The DS remake of the original Fire Emblem (Shadow Dragon) is also on the Wii U Virtual Console, in case you'd also be interested in that. It's $9.99 USD I think.
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Never played Fire Emblem - should I start with 3 Houses or Awakening?
- Thread starter electroshockwave
- Start date
Awakening's ok at best. Decent if it's your first FE, but the more of them you play, the more it's glaring problems start to pop up. 3H is pretty incredible though, coming from a series vet.
It's a very fun game that's also a great entry point into the series, with some fun storytelling as long as you don't look too deep into what's happening. And by that I mean you don't stop to think about what you're actually doing for more than 2 seconds and just let the plot play itself out.
We really gonna disrespect Kaga like this?
It's a very fun game that's also a great entry point into the series, with some fun storytelling as long as you don't look too deep into what's happening. And by that I mean you don't stop to think about what you're actually doing for more than 2 seconds and just let the plot play itself out.
We really gonna disrespect Kaga like this?
Which is why Sacred Stones is better!
Better characters, as well. I'd admit that Three Houses has by far the best characterization in the series, but Sacred Stones is second only to it in this regard.
While fully acknowledging it's many flaws, I will also say that FE6 is an incredible game, my personal favorite in the series. It has some bs, but it also has some of my favorite maps of any FE game. It's definitely not as beginner friendly as FE7/8, but it is a great game in of itself.
I enjoy FE7, especially HHM, just a bit more than SS personally as story isn't really my priority and SS's HM is kind of a letdown, but I will absolutely agree with you on the story/characters being significantly better than FE7's. Probably one of the best antagonists in the series too, right up there with 3H's BL route and FE4's imo. Meanwhile FE7's the clear frontrunner for worst antagonists in the series and it ain't even remotely close.
I enjoy FE7, especially HHM, just a bit more than SS personally as story isn't really my priority and SS's HM is kind of a letdown, but I will absolutely agree with you on the story/characters being significantly better than FE7's. Probably one of the best antagonists in the series too, right up there with 3H's BL route and FE4's imo. Meanwhile FE7's the clear frontrunner for worst antagonists in the series and it ain't even remotely close.
Sorry what? Not in a million years. Plus SS doesn't have Hector so it automatically loses.
If you're willing to, may as well start with Awakening. And if you like Awakening then you can get Shadows of Valentia.
Three House isn't going anywhere if you don't play it right this second.
Three House isn't going anywhere if you don't play it right this second.
If he plays on Wii U he can save state at the start of each battle
Sacred Stones is easier but they're both great to be fair
None, you start on the gba, then go to the gamecube, wii, theres no such thing as fire emblem on consoles with "DS" on them and then you play Three Houses
Yeah Im not sure what it is, but Awakening's characters were really charming to me.
I feel like the supports and cutscenes were more entertaining. Robin is better than Byleth because she/he talks.
Three Houses' supports are carried by Bernie, Hubert and Raphael. It has some good supports, but like 1/3 of the students were kind of boring-normal.
3H is still the best one to play now tho because of the gameplay improvements.
They're both fine entry points, although I would say FE Three Houses & FE for GBA stand FAR above Awakening for me personally. I'd recommend Three Houses out of those two.
Since OP's question was so thoroughly answered in a couple of posts, may I hijack it?
I _love_ Suikoden but obviously we're not getting anymore of those. I tried Awakening before but it didn't quite scratch that itch. Also tried Trails of Cold Steel and dropped it pretty quickly. Is 3 Houses a better Suikoden surrogate than those?
I _love_ Suikoden but obviously we're not getting anymore of those. I tried Awakening before but it didn't quite scratch that itch. Also tried Trails of Cold Steel and dropped it pretty quickly. Is 3 Houses a better Suikoden surrogate than those?
You didn't make a mistake! Shadows of Valentia is one of my favorite games in the series, and I'm a long time fan who's played all but one. It pioneered the rewind feature and full voice acting that Three Houses continued, making it just as modernized and accessible.
Both the localized GBA games are very worth playing after you finish Three Houses. They're timeless. And like I said above, Shadows of Valentia (3DS) is also an excellent entry that'll provide the most similar gameplay experience to Three Houses, in terms of QoL and mechanics.
Gonna have to hard disagree. :P
Sacred Stones' story is a bit more boilerplate than Blazing Blade's, and I've never found Eirika and Ephraim as compelling as Lyn, Hector, or even Eliwood. Sacred Stones' best characters were Duessel and Selena... and, who am I kidding, L'Arachel and Dozla.
...Mm, if you're looking for a darker story with more death and consequences, yes, Three Houses is better than Awakening, which had a more whimsical tone.
I've only played the first two Suikodens, and there are similar aspects in Three Houses—a castle hub where you talk to everyone between missions, a second half that's very war-focused—but I wouldn't say it's a Suikoden surrogate. It's great in its own right, though, and it might well scratch an itch.
Have you played Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together (PSP) or Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions (PSP/mobile)? They're the apex of storytelling in the tactical RPG sub-genre.
And a game, I feel, receives so much undeserved hate. I still go back to it from time to time. I think it's a great revisiting of the original Fire Emblem.
Three House is a better game, but Awakening is so fun. I could hold off TMS until you are more into Fire Emblem, but as a Megaten-like (kinda, because it feels like a very Megaten game but clothed with FE flavor) is very good.
If you're looking to play for the tactical/strategy aspect of the series, I would say Awakening is the better way to go. It gets you into battles at a faster clip, and its combat system is more intricate as it hinges on the iconic weapon triangle system, something that Three Houses does away with. The challenge is also higher, though not insurmountably so, thanks to being able to adjust difficulty -- and it's better paced.
Three Houses has the better story, but at the cost of the included RPG/school simulation elements, which, to me at least, felt overbearing at times. Battles felt less satisfying, in part because they play out more straightforward without the aforementioned weapon triangle system and simplified mission objectives, and the challenge, even on Normal and Hard, felt disproportionately easy. (Maddening, by comparison, feels a little too unfair.)
An an entry point into the series, you really can't go wrong with either title, but I do feel Awakening is more conducive to being a more genuine Fire Emblem experience.
Three Houses has the better story, but at the cost of the included RPG/school simulation elements, which, to me at least, felt overbearing at times. Battles felt less satisfying, in part because they play out more straightforward without the aforementioned weapon triangle system and simplified mission objectives, and the challenge, even on Normal and Hard, felt disproportionately easy. (Maddening, by comparison, feels a little too unfair.)
An an entry point into the series, you really can't go wrong with either title, but I do feel Awakening is more conducive to being a more genuine Fire Emblem experience.
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It's uglier than sinning
I cant comprehend who decided to go with that "artstyle" for the DS games but they suck. Hard. Would even recommend the gimped SNES remake of 1 over the DS just cause its so goddamn ugly
Three Houses is a good place to start. It's really accessible and the mechanics of the series are pretty easy to learn.
I'd recommend playing through some of the older ones too if you like 3H; they still hold up today and they're not so far removed from the FE formula to make them unbearable.
I'd recommend playing through some of the older ones too if you like 3H; they still hold up today and they're not so far removed from the FE formula to make them unbearable.
Awakening, 3H is too far from the standard series and, while still being a great game, could give you the wrong idea.
Awakening is in the middle between the traditional and the modern Fire Emblem and it's pretty good itself. Go for it, though maybe one of the GBA games would be a better choice.
Awakening is in the middle between the traditional and the modern Fire Emblem and it's pretty good itself. Go for it, though maybe one of the GBA games would be a better choice.
I would say 3 Houses, BUT you should still check out Awakening — it's really a quality game with great characters.
It doesn't matter where you start, but Awakening is much more concentrated and battle-focused than Three Houses and offers more challenge as well.
Gotta disagree here, aside from pacing. Awakening and Three Houses both notoriously suffer from inadequate/poorly designed difficulty settings (Hard being underwhelming, huge gulf between Hard and Lunatic/Maddening), as well as bland overall map design. Awakening isn't really more challenging, except insofar as featuring same turn reinforcements with no rewinding, which is to say its challenge is artificial, as well as easily breakable with the pair-up mechanic.
While I think Three Houses is a better introductory experience than Awakening--and better experience overall--if OP wants well-designed challenge and diverse map/objective design afterward, they would be best off looking elsewhere than either of these entries. FE7, and to a slightly lesser extent FE8, would be leagues better for those factors.
Yes. I started Awakening, and while I liked it and enjoyed the story, immediately swapped to Three Houses and didn't look back. I mean I will eventually, but it is hard to go back once you've enjoyed the systems in place.
Absolutely go straight to Three Houses. It's better, even though the battle system gets a bit too easy as the game goes on.
Can't go wrong with any localized Fire Emblem game as a first option.
Three Houses is probably the best overall package, but it's not perfect like some people will lead you to believe. The game's structure and pacing allow you to sink massive hours into it, but you also end up playing through loads of recycled content and mundane Monastery activities.
You can get a more focused experience by playing the GBA games or GC/Wii games if you have those devices.
Awakening is a serviceable beginner title, but it's not as good as many others in the series. It just shows you that even low-tier FE games still have higher quality than the average video game.
Three Houses is probably the best overall package, but it's not perfect like some people will lead you to believe. The game's structure and pacing allow you to sink massive hours into it, but you also end up playing through loads of recycled content and mundane Monastery activities.
You can get a more focused experience by playing the GBA games or GC/Wii games if you have those devices.
Awakening is a serviceable beginner title, but it's not as good as many others in the series. It just shows you that even low-tier FE games still have higher quality than the average video game.
To be fair, the same can be said of Awakening. By like chapter 4 a Robin paired with Chrom can easily solo the entire game on every difficulty below lunatic. Honestly every other character is pretty much just a liability.
Awakening. Three Houses is great but the investment is enormous if you actually want more than what feels like a third of a storyline. If you're up for playing the game three times then hey go nuts, but as a First Toe Dipping in the franchise I still prefer to recommend Awakening.
Either one's fine, but Three Houses is the exciting new hotness so it'd probably be the better choice. And as far as the 3DS games go, I think Shadows of Valentia's the best one... a lot of people forget it exists since it's a remake and came out so late into the system's lifespan.
Though definitely pick up Tokyo Mirage Sessions when you can. Especially if you like other Atlus JRPGs like Persona and SMT, or think you might like them.
Though definitely pick up Tokyo Mirage Sessions when you can. Especially if you like other Atlus JRPGs like Persona and SMT, or think you might like them.
Awakening is a great game in terms of interface and design. The story is, and I mean this, abysmal like, really, really badly done. Just basic writing 101 problems all over the place. It has a very Resident Evil 6 ish story where things are happening and none of it has impact and if you're looking for details they do not exist.
Characters are crying about things that aren't established well, major characters will sacrifice themselves with no buildup, that sort of stuff and the main antagonist has zero motivations. It's just a story where "things happen".
Three Houses inherits most of the features found in Awakening but it has some performance issues and implementation issues, but overall it's more worth it with an actually well written story, and 3 of them that last up to 80 hours each.
Characters are crying about things that aren't established well, major characters will sacrifice themselves with no buildup, that sort of stuff and the main antagonist has zero motivations. It's just a story where "things happen".
Three Houses inherits most of the features found in Awakening but it has some performance issues and implementation issues, but overall it's more worth it with an actually well written story, and 3 of them that last up to 80 hours each.
I only briefly played FFT and it didn't really grab me, it was too oppressive early on. I did like Vandal Hearts back in the day though and I'm not opposed to the tactics genre. I'll probably give Three Houses a shot... once I find some time for a huge game.
Wait, OP, start with Fates. If you can finish it (good luck) then i can absolutely tell you its only going to get marginally better.
Three Houses is the most accessible entry of them all, if only due to the ease of which one can turn back time to re-so a poor turn more times than you could in Gaiden. It helps that it has some of the best character writing in the series, even if the overarching story leaves a lot to be desired. The one fatal flaw I found is that the gameplay, while boasting a lot of great ideas, often fails to make use of its more complex additions like battallions or fails to properly rework mechanics from previous games (combat arts, turning the pair up system into adjacents).
It's a good, albeit incredibly messy, entry to start out with, if only so that you can prepare yourself for whatever remake the series has in store for its 30th anniversary.
It's a good, albeit incredibly messy, entry to start out with, if only so that you can prepare yourself for whatever remake the series has in store for its 30th anniversary.
It's going to be Seisen No Keifu aka. the most problematic one.
This is as demonstrably false as people claiming that Edelgard being right/justified in her actions. It utterly fails the tactical component of being a tactical role-playing game.
Eh gonna disagree here. Every fire emblem pretty much has flaws usually to rushed Dev time.
I think Awakening is the better game and Feth is the better story, experience.
I also think feth is a pretty bad intro to fire emblem as it's very very different to past fire emblems (to be fair I love the fact that it's very different but at the same time there's a lot of comforts in feth that you won't get in previous games).
To be brutally blunt, I like blazing sword alot but the Fe gba games are boringly iterative in their design. I'm pretty sure that most gba fans here would rather play gba rom hacks than actually see the series evolve
I do think Blazing Sword is easily the most inspired of the bunch. Fe6 is too faithful to Marth games, and Sacred Stones is so by the numbers (even though it's gaiden inspirations are pretty obvious).
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Go with Three Houses first, and if you liked the gameplay and want more, then go with Fates Conquest. Just ignore the story of that one. The gameplay of Conquest is superior to Awakening and Three Houses (and Echoes too). Unless you really want to play Awakening, then go Awakening, then Fates Conquest. Going back to Awakening after Fates is kind of hard.
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If you dropped Tocs because of the bloat, then I would easily not recommend feth as feth's academy is alot like that