Ryuk

I'm confused by this list tbh.

Three Houses isn't even close to being the most in depth strategizing combat Fire Emblem game. For NA released FE games the ones you have to think the most in combat would be Conquest, Engage, or Lunatic+ Awakening. I swear 3H stans don't play the rest of the amazing FE series. For in depth combat I would personally pick Engage, but yeah Conquest is excellent too.

Disgaea really? That's just big, insane damaging numbers. Fun games, but not much strategy.

So many excellent choices missed: Redemption Reapers, Tactics Ogre, Banner of the Maid, Shining Force, etc etc.

I respectfully disagree. Fire Emblem has started doing remakes under the moniker of "Echoes" followed by the title. So far we have Echoes Shadow of Valentia and that game has a gorgeous, unorthodox art style I would like to see being utilized going forward, but with modern polish. Is absolutely a beautiful game. HD-2D is becoming more common and losing its excitement for me. It's pretty too, I just don't want all video games remakes to get stuck on one individual art style. Loses identity that way.

Anywho, given the 3DS trend, hopefully we get an Echoes treatment of Genealogy of the Holy Wars on Switch soon.

Fire Emblem the Sacred Stones is one of my favorite games of all time and needs on the GBA Switch online so I can preserve my cartridge a little.

I would love for the first the gens of Pokemon games and Japan exclusive games to hit NA, but my hopes aren't high on that.

Redemption Reapers and Banner of the Maid are 2 amazing srpgs not part of a franchise. Redemption Reapers was made by people who worked on Fire Emblem games, notably Path of Radiance. Both are exceptional games that could use a little more love.

When I went back in time I took the Falcon Knife Earring with him for a duplicate. Have him dual wield Falcon Knife Earrings for quad hits upon attack command. I seed grinded and maxed strength. Use divide and attack for 12× hits. Use crit adding gear. Totally optional, but you can buff his atk and debuff enemy defense for big number chaos. High propensity to crit and destroys bosses too.

Makes my heart happy to see Alliance Alive getting so much recognition here. One of my favorite modern JRPGs inspired by the golden era of RPGs. Just a fun, jauntily game that was fun to mess with the tactics and the skill leveling up system was a blast. The guilds definitely made things special too and makes it fit perfectly on this list. It's a great game.

Also glad to see Dark Cloud 2. Both the OG and this one are special. Miss playing Dark Cloud tbh, I wish it'd get a remaster or remake and ported to numerous systems so everybody could enjoy a piece of my childhood...

Engage on Maddening does indeed have some maps that have continuous enemy spawns, however they come with the Void Curse skill, which means the enemies net you no exp or sp. As someone who has played higher difficulties, Engage has a pleasingly hard, but balanced highest difficulty in Maddening. Even with as busted as Emblems are, the game is balanced around that with enemies also having Emblem rings, bosses having revival stones, and enemies won't attack your super units if they can't damage or hit them and place priority on squishy, hittable units. Just for the most part well thought out counters. 3H has some seriously busted moves and classes with barely any counters to them and having no weapon triangle makes even the hardest difficulty exploitable. It's easy to make everything flier Emblem and just dominate the game. That in tandem with those dreadful monastery segments makes 3H the "mid" for an FE game as you say, and even then I think all FE is good. *Shrugs*

As for Fates Conquest, it is absolutely one of hardest FE games on highest difficulty, so you'll receive no rebuttal from me. I feel Engage is a spiritual successor to Conquest in terms of exceptional combat and gameplay being the focal point. Engage is more about trying to figure different things that work, whereas Conquest feels more like a puzzle. Engage will have multiple ways of doing something, whereas Conquest there's definitely certain ways you have to play, at least for awhile. Neither are slouches on difficulty though. I specifically mentioned Awakening though just simply because Lunatic+ cos it somehow amps the difficulty up further and can give random stat boosts to enemies sometimes and that point or 2 more in speed can make the full 5 difference and cause you to get doubled by the enemy or prevent your double.

Hard to say what's the hardest giving different play styles and experiences, but on Switch all I can 100% say for sure is it isn't 3H.

On Switch Engage was harder than 3 Houses in higher difficulties. No weapon triangle made 3H exploitable and Engage Maddening takes no prisoners. Awakening on 3DS with that Lunatic+ is probably the hardest NA released FE difficulty.

Absolutely correct with Nocturne. What a fun game that genuinely doesn't care to punish you. All it takes is one unfortunate ambush and you may be screwed just cos of bad luck.

Honestly, just always glad to see mentions of Alliance Alive. One of my favorite JRPGs. Constantly seems to be an underrated gem and it deserves high praises.

Path of Radiance is a masterpiece. One of my 4 favorite Fire Emblem games. I don't care what machine it gets released on, I just want it to eventually be re-released so other people can experience the same magic I have.

So far my go to's for what I want from future installments is combat/gameplay to be as strategic and fun as Engage and a story to be as well written and impactful as Path of Radiance. These 2 games have set the bar for what I want of the series, as I believe they're the best at the main 2 focal points of FE. If you combine a top tier combat gameplay formula and a strong narrative like that, we'd have the perfect FE experience.

Keep the strategic combat and gameplay of Engage and a story as well written as Path of Radiance and we'll talk.

3H would've been vastly improved if not for the dreadful, boring monastery segments, which kills that replay value big time. Leave downtime to Persona.

Friendly reminder that while Pokemon are the most successful monster taming games, they weren't the first: both Shin Megami Tensei and Dragon Quest V did it first/before Pokemon.

I prefer the story to Path of Radiance over Three Houses personally. Both had great stories. Path of Radiance had a wonderful, anti-racism message(not just woke bs), Ike was the first non royal lord by birth in the series and very relatable, had a intricately told story that somehow got enriched with camp conversations, which could go pretty deep. 10/10 game in general.

3H had monastery downtime fluff, which in a way felt both distracting from a gameplay and story point as well. I liked the story, but that and the toxic political drama between the 3 lords (and especially their fans) burnt me out.

3DS is definitely a favorite of mine. I'd put it personally right behind the Switch for me.

I was just thinking that SNES and PS1 were often considered the "Golden age of RPGs" and the past decade we've been getting (from what I've been reading) regarded as a renaissance or second golden age of RPGs and most notably on the Switch, which is now considered the gaming device with the most RPGs, with pretty much almost all 1st party RPGs being released on it since it's release.

Personally putting all the reading hype to the side, 3DS is no slacker and I personally think it should be in the top 3. I'd probably go with my favs being:

1. Switch

2. 3DS

3. Gameboy Advance (SP baby!)

Yeah, I've a thing for handhelds.

(In response to Relayer71)