Well I have finally completed #FE. I took my time with it, and after thinking about it a bit, its time for my full impressions. Some of them Ive said before, and its a bit long, but I thought it would be nice just to bring them all together into one post.
Having now finished the game I can clearly say that not only did it beat my expectations for it, it far away surpassed them all. I was heavily anticipating this game when it was first announced. And I was even more pleasantly surprised by its direction when it was revealed as #FE. I expected a great game, and I got one even better than that!
First The game just looks gorgeous. Every location is well designed, with an array of colors that really stand out well. The dungeons particularly are a joy to go through. Some of the dungeons are quite beautiful. I really like the TV station one, with its Mt Fuji backdrop and beautiful classical Japanese building on a lake, yet all meant to be just part of a stage. Such a great design. The character designs are also fantastic! And the best is when you go into battles. The battles look very awesome! Great animation, full of nice attacks and special dance moves and such. Its a pleasure to watch. The production of the look of the game really is a high standard. The only complaint I have, I wish we could explore more of the environments of Tokyo in the game. But thats a common complaint I have for RPGS like this.
The battle system is as good as any system Atlus has ever made. Its fast and fun. The usual finding the weak point spells to your advantage that you see in other atlas games are here and its a blast. And the session aspect of that system is very nice. Being able to chain multiple attacks not only is a good way to win, but a pleasure to watch too. Especially as you unlock duets with your party members. While I played on a low difficulty my first time through, it gave me some challenge at times. But wasnt too hard ever, so Im looking forward to trying higher difficulty levels on multiple play-throughs.
The music is the standout of the game. Every song is a gem, and its one of my all time favourite video game soundtracks. Easily ranks up there with the Sakura Taisen games. All the work that went into this, and the Avex Trax collaboration on the project was more than worth it. Some of these songs have become some of my favourite video game songs of recent years. Reincarnation, Fly, the Fire Emblem CM melody, and many others were a joy. Also the background music in the game was very good as well. It will be a pleasure to listen to them again and again on the upcoming vocal cd, and Im very much looking forward to the live concert in May. I do hope we get a full soundtrack cd of all the background music as well.
The story was fine. Simple, light hearted and upbeat for most of it. It wont win any awards for the greatest story ever told, but it does its job well. I never felt board by it, and I always wanted to go back to it. Many others might be disappointed its not as dark or deep as some others, but its not a bad one at all. its enjoyable for sure. And the main reason its enjoyable are the wonderful characters in the game. Each one really stood out, and I cared about them. I loved doing all the side stories with them, learning a bit more about them and such. I really liked Tsubasa and Touma. And of course I am a fan of Maiko as well. And Itsuki is a nice main character, although wouldve liked to have seen a side story focused on him. And lets not forget all the Fire Emblem characters too. Definitely great characters. I really wanted to spend more time with them and their world.
I really got a kick out of the wii u gamepad integration into the game. Of course the usual maps and battle info was always helpful, but the phone conversations you have with all of the members of your party in the game there was quite interesting, and added a bit more to each characters background. However sometimes I would be a little distracted by all the messages coming at once from multiple people, especially the ones telling me what upgrades where available. Sometimes it took too long to get through them. But still its a cool feature. Although I really wish there were ways to easily access more information on the request missions on the wii u controller. Of course you can see where missions are on the maps but sometimes I really wanted access to more info for them like it has for side stores and the main story.
And as for the the big names themselves, Atlus and fire emblem, I think they did a good job integrating what they did from each universes into the game. The little touches from each series, the nods to them and such, really kept pilling up. And I really liked how they combined the Atlus rpg play style in battles with a level up system thats heavily influenced by fire emblems style. It was quite nice. Overall everything fit well. And to go into the whole entertainment world aspect of the game, its really handled well. Its the whole dream like world of entertainment people have and want of it. A fun world were people can live there dreams and everyone loves it. It never went overboard, especially on the pandering aspects people were complaining about from the preview vids. I never felt at all any real issues from it. It was normal and enjoyable.
To sum up everything, when it came down to it, this game was an incredibly fun experience. Its an RPG that not only was as good and worthy of all the names associated with it, but one that goes down for as a very special title. Every moment I played the game I had a smile on my face. Every mission, every dungeon, every event, every song, every little thing made me happy. No doubt of all the games I played this year, it stood out as a special game. It wasnt just the best wii u rpg for me, it easily surpassed Xenoblade X for example, and not only was it the best Wii u game for me, it was, bar none,the best game I played in 2015. Even with all the great games we got in 2015, for me #FE was the most special. No other game came close to matching it for me.
Lastly, I really hope the game is given a fare shot in the west. Weve seen already here and elsewhere on the net and in gamings many places, all the anger and upsetness about this game. As well as a ton of misconceptions about it. People have complained too much I feel about what the game isnt instead of what it is. And they have also used the tired pandering arguments about idols and otakus and such, and how this game is nothing those annoying aspects of Japanese culture. Of course not everyone will like those things and some are bothered by them. Heck I love JPOP, anime, and all areas of Japanese pop culture, but even I have things I dont like about them. But honestly having played the game as much as I did, I didnt feel there was much pandering at all. Instead what I found was a game that tried something different. Tried to bring a nice simple story with great gameplay weve come to expect from Atlus rpgs, with that nice touch of the fire emblem universe. They created a fun world thats a joy to take part in. Honestly thinking about it, Im so glad we got this game instead of the dream game many of us expected from the original simple announcement back in 2013. I honestly think this is better than what that wouldve been. I applaud the everyone at Atlus and Nintendo involved in the game for taking a chance and making it. I wish so much that it would be a bigger success. I really want a sequel in this world, but since that doesnt seem possible considering everything in regards to the game, I can at least say Im very happy with the final product we have now. One Ill be playing many times more for years to come.
Hopefully, more will try it. And I also hope that the localisation goes well, but definitely those working on it will have a hard time with the songs I bet. But still, my game of the year, and a fantastic title that I will most definitely return to to play at harder settings.
Oh and one more thing, regarding that video so many people got so angry about. Well, having now seen it, I felt it was just awesome! It of course was a great tribute to Fire Emblems signature song, and the way it was done fit so well with the game. Plus it was a wonderful version of the song. It was fantastic!
What a game!
