Meh
First chapters that are ranked in the "Meh" tier are chapters that aren't bad per se, but they're not particularly good either. Another important criteria of the "Meh" tier is that with a couple of tweaks, these could be good maps.
Fire Emblem 1
And here is the first map of the entire franchise and.....it's meh. To the map's credit, you do get a total of 8 characters (this includes Wrys in the village) so it at least checks one box off. I think the thief down below is supposed to threaten the village up top? If that's the case, then this doesn't work. Just like with Mystery of the Emblem, the thief is closer to the player than the village. It's pretty easy to kill the thief before it has a chance to destroy the village.
This map lets you buy weapons, which is pretty rare for a first map. The fact that you have to recruit your healer after beating most of the map is an interesting twist. Forts and forests make life easier for the player, and the map layout is simple enough.
Overall, not a bad first chapter, especially since this is the first time a Japanese player would have been exposed to the franchise as a whole. With a couple of tweaks, it could have been better.
Conquest
As a quick heads-up: Fates is one of those games where the player has different choices on how to begin. So, I'm going to rate the first map of each route, and then I'll rate the first chapter of the prologue.
Conquest's first chapter is the best first chapter of Fates and it leaves room to be desired. The only interesting elements of this map are:
1) Choosing whether to kill Ryoma or Sakura
AND
AND
2) Baiting the Takumi / Hinoka pair up.
Outside of those two choices, there's really not much else to say. There are very few enemies to fight, which hurts the replayability of the map, and there are no turtle disincentives. Ryoma's avoid is really high, so fighting him feels like an even bigger RNG gamble than is usual for Fire Emblem. That counts as a negative.
To the map's credit, you at least get 6 characters, so it checks one box. Another positive is that Elise has a Freeze staff, which can be helpful here. There's also the Dragon Vein, which makes the map a little more playable, since you can have more characters attack Ryoma. Considering how powerful he is, this isn't recommended but at least the option exists. And another positive is that poor unit positioning can cause a restart.
Overall, this map is not terrible, but there also aren't too many positives to say here either.
Tearring Saga
What I find interesting about Tearring Saga's first chapter is that you spend the first four chapters buying stuff with Runan and his crew. Once again, it's pretty rare for the first chapter to give the player the option to buy things. Points for creativity. Afterward, the drawbridge goes down, and Runan's crew have to take on the enemies. Meanwhile, Sasha and Kate have to flee the bad guys.
One big negative is that Runan's crew are forced to sit behind the drawbridge, so there's nothing you can do about Sasha and Kate. It feels like the map takes longer than it needs to because of that. Another negative is that the terrain layout is really dull. The actual combat takes place on an open field with a little bit of forests if you need an evasion boost.
Unlike the maps ranked below it, it feels like a couple of tweaks could have made it good. The maps in the "Below Average" tier are just mostly really bad.
Below Average Tier
These first maps are straight up bad. They might have one quality that prevents them from being outright terrible, but they're still a net negative overall.
Three Houses
The only nice thing I can say about this map is that it has 4 playable characters. So it checks off one box. Unfortunately, this is mitigated by the fact that Dimitri, Edelgard, and Byleth play too similarly to each other. They're basically just sturdy(ish) melee fighters. Claude's the only playable character on this map who fights differently than the others. In practice, it almost feels like you've got 2 different characters, as opposed to four.
Another major negative is that generic enemies double attack your characters on Maddening mode, which is terrible design. It practically incentivizes the player to play slower (as opposed to faster) and to take their time fighting one enemy at a time. Incentivizing slow play is always a net negative.
Bytheway, the reason why Three Houses is only having this map rated is because no matter which route you play, this will always be your first chapter. That separates it from Fates, FE 7, or Shadow Dragon. So this will be the only Three Houses map on this list, and it's a pretty poor showing.
Radiant Dawn
Unlike Three Houses, Radiant Dawn's first map only gives you three playable characters to start with. Two of them are squishy ranged fighters, and the other one is Edward. The basic premise of this map is to have Edward take the hits while Micaiah and Leonardo provide chip damage from a safe distance. The terrain makes distance combat fun, since Micaiah and Leo have fun walls to attack behind.
There is one negative that is unique to Hard Mode: No Weapon Triangle. This map feels like it was designed with the weapon triangle in mind. It really benefits Edward. Take that away, and suddenly his chances of blocking axes with his face improves. That's a big negative, which really hurts the ranking of this map. Another negative is no turtle disincentives.
I want to like this map more, but I can't because there's not enough going for it to merit a higher rank.
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