Will If's North America Launch be as Disastrous as Awakening's?

[Dark Holy Elf]

On the one hand, they've probably learned from their experience with Awakening, and know better what to expect now, as others have mentioned.

On the other hand, the Amiibo situation makes me think that maybe Nintendo is just bad at this. So, I dunno!

Sadly, I can't offer any particularly valuable input since I waltzed into a store at random and bought Fire Emblem: Awakening on a whim because I had heard it was good, and I needed a 3DS for the next Ace Attorney anyway. Strange how I loved the game I hadn't planned on buying and disliked the one I had been looking forward to for months.

Funny, I'm close to the exact reverse myself! (Although I still like Awakening quite a lot... just not as much as I'd hoped. DD meanwhile exceeded my expectations because I was a bit down on the core series after Apollo Justice.)

[Jagged Jagen]

Funny, I'm close to the exact reverse myself! (Although I still like Awakening quite a lot... just not as much as I'd hoped. DD meanwhile exceeded my expectations because I was a bit down on the core series after Apollo Justice.)

Yeah, Love DD, but that's a story for another time.:) Yeah, I'm a mod of the Amiibo Canada subreddit, so I've seen time and time again the horrors of the Canadian amiibo frontlines.

[SaltyPearl]

I never had a problem getting Awakening since I got the game a year or 2 after it came out...(lol), but I hope not! ;w;

[Book of Ereshkigal]

The copy I preordered almost came a week late :'(

[Crysta]

I'm just going to download it. I live near Los Angeles so... yeah. It will be sold out by the time I wake up.

[Loki Laufeyson]

i don't think it'll be as bad because FE wasn't popular back then, now it is so i think they will be prepaired

Yeah. This more or less. i mean, im still gonna preorder mine, but i doubt we will see the fiasco of Awakening repeat itself. FE is actually hella popular now.

[The Geek]

I didn't have any problems getting Awakening when it came out. My birthday was a few days after Awakening came out, and I got it then.

[Rapier]

Probably not, because FE: A, if I recall correctly, was IS' last try on the series. If they failed, there wouldn't be any more games. So I can understand that they weren't very enthusiastic on making too many physical copies, thinking it could be a waste of money. With Awakening's success, I believe they will be more enthusiastic on making more physical copies.

Not that it matters to me, because I download it on e-shop. It is less expensive than buying a physical copy where I live. While I do like having a cool box art somewhere in my room, it's not always practical.

[Book Bro]

Hope not, it was terrible with Awakening. I can't remember the last time I'd bought a game at launch before then, but Awakening was the first in the current gen as I'd just gotten a 3DS a bit before in anticipation. Never felt like I had to preorder games before so I didn't with Awakening, but with it and then Bravely Default both being immediately sold out for at least a month I got the impression it was gonna become a trend, so since then I've put in my orders early when I don't wanna risk it.

[Thane]

Funny, I'm close to the exact reverse myself! (Although I still like Awakening quite a lot... just not as much as I'd hoped. DD meanwhile exceeded my expectations because I was a bit down on the core series after Apollo Justice.)

Fire Emblem: Awakening remains one of my favorite games of all time, and one of the few games in recent memory that has just blown me away completely, two others being Persona 4 and Ace Attorney.

However, Dual Destinies failed in almost every aspect; yes, Apollo Justice had problems due to executive meddling (Shu Takumi didn't even want to include Phoenix, Capcom did), so it occasionally feels like two incomplete stories in one - but damn if the first and last cases aren't utterly amazing, and the overall plot is one of the few dark stories in video games done right that I can think of of the top of my head.

Dual Destinies rant and heavy spoilers - sorry for going off topic.

Dual Destinies, however, is an absolute bloody disaster. It sweeps the ending of Apollo Justice under the rug and never once addresses the hanging plot threads, the spot light shared between three protagonists was a bad idea due to insufficient focus on both Apollo and most supporting characters, Trucy is flanderized and doesn't receive any character development despite her importance to the cast, characters are thrown in without rhyme or reason to sell more copies (Edgeworth, Klavier, Pearl), the final villain and his "twist" remain the worst in any Ace Attorney game, Apollo's supposed character development makes no sense in hindsight.

And now for the two most important parts:

1) Athena Cykes - a new, 18-year-old, pretty, sporty lawyer/psychologist with special powers and mindreading technology joins the Wright Anything Agency on Phoenix' behalf after having studied all over Europe and is set to take the courtroom by storm! But wait, she also has a tragic past, and she's got some kind of motive?! Ohmigosh! It must be super deep and serious and not at all like EVERY SINGLE ASSISTANT IN THE ENTIRE SERIES.

Look, I know using the Mary Sue term is dangerous and toxic to every reasonable debate, and we all have our own ideas of what that term entails, but this is ridiculous! Why did we need her? The last game ended with Apollo being set to grow as a character, something that was sorely lacking in his own game, and now we need a third lawyer? What happened to focusing on Phoenix' return? The game couldnt' even focus on two protagonists last time! I don't think I've ever seen a character being so pushed to be so liked save for maybe some in Naruto - and if you're comparable to Naruto, you know you've messed up.

Her backstory makes no sense if you analyze it, her supposed motive isn't even mentioned until the end when it's almost too late, she's got that annoying trait of anyone not liking her ends up being either a villain or just a douchebag who has to apologize. I could go on, but the larger the text the more likely people are to skip it (and banning me for talking about this on a Fire Emblem forum, but hey, I mentioned that game in the top of this post!)

2) The last case. It's riddled with plot holes, has a terrible villain and oh - EVERY. SINGLE. PLOTLINE. is solved by helping Athena out. Anyway, let's see if I can list the major faults under spoilers just in case someone actually wants to pick up this game.

There was a security tape with footage of the phantom on, meaning both Edgeworth and the police were too incompetent to rewind a tape, and we all know Edgeworth is not that dumb.

Aside from freaking out too much over not trusting Athena even though he believes he's in the right, he accepts the vaguest possibility of another villain - jumping out of a giant moving platform because there is supposedly someone out there who doesn't feel fear - that's all he needs.

Simon goes way too far to protect Athena - we're supposed to just accept their relationship as being something meaningful, but we've been shown NOTHING - they've barely interacted at all, making this supposedly emotional moment feel empty.

Oh, and there was a kidnapping, something that was written so poorly that most people forgot about it - even those who liked the game - which can be seen by reading on the Court Records forum. Seriously, Phoenix' daughter gets kidnapped and all he can think about is rescuing Athena; remember how this happened in the final case of the second game and he almost collapses because he's so worried? And how he's thinking about it every single moment?

I could go on...and I will, with the final, most important criticism of 5-5: it's a carbon copy of 1-5.

Explanation taken from Badplayer of the Court Records forum:

Everything started [X] years ago, when [Person A] murdered [Person B]. However, the state of the crime scene seems to suggest the killer is [Person C], a young girl who was at the scene of the crime. However, [Person D]discovered the scene, and they rearranged it in order to protect [Person C]. In the present, while [Person D] insists on their guilt in order to protect [Person C], Phoenix Wright proves that the murderer was neither [Person C] nor[Person D], but actually [Person A].

If that doesn't convince you, nothing will.

Edited April 29, 2015 by Thane

[Sroy]

Living in Canada, I got Awakening early so that was pretty cool.

I would like the launch to be reliable and go smoothly, though, and I'm sure everyone feels the same.

Due to some of Nintendo's other recent mess-ups I am a little bit worried but not too bad.

I will DEFINITELY be preordering though.

[Hero of the Fire Emblems]

I'm vainly hoping that they won't release dual versions here and instead make the only version availible the Collector's Edition with all three paths, even if it's $10 more than an average 3DS game.

If they do release multiple versions, I'm getting the collector's, and I don't care if I have to bulldoze the Gamestop to get it*

*Legal Disclaimer: I will not actually bulldoze a gamestop. I will merely get a bulldozer and threaten to bulldoze it in the parking lot.

[Tsunami922]

I got my Awakening copy day one just fine. I hope the same holds true for FE: IF.

[Sentacotus]

Well combine the success of Awakening with how much they are marketing the game I'd say they are expecting it to sell well and will stock it accordingly. Where they might run into problems is if they give a special edition thats all inclusive and since nearly everyone wants to play both paths at somepoint I could see it going quickly.

[Rawkstar]

Well when Awakening was released, they were not expecting near the amount of attention it got. I mean they barely it expected to sell $250,000 copies by the end of it's lifetime on the shelves, and it far surpassed that a while ago. I think now, especially knowing how well Awakening did and how much attention is being paid to this version, they will be much more prepared for the release. If they release two separate versions of the game though, there's a good chance there will be some "disappointments". I don't care much, I'm going with a digital download if there aren't retail copies which combine both versions.

[saifors]

I don't know much about how bad it was in NA but over here there were still not too many copies months after release, eventually after 3 stores I found a copy in media markt.