Harder than Birthright but not really better. Story-wise it's not exactly bad but it's not exactly good either. I think the biggest mistake Fates made was splitting the story in 3. It's admittedly a clusterfuck and unless you play all 3 games you won't really understand what's happening. But having to buy 3 separate games just to understand literally the same plot, when technically only one of them is actually canon just means you're in for an incoherent mess that would only be surpassed by the Kingdom Hearts series.

Still, the gameplay itself is great and I enjoyed it immensely for that alone and I play games for gameplay first.

The better of the two games, in my opinion.

....but only slightly. I really didn't care for the writing in this game (or in Birthright). I thought it was an interesting stroke for Intelligent Systems to try the Pokemon way of things to boost sales in having one of two games to play with different sides of one story.

But it just wasn't very interesting. They say Conquest was the "harder and darker" story. I suppose that's true, but the dark elements of the story didn't really feel earned. Just sad things happening for the sake of sad things happening. That's how I remembered it, anyway....

Also I'll say it again from my Birthright review; why. can. you. marry. your. siblings. (bUt thEYre yOuR adOPteD sibLI--I do not care) Leave that to the doujinshi's to make...... I'm serious! I'm laughing while writing this... fans will always make the content they want to make. I don't think we needed incestuous relationships in this already struggling plot. This is why people started calling Fire Emblem a waifu simulator (something that irks the older fans like me of the franchise). Sure, marrying your blorbo is great.... but I want a good story with that, too.

Am I asking for too much? Maybe so.

I know I already reviewed Rev, but this game is leagues better that both Rev and Birthright and to me is the best FE Fates has to offer.

Every time I discuss this game with my friends, I always come away feeling like a hater. The positives my friends list are all things I agree with, so why then do I rate it so much lower than them. I don't even dislike playing it, quite the contrary actually. The more I think about it, the more I truly believe the 2.5 - 3 star range is the perfect rating for this game, but on the surface it may not be easy to look at that and tell what I think.

A majority of these stars, if not all, come from the gameplay. The map design and gameplay loop present in SPECIFICALLY Conquest is very close to peak Fire Emblem for me. The rate at which you acquire units is slow yet paced, allowing for each map to build around your growing army. The moment you gain Niles and Odin, for example, the map design seriously shifts. Larger maps begin to take priority, most likely to take advantage of Niles' +1 movement bonus given to his pair-up ally. Through this and the transfer/shelter system, ferrying your units around the map becomes so much more involved, and you can find routes in which you can reach chokes or pivotal enemies a turn or more earlier than normal. Ballistae and magical orbs begin to appear, allowing for specific units to retain use as crowd control during defense maps (Chapter 10 in particular providing an experience that I'm not sure FE has replicated since). All of this is to say that the map design of FE Conquest is acutely aware of who you have access to and reward your creative thinking, rather than ignoring or punishing it as seen in Birthright and Revelations.

With that out of the way, this all seems great! Maybe I am just a hater, why isn't this game rated higher? This exact thought goes through my head after every conversation and discussion I've had about this game.

And then I remember Corrin.

(I could elaborate, but it's simply that I find the writing, characters, and story about as bad as the series gets.)

One of the best 3DS Fire Emblem games in terms of map design and difficulty.

Story is definitely not this games strong suit, and the continued addition of the child mechanic did not fit in this game as well as it did in Awakening.

Aside from that, I'd recommend this game solely for the gameplay, especially if you found most of the modern Fire Emblem games to be too easy.

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.

I feel like as if this game is pretty good if you skip the dialogue and story, definitely not worth looking into, however the gameplay itself as in the battle system and maps is actually pretty good, especially in Chapter 10. One of the best maps I have ever played over all of the Fire Emblem maps I have played.

I would probably only recommend this game to people who aren't story driven and only to people who are more experienced with Fire Emblem's mechanics and gameplay style.

(also the music is a bop??)