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How do you feel about Fire Emblem Awakening 10 years later?


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I would like to start off this topic by thanking @Zapp Branniglenn for recommending that other Fire Emblems be discussed in the same sense that was done in my Fire Emblem Fates post where I asked how people felt about Fire Emblem Fates 7 years later. Since it's Fire Emblem Awakening's 10 year anniversary, I figured that now would be the perfect time to do a retrospective on Awakening and discuss how people feel about it 10 years later. 

If you'd like to discuss your own opinion on Fire Emblem Fates in 2022, here's a link to my Fire Emblem Fates 7 Years Later Retrospective topic: How do you feel about Fire Emblem Fates 7 years later?

So it's been about a decade since Fire Emblem Awakening released all the way back in 2012 (or 2013 for the international release, which would be 9 years). From what I hear, Awakening is the game in the series that not only saved Fire Emblem from fading into obscurity, but also the game that introduced a lot of players in the West to the series. Now Awakening wasn't my first Fire Emblem (that honor goes to Three Houses), though I enjoyed the entire experience from Premonition to Endgame. It surprises me to know that if Awakening hadn't been such a success worldwide, then we may have never gotten Fates, Fire Emblem Warriors, Shadows of Valentia, Heroes, Three Houses, Three Hopes, and all future Fire Emblem titles to come in the following years.

In my personal opinion, I think Awakening is an amazing game and can see why it's such a highly praised and popular Fire Emblem game. Chrom is one of my favorite lords in the entire series, and Robin is easily my favorite Avatar character of the lot. The rest of the cast are also pretty likable characters, with Frederick, Gregor and Lissa being among some of my favorites. I also like a lot of the mechanics that are included within Awakening, such as Pair Ups, "Generation 2" Units obtained through S-Supports (though I barely utilized it and gave only Chrom and Sumia an S-Support due to a gaffe on my part), and the special stores that pop up on Ylisse where you can get even better items than in the regular stores. Events in the game that stuck out to me in particular are... (Awakening Spoilers Ahead!) 

Spoiler

Chrom and Lissa's older sister Emmeryn sacrificing herself in an attempt to end the war with the Plegians, Lucina revealing to Robin that he/she is the one who kills Chrom in the doomed future she comes from and has resolved to kill Robin herself (but ultimately doesn't go through with it), and Robin's ultimate bamboozle against Validar where he/she pretends to kill Chrom (as seen in the Premonition chapter) but holds back to keep Chrom alive and change the future for the better. 

Awakening also has one of my favorite maps in the game: Chapter 10: Renewal. I just really love the rainy setting (and music) because it fits the mood after the events of Chapter 9 excellently and I like the conversation the boss of the chapter, Mustafa, has with Chrom before going to battle. I also like the final battle because 1. What other Fire Emblem game has you fight the final boss on a dragon's back? and 2. Depending on who kills said final boss, one of two endings can occur, which from what I hear are both technically good with their own consequences. 

But that's enough of my outlook on Awakening. How do you feel about Fire Emblem Awakening? Is it a game worthy of the praise it receives in your eyes? Or is it an overrated game that isn't quite as fun as many people say it is?

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For me, FEA is a game that I've always been coming back to time and time again, which says something about the game as a whole that you never really can replicate with Three Houses or Fates.

 

Now that could be because epic last battle is on Grima’s dragon form and the sheer emotional ride that actually is, but I like to think of it as something IS got right, the rest of the games feeling...

 

Well like they pale in comparison.

 

Which isn't to say we didn't get some good characters out of them, we did.  I'll be the first to give credit where credit is due.

 

But Awakening as a whole was not only new, but a love letter to the series, and that is what I think these last few games are missing.

 

That said my thoughts on Awakening hasn't really changed.

 

It's a great game, good story (despite its flaws) and I enjoy it enough to keep coming back to it.

 

Are Fates and Three Houses the same?  No.  Why?

 

Because they're more of the same game, draining on you as you have to purchase each route you want (Fates) or end up with an entirely botched and incomplete story (Fates and Three Houses).

 

Awakening was one whole narrative.  No secondary paths, just one coherent pathway with some choices that minimally impacted the story.

 

That's it really.

 

Fates and Three Houses can't hold a candle to that imo.

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I was of course very happy to see a new Fire Emblem game of any kind that isn't totally scaled back like FE11 or trapped in Japan. I actually was not aware of FE12 back in 2012. So as far as I knew, FE11 did, in fact, kill the series. Do you guys remember how long it took for a worldwide version to get announced? I wonder how hard NoA had to fight to get the game over here, especially when Nintendo was in maximum crisis mode with the poor launches of 3DS and Wii U. Awakening launched when I was still in high school, and it was the first time other kids were playing a Fire Emblem game that I wasn't personally letting them borrow to try out. (Side Note: If I do make it to heaven, it's because I let my friends borrow FE7, 8, 9, and 10). My classmates flocked to me as "the fire emblem guy" to explain game mechanics. I wish I could remember how I felt about the game at the time, but I imagine any negative thoughts were swept away by that excitement of seeing everybody else's playthroughs. All I remember specifically is loving that you could watch as many supports as you want, and feeling very ripped off by the DLC "characters". 

I haven't played Awakening in many years at time of writing. I know for a fact I gave it a second playthrough on Lunatic at some point, just to unlock Lunatic+ and see if the Chrom/Robin dream team was tough enough to do it on their own with enough DLC map grinding (they are). I think I attempted to finish the support library, but gave up when I realized how tall of an order that was with the Gen 2 units. There are many Gen 2 units that I have never seen, and in fact have met for the first time in Fire Emblem Heroes, like Cynthia and Panne's kid. Awakening paralogues really bugged me because of how formulaic they were. Each one is just to introduce these bonus characters, rather than expand on the world of the game or tell an interesting story. And they're all some of the longest maps with 50+ enemies to rout. What a slog. The Gen 2 units aren't even good, they have to be leveled up. After Radiant Dawn I remember really wishing for the return of Gaiden chapters, or otherwise having side quest maps, and it felt like a very monkey's paw result to see these maps in Awakening. The "everybody can support with everybody" aspect of Awakening is certainly the #1 monkey's paw wish.

I don't particularly care for the narrative that Awakening "saved Fire Emblem". There isn't a wealth of developer interviews between FE6-FE12, but I imagine every single one of those was "The last fire emblem" given how eager Nintendo is to drop a franchise that isn't pulling at least Mario Sports game numbers. Plus Fire Emblem was developed in house, and 2012 was the worst year for the company, so everything would have had as dire of a tone. I remember looking at the official sales figures posted by Nintendo (which included digital sales) and I noticed Awakening jumped from barely 1 million at the end of 2013, to several millions in specifically the latter half of 2014. And what was the biggest thing to happen to fire emblem in 2014? Furthermore, what really allowed Awakening to have such long legs sales wise is digital distribution. The amount of copies of Awakening out there was infinite. This is the first time where you can see some incredible Smash trailer, or otherwise learn about an interesting game, and within minutes have that game downloading to your 3DS. People couldn't do that when Brawl came out, all twelve of those copies of Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn within 100 miles were long snatched up. I don't think people appreciate just how much game sales have increased as a result of digital storefronts, especially among niche genres. When I couldn't find Path of Radiance in game stores back in the mid 2000s, I gave up looking until I chanced upon the right bargain bin in 2010. 

Overall, I'd say Awakening is a pretty decent game. Bottom of B tier maybe for this series. I'd like to have an excuse to play again, but I don't think it's a Fire Emblem that is conducive to interesting challenge runs. Among the 3DS era, it didn't impress me as much as Echoes, but certainly more than the three versions of Fates. I love how the map music and battle music blend seamlessly together as you fade from one to the other. My jaw dropped when I first heard it - such a wonderful idea. I don't care for Awakening's battle animations. It's a lot of single-leap gliding from point A to B. The characters have no feet, and that bugs me too. I remember thinking the story up to defeating Gangrel was really solid. There's some excellent dialogue writing in scenes involving major characters, and the CG cutscenes are always a treat. The music in the map after Emmeryn dies is phenomenal. I don't like the mechanics of Stat Backpacks (Pair Up), but I'll begrudgingly admit that cutting the roster size in half really cuts down on the length of Player Phase. Maybe 8-10 deployment slots is ideal for Fire Emblem after all.

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I guess I can repeat my answer here

Quote

I find the gameplay utterly unmemorable, and I find the story fails utterly in its ending. Honestly I am baffled by how utterly forgettable I find the gameplay (and yes, I know the mechanics of the game, that isn't what I am talking about), I could not tell you what any of the maps were like, or what units were like to use, and its the only Fire Emblem where I feel that way about, and I feel I gave it the fairest shake I could. I even started a challenge run screen-shot LP in an attempt to create something memorable about the gameplay, and I still feel that way about Awakening. As for the story, one of the most memorable things about it was how much the story (barring the ending) was building towards a story about the futility of trying to change the past, even to the point of alienating numerous players with explicit choices which emphasize your lack of choice. They were building a greek tragedy, and then bailed out because they weren't willing to give us the tragic end they were building towards.

 

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Almost the same as when I first played it, though I have perhaps warmed up to it in recent years.

When I played it, I was largely placid towards it as it felt like a rather generic Fire Emblem: Greatest Hits, probably because a 'Fire Emblem Greatest Hits' is exactly what it is designed to be. Combine that with the fact that the first two FE games I played: Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn, had set the FE storytelling bar rather high for me, and, while I enjoyed Awakening overall, I did dismiss it as a bit uncreative.

Now, looking back on it, there are things that I do appreciate about the game a lot more than I did when it released. I like some of the support conversations a lot more than I did before; they generally aren't on the level of Three Houses or Path of Radiance support conversations, but a number of them are pretty good and show that the characters do have some depth. A number of characters are still a bit more bland than I would like, but they're not bad. Gameplay-wise, while just grabbing mechanics from past FE games isn't inherently creative, I will say that the game was creative in the ways in which it combined those mechanics. I like that the time travel was a proper plot point and not just an excuse to have 2nd gen units because Genealogy had two generations and we're trying to represent all of FE in one game.

The game still definitely isn't on my top 3 FE games... but it is probably within the top 5. It's still bland, but it did everything it needed to do: be a Fire Emblem Greatest Hits that would be a good final note if the series ended. It played it safe, but it did so at a time when playing it safe really was the right call to make.

All that said, I still think most of the armour and class outfits in the game look absolutely ridiculous.

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Awakening is one of the best games in the series. Some of the writing is a little clunky and the story can be kinda hammy at times, but it's a fun game to actually play and I enjoy the majority of the cast a lot, despite some of the tropes and gimmicks. It isn't my absolute favorite game in the series, though, nor do I think it's the best game in the series. As I said, the writing can be a little clunky and hammy, and some of the gameplay can feel either busted (for you) or over-the-top (on the enemy's side), and that kinda brings it down a smidge.

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Awakening is... fine? There's very little about it that I love, but also not that much that I hate. It's just a good, solid, middle-of-the-pack Fire Emblem game.

I know that in some ways it's thought of as being a collection of the greatest hits of the series up to that point, and in some ways I can see that. But a lot of the remixes just don't seem to be as good as the originals. A Tellius fan might see echoes of the laguz in the taguel, but they're not nearly as interesting or satisfying. A Sacred Stones fan might like travelling around the world map and fighting skirmishes to level up, but there's no equivalent of the Tower or Ruins, so isn't the original better? I've never played Genealogy, but my understanding is that the second generation there plays a vastly different role in how that game plays out (deliberately vague both to avoid spoilers and for my lack of familiarity), and that the Awakening kids won't really satisfy someone's nostalgia there.

I think that Awakening's greatest strengths are rather where it was doing more of its own thing. The first big thing that Awakening did was to really embrace the casual audience. Not only by the continued inclusion of New Mystery's casual mode, but also by offering infinite grinding and the chance to reset character level and continue leveling indefinitely. Being able to bring in a bigger potential audience was massive for the series, and I am only ever going to be glad when a game gives its players more choices for how they want to engage with it.

It also came up with a new skills system, with the skills being heavily tied to the reclassing mechanic, and the potential to come up with compelling builds for all characters. Variants on the same system have made their way to Fates and Three Houses and pretty much just feel standard by now, but Awakening was the innovator here. And honestly, I still can't decide whether I like it or not. Coming up with different skill builds is a lot of fun, and its very satisfying when a planned build finally starts to come together. That's the plus side. But the downside is that I don't really find the moment to moment gameplay to be all that much fun. Change character a to class b, stay in the class until they get skill z, then immediately switch to class c... it all feels a lot like busywork and can detract from the simplicity and immediacy of the tactical gameplay. I'm not sure I can think of any system that I'd like more, though, so overall it's probably a good thing.

Then there's the pair up mechanic. Again, new in Awakening but it's become something of a staple (if we consider the adjutant system in Three Houses to be a continuation of the same basic idea). And honestly, I haven't really liked any of the implementations. Awakening's is overpowered, Fates' is over-fiddly, and Three Houses' is underwhelming. Still, I do like the idea behind it, even so.

What else is there to say? The story was unremarkable, but generally inoffensive, and at least moderately engaging. The characters were fairly shallow, but entertaining and likeable enough that I actually cared when they died. Much the same could be said of most of the maps. There are very few standout memories of phenomenal maps, but very few that made me rage. They were solid. Decent. Fine.

As for stuff I didn't enjoy, I'll say the children system and the concept of the outrealms. The children system felt like it warped the characters and supports around it too much. All characters had to be single. Every support chain had to have the possibility of ending with a romance. Supports between two male characters or two female characters became vanishingly rare. And the whole thing was far too heteronormative for my tastes. For outrealm, I just prefer that the different worlds of different FE games stay separate, as their own self-contained stories. I don't like the attempt to put together a single all-encompassing cosmology, and I don't like the weird crossovers. It's fairly easy to avoid, so it's not a major issue, but it still bugs me a little.

But overall? Yeah, it was fine.

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I really disliked the turn it took for a fire emblem game. I wasn't quite in the "if this is what saves the series it had better died"-camp, but I was close to it. Then FE Fates came out... I hated Fates so badly that I started to like Awakening more and more. And after Echoes'  release, I found that FE still had some gems in its future. And then came 3 Houses, one of my favorite FE games. 

Looking back on Awakening, it's a pretty good game. its characters and story not as bad as Fates. Its gameplay not as bad as Echoes. (Don't get me wrong, I still love SoV despite its bad gameplay, and still dislike Fates for its bad story and characters.) The game is fine, and I look forward to replaying it again some day. (Though I will probably replay every FE I played again at some point, even Fates.)

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It's still my favorite, but I'm so burnt out on it, I can't play it for more than ten minutes or so at a time. (Three Houses is in a similar boat. Fates I run hot-and-cold on.) 

When I first played it, I wasn't expecting it to be my favorite. I thought Sacred Stones would always hold that place in my heart, and I hadn't played an FE game I had actually liked as a whole since Path of Radiance, so I wasn't sure what to expect. But I fell in love, and I haven't looked back. 

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My initial reaction when I first played the game was: "Fire Emblem has Come of Age."

...Pair Ups, S-Supports and Marriages, Gen 2 Units, The Overworld Map, The Self-Insert Avatar, The Outrealms and the Homages to the Older Games, the Skill Customization and Forging and Reclassing mechanics...

Coming out of the GBA and Wii era; it all felt like such a breath of fresh air. And this wonderful mix of new ideas the fandom had wanted to see for a long time + bringing back all the old favorites in a single package. 
___

In full 10 year retrospect; the game has not aged well.

The map design is objectively atrocious, the higher difficulty settings are completely unbalanced, and the magic system is the shallowest and least interesting its been since FE1. 

The game definitely has serious flaws that hurt its replayability, and make it a chore to go back and revisit.   

But it was a game for its moment. And for what it was; it holds up. 

 

Edited by Shoblongoo
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I think the game was good upon release but that it has aged pretty poorly.

In terms of Gameplay Fates made Awakening obsolete by fixing a lot of Awakening's glaring flaws such as pair up being broken or the maps and objective being rather lame. 

In terms of story Awakening was never all that remarkable and so I rarely think of it. 

So I guess I feel Awakening is a middling Fire Emblem. Functional but outdated gameplay, and a bland but not outright bad story. 

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26 minutes ago, Shoblongoo said:

The map design is objectively atrocious, the higher difficulty settings are completely unbalanced, and the magic system is the shallowest and least interesting its been since FE1.

I think FE1 has an interesting magic system... 😞

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8 minutes ago, Jotari said:

I think FE1 has an interesting magic system... 😞

"Tome" being a single weapon rank that all tomes use, no individual spell lists, and no magic weapon triangle???

...ehhhhhhhhhhhhh...
___

How hard would it for them to have been like: "Miriel is a Fire Mage. Ricken is a Wind Mage. Those are two different things." 
 

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6 minutes ago, Shoblongoo said:

"Tome" being a single weapon rank that all tomes use, no individual spell lists, and no magic weapon triangle???

...ehhhhhhhhhhhhh...
___

How hard would it for them to have been like: "Miriel is a Fire Mage. Ricken is a Wind Mage. Those are two different things." 
 

Well it's more the fact that there is no magic or resistance stats, meaning tomes are weapons that deal consistent fixed damage.

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17 hours ago, lenticular said:

I know that in some ways it's thought of as being a collection of the greatest hits of the series up to that point, and in some ways I can see that. But a lot of the remixes just don't seem to be as good as the originals. A Tellius fan might see echoes of the laguz in the taguel, but they're not nearly as interesting or satisfying. A Sacred Stones fan might like travelling around the world map and fighting skirmishes to level up, but there's no equivalent of the Tower or Ruins, so isn't the original better? I've never played Genealogy, but my understanding is that the second generation there plays a vastly different role in how that game plays out (deliberately vague both to avoid spoilers and for my lack of familiarity), and that the Awakening kids won't really satisfy someone's nostalgia there.

Then there's the pair up mechanic. Again, new in Awakening but it's become something of a staple (if we consider the adjutant system in Three Houses to be a continuation of the same basic idea). And honestly, I haven't really liked any of the implementations. Awakening's is overpowered, Fates' is over-fiddly, and Three Houses' is underwhelming. Still, I do like the idea behind it, even so.

As for stuff I didn't enjoy, I'll say the children system and the concept of the outrealms. The children system felt like it warped the characters and supports around it too much. All characters had to be single. Every support chain had to have the possibility of ending with a romance. Supports between two male characters or two female characters became vanishingly rare. And the whole thing was far too heteronormative for my tastes. For outrealm, I just prefer that the different worlds of different FE games stay separate, as their own self-contained stories. I don't like the attempt to put together a single all-encompassing cosmology, and I don't like the weird crossovers. It's fairly easy to avoid, so it's not a major issue, but it still bugs me a little.

I haven't really played much of the Fire Emblems pre-Awakening (I'm working on that atm), but I personally like the things Awakening remixed in its own game. I like the laguz characters in Awakening and by extent, Fates. I also liked traveling around Ylisse and partaking in all of the bonus battles that popped up from time to time (or just using one of those boxes from the shop to start up a battle). Not sure about Genealogy, though I do like the idea of Second Generation units being a thing in Fire Emblem and would like to see the concept done again (Yes, I know Fates did it too in case you were going to ask) in a future FE title.

I for one really like the pair up mechanic. I'd say Awakening's pair up mechanic would have to be my favorite due to how beneficial it was to use. Fates' interpretation was a bit of a letdown for me because the secondary unit couldn't do anything besides defend the main unit from time to time. From what I remember when using it in Three Houses, I thought it was pretty good at least. Plus, pair ups make building support levels between two units much easier than it was before.

I personally really liked the child system that was in both Awakening and Fates (though I barely utilized it in Awakening). I'm pretty sure that the only same-sex S-Supports are with the Avatar and a select few amount of characters. I'd say the reason for that was probably because Gen 2 Units can't exist without a husband and wife to make the kid, so it ended up limited as a result. As a heterosexual male, I personally really like the variety of S-Supports you could have between units of the opposite sex (except for any S-Supports involving the Avatar character and a Second Gen unit + Corrin X BR Royals or Azura) and generally go with straight ships whenever a romance mechanic is included (regardless of which game it appears in, Fire Emblem or otherwise). Suffice to say, I like to ship characters according to my own preferences. Hope I didn't come off as self-righteous or preachy in this section. I apologize in advance if it sounds that way. I just figured I'd give my own opinion on the matter of S-Supports in Fire Emblem (and romance mechanics in video games in general). 

As for outrealm, I like the idea of a crossover between the different characters of Fire Emblem in a Smash-esque way (though I haven't played the outrealm missions because they cost extra). Heroes is basically just that when you really think about it (though I don't really like Heroes for other reasons I won't delve into).

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2 hours ago, CyberZord said:

I personally really liked the child system that was in both Awakening and Fates (though I barely utilized it in Awakening). I'm pretty sure that the only same-sex S-Supports are with the Avatar and a select few amount of characters. I'd say the reason for that was probably because Gen 2 Units can't exist without a husband and wife to make the kid, so it ended up limited as a result. As a heterosexual male, I personally really like the variety of S-Supports you could have between units of the opposite sex (except for any S-Supports involving the Avatar character and a Second Gen unit + Corrin X BR Royals or Azura) and generally go with straight ships whenever a romance mechanic is included (regardless of which game it appears in, Fire Emblem or otherwise). Suffice to say, I like to ship characters according to my own preferences. Hope I didn't come off as self-righteous or preachy in this section. I apologize in advance if it sounds that way. I just figured I'd give my own opinion on the matter of S-Supports in Fire Emblem (and romance mechanics in video games in general). 

If IS had wanted to do same sex relationships, it would have been easy enough for them to make it work. Adoption exists, and has existed since the ancient world. And the vast majority of inherited traits in the game are ones that are easily explained as being learned/cultural rather than genetic (I'm pretty sure there is not a gene for being a Pegasus Knight, for instance). And honestly, this is a fantasy world with magic, time travel, and people coming back from the dead. There's no reason they couldn't just have said that same-sex couples could use magic to have biological children, if they'd wanted to do so.

The one thing that I think would have required more substantial change was the mechanics of having each child with a fixed mother but a variable father. That wouldn't work if same sex relationships were included. But even this is far from an unsolvable problem. There are plenty of other approaches that they could have taken that would have worked just as well.

So let's not kid ourselves. The reason that there aren't more same-sex options for S supports is because IS (and/or Nintendo) didn't want there to be. Nothing more, nothing less.

And look, I'm not going to say that every piece of media in existence has to cater to me, my tastes and my desires. They don't, obviously. If IS and Nintendo want to go full heteronormativity on every single thing they ever make, then that is absolutely their prerogative. And if you enjoyed that aspect of it, then great. Genuinely. I do not go in for the toxic "well, if I don't like it then nobody should be allowed to like it!" mentality. It's impossible to please all of the people all of the time. But I would be lying if I said that it didn't have an impact on my personal enjoyment and opinion of the game.

Think of it this way: Awakening (and Fates) really leaned into the whole M/F shipping side of thing. And that is great for people who enjoy that, but not so good for people who don't enjoy it. (For whatever reason. Be they people who like M/M or F/F ships, people who are more interested in seeing platonic relationships than romantic ones, people who don't care about the characters and story and just want to get to the tactical combat as quickly as possible, etc.)

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3 hours ago, lenticular said:

people who don't care about the characters and story and just want to get to the tactical combat as quickly as possible, etc.)

I'd class myself as not liking the hyper focus on shipping precisely because I care about the characters and story. Heightened shipping turns the entire cast into hot young single twentysomethings as opposed to a more diverse range of people that can be utilized if getting it on isn't a major focus.

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14 hours ago, lenticular said:

If IS had wanted to do same sex relationships, it would have been easy enough for them to make it work. Adoption exists, and has existed since the ancient world. And the vast majority of inherited traits in the game are ones that are easily explained as being learned/cultural rather than genetic (I'm pretty sure there is not a gene for being a Pegasus Knight, for instance). And honestly, this is a fantasy world with magic, time travel, and people coming back from the dead. There's no reason they couldn't just have said that same-sex couples could use magic to have biological children, if they'd wanted to do so.

The one thing that I think would have required more substantial change was the mechanics of having each child with a fixed mother but a variable father. That wouldn't work if same sex relationships were included. But even this is far from an unsolvable problem. There are plenty of other approaches that they could have taken that would have worked just as well.

So let's not kid ourselves. The reason that there aren't more same-sex options for S supports is because IS (and/or Nintendo) didn't want there to be. Nothing more, nothing less.

This (and your previous post) is very well-said and I strongly agree. Personally I feel it's been an absolute breath of fresh air to leave this system behind and far prefer that we have games that are actually allowed to have queer characters, older characters, married characters, etc.

Anyway, Awakening, 10 years later... is okay? It's a game I played a bunch (four times, I believe?) shortly after it came out but only once in the years since. At the time I was happy that Fire Emblem was back and found it infinitely more engaging than the stuffy DS remakes, although I still found it a step back the GBA/Tellius era overall; ninja reinforcements are bad, the second gen felt very weird and tacked-on in addition to the issues lenticular already mentioned. I thought the story was very stupid and the map design was bland/forgettable, but I did like its cast quite a lot; they were funny and engaging. And it was certainly more approachable than earlier games, with a much better support system than GBA in particular (while Tellius just didn't have enough of them).

Not much has changed; I still like it for what it is. I think Fates has basically "powercrept" the game in my mind, doing everything it does better, so I don't see much reason to return to it very often. Even when I replayed the game recently for the first time in ages I quickly found myself skipping all the scenes. But I still liked that it brought Fire Emblem into relevance (and appreciate the parts of the game that allowed this to happen), and set the stage for the games since, including 3H which I consider the magnum opus of the franchise.

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It's OK. The stroy can be a little contrived and didn't engage in as much world building as I would have preferred, but the characters are fun enough enough that I could overlook it. It has some real shoutout characters like Viron and Gregor, who are still some of my favorite characters in the series.

The gameplay side of things are a lot less positive though. The unbalanced difficulties, poor map design, and annoying little things like risen blocking ships really make it unfun to go back and play through it again.

Overall the game is mixed bag, with replays if it again are pretty unlikely. But I do consider reading some of the support list and dlcs like Future Past from time to time.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

It's still a game I go back to more often than I thought, If I had a time machine and experience it all over again, I'd so do that. it's still tied as my favorite 3ds game next to Mario and Luigi Dream Team.

I won't go into detail about why I love it so much rn (because it's late as I'm writing it, I'll probably make a post about why I enjoyed it so much like I did Fates) but I felt the same way I did in 2013, just having a great time

Edited by DarkSage861
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