Topic: I bought Fire Emblem on the Virtual Console...

...and played it for three hours straight. I played it until my gamepad nearly died. Never played a Gameboy game in my life, but Fire Emblem is my favorite series, and I have never had a chance to play any of the games, except Radiant Dawn, Shadow Dragon on the DS, and Awakening on the 3DS.

So good.

GBA games don't tend to age too badly. If you like Zelda games then Minish Cap is a must try as well. Was my favourite in the series until A Link Between Worlds came out.

Awakening was my first Fire Emblem. At the beginning I was a bit confused but after a while I enjoyed it more than any other 3DS game.

Sacred Stones was my first. Really good and the most perfect Fire Emblem game, with no broken stats or overpowered skills, no pointless grinding, good brain killing chapters. Characters were great too. Then played Shadow.D, the Radiant series, Fire Emblem, then Awakening. Tho FE sucks your life away a little.

It was my first Fire Emblem game and it is my favourite. I just beat it on Virtual Console yesterday. I never owned PoR or RD, but I borrowed my friend's RD, other than those games, I own all NA Fire Emblems and I am only missing Binding Blade from the Japan only games. (If you count the remakes as the original games)

I just got this a while ago. I am still playing it, but Etrian Odyssey IV keeps stealing my time.
Sacred Stones was my first as well. It's great, but the tower and ruins take away the challenge by providing grinding spots.

PSA to FE beginners — Avoid Shadow Dragon at all costs.

I first played Fire Emblem on the Wii U earlier last year. It convinced me to buy a 3DS and awakening. It looks to be one of those series where the only real complaint is it makes time disappear.

Give Advance wars a shot when you're done then, It's on the GBA Virtual console as well I think.

I plan on playing Advance Wars, FE and Golden Sun on Wii U VC someday.

I also played Advance Wars on the VC (first). PLay time to finishing about 27 hours, making it (at the time) my third most game played on the Wii U.

Liked it too. Hanging out for a new one or more VC releases of that as well.

your favorite series but you missed the GBA games? hot damn....

I include my gaming history in my tag...shouldn't be too hard to notice I wasn't a Nintendo fanboy when I was younger.

Anyway, the game has gotten a little harder, but that's good, because the first 10 chapters were way too easy. My favorite animation is Florina, on her Pegasus Knight. I love how she attacks really fast, and then soars up into the air. So cool. I really wish now that they'd go back to pixel animation for the fights. The 3D models, of the 3DS, do not cut it. It's a shame, really.

@Dreamsleep
I'm playing Fire Emblem (GBA) on Wii U right now myself. Just got to the mid-game interlude last night. Such a great game, isn't it? I must admit I do enjoy playing with virtual saves. Now, some purists may cry blasphemy but personally, it allows me to take risks I ordinarily wouldn't have taken, and enjoy the game a little more stress free. I rarely actually reload a restore, it's just the peace of mind knowing I can if I wanted, rather than restart the entire chapter. I liked that feature in Awakening's casual mode where you could save mid-battle without exiting. I really preferred casual Hard mode just because it removed the stress while still providing challenge.mi just don't have patience like I used to back in the day. Rarely can I muster the willpower to replay long segments of playtime anymore.

Once I finish FE7 and my second playthrough of Awakening (kind of alternating between them), I plan on hitting up Sacred Stones on 3DS, then I want to go back and play all three Japanese SNES entries (I have English patched versions), Binding Blade (also English) and then I plan on doing a run of the Marth storyline with Shadow Dragon and Heroes of Light and Shadow (English version, of course). I'm really itching to play those Japan-only entries. Something appealing about playing a FE game that wasn't meant for you to play.

Sacred Stones is fantastic. It feels almost like the proto-Awakening, minus the stuff that dragged Awakening down.
Also, a warning - the English patch of FE6 feels very unpolished. Playing it felt like reading bad anime fansubs.
A lot of people will say that Gaiden is the worst FE, but I actually liked it quite a bit.

It was my first Fire Emblem too. I believe I played it for the first time with a ROM/emulator years ago, but now I own the physical cart and the Wii U VC version. It's a great game with maybe the best story and characters in the series so far. Only thing that really feels dated about it is the lack of a proper shop in the preparation screen between chapters.

I tried this one a couple times, but I could never get into it. Too much dialogue to skip through when I'm constantly restarting damn near every map for the first 8 chapters in what is supposedly an extended tutorial that didn't teach me jack squat as to how to actually play and do well. I gave up after my 11th try of chapter 8 or 9, and never looked back. I've played other entries with significantly better tutorials afterwards, though, including FE6 that they really should've released first but didn't because "this is the game designed with new players in mind!" (as if...) so I might go back to this...if I ever feel like putting up with having the training wheels on for nearly 10 chapters...

I found the first 10 chapters very easy. What was so tough that you didn't understand? Just trying to help you out, not making fun or anything. Personally, I've lost quite a few characters, but I never restart, and soldier on...unless it's Lyn, of course. Then it's game over.

The worst loss so far was Sain, who got attacked repeatedly by enemies, and he slaughtered them, but they kept plinking away at him, and then he got burned by a mage, I believe. I think he was like 16 or 17...ugh. But, Lowen picked up the slack...Kent has been outleveled. I just promoted Lowen, too. So, my Cavalry, consists of Marcus, Lowen, Isadora, and Priscilla (hahahaha).

Oh yeah, and both of my archers died. Poor Wil, and what's her name I had for like 5 seconds before she bit the dust.

My mages are quite nice. Erk is the best, but Canas wrecks too. Lucius is tough to level, but he just got a Shine and is obliterating now.

Honestly, it was more bad luck then anything. enemy crits and big hits when I had the advantage. The first time I itried it, I'll admit I was a complete n00b, but by the third or 4th time I had played dozens of SRPGs, and I was still getting hammered...I think I had the most trouble keeping the Pegasus Knight you get early on alive...I didn't want her to fall behind, but she's...pretty useless...

That said, I bought it again yesterday, and I finally started it today. I'm on chapter 3 or 4, and it's not that bad. The story (which I always skipped before) is...yawn-worthy, even for Fire Emblem, but I think the "training wheels" are helping, even if I'm still figuring out the useful stuff on my own (like accidentally figuring out what button gives me detailed explanations of what all those stats mean on the status page, and a lot of them weren't what I thought they meant). I haven't played an SRPG in well over a year, IIRC, so I'm pretty rusty. I haven't come close to losing a unit yet, though (except the stupid Pegasus Knight getting down to one health because she can't dodge for $#!+, but that's pretty much expected by now). I'm impressed.

@nacho_chicken

Gaiden is FE2, correct? Back on the NES? FE1 and FE2 on NES are the only 2 I don't have. Couldn't find a proper translation for either of them (or the games for that matter).

As for FE6, I got the most recent translation that's been done on the game, which expounds upon the work of several previous partial translations. It might be the same one you had, but I tested out all the translations and played the first half hour or so of each game, and I was truly astonished at how well done they were. They felt like they were official localizations to be honest. But either way, as long as I can understand what's going on that's all I really care about. Did you ever play Heroes of Light and Shadow on DS? I hear that's a really good one...

@CanisWolfred
Rebecca. The archer's name is Rebecca

I really hate losing units- part of my OCD completionist personality- I don't think I could just keep playing unless it was a really long fight and it was a unit that I wasn't particularly fond of. Anyways, I use Lowen too, he started out pretty weak but now he's getting beastly. I like Oswin though. Cla-chink, cla-chink, cla-chink... PKOWWW!!! ...cla-chink, cla-chink, cla-chink... lol. He's so awesome! Slow as they come and with the range of a yardstick, but he's a walking tank, and has saved Sain's butt a few times. In fact I almost lost Sain on the level where you recruit Lucius- those 6 cavalier that come gunning for Merlin (or whatever his name is- the merchant)... Ya. Sain was outmatched to say the least.

Erk is awesome too. Love that guy. I'm trying to keep all my people leveled up to a decent extent though (except for Matthew). Dorcas and Hector for my axe men. Rebecca and Will for my archers. Priscilla and Serra for healing, Lyn and Eliwood because they're main characters and I can't lose them (plus they're good for speed and double hits), Erk and Lucius for magic, Oswin and Marcus for frontline tanks, Lowen, Kent and Sain for muscle behind the tanks, Florina just because she's good for long distance travel and support attacks from terrain others can't access.

I just figured out yesterday the game has support levels and conversations. Discovered the Support option when I moved Eliwood next to Hector. Who all else has support conversations and what triggers the option? Cause I tried every combination and couldn't find any more