Green8710
2 reviews liked by Green8710
Been meaning to write about this game for a while, but it just wasn’t coming to me. It’s a shame because I really do enjoy Conquest, and I actually have a mildly entertaining personal history with it, so writing about it was a no brainer. So today I think I’ll sit down and give my thoughts on this incredibly divisive game. I should also clarify I have ONLY played this route of Fire Emblem: Fates. I have no comment on the Birthright or Revelation routes respectively.
This is another game that dates back to my Smash Brothers era, and believe me man I wanted to play Fates sooooo bad because of the characters that were spirits in the game. Obviously there was Corrin, but I was more interested in Elise because her hair was so cute and looked like cinnamon rolls lol. Most of the Fates spirits just looked extra cool to me, and this was also in my “admitting things were cute” denial arc but I was still interested because of some of the characters on display. Around the time I had a My Nintendo account, which actually would offer pretty significant discounts on 3DS games, one of which being Birthright, so it was like everything was lining up for such an opportunity to finally get into Fire Emblem. THE PROBLEM… was this was back when I didn’t have a debit card so I had to get full permission from my parents to buy shit, and they gave the thumbs down on it which left me devastated.
I still find it funny to think what I would’ve been like if I had started this series with Birthright, however, but that’s not really a focus for this review as it’s about Conquest. Not too long after this whole charade happened I learned online that fans DID NOT like this game… mostly. It was a real love it/hate it affair depending on who you asked, but in the end it gave me a false impression of these games for a good while. After properly starting to play Fire Emblem in October until taking a slight break before January, I had discovered that there was one game of the fates trilogy that people seemingly loved, that being Conquest. The map design and mechanics were the most highly praised factors, with the story (lol) being the main detracting point. This really peaked my interest, as I had heard similar things about Engage, which was a game I actually really liked. After ordering a copy of Conquest, I started playing through it IMMEDIATELY once finishing Engage.
Ok first things first, yes, the story is bad. For multiple reasons. Some of it stems from the actual writing feeling immature as hell even for a T rated game (although seems to be a carryover from Awakening judging by what I’ve played of that game so far), some of it is most of the characters being complete idiots, and some of it is ALSO the shitty purposeful lack of answers of several plot points as a way to force players into buying each route to experience a full story. Let’s discuss the route thing first. I’m not gonna sugarcoat it, Fates is an extremely greedy game in regards to its routes. While I’ll give these games points for not trying to be Pokemon by selling identical games, splitting the story into 2 games and 1 priced DLC would’ve cost you about 100 DOLLARS if we are going by USA MSRP for each game. Making the Revelation route DLC only is also scummy as hell (and thanks to the eShop being closed now you can’t even purchase it anymore!!!).
I’m not against games having multiple routes involving choice, in fact it’s done pretty cool with plenty of games. But unlike all of those games, every route was included in a single package, not sold separately. Take 2004’s iconic visual novel Fate/Stay Night, an extremely lengthy game that told a story through three whole routes, but the difference was it was ONE game. Hell, even a future game from THIS SERIES would put multiple routes into a single cartridge, although with mixed results as well.
Onto the story itself, the Conquest route falls completely flat on its face the mere second the route split occurs because of how an absolute dumbass Corrin is. “Noooo I’m going to solve things from the inside just give me tiiimee!!!”.... shut up bruh. Your dad is LITERALLY EVIL. The entire game Corrin and her siblings just refuse to admit this fact and it’s honestly embarrassing. Their excuse is always “but he’s our father we can’t disobey him!” but there has to be at least some point where they know he’s too far gone and he has to be stopped. It does happen though….. AT THE FINAL CHAPTER OF THE GAME, when Azura and Corrin’s incredibly stupid and drawn out plan finally comes to a close. Did she… NEVER consider telling her siblings about this plan?? Like, deadass?? Not once? Corrin herself is a terribly written character within the context of Fates, she is def redeemed in Heroes and such but in this game it’s unbearable. Her siding with Nohr is dumb and she constantly whines about wanting peace for everyone. Wanting peace is admirable (and… y’know humane) but the game decides that it’s her defining trait. Remember why I said this story fails because of her decision at the route split? This is why. If she wanted peace, why wouldn’t she just side with the obviously more tranquill region, instead of opting to continue with the corrupt kingdom of Nohr. The game was even seemingly marketed as “morally gray” when it’s so painstakingly obvious that Hoshido is the good guys and Nohr is the bad guys. There’s also several moments where the game feels like it’s just talking down upon it’s player, explaining why “war is bad” and stuff that most sensible people would know... it’s just so incredibly juvenile. I think I’ll stop the story discussion here because I’m sure 800 other people on this site have already elaborated on why this plot sucks for you.
While failing in story I actually really enjoyed the characters in this game when outside of the actual plot, Supports are hit or miss but I found several of them pretty cute, especially ones regarding Forrest and his parents :) the characters themselves aren’t half bad either. While many can be summed up in very basic categories (i.e. Elise is the “youngest sister” which is kinda self explanatory) I found them mostly enjoyable and the really awesome character design helps. I’d say Fates is up there in having some of the coolest character designs in the franchise, especially with the differing Hoshido and Nohr clothing aesthetics. It goes to show that these games had a lot of potential to worldbuild with it’s route format but it’s all never given time to flesh out let alone an actual name for this region the game takes place in.
But enough of this “story” and “worldbuilding” nonsense, we all came to play this game because of the actual game itself. Many fans consider Conquest to have some of the best map design in the franchise, and after playing it I honestly really agree. Conquest is a tough game, even on normal casual, but is also (mostly) a fair game too. I think the tweaks to the pairup mechanic from Awakening is very cool, because now enemies can use it which makes the game significantly tougher. Unbreakable weapons from Gaiden return, which is something I surprisingly never had too much trouble adjusting to. You’d think it’s extremely busted but the game feels very well designed around stronger weapons being rather rare purchases you can only get if you’ve saved up just enough cash. Money is extremely scarce in Conquest. I’ve never played an FE where I constantly felt broke more than this one, and it made acquiring good items feel REALLY gratifying. Some of that goes to the arena no longer offering cash, instead being used to earn more resources for forging and making food. I forgot to mention this game also has a castle you can chill out in between chapters. It’s not as expansive as the stuff in later games but I’m not the biggest fan of it as I sorta just prefer immediately going to the next chapter and having a prep menu. It doesn’t needlessly pad out the game though, and I think it gives the player a good time to wind down in between these brutal maps.
I’m not an FE expert so I’m not gonna leave an elaborate analysis on the map design, but yes, the maps are very hard. They’re also really good! There’s a good variety of objectives and setpieces alongside some really infamous chapters (wind lol!). It’s kinda like Engage where the maps are straight fire for quite a bit and then they shit the bed for a chapter or so occasionally. The final boss is also just plain bad.
I think if you really liked Fire Emblem Engage you should try this game, because they’re actually pretty similar in many ways. I still think the latter tells a much much better story than this game of course, but they are both games that have some great gameplay that is held down by pretty shoddy storytelling (however Engage is pretty damn funny at points so it gets a pass). If you’re a veteran of this series, it’s also worth checking this out, because the game is pretty damn hard! I had a good time with Conquest, and at some point I’ll try out the other two routes because honestly I just really desire to see how much worse the story could possibly get. That’ll be fun. Really, really fun….
This is another game that dates back to my Smash Brothers era, and believe me man I wanted to play Fates sooooo bad because of the characters that were spirits in the game. Obviously there was Corrin, but I was more interested in Elise because her hair was so cute and looked like cinnamon rolls lol. Most of the Fates spirits just looked extra cool to me, and this was also in my “admitting things were cute” denial arc but I was still interested because of some of the characters on display. Around the time I had a My Nintendo account, which actually would offer pretty significant discounts on 3DS games, one of which being Birthright, so it was like everything was lining up for such an opportunity to finally get into Fire Emblem. THE PROBLEM… was this was back when I didn’t have a debit card so I had to get full permission from my parents to buy shit, and they gave the thumbs down on it which left me devastated.
I still find it funny to think what I would’ve been like if I had started this series with Birthright, however, but that’s not really a focus for this review as it’s about Conquest. Not too long after this whole charade happened I learned online that fans DID NOT like this game… mostly. It was a real love it/hate it affair depending on who you asked, but in the end it gave me a false impression of these games for a good while. After properly starting to play Fire Emblem in October until taking a slight break before January, I had discovered that there was one game of the fates trilogy that people seemingly loved, that being Conquest. The map design and mechanics were the most highly praised factors, with the story (lol) being the main detracting point. This really peaked my interest, as I had heard similar things about Engage, which was a game I actually really liked. After ordering a copy of Conquest, I started playing through it IMMEDIATELY once finishing Engage.
Ok first things first, yes, the story is bad. For multiple reasons. Some of it stems from the actual writing feeling immature as hell even for a T rated game (although seems to be a carryover from Awakening judging by what I’ve played of that game so far), some of it is most of the characters being complete idiots, and some of it is ALSO the shitty purposeful lack of answers of several plot points as a way to force players into buying each route to experience a full story. Let’s discuss the route thing first. I’m not gonna sugarcoat it, Fates is an extremely greedy game in regards to its routes. While I’ll give these games points for not trying to be Pokemon by selling identical games, splitting the story into 2 games and 1 priced DLC would’ve cost you about 100 DOLLARS if we are going by USA MSRP for each game. Making the Revelation route DLC only is also scummy as hell (and thanks to the eShop being closed now you can’t even purchase it anymore!!!).
I’m not against games having multiple routes involving choice, in fact it’s done pretty cool with plenty of games. But unlike all of those games, every route was included in a single package, not sold separately. Take 2004’s iconic visual novel Fate/Stay Night, an extremely lengthy game that told a story through three whole routes, but the difference was it was ONE game. Hell, even a future game from THIS SERIES would put multiple routes into a single cartridge, although with mixed results as well.
Onto the story itself, the Conquest route falls completely flat on its face the mere second the route split occurs because of how an absolute dumbass Corrin is. “Noooo I’m going to solve things from the inside just give me tiiimee!!!”.... shut up bruh. Your dad is LITERALLY EVIL. The entire game Corrin and her siblings just refuse to admit this fact and it’s honestly embarrassing. Their excuse is always “but he’s our father we can’t disobey him!” but there has to be at least some point where they know he’s too far gone and he has to be stopped. It does happen though….. AT THE FINAL CHAPTER OF THE GAME, when Azura and Corrin’s incredibly stupid and drawn out plan finally comes to a close. Did she… NEVER consider telling her siblings about this plan?? Like, deadass?? Not once? Corrin herself is a terribly written character within the context of Fates, she is def redeemed in Heroes and such but in this game it’s unbearable. Her siding with Nohr is dumb and she constantly whines about wanting peace for everyone. Wanting peace is admirable (and… y’know humane) but the game decides that it’s her defining trait. Remember why I said this story fails because of her decision at the route split? This is why. If she wanted peace, why wouldn’t she just side with the obviously more tranquill region, instead of opting to continue with the corrupt kingdom of Nohr. The game was even seemingly marketed as “morally gray” when it’s so painstakingly obvious that Hoshido is the good guys and Nohr is the bad guys. There’s also several moments where the game feels like it’s just talking down upon it’s player, explaining why “war is bad” and stuff that most sensible people would know... it’s just so incredibly juvenile. I think I’ll stop the story discussion here because I’m sure 800 other people on this site have already elaborated on why this plot sucks for you.
While failing in story I actually really enjoyed the characters in this game when outside of the actual plot, Supports are hit or miss but I found several of them pretty cute, especially ones regarding Forrest and his parents :) the characters themselves aren’t half bad either. While many can be summed up in very basic categories (i.e. Elise is the “youngest sister” which is kinda self explanatory) I found them mostly enjoyable and the really awesome character design helps. I’d say Fates is up there in having some of the coolest character designs in the franchise, especially with the differing Hoshido and Nohr clothing aesthetics. It goes to show that these games had a lot of potential to worldbuild with it’s route format but it’s all never given time to flesh out let alone an actual name for this region the game takes place in.
But enough of this “story” and “worldbuilding” nonsense, we all came to play this game because of the actual game itself. Many fans consider Conquest to have some of the best map design in the franchise, and after playing it I honestly really agree. Conquest is a tough game, even on normal casual, but is also (mostly) a fair game too. I think the tweaks to the pairup mechanic from Awakening is very cool, because now enemies can use it which makes the game significantly tougher. Unbreakable weapons from Gaiden return, which is something I surprisingly never had too much trouble adjusting to. You’d think it’s extremely busted but the game feels very well designed around stronger weapons being rather rare purchases you can only get if you’ve saved up just enough cash. Money is extremely scarce in Conquest. I’ve never played an FE where I constantly felt broke more than this one, and it made acquiring good items feel REALLY gratifying. Some of that goes to the arena no longer offering cash, instead being used to earn more resources for forging and making food. I forgot to mention this game also has a castle you can chill out in between chapters. It’s not as expansive as the stuff in later games but I’m not the biggest fan of it as I sorta just prefer immediately going to the next chapter and having a prep menu. It doesn’t needlessly pad out the game though, and I think it gives the player a good time to wind down in between these brutal maps.
I’m not an FE expert so I’m not gonna leave an elaborate analysis on the map design, but yes, the maps are very hard. They’re also really good! There’s a good variety of objectives and setpieces alongside some really infamous chapters (wind lol!). It’s kinda like Engage where the maps are straight fire for quite a bit and then they shit the bed for a chapter or so occasionally. The final boss is also just plain bad.
I think if you really liked Fire Emblem Engage you should try this game, because they’re actually pretty similar in many ways. I still think the latter tells a much much better story than this game of course, but they are both games that have some great gameplay that is held down by pretty shoddy storytelling (however Engage is pretty damn funny at points so it gets a pass). If you’re a veteran of this series, it’s also worth checking this out, because the game is pretty damn hard! I had a good time with Conquest, and at some point I’ll try out the other two routes because honestly I just really desire to see how much worse the story could possibly get. That’ll be fun. Really, really fun….
Among Us
2018
amogus