Review - Fire Emblem Awakening for 3DS

Intro

Fire Emblem Awakening is the sixth game in the FE series to be launched here in the Americas and all has been developed by Intelligent Systems . It was primarily a Japanese-only series with six entries before the first American release. It was always a late release on Nintendo platforms and it was considered too hard for the oversea gamers. The first FE launched was a Gameboy Advance titled only Fire Emblem to not cause any confusion. After that we had one more for the GBA, another one for the Gamecube, Nintendo DS, and Wii (the last game in a home console). Because of the series declining in sales Nintendo gave the company one last shot with one more game, this time for the 3DS. If the game couldn't achieve more than 250 000 copies sold the series would be terminated. Spoiler alert ; it achieved its goal in less than two weeks and selling more than TWO MILLIONS copies to date.

Story

FEA tells the story of a young tactician called Robin. He is woken up by a group of people called the Shepherds the protectors of the continent of Ylisse. They see Robin lying down on the ground and help him to awake (see what I did there). Robin can't remember a thing about himself only his name what lead to some suspicious of him. But the leader of the Shepherds is also the crown prince of Ylisse doesn't see a problem with him and lets Robin join the group until he can recover his memories.

Right before the encounter they investigate a series of attacks in the region. With Robin in their team now they engage some battles against a different kind of foes. Robin still remember how to fight and help the group with his wits as a very clever tactician he is. From that point on he becomes the official tactician of the Shepherds to fight this new menace

Graphics

There are many improvements in the graphics department they all look awesome and very polished for a handheld. There are three overviews in the game; the map view, the battle view and the engage view.

Just like Fire Emblem Sacred Stone we don't go battle after battle fighting the enemies. We have a world map we can travel and sometimes more than one path opens up for our group. In the Map view we have a little Chrom avatar walking through paths in a brownish map full of cities to visit and battles to engage against the different foes.

In the battle view the Shepherds fight in a grid representing the city or region they're in. In this view mode we see how gorgeous images the 3DS can achieve. Especially if you turn the 3D mode on you can see so many details and colors so bright that is just on point. Almost like playing a D&D board game with miniatures of a city, playable characters and enemies with astonishing deepness. The Shepherds and the enemies are represented by 2D images of themselves that change when they are in Engage mode.

Engage mode is when you engage an enemy or an ally in an action of attacking or helping. When in this mode you can mess with the camera in many ways even changing the view to first person for the main attacker. In this mode we can see the best of details. The characters are beautiful and well-drawn their movements are natural and very appealing. The funny fact is their small feet. I know it's a style thing but it really seems odd to me. But for some it is part of the charm.

Gameplay

This is the best part of any game and FEA as a Tactical-RPG is not left behind by any means. The tactical part is so deep you have many ways to engage in battle. When in the grid you have a limited numbers of allies you can take with you, some you have to take because of story sake but you can always choose the rest as you wish. In the grid you can move accordingly with the characters attributes and enter in Engage mode against the enemies.

The first thing you have to remember when playing a FE game is the Weapon triangle. It's a series thing since the Super Famicom only release FE Genealogy of the Holy War. It consists in a model like the rock-paper-scissor game where an attack is strong against one and weak against the other. For example swords are stronger against axes and weaker against lances.

This is the first in the series to introduce the pair-up system which consist in putting two allies side by side and then they fight together in Engage mode giving each other more points in certain attributes. When pair-uped or fighting side by side their relationship meter goes up and the attributes they give as bonus also goes up and you trigger the Conversation levels. The relationship/conversation is represented in four levels going through C, B, A, and S the highest one that when achieved triggers a scene where the characters can even get married. And when they marry you can use their children that comes from the future as a playable character.

There is also the Casual mode and Classic mode that you choose in the beginning of the game. Classic mode is like the name says you fight as the older games. If your character dies it's for good. In casual mode you don't lose the character if he loses all his HP. This way many more people can enjoy the game. Here in my home I prefer playing Classic mode because I've always played that way but as my wife was new to the series she prefers to play the casual mode.

Ending thoughts

Fire Emblem Awakening is considered the best entry in the series by most of the newcomers but among the older players it has mixed opinions mostly people hating on the casual mode saying that it diminishes the series as a casual game. But for me as you have the choice I really don't see any problem in that. Any type of players can enjoy FEA because of that.

And also for almost being the last game in the series all the staff in Intelligent System gave their hearts and souls to make this a memorable experience and turning this series in a main Nintendo IP in par with Metroid, Legend of Zelda and Mario.