Out of all the Nintendo properties, it felt like Fire Emblem had the most “edge” to it. It was niche for a reason; hard, obtuse, and the permadeath mechanic making it particularly abrasive to those who don’t play turn-based strategy RPGs. Although enjoying my time, I bounced off of Fire Emblem: Sacred Stones when I was 13 after I got a little too cocky with my favorite unit and watched him get slaughtered and removed from the rest of the game. It’s the type of thing you wouldn’t expect when you think of Fire Emblem now, and that's certainly why it was revived with Awakening.
Fire Emblem: Awakening makes a clean break from what Fire Emblem was, mostly through it’s new aesthetic and writing qualities, extra ease of access, easier difficulty scaling and gasp an option to turn off the permadeath!? More likely than not this series’ saving grace was how it shaved off its edges, embracing newcomers with its quality of life features and various ways to tune the difficulty to your liking. This is what made me more approachable to Fire Emblem as it was for many others, and it’s something I really appreciate. I’m still not the type to get a thrill out of being punished harshly for my mistakes, especially with a genre I’m still not very experienced with, and it just lowers the floor while still allowing hardcore players to have their fun. It’s nice!
The other part that caused it’s newfound success was, well, the fanservice. Fire Emblem was always “anime”, sure, but it never indulged in the excess that this game and those that came after it do. It’s not just a strategy RPG anymore, it's a Dating Sim! Marry the hottest soldiers and make little children to take into the battlefield with you! Supports are a series staple for sure, but it surely couldn’t have been given as much importance as it is in this game. Most of the paralogues are directly linked to getting S supports and collecting your unit’s future children, and a lot of the writing and character development is tied behind support conversations. I never enjoyed trying to build supports in battle, as it never felt like making clever strategy and more just sacrificing better options to make my units like each other more, or else I’d lose the benefits of stats, writing, and even an extra unit. A lot of the grinding I did was specifically to build up these supports so I didn’t have to deal with them later, and it was exhausting. In the end it wasn’t even really worth it, as all it showed me was how poor a lot of the writing was, how one-note the characters would be, and the units I would get I ended up barely ever using in lieu of the guys I already stacked up for hours before them. Also there's just an honest to god 1000-year old dragon girl who looks like she's 10.
Fire Emblem: Awakening made the best choice for preserving the life of the series. Everything it did to draw in new audiences clearly worked in its favor, thrusting the series out of its niche status into being one of Nintendo’s flagship series, even if it had to make some sacrifices along the way. The core gameplay and accessibility features kept me playing to the end, and now it feels like I’ve learned to ride a bike with training wheels and am ready to take them off. That’s probably the best thing this game could do for me... it made me feel ready to play better Fire Emblem games!
Fire Emblem: Awakening makes a clean break from what Fire Emblem was, mostly through it’s new aesthetic and writing qualities, extra ease of access, easier difficulty scaling and gasp an option to turn off the permadeath!? More likely than not this series’ saving grace was how it shaved off its edges, embracing newcomers with its quality of life features and various ways to tune the difficulty to your liking. This is what made me more approachable to Fire Emblem as it was for many others, and it’s something I really appreciate. I’m still not the type to get a thrill out of being punished harshly for my mistakes, especially with a genre I’m still not very experienced with, and it just lowers the floor while still allowing hardcore players to have their fun. It’s nice!
The other part that caused it’s newfound success was, well, the fanservice. Fire Emblem was always “anime”, sure, but it never indulged in the excess that this game and those that came after it do. It’s not just a strategy RPG anymore, it's a Dating Sim! Marry the hottest soldiers and make little children to take into the battlefield with you! Supports are a series staple for sure, but it surely couldn’t have been given as much importance as it is in this game. Most of the paralogues are directly linked to getting S supports and collecting your unit’s future children, and a lot of the writing and character development is tied behind support conversations. I never enjoyed trying to build supports in battle, as it never felt like making clever strategy and more just sacrificing better options to make my units like each other more, or else I’d lose the benefits of stats, writing, and even an extra unit. A lot of the grinding I did was specifically to build up these supports so I didn’t have to deal with them later, and it was exhausting. In the end it wasn’t even really worth it, as all it showed me was how poor a lot of the writing was, how one-note the characters would be, and the units I would get I ended up barely ever using in lieu of the guys I already stacked up for hours before them. Also there's just an honest to god 1000-year old dragon girl who looks like she's 10.
Fire Emblem: Awakening made the best choice for preserving the life of the series. Everything it did to draw in new audiences clearly worked in its favor, thrusting the series out of its niche status into being one of Nintendo’s flagship series, even if it had to make some sacrifices along the way. The core gameplay and accessibility features kept me playing to the end, and now it feels like I’ve learned to ride a bike with training wheels and am ready to take them off. That’s probably the best thing this game could do for me... it made me feel ready to play better Fire Emblem games!