Okay, this fucking game crashed my 3DS homebrew software twice while playing it. This shit is fucking cursed and I'm pretty sure if I complete it some wonder-of-U tier bullshit will just fucking kill me. Anyway I got to the final map and this it's not even that good. Map design sucks, dungeons are a stupid concept especially in the endgame when they get massive, and I REALLY began missing the outlandish concept of 'hit the thing 80% of the time when it FUCKING SAYS IT WILL HIT 80% OF THE TIME'
Anyway this shit some ass, nice job showing off your heroes money, intelligent system.

Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia. This was honestly an amazing time, it's a unique entry in the series gameplay wise and I felt it was definitely the best game presentation wise.

I don't have huge things to talk about story or character wise, so I'll be a bit more general than usual. The main story is pretty good, the writing itself isn't anything particularly amazing, it feels like your standard zero to hero fantasy tale. That being said it was also pretty inoffensive, nothing I thought was stupid or convoluted. I think the way they deliver some of Alm's story is kind of weird, like obviously the player knows what's going on with him, it really isn't subtle. But also everyone else in the game knows too, so you're kinda just waiting for Alm to eventually figure out something that's kind of really obvious. Celica has the whole "I'm trusting this bad guy cause it's the only option and I'm also keeping it a secret from my friends" plot trope I'm not a fan of. I get why she did what she did, but they kinda just gloss over how her friends feel about it and resolve it quickly and easily. With that said though, that ends my complaints about the main story. Everything else is at worst average at times and great at others. This is all aided however by a phenomenal voice cast and soundtrack which definitely helps deliver a pretty simple story.

VOICE ACTING
Now, I'm no stranger to talking about and praising voice acting, Fire Emblem included. But holy shit, this game's cast was incredible, now I'm far from the first person to say this, I've been hearing this game's praises forever and it certainly lives up to the hype. Ian Sinclair as Berkut is absolutely phenomenal, with some of the best voice acted scenes I've ever seen in anything, and if you know me you know how big of a compliment that is. It doesn't end just with Berkut thought, Kyle McArley as Alm, while I felt for the first three acts he wasn't anything too special, definitely knocks it out of the park in the last few acts of the story. Taylor Henry, is one of my favorite voice actors, if you need someone to voice a big, bad and stern guy he's your man. And his performance as Rudolf wa great, wish he got more. But I love plenty of other cast members as well. Lukas is definitely Greg Chun's best role, Grant George as Clive is awesome, I love Cherami Leigh already so her as Mae was super fun. Delthea, Desaix, Slayde, Saber, so many amazing voices. As a huge fan of voice acting, this game was an absolute treat.

GAMEPLAY
Now this is where it'll get interesting, as overall I think I enjoyed this game's gameplay. I liked the dungeon elements, very unique by FE standards and while I think they could be better mechanically (fatigue never really felt like an actual issue, wish I could just promote normally, wish I could expand the map etc.) I think it was fun to clear them out and explore. I loved clearing a few of the dungeons. Now combat, I felt was good, yeah bows are strong but they didn't feel absolutely game breaking due to the enemies having similar range options and warping, and the busted range of bows made for some fun strategies as I played. I think dread fighters are a bit too strong and witches warping all over is quite irritating as their isn't really a clear way to handle them. And with how many battles you do, whether they be in a dungeon or overworld reinforcements (which are cool in concept but got old after a point), these factors started to wear down the experience a bit. Difficulty wise, I don't know, it's not too hard and not too easy. Low growth rates definitely hurt a bit, but you get to a point where on average you can handle whatever comes up, sure some enemies are annoying but nothing ever felt too challenging. A few maps were the fun kind of tough though, I liked finding different ways to approach them. Speaking of maps, definitely this games weakest element I feel, desert and swamps suck, so Celica's route gets boned hard. I never personally swamps we're anything egregious outside of the first one, as after that you have enough ways to heal and manage your units and delay the enemy to deal with them. But also overall the maps felt basic, like I said there were a few fun ones, but even those I wouldn't put with my favorite maps in FE. Still not something I would let weigh anything down, gameplay I'd say was fun overall. Jedah was annoying to fight, invoke is overpowered and there are no axe units :(. But like I said I enjoyed it overall, I appreciate that it stands out amongst the rest of the series.

CHARACTERS
Man, what a great cast, I honestly can't say I dislike any character. But that's probably because the characters have so few supports compared to other entries in the series. Now these supports were all good-great, but I definitely wish I could see more of certain characters. As some others don't leave too much of an impression with how little they have. You could argue a quality versus quantity thing here, but I think there's definitely a middle ground between the two sides they could have found.

SOUNDTRACK
Holey Moley. What an amazing soundtrack, yet another thing I've heard praised to no end before playing, and once again it's for a perfectly valid reason. I suffered from the minor issue of like half of this game's soundtrack being used in Fire Emblem Heroes, something I've been playing for years, so I thought lack of impact would be a big issue. But nope, it's all as amazing as if I'd never heard it before. Easily the best in the series.

Conclusion
This was an amazing experience, and it has its issues, but I feel this is a good outweighs the bad situation. But in this case it's the amazing outweighs the kinda average and kinda annoying. I plan to play gaiden eventually, to see how it stacks up, but this game seems pretty faithful. And I can tell cause the map design definitely feels three decades old at times. At the end of the day, I am happy this game was my final journey (in terms of mainline fire emblem and games that have remakes like FE1 and Gaiden, which I will play) in one of my favorite series of all time.

Was wondering, during the playthrough of Fire Emblem: Awakening that I started earlier this year, “Why is this not clicking with me at all?” I was thinking that, maybe playing other titles in this series right after banging out two back-to-back playthroughs of Fire Emblem Engage was pushing it. Maybe I was feeling series fatigue. Then, after shelving my playthrough of ‘Awakening’, I boot up this game for the first time since the year it released and crank out three hours of playtime in the first session and I realize, “Oh, ‘Awakening’ is just missing a lot of how this series evolved after regaining its popularity, and is the least unique out of these modern titles, and thus is hard for me to get into.” Then my partner said, “why are you saying such long-winded sentences to yourself out loud while playing that game?”

‘Echoes’ was the first Fire Emblem game I was able to get in on the Collector’s Edition of on release. I still have the pins, the reversible cover, the soundtrack, and the wonderful art book. What really drew me to the series in the first place was the perma-death, because it raised the stakes of gameplay in a way that was lacking in a lot of media I loved, but also what I really appreciated was the story and characters of these games. Which, I’ve always been someone who valued story, since before I could remember I was obsessed with storytelling. Gameplay, level design, etc. were not things I really could consciously parse the particulars of when I was a teen, so when just looking at what was important to me back then, this game blew me away. It was only the fourth game in a series that soared to my favorites with having only played the two previous 3DS titles and what was the easiest GBA title to get secondhand at the time: Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones (which I got for $20!!! from GameStop back around 2015/‘16). I mean, you do not have to dig very much into my profile on here to see I appreciate story-centric, character-driven adventure RPGs still to this day.

The point of this is, since finishing ‘Engage’ I’ve been meaning to go back to this game. Despite adoring it after its release in 2017, I’ve only played this game once! So I dove in, and as I said before, this game stuck back to me so fast.

Though, most everyone really enjoys this game’s story. The real sore spot for people is the actual gameplay part of this game. It’s definitely a unique entry in this series and definitely threw a curveball towards a growing fandom after the pretty standard strategy gameplay of ‘Awakening’ and ‘Fates’. For me, though, and like I said, I can’t exactly parse the ‘why’ of it all, but I kind of really liked the gameplay. I hear a lot of stuff about ‘Gaiden’ and ‘Echoes’ map design all the time but I found it to be tricky in a fun way, even Celica’s maps along her route I found fun. It’s basic to start out besides terrain differences, and then you get to the Southern Outpost and that’s when it starts to pull the rug out. I also love the dungeons so much, and mini-battles as dungeon encounters is so interesting to me; for this playthrough I found myself regularly going back to dungeons in order to grind units that are recruited at lower levels or just to go back and complete quests and explore.

I was a little nervous to do the Hard difficulty for this game, since I struggled in both ‘Engage’ and in ‘Awakening’ to get through maps easily. Then I booted this game up and realized… I did my first playthrough on Hard! It is advertised as being for returning players familiar with the franchise, and by 2017, I very much was that. Though, on my first playthrough, I did lose a lot of characters very easily. I lost Faye really quickly, most of Celica’s mercenaries didn’t make it far, save for Saber. I lost Luthier during an ambush before I could even get to the sluice gate and then I couldn’t even get Delthea! Thankfully, I was able to remedy all of these mistakes, and characters I didn’t even get to use for more than a few battles were all-stars this time around (Faye, Jesse, Est, and Delthea, of course)!

Though, playthrough number two wasn’t without its losses. It never feels like an authentic Fire Emblem experience without sacrifices needing to be made, or mistakes leading to regretful losses. Different than my experience with ‘Engage’, the turnwheel offers a second chance, but never took away the tension. There were even times where I ran out of spins on Mila’s turnwheel and lost units I loved! In ‘Engage’, there were points where I had to artificially say to myself “I don’t get to use the time crystal for that mistake,” in order to keep the tensions high. Here, the game feels best balanced for the Turn Rewind mechanic than later entries do, funny enough. Though, the turnwheel can’t save you from every death. The world map ambushes are really clever, and I had completely forgotten how they work, so when Alm first got caught off guard, the enemy cavaliers made a bee line to my unit with the weakest defense: Silque. I love that girl, and I never made that same mistake again!

I love Celica; I love how she is not a case of a female fantasy protagonist holding herself back from violence and war because of their sensitivity or fragility that ignores their having lived in the real world. Right from the get-go, Celica is not afraid to fight, and that’s what makes her the ‘Caring Princess’. She is willing to sacrifice herself not only in the Christ-like way many ‘Fire Emblem’ protagonists find themselves doing, but also through the blood, sweat, and tears that the violence of this series’ worlds require from its leaders. Celica and Alm are the best. In fact, I love most, if not all the characters in this game. I like how, to make up for less support conversations, you can talk to characters in villages and in forts as Alm and Celica and have them confide in you, converse with you, and through that you learn enough background about them to find them all endearing. I like how Emperor Rudolf is not a psychopathic (literal) demon, and is a nuanced character with heart and humanity despite being a warlord. It is so hard to find delicately written bosses, but this game really cares to intelligently make the player come to terms with the realities of war that Fire Emblem characters routinely face. It cannot be exaggerated how special I think the writing in this game is.

I’ve always had a problem with how in newer entries in this series the protagonists were the gods, and, for lack of a better reason, I put the burden on my hate for the “chosen one” trope. Though, with experiencing this story I truly know what the problem is. Much like plenty of other JRPGs, Shadows of Valentia is a story about gods being destined to leave the world to man. Mila speaks to Alm and Celica in the final act and tells them of Naga making weapons that would allow mankind to put down the gods once they began their death throes against the fate that was sealed for dragonkind the moment they began to rule the earth. The good case of the “chosen one” trope is Alm and Celica being prophesized to kill the old gods and pave the way for man to inherit the earth. Thus, the bad cases that we see in Three Houses and Engage is that the gods are the chosen ones, and man must fight by their side to pave the way for god to continue a righteous rule over them.

It’s funny how my two favorite Fire Emblem games are the ones with split-path scenarios that follow two equal protagonists (though the series will always acknowledge the princess of the two the real protagonist), but I think, just because I adore the story and gameplay a little more, this is officially leapfrogging The Sacred Stones as my favorite Fire Emblem game.

A unique and excellent approach to the long running series

Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia is a tactical/strategy role-playing game developed by Intelligent Systems in 2017 for the 3DS and serves as a remake of Fire Emblem Gaiden originally released for the Famicom in 1992. Shadows of Valentia manages to do things a bit more differently to the other contemporary titles like Awakening, Fates and Three Houses but manages to shine in a variety of aspects that make a JRPG great but possibly its biggest flaw is sticking too close to the original in a sense.

One of the biggest strengths this game has is the overall story with characters that are extremely well voice acted for a 3DS game to the point I feel that the console itself doesn't do the game justice sometimes. A simple story synopsis is that you plays as two protagonists with their own objectives and armies trying to defeat the evil kingdom. There are some characters that are one note but there are also some that have a lot of depth and motivations that also manages to give out some impressive vocal emotional performances that yet immerses you more into the story and world you're in. The gameplay is a bit different in that from the other 3DS games, there is no weapon triangle and spells are learned via leveling up and use your own health instead of it being a finite resource. I personally didn't mind this and felt like it made the game easier to swallow as someone that doesn't have much experience playing an FE game with also there just being one equipment slot so you can just equip the best item for a member and moving on. The soundtrack here is phenomenal with certain tracks you hear a lot gradually feeling more frantic and desperate with some having a more militaristic focus in certain times. The motif used in most of the soundtrack is synonymous and fitting for the game as a whole with a final map theme that does not disappoint at all and further elevates the final battle as the games does its final hours. Art design here is amazing with Hidari bringing the classic NES designs to life in a clean and faithful way and is my favorite overall art in a Fire Emblem game. Even then the smallest things can also make a game great, the title screen gives you a snapshot of the experience you're about to enter or even continue and returning to it after all is said and done was a closing experience with the soundtrack of the choirs singing in a solemn tone which feels like a calm before the storm.

As much as this game is a solid JRPG experience all around, the weakest aspect of it has to be the maps themselves. Most of them are very simple open fields that leave little to strategy and some maps have some awful terrain that makes it not very fun to go through. The dungeons themselves are a 50/50 thing for me, it's something different and you get mini encounters akin to a normal JRPG battle via the Fire Emblem flavor but much more condensed and shorter than a regular FE battle would take. I think I just didn't like that I was limited to only 10 people considering I was mostly used to having my entire army with me. The game does also expect you to go through some battles so if you play how you want to play, you might eventually run into a roadblock especially when you want more story and want to know what happens next.

I didn't think I would ever like a 3DS Fire Emblem game again after Awakening but this game completely proved me wrong. The facets of a good JRPGs: story, characters, soundtrack, gameplay (to an extent) and Shadows of Valentia has them. A surprisingly heartfelt solemn tale of two warriors destined by fate ever hoping to return to the fields where they first met.

i have so much to say about this game and half of it is spoilers. so i'm going to leave the meat of my review here and then make a second one to talk about the spoilers that i really want to bring up. i only played it earlier this year but i swear it changed my life i think you can tell by my username and icon IF YOU KNOW YOU KNOW.

- so fire emblem echoes has a pretty simple story. three houses was my first FE game with this being my second and the political landscape of fodlan was too brain hurty for me so i quite enjoyed this for a change. i could give a synopsis of both paths from start to finish easily.
- is it a GOOD story? i think it is. there are some glaring flaws that keep me up at night but it's because this game has such high highs that i wish the whole story would be like that.
- particularly wish this game cared about women outside of them being the guys' setpieces. it happens even to the most capable girls and i got sick of it after the third damsel in distress on alm's route. this happens in celica's route too and unlike alm's it is not a port from gaiden so it's about every bit as frustrating as you can imagine
- also alm's story for the first half or so tries to present itself as something it's kinda.. not? this makes sense if you've played it. that's something that bugs quite a few people but it makes sense in my head.
- the combat is also pretty simple imo - maybe too simple for some people's tastes? you can only hold 1 item at a time. there are no second seals once you're in a class line you are stuck there if you don't have dlc or are not a dread fighter. double attacks are done if one person has one more point of speed than another. i don't really mind that but some people do? also magic and combat arts are cast from hp which is interesting i like it
- the maps are nothing to really write home about because on alm's route you get Vast stretches of land with a bunch of soldiers and in celica's you get... Boats. Deserts. Swamps. And so many cantors. They're not that fun. between the bad maps and the random encounters (WHY ARE THEY THERE?) i did have to put this game down for a few weeks after like act 3 but coming back to finish it was a very good decision
- this is the first game to introduce a rewind system. they were obviously cooking with it which is why they have divine pulse in 3H and the time crystal in engage. but mila's turnwheel is also how you can view supports you have obtained and "memory prisms" which are scenes that take place outside of the main story. some of these are plot-relevant some just give some extra love to underutilized playables or side characters. i like the memory prisms. especially when you basically collect them off people's dead bodies in act 5
- this is also the first mainline FE game that has near-full voice acting. the overworld conversations where people speak at you are the exception but the main story? the supports? even every time you select a character in battle and they say their funny little line? all voiced. i can't speak to the quality of the original japanese voices but the english dub cast is phenomenal. i've seen some performances get dissed (personally the only one i'm iffy on is deen because he sounds like squidward but i always picked sonya so i don't really know what to say) but this cast really carries their weight.
- everyone shouts out ian sinclair (berkut) and kyle mccarley (alm) FOR GOOD REASON but the list of good casting is endless. i was going to start shouting out some other performances i liked but it would have turned into me actually naming the whole cast so i'll just leave it at bonnie gordon (silque) who also sings the english ending theme. her voice is actually like honey.
- so the good casting really brings the characters to life. i LOVEEEE the characters. some characters have rough backstories others are more everyday and it's explained to you through supports or overworld conversations that is very down to earth and very up my alley
- SUPPORTS!!!!! while there are a couple of supports that kinda have no reason to be there my big problem is that i wish there were more!! lots of dynamics that aren't explored enough. just as an example alm only has one support outside his mini-harem even though he has a plethora of buddies. like luthier. alm is luthier's first human friend. BUT THEY DON'T HAVE A SUPPORT CHAIN. WHY?
- oh i haven't talked about the art yet. hidari's art is amazing. we all know this. even the little nicks on armor are so lovingly rendered i need to be able to draw like that. the UI also looks very cool and sleek which combines nicely. i think even people who didn't like this game can agree that it has the best window dressing
- the music is also phenomenal. i mentioned the ending theme but this is just one track out of a plethora. alm and celica have battle themes in acts 1 & 2 that evolve for their act 3, and their act 4 gives them each a new track. these are some of the best in the game and are a wonderful expansion of gaiden's already pretty awesome soundtrack. berkut has like 5 different tracks associated with him (even if 1 is kind of a repeat of another) and those WEREN'T in gaiden so they just came up with that from scratch? mindblowing. orchestral music always slays. also the final boss theme is iconic for a reason. Don't listen to it before you play this game. unless you won't play this game then go listen to it. it goes hard in gaiden and it goes harder in echoes. Just to name a few examples. the use of leitmotifs are stellar by the way.

so yeah. if you play fire emblem for the gameplay echoes is probably not going to be your cup of tea. if you play it for the story it's a coinflip on if you like it but honestly the soundtrack and voice acting help sell it. Also the pretty. to me sometimes simple is better than complicated and i think the simplicity is to echoes' advantage. i love this game. it's a part of my personality now.

also can i shill the sacred echoes romhack? i'm gonna shill the sacred echoes romhack. it's a demake of echoes on the GBA system (using sacred stones as a base) and while it doesn't solve EVERY problem i have with echoes it is a fun experience in its own right. just don't make the same mistake i did and play on hard because "oh i played echoes already the maps are gonna be the same right?" NO THEY'RE NOT. that is all for now

Shadows of valentia é um jogo muito diferente dos outros jogos da franquia, sendo um remake do Gaiden, o segundo jogo da franquia lançado lá pro NES. Gaiden foi um jogo que introduziu diferenças muito grandes em questão de gameplay, mapa e level design, algo que os futuros títulos da franquia preferiram voltar ao que era no primeiro jogo. Shadows of valentia focou em ser um remake extremamente fiel ao original, apresentando bastante aprimoramentos, mas mantendo vários elementos do jogo de NES. Isso faz com que Shadows of valentia seja um jogo bem divergente, já que possui muitos pontos ruins e bons, sendo bem compreensível alguém avaliá-lo como ruim ou ótimo. Mas onde eu avalio esse jogo? Pessoalmente, é um dos meus jogos favoritos da franquia.

Vamos direto ao que é mais gritante desse jogo, o design de mapa é horrível, ele não mudou nada do original, pouquíssima variedade, alta repetição de layouts e obstáculos e de vez em quando OS MAPAS SE REPETEM, não só isso, o jogo é bem difícil e possuí mecânicas que claramente são feitas pra te foder. Isso faz com que Shadows of valentia seja um jogo bem sufocante de ser jogado por muito tempo e isso também afeta também seu fator replay. Estes pontos para mim são objetivamente pontos inegáveis que o jogo tem problemas, nesse ponto o jogo foi fiel demais ao Gaiden.

Mas sinceramente tudo com exceção dos mapas foram absurdamente aprimorados, não só isso, todo resto deste jogo é magnífico; Sua apresentação é magnífica: uma maravilhosa dublagem, direção de arte linda, boa animação de modelos, boa história (uns nitpicks ali e aqui nos atos da Celica, mas no geral boa), um ótimo cast de personagens e bons supports. Dá pra ver que esse jogo foi feito com objetivo de dar uma melhor experiência ao jogador, respeitando e aprimorando o título original.

Indo para a gameplay, posso destacar pontos únicos e mais específicos do jogo:
-O jogo possuí dungeons, que não são lá muito boas, mas apresentam uma boa mudança de gameplay;
-Você pode usar todos os personagens em um mapa e não ficar se preocupando em quem tirar (com exceção em dungeons e no ato extra final);
-A maioria das classes aqui são divertidas de serem jogadas e apresentam gimmicks únicas: magos ignoram os tiles com avoids absurdos que o jogo possui, as magias de clerics são bem divertidas de se usar E ARQUEIROS SÃO BONS AQUI, etc;
-O jogo te permite grindar, que é bem-vindo já que é um jogo relativamente difícil;
-Mila’s turnwheel é uma ótima adição ao jogo, é literalmente uma ferramenta de rewind, que te impede de resetar o capítulo por causa de um crítico aleatório, mas acho que o jogo deveria limitar um pouco mais, poder usar umas 10 vezes pra mim é um exagero, e mesmo que você não goste, dá pra ignorar de boa;
-Sinceramente o jogo não tem muita variedade no quesito de customização de personagens, ele não possuí mudança dupla de classe, reclass é lá pro final do jogo, dentre outras ausências de mecânicas de jogos mais recentes da franquia, não que o jogo não tenha seu grau de complexidade, mas a gameplay dele no geral é bem simplória, sendo isso algo que atrapalha o fator replay do jogo.

Se os mapas do jogo tivessem sido refeitos e serem mais bem pensados, sinceramente seria um jogo 5 estrelas para mim. Shadows of valentia não é um jogo que eu recomendaria para todos, ele é árduo, longo e muitas vezes frustrante, mas como um todo, ele me agradou bastante e a experiência foi muito mais positiva do que negativa.

“So come with me now. Let us find our empire together. If you’ll still take me for your empress ?”

this is possibly the worst sentence i have read in this game i was literally bawling my eyes out I LOVE THIS GAME SO MUUUUUUUUUUUUUCH ITS UNREAL OH GOD

if you had told me that this kind of fire emblem marathon wouldve led me to one of the best games ive ever played in my entire life i wouldve not believed you when i played fire emblem awakening some time ago i realised that this series is actually worth to explore even tho im kinda bad at strategy games and also i get really frustrated at times because i got 0 patience and shit like that (mind you i did play the gba games and those ones are literally hell on earth so theres that) but awakening is such a little gem of a game both in fun gameplay mechanics AND some bomb ass story that ties everything to the first fire emblem game can you imagine

this one ? this ones a miracle

i have absolutely no idea how fire emblem gaiden is i have not played it and i dont PLAN on playing it like ever in the entirety of my life but as a NES game it probably sucks ass IM SORRYYYYY OK IM SORRYYYYYYYYYYY not every NES game sucks theres kirbys adventure and ………… so moving on this is a remake of that game and im 100% sure this is an improvement in every single aspect is somebody comes to me and goes actually fire emblem gaiden had better difficulty level !!!!! im gonna gave some guys skull in tonight

so where THE FUCK do i begin with this great ass game the gameplay is pretty reminiscent of fire emblem awakening and fire emblem as a whole BUT theres a but some stuff may feel pretty different from what youre used to basically since fe2 was still at the beginning of the series they hadnt yet introduced some of the staples of the series like the weapon triangle or healers and pegasus knights sucking ass or like archers being totally useless most of the time like that good stuff ok ? here theres NONE of that the weapon triangle is in fact fucking gone you will only be able to hold a single item and not switch between different weapons and the classes are more streamlined and kinda different from the other games again healers and pegasus knights can pack some punches and archers have a range of jesus christ that being said some expert on the series will probably tell you achtuaolly theres also the EXP intake being shit so you have to promote pretty soon instead of capping at 20 or shit like that I DONT CARE OK IM NOT A PRO so theres that

apart from these different beats here and there this is 99% true to fire emblem as a whole so you can breeze through it without any real issue (if you play casual mode which you should who the fuck plays classic mode the fuck)

while this is probably the core of the game theres some other stuff that they put in this that i absolutely love traversing the overworld is fun as fuck you get some different towns that you can explore every nook and cranny of you can enter dungeons and get into some shin megami tensei 4 style gameplay I FUCKING LOVE DUNGEONS UGHHHHHHHH if years ago i had played this game instead of smt4 now fire emblem would be my fav series instead of smt ok actually that may not be true but a man can dream im a liar i lie i love lemons … actually im allergic to lemons

anyhow every single town has lots of items you can pick NPCs to talk to get some side quests upgrade your weapons get reminded of the fact that youre actually in a war or something the world map is super fun both intricate and yet super straightforward you have battles and towns and dungeons and again dungeons are pretty sick i was not really convinced by the change in gameplay but its incredible how they tied this style of gameplay with the usual srpg I LOVE THIS GAME OH GOD dungeons will have some loot here and there and grinding a bit is always fun idk just do that

i have no idea what the fuck they put in this game like they laced it with cocaine or something because there was not a single moment that i was not having the time of my life every single battle was fun as hell (idk if i enjoyed the gimmick battles that much but at least they gave some nuance to the usual gameplay) and its pretty weird because after some time i was growing tired of the gameplay loop in fire emblem awakening not that its BAD i had so much fucking fun with that game but yknow after 30 hours of srpg youre gonna get crazy i fear (i want to check out genealogy of the holy war mark my words) like i cannot even pinpoint what is in this game that i enjoy that much maybe the fast paced battles or little things like this like i didnt even mind the maps that people always talk about as being bad as hell

whatever theres a lot of stuff in this game im not gonna explain it to you

now the true highlight of this game is the story and characters dont get me started lord

main thing of the game is the gods duma and mila fought because idk thats what gods do i think and after that they divided the land of valentia into 2 parts one part is the kingdom of zofia and the other is the kingdom of rigel now after all this premise yknow what the game is gonna focus on ??? thats rightttttttttttt 2 little kids now i gotta tell you i love the opening act like seeing little alm and little celica sharing their childhood together with the other kids of the village i hope nothing bad ever happens to them BOOM war and shit goodbye so anyway the story has some great story beats and some stuff that actually happens too fucking fast for my liking but first of all the entirety of the game is divided into 2 campaigns one for alm and one for celica with each one having some different party member and OOOOOO im gonna talk about the characters in a moment because what the actual fuck

now its story beats time SPOILER ALERT AND SHIT

i read sometimes here and there about people realising this games story is actually quite ass and shit like that and now they hate the game for it and im sorry to tell you fuck you your mom never loved you anyway you dont know what tenderness is and never will now after that again i wanted to say that the prologue makes such a great job at showing how much alm and celica cared for each other and how much this will have some consequences in the events to come yknow

i love when in a game the have some incredibly huge war conflict but they also focus on the repercussions on a small group of characters final fantasy XII is my fav one in the series so yknow whats up and thats probably why i enjoyed this story as much as i did for reasons celica and alm get separated and not in a single moment do they forget of each other and still when they finally get reunited after years they realise their worldview has changed and in fact are siding with 2 entirely different nations on their behalf and this is UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH so fucking good now i do have some weird nitpicks about this kind of premise mainly because the pacing was slightly off like after 1 second of alm being in the deliverance they immediately trusted him and made him their boss ? or like the fact that at one moment celica is crying in alms arms and all of the sudden she goes how the fuck are you so stupid and goes away BUT i can understand that thats also fruit of fire emblem general issue of condensing a lot of story into pretty fast paced chapters here and there so i understand and also the road to get there is absolutely my favorite part of the entire game can you believe how sick it is to go on a regicide quest or a umh pilgrimage right yeah anyway

after that they get divided yada yada shit happens some more hours of simple lore and character recruitments and we get to the final part of the game and celica gets kidnapped like a stupid ass bitch so its YOUR job to rescue her once again and after alm killed his own father (yeah hes the son of rudolf who couldve expected that… i could moving on) youre gonna traverse some hours into a bitchass dungeon and get to mila and see that shes fucking dead and then get falchion and then get reunited to celica and then have a little sex with her and then go ahead and kill a fucking god LORD why do these games always end up like that anyway happy ending everybody goes home and alm and celica canonically have a ton of sex now the day is saved

so as i was saying even tho the story can be pretty simple and weirdly paced this is a trope that i enjoy a bit too fucking much for my wellbeing so of course i ended up loving this game this much but something that really drove the experience home for me were the character now

TW possible horny breakdown youre advised

celica is the sweetest girl ive ever encountered in my entire life i want to cook for her clean the house sing her a lullaby all these things while im naked and in a choker im not joking did you even see her sprite after she becomes the princess im …. yes i do the cooking yes i do the cleaning now alm is a weird question because i feel like i would like him more if he wasnt a twink but id be lying if i said that i dont want a piece of that plus he looks so fucking good with that armor its like idk it gives him a great silhouette for some reason unbeknownst to me why are mens waist so small to be grabbed by other men ???

also i forgot to mention but theres supports in battle and they give a little insight on characters relationships and i LOVE THEM WHAT THE HELL

as for the childhood friends i have a clear love and hate relationship with faye shes super cute but she talked about alm every single time dont you have a personality youre still very cool tho i want you as my gf gray is kinda hot but i didnt really vibe with him that much i do love his upbeat personality tho and tobin sucks and kliff is a fucking twink again now

alms party has a real lack of hunks can i say that clive forsyth and python are all quite interesting but i dont really want to fuck them or like enjoy their personality that much maybe python i would some foreplay hes cute lets put also luthier in the equation because i dont vibe with him either

now everybody shut up i LOVE women clair is fucking brilliant witty absolutely funny as hell and super hot even tho i was tired of everybody falling in love with alm like faye goes alm please watch me watch me alm im here alm please celica is on the other part of the continent thinking about him everyday and clair goes to him and goes so theres this little villager from ram that should creampie me (???) anyway shes incredible i love her + mathilda is the most valkyrie character ive ever seen in fire emblem till now shes fierce shes powerful and she has a 5kg cunt im 100% sure her only caveat is that she fucks clive lmao + delthea is one of my favorite fucking characters in here if you know me you know i fucking love little girls with exuberant and hyperactive personalities and sometimes even a little bit r word but thats just me i love yotsuba yotsuba& love rika higurashi i love ochette octopath traveler 2 so of course i was gonna love this girl that is umineko lambda in fire emblem font

so everybody PLEASE shut up . tatiana and zeke

raise your hand if you cried every time tatiana showed her love for zeke in conversations or supports . only me ? good i love these too so fucking much tatiana is the purest girl in the entire game i love her so dearly and i love her relationship with zeke and how theyre both struggling with zekes loss of memory and the implications this might have for theyre love its absolutely incredible i cannot begin to tell you how much i enjoyed watching these 2 the characters in this game are amazing

and theres silque i guess . shes fine

and also mycen . hes fine would say dilf but im not really that into him to say that i would suck him dry or something plus he reminds me of my weird father complex mycen go away

now celicas party is full of hunks get ready

mae and boey are pretty interesting characters and i definitely enjoy their little interactions and the implications that theyre actually in love with each other of course mae is wife material because ADHD girl yada yada and shes cute and boey is actually pretty cute if you look at him close enough and im gonna bet hes a twunk under those mage robes sorry can i thirst for him in this situation

and genny she exists ig

now saber i want him to rail me to death i want him to spit me in my mouth and call me slurs im absolutely 100% sure of what im saying and hes not even the hottest one of the bunch we are gonna get there rest assured but anyway hes like my type he … hes my type of fictional character thats it like charismatic mysterious vibes hunk body tongue in cheek comments protective of ojousan and shit like that he my man he my boo he can do whatever he wants to me

so you also get some mercenaries valbar is basically gaston of beauty and the beast in fire emblem font and leon is a walking gay stereotype and yet i really enjoyed his backstory and why he fell in love for valbar and … ugh all representation is good representation i guess but whatever the real highlight of this bunch of guys is KAMUI UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH THOSE ARM MUSCLES ????? THOSE BYCEPS ??????? cover them up sluts what the actual fuck why are you so hot oh my god so like i would want to say that he should fuck me up but im not sure if hes gentle in bed or like super rough he is the silent type after all………. either way i want him to make me loose

and yeah atlas has muscles i guess … kind of nice to look at but im not a fan of the guy

the trifecta of pegasus girls is also one of my favorite bunch i love them so fucking much they all have distinct personalities and look gorgeous as fuck my favorite one is palla but catria and est are also top notch characters and their designs are GORGEOUS + as much as i understand theyre in shadow dragon too ??? im not so sure i need to check that out too

i hate jesse moving on

sonya get the fuck out theres my husband here deen im umh,.... please look at this picture first ok now that youve seen that i can tell you that when i looked at that picture i had to be hospitalised for days because my dick went hard for 48 hours straight its true thats what happened so . people i love deen hes absolutely fucking hot his design is bomb hes attractive beautiful clean-cut comely lovely pretty beauteous fair impressive pulchritudinous righteous i enjoyed every single frame i had it in front of my 2 eyes and i had to play the entire game with only one hand he has such a great personality he has 2 arms that could crash my skull in half a minute and im not gonna even start to imagine what his legs could do to me or else i would need to stop writing this review i wish i was one of the enemies he cut through honestly i im .. i umh deen im literally single please what the hell i need to look him up on rule34 theres no way in hell i can continue living without looking at his cock sorry umh i meant moving on

im sorry for sonya shes hot but if you ask me between the 2 who i want to be pegged by the answer is pretty clear I-I want your creamy warm cum inside of me I-I want u to choke me and use toys like vibrators~! I want to feel you deep down inside of me I want u to make me scream~ I want u to give me hickeys and bruises all over i-i want u to give it to me hard and dont hold back I wanna be soaked in your cum and my sweat I want u to fuck me for days and hours please daddy’s please! I-I want u t-to use all your s-sex toys on me e-every s-single o-one t-the vibrater t-the sex s-swing t-the whips a-all of t-them~ A-ah shit... Y-your cock is so big and in my ass already~? Mnn... Faster... Harder! Turn me into your dream slut~! Penetrate me until i burst! Mmmm~ Soothe me~ Caress me~ Fuck me~ Breed me~ Probe your thick, wet, throbbing cock deeper and deeper into my p***y Ahhh... Ahhh~ I-Im cumming Im cumming! Cum with me too! Drench me! Ill do the same~ Ill swallow your sticky essence along with you~ Im your personal cumbucket~!! I want you to touch me real good. damn..~ beat me I want you to make me leak and cum inside me I hope you cum all over me..pleasure me real good..~ you make me wet all day..~ eat me all you want...~ D..daddy..~ your going too f..fast..~ H..harder..!~You make me feel wet everyday..~A..ah..!! D..daddy..~ g..go rough..~ A..ahh..!!~ M..mm..~ I..I’m going to leak..!!~ A..ah..!~ G..gentle..~! Ahh..~ j..just a little deeper daddy!~ p..punish me d..daddy..~ I.. I. Feel so wet and j...juicy.~ mhmmmm~ to- to hard.. ahhhh~ m.. more p-please~!

nomah is a literal old man

conrad is tuxedo mask and hes pretty hot without his mask i wish i could see more of his interactions and sibling love and shit with celica but it was pretty bare bones maybe i needed to watch the supports for him anyway hes cool

now lets get to the juice

berkut and rinea

im not the biggest fan of berkut hes kind of a wimp he got on my nerves more than once and he probably fucks like a chicke BUT rinea loves him so dearly this made me cry like a fucking bitch their relationship is incredible and feels so real and thats also sad because i didnt get to see enough of their interactions and also enough of rinea UGHHHHH that girl is so fucking cute i just cant what the hell anyway the final battle with him (them) made me lose all my hair and when berkut sacrificed rinea i think i had an ictus or something i genuinely stopped thinking i was going crazy what the hell and the final scene where they both ascend and the conversation they have and the fact that after berkut went crazy rinea still loves him im sorry what the fuck

anyway i think we are done last but not least

sound department absolutely blew my mind first and foremost because every single dialogue is voice acted ????? EVERY . SINGLE . DIALOGUE i could not believe this like i swear fire emblem awakening had like 10 dialogues i could not believe this game was fully voice acted like what the hell were they thinking the fuck and by the way i played this with the undub of course because i hate english voice acting and the voices are incredible i cannot what the hell

and then ………………….. the ost . guys this games ost is absolutely fucking incredible

now first and foremost i watched the intro like 100 times because of this exact theme i had goosebumps the entire time and like watching the part where celica hugs alm really makes me insanely teary eyed im not joking that shit is insane i love my babies so much im so sorry for everything that happened to you please live happily so anyway apart from that celicas route is the best one apart from the fact that its full of hunks but also for this theme i cannot tell you how much i fucking love this theme its unreal i sometimes just did some battles with celica in order to listen to this TUTUTUTUTUTUT TUT TU TUT UTUTUTUTUTUTU and also this version is pretty interesting i would eat this theme alive if i could these battle themes are incredible and the more you progress the game the better they get like this one?????? lord im sweating this is so fucking good and then youre like omg this cannot be rivaled by alms version haha BOOM this games OST IS FUCKING INCREDIBLE I CANNOT EVEN BEGIN TO TELL YOU HOW MUCH I ENJOY IT OH MY GOOOOOOOOOOOOOD and then when i heard this version of the battle theme my jaw dropped

and then one of my favorite theme that i listened to way before i actually had played this game the final boss theme now you dont understand how many times i actually did listen to this this theme is absolutely fucking insane and going through the final boss with this music and the characters saying their dramatic lives and the overall pacing of the final battle i think it definitely cemented this game as one of my fav games of the series one of the fav games i played this year and possibly one of the fav games i ever played in my life this is absolutely unbelievable

most of the music in the game is incredible though so i advise you to actually play the game or just listen to some of the bomb tracks because its totally worth it

after the ending where you cry theres some more fanservice act 6 super difficult that ties some stuff for fire emblem awakening but thats not really too important to talk about its for the diehards

the story may be flawed the gameplay may not be the best of the best and whatever other complain you might have but its really rare for a game to have such a tight chokehold on me that i play it every single day without getting distracted by some other game and for what its worth maybe after playing some other fire emblem game i will deem the series as mid but i cannot stress enough this game is incredible and even if you dont like it this game means a lot to me and I don't fucking care

also mila is hot as hell do I want a piece of an immortal dragon deity damn they did her super dirty shes one of the hottest character in the game and they decided to just skewer her with falchion what the actual fuck ???? mila I can treat you better please also theres a kind of dark duma portrait at the end please show us the hottie

also forgot to say the character portraits by hidari are fucking INSANE THEY ALL LOOK HOT AS HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELL HES SO FUCKING GOOD I CANNOT BELIEVE THIS

the title screen is absolutely perfect watching baby alm and baby celica running through the flower field is out of this world and when you finish the game theyre grown up and walking hand in hand ??? i cannot with this game istg

this extra track for something about marth is insane tho should i play fe1 and fe3 remake yeah theres some dlc stuff but its not really important and the characters you can recruit are actually pretty ugly BUT THEY PUT ID HOPE THIS TRACK GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD and also they put a theme for ike??? damn i need to play these other fire emblem games lord

im probably gonna play fates next in this marathon am i gonna regret this ? maybe but the characters are all hot i cant way to wet my pants

I think this game is really good! Fire Emblem has always been a fun series for me and personally this is one of the best ones I've played. The story and voice acting really takes center stage here. Every single performance is excellent, and the story of Alm and Celica is an entertaining, thrilling and sometimes gut wrenching ride. I also like the theme of mankind seizing it's own destiny without the help of Gods, it's pretty sick. Reminds me of an Atlus game in a vague way.

The gameplay is classic Fire Emblem, it has a lot of fun and interesting classes for sure. Magic costing HP and combat arts are pretty neat concepts. The game stumbles a bit with map design feeling basic at times and it having SWAMP MAPS but overall the gameplay is still incredibly fun.

This is for sure definitely one of the best 3DS games you could ever hope to play, I highly recommend this to any JRPG lover.

i don't like conrad or any of the implications of his inclusion, celica's maps are probably the worst designed maps in the series (even moreso than three houses), and the balancing feels kind of all over the place but otherwise this game is insanely good. a spectacular english dub, amazing ost, really well done new additions to an existing game if you ignore conrad, and probably the best version of "oh the dragon is evil now, hero go kill bad dragon now" as a story, even if it really isn't as common as outsiders to the series like to suggest (it's mostly just the first 3 games). i also adore the cast in this game to death, probably my favorite cast behind thracia and sacred stones. i really hope that the inevitable fe4 remake learns from this game's mistakes and triumphs in the future, because there's a lot they do exceptionally well even if they fumble the bag a bit in a few areas.

Don’t like the way they treat Celica (or really any or the female characters).

Desert maps + Valbar makes me want to KERMIT

Art is good tho best in the entire series by far only rivaled by Kita Senri and Kozaki Yusuke