Echoes is my favorite, but all of the 3ds Fire Emblems were big disappointments for me. I never even finished Fates, and they made me have very little faith in the future of the ip.
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Best 3DS Fire Emblem Game?
- Thread starter Ashby
- Start date
as a whole
echoes > awakening > fates
echoes has probably the best presentation, between art, music, voiceovers, scripting, etc. Its the best in this category by a landslide. Great gameplay mechanics (Seriously magic for HP cost and those arts + no weapon triangle, the doubling threshold, item system, no pairup and a pretty good balance, etc. all these should be staple in the series, im glad three houses is sort of following) hindered by some uninteresting map design. Also, no hub overworld like awakening. I thought fates hub was too shallow to be worth anything so the alternative is intuitive, simple and nice, especially since the world is nicely fleshed out.
echoes > awakening > fates
echoes has probably the best presentation, between art, music, voiceovers, scripting, etc. Its the best in this category by a landslide. Great gameplay mechanics (Seriously magic for HP cost and those arts + no weapon triangle, the doubling threshold, item system, no pairup and a pretty good balance, etc. all these should be staple in the series, im glad three houses is sort of following) hindered by some uninteresting map design. Also, no hub overworld like awakening. I thought fates hub was too shallow to be worth anything so the alternative is intuitive, simple and nice, especially since the world is nicely fleshed out.
Awakening definitely, but I did just finish and enjoy Echoes. I just learned that Valm was future Valencia, so I may replay Awakening to catch some references I probably missed.
Conquest is the best because it's a traditional linear experience. Plus there are gay romances.
No grinding crap spoils it
No grinding crap spoils it
Awakening for the replay ability. Echoes has the better story and production values, Conquest has the better map design/gameplay but Awakening strikes a happy medium, has a cast of likable characters and helped save the franchise. I have sunk the most hours into awakening, so it gets my vote.
I'm about 50 hours into Echoes and voted for it. First 3DS Fire Emblem I've played where I am not forcing myself through it and cringing throughout. Awakening was alright but I loathed the characters and Fates went even worse.
Only wish there were more interesting maps but everything else seems to tower pretty highly over all the other games.
Only wish there were more interesting maps but everything else seems to tower pretty highly over all the other games.
Best story and character portrayal is Echoes. Best overall content and DLC stuff is Awakening. Best face touching simulator is Fates.
It depends on what you want.
It depends on what you want.
Conquest has by far the best gameplay, the story really is quite bad though.
Echoes has the best presentation and story (by a mile), though the map design is questionable sometimes.
Awakening is a nice medium of new stuff with old, but has balance issues.
Birthright is a slightly lesser Awakening. Not bad though.
Revelations has some seriously big issues with story, bad gimmicky map design, and balance. It's a fanservicey mess tbh.
Overall my favorite goes to Echoes. It really stands out from the rest in a lot of ways, even if it's not perfect.
Echoes has the best presentation and story (by a mile), though the map design is questionable sometimes.
Awakening is a nice medium of new stuff with old, but has balance issues.
Birthright is a slightly lesser Awakening. Not bad though.
Revelations has some seriously big issues with story, bad gimmicky map design, and balance. It's a fanservicey mess tbh.
Overall my favorite goes to Echoes. It really stands out from the rest in a lot of ways, even if it's not perfect.
Awakening. It's a fantastic game. Fates was worse but still good enough (Conquest in particular).
Echoes annoyed the living shit out of me. I never beat it. I hated the level design and what they did with the enemies. Those units that spawn other units just padded the game's missions out in the most obnoxious way. Plus Celica was dumb.
Echoes annoyed the living shit out of me. I never beat it. I hated the level design and what they did with the enemies. Those units that spawn other units just padded the game's missions out in the most obnoxious way. Plus Celica was dumb.
To me, Awakening had the most interesting characters and relationships. I loved the child and marriage system. The story was also interesting with the time travel stuff. Fates kind of destroyed that part of it for me and didn't have much interest in Echoes.
It's obviously closer to the older games in terms of things like not having any grinding, but I still feel like it does a lot to differentiate itself apart form just the maps. Mainly in how it doesn't have any absurdly strong units that can just easily solo maps by themselves, and not even having any real prepromotes. And also the way enemy skill compositions play a huge role in how you approach fights, and the way some maps really encourage aggressive play in a way Fire Emblem almost never does.
Even if you ignore the map design, these things alone make it play very differently from other Fire Emblem games. And from this perspective, Awakening feels much closer to the older games simply because it retains the incredibly strong units that can solo entire maps.
But the thing is, if I had to name a game Conquest reminds me of the most, it wouldn't even be another Fire Emblem game. It would be Growlanser IV, which likewise had extremely creative and well designed maps and super tight balance. Hence the comment about not feeling like the rest of the franchise.
I personally think Conquest is the best, mostly because of its excellent map design, but Awakening is a close second.
Never tried Echoes, played Awakening almost through the end (a few maps left, I don't know why I don't finish it) and played a bit of Conquest but didn't like it for some reason.
Echoes is fantastic minus the summoning bullshit, but it's still preferred to reenforcement bullshit.
Awakening and Fates - For the first timers. Nice introduction to how probably future FEs will be like in terms of gameplay, difficulty, etc.
Echoes - best music and character designs in the entire series. A time machine for older fans to experience what the series was like back when it was Japan only.
Echoes - best music and character designs in the entire series. A time machine for older fans to experience what the series was like back when it was Japan only.
I'd rank them like this:
Fates Conquest > Fates Birthright > Awakening > Echoes > Fates Revelations
Echoes plays really damn bad, though the world building, characters, and presentation are better than Fates. Revelations is even more of a slog than Echoes.
Fates Conquest > Fates Birthright > Awakening > Echoes > Fates Revelations
Echoes plays really damn bad, though the world building, characters, and presentation are better than Fates. Revelations is even more of a slog than Echoes.
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An ideal game would be Echoes with the gameplay/maps of conquest and the worst parts of Celica's character/story rewritten. I voted Conquest because I guess gameplay matters most and I think the story is serviceable but Echoes and Awakening are both quite good too. Revelations can fuck off.
Awakening! I never played Echoes, since I stopped playing my 3DS pretty early on. But, I keep on watching videos on Echoes, and I seems I missed out on one of the best Fire Emblem games. Eventually, I will play it, but I can't get myself to play my 3DS in 2019. Fates, I like, but not as much as Awakening. Absolutely LOVE Awakening, and even revisited it awhile back.
Can't wait for Three Houses in a few days! I haven't been this excited for a Fire Emblem game in awhile. Everything I am seeing from Three Houses is making me think I am going to have another Awakening moment. Awakening is my favorite 3DS game of all time. So, it's a shame I couldn't get into Fates as much and skipped Echoes.
Can't wait for Three Houses in a few days! I haven't been this excited for a Fire Emblem game in awhile. Everything I am seeing from Three Houses is making me think I am going to have another Awakening moment. Awakening is my favorite 3DS game of all time. So, it's a shame I couldn't get into Fates as much and skipped Echoes.
I really enjoyed all of them, but I think I'm the only one around who liked Revelations best. I actually really liked the maps, loved the ability to recruit everybody (Sorry Crimson) and enjoyed that I could grind as I like to. Story was ridiculous, but I still enjoyed it.
Revelations > Awakening > Echoes > Birthright > Conquest; but it's all very close, they're all some of my favourite games ever.
Revelations > Awakening > Echoes > Birthright > Conquest; but it's all very close, they're all some of my favourite games ever.
I've played Awakening, Birthright, and Conquest.
All are great games, but Awakening stands out most in my mind. Best characters, best story, and it felt very fresh after not playing FE since the original on GBA. I really got into matching up everyone and unlocking the kids. Fates is not bad at all and Conquest has some very creative challenges, but it has a noticeably worse story, weaker characters, and I didn't care about getting the kids at all. I would still recommend it, but if you are a total FE newbie I would say pick up Awakening.
All are great games, but Awakening stands out most in my mind. Best characters, best story, and it felt very fresh after not playing FE since the original on GBA. I really got into matching up everyone and unlocking the kids. Fates is not bad at all and Conquest has some very creative challenges, but it has a noticeably worse story, weaker characters, and I didn't care about getting the kids at all. I would still recommend it, but if you are a total FE newbie I would say pick up Awakening.
Awakening, EZ
Echoes is a very good game, but it's also more JRPG than SRPG. If it were less grindy I think it'd be possible to make a case for it anyway though...
I've almost forgotten enough about Fates to not be mad about it. Almost
Echoes is a very good game, but it's also more JRPG than SRPG. If it were less grindy I think it'd be possible to make a case for it anyway though...
I've almost forgotten enough about Fates to not be mad about it. Almost
I actually thought Echoes had a pretty weak story myself. Although it's elevated by it's genuinely fantastic localization efforts. The weak story and it's gameplay being an absolute slog makes it my least favorite Fire Emblem game in the series, not just on the 3DS. Awakening is pretty good but I think it's like PoR in that it kind of does everything good but nothing truly exceptional. I would go with Fates. It's more uneven than Awakening but it's lower ends are forgiveable and when it's good it's great.
I echo this. Couldn't finish echoes or fates so Awakening wins by default. Great cast of characters.
Echoes is the best, as it has the best story, art, caracters... and the retro gameplay style is quite good. The map design is even worse than Awakening's, that is the other great 3DS FE game, but as Awakening has worse story, characters, broken gameplay mechanics (pair-up and child characters are really OP), it feels slightly worse as a game.
Both of them are far better than Fates though.
Both of them are far better than Fates though.
Even with its boring maps, Echoes might be my favorite if it weren't for the way it
for dumb plot reasons in the second half. The presentation layer is just way more refined than the earlier games; the fantastic art and great tunes work together with the solid voice acting to create a much more coherent and interesting world than Fates or Awakening. There aren't that many supports but most of them are good, and the quirky mechanical stuff like super archers, weapon skills, equipment, and infinite warp staff shenanigans is all fun to mess around with.
Since all the 3DS games have mediocre-to-bad plots though, I tend to write narrative off completely and just rank them by gameplay, in which case Conquest wins by a landslide. Chapter 10 gets all the attention of course, but really the entire game is much better about forcing you to come up with novel solutions and make every move count than pretty much any other game in the series.
Awakening is probably my least favorite. Same-turn reinforcements are obnoxious, the maps are mostly too straightforward (outside of paralogues) to be very interesting, and I find the cast to be the most boring of the bunch. But even so I enjoyed my time with it, it's not a bad game by any means.
throws Celica's character under the bus
Since all the 3DS games have mediocre-to-bad plots though, I tend to write narrative off completely and just rank them by gameplay, in which case Conquest wins by a landslide. Chapter 10 gets all the attention of course, but really the entire game is much better about forcing you to come up with novel solutions and make every move count than pretty much any other game in the series.
Awakening is probably my least favorite. Same-turn reinforcements are obnoxious, the maps are mostly too straightforward (outside of paralogues) to be very interesting, and I find the cast to be the most boring of the bunch. But even so I enjoyed my time with it, it's not a bad game by any means.
Fuck the writing Conquest fucking slaps in the map design and gameplay department. That thing kicked my ass up and down the Mississippi river.
I love how awakening reinvigorated the series and i personally think the story is better but almost every map is route the enemy and all the map designs are extremely basic in scope out side of past DLC maps from older games. And pair up while a great thing, it was severely broken and ended up getting nerfed in Echoes. They're not bad but damn if you've played past titles you know the things they could do better and it kinda stings they over simplified enemy encounters and map quality to cater to a new audience even with lower difficulty settings, if you need a refresher go look at a couple playthroughs on youtube to kill time(Birthright was actually billed as beginner friendly between the two and they have similar faults imo). Fates as a whole is my favorite with all content combined. You didn't give the choice so i chose conquest but i love the amount of content they were able to give. I know folks that own the SE cart/all the dlc and they STILL haven't touched everything that game has too offer and i can see how some people experienced burn out by trying to rush to finish everything. I haven't kept up with the upcoming switch game much but i have a feeling if three houses have fully different paths we'll probably see the same thing happen.
On a side note, what was up with the the ridiculous prices for the DLC they charged us on the 3DS?
On a side note, what was up with the the ridiculous prices for the DLC they charged us on the 3DS?
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Very true. Awakening is only a fan favourite because it's their first experience with the franchise.
Although honestly, none of the 3DS games are that good, so I guess I can "kind of" see why it wins polls like this.
Echoes for me. It had by far the best story, the best music, the best protagonists and antagonists, the best voice acting, the best world, and I actually liked the battle maps. I loved the dungeon crawling, world map and the removal of the weapon triangle, it made for a very different experience. Some of the maps were a tad grindy but I didn't mind too much. I really loved how you can see how the world suffering as a result of the conflict.
Awakening is number 2, and I'd probably recommend that more to a new player.
I never finished Fates birthright, I just couldn't get into it for some reason.
Awakening is number 2, and I'd probably recommend that more to a new player.
I never finished Fates birthright, I just couldn't get into it for some reason.
honestly, i voted awakening.
I do think the death of fire emblem was overstated by int sys, (the targeted sales numbers weren't that super high). But it just had the right amount of nostalgia for previous systems that it worked well enough for me.
Does conquest have better gameplay and maps? For sure. Does Echoes have the better worldbuilding, easily. However, both of those games were refinements of the base system awakening built.
Echoes has alot going for it. However, its major faults (world map travel with nonstop spawns - incredibly uninspired map design) - are quite bad for a strategy rpg.
I do think the death of fire emblem was overstated by int sys, (the targeted sales numbers weren't that super high). But it just had the right amount of nostalgia for previous systems that it worked well enough for me.
Does conquest have better gameplay and maps? For sure. Does Echoes have the better worldbuilding, easily. However, both of those games were refinements of the base system awakening built.
Echoes has alot going for it. However, its major faults (world map travel with nonstop spawns - incredibly uninspired map design) - are quite bad for a strategy rpg.
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Echoes=Awakening>Conquest>Birthright>Revelations
Echoes and Awakening were good games, albeit heavily flawed ones. (They're not winning any awards for map design anytime soon, for instance.) 8/10.
All three routes of Fates were not only massively disappointing coming off Awakening and the Radiance games, but also mediocre at best as standalone games.
Conquest is a shining example of how good gameplay can only take an RPG so far. Yes, some of the maps were outstanding (and I would argue that Conquest's map design severely deteriorates after Chapter 16), but at the end of the day, the terrible writing easily overshadows the gameplay. It's difficult to appreciate the map design when Corrin is being an utter moron before and after every chapter. Add to that a gimmicky, one-note cast, and the awful writing is ultimately what sticks with the game. 6/10.
Birthright is a poor game. Thoroughly mediocre storytelling and characterization combined with rout maps that thanks to an excessive amount of reinforcements (seriously, Chapter 23 is a rout map with 12 turns of reinforcements) end up making Awakening's maps look brilliant. 4/10.
Revelations takes the worst of both Birthright and Conquest to create what I would argue is one of the very few Nintendo games to be outright awful, even when you're not comparing it to Nintendo's standards. 3/10.
Echoes and Awakening were good games, albeit heavily flawed ones. (They're not winning any awards for map design anytime soon, for instance.) 8/10.
All three routes of Fates were not only massively disappointing coming off Awakening and the Radiance games, but also mediocre at best as standalone games.
Conquest is a shining example of how good gameplay can only take an RPG so far. Yes, some of the maps were outstanding (and I would argue that Conquest's map design severely deteriorates after Chapter 16), but at the end of the day, the terrible writing easily overshadows the gameplay. It's difficult to appreciate the map design when Corrin is being an utter moron before and after every chapter. Add to that a gimmicky, one-note cast, and the awful writing is ultimately what sticks with the game. 6/10.
Birthright is a poor game. Thoroughly mediocre storytelling and characterization combined with rout maps that thanks to an excessive amount of reinforcements (seriously, Chapter 23 is a rout map with 12 turns of reinforcements) end up making Awakening's maps look brilliant. 4/10.
Revelations takes the worst of both Birthright and Conquest to create what I would argue is one of the very few Nintendo games to be outright awful, even when you're not comparing it to Nintendo's standards. 3/10.
tbh that is bullshit. If this was true, Shadow Dragon would have been a favorite for everybody as the DS was a more popular system then the 3ds.
I think awakening's final produce was rather rough, but I do think it having an excellent japanese and english voice cast, a great modern engine with a clean look that fates and echoes refined were key.
I think you misunderstood the point he made, Shadow Dragon wouldn't be a common favorite because it was hardly anyone's first Fire Emblem experience. AFAIK the game bombed despite the DS install base, I remember seeing it in bargain bins for $10 and Nintendo couldn't justify localizing the sequel.
That said, I don't entirely agree with the statement. I'm sure Awakening being many people's first FE experience plays into it being popular to an extent, but I can also see how people might find it has the best balance of overall game elements among the 3DS entries.
Based on the responses to this topic, it seems like you can predict which game someone would like most based on what they value most. If someone cares mostly about gameplay, it's Conquest. If someone cares more about story, it's Echoes. If someone prefers a well rounded game, it's Awakening. I can't really explain picking Birthright or Revelations though.
Nah, I understood what he meant, but I do disagree with his opinion.
Shadow Dragon bombed for a multitude of reasons. Personally, I think its by far the ugliest game they've done (specifically the prerendered sprite decisions was an awful awful move). But as a result of that, I do think it suffered from terrible word of mouth and it caused people not to buy it at all. Remember, when Awakening first came out in the US it was massively underproduced (most gamestops getting copies to only cover preorders) and it had really great word of mouth compared to something like shadow dragon.
Look, I know all generations of fire emblem fans usually have their favorites coming from that generation (gamecube/ smash fans preferring por, gba kiddies preferring blazing sword etc). Hell, I"m the same with the SNES games, but Shadow Dragon's failure to have that hold on a more popular system than the 3DS is rather telling. Tellius games sold like dog shit, but they still have a hold on the fanbase in the west, there's zero fanbase for Archanea in the west (and tbh I think its my biggest problem with Int Sys right now).
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I liked the story in Conquest more than the story in any of these other games.
Conquest manages to consistently find new avenues of nonsense to justify ridiculous plot turns and idiotic character actions. It's the only time I've ever felt motivated by the story in an SRPG; I want to see what Dadaist contrivance happens in the next map. Furthermore, Garondorf is a hilarious cartoon character and his and his lackeys' comically evil behavior conflicts so beautifully with the writing's attempt to convince me that Corrin's actions are morally-grey.
Valentia's story wasn't interesting enough to motivate me to go through the terrible map design. Awakening's plot and map design are both mediocre. Birthright is Awakening 2. Revelations's story is almost as nonsensical as Conquest's but it lacks Conquest's excellent map design.
Conquest manages to consistently find new avenues of nonsense to justify ridiculous plot turns and idiotic character actions. It's the only time I've ever felt motivated by the story in an SRPG; I want to see what Dadaist contrivance happens in the next map. Furthermore, Garondorf is a hilarious cartoon character and his and his lackeys' comically evil behavior conflicts so beautifully with the writing's attempt to convince me that Corrin's actions are morally-grey.
Valentia's story wasn't interesting enough to motivate me to go through the terrible map design. Awakening's plot and map design are both mediocre. Birthright is Awakening 2. Revelations's story is almost as nonsensical as Conquest's but it lacks Conquest's excellent map design.
As someone without any FE3 experience, FE12 is pretty great. Even the character art has grown on me, I like it more than the Awakening/Fates art. The battle scenes are ugly, but who leaves those on for more than a chapter anyway.
Two of my friends became Fire emblem fans for Awakening and commenting the game and characters with them was a blast. Then fates happened.