Tips for new player? permadeath?

[Meego]

I'm starting with Blade, however I'm not sure how to deal the permadeath? I lost the Pegasus girl already in level two? How important is losing a character? Should I restart or are there mainly a handful of characters worth investing in/protecting?

[Captain Karnage]

You might want to start with Blazing Sword, it's more beginner friendly.

[Wuzzy]

I personally like saving all my units (even the shitty/memey ones) just because I'm a perfectionist. Though for efficiency's sake, you are better of leaving behind units that fall in battle, since the whole point of FE is to play your units carefully or suffer dire consequences. And I assume you are referring to Shanna (the Pegasus Knight), I wouldn't leave her behind tbh just because she's your earliest flier and she's a solid unit because of her availability as well.

Though it really is up to personal preference. I like using multiple units and rotate them in and out and switch them out when a better unit comes (for example I swapped out Clarine for Cecilia), while there are other FE players that prefer to train a small group of units to use for the entire game. Both are valid play styles, just find one that works best :)

Like the above post, I would start with Blazing Sword. Blazing Sword makes sense chronologically since it is the 1st generation (Binding Blade is the 2nd generation of the Blazing Sword cast) and the game also has a fairly in-depth tutorial that will be useful for beginners.

Edited January 15, 2018 by Lunarly

[Shadow Mir]

If I were you, I'd do as @Captain Karnage said and play Blazing Blade first - Sword of Seals is NOT beginner friendly.

[Meego]

34 minutes ago, Captain Karnage said:

You might want to start with Blazing Sword, it's more beginner friendly.

welp, i thought Binding was the first gba one, trying to play them i order..

[Meego]

28 minutes ago, Lunarly said:

I personally like saving all my units (even the shitty/memey ones) just because I'm a perfectionist. Though for efficiency's sake, you are better of leaving behind units that fall in battle, since the whole point of FE is to play your units carefully or suffer dire consequences. And I assume you are referring to Shanna (the Pegasus Knight), I wouldn't leave her behind tbh just because she's your earliest flier and she's a solid unit because of her availability as well.

Though it really is up to personal preference. I like using multiple units and rotate them in and out and switch them out when a better unit comes (for example I swapped out Clarine for Cecilia), while there are other FE players that prefer to train a small group of units to use for the entire game. Both are valid play styles, just find one that works best :)

Like the above post, I would start with Blazing Sword. Blazing Sword makes sense chronologically since it is the 1st generation (Binding Blade is the 2nd generation of the Blazing Sword cast) and the game also has a fairly in-depth tutorial that will be useful for beginners.

Do the units share exp? doesnt really make sense to rotate units, like pokemon, you just commit to 6 and level them up, rotating anymore wouldn't be beneficial. At least that what im getting from the FE structure.

[Wuzzy]

4 minutes ago, Meego said:

Do the units share exp? doesnt really make sense to rotate units, like pokemon, you just commit to 6 and level them up, rotating anymore wouldn't be beneficial. At least that what im getting from the FE structure.

Nope units don't share exp, I just like being able to use a wide array of units. Exp really isn't a problem in FE games (except maybe Radiant Dawn) because of either Arenas (GBA series, and the Jugdral series I think) Bonus Exp (Tellius series), and also grinding (in Sacred Stones, Awakening, Fates, SoV). On average, you deploy around 8-10 units excluding required units once you are able to deploy who you want in a map, so I like having at least 14 or so units that are good to go so I can swap them out if needed. 

[De Geso]

24 minutes ago, Meego said:

welp, i thought Binding was the first gba one, trying to play them i order..

Blazing Sword is the prequel to Binding Blade, anyway. Though it doesn't matter the order you play them in, Blazing Sword will give you a smoother entry into the series.

[Captain Karnage]

1 hour ago, Meego said:

welp, i thought Binding was the first gba one, trying to play them i order..

well it is a prequel, so chronologically speaking that would be the way to go. 

[Jave]

Actually if you can play Sacred Stones first. It's completely standalone and just as (probably more) beginner friendly than Binding or Blazing.

Edited January 15, 2018 by Jave

[Roxas]

8 hours ago, Meego said:

welp, i thought Binding was the first gba one, trying to play them i order..

It is, but Blazing Sword (FE7) was the first to be released in the West, so to introduce newcomers to the series they introduced a 10-chapter prologue to the mechanics of the Fire Emblem games, as well has giving it a much easier difficulty curve. Once you beat the game, you are offered the option of replaying on hard mode and from another main character's perspective (also with its own hard mode), so there's still a challenge there if you're not too eager to hop back onto Binding Blade. And it's nice to establish some characters and world-building by going through FE7, since the story was designed as a prequel to FE6, so there are some nice things you'll pick up on after the 20-year timeskip. Nice chart from like who knows how long ago here: https://serenesforest.net/general/binding-blade-blazing-sword-relations/ (obviously you probably don't need to read this right now)

And as Jave said above, Sacred Stones (FE8) is its own game, with a much easier Easy mode (in addition to normal and hard) and two routes for replayability. Since it's a totally different story from FE6 and FE7, you could start with that.

edit: also to answer the greater question of "how important losing someone is / stressing yourself out to finish the game with everyone vs. keeping a solid few." The answer is always going to be just use the units that you like. The GBA games have fairly large rosters, and you will never be in a position to use all of them after the first introductory levels of each game. There is no reward for finishing the game with all recruitable characters. In some games (i.e. FE6/7) it's actually impossible to collect them all just because of route splits, and therefore some units will never appear as part of the story. Train the units you want to train. Try to keep those ones alive and build their supports to enjoy their story and character (Yes, FE6 does have some crap units that are pretty much a waste to give experience to, but that's beside the point), but maybe don't go ham on hard resetting if you keep losing on one mage or thief during your early experiences with the series. You will always get somebody to replace them. 

Edited January 15, 2018 by Roxas
lmao this is my first time posting outside fftf in like three years

[henrymidfields]

Keep in mind, that you'll be locked out of certain stages and the true ending if you lose certain characters in Binding Blade. For example, Lilina must survive Chapter 8 in order to get to the paralogue right after. Also, have Lilina support Roy if you want to see a different dialogue at the true ending.

From a purely gameplay perspective, I would suggest training, protecting, and using the two swordmasters (Rutger and Fir) and the two Nomads (Sue and Shin) as their speed (factoring in attach speed penalties), avoid, and critical hits (for Swordmasters) or Movement (for Nomads) are very useful for a good majority of Binding Blade. While they didn't die on me, I think they are worth resetting if any of them die. Of course, the actual stats would depend on RNG, so if their stats happens to go way below the average, then you will have to bench them.

While I won't comment on Blazing Sword as I haven't played that, you can use pretty much anyone in Sacred Stones, as long as you maintain a diversity of classes. I'd even go far as to disrecommend using Seth (the unit that starts at a higher level/promoted class with higher stats) as part of getting used to the series. This is because similar units in other games (and particularly Marcus in Binding Blade) have very low stat growth rates, and it usually results in lower-levelled units (which generally have higher stat growth rates) eventually catching up.

Edited January 19, 2018 by henrymidfields

[edgelordweeaboo]

start with sacred stones or blazing sword, they're a lot easier than binding blade. also if you're on an emulator and it's your first time playing fire emblem and you just want to play a game to get a feel for the series without permadeath being as much of a problem you could always create a save state at the beginning of every turn. if not it's worth restarting for certain characters, look up a tier list for the game or some shit and generally the top tier units listed there are the ones you want to restart for or as you get later in the game you should restart for any characters you've trained up and invested in. also make sure not to use too many characters. imo it's best to look up a list of characters and sort of decide who you're gonna use by looking into their stats, join time, etc. but yeah, probably the most important thing of this is just start with blazing sword or sacred stones or even awakening and then go back to binding blade later. binding blade is way harder than those three unless you're playing on lunatic in awakening in which awakening would be way harder. oh, another thing about awakening, you can select casual mode and there won't be permadeath. this is another way to get used to the series without having to deal with permadeath your first time playing.

Edited January 19, 2018 by edgelordweeaboo

[CatManThree]

Binding Blade is already a rather painful game to begin with. Playing it without experience will only make things worse. I highly suggest playing Blazing Blade or Sacred Stones first.

If you do insist on playing FE6 however, note that the game can never be completed unless you unlock all the side chapters, which allow you to obtain all of the various legendary weapons in the game.

[MacLovin]

do fe8->fe7 for a brush up on the mechanics

e6 is fun, but it's a pain in the ass.

[Tenzen12]

Assuming you are using emulator, most of them allow you save and load even if game itself doesn't. I usually use at least two saves per turn.

But yeah FE6 is pretty difficult even with that (I can't even remember how many attempts it took save all houses in Echidna chapter and not loose anyone...)

Also while I can't speak for everyone, clearing game without loosing any unit in pre-causal times is more or less considered  courtesy. Though how much is that worth is up to you decide 

Edited January 19, 2018 by Tenzen12

[anniec8711]

I agree with the general opinion here.  FE6 is not the ideal game to initiate yourself into the FE franchise.  FE7 and FE8 are better options for your first game, with much more generous learning curves.  I would suggest FE8 (Sacred Stones) because it offers grinding opportunities for experience and supports outside the main game.