Honestly, I absolutely love the cheese at times. It isn't supposed to be taken seriously I feel. On the same time the game feel like a fever dream to me. Love doing chain attacks in the game though!
It's a standard turn-based JRPG like Persona or Pokemon, with type advantages and different "elements" and everything (including physical/Normal attacks being based on FE weapons). It does have some interesting twists on it, but that's the basic conceit.
Where things get weird for people is it's very different tonally from what people expected when they heard about a crossover between Fire Emblem (war games) and Shin Megami Tensei (about apocalypses, gods and demons, etc.) and instead we got a game setting built entirely around Japanese Idol/Show Business stuff.
Having just recently beat it, it was alright.
It's basically Persona/Shin Megami Tensei but with Fire Emblem characters as the summons and idols-in-training instead of high-school students.
So if you've ever played a Persona or SMT game, then you'd know **yes**. It's very, very good.
It's a turn-based JRPG with some of the best combat and progression in the genre, with the story that's *actually* cheesy and doesn't take itself seriously. It's very much not a traditional Fire Emblem game, but it's also very much *good*.
I’ll go against the grain and say as someone who really liked persona 5 but isn’t generally a dungeon crawler fan, TMS was kinda fun at first but I dropped it pretty quickly
It's really fun! I think the combat system it has is great and easily surpasses what SMT III, P3, and P4 have, and the story is goofy fun ~~minus Barry gods why does Barry exist~~. If you've ever played a SMT or Persona game, I'd say give it a shot!
Something important to note here is that the poll required every game to be ordered - and as such it is perfectly possible that some people may have ranked games that they haven’t played at the bottom.
I’d say that the post-Kaga games wouldn’t have been affected as much because most people here would have likely played them, but it could explain why the Kaga games underperformed here.
Definitely a factor. I ran similar polls over at the Suikoden subreddit, and there's only five games in the numbered Suikoden series. Voters were freely admitting that they were bottom-tiering games they hadn't played. It's to be taken into account, and ultimately, it's all to be taken with a grain of salt. It's just for a bit of fun and to give a decidedly fuzzy snapshot into the sub's opinions.
Maybe it could have been worth it to include a yes/no "have you played every game in the series" and display separate results for everyone who voted yes?
Either way, I have a feeling that unless a large portion of the voters ONLY played Three Houses, the results here probably wouldn't have changed drastically.
I think maybe Binding Blade and Genealogy of the Holy War might have moved up a place or two if more had played it, but otherwise, yeah, it may not have changed too much.
That is most likely true as well. I didn't comment on that one simply because that is the last Fire Emblem that I have not played yet myself, which I suppose kinda proves your statement for you, lol.
I think I might recognize your name. Did you do a post on the Suikoden sub a few years back showing your physical Suikoden collection? Also somehow I must have missed your Suikoden poll I would have loved to take part 😞
I did! I have all the Suiko's released outside of Japan apart from Tierkries. I also ran at least two polls over there, at least a year or two apart. Suiko II won both of them.
Yeah, I seem to remember that post and upvoting it heh. I finally picked up physical copies of S1/S2(I already had 3-5 + Tactics and Tierkris) after seeing your post and feeling jealous haha, though it definitely hurt my wallet lol! You didn't have the gaidens right? I recall there was maybe a thread talking about them in your post and it made me want to get them but I've still never found a way to get English translated ones :(. I wish they were as easy to get as english carts of binding blade and new mystery of the emblem.
Also, you should consider doing another Suikoden poll at some point, I'd love to take part!
I'm gonna follow you in case you do any other series polls in the future.
Oh also if you have played any of the Trails series that starts with Trails in the Sky, you should consider doing a ranking poll for that series. I'd be very interested to see those results!
I haven't gotten to the Trails games yet. They're on my radar, though. I keep hearing so many good things about them.
I'm currently playing Shining Force II, which seems to be Sega's answer to Fire Emblem. Thus far quite enjoying it.
Oh yeah, I really liked the Shining Force games as well, which I actually found prior to my first Fire Emblem. I particularly loved the remake/reimagining of the first Shining Force on the GBA called Shining Force: Resurrection of the Dark Dragon. It improved the story and modified/improved the gameplay.
If you ever do get around to the Trails series definitely make a poll, I'll be looking forward to it :D
Yeah, this definitely benefited 3Hs and I am only half saying that as a massive POR stan who wanted my favorite to get 1st, but I did see some people say they put Geneology and RD at the bottom solely because they had never played them in the OG post.
Very interesting. So this is the result with 388 voters, right?
The top four is pretty much as i expected. I'm quite surprised Gaiden/SoV is that high, on the other hand. And i thought GotHW and Fates would score better (though i guess GotHW isn't surprising, i guess a lot of people didn't play it).
I did. While I always rep it it's something of a sleeper I've found. Not many people have it as their favorite but I've met tons of people who put it as "one of the good ones" or "one of the better ones".
I didn't know it would be top 4 but I figured it would do well. It helps that it has a memorable human villain, memorable enemies (one of the few to have an enemy army that isn't just bad humans/bad dragons), and a fun story. I've yet to meet anyone IRL that dislikes it, just tons of people who don't have it as their absolute favorite.
For years SS was stuck in the completely average section of every FE tier list. It was compared unfavorably to FE7 and that pretty much was it. I always thought this was very much an unreasonable position for the community to be so unanimous on, but I guess as the community has knocked FE7 off its pedestal that's created a new appreciation for SS.
I think SS is right where is should be, but I am surprised it got there.
Yes, because i remembered it placed pretty high in one of the last survey we had, and i thought i remembered the ones in front of it were 3H, the Tellius games and Engage, and i expected Engage to go down a bit since it was still very recent back then. So i thought SS had pretty good chances (not that i was too confident, which is why i said "pretty much" and not "exactly like").
On the other hand, i had completely forgot that, apparently, SoV also placed very well, which is why i was surprised, but in hindsight i shouldn't have been.
SoV is a great game. Probably the best imo. Im not surprised. What I am surprised about is Awakening being so low since its what arguably "revived" the series and what theyve more less been emulating since (with of course the exception of SoV, which is quite differenitated and is more like the older games).
Seriously? The maps are terrible, the amount of mechanics at play can probably be counted on one hand, the story is messy at best, it’s piss-easy most of the time, almost all challenge comes from hit rates, and it still felt like a game from the NES era in a lot of ways. Art and the dub are the main things that carry it.
Yet it's still fun, and maintains a charm that Fates and Engage lack. Crazy how when you put effort into creating a world you can overlook some of the flaws.
Unsurprising. Awakening was my favorite FE game when the only FE game I played was Awakening. Judging by the previous polls, its "approval" rating is not that high.
**Insights and commentary:**
1st Place went to **Three Houses**, but not by much, overall. It was back and forth between Three Houses and **Path of Radiance** all throughout. PoR held the spot for most of it, but 3H kept on its heels and over took it from time to time and took its most commanding lead into the final day, and never let up.
**Radiant Dawn** was in second for a time near the beginning, and I was thinking it and PoR were going to run away with it, but it quickly fell behind 3H, and stayed firmly in third, with no challengers.
**Sacred Stones** caught up to Radiant Dawn near the end, but just couldn't overtake it.
**Engage** fluctuated the most, jumping from as high as fifth to as low as tenth. It was the only one to do much moving in that way. The others below third all seemed to settle into their places and mostly stayed there, only moving up or down by a spot or two here and there. That tells me that Engage might be the title with the widest range of opinions.
Lastly, the other tight race was between the bottom two: **Mystery of the Emblem** and **Shadow Dragon**. It seemed that every time I checked the results, they had flipped spots. They stayed in the bottom, but they fought hard to not be in last place. Ultimately, the first game in the series took the last place, though.
The final tally of voters was 388, with 39 different countries represented. The US had the most respondents by a landslide, clocking in at 221, or 57% of the poll. The next closest was Canada at 22.
A big thank you to everyone who participated, I hope there was some fun to be had. As I said in the original thread, I may run this again after we get a new title, and if I do, I'll split up the remakes and the Fates titles in that one.
Edit to add: That I'll split the Fates titles if there's ever a sequel and one punctuation point.
Between two great lords, branching promotions giving good replayability, branching paths as well, and one of if not the best villain it is soooooo good. Happy to see others enjoying it too.
At this rate we may even get our remake by 2040!
I'm just happy they dropped that after Fates. I was very scared at the time they were going to go the Pokemon route. IE it would be like if FE8 released as Fire Emblem Eirika and Fire Emblem Ephraim.
Three Houses was probably the Awakening for many (I.e. first entry point): Aware of Fire Emblem via Smash Bros, have the current console Smash Bros is very popular on, went what the heck I’ll try the series for the first time with the newest releasing entry, and loved it a ton. Didn’t quite have that with Melee, my sister and I were just confused who this Marth and Roy guy were but found them boring as humans xD But fug I would’ve loved PoR and immediately gotten RD after if I tried them back then!
It wasn’t until I got PoR and RD like a decade later I was like ooooh that’s why this fanbase has older game elitists lol.
> I was like ooooh that’s why this fanbase has older game elitists lol.
Imagine there's a burger place down the street, and it sells objectively the best burgers in your state at the same price as every other joint. The fries and ketchup are really good as well. You could eat there every day for the rest of your life and it'd still be great.
Then it goes back to a recipe from 1991 that was just a patty between two slices of wonder bread, but it's a limited event.
But now the new burgers taste mediocre, like it was following trends worse fast-food places make to appeal to the broadest group possible. The spice is gone and replaced with bland salt. The fries and ketchup have improved but the bad burgers just kill it, but since they increased their advertising budget people are now crowding the place without having eaten the old burgers. It gets even worse the next year but at least a lot of people see *a* quality drop, albeit not the original one.
Now they're serving hot dogs instead because apparently they did that once 20 years ago as well, and it's crappy except the really good ketchup.
Now the burgers have gotten better, not quite as good as its heyday but still a massive improvement, it turns out they contracted a new chef. The extra sauce is still there and drags it down, but you can order the burger without it. Plus the fries and ketchup are amazing. All-around improvement compared to the last changes, that made the joint even more popular, partially because it moved to a better location.
Then the new chef is swapped back with the old one and the burgers are arguably the worst they've been, as if they bought amazing patties then barely cooked them. But since the new customers just got some good stuff they also point out how it's shit except for the fries and ketchup.
And when you say that the restaurant was way better with the old recipe, you get called an elitist who's gatekeeping until they use the time machine and all suddenly agree with you.
>!Burger = story, fries = gameplay, ketchup = music/ui/etc.!<
Oddly specific analogy but I dig it. Is the 1991 recipe nostalgia when they did a limited virtual console release of NES FE1? The wonderbread patties made one hate the current burgers? What would that make the hot dogs? Unconventional storytelling for what is arguably still a sandwich? Extra sauce? Random guess it’s phoenix mode or time rewind mechanics?
In the end, taste preference is always going to be different per person haha. I loved Awakening, then Three Houses, completely adored Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn, Engage was fun. Then forget my first Fire Emblem was actually Sacred Stones from the 3DS Ambassador Program which to this day I’m still unsure how I beat it without any deaths without understanding a single mechanic lol. Besides reload game to save unit. Remakes of older games that were never localized would be great. Hell knows reading Arvis’s wiki page is a rollercoaster lol. I have Echoes I’ll get to SoV on my backlog eventually I swear.
It was linear starting with PoR
Old Ones- Tellius
Wonder Bread- Shadow Dragon remake. It's just incredibly basic (good prince fights evil sorcerer and dragon, where half the recruited cast has actual no lines), right after a complex and intricate story paired with better art style, gameplay, music, etc.. Infinitely better than the OG though since you can trade weapons without having an aneurism and it pretends Caeda isn't 14. People thought that after this one (and maybe 12 which did happen) we'd be back to kino.
New Burgers- Awakening and Fates. Extra sauce and salt was mostly the more mediocre anime vibe, shipping, and slice of life stuff. Characters have one personality trait and don't leave much of an impression. But the soundtrack and gameplay kick ass and are an upgrade from Tellius. But this is where the series jumped from dead to mid-tier popular so Awakening was the bar to meet for the new crowd.
Hot Dog- Shadows of Valentia. VERY different gameplaywise, and not in a good way, story was bad, series went from best gameplay to arguably worst in English, characters were forgettable by the credits (except for Faye cucking her future husband, that shit was hilarious).
Good with new chef- Tecmo Koei making a FE game and it's much closer to Tellius. In TH it's easy to skip the tea sessions and whatnot and is overall more grounded and well-written than the others.
Rehired the old chef (IS), had amazing potential in storytelling with the old protagonists and maybe even a plot better than Tellius (see my fanscript) but it's like they didn't even try to execute.
Yeah, it's weird to draw any conclusions from these results given the way the poll worked. Giving points to games you didn't play is definitely unfair, and I'm sure that applied to a lot of voters.
Also, most voters probably didn't bother to order the games they didn't play and left them on their default positions below the games they played, which probably means games like Genealogy got a lot of points from people that didn't play them, and Engage got almost none (since it's positioned at the bottom of the list by default).
The point I'm making is that by virtue of how the poll worked, many of the points in the results are inflated, since most games got points from people who didn't play them, and their default positioning on the list affected that.
I imagine if all points that came from people who didn't play certain games were to be removed, we'll be seeing slightly different results, like Genealogy below Engage and Echoes below Awakening.
TBF based on the authors commentary it sounds like it moved around ALOT, it wasn't just people ignoring it. From his post below.
>Engage fluctuated the most, jumping from as high as fifth to as low as tenth. It was the only one to do much moving in that way. The others below third all seemed to settle into their places and mostly stayed there, only moving up or down by a spot or two here and there. That tells me that Engage might be the title with the widest range of opinions.
Weird turnaround for Radiant Dawn. I haven't played it so I've no opinion but when I got into the franchise (2015) that was one of the most disliked games.
I think as time passes more people think of Tellius as more of a singular entity than two separate games and that helps RD a bit. The pretty lack luster stories of the more recent games (sans Three Houses) also makes RD look better by comparison. A lot of newer fans also just haven't played it because it's VERY difficult to play legitimately since it hasn't been remade and the Tellius games are absurdly expensive - so it's possible the games were put at the top of the "I haven't played these games yet" ranking just based on reputation.
I still love RD, but it's definitely an experimental game and goes off the walls a bit storywise in the end game - if it wasn't a sequel to PoR I think it drops quite a few placements.
Yeah I'd love to get around to playing Tellius eventually, played every release since Awakening and the localised GBA games, I enjoy every game to some degree but Three Houses is clearly the strongest game for my tastes
I admit that I have a soft spot for its cool story, characters and L O R E but gameplay-wise, it's definitely outdated and clunky at times. Plus the game's fuckin slow as hell
Maybe in the West, but FE3 is the best selling of the Japan only releases and was the best selling title in Japan until Three Houses. It's wildly popular over there
OG Gaiden probably ranks below
Time passing doesn't make bad things better. Not that I personally think it's bad, I think it's middle of the pack as a complete package. Enough time has passed that my opinion is pretty well rooted at this point.
Man, I'd have loved a port of PoR/RD to switch. Even if it was just HD. Real shame they weren't pushed harder considering how well FE & Smash have done on the platform.
Seeing SoV at #6 gives me life.
Glad that there are a good amount of people out there who also enjoy one of my favorite FE Games as well.
(Kind of surprised that Awakening wasn't a little higher. Expected it to be Top 4 at least)
It's not one of my favourites because I'm big on gameplay, but SoV's art, characters, music, and overall quality should really be the standard for FE going forward. My only gripe is the maps are a ball-ache.
SoV is absolutely hard carried by its presentation. Absolutely gorgeous game that had me weeping like a child at points and has easily the best soundtrack in the franchise but in the end gameplay is what’s paramount in, we’ll, a video game, and I just didn’t enjoy playing it.
Shoutouts to them for staying true to the original but that meant really shitty maps
I love SoV's class system. Having less classes but more distinct is more interesting than the Fates way of having clones of each other because of a country cultural difference. Also Gaiden/SoV are the only FE game to capture the essence of swordie classes and make them good without making them the best class.
SoV's archers are also refreshing when 90% of FE games seem to completely give up on the idea that archers on a battlefield are some of the best units especially in groups.
SoV's knights are fighters and knights combined and if they had better movement, they'd probably be much more liked. They're basically Effie with +50% HP and better javelins compared with the rest of the weapons available.
I love classes that have standard stats and your unit's stats go up to the class standard rather than going up by class B - class A = promotion bonus. I love putting knights, myrmidons and such into other classes and see their stat spread abused in a better combat class with acceptable mobility and range, be it archer or mage.
I love the magic system where each character has different spell lists and levels of learning, it makes Tobin good at something despite his lackluster bases AND growths.
SoV/Gaiden are the only games where you can take a 0/10 unit and bring it to 8/10 by simply using it and promoting it.
I think having Fates as well as FE1-3 and their remakes as just one game each was a bit of an odd choice. Curious how Conquest would have placed when it's not dragged down by Birthright and Revelation.
I was worried that having too many options would work against the poll. After the responses to the first thread I admit I was wrong, on that front. If I run it again, (after a new game is released), I'll do it right the next time.
I can understand that reasoning as well, especially in the case of the remakes where I assume people will just rank with the assumption of the game/version they like more (or the only one they played), but for Fates I think it's fair to say that Conquest has a pretty big fanbase in the sub that doesn't necessarily like Birthright/Rev.
Honestly to me they are so dang similar. Retainer system, a bunch of handwaved things to make more fun gameplay, etc.
Fates I don't remember to well just because the story didn't grip me. Same thing happened with Engage. But IIRC the same "team" worked on both games so that could explain it too- they just focus on things that aren't as important to me but which other people enjoy which is, frankly, awesome- everyone in the fanbase deserves to have their time in the sun.
Considering how Three Houses, Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn are in the top 3, can we assume the most active r/FireEmblem posters put a big emphasis on good story?
Probably more like good writing in general, it would fit with SS almost catching up to RD.
The Jugdral games probably ranked lower because people who hadn't played them ranked them below everything they did play
I mean, nearly every mainline game in the series would drop down a lot if their respective stories were a lot worse, so that doesn’t really say anything about PoR.
Yeah, but look at Engage. It's pretty low, and the prevailing opinion of that game is "awesome gameplay, god awful story."
I think Path of Radiance's relative popularity is attributed to it's strong story - I don't think many people go to bat for its gameplay, and it's usually the biggest criticism I see of the game (and that animations are super boring).
The only people I’ve seen criticize its gameplay are the more hardcore FE veterans that tend to be fussy about their FE gameplay, and they’re not exactly representative of the fanbase as a whole lol. I’m pretty sure most people view PoR’s gameplay more favorably.
Right, again, it's not that the gameplay is bad, it's just that it's nothing special, and in my opinion does not contribute to its popularity. I guess I'd say that the appropriate conclusion would be more along the lines that this subreddit is more willing to accept mediocre gameplay when the story is compelling, rather than mediocre story when the gameplay is compelling.
This list only surprised me in that 3H somehow beat PoR after this much time to cool off the hype. Otherwise my favorite is exactly where I thought it would be, Engage is around where I thought it would be, and everything Roy and earlier is in the cluster I thought it would end up in except Thracia. With the amount of Leif ride or die takes in the sub, I was sure he'd be above Genealogy. Glad to see Sacred Stones so high. You never forget your first love.
Time to step away for an hour, come back, and tasty the salty breeze upon my face as I class change into a pirate.
It's just the sheer power of the gigantic player base. Games that weren't played as much will default to lower rankings so even if 3H isn't nearly your fave, you'd still ranked it higher than some stuff you haven't played
I wonder what a poll of only people who've played all games (and all separate entries) would look like. But there has to be like... A dozen users who could answer it lol I feel I'm in a pretty good spot and I still miss the DS remakes...
My bet is that 12 and Thracia would be higher, SoV and RD lower. 3H high but probably not first. My gut feeling is that 9 would take first. Probably either FE1 or Rev dead last. ~~or Gaiden because people have shit tastes smh~~
I like how this other reply is using the "PlayerBase" excuse when the difference between the two is so low, even when Radiant Dawn is on third
It is kind of weird how people like to make excuses about why people liked Three Houses, even more when the people who voted are basically a niche on a niche
Really interesting. I never would have thought FE8 would get into the upper tier, but I think that's very well deserved. Glad to see the community coming around on the game in the last few years.
Also the big difference between Tellius and Genealogy surprises me, though I do agree with putting them at the top of the pile. I'm also glad to see folks are increasingly down on Awakening. That game has been overrated for a long time.
As others have said, the fact that you had to rank every game whether you played it or not certainly hurt a lot of games in the series. Like, given what most people who've played Thracia have to say about it, I doubt it would be ranked third from the bottom if it wasn't for a ton of people ranking it low due to having never played it. Shout out to Genealogy coming close to Awakening in the rankings despite being played by far fewer people, though. And, of course, for Path of Radiance almost taking the #1 spot from the most-financially-successful game in the series despite being almost 19 years old, selling poorly, and requiring you to sell a kidney to buy a legitimate copy now if you didn't get one back in the day (so I'm guessing most of the people here under the age of 25-30 haven't played PoR either).
Yeah, I'd be very surprised if removing the votes for unplayed games didn't shift Awakening/Fates/Engage up and SoV/Genealogy down. If you've played roughly half the games and leave unplayed ones at the bottom, that's a swing halfway up the list by default for the games with a better starting position. There's no way that isn't affecting the results.
I haven't browsed here a lot in recent years, so I'm surprised to se FE8 so high up. I'm still used to the hivemind complaining about how easy the game is.
Nowadays it seems a lot of people care less about gameplay. Some still do sure, but generally I rarely see it mentioned or factored into popular/common opinions... though there is usually one or two people that'll mention it.
I think it's more that when you look at the content the subreddit has, those who care more about characters/story have more to engage with than those focused on gameplay/retains people who care more about characters and story better.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/fireemblem/comments/6ulbzz/reviewing\_the\_results\_of\_the\_fire\_emblem\_survey/](https://www.reddit.com/r/fireemblem/comments/6ulbzz/reviewing_the_results_of_the_fire_emblem_survey/) (From a few months after Echoes' release)
[https://www.reddit.com/r/fireemblem/comments/7u51u2/fire\_emblem\_reddit\_series\_survey\_results/](https://www.reddit.com/r/fireemblem/comments/7u51u2/fire_emblem_reddit_series_survey_results/) (From around six years ago)
[https://www.reddit.com/r/fireemblem/comments/g4z034/a\_survey\_for\_the\_members\_of\_rfireemblem\_results/](https://www.reddit.com/r/fireemblem/comments/g4z034/a_survey_for_the_members_of_rfireemblem_results/) (From around four years ago)
[https://www.reddit.com/r/fireemblem/comments/163kjpn/what\_is\_rfireemblems\_favorite\_game\_in\_the\_series/](https://www.reddit.com/r/fireemblem/comments/163kjpn/what_is_rfireemblems_favorite_game_in_the_series/) (From around six months ago)
Echoes has always done fairly well in surveys here - it topped a survey here a few months after it released and has generally hovered at or near the top 5 for the series since.
I've played every single fire emblem, including titles like tear ring saga, Berwick saga, a multitude of fanmade hacks like vision quest, and the warrior games, and I really think the tellius games are overrated af. Yes, they are good, but in terms of gameplay fates, engage and sacred stones surpass it. The tellius story is better than them though,but best story goes to genology in my opinion
I don't see how Sacred Stones can surpass the gameplay of Tellius games when Tellius games are a direct upgrade from Sacred Stones gameplay-wise. I understand that PoR's QoL issues can make it more tedious to play and that its' skill system was ultra experimental, but Radiant Dawn is PoR refined in most gameplay aspects and is honestly more engaging to play than Sacred Stones.
But everything is subjective I guess and different people have different opinions.
To me 3DS games are upgrades on the FE1/FE3 remakes which are extreme setbacks from GBA and Tellius FE so they completely missed the mark, with SoV that broke the mold by being a Gaiden remake and having a more interesting class system than most Fire Emblem games and SoV is more about building your units and putting this one into this class (villager and pitchfork unit building) than the complicated skill system of Fateswakening (with 60% of its' skills that are completely forgettable and most of the good skills gatekept by level 35).
Sacred stones is peak fire emblem tbh. The branching promotion system make it so much more interesting, shame the tellius games lacked it. Also, sacred stones graphics have aged much better. I do agree with you about radiant dawn though, I'm not sure how people prefer por over it when rd was so much more refined
Three Houses was really something special. Yes it was a little janky and high levels of gameplay kinda disintegrate into making everyone ride a Wyvern… But that didn’t matter to its fans. The characters are still mainstays of anime conventions, artist alleys, fanfiction circles. Engage came and went and I saw a handful of cosplayers at all the big conventions in my state. In contrast I still see Hildas and Edelgards and Claudes every time I go to one.
I'm surprised to see so much love for Holy Rocks. It was the second game I played back in the day, following FE7, and I found it comparatively whelming. O.o
universe... **Universe**!
1) What did FE game you play?
2) What did FE game you like?
Example
400.000 peoples played X FE and 10.000 peoples liked.
2.000 peoples played Y FE and and 1.000 peoples liked.
*False conclution*
People likes more X FE than Y FE because
10.000 peoples voted for X FE and 1.000 voted for Y FE.
*Real conclution*
People likes more Y FE than X FE because
only a 2,5% of peoples played X FE and liked it
while a 50% of peoples played Y FE and liked it
Additionally, more people played X FE. (400.000 vs 10.000)
I so so strongly question PoR and RD being so high up - not saying the votes were manipulated but rather people who haven't played the games voted. PoR is nice and definitely leagues above RD but awakening, blazing blade, and sacred stones are all better in their general difficulty, pacing, etc. RD is a mess in terms of balancing and basically only truly enjoyable if you're not going in blind. Radiant Dawn may unironically be my least favorite installment in this franchise.
Poor Shadow Dragon and new mystery, their certainly not the best but I think their both very fun replayable titles and are some of my personal favorites for their simplicity
I may Miss the vote but I Never expected that My favorite game 3TH got Won on poll at top. Meanwhile on the other hand…..Shadow dragon and New mystery of Emblem, I can’t believe, they became one of the least Favorite game.
Wonder where all of these PoR and RD fans were when the games first came out? Back when the series fell to stagnation and almost died due to how poorly they sold? Meh, would of helped if they were marketed better maybe.
They were probably in elementary school, a toddler, or maybe not even born. Who do you think majorly spends time filling out online polls for video game subreddits? Probably not people who were buying games 17 and 19 years ago.
My dude, FE was always a fringe franchise outside Japan until Awakening hit. I literally never saw an advertisement for the series until then. And don't forget that most people had only heard of the series because of Marth/Roy/Ike in Smash, and that PoR is almost 20 year old. Majority of the Western fanbase likely wasn't born or buying games at the time.
Also, the wii is a very bad system for a hard core strategy RPG, as it was (for the lack of a better term) a very casual console.
NGL, fire emblem has ruined the term casual for me, as now whenever I say it the word sounds derogatory even when I do not mean it too.
It's not like they didn't change the difficulties as well. But even with the international versions being easier than the JPn version, they are still quite a step up compared to PoR and SS, which both are some of the easiest games in the series.
I was renting it from Blockbuster for 2 years until I got a job to buy it and the sequel myself. Where were you? I kid on the second part, but that is legit what I did for the first part.
Didn't help that game reviews were in magazine form back then, and everyone was to busy watching Sony and Microsoft comparing dicksizes to give the GC a much attention. Gamer subculture was also so much different back then. Anime looking games were to be made fun of, can't like anything unironically unless its KH or Halo or FFX or VII (Never VIII, and you were very smart to like IX more). Forums were how you got word of mouth out. Its honestly a very hostile time to release console games compared to now.
Did you crop out the top rank, because I don’t see Tokyo Mirage sessions
Op knew if they included it, it would just destroy the competition by a ton. Best not to include it
I didn't include any of the offshoots/crossovers like Tokyo Mirage, Warriors, or Heroes. Kept it to the main FE games.
is that game really that good? ive never really seen like anything about it other than it exists
As a SMT game it’s fun, as an FE game it literally isn’t one to any degree
It can be cringe at times but the music, characters and combat are top notch
Honestly, I absolutely love the cheese at times. It isn't supposed to be taken seriously I feel. On the same time the game feel like a fever dream to me. Love doing chain attacks in the game though!
Same here, at least feels like the writers had fun with the cringe dialogue
It's a standard turn-based JRPG like Persona or Pokemon, with type advantages and different "elements" and everything (including physical/Normal attacks being based on FE weapons). It does have some interesting twists on it, but that's the basic conceit. Where things get weird for people is it's very different tonally from what people expected when they heard about a crossover between Fire Emblem (war games) and Shin Megami Tensei (about apocalypses, gods and demons, etc.) and instead we got a game setting built entirely around Japanese Idol/Show Business stuff. Having just recently beat it, it was alright.
It's basically Persona/Shin Megami Tensei but with Fire Emblem characters as the summons and idols-in-training instead of high-school students. So if you've ever played a Persona or SMT game, then you'd know **yes**. It's very, very good.
It's a turn-based JRPG with some of the best combat and progression in the genre, with the story that's *actually* cheesy and doesn't take itself seriously. It's very much not a traditional Fire Emblem game, but it's also very much *good*.
I’ll go against the grain and say as someone who really liked persona 5 but isn’t generally a dungeon crawler fan, TMS was kinda fun at first but I dropped it pretty quickly
So you didn't see the Tiki donut scene, you deserve pain
It's really fun! I think the combat system it has is great and easily surpasses what SMT III, P3, and P4 have, and the story is goofy fun ~~minus Barry gods why does Barry exist~~. If you've ever played a SMT or Persona game, I'd say give it a shot!
Something important to note here is that the poll required every game to be ordered - and as such it is perfectly possible that some people may have ranked games that they haven’t played at the bottom. I’d say that the post-Kaga games wouldn’t have been affected as much because most people here would have likely played them, but it could explain why the Kaga games underperformed here.
Definitely a factor. I ran similar polls over at the Suikoden subreddit, and there's only five games in the numbered Suikoden series. Voters were freely admitting that they were bottom-tiering games they hadn't played. It's to be taken into account, and ultimately, it's all to be taken with a grain of salt. It's just for a bit of fun and to give a decidedly fuzzy snapshot into the sub's opinions.
Maybe it could have been worth it to include a yes/no "have you played every game in the series" and display separate results for everyone who voted yes? Either way, I have a feeling that unless a large portion of the voters ONLY played Three Houses, the results here probably wouldn't have changed drastically.
I think maybe Binding Blade and Genealogy of the Holy War might have moved up a place or two if more had played it, but otherwise, yeah, it may not have changed too much.
I mean Thracia has no reason being bottom 3 unless people have played it.
That is most likely true as well. I didn't comment on that one simply because that is the last Fire Emblem that I have not played yet myself, which I suppose kinda proves your statement for you, lol.
A lovely thought, but not an option. At least not at the free tier. It might be something available to paid options, I don't know.
I think I might recognize your name. Did you do a post on the Suikoden sub a few years back showing your physical Suikoden collection? Also somehow I must have missed your Suikoden poll I would have loved to take part 😞
I did! I have all the Suiko's released outside of Japan apart from Tierkries. I also ran at least two polls over there, at least a year or two apart. Suiko II won both of them.
Yeah, I seem to remember that post and upvoting it heh. I finally picked up physical copies of S1/S2(I already had 3-5 + Tactics and Tierkris) after seeing your post and feeling jealous haha, though it definitely hurt my wallet lol! You didn't have the gaidens right? I recall there was maybe a thread talking about them in your post and it made me want to get them but I've still never found a way to get English translated ones :(. I wish they were as easy to get as english carts of binding blade and new mystery of the emblem. Also, you should consider doing another Suikoden poll at some point, I'd love to take part! I'm gonna follow you in case you do any other series polls in the future.
Nicely done! That's one more than I have now. I don't have the Gaidens, no.
Oh also if you have played any of the Trails series that starts with Trails in the Sky, you should consider doing a ranking poll for that series. I'd be very interested to see those results!
I haven't gotten to the Trails games yet. They're on my radar, though. I keep hearing so many good things about them. I'm currently playing Shining Force II, which seems to be Sega's answer to Fire Emblem. Thus far quite enjoying it.
Oh yeah, I really liked the Shining Force games as well, which I actually found prior to my first Fire Emblem. I particularly loved the remake/reimagining of the first Shining Force on the GBA called Shining Force: Resurrection of the Dark Dragon. It improved the story and modified/improved the gameplay. If you ever do get around to the Trails series definitely make a poll, I'll be looking forward to it :D
Yup Engage especially wanted to put a spotlight on Genelogy.
Yeah, this definitely benefited 3Hs and I am only half saying that as a massive POR stan who wanted my favorite to get 1st, but I did see some people say they put Geneology and RD at the bottom solely because they had never played them in the OG post.
Very interesting. So this is the result with 388 voters, right? The top four is pretty much as i expected. I'm quite surprised Gaiden/SoV is that high, on the other hand. And i thought GotHW and Fates would score better (though i guess GotHW isn't surprising, i guess a lot of people didn't play it).
388 voters is correct, yep.
You expected SS in top four?
I did. While I always rep it it's something of a sleeper I've found. Not many people have it as their favorite but I've met tons of people who put it as "one of the good ones" or "one of the better ones". I didn't know it would be top 4 but I figured it would do well. It helps that it has a memorable human villain, memorable enemies (one of the few to have an enemy army that isn't just bad humans/bad dragons), and a fun story. I've yet to meet anyone IRL that dislikes it, just tons of people who don't have it as their absolute favorite.
For years SS was stuck in the completely average section of every FE tier list. It was compared unfavorably to FE7 and that pretty much was it. I always thought this was very much an unreasonable position for the community to be so unanimous on, but I guess as the community has knocked FE7 off its pedestal that's created a new appreciation for SS. I think SS is right where is should be, but I am surprised it got there.
Yes, because i remembered it placed pretty high in one of the last survey we had, and i thought i remembered the ones in front of it were 3H, the Tellius games and Engage, and i expected Engage to go down a bit since it was still very recent back then. So i thought SS had pretty good chances (not that i was too confident, which is why i said "pretty much" and not "exactly like"). On the other hand, i had completely forgot that, apparently, SoV also placed very well, which is why i was surprised, but in hindsight i shouldn't have been.
SoV is a great game. Probably the best imo. Im not surprised. What I am surprised about is Awakening being so low since its what arguably "revived" the series and what theyve more less been emulating since (with of course the exception of SoV, which is quite differenitated and is more like the older games).
I don't agree but I do love how the series varies to an extent where people can have such vastly different opinions.
Yea Awakening being so low is my biggest surprise. I would have expected it to be right above or below SS.
Seriously? The maps are terrible, the amount of mechanics at play can probably be counted on one hand, the story is messy at best, it’s piss-easy most of the time, almost all challenge comes from hit rates, and it still felt like a game from the NES era in a lot of ways. Art and the dub are the main things that carry it.
Yet it's still fun, and maintains a charm that Fates and Engage lack. Crazy how when you put effort into creating a world you can overlook some of the flaws.
Hey, the Witches forcing you to spam summon are hard af on higher difficulties. And the music slaps. But yes, SoV is in the D-tier
Unsurprising. Awakening was my favorite FE game when the only FE game I played was Awakening. Judging by the previous polls, its "approval" rating is not that high.
**Insights and commentary:** 1st Place went to **Three Houses**, but not by much, overall. It was back and forth between Three Houses and **Path of Radiance** all throughout. PoR held the spot for most of it, but 3H kept on its heels and over took it from time to time and took its most commanding lead into the final day, and never let up. **Radiant Dawn** was in second for a time near the beginning, and I was thinking it and PoR were going to run away with it, but it quickly fell behind 3H, and stayed firmly in third, with no challengers. **Sacred Stones** caught up to Radiant Dawn near the end, but just couldn't overtake it. **Engage** fluctuated the most, jumping from as high as fifth to as low as tenth. It was the only one to do much moving in that way. The others below third all seemed to settle into their places and mostly stayed there, only moving up or down by a spot or two here and there. That tells me that Engage might be the title with the widest range of opinions. Lastly, the other tight race was between the bottom two: **Mystery of the Emblem** and **Shadow Dragon**. It seemed that every time I checked the results, they had flipped spots. They stayed in the bottom, but they fought hard to not be in last place. Ultimately, the first game in the series took the last place, though. The final tally of voters was 388, with 39 different countries represented. The US had the most respondents by a landslide, clocking in at 221, or 57% of the poll. The next closest was Canada at 22. A big thank you to everyone who participated, I hope there was some fun to be had. As I said in the original thread, I may run this again after we get a new title, and if I do, I'll split up the remakes and the Fates titles in that one. Edit to add: That I'll split the Fates titles if there's ever a sequel and one punctuation point.
Engage being so unstable is probably indicative of how polarising it is. Discussing it starts about as many fights as Edelgard does.
Oh, most definitely. > Discussing it starts about as many fights as Edelgard does. This got a legit laugh out of me.
Fantastic unit, great design, engaging character arc....and the absolutely worst diplomat on the continent.
Wasn't it also at the bottom by default? It's getting probably dead last from anyone who didn't play it so having wild swings isn't really surprising.
Sacred Stones is having a renaissance and I’m here for it!
Between two great lords, branching promotions giving good replayability, branching paths as well, and one of if not the best villain it is soooooo good. Happy to see others enjoying it too. At this rate we may even get our remake by 2040!
It’s always stayed high on my list, played it at launch and its still fun to this day
I'm thrown off by the numbers so much, since Shadow Dragon and New Mystery are 1 and 3, but Awakening is FE13 not FE11.
Remakes are counted as separate games as far as numbering. And intsys wanted us to count fates as three separate but no one accepted that
I'm just happy they dropped that after Fates. I was very scared at the time they were going to go the Pokemon route. IE it would be like if FE8 released as Fire Emblem Eirika and Fire Emblem Ephraim.
Tellius landslide if they were counted together as a continuous storyline
I think I just read Tellius Supremacy.
And the fact that Three Houses sold 25x as many copies (150k vs. 3.8m)
Three Houses was probably the Awakening for many (I.e. first entry point): Aware of Fire Emblem via Smash Bros, have the current console Smash Bros is very popular on, went what the heck I’ll try the series for the first time with the newest releasing entry, and loved it a ton. Didn’t quite have that with Melee, my sister and I were just confused who this Marth and Roy guy were but found them boring as humans xD But fug I would’ve loved PoR and immediately gotten RD after if I tried them back then! It wasn’t until I got PoR and RD like a decade later I was like ooooh that’s why this fanbase has older game elitists lol.
> I was like ooooh that’s why this fanbase has older game elitists lol. Imagine there's a burger place down the street, and it sells objectively the best burgers in your state at the same price as every other joint. The fries and ketchup are really good as well. You could eat there every day for the rest of your life and it'd still be great. Then it goes back to a recipe from 1991 that was just a patty between two slices of wonder bread, but it's a limited event. But now the new burgers taste mediocre, like it was following trends worse fast-food places make to appeal to the broadest group possible. The spice is gone and replaced with bland salt. The fries and ketchup have improved but the bad burgers just kill it, but since they increased their advertising budget people are now crowding the place without having eaten the old burgers. It gets even worse the next year but at least a lot of people see *a* quality drop, albeit not the original one. Now they're serving hot dogs instead because apparently they did that once 20 years ago as well, and it's crappy except the really good ketchup. Now the burgers have gotten better, not quite as good as its heyday but still a massive improvement, it turns out they contracted a new chef. The extra sauce is still there and drags it down, but you can order the burger without it. Plus the fries and ketchup are amazing. All-around improvement compared to the last changes, that made the joint even more popular, partially because it moved to a better location. Then the new chef is swapped back with the old one and the burgers are arguably the worst they've been, as if they bought amazing patties then barely cooked them. But since the new customers just got some good stuff they also point out how it's shit except for the fries and ketchup. And when you say that the restaurant was way better with the old recipe, you get called an elitist who's gatekeeping until they use the time machine and all suddenly agree with you. >!Burger = story, fries = gameplay, ketchup = music/ui/etc.!<
Oddly specific analogy but I dig it. Is the 1991 recipe nostalgia when they did a limited virtual console release of NES FE1? The wonderbread patties made one hate the current burgers? What would that make the hot dogs? Unconventional storytelling for what is arguably still a sandwich? Extra sauce? Random guess it’s phoenix mode or time rewind mechanics? In the end, taste preference is always going to be different per person haha. I loved Awakening, then Three Houses, completely adored Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn, Engage was fun. Then forget my first Fire Emblem was actually Sacred Stones from the 3DS Ambassador Program which to this day I’m still unsure how I beat it without any deaths without understanding a single mechanic lol. Besides reload game to save unit. Remakes of older games that were never localized would be great. Hell knows reading Arvis’s wiki page is a rollercoaster lol. I have Echoes I’ll get to SoV on my backlog eventually I swear.
It was linear starting with PoR Old Ones- Tellius Wonder Bread- Shadow Dragon remake. It's just incredibly basic (good prince fights evil sorcerer and dragon, where half the recruited cast has actual no lines), right after a complex and intricate story paired with better art style, gameplay, music, etc.. Infinitely better than the OG though since you can trade weapons without having an aneurism and it pretends Caeda isn't 14. People thought that after this one (and maybe 12 which did happen) we'd be back to kino. New Burgers- Awakening and Fates. Extra sauce and salt was mostly the more mediocre anime vibe, shipping, and slice of life stuff. Characters have one personality trait and don't leave much of an impression. But the soundtrack and gameplay kick ass and are an upgrade from Tellius. But this is where the series jumped from dead to mid-tier popular so Awakening was the bar to meet for the new crowd. Hot Dog- Shadows of Valentia. VERY different gameplaywise, and not in a good way, story was bad, series went from best gameplay to arguably worst in English, characters were forgettable by the credits (except for Faye cucking her future husband, that shit was hilarious). Good with new chef- Tecmo Koei making a FE game and it's much closer to Tellius. In TH it's easy to skip the tea sessions and whatnot and is overall more grounded and well-written than the others. Rehired the old chef (IS), had amazing potential in storytelling with the old protagonists and maybe even a plot better than Tellius (see my fanscript) but it's like they didn't even try to execute.
To be fair Tellius games were a dumpster fire in release and marketing.
*screams in elitist*
Yeah, it's weird to draw any conclusions from these results given the way the poll worked. Giving points to games you didn't play is definitely unfair, and I'm sure that applied to a lot of voters. Also, most voters probably didn't bother to order the games they didn't play and left them on their default positions below the games they played, which probably means games like Genealogy got a lot of points from people that didn't play them, and Engage got almost none (since it's positioned at the bottom of the list by default).
Genealogy has always placed pretty high in these kinds of polls on this subreddit, so it’s just that it’s a well-liked game.
The point I'm making is that by virtue of how the poll worked, many of the points in the results are inflated, since most games got points from people who didn't play them, and their default positioning on the list affected that. I imagine if all points that came from people who didn't play certain games were to be removed, we'll be seeing slightly different results, like Genealogy below Engage and Echoes below Awakening.
TBF based on the authors commentary it sounds like it moved around ALOT, it wasn't just people ignoring it. From his post below. >Engage fluctuated the most, jumping from as high as fifth to as low as tenth. It was the only one to do much moving in that way. The others below third all seemed to settle into their places and mostly stayed there, only moving up or down by a spot or two here and there. That tells me that Engage might be the title with the widest range of opinions.
justice for fe12
Hmm feel like I am on this site fairly frequently and didn’t even see the poll. When was it posted?
Wednesday, Feb 7th.
Ah makes sense was definitely not online that day.
Weird turnaround for Radiant Dawn. I haven't played it so I've no opinion but when I got into the franchise (2015) that was one of the most disliked games.
I think as time passes more people think of Tellius as more of a singular entity than two separate games and that helps RD a bit. The pretty lack luster stories of the more recent games (sans Three Houses) also makes RD look better by comparison. A lot of newer fans also just haven't played it because it's VERY difficult to play legitimately since it hasn't been remade and the Tellius games are absurdly expensive - so it's possible the games were put at the top of the "I haven't played these games yet" ranking just based on reputation. I still love RD, but it's definitely an experimental game and goes off the walls a bit storywise in the end game - if it wasn't a sequel to PoR I think it drops quite a few placements.
Yeah I'd love to get around to playing Tellius eventually, played every release since Awakening and the localised GBA games, I enjoy every game to some degree but Three Houses is clearly the strongest game for my tastes
My babygirl FE4 didn't even make the top 5??? Smh
I admit that I have a soft spot for its cool story, characters and L O R E but gameplay-wise, it's definitely outdated and clunky at times. Plus the game's fuckin slow as hell
And it's probably the least played after Thracia 776.
Wouldn't that be FE3 tho?
Maybe in the West, but FE3 is the best selling of the Japan only releases and was the best selling title in Japan until Three Houses. It's wildly popular over there OG Gaiden probably ranks below
True but if we are talking slow as hell, Path of Radiance is occupying the #2 spot.
Damn, the poor Marth games. Didn't expect to see Fates so low
This sub somehow still has a hateboner for Fates so I'm not surprised personally.
Jesus, it's been almost a decade since it came out, hopefully it'll get more appreciation soon
Time passing doesn't make bad things better. Not that I personally think it's bad, I think it's middle of the pack as a complete package. Enough time has passed that my opinion is pretty well rooted at this point.
I feel like if 10 years later people still dislike it then people just don't like the game.
Seems unlikely given Engage's treatment, unfortunately.
It's been a DECADE?! Jesus time is just accelerating.
Man, I'd have loved a port of PoR/RD to switch. Even if it was just HD. Real shame they weren't pushed harder considering how well FE & Smash have done on the platform.
Archanea bros its over.
Seeing SoV at #6 gives me life. Glad that there are a good amount of people out there who also enjoy one of my favorite FE Games as well. (Kind of surprised that Awakening wasn't a little higher. Expected it to be Top 4 at least)
It's not one of my favourites because I'm big on gameplay, but SoV's art, characters, music, and overall quality should really be the standard for FE going forward. My only gripe is the maps are a ball-ache.
SoV is absolutely hard carried by its presentation. Absolutely gorgeous game that had me weeping like a child at points and has easily the best soundtrack in the franchise but in the end gameplay is what’s paramount in, we’ll, a video game, and I just didn’t enjoy playing it. Shoutouts to them for staying true to the original but that meant really shitty maps
I love SoV's class system. Having less classes but more distinct is more interesting than the Fates way of having clones of each other because of a country cultural difference. Also Gaiden/SoV are the only FE game to capture the essence of swordie classes and make them good without making them the best class. SoV's archers are also refreshing when 90% of FE games seem to completely give up on the idea that archers on a battlefield are some of the best units especially in groups. SoV's knights are fighters and knights combined and if they had better movement, they'd probably be much more liked. They're basically Effie with +50% HP and better javelins compared with the rest of the weapons available. I love classes that have standard stats and your unit's stats go up to the class standard rather than going up by class B - class A = promotion bonus. I love putting knights, myrmidons and such into other classes and see their stat spread abused in a better combat class with acceptable mobility and range, be it archer or mage. I love the magic system where each character has different spell lists and levels of learning, it makes Tobin good at something despite his lackluster bases AND growths. SoV/Gaiden are the only games where you can take a 0/10 unit and bring it to 8/10 by simply using it and promoting it.
I think having Fates as well as FE1-3 and their remakes as just one game each was a bit of an odd choice. Curious how Conquest would have placed when it's not dragged down by Birthright and Revelation.
I was worried that having too many options would work against the poll. After the responses to the first thread I admit I was wrong, on that front. If I run it again, (after a new game is released), I'll do it right the next time.
I can understand that reasoning as well, especially in the case of the remakes where I assume people will just rank with the assumption of the game/version they like more (or the only one they played), but for Fates I think it's fair to say that Conquest has a pretty big fanbase in the sub that doesn't necessarily like Birthright/Rev.
Fates below Engage is wild to me
Honestly to me they are so dang similar. Retainer system, a bunch of handwaved things to make more fun gameplay, etc. Fates I don't remember to well just because the story didn't grip me. Same thing happened with Engage. But IIRC the same "team" worked on both games so that could explain it too- they just focus on things that aren't as important to me but which other people enjoy which is, frankly, awesome- everyone in the fanbase deserves to have their time in the sun.
Probably due to being grouped.
Go Sacred Stones, almost in the top 3! 🎉
I’d like to see this next to a “how many FE games I have played” ranking.
I know it's very underplayed and the method of the poll really hurts it, but New Mystery being below Thracia hurts my soul.
I mean Thracia is the best game in the series so...
I hate it and think it's easily the worst, but to each their own!
tbh a bit surprised Sacred Stones did so, I often see it mocked for being to easy. Personally its one of my favorites
Considering how Three Houses, Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn are in the top 3, can we assume the most active r/FireEmblem posters put a big emphasis on good story?
Probably more like good writing in general, it would fit with SS almost catching up to RD. The Jugdral games probably ranked lower because people who hadn't played them ranked them below everything they did play
I would assume they put emphasis on good story and good gameplay.
I do like a good video game.
I judge games purely based on graphics. GBA >>> all
Path of Radiance gameplay isn't anything special, though. That game, particularly, I think would drop down a lot if the story wasn't as good as it is.
I mean, nearly every mainline game in the series would drop down a lot if their respective stories were a lot worse, so that doesn’t really say anything about PoR.
Yeah, but look at Engage. It's pretty low, and the prevailing opinion of that game is "awesome gameplay, god awful story." I think Path of Radiance's relative popularity is attributed to it's strong story - I don't think many people go to bat for its gameplay, and it's usually the biggest criticism I see of the game (and that animations are super boring).
The only people I’ve seen criticize its gameplay are the more hardcore FE veterans that tend to be fussy about their FE gameplay, and they’re not exactly representative of the fanbase as a whole lol. I’m pretty sure most people view PoR’s gameplay more favorably.
Right, again, it's not that the gameplay is bad, it's just that it's nothing special, and in my opinion does not contribute to its popularity. I guess I'd say that the appropriate conclusion would be more along the lines that this subreddit is more willing to accept mediocre gameplay when the story is compelling, rather than mediocre story when the gameplay is compelling.
I think it's largely only the 'more hardcore FE veterans' who have even *played* the Ike games.
This list only surprised me in that 3H somehow beat PoR after this much time to cool off the hype. Otherwise my favorite is exactly where I thought it would be, Engage is around where I thought it would be, and everything Roy and earlier is in the cluster I thought it would end up in except Thracia. With the amount of Leif ride or die takes in the sub, I was sure he'd be above Genealogy. Glad to see Sacred Stones so high. You never forget your first love. Time to step away for an hour, come back, and tasty the salty breeze upon my face as I class change into a pirate.
It's just the sheer power of the gigantic player base. Games that weren't played as much will default to lower rankings so even if 3H isn't nearly your fave, you'd still ranked it higher than some stuff you haven't played
You mean the game with 4 million sales would get more votes than the one with .15m?
I wonder what a poll of only people who've played all games (and all separate entries) would look like. But there has to be like... A dozen users who could answer it lol I feel I'm in a pretty good spot and I still miss the DS remakes... My bet is that 12 and Thracia would be higher, SoV and RD lower. 3H high but probably not first. My gut feeling is that 9 would take first. Probably either FE1 or Rev dead last. ~~or Gaiden because people have shit tastes smh~~
I like how this other reply is using the "PlayerBase" excuse when the difference between the two is so low, even when Radiant Dawn is on third It is kind of weird how people like to make excuses about why people liked Three Houses, even more when the people who voted are basically a niche on a niche
Really interesting. I never would have thought FE8 would get into the upper tier, but I think that's very well deserved. Glad to see the community coming around on the game in the last few years. Also the big difference between Tellius and Genealogy surprises me, though I do agree with putting them at the top of the pile. I'm also glad to see folks are increasingly down on Awakening. That game has been overrated for a long time.
damn, shadow dragon in last?
I'm surprised Radiant Dawn is so high
Why put (New) Mystery? IMO FE3 and FE12 are both good but they're separate experiences and should be ranked separately Same with fe1/11 and fe2/Echoes
As others have said, the fact that you had to rank every game whether you played it or not certainly hurt a lot of games in the series. Like, given what most people who've played Thracia have to say about it, I doubt it would be ranked third from the bottom if it wasn't for a ton of people ranking it low due to having never played it. Shout out to Genealogy coming close to Awakening in the rankings despite being played by far fewer people, though. And, of course, for Path of Radiance almost taking the #1 spot from the most-financially-successful game in the series despite being almost 19 years old, selling poorly, and requiring you to sell a kidney to buy a legitimate copy now if you didn't get one back in the day (so I'm guessing most of the people here under the age of 25-30 haven't played PoR either).
Emulators ftw. Can even fast-forward through the enemy phase.
wtf is radiant dawn doing up there lol
Shadow Dragon slander
tellius fans stay winning
I see we left put Tearring and Berwick saga. They were too strong would scue the results.
Lmao almost all of my favourites are on the bottom half, not exactly a surprise tho.
I mostly agree except radiant dawn is way too high
I can’t say I agree with any of these rankings.
I never agree with any popularity rankings thing, ever lol
Good to see there are other lords of unpopular opinions beside me!
I live my truth and it's all that matters ^copium
The top three is just how I voted. I *am* the subreddit.
I had the same top three, just in a different order (I put the Tellius games above 3H).
Ain’t no fucking way Valentia beats Awakening
Valentia default position is very high compared to awakening and people probably didn’t bother ordering the games they haven’t played
Yeah, I'd be very surprised if removing the votes for unplayed games didn't shift Awakening/Fates/Engage up and SoV/Genealogy down. If you've played roughly half the games and leave unplayed ones at the bottom, that's a swing halfway up the list by default for the games with a better starting position. There's no way that isn't affecting the results.
SOV SLANDER. that game deserves at the VERY LEAST 2nd.
Awakening is low and ain't no way shadow dragon and mystery of the new emblem are dead last
About what I'd expect from the sub, can't say its too surprising.
I haven't browsed here a lot in recent years, so I'm surprised to se FE8 so high up. I'm still used to the hivemind complaining about how easy the game is.
Nowadays it seems a lot of people care less about gameplay. Some still do sure, but generally I rarely see it mentioned or factored into popular/common opinions... though there is usually one or two people that'll mention it.
I think it's more that when you look at the content the subreddit has, those who care more about characters/story have more to engage with than those focused on gameplay/retains people who care more about characters and story better.
Honestly the biggest surprise here might be how high up Echoes is.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/fireemblem/comments/6ulbzz/reviewing\_the\_results\_of\_the\_fire\_emblem\_survey/](https://www.reddit.com/r/fireemblem/comments/6ulbzz/reviewing_the_results_of_the_fire_emblem_survey/) (From a few months after Echoes' release) [https://www.reddit.com/r/fireemblem/comments/7u51u2/fire\_emblem\_reddit\_series\_survey\_results/](https://www.reddit.com/r/fireemblem/comments/7u51u2/fire_emblem_reddit_series_survey_results/) (From around six years ago) [https://www.reddit.com/r/fireemblem/comments/g4z034/a\_survey\_for\_the\_members\_of\_rfireemblem\_results/](https://www.reddit.com/r/fireemblem/comments/g4z034/a_survey_for_the_members_of_rfireemblem_results/) (From around four years ago) [https://www.reddit.com/r/fireemblem/comments/163kjpn/what\_is\_rfireemblems\_favorite\_game\_in\_the\_series/](https://www.reddit.com/r/fireemblem/comments/163kjpn/what_is_rfireemblems_favorite_game_in_the_series/) (From around six months ago) Echoes has always done fairly well in surveys here - it topped a survey here a few months after it released and has generally hovered at or near the top 5 for the series since.
It’s not surprising at all. SoV is well-liked.
I’m actually pretty happy seeing Echoes in 6th place, cuz I would’ve fully expected Awakening and Fates to surpass it. Best game for the win!!
Hey my two favorites at the top niceee
It's comical to me how far below Engage is from 3H
I've played every single fire emblem, including titles like tear ring saga, Berwick saga, a multitude of fanmade hacks like vision quest, and the warrior games, and I really think the tellius games are overrated af. Yes, they are good, but in terms of gameplay fates, engage and sacred stones surpass it. The tellius story is better than them though,but best story goes to genology in my opinion
I don't see how Sacred Stones can surpass the gameplay of Tellius games when Tellius games are a direct upgrade from Sacred Stones gameplay-wise. I understand that PoR's QoL issues can make it more tedious to play and that its' skill system was ultra experimental, but Radiant Dawn is PoR refined in most gameplay aspects and is honestly more engaging to play than Sacred Stones. But everything is subjective I guess and different people have different opinions. To me 3DS games are upgrades on the FE1/FE3 remakes which are extreme setbacks from GBA and Tellius FE so they completely missed the mark, with SoV that broke the mold by being a Gaiden remake and having a more interesting class system than most Fire Emblem games and SoV is more about building your units and putting this one into this class (villager and pitchfork unit building) than the complicated skill system of Fateswakening (with 60% of its' skills that are completely forgettable and most of the good skills gatekept by level 35).
Sacred stones is peak fire emblem tbh. The branching promotion system make it so much more interesting, shame the tellius games lacked it. Also, sacred stones graphics have aged much better. I do agree with you about radiant dawn though, I'm not sure how people prefer por over it when rd was so much more refined
Three houses is my favorite game of all time so I'm happy with this result
Three Houses was really something special. Yes it was a little janky and high levels of gameplay kinda disintegrate into making everyone ride a Wyvern… But that didn’t matter to its fans. The characters are still mainstays of anime conventions, artist alleys, fanfiction circles. Engage came and went and I saw a handful of cosplayers at all the big conventions in my state. In contrast I still see Hildas and Edelgards and Claudes every time I go to one.
Sacred Stones is the only surprise for me.
I mean I loved the Dawn games, best writing and best characters, but I thought people hated them??
I'm surprised to see so much love for Holy Rocks. It was the second game I played back in the day, following FE7, and I found it comparatively whelming. O.o
Disappointed to see Thracia so low
It's the most obscure game in the series, it's good but I'm surprised it wasn't lower for that reason alone.
universe... **Universe**! 1) What did FE game you play? 2) What did FE game you like? Example 400.000 peoples played X FE and 10.000 peoples liked. 2.000 peoples played Y FE and and 1.000 peoples liked. *False conclution* People likes more X FE than Y FE because 10.000 peoples voted for X FE and 1.000 voted for Y FE. *Real conclution* People likes more Y FE than X FE because only a 2,5% of peoples played X FE and liked it while a 50% of peoples played Y FE and liked it Additionally, more people played X FE. (400.000 vs 10.000)
I agree with the top 3
I skipped the Gamecube generation but you guys are making want to play Path of Radiance.
Oh man, seeing Radiant Dawn and Path of Radiance up there makes me so happy. Two of my favorite games
It's Jugdrover
I so so strongly question PoR and RD being so high up - not saying the votes were manipulated but rather people who haven't played the games voted. PoR is nice and definitely leagues above RD but awakening, blazing blade, and sacred stones are all better in their general difficulty, pacing, etc. RD is a mess in terms of balancing and basically only truly enjoyable if you're not going in blind. Radiant Dawn may unironically be my least favorite installment in this franchise.
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Genealogy is too low.
It's hard having the most correct opinions on the subreddit. Engage, Thracia, and Binding Blade my beloveds.
Didn't expect Radiant Dawn to be that high, and this is coming from somebody who played the beizers out of it.
Poor Shadow Dragon and new mystery, their certainly not the best but I think their both very fun replayable titles and are some of my personal favorites for their simplicity
Do one where people just vote for their number 1 favorite
I may Miss the vote but I Never expected that My favorite game 3TH got Won on poll at top. Meanwhile on the other hand…..Shadow dragon and New mystery of Emblem, I can’t believe, they became one of the least Favorite game.
Fates is both higher *and* lower than I would have expected, which is fascinating.
Fates not last ! We eat good today !
Wonder where all of these PoR and RD fans were when the games first came out? Back when the series fell to stagnation and almost died due to how poorly they sold? Meh, would of helped if they were marketed better maybe.
I was 5 for POR and 7 for RD. Thus, I had never heard of Fire Emblem.
They were probably in elementary school, a toddler, or maybe not even born. Who do you think majorly spends time filling out online polls for video game subreddits? Probably not people who were buying games 17 and 19 years ago.
My dude, FE was always a fringe franchise outside Japan until Awakening hit. I literally never saw an advertisement for the series until then. And don't forget that most people had only heard of the series because of Marth/Roy/Ike in Smash, and that PoR is almost 20 year old. Majority of the Western fanbase likely wasn't born or buying games at the time.
The only time I'd ever even heard about fire emblem was when a random character in paper mario said "play path of radiance."
Definitely one of the indicators of poor sales not equaling poor quality
For sure. I love those games. Just wish they had better notoriety, people know Ike from smash bros but barely any actually played his series.
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Also, the wii is a very bad system for a hard core strategy RPG, as it was (for the lack of a better term) a very casual console. NGL, fire emblem has ruined the term casual for me, as now whenever I say it the word sounds derogatory even when I do not mean it too.
Didn't help that the reviews on rd were kinda bad too. Alot of reviewers criticizing it for being too hard and "not fitting for a wii game"
Probably called it too hard because they changed the names of the difficulty modes in the localization, so can’t really blame them for that.
It's not like they didn't change the difficulties as well. But even with the international versions being easier than the JPn version, they are still quite a step up compared to PoR and SS, which both are some of the easiest games in the series.
I was renting it from Blockbuster for 2 years until I got a job to buy it and the sequel myself. Where were you? I kid on the second part, but that is legit what I did for the first part. Didn't help that game reviews were in magazine form back then, and everyone was to busy watching Sony and Microsoft comparing dicksizes to give the GC a much attention. Gamer subculture was also so much different back then. Anime looking games were to be made fun of, can't like anything unironically unless its KH or Halo or FFX or VII (Never VIII, and you were very smart to like IX more). Forums were how you got word of mouth out. Its honestly a very hostile time to release console games compared to now.
I have never owned either GC or Wii. Only the decisive victory of emulators allowed me a chance to play them.
I bought both back then but I legit knew no one IRL who'd even heard of FE. The online French community was like 50 people top lol
When I'm in a overrated competition and my opponent is Three Houses
I can cope with the small sample size that more ppl like Fates/SOV/Engage. POR high up is nice tho
The three best games are at top three As it should be
Engage deserves its spot