See my problem with Awakening isn't so much the marriage system, or the story, or the characters. As much I don't like those specifics, I would have had no problem if Awakening was just solidly design.
Instead, it's a broken, unbalanced mess, with the worst map design in the series in that pretty much most of the maps are wide, empty areas with terrible enemy placements. There are barely any variety in the maps and it mostly consists of simply beating constant hordes of enemies (+ a CRAP load of reinforcements) instead of being strategical taken your limitations and the strength of the opposing opponent. That, coupled with the fact the enemy AI will attack anyone regardless of level or class provided they're in their attack range and regardless of their own health (contrast to Advance Wars or older FE games where the AI avoids stronger units and wisely retreats a unit close to dying) suggest that Awakening was designed around the player just bulldozing through the game instead of actually using any strategy whatsoever, and this is even further encouraged with the class system allowing you to cap stats, the pair up unit being absolutely broken and the amount of grinding you can easily do. Essentially, yes, this is a typical JRPG in that regard.
And maybe it's a very very good JRPG. Maybe it's the best JRPG there is. I won't say it's a bad game, it's not, it's a good game for what it tries to aim and it's very successful for it. But strategy? There's a reason many strategy enthusiasts are very unfavorable to this game. First 4 chapters aside (and some side chapters I guess) there are seriously no strategy in play. None. And I hate that.
Yeah, I tend to be very disdainful towards the game, mostly jokingly actually. But I have a very good reason for it, since I love the series because of the core gameplay. Yeah, it's still there in Awakening, but the gameplay shines with strong map design, map variety and enemey placement, which is Awakening is particularly weak at, so seeing it like this is pretty unpleasant. I can easily see why people love it, and I actually recommend it to people who aren't into strategy (not the other way around tho lol.). But "no flaws"? "Best 3DS game"? "Game of the year"? I see those thrown often and I heavily disagree.
