My Random Fire Emblem things!

Awakening Review

Here's the Awakening Review requested by Snivygirl25! (Finally)

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Gameplay Experience:
For its time, Awakening was actually pretty stellar. The animations were cool (no feet though), and the overall layout of the system (i.e character profiles, maps, etc.) was nicely done. Here are some more details...

- Gameplay Levels:

The difficulty levels in Awakening threw me off more than once. I had no trouble with Classic, but honestly, the transitions between Normal, Hard, and Lunatic and Lunatic+ was a bit far fetched (for me, anyway). From what I've seen, Normal was too easy, Hard was too hard for some, and Lunatic... well, it lives up to its name, anyway. But hey, it's different for everyone, depending on when you started playing FE. As a young beginner who was only introduced by her bro after watching him play so many times, that's what it felt like.

- Weapon triangle:

It's pretty much rock, paper, scissors; easy to remember, and only a bit complicated. I will admit, on Normal and a bit on Hard, the weapon triangle was just non-existent because of the easier difficulty level, and because of how easy it can be to build up OP units. However, it's still a good thing to keep in mind for strategy for modes like Lunatic and Lunatic+.

- Weapons:
The weapons themselves could, in my opinion, have a little more to them. Like in Fates, I liked how Silver weapons had a negative impact on a character's stats after using it, which requires more room for strategy. Awakening weapons are far more simpler — slightly lowered Avoid and larger Mt. The simplicity can be perceived as negative or positive, depending on what you like. I also wish that Awakening had more weapon variety, again, Fates had soo many different types of weapons, like the addition of the Kodachi, Hexlock Spear, Nohrian Blade, etc. Awakening, on the other hand, kept to more simpler terms: the Bronzes, Irons, Steels, Silvers, Braves, Killers, and then the legendary weapons. I personally like the variety better, since there's more room for strategy, but that's just me. Later on, it did disappoint me a bit about the absence of the Anima magic.

- Skills:
As a newb, the idea of skills at first didn't appeal to me... mainly because of the amount of grinding and class-changing required to build a good unit with nice skills. But after some time, the idea grew into me, and soon enough, skills such as Galeforce, Astra, and Luna were a must-be for any unit capable of getting them.

They require time and patience, but in the end, they're worth it.

- Class changing:
Somewhat ties in with skills — not so appealing at first, but worth it even though it requires time and patience. It also requires money, money which can be hard to obtain on Lunatic(+) if you don't have any DLCs. The idea of class changing is meant to promote or reclass a character based on what they need — better stats and/or more skills? But on harder levels and decreased amounts of money, Class changing is also a way to decide who you'll end up using in the end. Should I promote this character in sacrifice of that character? Is it worth to get that skill? Should I use this seal for someone else? Etc. Definitely an excellent component to the experience.

- Pairing up:

A big thing in Awakening is the ability to pair up units. Not only can they obtain a support between one another, but the likelihood of avoiding, hit rate, and damage done/received is heightened to a good extent. There was almost no battle in which any of my units were by themself. The possible result of pairing up, supports, is a nice bonus as well — it gives the player a chance to see inside a character, outside of stats and the storyline. Many of the supports show a deeper background on the character, like *spoilers* Gregor isn't really Gregor's real name, Henry was severely abused when he was a child, Lon'qu's gynophobia is a result a traumatic incident, etc.

The idea that units can also get married and have a child/children based on their stats is interesting as well (another tool for strategy).

Other:
The art was probably what drew me in. I loved the artwork; the style was beautiful and it just WORKED. Each character had their own unique characteristics and the cutscenes were wonderfully animated. Along with that, the English voice acting truly fit many of the characters (albeit some were a bit off); though, it's a shame they didn't use full voice acting. However, like almost every 3Ds FE game, the localization of Awakening (albeit not as much as Fates) took a bit off of some characters. The plot was very typical of an FE game, kill the bad King, save the world from an evil dragon.

Rating: 9.3/10

I can see how this is the game whose global sales reaches near 2 million. It's not the best game ever, but it certainly isn't the worst.

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If anyone has any differing thoughts about Awakening, feel free to state them in the comments.