Why I like this game more than modern main line FE

Fire Emblem Heroes FEH Discussion
#1

Talking about it with two friends yesterday, I got to that conclusion. I was surprised.

I have been a fan of FE since I was a child, playing on the gba and the game cube. Path of radiance and radiant dawn combined are one of the best gaming experiences in my life. So I love Fire Emblem.

I think after Awakening the franchise changed. They went more in the line of, I don’t know, fanservice and engagement. They want us to play a lot so a game that starts and finishes is not enough. It has to have a fragmented story, some reason to replay it. In fates there were 3 routes, relatively shitty if you care about the story, but a very, very good game otherwise. The aesthetics, the gameplay, very cool.

Three houses follows the same exact principals and shares the same bases. It improved the formula, at least I didn’t have to buy 3 games to get the full fragmented story. Because fragmented and poorly written it remained but the game was very good otherwise… again.

Then I was playing FEH. I have a hate-love relationship with the game. I tend to cry a lot when I don’t like something, specially when I feel people are being manipulated. And FEH is very manipulative.

So when they announced the new FE Engage, I thought I would be very excited to get out of feh and grab a true game, a true new entry for the fire emblem franchise.

…I think I am not anymore.

The support they brought for FEH has been pretty amazing. New modes, some of them very fun, a lot of rewards, the new units are very cool and the new designs are better in my opinion, than anything in previous games. I mean, brave byleth for example, was incredibly cool.

And while I think the game odds are ridiculous, I usually get at least one copy of the unit I want. I get the suscription some times so I am not a complete ftp player. But even then, I can’t say the same about most other gatchas. I can remain free to play and get cool units almost every week, sometimes once every 2 or 3 weeks but whatever. It’s fair in my view.

There’s also the gameplay. I used to miss the big maps with dozens of units of the main line games but I just noticed that I don’t anymore. It’s because of the skills. The strategy involved has gotten so complex that it doesn’t matter that the map is small, there’s a lot to think about every move. The game has gotten so good. FEH has become really good. I said it in the past but every day it’s more true: It’s the best gatcha game ever, probably the best or one of the best phone games. Unlimited content, decent enough policies, always new mechanics and stuff.

And yes, the story is a little bit shitty but at this point it’s almost as good as the story in the new main line entries so who cares.

So when I look a the (arguably) terrible designs for the main character in the new Fire Emblem Engage, I think in FEH and… you know what? I am good.

Unless the new game turns to be a masterpiece (which I highly, highly doubt it), I think I’ll pass. I’ll see the units in FEH very soon anyway.

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#2

At least awakening saved the franchise from ending, Awakening was supposed to be the last FE game but since it sold so well they made more.

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#3

While there is still a lot to improve, Feh’s gameplay is better than most people give it credit for. I wouldn’t say I like it more than the mainline games, but I’ve certainly spent the most hours in Feh. For me the story of Feh is meh, the bigger issue I think is the poor characterisation. For example: Forging Bonds doesn’t really make up for the lack of support conversations.

I also think both Fates and Three Houses could’ve been better if they had fewer routes. Three Houses should’ve had a Dimitri and Edelgard route. With the golden deer house being recruitable in both routes. Verdant Wind and Silver Snow didn’t do anything that couldn’t be implemented in the other routes instead. Claude would’ve been a cool late-game recruit, I don’t think his popularity would be less of it. As for Fates, Revelations should’ve just been DLC. Not sure how that would work, but I’m sure if they wanted to they could’ve done it. Less routes means more time to improve on other stuff.

I also agree that Engage doesn’t look that promising… I guess we’re pretty much on the same page. I hope we’re proven wrong.

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#4

Tbh, Fates should have just been exclusively Revelations, could have fleshed out the story more

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#5

I’m having the same problem. I’ve enjoyed the new games, but the more anime they look like the less enticing they become to me. I’m barely looking Engage’s tráilers and im more excited for gryphon riders coming back than for any characters they’ve shown :( i may play the game and i may change my mind, but idk

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#6

I feel the same. I can’t say I love all the old FE games but 6 through 10 are the ones I’m most fond of.

FE’s aesthetic has always been influenced by anime, but modern FE has proved that the more kawaii the aesthetic is, the more people will buy it. This peaked with Fates, which I believe was too much for many to swallow, and even then it didn’t hurt the sales. Three Houses tried to take itself a little more serious, but (while decent character development, except Byleth) falied in the story department imo (because avatars are a mistake). It also felt all too full of typical anime clichés (again, avatar issues). All of these games had great gameplay and soundtrack however.

On the other hand FEH is imo the representation of modern FE as a whole. The gameplay is really solid yet not perfect (mainly due to powercreep, gatcha issues) but OCs are all kawaii (because they need to sell well) and the story is very cliché driven. The cinematics are full of fanservice and the characters don’t even look like they belong in a main FE game, but they somehow seem to fit in games like Genshin Impact and Hyperdimension Neptunia.

So yes, FE has definitely changed.
For the better? Idk… probably better for IntSys because it’s more profitable, but it certainly is not better for the fandom imo, because good gameplay can be found anywhere, but good stories are far and few in between.

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#7

Build synergy and team building are some of my favorite parts of tactical rpgs. Unfortunately, Build flexibility in most fe games is pretty meh, with 3h being my least favorite. Most cool classes that bring utility tend to get locked behind dlc.

It’s also good to note that feh has no rng in actual battles, so you don’t get gimped by 1% crits or repeated misses. Units cannot get stat screwed either.

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#8

No. Awakening ended it. It’s not fire emblem anymore, it’s waifu emblem.

—— an elitist old man from ign 7 years ago

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#9

I get it tho, personally I feel feh ruined me without realizing it. Awakening made me unhappy, so did the next games, so I stayed there for years, in feh.

Before I knew it, I replayed an old fire emblem. It had been years since… and the magic I used to feel was gone.

#10

I mean…@GVader isn’t wrong there. Awakening saved the franchise. We wouldn’t have gotten so many FE games, if Awakening didn’t succeded. We wouldn’t play FEH and talk about all that stuff.

But it’s true that the franchise changed since Awakening and not everything in a good way. I still enjoyed Fates and Three Houses, Awakening less to be honest, but I still like the older Fire Emblem games more than the newer ones.

While I likely also gonna buy Fire Emblem Engage and enjoy it, I honestly rather wished we would have gotten a Remake from Genealogy of the Holy War or Thracia 776. FEH showed me all those interesting characters and I want to know more about them. And no, simply reading about them in the internet is not an option for me.

But I guess my taste is the minority one and the majority is rather on board since Awakening.

Way worse for me is Breath of the Wild. The Legend of Zelda died for me since this game existed and I’m rather scared than hyped about TotK. But the majority loves it so I have to deal with it.

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#11

That is…an interesting take to be sure.

For me personally I still enjoyed the mainline game I liked the least (Fates; I think it’s well known GP canon by now that I despise fates) more than FEH.

I like FEH because I can build my favorite units from games I liked. And that’s it.
It’s a highly predatory game, and almost none of it besides unit building is fun. Fates, for all I actively hate it for, had some good supports, characters, and…well that’s probably it. Ah, I guess despite the fact that the maps are mostly god awful gimmicky pieces of shit, they did at least require me to play well/strategically (whereas in FEH it’s either thrown down a tank and wait, or kill everything with duo Ninja units).

I am glad you are enjoying FEH, but for me at least I definitely disagree. (Not that it should matter to you; you are certainly entitled to your own opinions, and I’m just sharing mine)

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#12

Bravo, well spoken. I disagree on a few points:

  • I only ever watched 3H playthroughs because I don’t have a Switch, but the story is better than mediocre if you ask me. Maybe not by the standards I would apply to novels and words-only literature, but I wouldn’t call it bad.
  • At least, I prefer it to FEH story because the latter feels too fragmented, maybe because it’s released in such short bursts over the course of a whole year, maybe because it just freezes completely for most of the chapter while characters spit out completely unrelated one-liners, maybe because it just doesn’t have the room to grow and flesh itself out enough for the depth of the themes the writers really want to get at, in all cases I really miss the sense of continuous arc that I get from normal FE.
  • new mechanics are fun but the extent to which they tend to crush old mechanics and this endless cycle of powercreep is going way too fast. The gameplay is severely lacking in depth due to developers’ excesses in making too small a set of units too powerful. Whether this game is the best gacha around in spite of that is another question.
#13

I’ve also always had a really good view of Heroes, especially when you compare it to how simplistic and bare-boned it was during the first months… it was kind of awful, by comparison. But even then, I was completely fine with it, and was content to have my very own Micro Emblem experience. That’s all I expected.

I feel like Heroes added a lot in terms of strategy that I feel some of the other games didn’t have as much. The more complex the skills get, the more you have to play around things (this can be good and bad).

I’ve played FE for almost 15 years, and I am really pleased with Awakening to this day. I didn’t have a good opinion of it at first (precisely because of the fanservice), but it wasn’t nearly as bad once you dig in to it.

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#14

jajajjaajajjaajajajaajja

It’s funny because it’s true.

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#15

I mean, compare it with how they gave us Seiðr today. The rules of physics seem to have dissolved; you’re having a near death experience; somewhere in the twilight this unfamiliar voice starts saying “just hold on to the light,” and next thing we see, some bright flash on the screen and out comes a living, breathing person. That was ingenious; I was so impressed.

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#16

I was complaining about this earlier, but 90% of time travel stories are written like they’re the original time travel story.

Kiran comes from our world; he sure as hell knows what time travel is.

After all this he shouldn’t be confused like the game claims he constantly is, but wandering around Askr shouting “Fuck time travel!” and letting everyone else be confused instead.

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#17

I thought it was more about how the characters “contact” you before you even get them “hey play my story!!!”.

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#18

This is the one good thing fire emblems new coat of paint gave it’s base.

New fans

Over the years they changed from “marry waifu” to “Marry waifu, but also just loves fire emblem”

It’s always sorta amazing that what made fire emblem a strong series was still able to reach all of the newer base and even they would love a good remake as they just love the game play all that much.

I may not be greatful for what the series became, but I am greatful for the fans it now has.

They saved the series imo, and they will improve it. I look forward to the future do to newer fan demands

not sure I can call them new anymore tho, fates:awakening is old as shit now

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#19

A lot of people: “I got into FE because I wanted to know who those randos in smash were”

Me: “I got into FE because random ass ROM website said FE7 was a good game”

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#20

Yep, I’d seen a few like them to. The new base is so cute ngl. I’ve always liked them.

Me: got into feh cuz I didn’t know fire emblems trailer for cube maybe lied about it’s turn based gameplay and 7 year old me wouldn’t have wanted it if I did.

Happy I didn’t

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