Pick A God And Pray: Fire Emblem series

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Rems
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Pick A God And Pray: Fire Emblem series

Post by Rems »

so, like, omg, guys, i made my "I'd like to make this, but it'll never actually happen, lol" shrine, it is made, it is done

This site is my mystery site - the one I've talked about a lot on twitter and agonised over revealing or no, but I decided to keep it a secret since it was something I wanted to get written and done :music: It might have been made in a week (thanks Heroes for the new images) but this wordvomit has been cooped up for a very, very long time, so it was easy to splurge out on so many (so many) words.

Fire Emblem is one of my longest series franchises (and my longest, still active videogame series period) and having this done feels pretty amazing! It's presented as a personal journey through Fire Emblem, given that it's so big and as much as I wanted to talk about everything, and this format allowed me to keep me sanity and also focus in on the most important people. (It's also pretty obvious I took a degree in media analysis Rems, this is actually an essay??) And it's multiversatile; I can always add more characters into my rants later on, or further them when I inevitably have more to say. Cautiously reaches towards Velentia.

I've read, re-read, had this spoken aloud to me, double checked all the images and links so hopefully everything is a-okay - if anything looks a little wonky, please let me know. :heart: I'd love to hear what you think! :blush:

I also added all the Fire Emblem shrines I could find to my link wall; if I've missed someone (or anyone has any sneaky sites like me), lmk and I'll be happy to add you up! Now I just need to add some more buttons...
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Larissa
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Re: Pick A God And Pray: Fire Emblem series

Post by Larissa »

REMS THIS WAS A COMPLETE SURPRISE AND I LOVE IT??!?!

I am ALL FOR making your dream sites, and simultaneously I fully understand the feeling of "well I want to make a site to this but I love it too much/the subject is too huge/I just can't cover everything I want to." This site is SUCH a good way to capture all of those feelings in a way that works for you. I'm really glad to have inspired you with my Gyarados site (I seem to have inspired a lot of people with that silly fish, haha!) if it means a lovely site like this! :heart:

My Fire Emblem experience is very limited; I'm on chapter 14 or 15 (maybe??) of Blazing Sword, which I started last year, and that's literally the only game in the series I've ever touched. I genuinely have no idea how I missed out on Fire Emblem for all these years given I'm a tactical RPG fan (I feel like I had a deprived childhood). That said, at this point I've been pretty heavily spoiled by osmosis, so I read through the site anyway, and what a treat it was!

Honestly, I love everything about how you've set this up. I love that every page talks about your experience with each game -- what brought you to it, what you felt about it at the time (and in the period since), your favorite units to use, and so on. I LOVE THE BREAKOUT BOXES!!! What a fantastic way to highlight individual characters and stories, especially in a series like Fire Emblem with so many characters.

I also really love the feeling that comes from this site of a long-time fan -- it comes through really clearly in the Shadow Dragon page especially, regarding a series's roots (and flaws), but also very much in the Awakening page, regarding a series's comeback. It's really lovely to read about what you don't like in the series, just as much as it is to read about what you love -- the entire Tellius page is fantastic from start to finish.

I also found the Binding Blade page really interesting, especially with regard to prequels, and your commentary on emulation was fascinating (I had some of the same quandaries when I played, given the nature of Fire Emblem as a series). Also based on the Awakening page this game's story sounds totally up my alley and I have no idea why I haven't played it yet??? I'm the worst.

I think at this point I'm rambling but: the whole site is fantastic and I'm so glad you made it! SERIOUSLY, THIS IS SO LOVELY. :heart: :!: :star: :!: :heart: Isn't it such a lovely feeling to finish a site that you've wanted to make for so long.

ALSO THE LAYOUT IS GORGEOUS AND I LOVE IT
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Todd
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Re: Pick A God And Pray: Fire Emblem series

Post by Todd »

This was such a pleasant surprise to find on my phone's Twitter app this morning. I read the whole thing, and Rems, it's amazing! I love how personal it is. I love how you chose select favorite characters to discuss; it's a very neat way to approach a fansite, choosing what you wanted to talk about as a fan, rather than feeling bogged down by the series in its entirety. I love that you were completely honest on each page, even admitting to disliking a couple of the games and covering their faults.

Everything read really smoothly. The voice of your writing is great. The layout, of course, is beautiful as well. I like how every page features a different character! I also liked the animated battle scenes on some of the pages.

This was so refreshing, and such a fun read. I'll get you linked on my Henry shrine today!
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Re: Pick A God And Pray: Fire Emblem series

Post by Robin »

Congratulations on completing yet ANOTHER bucket list shrine, Rems! You are on a ROLL!!

I love how you've set up this shrine as a clickable journey through Fire Emblem releases. Even for a noob such as myself, each of the pages are inviting and informative. Plus, the text is easy to read, and the character sidebars are friggin' fantastic in their detail and formatting. WELL DONE!

Also this site has inspired me concerning my future Princess Peach shrine. I think this is a wonderful way to cover the highlights of a subject matter which spans many game releases and decades; I've been struggling with how to set up a "good enough" shrine for her, but now that I see this, I don't think I'll be struggling anymore!! <3<3<3<3
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Emma
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Re: Pick A God And Pray: Fire Emblem series

Post by Emma »

Rems, this is such a lovely, personal tribute! I haven't read all the sections – I've only finished Awakening and need to get back to Fates and would like to play the other games at some point! But I love what I've read and how you've chosen to structure this and highlight certain aspects. It's such a great way to approach it, and you've done such a good job. Also, it looks great! Congrats on getting it up. <3

(And Robin, so excited for a Peach shrine from you! I've wanted to make a Yoshi one forever but have had the same issue about such a big franchise and it's so inspiring to see how other people are tackling sites like this!)
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Re: Pick A God And Pray: Fire Emblem series

Post by high seraph »

Hey, Rems! First of all, congratulations on finishing your site!! :heart:

Second of all, thank you for making this shrine. It was like getting my butt kicked right back into playing Fire Emblem games after ignoring them for several months. Despite my love for this series, I still have a lingering childhood frustrations with SRPGs that makes me constantly fall in and out of love with this genre.

The first game I played was Blazing Sword, which I thoroughly enjoyed until I got into Hector's mode and was like #lolnope. Then came Sacred Stones, which I don't remember ever finishing. Reading through Pick A God And Pray motivated me to go back into it and finally - FINALLY - get through the desert map. For the record, I hate desert maps. Then I played Binding Blade, which I found to be extremely difficult (it took me a full year to get through Chapter 11A. I can forgive, but I will never forget). And I'm currently stuck on this title's desert map too. For the record, I hate desert maps. I've finished (sort of?) Awakening. And I've also completed Fates: Birthright (hopefully I'll be able to buy Conquest and Revelations... sometime... soon...). I haven't played Path of Radiance, Radiant Dawn or Shadow Dragon yet.

Sorry for rambling about my own experience with the series btw :swt2: But the reason why I did is because reading through your site really felt like having a conversation with you, and that was surprising and pleasant. With every new section, I found points where we agreed and disagreed, and compared your tactical choices with my own. Tbh, I'm horrible at this genre, my only "strategy" is always, always to promote as many units as I can into high-class magic users and mounted units and wreck things up before anyone dies. It's not very effective, let me tell you. It involves a lot of reloading. It involves a lot of heartbreak. :nolove: But from your site, I learned to appreciate other tactical approaches and rethink how I've used a couple of my units.

The first example that comes to mind is FE8's Amelia. I had to laugh a little at how disappointed you were after promoting her into a Cavalier the first time, because that's exactly what I did, and that's exactly why Amelia was benched as a Lv.1 Cavalier. FE8 does have a lot of Cavaliers, and making Amelia another one was a terrible choice - that, and wasting Franz's supports on her. They had adorable interactions, but now he goes into battle without getting any support boosts. He's still my baby though.

Another thing I need to thank you for is calling attention to Awakening's amazing OST. I can't believe I played through the whole thing without giving it too much thought - I blame the fact that it's a 3DS game, and since I play it a lot when I'm out I tend to keep the sound down in order to not disturb anyone else around me. But now I can finally appreciate this amazing soundtrack - and the series's as a whole tbh. Before reading your site, I don't think I spent much time thinking about how FE games sound, but after spending more than a minute on it, I realized that it has a distinct style that is actually pretty memmorable.

I was also really surprised that you'd pick the Tellius games as your favorite titles - is that a consensus, to some extent? I'd expect Blazing Sword or Awakening to be most likely picked as fan favorites, but, like I said, I haven't played the Tellius games, and I haven't been into FE long enough to have a clue about what the community behind it thinks. But you definitely left me intrigued about these games, and I might look into giving them a shot sometime. :heh:

Anyway!!! I've said a lot and I could probably go on and on because I really enjoyed Pick A God And Pray. Keep it up with the good stuff, Rems!!! :content:
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Rems
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Re: Pick A God And Pray: Fire Emblem series

Post by Rems »

you know what sucks about my current sickness? being able to write coherently - sometimes it's just too daunting and other times i can't string together sentences. excuses excuses. sorry for the delay in getting back to everyone :heart: :ack2: i'm incredibly greateful for all the kind words!! thank you for your patience with me.

@Larissa: KNOW I READ THIS AND LOVED YOUR TL;DR AS SOON AS YOU SENT IT. thank you again for it, all your lovely thoughts and all the cheering on you did on twitter!! :heart: :heart: I'm glad Gyarados is inspiring lots of sites too - it's definitely a different way of approaching things, of thinking outside the box and writing selectively about what's most important and what we want to. :heart:

It's funny, when it comes to emulation, there's a bunch of us who have been playing with a class randomizer for the GBA games recently, or well, Blazing Sword (it's real fun and also ridiculous, one of my friends ended up with a team of bards/healers, I have a lot of wyverns) BUT MY POINT is that none of us have emulated Blazing Sword in the past, so it's a wild experience of how far we're willing to go with arena abusing (which is a lot). It's a totally different way of playing that doesn't come across when you're at the mercy of a console, but it's all good :)

also yes wow play awakening it's very much like XIII (and XIII-2 in general) and I really need to get back into this page and mention how everyone sort of grows into themselves and their roles (even if they mess up), because they do, it's a great millenialesque game wow. please play awakening.

@Todd: Thank you, Todd! I'm glad you enjoyed it and I'm always glad to discover another FE fan C:

@Robin: I certainly hope so! I have so many planned for this year but we'll see... I'll get there... slowly. I'm glad you like the breakout boxes! Like most of what I like best in my sites, it was almost entirely an accident in terms of formatting, but I always knew I wanted to have siderants and as soon as I made Lyn's section, that this was a perfect way to do it.

I'm so glad I've inspired you to work on Peach in a similar way! Working on Pick A God And Pray definitely showed me that quality is better than quantity, especially when it comes to our thoughts about something we love ;) being completely detailed about everything ever is nice, but starting off - or just being satisfied! - with something that is whole but not about the whole thing is a great borderline to find and to walk. Even a month on, I'm still happy with how this site turned out. :D

@Emma: Thank you, Emma! :D and yes, like I've said with Robin, definitely tackling it in a smaller quantity is better, I think, shrines should be all about what we want them to be, heh.

@high seraph/Lucas: gosh this comment has been a real treat, thank you for going on and on! never be sorry about rambling; i live and breathe tl;dr about fire emblem, as evidenced, I can tl;dr for an entire site about fire emblem and still not have tl;dr'd about everything :pale:

And Hector's mode is incredibly difficult, honestly - when I finally rolled round to it (I didn't until post-Tellius) I was surprised by how trying it actually is. All the enemy unit placement change, their battle tactics change, their stats change, and for a game that is (retrospectively) incredibly easy for me to play on Lyn's mode and Eliwood's, Hector's mode is hard, even on normal, eck.

I was definitely going for a less informal and chatty approach, so I'm glad that came through wrt to it being like a conversation with me - especially because it's all very opinionated, and whilst I'm all about critical analysis of my media (I do this a lot with my best friend - we've always been very conscious of how to phrase something if we do/don't like it in case the other one does, but we usually like the same things) you gotta phrase it the right way, tbh.

Before I really got into thinking outside the box with FE, I used to do a lot of the same like your strategy - I think it's just a case of learning what you're good at and comfortable with having your units do and learning how Tactical RPGs work and if it's your favourite genre (like mine) you kinda break it down further. |D But wrecking everything is always a good way to go. Though when I'm pushing for supports I will deliberately not kill an enemy with one unit so I can get another set to bond :'| I'm the worst.

IIRC, the composer for FE has always been the same! She was an overseer for Fates, and whilst Fates has a really good soundtrack that's great to listen to, I personally think Awakening is her best work and some of it is incredibly atmospheric and/or gives me goosebumps. The "ID" series and "..." are some of my favourites - Tellius has some great map themes, but Awakening really brought it home with the feelings in the tracks.

I couldn't say if Tellius is a consensual for being the favourite - I don't get too involved with the fandom as it's so Awakening/Fates heavy - but Tellius is extremely popular along the fans that have been into the series for a long time.

When I met a lot of my Fire Emblem friends it was just after Radiant Dawn had come out in the west, and we were all very into it - Tellius was the newest and the favourite. I don't interact with all these people the same way anymore, but I do follow some on tumblr and talk to the rest on plurk, and I think Tellius are the titles with the least complaints. Even people I've talked to about FE irl who wanted to get into Tellius only had good things to repeat back to me from friends. Tellius certainly set a standard - I've been playing a class randomizer file of FE7 in the past month, and whilst it's all still good, it's reminding me what drew me into Tellius, even now, and it's the plot and narrative structure; the number of plots it has going on at the same time. Because whilst, for instance, Blazing Sword has its clear cut arcs - going to find Elbert, recovering from the loss of Elbert and figuring out what to do next, pursuing the weapons, defeating Nergal - and it has its brief side plots, Tellius - especially Radiant Dawn - has so many plots running parallel to each other and we see all of them. It isn't just, "oh, x fought y in this battle" as a throwaway line in the conversation - you have actually played out that battle, and it's a pretty cool approach to seeing all sides of everything. Or, "and x has secretly had this going on the whole time, but here are all the hints we've dropped for the past two games and, if you were really paying attention, these clues mean you can figure this out for yourself". It tells a story about an entire continent and it's characters in a very thorough, clever way and I am still so disappointed about how hard it is for people to get hold of Tellius!!

Nintendo pls remake or remaster and I will buy a switch, please, please. And I would always recommend Tellius if you can get them because wow, so good, such good games.

s-sorry about my tl;dr in return, haha |D thank you again for your comment and praise!
❝ they have stolen the heart from inside you, but this does not define you ❞
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