Fire Emblem is a strategy role-playing game (SRPG) series that is developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo. My first was the Sacred Stones for Game Boy Advance. I started this game 4 years ago and just finished it today. Awakening is the first FE game for 3DS. It was easy to come back to after long breaks, which is why I was able to complete the campaign.
FE plays on a grid like a chess or checkers game, but it’s more free flowing than that because every move has many possibilities. I played on Normal/Casual difficulty. The game seems designed for casual because it’s virtually impossible to play without losing any units. I can imagine someone playing on a harder difficulty very strategically. In fact, someone on Gamefaqs said they played one of the 3DS FEs for 500 hours. It took me about 20 to beat it.
The gameplay system is solid. The graphics are simple pixel art, so it’s a bit hard to tell who’s who. It did play well on my New 2DS XL while resting on a tabletop and pressing the buttons with my fingers like a keyboard. I paired up my foot soldiers with mounted units and Chrom and Robin for defense. Some units such as Kellam before promotion seemed weaker than they should be, since he wears a suit of armor.
One other thing: although the game does contain some instructions, it does not recommend how to build a team, so I mostly used the first half of my roster only. I didn’t really use the Pegasus knights or the Dancer or the other Shapeshifter. So I felt a bit like a newbie. Set-up is fairly important.
FE Awakening is a good fantasy war epic. I have Echoes to play next. Overall I would give this game a high score of 8 out of 10. It’s better than the other SRPGs I have played, but I can’t say it was absolutely perfect or else I probably would have played through it faster. However, I am now considering myself a fan of the Fire Emblem series.
