Fire Emblem has been a longstanding tradition in the realm of RNGs and RPGs. The first Fire Emblem came out in 1990 in Japan and until 2003 no Fire Emblem games had come westward. Any kind of western release was due to the popularity of Marth and Roy when they appeared in Super Smash Brothers. The first western release was Fire Emblem 7: The Blazing Sword, although it was just titled Fire Emblem, and introduced players to the rigors and challenges of the series. Fire Emblem Fates is the newest title to be released and was released with three different versions, Birthright, Conquest, and the downloadable Revelation.
The story of Fates revolve around the avatar character that the player creates named, Corrin. Corrin’s world is at war between two kingdoms, the Nohr and the Hoshido. Corrin is a member of the royal family of Hoshido but was kidnapped and raised by the Nohr when he was a small child. Depending on the version you play you choose to side with your birth family in Hoshido or with your adoptive family in Nohr. Revelation offers a third path where you choose neither side and forge your own path.
I chose to play Birthright first due to the Japanese setting and the characters you can recruit. Of the three versions, Birthright was intended to be an almost easier game to introduce newer players to the systems and formula of the series. Conquest, on the other hand, was intended to be more difficult and true to the previous titles in the Fire Emblem history. While easier than Conquest, I wouldn’t say that it doesn’t have its challenges. I found myself grinding often to make sure that I was up to snuff for each chapter of the main game.
If you are unfamiliar with the Fire Emblem games you may find that one of the mechanics that previous titles used is a “perma-death” for its characters. If one of your units die in a battle that unit stays dead for the remainder of the game. With Awakening released in 2012, they added a “Casual” difficulty setting that allowed for those units to return after the battle was done. In Fates they added another setting called “Phoenix mode” that allowed the fallen units to immediately come back within that battle. Another mechanic changed in Fates that was prevalent in previous games is that all items and weapons had a “life.” A bronze sword, for examples, would have 20 uses before it would break and you would need to replace it. In Fates, the only item that had health are healing items.
One of my favorite mechanics in Fire Emblem games is the class system. All characters have a base class that they fit into and can be changed or upgraded to another class using “seals.” These seals have a few different variations on what classes they can change the unit to. For example, the “Master Seal” can upgrade the unit from his/her base class to an even better class. The Knight unit can be “master sealed” to the heavily defensive General or to the mounted Great Knight. Fates added two new seals to the game called the “Heart seal” or the “Partner Seal.” These seals depend on the support roles in the game which I will talk about in a bit. These seals can change a unit to a class of a unit they have a high support with. Let’s say Corrin has an “S” rank with Rinkah, Corrin can then use a “Heart Seal” to change to the Oni Savage class which is unique to her. I have always been a huge fan and sucker for class systems in games and Fire Emblem Fates certainly doesn’t disappoint in that regard with the variety and options for all the different classes.
Another unique mechanic in Fire Emblem games is the support system. All units can be paired together to achieve ranks in their relationships with other units. The relationships are ranked on a scale of “C” being the lowest and, depending on the genders of the characters, “A” or “S” being the highest. While prevalent in other titles, it wasn’t until Awakening that the support system was important because, with achieving an “S” rank between a male and female character (although there are some small exceptions to this) they become married and introduce a child character that is exclusive to certain units. For instance, if Ryoma attains an “S” rank with a female character he is granted to the opportunity to recruit his son, Shiro. The supports add a fun side objective to the game and I would find myself spending a copious amount of time trying to get all the childbearing characters to “S” ranks to get their children as well as getting “A” ranks with other units just to read the dialogue between the two. One character, a monk names Azama, was one I tried to max ranks with as many characters as I could because his conversations were hilarious. Units also gain bonuses to stats when they are next to units they have high support ranks with.
One of my biggest gripes with Birthright was the lack of an engaging story. I felt that the story of Corrin and his two families could have been told in a better fashion than it had. You were constantly being shoved back and forth between the two families and not really being able to relate enough to either. Some of the story chapters felt out of place and almost seemed like they were just fillers while the story built itself up. Towards the middle of the game I finally felt that the story was going in a good place as well as a good pace but then I found that the last 3 chapters, once again, fell flat and the ending underwhelming.
Another complaint can be found with the cast of characters. Especially at the beginning I had a hard time liking most of the characters and praying with each chapter that I would get better ones that I actually liked. In the end I did find that I liked a lot more than I could actually use in the battles, but it felt like it took most of the game to get to that point.
Fire Emblem has long been one of my favorite series and always look forward to playing and replaying each one and Fates certainly satisfied me. With three different versions being available it adds more flexibility and options that you normally wouldn't be able to do unless you replayed the game. I give Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright a solid 8 out of 10.
Pros:
-Great variety of classes to play with
-Support system adds a nice flavor to gameplay
-Various difficulty options for players of all kinds
Cons:
-Lack of an engaging story
-Cast of characters were bland at first and took awhile to build a decent team
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