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I'm going to do two, one for final bosses and one for regular bosses.

Final bosses first.

Best: Shaman in the Dark. I still haven't finished FE6, I'll readily admit that, but goddammit Idoun. Goddammit. There's just a lot of emotion packed into this little chiptune and if there's ever a song from a video game I'd love to hear performed by a full orchestra...

Worst: Tempted to go with the theme for the Fire Dragon. And this is not on the merits of its composition but on the merits that I literally did not remember what it sounded like until I looked it up, despite how many times I've played FE7. The final theme for FE8 is similar, but it still feels like it has more weight to it than the Fire Dragon theme. Maybe it's because the Fire Dragon is just a looming threat we only truly feel and meet in the final chapter, whereas Formortiis is hanging over the plot throughout most of the game in FE8? Or maybe I'm just picky and my ability to remember a song greatly describes how good it to me. I don't think that's unreasonable; better songs tend to catch in your head more often, and not for the reasons that hilaribad songs like "Friday" would. Nonetheless, I'm going to go with Fire Dragon's battle them. Sorry, FD. I love you. Your music is just kind of forgettable. And that's worse than any sort of failure of composition, to me.

~

Non-final bosses...

Best: Power-Hungry Fool

...
...yeah this one is kind of obvious. But sometimes the obvious choice is the best choice. There's a reason why this song was selected of so many in FE9 to be placed in Super Smash Bros Brawl, man. It's good.

Worst: I'll have to consider this one more carefully. My favorite themes in the games tend to be those of the overall map combat or dialogue music, so I'll have to sit down and think about the music a little more in this regard.

Huu, how did this one almost slip past me?

Best Final Boss: I went back and listened to the final boss themes to try to keep things unbiased. It's a tie between Dark Earth Dragon and Shaman in the Dark. One portrays an urgency to stop the big bad dragon from changing the world as we know it, while the other has more of a melancholic feel where you have to put an end to the one birthing dragons left and right. I'm edging more towards Dark Earth Dragon.

Worst: When you think final boss, you're supposed to have a unique song for the boss itself. Id Purpose is for the map AND the boss. It's not really unique anymore and loses some of the charm final boss music should have.

Honorable mentions: For non-final bosses, I rather enjoyed Stalking Menace, Everything in the Dark, and Battle for Whose Sake.

Best: Awakening. It's very, very easy to hate on a lot of changes made that many of us see as "anti-FE" but at the end of the day, those changes made the game much more accessible to many more people and perhaps even saved the series.

Worst: FE5, of course.

Best: I'd firstly recommend FE7 for much of what Tiki has said, but I'd also bring up Awakening second. In most cases, Awakening will be the easiest game for them to get their hands on.

Worst: FE2. Even the fans forget this game exists. It also doesn't really play like a fire emblem game. Outrageous archer range, your characters miss 75%+ of the time, except Alm, there's weird walk around areas and waypoints where you can easily mess up your team if you don't understand how it works (and it doesn't explain it to you). I haven't even been able to force myself to get to Celica's route yet because I spend most of my time playing being angry and not making progress because only Alm can freaking do anything, which is boring. They tried something new, went oops, went back to their roots and stuck with them while making changes to bring us what we have today.

Radiant Dawn's playability is one of its benefits, not its detractions. And not everyone is going to have a 3DS to play Awakening with, either, but it's still one of the more highly recommended games for new players. People might not even be able to download a ROM for older games. System requirements isn't really a valid argument, in my eyes. If a person is asking which game they should start with, they should be prepared to obtain the system needed for it, anyway. We're not suggesting a game based on unobtainable information about which systems the theoretical person in question has; it's about the game.

The only thing against RD is that it's a direct sequel that looses flavor if you haven't played PoR.

I actually think FE8 is more first-timer friendly than FE7 and that FE7 is being considered just because it was our first rather than the best potential first.

Best: FE7 I think is the game that any new fan of the series should play first. Thing is, when Fire Emblem wasn't exactly too known that well the west, eventually Roy and Marth got introduced to Melee. FE6 was fairly new around the time when it came around. The west didn't get FE6, but instead FE7 which is the prequel to FE6. I feel it's definitely for the better of it all.(Besides there is a translation patch for FE6 easily obtainable) Call it a bias if you will, but it was the game that got me really interested in Fire Emblem from the very beginning.

I talked about how nostalgic this game is for me even to this day when I first joined the guild. Even from how it stands today, it still holds up very freaking well. It has three playable lords, It has Lyn's mode to guide the new players in order to learn about the basics. And it does it in a pretty unique way that the player doesn't really realize it's a tutorial. In a way it's almost like it's guiding the player trying to tell the story through gameplay. It just does it better than any of the other fire emblem games imo. But I feel most of the other fire emblem games try and hammer this stuff in. I'm not saying they're doing it badly in the slightest but FE7 works so darn well. Like it doesn't feel as authentic as FE7 at least that's how I feel about it...

From all of the unique, interesting, and memorable characters you get to know and care about, a totally deep and complicated villain as Nergal, excellent gameplay, memorable musical scores, the challenges are actually set in a fun way to the player, so many various ways to play the game, beautiful CG art of scenes.(Man I love Nergal's portrait so much) each lord having their own viewpoint of the events that happen in their story. Honestly, what other Fire Emblem game actually does that? I would love to see something like that again if it's even possible. The replay ability is astounding! I lost count of how many times of playing FE7. That's what a great game is supposed to do. The keyword here is fluid. Everything about FE7 just flows in a great way!

I can understand why many people would say awakening as the best. It did bring a ton of popularity to the series compared to before and I'm grateful for that, so don't get me wrong and it's certainly not a bad choice at all. While the gameplay and characters are done very well, but the problem for me is that the story has issues at the valm arc. I may be the minority on this, but I never felt that invested in gathering character supports. Where as in FE7, I actually cared about getting character supports. I could go on and on to talk about FE7 but I'll stop here. Point is PLAY THE GAME!!!

Worst: I actually have to sort of disagree with Rath about FE2. The problems should be acknowledged and I do agree with the points brought up. It's extremely repetitive, the accuracies of the weapons are atrociously awful in the beginning(Stupid nosferatu sucks in this game), the class changes are really weird at times. BUT I actually find the concept rather fascinating.. And dare I say this... Some of the maps can be pretty damn creative later on in the game. I might be the only person in the thread that got past celica's route in FE2. For me it's Celica's Route that's actually much more fun compared to Alms. This was the first game that tried with Rpg map elements which FE8 eventually got inspired of. Though, on an unrelated note the ever so controversial Tear Ring Saga series borrowed from this idea too. FE2 may not be a game that should be recommended to a new fan but it's far from the worst.



Worst: What deserves this spot for me is FE11. I actually consider FE12 much more refined and polished compared to FE11. It's true that I do prefer FE3 book 2 a bit more, but FE12 is certainly not the worst either. No no no... FE11 actually really feels unbalanced to me. I find myself less harsh towards this game compared to the past. But I think the challenge feels unrewarding to someone new to the series. The difficulty is unforgiving and just not fun at all! I still really like the localization and the cheesiness of the dialogue, and of course Marth's character in that game. It's cool to learn about the world of akaneia and the origins of Marth's journey in that game and stuff.

Heck with smash bros melee, Marth got pretty popular among plenty of fans.And I'm sure he still is now. Though, I do love me some MarthXSheeda... So I can't complain~

But the problem for me is that you're doing exactly the opposite of what a good tactician is suppose to do. You're trying to save everyone and keep them alive. It should NOT be a requirement to kill off your own units to gain a gaiden chapter. That's just not cool at all. stare

As much as I'll always love FE7, it's definitely aged and I really don't think it's THE best introductory representation of the series at this point.


For one, the support system is the worst the series (not in terms of stat bonuses or conversations, but actually GETTING supports). Having characters stand next to each other for up to literally hundreds of turns? Neither intuitive nor fun. From FE9 onward, it's also no longer relevant to getting supports. From FE5 forward, it's not relevant. The method for unlocking supports in the GBA era, in spite of many great conversations, is unfortunately the worst in execution.

The inability to buy anything unless there is a specific shop is also becoming increasingly dated for the series from FE8 onward (and even in the Jugdral series, capturing to get what you need and reparing what you already have give them an edge) and I'd argue it's not something that's aged well.

Having different promotion items for different classes might add flavor, but I also think it's probably not a good introduction to the series since it's only the case for the GBA games and could trip new players up on who they're able to use.

The requirements for unlocking Gaidens not being immediately evident is also a strike against it, I'd argue. You didn't visit the village in the northwest corner before Merlinus's Gaiden? Too bad for you. Didn't get seven level ups in the desert because Pent is too boss? Oh well. No Caelin soldiers alive? No problem! No Canas, either.



And yes, I think Casual Mode is against the spirit of FE, but it really was the right decision to include it. There's a reason Classic is called Classic. But if you need to play Casual before you gain the confidence and ability to play Classic eventually and then jump in to every possible entry, FE13 is the only way to allow for that. The combination of features in FE13 originating from games throughout the series also means you'll be more familiar with all of those features as they appear in the rest of the series as well. You can also start playing on whatever difficulty you please on whatever mode you please as opposed to having to unlock them FE7. And an entry that allows for casual grinding really is more newbie-friendly, loathe as I am to suggest or encourage anything of the sort. I'd sooner want someone to skirmish-grind rather than spend hours trying to grind at an arena and have a fatal misfortune. FE13 was clearly designed to bring more people into the series as opposed to just catering to the people that are already fans and it shows on multiple levels. And because it's meant to be so accessible, for the purpose of introducing someone into the series, why WOULDN'T you introduce them to something that will be more accessible?

And as much s**t as we talk about FE13's story, nobody was saying any of it when we were first playing the game for quite some time. People still fap to Emmeryn and Chapter 10 like they're going church. And let's be honest: the majority of the stories in the series are rather underwhelming to varying degrees. But they still alll have their moments and loveable characters.