The Fire Emblem GBA Trilogy's Fatal Flaw

I know I said I'd be talking about Half-Life last time but then I realized how many shooters I have been talking about lately and decided to do something about that. So we're talking Fire Emblem, the Strategy RPG series that for the longest time was known more for being in Smash Bros. until Awakening propelled the franchise to heights previously unseen. It also does that Final Fantasy game where each installment, unless otherwise stated, is set in it's own world unconnected to other games. But I'm not here to talk about the overall series; I've been playing the old GBA games lately and I've noticed an issue with these games, the support system. Which has always had issues in some ways but feels more pronounced in the GBA games which are The Binding Blade (FE6), The Blazing Sword (FE7), and The Sacred Stones (FE8).

Supports in Fire Emblem grant two units close to one another bonuses in combat and these supports can be leveled up to become more powerful. But when two characters reach a new support level you also unlock a conversation between those two. It's a decent gameplay and story integration mechanic that's meant to help flesh the characters out while granting gameplay bonuses. Each character can have a maximum of 5 support levels in total, and there are three levels in a support chain between characters. This is done to ensure that the gameplay bonuses don't break the game balancing. On paper this is fine, the problem is that the conversations that come with a support level up are where the true meat of the game's writing is hidden.

The way Fire Emblem (especially on GBA) handles it's characters is that unless they're a main character they get introduced, get recruited, and then hang out in the back until you need them to kill something. However the GBA games hide most of their world building, backstory, and funny character moments between these members of your army in these support conversations. As a result, if you don't get those support conversations the story in all three of these can feel a little bland, especially in 8. 8's world building is done almost entirely in the support conversations which is a problem when the system is so obtuse. I'd rank 6 there as well but 6 has a decent twist at the end with world-building that gives it a little spice and 7 probably has the best world-building of the GBA games.

But getting back to my point on the support system; the real problem with it comes into play when you're trying to get these support level ups and unlock the conversations. In order to level up during gameplay you have to have two unit's stand next to one another for a certain number of turns and then you'll unlock the conversation and level up the support. The problem is how vague it all is and the number of these turns you need. You gain points per turn and the amount of points you get is determined by what characters you're trying to get support levels for, some earn more points per turn while others earn less. It's complicated and hard to learn and in the end you'll do what I did; emulate the game and fast forward through the turns to unlock the support conversations and then go into battle. Which if you're playing on Wii U virtual console or original hardware isn't an option and frankly the games shouldn't need that crutch.

The other major issue is how many level ups you can get and how this limit's character growth. Like I mentioned it's 5 per character and with each pairing usually having 3 level ups, sometimes 2. This limits how much you can learn about a character or alternatively you can lock yourself into a dissatisfying storyline for character who seemed interesting. A good example of this is Lyn's supports in FE7. With Lyn you can learn about how she fell into depression and loneliness during a certain point in the story and how it's changed her once proud demeanor; but how this new adventure seems to be restoring some of her old warrior spirit. Or you can watch Lyn barely talk with Rath for three conversations in a row and somehow this results in them hooking up after the end of the story. You will walk away from at least one character feeling like you didn't understand them as well as you could have and then read up on how much more interesting they actually were on the wiki. Which kinda breaks immersion if I have to read it through a wiki.

But of course the question is how to fix and improve the system. Well first I'd lower the requirement to level up supports by a lot, maybe even by a factor of half. Second I'd make it so only you could select a limited amount of bonuses, but you can have max supports. Best of both worlds, you don't make every character overpowered with supports but you don't lose the stories and character moments that are genuinely good and worth reading. Though you'd also have to rewrite everyone's stories to only really have one ending for each character but I never liked that multiple choice stuff always. I always felt it weighed the actual meat of the series, the strategy role playing element, down. FE Echoes on the 3DS does something similar in terms of writing and it works out very well.

In spite of this I feel that the GBA trilogy of games are great and worth picking up today even if I don't like FE8 as much (because Eirika). 7 and 8 are on Wii U virtual console but if you don't have a Wii U then... goddamnit Nintendo how hard is it to put GBA ROM's on Switch? My 2011 Android phone was running GBA games but nooo it's too much for the Switch. Worse yet the GBA FE games are stupidly inflated used, it just ain't worth it. You probably know how to get around that though so I don't feel the need to tell you my fix. Point is if you can play the GBA FE games and are interested in strategy games then do it if for no other reason than those sick animations: