Awakening is great. I liked Blazing Blade more, but I honestly think a big part of that is nostalgia. The graphics and soundtrack play well and more importantly, many of the characters are memorable. I had some trouble choosing what characters to use on my main team because they were all so interesting.
The story is probably the game’s weakest point, and even then I never thought of the story as bland or dumb. Instead, I mostly just had nitpicks about the logic. For example, you hatch this grand plan to save the Exalt from being killed by the enemy king and all goes really well: your small force tears through the castle defenses and a squad of Pegasus knights swoops in to grab the Exalt and GTFO. Somehow, the witch-advisor summons a bunch of undead archers and that foils the plan completely...which is baffling considering the Pegasus knights had arrived for way enough time to grab the Exalt and just fly far away before the archers could arise and do anything; furthermore, the small force you brought with you to storm the castle is RIGHT THERE in the courtyard and could’ve likely destroyed the archers immediately.
Difficulty-wise, I played on Classic Normal and felt the difficulty was pretty standard for what I’d experienced in the past. Now here we go – my shrine to Fire Emblem: Awakening. Unlike with Blazing Blade, each unit can have unlimited supports, so I didn’t really have teams of units. Instead I’ll group them in plot-relevant ways.
Random side-note: is it just me, or is Validar’s map theme the Paradise theme from Makai Toushi SaGa?
The Shepherds
The story is probably the game’s weakest point, and even then I never thought of the story as bland or dumb. Instead, I mostly just had nitpicks about the logic. For example, you hatch this grand plan to save the Exalt from being killed by the enemy king and all goes really well: your small force tears through the castle defenses and a squad of Pegasus knights swoops in to grab the Exalt and GTFO. Somehow, the witch-advisor summons a bunch of undead archers and that foils the plan completely...which is baffling considering the Pegasus knights had arrived for way enough time to grab the Exalt and just fly far away before the archers could arise and do anything; furthermore, the small force you brought with you to storm the castle is RIGHT THERE in the courtyard and could’ve likely destroyed the archers immediately.
Difficulty-wise, I played on Classic Normal and felt the difficulty was pretty standard for what I’d experienced in the past. Now here we go – my shrine to Fire Emblem: Awakening. Unlike with Blazing Blade, each unit can have unlimited supports, so I didn’t really have teams of units. Instead I’ll group them in plot-relevant ways.
Random side-note: is it just me, or is Validar’s map theme the Paradise theme from Makai Toushi SaGa?
The Shepherds
The Shepherds are the Halidom’s unofficial military led by Prince Chrom. I paired Chrom with Sumia since that’s the first pairing you really see and the game doesn’t allow you to pair him with Cordelia, who would’ve been my first choice (Cordelia is also more interesting than Sumia is, honestly). The “woman to end all men,” Sully, is plain awesome and I initially had trouble pairing her up with someone as it was hard to find a guy whom Sully would find worthy, but then I chose Kellam because Sully reminds me of a friend and Kellam is kind of reminiscent of that friend’s husband in that he’s sort of quiet and unassuming.
Kill ratios (they appear in the epilogues and never again, so I have to list them manually): 69.9% (Chrom), 65.7% (Sumia), 42.8% (Kellam), and 52.2% (Sully).
Epilogue: Chrom did his best to live up to his sister’s legacy, but he could never quite grasp her pacifist nature and acknowledged that his sister was a greater ruler because of it. Nevertheless, he and Sumia ruled Ylisse fairly and brought the Halidom to a new era of peace.
…Though one reason for this peace is that any potential enemies of Ylisse knew that they’d have to fight Sully, who would end them so brutally that bards would sing of their pain for years to come.
These two from Roseanne
Kill ratios (they appear in the epilogues and never again, so I have to list them manually): 69.9% (Chrom), 65.7% (Sumia), 42.8% (Kellam), and 52.2% (Sully).
Epilogue: Chrom did his best to live up to his sister’s legacy, but he could never quite grasp her pacifist nature and acknowledged that his sister was a greater ruler because of it. Nevertheless, he and Sumia ruled Ylisse fairly and brought the Halidom to a new era of peace.
…Though one reason for this peace is that any potential enemies of Ylisse knew that they’d have to fight Sully, who would end them so brutally that bards would sing of their pain for years to come.
These two from Roseanne
Virion is interesting. While a few Fire Emblem games feature the “guy who hits on all the girls” trope, few have the complexity Virion shows over the course of his supports. He was the duke of Roseanne, but then Walmart the Conqueror destroyed it. Contrary to his carefree nature, this weighs down on him a lot – especially since he’s quite talented at both archery and strategy. The only person who really understands him is Cherche, who cheerfully tells Virion that if he betrays her, she’ll have her wyvern eat him.
In his supports with me, Virion consistently beats me at chess, which real-life me wouldn’t be surprised by as I suck at chess. But interestingly, Virion points out that his victories come from throwing his units at me without care for their survival, whereas I try to keep them alive. This is interesting because this is exactly how the AI plays – it doesn’t try to keep units alive but instead just focuses on killing yours.
Kill ratios: 68.1% (Virion) and 56.9% (Cherche).
Epilogue: Virion and Cherche returned to rebuild Roseanne and succeeded in undoing the damage from Walmart the Conqueror. Virion ruled wisely and generously, primarily because if he didn’t, he would become wyvern fodder and he didn’t quite fancy that.
Also, some of those dynast-guys or whatever tried to attack Roseanne. Cherche flew over to them and her wyvern ate them all. This is known to historians as the Nomz War.
The Children
In his supports with me, Virion consistently beats me at chess, which real-life me wouldn’t be surprised by as I suck at chess. But interestingly, Virion points out that his victories come from throwing his units at me without care for their survival, whereas I try to keep them alive. This is interesting because this is exactly how the AI plays – it doesn’t try to keep units alive but instead just focuses on killing yours.
Kill ratios: 68.1% (Virion) and 56.9% (Cherche).
Epilogue: Virion and Cherche returned to rebuild Roseanne and succeeded in undoing the damage from Walmart the Conqueror. Virion ruled wisely and generously, primarily because if he didn’t, he would become wyvern fodder and he didn’t quite fancy that.
Also, some of those dynast-guys or whatever tried to attack Roseanne. Cherche flew over to them and her wyvern ate them all. This is known to historians as the Nomz War.
The Children
The children from the future are all pretty strong and have cool personalities. My favorite is probably Noire, though. See, in the future, her mother Tharja (we’ll get to her later) kept practicing curses and hexes on her, so she became timid. Tharja rectified this by making her a talisman that, when held/worn, turns her into…someone who isn’t timid at all.
Here’s an example. When you first find Noire, some goons had kidnapped her and she’s sitting in a jail cell despairing. But then she picks up her talisman and tells the goons to “REPENT, SCUM! REPENT THOUGH IT WILL SAVE YOU NOT! REPENT AND DESPAIR!” She then proceeds to massacre them all – she’s an archer whereas the goons posted all flying guards on her – while laughing maniacally.
Her sister, Morgan, has amnesia for some reason and she’s trying to recover her memories. At one point Morgan tells Noire than she might not get her memories back ever and Noire can just give up if she’s tired of trying to help her. Noire responded with, “BLOOD AND THUNDER! WE ARE KIN FOOL! TWO SOULS CONNECTED BY BIRTH AND BLOOD! NEVER AGAIN IMPLY THAT I MIGHT BE SO SHAMELESS AS TO ABANDON YOU!”
Yeah, Noire’s pretty awesome. Her sister was really strong in-game, but since her personality comes down to “amnesia,” there wasn’t a lot for me to comment on there.
Kill ratios: 78.1% (Lucina), 83.1% (Cynthia), 78.9% (Morgan), 74.7% (Noire), 45.8% (Kjelle), and 58.2% (Gerome).
Epilogue: The children, having saved the timeline, decided to try to return to their future. Bolstered by her experiences with the Shepherds, Lucina led a resistance to sweep the land of Grima’s forces. Her sister became a famed heroine and many villains realized too late their mistake of underestimating the cheerful and somewhat clumsy princess.
Gerome disappeared…somewhere, seeking solitude. Kjelle took the opposite route, traveling the land far and wide, making a name for herself as an invincible duelist who brutally crushed any opposition and living up to her mother’s title as the woman to end all men.
The Dancer and the Dragon
Here’s an example. When you first find Noire, some goons had kidnapped her and she’s sitting in a jail cell despairing. But then she picks up her talisman and tells the goons to “REPENT, SCUM! REPENT THOUGH IT WILL SAVE YOU NOT! REPENT AND DESPAIR!” She then proceeds to massacre them all – she’s an archer whereas the goons posted all flying guards on her – while laughing maniacally.
Her sister, Morgan, has amnesia for some reason and she’s trying to recover her memories. At one point Morgan tells Noire than she might not get her memories back ever and Noire can just give up if she’s tired of trying to help her. Noire responded with, “BLOOD AND THUNDER! WE ARE KIN FOOL! TWO SOULS CONNECTED BY BIRTH AND BLOOD! NEVER AGAIN IMPLY THAT I MIGHT BE SO SHAMELESS AS TO ABANDON YOU!”
Yeah, Noire’s pretty awesome. Her sister was really strong in-game, but since her personality comes down to “amnesia,” there wasn’t a lot for me to comment on there.
Kill ratios: 78.1% (Lucina), 83.1% (Cynthia), 78.9% (Morgan), 74.7% (Noire), 45.8% (Kjelle), and 58.2% (Gerome).
Epilogue: The children, having saved the timeline, decided to try to return to their future. Bolstered by her experiences with the Shepherds, Lucina led a resistance to sweep the land of Grima’s forces. Her sister became a famed heroine and many villains realized too late their mistake of underestimating the cheerful and somewhat clumsy princess.
Gerome disappeared…somewhere, seeking solitude. Kjelle took the opposite route, traveling the land far and wide, making a name for herself as an invincible duelist who brutally crushed any opposition and living up to her mother’s title as the woman to end all men.
The Dancer and the Dragon
These two don’t have a lot to do with one another, but they’re kind of the odd ones out so they’re in their own section. Also, they played very important and unique roles in the game – I used Olivia’s dancing way more in this game than I did with Ninian/Nils in Blazing Blade and Tiki…well, Tiki quite literally melted everything’s face. If I needed someone dead, sending Tiki at him was a surefire way of doing it. Just look at her stats – those are insane and keep in mind I used her only sparingly as I needed to level up the rest of the guys in my army. If I weren’t so conservative she’d be even stronger and could probably solo the damn game.
Kill ratios: 7.7% (Olivia) and 82.3% (Tiki).
Epilogue: Olivia achieved her dream of opening a theatre and her performances became famous. Some douchebags decided to try to take advantage of her shyness, but then they discovered that she also knew how to dance with a sword and paid the ultimate price.
Tiki returned to her role as the Naga’s Voice. Some douchebags tried to ask for her advice on how to con attractive and shy dancers into sleeping with them and Tiki breathed fire on them until they burned to death in agony.
The tactician and the…Tharja
Kill ratios: 7.7% (Olivia) and 82.3% (Tiki).
Epilogue: Olivia achieved her dream of opening a theatre and her performances became famous. Some douchebags decided to try to take advantage of her shyness, but then they discovered that she also knew how to dance with a sword and paid the ultimate price.
Tiki returned to her role as the Naga’s Voice. Some douchebags tried to ask for her advice on how to con attractive and shy dancers into sleeping with them and Tiki breathed fire on them until they burned to death in agony.
The tactician and the…Tharja
…yeah, there’s not really a word I could come up with to characterize Tharja…
So I began the game knowing that the support system in Awakening led to marriage and that the tactician character (me) was actually a part of this. I didn’t really have any pairings in mind for myself, though, despite me pairing up a bunch of the other characters in advance (above). Over the course of the game Tharja and I fought in adjacent squares enough that we reached an S support and I went for it because…why not.
Battle-wise, both Tharja and I were pretty powerful forces and we definitely entered the “need to pull back or nobody else will get any experience” tier. Personality-wise, the tactician character is pretty blank as he/she is supposed to represent the player, but Tharja…is something else. She’s creepy and possessive and…really, really creepy. I surmise enemies on the battlefield wished they could flee in terror after just seeing Tharja, much less actually fighting her and hearing her sinister laugh alongside, “do you like the darkness? >=D.”
Yeah, I know in real life this would be actually terrifying, but this is a fantasy game (you know, fiction) with exaggerated characters, so she comes across as hilarious in a very unsettling manner. I think it’s kind of like how I liked Serra in Blazing Blade despite the fact that a real-life Serra would annoy me to hell. In one of my supports with Noire, Noire complained about how Tharja kept practicing curses on her so I jacked all of Tharja’s dark and evil cursing equipment. Then the support conversation ended with me fleeing Tharja’s unholy wrath and Noire musing that she’d never seen her mother come after me with such ferocity before.
ME: Wait…do you feel that?! A sudden sense of foreboding; a fury rising from the shadows. A Risen ambush? No…bears? Is it bears? No…urk! It’s your mother…and she’s FURIOUS! *runs away really fast
Kill ratios: 86.0% (me) and 77.3% (Tharja). I have the kill ratio record for this game, which is surprising because the main character usually has a lower kill ratio – the fights at the beginning of the game are more evenly matched, meaning units aren’t generally going to one-shot or one-round enemies.
Epilogue, from Tharja’s memoirs: The fight is done. Grima and his little cult are no more. Sometimes I still look back to that moment, standing with the Shepherds, victorious over the dragon I once was supposed to serve, and wonder at how whimsical fate can be.
The Grimleal were idiots. They spent generations trying to find a vessel for their dark master and failed continuously because they could not grasp the fundamental essence of what Grima was – suffering made manifest. They searched for people who were evil or cruel. Grima already possessed all of that, so why the hell would he need those traits in his vessel?
Grima fed off despair. Suffering. Pain. That’s what he needed in his vessel. When Validar gave birth to a son infused with hate and malice, his wife fled with him into the wilderness and he sent me to recover him. By the time I got there, his son had consumed himself with rage. I honestly don’t know what he was expecting. But then…
In my own experiments, I discovered someone from far away, someone who bore the deep internal wound that Grima could feed on. This was Benamin and, as I understand it, I pulled him here immediately before certain death. I can’t imagine he thanked me for that, but from then on, he traveled with the Shepherds and I watched him. He’s intriguing, that one. Even with the despair hollowing him out, he fought with Ylisse against the darkness. It seemed that he had given up hope for himself, but not for those around him.
In the final battle, he decided to destroy Grima by destroying himself. Even I know not whether he is truly gone or, if perhaps he will awaken anew without the burdens of his past. Either way, he shall have peace.
…Also, I am already prepared to bind his spirit to my will. We’re going to have fun together.
So I began the game knowing that the support system in Awakening led to marriage and that the tactician character (me) was actually a part of this. I didn’t really have any pairings in mind for myself, though, despite me pairing up a bunch of the other characters in advance (above). Over the course of the game Tharja and I fought in adjacent squares enough that we reached an S support and I went for it because…why not.
Battle-wise, both Tharja and I were pretty powerful forces and we definitely entered the “need to pull back or nobody else will get any experience” tier. Personality-wise, the tactician character is pretty blank as he/she is supposed to represent the player, but Tharja…is something else. She’s creepy and possessive and…really, really creepy. I surmise enemies on the battlefield wished they could flee in terror after just seeing Tharja, much less actually fighting her and hearing her sinister laugh alongside, “do you like the darkness? >=D.”
Yeah, I know in real life this would be actually terrifying, but this is a fantasy game (you know, fiction) with exaggerated characters, so she comes across as hilarious in a very unsettling manner. I think it’s kind of like how I liked Serra in Blazing Blade despite the fact that a real-life Serra would annoy me to hell. In one of my supports with Noire, Noire complained about how Tharja kept practicing curses on her so I jacked all of Tharja’s dark and evil cursing equipment. Then the support conversation ended with me fleeing Tharja’s unholy wrath and Noire musing that she’d never seen her mother come after me with such ferocity before.
ME: Wait…do you feel that?! A sudden sense of foreboding; a fury rising from the shadows. A Risen ambush? No…bears? Is it bears? No…urk! It’s your mother…and she’s FURIOUS! *runs away really fast
Kill ratios: 86.0% (me) and 77.3% (Tharja). I have the kill ratio record for this game, which is surprising because the main character usually has a lower kill ratio – the fights at the beginning of the game are more evenly matched, meaning units aren’t generally going to one-shot or one-round enemies.
Epilogue, from Tharja’s memoirs: The fight is done. Grima and his little cult are no more. Sometimes I still look back to that moment, standing with the Shepherds, victorious over the dragon I once was supposed to serve, and wonder at how whimsical fate can be.
The Grimleal were idiots. They spent generations trying to find a vessel for their dark master and failed continuously because they could not grasp the fundamental essence of what Grima was – suffering made manifest. They searched for people who were evil or cruel. Grima already possessed all of that, so why the hell would he need those traits in his vessel?
Grima fed off despair. Suffering. Pain. That’s what he needed in his vessel. When Validar gave birth to a son infused with hate and malice, his wife fled with him into the wilderness and he sent me to recover him. By the time I got there, his son had consumed himself with rage. I honestly don’t know what he was expecting. But then…
In my own experiments, I discovered someone from far away, someone who bore the deep internal wound that Grima could feed on. This was Benamin and, as I understand it, I pulled him here immediately before certain death. I can’t imagine he thanked me for that, but from then on, he traveled with the Shepherds and I watched him. He’s intriguing, that one. Even with the despair hollowing him out, he fought with Ylisse against the darkness. It seemed that he had given up hope for himself, but not for those around him.
In the final battle, he decided to destroy Grima by destroying himself. Even I know not whether he is truly gone or, if perhaps he will awaken anew without the burdens of his past. Either way, he shall have peace.
…Also, I am already prepared to bind his spirit to my will. We’re going to have fun together.