It cannot be understated how much of an improvement this game is over its predecessor. I feel like this game became the west’s introduction to Fire Emblem and its standard for a reason—everything that made FE6 feel rough around the edges post-Kaga has been refined here to make a quintessential game for the series. If you’ve already played it, I really have to recommend playing FE6 and then replaying this to see just how much it improves.
The changes are all little, and a lot of them are very technical aspects of the mechanics (which you can see in a great breakdown here: https://www.reddit.com/r/fireemblem/comments/cck83m/sequel_talk_mechanical_changes_from_fe6_to_fe7/), but when they all come together they make the game that much better. There are maps with varied objectives; no more needing to seize every map. Classes get reworked or buffed to make them more usable in the long-term (stinks that assassins can’t steal once they’re promoted from thieves tough). Gaiden chapters are no longer gimmicky maps that you need to do to get the game’s true ending, feeling more like worthwhile but non-necessary rewards for going out of your way in the main story. And it’s not just mechanics that got changed, the storytelling of the game was tremendously improved. You don’t get thrown 10 characters in the span of 2-3 chapters, so you actually get to spend some time with the ones you’re fed bit by bit. Side characters have interesting arcs beyond their introduction and maybe a recruitment conversation. Oswin, Matthew, Pent & Louise, Hawkeye, Legault, Jaffar & Nino, you’re not even guaranteed to get or keep all of them, but when you do they become a much more active part of the story than almost any character from FE6 did. Same goes for the enemies; I think the Black Fang and Nergal are some of the most dynamic antagonists in the series.
I don’t mean to just trash FE6 here, because I still do like it. I just think that if you know how much about it this game improved, it really makes FE7 seem like that much more of an achievement. It’s super worthy of praise on its own, though, and I think it’s worth it for anyone remotely interested in Fire Emblem to play.
Extra notes: I have to put this stuff somewhere it really just amazes me. They had to at least have planned that all the absent parents from FE6 were gonna be in this game because they feel so naturally integrated in it. As opposed to just cameos they’re real characters who were awkwardly absent from the last game. Really like how all-around, this game scales back the scope of things in Elibe, too—we got a lost about Bern and Eturia and Ilia in the last game, so focusing on Lycia for the most part with some characters from all around the continent really helps the worldbuilding more than jumping around everywhere in the previous game did. Even if we don’t go everywhere on Elibe, the people who come from all around it bring the places they live to life (this is true for Sacae especially, and it really makes the tragedy of the nation in the previous game feel so much more powerful).
The changes are all little, and a lot of them are very technical aspects of the mechanics (which you can see in a great breakdown here: https://www.reddit.com/r/fireemblem/comments/cck83m/sequel_talk_mechanical_changes_from_fe6_to_fe7/), but when they all come together they make the game that much better. There are maps with varied objectives; no more needing to seize every map. Classes get reworked or buffed to make them more usable in the long-term (stinks that assassins can’t steal once they’re promoted from thieves tough). Gaiden chapters are no longer gimmicky maps that you need to do to get the game’s true ending, feeling more like worthwhile but non-necessary rewards for going out of your way in the main story. And it’s not just mechanics that got changed, the storytelling of the game was tremendously improved. You don’t get thrown 10 characters in the span of 2-3 chapters, so you actually get to spend some time with the ones you’re fed bit by bit. Side characters have interesting arcs beyond their introduction and maybe a recruitment conversation. Oswin, Matthew, Pent & Louise, Hawkeye, Legault, Jaffar & Nino, you’re not even guaranteed to get or keep all of them, but when you do they become a much more active part of the story than almost any character from FE6 did. Same goes for the enemies; I think the Black Fang and Nergal are some of the most dynamic antagonists in the series.
I don’t mean to just trash FE6 here, because I still do like it. I just think that if you know how much about it this game improved, it really makes FE7 seem like that much more of an achievement. It’s super worthy of praise on its own, though, and I think it’s worth it for anyone remotely interested in Fire Emblem to play.
Extra notes: I have to put this stuff somewhere it really just amazes me. They had to at least have planned that all the absent parents from FE6 were gonna be in this game because they feel so naturally integrated in it. As opposed to just cameos they’re real characters who were awkwardly absent from the last game. Really like how all-around, this game scales back the scope of things in Elibe, too—we got a lost about Bern and Eturia and Ilia in the last game, so focusing on Lycia for the most part with some characters from all around the continent really helps the worldbuilding more than jumping around everywhere in the previous game did. Even if we don’t go everywhere on Elibe, the people who come from all around it bring the places they live to life (this is true for Sacae especially, and it really makes the tragedy of the nation in the previous game feel so much more powerful).