Replayed this on hard/classic and this is NOT it bro
The one that everyone feels obligated to mention “saved the franchise” which sure, I appreciate, but I’m ngl Awakening only saved this series financially, from a gameplay perspective that credit goes to Conquest easily, replaying this game on hard mode with permadeath just made it apparent how weirdly and/or badly the maps and enemies are designed. Hard mode in this game just straight out sucks, stat bloated enemies and same turn reinforcements in a game where it feels like terrain bonuses don’t even matter is the absolute worst, not helped by the GBA emblem level amount of enemy spam. Map design doesn’t help either, as a lot of them aren’t even maps and are just “big open field with enemies” or “indoor map with enemies,” and objectives that mostly comprise of “KILL EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM”.
Around chapter 5 I had the realization that all of these units pale in comparison to the sheer snowball of a unit that is Robin. Yes, you can solo Awakening with any character if you want, just like FE4 or FE8, etc, but at least in those games, it felt like your non Sigurds or your non Seths could still contribute and still had a nice unit feel. And while that still sorrrta works on normal mode, it really doesn’t on hard mode because of the aforementioned stat bloated enemies. So, clearly the solution to this is to snowball all your squishy, non Robin or Frederick units up by grinding in the skirmishes, right? WRONG. Because, in hard mode, skirmishes comprise of ridiculously strong enemies, we’re talking like maps FULL of prepremoted enemies as early as chapter 5 which SUCKS. I really wanted to train up a whole team for this game but I absolutely did not have the patience to grind through all this, so I had my ultimate solution.. The Robin Juggernaut. 2 units deployed every map, class change Robin to sorcerer and around mid-game stock up on nosferatu and simply watch. I did not deploy a single other character for the rest of the entire game after chapter 10-ish, because I didn’t feel like grinding in my fire emblem game. Also worth mentioning how Robin becomes even more busted by using the game’s pairup mechanics which by itself is an insanely unfair advantage to have over the enemies (Fates would fix this by having enemies also be allowed to pairup), have Robin and Chrom pairup and you will basically never have to worry about the latter’s safety.
My play time this run totalled at 4 hours. How? Because I simply became so bored by the end, I turned off all battle animations and just started skipping enemy phase because what was there to see? And before you tell me that I wouldn’t have been bored if I did full deployment and used all my characters, I’ve done that before in my first run of the game, and my thoughts were IDENTICAL around the same point. It’s not a strategy game. It’s a JRPG on a grid, which I just don’t like outside of Sacred Stones and Echoes to an extent. The game tries to trick you into thinking it’s a TRPG with side objectives on maps by throwing in treasure chests on some maps but don’t fall for that, they’re just meant for you to waste your turns and be murdered by same turn reinforcements. It’s all just pointless.
Skipped the story too. I usually don’t reread story in a replay of an FE game unless it’s FE4 but even if I usually did I would’ve skimmed over this one most likely. I don’t hate the story of Awakening but it’s just not my thing, and lacks any sense of cohesion or interest outside of one thing: Lucina. I love Lucina fire emblem. Other than that? Plot that is trying WAY too much and saying WAY too little. It’s got the FE7 problem where shit just kinda happens and you roll with it but without the genuine feeling of going on an adventure like that game. I think the inclusion of the world map ultimately hurts giving the story a proper sense of scale, it’s fine in Echoes but in this game I feel that it takes away the feeling of being on a long journey with these characters, earlier entries usually had no map and it cemented a feeling that you can’t go back, only forward. Idk how else to describe it, but yeah Awakening doesn’t really have that.
My score for this review is more reflective of playing on hard mode or above, I’d drop a 6 at the highest in the context of normal mode but like- Awakening purely lacks anything I like about fire emblem other than the characters (which this game does have quite a few I really like!) I understand why IS went this direction for the sake of general appeal and hey, if you like this game, I’m happy for you! I’m sure if this was my first FE especially if I was like 13-15ish I would’ve loved it, but it wasn’t, and I don’t. It’s just kinda okay at best for me, and I can’t see myself replaying this unless it’s out of spite or seeing more of the gen 2 kids. Not for me.

I’ve been playing this game nonstop for two weeks, constantly thinking about how I want to get my thoughts out on this one. Radiant Dawn gets a fair amount of distaste these days because of what it does wrong, and it’s totally fair, but I can’t get myself to dislike this game even with the myriad of problems.
For every stupid thing RD does, it does three other things that are pure genius. The sheer scale of everything makes this the largest and most ambitious FE game to date, even outdoing Genealogy of the Holy War. There’s a huge amount of map variety, with objectives and units constantly changing to help tell the story. It’s far from being a boring FE game because the game never stops mixing things up every chapter or so. While it can be very hectic both in gameplay and story, I can’t help but admire what was done here. Every single map, even the ones I disliked, made me go “wow, that was a neat concept for a map and it feels unique compared to everything else so far!” The gameplay-story integration is also up there with the Jugdral titles, especially the finale of part 3 which is one of my favorite maps in the whole series. When in tandem with the fantastic Tellius mechanics such as shove/rescue and BEXP it also creates an immensely fun gameplay experience.
The story is mixed overall and i think PoR had a more solidly constructed narrative, but RD has a lot of interesting concepts and plot threads that are thrown around, and when combined with the ludonarrative aspects of the gameplay, makes it super engaging. There’s definitely a lot of “huh” moments closer to the end, though, and the final part is a really odd curveball after the very dense political drama the rest of the game was, but the themes it uses are probably the best use of said themes in the entire series.
I dunno man, I adore Radiant Dawn. There’s like 800 problems you could pick at with this game and I still wouldn’t give a shit. It’s the quintessential Fire Emblem game in my eyes, it has something for really any fan of the series. Maybe not the whole package will jive with someone, but I think you’ll get at least one section of the game that appeals to your tastes. Radiant Dawn is messy, ambitious, and maybe tries to bite off more than it can chew. But at the same time, I almost wouldn’t have it any other way.

I struggle to call Binding Blade a bad game, but I can’t really call it an amazing one either. I have both a lot to say about this game alongside absolutely nothing unique to remark on it. Maybe. I’ll do it anyway though.
Compared to the other FE reviews I don’t have much of a personal history with this one aside from knowing Roy as “the guy from smash” and trying the game on an emulator once. I dropped it after Bors died in less than one minute of gameplay because I was like “oh wow oh gee oh golly oh gosh this game really is as hard as they say!”
That’s not a hyperbole btw.
Anyway I gave the game a second chance after finishing FE7, this time with the Project Ember patch (which was a mistake) (don’t do that). Dropped it at Chapter 12 because I kept dying to the overpowered enemy units before eventually learning that PE copy pastes minibosses across the maps compared to the original. Oops! Started playing Genealogy of the Holy War instead and Binding Blade remained in the back of my head. I couldn’t stop thinking about that desire to finish it. Yeah ik the game kinda sucks but at the same time I want that satisfaction of saying I finished it alongside the fact I kept gatekeeping my FE pfps to exclusively games I finished/currently playing to completion (weird mind rabbit hole ignore it). So after I finished Genealogy I hopped on Engage while letting Binding Blade, this time the vanilla version starting up in the back burner. Yes I am clinically obsessed with Fire Emblem. How could you tell?
I finished this game before Engage too lmao. Ok let’s talk about the game now. Binding Blade is rough. This game barely functions correctly but that sort of gives it appeal. Maps are ok/mediocre/annoying, player units are ass, hit rates are less accurate than the Percy Jackson movie adaptations, the story is just ok blah blah blah. But also like, this game loops back into being entertaining because of it’s faults. Why out of all of these games, it’s FE6 that takes swordmasters, a class of dubious quality in basically any other FIre Emblem game, and transforms them into crit spamming dodge tanking Gods among men. Rutger is already a pretty good boss killer at base but the second you get him promoted his crit rate is increased by a guaranteed 30% which makes him nigh unstoppable for most of the game.
I’ll just use this to branch discussing player units into it’s own little paragraph here. FE6 player units are laughable. Like, hilarious. It’s not that this game doesn’t have good units but the bad units are just… really, REALLY bad. Both of the fighters you get early on are bad, the two unpromoted archers are bad, Gwendolyn (sadly) and her armor knight besties are bad, and don’t let me get started on Sophia. At the same time though…. that actually kinda adds to the density of this game, albeit unintentionally on the developers’ part. Because it’s entirely possible to make these trashy units viable if you try hard enough. Sophia, despite being one of the worst units in the entire franchise, CAN become actually adequate if you train her up and get stat blessed enough, which is insane. Same deal with Gwendolyn (see: Mekkah FE6 HM Ironman). Like, bad units in Fire Emblem games are fun because I like seeing how players can push them to their limits. This game is probably one of the best examples. I don’t have much to remark on the good units in comparison, but I do recommend Milady, Perceval, Rutger, Lilina (normal mode) etc.
Like for example Lilina is considered an ok-ish unit to many, but in my normal mode playthrough she became so incredibly stat blessed and dodge tanky that she was decimating most of the enemy spawns late game, to the point where I used her so much she hit the level cap after promotion. I’m sure other fans have had similar experiences, which adds to the discussion in a good way imo.
One major point of contention I have with this game is the ending system. To my knowledge this is one of the very few if not the only Fire Emblem games to have a secret hidden ending route with several chapters, and unlocking them here…. is not fun. At all. PLEASE use a guide when doing this. I’ve never seen an ending system that feels so counterintuitive to what the design philosophy of the series is. Requiring the player to keep so many specific units alive in a game where you can lose these units forever is bad design especially if they are required to see the ACTUAL ENDING OF THE GAME. On top of that, the gaiden chapters you unlock after fulfilling the requirements for each one aren’t good either. They’re long and boring. Despite having their own unique gimmicks they are probably the most uninteresting chapters in the game. To make matters worse, simply completing all these gaidens STILL isn’t enough, because if you break a single one of these (very limited usage) legendary weapons obtained from these chapters, that’s it. No true ending for you. Try again. Awful.
If you know about these requirements and use a guide beforehand, it’s manageable, but still really annoying. And that’s sorta just what this game is in general. Annoying. Enemy spam? check. Large maps? check. Same turn reinforcements? right here. Actually I’ve already said enough about the maps for now let’s talk about ambush spawns (same turn reinforcements). This is an awful mechanic. Adds nothing to the game. You could remove them and nothing of value would be lost. There’s no fun strategy or fun engagement to the concept of ambush spawns, simply having random enemies appear out of nowhere and immediately move the same turn is something completely out of the player’s control unless you know about them beforehand. It’s possible to mitigate many ambush spawns if you have prior knowledge (use a guide for chapter 21 I am begging you), but for the average player they don’t see any of this shit coming, It just happens. Thracia 776 also has many ambush spawns but that’s in a game where your player units are actually pretty durable and enemies are really weak so it somewhat balances out.
Difficulty. Chances are if you are involved in FE6 discussion online you’ve probably heard how this is one of the hardest games in the series. Uh… not really? Ok well the game certainly isn’t easy but it’s not necessarily impossible either. I think the game is moreso difficult at certain points, like chapters 7, 14, 21, 22 etc. A majority of the chapters post 7 are honestly pretty tame, annoying at worst. Chapter 24 can be kinda tough, but it’s also the best chapter in the game probably and it actually uses ambush spawns in a clever way for ONCE. I’ve also seen people call this game a “budget Thracia” or whatever, and I really have to ask: what? Thracia 776 is a hard game, sure, but that game is difficult for different reasons. Pardon if I’m incorrect on this because I haven’t played that game past chapter 2 currently, but Thracia is a hard game that gives you multiple tools to deal with it’s nonsense, which gives the game a sandboxy, creative appeal. You can’t really do that in Binding Blade. The game is hard because the enemy units are very strong while the player units aren’t. Even the most durable units can only withstand so much, they aren’t invincible. You really just have to hope for the best. Once again, there’s appeal to how imbalanced FE6 is, but the difficulty comparison to Thracia 776 is nonsensical.
That’s mainly what I wanted to talk about with this game. I know it was mostly negative but I still think the game is alright, but easily my least favorite in the series so far. It’s worth playing at least once to see the beautiful mess that was IS having their first go at a Fire Emblem game without Kaga, but the other GBA games are much better. I still like the game for it’s positives (graphics, music, character designs, the actually good maps), but I’m probably done with this game unless I play the “Plus” hack which actually looks pretty enjoyable. Also don’t be like Mister Magical Mage and play this game 776 times despite saying you hate it. I know what you are.

Atmosphere is just as amazing as Thief 1, sound design is still top tier, and the uncompromising commitment to the best stealth mechanics of all time is still going strong. There's less variety in the missions, but they're of consistently higher quality without feeling samey (and I say this as someone who didn't get filtered into thinking the gimmick levels from Thief 1 are bad). The story and worldbuilding are also better. I have basically nothing bad to say about it.

Tfix2 Lite and EAX sound fix are mandatory, don't bother playing without them.