Fire Emblem Awakening (3DS)

*****Possible Spoilers Below*****​

I'm a huge Fire Emblem fan, so I decided to pick this game up the other day.

Remember, all of these are comparisons to previous handheld games.

Awakening has many changes from the previous handheld english releases. Some are good and some are bad and I will go over all of them here.

----------Basic Gameplay----------​

- The biggest change is the inclusion of 3D models for all usable characters instead of the 2D sprites. For a handheld system the models look great, though they could have been a bit better. Overall this is definitely one of the good changes.

- The support system has been completely changed from previous handheld titles. Instead of being limited to a total of 5 supports you can now support every compatible character 4 times , ranks A-D, and you can choose one character for S rank support AKA marriage (and no there are no same sex marriages). Unfortunately there are very few serious support conversations, most of the proposals are either extremely akward or hard to take seriously. Supports are also done from the world map now instead of on the battlefield (no more random small talk on the battlefield, hooray!), but you also need to perform actions while next to the other character to increase your relationship level, once your relationship level hits a certain point you unlock a support conversation. Supports are much easier to understand now so I call this one a plus.

- Another interesting feature is the "pair up" system that lets you pair up two units in battle to grant bonuses to the "lead" character in the pair. When paired only one of the two units can perform actions to compensate. There is a small chance for the second character to perform an attack in combat (the second character will receive a small amount of exp when this happens) and an even lower chance for them to block an attack for the lead character. Your second character in the pairing cannot take damage from any source so it is a good idea to have the character with the higher defense as lead. The stat bonuses and the attack/guard chances are increased by higher support levels so you will want to match characters up based on this. Unfortunately pairing up characters can make a chapter take longer and getting too used to it isn't a good thing. I'm gonna have to call this one a neutral change, some good some bad.

- Awakening also features 3D cutscenes that look simply amazing, but sadly they are few and far between and are limited to only a few characters. Fortunately dialogue outside of combat situations is done using the 3D models on a 3D background. Some of the backgrounds look a little bad, but otherwise it is a step in the right direction.

- Combat has been redesigned from the previous handheld titles. There is no longer 3 schools of magic, everything is now considered to be in the tome school, and as such it is much more difficult to counter a mage with another mage. There are now 4 spell types and 4 tiers of each spell, Dark may be different I haven't really used it yet as only the dark mage and sorceror class can use it. Mages seem a bit overpowered in this game and hopefully will be changed in future titles. Armored and Mounted units are now ridiculously easy to counter with an abundance of weapons designed to kill them. I do like these change, but they need to be balanced in future titles.

- Skills are another combat change, but are important enough to warrant their own section. Skills are obtained at level 1 and 10 of your first class and 5 and 15 of your second class. There are 3 types of skills that I have found, personal stat buffs, ally stat buffs that come in the form of an ability called Rally that increases a certain stat of every ally within 3 spaces when used and buffs that are always up (the character with the skill is not affected by either type), the last type are skills that grant other affects such as being able to walk through enemy units or gain increased exp when paired. An important thing to remember is that your character will not lose skills when reclassing through the use of a Second Seal, so you can build a character with skills from any class they have access to.

- Classes have been tweaked a bit as well. All characters have Magic and Strength instead of one or the other like in the previous games. In addition to this we now have hybrid classes that can use both magic and weapons. Sadly most of these "hybrid" classes are just better versions of their previous class with access to staves. The Tactician/Grandmaster is one of the few pure damage hybrids and unlocks a skill at level five in the grandmaster class that has a chance equal to your skill stat to increase your magic/strength by half of your strength/magic. You can also reclass your characters like in Shadow Dragon, but it resets them to level one (you don't lose your stats and if that stat would've been over the cap it is kept in memory until you change to a class that has a higher stat cap). Unfortunately if you change a sage into another tier 2 class you have to reach level 10 again to switch back, on top of that you will need to level again when you change back to a sage. This could use some changes as well, such as the game keeping class levels in memory and more pure damage hybrids, but overall I think it is a good thing. All classes are now changed using a single item called a Master Seal.

- Convoy and Trading got an overhaul for the worse I'm sad to say. Trading between characters is now such a big hassle that it is better to stash the item and grab it with the other character. The one good thing that came from it is the ability to optimize a characters items with one button. I would like to see the inventory system from Sacred Stones return instead of this in future titles.

- World Map. Yep, I said world map. We finally get to use a world map again! It works almost identically to the one in Sacred Stones with the exception of skirmishes. They can still randomly appear on the map but they seem to be based on a timer now since there is not longer endgame dungeons like the Lagdou Ruins and Tower of Valni from Sacred Stones. Fortunately you can buy an item called a Reeking Box to summon Risen(monsters) to your location. It costs 500g but if you are playing on normal or higher then you get at least 1000g from an item drop. Secret shops now work like Risen and randomly appear in the form of a merchant that has a random selection of items and can occasionally reduce the price of items already in that zone. If a merchant and risen appear on the same area, a merchant will appear in the encounter and will give you an item if they survive the fight. I like it and would like to see it in future titles, but we need endgame dungeons.

----------Wireless Gameplay----------​

StreetPass Team - I haven't used this but I think it causes your team to appear on the world map of anybody that interacts with your 3DS. The reverse will also occur.

Bonus Box - This is essentially free DLC that can add teams to your world map, each of these teams can sell items and you can either challenge them to a fight (you have to win) or you can pay them to join you. There are also free items and maps that can be unlocked and challengers for Double Duels.

Renown Awards - These are useful items that you unlock for increasing your renown through using the Wireless function.

Double Duels - These let you partner up with a friend for local battles of some sort. Like the StreetPass function I have no way to test this.

Avatar Logbook - The leader of any wireless team you defeat will be added to this for you to hire in the future.

This adds much needed bonus gameplay to Fire Emblem and improves on the multiplayer from previous functions. I would love to see WI-FI multiplayer in future titles since most of my friends with the game live nowhere near me.

----------Paid DLC----------​

I'm not sure how I feel about this. It costs $2.50 for a single map and they grant things like additional classes units and items. One of the maps grants a Bride class with some pretty cool buff skills and it may be worth it. If you are a big fan of the game and have the money to spend then go for it, otherwise wait for the multilevel dungeons that may be released in the future.

Every paid DLC map IS repeatable.

If I had to give a rating, I would give the game an 8.5/10 The story is short but satisfying (insert dirty joke here) and the gameplay is sound, If you like strategy games and have a 3DS it is a must buy.​

 

-Reserved for possible future content.-

 

I tried to keep this as spoiler free as possible. If you feel anything is missing let me know and I will work on it or go into greater detail.

 

Fire Emblem: Sacred Stones is available on the 3DS e-shop if you want to give it a shot.

 

Have you tried the new DLC that just launched? I was thinking of buying a $20 3DS card in the near future to pick up some of the DLC and I would like to know what is worth it and what isn't.

Is it only available to ambassadors? I totally would have bought it off the E-shop. In this case I would say go ahead and download it off an emulator site since at this point you won't be hurting Nintendo's profit.
I'm going to clarify this a bit. As a general rule pirating is bad. However in my opinion an older game that can only be found used on the internet is fine. The developer/publisher do not make money off of resales and pirating these games only affects the reseller (generally an individual that just wants to get rid of the game). It is still pirating and as such is illegal, but it is victimless pirating (yep there is victimless pirating, suck it US gov't). Please don't use this as a go to method, use it as a last resort.

 

The EXP and $$$ maps don't interest me. I have my team maxed out and I'm sitting on 650k that I dont ever spend.