I’m very glad I played Sacred Stones before this one, because Jesus, it's unbelievable how 2 games made with the same engine are vastly different ends of the quality spectrum. It's one of the most punishing games I’ve ever played, and I don’t even know if I can bring myself to finish it. I’ve been putting off playing Kaga’s FE games because I find them to be either ancient or exceptionally daunting, but they are probably going to be a breath of fresh air compared to the video game equivalent to waterboarding myself.
I apologize for the scathing opening paragraph. Let me calm down a little. As I’ve said this is one of the most punishing games I’ve ever played and it goes without saying that this is one of the hardest as well, at least in the Fire Emblem franchise. I think the previous holder of that, from the FE games I played, was Engage, partially because I started on Hard mode. But Engage had many ways of making its difficulty interesting, such as occasionally having two chapters strung together and you're forced to use the same team for both, and taking away all of your Emblem rings halfway through the game, as well as other map gimmicks. Binding Blade has somewhat interesting ideas, locking the true ending behind extra Gaiden chapters, and not allowing you to shop in between chapters(which I realize is something older FE games probably did, but as discussed, I haven't played them), but then just puts you in large, foggy maps with endlessly spawning Wyverns and mages with long range Berserk staffs. I always enjoy some Fire Emblem gameplay, but this can be a rather miserable experience at times, especially without a guide.
I said “opening paragraph” like I had more than 2 paragraphs to say about it. If you’re new to the Fire Emblem series, don’t start with this one. I;d be really surprised if I enjoy any of them less than it.
Edit: Did actually finish it. The last few chapters are considerable less painful than the rest of the game, althoughstill a bit annoying. Decided to give it a little more credit than I did because of that, and since I probably didn't play this game completely optimally, although it's still my least favorite Fire Emblem that I played so far.
I apologize for the scathing opening paragraph. Let me calm down a little. As I’ve said this is one of the most punishing games I’ve ever played and it goes without saying that this is one of the hardest as well, at least in the Fire Emblem franchise. I think the previous holder of that, from the FE games I played, was Engage, partially because I started on Hard mode. But Engage had many ways of making its difficulty interesting, such as occasionally having two chapters strung together and you're forced to use the same team for both, and taking away all of your Emblem rings halfway through the game, as well as other map gimmicks. Binding Blade has somewhat interesting ideas, locking the true ending behind extra Gaiden chapters, and not allowing you to shop in between chapters(which I realize is something older FE games probably did, but as discussed, I haven't played them), but then just puts you in large, foggy maps with endlessly spawning Wyverns and mages with long range Berserk staffs. I always enjoy some Fire Emblem gameplay, but this can be a rather miserable experience at times, especially without a guide.
I said “opening paragraph” like I had more than 2 paragraphs to say about it. If you’re new to the Fire Emblem series, don’t start with this one. I;d be really surprised if I enjoy any of them less than it.
Edit: Did actually finish it. The last few chapters are considerable less painful than the rest of the game, althoughstill a bit annoying. Decided to give it a little more credit than I did because of that, and since I probably didn't play this game completely optimally, although it's still my least favorite Fire Emblem that I played so far.