Everything Wrong with Fire Emblem Awakening

[Grima's Hero]

...may I add my two cents in on all of this?

I don't like any supports that leave you with a feeling that's like, "...So are they married, now, or...?"

And I realize that despite what the support says, that they are, with support conversations reflecting this, but a prime example would be the support of Chrom and Female Avatar. If I recall, they decide to wait a few years, yet... They're married immediately after the support.

Dafaq?

Then you must hate the MorganxSevera shipping. Seriously...like wtf?

[Groyer]

The Outrealms Gate is probably the best Deus Ex Machina device I've seen in a while. Yen'fay, dead. He's there though, from the Outrealm Gate to help Say'ri. I'm surprised and slightly proud of the writers not using the Outrealm Gate more as a DEM for other things beyond Yen'fay, children characters and Risen. Gotta have SOME "immersion" or "plot integration" for your DLC access though, eh?

I also don't like the fact that all the other DLC characters (excluding Priam and Yen'fay again) basically explain how they're there by going: "yeah no I didn't die just gravely wounded and somehow recovered and ended up here"

However in relation to the OT (and possibly b8 people who want to argue their waifu's flimsy plot presence), how they handled Emmeryn's execution and return was pretty god-awful. She could have been easily saved WITHOUT a direct conflict more than likely, and her beautiful string of happy coincidences that let her be on that island full of people conveniently ignorant of the social stats of the Brand of the Exalt was a bit... well, stupid. But hey, a game's a game and it was free DLC to get her anyway, so there's no sense in complaining about wanting free soup expecting to get something made by Gordon Ramsey, only to get something that came from a can instead.

Title shouldn't have been "Everything Wrong about FE:A" though, but to give you more credit: g8 b8 m8, i r8 8/8, no h8.

Edited October 6, 2014 by Groyer

[Czar_Yoshi]

Those are the best scenes in the game (along with Robin using magic as any class, and Lucina wielding Falchion as a Cleric).

How about when Avatar is an unequipped -Mag Barbarian who's been rigged to have no +Mag/Skl/Lck growths whatsoever and Chrom is a LB-capped DF with Res+10, All+2, Tyrfing, Tonic, Barracks and Pure Water boost, both of them are standing on completely opposite sides of the room, and Validar is killed with Mire from across the barrier?

Forget blasting Validar, how did Avatar manage to even make Chrom flinch? Even if he could have equipped Thoron, he'd have 0/0/0 damage/hit/crit and be so far away it would take him several turns to reach Chrom...

Also, people neglect to mention that Validar is like the most cliche character EVER. He's a sorcerer, with that absurdly devlish face, who worships a dark god (who happens to be a dragon), who sacrifises people to apease said god, and guess what? He's also your father!

It's less of neglect and more of boredom with beating a dead horse.

[Draco]

I had some problems with the supports too. The Chrom x FeMU supports are bad IMO. There's more, but I'd have to think about it some more.

I also had issues with Pair-ups for a couple reasons.

1: It sorta trivializes the difficulty (More on this later).
2: The equivalent of this in past games is more-or-less Rescue. But that lowered your stats. Why does Pair-up raise it a whole bunch and make the enemies look like piles of dog crap at a park? And don't even get me started on the streetpass teams. None of them will pair up; it doesn't matter if their stats are maxed. Pair-up; the issue is usually solved. (Emphasis on usually.)

It trivializes the difficulty because of raising your stats a whole bunch, letting them attack with you, and even negating the damage on occasion. Sure, there's the higher difficulties like Lunatic, but honestly, that just makes it luck based.


I also didn't like most of the map design. Especially the last few chapters (But I had no issues with the final chapter, tbh), that one green area with the rainbows and the dark one between the mountains were both grating IMO.

Edited October 6, 2014 by Anguis

[Czar_Yoshi]

Lunatic is no more luck based than any of the older FEs. It's possible to get trolled through growths or the occasional imperfect Hitrate early on, but there's a lot you can do to mitigate chances of death and if you fall multiple times in a row to the same thing, it's usually the fault of your tactics and not the RNG.

[Moira]

It's less of neglect and more of boredom with beating a dead horse.

The horse has been beaten to death, reincarnated, and then beaten to death again but it still manages to come up and be thought of as an unpopular opinion

[Buttocksinator]

I'm glad i'm not the only one who brought up the battleaxe, this guy had so much time to prepare and his master plan hinged on a forty something year old woman throwing a battleaxe about a hundred feet in the air at an executioner. That scene makes me laugh so hard.

Edited October 7, 2014 by Buttocksinator

[CT075]

This game isn't perfect (contrary to the popular belief)

i'm not sure what version of SF you've been visiting in which that would be the popular opinion

[Ownagepuffs]

Oh god I'm currently going through New Mystery and loving it despite the blatant avatar ass kissing. It knows how to keep its story coherent, and actually uses narration! Don't make me relive Awakening's story again. It has been so long since I've done a playthrough.

I mean holy shit, aside from the amount of content, FE12 is everything FE13 wishes it was. Dat map design, dat consistent story, dat Lord (it's fucking Marth, yo!).

The story and the lore are the biggest problems in Awakening, if not its only problem. Oh and the disgusting armor design.

Why do the dead lords wield the holy weapons? Who are they?

Why did Vali even want all the gem stones when they weren't even needed?

Why doesn't Chrom become awesome as fuck after he gets the Binding Shield?

Who sealed Falchion?

Did Chrom actually descend from Sigurd/Celice as well?

Do all 3 of the Royal Siblings have Major Naga blood?

Which parent of of the royal 3 had Naga blood? Mom or dad?

Chrom, y u so hypocrite?

Why was Chrom's dad such a dick?

Can I get a little more info on Rosanne and Chon'sin? I'd love to know more than just Ylisse and Plegia.

Would Chon'sin have people of Odo blood?

I've got questions about Emm but that is for another topic.

[Czar_Yoshi]

To add to that,

What happened to Valm's geography?

What happened to the Manaketes?

Why is Tiki worshiped on a continent she's not even from, while the royalty on her home continent (who practically lead a theocracy dedicated to her mom) don't even know she's there?

How, exactly, does time travel work?

Couldn't Grima have, you know, done a barrel roll or something to get rid of Chrom and co in the final chapter?

Why haven't the good guys learned that persecuting the followers of a dark dragon without mashing the dragon first is a really bad idea yet?

Why has the Shield gone from a seal to a key?

Why is Ylisse the only country with a capital not named "(country) Castle"?

Speaking of names, why do all the locations sound like they were named by foreign explorers? "Southtown"? Really?

And so on, though not all of those are distant lore.

[Ownagepuffs]

God tier questions from Czar.

Is this game more connected to Jugdral or Archanea? I would assume the latter since the game likes to spam Marth's name, but the presence of the dead lords and them wielding holy weapons raises sooo many questions. Why does Aversa control them? Why are there 36 dead lords in Infinite Regalia when they are just the same 6 or so repeated in a random fashion? If those dead lords are implied to be the parents of Gen 2, then how did they become dead lords?

Unrelated, but what exactly happened to Walhart? (kore ga zombie desu ka?!)

Almost every FE I've played gives a brief yet satisfying introduction on its world. Because FE13 doesn't have that, I'm left with all these questions :(

[ClassyWolf]

Why is Tiki worshiped on a continent she's not even from, while the royalty on her home continent (who practically lead a theocracy dedicated to her mom) don't even know she's there?

I also wonder why on earth she even became sort of an apostle to Naga, from the earlier games this doesn't make sense to me, after all, she was forced to sleep by Gotoh and Naga, she had nightmares which occasionally woke her up and the only one looking after her and was there for her was Bantu, and she was still forced to sleep against her will before Bantu ran away with her to some village, where she was for probably about 10 years with Bantu, since Xane tells us she has the memories of 10 years, after which she is taken by Gharnef and fights along Marth, after the war she goes with Bantu back to the village after which Gotoh comes and takes her away, but Bantu isn't coming with them this time (most likely considered a traitor or something for taking Tiki away) and forcing her back to sleep, this time without anyone to comfort her during her nightmares, and possibly to be killed by Gotoh or Naga if the seal isn't restored to ensure that she won't go mad, and it's hinted at that she is aware of this and that she most likely hates Gotoh and Naga.

Sorry for that rant, but it just annoys me, since Bantu is alive in awakening, they could have her traveling with him and they could both join for all I care, and for the servants of Naga, you could use Gotoh, the most devoted follower of Naga, and Xane, who, if you have to have someone who looks like Tiki to get people to join their cause with Naga, they have Xane, who could impersonate her.

And this is just one thing out of many in the story that annoys me.

Also, where is Khadein? the one place they have a school of magic (with the exception of in awakening long since gone Pales) and where they produce tomes and staves and other magic junk?

[Czar_Yoshi]

Is this game more connected to Jugdral or Archanea?

Honestly, it's more connected to Brawl. Look at exactly which lords are mentioned by name outside of DLC again (not counting Spotpass teams and weapons named after folks). Marth? All over the place (even though nobody seems to know what he did). Ike? Referred to in Priam's Paralogue. Everybody else? Nope.

Actually, for all the game says, Marth and Ike's "heroic deeds of old" could be defeating Tabuu. Behold, my new headcanon!

[HF Makalov Fanboy Kai]

jesus christ, i dislike the game and i NEVER thought of all these very good questions. i feel terrible

[riariadne]

FE12 is everything FE13 wishes it was. Dat map design

Of all things to fault FE13 on I feel like this was noy one of them, especially if you're comparing it to FE12 of all things, which had "fun" stuff like Chapter 3 and 4.

[Moira]

Actually, for all the game says, Marth and Ike's "heroic deeds of old" could be defeating Tabuu. Behold, my new headcanon!

This is the best theory yet

[Loki Laufeyson]

How can you hate that scene?

That scene is the only moment that Cliff, the best character that is ever created is shown.

I mean who doesn't like Cliff? He's a fucking brilliant character.

Liek in the last best waifu poll, Cliff beats the entire cast by a landslide, to the point that Emmeryn falls for him.

Honestly the biggest wrong in the game is the massive quality drop after that point. They can't top Cliff and they know it.

Ive said my piece on Emmeryn a thousand times so ill spare you.

Its all the wasted potential that begins to blacken my beans about Awakening's story. Gameplay wise, the game is gr9 and i stand by that.

[~Silver]

Then you must hate the MorganxSevera shipping. Seriously...like wtf?

I dunn hate it, I dunn love it. But again, S-Supports that leave you hanging... I don't care for.

The Outrealms Gate is probably the best Deus Ex Machina device I've seen in a while. Yen'fay, dead. He's there though, from the Outrealm Gate to help Say'ri. I'm surprised and slightly proud of the writers not using the Outrealm Gate more as a DEM for other things beyond Yen'fay, children characters and Risen. Gotta have SOME "immersion" or "plot integration" for your DLC access though, eh?

I also don't like the fact that all the other DLC characters (excluding Priam and Yen'fay again) basically explain how they're there by going: "yeah no I didn't die just gravely wounded and somehow recovered and ended up here"

However in relation to the OT (and possibly b8 people who want to argue their waifu's flimsy plot presence), how they handled Emmeryn's execution and return was pretty god-awful. She could have been easily saved WITHOUT a direct conflict more than likely, and her beautiful string of happy coincidences that let her be on that island full of people conveniently ignorant of the social stats of the Brand of the Exalt was a bit... well, stupid. But hey, a game's a game and it was free DLC to get her anyway, so there's no sense in complaining about wanting free soup expecting to get something made by Gordon Ramsey, only to get something that came from a can instead.

Title shouldn't have been "Everything Wrong about FE:A" though, but to give you more credit: g8 b8 m8, i r8 8/8, no h8.

Wait. So Yen'Fay came back from the Outrealms? From a time where Say'ri died instead of him?

So... Is it a possibility that the Emmeryn in the... main timeline, came from the same Outrealm/Future Lucina came from? Perhaps the assassination wasn't... Executed fully?

Edited October 7, 2014 by ~Silver

[Wildshot]

Before you ask, no, I'm not about to go all CinemaSins on this. OK...maybe a little. Anyways, I was wondering:what moments in Awakening (and they have to be actual moments, not "character missed even though he had 99% accuracy" moments) do you find that were flawed, and shouldn't have happened? Any coincidences that you thought were just so dumb, they shouldn't have happened in the first place? I have one MAJOR flaw. And that is Emmeryn's "death". So many things wrong with those two scenes. In case you don't know what I'm talking about, here's what I mean:

1.Why didn't she try to escape!? There was no one watching over her! And if there were, why didn't they attack and kill her, like what they were told to do!?

2.There is literally no reason she needed to commit suicide. Sad moment ruined.

3.Holy sh*t! Either that is a huge *ss courtyard, or Chrom is the slowest runner EVER! He was pretty close the spire that Emmeryn was standing on just as the archers attacked, why is it taking him so long to make it to her?

4.Annnd Chrom just stands there instead of trying to get her corpse back. I get it, he's sad, he just watched the most important person in his life die. But at THAT close proximity, you'd think he could, at the least, try to go and get her corpse. Especially when Gangrel begins taunting him by saying he was gonna mount the corpse.

5.Did...Chrom just teleport? One minute he's over by the spire, the next he's back where all the pegi knights died.

6.Hey, were a minute ago, *sshole Basilio? We could have seriously used your army to fight off the Plegians!

7.Also, the Archerers make no attempt to stop Chrom from reaching Emmeryn as he's running towards them. And then they just disapear.

*moving on to when Emmeryn was refound*

8.OK, there's a lot to go over here, so let's begin with the most obvious ones.For one thing, I refuse to believe she survived that, what, 7 story drop? And face-first too!

9.Not to mention, she's angled so that IF she hit the ground face-first, which I'm assuming she did, her neck would break like a stick.

10. Also, she somehow got no physical wounds from that fall.

11.And she clearly lost her memory do to the fall, so don't be giving me that "she came from the outrealms" bullsh*t.

12.On top of that, the Plegians must be TERRIBLE at finding their victim's dead corpses! It's not like she snuck away, she was clearly dead...or uncouncius. At this rate, I'm willing to believe anything.

13.Also, you can not possibly tell me a face-plant fall from that height results in something as minor as memory loss.

14.And how did she manage to go this long without a single person saying "Hey, doesn't that look like the exalt? You know, the exalt of that major kingdom, Ylisse? The one that was apparently executed?"

15.And on that note, how did she get to the island without someone pointing this out?

16.Scratch that, HOW DID SHE MAKE IT TO THE ISLAND IN THE FIRST PLACE?! If she got on a boat, A-how did she pay for it? And B-NO ONE noticed the friggin' mark of the exalt symbol on her forhead?! And she's definetly not Micheal Phelps, so go ahead an disregard that idea.

17.Sure, spawn really close to the enemy. Friggin' idiot.

You guys?

I just pretend that Spotpass Missions didn't happen. I like Awakening, but I have a serious beef with Emm's dandy little return from death. For starters, I believe that in stories, dead people stay dead. (In this story, I don't mind the Avatar's sacrifice because I don't really consider what happened to be a "death", but that's a different debate.)

(Also, don't count Jesus from the Bible because I don't just view the Bible as literature, but that's a debate that won't take place on this or any thread. =P)

Fun fact about that clip: Flavia throws an Iron Axe. No, not a Hand Axe or any other ranged weapon, but good old Iron.

Just proof of how hardcore Flavia is. Basilio's lucky that Khans don't fight each other for the throne because he would have lost it a lot faster otherwise.

I know I'm throwing away an opportunity to say "I knew it!", but this really isn't what I had in mind...

Let's get back to some nice, controversial Awakening arguments instead, shall we? How about those Chrom x Avatar-F C-A supports?

I like those supports.

[Ownagepuffs]

jesus christ, i dislike the game and i NEVER thought of all these very good questions. i feel terrible

The art of disliking Awakening takes many years of practice.

Of all things to fault FE13 on I feel like this was noy one of them, especially if you're comparing it to FE12 of all things, which had "fun" stuff like Chapter 3 and 4.

FE12 has superior map design to 13. This is not up for debate. This is due to the way Awakening handled enemy design vs map design. Awakening has great enemy design, but poor map design. In Lunatic+, the enemies are such a ball crushing puzzle that you won't give a flying fuck about every map being a rout/big open rectangle.

[RJWalker]

FE12's Avatar is worse than FE13's. That's not a compliment by any means but yeah.

[Czar_Yoshi]

Here's one more massive one I forgot.

Archanea... Is never referred to by name. it's fairly obvious that the devs intended it to be the same place as SD (I think?), but there's not actually that much connecting it to FE1-3 and 11/12 except "Marth was here" (but dimension-hopping lords are a thing in Awakening's canon), Falchion (non-unique, there was one in Gaiden and Tyrfing looked a lot like it as well), the presence of Tiki and Naga (but Naga was in FE4 as well, so dimension-hopping dragons are also a thing) and the presence of Valm (which has also undergone a name change, and doesn't have very strong connections to its NES incarnation either). And even though Lucina "dresses like Marth", aside from color scheme their getups actually are fairly different.

On the other hand, we've got different names for all the locations, a new dark dragon and cult, a general public amnesia about past events, no Manaketes, and... Sparse connections in general. It's entirely possible that Awakening does not take place on Archanea, unless there's something big in the script I'm forgetting.

Oh, and also supporting that is some stuff in FP3: not only is "Naga" more of a position than a being, but Awakening's Tiki never actually refers to Naga as her mother- she's Naga's voice, not Naga's daughter. She's definitely the same one from Marth's games, but it's possible Naga isn't.

Crazy theory here, but bear with me. Let's say that a hundred years or so after Mystery, all Tiki's human friends are dead and she's suffering a big case of Who Wants To Live Forever. She runs away to Valm, and Bantu goes with her. She also takes the Falchion and the Shield for some reason (maybe she's mad at Naga and stole them?). Then Medeus comes back (again, surprise!), but there's no Marth to stop him and he starts taking over the world (including taking down Naga) before Tellius's flood comes in all Wind Waker style and wipes him out. This flood also hits Jugdral and Elibe, but Valm isn't really affected, and neither is Awakening's continent (I'm thinking that Archanea was north of Valm and whatever Awakening's continent is). Both continents get some refugees, including the Barhara royalty (which became house Ylisse- their Exalt marks are major Naga holy blood. Also they would have brought the Jugdral Holy Weapons), pirates and bandits (which become Ferox), and the rest of the Manaketes from Elibe (there weren't many, explaining the relative lack of them in Awakening). The locals (future Plegians) happen to be Earth Dragon cultists, which doesn't sit right with the Jugdralis so they start a war. Tiki helps out by giving them the Emblem and Falchion (she doesn't like Earth Dragons either), but otherwise stays well away from the conflict. One of the dragons from Elibe becomes the new Naga to fight Grima and the cultists (maybe a restored Idoun?). The former king of Grandbell would become the first Exalt, and then time would pass and Awakening would happen. Thoughts?

Again, if I'm forgetting something important feel free to blow me out of the water.

Edited October 8, 2014 by Czar_Yoshi

[Wildshot]

Here's one more massive one I forgot.

Archanea... Is never referred to by name. it's fairly obvious that the devs intended it to be the same place as SD (I think?), but there's not actually that much connecting it to FE1-3 and 11/12 except "Marth was here" (but dimension-hopping lords are a thing in Awakening's canon), Falchion (non-unique, there was one in Gaiden and Tyrfing looked a lot like it as well), the presence of Tiki and Naga (but Naga was in FE4 as well, so dimension-hopping dragons are also a thing) and the presence of Valm (which has also undergone a name change, and doesn't have very strong connections to its NES incarnation either). And even though Lucina "dresses like Marth", aside from color scheme their getups actually are fairly different.

On the other hand, we've got different names for all the locations, a new dark dragon and cult, a general public amnesia about past events, no Manaketes, and... Sparse connections in general. It's entirely possible that Awakening does not take place on Archanea, unless there's something big in the script I'm forgetting.

Oh, and also supporting that is some stuff in FP3: not only is "Naga" more of a position than a being, but Awakening's Tiki never actually refers to Naga as her mother- she's Naga's voice, not Naga's daughter. She's definitely the same one from Marth's games, but it's possible Naga isn't.

Crazy theory here, but bear with me. Let's say that a hundred years or so after Mystery, all Tiki's human friends are dead and she's suffering a big case of Who Wants To Live Forever. She runs away to Valm, and Bantu goes with her. She also takes the Falchion and the Shield for some reason (maybe she's mad at Naga and stole them?). Then Medeus comes back (again, surprise!), but there's no Marth to stop him and he starts taking over the world (including taking down Naga) before Tellius's flood comes in all Wind Waker style and wipes him out. This flood also hits Jugdral and Elibe, but Valm isn't really affected, and neither is Awakening's continent (I'm thinking that Archanea was north of Valm and whatever Awakening's continent is). Both continents get some refugees, including the Barhara royalty (which became house Ylisse- their Exalt marks are major Naga holy blood. Also they would have brought the Jugdral Holy Weapons), pirates and bandits (which become Ferox), and the rest of the Manaketes from Elibe (there weren't many, explaining the relative lack of them in Awakening). The locals (future Plegians) happen to be Earth Dragon cultists, which doesn't sit right with the Jugdralis so they start a war. Tiki helps out by giving them the Emblem and Falchion (she doesn't like Earth Dragons either), but otherwise stays well away from the conflict. One of the dragons from Elibe becomes the new Naga to fight Grima and the cultists (maybe a restored Idoun?). The former king of Grandbell would become the first Exalt, and then time would pass and Awakening would happen. Thoughts?

Again, if I'm forgetting something important feel free to blow me out of the water.

Not a bad idea. Problem is that if the story doesn't say it - or even imply it - then it didn't happen.

This could make for a doozy of a fanfiction, though.

[Czar_Yoshi]

The story implying nothing is kind of the whole problem.

[riariadne]

FE12 has superior map design to 13. This is not up for debate. This is due to the way Awakening handled enemy design vs map design. Awakening has great enemy design, but poor map design. In Lunatic+, the enemies are such a ball crushing puzzle that you won't give a flying fuck about every map being a rout/big open rectangle.

It's absolutely up for debate. The fact that Lunatic+ is dreadfully executed doesn't have a thing to do with map design, and the maps of Awakening blow FE12's out of the water. Every map being a rout/defeat boss is, again, not really something you can fault FE13 on without pointing out that every map in FE12 is a seize map, which is as bad if not worse.

I'm not actually sure what you're trying to say about enemy design at all because you first say it has great enemy design and then say Lunatic+ enemies are bullshit. I would say that the exact opposite of what you said is how it actually is- FE12 has well designed enemies but dreadful maps, while FE13 has some excellent maps paired up with terrible enemy design (on Lunatic+, anyway, I think enemy stats are fine on Hard and Lunatic).