The Fire Emblem series has long garnered a reputation as being the most challenging Nintendo exclusives, mechanics such as Permadeath killing off characters - with no comebacks - may dissuade new players from dipping their toes into the Fire Emblem games.

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While the series is not nearly as brutal and unforgiving as its reputation suggests, some entries are more challenging than the rest. With adjustable difficulty, the Fire Emblem series are some of the most accessible in the tactical RPG genre. However, those looking for a real challenge should consider the hardest that the series has to offer.

Updated January 27, 2023, by Michael Llewellyn: After the commercial and critical success of Fire Emblem: Awakening and Three Houses, Intelligent Systems has released Fire Emblem: Engage to similar acclaim. The strategy RPG series offers a challenge that most Nintendo exclusives don't and features surprisingly mature themes of war and loss. So with that in mind, this list has been updated to include more games in the Fire Emblem series to offer hardened JRPG veterans a challenge.

13 Fire Emblem: Engage

The most recent entry, Fire Emblem: Engage, is arguably the most approachable in the series yet. With the most stunning visuals in the series, the new addition to the popular SRPG series brings back characters from older titles into its narrative, giving Fire Emblem originals like Marth their best looks yet.

From booting up the game, players can select the Maddening difficulty. As with its predecessors, this is the most challenging way to play the game. Enemies have increased stats, no save feature between battles, and rewinds are limited. It doesn't have the classic Permadeath mechanics unlocked from the start. Combine the two, and veteran players have the Fire Emblem experience they're looking for.

12 Fire Emblem Path of Radiance

If Fire Emblem: Engage is the prettiest entry in the series, then Path of Radiance may be the ugliest. In fairness, this was the series' first game to use 3D graphics, and it didn't detract from what is an exceptional strategy JRPG. Interestingly, Path of Radiance has become rare and fetches a high price on auction sites.

In addition to being a great game, Path of Radiance is also challenging. Permadeath is applied to all difficulty settings. Moreover, the western version's normal mode is the same as the Japanese version's hard mode. As a result, many players may be led into a false sense of security. So the so-called easy setting is the best way to play the game.

11 Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows Of Valentia

Following from the successes of Fire Emblem: Awakening and Fates, Intelligent Systems launched Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia. Valentia is a remake of 1992's Japanese-only Fire Emblem: Gaiden. Being a faithful remake, Valentia modernizes the original old-school challenge for a newer audience while focusing more on tough but fair combat.

To balance the challenge, Shadows of Valentia goes out of its way to teach the mechanics to new players while also applying new mechanics like the Time Wheel to reverse time. However, to get a more rewarding Fire Emblem experience, players should enable the Permadeath mechanics by implementing the classic mode.

10 Fire Emblem: New Mystery Of The Emblem

Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon's Japan-exclusive sequel, Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem, feels like a continuation of its predecessor, picking up from where the difficulty left off.

Maintaining the lack of rescuing and the easy manipulation of unit positions on the map, New Mystery of the Emblem also features more complex map designs that feel like a natural progression from the previous installment. It may not be the most difficult of the Fire Emblem games, but this entry pushed the series to new, more extreme heights.

9 Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade (Hector's Story)

Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade's story has a solid learning curve, and many would recommend to series newcomers to learn the ins and outs of mechanics first. The unlockable alternate narrative focuses on the character of Hector is more challenging.

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Utilizing excellent and well-thought-out map design and enemy placement, the mode provides players with significantly fewer resources and in-game currency, making every decision all the more vital. While more demanding than the Eliwood-focused adventure, Hector's story's difficulty resides in that perfect spot of challenging yet rewarding. For players looking for a significant challenge, the highest difficulty setting of Hector's story is frequently viewed as the definitive way to play the game.

8 Fire Emblem: Genealogy Of The Holy War

While mechanically quite different from many newer entries in the series, the fourth game, Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War, has some of the series' most gargantuan maps.

In a game that individualizes units via character-specific skills, players must keep track of the impact of skills and stats when calculating the potential outcome of a battle. Additionally, due to the mammoth scope of some maps, players are often required to keep track of multiple objectives while dealing with enormous hordes of enemy units.

7 Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn

Like Genealogy of the Holy War, Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, a direct sequel to Path of Radiance, is an enormous game containing a massive scope and a large cast of characters. Despite the cast being as extensive as it is, a great deal of the game's difficulty comes from playing as the "Dawn Brigade," a group of freedom fighters the player controls for most of the game.

The Dawn Brigade is severely outclassed by the vast majority of enemies throughout even the earliest chapters of the game, possessing inferior stats to even the most minor enemy soldiers. Luckily, as the Radiant Dawn transpires, players are provided with more consistent and high-quality units, making the mid and late-game much easier than the segments revolving around the Dawn Brigade.

6 Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest

Conquest is the hardest of the three iterations of Fire Emblem Fates. Possessing a linear story, players are required to utilize their limited recourses while managing experience. It's important to note that Conquest contains some of the most well-designed and well-thought-out map designs in the series, and this is both a blessing and a curse.

Some maps often feel less like tactical war strategy games and more like puzzles to solve, and can be polarizing for some players. However, as a player progresses through the game in the most challenging difficulties, it is paramount that players account for the skills of enemy squads, as several enemies will boast an amalgam of skills that can blindside players and kill their characters seemingly out of nowhere.

5 Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade

The sixth entry of the series and the first to feature Roy, a character popularized by the Super Smash Bros, Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade is highly recommended to series veterans. Featuring perhaps the weakest lord in all of Fire Emblem, the game features fine-tuned map design that often comes off as unfair. We're talking about a title with Killer Ballista weapons that can land critical hits on a player's units across the entire map.

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No matter how prepared a player may think they are, The Binding Blade is always ready to make players miserable, as enemy reinforcements can attack the turn that they spawn, meaning that unless players preemptively look up enemy spawn locations, they can appear when the least expected.

4 Fire Emblem: Awakening

Fire Emblem: Awakening is viewed as the game that saved the popular SRPG series from being shelved by Nintendo. It has become a favorite in the genre and served as an introduction to the series as a whole.

While the default difficulty setting of Fire Emblem: Awakening is manageable, its Lunatic setting is a different story. With a slew of overpowered foes regularly coming at the player, the most common strategies in the setting involve heavily using the overpowered Jagen, Frederick, and providing the Avatar character with as many helpful (if not broken) abilities as possible.

3 Fire Emblem: Three Houses

When Fire Emblem: Three Houses was first released, it was regarded as one of the more leisurely games in the series to be released in years. However, that changed once the game was provided with a new difficulty known as Maddening. Oppressively difficult, it mitigates how much experience the squads gain while making enemies significantly more deadly.

While there are ways that a player can help their chances of success, the rampant use of ambushing spawns and enemies wielding several notable abilities still make the Maddening setting an arduous experience. For those experiencing Three Houses for the first time - it is highly advised not to jump into maddening mode until one is acquainted with the ins and outs of Three Houses.

2 Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon

A remake of the first two Fire Emblem games, the difficulty in Shadow Dragon is intrinsically tied to its simplistic design in how units can be moved on the map. While many Fire Emblem games will allow players to rescue allies and pair them together to keep them safe, Shadow Dragon has no such feature. Luckily, Shadow Dragon lets players make sure their army is the right fit to change the character classes as they see fit.

Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon totes five Hard mode variations, each more challenging than the last. The fifth and final version of this difficulty is among the most demanding experiences a player can have with the series. Due to the high power of enemy units compared to the player, one of the safest ways to defeat many bosses is repeatedly fight them and heal theirs again and again until the boss weapon breaks.

1 Fire Emblem: Thracia 776

Every element that could make a Fire Emblem game difficult is present in the fifth entry in the series, Thracia 776. This game features elements including (but not limited to) enemy reinforcements that attack the turn in which they spawn, similar to The Binding Blade.

As if that is not bad enough, it also has Fog of War combat that hides the enemy and most of the map, completely blinding players - without a guide - from dangers and potential objectives. Thracia 776 is unforgivingly difficult when playing blind due to the sheer unpredictability in which it throws obstacles at the player with little to no warning.

The Fire Emblem series is available exclusively on Nintendo systems.

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