Yeah, the FE5 guide was awesome. It had everything I could want from checking the wiki but without spoiling everything else and this game seems like it would benefit from it even more
The issue there is it's effectively impossible, especially without spoilers, to be definitive in a guide for TRS. there's so many events and conversations that can even be mutually exclusive sometimes. (the same character might have some kind of event on both sides of a route split, for example). But something that gives you a rundown of some of the more general mechanics and very useful things to watch for could probably be done.
9:30 It's probably worth noting that while the function can be similar to enemy ranges, the player psychology is very different. The marker makes the player a more active participant in determining the threat, which personally, I think is a good thing.
A good alternative emulator for those who don't like Retroarch's complexity is the Duckstation emulator, available for both PC and Android. I surely recommend it
TearRing Saga is one of the best Fire Emblem games, and more people should play it! I also started playing Berwick Saga recently, so that's pretty exciting :)
I’ll put in the simplest way: If you love old school FE gameplay and the general writing style and tone of Kaga and his world building, you will love TRS.
Wow. This video really has me thinking how cool of a concept it is to have characters that act a certain way and being able to do things to change their nature. Narrative with gameplay effect. Fascinating.
I'm finishing up my first playthrough of TearRing Saga, and it's great. Something about the way Kaga makes games is just so unique, and although I love a lot of newer FE games there's a certain charm to Kaga's non FE games which is very refreshing. I really wish these games got a greater release, because they're kind of hidden gems right now.
@@Mekkkah Yea it's a shame but in Berwick Saga, the flags are present and oh boy you will need them especially since some of the enemies are insanely dangerous and enemy phase doesn't really exist with a few exceptions so yea you need to get the first strike if possible.
@@synthesoul True and it does have a lot of bullshit weapons...but even so, I still recommend it since it is still a fun experience for fire emblem fans.
As one of those five TRS fans on the internet, (it's straight up my favorite game period and I imported a Japanese copy for God's sake), I appreciate you acknowledging our existence.
Do the no spoiler guide pls. We need more batshit crazy stuff like this in more Fire Emblem games. It's always fun when there's those little events like when you talk to Jill's father with her and she decides to rejoin the red team. We also have multiple mercenary characters that say how awful it is to have to kill your friends if they're on the opposite side, yet we only see a glimpse of that in 3 Houses and Hopes, we need more characters that betray you and some that hate each other's guts but have to work together for now!
As someone who first played and fell in love with TRS almost 2 years ago now, it is absolutely worth a play for any fire emblem fan. Its map design and gameplay are almost as good as FE can get outside a small handful of maps (Mostly the last few and one or two mixed in there), its cast is extremely high quality, units are varied and play in different and interesting ways, and its utilization of Skills and Weapons is masterful. Look below for some advice from someone who has played the game 5 times and done everything you can do in it, no spoilers and more pointing you on what questions to ask: 1. Use your money and buy weapons where you can. Shops in TRS offer great items. Scimitars will be your best friends for a solid portion of the game, as they're cheap and powerful while being easy to use. 2. CHECK UNIT SKILLS!!!!! Some units, like Meriel, Samson, and others may learn skills at higher levels, but only in their base class. So figure out whether you think it's worthwhile to promote some units before you do! 3. Train your Lords. Runan isn't super impressive at first glance, and even when trained he's rarely your best unit, but training him makes the late-game much more manageable. Holmes on the other hand starts good and stays good, give him a Killer Crossbow or a Brave Crossbow and he'll do a great deal of work till he promotes and gets Swords. 4. Ask someone for help! This is most important for the Route Splits. At each split, you can miss events, sometimes even entire units, or important items by sending units to the wrong route. You can absolutely beat the game without any of this, but you miss out on a lot if you route split incorrectly, so ask someone for suggestions and lists of who to send where! 5. Only a couple units in the game are bad, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Pick who you want at the opportunities you get to choose characters. There are better options and worse options, but none of the options are outright detrimental. Play the game at your own pace with the units you want to use.
I'm playing the one from PS2 (Berwick Saga) and i'm having a blast, this one have a lot of management too instead of just going from level to level like regular fire emblem. I even managed to make it work on the AetherSX2 emulator on my cubot kingkong 7, now i'm playing 1 level everytime i use the gym bicicle
I'll second Mekkah's recommendation. I would also suggest he makes that spoiler free guide for those who want it. I do kind of disagree that the hidden stuff in the game isn't a negative. It's one thing to miss something you knew about, it's another thing when you don't even know you're missing something. I also have to disagree with some people when it comes to the dancer thing. I don't think the game is saying it's a good thing or that it's rewarding the player for making it happen. I think he just did it to give players a punch to the gut.
I'd say being able to play the game again (even if its a long slog) and finding so much new stuff, is pretty fun. As long as thee game doesn't punish you by missing said stuff, but rather rewards you for finding it, i'm fine with several secrets. The dancer thing is definitely a difficult topic. For one thing, it's a certain coldblooded (if known what happens) action the player can take. On the other hand, the game doesn't glorify the action at all, nor does it give you an active incention to do it. (besides getting a dancer, i guess) As a blind player, you have to practically stumble upon it by sheer dumb accident. And many would most likely reset after she gets taken away, not knowing that this is a hidden quest of sorts.I definitely would reset for my sweet healer girl. As for Zieg. That one is a straight up puncch in the guts, right when you get complacent, the best kinda of punches in the gut a game can deliver. :D
@@Aurirang I poorly worded my thoughts on secrets. I think there’s a difference between a secret you could figure out and one that basically requires a guide to know it’s there. The former are better in my opinion. The best examples I can give are Raffin’s promotion and the Lateena event. Thankfully the game easy enough to not require pretty much any of the secrets to get through and a decent amount of them aren’t too hard to figure out for a second playthrough. I know because I missed at least half of them. Honestly I don’t blame anyone who didn’t want to play after learning about the dancer thing. There’s a reason he’s my pfp.
@@YozuMike-oy8pn you’re right, she is a fictional character, and fictional characters are written by people in a work of fiction. I’m sure you’re aware that other people like to engage with fiction and can criticize how a work of fiction handle certain subjects. I’m glad you understand this and aren’t being a prick to people for no reason. Speaking of the Manhunt games, are they any fun? I hear all the time about the violence in them but almost nothing about the game play.
@@YozuMike-oy8pn Again, this might be different from person to person. But i feel uncomfortable to make decisions i consider morally bad/terrible in games with well designed characters. I'm too emphatic to actually follow through. My exception is Rimworld i guess, nothing beats the good old mayhem the game throws at you and lets you do... But in most rpg/jrpg or similar games that contain decisions, i feel uncomfortable doing those decisions, if it goes heavily against my moral compass. But it's also fine if people don't have an issue with such decisions, as long as its contained within a game.
This is exactly my thoughts on this sort of thing. I personally can never be purposefully mean or do something I morally disagree with if I have the choice not to. I have no problem with the option itself being presented or other players for choosing the option, I just have less fun if I pick that option myself
vestaria saga next?? 👀it's such an amazing game (my favorite FE game if you count it) and there's a lot about the game that i think would make it great for a let's play. the mechanic that lets you save every 5 turns would definitely help because you'd never need to completely restart a map if something goes wrong. the localization is also really well done, the game has a lot of humor and funny bits of dialogue that i think would definitely make a playthrough more entertaining and it never gets to a point where the story feels undermined or stops taking itself seriously. it's also 20 chapters long compared to TRS's 40 which means it'd definitely be much less of a slog to play on the channel. the maps themselves are definitely longer than the ones in TRS but the story and gameplay are very tightly interwoven to the point that a large chunk of the story is told within the maps themselves in a similar way to FE4, and it doesn't have any massive lore dumps in the way that TRS does. there's nothing on the level of holmes running a gauntlet of generic caves full of eyeballs or law giving you a 30 minute long history lecture. also in vestaria saga 2 units have their own personal battle themes which automatically makes it better than any FE tbh
Tear Ring Saga is a hell of a game that I think any devoted FE fan should try to play at least once (with a guide probably lol). The gameplay is fun, but what really elevates TRS is the story and characters. Runan and Holmes are a fantastic pair of lords, Zieg shines in gameplay and story as a defining character, and Plum is one of my favorite characters of all time. Even comparatively minor characters like Vega, Esther, and or Lionel are given a lot of dialogue before and after their recruitments to make them seem more real and important to the player. Dialogue that would have been relegated to support conversations in any other game are now sprawling sidequests that could change the game and ending in interesting ways. There's even small gameplay decisions that are made that I really like. Cavaliers have 4 different promotions that are given to characters and it makes them more than just another promoted mounted unit. Skills are handled really nicely in this game by being given out during events or through specific level ups, promotions and every character has a unique list. It's definitely a flawed game (there are some annoying chapters, it's a bit too wordy at time, the pacing is awful, and there's one event I'd cut out with a saw), but it has so much charm and fun aspects to it that I've come back and replayed it so many times.
TearRing Saga is genuinely amazing. I think people are scared to try it because it's made by Kaga and therefore must be some insanely unfun elitist hardcore strategy game, but it's actually way more on the "casual" end of the spectrum than you would think. In terms of difficulty, it's about as difficult as PoR normal mode, and has an intense focus on it's characters and their stories like later FE games rather than being an intense war simulator. If your favorite FE games are Path of Radiance and/or Echoes, you should try TearRing Saga. The only problem with the game is that many of it's story and character scenes are treated as easter eggs, so you need to (at least loosely) follow a guide for what characters to bring into what maps if you want to get the full story.
I played TRS thrice. 2 times like anyone, and a 3rd time with only infantry, armored and dismounted units. It quickly became my 3rd favorite FE game, after Echoes and Thracia, and I do my best to recommend anyone to play it ♡
In a very unlikely scenario that this game gets a fan remake, or even maybe a remake by Kaga himself, an in game codex is an absolute necessity. I've played this game so many times that I know by now who is related to who and how, but I also had to use the wiki to check for some names which I kinda forgot about. Because, as you've said, there so much text, and the game is slow. The codex could fill naturally over time, as the player finds out information. But it shuold also contain the history of the world. At least what is already known "in general", so that knowledge can be subverted like with bishop Law. This way, we can also avoid unnecessary exposition dumps between characters who are supposed to know that information already by heart, but decided to talk about it on screen because, well, the player needs to know that information somehow. But this is indeed a wonderful Fire Emblem game. I would love to see more of your content about it, like the spoilerless guide you've mentioned. Hopefully you will also include TearRing Saga in the future tier lists. Here's to hoping to seeing more content about TRS, and as well as you maybe diving into Berwick Saga and Vestaria Saga. You absolutely will need guidance for Berwick Saga though, because it "can" be considered a Fire Emblem game, but it is more like an evolution of the Fire Emblem gameplay we never got - as in: hexagons instead of squares, friendly and enemy units taking turns basically one at a time instead of having enemy and ally phase etc. Aggro would surely be a great co-host for this venture. Thanks again for playing this amazing game.
I remember playing TRS twice (because I wanted to play both route splits) TRS feels like a breath of fresh air while still having the vibes of old school Fire Emblem games. And as someone who likes a good story in a video game, TRS has you covered in that department too.
-> "some of its weaknesses" -> shows chapter 16 Speaking as someone who just spent around 6 hours beating that horrible, horrible map in 9 turns, yeah, that checks out. EDIT: It's not like Loptous, because Loptous halves the enemy's Attack. Schram / Enarmour / Dolharken / etc. are like Dragonskin from the modern FE games: they halve damage after the Atk - Prt/Rsl calculation is done.
I love TRS too and I'm glad you enjoyed it. Also the flag tile marker is a genius development, I agree. Hope you play through Vestaria Saga too, it's quite a bit more difficult than TRS but there's some really cool things going on in that game.
A spoiler free guide would be awesome! I've been wanting to get into TRS for a while and wanting to see a good chunk of the secret events without spoiling myself
I cannot begin to say how great it's been to see you play through TRS and have you enjoy that journey. I've been hoping you'd get around to TRS for ages and it's been great watching the Let's Play and hearing your thoughts and opinions in the moment! Thank you for making this video, I think it will attract more people to try TRS which is sometimes the hardest part. I hope you wil eventually get around to Berwick Saga, because it has even more of the things you listed in the video.
Hey, thanks for giving your personal experience on the game, I think it genuinely shows the Kaga uniqueness very clearly that I think I might just play it with just this sole reason. Thanks Mekkah, it really does add that much more to the video for folks like me.
Dude yes PLEASE do a video like you did for FE5, that would be incredible. TRS has been on my radar for years but hearing about those insane weapons shot it up my priority list.
TRS is basically my second favourite game of its genre. The only game that surpassed it for me is Berwick Saga. (I really hope you'll play that too Mekkah!)
TRS despite all the jank, can be a lot of fun and I do have a soft spot for it even if parts of it frustrate me. When you finally become mad enough definitely check out the sequel, probably my favorite tactics game of all time. -Feel free to hit me up if you need help-
@@YozuMike-oy8pn lol. When TRS maps are bad they tend to just be very tedious but the underlying ideas of the map are still tactically interesting. When Rev maps are bad they aren't tactically interesting at all and make you wonder why you bothered putting effort into the game. At least that's the vibe I get from most people I've talked to. Bruh I can tell you feel persecuted cause you like Fates and hate Kaga games. Enjoy whatever you want my dude. If you want to actually make critiques of TRS go ahead but bad faith comparisons aren't going to convince anyone.
FLAG Emblem! It's a good time. I like the Kaga philosophy to give the player busted toys, and then throw them into puzzling situations where there are usually multiple non-obvious solutions. Oh yeah how could you leave Aura Rain out of the spoiler section?! lmao
I jus finished a full blind play and recomend playing it like that, you miss a few stuff but it really doest matter much, and when you discover stuff on your own that is much more rewarding. edit: Wow, just watched the spoilers and they are so cool! Cant believe I missed so much stuff :), Kaga really is a genius
Please make a spoiler free guide. I started a few weeks ago and I’m currently on map 7 and I’ve been following a very specific guide that’s been sucking a lot of the fun out of the game. I’d really appreciate a thracia style vague breakdown video on what to expect.
Just play it 100% blind, you will not get stuck. Anything you miss on your first playthrough you will just pick up on your second. I didn't search anything on my playthrough and didn't even need to abuse save states (though I wouldn't judge somebody for doing so) I missed a lot of characters but had a fun time anyway.
I really want to play it. Please make the no spoiler guide! Also, the protagonist looks like he is Leif wearing Seliph's headband while holding Marth's rapier. And killing monsters like Alm!
4:46 the way I describe the story and lore is "Oh I recognize that name I just can't remember what was it was called" "I REMEMBER THAT EVENT WHAT WAS IT'S NAME" "I think these two are related this way"
Also for most of the pros of TRS but with less of the (a quicker and more challenging game), kagas two Vestria Saga games are on steam. Thief some of my favorite FE games, with their one major downside being that they look pretty bad. Still if you’ve played the older kaga games they are defiant worth a try.
I'm sure someone else will ask when you're going to play Berwick Saga, so I won't. (I do wonder, though, if you would think of it as a FE game in the same way you think TRS is, given Berwick's departures from what Kaga did before)
The best Fire Emblem for my money. It's definitely not for everyone and absolutely suffers from an utter slog of an early game, but if you can put up with that and the very large amount of dialogue you will find a game with GoT level worldbuilding unlike anything seen in this franchise, unparalleled story-gameplay integration, and the single most fun "sandbox-style" Fire Emblem gameplay I've ever seen. I fervently hope people will watch this video and consider giving this absolute gem of a game a try, IMO if you love Fire Emblem you owe it to yourself to try this game.
Sunflame has: 15 Mt (Fat) 1 - 3 range (can attack into hard to reach places, good versatility with positioning, and can avoid counters easily) 100 hit (reliable) 70 uses ( you can be a quite liberal with its usage) +10 Def (Turns rischel into an enemy phase tank) Monster eff ( allows him to just straight up one shot most monsters) 10 wt (not great, but you can double slow enemies at least) Rischel prf (He is a decent unit in general and this tome makes him very good) This is one of best Tomes in FE history.
Tearring Saga is definitely Fire Emblem since it was called "Emblem Saga" until Kaga was sued by Nintendo. I think Berwick Saga would be difficult to consider it as FE tho. The game system is so different.
Some speculate that Narcus was supposed to be Xane before the legal issues. It really is just legally distinct FE. There's even Jugdral references in the game. It's like this and BWS are an alternate universe continuation of the world from the first 5 games. As for Berwick Saga, the major difference is with the turn and flow of combat. Other than that it shares several of the same story, character, amd gameplay tropes that if you read it out from a list would be indistinguishable from FE. In particular it has a few suspicious similarities to Tellius that makes you wonder if IntSys was brainstorming Teliius when Kaga was still with the company.
Actually there's a hidden way to implement sequential order just like traditional FE. I cannot understand why they kept it hidden though. Rengor explained it in his Berwick gameplay and believe me it works. I firmly believe Berwick is the evolution of FE. It gives you more things to manage as a player.
I played TRS a few years ago and the main problem I had was that, many times, the game feels more like a puzzle/surpise test than a strategy game. I'm not talking "In ch2, use the armor knight who just joined to block the sword users", but "hey remember that sword user you got in ch3? Well, hope you trained him 'cause now he must duel the boss if you want the good ending". I understand it adds to replayability but it still feels like a mean "haha gotcha" to something you have almost no way to foresee.
part of me wonders if the tear ring saga will ever make its way to the modern consoles and pc's :/ far as i know there are currently 2 games in this game series both only in japan as of today with english fan patches for the games for both :/ will be nice for these games to get another chance :/ besides i never heard of these games till recently but meh doubt they will be on modern consoles/pc's :/
At least when you talk about bad map design, everyone who has played the game instantly have chapter 16 flashback. Also what do you mean by "enemies you cannot defeat"? Not a problem for a slightly overpowered Maruju \s
Yeah I think the mogall cave stands out the most. The forest ballista town is also pretty bad but at least the broken dude just ignores forest penalties and runs right through with Pilums. That lategame map with 3 cantors and a massive swarm of dracozombies I think is the next worst but 2x Aura Rain trivializes it.
The problem with modern Fire Emblem is that it feels like it has to make sacrifices for mainstream popularity. However strategy game can made by small companies, so it doesn't have to do that.
Also Kaga really going all out with his weird obsession with tramumatizing and or capturing women. The vagueness of what happeend to the dancer only makes me think of wtf happened to her...
It's not obvious bc of how maps work but bc Holmes maps and runan maps happen simultaneously there's minimal time between her being kidnapped and her being rescued, so basically she was kidnapped and then immediately rescued. One of the things that bothered me was no one noticing, but it makes slightly more sense when you realize she was only briefly missing.
@albegade Wait, isn't the implication that she was forced to to dance when kidnapped and therfore changes to a dancer since she learned the skills? Because if she knew how to dance before, why wasn't she a dancers before the event?
@@shroudedinmyth8229 Spoilers ahead: She knew how to dance because her mother taught her when she was still alive (her mother was also a slave dancer before she was rescued by Plum's father). Before Plum was kidnapped they press her for some information and find out that she knew. She just didn't dance before because she was nervous about people watching her and she didn't think she was good enough. After she's rescued she decides to keep dancing because Holmes praises her dancing skill and she admits that she does like dancing, just not being forced to do it as a slave. In her ending she decides to keep being a dancer because of her love of it and to honor her mother.
The Dancer recruitment genuinely made me feel like shit. Would you look at that, a game where I *don't* want a Dancer because it goes so hard against my moral code I cannot bring myself to do it to a fictional character I don't even know.
Yeah that's like the one reason I don't want to play the game. Fire Emblem has been problematic or dark before, but there's a line and that goes about 500 miles over it and makes me really want to not play because I think it's really disgusting that a game dev would require you to do that to one of your units to get a bonus
Yeah, it's messed up. However, it's good that some games cover real life, deep, dark topics; rather than shy away from them because "someone might be offended". People are too fragile, too offended, ALL the time these days, and a wake up call is welcome for those people. PG only is for children. Adults should get media and content that covers deeper issues, talks about terrible things that actually happen in real life, and not sugarcoat anything. Place applicable labels on said media, and there is no reason any topic or event can't be covered. Having less soft adults, and a market that doesn't tiptoe around issues was so nice, and would be nice to have again some day All that said, it's just a game, and fictional characters. Not even a realistic one at that, and there's nothing graphic on screen. Just implying a terrible situation.
I just feel considering it a Fire Emblem game would lead to all sort of weird situations such as Xeniblade 3 actually being Xenogears 8 or whatever BG 3 is a Baldur Gate game or a Divinity game.
Just beat TearRing Saga and I've gotta say I'm impressed. FE lost out when they lost Kaga and Kaga getting suppressed due to the dumb lawsuit made us lose out as gamers. The fact that he wrote a game with the theme of love and didn't come off as lame and wasn't overly sappy really surprised me. Especially since he explored the multiple facets of love in the game. FE doesn't even give us family moments like this either, when was the last time a boy went to the battlefield with his half brother, step sister and stepmother, aunt and father in a FE game? Love made Holmes reflect on himself Love let Runan grow Love imprisoned Zieg Love drove Guenchaos into the depths of madness If you're an FE fan and really love the classics and find yourself a tad disappointed in the newer titles then give this game a try. I'll be starting Berwick Saga soon to see if it holds up to it's predecessor.
@@aclashoffireandice4084 The problem with modern Fire Emblem is that it feels like it has to make sacrifices for mainstream popularity. However strategy games can made by small companies, so it doesn't have to do that.
"azure striker gunvolt is technically not a megaman game but it might as well be. It was made by keiji inafune the lead developer of 31 megaman games, & it has way too many things in common with megaman to not be considered megaman. The main character is Gunvolt, a gun-toting super human who jumps & shoots bosses. He has a gun that copies abilities of bosses he's fought, he's isolated from society as he works alone to stop an evil megacorporation ruled by one man. He wears a futuristic cyber suit. A blue one. It's a megaman game, I don't make the rules." I do think that to some extent it's important to acknowledge how the two franchises differ partially *because* of their shared history, like it really bugs me whenever I see tearring saga facts on any of the 4 main resources for fire emblem, but that's mainly personal preference (like the point I tried to make earlier the megaman wiki doesn't have gunvolt stuff because that's a whole other wiki y'know?) All that said I have been super interested in playing all the kaga sagas after I finished every fire emblem game & now that I'm going to be all caught up after I finish engage I would be thrilled if you could make a spoiler free guide of this game because the fact is that there really aren't too many people who know someone who's played tear ring saga. Just to put things into perspective about 20% of the fandom has played thracia- which is the same amount that's played tokyo mirage sessions- & even *less* of the fandom has played tear ring, so an easily accessible spoiler free guide would be great, please thanks
@@lightbrand_ I'm going by excelblem's fandom polls that he did early in his career so it is definitely a very rough estimate based on his sample size, but either way it's comparable to the number of people who've played tms which was my main point
Azure Striker Gunvolt is way less similar to Megaman than TRS is to FE. TRS is mechanically in line with FE games of the time, whereas Gunvolt similarities to Megaman are primarily aesthetic and genre. You even got Gunvolt mechanics wrong for the purpose of the comparison because he doesn't copy boss attacks. Hell, if we really want to be specific, shooting isn't your main attack, it's a target marker.
@@cruelcumber5317 you're not wrong, gunvolt is technically more in line with megaman zero as it has a lot of the developers from that team not so much classic megaman. However I could just use mighty no. 9 y'know. the comparison still works with other inafune joints. I just chose gunvolt because it's good
when you get sued twice over your game's similarities in design, aesthetic, worldbuilding, characters, gameplay, and marketing to fire emblem and lose half of those lawsuits (and have to significantly change things in order to publish your game without dispute from the other one) i think that you can say that at least Nintendo thinks that your game is technically not fire emblem but it might as well be. berwick and vestaria are more debatable, but cmon.
This game followed by the others Kaga has made reek of everything I didn't like about Kagas games. Which makes sense since he is making them lol. But the many reasons I love Fe did not spwan from the stuff that Kaga did. This came actually sounds like a cluttered mess, and some may see that as good but I 100% don't lol. That doesn't take away from anyone actually playing it though im glad yall enjoy it...for some reason
TRS looks fun but the dancer recruitment makes me not want to play the game. It just isn't right. I don't care what people say about "making games dark"- at the end of the day the devs of TRS decided that the player should be rewarded for one of their units being... yeah That really doesn't sit right with me at all and is massively fucked up and doesn't belong in a video game.
Just don't do the recruitment then. You'll most likely miss it if you play blind anyways, and having a dancer in this game is not as important as in, say, FE5.
@@Hiiyapow That's totally understandable. I'm just saying that it's still worth giving the game a try if you think it is fun because the penalty for skipping that horrible bit is minuscule at most on a casual run.
@@Hiiyapowexcept for the fact unlike modern fe (which even after kaga is full of gross and weird shit) kaga goes out of his way to condemn things like incest and exploitation in his writing (like in fe 4 with the themes, Narrative and npcs) I feel like it's easy to not notice or realize but Runan and Holmes maps run simultaneously and so despite Plum being kidnapped she was only gone for a few hours at most, not just that but she has clear agency and got herself out of trouble, she also already knew dancing from her mom teaching her when she was young, so she actually LIKES dancing just ya know not while captive (which she herself notes), this is why she stays a dancer after the event because it reminds Plum of her mother when she dances It's easy to see the Plum being drugged and kidnapped but not take into account the before and after as well as context of the entire events story as a whole especially when the game goes out of its way to condemn such things
honestly with what i heard about it beforehand, i thought it'd be worse. it's pretty dark by fe standards for sure but not as bad as i expected it to be.
when you get sued twice over your game's similarities in design, aesthetic, worldbuilding, characters, gameplay, and marketing to fire emblem and lose half of those lawsuits (and have to significantly change things in order to publish your game without dispute from the other one) I think that you can say that at least Nintendo thinks that your game is close enough to fire emblem. Berwick and Vestaria Saga are more debatable, though.
I find it to be the essence of early fire emblem which is just kaga doing stuff. His extreme misogyny makes me shy away from Tearring Saga in particular, i just can't deal with it.
@@haveagoodday7021except for the fact unlike modern fe kaga goes out of his way to condemn things like incest and exploitation in his writing (like in fe 4 with the themes, Narrative and npcs) I feel like it's easy to not notice or realize but Runan and Holmes maps run simultaneously and so despite Plum being kidnapped she was only gone for a few hours at most, not just that but she has clear agency and got herself out of trouble, she also already knew dancing from her mom teaching her when she was young, so she actually LIKES dancing just ya know not while captive (which she herself notes), this is why she stays a dancer after the event because it reminds Plum of her mother when she dances It's easy to see the Plum being drugged and kidnapped but not take into account the before and after as well as context of the entire events story as a whole especially when the game goes out of its way to condemn such things
It's peak Fire Emblem -Dogshit lord -Bad growth type units -Bad mages -Only good characters are boring prepromotes or people with broken but breakable weapons Thank God we got away from all that lol
idk I feel like TRS gives you so much stuff you can make anyone good. obviously the better units are the ones that are good from beginning to end but if you want to meme it up few games give you as many tools for favouritism.
See the thing is, TRS actually has one of the best-designed growth units in the franchise I feel, and that's Narron. He's near-unanimously considered outright broken despite his "trainee" setup, and it's mainly due to a combination of favourable early maps, all the resources you need to make him good appearing early (and there's not a ton of competition for them) and replacing high growths with completely bonkers promo gains. There's also a playable Gaiden Witch, an immortal swordmaster, a temporary character but with stupid bases growths AND Paragon so he's still very worth using, a Sniper who can't kill humans but is fantastic in every other way... But at the same time, it also has Luka, a typical bad early Archer who YOU HAVE TO GO OUT OF YOUR WAY TO CHOOSE OVER LEE OR NARRON, AND whose only notable contribution is a side event that KILLS HIM. There's also Lina, an Est with a 10% Strength growth, the 3-move blowlocked Artilleryman class, a Myrmidon with bad bases and growths who can steal I guess but the intentional joke character does that better... It's truly the duality of unit design.
TRS just looks too ugly I'm sorry the maps and unit icons look way too bad to be enjoyable for me. There's also just some creepiness that I don't want in my "Fire Emblem" game. The fact that Kaga was so scummy with advertising this game also puts a sour taste in my mouth. Ah, a Kaga classic, making things absolutely awful to play with the UI nooooo thank you
@@RocketSlime that's just copium I'm sorry. Sorry that I offended you for saying I can't personally play your favorite old dudes pride and joy but that's how it is for me
@@theghostcreator776 really? Let's see ●Fe 6 has a boy (whos like 15) whos able to date and marry his adult teacher ●Fe 3h has students as young as 16 being able to fucking date older Characters (one of whom is like 50 with Hammeman) ● Echoes introduce the whole brainwashing of Celica subplot, and also Connor being weird to his own sister after she was brainwashed (Delthea) (both her and celica are under 18) ●Fates has LITERAL step-cest and full on incest if Corrin dates Azure as well other weird shit ● Nowi and how she acts and looks like a little girl yet she's a thousand years old so it's "TOTALLY okay" ● Robin being able to date his friends and comrades children being fucking weird And MORE
@@RocketSlime bruv why can't you just accept that I'm not on board with a blatantly racist and pedophilic game. I stated my opinion, don't try and attack me for it. Istg Kaga fans can't accept that someone doesn't want to play the game with literal blackface
Leaving a comment to say I would very much appreciate a no spoiler guide similar to FE5
Yeah, the FE5 guide was awesome. It had everything I could want from checking the wiki but without spoiling everything else and this game seems like it would benefit from it even more
I second this.
The issue there is it's effectively impossible, especially without spoilers, to be definitive in a guide for TRS. there's so many events and conversations that can even be mutually exclusive sometimes. (the same character might have some kind of event on both sides of a route split, for example). But something that gives you a rundown of some of the more general mechanics and very useful things to watch for could probably be done.
I can't think of any content creators that have done it either so its a completely open market.
I whatever number this
9:30 It's probably worth noting that while the function can be similar to enemy ranges, the player psychology is very different. The marker makes the player a more active participant in determining the threat, which personally, I think is a good thing.
Both are good.
A good alternative emulator for those who don't like Retroarch's complexity is the Duckstation emulator, available for both PC and Android. I surely recommend it
I’ve used DuckStation for a variety of games and it works SUPER well. Would recommend over Retroarch or EPSXE
Agreed 100%!
Thank you. I've always been intimated by the play station emulator. I might actually play this game now
Edit: F@#$ Bios
yeah it's what I use
Thanks for this!
I'll avoid spoilers, after seeing that page long manifesto on how to recruit one character, i'm convinced this is the game for me .
TearRing Saga is one of the best Fire Emblem games, and more people should play it! I also started playing Berwick Saga recently, so that's pretty exciting :)
I’ll put in the simplest way:
If you love old school FE gameplay and the general writing style and tone of Kaga and his world building, you will love TRS.
Wow.
This video really has me thinking how cool of a concept it is to have characters that act a certain way and being able to do things to change their nature. Narrative with gameplay effect. Fascinating.
I'm finishing up my first playthrough of TearRing Saga, and it's great. Something about the way Kaga makes games is just so unique, and although I love a lot of newer FE games there's a certain charm to Kaga's non FE games which is very refreshing. I really wish these games got a greater release, because they're kind of hidden gems right now.
This makes me more convinced that Mekkah would like Vestatia Saga. No map flags unfortunately, but it does address the first two downsides listed
no flags is kind of a dealbreaker at this point tbh
@@Mekkkah thankfully the flags are also in berwick.
@@Mekkkah Yea it's a shame but in Berwick Saga, the flags are present and oh boy you will need them especially since some of the enemies are insanely dangerous and enemy phase doesn't really exist with a few exceptions so yea you need to get the first strike if possible.
I think Vestia saga is too ugly.
@@synthesoul True and it does have a lot of bullshit weapons...but even so, I still recommend it since it is still a fun experience for fire emblem fans.
As one of those five TRS fans on the internet, (it's straight up my favorite game period and I imported a Japanese copy for God's sake), I appreciate you acknowledging our existence.
Do the no spoiler guide pls.
We need more batshit crazy stuff like this in more Fire Emblem games. It's always fun when there's those little events like when you talk to Jill's father with her and she decides to rejoin the red team.
We also have multiple mercenary characters that say how awful it is to have to kill your friends if they're on the opposite side, yet we only see a glimpse of that in 3 Houses and Hopes, we need more characters that betray you and some that hate each other's guts but have to work together for now!
loved the series and now am gonna go play it for myself!! thanks for showing
As someone who first played and fell in love with TRS almost 2 years ago now, it is absolutely worth a play for any fire emblem fan. Its map design and gameplay are almost as good as FE can get outside a small handful of maps (Mostly the last few and one or two mixed in there), its cast is extremely high quality, units are varied and play in different and interesting ways, and its utilization of Skills and Weapons is masterful. Look below for some advice from someone who has played the game 5 times and done everything you can do in it, no spoilers and more pointing you on what questions to ask:
1. Use your money and buy weapons where you can. Shops in TRS offer great items. Scimitars will be your best friends for a solid portion of the game, as they're cheap and powerful while being easy to use.
2. CHECK UNIT SKILLS!!!!! Some units, like Meriel, Samson, and others may learn skills at higher levels, but only in their base class. So figure out whether you think it's worthwhile to promote some units before you do!
3. Train your Lords. Runan isn't super impressive at first glance, and even when trained he's rarely your best unit, but training him makes the late-game much more manageable. Holmes on the other hand starts good and stays good, give him a Killer Crossbow or a Brave Crossbow and he'll do a great deal of work till he promotes and gets Swords.
4. Ask someone for help! This is most important for the Route Splits. At each split, you can miss events, sometimes even entire units, or important items by sending units to the wrong route. You can absolutely beat the game without any of this, but you miss out on a lot if you route split incorrectly, so ask someone for suggestions and lists of who to send where!
5. Only a couple units in the game are bad, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Pick who you want at the opportunities you get to choose characters. There are better options and worse options, but none of the options are outright detrimental. Play the game at your own pace with the units you want to use.
I'm playing the one from PS2 (Berwick Saga) and i'm having a blast, this one have a lot of management too instead of just going from level to level like regular fire emblem.
I even managed to make it work on the AetherSX2 emulator on my cubot kingkong 7, now i'm playing 1 level everytime i use the gym bicicle
Berwick is the natural evolution of Fire Emblem. It's incredible once you become familiar with the mechanics.
I'll second Mekkah's recommendation. I would also suggest he makes that spoiler free guide for those who want it. I do kind of disagree that the hidden stuff in the game isn't a negative. It's one thing to miss something you knew about, it's another thing when you don't even know you're missing something.
I also have to disagree with some people when it comes to the dancer thing. I don't think the game is saying it's a good thing or that it's rewarding the player for making it happen. I think he just did it to give players a punch to the gut.
I'd say being able to play the game again (even if its a long slog) and finding so much new stuff, is pretty fun.
As long as thee game doesn't punish you by missing said stuff, but rather rewards you for finding it, i'm fine with several secrets.
The dancer thing is definitely a difficult topic. For one thing, it's a certain coldblooded (if known what happens) action the player can take. On the other hand, the game doesn't glorify the action at all, nor does it give you an active incention to do it. (besides getting a dancer, i guess) As a blind player, you have to practically stumble upon it by sheer dumb accident. And many would most likely reset after she gets taken away, not knowing that this is a hidden quest of sorts.I definitely would reset for my sweet healer girl.
As for Zieg. That one is a straight up puncch in the guts, right when you get complacent, the best kinda of punches in the gut a game can deliver. :D
@@Aurirang I poorly worded my thoughts on secrets. I think there’s a difference between a secret you could figure out and one that basically requires a guide to know it’s there. The former are better in my opinion. The best examples I can give are Raffin’s promotion and the Lateena event. Thankfully the game easy enough to not require pretty much any of the secrets to get through and a decent amount of them aren’t too hard to figure out for a second playthrough. I know because I missed at least half of them.
Honestly I don’t blame anyone who didn’t want to play after learning about the dancer thing.
There’s a reason he’s my pfp.
@@YozuMike-oy8pn you’re right, she is a fictional character, and fictional characters are written by people in a work of fiction. I’m sure you’re aware that other people like to engage with fiction and can criticize how a work of fiction handle certain subjects. I’m glad you understand this and aren’t being a prick to people for no reason.
Speaking of the Manhunt games, are they any fun? I hear all the time about the violence in them but almost nothing about the game play.
@@YozuMike-oy8pn Again, this might be different from person to person. But i feel uncomfortable to make decisions i consider morally bad/terrible in games with well designed characters. I'm too emphatic to actually follow through. My exception is Rimworld i guess, nothing beats the good old mayhem the game throws at you and lets you do...
But in most rpg/jrpg or similar games that contain decisions, i feel uncomfortable doing those decisions, if it goes heavily against my moral compass. But it's also fine if people don't have an issue with such decisions, as long as its contained within a game.
This is exactly my thoughts on this sort of thing. I personally can never be purposefully mean or do something I morally disagree with if I have the choice not to. I have no problem with the option itself being presented or other players for choosing the option, I just have less fun if I pick that option myself
vestaria saga next?? 👀it's such an amazing game (my favorite FE game if you count it) and there's a lot about the game that i think would make it great for a let's play. the mechanic that lets you save every 5 turns would definitely help because you'd never need to completely restart a map if something goes wrong. the localization is also really well done, the game has a lot of humor and funny bits of dialogue that i think would definitely make a playthrough more entertaining and it never gets to a point where the story feels undermined or stops taking itself seriously. it's also 20 chapters long compared to TRS's 40 which means it'd definitely be much less of a slog to play on the channel.
the maps themselves are definitely longer than the ones in TRS but the story and gameplay are very tightly interwoven to the point that a large chunk of the story is told within the maps themselves in a similar way to FE4, and it doesn't have any massive lore dumps in the way that TRS does. there's nothing on the level of holmes running a gauntlet of generic caves full of eyeballs or law giving you a 30 minute long history lecture.
also in vestaria saga 2 units have their own personal battle themes which automatically makes it better than any FE tbh
Tear Ring Saga is a hell of a game that I think any devoted FE fan should try to play at least once (with a guide probably lol). The gameplay is fun, but what really elevates TRS is the story and characters. Runan and Holmes are a fantastic pair of lords, Zieg shines in gameplay and story as a defining character, and Plum is one of my favorite characters of all time. Even comparatively minor characters like Vega, Esther, and or Lionel are given a lot of dialogue before and after their recruitments to make them seem more real and important to the player. Dialogue that would have been relegated to support conversations in any other game are now sprawling sidequests that could change the game and ending in interesting ways.
There's even small gameplay decisions that are made that I really like. Cavaliers have 4 different promotions that are given to characters and it makes them more than just another promoted mounted unit. Skills are handled really nicely in this game by being given out during events or through specific level ups, promotions and every character has a unique list.
It's definitely a flawed game (there are some annoying chapters, it's a bit too wordy at time, the pacing is awful, and there's one event I'd cut out with a saw), but it has so much charm and fun aspects to it that I've come back and replayed it so many times.
TRS is in my top 3 Fire Emblems. Something about learning skills as you level really appeals to me especially.
TearRing Saga is genuinely amazing. I think people are scared to try it because it's made by Kaga and therefore must be some insanely unfun elitist hardcore strategy game, but it's actually way more on the "casual" end of the spectrum than you would think. In terms of difficulty, it's about as difficult as PoR normal mode, and has an intense focus on it's characters and their stories like later FE games rather than being an intense war simulator. If your favorite FE games are Path of Radiance and/or Echoes, you should try TearRing Saga. The only problem with the game is that many of it's story and character scenes are treated as easter eggs, so you need to (at least loosely) follow a guide for what characters to bring into what maps if you want to get the full story.
POR is my favourite and echoes is pretty much my least favourite, lol.
I played TRS thrice. 2 times like anyone, and a 3rd time with only infantry, armored and dismounted units. It quickly became my 3rd favorite FE game, after Echoes and Thracia, and I do my best to recommend anyone to play it ♡
In a very unlikely scenario that this game gets a fan remake, or even maybe a remake by Kaga himself, an in game codex is an absolute necessity. I've played this game so many times that I know by now who is related to who and how, but I also had to use the wiki to check for some names which I kinda forgot about. Because, as you've said, there so much text, and the game is slow. The codex could fill naturally over time, as the player finds out information. But it shuold also contain the history of the world. At least what is already known "in general", so that knowledge can be subverted like with bishop Law. This way, we can also avoid unnecessary exposition dumps between characters who are supposed to know that information already by heart, but decided to talk about it on screen because, well, the player needs to know that information somehow.
But this is indeed a wonderful Fire Emblem game. I would love to see more of your content about it, like the spoilerless guide you've mentioned. Hopefully you will also include TearRing Saga in the future tier lists. Here's to hoping to seeing more content about TRS, and as well as you maybe diving into Berwick Saga and Vestaria Saga. You absolutely will need guidance for Berwick Saga though, because it "can" be considered a Fire Emblem game, but it is more like an evolution of the Fire Emblem gameplay we never got - as in: hexagons instead of squares, friendly and enemy units taking turns basically one at a time instead of having enemy and ally phase etc. Aggro would surely be a great co-host for this venture.
Thanks again for playing this amazing game.
I remember playing TRS twice (because I wanted to play both route splits)
TRS feels like a breath of fresh air while still having the vibes of old school Fire Emblem games. And as someone who likes a good story in a video game, TRS has you covered in that department too.
-> "some of its weaknesses"
-> shows chapter 16
Speaking as someone who just spent around 6 hours beating that horrible, horrible map in 9 turns, yeah, that checks out.
EDIT: It's not like Loptous, because Loptous halves the enemy's Attack. Schram / Enarmour / Dolharken / etc. are like Dragonskin from the modern FE games: they halve damage after the Atk - Prt/Rsl calculation is done.
Tear ring saga truly earned the saga part of its name.
Man, this game is a behemoth in terms of story and content
I love TRS too and I'm glad you enjoyed it. Also the flag tile marker is a genius development, I agree.
Hope you play through Vestaria Saga too, it's quite a bit more difficult than TRS but there's some really cool things going on in that game.
A spoiler free guide would be awesome! I've been wanting to get into TRS for a while and wanting to see a good chunk of the secret events without spoiling myself
I probably won't play this myself, but now I'm interested in watching your playthrough haha
I cannot begin to say how great it's been to see you play through TRS and have you enjoy that journey. I've been hoping you'd get around to TRS for ages and it's been great watching the Let's Play and hearing your thoughts and opinions in the moment!
Thank you for making this video, I think it will attract more people to try TRS which is sometimes the hardest part. I hope you wil eventually get around to Berwick Saga, because it has even more of the things you listed in the video.
Hey, thanks for giving your personal experience on the game, I think it genuinely shows the Kaga uniqueness very clearly that I think I might just play it with just this sole reason. Thanks Mekkah, it really does add that much more to the video for folks like me.
Dude yes PLEASE do a video like you did for FE5, that would be incredible. TRS has been on my radar for years but hearing about those insane weapons shot it up my priority list.
TRS is basically my second favourite game of its genre. The only game that surpassed it for me is Berwick Saga. (I really hope you'll play that too Mekkah!)
TRS despite all the jank, can be a lot of fun and I do have a soft spot for it even if parts of it frustrate me. When you finally become mad enough definitely check out the sequel, probably my favorite tactics game of all time. -Feel free to hit me up if you need help-
@@YozuMike-oy8pn TRS gets a pass cause it's actually fun.
@@YozuMike-oy8pn lol. When TRS maps are bad they tend to just be very tedious but the underlying ideas of the map are still tactically interesting. When Rev maps are bad they aren't tactically interesting at all and make you wonder why you bothered putting effort into the game. At least that's the vibe I get from most people I've talked to.
Bruh I can tell you feel persecuted cause you like Fates and hate Kaga games. Enjoy whatever you want my dude. If you want to actually make critiques of TRS go ahead but bad faith comparisons aren't going to convince anyone.
@@PallaEmblemwait what did he say?
I came, I liked, I left the video to play TRS blind. Much love, I greatly appreciated Vestaria Saga and look forward to trying the other Kaga Sagas!
I haven't watched the last few episode of the let's play, yet, but it was very funny and interesting for the most part
I’m probably not playing it, but always fun to see what’s out there
FLAG Emblem! It's a good time. I like the Kaga philosophy to give the player busted toys, and then throw them into puzzling situations where there are usually multiple non-obvious solutions.
Oh yeah how could you leave Aura Rain out of the spoiler section?! lmao
honestly im glad i forgot aura rain cause it leaves it as a nice surprise
Would love a spoiler free guide vid for sure
I intend to play this in the coming year so a non-spoiler guide would be pretty cool
more informative resources for tear ring saga are always appreciated
I jus finished a full blind play and recomend playing it like that, you miss a few stuff but it really doest matter much, and when you discover stuff on your own that is much more rewarding.
edit: Wow, just watched the spoilers and they are so cool! Cant believe I missed so much stuff :), Kaga really is a genius
Please make a spoiler free guide. I started a few weeks ago and I’m currently on map 7 and I’ve been following a very specific guide that’s been sucking a lot of the fun out of the game. I’d really appreciate a thracia style vague breakdown video on what to expect.
Just play it 100% blind, you will not get stuck. Anything you miss on your first playthrough you will just pick up on your second. I didn't search anything on my playthrough and didn't even need to abuse save states (though I wouldn't judge somebody for doing so) I missed a lot of characters but had a fun time anyway.
I really want to play it. Please make the no spoiler guide! Also, the protagonist looks like he is Leif wearing Seliph's headband while holding Marth's rapier. And killing monsters like Alm!
Yeah that’s pretty accurate to what Runan is
Great video, I really enjoy Tearring Saga and I hope this video will motivate people to play it!
The command lag is not the emulator, that happens on console too. The game's UI and responsiveness overall are terrible compared to fe5
wow, been waiting for a video on this. Let's go!
Every character in this game feel unique and deep
The PS2 Tear Ring Saga game is excellent. trying this one out now
Did mekkah do the invisible enemy map actually horrible
4:46 the way I describe the story and lore is "Oh I recognize that name I just can't remember what was it was called" "I REMEMBER THAT EVENT WHAT WAS IT'S NAME" "I think these two are related this way"
I'm so happy someone is giving tear ring the love it deserves.
Now do Berwick saga and play the hardest game Kaga's made >:)
Berwick saga is an interesting corner case since it departs from a lot of staples of the FE franchise. I wonder if Mekkah would consider it a FE game.
Honestly, the thing that convinced me was all the broken weapons. Feels like it's FE4 design cranked up to 11
Also for most of the pros of TRS but with less of the (a quicker and more challenging game), kagas two Vestria Saga games are on steam. Thief some of my favorite FE games, with their one major downside being that they look pretty bad. Still if you’ve played the older kaga games they are defiant worth a try.
When Berwick ?
"We have Thracia at home"
Thracia at Home:
I'm sure someone else will ask when you're going to play Berwick Saga, so I won't.
(I do wonder, though, if you would think of it as a FE game in the same way you think TRS is, given Berwick's departures from what Kaga did before)
Holmes + Chu-ko-nu + Empower + Warp
I did play the game and it's fun but i have responsibility now. I wish i know this game back when high school 😊
The best Fire Emblem for my money. It's definitely not for everyone and absolutely suffers from an utter slog of an early game, but if you can put up with that and the very large amount of dialogue you will find a game with GoT level worldbuilding unlike anything seen in this franchise, unparalleled story-gameplay integration, and the single most fun "sandbox-style" Fire Emblem gameplay I've ever seen. I fervently hope people will watch this video and consider giving this absolute gem of a game a try, IMO if you love Fire Emblem you owe it to yourself to try this game.
Sunflame has:
15 Mt (Fat)
1 - 3 range (can attack into hard to reach places, good versatility with positioning, and can avoid counters easily)
100 hit (reliable)
70 uses ( you can be a quite liberal with its usage)
+10 Def (Turns rischel into an enemy phase tank)
Monster eff ( allows him to just straight up one shot most monsters)
10 wt (not great, but you can double slow enemies at least)
Rischel prf (He is a decent unit in general and this tome makes him very good)
This is one of best Tomes in FE history.
Dude finally beat it eh? Surprising it took the dude so long.
You can fight Julius if you equip a Master type weapon.
Okay, I think Kaga is a mad genius! Some of these ideas are gold! And others are crap! But I prefer devs that are crazy than safe.
To add into the crazy stuff, the Est is an early game unit. And will quickly surpass even Raffin if you promote him at the right level.
I think being an earlygame unit disqualifies anyone (I assume Narron) from being an Est tbh. He's just...a good growth unit.
@@Mekkkah Eh, fair enough.
And indeed, I was talking about Narron.
Tearring Saga is definitely Fire Emblem since it was called "Emblem Saga" until Kaga was sued by Nintendo.
I think Berwick Saga would be difficult to consider it as FE tho. The game system is so different.
Some speculate that Narcus was supposed to be Xane before the legal issues. It really is just legally distinct FE. There's even Jugdral references in the game. It's like this and BWS are an alternate universe continuation of the world from the first 5 games.
As for Berwick Saga, the major difference is with the turn and flow of combat. Other than that it shares several of the same story, character, amd gameplay tropes that if you read it out from a list would be indistinguishable from FE. In particular it has a few suspicious similarities to Tellius that makes you wonder if IntSys was brainstorming Teliius when Kaga was still with the company.
Actually there's a hidden way to implement sequential order just like traditional FE. I cannot understand why they kept it hidden though. Rengor explained it in his Berwick gameplay and believe me it works. I firmly believe Berwick is the evolution of FE. It gives you more things to manage as a player.
Exactly! PoR and Berwick were released the same year too. @@shroudedinmyth8229
Hi Mekkah! Do you plan on doing BWS?
One of the best game in Ps one, masterpiece
I played TRS a few years ago and the main problem I had was that, many times, the game feels more like a puzzle/surpise test than a strategy game.
I'm not talking "In ch2, use the armor knight who just joined to block the sword users", but "hey remember that sword user you got in ch3? Well, hope you trained him 'cause now he must duel the boss if you want the good ending".
I understand it adds to replayability but it still feels like a mean "haha gotcha" to something you have almost no way to foresee.
I wonder if you'll tackle Berwick saga
Vesteria Saga next?
part of me wonders if the tear ring saga will ever make its way to the modern consoles and pc's :/ far as i know there are currently 2 games in this game series both only in japan as of today with english fan patches for the games for both :/ will be nice for these games to get another chance :/ besides i never heard of these games till recently but meh doubt they will be on modern consoles/pc's :/
At least when you talk about bad map design, everyone who has played the game instantly have chapter 16 flashback.
Also what do you mean by "enemies you cannot defeat"? Not a problem for a slightly overpowered Maruju \s
Yeah I think the mogall cave stands out the most. The forest ballista town is also pretty bad but at least the broken dude just ignores forest penalties and runs right through with Pilums. That lategame map with 3 cantors and a massive swarm of dracozombies I think is the next worst but 2x Aura Rain trivializes it.
@@Mekkkah Yeah but 16 18 and 37 are like the 3 actual hard maps in an otherwise really easy game so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I'm a fan
Fire Emblem but good????? Is such a thing even possible?????
The problem with modern Fire Emblem is that it feels like it has to make sacrifices for mainstream popularity. However strategy game can made by small companies, so it doesn't have to do that.
Is Bernadetta in the game?
Tear Ring Saga is my favorite Fire Emblem game.
That is a weird sentence to say.
I played TRS on hardware, it doesn't run any faster than on emulator.
I feel like when I watch Mute speedrun it, it's quite a bit faster, but maybe she's just better at the controls.
PSX games often aged worse than SNES games because it's so leggy. Thank God for emulators and speed up
Little blue flag my beloved
Character guide next?
Suikoden II is a good Fire Emblem game
Also Kaga really going all out with his weird obsession with tramumatizing and or capturing women.
The vagueness of what happeend to the dancer only makes me think of wtf happened to her...
It's not obvious bc of how maps work but bc Holmes maps and runan maps happen simultaneously there's minimal time between her being kidnapped and her being rescued, so basically she was kidnapped and then immediately rescued. One of the things that bothered me was no one noticing, but it makes slightly more sense when you realize she was only briefly missing.
@albegade Wait, isn't the implication that she was forced to to dance when kidnapped and therfore changes to a dancer since she learned the skills? Because if she knew how to dance before, why wasn't she a dancers before the event?
@@shroudedinmyth8229 Spoilers ahead: She knew how to dance because her mother taught her when she was still alive (her mother was also a slave dancer before she was rescued by Plum's father). Before Plum was kidnapped they press her for some information and find out that she knew. She just didn't dance before because she was nervous about people watching her and she didn't think she was good enough. After she's rescued she decides to keep dancing because Holmes praises her dancing skill and she admits that she does like dancing, just not being forced to do it as a slave. In her ending she decides to keep being a dancer because of her love of it and to honor her mother.
Bernie! :D
The Dancer recruitment genuinely made me feel like shit. Would you look at that, a game where I *don't* want a Dancer because it goes so hard against my moral code I cannot bring myself to do it to a fictional character I don't even know.
Her ending is super depressing if you dont do the dancer event or dont recruit her entirely, so poor Plum really got stuck in a lose lose situation.
@@Matezoide Kaga out there making his games as depressing as possible
Kaga no longer held back by Nintendo/IS goes full on with his distain for women
Yeah that's like the one reason I don't want to play the game. Fire Emblem has been problematic or dark before, but there's a line and that goes about 500 miles over it and makes me really want to not play because I think it's really disgusting that a game dev would require you to do that to one of your units to get a bonus
Yeah, it's messed up. However, it's good that some games cover real life, deep, dark topics; rather than shy away from them because "someone might be offended".
People are too fragile, too offended, ALL the time these days, and a wake up call is welcome for those people. PG only is for children. Adults should get media and content that covers deeper issues, talks about terrible things that actually happen in real life, and not sugarcoat anything.
Place applicable labels on said media, and there is no reason any topic or event can't be covered. Having less soft adults, and a market that doesn't tiptoe around issues was so nice, and would be nice to have again some day
All that said, it's just a game, and fictional characters. Not even a realistic one at that, and there's nothing graphic on screen. Just implying a terrible situation.
I just feel considering it a Fire Emblem game would lead to all sort of weird situations such as Xeniblade 3 actually being Xenogears 8 or whatever BG 3 is a Baldur Gate game or a Divinity game.
It’s not a fire emblem game, but it is a fire emblem game.
SPOILER FREE GUIDE PLZ PLZ PLZ
Nice game
Just beat TearRing Saga and I've gotta say I'm impressed. FE lost out when they lost Kaga and Kaga getting suppressed due to the dumb lawsuit made us lose out as gamers. The fact that he wrote a game with the theme of love and didn't come off as lame and wasn't overly sappy really surprised me. Especially since he explored the multiple facets of love in the game. FE doesn't even give us family moments like this either, when was the last time a boy went to the battlefield with his half brother, step sister and stepmother, aunt and father in a FE game?
Love made Holmes reflect on himself
Love let Runan grow
Love imprisoned Zieg
Love drove Guenchaos into the depths of madness
If you're an FE fan and really love the classics and find yourself a tad disappointed in the newer titles then give this game a try. I'll be starting Berwick Saga soon to see if it holds up to it's predecessor.
For once, here's a comment I wish I could upvote more than once. Kaga's not just good at combining story and gameplay; he's a good writer in general.
@@aclashoffireandice4084 The problem with modern Fire Emblem is that it feels like it has to make sacrifices for mainstream popularity. However strategy games can made by small companies, so it doesn't have to do that.
"azure striker gunvolt is technically not a megaman game but it might as well be. It was made by keiji inafune the lead developer of 31 megaman games, & it has way too many things in common with megaman to not be considered megaman. The main character is Gunvolt, a gun-toting super human who jumps & shoots bosses. He has a gun that copies abilities of bosses he's fought, he's isolated from society as he works alone to stop an evil megacorporation ruled by one man. He wears a futuristic cyber suit. A blue one. It's a megaman game, I don't make the rules."
I do think that to some extent it's important to acknowledge how the two franchises differ partially *because* of their shared history, like it really bugs me whenever I see tearring saga facts on any of the 4 main resources for fire emblem, but that's mainly personal preference (like the point I tried to make earlier the megaman wiki doesn't have gunvolt stuff because that's a whole other wiki y'know?) All that said I have been super interested in playing all the kaga sagas after I finished every fire emblem game & now that I'm going to be all caught up after I finish engage I would be thrilled if you could make a spoiler free guide of this game because the fact is that there really aren't too many people who know someone who's played tear ring saga. Just to put things into perspective about 20% of the fandom has played thracia- which is the same amount that's played tokyo mirage sessions- & even *less* of the fandom has played tear ring, so an easily accessible spoiler free guide would be great, please thanks
I feel like saying 20% of the fandom has played thracia is a VERY generous estimate, I would be willing to bet it’s easily below 5%
@@lightbrand_ I'm going by excelblem's fandom polls that he did early in his career so it is definitely a very rough estimate based on his sample size, but either way it's comparable to the number of people who've played tms which was my main point
Azure Striker Gunvolt is way less similar to Megaman than TRS is to FE. TRS is mechanically in line with FE games of the time, whereas Gunvolt similarities to Megaman are primarily aesthetic and genre. You even got Gunvolt mechanics wrong for the purpose of the comparison because he doesn't copy boss attacks. Hell, if we really want to be specific, shooting isn't your main attack, it's a target marker.
@@cruelcumber5317 you're not wrong, gunvolt is technically more in line with megaman zero as it has a lot of the developers from that team not so much classic megaman. However I could just use mighty no. 9 y'know. the comparison still works with other inafune joints. I just chose gunvolt because it's good
when you get sued twice over your game's similarities in design, aesthetic, worldbuilding, characters, gameplay, and marketing to fire emblem and lose half of those lawsuits (and have to significantly change things in order to publish your game without dispute from the other one) i think that you can say that at least Nintendo thinks that your game is technically not fire emblem but it might as well be. berwick and vestaria are more debatable, but cmon.
I don't like how you recruit your dancer in this game it's Icky and bad but I still wanna give this a shot looks dope
Somehow, it made me feel horrible for a character I have no info on. Kaga has no mercy in being uncomfortable, like a game about war would be.
@@jouheikisaragi6075 agreed
This game followed by the others Kaga has made reek of everything I didn't like about Kagas games. Which makes sense since he is making them lol.
But the many reasons I love Fe did not spwan from the stuff that Kaga did.
This came actually sounds like a cluttered mess, and some may see that as good but I 100% don't lol.
That doesn't take away from anyone actually playing it though im glad yall enjoy it...for some reason
It actually isn't
TRS looks fun but the dancer recruitment makes me not want to play the game. It just isn't right.
I don't care what people say about "making games dark"- at the end of the day the devs of TRS decided that the player should be rewarded for one of their units being... yeah
That really doesn't sit right with me at all and is massively fucked up and doesn't belong in a video game.
Just don't do the recruitment then. You'll most likely miss it if you play blind anyways, and having a dancer in this game is not as important as in, say, FE5.
@@1calv I have more of an issue with its existence in the game at all, regardless of whether or not i was to do it.
@@Hiiyapow That's totally understandable. I'm just saying that it's still worth giving the game a try if you think it is fun because the penalty for skipping that horrible bit is minuscule at most on a casual run.
Why are video games the only medium this applies to?
@@Hiiyapowexcept for the fact unlike modern fe (which even after kaga is full of gross and weird shit) kaga goes out of his way to condemn things like incest and exploitation in his writing (like in fe 4 with the themes, Narrative and npcs)
I feel like it's easy to not notice or realize but Runan and Holmes maps run simultaneously and so despite Plum being kidnapped she was only gone for a few hours at most, not just that but she has clear agency and got herself out of trouble, she also already knew dancing from her mom teaching her when she was young, so she actually LIKES dancing just ya know not while captive (which she herself notes), this is why she stays a dancer after the event because it reminds Plum of her mother when she dances
It's easy to see the Plum being drugged and kidnapped but not take into account the before and after as well as context of the entire events story as a whole especially when the game goes out of its way to condemn such things
Lmao, that dancer acquisition traumatized you huh?
honestly with what i heard about it beforehand, i thought it'd be worse. it's pretty dark by fe standards for sure but not as bad as i expected it to be.
It just annoys me that its on the fe wiki
hoes mad
hoes mad
when you get sued twice over your game's similarities in design, aesthetic, worldbuilding, characters, gameplay, and marketing to fire emblem and lose half of those lawsuits (and have to significantly change things in order to publish your game without dispute from the other one) I think that you can say that at least Nintendo thinks that your game is close enough to fire emblem. Berwick and Vestaria Saga are more debatable, though.
I find it to be the essence of early fire emblem which is just kaga doing stuff. His extreme misogyny makes me shy away from Tearring Saga in particular, i just can't deal with it.
Agreed. The amount of incest and preying on young girls is pretty icky. Even worse is that the series still does it.
@@haveagoodday7021except for the fact unlike modern fe kaga goes out of his way to condemn things like incest and exploitation in his writing (like in fe 4 with the themes, Narrative and npcs)
I feel like it's easy to not notice or realize but Runan and Holmes maps run simultaneously and so despite Plum being kidnapped she was only gone for a few hours at most, not just that but she has clear agency and got herself out of trouble, she also already knew dancing from her mom teaching her when she was young, so she actually LIKES dancing just ya know not while captive (which she herself notes), this is why she stays a dancer after the event because it reminds Plum of her mother when she dances
It's easy to see the Plum being drugged and kidnapped but not take into account the before and after as well as context of the entire events story as a whole especially when the game goes out of its way to condemn such things
@@haveagoodday7021also ignoring that kaga also wrote strong female characters such as
- Altena (Genealogy)
- Minerva (Shadow dragon/Mystery)
- Tailtiu (Genealogy)
- Ishtar (Genealogy)
- Arya (Genealogy)
- Chris (Berwick Saga)
- Brigid (Genealogy/Thracia)
- Czene (Berwick saga)
- Ruby (Berwick Saga)
@@RocketSlime Wow I didn't know writing a handful of good characters completely excuses the incest and mind controlling little girls!
/j
It's peak Fire Emblem
-Dogshit lord
-Bad growth type units
-Bad mages
-Only good characters are boring prepromotes or people with broken but breakable weapons
Thank God we got away from all that lol
idk I feel like TRS gives you so much stuff you can make anyone good. obviously the better units are the ones that are good from beginning to end but if you want to meme it up few games give you as many tools for favouritism.
-Bad mages
My brother in christ Kagas favorite thing besides hating women was broken mages. Have toy played Fe4/5?
See the thing is, TRS actually has one of the best-designed growth units in the franchise I feel, and that's Narron. He's near-unanimously considered outright broken despite his "trainee" setup, and it's mainly due to a combination of favourable early maps, all the resources you need to make him good appearing early (and there's not a ton of competition for them) and replacing high growths with completely bonkers promo gains.
There's also a playable Gaiden Witch, an immortal swordmaster, a temporary character but with stupid bases growths AND Paragon so he's still very worth using, a Sniper who can't kill humans but is fantastic in every other way...
But at the same time, it also has Luka, a typical bad early Archer who YOU HAVE TO GO OUT OF YOUR WAY TO CHOOSE OVER LEE OR NARRON, AND whose only notable contribution is a side event that KILLS HIM. There's also Lina, an Est with a 10% Strength growth, the 3-move blowlocked Artilleryman class, a Myrmidon with bad bases and growths who can steal I guess but the intentional joke character does that better...
It's truly the duality of unit design.
@@kai_824 FE5 has like 1 good mage (though he's really good)
TRS just looks too ugly I'm sorry the maps and unit icons look way too bad to be enjoyable for me.
There's also just some creepiness that I don't want in my "Fire Emblem" game.
The fact that Kaga was so scummy with advertising this game also puts a sour taste in my mouth.
Ah, a Kaga classic, making things absolutely awful to play with the UI nooooo thank you
Literally alot of fe games after Kagas had fucking weird and gross shit
@@RocketSlime that's just copium I'm sorry. Sorry that I offended you for saying I can't personally play your favorite old dudes pride and joy but that's how it is for me
@@theghostcreator776 really? Let's see
●Fe 6 has a boy (whos like 15) whos able to date and marry his adult teacher
●Fe 3h has students as young as 16 being able to fucking date older Characters (one of whom is like 50 with Hammeman)
● Echoes introduce the whole brainwashing of Celica subplot, and also Connor being weird to his own sister after she was brainwashed (Delthea) (both her and celica are under 18)
●Fates has LITERAL step-cest and full on incest if Corrin dates Azure as well other weird shit
● Nowi and how she acts and looks like a little girl yet she's a thousand years old so it's "TOTALLY okay"
● Robin being able to date his friends and comrades children being fucking weird
And MORE
Azura*
@@RocketSlime bruv why can't you just accept that I'm not on board with a blatantly racist and pedophilic game. I stated my opinion, don't try and attack me for it. Istg Kaga fans can't accept that someone doesn't want to play the game with literal blackface