earthbound is fairly accessible to beginners! it has a lot of quality of life features that are nice, and overall isn’t too hard. if you want to grind a bit you can get through basically everything easily and if you’re in an area that’s got enemies you don’t like having to deal with you can pretty much just not deal with them. there are some bits where i’d recommend having a guide (the one from starmen.net probably) because it can be a little obtuse at times, but it’s still charming and quirky even if you’ve played the games it inspired. the whole thing is a lot of fun, and i would definitely recommend it.

genealogy of the holy war on the other hand is ABSOLUTELY NOT accessible to a newcomer. i’m a veteran of fire emblem (admittedly all the later, easier games, but i’ve played through almost all of them since 6!) and it’s hard and doesn’t really explain itself at all. the prologue for this game is longer than most maps in any other fire emblem, the maps are all massive, it really has some obtuse stuff going on, and if you aren’t familiar with the series you’ll probably just need to follow a guide at all points in the game if you don’t want to end up with a second gen that’s impossible to win with. i’m having a good time, but the only reason i didn’t quit the first time i got mobbed by 20 guys and lost my healer was because you can save at the start of every turn which makes it easier to put down and come back later if i fuck up.

if you want to check out a fire emblem, my recommendations are fire emblem 7 (blazing blade, the first one to leave japan, robust tutorial, fairly representative of the broader franchise in story, good character stuff. pretty fun game!) 13 (awakening, on the 3ds, revitalized the franchise in a huge way, is pretty easy and has a lot of fun things to do where you can break the game over your knee, story that doesn’t make me hate myself) and 16 (three houses, you can be gay with a decent number of characters, if you choose the correct route you can overthrow the nobility in one of the more genuinely revolutionary stories in gaming (though it is of course limited to going from feudalism to something closer to a liberal democracy it has a lot of applicability outside that), and the gameplay is still modernized and streamlined but has more variety and interesting bits than awakening). 9 is also real good but you can’t just emulate it on your phone and it’s impossible to find physically so there’s slightly more of a barrier to entry there

or you could do what i did and just read all the lets plays on something awful/the lparchive and think they seem neat before actually starting to play them a few years later

also feel free to @ me if you have any questions about either game, or the genre broadly! i’m not an expert but i’d be happy to help