Fire Emblem: Awakening tops the franchise, easily
PostPosted:Sun Feb 10, 2013 1:50 pm
This game opens up the possibilities a lot more than any of the previous games, there is no wonder why Western review sites are scoring this one significantly higher than any game since the first Western release of Fire Emblem back on GBA (which Awakening still tops 92% compared to to 89%). In my book, I'm in agreement, the first western Fire Emblem was the best in the series until Awakening - and Awakening REALLY takes things to a new level.
Since I think most people here are familiar with the franchise, I am going to focus on what is new to this game:
GAME/GENERAL
There have been several additions made to the overall game modes. This will be interesting for old players, and also allow many new players to experience the game for the first-time who were intimidated by previous editions.
* Customized main character - Gender, appearance, voice.
* Japanese and English voice acting
* The addition of Casual Mode, an optional mode which removes perma-death in the story. I have yet to try this.
RELATIONSHIPS
The game features some upgrades to the relationships system. Previously, each character could have up to 5 Support conversations with allies. This is not the case anymore, those limits are removed, - characters can reach A rank with all compatible characters. Characters can marry when they reach the "S" Support rank, there is a limit of one S-rank relationship per character. Married characters have children which can be recruited later in quests called "Paralogue Quests" which I will explain later. Children are generally linked to one parent character (i.e. Sumina the Pegasus Knight will always have Cynthia as her daughter), but the hair colour is determined by the mate. Characters also gain certain skills which get passed on to their children.
* No limit on support conversations
* Marriage
* Characters who have been married will have children, the children can be recruited to your party later on in the game; there is some sort of time related story; so you can maintain both generations of characters.
* Children inherit traits from their parents.
MAP
There are some massive changes here, first of all, there are many different characters who pop up on the map that the player can interact with. When the 3DS hits an internet update, it will pick up parties from other players and upload them into your own world - so it is somewhat of a massively-multiplayer Offline game, SPORE did something similar to this; Wii U Miiverse also does this. These Spotpass parties have a variety of options including: purchasing equipment from them, fighting them for Renown points (which I will explain later), and recruiting units from them. Merchants usually have some on-sale items available, as well as Master Seals, Second Seals, and other things. Monsters also spawn on the map, these are just grind battles, you can often pick up a lot of free gold here. Paralogue quests are side-quests where you can recruit your children from the future to your party.
* Paralogue quests.
* Merchants spawn all over the map
* Spotpass parties spawn all over the map
* Undead enemies spawn on the map.
* DLC maps
BONUS CHARACTERS
Unlike previous Fire Emblem games, there is essentially an endless supply of bonus characters you can recruit:
* Dozens of characters from past Fire Emblem games which become available over time
* Recruit avatar characters from rival parties
* Get characters from DLC maps
BATTLE AND WEAPONS
There are a number of upgrades here. The major one is that instead of "Rescue" there is now - Pairing, which essentially works the same way, except any characters can pair. Essentially, when paired the "Rescuer" receives a bonus to stats, depending on the character they're paired with, and the "Rescued" can even sometimes attack, higher Support ratings increases this rate.
There's a lot of access to weapons and items that would be deemed "Legendary" in past games, you don't need to worry about using these up because there's always opportunities to get everything again and again in the future. There is no longer any reason to hoard all your rare weapons until the last levels of the game. Use Renown points to unlock rare items/weapons, purchase them from Spotpass parties, traveling merchants, win them on the map, DLC maps usually give 2-4 weapon drops per play.
Renown unlocks are a little new, but simple, gain points, and access the Renown menu, there is a ladder, every time you hit a benchmark, you can acquire the next item on the list. You gain renown from defeating Spotpass parties auto-downloaded from the Internet.
CHARACTER PROGRESSION
There is no longer a 40 level limit (20 sub-class and 20 master-class levels), characters can switch classes with "Second Seals" and have 20 more levels available - essentially, characters can level up indefinitely, although I would imagine there are stat caps. This video explains it all better, along with skills:
Overall, this game is overloaded with content, and there's just TONS of stuff to do all the time.
Since I think most people here are familiar with the franchise, I am going to focus on what is new to this game:
GAME/GENERAL
There have been several additions made to the overall game modes. This will be interesting for old players, and also allow many new players to experience the game for the first-time who were intimidated by previous editions.
* Customized main character - Gender, appearance, voice.
* Japanese and English voice acting
* The addition of Casual Mode, an optional mode which removes perma-death in the story. I have yet to try this.
RELATIONSHIPS
The game features some upgrades to the relationships system. Previously, each character could have up to 5 Support conversations with allies. This is not the case anymore, those limits are removed, - characters can reach A rank with all compatible characters. Characters can marry when they reach the "S" Support rank, there is a limit of one S-rank relationship per character. Married characters have children which can be recruited later in quests called "Paralogue Quests" which I will explain later. Children are generally linked to one parent character (i.e. Sumina the Pegasus Knight will always have Cynthia as her daughter), but the hair colour is determined by the mate. Characters also gain certain skills which get passed on to their children.
* No limit on support conversations
* Marriage
* Characters who have been married will have children, the children can be recruited to your party later on in the game; there is some sort of time related story; so you can maintain both generations of characters.
* Children inherit traits from their parents.
MAP
There are some massive changes here, first of all, there are many different characters who pop up on the map that the player can interact with. When the 3DS hits an internet update, it will pick up parties from other players and upload them into your own world - so it is somewhat of a massively-multiplayer Offline game, SPORE did something similar to this; Wii U Miiverse also does this. These Spotpass parties have a variety of options including: purchasing equipment from them, fighting them for Renown points (which I will explain later), and recruiting units from them. Merchants usually have some on-sale items available, as well as Master Seals, Second Seals, and other things. Monsters also spawn on the map, these are just grind battles, you can often pick up a lot of free gold here. Paralogue quests are side-quests where you can recruit your children from the future to your party.
* Paralogue quests.
* Merchants spawn all over the map
* Spotpass parties spawn all over the map
* Undead enemies spawn on the map.
* DLC maps
BONUS CHARACTERS
Unlike previous Fire Emblem games, there is essentially an endless supply of bonus characters you can recruit:
* Dozens of characters from past Fire Emblem games which become available over time
* Recruit avatar characters from rival parties
* Get characters from DLC maps
BATTLE AND WEAPONS
There are a number of upgrades here. The major one is that instead of "Rescue" there is now - Pairing, which essentially works the same way, except any characters can pair. Essentially, when paired the "Rescuer" receives a bonus to stats, depending on the character they're paired with, and the "Rescued" can even sometimes attack, higher Support ratings increases this rate.
There's a lot of access to weapons and items that would be deemed "Legendary" in past games, you don't need to worry about using these up because there's always opportunities to get everything again and again in the future. There is no longer any reason to hoard all your rare weapons until the last levels of the game. Use Renown points to unlock rare items/weapons, purchase them from Spotpass parties, traveling merchants, win them on the map, DLC maps usually give 2-4 weapon drops per play.
Renown unlocks are a little new, but simple, gain points, and access the Renown menu, there is a ladder, every time you hit a benchmark, you can acquire the next item on the list. You gain renown from defeating Spotpass parties auto-downloaded from the Internet.
CHARACTER PROGRESSION
There is no longer a 40 level limit (20 sub-class and 20 master-class levels), characters can switch classes with "Second Seals" and have 20 more levels available - essentially, characters can level up indefinitely, although I would imagine there are stat caps. This video explains it all better, along with skills:
Overall, this game is overloaded with content, and there's just TONS of stuff to do all the time.