It’s incredible just how much Fire Emblem has exploded in popularity over the years.
While the west never received the first six games in the series, the inclusion of Marth
and Roy in Super Smash Bros. garnered enough interest that the seventh game was localized.
From that point, it became a cult favorite, but it wasn’t until Fire Emblem: Awakening
that the series gained immense popularity.
Now, with the release of Fire Emblem Fates, the question is whether Intelligent Systems
can maintain that adulation while satisfying both the fans of the classic games and the
new fans that joined with Awakening.
And really, they do.
It was seen as an odd decision to have Fire Emblem Fates split into multiple versions.
But it works.
These aren’t smaller stories.
Each version is as complete as previous Fire Emblem games.
The difference is how the story plays out and the pacing of the main plot.
In the Conquest storyline, it takes more inspiration from classic Fire Emblems in that you are
forced to go from battle to battle with little opportunity to earn extra experience or gold.
Birthright is more like The Sacred Stones or Awakening in that you can choose to engage
in extra battles in order to grind experience for your troops.
It becomes a question of what type of experience you want though both games share the same
basic gameplay.
This is still Fire Emblem after all.
The story focuses on the player character, referred to normally as Corrin, who has grown
up mostly secluded in the grim country of Nohr.
After he is able to prove his battle prowess, he is sent on a mission to the enemy country
of Hoshido.
There he learns that he was actually born in this country but stolen away by the Nohrians.
The first five chapters are the same no matter which version you play, and it provides a
limited but still effective look at why each choice could be made.
The siblings on both sides care about you.
But a tragic event forces you to make a decision.
For the purpose of this review, I chose to go through Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest and
see how it invoked the classic entries in the series.
The story is rather intriguing in that Corrin is attempting to change Nohr’s brutal reputation
from within.
There are many moments that push the idea of just how hard a prospect this is.
It all becomes a great tale that is stronger for its morality, lore, and characterization.
I also feel that Corrin is one of the most interesting Lords that have ever been featured
in the series.
The choice between sides does affect him and though he doesn’t want to fight, he’s
willing to drag himself through the muck in order to achieve peace.
While Fire Emblem Fates mostly stays true to the established turn-based strategy gameplay,
there have been some changes to the formula.
The biggest is the removal of limited uses for each weapon.
Instead, none of the weapons will break outside of staves.
A bigger emphasis has been placed on the stats of the various weapons.
Bronze weapons have greater accuracy but are less powerful while Steel weapons can be incredibly
inaccurate but they’re much more powerful and have a higher chance of striking with
a critical hit.
And there are even brand new types of weapons that play around with the stats even more.
It leads to a lot of flexibility when it comes to combat as you can decide whether to focus
on dealing a ton of damage or whittling down enemies with guaranteed hits.
The removal of the limited uses was something I actually forgot about after a while.
It became natural, though in my case it led to me having a lot of extra money since I
didn’t have to worry about replacing old weapons.
I could buy new, stronger weapons in limited quantities though I ended up saving those
until the end when I had a firm idea of what my final team would be.
The change turned out to not be as massive as I first expected and instead was just another
way to streamline the game.
What is a big change are the new classes and enemy types that have been added, some of
which are exclusive to either Conquest or Birthright.
The Malig Knight is wyvern rider that can wield both Tomes and Axes while the Maid can
uses Shurikans and Staves.
It leads to more flexibility with the new classes being both interesting and unique.
Mastering a class often allows players to choose what kind of new class that character
will be and players are certain to find some favorites.
The Nohr side is more traditionally Fire Emblem with western-based weapons while Hoshido takes
more of a Japanese influence with the introduction of new weapons like katanas, naginatas, and
the aforementioned shurikans.
Fundamentally, they work the same so it mainly comes down to aesthetics.
But the biggest change that comes from the new weapons is the Weapon Triangle.
Swords and Magic are both effective against Axes and Bows which in turn are both effective
against Spears and Hidden Weapons like the shurikans.
This change really made me think about what the best course of action was in each battle
since bows are now included in the Triangle and Magic is not its own separate entity.
In addition, enemy units can now support each other and pair up.
It brings a much greater challenge as their strength, defense, and evasiveness are all
increased, just like you.
It’s almost required that you do the same when facing off against a pair, just to stand
a chance.
In all, I like these changes.
It gives Fire Emblem Fates its own unique feel while still remaining a Fire Emblem game.
And in Conquest, they managed to keep the classic feel of going from battle to battle
while retaining the changes introduced in Awakening.
In fact, the battles in Conquest have a lot more variety than Hoshido as it has some with
limited turns or needing to defend a specific point.
And there’s no question that Conquest can be a very difficult game, even on Normal.
Keeping everyone alive was a huge challenge since almost every fight involved taking on
a large amount of enemy troops.
Of course, there are ways to make this more manageable since Casual Mode returns, which
resurrects fallen troops between chapters, and the inclusion of the new Phoenix Mode
which resurrects the troops after a turn has passed.
So if you want to experience the game and learn its ins and outs before truly taking
it on, you can.
Finally, there’s the My Castle feature.
After each fight, you earn Dragon Vein Points which can be spent to expand your castle.
Weapon and Stave shops can be built to equip your team with better items, a lottery shop
can win you items, you can upgrade your weapons, or you can even get to know your team better
in the hot spring or your personal quarters.
It’s a great way to decompress after a fight, equip your team, and watch the various support
conversations that you’ve unlocked.
Like Awakening, you can marry various characters in order to have a child who in turn can join
the fights.
In addition, your castle can be invaded and defending it gives a large amount of DVP.
These fights can be a little tricky since your units are so spread out.
However, each building can help your party in some way or even damage the enemy units.
My Castle is a pretty robust feature and something I grew to really enjoy as something uniquely
my own.
Everything in it can be useful to the player, but I never felt the need to do it all.
I discovered what I liked and stuck to that.
Beyond that, the gameplay of Fire Emblem Fates is fantastic.
Everything you enjoyed about previous games is there and between Birthright, Conquest,
and the eventual Revelation DLC, these are three full-sized experiences for players to
enjoy.
There is a massive amount of content here and Conquest alone provided at least 30 hours
of gameplay.
The game also looks gorgeous on the 3DS.
Each battlefield is impressively detailed while the character sprites are kept simple.
But the best effect is how the camera swoops in for a closer look when a skirmish takes
place.
All the details that surrounded the fighters are represented during the fight.
Even a wall that could be damaged showed the damage when the fighting took place.
Units can also be battled-damaged and have that damage stay until they are healed.
It’s this attention to detail that helps make each fight pop.
The locations, artwork, and cutscenes are also beautifully done and just help give the
game that much more personality.
Character portraits will even change expressions based on how confident they feel about the
upcoming fight.
And the music is fantastic with sweeping songs, beats that get you pumped for battle, and
even well-sung vocal tracks.
The voice acting is a little hit and miss with some characters standing out as strange
or just odd vocal choices.
However, I do feel that most of the acting is quite good, especially when they’re allowed
to do longer pieces of dialogue.
Unfortunately, the game does not include a dual audio option for those more inclined
to the original Japanese.
Fire Emblem Fates is a fantastic follow-up to Awakening.
It’s story is memorable, and it has some great characters.
Though I mainly played the Conquest version of the game, I feel confident in recommending
either it or Birthright to those interested.
I’m looking forward to fully playing through each version because I do feel that they’re
worth it.
I love Fire Emblem Fates that much.
The gameplay is just as good as it ever was with changes that are meant both to expand
and streamline.
Though some may lament that it’s not exactly like the older games, I feel that Conquest
strikes a good middle-ground for those fans.
And newcomers can still enjoy it for its different structure compared to both Birthright and
Awakening.
If you’re looking for a challenge, you’ll find it here.
And really, it’s just a good time to be a Fire Emblem fan.
Thanks for watching and stay tuned to GameXplain for more on Fire Emblem and other things gaming.