Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest Reviews
Vast, gorgeous (and confusingly delivered), Fire Emblem Fates sees Intelligent Systems at the very top of its game.
There's little doubt that Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest delivers on every front that it promised fans, serving up an interesting narrative and tough-as-nails gameplay.
Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest is a rewarding and deep turn-based tactical game with a grand story and characters I liked enough that losing them in combat really stings. The intense difficulty is squarely aimed at veteran Fire Emblem players, and its satisfying campaign is full of variety and challenge. And even though a win or loss can down to sheer luck, I walked away either satisfied or eager to give it another shot.
Fire Emblem Fates smartly revises a quarter-century old battle system and offers ever more reasons to care about your little chess pieces, but neither version does enough to welcome new players.
Conquest is a challenging game that richly rewards players willing to undergo its trial by fire
Fire Emblem Fates is an emotional war game
Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest is a punishing strategy RPG that marches forward and never looks back.
With Fates, the series hasn't frayed under the pressure. Instead, Intelligent Systems has created one of the most narratively ambitious games to hit a Nintendo platform. Fire Emblem Fates lets you explore the value of familial love and friendship, then offers you the option to go back and kill everyone you love, while loving everyone you killed.
There's nothing that gets your blood boiling and your heart racing like a hardcore strategy-RPG with perma-death, and Fire Emblem Fates fits that mold to a T.
While the story can feel like it's dragging at times, it's tough to hold too many grudges against what feels like padding since the core gameplay is so much fun.
Fire Emblem: Fates is a fantastic turn-based strategy game. If you're worried about the multiple versions, you don't need to be. You'll get a full experience with a single campaign, but it's great to know that you can keep going and discover new content long after beating a single path.
Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest is one of the best RPGs available on a handheld device, offering a punishing challenge that is mischievously veiled by immaculate visual design and thought-provoking tactical gameplay.
Outside of those unfortunate problems, Fire Emblem Fates provides the memorable gameplay of the series and a formidable, entertaining challenge for any 3DS owner. The added stress of betraying characters you've come to admire elevates the narrative tension to a natural and organic height.
Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest is as lethal as it is lovingly crafted, with challenging tactical gameplay that will push series veterans to the edge. It's hugely satisfying when you successfully navigate any of its encounters, and you can't help but be drawn in by the likeable characters and engrossing narrative. I still have to wonder whether three separate releases was truly necessary, but it's hard to argue when the resulting games are all equally phenomenal.
It often lacks the accessibility and sense of fun of Birthright, but for Fire Emblem and strategy veterans this is still an excellent entry in the series.
Fans waiting for the next Fire Emblem will certainly not feel cheated by Fates: The nerve-wracking decision over risking a character's life with every move has not diminished. That said, with its many attempts at innovation falling short of their marks, and its core gameplay lacking the refinement seen in its predecessors, perhaps Nintendo should signal a tactical retreat and focus on making the best Fire Emblem possible.
For the foreseeable future, if I'm not reading something, I know what I'll be doing the next time I'm waiting in line.
Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest is a monument to the elegance of Intelligent Systems. Hard, yet accessible, it's even deeper than the series' standards. Fans will love it and newbies should try it (maybe starting from the Birthright version).
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What this all makes for is a much tighter and more precisely balanced game than Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright, where decisions matter, even in Casual mode. The story in Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest is stronger, but still feels somewhat like filler meant to set up the true narrative to be revealed in Fire Emblem Fates: Revelation. While this feels like a vastly superior game, it also feels very much like part-two of three, in a three-part title. Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest is an excellent, challenging SRPG that requires a great deal of forethought and precision, rewarding the player for hard choices, and keeping your characters in play. While the story is stronger with more engaging characters, it still feels like another "bad ending" setting up the player to have to purchase the third campaign when it releases in March.
Fire Emblem Fates exemplifies the best way to approach a sequel. It maintains and iterates on Awakening's best qualities, while also introducing new systems that have a profound impact alongside a richer and more poignant story. It's more than just a worthwhile successor to a recent hit. Taken as a whole, it's the best Fire Emblem to date.