This was my first FE thanks to the 3DS ambassador program (ironic that Nintendo remembered this game over FE7 back then). Don’t particularly love FE8 but it did it’s job of getting me into the series, and making the upcoming Awakening easy to jump into. I think the world map and repeatable battles features did a great job of convincing someone like me who was only used to traditional RPGs, that Fire Emblem is not so scary and foreign after all.

Sacred stones was my first ever Fire Emblem and it's an incredibly adequate game. I'd agree that it's a great starting point to be exposed to fire emblem mechanics and systems without being too overwhelmed by anything particularly complicated or confusing. It served as a great starter game for me, and I still have fond memories of it.

Personally, Ive always viewed Eirika's route as the canon one. You start the game with her and on her route you get to see more of Lyon's backstory which makes him alot more sympathetic and fleshes out the story more in general imo. I feel most view Ephraim as more canon though because of the increased difficulty and you actually storm the main villain's country/keep in that one.

i did blazing blade first and im currently playing sacred stones and you should have seen my relief when i saw the walkable map and always available shopping areas LOL

It pains me to see you do my man Chrom like that, but agreed that Sacred Stones is a good starting point. Most people will probably end up leaning their affections towards different games or characters, but Sacred Stones provides a meaty experience without being too rich for the beginner palette.

I’m a fan who’s only played the modern games until recently with the Delta app being released for iPhones. I technically started with 7, moved over to 6 after some annoying save file glitches that would’ve forced me to restart Lyn mode, beat 6 (albeit with the bad ending), and have been making my way through 8. And after this experience: GOD I wish had just started with 8 to begin with. It definitely would’ve been the easiest transition. And I think I’d be more interested in seeing both routes if I didn’t feel so drained after beating FE6.

@CritAlps

8 күн бұрын

Sacred Stones has definitely been the most fun for me to play of the three (although the limited amount of supports you get has me overthinking things just a bit) but the way the map works feels so familiar to me and the difficulty has made progression a lot easier for me. The extra supernatural element is so interesting and I’m just having a really good time with it. It’ll definitely be my rec for other players new to the series for sure.

Sacred Stones is definitely notable for being the base for a thousand interesting romhacks. If you're into that sort of thing.

Sacred Stones is the baseline of a good Fire Emblem game in my opinion

This probably is the best game to start with; it may not be the best at any particular thing in the series but it does everything well. I'll also add, I do think that the modern games may have too much freedom with unit customization, it's just so much. Sacred Stones however does offer branching promotions, which I prefer and think that should be a staple (along with more limited reclassing; every character being able to be any class is a bit much imo). Sacred Stones also isn't punishingly difficult either, it's great for newcomers. I think that is important (as long as you can ramp up difficulty for those who want it). Also the way they allowed you to grind but also the experience gained really drops off so you couldn't abuse it too much. It's great for not only grinding levels but more importantly, imo, supports. (I just like the scenes, this is something I love about FE, interesting to see how characters play off each other) I really do just like this game, it's very solid.

Inchresting! I think Ephraim is cute so maybe I’ll play one day… older fe’s don’t really draw me in, but I like how you mentioned the balance of old and new Fe

Eirika giving the stone to Lyon is a decent plot point, way more than Ninian's " death" , it happen because of an already established flaw of Eirika, unlike Eliwood who is simply controled by a sword to kill his waifu, and Eirika learns from it unlike Eliwood who murder a fire dragon some time after, the Durandal incident only exist to sell us Eliwood/Ninian as a wonderful tragic romance but it don't work because the situation don't make any sense, she is bring back at the end and this relationship don't have any substance at all (it's barely anything more than the generic damsel in distress fantasy). For weach route is "canon". Even if we forgot that it was confirmed that all the ways the game can end coexist in a multiverse I think that both are made to be complementary. You are expected to first play as Eirika who is the typical kind hearted lord who use a sword, you learn about Lyon's tragedy and you pity him but whitout the Ephraim mode the story still incomplete, you then see the defeat of the Grado empire and you learn that Lyon's case is more complicated than how it appeared in Eirika's mode.

Sacred Stones was actually my second FE ever. I got into the series with Fates since it was the newest at the time, and after that I decided to try SS cause I heard it was the easiest of the classic games and I figured it would be a good jumping off point, and while other games have individual parts I enjoy more, as an overall package I think it's still my fave, from the likeable cast, pretty well fleshed out world, customisation without being overwhelming, solid replay value, it's overall a really good time. Also, idk which route is more 'cannon' but I prefer Eirika's route cause A, I don't have to deal with the ghost ship and B, I really like the little mini-arc Joshua gets on that route

Its the way i was just recently thinking about Sacred stones' strange place in the series' timeline and the fandom's realm of opinions, then this comes out. 🧍🏻‍♀️ anyway great video!

I'm a relatively new fan to the series, but over the past year I've been going through FE titles in release order (though prioritizing remakes), and I finished Sacred Stones very recently. So this video came at a perfect time for me. I really liked the game, but it's true that it mostly delivered on the established GBA formula while making generally subtle changes. But I think SS is actually a pretty great game if you appreciate the finesse of some of those changes. In no particular order, I like that the world map lets you revisit shops, that Myrrh is one of the most comfortable Manakete units to utilize because of her many dragonstone uses and flight, or that the route split has more substance and replayability than previous entries. And of course, the branching promotions! In line with the story, I appreciated the split perspective before the official route split, that they introduced the tropes of the good general characters and the corrupt general characters in 2 neat, recognizable trios, and that the separate missions that the important characters, protagonists and villains, are sent to throughout Magvel give you a great sense of the world that they live in. Then Lyon works really well as a character because of how the dichotomy of his character interacts with the route split. And I have heard people compare him to Arvis, yes, but I like what others say that he's closer to Julius but he's actually compelling because you get to know him before being possessed. And he's an icon for disaster bis. But alas, I agree that the tragedy of SS is that a lot of its distinct ideas were adopted or reused in later titles, which, coupled with its adherence to the GBA FE format, may have caused it to lose its identity overtime. And now that I'm on FE9, I see that the novelties of the Tellius games end up eclipsing more of the Sacred Stones. Anyways, as for the canonical route, I'm biased towards Eirika, but I wish the writers had given her more agency in her own story... but whatever protagonism she lost, L'Arachel got, and she's my favourite FE8 character. And in Ephraim's route she joins in the worst map in the game and is very difficult to save.

In my opinion Sacred Stones has also one of the most diverse casts character-wise. You have the "classic lord starter-set" with Ephraims group, some royals and retainers, villagers with no village to return to, deserters from the enemy nation, mercenaries, a hermit and his student and the usual manakete. Then you have character dynamics like father and son, a love triangle, teacher and student, colleagues, lady and knight, light and dark magic user, competitors, etc. I am so tired of the "royal with two retainers" routine. It makes the character dynamics so boring.

There is something beautiful calling it unoriginal when it is one of the few fire emblems that isnt get the special guy a special sword and kill dragon.

@eleonorepb4565

5 күн бұрын

@@coldeed Eirika did get a special sword and can use it against the zombi version of Myhr's father

@phytohormones

5 күн бұрын

Taking "get the special guy a special sword and kill dragon" literally to mean "final boss is a dragon that can only be beaten and killed with a unique sword only the male lord can wield", I'm pretty sure this description applies to just FE2 (not even FE15, because amiibo, or the good ending of FE6, as Idunn doesn't die). Taken more broadly as "the final boss is a nonhuman entity especially weak to a specific weapon or weapons, the usage of which makes defeating them much easier", this does indeed apply to most FE games (excluding FE5/FE9/FE14 Conquest/FE16 VW/a whole bunch of FEH books)... but it also includes FE8. You could, of course, finesse an intermediate interpretation, arbitrarily sorting some of the more ambiguous entries one way or the other (Ike with Ragnell is the only one who can defeat Ashera, but she isn't a dragon; does FE10 count? the Ring of the Connector is acquired near the endgame and grants a unique "vs Fell Dragon" effect, but it isn't a sword; does FE17 count?), but personally I see no "generic FE" description that would exclude FE8 while simultaneously leaving in more than two thirds of the franchise. At any rate, as far as I can tell, the main point here wasn't "FE8 didn't do anything new", but rather that "almost everything new that FE8 brought has since reappeared in later entries, leaving it with few truly unique points".

@coldeed

5 күн бұрын

@@eleonorepb4565 yeah but the greater story there is "sorry Erika, your cannon ship is now the devil's bitch, mercy kill your Twink bf." Or Ephraim's route which is a vibe of "you cannot fast travel when enemies are nearby" Plot is literal just a demon being a shitter and enjoying it while everyone scrambles to actually deal with it. And I like that, because the villains in these games are rarely portrayed as a genuine threat to the protagonists and this game actually shows the bad guy being busy getting shit done. It's nice to see when the solution is presented the villain actually starts getting rid of that solution. It's still goofy that they don't kill off someone when they have the chance to, but it's a demon being sadistically depraved in a manner that's amusing. I'm fine with him being that petty he wants to stretch out the L he's attempting to hand them.

@coldeed

5 күн бұрын

@@phytohormones That still doesn't make it unoriginal. Things being like it after it came out would make the newer ones less original if the things it did had been new when it came out.

@eleonorepb4565

5 күн бұрын

@@coldeed the plot is actually really similar to the first Langrisser game. And even if the specificity to kill something that isn't a dragon was more present in the games made after it wasn't created by FE8, in Gaiden Duma wasn't explicitally said to be a dragon but was described as a dark god, and Loptyr while he is said to be a former earth dragon has the same role than Formiti and a similar way to impact the story.

I just tell people to play Thracia so they don't get into the series.

@eleonorepb4565

6 күн бұрын

@@Ravnesss the gameplay still great so they may leave it unfinished to try an easier one

I agree with all your compliments and critiques of Sacred Stones but I don't agree with it being "the fire emblem of all time" because Path of Radiance exists and its the most simple and middle-of-the-road in terms of gameplay imaginable for Fire Emblem, alongside being the easiest for a pre-casual mode game. Also, considering most new Fire Emblem games started with either Awakening a decade ago or Three Houses a few years ago, the different story tone and characters present in Tellius aren't actually that different in terms of what they would be used to.