My main way to deal with witches, or anything tbh was invoke lmao. Very often, enemies aggro towards the spirit thingies rather than my actual units so I could use them as endless tanks. If not for invoke I literally would not have been able to beat the final boss because they just take soooo much heat off of me.
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I usually used invoke just to block the frontline while I poked with ranged stuff and flanked with fliers/cavalry.
My first Fire Emblem game was Sacred Stones. The combination of turn based strategy along with the RPG leveling combined 2 genres that I already enjoyed. The support system also enthralled me. Being able to see these characters interact and discuss their lives, their hopes, and their dreams really breathed life into them. Which is why I always reset when someone died.
It didnāt hurt that I had the official strategy guide as well thanks to my Nintendo Power subscription. I mostly remember using it to plan out how to promote people and to make sure I found all the secret shops.
I missed out on Path of Radiance due to being a kid with no money and no one ever getting it for me for Christmas. I had that on my list for many years. 
My next experience with a full Fire Emblem game was Radiant Dawn and that fully cemented my love of the series.
Since then, Iāve also beaten Shadow Dragon and have in varying states of not completed yet Awakening, Fates, and Echoes. Currently Echoes has me absolutely hooked. The mechanics are simpler than some of the other games, but for me that makes it so positioning and tactics are even more important. The cantors can be tedious, but I enjoy battles of attrition so those guys are some of my favorite enemies. Also the dungeon crawling is a super fun way to break up the constant battles. The characters make it even better because they are all super fun. I love it when Est says āI could learn a thing or 3.ā
Iāve also been playing Fire Emblem Heroes since it came out. Itās like a bite sized dose of Fire Emblem every day. Num num num. 
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Oh hey, I had a similar experience where I started with the GBA games (my first one was FE7). I managed to finish Awakening but am finding Fates kind of a bore to go through. Iāve had it on hold for almost a year now. I really like the conquest cast though.
Fun story: on my first playthrough ever of FE7 I made the typical mistake of only ever using the 2nd stage units, which left my lords painfully underleveled. In the final battle I ended up having no other choice but to sacrifice literally all my units as bait so that Eliwood had the chance to make enough damage on the dragon, since he was so underleveled heād get easily 1HKOād. Seeing the epilogues of most characters being ādied in final chapterā was so traumatizing that I learned not to do that ever again 
Whatās your favorite game in the series? I personally love the Tellius games (path of radiance and radiant dawn). I think both of those games have some of the best maps in the entire series.
This is kind of a shame, especially if you still had a Luna tome back then. Since it sounds like you didnāt lose any units before that. Because if I remember correctly, a combination of Athos + Luna + Healer + Nils can win you the dragon fight.
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Probably Sacred Stones, it holds a special place in my heart as the first game I played. I also absolutely adore the combat animations in that game. The swordmaster critical hit is so great with the 5 afterimages. I think the way the camera moves and jumps around in the newer games with the 3D animations can make it too hard to tell whatās going on.
Echoes is making a very strong case for itself as well. The characters are delightful and I greatly appreciate being able to get all of the support conversations easily in one play through. And everything else I gushed about in my last post.
Radiant Dawn is a solid 3rd. It had so many wonderful cinematic moments and I donāt just mean the pre-rendered ones. Some of those battles were just so huge and epic it felt like a real war and not a small band of elite troops slogging their way through enemy lines.
Completely agreed. The fantastic 2D animations was definitely the thing I missed the most when the game transitioned to 3D. Honestly I find the all the 3D battle animations so unremarkable that I tend to turn them off after a couple of battles for every new main game in the series.
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I think what was lost most in the transition from 2D to 3D was all the subtlety. Every small movement in the 2D sprites was really obvious even for someone like me who has obliviousness down to a science. For the 3D animations I only catch the broad strokes and I miss all of the small movements and slight changes that might occur.
For example, in Sacred Stones the archer crit animation has an extra slight movement on the left hand just before drawing the arrow. Or the thief sways just a little bit before going in to attack. In Echoes thereās the noise and flash when they crit, but I donāt think Iāve ever noticed a change in the attack itself. Granted I think thereās at least 2 or 3 different attack animations for each class in general so itās not like there isnāt variety. Itās just much less memorable when the camera keeps moving and I canāt soak it in.
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It is true that 3D loses a bit of charm compared to 2D in terms of animation, however I feel that at least Radiant Dawn and Echoes try to implement a similar fancyness. Radiant Dawn specifically seems to follow the GBA gamesā philosophy of spinning makes things better in regard to its special ability and crit animations. In Echoes Iām finally happy with the spells again, something that was seriously lacking in Shadow Dragon, Awakening and Fates. The Aura spell in particular is a callback to the GBA Aura animation, albeit in a different color. (Or the other way around, would have to check Gaidenās spell animations for that). Furthermore, the Dread Fighter animations seriously remind me of GBAās Swordmaster animations, what with the whole jumpiness and disappearing and reappearing and stuff.
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I just watched part of a video that was like āWhat happens to the dialogue in the early game of Path of Radiance if you let everyone except Ike die?ā Itās actually likeā¦ kinda really sadā¦
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Since Fire Emblem Warriors is almost out, I just feel the need to say that itās a travesty what they have done with this game. Having Anna as the announcer during levels means that whenever she says āMission Startā, itās incredibly upsetting because if Marth did it, Iād have the option of switching to Japanese mode and hearing Hikaru Midorikawa say it.
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Anna would be the most fitting for that role in my books. If there was only one announcer, Anna would be my pick.
Iām more disappointing by the cast. Iām only mildly interested in two of the characters! It couldāve been such a good idea but they filled the roster with rubbish.
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Yeah, she probably is the most fitting, but I canāt help but feel the wasted potential here.
As for the cast. I got Cordelia, so I have no right to complain.
I wonder when Rowan and Lianna will get added to Heroes. If they arenāt the 2 coming out on the 29th then it probably wonāt be for a long time.
Whenās my boy hector
He fights for his friends!
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Has anyone tried Fire Emblem Warriors yet ?
I have, but I only played it for about 40 minutes or so and I was already more or less bored to tears in that time. The amount of representation of Fates and Awakening compared to other games certainly didnāt help at all.
Itās worth keeping in mind that I donāt find musou games even remotely enjoyable in general so it was a matter of course that I wouldnāt like FEW. Take my opinion with a grain of salt.
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Fire Emblem is one of my favorite series, second only to the TearRing Saga series (which is basically classic Fire Emblem for the PlayStation). The concepts of non-generic units and permanent death in a strategy game really appeal to me, even though I usually reset when a unit dies.
I am one of the many who was introduced to the series through Awakening. After finishing Awakening two or three times I was hungry for more and started playing the other localized games. However, they were not enough to still my hunger and soon I had imported a copy of The Binding Blade. One thing led to another and eventually I had gotten my hands on what was the entire series at the time.
I have currently finished every game in the series bar Dark Dragon and the Sword of Light, Mystery of the Emblem Book 1, New Mystery and Echoes. Out of the ones Iāve played, my favorite is without a doubt Thracia 776. I remember instanty falling in love with the game as I played through the first chapter. Capturing is my favorite mechanic in the series and dismounting, while somewhat poorly executed, is a concept that I really like.
Besides Thracia 776, I really enjoy New Mystery and The Binding Blade, especially on their highest difficulties. I probably also have a very strong bias toward these two games due to having mained their protagonists, Marth and Roy, in Melee and Smash 4.
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