Good Fire Emblem game to introduce someone to the series?

[Smacktard]

I was wondering if there's a particular Fire Emblem title that would be great for introducing people to the series. I tried playing the GBA remake of the original, but really got my butt handed to me. It's kind of tough how if someone dies, they'll never come back. Do you guys have any tips on playing these games, as well? Thanks a bunch!

[Rick52]

I was wondering if there's a particular Fire Emblem title that would be great for introducing people to the series. I tried playing the GBA remake of the original, but really got my butt handed to me. It's kind of tough how if someone dies, they'll never come back. Do you guys have any tips on playing these games, as well? Thanks a bunch!

I'm not sure if you're referring to the GBA Fire Emblem, which isn't a remake of anything, or the DS Shadow Dragon which is the actual remake of the original, but either way neither game is on the easy side of things.

Of the five available, Sacred Stones is a good starting point, as its the easiest and it allows you to beef up your army without advancing the story.

Path of Radiance also isn't too bad, though that's for the Gamecube.

That just leaves Radiant Dawn for the Wii, which is not only not easy but its pretty difficult for newcomers to get into as it switches armies on you several times in the game.

So, uh, I guess either Sacred Stones or Path of Radiance are good starts. I prefer Path of Radiance, but Sacred Stones is fine if you don't have a Gamecube or Wii.

As for some tips, it basically boils down to figuring out the enemy AI. On most occasions, it will do the following:
1) determine the person in your army within its range that's the easiest to kill,
2) attack that one person en masse, screw the consequences

The only units that won't bother to ram your army are bosses (usually) or something special/recruitable enemies. Anyway, to defend against these rushes:

1) get someone with high Def, like a Knight, and have him be the only person within the enemies' range. They'll attack him like dopes and you can pick them off when its your turn again. Against a field of mages or even just one or two of those annoying long range mages you'll want someone with high Res to take some hits (or even break those limited use long range magics) just as long as there isn't a weapon enemy nearby.

2) in a situation where you're in an open field, using the phalanx formation isn't a bad idea. Its basically a 'v' formation, with the point in the lead and those you want to protect within it. Positioned in a manner where only the outer units can be attacked, its a decent way to move your entire army across a field while facing attacks from everywhich way. They'll probably all go after the same person in front, so make sure everyone in the formation can handle themselves or have a healer right nearby.

3) your unit can only be attacked from so many different positions. If you're against multiple enemies, if your unit keeps killing your enemies with their counterattacks, eventually enough enemies will be able to hit your unit enough to kill him. In such a case, you might want to equip that unit with a weaker weapon or unequip him altogether, that way another enemy can't just step in and attack as a previous unit will still be in that spot, and if you're able to weaken without killing its a great way to get your underleveled units some experience

Also, having a flying unit, whether it be a pegasus or a wyvern/dragon knight, is a big help in big maps (not so much smaller or indoor maps).

[Smacktard]

I'm not sure if you're referring to the GBA Fire Emblem, which isn't a remake of anything, or the DS Shadow Dragon which is the actual remake of the original, but either way neither game is on the easy side of things.

It was just "Fire Emblem" for the GBA. Haha, wow, I thought it was a remake of one of the NES Fire Emblems all this time.

Of the five available, Sacred Stones is a good starting point, as its the easiest and it allows you to beef up your army without advancing the story.

I actually think I may have played this one as well. I definitely got my ass handed to me. I guess I'm just hopeless D:

Path of Radiance also isn't too bad, though that's for the Gamecube.

Cool. I like playing things on consoles more than handhelds anyways.

That just leaves Radiant Dawn for the Wii, which is not only not easy but its pretty difficult for newcomers to get into as it switches armies on you several times in the game.

I heard that it's tough, actually. I've been looking into it though. I just think I'm really bad at these games though.

As for some tips, it basically boils down to figuring out the enemy AI. On most occasions, it will do the following:
1) determine the person in your army within its range that's the easiest to kill,
2) attack that one person en masse, screw the consequences

The only units that won't bother to ram your army are bosses (usually) or something special/recruitable enemies. Anyway, to defend against these rushes:

1) get someone with high Def, like a Knight, and have him be the only person within the enemies' range. They'll attack him like dopes and you can pick them off when its your turn again. Against a field of mages or even just one or two of those annoying long range mages you'll want someone with high Res to take some hits (or even break those limited use long range magics) just as long as there isn't a weapon enemy nearby.

2) in a situation where you're in an open field, using the phalanx formation isn't a bad idea. Its basically a 'v' formation, with the point in the lead and those you want to protect within it. Positioned in a manner where only the outer units can be attacked, its a decent way to move your entire army across a field while facing attacks from everywhich way. They'll probably all go after the same person in front, so make sure everyone in the formation can handle themselves or have a healer right nearby.

3) your unit can only be attacked from so many different positions. If you're against multiple enemies, if your unit keeps killing your enemies with their counterattacks, eventually enough enemies will be able to hit your unit enough to kill him. In such a case, you might want to equip that unit with a weaker weapon or unequip him altogether, that way another enemy can't just step in and attack as a previous unit will still be in that spot, and if you're able to weaken without killing its a great way to get your underleveled units some experience

Also, having a flying unit, whether it be a pegasus or a wyvern/dragon knight, is a big help in big maps (not so much smaller or indoor maps).

Oh wow, that's actually very helpful. Much better than my old strategy of "OH THAT DIDNT WORK? RELOAD! OH THAT DIDNT WORK? RELOAD!"

Just a question though... there are some bosses that I found are like kind of pretty much impossible to consistently kill without reloading. In one of the GBA Fire Emblems, I think the final boss fight is against a bunch of dragons, and I either quit because I wasn't doing any damage or I had to kill most of my characters to win. How are you supposed to handle these battles?

[Rick52]

Just a question though... there are some bosses that I found are like kind of pretty much impossible to consistently kill without reloading. In one of the GBA Fire Emblems, I think the final boss fight is against a bunch of dragons, and I either quit because I wasn't doing any damage or I had to kill most of my characters to win. How are you supposed to handle these battles?

Against standard bosses, if they're not equipped with a ranged weapon (Javelin, etc.) or magic you'll want to whittle down the bosses' HP using the very same. Longbows become useful here as they have a range of 3 which the boss definitely won't counter unless he has a Longbow too somehow.

In most cases, a boss will have a ranged weapon and a melee weapon. When attacking from melee range, the boss will normally use the melee weapon as its usually better. So, you'd want to use your high Def guy to take a hit from the boss' melee weapon then pound him with ranged attacks the next turn. Though, you'll want to kill him that round because once its the boss' turn again he's gonna go after one of your ranged units.

In Fire Emblem for GBA (which I'm just gonna call FE7 because its the seventh game), you can easily defeat magic bosses with Luna, as that weapon ignores the enemy's Res stat and also comes with a nice hit rate and critical boost. It got weakened considerably for Sacred Stones and hasn't been seen since, though.

As for the Dragons, which I think was in Sacred Stones (in FE7 I can only recall the final boss dragon and I guess in Sword of Seals too though that never got released here) that would be a good time to use legendary weapons, if not Magic's good too. I think the wyvern-weak weapons are effective too, but I'm not sure. I also forget if they have an attack range of 1 or 2, but I'm thinking 2 (with the ones in Sword of Seals having 1), so just make sure your units' defense is up to code.

For the final bosses, make sure everyone who attacks before the person that deliver's the final blow can survive a hit, and then make sure everybody can kill the boss in one turn. If not, which is probably going to be the case in FE7, then make sure you have a Fortify staff (or the S-rank staff, whatever that's called) and heal everyone at once.

[Smacktard]

Ahh, okay. But I have a question... some of the bosses would just stay put on a castle. This would boost their defense considerably, and it was really tough to kill them. I think they may've kept dodging my attacks or else my attacks would do no damage. How would I remedy or deal with this?

[Rick52]

Ahh, okay. But I have a question... some of the bosses would just stay put on a castle. This would boost their defense considerably, and it was really tough to kill them. I think they may've kept dodging my attacks or else my attacks would do no damage. How would I remedy or deal with this?

Well, there's no direct way. You can really only counteract those bonuses with supports. There's a full page, actually two, here (http://serenesforest.net/fe7/support.htm) about supports but it gets pretty complex. Otherwise, you'll have to take advantage of the weapon/magic triangles, use high accuracy weapons with high strength characters to make up the loss of weapon might, use specialty weapons (Hammer, Longsword, etc.) if you can get a good enough accuracy from them and so on, or use magic if you can get away with it.

[Smacktard]

Oh my god, that page is really complex. What do the supports actually do, besides initiating a conversation?

[Rick52]

Basically, if two characters have a support with one another, they'll get slight stat boosts if they're within three spaces of one another. Those boosts get stronger if you get an A support, and which stats get boosted vary depending on the affinities of the characters.

In Radiant Dawn, I think, two Earth affinity units with an A support with one another gives each a 30% boost in Evade as an example. I don't think the GBA FE's have a boost that big (not to mention no Earth affinity), but they are still pretty helpful.

[Smacktard]

Seems pretty helpful. What I did for the few FE games I played, was I'd kill everyone but the boss in each battle and then I'd send people to the arena to get money and/or experience (I don't remember the details, it was a long time ago I played them). Is this typically what people do? Is it also typical to get the support conversations in a similar manner?

[Rick52]

Seems pretty helpful. What I did for the few FE games I played, was I'd kill everyone but the boss in each battle and then I'd send people to the arena to get money and/or experience (I don't remember the details, it was a long time ago I played them). Is this typically what people do? Is it also typical to get the support conversations in a similar manner?

Pretty much, at least for the GBA games it is. Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn have no arena (you get 'Bonus Experience' after clearing each chapter which you can distribute to units freely) and while arenas return for Shadow Dragon, there aren't any Support conversations in that.

[Smacktard]

Okay good, because I felt cheap whenever I did that arena thing, haha.

[Avant-garde]

FE5 is the best to start with.
No, seriously.

[Smacktard]

Yeah, that'd be great if I spoke moon language :P

Maybe it'll get a release on the english Virtual Console some day... but I doubt it D:

[MightyZagaro]

No knowledge of foreign languages is required to play Japanese FEs once you know the English ones.

[Avant-garde]

Well, FE5 has a lot of good things that were never seen again. Capture systems, mounting and unmounting to go indoors, battle animations that looked feasible~

[MightyZagaro]

Are you kidding? Mounting was bull.

It accomplished nothing except making everything more annoying, I'm happy it's dead and I hope it stays that way.

[Avant-garde]

Are you kidding? Mounting was bull.

It accomplished nothing except making everything more annoying, I'm happy it's dead and I hope it stays that way.

Well good for you, riding horses and flying creatures into hallways that are only ten feet or so tall. The entire game had a very real feel to it because of the little things like that.

[MightyZagaro]

Well good for you, riding horses and flying creatures into hallways that are only ten feet or so tall.

oh yes because video games must be 100% realistic, especially in a game with magic fireballs and magical staves that heal chest wounds in a jiffy

also

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tr4qLSE9ls&feature=related

[WardMonkeyXVII]

FE8 was very beginner friendly. Too friendly, I might add. FE7 would be a decent place, I think.