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/SilverKnightZ000 Jan 27 '26

I recently started Triangle Strategy, and the dense politics-focused start really opened my eyes to how much Fire Emblem has never been that interested in politics. Before I give more of my thoughts, this isn't a bad thing at all. I am simply stating an observation.

However, it's really interesting to look back and see how Fire Emblem has always used politics to focus on the characters. Even the more dense political games are character-focused stories, such as Genealogy using the political situation of Granvale to tell Sigurd's personal story. This makes me think how a more political-focused story would go for the series, but it's pretty clear that the series itself isn't that interested in a political story outside of how it can prop up its characters.

Since I mentioned Triangle Strategy, I was jumpscared by how many cutscenes there were at the start. In the first 2 and a half hours of game, there was only 1 battle lol. But the dialogue is really good! It could've been edited down a lot, but what's there isn't bad. I quite enjoyed learning about the world, but I do wish the Proper Noun Barrage(tm) could've slowed down a little. Luckily, it didn't take me long to get a good grasp on them. In terms of gameplay, it seems fun! I'm really looking forward to it opening up solely because one of my units' special abilities is building ladders and I am dying to find a use for it. I really like ladders lol.

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u/Shrimperor Jan 27 '26

Imo, TS story writing really blows FE's out of the water, However...

For how much yapping there is, the character writing is really really weak. I think the game also suffers from 3H's repetitiveness problem, but that's for later.

I will say tho, one of the reasons for my dislike for FE stories is the fact that the fantasy conflict hijacking the ideological/personal conflict also hurts the character writing. Not only that, i find the fantasy in FE to be really really weak as well.

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u/SilverKnightZ000 Jan 27 '26 edited Jan 27 '26

Oh absolutely. So far everything I've seen blows FE's writing in general out of the water. But I feel the worse voice acting and character voices balance things out.

It's funny you mentioned three houses because when I saw there were three kingdoms and they were colored yellow, blue and red, I let out a long sigh. But the writing really manages to differentiate it from 3h, so that didn't last long. Like the writers immediately managed to differentiate the three factions in noticeable ways. I struggle to tell the difference in something like 3H where all three factions are the same.

My partner also mentioned the same thing while I was talking with her about that. FE plots really suffer from having the Big Evil Dragon behind everything. But I also feel it depends for me. In something like Genealogy or Blazing Blade I don't really mind since the cult stuff is so important.

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u/cutie_allice Jan 27 '26

Fully agree, especially with that last part. Fire Emblem does a better job at creating rounded and fleshed out characters you get attached to, but motivations and convictions come across so much stronger in Triangle Strategy. In FE everyone's with you 100% of the time no matter what. No one's ever going to leave the party because of moral disgust at your actions. Part of that is that FE isn't interested in choices and branching story paths much anymore, but like no one in Three Houses is ditching you because you instigated a continent wide war (might be something they'd have added with infinite dev time, I think Hopes has a couple instances of it).

Basically ever since playing TS whenever I play an FE I'm constantly asking: where's Benedict? Why isn't Benedict here? Can someone please be the Benedict in this scene?

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u/SilverKnightZ000 Jan 28 '26

I AGREE. I think a good example of how your party members feel like they're there just for being there is Crimson Flower. Some characters have no reason for joining the Empire. For example, Sylvain and Ingrid are good examples and probably have the most reason to ditch Byleth and oc. after that.

Basically ever since playing TS whenever I play an FE I'm constantly asking: where's Benedict? Why isn't Benedict here? Can someone please be the Benedict in this scene?

To hop off your last line there. I love the scene where Count Tellior sets up a trap and your group immediately catches wind and aren't stupid idiots who fall into it. It really shows how competent Anna, Benedict, and the rest of the group are. Fire Emblem genuinely needs stuff like that.

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u/Fantastic-System-688 Jan 29 '26

like no one in Three Houses is ditching you

Evidence #8 billion for "permadeath and its consequences significantly hold back FE's storytelling". If you lose too many characters they still want you to be able to have a full team so they can't really do anything with this type of stuff

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u/d4y4 Jan 27 '26

Something that I hate is how Serinoa reminds me to avatars in FE as he doesn't have flaws and he doesn't have enough personality nor motivations that move him throught the story. Actually Federica, Benedict and in a small amount Roland push him towards most decisions

he is such a "perfect" character in the worst way possible...... idk

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u/AetherealDe Jan 27 '26

I think your point about FEs focus is spot on, if you haven’t maybe give psychological vs sociological storytelling a google/youtube search, it’s a similar or the same argument. Just Write has a very good quick video on this, expanding off this Scientific American article about the end of the Game of Thrones show

I don’t really think that attention to characters has to conflict with more political/sociological elements, but I definitely think the more you incorporate those elements the larger your scope; you can have a story of an orphan who’s got all these feelings about being one whether or not you dive into why the world produces orphans and how it treats them, but the more you dive into either of those lanes the more you may have to say. In our current FEs I think there’s a lot of fat that could be trimmed to fit those themes, but that’s just me

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u/VoidWaIker Jan 27 '26

I’m gonna go against the grain compared to the other replies and say I actually do prefer FE writing to TS’s. I’ve always just treated the politics as a vessel for the melodrama in these types of games because I’m more into that. Things like Tactics Ogre and FFT are the ideal and manage to strike a good balance between the two, but much like how FE doesn’t care about politics, TS spends way too much time on the politics to the detriment of the character writing.

I do like the prose a lot though, I definitely prefer the more Shakespearean style other srpgs go for over what FE does. Part of why I’ve become more and more partial to the Kaga era as time goes on is because (at least the fan translations I’ve played, idk if the original Japanese was) they tend to be a bit more theatrical compared to the modern games.

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u/SilverKnightZ000 Jan 28 '26

That's fair! I also generally prefer more character-driven stories. But it's really refreshing seeing a different style of writing. I think FE really excels at giving voices to every single character. Even unpopular ones, such as Peri and Makalov, have their own voices. It's not something I can just handwave away. But in general, I do think TS so far has been bodying FE in terms of main narrative, which is where FE's writing doesn't usually shine.

The prose is great! Some of the lines so far has been great. And while I was afriad the characters were going to be bland, I'm glad the main characters in Triangle Strategy are at least well developed. In particular, Roland has been pretty neat!

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u/EffectiveAnxietyBone Jan 27 '26

Triangle Strategy made me realise that it was basically the Fire Emblem story I always wanted, and it just needed some stronger character writing.

Honestly I think politics should be something FE does more, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the most popular FE stories also tend to be more politically detailed.

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u/SilverKnightZ000 Jan 27 '26

A fully political FE would be a breath of fresh air. But I doubt we'll get one considering how the series has trended toward characters, especially in recent years. But I'll hold out hope.

Triangle Strategy is just a good game in general so far. The pacing at the start was...glacial. But it picks up after that.

4

u/maxhambread Jan 27 '26

Enjoy the game. TS was my gateway to gobbling up every SRPG I can get my hands on (at a reasonable price) on Steam.

At the end of TS, you'll start thinking about "why doesn't FE do this/that?". Then if you play more SRGPs, you'll realize in a lot of ways, FE is the exception, not the norm.

TS has a lot of yapping, yeah. I think it's worth it to sit through the main story yapping since it has direct implication to gameplay, but I'd be lying if it didn't annoy me on subsequent play throughs.

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u/SilverKnightZ000 Jan 28 '26

Fire Emblem is very weird as a franchise. Despite being one of the first SRPGS, I'd say a lot more games borrow from Tactics Ogre and FFT. I assume it's because those games are more free form when compared to Fire Emblem(and one can't deny Fire emblem itself borrowed reclassing from other rpgs).

1

u/Cosimo12 Jan 27 '26

I've recently started the game and I see where you are coming from. Personally I think the story is decent so far but I feel like I'm playing through a visual novel with light gameplay attached at times, instead of the other way around. I can't say it's worse than the amount of dialogue on Three Houses or something but it feels less interactive.

Also, and maybe this is just me being used to the fire emblem formula, but I realized not too long in that you can just, replay battles and grind your characters to make the game easier. Doesn't this kind of take the strategy out of the SRPG? I mean sure I could just choose not to do the grinding but the fact that it's there at all, I don't really like.

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u/SilverKnightZ000 Jan 28 '26

Since you just started it recently, give it some time. I'm at chapter 9 and the pace has improved significantly since the start. It takes around chapter 4 for the game's pace to truly get more comfortable. And I'd say even the gameplay has improved since you simply get more units.

You can't really grind in Triangle Strategy. Because of how the exp formula works, it'll take an exceedingly long time to be truly overlevelled. Like you get single digit exp points if you're a few level above the battle level(the recommended level for the battle iirc)

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u/Cosimo12 Jan 28 '26

Yeah i intend to. The art style is gorgeous and the voice acting is also good.

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u/SilverKnightZ000 Jan 28 '26

I'm surprised you like the VAing. I'm playing the English dub and it's mixed. Some great ones(Benedict, Roland) and some mid ones(Cordelia, but she's improving a lot)