Fire Emblem is one of my favorite series so naturally I was more than excited to pick this game up. As I glanced through the trailers and gameplay footage of the game, I felt like some of the characters didn’t look that cool, which is one thing many of the other games in the series succeeded at. As time went on I found more characters that fit my badass looking requirement and this filled the void I was feeling.
Story: 7/10 (Golden Deer Route)
The overall story takes a good route and is satisfying to a whole. There are certain events that you never see coming which can be quite a shock and an interesting surprise. The only reason I gave this category a lower rating is because of their use of villains. Characters who are built up to be big and disastrous are killed and defeated just as quickly as they began, without allowing us to get used to or enjoy that characters motives or see where there intentions really lie. Also certain events in the route I took become questions never answered. I have seen online that those questions I had are answered in other routes of the game.
Score: 9.5/10
Certain songs like Edge of Dawn and Apex of the World are absolute winners. These are songs that will definitely get stuck in your head and in a good way. The classic fire emblem theme also makes its triumphant return which is always wonderful.
Characters/Character Development: 8/10
This category really goes both ways. Some characters show true development. For example, Marianne has trouble expressing herself to others and constantly feels like she is a burden on others, even when she’s done nothing wrong. Petra is a foreigner of the land of Fodlan who speaks unnatural as she has difficulty learning exact phrases people use and feeling like she belongs in a country so different from her own. Even characters like Raphael, who seems to love nothing more than eating and building muscle, has a wonderful backstory of how forgiving he can be of the tragedies of his past.
But the main protagonist, Byleth has next to none of this. In all honesty, the fact that he is silent for most of the game makes him very hollow. There is so much mystery and wonder to this character, but to never see them react to any of it makes it seem like they don’t even care about who they are. Former game protagonists like Robin and Corrin talked and mattered to the storyline, but at times Byleth almost comes across as a ghost who is doing nothing more than just watching everything happen. I would have loved so much to see how Byleth felt as he learned the secrets about himself (or herself if you played as a girl).
Graphics: 9/10
The game really makes great use of the scenery around it wither it be at the Monastery or out on the battlefield. Cutscenes look very great and take advantage of the Switch’s capabilities, but sometimes characters move awkwardly in these scenes like there is a frame rate issue.
Gameplay: 9/10
The whole system of Fire Emblem is something that I have always loved. It works so well and forces you to plan before you move, making a victory really feel like something you’ve earned rather than something you’ve just progressed through. Exploring places like the monastery are fun too and gives you the feeling that there is more to this world than just war and fighting.
Difficulty: 3/10 (0 being the easiest, 10 being the hardest) (Played on Normal)
The game does a good job of providing difficulty, but the Divine Pulse mechanic lets you take back pretty much anything you do wrong, making it almost impossible for a character to die on classic mode. While this is a cool feature that can prevent the need to restart a level, it does make the game feel a bit too easy.
Fun: 9/10
There’s something about these style of game that makes it so hard to put down. I found myself always just wanting to finish one more turn or even just see how something would play out before I stopped playing for the night. New mechanics like exploring the monastery and talking to your team can be very exciting especially toward the beginning of the game, but toward the end I found myself just wanting to skip all that and get to the next chapter.
Recommended for-
- · Fans of Strategy Games
- · Those who enjoying playing games multiple times.
- · Fans of games with interesting characters