There's no way you could make a Fire Emblem game like this now. You can make a hard Fire Emblem game, sure, but not one that is this scrappy and seat of your pants. There's no other Fire Emblem game like it. It's so busted. It's a ROM hack with the polish of an official product and therein lies it's charm.

The game has some of the absolute strongest map design in the series. The gameplay, story and map fusion is exceptionally strong. However, it can come at the cost of the chapters feeling reliant on gimmicks or pretty much requiring a warp skip to beat. Still, the gameplay lends itself to truly incredible moments and overall provides many ways to play and beat maps (even if you really gotta be capturing those warp staves and killing edges).

If there's one gripe I have about the game it is about how underutilized the cast feels. Some characters feel like they are introduced but aren't really given enough back story or time to shine. Unfortunately, some characters can also be basically disposable despite the fatigue mechanic.

Overall, I loved playing Thracia even if it would drive me mad with its difficultly. I can only pray for a remake that is able to polish and improve upon such a truly unique game and make it more accessible to modern audiences. In the mean time, you'll just have to play this any way you can.

This game gets a bad rep from being a sequel to a ps3 game on PSP so the maps gets scaled back signifcantly but this causes the game to hit a different gameplay feel that felt more strategic than a majority of 1's missions. Maps are cut up into chunks which causes a shift in how you take on missions. Scout rushing is still pretty good in this game and doesn't punished that hard until the 3rd game but having a variety of units in this is improved compared to 1.

Upgrading classes is extremely grindy and annoying, you don't need to go out your way to grind to get super units to beat the game but its implementation here feels too random due to it being based off drops you get at the end of missions. The story is definitely extremely mid and the cast of the characters are the worst in the series. Still the game is worth playing and i hope more people look at it with a open mind.

It's okay to skip to 3 if your mid resistance isn't high enough.

Like XCOM: Enemy Unknown, the first 10 hours of XCOM 2 were brutal. I had barely anything to work with, a constant barrage of problems to solve, and soldiers that died left and right. It was a real power struggle, and one that made me frustrated quite consistently. Unlike EU though, once I was over that hurdle, it wasn't entirely a walk in the park from then on out. Still easier, sure, but it maintained a stable level of challenge that didn't extinguish even going into the finale.

XCOM 2 continues the series tradition of balancing that fine line between accessibility and complexity, while adding plenty more mechanics in to further deepen strategy. New tools have been brought in to alleviate some of Enemy Unknown's problems. One big example of this is through methods of scanning ahead for targets, which fixes the major issue of feeling like you've screwed yourself because you moved one of your units slightly too early. There's also more depth to each character, with various attachments to lightly buff their weapons, installable upgrades, and more.

Speaking on characters, the personality that made Enemy Unknown as good as it is has received far more attention with tons more ways to customize your character. You can even write backstories for them if you're really into it. Combined with what I hear is more interactivity between units in War of the Chosen, and it's a storyteller's dream. I made many of my friends in the game and it was fun seeing some survive, while others saw their stories brought to a sad end (including one on the final mission).

All of this is combined with some heavily increased variety which was sorely needed. Missions are much more diverse (I can count the amount of repeated missions I ran on one hand), enemies are more numerous and unique both in design and in challenges they present, and surprises are far more plentiful.

These aren't even touching on some of the minor improvements. You can load a past save while the enemy is still taking their turn (thank god), more diverse equipment can be researched, the base building mechanics have been tightened up, the geoscape is far more interesting. The list goes on.

The only issue I can genuinely hold against this game is the time some turns and actions can take. It isn't obnoxious, but I've had moments where enemy turns can feel like they take way longer than they need to, even with some unnecessary pauses. I can forgive it given everything the game does right, and a mod can easily fix it, but it's still an issue.

Even with that, I don't see any reason to give this game any lower than a 10, and I didn't even play the beloved WotC expansion yet. This is a masterpiece that builds upon the first game's foundations while adding its own flavor on previous mechanics, helping it feel refreshing even after recently playing XCOM EU. It's easy to see why the game has received such endless praise, and it's one I very much plan to revisit down the line with WotC enabled this time. If you're on the fence about turn-based games or simply want one of the best experiences in the genre, this is it.

For better or worse, Fire Emblem is a formative part of who I am. The works we choose to Engage™ with in our youth tends to form a basis of our media literacy and in which initial appreciation for art stems. The ideas and themes we are first exposed to are inherently novel after all. With little else to compare with, these stories are earnestly received as they are indulged in. We have yet to form the necessary experiences to be critical, let alone know of contempt. And so, we view these early works that we are exposed to undeservedly favourably. This insidious phenomenon that retroactively becomes seen as nostalgia is something I must overcome! I like to think I have grown much since my youth. I can do it now! I am strong enough! It is time for me to condemn the naive joys of my past and see them as what they truly are so that I may live solely in the present. I will not shy away at the edge of dawn. It is time to destroy Fire Emblem, this puppy love of mine. This latest entry shall serve as a perfect target of my ire.

However, before I can get to condemning Engage™, there is necessary context that must be considered. It is not just a standalone iterative sequel after all. It is the celebratory title! It would seek to present itself as the ultimate culmination of an anthology. A statement of the series in its whole. The final destination of a long journey. If it dares to lay claim to such lofty dominion, then it elicits proper scrutiny. We will not just judge Fire Emblem Engage™ by what it is, but also, on what it isn’t. What it could have been. What it SHOULD have been!

Fire Emblem history, to me, is comprised of three distinct eras. The ‘Kaga Saga’, the first of which, having a particularly distinctive creative direction. Serving as the foundational ethos for all the future games to come, these early games were experimental in nature. More willing than most to utilise the unique qualities of videogames as a medium to tell its stories. Most infamously, Fire Emblem sought to embed a real sense of loss into its players by having characters permanently die should they fall during gameplay. That these characters with unique face, motivations and statistical significance would live and die through your hand was meant to instill a personal connection with Fire Emblem’s world. Such means of connection being only feasible through this uniquely dynamic aspect of video games.

And so, Fire Emblem was initially conceived to be a series about using games as a means of storytelling. A cohesive blend of gameplay with a narrative it wished to convey.

I have not played any of those games from that era. I am a fake fan, a poser, a revisionist. There is much to discuss of these entries that I have not the capacity or experience to do so. Instead, the games that I will elaborate upon comprise the second of these three Fire Emblem eras. That which I shall dub as the era of ‘Sanitation’. You see, that previous visionary ethos of character death was too successful. Most players were found unwilling to see the characters in which they are made to feel responsible for die, and instead of Engaging™ with this creative vision, would simply reset chapters until everyone survived. Creative intent clashed with the reality of a player’s actions. As these games had the ultimate purpose of seeking commercial success over making artistic statements, concessions were made to make the design of these games more tailored for the preferences of its general audience.

Yet even after the sanitation that ensued, alternative creative avenues were still sought to be explored, and though dulled, much remained of the original design philosophies post transition. Permadeath was kept, but instead of being a vestigial idea that players ignored, was retained explicitly because it was expected players would seek to circumvent it. If players were unwilling to let these previously expendable characters die, then why not encourage this behaviour? And so, these side characters became more integral and more significant within their stories. Fire Emblem was revised and recontextualized to be a series about the bonds we cultivate. This change of perspective inspired the most formative feature of this second generation, the support system.

Young me was enamoured by this concept! This method of storytelling I indulged in with earnestly, novel to me then as it was. Each character no matter how seemingly humble or insignificant would be given unique characterization through multiple conversations with others among the cast, conversations that had to be sought out by an invested player. Each of these conversations would in turn give you a tidbit of nuance of their character and the circumstances in which they exist. As you weave together these microstories you would unravel the nature of entire worlds. An understanding of why characters are the way they are, the rationale behind their actions, the material circumstances in which conflict is born. From this understanding you would find these simplistic stories are not as straightforward as they initially appear. The unique traits of videogames as a medium were still being utilized to tell stories. This time though through the ability to obfuscate details and dispense them piecemeal as a prize for the curious to seek.

Fire Emblem had adapted to its audience. It had become a series about story telling as a puzzle. It sought to exploit a player’s desire for discovery and willingness to Engage™ with character analysis and interpretation. Whilst deliberately echoing and iterating on past tropes and story beats from previous entries in which to contrast and compare against.

However no one, not even curious children with little responsibility, have the time to seek out all these support conversations individually. Instead, this support system deliberately or not, encouraged a certain type of Engagement™. Rather than spending 100s of hours repeating playthroughs just to see a few additional lines of text, these support conversations would be found much more readily accessible online in compilations on dedicated fan-sites. This centralization of resources became a hub of traffic. Communities formed around them, and so Fire Emblem had become more than just a series of games, it had become a culture in of itself.

Fire Emblem was now more than just the media it was sold as. It had become an outlet for discussion and critique. A way in which we can Engage™ with others who shared a passion for a niche media franchise. It had developed to become a cult, otherwise known as a fandom. An avenue of endless pontification about its characters, the ways it should be played and our individual experiences.

This second era of Fire Emblem would also not produce the requisite quota of milk deemed satisfactory to its masters. And so, the series was called away to be culled. Rather than go out quietly however, it was given one final mercy. A swansong game in which the series could be laid neatly to rest. And so, we entered the final and ongoing era of Fire Emblem: “Purpose (Id)”.

At the time I had wished Fire Emblem Awakening would have been the end of the series. It was so antithetical to what I was used to. A corrupted and revenant corpse of something I once loved. Tight deliberate mechanical design and maps were discarded in favour of a game that encouraged you to simply grind out your characters to become unkillable juggernauts. A cast of realistic and considered characters that defined the nature of the world they lived in had been replaced by one-note caricatures. Romantic pairings, which were once reserved for those with unique chemistry were now omnipresent for every and any male and female combination. All this just to enable the kids of these pairings to join your army in a mockery of one of the most incredible narrative twists of a previous entry of the series (that I hadn’t played).

Nostalgia is an insidious phenomenon. The very same spell that had captivated my younger self I was now resentful of others experiencing. My love after all was targeted towards something tangible, real, meaningful while that of these new fans was not. I would not have the Revelation™ for quite some time that this love was derived from the same source. That willingness to see the best qualities of something without a frame of reference in which to compare.

Seemingly equally confused by the financial success of Awakening as I, it’s producers immediately sought to ascertain as to the reason why through a curious application of market research. The next game in the series was released as a set of two, appealing to the separate expectations of newer fans as well as that of the ostracised veterans. It was a reactionary bid seeking to retain as much audience as it could. A final third game in the set would seek to reconcile the rift between these two audiences.

It was enough to temper me. Although it was apparent the prose and tone of Fire Emblem had been irrevocably changed forever there was something here that I could still latch onto. Fire Emblem may no longer have the capacity anymore to tell grounded or even coherent tales but as a mechanical object this iteration was unsurpassed. These embedded gameplay systems in which I was intimate with still persisted. I was content. Ready to move on and accept maybe what I saw in Fire Emblem wasn’t real. Just a naïve interpretation of the past. But then a beautiful tragedy occurred.

Three Houses. What a miserable chore to play! The antithesis of Fates: Conquest. Any vision it had for its gameplay either as artistic statement or as mechanical toy failed to manifest in a satisfactory way. And yet this game would leave me elated. It was perfect in a way that truly mattered. For it contained that aspect of Fire Emblem which I had thought was lost forever. What this lacked as a tactile game experience it more than made up through its quality of its narrative and its method of delivery. Yes, experiencing it all is a nightmare. Important details are scattered across four separate playthroughs and hundreds of optional and slowly dispensed dialogue events that no one with respect to their time is going to see all of it. But this was exactly how it should be! This was the Fire Emblem of my youth that I remembered. The antiquated method of storytelling from my nostalgia. Story as puzzle dispensed piecemeal. It was perhaps even better than it was in the past as there was no primary perspective of its story to cling to as ‘correct’. These different perspectives and the audience’s preconceptions would lead to extrapolating different interpretations from its details. Pictures that would be incompatible with those assembled by others. This lack of consensus on whose was ‘correct’ would facilitate endless debate, inspiring discussion and ultimately critical engagement with its story characters and themes. The tragedy of three houses is that it seemingly vindicated my nostalgia. That nostalgia I am now resolved to kill.

This preamble does not end on Hope™. There is one final game to discuss. The most integral and influential game to the future of the series. Fire Emblem makes money now. Lots of it. It is now a covetous cash cow. One of its games alone has surpassed the revenue of the rest of the series combined. That game is Fire Emblem Heroes and it is a drain upon all the goodwill of the series. Decades of character discussion, interpretations, fan translations of the many games that were never released internationally, are commodified, and then consumed by this beast. Three Houses was not made in-house and it shows. It was an outsourced project to keep the fanbase Engaged™ as the next direction of Fire Emblem was developed. The existence of Heroes means all future characters in the series are now designed for you to imprint upon so that they may be resold back to you in the most exploitatory way that is somehow still legal. That is the preconception for Fire Emblem Engage.

Fire Emblem that I had once viewed as a benevolent deity of storytelling had degenerated into a fell dragon needing to be slain. The fandom cultivated out of a shared love and passion was being used and preyed upon by that which it sought to enshrine. Was this always the series’ ultimate intention? The end goal of any corporate ip? It matters not, I have gathered all the necessary context needed. It is time to slay a degenerative dragon. I am ready to let go of the past. I am ready to kill this nostalgia within myself. I need to let go.

Resolution burning bright I would find little to dissuade this righteous fury within the opening acts. The world of Lythos is contrived to hell, deliberately so. There is no ambition here nor desire to tell a story that reflects upon or contrasts against a living world. Every creature here is an automaton, a faux imitation only resembling life. Vtuber avatars frolic about a story where conflict is abhorred, yet its root cause is never sought. A mandate of heaven is seen as absolute and unchallenged, as the cast indulge in a luxury resort above the clouds above an uninvolved populace. A zodiac of Fire Emblems past have their status cemented as commodities. Trinkets to flaunt and collect serving to establish the authority of a supposedly divine deity. The irony of how these emblems parallel a recurring theme of the series involving twelve ‘dead lords’ is not lost upon me.

Yet as the chapters go by, I find my resolve wavering. When your expectations start at the bottom of a ravine, it leaves the only direction left to climb. These caricatures clearly made to serve as an asset pack for a gacha game, slowly wear me down through a consistent message that concludes many of their story arcs. That we should not allow one’s past to define one’s future. I listen to this message because deep down it is something I want to hear. I am made to believe there is something salvageable and sincere beneath an ugly veneer. That I am wrong to judge Engage on what the series used to be. I should accept it on what it is and seeks to become.

I disengage. Yes, these characters do not compare as the ones in the gilded memories of the past or even that of the prior game, but there are aspects to like here. Templates in which I can extrapolate depth and nuance. Details to discover in which I can discuss and share with others. I can fix them! Both through gameplay and narratively. I am even provided the tools to do so. The game facilitating the means to combine traits taken of previous games to these characters. I can take ownership. Ascribe to them my own meaning. Is this not the culmination of what Fire Emblem is about? That ultimately we the audience are the arbiters of its story?

And so at journey’s end I hesitate. I find that I cannot will myself to kill this creature after all. There is a part of me still contained within. A part I still love. A sword wavers with conviction shattered. All I need is any reason, and I’ll let you go. Give me nothing even, be unrepentant and we can still live in peace. Arcadia can exist. Humans can live at peace with dragons.

The creature looks deep into my eyes. It sees shattered resolve, an extended hand. It sees only sovereign delusion. It rejects me thus, “I did it for Zero Emblem” uttered defiantly with no shame or remorse. This phrase is pure nonsense. A meaningless string of words that not even its speaker can decipher. It is not intended to be satisfactory nor received well. Even the most earnest of readings would find these words ring hollow. It is a proclamation of intent. A dismissal of peace. The game is telling me that I am wrong about it. That I am seeing something that was never there. That this was always a completely unserious farce and that I am foolish for seeing otherwise. A dagger reached for to provoke my reaction.

I can only oblige and stab it through the heart. We both always knew this was the only way this could possibly end. The beast is slain and I am free to move on. Thankyou for letting me go.

Fire Emblem is a series about the myriad ways in which we Engage™ with media. It has grown and adapted in response to how it has been perceived. It is a series that only still exists and thrives in the present because of the community that has formed around it. It would have us believe that it owns us because it sired that which we love. But we owe it nothing. This love is ours to shape and ours to reclaim.

I hate that I love these games so much.

“A world riven by pride, Repaired at last. And now its makers can be at rest, Our vision come to pass.”

(I recommend Engage to only Fire Emblem’s biggest fans. I recommend it to Its biggest haters. I recommend it to no one in between. It has absolutely succeeded in being the culmination of the series. As a mechanical object it is best in class. As a thesis statement of the series as a whole, it is a perfect tragedy. There is some genuine care here buried underneath a shallow exterior. Yet there is no way to save it. The game’s premise and the purpose on which it came to exist is antithetical to love. But there is closure to be had in laying it to rest)

whenever the rance series decides to lock it the fuck in they always nail it. Rance VI is one of the locked-the-fuck-in games of all time.

throughout the last 3 years of learning japanese by self study, ive had the rance series by my side as a barometer of my progress. The first game i ever beat in japanese was Rance 03 because i didnt want to wait for the translation and didn't want to play the pc98 version at the time. Over time ive learned how the language itself works and with it, the trials and tribulations of Rance and Sill, how their characters have evolved and how the world around them has changed them and viceversa.

Reflecting back on VI in particular is very difficult for me, for whatever reason. While i still have 3 more games to play before the journey ends, i think back on VI the most out of all the games. The way Tori balances Urza's determination and apathy towards her life, how the climax rolls around as the stakes get higher and higher, how fun the dungeon exploration and combat and especially that final dungeon that finally let me feel what the game should have been all along. I think Rance VI is just, a really good game, and an important one, and i think writing this down like this is helping me clear my head some on how far ive gone and how much i still have left (even though at time of writing i already beat sengoku rance lmao)

its been fun. I can't wait to go back to the continent soon.

Resident evil 2 remake is the game that taught me what horror games should actually be like.

Let me tell you a story

Im playing Claire B's route on hardcore, just starting off. I get to the first spot with zombies and they instantly wipe my ass. I stood no chance with Claire's puny little revolver and miniscule health bar compared to Leon-Standard's almost neverending HP pool. After a bit of wiggling i get to the RCPD building and notice all the slight differences in item placement and enemy health. I'm a little bit annoyed by this but i chose to play on hardcore so whatever, its on me to suck it up and deal with it.

After a bit of exploring i get to the west wing, go through a dark hallway, and find Mr. X.For the next 4 hours i strategize and route my way through the three statue puzzles, making sure i pick up everything i need and use everything i got. I slip past the zombies and lickers and Mr. X until finally, after so many dead runs with no ink ribbons or health pickups, i unlock the central statue and start the first fight with Birkin.

they were the most exhilarating 4 hours of pure gameplay in my life.

Playing Claire-Hardcore was a lesson in management. Both managing my resources and the enemies. You're never alone, not for a second, and the constant ticking clock of your shit running out makes you hurry up and deal with the cards you're dealt with with no backsies other than risking going back to another save and losing anything you potentially earned through sheer luck in the time between that save and where you are now. Genuienely one of the most electrifying experiences ive ever had with a game.