Fire Emblem: Awakening Sure, Awakening wasn't as profound as Genealogy or Gaiden and the gameplay was too unbalanced but it was the best Fire Emblem to pick up and play in this generation. All these raging fanboys giving it flack just because they're too busy wanking off older games and don't know how to progress towards a newer generation of games despite the older games having stupid ideas *cough warp. Like it or not, Awakening is the FF7 of the Fire Emblem franchise and if it hadn't come out, Fire Emblem wouldn't be as popular and renowned as it is today. Deserves number 1. I love awakening, been a fire emblem fan for a long time. People nowadays hug onto what they feel a fire emblem series should be. I must be very tactical, no waifus blah blah blah. Seriously, this game may be a copy paste but doesn't mean it can't be an amazing experience. It had the element of unit pairing, added bond system of sorts, introduced us to a perfect MC in a sense you can really relate to. It's an experience of a modern tactical game with a few side adds. That being the case, it comes where the 10000 keyboard warriors try to dispel my opinion for I really don't care. I love this game for reigniting my spirit for the series! Your list is already trash if this is your number one pick for a fire emblem game. Awakening is probably the worst one after fates. Every character was copy and paste aside from their cringe aspect the had like a thief addicted to candy, what kind of garbage character is that. The pairing system made the game a joke and could beat any chapter with your eyes closed. The only rememing quality of this game was its story which even than gets steam roled by the story in path of radiance and radiance dawn. It was a great game, my only problem with it is that (spoilers ahead) basically no one in the main cast of characters die. Your avatar doesn't die when you sacrifice yourself which makes it less meaningful. Nonetheless its still a great game and a great entry point for any newcomers.

Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance This was my introduction to the fire emblem series, but remains the best one I have played. 10/10. I wish they would make it downloadable for the Nintendo switch. I have played it over a dozen times... Though Awakening was great, my vote goes to Path of Radiance. Believable characters, a great and mysterious plot which extended into Radiant Dawn, and highly addictive gameplay. Both protagonists and antagonists were awesome. The music was also fantastic. Path of Radiance truly is the best game I've ever played, not just in this series. Despite being a bit easy. Path of Radiance more or less captures all the best points of fire emblem. A great story, good gameplay, fantastic characters that actually react to current affairs in info conversations. Unless you only play fire emblem for the shipping elements, I believe this game deserves the top spot. In my opinion, This is the best fire emblem because the story was so incredible! We watch as the protagonist Ike, who goes from being a boy taking his first steps into adulthood,To being a great leader and hero! All characters and enemies alike are so memorable. The soundtrack was also fantastic!

Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn I like how they handled the sequel to FE: Path of Radiance, but I do not think it was the best. The strategy is more difficult, but the support conversations are lacking compared to any of the other FE games. Luckily, this is almost made up with the bonus conversations you can have at the home base downtime. The maps are more largescale than Path of Radiance and it is nice to see how all the characters matured and continue their roles in the world While many FE games have a central "war is bad" theme, none hit quite as home as Radiant Dawn. The game takes extra care for you to see both sides of the war, especially in the mid-game, without being preachy or over-the-top. The story is excellent, although playing Path of Radiance before is a must, and there are many unique maps and challenges that add to the overall tactics gameplay that make the Fire Emblem games so great Radiant Dawn is my personal favourite because of the sheer difficulty and characters. When I think of the fire emblem games the first thing that comes to mind is difficulty. However the supports seem to be lacking and consist of one or two sentences. This game is incredibly long and will keep you entertained the entire game. This is truly the game for players looking for a challenge The game play on RD is miles better than many of the FEs. The map design, reinforcement, and other game play elements really make you think about things. Customizing skills is very fun. I will say the character development is certainly not up to par, but it's building off PoR so it doesn't have to be. From a strictly game play standard, Radiant Dawn reigns supreme.

Fire Emblem (GBA) Picked this up waaay back in the day because I loved Advance Wars and this was Medieval Advance Wars. Never would have expected I picked up one of my all time favorite games at that time. What a perfect game and so many memories! I agree with comments I have read on this game. I started playing this game on my original Nintendo DS (2nd version) and when first played was really connected with the storyline. Once I found out that I was able to get the game back I got it in a heart beat. Now ready to play other versions :) 10/10. Great characters and storyline! The graphics and fighting animations are perfect - the new games try too hard and the result is often bad 3D animations or too cartoon-y 2D art. Most of the people who voted for Awakening seem to forget this. CUTSCENES DON'T MAKE GAMES. Awakening was quite bland and lacked objectives besides "Kill enemy commander" or "rout enemy". FE7 has a difficult story and truly lovable characters *cough cough* Hector. A lot of people may not enjoy FE GBA games because they don't have cutscenes and whatnot. But in my opinion it is a masterpiece and deserves a remaster

Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones GREAT GAME! All the people that voted for awakening are spoiled kids who only play games with full hd graphics and voice acted computer generated cutscenes. Sacred stones improves on binding blade with its more than one promotion choice, and many other things. The world map wasn't really necessary. I also felt closer to the characters, with unique personalities, especially Ephraim. One thing, TAKE OUT THE SPIDERS! They were really creepy and made me turn of animations for the whole game, which in turn made me miss a lot of fun animations. Best game in the series, by far. The other GBA games may be longer, but on both a technical and story-telling level, SS is one of the best games Nintendo has ever published. I may be a bit biased since it was my introduction to the series, but Sacred Stones has always resonated with me, with its characters that feel both superhuman and flawed at the same time, and one of (if not) the best villains in the series. While FE7 was my first Fire emblem game, Sacred stones is just above it in my opinion. It does have some drawbacks, but it's soundtrack, map design, and enhanced game design in the form of split promotions and triple effectiveness puts it just above FE7. Plus, Ephraim.

Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War Think of all the features that make you love Fire Emblem. The weapon triangle (swords beat axes, axes beat lances, lances beat swords), marriage, children, support. That all came from this game. And not only that, but we also got an amazing soundtrack, graphics that pushed the SNES to its limits, a complex story that twists and turns so many times, a very interesting and dynamic villain, huge maps, super fun gameplay, replay value that's through the roof! The list goes on and on. Play this game! Now! FE4 is one of the most influential games in the series. It introduced three of the most well-known systems found in later installments: the weapon triangle, skills, and the most bare-bones iteration of building supports within the marriage system. While not every future game included theses things, as skills didn't return until FE9 and supports leading into marriage and child units came back in FE13, it is clear that FE4 has had a long-lasting impact on the series, and mostly for the better. The greatest story in a fire emblem and a willingness to try new things, Genealogy could use some changes to the gameplay but overall makes a very complete and unique experience. It truly feels like the game is on a massive scale compared to other games, because it is. Most unique and interesting game mechanics so far. It has a huge overworld map with multiple objectives, realistic restrictions on trade and gold between characters, and a support system with real implications on the later half of the game.

Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia Echoes is easily the best game in fire emblem history, it has a cast of amazing characters and some great supports that help to flesh out their character. The creators managed to make Gaiden's story really interesting, and with the addition with exception voice acting, I never skipped a line of dialogue. The gameplay mechanics that echoes had made the combat unique and fun, the graphics, cut scenes and animations are also the best the series has ever seen.

Overall, Echoes has set the bar high for all fire emblem games to come. If you took almost all of echoes and used the improved maps of fates: conquest, you would probably end up with the perfect game. The characters were fleshed out so much more in this game that they felt more like actual people, which is what I felt some of the more recent games have lacked *cough* fates *cough* but that was probably to do with the ridiculous amount of characters available. Echoes is definitely one of the best fire emblem games so far and I hope the upcoming ones take a similar theme without all that unnecessary fanservice of awakening and fates. The town exploring was engaging, walking around in the dungeons for encounters was cool, having the entire thing voice acted was a nice change. The cutscenes didn’t feel as fluid as awakening and fates, however that might just be me being nit-picky. Ludicrously powerful, just beautiful storyline with great fleshed out characters, gnarly graphics that border Inyuasha esque anime, and a riveting combat system that mixes intense gameplay with wacky and innovative characters and fun medieval war tactics. This is the Fire Emblem that best showcases storyline, but man the combat gameplay is fun! 10/10 game and I will say this: As someone who has played, own, etc all the Fire Emblem games on the handhelds (gba, ds, and 3ds) Fire Emblem Echoes Shadows of Valentia is one of my favorite Fire Emblem games. Can't wait for a remake of Binding Blade since this remake was so stunning! I am surprised to find this one so low... I guess this might not be everyone's favorite and that's why, but still: For me, this game is a real masterpiece. I enjoyed it more than any GBA fire emblem. I am not very happy with FE Fates, (I only played conquest and haven't finished it yet, I get bored playing it) and I even am prepared to state, that Fe Awakening, the one game that I keep close too my heart for introducing me to the franchise, is not better than this game. I prefer the battle system, the characters and the plot of Shadows of Valentia to any other FE I've played before. Also, it feels less... childish than the other 3ds titles? Not sure if the term 'childish' fits in any FE game, but what is true, is that I will remember echoes for its seriousness and maturity. Not my favorite, but the best one in my eyes.

Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest I loved how in-depth some of the characters were, including the active part of your Avatar and challenges constantly thrown your way. Several maps, if played on a higher difficulty, are seen as almost impossible for me to beat in Classic mode. I remember watching a popular Youtuber fight the final boss on Lunatic Classic mode, and had to restart because all of his characters had died. The story also seemed more realistic and true to how (in my mind) the Avatar would react. I personally see it a little silly that (if playing Birthright), the Avatar would choose the family they know little of, and *Chapter 5 spoilers* would even want to return to the family where they just killed their birth mother. Add that to the hate they received afterwards, the town destruction...yeah, Revelations and Conquest seems the most logical of choices. Though I was hesitant to pick up this game at first - since I didn’t enjoy Awakening and Birthright as much I would of expected - this alternate version of the Hoshidan story made me happy that I chose to play.



From the get-go, you'll notice that this game brings the difficulty the other games on the 3Ds lacks, ranging from no free money or grinding. Every move you take could either destroy the game or cast victory. The characters have a huge variety, some having great writing while some are simple minded and some have no personality whatsoever (Camilla). But I did enjoy a handful of the characters, such as Xander.



The plot however, was straight up awful. As in, numerous plot holes and a predictable plot. But hey, it was better than Birthright and Revelation. The main antagonist, King Garon, was just some random dude that gave you missions and you did them, knowing he was evil. Wow. Luckily the gameplay makes up for this. Speaking of the gameplay...



Oh gosh, is ...more Between Birthright and conquest, it really wasn't that hard of a choice for me. conquest has in my opinion better characters, a better storyline, and I like the dark tone it took. BR was a bit too chipper for my taste. Conquest gave you a happy ending, but you had to work for it. Love the cast. Such a hard time choosing between Flora and Camilla, and it was harder to get the romances as you had less opportunity, but overall, a fantastic game with a great ending The definitive Fire Emblem experience in my eyes. A strict and rewarding challenging coupled with likable, discernible characters that I like building up into an army badasses. If future FE games stick closely to the linear resource management and with deeper combat/unit-building, the series can continue to be my most favorite.



No grinding. No turn-rewinds. Just good old strategy full of suspense and tough choices in battle!

Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade This is the game that actually caused Fire Emblem to come to the US. Without Roy's appearance in Smash Bros, we never would have seen the series in English at all. Fan-made translations allow people to play the game in English, letting us experience the epic story and characters that led to the prequel that is FE7. The plot is seriously advanced compared to the others. Several different branches in the story and prerequisites for different endings allow for a lot of replay value. Hard mode is seriously hard. Larger maps than the other gba games. Brings the old spirit an design philosophies of old school fire emblem, along with streamlined mechanics, supports, increased difficulty, and some of the best villains in the series. It's challenging and memorable, even if the story is inferior to it's prequel, at least it is better than Awakening's. A very underrated game. Sure, the game is a very hard one. But that what makes a strategy game real fun. It was thanks to The Binding Blade I have better playthrough. This game is what makes a strategy game challenging.

Besides that, this games plot is very intresting, soundtrack is very awesome and the charachter were very unique in their own way. An incredible game he is the reason why I started to play Fire Emblem and he is the reason to the game comes to the occident, incredible history, characters, weapons. Only permadeath baby and of course it can be best if you played Fire Emblem 7 before but I love it and think that is a fundamental game to any FE fan

Fire Emblem: Thracia 776 10 Despite being the game with the lowest sales in the franchise, it is by far the best

It has introduced so many core commands, such as trading, rescuing, actual battle preps, fog of war ACTUAL CAPTURING (I'm looking at you Fates bs) and actually gave a difficulty to the player without throwing at them high stats ennemies with ridiculous stats like in Conquest, and was more of actually strategize than to throw your (non existent) Jagen at the ennemy.

Also, the fatigue system is actually very fair and encourages the player to use multiple characters and not focusing the exp on a single elite team.

Furthermore it has one of the best stories out there, narrating the situation of Jugdral after the Lopto empire took over from Leaf's perspective instead of Seliph's like Genealogy gen 2 did

Great game overall easily one of if not the best in the franchise Kaga I love you. Kaga I just want to give you a kiss for this. Kaga please let me kiss you. I sleep next to a picture of you every night I just want your love. Please Kaga just love me. Also Thracia is pretty good It can be unforgiving, but Thracia has some of the most versatile mechanics in the series, such as capturing, which are unique to it. Best game design in the whole series. One of the most experimental strategy games ever.

The Contenders

Fire Emblem Fates: Revelation 11 I love the map design and all the support conversations available. And It also has so many characters that are incredible specifically Takumi, Leo, Sakura and Hinoka, (My personal favorites) and all in all is a great game and is better than conquest and birthright. Ties everything together, great story, good difficulty level, closes plot holes like who Azura really is only complaint is the last chapter was so terrible I could not force myself to complete it SO BAD. It's a reward to play Revelations, especially after playing Birthright and Conquest Brings the whole game together

Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon 12 The first one I played and although I don't think it quite stacks up to games like path of radiance I felt like it was accessible and enjoyable, basic perhaps, but fun. I played through multiple times when I was younger and absolutely loved it Love the reanimation of this classic. The story is the best of all fire emblems and leave a lot to the imagination. Slaughtering own units for gaiden chapters is brutal, but was actually OK (for once) This is just my personal favorite My favorite version, Navarre's the best.

Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem 13 Contains TWO games in one! What more do you want? Honestly my favorite in the series. 3rd game in the series, released for the SNES in Japan only.

Fire Emblem: Gaiden 14 While lacking some of the core features we love today (like the weapon triangle) this title has by far the best overworld and gives the player to ability to explore the world. The most different, but underrated game in the franchise! Hail Kaga Hail Gaiden (but yeah Gaiden is very slow)

Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright 15 I have yet to try out the other 2 games, but I love this game. While the story was very simple compared to Awakening, I applaud the mini hub world attempt. It helps keep the pace flowing better than Awakening's level select (... that's actually an accomplishment. I'm impressed.). I know that the nerf of Awakenings pair up nerf may be a con to many, but to me, it's a pro. The pair up system in Awakening was way too game breaking, and it made the game easy. The pair up in this game forces the player to strategize more. This is easily more difficult than Awakening because of that (that is if you are playing on casual or classic.). If you want to get a start on the series, then pick either Awakening's casual mode or this game's Phoenix mode since Phoenix mode revives characters after dying. I played through this game and I LOVED it. I wound up resorting to it after (1 CONQUEST WAS JUST THAT HARD and (2 I didn't want to pick Nohr! HOSHIDO 4 LIFE!

this game also has a set of strong characters, such as Takumi, Corrin and Kaden ( even though I found out Kaden is in both games. I love Kaden and Takumi for my personal favorites. I like Azura, but she is weak and after finding out what happened to her in the end I lost interest. But anyways, the plot is amazing and I really didn't want to beat the game due to how much I liked it. I love this game's story and quirky characters. It also holds a fond place in my heart being the game that introduced me to the series. For that, it is my favorite. The storyline is amazing, as is the character design! While being slightly easier than the other FE games, it's still highly enjoyable

Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem 16 The true underdog of the series. It's nice to see some maps and most of the characters return from Shadow Dragon. Unlike its previous installment however, this is a remake done right in every aspect. Support conversations, the addition of your own avatar for whom you even get to decide his own class! Not even Awakening got that right! The only flaw is that it was only released in Japan. Yet that didn't prevent it from being the most enjoyable Fire Emblem game (subjectively speaking). Nobody will vote for this because they have never played it and it looks like Shadow Dragon. People, this is by far the most criminally underrated game in the franchise. So many vast improvements upon its predecessor, and as far as hardcore FE gameplay goes it is the most refined of all. The catch is, of course, the fact it was only released in Japan. A good example of 'Don't judge a book by its cover'. People ignore this because it looks like Shadow Dragon and don't give this fantastic game a chance. Really, you're missing a solid and enjoyable entry in the series. As soon as you finish your first playthrough you're going to start all over, whether you have the time for it or not. It has the perfect difficulty, Not too easy, A bit challenging but not too much and the game introduced casual mode if you find classic too hard. Sadly only released in japan, but there are lots of fan translations out there that you can play.

Fire Emblem Heroes 17 If your a fan of the series and wanna play fire emblem warriors without the 40 dollar price tag, and also play on your phone get this. Its free anyway Definitely the best game. Trust me, I'm an expert. Man I love collecting jpegs of various anime girls What the hell

Fire Emblem (NES) 18 So old and clunky, but strangely still manages to be fun!

Fire Emblem Warriors 19 This game is underrated really. It has a good story line, and you can easily change the difficulty from easy too hard. It does provide its challenges. But it's fun for all ages really. Ehh. The main characters (Liana and Rowan) were pretty annoying. Let me rephrase that: VERY annoying. And the story wasn't very good either. However, you can't expect perfection from this type of game. Spinoff. No point in buying it unless you're gonna like a Fire Emblem version of Hyrule Warriors.

Otherwise, don't waste you're money! Dab on them haters, I actually like this game

Fire Emblem: Three Houses 20 Amazing story with world class voice acting, and excellent character development. High replayability due to the 2nd half of the game being completely different depending on which house you pick. Combat is fun and allows for creative strategies. AI can be intelligent at times but it can also be reckless and predictable which is my only criticism of the game. Overall, I give it a 10 out of 10! Tried to pick up a few FE games, but this is the one I'm sure I'll finish. All the interlocking systems of progression here really do it for me. This game was absolutely amazing as we get four possible story routes (not three) to chooses from. 9/10 in terms of story telling and characters. The only draw back is replaying the pre-time-skip as it seems almost identical for each path, but its needed to level up your characters and get to know the new respective house. Wish there was a way to skip the first few chapters on replays. This game has consistent and amazing voice acting throughout the whole game. You have tons of replayability because you have the decision to choose between 3 houses. The game has very likable characters that you just don't want to lose in battle. The combat is fun and rewarding yet is still challenging

Fire Emblem: The Last Promise 21 Takes you on a deep and emotional journey unseen in Fire Emblem before. 9/10 better than fates

Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE 22