Replayed this on hard/classic and this is NOT it bro
The one that everyone feels obligated to mention “saved the franchise” which sure, I appreciate, but I’m ngl Awakening only saved this series financially, from a gameplay perspective that credit goes to Conquest easily, replaying this game on hard mode with permadeath just made it apparent how weirdly and/or badly the maps and enemies are designed. Hard mode in this game just straight out sucks, stat bloated enemies and same turn reinforcements in a game where it feels like terrain bonuses don’t even matter is the absolute worst, not helped by the GBA emblem level amount of enemy spam. Map design doesn’t help either, as a lot of them aren’t even maps and are just “big open field with enemies” or “indoor map with enemies,” and objectives that mostly comprise of “KILL EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM”.
Around chapter 5 I had the realization that all of these units pale in comparison to the sheer snowball of a unit that is Robin. Yes, you can solo Awakening with any character if you want, just like FE4 or FE8, etc, but at least in those games, it felt like your non Sigurds or your non Seths could still contribute and still had a nice unit feel. And while that still sorrrta works on normal mode, it really doesn’t on hard mode because of the aforementioned stat bloated enemies. So, clearly the solution to this is to snowball all your squishy, non Robin or Frederick units up by grinding in the skirmishes, right? WRONG. Because, in hard mode, skirmishes comprise of ridiculously strong enemies, we’re talking like maps FULL of prepremoted enemies as early as chapter 5 which SUCKS. I really wanted to train up a whole team for this game but I absolutely did not have the patience to grind through all this, so I had my ultimate solution.. The Robin Juggernaut. 2 units deployed every map, class change Robin to sorcerer and around mid-game stock up on nosferatu and simply watch. I did not deploy a single other character for the rest of the entire game after chapter 10-ish, because I didn’t feel like grinding in my fire emblem game. Also worth mentioning how Robin becomes even more busted by using the game’s pairup mechanics which by itself is an insanely unfair advantage to have over the enemies (Fates would fix this by having enemies also be allowed to pairup), have Robin and Chrom pairup and you will basically never have to worry about the latter’s safety.
My play time this run totalled at 4 hours. How? Because I simply became so bored by the end, I turned off all battle animations and just started skipping enemy phase because what was there to see? And before you tell me that I wouldn’t have been bored if I did full deployment and used all my characters, I’ve done that before in my first run of the game, and my thoughts were IDENTICAL around the same point. It’s not a strategy game. It’s a JRPG on a grid, which I just don’t like outside of Sacred Stones and Echoes to an extent. The game tries to trick you into thinking it’s a TRPG with side objectives on maps by throwing in treasure chests on some maps but don’t fall for that, they’re just meant for you to waste your turns and be murdered by same turn reinforcements. It’s all just pointless.
Skipped the story too. I usually don’t reread story in a replay of an FE game unless it’s FE4 but even if I usually did I would’ve skimmed over this one most likely. I don’t hate the story of Awakening but it’s just not my thing, and lacks any sense of cohesion or interest outside of one thing: Lucina. I love Lucina fire emblem. Other than that? Plot that is trying WAY too much and saying WAY too little. It’s got the FE7 problem where shit just kinda happens and you roll with it but without the genuine feeling of going on an adventure like that game. I think the inclusion of the world map ultimately hurts giving the story a proper sense of scale, it’s fine in Echoes but in this game I feel that it takes away the feeling of being on a long journey with these characters, earlier entries usually had no map and it cemented a feeling that you can’t go back, only forward. Idk how else to describe it, but yeah Awakening doesn’t really have that.
My score for this review is more reflective of playing on hard mode or above, I’d drop a 6 at the highest in the context of normal mode but like- Awakening purely lacks anything I like about fire emblem other than the characters (which this game does have quite a few I really like!) I understand why IS went this direction for the sake of general appeal and hey, if you like this game, I’m happy for you! I’m sure if this was my first FE especially if I was like 13-15ish I would’ve loved it, but it wasn’t, and I don’t. It’s just kinda okay at best for me, and I can’t see myself replaying this unless it’s out of spite or seeing more of the gen 2 kids. Not for me.
The one that everyone feels obligated to mention “saved the franchise” which sure, I appreciate, but I’m ngl Awakening only saved this series financially, from a gameplay perspective that credit goes to Conquest easily, replaying this game on hard mode with permadeath just made it apparent how weirdly and/or badly the maps and enemies are designed. Hard mode in this game just straight out sucks, stat bloated enemies and same turn reinforcements in a game where it feels like terrain bonuses don’t even matter is the absolute worst, not helped by the GBA emblem level amount of enemy spam. Map design doesn’t help either, as a lot of them aren’t even maps and are just “big open field with enemies” or “indoor map with enemies,” and objectives that mostly comprise of “KILL EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM”.
Around chapter 5 I had the realization that all of these units pale in comparison to the sheer snowball of a unit that is Robin. Yes, you can solo Awakening with any character if you want, just like FE4 or FE8, etc, but at least in those games, it felt like your non Sigurds or your non Seths could still contribute and still had a nice unit feel. And while that still sorrrta works on normal mode, it really doesn’t on hard mode because of the aforementioned stat bloated enemies. So, clearly the solution to this is to snowball all your squishy, non Robin or Frederick units up by grinding in the skirmishes, right? WRONG. Because, in hard mode, skirmishes comprise of ridiculously strong enemies, we’re talking like maps FULL of prepremoted enemies as early as chapter 5 which SUCKS. I really wanted to train up a whole team for this game but I absolutely did not have the patience to grind through all this, so I had my ultimate solution.. The Robin Juggernaut. 2 units deployed every map, class change Robin to sorcerer and around mid-game stock up on nosferatu and simply watch. I did not deploy a single other character for the rest of the entire game after chapter 10-ish, because I didn’t feel like grinding in my fire emblem game. Also worth mentioning how Robin becomes even more busted by using the game’s pairup mechanics which by itself is an insanely unfair advantage to have over the enemies (Fates would fix this by having enemies also be allowed to pairup), have Robin and Chrom pairup and you will basically never have to worry about the latter’s safety.
My play time this run totalled at 4 hours. How? Because I simply became so bored by the end, I turned off all battle animations and just started skipping enemy phase because what was there to see? And before you tell me that I wouldn’t have been bored if I did full deployment and used all my characters, I’ve done that before in my first run of the game, and my thoughts were IDENTICAL around the same point. It’s not a strategy game. It’s a JRPG on a grid, which I just don’t like outside of Sacred Stones and Echoes to an extent. The game tries to trick you into thinking it’s a TRPG with side objectives on maps by throwing in treasure chests on some maps but don’t fall for that, they’re just meant for you to waste your turns and be murdered by same turn reinforcements. It’s all just pointless.
Skipped the story too. I usually don’t reread story in a replay of an FE game unless it’s FE4 but even if I usually did I would’ve skimmed over this one most likely. I don’t hate the story of Awakening but it’s just not my thing, and lacks any sense of cohesion or interest outside of one thing: Lucina. I love Lucina fire emblem. Other than that? Plot that is trying WAY too much and saying WAY too little. It’s got the FE7 problem where shit just kinda happens and you roll with it but without the genuine feeling of going on an adventure like that game. I think the inclusion of the world map ultimately hurts giving the story a proper sense of scale, it’s fine in Echoes but in this game I feel that it takes away the feeling of being on a long journey with these characters, earlier entries usually had no map and it cemented a feeling that you can’t go back, only forward. Idk how else to describe it, but yeah Awakening doesn’t really have that.
My score for this review is more reflective of playing on hard mode or above, I’d drop a 6 at the highest in the context of normal mode but like- Awakening purely lacks anything I like about fire emblem other than the characters (which this game does have quite a few I really like!) I understand why IS went this direction for the sake of general appeal and hey, if you like this game, I’m happy for you! I’m sure if this was my first FE especially if I was like 13-15ish I would’ve loved it, but it wasn’t, and I don’t. It’s just kinda okay at best for me, and I can’t see myself replaying this unless it’s out of spite or seeing more of the gen 2 kids. Not for me.
3 Comments
I'm gon kill u for the fe7 slander but this funny otherwise.
I think my biggest gripe with this game is how the gameplay gasses itself as being so customizable and having really malleable units but everytime you reclass you gotta drag your feet from Lvl. 1 and the second gen units don't scale with your progress like in Fates. Good write-up.
Reddish
5 months ago