Review: Fire Emblem Awakening

The Fire Emblem series is a tactical role-playing game developed by Intelligent Systems and has been around since 1990 when the original, named Fire Emblem: Ankoku Ryū to Hikari no Tsurugi was released in Japan on the Famicom.  The Fire Emblem series has been growing ever since, expanding to a series of 11 games, having its first international release in 2003 with the installment known as simply "Fire Emblem" outside of Japan.  Ever since then, the series has stayed international, allowing its audience to continue to grow.

The games themselves all play in a very similar formula.  You usually start in what seems like a fantasy medieval world filled with many different weapons and magic. The story commonly starts with the leader, most commonly referred to as the Lord, and a small group of approximately 3 characters.  You go further into the plot, learning which weapons are better against others, learning about the enemy and their evil plans, and expanding your army by recruiting many different types of soldiers on your path and attempting to defeat said boss.  Although the series follows a similar plan for each game, they all have their own charm, making them each unique.

Getting back on topic, Fire Emblem Awakening is no exception.  Awakening seems to keep every great detail from the previous games, and enhances it, making for one unforgettable experience.  So here is my attempt to try to convince you whether this game is a must have or another forgettable title.

Visuals                                         

Fire Emblem Awakening was developed precisely for the Nintendo 3DS and it does a phenomenal job at showing the limits of the hardware.  Awakening combines both 3D models and 2D sprites to give the eyes a great show.  The 3D visuals were amazing,  It was obvious that Intelligent Systems put an enormous amount of work to put as much detail into the model.  As I played through, I simply couldn't deny that these are some of the best 3D visuals I have seen on the 3DS so far.  What made the models even better were the fluid like movements that flowed with a nice frame rate, never disappointing with any lagging.  I had merely one complaint about them, and this seems more personal that factual.  The character models seem to be missing their feet.  The models were made extremely life like, putting detail into human body frames and faces, yet if you look down, it seems the characters have very Wind Waker-esque feet or are simply missing them completely.  This is nothing game breaking at all, it was something I simply noticed and was curious on why it wasn't fixed.  The game also has the occasional cel-shaded cutscene, and just like the 3D models, they were amazing.  I was shocked I was seeing these cutscenes on a handheld system.

Chrom about to attack an enemy

Next are the 2D sprites, and what can I say but, wow.  These too were astounding, from the portrait to the overworld sprites.  Unlike any of its predecessor, even the overworld sprites moved so smoothly, that it was hard to believe that they were still only pixels.  For the portrait sprites of the characters, I give an amazing amount of praise to the sprite designers.  Every portrait looked as if they weren't made of pixels at all.

Music                                            

Next is the music, and again Fire Emblem Awakening left me shocked.  The musical score for this game set the perfect mood.  The moment you are in an open field with a few enemies, the music truly makes you feel confident in your abilities.  Walk into an ambush?  The music gives you the feeling of anxiety and nervousness.  At the final climactic battle?  Once again, the music puts you into the very situation and makes you feel as though every choice you make will either make or break your chances of winning.  There isn't much to say about it, except that it was great.

Gameplay                                            

Fire Emblem Awakening has the same basic gameplay as previous installments.  it's still a turn based RPG set on a grid where you must move your team close to your enemies so you can attack and hopefully defeat them.  The thing that gives each character their fighting prowess is the type of fighter and the weapon type they can use.  The weapons and magic are styled like Rock-Paper-Scissors.  Swords are stronger than axes, which are stronger than lances, which are stronger than swords.  As for magic, light magic beats dark magic, which then beats anima (elemental magic).  Next thing that makes each player unique is the type of fighter they are.  Some characters are flying units which allow them to move farther than most but are extremely weak towards bow and arrows.  There are also cavalier which also move farther but can use multiple weapons and have balanced stats.  Along with type, each character has abilities as well, which can do a variety of things.  Some make characters stronger indoors or outdoors, others make chances of a dual attack more likely, increased chances of a critical hit, and there are plenty more.  As well as getting stronger, your character can be promoted from a basic "tier 1" (the usual starting class) to a tier 2 which provide plenty of stat enhancements and even the option to use new weapon types.   With dozens of unique character types, each character can be a giant asset to your army.   One of the biggest unique features the series has is the permadeath.  When any player are defeated in battle, they will no longer appear as playable characters and be missing from the story, to represent the player dying.  This also leads to a direct game over if you allow your lord to die.  Awakening also brings back some of the most favored traits from previous entries.  these include:

Avatar Customization screen

• Having your own avatar as a player from "Fire Emblem: Shin Monshō no Nazo: Hikari to Kage no Eiyū" 
• An overworld map which you can travel through in between battles, similar to Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones and Fire Emblem Gaiden
• Multiple difficulties from many different entries

Awakening also has some new features that distinguish it even more from all the others.  This includes:

• Characters assisting others in a particular proximity in battle, by either increasing stats, defending them from attacks, and even attack the enemy.
• Player can give their characters a "second seal" to change from one tier 1 class to a different tier 1 class, allowing for them to be used as a different role, or give a "master seal" to promote a tier 1 class to a tier 2 class.
• Casual mode, which allows new players to get accustomed to the gameplay by allowing characters to return at the end of a chapter if they were defeated by an enemy, 

But all this is just scratching the surface,  I could type dozens of pages on all the things this game has.  To not bore you, I will quickly go over all the things it has.  The characters will have fight together, and will talk to each other with occasional hilarious dialogue, and eventually grow closer over time.  If the characters are the opposite sex, they will even marry each other, furthering their bonds.

There is also a wireless feature that will allow you to play with your friends wirelessly.  In the wireless feature is a bonus box which will give you the opportunity to fight and potentially recruit important character from previous Fire Emblem entries.
This game also supports downloadable content, which allows you to play different maps which permit you to recruit certain previous lords from past Fire Emblem installments.

Story                                                   

Archer Virion attempting to charm Cavalier Sully 

The story is an amazingly strong story.  It has plenty of serious moments that will make you truly care for the characters.  As well as with the story, there are so many characters that have such unique personalities that easily make them likable.  There are clumsy Pegasus riders, forgettable knights, optimistic dark mages, genius sages, lonely swordsmen, romantic archers, candy loving thieves, childish dragons, and "Russian" sounding mercenaries.  Along with reading their dialogue, you get to see how they react together in their support conversations.  In order to avoid spoiling anything for any potential players, I will end it at that.

Overview                              

Fire Emblem Awakening is a phenomenal game with great characters, great story and amazing gameplay.  Unfortunately due to it only working on a turn based system, the Fire Emblem series has never gotten as much attention as it deserves.  I definitely recommend this game to anyone who has enjoyed a previous Fire Emblem game, and recommend anyone who is new to the series to try the demo before making this purchase.

 I rate this game a 9.0 out of 10










Notes: Sorry for taking too long, I've been very busy with class and work.  My next review will be on PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale on the Playstation 3.  If you want any particular game to be reviewed, feel free to send me an email at gabezune.1@gmail.com and I will get back to you as soon as possible.  Otherwise feel free to comment and/or share.  Enjoy the review and hopefully I will have the next up soon.