People preference Does Anybody still like Awakening more than Fates.

[CrazyFiasco]

Hard to say how I feel about Awakening after playing Fates. After beating Conquest, I came to try out Awakening to see the differnce between the two, and when I started up my save file I thought," I don't remember Awakening like this!!" Everything felt off, the graphics looked weird, the transition from map => battle felt abrupt, instead of slowly transitioning like it did in Fates. The difference in level design and difficultly was huge too. Soo overall..... Awakening is okay

[Augestein]

No. The characters really aren't that good in Awakening overall to me, and the gameplay is a hot mess and really shows how awful some of the design is when you play Lunatic(+). It's not even really hard, I distinctly remember beating it while intoxicated. It took like... 1 hour and 30 minutes per run.

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

This is based on experiences with Fates that don't include Revelation yet, but Conquest would be more likely to have my attention in the long run. And as things stand now, while Conquest may still surprise me, I feel Awakening is the clear winner (after all, I did think it would be hard to top the amount of times I played Blazing Sword, then Radiant Dawn did it, then Awakening crushed that... but Conquest has a very, very tall order ahead of it if it wants to surprise me). Replayability is one of my most important criteria when it comes to determining which game I prefer over another. This can be due to any number of factors, but ideally it's the composition as a whole. For this comparison, it's gameplay that holds most of the sway.

Fates as a whole did a lot of little mechanical things to try to keep things interesting. Both of the pair systems being changed to nerfed, but non-percentage triggers is probably the biggest change I enjoy. There's also hidden weapons' debuffs and the more inclusive weapon triangle making stuff more strategic. Also, not getting body-blocked by Risen at shops is a small, but welcome improvement. And for a first time play-through, Conquest generally has better map design. However, the skills and formations are all pretty static, making a second play-through a bit samey, which, to be fair, is the same with older FEs, but just emphasizes how much of an advantage Awakening has. I find myself plodding through the second play-through, despite trying to use as many of the characters I benched on my first. I can still get in an hours or two, but I don't find myself as enthusiastic about putting together strats. Comparatively, as soon as I finished Awakening's vanilla Lunatic, I hopped right into Lunatic+ and didn't stop. It's also taken me a long time to master the mode, having to slowly adjust my strats over time to be less dependant on RNG. Granted, that doesn't make Awakening exempt from having some stale maps (usually the later ones with excessive reinforcements), which is probably why I usually enjoy the first third of my Resetless runs more than the rest; that is, the early chapters tend to force me to do some really weird things to survive at times, whereas once I hit C14 or so, the run starts to coast. Still, Lunatic+ mixes things up and makes every experience quite a bit different from the last. I'm well past 20 completed runs of Awakening while Conquest is losing steam at number 2.

As for more minor factors, I'd say I enjoy Fates' characters a bit more. Arthur, Niles, Leo, Elise and Takumi, among a few others, are all more vibrant, deep or both, in a way that really stands out. Granted, I don't think there's any serious stinkers between either game, but Fates just has a few more than draws me toward them. Story-wise, Fate's massive Hoshido bias and railroading Corrin and company into situations that make Corrin look dumb as a rock frustrates me. Revelation still has a chance to sway this, but even if it did, it wouldn't be enough to offset Awakening's gameplay advantage. And while Awakening has some serious pacing issues, I found Gangrel alone to be a much more compelling card-carrying villain than all of Conquests' equivalents (which is basically all of the villains). I also didn't feel railroaded as hard (Valm is the only place where this really got iffy for me) and Ylisse actually had some depth that made them at least partly at fault when it came to the conflict with Plegia. Whereas Birthright only adds an "oh, I guess maybe not all Nohrians are evil and deserve to be slaughtered" after-thought 90% of the way through the campaign, which is after the Hoshidan force has already cut a bloody swath through Nohr; in fact, this is small comfort after the game decides that Nohr is so evil that even being coerced into siding with Garon is so shameful that the only path to redemption is dying in a fire.

EDIT: One gameplay advantage I forgot to list for Fates: Offspring Seals making all the kids usable without significant babying (as opposed to maybe one-third of Awakening's kids being able to jump right into the fight and train through combat instead of feeding).

Edited May 4, 2016 by Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi

[Water Mage]

I think one thing I really dislike about Awakening that made me jump onto If/Fates... it's not the whole "Chrom/Lucina x MU" BS. People's choices are a lot more varied... hence, the rabid shippers are fewer.

I, in particular, had to deal with this a lot more, being one of the bigger owners of an FE based channel.

Out of curiosity, what do you mean by "deal with this"?

Did the shippers attacked for not marrying Robin to either Chrom ot Lucina?

Cause I remember you married Olivia.

Did some viewers attacked for that?

[Jave]

While I loved Awakening and I still do, I can't put it above the Superior-In-Every-Way Fates.

Gameplay is way better in Fates, no contest.

Map Design was terrible in Awakening, so it didn't take much for Fates to beat it there. And even then, the best designed maps in Fates are among the series' best.

Even the story, as flawed as it is in Fates, I enjoyed it more because it feels like stuff is constantly happening. Awakening really becomes kind of a drag during mid-game.

Edited May 4, 2016 by Jave

[Loki Laufeyson]

Awakening is a fun game. A very fun game. Ill go back to it eventually and play the fuck out of it again. But Fates is just better. Fates' story does some highly questionable shit, but it did not personally offend me like Awakening's did. Conquest may be sloppy af as a narrative, but at least there is no Emmeryn. I like the characters better in Fates too, and more of them. While only one character not named Emmeryn earned my true ire (Severa), i felt rather indifferent to many guys in FE13. Guys like Stahl, Donnel, Kellam, Frederick, Lon'qu, etc are all like...really unremarkable and forgettable overall. Fates has all these colorful characters in each route that i enjoy. (And Severa is also marginally less annoying) Im super attached to the Fates cast.

Gameplay, Awakening is fun, but Fates is just wonderful. It took just about all the fun stuff from Awakening and made it better. I like how reclassing works in Fates. I like how the kid units can scale up and stuff depending on when you get them. Pair Up's tweaks are too good. Unf its just better. Theres also more to do in Fates. Awakening had loads of content, Fates has 5 times that. I dig it.

[✯Dunny✯]

I'm not very picky when it comes liking a game, all I really ask for are decent characters (and antagonists). Honestly, I like them both equally; they both kinda cancel each other out for me. The only reason why I would ever like Awakening over Fates is because of nostalgia, as it was my first FE game and I have played many, many hours on it. Other than that, I like them both.

[Skynstein]

But honestly, I never understood why Awakening's story is considered so bad. It's fairly standard stuff but I don't see what makes it much worse than any of the other stories in the series, and I actually feel like they did a good job handling the three separate story arcs and keeping the characters' actions consistent and understandable. It works for me.

'Cause haters wanna hate. That's the reason.

I've seen people on SF disliking Awakening's story for the most ridiculous reasons, which has led to me simply not bothering discussing the story anymore, at least not here. The screenplay won't win any BAFTAs, but it was endearing to me.

Anyway, I'm feeling that, when/if I get to play Fates (because 3DS games cost an arm and a leg here now), it'll be a lot like the relationship between Mortal Kombat (2011) and Mortal Kombat X. MKX is the superior game due to its gameplay but MK2011 is more endearing to me because it has all the characters and gimmicks I've grown to love in MK, plus no alive Scorpion bullshit. And, of course, MK2011 was a lot like Awakening in that they both were "fanservice" games where they went all out to fill the games with content, and their successors are their refined versions which draw from everything introduced in the first ones, but "different" so they end up hit and miss.

[Illiterate Scholar]

Awakening is pretty lousy, but I haven't played Fates yet. Mainly problems with being able to get the game where I live right now.

[The DanMan]

No, not really. As many have said, it pretty much blows it out of the water from a gameplay perspective, and to me personally Conquest and Revelation's plots are "so bad they're good" and I get plenty of entertainment Cinemasin-ing through them.

'Cause haters wanna hate. That's the reason.

I've seen people on SF disliking Awakening's story for the most ridiculous reasons, which has led to me simply not bothering discussing the story anymore, at least not here. The screenplay won't win any BAFTAs, but it was endearing to me.

The main reasons why Awakening's plot is bad:

-No real worldbuilding

-Cartoon villains with no in-story development

-The Valm Arc is massive filler

-The fact that Future Grima can revive himself without the Emblem makes no sense since they first physically appeared at the start of the Valm arc but don't do anything before the game's climax, with Validar still trying to get the Emblem

I hardly see how any of those reasons qualify as "ridiculous".

Edited May 7, 2016 by The DanMan

[solrocknroll]

Awakening's still better to me than Conquest or Revelation in every conceivable way.

Birthright is almost as fun, and the cast is great, but Awakening's cast will still be my favorite in FE history.

[blah the Prussian]

Awakening's still better to me than Conquest or Revelation in every conceivable way.

Birthright is almost as fun, and the cast is great, but Awakening's cast will still be my favorite in FE history.

Every conceivable way? Really? I mean, I know you hate difficult games, and I respect that, but come on, Conquest's soundtrack objectively kicks Awakening's soundtrack's ass.

[solrocknroll]

Every conceivable way? Really? I mean, I know you hate difficult games, and I respect that, but come on, Conquest's soundtrack objectively kicks Awakening's soundtrack's ass.

This is actually a place where Awakening whips Fates for me.

I still remember "Don't speak her name!" or "But what if I can't?" I also remember vividly the themes like Duty, Divine Decree, and I'd-Serenity or Purpose. The support music was really effective, yet I've never really noticed Fates' soundtrack. There's a bit too much Lost in Thoughts All Alone in like half the music for me.

Conquest's soundtrack from what I've seen has Dusk Falls which is actually one of my favorite themes, and Dark Wastes, which I find kinda meh. There's good themes in every game, but Awakening's is the one still planted in my memory.

[blah the Prussian]

Eh, maybe. When I played Awakening I wasn't paying nearly as much attention to soundtracks as I do now, so that could be why. I still think that the song for CQ 22, 23, and 24 is glorious, though; and the rest are essentially all good. Maybe I like it because it's the most instrumentally unique soundtrack in the series.

[Sentacotus]

Yeah the soundtracks in Fates all around are straight fire. The only ones that are particularly memorable for me in Awakening are Id Purpose, Conquest, and Champion (Priams theme and thats a side chapter).

[charmedx3]

This is actually a place where Awakening whips Fates for me.

I still remember "Don't speak her name!" or "But what if I can't?" I also remember vividly the themes like Duty, Divine Decree, and I'd-Serenity or Purpose. The support music was really effective, yet I've never really noticed Fates' soundtrack. There's a bit too much Lost in Thoughts All Alone in like half the music for me.

Conquest's soundtrack from what I've seen has Dusk Falls which is actually one of my favorite themes, and Dark Wastes, which I find kinda meh. There's good themes in every game, but Awakening's is the one still planted in my memory.

I agree with you, I liked fates soundtrack but got tired of it after a while (I played it since the Japanese release), and I still like those tracks you said of awakening.

[Maritisa]

-No real worldbuilding

-Cartoon villains with no in-story development

literally Fates

[Anomalocaris]

The main reasons why Awakening's plot is bad:

-No real worldbuilding

-Cartoon villains with no in-story development

-The Valm Arc is massive filler

-The fact that Future Grima can revive himself without the Emblem makes no sense since they first physically appeared at the start of the Valm arc but don't do anything before the game's climax, with Validar still trying to get the Emblem

I hardly see how any of those reasons qualify as "ridiculous".

- I'll have to disagree with that, but I don't know what you would consider adequate worldbuilding so I'll just leave it as a matter of opinion.

- Iago, Hans, and Garon are infinitely worse than Gangrel and Walhart in that regard, though. Even Validar comes across as slightly more nuanced than all three of them and he's a mindless idiot obsessed with resurrecting Grima and calling it fate.

- Yeah, Valm is filler, but I don't see what's wrong with that. It works perfectly fine as an isolated story, and provides some necessary downtime between the Gangrel and Grima arcs. My only real question is why Say'ri, Virion, and Cherche continue to be a part of your army afterward, but that's always a question with characters who join your cause for specific reasons.

- Grima was trying to keep the past on track toward his resurrection, only interfering to counter Lucina's interference, presumably so he could return to his future once he secured his own past. He didn't directly revive himself and become an inseperable part of the past until he was desperate and had no choice.

[The DanMan]

- I'll have to disagree with that, but I don't know what you would consider adequate worldbuilding so I'll just leave it as a matter of opinion.

- Iago, Hans, and Garon are infinitely worse than Gangrel and Walhart in that regard, though. Even Validar comes across as slightly more nuanced than all three of them and he's a mindless idiot obsessed with resurrecting Grima and calling it fate.

- Yeah, Valm is filler, but I don't see what's wrong with that. It works perfectly fine as an isolated story, and provides some necessary downtime between the Gangrel and Grima arcs. My only real question is why Say'ri, Virion, and Cherche continue to be a part of your army afterward, but that's always a question with characters who join your cause for specific reasons.

- Grima was trying to keep the past on track toward his resurrection, only interfering to counter Lucina's interference, presumably so he could return to his future once he secured his own past. He didn't directly revive himself and become an inseperable part of the past until he was desperate and had no choice.

-Agree to disagree

-Where do we find out anything about Walhart or Gangrel in the actual main story? Unless you recruit them (which you can for some reason) and support them, you find nothing of this out; heck, Walhart's motivation was only given on a JP-exclusive background site last time I checked. Long story short, unless you go far out of your way you aren't going to find any motivation.

And this isn't an argument on whether Fates is worse than Awakening in the plot department (heads up: I think Awakening is marginally better).

-It's an isolated story within two more inter-connected ones that are in desperate need of fleshing out. It's random and has negligible effects on the rest of the plot; the only reason for it's existence was to make a subtle Gaiden shout-out.

-And this is stated where, exactly? It isn't; it's a theory to try to explain one of the biggest asspulls in the series. I would give them props if the actually explained that, but they didn't- and as Ghast said, "They basically outsmarted themselves".

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Actually, Grima didn't just work to counteract Lucina's interference and that's quite possibly the reason the whole thing unraveled in the first place. As stated in the reveal, Grima tried to get to Robin on arrival with the end result being bad things that included total memory loss. So right from the start, Grima attempted the resurrection, but since Robin wasn't ready, it failed. With Grima's first attempt to flat-out dick around with the past failing so catastrophically, it's understandable that Grima would take a more cautious approach. This would be all the stuff done to counteract Lucina's own messing around, including trying to get player Robin to embrace the ritual. When Robin refuses and it looks like Grima might cease to exist, Grima goes ahead and does the ritual, the first real overt action since pre-Prologue, consequences be damned. While this doesn't explain why the incomplete Emblem worked for the ritual, the game makes it clear that Grima was doing things, that something was missing from the first resurrection attempt and that somehow the situation they had at the end of C23 was enough.

[Shotguner159]

-Where do we find out anything about Walhart or Gangrel in the actual main story? Unless you recruit them (which you can for some reason) and support them, you find nothing of this out; heck, Walhart's motivation was only given on a JP-exclusive background site last time I checked. Long story short, unless you go far out of your way you aren't going to find any motivation.

Boss conversations and story dialogue.

Pheros, Chapter 17

Emperor Walhart will do what no religion ever could—unite all people.

...

Walhart, Chapter 19

But humanity already has a savior.

...

Walhart, Chapter 19

I would end the reign of the gods,

...

Walhart, Chapter 19

You dance upon the stage of your gods like a mindless puppet! THAT is what I reject: being a slave to tradition, to obligation. The old ways. Damn the gods! Damn their fates and their destinies! I will have true freedom!

...

Walhart, Chapter 19

I am the Conqueror! I will unite the world!

...

Chrom, Chapter 22

I will stop you! I will stop Grima!

Aversa

Goodness! Now you're starting to sound like Walhart, the big bully... He intended to destroy Grima as well, you know. ...Our thanks, incidentally, for taking him off the stage for us.

Chrom

Rrgh... That's why you gave us your ships and treasure but no soldiers... Get rid of Walhart, but keep the faithful Plegians to set your god's Table.

Voila. Walhart wanted to unite humanity under his rule, as well as destroy gods in order to free mankind from their whims.

As for the Grima resurrection thing, I wonder why everyone assumes that Future!Grima's doing the Awakening. Validar's doing it to awaken Sealed!Grima.

Validar, Chapter 23

The Awakening rite is not only for exalts and Naga, you know. With it, I'll arouse Grima!

Future!Grima is already awake, and is already the Fell Dragon, just diminished in power. It just gets back up to full power by eating the lifeforce of all the brainwashed Plegians at the Dragons Table,

Aversa, Chapter 22

The king's demise threw Plegia into chaos. It drove the people to Grima... Now their life force and rancor can be laid before the fell dragon en masse.

Chrom

You couldn't mean...

Aversa

It is called the Table for a reason, you naive little man. It is where Grima feeds! The Grimleal have gladly offered themselves to him for ages. Even now, they pray for his return... Today the Table overflows with bounty, and their prayers will be answered!

...

Future!Grima

Myeh heh ha ha ha! The fell dragon and I are one! And though my journey through time has diminished my power...the life force here shall renew me!

This also explains why it didn't just get back to being a dragon straight away, after its loss of power after travelling through time, Grima needed a large amount of life force to regain its former power, which impossible to get until they managed to gather enough Grimleal at the Dragon's Table. But hey, why not see if it averted enough of Lucina's changes and give Robin a chance to ascend to become Grima like it did. If Robin does, great, history's back on tract. If Robin doesn't, it can just regain its former power.

Edited May 8, 2016 by Shotguner159

[Loki Laufeyson]

literally Fates

There is more worldbuilding in one of Fate's routes, than in the whole of Awakening. You cant even FIND places mentioned in the game of Awakening on the map. Where is Virion from? Where is it on the map? Oh right, its not there and never will be. Half the areas dont even have names.

[eclipse]

'Cause haters wanna hate. That's the reason.

I've seen people on SF disliking Awakening's story for the most ridiculous reasons, which has led to me simply not bothering discussing the story anymore, at least not here. The screenplay won't win any BAFTAs, but it was endearing to me.

I feel the same way, except replace "Awakening" with "Fates" and remove the "on SF" part.

While I think going into a thread specifically to complain about something you've already said elsewhere a million times is bad (it won't make the story better), I also think people do have legit reasons to dislike any FE story.

Edited May 8, 2016 by eclipse

[Anomalocaris]

-Where do we find out anything about Walhart or Gangrel in the actual main story? Unless you recruit them (which you can for some reason) and support them, you find nothing of this out; heck, Walhart's motivation was only given on a JP-exclusive background site last time I checked. Long story short, unless you go far out of your way you aren't going to find any motivation.

And this isn't an argument on whether Fates is worse than Awakening in the plot department (heads up: I think Awakening is marginally better).

Shotguner already covered Walhart, so I'll tackle Gangrel. While it is much more prominent in his recruitment paralogue and supports, his nihilistic, "Either this war will see my enemies crushed or me dead. Either way I win." tendency is still visible at a few parts. I don't have the script on me at the moment but I recall at one point he mocks Chrom's death threat and openly admits that he'd welcome it, but he has other stuff he wants to see done first (Like Emmeryn becoming street pizza). But yeah, Walhart's motivations are more prominent in-story while Gangrel you have to recruit to see most of his stuff.

Also, I can't help but giggle at the "With it, I'll arouse Grima!" line because I am an immature idiot.

Edited May 8, 2016 by Anomalocaris

[Slyfox]

To me, Fates tries to tell a better story but fails in execution. Awakening's story, while not as interesting overall, has MUCH less flaws to pick at.

Anyway, this is how I'd rank the games. Conquest and Awakening are more or less on par with each other, depending on the day. Birthright is only allowed to follow at a distance and Revelation has a friggin restraining order.

I prefer the characters in Fates, the gameplay mechanics are fantastic, map design is excellent and the soundtrack is of an overall better quality. Also I do like My Castle, but I think it could have been a lot more fun than it currently is.

Awakening has a better player-character, many standout music tracks, maps that look great and kids that actually make sense being in the story.

I have several nitpicks with both games, but there isn't much point in talking about them all the time.

Anyway! I forget who, but someone mentioned that they were sad about the Awakening trio's endings being ruined. I disagree. Simply don't marry them in a playthrough, the endings imply they go back home and you can imagine they have their Awakening marriages intact! In a series which basically confirmed an infinite amount of timelines this isn't very far fetched at all. Also, Soleil and Ophelia would still exist, but as babies, seeing as they are born no matter which mother they end up having.

Edit: About the soundtrack comparisons, imagine it like a graph. Fates' bar is above Awakening's by a good amount, but Awakening's bar frequently spikes above Fates' bar.

Edited May 19, 2016 by Slyfox