Awakening vs. Fates

[Alex95]

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 Turns out that Garon, the king of Nohr, has been replaced by the "Darth Vader" of the story, Anankos.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."

[Ken Masters]

Ohhh... this is gonna be good...

Okay first thing first, congrats, mate! That's an amazing rundown and comparision of both games. Clearly you put effort in it and it is really well presented.
Seriously, props. Most people would just have posted a list of things and a clickbaity title. I like how you got your conclusion without bashing a any of the games

Now, I agree with almost everything there, except in one thing; I despise the Pair-Up thing. I really do. And while Fates has it, I get to relly less on it than in Awakening, and plus the infinity weapons.... sorry, but I'll give the points in mechanics to Fates :)

Aside from that, great post!

Here's hoping for a nice discussion without salt

[Harvey]

I agree with your points too. But I don't agree with the lack of character variety that Fates has.

I do admit that the characters in Birthright aren't very memorable but I will say that Conquest has very memorable characters....on the same level as Awakening. I personally love Leo, Camilla, Keaton, Xander, Elise and many more. Sure Awakening has plenty more but atleast on the Conquest side of things, I'm happy that the charm is still there.......the problem here is that there aren't that many great units to get in Fates as majority of them aren't well balanced.

Conquest, you get Gunter, Arthur, Nyx, Beruka, Laslow and I can go on here. In Awakening? There's not that many units that are poor in combat atleast from what I've played.

Now for Story, I will agree that Revelation and Birthright doesn't do anything different or isn't really that deep.....but Conquest is actually the darkest of them all!

If you ignore Conquest's ending, Conquest is easily the well written story out of them all. The ending is what disappointed me to say the least. The other two games barely had anything interesting to add......just cliche and generic in the end.

I agree with Awakening on a couple of things. Fates doesn't have memorable music unlike Awakening and the weapon limit is something that I like better than stat reduction. I really get annoyed at times that my stats reduce when I use the best weapons or that being attacked by some weapons reduces my stats a lot....it now makes me hate shurikens!

But Fates still is as amazing as Awakening...its just that there are somethings that Awakening does better and there are somethings that Fates does better. So its kinda a mix bag to me.

But they both are amazing games nonetheless.

Edited May 26, 2016 by Harvey

[blah the Prussian]

First of all: don't insult Ashnard by comparing him to Gangrel. Gangrel is just pathetic. Ashnard is a badass warrior King who's no one's bitch.

I personally prefer Awakening to Birthright, Conquest to both, and I haven't played Revelation. I can't agree about pair up; it made gameplay more interesting, although Awakening's amount of content beats out Birthright. Conquest's map design and music, though, kicks the ass of Awakening. Comparing the stories is like comparing Hitler to Stalin; it's kind of irrelevant as both suck.

[Alex95]

Ohhh... this is gonna be good...

Okay first thing first, congrats, mate! That's an amazing rundown and comparision of both games. Clearly you put effort in it and it is really well presented.

Seriously, props. Most people would just have posted a list of things and a clickbaity title. I like how you got your conclusion without bashing a any of the games

Now, I agree with almost everything there, except in one thing; I despise the Pair-Up thing. I really do. And while Fates has it, I get to relly less on it than in Awakening, and plus the infinity weapons.... sorry, but I'll give the points in mechanics to Fates :)

Aside from that, great post!

Here's hoping for a nice discussion without salt

Hey, thanks! This is something I wanted to make for a while, but the presentation was being written on the fly

I'm honestly not sure what to think of Pair Up. It's overpowered in Awakening, but somewhat difficult to work with in Fates. But it's saved my butt a few times (killed me, too, in some cases).

I agree with your points too. But I don't agree with the lack of character variety that Fates has.

I do admit that the characters in Birthright aren't very memorable but I will say that Conquest has very memorable characters....on the same level as Awakening. I personally love Leo, Camilla, Keaton, Xander, Elise and many more. Sure Awakening has plenty more but atleast on the Conquest side of things, I'm happy that the charm is still there.......the problem here is that there aren't that many great units to get in Fates as majority of them aren't well balanced.

Conquest, you get Gunter, Arthur, Nyx, Beruka, Laslow and I can go on here. In Awakening? There's not that many units that are poor in combat atleast from what I've played.

Now for Story, I will agree that Revelation and Birthright doesn't do anything different or isn't really that deep.....but Conquest is actually the darkest of them all!

If you ignore Conquest's ending, Conquest is easily the well written story out of them all. The ending is what disappointed me to say the least. The other two games barely had anything interesting to add......just cliche and generic in the end.

I agree with Awakening on a couple of things. Fates doesn't have memorable music unlike Awakening and the weapon limit is something that I like better than stat reduction. I really get annoyed at times that my stats reduce when I use the best weapons or that being attacked by some weapons reduces my stats a lot....it now makes me hate shurikens!

But Fates still is as amazing as Awakening...its just that there are somethings that Awakening does better and there are somethings that Fates does better. So its kinda a mix bag to me.

But they both are amazing games nonetheless.

Yeah, I'll agree with you. Conquest is certainly much better than Birthright or Revelation in terms of character development, but story is kind of lackluster to me in all cases.

Doh, I completely forgot about the music! Aside from "Lost in Thoughts all Alone" and maybe "Road Taken", Fates just doesn't have as great a soundtrack as Awakening did. Right now, I can recall almost every song from Awakening, but only a few from Fates...

First of all: don't insult Ashnard by comparing him to Gangrel. Gangrel is just pathetic. Ashnard is a badass warrior King who's no one's bitch.

I personally prefer Awakening to Birthright, Conquest to both, and I haven't played Revelation. I can't agree about pair up; it made gameplay more interesting, although Awakening's amount of content beats out Birthright. Conquest's map design and music, though, kicks the ass of Awakening. Comparing the stories is like comparing Hitler to Stalin; it's kind of irrelevant as both suck.

I'm insulting Gangrel by comparing him to Ashnard. He should feel ashamed.

Map design, gah! I really should've prepare this more... Yeah, kind of a mix for me. Like with most other games, some maps are easy to navigate, whereas others tell you to cram units into a small space. But I liked how everything looked; the grass, the water, the sprites, everything was pretty much awesome in both games.

[Dunal]

Gonna have to strongly disagree about Mechanics.

Pairup attacks and guard were pure RNG in Awakening. You cannot form a strategy around them aside from the ridiculous pair-up bonuses. They just... happened.

Pair up mechanics were great in Fates and enemy dual attacks or pair ups just needed to be better balanced around unit durability -- which wasn't as fine tuned as it should have been. But that's numbers more so than mechanics.

No weapon durability is an interesting concept that succeeded in some areas but failed in others. If they fine tune it, it's a great mechanic.

The EXP formula in awakening is busted. Fates makes it harder to over level units in comparison.

Map design, enemy placement and skill mechanics etc... are far superior in fates. Most skills in awakening are fairly generic and not that many enemies utilize them to the point where you would really care. Personal skills are a nice addition to fates and make each unit feel more unique.

The children mechanics are far better and make it so A) They aren't useless when joining and B) Aren't blatantly OP when trained. The changes to them from a gameplay standpoint are really good.

It's all subjective I suppose but Fates is by far better mechanically IMO even if it's got room to improve. Even just the EXP formula in Awakening really brings it down.

[Etrurian emperor]

I don't really agree but wow, impressive rundown of things

While its a bit to soon for a full verdict as I only played conquest I can say that if things stay as they are that Fates beats Awakening. And that's pretty natural. Awakening was very experimental and Fates had the chance to learn which experiments worked and which needed tweaking.

Story:

I'm...not quite sure who wins here. Both fail in different ways and both seem to stem from them wanting to do to much with the story.

Awakening had two continents and three villain factions fighting each other for screentime. The result was that no villain lasted longer then about five chapters after directly challenging the Shepherds. I never got to invested in the wars because they were over so soon. Very little got developed.

With three games and two playable casts to chose from Fates also tries to do to much and at points it seems very contrived with its conveniently breaking crystal balls, slime monsters or Corrin turning on shady allies who technically aren't doing anything wrong from a Nohrian perspective. The way Norh is handles also reeks of missed opportunities and bias against the black kingdom. On the other hand I do feel more engagement because villains don't come and go at the drop of a hat. The world building is weak but I find it to be stronger then Awakening, perhaps because the big focus is only on two kingdoms visually distinct from each other.

So no one gets a point.

Characters:

I really like the Awakening cast. Morgan, Lucina and Frederik rank very high on my favorite FE characters in general List. The cast is charming, personable and funny. But I also think the balance struck to far to the gimmicky and that hurts the cast. What further hurts them is that the gimmicks are repeated to much. Doesn't matter if Ricken learns he shouldn't be bothered with being short in one supports, he just does it again in his C support with another unit, ditto for Inigo's womanizing.

There was also some dept that was traded away to make room for flair. Awakening characters are very open and shout what they are all about from the rooftops at the first chance they got. As a result its hard to learn something new about them. You could use FE7's Lucius for two playthroughs and still find something new when you have him talk with Renault in your third game. Some Awakening characters like Gregor or Lonqu have it but much to few.

Fates has all these problems to some extend but I think a better balance was reached between flair and depth. More units like the royals, Siegbert, Niles and Saizo feel like real characters while you still got plenty who are shouting how much they love their favorite trope all the time. And if you're Arthur then doing so makes you amazing.

Point for Fates.

Mechanics:

Like I said before, Fates is the game that got the chance to refine mechanics that were experimental in Awakening. Pair ups were a bit to broken there with no incentive to use them and Fates tweaked that. Choosing between having another unit attack with you or guard does add some tactical value. I'm not quite sure about the new weapon system but I might just need to get used to it a bit more for a verdict.

The map design of Conquest rules and Dragon veins are a nice touch that something I always wanted for Fe. The ability to alter the terrain always seemed like an obvious new addition for a strategy game.

Points for Fates

Content:

Awakening seems to have a lot more content. It gives you more opportunities to grind and it lacks the restrictions of class changes that Fates has. Easy win for Awakening right? Well...what if I don't LIKE grinding? And neither do I like class changes unless they are very strictly in line with a units personality. With some units that's indeed the case, with others its not.

But its dlc stages do bring back a lot of old Fire emblem characters and have the Awakening units interact with them. And there a plenty of those chapters so Awakening still wins.

Point for Awakening

---

So my verdict is

Fates: 2

Awakening: 1

Edited May 26, 2016 by Etrurian emperor

[Hilda93]

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.

[Anacybele]

Hm, can't say I agree with any of the OP. Fates does just about everything better than Awakening to me. Story, gameplay and mechanics, and for the most part, characters. I don't find many of the Nohr characters interesting at all, but I like just about every Birthright character more than the Awakening cast (sans Freddy Bear, of course. <3). Awakening's story is a mess while Fates Birthright's story, at least, is pretty nice to me. No dumb shit like time travel or anything.

As for mechanics/gameplay, I don't like the removal of weapon durability, but pair-up was done right, the new classes and weapons are cool, etc etc. I like that enemies can use pair-up now, it added more challenge to the game, even on the easiest difficulty. Awakening was far too easy.

The only thing Awakening does better to me is the children, and even then, I don't like Awakening's children system either. But at least they had something to do with the plot. Fates just forces children where they don't belong.

Oh, I'd say Fates has worse fanservice too, but that's kind of a different matter.

Edited May 26, 2016 by Anacybele

[Nobody]

So you gave awakening a point in Mechanics because they're more broken than Fates's?

[Thor Odinson]

I disagree about Awakening characters. For me personally, Awakening characters went too hard on the gimmicks for me, and I found myself unable to really get attached to most of them. Fates supports, while there's still a few characters that do rely more on their gimmicks, strike a more enjoyable balance for me. Awakening's just full of fanservice tropes as Fates, in terms of character basis. That's what happens when you have a "marry everyone cast". Neither is perfect, but I prefer Fates' handling on the gen 1 characters, for the most part, better. I do agree on the one point in that Awakening had more background diversity and had more non-royal+retainer characters.

Gen 2 is a different bag.

[Loki Laufeyson]

I put a point toward Fates' story. Even if Conquest was a bit bad, and Revelation was an excuse for a cast party, it didnt have Emmeryn. That was the worst offense Awakening ever committed. That and even though neither game has much world building, Fates has a little bit more. I agree with Thor with the characters too. First gen of Fates is A+

Mechanics, im sorry, but Fates is a more interesting game to play. Awakening is really fun, but Fates actually challenges me on modes not named Lunatic.

So you gave awakening a point in Mechanics because they're more broken than Fates's?

dude, i was just thinking this. Ahahahahha

[Alex95]

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.

Yeah, the visuals were significantly better. Not the best I've seen so far on the system, but certainly better than Awakening's. The metalic shines definitely improved.

I disagree about Awakening characters. For me personally, Awakening characters went too hard on the gimmicks for me, and I found myself unable to really get attached to most of them. Fates supports, while there's still a few characters that do rely more on their gimmicks, strike a more enjoyable balance for me. Awakening's just full of fanservice tropes as Fates, in terms of character basis. That's what happens when you have a "marry everyone cast". Neither is perfect, but I prefer Fates' handling on the gen 1 characters, for the most part, better. I do agree on the one point in that Awakening had more background diversity and had more non-royal+retainer characters.

Gen 2 is a different bag.

I hear ya'. But, eh, I just wasn't feeling the characters in Fates much. I myself could connect to some of the characters from Awakening on a personal level, but Fates' just seemed overused or underdone to me.

So you gave awakening a point in Mechanics because they're more broken than Fates's?

Yep. While I like the challenge Fates' mechanics gives me, I have a difficult time working with them (don't go telling me to "get gud." I'm training already). There's too many things to keep track of for me, and I can keep track of a LOT.

[Harvey]

Hm, can't say I agree with any of the OP. Fates does just about everything better than Awakening to me. Story, gameplay and mechanics, and for the most part, characters. I don't find many of the Nohr characters interesting at all, but I like just about every Birthright character more than the Awakening cast (sans Freddy Bear, of course. <3). Awakening's story is a mess while Fates Birthright's story, at least, is pretty nice to me. No dumb shit like time travel or anything.

As for mechanics/gameplay, I don't like the removal of weapon durability, but pair-up was done right, the new classes and weapons are cool, etc etc. I like that enemies can use pair-up now, it added more challenge to the game, even on the easiest difficulty. Awakening was far too easy.

The only thing Awakening does better to me is the children, and even then, I don't like Awakening's children system either. But at least they had something to do with the plot. Fates just forces children where they don't belong.

Oh, I'd say Fates has worse fanservice too, but that's kind of a different matter.

You know....there are some things that Awakening does better than Conquest. As I said earlier, I thin Awakening's music is far better than Fates. It has weapon durability unlike Fates.

Now I understand for Conquest side, having weapon durability would make the game even harder but for Birthright, I wouldn't mind having durability since you always get the opportunity to get cash.

Then there's the problem of the character looks. I seriously don't like the Birthright characters except only a few that stand out. Conquest is as good as Awakening....and I'll stop to that.

Then there's Skills. Fates has this huge limit that avoids you to not get as many skills as you want unlike in Awakening where you pretty much can which means you have to force yourself to strain on getting more seals to do so. I remember the struggle that I had to get Keaton to get Sol skill while forcing myself to get good equipment for Keaton during his time being a warrior.

But yeah, besides those nitpicks, the rest of the gameplay in fates is obviously better than Awakening.

[Anacybele]

Well, so far, I think I like Fates's music better than Awakening. And I seriously don't like any Nohr characters except Elise, but I love Birthright characters. This is down to personal taste, it's not fact.

[Moonstone]

I kind of agree with the OP. That being said I've only played Conquest so far. The one thing that I like about Fates over Awakening is that you get to choose your side. I much prefer to fight for the family that raised me over the family that "birthed" me.

What I really dislike about Fates is

!!!SPOILERS!!!

(I'm sorry I don't know how to hide spoilers on here)

Seriously spoilers ahead and I don't know how to block them out.

The option to marry your Hoshido family members. I read the support conversations, and none of those characters are actually your family at all. So that really killed the story for me. I would've actually preferred that it was incest, because at least they'd really be your birth family, or ideally the inability to marry them at all. Just seems like a cheap cop-out to me.

I preferred the music in Awakening, too. I found it much more memorable, although I don't think I'll ever go another moment without thinking "You are the ocean's grey waves~" xD

Edited May 28, 2016 by eclipse
THIS is how to do spoilers. You were close, though.

[Alex95]

Seriously spoilers ahead and I don't know how to block them out.

[spoilers]The option to marry your Hoshido family members. I read the support conversations, and none of those characters are actually your family at all. So that really killed the story for me. I would've actually preferred that it was incest, because at least they'd really be your birth family, or ideally the inability to marry them at all. Just seems like a cheap cop-out to me.[/spoilers]

So close. Just simply remove the final "s" in the spoiler coding (so it reads

, not [spoilers]. :)

[Captain Karnage]

I'm going to have to ditto what Ana said except for how she feels about the Nohr characters (those are some of my favorites)

I also feel that the OP should have said something about the maps, Awakening has some of the most bland and bad maps in the entire series, and the sad thig is that some of it's best maps are remakes of maps from older games. Fates has way better map design, and especially with Conquest's varied map objectives like escape in ch 12 and the defense map on ch 10. Things like how enemies have equiped skills just to mess with you like lunge, that endgame chapter with Ryoma is really cool how the dolls have 3 range bows and lunge you into a room with an elite ninja.

Fates just kills it with map design and challenge.

[eclipse]

Here's my two-sentence take on things, because I really don't feel like writing an essay.

Story - Fates didn't repeat Awakening's mistake of trying to do everything at once. Granted, the execution could've been a lot better.

Characters - Fates has more memorable units, though like Awakening, it requires some serious digging. In the context of story. . .both of them are sloppy (don't ask me to choose between the villains and Corrin's yes squad, they're both pretty bad).

Mechanics - Screw the Fates RNG. But Fates did everything else a lot better (because randomly adding/subtracting damage is really bad for reliability).

Content - I gotta give this one to Awakening, and the bajillion Spotpass units. Fates may have more weapons, but Awakening has more things I can do without being connected to the Internet all the time.

This topic should've been a blog post, not a forum one.

[Alex95]

I'm going to have to ditto what Ana said except for how she feels about the Nohr characters (those are some of my favorites)

I also feel that the OP should have said something about the maps, Awakening has some of the most bland and bad maps in the entire series, and the sad thig is that some of it's best maps are remakes of maps from older games. Fates has way better map design, and especially with Conquest's varied map objectives like escape in ch 12 and the defense map on ch 10. Things like how enemies have equiped skills just to mess with you like lunge, that endgame chapter with Ryoma is really cool how the dolls have 3 range bows and lunge you into a room with an elite ninja.

Fates just kills it with map design and challenge.

I completely forgot about the maps, but I said something about it earlier. I liked Awakening's spacious maps, but Fates was done better. The Dragon Vein thing is also fun.

Here's my two-sentence take on things, because I really don't feel like writing an essay.Story - Fates didn't repeat Awakening's mistake of trying to do everything at once. Granted, the execution could've been a lot better.Characters - Fates has more memorable units, though like Awakening, it requires some serious digging. In the context of story. . .both of them are sloppy (don't ask me to choose between the villains and Corrin's yes squad, they're both pretty bad).Mechanics - Screw the Fates RNG. But Fates did everything else a lot better (because randomly adding/subtracting damage is really bad for reliability).Content - I gotta give this one to Awakening, and the bajillion Spotpass units. Fates may have more weapons, but Awakening has more things I can do without being connected to the Internet all the time.This topic should've been a blog post, not a forum one.

Fates' RNG sucks. I can't tell you how many times I've been killed by a 15% or missed a 98%...

...What's a blog?

[eclipse]

Fates' RNG sucks. I can't tell you how many times I've been killed by a 15% or missed a 98%...

...What's a blog?

Fates' RNG was changed, so that the actual hit numbers are a bit closer to expected than normal. I welcome the change, stupid 1% crit rates aside.

A blog is a space where you can write walls about things. . .anything and everything. Think of it like a public journal. Sometimes, the content is focused, like Google's security blog. Othertimes, it's a bit more scattered, like the Eating Well blog (warning: food).

[Gradivus.]

There is no change to the crit RNG. Crits were always determined by a single RN, even when hitrates used 2 RNs. I do recall reading something like Crit Evade now being changed though, which may or may not be what you're referring to.

Edited May 28, 2016 by Gradivus.

[Sentacotus]

Gameplay wise I prefer Fates by a mile. I kinda enjoy Fate's story a bit more too although for some reason I've always been a sucker for time travel and paradoxes in Awakening...call me weird. Art style wise I also have to give to Fates. I can't put my finger on it but the units just look...well better.