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[PsionBolt]

Conquest. It's not even close.

Don't play any of them for the story, however. They're not good stories. Even Awakening, which folks here seem to point to whenever FE story comes up lately, is thoroughly boring at every point. It's somehow even less interesting in Awakening than it was the first ten times they wrote the same plot.

 

[Kinsei]

Awakening >>> Fates.

Fates has crazy difficulty spikes, a terrible story and cringeworthy waifu nonsense out the wazoo.

Its only redeeming quality is the basic Fire Emblem gameplay.

And the game with the 1000 year old dragon loli that you can impregnate doesn't?

 

[Neuromancer]

I'm still struggling through Fates/Birthright even though I bought it at launch. It just never set its hooks into me the way Awakening did. Awakening has a neat overworld you can move around it, go to shops and engage in random battles. In Awakening you go back to your castle between each mission and it's really tedious walking around and checking every little thing. I've never even figured out where to buy health items so I'm always low. Also the characters in Birthright are annoying and unlikeable.

 

[DecoReturns]

Conquest is more fun to play.

Awakening as a whole was more enjoyable for me.

 

[PK Gaming]

Awakening >>> Fates.

Fates has crazy difficulty spikes

Fates (especially Conquest) has the most balanced difficulty curve in the series. Awakening literally emphasizes grinding.

cringeworthy waifu nonsense out the wazoo.

You're going to call out Fates for this even though it's literally copying Awakening in that regard.

 

[dreamlongdead]

Awakening is an excellent place to start, and you'll probably want to play more in the series after you finish it.

Fates has a lot of polish and mechanical balances, so that one is worth playing.

The GBA and GameCube games have interesting lore and unique features to set them apart from each other, so they are not completely antiquated. They are good games that are still worth your time!

Shadow Dragon is way better than Fates.

LOL! Take this opinion with a big grain of salt.

 

[orborborb]

I play Fire Emblem games only for the puzzley level design challenge, so Awakening and Birthright are both awful, as will be the mobile game. Conquest is decent but not as good as the GBA, Gamecube, or Wii games

 

[dragonlife]

Awakening has the better story and characters, Fates has the better gameplay.

I never played Fates because Awakening was an absolute disappointment in every department, so, reading this, I can't believe Fates has an even worse story and characters.

how

 

[Weebos]

I prefer Awakening, but if money/time isn't an issue then Fates because it is essentially three games in one.

 

[Maintenance]

I never played Fates because Awakening was an absolute disappointment in every department, so, reading this, I can't believe Fates has an even worse story and characters.

how

Yes, it is possible.

I prefer Awakening, but if money/time isn't an issue then Fates because it is essentially three games in one.

Three games in one would be if the game wasn't being sold separately. It's a third of a game for the price of one.

 

[DecoReturns]

I found Conquest characters much better then Awakenings cast.

 

[Kinsei]

I never played Fates because Awakening was an absolute disappointment in every department, so, reading this, I can't believe Fates has an even worse story and characters.

how

Splitting the time of the writers between multiple games and forcing them to come up with a massive amount of characters will do that I guess.

 

[PsionBolt]

I never played Fates because Awakening was an absolute disappointment in every department, so, reading this, I can't believe Fates has an even worse story and characters.

how

They're really no different. Some of them are literally no different, because several of Awakening's characters return! If anything, I have to guess that folks just pick up on it more because Fates plays so much better, leading to a greater contrast.

 

[GinoFelino]

I feel like I'm agreeing with you in every GAF thread I see you in. You're my new GAF Bff.

*high five*

And the game with the 1000 year old dragon loli that you can impregnate doesn't?

.
You're going to call out Fates for this even though it's literally copying Awakening in that regard.

They both have waifu nonsense, sure, but overall, Awakening has the more compelling story and the more interesting characters by a mile. That really helps to compensate the creepy stuff. Fates has virtually nothing to balance it out with.

 

[akidnamededdy]

I prefer Awakening, but if money/time isn't an issue then Fates because it is essentially three games in one.

You do know you have to pay like $80 for the full Fates experience yeah?

I played completely through both and I gotta give the nod to Awakening.

 

[Weebos]

You do know you have to pay like $80 for the full Fates experience yeah?

I played completely through both and I gotta give the nod to Awakening.

I did say if money or time wasn't an issue.

 

[Ilvocare]

I'm amazed that this is even up to discussion and even more that Awakening is winning this. Awakening is slightly better in the story department, but still weak. But Fates Conquest is supremely tight and well designed, whereas Awakening allows for, encourages grinding even.

Ignoring the fact that Awakening does indeed encourage some grinding on harder difficulties and that I personally think it's the worst game in the series in that specific regard, I have NEVER understood the stigma FE fans have with simply giving the option to grind.

This might be because Sacred Stones was my first FE game and remains my favorite in the series even though I do indeed love the others I've played, but there's absolutely nothing wrong with allowing that option. Especially if the game is balanced so that you can play through the core content without touching outer encounters at all. Sacred Stones AND Birthright so far have completely succeeded in this endeavor so far with me, so I just don't fucking get it. Awakening, on the other hand... man when I feel I need to do Paralogues just to keep up with the story scaling, and even then I end up training a whole other B-team of less-used units just to nab outside benefits, your game just isn't fucking balanced for shit.

 

[chaosblade]

Conquest is excellent, I definitely recommend that. Just skip all the dialogue/story and it may be the best localized FE game yet.

Awakening was pretty blah. Apparently Birthright and Revelations aren't much better.

I never played Fates because Awakening was an absolute disappointment in every department, so, reading this, I can't believe Fates has an even worse story and characters.

how

Awakening was just sort of a "normal" bad story. Conquest has a full on next-level-bad story. Corrin is a complete moron and nothing (s)he does makes much sense.

 

[mocolostrocolos]

Awakening by miles.

 

[Schneider]

awakening imo, held my attention better and had a nice complete feeling

 

[Fandangox]

Fates (especially Conquest) has the most balanced difficulty curve in the series.

Yup, the best balance and the most fair and tense challenge.

Awakening literally emphasizes grinding.

Which is funny cause this was easily the most unbalanced game out of all the localized ones in favor of the players. The double/team up feature was bonkers on awakening.

 

[Kinsei]

Conquest is excellent, I definitely recommend that. Just skip all the dialogue/story and it may be the best localized FE game yet.

Awakening was pretty blah. Apparently Birthright and Revelations aren't much better.

Birthright is a huge step up from Awakening. It's still on the lower end quality wise when it comes to the games that have been localized, but it's not a bad game like Awakening is.

 

[Safros]

Don't go into into Fates or Awakening expecting good characters or story. They're both pretty terrible in terms of writing, but gameplay wise at least, Fates Conquest is leagues above Awakening.

I would only really recommend Awakening to new FE players as it's absurdly easy on normal, pretty easy on hard, but frustrating on anything higher.

 

[Azuran]

Awakening >>> Fates.

Fates has crazy difficulty spikes, a terrible story and cringeworthy waifu nonsense out the wazoo.

Its only redeeming quality is the basic Fire Emblem gameplay.

Awakening didn't difficulty spikes because the game was easy as sin. The gameplay fails at a fundamental level when simply pairing up Robin and Chrom, two of the first characters you get, completely breaks the game and therefore the difficulty.

 

[Inferno313]

Birthright is a huge step up from Awakening. It's still on the lower end quality wise when it comes to the games that have been localized, but it's not a bad game like Awakening is.

 

[ShadowSoldier89]

Revelations had some really fun levels. Conquest is supposed to be hard old school challenge but I still thought it was easy. Birthright is super fucking easy mode. All 3 games have garbage stories (With conquest being by far the worst) and mostly uninteresting characters. The casts are huge so you will find a few you like, but they definitely dont have much going for them overall.

Awakening gameplay was easy to unbalance with its extremely OP pair up mechanic, but all the fun character building and RPG elements work well here. Slightly better than fates, but with worse balance. However the story and characters are leagues better than anything in fates. The story isn't anything special, but its competently told and enjoyable. The characters though are great, you will find plenty to really enjoy.

 

[Taruranto]

Awakening >>> Fates.

Fates has crazy difficulty spikes, a terrible story and cringeworthy waifu nonsense out the wazoo.

Its only redeeming quality is the basic Fire Emblem gameplay.

Yeah, too bad the "only redeeming quality" is the thing that matters the most.

Also lol, Awakening is the one with the 1000 waifu dragon that started the trend anyway.

 

[GinoFelino]

Awakening didn't difficulty spikes because the game was easy as sin. The gameplay fails at a fundamental level when simply pairing up Robin and Chrom, two of the first characters you get, completely breaks the game and therefore the difficulty.

The difficulty was fine as a series introduction, which is what the game was to many people.

Yeah, too bad the "only redeeming quality" is the thing that matters the most.

Also lol, Awakening is the one with the 1000 waifu dragon that started the trend anyway.

Sure. Except the difficulty spikes sort of ruin that quality once you get to them. I reacted to your other point in my previous post.

 

[Hollycat]

Fates has more content, but I think overall awakening might be the better game. Especially if you add the gay marriage mod

 

[Jamix012]

There is one small feature of Awakening's gameplay that breaks the entire game for me. Fates removed it so it's by far better. There's also a lot more content there. Story? I guess Awakening is marginally better, but both suck pretty hard and aren't comparable to some of the, actually good, stories earlier in the series.

 

[chaosblade]

Revelations had some really fun levels. Conquest is supposed to be hard old school challenge but I still thought it was easy. Birthright is super fucking easy mode. All 3 games have garbage stories (With conquest being by far the worst) and mostly uninteresting characters. The casts are huge so you will find a few you like, but they definitely dont have much going for them overall.

Awakening gameplay was easy to unbalance with its extremely OP pair up mechanic, but all the fun character building and RPG elements work well here. Slightly better than fates, but with worse balance. However the story and characters are leagues better than anything in fates. The story isn't anything special, but its competently told and enjoyable. The characters though are great, you will find plenty to really enjoy.

What difficulty? I found Conquest satisfying on hard after finding Awakening hard too easy.

 

[Taruranto]

The difficulty was fine as a series introduction, which is what the game was to many people.


Sure. Except the difficulty spikes sort of ruin that quality once you get to them. I reacted to your other point in my previous post.

I don't remember any difficulty spike personally, but a few difficulty spikes are certainly better than Awakening zzzzz difficulty.

Either way, casual mode exists for both games. Conquest excellent map design really put it a step over all modern FE.

 

[patapuf]

Conquest is the best game in the series in terms of gameplay. Even at lower difficulties it's more varied and interesting than a lot of games in the series.

If story is important to you... i would pick up the gamecube or the GBA games.


Awakening isn't bad but towards the end you really start to feel how reptitive the maps are and how broken pair up is.

 

[GinoFelino]

I don't remember any difficulty spike personally, but a few difficulty spikes are certainly better than Awakening zzzzz difficulty.

Either way, casual mode exists for both game. Conquest excellent map design really put it a step over all modern FE.

That's just because you're really, really good at Fire Emblem and I'm not.

 

[ShadowSoldier89]

What difficulty? I found Conquest satisfying on hard after finding Awakening hard too easy.

hard. I dont bother with Lunatic anymore though. Found it more dumb than fun

 

[WrenchNinja]

The story and characters are bad in Awakening and Fates. I guess of the two, I probably liked the Awakening cast more.

 

[Sakura]

If you can only choose one, what would it be?

Last Fire Emblem I played was Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones and I looove the little sprites in 2D so I never was sure to grab awakening, I think I didnt played a couple of the first mission at a friend's house but I guess it didn't really grab me.

I guess im looking for the best story and characters between the two game. I know there is 3 versions of Fates so I might get the black one since it's harder I think?

Which one is more mature in term of content?

Fates is funner to play. Both have terrible stories, and shallow throw-away characters outside of the very main cast.

 

[Dot-N-Run]

It is a bit strange to see a lot of love for Awakening's story here when it was one of the main criticisms against the game that the developers brought up during the Iwata Asks interview.

I guess if people are looking at it in comparison to Fates it might look better, but I really can't say either game is a masterpiece of storytelling. Still though, I didn't mind the story of either one, I had a great time laughing along to the more corny moments.

Character wise I can't really pick between the two, both games had interesting/entertaining support conversations between the characters, although some for some reason pies were a central theme to a disturbing number of support conversations in Awakening. Were 'pies' some sort of euphemism?

The gameplay in Fates is much, much better though, especially Conquest. I really hope they expand upon the systems from that game further in the upcoming Switch Fire Emblem.

 

[dreamlongdead]

I'm amazed that this is even up to discussion and even more that Awakening is winning this. Awakening is slightly better in the story department, but still weak. But Fates Conquest is supremely tight and well designed, whereas Awakening allows for, encourages grinding even.

Lunatic+ in Awakening is literally broken. The distribution of Lunatic+ skills makes early maps unwinnable at times. If you want to actually beat this thing reliably, you are grinding with DLC when the gate opens up.

It's playable on Hard and regular Lunatic without grinding skirmishes, though it sadly has to be lowmanned. The lackluster map design and poor objectives are Awakening's real glaring flaws.

Conquest fixed this nonsense, so that is why it is personally my #1 in the whole series. Awakening is still a great first experience with the series, but it is certainly not perfect. Most Fire Emblem games are great, but there is always something that holds each entry back.

Still excited as hell for the games from the Fire Emblem direct!

 

[Neoweee]

That's just because you're really, really good at Fire Emblem and I'm not.

Yup. That's kind of what makes discussing Fire Emblem difficult, because some people literally have hundreds of hours of experience with the series.

With that said, Awakening does have a problem with how it implements the Pair Up system. Fates is generally much better balanced, and the three paths do a good job of differentiating themselves from eachother. Even Birthright, which is dismissed here as too easy, can be rough at times on Hard, and especially Lunatic. Even after beating FE7, SS, and Awakening, Conquest was enough to make me bump it down to Normal, and still have a fair number of deaths and losses along the way. The general consensus on Conquest difficulty spikes is that 8 Hard is a bump relative to the previous missions, 10 Hard is a giant bump relative to both the previous missions and for quite a while after that, with a few more very difficult fights in the last strings of Hard chapters.

Conquest is easily my favorite of the series. Still haven't beaten Revelations, and am going through Conquest again on Hard.

 

[patapuf]

That's just because you're really, really good at Fire Emblem and I'm not.

Awakening and Birthright are probably a better introduction difficulty wise. Especially if one isn't used to the genre.

I'm not sure i'd recommend Birthright over awakening. The gameplay is better... but the story is really really bad.

 

[Scirm_Layton]

I think Awakening is localised better than Fates. 8-4 put a lot of thought into characters, and all of them felt really unique, while in Fates they kinda blend. But as for now I have time only for Birthright, so maybe I'll change my mind when I start Conquest.

 

[DecoReturns]

I didn't find Conquest hard. Rather you actually had to plan your attacks according. The Fates skill system is much more fun in terms of gameplay because it actually matters who adjacent to you. Some skill gave you a slight boost in defense and attack. The pair-up method. It felt like a strategy game unlike Awakening where you could just pair-up and blow through. I beat the game with just Using Nosferatu.

 

[Taruranto]

That's just because you're really, really good at Fire Emblem and I'm not.

Lol, hardly. I played a lot of them, but only once, I'm hardly what you would call a veteran, I can't even touch stuff like Lunatic mode or do a battle without restarting a lot of times.

 

[Triforce141]

Awakening for accessibility; Fates for challenge and variety.

Spoiler

Awakening for waifus; Fates for husbandos

 

[Inferno313]

That's just because you're really, really good at Fire Emblem and I'm not.

Yeah, Conquest is a hard-as-balls game. I'm trying to play it on Normal, in Classic mode, and each chapter in the 20s is taking me like 20 goddamn resets.

 

[Riposte]

Conquest sits safely in the top 3 of Fire Emblems, while you can make the case that Awakening and the other Fates games barely crack the top 10. The gap in quality in the game design is tremendous.

EDIT: I see, you are focusing on story. Sorry I overlooked that. I think Awakening is the better game there, but that's a really low bar to climb. The Fates storyline was completely sabotaged by poor execution and the three-game model which locks the actual plot behind the DLC route.

 

[Ouroboros]

Awakening was so good. I stopped half way with Fates / Birthright.

 

[GinoFelino]

Yup. That's kind of what makes discussing Fire Emblem difficult, because some people literally have hundreds of hours of experience with the series.

Conquest is easily my favorite of the series. Still haven't beaten Revelations, and am going through Conquest again on Hard.

Yeah that's fair. I can see why Fire Emblem series diehards vastly prefer Conquest over any of the other new ones.

Awakening and Birthright are probably a better introduction difficulty wise. Especially if one isn't used to the genre.

I'm not sure i'd recommend Birthright over awakening. The gameplay is better... but the story is really really bad.

Agreed. Awakening is a much better introduction.

Lol, hardly. I played a lot of them, but only once, I'm hardly what you would call a veteran, I can't even touch stuff like Lunatic mode or do a battle without restarting a lot of times.

Good enough to refer to Awakening as zzzzzz difficulty, which is where we differ I wouldn't call the game hard, but as a series noob, it was great.

Yeah, Conquest is a hard-as-balls game. I'm trying to play it on Normal, in Classic mode, and each chapter in the 20s is taking me like 20 goddamn resets.

I gave up near the end of Conquest, man. Sold my SE then and there.

 

[Hero]

Suggesting someone start out their Fire Emblem experience with Conquest is kind of laughable. Game is pretty unforgiving if you don't know what you're doing. If you're new to the series Awakening or Birthright all day.