FE 6 is my least favourite in the series, so fair warning: those who like the game might want to look away now.
When the series was first released in the west, the first game we got was oddly, a prequel. That ended on a Sequel Hook. So naturally, many would be interested in checking out the game that came before. Unfortunately, Blazing Sword was very much a Surprisingly Improved Sequel in comparison to this game.
It arose from an effort to greatly simplify the series after the SNES installments, and to return the series to its roots: Mystery of the Emblem. But there's a difference between returning to your roots and, well, this. All Fire Emblem games follow the same basic plot structure, but this game's feels like a Cliché Storm even by their standards. Its plot is nearly a direct copy-paste of Mystery of the Emblem's, and the characters are some of the most obvious Expies immaginable.
This was the first game with support conversations... and it shows. Radiant Dawn's dumbed down supports and Shadow Dragon's lack of them were bad enough, but this game has characters who manage to be bland and flat even WITH supports, which in my opinion is even worse. Alan and Lance are huge offenders in particular, hard to believe they preceeded Kent and Sain. There are a few hidden gems though, like Astol and Ingrene. Ironically, the most interesting characters in the game are the main villains Zephiel and Idoun.
Gameplay-wise, the game also has issues. It features some of the biggest Tier Induced Scrappies in the series, both of the pre-promoted (Juno, Garret) and Magikarp Power (Wendy, Sophia) variety. The main character, Roy is by far one of the series worst due to his insanely late promotion, leaving him stuck as a dead-weight Lv 20 unpromoted unit with bad stats (think Eliwood, but with bad defences) for most of the game. And the maps are filled with irritating Bolting mages to take advantage of him and unpromotable Thieves. The difficulty level of the game is pretty brutal overall, throwing things like Killer Axe users at you as early-game bosses, and just getting worse from there. There's a desert fog of war chapter with Wyvern Lord reinforcements, to give you an idea of how bad it gets.
Fans of FE 7 won't even like what happens to the characters, as fan-favourites are reduced to bit-parts or killed off early.
Sword of Seals: The first GBA FE... and it shows.
FE 6 is my least favourite in the series, so fair warning: those who like the game might want to look away now.
When the series was first released in the west, the first game we got was oddly, a prequel. That ended on a Sequel Hook. So naturally, many would be interested in checking out the game that came before. Unfortunately, Blazing Sword was very much a Surprisingly Improved Sequel in comparison to this game.
It arose from an effort to greatly simplify the series after the SNES installments, and to return the series to its roots: Mystery of the Emblem. But there's a difference between returning to your roots and, well, this. All Fire Emblem games follow the same basic plot structure, but this game's feels like a Cliché Storm even by their standards. Its plot is nearly a direct copy-paste of Mystery of the Emblem's, and the characters are some of the most obvious Expies immaginable.
This was the first game with support conversations... and it shows. Radiant Dawn's dumbed down supports and Shadow Dragon's lack of them were bad enough, but this game has characters who manage to be bland and flat even WITH supports, which in my opinion is even worse. Alan and Lance are huge offenders in particular, hard to believe they preceeded Kent and Sain. There are a few hidden gems though, like Astol and Ingrene. Ironically, the most interesting characters in the game are the main villains Zephiel and Idoun.
Gameplay-wise, the game also has issues. It features some of the biggest Tier Induced Scrappies in the series, both of the pre-promoted (Juno, Garret) and Magikarp Power (Wendy, Sophia) variety. The main character, Roy is by far one of the series worst due to his insanely late promotion, leaving him stuck as a dead-weight Lv 20 unpromoted unit with bad stats (think Eliwood, but with bad defences) for most of the game. And the maps are filled with irritating Bolting mages to take advantage of him and unpromotable Thieves. The difficulty level of the game is pretty brutal overall, throwing things like Killer Axe users at you as early-game bosses, and just getting worse from there. There's a desert fog of war chapter with Wyvern Lord reinforcements, to give you an idea of how bad it gets.
Fans of FE 7 won't even like what happens to the characters, as fan-favourites are reduced to bit-parts or killed off early.