Tuesday 2 April 2013

Completed: Fire Emblem Awakening

i have a feeling this will be long simply cause i love the fire emblem series and have a lot of stories.

so the TL:dr;
If you like turn based strategy roleplayign games with great music and interesting characters you need to try this game, it's really really good.
Oh... and the guy with a pot on his head? yeah train him cause he's the best character.

okay onto the review.

To date i have played all the North American released Fire emblem games however i still have radiant dawn and shadow dragon half beat.... maybe after playing some other games in my pile i'll go back to them.
So... to say the least i like the series
a lot.
so from the start i was biased towards the game.
it was just so pretty, they lack of ankles and feet didn't bug me... the music was some of the nicest i had heard in the series.
though some things were.... off.

It felt easier.
I don't think it actually is easier... i think the fact that they got rid of 1 mission really made it less stressful.

Now one thing that i loved about the fire emblem series was that there was a challenge to keeping everyone alive, this game does something brilliant.
You can choose to play the classic mode, which is hard and stressful cause if the character dies then they are gone for ever.
or you can play casual where characters don't die.
this is great it appeases both types ofpeople who play games like this.
I, foolishly, picked classic....
yeah when i was training donnel (kid with pot on head) i had to restart a lot... do yourself a favor and just play casual...

the other thing this game does is allow units to pair up/get bonuses from units around them... a welcome addition.
However it got rid of the rescue or push system that i had grown to love and abuse. oh well each one tries to change it up.

the last thing i think it added was the ability to hook up compatible characters and then later recruit their children. I still have 2 kids to get but i wanted to play virtues last reward and that meant beating this game.
however the addition of the children seems to have taken away the branching paths aspect. in earlier games sometimes you'd have to fill out random requierments to get a side quest.
either i didn't manage to do this or they just aren't in this game.
it also makes me think that this is one of the first fire emblems were you can get every character on one playthrough. the others ones you have to play multiple times or do a branching path or something.

essentially what i'm saying is that it has a lot of new features but that that means it may have gotten rid of an old one you liked.

The plot:
Chrom and Lissa as well as a band of 'Shepards'  find an unconscious person on the side of the road. This person is your avatar that you make at the beginning of the game.
this is not the first time an avatar character is used, in the first Fire emblem game to come to north america (FE7? i think...) you also get to name an avatar that acts as tactician but never fights.
in this you get to fight... or do what i did and break the game.... more on that later.
anyways chrom helps the avatar and eventually they work together cause the avatar is such a great tactician.
however the world is on the brink of war, other nations are being corrupted by evil and theres rumblings that an evil that has been sealed for ages is about to reawaken.
well thats no good so you work together to try and stop that... save your country and also the world~

although the avatar has amnesia... and it's past seems to be quite a bit more complicated then anyone could guess.

So.... STORY TIME:

How Kat Broke the game:
I turned my avatar into a character who couldn't be hit, almost everything was %0-%10 hit and even if it did hit it was 0-5 damage... and by end game her health was around 70.
I think this is something that will change but in FE7 characters were advanced with class specific items that you may find early one or may find later.
you only had so many and you had to pick and choose... this was actually pretty hard but i made do.
in this one you get Second seals which advance anyone over lv ten to a different class.
or you get a master seal which allows a lv 10 character to pick between one of the branching paths that is specific to their class.
if a second seal is used on a master class character that is over lv 10 they can change class and get new master class benefits OR they can change to the same class and not loose any poitn and have the ability to level up.

second seals and master seals are easy to get and eventually you can just buy them.
this makes the game a lot easier... cause one a character hits max you just send them back to lv 1 with no repercussions... i loved and abused this system but i seriously hope they change it in the next one... it made the game too easy.

How Kat figured out the game wasn't really easier... just more forgiving:
in the old games there were three mission types i HATED cause they were hard.
1. Defend for x amoutn of turn missions... normally done at the start of the game when you are still weak/don't have a lot of characters... as far as i remember there isn't a single defend for x amount of turns and if there was i didn't notice cause i was too busy sending my overpowered avatar right at the commander all by herself.
2. defend this character missions... there is one of these..... but it was easy cans there was only one entrance for the enemies to get to AND again... sent to overpowered avatar and the quickly becoming overpowered donnel into enemy territory alone and they would just stand there and kill all that opposed.
3. Ship battle, these were difficult cause they were cramped... there is one ship mission in this one and i'm pretty sure i beat it on the first try.

in old games it was just a lot less forgiving i guess..

How Kat came to Love the stupid kid with a pot on his head:
Just before i started the game my friend told me that there was a rumor going round to train the stupid kid with a pot on his head.
This character is introduced in the first Paralogue and the only way to get him to join your team is to get him to level up.
way harder then it sounded.
anyways i managed to do it  and i noticed he has an ability called adaptability.
essentially he has a higher chance of upping his stats on lv up.
it was hard but the second i could change his class and eventually get him to be a hero.... he was pretty much unstopable... stronger even then my avatar or Chrom.
though he never takes the pot off his head.... but yeah seriously level him up.
 also his japanese name is Dennis... why would they change that?! Donnel just.... doesn't sound as good as Dennis.

How Kat beat the last boss with 3 characters:

So.... i was on the last chapter and one of my characters died.... dammit... needed to restart... so i'm trying to skip to a place where i can bookmark and then just restart the level.
but then... 6 other characters die in one turn... characters i considered to be strong.... damn... did i need to train them more?
probably
did i?
nope.... i unselected everyone except Chrom who has to be there, Donnel and my avatar.
and cause i gave my avatar and item that allowed for more movement and when i changed her class for a 3rd time i gave her a horse class she made it to the final boss in two turns...
by the third turn i beat the game.
i was worried that even though these were my strongest characters that they would get hurt but donnel and chrom had abilities that healed them when they attack and there skill was high enough where this was pretty much every turn... and my avatar has a weapon that healed her when he attacked..... so yeah.... i took a chance that may have made th game harder for me and in the end it made it so much easier.

Death in Fire emblem:
This is the first game i haven't lost a single character... i think in all the games i've played i've only ever lost 4 or 5 and it was always i had been stuck on a mission for a long time and i knew i oculd beat it the next turn even if it meant sacrificing your favorite character OH GOD SAIN I"M SO SORRY *sobs*.... uh... back on topic.... normally i get fed up with restarting and just continue on
not this time... even with Donnel the villager dying a lot on his way to Donnel the hero i still never gave up.
but yeah i'm still sad i let Sain die in FE7 since he was my fav.

is.... is storytime over?
ok good... good...

The good:
Music, characters (althought they aren't as memorable as some of the other series cause theres so many of them.... well... 'cept Henry.... he's pretty memorable...) story, 3d... yeah i know i'm surprised but the 3d in this actually looks really nice... and it very rarely hurts my eyes. fighting system is nice other then it's unfairly made to suit your needs more then the enemies. (if you characters stand by each other they fight together.... not true for enemies who can stand near another and not get a single bonus, maybe this is different in hard mode but i doubt it... also i played on normal... which could add to why the game was overall easy.) the support system is handled nicely and getting character hitched is a lot of fun. lots of free bonuses (though there is paid dlc...) good spot pass system where avatar of people you walk by get place in your game and you can fight and recruit them. it also harkens back to one of the other games which is nice.

just... so much good.

The not so good:
things are done that make the game too easy... if you wanna beat the game it's great but if you want challenge it's a little disappointing.
lots of choices but they don't seem to effect much... i'm going to look into this but other then the final chice it seems like it just changes dialogue.
it feels short then the other games... i dont think it is i just think since i didn't have to put it down for months cause i was frustraited with a chapter means those games felt longer and this didn't.

The bad:
i really wish some characters stood out more... i mean they are all nice but ask me about the old ones and i'll be able to tell you my fav things about 90% of them... this one i could probably do a handful.
thats all i can really think of... i really loved this game and i hope to go back to it after some Virtues last reward or maybe i'll finally go beat Devil survivor (i don't think i can beat it though... may have to go on a different path)

but yeah if you have a 3ds try this game...
unless for some reason you hate chess/turn based strategy games....
then maybe don't give it a try.

but yeah.... i'm gunan go look at my pretty fire emblem artbook and lament at some of the changes and agree with others.
oh that reminds me... in my book theres a character names Paris... i never got him... hm... maybe i did miss a sidequest...


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