Fire Emblem, the once obscure tactical series, is a now mainstream Japanese RPG game. Fire Emblem Fates is the newest installment of the series. It consists of three different games, Birthright, Conquest, and Revelation. This review will cover Birthright, the game that is recommended to start off with, since it is the easier of the three and is designed for beginners in mind.

Graphics-10/10
The graphics are simply put, beautiful. Most cutscenes in the game play off as visual novel type of game with text that you read with a character portrait. The background either consists of beautifully drawn images that fit the scenery or of the sprites of the characters currently talking. The character portraits are beautifully drawn and change depending on the characters emotions. The CG videos that play are wonderful to watch, with nice character models and detailed scenery. There aren’t many aspects of the graphics that can be complained about in this game.

Sound-8/10
The soundtrack for this game is pleasing to listen to. Birthright has a very Japanese sounding soundtrack, which is a given due to the fact that Birthright follows the Hoshido path which is based on Japan. Each track is wonderful to listen to and no track can be considered bad by any means. What’s nice is that while you’re on a map the music changes when you enter a battle. What was once a pleasant and calming tune is now one that sounds more intense and filled with action. Once the battle is over it transitions back to the normal map tune.

Even though the sound is memorable and pleasing to listen to, this section doesn’t get a perfect ten. What brings down the score is the voice acting. It can be a hit or a miss to most that play the game. However for the most part the voice acting is nice. However there are some characters that fall short such as Effie. Even characters with for the most part nice voice acting, like Felicia, have that one line that’s is just horrible to listen to, “we’ve got trouble” being the best example of this.

Story-8/10
The beginning of the game is the same for all three games. It follows the character Corrin, who can be customized, as they go from believing they are Nohrian Prince/Princess to finding out they are actually of Hoshidan royalty. Both families, Hoshido and Nohr, are at war with each other so the news comes as quite a shock. What follows is the choice to choose your blood family, the family you grew up with, or neither. Birthright follows the choice of Corrin choosing their blood family. The story involves fighting Nohrian soldiers as Nohr continuously attacks the Hoshidan group. Hoshido is more or less attempts to defend itself from the attacking Nohr.

The story is interesting and at times can be emotional, especially since Corrin is fighting the family they grew up with. It’s a nice engaging story with nice characters that help to move the story along. One aspect that does fall short is that each character doesn’t get in-story development, sure there are support conversations so that you can get to know them, but with the exception of the main characters, you hardly see any of the characters in cutscenes. Which is off-putting especially to me since I enjoy seeing how characters react to certain events in the story.

Addictiveness-7/10
Fire Emblem Fates Birthright is a linear story, meaning that you will go from point A to point B without any change in the story. For those who want to only play for the story there isn’t much replaybility. There is addictiveness due to its fun gameplay and interesting storyline.

However, for those who want to explore as much of the game as possible there is some replay value to be found. Each character have their own unique support conversations and most of those can end up in marriage. The replayability aspect comes into play when you want to try out different supports to get to know the characters and their relations with each other.
There is another addictive aspect to the game and that can be found in the online “My Castle” section of the game. Basically you can go to other people’s castles and battle their team, while building up your own team since every time you beat their team you can buy abilities for your characters.

Depth-9/10
There is a lot of depth to this game. And all the depth can be found in the support conversations. As stated each character has their own list of support conversation which can potentially end in marriage. Every time a couple gets married you get a child(who looks more like an adult due to reasons that really don't make sense) unit. The child can differ in both hair color and stats depending on who their mother is. This aspect of the game gives the player more to do because not only does the player have to complete the supports of the first gen characters, but they also have to complete the supports of the second gen ones. The sheer amount of supports to complete and read through will take the game a long while to beat, especially those attempting to read through each and every one of them.

The online features have a lot of depth as well. Not only can you do “My Castle” battles to obtain skills, but you can also give accessories, which can be put on the characters. You can build up your own castle, placing different objects around to make look good, or to be used as a means to protect your castle. One aspect of online is that you can create bond units with other players. These units essentially look like Corrin and have skills from either player. Lastly, you can battle with other people online. The “My Castle” battles aren’t with a live person, so if you want to battle a live person there’s an option for that.

Difficulty-6/10
Birthright is the best place to start if you are new Fire Emblem. It is for beginners due to the fact that it allows you to easily grind, and the maps are not as difficult since the objectives are mostly “rout the enemy” or “defeat the boss”. That said, it still has some amount of difficulty. Especially if you’re playing on the harder difficulty settings on classic mode. If you’re trying to prevent deaths, you will find yourself resetting a few times to try and get it right. Every decision you make counts so if you mess up it can end up in disaster as you find many of your characters falling like flies. Still if you plan each move carefully, you won’t run into too much trouble. The ability to grind does lighten the difficulty because if it is too difficult you can just make your team stronger.

Overall-8/10
Overall the game is a solid experience and is a nice successor to what Fire Emblem Awakening brought to the table. If you’ve never played a Fire Emblem game and want to start off somewhere, this is the game you should try. It is perfect for beginners and even veterans can find some amount of enjoyment in the game.