I've been a Fire Emblem fan for something like 12 or 13 years. Like a lot of folks, I started with Fire Emblem on the Game Boy Advance--otherwise known as Fire Emblem: Rekka no Ken (or Blazing Sword). It was the first Fire Emblem game to be released in English despite being the seventh numbered entry in the series. I fell in love with its simple but satisfying strategic gameplay, emphasis on character development through support conversations, and challenging difficulty bolstered by a mechanic in which characters that are defeated in combat die--permanently. This adds an extra layer of tension to the series that is integral to its identity--and despite more recent entries offering the option to disable the feature, I never do. Not once. It's too important to the format.
After playing and replaying Rekka no Ken, I played Fire Emblem: Sacred Stones, last in a trilogy of games released for the Game Boy Advance--although it shares no storyline with the other two games. After that, I backtracked and played Fire Emblem: Fuuin no Tsurugi (Sealed Sword) which currently only exists as a fan translation. It is the sixth entry in the series but takes place chronologically after Rekka no Ken so playing it was an interesting experience. It felt like a sequel that took a lot of steps back. The gameplay itself was still satisfying, but the cast of characters was enormous and generally weak. Of course, it was a lot of fun to get more context on the storyline and to take the reins of Roy, whose appearance in Super Smash Bros. Melee puzzled a lot of gamers in America at the time.
After playing and replaying those three games, Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance came out (while I was still in high school!) and I pounced on it and devoured it. It was the first Fire Emblem title released for a console since Thracia 776 for the Super Famicom in 1999 (well into the N64's era). Although I missed the stylish 2D combat animations from the Game Boy Advance titles, I loved everything else about the game. The art style was polished, the music was effective, the support conversations were mostly well-written, and the tried-and-true gameplay was as addictive as ever. Radiance also brought back the skill mechanic from the SFC titles, adding another layer to the gameplay's complexity. It was my favorite of the series to that point.
Only two years later, a direct sequel to Path of Radiance called Radiant Dawn emerged--and it was an epic undertaking indeed. Not only did it feature every single playable character from Path of Radiance, but it also introduced a whole game's worth of brand new characters and weaved them into the storyline. Players alternately assumed control of Micaiah and her ragtag band of followers and Ike's mercenary group until the two become one. I've mentioned previously on this blog that I very much enjoy games in which a group of characters adventure separately until meeting up closer to the end, citing examples like Live A Live or Dragon Quest IV. Radiant Dawn is another really good example of this. Unlike Fuuin no Tsurugi's bloated roster of forgettable characters, Radiant Dawn delivers a gigantic cast of mostly solid personalities, some of which were previously established in Path of Radiance. Of course, Radiant Dawn isn't perfect and suffers from one critical flaw. Support conversations, critical to the series formula since Rekka no Ken--are with few exceptions very shallow and forgettable. It seems inevitable with such a large cast that such a thing would happen, but it's still a mechanic that I found myself missing a lot. Despite this issue, it's probably still my favorite game of the series.
Only a year later, an enhanced remake of the very first game of the series was released called Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon. Although many features were added in an effort to update the gameplay, it still came across as fairly dated, with vanilla gameplay in comparison to Radiant Dawn that was absolutely bursting with features. It was an enjoyable playthrough just for the sake of context, but it wasn't what I was waiting for. Of course, an interminable five years later, Fire Emblem: Awakening came out and it shattered all of Intelligent Systems' expectations and became the best selling entry of the series by far.
Awakening could have been the series' swansong. Intelligent Systems execs at the time admitted that if the game didn't meet their sales expectations, they'd conclude the series. As a rabid fan, this was definitely an upsetting prospect for me, so I awaited the game's release anxiously. I knew I'd enjoy it, but I wasn't sure Fire Emblem had the kind of broad appeal it would need to be successful. Boy, was I ever wrong, since Awakening went on to become the best-selling strategy RPG of all time (as far as I know). Of course, a lot of that had to do with Awakening morphing into a game with more broad appeal, which comes with both positive and negative qualities. The most welcome inclusion for me was the marriage system, in which characters with particularly close bonds can marry and produce children--which, through some bizarre and contrived time travel plot device, grow to adults instantly and can be recruited into your army.Of course, the game is also rife with online connectivity with loads of paid DLC, some of which is pretty low-effort. Additionally, the writing for support conversations is sometimes subpar, particularly in comparison to Path of Radiance. I still thought it was a great game, but couldn't bring myself to sing its praises (like the rest of the internet and all critics) since I could name at least two other titles in the series I felt were superior to it already, neither of which got the sales they deserved.
Of course, that brings us to Fire Emblem Fates, an ambitious new title released just last month. For the first time in the series, it is split into two different paths: Birthright, focusing on the Eastern-themed kingdom of Hoshido; and Conquest, centered around the Western-themed Nohr. Both paths share a handful of characters and the first six chapters, but for the most part, the storyline and characters available are entirely different. The Special Edition of the game comes with a third path called Revelations, which evidently unites the two armies. I've only so far completed Birthright so I can't speak too much on the whole experience--but I can say that I enjoyed the game a lot, even though I'm still disappointed by a number of things. The gameplay is as usual really solid, and the skill system is as robust as ever--but the writing itself is underwhelming, and not a lot of the support conversations jump out at me as having a lot of depth. Additionally, while the marriage system returns from Awakening, it has even less of a satisfying explanation. In Awakening, the system was at least loosely tied to the plot, but the explanation provided for children growing up instantly in Fates is hilariously contrived.
Still, the idea of assuming control of a character who must make a choice between two warring armies is at its heart a good one, and Birthright did a great job at delivering on that fantasy. I don't want to say a lot about my overall thoughts on the game yet, because I feel like I won't have a clear enough picture until I can compare and contrast it to Conquest and eventually Revelations. Considering Birthright took me some 60 hours to complete (on hard mode), I imagine I won't have the full picture for some time. Fortunately, I'm invested enough in Fates that I don't dread the opportunity to explore it further.
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