Why you should play Fire Emblem

sarasa_cat asked a while back for a pitch on Why Fire Emblem Is So Awesome. As the self-nominated ambassador for all things Fire Emblem, I am delighted to comply :P

So! the snarky pitch that I’ve seen floating around for these games is “fantasy medieval chess but also you can date the chess pieces,” haha. And I mean, that’s not untrue, but!

What’s personally compelling to me, story-wise, is how impressionistic the game is. There’s always a core story, generally some young noble going on a quest to reclaim their lost kingdom or whatever, and while that core story is always competently written and often quite fun, the real fun lies in all the interactions within the ensemble cast.

See, in Fire Emblem, you are not directing an army of faceless footsoldiers. Every single unit on the battlefield has a name, a backstory, and a set of “support” conversations with the other characters in your army—and you’ll see such surprising/different interactions based on who they’re talking to, bringing out different fun and fascinating aspects of their character, and the writers manage to make you care way too much about these characters in a really compressed space.

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