Recently just finished another replay of Conquest (Hard/Classic), here are my thoughts, since I didn't do this game in my series replay due to running out of time before Engage dropped:
Gameplay: Probably the tightest modern FE gameplay we've seen. The pinnacle of pair-up/supporting units combat, as it nerfs the GOD pairups from awakening that just faceroll the entire game, as well as creating a distinction between attack and guard stance, which makes pair up feel like a more fleshed out mechanic rather than the outright win button that it used to be. I also LOVE that enemy units can be paired up, as it makes you stop, think, and count the shield gauge on the enemy to ensure you don't accidentally kamikazee your unit into a losing battle. I think that the map design is overall very creative and engaging this time around. Only a couple of maps made me feel like throwing my 3ds this time around (Fuga's wild ride, the ninja no fun zone, Endgame, etc.). I think that having a deeper understanding of how pairups work in Conquest alleviates a lot of frustration that comes with the mid/lategame unit building. Between the wide variety of objectives and map gimmicks, I felt like Conquest never let me rest on my laurels and coast, which is something I really appreciate, especially when compared to Birthright and Revelations. Late game swarms of debuff enemies can get really frustrating if get sloppy, but that's more on the player then the devs. This section is the highlight of Conquest.
Music: I want to get the positives out of the way before I absolutely tear this game to shreds, and this is the other huge positive of Conquest. The soundtrack is absolutely fantastic, my favorite highlight being Justice RIP, as it is such a great track for the tone it is trying to set. I think overall, Conquest does a fantastic job of having a fresh score that matches the tone of the story and still manages to sound great after resetting the same map 3 times. Other standout tracks are "Paradise (Dark)" and "Thorn in You."
Story: Here's where I stop being nice, and here's where I attempt to distinguish myself from every other person who's shit talked this game in the past. I think that the story for Conquest has the potential for greatness, but a few ill-advised writing choices left me with some crossed wires. I think that Corrin being a pacifist is an okay idea, but I have some fundamental issues with how Conquest decides to preserve his "hero-like innocence" as anytime that Corrin is forced to make a difficult choice, the choice and actions taken are often taken out of his hands, and from thus removed any responsibility or guilt. For instance; Leo kills Zola in Izumo when they cannot afford him to blab to Garon, the Rainbow Sage kills himself when Iago tells Corrin he must kill him, Ryoma kills himself similarly to the Rainbow Sage to preserve Corrin's image, and shit even Leo kills Iago, who to be honest, deserves and warrants Corrin's wrath after all he put him through. I find this kind of writing to be lazy and not utilizing the unique advantage of playing as a Nohrian in Fates' setting. This was supposed to be the "darker, grittier path" of Fates, and I feel like the whole time Corrin doesn't have to compromise his morals, despite him claiming that he has every other cutscene, as he never takes an action that really challenges his moral compass in any meaningful way other than fighting his siblings non-lethally for the twentieth time. I also was getting rather tired of every cutscene shoving in my face that Corrin instructed the army to "not kill anyone" as that's really not feasible in most of the settings it is said to have occurred in. I applaud the efforts to make Corrin a more pacifistic character, but for God's sake there are never any repercussions either way of this path he walks. He loses people as a result of choosing to side with Nohr, not because of any choices that he makes after that fact, and I find that extremely boring.
Shifting gears, I also have a few scenes in Conquest that I really liked, but honestly they feel as if they belong in a better Fire Emblem game. For instance, I think that the scene after Ryoma's death where Corrin has a crisis of faith right before the end of the game is FANTASTIC, but holy shit it comes too little and too late after the entire game has made Corrin completely pussy foot around the idea of killing anybody. I found the scene to be powerful, but extremely contradictory of the path that he had been walking up until that point. The other scene that I really liked was the ending cutscene with your siblings, as the speech that Xander gives is a very great summary of the war that they had just fought, assuming that Garon was still the power-hungry tyrant that he was presumed to be at the beginning of the game. Instead, Xander gives this great speech about avarice and the price being paid in blood, immediately after we see his father (who started the war) turn into a giant goop monster and claim that the world is his just because... which kind of made me laugh because it's so cartoonish that it completely shatters the tone that Conquest's ending had been building up to that point. I think that the speech feels out of place, and ultimately I think it works better if Garon was a human King who just strove for power and riches. I won't parrot the dozens of videos that bring up Fates' many plot contrivances, because every Fire Emblem has plot devices, but I will just put out there as well, that the Valla curse and the crystal ball shit that Conquest tries to pull was outrageous, even given all the bullshit I've just highlighted. Overall, I think that this game needed longer in the oven; I think that we needed to see Garon as a good man before he became Anankos' puppet, or at the very least, we needed to see him as a human to understand the Nohrian siblings' hesitancy to turn against this awful, awful man that we see the entire game. I think that just a couple more revisions and dropping some of the crazier points in the story, such as "wHo Is tHaT mySteriOus DAncEr?" or "hey corrin, look into my magic ball and see the magical convenience that explains your father's current moral bankruptcy," would have done wonders for this game's story.
Characters: I think Conquest has a colorful cast of characters with a variety of personalities, so I think that there will be at least one for everybody. I think that the children units in this game are the worst implementation of them so far, both the Outrealms shenanigans, and the fact that overall the parent/kid dynamics are not as great as they were in Awakening/Genealogy. After reading some variation of "Hey pal, sorry I chucked you into a time machine orphanage..." for the umpteenth time, I started to stop giving much attention to those maps. Thank God they haven't done another half-baked attempt at child units since this game, as this just wasn't it. I have no beef with the kid units themselves, but man does it really add onto the bullshit list of random plot contrivances with no value added in Fates.
Tl;dr: Conquest has insanely tight gameplay and map design, especially when you take into account how to use each character's niche to its fullest potential. I found myself scraping by in some instances, which is something I rarely have to do in FE games these days. I really appreciate the challenge and the insane replayability this game offers... but holy shit this game's story really is as bad as I remember, and I have not a clue where these "Fates renaissance" folks are coming from on Twitter, as this shit is just terrible. This game holds the title of most hours I've ever sunk into a handheld game; over 600 hours now, it holds a place in my heart for sure... but don't come at me with that Fates switchup shit in 2024, I will laugh straight in your face.
Gameplay: Probably the tightest modern FE gameplay we've seen. The pinnacle of pair-up/supporting units combat, as it nerfs the GOD pairups from awakening that just faceroll the entire game, as well as creating a distinction between attack and guard stance, which makes pair up feel like a more fleshed out mechanic rather than the outright win button that it used to be. I also LOVE that enemy units can be paired up, as it makes you stop, think, and count the shield gauge on the enemy to ensure you don't accidentally kamikazee your unit into a losing battle. I think that the map design is overall very creative and engaging this time around. Only a couple of maps made me feel like throwing my 3ds this time around (Fuga's wild ride, the ninja no fun zone, Endgame, etc.). I think that having a deeper understanding of how pairups work in Conquest alleviates a lot of frustration that comes with the mid/lategame unit building. Between the wide variety of objectives and map gimmicks, I felt like Conquest never let me rest on my laurels and coast, which is something I really appreciate, especially when compared to Birthright and Revelations. Late game swarms of debuff enemies can get really frustrating if get sloppy, but that's more on the player then the devs. This section is the highlight of Conquest.
Music: I want to get the positives out of the way before I absolutely tear this game to shreds, and this is the other huge positive of Conquest. The soundtrack is absolutely fantastic, my favorite highlight being Justice RIP, as it is such a great track for the tone it is trying to set. I think overall, Conquest does a fantastic job of having a fresh score that matches the tone of the story and still manages to sound great after resetting the same map 3 times. Other standout tracks are "Paradise (Dark)" and "Thorn in You."
Story: Here's where I stop being nice, and here's where I attempt to distinguish myself from every other person who's shit talked this game in the past. I think that the story for Conquest has the potential for greatness, but a few ill-advised writing choices left me with some crossed wires. I think that Corrin being a pacifist is an okay idea, but I have some fundamental issues with how Conquest decides to preserve his "hero-like innocence" as anytime that Corrin is forced to make a difficult choice, the choice and actions taken are often taken out of his hands, and from thus removed any responsibility or guilt. For instance; Leo kills Zola in Izumo when they cannot afford him to blab to Garon, the Rainbow Sage kills himself when Iago tells Corrin he must kill him, Ryoma kills himself similarly to the Rainbow Sage to preserve Corrin's image, and shit even Leo kills Iago, who to be honest, deserves and warrants Corrin's wrath after all he put him through. I find this kind of writing to be lazy and not utilizing the unique advantage of playing as a Nohrian in Fates' setting. This was supposed to be the "darker, grittier path" of Fates, and I feel like the whole time Corrin doesn't have to compromise his morals, despite him claiming that he has every other cutscene, as he never takes an action that really challenges his moral compass in any meaningful way other than fighting his siblings non-lethally for the twentieth time. I also was getting rather tired of every cutscene shoving in my face that Corrin instructed the army to "not kill anyone" as that's really not feasible in most of the settings it is said to have occurred in. I applaud the efforts to make Corrin a more pacifistic character, but for God's sake there are never any repercussions either way of this path he walks. He loses people as a result of choosing to side with Nohr, not because of any choices that he makes after that fact, and I find that extremely boring.
Shifting gears, I also have a few scenes in Conquest that I really liked, but honestly they feel as if they belong in a better Fire Emblem game. For instance, I think that the scene after Ryoma's death where Corrin has a crisis of faith right before the end of the game is FANTASTIC, but holy shit it comes too little and too late after the entire game has made Corrin completely pussy foot around the idea of killing anybody. I found the scene to be powerful, but extremely contradictory of the path that he had been walking up until that point. The other scene that I really liked was the ending cutscene with your siblings, as the speech that Xander gives is a very great summary of the war that they had just fought, assuming that Garon was still the power-hungry tyrant that he was presumed to be at the beginning of the game. Instead, Xander gives this great speech about avarice and the price being paid in blood, immediately after we see his father (who started the war) turn into a giant goop monster and claim that the world is his just because... which kind of made me laugh because it's so cartoonish that it completely shatters the tone that Conquest's ending had been building up to that point. I think that the speech feels out of place, and ultimately I think it works better if Garon was a human King who just strove for power and riches. I won't parrot the dozens of videos that bring up Fates' many plot contrivances, because every Fire Emblem has plot devices, but I will just put out there as well, that the Valla curse and the crystal ball shit that Conquest tries to pull was outrageous, even given all the bullshit I've just highlighted. Overall, I think that this game needed longer in the oven; I think that we needed to see Garon as a good man before he became Anankos' puppet, or at the very least, we needed to see him as a human to understand the Nohrian siblings' hesitancy to turn against this awful, awful man that we see the entire game. I think that just a couple more revisions and dropping some of the crazier points in the story, such as "wHo Is tHaT mySteriOus DAncEr?" or "hey corrin, look into my magic ball and see the magical convenience that explains your father's current moral bankruptcy," would have done wonders for this game's story.
Characters: I think Conquest has a colorful cast of characters with a variety of personalities, so I think that there will be at least one for everybody. I think that the children units in this game are the worst implementation of them so far, both the Outrealms shenanigans, and the fact that overall the parent/kid dynamics are not as great as they were in Awakening/Genealogy. After reading some variation of "Hey pal, sorry I chucked you into a time machine orphanage..." for the umpteenth time, I started to stop giving much attention to those maps. Thank God they haven't done another half-baked attempt at child units since this game, as this just wasn't it. I have no beef with the kid units themselves, but man does it really add onto the bullshit list of random plot contrivances with no value added in Fates.
Tl;dr: Conquest has insanely tight gameplay and map design, especially when you take into account how to use each character's niche to its fullest potential. I found myself scraping by in some instances, which is something I rarely have to do in FE games these days. I really appreciate the challenge and the insane replayability this game offers... but holy shit this game's story really is as bad as I remember, and I have not a clue where these "Fates renaissance" folks are coming from on Twitter, as this shit is just terrible. This game holds the title of most hours I've ever sunk into a handheld game; over 600 hours now, it holds a place in my heart for sure... but don't come at me with that Fates switchup shit in 2024, I will laugh straight in your face.