What "makes" the series for you?

[Charliecane]

There were two things that drew me into Fire Emblem. For one, I enjoyed the gameplay quite a bit. At the time, I had only played SRPGs in the vein of Tactics Ogre or Final Fantasy Tactics. Although Fire Emblem is relatively simple compared to them, it was still a pretty refreshing and enjoyable experience.

The other thing that drew me in was the characters. It was nice to see that each character was a person and not just some generic cannon fodder whose appearance changes along with their class. At the time, the only other SRPG that I had played with characters like that was Vandal Hearts.

Necropost ftw, lol

[Wander]

Fire Emblem feels like the only "true" SRPG to me. All the others (AW, FFT, TO) have disposable characters who are easily revived, generic characters, and/or non-existent tactics. You can, as Starwolf_UK stated, easily work out what's what and not have to rely on broken skills (Ultima Sword, anyone?) to dig you out. Come to think of it, your only real options in the game are defend, heal, move and attack... interesting...

[Lord Fuckboy]

FE's tactics are pretty non existent.  It's mostly luck, in fact.

FE feels a lot faster than every other SRPG I've ever played.

[Neofox]

FE's tactics are pretty non existent.  It's mostly luck, in fact.

Correction: You control how big a factor luck is.

Yeah, levels are uncontrollable, but for the most part averages are reliable, hence why we use them. Accuracy issues? Choose a stronger weapon with less or a weaker weapon with more. High-critical enemy unit? You can either use someone with high defenses to eat the critical if one occurs, or gamble with a high-dodge unit to avoid the attack entirely. You can either play with high stakes or make luck less of a factor with raw stats. It's all up to your personal preferances.

[Serene]

Well let's see

The story is okay
The gameplay doesn't put me to sleep unless it's midnight
It's entertaining
And the series as a whole doesn't suck balls

So yeah that's why

[Tir]

It makes me use my brain for fun reasons~
The story's far more interesting than any other SRPG I've played~
REPLAY value~
Characters are lovable ~
And finally, I can play it on my DS (considering I mostly play 7, a bit of 8 and the DS version) after a tiring day at university/ when I'm bored. It...relaxes me, for some strange reason.

[hyde]

And finally, I can play it on my DS (considering I mostly play 7, a bit of 8 and the DS version) after a tiring day at university/ when I'm bored. It...relaxes me, for some strange reason.

This for me as well. I used to play the GBA games all the time in the pre-DS era. Whenever we would go somewhere, be it by car, train or bus. If I had to wait somewhere, I'd play this game. It sounds wierd, seeing as how it's hardly a game for quick playsessions, but I enjoyed playing for a short amount of time and killing X number of enemies and having a character level up.

I'm very impatient when it comes to gaming: Whenever a character would die, I'd immediately shut off the GBA. With most games, if I'd lose a life or whatever, I wouldn't play it for days. Heck, even weeks. But I always picked up FE the same day, just to try and tackle it again.

Funny how a pretty unforgiving SRPG makes me less impatient than, for example, shooters with infinite quicksaves.

[JohnMichael]

While it's the RPG part that really does it for me, the combination of strategy with it makes Fire Emblem something special in my eyes. I find the gameplay very addictive; probably because I find something appealing in the idea of a handful of detailed individuals taking on vastly outnumbering enemies (even though that's meant to be just a representation of the larger army you control).

But what "makes" the series, where I'm concerned? The array of excellent characters to choose from. I could talk about the times of laugh-out-loud humour, or the way I end up getting addicted to the story, but ultimately all that boils down to is the characters. I see them as FE's strongest point. Cool in appearance, genuine in depth, fascinating to interpret.