For some reason I thought we’d already done a Fire Emblem: Awakening, but after searching I couldn’t find one!
Time to rectify that situation.
After finally finishing the sublime Luigi’s Mansion 2, I’ve been looking for another game to play on my 3DS XL, mainly because I’m not ready to stop playing it. It’s crazy, I’ve gone from actively loving the 3DS (when it was first released) to completely abandoning it. Now I’m right back where I started. Almost all of my gaming in the last few weeks has been on the 3DS on public transport.
For the longest time I thought there was no longer a place in my life for a dedicated handheld console. I carry an iPhone and an Android Tablet. I thought there was no space. But what I’ve actually discovered is that these things tend to go in cycles. I’ll listen to music for a couple of weeks, then I’ll maybe move on to reading manga on my tablet for a month. Eventually I’ll find myself really wanting to play a quality game on a dedicated device.
At the moment I’m truly in the midst of a gaming phase, and I need something to play. I’ve had Fire Emblem: Awakening in cellophane since its release, but I think it might be time to bust it out.
Am I right? Let me know in the comments below.
Comments
25 responses to “Community Review — Fire Emblem: Awakening”
Mark, you’re having a kid right?
Well in this game, you can make kids!
What more could you want???
I love this game so much, graphics are great, music is great, gameplay is awesome.
Unfortunately I’m only up to chapter 12, because of University work.
It’s a game definitely worthy of some playtime.
Spent 40 hours on my first playthrough.
Have so far spent 20 hours on my second playthrough.
Summary: Game of the year. Play it.
I went the budget avenue and started playing Disgaea 3 I got free from PS+
I will have this game…..one day.
I’ll put it this way: I’d never sunk 80 hours into a game in two weeks without noticing until I got Fire Emblem Awakening.
It’s such a simple system but once you really get down to grinding, it’s a perfect balance of time consuming and rewarding. Not to mention the fact that there is rarely a part of the game that isn’t wrapped in character development. It’s really great.
“once you really get down to grinding”
I like Fire Emblem games, but grinding? Pass.
I dislike it compared to previous entries. It is by no means “bad” but the fact that any character can be almost any class and everyone has the potential for infinite stats and there is limitless money exp so you can max every single character and give them no weaknesses.
To me it crippled what the whole experience is and what the game was about, sure people can say “but you dont have to grind or you dont have to spend your gold or you can gimp yourself on purpose”, its not really the point. The game is supposed to be played with access to lots of gold as much exp as you want and the games level design and everything else mirrors this stance, that and i hate skills some of them were so ludicrously broken.
Anyway its not bad and what not just the worst i’ve probably played.
*minor spoiler*
Your kids all have stupid growths and skills too (passed down from parents), so basically you spend 2/3 of the game leveling normal characters then are given new ones with similar stats but at a significantly lower level (which means better everything pretty much) with far better growths, so you are forced to level them a bit or find your old characters almost immediately worthless in the coming chapters.
*edit*I realised what annoyed me so much, in previous entries you could beef up your characters but it was always at a risk (with the arena) if you mess up your character dies and you lose gold. Bail on too many matches in a row and find yourself broke. It wasn’t faceroll grinding like this version where you can summon infinite monsters and whichever level you wish(by which region you summon on).
I assume you haven’t played the game on Lunatic+ yet?
I was too attached to the parent characters (who were already significantly stronger on my game than their children) to bother with the children.
I ended up beating the game (far too easily) with the parents either way. Although, it sort of removed the challenge as a result. I wish i’d played it on a harder difficulty.
I love Fire Emblem Awakening, each character is charming in their special way sometimes bordering on the cliché.
Also as far as grid based strategy games go it has everything you want.
OK, word of advice for anyone who is close to completing the game on easy mode without perma-death because I made a very painful mistake.
When you beat the game, and you will with probably only minor difficulties, do not under any circumstances believe that doing so qualifies you to then tackle the game on the hardest difficulty “with” perma-death. I got maybe to the third mission (where you first run into that person and the things) and after a few tries, restarted on the same difficulty but without perma-death. I can handle the headache of planning every single step but having that bit of padding on the off chance someone does die, it is a good thing.
My thoughts on the game
You should play it if you haven’t
also
(Yarrr, there be spoilers ahead regarding game mechanics)
I loved all the little things about the game. The effort that has gone into fleshing out the social circles, the barracks, the store sales, the visceral feel of the combat animations. The fact that when you close your DS and go to work the time keeps moving on and when you get back home, any number of things may have happened which you can catch up on.
The one part that I think was overly restricted when compared to the effort that went into all the other similar aspects is the children portion. As near as I can tell, the child doesn’t change. You can marry off Maribelle to whoever you want but she will always wind up having a slightly emo wyvern rider for a son. It just seems to me that with the effort that they put into having unique relationships for all the character interactions that they could have had unique children based on the characterisations of both their parents, rather than just the one.
So far i’ve put about 6 hours in to this since i picked it up a couple of weeks ago. It’s not something i would usually play but i am absolutely in love with this game!
It’s really easy to understand the basics of the game, but it’s got some major complexity.
Oh and it looks beautiful.
Must get for 3DS!
JUST PLAY IT YOU JERK
I’ve actually put FE:A on hold for a while because it got a bit repetitive and tedious. (I’m at mission 16 or thereabouts) The combat part of the game is good, but everything outside of that seems to be just there to fulfill a story requirement and doesn’t really add anything, especially the Barracks option which would be better served as just a log of events that happened while you were away. The Support conversations are alright for a bit of insight into characters but it always feels like an extra chore to do before moving on. I guess I was expecting something that was like the Suikoden series with just the castle and army battles with maybe a little of Final Fantasy Tactics’ recruitment and permadeath style.
This game http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0ll5yizGLo
Yes.
That’s the whole review. Detail? Sigh, fine. It’s fire emblem, standard fare. Exp curve feels a little off, and I’ve restarted like a million times because of permadeath. It’s fun, but it’s frustrating fun not happy go lucky fun. Linking up is a nice addition, use it.
never been a big fan of tactical grid-based RPG’s, but this game for some reason has got me hooked. maybe it’s the fighting, or maybe it’s the blue-haired waifu simulator…
but yeah, its great!
Best game on the 3DS right now.
Really want to take a pic of a P4G cart sitting on top of a 3DS console 😛
how far through are you thou…once i got past chap 7 on medium the game balanced out and my characters would only die if i did something really stupid…i actually found the permadeath fun as it made me plan out most of my moves in advance
awesome game, i bought my 3ds xl to play it.
only gripe i have is with the missing feet.
the only thing I know is that the artwork looks stereotypically JRPG
I would just like to announce that I put my copy through the dryer on the weekend. I was about half way through. My girlfriend didn’t understand my pain.
amazing. ending falls a bit flat, but the majority of the game is excellent.
I wish they had feet though.
Imo, it’s the best handheld Fire Emblem yet.
Still doesn’t beat Path of Radiance or Radiant Dawn though, in my books.
Be prepared for the best review ever…
Play this game!
As someone who loves SRPGs, holy god is this game amazing. Have only stopped playing to do uni work >_>