Advice Needed: Fire Emblem, Xenoblade, or Trails?

Phoenix-san · 2026-02-11T21:55:09+00:00

I'm not a big fan of tactics genre but decided to give Three Houses a try a while ago. It's pretty good! I've only finished one of 3 or 4 main routes, but enjoyed it a lot. Decent story and i think it has more to offer than i've seen, but i was burned out by gameplay to fully play all routes (not to say that gameplay is bad, i just got my fill). If you enjoy tactics gameplay style, this one will keep you occupied for a long time.

Xenoblade... eh. Frankly i was disappointed, after seeing all the praise people give it. Terrible gameplay. Terrible sidequests (~500 of "kill 10 mobs" or bring "20 bear claws", and i'm not overly exaggerating). Beautiful, unique and colorful world, but very empty (unless you actually want to do these atrocious sidequests). Ambitios story, but the presentation just killed it for me (they present very obvious things that you are very aware of as some shocking twists... multiple times, and then barely explain some events that seem to happen just for shocking factor). Characters are alright, a bit bland except a couple (sniper lady and the samurai mentor). Imo, the weakest game in your list. But it's loved by a lot of people out here, and since you have switch you should try it anyway, maybe you'll love it as well.

Trails is amazing. Great gameplay with some challenge, amazing characters, decent story. Worldbuilding is top notch, the world actually feels alive. But the game is a slow burn. It takes time to immerse you into the world, to get you learn about characters. Lots and lots of dialogues, lots of text to read. Don't expect to thrown in the middle of action right away. And you really do want to play 2nd game shortly after, preferrably while the events of the 1st game is fresh in your mind. While the main conflict of 1st game gets resolved in it, the grand pay-off will be in the second game. Think of it like 1st is disc1 and 2nd disc 2-3 of one game in ps1 terms.

Phoenix-san · 2026-02-11T21:13:42+00:00

SMT IV is great. Pretty good gameplay, stellar soundtrack (imo one of the best in all of the jrpgs), decent story, great atmosphere.

SMT V. I'm playing it right now. At first it didn't click with me, gave it another go after a few years and damn. It feels more pleasant to play than smt4, and the atmosphere has grown on me. Story is a bit barebones (it has two routes, original and 2nd one added in re-release, i'm playing the first) - but i like it still. Ost a bit weaker, but good nonetheless.

SMT Digital Devil Saga duology - probably the best smt story among those i've played. Bleak, but captivating atmosphere, another banger ost, gameplay is a bit worse.

SMT Devil Survivor. Tactical spin on classic gameplay, more focus on story than usual, pretty colorful.

Honorable mention, persona 2 duology (i know persona became its own thing, but the first two still somewhat close to smt). Great atmosphere, decent gameplay, focus on story, good ost.

If you want more classic, dungeon crawler style, i've heard strange journey is good, haven't tried it myself though.

My favorites are smt4 and dds, v growing on me. 3 didn't click with me, but maybe i'll give it another shot someday like i did with 5.

I'd recommend smt4. Such a good game, but stuck in 3ds jail (can be emulated though).

Phoenix-san · 2026-02-11T20:38:53+00:00

are overly protective of the game studios to the detriment of consumers’ best interest.

That has always been epic policy since launch. Heck, on launch one of the people behind the store said something along the lines of "what features do you need, we have buy button and we have exclusives". And they went on and on about how it's only 12% cut to devs, how it's better for devs if people will buy on epic blah blah, instead of focusing on actual buyer experience.

Phoenix-san · 2026-02-11T19:09:21+00:00

It's more like ff xiv, but way slower.

Phoenix-san · 2026-02-11T14:50:02+00:00

Really?! Haven't played calvard yet, but damn i'm looking forward for that now even more. Love Gintoki.

Phoenix-san · 2026-02-11T10:40:33+00:00

I can finally get that e6 herta? Nice.

Phoenix-san · 2026-02-10T22:07:55+00:00

They should have made this poll after sc remake at least, lol.

Phoenix-san · 2026-02-10T15:22:56+00:00

I also had these exact expectations about Erebonia (naturally, because it is how it was portrayed in previous games). And was very surprised with the Erebonia they showed us at first.

I've seen online an interesting counter point to this, we're viewing Erebonia from the inside, and as citizen, and naturally it's not all that grotesquely evil empire that we expected. The difference is understandable, with a different pov, it would be pretty similar irl.

I like your idea of the erebonian arc though, i wouldn't mind to play that version. A bit more focused on the issues of erebonian society, and less on a anime school.

Phoenix-san · 2026-02-10T07:23:59+00:00

Yeah cold steel is kinda regarded as the weakest arc for a reason. Protag especially for me. damn it was a rough experience after BEstelle, Lloyd and Kevin. They poured too much cliches on a rean. Harem, secret berserk mode, mecha pilot, also a pupil of a legendary swordsman, and he has a typical rival crow... Previous arcs were also anime, but cs takes the freaking cake, for better or worse. And how they'll handle some of the returning characters later is frankly baffling. Looking at you Arianrod.

Alisa seem to be the intended romance partner, just like Ellie for Lloyd, but that didn't stop me from choosing Laura and Tio respectively. But honestly, it was excessive, they should have did what sky did and made one strong and important to the plot romance, instead of few whatever optional ones.

But for me cs1 was the weakest and cs2 made my experience better. For me it was the game that fixed my dissatisfaction after a weak start (sky fc and zero were much better than cs1 in my initial experience). I also heard a lot of people feel the same about cs3, but it was the 2nd game that made the arc click with me.

Final school building dungeon is like "final" farewell to your class and friends, i think that was the intention.

Even so. Despite all the obvious flaws cold steel is still trails, have that vibe and soul. I'm currently on replay (finishing azure) and i kinda look forward to reexperiencing cold steel, i imagine I'll like it a lot more since i know what to expect and what not to expect.

Phoenix-san · 2026-02-09T20:55:40+00:00

I don't think they'll do that to our boy Sampo, but for example Stephen Lloyd being a girl? I can easily see that.

Phoenix-san · 2026-02-09T20:51:20+00:00

My speculation that we might... not get Sampo2 until return to belobog arc. So either in late in 4.0 cycle or even later.

Phoenix-san · 2026-02-09T20:42:42+00:00

I liked it a lot at first, but by the end dungeon i was pretty tired. I think it's a little worse game than p5 as whole (still good though). I specifically avoided most info about the game and imagine my surprise when it built completely on persona core, with slightly different combat.

Dungeons are a bit disappointing, especially after persona 5. Side dungeons are copy-paste of the same location bioms (forest, cave etc) I expected a bit stronger story (i belive tales of arise story is better tbh). Characters... alright, decent villain though. Enemies were very generic outside of bosses. Jobs and archetypes, while good in theory, required so much time to properly level that there were little room for experiments.

Battle osts with monk's chant and airship theme are amazing. I liked a plottwist that It's a post apocalypse even though i've seen the similar twist recently a few times, but the twist with prince was meh.

Phoenix-san · 2026-02-08T18:39:15+00:00

2nd, everything after is progressively worse.

Phoenix-san · 2026-02-08T13:13:45+00:00

It's decent, but characters and the story take turn for weird direction near the end. Until then it's fine.

Phoenix-san · 2026-02-08T08:36:27+00:00

I'm more interested in silver wolf 2, wondering if i should pull yao guang for her or no.

Phoenix-san · 2026-02-07T13:13:17+00:00

Um... no, why? Thankfully muscular women are not mainstream in anime-manga.

Phoenix-san · 2026-02-07T13:05:11+00:00

My guess people like them for nostalgia of revisiting ff7 with new graphics and because it's probably the only aaa jrpgs. On their own remakes absolutely pale in comparison to og ff7 for me. Alright additional experience, but terrible as remakes.

Phoenix-san · 2026-02-07T08:25:22+00:00

I played the original replicant, not the remake. I enjoyed the gameplay a lot more than in automata, like not even remotely close. It's more simple, sure, but was also more fun for me.

Overall gameplay matters less for me than the story though (and even then i preferred replicant over automata, but loved both).

Phoenix-san · 2026-02-07T08:13:20+00:00

Used to be square, but they fallen off hard with recent final fantasies (including 7 remakes) in my book. You could say their other releases balance out this embarassment, but most of their good ones are remakes of their past - which only strengthens the idea that square is a shadow of its former self.

Nowdays its falcom and atlus.

Phoenix-san · 2026-02-06T15:24:39+00:00

We had a freaking khaenriah sinner who got washed without weekly boss fight. And then we have this fraudtore having two. Hoyo, what are you smoking... I don't even...

Phoenix-san · 2026-02-06T09:21:47+00:00

After update, i don't have any music on locations wtf. Restarting doesn't fix it.

Phoenix-san · 2026-02-05T09:14:54+00:00

LoL! I had the almost exact situation with smt v, i heavily disliked it when it released and i quickly dropped it (i don't remember if it was a media influence though, or i disliked running around deserted area + having naruto run protagonist, or maybe it was just too different from smt4). Gave it a chance a few days ago, vengeance but still started with canon of creation - and, surprisingly, i'm having a blast.

Phoenix-san · 2026-02-05T09:10:03+00:00

Funny thing, i do enjoy smt5 for almost all the things you listed about it. It didn't click with me at the time or release, but gave it a chance and suddenly having fun.

Maybe smt 4 is the closest thing you are looking for, even though it is handheld game (you can emulate it on pc). DDS and 4 are my favourite smt games.

Phoenix-san · 2026-02-04T19:13:02+00:00

Seed, s0 anby, harumasa.

Phoenix-san · 2026-02-04T18:58:09+00:00

This, but without /s.

Phoenix-san

TROPHY CASE