As someone who only played games casually back in the early PS3 days, I never truly understood how badly this game was received back in the day. When I (somewhat) recently heard that the game got an update that added analog controls, I immediately bought an used copy and give it a try. I thought that most of the game's problems would be solved by that patch, and I would have a fun time being a badass dragon rider. Turns out, there's much more dust and dirt beneath the frame.

Before we continue, I want to say that I didn't finish the game. I have reached a bit past the halfway point, and couldn't muster the energy to keep playing it.

First off, I thought that the story and lore of the world was pretty engaging. Long lasting grudges, religious undertones, betrayals; this game has it all. It's a decent fantasy world, and it was one of the things that kept me going.

The problem is, of course, regarding the gameplay. The game's performance is simply abysmal, with screen tears and framerate drops being a normal part of the experience. Controlling the dragon can feel quite satisfying at times, but also downright infuriating as it refuses to exactly behave as you wanted. There's also these mini QTE sections where you can face off directly against an enemy dragon, and the camera will lock in to show both of you flying side by side, trying to hit one another directly. These sections are still controlled by the motion sensor, so it will inevitably cause problems.

There's also a difficulty problem, where some levels are much harder than the other ones. It's not even the good kind of difficulty (challenging enemies or bosses, etc), it's mostly because the objectives are obtuse and the game doesn't tell you exactly what needs to be done. This is worsened by the horrible controls.

Still, there are a few good parts in this game. The soundtrack is very underrated, and I would recommend you to listen to it on your own. There's also a couple missions that are just so close to becoming great, but held back by the game's problems. There's this one level early on, where you attack a huge mountain fortress. This level nails the atmosphere of a huge battle in the middle of a thunderous storm, and it is one of few times in this game where I was just having fun without being frustrated at something.

At its best, this game simply makes me sad, because the game itself hinted at how good it would have been if the game didn't have so many fatal flaws. At its worst, it is a strong fuel for anger, the kind that is simply unhealthy for the human body.

Oh my fucking god dude. I try to not leave negative reviews on games before actually finishing them or at least settling on shelving them, but christ on a bike rev really is as bad as people say. I'll start by being honest and saying I hadn't played the fates games in years and just jumped on the hate train at some point or another because it was the "cool" fire emblem thing to do. In truth I...actually liked them a lot when they released? And just started hating them somewhere along the way. I guess.

Having replayed the two games I've found there's a lot I think I took for granted, like how much better my castle is than the monestary and somniel, the actually high production value, and how the 3ds fe games actually feel good to play. With "good to play" I'm really just referring to the general user experience like how snappy the menus and map controls are. Like, I'm sorry but 3H and Engage feel so choppy and slow in comparison it's insane.

This isn't a review on engage and three houses though, I've already made excrutiatingly long reviews on why I don't like those games, this is a review about how and why rev sucks, and how much worse it is compared to its two sibling games.

You probably know the fates map design quality situation already but incase you don't, the tldr is conquest good, birthright more like birthrout lmao, rev bad. And having played all three games back to back I can pretty safely say yeah that's exactly the case. In truth I think it's more like first half of conquest good, second half not as good, birthright more like birthrout (but ultimately inoffensive) and rev bad. Revs maps aren't just bad though, oh no, they're tedious too. They're gimmicky, and borrow a lot of the worst aspects from the other two respective routes while making them even worse to boot. I'm too tired to go in depth on why they suck, I just hope you like shovelling snow.

Unlike birthright and conquest the majority of the playable cast just...sucks? Like yeah dude please give me characters with their fucking chapter 9 conquest bases when they were already some of the worst characters in their own game except only playable 8 chapters later and unable to enter combat without getting one rounded on lunatic. Please spawn FOUR of them next a million promoted enemy cavs with inflated stats on a map that immediately follows what is already one of the worst maps in the game that you also can't save between. Thank you rev. Thank you maeda.

Also the story somehow still feels like an afterthought despite how blatantly obvious it was that they wanted you to get rev for the "true" route where azura doesn't die at the end and any mysteries are all tied up. The concept of rev alone already sucks considering the whole point of fates is that your choice is morally grey and there isn't a right one, but I guess there is a right choice if you're willing to shell out an extra 20 dollars for it. In spite of how poor fates' writing already is, rev still manages to feel like a fanfic where everyone loves corrin in the end no matter what. What little nuance the other two routes even had is totally eviscerated, the contrivances and plotholes basically double, and god i'm so tired this game fucking sucks don't play it idk