Somewhere in here, you can see the blueprint for a Fire Emblem series that is accessible to a larger audience. Nearly every character is a one-note stereotype that is, nonetheless, somewhat charming if you don't take it too seriously. It is extremely easy to plow through and encourages you to break the game altogether. You get to ship all your characters and breed hideously powerful offspring to crush your enemies with. The soundtrack goes really hard.

However, it was a mistake to allow every character to have support events with every character because a lot of them are arbitrary and kind of suck. One third of the game's plot is essentially an anime filler arc that has nothing to do with the overarching story. I spent hours of my life I'll never get back grinding on the pirate ship map and I hold it against the game because it was hard for me to get S Rank Supports that felt believable and killing every pirate who has ever lived was the only way to accomplish my twisted goal.

One of these three things is my fault. As it stands, Awakening would be an easy recommendation to someone trying out the series for the first time except that Three Houses exists and is superior in every way. I think most people would be better off playing that, moving onto Path of Radiance, and then just playing any Fire Emblem that matches their personal tastes. I simply don't know what makes Awakening stand out any more except for two of its maps where I experienced genuine emotion.