Fire Emblem Fates: The Path of DarknessAfter the huge success of Fire Emblem: Awakening, Intelligent Systems started working on another Fire Emblem game for the 3DS. Or rather, they started working on 3 titles that are related to each other, but at the same time have major differences from each other. Those 3 games are Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest, Birthright, and Revelation. Both Conquest and Birthright both came out on February 19th, 2016. Revelation on the other hand came out at a later date.Each title takes place in the same world, but each has you take a different story path that lead to each game having a completely unique experience. Today, I'll be reviewing Conquest, the one that I played first. At some point, I hope to review each of the 3 Fates titles, but I don't know when I'll get to the other 2. It could take months for me to get around to reviewing them. For now though, let's get this Conquest review started!
Graphics: 10/10 The visual style in Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest is just as wonderful to look at as the visuals found in Awakening. The cutscenes in the game are some of the best I've seen for any game on the 3DS. All the different areas of the world you travel through look stunning. The castle in Nohr has the look fitting for a king as power hungry and corrupt as King Garon, and the Hoshido kingdom is one of the most beautiful areas I've seen in a 3ds game. Most of the areas you take part in battles in are also great to look at as well. Whether you're fighting in a kingdom of sand or a village in the middle of a snowy region, you're going to be impressed with how beautiful each area in the game looks. Overall, the visuals in this game are among the best you'll find on the 3ds library, so I'm giving the graphics a 10.
Sound: 9/10 As soon as you hear the epic intro theme play as you watch the opening cutscene depicting the brutal war between Nohr and Hoshido, you know you're in for an amazing soundtrack to listen to throughout Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest. The different types of boss themes and map themes that play throughout the game are among the best I've heard in the series, including my personal favorite being Marth's theme. There isn't any music in the game that I didn't enjoy hearing. The only 3DS games with better music as far as I'm concerned are Bravely Default, Kid Icarus: Uprising, and Super Smash Bros 3DS. The only minor complaint I have with the voice acting for a few of the characters, including Felicia and Nyx. For the most part though, the voice acting's great. For these reasons, I'm giving the sound a 9.
Addictiveness: 8/10 Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest provides very entertaining gameplay that all fans of the series will be missing out of if they don't pick it up. What separates Conquest from Birthright is the much tougher campaign. It provides less opportunities to get exp and money than other games in the series, which means you have to be extremely strategic with each move you make and each enemy you fight, because one wrong move could result in your demise. Unfortunately, this leads to less opportunities to make party members fall in love with each other or become closer friends. If you're a more casual Fire Emblem player, then you'll probably prefer Birthright over Conquest. Even so, Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest is a very entertaining game that's addicting enough for me to give this category an 8.
Story: 9/10 In the Fire Emblem Fates games, your avatar starts off in a place called the Northern Fortress, where you have been since childhood. The only way you can leave is by beating your older brother Xander in a battle. Afterwards, you finally get to go with your 4 siblings to the capital of Nohr to meet with King Garon. Eventually he has you go on a mission to inspect a Hoshidan fortress, the mission goes wrong when one of Garon's men starts attacking the Hoshidans. Once the battle ends, you are kidnapped by the Hoshidans, who take you to their capital. There, much to your surprise, you learn that you originally came from Hoshido, but that you were kidnapped as a young child by King Garon and taken to Nohr. You meet your real mother and blood relatives, who I'll go over in more detail when I review Birthright. Just as you're starting to bond with your blood siblings and the people of Hoshido, the Nohr soldiers attack. Your mother shields you from an enemy attack and dies in your arms, you become enraged, turning into a dragon and slaughtering the Nohr soldiers that invaded Hoshido.
Chapter 6 is where Conquest truly begins. Your avatar, as well as your Nohrian step-siblings and Hoshidan siblings get ready to fight, and both sides pressure you to join their side of the war. In Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest, you choose to side with your Nohrian brothers and sisters. You carry out King Garon's orders, while at the same time trying to change the corrupt kingdom of Nohr from within, with the help of your foster siblings Xander, the heir to the throne; Leo, a brother who excels with magic; Camilla the overprotective big sister; and Elise, the youngest of your siblings. Together, you'll have to fight your Hoshidan siblings, take down Nohrian rebellions, and work together to put an end to the war once and for all. This storyline is one of the most interesting ones I've seen in quite some time. As far as I'm concerned, Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest has one of the most interesting plots in a 3ds game, so I'm giving this category a 9.
Depth: 8/10 In Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest, there are a total of 27 chapters for you to complete. There are also a few side missions that you can do if some of your party members get married. In addition, there's a My Castle mode, where in between chapters, you can unwind and customize your castle, add new facilities, and shop for new equipment and items, as well as take part in battles. Other than that though, there isn't much else to do in Conquest. The game can take 40 hours to complete, so it's a fairly long game that will keep you strategizing for a decent amount of time. As far as depth goes, this game gets an 8 from me.
Difficulty: 10/10 If you're a veteran of the Fire Emblem series who wanted to have a super tough 3DS Fire Emblem game, and were disappointed with Awakening's lack of difficulty, then you'll definitely want to pick up Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest. Every single decision you make on the battlefield is crucial to whether or not the characters you'll grow to love manage to survive each battle, or whether they'll suffer a tragic death at the hands of your commands. One reason why Conquest is such a challenge is because there's a limited amount of experience and gold that you'll be able to get throughout your journey, which makes it absolutely essential for you to wisely level up the right characters and make the right strategical decisions in every battle you take part in. Another aspect of Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest that makes it such a tough game is the variety of types of victory conditions for missions throughout the game, especially in the 2nd half of the game, where you'll take part in some very interesting missions. Some of these unique conditions include having to find a pirate hidden among the enemies in the middle of a battlefield before he steals all your gold, as well as having to escape the battlefield in a set number of turns. The unique victory conditions combined with the limited exp and gold you can earn make Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest one of, if not the hardest game on the 3DS. Overall, the difficulty for this game is definitely worthy of a 10 in my eyes.
Overall Score: 9.3/10 If you're looking for a challenging tactical RPG that will put your strategic planning to the ultimate test, then Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest is the game for you. With a limited amount of experience points and gold you can get, a gripping storyline, a beautiful soundtrack, and a wide variety of missions to complete, Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest is a perfect game for veterans of the series who want to take on a fresh challenge. Overall, Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest is great enough for me to give the final score a 9.3 out of 10. I hope you enjoyed reading this review.
Graphics
10 Sound
9 Addictive
8 Depth
8 Story
9 Difficulty
10
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