People preference Does Anybody still like Awakening more than Fates.

[Dengres]

Awakening did the absolute bare minimum needed to not take me out of the experience. Fates did bellow said bare minimun.

Plus Awakening had just enough to go on where I could use it with knowledge from past games set the same world and conjecture to fill in the gaps with answers that were satisfying. Fates I could not do this, where I would have to just make shit up to fill in the blanks.

This of course does by no means excuse Awakening's world building. But it is still far better than in Fates and was just enough for it not to bother me

Again,I'll say the same if Fates' worldbuilding can soure your experience then so could Awakening's if to a lesser extend.

By no means am I trying to excuse Fates' worldbuilding, because it is a major flaw.

[TheWerdna]

For all my complaints about Fates and the fact that I like Awakening more as a whole, I do still think Fates did some good things. The gameplay is far more balanced for one, with far more viable skill options and builds (most of my Awakening charactered ended up basically ended up just runninh Galeforce, Limit Break and the 3 of like 8 possible skills) and level design.

However a few Fates gameplay things were less than ideal.

The first is that pairing up in duel guard is still much better than duel strike. The fact that you only get one attack here sucks the most, it would be nice to maybe add like an second extra attack from the supporting unit that has a chance to trigger, maybe even if its only like 50÷ with S or A+ support.

Silver weapons are utterly useless due to the face the debuff stacks for each attack, even ones when enemies initiate combat. Thr weapons that halve attacks after use are fine, as they can be worksd around (duel strike attacks refresh them) which rewards clever use, or you can on a unit with mixed stats alternate between them and a magical (or physical if the halving wep is magic) to refresh without suffering the halved attack. Either the debuff weapons should have made the debuff not stack (but maybe increase the size to like -4 or -6) or make it only trigger on attacks you initiated.

Another big one is a mixed opinion of how levels and skills were handled. On one had I like how you can learn skills without needinh to reset levels half a dozen times, where in Awakening you basically would max out characters incidentally just by trying to make good skill builds. In fates I can make builds for characters without outleveling the content. I also liked the idea that you had flexibility in choosing who can learn what skills via buddy and partner seals, but that was entirely ruined by being able to just buy any skill from anyone. I wish they limmited that, maybe only allow buying skills from characters you log from your own previous playthroughs.

Again,I'll say the same if Fates' worldbuilding can soure your experience then so could Awakening's if to a lesser extend.

By no means am I trying to excuse Fates' worldbuilding, because it is a major flaw.

I can completely understand that. It just did not sour it for me personally when it comes to Awakening, but I can completely get it if it did sour it for others. I guess I have a bit higher tolerance (or perhaps more accurately, lower standards) for that sort of thing

Edited July 7, 2016 by TheWerdna

[Dengres]

I can completely understand that. It just did not sour it for me personally when it comes to Awakening, but I can completely get it if it did sour it for others. I guess I have a bit higher tolerance (or perhaps more accurately, lower standards) for that sort of thing

Well I sorta meant it to semolinaro, she said the lack of wordbuilding in Fates soured her experience, so I thought this could very well apply to Awakening.

[The Draco Knight]

For all my complaints about Fates and the fact that I like Awakening more as a whole, I do still think Fates did some good things. The gameplay is far more balanced for one, with far more viable skill options and builds (most of my Awakening charactered ended up basically ended up just runninh Galeforce, Limit Break and the 3 of like 8 possible skills) and level design.

However a few Fates gameplay things were less than ideal.

The first is that pairing up in duel guard is still much better than duel strike. The fact that you only get one attack here sucks the most, it would be nice to maybe add like an second extra attack from the supporting unit that has a chance to trigger, maybe even if its only like 50÷ with S or A+ support.

Silver weapons are utterly useless due to the face the debuff stacks for each attack, even ones when enemies initiate combat. Thr weapons that halve attacks after use are fine, as they can be worksd around (duel strike attacks refresh them) which rewards clever use, or you can on a unit with mixed stats alternate between them and a magical (or physical if the halving wep is magic) to refresh without suffering the halved attack. Either the debuff weapons should have made the debuff not stack (but maybe increase the size to like -4 or -6) or make it only trigger on attacks you initiated.

Another big one is a mixed opinion of how levels and skills were handled. On one had I like how you can learn skills without needinh to reset levels half a dozen times, where in Awakening you basically would max out characters incidentally just by trying to make good skill builds. In fates I can make builds for characters without outleveling the content. I also liked the idea that you had flexibility in choosing who can learn what skills via buddy and partner seals, but that was entirely ruined by being able to just buy any skill from anyone. I wish they limmited that, maybe only allow buying skills from characters you log from your own previous playthroughs.

I can completely understand that. It just did not sour it for me personally when it comes to Awakening, but I can completely get it if it did sour it for others. I guess I have a bit higher tolerance (or perhaps more accurately, lower standards) for that sort of thing

About silver weapon, I disagree: the debuff didn't make them useless, but It simply made them weapons that should be used only during the player phase and their high power and Hit compensate for the debuff.

To be honest, I enjoyed more Fates than Awakening but don't get me wrong: I like Awakening, however the thing is that It was supposed to be the last title in the series and when I was able to buy it, I couldn't wait to return at home to play it and see if It was a great game like many were saying at that time, but when I finished it, I understood that what I got was a good game, but not something worthy to be the last title of a great series, because the gameplay was really terrible and the story wasn't as interesting as the ones from Sacred Stones and Path of Radiance. After this, when everyone were hyped about Fates, I was skeptical about it, but when I heard about Conquest and how good It was gameplay-wise, I admit I got very excited about it and after playing it, I have to say that It satisifed me even more than I expected (I even bought the other two routes thanks to Conquest, altough they didn't give me the same amount of fun), because the gameplay was even funnier than I tought and I appreciated most of the Nohrian characters and the same happened with the Hoshidians characters. And yes, I'm aware how bad the story is and the fact that we know nearly nothing about the world of Fates, but the gameplay was more than enough to keep me playing the gsme.

Who knows, perhaps, if I bought Awakening the same day It was released and I didn't hear about the "It was supposed to be the be the last title of the series" thing nor i had high expectations, my opinion would have been the complete opposite.

[Phoenix Rain]

I enjoyed Awakening's story alot more than fates. Even though in fates you turn into a dragon(one of my happy weaknesses). Plus they weren't as lazy and added special scenes for certain things. They only did one special scene if you marry Selena to Tsubaki in revelation and do Caledori's Chapter and a bit special Selena!Caledori Support. otherwise that's it. There were many plot holes. more than what awakening has. they also wasted potential for two characters from hidden truths that they could've done more with in the main story, but didn't.

The writing was better than fates, the localization team was better in awakening, They gave each child a unique conversation to who ever their father was and whoever Lucina's mother was in the future past DLC, there were less things touched in awakening. Though english Chrom and Sumia's support's rather annoy me. the japanese ones were much cuter. and They didn't use the same voice actors for 4 or 5 characters. though I give a pass to Matthew Mercer, his voice is awesome and he can sing. why they removed the section in the information screen that tells you which character married who is beyond me. I sometimes forget who I had other characters marry. lol.

The things I did like in Fates was the battle system(except for the fact that you couldn't use second seals), you didn't have to keep buying weapons, your avatar can turn into a dragon, my castle, being able to get skills by going to other characters my castles and battling for them, Ryouma, Marks, I absolutely love love love Hitori omou, the Hidden truths DLC and the Heirs of Fates DLC. Both which were written better than the main plot of fates.

What I didn't like in Awakening was the fact that your weapons broke, chrom and Sumia's english support converation, that certain characters couldn't support with one another. I would've liked cordi to have support converstions with chrom. she did have a canon crush on him. why they didn't let them support is beyond me and Tiki's recruitment chapter with having to grind for galeforce in order to keep Tiki alive, oy.

I know awakening has it's flaws, but I still enjoy it for what it is.

[saisymbolic]

This really is hard. I'm essentially burnt out on both of them, to be honest. I'm ready for the next FE to see if IS has taken note of the (numerous) grievances and rectified them in some manner. If I had to chose one though, it would likely be Fates, simply for game play, map design and soundtrack.

The cast has only a handful of characters that I truly like; Awakening was much the same way in terms of characters for me. To date, my favorite characters from FE13/14 are Stahl, Gregor, Owain (Odin), Inigo (Laslow), Brady, Gerome, Saizou, Hinata, Arthur, Niles, Tsubaki, Flora and Mozu. Holy tihs, there are only two chicks on my list. I still advocate a smaller cast of characters for the next game—maybe a smaller cast will help the writers in developing them and finding sensible roles for them.

Like, it really hurts me because my first FE was PoR and, while it wasn't the greatest story wise, I really did appreciate what they did with the narrative and the characters when they transitioned to RD—particularly Elincia, for all the reasons Sunwoo listed.

Also, as a confession, I was a FeMU x Chrom shipper. I still am. But, I don't hate Sumia—I just hate that Sumia can't marry Stahl, honestly. Also, why couldn't Chrom marry Tharja?

[Clarinets]

had absolutely AWESOME Sorcerers that were viable and amazing and weren't the stupid glass cannons that are Nyx or any other magic user reclassed into this class.

Magic users are meant to be glass cannons, though.

I prefer Conquest to Awakening solely due to gameplay. I personally don't care about the quality of the stories, as they're both not very good in my opinion.

[Thinks Their Own Way]

At least Fates doesn't encourage shipping wars and didn't having any supports that were offensively stereotypical sexist (Looking at you Chrom x Sumia) and the gameplay can't be reduced to, pair-up and Brave weapons are all you need.

[shadowofchaos]

> FE14

> Not encouraging shipping wars

I don't know where you have been, but while the majority of the shipping enthusiasts have been more accepting of others' choices, FE14 encourages more husbandoism and waifuism than any other game in the series.

Sumia also makes the choice to be the delicate flower and wants to take care Chrom. A character doing laundry for a man doesn't automatically mean it's encouraging that standard.

I mean, I remember a talk in FE4 that did that.

Edited August 6, 2016 by shadowofchaos

[Thinks Their Own Way]

> FE14

> Not encouraging shipping wars

I don't know where you have been, but while the majority of the shipping enthusiasts have been more accepting of others' choices, FE14 encourages more husbandoism and waifuism than any other game in the series.

Sumia also makes the choice to be the delicate flower and wants to take care Chrom. A character doing laundry for a man doesn't automatically mean it's encouraging that standard.

I mean, I remember a talk in FE4 that did that.

With Fates, a lot it feels so tongue and cheek, I don't take it seriously.

And I won't mind the delicate flower thing if we didn't have that scene were the game insisted that she wasn't one. And in context of the support, the pies are made to be a much bigger deal for Chrom reasoning to liking Sumia (I hear their is less of this in the Japaneses version and thank god). And the laundry thing is more of a token of appreciation (Priam helped Robin and now Robin helps Priam) than an actual reason.

[shadowofchaos]

Seems like a little personal bias there, considering the shipping fandom is equally as encouraged by Fates and Awakening to be overprotective of their fictional spouses.

A character can have a battle face and a face for others to be friendly with.

What scene are you referring to?

Please keep in mind, I played the Japanese version about 200x more than the English one.

I've only ever had 2-3 playthroughs of the English one.

Edited August 6, 2016 by shadowofchaos

[Thinks Their Own Way]

Seems like a little personal bias there, considering the shipping fandom is equally as encouraged by Fates and Awakening to be overprotective of their fictional spouses.

A character can have a battle face and a face for others to be friendly with.

What scene are you referring to?

Please keep in mind, I played the Japanese version about 200x more than the English one.

I've only ever had 2-3 playthroughs of the English one.

After Sumia punches Chrom, Flavia's speech.

And I'll keep that in mind.

[Frederick Trash]

I prefer Awakening, but I do still like Fate - Birthright and Revelation, that is.

Awakening has superior DLC, definitely. I feel more attached to a lot of the Awakening characters, whereas although I love some of the Fates characters, there are others I couldn't care less about.

[shadowofchaos]

After Sumia punches Chrom, Flavia's speech.

And I'll keep that in mind.

All that accomplished was that she cares and will go out of her comfort zone to do what she needs to for people she cares about.

It does not erase her "delicate, clumsy flower" personality. If anything it establishes it since she made a fist instead of slapping him out of it like she meant to.

Flavia's sentence commenting on her action has a different connotation than in English.

That he should take a woman like her as a bride. "A woman strong enough to stand up to him when necessary."

Not saying she isn't delicate.

Edited August 7, 2016 by shadowofchaos

[TheWerdna]

So I have given it some thought and I think I realized the main reason I like Awakening more than Fates. Its not the story, or the gameplay, or the characters: those things matter and I find that each differs as to which game I find better in that regard. But rather the biggest reason I like Awakening more is that it feels more complete and polished then Fates. Hear me out on this one.

Lack of completeness really comes from the fact that to get the full story I have to buy all three routes in Fates. While I did buy and play all three, it just felt icky having to do so: like I was presured into it by wanting to get the full story. Even Birthright, which has the more stand alone story still has unanswered questions you can only answer with playing the others. Its made worse by even more of the story being locked off in DLC missions, like the backstory being in Hidden Truths or how Heirs of Fate indirectly deals with Anankos being still alive post Birthright/Conquest. Even the three routes together feel less complete. Meanwhile Awakening had a complete story in the main game. When I finished it I did not feel like anything was missing, and when it came to DLC I ended up buying it because I WANTED to instead of feeling like I HAD to if I wanted the full picture.

Then it comes to polish. A bunch of little details in Fates just feel incomplete. Like how there are less unique promotion colors for characters: in Awakening characters tended to get unique colors for both promotions, Fates most get them for one promotion if any at all. Fates lacks unique weapon icons for each weapon. Fates lacks a proper unit logbook that tracks details about other players like pairings. Fates UI lacks any indication of weaknesses a unit has. The Fates world map is bland and doesn't convey useful information about the world. Half the kids have gray eyes, not even bothering to give them the eye color of their parents. None of the paralogues have unique dialogue for the kids engaging the bosses of their levels like in Awakening. The general lack of unique dialogue in the story: Awakening had the special dialogue for Robin x Lucina and Chrom x Robin in chapter 21, different interactions in chapter 13 for each of Lucina's mothers, and a unique line for each of Robin's potential partners and kids if you do the Chrom kills Grima ending. While these are small issues, they add up. The little things sort of really make a difference in making the game feel better, adds a sense of quality to it so to speak. It makes it feel like they took the time and effort to polish things in Awakening. Fates did not, which only serves to make it feel further incomplete.

[Carnation]

I still like Awakening - it was my introduction to series and I'll always have a soft spot for it. The thing that I noticed after a couple of playthroughs is that, while I'm having a good time with the game, I didn't particularly enjoy playing it. I can't think of a single map I love revisiting and often the game felt more frustrating than fun. The characters are what I enjoy the most about the game, and it really is a great cast. Maribelle and Inigo are still some my favorite FE characters ever.

But I definitely like Fates more. I'm not too picky about the story - I think Fates' is kinda average, but more engaging than Awakening's. (in Awakening, I remember being more invested in the children characters and their story than in anything else that happened in the game) Conquest has maps I can't wait to play again, I feel attached to several characters, gameplay's just so much fun...

Both are good games, but I enjoy Awakening mainly for its characters, Fates has more to offer to me.

Edited August 9, 2016 by Carnation

[Blaze The Great]

Awakening>Fates, in my eyes.

Fates has better, more enjoyable gameplay, and its aesthetic feel is comparable to, if not better than, that of Awakening. However, the story and worldbuilding of Fates make Awakening look like a masterpiece, and as one who highly values story (even if I'm horrible at producing actual critique), that kinda ruins the games for me. So yeah, I like Awakening over Fates.

[joshcja]

I like awakening.

It's nice to take a break from feet every now and then.

[DragonFlames]

I like awakening.

It's nice to take a break from feet every now and then.

Teehee.

In all seriousness, though: I said before that I liked Fates more... no longer the case. I recently went back to Awakening and checked the file I had on there and I noticed that it was like coming home from an uncomfortable vacation.

It's all my opinion, of course, but I really do think that Awakening is superior to Fates in two key aspects and a third side aspect.

First, there's the characters. I find Awakening's cast to be overall more like- and relatable than Fates' (except for one blunder, which is negligible). The characters are fleshed out more and the entire army feels closer together than they do in Fates.

The support conversations do a lot in Awakening's favour as well. Fates has many supports were characters are generally assholes or otherwise mean to each other until the B or A support, whereas in Awakening, they get along better right from the get-go, making the whole 'battling supported by bonds' thing more believable.

Second, there's the story. It may be lacking in Awakening, but at least Awakening accomplished a complete and conclusive narrative, whereas Fates is wasted potential all around and one particular part of the story doesn't even make sense in the slightest.

The third and final aspect is that Awakening has superior DLC to Fates. I want to use my own units, thank you very much!

And I want Paragon on everyone, too!

Fates only triumphs over Awakening in terms of gameplay and while I am usually someone who says gameplay>everything else, I really do find Fates' flaws (characters, supports and story) to be very bothersome to my overall enjoyment of the game.

Now that the hype has settled down and I have played all three routes I can safely say that the wait I endured wasn't worth it.

2016 has definitely seen better games (Bravely Second: End Layer, Stella Glow, Etrian Odyssey II Untold and Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth come to mind) and will see better games (if The Legend of Heroes Trails of Cold Steel II releases in Europe before the year ends).

[Frenzify]

Maybe because Awakening was my first one I'm more forgiving of it, but I just have more issues with Fates than I do with Awakening. Regardless of the campaign there are issues I have with the story, such as needless deaths, boring villains, and what have you. There's also the fact that to get the best experience out of the game, you need to purchase each campaign. This is not to say Awakening is perfect, by any stretch of the imagination, but like I said, I'm probably just more forgiving of it. Besides, as much as I may like to think I like a darker story, I'd can't deny that a happy ending makes it more likely for me to play the game multiple times. Even on Revelations there are moments that detract from that, in my eyes. And being the "true" story, the fact that you can't get all of the characters feels very strange to me. Fates just doesn't have an engaging enough story for me. So, predictable and lacking in suspense as the story may be, I still find Awakening's story much more compelling.

While, I really like that Fates has more content at its disposal, I somehow still have more interest in Awakening. It's like Fates needs the extra content to cover up for the fact that it's story just isn't as good. I also like the Awakening characters more, overall. Fates has a lot, and I do like a lot of them, but there are some I just don't care about. There are some characters like that in Awakening, too, but it doesn't have as many characters to overwhelm you with. And then we get to the children. I don't hate the children in Fates, I hate the justification for them in Fates. It's so shoehorned in that it completely screws with the timeline of the game, should you decide to S support anyone. But I can slightly forgive it, since it gave us the gloriousness that is Forrest.

One thing that I'll easily give to Fates is the soundtrack. There are few tracks in Awakening that really stuck with me, but the ones that did were pretty damn good. With Fates, though, the soundtrack is consistently awesome, and one of my current, and maybe even all-time favourites.

So, I would have to say I enjoy Awakening more.

[Slyfox]

Man, for me, it's so hard to compare the soundtracks.

Fates has a consistently better soundtrack, generally speaking.

But Awakening's map/battle themes... Just pure bliss to my ears. I don't know why some people find them boring, they are constructed in such a diverse way. To me, they aren't boring, they are just more subtle. Catchy and memorable doesn't always mean better.

[The Geek]

Man, for me, it's so hard to compare the soundtracks.

Fates has a consistently better soundtrack, generally speaking.

But Awakening's map/battle themes... Just pure bliss to my ears. I don't know why some people find them boring, they are constructed in such a diverse way. To me, they aren't boring, they are just more subtle. Catchy and memorable doesn't always mean better.

For me, Fates is the clear winner in this regard seeing as the only good map theme in Awakening (Conquest) is also in Fates.

[DarkDestr0yer61]

Oh goodness. About a year ago, I sold several games because I wanted the extra cash, and one of the games I sold was Awakening. I kind of regret it, since then, I learned that there is a lot of spot pass stuff to mess around with, and there a lot of neat stuff in the game.... my issue is that was a lot of stuff in Awakening that I didn't like. And Fates fixed a lot of the issues in my opinion, except the story and world building. Personally, I think Conquest>Birthright>Awakening>Revelation.

[onmyoji]

Just like most people have already said, I think Awakening has better characters and story. While Fates (Conquest) has better maps and gameplay.

Overall, I like Awakening more because it feels more like a "real" video games, while for me Fates is something that came out from management decision to squeeze money out of fans.

Edited August 17, 2016 by onmyoji

[Thane]

Overall, I like Awakening more because it feels more like a "real" video games, while for me Fates is something that came out from management decision to squeeze money out of fans.

This is also something that has bothered me, but I don't like bringing it up because it doesn't make for a very good argument. However, to me, Awakening feels like a passion project while Fates feels like a cold, calculated and slightly rushed product, especially in terms of the story. I mean, locking the true path behind a paywall is not exactly consumer friendly.