Fire Emblem Fates

[Kong Wen]

I don't really understand your logic there, unfortunately. I liked the console Fire Emblems myself, but why would Nintendo decide to start putting them on consoles again if the portable ones sell well? The console Fire Emblems, particularly Radiant Dawn, had abysmal sales. Given how successful Fates has been, if anything I think it's more likely we'd see more portable Fire Emblems in the distant future.

I think the idea is just it would be nice to see a Fire Emblem with nice visuals in HD. Not that the console Fire Emblem games ever put a lot of effort into its visuals.

As far as the logic is concerned, I think he's just hoping that high sales will turn Fire Emblem into a viable series. Unfortunately, I agree with Jordan that this won't necessarily translate into console games. Heck, Pokémon is much more successful on handheld, and that's only translated into corny spinoffs on console.

[SkyPikachu]

I ended up buying the 'Original' GBA version to see how I liked the series. I'm up to Chapter 7 so far and it's really fun but fairly easy but I think I'll check out Fates and or Awakening as well.

[Kiwi the Tortoise]

I ended up buying the 'Original' GBA version to see how I liked the series. I'm up to Chapter 7 so far and it's really fun but fairly easy but I think I'll check out Fates and or Awakening as well.

You made a good choice. The first FE to hit West on the GBA is great.
Mind though, that the entire Lyn segment (which you may still be in) serves as extensive Tutorial. The difficulty doesn't ramp up until you reach the main game (Eliwood).
It's also the game in the series with the most content, as you still unlock the main campaign from Hectors perspective (with more maps and characters and a different point of view on the story) aswell as hard modes for all (which alter the enemies lineups and thus feel pretty fresh).

[Kong Wen]

I ended up buying the 'Original' GBA version to see how I liked the series. I'm up to Chapter 7 so far and it's really fun but fairly easy but I think I'll check out Fates and or Awakening as well.

You made a good choice. The first FE to hit West on the GBA is great.
Mind though, that the entire Lyn segment (which you may still be in) serves as extensive Tutorial. The difficulty doesn't ramp up until you reach the main game (Eliwood).
It's also the game in the series with the most content, as you still unlock the main campaign from Hectors perspective (with more maps and characters and a different point of view on the story) aswell as hard modes for all (which alter the enemies lineups and thus feel pretty fresh).

Yes, this! Fire Emblem is a great game, but it really comes into its own once you get into the post-Lyn sections of the story.

As for Fates, I have a few problems with the game, but I'm waiting until I play a bit more before I attempt to articulate them. I think the core gameplay is quite good so far (like Jordan said earlier, Conquest is harder than Awakening was), but the story is really clunky. They just toss you in one direction and then another, laying big chunks of lore at your feet before swooping you off again. Also, the whole "choose your path" section of the story was really, really clunky/clumsy/sloppy. It could have probably been written better, but then again, it's really just a justification to sell two games, so it's not surprising it felt so tacked on.

[Jordan]

Fe7 is a great game. The problem I had with it is that the support system was the most miserably stupid thing imaginable. Fe8 made it more tolerable by allowing you to basically fight on extra maps. Fe9 made it actually good by just making it a simple system involving deploying units together in any given stage. Other games since then have expanded upon it well, with Awakening and Fates having pretty good systems for it.

Sadly, I kind of agree with Kong Wen's assessment about Fates' story. It's very awkward and strung together. A lot of it is also filler. However, I agree with what Shoemaker said earlier (I believe) about how the real story in FE is more about the support conversations and character interactions. I also think that the game explored some interesting moral dilemmas.

I beat Fates: Conquest on hard mode but at the last few levels I switched it to normal. I kind of just wanted to finish the game. Now I've moved onto Birthright. I feel like Fates: Conquest is definitely a top tier fire emblem game. Almost every level was really well designed, and several of them had really creative gimmicks that I don't believe Fire Emblem has ever worked with before.

Overall, I'd still call it the best FE game since the gameplay is just vastly superior to anything that has come before it.

[The Shoemaker]

I think I've expressed this already but I also think the story is very sloppy, in terms of writing and pace. It's definitely a product of wanting to make the three way split. The gameplay is what keeps me in, and I have started to become attached to the characters which is what pushed me through the battles.

Radiant Dawn was my favourite in terms of story, despite it having a few plot holes. Because it had the three army split, each battle felt important to the story for the most part, and constantly being thrown into a different army made you use all the characters and not side line as many. It also had good lore and side relations between the humans and the laguz. Birthright's story so far has essentially just been the long quest to Nohr's capital with not much happening in between.

[Jordan]

This is where I'm going to probably disagree with you and Kong Wen. I actually thought Radiant Dawn's story was atrocious. The preceding Tellius game and the games before that as well had much better stories, in my opinion. I felt that Radiant Dawn had a lot of deus ex machina, and I didn't like the way the game handled character availability. I also felt like the story was very disjointed due to constantly shifting perspectives. Finally, the complete lack of supports really hurt the characters. In particular, I thought the Dawn Brigade needed to be fleshed out more. Radiant Dawn was still an amazing game, however. In terms of gameplay, it was easily one of the best.

[Jordan]

I have all three versions of the game now. I'm currently proceeding through Birthright and am at Chapter 14.

Birthright is way easier than Conquest, even on hard mode. That said, it isn't a walk in the park either. I've been avoiding challenge grinding levels and only been using castle levels to build up supports to do paralogues from time to time. The game has occasionally thrown some curveballs at me and the level design is still pretty good. The main difference is that Conquest's levels throw a lot more gimmicks and interesting stages at you. Usually the Conquest stages mix things up in some way whereas every Birthright stage tends to be simple and straightforward (which isn't necessarily a bad thing by the way).

The Birthright story isn't particularly good, but I do feel that it is more coherent than Conquest. Even then it feels like a lot of unnecessary filler exists and waters down the overall plot.

I'm liking the characters though. Tharja was one of my favorites in Awakening so it's nice to see her back in the game. Azama and his daughter Mitama are also really amusing characters. Perhaps the biggest surprise is that Subaki is one of my favorites on the Hoshido side. I was very unsure of him given that he is the "male Cordelia" and all, but his obsession with perfection leads to some really humorous supports.

[The Shoemaker]

I have all three versions of the game now. I'm currently proceeding through Birthright and am at Chapter 14.

Birthright is way easier than Conquest, even on hard mode. That said, it isn't a walk in the park either. I've been avoiding challenge grinding levels and only been using castle levels to build up supports to do paralogues from time to time. The game has occasionally thrown some curveballs at me and the level design is still pretty good. The main difference is that Conquest's levels throw a lot more gimmicks and interesting stages at you. Usually the Conquest stages mix things up in some way whereas every Birthright stage tends to be simple and straightforward (which isn't necessarily a bad thing by the way).

The Birthright story isn't particularly good, but I do feel that it is more coherent than Conquest. Even then it feels like a lot of unnecessary filler exists and waters down the overall plot.

I'm liking the characters though. Tharja was one of my favorites in Awakening so it's nice to see her back in the game. Azama and his daughter Mitama are also really amusing characters. Perhaps the biggest surprise is that Subaki is one of my favorites on the Hoshido side. I was very unsure of him given that he is the "male Cordelia" and all, but his obsession with perfection leads to some really humorous supports.

Interesting because Subaki and Azama are two characters I'm not using, as I figured they were both outclassed by the other units you get. I also found I had an excess of men and not as many women so I opted not to use those two. I did like Subaki though.

But yeah like I said before, despite this version not being known for its maps like Conquest was, I appreciate that they put in the effort to make some really solid traditional maps.

[Jordan]

Subaki is just average, but imo Azama is one of the most overpowered characters in the game. He gets ridiculous strength and defense growths. As a monk that seems goofy, but I heard he can make use of both as a grand master. Personally though, I class changed him to an oni fighter by marrying him to Rinkah. In that role, he's basically been like some kind of general without a weakness to armor piercing weapons. Azama basically has good growths in every stat except magic, which perfectly fits his personality as a contrarian monk.

Even as a monk though, his silly personal skill lets him be a strangely useful tank (somehow).

Azama's supports are also incredibly comical. He just goes around trolling everybody in Hoshido.