How good is Fire Emblem Fates Conquest?

[Dinar87]

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.

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.

So basically Corrin and Azura fuck up but, because they're the main characters, IS treats them as if they've done nothing wrong?

[Dinar87]

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.

What hampered the experience for you (other than the weapon triangle and the story)?

[Slyfox]

So basically Corrin and Azura fuck up but, because they're the main characters, IS treats them as if they've done nothing wrong?

Exactly, but it's not exclusive to Conquest. Awakening, Birthright, Revelation all have the same thing. If you could tough it out for the last three games I've mentioned, I think you can tough it out in Conquest, no problem, and enjoy the story.

[Dinar87]

Exactly, but it's not exclusive to Conquest. Awakening, Birthright, Revelation all have the same thing. If you could tough it out for the last three games I've mentioned, I think you can tough it out in Conquest, no problem, and enjoy the story.

I'm sure the gameplay will compel me to finish it though it's disappointing to hear none the less.

[DarkDestr0yer61]

So basically Corrin and Azura fuck up but, because they're the main characters, IS treats them as if they've done nothing wrong?

Without going into too much detail. I feel that Corrin is forgiven too easily for things he shouldn't be forgiven for. And Azura knows everything that is going on, but she purposely withholds information. The only time she really explains anything is in Revelation, but the most infuriating thing about that, is the she could have explained some of this in Conquest. But that is about all I can say without giving away too much

[Alastor15243]

(Removed, accidental duplicate post, not sure what happened)

Edited July 9, 2016 by Alastor15243

[Alastor15243]

Conquest's story is just a perfect storm of decisions, none of which on their own were necessarily bad, but which when combined create a disaster:

1: They wanted Hoshido to be objectively right and Nohr to be pretty much objectively in the wrong. They wanted it to be a good vs evil story rather than a conflict with actual sympathetic motivations on both sides.

2: They wanted Corrin to be a good person and not have Conquest be an "Evil" campaign, so Garon has to be stopped somehow despite siding with Nohr.

3: From a gameplay standpoint, they wanted Conquest to have you using the Nohrian characters and fighting against the Hoshidan characters.

Basically in order to reconcile all three of these decisions, they had to create a ridiculously contrived excuse plot that basically uses really bizarre magical plot contrivances to turn one set of actions into another set of actions so that Corrin can fight Hoshido and have this result in Garon being defeated. The problem is that this mechanism they come up with makes no sense, is not by any stretch of the imagination the most reasonable outcome, and makes Corrin seem selfish and/or insane to think that this is in any way the best course of action without even trying to find alternatives. Plus it paints Corrin's Nohrian siblings as... basically either cowards or idiots considering just what the story says it would take to make Xander not go along with his father's transparently evil campaign. Also it means the siblings undergo basically no character growth whatsoever until the last three chapters of the game, which is a terrible idea.

Edited July 10, 2016 by Alastor15243

[NekoKnight]

So basically Corrin and Azura fuck up but, because they're the main characters, IS treats them as if they've done nothing wrong?

"Fuck up" is putting it lightly. It's more like they do a lot of immoral and nonsensical things and the game treats you like a tragic hero instead of being a selfish coward.

Conquest's story is just a perfect storm of decisions, none of which on their own were necessarily bad, but which when combined create a disaster:

1: They wanted Hoshido to be objectively right and Nohr to be pretty much objectively in the wrong. They wanted it to be a good vs evil story rather than a conflict with actual sympathetic motivations on both sides.

2: They wanted Corrin to be a good person and not have Conquest be an "Evil" campaign, so Garon has to be stopped somehow despite siding with Nohr.

3: From a gameplay standpoint, they wanted Conquest to have you using the Nohrian characters and fighting against the Hoshidan characters.

Basically in order to reconcile all three of these decisions, they had to create a ridiculously contrived excuse plot that basically uses really bizarre magical plot contrivances to turn one set of actions into another set of actions so that Corrin can fight Hoshido and have this result in Garon being defeated. The problem is that this mechanism they come up with makes no sense, is not by any stretch of the imagination the most reasonable outcome, and makes Corrin seem selfish and/or insane to think that this is in any way the best course of action without even trying to find alternatives. Plus it paints Corrin's Nohrian siblings as... basically either cowards or idiots considering the just what the story says it would take to make Xander not go along with his father's transparently evil campaign. Also it means the siblings undergo basically no character growth whatsoever until the last three chapters of the game, which is a terrible idea.

That's a good summary of their mixed priorities that resulted in a disaster. Point 2 and 3 can coexist easily, if time is put into making both factions nuanced, but that puts the premise in opposition with Point 1. You can't be a purely good protagonist working for purely evil people.

[Alastor15243]

"Fuck up" is putting it lightly. It's more like they do a lot of immoral and nonsensical things and the game treats you like a tragic hero instead of being a selfish coward.

That's a good summary of their mixed priorities that resulted in a disaster. Point 2 and 3 can coexist easily, if time is put into making both factions nuanced, but that puts the premise in opposition with Point 1. You can't be a purely good protagonist working for purely evil people.

Honestly you could have combined any two of those and come up with a coherent and interesting story. Frankly I would have preferred an evil campaign to the nonsense we actually got, if only slightly.

[Dinar87]

It sounds as if the main problem was point 1 all along, the wanted to have a simple 'good vs evil' story and not anything morally complex. I think if they were going to do that then having corrin be legitimately evil in conquest and having IS treat him like a villain would've been better. Maybe choosing Nohr could act as a 'bad ending' of sorts

They also could've had Garron not be cartoonish-ly evil and have his own reasons for fighting. Maybe the war could be about resources and how, since there's not enough to go around, people fight for the last resources available. This could make it more emotionally taxing as neither side wants to fight but they have to otherwise none will survive. Would that be better? They could even have a sad ending where some villain consumes all the remaining resources and, since everyone's going to die anyways now, everyone teams up to get revenge on this person. They then all die a horrible death of starvation later on.

Edited July 10, 2016 by Dinar87

[eclipse]

I didn't like Tellius' gameplay, and thought the story was okay. I really like Conquest's gameplay and think that the story could've been better. However, if I had to choose the better of Conquest's story and Tellius' gameplay, I'd choose Conquest's story. I can skip the story with the Start button. I can't skip over how completely clunky Tellius' interface feels.

[Dinar87]

I didn't like Tellius' gameplay, and thought the story was okay. I really like Conquest's gameplay and think that the story could've been better. However, if I had to choose the better of Conquest's story and Tellius' gameplay, I'd choose Conquest's story. I can skip the story with the Start button. I can't skip over how completely clunky Tellius' interface feels.

So what would you choose if you could someone skip either of the stories?

[TheWerdna]

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

At about the halfway point in the story Azura suggests the dumbest possible plan, with half a dozen better options aviable, and Corrin just goes "herp derp, sure. Let's do this." Then the rest of the plot is said dumb plan and now I want to punch Corrin in his dumb stupid face.

[SSJDennis]

I think the story was decent so far, but it seems to take a turn from chapter 16. Don't really like the way it seems to go, but maybe I am wrong(probably not...). Battles are fun(playing Lunatic), sometimes challenging at first, but not so bad when you figure out how to clear the map. Killing this asap, or ignoring some(most) seems key. I don't like the rng outcomes most of the time, it get less annoying when your units grow stronger and get better, more useful skills. You also get some broken units early on, so anything can happen. I'd say this part of the game is fun, but I will probably start skipping the dialouges soon. Didn't play Hosido before for what its worth.

[SSJDennis]

Double post...

Edited July 10, 2016 by SSJDennis

[ruadath]

I think the story was decent so far, but it seems to take a turn from chapter 16. Don't really like the way it seems to go, but maybe I am wrong(probably not...). Battles are fun(playing Lunatic), sometimes challenging at first, but not so bad when you figure out how to clear the map. Killing this asap, or ignoring some(most) seems key. I don't like the rng outcomes most of the time, it get less annoying when your units grow stronger and get better, more useful skills. You also get some broken units early on, so anything can happen. I'd say this part of the game is fun, but I will probably start skipping the dialouges soon. Didn't play Hosido before for what its worth.

Yeah, basically this. Played on HM, but experienced the same thing. Gameplay is pretty good, but definitely overrated (people say this is the best FE gameplay-wise which I don't think is true at all).

[eclipse]

So what would you choose if you could someone skip either of the stories?

I can't figure out how to answer this. Can you please reword it?

[TheWerdna]

I think the story was decent so far, but it seems to take a turn from chapter 16. Don't really like the way it seems to go, but maybe I am wrong(probably not...). Battles are fun(playing Lunatic), sometimes challenging at first, but not so bad when you figure out how to clear the map. Killing this asap, or ignoring some(most) seems key. I don't like the rng outcomes most of the time, it get less annoying when your units grow stronger and get better, more useful skills. You also get some broken units early on, so anything can happen. I'd say this part of the game is fun, but I will probably start skipping the dialouges soon. Didn't play Hosido before for what its worth.

This.

I actually kind of liked Conquest's story and was actually shaping up to be quite good... until said chapter when Azura and Corrin throw their brains out the window, pick the dumbest possible plan, and the entire story goes south from there

[Tolvir]

Gameplay was good. Didn't have a false difficulty like Awakening had, had a difficult boss, and made you think. It was missing in some areas ( could of used tellius's ledges and elevation, missed opportunity for more weapon variation, and forge system can use some improvements along with some relatively minor things.) but overall pretty good.

Now to the story. Overall it's a matter of preference and personal experience. I enjoyed the story enough to not be driven insane at the mere mention of its name, while others, well, do the act opposite.

Edited July 11, 2016 by Tolvir

[Pixelman]

Gameplay is great; probably the most enjoyable experience I've ever had with a Fire Emblem game. It gets really intense in some chapters (like chapter 10 for instance) and most chapters keep you on the edge of your seat in terms of strategy.

Soundtrack is great too, and is easily some of the best the series has to offer, so no complaints there.

As for the story... well, I personally enjoyed the hell out of it, but I'd be lying if I said it was good. It's a trainwreck, but it's a damn entertaining trainwreck

At least it wasn't Birthright, which is probably the most boring story I've ever slogged through, and Revelations, which was entertaining up until the party enters Valla

[Sasori]

The gameplay might be the best in the series. Fun chapters, varried objections and a challenge. The only flaw for me would be that the last few chapters are more annoying then fun.

The story is very flawed as many people have already said. I'm somewhat milder and I think that the game actually had something unique and interesting going untill the whole Hoshido invasion arc. Sure the lack of nuance was a waste of potential, but I did think the early chapters made it work somewhat. Corrin first tries to be a goody two shoes about everything with some success, then gets his hope crushed in Chev and after that he learns how to minimise Garon's damage from behind the scenes from his family.

Edited July 11, 2016 by Sasori