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Did you enjoy Awakening?


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  1. 1. I mean, did you?

    • Yes
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I enjoyed Awakening when I played it. Never got really into the characters or supports, and I intentionally ignored the children, but I liked it enough- it was more FE, that was good. I loved the Einherjar and all the references to past FEs, and Pair Up and everything else was fine at the time. It took until later for the game to lose its luster. (Future Past by the way is possible without pairing the parents- you can 1 Turn FP3. FP2- Owain and Inigo won't be attacked by dangerous enemies ever, or at least not for a long long time. FP1 is the big headache- Noire can be sniped from beyond the wall.)

 

13 hours ago, Sweet_Basil said:

What? I can't tell if that's good or bad.

If you are looking to experience the Platonic Ideal of Steak, there is only one way to serve it: dry aged, cooked rare or medium rare, add a little salt and pepper, but nothing else- no steak sauce (not even Peter Luger), no garlic butter, nothing- let the steak speak for itself.

If you're making a steak at home and you're not a 5-star chef go ahead and dress it up and cook it to medium- you won't be able to get that heavenly Ideal on your own.

Likewise, if you're looking for things other than Steak Platonism in your order from a restaurant, that's fine too. There is nothing wrong with a Hawaiian flavored steak, or a garlic steak, the same way one can have vodka by itself, or in a cocktail- they're different experiences that represent different things but are equally valid.

But whatever you do, unless you're feeding someone 12 or younger, never serve a steak well done, and never with ketchup. You absolutely ruin the good cut of meat and might as well serve it to a dog seeing how you're so willing to throw away money. If you have the financial means for a good steak and insist on consuming it well done and or with ketchup, you will have my undying ire.

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18 hours ago, Emperor Hardin said:

Awakening is the game where its said Panne's mother raised her until she was a teenager, then later says her mother died when she was a baby and she never got to see other taguel.

So I'll personally disagree with this.

Yes, but what does that have to do with the main story? Nothing at all. So that's something I consider negligible.

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26 minutes ago, Slyfox said:

Yes, but what does that have to do with the main story? Nothing at all. So that's something I consider negligible.

Awakening's main story had tons of plotholes. Off the top of my head, the Hierarch who protected her during the most vulnerable years, yet randomly betrays her for no reason only for that betrayal to never get mentioned again. 

Or the Grimleal, whose motivations and history make no sense.

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45 minutes ago, Emperor Hardin said:

Awakening's main story had tons of plotholes. Off the top of my head, the Hierarch who protected her during the most vulnerable years, yet randomly betrays her for no reason only for that betrayal to never get mentioned again. 

Or the Grimleal, whose motivations and history make no sense.

I'd say less full of plotholes and more not explained in greater detail. Which isn't an excuse, the biggest issue of Awakening's story for me is that it gets the job done, but doesn't really have any extra details regarding the world. For example, the Grimleal are a cult, but we don't ever get to learn more. How did they start worshipping Grima? Why do they believe in Grima so strongly when the Fell Dragon only offers destruction and demise to all of humanity? Naga just seems like a better option, she's always had humanity's best interests in mind. What exact role do the Grimleal play in regards to Plegia life? We know that they are the equivalent to the worshipers of Naga in Ylisse, but we also see them antagonize citizens of Plegia in a few instances. Is there a power struggle between Plegian government and the Grimleal, akin to Rigel and the Duma Faithful. Have I thought way too much about this game to have these questions? Yes. 

Hell, it took a remake of a Famicom game taking place 2000 years prior to Awakening and set on a completely different continent to give us the origin of Grima.

I don't consider these plotholes because they don't contradict themselves or the story (by comparison, the Panne support issue is a plothole because it does contradict itself). Not knowing the information doesn't create an issue with the story in terms of continuity, but it does make it lack depth and not make the setting as interesting as it could be.

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7 minutes ago, Chconroy said:

I'd say less full of plotholes and more not explained in greater detail. Which isn't an excuse, the biggest issue of Awakening's story for me is that it gets the job done, but doesn't really have any extra details regarding the world. For example, the Grimleal are a cult, but we don't ever get to learn more. How did they start worshipping Grima? Why do they believe in Grima so strongly when the Fell Dragon only offers destruction and demise to all of humanity? Naga just seems like a better option, she's always had humanity's best interests in mind. What exact role do the Grimleal play in regards to Plegia life? We know that they are the equivalent to the worshipers of Naga in Ylisse, but we also see them antagonize citizens of Plegia in a few instances. Is there a power struggle between Plegian government and the Grimleal, akin to Rigel and the Duma Faithful. Have I thought way too much about this game to have these questions? Yes. 

Hell, it took a remake of a Famicom game taking place 2000 years prior to Awakening and set on a completely different continent to give us the origin of Grima.

I don't consider these plotholes because they don't contradict themselves or the story (by comparison, the Panne support issue is a plothole because it does contradict itself). Not knowing the information doesn't create an issue with the story in terms of continuity, but it does make it lack depth and not make the setting as interesting as it could be.

Very fair point.

I do still feel those are very large unanswered questions. Like the Grimleal seem to have zero support even in Plegia, yet somehow they've lasted for over hundreds of years and can pull out friends in high places whenever the story needs them to.

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I enjoyed it immensely. I finally got a new system to play it on and am replaying it now actually. The first few chapters tend to be more of a chore, but then I got to 10 and my love of the game was somewhat rekindled. Forget the haters as hard as it may be (they can somewhat sour my fun), I think it's a great game and it's the only Fire Emblem I've ever beat more than once; I tried on 7 and 8 but never made it (and 8 was starting from Ephraim's branch). And, yes, I even like the plot. I am a sucker for challenging fate stories after all. 

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I'm still not sure how exactly I feel about Awakening, but I can say I did enjoy it.

It's...like Disgaea, but not as Disgaea, I guess. Awakening feels free-form, which isn't that new to the series but it definitely took it up a notch by including limitless reclassing and grinding, which are things I normally enjoy, actually, but they aren't really what I look for in Fire Emblem.

But if I were to play it as a normal FE then I would be ignoring those aspects of the game, which personally isn't something I like to do.  If I'm going to play a game I want to do so all the way.  Thus I've come to accept that there can be other types of FE, Awakening is merely the third of its type, and a natural evolution of its predecessors.  

This is only touching upon the structure of the game itself, as for the actual gameplay it feels like they just shoved in as many things as they could without any thought for why they were there. Which may as well be true, considering IntSys has said they wanted to make it a big final game where no regrets could be had...or something like that. But anyway, I don't feel like going over things like pairup which have already been bitched about a billion times. My main gripe, as petty as it may be, is that they shoved in the whole anima triangle and didn't even make them effective towards each other.  I mean, I GUESS it's better than neutering magic as a whole and making it a single weapon type, but it still really bugs me.

As for story..I honestly didn't care about it.  I couldn't take any of the Plegians seriously, Emmeryn's everything felt dumb and forced, I forgot almost everything regarding Grima, and I ended up skipping everything in Valm.  I think I only really paid attention to scenes involving Lucina. For all the shit she gets for being popular she isn't all that bad, which came as a surprise (I actually only played Awakening after Heroes came out).  

I found her to be quite endearing, it helps that I'm a sucker for any family stuff.  Owain and Inigo are great too, their supports with their parents were really nice.  Inigo in particular is my favourite Awakening character, and I'd say he's managed a spot as one of my favourite characters in the series. Funnily enough, that's also all I want to say about Awakening's characters...

Awakening was decent.

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I just completed the main story for the first time. The game overall was quite an enjoyable experience. Finishing off the final boss with Aether with a critical hit on the Luna phase with Exalted Falchion. Highly satisfying.

I greatly enjoyed it. However, I strongly prefer the other games I've played, Echoes and Fates.

Fates introduced me to the series and so I'm biased towards it. A lot of people think that Fates had more dull characters compared to Awakening, but for me it's the opposite. I found the Fates characters to be more engaging. This is likely because Fates characters introduced me to the series, so I hung on every word.

Usually, for a player, the first game in a series is the most memorable. For example, Twilight Princess introduced me to Legend of Zelda, and Metroid Prime introduced me to Metroid, and so on...but that's a different subject.

Having played Fates first I was really turned off by 'ambush' reinforcements and for Tag Team and Dual Guard being so unreliable (RNG based). Yes the mechanics in this game have more potential raw power - your partner can attack, then guard, then attack again...but only if the RNG feels like it. I'll take Fates' reliability (which requires more strategy) over luck based raw power any day.

And then there's the ambush spawns. I had so much trouble with the things that I abandoned my initial classic playthrough and went to casual, to partially memorize where those dastardly reinforcements would spawn from. If reinforcements were limited to forts and stairways, I think it would be compelling. You would get a rush every time you captured a fort...but no, when they spawn from the edge, in sometimes nonsensical numbers, there's nothing you can do. I'm so glad Fates and Echoes steered away from this mechanic.

 

I have a...different perspective than most because of the unusual order I've played the games. I started with Fates, then Echoes, and now Awakening. 

So, I was very pleased to see the Mila tree....and now when I see that tree in Fates' Hidden truths, the battle is even more compelling. I geeked out when I discovered that paralogue that houses the Great Gate, formerly the Duma gate....the land has such history.....and I was sad when I saw what happened to Alm's kingdom and when Walhart took up the mantle and crest of the Rigelian empire. I know that nothing lasts forever, even great kingdoms lead by heroic kings (Alm), but when I see the politically fractured land, only to be united by someone who follows the ideals of Rigel....it somewhat feels like Alm and Celica and friends fought and died for nothing. Shame on you Walhart! shame! even if it was a misguided attempt to stop the Grimleal.

I also loved the massive amouts of DLC, playing against all the heroes of the past, with music from past games, (I was especially happy when I heard music from Gaiden. I love you Alm and Celica), very compelling. Between the Final Boss, Cutscenes, and massive size of Grima (maybe they went a little bit overboard with that), it was clear that the developers wanted this to be the best final Fire Emblem it could be. Fortunately, for everyone, Awakening awakened the series, something I am very happy about. (I'm hoping the same phenemon occurs with the upcoming Metroid II).

So overall, I loved Awakening, I just enjoy Fates and Echoes more, but I will continue playing it until I'm able to conquer every chapter, paralogue (I'm willing to try Lunatic...Lunatic+ I'm not sure) and the dreaded Apothesis dlc.

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I really enjoyed it. It was the first game of the series that I was devoted to beating it. I played Radiant Dawn, Sacred Stones, and Shadow Dragon before hand but none of them had me gripped with the story/events like Awakening did. Not to say those other games were bad.

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Uhm, yeah, of course I did. It's the game that got me into the series, and while it's not my favourite, it's the one I find myself going back to over and over again.

It's not the story that brings me back, though everything up to chapter 13 was pretty damn good, nor is it that gameplay, though for a newcomer like me, it was the best I could've asked for. It's not even mostly the characters, though several of my favourites are from this game (the Awakening trio, the Morgans, Lissa, Olivia, Henry).

It's the whole dynamic between Chrom and Robin. Despite being female, I tend to play as male Robin more often because hot diggity those supports. Those two are just two halves of a whole, and it's brilliant.

 

...It's also the one game that my mum managed to haggle down the price, she's quite proud.

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Yes. I loved Awakening and its my favourite game in the series.

Like a good number of people on here, Awakening was the game that introduced me to the series (and by extension, this community). Since then, I've acquired and played through the rest of the Fire Emblem series and Awakening remains my favourite of the bunch. The story was good (not the best in the series but still good), the characters have become my favourite cast through out the series, the music is beautiful and I found the gameplay to be the most fun I've had in series. 

Now I'm very aware of the flaws Awakening has. However, I never found them so glaring that it limited how much fun I had. My biggest gripe with Awakening is that it doesn't give a whole lot of explanation as to the why or how of certain things in the world. It tells enough to get the job done, but not enough to really go in depth. It doesn't detract from my fun, but it does make me wish for more sometimes.

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Awakening was my first Fire Emblem game. I'd known about the series since Smash Bros. Melee, but just never got around to it. When Nintendo and Atlus ran that FE Awakening and SMT IV promotion I decided to try out the demo of Awakening and enjoyed it, so I bought the full game to take advantage of the offer and to play the game.

Took me 4 years to get around to beating it, but the story why isn't that important. What is important is that, despite not being invested in the story, I enjoyed the game. The gameplay was a good way to learn the series, I liked most of the characters (Donnel being my favorite), and I loved the music.

I'm not a fan of the support system being so shiptacular, and honestly I felt the game had some difficulty problems despite me playing on Normal Classic (didn't want to bother with Casual mode because I knew it would make me lazy when playing). I chalk that up to it being my first FE game though, so take the difficulty comment with a grain salt.

Anyway, it was a good game. I'd like to replay it on Hard mode, try out characters I barely played, all that jazz.

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I love Awakening. It was what introduced me to the series, and I don't have a game franchise that's more important to me. People love to pick on it, but honestly, even with the watered down strategies in comparison to the other games, there are things that I like and dislike in all the games (no trading in FE4, pitiful constitution on almost all the female characters in the GBA games, the lack of the Light-Anima-Dark magic triangle in 13, 14, and 15, 9 and 10's art style outside of the portraits), and Awakening did more things right than wrong.

The characters I've actually always liked, no matter how much people call them one-note, and the avatar, while a little drab, wasn't a total mary-sue like Corrin, and actually had some nice supports, unlike Corrin, and had stats that were more flexible, unlike Corrin, and didn't have as many cheesy lines as Corrin -_-

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You know what's sad? I checked my activity log.

Awakening has over 700 hours. That may be over 4 years, but still HOLY CRAP. What's worse is that one save has over 300 hours put in because of apothesis grinding. Most of which was before I had DLC. I still haven't gotten round to finishing it.

Yes I enjoyed playing it.

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On 9/12/2017 at 4:08 PM, Dayni said:

You know what's sad? I checked my activity log.

Awakening has over 700 hours. That may be over 4 years, but still HOLY CRAP. What's worse is that one save has over 300 hours put in because of apothesis grinding. Most of which was before I had DLC. I still haven't gotten round to finishing it.

Yes I enjoyed playing it.

I'm about there, been maybe 2-3 years for me and I'm at 600ish hours between 4 save files. I also have 300 hours on one save file mostly due to apotheosis as well.

 

Awakening did get me into the franchise. I'll admit I spoiled myself on the plot long before I got the game, but game worked magic on me, it made itself great even with me knowing the plot, as it didn't care and still made me feel emotions when I logically shouldn't. I loved it so much I rushed through the game in under a week with 100+ hours. Then I did another save which took longer to complete in terms of irl time, but less time in playtime. Then save 3 is the 300 hour one which I've continued working on completely maxing out, I already got stats done just have support convos and apotheosis secret left. Then save 4 (which is in progress) will literally be 100% run, with every characters learning every possible stat (clerics will be annoying) and be 100% capped almost instantly when they join. Safe to say this one is a lot of grinding and given I'm only on chapter 10 and the only unit that is completely done is Cordelia, I got some work left to do.

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I actually enjoyed it a ton and ocassionally still look quite forward to playing it. There's still a bunch of unexplored territory for me, like certain pair ups and their children with their respective paralogues, as well as the many DLCs I've yet to play.

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Awakening was the second Fire Emblem game I played after FE Blazing Sword and.... I didn't really enjoy it. I'd argue its probably my second least favorite Fire Emblem game after Genealogy of the Holy war.

On my first play through, I didn't really enjoy it due me playing it on casual mode, which led to me not getting punished too severely for even the stupidest mistakes and not really learning (I remember when my strategy against archers was using Dark Flier Sumia's Magic LOL).

Second playthrough on hard was very difficult, but for all the wrong reasons. Attack spawning enemies, way too many hordes of enemies to deal with, RNG, etc. etc. This is where I began to notice some of the game's big problems, namely how route maps have an almost infinite amount of spawning enemies that makes the map longer and longer and longer. Its extremely annoying. Really wish the devs had gone the SD / BB route and make all maps Seize objectives. That way, the player still has to defeat a boss and can decide if they want to route the enemy or not, but alas.

The characters were fairly decent. Honestly don't see the issue people have with most characters in the game. Pretty much everyone has some unique quirk, but a much deeper backstory once you start digging through each character's supports, just like every other Fire Emblem game. I really don't understand what makes these characters so much wore and why people feel the need to use the term "Awakening Character" to be synonymous with bad. Its really annoying.

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  • 2 weeks later...

It is very much a comfort game for me, I play it when I can't be bothered doing anything or when I'm stressed. As soon as I get the game back from a friend I plan to start my 5th play through. 

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