5 things you like about your least favorite FE/5 things you hate about your favorite FE

[Armagon]

So here's a fun game. We all have a favorite and least favorite FE. So think about 5 things you like about your least favorite FE and 5 things you hate about your favorite FE. Here are mine:

Least favorite FE: Genealogy of the Holy War. 5 things i like about it:

• The music
• Most of the characters
• Being able to repair weapons
• Losing in the Arena doesn't mean death
• While the huge maps were shit on a gameplay-level, i like how they tied to the narrative and how you could fit them on the map of Jugdral as if it were a puzzle.

Favorite FE: Shadows of Valentia. 5 things i hate about it:

• Fernand
• Desert Fortress 
• Mages being stuck at 4 Mov forever for some reason (even if it kinda balances the fact that they have ranged attacks and can negate terrain)
• That one forest map in Act 3 that's filled with all the Arcanists
• Mages (especially females), Clerics, and Pegasus Knights having late promotions. EXP gain slows down after Lv.10, making it a pain to promote these Classes, since male Mages, Clerics, and Pegasus Knights promote at Lv.12 while female Mages promote at Lv.14.

[MCProductions]

Least Favorite is FE12 so I guess here's 5 things I do enjoy about it
Wrys
It's fan translation
Tho I don't hold the support convos themselves in high regard, I appreciate them being there
BSFE maps
I do appreciate having the ability to play a harder version of my favorite FE

Which brings me to...
FE3 is my favorite, so here we go
The map design, in particular 3 and THAT DESERT CHAPTER
Its really slow. This can be fixed by messing around in the options menu, but the default settings are so slow
Its fan translation is garbage
It's way too easy
And BY FAR, my least favorite thing about the game that for some unGodly reason, was NOT fixed in the remakes, ONLY Marth can visit villages

Edited August 27, 2017 by MCProductions

[Ronnie]

Least favorite: Conquest
- The soundtrack is amazing
- Good characters
- Map gimmicks are interesting
- My castle is fun to mess around with
- Graphics look nice

Favorite: Awakening
- No option to buy skills
- DLC or paralogues don't level scale
- Emmeryn survived for some reason
- Chapter 5 can eat a dick
- Ease off the Avatar worshiping

Edited August 27, 2017 by Ronnie

[eclipse]

Least favorite: FE4

- So.  Many.  Cute.  Guys.
- Arvis was an ass, but he was an ass who legitimized the marriage system.
- Sylvia's dancing was amazing.  Her character, not so much.
- Rings!  Make someone who's already broken more broken. . .or try to make a mediocre unit better.
- Though it was clunky, there was a sense of time that passed between the chapters.

Favorite: FE11 (still)

- The battle animations, 'nuff said
- Kill your guys to get more guys!
- You get an early Silver Sword, which Hardin can't use
- I didn't miss the stuff in most of the villages
- Why does Rickard exist again?

[Magical Glace]

Favorite - Binding Blade

• Stupidly arbitrary 120 point limit/chapter on supports
• Roy's promotion being really late
• The amount of 1+1 supports
• Wolt not being the best unit in the game
• Though the above gets special mention because Wolt's my favorite character, the unit balance in this game is generally really wonky.  

Least favorite - Awakening

• OWAIN
• "Infinite" Convoy
• Staff users aren't a pain to train like in some other games
• Brave tomes
• Wolt got a weapon named after him!

[V-raptor]

Least Favourite: Fates

My castle > world maps
amiibos
Buyable skills, so everyone is viable
Some of the characters were amazing
Valla, at least as an idea

Favourite: Awakening

Chapter 5 can die in a hole
None of the kids get any main story action aside from Lucina
Walhart should have had the Valentian Falchion
Some units get kinda outclassed due to not having certain skill access cough Galeforce
The story could use some improvement

[FiboSai]

Favourite: Conquest

• The story: I don't really need to comment on that.
• The world map: Bland and every location looks the same.
• Needing to play Revelations/DLC to get a resolution on the story
• Enemies with skill combinations that you can almost never get
• Depending on which ore you get at the beginning, forging can be either useless or extremely helpful early.

Least favourite: Genealogy of the holy war

• The story: I like the large scale conflict and the way the story is told throughout the 20 years the game takes place in. 
• The music: Each chapter has a unique theme, most of which fit very well. The battle themes are also among the best in the franchise.
• The arena: Unlike other games with arenas, you cannot abuse them as their use is limited. It also helps a little bit to balance the units, as the foot units who are better at combat tend to do better in the arena.
• Inheritance: While completely broken if used correctly, I like the concept of passing down your skills to your children. This in my oppinion the only replay value this game offers. 
• I really can't think of a fifth thing though.

[Etrurian emperor]

Least favorite: Shadow Dragon

- The map narrations are pretty excellent

- Marth is a good lord

- Due to its low complexity its a good game for short bursts of pick up and play, excellent for vacations

- The languese comes off as very archaic and medieval. For a medieval setting that's a plus

- Hardin is a boss. 

Favorite: Genealogy of the holy war

- The second gen characters aren't nearly as well developed as the first. 

- Everyone not on a pony is at far to much of a disadvantage when compared to ponies.

- Azelle and his unique situation are underutilized and Alvis seems to kinda forget about him despite how much he claims Azelle means to him. 

- The huge maps don't have enough in them to avoid making them come off as a chore at times. 

- Persuit is a stupid way to double when compared to the rest of the series. 

[Ronnie]

1 hour ago, V-raptor said:

Some units get kinda outclassed due to not having certain skill access cough Galeforce

That's another gripe I had with Awakening too! Some of my preferred units had limited skill options compared to others so it was hard to fill up 5 slots. Or some units had access to good skills but were useless for their class.

[LucarioGamer812]

Least Favorite: Shadow Dragon

1. Introduction to some of my favorite characters like Caeda, Midia, and Astram
2. One of the best recruitment themes
3. One of the best map themes
4. Good paced story
5. Introduction to the reclass system

Favorite: Awakening (keep in mind I love this game and everything about it, so I'm just picking the errors I know that are with it)

1. Unbalanced gameplay via the infinite level ups in second sealing and Galeforce
2. Walhart not using the Valentian Falchion!!!
3. Story overall not working too well and story sucked until Echoes gave us some much needed background lore in act 6
4. Introduction of alternate dimensions hence connecting the FE multiverse
5. Children being basically unimportant to the story besides Lucina
6. The multiple "AWAKENING SAVED THE FRANCHISE" quotes, I'm sorry, even as an Awakening fanboy, that's annoying, and it did do that to an extent, but at the same time it was the previous games that introduced the mechanics and background for awakening that it used in itself. Awakening wasn't meant to revive the series, it was meant to be recollection of everything the series was in a final send off, and hence had the actual spirit of the developers put into it. Sorry for that rant if it got off topic, just quickly expressing how I feel about the game in regards to that statement.

 

[Thinks Their Own Way]

Favourite: Fates

1. Enemy Ninjas
2. Kagero's damsel sub-plot
3. Whatever happens to Kaze if you don't A support with your Avatar in Birthright
4. The plot is the ramblings of a lunatic
5. The portrait for tiny model of Female Corrin

Least Favourite: Shadows of Valentia

1. Clair
2. Sonya
3. Saber
4. Leon
5. Genny

 

[Thunderstar]

Least favorite: Fates (Revelation)

1. Most of the RV exclusive supports are better than the ones in BR and CQ.

2. RV's chapter 19 was much better than CQ's chapter 15.

3. I liked the idea of not being able to save between RV's chapter 16 and 17 and between chapter 27 and the endgame chapter.

4. Ryoma's moments with Scarlet were kinda nice.

5. Good OST.

 

Favorite: FE12

1. Lack of map objectives.

2. Marth being the only unit able to visit the villages (and Minerva I guess if you want to count her for that one specific village). 

3. Not unique sprites.

4. Pegasus Knight being the only class branch (Falcon Knight/Dracoknight) in the game.

5. The Dark mage/Sorcerer class is not that useful to me compared to the Shaman and Dark mage classes from the other games.

[Reality]

I really wish I could say my least favorite was the first 9 games collectively, or at least the Famicom/Super Famicom games collectively...

Least Favorite Genealogy- 5 good things

1 world map actually integrated / serves a purpose beyond a SMB3-type level select grid.

2 Having talk conversations other than the recruitment ones

3 Story

4 Music

5 Causing Intelligent Systems to shed itself of Kaga

Favorite New Mystery- 5 bad things

1. I don't like the art style of the DS games. I don't talk about art ever, but I stand by thinking that Awakening was the game that made me believe in the 3DS as a console and that before playing it I thought that it's games would have the blocky 3D graphics of  the last handhold (Super Mario 64 DS / Okamiden). Awakening's art is easily my favorite for fidelity if not overall. I think that as for actual art direction I like the sprites of the GBA games followed by Thracia. But New Mystery and Shadow Dragon disappoint me.

2. Rainbow drops- I find them compelling from a mechanical standpoint due to their limited number but wish they came as a standard feature so people wouldn't complain about whether they should truly a part of Lunatic Reverse "the DLC stigma". 

3. The battle preparations arena- Almost as vulgar as the Radiant dawn BXP. At least on harder difficulties it is "effectively" unusable due to the enemies being extra buff.

4. The BS maps- way too simple

5. Prologue chapters encouraging exp funneling and turning Kris into a pseudo jeigan. I like them as actual maps though, esp on lunatic and reverse.

[Topaz Light]

[CURRENT FAVORITE] Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, five bad things:

1. The lack of class-based stat caps. I know every character has personal cap modifiers layered over Gaiden's original universal 52 HP/40 everything else caps, but the lack of class-based cap modifiers really hurts class differentiation in some cases, the most egregious example being that there is literally no reason to ever have somebody ultimately end up a Baron when they could end up a Gold Knight instead. The only thing Barons have on Gold Knights is their useless Heavy Armor skill, which halves damage from bows, because of course, enemy bow-users are the deadly heavy-hitters that threaten your physical tanks. Of course. Variable stat caps could give some actual reason to make Barons viable over Gold Knights, for example.
2. Map design. Yadda yadda yadda overused complaint yadda yadda yadda a lot of them are still bad. Especially the swamp and desert maps.
3. Gender-based promotion options for Villagers. All Villagers, regardless of gender, should've had access to Mercenary, Soldier, Cavalier, Archer, Mage, and Cleric/Curate, with Pegasus Knight being female-only and men maybe getting Wyvern Rider or something as an equivalent?
4. Why are support options so limited? Seriously; there are tons of pairs of characters who really should have supports but inexplicably don't, and even more who have potential for really interesting interactions with each other.
5. The plot's pacing starts getting kinda wonky around Act 4 moving into Act 5. Rudolf should've gotten more screen time than he did and should've interacted directly with Alm at least once or twice prior to the reveal. Celica shouldn't have gotten shafted and forced into being secondary to Alm, and the characterization of both Lords should've been more centered around the theme of duality and making them reflections of Mila and Duma. Making Alm the Mila equivalent and Celica the Duma equivalent would've been a really interesting twist to put on it, on a somewhat different note.

[CURRENT LEAST FAVORITE] Fire Emblem Fates, five good things:

1. The new classes are really cool, for the most part!
2. Removing genderlocks on classes is also really cool and good, although they should've gone all the way and had no genderlocks on the amiibo/DLC classes, either.
3. I love what the game did with Knives as a weapon type, making them actually interesting and distinct and cool compared to them kinda sucking in Path of Radiance and being a little boring in Radiant Dawn.
4. A lot of the music is pretty good!
5. I really like how they doubled down on having separate cultures with their own distinct sets of classes and such within the world.

[Eliza]

Least favorite: FE Fates Birthright

1: They didn't completely remove classic mode so it can still prove to be a challenge.

2: The art style of Hoshido and the characters was actually pretty unique and a breath of fresh air for the series.

3: Takumi. He was not only a great archer statwise but his character was decent too.

4: Kinishi Knights were a great idea and we don't have enough flier ranged units.

5: Every interaction with the Nohrian royals in the lategame, especially Leo and Elise. 

 

Favorite: Radiant Dawn

1: Meg and Fiona. They're irredeemable units. I've tried countless times to train them up and every time they've turned out badly.

2: The blood pact. No further explanation needed.

3: Every villain except the Black Knight was very poorly done and had no character or motivation whatsoever.

4: The Dawn Brigade lacked capable tanks.

5: The Wii had the capability for online play, but unfortunately Radiant Dawn didn't get to put it to use. Just imagine online matches against each other with tier 3 units and laguz being put to use, and all the great maps in the game being used again. You could even of had a structure where one team would attempt to Seize and the other would defend, with plenty of maps to use like Fort Alpea,  the various forts in part 3, and even the river crossing map. There was just so much that was possible that was missed out on.

[bethany81707]

Hm... I'm really not sure where my least favourite sits. Might do a bit of everything.

Favourite played: Shadows of Valentia:

Alm can get fatigued in his solo section.
The way the game acts like Alm goes to Nuibaba's to save Celica. I'm going there to save Tatiana.
The Triangle Attack isn't as fun to execute as it was on GBA.
The experience curve sharply dropping off after level 10, rather than promotion.
Enemy ambushes- since it's so hard to get them out of their ambushing position without springing it, and the day counter is a tacit anti-turtling marker taunting me in the corner.

Least favourite played: Blazing Blade

Florina, and Lyn to a lesser extent.
Canas is a lot easier to use than Knoll.
The game repairs the Mani Katti at one point.
Variable chapters was pretty nifty.
Soloing Lyn mode with three units makes you feel pretty powerful.

Favourite seen: Genealogy of the Holy War.

The massive maps might make it a little hard to keep track of everything.
Marriage on the required path- I'm not really that fond of that kind of micromanagement.
The trading system.
The magic system making not-wind redundant.
The game taking Deirdre and Julia away (though at least they give the latter back)

Least favourite seen : ...Actually, I don't know which one to put here.

[Lau]

Favourite: Shadows of Valentia

1) The animated cutscenes don't hold a candle to Awakening and Fates'

2) Lack of supports. Uhm, hello, where's the Tobin x Clair support or Faye x the other Villagers?

3) It saddens me that Rudolf didn't get a lot of screentime...

4) Jedah. Screw him.

5) Why can't I have both Deen and Sonya? Don't make me choose...

 

Least Favourite: Fates

1) The ability to buy skills, though it can break the game.

2) The Nohrian royals, Kaze, Rinkah, Charlotte, Midori, the Awakening trio, Niles, Kaden and Keaton.

3) Conquest's map design

4) Male Corrin's default voice, other than that, the voice options for the rest of the avatars suck.

5) Lost in Thoughts All Alone.

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

Ah, this again

Favorite: FE10

• poor availibility and base levels + stats of several units
• no weapon triangle in hard mode
• part 2 + GM's chapters in part 3 are too easy
• 2-1 because of Neph's bases and equipment
• Ike has to set the final blow to Ashera

 

Least favorite: FE13

• good skill system 
• everyone is usable
• better exp. gain system for staff users
• the idea of pair up
• Divine Decree is an amazing map theme

Edited August 28, 2017 by Aya Shameimaru

[Slumber]

Favorite - Thracia 776

- 24x

- The recruitment of a few characters is bullshit. Nobody in a blind run will recruit Homer, and damn near nobody in general will recruit Xavier

- Supports being innate bonuses rather than being something built up and seen

- Veld's a pushover

- So many units in general only getting a line or two, with very little characterization

Least favorite - Sacred Stones:

- A lot of solid support convos

- The branching promotions added enough flexibility without taking away any of the personality of the units

- The Creature Campaign was a fun, albeit repetitive, piece of post-game content, and probably the best any FE game has done at a post-game

- The relationship between Lyon, Eirika and Ephraim is the best any FE game has done between its protagonists and main antagonist

- Several solid map designs

[Harvey]

Least Favorite: Birthright

• Different type of culture so it means more variety.
• Character art for some characters are quite appealing such as Oboro.
• Has the option to grind units
• Is the only path that actually has a straightforward story with hardly any plotholes despite it being entirely cliche.
• Can recruit Saizo.

Favorite: Awakening

• Yen'fay is bland as a character.
• A lot of the supports are only possible through waifu and not the other way around like Lon'qu not talking to Basallio for some reason.
• Miriel is the worst thing to ever happen. As if people like a Big Bang theory character in an FE game...
• Getting Galeforce is such a pain.
• Lucina is boring of a character while solid as a unit.

 

[Punished Dayni]

Least favourite: Dark Dragon and the Sword of light
-It introduces the series as a whole and manages to not be buggy in the NES era
-It established most of the character archetypes that we still discuss today
-It actually tries to tell a grand story which wasn't all that common in the NES era
-There's a uh ton of possibilities in terms of who to use
-...Oh who am I kidding it's the only one I couldn't bring myself to play more than 5 maps of

OK, in all seriousness, Least favourite: MotE

-Managing to bring two stories onto one cart is a bit nuts for the SNES era and I'd take that again in an era where it would work
-Dismounting is at least an interesting mechanic in concept, and Thracia didn't do much better with it
-Overture is the best menu music
-The way the map zooms in and out between parts of the map between chapters is a nice small thing with the noises as well
-Most units are viable in this game, especially Book 2

Favourite: You know what, I'm still not certain on it. So why not from each era?

Spoiler

NES: Ignore because Gaiden is utterly supplanted by SoV and DD is a game I can't even face again.

SNES: Thracia 776 (Geneology is a bit of a mess for gameplay sadly (I actually do like quite a few of the differences, but I have to pick one game per era), and some story issues are still legit)

-Xavier's recruitment is the worst
-The way stats and growths work is a bit nuts and I could likely make 5 points on this alone
-Some of the good guys are pretty low on the redeemable scale, peaking at Lifis
-The insanity of Fog of War that doesn't even keep the layout after you leave an area like AoE
-The main villains suck

GBA: Sacred Stones (There are things holding BB and BS back for me, but not by much)

-WAY too easy
-The growth units still need a lot more time than would be liked, while Seth sits there with great growths and bases
-The game allows you to trivialise it far easier than most titles, something that's a bit more common these days
-Luna got ruined
-The protagonists could stand to be better developed and Eirika's potenital love interests could stand to be better as well

Tellius: Not a notion (still not played either)

-Difficult to get copies of
-Difficult to find Gamecubes that people would be willing to sell
-Emulation on PC is a bit of an ask with what I have
-Rather not just watch a let's play
-My only option involves a homebrewed console I'd likely have to take for a long while, which isn't an option right now.

DS: Shadow Dragon (NMotE is mainly left out because of Kris and the results of that on the main story)

-THE GAIDEN REQUIREMENTS
-Many units are severely limited in terms of potential growth
-Leaving stuff like the Elysian Whip behind online features
-Gharnef is still "A wizard did it. But evilly"
-Not bothering to do supports at all for a game that needed them

3DS: SoV (Conquest would have won but for the story and some of the characters/supports, Awakening around the same level but issues with that differ. Birthright and Revelations were always outside bets)

-Classes still feel unbalanced, and the nerfing of the Speed Ring loses one of the best ways around it
-Jedah is more comical here, much as people complain about Celica as a result. Alm also should have gotten a bit more aggression in the writing for him
-The lack of supports, it doesn't help that some are locked to DLC as well
-Cutscenes look worse for some reason
-Kilff learns Excalibur later Missing the chance to get more classes in the game: imagine having another flying option that could have acted differently from pegasi!
-Bonus: The way DLC was handled from a business perspective 

[Darros]

Least Favorite - FE7 (this list took me a long ass time tbh)

• Lyn is actually cool and a good lord and character.
• Real gaiden chapters that feel engaging but not absolutely necessary unlike in most other games with gaidens (FE6 you needed them for the true ending, FE5 had a bunch of clutch characters in theirs, FE11 had you killing your own units...)
• Introduced first tier light magic users into the GBA games which was cool. Having to promote someone and then wait 87 years for them to actually use their weapon sucked.
• Two different main story paths each with their own difficulty was cool.
• Raven and Lucius. I know it's not outright stated but rather only alluded to, but it's pretty easily observed that they're gay and well done which is cool and sadly not that common in this series.

 

Favorite - FE4

• Chapter 2 is an absolute slog.
• The balance of the casts, especially in Gen 1, is kind of ridiculous.
• The "hard mode" AI changes practically nothing and doesn't actually make the game harder.
• Diadora's implementation as a unit was a total disaster.
• Hidden items that you practically have to use SF in order to find (Pursuit Ring, Brave Axe). These aren't really an issue now that I know they're there and I always get them and it's not like it's a pain to do it, but it's poor design to include them and not allude to them at all.

Edited August 28, 2017 by Umbran Darros

[Etrurian emperor]

17 hours ago, I'm a Spheal said:

The portrait for tiny model of Female Corrin

Its actually the opposite for me. I don't like the bigger versions of either of the Corins. Probably because them being smaller matches their wimpy personality more. 

[Nobody]

Favorite - Blazing Blade:

• HHM being locked behind LNM, ENM and HNM.
• Genesis
• The stupid requisites needed for chapter 19xx
• The EXP rank
• The reduction of deployment slots in HHM

Least Favorite - Radiant Dawn:

• Part 1 (except One Survives)
• The game gives you many good pre promotes
• Being able to turn off map animations
• Many different map objectives
• It doesn't end with a cliffhanger, so we won't ever get more Tellius games :V

Edited August 28, 2017 by Nobody

[MediocreLee]

My Favorite: Radiant Dawn

• How long the freaking maps can be.  With so many units on the map at a time, sometimes going through a map will take longer than it should.
• How absurdly dumb it is to try to get Sephiran.
• Micaiah takes a backseat later in the story which is a huge shame.
• Supports
• Biorhythm

Least Favorite:  Fates: Revelation

• While I'm not a huge fan of the Awakening clones, I do enjoy having Selena be Caeldori's mother.
• You can have all the characters.
• There are quite the number of creative map designs and mechanics that I enjoyed.
• The final boss is pretty fun to go up against.
• Being able to have access to all of the classes is always a plus for me.