The early part of the video has some mistakes: - My main gripe with this video is the treatment of the third game as just a remake with some bonus content. It is primarily a sequel, while also including a remake. It is also one of the most influential games of the series, and still the most sold one in japan to this day. - FE1 had classes that promoted into different classes. What Gaiden added was characters where you could choose which class they would become. - FE1 and Gaiden do not take place on the same continent, but on adjacent continents in the same world. - "Heir to the republic of Manster" makes no sense, a republic by definition doesn't have heirs. Leif is heir to the kingdom of Leonster. - Roy and Lilina knew each other before the start of Binding Blade, as is shown in that game's tutorial and in the epilogue of Blazing Blade. Let me just say that I did enjoy the video, these were mostly little things in a video that was over an hour of mostly good stuff presented nicely and concisely.
It’s kinda late to point out but I looks like you forgot to mention byleth’s inclusion in the smash series. Great video by the way for one of my favorite video game series! Thank you!
@@TheGamingShelf it's mainly because it's the only game in the series where each chapter feels like a puzzle you have to solve. later games do not have that feeling at all.
Kinda shocked that there’s absolutely no mention whatsoever of the reception to fates’ story, considering that’s the biggest point of discussion around it nowadays. Great video though
@@TheGamingShelf But that just cut half of the game play experience, is like a Super Mario Bros game without pitfalls, with enemies who only "push you back" instead of cost a life. In that case better watch a "no death" game play if people wasn't to pay the price of desicions. The "strategy" is the genre of the game, a good strategy drive to a good resolution, a bad strategy let us to a bad resolution, meditating, forward think and risk/reward are definitive elements of Fire Emblem, without that is bare bones losing all the nutritional meat.
Honestly I feel like you shouldn't have skipped mystery of the emblem, sure part of it is a remake of the first game, but part of it has a new story, so I think it should be considered it's own game
Playing through a 2nd playthrough of Echoes right now and it’s really interesting to see how the original looked. I think they did a great job adapting the designs to the beautiful artstyle of the remake
@@dustingonzalez8080 it’s my boyfriend’s too. The artstyle was the best i have seen for a Fire Emblem, the voice acting is great, the few support conversations are really good and the combat is very fun (each unit having one very specific build being only able to hold one item really makes you think what would be the best synergy for that specific unit). All in all an amazing game!
Same here. I started with Path of Radiance back in 2005 as well. Been a huge fan of the series ever since. My personal favourites are Path of Radiance, closely followed by Radiant Dawn. By far one of the finest in the series when it comes to world building and story presentation. Apart from the Tellius series, I also really liked Fates Special Edition.
The inclusion of the casual mode in Awakening made the series much more enjoyable for me. I played quite a few of the older games in the early to late 2000s and did love the series before playing Awakening. I really loved Path of Radiance. Definitely leaning towards purchasing Engage when I get paid Friday.
Yes, me too. My husband complains about it, saying they ruined it by giving the choice to the gamers... But I disagree, why not give everyone what they want if they can? I love playing in casual mode. Sure I love the strategy of combat in FE but I really like my units and sometimes I can't really stomach losing them when I'm careless.
@@maomi1852 People who complain about the game's ease and accessibility need to sit down and be quiet, because they are a loud minority that can't understand that FE would straight up not exist anymore without a lower difficulty. Every time they make the game easier and more accessible, it makes tons of money, which is far more important for future games than their fragile elitist egos.
@@jeremiahstenzel789 I don’t think it’s fair to tell people who don’t like the modern direction to just "be quiet" in the name of accessibility, it’s the same reason Fromsoft fans are adamant in believing that the games shouldn’t have an easy mode, because it takes away from the game’s original vision. Plus let’s not pretend Fates did so well because of Phoenix mode, which is also an addition made to make the game more accessible.
Such a wonderful retrospective! This started playing on its own after an Arlo vid I was watching and I was so impressed! I loved how you included the story elements in addition to the company details!
I watched this video front to back and this was an immaculate creation. This shows how incredibly deep the well of Fire Emblem is and details its history really well. Thanks for doing this as I am not exceedingly knowledgable about its past. As someone who has the Divine Edition of Fire Emblem Engage due to show up soon, this couldnt have been better timed. Great work TGS!
I feel you missed the mark a bit by completely skipping over how controversial Fates was among the pre-Awakening fanbase. Though you're right in saying part of the hardcore audience has since come to appreciate Conquest's difficulty and customization, the Fates trio is still by far the most hated part of the franchise among many fans, more than any game that came before or after. The FE fanbase has always been divided since the series has such clear distinct 'eras', but the one thing that brings Kaga, Tellius and GBA fans together is their mutual hatred for Fates. Apart from that this was a great high-level rundown of the series.
The whole "Awakening had to sell 250k copies to save the franchise" is such a lie. No game besides Thracia sold below that low. There's no reasonable way someone could believe Nintendo would set the bar that low if they were considering canning the series.
I think is weird Mystery of Emblem got skipped out (the game is half remake sure, but it's also half new game), considering how the game is so remarkable from a cultural and commercial view considering how it used to be the best selling game, and didn't have competition for that position (even from games with western releases) until Awakening; which give it a special place in the series' story. Before Awakening, Mystery was the most likely game to be referenced in conversation, and segmented the popularity of the Archanea's staples.
1:00:00 you also forgot to mention Byleth made it in SSBU as well, as the most hated DLC character in the smash community, granted I love Byleth in the game.
As expected from a grumpy old man like me, I used to shun the new entries of FE past Kaga's era, but over the time, and seeing how today success and survival of the series are merits of the new(and old) Intelligent Systems team, and the direction of people like Narihiro Toru and Horikawa Masayuki, I came to understand that they made FE their own with their hard work over all those years. FE4 still my favorite in the series but I'll always be happy with every new release and I'll always try it with an open heart.
Amazing time-consuming work that covers a great deal packed in just a little over an hour. It's great to see you succeed in making this a full time job and look forward to what you have in store for us through the year. Especially if we get to see more Complete Series History of franchises that get much less attention than FF and Tales.
Surprised I’m the Fates section you didn’t address how hated the story is. The game sold well because of its multiple versions, but in retrospect, the story is really poorly regarded.
As I’m new to the series after playing Three Houses, and will be playing Engage by tomorrow I must say, you did a fantastic job with this retrospective. Very entertaining, well edited and so much to learn from past entries, on what they brought to the table. It was magnificent! Keep up the good work, mate!
Cool video. I do agree with others that the remakes should have been included chronologically as they are important pieces of how the series developed over time. Especially for FE3 which was mostly a new, sequel plot - the remake portion being a truncated part at the beginning to catch up new players. I also find that how the remakes were handled speaks a lot about where the series is at for each point in time. For my favourite game in the series, I can't pick one because despite them being obviously similar, each game really does have its own strong identity. PoR has a special place in my heart as the first game I played, with my favourite characters and settings with one of the series' best plots. Thracia is also way up there for the gameplay being really engaging (though nobody should ever play this blind - have a spoiler-free guide on hand) and the plot also being phenomenal in a different way to PoR. But I think Conquest has eclipsed Thracia for my favourite gameplay. Engage has been really good in that regard, but we'll see how the replayability meta evolves for that over time.
My first game in the series was sacred stones when I was in high school. I fell in love with the game and have been an avid fan since. Thanks for making this wonderful video!
Radiant dawn had incredible map diversity. Criticising that games "brutal difficulty" just means most people didnt want to use the games mechanics. Awakening is loved but aside from its great art it is the game with the weakest lv design. Plain same maps all over. Later chapters it becomes worse with endless enemy phase spam on you and also pair up scaling going out of hand.
This is a PERFECT Retrospective imo!!! Short,sweet & right to the point & NO spoilers lol I wish all VideoGame Retrospectives were like this Excellent work dude!
I love people saying Awakening is too easy because, yes, my 12-yr-old cousin finished her first normal casual run in a week or less time, however, it was my first FE but I was determined to play on Hard Classic and it took me 3 years 😂 to complete my playthrough so definitely depends on the gamers involved, this game series is so great and it reminded me of how much I loved those 3DS entries so very dearly again
I can easily say that my Top 3 Favorite Strategy RPG series were the Eastern Strategy RPG Trinity basically the Shining Force series - 1, the Fire Emblem series - 2, & the Langrisser series - 3.
Wish Shining Force would come back, especially a full port or remajebof all 3 parts of 3. But, Camelot is more likely to fo Golden Sun than Shining Force (I love Golden Sun as well).
Such a well put video! I only find it unfortunate that it is now after knowing this series since 2006 that I was spoiled here on why there is a generation shift in Fire Emblem 4. Totally my fault as this is a complete retrospective on the series, but I do wonder if it needed to be included on what happened to the first generation (but that is not to take away its importance for the mechanic being introduced). For context the only games I have not had time to play were FE 4 and 5. Regardless thank you so much for your time and effort in the making of this video! It was such a an amazing watch as the time flew by.
Absolutely fantastic video. I love this kind of thing. I nerded out so hard on this video. I've played Fire Emblem and Sacred Stones for the GBA. I played shadow dragon for the DS. I played radiance and radiant. And Awakening. I actually still own my copies of each as well. My favorites were Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn.
FE fates is my fav. I start Awaking first but then I played along, and I love Fates more. I have finished fates more then 10 times, because I was waiting for Three house back. I just have finished Engage yesterday, and I love it so much, and I also think will finish Engage more that 10 times too, just waiting for editor tools.
I'm surprised I didn't hear any mention of a third tier for promotion in RD (Trueblade, reaver, whisperer, etc.). Those were literally ALL the hype to me. I wanted a cape because of them 😭
>"Fire Emblem: The Ultimate Retrospective" >completely skips over Mystery of the Emblem because it includes a remake of FE1 >skips FE11, FE12, and FE15 just because they’re remakes >casually spoils the biggest twist in FE4
Regardless of what's to come for the Fire Emblem franchise, just hope they continue to implement legacy features and not abandon it later on. There's nothing that points to this happening of course, but my favorite thing about franchises as big as Fire Emblem are the constant callbacks to past protagonists and stories, so I'm just hoping they continue to keep legacy characters moving forward. I especially like how they're handling it in Engage, though most of these characters should be long dead, Engage versions of them can be summoned kind of as guardians to fight alongside and bond with those who wield their ring. It doesn't mess with story continuity and it doesn't dabble in time travel/dimensional travel shenanigans, yet it can still recall past protagonists all the same. I cannot wait to see where this franchise goes, even though 3 Houses was my first game played I've always loved how unique each game felt with their stories and characters. Here's hoping that charm never goes away
I really wish Intelligent Systems and Nintendo would make the old games more accessible on modern hardware. *For Western audiences.* I can't believe what they did with the original Fire Emblem for Switch. There wasn't even a cart in that huge box!
I swear I had a phase Were I was obssesed with lyn, the sprites for attacking were beautiful from the game of the gba and I wanted to play with her but once the game end you dont Have a tower like in sacred stones so what I did was beg one modder to change the sprites of erika for lyn and the dude didddd it and for free, he was so fucking owesome that he for his own Will put the solkati and made erika a two wielder, bow and sword Like in the previus game and I only tell him that I was fine with only sword, until this day I Have Like a trillion of copys of the files in case I lost one of them, thank u derin I still remember you (sorry bad english)
Wonderful video! But it should be pointed out that the Famicom Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light did receive an international release when it was ported and temporarily available on the Nintendo Switch.
Sacred Stones was the game that got me into the series and I'll always go back to the amazing 2D sprite art of the GBA entries. I missed out on getting to play Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn unfortunately. Awakening, Fates, and Echoes were extremely enjoyable to me when they released and I was just so happy that the series didn't die out (although Pair Up was super busted in Awakening lol. Pretty happy with how it was implemented in Fates). 3 Houses was a long experience but very fun overall. The arguments in the fandom over the various factions was quite a wild time.
Hey. I don't normally comment on videos. But I'd like to thank for you taking your time to puting all of this together. It's a very well done and informative video. Thank you, @The Gaming Shelf!
@@TheGamingShelf You're very welcome. Actually, although I'm a fan of JRPGs and grew up playing some of the greats like FF and Chrono Trigger... I've never played any Fire Emblem so far, and I looked for a video like yours specially for that reason. I'm currently playing a game that was inspired by FE, which is called "Symphony of War" - you should look it up, it's a fun game. I'll probably get my hands on the Switch version of FE soon, as well as the SNES version, which were the 2 that caught my attention the most!
Still watching through the video, but can I just say that the ending to Fire Emblem Blazing Blade drove me crazy as a kid. I absolutely loved the game to bits, but I remember that cliff hanger ending of Zephiel talking to the dragons. Wasn't aware it was a prequel until SO much later, so for years I was left wondering why they left the story there of all places.
I realized something funny about Fire Emblem Engage and the order that the previous FE characters appear in the game. The game kind of has two halves and in the first, all the emblems you meet are from the older generation of games. I’m the second half, you meet the more modern characters. At some point, you actually gain two emblems at the same time and they’re both from the same group of games that shared the same plot line. I wonder if that was all coincidental.
I love Fire Emblem, I really love Fire Emblem, I think Awakening is my favorite although my first game was Blazing Blade. I loved that game too but Awakening is what made me fall in love with the series. Did I mention that I love Fire Emblem?
Not sure if I want to play Engage, Awakening or finish my Golden Deer route in 3H. Loved three houses, but I don't have native hardware for Awakening and emulation seems to have a lot of slowdown no matter the hardware. This video really comes in clutch though! Thanks!
great work on the video! i only started playing fire emblem since FE: Fates (Conquest) and then played their main titles from then on... i'd say, i had good time playing the games and am really happy that these game franchise survived and will continue to live on in the coming years
Fire Emblem since Awakening wasn't interesting anymore "as a tactical-rpg". I'm glad to see that's the review are all praising the gameplay of Engage. I really hope that it means that the level design became good too. Even if Echoes is a really good remake, Gaiden level design was kind of meh. Awakening's level design was a joke and Three Houses one was very tedious and repetitive. Fates was so~so between good maps, maps that could be interesting but with an annoying gimmick and just boring maps. Even if there is a lot of importants aspects in a FE game, I really think that the level design is the most important one for enjoying the gameplay. And FE never has a really good story (except FE4), world building (except Jugdral & Tellius games even if GBA games are kind of ok) as for characters it really depend of what you're searching for. I know it would be really cool if an FE game come with a good story. It would change the serie dynamic. But we never had that. At first they have to understand well the basics that they forgot. And then I will be glad if they want to propose a good tale with something more interesting than another DARK DRAGON.
Gaiden level design is legit the worst in the series. That and Alm being even more of a mary sue than Corrin are my only gripes with an otherwise great game.
Enjoyed the video. Your script, delivery, and the overall structure of the presentation reminded me a lot of the old Game Trailers retrospectives. In comparison your writing isn't as clean and polished as theirs was, but it holds up really well if you take into consideration that this was written and edited by a single person. There are some hiccups here and there, mostly redundant phrasing and repetition, but the delivery and flow of the writing was fun and felt informative and appreciative of the subject. Overall, you kept things fun to watch and that's the most important part. My only complaint is that I feel like you fell back on using the title theme as a lead in for a given section way too often. It was repetitive and is a choice I don't really think works for a single, hour long video like this. At least, not when the title theme in question is largely the same song each time. There were a handful of sections where you opted to transition into a new game with a unique track, and those felt like they flowed better while providing that particular entry with a better sense of identity. I think that doing this needs to be a priority when tackling a series with unique entries numbering upwards of the teens, but I can also understand the amount of time that would add to a project like this and how that might be untenable for workflow. Anyways, thank you for your hard work here. I was wanting a refresher before I jumped into the newest Fire Emblem, so I'm glad I found your video.
10:24 They say in Filmmaking Every Movie is made at least 3 Times. First in writing the Script for it. Second in the Filming of it. Third in the editing of the footage in Post. FE4: Hold my Tyrfing
Oh boy I'm ready to watch through this whole thing. I'll just say from the start that Path of Radiance is my favorite in the series (along with Radiant Dawn) by an enormous margin. POR is definitely in my top 10 video games of all time. Thanks for making this awesome video!
I've been a fire emblem fan for quite a while but I gotta admit i didn't pay attention to the story for the FE games I played as a kid. Thanks for the recap!
This was great, I started with the Gba fire emblems currently playing engage. You sir have earned a sub because of this video. My favorite is path of radiance.
First thing I see when I get home is this amazing video. Its funny because I remember watching the retrospective playlist you have like a week ago! Great video
I'm just a quarter way in to your video but I can't help but have to comment with gratitude, I've never played any games from this franchise other than a bit of Awakening and now I'm having the best of my time with Engage. Thank you for letting me have a glimpse of who those Emblem ring characters are in their original debuts. I can imagine the nostalgia and appreciation those Emblem characters would have for longtime fans of the series. This is truly quite an amazing piece of art. P:S 3/4 in: I didn't know that Awakening was a breaking moment for the Franchise, it was my first Fire Emblem game and I loved it so much. So happy that I actually contributed in a very miniscule way in the effort to continue the franchise 😭
@@TheGamingShelf Awakening was me at my early 20s looking for something similar to FFT, i didn't know that Fire Emblem was the inspiration. It gives me so much appreciation for this franchise
im late but this was well done. appreciate you making this taylor. my first fire emblem game was path of radiance and ever since then i was hooked. some of my faves are radiance , awakening , dawn and now 3 houses! i need to catch up.
@@TheGamingShelf I'm loving it!!!currently at chapter 14 on engage. I skipped buying 3 houses because it felt complicated because of the social aspect. I like engage more cause it reminds me of echoes. As I was playing it, the interest of the older titles grows and that led me here on your video. Really nice job covering the past games and its history.
You should have talked about the "remakes" as they came out in release order, as you ended up really messing up the order in which you talked about them. Each one is a main release in the franchise and pushes the series further with new mechanics and such. Also, Mystery of the Emblem should absolutely not be considered a remake of the first game, as it is a sequel.
Fire emblem has become my favorite series over the years. It’s not the best for sure for lots of people, but I love it and all the characters it brought and mechanics.
🛡Which Fire Emblem game is your favorite?
FE Awakening
3H followed by Echoes
Fire Emblem, Family Tree of the Jihad
(FE4)
Radiant Dawn > Path of Radiance > Genealogy > Blazing Sword (Nostalgia) > Sacred Stones (Nostalgia too) > Thracia > Echoes > New Mystery > Three Houses > Binding Blade > Shadow Dragon > Fates/FE3/Gaiden > Awakening > Heroes
The early part of the video has some mistakes:
- My main gripe with this video is the treatment of the third game as just a remake with some bonus content. It is primarily a sequel, while also including a remake. It is also one of the most influential games of the series, and still the most sold one in japan to this day.
- FE1 had classes that promoted into different classes. What Gaiden added was characters where you could choose which class they would become.
- FE1 and Gaiden do not take place on the same continent, but on adjacent continents in the same world.
- "Heir to the republic of Manster" makes no sense, a republic by definition doesn't have heirs. Leif is heir to the kingdom of Leonster.
- Roy and Lilina knew each other before the start of Binding Blade, as is shown in that game's tutorial and in the epilogue of Blazing Blade.
Let me just say that I did enjoy the video, these were mostly little things in a video that was over an hour of mostly good stuff presented nicely and concisely.
They also called the Battle of Belhalla, the Yied Massacre. Which are two completely different things
As a new comer to the series, this was so fun to watch. There was so much to learn! Cheers to more videos like this 🎉
Glad you enjoyed it! It took a long time to put together so it may be awhile before I do another but it was certainly fun to make 😄
It’s kinda late to point out but I looks like you forgot to mention byleth’s inclusion in the smash series. Great video by the way for one of my favorite video game series! Thank you!
I did 😆 Good catch!
Thracia 776 is stlil to date the best Fire Emblem game.
Hot take! 🔥 👀
@@TheGamingShelf it's mainly because it's the only game in the series where each chapter feels like a puzzle you have to solve. later games do not have that feeling at all.
Kinda shocked that there’s absolutely no mention whatsoever of the reception to fates’ story, considering that’s the biggest point of discussion around it nowadays. Great video though
I wonder who started the curse of dead parents lol. I thought it was Sigurd but not sure now
It's a storytelling trope much older than Fire Emblem, but for this series it's been here since the first game.
I never played a Fire Emblem game in "Casual" mode, and I don't understand the mind set of the people who plays in this mode. 🤔
Simply don’t want to lose their party members.
@@TheGamingShelf But that just cut half of the game play experience, is like a Super Mario Bros game without pitfalls, with enemies who only "push you back" instead of cost a life.
In that case better watch a "no death" game play if people wasn't to pay the price of desicions.
The "strategy" is the genre of the game, a good strategy drive to a good resolution, a bad strategy let us to a bad resolution, meditating, forward think and risk/reward are definitive elements of Fire Emblem, without that is bare bones losing all the nutritional meat.
If you aren't torrenting Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn right now, you're doing yourself a disservice.
lol true. Physical copies are insanely expensive
@@TheGamingShelf Also, they are the best games in the series. Right up there with 4 and 5.
what happened now?
Honestly I feel like you shouldn't have skipped mystery of the emblem, sure part of it is a remake of the first game, but part of it has a new story, so I think it should be considered it's own game
Iirc Mystery is what put the series on the map in Japan. It was seen as one of the greatest SRPGs of all time on release.
@@halowaffle25 If I'm not mistaken it is one of, if not, the best selling FE game in Japan to this date
Playing through a 2nd playthrough of Echoes right now and it’s really interesting to see how the original looked. I think they did a great job adapting the designs to the beautiful artstyle of the remake
Echoes is my favorite fire emblem 3ds game.
@@dustingonzalez8080 it’s my boyfriend’s too. The artstyle was the best i have seen for a Fire Emblem, the voice acting is great, the few support conversations are really good and the combat is very fun (each unit having one very specific build being only able to hold one item really makes you think what would be the best synergy for that specific unit). All in all an amazing game!
Been a fan since Path of Radiance back in 05, so I'm just happy the series is successful now and widely known.
Same here. I started with Path of Radiance back in 2005 as well. Been a huge fan of the series ever since. My personal favourites are Path of Radiance, closely followed by Radiant Dawn. By far one of the finest in the series when it comes to world building and story presentation. Apart from the Tellius series, I also really liked Fates Special Edition.
The inclusion of the casual mode in Awakening made the series much more enjoyable for me. I played quite a few of the older games in the early to late 2000s and did love the series before playing Awakening. I really loved Path of Radiance. Definitely leaning towards purchasing Engage when I get paid Friday.
Couldn't agree more! That’s what had me jump in with awakening.
Yes, me too.
My husband complains about it, saying they ruined it by giving the choice to the gamers... But I disagree, why not give everyone what they want if they can?
I love playing in casual mode. Sure I love the strategy of combat in FE but I really like my units and sometimes I can't really stomach losing them when I'm careless.
@@maomi1852 People who complain about the game's ease and accessibility need to sit down and be quiet, because they are a loud minority that can't understand that FE would straight up not exist anymore without a lower difficulty. Every time they make the game easier and more accessible, it makes tons of money, which is far more important for future games than their fragile elitist egos.
@@jeremiahstenzel789 I don’t think it’s fair to tell people who don’t like the modern direction to just "be quiet" in the name of accessibility, it’s the same reason Fromsoft fans are adamant in believing that the games shouldn’t have an easy mode, because it takes away from the game’s original vision.
Plus let’s not pretend Fates did so well because of Phoenix mode, which is also an addition made to make the game more accessible.
@@orangejuice8279 You know what. You're right. Everyone is entitled to their bad takes.
I’m pretty sure three houses is sitting at 3.8mil units now
Such a wonderful retrospective! This started playing on its own after an Arlo vid I was watching and I was so impressed! I loved how you included the story elements in addition to the company details!
I’m glad you enjoyed it, Miss Stardust 🤩
I watched this video front to back and this was an immaculate creation. This shows how incredibly deep the well of Fire Emblem is and details its history really well. Thanks for doing this as I am not exceedingly knowledgable about its past. As someone who has the Divine Edition of Fire Emblem Engage due to show up soon, this couldnt have been better timed. Great work TGS!
Wow, thank you! Glad you enjoyed it and have fun with Engage this week!
If you see the shanebrained retrospective video part 1 & 2, you will blessed. but they are long
Dude those are INSANE! Might as well play the games at that point lol
I feel you missed the mark a bit by completely skipping over how controversial Fates was among the pre-Awakening fanbase. Though you're right in saying part of the hardcore audience has since come to appreciate Conquest's difficulty and customization, the Fates trio is still by far the most hated part of the franchise among many fans, more than any game that came before or after. The FE fanbase has always been divided since the series has such clear distinct 'eras', but the one thing that brings Kaga, Tellius and GBA fans together is their mutual hatred for Fates. Apart from that this was a great high-level rundown of the series.
Fair enough! I still have never really understood the hatred for that game. It’s very similar in almost every way to Awakening.
The whole "Awakening had to sell 250k copies to save the franchise" is such a lie. No game besides Thracia sold below that low. There's no reasonable way someone could believe Nintendo would set the bar that low if they were considering canning the series.
Dude I totally forgot about Ephraim! This videos brings back so many memories. I must be getting old haha 😄
Thank you again for this masterpiece! 🍿
Glad you enjoyed it!
I think is weird Mystery of Emblem got skipped out (the game is half remake sure, but it's also half new game), considering how the game is so remarkable from a cultural and commercial view considering how it used to be the best selling game, and didn't have competition for that position (even from games with western releases) until Awakening; which give it a special place in the series' story.
Before Awakening, Mystery was the most likely game to be referenced in conversation, and segmented the popularity of the Archanea's staples.
1:00:00 you also forgot to mention Byleth made it in SSBU as well, as the most hated DLC character in the smash community, granted I love Byleth in the game.
As expected from a grumpy old man like me, I used to shun the new entries of FE past Kaga's era, but over the time, and seeing how today success and survival of the series are merits of the new(and old) Intelligent Systems team, and the direction of people like Narihiro Toru and Horikawa Masayuki, I came to understand that they made FE their own with their hard work over all those years. FE4 still my favorite in the series but I'll always be happy with every new release and I'll always try it with an open heart.
Amazing time-consuming work that covers a great deal packed in just a little over an hour. It's great to see you succeed in making this a full time job and look forward to what you have in store for us through the year. Especially if we get to see more Complete Series History of franchises that get much less attention than FF and Tales.
This was a project 3-ish months in the making so if I do another it certainly won’t be for awhile 😆
Surprised I’m the Fates section you didn’t address how hated the story is. The game sold well because of its multiple versions, but in retrospect, the story is really poorly regarded.
As I’m new to the series after playing Three Houses, and will be playing Engage by tomorrow
I must say, you did a fantastic job with this retrospective. Very entertaining, well edited and so much to learn from past entries, on what they brought to the table. It was magnificent! Keep up the good work, mate!
Echoes wasn't hard to me, was like any other Fire Emblem game, in fact is in May top 3.
1- Shadow Dragon (DS)
2- Blazing Blade (GBA)
3- Echoes (3DS)
Cool video. I do agree with others that the remakes should have been included chronologically as they are important pieces of how the series developed over time. Especially for FE3 which was mostly a new, sequel plot - the remake portion being a truncated part at the beginning to catch up new players. I also find that how the remakes were handled speaks a lot about where the series is at for each point in time.
For my favourite game in the series, I can't pick one because despite them being obviously similar, each game really does have its own strong identity. PoR has a special place in my heart as the first game I played, with my favourite characters and settings with one of the series' best plots. Thracia is also way up there for the gameplay being really engaging (though nobody should ever play this blind - have a spoiler-free guide on hand) and the plot also being phenomenal in a different way to PoR. But I think Conquest has eclipsed Thracia for my favourite gameplay. Engage has been really good in that regard, but we'll see how the replayability meta evolves for that over time.
My first game in the series was sacred stones when I was in high school. I fell in love with the game and have been an avid fan since. Thanks for making this wonderful video!
Thank you so much for this. Engage will be my first fire embelem game and I really wanted to understand some of the lore.
Glad I could help!
Dude if u like engage, u love 3 houses! Try it too😊
Radiant dawn had incredible map diversity. Criticising that games "brutal difficulty" just means most people didnt want to use the games mechanics.
Awakening is loved but aside from its great art it is the game with the weakest lv design. Plain same maps all over. Later chapters it becomes worse with endless enemy phase spam on you and also pair up scaling going out of hand.
Chrom is actually Roy's echo fighter, while Lucina is an echo fighter to Marth. Great video.
This is a PERFECT Retrospective imo!!!
Short,sweet & right to the point & NO spoilers lol
I wish all VideoGame Retrospectives were like this
Excellent work dude!
I mean he did spoil the climax of FE4 so 😭
wikipedia andy spoiling the best game ever made casually ok bro
Gaiden is a decent game and Zelda 2 is better than the first game. IDC what anyway says.
This is an amazingly detailed explanation, it’s so clear and well researched! Quintessential for anyone that wants to learn more about FE
Wow thank you for the kind words!
I love people saying Awakening is too easy because, yes, my 12-yr-old cousin finished her first normal casual run in a week or less time, however, it was my first FE but I was determined to play on Hard Classic and it took me 3 years 😂 to complete my playthrough so definitely depends on the gamers involved, this game series is so great and it reminded me of how much I loved those 3DS entries so very dearly again
I can easily say that my Top 3 Favorite Strategy RPG series were the Eastern Strategy RPG Trinity basically the Shining Force series - 1, the Fire Emblem series - 2, & the Langrisser series - 3.
Wish Shining Force would come back, especially a full port or remajebof all 3 parts of 3. But, Camelot is more likely to fo Golden Sun than Shining Force (I love Golden Sun as well).
Such a well put video!
I only find it unfortunate that it is now after knowing this series since 2006 that I was spoiled here on why there is a generation shift in Fire Emblem 4.
Totally my fault as this is a complete retrospective on the series, but I do wonder if it needed to be included on what happened to the first generation (but that is not to take away its importance for the mechanic being introduced). For context the only games I have not had time to play were FE 4 and 5.
Regardless thank you so much for your time and effort in the making of this video! It was such a an amazing watch as the time flew by.
Glad you enjoyed it! Do you have a favorite entry in the series?
@@TheGamingShelf imagine just straight up ignoring his valid criticism of you ruining fe4 for him 🤣
Absolutely fantastic video. I love this kind of thing. I nerded out so hard on this video.
I've played Fire Emblem and Sacred Stones for the GBA. I played shadow dragon for the DS. I played radiance and radiant. And Awakening. I actually still own my copies of each as well. My favorites were Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn.
FE fates is my fav. I start Awaking first but then I played along, and I love Fates more. I have finished fates more then 10 times, because I was waiting for Three house back.
I just have finished Engage yesterday, and I love it so much, and I also think will finish Engage more that 10 times too, just waiting for editor tools.
I played Awakening, followed that up spending 530 hours on Three Houses. Needless to say I love Three Houses.
You taught a long term fanatic like me a lot of things this video. Well researched dude 👏
Glad you enjoyed it!
I'm surprised I didn't hear any mention of a third tier for promotion in RD (Trueblade, reaver, whisperer, etc.). Those were literally ALL the hype to me. I wanted a cape because of them 😭
My favorite Fire Emblem is the Awakening, because It was my favorite FE, but for me the one that have the best story is The Genealogy of the Holy War.
>"Fire Emblem: The Ultimate Retrospective"
>completely skips over Mystery of the Emblem because it includes a remake of FE1
>skips FE11, FE12, and FE15 just because they’re remakes
>casually spoils the biggest twist in FE4
Regardless of what's to come for the Fire Emblem franchise, just hope they continue to implement legacy features and not abandon it later on. There's nothing that points to this happening of course, but my favorite thing about franchises as big as Fire Emblem are the constant callbacks to past protagonists and stories, so I'm just hoping they continue to keep legacy characters moving forward.
I especially like how they're handling it in Engage, though most of these characters should be long dead, Engage versions of them can be summoned kind of as guardians to fight alongside and bond with those who wield their ring. It doesn't mess with story continuity and it doesn't dabble in time travel/dimensional travel shenanigans, yet it can still recall past protagonists all the same.
I cannot wait to see where this franchise goes, even though 3 Houses was my first game played I've always loved how unique each game felt with their stories and characters. Here's hoping that charm never goes away
I really wish Intelligent Systems and Nintendo would make the old games more accessible on modern hardware. *For Western audiences.*
I can't believe what they did with the original Fire Emblem for Switch. There wasn't even a cart in that huge box!
Would be great! Path of Radiance for example is like $300+ on eBay right now 😵💫
I swear I had a phase Were I was obssesed with lyn, the sprites for attacking were beautiful from the game of the gba and I wanted to play with her but once the game end you dont Have a tower like in sacred stones so what I did was beg one modder to change the sprites of erika for lyn and the dude didddd it and for free, he was so fucking owesome that he for his own Will put the solkati and made erika a two wielder, bow and sword Like in the previus game and I only tell him that I was fine with only sword, until this day I Have Like a trillion of copys of the files in case I lost one of them, thank u derin I still remember you (sorry bad english)
Great video buddy, congratulations on this big push the channel is getting! You're doing great work!
Thanks a ton! I appreciate it :D
I kind of wish you did a rating for each of these. Haha, it's cool toy made this into one video instead of fifteen separate ones 😄
Wonderful video! But it should be pointed out that the Famicom Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light did receive an international release when it was ported and temporarily available on the Nintendo Switch.
wow. when FE Blazing Blade part started 23:30 , nostalgia hit me so hard. That was the game that introduced me to the series.
Sacred Stones was the game that got me into the series and I'll always go back to the amazing 2D sprite art of the GBA entries. I missed out on getting to play Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn unfortunately. Awakening, Fates, and Echoes were extremely enjoyable to me when they released and I was just so happy that the series didn't die out (although Pair Up was super busted in Awakening lol. Pretty happy with how it was implemented in Fates).
3 Houses was a long experience but very fun overall. The arguments in the fandom over the various factions was quite a wild time.
Hey. I don't normally comment on videos.
But I'd like to thank for you taking your time to puting all of this together. It's a very well done and informative video.
Thank you, @The Gaming Shelf!
Thank you dude! I really appreciate the kind words. Do you have a favorite in the series?
@@TheGamingShelf You're very welcome.
Actually, although I'm a fan of JRPGs and grew up playing some of the greats like FF and Chrono Trigger... I've never played any Fire Emblem so far, and I looked for a video like yours specially for that reason.
I'm currently playing a game that was inspired by FE, which is called "Symphony of War" - you should look it up, it's a fun game.
I'll probably get my hands on the Switch version of FE soon, as well as the SNES version, which were the 2 that caught my attention the most!
No idea what you were on about at fitst, then Advanced wars popped up and the nostalgia hit.
Still watching through the video, but can I just say that the ending to Fire Emblem Blazing Blade drove me crazy as a kid. I absolutely loved the game to bits, but I remember that cliff hanger ending of Zephiel talking to the dragons. Wasn't aware it was a prequel until SO much later, so for years I was left wondering why they left the story there of all places.
I think this is your best video man! Well done!
Wow thanks dude! I really appreciate that. It was definitely the video I put the most time into for sure lol.
I realized something funny about Fire Emblem Engage and the order that the previous FE characters appear in the game. The game kind of has two halves and in the first, all the emblems you meet are from the older generation of games. I’m the second half, you meet the more modern characters. At some point, you actually gain two emblems at the same time and they’re both from the same group of games that shared the same plot line. I wonder if that was all coincidental.
Fire emblem awakening is my first fire emblem 😊, it's so beautiful and is still my favorite up to this point!!!
It would be awesome if they remade the older titles...
I'm so happy they remade FE Echoes SoV because like this I was able go play it on the 3ds.
I love Fire Emblem, I really love Fire Emblem, I think Awakening is my favorite although my first game was Blazing Blade. I loved that game too but Awakening is what made me fall in love with the series. Did I mention that I love Fire Emblem?
I'm curious, do you like Fire Emblem?
They did actually release the original FE not a remake in the west. I think as a special limited editor thing.
Not sure if I want to play Engage, Awakening or finish my Golden Deer route in 3H. Loved three houses, but I don't have native hardware for Awakening and emulation seems to have a lot of slowdown no matter the hardware.
This video really comes in clutch though! Thanks!
Happy to help!
Blazing Blade was my first entry to the series, and unfortunately, I don't have many memories of the game. So, this is quite the trip down memory lane
No Mystery of the Emblem?
52:46
Thank you for making this. I love these long form video histories, especially the coverage of the little known Japanese only releases.
Glad you enjoyed it!
great work on the video! i only started playing fire emblem since FE: Fates (Conquest) and then played their main titles from then on... i'd say, i had good time playing the games and am really happy that these game franchise survived and will continue to live on in the coming years
Whoa! This is amazing! Thank you for making this. ❤
I'm going to watch this this as soon as I get off of work.
Hope you like it!
XD This video is fantastic, but I also urge ppl to turn on the captions at 50:22 lmao
Good on Nintendo for putting sacred stone on the ambassadors program. Made me discover now it’s my fav franchise
Fire Emblem since Awakening wasn't interesting anymore "as a tactical-rpg". I'm glad to see that's the review are all praising the gameplay of Engage. I really hope that it means that the level design became good too. Even if Echoes is a really good remake, Gaiden level design was kind of meh.
Awakening's level design was a joke and Three Houses one was very tedious and repetitive.
Fates was so~so between good maps, maps that could be interesting but with an annoying gimmick and just boring maps.
Even if there is a lot of importants aspects in a FE game, I really think that the level design is the most important one for enjoying the gameplay.
And FE never has a really good story (except FE4), world building (except Jugdral & Tellius games even if GBA games are kind of ok) as for characters it really depend of what you're searching for.
I know it would be really cool if an FE game come with a good story. It would change the serie dynamic. But we never had that. At first they have to understand well the basics that they forgot. And then I will be glad if they want to propose a good tale with something more interesting than another DARK DRAGON.
I agree with level design. I thought the maps were straight up bad in three houses and really easy. I’m hoping they’re more interesting in Engage.
Gaiden level design is legit the worst in the series. That and Alm being even more of a mary sue than Corrin are my only gripes with an otherwise great game.
I love Fire Emblem for one aspect. You get to shape your story
3 Houses and Awakening are the best. Fates isn't far behind.
Enjoyed the video. Your script, delivery, and the overall structure of the presentation reminded me a lot of the old Game Trailers retrospectives. In comparison your writing isn't as clean and polished as theirs was, but it holds up really well if you take into consideration that this was written and edited by a single person. There are some hiccups here and there, mostly redundant phrasing and repetition, but the delivery and flow of the writing was fun and felt informative and appreciative of the subject. Overall, you kept things fun to watch and that's the most important part.
My only complaint is that I feel like you fell back on using the title theme as a lead in for a given section way too often. It was repetitive and is a choice I don't really think works for a single, hour long video like this. At least, not when the title theme in question is largely the same song each time. There were a handful of sections where you opted to transition into a new game with a unique track, and those felt like they flowed better while providing that particular entry with a better sense of identity. I think that doing this needs to be a priority when tackling a series with unique entries numbering upwards of the teens, but I can also understand the amount of time that would add to a project like this and how that might be untenable for workflow.
Anyways, thank you for your hard work here. I was wanting a refresher before I jumped into the newest Fire Emblem, so I'm glad I found your video.
Haha that's so funny that you say that! I basically copied the old Game Trailers format and put my own spin on it.
Fact Engage and i share the same Birthday!
And after Chrom, the Byleth's join the battle as dlc
I never played or know much about Fire Emblem but this video was pretty well made.
10:24 They say in Filmmaking Every Movie is made at least 3 Times. First in writing the Script for it. Second in the Filming of it. Third in the editing of the footage in Post.
FE4: Hold my Tyrfing
lol
Great recap/summary of the series! Still have yet to play all the older ones.
Same! I started with Awakening and haven’t gone back.
Amazing vid, wish we could get remasters of older games for switch though with some QoL changes 🤷🏾♂️
If nothing else just so we don’t have to pay an arm and a leg! Path of Radiance goes for $300+ on eBay 😵💫
Oh boy I'm ready to watch through this whole thing.
I'll just say from the start that Path of Radiance is my favorite in the series (along with Radiant Dawn) by an enormous margin. POR is definitely in my top 10 video games of all time.
Thanks for making this awesome video!
Hope you enjoy it!
I've been a fire emblem fan for quite a while but I gotta admit i didn't pay attention to the story for the FE games I played as a kid. Thanks for the recap!
You’re welcome!
Love this. Been playing the mobile game, some previous and Three Houses. Enjoy learning the history of it’s industry, well done!
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it.
Awakening was my first game in the series then played the older GBA games, I wish they remake those not in 3d but in a HD-2D style pixel remake
Gba fe da goat
Gba fe da goat
This was great, I started with the Gba fire emblems currently playing engage. You sir have earned a sub because of this video. My favorite is path of radiance.
Awesome, thank you!
First thing I see when I get home is this amazing video. Its funny because I remember watching the retrospective playlist you have like a week ago! Great video
It’s more or less the same but with some corrections and newer games added!
In Smash Ultimate, Chrom is an Echo Fighter to Roy, not Lucina.
Dammit I meant to fix that and I never did 😆 Oh well too late now
All good!
I'm just a quarter way in to your video but I can't help but have to comment with gratitude, I've never played any games from this franchise other than a bit of Awakening and now I'm having the best of my time with Engage.
Thank you for letting me have a glimpse of who those Emblem ring characters are in their original debuts.
I can imagine the nostalgia and appreciation those Emblem characters would have for longtime fans of the series. This is truly quite an amazing piece of art.
P:S 3/4 in:
I didn't know that Awakening was a breaking moment for the Franchise, it was my first Fire Emblem game and I loved it so much. So happy that I actually contributed in a very miniscule way in the effort to continue the franchise 😭
I’m so glad you found this helpful and enjoyable! I’m with you on Awakening, that’s where I jumped in.
@@TheGamingShelf Awakening was me at my early 20s looking for something similar to FFT, i didn't know that Fire Emblem was the inspiration. It gives me so much appreciation for this franchise
You forgot that byleth is also dlc for smash ultimate
Simply perfect retrospective! Great work! As this is my all time favorite franchise, heres hoping it will be around for many years!
Much appreciated! I hope it'll be around for awhile too :)
im late but this was well done. appreciate you making this taylor. my first fire emblem game was path of radiance and ever since then i was hooked. some of my faves are radiance , awakening , dawn and now 3 houses! i need to catch up.
You’re so lucky to get to play path of radiance first
Awakening was so lit. So many good memories at that time.
this is called the ultimate retrospective, but you skipped games fire emblem 3 mystery of the emblem
It’s in the remake section near the end of the video.
This is a good video. My first FE game is FE echoes and now I'm currently playing Engage.
Nice! How are you liking it?
@@TheGamingShelf I'm loving it!!!currently at chapter 14 on engage. I skipped buying 3 houses because it felt complicated because of the social aspect. I like engage more cause it reminds me of echoes. As I was playing it, the interest of the older titles grows and that led me here on your video. Really nice job covering the past games and its history.
You call this an ultimate retrospective and skip fe3?
It's in there near the end.
Were you saying all the sacred stones characters names wrong on purpose?
No. Eirika is spelled so weirdly I thought they were making a name up lol.
You should have talked about the "remakes" as they came out in release order, as you ended up really messing up the order in which you talked about them. Each one is a main release in the franchise and pushes the series further with new mechanics and such. Also, Mystery of the Emblem should absolutely not be considered a remake of the first game, as it is a sequel.
Good feedback, thanks!
@@TheGamingShelf No prob!
Fire emblem has become my favorite series over the years. It’s not the best for sure for lots of people, but I love it and all the characters it brought and mechanics.
That’s awesome! What’s your favorite entry?
@@TheGamingShelf Definitely 3 houses
Wanting to get into this series!