Between battles, you will be moving on a set map, which gives you the possibility to head to the next chapter of the story, but also random battles, meet nomad additional vendors offering some very good deals and parallel events between your characters, allowing to increase their relationship, sometimes even discover objects or as bonus points experiment.
Once two characters are sufficiently helped by each other or spoken during the game or intermediate phases, you will be asked to watch their conversations, thereby increasing the quality of their relationship, denoted C to S. And to the delight of those relationship consultants, when male and female characters have reached a relation level of S, they marry, which is festive enough, but gives you more reason to celebrate, as you will be able to meet and recruit their future children via special events.
Of course, some combinations of parents give you more or less stronger units, that will delight players to try different combinations. Usually funny and well written, aside from the fighting, each character reveals his personality in a fun angle, and their children smartly take a bit of each of the parents, which gives you some kind of a fantasy soap opera.
Graphically speaking, it is certainly not a great looking strategy game, but this time Nintendo has managed to provide a simple visual rendering, fun to watch, but also uses 3D in a smart way that is certainly not tiring. Whether for cinematics or the game itself, the prioritization of relief layers is always very subtle, emphasizing readability. So, we are surprised to find ourselves plunged into the action, but still casting a glance on the left to ensure our hit points are still high enough. Still, some disturbing graphic choices can be noticed, such as lack of characters' feet – what the hell? – giving the impression of sinking into the ground, or a weird merge between humans and goats. But for the rest, it's all good, from the splendid backgrounds to the clear music or even the sound effects; each character is doubled on certain keywords giving depth without drowning us in incessant declamations.
Placing itself directly as one of the best in the series, Fire Emblem Awakening features a classic scenario, a gang of lovable characters, but mostly a foolproof game system. Ultimately, whether you are a fan of the series, its rivals, or even a newcomer, this is ultimately the best Nintendo had to offer on the Nintendo 3DS until now.
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