Fire Emblem fans: What draws you to the franchise?

[Ryengeku]

The Poll can be answered multiple times if you care about more than one thing. This is essentially just shedding light on where the fans in Era stand on the different elements of Fire Emblem. Choose one or choose all.

Introduction
I've been meaning to make a thread like this for a while as sort of a "Let's hash it out" in regards to what elements you feel are the most important for the franchise to continue, or are you one of the ones that believe it should have just died? I can't quite say I'm the most diehard fan but I believe I've played the majority of them in the franchise to have an idea of what I'm particularly fond of.

Story/Lore
I'm definitely a stickler for meaning in almost everything, even if it's a game, as some would choose to disregard. I've recently just played the demo of the Vestaria Saga by the original creator of Fire Emblem on Steam, and it oozed with plenty of dialogue/lore in just the opening act. I feel that it pretty much stomped the most recent titles within the FE franchise on the 3DS, aside from Shadows of Valentia. So when I saw this highly detailed map with practically everything named? Hype ensued.

It's even shaped like a dragon's head which in and of itself is lore tied to geography. I'm seeing multiple countries surrounding Fodlan which immediately makes me think of more depth than just one continent.

I know they have us picking a certain empire of students to teach but I don't want the ending to just be based on what we chose. Or they could still do something like that but at least have a True Ending that isn't catered to one choice. To be honest, it's a little difficult for me to picture where they could go with it seeing as I never played Revelations yet because I hated the aspect of having to pay 3 times. At least this time, it seems like they aren't making us pay multiple times and instead just play the one game four times (if it does have a True Ending not tied to either empire). But sure, I guess the easiest way to approach things is the fact that it will all culminate into one giant baddie that threatens all of existence.

(Initial) Setting
Seeing as we still don't have a lot of info for Three Houses to go on, I'll still say their use of the popular school setting doesn't anger me or anything. There are plenty of examples of it being used while also having a compelling narrative. Even then, I don't believe it'll be emphasized throughout the whole game though. I still like the aspect of having a journey, trudging from one location to the next, without having that "main hub" that's usually protected 95% of the time by plot armor. I'm hoping it's a bit of both, in some way.

Supports
In regards to the social aspects of the franchise in the form of supports, would the majority really forsake the game if it had less supports in favor of more unique dialogue, emphasizing backstory/lore/motivations a bit more? Some are good and most just come off as really generic so almost all characters can bond with each other. In reality, not everyone can actually communicate with one another, let alone form a strong enough bond for marriage.

I and plenty of others criticize Camilla as the poster child for what's wrong with Fates, or the general direction of where it seems IS is going with the franchise. However, I recently saw quite an in-depth video about her that made me consider a slightly different view of Fates if IS followed through with it. It was a video explaining some of her supports that insinuated some form of developed mental illness from her childhood that resulted in her overly-doting personality of Corrin. I found it pretty deep/dark which directly contrasted what was actually depicted of her in the game. Overall, I feel it was a missed opportunity of real world issues that I'd love for them to expound upon in Three Houses.


Character Designs
Everyone likes cool designs but I'm not going to immediately bash any character(s) if they don't look as cool as another. I could still be swayed by a well-developed personality in the form of good writing. I just don't like the approach of purely matching good looking character 1 with good looking character 2, which is why I grimace at anyone emphasizing their importance. But yes, they do matter to some extent for me as well. I don't even mind the school uniforms if the personalities are interesting.

Gameplay
I'd be crazy if I said I didn't want or care about great level design, but I'm also one of the ones that enjoyed Shadows of Valentia as well. Still, I recognize that despite the overhaul that was done with the game, they chose to keep its map design true to the original. In retrospect, plenty of the titles that came after it has better map design by default.

With that in mind, I do not want Three Houses to be 100% like Fates: Conquest, which is toted as the best right now. My reasoning on that is because I want a game of war to feel like a war with moderate to huge maps. I imagine they won't all be as tight as some of the maps in Conquest but I also don't want them to be full of random hazards spawned from dragon veins either. I know Genaology of the Holy War/Thracia 776 had huge maps(though I didn't play them) and even Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn had some that represented a huge war transpiring. However, I don't want them to be completely "blank" either since this franchise isn't an RTS, which is where I believe formations will come into play. You'll have to still worry about unit placement and whatever formations they have acquired vs the enemies.

I also hope they bring back every single weapon triangle in every weapon class because that always elevates the strategic element. I don't mind the return of weapon degradation either since it will cause to you to be a bit more cautious instead of using OP character with OP weapon to mow down everyone.

DLC
Nintendo/Intelligent Systems, if you're reading this, just do a single expansion and make it $20. I'd have like if it was included with the Seasons of Warfare Edition but alas it wasn't. However, if you choose not to have any DLC(which is unlikely), then that'd be great too.

Final Thoughts/tl:dr
I'm more of the side of political intrigue/limited but well written supports/a mix of tight map design without random hazards and some big maps representative of an actual war transpiring, even if they're slightly "blank". Saying I want this game to be good is rather subjective but its more of wanting this game to be good in regards to my personal tastes formulated from previous titles not counting the 3DS titles (however disregarding SoV in that statement).

 

[Deleted member 35077]

Shipping. If I can't be the cupid in my caravan of soldiers than that is a Fire Emblem game I don't want to play.

 

[Aniki]

It's the gameplay. Never cared much for the stories in the FE games i've played. The next most important thing for me are the characters and their interactions.

 

[RE lover]

Definitely gameplay. I don't care for the story most times. Characters are cool though

 

[Fosko]

Waifus

 

[Cipher Peon]

Shipping. If I can't be the cupid in my caravan of soldiers than that is a Fire Emblem game I don't want to play.

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While not as extreme as you, whipping my characters together is an overwhelming reason as to why I play the franchise.

The gameplay and art design are also huge factors for me too of course :)

(first FE game was 7, and I've played them all except 4 and 5)

 

[Lego Killer Moth]

The answers might sound a little different for people who started on the 3DS games lol

 

[Holundrian]

The spreadsheets.

 

[Lusamine]

Came for the tactics in Tellius, stayed for the hot babes of Nohr.

 

[Deleted member 36578]

This and Shining Force were always my favorite strategy RPGs. Without shining force, it's all I have left!!! I play them for the gameplay. I love having very personal members in my army.

 

[Enrico25]

Gameplay and waifus/husbandos

 

[Sadist]

Still the gameplay; the easy yet challenging tactical gameplay is a combo which always sets the series apart compared to others.

 

[Evergarden]

Camilla

 

[Linde]

It's a mixture of everything really.

And I'd much much MUCH prefer if they limit supports and just have well written ones that actually make sense instead of trying to shoehorn in as much as possible, with half of them being hot garbage like in awakening and fates

4 is my favourite because story wise, I absolutely love it. It's mystical and actually feels like you're playing a history book. Like an actual war is happening and you're in charge. Gameplay wise, the large maps complement this feeling really well. And the character designs are great also
Meanwhile in fates it feels like you're running through the rooms of a castle trying to get to the big bad meanie who's terribly written and waiting to create some absurd nonsensical plot

 

[Deleted member 4037]

Really the strategy is what brings me in, but the characters/shipping adds a lot of replayability and interesting interactions for characters, I would miss it

 

[Glio]

Gameplay and being able to see how many different characters interact with each other.

 

[Deleted member 37233]

I know it's a bit controversial, but a huge part for me is the shipping aspect in the newer Fire Emblem games and honestly I don't have a real problem with the sometimes a bit too revealing character designs. I know that those depictions, especially of women, are problematic, but I'm able to seperate this from my personal view of the matter.
Aside from that I love the gameplay and the setting.

 

[AuroraMusisAmica]

Gameplay and survival. Theres the thrill of not just winning, but keeping your units alive at all costs. R/L/Start.

That's enhanced by watching these many characters grow in strength as well as in their relationships to one another. Whether in comraderie or romantically.

 

[Mirage Coordinator]

I'm not sure to be perfectly honest, but the only Fire Emblem games I ever really enjoyed immensely were 9 and 10. The music, story, setting, and character design just appealed and engrossed in a way that none of the other games in the series have managed to do. The GBA games were okay, but I really struggled to get through Awakening and i never even managed to finish Fates. Maybe its just because in between 10 and the subsequent games I played VC which made FE really boring, ugly, and unappealing in comparison lol.

 

[LazyLain]

Gameplay first, Good character designs & supports 2nd, Story/Lore 3rd.

I can take or leave ships (though the canonically correct ship is always avatar x waifu harem), but prefer when the series doesn't lean into it too heavily like Fates did. Awakening was neat, but I don't want its unique elements to become the series focus going forward. Same goes for Three Houses and its school setting.

 

[Xero grimlock]

the characters and relationships in the newer ones, the stories have been meh. Had tried some of the previous ones, but the instadeath mechanic just led to more frustration do i never finished. I hate when the difficulty of a yurned based strategy game promotes saving most turns to avoid mistakes if they are overly punishing. I much prefer to have a lighter punishment that i can live with and adapt easier to. its why i didnt care for valkyria or xcom 2 that much.

 

[Disclaimer]

Voted for Story/Lore/Setting, Limited Yet Well-Written Supports, and Gameplay.

Those best embody what Fire Emblem should be to me. Character designs are obviously integral too, but all I want from them is something more grounded and sensible that doesn't verge into hentai. You can create sexy and desirable characters without stripping them and transforming them from characters into objects.

More limited supports enhance both characterization and consequently the poignance of the cast's relationships, so I'd much prefer that to the diluted free-for-all of Fateswakening. To borrow from Tolkien, those felt "thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread."

Story/Lore/Setting are of the utmost important, tied with gameplay, because without a remotely engaging narrative I find it difficult to become invested in a game, let alone replay it for the umpteenth time. When worldbuilding and lore take precedence — enhancing the story, informed by the geography — games continue to reward your attentions, like a meticulously crafted novel will age finely with rereads.

I've never had any doubt in IS's capacity to hone Fire Emblem's gameplay, even if I haven't been fond of certain entries' mechanics, such as the Pair-Up system. Zero worry on this front — rather, I'm excited for the series to finally take up more RPG-like mechanics, because things like town and dungeon exploration further enhance world-building and immersion.

 

[Selphie]

I played some of the GBA games but the series didn't grab me until Awakening the artstyle and presentation of the game was so good it really drew me in more. So for me it is Gameplay + Character Design

 

[AkiraAkira]

It's the great gameplay and the attachment I build for the characters that I slowly strengthen and care for. And that's about it. The fact that units can die due to my carelessness makes the stakes feel so much higher, and I really get invested in seeing my party make it through to the end in one piece. The supports are nice, and I might like the romantic pairing element if I could actually match up some gay couples, but those aren't necessary to my enjoyment. I also couldn't care less about the story. My love for Fire Emblem is similiar to why I love playing Pokemon nuzlockes so much - when your units aren't expendable, it adds an extra element to the experience that humanizes your chess pieces.

 

[McNum]

If I didn't like the tactical turn based gameplay, I wouldn't play the series, I think.

But Fire Emblem, to me, is about the characters. Having a decent setting is nice, but it's the characters that are the main selling point. Wit such a wide cast of characters in each game, there are usually at least a few characters that I like. And the newer games allow me to customize them to my liking, which is also fun. Three houses looks like it'll focus on that.

That said, shipping characters has become surprisingly amusing. Both for trying to match people up that seem like they'd work together, and for the outright crack pairings where you just want to see how they'd even work. I bought Revelation for Fates just to see if Selena would react to being Caeldori's mother. And to my delight, she did have a unique scene for that, where she was kind of weirded out about it.

 

[Ryengeku]

Voted for Story/Lore/Setting, Limited Yet Well-Written Supports, and Gameplay.

Those best embody what Fire Emblem should be to me. Character designs are obviously integral too, but all I want from them is something more grounded and sensible that doesn't verge into hentai. You can create sexy and desirable characters without stripping them and transforming them from characters into objects.

More limited supports enhance both characterization and consequently the poignance of the cast's relationships, so I'd much prefer that to the diluted free-for-all of Fateswakening. To borrow from Tolkien, those felt "thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread."

Story/Lore/Setting are of the utmost important, tied with gameplay, because without a remotely engaging narrative I find it difficult to become invested in a game, let alone replay it for the umpteenth time. When worldbuilding and lore take precedence — enhancing the story, informed by the geography — games continue to reward your attentions, like a meticulously crafted novel will age finely with rereads.

I've never had any doubt in IS's capacity to hone Fire Emblem's gameplay, even if I haven't been fond of certain entries' mechanics, such as the Pair-Up system. Zero worry on this front — rather, I'm excited for the series to finally take up more RPG-like mechanics, because things like town and dungeons exploration further enhance world-building and immersion.

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Great write-up. This is pretty much where I stand on things as well.

 

[Jbone115]

I wish music was an option - the last few FE games have had FANTASTIC OSTs.

 

[Pau]

Pretty much exclusively for the gameplay.

I do really like the character designs when they aren't based around female characters showing as much skin as possible.

 

[NeonZ]

I got into FE playing FE3, so what pulled me in was mostly the overall gameplay concept of varied unique units controlled by the player in a tactical map, perma death and large cast selection of colorful characters. One of my favorite units back then was freaking Radd just because his FE3 portrait made him look like a Saint Seiya character.

That said, as far as supports go, I first played a game with supports I could actually read with FE7 since I couldn't read any Japanese dialogue at the time I first played FE6 and there was no translation available. I thought they were a great way to build up on the player's cast selection - giving extra conversations (and so story, not just gameplay, presence) to the characters the player is actually using, rather than just the main cast or making an endlessly bloated story that attempts to feature everyone. It's why I enjoyed Awakening's and Fates' take on it, since they generally are available to most of the units you might use, rather than the player needing to build their team around the support selection.

I do also like the aspect of "shipping" too since it gives the player some choice and control over story elements too in a way (pairing the characters the player wants rather than just developer pairings).

In reality, not everyone can actually communicate with one another, let alone form a strong enough bond for marriage.

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With free supports that most likely will happen too. Most people won't get the entire support line up of each character, they'll only focus on specific groups for each playthrough and obviously only one S ranking. It's not a matter of everyone bonding, it's a matter of giving the player power over who will bond.

I don't think limited supports necessary result in better writing though. In something like Path of Radiance, most "good" supports feel like just extensions of the main story, sometimes even locked behind finishing certain chapters since they deal with some of their events, Jill being a big example here, but then you have characters like Mia, Largo or Keiran left with just throw away supports since they have no real role in the main story. At least pairings and S rankings would give the illusion of those conversations going somewhere and with wider choices they wouldn't feel so limited in general.

 

[Mediking]

Literally... everything lol

 

[night814]

Always enjoyed chess and other sorts of strategy games like card games so a top down medieval chess game with RPG growth and stats is an awesome fit for me.

 

[Burly]

Characters/supports and the story for the most part. Always found the gameplay to be dated and the weakest aspect of the series.

 

[Deleted member 11413]

Gameplay, setting, characters, usually in that order.
Fire Emblem has the best SRPG gameplay for my money, Intelligent Systems know how to make good strategic gameplay.

 

[WarAdept]

The offfchance that the series can redeem itself and go back to the game play/difficulty of Thracia 776 and delete all the waifu trash.

 

[TwinBahamut]

It's the whole package I suppose? There is a lot to like about the series, and my fondness for the series extends to every aspect if it. I guess that's why getting any part of it wrong is such a big problem for any entry in the series.

 

[SirNinja]

Gameplay always comes first.

I wish there was a poll option for the music, though, as that's always been another of FE's strong suits.

 

[TimeFire]

I've been playing Genealogy of the Holy War these days, so I got mostly why I'm loving it into mind atm.

I absolutely love the tactical gameplay, lore is very interesting when they actually try (Fateslandia... bleh) and I absolutely love playing matchmaker, specially with inheritances and child units in mind.

 

[B00T]

SRPG gameplay first and foremost. Characters, story and setting after.

 

[Sub Boss]

Gameplay>Characters>Support/shipping>and Music

Art direction and graphics are generic but normally not a turn off. However some games have great gameplay but terrible characters (Conquest)others have good characters but mediocre gameplay (Echoes).

The story in Echoes carried me through the game but i couldn't finish Conquest it was too 'hardcore' for me

 

[Basileus777]

The gameplay. Fire Emblem has never had good writing even in the days when it was more tolerable on that front.

 

[OrangeNova]

Gameplay and Setting.

I would love a new Fire Emblem without character shipping/support crap. Just give me a campaign where I recruit characters.

 

[BAN PUNCHER]

Tharja

Waifus

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[masaa]

Lore was definitely a component for me in the Kaga era.

Nowadays, it's just the chara design and gameplay.

 

[MazKiller]

Gameplay first: Well designed maps, mix of chapter missions/goals (seize the throne, route the enemy/survive/protect etc...)

Characters second: A huge part of FE for me is how likable and well designed the characters are. I really hate that all the characters are cutesy/beautiful now. Like I don't mind characters that look really good, but not every soldier that goes to a full scale war has to look like a Maybelline brand ambassador. I prefer grittier character designs but, I get it... Gorgeous anime characters sell. Rip Advance Wars: Days of Ruin.

Story and lore are important to me, but FE never really had an amazing 10/10 story. So all I ask is for something decent and not dumb and complicated for no reason whatsoever. I would prefer a larger emphasis on story, but not at the expense of watering down the gameplay.

 

[Comic Obsessed]

Characters, strategy and shipping.

Not necessarily in that order.

 

[Jawbreaker]

Gameplay and music exclusively (I used to like the older character designs, however).I can't say I really care about anything else the series has to offer.

 

[Deleted member 28523]

Every fire emblem story is basically the same. bad kingdom invades good kingdom. 3rd act dragon/super wizard/whatever. It's usually more focused on the characters within the larger story.

The support system should be completely reworked. Everyone hated the FE10 support system but continuing off that idea and being able to adapt different supports based on who the player wants to use rather then the characters want to be with. But they ditched it.

Unless your doing a time skip stop with the child characters. I think they've sort of realized this with the newest game though.

I'm not going to play 3 Houses but I really hate that since it's shackled to the Wizard's school (w/e) every character is going to be an attractive 25 year old . No more middle aged washed up widow (Bartre FE6), middle aged couple (Pent and Lousie from FE6), etc. Characters like Niime and Athos fulfill the old sage role as well. A lot less diversity in the roster even if they finally did start including black people in their game.

In general more female designs like Titania. More weirdos like Gonzales. Give me a male Pegasus knight already. We've seen the same archetypes over and over again. Let's get creative and weird.

I could do a whole thing on gameplay. In general I would like it to be slightly less stat-based (the pair up mechanic is gone so that's a good step) and slightly more positioning based.

 

[Oaklight]

I care mostly for the story, the lore, the atmosphere, and the gameplay. I mostly dislike all the nonsense pertaining to the relationship systems and pandering to people who like dating sims.

I wish Fire Emblem would focus more on epic storylines and a deep and thorough exploration on the nature of warfare and ancient evil shadow dragons, but I accept that the franchise simply would not be as popular if I got my way.

I am excited for three houses regardless and hope that the gameplay is good.

 

[Nightbird]

The answers might sound a little different for people who started on the 3DS games lol

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Awakening was my first title and I'm absolutely in love with the chess-like gameplay of the series.

The whole shipping aspect is not very interesting to me.

 

[Poised Turtoise]

2d Sprite work, interesting stories of adventure where you get to explore a world and recruit numerous different members coming from wildly different backgrounds, the weapon system, the class system

With the pretty sprites being long gone, most of your members seemingly seemingly being students in the new one, and potentially more social/romance fluff I'm the least interested I've ever been looking at the new one