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Late to the FE party: Awakening review [spoilers]


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Yo everyone. I'm new here! I was initially planning on doing several "mini-reviews" of all the FE games I've played so far in the FE General forum within a single post. But as I wrote them, they got too big for that. So I decided to separate it out and post them individually to their respective forums. I'm sure there are lots of people who post reviews on here, so I don't know if anyone will be interested to read and talk about my thoughts on these games, but I wanted to post anyway. Feel free to ignore if you don't care!

I'm posting these in the order that I played the games, so as to maybe give a sense of how my thoughts on the series as a whole evolved over time.

First, a word on what I am thinking of when I give a number score to a game, if you care to know:

Spoiler
  • 1/10 - Basically no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Every attempt at creating an aspect of the game was a failure. I don't think I've ever given a game a 1/10, but they surely exist.
  • 2/10 - A few aspects might have some amount of effort, but none of the elements of the game synergize together at all. It's slightly more respectable than a 1/10, but still borderline unplayable.
  • 3/10 - There may be some potential. The developers' plan is there, and I can see it. But alas, any potential that might be there was wasted. So, the game is simply not enjoyable, even if it's not offensively horrid.
  • 4/10 - There is structure and there is some competence putting the game together. However, it's just not well done. I may be rolling my eyes through much of it.
  • 5/10 - The game is simply unremarkable. It's difficult to enjoy something where nothing particularly impresses in any way. I'd much rather play something that does! This rating may also be used in cases where the "good" of the game is counterbalanced by the "bad" of the game, creating a rather volatile experience. This can go for other ratings, too, but it can be especially apparent here.
  • 6/10 - You can definitely get something out of playing the game. The good outweighs the bad, but there is too much holding it back from being very good.
  • 7/10 - The game is definitely worth my time. It's a solid experience for sure. On the other hand, a 7/10 game is probably not going down in history as one of the greats, and I won't be thinking about it much when thinking of prime examples of impressive games.
  • 8/10 - The game does a lot of great things. So much so that it leaves a particular impression, such that I'll surely be frequently thinking back on this game from the point of completion onward.
  • 9/10 - Truly an amazing game. A game like this is a significant achievement. It will leave a distinguished mark on games, but there may be something holding it back from being a true masterpiece; something irking me a little too much to look past.
  • 10/10 - Let's get this out of the way: perfect games don't exist. I doubt there is anything in this world that can be considered perfect. But I think even a masterpiece has its flaws (as minor as they might be). To me, a 10/10 game is one that is absolutely awe-inspiring. The game will be the highest standard for all games of its ilk to come. Every game of its type should be compared to it.

I'm not trying to be the arbiter of what games are good, or what objectively makes games good or not. It's simply my thought process for rating stuff. Of course, it's all just my opinion!

Fire Emblem Awakening - 8/10

Gameplay

  • I'd say this game is fairly welcoming for a newcomer. Gameplay is fairly streamlined and straightforward; I quickly understood the gist of what I needed to do.
  • The UI/UX is smooth, easy, and satisfying to navigate. The menu SFX are somehow some of my favorites of any game. Couldn't really tell you why, exactly.
  • The level design is "alright", but having never played a TRPG before, all the super-open maps with minimal terrain/walls/etc. meant that frail units were often difficult to protect (At least for me, a newbie at the genre). In this specific sense, Pair Up was a double edged sword, because pairing up, say, a healer with a bulkier unit did keep the healer from harm, but (a) the bulky unit's bonuses from the Pair Up are not optimal and (b) if I needed to heal, the bulky unit would have to sit out an entire turn. It was all still manageable on Normal mode, which is what I played on.
  • On the other side, around the final third of the game or so, everything became significantly easier because not only were units by themselves shaping into gods, but when pairing up, the snowball effect of stat bonuses gave me a big upper hand. Regardless, it was still satisfying to play all the way through. The difficulty curve seems to be intentional. It actually lends to the themes of the game; strengthening of bonds and all that.

Story

The story is what you might call cliché, but if I were to be more charitable, I would instead say "classic". But it's still a pretty rote plot: amnesiac protagonist is found by the other main characters, seemingly unrelated troubles brews, mysteries reveal the amnesiac's origins as a pawn of the villain...I'm sure we've seen all these elements in other stories. But guess what? I thought the delivery of it in Awakening was great. Clichés are clichés for a reason. When executed well, it's easy for them to resonate with the audience. Likeable characters, well-written dialogue, fantastic music (& choosing all the right songs to play at all the right moments), a great visual aesthetic, and more will elevate the story to make it resonate. And Awakening did all of that, I feel. How it was all put together gave it this sort of inherently nostalgic feeling to it, despite the fact that it was my first FE. It's a similar feeling I got from Lord of the Rings (but don't get me wrong; LOTR is a damn masterpiece haha).

My two favorite story moments are no doubt similar to others'. Firstly, Lucina's confrontation of Robin (chapter 21, I think?). See, I happened to use the female Robin and pair her and Chrom up. Again, probably a popular option. But it made for a very powerful moment. I could tell something was really bothering Lucina up till this point because in a few cases, she was somewhat hesitant to call Robin "Mother", and other awkward interactions. It all bubbled up in this scene. It was very sad to see her try to muster the strength to do this thing that she never could possibly do, and finally put her full trust in both Robin and Chrom that they wouldn't allow Lucina's future to occur.

The second moment is the ending. It is again cliché, but I loved all the characters, one at a time, vocalizing their faith in Robin to resist Grima, culminating in "Id (Purpose)" starting to fully blare. It's by far my favorite song in all the FEs I've played so far, and probably my all-time favorite video game song as well. That final, glorious battle is also one of my favorite FE battles so far. After the battle, everyone continued holding out hope that they would one day find Robin again. Incredibly cliché, sentimental, cheesy, and beautiful! The only thing I would change is not having the after credits scene there confirming that they found Robin, as I would have liked it to be somewhat open-ended. But still beautiful nonetheless!

 

Thank you for reading. Next review: Three Houses. I'll be chipping away at these for a little while.

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