Fire Emblem Kakusei / Awakening Review [3DS] review

[S3M]

Played the first few chapters and enjoyed what I played so far usual Fire Emblem stuff.

Not the best in the series plot starts to get really silly later on and this is a real step down from some games in the series. I dislike the player character as well. The create you own character causes the player character to be dettached from the rest of the cast and instead should have been a preset character(s) male and/or female instead.

Gameplay wise the new features are great and it's a real step forward for the series, but the battle map and environment fights still fall way short of Shining Force III. Still think they need to retire the death system and instead punish the player in a different way.

[Brad]

They thought that with multiple big models (Wyvern Riders, for example) the framerate would suffer, but there when everything was done they realised there was enough headroom for proper feet. But everything was done with those models (cameras, animations, etc), so they kept the "no-feet" characters.

It's utter madness though. How did the idea ever get past anyone. We're short of CPU power guys. What shall we do? Cut their feet off? OK, that's settled. Surely there must have been something else they could have done. I think I'm the only person who it actually bothers though.

[PaTaito]

It's utter madness though. How did the idea ever get past anyone. We're short of CPU power guys. What shall we do? Cut their feet off? OK, that's settled. Surely there must have been something else they could have done. I think I'm the only person who it actually bothers though.

It bothers me big time..."nintendo seal of quality" springs to mind.

[kryss]

It's utter madness though. How did the idea ever get past anyone. We're short of CPU power guys. What shall we do? Cut their feet off? OK, that's settled. Surely there must have been something else they could have done. I think I'm the only person who it actually bothers though.

Annoys me too, see my first post!

[wicky]

First ever fire emblem game and I love it ! It's the only ds game that has made me take the animal crossing cart out. Decided to go with no perma-death, I am not ready for the emotional rollercoaster that would be.

[J0e Musashi]

I'd like to make a start on this, but I've got so much else to play I just can't see me getting around to it any time soon. I've got it pencilled in for when I'm off of work over Christmas.

[Asura]

Been playing a bit of this. It's pretty good, though the "death" thing really makes me think a lot about the battles, much more than in something like Final Fantasy Tactics. This is a double-edged sword, as whilst it's very tense, it also makes them last a lot longer as I have to carefully consider every single move. Got to Chapter 7 without losing anyone yet.

It's a little frustrating too. I'm trying to resist the urge to do restarts if I lose people, though I did this once, when I lost my first character, as I thought you'd get some chance to stop them dying rather than just totally lose them once they hit 0hp. They went from max to dead in a single turn on an enemy crit too. It's interesting so far, but I can see it get very frustrating unless the mission design is particularly good, as if I lose a character when I don't think anything could be done about it, then that's going to feel a bit lame.

How much does having characters die mess up the plot? I know that Chrom and the avatar are the only person who HAVE to stay alive, but will the game get disproportionately difficult if you lose people?

[briareos_kerensky]

How much does having characters die mess up the plot? I know that Chrom and the avatar are the only person who HAVE to stay alive, but will the game get disproportionately difficult if you lose people?

The only characters that affect the plot are Chrom and Robin (player's avatar standard name). You can have anyone else die, and it won't affect the plot; the "only" thing affected is which units you'll be able to get later.
The game can be pretty harsh in normal, even for FE veterans. It's not as difficult as FE Gaiden (GBA, unpublished here in the west), but it's more brutal than the previous installments, though this is coutnerbalanced by how stupidly strong some characters can get (first and foremost your avatar), the pair up system, and the relative freedom you have with classes and grinding.
Characters dying in one hit were common in previous FEs as well...I'll always remember when in Blazing Sword (GBA, called simply Fire Emblem in US/EU) the last axe-wielding bandit was able to crit a General and kill him in one attack. In Awakening enemies tend to gang up on much more tha before, so it's imperative to use terrain and exploit the enemy's weakness.

[Guts]

How much does having characters die mess up the plot? I know that Chrom and the avatar are the only person who HAVE to stay alive, but will the game get disproportionately difficult if you lose people?

Plot important characters won't really "die". They get wounded, so you can't use them in battle, but they will stay there if the story calls for them.

I'd imagine the game could get quite hard if you'd lose your healers for example. I'm near the end of the game, probably the last fight actually and have lost a few characters, but not really anyone I'd miss in the battles. I've restarted quite a few times too if I've lost a good character or one I like.

[briareos_kerensky]

I'd imagine the game could get quite hard if you'd lose your healers for example.

By using a Secon Seal you change a character's class, so if you need healers, you can have someone revert to a healer. Changing classes in this way it's actually quite useful to pile up skills to clear DLC maps.

[Asura]

Might sound daft, but what does the "pair up" feature actually do? I just thought if you paired a healer with a mounted unit, they could travel farther per turn together, but in honesty it seemed a bit useless and I've never bothered with it.

[briareos_kerensky]

Haven't you noticed the "hit+10" that comes up in battles? Now, the better paired units know each other (supportor dialogues ranks, from C to S), better and more bonuses they get during battles. Also, the inactive unit can shield the primary unit from attacks (completely, noone takes damage) or follow up attacks. Pairing up is the way to go in this game.

[Asura]

Haven't you noticed the "hit+10" that comes up in battles? Now, the better paired units know each other (supportor dialogues ranks, from C to S), better and more bonuses they get during battles. Also, the inactive unit can shield the primary unit from attacks (completely, noone takes damage) or follow up attacks. Pairing up is the way to go in this game.

Yeah, but that's just from units standing adjacent to each other, isn't it?

When you try and move a unit "on top" of another, there's an option called "pair up". What does that do?

[Guts]

Might sound daft, but what does the "pair up" feature actually do? I just thought if you paired a healer with a mounted unit, they could travel farther per turn together, but in honesty it seemed a bit useless and I've never bothered with it.

TBH, I haven't really used that option in the game, almost at all, so it's not essential, at least not on the normal difficulty. Like you said, you can use it to carry slow units with faster mounted units. It's useful when you get Pegasus Knights who can fly over obstacles like troop carriers. I guess you could also use it in a map where there's not a lot of space, like tight corridors or something, so you could fit two units in one square or something like that. I don't know if there's any statistical bonuses for "pair up".

[Asura]

Just reloaded a save for the first time. One of my Pegasus knights was killed in a side mission, which introduced the concept of "villages". The tutorial didn't clearly explain what villages did, and I sent the character to do it (as the tutorial) instructed, only for her to receive a useless item and get jumped by several enemies.

so yeah, not having that. Reload, restart and ignore that tutorial.