So it's been a year since Awakening was first released...

[Junkhead]

Yeah, Duck. I don't let the fanbase affect my opinion on the game itself.

I wish the actual HM was something in-between the actual HM & LM, in terms of difficulty. Or add in Maniac Mode. Or just...nerf Pair-Up, remove Tonics and MAYBE the Barrack bonuses (as random as they may be).

[NinjaMonkey]

I thought it was a good game, although not enough to wash the horrible aftertaste of playing Shadow Dragon away.

[Lord of Gabriel Knight]

Just because they add a bad feature to a game doesn't mean that the fans have to act like rabid freaks.

The actions of the FANDOM are entirely on the heads of the fandom.

[Loki Laufeyson]

I have to say this is the fault of the fans, not the game.

Yeap.

Gameplaywise, it's fun. Maybe not the most balanced, sure, but I believe some balance can be sacrificed in the name of fun, and FE:A does that well.

Yar. I can break this game in half but really, im not fussed cuz its fun as hell.

My opinion a year later?

Game is pretty gr9. I like making my little pixelated dudes kill other little pixelated dudes and hear them actually say they are going to kill those little pixelated dudes. I like making my team a monstrosity. I like making Henry and Sumia go kiss now. I like how smooth the game moves. I like how i can make it so my dudes dont die forever (especially after getting that awesome level up on Miriel!). I like how i can keep playing really cool stuff after the main story is done. I like the whistles and bells.

Plot? Whats that and why do i need to really care about that with this game? Its too goddamn fun for me to hate on it for its really bland story. I dont give a rat's ass about the story in all honesty. Im sad that Virion doesnt get a moment to really shine in the main plot, but oh well. Shit happens and the gameplay is still really great. Fuck the police.

[eclipse]

I would've liked a few more supports with the other characters (Tiki/Say'ri/Anna, for starters), and FFS make the characters less troped-out. . .but otherwise it's a pretty solid game.

[JSND Alter Dragon Boner]

I prefer a longer game, and most chapters in FE13 happen to be short as fuck

There are something that did not click with me, in convenience area, and gameplay area. Mostly the fact that I always think "dude, I can like only send one character and I win this automatically", which is something that I did not found for other FE, and the fact that Start Skipping did not skip the Level Up screens like SD and NMOTE

Edited February 26, 2014 by JSND

[RavenEyry]

I find it highly enjoyable and mostly well made, but the plot is unremarkable and the difficulty is a bit all over the place. Also most characters are rather one dimensional without DLC, I suppose it was to make writing all those supports easier.

I like how all but one of the spotpass characters were done.

[Silver Lightning]

Other than the flawed plot, I really enjoyed this game! Probably the game with the most replays I've done in the series. I'll always enjoy the older games as well but I feel that with Awakening's success I'm definitely looking forward to the future of this series, especially if IS can fix any major flaws along the way.

[Roivann]

Okay, first of all, Awakening's system of gaining support points definitely is better than it was. Instead of two units just standing back from the rest of the army talking about the weather or something, gaining support points by having two units fight alongside each other, heal one another, or apparently eating (or whatever it's used for) a seed to gain support points is a welcome addition. The pair up system is a good idea, it just needs to be refined. Having dual strike and dual guard rates start to plateau more so that it's very difficult, if not impossible, to guarantee a dual strike. If the feature returns, I feel safe to assume it will be improved upon. I'm also not opposed to having an Avatar character. An idea I had is that, instead of having yet another avatar in the next FE game, just give players the ability to customize a regular unit. Players would customize the unit's face, clothing color, starting class, and perhaps choose the unit's personality type from a list (gruff, cheerful, heroic, etc.), which would change some dialogue the character has. The catch is, though, that this unit would play a smaller role in the story. They'd join early, thank the main characters or something, then not really come up much again. They'd be just a regular soldier in the player's army, and they WOULD BE ABLE TO DIE. They should also be by no means as overpowered as Awakening's and Heroes of Light and Shadow's avatars were. Moving on, I'm not the biggest fan of units having unlimited support conversations, especially if they're romantic supports. The way Awakening has it, marriage in Ylisse is basically just a way of saying that you did a favor for somebody or had one or maybe two meaningful conversations with them. Limiting a character to only a few support conversations per playthrough means that relationships can develop gradually into romance, rather than talking three times then getting hitched. As everybody and their mother has already said, Awakening's narrative first appears passable at best, then bordering absurd upon further dissection. So some serious proof reading and editing are needed to make sure the next game won't fall short in that department. I feel that the inheritance system needs to be tweaked so that the children characters aren't invariably stronger than their parents. If that system is in the next game, that is. FE4 is my favorite game in the series, so the idea of multiple generations always entices me. Hamicsat already talked about this, but occult skills (or their Awakening equivalent, that is) should remain class locked. I think the skills system as a whole would more balanced if the capacity mechanic from FE9 and FE10 replaced the 5 skill slot thing in Awakening. I don't like the idea of being able to infinitely replay maps (DLC especially) to grind out every unit to cap every stat. I wasn't even a huge fan of the skirmishes/Tower of Valni in FE8, honestly, and the use of second seals to loop back to level 1 just makes that worse. How some units will retreat instead of actually dying is a personal nitpick of mine, and has been since it started happening in the series (FE4, I think?), but I understand that a more complex plot would be impossible if it only involved like, one or two essential characters. Waiufuing aside, I hope that the marriage system is removed or toned down for the next game. It worked in FE4, and I honestly couldn't tell you why it worked better there than in Awakening. I think that it had something to do with the "fated pairs", which allowed for more freedom of narrative on the writers' part. I really do love Awakening, but I look forward to what the next installment in the series has to offer. It did a lot wrong that other games in the series have done better. Even so, it still did a whole lot right that other games in the series have done worse.

[ViewtifulBo]

I would call it decent. It was enjoyable at times. Storywise I kinda found myself bored with the general plot because its basically the 3rd game in the Akeniea series and is just FE3 but 1,000 years later and if you played FE1/3 or both your kinda left scratching your head at times. Its not all bad though, they introduced some new mechanics like Pair Up, further enhancing reclassing etc. so gameplay wise at times it can be down right broken but the core of it is quite good. Which brings me onto my next point, difficulty. Normal/Hard ok we're having a good time this isn't too bad I'm going to see how I fare in Lunatic. Ohhh... and I mean its not that hard if you grind but you shouldn't have to just to get past parts of the game and Lunatic+? Pretty much a coin flip. So it could really use some work in that regard. Scale it kinda how Shadow Dragon and New Mystery of the Emblem did I guess. I very much enjoyed the DLC and Spotpass aspects I could get very used to that in future titles. So long story short Awakening is by no means the best Fire Emblem but its certainly not the worst and at the end of the day? Regardless of how you feel, your first few times through will be pretty fun.