30 replies to this topic

[GyppyGirl2021]

Or at least, the ones I remember stuff about.



-FE2: I liked the music. Didn't really "get" the plot or the characters, but the gameplay was fun.
-FE3: Interesting gameplay. Plot is simplistic but not bad. Characters need more development but are otherwise good.
-FE4: Very well-built world, nice epic story. Storytelling could have used some work. Characters are pretty good for the most part. Gameplay could use some work. Music is really good.
-FE5: Didn't play enough of it to get hooked on the plot, but I liked the characters. Gameplay is good too, aside from difficulty.
-FE6: Decent gameplay, good characters, AMAZING music. Simplistic but nice plot.
-FE7: Good gameplay, awesome characters, really good music, meh-tastic plot.
-FE8: Great gameplay, good characters, great music. Pretty good plot - a bit of wasted potential, but overall good.
-FE9: Decent gameplay, fantastic characters, stunning music, and the best damn plot in the whole series.
-FE10: Excellent gameplay, good characters (the new ones at least), amazing music... I can't describe the plot without using several choice expletives. It's that bad.
-FE11: Fun gameplay, nice music, the rest is kind of simplistic. I like it myself, but I can see why other people don't.
-FE12: All the pros of FE11 with much fewer of the cons. I especially like the new music and side plot.
-FE13: Excellent gameplay, awesome characters, amazing music, mediocre plot. I liked the first half, but the second half left a lot to be desired.



Everyone is free to yell at me and/or disagree with my opinions here.

[Cero]

FE7's plot deserves more than meh-tastic.

[GyppyGirl2021]

QUOTE (ShadowCero @ May 12 2013, 12:42 AM)

FE7's plot deserves more than meh-tastic.

I don't really have a problem with the plot's concept, but there are a LOT of plotholes.

[Cero]

Like what exactly?

[Shu]

FE7's plot was meh-tastic. The cast wasn't as likable in comparison to the rest of the series, and the bad guys didn't actually make me WANT to destroy them, they were just kind of assholes. FE5's antagonists were tons more diabolical, and actually made me want to straight **** 'em up.

And maybe it's just me, but the whole dragon-gate shit wasn't as interesting to me as the political intrigue or cultist activity plotlines of the other FE games. (Mainly looking at Jugdral here.)

[Fire Blazer]

Only going to point the main things I disagree with

FE6 had a few good songs, but amazing music? I don't agree there

FE10 has "Excellent gameplay" and "amazing music"? I just can't believe that. Both of them put me to sleep, the gameplay was stale and all over the place with all the different parts and the music would have been great except so much orchestra, it felt like they all used the same freaking sound font, I'd have liked to hear more variety in instruments and the general sounds, sure composer's have their own unique style and games should have fitting music but it should also be more variant than FE10's >_<' (individually though there were some good songs)

Regarding FE7's meh-tastic plot what did it for me was the cutscenes and the such, I liked the Tactician integration (which eventually developed into this Avatar thing kinda lol) and I liked that there were multiple main characters that could actually converse and that the enemies got more than a couple lines of dialog and that there were all the sidequests and other things that expanded to the plot and the supports also added to the individual characters and their subplots and the like and also (I know I'm just rambling here but w/e) and this especially affected me the general affects, CGs, action, etc. in FE7, compared to FE8 which didn't have many CGs, had mostly bland cutscenes, and not a lot of action, or FE6 or FE11 which were just like the leader talking to some advisor/confidant or w/e and then starting a battle in some place--whether it was Roy or Marth, we know that's mostly how it was, I mean you technically entered the battlefield before the cutscene so there wasn't even any room for cutscenes outside of the map you were about to play on, it was just urgh... I like to play the maps and look forward to the story after, that's what makes FE games interesting for me, when I play a game that's fun and get rewarded for having fun, FE6, 8, and 11 felt like I was playing the maps and then would just go to another map without anything interesting happening in between >_>;

[Rujio]

I would definitely agree that FE10 has great gameplay and good music, although maybe not "amazing." It generally had far more interesting chapter designs than a lot of the series, and the music did everything it was supposed to do. Video game music is usually kind of bland, given that it's not supposed to be the main focus.

FE7 didn't do much for me, story-wise. FE8 and 10 (at least until part 4) both, I think, had very good stories that just weren't executed very well. The problem in general is that FE has enough going on with enough characters that oftentimes it could read like a book, but obviously they don't want to put that much in, so you kind of get the basic structure. Then there's FE6/11 where the story is horribly, horribly bland. I still have no idea where anything is on FE11's map other than the island you start on.

[kirant]

QUOTE (Rujio @ May 13 2013, 07:23 AM)

FE7 didn't do much for me, story-wise. FE8 and 10 (at least until part 4) both, I think, had very good stories that just weren't executed very well. The problem in general is that FE has enough going on with enough characters that oftentimes it could read like a book, but obviously they don't want to put that much in, so you kind of get the basic structure. Then there's FE6/11 where the story is horribly, horribly bland. I still have no idea where anything is on FE11's map other than the island you start on.

IS has never had a strong writing department. It's probably part in due to the fact that they used to treat the series as strategy first, RPG second. Even their best games are pretty shallow on the story side of things. At least, not enough to engage myself as an interested participant.

FE7 did just enough to engage people. I didn't come to hate the villain, but wanted to beat him. This is pretty akin to another IS game, Advance Wars (in this case, I'll refer to 2). I didn't end up hating Sturm, but the game play and story was enough that I wanted to see it through to the end.

The closest thing to engaging or unique stories were FE4 and Awakening, since one was the first to use generational story telling and the other used an interesting storytelling mechanic (yet somewhat predicted on my part. Blame my interaction with certain shows and games, which use time travel all over) as well as attempted engagement of the player by, in all honesty, using a pretty simple technique: create a player avatar. By doing so, you automatically make someone the player cares for and wants to see succeed, who becomes a reflection of self. Any attack on the avatar is an attack on the player. Pretty simple and, in all honestly, a little overplayed in recent games, but it's the best IS has done.

[Cero]

Honestly the avatar thing doesn't really work for Fire Emblem. Fire Emblem has every piece of dialogue and choices written for you. The avatr isn't really a reflection of self if it has a completely set personality and the choices you make basically do nothing. It's not like Persona or the Elder Scrolls where every piece of dialogue for your character is chosen by you and you create the personality of the avatar. For Fire Emblem it's more jst creating a broken unit which a somewhat bland personality. Not really a reflection of self unless you fit the Avatar's personality.

[kirant]

QUOTE (ShadowCero @ May 13 2013, 11:35 AM)

Honestly the avatar thing doesn't really work for Fire Emblem. Fire Emblem has every piece of dialogue and choices written for you. The avatr isn't really a reflection of self if it has a completely set personality and the choices you make basically do nothing. It's not like Persona or the Elder Scrolls where every piece of dialogue for your character is chosen by you and you create the personality of the avatar. For Fire Emblem it's more jst creating a broken unit which a somewhat bland personality. Not really a reflection of self unless you fit the Avatar's personality.

The blandness is what makes him easy to reflect in though. He doesn't do anything questionable, he pretty much treats people respectfully, and he's caring to everyone that you'd take the time to get the supports for. So no matter what you do, baring a few hated characters, he'll provide the space for you to fill your own opinions in mentally.

That is, unless you're a real life anti-hero, in which case, everything done and said contrasts with him/her, but then again...

EDIT - I should identify that the best way to identify such a thing is to look at the generic anime harem "audience surrogate" characters. They're all generic and easy to replace with yourself.

[arimibn]

Well since I'm basically that cliche person who gets along with most people, the avatar was a perfect fit for me. XD But we all know I'm not a real person, sooo...

[Cero]

QUOTE (kirant @ May 13 2013, 01:01 PM)

That is, unless you're a real life anti-hero, in which case, everything done and said contrasts with him/her, but then again...

Whelp, that's my reason. Why I couldn't make him my self reflection.

[Fire Blazer]

QUOTE

Video game music is usually kind of bland, given that it's not supposed to be the main focus.

I don't agree

...Just saying because I like a lot of video game music as well as non-video-game-music I'd say "lyrical music" but video games do have lyrical music sometimes so meh and there's stuff like orchestral pieces and band music and bla bla bla...

As for story FE doesn't have super epic stories or anything but I was never looking for FE for that anyhow, I'd read a book or a visual novel or something if I wanted that. FE was all about the gameplay, the music, the characters, and the cute little animations and such, sure an interesting plot helps a lot but I can still play FE games without good plots whereas I cannot play other games with good plots but terrible gameplay (I mean I play Tales games and most people know how cliche those plots can be but they're interesting enough to support the gameplay which I find to be the most fun part of Tales games).

[Mercurius]

QUOTE (kirant @ May 13 2013, 11:01 AM)

That is, unless you're a real life anti-hero, in which case, everything done and said contrasts with him/her, but then again... EDIT - I should identify that the best way to identify such a thing is to look at the generic anime harem "audience surrogate" characters.  They're all generic and easy to replace with yourself.

i've never been able to relate to or try to replace a generic harem protagonist with myself

or most characters really, which is why I have difficulty understanding why relatability is supposed to be important

but I didn't really feel that My Unit was alien, either...

x (Click Here To Hide/Show Text)

except when Validar showed up and I was like "how the hell is THAT My Unit's father??"

...on the other hand I also (somehow) got too into the role of the parent thing when Morgan showed up, don't know how that works (i've never been a parent before)

I have the opinion of videogame soundtracks being preferable to commercial music for some reason

[Cero]

QUOTE (Hatless @ May 13 2013, 03:39 PM)

I have the opinion of videogame soundtracks being preferable to commercial music for some reason

Depends on who the creator is. There is a lot of bland and amazing video game music out there.

[Mercurius]

QUOTE (ShadowCero @ May 13 2013, 01:47 PM)

QUOTE (Hatless @ May 13 2013, 03:39 PM) I have the opinion of videogame soundtracks being preferable to commercial music for some reason Depends on who the creator is. There is a lot of bland and amazing video game music out there.

There's also a lot of bland and amazing commercial music though, so bringing that up doesn't matter much

[Swordsalmon]

QUOTE (Blazer @ May 12 2013, 10:20 PM)

FE10 has "Excellent gameplay" and "amazing music"? I just can't believe that. Both of them put me to sleep, the gameplay was stale and all over the place with all the different parts and the music would have been great except so much orchestra, it felt like they all used the same freaking sound font, I'd have liked to hear more variety in instruments and the general sounds, sure composer's have their own unique style and games should have fitting music but it should also be more variant than FE10's >_<' (individually though there were some good songs)

Radiant Dawn has Road of Sorrow. That along makes the soundtrack amazing and better than any of the other game's. ;D

[Fire Blazer]

^

personally music is what makes battles and scenes epic to me and also memorable as you can go back and remember those by listening to the music

I mean a video game uses 3 senses really

the senses of touch, sight, and hearing or whatever you call them

music is then, in a way, 1/3 of it. using the controller, feeling vibrations, etc., is the touch, and is what distinguishes video games from movies. and sight is also important for obvious reasons. XP

[AbsolutelyTotalSilence]

I really liked FE7's plot...

spoiler (Click Here To Hide/Show Text)

come on, admit it, none of you expected the Ninian plot twist towards the end of the game. You know what I'm talking about.

...and it had a great cast as well. Except for Serra.
FE8 and 13 had quite a few characters I really liked, and the POR roster is probably my favorite out there, but FE7 was undoubtedly awesome.
I like the Avatar system, but I feel it kinda detracts from letting Chrom have as much impact as the previous main characters (especially Ike) did.

QUOTE

personally music is what makes battles and scenes epic to me and also memorable as you can go back and remember those by listening to the music

A Deadly Test of Might/Clash! is possibly my favorite song in the series, at least in my top 3. Those POR battles were amazing.

[Fire Blazer]

Haha yeah FE7's was a little interesting but I enjoyed the cutscenes a lot which did it for me, like the CGs, the scripted battles, and seeing events happen on maps that you don't get to play on--FE6 and FE8 didn't have nearly as much of that, the cutscenes felt less dramatic/exciting for me, and that's why it wasn't as memorable/fun for me, personally. When I played FE7 and I saw the Dragon come out the first time and Elbert was dying, like that was kind of intense (the first couple times anyway, obviously now I'd probably skip it...), but FE8 there were only a couple interesting cutscenes, like the one in the prologue for about 20 seconds, and then Glen dying, and maybe a scene or two with Leon... the Demon King never struck much fear into me though, maybe if he had 500 HP =O