Hello! I hope you're doing well!

[DickNinja420]

So, I've got a spicy and tumultuous intro to Fire Emblem. If you don't have the time to read, don't worry, I won't be offended. I also added a “TL;DR” at the bottom.

So 16 years back, my brother's friend put Visual Boy Advance on our computer, and because my parents didn't buy video games for us, this was like handing me the keys to the city. It had at least 100 games on it, and I ripped through nearly each of them... no matter what it was. I remember one was a Japanese dating sim that wasn't translated, and I figured out a way to beat it and get in good with the tsundere red-head and the quiet blue-head (save states certainly helped, though). 

Funny thing was, Fire Emblem wasn't any of the games. No, the first TBS game was Advance Wars. 

I played so much Advance Wars because at the time, my favourite game was Age of Empires 2, and another resource-based strategy game felt just right. 

That is, until my brothers got wind of that. 

As a form of protecting me from myself, they deleted the Advance Wars ROM, because they thought I was getting too obsessed with it (they also called it "Advanced Gay". They were teenagers, after all). 

So for years, I would look for games that were in any way related to Advance Wars. One day, when I did all my chores well and was a good little boy, my mom let me buy one game, and it was Sega Smash Pack 2 for PC. I didn't know what games were on it, but I figured that A) a PC Sonic game would be sick, and B) Buying one disc that had 8 games on it was really efficient. 

Then, I discovered Shining Force. 

For those who don't know, Shining Force was basically Fire Emblem, but for the Sega Genesis. It's more or less the same game, give or take some changes. A lot of the combat's more RNG-based, and leveling up was weird. Criticals and doubling rarely happened, but magic could have splash damage and weapon durability wasn’t a thing. One second, you could be playing with a trash-tier unit, but then the next, they level up and get +10 atk.

Despite its differences in gameplay to Advance Wars though, it was everything I wanted and more.

And then, just as I'm about the beat the game, the Smash Pack disc goes missing, and was later found in the trash, broken in half. I guess certain people didn't want me playing "Shining Gay" (they weren't particularly clever with nicknames). 

As time passes, eventually I get Advance Wars 2 and Duel Strike (arguably my favourite game ever), but never really clued into SRPGs until around 2009.

One of my friends was a big Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn fan. He dressed as Ike for one Halloween, and found a way to get a GBA ROM of FE6 in English, because Roy was his main in Smash Bros. Melee. But as a kid, you kind of see this fanaticism as a bit weird, and didn’t really give it much credence.

Then he showed what the games were like. “That’s just like Shining Force!” I thought. I instantly made it my mission to try a version of Fire Emblem, just to see how the game worked.

So, because I had a DS R4 card and nearly no disposable income, the first Fire Emblem I played was Shadow Dragon.

I honestly couldn’t wish for a better introduction to the series, because every other Fire Emblem feels better in every way. Shadow Dragon’s not bad, but compared to the ones I've played since (Sacred Stones, Path of Radiance, Radiant Dawn, Awakening, Echoes, and New Mystery), Shadow Dragon’s nothing. None of them have the stinky growth rates SD had. None of them had the boring zero-dimension characters or art style SD had. 

The Tellius games are my favourite, but I only played them recently. In my first year of university (three years ago; it was my second degree), our department laboratory had a modded Wii set up, and I noticed this guy in my program who kept going back and playing Metroid: Prime after class. We were in the same night class, so if I ever needed to go back to the lab after class, I could hear him playing.

One day though, I noticed he was playing a TBS game. I started hearing similar audio queues (armour ‘ting’ing, level up sounds, etc.) and realized it was a Fire Emblem game. So I introduced myself simply by saying, “Oh shit! That’s Fire Emblem! They had one on the Wii?” That question opened the Pandora’s Box that is now one of my strongest friendships.

As of now, Radiant Dawn is my favourite. In many ways, I find the Tellius games comparable to the Knights of the Old Republic games: The first was well-executed and tightly-designed, but the second introduced so many nicer ‘quality of life’ additions that make Fire Emblem enjoyable.

 

TL;DR, my first Fire Emblem was Shadow Dragon; my favourite’s Radiant Dawn.

 

Thank you for reading!

[Chopper...]

Oh! A fellow Advance Wars fan!!!! I know Shining Force too, but I'm not fond of the last one (the DS one).

Welcome to the community  I hope you have a great time here!!

Your brothers are scary.

[SoulWeaver]

...That sounds like an average teenage brother. Anyways, welcome, always good to see someone bring such a detailed backstory with them!

[Von Ithipathachai]

...Ow.  Sorry about your jerk brothers.

Anyway, welcome to the forums.

[Ycine]

Welcome to the Forest, DickNinja420!

14 hours ago, DickNinja420 said:

Thank you for reading!

No, dear newcomer, thank you for taking the time to write this introduction.

Have a nice day and enjoy your stay!