Awakening was like my third game I started in FE but it was like the 7th one I finished. I’m always going to love games that have great OSTs and awakening was the start of Rei Kondoh’s incredible work with the series. I love awakening. It’s not the best, it’s not the best written. It’s not the best looking. But for my money, it’s the coolest fire emblem game.

It was my first FE, and my teenager self loved it, including the DLCs, endless grinding, and Pair-Up shenanigans. It was unbalanced as hell, but the optimization was fun. Still, even then, I felt the game lacked depth in several of its mechanics, and Falcoknights sucked, so I wanted different. I got super into the Fire Emblem wiki and used that to play other games like Blazing Sword and Radiant Dawn. At that time, I got influenced by the traditionalist fans and started shitting on Awakening myself, though after a few years and some growing up, not to mention how bad Fates was, I softened to Awakening and now mostly remember it fondly, even if it wasn't the best.

None, at least for now!

It was the first one I owned, and I’ve got a lot of nostalgia for the characters and easily broken gameplay systems. It’s flawed, but I think that makes it better

for real, my soul withered a bit upon hearing that lmao

kzfaq.info/get/bejne/itSbp5iL3JjJhY0.html&ab_channel=TheABSOLUTEShitpostDepot

I feel a bit old, and suddenly more nostalgic for that time in my life.

Yep, The Japanese release was April 19, 2012 and February 4, 2013 for North America. It's surprising how time flies.

Awakening came out when I was in the 5th grade. I'm in college now

The real question is: does that imply high tech looking character designs, laser guns, vehicles instead of horses as mounts, etc. Or do we still just have dudes running around with metal swords and people flying around on Pegasi and it's just on Mars?

@@DuskoftheTwilight I would imagine they'd go with a form of medieval futurism. But I'd prefer it much more if they were all just still regular medieval soldiers running around on the red planet.

I'd love to see that, if they know what they're doing. Maybe the cilvilization on Mars becomes primative and feudal-like, giving way to medieval militaries battling for dominance, and even enemies from Earth with more advanced technology. I can imagine a few ways the story would unfold, like Earth's attempts at colonising Mars going awry and setting the events of the story in motion, thousands of years later with the decedents of the first colonists.

I have read somewhere that Awakening tried to have guns...I don't remember where I got that, but I swear I read it

Honestly seems somewhat possible as something in Heroes' in the future

[MINOR SPOILERS FOR POR, RD, NEW MYSTERY, AWAKENING AND 3 HOUSES] Kinda. The problem with the fes protagonists is that the story shifts from the war and the geography of the regions to focus on the avatar, for example in Radiant Dawn the story as for a protagonist the conflict and politics after Path of Radiance. Meanwhile Awakening is just Robing trying to not kill Chrom, Fates is a mess and Byleth the divine creature that saves all, even Kris sucks because the story of New Mystery shifted to being ahaha I'm the forgotten fighter instead of actually presenting the war as its main focus.

@@GreatSikoTM yeah I can agree with that a lot, I really like Awakening's first and second acts with how Robin fits this middle ground of being a playable character, but not really overstepping their presence in the plot. But alas later in the story and in future fire emblem games the custom player character ends up becoming a central focus so the setting tends to orbit around them.

Agree, I prefer these types of characters way more than the silent protagonists. Robin >>> Byleth

My first experience with the avatar was FE7, which I felt hit the perfect balance. You were there and you had an impact, but at no point were you ever overshadowing the actual characters of the story. Fates would have worked better if you didn't get to customize Corrin and the other characters weren't just there to kiss the ground Corrin walked on. Getting rid of the idea of a self insert posing as the main character could have given all the characters a real chance to be better written.

@@mimien Robin > Byleth >>>>>> Corrin

I played Fe7 and 8 in my teens but lost sight of the series until Awakening came out. It kinda brought out a love for tactical (J)rpgs for me. :D

What is your favorite Fire Emblem game?

@@lestade682 It’s FE4 as of this moment, after I finished it I fell in love with the story and characters. Before it was FE7, but now it’s next to FE4 by a close second.

@@rollingtony5007 My favorite so far is FE7. I haven't played FE4 but only hear great things about it.

@@lestade682 Make sure you are prepared if you want to play it for the first time as it is a bit rigid at first, but you will get used to it. It’s not perfect for sure as in some aspects it can be quite limiting, however if you enjoy a good story and the massive scope of war with great steaks you will love it. As for FE7, it’s the first classic game that I played and it means a lot to me personally so it remained my favorite for a long time.

My Stance, basically. I really don’t like it myself for a variety of reasons, I don’t even recommend people start with it if they want to try the series, yet I’m glad. It kept the franchise alive. It brought in more people to experience the rest of the series. I respect it for that. I have to.

Fire Emblem is not a dating sim. People with that mindset are ruining Fire Emblem. I praise Awakening for popularizing FE in the west, for its art style and game play. If the reason you like it is the marriage/child mechanic you are not a Fire Emblem fan

i agree with this. also i would add that the graphics of the game were also a plus to make it a success, because it’s one of the best looking game on the 3ds when looking back at it and this also made it more appealing for new fans. i remember when i first tried the demo, i was sold at first glance with the overall aesthetic of the game which is imo the best one of the franchise.

@@dynastygirl2912 If you like the superior customization you have to like the pairing and child mechanic to some degree. Especially Fates with its many different seals. Though I think we should lose the My Castle kissing minigames for good lol

@@CarbonMalite no I don’t have to like the pairing and child mechanic to like the customization, thats spoken like a true simp who just wants to collect waifus. It wasn’t a needed addition, at all. Before you argue “well Genealogy had that” you’re correct but unlike awakening it was actually a part of the storyline, it was required because the first generation of characters get bbq’d by my boy Arvis but not only that you basically had to pair the characters a certain way or you rendered the resulting child useless. In awakening it honestly doesn’t matter in the long run who you pair and the child mechanic is OPTIONAL. It’s not required at all

Awakening was what got me to look into Yusuke’s portfolio. Once I learned he was the character artist for the first 2 No More Heroes games, he became my favorite character artist ever.

Same. Bought it because I thought Robin was cool and it solicited me as a fan

@@librathebeautifulwarmonk1283 wow Really i thought the same 😃

Same

@@frostfall407 cool

Same! I used to love Roy and Marth in smash, and had no way of everrrr playing the games until Awakening came out. Then I had a fire emblem gate keeper stalk me because he found out I was a "casual player in need of fixing" but that's a whole other can of worms

No, "Awakening" being successful because of marketing is a myth that haters of the game try to impose in order to take credit away from the game itself. The fact is that "Awakening" didn't have a particularly strong marketing campaign behind it. It wasn't among the most anticipated 3DS games of its year, nor even the most anticipated 3DS JRPG of 2012-13 (that was "Bravely Default"). It's true that it had a bigger marketing push that previous entries, but only: A) After the game became a surprise hit in Japan. B) Even then, it was only a B-tier launch marketing campaign. Nothing that would ensure such a massive success on its own. Let's not forget that Nintendo was so unsure of the game's success that they didn't even localize it internally.

The problem with that is that marketing alone CANNOT save a series. If the game was poorly received that would have killed the series right then and there as sell records are not the only thang taken into account when it comes to making another game. The fact that awakening was a well made game that has a good story and characters and a great entry point for new players and fair to not that great players is what really made this game popular. Most people will look up reviews before buying a game that is not that well known before hand and because it was getting great reviews more people were getting the game then ever expected. And as XanderVJ said the marketing angle is incorrect as it wasn’t until fates that they went all out for FE adds and awakenings advertising was only good here because of the positive response in Japan.

And after this they nearly crashed it on the rocks but then saved the series a SECOND time pretty crazy

"Feminisation"? I'm...unsure of what you mean by this part. Sorry, just saw it and was confused.

@@ramenbomberdeluxe4958 I read it as the heavier emphasis on relationships between characters, kind of like a dating sim that has turn-based combat instead of a visual novel as the main gameplay. The addition of more social aspects to the newer games (running around the school and interacting with the students) added could fall under "feminisation" as it broadens focus from just war and combat (more traditionally associated with the male demographic) to the lives and personalities of the characters, which can be enjoyed by any player and not having any traditional association. Sorry to the OP if I'm wrong, but the wording also got me thinking and that's my best explanation, feel free to add or correct anything if I'm mistaken.

@@ramenbomberdeluxe4958 he’s saying he likes the rpg focus awakening took, as opposed to a more strategy focus.

@@petermaguire8139 I definitely think this game appeals to those who like dating sims, so I think your explanation fits.

The artist, Yūsuke Kozaki, is still one of my favorites. I recently picked up AI: The Somnium files just because I love his work.

I recommend Path of radiance and radiant dawn. The story is perfect

With you there on FE3H. One of my fav games ever. I find this infuriating. You mentioned a list of best non Square Enix RPG's. I literally hate every game they do. I cannot get in to any Final Fantasy. 6, 7, 9, 12, 13, 15. Couldn't get in to any of them. Kingdom Hearts, Nier, Trials of Mana. I love Action JRPG's, I thought Nier Automata looked amazing but then I didn't enjoy it. It actually took me until Ara Fell at 40 years old to get in to menu turn based RPG's because I had never enjoyed any Square games. It also took Ys and Tales of to get me in to AJRPG's. I tried DQ 11 but again it was boring. It doesn't seem to matter what decade they're from, I just can't get in to them. FF9 was absolutely raved about. Annoying rat, even more annoying Tinman, awful colours and textures and a lame copy of Orko from He Man. Horrible dialogue. Clunky as hell. I just do not like that companies games. I find it near impossible to understand their success.

Fates is what got me into the game, I didn’t play awakening after I played all three of the fates games, but awakening was definitely my favorite of the two. My favorite on the 3DS though was echos, i liked the mechanics more

@@thecharmer5981 I played them in order. Awakening, Fates and Echoes. But yeah I agree, Echoes ended up being my favorite as well. Didn't really even care too much that it was fully voiced, but the voice acting and music was just fantastic, especially for a 3DS game. And the DLC classes were so godly looking and broken. Loved it all.

Yeah same. I actually bought Fates Birthright by accident thinking it was Awakening (I had played the demo for Awakening a while back and I just forgot the title, so when I saw a new-ish looking FE game I just bought that one LMAO) and I ended up loving it. I bought Conquest shortly after, and then Shadows of Valentia. I never got to play Awakening because my 3DS got messed up, but I just recently bought Three Houses and I'm super hooked yet again.

@@khoshekh7419 you should really go back and play awakening, it’s not as good as echos or TH but it’s an amazing game

You’re not wrong, I was like a tiny kid who loved this series and well shadow dragon was my first. However, as soon as awakening was announced, I swear this whole community became hype.

Bro, i'm sorry but touch some grass

Lmao

@@zachh2864 ufck-y oyuself-y

Would be a pain in the ass to abbreviate though. "CFTB"? "CFB"?

I frankly don't get why people have a problem with resets when a unit dies. It doesn't make the game any easier...

@@MrGksarathy Right!? On the other side of the spectrum, some people complain that "but you'll just reset so why bother being on classic!?", even though you can just...NOT do that? Again, I should know how this feels since I struggle to not do that myself, trust me! But thats not the games fault-

More importantly, New Mystery started it.

@@ramenbomberdeluxe4958 Honestly, when you think about it, Permadeath is a weird concept. It doesn't add anything to the gameplay; it just makes mistakes and bad RNG hurt more. If you are good at the game (and don't get unlucky), you probably won't worry about it too much. I think that is why IS has such a hard time trying to balance Permadeath vs mechanics that undo mistakes.

I'm ok with the current timewheel/pulse system, still have to reset if someone dies but with a few do-overs in case of a mistake (or in my case, accidentally press "sothis shield" again)

Sacred Stones was my first game as well!

Awakening, Fates and 3H all brought more players to the series than the last 1 as all 3 of them got the title of "best selling game in the series" when they came out, while that's not even counting the impact Heroes did as well.

I never understood the hate on the Awakening Babies. I'd been with the series since 2003, but it was always so weird seeing everyone shit on people who got into the newest game on GameFAQs. I'm honestly glad for Awakening since it gave me Inigo/Laslow (my favorite character in the entire series and the only character in any piece of fiction whom I could relate with and felt as though he was tailor made for me) and it made the series continue. I mean, I shit on 3H since I feel its gameplay is particularly lackluster, but anything that brings in new fans and allows the series to continue can never be bad. I might not like 3H, but it brought in money and more fans which means more people can enjoy the series and we all get more games. It's a win-win; just like Awakening was. Tangent aside, I'm glad Awakening is finally getting some of the love it deserved. Popular opinion of Fates being the worst thing ever is finally shifting a bit too (especially since that game too is often overly hated for its story despite its gameplay being so fresh and so clean clean).

@@GreekDudeYiannis Gameplay for Fates was fine, but no gameplay can make up for the dumpster fire that was the plot, unfortunately. It made it much less fun, despite how Fates balanced the Pair Up mechanic and made enemy units a pain. If only Conquest wasn't the route that got the best gameplay. As for Three Houses, I've always considered the game near perfect, but you do you. Fódlan to me felt like the most living, breathing world that any FE game had created, and unlike the others, the world building details were in the game itself as opposed to developer interviews you needed other fans to translate.

@@MrGksarathy I'm in the opposite camp. I liked 3H's story, but the good writing couldn't cover up for the fact that the gameplay was lackluster to me. It was hard for me to care about the world when I wasn't having fun playing the game. To this day, it's the only FE I've ever felt burnt out after playing. I can play all 3 routes of Fates back to back no problem, but getting through all 4 routes of 3H was kinda painful. Despite the interesting world, I have no desire to revisit it simply because the gameplay was just so...eh.

@@GreekDudeYiannis Wow, that was not my perspective. How could you get through even one route of Fates? I just could not. It was that unfun and unrewarding.

@@MrGksarathy I play FE for the gameplay first and story second. Don't get me wrong, I like me a good story, but if I wanna read/watch a good story, I'd get a book/movie. I play a game cause I wanna play. A good story doesn't make meh/boring gameplay better than the sum of it's parts. Oddly enough, I've been with the series since the GBA titles in 2003 and Fates is my favorite of the entire franchise. Conquest in particular got the cleanest gameplay of the entire series, and I much prefer Fates' handling if the route split in comparison to 3H. I don't wanna make this a big long post, but I have some major issues with 3H: -~75% of the content is recycled between all 4 routes -Route Split occurs over halfway through the game and the remaining 6-10 chapters hardly differ between routes (literally AM, SS, and VW have the same chapter progression up until Chapter 17 and that's only because SS lacks the Gronder Fight) -SS and VW are practically identical -choosing a different house doesn't change White Clouds in any meaningful way beyond dialogue (I guess characters too, but I recruited all the possible students on my first playthrough and could just rerecruit them for every subsequent one) -Paralogues heavily recycle maps from the story and even between other paralogues (Sylvain, Annette, and Felix all use the same map, Ferdinand/Lysithea use the same map as Constance/Yuri, Marianne uses the same as Bernadette, etc.) -Every objective is either Kill commander or Rout Enemy (no defending, escaping, or seizing) -Map design is pretty standard/uninspired/uncomplicated throughout the game -Golden Deer kinda does nothing with Claude's unique heritage or motivation and his final boss comes out of nowhere -After doing the math, there's only 39 maps in total in the entire game, 13 of which we only see once while the rest are consistently recycled (including DLC) which lags behinds Fates' 76 unique maps that are only ever encountered once (before DLC). 3H has a total of 84 chapters with DLC whereas Fates has 96 before DLC. -if we wanna get technical, that number for 3H unique maps drops since you have to replay White Cloud's each time to even get to the route split -The promotion systems makes all the classes fairly homogeneous with the only thing differentiating them being what Faire skills they have -Removing the weapon triangle and which weapons are unique to which class makes having different weapon types redundant to begin with -Combat Arts and Battalions are only ever useful on Maddening, otherwise they serve no purpose. -Crests don't really make that much if a difference in battle, especially towards late game. -Monastery becomes a repetitive and pointless chore after the time skip and subsequent playthroughs -3H DLC is kinda lame too; it adds in a 7 chapter side story, 4 classes that were introduced in Awakening or earlier and had been featured in games since, some more units, and some costumes. I mean, the 5 extra characters were neat, but nothing amazing. I could go on, but those are some of the main issues I have with 3H specifically. But I've also been with the series for a while so I can understand why so many people are enraptured by this game. The writing is certainly some of the best in the series to be sure, but in my opinion, that's all it really has going for it.

"Lucina best girl" Amen brother

Can't say u wrong. Several second besto tho.

I can understand why, she is very pretty and a great character. But my favorite girl from Awakening has been Tharja for two very simple reasons, I find punk and goth chicks very attractive and Nosferatu is broke af.

Fire Emblem Fates thooo. Lol

I disagree. I dont think the ost carried the game, as many things about Awakening made it great. I agree with this if it were fates as mentioned above.

@@Kado_the_Avo ???? You ever pick up the game and look at the mechanical depth it has? That’s madness

Apparently Binding Blade HM is pretty difficult too.

It didn't introduce avatar and casual it was new mystery who did

@@LesGrosPiedsDeDeejay Technically FE7 introduced avatars :P But my point is that I dont mind FE being more accessible to more people. As long as they don't water down my experience. A wide variety of settings is a good thing.