Fire Emblem: Awakening

I finally beat the game!

But I have a confession. By chapter 20, I grew very impatient all of a sudden and just wanted the game to end so bad, and solo'd the rest of the game with a Hero class Donnel paired with Chrom. Is this guy the most overpowered Fire Emblem character? With armsthrift and sol, I'd say yes.

These are the pairings that I did:
Chrom x Sumia (was automatic. Would have went with it anyway.)
Avatar (female) x Stahl
Lon'Qu x Sully
Donnel x Lissa
Virion x Cherche (Their kid makes so much sense.)

That pretty much covers all the females that I used, plus Anna who doesn't have anyone to have a romantic relationship with. I'd also have used Flavia and Basilion had I not decided to make the game Donnel Emblem.

I also intended to marry the other guys that I used. Was planning on:
Vaike x Panne
Kellam x Olivia
Gregor x (i'm drawing blanks. Who'd fit?)
But plans changed. The only children I used were Morgan (didn't plan to, but I wanted a berserker) and Owain. (didn't think I'd like him)


All and in all, I was disappointed. I felt the game, especially at later levels, was designed around grinding with second seals and support conversations. That strengthened the reason why I felt the whole game felt more like an RPG than a strategy. Early levels provided a perfect mix, but the game got worse each chapter. I also didn't like the story, well the one regarding Grima. I thought the Walhart arc was fantastic, and Gangrel proved to be an entertaining villain. But the end twist was deus ex machina at its worst. I grew to like most of the characters, but can't help but feel they're not what I expected. (especially the females. So one-dimensional.)

That's not to say it's a bad game by any means, far from it! It's still one of the best games on the 3DS by far. Maybe I had too much expectations for it, because I actually thought it could dethrone Luigi's Mansion 2 as the best game on the 3DS. It ended up being my least favorite Fire Emblem. Not that I have played many on the series, to be fair, but it's still something I feel the need to say. I'll see if I'll end up liking Fire Emblem 7 better, because that one's next.


I'll probably give the game another and proper go later, if I feel like it. A normal/classic playthrough with no grinding, or hard/classic with no grinding if I have the time. Going to try different pairings and stuff I suppose, and no Donny this time because I don't want anymore Donny Emblem.

The plot was definitely lacking in this game compared to Path of Radiance or Blazing Sword.

Donny gets annoying to use in the harder difficulties. He's like impossible to use in Lunatic. But if you grind enough the game could become *insert name here* Emblem.

An aww you didn't get to see all the kids. You didn't get Brady or Laurent. :(

Also you ruined the experience by grinding. Makes the game no fun.

The thing is I didn't grind much, just fought the random risens in the world map whenever I felt like it. DLC? Only used the free one once to get Marth early on. I also only used a second seal on Donnel and Morgan (to get a Berserker like I said). Some characters, if not most, still felt near-invincible. The challenge was by trying to keep the weaker units alive. Anna, for example, dies so quickly. Same for Kellam in later missions with all the magic users.

I'll probably get the rest of the kids some time. Maybe the next weekend. Would love to see all of them.

Were you playing on Normal? Grinding even a little bit makes a unit OP. And yeah the kids are awesome. (get the GeromexInigo supports. They're amazing.)

Hard/Classic. I admit that I can see that there's a big difficulty jump after chapter 19, but that's the point where I just used Donnel. When I tried using all my units on the last map they were slaughtered. lol

I beat Normal/Classic which was loleasy... but I tried Hard/Classic and I was slaughtered. There's no feasible way to grind without DLC which I can't get until I get my 3DS XL back. I'm playing on a friend's 3DS at the moment. I am, sadly, doing Hard/Casual which feels like a good amount of difficulty still but not as painful as Hard/Classic.

Hard classic isn't thaaat bad. *shot*

:< Maybe I'm just that bad. Lol, I had to reset every five minutes it seems... I got to Chapter 5 and just got slaughtered.

I'm at level 20 now, but currently getting a bunch of kids before continuing now. I plan to jump into Lunatic/Classic after I beat the game, so that should be fun!

Lunatic/Classic's first couple of Chapters are...just...just evil...
I thought Fire Emblem: Shin Monshou no Nazo's first couple chapters on its Lunatic equivalent was hard, but...ugh...
I mean, I love hard games. Heck, Touhou Project is one of my favorite series, but this kind of hard...it's not the same. It's more a matter of luck on the first couple of chapters than anything else. I've come across this before in other games, with varying entertainment and frustration in between. Whether it's the enjoyable frustration or the "This isn't fair game design" frustration varies as well.

It took me several tries to get through the first chapter on Lunatic Classic.

There's a distinct strategy behind it and sometimes it just takes multiple tries, but be prepared for the dramatic deaths of Chrom or your Avatar multiple times before finding out the best way to get past the level.

I tried Lunatic/Classic. Chrom died almost instantly, lol.

I'd try Lunatic but some of the things that pissed me off on my first playthrough would piss me off much much more.

Actually, reinforcements alone will make me go with normal on my second playthrough because they don't move the same turn. Now, I have no problem with that normally, but maps, especially later maps, are pretty much designed around piling reinforcements on you from each side for a lot turns. This makes the maps a huge trial and error and requires memorization unless all of your units can defend themselves from anything, but this isn't possible unless you actually grind enough. This can get very frustrating. Not hard, but frustrating.

Thinking about it now, the design of the maps in this game are actually pretty disappointing (especially the later ones, the first 6 were fine but it got worse from there) and really highlight why I think this game is designed around overpowering your units instead of strategy. Of course, I only mean the main chapters. Side quest map design are great though, since they all require a different strategy considering it's mostly about recruiting new members or defending villagers/units or stuff like that.

Mmm, so, there's new Spotpass & DLC Content:

You can get an item called Armads from the Bonus Box (a Axe that comes from Fire Emblem: Binding Blade), and The Future Past 2 is now available to purchase. :3

I've already finished The Future Past 1, so, I guess I might as well download this one. ><;

Miss Doronjo said:

Mmm, so, there's new Spotpass & DLC Content:

You can get an item called Armads from the Bonus Box (a Axe that comes from Fire Emblem: Binding Blade), and The Future Past 2 is now available to purchase. :3

I've already finished The Future Past 1, so, I guess I might as well download this one. ><;

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How is Future Past, anyway? It seems pretty interesting, but I'm not completely sure whether I should buy it.

machomuu said:

How is Future Past, anyway? It seems pretty interesting, but I'm not completely sure whether I should buy it.

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Basically, you're sent to the future, and you're trying to 'rewrite it' as it were. Originally, it's been said that the children of the future were going to be killed by Risen, but, you know, you've been sent to keep them all alive. You can interact with each kid with their biological parent, and see their story behind that.

The only thing challenging is keeping the children alive, though. Sure they have the skills theat they inherited from their parents, but, they're still pretty weak when it comes to those level 20 risen with tampered weapons. I even used to struggle keeping the kids alive, because occasionally, a Mage would sneak up and blast away a child in one hit. Ugh.

So, yeah, I'd just say keep alert if you plan to do this DLC. It's a pretty good DLC though; I'd certainly recommend playing it if you want more story behind the future and Grima.

I wish I had more monies so I could get some of dat DLC. From what I've heard, the new batch of DLC is really good(I stopped buying after I got/beat Rogues and REdeemers 3)

Do you guys use any of the Spot Pass characters of the characters from the past Fire Emblem games, like Marth or Ike?

Yes, I use some of the legacy spotpass characters. But I mainly use them as rally or heal bots.

Guys, if you got to choose only one of these (characters that share base classes), which one would you choose? (Promoted units ala Frederick and Say'ri don't count. Also the children.)

Sully vs Stahl
Miriel vs Rickens
Sumia vs Cordelia
Tharjah vs Henry

I'm missing a pair aren't I? Either way.

Sully vs Stahl:
This is a hard one. I like both, but if I have to choose, I gotta say I like Stahl just a bit more, and I find him more useful as well because of his better defense and attack. (and the fact he makes a much better great knight, which I like better than paladin.)

Miriel vs Rickens:
Miriel. Easy

Sumia vs Cordelia:
I'm going with Sumia. I just like her better. I hate pegasus knights so I don't use either anyway.

Henry vs Tharjah:
Henry. Easy. Tharjah's probably my least favorite character in the game, anyway.

Do you guys use any of the Spot Pass characters of the characters from the past Fire Emblem games, like Marth or Ike?

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I didn't even know about them until after I beat the game. Either way, I don't like using them because they're so god damn boring. I don't mind if I got them via the DLC though, because then they'd have their own model, instead of a weak recolor.