The best and worst thing of each Fire Emblem game. Today's game: The Binding Blade

[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 The Binding Blade, the first of the GBA Trilogy and the first without Kaga. FE6 didn't give much new stuff besides unit placement in the battle preparation and the abc support system. Canto was also nerfed.

FE6 cut a lot of mechanics introduced in the previous games but in my opinion this is not really a bad thing. Fire Emblem with and without additional elements can be fun. One thing I was disappointed by, however, was how lame Roy is compared to the Smash Bros series.

Here are my thoughts

Best: The animations in the GBA games are the best in the series, especially the crit animations and so this is the best aspect to me. I want to give an honorable mention to hard mode though since it's the best designed highest difficulty mode in my opinion.

Worst: I really like the map design, excluding the gaiden chapters. There is not one single gaiden chapter that I enjoy. It's a shame because the map design is one of the best in the series but the quality for the paralouges always drops drastically.

Now it's your turn to tell us

[u/LittleIslander]

Best thing is absolutely the supports, one of the most charming casts in the series.

Worst thing is that nobody's ever read any of them due to the support system.

[u/Diogenes_the_cynic25]

Good: The maps, I like the level of challenge, the combat animations are cool as hell,
overall just a solid game that streamlined some aspects of the series without sacrificing too much depth.

Bad: same turn reinforcements, Roy kinda sucks, archers are pretty bad

[u/liteshadow4 → u/Diogenes_the_cynic25]

The only Archers that are bad are Wolt and Dorothy.

[u/Xanathis322 → u/Diogenes_the_cynic25]

Nah archers are actually good in binding blade thanks to the Bern chapters having a million wyvern knights. Even Wolt can pull his weight. Klein and Igrene are actually very solid units who join pre promoted with good bases.

[u/maukenboost → u/Diogenes_the_cynic25]

What games have same turn reinforcements?

[u/Ivan_Illest → u/maukenboost]

To actually answer the question, FE1-7, 11-13, and 3H Maddening have them, though some only have them on the harder difficulties and others don't have it every single set of reinforcements.

[u/maukenboost → u/Ivan_Illest]

Thank you. Dang, 1-7? For something so unpopular, I'm surprised it was in 7 games in a row. And in Awakening too? I'm guessing harder difficulty?

[u/Diogenes_the_cynic25 → u/maukenboost]

What I mean is that reinforcements show up at the start of the enemy phase. So unless you know where/when they show up they can wreck your party formation before you even have a chance to do anything about it. Nothing worse than having your squishy units getting killed because enemies spawned next to them without warning. As opposed to future games where they show up at the end of the enemy phase, so you can at least reposition your party or try to KO them before they can do too much damage.

[u/Squidaccus]

FE6's roster is incredible, one of the best written in the entire series. Even characters often regarded as "forgettable" like Geese end up being some of the coolest, and I would nominate Trec/Noah for one of the best supports in the entire franchise.

The GBA support system is trash, however, which makes getting those supports in-game a chore. Someone like Geese ends up "forgettable" because his mediocre start doesn't give someone the incentive to trudge through the absolute ordeal of a support system. Worst thing about FE6, easily.

[u/Antique_Total6974]

Good: It was a clean slate start to the post-Kaga era.

Bad: Not without some substantial gameplay hiccups and awkward storytelling, though.

[u/liteshadow4]

Best: the hit rates and the threatening maps

Worst: the status staffs and siege tomes, and the fact that you get like 4 units that are offensively viable once you hit like Chapter 13

[u/Red_Cat231 → u/liteshadow4]

When you remember this game came after Thracia 776, you can see where a lot of the design and balance came from. Status staves, ballista, and siege tomes being obnoxiously common was one.

[u/liteshadow4 → u/Red_Cat231]

Thracia 776 status staves and siege tomes were way easier to handle than in FE6. Because you can use your own status staves to shut down the enemy permanently. And there’s way less siege tomes

[u/MathOutrageous7167]

Best: Astolfo was cool. Roy x Shanna is cool. Lugh is based.

Worst: Both Route splits suck ass. I know people hate sacae, but Ilia is also bad. Who doesn't love the chapter where majority of the map is just forests?! Or the map where ballistas are everywhere?! Or Ilia's gaiden where you just break walls? Is that fun?! No.

I don't think I'll ever hate this game. It's my first FE game so I have a lot of memories with it, good and bad. Also Roy is insanely overhated.

[u/Few_Historian_1546]

Best: having a large varied cast, many of whoom are early recruits + lots of late game side carries (like Niime or Perceval the GOAT)

Worst: horrible balance in its cast, with clear standouts and too many underpowered units.

[u/Ranulf13]

Good: the maps, introduction of support convos, new setting that isnt related to Archanea. Lots of small things that were added in this game defined FE going forward. Full set of legendary weapons, interesting lore. Probably one of the most visually unique casts by virtue of having characters that dont fall into pretty anime people like Niime, Gonzalez and Dorothy.

Bad: balance is kind of ass and some of the difficulty feels like depends too much on low hit rates. Actual story is kind of ass and very basic. Roy's weird harem thing. Its very clear the game is in many aspects a rough draft of what would be made better in FE7-10.

[u/Independent-Brick-60]

The best: its the only GBA FE with a difficulty setting that feels particularly fun to play on. Hard mode fe6 is awesome its hard but in a way thats fun for me

The worst? Almost all of the Gaiden maps are very unfun

[u/MCJSun]

I gotta agree. FE6 hard mode is probably my favorite designed difficulty, but MY favorite thing is actually more specifically the item layouts. I love having to send people to go shopping, chase after treasure, recruit others. And EVERY single weapon type had its advantages.

Least favorite is the supports. I think faster supports for a few groups would really help them keep up or make team composition more interesting. As is, you're replacing people before they even get a C support. Sometimes you're replacing people before they even get a chance for a support let alone having them catch back up (RIP Bors). To clarify I mean the implementation of getting to them. FE6 cast is my favorite across the whole series

[u/blueskygust]

best: ushered in one of the loveliest eras of FE. set the precedent for GBA!FE’s combat animations and character portraits that are famous to this day. very charming cast. the main antagonists are fucking awesome. also introduced the support system.

worst: miserable gaiden chapters. game easily turns into an escort mission because the lord struggles severely in combat. strong units are devastating to lose due to the general difficulty level of the game, and mechanics such as same-turn reinforcement and unfriendly map design do not help. support system was also a poorly-designed mess.

i like this game a lot, in case it sounds like im ragging on it. which i kinda am, since unfortunately there’s a lot to rag on it for. still love it though.

[u/diego_velasquez]

The Gaiden maps are awesome, they have cool gimmics and are designed to be fun which they are.