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What made Fire Emblem:Awakening such a huge success?

Yes I am. The reason I stopped is Nowi. I`m not going to play games with those kinds of characters in them. I wouldnt have bought the game had I known she was in it beforehand.

I understand how you feel and how she can be off-putting. I used Nowi as mostly as an extra support but I was happy to find out her daughter was like her total opposite which was ironic and pretty entertaining.

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<3 Nah. It doesn't really make up for Nowi but I still thought it was kinda cool.
 
I'm just excited for the next iteration of Fire Emblem! It's been two years (Japan)! Feed me something Intelligent Systems! ;.;
 
Word of Mouth.

Fire Emblem wasn't on my radar at all until friends started gushing to me about it. Fun characters, a great art style, and fantastic gameplay sold me on it within the first few minutes.

This "waifus" shit needs to stop. It's a great game.
 
well idk how much, this is just what several people have said, maybe its more prevelant in radiant dawn

The main reason some people say that regarding Ike is that in Radiant Dawn, each character only has one paired ending at most. Ike is an exception and has two paired endings though...
one with Sothe and another with Ranulf, two male characters. In both of them though, it's just said that Ike left the continent and the other character traveled together with him, and no actual relationship is mentioned.
 
I realize people are interpreting it as "ok I married these characters their going to fuck right now", and I think they're being ridiculous - and also being ridiculous in assuming that anyone who has no problem with Nowi has nefarious intentions.

I also don't see Nowi as stripperiffic.

Sir, do you perhaps not have the gift of sight?
 
Slick slightly pandering art, waifus, +$$$ for presentation, super casual mode, advertisement, breeding making kids returns!

I am very disappointed that THIS is the game that made the series have a huge popularity boost because the maps suck, the characters mostly suck or are shallowly built and pandering to the extent that I can't respect them, the story and world-building sucks, and it's my favourite series and I can't bring myself to even finish the game. :l
Ugh. I still need to get around to beating it sometime this summer but the entire game is a chore due to its not-for-me balance of series mainstays.

Also to answer an earlier question in the thread: no, I do not like moe dragon pedobait characters (and I also dislike FE8's Myrrh and FE6's Fa. lol -- but I guess at least they aren't in bathing suits.)

I also dislike Ricken but at least he's not explicitly shotacon (revealing clothes and winky/cutesy personality and hits on girls/guys? lol -- I also dislike FE9's Rolf).

Yeah the game is pretty much a mess which doesn't give me much hope for the series' future. The maps are absolutely the worst and most inexcusable part of the game, there is no creativity, almost everything is an open space with zero optional objectives. And pair up just results in treating half your deployed party as literal equipment for your actual good characters, it's so fucked up

I knew something was horribly wrong storywise when the main characters started high fiving each other about simultaneously burning alive and drowning an entire army. Like a little fucking pathos or humility wouldn't hurt. Also shit like Virion and Say'ri having named homelands but having NO IDEA where any of those places are or what they like or why they matter or fucking anything. They took a preestablished world from the original series and did NOTHING with it, it's somehow even less detailed than the nes games

Also lol at talking shit about Shadow Dragon's artstyle by bringing up CONCEPT ART instead of the actual godawful ingame graphics
 
almost everything is an open space with zero optional objectives

The paralogues generally had optional objectives or unique features in the maps. Even in the main story though, I thought the only segment of the game that really suffered from what you describe there were the last few maps. From chapter 19 to end game, only 21 had something interesting (with all the mire sorcerers outside of the castle walls) and wasn't just an open map. Before that though, there were enough chapters with unique structure and such at least. You mention the ship chapter there, and that clearly wasn't just open space.

And, yes, they seemed to sideline the setting much more than in any previous game of the series aside from maybe the NES games- doing away with the narration between chapters and not really replacing that with anything. And even the story sequences are very small during the entire middle arc of the game.
 
I hope you were only referring to shadow dragon and not the GBA version.

Sorry, I was talking about Fire Emblem Awakening. But hey, it worked on me. As someone who never played a FE before, I am excited for the next installment. As long as they don't revert back to dopey art like the previous entries.
 
The main reason some people say that regarding Ike is that in Radiant Dawn, each character only has one paired ending at most. Ike is an exception and has two paired endings though...
one with Sothe and another with Ranulf, two male characters. In both of them though, it's just said that Ike left the continent and the other character traveled together with him, and no actual relationship is mentioned.
ah, so it was just yaoi fangirl insertion.
 
As someone that bought a 3DS just to play this game and never played a single game in the series prior, here's my take:

- I think there was a huge thirst for a great SRPG. Final Fantasy Tactics is one of my favorite games of all time and SRPGs of that quality are growing increasingly rare. With as many positive reviews as Awakening got, people were willing to jump in.

- Art style was great. Gave it a definitive, modern look. Anime is as popular as ever outside of Japan and I think people really took to that look.

- Accessibility. Terms like "perma-death" scare a lot of players away. No one likes to make a lot of progress only to see it go down the drain. I think the fact that they added a casual mode to lighten the burden of a character dying in battle gave players relief.

Those are factors that I took into account. People can't know about great characters, story, gameplay, whatever until they get their hands in it. From a marketing perspective to get new players to buy it, I think the 3 factors I listed helped the most. I know that's what sold me.
 
Well that $30 eshop credit promo when you registered SMT IV with it is what made me pick it up.
Heh. It was the other way around for me, picked up SMTIV because I had FE:A. Figured SMTIV would've gotten a better deal out of the credit promo since the only game from that series in English was Nocturne, but I guess it's tangentially related to all it's spinoffs, which have more visibility then SMT and Fire Emblem.

Still, when I started up Fire Emblem: Awakening, I was coming in from Radiant Dawn (Wii) and it was kinda surprising. The production values were so slick. It might just be an effect of apparently originally being a Game Cube game but Awakening's models were nicer (even if the designs were kinda weird sometimes) and the weapon models were more noticeable, the map sprites were easily distinguishable and delightfully animated, there was a ton more voice acting (not in terms of story but in terms of characters actually shout in battles now) and it was actually good, and the in-game cutscenes, the camera moved and had direction and zoomed in and had unique non-battle animations for the characters. And tons of animation options, even going as far being able to skip enemy turns or fast forward battles.

Radiant Dawn was great and all but the production values for Awakening made it way shinier, which probably helped give it a solid impression. You play something like Radiant Dawn and regardless of quality, stuff like the voice acting and the hastily converted 4:3 screens modified with a banner, it feels like a lower cost production.

1000 year old dragon, 10 year old body is bleh and the glimpses into the 1000 year old part were too sparse for me to justify the 10 year old body/personality. But on subsequent playthroughs I just mashed START to skip scenes and turned off animations so I was only seeing the tiny animated sprite on the map.
 
1000 year old dragon, 10 year old body is bleh and the glimpses into the 1000 year old part were too sparse for me to justify the 10 year old body/personality. But on subsequent playthroughs I just mashed START to skip scenes and turned off animations so I was only seeing the tiny animated sprite on the map.

They already do this before
Tiki at the time of Shadow Dragons, is around 500-1000 years, more or less. The difference is of course, her outfit where it is much, much more tolerable.
 
They already do this before

Tiki at the time of Shadow Dragons, is around 500-1000 years, more or less. The difference is of course, her outfit where it is much, much more tolerable.
Not that I'm defending the past iterations, I don't like the trope. Feels skeevy.

The marriage and outfit sure didn't help though.
 
Sir, do you perhaps not have the gift of sight?

This is the best response. I literally LOL'd. It sounds like it came from a dapper gentleman. Thanks, HK.

I have obviously seen Nowi. I just don't consider her outfit particularly scandalous or "stripperiffic". I think Tharja and the female Dark Mage outfit (which you can put on any character, regardless of age) is far more provocative than what Nowi is wearing.

One other thing I didn't mention that I really grabbed my eye with this game is the 3D pre-rendered cel shaded cutscenes. When I downloaded the demo they made me want to see more. They're gorgeous!
 
Lack of permadeath definitely makes me like this more. Can't plan around critical hits that can lead to a random death. Hate that shit.

Edit: What I mean is, I plan for a character to get hit, because putting an enemy in front means others cannot get into position to attack. So the enemy attacks, I get a critical, instead the enemy dirs. Another attacks, I live, counter and yet another critical. Which opens the character up for yet another attack, and this one kills. I hate that.

Just got to chapter 11. Got Tharja <3
 
I realize people are interpreting it as "ok I married these characters their going to fuck right now", and I think they're being ridiculous - and also being ridiculous in assuming that anyone who has no problem with Nowi has nefarious intentions.

I also don't see Nowi as stripperiffic.

*cough*

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Yes I am. The reason I stopped is Nowi. I`m not going to play games with those kinds of characters in them. I wouldnt have bought the game had I known she was in it beforehand.
What if Nowi had a different outfit, like the one in the quoted post below me?

They already do this before

Tiki at the time of Shadow Dragons, is around 500-1000 years, more or less. The difference is of course, her outfit where it is much, much more tolerable.
I think that if Nowi had an outfit like this, there wouldn't be too much of an issue.

One reason why it wouldn't be too much of an issue is that her face actually looks more mature to someone like Liz.. If anything, Nowi looks like an older person with a smaller cup size (why am I explaining this?). I'd argue that Liz actually looks younger compared to Nowi. Also, the mental maturity of a character that is 1000 years old > physical appearance. People seem to forget about that important aspect, lol.

I am writing all of this to make this point: This is a video game =| You guys are taking it waaaaaaay too seriously. At least this game is not pandering smut.

Also, I think people are taking the "I am 1000 years old, but I look this young" and apply it to everything, that it is becoming a stereotype. I honestly can't think of a huge amount of games that do this, minus maybe this and Disgaea.

This comic makes me laugh every time I read it.
 
It was my first Fire Emblem game. The reason why I jumped in now was that I heard it was easier to get into, which turned out to be true. No huge learning curve, no permadeath unless you want it. The updated art style also looked more appealing to me.

I want to go back and play the older games at some point.
 
I didn't care to try the series, but then free demo.

Let's say that if Nintendo's plan was to sell people through the demo it worked.
 
Like others have said, great reviews and strong word of mouth.

LOL at people saying "waifus"

It's very much known for the waifus and husbando aspect here... and Japan. You might think that it's Japan only but I've seen TONS of people loving this game partly because of the marriage system and characters involved.

I mean...

 
It had and updated artstyle, good marketing behind it, the first FE game in awhile,was a very polished game, had a good demo for people new to the series, entertaining characters ,pretty cutscenes, with more options for newcomers.

also, Waifus and Husbandos

Edit:now i kinda want a Tharja game from Platinum games
 
I think the stars aligned for this one. It wasn't just one thing.

- an overall lack of RPGs (at the time) on the 3DS
- on that note, an overall lack of solid games on 3DS, in any genre
- a brand-new entry in a series that is well-known for quality (not a port, like the DS one)
- a lot of press leading up to release emphasizing that it was newb-friendly
- a great localization
- great graphics
- fantastic reviews
- hard to find at launch (adding to the perception that it was a hot item, which it was)
- a decent marketing push, which didn't happen for prior games in the series
- waifu/relationship mechanics, adding appeal for gamers who might not have otherwise considered the game

One of my favorite games of all time, btw. Such a great game. Such...hot damn. SUCH a great game. Played every other FE (that was localized, at least) and this one was my favorite.
 
I've been a fan of the series pretty much since they first brought it outside of Japan, so I couldn't say for sure. But from my perspective, marketing + the demo + good reviews look like the main reasons. Casual mode probably helped make the series look less intimidating for new players, too.

I thought the marriage + children aspect was pretty interesting from a gameplay perspective, although I've never been a fan of the whole "waifu" thing that parts of the fanbase do. Also, the fact that you can marry characters like Nowi off--and HAVE to if you want to recruit everyone--is very, very awkward, yes. Hope no one bought the game because of that.
 
Haven't played it but the huge amount of anime tropes and attractive 2D characters are what I see most about it.
 
Came in to say waifus... guess that observation is already very well-represented, though.

Pandering to otakus is huge business, these days. It's the only thing keeping the Vita alive.
 
Word of Mouth.

Fire Emblem wasn't on my radar at all until friends started gushing to me about it. Fun characters, a great art style, and fantastic gameplay sold me on it within the first few minutes.

This "waifus" shit needs to stop. It's a great game.

Fire Emblems have always been great games. Waifus were the missing ingredient for the recipe to success.
 
People have said the reasons why it's succeeded but I'll just add in my two cents while people still know what cents mean.

Good overall pleasing artwork.
Praised 3D effects which was lacking in many 3DS titles.
Causal mode made the game more accessible to a massively larger group of people.
People were starved for this kind of genre.
Male or Female, both genders got to be what they wanted!
Definitely the reviews that praised it.
Word of mouth was absolutely solid.
Can't find it? That made some people want it all the more.

In the end it was one of the stand out games for the 3DS that people could point at and say why it was worth it. The fact it even got a special edition 3DS gave it much attention and had people playing it for the first time.

If Nintendo does any more much like they did this one they're bound to do well.
 
- hard to find at launch (adding to the perception that it was a hot item, which it was)

Screw Gamestop. Lied to me saying no more copies of the game would ship to stores and it would be digital only from now on so they wanted me to get that instead. I don't fall for bullshit like that. Got it from Best Buy a few days after that mess.
 
I will say that I hope people who got into Fire Emblem via Awakening at least try Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn. Those two remain my favorites. Be nice if they saw an HD Remaster on a compilation disc, with casual mode and level grinding added as options.
 
Came in to say waifus... guess that observation is already very well-represented, though.

Pandering to otakus is huge business, these days. It's the only thing keeping the Vita alive.

Sans Nowi, FEA is pretty tame compared to vita's otaku pandering game.
Being released in calm month, have actual solid gameplay, and designed to be more accessible is the actual recipe for the success. Kozaki art style might be anime-ish, but he's hardly generic, not with his coloring style and attention to detail.
 
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