Kind of a mixed bag, if you're the type of player that loves to optimise stuff and wants to get a 'perfect' speedy, low turn count playthrough then this game will be up your ally.

A remake of FE3 and as a follow up to Shadow Dragon it seems to have added a bit more colour into the maps, portraits and combat screens, the artist doing the CGs for in between the maps still hates drawing eyes though.

This game keeps a lot of FE11's new features like replacement units if you lose too many and allowing you to change most character's classes, this lets players who know what they're doing get pretty experimental with what type of character builds you can do, along with the forging system being back give advanced players lots of potential to mess with but more casual players can end up just being blinded with options. One big thing missing from FE11 is ballisticians which is very sad cus 10 range weapons are funny.

With that said I'm not a fan of how the difficulty modes work, along with the stat creep of FE11 this game also does stuff like taking away the warp staff in higher difficulties and having lunatic reverse, wherein not only is every enemy stat creeped but they all also move first in combat no matter what.

Much like the original I'm not a fan of having miss-able items which lock you out of the 'true' ending really sucks, however it's easier to not miss any of them but it still points a new player towards wanting to look up a guide which isn't great in my opinion. This also goes against the rest of the mechanics pushing you to go for no resets and pushing through your mistakes.

Adding in a remake of BSFE is also a nice touch and kind of required as trying to play the original in today's world is near impossible.

In terms of story it's mostly the same as FE3 but a lot of the new stuff drags the game down a bit, the new plot points don't really mesh well with the original story and the time scale of the whole orphanage thing makes zero sense. Speaking of new stuff the new maps also aren't great but at least they're only 1-2 turn puzzles, while I didn't enjoy them it's another thing this game gives for puzzle-emblem enjoyers.

Overall it's a decent game but would probably end up replaying FE3 over this in the future if I felt like playing more Marth emblem. If you're a big fan of FE11 it's worth having a look at, try out hard 1 or 2 and if you loved that then the harder modes will be enjoyable too.

I got a bit of whiplash going from Echoes to this, which I guess is to be expected, since, you know, this is an older game. It still holds the same general formula of speedy combat and quick growth, and is still highly addicting, but it misses the mark in a few areas, namely in it's story and character interactions. This is a direct sequel to Shadow Dragon, which itself has a fairly dull plot. Despite how unmemorable the game's story was, it was wrapped up quite succinctly and felt like an appropriate conclusion. New Mystery, as a result, just feels like it retreads the exact same ground. It's especially unfortunate given how strong the story was in Echoes. While I haven't played Gaiden, from what I understand it retains the major story beats in it's transformation to it's remake. New Mystery is a massive step down in creativity and intrigue.

And this leads to what the game's biggest flaw is, at least to me: The characters. One thing which was added to this version of the game was a new main character, Chris, who I can best describe as "a person". Chris is meant to take the mantle of the player's avatar/self-insert, which is fine to an extent, but doesn't work in this case because Chris is completely pre-written without a chance to give the player any sort of choice in how they engage the world of the game. So what exactly is the point of their inclusion? Well, it seems they are put in as a method of fleshing out every other character, because Chris is the only character who has a significant number of support conversations. I think, throughout my playthrough, there were only two couples who had support conversations without Chris. Because Chris has no legitimate personality, all of the dialogue given to these characters feels wooden at best and nonsensical at worst. I did play a fan translation, but I can't imagine it's not been thoroughly revised and made to be as close in tone to the Japanese original as possible. This cast of characters is incredibly bloated, and all are defined by simple, one-dimensional traits rather than any actual development. I can't honestly say I remember anyone's personal stories, though I didn't see all of them to be fair.

And because the cast is so massive, it further cements how my ability to enjoy these older games is quite limited. New Mystery has such a large cast because it was meant to be a game where allies would die permanently. This is a series staple which has been phased into an optional setting in the modern day, and New Mystery is the first game to actually allow for ally revival upon map completion, and it shows. Newer titles have put a lot of effort into establishing their characters as capable of being fully fleshed out. The removal of required permadeath made for a higher need to keep players engaged, and this is done through the fun character interactions you achieve by experimenting with your units and allowing individual relationships to blossom. New Mystery has so little in the way of intriguing character interaction that it hardly assists in allowing the player to grow any sort of attachment to the cast.

It's evident to me that Fire Emblem is just a different breed of game for me. For my money, Fire Emblem's most important qualities are the character interactions and speedy statistical growth. But these earlier titles aren't meant to represent that ideal. Old Fire Emblem is about careful decision-making and optimizing your combat potential, things which I don't actually care about in the context of the series. Neither interpretation is incorrect, there's just a pretty clear divide between the old and new, and the inability to initially capitalize on what a removal of permadeath could do for the franchise only serves to show how wide that divide is. Of course, I have not played any version of any game 4-10 so who knows, maybe I'm just talking out of my ass? 3/6

fire emblem: new mystery of the emblem is one of my very favorite fire emblem games, topped only by thracia 776 and in some respects genealogy of the holy war. it has some of the most solid map design in the series and accomplishes the herculean task of making fe3 into a game that is actually enjoyable to play. it's also the first fire emblem game to have the now controversial "my unit" system, and the only one that's actually done well at all, which may be a surprise when the follow up to the well implemented kris were robin and corrin. i guess there is an argument to be made that kris is why we got those two but the issue is less the idea and more the implementation.
the art direction in game also isn't the best, but when the low points of the art in the series range from "seasonal harem anime" to "90s cult classic young adult manga" it's really hard to complain. the actual art done for promotional material is also some of my favorite in the series, only topped by the wonderful sachiko wada's work on sacred stones and units in heroes. musically new mystery is among the better fire emblem soundtracks, with holy war and dark emperor hardin being obvious standouts, but there isn't really anything as spectacular as genealogy's doorway to destiny or the masterpiece that is end of despair.

this is the last fire emblem game we got before the series devolved into a hollow shell of itself focused more on the dating sim/vn elements than the narrative or gameplay, so i treasure it deeply and it's always a lot of fun to play, even if just to pick up and do a few maps in.

EDIT: i dont agree with a lot of this review atm but keeping it up anyway

This game walked so the future of Fire Emblem could run.
The main features attributing to what many would say caused Awakening's success are actually found here. Unfortunately it was released late in the DS lifespan and was never released outside of Japan (The first FE since FE6 to do so and hopefully the last) that many missed out on the impact this game started.

FE12 is a remake of Book 2 from FE3 but unlike FE11 before it, this chooses to change things up a bit more. First we have the addition of a Casual mode where units will not stay permadead if fallen. Instead they will return in the next chapter, available to use again and this is huge for widening the appeal of the series. Do I ever use it? Outside of Conquest, no. Permadeath is part of the appeal of FE to me and I like having it on. But as an optional feature for those turned off by permadeath? Casual mode is a fantastic addition and one I wholeheartedly welcome to the series.
Now the other major is a "my unit" character. Essentially you can create your own character and use them throughout the game like a regular character, which is really neat. There's a decent amount of customisation available and being able to self insert yourself into the game is pretty cool. I'm not a huge fan of how they essentially become Marth's right hand person and have a lot of importance placed on them throughout the plot (something I wish they would stop doing with avatar characters personally) but I can appreciate the appeal of having your own personal character.

Now FE12 addresses many of the issues I had with it's prequel FE11. The artstyle, while still not great, is decently cleaned up enough to not look so drab. Side chapters are available through beating maps quickly instead of having few units left. We now have a Tellius style base before every chapter where we can have base conversations to flesh out the lore and the world and the story via Jagien and even support conversations to flesh out the characters! I think Kris (the avatar) has conversations with everybody while everyone else essentially have a handful with important characters to them (like the Whitewings and Minerva all have supports with each other) but this is very helpful for making these characters more interesting. On top of that we can even access a Radiant Dawn still character tree to see connections to everyone and each country has descriptions about them on the map. They did everything possible to flesh out Archanea at last and I appreciate so much. They even brought in cut characters like Barst so we have axe users! Truly they wanted to make this the best FE3 experience possible.

Now this being a remake though does mean it carries across the major issue I had with FE3 Book 2: collecting the Starsphere shards and Binding Shield orbs to access the true ending. I don't like a linear game with no way to backtrack locking a true ending behind missable items, especially in FE.

The few grievances aside, this is a fantastic remake of Book 2 from FE3. It fleshes out it's character and world while updating it's gameplay and accessibility for a wider player base.

I'm gonna preface by saying that i like that there's an avatar for you to "self-insert" into, it makes the supports a bit more meaningful and you get to see the characters from a more private side.
That aside, i do like the story, both the added chapters and the original plot. I'm a sucker for having to find 12 of some magical whatever to combat the villain's dark magic of death, and the villain's story is very human and makes sense. There's still a lot to catch up on geopolitically, so it's not a game for people who can't remember names of 10 kingdoms and visualize the state of the world as the story goes on.

If FE11 was the gold standard for a remake, FE12 is the exact opposite. It does everything it can to impose itself onto the original and ruins all the good that FE3 had to offer.

Similarly to FE11, the plot of this remake doesn't do much to deviate from the original. Unlike FE11, FE12 seems to have absolutely no respect for the original game and constantly tries to inject its own concepts with such gracelessness that it makes what good is left difficult to enjoy. FE12 will be damned if it doesn't try to ruin FE3's story every step of the way. The way it tries to do this most is through the one, the only, Kris.

Kris is a self insert character brand new to FE12. This as actually not FE's first swing at this type of character, but FE7's Mark is so irrelevant that most analyses of FE7's story don't even mention them. Kris on the other hand is painfully relevant. They are constantly inserted into story scenes to the detriment of every single character around them. They make Jeigan seem weak and Marth frequently makes out of character decisions in the service of making the player avatar seem cool. Even if you ignored all that and tried to examine Kris in a void, they're still a horribly written character. They frequently act differently which makes it hard to pin down what their personality even is but the one constant is that they give characters bad advice that somehow just works out in the end. For example, in Arran's support with them he confesses that he once killed a village of people who were rebelling against their corrupt king. Kris' response to this? To tell him he isn't to blame. No, Kris, Arran does share some of the blame. He can't just kill an entire village and claim innocence by virtue of "following orders". But of course Kris isn't challenged because they need to do everything in their power to make Kris seem cool.

FE12 brings in every single Archanea character (including those absent from FE3) and makes previously unrecruitable characters available as well. This removes a lot of weight from the story as you're no longer fighting former allies, now you just need to convince them to join your side and they automatically do so no matter how improbable it is for that character. An example that really irks me in this regard is the case of Midia's group. In FE3, it's said that Midia took part in a rebellion within the kingdom and many of her soldiers died. The game never says it but we're meant to assume that Dolph, Macellan, and Tomas are included among the casualties. While they weren't the most memorable characters on earth, the fact remains that people who you once knew are dead because of this war. Not in FE12 though! They're right here ready to fight alongside you. Can't have the player thinking about how deeply war affects people when they're supposed to be engrossed in a self insert power fantasy where every pre established character loves them unconditionally.

FE12 gives at least one support to every character in the game. This seems like a good thing given how little characterization this cast got in FE3. That is it seems that way until you learn that a majority only have one support and that one support is with Kris. The supports tend to focus more on Kris and I walk away from them feeling that I learned as much about the other character there as I did through their minimal (or even non existent) dialogue in FE3. It doesn't help that the writing is atrocious. This easily takes the cake as the worst writing in FE so far, with characters feeling like walking clichés instead of people. Let's take Cecille for example. Her entire character revolves around the fact that she is a woman who doesn't act stereotypically feminine. There are scant scenes that don't revolve around this quirk. This goes for just about every character in this game with all of them having some character trait that the writing completely latches onto. They had the opportunity to better flesh out this cast and they completely dropped the ball.

FE11 introduced new chapters that were fairly inoffensive in terms of writing. They mainly felt like filler but they weren't too bad and it was clear that they designed those chapters with gameplay in mind rather than the story. The opposite is the case in FE12. Granted, they don't have any impact on the main plot but that doesn't atone for just how horribly they're written. It's comprised entirely original material which means that since it can't just look to FE3 for what to do we're treated to 14 chapters of melodrama between pieces of cardboard. The whole assassin guild whatever the hell makes no sense. I cannot believe I am about to complement a GBA game, but even FE7's Black Fang was handled better than this. At least I halfway cared about dome characters in that group. Further, Kris is the sole main character of these chapters with Marthipan taking a backseat which just makes it all the worse. Gameplay wise it doesn't fare well either. The maps range from frustrating to boring and I'm just left wondering why these are here at all (that's a lie. The reason these are here is to make the player insert seem even cooler and give them a waifu in the form of Katarina).

Being a carbon copy of FE11's mechanics, the gameplay is pretty alright. I feel that FE3's map design isn't quite as timeless as FE1 but it's by no means bad. Though bringing over FE11's mechanics verbatim seems ill considered. FE3 was already flyer dominant but reclassing just makes it even worse. In FE3, you could trivialize maps with your group of 5 uber charged flyers. In FE12, you can do the same but this time with 7 fliers and reclass means you can make any unit you want into one of those fliers.

I think the flier problem stated in the previous paragraph is exacerbated by the fact that unit individuality has been completely forsaken in FE12's pursuit to make every single Archanea character recruitable. There are 77 recruitable characters in this game. It doesn't take long before you just start getting pelted by pre promotes in every chapters and they all blend in with one another as generic blobs of stats with nothing to make them stand out. I know I praised FE11 for consistently giving you new units, but this is absolutely too much.

The difficulties of FE12 are also questionably designed. The lower difficulties are fine, but at higher levels the game starts to crack. The ambush spawns are particularly egregious. They're incredibly strong which results in many maps devolving into trial and error and the enemy strength often results in maps just becoming more tedious.

FE12 added a base which is pretty alright but it makes grinding way too easy. There have historically been 2 ways to grind in FE, either going to optional maps or visiting the arena. Both of these are balanced by their unpredictability. You never really know what you're getting into meaning that there is always a risk of death. The arena present in FE12's base is not unpredictable, it literally gives you a battle forecast beforehand. There's also no time investment given that you can access in battle preps, meaning that all it costs is a couple thousand gold and maybe 5 or so minutes to make a unit into a juggernaut.

There's also FE12's biggest change, casual mode. Permadeath is one of the core tenets of Fire Emblem and removing it does nothing but water down the game for the purpose of appealing to the lowest common denominator. FE should resist players who don't want to engage with the game, not bend to their whim. What if a Zelda game had an optional mode where it would automatically tell you the solution to puzzles? What if Final Fantasy had a mode where you would start the game at max level? What if Resident Evil had a mode that gave you infinite resources? Just because it's an optional mode doesn't make it a good addition and if a series' core mechanic scares you away from playing it then that's on you, not the game.

The one good thing I have to say about FE12 is that it remade the Archanea Saga stories. They're devoid of anything original to FE12 making them actually enjoyable. There are some dlc chapters but I haven't played them and, knowing what the next few games are like, I would honestly prefer not to discuss dlc in these reviews.

After FE11 was a nearly perfect remake, FE12 was thoroughly disappointing. Easilt the worst writing in the series and uninspired gameplay makes this one of the worst games so far. At the very least Intelligent Systems can learn from this and get rid of that "Kouhei Maeda" guy and get on a director who knows how to make a half decent game. Haha.

Notes for my series replay:
- See my SD review about this games' presentation (if you care).
- I want to get the elephant in the room addressed before I talk about anything else. Kris is a fucking wild addition to this game. I think that the drawn-out prologue the exposition dumps Kris and Katarina's relationship is kinda terrible, and their chemistry even worse. Kris absolutely obliterates any semblance of balance that Mystery had, which wasn't much to begin with, mind you. Kris is the most malleable unit in the game, with essentially infinite potential. I don't know how they didn't expect this character to snap the game over their leg, or maybe they just didn't care, but honestly Kris' presence diminishes Marth's story in this game, and I didn't really care for it. FE3 is fucking awesome because Marth travels the path of Anri, this untouchable hero whose legacy he's expected to fulfill, but rather he rises above that and breaks the curse of Anri and Artemis, as well as putting Medeus back in the ground. So tell me why they decided to put his OP Gary Stew bodyguard in this remake, completely negating that entire arc for Marth??? Wild.
-Previous anger aside, I think that this game is super interesting from a gameplay perspective. Kris obviously trivializes the difficulty, but this game has so many tools for the player to abuse other than Kris, I wanted to note a few. The Again staff is a dancer staff that is never seen again after this, which is a shame. Warp and Rescue are back, as well as Hammerne. This game has an abundance of powerful staves, making it feel like this game very breakable aside from Kris (on lower difficulties, that is).
- Seize maps. Again, it's a remake, I get it. But seize maps that are fucking massive, which involves moving Marth long ass distances across the map, despite being a foot-locked unit. Those boots can't come fast enough. Oh, and no rescue dropping either, just like Shadow Dragon.
- All of that hate aside, I still love the reclass system, as having half a dozen Dracoknights bowling across a map is really satisfying. It also helps a lot with getting through some of the tougher maps in the mid-game, as there are flying dragons, and if you don't intercept them, they can be a serious threat to your weaker supportive units.
- I gotta hop back on the hate bus for my last point, but I honestly prefer the FE3 soundtrack to this game. I find that the tracks lose a lot of their luster given the more "grounded" tone they were going for this time. For instance, "Holy War" sounds a lot less emotionally driven in this game, which was a huge blow for me. There are some tracks I prefer in this game, like the Hardin battle theme, but ultimately, this game feels like a more washed out take on the original's OST.

I feel bad writing such a negative review on this game, as it's honestly not too bad to play, but having just played the game it's based off of, I found myself sorely disappointed in many areas. It's kind of ironic, because I get on Shadow Dragon's case for being too close to the original source material, but then most of the changes this game made were kinda downgrades, so I still prefer Shadow Dragon of the two? It's strange. Tl;dr, fun gameplay, but seriously neutered version of FE3.