Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright Reviews
The most impressive refinement of Fire Emblem to date, this game belongs in everyone's 3DS.
By the end any notion of nature versus nurture is long forgotten. Tragedy falls on both sides of this war no matter what you or your hero do. Friends and family die or permanently retreat with regularity. Fire Emblem is both an adorable game about cute anime kids becoming friends and lovers, and also one of the cruelest and most unforgiving virtual death marches you'll ever play. Don't hold all that death against Fates: it's the game's birthright.
Fire Emblem: Fates offers an unprecedented amount of content without falling victim to the temptation quantity over quality. Each of the three total games here features its own vivid branch of the story, and everything from the gameplay to the presentation shifts with it. This is a massive and highly enjoyable addition to the epic franchise that really does stand as one of the most prolific and memorable amongst its contemporaries.
This strategy RPG sequel is simple and accessible, but will satisfy hardcore RPG fans less than the other Fire Emblem Fates releases.
If you're a hardcore Fire Emblem fan, this collection will give hours upon hours of unbridled gaming fun and if you're really keen, you have the option of playing it through again in order to experience the other side of the war. Furthermore, this game is beautifully presented on the 3DS that comes with a very cool steel book and a great art book featuring some amazing artwork from this universe.
Not exactly novel but fantastic all the same. There's something here for everyone to love.
A tough, tactical adventure
Yet another feather in the 3DS's very well-adorned cap.
Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright is a sensible evolution of the series and a definite must-play for fans of the long-running franchise, especially those who enjoyed Awakening.
Fire Emblem Fates is a fantastic followup to Awakening, introducing some slight new gameplay elements as well as gorgeous new graphical options.
To say this game has significant issues is an understatement, and the blame can't be placed on one team. These issues range from simple gameplay mechanic choices that go against much of the internal logic the game was founded on, story issues that seem to have no place existing in the game in the first place, localization issues butchering the grammar and flow of many important points, and a business practice that uses and abuses its customers. While this isn't the worst Fire Emblem game I've played, I can't in good faith suggest people buy this game as it is.
Fire Emblem Fates has all the plot elements you'd expect from an entry in Nintendo's fantasy warfare series. There's a chosen one, a war between two kingdoms that represent the light and dark, magic swords, prophecies, and dragons. But at the core is the profound dilemma of nature versus nurture: Will you define yourself by your biological family or the one that raised you?
As a 3DS title and as a Fire Emblem title, Fates does not disappoint. It is everything you could expect from a good Fire Emblem game and a solid addition to the 3DS library. It's the first good 3DS game I've played in a long time, and it's one I'm still playing today. It's minor flaws are easily outshone by its major accomplishments, and localization issues slowly lose all meaning as the player is lost in the mountainous content and beauty of this game.
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Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright is a fantastic addition to the series and easily one of the best Fire Emblem games. The new mechanics and combat changes are almost all for the better, and they go hand in hand with the awesome level design and engaging gameplay. The only real flaws are some lackluster story beats and a rather half-baked system for bringing back child characters, neither of which comes remotely close to souring the game. Fans of the franchise will find a lot to love here, and newcomers should find Birthright to be an excellent place to be introduced to the franchise's strong points.
While not a bad game, Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright is one of the biggest disappointments in the series in years. It manages to have more map variety than the previous instalment, but it's pitifully lacking in every other regard. Even with better map design, it's so poorly balanced that the hardest difficulty feels less like a challenge of skill and more like an endurance match of how long certain units can go without being used before frustration kicks in. With an even worse story being fronted by one of the worst casts in the series, Birthright offers very little in terms of series progression, instead opting for an incredibly safe experience that, while not bad, doesn't push the series forward either. With context needed from Conquest, Revelation, and DLC content to fully flesh out and understand the story, Birthright, and by extension Fates, sets a bad precedent for not just the rest of the series, but for video games themselves.
In a series underwritten by amnesiac orphans, Fire Emblem Fates breaks away to tell a story about memory, family, and the self, meditating on the decisions that define us and how we regret them.
Fire Emblem Fates still approaches war from a largely idealistic standpoint, but it makes a quantum leap forward by representing a broader range viewpoints along the way. For a series that has changed incrementally over the last 25 years, this latest entry is a refreshing reinvention.
Fire Emblem Fates is so perfectly executed that I wonder how they'll top it as the series progresses. Every complaint from Awakening has been addressed, leading to a fine-tuned strategy game that borders on genius.
Ultimately, I was very pleased with my time in Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright. It provided a rousing, emotional 45 hour adventure full of combat, heartache and memorable characters. It mostly improved upon all the features found in Awakening, as well as introducing a few cool new mechanics of its own. Its only real missteps were the confusion regarding new items, and the unresolved plot points found at the end. Ultimately I feel this game was more than worth the $39.99 price tag, even though part of me wishes they just released one experience with multiple paths instead. I wouldn’t say that Fire Emblem Fates was better than Awakening, but it was just as good. I heartily recommend it to any fan of the series that enjoyed Awakening.