@tobbrobb: Thanks! Yeah, I would also be curious where the Japan-only games would fall on this list, and I would like to play them someday. I debated if I should even make this list given I haven't played any of the Japan-only ones, there's clearly a lot of passion for those games! But it is what it is, maybe someday! (And if I get to them I will update the list of course.)
Man, Fates is such a struggle. It does some things SO well, and some things SO bad. I only played the Conquest campaign, which sounds like the best one. So maybe that led to the better parts winning out slightly more for me. But I won't deny that it can be a hard game to defend sometimes.
@arbitrarywater: Oh nice, I somehow missed yours back when! That's also a cool list! Especially since you've played the Japan-only games too. I would love to play the Japan-only games in the series like Geneology, but realistically only if they ever remake them. I don't read Japanese, and don't have the energy to bother with fan translations right now either...
Path of Radiance is probably the one I will diverge most from others. I think it was a pretty well-liked game, and I certainly did enjoy it too; these lists are relative after all. Maybe it's more of a time and place thing for me, but the story and characters did not grab me at all. I also loved the combat animations in the GBA games, and coming off of those, Path of Radiance was not a good looking game, haha. I've played with battle animations off in these games ever since. It would be interesting to go back to PoR now though, and see if my feelings on it changed any since 2005; I haven't touched it since its initial release.
Fun list! Given Three Houses, this has definitely been a good year for Fire Emblem. I wish I had more time to go back and play some of them more than once, and also play the older Japanese ones, but alas. It's a good series.
Coincidentally, I made my own list recently as well!
It's still weird to me to see 2010 games compared to 2019 games. Also weird right now since 2019 isn't even over yet, haha. Regardless, fun list, and a lot of good games on here!
@rooktakespawn: Totally understandable! Especially if you were travelling overseas then, as release dates (especially from this era) can get complicated fast, haha.
@sombre: It depends on what territory... in Japan both Mario World and Mega Man 3 did come out the same year, but Super Mario World didn't come out until late 1991 in North America for example, where MM3 was still 1990 here. The SNES and a lot of games came out a year later in the west during those eras. Sorry, personal pet peeve that release dates are often (understandably) misstated because of that confusion.
Nice to see Theatrhythm on here, that game is awesome. Also, you might be one of the few who puts FF15 last, which I did on my own list a couple years ago, haha. Fun list! You plan on finishing the rest of the FFs someday?
@dochaus: Thank you! I was never the most competitive player either, but man it was fun. Custom maps was also such a big part of this game, I had about as much fun with that stuff as the main game content!
@mezmero: Thanks! And that's a great story! :) I have also never been all that great at StarCraft, just barely good enough to be able to have fun with the multiplayer (roughly gold tier in SC2 parlance). But I agree it has so much style that the campaign is super fun, and watching competition with good commentators is something I got really into for a while; it's the only series I can say that for. More on that when I get around to my SC2 post :)
@north6: Thanks! StarCraft is also the only eSport I've ever enjoyed watching, which I think speaks pretty positively to the elegant yet exciting game design it offers!
@zeik: Thanks! I've always liked a lot of individuals characters in Fire Emblem games (even in their usual shallowness), but have generally found the overarching stories to be silly, especially Awakening's, haha. Three Houses certainly has its big fantasy moments, but it does such a better job at being more grounded most of the time like you say. And I think that's exactly the main reason why this one has clicked with me more than most.
@efesell:I *think* I know what chapter you're talking about, from talking to people who played other routes. Perhaps my biggest bummer with this game is that a couple of the "A plot" moments and missions like that don't make a ton of sense. They got so close with so much of it, and produce that investment in its story and characters like you say, that those few moments that don't click stick out a bit.
I've actually played a decent amount of this game. It shares some sensibilities with the video game, mainly the act of "banking" your blood, which is a really clever risk/reward idea that mirrors the tension of the video game. But the multiplayer aspect is of course very different. And while it acts like a "cooperative" game in some ways (or at least tries to), it's really just a straight up competitive game. There's a single winner at the end.
Overall I like it quite a bit. It's a fairly simple game, and has a short playtime. It's based a lot around trying to predict the other players, which I find fun. There's a lot of strategies to use despite being simple, since you're adjusting to the other players' actions. I also like the banking mechanics as I mentioned. I think some of the rules are unclear (we had to house rule a couple things that weren't clear enough), and some upgrades are clearly way more powerful than others. But overall I've really enjoyed this card game!
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