You see, Fire Emblem is a tricky series. I have a love/hate relationship with tactic rpgs, I really enjoy moving my characters across a board and watch them unleash their power in a seemingly realistic scene, where everyone else is there too, like a turn based rpg but way more dynamic where positioning and a lot of other stuff like terrain and orientation matter too, the problem is that usually the rest of the usual jrpg experience is partially lost, as the whole dungeon exploring or walking around the world and visiting towns is missing, usually having more of a hub world or menu, were you can do some cool stuff like take sidequests and customize your party.
The thing is, Fire Emblem doesn't have much of that either, it's way more similar to more pure tactics/strategy games like advance wars (made by the same people woah), than other staple tactic rpgs like Final Fantasy Tactics and Disgaea/Nippon Ichi games.
You see, your army in FE is disposable, and the game is balanced so keeping everyone alive is a challenge, yet makes the characters more than generic units so you grow attached to them, that's a cool thing I guess, but it still functions pretty similar to advance wars, where your army is both disposable and renewable, but the units have set dynamics instead of the rpg element in FE; good units in Advance Wars are always good, in FE you have to level up and good units may not be good forever, and bad ones can rise above with proper care, so the style of managing your army is very different, the way the game actually proceeds, however, is very similar; use your units strengths against the weakness of the enemy while keeping them safe (also take advantage of terrain), archers kill Pegasus knights, anti air tanks kill planes, its basically the same thing.
Its not like that's bad, it's that that's all there is to it, like in advance wars, you press forward, map after map, there's dialogue yes, but its usually like just a simple visual novel where the story is just basic war stuff, FE is all about its characters, and if you don't like them (and you may well not like them, they are not really writing landmarks) there is almost nothing to enjoy aside from playing map after map, and if you actually expect something more like Disgaea or FFT, you will be disappointed (like me).
That's why FE Echoes, Shadows of Valentia (and Gaiden to an extent) is so nice and refreshing to me, even more after playing both Awakening and Birthright, it's a very different experience, it has a very different flavor, and it's definitely more of my taste.
It's not that hard to explain, SoV just has more to do than just do map after map, and more to the story than just the characters.
First of all, this is a remake, of a very old game, one that didn't age really well, and the map design and battles are simple, limited and repetitive compared to newer iterations in the franchise, this remake upgrades the most in the presentation side, graphics, the music, the characters, even the world are heavily revamped and the production values are incredible, yet the gameplay is mostly the same as it was before, so this makes for a very new yet very nostalgic experience, you have to be prepared to play something that is still a famicom game at its core.
The battles is nothing to write home about, its just very basic Fire Emblem, the speed of gaiden was pretty slow so the modern upgrades really make it go way smoother and the game is a bit rebalanced to make for a better experience, its not great, but it does the job very well. The game also has new support conversations between specific characters, you wont be marrying anyone with everyone but you get to know every character well enough, way better than in the original (and fully voiced too!).
What I want to talk about is everything else! and I can talk about it, because there's actually things to do other than to do map after map, there's villages!, there's dungeons!, there's world building! side quests! deeper forging! a-and grinding...
And that sort of stuff matters to me, a lot, it may not be what Fire Emblem really is about, but I feel like it is what jrpgs are about, the villages have people with things to say and needs to fulfill, they make the world feel real, the dungeons don't have much to do aside from running around, breaking stuff and fighting, but they all feel different, and help the world get richer too (if you pay attention).
It may seem like it's just generic stuff to some people, but I feel like its truly great, actually getting to know what the people in each country thinks of the other outside of "we are at warrrr", and there's really subtle details in the dungeons too, like seeing the bodies hanged in the cells in a creepy prison dungeon, watching the decay of the tombs in an underground graveyard, every dungeon has this tiny love for detail, it makes me smile.
The equipment system is really interesting too, because everyone can only have one item at the time (but it wont break, ever), and weapons can be upgraded at the cost of the valuable silver and golden marks (coins), you need to upgrade your weapons, but if you don't want to grind for hours you have to think wisely and ration what you get more naturally, and you have to really think what to give everybody, and even how to move around and swap items if needed, because sometimes you can't afford to have two of the same item, or there's only one in the game, period.
But this really isn't me rambling about "problems" in the Fire Emblem franchise, it's more about me wishing for a game franchise to be something it isn't, then it magically becomes true, it's almost surreal
Maybe I should just play Shining Force already...
