When a new Fire Emblem game was announced I was pretty excited. Awakening was the game that reinvigorated my love for the franchise – a franchise which I slowly plodded through previously but now eagerly devoured. It was far and away my favourite game in the series. Fates was something I was excited for – given its colourful and new setting – but the idea of releasing two separate games seemed like a disingenuous cash grab to me. Having spent some time with the entirety of the Fire Emblem Fates experience (sorry to keep you all waiting), I’m glad to declare that it isn’t. It’s great, but not without it’s minor issues along the way.
Fire Emblem Fates begins with Corrin (who you may name whatever you want) building bonds with the royal family of Nohr, a family who captured them from their family while they were young. The King of Nohr, your adopted family of sorts, sends you to investigate the neighbouring nation of Hoshido. The investigation doesn’t play out as originally anticipated, and Corrin is eventually brought face to face with his birth siblings who are of Hoshidan royalty. Without giving too much away, it’s at this point where the game splits into a different direction depending on what version of Fire Emblem Fates you’re playing.
If you purchased Birthright, you’ll side with your birth family in Hoshido and lead your people to defend their village against the Nohr invaders. If you purchased Conquest, you’ll work together with the royal family of Nohr to change their reputation for being relentlessly brutal. If you are playing Revelations, you’ll reject both the people of Hoshido and Nohr and be denounced as a traitor by both. It’s an interesting concept and one that can cynically be viewed as a way to make more money out of what is a single project – and it does get needlessly convoluted – but personally I enjoyed the idea of playing a war from both sides with different characters and reactions. It’s rather done-to-death but the idea of pitting siblings against each other is definitely a tragic one.
The writing in Fire Emblem Fates is pretty standard fare. In all the games, whether it’s Conquest or Birthright or Revelations, there’s goofs, there’s pretty typical “anime” tropes here and there and there’s some twists thrown in but they’re played up before their actual reveals that it’s hard not to predict them. Some still will undoubtedly cry censorship at some of the changes made during localisation but everything feels tightly written, even if it does exchange some more serious topics for some much needed levity.
So what’s the difference between all three versions? Without getting too confusing, Birthright is easily the game that those looking to get into Fire Emblem Fates should dive into first. Birthright introduces you to the mechanics of Fire Emblem fates at a more approachable pace, whereas Conquest is easily the experience crafted for budding tacticians. It’s more difficult and much less forgiving. Revelations is meant to be played last so we really recommend you do so – for both story and gameplay purposes.
But while the release schema is new and unusual to Fire Emblem, the core gameplay remains the same. Fire Emblem is a turn based, strategic role playing game. You still get to choose between the two difficulty levels – one of which is incredibly unforgiving and kills off your characters permanently if they fall in battle. It sounds daunting, but Fire Emblem Fate’s combat is never unfair. Every victory and every loss throughout our entire play through was due to either careful planning or lack thereof, respectively. Those who struggle immensely can also opt to select Phoenix Mode, which revives characters on the next turn rather than having to wait until the end of the battle.
Your battles take place on a field where not only the units you’re using to attack can affect the outcomes; but the terrain, emplacements and mythical Dragon Vein effects can mean the difference between winning and losing. Dragon Vein effects are a new addition to the series and allow players to alter the terrain at certain locations during battles. Weapons also have their own individual strengths and weaknesses, dealing more damage to certain units and less to others – some even inflict status ailments.
I’ve heard some players in the ether mention that strategy RPGs are more boring than typical action RPGs, but I’d have to wholeheartedly disagree. In Fire Emblem Fates, the enemies can receive reinforcements regularly and if you don’t coordinate your units to attack and defeat certain enemy units then you’ll find yourself quickly overwhelmed. This style of battle design really gives the battles a sense of urgency and tension that keeps things interesting as you play on.
Returning from previous games is the support system, which has units fighting together building bonds and eventually relationships. This plays an important role in the battle meta game as it strengthens the abilities of your units whenever they are fighting together and commonly strengthens either our defense or support abilities. The relationships between the characters can be explored further in the home area, which is a customisable castle. This is where the crux of the character development happens and where you’ll be privy to see all the quirks and idiosyncrasies of the characters play out. They’re a nice little diversion though they do err on the edge of ridiculous, especially when children come into play.
Children are one of the most nonsensical aspects of Fire Emblem but it’s a useful tactic. Essentially, once two characters reach a high rank together they profess their love together and have a child, who is somehow ready for battle. The child may be older than parents in battle, which is explained away by some kind of time wizardry where parallel dimensions are where children are raised to keep them safe from the ongoing conflict.
It’s really freaking dumb, but it’s fun to try to pair up characters who have complementing abilities – as their child (or bond unit) will have a combination of them once they’re born. This is sometimes at odds with the game’s story – I found myself indulging in the odd spot of eugenics purely to get the ultimate soldier rather than considering which characters would actually want to be romantically involved – but it’s still a fun diversion.
Visually speaking it’s clear there’s been a notable upgrade in the presentation for Fire Emblem Fates, with character models, environments and cutscenes all looking much more detailed. Even better, and a much needed improvement from Awakening, characters all now have feet! The Asian inspired setting of Nohr and Hoshido absolutely pop in the game with their ornately decorated settings and locales and bright colours. It’s a really good looking game and while the framerate does suffer here and there during battles, the art direction is absolutely superb.
Review concludes below.
