@“tapevulture”#p44175 Hmm. I‘ll try not to overload you with information but that’s a tricky question. In general you can't go wrong with
~(I'm numbering the titles in order to avoid drowning the post in subtitle words, but the numbers do not necessarily indicate a relationship between any two games.)
I recommend [Serenes Forest](https://serenesforest.net/) as a no-nonsense resource for recruitment and side quest info. This isn't like Dark Souls levels of wiki-needing (~(or... maybe it is)) but these games can occasionally be obtuse.
||I think the GBA games (6, 7, and 8) have the best game feel—everything moves pretty quickly, the battle animations are awesome, menu interaction is slick. Graphics are extremely legible. The music is good but gets pretty repetitive. 8 allows you to grind for levels in a tower of trials you can return to between chapters, while in 7 figuring out how to keep all your units similarly leveled (or bring new recruits up to speed) is part of the puzzle (one I find fun).||
||9 by comparison is a bit sluggish, but the increased sense of scale may appeal to you—more characters, bigger maps, multi-chapter battles. There's no grinding opportunity but you get stores of bonus experience which you can pour into units as you like. I turned the music off for most of the game due to emulation problems (surely a problem on my end). It also has a [sequel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_Emblem:_Radiant_Dawn), which is my favorite in the series, and improves on everything in 9 (it has several different battle themes!). These two tell more of a political story in the Suikoden vein than do 7 or 8.||
||7 stands on its own perfectly well, but if you like its characters it is actually a prequel to 6. [I haven't played 6 in English](https://forums.insertcredit.com/d/1068-videogame-ambitions-videogambitions/48) and so cannot say whether the narrative is worth following up on (6 is also wicked hard in a not very fun way). 8 is a standalone story with a neat villain and two protagonists you can choose between (each offering minor-to-significant narrative changes).||
||If I play one myself I'll either replay 10 or play [4](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_Emblem:_Genealogy_of_the_Holy_War) for the first time (a fan-favorite and one which series creator Shouzou Kaga worked on as writer and designer).||
I cannot in good conscience recommend Awakening or anything after it, but obviously I'm in the minority there and you might have a blast with those. At the very least I would say they are the opposite of punk rock RPGs.
So. 7, 8, or 9. :)