Fire Emblem Tellius/YMMV

"Schaeffer:"...Gwaar... Haaaarr... Haaaaaa... Shoulda brought... more priests... Or some... babies... Dang...""
 * 8.8: The GameSpot review pans Radiant Dawn for not including Mii support and being too much like the rest of the series. And being hard on Easy Mode. And not including motion controls, which resulted in a very bad review anyway. And guess which console was being criticized by the same site for using motion control in too many games?
 * Anticlimax Boss: How to beat in Radiant Dawn: give Ike a damn Hammer. Wait two turns.
 * Even without a hammer, he's still a fairly easy boss, especially when compared to . The hardest part of that fight is keeping him alive long enough for your other characters to get the Wishblade from Levail.
 * No doubt as payback to the insanity of the first duel in Path of Radiance. It's entirely luck-based.
 * Anvilicious: Racism's bad, m'kay?
 * Awesome Music:
 * "Rally the Spirit" from Path of Radiance.
 * Also Eternal Bond from Radiant Dawn. Not only is it awesome enough to be part of the opening and the closing music numbers, but Super Smash Bros. renamed it "Ike's Theme" despite there being "Ike's Resolution".
 * "The Devoted". Few times such a short song is this intense.
 * Base Breaking Character:
 * Makalov. The fans either love him for his jerkassery, his pink hair and orange armor. Or hate him for his jerkassery, his pink hair and orange armor.
 * Stat-wise: Edward. He's either one of the best characters in the game, or one of the worst. His usefulness gererally depends on what difficulty you're playing (Part 1 on Hard Mode really isn't kind to Magikarp Power characters).
 * Breather Boss: Hetzel, who only uses staves on the first part of 4F.
 * Breather Level: In Path of Radiance, Chapter 14, for being very straightforward compared to Chapters 13 (defense mission that requires you to fight raven Laguz and think more strategically than usual, especially if you want all the treasure and you want to recruit an extremely frail NPC) and 15 (desert map in which you fight Laguz). Chapter 14 is as simple as sending your army along two paths and taking enemies as they come, with the only threats being the Feral Ones at the end and the boss. Hard Mode adds Fog of War, but all that really does is increase your chances of accidentally killing Makalov.
 * Canon Sue: Micaiah possesses many characteristics of a Mary Sue, although she is not universally loved by major characters (although most of them with the exception of Soren eventually like her) and in fact commits critical mistakes that Sothe does call her out for. Ike probably also qualifies given that he kind of is universally loved. The fanbases' general mentality to gauge a character's worth based on their battle potential doesn't help.
 * Cliché Storm: Path of Radiance is this for Fire Emblem, backstory and setting aside. Heck, Elincia even looks like Guenivere and Nyna. Until she suddenly dons armour and jumps on her grandmother's pegasus.
 * Complete Monster: Ashnard, Lekain and Izuka are obvious examples. Schaeffer would be one too, but... see below.
 * Crack is Cheaper: Getting Path of Radiance on Amazon is... pricey, to say the least. Even a used copy will set you back a hundred dollars.
 * Critical Dissonance: While Path of Radiance was well-received, and Ike is one of the most popular Lords in the series (if not the most popular), it sold very poorly in its native Japan.
 * Crosses the Line Twice: The boss of the Path of Radiance chapter "Solo" is holding the unarmed population of a monastery hostage to gain leverage and some human shields. He is the most hilariously, unapologetically vile man your army has personally met thus far, and he seals it with his death quote:

"Deghinsea: "Hold, hold I say!""
 * Ensemble Darkhorse:
 * Mia due to her personality and being a myrmidon (the fandom's favorite characters all seem to come from this class).
 * Heather in Radiant Dawn, due to be one of the few new characters with personality and Girl-On-Girl Is Hot.
 * Nephenee also has a significant following, due to her being a Shrinking Violet farm girl - and at the same time, she's also one of the most powerful characters in the game, outside of laguz nobles.
 * She's also the first playable Soldier.
 * Devdan of course. Danved as well who is certainly not Devdan and who fights like ten men.
 * Oliver too. He's the most beautiful character in the game.
 * Volke, Marcia, Haar and Stefan are quite popular as well.
 * Bastian is also moderately popular due to his exuberant personality and heroic Magnificent Bastardry.
 * In a non-character example, the Tellius incarnation of the Soldier class as a competent playable class, and its promoted forms Halberdier and Sentinel, seem largely beloved. Improving Soldiers and creating and inserting Halberdiers (of varying levels of graphical quality) has become a very common practice in the Game Mod community for the GBA trilogy and the lack of this form of Soldier in Fire Emblem: Awakening was much bemoaned.
 * Evil Is Sexy: Petrine, complete with Boobs of Steel.
 * Fan-Preferred Couple: There's a small minority of Fire Emblem fans who DON'T ship Nephenee/Heather.
 * Fan Dumb/Hate Dumb: Soren gets loads of this, earning a Base Breaker status. Some fans were definitely not pleased with the fact that he and Ike seem to be the Official Couple for the game given the insane amount of hoops you have to jump through to get their bonus scene. Crosses over with Double Standard since nobody was bitching about Heather's fairly blatant lesbianism.
 * Foe Yay: A bit: most prominently between Greil and Petrine, and between Valtome and Zelgius.
 * Fountain of Memes:
 * Devdan.
 * Septimus.
 * Game Breaker:
 * in Radiant Dawn, Ike in both games, and most tier 3 characters in the sequel. To specify, there are now 60 levels to grow up, and each 20 levels you go up a "tier" (which the game calls a "class change"), and get pre-set stat bonuses (contrasting normal level-ups, where it's random). In the other games, there were only two tiers. Now there are 3, and even though most of your units come in tier 2 anyway, their stats become so ridiculous that many people consider the Endgame the easiest part of the game.
 * Averted with the tier 3 characters in the Japanese version: units don't "Class Change" upon leveling up, but need to use the Master Crowns to reach third tier, so the number of third tier characters is somewhat limited.
 * Haar. Lightning Bruiser, excellent mobility, plenty of availability, weak to only an uncommon type of Magic, masters the best weapon type in the game, is essentially a flying tank... it's safe to say that Haar is one of, if not THE, best units in the game. Such is his influence as a Game Breaker that among Fire Emblem fansites, when drafting tier lists for any game in the franchise (and even other games), it's not uncommon to refer to the absolute top tier as the "Haar Tier".
 * Goddamned Boss: oddly low HP (50) for a late-game boss is to lull you into a false sense of security. Thanks to Mantle, he's healing 40 of that every turn, so essentially, the only way to subdue him is to gang up everyone and take him out in one turn. You also need Nihil on those who will attack him if you don't want him to Corona-bomb someone to death. However, he's got another dirty trick that is almost literally cheating: . Rude and rather lame, but it makes sense in context: see Death Seeker in the main section.
 * Ho Yay/Les Yay:
 * Among the males most prominently Ike with his all-male support endings, especially Soren with whom he has loads of subtext in both games.
 * Among the females, there is Heather who pretty much flirts with every woman she meets (Nephenee, Lucia, Ilyana... even giving hyperbolic compliments to Elincia without meeting her).
 * Other places people notice Ho Yay include but are not limited to Oscar/Kieran, Tibarn/Reyson and Zelgius/Sephiran.
 * Other places people notice Les Yay include but are not limited to Jill/Mist, Jill/Lethe and Tanith/Sigrun.
 * It Was His Sled:
 * The at the end of Part II. Yes, it was originally a spoiler, since it was never hinted at the beginning. Also,.
 * from the first game.
 * It's Easy, So It Sucks: "Stop Having Fun!" Guys complained that you could save mid mission in Radiant Dawn, providing an opportunity for Save Scumming (a first for a Fire Emblem game). Others countered that you can't do it in Hard Mode (the mid-battle saves are deleted when you load them).
 * It's Hard, So It Sucks: The GameSpot reviewer said that the game was insanely hard, even on Easy Mode, which contributed to the badly received low score. Up until then, every Fire Emblem was made easier for international release. This one wasn't, except for including some new weapons, and making promotion and forging weapons less of a hassle.
 * It really didn't help that the Japanese Normal, Hard and Maniac modes were renamed Easy, Normal and Hard in the localization. It's quite likely that many reviewers avoided playing Easy out of pride, not realising they were jumping straight into the Japanese Hard.
 * Magnificent Bastard:
 * Ashnard, though.
 * Non-villainous examples include Nasir, Bastian, Naesala and Soren (although the last becomes more of a Guile Hero by the end of Path of Radiance).
 * , who is The Man Behind the Man to everyone. Lekain thinks he's one, but is more of a high-functioning Smug Snake.
 * Memetic Badass: "The 3-13 Archer", a particular friendly archer in Chapter 3-13 of Radiant Dawn, is especially distinguished for Memetic Badass status in spite of want for a name. By an incredible quirk of Artificial Brilliance, the 3-13 Archer has cemented himself in the hearts and minds of Fire Emblem players everywhere.
 * Memetic Mutation:
 * Danved is certainly not Devdan. He also fights like ten men.
 * "Give them a sound thrashing!"
 * Moe: Mist, Ilyana, Astrid, Amy, Micaiah and Sanaki. A lot of people think this of Rhys as well. Soren could be, but that might just be something else.
 * Moral Event Horizon:
 * Jarod crossed it when he murdered three innocent civilians in pursuit of the Dawn Brigade, and possibly earlier when he killed one of his own men for failing to capture the Dawn Brigade.
 * Izuka definitely crossed it when he was testing his Feral One drugs on Muarim, although the Feral One drug’s existence to begin with could mean he crossed it sooner.
 * Lekain crosses it every other line of dialogue.
 * Being responsible for the Serenes Massacre definitely stands out though, particularly since.
 * Ashnard crossed it when he abandoned his lover, took his son hostage in order to lure in the boy's uncle whom he turned into a mount, and then abandoned his son after that.
 * Valtome does it twice, starting by ordering his men into the Kauku Caves (almost certain death) purely to "retrieve corpses" in 3-8. In 3-10, in case there was any doubt, ordering his soldiers (a hell of a lot of men) to attack the unarmed Queen Elincia, who has just managed to avert a major battle between Begnion and the Laguz Alliance. This troper cheered when he got to kill the douchebag in 4-2.
 * Narm:
 * Some of the voiceovers in the scenes in Radiant Dawn's English version. Especially Deghinsea's. A was intended to be a very serious scene showcasing plight, but Deghinsea's voice actor decided to play Large Ham and whatever was intended to be serious in the scene vanished in thin air.
 * Some of the voiceovers in the scenes in Radiant Dawn's English version. Especially Deghinsea's. A was intended to be a very serious scene showcasing plight, but Deghinsea's voice actor decided to play Large Ham and whatever was intended to be serious in the scene vanished in thin air.


 * Ilyana's death. "I'm dying... on an empty stomach."
 * The flashback with Ike as a child. Because whoever was doing his voice was not told that IKE WAS A FRICKEN CHILD. Hilarious to watch.
 * Older Than They Think: Nephenee is often mistaken for the first playable character in the Soldier class, which was exclusive to enemies and other non-playable units in the GBA games. The series had previously had playable Soldiers in Fire Emblem Gaiden, such as Lukas, who joins in the beginning of that game.
 * Scrappy Mechanic: In Path of Radiance:
 * Skills are lost for no good reason if it was taken off a character.
 * Biorhythm can be annoying, but it's not as bad as it will be next game.
 * The Laguz's transformation meters. It makes non-royal Laguz units so much less flexible, and requires players to be so much more cautious with their placement at the end of turns to ensure they don't untransform while being assaulted on the enemy phase. The result is that even with items to mitigate the transformation meter, Laguz perform a lot worse than equivalent Beorc units, and require really overpowering stats or abilities to be useful. Even with OP stats, Laguz will often get overlooked by players for inferior Beorc units so they don't have to deal with the meters.
 * "Seinfeld" Is Unfunny: Path of Radiance was the first Fire Emblem game to use mild profanity in its Western localization, with "damn(ed)" used as a Precision F-Strike twice during the game... a rarity for Nintendo at the time. Because later Fire Emblem games used profanity much more liberally (starting with its own sequel Radiant Dawn), the game's frequent use of Gosh Dang It to Heck! outside of these two instances can come across as stilted, especially since Path of Radiance was rated T for Teen and would not have appealed to children.
 * Stoic Woobie:
 * Soren is the most obvious example, although admittedly he loses some of his stoicism in the scenes that make him the most Woobie-like. Except for his Path of Radiance B Support with Ike.
 * That One Boss:
 * If nothing else, Dheginsea is statistically fearsome: 100 HP, outrageous stats (six of them maxed out), a skill (Mantle) that stops your skills, renders him immune to non-blessed weapons, and heals him for 30 HP every turn, and to top it off, a mastery skill (Ire) that just plain kills you, period. The good news is, by this point, you've had a chance to get three copies of Nihil, which you can simply slap on your three strongest units to even the odds. The bad news is, you're still having to fend off his countrymen in the meantime, and they are no slouches. Another strike against Dheginsea is that (like all the rest of the enemies) he will never retaliate against Kurthnaga or Ena. Not that this helps you anyway, since those two are lucky to damage him at all (this troper used the two of them as roadblocks to stall the reinforcements).
 * In Path of Radiance, defeating the Black Knight is more or less a matter of luck, unless you've gotten Mist leveled up reaaaaaal well. And even then you have to do it in just four turns, which is harder than it sounds.
 * That One Level: In Path of Radiance:
 * Chapter 17: It's disliked for being separated into 4 sections, and if you're not comfortable with your equipment setup past the first section, then too bad because you don't get to edit your items from section 2 onwards. The chapter also just looks dreary, and while that is the effect their going for it makes the chapter very bland to look at. On the bright side, it did introduce a system that allowed you to call for reinforcements to bolster your ranks and bring in spare items, but they take quite a few turns to show up.
 * Maniac Mode Chapter 26: It is the logical extreme of Maniac Mode's unfathomably high amount enemies, with almost half of the (already incredibly large) map filled up with enemy units. It is regarded by many as one of the biggest slogs in the entire series for many Maniac players.
 * They Changed It, Now It Sucks:
 * The losses of the mercenary and hero classes in Path of Radiance were also met with complaining, although Ike basically counts as one in all but name, especially in the sequel.
 * The generic support conversations in Radiant Dawn were not very well-liked after four straight games of interesting, detailed ones. A fan project was started to create support conversations in the vein of those seen in previous games. Link here.
 * Tier-Induced Scrappy: Myrmidons/Swordmasters may just be at their worst in Path of Radiance. Not only do they have the usual issues of lacking 1-2 range and being a Fragile Speedster with a low strength cap, but they also are in a game with a heavy mount dominance and in the Japanese version they lack their usual innate critical rate (it was added in the English release). Thankfully, most of the characters within the class are beloved enough that they still remain popular, but they are almost always regarded negatively on tier lists and such.
 * Toy Ship: Mist and Rolf. Also counts as a Fan-Preferred Couple.
 * Unfortunate Implications: Astarte's status in the game could be viewed as this, but if anyone cared, it'd probably be for Sadly Mythtaken reasons. The translators renamed her Ashera though, so unfortunate implications abound when she's used for the church stand in.
 * The Woobie: Among others, Tormod, Muarim and Ena definitely count.
 * Woolseyism:
 * is changed from very silly Phlebotinum Breakdown to I Let You Win using existing reasons.
 * "Mist" was changed into "Alja" in the German version since "Mist" literally means manure.
 * "Mist" was changed into "Alja" in the German version since "Mist" literally means manure.