Awakening(13) is no less broken than 8 and only slightly more broken than 7, and those two are some of the most polished FE games even to this day. Awakening is a somewhat different beast than the older games, but it's no worse in anything except maybe plot. Try whichever you have easiest access to. Except Shadow Dragon(11). It's not necessarily bad, but it's notably dated as a remake.
Hey, Radiant Dawn's schizophrenic difficulty due to switching parties is fun!
Problem just being that they changed normal difficulty's name to easy and hard mode difficulty's to normal which is pretty misleading xP
^Shadow Dragon is pretty much prettier original NES Fire Emblem with class change mechanic added
edited 16th Jul '14 12:07:49 AM by SpookyMask
Sacred Stones is also fun. If you like Awakening, I'd recommeend trying it.
Fire Emblem (GBA) is good too, and it has Hector. Hector is the best lord.
The gamecube/Wii games are also good. Werewolves! Werecrows! Wereswans too, I think!
Shadow Dragon is for fans. Not for new players, really.
Its a fun series, and really, you can start almost anywhere you feel like it. Just be aware that some games are easier than others and some are just plain hard.
edited 16th Jul '14 12:09:36 AM by zeromaeus
...exaggerated anime style?
..it wasnt that exaggerated. no more than everywhere else in the series
the armor is a legit complaint although its still miles ahead of other jrpg armors, and even the worst cases in awakening are only minor grievances. at the very least i cant complain they look like shit.
A shame because I liked what they were trying to do with the plot.
edited 16th Jul '14 12:09:08 AM by Clarste
@Tarsen: What, you don't agree with character designs being more exaggerated in Awakening? All games in series have stuff like all colors of rainbow when it comes to hair color, and yes GBA fire emblem have awesome animations, but character designs are really more subdued in other games than Awakening. Or do I need to compare?
Anyway, I don't think anybody here actually dislikes Awakening, even that tumblr poster didn't.
edited 16th Jul '14 12:11:50 AM by SpookyMask
Sacred Stones is probably the best place to start. It's relatively easy overall, though hardcore fans overstate how easy it is. It does have a panic button you can abuse until you can grind if you really have trouble. It uses the same system as 6 and 7, and if you can get used to that you should be able to figure out all of the series after 6. Plus it segues into Awakening very well.
Oh I wish Ephraim could get in Smash. Lances are underrated. One of my most wanted technically possible but never happening characters.
There's a difference, but it's not that significant. It's more like a steady progression over the series' history. Compare, say, Titania with Cordelia (same color scheme). Cordelia has a short skirt and a "breast plate" but the armor decals and elaborate hair and whatnot are the same level of detail.
edited 16th Jul '14 12:16:09 AM by Clarste
^^^Nothing, you just caused every Fire Emblem fan in thread pop up and derail the conversation into about what we think about each installment we have played
^Yeah, but none of previous fire emblems had armor skirt and boobplates in first place so its rather notable.
edited 16th Jul '14 12:17:37 AM by SpookyMask
A fiery derail, that's what.
I only played the Game Cube version, although I think I have the demo of Awakening?
Shadow?Pegasus knights have always had armor skirts. Like, literally, from the first game. Which is a bit ironic since you'd think they'd need some padding down there.
The breast plate thing does bug me though.
edited 16th Jul '14 12:21:02 AM by Clarste
@Clarste: Anyway, I do agree that hair isn't exaggerated much in Awakening(besides like maybe one character? I don't remember), and male characters don't have ridiculous armor, they do have notably less simple and more cooler/stylish than old games though. At least when it comes to helmets that only enemies use anyway :P Like seriously, why the hell snipers have cyclops lens armor thing? Well, besides knights, they have ridiculous looking armor in awakening
Anyhoo, time for comparison Old pegasus knight
◊ Awakening one
◊. I think the old one is less of skirt and more of lightly armored tunic which I guess makes sense since they fly and crap, but new one is less simple design wise and seems to emphasis top being armored and bottom being skirt more.
the boob-plates are really the only part of the character design in awakening that bugs me. less cuz of the impracticality and more for looking god-awful.
i like cherche's back window tho. sue me.
and yeah, i disagree. mainly because i dont fucking know what exaggerated anime is because its the least defined description of something you could ever find. anime itself is not a fucking descriptor. i dont know why people think it is, but its not telling me anything about a game, a story, or the art, and adding "exaggerated" to it tells me precisely fuck all about what you're talking about.
you better not be trying to say that "more detailed clothing" is somehow exaggerated anime.
edited 16th Jul '14 12:26:01 AM by Tarsen

awakening is fun
play it
boom done break out the party hats