The Fire Emblem series celebrated its 30th anniversary in April and in honour of the milestone Japanese gaming publication Famitsu polled its readers on their favourite games from Nintendo's celebrated strategy RPG series.
Of course, Japan has received several entries in the franchise that we never got over here in the West--we didn't get our hands on an official release until 2003 when The Blazing Blade on GBA was localised--so a couple of entries in the top 5 (as posted to Twitter by @HDKirin) might be unfamiliar unless you're a die-hard fan. Here they are:
https://twitter.com/HDKirin/status/1263128684300402688?s=20
Hardcore followers of the series will no doubt be copying-and-pasting their finest 'Thank-You!' gifs when they see Genealogy of the Holy War in the number one spot. Geneology is the second game from Intelligent Systems' series developed for Super Famicom (with the first being the game at number five on the list, Mystery of the Emblem) and none of the SFC entries have been officially localised for the West... yet!
Yes, we're ever hopeful that one of these days we'll get a re-release or remake, especially in light of how well Fire Emblem: Three Houses has performed on Switch. We'd jump at the chance to sample the Super Famicom games in any official capacity, and we're sure we're not alone.
Team NL's personal ranking of the games (the ones that released round these parts, that is) tended towards the portable entries, and we also surveyed you lovely people for your own ranking of Fire Emblem games. The result? Most Fire Emblem games are damn good - that's the result!
How does Famitsu readers' top 5 compare to yours? Let us know with a lovely comment in the box down there.
[source twitter.com]
Comments 47
How dare Three Houses lose, ultimate sin. Ban this magizine now. Awakening should be two and Holy War 3.
I really enjoyed threes houses gameplay wise but preferred the character designs from awakening and fates
Ahh nice they got 3 of my bottom entries in the series right there at the top three, just throw Fates Revelation in there and it'd be perfect.
But on a brighter note I'm happy to see that Mystery of the Emblem (and I assume it's referring to the SNES version) is up there, that game is legit.
three houses was my first fire emblem, and im a huge fan of the series now!
Brilliant, Genealogy is incredible so I’m glad it’s getting recognition. I probably like Awakening more than Three Houses in the sense that I can actually bring myself to finish it.
It's probably marketing to prepare the reception of a snes Fire Emblem remake. Which will mean Sigurd in Smash.
@Expa0 Feel you there. I still think Path of Radiance had the best gameplay in the series overall and am sad that it didn't make the cut.
Now I want another Fire Emblem Echoes remaking Genealogy of the Holy War!
Man, I'm a little bummed that neither of the Radiant games made it on there. I think my top 5 is:
1) Path of Radiance
2) Awakening
3) Three Houses
4) Radiant Dawn
5) Shadow Dragon
Of course! Genealogy of the Holy War is the best Fire Emblem. I hope we see a remake of it at some point.
Is it so much to ask for Nintendo to localize Genealogy sometime in the next two decades?
My top 5 are:
Awakening
Three Houses
Echoes
Fates
Shadow Dragon
I have not played the Radiant games because Nintendo refuses to make GC games available on modern consoles :/
I really want Jugdral and Tellius remakes on the Switch.
Yes now Nintendo remake Geneology of the Holy War please. That, Thracia 776, and Binding Blade. We need all the retro Fire Emblem to be widely accessible to all players. It also make sense for us to get Binding Blade too cause though that game released before Blazing Sword, the story of that game continues from where Blazing Sword left off so to us it's a sequel.
Genealogy of the Holy War on 1st place?Classy readers.
Seriously, no Sacred Stones? The best one till Awakening.
If this is some marketing to a remake of Genealogy of Holy war, not forget of Thracia too, nintendo.
But being honest, remakes of Fire Emblem till this point, don't was exactly in a good position compared to the new entries. Not sure if is a good idea.
OK here's mine using the localized titles.
1: The Sacred Stones
2: Fire Emblem
3: Path of Radiance
4: Shadow Dragon
5: Radiant Dawn
Radiant Dawn really goes all out but it's kind of exhausting. I'd replace it with the Roy one since GBA is the best but I've never played it so.
@AlienX The Roy one’s terrible to be honest. We really aren’t missing much because the prequel improved on it in every way. Roy himself is the worst lord unit in the series, with awful stats. The soldiers are all a bit crap and the levels aren’t interesting. It’s still worth playing for context in the prequel though.
Just playing Three Houses now. Great time.
Fates is pretty unpopular, it seems. It was one of my favorites.
I love Genealogy of the Holy War but I think my personal favorite is still Path of Radiance.
I’ve only played 3 games in the series, but this is how I’d rank them:
3. Awakening
2. Sacred Stones
1. Three Houses
Definitely plan on playing through more at some point!
Yet another reminder that I need to play Shadows of Valentia and pick up Three Houses. I should be wrapping up Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright this weekend...unless the end boss is a troll, of course.
As I've only played five entries (six if both Fates games are counted separately), my rankings are:
1. Awakening
2. Blazing Blade/Fire Emblem GBA
3. Fates (This and SS are close though)
4. Sacred Stones
5. Shadow Dragon
Genealogy is mostly great. But it's severely hampered by some of the worst map design ever. That's a game-breaker that renders the game ultimately unfun. Absolute purgatory by Chapter 4...
Anime is terrible
My order:
Binding Blade
Path of Radiance
Blazing Blade
Three Houses
Sacred Stones
Awakening
Radiant Dawn
Echoes
Fates Revelations
Shadow Dragon
Sadly never played Genealogy
Very strong series
Generally makes sense even if I don't fully agree.
Three Houses took the crown from Genealogy but a remake could see it claim it back. Other than that, Blazing Blade probably deserves a spot, Awakening and Mystery not so much. Swap 'em for Path of Radiance and Thracia 776.
My Top 5:
1. Echoes
2. Sacred Stones
3. Blazing Blade
4. Tharcia 776
5. Fates Conquest (I absolutely hate every character and every part of this story. Only putting it on here because the map design and gameplay is really good)
My Honerable Mentions:
Genealogy. It has the best story in the series but the worst map design in the series imo, yes I say that despite putting Echoes at 1. The map design made me quit the game because of how much it drags the pace of the game.
Three Houses. Great game but I dislike the monastery micro management stuff, although interesting reads, it became a chore.
Never played the Ike games so idk what makes them so great.
Three houses is great combat and story hampered by an awful dull and tedious monastery hub.
Genealogy of the Holy War really is awesome - I played the unofficial translation.
The only Fire Emblem game I've played is Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, which I'm about to finish. It's one of my favorite games so I want to get another one. I'm leaning towards buying one of the other 3DS games because the 3DS is still my system of choice when I travel and I'm not sure I live what I hear about "micromanagement" in Three Houses. But trying to figure out which one I want to buy next has me feeling indecisive.
That is a strange list of ways to spell Langrisser wrong.
Really happy that Fates isn't on this list.
Still relatively new to the series, having only played FE7, Awakening, Fates Birthright + Conquest, and one route of Three Houses. It's a (mostly) great series so far, and I'm excited to play through some of the older games (especially the unlocalized ones).
Geneaology of the Holy War is #1. As expected.
Aweakening was my first FE game, but after playing the Jugdral games, I was blown away by the sheer presentation the game has (even if some areas really would benefit from modern systems or questionable map design at times)
Hoping for a remake!
Rumor was we were getting two remakes announced at the event on May 5th I think it was. But with that cancelled who knows, but I'm sure they are working on something.
At this time Intelligent Systems have the most employees the company has every had, and I'm sure they are all not just working on Heroes.
@Gasarakii They just finished Paper Mario, so remake would be cool.
Interesting to see Genealogy at number one, above even Three Houses, I wonder what makes it so popular, even after all these years.
On another note, it's nice to see my three favourites up there (even if Three Houses and Awakening were fairly likely to be picked).
Hey Nintendo, how about a Fire Emblem retro collection? Localize the older games and pack them in with the GBA games and release them in a big bunch on a cartridge? I'd pay 60 bucks for that in a heartbeat!
Maybe this will convince Nintendo to remake Genealogy and bring it over to the west for the first time?
...and then, maybe, Thracia 776?
...please?
@Heavyarms55
As much as I'd love that, it is highly unlikely
It would be nice if they "modernize" them at least like Langrisser
It makes sense to pair them up by "system":
1. Shadow Dragon & Gaiden/Echoes both already remade and released in West fairly recently
2. Mystery, Genealogy and Thracia (Golden! none have been released in West)
3. Binding Blade, Blazing Blade & Sacred Stones
4. Path of Radiance & Radiant Dawn
Ow i want a remake of holy war. I was not aware that it was do well receive.
I really only love Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn. These were epic stories with great characters, exciting dialogue, and fantastic level design.
@RPGamer OK, what's the deal with Fates? I'm trying to decide between which Fire Emblem 3DS game I want to buy, and I keep seeing Fates dragged through the mud in user comments. Yet it got really good reviews from both professional critics and users. There's something fishy going on here!
@DeathByLasagna Wow... Those are actually my 3 favorite games in the entire series, by a mile. Well Done 💯
The other titles are definitely worth playing, imo. Although, if I had to recommend 3 to start with, those would be it.
@the4seer Awesome, glad to hear I got a good start! I'll definitely be checking out more games in there series later down the road!
@RPGamer
The only anime worth anything is Pokemon
I refer to myself as an “artist”. Don’t tell DonkeyKongMain!
My favorites are the GBA titles, period. I played them on the Wii U.
Awakening was fine, but I honestly don't remember much about it. Tried to play the Fates games a few times and those failed to interest me.
Finally broke down and got Three Houses and lost interest when I discovered there was no character customization and female Byleth looks awful in every way. I may play it one day with a male Byleth, but as I usually prefer to play my gender when I have a choice, I found this disappointing and it immediately turned me off.
But really, I think I just will prefer the simplicity and charm of the sprite games.
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