#fire-emblem

First of all, I will say that I liked Awakening better. It had more enjoyable characters, a better atmosphere, and better gameplay. In this sense, I would say Fates : Awakening :: Sacred Stones : Blazing Sword. This may change once I play Revelations, but I kind of doubt it. Awakening was like a delicious steak, while Conquest was sort of like the veggies and rice of the meal. There was less substance.

The updated feature I liked best was the pair-up system. It made battles seem more up to strategy than luck. What I liked least was the children. I thought the way it was presented was at least original, but at most contrived. They could have figured out a better way to have more characters in the game. The feature made sense in Awakening, because it was central to the plot, but in Fates, it’s kinda - meh.

I will also say that I played it on Normal Casual, because either chapter 10 or 11 (the first chapter in a town) was a shit storm. I think the only way to win was to have leveled up more characters than my Lord and Felicia. I still regret doing this, but it made me realize that I don’t mind playing on Casual. This is because I always reset when a character dies, even the ones I don’t use. Most of the time. In my recent play through of Sacred Stones, I didn’t, for example.

And now, the score! Drumroll, please!

STORY: 4/5 - We were promised a good story where they specially hired someone famous to write it. But.... it just left me scratching my head. I’m sure this score will improve once I play Revelations. Right now, the story is straightforward and in a way nonsensical.

GAMEPLAY: 4/5 The strategy was good, but it got way too hard way too fast, and once you recruit Xander and Leo, things get too easy. 

MUSICAL SCORE: 5/5 One thing I like better than Awakening is the music. The main theme is really good and I’m glad they gave it English words. I also love the support songs.

VISUALS: 5/5 - As soon as I saw the visuals, I was sold. The fact that you see the map in battles as you see it overhead is awesome. The cutscenes were awesome, too.

OVERALL: 18/20 - Great game, and please buy it. Right now, Nintendo’s greatest franchises are Mario - Pokemon - Zelda - Kirby - FE.

I want FE to stay within the most popular games, and I think Conquest, especially if you like SRPGs or just JRPGs, is a game you should experience.

Thanks for reading!