History YMMV / FireEmblemPathOfRadiance

** The general consensus on the Japan-only [[HarderThanHard Maniac difficulty]] is that Western players aren't missing much. Most of the mode's difficulty comes from simply multiplying the number of enemies you must face, making them more durable and reducing how much experience they give out. Rather than requiring more strategy and skill to overcome, this moreso just turns battles into a lengthier grind to get through; a worrying prospect in a game that already has a reputation for being slow-paced. Most players, even those interested in playing the games for their challenge, are content to just stick with the regular Hard mode for their fix.

** Makalov, oh boy. It's very easy to hate him and treat him as TheScrappy because he ''is'' an unrepentant scumbag. But the other half of the fandom thinks that he's actually a refreshing character, a recruitable character who's a rather realistic portrayal of an unrepentant asshole gambler, so he's not a typical goody two shoes (or secretly is) and also think he's kind of a LoveToHate character that just happens to be recruitable. His not-so-horrible gameplay data also makes this camp tolerate him more and think that the hatred against him are just overblown. He doesn't change much come [[VideoGame/FireEmblemRadiantDawn the sequel]], so anything that's said to him here can be applied to his sequel self.

* CommonKnowledge: Ike being the only non royalty/noble Lord is a common statement amongst players. Technically, this is true, as at the start Ike, is just a normal mercenary under his father, but this statement leaves out the fact that Greil was once a Rider of Daein, which are basically the top generals/warriors in Daein, making Greil (or as he was known then, Gawain) essentially a former noble in terms of his position in Daein. So while yes Ike isn't royalty or nobility on his own, he's not just a "normal" Lord like he tends to be claimed to be, since his father was a highly ranked person in Daein.

* CrossoverShip: Ike has no apparent interest in romance and doesn't have much fondness for royalty, yet the non-''Fire Emblem'' he's most commonly paired with, thanks in part to ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'', is [[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Princess Zelda]], namely the [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess the Twilight Princess version]] that was featured in the series until ''Ultimate''.

** Nephenee also has a significant following, due to her being a ShrinkingViolet farm girl with a rather cute design. She's also popular for being the first playable Soldier in a localized game (the series previously had Lukas and Forsyth from ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemGaiden Gaiden]]'', while Ephraim's base Lord class in ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemTheSacredStones The Sacred Stones]]'' is the closest thing one can get to Soldiers in the GBA titles). She actually coined the unofficial term "Nephenee Syndrome", which refers to characters who are mostly mediocre in gameplay unless you pour half your resources into them (which would make anyone good), but invariably receive so much investment due to player favoritism that they become good anyway. In fact, her popularity led her to being one of the few non-main characters to appear in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemHeroes''.

* FandomRivalry: There's often heated debates between fans of this game and ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses''. Not only are both of them among the more popular games in the series, as well as those with the best stories, but both games' protagonists are the children of mercenary band leaders [[spoiler:who die early on in the game]]. Some fans of the Tellius games resent ''Three Houses'' for its popularity, and claim that's only due to recency bias.

* FountainOfMemes: Devdan, given that he's got some of the funniest support conversations ever in the entire game (most notably with Nephenee). Double so with his reappearance in [[VideoGame/FireEmblemRadiantDawn Radiant Dawn]] under the name of Dandev while [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial claiming that he is most certainly not Devdan]].

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: ''Path of Radiance'' is one of the core Western fandom's most beloved ''Fire Emblem'' titles of all time. It's also the second-lowest selling title in the franchise's history in its own country, with only ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThracia776'' selling lower.[[labelnote:note]]Even then, ''Thracia 776's'' low sales can be attributed to the fact that it was a Super Famicom game that was made ''way'' after the UsefulNotes/Nintendo64 was released.[[/labelnote]]

* MemeticMutation: Some of the quotes the generic units say:

** The lack of an ability to completely skip combat animations, especially when ''Path of Radiance'' maps are notoriously crowded with weak enemies and only get exponentially more crowded as the difficulty rises [[note]]''PoR'' harkened back to how it was in the Super Famicom games, in which battle animations could instead be switch to map-sprite animations attack[[/note]]. Speedruns have been known to eschew otherwise good characters like Soren ''solely because they slow down the game too much.'' Notably, the DS games gave the ability to completely skip over the Enemy Phase.
** After ''Blazing Blade'' and ''Sacred stones'' resurrected the "Promotion" option for Thief allowing them to be useful mid-late game, this game however does away with it - aside from Volke, whose promotion you have to pay to obtain. This meant Sothe wound up completely useless - unless that was, you wanted to transfer his stats into ''Radiant Dawn'', but [[GuideDangIt a lot of people didn't know this]] when they first played in 2005-2006.

** Stefan and Shinon are infamous for being two characters with some of the most cryptic recruitments in the series. The first is pure GuideDangIt: you need to move one of two specific characters to one specific, out-of-the-way tile in a ''desert chapter'', with only one ''extremely'' vague hint to the whole ordeal. (The mention of "strange figures wandering the desert" in a base conversation. [[Yeah, that's helpful. SarcasmMode]]) Even more annoyingly, if you miss him, you miss both the S rank sword and one of the Occult Scrolls. For Shinon, you need to talk to him with Rolf, an Archer who'll be very weak if untrained, a fact only hinted at if you check the "conversations" section of the Unit menu. After this, you have to have Ike ''defeat'' him, which is normally [[{{Permadeath}} the EXACT OPPOSITE of what you want to do to a recruitable enemy]]. And he doesn't join until the very end of the chapter, meaning a player could restart after Ike beats him, thinking he's gone for good.

** Most of the effective weapons get this, due to the change in formula from x3 to x2 and many of them also being ridiculously undertuned stat-wise. The specialized weapons like armorslayers and hammers have weights in the high tens, making them near-impossible to wield in the early-game, while wind tomes have such bad base damage that you're almost universally better off with thunder. Bows are also held in low regard, due to ''Path of Radiance'' being very Enemy Ehase-focused.

** Titania. Similar to the prior Marcus and Seth, she is the strongest character in the party during the hardest part of the game. Her stats are high all-around, she has the best weapon type in axes, she has access to all the advantages of her Laladin class (including moving after attacking, two weapons at base, better rescuing capabilities, and greater mobility in general), and unlike many other CrutchCharacter units in the franchise, her growths are among the best in the game, meaning a maxed-out Titania tends to be at worst a bit below-average (but still a OneManArmy) next to a fully-raised cavalier. Even the XP loss usually associated with CrutchCharacter units is compensated for by BEXP, and Titania's ability to clear maps and fulfill objectives quickly will ensure the player gets even more BEXP.

* VindicatedByHistory: Although both this game and its sequel were for the most part always well regarded among most hardcore fans of the franchise, their low sales made it feel like their memory wasn't going to last very long. Over the next decade, the games started to get more exposure and popularity, with the franchise's spectacular revival in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'' and Ike's appearances in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' and ''VideoGame/FireEmblemFates'', and culminating in Ike and many other Tellius characters returning for ''VideoGame/FireEmblemHeroes'' complete with full voice acting. There is no shortage of people who think these two games are the highlight of the entire franchise, especially among the games released in Western territories. The narrative is particularly well-regarded thanks to the elaborate JigsawPuzzlePlot spanning two games.

** Going outside of the ''Fire Emblem'' universe, Ike is also shipped with his Smash-mate [[Franchise/MetalGear Solid Snake]] quite a bit. Just like Ike, Snake is a manly character with a very similar ambiguous sexuality and HoYay situation.

* HypeBacklash: A side effect of the heavy praise that the games started getting [[VindicatedByHistory years after their debut]]; some fans find the Tellius games to be underwhelming compared to their reputation and/or don't see what the big fuss is all about. It doesn't help that the games are [[SeinfeldIsUnfunny slightly outdated in some respects]] compared to the better-selling 3DS entries and ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses''.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: This was the first ''Fire Emblem'' game to use mild profanity in its Western localization, with "damn(ed)" used as a PrecisionFStrike twice during the game - a rarity for Nintendo at the time. Because later ''Fire Emblem'' games used profanity much more liberally (starting with its own sequel ''Radiant Dawn''), the game's frequent use of GoshDangItToHeck outside of these two instances can come across as stilted, especially since ''Path of Radiance'' was rated T for Teen and would not have appealed to children.

* ComplacentGamingSyndrome: [[LightningBruiser Muarim]], the peak of laguz units right up until endgame. He's got the attack power of [[MightyGlacier Mordecai]] while being fast enough to attack twice almost every time, like [[FragileSpeedster Lethe]]. What attacks he doesn't dodge will meet a NoSell, and on the occasion an attack ''does'' get through, he has a ''crap ton'' of health to tank it with for his level. He's probably the only unit you can trust to not immediately die against [[SkippableBoss Naesala]] should the two fight. Topping it all off is his movement range, which is among the best in the game--and all of this is accounting for the Demi Band lowering his stats by default. As a result, Muarim easily beats out pretty much every other possible party member introduced after him and will be a party mainstay.

* EnjoyTheStorySkipTheGame: ''Path of Radiance'' is regarded as having one of the best plots in the franchise, particularly the depth of its worldbuilding and how well it sets up plot threads that pay off in ''Radiant Dawn''. However, the gameplay is generally regarded less favorably, due to being relatively slow-paced with a high emphasis on the Enemy Phase, and various other {{Scrappy mechanic}}s.

** Greil consistently ranks among the top 100 in ''Heroes'' "Choose Your Legends" polls, which is very impressive for an NPC who never becomes playable and [[spoiler: dies 7 chapters into the story]]. He's loved for being a loving father to Ike and Mist while still being a badass mercenary leader, his compelling backstory, his extremely cool legendary axe (which was made a usable weapon in ''Radiant Dawn'' and ''Heroes''), having one of the better English voices and being considered [[spoiler: one of the better-handled examples of PlotlineDeath in the series: being around long enough that the player cares for him while also dying at ''just'' the right point to kickstart Ike's CharacterDevelopment.]]

** Jill Fizzart. For an optional recruit that's mostly inconsequential throughout the game, she has a lot of extra perks for her: She has a beautiful case of CharacterDevelopment from being an openly racist girl into a [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold 10% Jerk 90% Gold Hearted Girl]], she is heavily featured during the attack on Daein when facing her father Shiraham, where there were a lot of extra scenes about her and she could even defect to her father if you screwed up, while still remaining sympathetic. Having an early-mid availability and being a flying unit made her a decent unit as well. Because of this, Jill remains as one of Tellius' fan favorites that she still remains beloved in ''Radiant Dawn'' where most of the development stuck. ''Intelligent Systems'' might have noticed this and thus continually delayed her well-awaited appearance in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemHeroes'' until the last quarters of 2020 to keep the fans baited for long and when she ''did'' appear, there were tons of rejoicing.
** Stefan may be saddled with an [[GuideDangIt utterly obscure recruitment method]], but he is still incredibly popular for his sheer badassary. His status as the DiscOneNuke of the midgame of ''Path of Radiance'' and his StepfordSmiler attitude make him very beloved.

*** In Chapter 21, Soren gives Elincia a very blunt account of what happens when a country loses a war- its citizens are oppressed and persecuted even worse than the laguz are. He later distrusts Begnion, claiming they're only helping them win the war to serve their own interests. At the time, everyone dismisses him as just being his usual {{Jerkass}} self... but then the sequel shows [[JerkassHasAPoint what happened to Daein after you beat them, and how corrupt Begnion really is.]]

** [[HeelFaceRevolvingDoor Nasir]] is a White Dragon laguz sent by Daein to act as TheMole against [[Characters/FireEmblemPathOfRadianceGreilMercenaries the Greil Mercenaries]]. During his time with them, he begins to inform Daein of their plans and steals Lehran's medallion from Mist, wrapping it in a cloth to avoid its insanity-inducing effects. When Soren begins to suspect he's been sending information to the enemy, Nasir keeps him from telling everyone by threatening to reveal his mixed blood. After Nasir's granddaughter Ena is defeated, [[ThickerThanWater he helps her escape]] by getting in Ike's way and facing imprisonment. Nasir later breaks out and rescues Ena from Nados Castle before it collapses. Desiring Ena's safety but also [[RegretfulTraitor regretting his treacherous actions]], Nasir is forgiven for his betrayal after rejoining the war effort against Daein.

** The voice acting on the whole is rather bad: With the emotion levels going up and down at random points. Only a few scenes, like the very ending, manage to nail it and carry any sort of emotional weight.

** The Laguz's transformation meters. It makes non-royal Laguz units so much less flexible, and requires players to be so much more cautious with their placement at the end of turns to ensure they don't untransform while being assaulted on the enemy phase. The result is that even with items to mitigate the transformation meter, Laguz perform a lot worse than equivalent Beorc units, and require really overpowering stats or abilities to be useful. Even with OP stats, Laguz will often get overlooked by players for inferior Beorc units so they don't have to deal with the meters.
** The lack of an ability to completely skip combat animations, especially when ''Path of Radiance'' maps are notoriously crowded with weak enemies and only get exponentially more crowded as the difficulty rises. Speedruns have been known to eschew otherwise good characters like Soren ''solely because they slow down the game too much.'' Notably, the DS games gave the ability to completely skip over enemy phase.

** Most of the effective weapons get this, due to the change in formula from x3 to x2 and many of them also being ridiculously undertuned stat-wise. The specialized weapons like armorslayers and hammers have weights in the high tens, making them near-impossible to wield in the early-game, while wind tomes have such bad base damage that you're almost universally better off with thunder. Bows are also held in low regard, due to ''Path of Radiance'' being very enemy phase-focused.

** Chapter 13: It's a sea level mixing ravens and land units. There's no less than ''seven'' chests here, so you'll want Volke (who is fragile) and Sothe (who just joined at level 1 and is thus ''extremely'' fragile) both on the map here so they can raid them (which you'll need to do if you want one of those rare Occults), inbetween constantly dying. There's two recruitable players here, so you'll have to waste at least two turns talking to them, too. Soren/Ilyana and Rolf (who you brought along to deal with the ravens) will be dying when Volke and Sothe aren't, not to mention whatever healer you brought along. But that's okay--you won't even have both feet on the enemy ship before Astrid dies, because that's what happens when a Level 1 recruit is hanging around a mission thirteen chapters in[[note]]Enemies have a brutal tendency to target the weakest unit they can find, which means Astrid is a sitting duck begging to die even on easier modes. Even if you sacrifice your own game plan to put a mounted unit where they can cover her blind spot, units adjacent to her will just stroll right off and leave her wide open.[[/note]]. Even assuming everything else goes the best of ways, about half of the enemies are myrmidons, who have uncanny critical rates and will thus cause resets indiscriminately even if they crash headlong into a tank. But then, everything ''finally'' goes smoothly, and you're almost there, and--crap, you forgot to guard the cabin, didn't you? Recruiting, chest raiding, guarding the cabin, all on a defense mission? RageQuit material indeed.
** Chapter 17: It's disliked for being separated into 4 sections, and if you're not comfortable with your equipment setup past the first section then too bad because you don't get to edit your items from section 2 onwards. The chapter also just looks dreary, and while that is the effect their going for it makes the chapter very bland to look at. On the bright side it did introduce a system that allowed you to call for reinforcements to bolster your ranks and bring in spare items, but they take quite a few turns to show up.

** Maniac Mode Chapter 26: It is the logical extreme of Maniac Mode's unfathomably high amount enemies, with almost half of the (already incredibly large) map filled up with enemy units. It is regarded by many as one of the biggest slogs in the entire series for many Maniac players, not at all helped by the long enemy phases even with animations turned off.

** Stefan and Shinon are infamous for being two of the hardest characters to recruit in the series. The first is pure GuideDangIt: you need to move one of two specific characters to one specific, out-of-the-way tile in a ''desert chapter'', with only one ''extremely'' vague hint to the whole ordeal. (The mention of "strange figures wandering the desert" in a base conversation. Yeah, that's helpful.) Even more annoyingly, if you miss him you miss both the S rank sword and one of the Occult Scrolls. For Shinon, you need to talk to him with Rolf, an Archer who'll be very weak if untrained, a fact only hinted at if you check the "conversations" section of the Unit menu. After this, you have to have Ike ''defeat'' him, which is normally [[{{Permadeath}} the EXACT OPPOSITE of what you want to do to a recruitable enemy]]. And he doesn't join until the very end of the chapter, meaning a player could restart after Ike beats him, thinking he's gone for good.

** Another annoying BEXP condition is completing Chapter 15 [[PacifistRun without killing a single enemy except the boss.]] The LeeroyJenkins enemy AI makes it hard to avoid accidentally killing some during the enemy phase, and if you want to do this ''while also recruiting Stefan'', then you're ''really'' in for pain.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: The [[HalfHumanHybrid Branded]], their place in the world, and their relationship to the Goddess[[spoiler:es]] are not examined nearly as much as they could have been. They also don't really do anything with the fact that [[spoiler:[[{{Irony}} each of the Ashera's champions has at least one Branded descendant]]. Soan gets hit the worst by this one.]]

* TheWoobie: Jill Fizzart is a misguided youth of 17 (20 in ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemRadiantDawn Radiant Dawn]]'') who starts off hating the Laguz because of the way she was raised in Daein. After having several long talks with both Mist and [[CatGirl Lethe]] of the Crimean Liberation army, she finds out her racism was wrong. She only joined the army to please her father, Commander Shiharam, the [[MissingMom only]] parental figure she knew. As a last-ditch effort to halt the advance of the Crimeans, [[PunchClockVillain Shiharam]] releases the floodgates destroying most of Jill's home of Talrega in a mudslide. After the fight, Jill comes to terms with losing her beloved father. Later on, she meets Commander Haar, one of her father's noble subordinates who proceeds to help her in her time of need. She's an exceedingly sweet girl when she's not being an InnocentBigot and truly cares about her friends and family. In the second game, she's forced to side with Daein during a war with her former companions caused by the Begnion Senate's blood pact, and it hurts her deeply having to go against Lethe and other Laguz. Mist or Haar can recruit her back, but not without tears.

* CharacterPerceptionEvolution: Gameplay-wise, Ike used to be considered the best unit in the game during its early meta, and one of the best lords in the series, due to how strong he would get at the end of the game with his high growths and having exclusive access to the Ragnell plus Aether, while to argue otherwise was met with mockery in discussions on [[https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/fusion1/kieran-ike-t6347.html old Fire Emblem forums]]. As players evolved however, they started valuing contribution throughout the whole game rather than just a unit's potential at the end of the game, as well as realizing that superior movement, having access to 1-2 ranged weapons, and not being locked to an undesirable weapon type were serious boons to a unit's viability. With Ike being a sword-locked foot unit that starts off weak and takes a long time for his growths to make him strong (while being proned to being stat screwed if unlucky with his growths), who also can't promote nor get Aether until over halfway into the game, and doesn't get the Ragnell (which is also his only 1-2 range option) until the final few chapters in the game, players realized that Ike really doesn't contribute that much for most of the game and isn't the OneManArmy that fans used to hype him up as, resulting him in plummetting down tier lists. This became especially apparent when western fans started playing the Japanese-exclusive maniac difficulty, where Ike outright struggles for most of the game. Sarcastically calling Ike or other characters "pwnage incarnate" even became a minor meme within the fandom to mock this prior overhyped perception of Ike in POR, as quoted from the prior linked forum thread arguing the topic.
* CommonKnowledge: Ike being the only non royalty/noble Lord is a common statement amongst players. Technically this is true, as at the start Ike is just a normal mercenary under his father, but this statement leaves out the fact that Greil was once a Rider of Daein, which are basically the top generals/warriors in Daein, making Greil (or as he was known then, Gawain) essentially a former noble in terms of his position in Daein. So while yes Ike isn't royalty or nobility on his own, he's not just a "normal" Lord like he tends to be claimed to be, since his father was a highly ranked person in Daein.

** Marcia is yet another popular Pegasus Knight for her [[PluckyGirl pluck]], [[{{Moe}} adorableness]], and amazing [[GameBreaker gameplay usefulness]]. Her schtick of adding food in place of swears helps. It's also for this reason that people are more than eager to [[JerksAreWorseThanVillains hate Makalov]], because Marcia got put through hell due to his unrepentant antics, and her massive fanbase think that she didn't deserve such hell from a surprisingly realistic gambling addict of a brother, and in turn makes her a 'realistic' approach of someone who tried hard to make a living while also having to cater with a relative that has a severe gambling addiction.

** Titania. Similar to the prior Marcus and Seth, she is the strongest character in the party during the hardest part of the game. Her stats are high all-around, she has the best weapon type in axes, she has access to all the advantages of her paladin class (including moving after attacking, two weapons at base, better rescuing capabilities, and greater mobility in general), and unlike many other CrutchCharacter units in the franchise, her growths are among the best in the game, meaning a maxed-out Titania tends to be at worst a bit below-average (but still a OneManArmy) next to a fully-raised cavalier. Even the XP loss usually associated with CrutchCharacter units is compensated for by BEXP, and Titania's ability to clear maps and fulfill objectives quickly will ensure the player gets even more BEXP.

* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: The losses of the mercenary and hero classes were also met with complaining, although Ike basically counts as one in all but name, especially in the sequel.

** Most of the effective weapons get this, due to the change in formula from x3 to x2 and many of them also being ridiculously undertuned stat-wise. The specialized weapons like armorslayers and hammers have weights in the high teens, making them near-impossible to wield in the early-game, while wind tomes have such bad base damage that you're almost universally better off with thunder. Bows are also held in low regard, due to ''Path of Radiance'' being very enemy phase-focused.

** Soren. Some fans love him for his cold and snarky personality, his tragic backstory, and the amount of HoYay he has with Ike, seeing it as valuable LGBT+ coded representation. Others take issue with his softening in ''Radiant Dawn'' and dislike the amount of HoYay [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment he has with Ike]], believing it to be [[PanderingToTheBase pandering to a]] [[YaoiFangirls specific crowd]] to the expense of others. This is more directed towards his ''Radiant Dawn'' counterpart, though, but it occasionally bleeds into this game.

* BreatherLevel: Chapter 14, for being very straightforward compared to chapters 13 (defense mission that requires you to fight raven Laguz on boat maps and think more strategically than usual, especially if you want all the treasure and you want to recruit an extremely frail NPC) and 15 (desert map in which you fight Laguz). Chapter 14 is as simple as sending your army along two paths and taking enemies as they come, with the only threats being the Feral Ones at the end and the boss. Hard Mode adds FogOfWar, but all that really does is increase your chances of accidentally killing Makalov.

** Nedata, the Pirate MiniBoss in chapter 9 in Path Of Radiance is very well loved due to being a hilariously stereotypical pirate who even has his own VillainSong. Many wish he was recruitable, and making him playable with the AR Code to recruit enemies is very popular.

* BrokenBase: There is something of one over how to view and respect Ike's character. Ambiguous sexuality aside, some fans like to focus on Ike's more [[NiceGuy endearing and compassionate side]], while others like to focus on Ike's [[RatedMForManly manliness]], especially in ''Radiant Dawn''. While there's a lot of overlap, there are fans who focus primarily on one side and tend to exaggerate it; at worst, the former camp can depict the Radiant Hero as overly soft and [[{{Flanderization}} flanderizes]] his ShipTease with Soren, while the latter camp can overglorify him out of TestosteronePoisoning and likens him to over-the-top manly characters like [[VideoGame/FZero Captain Falcon]] and [[Manga/{{Berserk}} Guts]].

** Going outside of the ''Fire Emblem'' universe, Ike is also shipped with his Smash-mate [[Franchise/MetalGear Solid Snake]] quite a bit. Just like Ike, Snake is a RatedMForManly character with a very similar ambiguous sexuality and HoYay situation.

** Ashnard on Normal and Easy doesn't move from his spot, and can be taken down only by Ike, Ena or Nasir (whichever one you got from fighting the Black Knight), and any of the 3 new units of your choice (Tibarn, Naesala or Griffca). [[ThatOneBoss A completely different story on Hard and Maniac, though, where he can move 10 spaces and gains a second form after defeat.]]

* FountainOfMemes: Devdan.

** Ashnard is one of the most popular villains in the series, in spite of, or even ''because of'', being a CompleteMonster with no redeeming aspects. He's an openly AxCrazy king wearing SpikesOfVillainy who rides a terrifyingly awesome mount [[spoiler: that isn't a wyvern, but ''an actual dragon'']], he revels in his evilness without feeling cheesy or falling into StupidEvil, his [[TheSocialDarwinist Social Darwinist]] personality gives him an actual philosophy behind his actions without gaining him any sympathy, and his gameplay performance on the higher difficulties matches his reputation in-story. While [[VideoGame/FireEmblemTheSacredStones Lyon]] set the standards for [[TragicVillain Tragic Villains]] in Fire Emblem, Ashnard is commonly cited as an example of a HateSink villain done right.

** Many lines in the first game are ''painfully'' ironic after playing the second. But since the game's data makes it obvious the developers already had the plot of the sequel in mind when they wrote the first game, this was probably intentional. Examples include:

*** The last words of Sephiran's SequelHook in the first game: "It appears your trials are just beginning, my gallant, young hero... May the goddess ride with you." end up sounding ''really'' dark when you realize [[spoiler:said goddess is the final boss, and Sephiran knows this better than anyone. So in other words, it's not so much a 'good luck' as it is a ''death threat''.)]]
*** In ''Path of Radiance'''s Chapter 21, Soren gives Elincia a very blunt account of what happens when a country loses a war- its citizens are oppressed and persecuted even worse than the laguz ar. He later distrusts Begnion, claiming they're only helping them win the war to serve their own interests. At the time, everyone dismisses him as just being his usual {{Jerkass}} self... but then the sequel shows [[JerkassHasAPoint what happened to Daein after you beat them, and how corrupt Begnion really is.]]
*** Many of the party's interactions with Oliver and especially Naesala. Playing the first game alone gives you the impression Naesala is an utterly horrid man who eventually serves as an ally of convenience because [[BecauseYouWereNiceToMe you helped one of the few people he genuinely likes]] and justifies his serial [[KickTheDog puppy-punting]] with vague statements about how much his nation is relying on him. [[spoiler: Once Blood Pacts are introduced, though, you realize this is ''far'' more literal than it sounds]]. Oliver is a bit more subtle, but note how he always talks about "protecting" Reyson after buying him as a slave. Just what he tells himself so he can sleep at night, right? [[spoiler: Nope, he's totally sincere, and what's more it's implied he of all the Senators was left out of the loop on who ''really'' signed the Heron Clan's death warrant]].

** Whenever a character cries in a conversation in the English version, it's written out as them going "Whaaaaaaa". Not only does this make characters look silly by having grown people make such a stereotypical crying noise, but the choice of spelling makes them look like they're asking a question instead. Good luck reading it without thinking of [[VideoGame/SuperMarioBros Waluigi's]] signature "Wa" too.

* {{Woolseyism}}: "Mist" was changed into "Alja" in the German version since "Mist" literally means ''manure''.

*** In ''Path of Radiance'''s Chapter 21, Soren gives Elincia a very blunt account of what happens when a country loses a war. He later distrusts Begnion, claiming they're only helping them win the war to serve their own interests. At the time, everyone dismisses him as just being his usual {{Jerkass}} self... but then the sequel shows [[JerkassHasAPoint what happened to Daein after you beat them, and how corrupt Begnion really is.]]

** Even in this game, when Elincia's crush on Ike was still being teased, he still had noticeably more interaction with men than women, was far close to Soren and Ranulf than her, and is blatantly unimpressed by Calill and put off by Aimee.

* HypeBacklash: A side effect of the heavy praise that the games started getting [[VindicatedByHistory years after their debut]]; some fans find the Tellius games to be underwhelming compared to their reputation and/or don't see what the big fuss is all about. It doesn't help that the games are [[SeinfeldIsUnfunny slightly outdated in some respects]] compared to the better-selling 3DS entries and ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'', although there are very few complaints about this game's story unlike with those games.

* LowTierLetdown:
** Myrmidons and Swordmasters in general get this--they have one weapon type, it's the worst melee weapon type in the whole game, their Speed doesn't matter when nearly everything can double, their damage and durability is bad, and if you're playing the Japanese version for Maniac Mode, they don't even get their crit boost (which is already smaller than in the other games). The major exception is Stefan, whose base stats and growths are so good that he can be fairly effective despite being stuck in a bad class.
** This game might be one of the lowest points for the Archer and Sniper class. Enemies generally aren't strong enough to require ranged chip damage, and come in large packs which can leave a bow unit overwhelmed quickly, the traditional niche of flier-killing gets gimped by the reduced weapon effectiveness formula, and bow-using cavalry, though rare unless you choose it on promotion, are just flat-out better. There's also only two in the game, and both would probably struggle even in much stronger classes--Rolf has terrible stats and joins at level 1 at a point when the starting party is already probably creeping up on level 10 or so, and Shinon is [[CrutchCharacter good in the early game]], then leaves, only rejoining at a point where he is now completely outclassed.
** Most players leave the non-royal laguz characters on the sidelines so they don't have to deal with their inconvenient transformation meters.
** Sothe is frequently ignored as Volke joins sooner, has higher bases, and most importantly? Promotes to Assassin. Sothe may have the Blossom skill, but it's wasted on a unit who can't promote and has a completely useless weapon type. While Volke isn't nearly as terrifying as Jaffar was in ''Blazing Blade'' and can only do so very late, he can at ''least'' pull his own weight. The only reason Sothe ''isn't'' benched is in case you need two thieves, or someone wants to transfer his stats over to ''Radiant Dawn''.

* BrokenBase: There is something of one over how to view and respect Ike's character. Ambiguous sexuality aside, some fans like to focus on Ike's more [[NiceGuy endearing and compassionate side]], while others like to focus on Ike's [[RatedMForManly manliness]], especially in ''Radiant Dawn''. While there's a lot of overlap, there are fans who focus primarily on one side and tend to exaggerate it; at worst, the former camp can depict the Radiant Hero as overly soft and [[{{Flanderization}} flanderizes]] his ShipTease with Soren, while the latter camp can overglorify him out of TestosteronePoisoning and likens him to over-the-top manly characters like [[VideoGame/SuperSmashBros Captain Falcon]] and [[Manga/{{Berserk}} Guts]].