard that Engage started as a spin off sort of side thing to celebrate the series anniversary and turned into a mainline game at some point. Not sure how true that is.
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When the FE characters came for Smash Bros, I did not speak out.
When the FE characters came for the “Here we are again (again)” thread, there was no one left to speak.
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I wish the monastery would have been a nicely presented menu where you can just pick a room and talk to character portraits. The visuals weren’t interesting enough to have to actually walk through a 3d space.
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Engage is goated I fear
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As mentioned in the thread on theorycrafting games, I’ve recently been gearing up for another playthrough of Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous. Since my seventh run concluded a long time ago, I’ve flirted with the idea of new runs for the last couple of new DLCs, but I never felt quite ready to commit, and those runs tapered off
I started the run I was theorycrafting for within the last week or so, and I think I might actually take this one through to the end. In an effort to keep things fresh after so many playthroughs, I’m trying new builds for the companions and playing a spellcaster instead of a melee like I normally do. I think the spellcaster thing is finally clicking after a few other mage-type attempts. I whipped up a version of my actual, tabletop Pathfinder character this time, and I’m challenging myself to stay as in-character in dialogue as I can. After so many times through, it’s easy for me to fall into a rhythm: skim dialogue, exhaust all response options, choose the options with the best rewards, and so on. Slowing down and really thinking about my responses, I’ve already seen a few reactions and versions of scenes that I’ve never seen, which has been neat
To that end I’m leaving the character’s “mythic path” (directions for your mythic power to develop in, like Angel, Demon, Lich, and so on) somewhat up in the air. While I have a mythic build and path in mind, you don’t have to commit entirely to one path or another until the end of the game’s second act, and I want to leave myself with the option to choose something that feels more appropriate from a roleplaying perspective if it feels right when I reach that point
I just finished the game’s first act today. From experience I know I’ll love the second act, which has a real sense of momentum that culminates in the siege of a fortress that’s one of the game’s largest set pieces. The third act is where most of my runs die if they make it out of the first one, though, as the game opens up more broadly, meaning I have to really be enjoying both my player character and my party composition. So far, things are promising, but I’ve had more than a few runs of the game lose steam in the third act, so I’ll have to see how I feel once I get there
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I think having a space to roam and interact with is important in immersing the player. It’s basically necessary for the waifu-ification of the game where you want players to get really attached to the characters. I just wish it was faster, and easier. I thought Fates handled it well enough.
My friend, I’m gonna need some elaboration! What are its strengths over the other games in the series?
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started playing Dodgy Geezers for the ZX Spectrum. It’s a text adventure about doing a heist. Not too far into it just getting the lay of the land and doing my graph paper mapping
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that’s a hard 28 I gotta say
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Light on his feet at 17 stone tho
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That’s just how 28 year olds looked in the 80s what with that smoking and leaded gasoline.
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Before I get into it, I want to be clear that while I think there are several turning points in the franchise, the two primary eras are pre-Awakening and Awakening and on. That’s where the waifu stuff started and where the series took on a much greater commercial identity especially in the west. Three Houses is the most popular one, but Awakening is where it started.
The general opinion for the second era is that the games are perhaps a bit less hardcore than the games of the first era, and the waifu stuff has become more of a signifier than anyone would’ve guessed back in the GBA era. Among the hardcore fans, Conquest is mostly considered the best second era game for a pure hardcore tactical RPG, but the writing is pretty unpopular. My opinion is that Engage is as good a tactical RPG as Conquest, and it’s also a much more likable game.
The central mechanic, ENGAGING, seems silly but in practice is sublime. The way the game gives and takes with the emblem rings is consistently clever and fun. The maps also reflect this and it’s rare to find a map in the game that doesn’t have something interesting going on. Revelation tried this but it was obnoxious. In Engage it’s just fun.
I find that the difficulty balance is really good too, especially if you don’t use the paid DLC rings. Besides engaging though the other main innovation is the break mechanic, where units can’t counter if they are hit with their weapon triangle weakness. It makes Engage an offense focused Fire Emblem, which takes some getting used to as we are all such enemy phase merchants, but I think makes the game feel really fresh.
Character designs are what they are. They look better on paper than they sometimes do in the full 3D models, but you get used to it. The Somniel is the poor man’s monastery, but it’s quicker and feels less like an obligation + everything you do there has an impact on your battlefield performance. The writing gets a lot of flak, but I think that’s a lot of groupthink too. The story is deliberately slight, and the characters can be pretty broad, but the dialogue in supports and whatnot is well done and often charming. I believe that people just don’t like that the game is a comedy anime.
Anyway, that’s my piece. I think it’s the best game of the second era of the series.
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Thanks for the writeup! As someone pretty familiar with the series, I didn’t know Conquest was so liked by the hardcores.
You just made it sound very fun. Maybe I can treat it like Conquest and enjoy it while ignoring the writing.
Something I always think of with Fire Emblem is that the games can excel in either story or gameplay but never both and it seems to flip flop between the two. Not that some aren’t fun to play, but the difficulty ramp and maps are inconsistent or uninteresting in Awakening and Three Houses.
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My findings are anecdotal but it seems that way to me. I just googled it to confirm and it’s won some reddit polls lol so it’s at least partially true.
I think this is also part of why gamers of a certain age (myself included) will always hold the GBA through Wii games in high regard. I liked that balance of story and gameplay. You could certainly argue though that the later story focused games (Three Houses in particular) did a better job of telling stories that were more uniquely suited to the series. Engage is another one of the games where there’s a full army and only four or five characters ever show up in the cutscenes. That’s one of the things that’s so great in 3H, even someone like Linhardt is there for the mission briefings.
Also sadly it’s just been too long for me and the Tellius games so I’m not sure how well those stories hold up.
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Playing the GBA ganes again is interesting since they had the idea that people want to play maps quickly on the train or whatever so they’re all small and the cutscenes are super short.
A fundamental contradiction in the series is wanting permadeath while also telling a story. A unit other than the small main cast is never involved past one chapter because it’s possible for them to have died. There are a couple that are required participants so when they “die” they’re just injured and no longer a player unit, but that’s very few. I think if Soren dies in Radiance, someone else does the after battle recap thingy.
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Yup, they tie in with the plot. Night Springs tie with Alan Wake’s part, and the Lake House is in the beginning of Saga’s late chapters and it seems like a mixture between the Alan Wake content with a little side (and a tease) of Control.
Also:
I know more or less which is the second ending, so I have no rush in doing a second run later.
@Karasu, as for the jump scares, it depends on whether you are more into horror or not. I’m not as into horror as other people, but while the jump scares scared me at times and the tension goes up in the air, it was bearable for me and I loved the game.
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