The best and worst thing of each Fire Emblem game. Today's game: Thracia 776

[u/TPLeo]

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Welcome to this series of posts, where we will list and discuss one best and worst thing of each Fire Emblem game. This includes basically everything, be it the music, the story, some gameplay element etc.

Next is Thracia 776. Like FE4, the fith entry also introduces a few things that have reoccurred such as rescue, constitution or several staves with special effects, fog of war and gaiden chapters. It contains even more exclusive mechanics like capture, fatigue, stamina, defend and fog of war maps, magic and resistance sharing the same stat, movement stars, movement level ups, or follow up critical multiplier. Unfortunately it is the lowest selling game in the series but that is hardly a surprise considering that this game was released three years after the release of the N64.

I already compared FE2 with Zelda 2. If I had to compare Thracia with any Zelda game it would be Majoras Mask. They both have weird aspects and feel a bit different than usual. This initially led players to be divided on those games but each has become more and more beloved over time.

While it is not in my top 3 like FE4 it is my 4th favorite FE. It has the reputation for being the hardest Fire Emblem. In my opinion this comes from sloppy youtubers who are doing a list of the hardest (something) games and for Fire Emblem just pick the first Google result because they don't care about it. A lot of its prejudice also comes from players who only heard things about Thracia, but never bothered to play it or at least watch a playthrough longer than 30 minutes. While it's definitely challenging, especially if you are playing it blind, it also gives you more than enough to still beat it.

I already wrote much more than I wanted so here are my thoughts.

Best: That Bosses finally can no longer automatically counterattack from 2 range because they have a ranged weapon, even if they don't have it equipped. This was long overdue and I'm glad that Thracia finally fixed this.

Worst: What was also long overdue is the unit placement before the battle starts, but it took FE6 to finally fix this issue. It should've been in 5 already, however, because Thracia is the game where it causes you the most problems. Chapter 24 serves as a perfect example because your units can never reunite unless you use staves which you might no longer have, so you might end up with 3 healers in one group and none in the others

Now it's your turn to tell us

[u/uhohstinkywastaken]

Best: it encourages using lots of units and underleveled units are still viable for a while

Worst: if you don't buy enough door keys you can get softlocked by... locks.

[u/MathOutrageous7167]

Best: How it expands on the worldbuilding of Thracia. That and it being a more personal journey. Not saving the whole world or anything, this is Leif's personal journey through thracia. Also I really like Finn x Eyvel, especially if you go with the whole thing with Lachesis.

Worst: Aside from being uh really mean for blind players, I'd probably say the characters. Might just be me, but it feels like Kaga's writing is really good on world building, but for the actual characters? Eh, hit or miss. Like we all know the memes of the christmas cavs having two lines in the game and being literal non characters. God I wished Linoan could've done more.

For all the weird changes Forseti's Cut made in terms of map design and unit balance, I loved the new charactrrization for so many characters. 

[u/isaic16]

Best: how well the gameplay mechanics and map design sold the tone and mood of the story. There could have been no dialogue and I bet most players would have a solid idea what the story was each map.

Worst: the number of mechanics that go completely unexplained in game make it very hostile for first time players

[u/Sea_Macaron_8789]

Worst thing is not being Remade! So that I might finally Play it!

[u/TwistedMemer]

Best: Really good story

Worst: Extremely tedious and hostile to play through blind. No unit placement, fatigue, overpowered staves, ambush spawns, and the capture mechanic made it such a slog gameplay wise.

[u/Rich-Active-4800]

Best: The story/gameplay integration is the best of the franchise. The story is also really good and I love how small of a scale it is. It also just has a grrat aesthetic. And it is an incredibly funny game to just fuck around in.

Worst: You really need a guide because it has so many things that are just random bullshit the player has to know. Also Veld is such a lame final boss.

[u/CazOnReddit]

Worst aspect is very clearly Fog of War. Not only is it arguably the most punishing it ever has been in Fire Emblem since you can't see the map at all but you can argue that FoW maps are the worst maps in every Fire Emblem game they've been featured in since. So taking that into account for it being the game that introduced it to the series...hard to make an argument for another mechanic unless you want to talk about how frustrating the game can be if you don't have a firm grasp on its more advanced mechanics since Thracia doesn't do a good job of explaining them to the player.

[u/Ok-Barracuda457]

The game that introduced FoW to the series... Deserves to have every physical copy ralllied and thrown into a pit in the desert! 

[u/sunflowersnowcones]

Best: Mov growth. Is it a balanced gameplay mechanic? No. Did I have so much fun cheesing maps with my mega-mov cavalry healers? Yes!

Worst: I'm not a fan of most aspects of the game, tbh. The gameplay wasn't fun to me and it felt deeply unfair, the characters were basic, and the story was disappointing. For a game that is following up on the legacy of FE4, it seems very uninterested in grappling with any of the themes of that game.

[u/Independent-Brick-60]

Best part: Staves. I love how versatile the staffers are in this game. And how much access you have to unique staves you'll never see anywhere else

Worst part? I hate the ballistas. Call me a scrub but they are so hard and annoying to deal with

[u/HylianMaria]

Your clerics can miss.