Wii Fire Emblem: Its pretty good!

[Jain Zar]

With the addition of a hard save in battles this series can finally be enjoyed by people other than the hardcore dickwaving weeaboo fucksticks at Gamefaqs.

Note after the first GBA Fire Emblem I have avoided the series since because I do not enjoy replaying the same fucking mission a half dozen or more times.
These are my impressions of the game and its changes from the first US released Fire Emblem.  Ive played it for 2 hours so things might change later on..
I am also assuming folks know roughly what Fire Emblem is and how it works.

The pros: 
Hard Saves for people who don't enjoy the permadeath system.  X Com had hardsaves to avoid permadeath in the early 90s.  Its overdue!
Fast movement and text options keep the pace brisk.
Turning off combat animations still allows for on map combat to be satisfying.  Nice quick on map animations beat cutscene style all the time.  Still get the action, only faster.
Can play standard NES style control, or remote styled.  2 button control using A, B, and the D Pad.
XP bonuses from the mission can be applied in between missions.  Keep those guys you don't use as much competitive!
Forge allows you to upgrade your weapons to be tougher and stronger.
Characters aren't underaged barely dressed otaku spank fantasies.  Most of them actually dress intelligently for combat. 
Story is fairly interesting.  A wide group of people from all ages and backgrounds fighting to rescue the last heir to an occupied nation.
Volume controls for all sound options. 
Apparently you can use the classic controller as well, but why?
Tutorials come in steadily as opposed to information overload.
Options to see where all enemy movement/attack distances are for those hardcore players who want to keep permadeath and play Fire Emblem the way it had to be played previously: As an excersize in enemy AI exploits as opposed to as a band of heroic fantasy types beating ass with thrilling rescues and daring attacks.
Difficultly levels, with Easy more like hard in most SRPGs.  Permadeath is a BITCH.
Character chart to keep track of everyone and what the fuck they are all about.
Its only 50 bucks.
No level grinding.  If FE GBA was any indication, outside of optional fights, there is no repetitive grinding random fight shit.  Unless you just use the same party and superlevel them all to max, the fights will be fairly balanced instead of like most SRPGs where missions vary between STUPIDLY EASY and IMPOSSIBLY HARD depending on how much you level up in repeating the same mission.
It allows me to actually buy a Wii game that is on a disk as opposed to Virtual Console, bringing my Wii disk game collection to 7. (Zelda, Dragonball Z, Fire Emblem, Excite Truck, Call of Duty 3, Wii Sports, and Metal Slug Anthology.  I had Super Monkey Ball, but it was ass.  WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU SEGA?  DID I NOT LOVE YOU ENOUGH?  Oh.. you wont give us the PS2 Remakes of Dragon Force, Phantasy Star, and Phantasy Star 2.  Its you, not me.  Fuckin assholes.  I woulda bought those 3 games SO HARD!)
Buying and enjoying Wii software makes Schild angry and that's always amusing.  I need amusement in my life.

The cons:
Weapons are still limited use items that get destroyed over time.
Chests on the map still need to be opened before the mission objectives are met.
Graphics look like 1st generation Dreamcast titles outside of character art which is good.  All the 3d art is meh.
Character advancement is still random points upgrades.
No motion control option.  Being able to point and click would be a nice option.
Using Remote Styled options doesn't work on the title screen.  Not a deal breaker, but its a tad annoying.
Maybe I just can't find it, but no way to move the map camera.  Luckily the view is fine as is.

[Margalis]

Cue hardcore dickwaving weeaboo fucksticks in 3...2...1

Ha ha. The first GBA Fire Emblem had great writing, the Nintendo localization teams are top-of-the-line, hopefully that will carry though.

I didn't mind the permadeath thing so much except when you got critted by the last boss or when playing an unfamiliar level and something unexpected fucked you over. But I've been playing Fire Emblem games since the first Super Famicom one.

[schild]

I almost bought this today.

I like Fire Emblem.

But I bought Silent Hill Origins, Scene-It, Vital Signs, and Fear Perseus Mandate Thing (with the original game and expansion, the latter of which I never picked up).

[Jain Zar]

I almost bought this today.

I like Fire Emblem.

But I bought Silent Hill Origins, Scene-It, Vital Signs, and Fear Perseus Mandate Thing (with the original game and expansion, the latter of which I never picked up).

Post a thread about SH Origins once you get some playtime on it.  I'm mildly interested in it.  So far the reviews are ok but not stellar.

And Im continuing to enjoy the game this thread is about.  The cast is pretty likeable and the party size keeps growing.  Course I refuse to accept any party death and the in game save is mildly helpful there.  Bad tactics and poor save choices can still fuck one over.
Right now my favorite character is Meg.  A slightly chubby lady in full armor who travelled all the way to where everyone is to marry one of her dad's old mercenary buddies.  SHE CALLS THE GUY POOKUMS.  That rules!  The guy doesn't know what the fuck.  I giggled.
Too bad its obvious who is the Wormtongue dude.  Cmon Japan!  Not every bad guy has to be ugly and obviously an asshole.
The story is cool otherwise.  Rebel army trying to oust an occupying nation.  Makes me REALLY wish it was open ended so I could move around forces and reconquer the lands myself instead of following a guided plot though.  Almost like a fantasy X Com with more decision making RPG conversation elements and no real tech tree stuff to deal with.  That would be so fuckin rad!

And I love the bonus XP assignment stuff.  Its useful for people who actually accept casualties as it can bring 2nd stringers up to snuff quickly, and to help weaker characters get not so weak.  Like Meg.  She is a slowpoke and can't get into battle very quickly.  I have to avoid letting a rampaging Wolfguy kill everything because he moves like greased lightning.  Same with my Thief.  And they pretty much kill anything that looks at them funny.  (Might be different on Normal, but its challenging enough and I don't have the time or desire to constantly replay a mission.  If its anything like the first US GBA one, its long enough as is!  Besides, I beat the PSP Rondo of Blood remake with Richter and was 1 hit away from completing it with Maria (thanks to sites for telling me where to find a couple secrets I missed to get Drac's ULTIMATE FORM(s) and end things properly.  My gamer credentials are set enough. Playing games on harder difficulty levels is like trying to get drunk off Odoul's.  Its just you abusing yourself for no good reason!)

[Margalis]

The XP stuff is nice. I'm always annoyed when games encourage you to use the same troops every time because everyone else falls behind the XP curve.

The GBA FE addressed this to some extent by giving reduced XP for high-level guys. At some level it made sense to swap in other guys if you wanted maximum total XP gains, and also certain units being particularly good for certain levels. Even so, I found I had a rotation of maybe 12 guys that I would use while the rest atrophied.