Marth raises his sword for the first time, and an entire saga starts right here, on a 1990 Japanese console.

When the community picks on feel, this first Fire Emblem edges out a little over a quarter of games. Modest, and the detail mixes contrary signals, to be read carefully given how few votes there are. The desert island score puts it above the middle, the sound mood sits right in the median too, but the rest slides. The fun and the controller feel stay low, and rediscovery drops all the way down, ahead of barely a few percent. That is the founder's gap: a game built for 1990, judged by today's criteria that weigh emotion and the urge to return.

Among modern turn-based tactics, it is the ancestor, raw and demanding, whose sequels sanded down every rough edge.

So, who is it for? You, if you love going back to a genre's roots and accepting the austerity of the era. Much less so if you expect the comfort and staging of recent Fire Emblem games.