AWKWARD ZOMBIE

That face in the first panel.

That being said, Fire Emblem recruiting sure has been simplified in the more recent games. It kind of makes me wonder if it's going to remain straightforward in Three Houses.

I like the more complex recruitment requirements of the early Fire Emblem games. I do use a guide to figure them out tho.

If I remember correctly, The Binding Blade also had a thief character that you had to talk to 3 times with your main lord to recruit. In separate chapters, across 6 chances.

Also, her numbers were weaksauce.

These faces are pure gold.

Gotta love Shinon's recruitment from PoR. Have Rolf talk with him, then KILL HIM with Ike. Seems fine.

Is he the only FE recruitment where you need to kill them (not counting Priam, who I believe was like 'Yo beat me and I'll join you')?

Nino the Niña


"Do my best owo"

"I will give you an irresponsible amount of gold!"

Or you could just... talk to him with L'Arachel

My first playthrough of a FE game is blind. My second playthrough has me following a recruitment guide so I can recruit all the cool people.

Silly Katie, in Fire Emblem, small children are the strongest units

Cool, I've been honestly wondering how people are "expected" to go through the game. Like, whether hunting for secrets is *just* a completionism thing or actually necessary.

Maybe finding some of the better-hinted-at secrets makes the games significantly easier... Though there seems to be a significant element of luck, presumably keeping the game "winnable" with unoptimal play.

As long as you prolong maps to grind XP, of course, that's just obvious! I learned that much from Wesnoth. I learned it very painfully.

Finger crossed FE Switch has a moment that combines all of these.
Pay a small child an irresponsible amount of gold then have them stand halfway across the map while dodging lightning only to have their presence trigger a deadly assassin to come out of the shadows who must answer a questionnaire while being chased through enemy lines.
Ooh I'm getting excited already.

The old games were intended to be played multiple times to find everything. Or you could buy a guide. $50 for a game 25 years ago was a lot of coin. Then they wanted $15 for a game guide. Also, the Japanese are notorious collectors. That's why there are so many pokemans. Or so I am led to believe. Fire Emblem used to be basically where you collected child soldiers. Now it's about collecting waifus.

Reminds me of that meme that Metroid was designed to sell Nintendo Power even though Japan didn't have Nintendo Power. More recent gamers don't understand the idea of creating maps, therefore it was obviously a cheddar making scam.

Games used to be designed with the idea of communication between players.

People would play and replay games, discover things and share them with eachother.

Path of Radiance, for example, offers greater rewards with subsequent completions and the Fire Emblem series in general is designed in such a way that multiple playthroughs are required to effectively use different team combinations.