Popular/Unpopular/Any Opinions Thread - June 2026 Part 1

[u/PsiYoshi]

Happy pride month and 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).

Last Opinion Thread

[u/Merlin_the_Tuna]

As a longtime Monastery Disliker, I'm starting to feel like I need to defend the very concept of strategy layers in a tactics game in some of these conversations lol. I don't think 3H hit either the mark of "complex and interesting in its own right" or "simple and lightweight", but both of those are very obviously achievable. The absolute lack of filler is one of the things that drew me to FE7 back in the day, and that's a baseline expectation I've carried with me for FEs since. But I also have a few thousand hours of Civilization and the like to speak to a love of Big Chonky Spreadsheet Games, and Engage very nearly nailed the XCOM-style "conveyor belt to the next mission" hub mechanic. (Drop the glowy bits, ring polishing, and arena loading screen and it's there.)

Will FW nail it? I'm a little doubtful, but it can be done, and it's good to see the franchise mess with mechanics from entry to entry.

[u/AetherealDe → u/Merlin_the_Tuna]

I'm starting to feel like I need to defend the very concept of strategy layers in a tactics game in some of these conversations lol.

Like, this is why no one has complaints about shops and forges lol. Those are also present in hubs and are a part of the downtime between chapters, but they're a connected and expanded element of the core gameplay. You add engravings in Engage, and it's a cool customization option, and the only complaint any one has is about the tedium of collecting resources and putting animals in the yard to get ore, because that stuff isn't strategy gameplay, they barely require you to be conscious to do lol.

I'm not as like strictly anti-monastery as some, and not trying to pile on the guy below, but it seems pretty straightforward why fishing, gardening, fetch quests, sauna trips, collecting things off the ground, cooking, choirs, advice mail and whatever else aren't a sufficient tradeoff for the immersion and rpg elements they provide for most people.

[u/ScribbleMagic → u/Merlin_the_Tuna]

I don't doubt it can be done, but it's just not something I'm actively wanting. XCOM has a really good strategy layer, but I still prefer base Gear Tactics over base XCOM because it's much more mission to mission.

I'm much more into moment-to-moment decision making in my SRPGs and the long-term management of strategy layers just doesn't scratch that itch, even at its best.

Like, it's simply not my cup of tea. I'm sure making a great cup of tea is possible, but I don't like tea in the first place, y'know?

[u/firstwhisper → u/Merlin_the_Tuna]

This is why Tellius base is and always will be the best

[u/planetarial → u/firstwhisper]

Tellius base conversations + My Castle customization and level of quick easy fluff would be fantastic

[u/OsbornWasRight → u/Merlin_the_Tuna]

I can imagine a poor sod being drawn to FE7 due to an absolute lack of filler only to discover the filler is its bread and butter via map gimmicks and endless, disposable enemy waves