I have to emphasize that I really enjoy what Intelligent Systems have done with Fire Emblem Fates. Splitting the game into different titles depending on which side of the war you're on is clever--and I can't levy any accusations that either side relies too heavily on reused content. The two games share a handful of characters and of course are two sides of the same coin as far as plot is concerned, but post-Chapter 6 (where a crucial decision point takes place), their actual content is quite different. One might assume that the two could have easily been combined into one game and this is probably true, but very few JRPGs out there boast a runtime comparable to the combined span of Birthright and Conquest, which ran me a combined time of about 120 hours (not including restarts, of which there were many). Granted, I definitely took my time, but I also feel I definitely got my money's worth.
It is very inventive how the two Fire Emblem titles differentiate themselves from each other. Their gameplay is not only different in terms of content, but thematically as well. Birthright of course takes place from the perspective of the Eastern-themed kingdom of Hoshido, with such characters as the mighty samurai Ryoma, the timid priestess Sakura, and the brash young prince, Takumi. Characters wield weapons like yumi (bows), naginata (spears), and clubs, which in this case sub in for axes. Axes are nowhere to be seen in Birthright unless acquired from the opposing kingdom of Nohr. There are diviners that conjure animal spirits to harry foes, ninja that hurl shurikens to disable opponents, and majestic sky knights that ride pegasi into combat. In many ways, Birthright eschews Fire Emblem convention by including very few traditional classes--although of course there are obvious analogues. Samurai are essentially myrmidons and of course promote into swordmasters as usual, but there are just enough wrinkles in the format to make the Birthright side of the equation feel very fresh.
Conquest feels more familiar at first blush, steeped as it is in Western tradition with its armored knights and mounted cavaliers. The kingdom of Nohr also boasts access to fearsome wyvern riders and dark mages--but they're definitely not the bad guy or anything! Bear in mind that the Japanese titles for Birthright and Conquest are White Knight Kingdom and Dark Knight Kingdom respectively, so the games aren't necessarily subtle about setting up for the player which side is in the wrong. Of course, things are a little more complicated underneath the surface, but... not very. The foul Nohrian king Garon is characterized as despicably evil regardless of which perspective the player chooses and of course his character arc possesses all the subtlety of a comic book supervillain. I've always enjoyed media that explore the shades of gray of morality and Fates touches on that a little, but for the most part the plot stretches your suspension of disbelief to the snapping point, especially when playing from Conquest side. Why you would voluntarily side with Garon is anyone's guess, especially as he continually sends the avatar off to one hilariously evil task after another. It's not about playing the bad guy in Conquest, though. It's still about trying to resolve the conflict underlying the war, just in perhaps the most misguided way possible.
The general premise of Fates is sound. The avatar has grown up around his siblings in Nohr for the majority of his life, but his true family hail from Hoshido--and they want him back. Meanwhile, King Garon has no other desire than the complete eradication of all who would oppose him, and there's no room for even an ounce of mercy in his heart. There are no shades of gray for Garon, whose fanatical devotion to violence leaves his reasonably normal children (and main characters of Conquest) surprisingly unfazed. It takes a shocking number of atrocities committed by Garon and in the name of Garon before the avatar finally convinces his foster siblings that maybe something is up. Alternatively, if the avatar elects to side with Hoshido, where his true family resides, he's more or less disowned and attacked on sight. Granted, neither side is very reasonable about this, but it was pretty clear to me from the outset that Garon was as megalomaniacal a villain as they come. Hoshido boasts no character as fearsome as that so it's hard not to view them as anything but the "good guys," even if the games are structured in such a way that you're led to believe that neither side is in the right.
Although Fates is plagued by a more hackneyed plot than is typical of the series, this can be somewhat forgiven so long as the character development is sound. Plot has never been exactly the strong point of Fire Emblem, even if it has frequently been solid (as in Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn in particular), but the main non-gameplay draw for me has always been the way the characters interact with each other. Fates certainly has a lot of that and in some cases the conversations these characters can have with each other between battles is interesting and serves to flesh out their backstories. Unfortunately, in many cases it's very close to irrelevant and poorly written. Such a fate (heh) seems inevitable when the marriage system from Awakening is shoehorned into a game that doesn't feel conceived from the ground up with it in mind. On the surface, it's really cool that just about any character can pair up with a character from the opposite gender, get married, and have a child--but because of the staggering number of possible combinations, the writing starts to run a little thin. There are some genuinely cute and clever moments buried in the mountains of text in these support conversations, but many are disappointing and shallow.
Despite all the criticism I can levy at Fire Emblem Fates, I can't help but wholeheartedly recommend the game for its addictive gameplay and the steps its taken forward for the series. It certainly hasn't supplanted the last two console games from my series favorites, but the updates Intelligent Systems have made to the core gameplay are generally very good. Weapon durability, once central to the series, is almost completely gone, only remaining on healing staffs. Weapons have been rebalanced to offer tradeoffs for their power. More powerful weapons are heavier and more difficult to wield, or temporarily penalize stats after use--but they can be used as many times as you like. No longer will I come across a legendary weapon and never use it because it only has 25 durability.
Additionally, the counterplay between the support and pair-up mechanics (also known as attack and guard stances respectively) is brilliant. Characters positioned adjacent to each other can follow each other up in combat. Alternatively, they can pair up together defensively, lending a statistical bonus to the character in front, and protecting the character in the back from harm. After landing and/or receiving a number of attacks, the paired-up characters fill the Dual Guard gauge, which guarantees the next attack received will be nullified. It is essential to make use of both mechanics to conquer hard mode on either version of the game.
Speaking of difficulty, Conquest is certainly the harder of the two games. It also features by far the most variety in map design, with a slew of different objectives to complete across the course of the campaign. Birthright features missions that generally amount to defeating all enemies on the map, but Conquest has more missions in which only a boss must be defeated, a location seized, or even missions where you are tasked with defending an area or escaping. Map design is not always intrinsically better in Conquest, however, and in fact at least two of the missions are impossibly annoying. It is overall a more stressful game, but perhaps a more rewarding one. Speaking personally, I did enjoy Birthright because of how foreign and unfamiliar it felt, even if the missions themselves lacked variety. In the end, I really enjoyed both sides of the coin and I can't wait to see what the final DLC path has to offer.
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