I don't think my thoughts on this game are really that different from the general consensus among FE fans— the gameplay is fantastic, the story is laughably bad. I think the beginning part of the story is OK from what I remember, but the number of plot contrivances and the flat-out bad writing that follows will likely disinterest a lot of people. If you want to laugh at the stupidity, then go ahead and watch the cutscenes. Otherwise, I would say you're better off skipping the narrative and just enjoying the maps.

I rate this one as highly as I do simply because I think it has the best gameplay of the 3DS Fire Emblem entries, but otherwise I would probably give it a similar rating to the other routes of Fates.

Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn is the direct sequel to Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance. While I don't think this game is quite as strong narratively as its predecessor, I do think it is very enjoyable in its own right, and the gameplay is much better.

This game takes place a couple of years after the main conflict of Path of Radiance, and it is very enjoyable to see all of the characters you came to enjoy in Path of Radiance once more, especially with how some of them have changed in the years since. This is especially true for both Elincia and Ike, as we get to see a great deal of development for Elincia, and how Ike has fully matured after the events of the previous game.

This game also introduces a number of brand-new characters, including a new protagonist, Micaiah. Micaiah's story offers a different perspective to the events of Path of Radiance, and does a lot to setup her eventual involvement in the main events of the game.

Radiant Dawn is rather infamous for a couple of things: its high difficulty, and its plot issues. The difficulty part is mainly attributed to the chapters involving Micaiah's faction, the Dawn Brigade, which generally consists of weaker units compared to Ike's Greil Mercenaries. Some of Micaiah's chapters can be tedious to get through, and may deter some players.

While the story issues bothered me less compared to most other players I've spoken with, I do think part of the issue has to do with localization. The original Japanese version had 3 different scripts for the game depending on the selected difficulty, with the "Lunatic" script having far more detail than the lower difficulties. The localization of Radiant Dawn tried to fix this by using a singular script across each difficulty, but they script they used was the less detailed one. For those interested, I highly recommend looking into the script differences upon completing/watching Radiant Dawn.

Despite the issues Radiant Dawn has, I ultimatelythink Radiant Dawn serves as a great culmination of Ike's character and story, and still has an enjoyable cast, selection of maps, and some strong emotional moments.

We don't need to talk about the voice acting though.

Similar to my review of Conquest, I don't think that my opinions on this entry in the Fire Emblem series are really that much different from the general fanbase. I would also agree with anyone who says it is the worst Fire Emblem game.

The map design is unnecessarily gimmicky in the latter half of the game, and how the writing attempts to resolve the conflict the game is centered around is hilariously bad.

This particular route of Fates also takes the main protagonist, Corrin, to unbearably high Mary Sue/Gary Stu levels with how many characters will simply join their cause for no reason other than "surely they couldn't be wrong!".

If bad games interest you, by all means try playing this one. Otherwise, I'd recommend just watching someone else suffer through it, or going through the cutscenes on YouTube.

The original Pokémon games still bring me good memories from when I was younger and playing through them for the first time. That being said, the game itself has not aged well, and I do think its hilarious to abuse several of the broken mechanics in this first iteration of the Pokémon franchise. I can safely say that outside of some unique challenge runs, I don't have much reason to return to this particular entry over the remakes, Pokémon Fire Red and Leaf Green. This might be the original Pokémon experience, but I would rather play just about any other entry in the franchise over this one.

The first Fire Emblem game to be released in the West, Blazing Sword is a very cherished game for many long-time Fire Emblem fans. While I myself am not one of those players, I do think there are a lot of enjoyable aspects about this entry.

The sprite work and animations for this game are fantastic for its time. Several of the unique animations for major characters are incredibly fluid and enjoyable to watch.

The map design as a whole is pretty enjoyable. While there are a couple of maps that aren't great to play, I didn't have many issues with most of them.

The story does have some surprisingly emotional moments, but I do think the story as a whole is hit or miss. One of the biggest misses in my opinion, is how the game neglects Lyn after her story. Even worse, some of the plot points they set up for Lyn during her story are never fully resolved, which does take a bit of the experience away from me. That being said, I do find the other main characters, Hector and Eliwood, to be very enjoyable for their own routes in the game.

The game itself isn't terribly difficult. The enemies overall are rather weak, and there are multiple instances where you can simply field some of the later pre-promoted units and they'll outperform earlier growth units quite a bit. Unless you highly invest into some of these growth units, many of them (barring Florina, Sain/Kent if Lyn's story is done) are just outclassed by later pre-promoted units given to the player.

I think this game is enjoyable to play through and is worth a try for anyone interested in the earlier entries of the Fire Emblem series.

P.S. Why the hell is Lyn a weaker unit than just a normal Swordmaster. Like, HOW???

Tears of the Kingdom was a wonderful experience from beginning to end. For me, it rectified many of the issues that I had with its predecessor, Breath of the Wild, and improved on it in every way.

I greatly enjoyed going through the various temples, although I do feel that the Fire Temple was lacking in some aspects. The Wind Temple stands out to me as a particular favorite, alongside the Spirit Temple. I felt like these temples gave me very fun and unique experiences that I would love to go through again.

Mechanically, this was some of the most fun I have had with a game due to its unique building mechanic. There are so many different ways to approach the various obstacles that the game throws at you, and I always enjoyed using my own methods to overcome them.

Ultimately, I have few negative things to say about this game. It felt very well-polished, and I greatly enjoyed exploring the new Depths and the Sky areas, as well as seeing how this iteration of Hyrule had changed over time. While part of me is sad that we will not see this version of Hyrule again in the future, I am also very excited to see future Zelda games continue in the same direction as this one.

I would highly recommend this game to any Switch owner.

A desperately needed remake of Fire Emblem Gaiden. Shadows of Valentia resolves many of the issues of the original game, while arguably having some of the best aesthetics of any game in the series, with its fantastic soundtrack being the cherry on top.

I think my biggest gripe with this game has to do with the map design. Many, if not all of the maps are copy-pasted from Gaiden. While I can appreciate being faithful to the original game, I would also say that Gaiden didn't exactly have great map design to begin with. I think this is especially noticeable on Celica's route, where the maps can feel like a chore to get through more than anything.

I do also think some of the new additions to the narrative, like the characters Faye and Conrad, either don't help the story, or actively worsen it. Conrad especially feels like he reduces Celica to a damsel-in-distress during certain story beats, whereas in the original she was able to get out of those situations with her own strength. I think this unnecessarily diminishes her character to a degree, but I'm not sure if this largely held opinion or not.

The game does do a lot more for Alm and Celica as characters, and that is only enhanced by the fantastic voice acting for both of them, as well as the rest of the cast.

I would definitely recommend this game to anyone interested, but I will warn people about the map design possibly making it feel like a slog to play, especially for Celica's route.

P.S. If you're having issues with Celica's route, complete Alm's Act 3 before Celica's, fully forge up the Killer Bow, and use the Peddler NPC to send over the Killer Bow to Celica's side for Leon to use. Hunter's Volley Leon does so much to make Celica's route easier.

A good beginner entry into the FE series. The game overall has enjoyable characters and maps, but I believe that the narrative begins to run into issues after the first arc, and the gameplay itself is rather broken.

This game introduced the Pair-Up mechanic into the Fire Emblem series, and it was also at its most broken here. While I certainly appreciate it for helping to grind support chains faster, the additions it provides to combat are a bit excessive at times, especially at A or S rank supports.

That being said, I found the character building to be incredibly fun in this game. Being able to try out all sorts of builds for the large variety of characters within the game does quite a bit to add to the replayability, and there are many viable builds that can be created for any character in the game.

As I mentioned previously, while I feel like the first arc of this game is rather strong, I think the second arc is rather disconnected from the rest of the story, and the third arc feels a bit rushed to some degree.

Finally, this game is rather infamous for its Lunatic+ difficulty, which is probably the most bullshit difficulty in the series. Not difficult, bullshit. It should say something when a map needs to be reset simply because a boss enemy just happens to have a skill that will destroy just about every unit you have. Even if this becomes less of an issue later in the game due to your own units catching up in terms of stats to a degree, it makes playing through the early game on this difficulty an absolute chore. It's understandable why Robin is considered the best unit in the series for their ability to solo this utter atrocity of a difficulty.

All in all, I think this game is enjoyable, but there are areas where I feel there could be a lot of improvement. I would definitely recommend for anyone interested in the FE series to give it a go, especially since it introduced many features that have continued to persist and be improved upon in just about every new entry in the franchise.

There's not much I have to say about this entry in all honesty. I have never gone back to replay it after my first playthrough, simply because there was nothing that enticed me to do so.

The story is pretty straightforward, and probably the best handled out of the different routes of Fates? That's not to say that it has a good story or anything, but it at least isn't the convoluted mess that is Revelations, and lacks the stupidity of Conquest.

The gameplay is pretty straightforward. Even on its highest difficulty, the game doesn't really get much harder, unless you consider having weak enemy reinforcements thrown at your strong units to be difficult.

I don't know if I'd even recommend playing this entry to someone? I think it's pretty forgettable overall, which might be for the best.

Path of Radiance is easily my favorite game in the entire Fire Emblem series.

While it certainly has its flaws, such as the combat animations taking a long time, or an infamous 3-par chapter, I do think it still holds up decently by modern standards. The game itself isn't terribly difficult either, and relatively accessible by old and new players alike.

The cast itself is pretty good overall, although some characters get very little to work with, even in their support chains.

The biggest selling point of Path of Radiance for me is its narrative. I would argue it has one of the best narratives of any Fire Emblem game, and there is a good amount of world-building to help players get invested in the conflicts of this world. There are also a number of great emotional moments, on top of having one of the best antagonist/rival characters in the series in the Black Knight. Ike serves as a fantastic main character, and this game helped to cement him as one of my favorite characters ever. Many of the other major characters, such as Soren, Elincia, and Tibarn are also fantastic for me and are able to bring a lot to the narrative.

I cannot recommend this game enough to anyone who is interested.

I can confidently say that Fire Emblem Engage has some of the most enjoyable gameplay in the series for me.

The game is incredibly well-polished, and I appreciate it being well-balanced around the Emblems (barring Micaiah). The story is pretty basic by Fire Emblem-standards but has some great moments. I also appreciate Alear not being a silent protagonist, as I have felt that many of the Avatar characters, barring Robin and Shez, have taken away from the narrative of their games to some degree.

This game was made as a celebration of the series' 30th anniversary, and obviously has several references to all the entries that came previously. However, playing all the previous entries is by no means a requirement for Engage to be an enjoyable experience. Similarly, I could not recommend this game to someone who is looking to jump into the Fire Emblem series for the aforementioned reasons.

I have also seen many people criticize the cast for being rather one-note, but I disagree with this sentiment quite a bit. Many of the characters have unique sides to them that are only seen during specific support chains, so I recommend completing as many of them as possible.

Overall, I greatly enjoyed my time with Engage, and I appreciate the numerous ways there are to approach each map in the game. It could definitely use some more Warp staves throughout the game though.

Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade is a game that attracts many people due to the popularity of the protagonist, Roy, in the Super Smash Bros. series. However, this is a game that is likely to be very difficult for anyone looking to enter the series with.

The Binding Blade is an entry that heavily favors an aggressive playstyle, which makes it beloved by some people, and hated by others. For those who know what to expect, this can lead to a very enjoyable, albeit challenging experience. For those I have known who were unprepared, they often dropped the game after becoming frustrated with this design.

Narratively, I don't think this game is particularly notable outside of its main antagonist, Zephiel. It is fine for what it is, but I don't think it is amazing by any means.

If you are interested in it, give it a try! Just keep the difficulty of the game in mind if you aren't as experienced with the Fire Emblem series.

This entry is a bit of a mixed bag for me. On one hand, the game has some enjoyable gameplay aspects, such as how hilarious powerful the Warp Staff is, and the Ballistician class being surprisingly fun to play around with. On the other hand, I find many of the maps to be boring, and many of the characters still lack any strong characterization beyond the most basic of traits.

I also loathe having to use Marth in this game. I don't understand why they decided it would be a good idea to make him unable to promote, but it cements him as one of, if not the weakest Lord character in the series.

This game is probably still better to play over the original Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light, and it does a nice job with Marth's story. Besides that, I find this game to be a very boring entry.

Fire Emblem: New Mysetery of the Emblem introduces a lot of the mechanics that we have grown accustomed to in more modern games. The game itself, is massive, with a whopping cast of over 80 playable characters. However, similarly to Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon, this game still lacks strong characterization for everyone outside of a select few major characters.

This game adds an additional story beat with the addition of Katarina and her group. I personally enjoyed the content with Katarina a good bit, and didn't feel that it hurt the original narrative with its addition. However, the rest of the story is rather barebones.

This game is the first Fire Emblem entry to feature an Avatar character to try making the player feel more invested in the narrative. How the Avatar character is implemented does take away from the game in my opinion, as Kris is treated as this perfect character that no one can find any fault in.

The gameplay itself is more player-phased oriented, and it is more enjoyable in comparison to the previous Shadow Dragon. I think this game is certainly worth a try for those interested, but Shadow Dragon should be played for the best experience.

As my third entry into the Tales of Series, I found this one quickly becoming my favorite.

The cast of this game is wonderful, and I found myself enjoying each party member and what they were able to contribute overall to the group's dynamic. Surprisingly, I grew to like Alvin the most out of this cast, but all of the characters are enjoyable in their own right. This is especially true for the villains of the game, and I feel that the game does a great job of establishing them. However, I do feel that some characters, like Leia, could have used a bit more focus throughout the narrative.

The gameplay was fun, especially when I started getting used to the Linking system. I also enjoyed all of the character's unique combat mechanics, especially Milla's Spirit Shift. Each battle felt quick and satisfying, which was greatly appreciated given the format.

However, I still do have my issues with this game. Some of the character's arcs did not feel fully resolved by the end of the game for me. This was especially true for Leia. I also believe the game could have explored some of Elise's story more.

Some parts of the games closing act felt a bit too rushed, and I think that it caused the ending to feel a bit less conclusive. I also do think that some of the late game areas are rather underwhelming to explore.

One of the most frustrating aspects of the game for me involved the numerous highroads that the player must traverse to reach many of the towns and cities throughout the game. Many of these areas appear to be reskins of each other, which eventually began to make going through these areas a bit boring. It's especially baffling when the game is capable of having beautiful and unique cities like Fennmont, and yet the numerous highroads have little to make them distinct.

Finally, I think the Coliseum in this game is incredibly frustrating to play since a player can lose a battle by simply getting knocked out of the arena. It is even more frustrating when some boss fights that take place in the arena will add barricades to prevent the player from falling off.

Overall, I would recommend this game to anyone who is interested in giving it a try. I do think this game would benefit from an enhanced version with better graphics at some point in the future, but this version is still great in its own right.