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I wouldn't say FE7's alone in making you care about the characters. I for one still say FE9's characters were fantastic--certainly not as dark as FE7's characters were (and you could make a case that FE7's were thus more realistic for their time setting), but I enjoyed the cast. The only major problem I saw with FE9 was that it stagnated towards the second half, as I said earlier. Like, once Ike gets Aether it just doesn't seem fair to Daein.

Now FE10 / FE11 on the other hand sound like they try to do just the opposite, but then again I haven't played those two games.

... ...Come again...?

There is one thing that FE 7 has, that I don't think any of you mentioned before, that the other two games don't have and I believe really makes it special out of the three GBA titles.

That is terrain effects.

There's the rain and the snow. It slows your movements for a bit, and provides a little more challenge so you have to plan accordingly. In FE 6, they still had fogs of war which I have a grudging respect for, but no other real terrain effects that challenge a player.

FE 8 has its fogs of war, but somehow, there are no snowy regions in Magvel, and it never rains. Where the heck is it, on the Equator? Ahem. Anyhow, they did away with the terrain challenges, and that was a letdown for me.

The other thing that made FE 7 more enjoyable for me, believe it or not, is defending Merlinus. He's made an actual tent unit that you have to keep safe as you play through the chapter (FE 6 didn't quite do this right to have him dodge 100 hits to level up), and he levels up at chapter beginnings, basically meaning he can dodge things. Woo!

When I beat a chapter and still see that the tent is safe, I feel a sense of heroism. There's nothing like that good smile you get after beating a chapter and realizing you also pulverized anything that threatened the civilian that holds your extra items. Just think of all the discards you make without him. =P Besides, having an extra unit to hold your items make sense, what Lord would lug the company's valuables around when they've already got assassins breathing down their throats as it is?

You know I always wondered about the convoy...why is it that the lord has it? Don't they usually send it to some other unit, so that way they don't carry as much weight? I mean you should be able to take into effect that the convoy would slow a unit down, and make it harder for them to hit. However, this is a strange FE realm that makes it ok for them to not be hit with a weakened state.

:/ I wouldn't advertaise that around here XD quite a few people hate FE8 for the simple fact of Erika XD

I wouldn't have posted the aforementioned post because there is no point of comparison. I sound like such a jerk.

I personally see nothing wrong with Erika. She was a tad grating at times, but nothing about her was a deal-breaker. For me, anyway.

As much hair as I pulled out while playing HHM, my choice would be for 7. I started out with 8 when my friend gave it to me, and I love the Ruins/Tower, and the ridiculous colors (plus the prescence of Tana and Lute), but for gameplay, Blazing Sword actually offered some challenge. It made me actually think about my strategy, unlike Sacred Stones, where I could spam the Tower/Ruins whenever it was convenient. The choice of promotions and the control enemy glitch made FE8 a little TOO easy for me, and while I can get a bit lazy, the lack of difficulty makes my laziness meaningless. And the storyline smells compared to Blazing Sword.