Ranking All Fire Emblem Games for FIRST TIMERS

Awakening was my first game, and while the Pair-Up mechanic definitely made it hard to move out of, I think it was a very fun spot to start. Sadly the next steps was Conquest then Birthright, and while I enjoyed Conquest on Normal Casual I absolutely got exhausted on how easy Lunatic Classic Birthright was and just didn’t even care to finish it.

Eventually came around to try out Engage and I’m pretty happy, I’ll definitely turn around to 3H and then the classic games.

Me who casually adapts when playing a FE game or basically any other game (That has many or some different mechanics compared to its prequel): Oh? This is new? I’m excited.

I think the only genre of game I will NEVER play would be sports…it’s…fcking repetitive…

Although this doesn’t apply to many racing games

"If you prefer the gameplay of 3H to the rest of the series, go play Persona instead"
Me, read for filth:

my 1st was genealogy and still my favorite. The story and epic scope is unmatched.

I played 3 houses first and I absolutely loved it, but yeah, I think a lot of the kind of non-fire emblemy things were what I really liked about it, so getting into the rest of the series has been a bit tough, but I still just really enjoyed the battle system, so I still want to try to get into the rest of the games!
Currently trying to play through awakening and the characters haven't really been doing it for me as much, but I feel if I give it some more time I'll probably start to enjoy it more, so :)

Sacred Stones was my first FE and it definitely hooked me. Only downside was that playing through Blazing Blade felt like a huge downgrade, I missed the choice of unit upgrades.

SS still has a place in my heart, and it and Awakening remain my favorite FEs, with Fates and Three Houses up there also (for very different reasons, lol)

I played the first FE game available to American Audiences back on GBA solely because Marth from of smash brothers melee and fell in love with the series despite being an otherwise mediocre tactics player. Sacred Stones was the first one I actually finished and enjoyed it immensely. I personally wish that there were more FE games like sacred stones where you fight monsters and navigate an overworld map because it felt like a tactics RPG to me. Rather than boosting one character, i would try my best to boost everyone i can - which ultimately ate up too much of my time. Which despite it all, I still felt like i lost too many people in the end.

Either way, I'm really happy that both the GBA was S tier and I 100% agree with the assessment.

My first fe was birthright then I went straight to conquest. In all honesty it didn’t feel much harder. But conquest was definitely shorter (due to no challenge/xp maps). I played 3 houses on 1 playthrough. And right now I’m partway through another and I’m playing revelations now too. (Yes all on the highest difficulty with permadeath…)
Aaaaan I lost kaze and Gunther due to me forgetting how the pair up mechanic worked and I lost ignats in 3h due to me not caring much about him.

First game for me was sacred stones that game has aged like fine wine i still go back to it

I'm a pretty new player, I started with Awakening and then tried and dropped Sacred Stones. I'd have to agree on Awakening, but Sacred Stones was so boring I dropped it before I met up with Eliwood

Funny thing is the first FE game I've ever played was FE Heroes,
after that I bought Fates/Conquest and I loved it.
It was my entry to full FE games and Nintendo consoles too.

Since then I've played Awakening, Fates/Birthright and Rev, Path of Radiance, Radiant Dawn, Three Houses and Engage.

I started with Radiant Dawn, I’ve never finished another fire emblem because I thought they were always missing something I loved in Radiant Dawn.

Sacred Stones and Path of Radiance being my favorites of the series placed on S made me so happy.

My first fe game was Shadows of Valentia and I definitely got confused when I played Birthright second, but it was enough to hook me in. I'm not missing that map design though. I shiver to think about those poison swamps.

My first fire emblem was the re-release of the first fire emblem on switch. Which was definitely a learning curve and then I jumped to three houses, then FE 7, then Engage.

Absolutely determined to continue playing this series as out of order as possible.

I got and played Path of Radience when it came out, and I was in 5th grade at the time. I thought it was boring in comparison to more action RPGs like Kingdom Hearts and Star Ocean that I was playing at the time. I returned it to Gamestop, and then I finally appreciated Fire Emblem with Awakening. Wish I hadn't returned that game all those years ago.

I disagree with Genealogy's placement. It does a very good job of conveying its mechanics in-game without a dedicated tutorial (which, side tangent, I personally dislike dedicated tutorials a la FE7 but that is just me) even if you don't have the manual in front of you, it has what is basically built-in save states, and even it's odd item management I think adds to the enrichment for new players as it encourages resource management more and better than basically any other Fire Emblem. It also has a lot of replay value, with the sheer amount of units there are to use and the pairing mechanics allowing for interesting experimentation for second gen. The arena makes leveling up units way less daunting than in other games since you can't lose a unit to the arena and you can do it at any point. I think of all the classic games, somewhat clunky trading system aside, FE4 is one of the best games to introduce a new player to, and definitely the best of the pre-GBA games at the very least.

I don't really understand why you put Sacred Stones as S tier w your criteria when you already noted all those flaws (especially because you noted that awakening is A tier Because of those Same Reasons, but awakening's difficulty modes actually cater to that ability??). With what you said, it'd be A tier, but I'd honestly put it as B tier because of the split paths that set up an expectation of multiple story paths which Isn't the case in Most fire emblem games

Radiant Dawn is what drew me to Fire Emblem. After finishing every other game, I still think Radiant dawn is the best game of the series, Three Houses a close 2nd.

Shadow Dragon (2010) was my intro, and it's definitely one of the best remakes and good for new players. I went from it to Sacred Stones and found the latter much easier, but also much more fun.

Honestly I feel like the "First fire emblem game" tier list is just "Play FE7, its the absolute best FE first timer game, after that, here's my recs: ..." And then you can give recs on the second FE game someone plays lol

I started with Awakening and have since played every FE game afterwards. I have only gone back and played Blazing Blade to see where it all started (internationally). It was a nice time, and I can see it being a good start, but I can't say I'm very interested in playing the older games, except maybe Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn.

Before Watching, If Sacred Stones, Awakening, and everything after Awakening, are not above all the stuff before hand, we riot.

While being different from the the franchise is a bit of a negative i think their is some benefit. Their are a lot people who are against trying new shit lol. You got to bait them in with something they already like. ie. Anime power fatasy waifu dating sim are very powerful things for drawing in players. (Theirs a reason why newer games sell so well.) For people like that it could be the only way too get them to try it in the first place and you just gotta hope they get hooked on the core gameplay.

Tldr you gotta pander to ypur friends interest their isnt 1 perfect intro game

again, FE7. Probably my fav. MOST TIMES I don't beat the final level. Or 90% of my units die or can't even deal 1 dmg, & get 1 shot. I can't use 80% of the legendary weapons. It makes me feel like i just play wrong.

The rest of the game i feel fine kinda. Also geez was Conquest's last level INSANELY hard.

FE8, & 3 Houses have been the only ones i feel normal is comfortably easy, so i play on hard.

But then again.. I was a 'Special' kid. I'm Autistic + Asp-burgers. So perhaps my judgment & skill isn't as good as a normal person's.

Generally speaking, I entirely agree.

I have played most every game. Though being a scrub like me who can BARELY beat FE Games, I'd rate games with grinding options higher. With grinding, I can make my fav units viable and or keep my entire army on par.

Idk if I just get attached to TRASH characters or what. But at times end game feels near utterly impossible unless a unit is BUSTED like Seth. Every time I get to the end of FE7, I kill the dragon by chance, & very very very barely.

Idk. Just feels like 5/30-ish units are ever end game ready, even if I use only them the full game. But I NEVER use late game recruits. So.... Trash units that I stubbornly use...?

My first FE game was fates, I was bored while looking through my brother's 3ds and decided to play this game I knew nothing about and I. Had. So much fun. It's not a great game, but it got me hooked into what the rest of the series had to offer.
I tried awakening next but I didnt have that much fun with it so I stopped. Decided to try FE8 since it was on the 3ds aswell and I LOVED IT; that, I think was my real gateway to the rest of the series so I definitely agree with FE8 being on S tier.
Tried echoes next, loved it but didnt get to finish it before my brother sold his 3ds and then I just tried playing other fire emblems I had a spike of interest it. So far I've FINISHED, in order: All 3 fates, FE8, FE4, FE7, FE9, and FE Engage. Currently doing a FE6 playthrough on hard mode, having fun so far.
Oh, and as a bonus, my birthday is shared with this series (April 20th). It's almost like it was meant to be.

algo

Ive played fe7 8 awakening fates sov engage and ive been trying to play 3h but 3h just bores the hell put of me with the monastery dont get me wrong i love the characters and the story so far but the monastery just ruins the experience for me

My first Fire Emblem game was Three Houses. When Byleth was introduced to Smash Ultimate, I was one of those who were annoyed to have another Fire Emblem swordfighter, but then I heard the music from the stage and Byleth’s victory theme and that convinced me to try Three Houses. I absolutely loved it, and it became one of my favourite games ever.

I then played Fates, then Awakening, then Echoes (though I didn’t finish it), then Engage. None of them quite lived up to Three Houses in terms of the story and characters (it was the story, supports, and academy/students setting of Houses which made me love it) but I did have a blast with Fates and Engage either way. Though Engage was a big disappointment story wise (I just wasn’t into the more simple and cartoony vibe) its gameplay is amazing.

I do want to try older FE games but I haven’t got around to it. I’m curious to try Thracia since I like the idea of a ragtag rebel group building up their forces, and also Ike’s 2 games interest me (I seem to hear a lot of good about them).

Fire Emblem Gba rom hacks are the best 👌🏾

I wish more franchises had people like you that make thoughtfully put-together lists that aren’t about which game is “better”, but rather which game is “easier for a beginner to appreciate”. Really enjoyed this, I’m going to check out some of these games now!

Where is heroes?!

Fe8 was my introduction. I have yet to move on after trying fe6 😂

Personally, I think if I had started with any game other than PoR, I wouldn't have continued with the franchise or gone back to earlier games. Though, I will say that the only reason I would have played a second FE game if I started with RD is knowing that it was a sequel.

Incoming potentially unpopular opinion: I actually really love the weapons mechanics in Fates though. I like the drawbacks of using powerful weapons and the boons to stats with weaker weapons. I know that the Smith mechanic can lead to grinding in Birthright and Revelations, but I still like it.

I think Shadow Dragon giving the player replacement units if too many characters die is a really good mercy mechanic that’s good to ease players into the permadeath system.

Why isn’t engage in here? It would’ve been out by this point.

My first Fire emblem was 6 and my god was that such a rough starting point. Just constantly destroyed me over and over again. I got to chapter 20 and just kept getting bodied in Sacae omg it was awful. I stopped playing for like 3 years and then I picked up Birthright when it came out in the States in early 2016 and liked it again.

I started with 7 on gba back in like 2004?this shit was so hard but the only thing that was on gba that was good was Pokemon. I obliterated those games. FE7 obliterated me. It was amazing. They only get better the further you go back. Thracia 776 is the best fe game of all time lol

Started playing FE7 recently since it’s on the GBA expansion for Nintendo Switch Online and it’s my first Fire Emblem game. Really enjoying it so far and I started with Lyn’s prologue story which was super helpful to learn the mechanics and get used to it being so text heavy. Now I’m really invested in the story. Also in terms of accessibility, (this may be controversial but…) the ability to create suspend points and rewind time with NSO’s emulation software is pretty helpful if you make a bad call and lose a valuable unit from a stupid mistake.

Three Houses looks very much more like a life sim than a tactical strategy RPG which is why I never picked it up.

I love POR so much and it was my first FE. I completely feel you on 3 Houses about the school part. I just want to get in the action not run around the school for hours. I did like it at first but got burnt out fast because of it.

Three Houses is good if you are a persona fan

I actually have the opposite take on the world maps. I think those are the games I'd show people first because some people like to grind and like that sandbox kinda gameplay where you can adjust the difficulty of the game based on how much time you put in. So Sacred Stones, Awakening, and Three Houses are the ones I'd point people to first

I'm a little late to the party, but I think a criterion that would've been good to include is whether or not it was released outside Japan. For example, despite Geneology having a great story and some really cool mechanics and design, the lack of an official Western release means the only way to play it and understand it is to emulate it and patch it with a fan translation. This can be done, but a lot of people are going to be turned off by the extra hoops you have to jump through to play it. Granted, most of the games without an International release aren't good introductions for other reasons as well, but I really do think accessibility is another important factor.

LMAO genealogy was my first FE game that i completed thanks to a friend (i had bought birthright but dropped it years ago and forgot about it). this was how i got into the series. i grew up on heroes of might and magic, which is a completely different type of strategy, but i feel like fe4 is the one thats the closest what i want.

but starting with it is bad, cuz the games pretty easy compared to FE5 or FE6 (the gba inject on 3ds doesnt have savestates so ughh). and after FE4 all the maps feel so small and it feels like i just need to figure out how to do a bunch of puzzles by coming up with a perfect sequence but im too reckless for that shit. FE4 felt more like an open adventure, even though i skipped all the plot. it also gives you ingame autosave AND mitigates the weapon durability problem, and item management is my least favouritet thing in any rpg.

i think FE4 mightve just gaslit me into liking fire emblem cuz i dropped FE6 after like 40 hours, only getting to 14x. only other game I completed is Echoes (very fun!). im on thracia now chapter 15, started couple days ago and honestly savestates just go a long way lol. thracia's a bit unhinged but i have a helpful friend, so it's still fun. so maybe if i get a proper emulator i might enjoy the GBA games more but for the time being i feel like im just approaching the series in a wrong way. like my brain's wired for a different type of experience so im trying to mold FE into something else. idk.

Wait no Engage ranking?

As whole I agree... BUUUUT... Sacred Stones has no right to be nowhere closee to Blazing Blade and Path of Radiance. Grinding trap is too big demerit and I think it's even worse then in Awakening. I would put it beside Binding Blade at best.

In other hand I do think there is arguement to be made for 3H to be S tier. There are some differences from other games, but I do think it keeps very well with spirit of franchise.

I played 3H first and adored it (I’m 500+ hours in on like my 7th playthrough lol) and I had to force myself to get even halfway through Engage, bc I was bored silly by the story. The gameplay in engage pulled me through but barely.

That being said I really want to play genealogy now because I liked Sigurd a lot in engage (considering he has very little screen time). But I don’t know how to get it in English in my area 😔