Never played Fire Emblem - should I start with 3 Houses or Awakening?

[skLaFarebear]

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).

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Personally a broken pairing system, shaky maps (and story especially) the later you get into the game, terrible lunatic mode, and horrible balancing in both units and skills don't really do it for me in terms of arguing for it as the better game, but ofc enjoyment is in the eyes of the player. I can point to every fire emblem game and point out their glaring flaws that could've been fixed with even half a year's worth of extra time. Rushed dev time isn't really an excuse.

I do agree that Awakening can be a great entry point in the same way FE7 does. Both games are very good at masking their biggest issues until you really start diving into deeper into the mechanics and doing a deeper dive on the story/characters as well. It's very enjoyable on the surface, especially for a first playthrough, and there's a lot of merit in that for a lot of people. There's a big reason why Awakening blew up the way it did, despite it being one of the weakest entries imo and I definitely respect it for that.

That being said, I think 3H is a good entry point as well as either way you're gonna have to give up on some major QoL if you plan on going backwards anyway. But if you plan to eventually dig into the jugdral games, you'll actually see that they're more similar than you think.

 

[Drax]

Personally a broken pairing system, shaky maps (and story especially) the later you get into the game, terrible lunatic mode, and horrible balancing in both units and skills don't really do it for me in terms of arguing for it as the better game, but ofc enjoyment is in the eyes of the player. I can point to every fire emblem game and point out their glaring flaws that could've been fixed with even half a year's worth of extra time. Rushed dev time isn't really an excuse.

I do agree that Awakening can be a great entry point in the same way FE7 does. Both games are very good at masking their biggest issues until you really start diving into deeper into the mechanics and doing a deeper dive on the story/characters as well. It's very enjoyable on the surface, especially for a first playthrough, and there's a lot of merit in that for a lot of people. There's a big reason why Awakening blew up the way it did, despite it being one of the weakest entries imo and I definitely respect it for that.

That being said, I think 3H is a good entry point as well as either way you're gonna have to give up on some major QoL if you plan on going backwards anyway. But if you plan to eventually dig into the jugdral games, you'll actually see that they're more similar than you think.

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Feth has a stupidly easy normal and hard mode with copious reuse of maps and maddening that ramps up too hard. The game is also full of bloat that rewards you for doing tasks such as fishing nonstop and recruiting people

Feth had major major dev time issues, I actually think the cut mode where certain memberds betray was a really good idea, but obviousluly got cut and the game we got had copious map reuse and a route that is blatantly cut in half

I like feth alot for it's innovation regarding fire emblem but it's very very bloated and not a good representation of the fire emblem series. But I actually think it's a good thing on that part as one of the worries I had with fire emblem post fates was the series becoming too rote. Thankfully echoes changed up alot.

Storywise, of course this game is heavily inspired by genealogy, but it's missing some obvious series staples. One of the reasons awakening soundtrack got planned is that it had a really shitty recruitment theme, which is a key song in fire emblem. There's no recruitment theme in this game at all.

So basically the hallmark of this game is the best cast in the series, and I don't think travelling back in time to play older games is a good thing, if that's your interest

I do think say starting with something like fe7/awakening to feth is more interesting as you can see how the game as evolved.

 

[JJD]

It depends on what you want from these games.

You want a persona like experience? Start with 3 houses.

You want a strategy JRPG? Start with Awakening.

I'm just going by the games you listed. If you want to try japanese strategy games there are far better options out there than both of these.

 

[skLaFarebear]

Feth has a stupidly easy normal and hard mode with copious reuse of maps and maddening that ramps up too hard. The game is also full of bloat that rewards you for doing tasks such as fishing nonstop and recruiting people

Feth had major major dev time issues, I actually think the cut mode where certain memberd betray was a really good, but the end game resulted in copious map reuse and a route that is blatantly cut in half

I like feth alot for it's innovation regarding fire emblem but it's very very bloated and not a good representation of the fire emblem series. But I actually think it's a good thing on that part as one of the worries I had with fire emblem post fates was the series becoming too rote thankfully echoes changed up alot.

Storywise, of course this game is heavily inspired by genealogy, but it's missing some obvious series staples. One of the reasons awakening soundtrack got planned is that it had a really shitty recruitment theme, which is a key song in fire emblem. There's no recruitment theme in this game at all.

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Maddening is solid. It has it's spikes, especially early on, and definitely some bullshit around it like ambush spawns, but its generally one of the better "hard modes" in the series. as it forces you to really interact with every mechanic in the game if you want to be able to hold your own, as well as plan out your units growth paths, combining/swapping skills, forging weapons, using combat arts, etc.. But it's not a necessarily a high bar to cross, especially when garbage like Awakening/Fates Lunatic, FE8/9 HM, and the back half of FE7 HHM exist. I'd probably put it around Conquest Hard and FE6 Hard mode in it's enjoyability.

Also when I refer to the similarities with jugdral, I don't just mean the narrative. The canto in both games is very similar outside of FE4's weapon switching after Canto, the passive crest mechanic is very similar to the holy blood mechanic in FE4, 3H has thracia trading, and I could run a lot deeper with the comparisons but it'd be going too off topic.

Like I said, I think both games are great entry points, and I don't think it'll be hard for players to go back after 3H to the older games. For the most part, they hold up remarkably well considering the era, and the ones that arguably hold up the worst like Gaiden have received some pretty faithful remakes (except for Kris).

 

[Twenty5Thousand]

Path of Radiance, Radiant Dawn, Blazing Sword, Sacred Stones, Awakening, Shadows of Valentia, and Three Houses are the only ones in the series I would recommend that don't need some kind of hack to be enjoyable.

FE1-6 and 11 all need translation patches due to being released only in Japan, plus some of them like 6 need a rebalance patch due to how supports and class progression are so grindy between maps that you'll never be able to properly use them.

FE10, the remake for the first game, needs a patch if you want to use the new units they added to the game without having to sacrifice a bunch of your own because for some god forsaken reason these new maps and characters can only be experienced if you lose units.

Fates' localization, while I like some of it such as the removal of a lot of problematic shit like being able to S-support your kid sister and face petting, is also fucking borked and gets rid of a lot of good characterization within the supports You need to apply several fan retranslations if you want the characters to actually be somewhat likable.

With that said, I hope OP likes Three Houses enough to revisit older entries. There's a lot of quality behind each title that deserves at least a single playthrough.

 

[Caz]

Path of Radiance, Radiant Dawn, Blazing Sword, Sacred Stones, Awakening, Shadows of Valentia, and Three Houses are the only ones in the series I would recommend that don't need some kind of hack to be enjoyable.

FE1-6 and 11 all need translation patches due to being released only in Japan, plus some of them like 6 need a rebalance patch due to how supports and class progression are so grindy between maps that you'll never be able to properly use them.

FE10, the remake for the first game, needs a patch if you want to use the new units they added to the game without having to sacrifice a bunch of your own because for some god forsaken reason these new maps and characters can only be experienced if you lose units.

Fates' localization, while I like some of it such as the removal of a lot of problematic shit like being able to S-support your kid sister and face petting, is also fucking borked and gets rid of a lot of good characterization within the supports You need to apply several fan retranslations if you want the characters to actually be somewhat likable.

With that said, I hope OP likes Three Houses enough to revisit older entries. There's a lot of quality behind each title that deserves at least a single playthrough.

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FE 10 is Radiant Dawn; Shadow Dragon is FE11.

Spoiler

I would recommend they skip FE10 altogether.

Maddening is solid. It has it's spikes, especially early on, and definitely some bullshit around it like ambush spawns, but its generally one of the better "hard modes" in the series. as it forces you to really interact with every mechanic in the game if you want to be able to hold your own

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If only that were true; Maddening is just as unbalanced as Luantic/Lunatic+/5-star Hard/the hardest difficulty in previous games and rarely requires you to use combat arts outside of very specific circumstances outside of the first few chapters.

 

[skLaFarebear]

If only that were true; Maddening is just as unbalanced as Luantic/Lunatic+/5-star Hard/the hardest difficulty in previous games and rarely requires you to use combat arts outside of very specific circumstances outside of the first few chapters.

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I respectfully disagree. While I haven't finished maddening yet (saving it for after the DLC drops) and while I do know some of the last few maps can become real bullshit, it was still significantly more enjoyable than FE8/9's hard mode (especially FE9 maniac), FE7 HHM and much better than any of the 3DS emblem Lunatics modes. I can't comment on FE11/12's hardest difficulties as I haven't played SD on the highest difficulty or FE12 in general yet. Maddening certainly isn't the gold standard of difficulty modes, but if we're talking most enjoyable HMs in this franchise this is definitely better than the majority of them.

 

[Caz]

I respectfully disagree. While I haven't finished maddening yet (saving it for after the DLC drops) and while I do know some of the last few maps can become real bullshit, it was still significantly more enjoyable than FE8/9's hard mode (especially FE9 maniac), FE7 HHM and much better than any of the 3DS emblem Lunatics modes. I can't comment on FE11/12's hardest difficulties as I haven't played SD on the highest difficulty or FE12 in general yet. Maddening certainly isn't the gold standard of difficulty modes, but if we're talking most enjoyable HMs in this franchise this is definitely better than the majority of them.

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Hard disagree; Three Houses' "Maddening" is one of the worst, done no favors by to the base for which said difficulty mode had to be built on. There's no bite to be found in Three Houses' main missions or side objectives, save for the Death Knight, which itself can be fairly easily baited on the first map you encounter them (either that or you can steal the Dark Seal they hold).

I'd recommend 5* Shadow Dragon and New Mystery over Maddening any day. The difficulty mode, not the game.

 

[mrmickfran]

I started with Awakening, got bored like 20 hours in

Currently playing Three Houses and I am LOVING IT

 

[Deleted member 35631]

I loved Awakening! It was my first Fire Emblem and fell in love with the game immediately! Haven't played Three Houses yet, but no one can't deny that Awakening is EPIC!!

 

[ArcLyte]

Forget Three Houses and Awakening and play Blazing Blade and Sacred Stones on gba instead

 

[GamerJM]

I agree with everyone saying to start with FE7, though of those two Three Houses.

This is also kind of a dark horse pick for first game, but I think Shadow Dragon wouldn't be bad. It's often considered one of the worst games, but only really because it's bad in comparison to the other games. It's a decent step back in terms of QoL features and the kinds of choices you have in terms of RPG-type stuff, and it's missing supports. The story is simple but not bad like Fates. But when judged on its own, it's a pretty solid SRPG and a decent introduction to the genre. If you're interested in playing several Fire Emblem games you'd see how the series evolved from its original roots, but if you only want to play the best the series has to offer than it's super skippable. I guess it's mostly recommendable because if you become a superfan and want to play every game in the series then when you get with this one it'll immediately seem archaic in comparison to the rest of the series, but it doesn't feel that way at all if you start with it.

 

[Magnemania]

Fates' localization, while I like some of it such as the removal of a lot of problematic shit like being able to S-support your kid sister

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you can still s support the kid sister, she's just a technical adult now

 

[effingvic]

I got into the series through Awakening. I'm not particularly good at strategy games so the pair up mechanic was a real life saver for me, though it makes the game stupid easy so you may want to do it sparingly if you're looking for a challenge.

Three Houses is incredible and you may find it hard to back to older titles if you start with 3H.

 

[Ramsay]

FE 10 is Radiant Dawn; Shadow Dragon is FE11.

Spoiler

I would recommend they skip FE10 altogether.

If only that were true; Maddening is just as unbalanced as Luantic/Lunatic+/5-star Hard/the hardest difficulty in previous games and rarely requires you to use combat arts outside of very specific circumstances outside of the first few chapters.

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Eh, Radiant Dawn is good. Very, very messy (Even Three Houses looks incredibly polished in comparison), but the highs (Part 1 and 2 in particular) are high enough to redeem the whole experience, even if the story falls apart in Part 3. It also has some pretty good map design overall (only beaten by New Mystery in this regard).

In regards to Maddening, I'd say that Maddening, by virtue of adding in skills to enemies and Three Houses' serviceable map design in general, is middle of the road in regards to the Lunatic/Maniac difficulties. It is definitely superior to Awakening Lunatic (+) (where you either have to grind with DLC or abuse the water trick, no exceptions, and that's without getting into the utter BS with the Lunatic+ skills), Birthright Lunatic (Three Houses' maps have some side objectives unlike Birthright, and doesn't make you want to kill someone with rout combined with 10+ waves of reinforcements every map) and Revelations Lunatic (do I need to explain why?). The other hardest difficulties (New Mystery Lunatic, Conquest Lunatic, Shadow Dragon H5, and Radiant Dawn Hard (if that counts), and the last two are debatable), I'd say that Maddening is worse than.

Thinking about it, New Mystery Lunatic is probably the only well-designed top-level difficulty in the series. Three Houses Maddening has the stupidity that is same-turn reinforcements, Conquest Lunatic is completely undermined by two of the worst maps in the series (Chapter 25 and the Endgame), Shadow Dragon H5's stat inflation is out of control, and Radiant Dawn Hard would be fine if not for it removing the ability to check enemy ranges.

 

[Caz]

Eh, Radiant Dawn is good. Very, very messy (Even Three Houses looks incredibly polished in comparison), but the highs (Part 1 and 2 in particular) are high enough to redeem the whole experience, even if the story falls apart in Part 3. It also has some pretty good map design overall (only beaten by New Mystery in this regard).

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Radiant Dawn has some of the worst maps in the series. One Survives (aka the absolute worst FoW map, from Part 1), Geoffrey's Charge (Part 2), and Glory Unwanted (Part 1) alone come to mind. Moreover, the structure of the story jumping around as much as it does made the overall narrative unfocused while failing to let the individual stories develop; Part 2 comes to mind with how easily this insurgent threat is dealt with, how they (poorly) wrote out Ike from the entire ordeal and how non-existent the villain is developed, to say nothing about how large portions of the game's writing was cut from the localized version. I'll give Radiant Dawn credit for trying something different, both narratively and mechanically, but its execution (supports) is horrendous.