Notes for my series replay:
- See my SD review about this games' presentation (if you care).
- I want to get the elephant in the room addressed before I talk about anything else. Kris is a fucking wild addition to this game. I think that the drawn-out prologue the exposition dumps Kris and Katarina's relationship is kinda terrible, and their chemistry even worse. Kris absolutely obliterates any semblance of balance that Mystery had, which wasn't much to begin with, mind you. Kris is the most malleable unit in the game, with essentially infinite potential. I don't know how they didn't expect this character to snap the game over their leg, or maybe they just didn't care, but honestly Kris' presence diminishes Marth's story in this game, and I didn't really care for it. FE3 is fucking awesome because Marth travels the path of Anri, this untouchable hero whose legacy he's expected to fulfill, but rather he rises above that and breaks the curse of Anri and Artemis, as well as putting Medeus back in the ground. So tell me why they decided to put his OP Gary Stew bodyguard in this remake, completely negating that entire arc for Marth??? Wild.
-Previous anger aside, I think that this game is super interesting from a gameplay perspective. Kris obviously trivializes the difficulty, but this game has so many tools for the player to abuse other than Kris, I wanted to note a few. The Again staff is a dancer staff that is never seen again after this, which is a shame. Warp and Rescue are back, as well as Hammerne. This game has an abundance of powerful staves, making it feel like this game very breakable aside from Kris (on lower difficulties, that is).
- Seize maps. Again, it's a remake, I get it. But seize maps that are fucking massive, which involves moving Marth long ass distances across the map, despite being a foot-locked unit. Those boots can't come fast enough. Oh, and no rescue dropping either, just like Shadow Dragon.
- All of that hate aside, I still love the reclass system, as having half a dozen Dracoknights bowling across a map is really satisfying. It also helps a lot with getting through some of the tougher maps in the mid-game, as there are flying dragons, and if you don't intercept them, they can be a serious threat to your weaker supportive units.
- I gotta hop back on the hate bus for my last point, but I honestly prefer the FE3 soundtrack to this game. I find that the tracks lose a lot of their luster given the more "grounded" tone they were going for this time. For instance, "Holy War" sounds a lot less emotionally driven in this game, which was a huge blow for me. There are some tracks I prefer in this game, like the Hardin battle theme, but ultimately, this game feels like a more washed out take on the original's OST.

I feel bad writing such a negative review on this game, as it's honestly not too bad to play, but having just played the game it's based off of, I found myself sorely disappointed in many areas. It's kind of ironic, because I get on Shadow Dragon's case for being too close to the original source material, but then most of the changes this game made were kinda downgrades, so I still prefer Shadow Dragon of the two? It's strange. Tl;dr, fun gameplay, but seriously neutered version of FE3.

Notes for my series replay:
-I'm going to get mention this right off the bat, I think this is the ugliest Fire Emblem game. I know graphics aren't what makes a good game, but they aren't completely irrelevant either. This game and its sequel are ranking among my least favorite FE titles in terms of presentation, granted the NES games look worse, but are a product of their time. There's no excuse for how muddy Shadow Dragon looks.
-Getting past that, the gameplay is pretty much what I wrote about FE1, save for enemies being a little more competent this time around, as I was playing on Hard 1 for time's sake. Marth, however, has become a bit of a liability compared to his NES self. His aggro quirk is now gone with this remake, nor is he quite as good as he was on the NES. He's still a solid unit worth training due to being a force deploy for every map, but he's just not quite as good as the NES version.
-Every map is a seize map. I respect the faithfulness to the original game but this game feels like a step back in many ways from the diverse gameplay of FE10.
-The one thing I will give this game credit for, is the modern reclass system. This is the first game in the series to allow a unit to change their class into an entirely different one. For instance, Wyvern Knight Jagen. Or Myrmidon Caeda, or Mage Draug. This adds a lot of depth to how the player can approach maps in SD, as you can go all out mounted units, or you could choose to build a brick wall of armored knights (don't do that). This feels like the blueprint for Awakening onwards, as nothing was quite like this up until now in terms of class changes.
-The soundtrack is super solid. Nice remakes of beloved FE tracks, but also THERE IS MORE THAN 2 FUCKING MAP THEMES!!!! I love the first map theme, don't get me wrong. But I was ready to pull my hair out after FE1 and FE3 book 1.
- The prologue was... interesting? I played it just to see what it was like on a separate save, and it serves as a solid tutorial. At least it's not as egregious as Lyn's tutorials were, where they would often choose your actions for you. Relatively unoffensive and just kinda there.

Not going to write a whole lot about Shadow Dragon, as it's a VERY faithful remake to FE1. I think that the gameplay is a fucking mile better than the original, but in terms of story or characters, it's barely better than the source material, which is a little disappointing. First NA release of Marth, though. So that's neat.

Notes for my series replay:
-This is the most ambitious Fire Emblem title. The gameplay and story structure is unlike anything Fire Emblem had tried prior to this, and it's super fascinating. The game has a huge ensemble cast of characters often at odds with each other and the narrative is very grand scale most of the time. It's fucking awesome.
-The gameplay is also very tight this time around. Characters feel more balanced than in PoR, and you are often times presented with a limited range of characters, making your team for a given part become important to you for a short time. Every unit has a niche at one point or another in the grand scheme of the game, save for a few with really limited combat potential.
-This game introduces elevation, which is a super neat concept that they haven't toyed with before or since, which makes me a little sad. The maps in Radiant Dawn have insane verticality and it makes the map feel more dynamic, as well as your positioning twice as important. It also entices the player to play around the high ground.
- Radiant Dawn is awfully close if not surpasses the diversity of map objectives that Thracia 776 has, which was one of my many praises of that game. This game is not just a rout the enemy/seize fest, but has some really interesting objectives, such as burning enemy supplies, or thinning enough enemy forces against a never-ending wave of reinforcements. This game keeps the player on their toes, but not in an unfair or bullshit way, which I really appreciate.
-This game also feels like the sweet spot for difficulty, as I was playing on NA normal mode and it felt very rewarding to get through a particularly tight chapter with all of my units still alive and kicking.
-Bonus XP got an overhaul in this game, as they reworked the formula to make it more balanced. It now scales with your level, making it less effective the higher level you are, but it guarantees three stats per level up, which can be handy if you're looking to cap stats. The game gives you BEXP like candy depending on how many optional objectives you clear per chapter, which also was a nice incentive to haul ass on maps.
- In terms of character writing and story, I have a few qualms with the Dawn Brigade's story, especially getting into part 3. I think that the blood pact was... interesting, but ultimately hindered the story of Pelleas and Micaiah. It felt like a device simply for getting Micaiah to square off against Ike, and I think there could have been a better way to put the two at odds that a plot contrivance. I honestly thought it served Naesala's character better than it did Pelleas, but I still disagree with opting to go that route. Micaiah choosing to blindly go with Pelleas felt like she was a Camus archetype, which is a neat spin on it, but then got ultimately subverted by the pact revelation.
-The soundtrack is fuckin amazing. I think that this game has to be top 3 Fire Emblem soundtracks, as it has so many bangers: "Eternal Bond," "A Grasping Truth," "On Glory's Wings," "Bearer of Hope," etc. They all have such an insane range, but also get me absolutely pumped to keep playing.

(EDIT: I remembered my last two points later, so I will be adding them below to keep tldr at the end.)

-Tier 3 classes are fucking awesome and feel so rewarding, especially since they aren't in any other FE titles up to this point, so I always feel super powerful with them, but also this felt like a better way to handle mastery skills. Getting Astra/Luna/Impale etc when you finally grind up to T3 is so rewarding for that dopamine receiver in my brain, I don't know why.
-Lastly, I think that the skill system overall was handled much, much better. I think the fact that characters can now trade skills is fucking awesome, because now you can have crazy shit like Uber Swordmasters with Wrath, Resolve, Astra, etc. I think this still kinda ties in with T3 classes but the power trip I felt with a completely roided full skill capacity T3 class was insane. Edward was going fucking ham in the final act. Yeah, there's some dumb shit like fucking Corrosion and Disarm, but to be honest, the biggest question mark skill in this game is Vantage. Why did they make it a speed check and not an HP threshold? Felt very odd to me, but I guess they were worried about wrath/resolve/vantage? Can't really wrap my head around it.


I wanted to write more about this game, but have played more FE games since, so the thoughts are fleeting, but my final conclusion about Radiant Dawn is as follows: this game is the best Fire Emblem post-Kaga. The ambition is insane, the scope is grand, and everything save for the presentation (which is a slight dip from PoR) mastered the formula they laid out in FE9.

Notes for my series replay:
- Right off the bat, this has to be my favorite art style for the characters in-game so far, I love the character designs too, as they feel very unique in this title.
- This game is very easy, and not in a "I've played all the FE's, I'm too good" way, but generally enemy density and the stats that they have are pretty much on par with your units for the entirety of the game on THE HARDEST DIFFICULTY. I am not kidding when I say that yes, you might be surprised by a few really fast myrmidons, or perhaps a status stave here or there and have to restart, but I only had to like 3 or 4 times this entire game.
- The game throws money, bonus xp, and really good units at you for a majority of the runtime, and I feel like this lends to why the game feels really easy for a lot of people as well.
-Speaking of bonus xp, the game introduces this mechanic to help out in training weaker units, or to even further buff up the units the player has a preference for. I found that this mechanic made basically every character in the game usable, even really high investment units like Rolf, which was a super fun addition. I found myself dumping hundreds of BEXP into units that I liked story-wise just to see if they could make the A-team and it honestly made me use more than just my set team every map. The game is VERY generous with BEXP in some cases.
- Another new feature with FE9 is the Base screen. This featured inventory management, the convoy, shops, armories, and even supports and info conversations. This was very welcome, as it felt like it centralized all of the important facets of combat preparation for a more streamlined experience. I really like this flow of gameplay, as removing shops and armories from maps and just putting them before battle was SO much better. I wouldn't just bring a throwaway unit with high mov to maps as my pack mule anymore, and I no longer had to wonder where the hell I put those javelins I bought three maps ago as well. This is much, much more preferable in my opinion.
- In terms of story, I would rank FE9 on par with Genealogy's story. The sheer amount of characters and political threads to follow is really interesting, I found myself engrossed in reading all the info conversations and supports between people. This game really sets up it's sequel well, which I was am itching to dive into after finishing these notes. I love all the themes of the cycle of violence and forgiveness, and I think that this game tackles some of the realest issues I've seen in a Fire Emblem game. Some people have issues with the brevity of how they are handled, but I personally thought they were tactful in most cases.
- This game feels like the birth of the modern support system. Supports are gained simply by being around other units or on the same map as them, rather than directly adjacent, and I was gaining support ranks at a rather decent clip as a result. This way felt much more natural and wayyyy less tedious.
- I don't have a whole lot to say about the map design, other than I think they did a great job of getting a variety of map objectives and settings. The maps aren't super memorable for me, but I think that they're fine for the game. I actually think this game's weakest suit is the maps, but they're still just par for the course FE maps, so I can't really subtract any points. To FE9's credit, however, it does have an awesome prison break map, even if it's not as good as FE5's.
- I think the soundtrack is fucking awesome. The revamped "Knight's Vow" for this was awesome, as well as "With Us" being one of my favorite recruitment themes ever. I think some of the map themes are a little lackluster compared to earlier entries, but honestly it fits the vibe of the game so well they just felt natural.
- I also need to make this claim before I forget, but Ike has to be top 3 lords in the series. I think that he is written brilliantly, and that he defies all of the expectations of an FE lord, even though he fits many of the archetypal tropes. I think that despite all of the memes about him being a meathead, himbo, etc, I think that he is actually one of the more introspective lords of the series in some cases, and if memory of FE10 serves, this game portrays him much better in that regard.

This game is a masterpiece. Not just for Fire Emblem titles, but on it's own two feet as well. I think that this game is an amazing jumping in point for beginners, but also an interesting entry for series veterans if you don't mind the slightly easier difficulty comparatively. Great story, great music, amazing character writing. Enough said.

Notes for my series replay:
- Pretty par for the course on GBA Fire Emblems in terms of presentation, looks a little bit more polished than the other two in some areas but ultimately plays the same.
- First game since Gaiden to have a world map, kinda neat throwback to Gaiden but just like in Gaiden it's mostly novelty and not super meaningful. If we're being technical, it actually has less purpose than Gaiden because it's a straight line and you never really have to deal with monster encounters unless you go to grind. Gaiden at least had branching paths in some cases that took you to different dungeons and maps. There are like 3 dungeons in FE8 and they don't really reward you with much of anything except for post game content.
- The easiest game I have played so far, even easier than FE7. I played Ephraim's route for my replay, and even the hardest chapter in that (chapter 14) was still mildly frustrating due to poor luck with status staves.
- Speaking of which, this must be the most straightforward entry thus far, as there are maybe like 3 maps with ballistas, occasionally siege tomes, and mostly just reinforcements to worry about, but they don't move on EP so it's not a huge deal. Yeah there are status staves, but their accuracy is kinda shoddy and you get PLENTY of restore staves, so proper positioning and burning the staves is easy enough.
- Given what I just mentioned, maps are hardly memorable or impactful. They feel pretty devoid of any real thought except for enemy placement and general setting. The bravest Sacred Stones gets with map design is putting you on three small boats in fog of war. Frustrating, sure, but not exactly engaging.
- To give credit where it's due, FE8 has an absolute slapper of a soundtrack. It goes extremely hard for absolutely no reason in some tracks. "Powerful Foe" is a awesome boss theme, "Truth, Despair, and Hope" fucking blew me out of the water the first time I heard it and it still makes me get hyped even on replays, and of course "Prince of Despair" is my favorite GBA main antag theme. In fact, of the three GBA titles, I would say either Sacred Stones has the best OST overall. It starts very mid, but picks up in the mid game and starts to blow your socks off.
- My last critique of Sacred Stones is that the cast of characters is kinda sleepy. I think there are a few awesome standouts like Joshua and Cormag, but otherwise I feel like this game has the most white bread cast up to this point, as without farming supports for dozens of turns, I get almost no characterization from most of the cast when they're recruited. And the few that you do get characterization from are just like knightly types, which is fine but it gets old after a few of them. None can touch the GOAT Seth, granted.

Overall, the best way I can describe Sacred Stones is that it has neat OST and presentation, but man is the game bland. It has a few neat departures from the standard, but ultimately they're making an already too easy game even easier. For me, I opted out of those features for the most part, and I felt like even as a standard FE game this falls a little flat in most places. Ephraim is funny though because he feels like a Michael Bay movie character in Fire Emblem which is kinda epic.

Notes for my series replay:
- I'm just going to get it out of the way in this bullet because we're all thinking it: the first ten chapters of this game are fucking unbearable. Most Fire Emblem newcomers won't play this game first, so the fucking TEN tutorial levels that the game forces down your throat is obnoxious. For western players in 2003, I'm sure this was a necessary evil but replaying it is a tough pill to swallow. The story is whatever and the maps are baby food. That's about it. You COULD circumvent these levels by downloading a save off of GameFAQs, but I'd rather just have the tutorial be toggle-able.
- Getting to the actual game, however, I found that the story was actually semi-interesting at the start. Eliwood's tale of searching out his missing father was a new-ish spin on the classic case of FE daddy issues. I also found Hector and Eliwood's dynamic pretty endearing, and Lyn was also solid, but I felt a little less developed in the story than the other two. The story actually builds on FE6's lore of the Eight Legends pretty well, too. It's not the most revolutionary FE story there is, but it's solid for what it's trying to do.
- This game plays like baby mode FE6. I found myself blazing through maps, as there are very few threatening obstacles, other than a slew of underwhelming and generally non-threatening enemies. I didn't grind or arena abuse at all (I haven't been for this replay in favor of playing the intended way) but I still found most of the tools the game gave me to be far more than adequate to handle the chapters. This game doesn't shower you with pre-promotes in the mid game like FE6, but it does give you plenty of promotion items to buff your party early.
- The map design in FE7 is not as frustrating as it was in FE6, but I found them to suffer from the same case of tedious walking simulator. There were less gaiden objectives, too, so I found myself playing with my brain off essentially. Fliers are easily abusable in this entry, as the number of ballistas is laughable compared to FE5/6. There is very few instances of thief utility outside of doors/chests once again, so planning is just outfitting weapons and staves onto your team for the most part.
- The soundtrack is solid, I would say so far middle of the pack, that will change based on the later entries to come, but I think that this game still has some bangers. I love that "Campaign of Fire" uses part of "The Last Dragon" from FE6, as well as some re-use of classic FE tracks like "Knight's Vow" and "Together We Ride."

There isn't much to say about FE7 that I didn't really say about FE6. It feels like a good enough prequel FE6 game, minus the difficulty and, for lack of a better word, bullshit. I will lend to its' credit that the game has both Eliwood/Hector stories to tackle, AND their hard modes to add to the replayability, but honestly I found myself satisfied with just the one run through I had. In terms of Fire Emblem games, this feels like fast food, as it's not super high quality, but it is a quick hit of Fire Emblem, as the chapters tend to be really quick due to the lack of overall difficulty and depth compared to previous entries.

Notes for my Series Replay:
- The plot feels very safe. Apart from the first game, this feels like the most formulaic story so far. Very standard case of invading neighboring country evolves into conflict with some supernatural beings/dragons. Not saying this is bad, but just very safe for the first FE post Shouzou Kaga.
- The gameplay feels significantly more defined with characters fulfilling specific niches. Classes have different stat caps, and thus characters have specific roles they're more tailored to rather than FE5's sandbox-ish style of gameplay. Also thieves are glorified keys now, as they have little combat potential, can't steal equipped items, and there is a general lack of valuable items worth stealing in FE6.
- Map design is... a thing. Most of the maps in FE6 are questionably large for the lack of enemy density in the normal difficulty. Many of my turns were just spent moving units up to the next encounter, which got to be a little frustrating on some of the more tedious maps. Speaking of which, there are many of those. FE6 maps aren't as large as FE4's maps, but they only sometimes have a gaiden objective, and they're mostly just standard seize maps with very little complexity. Sure, there are some memorable maps, and some notoriously bad maps, but overall I just felt meh on FE6's map design.
- Speaking of gaiden chapters, I have absolutely no clue how the average player is supposed to figure out how to reach them. Thracia is also guilty of this, but this game is mostly just turn limits reqs on maps that are needlessly slow and tedious (I'm looking at you, Chapter 14).
- FE6 somewhat weakened support units and put combat units back in the spotlight compared to FE5. There are still status staves and warp, and the like, but they have been severely hindered from their previous appearance. They have either limited range or accuracy checks to mitigate their performance this time around, and as such, I found myself relying on them as a viable strategy less often.
- But hey guess what, siege tomes and ballista are back. They are not nearly as threatening as in FE5 but still frustrating as hell sometimes. FE6 tends to group together status staves and it makes a somewhat uneventful map turn into a "oh fuck did i bring restore" check. Luckily there are very few maps where this is an issue, but I still felt it was worth noting.
- The one thing I REALLY liked about FE6 was the world building. The nations and their politics made the story of this game really fascinating, and I found myself wanting more of that and less of the dragon stuff to be quite honest. But maybe that's the consequence of playing these games back to back like this.

Overall, I like the vibes of FE6 and the world that it creates, but I feel like the gameplay is just kinda "eh" and after the spectacular gameplay of FE5, I felt a little disappointed. It's a solid game, just a little too safe after what felt like a great leap forward for the series.

Notes for my series replay:
- Serious tone shift for the series up until this point. There are parts of the other games that are dark, but this game feels bleak from the beginning.
- A very nice variety of maps and map objectives, among the most diverse gameplay in the series. This game feels like Kaga was hitting his stride in map design, as the maps range from kinda annoying, to holy shit this is fucking amazing.
- The one thing I REALLY appreciate about Thracia 776 is that the maps mirror the narrative. A bleak situation will be accompanied likely by a map that is equally as bleak and stacked against the player. The map objectives generally reflect this, which is neat, as up until this point they were essentially just seize or rout.
- Another thing, this game is super sandbox-y for a SRPG. Combat potential of units has a relatively low ceiling compared to most games, and as such, OP stats does not equate to facerolling the map (in most cases, save for Ced). Rather, you are required to use the tools at your disposal to solve the problem posed by the chapter, whether it's fog of war, enemies escaping with valuable loot, status staves, etc.
- Almost every single map in this game has a side objective or unique challenge about them. It makes maps memorable and gives the player a nice little dopamine hit when they finally clear a challenging one.
- Thracia 776 implements an interesting capture system, as now any melee units can capture another (non-mounted) melee unit with less constitution and take all of their items. Units with no weapons, or units that are asleep will be captured with no combat initiated. It's high risk, as the capturing unit suffers severe stat penalties for attempting to capture, but gives players a chance to take some of the enticing loot from enemies, creating an interesting economy compared to other entries in the series. I beat my entire replay of this game without buying a single weapon, rather I only bought five door keys in the chapters leading up to the end.
- Capturing can sometimes be unreliable though, as units that have 20 Con cannot be captured, and as I previously mentioned, neither can mounted units. That's why thieves are also very valuable units in Thracia 776, as thieves can yoink just about anything in the game, granted they're faster than the enemy and have more Con than the weapon weighs. It's a really neat system, and makes thieves some of your best units, even if their combat is less than stellar (which it often is).
- Support units are wildly valuable too, as staves are the number one tool at your disposal in Thracia 776. Staves can heal units, warp units, rescue units, unlock chests/doors, inflict statuses, cure statuses, and even steal items from enemies in some circumstances. It wouldn't be exaggeration to say that all of the units that can easily rank A staves in Thracia 776 are among your best units in the game. An abundance in powerful staves in the late game makes this even clearer to a shrewd player.
- Leif is a particularly interesting protagonist. He begins as a kid who has experienced hardship in his life, but doesn't really know what it means to be a leader or a king. He isn't necessarily charismatic, but rather a symbol of liberation that people flock to. His growth over the game makes him potentially one of the most dynamic lords in the series, which is fascinating when you recall his role in the previous game.
- The soundtrack is also really noteworthy. It's not as grandiose as the previous titles, but rather more determined and grounded. A lot of the songs actually sound like marches, save for Leif's theme, which is potentially one of my favorite FE map themes, ever. I think it's also one of the only FE games to have a near defeat theme, which is interesting as a majority of FE soundtracks have a near victory theme.

This game has a threatening aura to some FE newcomers, and I totally understand. It's a daunting game with some really hard and aggravating chapters. I think that being patient and armed with knowledge on some frustrating chapters can remedy alot of the bullshit. When you finally get to understand the workings of Thracia 776 and put in the time to learn it's quirks, it's genuinely one of the best experiences I've had with Fire Emblem as a whole. This is Shouzou Kaga's masterpiece, and it took me way too long to realize it.


Notes from my series replay:
- Super ambitious title, really feels like Kaga was hitting his stride here. I feel like this is the biggest departure from what they had up until this point and it pays off.
-Maps are much larger and generally get shafted in terms of tight gameplay design in favor of grand sweeping encounters between massive groups of forces. Shorter, sweeter maps are lost in favor of grand conflicts across entire nations, as a result the game feels MASSIVE.
- Another side-effect of the change in map design is the dominance of the mounted cavalry units. IntSys cut back on the fliers in this game, now only sporting one or two per generation, but gives the player at least 5-10 mounted units per generation. This was most likely for ease of map design for less potential cheese than FE1-3 had with fliers. Footlocked units often get left in the dust on the larger maps, so I found myself leaving them to defend the castle for game efficiency.
- Staves have found themselves massively nerfed in terms of freedom and jank. They sport a wider range of use at the cost of cheesing the game.
-The story revolves around a different world and lore than the first 3 titles, quite frankly jumping into a world with greater depth than the series had ever had before in terms of world and character building. Each map features individual character conversations beyond just recruitment purposes, and it feels like the distant predecessor to support conversations in later FE titles.
-The holy blood and inheritance system is super fascinating and makes every playthrough feel like a different game. Granted it can be a little tedious to keep the units close enough to pair them up in the first generation, the second gen has INSANE depth of gameplay and strategy for subsequent replays as a result. This feels like the most well thought out child system the series has had thus far, and it feels super well integrated into the story as well.
- Castle towns are a fascinating addition too, making each castle feel like a well earned checkpoint in the maps, granting units access to shops, the arena, and a strange step backwards from the trading system in the form of the pawnbroker.
-The game is designed around each map taking the player multiple play sessions to complete. There's an autosave feature, as well as the ability to drop a hard save at the top of every turn. The maps take upwards of an hour, but these features alleviate that aspect for players not wanting to sink hours into each play session, making the game far more accessible than most despite the daunting map size.
-Small annoyance, but they didn't give a fuck with status staves in the last couple maps because there are sleep and silence staff users EVERYWHERE. It was becoming a little tedious to deal with to some degree, but just having the knowledge to bring a restore staff makes it bearable.

Tl;dr the game has a lot of things that it improves, some awkward jank in a lot of places, and other minor annoyances with pairing and enemy placement, etc. That being said, the game has a lot of heart and a beautiful story with some great characters. I still feel confident ranking it among my favorite games of all time.

Notes for my series replay:
-Right off the bat, most drastic upgrade in the series in terms of presentation imo
- Mini-remake of FE1 cooked into the game, honestly a really solid way to play Marth's first game.
-Gaiden systems and story left in the dust in favor of the familiar, but systems of FE3 radically overhauled for the better. This game sets the precedent for how the trading system works in the series to come and felt like a dream come true after the first game.
- Music is honestly gorgeous for a game of this time, was blown away by "Legend of the Divine Dragon (B)" and "Holy War" as those tracks go absolutely fucking crazy.
-Fliers are still absolutely fucking busted for no reason with very few draw backs. FE3 tries to nerf fliers by forcing dismounts in inside spaces with stat penalties, which is an interesting idea, but then simply puts them on par with footlocked units in most cases.
-Star shard system for book 2 unit building is super fucking awesome. Getting 20's across the board on your fave units is really fun.
-Easiest game so far, but has some really interesting map design, and feels really well tested. Only poorly aged map imo is the final map being three separate parts with no hard saves.
-Story and lore of Archanea has been better defined and expanded from the first game, and honestly handles the villains a little bit better.

First game thus far that I would whole heartedly recommend if you're not doing a series replay like me.

Notes from my replay:
-Presentation and music is definitely a step up from the previous game, despite only being a year apart.
-Over-world map is neat, but Alm/Celica split is never really utilized for gameplay until the end at the Dragon Volcano.
-Disgusting difficulty spikes at certain points. Alm's first few maps into Act 4 were brutal. Geyse's Map is also a serious roadblock if you don't play around Catria and Palla.
-The story feels more character oriented this time around, rather than Marth just being the conduit for his story to take place. Alm and Celica have a great dynamic, despite this being an ancient game with little-to-no dialogue comparatively.
-Monsters are neat but either way too easy or bullshit hard. Encountering a biggle for the first time actually made me wanna rip my hair out.
-More than ever you NEED to train your pegasus knights up. Falcon Knight is the best class in the game, hands down. The triangle attack is also very, very effective at taking down some of the toughest enemies in the game, as well as getting you out of potentially tight spots.
-This feels like a neat experimentation to build off of the first game, but I can see why they chose to return to Archanea for the third game, as this one was a HUGE departure from the first game, almost feeling like a step backwards in the depth of strategy.

Here's my notes for my series replay:
- Weapon management is archaic and downright obnoxious for most of the game. Four inventory slots is even more of a joke.
- There are two (fucking 2) map themes.
- Lays down groundwork for long running series tropes (Jagens, R/G cavaliers, the Camus archetype villain, etc.).
-Very jank and exploitable gameplay in the last half, last few chapters were a game of warp Marth to Castle, seize castle which I didn't really mind tbh because I feel like this game is a little too long for what it does.
-Archanea is a neat setting and I love the world-building.
-Neat for the time is the best way that I can put it.

yes the performance is terrible, but tbh this is still the most fun pokemon has been in years apart from legends arceus.

probably one of my favorite resident evils so far, haven't played 5 or 6 yet but i think this is a safe claim to make based on what I've heard of those two

Improves upon everything that Colosseum did with the shadow Pokemon mechanic but was a little weaker in the story department. Overall a more well-rounded game but lacked a little bit of the intrigue and edginess of the first game.