Tag Archives: Fire Emblem

Fire Emblem Review

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It’s time to return to the world of Fire Emblem. I had a pretty good time with the first game and I can tell you that this one keeps going on the same level. The gameplay is missing a few quality of life updates that the first one I played had, but this one ultimately wins on the story and characters. You really get attached to the characters by the end and won’t be forgetting this title anytime soon.

The game starts off with a lengthy 10 chapter “tutorial story” where you play as Lyn and save her kingdom from a corrupt guy who tried to poison the King. You then play as Eliwood and get to the meat of the game. A war has suddenly broken out as usually is the case in Fire Emblem titles and a bunch of Kings are being manipulated by the man in the shadows. This has caused a lot of tensions and so they need to shut this group down. Eliwood is assisted by the noble prince Hector, as well as the return of Lyn. Together the three of them are considerably powerful and will meet a lot of other characters along the way to strength their forces. The stakes are high because if a character dies in a match, they die within the story!

That’s a mechanic that is famous in Fire Emblem and rightfully so. It added a whole lot of danger to the game because if you mistimed your action at all then you will end up being in a lot of trouble. Even the strongest of warriors can go down quickly if he walk into a trap and the same is true of the other side. You can bump off a powerful enemy with a “weak” fighter as long as the weapon and range are right. This s a true strategy game in every sense of the word.

Even inside of the levels there is always a constant strategy of protecting your forces vs going on the offensive. If you stay defensive for too long, then the villains will send in reinforcements to destroy you. Of course if you go too aggressive then you will leave your back row fighters vulnerable or will suffer heavy casualties. You don’t know where the reinforcements will come from or when either. It’s like a true war where surprise is always on the table. A single misstep and you are really toast.

Fortunately to make you feel okay even as you have to retry the mission over and over again, the game has a great soundtrack. You will recognize quite a few tunes from Super Smash Bros. I would say this might be the best Fire Emblem soundtrack so far as the tunes are all so good. You can easily bop to the kind of music that is being played here. Meanwhile the graphics are also really good. I loved the attack animations that would appear and the stages are really clear. They put a lot of effort into this one and it looks better than the average GBA title. The art style has aged really well.

One tip I’d give is to make sure you play the final side mission right before the final battle. Turns out that it is a restock mission to let you get new weapons and such. Without that you could find yourself soft locked on the final level. This is one thing that is annoying about the game. There are no shops in between levels anymore. So you have to really find the shops within levels in order to get new equipment or you are going to be in trouble. It’s tough to do this though because it does cost a turn each time and those are usually hard to come across in the story.

You definitely have to pay extra attention to your formations as a result so you don’t waste one of your stronger ones searching for shops. Then investigating homes will sometimes get you extra items and even new characters but they can also be empty so it’s a gamble. In an easier game this would be no problem, but again this game is actually rather difficult. So every action is just time away from your main objective of defeating opponents. Above all else, just remember to protect your healers. They are incredibly useful in this game. Your main fighters may get potions but it’s not the same since they have to use their turn up for that.

Also, don’t underestimate the bosses of each level. These guys can chew through all of your fighter’s health with ease. Sometimes they only need one turn to do the job and they tend to have massive range. At least their are counter strategies. The cheesiest enemy though is the long range red mage because I don’t know what you’re supposed to do about him. He can hit you from anywhere on the map which mind controls you for 3 turns and forces an ally to murder you or get murdered. Without rewinding and constantly changing formations, it just feels like this is a super cheesy “you lose” button that can happen in the last levels. Maybe there is a solution to this but otherwise I thought that was the only time the game wasn’t being a good sport. Ah well, the game is so long so only having one kind of really cheesy villain isn’t so bad I suppose. The final level’s boss rush felt more fair in comparison.

Overall, Fire Emblem is a pretty good game. The story is considerably long and I will also say that the game can be very difficult. Underestimate it at your own risk! All it takes is one well placed move by the villains to destroy one of your pieces. The Nintendo Switch Online allows you to rewind, without that you would really be in a tough predicament. I look forward to Nintendo adding the Gamecube Fire Emblem soon! That’ll be a really fun day but until then this is a title I would wholeheartedly recommend.

Overall 7/10

Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones Review

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I’ve been a huge fan of Fire Emblem for a long time now but I actually hadn’t played many of the mainline games. I always ended up playing spinoffs and such instead. Well, now I’m getting a look inside and it’s all super nostalgic since Fire Emblem Heroes was one of the first big mobile games that I spent a lot of time on. I played that for hours and hours for 3 whole seasons before I finally stopped. The series has a lot of gimmicks and mechanics that have not really changed so I was able to jump in there. Only one mechanic was not present in the mobile game and unfortunately it’s a rough one. Weapon durability….

So the story starts by introducing us to a princess and prince who proudly serve their kingdom alongside their King. Unfortunately the neighboring country suddenly launches an invasion and the king is murdered. Our heroes must now find out why an allied kingdom would turn traitor so suddenly and see what they can do about all of this. It won’t be an easy fight and they will need to make a lot of allies along the way. One wrong move and the whole world will be lot. The forces of darkness have been prepping for this day for a long time and have the element of surprise on their side after all.

The core gameplay is that of a typical strategy title. You move your units around the board either to get to the capture area or to defeat all opposing fighters. There are 3 main types of weapons, swords beat hammers, spears beat swords, and hammers beat spears. Aside from that you have weapon sub types as well to deal with. Additionally the characters also have different types which factor in as well. So there is a whole lot to consider and like chess, each type has a different amount of movement options. A big deal for the series is also that if any unit dies in the level, they cannot be revived.

They are permanently gone along with any items and equipment they were holding. So you will definitely want to restart the level or rewind when that happens. The equipment actually breaking also ends up hurting quite a lot because it means that you always have to remember to buy more weapons. The problem? It is incredibly hard to earn money in the game and I ended up being broke for a good chunk of it. By the end I got more money and was able to buy weapons for the end but I can easily picture a scenario where I was completely out of funds for the final boss. Now that would have been real ugly.

It also means you can’t just grind EXP the way you normally would because every fight uses more of the durability. So if you get too powerful then you won’t even be able to fight. It’s not like Pokemon where your character will still use struggle to deal some damage. In this game if you run out of weapon durability then you will be dealing exactly 0 damage. So you definitely need to keep that in mind. The menus for switching weapons and all can be a bit clunky too. Takes longer than you would expect.

Ah well, these are technical elements that could be better but on the whole the game does a good job. I do like the gameplay and how tactical everything is. The fact that your allies die forever is also a big one since it forces you to play the game very carefully. A single misstep would really make it game over for you. The game also has some nice quality of life features like being able to turn off the combat animations and speed up the text. I ended up beating the game much quicker than the average completion time online and I think this is the reason why. You are fighting hundreds and hundreds of battles in the game so completely skipping all of those animations is a really big deal.

The graphics are fun though so you’ll want to play a round or two with the animations on. It’s cool how every character gets animations and it also makes the whole war feel a lot more real. Anytime someone lands a critical hit it is also a really big deal for that reason. It can completely change the flow. Additionally the RNG for the turn is decided at the beginning so if someone is going to miss, it doesn’t matter how many times you rewind. That character will still end up missing in the end.

The soundtrack is also solid. Little did I know that the soundtrack would get to be even better for the next one. Fire Emblem has always managed to deliver excellent tracks in its games though so I can’t say that I was surprised at all. The amount of polish and hard work that went into this game is really impressive. It’s no wonder that this ended up becoming a really big franchise. It really did all of the right things. There is also a good amount of replay value in tackling the maps in different ways or trying to win with everyone alive in order to get their epilogues in. It’s not something that would end up tempting me back in but it’s a nice thing to have.

Overall, The Sacred Stones is definitely a fun game. It was really satisfying to finally play through one of these adventures and I do like all of the strategy involved. It really makes you feel like a tactician. The characters were really likable and the story was good. I can see how people would find these games addicting. I do really wish that the game could have just removed the weapon durability concept though. It’s my only issue with the game since I’m the kind of guy who likes to grind early and put myself in an incredible spot to win. Having to watch myself and not play too long just doesn’t feel right. Any game with a level up system should allow you to get as strong as you want if you ask me.

Overall 7/10

Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War Review

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This is a manga that I felt like I was reading for years and years. It just took forever to scan but the series is long with almost 100 chapters so it was a really big project. It certainly had its moments here and there but ultimately the problems were just too massive for the series to ever get past. Put it this way, the series takes place in the olden times of kingdoms and tradition. So unfortunately a lot of characters don’t make the right moves because of a sense of honor. So by the end most of the characters are just real awful and it’s hard to really try and redeem any of them. It’s actually a real shame when you look at it that way.

The story is really split into two main sagas. The first half is about Prince Sigurd as he does his best to unite the kingdom. There are tons of evil countries out there and even his own has a lot of problems. So Sigurd has to really start from the top but since he’s Prince he should be able to do a lot right? Along the way he falls in love and has to work to balance the weight of the crown with the weight of being a husband. Will he be able to unite the kingdom?

Well the second saga is about his son Seliph who has to stop the evil kingdoms so you can probably guess how that went. Seliph is a little more extreme than his father was. He is an ultra pacifist who doesn’t want to hurt anyone. Yeah Sigurd was also keen to avoid fighting but the big difference was that he would ultimately draw his sword when needed. He understood that sometimes you had to fight in order to protect what you love. Seliph takes forever and a day to learn this which is annoying.

Now the idea of two sagas is very interesting. Outside of people who played the game and knew this was coming it really comes as a shock. I was definitely not expecting a whole new 2nd act that would have brand new characters and everything. It’s really like a whole new adventure from end to end. So the idea is cool at least even if it didn’t really do much to save the series. You may be wondering, just how bad can this series get? It’s still Nintendo so what’s with the super low score? Well I hate to say it but this series broke all of the biggest cardinal rules.

First off, it pulls a Sword Art Online. The series so infamous that just using the term lets you know what’s going on. Well maybe not for everyone so basically the series decides to go grim dark by having one of the villains attack Sigurd’s wife and things get really dicey from there. The series really fell into the gutter from that point and never recovered. Unfortunately it doesn’t stop there. The series also decides to pull another Sword Art Online with a plot twist about Seliph’s wife and that reallllly gets dicey. The series really didn’t need to pull that. There are no point to the twist beyond the standard shock value that comes with it. Yeah that may have been something that happened more in the super old time this takes place in but that doesn’t mean it has to be included.

That’s my thing with a lot of these series. Just because something might be historically accurate or improves the realism, doesn’t mean that it’s a good idea to include it. In fact, I would say the opposite is usually true where adding these things just weakens the story by a massive degree. The series could have done without all of this stuff. These were the two most notable moments but trust me when I say there were a whole lot of others as well. The series generally didn’t have a ton of fanservice either. Some here and there but for the most part it was avoided so I appreciated that at least.

Too bad the villains had quite a few pervs in their ranks. Unfortunately this is where the annoying honor stuff comes in again. One guy harasses one of the girls a lot but he’s a high ranking noblemen so the heroes are told to stand down. The girl even says she can take it but really? The heroes aren’t gonna do anything? Oooh yeah I’d have some problems with that. One of the quickest ways for me to lose respect for a character is when they sit back and allow villains to get away with whatever they want. That’s absolutely not something you can allow in any timeline.

The series is long and yet the ending also manages to be rushed. That’s always an impressive combination in a rather grim way. Like how do you even let that happen, it doesn’t make any sense. The main villain suddenly decides not to be super evil and basically gives up, then Seliph decides it’s time to finally have some rage and goes for the final blow. It’s really not a satisfying ending in any way and so the series couldn’t even end on a positive note.

As far as the art goes, I can’t say that it was very good. It’s extremely old and has one of those art styles that just feels really dated right now. Not like that’s a super bad thing in itself but at the same time I wouldn’t say that it goes very well. It’s not the worst art that I’ve seen but I would say that it is considerably below average. It really feels like the whole deck was stacked against this series right? Well one more main negative and then lets go onto some positives.

The power levels make no sense here. I don’t usually go into this much because most series will have some power issues as they go on. It’s pretty much impossible not to right? Well what makes this one particularly egregious is the fact that it’s so drastic. The series is mainly down to Earth. A few fighters have burning blades that increase their attack power but that’s it. That is…until some mages show up. One of the villains is a girl who can shoot meteors that can literally destroy mountains. She is shown to burn a whole town in the blink of an eye. So how do the heroes actually manage to beat a villain like this? Well, she is either told to retreat by her inept commander or she just doesn’t use her abilities until the heroes get in close to knock her out.

Eventually the heroes get mages of their own who have wind abilities and yet the heroes never really do much with him. What’s the point of having a super weapon if you’re not going to use him. I would say that the heroes absolutely did not have good tactics at the ready. There is no excuse for them to not be able to do much of anything here. They had the numbers and manpower to do better but otherwise the villains should stomp. The instant the girl with meteors was introduced, that should have been the end of the series without a doubt. You can’t really come back from that.

Okay now lets get into some positives right here. The first one is that the series does have good world building. While I may not enjoy a lot of the characters and settings, it is hard to deny that the series does a good job of going into everyone’s backstories and the various countries that are around. There are quite a few countries and they all get their big moments to shine. This is a very big world and the series makes sure to explore this as a theme. No country is left behind here, they all have a role to play.

It may be a bit convenient how they all attack one at a time in most cases but I can overlook that for now. The fight scenes are suitably dramatic when they happen and I do enjoy the climaxes for each arc. The series is at its best when it is focusing on these spectacles. There are also some characters that I actually do like quite a bit. In general the cast of part 1 is vastly superior to those in part 2. You have people who look forward to fighting and who can really hold their own.

It unfortunately goes without saying that I couldn’t get behind almost any of the romances in this series though. They tended to fall into the trap of being either risky, rushed, or just out of left field. The characters wouldn’t often have much of a reason to like each other or it felt like something out of desperation. The amount of characters who need validation from others here is rather large after all and unfortunately this always leads a villain to taking advantage of some of them from time to time.

The series’ length is something that works to its favor at least. While I didn’t care for the title in the end, there is a lot to read through if you do end up enjoying it. You can tell a lot of story in 99 chapters after all, particularly since each chapter is really long. The series definitely changes a whole lot when it ends compared to where it starts. It can be happy, sad, action based, romance focused, etc. There is a ton of variety to be found here and it feels less like a video game adaption and more like a full on epic. If it just could have avoided most of the problematic issues of the time then it would have been just fine.

Some titles can survive a few setbacks but the main problem was that these were just way too extensive. At that point the series couldn’t survive which is always a shame when you see the lost potential there. I’ve read lots of series that put in the work to be a super solid title and then they were ultimately not able to prevail. It’s just how it goes sometimes but at least there are so many other Fire Emblem titles out there that it’s not like I would ever need to even try re reading this one to get my Fire Emblem fix.

Pretty much all of the villains are just super evil to the point of it almost being comical without much other depth to them so I won’t talk about most of them here. A lot of them are your average dark mages with different spells and sorcery. Some of them do have some real ability but for the most part they tend to hide in the shadows. They have the fighters with actual skills rush into the fray and then go for the cheap shots. Usually the most notable fighters will turn good and get recruited into the army. Then rinse and repeat for the future arcs.

wo of the first fighters to show up are Lex and Azel. Azel is young but he has good magical abilities. He’s a decent fighter but gets flustered rather easily and does seem a little too young for these games of death. Granted, it’s a war so it’s not like the characters have much choice. Lex is a lot more experienced but doesn’t have the same level of ability so they have a fairly good dynamic there with a lot of contrast.

Then you have Diadora the main heroine. She has some pretty good healing spells and has a big role. Unfortunately things really don’t go very well for her at all and I wish that she would have had a better ending. She was a very nice character after all so the whole thing felt rather harsh. The cast in the series is really huge overall and there are a bunch of other heroines who seem rather similar and got to have better endings. I suppose they can’t all go out on a high note but it still felt like a bit much. I had to quickly take a look through the early chapters to remind myself on some of the different names.

One thing I will say is that the series does have that issue where a bunch of characters look really similar. For once you can say there is a bit of a lore reason for it as almost everyone is related in one way or the other but it still makes them hard to pick out in a crowd. It doesn’t help that most of the characters wear similar getups since they’re all in a war scenario.

Avra is a heroine who stood out as one of the dragon riders. I liked her combat gear and she was definitely more of a tsundere type fighter. She made sure nobody ever got the wrong idea when she would help them but of course this does lead into a romance plot. Fire Emblem is one of those series that has a ton of different romances running around but almost none of them work. It goes for more of a quantity over quality kind of thing.

Again I think part of the weakness here is in how old school everything is. All of the characters constantly talk about honor and what can or can’t be done. As a result they rarely end up seeming all that reliable to me. They will freeze up or hesitate if the big boss says anything and can also be a bit slow to help each of their heroines.

I already talked about the dancer Sylvia getting harassed and everyone was really slow to help her. Levin is a solid character as he is trying for peace and uses his wind abilities to mow down anyone in his way. It would be nice if he was more of an aggressive fighter though but there really aren’t any big characters like that. If we had more notable characters that were really bold and stood out, that would really change things. There are a bunch of other characters but again, they don’t really leap out of the page or anything like that.


Overall, Fire Emblem had a lot of potential but it didn’t live up to this. There is a ton of world building and the story goes really in depth on the kingdom setup so it probably is a must read for scholars of the franchise but I also wanted a top tier story along with that. I don’t think this would be too greedy of an ask right? In general I am still a really big fan of Fire Emblem and I look forward to seeing more stories about the franchise. I’ve generally enjoyed all of the other ones, this was really the only one that just couldn’t hold its own. I think any newer title would easily dominate this one and so I would say to definitely give this one a hard skip. Read Fire Emblem Engage instead if you want a really solid story with great art and characters.

Overall 2/10

Fire Emblem Engage Stats and Records

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Stats time!

Play Time 26h 49m

Character Levels

Alear 20
Folgado 19
Pandreo 20
Yunaka 31
Veyle 38
Framme 20
Mauvier 19
Timerra 13
Goldmary 16
Seadall 24
Merrin 20
Jade 10
Rosaldo 11
Panette 11
Diamant 3
Vander 4
Ivy 1
Bunet 1
Zelkov 17
Kagetsu 1
Alfred 11
Celine 10
Alcryst 13
Louis 12
Chloe 9
Amber 11
Etie 6
Citrinne 10
Lapis 10
Boucheron 6
Clanne 4
Jean 1
Anna 5
Hortensia 19

Fire Emblem Engage Review

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Fire Emblem is one of Nintendo’s greatest franchises of all time and I’ve been meaning to play one of the main games for ages. Now at last I’ve made it. There may be some debate as to this being a spinoff or a main title but I absolutely give it the nod to hanging out with the other originals. It just works really well there with the classic gameplay. Nintendo has likely got the game of the year here with Engage since it’s hard to see this one being defeated. The story is phenomenal and every single aspect of the game is super polished from the dynamite soundtrack to the top tier graphics. Whether you like the tactics style or not you should check this one out.

The game starts off with Alear and the 12 Fire Emblem fighters of legend teaming up to deal some absolutely devastating damage to the villains. They even manage to destroy the villain and bring the world to peace. 1000 years pass and Alear wakes up in the present to find out that he is worshipped as a divine dragon. Unfortunately his waking was not coincidental as he is quickly attacked by the corrupted. They are a race of powerful villains, albeit fairly mindless ones who are aiming to really cause a lot of trouble. They are working for a group of villains who are trying to take over all of the kingdoms and steal the 12 Emblem Rings. Alear and friends will have to try and get them first but this adventure will go through a whole lot of twists and turns first.

The game took me over 24 hours to complete according to the playtime but if you count retries and such I’m confident it was a lot longer. Fortunately I had a lot of time to play this game, you make time for the top tier titles after all and I can’t think of the last time I marathoned a game so hard. It’s just because this is the kind of game you can’t put down. It’s just way too exhilarating and exciting. The rush you get while playing the story here is not something that just any game can get. You can imagine how much story content there is in such a long game and no expense was spared on the cutscenes.

For example a lot of games will have some cutscenes sporadically but this one has such long cutscenes that the switch would constantly dim from power saver mode and you’d have to make the screen go bright again. Additionally there is full voice acting in just about every step of the game which is incredibly impressive. You hear all the voices in the main story missions, the side quests, etc. It’s a lot of extra detail here and it’s the little things like that which make the game feel extra special. As I mentioned there are a lot of great tunes throughout the game as well and it starts with a very solid intro theme. The music can get quite emotional and then switch to action paced on a dime.

In terms of replay value it goes without saying that there is a lot to do here. After beating the game you can play through the tower of trials and a lot of other modes. There are extra paralogue chapters where you can meet characters and you can also increase all of your bonds with the characters to unlock bonus cutscenes. A nice bonus of watching these cutscenes is that they increase the bond level of your fighters further which increases the stats. There are even minigames like doing pushups to make your characters stronger. I didn’t touch too many of the bonus modes but there is just an incredible amount of content here.

Now if I have my first minor issue it’s that it can be difficult to see which weapon is more powerful to buy at the shop. In most games it’s quite easy to pick out the one you want since you compare it to the weapon you are holding but there is no easy menu to do that. Additionally every weapon has close to 11 stats and the one with the higher attack isn’t always stronger thanks to speed and type advantages. As a result that muddies the water even more and you almost don’t want to destroy any items. On the other hand it’s hard to earn money here so you really need to do that if you want more funds.

It’s a tough pickle for sure but this is a strategy game so that may be intentional. You can also adopt animals in this game which was cool. I made sure to rescue every animal I came across in the level hub worlds because as a hero I could do no less! You can pet them and feed them once you’re back at base which is fun. This is really a complete game. There’s nothing that feels like it was held back for DLC although we are getting several waves of that already. This is a game that was complete out of the box and I can always appreciate that.

Wow I still haven’t talked much about the gameplay right? Well, it’s your classic strategy turn based style so you move your fighters from area to area as you try to take out the enemy commander. Occasionally the objective will be something different but this is generally how it plays out. As the game starts you will control a few players but by the end you will control as many as 14 while the opponent has 30+. So it’s all about choosing when to start battles and when to avoid them. Like in Chess each character has a different amount of spaces they can move and their abilities are all different so you have to take that into account.

As you bond with your emblem you can learn new skills to stack on top of the old one as well. The gameplay is very thorough so pay attention to all of the tutorials. In terms of strategies my main tip is to always use Segall and Byleth as separate characters so don’t pair them together. The reason is that Segall can allow a player to get a second turn while Byleth can restore 4 turns. So if you use this as a combo right you can get 5 extra turns in the blink of an eye which is super handy. I used this combo a lot near the end of the game. There are plenty of other cool abilities as well so at the end of the day the main thing to remember here is to try and use each ability to the best you can. If you do that then you’ll be just fine.

If you die, no worries. You have a time crystal so you can respawn on any previous turn and rethink your strategy. Keep grinding out different formations until you have secured victory! The fight animations here are also really cool with complete choreography for each move. Admittedly I started skipping them after a while just for time’s sake as watching every attack would probably double or triple my overall play time. I do like that they put a whole lot of effort into this.

Overall, Fire Emblem Engage is an elite title and you will definitely enjoy your playthrough of it. I always enjoy tactics gameplay but that alone wouldn’t make this an elite game. No, what pushes this one over the top is how fantastic the story is. It’s one of the more emotional titles you’ll play in a while and it just has a super satisfying ending which seals the deal. I don’t go into much details here because it’s the kind of story where you want to go in fresh but there are just so many dynamite characters all around. Whether you’ve played Fire Emblem or not, you can absolutely jump into this one. It’s very new player friendly and you will have no regrets when going through the adventure.

Overall 9/10

Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes Stats and Records

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Stats time!

Play Time 15h 26m
Camp Level E
Facility Effects 2
Current Renown 173 Points
Achievements Completed 70

Character Levels

Shez 61
Edelgard 56
Hubert 56
Ferdinand 42
Linhardt 12
Caspar 28
Bernadetta 27
Dorothea 15
Petra 15
Monica 51
Ashe 16
Lorenz 22
Ignatz 22
Yuri 39
Balthus 22
Constance 10
Hapi 10
Manuela 25
Jeritza 25
Shamir 60

Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes Review

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This is one of those games where before even playing it, I knew it would be an elite. Beat em up games tend to be awesome and then the Nintendo titles take it a step further. Well, this one does not disappoint and it has to be one of the most expansive warrior titles to date. There are just so many different mechanics in there that it’s hard to know where to start when optimizing your team. Fortunately you can ignore the mechanics and still get to the end if that’s how you want to do it.

The game starts out by introducing us to a mercenary named Shez. Shez is fairly tough but one day his whole crew is murdered by a guy named Byleth. Byleth is one of the most powerful guys around and his abilities are absolutely crazy. A mysterious being from another dimension appears and lets Shez know that they can be partners and together even Byleth can’t stop them. Shez doesn’t have much of a choice in this to be honest but he’s a good sport about the whole thing and agrees to work together. Gradually Shez learns how to let go of his rage and how to press on normally. It’s a pretty emotional story and one that’s over 15 hours long so you can bet that there is a lot of character development here.

While I wouldn’t say the story is quite as dynamic as the first FE Warriors game, that one was a crossover so it had a lot of advantages built right into it. This one had to make do with the cast of the three houses game and I’d say that it did well with that. You choose a team to align yourself with early on and then the rest of the game is built around that. That’s part of the impressive nature of the game if you ask me because that means there’s over 45 hours of content here. Your playthroughs with the other two teams will be almost completely different.

Additionally, there is a lot of extra story content beyond the main campaigns. There are a bunch of paralogues which are effectively bonus story events, extra levels, side quests, and around 15-20 different activities you can do. Even just getting new weapons can turn into a big thing as you grab a lot of weapons you can level up, change your rank, class, etc. I barely scratched the tip of the iceberg in terms of content when going through this game. There was certainly a whole lot of other things to do and it’s the kind of game that would be extremely intimidating to try and 100%. Good luck with that!

It also means that you are getting an incredible amount of value for your purchase. This is well worth the $60 and then some. You could easily play this game for weeks and weeks. The graphics are top notch of course with Nintendo giving the game their A team. I had no complaints while playing through it and the action scenes are epic. Likewise the soundtrack is really good. The game even saved the best tunes for the end of the adventure which was great because then you get to end the whole thing off on a high note.

The final level was also difficult, it was the first time that I actually lost in the whole game. You have to win without letting Shez or Edelgard die but you can only control one so the A.I. was determined to take me down. I had to leave, level up, and regroup before going back in. The final level is rather long at over 20 minutes so that was quite the experience. Still, it’s good that the final level isn’t a cakewalk or anything like that. It probably would have been if I bothered to do any of the side content too so this was a fairly good compromise.

Naturally the gameplay is a blast here. It’s your typical 3D warriors gameplay, you blast through the levels and have to usually defeat hundreds of opponents before you get to the end. Your objectives will range from helping civilians to defeating bosses. You can also assign orders to the computers to help you out so you aren’t just fighting on your own out there. You have standard attacks, power moves, final smashes, and an awakening move. Switching between them is absolutely key if you aim to rise to the top and complete any challenge that gets in your way.

Personally what I found to be the most effective method was to have all of my allies converge on one spot. I felt like they produced much better results that way than having them spread out to do whatever they wanted. Even then you will beat 3 castles in the time it takes them to beat one but at least it’ll help you a bit. Send them to the farthest ones so you don’t have to worry about it. Sometimes you will have to change your orders depending on the situation.

Shez’s movement ability to turn intangible is extremely valuable too. For that reason I would rarely switch who I was controlling because nobody’s ability was nearly as good. This one was in a class completely on its own. There’s a decent amount of depth to the gameplay as well so be sure to learn as you’re going. Weapon types with advantages and disadvantages tend to play a rather big part here so you’ll want to keep that in mind as well. Defeating an opponent who has the advantage will naturally take longer.

Overall, Fire Emblem Warriors is a blast. I highly recommend this to any gamer out there. The action is nonstop and there’s just so much to process and think about here. It’s not a game that you’ll pick up and start dominating. At the very least you will want to have some kind of a plan while you’re in the level or you will just be setting yourself up for disaster. If you want a super challenge you can also set it up so if someone dies then they will be gone forever. That’s a very bold way to play and it’s not for me since losing out on all of those level ups sounds painful, but it definitely makes you think twice about all of your decisions. Hopefully they keep this up and get us a third fire emblem warriors game at some point. There’s still so much you can do with the premise. Of course the same will be true of any other Nintendo property as well.

Overall 9/10

Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore Review

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It’s time to look at a fun action RPG. This game was on my radar for a very long time even though I ultimately did not end up picking it out when the game first came out on the Wii U. I just ended up waiting until finally it came out for the Switch and I knew I needed to pick it up. Cut to my video game backlog going under 70 for the first time and to celebrate I got this game along with a few others. The game is definitely a blast and I always love playing a big RPG adventure like this one. It’s definitely a very fun game that is also quite difficult. Without the Bloom Palace and it’s super grinding areas I dare say that I could still be playing this game right now.

The game starts by introducing us to the mass disappearance event. A show was being conducted by two mega famous idols but then suddenly everyone vanished. Cut to 5 years later and people still don’t know what happened. Our main character Itsuki is waiting at the mall for his friend when he bumps into a childhood friend of his, Tsubasa. She is trying to be an idol herself and is pretty close in the auditions to finally hitting it big. Unfortunately, that’s when tragedy strikes. The director is actually being controlled by a mirage and kidnaps her. Itsuki heads in as well and ends up harnessing the power of the mirages to save her. He is bonded with Chrome and Tsubasa also gets a Mirage of her own. They find out that there is a larger war between humans and mirages at play right now and they all have a role in it. Can the heroes find out why everyone at the concert vanished 5 years ago and stop any future threats? In the meantime they also have to work hard because they now work for an actual Idol company so Tsubasa’s dream of being a professional is almost complete.

While this is partially a Fire Emblem game to the loosest extent, it’s totally a stand alone adventure. It’s also a very character driven game so the main story takes a backseat for the most part. Each chapter will have someone get possessed and then the heroes head in to save the victim from going over to the dark side. In the final chapter or two we find out about the real main villain and that starts the climax. In between each chapter is an intermission where you get some dancing instructions and it’s also a chance for you to hang out and complete some side quests. The story may not be the deepest, but it’s still pretty fun. I’m always up for seeing the Fire Emblem characters even if they’re basically just ghosts here.

The game also shines with how it throws in fully animated cutscenes at times. It’s pretty epic when the transitions happen. The normal cutscenes are also pretty solid though as they go for more of a cell shaded look. There are quite a few cutscenes here to be sure so this really feels like a AAA title. The soundtrack is also pretty good I’d say. There are a wide range of themes here and they all work rather well. One of the things I like about RPGs is they are long enough where you get to really know all of the characters and enjoy the wide range of activities in the world. There is a ton of replay value to enjoy here after all and the main campaign is over 20 hours long. If you don’t take advantage of the Bloom Palace then it’ll probably be even longer.

So the main gameplay is that of a classic turn based RPG. When it’s your turn you can choose to use one of your skills or an item. The game has an elemental system so some attacks will be super effective on different kinds of enemies. A pretty fun thing the game does is make those elements secret until you use an attack. So if it’s an enemy you haven’t fought before then all of his elemental resistances will show a question mark. Once you beat him then for all future occurrences you will see the strengths and weaknesses. It’s something that could work well in Pokemon if you ask me since it would give more reason to actually fill out the Pokedex.

You can use 3 characters in a party and when you use a super effective attack then the others can jump in and get an extra attack if they have an applicable skill. As you level characters up and gather materials you can also unlock passive abilities for the cast. These can be quite helpful. For example, there is one passive skill that allows every character in the back row to get a turn as well. What this ultimately means is that you can have 7 attacks in a single turn every turn. You can see how much of an advantage this would be right? Ultimately I only unlocked one of these skills before beating the game though. You need a high bond level to unlock them and that requires fighting with the character for a while or working on their side quests. You also need materials and since I did all of my grinding in the dungeon I didn’t really have almost any materials.

It’s actually something that caught up to me by the end of the game. I got all of my characters to level 99 but without materials it meant that my characters still had really weak weapons. Surprisingly those make such a difference that even being level 99 didn’t help to balance things back out. So if you do decide to train up there then be sure to still go in and fight some real minions. Those materials are absolutely essential and I can confirm that you will be really glad to have them on hand. I really love how in depth the complex the game goes with the mechanics though. Each of your weapons also have passive effects you can unlock which encourages you to fight with the sub weapons as well. Then you can use dust to increase your stats. There are a ton of ways to beat each boss so the strategy is entire up to you. Choose wisely.

The cast also isn’t bad although they’re fairly weak compared to most RPG titles. Itsuki for example is a reasonable main character, but he’s borderline an avatar character because the guy has no real character. He’s a nice guy who’s super humble and always does the right thing. That’s nice and all but he never really shows much personality. Tsubasa is also a fun heroine but shows a similar level of energy. Her thing is that she tends to mispronounce words. It’s a reasonably solid gimmick I’d say. The best character here is probably the rival who shows up a few times to get in your way. He’s definitely not someone to be trifled with.

Overall, Tokyo Mirages is a game that lived up to the hype. The story may not have been the greatest compared to other big RPGs, but I was still entertained the whole way through. The most important thing is the gameplay of course and that was definitely on point from start to finish. I’d certainly be up for a sequel at some point. I’ve definitely got more RPG titles to work on as well so I’ll be ready for another big adventure soon. In the meantime if you haven’t picked this game up yet then you should. Just don’t go in expecting a whole lot of Fire Emblem characters. They help a bit with the lore but that’s about it, no Roy or Ike or anything like that. If you remember your Fire Emblem elemental types for the weapons that should help you quite a bit with guessing what attacks to use off the bat though.

Overall 8/10

Fire Emblem Heroes: Heroes’ Everyday Lives

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FEH_comic_title_page
It’s been a little while since I read an anthology manga. The 4 Koma chapters seem reasonably entertaining and certainly better than other gag titles like Rock Lee. I’ll review it when they stop coming out with the chapters, but since each installment is only 1 page I get the feeling that this could last for quite a while. I’m waiting for Roy to show up at this point.

Overall 7/10

Fire Emblem Warriors Stats and Records

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Stats time!

Play Time 7h 22m
Badges 8/36
Character Stats

Rowan Level 50
Marth Level 50
Lucina Level 41
Cordelia Level 29
Lianna Level 27
Xander Level 27
Caeda Level 26
Corrin Level 21
Robin Level 21
Ryoma Level 20
Tiki Level 20
Leo Level 19
Camilla Level 16
Chrom Level 15
Hinoka Level 14
Takumi Level 14
Sakura Level 13
Elise Level 13
Lissa Level 13
Frederick Level 13