People preference Does Anybody still like Awakening more than Fates.

[Yvette]

what i wanna know is how on earth did the the villians on conquest acheive the S rank hammer and magic tome when they are locked away in chests on the third route in valla, somewhere they clearly shouldn't be able to go or get.

So Hans is the real adventurer in this game, step up your goddamn game Corrin. Hans knew about the overarching plot all along? We've been duped.

Talking about the chakram here, never thought of this before you brought it up. How did he manage to get it when it was in

Valla

Edited June 2, 2016 by Yvette

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

Have played seven chapters of Fates yet (doing Nohr) and I must say this game isn't even comparable with FE13 for me because they're so different.

Awakening was the black sheep of the FE series for me. The part which reduced the game mechanics to a minimum while Fates brought some back, fixed a few (pair up) and added completly new stuff (My Castle, new staves, new classes, enemy pair up...).

I was very skeptic about FE14 and saw FE almost dead but these doubts were wrong.

Edited June 2, 2016 by Ayama Wirdo

[Reject]

Made a pro/con list.

Awakening

PROS

- Great introduction to the series, which is what ultimately saved it.

- Callbacks were nice.

- The character interaction of the army as a whole. Maybe the fanart is clouding my perception, but the army really felt like a quirky, if slightly dysfunctional, family. I can't say the same thing about Fates.

- Future Past is great.

- Outrealms making EVERYTHING canon makes me laugh a lot.

CONS

- The biggest challenge of the game is making it a challenge.

- Story is barely passable. Boring/average at best, riddled with holes at worst.

- Forgettable music. I personally don't get the love for Id (Purpose)--it sounds completely flat to me.

- Localization changes are worse than the ones in Fates, IMO.

- Many supports focus on gimmicks. Poor Kellam.

- Massive portion of the game is pure, boring filler. Filler isn't always bad, but on every playthrough of Awakening I found myself not playing as much once I got to Valm.

- SHIPPING. WARS.

Fates

PROS

- Gameplay.

- The music literally gives me chills. I love how much work was put into every track. Each route has so much personality imbued into the music. It's one of my favorite video game OSTs of all time.

- Gameplay.

- While Awakening had the "family" dynamic, I like the individual characters in Fates more than in Awakening. In Awakening, I liked Owain, Frederick, Inigo, Henry, Gregor, Virion, and Cherche the most as standalone characters. In Fates, I can't name every character I like on their own without naming almost the entire cast.

- Did I talk about how much I love the gameplay?

- My Castle is very addictive and fun, though I wish I could use it in Conquest without upsetting the balance. I play the Japanese version and LOVE the petting.

- Nohr and Hoshido are far more interesting than Ylisse, Valm, Ferox, and Plegia.

CONS

- Story is ridiculous. I enjoyed Conquest's story because it just felt campy and I had a lot of fun with it, but Birthright was pretty boring (plus people who I felt no attachment towards died for literally no fucking reason and I felt very little attachment to 2 of the characters who died) and Revelations was insultingly bad. I actually got mad at Birthright after Xander did the thing in his chapter and wanted to keep fighting, so mad that I just mashed Start and immediately 1-rounded him. His reasoning after the battle was just even more stupid and unnecessarily cryptic.

- The way they reworked weapons is...interesting, but I think there are just too many punishments for using a "good" weapon. No reason not to forge.

- Only 1 of the 3 games is actually challenging for reasons that aren't RNG bullshit.

- Oh yeah, and the fact that you have to buy 3 games to get the entire picture is pretty bad. The Special Edition existing proves that they could have just put it all on one cartridge. But they didn't, and people bought all 3 versions anyway. I really, REALLY hope this doesn't start a trend.

- So many localization mistakes. At times, the grammar errors make it feel like a fanlation as opposed to something Nintendo paid for.

- Shoehorned children.

So, all in all, I liked Awakening when I played it. I still do like it, but I don't think I can play it and enjoy it as much as I did my first few playthroughs now that I've played Fates. As a game, despite its many flaws, I prefer Fates to Awakening. I'm sure that the same will be true for the next installment of Fire Emblem. This means the series is improving, which makes me really happy.

[DeadLuckChris]

I had fun with awakening but fates is better, especially conquest. Awakening did have the better story(that filler arc is hella boring tho) and characters but the game was too easy and almost required no strategy, which is the main focus of FE.

[TheSilentChloey]

Well I can say that so far some of Fates' characters are alright (still not as good as the Awakening cast *although I still hate Priam*), but that doesn't excuse the fact that the game did put me in hospital...and cost me more money than I cared to spend in the first place...:/

[shadowofchaos]

but that doesn't excuse the fact that the game did put me in hospital...

Not to be a jerk, but this just makes it sound like you blame everything else but yourself, considering your previous posts in this thread.

What happened that would make it completely the game's fault, and not in some part your own or some uncontrolled circumstances that you ended up in the hospital?

Like, if you had a seizure, any game would have probably caused that. Fates doesn't have any more flashing lights than any other game.

Edited June 3, 2016 by shadowofchaos

[Maritisa]

I've never heard of somebody having an aneurism from a game's story being so bad... You may go down in history!

[TadpoleSuperHero]

I absolutely like Awakening more than Fates. I'll break it down.

Awakening Pros

- The cast. Oh my goodness the cast. Characters have always been the most important thing to me in my overall enjoyment of a Fire Emblem game, and Awakening has some of my favorite characters in the entire series. Not to mention that the integration of children is done really well, and most of the child characters are absolute standouts, the cast kicks butt for me. I'm not a fan of Robin, because I just am not a fan of self-inserts so he/she comes across super bland, but Morgan makes up for Robin's failures.

- The world map and overall art direction. I LOVE the style to the character designs, 3D models, cutscenes, landscapes we see, and the world map's design (echoing Sacred Stones but better). It just pops, really stands out in my mind.

- The story. I never understood the hate Awakening's story gets, I always really enjoyed it. It's a fairly simple affair without much in the way of plot twists, but I always found plot twists and surprises overrated - execution of the story is the most important thing to me. Awakening's is very well-written, and characters like Lucina, Flavia, Basilio, Emmeryn, and Sey'Ri have such wonderful moments in the story and especially Lucina you can really feel her anguish and emotional struggle. I wasn't a fan of the Robin plot-twist and neither Robin nor Morgan's amnesia is EVERY RESOLVED (seriously why can't Morgan remember anything and what does his/her amnesia add to the character?), but overall I thoroughly enjoyed the story and I still get teary-eyed in several parts, from Basilio's heroic sacrifice, to Lucina revealing herself to Chrom, to Lucina's anguish over whether to kill Robin, to chapter 10 (you know the one). There's so much emotional depth mined in Awakening's narrative and I love it.

- Gameplay... sort of. I really enjoy the pair-up system, though I don't use it a lot, I like having characters next to each other at the very least. And I LOVE how they completely revamped supports. You actually "support" characters to build their relationship, whether it's fighting alongside each other, healing or buffing or dancing for someone. It's fantastic, and a HUGE change for the better in every way. Also the UI is super snappy, as is inventory management (which is very important for such a large cast). I think the great things Awakening did in the gameplay department keep getting ignored simply because of its poor level design, which is a shame.

Awakening Cons

- Level design. The levels are pretty darn boring. Many of them are wide open spaces where your tactics come down to keeping units close together and hoping you can stave off the bulk of the enemy's forces without them getting to your healers. Which isn't hard because the game's pretty easy on the default setting. I'm not a stickler for difficulty, but the lack of varied map design and objectives really got to me, and I always felt like my entire army was just exposed, thrown onto an open plain and told to survive. It's a real bummer.

Now for Fates... oh goodness.

Fates Pros

- The cast. I don't like them as much as Awakening, but there are still some standouts, especially in Conquest. I love the Conquest royals and retainers! The Birthright royals are pretty great too, as are Felicia, Jakob, Nyx, Charlotte, and Scarlet. There are also some fantastic kids, from Kana to Ryoma and Xander's kids (can't remember names... ugh) to Soleil (yes I like her especially if you ignore some of her conversations, many of her supports are great) to Ophelia to Percy and many others.

- The music. HOLY CRAP this soundtrack rocks.

- The gameplay. They may have screwed up the UI, but pair-ups are more balanced and more engaging tactically, and the addition of weapons and skills that cause debuffs, while FAR TOO PREVALENT, are a great idea and I'd love to see them return in a less overblown way.

- The level design. ESPECIALLY CONQUEST. Though I must say it's not all roses. Birthright is just Awakening but slightly better, and Revelation seems to have a pattern of having super unique and interesting ideas that are very poorly executed (teleporters, moving platforms...). But Conquest does a great job in level design, some of the best in the series, and Birthright and Revelation aren't terrible in the slightest.

Fates Cons

- The story(ies). Wow. What happened here? I played Conquest first, and I don't think it's the worst story of the three (I actually enjoy it the best), but it has so many head-scratching moments where you're like "why aren't they mentioning this? Why are they doing this? Why is this the direction of the story?" It also felt completely nonsensical to choose to take over Hoshido just to put Garon on the throne. Going into Conquest, from the trailers and the way the story was sold I thought you were going to be leading a rebellion/civil war within Nohr, which would have been LEAGUES better. The actual plot is garbage, but I found it to have the better characters and most emotional weight. Birthright is at best boring, at worst utterly insulting in its nonsense. Revelation is the worst, not only because it completely fails in its plot (what's going on while we're in Valla? Why is there are a curse so you can't speak the name of the main enemy? How utterly contrived and ridiculous is this???) but also because it makes Conquest and Brithright worse in retrospect - why doesn't Azura tell you about Valla when she takes you there in Conquest and Birthright? The curse wouldn't have bearing there, so why not mention it? Why ENDORSE MASS MURDER? Not only does it make those stories worse but it makes Azura look like an absolutely horrible character with no soul. I found her boring in Conquest and Birthright, but absolutely awful in Revelation.

- My Castle. This goes along with many other things in Fates (Revelation's level design, no more item durability) in that it's a great idea that is poorly executed and feels unfinished. It's very shallow, barebones, and feels like it was killed by a deadline and left incomplete. I won't go into it in a big way but I do hope they use the ideas here and in other areas and flesh them out more in future games, because there are neat ideas, they're just not well executed here.

- The business plan. What the heck is this trash? I have to buy three games to get the full experience? It's not okay. If this becomes a trend for Fire Emblem down the road, I may just stick to the older games.

So I can understand people liking Fates more than Awakening. For me, in Fire Emblem, characters and story are more important than the overall gameplay experience, and I also don't find Awakening to be that poor as other people say. The level design's not good, but the other gameplay advances are great in a way that makes it consistently enjoyable for me. And most mportantly, Fates has three huge stories that are all some of the worst storylines I've experienced in any video game, let alone Fire Emblem (and yes, I know there are worse video game stories but 1: I try not to play games with trash stories, and 2: I expect a high quality story from FE games because the series has set that expectation through consistent quality). In the end, I'm incredibly disappointed with Fates. My expectations weren't even super high going into it/them! And yet all three versions managed to let me down in a huge way. I still hold hope for the series, because come on, one bad entry doesn't spell doom and gloom, and there are a lot of great things about Fates that, if focused and expanded on in the next game, could create a truly marvelous return to form.

[TheSilentChloey]

Not to be a jerk, but this just makes it sound like you blame everything else but yourself, considering your previous posts in this thread.

What happened that would make it completely the game's fault, and not in some part your own or some uncontrolled circumstances that you ended up in the hospital?

Like, if you had a seizure, any game would have probably caused that. Fates doesn't have any more flashing lights than any other game.

No it wasn't a seizure, it was an accident, which if I hadn't gone to get the game in the first place wouldn't have happened otherwise. Plus I went into Fates with an already VERY negative mindset which doesn't help matters when you're starting a game.

[Shin]

No it wasn't a seizure, it was an accident, which if I hadn't gone to get the game in the first place wouldn't have happened otherwise. Plus I went into Fates with an already VERY negative mindset which doesn't help matters when you're starting a game.

That's unfortunate, maybe you would have been more lucky if you'd bought the other route instead!

I tired pretty quickly with Awakening, I only managed to complete one full run. I'm not sure if I'd manage that with Fates. I enjoy gameplay but I kinda like having a story to motivate me to keep going.

[shadowofchaos]

No it wasn't a seizure, it was an accident, which if I hadn't gone to get the game in the first place wouldn't have happened otherwise.

And you're blaming this... on an inanimate object?

You're saying it doesn't excuse the game for *causing an accident BY EXISTING*?

Are you serious?

Do you realize how ridiculous you sound, especially when you called people here elitists?

Like, you're embodying the sterotype about FE newcomers that I thought the toxic veterans *MADE UP*.

Edited June 5, 2016 by shadowofchaos

[Thane]

Like, you're embodying the sterotype about FE newcomers that I thought the toxic veterans *MADE UP*.

This is my first time seeing one in the wild as well. The disgruntled veterans must never find this thread!

Well, it's in the Awakening subforum, so they probably won't.

[Etrurian emperor]

- The story. I never understood the hate Awakening's story gets, I always really enjoyed it. It's a fairly simple affair without much in the way of plot twists, but I always found plot twists and surprises overrated - execution of the story is the most important thing to me.

I do agree with you that the execution of a story is far more important then the twists and turns. I also agree that some separate scenes in Awakening are really good. Things like Future past and, Emyrin's death and its aftermath.

But taken as a whole I think Awakening story falls flat exactly because of its execution. The pacing just can't sit down for a moment and properly handle an antagonist. That no villain last more then five chapters after directly challenging the Shephards makes the three separate conflicts to short to get particular invested in. The same goes for countries and factions. Ferox, Plegia, Valm and the Grimreal get very little revealed about them. Going from introduction to the defeat of Gangrel and Plegia gets you about five chapters and in those chapters we learn very little about Plegia or Ylisse. Gangrel last about as long as the Begnion subplot in Path of radiance but in that same timespan we learn plenty about Begnion.

[Baldrick]

This is my first time seeing one in the wild as well. The disgruntled veterans must never find this thread!

Well, it's in the Awakening subforum, so they probably won't.

This kind of attitude tends to be quashed no matter what their particular opinion is, I've found.

But did anybody really think only veterans could be toxic?

[Water Mage]

Like, you're embodying the sterotype about FE newcomers that I thought the toxic veterans *MADE UP*.

I've seen worse on other sites.

Also, there's a reviewer, from IGN I think, that gave Conquest a lower score than Birthright and Revelations, because you couldn't grind in Conquest.

Edited June 5, 2016 by Water Mage

[Locke087]

I've seen worse on other sites.

Also, there's a reviewer, from IGN I think, that gave Conquest a lower score than Birthright and Revelations, because you couldn't grind in Conquest.

It is Gamespot you are thinking of (Who gave a 7 for no grinding) IGN actually gave a higher score to Conquest.

[Water Mage]

It is Gamespot you are thinking of (Who gave a 7 for no grinding) IGN actually gave a higher score to Conquest.

Oh yeah! It was Gamespot!

Totally forgot about it!

Either way, neither IGN and Gamespot are exactly trustworthy.

[Deviddo]

Personally I liked the story in Awakening more, but I do see the gameplay in Fates being a whole lot more superior. Nor do I really think the story in Fates is BAD, I just liked Awakening's more.

[SSbardock84]

Yeah I liked it a lot better. Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn and Awakening are games I could play multiple times and not get bored until a long while. However I got bored of Fates pretty fast. I beat all three games but I couldn't make another complete play through on any of them. It's fun the first time you play but it's not a game that you can play twice in a row and not get bored. Even after beating the game it gets boring. It'll probably be a long time until I play it again.

[HF Makalov Fanboy Kai]

This is my first time seeing one in the wild as well. The disgruntled veterans must never find this thread!

Well, it's in the Awakening subforum, so they probably won't.

Too late i've already seen it all!

but related to the topic, nah i don't like awakening anymore due to gameplay.

[Ren_Ambrose]

Yeah I liked it a lot better. Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn and Awakening are games I could play multiple times and not get bored until a long while. However I got bored of Fates pretty fast. I beat all three games but I couldn't make another complete play through on any of them. It's fun the first time you play but it's not a game that you can play twice in a row and not get bored. Even after beating the game it gets boring. It'll probably be a long time until I play it again.

Ditto on that. Hell, I find it hard to play through the chapters that're meant to be played through multiple times just due to how much of a slog they feel like, Ghostly Gold being a particularly annoying one. They shouldn't have made the objective on there "Survive 8 turns" and instead have it be "Rout the enemy" like Golden Gaffe was. I just want the gold I came for, not the annoying subplot with defending ruins.

[Avalanche]

Awakening was my first foray into the series and (like a lot of newer fans) I absolutely adored it. That being said, after playing the older entries in the series and Fates, I am very aware of it's faults. Yes, the Map design is kinda trash, the reclassing system is infinitely inferior to Fates and the story lacks direction. While I haven't had Awakening in my possession for the last 8 months or so (I lent it to a friend who is very... slow with completing games), I can still see myself going back and playing it at least one more time. However, I think Fates beats Awakening in almost every aspect from a gameplay perspective, which is what I care about the most. Like, seriously, I have a Folder on my Google Drive just filled with useless info on Fates.

Edited June 6, 2016 by Avalanche

[Loki Laufeyson]

This is my first time seeing one in the wild as well. The disgruntled veterans must never find this thread!

Well, it's in the Awakening subforum, so they probably won't.

Yeah same. I thought it was a myth to discredit later FE games. I still think its extremely rare to see this full on though.

This kind of attitude tends to be quashed no matter what their particular opinion is, I've found.

But did anybody really think only veterans could be toxic?

The point is, most people actually dont see that kind of bullshittery happen in general. I hang out on tumblr, mate, and ive never seen this before.

[TheSilentChloey]

And you're blaming this... on an inanimate object?

You're saying it doesn't excuse the game for *causing an accident BY EXISTING*?

Are you serious?

Do you realize how ridiculous you sound, especially when you called people here elitists?

Like, you're embodying the sterotype about FE newcomers that I thought the toxic veterans *MADE UP*.

Look I don't know what your problem is, but could you at least try to be a little less insulting or at the very least PM me like I asked if you felt I was over steping my bounderies please? I would hate for there to be any misunderstandings with people and I believe that what I said (without going woefully off topic because I hate doing so if I can avoid it in the first place) was a shut case. Again I suppose I will have to point that yes, going to get Fates did factor into what happened when I went to pick it up, namely that I had to go to hospital because I was in a hurry to pick it up. There isn't any denial going on or excuses if you want to make that assumption. Had I perhaps not been in such a hurry to get the game for myself, perhaps I could have avoided the injuries and motercycle damage that was the result, but again, what's done is done. I also find it funny that you completely ignored the fact that I did mention that I went into Fates' with a VERY negative mindset. Perhaps agree to disagree will be better for at least this particular thread.

That said I have finished Revelation and given how drawn out the end game was, I can certainly say I didn't like it one bit.

At least with fighting Grima you could beat him and you would be able to get the game done in 1, maybe even 2 turns if you wanted (fun fact when I first went up against Grima, I got it done in 2 turns with my avatar and Chrom as the heroes).

Anakos(? Did I spell that right?) just kept going on and on and on. Litterally after you'd destroyed his body, he just kept on going. The end game was so damn drawn out it was annoying and not fun at all.

You litterally don't get the "end game" as its own chapter (which would have been nice) you get a whole chapter (24 or whatever it is...I think its chapter 27?) that you have to play through and then right after you think that chapter is done you have to go on again to the end game and you don't get a break from either the story to absorb or process what just happened or the actual "fight" itself, it's just painfully drawn out. I am certain that I mentioned this with Conquest (at least I think I've said this about Conquest's end game, if not then opps I must have forgotten), but it was the same issue as with Revelation and no doubt will be the same with Birthright if I ever get to it. For someone like me it was too much at once. I have never felt both so exhausted and overwhelmed at the same time while I was playing any game all while thinking "when is this going to end?". I know that there are others who wouldn't feel that way but I did and it ruined my experience on what should have been a "fun" game.

I have never had that sort of feeling with Awakening, in fact I am rather looking forward to what will be my 10th run (Redoing A Normal Awakening Run) coming to an end, and a little sad that it will end because not only is it the highest ever Renown I've ever had, it is also my longest ever run spanning a good two years with 230+ hours of total gameplay (mostly getting useful DLC skills on charcters). This I can say is what I personally don't see happening for Revelation, or Conquest or Birthright and that's sad.

If anyone has played Awakening then you know that you have a break before you go to Grima (the "end game" is its own chapter), to either pick up those spotpass characters (like Priam, Emmeryn, Aversa, Gangrel, Walhart etc) or go after Grima on the heels of the last chapter or play some DLC if you want to (perhaps to pick up those low leveled units if you wanted to for example).

I will adimit quite openly that some of Fates characters have won my affection/respect to varing degree, which is surprising given my increadably negative pre-Fates mindset about the games overall.

[Admiral "Bull" Halsey]

Well Awakening is 3/4 years old now, so I pretty much moved on playing Fates in terms of investing my replay values already. I still play Awakening every now and then just for Apotheosis. Unless Fates releases its own Apotheosis version...who knows.

@ TheSilentChloey: Since you hate Priam, please do me a favour and go fuck yourself.

Edited June 6, 2016 by Douglas MacArthur