Fire Emblem is one of the longest-running series in the games industry. Over decades of releases, fans have unraveled the mysteries and history of its world while forming relationships with its many memorable characters over the course of countless strategic battles. The most recent release in the Fire Emblem series was Fire Emblem Three Houses for the Nintendo Switch.
Fire Emblem Three Houses achieved the commendable feat of satisfying longtime fans of the series while also attracting many new fans to the series. While it is likely that a new Fire Emblem is in development, many new fans may want to go back and visit the origins of the franchise. However, the Fire Emblem series has had a lot of entries, and playing through all of them would likely be quite the undertaking. The series is spread out across older mainline entries for systems like the Famicom, modern entries for newer Nintendo consoles, and a handful of spin-offs as well. Regardless, here is how long it would take for a super fan to play every Fire Emblem game.
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Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light (1990) | Main Story: 27 Hours | Completionist: 45 Hours
Fire Emblem Gaiden (1992) | Main Story: 27 Hours | Completionist: 38 Hours
Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem (1994) | Main Story: 37 Hours | Completionist: 54.5 Hours
Fire Emblem: Thracia 776 (1999) | Main Story: 30 Hours | Completionist: 54.5 Hours
Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade (2002) | Main Story: 26 Hours | Completionist: 41.5 Hours
Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade (2003) | Main Story: 26 Hours | Completionist: 49.5 Hours
Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones (2004) | Main Story: 25 Hours | Completionist: 44 Hours
Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance (2005) | Main Story: 33 Hours | Completionist: 43 Hours
The first two Fire Emblem games were both released for the Famicom in Japan during the early 1990s, although Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light has since been ported to the Switch. Both games already featured many trademarks of the series, such as fantasy tactical battles and permadeath for characters. However, the second title, Fire Emblem Gaiden, is notable within the series for having some unique mechanics like players being able to freely explore dungeons similar to other JRPGs. This was then followed by Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem for the Super Famicom, which included a remake of the first game and a brand-new sequel.
Across the early Fire Emblem games, the playtime remains pretty similar with players spending around 30 hours to complete the main storyline of the games and closer to 50 if they want to see absolutely everything. That being said, playing through all of the older titles would take players 231 hours to do just the main stories, and 370 hours for any fans that don't want to miss any details. However, both Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn have had rumored remakes in the works, so fans may not have to go back to older versions of those titles to check them out.
Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn (2007) | Main Story: 42.5 Hours | Completionist: 56 Hours
Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon (2008) | Main Story: 20 Hours | Completionist: 37 Hours
Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem (2010) | Main Story: 16.5 Hours | Completionist: 29 Hours
Fire Emblem Awakening (2012) | Main Story: 30.5 Hours | Completionist: 106 Hours
Fire Emblem Fates (2015) | Main Story: 27.5 Hours | Completionist: 85.5 Hours
Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia (2017) | Main Story: 35.5 Hours | Completionist: 66 Hours
Fire Emblem Thre Houses (2019) | Main Story: 48.5 Hours | Completionist: 192 Hours
Modern Fire Emblem titles were defined by the series jumping to consoles like the Wii, the DS, 3DS, and the Switch. Some of the modern titles, like New Mystery of the Emblem, were remakes of older titles, but it was the fresh take of Fire Emblem Awakening that revitalized the series after previous entries began receiving colder receptions from critics and players alike. The game is so good, in fact, that many Nintendo fans consider Fire Emblem Awakening one of the must-have 3DS games.
Interestingly, the more modern Fire Emblem games did not see much of an increase in the playtime required to complete the main story, with the average between them hovering right around 31 hours. However, it does feature some of the shortest storylines in the series with New Mystery of the Emblem only taking players around 16.5 hours and Shadow Dragon only taking 20. Despite this, later modern Fire Emblem games are where the series starts having much longer completionist times because of the variety of options that players have in modern Fire Emblems. If players want to play all of the modern Fire Emblem games they're looking at 221 hours for the main storylines and an average of 571.5 hours for a completionist run. These numbers also bring playing the entire mainline series up to 452 hours for just the main storyline and 941.5 hours to do everything.
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Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE (2015) | Main Story: 49 Hours | Completionist: 110 Hours
Fire Emblem Heroes (2017) | Main Story: 8 hours | Completionist: 653 Hours
Fire Emblem Warriors (2017) | Main Story: 12.5 Hours | Completionist: 204 Hours
The first Fire Emblem spin-off, Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE, sees the series crossing over with the popular Shin Megami Tensei series. The crossover features gameplay elements from both series while also bringing some new mechanics and features to the forefront as well. Conversely, Fire Emblem Warriors crosses the series over with Koei Tecmo's Warriors series that features games like Dynasty Warriors, Samurai Warriors, and Hyrule Warriors. The game features very different gameplay to what Fire Emblem fans are familiar with but does feature characters from throughout the series. Fire Emblem Heroes, on the other hand, is a mobile game that is continuously updated with new characters and missions for players to do. This makes accounting for its playtime a bit more difficult, but it does feature a main story that can be factored in.
So, to play the main storylines of all the spin-offs, players would have to dedicate 69.5 hours while completionists are looking at 261 hours, not including Fire Emblem Heroes because players could realistically put in an unlimited amount of time into Fire Emblem Heroes as it continues to get updated. This brings playing the entire Fire Emblem series' main storylines up to 521.5 hours, or 21 days. Meanwhile, players who want to see absolutely everything the series has to offer can expect to spend 1,202.4 hours, or 50 days, as well as playing Fire Emblem Heroes until the end of time.
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