as you probably know the 6 first titles in the Fire Emblem series were never localized. i'm not entirely sure why but i think i once read something about how the difficulties of these games would have kept them from having any success in the western gaming market. i somewhat fail to see how the difficulty could have been a problem when i look at other difficult games that were successes in the west, such as Battletoad, Ghost 'n Goblin, Zelda 2 and have you ever tried to beat the original Super Mario Bros without using warp pipes? it's not easy.

i have played all of the earlier Fire Emblem games(except for the first as i have its remake on the DS) and i can say that while there are some among them that could've be better(i'm looking at you Gaiden and Thracia) there are some amazingly good ones.

these games are not for everyone but not many games(if any) are for literally everyone so your decision should not be influenced by some foolish idea like this.

and now with my rant done i ask, would these games have succeeded in the western market?

https://www.vizzed.com/play/fire-emblem-%28english-translation%29-nes-online-nintendo-nes-36200-game
https://www.vizzed.com/play/fire-emblem-gaiden-%28english-by-j2e-translations%29-nes-online-nintendo-nes-294-game
https://www.vizzed.com/play/fire-emblem-monshou-no-nazo-snes-online-super-nintendo-7886-game
https://www.vizzed.com/play/fire-emblem-seisen-no-keifu-%28translated%29-snes-online-super-nintendo-7887-game
https://www.vizzed.com/play/fire-emblem-thraki-776-snes-online-super-nintendo-7888-game
https://www.vizzed.com/play/fire-emblem-fuuin-no-tsurugi-%28english-translation%29-gba-online-game-boy-advance-36508-game

to really see how good this series is i highly recommend the 3rd, 4th and 6th games in the series.

I think they could've been "hidden gems" until their characters appeared in Smash Bros., kinda like Earthbound. Ness was unheard of until Super Smash Bros. for N64 when people tried Earthbound and thought it was incredible. Marth and Roy were also basically unheard of and Japan-exclusive at the release of Super Smash Bros. Melee, which most likely caused sales to go up quite a bit and make Fire Emblem come to the US.

I think they could have succeeded, even more so now. With Smash Bros and the New Fire Emblem games, Fire Emblem is becoming more and more popular in other countries. I know I would have bought every single on if they had came over and I wasn't even alive back then. I loved every Fire Emblem game I played and it was my gateway into SRPGs. Without it I never would have played other games like Disgaea, Final Fantasy Tactics, Valkyria Chronicles, Tear Ring Saga, etc: I love them and I think that if they had come over then a lot of people would have played them. Maybe Nintendo will decide to release translated versions of the FE games on the eShop. Then we would know for sure.