I have two wolves inside me, one loves New Mystery, the other hates it. They both kiss each other goodnight.
New Mystery was never released outside Japan, has a new character in Kris the avatar and all other characters that never played a role in Book 2 of the SNES original, making the game a sort of Mortal Kombat Armageddon: everyone is here, everyone fights. There has never been so many characters (77!) in a Fire Emblem game and all are recruitable in a single playthrough. Together with base conversations, we have a semblance of Support, too. There has never been so much content.
Yet it's bland. Some characters shine in their portrayal (I will always love Palla and Catria with all of my heart), yet the worst offender is weirdly enough the protagonist(s), Kris and Marth. In the original game, Marth had a new role as Akaneia's peace keeper, everybody knew him and respected him. Kris steals the show in the remake, always having something to say and to add, yet his\her characterization is ... loyalty to Marth and Altea. That's it. To make things worse, all the new cavaliers and knights feel now like lackeys of Kris, rather than his\her companions. It's fun to make some wacky builds for Kris, I won't lie: I had a female mage reclassed into Cavalier\Pegasus Knight until her Str\Spd were good enough. Then I reclassed to Swordmaster to use a Levin Sword with her good magic bases. If you were to play the harder difficulties you won't have such luck: if you don't play Knight\Berserker, you're playing to lose. Lunatic + is a devious little scoundrel and I won't ever finish it, thank you.
Map design on the other hand is vexing. Some maps are incredible, most are immense. I can feel some sort of map design, like the Ogma & Sirius map or the original content. Others are straight from the 90s, in a bad way. To this day, I would like to know what sort of zaza the person who made the desert chapter smoked. He gave wyverns the 1-2 range! Normal doesn't have it, but still.
As you can see, as an Akaneia fanboy I am torn. Book 2 originally was the cherry on top of the franchise, a little bow to present you the perfect duology of Marth and his friends' fight. The story and the important moments are still there, but they feel less important, less impactful, because a hero that was never there now has to take the spotlight, just to canonically disappear at the end. He was never there ...
The special chapters are fun, challenging and offer a different perspective on characters. They made me appreciate Midia! The audacity! Who even likes Midia?! I would recommend playing this game just for that one aspect, yet the game is still fun, it can be enjoyable and it has its moments. Just ... please, let's not talk about Kris. Let's talk about Robin instead. They learned their lesson and decided that maybe a bit of cognitive dissonance is better compared to a protagonist with no redeeming qualities.
New Mystery was never released outside Japan, has a new character in Kris the avatar and all other characters that never played a role in Book 2 of the SNES original, making the game a sort of Mortal Kombat Armageddon: everyone is here, everyone fights. There has never been so many characters (77!) in a Fire Emblem game and all are recruitable in a single playthrough. Together with base conversations, we have a semblance of Support, too. There has never been so much content.
Yet it's bland. Some characters shine in their portrayal (I will always love Palla and Catria with all of my heart), yet the worst offender is weirdly enough the protagonist(s), Kris and Marth. In the original game, Marth had a new role as Akaneia's peace keeper, everybody knew him and respected him. Kris steals the show in the remake, always having something to say and to add, yet his\her characterization is ... loyalty to Marth and Altea. That's it. To make things worse, all the new cavaliers and knights feel now like lackeys of Kris, rather than his\her companions. It's fun to make some wacky builds for Kris, I won't lie: I had a female mage reclassed into Cavalier\Pegasus Knight until her Str\Spd were good enough. Then I reclassed to Swordmaster to use a Levin Sword with her good magic bases. If you were to play the harder difficulties you won't have such luck: if you don't play Knight\Berserker, you're playing to lose. Lunatic + is a devious little scoundrel and I won't ever finish it, thank you.
Map design on the other hand is vexing. Some maps are incredible, most are immense. I can feel some sort of map design, like the Ogma & Sirius map or the original content. Others are straight from the 90s, in a bad way. To this day, I would like to know what sort of zaza the person who made the desert chapter smoked. He gave wyverns the 1-2 range! Normal doesn't have it, but still.
As you can see, as an Akaneia fanboy I am torn. Book 2 originally was the cherry on top of the franchise, a little bow to present you the perfect duology of Marth and his friends' fight. The story and the important moments are still there, but they feel less important, less impactful, because a hero that was never there now has to take the spotlight, just to canonically disappear at the end. He was never there ...
The special chapters are fun, challenging and offer a different perspective on characters. They made me appreciate Midia! The audacity! Who even likes Midia?! I would recommend playing this game just for that one aspect, yet the game is still fun, it can be enjoyable and it has its moments. Just ... please, let's not talk about Kris. Let's talk about Robin instead. They learned their lesson and decided that maybe a bit of cognitive dissonance is better compared to a protagonist with no redeeming qualities.