[My Castle Central: Friend|Castle Code Sharing]

Does anyone have Kaden with Vantage? (NA version) I can't find anyone with it...

I got Vantage on him and other Kaden Skills too if you are interested in checking him out @ MyCastle.

Castle Name : Ff. Hilda

Castle Code (Hoshido) : 05545-16938-52643-47825

Avatar Name : Hilda (Hoshido)

Resource(s) : Jade Spring Lv.3 (Hoshido)

Accessories : All. Lv3 Shop.

[somewhat easy to Seize]

I have Decent Skills for:

MU Mozu

Kiragi Setsuna

Caeldori Kagero

Reina Midori

Azama Kaden

[Awakening vs. Fates]

After playing through both titles (and knowing enough about Conquest and Revelation), I thought I'd do a comparison between the two. I could do a comparison between any title in the series, but these are probably the best sellers, along with Mystery of the Emblem, and have brought in a number of newcomers. So I wanted to pit them against each other and give my personal opinion on several fronts. No trolling.

[spoilerS AHEAD FOR AWAKENING AND ALL FATES TITLES!!]

== Story ==

First of all, you can't have an RPG without a story. You need something to "role" with. *bad joke*

Awakening's starts off simple: One nation is at war with another. Ylisse is at war with the neighboring land Plegia and it's up to a small band of people, led by the prince of Ylisse himself, to stop Plegia, led by the Mad King Ashnar-- I mean, Gangrel, from doing it's evil deeds. Right from the start, you are asked to create a character, or "Avatar", for yourself to venture along with Chrom and his Shepherds. After the initial prologue, things take a turn for the worse as the forest starts falling and bursting into flames (something I'm sure Fredrick would have mixed emotions about). Once that's done and you get to safety, monsters fall out of a portal from the sky along with someone claiming to be the Hero-King of old, Marth. ...K. The portal is actually a rift in time created by Naga for the future children of the Shepherds to come through and try to save the world. Essentially, one big Reset Button. The monsters, named Risen, have been added to the threat of Plegia, and later, Valm, giving the characters two major wars to fight against: Politics and time itself.

Fates follows Awakening, and by extension, every other title in the series, by having one nation fight against another. But... that's pretty much it. Aside from a few plot twists here and there, things get resolved fairly quickly. The kingdom of Nohr is invading the peaceful land of Hoshido for seemingly no reason at all, yet only you (with another player created avatar) seem to be the one who can decide who wins and who dies. I like the option of having to choose your side, but the story is simple and doesn't involve too much thinking or interesting plot developments. Turns out that Garon, the king of Nohr, has been replaced by the "Darth Vader" of the story, Anankos. I say Vader, because he turns out to be your father-dragon whose descendants are the ones fighting the war. It's interesting to have someone constantly pulling the strings, but I don't think it was done too well seeing as he's not involved too much, outside of the Hidden Truths DLC.

Point for Awakening! Even though Awakening's story isn't exactly "new", it's still much better than the cliched Fates'.

== Characters ==

As per standard with Fire Emblem, both titles feature a large cast of characters. Awakening's has a total of 49 playable characters and Fates' has a whopping 68 split between three versions (excluding Spotpass, Streetpass, and DLC for both titles).

Awakening's is a large collective of characters from all over the exploreable lands and beyond. Ylisse, Plegia, Ferox, Valm, Chon'sin, and even Tellius in the case of Priam. The characters are well written with tons of personality, which is shown through the supports and battle lines. Like every title, there are some that we could've done without. Did we really need a creepy, stalker lady walking around in a bikini? Lucina, the character named "Marth" from earlier, turns out to be Chrom's daughter from the future and is a part of a group comprised of the future children from the Shepherds, apply named the "Junior Shepherds." Banning together characters from other nations and through time is bound to result in a good time.

Fates' characters, though... They seem to rely on fanservice and arch-types, more-so than any other title, I think. We have maids and butlers, half-naked axe-wielders, fox-boys and -girls, and, dare I say it, gay characters. That's not something I ever expected from Nintendo. The characters that don't rely on fanservice are mostly call-backs to earlier characters, including earlier characters themselves. It's nice to be able to bring over Marth, Ike, Lucina, and Robin (the player avatar from Awakening) through amiibo. But did Awakening really need to play a role in this game? Owain, Severa, and Inigo return in Conquest and Revelation through Anankos's power, as well as the power of fanservice. Those three "children" characters just so happen to be the most popular of the bunch in Japan and the three "adult" characters, Cordelia, Gaius, and the creepy-stalker lady from before, Tharja (who is also one of the gay characters), return as children to the main cast in Fates. Great... now I have a creepy, stalker, lesbian on the team... nice.

'Nother point for Awakening! While Fates had a few great characters like Leo, I was able to connect with Awakening's cast much more so than Fates. Also, Hayato is Ricken.

== Mechanics ==

At this point, you'd expect nothing major to change in the Fire Emblem formula, but a few things have changed and/or been added.

The "Pair Up" mechanic debuted in Awakening, which allows characters to team up and take on enemies together. Sounds overpowered, you say? Because it is! The enemy deserves no mercy! (In Ike's voice: "You'll get no sympathy from me.") The standard weapon triangle returns, but strangely, the magic triangle doesn't. You're gonna have to rely on Wind Magic to deal any real "extra" damage, and that's only to flyers. Now, the weapons and magics do have stats and skills of their own, but it feels like something's missing. Speaking of skills, they return as well, and man are they awesome! Chrom and his daughters (and only his daughters, sorry Inigo) can learn Aether, which was previously only an "Ike-specific" move. Put Vengeance, Counter, Lethality, Life Taker, and Limit Breaker on your "Robin" and you'd become a pretty unstoppable force.

As for Fates, you know that pesky "This weapon has broken" message that pops up every now and then? Yeah, that's gone now, because weapons now have infinite uses! Go crazy with those Brave weapons! The drawback? Most reduce your stats for a time after you use them, so careful planning is needed so you don't end up getting killed. Some, however, can't double attack at all, so that's a bummer. Bows have also entered the weapon triangle, but the magic triangle has returned in some fashion. Red beats blue weapons, blue beats green, and green beats red...I think? I may have those confused, but every weapon type has a color match-up it's good and bad against. "Pair Up" also returns, but it's not as over-powered as Awakening's. When you're paired up with someone, they will help defend against attacks. When you team up with someone on the space next to you, they will attack after you. Also, enemies can do this now, so beware.

Once again, point for Awakening! The infinite-use weapons were nice, but the drawbacks and enemy Pair-ups cost me my life on numerous occasions...

== Content ==

"But, Power Master, what if I've already beaten the game? What's left to do?" I'm glad you asked, voice-in-my-head!

RPGs normally have no shortage of content, and these two games are no different. Awakening lets you play more chapters just before you tackle the end-game, which nets you extra characters like Gangrel, Aversa, Emmeryn, Walhart, and Priam if you can beat their chapters. Not enough characters for ya'? Head on over to Spotpass, or as it's called in the game, "Bonus Box." Here you can find the extra maps to include, as well as characters based off of past heroes and villains! I say "based off of" because they're all using assets from the avatar creation thing, which is a bummer. From Marth to Ike, from Raydrik to Nergal, they're almost all there! Ten characters from past games (or twenty in Geneology's case) return for an encore with ten other random ones in the "Other" section! ...Still not satisfied? Boy, you're stingy. But if you're still bored with that stuff, you can visit the Outrealms to purchase and partake in DLC, or "Downloadable Content". Said content is not free, so you will have to fork over real cash if you want to play them. (Kids, get your parents permission before going online.) The DLC will give you new maps to play on, new characters to recruit (kind of), and new skills to learn. It also give you a whole new story-line, revolving around the kids from the future. And if you really want a challenge, go tackle Apotheosis! ...I'm really bringing out my "inner Anna" here, aren't I?

Fates has more or less the same thing in concept. It doesn't have Spotpass, instead focusing on rewarding the player based on the number of versions of Fates and the number of visits to and from My Castles. "My Castle" is, well, your castle. Build it, explore it, battle in it, it's yours! Here, you can build relationships with the characters, purchase new items and weapons, sway or bribe prisoners (which is a mechanic that returns from Thracia) to join your team, find fish on the ground, play dress-up, whatever! It's actually pretty awesome and fun to mess around with! Spread out your resources or just mash them all together in the middle of the area then fence them off? Your choice. The DLC returns as well and is still coming out at the time of this writing. Once again, it's going to require real moola, but you get new and returning maps, new classes, new skills, and, once again, a children-from-the-future-type story! That one... you could probably do without, to be honest. The children are not well implemented in this game, but hey, that's up to you. Also, there's three games for you to play! Wow!

Guess who's getting this point? Awakening AND Fates! They both have different content to explore and different fun things to do. Awakening's amount of returning characters is fantastic and My Castle is just awesome! So, yeah. I'm giving a point to both of them.

== Verdict ==

Awakening - 4

Fates - 1

I could go on and on about how awesome Awakening is compared to Fates, but I think I covered the major points. What about all of you? Awakening or Fates? Which side will you choose?

Once again, these are my own opinions based on my own morals and ideals, so please, no ranting against them. I take criticism well, but I don't want an all out "hate war."

Good Argument, but I don't know man, I mean the sales on the new fire emblem game was quite a hit (not saying that awakening wasn't at the time). I haven't played Awakening yet but I've seen people play it before and I know pretty much how the storyline goes except for the specific and smaller intricate details that weren't so relevant in the game. I was expecting a closer decision of comparison between the two games, like a 2-3 or 3-2 since both games were really good in their own ways.

I think that FE: Fates has slightly better visuals, I guess what I kind of mean by this is the difference between PS2 and PS3. It feels nicer and better to look at. I heard from people that in Awakening your units can become OP pretty fast with ridiculously high stats and pretty good skills if you grind alot, which reminds me of what most people could and would do in Birthright/Revelation if they're doing the lunatic mode. I don't find grinding for exp to be considered cheating if you play the hard/lunatic setting but too much grinding just takes away the purpose to compete in later chapters in the game if you know what I mean.

Storyline? I think awakening might be better than any of the three branches in Fates if Isolated, but if you had the luxury to pick all three versions, then that's a different story. From a business perspective, to someone who has never played fire emblem games before, would I recommend Fates or Awakening, definitely Fates. There's just a bit more thrill and creativity if you take the possibilities in all three versions of the game.