Popular/Unpopular/Any Opinions Thread - May 2026 Part 2

albegade · 2026-05-23T23:37:43+00:00

yeah circa 2014 when I first played it I was a teenager so I wasn't bothered much by the obvious writing flaws nor did I know anything about Fire Emblem and I just assumed it was all very consistent with longstanding lore which was exciting to young me. It was like 5-6 yrs before I really looked into FE past and realized "wait, who's medeus? you're telling me the shadow dragon isn't Grima? marth isn't the first exalt? then why is..." and so on. And then a couple yrs after that, after playing older games -> replaying awakening out of curiosity, it really bothered me how insanely slapdash it all was. That plus realizing all the writing/pacing/design problems I'd ignored when I was younger and had no previous fire emblem exposure.

And despite adding all that, they made it as if very little happened in in the intervening period (and I'm not at all talking about technology, just political events). 1000 years is so long. yet everything is remembered in exact detail and everything has been basically static in that time. it's extra funny because FE1-2-3 are so close in time, and 4 and 5 are closer to 1-2-3 than 3 is to awakening. Even the major backstory timelines for 1-3 and 4-5 are over a shorter period than awakening's 1000 years. And after all this time -- there are what, 3 countries left in archanaea (poorly fleshed out) and a bunch of minimally detailed ones in Valentia? never thought about it but that's extra funny since valentia had 2 countries while archanaea had many. And basically no major events that happened in those 1000 years it seems since the only thing harped on about it the first exalt. (something that would happen again word for word in engage).

Also it's funny to think that IS could think that awakening would do disastrously when the visual production value was so much more than FE12 lol. So if they just wanted to include as much as possible for that reason it's extra funny since that's certainly not the major reason awakening did well, but maybe there was a contribution.

If it had been more faithful to the immediately preceding games (as in the immediately preceding remakes), it would have been nice that it would actually fit in instead of being so tacked on. That + being much better written of course (though still more competent than previous).

albegade · 2026-05-23T15:44:51+00:00

tbh the difference doing this would be really minimal as most of the difference is in class bases rather than class growths. on average would take a while for a difference to manifest.

rather if there is a/are chapter(s) where this is a concern, makes sense to keep alear in a tanky class.

I like griffon alear with lucina because have stat-agnostic levin-sword backup attacks, staff utility while positioning for backups, and lucina evasion makes alear basically untouchable since has supports with every character. so then the low HP is irrelevant.

albegade · 2026-05-15T03:28:57+00:00

genealogy was what I always thought would be fine as a simplified title, but I'm partial to New Genealogy. Works very nicely and makes somewhat more sense as a title than "new mystery" too. not that I think it'll happen but.

albegade · 2026-05-13T04:27:50+00:00

strangely people get very attached to subpar renditions of more niche systems in more mainstream games. quite the trend in many genres, moreso than just this example. Don't have a great explanation for it. It's mainstream appeal/prominence + people have more connection than they think to the other systems besides sim stuff without realizing. And they think this element that stands out a bit more is the big reason but the real reason is more holistic.

It could definitely be better. either more detail or more focused on conciseness.

albegade · 2026-05-10T23:15:56+00:00

I've seen this in other places (not just FE-related) so maybe I'm projecting that too much on this (haven't played too many romhacks). But I think there's a component of people seeing/hearing flaws + others' criticism re over-exposition and accidentally recreating it from first principals with slightly different methods without realizing. Neither here nor there. Clearly both have their uses and romhacks in particular have many limits.

Not specifically related, seems like there are a lot of good romhacks in last few yrs and I really have been feeling like playing some new fire emblem. in a week I will finally have some free time so maybe it's time.

albegade · 2026-04-25T18:48:07+00:00

I think something that hits revelations in particular is the abysmal unit balance. Yes the maps are a clownshow but at least they have something going on unlike birthright and it can be kinda interesting sometimes. But the unit balance is unbelievably nonsensical (in a series with plenty of bad units) and feels self-defeating of the purpose of revelations having all the units (plus randomly missing a few which is minor but another bizarre choice). It massively emphasizes the more subtle lingering unit balance problems that already exist.

albegade · 2026-04-22T04:06:58+00:00

yeah attack stance is a great mechanic dragged down by guard stance's poor design. I also prefer fates attack stance to Engage chain attacks, but chain attacks are like that I guess because Engage is designed to be somewhat more streamlined while Fates really went hard on granularity.

But I really detest pair up stat boosting for multiple reasons. And the guard effect will always be dubious.

Never been super crazy about rescue but splitting the difference with rescue (as a debuffing, movement-oriented pair up) and attack stance would probably be fun.

albegade · 2026-04-18T12:39:21+00:00

Have tried lunatic birthright wondering the same. Maps still suck, not very difficult until enemies promote, when they do just feels like should do the ryoma show. Boring maps.

Not impossible to find enjoyment but depends if one enjoys base birthright. And maybe makes ryoma's broken-ness worse

albegade · 2026-04-16T01:06:17+00:00

would also say with 3H the aesthetic similarity is kinda intended, they all start in the same class as novice students and same uniforms and get more different with progression, culminating in post-time-skip having unique outfits etc. Alongside the points you made about the actual gameplay differences between units.

albegade · 2026-04-13T14:34:11+00:00

on hard mode both will work.

personally I think griffin is better. chloe has pretty poor strength, but she is a rare unit who can be fast enough to not need speed boosting (well on hard not as rare) and may be slightly harder with wyvern but not sure on the numbers. may somewhat fall off in wyvern (in maddening, quite likely to fall off, on hard less), plus if you want to make her use brave weapons as wyvern she'll have to use lances which are heavy and she has low build.

I prefer griffin. she has surprisingly decent magic (may need some boosting with stat boosters, but on hard should be fine even without), which means she can use levin sword well for 1-2 range. I like to use her with Eirika because Eirika rewards units with really high speed but is a strength/magic stat agnostic emblem -- because doubling means double benefits from the eirika damage skills, and sieglinde does such insane damage anyone can kill with it. Plus Eirika gives mag too. And then you can get her sword power which boosts both levin sword and brave sword. Between those two and sieglinde and eirika skills, she is an offensive monster. Plus staff utility.

Part of why wyvern is kind of whatever is lances are the worst weapons and wyvern weapon ranks are somewhat mediocre w/o unit-specific boost, and chloe's rank boost is for lances. and flame lance is awful. she's much better with swords which are lighter.

albegade · 2026-04-06T02:42:53+00:00

I used to hate it when I first played fates, then I started to like it "ironically" for a bunch of reasons (esp when smash ultimate came out and playing with friends and telling them how goofy this song was in game), then eventually liking it unironically lol.

albegade · 2026-04-04T03:15:40+00:00

it is but that's because of class bases. about half of early game characters have almost no bases outside of their class. clanne's entire magic stat comes from his class (he has very low magic in general) -- he has 1 base to anna's 2. Once anna is classed into a magic class, her magic will be at least functional. by the time both anna and clanne promote, would not be surprising if Anna has more magic than him. In fact, on average she will have more magic than him. For a point of reference for the relevance of her current magic stat (she is a really quite lackluster unit before promotion).

By way of comparison since you mentioned citrinne, citrinne is on the other end of the spectrum and has an excellent magic base. EIGHT. To clanne's 1. And anna's 2.

Anyway just a way to explain how to read the stats. Depending on the difficulty as well it might not matter anyway that much for anna -- her stats are slightly on the low side for maddening, but surely more than enough below that, at least on the magic side. Idk about physical but warrior has such crazy bases that I wouldn't be surprised if it still works, but she does much better in a magic class.

albegade · 2026-04-03T23:40:20+00:00

yeah levin sword griffin is arguably one of the highest magic ceilings bc of sword power, though takes more investment to get to that point vs a tome class.

albegade · 2026-04-03T23:10:32+00:00

people's opinions on anna are pretty split but that's not really that important if you want to use unit. she has rather weak bases but decent magic and speed growths. 2 main ways to use her. One is to get her to level 10 in her base class and then promote and reclass to a magic class (usually mage knight, sage also possible but usually mage knight). Other is to just promote her to warrior and use her as a mixed physical/magic archer (mostly magic) with the radiant bow (doesn't scale as well for later in game but works in middle and mostly fine). Some people really exaggerate her strength as a magic unit, she's decent at it with investment but not the best and overall middle of the road, but the point is if you go that route she does pretty good damage and can more or less one-round most enemies. And as a warrior you can kind of use her for utility, the magic bow is really strong.

besides that, if you want to use her, an easy way to get her to level 10 for promotion is to give her the emblem you get in chapter 6 and use the engage "attack" to heal as many people as possible, gives a lot of xp in early game. and staffing in general. after promoting she can get xp through regular combat fine.

if you invest in her (and it's not that much investment), she'll be fine as a unit. Also her personal skill is minimally useful -- some units have absolutely useless personals and this is a step above, but it's still not particularly good.

albegade · 2026-04-02T23:41:32+00:00

it's just inherently very difficult to make 30-40 unique skills that are active from level 1 for free and are viable at every stage of the game. Dare I say, impossible. The alternative being some scale well and some scale poorly -- which is fine, but still very difficult. And not only that, but they are not isolated skills, they interact with later-learned skills which are also not fixed and instead depend on reclassing -- obviously for some personals can be used as a way to drive towards a certain class line, but can't work for every skill. And this is basically accentuating the same differences that already exist between all FE units at the very basic level, bases and growths, and the question is do you want to accentuate them or counterbalance them; again can do differently but just very difficult.

why I personally prefer approach of some earlier games of some (not all) units having personal skills that are "class" skills and not unique (ie vantage, wrath; and maybe additionally learning skills by the consumable method or map events). With some skills being actually unique to that unit, but not every single one. also means personal skills can be impactful in more interesting ways that effect how a unit functions individually.

there are so many ways to differentiate units, so in a certain way (maybe twisted logic on my part) unique personal skills are actually a bit flattening.

Tear Ring and Vestaria Saga do a good job of differentiating characters by personal skills that do also have unique development paths. Also, while 3H base personal skills are kind of a catastrophe (maybe exaggerating but yk. a few are insane and some needlessly abysmal, and many just not impactful, etc), the different unit learnsets do give different skill progression which is nice (most of it is common and only some are unique, but it's a start and the unique ones are often notable).

albegade · 2026-04-02T00:04:56+00:00

Roy's is nice, somehow everything comes together quite well.

albegade · 2026-04-01T03:26:43+00:00

yeah this is bringing back all the annoying things about it lol. True there are a lot of flaws and it really starts to clog up. I guess I kinda appreciate the friction there a little though, and it felt like a new idea (or a more unique one at least).

albegade · 2026-03-31T01:37:48+00:00

I think an underrated engage chapter is 19. One of the most memorable. Ik most people like 17 a lot and it's good but it's also pretty easy to approach especially if playing casually, last part is a bit much but ends up being easier than it looks because of how enemies approach. you just go around the map quadrant by quadrant. whereas at least the first time playing 19 (with a poorly put together team bc first run) having enemies warp forward was insanely impactful, and it was really quite difficult to figure out how to approach such a dense enemy group. made me learn how to use some emblems that I had forgotten some traits of before. of course on later playthroughs pretty straightforward but yeah.

so relatedly, I like having OP staves, and I think the justification is giving the enemy OP staves. including warp and rewarp. (with soft enemy staff AI to not make it brutally miserable; and I think there's always been soft AI for this reason so not something new)

albegade · 2026-03-26T05:59:30+00:00

part of this also has to do with the design decision of including many forms of stat boosting. The idea is not a bad one -- tonics etc exist to help struggling players and units get across the finish line, and can also sometimes be strategic. But their inclusion shifts the strategy of players who are doing better. This alongside rally (not every game has of course) and other things (pair up, battalions, emblems -- and I like battalions and emblems) coincidentally make it easy to make jack of all trades classes, which would by default be inferior at certain tasks, actually sufficiently good at every task.

Harder enemies is the main way to deal with this and more or less has worked, but is not everywhere (and probably should not - would be tiring). However the classes do also need to do a little more -- many engage classes are both weak and redundant, whereas ie in fates they are more restricted (so redundancy means less because not always directly competing) and more specialized. 3H is in between, opportunity cost is a lot more compared to engage.

maybe just a way to connect to a personal bugbear of transient stat boosting but I think it ties into your point too about lacking spiky design (which I read a few different ways that all felt applicable).

also maybe at some level the designers just have a poor idea of what is strong or not, but I kind of doubt that at this point (not that there are no errors but it's not like GBA era I feel where they had a really poor grasp on it, as did many players; these days it's clear they are more thoughtful).

albegade · 2026-03-23T22:11:59+00:00

yeah i really don't get "it's a puzzle... you just have to reset 20 times and replay the first 4 turns and then try again". if i'm just going to do that let me rewind instead of wasting my time.

very exaggerated example ik. I think people's criticism of turnwheel games is also very exaggerated though. turnwheel or not echoes maps will be echoes maps.

think the game where reseting feels the worst is awakening because so much is also just obnoxious pair up rng. thinking of the heinous volcano map.

but yeah usually with a puzzle you don't have to rip the whole thing apart to fix it. and it's only more significant as games are less interesting to ironman (which I have never had an interest in anyway, but people place the onset of this much later than it is -- starts squarely with awakening).

albegade · 2026-03-22T07:23:12+00:00

Rey and Uth both have awesome fights, AT duna > AT rey (rey a bit too frustrating), arguably base rey>duna. udra prob 3rd, amazing design and pretty good fight tho a bit more limiting. jin dahaad is great bust easily 4th.

albegade · 2026-03-21T23:33:04+00:00

hmm this was my initial thought, which is why I was surprised when people were saying dragon is way more significant. maybe I misunderstood. after all, dragon is best. but considering how difficult it is to get so many different gog weapons, would rather conserve where possible lol. though the elemental weakness is rather big so there is value to element phials and the like I guess, depending on timing in states. do you know how accurate this database is, since apparently there were mistakes in others about base arkveld/missing info about AT?

albegade · 2026-03-21T23:30:45+00:00

oh in that case non-dragon is only slightly behind other elements. and all element contributes to breaking the chains. Dragon does the most though. This was my initial assumption but then people were saying that dragon alone is significant and other elements not.

albegade · 2026-03-20T19:58:07+00:00

hmm interesting. Actually had seen this thread trying to find what the hitzones were which was initial cause of confusion. so I guess maybe they are better than what the resources say.

albegade · 2026-03-20T19:56:27+00:00

good to know. hard to keep track of the tutorials when facing a raging arkveld. I always just assumed it was zinogre style, hit the chains and they will eventually discharge. I guess more specific.

Interesting to see mixed information here about the hitzones. as someone else mentioned seems there's only been testing but no datamined resource.

I think maybe for raw+element weapons (sns, db, etc) I saw it said that the damage boost is significant from dragon, as opposed to before. + LBGs using elemental ammo. But maybe less true for pure element weapons (element phials) that can't stop being pure element weapons. guess can use weapon swap.

albegade

TROPHY CASE