The first game after Kaga's departure from Intelligent Systems and you can kind of tell that the team weren't quite sure what direction to take the series in.
FE6 scales things back in a lot of departments to make for a mostly safe and familiar FE experience. Gone are the varied map objectives, in depth narrative, skill system and capture mechanics from the previous game, focussing more on finding their feet after losing a big influence.
Every map is a seize objective, lacking the variety that Thracia introduced before it. Fog of War has been kept for a little variety but aside from that it feels very FE1 like in that department.
The story also feels FE1 like with it's big focus on dragons and trying to bring them back into the world. It's definitely told better though and Zephiel in particular is one of the more interesting villains in the series, with a pretty good backstory.
While the game is a pretty solid experience it does have a handful of annoying gameplay designs and choices to dampen that experience. There is a heavy over reliance on same turn reinforcements here that serve only to catch the player unaware and punish them without much chance to do anything about it.
The story also locks its true ending behind a requirement to get all of the legendary weapons (similar to FE3) and I don't like that. It requires every side chapter to be visited and the side chapter maps in this game are quite gimmick inspired from water swallowing up tiles to prevent land based units from moving or arrows of light piercing down the screen damaging every unit in its way. On top of this, the regular ending is one of the most unsatisfactory endings they could've given.
FE6 is definitely a game where the development team were trying to find their feet. It's a pretty flawed experience in some areas but still manages to be a solid game despite those flaws.
FE6 scales things back in a lot of departments to make for a mostly safe and familiar FE experience. Gone are the varied map objectives, in depth narrative, skill system and capture mechanics from the previous game, focussing more on finding their feet after losing a big influence.
Every map is a seize objective, lacking the variety that Thracia introduced before it. Fog of War has been kept for a little variety but aside from that it feels very FE1 like in that department.
The story also feels FE1 like with it's big focus on dragons and trying to bring them back into the world. It's definitely told better though and Zephiel in particular is one of the more interesting villains in the series, with a pretty good backstory.
While the game is a pretty solid experience it does have a handful of annoying gameplay designs and choices to dampen that experience. There is a heavy over reliance on same turn reinforcements here that serve only to catch the player unaware and punish them without much chance to do anything about it.
The story also locks its true ending behind a requirement to get all of the legendary weapons (similar to FE3) and I don't like that. It requires every side chapter to be visited and the side chapter maps in this game are quite gimmick inspired from water swallowing up tiles to prevent land based units from moving or arrows of light piercing down the screen damaging every unit in its way. On top of this, the regular ending is one of the most unsatisfactory endings they could've given.
FE6 is definitely a game where the development team were trying to find their feet. It's a pretty flawed experience in some areas but still manages to be a solid game despite those flaws.