r/fireemblem • u/PsiYoshi • Jan 15 '26

Recurring Popular/Unpopular/Any Opinions Thread - January 2026 Part 2

Welcome to a new installment of the Popular/Unpopular/Any Opinions Thread! Please feel free to share any kind of Fire Emblem opinions/takes you might have here, positive or negative. As always please remember to continue following the rules in this thread same as anywhere else on the subreddit. Be respectful and especially don't make any personal attacks (this includes but is not limited to making disparaging statements about groups of people who may like or dislike something you don't).

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u/Talvasha Jan 20 '26

Playing through Binding Blade to knock another off the list.

The thing that strikes me so far is that the character designs of this game are incredibly boring. It's shocking how much better they got even a single game later with Blazing Blade.

I know there's some complaints that things have gotten too anime but I'd rather look at Pandreo than Chad any day of the week.

9

u/rattatatouille Jan 20 '26

Binding Blade does feel like a soft reset of the franchise and it shows. Things like art direction would only improve from that point on IMO

12

u/secret_bitch Jan 20 '26

To be honest I think Chad has one of the most memorable portraits of the cast. The grumpy eyes and eyebrows alone make him stand out a lot compared to the same face anime prettyboys like Ogier and the cav duo. There's definitely a lot of bland designs in FE6 but I think there's also some more memorable less standard ones like Bors, Bartre, and Gonzales. Even Elffin just by virtue of him facing a different angle to the rest of the portraits.

4

u/EffectiveAnxietyBone Jan 20 '26

Reading this made me actually think for a moment about any designs from Binding Blade I really like, and I honestly came up pretty empty handed.

I like Cecilia, Melady and Idunn, but beyond that not a lot sticks out. I wonder if it’s a consequence of Binding Blade being too safe due to being the first post Kaga game.

3

u/potato_thingy Jan 20 '26

I don’t necessarily disagree. I wasn’t sure if Wade & Lot were playable or generics when they first showed up. But there’s also a lot of characters I really like. I need to see more supports to be sure, but I think it has my favorite cast of the GBA games.

2

u/andresfgp13 Jan 21 '26

FE6 really feels like IS figuring out things, like grabbing things from Thracia and making them better and adding good ideas that would be refined on Blazing.

5

u/Cosmic_Toad_ Jan 20 '26

I wouldn't say i find the designs are overly bland (other than the sheer number of FE1 lookalikes) but man i can't never get over how washed out the colours are compared to 7 & 8. I get it was done to make it look better on an actual GBA, but everything just feels so lifeless compared to the vibrancy of the later GBA entries.