Definitely one of the best 3DS games so far. It has a great story, graphics, and characters.
When you first start a new game, you can choose the gender, hair style and color, face style, build, voice, and name of your Avatar. Then, prepare to enjoy an amazing story. The Avatar wakes up in field with some people looking over him/her. They are Frederick and Lissa of the Shepherds. Their leader is Chrom, Lissa's older brother. The Shepherds protect the people of Ylisse from bandits and other villains.
Chrom and Lissa are the younger siblings of Emmeryn, the Exalt (leader) of Ylisse. The Avatar joins Chrom and his Shepherds to protect people from the hired barbarians from Plegia. Gangrel, the Mad King of Plegia is trying to provoke a war with Ylisse. His reason of doing so is the previous Exalt of Ylisse (the father of Chrom and his sisters) was oppresive to his people.
Fire Emblem: Awakening has a great story. It keeps the player occupied. The gameplay is also very good as well. I really like the Pair Up aspect. It allows the player to attach one playable character to another one, which leads to status bonuses for one of the characters. The player can also marry the main playable characters. It determines the parents of the playable children characters along with their abilities.
I like the interactions of the main characters. The main thing I really love about Fire Emblem: Awakening is the graphics. This game has some of the best graphics that I've seen so far for the 3DS besides Kingdom Hearts 3D and Legend of Zelda-Ocarina of Time 3D. The graphics for Fire Emblem: Awakening look even more amazing when you use the 3D feature.
Another feature of the game that I like a lot is choosing between the Casual and Classic modes. In Casual mode, it lets you kept any character that gets killed off in battle. You can also save anywhere in Casual mode. Classic mode is just like every other Fire Emblem game. You can lose playable characters if they're killed off. That feature was always a turn-off for me and kept me away from the Fire Emblem series. That's why I like to play the Casual mode a lot.
There are also some extras to do as well. The main playable characters have conversations outside of battle that increase their relationship. This affects which character marries who. The abilities of the married couple passes on to their children. Another thing to do in Fire Emblem: Awakening is the Outrealm Gate. Here you can get the Downloadable Content (DLC). Some of the DLC are maps to fight on and characters from the other games in the Fire Emblem. Along with the regular storyline, there's the Paralouges. These are side-missions that let you recruit characters that you meet during the game and expand the story some more.
Fire Emblem: Awakening has many good things going for it. The game has a great story and really interesting characters. It also has a really good battle system and amazing graphics. All of those things were worth all of the searching for a hard copy. Even though it's hard to find an actual copy of Fire Emblem: Awakening, it is definitely worth the search.