My first Fire Emblem game was Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn. I was in my early teens and my family had dropped by Kmart on our way back from visiting my grandmother on my father's side. My dad told me to pick a game and the cover art just stood out to me. I had no idea what kind of game it was, but I like medieval-esque fantasy, so I gave it a shot.
I didn't open it until a buddy of mine stayed over and we almost exclusively played it from then on, taking turns each level or game over just seeing how far we could get. It took us months to get to the end, and then we'd play through it again.
From then on I was hooked on the series.
I see posts on my end. I'm guessing the server it's on may have been overloaded when you checked.