[Suzerain of Sheol]

So... I just came off of a months-long obsession with these games, playing through 7, 8, 9, 10, and 12 (fan translation!) back to back. I absolutely love this series. I kind of wish I'd started playing them in order from the beginning (more fan translations!) since I don't really want to go back and play with the dated mechanics of the originals now. Oh, well.

Any other fans here?

My favorite is easily 10 (the Wii version). I know a lot of people don't like it because of how hard the Dawn Brigade's sections are, but I've never personally had that much of a problem with them. I do tend to battle-save abuse, though.

I just love the whole leveling and promoting system in the games. I wish they'd bring back 8's branching promotions.

If only Sim RPG Maker wasn't so utterly horrendous. I'd very much like to make a FE-inspired SRPG of my own.

[Serra Britt]

I have played them, starting with the ones released on the GBA. I have a BIG problem though...I'm a perfectionist and don't want anyone to die even if it makes the stage easier to do so. Consequently, I haven't actually FINISHED any of them...

I enjoy the story and the battle mechanics, but I hate the random aspect of the leveling up. Sometimes one will get plusses to five different stats, and other times...nothing.

[Suzerain of Sheol]

I'm the same way, actually. The introduction of battle saves in 9 and 10 was a godsend. Though, 8 was easy enough with its random battles that you could power level your entire team to 20/20 pretty easily, and the enemy stats in that game were hilarious at best. I distinctly remember an endgame general haveing 3 speed. 3! That's not even reasonable at level 1 for a general, who is the slowest class in the game! And this guy was like level 20/16! :p

[Serra Britt]

I distinctly remember one game where one of my 20/20 characters was weaker than a 20/0 character because of the random stats. He would ALWAYS get 0-1 when he leveled ><

Despite this I really do want to go back and play them again now that I know better what I'm doing.

[Suzerain of Sheol]

I can't say I've ever had that problem, but I do notice that some of quite a few of the units you get past the beginning of the game (in all the games) have really awful stats for their level, to the point where a lot of them aren't really usable unless you let people die early on. It's kind of insulting in some cases, honestly.

Though, I suppose 10 remedied that by giving the Dawn Brigade the freaking Black Knight with his insane max stats and unbreakable two-range sword and stupid-powerful 40% x5 damage skill and regenerate 18 hp a round skill and... okay, I'll stop. :p

[Serra Britt]

It actually reminds me of how the first time I played FFT, I didn't use any of the story characters because my mercenaries were so well trained (that is, over trained). I'm not sure if it's because they don't want you to use those characters in Fire Emblem, of if there's some other reason.

[Suzerain of Sheol]

Case in point, in the character guide on GameFAQs for FE 10, easily over 60% of the cast is given a 5/10 rating or less. That's taking into account base stats, growths, and availability, among other things, but still, for a lot of those low scores, it's mostly just how god-awful their stats are. It's not like you can do anything to fix that in these games beyond wasting insanely precious stat boosting items, which would work much better on people who are already good.

Of note, though, most of the games seem to give you a high-level paladin early on who can be used to pull you out of tight situations. I prefer to unequip them and use them to draw since the AI gives priority to units who can't counterattack, and that way they don't steal XP from the rest of your characters who desperately need it.

Though, interestingly enough, Seth in FE8 is capable of soloing the entire game from the first chapter, but that's entirely the fault of how utterly incompetent the enemies in that game are. The fact that he has good bases and decent growths is just icing on the cake.

And FFT does have a similar problem, though at least there, if you bother to train the story characters, they're worth using. Rafa and Malak take a ton of effort but they can be really powerful, as can Reis. Agrias, Orlandeau and Meliadoul are kind of separate since they have those oh-so-useful 0-mp, multi-panel spammable swordskills and great equipment options. Still, even those three don't have anything else going for them in terms of initial abilities mastered. It's weird that someone as powerful as T. G. Cid wouldn't have leveled outside of his base job class at all. Not that he needs any other class to solo the rest of the game... :p

[Serra Britt]

Oh yes, my second playthrough of FFT, where I didn't power level at all, I definitely used the story characters. Even Mustaido (I butchered his name I'm sure) has useful base class abilities as long as he remains ranged. And yea...T.G.Cid doesn't need anything but his OP base class abilities XD

As for FE, the idea of using the initial high level to just draw enemies is a good one. I've used that kind of tactic in other tactics games like Advance Wars, though admittedly that game is more forgiving on losing units...

[Suzerain of Sheol]

Yeah, in FE10, whenever the Black Knight shows up in battle, I always unequip Alondite from him and let him lead the assault, then watch in glee as every enemy on the map scrambles to assault him for 0 damage each hit. :p

And I will note, for all the awful, awful units you get in FE10, the game makes up for it in the endgame by giving you all 5 of the beast kings and 3 dragons, just in case you managed to barely scrape your way through the rest of the game. All of them together are easily capable of steam-rolling the final battles. I've never used them, though, since my team is almost always godly in their own right.

[Lancelot]

I'm a fan of Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn. I much prefer the Path of Radiance, but RD improves a lot of things so it's just as good gameplay wise. I'll smash my head against a table if they don't bring Fire Emblem: Kakusei to the states, it's beautiful and worth having a 3DS over.

[Law]

Oh goodness oh goodness. I absolutely adore fire emblem. My favorite main character by far would have to be Ike in the Path of Radiance on gamecube. He looks way to bulky, and strange in the wii one. In the gamecube one though he was a small slender man. Oh soooooo cute. The game was really fun, and it became so easy the moment you got Aether and I think they were sword masters because they destroyed pretty much everything in one hit. If I had to pick someone other than him though I don't exactly remember her name I think Lyn she would be in 2nd. She is the girl that wears the blue dress, and has bright green hair uses a katana. She is so awesome with her critical when she disappears and reappears next to the enemy tearing them apart.

[Rosekitten]

I think i liked some of the older FE's better then the newer ones. But thats just me being picky story wise I think :P

as far as making a game under this style, it shouldn't be that hard. Though i wouldn't use a maker for it, you'd probably be better off programming or setting it all up by hand so you could do the class system the way you want.

[Kitty Paine]

I've restarted 9, hope to transfer my completed game data to 10.