This is my review of Birthright, a belated continuation of my unfinished FE series replay. I played through this path on Hard/Classic to keep things consistent with my Conquest playthrough.
Gameplay: Still retains the things that I like about Fates' engine from Conquest: stances with pair-ups, daggers are actually a solid addition, ranged weapon triangle, etc. This time around, however, there are infinite grinding gold/exp maps that you can utilize in the world map, which I don't really have too great of an issue with because you can engage with this on your own terms. It isn't forced on the player, although I can imagine it makes an already cakewalk game even easier than it already is. What I will say in this department is that the maps are significantly worse. Not only are they not nearly as memorable as Conquests, a lot of them are re-used. We could get into which came first, and which is technically recycling the maps, but I'm going to lean more towards Conquest's favor as it generally does more to differentiate the maps from other versions in a fun and unique way. Still, was a little disappointing on the map design, especially considering how easy most of them were without grinding. I also felt like Birthright just absolutely showers you in stat boosting items, despite the easier difficulty... I have no metric to prove that so I could be wrong; just a feeling I got as I felt like I got another every other chapter or so.
Music: I actually like Birthright's music quite a bit more than Conquests, as I think it takes the music a different direction than most FE games with the flutes in most of the Hoshidan map themes, and that being a constant through-line for the soundtrack is cool. Just really good overall, enough said.
Story: A lot of the same gripes I had with Conquest's story apply here. I will say, this game feels like a different coat of paint over a traditional FE story, as Birthright's themes feel a lot closer aligned to other entries in the series. This isn't a good or a bad thing to me, just something I wanted to note. What I will say, is that this game feels a lot safer than Conquest, and I felt like it suffered because of it. This game's story just feels boring, as it has the least answers to the overarching plots, and it just feels like standard FE "oh, the neighboring country is invading, guess we gotta fight back" thoroughfare. Very middle of the pack FE story for what it is.
Characters: I feel like this section would be a little redundant, as it's the same set of characters between games. Some of the Nohrian characters get a little bit different characterization in this game, but to be honest it's minute details save for Xander and Elise. I honestly found Elise's presence in Birthright to be a lot more engaging than it was in Conquest, but Xander's was a little worse in an attempt to create this game's "Camus" archetype. This is the section I feel like writing the least about because I've always thought this was the weakest of the 3ds entries in terms of characters, but that's just me.
tl;dr: Birthright is weaker than Conquest almost entirely across the board. I think that it is a good option for people that want an easier and more relaxed FE experience, but it completely abandons any sort of moral uncertainty that Conquest attempts (albeit hamfistedly) in favor of the generic FE themes that we've gotten over the years, and to be honest, not even a great execution of those themes compared to other entries in the series. I just don't see any point unless you were REALLY grabbed by the cast of Conquest and wanted to see what the other side of the coin looks like, but prepare for disappointment, unless you started here.
NOTE: Don't look for my review of Revelations; I will not be playing that dogshit again. In fact, here's a mini-review:
Fire Emblem Fates: Revelations (2015): *
Game fucking sucks, nobody wants to do mundane tasks in a turn based strategy game, and the whole "golden ending shit" ruins the whole premise of moral ambiguity. Lame, weak ass game, not worth anyone's time. Only thing worse than unanswered questions in the other routes is finally getting the answers and they suck balls.
Gameplay: Still retains the things that I like about Fates' engine from Conquest: stances with pair-ups, daggers are actually a solid addition, ranged weapon triangle, etc. This time around, however, there are infinite grinding gold/exp maps that you can utilize in the world map, which I don't really have too great of an issue with because you can engage with this on your own terms. It isn't forced on the player, although I can imagine it makes an already cakewalk game even easier than it already is. What I will say in this department is that the maps are significantly worse. Not only are they not nearly as memorable as Conquests, a lot of them are re-used. We could get into which came first, and which is technically recycling the maps, but I'm going to lean more towards Conquest's favor as it generally does more to differentiate the maps from other versions in a fun and unique way. Still, was a little disappointing on the map design, especially considering how easy most of them were without grinding. I also felt like Birthright just absolutely showers you in stat boosting items, despite the easier difficulty... I have no metric to prove that so I could be wrong; just a feeling I got as I felt like I got another every other chapter or so.
Music: I actually like Birthright's music quite a bit more than Conquests, as I think it takes the music a different direction than most FE games with the flutes in most of the Hoshidan map themes, and that being a constant through-line for the soundtrack is cool. Just really good overall, enough said.
Story: A lot of the same gripes I had with Conquest's story apply here. I will say, this game feels like a different coat of paint over a traditional FE story, as Birthright's themes feel a lot closer aligned to other entries in the series. This isn't a good or a bad thing to me, just something I wanted to note. What I will say, is that this game feels a lot safer than Conquest, and I felt like it suffered because of it. This game's story just feels boring, as it has the least answers to the overarching plots, and it just feels like standard FE "oh, the neighboring country is invading, guess we gotta fight back" thoroughfare. Very middle of the pack FE story for what it is.
Characters: I feel like this section would be a little redundant, as it's the same set of characters between games. Some of the Nohrian characters get a little bit different characterization in this game, but to be honest it's minute details save for Xander and Elise. I honestly found Elise's presence in Birthright to be a lot more engaging than it was in Conquest, but Xander's was a little worse in an attempt to create this game's "Camus" archetype. This is the section I feel like writing the least about because I've always thought this was the weakest of the 3ds entries in terms of characters, but that's just me.
tl;dr: Birthright is weaker than Conquest almost entirely across the board. I think that it is a good option for people that want an easier and more relaxed FE experience, but it completely abandons any sort of moral uncertainty that Conquest attempts (albeit hamfistedly) in favor of the generic FE themes that we've gotten over the years, and to be honest, not even a great execution of those themes compared to other entries in the series. I just don't see any point unless you were REALLY grabbed by the cast of Conquest and wanted to see what the other side of the coin looks like, but prepare for disappointment, unless you started here.
NOTE: Don't look for my review of Revelations; I will not be playing that dogshit again. In fact, here's a mini-review:
Fire Emblem Fates: Revelations (2015): *
Game fucking sucks, nobody wants to do mundane tasks in a turn based strategy game, and the whole "golden ending shit" ruins the whole premise of moral ambiguity. Lame, weak ass game, not worth anyone's time. Only thing worse than unanswered questions in the other routes is finally getting the answers and they suck balls.