History YMMV / FireEmblemMysteryOfTheEmblem

* FranchiseOriginalSin: The ''FE'' games of UsefulNotes/TheNewTens are often accused of ratcheting up the "fanservice" element of ''Fire Emblem'' to try and get by on sex appeal. Many of these accusers tend to forget (or not even know), meanwhile, that ''[=MotE=]'' had Linde looking like [[https://fireemblemwiki.org/wiki/File:FEMN_Linde_04.png this]] all the way back in '''1994'''. And then there's the Whitewings and their distinct [[VaporWear pantlessness]] (and yes, that was present even in 1994 art). While there definitely has been some escalation over the years (and you can see it really begin in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBlazingBlade''), the seeds of it were definitely in the ground even this far back.

* LesYay: In ''New Mystery'', Katarina and the Female Avatar come in for a lot of this. The story ''very'' heavily pushes Katarina as the ImpliedLoveInterest, which results in a lot of their interactions having some level of romantic tension that doesn't really go away if you swap Kris's gender.

* HighTierScrappy:
** Palla in both games is often held as irrefutable proof that series creator Shouzou Kaga had no idea how to balance his games properly. In the original [=SNES=] game, she joins near her class caps in a game where stats for ''promoted units'' cap at 20, a high enough weapon rank that lets her fight with a Silver Lance right out of the gate, a Master Seal that can promote her immediately afterwards into a Dracoknight, and has MightyGlacier growths on top of FragileSpeedster bases. This would already be a recipe for a GameBreaker in any other game, but she's ''also'' a flier, and she joins obscenely early in Chapter 3, solidifying her as by ''far'' the best unit in her game, with nobody else coming even close to as broken as she is. The only "downside" is that she's forced to dismount in indoor maps, but given her Weapon Level remains consistent due to how the older games calculated weapon rank, this is virtually no problem at all. The remake kept her about the same, and she's arguably even ''better'' there, as she joins in a game with bases that are on level to [[LowTierLetdown prepromotes you get far later in the game]] at a FAR earlier point while unpromoted, can now reclass with her weapon ranks transferring due to being as ludicrously high as they are, and unlike in the original game, keeps her mount indoors and can freely use 1-2 range weapons as a result. What truly pushes her into High-Tier Scrappy-dom is the fact that some people take issue [[AllLoveIsUnrequited with her unrequited infatuation]] with Abel [[SingleIssueWonk taking up most of her character]] and [[FranchiseOriginalSin setting up precedent for the MANY clones of this archetype that came afterwards]], but what truly solidifies her is that in both games -- ''New Mystery of the Emblem'' especially -- you practically ''have'' to use her because many other units that players like more are practically unusable on Lunatic, which only infuriates people more given unlike units like Sirius (who, [[spoiler:being [[AntiVillain Camus]]]], gets a heap of CharacterDevelopment that makes him well-liked both as a unit ''and'' character), she doesn't often have the same characterization that would justify a casual player using her, [[Catch22Dilemma but are forced to use her regardless because the game would be unwinnable without a unit like her]].
** Kris, meanwhile, manages to be the best unit in ''their'' game. Already a pretty controversial character in the fandom due to their CanonForeigner status and accusations of being a SpotlightStealingSquad or a CreatorsPet, one thing that ''really'' doesn't help the debates is that Kris is incredibly powerful. Not only can they start in eight different classes with parameters that are at least above average in just about every category, but they also have a pretty lengthy prologue and tutorial where they'll pretty much always be your best character and where most of the units you use won't be playable again for a good while. This means, invariably, the best way to play ''New Mystery'' is to have Kris solo the tutorial, and then join up with Marth's gang as a level 10 or so DiscOneNuke that can proceed to turn even Lunatic into a joke.

* LowTierLetdown: Hoo boy... the eponymous UpdatedRerelease of ''VideoGame/FireEmblemMysteryOfTheEmblem'' takes the previous game's already-dubious balance and lights it on fire before tap-dancing on the ashes. It's as a result one of the ''worst'' offenders in the series in terms of lopsided unit balance:

* BaseBreakingCharacter: "My Unit/Kris" is a huge point of contention for the fans of the game. Those who like Kris often do so for similar reasons than they like Robin in ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening Awakening]]'': an amazing unit a with a lot of support conversations who provide more development to the rest of the cast (and some of them get a bit hilarious when they're forced to play the [[OnlySaneMan OnlySaneMan/Woman role]]). Outside that, they have a ridiculous fashion sense to the point of hilarity (they can wear ''any'' outfits or accessories or hairstyles provided by the cast to the point even Marth is sometimes shocked at seeing Kris in a weird accessory and Kris just takes them all non-chalantly). Detractors points out to the original script of the game that the plot is often rewritten to their advantage, [[SpotlightStealingSquad making them steal the spotlight from the army as a whole]], their seriously overpowered nature makes them come across as even more of a power fantasy, find Kris's character in supports to be ''very'' flat, which makes the fact that Kris is the only character who supports with everyone even more of a drag, and that, being a player avatar in a remake of a game that didn't feature one, they don't mesh well with the plot, unlike the other avatars of the series (and for those who dislike My Unit as a concept in general, let alone among people who didn't care for its expanded importance in ''Awakening'' or ''Fates'', this is the FranchiseOriginalSin). There's also a third camp that considers Kris nothing spectacular or overly amazing, but doesn't really detract the quality of the story or existing characters. This camp is helped by the fact that, though they get a few lines supporting characters originally had in the main story, outside of the gaiden chapters, where it's justifiable given their personal connection to Katarina, Kris really is only a minor character and keeps a backseat to Marth where it counts, rather than being the even ''worse'' screentime-hoggers that Robin and Corrin were chiefly ''because'' of the story being written to accommodate them. However, detractors argue that screentime hogging is worse with Kris as they're overtaking an already existing story, to the point of having Marth's achievements "credited" to him by Kris. Despite seemingly being minor, Kris overtaking established achievements and handing them off to Marth and Marth turning to Kris when he didn't turn to anyone in the original doesn't sit well with players as it undercuts Marth's competence, especially when he stood up for himself just fine in the original game. As a result, other avatars fit better in the detractor's eyes ''because'' the story accommodates them instead of hijacking an existing story and discrediting characters that have been beloved for years. Kris remains a very controversial character to this day.

* FanonDiscontinuity: [[spoiler:People seem to be treating Michalis's optional survival in ''New Mystery'' as this, due to many preferring the idea that he died. His ending isn't helping matters either, since it essentially results in him happily getting his job as a psychotic tyrant back.]]

*** With the release of the remakes and ''VideoGame/FireEmblemHeroes'', though, Palla/Minerva has taken off and distinctly surpassed it, due in part to distaste for AllLoveIsUnrequited and in part their rather strong supports in ''New Mystery'' that all but state that Palla was Minerva's closest partner among the Whitewings. It certainly doesn't hurt the pairing's popularity that while the games certainly ''imply'' Palla's crush is on Abel, her descriptions are vague enough that it could still be someone else, and Minerva conspicuously doesn't have any male partners.

* BaseBreakingCharacter: "My Unit/Kris" is a huge point of contention for the fans of the game. Those who like Kris often do so for similar reasons than they like Robin in ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening Awakening]]'': an amazing unit a with a lot of support conversations who provide more development to the rest of the cast (and some of them get a bit hilarious when they're forced to play the [[OnlySaneMan OnlySaneMan/Woman role]]). Outside that, they have a ridiculous fashion sense to the point of hilarity (they can wear ''any'' outfits or accessories or hairstyles provided by the cast to the point even Marth is sometimes shocked at seeing Kris in a weird accessory and Kris just takes them all non-chalantly). Detractors points out to the original script of the game that the plot is often rewritten to their advantage, [[SpotlightStealingSquad making them steal the spotlight from the army as a whole]], their seriously overpowered nature makes them come across as even more of a power fantasy, find Kris's character in supports to be ''very'' flat, which makes the fact that Kris is the only character who supports with everyone even more of a drag, and that, being a player avatar in a remake of a game that didn't feature one, they don't mesh well with the plot, unlike the other avatars of the series (and for those who dislike My Unit as a concept in general, let alone among people who didn't care for its expanded importance in ''Awakening'' or ''Fates'', this is the FranchiseOriginalSin). There's also a third camp that considers Kris nothing spectacular or overly amazing, but doesn't really detract the quality of the story or existing characters. This camp is helped by the fact that, though they get a few lines supporting characters originally had in the main story, outside of the gaiden chapters, where it's justifiable given their personal connection to Katarina, Kris really is only a minor character and keeps a backseat to Marth where it counts, rather than being the even ''worse'' screentime-hoggers that Robin and Corrin were chiefly ''because'' of the story being written to accommodate them. However, detractors argue that screentime hogging is worse with Kris as they're overtaking an already existing story, to the point of having Marth's achievements "credited" to him by Kris. Despite seemingly being minor, Kris overtaking established achievements and handing them off to Marth and Marth turning to Kris when he didn't turn to anyone in the original doesn't sit well with players as it undercuts Marth's competence. Especially when Marth stood up for himself just fine in the original game. As a result other avatars fit better in the detractor's eyes ''because'' the story accommodates them instead of hijacking an existing story: discrediting characters that have been beloved for years. Kris remains a very controversial character to this day.

* BaseBreakingCharacter: "My Unit/Kris" is a huge point of contention for the fans of the game. Those who like Kris often do so for similar reasons than they like Robin in ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening Awakening]]'': an amazing unit a with a lot of support conversations who provide more development to the rest of the cast (and some of them get a bit hilarious when they're forced to play the [[OnlySaneMan OnlySaneMan/Woman role]]). Outside that, they have a ridiculous fashion sense to the point of hilarity (they can wear ''any'' outfits or accessories or hairstyles provided by the cast to the point even Marth is sometimes shocked at seeing Kris in a weird accessory and Kris just takes them all non-chalantly). Detractors points out to the original script of the game that the plot is often rewritten to their advantage, [[SpotlightStealingSquad making them steal the spotlight from the army as a whole]], their seriously overpowered nature makes them come across as even more of a power fantasy, find Kris's character in supports to be ''very'' flat, which makes the fact that Kris is the only character who supports with everyone even more of a drag, and that, being a player avatar in a remake of a game that didn't feature one, they don't mesh well with the plot, unlike the other avatars of the series (and for those who dislike My Unit as a concept in general, let alone among people who didn't care for its expanded importance in ''Awakening'' or ''Fates'', this is the FranchiseOriginalSin). There's also a third camp that considers Kris nothing spectacular or overly amazing, but doesn't really detract the quality of the story or existing characters. This camp is helped by the fact that, though they get a few lines supporting characters originally had in the main story, outside of the gaiden chapters, where it's justifiable given their personal connection to Katarina, Kris really is only a minor character and keeps a backseat to Marth where it counts, rather than being the even ''worse'' screentime-hoggers that Robin and Corrin were chiefly ''because'' of the story being written to accommodate them.

** Even by Free Silver standards, the '''[[InconsistentDub Wolfguard/Coyote's Men]]''' that join in Chapter 19 are pathetic, which is made all the worse by the fact that they're some of the hardest units to recruit in the game (requiring you to go far out of your way, and then recruit each one ''in succession'' from the enemy side, while dodging swarms of incredibly powerful dracoknights). Once they're in your army, their stats are on par with units from Chapter 4, their growths are not nearly enough to save them, and they don't have anything worth noting--something made all the worse by their extremely late join time. On the highest difficulty, the only thing they can see use for is suicide attacks, and even then, they're frequently not that great at it.

* LowTierLetdown: While the original ''Mystery of the Emblem'' is considered one of the ''most'' balanced games in the series in terms of unit power (the typically broken cavalry has real downsides, and the all-20 stat caps and star shards make maxing out even the worst units fairly easy), ''New Mystery'''s tier gaps are notoriously wide. This largely owes to most character base stats being scaled to Normal Mode, where enemies are generally very weak even in the lategame, leading to correspondingly rather underpowered units--despite growth rates being very high, meaning that early-game units quickly snowball into monsters and late-game units have an insurmountable hump to climb over.
** The Warrior class in ''New Mystery'' is generally agreed to have drawn the shortest straw among its classes. Its statline (high HP and Strength, but low Defense causing it to take more damage and low Speed causing it to rarely double) is the hardest to leverage, while its upsides (good axe rank and passable bow use) can be done better by classes with higher stats (Berserker, Hero), better weapon rank (Horseman, Sniper) or other utilities (Dracoknight).
** Every character who joins after the Sable Knights in ''New Mystery'', barring Xane, Katarina, Nagi, and [[spoiler:Michalis]], thanks to the combination of their poor availability, smaller deployment slots than in ''Shadow Dragon'', and having terrible base stats for their join time. There's a reason that CharacterTiers for the game usually ignore them and jokingly refer to them as simply a free extra weapon.
** Astram is one of the bigger jokes of the game, due to the game treating him as TheDreaded despite his stats being roundly mediocre--to the point that, in Maniac and Lunatic, he can be reliably one-rounded by his own escorts.
** The Wolfguard have incredibly underwhelming stats across the board, which is compounded by three of them being difficult to recruit. While Astram could be slaughtered on his join chapter in Maniac, the weaker members of the Wolfguard can be one-rounded by join-chapter enemies in standard Hard. Roshea, notably, is considered rather bad in the original ''Mystery'' as well, due to major-league LateCharacterSyndrome and his incredibly unimpressive statline.
** Julian gets this for being required in the final chapter for the best ending, despite him being a thief in a game where demand for a thief is at an all-time low due to Marth being able to fulfill thief duties most of the time. Aside from that, he has abysmal weapon ranks, mediocre-at-best base stats, and while his growths are high, his lack of promotion bonuses and subpar stat caps cause them to mean little. This requires the player to either slog through the process of training him so that he is merely mediocre in the final chapter, or simply deal with dedicating a slot to a base-level thief.
** Yubello is a character with growths and weapon ranks specced for making him a mage, but a ''-2'' base in Magic. His somewhat high growth in the stat doesn't make up for the fact that he starts out far behind every other playable mage, some of whom join before him, or even an otherwise untrained unit reclassed as one. And with a base and growth of 0 in Strength and no other weapon ranks, he's even worse in any other class.
** The ''New Mystery'' incarnation of Bantu is a top candidate for the worst unit in the entire series. He's locked into one class that has no utility beyond combat, mediocre Movement, and is forced to use weapons that come in very limited supply and have no notable features besides high Might. From that, you might expect him to have monstrously good stats, and you would be wrong: he's actually rather slow and frail at base level, even relative to units who join in the same chapter as him (or in some cases, well before him), being easily taken down on even Hard by most enemies. And on top of it all, his growths are some of the worst in the game, meaning his already weak performance is pretty much never going to improve without giving him all of the game's statboosters--and even if you do somehow get all his stats capped, he's ''still'' mediocre at best.
* MemeticLoser:
** Astram and the Wolfguard get this in ''New Mystery'' for the exact same reason--namely, they're treated in-universe as incredibly dangerous and skilled, but their stats are pretty much only scaled to fight enemies on Normal Mode. This results in them being laughably inferior to not only your trained-up units, but also the generic enemies in their joining chapters on any difficulty above Normal. The incredibly forlorn image in ''New Mystery'' of the Wolfguard riding off to battle certainly doesn't help.
** Bantu in '' New Mystery'' gets this for being seen as one of the least effective units in the whole franchise, to the point that it often ratchets back around to him being a MemeticBadass who is obviously just holding back his insane power.

** While the games in this timeline are loved in Japan with ''Mystery of the Emblem'' being heralded as possibly the very best of the franchise, the rest of the world couldn't really appreciate it like it was intended. This is more or less because [[SeinfeldIsUnfunny by the time they were released overseas, they had been spoiled by later, more mechanically refined entries in the series and significantly more advanced turn-based strategy games]], ignoring the game on principle because the one perceived superior among the Archanea duology is not released overseas and that the remakes didn't do all that much to bring it up to speed with modern offerings. Most of the side materials that fleshed out the characters and story either never left Japan or certain parts of it were ignored in the remake, making curious overseas fans miss out a lot. The fact that ''this'' is the part of the series that gets "nostalgia baited" for their sake in modern games like ''VideoGame/FireEmblemHeroes'' and ''VideoGame/TokyoMirageSessionsFE'' does it no favors. It also doesn't help that most of the crossover material like ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'', ''VideoGame/FireEmblemWarriors'', and most notably, the ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' series, focuses almost exclusively on Marth, leaving overseas fans uninvested in Archanea outside of that character.

* {{Misblamed}}: Many people blamed ''Shadow Dragon'''s [[SeinfeldIsUnfunny lukewarm reception]] as the reason this game wasn't released outside of Japan. ''Shadow Dragon'' actually sold fairly well compared to ''Path of Radiance'' and ''Radiant Dawn''. The real reason was more likely due to the UsefulNotes/Nintendo3DS's pending release by the time the game would have come out and ValuesDissonance. (Japan's not as quick to "Move on" compared to the rest of the world. While ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' still got new games around same time, it's the only franchise that could get away with that.)

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: With the release of ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'', ''New Mystery'' as a whole has fallen into this. Generally considered a SurprisinglyImprovedSequel and a great addition to the series at the time it came out, with its NoExportForYou status combined with ''Awakening'' borrowing most of its features, the game will most likely be doomed to obscurity among many western fans, though with the fan translation for the game, it's known to diehard fans.

** While the games in this timeline are loved in Japan with ''Mystery of the Emblem'' being heralded as possibly the very best of the franchise, the rest of the world couldn't really appreciate it like it was intended. This is more or less because [[SeinfeldIsUnfunny by the time they were released overseas, they had been spoiled by later, more mechanically refined entries in the series and significantly more advanced turn-based strategy games]], ignoring the game on principle because the one perceived superior among the Archanea duology is not released overseas and that the remakes didn't do all that much to bring it up to speed with modern offerings. Most of the side materials that fleshed out the characters and story either never left Japan or certain parts of it were ignored in the remake, making curious overseas fans miss out a lot. The fact that ''this'' is the part of the series that gets "nostalgia baited" for their sake in modern games like ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'', ''VideoGame/TokyoMirageSessionsFE'', or ''VideoGame/FireEmblemWarriors'' does it no favors.

* LowTierLetdown: While the original ''Mystery of the Emblem'' is considered one of the ''most'' balanced games in the series in terms of unit power (the typically broken cavalry has real downsides, and the all-20 stat caps and star shards make maxing out even the worst units fairly easy), ''New Mystery'''s tier gaps are notoriously wide. This largely owes to most character base stats being scaled to Normal Mode, where enemies are generally very weak even in the lategame, leading to correspondingly rather underpowered units--despite growth rates being very high, meaning that early-game units quickly snowball into monsters.

* SequelDifficultySpike: To show how much more difficult Book 2 is from Book 1, [[LightningBruiser Dracoknights]] pop up as early as ''Chapter 2''. Another spike is added later on with the introduction of feral dragon enemies, which became common enemy types from the middle to late game.

* ThatOneBoss: Chapter 20's boss, [[spoiler:Emperor Hardin]]. He has constant reinforcements up the wazoo and some rather strong bodyguards. His Gradivus will ensure that whoever fights him will be feeling a lot of pain; coincidentally, he's much like Camus in that both of them wield the Gradivus. In addition, he can only be damaged by a unit holding the Lightsphere, meaning only one member of the army can even touch him.

** Archers went from somewhat being a MasterOfNone compared to the Hunter and Horseman classes to being downright mandatory to use, since flying enemies become a persistent threat throughout the game. ''New Mystery'' made them even more valuable, since in Lunatic Reverse, avoiding retaliatory attacks is recommended, and Archers are capable of wielding bows, which in this game is one of the more powerful physical ranged weapons, and their lack of close-range doesn't matter if the attack from the enemy is capable of killing units in one hit.
** Swords, especially sword-wielding classes, found much better use in ''New Mystery'' after a good amount of them being spent notorious for having overkill accuracy in exchange for pitful damage and lack of 1-2 range aside from the occasional magic sword which was impractical to use, an issue constantly plaguing the series since ''The Blazing Blade''. This game indirectly made them better in comparison through the nerfing of 1-2 ranged weapons such as Javelins and Hand Axes while restricting the better ones to [[UnusableEnemyEquipment enemies only]], and having enemies have more variety in weapons along with the sword-wielding classes being mandatory to double enemies more easily in the higher difficulties. Marth in particular, thanks to the Binding Shield, can avoid being doubled by Medeus in Lunatic.

* SurprisinglyImprovedSequel: Both the original and the remake to Shadow Dragon's original and remake. It has more locales (desert, volcano, snowland, etc), more enemy variety, and better paced side objectives. The remake also has better paced hard modes and the ever so fun, Lunatic Reverse.

** Chapter 11, "Anri's Way" is regarded very negatively. The chapter is a desert map, meaning reduced movement for those who aren't a Mage or Flier, meanwhile there are enemy [[DemonicSpiders Wyverns]] that completely ignore the movement penalty and retain their high movement. Even if the player could manage to hold off against the Wyverns, the presence of hidden treasures around the map makes it an even more tedious slog if the player wants to get all the treasures./

* ContinuityLockout: ''New Mystery of the Emblem'' is unique in that it is the only post-Kaga installment that didn't get released outside of Japan. With regards to the game's treatment in crossover content, while the additions to Book 1 are known due to ''Shadow Dragon'' enforcing RetCanon, Book 2's events are for the most part unmentioned. For example, Marth's crossover appearances almost always seem to derive from ''Shadow Dragon''/Book 1 and is generally not depicted with the Binding Shield.

* WhatMeasureIsANonBadass: Nyna gets this from some fans. Considering how tough her life has been, it isn't surprising she suffers from emotional damage! Considering her shattered spirit, is it really surprising she [[spoiler:handed her kingdom to Marth, after all the mess she was a part of]]?! Some fans also tend to blame only her for all that happened in book 2, forgetting [[spoiler:Boah]] and [[spoiler:Hardin's]] role in it (in-universe, all three characters blame themselves).

* UnderusedGameMechanic: The Watch staff is intended to reveal the interiors of rooms obscured by opaque rooftops. Outside of one segment of Endgame 1/Chapter 22, there's little reason to use it as most of the time these rooms would be revealed in a few turns.