This will be the Fire Emblem that defines almost every Fire Emblem to come up until Three Houses, or Echoes if you wanna be a bit more pedantic, and I gotta say, this is easily the least fun and most fun I've had playing through the series history, and the second time I've beaten Thracia which actually affects the experience a lot more than I expected.
Let's start with Thracia's universally agreed positive, the writing and story slaps, and follows a much more nuanced take on concepts and ideas that permeate the series, but especially expands on some of the ideas of the last game that were only hinted out by rather throwaway village dialogue. Something I really appreciated playing this series starting with Shadow Dragon is that this game actually has a lot of variances in objectives, and maps, there's a lot to do and it gives the gameplay a really fresh direction that I really wouldn't feel when I first finished this game fresh off the heels of Binding Blade. The gameplay systems all sound pretty garbage on paper but come together to make a really cohesive and beautiful whole, strangely enough and I can't tell if it's on purpose but the negatives of the individual systems correct a negative for another individual system, for example, the low stat caps make unit growth feel pretty static and removes a bit of the individuality from characters and comes off more as a reduction of characters into functions, however the new fatigue system incentivises you to constantly be using different characters where possible which the low stat caps compliment by not forcing you to play catch up with vastly inferior units.
But here's where the game loses me a little, I'm not too crazy about most of these characters, and while that can be applied to most games that have come prior, it certainly does not apply to Genealogy, and starting this second playthrough the literal day I finish Genealogy made it even more apparent to me, it's not that the characters themselves are the issue, but moreso their presence in the story goes back to how Mystery handled individual characters, with some improvements admittedly, but I never felt, for the most part, they were more than functional parts of my roster. Another issue I had with this game are the maps, this game contains some of the best and worst maps in the series with no in-between. The best maps filled me with adrenaline and hype that I just haven't felt in Fire Emblem since Fates Conquest, while the worst maps made me question if I even liked this game in the first place. Admittedly, this game goes SO much breezier if you're familiar with the game, mechanics, and quirks that you can only get from a second playthrough, which I think is an issue in itself, but man this game introduces Fog of War, one of the worst mechanics in the series, and it's also the worst implementation of it, if I didn't already know how bullshit this implementation was I'd certainly be tearing my hair out every time my screen would be shrouded by the unfeeling black squares of Kaga.
Thracia is a game where I think most people remember the highs, and the highs are pretty damn good, a pretty good case can be made about Thracia being one of the best SRPGs of all time, and I'd agree, but I personally am not a huge fan of this entry given what came before, and what will come after.
Let's start with Thracia's universally agreed positive, the writing and story slaps, and follows a much more nuanced take on concepts and ideas that permeate the series, but especially expands on some of the ideas of the last game that were only hinted out by rather throwaway village dialogue. Something I really appreciated playing this series starting with Shadow Dragon is that this game actually has a lot of variances in objectives, and maps, there's a lot to do and it gives the gameplay a really fresh direction that I really wouldn't feel when I first finished this game fresh off the heels of Binding Blade. The gameplay systems all sound pretty garbage on paper but come together to make a really cohesive and beautiful whole, strangely enough and I can't tell if it's on purpose but the negatives of the individual systems correct a negative for another individual system, for example, the low stat caps make unit growth feel pretty static and removes a bit of the individuality from characters and comes off more as a reduction of characters into functions, however the new fatigue system incentivises you to constantly be using different characters where possible which the low stat caps compliment by not forcing you to play catch up with vastly inferior units.
But here's where the game loses me a little, I'm not too crazy about most of these characters, and while that can be applied to most games that have come prior, it certainly does not apply to Genealogy, and starting this second playthrough the literal day I finish Genealogy made it even more apparent to me, it's not that the characters themselves are the issue, but moreso their presence in the story goes back to how Mystery handled individual characters, with some improvements admittedly, but I never felt, for the most part, they were more than functional parts of my roster. Another issue I had with this game are the maps, this game contains some of the best and worst maps in the series with no in-between. The best maps filled me with adrenaline and hype that I just haven't felt in Fire Emblem since Fates Conquest, while the worst maps made me question if I even liked this game in the first place. Admittedly, this game goes SO much breezier if you're familiar with the game, mechanics, and quirks that you can only get from a second playthrough, which I think is an issue in itself, but man this game introduces Fog of War, one of the worst mechanics in the series, and it's also the worst implementation of it, if I didn't already know how bullshit this implementation was I'd certainly be tearing my hair out every time my screen would be shrouded by the unfeeling black squares of Kaga.
Thracia is a game where I think most people remember the highs, and the highs are pretty damn good, a pretty good case can be made about Thracia being one of the best SRPGs of all time, and I'd agree, but I personally am not a huge fan of this entry given what came before, and what will come after.