i use almost exclusively FE characters is super smash bros. what can i say? i like the playstyle and characters, and learning one makes the others much easier to begin
I've always Maines ike since brawl cause why not, unfortunately I don't know any lore of him in FE ans I kinda always did but I never knew where to start...
what i can say is that ike is one of the more well liked lords in the series, mostly because he started from the bottom and worked his way to royalty while everyone else were born a royal
How I view people on the Internet: "I'll start with Awakening!" "Oh no, Awakening sucks!" "Then Fates Birthright maybe?" "blablabla dating sim blablabla" "How about Sacred Stones?" "HAHAHA YOU CASUAL!!!" "Then which one should I start with?" "You should start with classics like Thracia 776 or Radiant Dawn." Cause that's a good idea.
i would say awakening is easier. both give you the freedom to grind, but the option comes much later in sacred stones and you still have a limited budget (overgrinding could make the game impossible in the long run due to a lack of equipment). also i felt like at times i was forced to grind just so i could blaze through that part of the map in order to intercept a brigand about to sack a village, otherwise i was forced to take an extremely defensive approach
very mad guy the problem is if I try to play an older fe game I'll get a bunch of game overs because I'll be like "WHERES MY SORCERER MORGAN AND FALCON KNIGHT SEVERA?!"
@Shimohira Reika it can if your put yourself into that mindset, its all up really up to the player. i usually think myself as a battle strategist while playing, it makes the series 10x more fun for me
I've always wanted to play fire emblem after seeing the characters in smash. After ultimate I was drawn in by the characters so I wanted to start the series
I started with Awakening as well, and I can say that even though it's not a bad game at all to start with, something I struggle with due to having started with it is the haters. Despite having beaten all the western releases and some Japan-exclusives, people still tend to look down on me because I didn't start with a "real" Fire Emblem game
Kayoyo H Awakening is a good game,bad fire emblem. No sense of actual difficulty,map design or anything unique except that it is simply said otaku bait.
I agree that it is a bad Fire Emblem. After playing the others, I definitely see the major flaws in it compared to better ones like FE7 and Radiant Dawn
i started with awakening as well as it was much more accessible and i liked the idea of casual mode (though i still played it like it was classic). to be fair i got in to the series by watching a FE7 lets play so i still had a vague idea of what i should do. tried classic first, but got steamrolled due to an unfortunate combination of little experience and no thinking ahead. i have gotten better though. i have FE7 and i just beat battle before dawn, losing rebecca at that chapter (long range, accurate and powerful? come on, ursula...) and raven at the dread isle (underestimated uhai), but otherwise suffered no casualties aside from slipping up a little with lyn and hector. i did find sacred stones more fun to play though
Starting with Awakening is by no means a bad thing... But restricting yourself to the 3DS titles would make you look bad to others. The latter is really the only demographic I oppose.
Granted, that game came out after this video. Three Houses is a good game to get yourself into the series, although things like Gambits and Combat Arts are a bit too overpowered.
@@Kummahndough simple solution: I just equip gambits, but don't use any, apart from stride to move faster the first turn. Use Weapon Arts rarely unless the character needs to survive with it or something. It's the reason I also don't use relic weapons.
Shedinja 29 It is the first game in the series and if you own a ds phat, ds lite, or dsi you can play the remake of shadow dragon and the gba games legitimately
Connor Reed It is very basic, it lets you understand things like the weapon triangle, bows, and staves. It also is not very punishing if you let some units die without restarting. It also has an incentive for playing on normal (AKA easy), for the 5 prologue chapters. Lastly it has a decent amount of challenge without being cruel (At least on normal.)
My first game was Awakening, which despite going back and playing the old ones is still my favorite. Which is wierd, since objectivly I can agree Awakening is NOT the best game in the series. Yet it has this charm too it that makes it my favorite.
I can respect that. Awakening does have considerable charm. My personal favorite is FE9: Path of Radiance. The story starts out slow, but once it gets going, it really shines.
It's kind of funny. I've been playing FE since the first US release, and yet I myself think Awakening is one of the strongest titles in the series. I think it's because you can make the game as hard or as easy as you want to make it based on grinding; you're given a lot of options, and I think that's a good thing.
Nah fam you gotta get awakening and never beat it then get fates and dont beat it then get echoes and beat that then go back and beat fates then play mystery of the emblem Then play awakening *Duh*
This video got me into Fire Emblem (started with 7 and have been playing more of the games in the series ever since) so I want to thank you for all the info!
I unironically liked it too. I thought the story was awesome, the characters were like able, the gameplay was really neat and the soundtrack was incredible. Idk why people didn’t like as much as other games.
I played most FE games and I still love Fates (hoshido mainly) to death. Birthright is a Fire Emblem with a feudal Japan setting and I absolutely loved that and the classes. Plus, I loved both Royal families. Birthright It’s easy but that’s good for newcomers. Conquest is tough but satisfying and Revelations is downright awesome.
Here after 3 houses was released. I got into fire emblem after a few friends told me how much they enjoyed it. I was looking for a new switch game and I picked up three houses. If you have a switch you should definitely pick up three houses as your first. After I played three houses my friend let me borrow echoes. Echoes(shadows of valentia) was still enjoyable, but awakening is much more similar to three houses. Some of the mechanics in echoes may be a little jarring if you're coming from 3 houses
I've recently started with Awakening, worried that Three Houses would have a lot of quality of life improvements which would retroactively make Awakening less fun. Absolutely loving Awakening though.
Very nice video dude and I agree 100% agree that blazing sword and path of radiance are the best games to start with to get people into the series. To me those games are the most focused, well structured, balanced and polished games in the series, and they do a fantastic job and appealing to both new players and veterans alike.
I don't think path of radiance is a good starting point at all. I started with this game, and believe me, I struggled a lot at the beggining. (You can skip the first paragraph since it only tells how hard I found path of radiance, not my opinion on it.) The first 3 chapters and the prologue were okay, although, I couldn't recruit the flying lady in chapter 3 because I didn't know I could recruit units. I didn't even know I could talk to them! On chapter 4, I panicked. I was alone in a corner and all the army was in front! I overthought everysingle one of my moves to get through it. It was hard, even if I was on the easiest difficulty. Seriously, I thought whis would be one of the hardest. I knew it could get harder, or stayed at this difficulty. I thought maybe it could get easy if I knew what I was doing to share experience and all, but it was my first game! Then, the next chapter was even worse. I had to defend for myself! I lost Boyd immediately. Of course I reset, but still. I needed my friend to beat it! Then the next chapter, I didn't know how to plan my strategy! They allowed me to reposition and choose my units, but I thought that if they added that in, it was because I needed to do it in order to clear the map! I had two paths to take, and I thought one would get me killed, and the other would bring me safe the other side. I took like 10 minutes to decide which side I would go! Oh, and I will never forget about shades of evil. NEVER. At first, I thought there would be an event that would change the victory condition. Man, I was glad when I saw new units arrive. Man I was glad. I won't tell who this unit was, but I thought finally I'd be able to play as him to clear this map. Then, that unit left. I panicked again, much more. I had to sacrifice a unit to clear it! (I didn't care much about it so, I continued. At chapter 8, I started to get used to the game. A bit. And gradually, I became better and more used to it. But I had a hard time, and I'm telling you that you shouldn't start with it. It's a great game, but it's hard, and the tutorials are good, but some of them are optional. They don't appear before the battle begins. I discovered at one point that I didn't see eery one of those. Seriously, start with another game. I don't say that it's a bad game. On the contrary! It's awsome! But I have a feeling, as a begginer that it's more for veterans that for begginers. If the one on GBA is easier, then it's a good starting point. Actually, I got into fire emblem because of awakening's demo. I played it a lot and I loved it. So I played path of radiance. And I found it hard. I still haven't beat the game. But I wanted to have a real game (not emulated) so I bought awakening. I play on casual but if a strong unit dies I reset. I'd call this half-reset because I know if too many of my units die, I won't be able to beat the chapter. I also hate when one of my units dies, because they don't get experience, So I'm always careful. But sometimes they do die, but I continue. I still feel strong emmtions when playing and I still think carefully about what I do, but it's better to start. After that, I'll play a classic reset game with a bit more knowledge so that I find it easier and more complex. Then I'll try a classic without reset and grind for skills and all. Anyway, between awakening and path of radiance, start with awakening. I don't know about the GBA game, so can't say my opinion about it.
I started with Shadow Dragon for DS Great game, and you get to learn Marth's story, plus you will apreciate Awakening and Fates even more if you play this one first.
People undersell how good that game is to start with. People complain how it's really basic... and that's why I like it as a first entry. Being basic means other games come off as evolutions of your first game in the series. It makes for a very good learning experience. Plus it pulls no punches either with its prologue teaching you the permanence of sacrifice. Also, FE12 is great.
MexicanRmz I found an english patch for its sequel that is still japan-exclusive and I recommend Hero of Light & Shadow to be played after Shadow Dragon. What the first game lacks, the sequel delivers.
i would think that anoher bad entry point is fire emblem 5: thracia 776 as it is part of the genealogy of the holy war lore and is more hard then radiant dawn (in my opinion)
Thracia is fun only if you're looking for a real challenge, since it repeatedly shits on you and you need to be ready for that (healing staves being able to miss, locking all your units (including fliers) in a room with ballistae raining down arrow hell on you, etc.). It's still really fun, but it isn't made for a casual playthrough.
My first FE game was “Three Houses”. I LOVE IT! I played it 6 times and I’m still in love. I’ve just finished finished playing “Path of Radiance” and I’m planning on playing “Radiant Dawn” too. I’ve tried FE for GBA, and really liked it too.
I actually played Radiant Dawn first, and boy was that a doozy. I was no noob to tactical games, in fact I was fresh off of Final Fantasy Tactics War of the Lions on PSP (which is equally if not more difficult than Radiant Dawn). Yggdra Union, Gungnir, Etrian Odyssey, all of these games that require immense tactical knowledge about exactly what you're going to do definitely laid the groundwork for me being successful in Radiant Dawn. If you are not a veteran of tactical games, or at least haven't played Path of Radiance first, you're going to get violently shit on. And I mean like post-mexcian-food-night-with-the-family shit on.
+Shado Gremory Me too, but well... I never played any tactical game before So I was basiclly lost in Chapter 7 (if I remember correctly) I had to Watch an entire Let's Play of this game and I also had to start a new game
here's some tips for people who struggle (this is assuming hard mode though): i'll preface my entire post by saying this: DO NOT be afraid to abuse your prepromotes (i.e. sothe) because youre going to have a much easier time if you abuse them and the game would be much less tedious part 1 is sothe and volug abuse while also raising nolan and jill because theyre pretty much the only good units in the dawn brigade. forge some iron knives for sothe, he needs those to ORKO some of the enemies in later parts of part 1 part 2 is HAAAAAAR and elincia abuse. give pass to haar, you wont be disappointed lol part 3 is haar, ike, titania abuse. i fucked up my exp distribution for the dawn brigade so sothe and maybe tauroneo was pretty much the only good DB units, but im pretty sure with better exp distribution zihark, nolan, and jill will be good here. also get rid of wildheart from volug part 4 is laguz royal + haar ike titania elincia abuse. endgame is magic heavy so ike and haar wont be as good as they were. also pick rafiel for your heron, or reyson + some laguz stones and dont even bother raising units with trash base stats for their join time (edward, that archer guy from the DB, makalov, etc), enemy units scale so fast in this game that they wont even have time to catch up even if you feed them so many kills. by raising these units you're basically just gimping your other units and that hurts your entire team as a whole
Jelly Unicorn ITS very Easy, even on difficult, the first ten or even fifteen chapters can be completed using only Seth, besides There Is no way to relate them to another games so it can be kinda shocking to dont have any trace of the Lords And realize that you cant win all battles only with 3 troops
If only the new fire emblems could have a story like Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn. They're simply lacking in that regard, so you were right about wanting to start the series off with a bang. PoR was my fire FE, and I don't regret it. Currently on Birthright after finishing Conquest, and boy is it a snoozefest.
The PAL copies are somewhat cheaper than the American ones oddly enough. I bought my copy of PoR for 30-35€ on Ebay 6 years ago. That said, yeah, 6 years ago. Now I see them at 70-80€, at best.
Oh, speaking of which : www.priceminister.com/mfp/2001481/fire-emblem-jeu-video?pid=15213597&xtatc=15000&rtg=7c76e779f810b7caa3079641d905c549 If you can read French on the site, here's a 45€ copy, it's a used one. The PAL game is Multi5, so it has English voice/subs/dialogues if the console is set to English, can be valuable for someone who wants to jump in with PoR.
I started with Path of Radiance and then went onto Radiant Dawn, that was almost decade ago and they're still my favourite games, the story line is amazing
I dont care what anyone says I would never tell someone to start with anything other than Awakening or Fates. Anything harder, or older, will just put people off to the idea of playing this series because not all gamers are hardcore gamers or even SRPG players.
I started with awakening and then went to fates and now I'm playing the GBA games. I'm going to go on to the NES and SNES games and just finish off the rest
Thanks for the video! My first game was awakening, like many others. I just saw it in a store, looked at the back and found some kind of charm to it. I love anything with a medieval setting and found the description interesting. First time I played on casual because I had no idea what to expect, and so I just listened to the games recommendation. I fell in love with the gameplay because I never played a game like it before. I had no previous strategy rpg game experience, so I lost a lot. I think casual was a key factor in my continued interest in the series. I had a habit of losing interest in games I couldn't get past because they bored me. Being a complete noob at strategy games and being pretty bad at games in general, passing these points were no easy task. Afterward, I sought out the fire emblem community and learned the value in challenge. After doing a second run of awakening without the aid of casual, I got into fire emblem fates. I completed birthright and am currently making an attempt at conquest on hard. Chapter 10 took me 31 attempts which shows how much I've improved in persistence in such short time. With the limited time I have in school, I'm slowly persevering through fire emblem and there's no doubt I'll try other games when I've completed conquest and revelation.
I remember seeing Awakening in a Nintendo Direct, and up here in Canada the street date got pushed up, I fell in so much love with it I finished the game before it was technically even released haha. Well keep on going, this series has a lot to offer beyond the 3DS entries.
First off, ayyyy didn't know you were a fellow Canadian, Pavise! Secondly, definitely play Echoes soon and Genealogy of the Holy War once you're a bit more experienced, since it's pretty damn hard but has SUCH good gameplay and story IMO.
2:06 Well I don't know if you count Japan only Fire Emblem games but Fire Emblem New mystery of the emblem is actually the first game in the series to have casual mode.
I do wish that PoR's and RD's magic triangles actually appeared in more Fire Emblem games, though. It gave so much more strategy to the series, and I really like it, especially RD's expansion on it.
My first Fire Emblem was Awakening. I remember really loving the support conversations and it got me really attached to the characters, and thus, got me into the Fire Emblem universe. :) Edit: Oh, and not to mention, i loved Robin's character and design.
I started with FE fates: Conquest. Casual, 'cause I thought that Phoenix was just ridiculous. I died a lot at chapter 10, but I really enjoyed it, so I'm getting into the series more.
Awesome video, actually nice to see youtube recommend me something that's not *1000 DEGREE KNIFE VS EXPENSIVE PHONE!* While I agree on a lot in this video, I don't really think Path of Radiance is a good first game. It is pretty vanilla, but the laguz, smaller elements like canto and shove and the general map design mid-later on aren't the best and can be somewhat hard for people who barely understand the mechanics. Plus I feel like the 3D is a huge turn off. No nice sprites to look at which are quite a big part of the experience imo. (mind you, I still like Path or Radiance) FE7 should be the default starting point for anyone interested in the series. The plot and characters are decent, no overtly anime bullshit like Awakening, the difficulty is spot on, no casual mode or ambush bonds, and the game is pretty vanilla with no specific mechanics you have to worry about. I would also recommend Awakening, but newcomers will start off on the wrong foot thinking the franchise is a waifu simulator and that using 2 characters to run through the whole game is a good strategy. Plus I can't stress enough how anime Awakening is. The whole series is anime, but at least it was never to the point where the characters were one dimensional tropes. You really should shill your video somewhere, it's pretty well made.
I don't necessarily think the the problems you listed with PoR will affect a beginner as much as you state, but that's totally fine. As you mentioned, we are in agreement that FE7 is the ideal starting point. :) Thank you for your opinion and the kind words.
No problem, this video is just really well done :) Although I forgot to mention that you should've recommended FE6 somewhere in there, but I guess it's not bad to go through the english games first Also you should've definitely added Shadow Dragon to the "not to start with" list since that game is borderline bad and would give a bad first impression and some people might play that first since it is the remake of the first game, but maybe that game's more obscure, at least that's what I feel
Jelly Unicorn It became charming to me too, but I feel like a first timer would be thrown off by it. There's a lot of loading screens between battles, the map animations don't look good and the spritework of the GBA games is just really good. At least in Awakening you can skip or speedup battles, in Tellius you're stuck waiting...
yeah the forced map animations became pretty annoying because theyre so slow and you get stuck on enemy phase for like 5 minutes because animations, but imo they look fine, its just that i turn off animations 100% of the time except for GBA endgame bosses and being forced to have them at all is ehh though if i have to rate visuals itll probably look something like: GBA > SNES >>>>>>>> gamecube/wii >>> 3DS > FE1 >>>>>> DS >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> gaiden
I've been gaming since the 'ol NES days but for some reason Fire Emblem never wound up on my radar until recently. I am playing through Awakening as my first entry and I am enthralled. As an XCOM veteran, I am familiar with grid-based strategy and don't shy away from permadeath, so I am playing on classic mode. Thanks for the video!
Been watching quite a few of your videos, and just wanted to say that I'm really enjoying these. Your commentaries over the FE series have such a nice, relaxing tone, especially with the sound track in the background, and it's always enjoyable to hear what other people think about things you like. Great moves. Keep it up. Proud of you.
I'm very, very new to Fire Emblem. I actually started out with Fire Emblem Heroes on mobile, mainly because I've been sick with a nasty cold lately and I needed something to keep me busy. Before Heroes, I did try I think it was a demo or a digital download of Fire Emblem on the GBA via the eShop on my 3DS, I can't remember if it was a demo or not, but I recall playing it. The tutorial bored me to tears, it actually made me fall asleep trying to slog through the thing. So, after that, I immediately gave up on the series, and that was a good few years ago. Now that I've been sick and needing something new and simple to take my mind off of it, Fire Emblem Heroes actually helped me understand some of the core aspects of the series. Sense I've been desperate to get Chrom, mainly because he's the only Fire Emblem character that I'm familiar with aside from Lucina and Marth (both of which I've gotten...twice), and I guess Robin (which I also have), I started finally getting interested in Awakening. I knew it had the option to avoid perma-death, which was something that was keeping me away from the series, and sense I'm a little more familiar with Chrom, Lucina, Robin, and a few other characters, it felt like it was an obvious choice. I told my older sister about my building interest, and she immediately offered to buy it for me digitally come her next paycheck, which surprised me at how quick that decision was. lol I think Fire Emblem Heroes was the basic starting point I needed after the GBA game killed any interest I had with that boring tutorial. It taught me the fundamental ropes much quicker and much more efficiently, albeit with the lack of perma-death. I just recently downloaded the Fire Emblem Awakening demo to prepare myself, and I've been playing it to death. I'm not going in completely blind, mainly because my older sister played it when it came out and told me about a number of things, but I think that's perfectly acceptable. I don't know *everything* about the story, nor do I even know how long it is, so it's not like the entire game is spoiled for me. I don't think I'll be playing through the entire series though, the idea of perma-death in other entries is still keeping me away from it, but I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing. I honestly never thought that I'd be interested in the series after some silly mobile game.
Yeah fe7 chapters 1-10 are a babysitting tutorial for filthy casuals/nostaligia fanboys. These chapters suck so hard It made me hate Lyn. It's so stupid you have to beat the normal game twice to actually play the interesting mode.
My first game was Sacred Stones and it's got a special place in my heart. For those really wanting to get the feel of fire emblem I'd recommend Path of Radiance because it's an extract of all games story- and mechanic-wise. However, since there is no remake of it yet to be announced I'd also recommend three houses for it extracts everything great of the game series as well.
Damn we started with the same game and have the same recommendations. I love the path of radiance and radiant dawn I think it's the best games in the series
I live in MA...over here, it just says "Fire Emblem" on the box, so that's what I've always personally called it. I've played almost every localized title since, and I usually refer to those I have played by their subtitles. The only ones localized I haven't yet played, cuz I didn't have a system capable of doing so, or money to get them, have been Radiant Dawn and the Revelation path on Fates. But thank you for the heads up...like I said, the game had no subtitle once localized.
Alright, again, thanks for the heads up! A lot of my gaming purchases this year, and even next year, are gonna be Fire Emblem games! I plan to get a new copy of Awakening, as well as the final path on Fates, in March and May respectively. Hoping to get a Switch for my birthday in July! :D
Cringy but my first game was Shadow Dragon which was gifted to me and I had no clue what was going on. I recently found the series again where I bought conquest and beat it on hard for my 1st playthrough (idk how I did it)
My first game was Shadow Dragon too. Having been an XCom fan, I wasn’t put off by the concept of permadeath and decided I would start with as close to the first game of the series as I could.
Short and concise first fire emblem guide. I recently started playing Fire Emblem Heroes on my phone and it's super good that I actually want to play it on one of my consoles. Your video was excellent for that, thanks!
I started with 7. I'm lucky I haven't started with 6, because that one had no explanation whatsoever. 7 and 8 are great starters because they have tutorials.
Ironically, Birthright was my first FE game and I still became a big fan. It being the “easy mode” of Fates was honestly helpful to me as a beginner, and the just okay story actually made all subsequent FE I played really cool. Start with the bar low I guess? But I can see why it could discourage potential fans. Especially if you already have a bunch of good rpgs under your belt.
Nope, just keep on playing and you should be fine. Some gameplay adjustments may take a little longer when you play the older games though. Honestly I was slightly too critical of fates in the video.
I keep forgetting that smaller channels have more time to reply to comments. I jumped on Fates right away, considering how I am a quick learner. All I really needed to learn from the game was that _"you can move characters with dis"_ and _"do dis to attack"_ and _"wrpun triengle"_. I could just play the game and figuring out what works and what doesn't would help me pin down what's what. That's pretty much the first three parts right there. Prologue tells you _"hey stupid do this to do that"_ in about thirty seconds, Chapter One tells you that the map is something you should keep in mind, and Chapter 2 is all about putting those skills that you better remember to the test.
@@Pavise Oh, yeah, I said this a looong time ago. Uh, FE7 was a great experience to get into some of the more challenging FEs, I found. FE4 was a lot of fun, was probably my favorite. Man, remember when it was two years ago and you were a "small channel"?
I first heard of Fire Emblem due to the appearance of Ike and Marth on Super Smash Bros Brawl. Afterwards, I found a manga regarding Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light (First game in the series and Marth's first game). It was when I got the WiiU that I managed to get Fire Emblem for Gameboy, the first FE Game I have ever played. Haven't finished it, as I started Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon, a remake to Marth's first game. I would say that both are good games to get into Fire Emblem, since Shadow Dragon has a 4 Chapter Prologue that teaches the basics PLUS it has some Reminders and Tips that pop during each turn (This last help can be adjusted to not appear once you're familiar to the game). Another detail that has enriched my enjoyment of Shadow Dragon was that I had previously read most of the manga, so I was already familiarized with most of the units, villains and places (not to mention the story) of the game.
Christian Munso I played that first as well, and I kinda disagree. It was quite interesting to find all of the cutscene things, but it was so, bland. I disliked how little the game made me care for the characters. It’s a fairly good starter, if you’re willing to move on regardless. It’s good for getting to know the basics, but it’s hardly one for getting hooked on the characters or story.
@@MrPivotmaster98 I can relate, I can't remember the order in which I played each character's arcs in Sonic Adventure, though obviously Sonic was first (edit: *though)
When you're one of those people who started with Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn on a successful first try. XD But don't worry I watched POR gameplay before, I have a Wii U so I couldn't play it.
Pizza Pie my first game was RD also and i got all the way to part four but couldn't continue since i distributed my teams like shit (i was 8 at the time)
Great video. I started with Radiant Dawn, it was incredibly difficult but that really added to the enjoyment of the game for me. When I first played it, I had no idea it was a sequel, but I don't think it really hampered my understanding of the story. I got really lucky a few years ago and found Path of Radiance at a local game shop near my college for about 20 bucks
Hey thanks man! I am a beginner and found your guide to be very detailed and in depth. I will be starting with Awakening as you have recommended and moving on to fates. Once again, loved the guide and keep up the good work.
I'm ashamed to say I began playing because I saw a cutscene of Awakening on the Internet, so I was just curious about the game it came from. I immediately looked at the story on Wikipedia: I thought it was cliche for RPGs as the player character was an amnesiac, but not cliche when I saw it was also a secondary protagonist (plus Chrom sounded like Chrono and I love Chrono Trigger). I then saw the time gap after a seemingly peace victory, and that this mysterious sword fighter from the future was Chrom's daughter: that's a well written story! But then I learned about the marriage mechanic and Robin could be Lucina's mother - so I immediately bought the game from EBay and borrowed my brother's 3DS (which I never used before) just to know what that feels like! As I started the game, I realised it was a tactical RPG like Pokemon and I could roam around about what to do like an open world game. And each of the characters had personality and depth, different from Pokemon. The story was also better than most war stories I read about. Course I played with casual mode, but I was wondering how long it would be before I was experienced enough to play classic. But, I was worried after learning mechanics I liked, such as partner support, open world exploration and children were unique to Awakening and entries these mechanics came from. Shortly afterwards, Fates was released and I quickly bought it for the feels of choosing adoptive or birth family. Once I was done, I looked at reviews on UA-cam to see what veteran FE fans think of these two radical different entries. THEY HATED THEM! Of course they knew it was because the series had the threat of discontinuing and they needed to attract newcomers, but I agreed with them that it was no excuse for the lack of story and characters. I then bought the remaster of Valkyria Chronicles on PS4, and I got used to reverting to previous save files and being extremely careful with my tactics. I have now ordered Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon, and I think I'm now truly gonna experience Fire Emblem as it truly was made to be.
Shadow Dragon isn't the greatest example of a FE game cause it's really just the first one slightly modernized. The GBA ones are great examples and very easy to get a hold of.
Sorry, but I have some... troubling memories that the GBA reminds me of. Don't get me wrong, I very much appreciate the tip, and if I do play the FE games on GBA I'd owe it to you.
Shadow Dragon is a remake of the very first Fire Emblem game for the NES, and is also considered to be one of the worst entries by a lot of people. I mean, it's not "bad", per se, but it's pretty bare bones. My recommendation would either be Fire Emblem (for the GBA) or Path of Radiance (for GCN). Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn are some of the better-written games in the series, so if you're looking for a decent story in addition to the gameplay, I would say play those if you can, especially if you would rather avoid the GBA. The Conquest route of Fates is, in my opinion, quite challenging and well-designed, and I enjoy many of the additional and revamped mechanics, but it's a shame the writing of the newer games is as much worse as it is (Corrin and Azura, as much as I love you, if we get more characters like you in newer games then it's execution by firing squad!)
My first fire emblem game was Fire Emblem GBA. I remember crying after Lyn said goodbye to me. I remember thinking that was the end of the game lol. That one will always have a special place in my heart
Thank you so much this has been very helpful! I’m going to start with Fire Emblem Awakening as my first Fire Emblem game! I can’t wait to start my descent into the series.
This actually helped a lot. I've always been curious about the series but never really delved into it. My uncle gave me his gba with all his games and Fire Emblem The Sacred Stones was one of them. Then I bought Fire Emblem on the VC. But I barely played either. I might go back and play the one I bought, but I've also contemplated giving one of the 3DS games a shot. My friend strongly recommended Fates Birthright, but I was hesitant. I figured if I were gonna get a 3DS Fire Emblem to start, it'd be Awakening. This video basically proved my thinking was correct. I'm probably gonna get Awakening and try to play more of the original in the meantime. Thank you for the helpful guide. Hopefully I can get into this series.
I played "Sacred Stones" a long time ago. When I learned about "Fates" and "Awakening," I got excited. Your video helped me choose which game I should play first since I haven't played the series in a long time.
Fates while birthright being easy and good for newcomers but the story is not the series best. But Birthright was the best standalone story unlike the wreck of conquest and the "EXCUSE ME!?" of revelations
I actually started with Radiant Dawn XD Reason why was because I heard Ike was in it and I was curious about him from Super Smash Bros Brawl. I figured why not pick it up as my first Fire Emblem game? Boy it was hard... so many died and I played it on easy. I eventually came back to play it on Normal and conquer without losing any units (I did use the reset if someone dies tactic in that playthrough but it was a much more smooth experience overall)
My first game in the series was Geneology of the Holy War. My godfather had a repro cart from a friend given to him on his birthday. Being a 6 year old at the time, I had no idea what I was doing, but he explained everything to me and I eventually got the hang of it.
Two and a half years ago during fall 2018 this video encouraged me to bite the bullet and pick up a copy of Path of Radiance because you described it as a "bang." I am very grateful. Thank you.
@@persoonophetweb2891 yes it's a better story from the three fates game and is welcoming to newcomers I found myself as a newbie struggling in conquest maps and now they are a piece of cake
my first FE was Radiant Dawn way back in 2010, because i fell in love with Ike from smash bros. i missed out on a lot of the emotionality of the story because i played RD before PoR, but i don't regret it. it gave me a very head-first-into-the-deep-end kind of introduction, and a great sense of accomplishment. to this day it is still my favorite game!
I’m gonna start with awakening for sure, I bought a 3DS this year for the Pokémon series and am trying to justify owning it. Plus fire emblem just seems like a bunch of really fun games
Excellent video. I'm getting a friend of mine into FE, and gave him the same advice prior to seeing this video. Definitely gonna share this. FE7 was my first in the series, and I love how classic it is, but RD to this day is still my favorite.
My first fire emblem game was Shadow dragon because Marth in SSBB. I got stuck in the game at the chapter where you fight Michalis, and after playing Awakening and Conquest, I reset. I got to the same chapter, SoV was released, I beat that, I went back to SD and now I’ve beaten 4 Fire emblem games + what’s in Fire emblem heroes so far. (And Warriors, if that counts) (Bantu died tragically in Etzel’s chapter and Wendel was my only magic user capable of using starlight...he was still too weak to kill Gharnef and died in 1 hit. Luckily, Nagi is really good.)
I have been a long time fan of Advanced Wars and always saw fire emblem but their was so many games I just never got around to playing it, this video was helpful!
Super smash bros is my first FE game.
i use almost exclusively FE characters is super smash bros. what can i say? i like the playstyle and characters, and learning one makes the others much easier to begin
I've always Maines ike since brawl cause why not, unfortunately I don't know any lore of him in FE ans I kinda always did but I never knew where to start...
what i can say is that ike is one of the more well liked lords in the series, mostly because he started from the bottom and worked his way to royalty while everyone else were born a royal
Roy is our boy
***** its like a meme for all the FE Characters introduced and that's how many Americans got into FE like me
How I view people on the Internet:
"I'll start with Awakening!"
"Oh no, Awakening sucks!"
"Then Fates Birthright maybe?"
"blablabla dating sim blablabla"
"How about Sacred Stones?"
"HAHAHA YOU CASUAL!!!"
"Then which one should I start with?"
"You should start with classics like Thracia 776 or Radiant Dawn."
Cause that's a good idea.
Nobody has replied to this amazing comment yet. This is a tragedy.
>starts out with a snes game
I see you want them to rage lol
Also how is Sacred stones casual? Wouldnt awakening be the more casual one
+Nelum Lucere Yeah the internet troll would say awakening is casual and that sacred stones sucks (because it's pretty easy for a Fire Emblem game)
Let me correct myself; Fire Emblem Sacred Stones is hard *BUT SETH HAS NO MERCY*
Kitsuka i like sacred stones
Sacred stones is also good to start with but I might be biased bc it was my first
Starwars Fanboy From what heard, its the easiest in the series.
awakening normal/casual is easier than fe8, but fe8 comes in 2nd
i would say awakening is easier. both give you the freedom to grind, but the option comes much later in sacred stones and you still have a limited budget (overgrinding could make the game impossible in the long run due to a lack of equipment). also i felt like at times i was forced to grind just so i could blaze through that part of the map in order to intercept a brigand about to sack a village, otherwise i was forced to take an extremely defensive approach
I started playing sacred stones and everyone's like "Oh it's so easy you can grind like nothing" and then the fog shows up. I've been lied to.
very mad guy the problem is if I try to play an older fe game I'll get a bunch of game overs because I'll be like "WHERES MY SORCERER MORGAN AND FALCON KNIGHT SEVERA?!"
My first Fire Emblem was chess. Fyt mi.
No wonder why my iq is now 9000
Epic
See, there's one human who makes sense to me!
I had chess master on my gameboy color as a kid and thought it was amazing not having to wait til after dinner to play chess with my dad
@Shimohira Reika it can if your put yourself into that mindset, its all up really up to the player. i usually think myself as a battle strategist while playing, it makes the series 10x more fun for me
I've always wanted to play fire emblem after seeing the characters in smash. After ultimate I was drawn in by the characters so I wanted to start the series
Please don't play fates
Three Houses is good.
@@berserkboi1217 *play fates last.
Don't be a douche to the people who like fates. Cmon fam.
@BMO lol don't assume fam. He might have got one of the titles
@@berserkboi1217 fates is decent...
I started with Awakening as well, and I can say that even though it's not a bad game at all to start with, something I struggle with due to having started with it is the haters. Despite having beaten all the western releases and some Japan-exclusives, people still tend to look down on me because I didn't start with a "real" Fire Emblem game
Kayoyo H Awakening is a good game,bad fire emblem. No sense of actual difficulty,map design or anything unique except that it is simply said otaku bait.
I agree that it is a bad Fire Emblem. After playing the others, I definitely see the major flaws in it compared to better ones like FE7 and Radiant Dawn
i started with awakening as well as it was much more accessible and i liked the idea of casual mode (though i still played it like it was classic). to be fair i got in to the series by watching a FE7 lets play so i still had a vague idea of what i should do. tried classic first, but got steamrolled due to an unfortunate combination of little experience and no thinking ahead. i have gotten better though. i have FE7 and i just beat battle before dawn, losing rebecca at that chapter (long range, accurate and powerful? come on, ursula...) and raven at the dread isle (underestimated uhai), but otherwise suffered no casualties aside from slipping up a little with lyn and hector. i did find sacred stones more fun to play though
Starts with Awakening and has Danved as his avatar. You sir deserve a like.
Starting with Awakening is by no means a bad thing... But restricting yourself to the 3DS titles would make you look bad to others. The latter is really the only demographic I oppose.
I started with awakening and I think it’s pretty good at starting people to the series because of how it hooks you in and keeps you hooked
And then there's me who started with FE3H
Granted, that game came out after this video.
Three Houses is a good game to get yourself into the series, although things like Gambits and Combat Arts are a bit too overpowered.
i started with fe7 on gba
@@Kummahndough simple solution: I just equip gambits, but don't use any, apart from stride to move faster the first turn.
Use Weapon Arts rarely unless the character needs to survive with it or something. It's the reason I also don't use relic weapons.
@Hamburglar the exiled As someone who started with conquest... I didn't mind that it was easier but I played conquest on normal/casual so idk
same lol
I'm going backwards
First game : fire emblem echos
Second game : fire emblem fates
Third : fire emblem awakening
Pavise: *Recommends Awakening/ Blazing Sword/ Radiant Dawn*
Me: *Laughs in Shadow Dragon*
Shedinja 29 It is the first game in the series and if you own a ds phat, ds lite, or dsi you can play the remake of shadow dragon and the gba games legitimately
Okay, but a somewhat more serious question: is Shadow Dragon for the Nintendo DS actually a good FE to start with?
Connor Reed It is very basic, it lets you understand things like the weapon triangle, bows, and staves. It also is not very punishing if you let some units die without restarting. It also has an incentive for playing on normal (AKA easy), for the 5 prologue chapters. Lastly it has a decent amount of challenge without being cruel (At least on normal.)
*Now laugh in Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light*
My first game was Awakening, which despite going back and playing the old ones is still my favorite. Which is wierd, since objectivly I can agree Awakening is NOT the best game in the series. Yet it has this charm too it that makes it my favorite.
TheWerdna Awakening is my favorite too. It may not be the best but its so worth the play. Especially main characters Chrom, Robin, and Lucina.
I can respect that. Awakening does have considerable charm. My personal favorite is FE9: Path of Radiance. The story starts out slow, but once it gets going, it really shines.
TheWerdna Same
It's kind of funny. I've been playing FE since the first US release, and yet I myself think Awakening is one of the strongest titles in the series. I think it's because you can make the game as hard or as easy as you want to make it based on grinding; you're given a lot of options, and I think that's a good thing.
Hi, slightly unrelated question, but...
Your name... do you happen to be the fanfic writer that also goes by the name "The Werdna"?
Thank you internet stranger for helping me start playing this series. You made the job my RPG comarades couldn't do.
Awakening was where I got in. So I would recommend Awakening first, it’s damn good
Stax I got in with Shadow Dragon, and really lost interest until I got Awakening, which did hook me. I do seriously love the Classic mode, though.
I am quite new to it . So I start with FE Awakening before I start playing Three houses
fates is far better
same
Merciless Freak dang someone’s cranky
Nah fam you gotta get awakening and never beat it
then get fates and dont beat it
then get echoes and beat that
then go back and beat fates
then play mystery of the emblem
Then play awakening
*Duh*
Could you give me a reason why.
Sorry if this is too late
@@Azurald55 It's a joke, but it's true most people never finish fire emblem games. Then they go back and play them from start to finish.
@@monroearthur5665 Alright thanks.
Awakening and don't beat it
Fate Conquest and don't beat it
Echoes and don't beat it
Then go back to awakening and beat it
No you start with thracia 776
This video got me into Fire Emblem (started with 7 and have been playing more of the games in the series ever since) so I want to thank you for all the info!
Glad to be of help!
I started with Fates: Conquest and I can’t find myself able to play any other Fire Emblem game. Everyone hates Fates, but I love it, honestly.
Top-tier gameplay, unintentionally hilarious story. I can see why you like it.
I unironically liked it too. I thought the story was awesome, the characters were like able, the gameplay was really neat and the soundtrack was incredible. Idk why people didn’t like as much as other games.
I played most FE games and I still love Fates (hoshido mainly) to death.
Birthright is a Fire Emblem with a feudal Japan setting and I absolutely loved that and the classes. Plus, I loved both Royal families.
Birthright It’s easy but that’s good for newcomers. Conquest is tough but satisfying and Revelations is downright awesome.
Here after 3 houses was released. I got into fire emblem after a few friends told me how much they enjoyed it. I was looking for a new switch game and I picked up three houses. If you have a switch you should definitely pick up three houses as your first. After I played three houses my friend let me borrow echoes. Echoes(shadows of valentia) was still enjoyable, but awakening is much more similar to three houses. Some of the mechanics in echoes may be a little jarring if you're coming from 3 houses
I've recently started with Awakening, worried that Three Houses would have a lot of quality of life improvements which would retroactively make Awakening less fun.
Absolutely loving Awakening though.
That's literally how I started as well
Very nice video dude and I agree 100% agree that blazing sword and path of radiance are the best games to start with to get people into the series. To me those games are the most focused, well structured, balanced and polished games in the series, and they do a fantastic job and appealing to both new players and veterans alike.
BLAZINGKNIGHT oh hi Blaze
Hi there :)
BLAZINGKNIGHT I love your videos they are really high quality
You are the most in depth UA-camr on fire emblem and talk facts and explain personal feelings, excellent excellent. Videos my friend. :)
I don't think path of radiance is a good starting point at all. I started with this game, and believe me, I struggled a lot at the beggining.
(You can skip the first paragraph since it only tells how hard I found path of radiance, not my opinion on it.)
The first 3 chapters and the prologue were okay, although, I couldn't recruit the flying lady in chapter 3 because I didn't know I could recruit units. I didn't even know I could talk to them! On chapter 4, I panicked. I was alone in a corner and all the army was in front! I overthought everysingle one of my moves to get through it. It was hard, even if I was on the easiest difficulty. Seriously, I thought whis would be one of the hardest. I knew it could get harder, or stayed at this difficulty. I thought maybe it could get easy if I knew what I was doing to share experience and all, but it was my first game! Then, the next chapter was even worse. I had to defend for myself! I lost Boyd immediately. Of course I reset, but still. I needed my friend to beat it! Then the next chapter, I didn't know how to plan my strategy! They allowed me to reposition and choose my units, but I thought that if they added that in, it was because I needed to do it in order to clear the map! I had two paths to take, and I thought one would get me killed, and the other would bring me safe the other side. I took like 10 minutes to decide which side I would go! Oh, and I will never forget about shades of evil. NEVER. At first, I thought there would be an event that would change the victory condition. Man, I was glad when I saw new units arrive. Man I was glad. I won't tell who this unit was, but I thought finally I'd be able to play as him to clear this map. Then, that unit left. I panicked again, much more. I had to sacrifice a unit to clear it! (I didn't care much about it so, I continued. At chapter 8, I started to get used to the game. A bit. And gradually, I became better and more used to it. But I had a hard time, and I'm telling you that you shouldn't start with it. It's a great game, but it's hard, and the tutorials are good, but some of them are optional. They don't appear before the battle begins. I discovered at one point that I didn't see eery one of those.
Seriously, start with another game. I don't say that it's a bad game. On the contrary! It's awsome! But I have a feeling, as a begginer that it's more for veterans that for begginers. If the one on GBA is easier, then it's a good starting point.
Actually, I got into fire emblem because of awakening's demo. I played it a lot and I loved it. So I played path of radiance. And I found it hard. I still haven't beat the game. But I wanted to have a real game (not emulated) so I bought awakening. I play on casual but if a strong unit dies I reset. I'd call this half-reset because I know if too many of my units die, I won't be able to beat the chapter. I also hate when one of my units dies, because they don't get experience, So I'm always careful. But sometimes they do die, but I continue. I still feel strong emmtions when playing and I still think carefully about what I do, but it's better to start. After that, I'll play a classic reset game with a bit more knowledge so that I find it easier and more complex. Then I'll try a classic without reset and grind for skills and all.
Anyway, between awakening and path of radiance, start with awakening. I don't know about the GBA game, so can't say my opinion about it.
To think I started playing Fire Emblem Awakening thanks to this video.
I can't stop playing FEs now.
What have I done.
I started with Shadows of Valentina and i'm hooked on FE (Mainly the classics)
I started with Shadow Dragon for DS
Great game, and you get to learn Marth's story, plus you will apreciate Awakening and Fates even more if you play this one first.
People undersell how good that game is to start with.
People complain how it's really basic... and that's why I like it as a first entry. Being basic means other games come off as evolutions of your first game in the series. It makes for a very good learning experience. Plus it pulls no punches either with its prologue teaching you the permanence of sacrifice.
Also, FE12 is great.
MexicanRmz I found an english patch for its sequel that is still japan-exclusive and I recommend Hero of Light & Shadow to be played after Shadow Dragon. What the first game lacks, the sequel delivers.
Oh yes I have played that one as well, both are great.
"Great game"
lmao, what are you smoking?
what?
i would think that anoher bad entry point is fire emblem 5: thracia 776
as it is part of the genealogy of the holy war lore and is more hard then radiant dawn (in my opinion)
Francie but but... fe5 is my fav... baka....
Thracia is fun only if you're looking for a real challenge, since it repeatedly shits on you and you need to be ready for that (healing staves being able to miss, locking all your units (including fliers) in a room with ballistae raining down arrow hell on you, etc.). It's still really fun, but it isn't made for a casual playthrough.
Thracia 776 isn't harder than RD , Thracia 776 Can be trivialized by prepromotes.
Thanks for this video, I picked up fire emblem on GBA just like you said and I'm loving it so much, and it's unlike any other game I've played
After playing FEH for a while, I decided to emulate Sacred Stones as my first game, and I love it -as you can see from my profile picture-
My first FE game was “Three Houses”. I LOVE IT! I played it 6 times and I’m still in love.
I’ve just finished finished playing “Path of Radiance” and I’m planning on playing “Radiant Dawn” too.
I’ve tried FE for GBA, and really liked it too.
I actually played Radiant Dawn first, and boy was that a doozy. I was no noob to tactical games, in fact I was fresh off of Final Fantasy Tactics War of the Lions on PSP (which is equally if not more difficult than Radiant Dawn). Yggdra Union, Gungnir, Etrian Odyssey, all of these games that require immense tactical knowledge about exactly what you're going to do definitely laid the groundwork for me being successful in Radiant Dawn. If you are not a veteran of tactical games, or at least haven't played Path of Radiance first, you're going to get violently shit on. And I mean like post-mexcian-food-night-with-the-family shit on.
Lmao, even with multiple entries under my belt, Radiant Dawn was also a struggle for me
Shado Gremory haar is all you need
Shado Gremory NOOBS
+Shado Gremory Me too, but well... I never played any tactical game before So I was basiclly lost in Chapter 7 (if I remember correctly) I had to Watch an entire Let's Play of this game and I also had to start a new game
here's some tips for people who struggle (this is assuming hard mode though):
i'll preface my entire post by saying this: DO NOT be afraid to abuse your prepromotes (i.e. sothe) because youre going to have a much easier time if you abuse them and the game would be much less tedious
part 1 is sothe and volug abuse while also raising nolan and jill because theyre pretty much the only good units in the dawn brigade. forge some iron knives for sothe, he needs those to ORKO some of the enemies in later parts of part 1
part 2 is HAAAAAAR and elincia abuse. give pass to haar, you wont be disappointed lol
part 3 is haar, ike, titania abuse. i fucked up my exp distribution for the dawn brigade so sothe and maybe tauroneo was pretty much the only good DB units, but im pretty sure with better exp distribution zihark, nolan, and jill will be good here. also get rid of wildheart from volug
part 4 is laguz royal + haar ike titania elincia abuse. endgame is magic heavy so ike and haar wont be as good as they were. also pick rafiel for your heron, or reyson + some laguz stones
and dont even bother raising units with trash base stats for their join time (edward, that archer guy from the DB, makalov, etc), enemy units scale so fast in this game that they wont even have time to catch up even if you feed them so many kills. by raising these units you're basically just gimping your other units and that hurts your entire team as a whole
fe8 is also a good starting point
Jelly Unicorn ITS very Easy, even on difficult, the first ten or even fifteen chapters can be completed using only Seth, besides There Is no way to relate them to another games so it can be kinda shocking to dont have any trace of the Lords And realize that you cant win all battles only with 3 troops
hAhAHaHa dON't LiStEn tO tHiS PesEaNt pLaY tHRacia 776
If only the new fire emblems could have a story like Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn. They're simply lacking in that regard, so you were right about wanting to start the series off with a bang. PoR was my fire FE, and I don't regret it. Currently on Birthright after finishing Conquest, and boy is it a snoozefest.
i would buy path of radience, but *cough cough* retail prices
The PAL copies are somewhat cheaper than the American ones oddly enough.
I bought my copy of PoR for 30-35€ on Ebay 6 years ago. That said, yeah, 6 years ago. Now I see them at 70-80€, at best.
Oh, speaking of which : www.priceminister.com/mfp/2001481/fire-emblem-jeu-video?pid=15213597&xtatc=15000&rtg=7c76e779f810b7caa3079641d905c549
If you can read French on the site, here's a 45€ copy, it's a used one. The PAL game is Multi5, so it has English voice/subs/dialogues if the console is set to English, can be valuable for someone who wants to jump in with PoR.
Yeah ideally you'd wanna do birthright before conquest if it want to play both. Conquest to birthright is just such a huge drop off in difficulty
Uh path of radiance and radiant dawn are like £300 each. Yeah no.
I started with Path of Radiance and then went onto Radiant Dawn, that was almost decade ago and they're still my favourite games, the story line is amazing
I dont care what anyone says I would never tell someone to start with anything other than Awakening or Fates. Anything harder, or older, will just put people off to the idea of playing this series because not all gamers are hardcore gamers or even SRPG players.
I might play Fates
I started with awakening and then went to fates and now I'm playing the GBA games. I'm going to go on to the NES and SNES games and just finish off the rest
I'd also include fe8 in that, honestly. Its easy, has a good story and the battle animations are god tier
Fates when compared to other fe games is trash. I preferred awakening but i want to get into older games
fates conquest is harder then most other fes so that makes no sense
Thanks for the video! My first game was awakening, like many others. I just saw it in a store, looked at the back and found some kind of charm to it. I love anything with a medieval setting and found the description interesting. First time I played on casual because I had no idea what to expect, and so I just listened to the games recommendation. I fell in love with the gameplay because I never played a game like it before. I had no previous strategy rpg game experience, so I lost a lot. I think casual was a key factor in my continued interest in the series. I had a habit of losing interest in games I couldn't get past because they bored me. Being a complete noob at strategy games and being pretty bad at games in general, passing these points were no easy task. Afterward, I sought out the fire emblem community and learned the value in challenge. After doing a second run of awakening without the aid of casual, I got into fire emblem fates. I completed birthright and am currently making an attempt at conquest on hard. Chapter 10 took me 31 attempts which shows how much I've improved in persistence in such short time. With the limited time I have in school, I'm slowly persevering through fire emblem and there's no doubt I'll try other games when I've completed conquest and revelation.
I remember seeing Awakening in a Nintendo Direct, and up here in Canada the street date got pushed up, I fell in so much love with it I finished the game before it was technically even released haha.
Well keep on going, this series has a lot to offer beyond the 3DS entries.
First off, ayyyy didn't know you were a fellow Canadian, Pavise! Secondly, definitely play Echoes soon and Genealogy of the Holy War once you're a bit more experienced, since it's pretty damn hard but has SUCH good gameplay and story IMO.
2:06 Well I don't know if you count Japan only Fire Emblem games but Fire Emblem New mystery of the emblem is actually the first game in the series to have casual mode.
But lets be real. If you start with FE12 you're not going to have a fun time. I'd say it's probably the hardest or second hardest game in the series.
Yeah I know it's pretty hard just saying that awakening isn't the first one in the series to have casual mode
implying hard isn't fun
Well tbh Fire emblem shadow dragon was my 1st, New mystery 2nd. It wasn't hard, might even be easier than SD in normal mode.
i think the point is that new mystery is japanese exclusive. they made shadow dragon international and suddenly new mystery is locked in japan?
I do wish that PoR's and RD's magic triangles actually appeared in more Fire Emblem games, though. It gave so much more strategy to the series, and I really like it, especially RD's expansion on it.
My first Fire Emblem was Awakening. I remember really loving the support conversations and it got me really attached to the characters, and thus, got me into the Fire Emblem universe. :)
Edit: Oh, and not to mention, i loved Robin's character and design.
I started with FE fates: Conquest. Casual, 'cause I thought that Phoenix was just ridiculous. I died a lot at chapter 10, but I really enjoyed it, so I'm getting into the series more.
#JustPlayGaidenBro
Get your filthy ass ghast memes outta her boi.
Gaiden's great and all, but it isn't exactly the best starting point seeing how different it is from other games in the series
Awesome video, actually nice to see youtube recommend me something that's not *1000 DEGREE KNIFE VS EXPENSIVE PHONE!*
While I agree on a lot in this video, I don't really think Path of Radiance is a good first game. It is pretty vanilla, but the laguz, smaller elements like canto and shove and the general map design mid-later on aren't the best and can be somewhat hard for people who barely understand the mechanics. Plus I feel like the 3D is a huge turn off. No nice sprites to look at which are quite a big part of the experience imo. (mind you, I still like Path or Radiance)
FE7 should be the default starting point for anyone interested in the series. The plot and characters are decent, no overtly anime bullshit like Awakening, the difficulty is spot on, no casual mode or ambush bonds, and the game is pretty vanilla with no specific mechanics you have to worry about. I would also recommend Awakening, but newcomers will start off on the wrong foot thinking the franchise is a waifu simulator and that using 2 characters to run through the whole game is a good strategy. Plus I can't stress enough how anime Awakening is. The whole series is anime, but at least it was never to the point where the characters were one dimensional tropes.
You really should shill your video somewhere, it's pretty well made.
I don't necessarily think the the problems you listed with PoR will affect a beginner as much as you state, but that's totally fine. As you mentioned, we are in agreement that FE7 is the ideal starting point. :) Thank you for your opinion and the kind words.
No problem, this video is just really well done :)
Although I forgot to mention that you should've recommended FE6 somewhere in there, but I guess it's not bad to go through the english games first
Also you should've definitely added Shadow Dragon to the "not to start with" list since that game is borderline bad and would give a bad first impression and some people might play that first since it is the remake of the first game, but maybe that game's more obscure, at least that's what I feel
i kinda like the 3D from the tellius games tbh
Jelly Unicorn
It became charming to me too, but I feel like a first timer would be thrown off by it. There's a lot of loading screens between battles, the map animations don't look good and the spritework of the GBA games is just really good.
At least in Awakening you can skip or speedup battles, in Tellius you're stuck waiting...
yeah the forced map animations became pretty annoying because theyre so slow and you get stuck on enemy phase for like 5 minutes because animations, but imo they look fine, its just that i turn off animations 100% of the time except for GBA endgame bosses and being forced to have them at all is ehh
though if i have to rate visuals itll probably look something like:
GBA > SNES >>>>>>>> gamecube/wii >>> 3DS > FE1 >>>>>> DS >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> gaiden
I've been gaming since the 'ol NES days but for some reason Fire Emblem never wound up on my radar until recently. I am playing through Awakening as my first entry and I am enthralled. As an XCOM veteran, I am familiar with grid-based strategy and don't shy away from permadeath, so I am playing on classic mode. Thanks for the video!
Been watching quite a few of your videos, and just wanted to say that I'm really enjoying these. Your commentaries over the FE series have such a nice, relaxing tone, especially with the sound track in the background, and it's always enjoyable to hear what other people think about things you like. Great moves. Keep it up. Proud of you.
Thanks for the kind words :)
My first fire emblem game was ww2
Meaning your first Fire Emblem was Valkyria Chronicles
I'd recommend Binding Blade right after Fire Emblem Blazing Blade, for the same reason as Radiant Dawn after Path of Radiance.
HaxorViper Sword of Seals is also called Binding Blade? i dint know that LoL
I'm very, very new to Fire Emblem. I actually started out with Fire Emblem Heroes on mobile, mainly because I've been sick with a nasty cold lately and I needed something to keep me busy. Before Heroes, I did try I think it was a demo or a digital download of Fire Emblem on the GBA via the eShop on my 3DS, I can't remember if it was a demo or not, but I recall playing it. The tutorial bored me to tears, it actually made me fall asleep trying to slog through the thing. So, after that, I immediately gave up on the series, and that was a good few years ago. Now that I've been sick and needing something new and simple to take my mind off of it, Fire Emblem Heroes actually helped me understand some of the core aspects of the series. Sense I've been desperate to get Chrom, mainly because he's the only Fire Emblem character that I'm familiar with aside from Lucina and Marth (both of which I've gotten...twice), and I guess Robin (which I also have), I started finally getting interested in Awakening. I knew it had the option to avoid perma-death, which was something that was keeping me away from the series, and sense I'm a little more familiar with Chrom, Lucina, Robin, and a few other characters, it felt like it was an obvious choice. I told my older sister about my building interest, and she immediately offered to buy it for me digitally come her next paycheck, which surprised me at how quick that decision was. lol
I think Fire Emblem Heroes was the basic starting point I needed after the GBA game killed any interest I had with that boring tutorial. It taught me the fundamental ropes much quicker and much more efficiently, albeit with the lack of perma-death. I just recently downloaded the Fire Emblem Awakening demo to prepare myself, and I've been playing it to death. I'm not going in completely blind, mainly because my older sister played it when it came out and told me about a number of things, but I think that's perfectly acceptable. I don't know *everything* about the story, nor do I even know how long it is, so it's not like the entire game is spoiled for me. I don't think I'll be playing through the entire series though, the idea of perma-death in other entries is still keeping me away from it, but I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing. I honestly never thought that I'd be interested in the series after some silly mobile game.
So did you end up liking Awakening?
Yeah fe7 chapters 1-10 are a babysitting tutorial for filthy casuals/nostaligia fanboys. These chapters suck so hard It made me hate Lyn. It's so stupid you have to beat the normal game twice to actually play the interesting mode.
@@mtj8870 you mean how we have to beat both the lyn mode and eliwood mode to unlock hector mode?
My first game was Awakening and it's still actually one of my favorites I'm the series until this very day.
My first game was Sacred Stones and it's got a special place in my heart. For those really wanting to get the feel of fire emblem I'd recommend Path of Radiance because it's an extract of all games story- and mechanic-wise. However, since there is no remake of it yet to be announced I'd also recommend three houses for it extracts everything great of the game series as well.
Damn we started with the same game and have the same recommendations. I love the path of radiance and radiant dawn I think it's the best games in the series
I started with Awakening, it's the first Fire Emblem I played all the way through. I am simultaneously playing Fates and Echoes right now.
My first Fire Emblem game was the first GBA one localized. :)
It's called FE7 or Fire Emblem the Blazing Sword friendly fyi
I live in MA...over here, it just says "Fire Emblem" on the box, so that's what I've always personally called it. I've played almost every localized title since, and I usually refer to those I have played by their subtitles. The only ones localized I haven't yet played, cuz I didn't have a system capable of doing so, or money to get them, have been Radiant Dawn and the Revelation path on Fates. But thank you for the heads up...like I said, the game had no subtitle once localized.
Lol yeah i know, that's just what the majority of the FE fanbase calls it, just so you wouldn't get confused.
Alright, again, thanks for the heads up! A lot of my gaming purchases this year, and even next year, are gonna be Fire Emblem games! I plan to get a new copy of Awakening, as well as the final path on Fates, in March and May respectively. Hoping to get a Switch for my birthday in July! :D
Same picked it up for my birthday, no idea why but loved it was so good.
Thracia 776 is clearly the best starting point. Do not allow your ears to be soiled from listening to this peasant
^
yep :3
LOL. (Haven't play Thracia 776 tho).
I started with 4... BIGASS MAPS LOL
Never heard of it. Is it japan only or something?
Cringy but my first game was Shadow Dragon which was gifted to me and I had no clue what was going on.
I recently found the series again where I bought conquest and beat it on hard for my 1st playthrough (idk how I did it)
Why is Shadow Dragon cringy? What's up with the hate, and complete ignoring, of the game?
@@LilJbm1 Maybe it was Roger's recruitment (jk) and the choice of sacrificing one of ur units. Dunno, started out in Shadow Dragon
My first game was Shadow Dragon too.
Having been an XCom fan, I wasn’t put off by the concept of permadeath and decided I would start with as close to the first game of the series as I could.
Short and concise first fire emblem guide. I recently started playing Fire Emblem Heroes on my phone and it's super good that I actually want to play it on one of my consoles. Your video was excellent for that, thanks!
I started with Three Houses because of Byleth coming to Smash. Thanks for the guide, I can’t wait to try awakening out!
I thought I wasted my money on an overly complex game. Good to know I just got one of the hard ones, I mean holy shit...
Which one was it?
@@kentknightofcaelin4537 I think he's talking about series, he should be given ogre battle & tactics Ogre series 😉
Just play Gaiden :P
I started with 7. I'm lucky I haven't started with 6, because that one had no explanation whatsoever.
7 and 8 are great starters because they have tutorials.
Ironically, Birthright was my first FE game and I still became a big fan. It being the “easy mode” of Fates was honestly helpful to me as a beginner, and the just okay story actually made all subsequent FE I played really cool. Start with the bar low I guess? But I can see why it could discourage potential fans. Especially if you already have a bunch of good rpgs under your belt.
That song at the end of the video, one year later still makes me almost crying, you had my view now you have my like man ❤️
I already started with Fates and completed it. Am I screwed?
Nope, just keep on playing and you should be fine. Some gameplay adjustments may take a little longer when you play the older games though. Honestly I was slightly too critical of fates in the video.
I keep forgetting that smaller channels have more time to reply to comments.
I jumped on Fates right away, considering how I am a quick learner. All I really needed to learn from the game was that _"you can move characters with dis"_ and _"do dis to attack"_ and _"wrpun triengle"_. I could just play the game and figuring out what works and what doesn't would help me pin down what's what.
That's pretty much the first three parts right there. Prologue tells you _"hey stupid do this to do that"_ in about thirty seconds, Chapter One tells you that the map is something you should keep in mind, and Chapter 2 is all about putting those skills that you better remember to the test.
Well I'm gonna keep replying as long as I'm able to, have fun discovering the rest of the series :)
YOUR PFP IS ADORABLE AAAAAAH
@@Pavise Oh, yeah, I said this a looong time ago.
Uh, FE7 was a great experience to get into some of the more challenging FEs, I found. FE4 was a lot of fun, was probably my favorite.
Man, remember when it was two years ago and you were a "small channel"?
I first heard of Fire Emblem due to the appearance of Ike and Marth on Super Smash Bros Brawl. Afterwards, I found a manga regarding Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light (First game in the series and Marth's first game). It was when I got the WiiU that I managed to get Fire Emblem for Gameboy, the first FE Game I have ever played. Haven't finished it, as I started Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon, a remake to Marth's first game. I would say that both are good games to get into Fire Emblem, since Shadow Dragon has a 4 Chapter Prologue that teaches the basics PLUS it has some Reminders and Tips that pop during each turn (This last help can be adjusted to not appear once you're familiar to the game). Another detail that has enriched my enjoyment of Shadow Dragon was that I had previously read most of the manga, so I was already familiarized with most of the units, villains and places (not to mention the story) of the game.
I played Shadow Dragon for my first (that remake on the DS) and I'd also would recommend that as your first fire emblem.
Christian Munso I played that first as well, and I kinda disagree. It was quite interesting to find all of the cutscene things, but it was so, bland. I disliked how little the game made me care for the characters. It’s a fairly good starter, if you’re willing to move on regardless.
It’s good for getting to know the basics, but it’s hardly one for getting hooked on the characters or story.
@@jaxusr235 i agree the amount of units it throws at you is laughable.it's almost like you get 1-2 character every chapter and most of them are trash
Very comprehensive, all your points are concise and well summarised, I'm sure it'd be helpful for newbies :)
4:17 I thought FE3H was my first fire emblem game, but that screen and the character model looks so familiar I think I had it on my old emulator
Fire Emblem Dark Dragon and the Sword of Light was my first game. Not the DS remake, the original, with a rom hack translation
What was it like to not have a weapon triangle?
Connor Reed Not as crazy as you’d think. It worked. Great game and very difficult, in a good way
@@MrPivotmaster98 Were you insane enough to use the Devil Axe?
Connor Reed I honestly can’t remember, it was so long ago
@@MrPivotmaster98 I can relate, I can't remember the order in which I played each character's arcs in Sonic Adventure, though obviously Sonic was first (edit: *though)
When you're one of those people who started with Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn on a successful first try. XD But don't worry I watched POR gameplay before, I have a Wii U so I couldn't play it.
Pizza Pie my first game was RD also and i got all the way to part four but couldn't continue since i distributed my teams like shit (i was 8 at the time)
As a newcomer to strategy games, my first Fire Emblem game was Fire Emblem Conquest. Trust me it threw me thru the wringer.
Great video. I started with Radiant Dawn, it was incredibly difficult but that really added to the enjoyment of the game for me. When I first played it, I had no idea it was a sequel, but I don't think it really hampered my understanding of the story. I got really lucky a few years ago and found Path of Radiance at a local game shop near my college for about 20 bucks
Hey thanks man! I am a beginner and found your guide to be very detailed and in depth. I will be starting with Awakening as you have recommended and moving on to fates. Once again, loved the guide and keep up the good work.
Enjoy!
I'm gonna play Awakening first, but I have to wait until Christmas, so in the meantime I'll play Heroes.
Is heroes any good?
@@pabs1216 no
Pabs121 worst fire emblem game
I'm ashamed to say I began playing because I saw a cutscene of Awakening on the Internet, so I was just curious about the game it came from.
I immediately looked at the story on Wikipedia: I thought it was cliche for RPGs as the player character was an amnesiac, but not cliche when I saw it was also a secondary protagonist (plus Chrom sounded like Chrono and I love Chrono Trigger). I then saw the time gap after a seemingly peace victory, and that this mysterious sword fighter from the future was Chrom's daughter: that's a well written story! But then I learned about the marriage mechanic and Robin could be Lucina's mother - so I immediately bought the game from EBay and borrowed my brother's 3DS (which I never used before) just to know what that feels like!
As I started the game, I realised it was a tactical RPG like Pokemon and I could roam around about what to do like an open world game. And each of the characters had personality and depth, different from Pokemon. The story was also better than most war stories I read about. Course I played with casual mode, but I was wondering how long it would be before I was experienced enough to play classic. But, I was worried after learning mechanics I liked, such as partner support, open world exploration and children were unique to Awakening and entries these mechanics came from. Shortly afterwards, Fates was released and I quickly bought it for the feels of choosing adoptive or birth family.
Once I was done, I looked at reviews on UA-cam to see what veteran FE fans think of these two radical different entries. THEY HATED THEM! Of course they knew it was because the series had the threat of discontinuing and they needed to attract newcomers, but I agreed with them that it was no excuse for the lack of story and characters. I then bought the remaster of Valkyria Chronicles on PS4, and I got used to reverting to previous save files and being extremely careful with my tactics. I have now ordered Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon, and I think I'm now truly gonna experience Fire Emblem as it truly was made to be.
Shadow Dragon isn't the greatest example of a FE game cause it's really just the first one slightly modernized. The GBA ones are great examples and very easy to get a hold of.
Sorry, but I have some... troubling memories that the GBA reminds me of. Don't get me wrong, I very much appreciate the tip, and if I do play the FE games on GBA I'd owe it to you.
Shadow Dragon is a remake of the very first Fire Emblem game for the NES, and is also considered to be one of the worst entries by a lot of people. I mean, it's not "bad", per se, but it's pretty bare bones.
My recommendation would either be Fire Emblem (for the GBA) or Path of Radiance (for GCN). Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn are some of the better-written games in the series, so if you're looking for a decent story in addition to the gameplay, I would say play those if you can, especially if you would rather avoid the GBA.
The Conquest route of Fates is, in my opinion, quite challenging and well-designed, and I enjoy many of the additional and revamped mechanics, but it's a shame the writing of the newer games is as much worse as it is (Corrin and Azura, as much as I love you, if we get more characters like you in newer games then it's execution by firing squad!)
I also made Robin into Lucina's mother in Awakening!
Thank you for this! But I think I will start with Three Houses since it's going to come out tomorrow (which I didn't know until TODAY) lol
Bo_jelin lmao same, Idk what The fuck is going on or if any of The characters are people From the old games, but I’m enjoying The heck out of it
> run terrible_teacher_sim_2019.exe
*Three Houses OP begins*
My first fire emblem game was Fire Emblem GBA. I remember crying after Lyn said goodbye to me. I remember thinking that was the end of the game lol. That one will always have a special place in my heart
Yes same!
Thank you so much this has been very helpful! I’m going to start with Fire Emblem Awakening as my first Fire Emblem game! I can’t wait to start my descent into the series.
*Started with Radiant Dawn*
Whoops... But I have to agree, it's freaking hard, especially the first and the third part.
Xael-The-Artist : Yep, it’s not a normal FE game. RD is hard even for veteran players
Just go with the first Fire Emblem... Lyn's story will be less of a nuisance...
I started with Fire Emblem:Shadow Dragon
This actually helped a lot. I've always been curious about the series but never really delved into it. My uncle gave me his gba with all his games and Fire Emblem The Sacred Stones was one of them. Then I bought Fire Emblem on the VC. But I barely played either. I might go back and play the one I bought, but I've also contemplated giving one of the 3DS games a shot. My friend strongly recommended Fates Birthright, but I was hesitant. I figured if I were gonna get a 3DS Fire Emblem to start, it'd be Awakening. This video basically proved my thinking was correct. I'm probably gonna get Awakening and try to play more of the original in the meantime. Thank you for the helpful guide. Hopefully I can get into this series.
I played "Sacred Stones" a long time ago. When I learned about "Fates" and "Awakening," I got excited. Your video helped me choose which game I should play first since I haven't played the series in a long time.
I have played every game in the hardest difficulty multiple times why am I watching this?
Start with Path Of Radiance. Great Game. Got me into the series.
I'm more of a Fire Emblem Sacred Stones guy my self
**proceeds to start with shadow dragon*
Thanx for this! If not for this I would never have started my Fire Emblem journey with Blazing Sword! So glad I did!
Ok I will start with *FIRE EMBLEM WARRIORS*
GLAD TO KNOW IM NOT THE ONLY ONE LOL
**chose Fates** oops
Fates while birthright being easy and good for newcomers but the story is not the series best. But Birthright was the best standalone story unlike the wreck of conquest and the "EXCUSE ME!?" of revelations
I actually started with Radiant Dawn XD
Reason why was because I heard Ike was in it and I was curious about him from Super Smash Bros Brawl. I figured why not pick it up as my first Fire Emblem game? Boy it was hard... so many died and I played it on easy. I eventually came back to play it on Normal and conquer without losing any units (I did use the reset if someone dies tactic in that playthrough but it was a much more smooth experience overall)
You sound just like me. I started with it too, and went to shadow dragon after rage quittting.
My first game in the series was Geneology of the Holy War. My godfather had a repro cart from a friend given to him on his birthday. Being a 6 year old at the time, I had no idea what I was doing, but he explained everything to me and I eventually got the hang of it.
Two and a half years ago during fall 2018 this video encouraged me to bite the bullet and pick up a copy of Path of Radiance because you described it as a "bang." I am very grateful. Thank you.
fire emblem 7 definitely
Fire Emblem Sacred Stones is available on 3ds too through virtual console! If you have ambassador program, which I do.
Do one for Metroid!
and Advance Wars!
zero mission on prime 1 is the best way to start off the series.
My first was the DS shadow dragon remake, and that's one hell of a way to start, but here I am having played every game except 776 so far
Blazing Blade is a nice summary of the basic stuff in fe, so that's a good point to start at
Shit
I started with fates because that was the one I saw.
O H F U C K
Yep, the same thing happened to me. :/
Fates was my first as well, and honestly I don't know why it's bad for first timers.
I dissagree with his opinion on fates (unless you play conquest) but birthright is a fine newcomer game
@@persoonophetweb2891 yes it's a better story from the three fates game and is welcoming to newcomers I found myself as a newbie struggling in conquest maps and now they are a piece of cake
I played Fates DLC = Revelation as my very first FE. Fyt me.
Why would you play that before Birthright or Conquest though? Boggles my mind.
my first FE was Radiant Dawn way back in 2010, because i fell in love with Ike from smash bros. i missed out on a lot of the emotionality of the story because i played RD before PoR, but i don't regret it. it gave me a very head-first-into-the-deep-end kind of introduction, and a great sense of accomplishment. to this day it is still my favorite game!
I’m gonna start with awakening for sure, I bought a 3DS this year for the Pokémon series and am trying to justify owning it. Plus fire emblem just seems like a bunch of really fun games
Awakening is pretty fun
Now that 3 houses is out I would recommend that as a beginner's fire emblem game
Excellent video. I'm getting a friend of mine into FE, and gave him the same advice prior to seeing this video. Definitely gonna share this. FE7 was my first in the series, and I love how classic it is, but RD to this day is still my favorite.
Thank you for this. Was looking for a video like this!
tbh It was fire emblem heroes recently that really wanted me to research it to the series and thanks to this video I know where to start! Great Job!
My first fire emblem game was Shadow dragon because Marth in SSBB. I got stuck in the game at the chapter where you fight Michalis, and after playing Awakening and Conquest, I reset. I got to the same chapter, SoV was released, I beat that, I went back to SD and now I’ve beaten 4 Fire emblem games + what’s in Fire emblem heroes so far. (And Warriors, if that counts) (Bantu died tragically in Etzel’s chapter and Wendel was my only magic user capable of using starlight...he was still too weak to kill Gharnef and died in 1 hit. Luckily, Nagi is really good.)
I have been a long time fan of Advanced Wars and always saw fire emblem but their was so many games I just never got around to playing it, this video was helpful!