Im glad that even as an FE7 hater you can recognize how good the character writing is. Its one of the main reasons why its my favorite game in the series, the cast is so lovable I definitely understand disliking the game (it has a lot of flaws) but its just plain fun to me. Its my favorite game to play straight, my favorite game to randomize, my favorite game to ironman, I just love it Also I feel like Im the only person in the world who loves playing Lyn Mode. I play it every single time, and Ive been an FE fan for over a decade
Honestly suprised that you didn't even mention that, to access Chapter 19xx, you need to train your bard, Nils, to level 7 during Lyn mode, meaning you need to spend at least 60 turns playing that flute to Maybe get access to a shit map
"This may be a controversial take but..." Me: Go for it, we're all entitled to our own opinions. :) "GBA Fire Emblem is the weakest system" Me: *Grabs Killing Edge*
Eh, she's kinda right though. The two things that the gba system has going for it are 1) the simple yet endearing aesthetic and 2) even more importantly the huge romhacking community and the ease of making hacks in that system. Apart from that, it's pretty much just Fire Emblem at its most basic.
@@corhydrae3238 Good. FE lost me when they kept shoving in too much useless stuff that only really does anything on that hardest differculty. I just want a basic tactics game is that too much to ask for? Apparently, here's dating and mini games and skill points and.....
I think FE7 works pretty well overall as a person's first Fire Emblem game, and I think it really was designed that way in a lot of ways because IntSys knew the game was going to be localised going into development. Lyn mode, while horribly slow and irritating on repeat playthroughs, is genuinely a pretty good effort at teaching an audience who's never played turn-based strategy games how Fire Emblem works. The game's uber-powerful pre-promotes feel like a safeguard measure to guarantee inexperienced players who might have managed to lose their good units still have a formidable army. Heck, the whole process of unlocking Eliwood mode, then Hector mode, then Hector Hard feels like it was design to curve a player upwards gradually in difficulty and complexity as they played and replayed the game. As a series entry-point it does a great job, but if you're already a series veteran or you're coming back to it after a long absence... yeah, I think it kinda falls apart. A lot of those aforementioned design decisions actively chafe against an experienced player coming back to the game looking for a challenge. That all said, it isn't the perfect entry-point either, heck, I think its successor, Sacred Stones, is a generally better game overall that still manages to ease a brand new player into the series without that level of hand-holding and restriction that FE7 placed on itself.
@creativename1673 Go through an Eirika route playthrough and look how many times Seth has more cutscene dialogue than Eirika. He dominates her dialogue until the after the route split where Ephraim immediately takes the reigns narratively
Gotta say even as someone who's also not an FE7 fan (more out of apathy), i appreciate you giving the story its due and pointing out how pedantic/nitpickey some people can be with it (i.e Mekkah), like it's not the best but the emotional core is strong and stuff like Hector's softer moment in the boat map can get overlooked.
Same, I also feel the infamous phrase "Fire Emblem never had a good story" is a cop out used by the community to give them a pass from actually grappling with what they individually do or don't like in storytelling. The most hated thing in FE stories is contrivances and alleged plot holes, which... is a *very* difficult-to-understand take when it comes to the fantasy genre.
As a fe7 lover, I think this is a pretty good video and I agree with most of the issues you have with the game. I do appreciate your positive take on the story though, since a lot of people in the FE sphere shit on the story and act like its the worst narrative of all time. I really appreciate how FE7 explores the major underlying themes of the ways we process loss a lot as well, since the game does a pretty good job of having the protagonist and (major) antagonists take on a healthy/unhealthy reaction towards it. It's a great touch when someone like Lyod reserves himself to a tragic fate upon losing his brother, Linius reserving himself into raw anger, and how Eliwood battles against his own sense of loss by opening up and not giving into his depression and how Hector learns to open up over the events of the story and understand the value of those around him. Stuff like Nino being confronted with the loss of her family is pretty strong stuff to me, I think the ways the story conveys the characters grappling with these sorts of losses and how they relapse into their personal failings (such as Lyn's loss of her parents causing a huge issue for everyone in the port map, or Hector berating Oswin) and eventually triumphing over that stuff. It's really heartwarming stuff that I really like. thank u for the thoughtful section on fe7's story, and also for doing a great job at highlighting a lot of the mechanical failings of the game!!!
I'm not gonna lie, I actually really love Battle Before Dawn. Even though it's such a bullshit map, I can't help but love all the bullshit because it just feels like such a good way to integrate story and gameplay.
As yatzhee would said, battle before dawn has a "car crash fancastion" to it. Seriously there alot of bullshit and cheapness to it especially in Hector hard mode, but it atleast fun to talk about it. Plus given fire emblem 7 is one of the easier games in the series, the difficult spike is quite something to behold.
Person who played FE6 and is playing through 7: So how are we going to go from this guy to FE6 Zephiel? FE7, presenting Battle Before Dawn: Only RNG can help you here! Player: ... Understandable, have a nice day.
Time-stamps 2:20, 3:00 - Addressing plot holes 3:18 - Lovable protagonists 4:20 - Lyn as a survivor of genocide 5:17 - Hector’s facade, hiding his insecurities 6:03 - Lyn and Hector’s interaction 6:30 - How a GBA game addresses masculinity 7:02 - Lyn’s trauma sticks with her after all this time, and this informs who she is as a person. 8:00 - Eliwood’s character serves an important purpose for the “emotionality” of the story. 11:00 - The gameplay reflects Eliwood’s emotions throughout the course of the story. 20:10, 21:00, 22:00 - This is a fair criticism. Low enemy experience paired with low payoff-units when compared to prepromotes (eg, Erk vs Pent) does stand out. 22:31 - This is a most apt comparison with Engage, which goes to show that games need to consider how they balance their early and midgame units. Well done! 24:20, 24:29, 24:42 - When I played FE7 as a kid, it was usually difficult to train the early units. I feel this criticism all too well. Later on, I just learned to abuse the arena on Hector Normal Mode, which only reinforces the point made in this video.
I have NEVER gotten another human being to finish this game. They ALWAYS quit before Lyn mode is done. Out of literally like 6 people, they all quit, even the ones who were perfectly fine finishing other Fire Emblem games
Honestly, can't blame them. I love the story of Lyn mode but the maps are so tedious on normal (forced tutorial) or extremely boring on hard mode, due to these maps being designed as tutorials and not being changed meaningfully
For real, I introduced three friends with FE7, two of them just dropped it mid way through, one those played Shadow Dragon and finished it after 2 years and said he liked it and the other one played 3H and never finished playing it, the other one liked so much Lyn that he finished her mode and never touched the game again and started playing FEH just to get all Lyndis alts, he did so in 2 years
@PC-ni6bp I like how this implies that you have got a non-human being to play through the entirety of FE7. I'm also going to assume that the mushroom and the squirrel you persuaded both got through all of the 6 campaigns, normal and hard modes.
I was going to agree but then you said FE6 was a good game so now I have turned into a red unit >:( Pretty on point besides that though, really wish there was a cheat code to skip the normal modes (remember when games had those? Good times)
Is it weird that i preffer fe7 because i played it first so everytime someone sees an inconsistency with fe6, My mind sees it as Fe6 is inconsistent with fe7, As weird as that is
"It takes rescue dropping from Thracia, tweaks it, and then strips away all of that other games' unique systems." This is exactly right, and something I need to see games do more often. FE5 was innovative, and made some major improvements to the series. But it had far too many bizarre and obnoxious mechanics. A healthy cycle for a series is to get a strong foundation, innovate for a couple of sequels, then have an entry that takes the series back to the core gameplay, only keeping a couple gimmicks that mesh well with the core design. Fire Emblem is honestly overdue for doing this again. Perhaps not quite to the extent of the GBA era, but an entry that clearly focusses more on solid strategy than flashy super moves, custom build optimization and social micromanagement. Something like FE9 but with a branching class system and personal skills. And better map design.
I feel like I'd be entirely fine with something that was close to FE13 length wise, with only the addition of personal skills, supports taking longer than they have and being potentially even locked behind other interactions, but I also usually play the games purely casually and have only done LTC or semi-optimized runs for Engage, Thraccia/Genealogy and Radiant Dawn, so I feel like any addition I could make isn't too fair/promising
@@MagikarpPower Oh yeah. It's definitely a manner of personal preference, but I think most people would be happier with a slightly more scaled progression system in the GBA era. Something like the following: FE6: As is. FE7: Branching classes, promoted class skills. FE8: Branching classes, promoted class skills, personal skills. FE9: As is, plus personal skills. I think this is likely what the progression would have been like, except they wanted FE7 to be an ideal starting point for the international audience. Also, I'd reconsider trying Engage. It's true, the Engage mechanics can be overcentralizing, especially late game, and the level of complexity is higher than I think is a good idea. But the core mechanics are nothing short of phenomenal, and the game paces the introduction of mechanics exceedingly well with the early game being quite basic. While I do want a more basic experience, I will legit miss almost any mechanic cut from Engage aside from the Emblems (which I think are appropriate as a one off gimmick.) In particular, I want the class category based abilities (Backup chain attacks, Covert terrain bonuses, Mystic terrain negation) to become a core part of the series, after a little rebalancing. And I would like to see the weapon triangle deviate from the evade and hit buffs like before. Three Houses by contrast, did not introduce a single mechanic that I feel has a place in the series moving forward. Without exaggeration, all mechanical changes that Three Houses made to the base formula made the game worse.
@@plentyofpaper 3h mechanics have a place in a future game or two if they actually fully commit to the absurd level of customization the forward-facing mechanics teased but got immediately kneecapped when you promoted a commoner with any magic into a myrmidon granted, it'd still be in something that's spiritually a three houses 2 rather than a game that defines *_THE FUTURE OF FIRE EMBLEM_* but there's still a lot to 3h that could be refined and experimented upon and taken even further. a fire emblem game that doesn't flirt with the ridiculously freeform units of fft and disgaea, it just straight-up drags 'em to bed. especially with the inexorable march of time acting as a natural control valve from preventing the player from just grinding their squad into gods at everything with completely identical unit feel. y'know. when balanced right prob don't keep the bit of dropping the weapon triangle, tho. miiiiiight be a bit of a silly choice in a game where you commit a literal third of its game loop to cultivating your units' weapon ranks, the thing which improved weapon triangle bonuses for the last four games
@@hi-i-am-atan Customization is fine, and even encouraged to some extent. But while 3 Houses was more about customization than past games, I still don't see it as a 3 Houses mechanic. Skills have been around in some capacity since FE4, and have been highly customization since Awakening. When I think of mechanics 3 Houses introduced, I think: 1. Any unit can use any weapon. 2. Any unit can be any class. 3. Weapon triangle was removed. 4. Weapon rank is strongly tied to combat stats. 5. Lots of home base activities. 6. Gambits 7. 4 tile monster enemies. 8. Choose a route when the game starts, but don't have story differences until the midpoint. 9. Most characters join at the start without a unique class. 10. Enemy aggro lines that show intent. Admittedly, a few of them have shown up elsewhere. Shadow Dragon had almost as much class flexibility, FE1-3 had no weapon triangle, Weapon rank had notable impact on weapon stats in Awakening. All of these mechanics are ones I'd prefer to never see again (I could go either way on the 4 tile monsters.)
It's funny, because FE7 is my second favorite game in the franchise. So, I do apologize for having your sacrifice be in vain, but I will still play FE7. I'm about 5 minutes into the video so far and it seems like your video is going to at the very least be made in good faith with honest criticism, and that's really all I can ask.
I wouldn't really call the Veld thing a plot hole. The loptyr cult is filled with people with immense hubris so he could've seen Leif as beneath him. He only jumped to act on Eyvel Raydrick begged him to. It's like expecting characters in horror movies to always act completely rational in intense situations. I view moments like these as character monents more than anything Agree with the rest though I HATE FE7 GRAAAH
The more and more I play FE7 and the more and more I realize I like it for the story more than anything else because with every playthrough the glaring map design issues just feel worse every time. But I might just be coping and most of my viewers would tell you I'm simply frustrated with the game because I'm bad at it... and they're probably right.
Bard, bard FE7 was either the second or third FE game I played (I started with Awakening, and then my brother got Shadow Dragon used and I can’t remember if that was before or after I played FE7). For quite a while I considered it my favorite. I liked the character writing, the brightly-colored GBA aesthetic, and playing on an emulator with save states meant I could simulate casual mode at a point when I still found permadeath deeply intimidating. Nowadays I don’t know if I really have a favorite FE game. I haven’t dipped far into the pre-localization games. I find that I go through intense honeymoon phases with a lot of games before greatly mellowing out on them, so I think my love for FE7 in high school was another manifestation of that pattern. Tbh these days my strongest feelings about FE7 (aside from the nostalgia and in-jokes with my brothers) are 1. my endless platonic love for Canas and his monocle, and 2. the all-encompassing shock I felt when I realized that youtubers defaulted to HHM when talking about FE7 and that was why it always felt like they were discussing an entirely different game from the one I played.
Great timing! I’m doing a swords only run of FE7 right now, and oh boy is it getting tedious. I think I’ll play this video in the background while I dodge grind Hector to level 10 and reset repeatedly to avoid Lyn dying from a lance unit breathing on her.
What I like about Fe7 is how many of the units get to leave a strong impression, usually by having more than one mandatory piece of dialogue. All the Lyn mode units leave a stronger impression by essentially having two introductions in the story, plus they get to have more story dialogue in Lyn mode since they don’t die there. You have the retainers Oswin and Marcus that, like in fates etc., get to have more story dialogue because they only retreat when they die. Matthew is not only in Lyn mode and is an important character in early Hector mode, but he also has a tragic love story with Leila, and will either remorsefully comment on her death or Hector will state that he plans to have Leila buried next to Matthew if he died earlier. Dart is introduced and is characterized several chapters before he joins you. Ninian, Nils, Pent, Louise, Hawkeye, and Athos are all very important to the story, and some of them will die instead of retreat if they die at certain chapters after their recruitment. Jaffar and Nino are memorable for so many reasons. They are plot important, have their own separate story arc that, in Nino’s case at least, goes on even after she is recruited in a bonus chapter made entirely for her. Nino has I believe the highest number of unique dialogues with the bosses excluding the lords. Jaffar is notable for being one of the most actively antagonistic characters to join the main army. Vaida is an unbeatable boss before her joining chapter. I for one had my mind blown when I realized she could be recruited on my first playthrough. Of course there are also the characters that are notable due to their connections with fe 6/ fe 6 characters: Karel, Karla, Bartre, Canas, Geitz, Merlinus, Rath, Rebecca. Hell, even LEGAULT has a unique story conversation before the Black Fang chapter if he is alive and recruited. This is all without mentioning supports, pre-battle conversations, unique boss convos, etc.
One of my favorite things about FE7 that sounds like a nitpick is Nino and Jaffar's join map single-handedly undermines the motivations of FE6's big bad. Gwendolyn in FE6: my brother lost all faith in humanity when our father hired assassins to kill him The assassin in question, Nino: hey why am I killing you? Wow thats messed up, I quit. Hang on you sit tight, my boyfriend and I are gonna go kill our employers, do you need anything? Have a cookie I was saving it for later. Gwendolyn: he never was the same after that night Its genuinely so funny to me
Didn't he lose all faith in humans when his father tried to poison him? He was sick in bed, on the brink of death for a week. And then he made that plan to fake his death and jump out of the coffin to stab his dad at the funeral. I don't think assassins are even mentioned, but it's been a while sinxe I read FE6 story.
@@TheWizardMus That's Guinevere, though the names are kinda similar. Gwendolyn is the pink-haired armor unit that joins with terrible stats in Chapter 8 and has the armor Triangle attack with Bors and Barth.
I will say that the Lyn mode pain is mitigated imo by the fact I just keep a save file of Lyn's story on Chapter 10 so I only have to play through one (admittedly slow) map at the start of each playthrough, while still getting the benefits of properly leveled Lyn, Kent, Sain, Erk, and Florina (and occasionally Wil). Obviously I can't shift leveling focus to different characters with this method, but it does make Lyn's units, who I quite like as characters, much more viable and functional when I get to the main game. Now, this does not in the slightest negate the criticism that the game shouldn't be structured this way in the first place, and I should not HAVE to do something like this to fully enjoy FE7, but I thought it was worth mentioning, since doing something that I felt stupid for not doing earlier after five playthroughs streamlined my play experience considerably (and also solidified my belief that Erk is underrated as a unit, even if Pent is objectively better just because he doesn't require the investment, especially in staves). All that to say I agree with pretty much everything you said in this video. I still enjoy FE7 (I'd still much rather be playing Fire Emblem than a number of other games), but I've always felt it was lacking somewhat compared to other entries and you've put it into words really well.
FE7 was my first Fire Emblem game and I do love it dearly, but on subsequent playthroughs (especially Lyn Mode) I've realised that most of my love is for the story, the characters, and the series as a whole, and your critiques either match my less nostalgia-tinged experiences or give me insight into some of the game's deeper and more fundamental issues. Thank you for making this video, Dani. I love that you hate this game that I love. Also shoutout to Nils, one of the bards of all time.
I would not worry about rage bait. You pointed out the good points and the bad points of the game. This was a fair critique. I do find myself agreeing with a good many points you raised. It was lazy for the developers not taking into account that Nino and Pent can be crit killed before the player can reach them(37:09). As you pointed out, Pent dies is a game over. Nino's death locks the player out of Chapter 26x. If Nino and Pent were just another bunch of units that are recruited and forgotten, I would not hold this against the developers. While not good, it is understandable that some things get overlooked. Because there are more consequences to their deaths, Nino and Pent should have been given more attention to make sure the players have a fair shot of recruiting them.
I'm going to be honest I don't necessarily hate fe7 but I find most of it's map boring and tedious which sucks because I think it's final map is actually one of the best designed final maps in the series due to its good Balance so Amazing final map weighed down by the 30 chapters before it
i replayed FE7 about a year ago for the first time in a while. FE7 had long been my favorite FE game but that replay left such a sour taste for me and i couldn't really figure out why, but this video helped articulate what i felt at the time - particularly about bad unit feel. I was pretty sad because this game i once considered my favorite (especially for being my entry point to the series) is easily my least favorite now of all the FE games i've completed. the character writing is insanely good though, as you pointed out. the cutscenes alone make the game worth going through imo.
When you were talking about the Hector mode exclusive chapters I'm surprised that for 19xx you didn't mention that in addition to needing to kill Kishuna in 1 turn and the map being fog of war, you also need to play Lyn mode and grind Nils to level 7 in it for no goddamn reason. Lyn mode already sucks, and then you have to dancer grind and then later kill a dodgy boss in 1 turn, all so that you can play a boring fog map. Why yes, I also don't like fe7 how could you tell?
Hearing you air out your grievances was really cathartic, not because I still enjoyed FE7 for what it was, but because it also mirrors a parallel to my own distaste and hatred towards a now-defunct+EOS'ed mobile game which I had picked up because at the time I was a fan of its developer company's other works. Though unlike what you say is to FE7's benefit, the character/story writing in that other mobile game was one that I found myself always not liking and have been rather critical of. I'm reminded of how that other mobile game would handle things like gameplay mechanic design, character feel, and the "measures" it would take to fix bugged and other gamebreaking issues and find myself really despising that game to the point where I will deliberately avoid mentioning it by name out of disgust (which sucks since not only was I a fan of its developer's other games, but said developer is also keen on avoiding all mention/reference to it in recent times) Heck, my own growing, visceral hatred towards that other game got to a point where the people in my discord group chats will avoid bringing it up out of respect. But more significantly a person I was formerly friends with, who also is still a hugely obsessed fan of that game to this day, got so petty butthurt that they cut off all bridges of contact with me and will refuse to answer back (even if the discussion in chat is about a completely unrelated topic, which should otherwise have been a fair game-no animosity thing to bring up). They're still convinced it was because of that game's wider public community that made me despise it as a whole when really it was much more directly because of both my own and another friend's shared experiencing of the game during its service life that had soiled my reception towards it. And it was doubly weird to me that not only did they have the foresight to block my other friend as soon as they could but didn't do the same for me right away (despite me sharing that other friend's same opinions), they were at one point accepting and open to hearing criticism towards said game before suddenly deciding to just ...not.
That was my iron man where sain never got speed and kent never got strength. Then literally right when kent died, sain got his first point of speed. It was so funny we decided each of them was stealing the level ups from the other.
For isn't hate one side of the coin, for which love is another? After all, to see one's hate is, weirdly, far more satisfying than to see one's indifference to something, to me personally at least. To me gameplay in Fire emblem always was, and always will be secondary to the charming characters, the engaging plot, and the intriguing medieval-fantasy war aesthetic it presents to me (even though i wouldn't truly say that gameplay doesn't matter at all). Perhaps that's why i can love this game so much, despite all the flaws it has.
So, I actually enjoy this game. I am personally insulted, my child is even named Smeliwood. Now they will see this and all their friends at school will laugh at them. I just have to watch as my child now grows into Smeliwood, the bard. Thanks for that.
a friend and i made FE game tierlists some time ago, and he was surprised to see me put FE7 in D tier, but my reasoning overlaps a lot with yours. i would add to the Unit Feel portion that HHM has very few stat boosters, and promotion bonuses are quite nerfed relative to FE6. ur kinda just crossing ur fingers that one of ur little goobers gets blessed with their 35% str/spd/def growths. (it's one of the reasons my FE preferences skew towards the recent games, as they have lots of resources that can "fix" training projects that aren't working out, and resource management is generally fun for me). this friend and i had a separate convo where we were rattling off our fav/least fav FE units (gameplay only), and i realized my top 3 least fav units in the series were kent, florina, and erk, all FE7 units. i was more sick than i realized of being burned by FE7 training projects feeling like crap to use throughout the game. in FE6, u are under no illusions that wolt will provide anything other than chip damage for a few maps then get benched. in FE7, there's the Hope that erk might oneround an enemy one day, and u desperately cling to that until u look at hawkeye's stats.
Dani, as an FE7 fan, I can assure you, this entire video did not feel like rage bait. In fact, it feels like a genuinely honest critique of a game from someone who loves the overall gameplay loop of Fire Emblem, but was disappointed with its implementation in FE7. It genuinely feels like you wanted to like FE7 but just can't, which is a valid take and definitely doesn't feel like you're just hating on the game. I've been sort of working on an FE7 rebalance hack on and off for a few months now and your critiques actually gave me some ideas for it.
24:30. It's also a compounding issue. The less you use your project units, the less exp and weapon ranks are available, further pushing you away from using them. No sane person is gonna start using Rebecca five chapters after she joins unless you're insane. She needs those early chapters if she's gonna do anything. The reduction of deployment slots is a good idea to artificially increase the difficulty, but all it does is funnel all EXP into the units that are already compentent, pushing them ahead. I wonder if the games hard modes would have been harder if you were given full deployment slots.
I think there's a mod that expands deployment slots, which does definitely reduce the issue a little bit but I don't think it solves all the problems I have
As someone who FE7 has a big place in his heart, I can absolutely agree with you on most of the points here. Later games in the series had a lot more interesting mechanics, and what sold me on the game was always the story and characters. Not the gameplay.
I loved FE7 when I first got into the series, but nowadays it's hard to go back to when other FE games exist. I second that Revelation is probably a better time because Fates Pair Up is a drug
I think Kishuna is a cool idea as a super boss that unlocks a new map. I don't think dodge tank that leaves 1 turn after attacking him, and also no mages was the best way to have a super boss lol.
Yeah its basically pointless to train non-mount units in FE7. Canas works alright with some stat boosters to wield Luna. But for everybody else I'd just bench them for cavs. Same problem in FE9
I understand disliking FE7. However, I do think it's one of the best introductory tactical/strategy RPGs out there. Easy difficulty. No skills or weird subsystems to worry about as Weapon Triangles can be intuited as Rock-Paper-Scissors equivalents. Not too much to parse stat wise. Maps and units do appear unique even if they do fall flat in practice. Those are strengths of the series as a whole to some degree but I'm not handing three houses or Fates to an elementary school kid. And in that light it makes total sense why it's beloved. It was built well for its time. We just grew up and gaming got better, nothing wrong with that.
I think that Lyn Mode is a pretty bad tutorial tbh, and can turn newer players off. I much prefer how Awakening Normal, Fates Branch of Fates and FE Engage does tutorials
In a lot of cases it feels like fe7 is a course correct from fe6, for better or worse. Want more objectives than just seize gate/throne? Hate how inaccurate weapons are in general, especially thrown weapons? How you feel about map size being too big? What about replacement units that are worse than the originals? Fe7 did fix a lot of these problems and did add some quality of life stuff that fe6 just didn't have, but a lot of the things they did just scued the game in the other direction. Now accurate swords are not necessary and make sword locked units redundant. Thrown weapons now being sort of accurate led to the game becoming enemy phase centric and led to even more redundancy in units that couldn't handle multiple enemy phase attacks. I still like the gba games, in fact I like them more than the recent games we have gotten, but they definitely had flaws.
I used to like fe7 a lot when I first played it 20 years ago, then as I got into the series I started seeing it as worse and worse but recently I did a 0% growths run and enjoyed it, then went to play HHM which I had never tried and had a blast playing it. Gameplay reasons apart, FE7 is okay, not a lot of people pay that much attention to story and over analyze it, other than that, I think fe7 is an okay, not amazing game that pays a great price due to being the first international game.
I mostly just have a passionate "eh" for the game... I finally got to play it in english for the first time on Switch, and despite having fun with it on a blind playthrough, unlike any other game in the series i own, i have absolutely ZERO desire to play through it again any time soon... I don't hate it as much as i do 4 and 5 for their idiotic mechanics and way too big map, but i also don't love it as i do the newer FE games, where so many QOL changes makes the games so much more fun to experiment with! So where i can pop in Awakening, Fates, Echoes or any of the Switch games and play them endlessly, nothing makes me want to go back to FE7... It's not a bad game, but it just has no replay value for me personally...
@@DaniDoyle there's also characters who can warp across the map now and that's a skill that you can just give to people To be on topic of the video: Leila from fe7 has a relatively exclusive gimmick she's had for a few versions of her now that can swap with an ally up to 2 spaces away from her after she attacks. So she can dive in, wreck everything and do some aoe nonsense and then swap in an ally to reap the benefits. Her original version released into feh also only swaps with a support partner (newest version is anyone) so ofc I made her support partner Matthew who can tank in enemy phase and has a weapon refine that gives him more attack the more the enemy is debuffed. So she dives in, debuffs and hits hard and then swaps him in and he can close counter speedy tank enemies and gets a massive attack boost because of her debuffing every stat It's fun....and I also love Leila and Matthew so eh
35:11 Aren't the guiding ring users counted Serra, Priscilla, Erk, and Lucius? I've never heard of Canas (or Renault) being included and I figured it was because he's recruited in a gaiden chapter and is technically missable.
You don't have anything to apologize for... you were just asking a question and I was just answering your question. I hope I didn't make you feel uncomfortable.
My favorite thing is, right as I start this video, is that my next recommended video is titled "Did Channel Awesome Ruin Media Criticism?" and I just think that's funny (Even though I know you're moreso going for an AVGN vibe with this one, just referencing a Nostalgia Critic quote for the title)
i dropped my first casual playthrough of fe7 at cog of destiny in eliwood normal because i was killing like 10 enemies every turn and still not gaining any tiles
Yknow ive actually been thinking about the rain and snow effects recently, and im wondering if the intent of the hazard (though poorly excecuted) is to lock you down whille youre in a fight already. Like, imagine a scenario where youre in combat with the enemy, your units are all within walking distance (lets say 4 squares) of each other and it starts raining. Now they cant reinfoce each other and trying to do so will leave your turn wasted. I think it could MAYBE work in a more player phase heavy game
I don't know what to tell you, I just like it more than 6 and 8. Amazing vibes throughout. Throwing iconic characters at you all game. The reason most people overlook the plotholes before that series pointed them all out is that they WANT to fill in the plotholes, because they are invested. Good writing doesn't have zero holes, it makes you not want to poke around and find them in the first place, and FE7 does that very well. And it introduced paired endings for non-Lords.
I enjoyed fe7, the story was very well grounded and made sense from a contextual perspective. Lyn’s story was a weak but very good opening as a new player. I don’t even consider plot holes, unless I’m doing a repeat playthrough. Which to FE3H, I think most stories look flawed when viewed at a surface level - I didn’t once think Dimitri targeted Edelgard because she ‘killed his parents’ but rather to avenge them, and bring solitude back to his life. Without good writing, those themes aren’t more than speculation or assumptions. For me, it was my second fire emblem game so map structure wasn’t an issue for me, the fog of war, weather and protect the throne maps were pretty fun and it didn’t overstay its welcome (at least just for Lyn + Eliwood Normal mode). I liked Dorcas. Never really cared about ranking system. I love the gba artstyle, all the combat animations pop and the maps look nice and snappy. Opinions are subjective, so I really don’t care if someone dislikes something I like. That said it’s good but I’m more interested in playing through all the other fe games I haven’t played yet. Who knows, my opinion may change after I’ve played them all! Can we all just agree that Bards are lesser dancers, please!!
One thing I like about Lyn in the story and gameplay is that if you played Lyn mode she rejoins pretty overleveled and then over time becomes less and less powerful comparitively to your other units. This reflects how she becomes more of a side character in the later parts of the plot
I appreciate the insight. I always think when someone says FE7 is bad and its because of the story, and I find it very reductive (same problems with Engage bad 3H good) I never realized the problem with low EXP gain is in FE7. I've only played normal mode maybe I'll give Hector hard mode a try.
@@heathed4945 Hard mode of fe7 is much more forgiving than fe6, really. Anyway it's sad that many people can't appreciate the camp and positive vibes of Engage story and overall aesthetics.
I love fe7 but never completed HHM. Its the only game i grinded 100% supports as a kid. But i played exclusively on normal mode lol. I have nothing to disagree with from what you said.
I'm glad you actually explain why you don't like the game and even point out it's positive traits, instead of just saying "I hate it." And that's it. And i also like the way you explain it.
Some other things for me personally that make me roll my eyes to think about is also just weapon durability is such an annoyance to keep track of (granted this could still be bitterness coming off of a challenge run where I had to try and use every party member to an extent) and there really should have been a battle prep shop like SS and also considering how tight money is for awhile makes the common criticism of Engage of money problems apply to FE7 without the usage of an arena which is not for everyone. I get what they were maybe going for with Hector mode kinda being a new game + to get around what Atlus tends to do with SMT releases and what Pokemon did with 3rd versions at the time and avoid having Hector mode being a separate purchasable game, but I still think if FE7 were to ever see a remake or something like that, the play would be much like the JPN version giving you the option to skip Lyn mode right off the bat if you like and just letting you potentially choose between Eliwood or Hector right off the bat or better yet not having two campaigns for Eli and Hector and combining their maps and story moments. Also on subject of FE7 being broken there are also enemies that have the FEMALE map sprites that remain from FE6 (See female nomads on The Dread Isle and female druids on Cog of Destiny) that end up using the MALE battle sprite. Lastly Cog of Destiny Valkyries are a genuine contender for the most obnoxious generic enemies in the series if you ask me
He made some excellent points and while I disagree on most of them, I can see why some people would get bored of the similar map layout personally I’m someone who wen I play through the game I got will to level 15 sniper and Kent to a level 20 paladin I use a lot of of the unpopular characters that are considered slow and useless and I really enjoyed the game. I cried multiple times during the story which is the main reason why I play video games is the gameplay important of course but I came for the story, nice hearing your thoughts.
It's nice to hear you put into words grievances I have with the game I don't even know how to articulate. The hype around it always left me somewhat befuddled. Like a "what does this game have that I somehow don't seem to see?". I played FE7 once early on. I think it's the third FE I ever played, and it's one game I never revisited. Nothing stood out about the game to me. Nothing makes me wanna replay it. The couple of times I tried giving it another chance, I dropped it one or two maps into the game.
I think you're being too reasonable and specific. FE fans all have a game that they have a chip on their shoulder about. For you its FE7. You hate it because you hate it. I hate Fates. I don't hate it for reasons, I hate it because I hate it, bard. Give in to the hate. Don't be rational about it. Like I totally agree with your very vague claim of FE7 having bad unit feel, but I hardly agreed with you about the reasons you think they have bad unit feel.
As an utter casual, I like this game almost purely on the strength of the characters and the themes of the story. I didn't even play hard mode. Thank you for laying out your views of the game, including giving credit where you felt it due. As you may imagine, with my rather different priorities (and, to be fair, a lack of experience with more mechanically thought out entries in the franchise), I liked it quite a bit.
The main reason Fire Emblem 7 is my favorite game is the writing of the characters. The story is pretty standard in comparison to the other Fire Emblem games, and I never got around to playing Hector Hard Mode: I felt clearing it once or twice was enough for me to have enjoyed it. I didn't feel barred from the overall experience, but then again I haven't played many Fire Emblem games myself, my latest one being Shadow Dragon on the DS. I watch your videos to see other games and glean their significance and see if I want to carve time away to play a newer game. (Maybe Three Houses for Crimson Flower...) It's interesting to see the same analysis that other games have turned to Fire Emblem 7, and enjoyable to have every piece of information in one place where my mind can process it as a unified opinion instead of scattered about other videos. Having it all in one place helps me process and understand it better. Thank you for making this video, Dani. I don't hate or rage from this video, but instead have a greater appreciation for you and your view on each of Fire Emblem's parts and the sum thereof.
Even as a fan of FE7, I can't be mad at this video. It was fair, wasn't in bad faith, and I learned somethings about it (didn't know Canas wasn't counted for the route spilt for example).
If 19xx had more of a reward than just… an addition to the mythos of the game, it would make having your bard play that damn flute for 60 turns more worth it. I do have a soft spot for FE7 as most American FE fans over the age of 30 do. After seeing Marth and Roy in Melee I couldn’t wait to learn more about their series, and lo and behold, FE7 happened. Being a chronically online 12 year old, I remember the days of the FE community dunking on Marcus and hyping Nino up as the greatest unit of all time. There was a charm to that community, and while no one subscribes to that discourse nowadays, in a weird way, it was a fun experience. I’ll always hold a super special place in my heart for this game, although I do as an adult recognize all of its many, many flaws.
I dont know what I find funnier between Eliwoods name being Smeliwood, you rather showing Veronica in Engage and an Engage map than showing heroes or you trying to rescue your bard only for him to die anyway. (also maybe you said "barred" and not "bard", my english is not good enough for this)
Haven't played the game since it came out. Iirc he doesn't blame Edelgard directly. He blames her family and believes that she knew for a long time and never told him. He's not completely wrong in this belief. The problem with 3H is that characters often act on information they don't have or can't verify as if they do know it.
@ but the claim dani made is just completely wrong. dimitri believes that someone not from duscur caused the tragedy, but 1. he specifically doesn't suspect Edelgard's family because Patricia's betrayal is a surprise to him and 2. the tragedy at duscur did not happen when he was 2
@@valeriedure2341 I agree. Like I said the problem with 3H is that people act on information they either don't have or cannot verify. This happens because each of the three (four) routes in order to make any amount of logical sense must be semi-canon to each other. Meaning that just because the player isn't told something explicitly doesn't mean that characters off screen don't learn I formation vital to the plot being able to happen. It's bad writing.
@@valeriedure2341 It's not entirely untrue. In BL and VW Dimitri behaves as if Adrestia (and by extension Edelgard) are solely to blame for Fódlan's problems. He has no reason to believe this unless he learned the information off-screen or read the script. The only way for it to make sense the way it is presented is if he knew the entire time. This is absurd to believe, but it must be true for the story to work which I think was the point being made. Being 2 years old is obvious hyperbole.
Fe7 is personally one of my favorites (Along with Fe4 and Fe9), however I do agree or understand a lot of issues you have with the game. There’s an Fe7 rebalance mod that fixed a ton of problems that has made my experience of replaying it so much better. And I appreciated how you were still able to compliment the story even though you’re not a huge fan of the game. I personally really like the game because of the story, while not being perfect, has always been charming to me even with some loopholes in it. To me, the characters are the most likable cast in the series. It’s such a great cast of characters that it made me use some of the less viable ones (I always use Rebecca). Also I really like the maps because a lot of them reward playing quickly, (Whereabouts Unknown, The Dread Isle, Living Legend, Crazed Beast, Battle Before Dawn, etc) which remind me a lot like fe4 but I’d obviously get not liking the maps if you don’t want to rush them. And personally, Eliwood is my favorite lord in the series but agree to disagree on that one! I did really appreciate and understand where your coming from with this review, and hopefully that helps why people do like this game too!
Got FE7 at release when I was little so it's very nostalgic for me. Played through Lyn mode over and over so replaying it doesnt bother me. I think if it's your first FE it makes a big difference as it does explain a lot of mechanics very well to newcomers, which is why I recommend people play FE7 as their first. None of the mechanics feel bad to me, except for support which is painfully long and slow. PoR improved this system so much that trying to get supports in FE7 feels painfully bad to go back to
Wow, I'm actually upset you released this video one month after I beat FE7 for the first time on my 2nd playthrough(my first playthroigh ended in the middel of Lyn mode.). I could have saved myself from extreme boredom. While I agree that the story and the characters of FE7 are, comparitively, good, I was absolutely not in the mood for any kind of story or character development since I either expected horrible gameplay or had just finished said gameplay (Eliwood mode). Like, I even think Revelation has a lot better maps overall despite all of its gimmicks, and I couldn't even finish that game (3DS broke). In 7, you have boring route maps, tedious kill boss maps and frustrating Defend missions (screw Battle before Dawn) But going back to the characters: While the FE7 characters are "objectively" well written, the thing which hurts them the most are the 5 support limit and endgame units being practically locked out of supports. As example, the reason why Charlotte from Conquest became my favorite FE character is because I was able to see her from multiple perspectives. From her join dialogue and her supports with multiple people ( Benny, Saizo, Xander, Corrin, Leo and Rinkah) I could see different sides of this one character divided into multiple little sections, and that is fantastic. Contrary to that, FE7 5 support limit makes this impossible and you have to pray that you get the 'good' supports of the character to form an appropriate opinion of them. And to get the different perspectivew you either have to play the game multiple times (cringe) or look them up online. I really want to like Harken, Kent, Florinia, Hawkeye, Jafar, (screw Battle before Dawn, again), Dorcas, Priscilla, Lucius and Galzus more, but the game wouldn't let me see them from different perspectives, wouldn't let me develop thoughts on these arguably complex and well written characters. So yeah, with my two most inportant aspects, characters and gameplay, being butchered by incomprehensible game design decisions, I am confident to say that I hate this game, and that it is my 2ND least favorite Fire Emblem (for now). My least favorite FE still is Genealogy, without a doubt. But I am very disappointed at how close Blazing Blade got.
Something I think needs to be noted first: GBA game engine/gameplay… I think the only reason that Gameboy FE gets such high praise is because of just how good the sprite work is. And how “good” the crits are. In terms of substance/innovation, I’d like to think no one holds up gameboy FE as anything beyond fine. Onto a long comment: Seems like a lot of this is summed up in: -Not liking player phase games (100% fine) -prepromotes power and limited deployment slots and player raised units issues (fine) -definition of gimmick maps that I think most people would disagree with. (100% fine) -lots of complaining about bugs which are clearly programming errors, and other which could be developer choices. The problem is because of the obvious oversights it’s hard to tell if it is all mistaken. -complaints about side objectives being difficult to do on the highest difficulty. What did you expect? They’re mostly lenient in every other difficulty. -------- I will fully admit I have nostalgia for FE7. But having beat the game with stupid self imposed challenge mode (female units + lords/Batre to 10ish/5ish. On my GBA:SP. Lyn mode being bad because you can raise a “free” prepremote __if you want to__ before doing any 2nd play through is just dumb. And here it feels like you’re just looking for people who mix-max, and saying min-maxing is extra annoying. If you want an optimized hector hard mode run, yes, Lyn mode becomes “necessary”. If you’re playing any other difficulty… it’s not relevant. Also remembering the funny mekkah critique… having listened to that series. He ended with a bit on how it’s not meant to be taken as super serious. And as memory gives me, he said he thought the story was very solid when you’re playing through it without looking deeply into it. And didn’t have much to say about character interactions.
I am a casual FE player and I adore FE7, I know a lot talk about how bad Erk and others are but I also know a lot that skip Lyn’s mode. Is this part of the problem is that they are meant to be trained in Lyn mode
FE7 is one of my favorite FE games and I wholeheartedly agree with you. I always liked Erk but never got to use him in the endgame because Pent always felt like what Erk was supposed to turn into. Also Lucius always felt stronger than Erk being light magic being weaker than anima.
Isadora and Renault have one of the best support chains in the series imo and embarrassingly Renault's speech about the virtue of living with doubt was something I turned to when I was going through teenager problems when I was that age so I will always have to defend this game even tho it is one of the least interesting gameplay-wise
DANI WE HAVE YOU SURROUNDED, COME OUT AND PLAY FE7!
Dani, crouched behind an overturned table with a shotgun "I HATE FE7 I HATE FE7"
Bold opinion from someone in Pent Range.
Erk will protect me
But who will protect you both from Sera?
@@DaniDoyle with his 6 res? Good luck
@@DaniDoyleshould have said Seth to protect you
Im glad that even as an FE7 hater you can recognize how good the character writing is. Its one of the main reasons why its my favorite game in the series, the cast is so lovable
I definitely understand disliking the game (it has a lot of flaws) but its just plain fun to me. Its my favorite game to play straight, my favorite game to randomize, my favorite game to ironman, I just love it
Also I feel like Im the only person in the world who loves playing Lyn Mode. I play it every single time, and Ive been an FE fan for over a decade
@@juicyjuustar121 the first time I finished Lyn's storyline, I cried
Honestly suprised that you didn't even mention that, to access Chapter 19xx, you need to train your bard, Nils, to level 7 during Lyn mode, meaning you need to spend at least 60 turns playing that flute to Maybe get access to a shit map
It was so bad that it was forgotten
"This may be a controversial take but..."
Me: Go for it, we're all entitled to our own opinions. :)
"GBA Fire Emblem is the weakest system"
Me: *Grabs Killing Edge*
Eh, she's kinda right though.
The two things that the gba system has going for it are 1) the simple yet endearing aesthetic and 2) even more importantly the huge romhacking community and the ease of making hacks in that system.
Apart from that, it's pretty much just Fire Emblem at its most basic.
@@corhydrae3238 Good.
FE lost me when they kept shoving in too much useless stuff that only really does anything on that hardest differculty. I just want a basic tactics game is that too much to ask for? Apparently, here's dating and mini games and skill points and.....
The most offensive thing in the entire video is that you actively modded the game to change his name to Smeliwood.
In fairness, it was for a Charity event...
That was actually the best thing about this video
I think FE7 works pretty well overall as a person's first Fire Emblem game, and I think it really was designed that way in a lot of ways because IntSys knew the game was going to be localised going into development. Lyn mode, while horribly slow and irritating on repeat playthroughs, is genuinely a pretty good effort at teaching an audience who's never played turn-based strategy games how Fire Emblem works. The game's uber-powerful pre-promotes feel like a safeguard measure to guarantee inexperienced players who might have managed to lose their good units still have a formidable army. Heck, the whole process of unlocking Eliwood mode, then Hector mode, then Hector Hard feels like it was design to curve a player upwards gradually in difficulty and complexity as they played and replayed the game. As a series entry-point it does a great job, but if you're already a series veteran or you're coming back to it after a long absence... yeah, I think it kinda falls apart. A lot of those aforementioned design decisions actively chafe against an experienced player coming back to the game looking for a challenge.
That all said, it isn't the perfect entry-point either, heck, I think its successor, Sacred Stones, is a generally better game overall that still manages to ease a brand new player into the series without that level of hand-holding and restriction that FE7 placed on itself.
The story of sacred stones is so much worse though
@ Sacred Stones absolutely has a sexism problem in its narrative, yeah.
@@MinoriGamingTo be fair, the entire series does have a sexism problem, just to variable degrees
@@MinoriGaming Not really?
@creativename1673 Go through an Eirika route playthrough and look how many times Seth has more cutscene dialogue than Eirika. He dominates her dialogue until the after the route split where Ephraim immediately takes the reigns narratively
Gotta say even as someone who's also not an FE7 fan (more out of apathy), i appreciate you giving the story its due and pointing out how pedantic/nitpickey some people can be with it (i.e Mekkah), like it's not the best but the emotional core is strong and stuff like Hector's softer moment in the boat map can get overlooked.
Same, I also feel the infamous phrase "Fire Emblem never had a good story" is a cop out used by the community to give them a pass from actually grappling with what they individually do or don't like in storytelling. The most hated thing in FE stories is contrivances and alleged plot holes, which... is a *very* difficult-to-understand take when it comes to the fantasy genre.
As a fe7 lover, I think this is a pretty good video and I agree with most of the issues you have with the game. I do appreciate your positive take on the story though, since a lot of people in the FE sphere shit on the story and act like its the worst narrative of all time. I really appreciate how FE7 explores the major underlying themes of the ways we process loss a lot as well, since the game does a pretty good job of having the protagonist and (major) antagonists take on a healthy/unhealthy reaction towards it. It's a great touch when someone like Lyod reserves himself to a tragic fate upon losing his brother, Linius reserving himself into raw anger, and how Eliwood battles against his own sense of loss by opening up and not giving into his depression and how Hector learns to open up over the events of the story and understand the value of those around him. Stuff like Nino being confronted with the loss of her family is pretty strong stuff to me, I think the ways the story conveys the characters grappling with these sorts of losses and how they relapse into their personal failings (such as Lyn's loss of her parents causing a huge issue for everyone in the port map, or Hector berating Oswin) and eventually triumphing over that stuff. It's really heartwarming stuff that I really like. thank u for the thoughtful section on fe7's story, and also for doing a great job at highlighting a lot of the mechanical failings of the game!!!
Low key it's probably top 3 FE stories, definitely at least top 5. I know thats a low bar but still...
I'm not gonna lie, I actually really love Battle Before Dawn. Even though it's such a bullshit map, I can't help but love all the bullshit because it just feels like such a good way to integrate story and gameplay.
Battle before Dawn is actually super fun on normal mode when you use Pent to Berserk Maxime
As yatzhee would said, battle before dawn has a "car crash fancastion" to it. Seriously there alot of bullshit and cheapness to it especially in Hector hard mode, but it atleast fun to talk about it. Plus given fire emblem 7 is one of the easier games in the series, the difficult spike is quite something to behold.
Person who played FE6 and is playing through 7: So how are we going to go from this guy to FE6 Zephiel?
FE7, presenting Battle Before Dawn: Only RNG can help you here!
Player: ... Understandable, have a nice day.
I loved resetting it 30+ times as a child
Time-stamps
2:20, 3:00 - Addressing plot holes
3:18 - Lovable protagonists
4:20 - Lyn as a survivor of genocide
5:17 - Hector’s facade, hiding his insecurities
6:03 - Lyn and Hector’s interaction
6:30 - How a GBA game addresses masculinity
7:02 - Lyn’s trauma sticks with her after all this time, and this informs who she is as a person.
8:00 - Eliwood’s character serves an important purpose for the “emotionality” of the story.
11:00 - The gameplay reflects Eliwood’s emotions throughout the course of the story.
20:10, 21:00, 22:00 - This is a fair criticism. Low enemy experience paired with low payoff-units when compared to prepromotes (eg, Erk vs Pent) does stand out.
22:31 - This is a most apt comparison with Engage, which goes to show that games need to consider how they balance their early and midgame units. Well done!
24:20, 24:29, 24:42 - When I played FE7 as a kid, it was usually difficult to train the early units. I feel this criticism all too well.
Later on, I just learned to abuse the arena on Hector Normal Mode, which only reinforces the point made in this video.
I think GBA engine simplicity is the best part of it. FE6 and many rom hacks show how we can do a lot of things with the engine.
Fire Emblem: The Smelly Blade
The Blazing stink
My favorite fe game ever 💔
I have NEVER gotten another human being to finish this game. They ALWAYS quit before Lyn mode is done. Out of literally like 6 people, they all quit, even the ones who were perfectly fine finishing other Fire Emblem games
See and I have struggled to finish other FE games but have completed FE7 a few times…although I am just finishing my first Hector play though
lyn mode moment
Honestly, can't blame them. I love the story of Lyn mode but the maps are so tedious on normal (forced tutorial) or extremely boring on hard mode, due to these maps being designed as tutorials and not being changed meaningfully
For real, I introduced three friends with FE7, two of them just dropped it mid way through, one those played Shadow Dragon and finished it after 2 years and said he liked it and the other one played 3H and never finished playing it, the other one liked so much Lyn that he finished her mode and never touched the game again and started playing FEH just to get all Lyndis alts, he did so in 2 years
@PC-ni6bp
I like how this implies that you have got a non-human being to play through the entirety of FE7.
I'm also going to assume that the mushroom and the squirrel you persuaded both got through all of the 6 campaigns, normal and hard modes.
I was going to agree but then you said FE6 was a good game so now I have turned into a red unit >:(
Pretty on point besides that though, really wish there was a cheat code to skip the normal modes (remember when games had those? Good times)
Is it weird that i preffer fe7 because i played it first so everytime someone sees an inconsistency with fe6, My mind sees it as Fe6 is inconsistent with fe7, As weird as that is
"It takes rescue dropping from Thracia, tweaks it, and then strips away all of that other games' unique systems."
This is exactly right, and something I need to see games do more often.
FE5 was innovative, and made some major improvements to the series. But it had far too many bizarre and obnoxious mechanics.
A healthy cycle for a series is to get a strong foundation, innovate for a couple of sequels, then have an entry that takes the series back to the core gameplay, only keeping a couple gimmicks that mesh well with the core design.
Fire Emblem is honestly overdue for doing this again. Perhaps not quite to the extent of the GBA era, but an entry that clearly focusses more on solid strategy than flashy super moves, custom build optimization and social micromanagement. Something like FE9 but with a branching class system and personal skills. And better map design.
I feel like I'd be entirely fine with something that was close to FE13 length wise, with only the addition of personal skills, supports taking longer than they have and being potentially even locked behind other interactions, but I also usually play the games purely casually and have only done LTC or semi-optimized runs for Engage, Thraccia/Genealogy and Radiant Dawn, so I feel like any addition I could make isn't too fair/promising
I agree, but it could've kept a lot more good mechanics. Good overall point tho thats why I haven't played 3h or engage yet
@@MagikarpPower Oh yeah. It's definitely a manner of personal preference, but I think most people would be happier with a slightly more scaled progression system in the GBA era.
Something like the following:
FE6: As is.
FE7: Branching classes, promoted class skills.
FE8: Branching classes, promoted class skills, personal skills.
FE9: As is, plus personal skills.
I think this is likely what the progression would have been like, except they wanted FE7 to be an ideal starting point for the international audience.
Also, I'd reconsider trying Engage. It's true, the Engage mechanics can be overcentralizing, especially late game, and the level of complexity is higher than I think is a good idea.
But the core mechanics are nothing short of phenomenal, and the game paces the introduction of mechanics exceedingly well with the early game being quite basic.
While I do want a more basic experience, I will legit miss almost any mechanic cut from Engage aside from the Emblems (which I think are appropriate as a one off gimmick.)
In particular, I want the class category based abilities (Backup chain attacks, Covert terrain bonuses, Mystic terrain negation) to become a core part of the series, after a little rebalancing. And I would like to see the weapon triangle deviate from the evade and hit buffs like before.
Three Houses by contrast, did not introduce a single mechanic that I feel has a place in the series moving forward. Without exaggeration, all mechanical changes that Three Houses made to the base formula made the game worse.
@@plentyofpaper 3h mechanics have a place in a future game or two if they actually fully commit to the absurd level of customization the forward-facing mechanics teased but got immediately kneecapped when you promoted a commoner with any magic into a myrmidon
granted, it'd still be in something that's spiritually a three houses 2 rather than a game that defines *_THE FUTURE OF FIRE EMBLEM_* but there's still a lot to 3h that could be refined and experimented upon and taken even further. a fire emblem game that doesn't flirt with the ridiculously freeform units of fft and disgaea, it just straight-up drags 'em to bed. especially with the inexorable march of time acting as a natural control valve from preventing the player from just grinding their squad into gods at everything with completely identical unit feel. y'know. when balanced right
prob don't keep the bit of dropping the weapon triangle, tho. miiiiiight be a bit of a silly choice in a game where you commit a literal third of its game loop to cultivating your units' weapon ranks, the thing which improved weapon triangle bonuses for the last four games
@@hi-i-am-atan Customization is fine, and even encouraged to some extent.
But while 3 Houses was more about customization than past games, I still don't see it as a 3 Houses mechanic. Skills have been around in some capacity since FE4, and have been highly customization since Awakening.
When I think of mechanics 3 Houses introduced, I think:
1. Any unit can use any weapon.
2. Any unit can be any class.
3. Weapon triangle was removed.
4. Weapon rank is strongly tied to combat stats.
5. Lots of home base activities.
6. Gambits
7. 4 tile monster enemies.
8. Choose a route when the game starts, but don't have story differences until the midpoint.
9. Most characters join at the start without a unique class.
10. Enemy aggro lines that show intent.
Admittedly, a few of them have shown up elsewhere. Shadow Dragon had almost as much class flexibility, FE1-3 had no weapon triangle, Weapon rank had notable impact on weapon stats in Awakening.
All of these mechanics are ones I'd prefer to never see again (I could go either way on the 4 tile monsters.)
It's funny, because FE7 is my second favorite game in the franchise. So, I do apologize for having your sacrifice be in vain, but I will still play FE7.
I'm about 5 minutes into the video so far and it seems like your video is going to at the very least be made in good faith with honest criticism, and that's really all I can ask.
What's funny is the alternative title is "an unfair and biased review of FE7"
I wouldn't really call the Veld thing a plot hole. The loptyr cult is filled with people with immense hubris so he could've seen Leif as beneath him. He only jumped to act on Eyvel Raydrick begged him to. It's like expecting characters in horror movies to always act completely rational in intense situations. I view moments like these as character monents more than anything
Agree with the rest though I HATE FE7 GRAAAH
WHY IS ELIWOOD SO BAD? WHAT WERE THEY THINKING? -Angry Video Game Dani
Anyway, here's why Thracia is the best fire emblem: Trude and Salem are in it
The more and more I play FE7 and the more and more I realize I like it for the story more than anything else because with every playthrough the glaring map design issues just feel worse every time. But I might just be coping and most of my viewers would tell you I'm simply frustrated with the game because I'm bad at it... and they're probably right.
Bard, bard
FE7 was either the second or third FE game I played (I started with Awakening, and then my brother got Shadow Dragon used and I can’t remember if that was before or after I played FE7). For quite a while I considered it my favorite. I liked the character writing, the brightly-colored GBA aesthetic, and playing on an emulator with save states meant I could simulate casual mode at a point when I still found permadeath deeply intimidating. Nowadays I don’t know if I really have a favorite FE game. I haven’t dipped far into the pre-localization games. I find that I go through intense honeymoon phases with a lot of games before greatly mellowing out on them, so I think my love for FE7 in high school was another manifestation of that pattern.
Tbh these days my strongest feelings about FE7 (aside from the nostalgia and in-jokes with my brothers) are 1. my endless platonic love for Canas and his monocle, and 2. the all-encompassing shock I felt when I realized that youtubers defaulted to HHM when talking about FE7 and that was why it always felt like they were discussing an entirely different game from the one I played.
Great timing! I’m doing a swords only run of FE7 right now, and oh boy is it getting tedious. I think I’ll play this video in the background while I dodge grind Hector to level 10 and reset repeatedly to avoid Lyn dying from a lance unit breathing on her.
What I like about Fe7 is how many of the units get to leave a strong impression, usually by having more than one mandatory piece of dialogue.
All the Lyn mode units leave a stronger impression by essentially having two introductions in the story, plus they get to have more story dialogue in Lyn mode since they don’t die there.
You have the retainers Oswin and Marcus that, like in fates etc., get to have more story dialogue because they only retreat when they die.
Matthew is not only in Lyn mode and is an important character in early Hector mode, but he also has a tragic love story with Leila, and will either remorsefully comment on her death or Hector will state that he plans to have Leila buried next to Matthew if he died earlier.
Dart is introduced and is characterized several chapters before he joins you.
Ninian, Nils, Pent, Louise, Hawkeye, and Athos are all very important to the story, and some of them will die instead of retreat if they die at certain chapters after their recruitment.
Jaffar and Nino are memorable for so many reasons. They are plot important, have their own separate story arc that, in Nino’s case at least, goes on even after she is recruited in a bonus chapter made entirely for her. Nino has I believe the highest number of unique dialogues with the bosses excluding the lords. Jaffar is notable for being one of the most actively antagonistic characters to join the main army.
Vaida is an unbeatable boss before her joining chapter. I for one had my mind blown when I realized she could be recruited on my first playthrough.
Of course there are also the characters that are notable due to their connections with fe 6/ fe 6 characters: Karel, Karla, Bartre, Canas, Geitz, Merlinus, Rath, Rebecca.
Hell, even LEGAULT has a unique story conversation before the Black Fang chapter if he is alive and recruited.
This is all without mentioning supports, pre-battle conversations, unique boss convos, etc.
One of my favorite things about FE7 that sounds like a nitpick is Nino and Jaffar's join map single-handedly undermines the motivations of FE6's big bad.
Gwendolyn in FE6: my brother lost all faith in humanity when our father hired assassins to kill him
The assassin in question, Nino: hey why am I killing you? Wow thats messed up, I quit. Hang on you sit tight, my boyfriend and I are gonna go kill our employers, do you need anything? Have a cookie I was saving it for later.
Gwendolyn: he never was the same after that night
Its genuinely so funny to me
Didn't he lose all faith in humans when his father tried to poison him?
He was sick in bed, on the brink of death for a week. And then he made that plan to fake his death and jump out of the coffin to stab his dad at the funeral.
I don't think assassins are even mentioned, but it's been a while sinxe I read FE6 story.
This comment confused me so much about Bors
@davidvaldez1093
Bors is the true main villain of FE6
@@davidvaldez1093 wait is Gwendolyn not the blond lady who follows around Roy and hands him the fire emblem this is genuine
@@TheWizardMus That's Guinevere, though the names are kinda similar.
Gwendolyn is the pink-haired armor unit that joins with terrible stats in Chapter 8 and has the armor Triangle attack with Bors and Barth.
I will say that the Lyn mode pain is mitigated imo by the fact I just keep a save file of Lyn's story on Chapter 10 so I only have to play through one (admittedly slow) map at the start of each playthrough, while still getting the benefits of properly leveled Lyn, Kent, Sain, Erk, and Florina (and occasionally Wil). Obviously I can't shift leveling focus to different characters with this method, but it does make Lyn's units, who I quite like as characters, much more viable and functional when I get to the main game.
Now, this does not in the slightest negate the criticism that the game shouldn't be structured this way in the first place, and I should not HAVE to do something like this to fully enjoy FE7, but I thought it was worth mentioning, since doing something that I felt stupid for not doing earlier after five playthroughs streamlined my play experience considerably (and also solidified my belief that Erk is underrated as a unit, even if Pent is objectively better just because he doesn't require the investment, especially in staves).
All that to say I agree with pretty much everything you said in this video. I still enjoy FE7 (I'd still much rather be playing Fire Emblem than a number of other games), but I've always felt it was lacking somewhat compared to other entries and you've put it into words really well.
FE7 was my first Fire Emblem game and I do love it dearly, but on subsequent playthroughs (especially Lyn Mode) I've realised that most of my love is for the story, the characters, and the series as a whole, and your critiques either match my less nostalgia-tinged experiences or give me insight into some of the game's deeper and more fundamental issues.
Thank you for making this video, Dani. I love that you hate this game that I love.
Also shoutout to Nils, one of the bards of all time.
I would not worry about rage bait. You pointed out the good points and the bad points of the game. This was a fair critique. I do find myself agreeing with a good many points you raised. It was lazy for the developers not taking into account that Nino and Pent can be crit killed before the player can reach them(37:09). As you pointed out, Pent dies is a game over. Nino's death locks the player out of Chapter 26x. If Nino and Pent were just another bunch of units that are recruited and forgotten, I would not hold this against the developers. While not good, it is understandable that some things get overlooked. Because there are more consequences to their deaths, Nino and Pent should have been given more attention to make sure the players have a fair shot of recruiting them.
I'm going to be honest I don't necessarily hate fe7 but I find most of it's map boring and tedious which sucks because I think it's final map is actually one of the best designed final maps in the series due to its good Balance so Amazing final map weighed down by the 30 chapters before it
but does it weigh more than the Sol Katti (/j)
@@Pokerus04 probably not
i replayed FE7 about a year ago for the first time in a while. FE7 had long been my favorite FE game but that replay left such a sour taste for me and i couldn't really figure out why, but this video helped articulate what i felt at the time - particularly about bad unit feel. I was pretty sad because this game i once considered my favorite (especially for being my entry point to the series) is easily my least favorite now of all the FE games i've completed.
the character writing is insanely good though, as you pointed out. the cutscenes alone make the game worth going through imo.
When you were talking about the Hector mode exclusive chapters I'm surprised that for 19xx you didn't mention that in addition to needing to kill Kishuna in 1 turn and the map being fog of war, you also need to play Lyn mode and grind Nils to level 7 in it for no goddamn reason. Lyn mode already sucks, and then you have to dancer grind and then later kill a dodgy boss in 1 turn, all so that you can play a boring fog map.
Why yes, I also don't like fe7 how could you tell?
Hearing you air out your grievances was really cathartic, not because I still enjoyed FE7 for what it was, but because it also mirrors a parallel to my own distaste and hatred towards a now-defunct+EOS'ed mobile game which I had picked up because at the time I was a fan of its developer company's other works. Though unlike what you say is to FE7's benefit, the character/story writing in that other mobile game was one that I found myself always not liking and have been rather critical of.
I'm reminded of how that other mobile game would handle things like gameplay mechanic design, character feel, and the "measures" it would take to fix bugged and other gamebreaking issues and find myself really despising that game to the point where I will deliberately avoid mentioning it by name out of disgust (which sucks since not only was I a fan of its developer's other games, but said developer is also keen on avoiding all mention/reference to it in recent times)
Heck, my own growing, visceral hatred towards that other game got to a point where the people in my discord group chats will avoid bringing it up out of respect. But more significantly a person I was formerly friends with, who also is still a hugely obsessed fan of that game to this day, got so petty butthurt that they cut off all bridges of contact with me and will refuse to answer back (even if the discussion in chat is about a completely unrelated topic, which should otherwise have been a fair game-no animosity thing to bring up).
They're still convinced it was because of that game's wider public community that made me despise it as a whole when really it was much more directly because of both my own and another friend's shared experiencing of the game during its service life that had soiled my reception towards it. And it was doubly weird to me that not only did they have the foresight to block my other friend as soon as they could but didn't do the same for me right away (despite me sharing that other friend's same opinions), they were at one point accepting and open to hearing criticism towards said game before suddenly deciding to just ...not.
I play for the Karla usage in the last few chapters
Karla.......
@@DaniDoylethe icon - the legend 🙃
27:56
I think that’s the most speed screwed Sain I have ever seen
That was my iron man where sain never got speed and kent never got strength. Then literally right when kent died, sain got his first point of speed. It was so funny we decided each of them was stealing the level ups from the other.
Thanks for sparing us from playing it, you're the best! (I already played it)
For isn't hate one side of the coin, for which love is another?
After all, to see one's hate is, weirdly, far more satisfying than to see one's indifference to something, to me personally at least.
To me gameplay in Fire emblem always was, and always will be secondary to the charming characters, the engaging plot, and the intriguing medieval-fantasy war aesthetic it presents to me (even though i wouldn't truly say that gameplay doesn't matter at all).
Perhaps that's why i can love this game so much, despite all the flaws it has.
So, I actually enjoy this game. I am personally insulted, my child is even named Smeliwood. Now they will see this and all their friends at school will laugh at them. I just have to watch as my child now grows into Smeliwood, the bard. Thanks for that.
a friend and i made FE game tierlists some time ago, and he was surprised to see me put FE7 in D tier, but my reasoning overlaps a lot with yours. i would add to the Unit Feel portion that HHM has very few stat boosters, and promotion bonuses are quite nerfed relative to FE6. ur kinda just crossing ur fingers that one of ur little goobers gets blessed with their 35% str/spd/def growths. (it's one of the reasons my FE preferences skew towards the recent games, as they have lots of resources that can "fix" training projects that aren't working out, and resource management is generally fun for me).
this friend and i had a separate convo where we were rattling off our fav/least fav FE units (gameplay only), and i realized my top 3 least fav units in the series were kent, florina, and erk, all FE7 units. i was more sick than i realized of being burned by FE7 training projects feeling like crap to use throughout the game. in FE6, u are under no illusions that wolt will provide anything other than chip damage for a few maps then get benched. in FE7, there's the Hope that erk might oneround an enemy one day, and u desperately cling to that until u look at hawkeye's stats.
Dani, as an FE7 fan, I can assure you, this entire video did not feel like rage bait. In fact, it feels like a genuinely honest critique of a game from someone who loves the overall gameplay loop of Fire Emblem, but was disappointed with its implementation in FE7. It genuinely feels like you wanted to like FE7 but just can't, which is a valid take and definitely doesn't feel like you're just hating on the game.
I've been sort of working on an FE7 rebalance hack on and off for a few months now and your critiques actually gave me some ideas for it.
24:30. It's also a compounding issue. The less you use your project units, the less exp and weapon ranks are available, further pushing you away from using them. No sane person is gonna start using Rebecca five chapters after she joins unless you're insane. She needs those early chapters if she's gonna do anything. The reduction of deployment slots is a good idea to artificially increase the difficulty, but all it does is funnel all EXP into the units that are already compentent, pushing them ahead. I wonder if the games hard modes would have been harder if you were given full deployment slots.
I think there's a mod that expands deployment slots, which does definitely reduce the issue a little bit but I don't think it solves all the problems I have
As someone who FE7 has a big place in his heart, I can absolutely agree with you on most of the points here. Later games in the series had a lot more interesting mechanics, and what sold me on the game was always the story and characters. Not the gameplay.
I loved FE7 when I first got into the series, but nowadays it's hard to go back to when other FE games exist.
I second that Revelation is probably a better time because Fates Pair Up is a drug
Excited for this!
I think Kishuna is a cool idea as a super boss that unlocks a new map. I don't think dodge tank that leaves 1 turn after attacking him, and also no mages was the best way to have a super boss lol.
Yeah its basically pointless to train non-mount units in FE7. Canas works alright with some stat boosters to wield Luna. But for everybody else I'd just bench them for cavs. Same problem in FE9
I understand disliking FE7. However, I do think it's one of the best introductory tactical/strategy RPGs out there. Easy difficulty. No skills or weird subsystems to worry about as Weapon Triangles can be intuited as Rock-Paper-Scissors equivalents. Not too much to parse stat wise. Maps and units do appear unique even if they do fall flat in practice. Those are strengths of the series as a whole to some degree but I'm not handing three houses or Fates to an elementary school kid. And in that light it makes total sense why it's beloved. It was built well for its time.
We just grew up and gaming got better, nothing wrong with that.
I think that Lyn Mode is a pretty bad tutorial tbh, and can turn newer players off. I much prefer how Awakening Normal, Fates Branch of Fates and FE Engage does tutorials
If want to introduce someone that is fine with plder games to strategy rpgs, i would sugges Shining Force 2 tbh.
I respect this so much and agree with everything you said. I can't even get myself to ironman it.
This game would be so much better if it had Garlick Jr.
That's the guy with the Garlick Gun, right?
I love garlic jr. Unironically
YOURE DAMN RIGHT THE CHARACTER WRITING IS GOOD, We All Pray to our Queen and Goddess of character design and characterization Sachiko Wada
you a real one for disliking enemy phase: the game
In a lot of cases it feels like fe7 is a course correct from fe6, for better or worse. Want more objectives than just seize gate/throne? Hate how inaccurate weapons are in general, especially thrown weapons? How you feel about map size being too big? What about replacement units that are worse than the originals?
Fe7 did fix a lot of these problems and did add some quality of life stuff that fe6 just didn't have, but a lot of the things they did just scued the game in the other direction. Now accurate swords are not necessary and make sword locked units redundant. Thrown weapons now being sort of accurate led to the game becoming enemy phase centric and led to even more redundancy in units that couldn't handle multiple enemy phase attacks. I still like the gba games, in fact I like them more than the recent games we have gotten, but they definitely had flaws.
I used to like fe7 a lot when I first played it 20 years ago, then as I got into the series I started seeing it as worse and worse but recently I did a 0% growths run and enjoyed it, then went to play HHM which I had never tried and had a blast playing it.
Gameplay reasons apart, FE7 is okay, not a lot of people pay that much attention to story and over analyze it, other than that, I think fe7 is an okay, not amazing game that pays a great price due to being the first international game.
I got insanely lucky at the timing of this video, since I just played FE7 for the first time and am currently doing the Hector mode
I mostly just have a passionate "eh" for the game... I finally got to play it in english for the first time on Switch, and despite having fun with it on a blind playthrough, unlike any other game in the series i own, i have absolutely ZERO desire to play through it again any time soon...
I don't hate it as much as i do 4 and 5 for their idiotic mechanics and way too big map, but i also don't love it as i do the newer FE games, where so many QOL changes makes the games so much more fun to experiment with!
So where i can pop in Awakening, Fates, Echoes or any of the Switch games and play them endlessly, nothing makes me want to go back to FE7... It's not a bad game, but it just has no replay value for me personally...
13:19 oh how times have changed...
what do you mean?
@DaniDoyle we have units like Emblem Sigurd that can move 5 spaces in Heroes now (with Canto btw lmao)
@@LucyTheLamia lol
@@DaniDoyle there's also characters who can warp across the map now and that's a skill that you can just give to people
To be on topic of the video:
Leila from fe7 has a relatively exclusive gimmick she's had for a few versions of her now that can swap with an ally up to 2 spaces away from her after she attacks. So she can dive in, wreck everything and do some aoe nonsense and then swap in an ally to reap the benefits.
Her original version released into feh also only swaps with a support partner (newest version is anyone) so ofc I made her support partner Matthew who can tank in enemy phase and has a weapon refine that gives him more attack the more the enemy is debuffed. So she dives in, debuffs and hits hard and then swaps him in and he can close counter speedy tank enemies and gets a massive attack boost because of her debuffing every stat
It's fun....and I also love Leila and Matthew so eh
As someone whose arguably favorite fe game is 7 I shall be looking at this video wearily
35:11 Aren't the guiding ring users counted Serra, Priscilla, Erk, and Lucius? I've never heard of Canas (or Renault) being included and I figured it was because he's recruited in a gaiden chapter and is technically missable.
Canas used guiding rings, but due to a programing error he is not counted, Renault is instead
Sorry I doubted you - I asked some folks in discord and they pointed me to the code showing Renault is in there with the other four. Wild stuff!
You don't have anything to apologize for... you were just asking a question and I was just answering your question. I hope I didn't make you feel uncomfortable.
My favorite thing is, right as I start this video, is that my next recommended video is titled "Did Channel Awesome Ruin Media Criticism?" and I just think that's funny (Even though I know you're moreso going for an AVGN vibe with this one, just referencing a Nostalgia Critic quote for the title)
LMAO that's hilarious.
I'm not really aiming for either style, just using them for the thumbnail since they are recognizable
i dropped my first casual playthrough of fe7 at cog of destiny in eliwood normal because i was killing like 10 enemies every turn and still not gaining any tiles
Yknow ive actually been thinking about the rain and snow effects recently, and im wondering if the intent of the hazard (though poorly excecuted) is to lock you down whille youre in a fight already.
Like, imagine a scenario where youre in combat with the enemy, your units are all within walking distance (lets say 4 squares) of each other and it starts raining. Now they cant reinfoce each other and trying to do so will leave your turn wasted.
I think it could MAYBE work in a more player phase heavy game
Hey Dani, this might be the best Fire Emblem video I’ve seen in a long time.
Just curious, have you done a video covering the Fire Emblems you love?
FE series has always been a sadomasochistic experience.
I don't know what to tell you, I just like it more than 6 and 8. Amazing vibes throughout. Throwing iconic characters at you all game. The reason most people overlook the plotholes before that series pointed them all out is that they WANT to fill in the plotholes, because they are invested. Good writing doesn't have zero holes, it makes you not want to poke around and find them in the first place, and FE7 does that very well. And it introduced paired endings for non-Lords.
I enjoyed fe7, the story was very well grounded and made sense from a contextual perspective.
Lyn’s story was a weak but very good opening as a new player. I don’t even consider plot holes, unless I’m doing a repeat playthrough.
Which to FE3H, I think most stories look flawed when viewed at a surface level - I didn’t once think Dimitri targeted Edelgard because she ‘killed his parents’ but rather to avenge them, and bring solitude back to his life. Without good writing, those themes aren’t more than speculation or assumptions.
For me, it was my second fire emblem game so map structure wasn’t an issue for me, the fog of war, weather and protect the throne maps were pretty fun and it didn’t overstay its welcome (at least just for Lyn + Eliwood Normal mode). I liked Dorcas. Never really cared about ranking system.
I love the gba artstyle, all the combat animations pop and the maps look nice and snappy.
Opinions are subjective, so I really don’t care if someone dislikes something I like.
That said it’s good but I’m more interested in playing through all the other fe games I haven’t played yet.
Who knows, my opinion may change after I’ve played them all!
Can we all just agree that Bards are lesser dancers, please!!
One thing I like about Lyn in the story and gameplay is that if you played Lyn mode she rejoins pretty overleveled and then over time becomes less and less powerful comparitively to your other units. This reflects how she becomes more of a side character in the later parts of the plot
I appreciate the insight. I always think when someone says FE7 is bad and its because of the story, and I find it very reductive (same problems with Engage bad 3H good) I never realized the problem with low EXP gain is in FE7. I've only played normal mode maybe I'll give Hector hard mode a try.
Also based rev take I had fun playing it lots
@@heathed4945 Hard mode of fe7 is much more forgiving than fe6, really. Anyway it's sad that many people can't appreciate the camp and positive vibes of Engage story and overall aesthetics.
I do really love ALL Dani Doyle videos!!!! ❤
I love fe7 but never completed HHM.
Its the only game i grinded 100% supports as a kid. But i played exclusively on normal mode lol. I have nothing to disagree with from what you said.
Yes, I agree fe7 has its issues and isn't exactly great or anything. But this game also has Dart, and in my opinion that counts for a lot.
I'm glad you actually explain why you don't like the game and even point out it's positive traits, instead of just saying "I hate it." And that's it.
And i also like the way you explain it.
Some other things for me personally that make me roll my eyes to think about is also just weapon durability is such an annoyance to keep track of (granted this could still be bitterness coming off of a challenge run where I had to try and use every party member to an extent) and there really should have been a battle prep shop like SS and also considering how tight money is for awhile makes the common criticism of Engage of money problems apply to FE7 without the usage of an arena which is not for everyone.
I get what they were maybe going for with Hector mode kinda being a new game + to get around what Atlus tends to do with SMT releases and what Pokemon did with 3rd versions at the time and avoid having Hector mode being a separate purchasable game, but I still think if FE7 were to ever see a remake or something like that, the play would be much like the JPN version giving you the option to skip Lyn mode right off the bat if you like and just letting you potentially choose between Eliwood or Hector right off the bat or better yet not having two campaigns for Eli and Hector and combining their maps and story moments.
Also on subject of FE7 being broken there are also enemies that have the FEMALE map sprites that remain from FE6 (See female nomads on The Dread Isle and female druids on Cog of Destiny) that end up using the MALE battle sprite.
Lastly Cog of Destiny Valkyries are a genuine contender for the most obnoxious generic enemies in the series if you ask me
He made some excellent points and while I disagree on most of them, I can see why some people would get bored of the similar map layout personally I’m someone who wen I play through the game I got will to level 15 sniper and Kent to a level 20 paladin I use a lot of of the unpopular characters that are considered slow and useless and I really enjoyed the game. I cried multiple times during the story which is the main reason why I play video games is the gameplay important of course but I came for the story, nice hearing your thoughts.
It's nice to hear you put into words grievances I have with the game I don't even know how to articulate. The hype around it always left me somewhat befuddled. Like a "what does this game have that I somehow don't seem to see?".
I played FE7 once early on. I think it's the third FE I ever played, and it's one game I never revisited. Nothing stood out about the game to me. Nothing makes me wanna replay it. The couple of times I tried giving it another chance, I dropped it one or two maps into the game.
fe7 puts the bad into bard
I keep seeing your thumbnails and thinking that it’s going to be a shitpost but they keep actually being videos
I think you're being too reasonable and specific. FE fans all have a game that they have a chip on their shoulder about. For you its FE7. You hate it because you hate it. I hate Fates. I don't hate it for reasons, I hate it because I hate it, bard.
Give in to the hate. Don't be rational about it. Like I totally agree with your very vague claim of FE7 having bad unit feel, but I hardly agreed with you about the reasons you think they have bad unit feel.
What does this even mean?
@DaniDoyle that you're too nice in this video
As an utter casual, I like this game almost purely on the strength of the characters and the themes of the story. I didn't even play hard mode.
Thank you for laying out your views of the game, including giving credit where you felt it due. As you may imagine, with my rather different priorities (and, to be fair, a lack of experience with more mechanically thought out entries in the franchise), I liked it quite a bit.
The main reason Fire Emblem 7 is my favorite game is the writing of the characters. The story is pretty standard in comparison to the other Fire Emblem games, and I never got around to playing Hector Hard Mode: I felt clearing it once or twice was enough for me to have enjoyed it. I didn't feel barred from the overall experience, but then again I haven't played many Fire Emblem games myself, my latest one being Shadow Dragon on the DS. I watch your videos to see other games and glean their significance and see if I want to carve time away to play a newer game. (Maybe Three Houses for Crimson Flower...) It's interesting to see the same analysis that other games have turned to Fire Emblem 7, and enjoyable to have every piece of information in one place where my mind can process it as a unified opinion instead of scattered about other videos. Having it all in one place helps me process and understand it better. Thank you for making this video, Dani. I don't hate or rage from this video, but instead have a greater appreciation for you and your view on each of Fire Emblem's parts and the sum thereof.
*Mekkah leaps onto the screen in what is clearly a completely different location*
"Wait Danistalgia Critic! I already reviewed this game!"
What does that mean?
Even as a fan of FE7, I can't be mad at this video. It was fair, wasn't in bad faith, and I learned somethings about it (didn't know Canas wasn't counted for the route spilt for example).
5:13 OOF
Its my least favorite gba game but idk its still mostly gba emblem. I just played fe6 first and it made fe7 feel like weird fanfiction
If 19xx had more of a reward than just… an addition to the mythos of the game, it would make having your bard play that damn flute for 60 turns more worth it.
I do have a soft spot for FE7 as most American FE fans over the age of 30 do. After seeing Marth and Roy in Melee I couldn’t wait to learn more about their series, and lo and behold, FE7 happened. Being a chronically online 12 year old, I remember the days of the FE community dunking on Marcus and hyping Nino up as the greatest unit of all time. There was a charm to that community, and while no one subscribes to that discourse nowadays, in a weird way, it was a fun experience. I’ll always hold a super special place in my heart for this game, although I do as an adult recognize all of its many, many flaws.
How dare you! 😭
I dont know what I find funnier between Eliwoods name being Smeliwood, you rather showing Veronica in Engage and an Engage map than showing heroes or you trying to rescue your bard only for him to die anyway. (also maybe you said "barred" and not "bard", my english is not good enough for this)
🎵 She's the angry... Video game.... Girl.... 🎵
not to be a three houses fan but where does dimitri think that 2-year-old edelgard killed his family?
Haven't played the game since it came out. Iirc he doesn't blame Edelgard directly. He blames her family and believes that she knew for a long time and never told him.
He's not completely wrong in this belief. The problem with 3H is that characters often act on information they don't have or can't verify as if they do know it.
@ but the claim dani made is just completely wrong. dimitri believes that someone not from duscur caused the tragedy, but 1. he specifically doesn't suspect Edelgard's family because Patricia's betrayal is a surprise to him and 2. the tragedy at duscur did not happen when he was 2
@@valeriedure2341 I agree. Like I said the problem with 3H is that people act on information they either don't have or cannot verify.
This happens because each of the three (four) routes in order to make any amount of logical sense must be semi-canon to each other. Meaning that just because the player isn't told something explicitly doesn't mean that characters off screen don't learn I formation vital to the plot being able to happen.
It's bad writing.
@ yea i agree. im just saying out of everything you could criticize about three houses' story she said something that is just blatantly untrue
@@valeriedure2341 It's not entirely untrue. In BL and VW Dimitri behaves as if Adrestia (and by extension Edelgard) are solely to blame for Fódlan's problems. He has no reason to believe this unless he learned the information off-screen or read the script.
The only way for it to make sense the way it is presented is if he knew the entire time. This is absurd to believe, but it must be true for the story to work which I think was the point being made. Being 2 years old is obvious hyperbole.
Have we made a superior version of FE7 with decent maps?
Fe7 is personally one of my favorites (Along with Fe4 and Fe9), however I do agree or understand a lot of issues you have with the game. There’s an Fe7 rebalance mod that fixed a ton of problems that has made my experience of replaying it so much better. And I appreciated how you were still able to compliment the story even though you’re not a huge fan of the game.
I personally really like the game because of the story, while not being perfect, has always been charming to me even with some loopholes in it. To me, the characters are the most likable cast in the series. It’s such a great cast of characters that it made me use some of the less viable ones (I always use Rebecca). Also I really like the maps because a lot of them reward playing quickly, (Whereabouts Unknown, The Dread Isle, Living Legend, Crazed Beast, Battle Before Dawn, etc) which remind me a lot like fe4 but I’d obviously get not liking the maps if you don’t want to rush them.
And personally, Eliwood is my favorite lord in the series but agree to disagree on that one! I did really appreciate and understand where your coming from with this review, and hopefully that helps why people do like this game too!
Not the angry gamer thumbnail ToT
I like this video :)
Calling GBA FE the weakest system just sunk a killing edge into my chest. I played modded FE games thanks to you, Dani.
Got FE7 at release when I was little so it's very nostalgic for me. Played through Lyn mode over and over so replaying it doesnt bother me. I think if it's your first FE it makes a big difference as it does explain a lot of mechanics very well to newcomers, which is why I recommend people play FE7 as their first. None of the mechanics feel bad to me, except for support which is painfully long and slow. PoR improved this system so much that trying to get supports in FE7 feels painfully bad to go back to
Wow, I'm actually upset you released this video one month after I beat FE7 for the first time on my 2nd playthrough(my first playthroigh ended in the middel of Lyn mode.). I could have saved myself from extreme boredom.
While I agree that the story and the characters of FE7 are, comparitively, good, I was absolutely not in the mood for any kind of story or character development since I either expected horrible gameplay or had just finished said gameplay (Eliwood mode). Like, I even think Revelation has a lot better maps overall despite all of its gimmicks, and I couldn't even finish that game (3DS broke). In 7, you have boring route maps, tedious kill boss maps and frustrating Defend missions (screw Battle before Dawn)
But going back to the characters: While the FE7 characters are "objectively" well written, the thing which hurts them the most are the 5 support limit and endgame units being practically locked out of supports. As example, the reason why Charlotte from Conquest became my favorite FE character is because I was able to see her from multiple perspectives. From her join dialogue and her supports with multiple people ( Benny, Saizo, Xander, Corrin, Leo and Rinkah) I could see different sides of this one character divided into multiple little sections, and that is fantastic. Contrary to that, FE7 5 support limit makes this impossible and you have to pray that you get the 'good' supports of the character to form an appropriate opinion of them. And to get the different perspectivew you either have to play the game multiple times (cringe) or look them up online. I really want to like Harken, Kent, Florinia, Hawkeye, Jafar, (screw Battle before Dawn, again), Dorcas, Priscilla, Lucius and Galzus more, but the game wouldn't let me see them from different perspectives, wouldn't let me develop thoughts on these arguably complex and well written characters.
So yeah, with my two most inportant aspects, characters and gameplay, being butchered by incomprehensible game design decisions, I am confident to say that I hate this game, and that it is my 2ND least favorite Fire Emblem (for now). My least favorite FE still is Genealogy, without a doubt. But I am very disappointed at how close Blazing Blade got.
Something I think needs to be noted first:
GBA game engine/gameplay… I think the only reason that Gameboy FE gets such high praise is because of just how good the sprite work is. And how “good” the crits are.
In terms of substance/innovation, I’d like to think no one holds up gameboy FE as anything beyond fine.
Onto a long comment:
Seems like a lot of this is summed up in:
-Not liking player phase games (100% fine)
-prepromotes power and limited deployment slots and player raised units issues (fine)
-definition of gimmick maps that I think most people would disagree with. (100% fine)
-lots of complaining about bugs which are clearly programming errors, and other which could be developer choices. The problem is because of the obvious oversights it’s hard to tell if it is all mistaken.
-complaints about side objectives being difficult to do on the highest difficulty. What did you expect? They’re mostly lenient in every other difficulty.
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I will fully admit I have nostalgia for FE7.
But having beat the game with stupid self imposed challenge mode (female units + lords/Batre to 10ish/5ish. On my GBA:SP.
Lyn mode being bad because you can raise a “free” prepremote __if you want to__ before doing any 2nd play through is just dumb. And here it feels like you’re just looking for people who mix-max, and saying min-maxing is extra annoying.
If you want an optimized hector hard mode run, yes, Lyn mode becomes “necessary”. If you’re playing any other difficulty… it’s not relevant.
Also remembering the funny mekkah critique… having listened to that series. He ended with a bit on how it’s not meant to be taken as super serious. And as memory gives me, he said he thought the story was very solid when you’re playing through it without looking deeply into it. And didn’t have much to say about character interactions.
I absolutely only adore fe7 bc of the nostalgia/it being the first I ever played. You're valid lol
Honestly valid. That's how I felt about path of radiance for a long time (although I've soured on it recently)
I am a casual FE player and I adore FE7, I know a lot talk about how bad Erk and others are but I also know a lot that skip Lyn’s mode. Is this part of the problem is that they are meant to be trained in Lyn mode
FE7 is one of my favorite FE games and I wholeheartedly agree with you. I always liked Erk but never got to use him in the endgame because Pent always felt like what Erk was supposed to turn into. Also Lucius always felt stronger than Erk being light magic being weaker than anima.
Basically, you had to be there
Isadora and Renault have one of the best support chains in the series imo and embarrassingly Renault's speech about the virtue of living with doubt was something I turned to when I was going through teenager problems when I was that age so I will always have to defend this game even tho it is one of the least interesting gameplay-wise