Decided, in order to have more content than usual, to do a bit of a round-up of as many Fire Emblem related news as possible. Well, some may be more news than others. This is probably something I’d do at the start of the month. If you guys have any FE related news and info you want to share, comment below.

Fire Emblem Awakening Comic

Worked on by the great people at Serenes Forest, here’s the Fire Emblem Awakening comic for the game. I know you guys want to get your Awakening fix (it never really ends), so now you have it in comic form. Hmm, this kind of makes me wish Nintendo had included this with Awakening. Rather have it in my hands…

Awakening Keychains

Not that it matters right now, since it’s coming out in Japan only. Butttt I guess if you can order it from JP, it’s good news. Or terrible news. One or the other.

Fire Emblem X Monster Hunter!?!? Oh wait…

Oh well that’s a close one. I mean, our brains couldn’t process the Shin Megami Tensei crossover. (I think some still can’t). Now another crossover? With Monster Hunter?!? But as it turns out, it’s just about a costume ability. You can now have Chrom and Lucina costumes. A)Will be interesting to see how they look in HD! B)A sign that one of these characters will be in Smash 4?

UPDATE: Trailer

Fire Emblem Awakening For $15?

If you happen to still not have Awakening, you…can now get it for $15. At Best Buy. (Since the Best Buy link on Destructoid didn’t work, here you go.) I don’t know, for any game that sounds like a steal; for a title that’s considered GOTY in some circles, that’s worth the bang for your buck.

Marth is Back in Smash!

In case you needed a reminder.

Zombie U X Fire Emblem?!– Ok, ok, this is just an article about Permadeath

This half reminds me of how video games don’t challenge people anymore. Or maybe this is just my old timer speak. Either way, a decent article about the value of permadeath.

Stage? STAGEEE!!!

Well, we already knew Fire Emblem had a stage in Smash 4. I guess this makes it completely official?

Wait, what the hell is this? This has absolutely nothing to do with Fire Emblem! And nothing to do with games in general. This is surely grounds for blog hating, AND you’re wasting your 100th post on a bad basketball team? Walters, just stop it!

Yet, I do manage to have other interests, and when there’s little to talk about regarding Fire Emblem, I might as well use my blog to spout out other nonsense that has nothing to do with Fire Emblem or video games. Of course, I won’t be doing this often. And I think it’s been a while since I’ve done this. Anyways, considering the state my team growing up is in, might as well use the opportunity to explain why they’re terrible, and do so in a manner that’s not NO HEART THIS TOEAM SUXXX @$$ FIRE KID etc etc. For unexplained reasons I hate that type of talk.

1. Their Point Guards Suck

From what I can tell of this strange offense Kidd has been trying to install in this team since training camp, it’s heavily dependent on the PG making the right basketball decisions on offense, and setting the tone on defense. With Williams being hurt for most of the season, they’ve had to rely on their bench player Shaun Livingston and second round pick from last year in Tyshawn Taylor. Too bad that after playing really well at the start of the season, Shaun, after having to start for Williams, had been a liability on both ends. Not passing the ball well, not being able to shoot it from deep, not making good decisions on offense, not playing good defense (that Felton shot in the 3rd quarter after he inbounded the ball was laughable; why was Livingston not guarding Felton then?). He has essentially been exposed because of Deron’s injury. Taylor does not even look like an NBA player. Sure, he can move up and down the court, but he doesn’t even try to pass the ball, he looks to attack the basket. Which would be fine if the Nets didn’t have plodders (Lopez, Garnett) on the team. Or maybe he’s just doing so at awful positions. Until they get Deron back, or unless the PGs manage to actually look to set up their teammates, or they just decide not to go with a PG for most of the game, they will continue to look terribad on offense.

2. What Are You Doing When You Don’t Have The Ball?

Joe pretty much summed it up: they have no identity. They have to work extremely hard to get shots. Right now, with new players, players who don’t play this much, new coach, etc, they’re not able to run any sort of sets with consistency. Thus, you get guys who stand around while one player attempts to go to work. Now, in the game against the Grizzles they could just go Iso with Brook and react to the defense because the Grizzles had no one to take care of Lopez. And I’m pretty sure there will be games down the line where they can go iso and react to the defense. But that doesn’t work all the time, and especially if you establish no flow in the offense early on or consistently enough. Sure, I can cite any third quarter this season, but the one against the Knicks was particularly egregious. Lots of post ups with no movement of the basketball. Only two 0r three passes in the possession. Just bad, bad, bad.

3. 3 Point Defense

Now, I will say this: there have been times where the Nets have played good 3 point defense, but their opponents just hit a tough shot. The problem is they let that affect their defense on 3 the entire game. Just players out of position, especially in the Zone, I don’t know why they continue to try it (I mean, I guess they have to, but numerous times after it was shown it doesn’t work, they still try it. Why?), but they look bad with it, and they hardly have athletes on the floor. Way, way too many lapses on this team.

So I could have also cited the injuries, the terrible transition defense, the coach, lack of energy for the start of games, etc, for their struggles. Every team at some point will get buckets on transition. Every team will have injuries. And yes, Kidd is a rookie coach, and people did say it would be a struggle (don’t think they meant this much of a struggle). And maybe this team does lack energy. But from what I can tell from watching all the games, there’s just too many parts that aren’t mixing right now, and it might be until February at worst for any part of this team to look like a basketball team. Whether they’ll be out of it by then, we’ll have to see.

(I hope not)

As in, there’s a general method to the madness of celebrating 100th posts. It entails of people thanking their readers for sticking around the blog, a bit of a celebration, yadayadayada. Nothing too special.

So of course, I’m not going to do that. I’m going to use this to do something new. Something that will revolutionize the way bloggers think of 100 posts.

1)I AM SO SORRY FOR THIS TAKING SO LONG TO GET THERE

2) Welcome new readers to FIRRREEEE EMMMMBLEMMM!

1) Well, I came in with a plan on what to do with Fire Emblem, and for about the first couple of months, it was executed to a tee. Then unfortunately, life got in the way. Then my other blog got in the way. This now leaves less time to think of anything of worth about Fire Emblem, and so, I stall, and stall, and stall, until weeks go by and nothing gets worked on. And that’s a disservice to those following the blog. Now, just a reminder: this blog is strictly more hobby than anything super serious. As in, I’ll post whenever I feel like I got something I want to say. The last thing I need to do is post when I’m nowhere near wanting to. That’s not going to be good. But at the same time, I shouldn’t be going two weeks without working on a post. So I’ll definitely try and get back to post a bit more occasionally, kind of like last week. The monthly Fire Emblem news post was fairly well received, so hopefully when more details of Fire Emblem games come out, will be linking to those at some point, along with other random FE stuff. I still want to cover every single FE manga that’s available out there and talk about it. I just need to get into reading manga though :/

2) Just want to welcome those who haven’t checked out the blog before. I’ve stated, and stated, and stated, how the blog came to be, but to be quick, this is a blog devoted to just about everything Fire Emblem related. Games, Sounds, Music, etc. I started this blog when what has currently turned out to be the most mainstream Fire Emblem evah, Fire Emblem Awakening, came out way back when. (As in, February. Holy crap the year’s gone by fast.) You could be one of those people that sift through every page on this blog and check out where everything is at. But I’ll make it easy for you by listing everything that I believe will be quite useful to you. I hope you all come out with a better understanding of the franchise, and how it came to be. Still nothing there that doesn’t help? Then let me know what you want me to talk about, and I’ll get to it as best I can. Otherwise, happy hunting! And welcome.

Kick Starting Fire Emblem Talk

• The Fire Emblem Franchise: General summary of all the games.
• What’s Your Best Fire Emblem Game?: Be about as confident, cocky, and obnoxious (or whatever) you want about what you think is the best FE game, It doesn’t matter!

Let Me Tell You Some Things About The Franchise

• What is Fire Emblem? Series: Part I, Part II, and Part III, all for your viewing pleasure. Dropping some knowledge!
• Why Did Fire Emblem Skip The N64?: The series has hit every system except 2. The N64 was one of them.
• Where In The World is That Bastard Shouzou Kaga?: You must know who created the series, and how he’s disappeared since.
• How Has The Weapons System Evolved in Fire Emblem?: In short, not too much!
• Left For Dead: Hard, Maniac, & Lunatic Modes in Fire Emblem: Talking about the difficulty, a series trademark.

Asking You Guys For Your FE Takes!

• What Unreleased Fire Emblem Would You Want To Play?: Remember, 7 games in the series didn’t make it to the West. That’s right, 7!

Specific Shout Outs to Some Series, such as…

Fire Emblem Awakening

• Some Basic Fire Emblem Awakening Advice Time!: Because you needed it. Yes you did!
• 5 Things You Need to Understand About Fire Emblem Awakening: Some stuff relating to the game. May still be useful.
• 5 More Things You Need to Understand About Fire Emblem Awakening: You probably might want to skip this, scout’s honor!
• Commentary on The Fire Emblem Awakening Interview: First, read Iwata Says. Then get my take on some things I noted in said interview.
• Share Your Favorite Fire Emblem Awakening Character: Similar to sharing your best FE game. No, I’m serious!
• People Playing Awakening, Why Didn’t You Start on Normal?: I know some people thought they could cheat like that!

Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade (Fuuin no Tsurugi)

• If Fuuin No Tsurugi (Fire Emblem 6) Had Been Released In America…: Just a thought, after Smash Bros Melee came out.

Fire Emblem 7

• Why In Intelligent System’s Name Was Lyn Created?: A fair question…in 2013!

Shadow Dragon

• Why It’s Hard To Play Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon: I finally voice my displeasure about this series. So random though.

Fire Emblem Fodder For Your Pleasure

• The Commericals of Fire Emblem: JP really loves to do really strange FE commercials. Be amazed!
• ANDD…The Worst Fire Emblem Commerical Ever Is…: Yep, JP loves to do really strange FE commercials. Be amazed!
• The Manga of Fire Emblem: They used to do a lot of FE manga back in the day. I should do a post wondering why no so much anymore…
• Fire Emblem…As An Anime?: They only did one Fire Emblem anime. With good reason.
• Some of My Favorite Fire Emblem Music: Feel free to share some of your favorites too!

CELEBRATION TIME COME ON

• And So, Let’s Celebrate 10 Years of Fire Emblem in The West: Man, a decade huh? Pretty long time here.

Finally, Random Crap

• So…About The Xbox One…What Would You Have Named the Xbox One?: This will forever be my favorite post because it’s so full of derp and hilariousness.
• Hating The Internet Again: I’m warning you: this is traumatizing.
• I’m on Twitter: Because you know, I could always use some followers and stuff like that!

I’m pretty sure I got something to say about some Fire Emblem, and any news that’s come its way, so let’s get to it.

Fire Emblem Studio Intelligent Systems Has A New Headquarters

Personally, I just hope this means they’re finally working on Shin Megami Tensei x Fire Emblem. Cause you know, it’s been a while since any news of it came out…

Man at Arms crafts Fire Emblem: Awakening’s Falchion

Not sure if impressed or if I should scoff. What about you guys?

Feature: 12 Days of Christmas – Fire Emblem’s Awakening

A nice article that talked basically about the pressure Intelligent Systems had on themselves, and well, they dealt with it to come out with a critically acclaimed game.

Nintendo Adds New 3DS Miiverse Communities Including Fire Emblem And Kid Icarus

Reminded once again that I don’t really mess around in the Miiverse all that often…

Modding (FE Shrine Podcast)

Because Podcasts are coollllll

I think we all know most RPGs have something that either entices people or drives them away: grinding. Grinding is one of the aspects of RPGs that can be a slog or can be strangely addicting, and there’s a multitude of ways to grind, which ultimately depends on the game.

So yeah, grinding in Fire Emblem is different. That’s what I’m getting at!

Unlike most RPGs, Fire Emblem is a turn-based strategy RPGs. There’s not too many of them out there I believe (like I think of Tactics Ogre and Final Fantasy Tactics), and FE is probably the simplest of them all thanks to its combat system and its general length that involves a major storyline. Certain FE games, however, had limits: you could only train a certain amount of people to get them to high levels, and you had to discard everyone else. Awakening, to an extent, discards that since there’s a number of side quests one can take to gain levels for every character. And well, a case can probably be made for Sacred Stones, but for the most part, doesn’t seem too worth it to grind in that game.

Other than those two games, you had to pick your characters and train them in just about every Fire Emblem game, else by the end game you’ll be woefully ill prepared. Shin Monshou no Nazo did have a training area in the preparations area (which was genius btw), but I believe you still had limits and stuff. Otherwise, thanks to limited enemies, limited weapons, and limited units to pick depending on the map, making choices on who to take had to be made.

But as I learned while re-playing Shadow Dragon, it’s also more than just the characters — it’s the weapons! I didn’t even realize it, or maybe I forgot, but I actually had fun attempting to get Radd, a low-level mercenary, to Class B swordsmanship. In fact, I had a lot of fun just grinding weapons, not really trying to level up. What do I mean by that? By attacking a stationary enemy (like an Archer or Ballistician) with Radd, for 0 damage twice. Yeah, he doesn’t level up at all, but his weapon skills does. And when that happens, he can now wield better weapons — like a Silver Sword, at level 4. And yes, he can do significant damage because of it!

So yeah, I had never really thought about the grinding experience until I replayed Shadow Dragon. It reminded me of the times where I basically grinded my healers or when, in the final chapter of Lyn’s quest, I got Nils to Level 20. Why? Because as I learned after replaying it multiple times, those stats transfer over to Ninian, and thank god I don’t have to worry about her too much anymore. I even used her as a decoy. Yeah, I don’t know if that’s good strategy or just me abusing the game. Probably not, since it’s allowed lol

Anyways, I know you guys all have your grinding experiences with Fire Emblem. I’d like to know what the hell they are. And yes, what game you did do that on would be cool as well!

I tweeted this last week:

In listening to Comfort's Call, reminded myself again that despite its problems, Radiant Dawn was pretty underrated. youtu.be/nSsQ7P_G8K0—
Walters (@FE4vsFE5) January 26, 2014

And now, all of a sudden, I start to begin to think about a Fire Emblem game that can be considered underrated.

Now saying what FE game is underrated is not entirely all that easy. After all, I believe the supposed metric for a game to be considered underrated would be:

• Actually a legit great game
• But said great game doesn’t get talked a lot because of some annoying game issues or story issues or…overlooked somehow.
• And in this context, I’m talking about a game in a long running franchise.

I thought about this more as I continue my slow, slow journey of beating Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon on Hard (Level 1). I think I’m finally starting to come around to this game. It still has issues for me (especially when it comes to its characters), but all of a sudden, I don’t think it’s as bad (well, it never really was BAD) as most (and that includes me) have ensued. One reason why is I’ve become used to the map and its layout. The other is to stop being so goddamn intimidated by the opponents. Ok sure, there can be good reason to be intimidated, but as long as there’s an understanding of superiority and what units to use, there’s nothing to be worried about. The only thing to be concerned though with is those units with arrows. They’re not all that useful for you, but they seem to be a major pain for me when they hit my flying units…

Anyways, since I’m somehow attempting to play through all the FE’s I have, it’ll be a while before I can really say for sure what would be the most underrated Fire Emblem for me. I do know that Fire Emblem 7 and Fire Emblem: Awakening can’t be considered for most underrated (because I said so). Well, if you choose to do so that’s fine with me. I’ll just laugh secretly in the sha–I mean I’ll accept your decision with fake smiles.

….I’m doing this wrong, so I’m just going to take my leave now.

…In that I couldn’t found this earlier. Holy crap, are we worthy of hearing this??? So gooddddddddddddd (Thanks Aayai for the link!, thanks Shadowofchaos for uploading it to Youtube and listing the song names and times!

[On another note, if you got cool Fire Emblem related things you want to share, email me at waltersfe@yahoo.com.]

Music List:

0:00 [Mystery of the Emblem] Advance
0:37 [Dark Dragon and the Sword of Light] Enemy Phase
1:13 [Mystery of the Emblem] Akaneia Overture
1:26 [Genealogy of the Holy War] Main Theme Intro
1:55 [Radiant Dawn]↑Bearer of Hope/↓Eternal Bond
2:11 [Radiant Dawn] Eternal Bond
3:35 [Gaiden] Battle Map 1-1 (Alm 1)
4:00 [Blazing Sword] Winds Across the Plains [Gaiden] Battle Map 1-1 (Alm 1)
4:14 [Genealogy of the Holy War] Chapter 1 (Girl of the Spirit Forest)
4:30 [Radiant Dawn] Eternal Bond
4:37 [Radiant Dawn] Eternal Bond [Genealogy of the Holy War] Disturbance in Agustria
4:51 [Genealogy of the Holy War] Chapter 2: Disturbance in Agustria
5:17 [Sacred Stones] Rise Above
6:39 [Genealogy of the Holy War] Chapter 5: Doors of Destiny/Conversation
7:29 [Mystery of the Emblem] Holy War
7:40 [Mystery of the Emblem] Victory is Ours
8:02 [Mystery of the Emblem] Liberation
8:32 [All] Fire Emblem Main Theme
9:18 [Genealogy of the Holy War] Opening
10:12 [Blazing Sword] Reminiscence
11:18 [Thracia 776] Leif Army ~In Search of Victory~ Base
12:30 [Path of Radiance] With Us!
12:49 [Genealogy of the Holy War ・ Thracia 776 ・ Binding Blade] Join Us!
13:05 [Mystery of the Emblem ・ Blazing Sword]Together we Ride!
13:37 [Sacred Stones] Comrades
13:47 [Genealogy of the Holy War] Final Chapter: “The Final Holy War”
13:58 [Genealogy of the Holy War] Victory is Near
14:18 [Path of Radiance] Life Returns
14:46 [Sacred Stones] Confront the Past
15:09 [Path of Radiance] Life Returns
16:16 [Genealogy of the Holy War] Silesia Palace
16:36 [Mystery of the Emblem] Insurrection
17:34 [Blazing Sword] Enemies Appear
18:03 [Genealogy of the Holy War] Agustria Army
18:36 [Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn] Against the Black Knight/Unstoppable Destiny [Genealogy] Agustria Army
18:48 [Genealogy of the Holy War] Verdane’s Barbarians
19:35 [Genealogy of the Holy War] Crisis 2
19:58 [Genealogy of the Holy War] Versus Alvis/Arvis
20:15 [Gaiden] Battle Map 3 – Battle Map 2-1 (Celica 1) aka “With Mila’s Divine Protection”
20:42 [Gaiden] Battle Map 4 – Battle Map 2-2 (Celica 2)
21:03 [Gaiden] Battle 1 (Player)
21:26 [Dark Dragon and the Sword of Light] [Shadow Dragon] [Mystery of the Emblem] Chapter Start/Trouble!
21:59 [Thracia 776] Leif Army ~In Search of Victory~ Adversity
22:42 [Thracia 776] Leif Army ~In Search of Victory~ Searching for the Enemy
22:59 [Binding Blade and Blazing Sword] Winning Road
23:45 [Sacred Stones] Lights in the Dark
24:44 [Sacred Stones] The Final Battle
25:29 [Mystery of the Emblem] War of Heroes
26:36 [Genealogy of the Holy War] Light and Dark
27:49 [Radiant Dawn] Time of Action
27:55 [Radiant Dawn] Ascent
28:07 [Radiant Dawn] Ascent/[Gaiden] Final Map (Player)
28:20 [Gaiden] Final Map (Player)
28:26 [Radiant Dawn] Ascent
28:45 [Path of Radiance] Crimean Army Sortie
29:04 [Path of Radiance] Congregation of Ambition
29:14 [Radiant Dawn] Ascent
29:39 [Binding Blade and Blazing Sword] Path of the Divine Generals
30:22 [Binding Blade] Dark Priestess
30:54 [Binding Blade] Shaman in the Dark
31:49 [Mystery of the Emblem] Dragons’ Altar
32:03 [Mystery of the Emblem] Dark Earth Dragon
32:35 [Commercial] Fire Emblem Theme (Karaoke)

I know you guys have to had found a favorite on here, so yeah, feel free to share! (Side note: Now I really wish the Judgral Saga games were remade ;_;)

Well I finally beat the game over the weekend, so I guess I can give my final thoughts and observations about Shadow Dragon. This isn’t going to be long.

1. This is possibly the only game in the franchise where death is necessary. This sounds like a post title, but hear me out. In order to get other characters in Shadow Dragon, you have to either have a certain amount of units die or just have a specific unit die. That basically fights with the expected notion that we have to save all our characters.
2. One day I’ll do a run where I’ll play the game without trying to save characters. One day.
3. On that note of characters, making a formal note to have 15 strong characters by or close to the endgame, since that’s the amount that it takes.
4. Also, though expected, you have to decide what characters you want to have by then. Can’t train everyone. Then again, this is Fire Emblem, you can’t really train everybody.
5. I didn’t remember Medeus being as hard as he was, until I remembered I was facing him on Hard mode. God the other levels must be brutal…
6. Also, fuck those closing doors at the endgame.
7. As much as pains me to say it, the Archers/Snipers in this game suck. I hate how they’re so useful and seemingly strong for the enemies, but for you they grow incredibly useless. This is mainly due to what units are useful (you’re going to have flying units, for example), but still, it’s annoying. Good thing the Horseman are around. Too bad their growth rates suck…
8. One day I’ll train Est. Well, actually, maybe not.
9. Being a Pegasus Knight in this game is suffering. I say that since you can’t change their class into a Falcoknight unless you have the Elysian Whip, and you can only get the Elysian Whip by the online shop on a certain day, it’s almost suffering to train them. Well, unless you want them to be Wyverns. But I’d rather they not become Wyverns.
10. Man, one day I’ll avoid making the stupid mistake to get a character killed, but I know it’ll happen.
11. I promise to finally train a thief. No seriously, I swear!
12. Welp, time to move on to the much superior Shin Monshou no Nazo.

Well, in all honesty, Shadow Dragon is not bad. The problem is that it really is just a remake of the Famicom/Super Famicom game — meaning it’ll have no depth or personality when it comes to its characters, or its story, nor any weapon additions or fights that we haven’t seen before. With its 25 chapters and little chance of getting to the side chapters unless you kill off characters, there’s also a case of playing the game over and over again — where’s the motivation going to come from? It’s just not going to happen. And that’s unfortunate, really.

I stumbled onto this by accident. See, Illiterate Scholar is awesome (hope you find the time to finish a few more FE videos!), and was one of my inspirations on starting the blog. So because I’ve watched his FE videos, this little gem popped up:

And now, I have to talk about this glorious piece of work.

No, I haven’t played this game. But I don’t know about you, but it looks awesome! For starters, it has the Game Boy style sprites (you could argue it’s Famicom like more, but eh), sounds like it’s Game-Boy like, but looks more like a cross between Famicom and Super Famicom stuff. Well, not too much Super Famicom stuff, but just enough to be impressive.

Then we get into the what exactly is Bootleg Fire Emblem ripping off of? Well, the first map immediately is a blatant rip-off of the first chapter of Shadow Dragon (Famicom and DS version). The battle sprites seem to be a combination of Gaiden (Famicom), with the background and battle hit point bog from Genealogy of The Holy War. The character sprites seem to be from Thracia 776. I can’t for the life of me figure out the music though. I have no idea what they are. I also have no idea what the story is either. Maybe it’s a combined combination of every FE story that it ripped off involving Leaf and crew. But whatever the case, it’s fascinating how much this bootleg tries to rip-off multiple Fire Emblem games. I’m going to take a chance and guess Awakening did it better.

Anyways, I guess this is nothing to be completely surprised of. Bootleg games have been made since the beginning of time, so it makes sense that for a franchise as long running as FE, it would have a game that looks like the developers threw up on their prototype. That’s just perfect.

Anyways, have some more videos to entertain yourself today.

These names are so beautiful btw.

Prior to Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon, the Fire Emblem games that came out before it — Fire Emblem GBA, The Sacred Stones, Path of Radiance, and Radiant Dawn — had characters with basic personalities that in a wartime setting and the idea that you can’t bring them back into battle made you care enough about them that you had to keep them alive. Even if it was someone like Fiona.

*shivers*

I’m guessing this was also the case in prior Fire Emblem games, or the ones stuck in the Land of the Rising Sun. You know, Gaiden, Genealogy of The Holy War, Thracia 776, and The Binding Blade. Heck, even Ankoku Ryuu to Hikari no Tsurugi and Monshou no Nazo valued the idea of saving your characters, even if it wasn’t as fully released as the games after those two.

Shadow Dragon teaches you death is a legitimate strategy, and fuck keeping your characters alive, in the prologue.

It’s not exactly something you notice immediately, because of two reasons. The first is it’s the prologue, and intended to be a guide on how to play Fire Emblem. After that, you can forget some of the stuff you learned and just play. The second is the prologue doesn’t exist in the other modes. I.e, Frey is only available in Normal Mode, and while he may be better than your two generic red and green cavalier units, you can’t get him anywhere else! So, in truth, you’ll never notice Shadow Dragon sending the message of sacrificing units.

You do end up learning this fact by research. Or by accident.

As was brought up by gunlord, Shadow Dragon is the only game in the franchise where death, ultimately, is what I would call “a requirement.” It’s a different sort of requirement from other FE games, as in every FE game, you’re not required to keep your characters alive. This mentality can be the same in Shadow Dragon. But that’s only if you don’t want to gain access to the Gaiden chapters, or extra chapters, in this game. That’s if you don’t want to see who these other characters you can recruit are (I still have yet to get to these extra chapters). And if you want to increase the difficulty of beating this game.

Oh, and training your units. As in, all of your units.

I’m now casually playing Shadow Dragon, as I’m focused a bit on now playing Shin Monshou no Nazo again, but I took a note that there will be only 15 units you can carry at the endgame. That leaves everyone expendable. Simply, I have to designate characters I do want to have a vital role at the end at the start of the game.

So, how has that gone so far? Well, two chapters in, it’s resulted in me wanting to keep 4 characters — Cain, Marth, Caeda, and Ogma. The last three are probably set; Cain, on the other hand, might ultimately be replaced with Hardin, who shows up later. Now, I use strategy in order to survive the map. In Chapter 2, Darros is an enemy on the top right, with the forts. I end up eventually not recruiting him. Yeah, he’s not in my plans, so I just see him as being able to get experience for Ogma.

Obviously, we have a sense of attachment towards characters, even if we never use them in the game. That’s the mythical power of Fire Emblem. Thanks to Shadow Dragon though, you’ll have to get used to it, for better or for worse.

Sure, why not summon forth Radiant Dawn characters?

So, apparently playing Shadow Dragon by having characters die is a lot more fun than trying to get them to survive. Only this Fire Emblem would be so different from all the other FE’s.

Anyways, despite no word on Shin Megami Tensei x Fire Emblem, there’s some Fire Emblem related stuff out there for you to know. So time to share!

What Fire Emblem Gets So Right

“Chess on Crack” Welp, ok. Now if only my chess skills (then again, I haven’t played in ages) would match my game skills…

Lily Hoshino Completes “Fire Emblem” Tribute Illustration

A cool tribute by an anime artist who drew pictures of Fire Emblem to pay tribute. They’re apparently on Pixiv. They’re also on the CR site as well.

The Future And Present Cross Paths In Fire Emblem: Awakening’s Next Drama CD

Oh hey look, a Drama CD of Fire Emblem is coming! Oh, and it’s the future and past versions! Sounds exciting!

(I should find some time to hear these Drama CDs eh?)

Fire Emblem Awakening Cordelia Figure

If you liked Cordelia a lot, then I’m sure you’ll enjoy getting this figure, since it seems it’ll be high quality.

Super Fire Emblem: Awakening ~ The New Challengers

Uh…well…damn. I dunno. The ending sucked.

Any other FE stuff you know, feel free to share in the comments!

Hey, don’t complain about me writing about stuff other than Fire Emblem, you at least get another day (or two…or three) before I write that inevitable Shadow Dragon post that explains why the game’s 10x better when you embrace killing your units.

Instead, I’ll tell you my understanding of what a Hardcore Gamer is.

Well, actually, I can just say how I am not a hardcore gamer:

1) I no longer play any games with the amount of fervor that I did in the past. Aside from Fire Emblem — which, conveniently, is what this blog’s all about — I have not sunk my teeth into a game since Golden Sun: Dark Dawn. Golden Sun: Dark Dawn was released in 2010. (I only beat the game once.) But that doesn’t count, since I had been waiting years for another game in the Golden Sun series. So I’ll throw a curveball at you: the last game I played with much enthusiasm and almost every day…was Tatsunoko Vs Capcom. That came out in 2010. I played that game over and over for two years. That’s it.

2) I haven’t played a shooting game in years. Like, the last shooting game I played was Gears of War, and I brought that for cheap one day, sometime back in 2011 or something. I didn’t play it for long. The last shooting game I played and beat with great energy…was Resident Evil 4. On the Gamecube. Yeah, that’s a long time ago. But, in a way, it’s not a real shooting game. It’s not like there were so many different guns and stuff, and you had weapons aside from guns, and there were problem solving puzzles and stuff, so let’s narrow it down even further: the last shooting game I played, and beat, and liked…was Halo. 2. Yeah, I don’t think I need to tell you how far back that was. Now, I did buy a Medal of Honor game for the Wii, never beat it; Gears of War, like I mentioned, never beat it; and probably some other shooting games that I can’t remember. Whatever the case, I’m genuinely never impressed with shooting games, unless there’s more elements to it. Or something.

3) I no longer play Madden games. I have a list of Madden video games that I brought from 2004 to 2008. I was in love with that franchise. I balled out on Franchise Mode, turned teams around that were historically terrible in the NFL, and killed teams…in rookie mode. Hey, at least I was obsessed! But then when I got the 2008 edition of the game, something changed. It added a ton of new features…or felt overly complex…and less fun. Playing it was a chore. Before I knew it, I got tired of it. And I haven’t played a game in that series since.

4) I don’t get any of the next gen systems. As in, I don’t have the money to purchase any of them right now (since lol jobless), so of course I’ll get farther behind in keeping up with the latest generation of games. But I never did get a PS3, never did get a Vita, still don’t have a Wii U, still don’t have a XBOX 180 I mean Xbox One or a PS4, etc. And none of the games, from my current perspective, seem that interesting. I say current perspective, because I do plan on at least getting a Wii U for Smash Bros and SMT x FE, so once I decide to get a system, I’ll start looking intently. But right now, everything is a blur and I have no time to care about it.

So, I don’t know about you, but I definitely am not a hardcore gamer. I still keep up with as much game news as possible, so I might know some things, but otherwise, I don’t play games that often. So that then leads to the ultimate question:

Who Cares?

I mean, sure, it’s great to give people a label and all, but so I’m a casual gamer — though my understanding of casual gamer is those who play stuff like Wii Fit or Wii Sports, or any of those Kinect games or something like that that makes a casual gamer, oh and those Brain Age games too — why are you concerned about me being a casual gamer? Is gaming on such a downturn that I have to be a hardcore gamer? Is the ignorance level so high that I have to get smart about the developers intentions behind each and every game?

I’ll just say this: yes, there are people who play games and act like they know it all. They know jack shit. But they attempt to act that way anyways. Yes, those people kinda suck and take the fun out of gaming. But considering that there are things in life that are more important than gaming, not everyone has to learn every single detail about a medium, or play a certain game to fit in (I mean seriously are we back in grade school again), etc.

It comes down to four things:

1. Understand your limitations.
2. Be respectful.
3. Just play games.
4. Then play the games you know you’ll like.

Now expect me to write a post that doesn’t talk about Fire Emblem two months from now.

Well, actually, the site was officially born on March 18, 2013. However, the very first post was on March 25, 2013.

Man, has it been a wild ride since. And there’s only one thing to do about it: say thanks.

• I want to thank Fire Emblem: Awakening for inspiring me to start this blog. I may or may not have had thoughts about doing this before, but Awakening was the game that told me, “Stop waffling and start the blog! What’s the worst that can happen?” And so I started it. With my experience in the netherworlds of the internet on my back, I had a plan. It worked out way better than I could have imagined.

• I want to thank Genealogy of The Holy War and Thracia 776, two games I’ve never actually played. However, just from seeing the videos on Youtube and people talk about it, I felt like that those games, which in general (and along with Gaiden) are the only games in worlds I have yet to explore, would be games I’d love. Maybe one day Intelligent Systems will do a remake of FE4 and FE5, and I will play it endlessly. Maybe they won’t. Maybe when I get a superior PC I’ll finally play the game on an emulator. Whatever the case, I wanted to respect the two games somehow. Having them as the domain url was one of the ways.

• I want to give thanks to a few bloggers: Cary, Zigfried, & LadyCroft. These bloggers helped me out just a little bit, whether it was answering some of my questions or even doing a guest post on their site. I’m also certain there have been more people who have helped me out, but they’re no longer around anymore. Things manage to change over a calendar year.

• That’s also why I want to give a special thanks to two readers: Strykerclaw96 and gunlord500. After a decent stretch where I had been producing content on a consistent basis, I soon became inconsistent. Life took over and with no new FE game *looks at SMT x FE* on the horizon, there’s not much to post about. And yes, sometimes I’ve gotten lazy. But these two have managed to still stick around. I don’t know if you guys are crazy or you have no life, but whatever the case, thanks for putting up with me all this time. Y’all are awesome.

• But of course, I would not have had some fun without every other reader here. Even some past ones. Just look at some of these threads. Well, there’s more, but linking to all of them’s no fun. Whatever the case, even I couldn’t have forseen what would happen, and they all provided their entertainment, one way or another. But the only way it could have happened was because of the people who stopped by. So first time readers and occasional readers or long-time readers, it doesn’t matter. Thank you for contributing to FIRRREEEE EMMMMBLEMMM!

So, I don’t really know what the future holds for this site. There’s stuff IRL I gotta deal with, then there’s the future of FE in general. It seems like it’s an important franchise to Nintendo, and with Awakening saving it essentially, more will come down the road. That means there’ll be more to talk about. But I do want to talk about the past a bit, and indulge in the games that never came over here. Even if I don’t play them. But will I be able to cover them properly? I did have someone who wanted to join the site, but she only did one post and that was it. I wouldn’t mind having another writer or two over to blog Fire Emblem stuff, especially when I’m always away. But you worry about losing control, or something like that I guess.

Well, whatever the case, that’s something I don’t have to worry about too hard. All I know is that this blog is still around, I’m still around. And I hope you guys will stick around too.

So by request from Strykerclaw96, I decided to download the Conception II demo for the 3DS. I had no idea what to expect since I didn’t play the first Conception game, and from what I read of the synopsis, it sounded like an excuse to see high school girls have sex with the male lead, and then use those children to fight their battles. Whatever the case, it surely would be pick up and play, and not overly complex right?

Yeah, I was wrong.

I’ll admit easily that it’s not you, it’s me. I haven’t played too many RPGs aside from Fire Emblem in a while, and in general, I don’t game that much. So sending me to play Conception II was probably not the best of ideas. All that said, I didn’t expect to quit an hour into the game. Why did I quit an hour into the game? Because it was getting so, so tedious to play this game.

The demo starts where you get an explanation on what’s going on, why the world needs Star Children, your role in the game, etc. After that you talk to some of the heroines of the game, try and understand their motivations, and do small talk with other characters. You then choose one of the heroines to “make children” with (you get a visual representation of it), and after making children and setting your team up, you go into the labyrinths.

This is where I got tired of the game. I mean I was already worn out at everyone talking and having to form a team and stuff like that, but once I finally got to fighting battles, I went zzzzz. Yeah, the game had to explain everything about where it’s best to attack, being able to not worry about inputting commands and just let the CPU handle things, etc. But I was getting so tired of it, and it felt overly complex. Is there really a need for all of these skills/systems so early in this game? I eventually stopped pushing through it and quit while in the labyrinth.

I surely could just waste doing something else.

It was a dark and stormy night (actually, it was clear as day). I was getting myself all hyped for Awakening that was coming out in a few months. Just scrolling through Serenes Forest, seeing the discussion, etc, it was fun. I was keeping up with all the news on mainstream gaming sites. Then all of a sudden, Serenes Forest started advertising Fire Emblem: Shin Monshou no Nazo.

And I ended up learning how to use an emulator/rom to go play it.

Now, for some this is probably not a big deal. The thing is, I understand why some would do it, especially for a title that has no chance of being localized. However, this still managed to conflict my morals about downloading.

Well that and my computer’s really terrible.

But back to the downloading, I really, really don’t like downloading anything illegally, especially when it comes to games. Why? Who knows. Maybe it’s because I’m stealing something that cost a ton of money. Maybe it’s because I love Fire Emblem so much that I felt like downloading it would be disrespectful?

…Or maybe it really is because my computer is terrible. It can get by well enough, but it does slow down randomly, especially when used for long periods of time.

Or maybe having to learn how to actually download and find the rom and stuff. I mean I learned it’s one thing to download a rom that’s already been brought over here, but a JP rom? Hahahahaha! Needless to say, I was pretty close to giving up searching for it and just chose to wait for Awakening.

Then days passed by. And…I gave in. It was still a struggle, but I found everything, learned what I needed to do, and after nearly shaking my head and questioning why so much effort, I had Shin Monshou no Nazo.

Thankfully, the game was great enough to make the effort worthwhile.

…That’s right, I didn’t stutter: it was GREAT. Having to adjust the settings to actually play the game on my laptop notwithstanding, I was floored with how Intelligent Systems actually improved the game. Remember, I complained a lot about Shadow Dragon (and some have gone so far to forget it even exists), so I probably had worrisome expectations about what I was about to play. Well, I played it, and it exceeded them all. As I play this game again, I’ll be interested to see how things will feel, especially since I beat Shadow Dragon not too long ago.

Anyways, if you want to check the game out, you’ll have to go to Heroes of Shadow to get it. So yes, I’m encouraging piracy! Oh, how my values have changed…*faints, falls off a bridge*

So finally, Super Smash Bros 4 will have its own Nintendo Direct. As you can see, it will take place on Tuesday, 6pm EST time/3PM PST. I guess for this it’ll be like 25-30 minutes long. Well it could be nearly an hour but I doubt it. So, of course I’ll have to jump in and predict what will be revealed in this direct…but with a Fire Emblem flavor!

1) Sigurd is a new character

AH HELL YEAH, MY MAIN MAN, MY AVATAR REP, HE NOW IS THE MAN, WOOHOO YEAH!!!

…Ok let me get more probable selections and stuff.

1) There won’t be a new Fire Emblem character announced in the Nintendo Direct

Don’t worry, I easily expect to be wrong on this. And of course, despite this being the case, I still expect there to be a new FE character announced for Smash. I just expect it at E3 believe it or not.

Why? Because conversely, that’s when I expect information on Shin Megami Tensei x Fire Emblem. Might as well tie it in with that. Of course, hell if I know what other characters from other Nintendo franchises are being championed to be included in SSB4, but maybe they’ll take more of an importance than a new Fire Emblem character.

2) We will get a glimpse of the stage for the Wii U though.

Kind of like how we saw the stage for Super Smash Bros Brawl in the first trailer, I expect we’ll see that at some point. Whether we recognize it, who knows, but it’ll be there. You can count on it!!!

Non-FE related info

3) WE WILL FINALLY GET A RELEASE DATE

I’m still worried about this thing getting pushed back to 2015 (because that’d be so Nintendo & Sakurai), but if all the cards are right, Nintendo will announce the game’s gonna get here by Christmas. They will then say that demos will be available at E3, and many people will get to play it. Oh yeah.

4) There will be more veterans announced for the game!

I’d hazard a guess and say like 3 more veterans from prior SSB4 games get revealed, but whatever the case, I expect to see a few of the smash stalwarts that we’ve seen in prior games be included in the trailer.

Also, all the veterans who’ve appeared without trailers since will most likely be included in it too!

5) Three new challengers are approaching!

Could be more, but I’ll just stick to how many was announced at E3 last year, and that was three. What those three are…well, the more Nintendo savvy people can point that out.

Your Turn For Predictions

Ok, I’ve made my predictions for what’s gonna take place tomorrow. Oh, and I might even consider livetweeting it (maybe, if I’m not napping). But I assume some of you while also being FE fans are also into other games as well, so share what you think will take place in the direct.

…Why yes, Iwata farting is also a possibly too.

So for those who thought Lyn had a chance to become a playable character in the latest Super Smash Bros game, well, scratch her off the list. She’s back, but again as an assist trophy.

…Maybe if it we’re lucky we won’t have to hear her English voice again…?

I guess this is to celebrate Lyn’s return to SSB

god I need to write a new post this week—
Walters (@FE4vsFE5) April 14, 2014

So here, you have a new post. Yeah, as expected, not the one you should be expecting.

REVIEW: Fire Emblem: Awakening

Because MOAR REVIEWS of Awakening.

My Top 5 Favorite Fire Emblem: Awakening Characters

Michaela shares her 5 favorite characters. You can guess who’s number 1 with relative ease!

Let’s Rank the Fire Emblem Games, From Worst to Best

Maybe it’s about time I start my ranking of Fire Emblem games. Well, one day I will. Possibly. Also you can also guess what’s number 1 on Mdubs’s list with relative ease!

Bravely Default outpacing Fire Emblem, says Nintendo

Clearly Square Enix advertised their game better!!!

Matters of Import: Prepare To Die In Fire Emblem: Thracia 776

Damn, I want to play this game, even though it is crazy hard…Nintendo just do a collection already ya jerks!

Nostalgia Video Gaming – ‘Fire Emblem’ Series

Personally just like how I’m reminded of how the story in Radiant Dawn is…oh dear.

….MARTH

I stalled long enough. It’s time to finally take a look back at my Predictions for Fire Emblem and Smash Bros and see how I did. In case you forgot about the Nintendo Direct, well, here you go.

Watch it. Live it. Or ignore it! Now let’s get cracking:

1) Sigurd is a new character

hahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahhahahah Walters plz stahp

Anyways, back to actual legitimate predictions.

Fire Emblem Related Predictions

1) There won’t be a new Fire Emblem character announced in the Nintendo Direct

I called it! However, I won’t be doing any sort of gloating yet. At best, I can only half-gloat, but why half-gloat when I can go full gloat if a FE character is announced for SSB at E3. That would complete the statement, honestly.

Anyways, it felt like something Sakurai would want to save until later and not reveal now. Also, you can clearly see the hierarchy for Nintendo: ALL POKEMON, ALL THE TIME!!! Well, probably. But the main franchises (Mario, Zelda, Pokemon) got their time to shine. Hopefully we’ll have some others shine more down the line.

2) We will get a glimpse of the stage for the Wii U though.

Well, that didn’t happen. At least, it didn’t seem so. The only stage that was revealed was — you guessed it — another Pokemon stage that hadn’t been shown on the website before. I believe there’s going to be a FE stage, which is either going to be a stage of Marth’s design, or it’ll be a stage based on Radiant Dawn. Which supports A)bringing Ike back or B)bringing forth a new character from the only Wii iteration of FE. We’ll have to see.

Non-FE related info

3) WE WILL FINALLY GET A RELEASE DATE

I guess I was half-right. It looks like the 3DS version will come out in the Summer, whereas a Wii U version will come in December. Yes, it said Winter 2014, but there’s only one month of Winter in 2014, so it has to be December. If not, that version will officially be delayed into 2015, and my guessing would be correct.

At least the 3DS version will tide people over.

4) There will be more veterans announced for the game!

I was KINDA right. As in, Charizard’s basically been in every Super Smash Bros game, but first as a Pokemon, then as a playable character along with the Pokemon Trainer. Now Charizard’s separate. Still counts as a veteran, which would be 4 returning vets to this game (Sheik, Zero Suit Samus with the hot suit, and Yoshi).

5) Three new challengers are approaching!

Well, I bombed this one. Though who knew it’d be so Poke-Centric?!? Anyways, Greninja does look cool, so can’t complain too much. Overall, I guess we’ll get more new challengers announced at E3.

Now onto some other thoughts regarding the Direct:

• As you might have caught last week, Lyn has returned as an assist trophy.
• Sakurai stated that bosses may appear on some stages in SSB4. Could this mean we’ll see the Black Knight come out of nowhere and own people?!? Hell yeah!
• He also made a mention that there’s going to be more assist trophies. At first I said, “Cool, sounds right.” Then I saw in the Serenes Forest Smash Bros Thread that someone suggested Lucina would be an Assist Trophy, and she would be able to pair up with Smash characters. While maybe making her a playable character would be better, I wholeheartedly support the use of Fire Emblem characters and having them pair up. I wish I had thought of that.
• You know, despite expecting some new characters, there’s only been a grand total of six newcomers to the game, and a host of veterans. With the game forthcoming though, you expect there to be a reasonable amount of newcomers, but what’s going to be the cap on characters? I think it’ll be 45-50. There will have to be some veterans that get cut.
• Also, considering we have a Fire and Water starter Pokemon, we can expect a grass type Pokemon to be in this game.
• It sucks there’s only two playable tracks on 3DS stages. That said, I wonder if that means those are the only sounds you’ll hear, or will you be able to switch them with other tracks? I guess it’s unlikely, but maybe not I hope.

There were probably other observations, but I forgot them, I think.

Well, this will provide you all an opportunity to share who you think will be the game. Or any other Smash Bros suggestions/complaints/praise/etc.

Man, the internet can be dangerous, honest…

So something tells me I’ve neglected the site recently. Well, I had hoped not to go do that last week, knowing I’d have to take care of an issue, so I planned on having a FE article up. I then proceeded to see a short video of the Fire Emblem Awakening Future Past DLC, then proceeded to play Awakening instead.

So I fucked up, essentially.

But now I’m back, and, unsure of what type of FE article to write since I haven’t played Shin Monshou no Nazo just yet, I decided to write an article (and you might see two or three more of these the next few weeks) on a game that I so proudly included in the webpage title, but never played: Genealogy of The Holy War. Here’s why, despite never playing it, I respect it a lot.

1) It has balls. Genealogy of The Holy War has two stories in one: one with Sigurd, and one with his son, Seliph. Now, when I was growing up and saw pictures of these two circling around, I obviously didn’t know who they were, but when I got into Fire Emblem and stuff around high school/college, I found out they were related. And they had separate stories. But I was like, “Wait why?” Then I found out, and proceeded to go WTF?

SPOILER ALERT!!!

Picture included to protect the innocent

As it turned out, you play as Sigurd for a couple of (long) chapters, and then you watch him die a pretty pathetic death. Getting himself tricked? And by a freaking magic attack? I mean dang, that’s not heroic at all. The worst is that he let his comrades (or some of them, if wiki’s correct and all) die. That’s pretty bad. I say all this knowing I haven’t watched all the let’s play versions of it and I haven’t read all of the story to get the entire context of how it happens, but it’s still pretty sad he went out like that.

…And I like it. He’s still the only lord to get killed in a FE game for plot purposes. They really should do that with other/future FE games, just to twist the story around.

More pictures, though man is this impressive

Spoiler END

It also has some other stories that are pretty cool it seems, and that’s one reason why I appreciate the series.

2) The music. Well, most Fire Emblem music is pretty solid, but Genealogy of The Holy War’s pretty badass. If you haven’t listened to any of it, well, Youtube’s your friend!

3) The scope! It seems unlike all the other Fire Emblem games (I think aside from Radiant Dawn, possibly), the scope, or the maps of the game, are big, and with a lot of objectives. Of course, I think this is the only FE game with a grand total of 12 chapters, which means it’s the only game that doesn’t reach 20, but what needs to be done in each chapter is so big that it’s like 3 chapters in one. Or maybe more than that. Either way, it looks like fun, though, with updated improvements in every FE game, it’s probably a pain to play as now.

Your Turn!

So, has there been a Fire Emblem game you haven’t played yet that you respect/would want to play now? Would you want to play Genealogy of The Holy War? Do you even feel this type of way to a certain game? Well, discuss it in the comments below!