This game walked so the future of Fire Emblem could run.
The main features attributing to what many would say caused Awakening's success are actually found here. Unfortunately it was released late in the DS lifespan and was never released outside of Japan (The first FE since FE6 to do so and hopefully the last) that many missed out on the impact this game started.
FE12 is a remake of Book 2 from FE3 but unlike FE11 before it, this chooses to change things up a bit more. First we have the addition of a Casual mode where units will not stay permadead if fallen. Instead they will return in the next chapter, available to use again and this is huge for widening the appeal of the series. Do I ever use it? Outside of Conquest, no. Permadeath is part of the appeal of FE to me and I like having it on. But as an optional feature for those turned off by permadeath? Casual mode is a fantastic addition and one I wholeheartedly welcome to the series.
Now the other major is a "my unit" character. Essentially you can create your own character and use them throughout the game like a regular character, which is really neat. There's a decent amount of customisation available and being able to self insert yourself into the game is pretty cool. I'm not a huge fan of how they essentially become Marth's right hand person and have a lot of importance placed on them throughout the plot (something I wish they would stop doing with avatar characters personally) but I can appreciate the appeal of having your own personal character.
Now FE12 addresses many of the issues I had with it's prequel FE11. The artstyle, while still not great, is decently cleaned up enough to not look so drab. Side chapters are available through beating maps quickly instead of having few units left. We now have a Tellius style base before every chapter where we can have base conversations to flesh out the lore and the world and the story via Jagien and even support conversations to flesh out the characters! I think Kris (the avatar) has conversations with everybody while everyone else essentially have a handful with important characters to them (like the Whitewings and Minerva all have supports with each other) but this is very helpful for making these characters more interesting. On top of that we can even access a Radiant Dawn still character tree to see connections to everyone and each country has descriptions about them on the map. They did everything possible to flesh out Archanea at last and I appreciate so much. They even brought in cut characters like Barst so we have axe users! Truly they wanted to make this the best FE3 experience possible.
Now this being a remake though does mean it carries across the major issue I had with FE3 Book 2: collecting the Starsphere shards and Binding Shield orbs to access the true ending. I don't like a linear game with no way to backtrack locking a true ending behind missable items, especially in FE.
The few grievances aside, this is a fantastic remake of Book 2 from FE3. It fleshes out it's character and world while updating it's gameplay and accessibility for a wider player base.
The main features attributing to what many would say caused Awakening's success are actually found here. Unfortunately it was released late in the DS lifespan and was never released outside of Japan (The first FE since FE6 to do so and hopefully the last) that many missed out on the impact this game started.
FE12 is a remake of Book 2 from FE3 but unlike FE11 before it, this chooses to change things up a bit more. First we have the addition of a Casual mode where units will not stay permadead if fallen. Instead they will return in the next chapter, available to use again and this is huge for widening the appeal of the series. Do I ever use it? Outside of Conquest, no. Permadeath is part of the appeal of FE to me and I like having it on. But as an optional feature for those turned off by permadeath? Casual mode is a fantastic addition and one I wholeheartedly welcome to the series.
Now the other major is a "my unit" character. Essentially you can create your own character and use them throughout the game like a regular character, which is really neat. There's a decent amount of customisation available and being able to self insert yourself into the game is pretty cool. I'm not a huge fan of how they essentially become Marth's right hand person and have a lot of importance placed on them throughout the plot (something I wish they would stop doing with avatar characters personally) but I can appreciate the appeal of having your own personal character.
Now FE12 addresses many of the issues I had with it's prequel FE11. The artstyle, while still not great, is decently cleaned up enough to not look so drab. Side chapters are available through beating maps quickly instead of having few units left. We now have a Tellius style base before every chapter where we can have base conversations to flesh out the lore and the world and the story via Jagien and even support conversations to flesh out the characters! I think Kris (the avatar) has conversations with everybody while everyone else essentially have a handful with important characters to them (like the Whitewings and Minerva all have supports with each other) but this is very helpful for making these characters more interesting. On top of that we can even access a Radiant Dawn still character tree to see connections to everyone and each country has descriptions about them on the map. They did everything possible to flesh out Archanea at last and I appreciate so much. They even brought in cut characters like Barst so we have axe users! Truly they wanted to make this the best FE3 experience possible.
Now this being a remake though does mean it carries across the major issue I had with FE3 Book 2: collecting the Starsphere shards and Binding Shield orbs to access the true ending. I don't like a linear game with no way to backtrack locking a true ending behind missable items, especially in FE.
The few grievances aside, this is a fantastic remake of Book 2 from FE3. It fleshes out it's character and world while updating it's gameplay and accessibility for a wider player base.