Review of Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest

By: FRANCESCO LOMBARDO '17

PTS Falconer Assistant Editor

Score 10/10

L & R & Start will be your most pressed buttons.

It’s been over a year since Fire Emblem Fates was revealed to the world. The next installment in the turn based strategy series would be returning in all its 3D glory. The last installment Fire Emblem Awakening quickly became one of my favorite games of all time, if not my favorite game of all time. I was excited for Fates, after waiting over a year and a release in Japan about 8 months before the United States I could not wait to get my hands on a copy. Finally the release date came along after a grueling year of waiting. I patiently waited until the clock slowly ticked to 12 AM ET. It was time to begin my journey.

Conquest is not an easy game; it’s a massacre. I played it on normal classic, meaning that if any of my units were killed they would be lost forever. Having played through Awakening with little to no problems I thought, “how hard could this be?” Oh boy was I in for a challenge. First things first, the objectives in this game are no longer just route the enemy (meaning defeat all the enemies to complete the map); they consist of more complicated and difficult objectives. One map required me to find which of the units disguised like a soldier from my army was the pirate captain that was stealing gold from me every turn. Another time I needed to defend a point on the map where enemies were not supposed to reach. It’s the varied goals and objectives that really bring the challenge and variety into the game. I pressed L & R and Start to reset my game a countless number of times because I didn’t want to lose the units that I had been investing all my time training to a lucky critical hit on the enemies side.

Besides wanting to throw my 3DS across the room, I also explored many of the other features that the game has to offer on my quest to conquer the neighboring kingdom of Hoshido. The new My Castle feature is the most interesting hub world I’ve seen on a handheld game. Creating and customizing my castle and seeing my units run shops, interact with each other, and being able to siege other players’ castles is some of the most fun I’ve had in a while. It felt like a mix between Animal Crossing and Runefactory. From My Castle you can access the world map, which will allow you to continue in the story or play other paralogues that you unlock when two units gain S rank support. I was more of a fan of Awakenings living map which allowed me to run around the map and select the levels I wanted to play, but the My Castle feature more than makes up for that.

The support system in this entry of Fire Emblem stays mostly the same with a few changes. Some units can reach A+ rank instead of ending just at A which allows them to give each other greater bonuses in battle. Upon the arrival of S rank you can further increase it and therefore increase what stats you get. There is also a live 2D portion where units will say something to you and you see a 2D animated model of them. The support conversations are very well done and can sometimes be very funny or touching which shows the hard work that the writers put into each of these characters personalities.

My biggest gripe with the game is that your main character that you create can sometimes come off as the blandest character you’ll ever meet in your life. I know that you already make a major choice in the game by choosing which side to fight on, but a few little choices littered here and there would have been very nice. By the end of the game I cared more about the relationships I had built with the other characters in the game than my actual unit. The story itself is also not the best but it’s certainly better than Awakenings and kept me entertained throughout the whole thing. Oh and be prepared to have your feelings ripped out and crushed at a certain point in the game.

Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest has already become one of my favorite games and has easily surpassed Awakening. The wealth of new features and the new variety in the map objectives have come together to make the most interesting turn based game I’ve played. 

10/10