Fire Emblem Fates

Fire Emblem Fates is a turn based strategy JRPG developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo. The latest in the long running Fire Emblem series. That seems to be finding more and more of an audience with each passing game. With the latest entry though, Intelligent Systems decided to try something completely different. Fire Emblem Fates is composed of three different version; Birthright, Conquest, and Revelations. I will be looking at three as a whole to the complete Fire Emblem Fates story.

+The Three Stories. The three stories that create Fire Emblem Fates are fantastic. Each one having you make a tough decision on who you are going to side with. Whether it be the family you grew up with your entire life, the family that shares your blood, or to go your own path and cast away both sides. It’s a true is Blood thicker than water story. The three paths do a great job showing the consequences of your decision. With the rejected family showing the pain you’ve brought by making your choice. You’ll feel the constant betrayal you’ve made with every chapter. Mainly because the game will constantly reinforce that you are in fact a traitor to the people who loved you.



+Cast. Probably the number one thing that Fire Emblem does is make a cast of characters. Each character’s stories and past can be brought forth by support conversations. Two characters will talk to one another in order to gain a strong bond (and stat boosts). They are able to flesh out these characters in a way that doesn’t effect the story in case they are subjected to the permadeath feature of the game. All the characters in Fire Emblem Fates seem to actually have a reason to fight by your side. My favorite character personally was Arthur who while completely one dimensional showed how much fun Intelligent Systems can have with a character.

+The turn-based combat is still challenging, while entertaining and satisfying. The game can truly present a challenge when it comes to its’ battle system. If you mess up a character’s positioning on the map that could be death for them. Meaning you have to think about each and every move you are going to make with each character. Due to the weapon triangle system an extremely strong character can still be taken down by a weaker enemy. There were main times where I had some of my strongest characters one shot thanks to a mage who managed to critical against them. With each death I would reset, since I wanted to keep my entire party. Meaning that many levels had to be down over and over again in order to succeed properly. This level of challenge was perfect in Revelations, but Conquest always seemed slight too hard at times and Birthright was sometimes a cakewalk.

-Avatar seems unneeded. I don’t think the idea of having a player created character for Fire Emblem is a bad thing I feel it didn’t work too well for Fates. The player character was too developed as a character to feel player created. Having just the option to change his hair color and his name made it seem more pointless. Biggest downside to it all was during the cutscenes. The Avatar’s face would be either completely blocked from your view or they would do a POV in order to avoid seeing your character all together. If there was pre-made character you used instead such as Ike or Roy it would have been a lot more solid character all together.



-Children Characters are completely shoehorned in. I can see the want and need of having an Avatar, but I cannot see it for child units. Completely unnecessary feature that was added into this game only because of the success of Awakening. The reason for them being able to fight is also the worst way they could have approached it. I believe that child units could be a really cool feature as I truly appreciated them in Awakening. Intelligent System just needs to approach them in the same way they did in Genealogy of the Holy War. Which is potentially the best way to do child units. In Fates it may not even had been as bad if a portion of them were original characters. At least three of them though were carbon copies of a character from Awakening. Which is potentially the more disappointing thing of them all.

I will give Intelligent Systems credit though. As their concept for Recollection of Bubbles is a really cool thing. Which I wish was a really fleshed out concept. Almost to the point of being a 4th version or a sequel. Time skips or alternate timelines are the way to go when working with child units. Approaching it like that would have been better than how they actually did it.

OPINION

Fire Emblem Fates is a fantastic strategy RPG that is a must buy for any 3DS owner. Challenges and story are what it brings to the table and it’s something it does well. Despite little nitpicks here and there the game itself will leave little disappointment when playing the game. With three different paths to go down there is a lot of content to be played. You’ll find yourself picking and choosing your favorite characters to play through the levels. Then be resetting the game every time they die in order to keep them. The game works your mind and strategy on every turn in order to succeed. Fire Emblem Fates delivers on every level with it’s gorgeous character design, score, and story. It’ll hook you from start to finish and making you wanting more when the game finally concludes.

-Medic