10 Reasons Why I Love Binding Blade
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- čas přidán 25. 06. 2024
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To celebrate Binding Blade’s 18th year anniversary, I decided to make a video explaining the 10 reasons why this is my favorite game in the series. Enjoy!
#gba #bindingblade #fireemblem - Hry
Happy birthday Binding Blade. I decided I had to put out a video talking about my favorite Fire Emblem game, though I got it out a little late (technically I suppose it’s still the 29th in America, so I guess I’m good?).
Anyway, here’s my 10 reasons for why I love Binding Blade. Enjoy!
Based on what you said about how you love world-building in books, I think you'd love Brandon Sanderson's books! That's his biggest focus in most of his books. The first series I recommend is Mistborn.
Hey mangs, where can I read supports in the new translation patch? Thanks, love the content!
Thanks for giving me this information because I have not really played older games
You’re born one day from the binding blade.... That, is destiny fulfilled.
Have to agree with the less than optimal units.
Honestly a game that gives us units like Wendy, to train them to become decent, and to see your efforts in action is a rather invigorating and fun experience.
Even a disappointing experience is an experience either way.
Mangs: Blames parents for not being born on the same day as his favourite FE game
Your mother just wanted to LTC the labour process.
“Chapter 7 is not only one of the hardest chapters in Binding Blade, but in the entire game”
Ah, yes, the floor here is made up of floor.
the archer class is really made up of archers
Just because you are correct doesn't mean you're right
Truth over facts.
The fact that the 7th fuckin chapter is one of the hardest in the game says a lot lmao
Not on normal mode ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
We did it boys, Binding blade is legal now.
Unzips pants
Fap time
Now if only it was local...ized
That didn't stop it from royally fucking me up
Binding blade is the best game ever
1:59 #1: Roy’s Story is focused on the Continent, World Politics, Weapons
5:31 #2: The Game feels like a Journey
7:12 #3 Nation At War
8:48 #4 Hard Mode, challenging but beatable, and fun
11:44 #5 Some Units Are Sorta Bad
17:34 #6 Supports
20:40 #7 Map Design, Some Maps are Spectacular
22:22 #8 A small army grows quickly
24:05 #9 A HUGE Roster
26:43 #10 The True Ending is Fufilling
Thanks
This isn't necessary anymore but back then this was helpful. Thanks
I misread the title as "blinding bald" and was terribly intrigued at the prospect of seeing a little more details on the hack
You get a like for that.
“Wolt will never be a good unit”
This did not age well Mangs
@Donnie Cates his Wolt killed Zephiel in an Ironman hard mode FE6 run.
#11 The story also happens DURING the missions. You witness important events while playing the game rather than experiencing gameplay and story separately. This greatly improves the pacing and adds to the storytelling.
FE4 does this too!
Fun fact: Even Sakurai, the main developer behind Smash Bros, says that Roy is a bland protagonist. He said that he made the Smash Roy so mature and cool looking because that's the impression he got from him when they showed him the design but became disappointed when he played the game and realized he portrayed Roy wrong
He's not the most in depth lord of the series but I disagree that he's really that bland. The fault mostly lies in the games writing being extremely dependent on support conversations, meaning a lot just doesn't get seen in a regular playthrough.
Also considering a lot of people could die they mostly just didn't use characters that could in regular cutscenes(which I find dumb) so Roy's chances to show himself were very limited in the regular plot. Noone would be able to show himself well if all he talked to were Merlinus and Elffin. Even a great character like Hector wouldn't be able to.
So yeah, TLDR. Imo Roy not bad, fe6 Writing and relying on supports for character development bad
I'm trying to look into your claim but i'm not seeing Sakurai calling Roy bland, like Marth sure but not bland, do you have a source?
You're paraphrasing here, what he said is that Roy was not actually energetic. That doesn't automatically equal bland. Granted, that could very well be how he feels but afaik he's never said as much.
Wasn't the original plan to have Leif be the other Fire Emblem character along with Marth?
That's not at all what he said.
Happy Birthday Binding Blade lets hope the possible future remake makes Roy good
I love the Gaiden chapters needing certain requirements and the secret ending stuff too Paralogues in the modern games just dont have the same feel to them for some reason
Today everything has to be showed in front of you to not risk to scare the player away. I don't wanna spoiler three houses but there is one thing on a certain route that was originally hidden a lot harder then in the final product. And I have to say that I was often frustrated when I wanted to obtain the true ending but I sticked playing the game to get it. And I earned the true ending as my reward. And it was so satisfying.
I ended up playing binding blade recently with a group of friends and found myself enjoying it way more than I did on my first playthrough.
I resonate with the feeling that you have if you bring one of the scrub lord units in the beginning across the whole game. I ended up using fucking Bors of all people and not only did he have a surprising amount of dialogue I didn’t know existed, but he ended up being really fucking good and I watched this nerd turn into a monster who couldn’t die and had 15 move by the end of the game lmao.
But if you close your eyes *bors turns into a paladin* feels like nothing change at all
This is how I felt with a 14 move Gonzalez in my (recent) first playthrough
Same but with wendy and dorothy. They were literally the strongest units I had other than lillina
“Play perfectly every time.”
*Ironman Flashbacks*
That first point is really interesting. I've always held the opposite to be true: If you have good, established, developed characters, the world doesn't need to be that interesting. That point also builds on something Mangs said forever ago that stuck in my mind for some reason about Fates, that you never get a feel for the world, what it looks like, where you are. The map annoyed Mangs, which was something I just never noticed but couldn't un-see after he pointed it out. The fact that that in particular annoyed him makes more sense in light of this.
Both are true, if only for different people.But having only one will no doubt put one of those group of people off, while very good stories can have the cake and eat it too(like the big succesful shonen ).Or alternatively those stories are set in our world, in that case they only have to focus on the characters and their actions, and eventually the fantaisy element they add(for example persona)
I'm glad you acknowledged the scale that comes with facing Bern, it's one of the reasons why I think the villains of FE6 are the best in the series as they feel like the most threatening through gameplay
Rewatching this after I finally played through it and got the true ending, and all I can say is, this is all stuff I agree with. HOWEVER, my one big problem with it is how it can knock the wind out of you, especially with the ambush spawns, and it seems to promote looking up a guide. Where in chapter 21(the one where you battle Murdock, if I am wrong forgive me), where to the South of the beginning area is an area that can spawn about 5 paladins and 3 dracoknights, even on easy mode, and while I enjoyed the challenge, the way it promoted looking up the spawns unless you wanted to be overwhelmed really soured my taste for that chapter. Also, I should mention that I was trying to get the true ending, by looking up the requirements only, which may have resulted in me having a bigger challenge, but I still had fun for the most part.
0:23 Think of it this way: Now you have a reason to party for 2 days straight.
Bloodthirsty Mango: "I like it when there's a war"
Sain is better 👀
@@lillrice27 He's my buddy!
@@lillrice27 Kent has balanced growths while Sain has growths that lean towards strength.
If you really like stories with lots of lore, you'll love the Trails series, they have great world building.
Whoa, a Falcom fan, you won't see them often :o
I love the Trails series for what it's done, but the Ys series have a more special spot in my heart tbh
Falcom is love, Falcom is life
Funny, I was just gonna mention Trails too for its world building!
ikr, its world building is fantastic!
FE6 makes Swordmasters and Snipers decent. They have their actual uses unlike many other FE games, so I like it :D
Swordmasters were too good in fe6 though. +30 crit is insane for example. Also... Fe6 being that dodgy helps them a LOT. Snipers are also useful yeah, but mostly just bc of that 3× effectiveness
by snipers you only mean igrene cuz wolt and dorothy are garbage
@@piojoaquinlopez8881 The only problem with the archers is actually getting them to snipers. On average theyre not bad after that. They have reliable 2 range in a game where javies and hand axes have crap hit.
Chapter 7 and 8 have great uses for archers.
Sure, theyre not great units. But never said they were. They are DECENT.
I usually ditch them for a nomad at the WI, cuz the mount is too good, but the amount of scary fliers in the game make effective damage against them useful.
@@Timmio. 3x effectiveness is sooo good. Helps that theres plenty of fliers for them to either shoot down alone or take off most of the HP from.
And yeah...swordmasters are so nice.
I like the change of pace with them in my army and actually contributing.
@@piojoaquinlopez8881 Igrene and Klain I'd say
Mangs: BB is old enough to drink in some countries
US: *confused heavy breathing*
If you're really into world building, you absolutely have to play Xenoblade definitive edition when it comes out. The game has some really incredible lore, as well as some great characters
Xenoblade is a franchise I've always wanted to get into, but when I played XC2, I didn't like the automatic battle system. It just feels like I'm watching a battle take place as I wait for the specials to recharge. It's a shame because everything else about the game was fantastic...
I want to give it a second chance once DE comes out, but just so I know, is the battle system the same or is it more "immersive" than 2?
@@BeeLy1011 It's similar in many respects. As a huge fan of Xenoblade 1 myself, even I admit that the core combat is not quite on par with the incredible music and world. But it has merits that are not present in XC2, primarily the vision mechanic.
Not too far into the game, Shulk gets visions of major incoming attacks, and it's up to you to determine how you respond to them. Perhaps you use a Monado Art to block the attack, or perhaps you tell your healer to heal the party to absorb the blow, or perhaps you try to redirect the enemy's aggro, or stun the enemy, or use a chain attack or just KO the enemy, or... you get the idea.
Additionally, most Arts have timer-based cool downs rather than requiring auto-attacks to hit. Plus each character has way more than 4 arts accessible per battle. The very early game combat is still rather slow, but things pick up significantly by the time the 4th character joins the party.
Overall, I'd say XC2 has more variety in party building and more ways to optimize damage output, but XC1 lets you interact with enemies more, primarily through the vision mechanic.
@@Warmaster00 yeah, I feel like if Mangs tried the first 3 hours or so he would fall in love with it like I and so many others have
@@Warmaster00 that's super true, same for me. The production value in the cutscenes was pretty insane considering how underpowered the system was
@@BeeLy1011 2 gets good after chapter 3
Imagine baby egg being like: NO, i have to stay just one day more, ONE DAY!!!
Iol this reminds me of my father. I was born like a week before his birthday but he wanted my mom to hold me for a week so we shared birthdays. A bit messed up, specially because my lil half bro was closer to his birthday than me
ONE MORE TURN!
I wish I could like, but... *nice*
Not as unlikely as might sound, I took an entire day to leave the hatch. Mangs should've been more stubborn back then and delayed his own birth.
This was my second fire emblem game after the blazing sword and I fell in love with this game.
The character supports kept me entertained and the story is really good.
I find characters like hugh, lugh, chad, rutger, and clarine to be some of my favorite in the series and I'm just mentioning a few.
Zepheiel is a great antagonist and he connects blazing sword to binding blade in my opinion.
The level design is also good and the hard mode is difficult just the way I like it.
I wish it had paired endings but even without that I love this game and I think it is a solid entry in the series.
Sacred stones is my favorite but this one will always be second place to me.
I see your a man of culture as well 👍👍
This video released at a really interesing time, I actually just finished the game for the first time a few hours ago! My initial thoughts are that while it's not my favorite, it was still an enjoyable experience. I think I'll come back to play hard mode eventually, but other games in the series are more intriguing at the moment. I respond to your points one-by-one (sorry in advance for incoming essay):
World, Not Characters: I think the world building for FE6 is pretty solid, especially considering the technical limitations at the time. I like when the narritive gives context to each battle, and why people are fighting. When you get past the early-game bandits, I think FE6 executes that context fairly well. Also, every location does feel pretty distinct from other places.
The Game is a Journey: I do agree here, this game really does feel like a grand, epic journey across a continent, and I think it does that due to each location feeling distinct, as mentioned before.
War, Not a Skirmish: I think it does feel like a war, but only after the Western Isles is finished. Only when Bern throws the red hell that are wyverns at you does it feel like an important conflict.
Hard's Rough, Not Unfair: Can't comment here, first playthrough was Normal
Unit Power Inequality: I completely agree that inequality between units is a good thing, although I think the gap between best and worst units in FE6 is a bit excessive. Although my favorite FE gameplay wise is Radiant Dawn, so maybe I'm talking out my ass here. Using a bad unit like one of the armors is what can make a playthrough more interesting, and can lead to a more memorable experience. I'll at least say for certain that inequality makes things more interesting, at least when replaying a game
Supports: Short and Sweet: Much like you Mangs, the only chain I finished is Roy and Lilina's. Not much I can say here about the supports themselves, although I will say the way you acquire supports is just plain dumb.
Certain S Tier Maps: Like you mentioned, there are some bad one's that are particularly annoying. Although I will say that throughout the game I was never bored at map being to simple or easy, so I'd say FE6 is good at keeping you engaged.
A Quickly Staffed Army: I must applaud this game for hitting the happy medium of having a lot of options early game, while not overwhelming the player. The degree of choice the game gives you is actually really cool.
Two Million Characters: I think a roster of any amount is fine, as long as characters don't become nameless, faceless generics. I don't think Binding Blade does this, so it's giant roster is fine-by-me.
Secret, Satisfying Ending: I'm fine with a super-duper-secret ending, but with Binding Blade's execution there are some caveats. For context, I did look up on serenes how to get all the gaiden chapters, so I did get the "true" end. The ending itself is fine, I think it's a nice and suitable wrap-up, but the fact you have to get them through chapters you might not know about is dumb. If the game expessly stated when and how you unlock gaiden chapters, I'd like gaiden chapters - and a hidden ending - a lot more.
Overall, I had a lot of fun! Some frustrating bits too (looking at you 20B) but it's all part of the FE experience. I definitely think it has flaws, but I can understand why others love it. If I had to rate it, I'd give it a 7/10. (Oh, and if anyone sees this: thanks for reading my thoughts. It's nice to have your opinions' heard)
“You can try to give Wolt a lot of kills but Wolt is never going to be a good unit” *Laughs in dead Zephiel*
Oh yeah xD
As a FE6 fanboy I'm glad to see this in my sub box
Yes cavalier 76 miss
Yes bandit 47 hit
Now thats why i love fe 6
I like raging
I see that Tellius has some things that u like: a well written world, a journey and a war.
So when can I expect a sped up version by Mekkah?
Every time mangs says epic
Sacred stones only has a couple less chapters, but it has the tower and the ruins for getting those Extra game characters.
Fe8 chapters are much shorter though.
28:35 "i think i lost gale" you dont lose gale you kill him lol
Playing Binding Blade now, one thing that really puts me off loving the game (it feels great and could be my favourite) is the accuracy problems. I played SS -> Blazing -> Binding as a newcomer (also PoR, 3H, and Awakening in between), and the accuracy is so low compared to everything else I’ve played that it makes it really frustrating to play. Sometimes I do need to abuse save states to beat a boss, which I’m not proud to admit. Also, the enemy spam, especially in the Sacae route I accidentally stumbled into, makes the maps very tiring to play. I can’t sit down for 2 hours and clear two, three chapters like I can for other games where the maps energise instead of tire me (Fe7 also suffers from the same problem, but much later into the game). I’m not done with the game due to burnout, but I hope to finish it soon.
So I was able to finish Binding Blade today (finally). It was a long ride for me and man these journey through Roys Game... what a journey it was. I evolved a special relationship to this game honestly. Started it when I was doing last projects for school whenever I took a longer break at the evening and it started out pretty cool. I really liked it at first glance but my biggest mistake was probably to spoiler me too much. I was obviously aiming to get the true ending but got some trouble on the way. Units that I need to gain certain gaiden chapters died long after I wrote over the save files where that happened and such stuff. So I restarted a few times and eventually a lot of small things started to annoy me (like the not so great RNG for example). I would've gone so far to say that it's the only FE that I really hate. In the end however I began to form a bond with this game. Especially when the Ilia/Sace-Route Split begins and your group is mainly promoted it gets really fun. And I'm glad I started over one last time. Gathering all the stuff I need and two turned Idunn in the end. The game wasn't able to beat me that easily - and it was really satisfying once I've done it. And the cutscene at the end was so cute. Worth it. Elibe has a lot more lore and story going on then I thought. And the story of Idunn and Zephiel is very touching too. I'm a bit sad that I couldn't use Treck since he died always dunno why. It was like a curse or something. Next time I will probably try to raise Sophia just for the lolz. Once I met Niime I wondered what the hell they we're thinking while designing Sophias Base Stats. It was fun to raise her weapon rank to S and she could do some apocalyptic things to the manaketes in the final chapters. Marcus died as well so I used Jerrot a lot and later on Juno as well. I got their A Support and enjoyed every line I read. They're a cute family. It was also only my final run where I used Thea and I'm glad there as well. Sadly that meant I had less screentime for Sue but in exchange I got to use the triangle attack multiple times. Sue got her time to level up during the ilia chapters anyway. I thought about replacing her with Igrene but Sue got the S Rank quicker in the end. Aside from that I used the christmas cavs as usual, Elen, Shanna and best boy Zeke (who was my main boss killer and carried a lot of the run on his shoulders). Fir outclassed Rutger very fast (he leveled p strength like 2 times as Lv.17/5 Swordmaster xD) so she not only joined but replaced him in the end - I couldn't use her as much as I wanted though. Sad that Clarine didn't got her Rutger Ending because of that but meh. In the end however I really felt in love with the prepromotes that you get in the end. Niime and Jodel with their high staff ranks, Perceval just blasting through the enemylines on the side of Allen and Lance as well as the almighty Milady who just carried the whole run on her back once she joined. I knew she was good but it's amazing how much she can do.
In conclusion FE6 is still not a game that I like as much as FE7/8. But I'm far away from hating it now. The time I spent with it was fun overall. It showed me how I improved over the years. It took me like two and a half years to finally beat it. And, I never thought I would write this, but I'm looking forward to some of the units I want to use when I return to that game in the future. I don't know if I'll try out hardmode since I already had problems with the normal mode and I think it is a pretty good challenge on it's own. But the future holds a lot of things that you don't know about - I never thought that I would play the SNES games for example - or even Fire Emblem in general for example. Who knows what it holds.
HAPPY 18TH BDAY FE6
"it's not unfair" - yeah right
Enemies hit you with approx. 30 Hit.
Yet you have to miss even with 90 Hit.
Every FE game that uses 2 RN operates on that logic. The only reason it appears worse in FE6 than others games, is because getting hit by a low displayed hit or missing with a high displayed hit, actually has consequences due to the higher quality enemies. Missing a 90 in FE7 or FE8 doesn't matter much in most situations, because the enemies pose such an insignificant threat to the good units like Marcus, Seth, Lowen and Franz, that rarely does that miss ever lead to someone actually being lost.
I agree with all of these points, especially the one about old Fire Emblems VS modern Fire Emblems in regards to differences in unit viability. I think it's so much more interesting to have a mixture of good and bad units because it makes the characters a lot more particular, and it also helps with replayability especially if you want to use a weaker unit for the challenge. Out of all the Fire Emblems, Binding Blade is easily one of the more replayable ones.
Part of the reason I love character power level being so varied is that I like using bad units. There are plenty of fun bad units in FE6 that I've gotten great memories of solely because they got rng blessed or were more useful than expected. That's just part of the fun of playing FE in my opinion.
You hit the nail on the head for why Elibe is my favorite continent in Fire Emblem. The continent contains different cultures, government systems and a rich history. Each nation has something unique about it, from the terrain, lifestyles of those who inhabit it, and most importantly, the different preferences of weapons and strategy for each country's military.
Now I wanna play Binding Blade again, after just beating it a while back, so in a way your love for the game extends out to others as well.
Gonna do a hard mode playthrough where I fore myself to field all of my armor knights/generals every map.
To be honest binding blade is my favorite and first game of fire emblem I have every played. I love it for all your reasons and more.
ROYS OUR BOI
ROYS OUR BOI
ROYS OUR BOI
15:26 *FE6 Ironman Season 2 says otherwise*
How ironic considering the Feh trailer that just came out
Hope you are doing great Mangs. Here's to hoping you come back soon.
The good ending thing alone would be enough to write off this game forever, honestly.
I was going to give up on binding blade as I was sick and tired of all the hit rate issues, but this video really inspired me to keep going until I finish the game, so thankyou mangs
I love imperfect games that aren’t for everyone compared to games that try to be perfect and be for everyone.
I actually had a similar experience with FE6. I missed the true ending on my first playthrough cause I wasn't sure how to recruit Douglas at the time and I missed the Aureola tome. Got it on my second go around luckily. All around, FE6 is a solid experience and definitely one of the more difficult games of the series, but still a fun time in the end.
"wolt is never going to be a good unit" meanwhile in Mang's current ironman of fe6...
Instead of sharing your birthday with the Binding Blade, you share it with my mom. Goddammit egg.
Glad to have met a fellow member of the "Come On Treck Is Not That Bad I Swear You Guys" Club.
#1 reason why this has to be our favorite FE: It has our boy, Roy. Need i say more? 😂
"Wolt is never going to be a good unit regardless"
That didn't age well kappa
FE6 is one of the only games in the series that makes its units feel as powerful as the story makes them out to be. Percival is the renowned Knight General of Etruria, and he feels like a god among men compared to the no-name recruits your army is filled with. Meanwhile, Wendy is a fresh recruit and Sophia is a non-combative recluse, and it makes sense that they struggle to get a foothold in combat.
The only other games to do this well include FE4 (holy bloods, especially with holy weapons, shape the world around them) and, in some ways, Fates, where the royals are head and shoulders above the non-royal units (and even the untrained Sakura and Elise have insane potential).
Meanwhile you have other FE games where great generals like Tauroneo or Basilikos or Lorenz (fe1) are supposedly incredibly strong, yet random teenagers wipe the floor with them with a little practice.
three houses has crests as well
On the other hand, Cecilia is the Mage general but she's got nothing going for her that would justify that besides weapon ranks. She's mounted as well but riding a horse is not something that would make you Mage general.
If she would've had hard mode bonuses she'd be much better I guess hm
“The *three* main lords”
*”Eliwood and Hector”*
Anyways, I find myself agreeing with....every point. Everything you said, is something I enjoy from Fire Emblem. And...funnily enough...most of those can be applied to Shadow Dragon. Anyways, this inspires me to actually go finish Binding Blade for once. Nice Video.
H\e did say “eliwood lyn and hector” though.
@@Warmaster00 Bro how could you forget Merlinus, the third lord?
Curtis MY, nO hE dIdN’t
Lyn doesn't matter to the plot
1: The story focuses on the World, not the Characters
I suppose that's technically true in Shadow Dragon, only because the focus on characters is almost nonexistent, but I would never say the world of Archenea, as shown in Shadow Dragon alone, is all that fleshed out. Hell, I'd say Camus is about as/more fleshed out than any piece of worldbuilding I saw in Shadow Dragon. The game just doesn't focus much on story, period, neither the world nor the characters get much time to be at all interesting outside of Caeda, Tiki, and the Camuu/Nina situation. It rarely ever tells you more than the bare minimum of what it needs to establish. The houses are a little funny though, I guess.
2: The game feels like a Journey
I'll give it that much, it's certainly a journey. I would argue not a fun one, but that's not what I'm getting at here.
3: It feels like a War, not a Skirmish
Yup, I'll give it that too, you certainly fight a lot of dudes and get a lot of dudes. I would argue that the war doesn't have any tangible steaks, after all, if neither characters nor the world get the time to be developes, what's at steak, as far as the player is concerned, if they lose? The only answer I can come up with is your pacience.
4: Difficulty is a challenge, without being unfair
I am absolutely possitive this is not one of the points you thought applied to Shadow Dragon, and if it is, Hard 5 would like to have a word with you.
5: Not all units are balanced, some are better than others
Yeah, but in Shadow Dragon, that's more of a weakness than a strength. In FE6, there is actually a point to using the less good units, they have chapters where they can be useful, because the game actually does a good job of spreading these units out to the point where they even get that opportunity. Shadow Dragon actively does the opposite at every chance it can get, with the best example being Chapter 2, giving you Bord, Cord, and Darros if you recruit him, on the exact same chapter as Barst, who is the exact same unit, but just better. The only one with a slight edge over Barst is Bord, and that difference simply isn't tangible.The only reason you would ever use them is if you're meming or if Barst died on an Iron Man run. They do not have a chance to shine, even with reclassing, and because they are absolutely nothing except "Barst but worse", there is absolutely nothing interesting about using them regardless. In FE6, units have enough character to make them interesting enough to use even when bad. It also doesn't leave room for much discussion, because what's there to say about units that are objectively worse the moment they show up other then "check out my meme build", and there's also very little "finding out which units are good or bad" because whether they're worse is almost always immediately obvious. I guess it does add realism still, just not any interesting realism, but still realism, so I'll give it that.
6: Supports
They don't exist, so surely this isn't one of the points you meant. Moving on.
7: The game has extremely Good Maps
...yeah, no, I'm pretty sure even fans of Shadow Dragon agree that it's map design is piss poor. They all range from either boringly passable with a little bit of walking simulator mixed in to downright awful (ballistician map).
8: You get a lot of Characters Right Away
Yes, this is true, but his points as to why this is a good thing don't really apply to Shadow Dragon. It doesn't matter if you can pick out a roster early if there's nothing there that's interesting about picking out a roster. In order for that to be a plus, the characters actually have to have something about them that makes them interesting enough to pick. Shadow Dragon doesn't really have this unless you're meming, so you'll probably just pick the best units regardless.
9: The game has a Huge Roster
Yes, this is true. I'd point out why this isn't really a plus for Shadow Dragon, but not only did I kinda already do that, the egg did it for me. It doesn't matter how large the roster is if the roster is so generic that the choice between units doesn't matter.
10: Secret Ending
Shadow Dragon doesn't have one, so clearly you didn't mean this one. Moving on.
So, out of all 10 points made in this video, 6 of them *technically* apply to Shadow Dragon, but only 2 end up being a substantial plus (the game feeling like a journey and the game feeling like a war and not a skirmish). Of the other 4 that technically apply to Shadow Dragon but aren't a substantial plus, most of it comes down to the big roster just not mattering at all and the story just not being focused on very much in both worldbuilding and characters. In terms of Worldbuilding, the only substantial thing we get is the history involving dragons and how it resolved, which FE6 did way better, and as far as characters go, we got Camuu/Nina (both of their substantial character things happen because of each other), Tiki/Nagi cause they're the same character at different points, and Caeda, who is the one character consistently interesting throughout, even if only interesting in comparison to every thing else, which I don't feel like I need to mention that FE6 dwarfs it in characters too. Really, FE6 just feels like everything Shadow Dragon wanted to be. Every plus that can be applied to Shadow Dragon, as far as this video goes, FE6 does significantly better.
Sorry if this seems overly aggressive, I'm just a very thourough person who really wished Shadow Dragon was a better game, so when people compare these two games, I feel the need to point these things out. I did this for discussion purposes, not to just try to shut down what you said.
The argument Realism=Good is a pet peeve of mine. I don't care if something is realistic, I want to know why that thing is good. Your reasoning for each character being distinct because they're not all power houses is fine, regardless of how close that is to reality. Variety is neat and making bad characters work is fun.
While realism certainly doesn't simply = good, grounding a world in a healthy dose of reality can help people believe in the world and become more invested as a result. Obviously saying "this is good because it's realistic" isn't a good argument unless you support that with why that matters. In this case, I would say the realism he talked about would help with investment by helping people believe the characters are real people, increasing the investment in both the characters and, by proxy, the war those characters are in. At least, if realism is something that matters to you subjectively, but that applies to anything that can help, harm, or help and harm a piece of media.
@@gorade1901 I would say realism is more important story wise rather than in gameplay. I really don't think Fire Emblem gameplay is realistic, nor will it ever be. I think the "realism" Mangs is referring to the video is really just unit variety.
Ultimately I think it's a taste thing. It gets pretty obvious when it comes to games that go beyond themselves to be as realistic as possible, such as Red Dead Redemption 2. I completely agree that it doesn't make for a good argument as a result though, since it's not even close to an objective quality.
I remember hearing that the lead director for The Legend of Zelda would often tell his staff "Make it real, not realistic." Unless my memory is lying to me, I think what he was getting at is to make sure everything makes sense in the context of the world they're making. The weapon triangle would be a good example of that; even if the weapons don't have that relationship in the real world, it works in the context of Fire Emblem because the weapons operate within the weapon triangle for the games that have it.
Characters don't have to be equally viable, but I don't see a reason to completely gimp certain characters just to make others look better in comparison. There's NO reason why units like wolt, the armor knights, Dorothy, and oh god Sophia should have been as shitty as they are. You can have weaker characters, but i don't think they should be so over the top ass compared to the top tiers. You can make a good character look good without making other characters garbage. Conquest and awakening to a lesser extent did it better. They had good and bad characters of course, but there was no equivalent of wolt or sophia; the bad characters (odin, mozu, nyx, Donnell, virion, etc.) were still usable with decent effort as opposed to an extreme amount of effort with FE6 low tiers only for the character to still be mediocre at the end of the game.
15:25
This didnt age well.
I really do enjoy Binding Blade. But if there was one thing I think that needed some polishing, it’s the pacing of the gameplay.
I agree with you that the fact Binding Blade being a long game works in its favor. But some aspects of it I wish were a little faster.
Gaiden Chapters: I wish the Gaiden Chalters went by faster. Durandal has an entire section that I always skip with rescue dropping with Shanna. Most of the chests in Armads are worthless. Forblaze forces you to either play slow or waste a couple Warp uses. Aureola is a nightmare every-time I play it normally even on normal mode. Murgleis has that throne roulette, while Maltet forces you to chop through multiple walls. And Apocalypse is a chapter that’s hard in the beginning and end, but has a middle section where nothing happens.
I feel like FE6 Gaiden chapters would benefit the most from different objectives but that’s just me.
I also wish weapon ranks weren’t so slow. Because when I go the Sacea route, Niime has the worst possible time trying to get her Dark Tome rank up to S. Which even for people who play fast should worry about because it means she can’t take advantage of Apocalypse’s +5 magic. Which gives her a ton more staff range. It also means Staff units will never achieve a weapon tank above D unless you really go out of your way for them.
On the flip side you could argue this is a good thing because it gives units like Cecilia more value because her poor stats are compensated by her A rank in Anima Tomes. A feat which Clarine is never going to normally reach.
There are more but I think those are always the two things that bug me the most when I replay FE6.
I wasn’t really actively watching this video, more like a podcast while I was working on something but you’ve got me interested in Binding Blade! You’ve made solid compelling points and this was a fun video to listen to. I haven’t played or even watched binding blade so I’m going into it blind but I’ll throw around any favorites and see how it turns out. I love Perceval in feh so he’ll definitely be part of my roster (a bonus since he sounds insane).
I Hope you like Binding Blade, and have Fun. :)
(And has luck in the RNG)
More reasons to love this game, I love it
I'm currently in the middle of my first hard mode run (Ch 18) and it's quickly become one of my favorites in the series. I definetly agree with a lot of your points about the story
I love Binding Blade too, my favorite of the 3 GBA games. It also has my favorite set of maps in the series, & it feels like tour around Elibe. The Manga Champion Blade was fun to read too. Roy my favorite fighter from Smash Melee was how it got me motivated to play this game.
Just got binding blade started for the first time yesterday after completing fe7 for the first time. I’m excited to see how it goes! Wolt died in the fourth chapter already. Whoopsies.
I love this game too, and it's the reason I found your channel. Happy belated king.
This video made me realize that I continue to watch your videos even after all these years because you have real passion about what you do
I was inspired by this to do a No Promotions challenge playthrough and I'm already feeling the burn of not using Marcus, chapter 1 took me 19 turns instead of the usual 7 or 8
Alright you sold me Mangs, now I can’t possibly pass the FE that shares the same birthday as me and a friend of mine...
Consider how quickly I fell in love with Jugdral after watching your rankings I’m pretty confident I won’t be disappointed with this one either.
Oh shoot, happy birthday!~ :D
Thank you! ❤️
Happy late birthday!
This was a great video! You've changed my mind on a few topics (unit balance, mainly) which really surprised me. It's also a huge part of the experience for me to use these bad units and see how they turn out, while in the modern games, I can just safely say that if I pour enough into them they'll surely be good. In BB, I can try to use a unit like wendy, and if she turns out like a somewhat useable unit I can get really excited about it and think "woah, I just did this, I turned this awful unit into something", and that's a unique experience to the older games. I really hope you do similar videos like this in the future, it was great.
I'd replace "surely be good" with "surely be servicable/playable" when talking about bad units in modern fire emblem games.
Mangs's waifu is now legal in America.
There should be a game called fire emblem blinding bald oh wait!
My first ever playthrough of Binding Blade recently, I used Dorothy, Wendy and Sophia. Dorothy was immediately outclassed when Igrene joined, Sophia needed a LOT of stat boosters, and Wendy KICKED ASS after a lot of babying. I also like that there are objectively weak characters, because it can give some players like me a level of satisfaction to raise them up to a decent level.
I was born on the 19th of June 2001, one day after the release of Sonic Adventure 2, which is probably the game that has had the most influence on my life (though mostly indirectly), so I can kinda get that frustration of not having the right birthday.
Your love for The Binding Blade and an old old old fascination of Roys character in Smash led me to playing and completing FE6 last year Mangs. Its the only GBA FE game i've completed despite having owned The Sacred Stones since I was a kid. I think what made the game stand out to me after having played through it was its strength through simplicity. The game features a fleshed out world and a simple to understand story. The streamlined gameplay taking the most essential core features needed to reboot the franchise after Kaga left Intelligent Systems/Nintendo along with serving the pick up and play natured demanded by being developed for a handheld mobile system. The character variety, Legendary weapons, great score. Everything it did, it did well. What more can you ask for.
Your point about RD having large cast but you don't play with all of them is WRONG. Because the way the game splits the cast into different routes, you DO play with many of them. That's the whole point. If you got large cast all at the same time, it's where you are having trouble to making use of them all because of limited units you can bring into battles. RD circumvented this and letting you play with many of the units since they all appear in different battles for large chunk of the game.
He didn't say you don't play with all of them. Just not together which ties into him liking fielding big armies.
Binding Blade isn't my most favorite game, but it's easily my 4th favorite. It has grown on me in the past couple of years and I love the game.
I'm glad for you making this video on such a great game!
i played this game more than 10 times, my first fie emblem
Yay!!! Happy 18th Birthday Fe6!
For the ending I would like they didn't make the true ending more streamline, rather, making the normal one more interesting. Maybe the characters fielded in Zephiel's chapter get a version of their ending where they had to fight war dragons, maybe some kind of mercenary bernian army made up of Brunia's soldiers, etc
I was so hesitant to play this game but after your favorite fire emblem games video I tried it and just fell in love with the game. I love chapters like 11, 13 and 22 so much. Thank you mangs for talking about this amazing game!
15:24 I had my Wolt as my second strongest unit and my main boss killer (aside from Rutger lol)
I feel like if this game gets an Echoes-level remake, people will love the fuck out of it.
I actually just started playing this game for the first time earlier today so I guess this video was perfectly timed for me
15:24 foreshadowing.
Ya know, I just beat binding blade and it was actually pretty great Noah and Ogier have become 2 of my favourite Units in the franchise
someone draw a picture of roy chugging beer
I came to a conclusion that what I really like about this channel, is to hear you speaking. happy b-day Eggman!
Ironically, while _characters_ aren't balanced, I'd argue that _classes_ are. With the exception of knights, archers and probably also fighters, every single class has at least one representative that has a distinct and useful niche in the party. This is a game where a swordmaster's strengths actually _matter._ Hand axes and javelins suck enough that basically nobody can achieve reliable 1-2 range without being fragile and/or on foot, and paladins just flat out aren't your solution to every problem. This is a game where a swordlocked footsoldier is near the absolute top of the game's tier list. That says a lot.
You actually motivated me to play it. I will play it and see how far I can go using every myrmidon/swordmaster I come across. I love those guys.
This video's awesome, Id love to see more videos like these
Geese is lowkey one of my favorite characters in the series. I think he’s got an awesome design and every time I’ve used him, he’s been insanely blessed in his speed level ups. I always look forward to using him in new playthroughs.
Happy Birthday Binding Blade! Cheers to our boy Roy! :D
I really like your first and fifth point:
Elibe is my favorite continent in the series, I really like how all the different countries feel defined and unique from each other. I think FE6 did a good job of visiting every location and showing off the culture of each place and the different political landscapes. I wish FE7 visited all of the countries instead of focusing mostly on Lycia and Bern. Besides the Tellius games and maybe the Jungdral games to a lesser extend I feel like Elibe I has the most defined and interesting continent.
Unit power Inequality I have mixed feelings about. I think I'm more inline with the modern FE philosophy of having all units at least usable to strong and helpful. I get a little disappointed when I recruit a new unit and their stats are terrible or don't really think they have potential; but I see what you mean when it's more interesting to have varying power levels of some super strong units while others are more average or mediocre instead of everyone being mostly on par. I guess it's kind of frustrating to get a new unit like Wendy and Sophia who are super incredibly weak and even spending the time and effort to train them up so gives underwhelming units. On the other hand it is kind of fun to force yourself to use a "bad" unit for added challenge and maybe learn to appreciate a character you normally write off.
For the "Realism" part I don't think it's quite the right term to use. It would make sense that some characters are stronger than others but it stilled be unrealistic to have one guy who can solo a whole army. I think using "Realism" or "Realistic" is kind of a bad term to describe game elements in general (For games in general not just this one) because there's magic and dragons, and flying horses, and like 20 girls that want to bang a wimpy red head kid (y'know unrealistic things :P). The way I see different character power levels is more of a way of characterization. Percival is a powerful general who has earned his renown and rank in his army. Lance and Allen are the new generation of knights who have trained to become the new defenders of their realm. Marcus is a skilled veteran knight who is still powerful but his years are catching up to him. Gonzales is a wild beast who is strong and agile but lacks technique and refinement. Lilina is a young mage who is inexperienced but still has the power and potential to live up to her old man. Niime is a powerful druid who has been studying dark magic her whole life and is capable of wielding terrific power but is still a frail old women. Wolt and Wendy are both young and inexperienced and perhaps not ready yet to reach their full potential. Roy is a young kid who isn't particularity gifted or strong and is in way over his head and needs to rely on his friends to save the day. With maybe an exception for Bors (and a few other characters) who are supposed to be strong but are pretty weak in game.
Anyways this was a cool video, unexpected video. Glad you made and looking forward to when you retry an FE6 Iron-man run. Hopefully you can defeat your nemesis Zephiel the run killer :D
I think your point about unit balance is more about having less homogenization between characters in one another, rather than liking having genuinely "bad units" in the game. Characters in Awakening or Three Houses are usually very similar to one another because the games are very customizable in how your characters can be, which ends up hurting the individual identity of one another, since everyone can become a powerful Sage or a strong Hero. The freedom hurts how the characters are portrayed in the gameplay side of things.
What makes the FE6 cast so great is that while the cast is very unbalanced, everyone can be used to fill certain opportunity that perhaps only a few others can do (with some questionable exceptions). You don't have any other Archers by chapter 7 except Dorothy and Wolt, and having a non-mounted Staff user can help out in Arcadia a bit more than using someone like Clarine. Characters can have an opportunity to shine mostly.
But what I think hurts a roster a lot and find a fair criticism is characters who are so bad that pretty much break that convention no matter what. Wendy's whole redeeming quality is being a meme unit, and people will only use her either because they like how she looks, or because she's a meme in the community. I don't think those kinds of characters are good for a game, and held back the FE6 roster from being almost perfect.
Tl;dr Units being more or less useful is fine as long as they ARE useful.
I do agree on this to some extent. There's a difference between 'perfect imbalance' and the game being outright unbalanced. Either might not be easy to define, but I feel that a game like Conquest does a great job at the former and FE6 probably leans more to the latter.
When you look at a unit like Nyx, she's bad compared to someone like Xander, but she's unique. To say she's homogenized couldn't be further from the truth. The ways in which she is 'bad' is because her specific role in being a pure glass cannon is valued lower than the roles other units can perform (along the fact that her bases aren't amazing, but that's besides the point). Same deal with Arthur, who has a glaring weakness that lets his design stick out compared to other units, even if it's counterbalanced with some solid attributes elsewhere and decisions you have to make to circumvent his weaknesses specific to him (Forging a Bronze Axe for example - which you probably wouldn't do for anyone else). That all said, the difficulty of Conquest is extremely high, which is a testament to the fact that despite there being units vastly different from others with a clear disparity in levels of power, everyone can still be used viably. That's pretty impressive. I'd also like to point out FE5, which I think does a good job when it comes to 'perfect imbalance' as opposed to outright bad balance. Ronan is definitely a bad unit, but he was designed with intent and a unique (if not somewhat weird) role. Same with Marty - at least his design as a unit is intentional and flavorful.
With a game like FE6, the only reason why it somewhat gets away with having 'bad balance' is because the game itself isn't that difficult in reality. Sure, the first parts of the game definitely are, but post-CH7 enemies don't really scale that massively and for example, you're still facing tier 1 enemies as late as 21x. In comparison to modern games, the reverse difficulty of games such as FE6 become all the more prominent. This reason why this point is relevant is that one upside with this is that it still leaves 'bad' units to be viable. The game isn't overly demanding in the quality on units you decide to use compared to say, FE12 or Conquest.
There are two problems with this though, firstly is that the 'bad' units in FE6 don't really have a strong reason to be, beyond the fact that it makes the stronger ones stand out and feel great in comparison, mostly because there really isn't anything about those units that are unique or interesting about their design. A unit should be bad because their niche or role is inferior to others, not because they're just strictly just a worse version of another unit (or because they have no real redeeming qualities that are unique to them), a problem FE6 often has. A unit like Geese is not only mediocre, but completely uninteresting in his design as a unit. Which I suppose is fine in context to FE6 and its difficulty, especially in an ironman... But that doesn't mean their design could be better and have more focus/identity. I think Lilina and Barth are good examples of units that do this a lot better. Regardless of whether the game would improve if any of these units were 'better', Lilina and Barth can at least exist in their state and have an identity to them (being more min/maxed in their strengths), and FE6 isn't such a difficult game where you can't use them.
Which brings me to my next point; if FE6 hypothetically had a lunatic mode (perhaps meaningful difficulty on-par with Conquest), then suddenly the excuses that you could make for its balance can no longer be made. I think FE12 is a great example of this; where the poor balance suddenly becomes problematic when the game is genuinely difficult beyond just the early game - 70% of its cast are borderline nonviable outright (you can excuse using a couple bad units that join later but that's about it). With FE6, an actual incremental difficulty curve would end up making the good units even better, and the lesser units even worse. This ends up making unit selection even more narrow and further makes units nonviable regardless of what their role might be. For instance, a unit like Bors in a lunatic mode would not be good design at all. This goes beyond unit role and identity; the unit being statistically weak has no real benefit to the game as it reduces your available options as the player. In comparison, a game like Conquest is so re-playable because it doesn't have this issue; some units are objectively worse than others (by a fair margin still) but are still designed well despite the difficulty. To argue that units are homogenized to accomplish that is not true at all. In fact, FE6 homogenizes units are lot more. Wolt and Dorothy have no identity between each other for example. Wendy has pretty much nothing on Bors. So even bad units (without interesting design) have units just strictly worse than them - that's not something you can defend.
There is so much more I could say on this topic, but that's the gist of it.
Mekkah used Wendy in his FE6 HM ironman. She actually held up pretty decently after training. And was even useful compared to other units in the final chapter as she didn't face crit chance unlike other units. Doesn't make her a good unit, but an entertaining one nonetheless. Besides being a "meme" unit, she does have her merit for the gameplay experience as it's similar to the enjoyment people get out of Est characters, but she's there early on so you get to see the fruits of your labor even earlier on potentially.
That's not a particularly useful niche when it comes to what purpose it serves to the overall gameplay I agree, she doesn't do anything other units can't, but what's useful in general(heh) shouldn't be confined to just that, but also what brings the players enjoyment, and I'd say she is worth.
@@tiarabite I think the argument with Wendy is that she genuinely had no positive traits with her design and that she's just bad for the sake of being bad. She has zero positives over Bors aside with having a bit more SPD (but less CON) at 20/20.
If you compare to her Meg, at least the latter unit has some unique properties that can make her fun/interesting to use. Her SPD/RES are genuinely really good for her class, even if the value of that isn't that much (from what she loses for it), and innate Fortune is unique as well, I guess. Her starting situation is also less terrible so at least the player can train/use her without it being a massive pain.
She still isn't designed very well but at least there are some qualities about her that stand out a little. With Wendy, literally nothing about her design is good or interesting. She isn't an Est unit at all. Which is especially poor when you consider that unit growths are intended by the developer to be hidden from the player. You would assume she would have good payoff but that's not even the case.
@@DLuna333 Meg is borderline impossible to use in hard mode. She gets oneshot by every unit in her starting chapter(as does anyone not named Sothe or Nolan too tbf), and she's in a game where you can remove innate skills and give em to others. I don't know how you came up with her situation being less terrible when Wendy's chapter even in HM has some mercs that you can set her upon and even if she misses she doesn't die unless they crit.
She does suck in western isles though, so I'll give Meg that.
If you're going by class comparisons only, Wendy has the same SPD/RES advantages that Meg does though compared to her fellow armors. I don't get how they are all too different.
Wendy isn't an Est, and that's not what I said. I meant that the reasons people use Ests, to see a bad unit become a serviceable one, is the same reasons to use Wendy. Her growths aren't spectacular or outstanding but they are enough that you do see her start to hold her own proper weight eventually. I can't think of any Ests that actually are outstanding upon training, including even og Est, even Nino the one people are most familiar with, is outclassed by Pent usually even when trained.
I think there's a bigger picture to some units that are totally valid. General Wendy isn't no Rutger or Percival, but she still holds her own and more importantly, it's that growth compared to freshly recruited knight Wendy that's her appeal.
I love Trec. He's always a tank in every run of FE6 I do. Not the strongest or fastest, but most durable and reliable.
As someone who finished a no death run in this game 3 times (with 2 true endings), yep this is also my favorite FE game
Binding Blade is one of my favorites too for a lot of these reasons. One thing I really liked about playing it a second time was finding out that the secret shop in chapter 21 sells boots. There's nothing like your first experience of spending the whole game anticipating getting multiple units with like 12 move and them having it pay off.
I was really hoping you'd mention Arcadia when listing off some of the good maps. I unironically love that one.
i was inspired by your iron man of this game and decided to do an iron man of my own (under mekkkah rules.) i beat it with the bad ending on christmas eve last year and i was super proud of myself
If FE6 had a FE11/12 style save point system, I think FE6 HM would be my favourite difficulty of any FE game. The difficulty is perfect, but man it sucks to have really 30+ minutes of gameplay because of one mistake. Almost pulled my hair out having to watch the unskippable Cecilia vs Zephiel fight every time I failed that map.
Oh wow, what a coincidence. I'm about to start playing Binding Blade for the first time AND for my friends I'm going to do a Binding Dorcas stream on April Fools... Anyways, I do know a lot about the game despite not playing it, one of my favorite things about it besides the story is the soundtrack; Man does this game make you feel like you're in another world, it's truly something else.
Another thing is the story. Roy's a cool character to me because of his accomplishments, at 15 years old he's leading a goddamn army and takes on not only Zephiel, a dude who wields a lance-sword hybrid that spits out lightning and casually swings around this massive blade like it's nothing, but also centuries old and powerful dragons like Yahn and Idunn... My only real problem with the game is since it's gameplay is a bit dated thanks to it being the first FE GBA (least that's what I think it is, stuff like low hit rates and throne buffs and axes being so bad among other things...).
The title for the game alone is my favorite out of.. Well, might just be my favorite title for a FE game. Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn sound cool, but The Binding Blade just rolls right off the tongue... I know titles for a game don't matter much in the longrun, I'm just pointing out just how much Binding Blade is good. I can't wait to actually play the game and see for myself why both you and a lot of other people in the community like it so much!
Oh, and happy birthday Binding Blade, can't believe I forgot that out of that entire essay lmao
As a joke experience I only used bors on my fourth playthrough and it turned out to be really fun and entertaining, intill the final few chapters came up and were a pain to get through so I use Perceval to help myself get through the final chapters and beat the game
Love this video! FE6 is so good and it's really fun to see Mangs gush about his favorite game :)
I want to comment on the unit balance issue. I actually do agree that in a game like Fire Emblem mixing good and bad units can be a very smart design decision. Having one or two powerful units take on significant roles in a battle while weaker units work together to take on other tasks together can still have a lot of depth to it, as well as give more meaning to both your powerful and weaker characters in their world. But what's important is to give these units a role, a purpose, that feels significant, in the maps or in the story. Or at an absolute minimum just fulfilling the role of a replacement unit if someone dies. Otherwise, it really does invite the question of why bother having them.
Funny enough, you use Awakening as an example of a game where units are more balanced, but honestly on the Lunatics and even to an extent Hard the game is actually more over centralized on a few key units. Half the cast in Awakening feels useless on the highest difficulties, and the game just begs you to low man it or do really janky/chancy shit. It's not the same as something like Three Houses where most of the cast has a clear niche, and even the worst units are still useable on Maddening. FE6 has a more "balanced" cast than Awakening despite Awakening's design decisions, which is kind of funny considering FE6 is adamant about having such powerhouse units.
Agreed on all points. I replayed BB recently and found a new appreciation for it.