How good is Fire Emblem Fates Conquest?

[Dinar87]

Compared to the likes of the Tellius series. I heard good things about the gameplay and poor things about the story...do you agree with those conclusions?

[Jedi]

Really solid gameplay some of the best the series has to offer, it makes you think quite a bit, but yeah the story is lacking, significantly.

Edited July 8, 2016 by Jedi

[Dinar87]

Really solid gameplay some of the best the series has to offer, it makes you think quite a bit, but yeah the story is lacking, significantly.

In what ways is the story lacking? Does it compare to PoR or Radiant Dawn in terms of character development or world building?

[Moblin Major General]

In what ways is the story lacking? Does it compare to PoR or Radiant Dawn in terms of character development or world building?

What story? RD looks like literary gold compared to Fates, especially Conquest. That, of course, is without considering how ruinous Corrin's personality is, especially when the things he does are even worse than what happens in Tellius' background.

[Nobody]

IMO it's way better than the tellius games in every way except story

Edited July 8, 2016 by Nobody

[DarkDestr0yer61]

It is really good from a gameplay standpoint. Chapter 10 being a contender for one of my favorite maps of all time. Some maps are terrible, but most of them are fine.

Story.... ehhh. I feel like It would be a good story if it was written a little better. I see what they were trying to do, but it was not executed well.

Characters... Corrin is my least favorite lord, and I hate Azura with a burning passion. Other than that, characters range from good to okay.

Supports... hit or miss. Some have real in-depth supports, others are a bit too light-hearted for my liking.

World building... there are places that exist in the world... not really much to say. World-building is definitely lackluster, Also the world map literally looks like Google Maps

Edited July 8, 2016 by DarkDestr0yer61

[Pretty Cool Guy]

Personally, I'd say it has some of the best gameplay in the series. It really makes you look at your options and the difficulty comes from interesting skills and unit placement instead of just stat inflation. The characters are mostly good to decent. The story is poor, but it's really not the scourge of the earth some people on here would like to have you believe, I'd mostly say it just has bad execution.

[Sylphid]

"Probably the the best gameplay but with arguably the worst story in the series" is how I wuold put it.

In what ways is the story lacking? Does it compare to PoR or Radiant Dawn in terms of character development or world building?

No it doesn't.

Without going into spoilers, the underlying issue is (for me) that the story tries to introduce too many concepts and events into it that the whole package suffers from being unable to dive into any of them. A lot of things left me feeling I didn't really get what I was intended to get. Then some things were just giant WTF moments.

Pacing also suffers from this to an extent. Early to mid game has some chapters that feel really insignificant to the bigger picture while the end feels rushed with events just happening with very little in between.

[Brand_Of_The_Exalt]

I've never played PoR, but I loved Radiant Dawn (second best FE game in my opinion, could even become easily the best with certain minor corrections).

Personally, I'd say:

- The story of Radiant Dawn was really amazing, with a lot of surprises (Part III was so good for this), a very good narration, etc, whereas the story of Conquest is globally bad... Without spoiling, the first 'part' of the game is correct, but the end is rushed, you have this strange feeling that the developpers lost their story on the way, and just give an arranging reason to conquer Hoshido and justify the title. I think you'll be disapointed on the story. Even Micaiah's Part I in radiant dawn was more interesting IMO. And Corrin cannot be conquered with Elincia and Ike (maybe Micaiah though...). The playable carracters are more developped though (but are far behind Awakenings, except maybe a few ones like Peri), with more support and backstory, but I globally prefer Radiant Dawn's Character Design.

- The gameplay is between Radiant Dawn's Part I and III: it's quite challenging (but not that hard except in Lunatic), a bit like Micaiah's part, but you keep your characters like Ike's GM. I'd say the real difficulty in Conquest is that the game is really punishing when you make mistakes (a lot of units are glass cannon, the ennemies have rather high damage and good accuracy, it's much more difficult to dodgetank, and your units have quite low HP, so your mages can be OHKO, and most of your units can't take more than 2-3 hits). The lack of world map, MyCastle and the variety of objectives remind of Radiant Dawn where you were at your base between two chapters.

Edited July 8, 2016 by Brand_Of_The_Exalt

[blah the Prussian]

Right then. Conquest's gameplay? Sublime. Especially Chapter Ten. I have a save just before Chapter Ten so I can replay it again and again. I love it. I'd say the gameplay is the best of any FE released in the West.

The story? Well... picture the worst Japan/Stalin/Confederate/whatever apologist you can find, and then imagine what they pull out of their asses to justify the actions of evil. Conquest's story feels like revisionism from an apologist. It feels like an incoherent internet rant justifying Corrin's actions, which are despicable. That's all I have to say about it.

Oh yeah, also it has one of the best soundtracks ever.

[The Draco Knight]

THe gameplay itself is fantastic and the maps are designed very well, aside from some of exceptions.

Most of the characters have good personality and many of their supports are well written, in my opinion.

As for the story, It's really bad and my main problem with it is more about how the characters act in the various circumstances: It feels like they act too much unnatural for me.

Ah, and the worldbuilding is done very badly too

Edited July 8, 2016 by The Wyvern Rider

[Avarice Shadow]

Conquest became my favorite Fire Emblem game in terms of gameplay. Everything seems so well thought out to me with the exception of some small things.

Also the story isn't that good, I see what they tried to do but they did it all wrong.

[BrightBow]

The story? Well... picture the worst Japan/Stalin/Confederate/whatever apologist you can find, and then imagine what they pull out of their asses to justify the actions of evil. Conquest's story feels like revisionism from an apologist. It feels like an incoherent internet rant justifying Corrin's actions, which are despicable. That's all I have to say about it.

That's about it right. I mean, it's not that the story is bad. It is bad but that's not the problem.

I went into the game believing myself to be well prepared and it still became increasingly hard to digest as the campaign went on. Not that I have a problem playing a "evil campaign" but the vital difference between let's say, something like the Soviet campaign in the original C&C: Red Alert is that Corrin is not supposed to be the villain. He is the hero and the game seems to be of the opinion that he is nothing short of the most amazing person to have ever lived. Needless to say it's all kinds of unpleasant to see the constant glorification of an individual who at best amounts to being Fate's version of Hetzel but with an extra dose of self-delusion, so my run was accompanied by groans of increasing discomfort.

Edited July 8, 2016 by BrightBow

[sirmola]

Another issue is that revelations (and the "hidden truths" dlc) tells you a bunch of setting and character information which conflicts with the actions of several characters in conquest, meaning that the story retroactively makes even less sense.

Edited July 8, 2016 by sirmola

[Dinar87]

Thanks for all the responses guys. Really appreciate it!

[Rend Keaven]

Compared to the likes of the Tellius series. I heard good things about the gameplay and poor things about the story...do you agree with those conclusions?

I really want to give you a solid answer, however I never played the Tellius games and my PC isn't good enough to play them on a GC emulator so I can't compare both games.

I will say that the gameplay in both versions are their saving graces. Conquest is my second favourite FE game behind FE7. The story is not very good, with silly plot devices and a protagonist who is a very good unit but has a cringe-worthy personality (he/she does have their redeeming moments though). The characters for the playable units in Fates are done alot better than in Awakening (One of the units in Conquest is a Tsundere beast unit and somehow it works so well), even the "Awakening Trio" has good character development which I won't go into too much detail, however the same can't be said for the child units. while some are very good (Leo's, Arthur's and maybe Odin's child) ,there as those who are either carbon copies of previous characters or total brats.

[MCProductions]

It's a mixed bag. Gameplay is by far the best in the series, and while I enjoyed the story for what it was worth and actually consider it better than RD, that could very well be because I went in expecting the worse story ever in a game series that sucks with plot to begin with, and it never got to that point. I will never call Conquest's narrative a good story, and if I had to write a narrative using this plot, I would change several things, but when I look at what I would've done as a writer myself, I see less that I would change to find a narrative I would be satisfied with than in 7 other games in this series, so I consider Conquest to have a decent storyline ruined by very poor execution.

[saisymbolic]

Pretty much agree with most of the posts on here.

Conquest is very good from a gameplay perspective. The refined mechanics from the previous game ties in well with AI intelligence and map designs.

When adding in the story/plot element, however, things get a bit suspect.

The concept of Conquest is very interesting but the execution of it leaves so much to be desired, especially when compared to the Tellius series. It also doesn't help when Birthright and Revelation is added into the equation; all of them have moments that leave one questioning the writing to a certain extent. The supports are a mixed bag in both Conquest and PoR (RD doesn't count because it scrapped the good support system) as they have some that are good supports and some that are subpar. Overall, I would give it to PoR because I find that limiting supports between characters did help the quality of the ones available and made them a bit more memorable, for me at least.

I mean, both games are good in their own right; I just would choose the Tellius series for story.

[warchiefwilliams]

I'm just beating a dead horse at this point, but here we go.

Conquest is the best Fire Emblem I have played. Every chapter presented a new tactical challenge that forced me to think, plan, and adapt when things inevitably did not work out. Do not expect the AI to go easy on you even on normal mode, and expect to have to do a lot of save-scumming if you want to keep all your units alive. Pray to whatever gods you hold dear that you don't get RNG-screwed. Otherwise some of your best units will be benched, but that is fine. What better chance to use units you wouldn't have considered otherwise. As a final note on the gameplay, Birthright is Age of Sigmar, Conquest is Warhammer Fantasy, and you can guess which one I prefer based on my title and profile picture (Fun fact: Bretonnia no longer exists according to AoS).

As for the story... It is a fine example of flawed execution. Part of me wants to say that Conquest's story gets panned (especially here on this forum) due to how it was marketed as being this darker story more about reforming a corrupt kingdom while trying to ensure that its enemies (including your blood family) don't destroy it, and it just didn't live up to the hype. But the other part of me can't ignore all the problems; the protagonist being an incredibly cringe-worthy mary-sue/gary-stu, the questionable use of plot macguffins, turning what should have been a purely human conflict and adding fantastical elements that hurt it overall rather than aid it, e.c.t e.c.t. There still things I like about Conquest's story, but they are all hidden in the cracks, the dark and blooddy past of the Nohrian royals, the tension between Nohr and its various vassals/territories, the resentment that the population of Nohr feels towards Hoshido and vice versa. There are so many things that could have made the story good, but they botched it.

Mr. Blah's analysis, that Conquest feels like revisionist history, does ring true. Especially during the ending. But I won't spoil that for you. Go enjoy the game. It is without a doubt the best Fire Emblem to be released outside of Japan. Just be aware that the story, or at least the story they presented, is not the best.

[SuperPokéfan95]

As many have already echoed, Conquest has great gameplay and a meh story. If you want to get into spoilers territory why the story isn't that great to most, (including myself) you can search up one of the many posts discussing the story. As far as gameplay goes, its fantastic. The maps are challenging and aside from a few duds, the maps are very well designed. My only issue comes from lack of grinding and not much to do afterwards if you don't have DLC. I only wish you could grind optionally in the case that you get a stat screwed unit. Having a main stay on your team get mediocre growths for some time can really hurt you in the long run since there isn't really a way to fix it, (especially on Lunatic). There also isn't that much to do once you beat the game without DLC. There is the PVP stuff, but I'm sure your team wouldn't be able to stand very well against Revelation units who have maxed out stats and crazy good skills or people who hack, (but those people aren't worth the trouble anyways). The MyCastle battles also exist, but you won't get much out of it since you have limited money and won't be able to inherit that many skills from other peoples units. I suppose you could just unlock the remaining children paralogues you wouldn't have after you beat it, but unless you have good skills to inherit for the kids, its kind of a waste. That's just how I feel though. Alternatively, you could just replay the game from scratch and use different units that you didn't use on your first run. I've run through the game twice on hard and while I always use the royals and others, I've used Odin a bit to get his kid, and she is a main stay currently. So if you have no problem with a lack of post game content and you can overlook the story, this is definitely worth a shot.

[DragonFlames]

I can certainly agree with the gameplay, but I can't agree with the thoughts on the story. Without spoiling, I can safely say that anything and everything happening in there can be attributed to Nohr's leaders being huge d-bags (that also includes a certain spineless prick posing as an older brother). They did a very good job in showing that, in my honest opinion.

Corrin can be infuriating at times, especially since he/she just goes along with Azura's really STUPID suggestion, but they are supposed to be kind and naive compared to previous lords (Ike would have kicked Azura's butt for saying things like that and then he would go on to resolve the problem the RIGHT way).

But other than that, I personally love the story. Every action of every character has the right consequence and outcome.

Also you have access to one of the most amazing child units in Velouria, which is a nice bonus.

[Slyfox]

I haven't played the Tellius series, sadly.

In my opinion, Conquest is the only worthwhile Fates game. Fantastic gameplay, which we cannot stress enough, great music, visually appealing (though the maps don't look as nice as they do in Awakening) and a better story than the two other paths. Yes, I think Conquest has a semi decent story. Even if the story wasn't how Nintendo marketed it at all.

Anyway, the only problems with Conquest's story are Corrin and Azura. Everything else is pretty good. If you can look past two main characters sometimes being idiots, I think you will find the story, at the very least, tolerable. Most people seem to think Conquest is a terrible story but the only reason I see them give are, as I've mentioned, Corrin and Azura. A couple of bad characters does not destroy a decent story, but I guess it can effect immersion. I just wish people could analyze the different parts instead of lumping it all as bad due to one aspect.

[Dinar87]

I haven't played the Tellius series, sadly.

In my opinion, Conquest is the only worthwhile Fates game. Fantastic gameplay, which we cannot stress enough, great music, visually appealing (though the maps don't look as nice as they do in Awakening) and a better story than the two other paths. Yes, I think Conquest has a semi decent story. Even if the story wasn't how Nintendo marketed it at all.

Anyway, the only problems with Conquest's story are Corrin and Azura. Everything else is pretty good. If you can look past two main characters sometimes being idiots, I think you will find the story, at the very least, tolerable. Most people seem to think Conquest is a terrible story but the only reason I see them give are, as I've mentioned, Corrin and Azura. A couple of bad characters does not destroy a decent story, but I guess it can effect immersion. I just wish people could analyze the different parts instead of lumping it all as bad due to one aspect.

I'm not sure I should be asking this due to spoiler reasons but why exactly are Corrin and Azura idiots?

[Slyfox]

I can certainly agree with the gameplay, but I can't agree with the thoughts on the story. Without spoiling, I can safely say that anything and everything happening in there can be attributed to Nohr's leaders being huge d-bags (that also includes a certain spineless prick posing as an older brother). They did a very good job in showing that, in my honest opinion.

Corrin can be infuriating at times, especially since he/she just goes along with Azura's really STUPID suggestion, but they are supposed to be kind and naive compared to previous lords (Ike would have kicked Azura's butt for saying things like that and then he would go on to resolve the problem the RIGHT way).

But other than that, I personally love the story. Every action of every character has the right consequence and outcome.

DragonFlames gets it!

It's hard to argue the part that I've put in bold, or at the very least it applies when it comes to characters other than Corrin and Azura.

I'm not sure I should be asking this due to spoiler reasons but why exactly are Corrin and Azura idiots?

Well, I don't know if you've played the other paths, but they are simply one of the weaker "lords" in terms of writing in Fire Emblem. Basically, it stems from the fact that Intelligent Systems gave us protagonists who are apparently always doing the right thing (flawless, loved, easily forgiven, etc.) in the 3DS Fire Emblem entries.

[SSbardock84]

Gameplay wise it isn't bad. Except for the awful new triangle system and the enemies pairing up. It's not a very hard game either, I'd say Conquest is a bit Harder than Awakening and then Birthright and Revelation are way easier than Awakening. Story wise it could have been way way better. Conquest has the best storyline imo and the other two are just sort of boring. You've played the Tellius series and if you've played Awakening then you know how addicting those games are, Fates isn't nearly as addicting and that goes for all three versions of the game.