Agnol117
2021
Fun little game. The core gameplay loop is fun, and I'm excited to see what they'll add as far as future content goes.
Kinda mixed feelings on this. I really enjoyed Bowser's Fury -- it's kind of a super condensed Odyssey (albeit with an annoying fight giant Bowser mechanic), and it's generally pretty fun. 3D World itself is fairly meh. I liked the aesthetics, but I couldn't really get behind the depth of the levels. 3D Land worked because it was on 3DS, and therefore you could use the 3D to actually get depth in those levels. Here, you can't do, and it's definitely detrimental.
It's fine, I guess? I enjoyed it enough to finish, but I've got no real interest in playing the DLC or mopping up the optional content. I'll probably check out the inevitable third game, but definitely not on day one.
I quite enjoyed this. It was a weird, creepy little game, and I found the theme to be quite resonant. It's not for everyone, but I loved it.
A decent remake of my favorite generation. I wish they'd included the Platinum stuff (the vanilla Sinnoh dex is not great), but overall, I'm satisfied with it.
This is, undoubtedly, the best way to play these games.
The story gets a lot of well deserved praise, and it's probably the high point of the game. The sprite work is also really nice. Other than that, it's pretty much just your standard Pokémon game. It was interesting enough that I'll probably play Black 2 in the not too distant future, but beyond that, nothing really stood out about it.
This review contains spoilers
Having finished all four routes:
If you're only going to play one route, play Verdant Wind. If you're going to play two, play Verdant Wind and Crimson Flower. If you're going to play three, add in Azure Moon. Silver Snow is entirely redundant.
Azure Moon is the most "Fire Emblem" of the routes. It's got a deposed prince fighting an evil empire. About the only thing it's missing is a dragon as the final boss. It's also a fairly unsatisfying story -- Dimitri's character growth is handled poorly, and the actual villains of the story are just kind of forgotten about after part one.
Crimson Flower is a very flawed route. You can tell it's unfinished -- it lacks the animated cutscenes the other routes get, it's four chapters shorter than the other routes, and it just sort of ends with no resolution (other than an epilogue panel promising the real villains will be dealt with in the future). That being said, it's an interesting chance to play as the villains, even if it's not necessarily the best execution of that concept.
Verdant Wind is hands down the best route. You get actual backstory on the world and the major conflict, you get to actually finish both major conflicts in the same route, and the ending chapter isn't a stupid, out of nowhere "twist."
Silver Snow is Verdant Wind but missing a chapter, no real "lord" character, and a stupid final boss. Only play this if you're a completionist.
As a final note, Byleth's lack of voice lines is really awkward in some points, mostly the romance bits at the end. I sort of get why they made this choice, but it's a bizarre one, and it really hurts Byleth as a character and as a story vehicle.
If you're only going to play one route, play Verdant Wind. If you're going to play two, play Verdant Wind and Crimson Flower. If you're going to play three, add in Azure Moon. Silver Snow is entirely redundant.
Azure Moon is the most "Fire Emblem" of the routes. It's got a deposed prince fighting an evil empire. About the only thing it's missing is a dragon as the final boss. It's also a fairly unsatisfying story -- Dimitri's character growth is handled poorly, and the actual villains of the story are just kind of forgotten about after part one.
Crimson Flower is a very flawed route. You can tell it's unfinished -- it lacks the animated cutscenes the other routes get, it's four chapters shorter than the other routes, and it just sort of ends with no resolution (other than an epilogue panel promising the real villains will be dealt with in the future). That being said, it's an interesting chance to play as the villains, even if it's not necessarily the best execution of that concept.
Verdant Wind is hands down the best route. You get actual backstory on the world and the major conflict, you get to actually finish both major conflicts in the same route, and the ending chapter isn't a stupid, out of nowhere "twist."
Silver Snow is Verdant Wind but missing a chapter, no real "lord" character, and a stupid final boss. Only play this if you're a completionist.
As a final note, Byleth's lack of voice lines is really awkward in some points, mostly the romance bits at the end. I sort of get why they made this choice, but it's a bizarre one, and it really hurts Byleth as a character and as a story vehicle.
It's fine, I guess? It's a competent third person shooter, and the gunplay is fun. It just doesn't do anything beyond that to stand out or make me want to keep playing.
Unpopular opinion, but Johto/Gen II is my least favorite generation. This was me giving these games another shot, but I just cannot stand them.
2017
A true masterpiece of a game. I've played through it twice, once barely accomplishing the first ending, and just recently getting the third. It's a fantastic game, and everything about it is lovely. The art is great, the music is great, and it's challenging but fair in a way that most other games only aspire to be. Genuine 10/10 game here, and I recommend it to anyone who likes Metroidvanias.
Not a fan. I enjoy the base game, and honestly this was a decently fun story, but that story is tied up in stupid maps with annoying gimmicks. I played through it to unlock all the characters in the regular campaigns, and I have no plans to ever come back to it again.
2021
It's fine, I guess? The dungeon crawling is adequate, but doesn't really hold my interest, while the visual novel parts are really fun but tied behind dungeoning. Were combat more robust, I might have stuck with it, but as it stands, it's just not grabbing me.
1986
It's fine. It's a decently fun game, with good music for an NES game. That being said, it hasn't really aged well.
It's better than The Adventure, but that's not saying much. Mostly the jumping is improved. That said, it's still not a great game. The music is still far better than it has any right to be, though.