Oh my fucking god dude. I try to not leave negative reviews on games before actually finishing them or at least settling on shelving them, but christ on a bike rev really is as bad as people say. I'll start by being honest and saying I hadn't played the fates games in years and just jumped on the hate train at some point or another because it was the "cool" fire emblem thing to do. In truth I...actually liked them a lot when they released? And just started hating them somewhere along the way. I guess.

Having replayed the two games I've found there's a lot I think I took for granted, like how much better my castle is than the monestary and somniel, the actually high production value, and how the 3ds fe games actually feel good to play. With "good to play" I'm really just referring to the general user experience like how snappy the menus and map controls are. Like, I'm sorry but 3H and Engage feel so choppy and slow in comparison it's insane.

This isn't a review on engage and three houses though, I've already made excrutiatingly long reviews on why I don't like those games, this is a review about how and why rev sucks, and how much worse it is compared to its two sibling games.

You probably know the fates map design quality situation already but incase you don't, the tldr is conquest good, birthright more like birthrout lmao, rev bad. And having played all three games back to back I can pretty safely say yeah that's exactly the case. In truth I think it's more like first half of conquest good, second half not as good, birthright more like birthrout (but ultimately inoffensive) and rev bad. Revs maps aren't just bad though, oh no, they're tedious too. They're gimmicky, and borrow a lot of the worst aspects from the other two respective routes while making them even worse to boot. I'm too tired to go in depth on why they suck, I just hope you like shovelling snow.

Unlike birthright and conquest the majority of the playable cast just...sucks? Like yeah dude please give me characters with their fucking chapter 9 conquest bases when they were already some of the worst characters in their own game except only playable 8 chapters later and unable to enter combat without getting one rounded on lunatic. Please spawn FOUR of them next a million promoted enemy cavs with inflated stats on a map that immediately follows what is already one of the worst maps in the game that you also can't save between. Thank you rev. Thank you maeda.

Also the story somehow still feels like an afterthought despite how blatantly obvious it was that they wanted you to get rev for the "true" route where azura doesn't die at the end and any mysteries are all tied up. The concept of rev alone already sucks considering the whole point of fates is that your choice is morally grey and there isn't a right one, but I guess there is a right choice if you're willing to shell out an extra 20 dollars for it. In spite of how poor fates' writing already is, rev still manages to feel like a fanfic where everyone loves corrin in the end no matter what. What little nuance the other two routes even had is totally eviscerated, the contrivances and plotholes basically double, and god i'm so tired this game fucking sucks don't play it idk

Whenever I see anyone attempt to defend Revelation, they always seem to bring up the freedom of customization of characters and their builds. The true sandbox Fire Emblem. Everything else might be mediocre to bad, but there's something fun about being able to completely customize your units and have unique playthroughs. In a better game, I would agree that this could be seen as a plus. Revelation is not that better game. In my experience, unless you're blasting down the hardest difficulty and just not having fun in any regard, this game is so easily stomped through that your character builds rarely matter. Weapons don't break, weapon triangle usually doesn't matter. With the exception of a few levels (which aren't well designed, only tedious), you can usually throw your anime guys and gals at the enemy and end up on top. If you lose anyone along the way, don't fret! You get about a bajillion others anyways, making none of them feel special, as each get about three lines on average to express their personality during the story. If I actually had to give this game a benefit, it's that a blind playthrough will probably entertain you through the nonsense of the story alone.

Despite what my hours in this game might make you think, Revelations is not a good game and easily the worst of the 3 Fates routes. It's meant to be this middle ground between Birthright and Conquest but if I'm being honest it felt more like a tedious and annoying game to play. So many maps have these gimmicks that feel really out of place and don't add to the gameplay experience and instead make the player feel encouraged to just turtle and not take risk at all. Too many gimmicks also waste your time like the snow map, why do I have to unravel snow just to see the enemies? There's no challenge to it. I heal up then turtle my way until I reach the boss, there isn't even a turn limit or something to make it challenging. The story doesn't even make it any better. I love the concept of a hidden kingdom that is pulling the strings but it falls so flat when the kingdom itself is so bland and the plot surrounding adds nothing to the world other than basically explaining why certain things happened in the other 2 routes. I can't for the life of me recommend this game to anyone unless you just want to have fun with all the pairing possibilities of having both kingdoms characters.

This is absolutely 100% the worst fire emblem game out there. For a bit of context - I've played every game in the series - in some cases more than once - but compared to a lot of the fanbase I'm a bit of a casual. I only ever play the games on normal or hard difficulty, so I'm not really out in the weeds with players who are map design and character balance connoisseurs or who can run through lunatic / maddening difficulty in their sleep. I mostly play the FE games for a fun gameplay challenge and memorable characters. Due to this, I can generally tolerate FE games that have somewhat weak level design if I can get behind the characters or story. This was the case for me with Fates Birthright. Despite the somewhat below average level design I was able to connect with the characters and story (again despite being subpar for the series) and still enjoyed it. The same absolutely cannot be said about Revelation, which not only has outright bad map design but also has 100% the worst writing the series has ever seen. Most of this game reads like a bad Fire Emblem fan fiction. I played this after both Birthright and Conquest expecting to now get to experience the true story of Fates. Everything in Birthright and Conquest points towards Revelation being the true story and true ending. The unfinished plot threads and mysteries, Corrin's characterization, and the sense that the true villain has not been revealed in the other two games strongly suggests this. Given this build up I cannot say how disappointed I was to be met with a game that felt like a 5 dollar DLC afterthought. It was like a slap in the face for all the time I spent on the other two games. The worst thing is, this entry wasn't even necessary. The story of Fates easily could have just been a straightforward tale of a war where the player character is forced to pick a side and live with the consequences of it. This almost certainly would have been more interesting than having this laughable "true story" where everything is revealed and everyone learns to get along and love each other. It kind of kills anything interesting about the storytelling of the other two games in this entry. Even if the game was good it would most likely still have this deflating effect, which feels inherent to it's existence. As it stands, Revelation is a bad game that actively makes the other two Fates games worse by extension. They weren't anything special to begin with, which makes this quality of Revelation sting even more.

This is the lowest review I've ever given a game at this point. It's certainly not unplayable on a technical level. The game works well enough, isn't totally broken, and provides some basic enjoyment for the player. My low score is for this game, IMO, being offensively bad. I'm very rarely annoyed when faced with playing a bad game. It's really only happened to me twice - it happened with AC Valhalla and it happened with this one. Like I said before, it made me feel like an absolute asshole for investing any time in the other Fates games and served to kind of spoil my moderate enjoyment of them.

It's comical how easy it is to break this game in half. I beat hard/classic in 5 hours IGT by just pumping all the free stat boosters, good weapons, good skills, and good classes the online gives you to steamroll the entire game and whenever I got stuck I just recruited some insane Corrin from an online castle. That being said I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy myself. While it does fail on some level to be a traditional Fire Emblem it is an absolute blast as a sandbox to do whatever the fuck you want. I will always love this game but I can recognize where it falters.