Nothing makes a gamer feel older than when a favorite game or series reaches a landmark anniversary. Try on this one for size, strategy fans:Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light, the first release in Nintendo’s belovedFire Emblemseries, is now 35 years old.
Granted, it was considerably longer before the games left their native Japan, with the first Western release being 2003’s Fire Emblem. By this time,Super Smash Bros. Meleeplayers (just about everyone that came within a two mile radius of a GameCube) had been afforded ample time to wonder who these mysterious swordsmen, Marth and Roy, were.
If they ventured into the Fire Emblem series as a result of that curiosity, just as I did, they would learn when so many Japanese fans already knew:Permadeath is a harsh, harsh mistress in a tactical RPG.
All these years later, most of us know the drill when it comes tothe ever-popular Fire Emblem series. The grid- and turn-based action, the character classes, the weapon triangle, and the general Medieval fantasy vibes have all come to broadly define the games.
So, too, has the fact thatlosing a favorite unit can be utterly devastating.
The Next Fire Emblem Game Should Combine Three Houses’ and Engage’s Game Styles
Give us the best of both worlds in the next installment!
Strategy With A Heaping Helping Of Emotion
The series arrived in the West at a time when Advance Wars had become at least a third of my entire personality. Sequel Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising also hit the West in 2003, and cemented in me a lifelong love ofthese turn-based, grid-based strategic shenanigans.
An Advance Wars commander, though, is a ruthless one. Strategies can revolve around pumping out unit after unit and winning through attrition, unapologetic about the sheer numbers of cutesy Mechs and Infantry lost in the slow, on-foot charge.
Fire Emblem’s units, by contrast, are generally named characters that you’ve forged a bond with over the course of the campaign. From a practical point of view, they might be the only one you’ve developed in a certain way, your best archer or healer.Careful planning is crucial.
From a less practical point of view, they might be your designated love interest. The fandom knows just how important these people are.
The ability to rewind time or play without permadeath just don’t feel in the spirit of what Fire Emblem is trying to do.
Whatever the case, for many,units simply are not expendable. At all.All of this was epitomised by 2019’sFire Emblem: Three Houses, which upped the ante immeasurably by focusing so heavily on exploring the Monastery and becoming closer to the staff and students.
You learn their innermost thoughts and feelings. You give them gifts that cater to their specific tastes. You learn more about their personality quirks, and how they even tie into their personal skills (the sleepy Linhardt has the skill Catnap, for instance, which allows him to restore a little HP at the end of a turn if he opts to Wait).
Fire Emblem Engage: 10 Hardest Fights In The Game, Ranked
Fire Emblem Engage features some incredibly difficult fights, so we’ve ranked some of the hardest ones.
High-Stakes Relationships
The game does a fantastic job of representing a relationship developing over time, with support conversations that literally ‘rank up’ a friendship over time.Even if you’re only really interested in the battling side of things, these relationships also bestow bonuses on the pair in combat.
Fire Emblem, in short, makes you really care about each of your units. In Three Houses, I was able to gradually bring Bernadetta of the Black Eagles out of her shell and become incredibly close to her, ultimately giving herthatring.
Seeing her become gradually more comfortable with Byleth and her companions was truly touching. Strategy games are rarely so committed to character development in this way. My gosh,choices matter so much here.
Whether you feel as strongly about all this as I do or not, the fact that you can permanently lose a character who might be critical to your strategy is devastating.A Fire Emblem game on a harder difficulty, as such, is a harrowing experience in more ways than one.
The famous time skip in Three Houses gave the developers the chance to play the cruelest trick they have yet.
Here are some slightly older versions of your beloved students. The war has evolved, and some of them are resolved to fight you. They hate the reality of this and will express great regret (depending on their personal situations of course).It’s like playing through an emotional anime at times.
You can’t get away from these harsh and horrifying realities of war. Whichever path you choose, you’ll be confronted with it.The older Ferdinand von Aegir was far too fabulous to die, Nintendo, and I still hate that you made me do it.
Fire Emblem Engage: Best Bunet Builds
If you’re trying to find the best ways to use Bunet in Fire Emblem: Engage. this guide can give you some help.
