This game is ultimately the best Nintendo had to offer on the Nintendo 3DS until now.
The war still remains one of the most beautiful excuses to lay down a strategy games, and Nintendo has understood this concept, leaving the typical princess in despair for warrior lords of the everlasting saga of Fire Emblem, that has freshly arrived on the 3DS.
From the beginning of the adventure, the player will be invited to create an “avatar” or character that will become the second in command, friend and confidant of Chrom (the game’s main hero). Amnesia, being one of the best “assets” shared among videogame heroes, will be the state your character will meet Chrom and his friends when they are struggling to defend the borders of their peaceful kingdom against a repeated onslaught of local bandits. Although an armed Amnesia, your character will help to repel intruders and give you a place in the hierarchy of this beautiful country, the holy kingdom of Ylisse. Soon enough, various events and plots will plunge the continent and your team into progressive battles, and sink you into the tragic and epic accomplishments of those brave knights.
Like its predecessors, Fire Emblem Awakening is a pure joy of this particular style of game so addictive which is the Tactical-RPG. These strategy games that combine turn based movements and attacks and adds the RPG dimension with the troop’s management and equipment are very popular among us since the advent of other titles like Shining Force or Final Fantasy Tactics. But unlike the two others, the saga of Fire Emblem has a special characteristic that makes many players think about their choices if not twice but three times: when one of your characters is defeated, he is literally dead. While this style of play is just a complete whole experience for players who get fond of their characters, and then see one of his high ranked and leveled up warriors fall in battle.
Without alienating the longtime fans, this version also offers the ability to play in a casual way. In this mode, your warriors don’t die, but are just knocked out, and retreat from the battlefield. This is really an option that will delight newcomers and those who had difficulties in this series, which is already quite a challenge, even with three difficulty levels.
Staying focused is often the key to victory here, as usuall all elements are against you. Not only are you outnumbered on the map, but it often happens that reinforcements arrive regularly from small forts strategically located here and there on the field. One of your priorities will be usually to place your men in these entry points to prevent a part of the offending army to arrive continuously, but also to heal yourself per turn.
But the most obvious addition to the tactical function of the game is the ability to merge or “pair” units. During combat, when two units are juxtaposed, it will be possible to assemble, to slightly increase the capacity of the unit as a whole. Although this reduces the number of your units, it is very useful when facing enemies slightly stronger than you, which is often the case! Another important point to not forget is relationships, but we’ll get to that shortly.
Continue this review on Page 2.
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