History YMMV / FireEmblemTheBlazingBlade

** The Luna tome is one of the most accurate weapons in the game, has a high critical rate, and most importantly [[ArmorPiercingAttack ignores Resistance.]] Any of those traits by themselves would make for a decent weapon, but combined you have a boss slayer that can match [[BigBad Nergal]] in damage output, limited only by the number of tomes in the game and the fact that Canas is your only Dark-magic user for most of it. It's very telling that Luna got a heavy {{Nerf}} in the next game, ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheSacredStones''.

** For those who do not find it ThatOneLevel, "Battle Before Dawn" can be ''surprisingly'' fun.

** Batta the Beast and Glass the ''peerless swordsman whose name is feared by the gods'' are two minor easy bosses, made into {{Memetic Badass}}es by the fanbase due to their overconfidence.

** Marcus is almost a requirement for clearing early levels on Hard Mode. Being a promoted Paladin not only gives him good stats ([[CrutchCharacter at least for that point]]), but also absurd movement that lets him easily rescue characters and save villages. He does fall off a bit in the late game, but he still retains enough utility to be a decent choice for a long time.

** This ''Fire Emblem'' was the very first title in the series to receive official localization in the West. Between that, its complex plot, well-drawn characters, tough but fair, gameplay, and great presentation (including those lovely splash-art slides none of the other GBA titles had), it is one of the most popular installments of the series outside its home country. There, however, it is generally seen as [[{{Sequelitis}} an inferior follow-up]] to its predecessor due to being a prequel and deviating too far from the series' standard formula, fulfilling the other half of the trope. The Lyndis campaign is also a painfully slow tutorial for series vets that could only be skipped via the [[OldSaveBonus link-up]] feature. It's not ''hated'' over there, but it's still seen as weaker.

** The game neglects to clearly inform you that [[spoiler:the range for the dragon's fire breath]] is ''three'' spaces, not two like most ranged attacks. You can imagine how many deaths can be attributed to those not aware of this, and getting somebody fragile fried to a crisp. [[spoiler:(Selecting the dragon will show you, though.)]]

** Mounted classes have traditionally been strong, but these games' incarnation of the '''Paladin''' class is considered a step too far by many fans. Not only is it a MasterOfAll statistically, along with great movement, Canto and rescue utility, but it can use Swords, Lances ''and'' Axes in these games, and an E rank in axes is all it needs to wield the 1-2 range Hand Axe. Not helping matters is the games' CrutchCharacter units having this class.

* NightmareFuel: The final boss. It is a regular fire dragon, summoned by Nergal via [[WithMyDyingBreathISummonYou with a incantation, even as he lays dying]]. The result of this action brings about a raging and hateful beasts that is even more pissed at you for slaying 2 of it's kin as soon as it got out of the Dragon's Gate. Fighting the cursed thing is very intimidating; [[BadassNormal it's just a regular fire dragon, yet it fights even better than other bosses in the GBA trilogy]], it's [[NonStandardCharacterDesign appearance]] sticks out for frightening reasons, and will always kill anyone with the game with only two breaths of it's vile flames.

* {{Squick}}: Jerme's sadistic remarks towards Lyn. What, you may ask? Oh, just an inquiry about if her cut-up skin would feel like silk. You know, the usual.

** Lloyd on Hector mode in Four-Fanged Offense receives a nasty boost from Eliwood mode (even on Hector Normal Mode), such that players who have been breezing by the game might suddenly realize they have no one that can deal with him reliably. He's strong enough that a Silver Sword crit will severely damage or kill most of your units, can double all but your fastest troops, and most annoyingly is just difficult to ''hit'' at all, even with bows or lances. Magic doesn't particularly help either, he's got way more Resistance than Defense inexplicably. To add insult to injury, he's one of the moving bosses (fine on its own), but he gets moved to the center of the map in Hector's story without warning, so not only are you likely to get ganked by him out of nowhere, you're ''also'' likely to have end the chapter earlier than you expected before you can recruit Wallace, which is ThatOneSidequest in and of itself.

*** Ever since ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemHeroes Heroes]]'' gave this game a ColbertBump, Lyn became the most controversial of the three, at least plotwise. There are fans who dislike her because she's [[RememberTheNewGuy invented entirely for the game]] and has no presence in ''Binding Sword'', her tale only loosely connects with the main story, and she is [[OutOfFocus under-utilized]] as a Lord after her starting chapter. Some go so far as to argue that she should never have existed at all, not helped by how Intelligent Systems has either {{Flanderized}} or oversexualized her in spinoff material in the years since. However, others like her for her tragic background, character development, interesting chemistry with other characters, and argue that [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter her minimal role in the main story is the problem rather than a lack of potential]]. There are also fans who wish Lyn to be retroactively acknowledged in some way in a hypothetical remake of ''The Binding Blade'' (considering that she didn’t exist at the time of that game’s release), while others are against it, especially given the [[ContestedSequel bitterly contested fandom infighting between the two properties' proponents]].

** Most of it comes from the fact that ''Blazing Blade'' was the first ''Fire Emblem'' game officially released in English and thus set the standard in the West of what a ''Fire Emblem'' game should look like, meaning nostalgia tends to be a pretty big factor in discussion. Fans who see ''The Blazing Blade'' as a SurprisinglyImprovedSequel praise the game for fixing ''The Binding Blade''[='s=] gameplay issues (unfair throne bonuses and poor hitrates, imbalanced units with strange or buggy programming, entirely Seize-focused maps), adding polish to the presentation with elements like painted cutscenes, and having a more interesting story and cast of characters that made it a good introduction to the franchise, while ''The Binding Blade'' gets criticized for its lack of originality (not helped by [[ItsTheSameNowItSucks its heavy similarities]] to the Archanea games), simplified and cliched story, and aforementioned gameplay issues plaguing it.

* ContestedSequel: Contested Prequel to be specific, but despite being in the same duology, there's been a debate as to whether ''The Binding Blade'' and ''The Blazing Blade'' are the better of the two. Most of it comes from the fact that ''Blazing Blade'' was the first ''Fire Emblem'' game officially released in English and thus set the standard in the West of what a ''Fire Emblem'' game should look like, meaning nostalgia tends to be a pretty big factor in discussion. Fans who see ''The Blazing Blade'' as a SurprisinglyImprovedSequel praise the game for fixing ''The Binding Blade''[='s=] gameplay issues (unfair throne bonuses and poor hitrates, imbalanced units with strange or buggy programming, entirely Seize-focused maps), adding polish to the presentation with elements like painted cutscenes, and having a more interesting story and cast of characters that made it a good introduction to the franchise, while ''The Binding Blade'' gets criticized for its lack of originality, simplified and cliched story, and aforementioned gameplay issues plaguing it. However, those who prefer ''Binding Blade'' also criticize ''Blazing Blade'' as a MissionPackSequel with [[BroadStrokes inconsistent continuity that's much less forgivable given it's the prequel]], making questionable additions like [[ScrappyMechanic Weather mechanics and gimmicky Sidequest Chapter requirements]], having a story that is melodramatic and filled with holes, and incorporating a padded-out ForcedTutorial that can't be skipped on a first playthrough. There are fans who simply like both games, but tend to be the vocal minority.

* ContestedSequel: Contested Prequel to be specific, but despite being in the same duology, fans of ''The Binding Blade'' and fans of ''The Blazing Blade'' don't get along very well. Most of it comes from the fact that ''Blazing Blade'' was the first ''Fire Emblem'' game officially released in English and thus set the standard in the West of what a ''Fire Emblem'' game should look like, meaning nostalgia tends to be a pretty big factor in discussion. Fans who see ''The Blazing Blade'' as a SurprisinglyImprovedSequel praise the game for fixing ''The Binding Blade''[='s=] gameplay issues (unfair throne bonuses and poor hitrates, imbalanced units with strange or buggy programming, entirely Seize-focused maps), adding polish to the presentation with elements like painted cutscenes, and having a more interesting story and cast of characters that made it a good introduction to the franchise. Fans of ''The Binding Blade'' criticize ''Blazing Blade'' as a MissionPackSequel with [[BroadStrokes inconsistent continuity that's much less forgivable given it's the prequel], making questionable additions like [[ScrappyMechanic Weather mechanics and gimmicky Gaiden Chapter requirements]], having a story that is melodramatic and filled with holes, and incorporating a padded-out ForcedTutorial.

** The three lords. Gameplay wise, Hector eventually drops off due to his class, Eliwood gets better because of his horse and Lyn never gets better. Storywise, is Hector overly hard headed and brash (which gets Flanderized in games such as ''Heroes''), is Eliwood unfairly compared to Hector (and Ephraim sometimes) and does Lyn get the short end of the stick once her prologue is finished?
*** Ever since ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemHeroes Heroes]]'' gave this game a ColbertBump, Lyn became the most controversial of the three, at least plotwise. There are fans who dislike her because her tale connects too loosely to the main story, and even during the main story, she is [[OutOfFocus under-utilized]] for a lord character. However, others like her for her tragic background and character development, and few are disappointed about [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter her minimal role]] in the main story, not helped by how Intelligent Systems has either flanderized or oversexualized her in spinoff material. There are also fans who wish Lyn to be retroactively acknowledged in some way in ''The Binding Blade'' (considering that she didn’t exist at the time of that game’s release), while others are against it. All of this caused many to question if Lyn as a character should even exist in the first place.

* ContestedSequel: Contested Prequel to be specific, but despite being in the same duology, fans of ''The Binding Blade'' and fans of ''The Blazing Blade'' don't get along very well. Most of it comes from the fact that ''Blazing Blade'' was the first ''Fire Emblem'' game officially released in English and thus set the standard in the West of what a ''Fire Emblem'' game should look like, meaning nostalgia tends to be a pretty big factor in the discussions. Fans who see ''The Blazing Blade'' as a SurprisinglyImprovedSequel praise the game for fixing a number of gameplay issues ''The Binding Blade'' had (i.e. unfair throne bonuses, poor hitrates, imbalanced units, and entirely Seize-focused maps) and having a more interesting story and cast of characters that made it a good introduction to the franchise. Fans of ''The Binding Blade'' criticize ''Blazing Blade'' for feeling like a MissionPackSequel with a reliance on FakeDifficulty and gimmicks compared to actual challenge, its [[BroadStrokes inconsistent continuity between the titles]], the questionable additions made to the game such as the [[ScrappyMechanic Weather mechanic and more gimmicky Gaiden Chapter requirements]], and a story that was melodramatic, filled with holes, and seemed only to pander to fans. The fact that the plots of the two games don't really lead into each other (paradoxical in and of itself, since ''Binding Blade'' out '''before''' ''Blazing Blade'') really doesn't help.

** The three lords. Gameplay wise, Hector eventually drops off due to his class, Eliwood gets better because of his horse and Lyn never gets better. Storywise, is Hector overly hard headed and brash (which gets Flanderized in games such as Heroes), is Eliwood unfairly compared to Hector (and Ephraim sometimes) and does Lyn get the short end of the stick once her prologue is finished?

* ContestedSequel: Contested Prequel to be specific, but fans of ''The Binding Blade'' and fans of ''The Blazing Blade'' don't get along very well. Most of it comes from the fact that ''Blazing Blade'' was the first ''Fire Emblem'' game officially released in English and thus set the standard in the West of what a ''Fire Emblem'' game should look like, meaning nostalgia tends to be a pretty big factor in the discussions. Fans who see ''The Blazing Blade'' as a SurprisinglyImprovedSequel praise the game for fixing a number of gameplay issues ''The Binding Blade'' had (i.e. unfair throne bonuses, poor hitrates, imbalanced units, and entirely Seize-focused maps) and having a more interesting story and cast of characters that made it a good introduction to the franchise. Fans of ''The Binding Blade'' criticize ''Blazing Blade'' for feeling like a MissionPackSequel with a reliance on FakeDifficulty and gimmicks compared to actual challenge, its [[BroadStrokes inconsistent continuity between the titles]], the questionable additions made to the game such as the [[ScrappyMechanic Weather mechanic and more gimmicky Gaiden Chapter requirements]], and a story that was melodramatic, filled with holes, and seemed only to pander to fans. The fact that the plots of the two games don't really lead into each other (paradoxical in and of itself, since ''Binding Blade'' out '''before''' ''Blazing Blade'') really doesn't help.

* ContestedSequel: Ironically, perhaps the biggest FandomRivalry fans of this game have is with [[VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBindingBlade the title it's a prequel to]]. Most fans consider it a [[SurprisinglyImprovedSequel huge improvement]] from ''The Binding Blade'' by fixing a number of gameplay issues it had (i.e. unfair throne bonuses, poor hitrates), having a more likeable cast, and have a more unique and interesting story that made it a good introduction to the franchise. However, others criticized the game for its [[BroadStrokes inconsistent continuity between the titles]], the questionable additions made to the game such as the [[ScrappyMechanic Weather mechanic and more gimmicky Gaiden Chapter requirements]], numerous plot holes that plagued the story, and, most of all, insist that the title just gets a free pass for being the first ''Fire Emblem'' game officially released in English, and benefits from a NostalgiaFilter from people who have only played during their youth.

* ContestedSequel: Ironically, perhaps the biggest FandomRivalry fans of this game have is with [[VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBindingBlade the title it's a prequel to]]. Fans consider it an EvenBetterSequel (or even SurprisinglyImprovedSequel) that fixed a number of gameplay issues it had (i.e. unfair throne bonuses, poor hitrates), a more likeable cast, and has a more unique and interesting story that made it a good introduction to the franchise. However, others criticized the game for its [[BroadStrokes inconsistent continuity between the titles]], the questionable additions made to the game such as the [[ScrappyMechanic Weather mechanic and more gimmicky Gaiden Chapter requirements]], numerous plot holes that plagued the story, and, most of all, insist that the title just gets a free pass for being the first ''Fire Emblem'' game officially released in English, and benefits from a NostalgiaFilter from people who probably played it as children or teenagers and haven't touched it in years.

* ContestedSequel: Ironically, perhaps the biggest FandomRivalry fans of this game have is with [[VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBindingBlade the title it's a prequel to]]. Fans consider it an EvenBetterSequel (or even SurprisinglyImprovedSequel) that built on the solid but boring foundation of the original, adding heaps of production values, fleshing out the characters and the world beyond a rather bland Archanea-clone, and filtering out all the irritating or annoying gameplay bits and fixing most of the annoying design decisions (some of them so questionable they may literally just be shoddy programming) to result in a great series introduction for Western fans, with a great, unconventional story very different from the usual continental wars du jour and beloved characters that stick in the collective fandom's imagination to this day in a way its predecessor's largely do not. Those who don't like it complain about the [[BroadStrokes sometimes wonky continuity between the titles]], that the additions are annoying {{Scrappy Mechanic}}s that don't really add to the experience (especially the ForcedTutorial), about the story having more holes and problems than people prefer to remember, and, most of all, insist that the title just gets a free pass for being the first ''Fire Emblem'' game officially released in English, and benefits from a NostalgiaFilter from people who probably played it as children or teenagers and haven't touched it in years.

* ContestedSequel: Ironically, perhaps the biggest FandomRivalry fans of this game have is with [[VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBindingBlade the title it's a prequel to]]. Fans consider it an EvenBetterSequel that built on the solid but boring foundation of the original, adding heaps of production values, fleshing out the characters and the world beyond a rather bland Archanea-clone, and filtering out all the irritating or annoying gameplay bits to result in a great series introduction for Western fans, with a great, unconventional story very different from the usual continental wars du jour and beloved characters that stick in the collective fandom's imagination to this day in a way its predecessor's largely do not. Those who don't like it complain about the [[BroadStrokes sometimes wonky continuity between the titles]], that the additions are annoying {{Scrappy Mechanic}}s that don't really add to the experience (especially the ForcedTutorial), about the story having more holes and problems than people prefer to remember, and, most of all, insist that the title just gets a free pass for being the first ''Fire Emblem'' game officially released in English, and benefits from a NostalgiaFilter from people who probably played it as children or teenagers and haven't touched it in years.

* CriticalBacklash: "Battle before Dawn" is considered to be one of the worst maps in the entire series due to being seen as overly and unfairly difficult, and gained a reputation for this. Some people came in expecting this to be one of the worst maps, but instead found it to actually be quite challenging and fun. One of the things that did not help however was that many evaluations were based upon the Hector Hard Mode version of the level, which is almost universally agreed upon to be ThatOneLevel.

* HollywoodHomely: Vaida. The only thing that makes her less pretty than the rest of the female characters is the big scar on her face.

* DesignatedHero: In ''Binding Blade'', the Eight Legends seem like an unexplored case of WrittenByTheWinners--it is stated outright that humans started the Scouring with no apparent provocation, and the Eight Legends who brought the decisive victory went on to be revered as founders of the major nations. Although the characters themselves don't angst much about this fact, nothing discourages the players from developing a jaded view. This game gets into Designated Hero territory by having two of the Legends appear--Athos the Archsage is treated as a wise, all-knowing guide, and Braimmond also gets a sympathetic showing. They were likely not the ones who ''started'' the war (those Eliwood at least has the decency to condemn at the end of the game), but they're never questioned about the fact that their people waged a brutal and nearly one-sided conflict that ended with the exile of dragons from Elibe except in a highly weakened form.

** Marcus. At one part of the fanbase, he is a hated CrutchCharacter, while in another part, he is regarded as GameBreaker. In a lot of respects, he codified the idea of CrutchCharacter units being useful from beginning to end (arguably moreso than even the common codifier Oifey), but he does so largely by virtue of his starting-line bases being excellent enough to carry him against very weak enemies even with subpar growths, rather than the later route (seen in Seth, Titania, and Frederick) of abnormally good growths for a prepromote. This makes him disliked among players who want to see capped stats, but well liked among those who value his strengths.

** Similarly, the tiers shift depending on whether a player plays or skips Lyn's campaign (which is mandatory during the game's first playthrough, but can be skipped on subsequent runs). If skipped, any characters that would normally appear in Lyn's campaign start at a set level when they rejoin in Eliwood's/Hector's campaign, which is typically lower than their potential level if they were used even moderately in Lyn's campaign. Certain characters - chiefly Kent, Sain, and Florina (all of whom join early in Lyn's campaign) - are considered substantially stronger in a non-skip run (doubly so if playing Lyn Hard Mode, where the player isn't forced to use the second to last mission's Knight Crest on Wallace and can instead use it to early-promote one of the cavaliers, giving them a very strong asset to use in the rest of the game).

** Bolting Sages deal absurd damage from afar and are usually positioned deep into enemy lines, making it difficult to get the drop on them safely before they drain every single use of Bolting into your army. Even when you do, they have the frustrating tendency of being ''just'' bulky enough to survive a single round of combat, letting them run to safety and hit you again.
** Normally enemies with long-range magic and staves are stationary and/or weighed down by their weapons, but late-game Valkyries ignore these drawbacks by being mobile, moving in groups, and having enough speed to dodge attacks and outright double most of your units. The only saving grace is that their Magic isn't very high by virtue of being {{Fragile Speedster}}s, so stacking a high-resistance unit with Barrier or Pure Water can reduce their attacks to ScratchDamage.
** Luna Druids. Luna, in addition to [[ArmorPiercingAttack piercing resistance and all boosting effects like Pure Water or Ninis's Grace]], has a sickening 95 hit and 20 crit, meaning that even your dodgiest light magic users have a reasonable chance to get hit, while just about ''everyone'' is liable to get crit. While Shamans wielding it are weak enough to just be an unusually hard-hitting annoyance most of the time, Druids have the stats to back it up, including a Magic stat that often reaches '''20''' or higher. The playable HP cap is 60 and a CriticalHit deals triple damage - [[OneHitKill you do the math.]] It says something that Louise, a decent-but-not-amazing Sniper in one of the most bow-unfriendly games in the series, is sometimes brought to difficult chapters with tight deployment slots ''solely'' [[ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman to deal with the Luna Druids]], since her massive Luck and A-support with Pent makes her the only unit at base capable of fighting them head on with their crit chances at a flat 0.
** All of the above, on top of their offensive prowess, can also carry status staves such as Sleep, Silence and Berserk that are difficult to avoid for most of the playable units. While they're not as prevalent as in [[VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBindingBlade the previous game]], they can still be a huge issue for unprepared and even well-prepared armies, particularly on [[ThatOneLevel HHM Cog of Destiny]] where ''[[ZergRush all]]'' [[ZergRush of the above enemy types appear,]] ''[[ZergRush all]]'' [[ZergRush carrying status staves]]. (Admittedly, the staves can be something of a blessing, since enemies will always prefer to use them over attacking if they can, [[ArtificialStupidity even if there's a potential kill in range]] - if an enemy still has staff uses left, you can utterly whale on them knowing that [[SkewedPriorities they'll spend their turn using their staff instead of retaliating]]!)
* DesignatedHero: In ''Binding Blade'', the Eight Legends seem like an unexplored case of WrittenByTheWinners--it is stated outright that humans started the Scouring with no apparent provocation, and the Eight Legends who brought the decisive victory went on to be revered as founders of the major nations. Although the characters themselves don't angst much about this fact, nothing discourages the players from developing a jaded view. This game gets into Designated Hero territory by having two of the Legends appear--Athos the Archsage is treated as a wise, knowing guide, and Braimmond also gets a sympathetic showing. They were likely not the ones who ''started'' the war (those Eliwood at least has the decency to condemn at the end of the game), but they're never questioned about the fact that their people waged a brutal and nearly one-sided conflict that ended with the exile of dragons from Elibe except in a highly weakened form.

** Zoldam in Chapter 17 (or Chapter 18 on Hector's Story). He has the Luna tome (a powerful weapon that's a major GameBreaker in the player's hands), and it's just as effective against your units as when you use it against the enemy. Thankfully, [[OptionalBoss you don't]] ''[[OptionalBoss have]]'' [[OptionalBoss to fight him]] (the chapter is a survival mission), but if you're trying to get the valuable loot that he's carrying [[TimeLimitBoss before the time runs out]], your only option is to send someone with high HP, like Marcus or Oswin (since Luna negates resistance -- not even Pure Water will help) and pray to [[RandomNumberGod Anna]] that he doesn't crit.

** Lloyd on Hector mode in Four-Fanged Offense receives a nasty boost from Eliwood mode (even on Hector Normal Mode), such that players who have been breezing by the game might suddenly realize they have no one that can deal with him reliably. He's strong enough that a Silver Sword crit will severely damage or kill most of your units, can double all but your fastest troops, and most annoyingly is just difficult to ''hit'' at all, even with bows or lances. Magic doesn't particularly help either, he's got way more Resistance than Defense inexplicably. To add insult to injury, he's one of the moving bosses (fine on its own), but he gets moved to the center of the map in Hector's story without warning, so you're likely to get ganked by him early into the chapter ''and'' end the chapter earlier than you expected when you bring him down.
* ThatOneAttack:
** Like with most ''Fire Emblem'' games, all Killer Weapons, due to their unnaturally large chance to land a [[CriticalHit Crit]] that will utterly tear your units to shreds, and have them gone for [[PermaDeath good]].
** Luna. [[ArmorPiercingAttack It bypasses resistance]], has an unnaturally high hit of 95, which is really high for a dark magic tome, meaning enemies will frequently have 50% or more displayed hit against you, and a base crit of 20. Yes, this already horrendously dangerous tome has almost as much crit as a killer weapon, and since you can't mitigate its damage, a crit '''will''' be a OneHitKill. Any surprise anything holding one of these is treated as a DemonicSpider?

*** One of the treasures in this mission is a Rescue staff, which would trivialize this mission if it's obtainable earlier. The same goes for all the other treasures found in this chapter, which seem to be tailor-made to make this mission less of a headache.
** Night of Farewells is less difficult and more tedious due to the pathways that only open up in specific places every few turns, which would leave most of your units stranded in the middle of the water unless a Pirate or flier rescued them. Merlinus won't be able join in this chapter, meaning that if you want to loot all the items in the map, you have to make room for them by discarding other items your units hold. There's also plenty of status staves, ballistas and siege tomes to slow you down, making the map even more of a slog. And the reinforcements keep coming for a long time.
** Cog of Destiny on Hector Hard Mode. The Normal version was already a large and lengthy TheWarSequence map, but the HHM version ''replaces nearly every enemy with a magic user'', making them a major threat to most of your physical units. The map is also filled with lots of annoying Valkyries who are hard to double with dreaded status staves such as Berserk and Sleep, but the worst has got to be the Luna Druids who are disturbingly accurate, always deal big damage due to ignoring resistance and always have crit against you, when a critcal '''WILL''' be a OneHitKill.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny:
** Lyn's Tale suffers from this to those who've played later games in the series. It was the first truly in-depth tutorial in the series, which was necessary at the time due to ''Blazing Blade'' being the first game released outside Japan. The issue now is that the tutorial is not only [[ForcedTutorial completely unskippable]] on a first playthrough (aside from a Japan-exclusive [[OldSaveBonus game-link]]), it lasts for ''[[ProlongedPrologue ten chapters]]'' (i.e., a full third of the non-sidequest chapters in the game), and very little of its plot is connected to the rest of the story. The actual tutorial itself outright ''[[{{Railroading}} forces]]'' certain moves on the player (Prologue is entirely scripted, Sain is forced to attack an Axe user with a Lance just to demonstrate TacticalRockPaperScissors; you're also forced to promote Wallace the moment he joins). Skipping straight to Eliwood or Hector's story (after beating the game once, of course) causes Lyn's entire legion to miss out on valuable experience. Thankfully, playing Lyn's story on Hard (which removes the tutorials) still allows you to change the difficulty to Normal for Eliwood or Hector mode, so players who don't want the tutorial aren't forced to play [[NintendoHard Hector Hard Mode]]... but again, that's only available ''after'' beating the game once.
** Over time, the game on a whole has hit this issue. It was well-beloved for its time, and was immensely important for being the first game in the series to be localized, but since people have newer, more polished entries to compare it to, as well as older games being translated to further put this title into perspective, it no longer has the appeal it once did, in which it was a one-of-a-kind for non-Japanese players.
*** While its cast has a strong following, the story has been held back by its inconsistent continuity with ''Binding Blade'' (probably ''because'' it's a prequel), not helped by its really messy writing. Weather and the Gaiden chapter requirements are also criticized, as the former /hamper one's play/through really badly, whereas the latter has things like getting a certain amount of EXP to unlock one of the Gaiden chapters being infuriating due to [[AnnoyingVideoGameHelper Pent sucking up all of it]], and trying to keep [[spoiler:Jaffar]] and Nino alive in what is arguably one of the worst chapters in the game, and probably in the entire series when taking [[ThatOneLevel its Hector Hard Mode version]] into account.

* OneSceneWonder: Jerme. Despite only appearing in one chapter, he's very unsettling and unforgettable. [[spoiler:He ''does'' appear again in the final chapter, but as a silent morph. Unless you get Kenneth and manage to bypass him completely.]]

** Erik. He intentionally reduces himself to a mere lackey for others every time he appears, and always fails pitifully even at that. Even the gameplay seems to be mocking him: He has awful stats and would be totally unchallenging as a boss, were it not for his [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney silver lance]]. Then you play Hector's mode, where he loses even his signature weapon and instead carries a horseslayer, strangely enough (given that the only mounted units at this point are Marcus, Lowen, and Priscilla, the latter whom he could kill with a silver lance in a single hit, anyway), a weapon that is not only significantly weaker, but also far too heavy for him to carry. Yeah, Hector Hard Mode Erik is actually weaker and slower than his normal counterpart in Eliwood's story. And that's not even mentioning [[VillainDecay his appearance]] in ''Binding Blade''...

** Limstella {{downplay|edTrope}}s this by remaining more sympathetic than any of the aforementioned examples; their KickTheDog moments are exclusively reserved for [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness other villains]]. They nonetheless cross the Horizon themselves when they [[spoiler:murder one of the Reed brothers, [[HeelFaceDoorSlam right when he's reconsidering his views on the heroes and the Black Fang]], which then provokes the surviving brother into attacking the heroes out of misguided rage]]. Their UndyingLoyalty to Nergal prevents them from considering redemption at any point, even as [[AlasPoorVillain they reflect on their existence in their death]].

* SophomoreSlump: Inverted with regard to the GBA games as a whole. ''Blazing Blade'', the middle one, is generally considered to be the best of the three [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff (in the West)]], with more refined gameplay and a better story than ''The Binding Blade'' and without the numerous controversial changes of ''The Sacred Stones''.

** Despite its reputation as an AntiClimaxBoss, only showing up at the end and being nothing more than a raging and hateful beast, the nameless Fire Dragon remains memorable as a final boss. It's [[NonStandardCharacterDesign intimidating appearance even among other Elibian dragons]], [[HellIsThatNoise hellish roars]], an epic {{Leitmotif}}, a BadassNormal by final boss standards because the previous and next games was a Demon Dragon and Demon King, this one was a plain Fire Dragon, BreakingTheFourthWall with its [[ReadingsAreOffTheScale hit point counter exceeding that of other bosses]], the FixedDamageAttack wiping out anyone in the game with only two hits, and overall being a mighty dragon that shames the last game's final boss!

** Thieves as well - while [[OlderThanTheyThink not the first game do this]], this game introduced the "Assassin" class which is considered to be an awesome class by the fanbase and a more offensive form of Jugdral's "Thief Fighter" class, which allowed Thief characters to have some extra late-game potential. While Thieves never were intended to be a combat class, their main use of stealing items, having a wider field of vision in Fog of War, opening doors, and looting chests left them ''very'' deficient in terms of experience (contrast with the Bards/Dancers, who can still get experience by simply dancing, or even Merlinus in this game autolevelling just by surviving a chapter) and somewhat of a late-game liability since they couldn't promote. This meant that if you needed to deploy a thief, you'd be forced to bench a unit who can take more than a few hits.

* EvilIsSexy: Sonia, if you don't mind the gold eyes, pale complexion, and generally creepy demeanor.

** Similarly, the tiers shift depending on whether a player plays or skips Lyn's campaign (which is mandatory during the game's first playthrough, but can be skipped on subsequent runs). If skipped, any characters that would normally appear in Lyn's campaign start at a set level when they rejoin in Eliwood's/Hector's campaign, which is typically lower than their potential level if they were used even moderately in Lyn's campaign. Certain characters - chiefly Kent, Sain, and Florina (all of whom join early in Lyn's campaign) - are considered substantially stronger in a non-skip run (doubly so if playing Lyn hard mode, where the player isn't forced to use the second to last mission's Knight Crest on Wallace and can instead use it to early-promote one of the cavaliers, giving them a very strong asset to use in the rest of the game).

* CriticalBacklash: "Battle before Dawn" is considered to be one of the worst maps in the entire series due to being seen as overly and unfairly difficult, and gained a reputation for this. Some people came in expecting this to be one of the worst maps, but instead found it to actually be quite challenging and fun. One of the things that did not help however was that many evaluations were based upon the Hector Hard Mode version of the level, which is generally universally agreed upon to be ThatOneLevel.

** Light Magic. In past games, the only characters who ''could'' use them were either characters who really ''shouldn't'' be (Sans Julia in ''Geneology'' due to the Book of Naga being PurposefullyOverpowered) and/or took a ''lot'' of effort. Lucius manages to make Light Magic more accessible due to his starting class having innate access to it, ''and'' he is available in Lyn mode. The only downside is that you can [[PermanentlyMissableContent lose him fairly easily]]. Of course, ''Sacred Stones'' would give Light Magic an even ''bigger'' buff...

** Like with most ''Fire Emblem'' games, all Killer Weapons, due to their unnaturally large chance to land a [[CriticalHit Crit]] that will utterly tear your units to shreds, especially when {{Permadeath}} is a thing.