Ok, so I was at an Anime Con last month (shut up), and there were some representatives from Nintendo there to promote the "New" Fire Emblem game, Shadow Dragon, only it's really a remake of a game nobody in America got the chance to play. Anyway, they had live demos on stage, but I already bought the game and beat it... twice, so instead of just Demo-ing the game like the rest of my fellow con-goers, I decided to challenge the Reps to some multiplayer games. I had to borrow a demo copy from them one the first day, cause I didn't bring my DS, and I got to play twice on the first day. Surprisingly, I won both times. So for day 2 I brought my own game with me and we did it again. This time we went at it 3 times, I lost the first match, won the second, and the last went udecided cause I had forgotten to charge my game and it died halfway through, but I was winning! My point is that ever since then, I've had Fire Emblem on the brain, and I just need to get some of my thoughts out. So this'll end up being a massive retrospect of the whole series, kinda like what Yahtzee did with PoP and Thief. Speaking of Yahtzee, I think he'd find this a lot more fun to play, or rag on, than Valkiriya. So Here We Go!
The first FE releasd in the U.S was actually the seventh in Japan, and it is quite possibly the best in the handheld category. It had a massive ammount of chapters that satisfyingly increased in difficulty, a very acceptable roster of characters, and it was challenging enough that it kept you playing with intense fevor. Sure, once you figured out the trick to the arena battles it became a little easy to coast through the rest of the game on the backs of a few supremely powerfull units (god bless you, Raven), even then it could still wipe out all that you had built up if you got too sloppy. This was a great game that pretty much was the reason I bought a GBA (eat your heart out, Pokemon!). This'll pretty much be the defacto game to which I'll be compareing the next 4 to, so hold on.
Ok, Sacred Stones. This game was also really good, but not quite at the level of it's predesesor. My main complaint being that it was just WAY too easy, what with the ability to go back to a select few maps and replay them until the entirety of the cast was on the same level of power as Christ, not to mention the three Trainee units that quickly became the object of legends with their insane overpoweredness. And the branching upgrade paths just make you play the game over if you don't like the way one unit turned out. That being said, it's still a great strategy game, possibly an even better choice for begginers due to it's shorter campain and toned down dificulty.
And here comes Path of Radiance, anothe stellar title. I really liked this one as well because it really brought back some of the challenge. No arenas this time, so it became more dificult to raise money and levels, but this wasn't a bad thing by any means. I also liked some of the other little nuances that poped up. Like the bonus exp that could be awarded between missions, it let you nurture some of the weaker units for use, but you never had so much that it defeated the purpose of battleing for exp. Also, the ability of some of the units to chose which additional weapon they could use after promotion. This was in the same spirit as the dual path mechanic in Sacred Stones, but no matter what you picked, the playstyle didn't change so much that you could blame the game if things turned sour. Though the game was not without it's issues. The class-change happened automatically when the unit leveled up at 20, though many people liked this, I felt a little defeated. You see, in earlier games, I really had to think about who was worth promoting due to a limeted number of promotion items, and that was gone now that everybody could be promoted. That and the fact that they cut out out my favorate class, the Mercenary. And the Laguz, oh the Laguz! They were essentially just a temporary power up, transforming for a bit, giveing you a crazed weopon to charge a few steps ahead in battle, then transforming into helpless scrubs that needed pampering until their magic powers kicked into gear again for another push. I could mention the unit specific abilities that made the game a little too complex, but that was never a game breaker, so I'll let it slide. In the end, it had some trully ingenius additions that were ballanced out by some of it's more broken ones.
Then comes Radiant Dawn. As the first FE to be a direct sequel released worldwide, it shared many elements with it's big daddy, PoR, but it never trully escaped it's shadow. The one feature that I realy liked was the dual Magic triangle, adding another layer of depth to the strategy, but never making it too complex to betray it's roots. And now the Laguz can fight when not transformed... they're still weak as hell... but it's a start. The bad? Where the hell's my Merc, he's still missing. Also, you got ride of the one Berserker from the first game, is awesomeness too much for the Wii or something? My real complaint lies whith the class upgrades. A THIRD tier? Aint that a bit too much? I get the fact that since there are so many returning units, shoving them back into tier one would make it a bit strange for some fans who played the first one, but it still felt really rushed. Gold Knight? Seraph Knight? Whisper? I mean seriously? Were you even trying? Lastly, they decide to scale down the bonus exp feature so that it was barely usefull. Why not just cut it out completely? It was still a good title, but some decitions were just... stupid.
And then there was one, the afformentioned Shadow Dragon. I admitedly liked this one the least of all the series. They took the first game and re-released it with a shiny new coat of paint. But that left many of the new and interseting inovations that came later out in the cold. There were no neutral units, no support conversations, no magic triangle. But the game commits the cardinal sin of the series by includeing bonus chapters that are only unlocked if a certain amount of characters are dead. The game rewards you for playing badly? That is the one thing that I cannot tolerate, Nintendo. Sure, the multiplayer is undoubtably the best the series has ever seen, but that just cannot excuse it. Only the most diehard of fans should by this, and even they will be dissapointed.
There you are. Nintendo's greatest strategy game along with Advanced Wars, disected for the Escapist to admire. What's next you ask? I have no idea what Nintendo is planning, but here are my wishes, that hopefully somoen from Nintendo will happen to come across and consider. First of, release FE6 in English. You could do it across the Virtual Console. I do not want to need to download a fan-translated version (but if anyone reading this knows where, I'm all ears). Next, when building the next handheld game, go back to sprites, they look much better then the low grade 3D in Shadow Dragon. When building the next console game, think about how to improve the in game graphics. The cinnematiacs prove the fact that the Wii is capable of delivering more thant what we got in the last one. This may seem strange, but I'd try to get the help of Square Enix on this area (GASP!). They are truelly the masters of CGI in games, and I'm sure that they could really have a positive effect on the look of the game. You don't need to have them take over, but just try to work with them. Other than that, here are some features that I think would work well:
-Stay at 2 tiers
-No branching class change
-Pick which bonus weapon classes get after switch
-Varients of classes (knights, cavaliers, mages, etc)
-Item needed for switch
-No map feature or backtracking
-Base included
-Bonus exp, not restricted to 3 stats
-Armory, Vendor, Forge in base
-Side quests that actually have decent requirements to get to
-No Tainee units
-Support conversations
-Only Human classes, no Laguz, but Manaketes are ok
-Large number of chapters
-Make Brigand and Soldier playable, with class changes as appropriate
-Transporter as a seperate character (Merlinus for the WIN!)
-Neutral units
-Don't invent a dozen of exclussive classes that just confuse people
-Make the story invole more than Five or Six main charaters
-Keep it Simple, Stupid!
Well, I'm glad to get that of my chest. If that helped you in any way, then whoo-hoo. And if anybody knows where to get a translated copy of FE6, then just walk into a bar and ask for a fireman... and by that I mean reply to this thread, you moron!
The first FE releasd in the U.S was actually the seventh in Japan, and it is quite possibly the best in the handheld category. It had a massive ammount of chapters that satisfyingly increased in difficulty, a very acceptable roster of characters, and it was challenging enough that it kept you playing with intense fevor. Sure, once you figured out the trick to the arena battles it became a little easy to coast through the rest of the game on the backs of a few supremely powerfull units (god bless you, Raven), even then it could still wipe out all that you had built up if you got too sloppy. This was a great game that pretty much was the reason I bought a GBA (eat your heart out, Pokemon!). This'll pretty much be the defacto game to which I'll be compareing the next 4 to, so hold on.
Ok, Sacred Stones. This game was also really good, but not quite at the level of it's predesesor. My main complaint being that it was just WAY too easy, what with the ability to go back to a select few maps and replay them until the entirety of the cast was on the same level of power as Christ, not to mention the three Trainee units that quickly became the object of legends with their insane overpoweredness. And the branching upgrade paths just make you play the game over if you don't like the way one unit turned out. That being said, it's still a great strategy game, possibly an even better choice for begginers due to it's shorter campain and toned down dificulty.
And here comes Path of Radiance, anothe stellar title. I really liked this one as well because it really brought back some of the challenge. No arenas this time, so it became more dificult to raise money and levels, but this wasn't a bad thing by any means. I also liked some of the other little nuances that poped up. Like the bonus exp that could be awarded between missions, it let you nurture some of the weaker units for use, but you never had so much that it defeated the purpose of battleing for exp. Also, the ability of some of the units to chose which additional weapon they could use after promotion. This was in the same spirit as the dual path mechanic in Sacred Stones, but no matter what you picked, the playstyle didn't change so much that you could blame the game if things turned sour. Though the game was not without it's issues. The class-change happened automatically when the unit leveled up at 20, though many people liked this, I felt a little defeated. You see, in earlier games, I really had to think about who was worth promoting due to a limeted number of promotion items, and that was gone now that everybody could be promoted. That and the fact that they cut out out my favorate class, the Mercenary. And the Laguz, oh the Laguz! They were essentially just a temporary power up, transforming for a bit, giveing you a crazed weopon to charge a few steps ahead in battle, then transforming into helpless scrubs that needed pampering until their magic powers kicked into gear again for another push. I could mention the unit specific abilities that made the game a little too complex, but that was never a game breaker, so I'll let it slide. In the end, it had some trully ingenius additions that were ballanced out by some of it's more broken ones.
Then comes Radiant Dawn. As the first FE to be a direct sequel released worldwide, it shared many elements with it's big daddy, PoR, but it never trully escaped it's shadow. The one feature that I realy liked was the dual Magic triangle, adding another layer of depth to the strategy, but never making it too complex to betray it's roots. And now the Laguz can fight when not transformed... they're still weak as hell... but it's a start. The bad? Where the hell's my Merc, he's still missing. Also, you got ride of the one Berserker from the first game, is awesomeness too much for the Wii or something? My real complaint lies whith the class upgrades. A THIRD tier? Aint that a bit too much? I get the fact that since there are so many returning units, shoving them back into tier one would make it a bit strange for some fans who played the first one, but it still felt really rushed. Gold Knight? Seraph Knight? Whisper? I mean seriously? Were you even trying? Lastly, they decide to scale down the bonus exp feature so that it was barely usefull. Why not just cut it out completely? It was still a good title, but some decitions were just... stupid.
And then there was one, the afformentioned Shadow Dragon. I admitedly liked this one the least of all the series. They took the first game and re-released it with a shiny new coat of paint. But that left many of the new and interseting inovations that came later out in the cold. There were no neutral units, no support conversations, no magic triangle. But the game commits the cardinal sin of the series by includeing bonus chapters that are only unlocked if a certain amount of characters are dead. The game rewards you for playing badly? That is the one thing that I cannot tolerate, Nintendo. Sure, the multiplayer is undoubtably the best the series has ever seen, but that just cannot excuse it. Only the most diehard of fans should by this, and even they will be dissapointed.
There you are. Nintendo's greatest strategy game along with Advanced Wars, disected for the Escapist to admire. What's next you ask? I have no idea what Nintendo is planning, but here are my wishes, that hopefully somoen from Nintendo will happen to come across and consider. First of, release FE6 in English. You could do it across the Virtual Console. I do not want to need to download a fan-translated version (but if anyone reading this knows where, I'm all ears). Next, when building the next handheld game, go back to sprites, they look much better then the low grade 3D in Shadow Dragon. When building the next console game, think about how to improve the in game graphics. The cinnematiacs prove the fact that the Wii is capable of delivering more thant what we got in the last one. This may seem strange, but I'd try to get the help of Square Enix on this area (GASP!). They are truelly the masters of CGI in games, and I'm sure that they could really have a positive effect on the look of the game. You don't need to have them take over, but just try to work with them. Other than that, here are some features that I think would work well:
-Stay at 2 tiers
-No branching class change
-Pick which bonus weapon classes get after switch
-Varients of classes (knights, cavaliers, mages, etc)
-Item needed for switch
-No map feature or backtracking
-Base included
-Bonus exp, not restricted to 3 stats
-Armory, Vendor, Forge in base
-Side quests that actually have decent requirements to get to
-No Tainee units
-Support conversations
-Only Human classes, no Laguz, but Manaketes are ok
-Large number of chapters
-Make Brigand and Soldier playable, with class changes as appropriate
-Transporter as a seperate character (Merlinus for the WIN!)
-Neutral units
-Don't invent a dozen of exclussive classes that just confuse people
-Make the story invole more than Five or Six main charaters
-Keep it Simple, Stupid!
Well, I'm glad to get that of my chest. If that helped you in any way, then whoo-hoo. And if anybody knows where to get a translated copy of FE6, then just walk into a bar and ask for a fireman... and by that I mean reply to this thread, you moron!