This review contains spoilers
Off the bat I'm going to say that I think this game and Fire Emblem Awakening are in the same boat. That boat being, while entirely fine in a vacuum, their perception to most is entirely out of its control and for things that came entirely after it. Be it talk of anime, "waifus," or "wow this isn't special" while entirely removed from the context or the fact they're not really claiming to be. And they're both unbearable to talk about online due to annoying people of their respective series, no matter how long of a fan they are or if it's positive or negative. None of it seems entirely in good faith.
All this to say, despite all that, the game is fun. Again, like Awakening, not perfect or stellar, but I can usually count on a pretty solid time whenever I picked it up.
First is to tackle this game's status as a re-release, calling itself the "Definitive Edition" after all. The game has leaned into the anime art style of 2 but choosing to keep reasonable proportions and tone down on exaggerated features. Areas are now pretty and vibrant, with lots of colors going around. Textures and dithering could be better, but it's not the worst in all honesty. The effects are also really nice and cool to look at, especially when Endgame likes to focus on them a lot. It isn't perfect, with in Handheld Mode, textures seem to pretty low quality even when the camera or character get pretty close. Not the worst but still could be optimized better.
Ganeplay wise, the game is mostly unchanged with minor enhancements. You can now have characters where a specific piece of armor regardless of what is actually equipped, getting around armor you don't like or looking like a fashion disaster. The game can now guide you towards specific items or routes for side quests or main quests. You can now auto run and the entire game has been made for a mostly normal controller layout. Menus have also been changed, as in the original the Main Menu wouldn't stop your active ganeplay, and you would be able to navigate while moving around. Now they are like proper menus that pause the game. All over the world are some battle gates, with the chance to get more gear and whatnot. I didn't do them, I feel like I knew enough to get by without them. Everything else for ganeplay is the same, for better or worse. This unfortunately includes that your battle music will be interrupted by Vision Reacts, which is a damn shame.
The rest of the game remains true to the Wii original.
I don't mind the story, I think it even pops off sometimes. I like it when narratives have contrast and have a moment of characters rethink their motivations and all that. But not everything surrounds that is done very well. For instance, every female party member's motivation ends up surrounding a man in their life and that's just sort of. Weird. One of them would be fine, almost having been married sure. But the game starts playing around with this "love triangle" that's more like a love line and an unrelated dot that's just made to be sad. They go full on this all while making the singular dot feel bad. And it's not like the actual love interest is done much better. While she does have her own interesting traits, they're not given as much attention as her love, down to where even if she dies she will cry out her name. Love in of itself isn't bad, but I think you should do more with a character to where I can't summarize their actions as entirely for someone else. I think everyone else is mostly fine. The best bud, the dorky hero, everyone's dad. Riki, the other dad. The game has heart to hearts all over the place to learn more about characters and interactions, but I don't really care to go out of my way, nor do I think a game should rely on those to flesh them out. Make them interesting enough for me to learn more about them, maybe.
Side content as a whole is weird. Heart-to-hearts are definitely optional, but the game is basically asking you to do side quests and kill unique monsters. Which would be fine but they're not particularly interesting. Some of them reference lore that's only slightly brought up in the main story, which is nice. But most are just about personal issues and "go kill this thing." There are plenty of generic quests which can be easily done along the way, and you don't have to return to anyone to turn them in. But when you do, it's a bit annoying. The world's are big, and you can't sprint and have to rely on some Landmarks not always in the most convenient places, so returning back and forth is awful. Side quests are also tied to the Affinity Chart where you have to raise a level with a community to gain more side quests. Nothing new but certain Arts are tied to this, and a pretty important one. So you end up grinding quests just to unlock one Art just to not die way later.
The game often, especially near the end, asks you to step back from the main story and go grind side quests. Not directly but with many obvious breaks and mechanics in place. Before you move on to another area, the game gives you a minute to breathe to build up those Affinity Charts or else be faced with the game's Danger Level system the instant you're 3 levels or below an area's enemies.
The Danger Level system cuts or buffs your stats against battles depending if you're 3+ level below or above an enemy (with your main character). This is on top of your already existing lacking stats, making it a dreadful experience should you accidently run into an enemy with a slightly different colored title. You can definitely brute force your way around, with the game giving enough leeway with the sheer fact that just one level makes all the difference. It's still a really questionable mechanic that I hope gets worked out for the sequ- oh X and 2 still have it? Okay. Why?
The game is fine. It was one of my favorites but I'm not going to be ignorant to its blemishes. And as much as I enjoy it, I can't help but be annoyed with the discourse presented by this and it's sequel. Yes the original was 10 years ago and a Wii game, that's probably where people first played it and probably their first rpg. And? So what? It doesn't make it any less special to them or any lamer. And this point only ever seems to be brought up spirefully, which does no one any good. Visions are cool, the music is cool, and I STILL have fun playing it. This doesn't matter nor address the actual game itself.
This remaster cannot replicate the initial feeling or expectations of its Wii original, nor is it really trying to. To PLAY the game, I think it's a perfectly fine, some would say a definitive, way to go through it. But I'm probably not going to have to do that.
Because I've confirmed what I wanted: I still like this game.
As a side note, I played this with its Japanese audio rather than its famous English audio. It's whatever. The English audio is way better.
All this to say, despite all that, the game is fun. Again, like Awakening, not perfect or stellar, but I can usually count on a pretty solid time whenever I picked it up.
First is to tackle this game's status as a re-release, calling itself the "Definitive Edition" after all. The game has leaned into the anime art style of 2 but choosing to keep reasonable proportions and tone down on exaggerated features. Areas are now pretty and vibrant, with lots of colors going around. Textures and dithering could be better, but it's not the worst in all honesty. The effects are also really nice and cool to look at, especially when Endgame likes to focus on them a lot. It isn't perfect, with in Handheld Mode, textures seem to pretty low quality even when the camera or character get pretty close. Not the worst but still could be optimized better.
Ganeplay wise, the game is mostly unchanged with minor enhancements. You can now have characters where a specific piece of armor regardless of what is actually equipped, getting around armor you don't like or looking like a fashion disaster. The game can now guide you towards specific items or routes for side quests or main quests. You can now auto run and the entire game has been made for a mostly normal controller layout. Menus have also been changed, as in the original the Main Menu wouldn't stop your active ganeplay, and you would be able to navigate while moving around. Now they are like proper menus that pause the game. All over the world are some battle gates, with the chance to get more gear and whatnot. I didn't do them, I feel like I knew enough to get by without them. Everything else for ganeplay is the same, for better or worse. This unfortunately includes that your battle music will be interrupted by Vision Reacts, which is a damn shame.
The rest of the game remains true to the Wii original.
I don't mind the story, I think it even pops off sometimes. I like it when narratives have contrast and have a moment of characters rethink their motivations and all that. But not everything surrounds that is done very well. For instance, every female party member's motivation ends up surrounding a man in their life and that's just sort of. Weird. One of them would be fine, almost having been married sure. But the game starts playing around with this "love triangle" that's more like a love line and an unrelated dot that's just made to be sad. They go full on this all while making the singular dot feel bad. And it's not like the actual love interest is done much better. While she does have her own interesting traits, they're not given as much attention as her love, down to where even if she dies she will cry out her name. Love in of itself isn't bad, but I think you should do more with a character to where I can't summarize their actions as entirely for someone else. I think everyone else is mostly fine. The best bud, the dorky hero, everyone's dad. Riki, the other dad. The game has heart to hearts all over the place to learn more about characters and interactions, but I don't really care to go out of my way, nor do I think a game should rely on those to flesh them out. Make them interesting enough for me to learn more about them, maybe.
Side content as a whole is weird. Heart-to-hearts are definitely optional, but the game is basically asking you to do side quests and kill unique monsters. Which would be fine but they're not particularly interesting. Some of them reference lore that's only slightly brought up in the main story, which is nice. But most are just about personal issues and "go kill this thing." There are plenty of generic quests which can be easily done along the way, and you don't have to return to anyone to turn them in. But when you do, it's a bit annoying. The world's are big, and you can't sprint and have to rely on some Landmarks not always in the most convenient places, so returning back and forth is awful. Side quests are also tied to the Affinity Chart where you have to raise a level with a community to gain more side quests. Nothing new but certain Arts are tied to this, and a pretty important one. So you end up grinding quests just to unlock one Art just to not die way later.
The game often, especially near the end, asks you to step back from the main story and go grind side quests. Not directly but with many obvious breaks and mechanics in place. Before you move on to another area, the game gives you a minute to breathe to build up those Affinity Charts or else be faced with the game's Danger Level system the instant you're 3 levels or below an area's enemies.
The Danger Level system cuts or buffs your stats against battles depending if you're 3+ level below or above an enemy (with your main character). This is on top of your already existing lacking stats, making it a dreadful experience should you accidently run into an enemy with a slightly different colored title. You can definitely brute force your way around, with the game giving enough leeway with the sheer fact that just one level makes all the difference. It's still a really questionable mechanic that I hope gets worked out for the sequ- oh X and 2 still have it? Okay. Why?
The game is fine. It was one of my favorites but I'm not going to be ignorant to its blemishes. And as much as I enjoy it, I can't help but be annoyed with the discourse presented by this and it's sequel. Yes the original was 10 years ago and a Wii game, that's probably where people first played it and probably their first rpg. And? So what? It doesn't make it any less special to them or any lamer. And this point only ever seems to be brought up spirefully, which does no one any good. Visions are cool, the music is cool, and I STILL have fun playing it. This doesn't matter nor address the actual game itself.
This remaster cannot replicate the initial feeling or expectations of its Wii original, nor is it really trying to. To PLAY the game, I think it's a perfectly fine, some would say a definitive, way to go through it. But I'm probably not going to have to do that.
Because I've confirmed what I wanted: I still like this game.
As a side note, I played this with its Japanese audio rather than its famous English audio. It's whatever. The English audio is way better.