i'm gonna abstain from rating this for now because i kinda just don't think i've played it enough but its kinda been on my mind a lot so i wanted to write Something about it. so,

i, like probably many others, was drawn to this game for the audiovisual aspects. it has a fantastic soundtrack, looks great and has beautiful menus, has one of the best opening cinematics on the playstation, just a great Vibe top to bottom. naturally i wanted to at least dabble around with the game in an emulator i mean my playstation

i have basically never played a racing game in my life. i mean i've played kart racers and i played some sonic riders as a kid and i would fuck around in my older brother's copy of burnout paradise sometimes but i never really played a Real racing game. they always seemed kind of dry to me if they didn't have a gimmick. if they're all like this then hot damn i've been missing out. this game is a blast, simple to understand while still requiring skill and practice to master; i myself though am very far from mastery. turning is so fucking hard, kart racers didn't prepare me for this. turning is so hard. every track has like at least 1 turn that i just eat shit on every single time, over and over in time trials. BUT eating shit doesn't feel discouraging to me, like i expected, instead it makes me wanna keep practicing and improving, it feels approachable and when you DO finally smoothly pass through a turn that was giving you trouble you feel like the greatest racer alive. admittedly i still don't fully understand the turning and drift mechanics yet, that lack of understanding being kind of i don't want to rate it yet, i know it will come if i keep at it.

like i said i don't have a real frame of reference here for racing games, its possible they're all like this and there is nothing special about this game, i don't know! but what i DO know is that sometimes when a grand prix race is coming down to the wire and i'm neck and neck with another guy while move me or your vibe is playing its intense as hell, and i get all clenched up and i'm sometimes literally sticking my tongue out in concentration like a fucking cartoon character and a game that has THAT effect on me has to have something special about it. maybe its nothing about the gameplay and its just that move me is a turbo banger (which it is)

Its Fire Emblem so its very fun inherently for me. This game's breed of FE gameplay is not really what I like, with the big focus on skills and damage calculations, and the need to plan a lot in advance; I prefer the more freewheeling nature of say, Awakening, or the mad chaos of Thracia. I still enjoyed it a lot for what it is, I'm just glad the whole series isn't like this, yknow. The presentation of all Fates games is great, the music especially is superb. The story sucks but most Fire Emblem stories do so whatever, I don't care. A very fun and well put together game.