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[Nocturnowl]

Despite being a fan of the Fire Emblem series my interest in the newest additions to the franchise waned in face of Nintendo of Europe taking their sweet time releasing the games and completely botching the Special Edition availability.
On top of that when I finally picked up one of the Fates entries in Conquest it's taken me a few months to work my way through it in what must be one of the more conflicting entries for me.
I'll split my thoughts in two halves, one for the plot side of things, the other for the more important gameplay...


Plot and Characters
So Fire Emblem Awakening wasn’t exactly renowned for its plot, we went from the spiffing Tellius saga to a back to the most basic of basics title that took a detour halfway through its barebones main storyline to deal with Lord Fillerhart on some other continent before they remembered to head back and finish the actual fire emblem business.
With that in mind I didn’t go into Conquest with high expectations, but hey if they are wrapping the Fates saga around three games then maybe it’s actually got something good going on right? Well I’m not sure what Birthright and Revelations hold but Conquest managed to fall short of even low expectations, hilariously so.

In what effectively boils down to a whole campaign of cartoonishly EVIL King Garon and his mage wormtongue sending your lead character (aka:Corrin) off on missions designed to fuck with you while the Nohr siblings just begrudgingly go along with the cliché villain business because that’s the bottom line cause Father Garon said so. Approximately half the missions on the conquest side seem to end with “we defeated the Hoshidans but let’s not kill anyone guys” only for the lackeys of Garon to be like “lol we just killed the people you said not to kill” and then Corrin yells “GODS NO!” a couple of hundred times.
And boy does Corrin love his variations of “OH GODS NO!”, a line parroted so often throughout the game that it makes Joseph Joestar’s exclamations of God seem almost minuscule by comparison.
Corrin himself (or herself) is about a charismatic as a brick wall, a character fawned over by siblings across the globe to incest levels to boot despite not really being anything but some guy who stabs you while apologizing at the same time.
My favorite story beats were of the so bad they’re good variety. Like when King Garon goes to the opera and this totally mysterious dancer who looks just like the character Azura but wearing black sings a faster version of the song Azura always sings to mindfuck him and Corrin and co are all like “WHO WAS THAT MYSTERIOUS DANCER?!...also have any of you seen Azura?”.
And then there’s the heroic sacrifice of some dragon thing that I almost forgot was part of the game, she seemed to exist primarily as a device for the my castle side of the game to make vague sense in the world of FE Fates, appearing in the main plot near the start and then never again until it gets itself killed in what’s supposed to be an emotional “OH GOD’S NO!” scene which just falls hilariously flat.
For what it’s worth the final steps of the story were okay, regardless if I thought it couldn’t get any sillier than Awakening ,well it totally did.

Characters in general felt like a step back, for as exaggerated as some aspects of the Awakening cast were they ended up being an oddly engaging batch. This time around it’s like there’s just too many characters to throw in factoring in all three story paths. Visually speaking despite not having any beef with Yūsuke Kozaki’s art he really went and doubled down on the more dubious aspects of Awakening’s art direction, even more scantily clad battle babes, many of which look even younger than usual. While I don’t think we hit 1000 year old loli dragon levels with any one character there’s certainly more that just look as silly with grating personalities to match. And following on from the “his characters tend to look a bit alike complaint” we actually have old character designs from Awakening back under new names which is just bloody bizarre.
Even the whole Waifu Emblem angle struggles here, I ended up just wifing Felicia out of convenience, I oddly enjoyed the matchmaker aspect of Awakening but this time it was hard to gel with many of the characters and yet apparently Nohr is the more interesting side on this front.

Gameplay
Okay so here’s the main course of FE and it’s as solid as ever as well as experimenting in some interesting ways. I still dislike the pair up mechanic, it’s got some more nuances to it this time around and while I spent most of the game not forcibly pairing units together as I prefer it classic single style it became more and more apparent to me that single units struggle in the face of the odds in the later stages. Enemies hit hard and the extra stats gained from towing along a chum seemed like a bigger difference maker here.
Of course I’d be amiss if I didn’t admit to finding this entry a tougher than the previous Western released entries, in fact I was honestly pretty naff. I buried more units in this entry than any other and that was only on normal mode. Guess I’m not as spry as I used to be, it felt like the squishier folks really struggled to not get mugged off and I ate some nasty crits that I couldn’t be bothered to replay maps to alleviate.
This actually ended up making the endgame one of the most enjoyable in the series for me as my few remaining units were in a race against time rushing towards the final boss, heroic sacrifices were made (Kaze, you were the real MVP here) and I finished the campaign like I’d actually gone through a war. Annoyingly this entry doubles down on the whole “they’re not dead, they just can’t fight anymore” approach which was kinda silly in how frequently it happened. A particular highlight was losing Wife Felicia on chapter 24 causing her to mysteriously vanish from my private quarters yet she was still visible on my castle map as the menu lass, so I guess her legs no longer work to walk back to the bedroom huh.

Regarding the approach to maps Conquest is a little bit Donkey Kong Country 3 which is to say gimmicks, gimmicks everywhere. Awakening was rightfully slammed for a lack of objective variety and Conquest brings back the goods with defense missions, map gimmicks and other stuff to help right that wrong. The reason I mention DKC3 specifically here is because much like that game it sometimes goes a bit overboard to where the gimmicky maps override the core gameplay. For the most part they were a decent batch but sometimes you get caves full of ninja traps and movement madness of my most disdained chapter in 24.

If I were to approach another aspect of the gameplay that I found interesting but ultimately more of a hassle it was the extra importance of skills and specifically the enemies packing some tricks up their sleeves. Now beyond weapon triangle, level difference, weapon type and pairup stuff there’s also an additional factor of unique skills which can lead to debuffs upon attacking, passive damage regardless of a successful hit and so forth. I personally found this to overcomplicate the enjoyable simplicity of FE but that’s just me.

In the end I’m left wondering if Conquest was actually the right choice for me. I appreciate what they aimed for with this particular part of the fates package, a title that plays by the older and less forgiving rules. No grinding/world map (YEEEEES), mission variety and asking more from the player is what I wanted but simultaneously they turned up the difficulty dial a bit too much for me leaving me at an odd crossroads here as I try to find my place in between putting my balls in a conquest vice and presumably steamrolling through the more casual land of birthright. (can we bring back Shadow Dragon's mid map save points please?)
On top of that certain held over mechanics from the Awakening/Birthright approach don’t slot in so well here like the S rank paralogues. DLC integration and even the whole castle/base building part of the package to a degree.
I did enjoy Conquest for what it’s worth and I’m left wondering if I’d be better off going with Hard/Birthright or Normal/Revelations next (so any pointers here would be swell). I think Intelligent Systems are on the right path here but that trying to appease everyone with this everything but the kitchen sink approach leads to a rather uneven game that lacks the more straightforward simplicity I loved about say Path of Radiance in particular.

Ps: If anyone wants to highlight some of the better music tracks please do, I didn’t really get to make much note of the themes that weren’t starting off with being the ocean’s gray waves.

 

[Novel Mike]

Sadly the story isn't much better in either of the other versions either. It's a shame for a series that has many awesome story moments in previous entries the newer FE games just don't have much effort put into the story anymore.

 

[MetroidPrimeRib]

The writing is so bad that I had to start skipping scenes before I lost brain cells. Even the conversations suck.

 

[zeromcd73]

I actually had to stop playing the writing was so bad, it was legit making me angry and hated all the characters for going along with it. Got to chapter 16 or 17? and I just couldn't take it anymore.

Such a shame. Hopefully they can actually get someone that can write worth a damn for FE NX or just go vanilla as shit like Awakening.

 

[Memory]

You fucked up, Birthright is a lot better. I had to force myself to complete conquest, didn't like the story or the insistence on gimmicky maps. Birthright was a straight 10/10 for me but Conquest was a 7/10.

Playing Revelations right now and it seems like the best parts of both so far. I'm sure they made Conquest for people who only play on hard mode and skip through story and character iterations.

 

[Griss]

I loved Awakening but didn't even finish Conquest. Couldn't stand it.

So much wrong with the game.
The plot - which rivals the worst I've ever seen in any game;

The exploitative release method (they are NOT three separate games, they share characters, plot lines, frankly only the third game is the 'real' ending, and when I beat Birthright (my first ending) it was clear that it wasn't the whole story); to say nothing of the fact that us Euros were burned out on waiting and that many fans and the conversation had moved on;

And finally, the gameplay. Between the fact that adjacent enemies can now joint attack and the fact that enemies now have so many skills and unique weapons it feels like every single move must be micromanaged to an insane extent. You've got to check the move range of the guy you're attacking, and those around him. But not just as to whether they can hit your guys. As to whether they could hit your guys as part of a team. And then what special weapons / abilities they have. Every turn takes forever because if you don't do this you're screwed. Old fire emblem was far more of a rock / paper / scissors game, then Awakening increased the complexity. They took that and went way overboard here. Then at the end of every chapter you have to micromanage your bullshit little base... gah. Hated all of it.

The amount of times I lost someone on the last turn of the chapter to some enemy that moved into double attack range and proc'd some ludicrous skill... it was tedious as fuck by the end.

Had the story been worth it I might have kept at it. Had it released on time during the hype phase I might have kept at it. Had the gameplay been fun I might have kept at it. As it is it's probably my disappointment of the year.

 

[Linkark07]

Yes, storywise Conquest is the worst one of the three routes. Corrin is an idiot, Garon is one of the worst villain ever done, Iago is a sad excuse of character (if you can call him that) and your siblings don't have what it takes to stand against their father. Plus there are many stupid choices made by all the main characters in this route, especially, again Corrin.

Gameplay wise, it is the best Fates can offer. Especially on Lunatic; what a thrill it was playing this on Lunatic classic. The stress, the tension, the despair of losing an unit while being so close to winning, yet that euphoric feeling of finishing each mission. BTW, my favorites are when Corrin and co. are invading Hoshido. Sakura, Takumi, Hinoka chapters were brutal (Ryouma too but I never face those ninjas, NEVER). And then Chapter 26 with Iago on the middle... Spent like a couple of days trying to beat this mission. Sadly, Chapter 27 is too easy if you know what to do and Endgame is stupid. Have to cheese on this one if you want to win.

And music, you know why I loved the Hoshido invasion missions? Because of this . A Dark Fall is my favorite track in the entire game. But there are also other great ones like No Justice or Dark Wastes.

While Conquest has the weakest story, it really nailed it with the gameplay and music. Character wise, I like them all equally, regardless or route.

 

[Aters]

The writing is so bad that I had to start skipping scenes before I lost brain cells. Even the conversations suck.

I skipped cut-scenes in my first playthrough. Never thought I'd do that to any game. Not only did they hurt my brain, those god awful models hurt my eyes too.

I love what they did to the gameplay system. I even think the unbreakable weapons is a good idea,. I'm preying for a different writer next time. I'm not asking for anything remotely fancy. Just tell me a story about a prince or princess reclaiming the throne and killing an evil dragon without shitty twists. Shouldn't be that hard right?

 

[tiebreaker]

One example of bad story ruining the overall experience.

 

[DeployThatPizza]

Story wise, it's the worst, but that didn't bother me. Conquest's gameplay is the best and I found the characters to be better than Birthright's.

 

[Neoleo2143]

I vastly prefer the cast of Fates to Awakening. I find it a shame then that the game doesn't really take enough advantage of it as there is some brilliance to be had there. Conquest Corrin is pretty much made by the support conversation with Xander, it's easily the strongest support in the game. Xander himself is one of the best characters in the series. Story wise, I actually rather like Chapter 18 and Endgame as they present the concept of "Justice among waging an unjust conflict" the best.

 

[MetroidPrimeRib]

Fates is a bunch of good character designs that should never open their mouths

Then again awakening had tharja

 

[diaspora]

Fates has some of the worst writing and narrative in recent memory. It borders on offensive in how it's absolute garbage. The gameplay is sublime though, and it's always been hilarious how people whine about the localization as that that was the main issue with the game's writing.

 

[Nocturnowl]

The writing is so bad that I had to start skipping scenes before I lost brain cells. Even the conversations suck.

I found myself mashing through most supports, I long for the days of Shinon and Gatrie support shenanigans.

You fucked up, Birthright is a lot better. I had to force myself to complete conquest, didn't like the story or the insistence on gimmicky maps. Birthright was a straight 10/10 for me but Conquest was a 7/10.

Playing Revelations right now and it seems like the best parts of both so far. I'm sure they made Conquest for people who only play on hard mode and skip through story and character iterations.

I did note that my friends who went with Birthright seemed to be enjoying themselves a bit more but they're not as big fans of the series and I figured they were just digging the Samurai novelty.

I loved Awakening but didn't even finish Conquest. Couldn't stand it.

So much wrong with the game.
The plot - which rivals the worst I've ever seen in any game;

The exploitative release method (they are NOT three separate games, they share characters, plot lines, frankly only the third game is the 'real' ending, and when I beat Birthright (my first ending) it was clear that it wasn't the whole story); to say nothing of the fact that us Euros were burned out on waiting and that many fans and the conversation had moved on;

And finally, the gameplay. Between the fact that adjacent enemies can now joint attack and the fact that enemies now have so many skills and unique weapons it feels like every single move must be micromanaged to an insane extent. You've got to check the move range of the guy you're attacking, and those around him. But not just as to whether they can hit your guys. As to whether they could hit your guys as part of a team. And then what special weapons / abilities they have. Every turn takes forever because if you don't do this you're screwed. Old fire emblem was far more of a rock / paper / scissors game, then Awakening increased the complexity. They took that and went way overboard here. Then at the end of every chapter you have to micromanage your bullshit little base... gah. Hated all of it.

The amount of times I lost someone on the last turn of the chapter to some enemy that moved into double attack range and proc'd some ludicrous skill... it was tedious as fuck by the end.

Had the story been worth it I might have kept at it. Had it released on time during the hype phase I might have kept at it. Had the gameplay been fun I might have kept at it. As it is it's probably my disappointment of the year.

Despite finishing it and liking it enough as a result, I completely understand this post from all angles, especially the whole complexity issue.

 

[MetroidPrimeRib]

Fates has some of the worst writing and narrative in recent memory. It borders on offensive in how it's absolute garbage. The gameplay is sublime though, and it's always been hilarious how people whine about the localization as that that was the main issue with the game's writing.

There's no fucking way the Japanese version was some masterpiece. It's not the 1980s anymore.

 

[Neoleo2143]

I skipped cut-scenes in my first playthrough. Never thought I'd do that to any game. Not only did they hurt my brain, those god awful models hurt my eyes too.

I love what they did to the gameplay system. I even think the unbreakable weapons is a good idea,. I'm preying for a different writer next time. I'm not asking for anything remotely fancy. Just tell me a story about a prince or princess reclaiming the throne and killing an evil dragon without shitty twists. Shouldn't be that hard right?

On the Contrary, I don't think it was the fault of the Writer. Frankly, I really want to see what Kibayashi presented without the transition his script made to becoming a game (aka pretty much butchered going by how "gameplay is king" development usually works, stuffing a script into premade levels, instead of imagining the script in terms of mechanics and systems). Conceptually, Conquest is one of the most interesting games in the series to me and I think Kibayashi was on to a very good idea here, but it's impossible to know since that old script won't be released.

 

[Skelter]

Sadly the story isn't much better in either of the other versions either. It's a shame for a series that has many awesome story moments in previous entries the newer FE games just don't have much effort put into the story anymore.

Can someone please tell me how Fire Emblem had good story? I never played the older titles and Awakening was my first entry into the franchise.

Both 3DS titles are...lackluster when it comes to story.

 

[DecoReturns]

Yeah. Fates was disappointing.

I had more fun replaying Awakening even with its brain dead gameplay. The cast, supports, and story are way better. Even tho it ranges from bad to mediocre. Corrin is worst then Lucina and Chrom. I know it's a different team, but the sharp drop of quality in narrative is alarming. I mean FE 7 to 10 didn't have spectacular written but at least it more cohesive and moments that shine.

Fates is just terrible writting. The concept was misused terribly. Conquest has a better cast and supports then Birthright in my opinion.

 

[Nocturnowl]

Remember that late game chapter when Ryoma loses his shit and yells how you're going to fight with him to the death only to immediately spend 25 turns sitting on his arse, gooooood times.

 

[Neoleo2143]

Can someone please tell me how Fire Emblem had good story? I never played the older titles and Awakening was my first entry into the franchise.

Both 3DS titles are...lackluster when it comes to story.

Older FE's were alright when it comes to their narratives. I think some will point out FE4 and FE9 as the best, to which I agree, but only within the game space (FE4's second half is lacking and in general has much of its detail covered outside the game, FE9 is too ingrained in tropes and boring themes for me to really care as a higher form of literature, but as a writing exercise for games, I think it's a good look at how to write a good game story).

It also doesn't hurt that many of the supports in the past were pretty obnoxious to get so most people didn't see the ones that conflicted with the script of the main game. FE9 is of course excluded from this because of how its supports worked, though I suppose Illyana exists.

My personal preference is FE3 story wise. It's the most concise narrative in my opinion.

 

[DecoReturns]

Remember that late game chapter when Ryoma loses his shit and yells how you're going to fight with him to the death only to immediately spend 25 turns sitting on his arse, gooooood times.

I killed him in two turns because Corrin crit and activated Dragon Fang at the same time. Corrin really wanted to kill his brother for the greater good apprently.

Edit: this is more of a nitpick but I hated that I couldn't save before the final battle.

 

[Esque7]

Was going to make a similar thread recently but I agree for the most part. The narrative was downright offensive and I struggled to get through conquest and revelation. The only character I enjoyed was Acura but the rest were just beyond terrible. Hopefully they can get a good writer for the next game or I'll just be done with the series.

 

[Anura]

I honestly just wish the child characters were half as interesting as awakening's. Awakening's story might have been shit, but the children had the most interesting personalities there and some really nice interactions/support. Heck, they're actually relevant to the story, unlike fates. All the fate kids supports boiled down to is "you're a bad parent (you are) and I hate you" and almost exclusively dealt with that parental abandonment. The awakening kids covered similar themes and had the extra gravitas of the whole time travel trauma thing. It was sweet to see the kids reconnecting to their parents in awakening. In fates you just feel like a complete asshole for leaving them there in the first place!

 

[Linkark07]

Remember that late game chapter when Ryoma loses his shit and yells how you're going to fight with him to the death only to immediately spend 25 turns sitting on his arse, gooooood times.

I think it is even worse on Chapter 26. Norh siblings finally want to kill Iago and Hans because daddy isn't looking. While I liked them more than the Hoshido siblings, it is annoying how they never dared to stand against Garon, especially Xander.

 

[Gravidee]

I feel like the story could have turned out better if we didn't have to play through 3 games with alternate paths. Here's hoping they don't try this gimmick again.

 

[DecoReturns]

I still want a Awakening squeal with the children characters living in despair. I think a good writer can make a great story out of that concept. but it was DLC so who knows.

 

[Biske]

Is story a thing people look for in Fire Emblem games? Every Fire Emblem I ever played has had terrible story and even more terrible dialogue. To me its purely a game to play for the mechanics of it.

 

[SoundPulse]

I liked the idea of what Fates wanted to do, but the execution leaves quite a bit to be desired. I also dislike the entire idea of the third route.
If you just want to play some Fire Emblem, then Conquest isn't that bad, I guess.

Can someone please tell me how Fire Emblem had good story? I never played the older titles and Awakening was my first entry into the franchise.

Both 3DS titles are...lackluster when it comes to story.

The older games tried at least a little bit harder to tell an engaging story. I wouldn't say that the previous games were that good, but Awakening and Fates shifted their focus elsewhere and went with some really basic plots.

 

[Skelter]

Older FE's were alright when it comes to their narratives. I think some will point out FE4 and FE9 as the best, to which I agree, but only within the game space (FE4's second half is lacking and in general has much of its detail covered outside the game, FE9 is too ingrained in tropes and boring themes for me to really care as a higher form of literature, but as a writing exercise for games, I think it's a good look at how to write a good game story).

It also doesn't hurt that many of the supports in the past were pretty obnoxious to get so most people didn't see the ones that conflicted with the script of the main game. FE9 is of course excluded from this because of how its supports worked, though I suppose Illyana exists.

My personal preference is FE3 story wise. It's the most concise narrative in my opinion.

I probably won't play them but I'll definitely take a look at them on youtube or whatever.

What I really can't stand about the latest Fire Emblem game is Corrin. The most boring person I've ever seen in a game.

 

[Oddish1]

Kind of funny how the story is the biggest complaint when Intelligent Systems brought on another writer specifically to deal with that problem.

 

[MetroidPrimeRib]

Is story a thing people look for in Fire Emblem games? Every Fire Emblem I ever played has had terrible story and even more terrible dialogue. To me its purely a game to play for the mechanics of it.

It used to be perfectly passable. Path of Radiance was even somewhat good at times. Fates is just lame. It never aspires to be anything beyond the most uninspired fantasy JRPG stuff possible. So boring that even an attempt to make something this boring on purpose would likely be better. Usually character conversations make up the slack but they aren't good in Fates.

The thing that gets me the most is the conquest story. You're supposed to forge your own destiny and swear to fix Nohr from the inside but you don't. You take orders from the king who could not possibly be more moustache twirling MWAHAHAHAHA evil instead of like...doing a coup? I figured you would displace the king and then unite the land with your own force and being less evil but you don't. You'll be the tyrant, but more like Walhart from Awakening.

 

[Neoleo2143]

Kind of funny how the story is the biggest complaint when Intelligent Systems brought on another writer specifically to deal with that problem.

Because simply getting another writer can't make a better game narrative. It takes a strong direction and laser focus. That's why Sakurai, who I don't think anyone expected to be good at writing a story, was able to make one of the best Gaming Narratives in KI:U, because he had control over almost every facet of the game down to every minor detail.

 

[MetroidPrimeRib]

What I really want story wise for FE is to evolve. And I don't really mean the fight the evil king the fight the evil sorceror behind the king then the evil God or Dragon, but make the rest of your army feel important. As it is the important people in your army are

MU
The tactician depending on the game
Any lords
The paladin you have at the start of the game
One or two more people

And that's it.

 

[Azuran]

The ridicoulous story wasn't enough to sour me on the amazing gameplay. Gameplay wise, this is probably one of the best games in the series by far. Every little map has something new to offer and some of them have really ingenious gimmicks that you really need to learn how to put to use in order to have a significantly easier time. Chapter 10 is honestly the best chapter in series history.

The story stops mattering after the first playthrought anyways so I really don't cry about it. Corrin being an idiot won't stop me from doing an Odin only run and having fun with it.

 

[WrenchNinja]

Nohr was a mistake, it's nothing but trash

 

[Hero]

Yeah, as much as I enjoyed Conquest's gameplay, the story was absolutely trash. I don't like many of the characters either and much preferred Awakening.

With that said, we need the return of the Radiant Hero in a third FE game to give us some much needed manliness. Ike is the best lord.

 

[Reset]

Conquest was the best version out of the three. Sure the story is stupid, but at least the characters in this game have some sort of personality compared to the Hoshido cast who were just dull (Takumi being the exception). Oh and yeah I enjoyed that they added different objectives compared to Birthright where all the maps were forgettable other the one where you fight the Berserker boss.
Fates was really disappointing though, each version felt incomplete with the game's ending giving you the middle finger telling you buy the other two paths. And besides the Nohr siblings everyone else in the game was forgettable, and I wasn't fan of them bringing back the Awakening cast which just felt lazy. Oh and some of the stuff in the game was down right embarrassing and I wouldn't want to play it in front of anyone else, from the stupid fan service 'petting' / blowing through the mic to the awful dance sequence. Get that shit out of the next Fire Emblem games.

Awakening was the better 3DS Fire Emblem game. Sure it was easy, but I had fun with it. All the 3DS games are weaker than the GBA games / PoR though. From the localized games, here's how I'd rank each game
FE 7 > FE: PoR > FE: SS > FE: A > FE: Conquest > FE:RD > FE:R > FE: Birthright > FE: SD

 

[obijkenobi]

Yeah, as much as I enjoyed Conquest's gameplay, the story was absolutely trash. I don't like many of the characters either and much preferred Awakening.

With that said, we need the return of the Radiant Hero in a third FE game to give us some much needed manliness. Ike is the best lord.

0 lies detected here. We know that Ike has at least one child at some point, so FE 10 isnt the end of him.

I would like the next FE to place more emphasis on the bonds between units, e.g. keep the cast smaller with fewer amount of potential suplorts. One of my favorite things about FE9 was how Greils team legit felt like bros/sisters compared to other casts.

 

[Incandenza]

As someone who's only on Chapter 11 of Conquest, I'm glad to hear it's safe to just start skipping all the story stuff. It's been pretty thoroughly bad so far and I feel like there's wayyy more of it than there was in Awakening. Awakening's story wasn't great either but at least the time travel conceit was fun and it had a few striking moments (like Chapter 9 and 10).

Still very very fun to play though.

 

[EDarkness]

What I really want story wise for FE is to evolve. And I don't really mean the fight the evil king the fight the evil sorceror behind the king then the evil God or Dragon, but make the rest of your army feel important. As it is the important people in your army are

MU
The tactician depending on the game
Any lords
The paladin you have at the start of the game
One or two more people

And that's it.

I think the problem they have is that characters can die permanently and there are a ridiculous number of them. It's just hard to make each one of them seem like some kind of special, well rounded, character. That ends up being limited to the major characters of the story. I think Final Fantasy Tactics and even the Shining Force games do a better job of adding more personality to characters since they can't die permanently and therefore can have more of a part to play.

I ended up beating Conquest, but I had to rush through it at the end. I hated the story so much that it was killing my enjoyment of the game. I had a much easier time with Birthright, even though I was tired of the "you can marry any woman...no, it's okay!" crap. They're supposed to be his "real" siblings, but

Spoiler

they're fake just the same as the Nohr folks

. Really annoying. I hope in the next game they go in a different direction. I just didn't have much fun with Conquest.

 

[SolVanderlyn]

Here are my thoughts on the game, spoilers for Birthright.

Revelations is the worst of the three, IMO. I don't mention it in that post since it hadn't come out when I wrote that review, but the game is simply not designed for you to have Nohr and Hoshido characters. Your roster becomes hugely bloated by the endgame, especially if you go for all of the kids. That said, it's a neat way to see the two casts come together, and the story fills in some holes from the main two games.

This is hilarious and true, but I'll also quote myself:

As to why it's not ridiculous; Corrin makes a choice based on his/her emotions and has to live it with it, despite realizing early on that it was wrong. In a last ditch effort to set things right, he and Azura come up with a contrived solution that feels more like grabbing at straws than anything else. Conquest is not a story about being the good guys. Conquest is a story of desperation, and the consequences of being unable to leave behind the kind family that raised you. It's not one made on morals, but one based on love and emotion. It's a unique take on the "dark side" story, as you and your siblings are still very much good people in a bad environment, and I like that they didn't go the good/evil route with the plot between the two games and instead went for something more nuanced.

 

[Pappasman]

New FE stories are awful. whatever.

Conquest itself is thankfully, significantly better than the massive dissapointment that was Awakening. I played on Hard and they solved pretty much all the problems I had with FE:A like the Pair Up mechanic being broken and OP to an absurd degree, along with map design and a lot more. The map gimmicks were cool at first, but I got tired of them pretty quick. I felt like a lot of the gimmicks just got in the way of the core game. Instead of interesting map design they had to rely on cheesy gimmicks for a lot of the later chapters. Overall I was happy for its vast step up over Awakening. I tried to play Birthright, but it was pretty easy on Hard and the map design felt a lot more like Awakening. I got bored and stopped pretty quickly. I probably won't go back to Revelations either.

It's definitely not as good as FE12, PoR, or FE7, but it good enough to make me more optimistic about the future of the franchise.

I loved Awakening but didn't even finish Conquest. Couldn't stand it.

...

And finally, the gameplay. Between the fact that adjacent enemies can now joint attack and the fact that enemies now have so many skills and unique weapons it feels like every single move must be micromanaged to an insane extent. You've got to check the move range of the guy you're attacking, and those around him. But not just as to whether they can hit your guys. As to whether they could hit your guys as part of a team. And then what special weapons / abilities they have. Every turn takes forever because if you don't do this you're screwed. Old fire emblem was far more of a rock / paper / scissors game, then Awakening increased the complexity. They took that and went way overboard here. Then at the end of every chapter you have to micromanage your bullshit little base... gah. Hated all of it.

You actually had to think in this game. Know the map, know your units, and know the enemy. Take your time to actually plan a strategy and the game rewards you for it. Awakening never demands any of those thoughts from the player.

 

[chaosblade]

FE Conquest is a great game if you skip the story. Definitely a return to form after Awakening. I agree with the criticism that the map gimmicks got a bit too aggressive, that's my biggest problem with the game after the horrendous writing. And the RNG trashed me harder than any FE game to date, but I seemed to be mostly alone in that.

 

[Totakeke]

I've bought the LE yet I couldn't bring myself to finish even one of the campaigns due to the dialogue and the characters. FE 9-10 had great world settings and a pretty good story, how did we end up here.

 

[Lightningboalt]

Conquest I feel has the best gameplay/strategy of the three games, with Revelations in second and Birthright just being awful. Storywise, though... yeah, Conquest is laughably horrible and a good contender for the worst of the bunch. Conquest's story is so bad that it's actually genuinely comedic to me.

A general issue I have with Fates' story stuff is that it doesn't try to do any worldbuilding the way basically every other Fire Emblem game does. Usually you get this little primer on what the world is like, what the nations are like, their state of affairs, and what the name of the continent is... after having played the game I barely know any of that shit because the game only cares about Nohr and Hoshido, any region you're in is totally irrelevant aside from the token chapter assigned to it (like, the Kitsune village area, the wind tribe, the ice tribe, etc. None of that stuff is ever expanded upon, it just exists for the sake of a single chapter). I still don't remember what the continent even looks like or if it even has a name, honestly.

Another thing I find funny about the game is that the prologue is way too short and honestly should've been maybe 5 chapters longer. You get 5 chapters total and in that time you barely ever get to know your Hoshido siblings... it makes the whole choice aspect kind of a joke for me. Why would I ever choose Hoshido over Nohr? Okay sure, they're biologically Corrin's family, but from a blank slate perspective you have little emotional connection to them as a player. You get to know the Nohr siblings quite well because they have a lot of screen time and they're all pretty great, whereas the Hoshido siblings... you have one nice sister accompanied by a characterless shy girl, an aggressive douchebag who is openly hostile to you, and a guy who says about three words to you and then never talks again until he pleads for you to "side with your family" despite the fact that basically only Hinoka feels like a family member (and even she has very limited screen time).

I actually really like Fates but it's very much a flawed game. Better than Shadow Dragon, 12, and Awakening, at least. The strategy aspect of the games I really enjoy, though Birthright is bland and overly simplistic. Despite the many flaws Fates is still one of my favorite games this year, though I really wish that FE could someday produce something that matches the quality of FE7 or PoR for me again.

 

[Balphon]

Corrin definitely makes a run at dumbest JRPG protagonist in history, especially on the Conquest path.

 

[chaosblade]

Conquest I feel has the best gameplay/strategy of the three games, with Revelations in second and Birthright just being awful. Storywise, though... yeah, Conquest is laughably horrible and a good contender for the worst of the bunch. Conquest's story is so bad that it's actually genuinely comedic to me.

A general issue I have with Fates' story stuff is that it doesn't try to do any worldbuilding the way basically every other Fire Emblem game does. Usually you get this little primer on what the world is like, what the nations are like, their state of affairs, and what the name of the continent is... after having played the game I barely know any of that shit because the game only cares about Nohr and Hoshido, any region you're in is totally irrelevant aside from the token chapter assigned to it (like, the Kitsune village area, the wind tribe, the ice tribe, etc. None of that stuff is ever expanded upon, it just exists for the sake of a single chapter). I still don't remember what the continent even looks like or if it even has a name, honestly.

Another thing I find funny about the game is that the prologue is way too short and honestly should've been maybe 5 chapters longer. You get 5 chapters total and in that time you barely ever get to know your Hoshido siblings... it makes the whole choice aspect kind of a joke for me. Why would I ever choose Hoshido over Nohr? Okay sure, they're biologically Corrin's family, but from a blank slate perspective you have little emotional connection to them as a player. You get to know the Nohr siblings quite well because they have a lot of screen time and they're all pretty great, whereas the Hoshido siblings... you have one nice sister accompanied by a characterless shy girl, an aggressive douchebag who is openly hostile to you, and a guy who says about three words to you and then never talks again until he pleads for you to "side with your family" despite the fact that basically only Hinoka feels like a family member (and even she has very limited screen time).

I actually really like Fates but it's very much a flawed game. Better than Shadow Dragon, 12, and Awakening, at least. The strategy aspect of the games I really enjoy, though Birthright is bland and overly simplistic. Despite the many flaws Fates is still one of my favorite games this year, though I really wish that FE could someday produce something that matches the quality of FE7 or PoR for me again.

I can't really agree with lumping 12 with Shadow Dragon and Awakening.

And part of the writing problem is that the games are trying to tell stories with scopes too big for the games they are in, and they dropped narration so you don't get any story details apart from the scenes with your characters.

FE7 has more chapters and has narration that tells you about the world. Not amazing worldbuilding, but offers a lot more than Fates and Awakening did.

FE9 and 10 are easily the best examples of good worldbuilding in the series, at least since the games started getting localized (can't speak for anything before that). Those had good narration and the overall story was split up between two games, each with more chapters than Awakening or Fates, allowing for more opportunities for the player to learn about the world.

Conquest just feels like it does everything wrong. There's little build up to anything and events just kind of happen. It doesn't do well connecting the chapters and events that occur, due to the lack of narration and the fact the story has to move at breakneck speed due to the limited number of story chapters. Somehow it feels even more disjointed than Awakening, despite that game trying to cram PoR+RD worth of story into less than half the chapters.

 

[Dark_castle]

Radiant Dawn is the best Fire Emblem for me.

 

[toastyToast]

I played Birthright first which was pretty dull but serviceable. When I got to Conquest I was thinking how would they tackle this other side which is clearly the evil one. So much for nuance it's pretty much the adventures of 'Garon-sends-Corrin-on-increasingly-perilous-missions-hoping-he/she-will-die-but-he/she-won't!'

Got bored around chapter 12. I should probably go back and finish it off.

 

[patapuf]

The Story in conquest is really bad, but after having played through birthright... at least i felt something for the characters. Birthrights story might be a bit better written but it's also very bland. I think story in general is entirely skippable in both paths.



Gameplaywise though, conquest is probably the best FE to date. And having to pay attention to skills and map gimmicks is the reason for that. It provides the necessary variety to a fairly simple rock paper scissor system and the UI helps a lot with indicating when an enemy wields something like a slayer weapon or has a counter skill.

Birthright is ok, but i didn't have to think about my strategy nearly as much. After conquest, it was fairly boring by the end.