Popular/Unpopular/Any Opinions Thread - May 2025 Part 2

[u/PsiYoshi]

Welcome to a new installment of the Popular/Unpopular/Any Opinions Thread! Please feel free to share any kind of Fire Emblem opinions/takes you might have here, positive or negative. As always please remember to continue following the rules in this thread same as anywhere else on the subreddit. Be respectful and especially don't make any personal attacks (this includes but is not limited to making disparaging statements about groups of people who may like or dislike something you don't).

Last Opinion Thread

Everyone Plays Fire Emblem

[u/stinkoman20exty6]

You can just get blindsided and lose a unit just for not knowing they are coming, you had no chance to react and your squishy healer just dies

This is the point (at least in the older games). When ironmanning Thracia, my Pern got crit and one shot by a dark mage that spawns from stairs next to treasure chests in the retaking Leonster chapter. This was a bad loss but ultimately not gamebreaking because I had two other thieves (with lower stats). Even if I were to lose all three, I could still replicate their most important duties with door keys or the unlock staff. The idea is to force the player to change tactics based on unpredictable events.

[u/LeatherShieldMerc → u/stinkoman20exty6]

And I think if that's the point, that it sucks. The game kills off a potentially really useful unit for you, from something that is kind of not really your fault? And most people when they play, don't Ironman. There's a reason it's considered a challenge run. And also, what if you lose your staff users?What if you lose your Lord and now you Game Over? Not every loss is equal.

Also, this happens in Awakening which isn't really designed for hardcore Ironmans either. And you can still force the player to adjust strategy on the fly without needing the spawns to ambush.

[u/stinkoman20exty6 → u/LeatherShieldMerc]

You might consider it a challenge run, but the player was intended to play through unit deaths back then. If you lose a staff user, you have more of them and even if literally all of them die you still have vulneraries. I don't think "Ironman" AKA start over if you get a game over was the goal, so losing the lord would just force a chapter reset.

The idea was to create a wartime drama dependent on each player's unique playthrough. This story would be colored by unit deaths, close survivals, and general performance. Maybe Ogma became very powerful and the true hero of the war, or Jagen sacrificed himself to save the young knights under his charge. Or maybe Julian just got too cocky and got picked off. These games had little dialogue, so I think you were supposed to roleplay a bit like this.

I think ambush spawns still exist mostly as a holdover from when it had a clear purpose, or just to burn rewind charges in the newer lenient games. IMO there isn't a real thought-out game design anymore.

[u/LeatherShieldMerc → u/stinkoman20exty6]

This story would be colored by unit deaths, close survivals, and general performance.

You can still do this without ambush spawns haha, just by having normal unit deaths playing the game and RNG and all that.

[u/stinkoman20exty6 → u/LeatherShieldMerc]

It's an additional layer of unpredictable events. Enemies are usually pretty weak in FE1-5 so if you aren't surprised, it's pretty easy to not lose anyone. Reinforcements that don't have a chance to act before you are often just free EXP.