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[Lord of Ostia]

Conquest is the best of the three paths from a gameplay perspective, but the worst in terms of story. Unfortunately, the story sucks in all 3 paths, so I actually think Conquest is the best route. Consistently challenging, actual use of the skill system for enemies, brilliant map design, all combine for a huge improvement over FE: Awakening in terms of gameplay. That said, part of why I love Fire Emblem is for the stories and characters, and the latest entries have really failed in that regard, ESPECIALLY Fates. Most of them are just walking tropes with no nuance or depth, and many are lazy rehashes of Awakening's characters. There are a few standouts, like Benny and Azama, but most are just godawful (Camilla anyone?). I really hope Intelligent Systems goes back to the drawing board for the storyline next time, but I don't have high hopes.

 

[Riposte]

Next time they just need to do this for the story, don't even care if its extremely blatant:

Saying Birthright is better than Conquest is crazy talk.

 

[Golnei]

Camilla is a character I'm kind of conflicted on - I do actually like some interpretations of her; particularly when highlighting her backstory and how it colours her relationship with her siblings and Belka; as well as her fixation on childhood and innocence. But all of the yandere material given to her in Birthright, cow jokes, overpowering fanservice and the not-quite-incest dynamic obscure the core of what could be a good character. I think she'd be far stronger in a narrative where Corrin never existed.

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.

It doesn't have a name, no. The worldbuilding being basically nonexistent didn't help what was already a poorly-paced and plotted narrative - there's no sense of consistency or history, and for all the weight animosity between Nohr and Hoshido is given, you only get the barest speculative acknowledgement of how it began to build in the first place. It's astonishingly shaky; and that's before getting into all of the missteps of the plots themselves.

 

[GenG3000]

How is Birthright better than Conquest? Is the usual Fire Emblem self righteous campaign, but worse.

In Conquest, the plot is new for the series and tries new things. Corrin at least grows and changes and offers a mature perspective of war.

 

[patapuf]

How is Birthright better than Conquest? Is the usual Fire Emblem self righteous campaign, but worse.

In Conquest, the plot is new for the series and tries new things. Corrin at least grows and changes and offers a mature perspective of war.

Na, Corrin goes for the "i don't want to kill anyone" schtick during the Nohr campaign. FE as a whole has always taken the cartoon approach to war stories, and that's fine really. The problem with the Nohr story is that the protagonists act in really dumb ways and for a Narrative that could have used more devleoppment there's entirely too many chapters where nothing happens beyond:

Corrin kills no one ---> Nohr's goons kill people anyway --> hoshido siblings get angry.

THe internal conflicts are also not solved in satisfying ways and plot points are often just: Deus Ex Azura reveals another secret that she didn't tell about for the whole game.

 

[Lightningboalt]

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

I can understand that, it's really a matter of personal preference. 12 is absolutely a tier above the other two... I just generally find it unremarkable and not significantly better than the others. Don't get me wrong, it IS better in my mind, but it still has that godawful art style and feels pretty threadbare to me (just not as much as SD). It's not bad but I still think it's very much part of a low point in the series, three uninspired games in a row with a number of significant failings in my eyes.

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.

Awakening's so bad about this, telling three stories that have no time at all to breathe so they all just sort of happen one after the other without any of them feeling properly concluded. It probably would have been fine if they didn't decide they had to have the Valm arc for that weird bit of FE2 nostalgia. As it plays out, half of the game is basically a DLC campaign that concludes with a whimper and then is followed up with a rushed return to the original plotline's dangling threads. The generation mechanic also doesn't help matters, it just bloats everything significantly and basically doubles your already very large army, further diluting everything else in the game.

Fates, I think it could've been fine with its stories if they would've just given us some idea what the world is even like. But nah, they didn't care about that, instead they felt obligated to keep the second generation mechanic because it was a part of Awakening's success, bloating an already large project by requiring tons of retainers so that you can run around shipping your teammates, and a ton of kids who don't even make sense to the game. At least Awakening had a time travel thing, Fates just has a goddamn baby dimension. But yeah, I think the plots could've worked if they A) actually informed us of ANYTHING about the world and B) didn't have so many superfluous characters that had zero relevance to anything. Instead of focusing the narratives to all make sense and feel whole, they wrote a ton of empty characters. Hell, remove half the characters in the game and maybe the remaining characters actually get some manner of halfway decent characterization. Do we even need four siblings in each family?

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.

I wish we could've had at least that in Fates or Awakening. In general I think FE7 is fine with its narration because it gives you what you need and it was designed with a pre-existing world in mind - if the whole world got FE6, the narration would be simply refreshing us on things we already knew from 6. When it came to the relevant areas of FE7 (so... Lycia and Bern, really) I think it did a really good job with its world-building, a lot of time was spent with political leaders of the states you're in for a chapter and often those areas would be discussed before and after that chapter. If nothing else, you'd at least hear one story-relevant character mention a region before you go to it and you'd have some idea of what it or its people are like based on how it was talked about. I think it played its politics well and the political situation basically was the game's major world building.

Meanwhile, Fates shoves you in an area and says "yeah these people have magical wind powers for some reason, have fun" and all I can think is that I only just learned this place even exists and it was never hinted to me prior. Hell, thinking on it now, I don't even remember why there was a conflict between Nohr and Hoshido in the first place. I know there's the whole thing with kidnapping Corrin/Azura etc, but that wasn't even the start of their rivalry. It just seems to be the thing that sparks the current especially bitter part of their feud... and it seems to exist purely because "lol Garon is comically evil for the sake of being evil". It feels like they've got generations of hatred between each other but the only info we even have is kidnapped kids, and the hatred predates that.

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.

My favorite thing about these games actually, the Base conversations. Tons of additional world-building conversations to flesh out characters and the world. I'm so disappointed that wasn't brought back for Awakening or Fates, it could've helped them out so much and it was my favorite new thing added to FE in PoR. The main plots of Awakening and Fates would still need to do a fair bit more work than they actually did, but Base conversations would've made the scope of things so much more manageable by allowing us to digest what's going on while giving us reasons to care about the places we were going to.


It's like... FE isn't amazing writing or anything, but it can be very entertaining and full of a lot of engaging/likable characters. I love FE7, it's one of my favorite games of all time, and I really enjoy quite a bit about its plot and cast. Path of Radiance I feel similarly about. With Awakening and Fates we don't get any of that anymore and it just feels like there's very little to remember, which is bizarre considering the general outlines of the plots feel like they should be bursting at the seams with memorable moments.

 

[Dark_castle]

How is Birthright better than Conquest? Is the usual Fire Emblem self righteous campaign, but worse.

Fire Emblem once ago wasn't about 'self righteous campaign'. Like in the case of Radiant Dawn, you see the story developed from the perspective of multiple points of view, characters fighting for different reasons, your controlled characters suddenly becomes enemies, and in an another situation becomes allies again. It's a very intricate fusion of character development and game system that often deals with grey morality instead of black and white, not that the latter elements do not exist, but it wasn't handled in a clear cut way, at least not until the final chapter anyway.

 

[Cow Mengde]

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.

FE9 and 10 had the luxury of building their world with 2 games. It is technically STILL the only complete saga localized in the west. I guess Awakening and Fates sort of counts, but Awakening's world is just Shadow Dragon's world many years later and I don't know if I'd consider it self contained. Fates is to be determined. Sacred Stones is the only true stand alone so far, if the next game doesn't take place in Fates' world.

 

[Golnei]

My favorite thing about these games actually, the Base conversations. Tons of additional world-building conversations to flesh out characters and the world. I'm so disappointed that wasn't brought back for Awakening or Fates, it could've helped them out so much and it was my favorite new thing added to FE in PoR. The main plots of Awakening and Fates would still need to do a fair bit more work than they actually did, but Base conversations would've made the scope of things so much more manageable by allowing us to digest what's going on while giving us reasons to care about the places we were going to.

Given the state of what's already there, it's debatable if base conversations would have helped all that much; but they did add a lot to the games they were present in. With how Fates bent over backwards to justify the base building function, it is a bit of a shame that they didn't try and tie base conversations into the mechanic; even if they'd be written just as haphazardly as the rest of the game's script.

FE9 and 10 had the luxury of building their world with 2 games. It is technically STILL the only complete saga localized in the west. I guess Awakening and Fates sort of counts, but Awakening's world is just Shadow Dragon's world many years later and I don't know if I'd consider it self contained. Fates is to be determined. Sacred Stones is the only true stand alone so far, if the next game doesn't take place in Fates' world.

Even then, it's hard to count Fates as totally standalone when you take the Awakening character cameos into consideration, despite the connections mostly being expanded on in the DLC.

 

[SolVanderlyn]

FE9 and 10 had the luxury of building their world with 2 games. It is technically STILL the only complete saga localized in the west. I guess Awakening and Fates sort of counts, but Awakening's world is just Shadow Dragon's world many years later and I don't know if I'd consider it self contained. Fates is to be determined. Sacred Stones is the only true stand alone so far, if the next game doesn't take place in Fates' world.

FE7 is more like a stand-alone prequel compared to the "saga" games like Jugdral or Tellius, which tell a very definitive overarching story. We see more of other nations that FE6 glossed over (League of Lycia, Sacae) and spend less time in nations FE6 focuses on (Bern) but they both feel relatively self contained outside of small references here or there.

 

[Nightbird]

I did not read the OP or any replies due to the disclaimer of open spoilers, but let me say this:

I got into the Series with Awakening, which ended the years of me repeatedly trying to get into fire Emblem, hearing that Fates was more like Awakening made me so excited that I spent days trying to prevent order the special edition.

when I finally got into the game and started with Birthright.... it was awful. didn't liked it AT ALL. Flash forward three months later, I'm still trying to get trough Conquest, and honestly, I can't. I simply can't.
My Problem lies with the story and the character. it all feels so dry and not important. The game tries to make you feel invested in the characters, but fails miserably, and thus couldn't make me care less about their issues or whatsoever.

I feel like most of the writing went into the support conversations, and tbh, it's an insignificant feature for me. It's neat to know more about the characters, but that doesn't really change that everyone feels like wet blanket in the actual story.

Maybe I had my expectations too high, but it doesn't change that Fates was a disappointment to me and is precisely the reason why, after three months, I'm only halfway trough the second of three stories.

 

[crabhammer]

 

[Cow Mengde]

FE7 is more like a stand-alone prequel compared to the "saga" games like Jugdral or Tellius, which tell a very definitive overarching story. We see more of other nations that FE6 glossed over (League of Lycia, Sacae) and spend less time in nations FE6 focuses on (Bern) but they both feel relatively self contained outside of small references here or there.

I don't know, I feel like FE7 was a good continuation because I played FE6 first, and got to know the cast of characters and what happened. Especially the stuff on Zephiel's childhood, or how Hector knows about the Divine Weapons, the beginning turmoil in Bern. Sacae and Illia were negalected in FE7, but is still connects very strongly to the events in FE6. Hell, it adds so much weight to

Spoiler

Hector's death knowing what happened years earlier.

The same could be said of FE4 and 5. FE4 felt self contained, but they were somehow able to eek out another story to flesh out the Thracian peninsular.

FE9 felt very deliberate in how the story was set up to be continued. There were some unanswered questions even at the end of the game.

 

[E-flux]

I couldn't finish Conquest, loved the awakening though. The whole way they did the different versions felt like a money grab to me, i would have changed sides at the beginning when the "option" came but instead of just skipping that text box because you had only one of the versions it boots you to the nintendo store and asks more money.
So many story beats were just unbearable and their justification for having those kids age again was just so half baked, if not quarter baked.

 

[Dee Dee]

I must be the odd one out, since I enjoyed having 3 games of this - put 160 hours into all games, and still playing it, trying to finish Revelations.
I won't be mad if they give us 3 more games like this for the next entry. But maybe they will have the mobile game to milk instead by then.

The story is indefensible nonsense, although I have to say that Birthright seemed somewhat serviceable at least, while I personally found Conquest actually kinda funny - to a point where I just threw my hands up in the air at the end of each chapter, manically cackling.
Revelations is a hot mess with no redeeming qualities so far, except for the fact that they actually try to close the plot holes in that one - unfortunately, they close the plot holes with poo.

I'd take no offense with the bad story, if the support conversations were decent, but alas, they are pure trash. Worst part of the game for me, as I loved those in Awakening.
There are definitely stand outs, Odin, Hana, Saizo, Oboro and lots of Azama or Jakob conversations are great (for different reasons), but the S-Rank always felt horribly tacked on on any A-Rank.
And the amount of people in this army that solely bond over food or Corrin is TOO DAMN HIGH.

Also time pockets, but I enjoy the kid mechanic too much to be angry about that.

That's it. That's my criticism. You won't hear anything bad from me on this game, as I enjoyed playing it immensely.
All hail Ryoma, our crit lord and advantage saviour.

If you don't enjoy Conquest on normal - Birthright is very different. Nearly all map objectives are "rout the enemy" - which is a decent challenge on hard, but gets stale quickly. Even with map gimmicks thrown in.
I am currently playing Revelations on hard, and will echo that this is the best of both worlds - you can ignore your optional grind challenges if you prefer.
Also, you get Ryoma AND Xander. Fun game!

 

[Draxal]

I really didn't like Rev's plot.

Rev and conquest were definitely top down designed (Gameplay >>>> over cohesive story), and they tried to salvage it a bit with dlc (the kid maps this time were really fun)

I thought PoR was an incredibly slow game (engine sucked) and thus with my other misgivings about it (really didn't like the furries); I didn't get far in that game. However, I think that slowness lets the world build.

Basically, Awakening and Fates really suffered from a lack of narrator forcing the cast to become exposition bots which makes them look really stupid at times (.ie forcing the cast to explain to a naive Corrin what they're doing now).

I just don't think the Fates crew clicked with me nearly as much as the Awakening crew.

But still not as much as I like the Seisen crew.

 

[neoemonk]

I'm enjoying Conquest quite a bit. The story is passable for me, and I've enjoyed some of the supports. The S ranks do feel tacked on somewhat, but I enjoy the actual game enough to look past it's minor shortcomings. This is my GOTY so far easily, and I will definitely be playing through Birthright and Revelations.

My only regret is that I wussed out on difficulty. I played Awakening on hard but read that Conquest was more difficult so I started on normal. I just finished chapter 16 and wish I could kick it back up to hard.

 

[PsionBolt]

[Groans of increasing discomfort]


...Real talk though, Conquest is the best FE game of the 21st century. Yes, the story is dumb, Corrin is dumb, and the royals are all dumb, but who cares? The game is an absolute blast to play. Anyone complaining about the complexity should have bought Birthright and/or played on Casual mode.

I'm sincerely grateful to Birthright for existing, because without the multi-game split, there would be no way we would have gotten such excellent design in Conquest. Because they were able to sell Awakening 2.0 alongside it and maximize mainstream appeal that way, IS was able to justify also making a real strategy game at very little additional cost. It was a brilliant move.

 

[Dizelmine]

I feel like Revelations is a step down in the gameplay department and storywise I didn't feel like it was much better than Conquest.

The biggest issue I had with Revelation came down in the gameplay actually and will most likely end up with me sounding like some elitist. Awful unit imbalance that I genuinely believe only exists to try and force the player into using a full royal team by the end of the end of the game yet throwing all these other units at you, some of them pointlessly worse then their other route counterparts sometimes showing up too weak for the chapter they show up in

Gimmick maps that are an attempt to be different and fresh compared to the other routes but in many cases are just an attempt at extending run time. And the thing that's going to make me sound like a major elitist/difficulty whore, Lunatic Revelations was easier than Conquest Hard that I started soloing maps with Corrin from around Chapter 16 but I felt I was already doing that with the amount of exp that gets dumped on them from the onset that they far outstrip your other units even more so than usual.

 

[Draxal]

I feel like Revelations is a step down in the gameplay department and storywise I didn't feel like it was much better than Conquest.

The biggest issue I had with Revelation came down in the gameplay actually and will most likely end up with me sounding like some elitist. Awful unit imbalance that I genuinely believe only exists to try and force the player into using a full royal team by the end of the end of the game yet throwing all these other units at you, some of them pointlessly worse then their other route counterparts sometimes showing up too weak for the chapter they show up in

Gimmick maps that are an attempt to be different and fresh compared to the other routes but in many cases are just an attempt at extending run time. And the thing that's going to make me sound like a major elitist/difficulty whore, Lunatic Revelations was easier than Conquest Hard that I started soloing maps with Corrin from around Chapter 16 but I felt I was already doing that with the amount of exp that gets dumped on them from the onset that they far outstrip your other units even more so than usual.

Revelation's campaign was rushed and should have had more time in the oven (honestly Awakening suffered from this as well).

Freaking deadlines and all.

 

[GenG3000]

Na, Corrin goes for the "i don't want to kill anyone" schtick during the Nohr campaign. FE as a whole has always taken the cartoon approach to war stories, and that's fine really. [...]

Corrin kills no one ---> Nohr's goons kill people anyway --> hoshido siblings get angry.

That doesn't reflect my experience with the game at all.

In Conquest, Corrin goes from killing no one (chapter 7 to 16), to kill no one but to lie to his superiors (chapter 16 to 20) to accepting loses in war in order to achieve a better future (21 onwards). Corrin gets incresingly draggered into uncomfortable situations and cornered into making difficult decisions, which gives this game a very bitter and poignant vibe, accentuated by Corrin's idealism getting shattered little by little.

In all Fire Emblem games, the main character has the ultimate truth and virtue backing up his campaign. This is not the case with Conquest. You end up fighting for the "wrong" side until the very end hoping that the sacrifices will eventually pay up.

Fire Emblem once ago wasn't about 'self righteous campaign'. Like in the case of Radiant Dawn, you see the story developed from the perspective of multiple points of view, characters fighting for different reasons, your controlled characters suddenly becomes enemies, and in an another situation becomes allies again. It's a very intricate fusion of character development and game system that often deals with grey morality instead of black and white, not that the latter elements do not exist, but it wasn't handled in a clear cut way, at least not until the final chapter anyway.

No Fire Emblem does what Conquest does, not even in Jugdral or in Radiant Dawn. I'm not talking about how the characters develop, but how war is seen and talked about.

In Radiant Dawn, Begnion and Daein's commanders fight each other without killing no one, and after that, all sides band around Ike to fight against one common enemy. It is clear who are the bad guys and good guys from the beginning, and no sacrifices are made. How is that realistic? Wars do not develop like that. You don't change sides and views that easily, and yes, I acknowledge that's the point of Fire Emblem's recruitment system. I was in the dark regarding the plot and development of Fates and was expecing some recruitments from the opposite side when playing Conquest, which made the final stretch quite mindfucky.

Revelations does that, but that's because it is the safe route intended to satisfy the fanservice of using characters from both countries.

 

[patapuf]

That doesn't reflect my experience with the game at all.

In Conquest, Corrin goes from killing no one (chapter 7 to 16), to kill no one but to lie to his superiors (chapter 16 to 20) to accepting loses in war in order to achieve a better future (21 onwards). Corrin gets incresingly draggered into uncomfortable situations and cornered into making difficult decisions, which gives this game a very bitter and poignant vibe, accentuated by Corrin's idealism getting shattered little by little.

In all Fire Emblem games, the main character has the ultimate truth and virtue backing up his campaign. This is not the case with Conquest. You end up fighting for the "wrong" side until the very end hoping that the sacrifices will eventually pay up.

I agree that they tried, but i don't think they suceeded at what they were trying to do.

For example: corrin never actually takes a life herself. There's always a convenient excuse why someone else spares her the burden of killing. She never even gives the command to kill. It just happens anyway.

 

[theprodigy]

I can understand that, it's really a matter of personal preference. 12 is absolutely a tier above the other two... I just generally find it unremarkable and not significantly better than the others. Don't get me wrong, it IS better in my mind, but it still has that godawful art style and feels pretty threadbare to me (just not as much as SD). It's not bad but I still think it's very much part of a low point in the series, three uninspired games in a row with a number of significant failings in my eyes.

FE12 is the best game in the series gameplay wise.

 

[Linkark07]

Corrin kills no one ---> Nohr's goons kill people anyway --> hoshido siblings get angry.

About that, doesn't Corrin and co kill some people? I understood Corrin killed the kitsune and also Takumi retainers, judging by the latter defeated quotes.

 

[patapuf]

About that, doesn't Corrin and co kill some people? I understood Corrin killed the kitsune and also Takumi retainers, judging by the latter defeated quotes.

I don't remember the kitsune clearly, but i think your right, that they killed them. But i'm pretty sure that she never killed /ordered any humans killed.

What's funny is that there seem to be no qualms in regards to killing when playing hoshido.

 

[WrenchNinja]

Probably because no one is pretending this isn't a war in birthright

 

[rotpb517]

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

Spot on ranking

 

[Nocturnowl]

Well I could've waited to borrow birthright off a friend of mine but I've opted to go in on Revelations, the branch of fate defaulted me onto hard difficulty and I'm wondering if I should drop it to normal based on my normal conquest struggles.

 

[GenG3000]

I don't remember the kitsune clearly, but i think your right, that they killed them. But i'm pretty sure that she never killed /ordered any humans killed.

What's funny is that there seem to be no qualms in regards to killing when playing hoshido.

You kill the kitsunes, you can also execute Shura and many of the lower Hoshido commanders sound like they die from their quotes. And I think Corrin tells Azura in one of her supports about having nightmares and being hunted by those he killed.

Iago and Hans sure die by his hands.

 

[Gsnap]

I'm trying to get through it right now. It's definitely true that the story isn't good. But the gameplay is also... not exactly where I'd want it to be. It's better than Awakening for sure, but I still feel like it's still lacking in comparison to other similar games. Mainly in the way the AI works. They only have so many options that it's very easy to tell exactly what the enemy is going to do, but they're still so strong and so prone to doubling and tripling up on one unit that it just feels like the best option is almost always the same. Send your strongest units out to tank the inevitable damage and then pick them off with whoever you want to level up. I like all the added gimmicks, but I don't really like how they're implemented. I especially don't like the fact that special damage dealing environmental objects leave enemies with 1 hp remaining.

I don't know... something about the way this series works just rubs me the wrong way compared to something like xcom or divinity: os. Not enough options, I guess.

 

[PK Gaming]

Conquest's narrative is super laughable. Easily the worst narrative in FE history, and that's saying something. The sad part is that it could have been one of the better ones with a few tweaks, but Conquest is so scared of taking risks, so deathly afraid of making its protagonist due morally questionable things, the plot bends over backwards in order to make Corrin out to be some uber charismatic hero. It's a good thing the gameplay is arguably the best in the series, or else it'd be a bad game. Conquest on the higher difficulties is especially fun. I recommend trying to slowly work your way up OP. Get a feel for the systems, optimize pairings (not for kids) and incorporate tonics and forging into your gameplay. The higher difficulties seem incredibly daunting, but they're absolutely beatable without being some God tactician.

Well I could've waited to borrow birthright off a friend of mine but I've opted to go in on Revelations, the branch of fate defaulted me onto hard difficulty and I'm wondering if I should drop it to normal based on my normal conquest struggles.

You'll be fine. Just lean on Corrin and their servant for opening half, wait until you get some strong units/royals then blaze on ahead.

 

[Linkark07]

I recommend trying to slowly work your way up OP. Get a feel for the systems, optimize pairings (not for kids) and incorporate tonics and forging into your gameplay. The higher difficulties seem incredibly daunting, but they're absolutely beatable without being some God tactician.

Which are the most optimal units in Conquest, besides Xander paired with Charlotte of course? In my lunatic run it was basically Paladin Xander, General Effie, Witch Elise Ophelia, Wolfssenger Camilla Velouria and Malig Knight Corrin who carried the game. Witch Azura, Paladin Jakob and Dread Fighter Mozu were also useful in the beginning but on the later stages they fell apart (although Mozu saved the day again on Chapter 26).

On another note, I recommend use Niles and his capture ability, especially on paralogue bosses. That basically saved my Elise in Chapter 10 since instead of deploying her I captured a Shrine Maiden and used her. RIP my poor Shrine Maiden

 

[Nocturnowl]

I forgot to mention regarding my conquest run, Keaton man, I was not expecting him to be such a killing machine, he even self heals!

Conquest's narrative is super laughably. Easily the worst narrative in FE history, and that's saying something. The sad part is that it could have been one of the better ones with a few tweaks, but Conquest is so scared of taking risks, so deathly afraid of making its protagonist due morally questionable things, the plot bends over backwards in order to make Corrin out to be some uber charismatic hero. It's a good thing the gameplay is arguably the best in the series, or else it'd be a bad game. Conquest on the higher difficulties is especially fun. I recommend trying to slowly work your way up OP. Get a feel for the systems, optimize pairings (not for kids) and incorporate tonics and forging into your gameplay. The higher difficulties seem incredibly daunting, but they're absolutely beatable without being some God tactician.

Last time I recall a FE lead doing something morally questionable was when Micaiah dumped oil over those pegasus knights in Radiant Dawn, I actually thought that was a neat moment that showed that she'd stoop to such low levels because desperation but I'm pretty sure it just made most players dislike her even more.

You'll be fine. Just lean on Corrin and their servant for opening half, wait until you get some strong units/royals then blaze on ahead.

So far it's been the adventures of Glorious afro Fem Corrin and Jakob, I kinda enjoyed their little duo missions (because of course Gunter died immediately from a single horseback unit many levels below him with the odds in his favour, worst Jeigan ever?) except now the game has finally given me a bunch of hoshido units for the wind tribe map and lordy lord are they piss weak.
They gave me a samurai lass who from the get go can't even hurt the first axe wielder they encounter....why?
Royalty can't come soon enough.

 

[Hero]

Fuck Micaiah. She was such a terrible character, but Corrin might be a worse protagonist.

 

[PK Gaming]

Which are the most optimal units in Conquest, besides Xander paired with Charlotte of course? In my lunatic run it was basically Paladin Xander, General Effie, Witch Elise Ophelia, Wolfssenger Camilla Velouria and Malig Knight Corrin who carried the game. Witch Azura, Paladin Jakob and Dread Fighter Mozu were also useful in the beginning but on the later stages they fell apart (although Mozu saved the day again on Chapter 26).

On another note, I recommend use Niles and his capture ability, especially on paralogue bosses. That basically saved my Elise in Chapter 10 since instead of deploying her I captured a Shrine Maiden and used her. RIP my poor Shrine Maiden

There are tons. Aside from the obvious like Camilla and Xander, Leo is ridiculously good (he's essentially a magical xander, swapping overkill defense for res), Niles (for lockpicking utility and insane movement), Gunter (he's arguably Corrin's best pairup), Percy, Effie (Great Knight!), Silas, Azura, Keaton... It really comes down to how you work out your pairings.

I forgot to mention regarding my conquest run, Keaton man, I was not expecting him to be such a killing machine, he even self heals!


Last time I recall a FE lead doing something morally questionable was when Micaiah dumped oil over those pegasus knights in Radiant Dawn, I actually thought that was a neat moment that showed that she'd stoop to such low levels because desperation but I'm pretty sure it just made most players dislike her even more.



So far it's been the adventures of Glorious afro Fem Corrin and Jakob, I kinda enjoyed their little duo missions (because of course Gunter died immediately from a single horseback unit many levels below him with the odds in his favour, worst Jeigan ever?) except now the game has finally given me a bunch of hoshido units for the wind tribe map and lordy lord are they piss weak.
They gave me a samurai lass who from the get go can't even hurt the first axe wielder they encounter....why?
Royalty can't come soon enough.

Yep, Rev's early game is super rough. My advice would be the grind on some scouting missions for the units that just joined.

And yeah, Micaiah is hella underrated.

 

[Dr. Buni]

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

Story and characters are garbage. Not only in Fates, but in Awakening too. Shame. :c

Yes, the story is dumb, Corrin is dumb, and the royals are all dumb, but who cares?

It is an RPG, I guess most people who bought the game care (or should).

 

[Brakke]

The story on both paths was atrocious.

It's probably time they dropped the children-making thing, too. The shoehorning they did to make it happen here actually hurt me. It does bad things to the pace of the game, too.

 

[Nocturnowl]

I'm kinda enjoying the early chapters of revelations.
I'm getting some Dawn Brigade vibes here where you have a 2 or 3 main that can deal the damage but can't safely solo maps while the backup units are chipping away leading to careful play. So far the difficulty has seemed just right.
While I was initially underwhelmed to see the reused wind tribe map having no new twists I actually got to use strategy this time to move and displace units so it was a lot more fun even if it took like 40 turns.
The ice map I just did was interesting in that you could dictate the pace of it.

Post ice chapter spoiler:

Spoiler

Izana just had the best death scene, he plays his own demise for laughs

 

[Kwame120]

I actually like the plot of the games. I kinda take it for what it is, instead of expecting the morality questioning of Thomas Covenant I play it a bit like how I watch a Shonen anime. Like how in Pokemon Team Rocket could use the device they made an episode ago to great effect because "Pokémon of the week" isn't there to stop them but instead they don't, and I enjoy the episode for the dilemma and action it brings today. Likewise, I'm then pleasantly surprised by good character development for the main characters who aren't Ash. (Jessie got one the other day!) Now back to Fire Emblem, the plot is nowhere near as good as FF6 for example but with my Shonen hat on its super enjoyable, Iago makes a delicious villain (you don't get a more affably evil villain than Iago) and once you accept the characters for how they are, the interactions improve too. It's a bit like watching a blockbuster, you accept that it's not realistic but enjoy it for what it is. It's my own personal way of enjoying things, by not expecting them to be something else. (It helps that you control the characters on the map, so you don't get the usual MC does everything which is why I ironically despise a ton of Shonen.)

Side note, not begrudging anyone for not enjoying the plot. There's genuine issues as people have mentioned, I can just often enjoy the plot of games despite these issues. (Though nothing can save some of the most terrible supports. Looking at you Azura and Niles.)

On the matter of gameplay...Conquest is amazing. Quite simply. Others have probably mentioned why in detail before me, but I just enjoy the map complexity, rebalanced mechanics and overall difficulty. It's never unfair - except anything involving reinforcements that don't give exp that's seriously tear worthy - and I quite enjoy the challenge. Always play classic, hard classic for all three paths, artificially increasing difficulty by not letting anyone die. Not Lunatic, for eponymous reasons.

 

[chaosblade]

The story on both paths was atrocious.

It's probably time they dropped the children-making thing, too. The shoehorning they did to make it happen here actually hurt me. It does bad things to the pace of the game, too.

If they bring it back again they really should just do a time skip instead of writing in some bullshit excuse and locking a good chunk of the chapters behind it.

 

[Beth Cyra]

I didn't play Conquest as I got Birthright.

I enjoyed it, not the deepest characters but I still enjoyed the clan for the most part.

The lesbian relationship was so batshit insane it was worth the 40 to me alone.

 

[Nocturnowl]

LttP part 2: Revelation *unmarked spoilers continue*

Last night I finished up the Revelation path and once again I found the experience enjoyable yet flawed.

So once again let's start with the plot side of things which by the nature of its path is something more interesting than what came prior as it aims to wrap up those loose ends and mysteries left unsolved in the previous 2 campaigns. Now it's nothing particularly interesting but it works. The only real issue I have is the ridiculous concept of the curse of anankos where you can't speak of him outside of Valla because inexplicable death, an oh so convenient concept that serves as a device to ensure Corrin can't just tell folks they're being played like a damn fiddle thus prolonging the time until the inevitable Nohr and Hoshido team up.
So how do the royals get convinced of Corrin's incredibly vague hinting? well apparently in this path of the plot King Garon decided he's just gonna chill in his throne room ranting and raving to himself about how EVIL he is just so Xander and Leo can overhear and finally figure "hmm, maybe, just maybe something is up here". Another unintentionally hilarious plot point in the fates saga.

Then not much more happens, you go to Valla, fight some dead folks used as puppets through dark magic in an angle that could've lead to more interesting approaches than it actually did.
The Gunter swerve being a particularly notable one that amounts to nothing immediately after the chapter it happens in. Lastly you beat up another evil dragon and everyone is happy, safe to say that taking three different paths to tell this basic a story was something of a misfire but oh well.


Onto the gameplay once more and particularly the style of map Revelation goes for.
What I dug here was the difficulty feeling like just right for me on Hard difficulty, the maps once again taking the gimmick approach and boy have I seen some negative reactions to some of these.
Oddly the ones that appeared to get the most vitriol like...
- Zola's Ice Maze (guess this was a pain if you really felt you had to find everything)
- The pseudo stealth map (though I totally opened the wrong door at the end first time, the game throws so many reasons to trust or not trust here that it basically ended up back at 50/50)
- The frozen sea
I did not mind at all, I don't know what that says about me here, I did however find that the maps took something of a decline in Valla for the most part.
The earliest maps of Revelation with such few units under your belt were like mini puzzles more than anything and I didn't mind those, towards the end though you get a number of maps that become laborious to move your entire army around be it because moving platforms, dragon vein malarkey and such.

Speaking of Dragon Veins, it's pretty clear the game wants you to royal it up here because so many of the other units arrive underleveled, in immediately deadly situations and just can't compare with their peasant stats. I somehow managed to get Oboro and Subaki to put in enough work to be endgame worthy but even then they were clearly the weak links.
That said Oboro and Hinata were the ultimate married duo, blocks and dodges for DAYS.
I feel sorry for anyone trying to go for a mass recruitment/everyone lives run here, Chapter 17 for instance you can't save beforehand and after early turns of advancing my units down south of the map you get a bunch of Nohr reinforcements pop up on the top right of the map, except only Leo and Xander can actually hold their own, the rest will perish unless you just so happened to be going in that direction with your main force in the first place.
So yeah, you get plenty of units yet most of them aren't worth a damn.

I did find the castle building elements to work a LOT better in a mode that lacks the various restrictions as conquest, the fact you can build and theme around both Nohr and Hoshido castle pieces was neat. I think this confirms my own theory that despite personally preferring the "no grind, linear progression" style of FE, Fates still works best designed around its greater freedom.

Late game chapters had enemies that hit pretty damn hard, feels like the whole debuffs for stronger/silver weapons isn't exactly a problem for expendable enemy units making chapters 25 to the end kinda evade reliant since even my royal units at maxed out levels could be wrecked thus leading to more turtling than I'd have liked (except for Ch 26 where due to Corrin's chapter exclusive area of evade buff I used a Roman Tortoise formation to push forward, yay for classic war tactics!).
Endgame was decent as far as the screen filling dragon variety of FE bosses go.

In the end I'm really not sure what I preferred out of Conquest and Revelation, Revelation felt like the porridge that was juuuust right after Conquest proved too hot (and I'll just assume Birthright was the cold porridge) but it clearly has issues in its designs, ones more noticeable than Conquest.
That said I'm leaning towards Revelation by a hair, while I'd like to tackle Birthright in the future I wont be doing so for a while, I think I've had my fill of fates for the time being.

 

[WrenchNinja]

Revelations would have been a little more interesting story wise if when starting it you'd get visions of what happened in Birthright and Conquest and Corrin was actively trying to prevent events from happening instead of proceeding with dumb luck

 

[Nocturnowl]

I just remembered how Gunter immediately put his foot in the shit when revealing his reasoning behind traitor Corrin, another FE Fates writing classic there.

 

[ShadowSoldier89]

Revelations was my favorite for sure, and I agree I had fun with a lot of the maps people hated. I also enjoyed mixing up the relationships by crossing the nations characters. I was pairing up everyone trying to make the best kids. I also didn't use most of the royals as they werent fun to me. Only used Elise and for a bit Camilla, but I messed up her friendships while trying to make as many berserkers as I could, so I ditched her. Oh, I did probably use Sakura.

The story, while still bad, at least didn't have that "this is fucking stupid" effect that conquest had.

 

[Linkark07]

While Revelations plot was better than Conquest, it was stupid. My major gripe is why Xander and Ryouma can't let Corrin decide which side she wants to be. And since she decides to be neutral, they brand her as traitor and enemy to their kingdoms. Only Sakura and Elise were the most level headed royals. Like OP mentioned, it was also annoying how Leo and Xander decided to join Corrin when they saw how EVIL was their father. Gunther betrayal was also stupid, same Scarlet death. In fact, it was really poor how they handled that (and Scarlet in general, she should have had support with Ryouma).

Gameplay wise, it is better than Birthright but Conquest is still the best route for me. I admit that the Ice Maze map is annoying if you want everything or you are restarting, especially since one of the mages have a Mjolnirr. Other bad or average maps are the Frozen Sea and most of Valla. And lastly, most of the characters are useless when they join your army, especially Xander, Leo and Elise retainers. It still baffles me how in that chapter Silas is level 18 while Effie and Arthur are 8 and 9, if my memory serves me well. And next mission, Nyx is level 9 while Shura is like level 4 promoted. Absurd.

But after that, the route is quite enjoyable and a blast to play if you ignore those things. It doesn't matter too much unless you absolutely want to use other characters beside the royals. It is also great to see supports between Hoshido and Nohr characters.

 

[TannerDemoz]

I've never played Fire Emblem games for the story. For me it's solely about gameplay, and Conquest is up there at the top.

It's also frustratingly difficult.

 

[CazTGG]

Radiant Dawn is the worst Fire Emblem for me.

Fixed.

Anyway, Conquest's gameplay is a complete contrast to its story, being as carefully crafted and refined right down to every enemy's placement and the skills they possess i.e. the skill that prevents grinding during the escape mission. The story is absolutely frustrating because there are kernels of good ideas just waiting to pop out (the criticism of the series recruitment tendencies, etc.) but the game never takes advantage of them, falling back on repetitive writing with Corrin's failed martyrdom and ridiculous plot devices like the crystal. While it is the best of Fates, it's only due to the strength of the gameplay when the overall game had the potential to be the best Fire Emblem game if they had a better script.

Short version: Conquest > Birthright >>>> Revelation

 

[Noobcraft]

I am SO sorry...

 

[Lunarwhale]

I still haven't finished Conquest because I feel so burned by the story. The maps are excellent - playing it on hard mode especially led to a lot of fun, tense situations. Then there were the holdovers from Awakening that I wasn't fond of (emphasis on pair up, etc), but could deal with.

The story though, hot damn it is garbage. There's a really obvious, safe way they could have handled Nohr's story and I can't tell if they didn't go for it because they were trying to be "creative" or because they were too lazy to execute it decently, but "Saturday morning cartoon bullshit with your evil dad and his blundering sidekick Iago" was absolutely not the right way to go. Those earlier chapters ending with Iago popping out of the shadows to basically yell FOILED AGAIN? Good lord IntSys.

Plus I'm still a bit salty about the lack of more than 1 (one) same sex relationship per-game and how badly phoned in the child mechanic was in terms of writing.

Excellent maps though. Had a better time with it than I did Awakening and I would like to go finish it sometime. Don't plan on touching Birthright or Revelations though - what I played of Birthright was very boring and I've heard some pretty bad things about Revelations.