Just how Good is Awakening?

[Zeusinator]

So I've been thinking about buying a 2/3DS pretty much only for Awakening, but I'm not sure if I should or not. From what I've read (hard data only, post a spoiler and I'll hunt you down) it seems to be quite similar to the FE4/5 era of greatness. I never had the chance to play those games because I could never find a legit ROM, but I was a hardcore FE forums guy for a while so I obviously learned a lot about them. I guess my real question is whether or not this is a game of FE7's groundbreaking caliber. I have all of the English FEs in some form or another, but this game seems special to me. Like worth spending $150 to play kind of special. Am I right?

EDIT: I've also played 2 and 6, so if anyone has comparisons to those it would be appreciated. I just friggin' love Fire Emblem.

Edited July 19, 2014 by Zeusinator

[Refa]

I don't think it's worth spending $150-$200 on by itself. However, if you plan on getting other games for the 2DS/3DS, then I'd say it's worth it.

[shadowofchaos]

I don't think it's worth spending $150-$200 on by itself. However, if you plan on getting other games for the 2DS/3DS, then I'd say it's worth it.

I'm the outlier because I spent more.

What Refa said.

Not everyone likes it (the story is a big point of dislike) but it definitely is VERY fun on the gameplay.

If there are other 3DS games that you want to play, be sure to get a 3DS for those AS WELL, not Awakening by itself.

Because, like I said, I'm pretty much an outlier in that regard.

Edited July 19, 2014 by shadowofchaos

[WIRE Shut]

I spent 200$ on a 3ds just for awakening, unfortunately it really wasn't worth it but if you plan o buying a 3ds for other games like Smash, Pokémon or Tomodachi life you should pick up Awakening, it is a rather amusing game on the first playthrough, but if you want to know how it stands, it can be summarized in this game picks up almost all of good aspect of fire emblem and adds a couple of others like pair up but it doesn't fully balance all of its features making pair-up bat shit unbalanced and gamebreaking, the paralogues while not forced still give you EXP and that smidgeon of exp over time makes the game even easier not mentioning that the first 2 difficulties are super easy and the latter 2 are either nightmare inducing on the first levels or just a test of how many times you can restart, the story is all over the place and pulls really stupid crap lategame, the supports are the coolest things in the game, they are memorable and give personality to the characters but when you realize all the characters are Anime/ videogames tropes they feel a little less special, the best maps in the game are the challenge DLC but unless you plan on buying the DLC after a certain point the game seems like put unit with 1-2 range weapon on middle, click start to pass turn and repeat. The marriage system sounds like good thing and it kind of is, the kid characters are much better than their parents but they come later in the game, kind of like Ests, the marriage system is the thing that makes this a replayable title and strangely every unit is a good parent and fighter but Virion and he still is a good father to something like Inigo, overall it suffers from a lot of flaws but it is still a good title, good for newcomer that may seems a lot easier for veterans. Oh and they screwed archers once again even after they being good for 3 game straight.

[ClassyWolf]

Only for awakeing? no, I at least bought my 3ds with 3 games I wanted and there where games announced I knew I was going to buy.

And I'm probably not the best person to rate awakening for you cause I pretty much can't stand it, shortly, it's story is pretty much wiedly accepted to be crap, most people I see that like it it is due to the gameplay (which I do see why), it takes some things from previous instalments like class changeing form SD but adds seals to change class and resets levels (infinite level ups to max stats). It has skills for PoR an RD, but gives 5 spots for them, has braching classes form SS, generation system form genealogy and most likely more things I don't remember (I haven't played it for a long time), and it has it's own thing called pair up, which combines 2 characters to 1 and gives the active one a stat boost.

Characters, my personal opinion, there were only few I found good without going into greater detail.

And ironicly, the one thing I liked they did, is what most people disliked, was the hardest difficulty, luntic+.

So if you get some other games for the 3ds, and not just awakening, even though I disslike it, I would say you should buy it and give it a try.

[Anacybele]

The gameplay and characters are good, imo, but the story is kind of ass. So if you play FE for the story, you probably won't like it much. It's still a good game in its own right though.

[Alertcircuit]

In my opinion no one game is worth buying a console for, but if you see multiple games you might be interested in, then by all means go for it. The 3DS has a super cool library and Awakening's pretty great. On the topic of how it relates to FE4/5, that's because Awakening features a revamped marriage system and children kind of like in Genealogy. Really cool game, if you decide for certain you want to make the $100+ commitment on a 3DS.

[Czar_Yoshi]

There are several people on this forum (myself included) who have poured upwards of a thousand dollars into this game. Make of that what you will.

Anyway, Awakening has an incredible amount of replay value, and with a good amount of Willing Suspension of Disbelief the first playthrough is also one of the best out there. If you do go through with the buy (which I recommend), make sure to look at the rest of the 3ds's library though.

[Anacybele]

Yeah, Awakening isn't the only good 3DS game. I think these titles are awesome as well:

Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon (Luigi's Mansion 2 outside of NA)

Pokemon X/Pokemon Y

Yoshi's New Island

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D

The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds

Super Mario 3D Land

And Smash Bros. 3DS is coming in less than three months.

[CrimeanRoyalKnight]

My personal opinions, they contain some spoilers:

The Bad:

• The story is very awful. I can still play it and avoid it with start. The fact is... a story as bad as this one ruins the experience and leaves my brains bitter, especially when FE (while not being something like Xenogears or other story heavy old JRPGs) never really had a story that I didn't enjoy. It also feels like, it tries very hard to be super emotional but it fails because there's nothing that struck me. STILL... the DLC "Future Past", "Future of Despair", that one, is good: I wish the main story was like this, a true struggle where people actually die.
• The characters have one trait. Expect that one trait to be stressed forever. This is either a good or a bad thing, it depends on you and how you like the characters.
• The maps are mostly rectangles with stuff on it, the enemy goes blitzkrieg all the time.
• THERE ARE ONLY TWO MAPS OBJECTIVES and few maps have alternative objectives. Only one map can be considered protect, too.
• Hard modes, like usual, buffs enemies and adds 100 more of them.
• No difficulty in-between Hard and Lunatic.
• Supports are too many, most marriages feel stupid and forced.
• They removed weapon weight, con, etc.
• Balance is unexistant, but you could say the same about other FEs, so it doesn't count, hahahaha... but yeah... this time around, things are SUPER UNBALANCED.
• The female avatar is really irritating when she wants to (very personal opinion).

The Good:

• It's fun to play.
• It's fun to create your avatar.
• It's fun to marry people off and see their offsprings.
• It's fun to play as the male avatar and give absurd hair colors to your male offsprings.
• The fun maps are fun. Paralogue 6?? I think it's excellent.
• It's very fun if you don't care about inheritance and only care about the couples you like (it's cuter :3c I mean I still did my Gaius!Noires and Stahl/Lon'zu!Severas but in the end I prefer my Vaike!Laurents...).

Awakening is not bad, but I found it worse than other FEs. It's still a good game though, you should try it at least; it sounds like I hate it but I don't (yes, I do dislike the awful story worth of 100000000000 facepalms), I even paid money for its DLC.

I've always had this opinion since its release so, it wasn't born after a hype after the first playthrough, I'm being 100% honest with my feelings toward this game.

EDIT:

Mini list of 3DS good games:

Dead of Alive Dimensions is a nice fighter with a very crazy dramatic story (it sums up the 4 DoA games before DoA 5).

Super Mario 3D Land is pure Mario fun.

Ocarina of Time 3D is Ocarina of Time.

A Link Between Worlds is very fun.

Tales of the Abyss has an ass gameplay but a nice story. The music is also ear-grating.

I don't have many 3DS games, but it's a console worth buying.

Edited July 19, 2014 by CrimeanRoyalKnight

[Czar_Yoshi]

• They removed weapon weight, con, etc.

• It's very fun if you don't care about inheritance and only care about the couples you like (it's cuter :3c I mean I still did my Gaius!Noires and Stahl/Lon'zu!Severas but in the end I prefer my Vaike!Laurents...).

The first one is seen as a good thing by plenty of people too. And inheritance is where all the replay value comes from...

[CrimeanRoyalKnight]

The first one is seen as a good thing by plenty of people too. And inheritance is where all the replay value comes from...

But of course, except I find it more fun to try different couples or use the one I like story wise. I can't always have Lon'zu!Severas or Gaius!Noires, can I?? And in a first playthrough, you put together who you like, nobody should aim for the best at first because a lot of fun comes from trying couples firsthand.

Weapon weight is sad for me because it made use of weaker weapons, too.

Let me quote myself...

My personal opinions, they contain some spoilers:

[HF Makalov Fanboy Kai]

The first one is seen as a good thing by plenty of people too. And inheritance is where all the replay value comes from...

its also considered a bad thing by plenty of people too.

infact the removal of weapon weight and con is why dark magic is so broken here

[Czar_Yoshi]

I'd say it's because Nos is very easily buyable and there's a growth unit who's practically made to use it (Avatar), but eh.

[HF Makalov Fanboy Kai]

I'd say it's because Nos is very easily buyable and there's a growth unit who's practically made to use it (Avatar), but eh.

well then thats saying the issue with dark magic being broken comes from the entire structure of the game rather then removing one feature.

...which doesn't help people who are trying to defend awakening at all

[Loki Laufeyson]

The game itself as in gameplay and content is really nice. Its fun to play, easy to get the hang of, a great gateway into the series, and has a good time rolling around in character interaction. Even the DLC is pretty fun for the most part.

The downside is the story is a pile of heated, wet shit. But if you can totally ignore that and enjoy all the other stuff, its still pretty good.

[Irysa]

The Bad:

• Hard modes, like usual, buffs enemies and adds 100 more of them.

Why is this a bad thing?

Edited July 19, 2014 by Irysa

[Roivann]

Because it's kind of cheap compared to, say, enhanced AI instead of just throwing more mooks at you.

[Red Falcon]

I don't understand the dislike for the story. From what I've heard elsewhere on the internet, it seems like some folks don't like Awakening even because it puts two continents from previous games on the same map!! Admittedly, I'm going to give you a biased opinion, since Fire Emblem Awakening is the first and only Fire Emblem game that I've played, so I have no point of reference in which to compare it with previous titles from the series.

But I absolutely LOVED the game!

I think it's the best handheld game I've played in my lifetime thus far. And all of the friends who I've recommended it to have enjoyed it just the same.

I never needed to will myself to suspend my disbelief. I just went with the story. I found it to be a very gripping narrative. It's difficult to address some of the criticisms mentioned without giving away spoilers. So I'll try to summarise some of the most positive aspects of the game with vague commentary. From what I've gleamed to understand of other Fire Emblem games out there, you typically play as heroes such as Marth or Ike or Eliwood, Roy, etc. In Awakening there are heroes like that all the same. One such hero is Chrom. But the main protagonist of the story is you! And that made the game feel like a very personal and emotionally invested experience. From the prologue you see how important your character is in events of the game.

Something which was fresh and interesting for me was the combination of graphics. It was really strange how perfectly it all just works. Because you have the 2D bitmaps and pixels of the battle grids and units. You then have 2D portrait art for the characters. 3D animated cutscenes (which are awesome) and rendered 3D animations of battles. Coming from say a Zelda game where there is just one graphical style, that was nuts to understand hehe. But not a jarring experience in the slightest. This of course, may be a staple of Fire Emblem games, so sorry if you already knew about this. The graphics are all very good anyway. And the battle animations are so fun!

Replayability and the games lifespan seem vast indeed! I put in roughly 80 hours into my first play-through. This of course involved watching every cutscene at my own pace and playing a load of challenges to train units up ocasionally. As well as some, but not all side-quests. Despite those 80 hours, I still have side-quests left over to complete. I hadn't experienced the StreetPass teams yet. I hadn't played the xenologues (additional chapters). I hadn't summoned any bonus teams to challenge (based on characters from previous Fire Emblem games; canonically they are referred to as spirits should you choose to encounter them). I had not tried any DLC. Which there is a great amount of. But of the game as it stands without the additional content, there is something like 40+ different classes to for units to use, with plenty of interesting characters to encounter. And you can virtually reclass any character anytime.

The marriage system and children which I'm sure you've heard of add a great deal of variation to the experience. There are about a dozen children who need parents and you get to do the match-making. You can play to optimise or just to enjoy shipping certain things. The support conversations for those characters getting to know each other better can be entertaining indeed. Whilst the children inherit stats, skills and classes from the parents. Of course, only some parents can pass on certain things, so there really is huge variation in the way you want to play! If that's not good enough you can always create and customise the playable character using the other game files and bring them into your main file using the Wireless function. There's no hassle to it at all, since you have access to a logbook which can store 99 recruitable units, whether those be avatars from previous or concurrent game files, or the spirits I mentioned, which for all intents and purposes are the characters from other Fire Emblem games. But bear in mind, those imported characters can't partake in marriage or have children. Your native avatar or story characters only. I've already made a custom unit based on my brother to fight by my side hehe.

Speaking of previous Fire Emblem games. It seems like there is a great deal fan-service occuring to other entries in the series. Particularly within the DLC. I believe this is because the game was potentially going to be the last game in the series, due to Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn not doing so well. I've read that if Awakening did not get 250,000 sales, Nintendo would not make another game for the series. But Awakening apparently sold 248,000 within just its first week! Not far off the target at all.

Lastly, the music. The music is just incredible for the game! Here are some of my favourites from the soundtrack:

Sorry they're just links (I don't know how to embed videos on this forum or if that's even possible, but give some a listen):

"Someone has to save you from your good intentions"

"Conquest"

"Id (Dilemma)"

"Open for Business"

"Misericorde"

"Id (Return)" & "Id (Purpose)" (2:30 is a particularly epic part of "Purpose")

If that doesn't endorse you to buy it, I don't know what will hehe. I actually purchased my 3DS just to play A Link Between Worlds, the latest Zelda. But I'm more glad I have it now for Fire Emblem Awakening. Because I just really enjoy the game. Since then of course I've picked up other games as well. But if you have the luxury of having the funds necessary to consider buying a console just for one game, I would argue that Fire Emblem Awakening is a meritable cause. But I stand by my original statement by mentioning again, that I have plenty of bias for this game. Since you're a stranger, my honest opinion would be for you to consider other games you might want to get the 3DS for first and then seeing if having the console becomes more attractive. But if you were a friend, I would outright tell you to stop wasting time reading reviews, and just get the game already haha.

If possible, find a 3DS and play the demo of the game for free yourself, and then decide. That would be MOST ideal.

The last friend I recommended getting the game too, tried the demo. They stopped the demo after 10 minutes because they didn't want to spoil the game any further. Their decision had been made to get the game. Anyway, I think I've entered rambling territory, so I'm gonna stop writing and end the post. Good luck with your endeavours!

Edited July 20, 2014 by Red Falcon

[Czar_Yoshi]

well then thats saying the issue with dark magic being broken comes from the entire structure of the game rather then removing one feature.

...which doesn't help people who are trying to defend awakening at all

A game can be objectively terrible and still considered great by many- look at Brawl. I'm fully aware of Awakening's flaws and love it anyway, and the same can be said of a good portion of the people who bother to keep playing it after doing "everything there is to do".

I don't understand the dislike for the story. From what I've heard elsewhere on the internet, it seems like some folks don't like Awakening even because it puts two continents from previous games on the same map!! Admittedly, I'm going to give you a biased opinion, since Fire Emblem Awakening is the first and only Fire Emblem game that I've played, so I have no point of reference in which to compare it with previous titles from the series.

It's mainly because of the villains- FE plots are very villain-driven as a rule, but Awakening's villain (the main one, at least) has a generic plan of world destruction and absolutely no motivation. Compared to the like of Arvis (who had a far more complex plan with somewhat noble intentions) or Lyon (who has a far more complex relationship to the heroes), it's a travesty.

[Ownagepuffs]

Great gameplay

Great replay value

Great presentation

Great music

Lots of content

Fun characters

If you are looking for a fun game to pick up and play, then this is for you.

However, if you are looking for a gateway into the Fire Emblem series, this is not a very good choice.

[Wander]

A game can be objectively terrible and still considered great by many- look at Brawl. I'm fully aware of Awakening's flaws and love it anyway, and the same can be said of a good portion of the people who bother to keep playing it after doing "everything there is to do".

I'd reword that as Brawl being a great game considered terrible by some. Brawl is by no means an objectively bad game, it's just not a good competitive fighting game. I don't think that makes it bad.

Nitpicking, but felt the need to point that out.

@Red Falcon: Awakening's story isn't terrible, I suppose, but a lot of it lacked impact for me. The moments that were supposed to be emotional/tragic fell kind of short for the most part. And I'll have to agree with Czar about the villains, as I found all of Awakening's villains rather underwhelming. Especially in comparison to the villains in Radiant Dawn, Sacred Stones, and Path of Radiance. Hell, FE7 and FE6 have better villains.

The soundtrack is good, but weaker than some others (Radiant Dawn's the best) in my opinion. Good choice on ID (Return), though; I've always liked it more than Id (Purpose).

I'd recommend you try some of the other FE games out, though!

Finally, @Zeusinator: Like others have pointed out, Awakening is really good at some things and really bad at others. I'll break it down (all opinion, of course):

Pros:

+The characters. Some argue they're too one-trait focused, but I've enjoyed most of the support conversations I've seen. Most of them have fleshed out backgrounds and interesting personalities, really. Some of them have worked their way onto my favorites list.

+The gameplay. It's a lot of fun, there's tons of options, you can do self-imposed challenges, etc.

+Support system: I'm sure you've heard about the whole marriage things. It's awesome.

+Soundtrack. Very good, as you'd expect from Fire Emblem

+ Graphics. Much, much better than the DS FEs.

+Replay Value: I think I have like 200 hours on Awakening? Yeah, it has replay value.

Cons:

-The story. I like the player characters, but the villains and plot in general suck. Also, Chrom is something of a step down protagonist-wise.

-The maps. Too wide-open, no varied objectives like in Radiant Dawn. They're all basically full charges to rout the enemy. DLC and some extra optional maps alleviate this a bit, but not a whole lot.

-Balance. This game does not have it.

-Difficulty: somewhat tied to balance, but the step from Hard to Lunatic should not be as big as it is. The first few chapters of the game in Lunatic are basically Frederick Emblem (Frederick is the game's Jeigan character).

In summary, it's still a really good game. Can't compare it to FE4/5 as I haven't played them, but I'd put it somewhere around 3 on my personal favorites list, having played all the international Fire Emblem games,

I'm not sure if you should buy a 3DS solely for Awakening, but there's a lot of other good games like A Link Between Worlds, Etrian Odyssey IV, Shin Megami Tensei IV, Pokemon X/Y, Animal Crossing...yeah, the 3DS has a pretty good lineup of games.You should get one anyways!

[Jester Capri]

Luckily for me, I won my 3DS at a game of Stacker, only spending 6 bucks.

I've gotta agree with everyone that the story is pretty lame. It's not the best out of all the other FE stories, but the story could have been done better (this is where the Fanfiction-ers enter). The story could have went a bit longer.

Intelligent Systems focused way too much on character... and it somehow succeeded. The support convo range is, in my opinion, larger than all the Fire Emblem games, considering that MU can support with everyone in his/her team.

Gameplay? They made it a bit too simple with the whole weight system being removed. As simple as it became, there were some interesting skills as well as pretty neat class designs (I still miss them actually having feet and Generals having gas-operated pneumatic chain weapons).

The difficulties of FE games are slightly decreased in my own opinion now that:

-There's no Weight system

-You can grind your cast freely via Risen skirmishes (or if you pay 500-4800 gold to spawn in any location)

But the Lunatic and its successor, Lunatic+ modes make the game only extremely lucky people would survive in, so you're gonna have to use Freddy-bear a lot for those two difficulties. If you're completely new, there's casual mode, a mode where you can freely let your lesser units "die" and they return to battle another day. But if you don't choose the latter, generic FE perma-death returns.

Overall, the game was still fun. There were some disappointments, but I think the interaction of your units with other units make the game fun. Well that, and the absurd high damage you can deal with your carefully seasoned units.

Edited July 20, 2014 by Foolishly Capricious

[Anacybele]

There are several reasons people generally agree that the story is bad.

[spoiler=Stuff that was not asked for]As Czar_Yoshi pointed out, one of those reasons is the villains. Grima doesn't seem to have any real reason whatsoever for wanting to destroy the world and Validar feels like a random kids' cartoon villain. Gangrel was only interesting after you recruit him from his paralogue. Otherwise, he seems like a poor attempt to copy Ashnard from PoR (he even shares the guy's title of Mad KIng). Walhart was fairly interesting though. I would've preferred that the plot of the game revolved around stopping his conquest rather than destroying some dumb dragon. Battling a big dragon is kind of overdone in FE anyway.

Another reason is that there's plotholes, like why did Chrom just up and abandon Plegia after defeating Gangrel? He just left them high and dry. Ike at least placed Daein under Begnion's rule at the end of PoR. But what did Chrom do with Plegia? We're never told.

Yet another reason is that Chrom and Emmeryn never seem to grow as leaders. I like Emmeryn for how much she risks to try ensuring peace and for just how damn kind she is, but nothing else about her appeals to me. Chrom tries to make idiot decisions a lot of the time and Frederick advises him against some of them, but to no avail. But he's never penalized for his screwups. Honestly, Frederick would've ruled Ylisse better than either Chrom or Emmeryn. xP

Lastly, we don't know much about Ylisse's history. The game builds its world poorly. If you need an example of excellent world building, check out Tellius. It has an entire god dang super long TIMELINE to itself. :P

Edited July 20, 2014 by eclipse
Reading the first post is a must.

[The Geek]

Don't buy the 3DS because of Awakening, buy the 3DS because it is honestly one of the best consoles ever. It has a fairly small library, but as a consequence of that it has the highest ratio of good to bad games of any console.

LoZ OoT 3D and Link Between Worlds

Pokemon X and Y if you're a fan of the Pokemon franchise.

Kid Icarus Uprising

Resident Evil Revelations is supposed to be good

MGS Snake Eater 3D

Animal Crossing New Leaf

And more that I'm probably forgetting. It has so many good games that I can't list them all.