Together We Ride!

[Lyndis Highwind]

Along with Final Fantasy, Fire Emblem is my favorite video game series. Have you guys played any of them? If so, what did you like and dislike about them? I always enjoy talking Fire Emblem

[Vyk]

I've attempted probably a majority of them, but they only recently started to stick with Awakening and Fates. But just like any strategy RPG I always get burned out because it's nothing but combat and dialog. I always end up feeling like I'm not actually playing a game. I feel like I'm taking turns reading a story and playing games of chess. Awakening tried addressing this with letting you interact with your team and make conversation as you please, so it wasn't just cut scenes. Fates tried to address it further with the town building aspect and visiting other people's towns. And now Echoes seems to want to address this further with third person segments (which I know very little about but it looks like you can wander around in dungeons like with a real game, if they let you do this in towns, I'll be ecstatic. Most of these games idea of "overworld" or "town" is just maps with icons and menus)

We'll see if Echoes can fix the genre for me

Otherwise, I appreciate that they exist, since the original game inspired Sonic Team to make Shining Force, and the newer ones have excellent production value, but without more actual gameplay they just won't be for me

[Skyblade]

I thoroughly enjoy the series. As a big Shining Force fan, I heard a lot about it, but always avoided it due to it being Japan-only. Finally we got a release for the GBA, and I got to try it out, and loved it. Sacred Stones wasn't as good, in my opinion. Most of the new stuff to that game just didn't seem to hold up in quality (like a very well polished ROMhack). Path of Radiance was great, but then it again dropped off with Radiant Dawn, with the team swapping being a real downside in my opinion.

Then we entered the dark ages, with Shadow Dragon being one of the worst sequels/remakes I've ever seen. It did so poorly over here that we didn't even get the similar remake of Mystery of the Emblem. I don't know what the heck they were thinking with Shadow Dragon, but oh my gosh. Why do the GBA games look graphically superior (like, BY FAR) to the DS games?!

Then we finally got Awakening, and it was amazing. Fates wasn't bad, but did have a couple problems. For one thing, none of the games really stand on their own. You need to play all three to really get the whole story. And the mechanics are also a bit over-complicated. There's a ton of depth there that just isn't that useful. As much as I love the concept of the child units, there's little reason to go after them. They're powerful, but raising them and training them is just a bunch of grinding that isn't needed, 'cause your main team can handle everything.

I picked up Echoes, but I've been too busy to play it lately. Looking forward to it. Maybe I'll get some time. Maybe.

[Vyk]

I picked up Fates, but I've been too busy to play it lately. Looking forward to it. Maybe I'll get some time. Maybe.

I'm positive you mean Echoes in that last comment, and I too have picked it up to complete my 3DS collection, even if I don't finish this one as well, I want to support the devs, because I'm glad these games exist. I've played the intro sequence and first battle, and other than the bit of cheese it was properly amusing and compelling enough to warrant some extra time later. Once I've freed up some time myself

[Bubba]

I'm still awaiting the second instalment of Lyndis plays Fire Emblem: Rekka no Ken

[Del Murder]

I love this genre and this series. I started with Shadow Dragon, which I didn't even think was that bad, which shows how much I like this type of game. Awakening was amazing and is rivaled only by the Final Fantasy Tactics games for me. Fates was good and I like some of the gameplay changes, but I agree with others that spreading the already thin story out over three games was not the best decision. I haven't played Revelations yet but I'm currently halfway into Conquest. I love the map and objective variety in this one but the storyline is pretty dumb. I'm sure I will get Echoes at some point and I can't wait for a full fledged Switch game.

[FFNut]

I'm still awaiting the second instalment of Lyndis plays Fire Emblem: Rekka no Ken

x2