Ah, an other Fire Emblem game to keep any other videogame away.
I ended up playing Awakening three or four times, and FE If (or FE Fates, if you don't live in Japan) promises to be twice that, with two different campaigns. Great!
Impressions are based on the special edition of the game, that holds both versions (White and Black Kingdoms) in one cartridge.
The game begins with the usual list of tutorial chapters, from simple movement and attacking, to weapon triangle, ranged units, pairs, and your character's abilities. I felt that Fates hold your hand for less time during these chapters, but I might be wrong. Just like in Awakening, you can customise your avatar, and the creation process is exactly the same, only without what can be considered a normal hairdo. Also, your character is always barefoot, which totally irks me.
But then he creates the Soul Edge out of nowhere, and everything's fine. Oh yes, your sword has a glowing red eye on it. But it gets taken away from you.
And also, about this post? Some wild spoilers about the first hour of the game.
The very first mission is a prelude of what will fully unfold in the sixth, just before you have to choose the side you'll fight for. After that, the story winds back and starts by introducing the Black Kingdom, then moves to the White Kingdom where you get to know your characters origins...or at least, part of it. You also get to know Aqua (I think), the blue haired dancer/songstress featured in many of the game's trailers.
Everyone (except two of the very obvious bad guys) seem a nice person, but the two sides immediately differenciate themselves unit-wise: Black has wyvern riders, knighs, and mages; White pegasus riders, swordmen and archers. I doubt that any of the two sides won't be able to access all unit types though. And because FE Fates takes directly from Awakening, I've already started oogling female characters for future marriage, and I must say that the White Kingdom has one red-haired pegasus rider that reminds me of previous FE characters. But the Black Kingdom has a wyvern rider that doesn't shy away to show off her best attributes.
The only weird thing is that every female character calls you brother. Fire Emblem Fates, not nly allowing gay marriages, but incest as well!
I know that the girls on the black side arent blood related to your character, but I wouldn't be so dure about white, if you don't know the story, your character is kidnapped and then adopted by the black side.
Anyway, the intro missions also highlight some of you character's powers: you can create bridges from rock or even level mountains to make movement easier by getting to predetermined tiles, which is pretty amazing.
And then your character turns into a Pokemon. It's probably a dragon, but the alternate form looks more like a Pokemon than a dragon to me. And then you get a new sword to replace the Soul Edge you lose to a shadowy figure.
Game-wise, Fates still allows to select difficulty levels and if characters stay dead or not, but also reworks some basic concepts.
For example, weapons no longer have limited uses: rather, they increase/decrease hitting power, dodge chances, crits, and so on. There are still dragonslayer and similar weapons, but now selecting a weapon is not simply based on how many uses one has left...and hopefully it will allow high-level characters to use high-level weapons, rather than just relying on iron weapons (that were weak, but your characters' stats would more than make up for it, and they had many more uses than better weapons).
Bonuses given by forts seem massive now, even at lower difficulty levels, and maybe the effectivness of pairs has been lowered a bit.
Character models follow the same "footless" style as in Awakening, but seem more complex...probably some designs (including your character) look a bit too overdesigned. The 3D effect is masterfully used in many occasions, from movies, to some stages, the valley in the last Black Kingdom intro mission is impressive, and even the overworld map uses it to make mountains and other terrain features pop out. As in Awakening, voices are only during battles and movies, with minimal voiceovers during dialogues.
Music, on the other hand...well, I don't remember any tune from the game, but I can't say that the music in Awakening was memorable either.
I ended up playing Awakening three or four times, and FE If (or FE Fates, if you don't live in Japan) promises to be twice that, with two different campaigns. Great!
Impressions are based on the special edition of the game, that holds both versions (White and Black Kingdoms) in one cartridge.
The game begins with the usual list of tutorial chapters, from simple movement and attacking, to weapon triangle, ranged units, pairs, and your character's abilities. I felt that Fates hold your hand for less time during these chapters, but I might be wrong. Just like in Awakening, you can customise your avatar, and the creation process is exactly the same, only without what can be considered a normal hairdo. Also, your character is always barefoot, which totally irks me.
But then he creates the Soul Edge out of nowhere, and everything's fine. Oh yes, your sword has a glowing red eye on it. But it gets taken away from you.
And also, about this post? Some wild spoilers about the first hour of the game.
The very first mission is a prelude of what will fully unfold in the sixth, just before you have to choose the side you'll fight for. After that, the story winds back and starts by introducing the Black Kingdom, then moves to the White Kingdom where you get to know your characters origins...or at least, part of it. You also get to know Aqua (I think), the blue haired dancer/songstress featured in many of the game's trailers.
Everyone (except two of the very obvious bad guys) seem a nice person, but the two sides immediately differenciate themselves unit-wise: Black has wyvern riders, knighs, and mages; White pegasus riders, swordmen and archers. I doubt that any of the two sides won't be able to access all unit types though. And because FE Fates takes directly from Awakening, I've already started oogling female characters for future marriage, and I must say that the White Kingdom has one red-haired pegasus rider that reminds me of previous FE characters. But the Black Kingdom has a wyvern rider that doesn't shy away to show off her best attributes.
The only weird thing is that every female character calls you brother. Fire Emblem Fates, not nly allowing gay marriages, but incest as well!
I know that the girls on the black side arent blood related to your character, but I wouldn't be so dure about white, if you don't know the story, your character is kidnapped and then adopted by the black side.
Anyway, the intro missions also highlight some of you character's powers: you can create bridges from rock or even level mountains to make movement easier by getting to predetermined tiles, which is pretty amazing.
And then your character turns into a Pokemon. It's probably a dragon, but the alternate form looks more like a Pokemon than a dragon to me. And then you get a new sword to replace the Soul Edge you lose to a shadowy figure.
Game-wise, Fates still allows to select difficulty levels and if characters stay dead or not, but also reworks some basic concepts.
For example, weapons no longer have limited uses: rather, they increase/decrease hitting power, dodge chances, crits, and so on. There are still dragonslayer and similar weapons, but now selecting a weapon is not simply based on how many uses one has left...and hopefully it will allow high-level characters to use high-level weapons, rather than just relying on iron weapons (that were weak, but your characters' stats would more than make up for it, and they had many more uses than better weapons).
Bonuses given by forts seem massive now, even at lower difficulty levels, and maybe the effectivness of pairs has been lowered a bit.
Character models follow the same "footless" style as in Awakening, but seem more complex...probably some designs (including your character) look a bit too overdesigned. The 3D effect is masterfully used in many occasions, from movies, to some stages, the valley in the last Black Kingdom intro mission is impressive, and even the overworld map uses it to make mountains and other terrain features pop out. As in Awakening, voices are only during battles and movies, with minimal voiceovers during dialogues.
Music, on the other hand...well, I don't remember any tune from the game, but I can't say that the music in Awakening was memorable either.
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