Which Fire Emblem game should I play next?

Which Fire Emblem game should I play next?

  • Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade

    Votes: 8 30.8%

  • Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones

    Votes: 2 7.7%

  • Fire Emblem: Fates (Conquest)

    Votes: 2 7.7%

  • Fire Emblem Echoes Shadows of Valentia

    Votes: 13 50.0%

  • Another Fire Emblem game (please specify)

    Votes: 1 3.8%
  • Total voters
    26
Lichtsang

Lichtsang

Goddess of Bravery
Pronouns
She/Her
As you can probably tell from my avatar, I really loved my time with Fire Emblem: Three Houses.

Now that I'm done with Metroid Dread and await SMT V I'm thinking of playing another FE game I haven't beaten yet. Preferably one with good story and characters. Gameplay is second for me in this case.

I have access to the following games:

  • Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade
  • Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones
  • Fire Emblem: Fates (Conquest)
  • Fire Emblem Echoes Shadows of Valentia (I only played around 5 hours of it years ago and got distracted by other stuff at the time, would restart.)

There are rumours about a remake for next year. It's not one for the GBA games, right? I think it's either the Wii games or an unlocalized SNES game? So I should be good to go to play any of the ones I named, right?
 
Ramune

Ramune

Piranha Plant
Pronouns
he/they
Shadows of Valentia is great. Lovely soundtrack and beautiful character art by Hidari too. The only caveat is that the maps are perhaps a little lacking as I don't think they really updated them.
 
b00t

b00t

FFXIV Addict
Pronouns
He/Him
Ramune said:
Shadows of Valentia is great. Lovely soundtrack and beautiful character art by Hidari too. The only caveat is that the maps are perhaps a little lacking as I don't think they really updated them.
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Yeah, the maps are huge and can become a slog very easily. I'd say Valentia as well though, of the games listed it's probably the most consistent for story, characters, imo? Fates Conquest has great gameplay but an absolute mess of a story. Sacred Stones is okay on both fronts, not a bad runner-up.
 
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Lichtsang

Lichtsang

Goddess of Bravery
Pronouns
She/Her
Sound like I will dive into SoV again soon! It is also really a plus that it is that extensively and well voiced.
 
iag

iag

Rattata
I have not played any of the titles you listed, sadly. I'm currently on my third play through of 3H (azure moon). Hope we had some way to play the radiance games on Switch :/
 
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Lichtsang

Lichtsang

Goddess of Bravery
Pronouns
She/Her
iag said:
I have not played any of the titles you listed, sadly. I'm currently on my third play through of 3H (azure moon). Hope we had some way to play the radiance games on Switch :/
Click to expand...

It's a shame that with NSO we have not a single platform on it with localized Fire Emblem games they could threw on there.
 
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enempi

enempi

Rattata
Pronouns
He/Him
The Blazing Blade is perhaps my favorite game ever. I would just say if your only experience with the series is 3H that the older GBA games are a little different and you might not enjoy them. Other than Sacred Stones there is no map or things to do in between missions. It’s not like 3H where you have ways to train units in between missions, you just go chapter to chapter until you beat the game. This means that there is a finite amount of experience that comes your way over the course of the game, you can’t just grind forever. Personally I think this makes the game more interesting and you have to think more carefully about which units to invest in. There is also still a Support system but the GBA games have way less of an emphasis on the social link aspects of the newer games and pairing units off romantically. I love the GBA games, but I haven’t really enjoyed any of the 3DS games and I didn’t get too far into 3H before I got tired of the all the academy stuff.
 
Galgavias

Galgavias

Rattata
Glad to see many here recommending Valentia. It's an odd FE but has some really great characters if you like that side of things, plus the story does go to unexpected places. People can find the dungeons a bit of a chore but I enjoyed them, they serve almost as challenge gauntlets where resource and troop management really become of utmost importance.
 
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Lichtsang

Lichtsang

Goddess of Bravery
Pronouns
She/Her
enempi said:
The Blazing Blade is perhaps my favorite game ever. I would just say if your only experience with the series is 3H that the older GBA games are a little different and you might not enjoy them. Other than Sacred Stones there is no map or things to do in between missions. It’s not like 3H where you have ways to train units in between missions, you just go chapter to chapter until you beat the game. This means that there is a finite amount of experience that comes your way over the course of the game, you can’t just grind forever. Personally I think this makes the game more interesting and you have to think more carefully about which units to invest in. There is also still a Support system but the GBA games have way less of an emphasis on the social link aspects of the newer games and pairing units off romantically. I love the GBA games, but I haven’t really enjoyed any of the 3DS games and I didn’t get too far into 3H before I got tired of the all the academy stuff.
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I really loved all the academy and side stuff in 3H, but I also played Awakening and a bit of SoV, so I know those aspects are unique to 3H. I don't have a problem with the older formular, I think!
 

Ozzie

Cappy
Echoes 100%. The story, music and characters is so freaking beautiful. That Act 4 world map theme brings me tears. Oh and the voice acting is literally SSS tier. Seriously so good.

The downside...the map design is the worst in the series lol. Gameplay mechanics are really interesting too, you also got exploring dungeons and so much post game content, lore that links to FE awakening and Shadow Dragon as well as very flexible class customisation like Three Houses.


On the other hand, if you value amazing gameplay, FE Fates Conquest is your game. Terrible story however the map design, objectives and the rest of the gameplay is the best. In fact, it is still the BEST FE game in the whole series in terms of gameplay. Oh it also has amazing Celtic soundtrack.
 

Joedev

Rattata
I would vote Fates: Conquest. I think it probably has the best map design and objective variations of any of the Fire Emblem games I've played. The story isn't particularly great, but I think everything else is pretty good.

I wouldn't recommend Echoes. I know some people like it, but outside of the character art, which I thought was great, everything else felt subpar.
 

Ozzie

Cappy
Lichtsang said:
Is the story of Fates (Conquest) really that bad? Or just bad in comparison to other FE games?
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VERY bad. The story is full of plot holes, lots of contradiction and really bad writing. The marketing for the game back in 2016 had more hype and story. To give you an example, in Fates, we actually don't even know the name of the continent that they live on whereas every single FE game does. It's really poor unfortunately. But the soundtrack and gameplay is so good, it makes up for it.
 
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Lichtsang

Lichtsang

Goddess of Bravery
Pronouns
She/Her
Okay, I think I'll go for SoV first and will see if I have time for the GBA games before other games hit.
Thank you all for your thoughts!
 
Josh5890

Josh5890

Moblin
Founder
Pronouns
He/Him
Out of that list, play Shadows of Valentia. Fates is ok for me, but I know it is less loved among the faithful fanbase. Shadows was great all the way around.

If you ever get a chance, play Awakening. That was my intro into the series and I loved every moment of it. A lot of memorable characters were created that live on in Nintendo lore.
 
FrostyLemon

FrostyLemon

Rattata
Founder
Anyone who's played the older Fire Emblems would tell you that Conquest has some of the best gameplay and map design in the series. Who gives a fuck about the story, the strategy is the important part and the challenge in Conquest is one of the best.
 
Caviar

Caviar

FFXIV Goodwill Ambassador
Pronouns
He/Him
Conquest has a ridiculously dumb story and Corrin is a frustratingly stupid character.

But Conquest also has the best gamplay in the series.

Play Conquest.

I'll say Sacred Stones as runner up because it's just a solid game all around. Pretty good story, fun gameplay, and pioneered a lot of the more modern conventions of the series such as branching promotion paths and explorable/repeatable areas between chapters. Awakening in a lot of ways feels like Sacred Stones 2.
 
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McNum

McNum

Rattata
Pronouns
He/Him
Shadows of Valentia is a gem in the rough. Gaiden should really not have had the material to become that good a remake.

It's a 3DS game, but I would easily argue it does some things better than Three Houses on Switch, mainly combat animation, but also a surprising tour-de-force of voice acting combined with some sometimes amusing and sometimes surprisingly creepy writing. Also Berkut. Berkut is a remake exclusive character and he is just fantastic. Also the music, but it's a Fire Emblem game, so that's become standard. Still when Shadows of Valentia wants to, it just goes all out.

Gameplay-wise, it shows that it is the second Fire Emblem and generic enemies all over the place is a thing here. And Witches. On the bright side, the main story missions don't have a deployment limit, really, you can bring everyone.

I will say, Celica is a character who gets a mixed reception, but I like her. Do take extra care to examine every single cat you can find in towns with her when playing her route. It doesn't do anything, it's just funny to see how distracted she gets by cats.
 
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