Fire Emblem, Anyone?

I've got I dunno 70-80 hours into Fire Emblem.

I like the character designs for Ophelia, Cordelia, Tharja. Because you can pretty much min/max the characters however you want, they seem like throwaway.

Even though there's permadeath, it feels like 99% of the characters are meaningless. No matter what you do or what happens, their actions have little to no affect whatsoever on the storyline. I also can't stand the pathetic attempt at voice acting. Most of the time it's grunting or 1-2 seconds of audio that have actually nothing to do with what's actually said.

The SRPG gameplay is solid. The writing and voice acting are what drag down the game. I give it 8/10.

Waiting on Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, Etrian Odyssey IV, and Tomb Raider.

Quote from gh188 : ...Even though there's permadeath, it feels like 99% of the characters are meaningless. No matter what you do or what happens, their actions have little to no affect whatsoever on the storyline. I also can't stand the pathetic attempt at voice acting. Most of the time it's grunting or 1-2 seconds of audio that have actually nothing to do with what's actually said. The SRPG gameplay is solid. The writing and voice acting are what drag down the game. I give it 8/10...

That would be nice if character deaths played a role in the storyline, but seeing as you don't care for the writing anyways... then that probably wouldn't make much difference to you :] I feel that the storyline is necessary to make the game interesting, otherwise players would just be finding themselves in strange scenarios that they have to complete, with no sense of reason.

Unfortunately I haven't gotten the chance to play the 3DS one, I could see how the 1-2 seconds of irrelavent silly grunting would get annoying, but I don't believe any of the other versions have it.

Quote from MtnTripp : That would be nice if character deaths played a role in the storyline, but seeing as you don't care for the writing anyways... then that probably wouldn't make much difference to you :] I feel that the storyline is necessary to make the game interesting, otherwise players would just be finding themselves in strange scenarios that they have to complete, with no sense of reason. Unfortunately I haven't gotten the chance to play the 3DS one, I could see how the 1-2 seconds of irrelavent silly grunting would get annoying, but I don't believe any of the other versions have it.

I do care about the writing. I play RPGs for the stories. But for a game that flaunts the consequences of your actions, there actually are none. The meta is that if someone in the party dies, you just reload. If your character dies or marries, it doesn't affect the story whatsoever, and with virtually every character interchangeable with any other of the same sex, there's really no point in having this huge cast.

Quote from gh188 : I do care about the writing. I play RPGs for the stories. But for a game that flaunts the consequences of your actions, there actually are none. The meta is that if someone in the party dies, you just reload. If your character dies or marries, it doesn't affect the story whatsoever, and with virtually every character interchangeable with any other of the same sex, there's really no point in having this huge cast.

Aha, I see what you mean. Can you imagine how many branching storylines they would have to think up and excute? Though that would give players many reasons to keep playing the game even after the first play through.

The closest they have come to doing that is in one of the gamboy advance games, where halfway through the game you could choose which main character's path you wanted to follow when they split up. I believe that game was just titled Fire Emblem in America.

I played the demo recently. I have no experience whatsoever with Fire Emblem or strategy RPG games, but I did enjoy the demo quite a bit.

Can anyone tell me what the gameplay is like besides when you're actually fighting? All the demo had was a couple fighting sequences and cutscenes.

Quote from irish713 : I played the demo recently. I have no experience whatsoever with Fire Emblem or strategy RPG games, but I did enjoy the demo quite a bit. Can anyone tell me what the gameplay is like besides when you're actually fighting? All the demo had was a couple fighting sequences and cutscenes.

Basically, each chapter/map is similar to the ones in the demo except they vary in size (some much bigger than others with much more enemies further through the game). The fighting is only a part of the game. It is a strategy RPG after all. It's all about which characters you choose to attack which enemies (some enemies may have weapons that are strong against some of your characters. For example, a "beast killer" lance will much more easily take out a horse-mounted unit and should be avoided unless you can kill the enemy before they hit you.

The biggest part of the game for me was the story and the bonds between the characters. You can grow bonds between male or female characters to the point of marrying them (when they reach S level in the bond). It's also fun to just read their conversations as they get to know one another.

There's also a handful of online features to choose from as well as download content that allows you to fight characters/teams from past Fire Emblem games. The benefit of this is that you can endlessly train your main characters to a satisfying point so that you can more easily handle enemies in further chapters. The DLC also gives you some legacy characters in the form of cards that can be used on any battlefield (for example Roy and others from past games).

I've played over 36 hours in just my first playthrough but I still haven't completely played through all of the prologues and side stories. Another thing worth mentioning about the marriages is that once the characters marry, a prologue will open up that allows you to fight enemies to recruit the son/daughter of the married couple. The son/daughter are future versions so they are grown enough to fight in combat. The only thing is that those prologues are much more difficult than normal story chapters.

Anyway, I can say that the game was well worth 40 bucks. My best estimate so far of the game would be at least a 9/10. That score may get better or worse the further I play the game. There's some things that I might have left out about the online functionality or spot pass but I covered a lot of the general things.

Hope this helps!

Quote from bszelda : Basically, each chapter/map is similar to the ones in the demo except they vary in size (some much bigger than others with much more enemies further through the game). The fighting is only a part of the game. It is a strategy RPG after all. It's all about which characters you choose to attack which enemies (some enemies may have weapons that are strong against some of your characters. For example, a "beast killer" lance will much more easily take out a horse-mounted unit and should be avoided unless you can kill the enemy before they hit you. The biggest part of the game for me was the story and the bonds between the characters. You can grow bonds between male or female characters to the point of marrying them (when they reach S level in the bond). It's also fun to just read their conversations as they get to know one another. There's also a handful of online features to choose from as well as download content that allows you to fight characters/teams from past Fire Emblem games. The benefit of this is that you can endlessly train your main characters to a satisfying point so that you can more easily handle enemies in further chapters. The DLC also gives you some legacy characters in the form of cards that can be used on any battlefield (for example Roy and others from past games). I've played over 36 hours in just my first playthrough but I still haven't completely played through all of the prologues and side stories. Another thing worth mentioning about the marriages is that once the characters marry, a prologue will open up that allows you to fight enemies to recruit the son/daughter of the married couple. The son/daughter are future versions so they are grown enough to fight in combat. The only thing is that those prologues are much more difficult than normal story chapters. Anyway, I can say that the game was well worth 40 bucks. My best estimate so far of the game would be at least a 9/10. That score may get better or worse the further I play the game. There's some things that I might have left out about the online functionality or spot pass but I covered a lot of the general things. Hope this helps!

Thanks for all that info. I tried to rep you but it won't let me since we aren't in the deals forum!

What are some other game franchises similar in style to Fire Emblem that you would recommend??

Quote from irish713 : Thanks for all that info. I tried to rep you but it won't let me since we aren't in the deals forum! What are some other game franchises similar in style to Fire Emblem that you would recommend??

If you like Fire Emblem, try out Advance Wars on GBA or DS. That game created by the same Developer plays similar to Fire Emblem, but you control an army( infantry, planes, ships, subs, tanks, etc ) and you can build units from factories. The leveling system has less emphasis and you use special powers if attack enough times.

The next closest recent game would be Xcom Enemy Unknown.