![]() ![]() ![]() Is there a right choice to be made? Fates' story shares a wonderfully complex morality across both sides, its tale of clashing bloodlines playing out like Kurosawa through kid's eyes, the superficially upstanding Hoshidan's tale taking some darker turns while there's light to be found beneath the coal black armour of the Nohrian forces. The animation in Fates, helped along by Yūsuke Kozaki's art, is splendid. It's more than an aesthetic or moral choice you're offered, the 30 hour campaign offering 27 very different chapters apiece: Birthright's the more forgiving of the two, affording you options to grind out experience points in between chapters, while Conquest is tuned more towards veteran Fire Emblem players, introducing the sterner challenge that some felt was lacking in Awakening through more exacting mission requirements. (Such was its success that it extended the life of the series - Awakening was intended as a last hurrah, an amalgamation of all that had gone before, but its heady sales persuaded Intelligent Systems to push ahead with an all-new Fire Emblem).Īll three versions of Fates share the same opening six chapters, and at that point you and the character you create are presented with a choice: side with the noble Samurai-like warriors that defend the kingdom of Hoshido in Birthright, or take up arms for the more brutal medieval forces of Nohr in Conquest (a third option allows you to broker peace between both sides in Revelations, a campaign delivered as DLC coming a few weeks after the physical releases of both Conquest and Birthright). Fates isn't one but three markedly different games, delivered in a needlessly convoluted fashion that undoes so much of the open-armed accessibility that opened up Fire Emblem to a whole new audience with Awakening and making it a global hit. On the face of it, it makes for a confusing proposition. If anything, this pointedly fractured strategy game revels in the divide, wilfully pushing it even further. Fates makes absolutely no motion to bridge the gap. On one side it's a turn-based strategy, delivered with a delightfully hard edge, while on the other it's a role-playing romance sim as you bring units together in unison it's a game of chess in which you're willing your rook and your queen to get it on so they can make gurgling new pieces that can join you in battle. Perhaps the biggest step forward visually from Awakening is that characters now have feet. It speaks to the rift that runs right through Fire Emblem, a series whose dual personalities have come to the fore in recent years. ![]() Fates goes one step further, with a Phoenix mode that resurrects downed characters upon each turn. The reset has been a part of Intelligent System's strategy RPG series for so long it's become a celebrated system - when Fire Emblem Fates director Kouhei Maeda turned up to the last ever Iwata Asks to discuss the game, he did so with a t-shirt proudly stating 'Reset? Bring it on!' - but recent years have seen the series' take on death soften.Ģ010's Japan-only DS outing introduced a casual mode through which downed members came back at the end of each chapter, a feature that carried on into 2013's glorious Awakening. Versions: For more on Fates' different versions head to our brief explainer.Hold the shoulder buttons down in tandem with either start or select and you're sent back to the title screen, ready to pick up an old save file and start all over again. Your forces might be diminished, your very best soldiers lying limp on the battlefield never to return, but you can sidestep the lasting effects with one input. In Fire Emblem, there's one command that conquers all - one simple instruction that defeats the sharpest sword, an expertly aimed arrow or the most brutal of axes. Vast, gorgeous (and confusingly delivered), Fire Emblem Fates sees Intelligent Systems at the very top of its game. ![]()
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