Really enjoyed this game when I first played it.

This game is really seen in a negative light and some mark it as the game that started Pokemon's downward spiral. Admittedly there are some problems with the game.

- The elite four seem weak and have basically no character.
- Rivals were lackluster
- The main story is sloppily written despite having some good ideas
- The game is too easy

There are probably more complaints but these are the main ones I see.

However, I found this game has many good aspects that tend to get swept under the rug.

- Fantastic OST. Walking into Snowbelle City was magical.
- Pretty cool region. Lumiose city is my favorite large city in any pokemon game and the amount of stuff you can do there speaks to the liveliness of it.
- Really nice post-game story with Emma and Looker.
- Mega Evolution
- Well-designed new pokemon (mostly).

I still think the good outweighs the bad, and if this game got a
third version it might have been my favorite.

Considering Gaiden isn't all that good, Shadows of Valentia does a decent job

The artstyle, voice acting, and soundtrack are all amazing. This really elevates an otherwise basic story, and made me invested.

Maps are quite bad. Alm's are just open fields, and Celica's were designed by a masochist. This is largely due to Gaiden rather than Echoes, but it's still a negative.

The character writing and story is okay? Alm is weird. A common farm boy who fights back against Rigel to liberate Zofia. Seems endearing enough, but he doesn't face any issues. He's immediately handed the deliverance despite his age and inexperience, he steamrolls the Rigelian army, marches up to Rigel Castle, destroys them, and then kills god.
Seems unrealistic for a farmboy, until you realize he's the chosen one with a special brand, special sword, and ability to make the right choice at every given turn, while Celica struggles. Him secretly being the heir to the throne of Rigel just magnifies his writing issues more.

Celica is the opposite, she spends the whole game running around and failing at everything. She sacrifices herself for nothing because she trusted a purple gremlin, and needs Alm to save her. Her character is also hard to describe, she's cold and distant, but also empathetic and kind? She's just kind of boring to me on top her bad writing.

Anyways, I've done enough to piss of the SoV fans now. Despite the characters getting nerfed, all other aspects are done really well, so the game was enjoyable overall.

Not a massive fan. The game is dissected into 3 arcs. The first being Chrom's, which is honestly the best arc. However, saying that the best arc in Awakening was a 1-chapter revenge arc isn't saying much.

Valm arc was boring, aimless, and poorly written. Lucina shows up for a reunion, and does basically nothing else for the rest of the game. Chrom doesn't do anything either, except go against his vow to Emmeryn, which made him seem like a hypocrite.

Final arc is the ultimate avatar suck-off and further sidelines Chrom in favor of the avatar.

Only a few characters were really enjoyable (Lon'qu, Maribelle, Virion, Libra), whilst some where painfully shallow and grating (Miriel, Kellam). The villains are mostly awful all around except for Gangrel.

Never cared for the dating sim element. Being able to date everyone in your army regardless of chemistry or any real character interactions in the story makes it feel shallow.

Gameplay is braindead on easy and normal, and unfair on lunatic. The map design is quite uninspired with most maps just being open fields, which is weird considering it's a strategy game when unit positioning is usually important.

Story, characters, and gameplay are all average. The only thing I really liked was the soundtrack.

I know it saved the franchise and everything, but that was largely because of the dating sim aspects, which I don't care for. So, I don't think Awakening is that good.

This game is okay. FE fans seem to hate it in general for its uninspired story with sloppy writing, and comparatively boring gameplay compared to Conquest.

I agree with this to some extent, but I still think the OST is amazing, and the My Castle base system was the best base system since Path of Radiance. While the game is easy, I appreciated that considering it was my first FE game. The difficulty felt just right.

Characters are fine. Some are awfully boring, but there are multiple characters I enjoyed.

Yeah the story isn't amazing, but that can be said for many Fire Emblem games that also do not have the quality of life features that Fates has.