Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest - Video Review

Is Fire Emblem Fates a worthy turn-based strategy? Or is it destined to be forgotten? Find out in our in-depth review!

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It’s incredible just how much Fire Emblem
has exploded in popularity over the years.
While the west never received the first six
games in the series, the inclusion of Marth
and Roy in Super Smash Bros. garnered enough
interest that the seventh game was localized.
From that point, it became a cult favorite,
but it wasn’t until Fire Emblem: Awakening
that the series gained immense popularity.
Now, with the release of Fire Emblem Fates,
the question is whether Intelligent Systems
can maintain that adulation while satisfying
both the fans of the classic games and the
new fans that joined with Awakening.
And really, they do. It was seen as an odd
decision to have Fire Emblem Fates split into
multiple versions. But it works. These aren’t
smaller stories. Each version is as complete
as previous Fire Emblem games. The difference
is how the story plays out and the pacing
of the main plot. In the Conquest storyline,
it takes more inspiration from classic Fire
Emblems in that you are forced to go from
battle to battle with little opportunity to
earn extra experience or gold. Birthright
is more like The Sacred Stones or Awakening
in that you can choose to engage in extra
battles in order to grind experience for your
troops. It becomes a question of what type
of experience you want though both games share
the same basic gameplay. This is still Fire
Emblem after all.
The story focuses on the player character,
referred to normally as Corrin, who has grown
up mostly secluded in the grim country of
Nohr. After he is able to prove his battle
prowess, he is sent on a mission to the enemy
country of Hoshido. There he learns that he
was actually born in this country but stolen
away by the Nohrians. The first five chapters
are the same no matter which version you play,
and it provides a limited but still effective
look at why each choice could be made. The
siblings on both sides care about you. But
a tragic event forces you to make a decision.
For the purpose of this review, I chose to
go through Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest and
see how it invoked the classic entries in
the series. The story is rather intriguing
in that Corrin is attempting to change Nohr’s
brutal reputation from within. There are many
moments that push the idea of just how hard
a prospect this is. It all becomes a great
tale that is stronger for its morality, lore,
and characterization. I also feel that Corrin
is one of the most interesting Lords that
have ever been featured in the series. The
choice between sides does affect him and though
he doesn’t want to fight, he’s willing
to drag himself through the muck in order
to achieve peace.
While Fire Emblem Fates mostly stays true
to the established turn-based strategy gameplay,
there have been some changes to the formula.
The biggest is the removal of limited uses
for each weapon. Instead, none of the weapons
will break outside of staves. A bigger emphasis
has been placed on the stats of the various
weapons. Bronze weapons have greater accuracy
but are less powerful while Steel weapons
can be incredibly inaccurate but they’re
much more powerful and have a higher chance
of striking with a critical hit. And there
are even brand new types of weapons that play
around with the stats even more.
It leads to a lot of flexibility when it comes
to combat as you can decide whether to focus
on dealing a ton of damage or whittling down
enemies with guaranteed hits. The removal
of the limited uses was something I actually
forgot about after a while. It became natural,
though in my case it led to me having a lot
of extra money since I didn’t have to worry
about replacing old weapons. I could buy new,
stronger weapons in limited quantities though
I ended up saving those until the end when
I had a firm idea of what my final team would
be. The change turned out to not be as massive
as I first expected and instead was just another
way to streamline the game.
What is a big change are the new classes and
enemy types that have been added, some of
which are exclusive to either Conquest or
Birthright. The Malig Knight is wyvern rider
that can wield both Tomes and Axes while the
Maid can uses Shurikans and Staves. It leads
to more flexibility with the new classes being
both interesting and unique. Mastering a class
often allows players to choose what kind of
new class that character will be and players
are certain to find some favorites.
The Nohr side is more traditionally Fire Emblem
with western-based weapons while Hoshido takes
more of a Japanese influence with the introduction
of new weapons like katanas, naginatas, and
the aforementioned shurikans. Fundamentally,
they work the same so it mainly comes down
to aesthetics. But the biggest change that
comes from the new weapons is the Weapon Triangle.
Swords and Magic are both effective against
Axes and Bows which in turn are both effective
against Spears and Hidden Weapons like the
shurikans. This change really made me think
about what the best course of action was in
each battle since bows are now included in
the Triangle and Magic is not its own separate
entity.
In addition, enemy units can now support each
other and pair up. It brings a much greater
challenge as their strength, defense, and
evasiveness are all increased, just like you.
It’s almost required that you do the same
when facing off against a pair, just to stand
a chance. In all, I like these changes. It
gives Fire Emblem Fates its own unique feel
while still remaining a Fire Emblem game.
And in Conquest, they managed to keep the
classic feel of going from battle to battle
while retaining the changes introduced in
Awakening. In fact, the battles in Conquest
have a lot more variety than Hoshido as it
has some with limited turns or needing to
defend a specific point. And there’s no
question that Conquest can be a very difficult
game, even on Normal. Keeping everyone alive
was a huge challenge since almost every fight
involved taking on a large amount of enemy
troops. Of course, there are ways to make
this more manageable since Casual Mode returns,
which resurrects fallen troops between chapters,
and the inclusion of the new Phoenix Mode
which resurrects the troops after a turn has
passed. So if you want to experience the game
and learn its ins and outs before truly taking
it on, you can.
Finally, there’s the My Castle feature.
After each fight, you earn Dragon Vein Points
which can be spent to expand your castle.
Weapon and Stave shops can be built to equip
your team with better items, a lottery shop
can win you items, you can upgrade your weapons,
or you can even get to know your team better
in the hot spring or your personal quarters.
It’s a great way to decompress after a fight,
equip your team, and watch the various support
conversations that you’ve unlocked. Like
Awakening, you can marry various characters
in order to have a child who in turn can join
the fights.
In addition, your castle can be invaded and
defending it gives a large amount of DVP.
These fights can be a little tricky since
your units are so spread out. However, each
building can help your party in some way or
even damage the enemy units. My Castle is
a pretty robust feature and something I grew
to really enjoy as something uniquely my own.
Everything in it can be useful to the player,
but I never felt the need to do it all. I
discovered what I liked and stuck to that.
Beyond that, the gameplay of Fire Emblem Fates
is fantastic. Everything you enjoyed about
previous games is there and between Birthright,
Conquest, and the eventual Revelation DLC,
these are three full-sized experiences for
players to enjoy. There is a massive amount
of content here and Conquest alone provided
at least 30 hours of gameplay.
The game also looks gorgeous on the 3DS. Each
battlefield is impressively detailed while
the character sprites are kept simple. But
the best effect is how the camera swoops in
for a closer look when a skirmish takes place.
All the details that surrounded the fighters
are represented during the fight. Even a wall
that could be damaged showed the damage when
the fighting took place. Units can also be
battled-damaged and have that damage stay
until they are healed. It’s this attention
to detail that helps make each fight pop.
The locations, artwork, and cutscenes are
also beautifully done and just help give the
game that much more personality. Character
portraits will even change expressions based
on how confident they feel about the upcoming
fight. And the music is fantastic with sweeping
songs, beats that get you pumped for battle,
and even well-sung vocal tracks. The voice
acting is a little hit and miss with some
characters standing out as strange or just
odd vocal choices. However, I do feel that
most of the acting is quite good, especially
when they’re allowed to do longer pieces
of dialogue. Unfortunately, the game does
not include a dual audio option for those
more inclined to the original Japanese.
Fire Emblem Fates is a fantastic follow-up
to Awakening. It’s story is memorable, and
it has some great characters. Though I mainly
played the Conquest version of the game, I
feel confident in recommending either it or
Birthright to those interested. I’m looking
forward to fully playing through each version
because I do feel that they’re worth it.
I love Fire Emblem Fates that much. The gameplay
is just as good as it ever was with changes
that are meant both to expand and streamline.
Though some may lament that it’s not exactly
like the older games, I feel that Conquest
strikes a good middle-ground for those fans.
And newcomers can still enjoy it for its different
structure compared to both Birthright and
Awakening. If you’re looking for a challenge,
you’ll find it here. And really, it’s
just a good time to be a Fire Emblem fan.
Thanks for watching and stay tuned to GameXplain
for more on Fire Emblem and other things gaming.