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Best and Worst of the 3DS FE Era


Armagon
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Best and Worse of the 3DS FE Era  

69 members have voted

  1. 1. Best story

    • Awakening
      14
    • Fates (Birthright)
      3
    • Fates (Conquest)
      1
    • Fates (Revelation)
      0
    • Shadows of Valentia
      51
  2. 2. Best gameplay

    • Awakening
      5
    • Fates (Birthright)
      3
    • Fates (Conquest)
      48
    • Fates (Revelation)
      2
    • Shadows of Valentia
      11
  3. 3. Worst story

    • Awakening
      4
    • Fates (Birthright)
      6
    • Fates (Conquest)
      22
    • Fates (Revelation)
      36
    • Shadows of Valentia
      1
  4. 4. Worst gameplay

    • Awakening
      20
    • Fates (Birthright)
      7
    • Fates (Conquest)
      1
    • Fates (Revelation)
      28
    • Shadows of Valentia
      13


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With FE Switch coming out next years and FE Warriors coming out on the Switch in a few days, the 3DS era of Fire Emblem is basically over yes, i know the New 3DS version of FE Warriors exists.

So i thought it'd be nice to take a look back at what was a major turning point in the FE series. The 3DS era is what really increased Fire Emblem's popularity and sales. This thread exists for us to discuss what we liked and didn't like about this era.

Regarding the stories told in this era, I think SoV is the best one, even if it is flawed, simply because of how it's told. It has some of the best world-building (especially because of the villages and dungeons) in the series and the fully-voiced lines help flesh out both the cast and the world even more. In second place, i'd have to give it to Awakening. Awakening's story was a bit inconsistent and had it's flaws, but overall, it was pretty decent. The cast of Awakening also contains some of my favorite characters in the series, such as Owain. Unfortunately, Fates' story is a mess, making the story of Fates not just the worst of the 3DS era, but the worst in the series. Specifically, Revelation is the worst story simply because it renders Birthright and Conquest pointless. Props to Conquest for trying something new, though that doesn't excuse how bad it is. However, the cast of Fates is pretty decent (though it does have Peri, the worst FE character ever made).

On the gameplay front, the 3DS era wasn't that special. Except for Conquest, which has the best gameplay not just in the 3DS era, but in the series imo. Everything about Conquest's mechanics just works. There are some frustrating gameplay elements of Fates as a whole such as Forging and the Debuffs, but Conquest's gameplay was solid. Awakening has the worst gameplay of the era because a lot of it was just trivialized by Robin and Pair-ups. I don't think Revelation's gameplay is as bad as people make it out to be. Shadows of Valentia's gameplay is alright. It suffers from mediocre map design but the gameplay itself was smoothed out so that it felt a lot less clunky compared to it's original NES counterpart. Stuff like Arts and the Turnwheel were good additions.

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Best story - SoV. Kept it simple, no time travel, no weird-ass cartoon villains(As close as Jedeh can get). Presentation of this story also blows Fates' and Awakenings' presentation out of the water.

Best gameplay - Conquest. Good balance between challenge and variety without ever getting too tiresome or frustrating. Still has some odd mechanics and design choices, but not enough to ruin the core experience that Conquest offers.

Worst story - Revelation. The less said, the better.

Worst gameplay - Awakening. Some of the worst overall gameplay balance in the franchise, bland, boring maps with only 2 objectives types in the whole game, and a Lunatic/Lunatic+ mode that truly is just artificial difficulty.

Edited by Slumber
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Best Story: Shadows of Valentia. Great presentation, likable characters, and aside from a few hiccups the plot's solid.

Best Gameplay: Birthright. Controversial opinion here, I know, but Conquest's gameplay isn't even deserving of "best in Fates" let alone "best in the series." I think Conquest and Revelation are both equally not good in terms of level design, gimmicks, etc., so Birthright wins by virtue of not being a gimmick-filled desperate attempt to appeal to older fans of the series.

Worst Story: Conquest. Not gonna beat a dead horse by going into any further detail.

Worst Gameplay: Awakening. Super-unbalanced, with too easy, boring maps and a glut of overpowered units.

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Best story

Awakening. Not because it's anything special outside of Future Past, but because in comparison I find it much easier to swallow than Fates and Echoes.

Best gameplay

Conquest without a doubt. Awesome maps and it feels neatly balanced. 

Worst story

All of Fates. Sure, Birthright does the least wrong, but that doesn't make it good at all. Both Conquest and Revelation are on another level though.

I also don't care for Echoes' story in the slightest, which I wrote about here

Worst gameplay

Echoes by far. It often feels like a chore to play through with all the desert and swamp maps, summons and low movement speeds and hit rates.

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In truth, I've never played any of the Fates games, having decided not to waste $40 after seeing the many disparaging comments about the story. I kept up with the story discussions, since I'm now pursuing a degree in Creative Writing, but I never actually experienced the games first hand, so I can't really comment on either the gameplay or story of it.

But Awakening gameplay bores me now, despite being my entry into the series, and the story is just bland to me.

SoV wins best story from me for it's presentation and characters. The plot could have been better, and the gameplay was decent, through I wish they improve the map design.

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Gameplaywise best: Conquest easily.  Interesting map design for the most part, and in a fun way, not the tedious way like the ice map in Rev.

Gameplaywise worst: Awakening or Rev.  The former is about as fun as watching paint dry, and the latter is really gimmicky.  The balance is a mess in both.

 

Story best: SoV may not be perfect, but it's at least presented very well.  It doesn't really have competition, when the alternatives are Fates and Awakening.

Story worst: Conquest, specifically from Chapter 15 onward.  Before that, not the best, and Corrin was a bit weak willed, but Chapter 15 utterly kills Conquest's story with Azura's insane plan to expose Garon as a slime monster by putting him on the magic Hoshidan throne of plot convenience, as well as the major idiot ball the poor Nohr sibs have to grasp for the plot to freaking work, it's just so annoying.  The icing on the cake?  Unlike Rev, which was essentially doomed to not work right, Conquest could have been good.  It really could have.  But it... wasn't, and that letdown puts it below Rev for me.

 

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All my choices are the obvious ones

About the SoV vs Awakening gameplay debate... I prefer SoV. After the prologue, Awakening's gameplay can be summed up as LITERALLY LITERALLY (not figuratively literally) skipping player phase while Robin is paired up with first Frederick and then Chrom, even on Lunatic. I'd much rather take SoV's questionable shit (which tbqh never bothered me much and I actually sort of liked) over a gameplay that might as well not exist, since it's so broken mashing end phase is the easiest way to play it. Revelation's is bad, but at least it exists, unlike Awakening's.
And that's without even getting on the terrible map designs and lack of objectives. Awakening's gameplay truly is beyond awful.

Edited by Nobody
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I picked Echoes for best story, but really it fails in many places too. Awakening's was more...standard, but also boring, and Echoes had a really great start story-wise, so I'll give it to Echoes.

Worst story is Revelation for me. Conquest was bad, but at least it was a bad story that was finished. Revelation was just incredibly half-assed.

Best gameplay has to be Conquest for its creative and challenging maps.

Worst gameplay for me is Revelation, and I'm surprised Awakening is being crapped on more. It does have many many problems, such as the randomness and later on OPness of Pair Up, but Revelation is just a mess. Bad map gimmicks (when Awakening was at most boring), unbalanced unit availability/bases leading to pretty much half the non-royal cast being near unusable without grinding, and lack of gold for weapons if you take the game's bait and grind.

Edited by SatsumaFSoysoy
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I hated Conquest, oh my gosh. Chapter 10 was fun, but the chapters after that was so annoying. Wind Tribe chapter, Kitsune, etc. I hate the chapter with Iago so much because no matter where you step, you're going to be KOd. 

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I'd have t say Awakening has the worst gameplay just becuase you could never rely on dual strikes or dual guards happening, it kind of made the new features to luck based in an SRPG.

though Conquest had a few bad maps (cough cough, wind tribe and Hinoka) overall I found them challenging and varied in what needs to be done, and all of the maps really had a good risk reward design. Like the map with the pirates, the faster you got it done the more money you made, however you put more units at risk

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Best story: SoV, no contest. Awakenings story is bland, Fates story is horrible. Despite some weird moments, SoV's was shown beautifully.

Bets gameplay: Conquest.   Awakening and BR were too easy, REV too gimmicky and I dislike SoV's dungeons. At least Conquest was challenging.

Worst story: Revelations. Sure, AW and BR are really bland and CQ has the worst Corrin, but REV s entire Valla arc is just so bad...

Worst gameplay: Revelations.  I haven't played BR, so I can't compare it. Awakening is too easy, SoV is also quite easy and has some things I dislike, but my god I hate the gimmicky maps in revelations.

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Best story: This is like asking whether you want the plate of spaghetti, three servings of moldy bread, or a green potato for dinner.  SoV wins by a mile. . .not because it was stellar, but because its competition was that bad.  In the grand scheme of Fire Emblem, it's about on par with Magvel (and I do NOT have a high opinion of Magvel).

Worst story: This goes to Awakening, for trying to do too much in too short a time.  At least Fates tried to keep it simple, even if it backfired horribly.

Best gameplay: I like Birthright - showcases enough of the new system to make it cool, but doesn't have as many stupid gimmicks.

Worst gameplay: Revelation.  The later maps were downright unfun, and that is NOT how a FE game is supposed to go.  Shout-out to the pseudo-stealth section, which was somewhat interesting.

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2 hours ago, Azure Sen said:

Best Gameplay: Birthright. Controversial opinion here, I know, but Conquest's gameplay isn't even deserving of "best in Fates" let alone "best in the series." I think Conquest and Revelation are both equally not good in terms of level design, gimmicks, etc., so Birthright wins by virtue of not being a gimmick-filled desperate attempt to appeal to older fans of the series.

Some of the maps do make me ugh and are a little too gimmicky (Wind Tribe, the Kitsune and Mokushu battles lack enemy variety), and Inevitable End at the end is cruel (not Iago's use of it so much as everyone else's), but generally the gimmicks aren't overpowering I find. The pots weren't, Takumi's Moses moment wasn't, nor was the stairs of the Sevenfold, the Wall and Eternal, the timed two boss rout of Izumo, Ice Tribe village rush, the find Shura boat, the Ryoma duel, Sakura's Jinya, and the Hinoka air assault. And then the Cheve, Opera, and C7 fights have no gimmicks at all.

BR might be gimmick free, but it has the issue of really weak midgame enemies, and then at the end on Lunatic, the enemies are too numerous and too strong for the frail Hoshidans on pretty flat and dull maps. Rev Lunatic is BR Lunatic enemies with gimmicks that aren't as well handled as CQ's.

Rev has: virtual Corrin solo (unless you went female and have Jakob- I find Morrin on Rev. is even more tedious), virtual Corrin solo II, virtual Corrin solo III, near Corrin solo IV (because your new recruits are so weak). Snow shoveling where you have to take things slow because otherwise somebody dies b/c you have no idea where the enemies are and you can only field a handful of units. BR Ninjaland featuring Master Ninjas you can't handle easily (but at least you finally have some good from the start units). Sluggish ice boats you're best off 2-turning. City of ruin, city of optional bosses you won't fight. Port Elise must be dragged around for full recruitment, otherwise easy if you don't go for full recruitment. Sevenfold eh. Okay fire fields where you should beeline for Hans. Iago's just give Xander a Concoction, a Fort, and a DS pal and watch him solo the right, which you need b/c foes are too darn strong (I'm always assuming Lunatic Classic here) and you don't want someone to die since then you have to repeat Ryoma's hot beats again. The land of teleporting, but nothing really strategic about it. Decent replica land. And then a blue-red eh indoors, 3 slow moving platform battles (2 of which demand fliers), indoor stealth that shouldn't exist, a grey forest, and then a boss blitz for sanity followed by HP sink with infinite reinforcements. Add serious character imbalances, too many promoted enemies too early, over-reliance on DVs, and CQ just has to be better than this.

Or so I think. If my evangelism failed to move CQ above Rev. in your mind, well I tried and plead my case. But I won't try any further, I'll respect thy opinion. These aren't the days of the Spanish Inquisition.

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i've never played birthright or revelation, but I liked echoes' story the most, mostly because of the characters (i think awakening's overall plot is better, but i didn't feel nearly as invested)

i didn't really like the gameplay of conquest awakening or echoes much compared to most other FE games, but echoes was definitely the one I had the most fun with so that'd be my choice for gameplay too.

for worst story I picked conquest, mainly because it was the only one of the 3 I played where I just didn't care about it at all. awakening's plot was pretty boring overall and tried to cram way too much into one game, but there were plenty of moments I enjoyed and I liked chrom a lot as a lead character, even if his decisions by the end of the game are... questionable. conquest on the other hand I can barely remember any of aside from one moment which I remember for being bad (the bit where the fish randomly shows up and dies)

i also liked conquest's gameplay the least, although I did enjoy the first 10 or so maps more than the equivalent of that in most other fe games (and probably the other 3ds games i played). but past that the gimmicks started to reach the point where I wasn't having fun anymore with stuff like the ninja cave or the foxes and I ended up stopping around chapter 20 something.

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Best Story

Awakening: I like the story here. It may not of been the best, but it was still a story that was enjoyable from start to finish. The characters also tied in more here than Fates, which I enjoyed. I liked the way the second generation was implemented, as I thought it was both a unique way of implementing the whole time travel/alternate dimensions idea, and an interesting way of adding in a second gen without just repeating Genealogy. I liked that it was split into parts, part 1 being one story, part 2 being a different, and part 3 being a seperate, but at the same time result of, the other two. Sure it could of been handled better, but it wasnt too the point of annoyance. Character wise it has one of my favorite rosters in the series, between several of the 1st and 2nd gen being favorites of mine.

Best Gameplay

Conquest/Fates by far. Conquest has some amazing map design, and was an enjoyable experience from start to finish with gameplay. While its a bit of a more polarizing route, I also enjoyed Revelation as a very sandboxy, do whatever you want with the characters game. The balance was atrocious, and the designs were very hit or miss, but being able to grind at least fixes the balance. I have no real opinion on BR as I never played it, but it seems like a good step above Awakening.

Worst Story

Fates. Really no question about it. Awakening was a solid story that was coherent, Echoes was at least presented very well, but Fates just missed a lot of points. Conquest in particular being an issue. I still dont think its the worst thing I have ever seen like some would like to say, but it was definitely not the best. Conquest is by far the worst of the three with its sudden "twist" about halfway through. BR I have no input on, and Rev was just empty. I do think the stories had some high points, I think the first 6 chapters were a good start to the game, the story also had some interesting concepts. I also think Revelation's twist was a nice little diamond in the rough. If it had not been spoiled for me so early on, I wouldnt have seen it coming until late into the story. But by far, Fates is the worst of the three games in the 3ds era.

Worst Gameplay

SoV. Similar situation as Fates for me. Was it the worst thing I have ever seen? Nope. But it was definitely the worst of these three games. It is hard to play through a second time, so unlike most its got very low replayability, unlike most FE titles. Its also got some really bad sets of chapters, Celica Chapter 4 being by far the worst. I do think it's "terrible" map design is a bit over stated, and that there are some legitimately good designs in there when you comb through it, just marred by some bad mechanics. The villagers were also fun to use, even if their stats really force them in various directions. Mila's Turnwheel was a great addition to the game, and the villages/towns system was fun. While a little more controversial of an opinion, I also loved Dungeons and being able to explore the game in a third person view. The controls handled like a truck, and the randomized, respawning enemies got a little annoying, but it was a nice unique experience that I enjoyed. Even though I enjoyed all of this, it still is the worst of the three. It never really tested my limits as far as strategy goes, relying more on a RPG style approach of grinding and stat checks throughout. Even in the Chapter 6 dungeon, the game never felt challenging as much as enemies just getting larger and larger as time went on.

 

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Story:

Best: SoV. It's a competent story, for one, and while it does have some inconsistencies between its themes and narrative, it works. The world building is very strong as is the cast, both of which strengthen the plot.

In the middle: Believe it or not, Conquest is my second place story. It beats out Birthright because it's more interesting, and it beats Awakening because while both have no idea what they want to be/accomplish, Conquest is at least bad because it tries to be different while Awakening is bad because it tries to do everything previous games already did but does it worse. I also much prefer the cast of Conquest to either of the other two. Conquest, Birthright, Awakening.

Worst: Revelation. This lame excuse for a game came into being purely as a cash grab. The story makes no sense, the characters are at their worst here, it invalidates the entire reasoning behind the split, and it does nothing interesting or worthwhile. 

Gameplay:

Best: Conquest. Pair up is improved, skills are touched up, reclassing is more enjoyable, maps are varied and fun, and the UI is very pleasant. 

In the middle: SoV's biggest flaw in gameplay is the maps, honestly. They were too faithful to the original, which unfortunately means a lot of boring maps which is especially glaring coming off of Fates. However, everything else is a blast. Birthright has a lot of what Conquest does, with the biggest difference being lack of map variety. It also has a bunch of new classes which are fun to play around with. Awakening was a good entry point for the 3DS era, but it's just been outclassed at this point, with the other games doing everything better than it. SoV, Birthright, Awakening.

Worst: Revelation, again. It's annoying to play. It's very unbalanced. These things are enough to turn me off completely despite it being in the Fates series.

Overall, my ranking of the 3DS era would be Fates, SoV, and then Awakening. Within that, Conquest, SoV, Birthright, Awakening, Revelation.

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Best Story: SoV Blows it’s competion out the water which is not saying much but I do think it is large improvement story over the rest of the 3ds era.

Worst Story: Revalation... At the end of game you are crowned the King of a Kingdom with NO people in it! this should a testment to how little thought went to into its Story. To go further in explaining it’s problems would be to beat a dead horse.

Best Gameplay: Conquest by a mile creative engaging map design, pretty great unit balance, and lots of depth.

Worse Gameplay: Rev or Awakening, I ended voting for Rev, but I what I would pick really depends on my mood they are pretty even for me in terms of bad. One is completely broken and boring, the other is completely unbalanced and has map design that makes some of SoV’s maps look amazing (I would SoV’s maps over some of Rev’s maps any day).

Edited by Locke087
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1 hour ago, Locke087 said:

Worst Story: Revalation... At the end of game you are crowned the King of a Kingdom with NO people in it! this should a testment to how little thought went to into its Story. To go further in explaining it’s problems would be to beat a dead horse.

If you don't pair Corrin, the kingdom they inherit isn't the kingdom you just chopped your way through. It has the old one's name, but is actually composed of territory ceded by Nohr and Hoshido.

Of course, this raises questions of how viable a kingdom it'd be. Medieval European realms and early modern German territories were largely noncontiguous and they worked, and Dal Riata was a thing too, but I still doubt the viability of making Corrin's new kingdom a lasting state. My analysis:

Spoiler

First, you're suddenly taking land already occupied by people who probably like being Nohrian and Hoshidan respectively, and forcing them into a new identity against their wills. If the people don't feel like they belong to the new kingdom and share a culture with those different from them, they won't foster a national sense of unity, work towards state goals, nor be receptive to national government interference in their lives, they might even opt to resist or break away.

Then there is the question of geographic, not demographic/popular viability. Nohr and Hoshido are bordered by the Bottomless Canyon- mountains that aren't easy to traverse (if they were- would we have two radically distinct kingdoms?) and hence trade, culture, and governance between the halves are massively hindered if Corrin's new kingdom consists of the lands bordering the Canyon (which sounds most viable). The kingdom for unity's sake would likely have to rely on water travel over the Nohr-Hoshido Sea, how well one could hold a kingdom together this way, I don't know.

Then there are the big powers Nohr and Hoshido- Ryoma and Xander might never invade- but what about their grandchildren and beyond? Would Corrin's kingdom be able to defend itself if the monarchs of Nohr and Hoshido rejected their predecessors' decisions and wanted to reclaim their ceded lands? The kingdom is already divided- conquering it wouldn't be hard. What would remain at best would be a largely poor, largely mountainous, buffer zone kingdom.

And need I say Corrin has no good governing monarchal qualities? Unless you like a naive puppet others can control.

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1 hour ago, Locke087 said:

Worst Story: Revalation... At the end of game you are crowned the King of a Kingdom with NO people in it! this should a testment to how little thought went to into its Story. To go further in explaining it’s problems would be to beat a dead horse.

Corrin could always go to real estate. Selling regions of land to Nohr and Hoshido. Or better yet produce crop to sell to Nohr, he could become Corrin the corn farmer.

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2 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

If you don't pair Corrin, the kingdom they inherit isn't the kingdom you just chopped your way through. It has the old one's name, but is actually composed of territory ceded by Nohr and Hoshido.

Of course, this raises questions of how viable a kingdom it'd be. Medieval European realms and early modern German territories were largely noncontiguous and they worked, and Dal Riata was a thing too, but I still doubt the viability of making Corrin's new kingdom a lasting state. My analysis:

  Reveal hidden contents

First, you're suddenly taking land already occupied by people who probably like being Nohrian and Hoshidan respectively, and forcing them into a new identity against their wills. If the people don't feel like they belong to the new kingdom and share a culture with those different from them, they won't foster a national sense of unity, work towards state goals, nor be receptive to national government interference in their lives, they might even opt to resist or break away.

Then there is the question of geographic, not demographic/popular viability. Nohr and Hoshido are bordered by the Bottomless Canyon- mountains that aren't easy to traverse (if they were- would we have two radically distinct kingdoms?) and hence trade, culture, and governance between the halves are massively hindered if Corrin's new kingdom consists of the lands bordering the Canyon (which sounds most viable). The kingdom for unity's sake would likely have to rely on water travel over the Nohr-Hoshido Sea, how well one could hold a kingdom together this way, I don't know.

Then there are the big powers Nohr and Hoshido- Ryoma and Xander might never invade- but what about their grandchildren and beyond? Would Corrin's kingdom be able to defend itself if the monarchs of Nohr and Hoshido rejected their predecessors' decisions and wanted to reclaim their ceded lands? The kingdom is already divided- conquering it wouldn't be hard. What would remain at best would be a largely poor, largely mountainous, buffer zone kingdom.

And need I say Corrin has no good governing monarchal qualities? Unless you like a naive puppet others can control.

Never seen the unpaired ending so wouldn’t know about that, but if it’s still stupid either way. Xander and Ryoma ceding land to create an entirely unnecessary nation with Corrin’s inept leadership at the head is just dumb on so many levels.  

The way I remember reading it though is that they seded people from those areas not the actual land though so both nation would just provide people to populate corrin abandon kingdom. But it’s been a while since I’ve played rev so I don’t remember everything. I just will forever remember becoming the king of a nation with no people currently in it.

2 hours ago, Jingle Jangle said:

Corrin could always go to real estate. Selling regions of land to Nohr and Hoshido. Or better yet produce crop to sell to Nohr, he could become Corrin the corn farmer.

Probably how it ends up if he is paired up with Anna in the first case or Mozu on the second case.  Either way he still the king of a nation with no people. 

Edited by Locke087
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Story:

Best: SoV. While the plot has many, many problems, the direction and themes were clear and the worldbuilding was excellent. It's flawed but not offensively so, and memorable unlike some of the other games.

Middle: Awakening. While it is cliched and has its fair share of plot holes, Awakening at least has a purpose and feels complete by the end. Birthright is decent as well but forgettable.

Worst: Conquest, but I'll give Revelation a dishonorable mention for being a complete void. Conquest has you play as a spineless villain protagonist that the game insists is the second coming of Jesus. There are few FE games I'd call offensively bad but Conquest is the lowest the series has ever gone.

Gamplay

Best: Conquest. Fates really refined the mechanics that Awakening introduced and combined with some good map design, Conquest is the clear winner. Birthright is also servicable but can be disappointingly simple at times.

Middle: SoV. It's true that summon spam and annoying terrain is a bother but SoV's unique mechanics were quite interesting. I can't say I'd want everything they did to come back in future titles but it was a fresh experience.

Worst: Revelation. Terrible unit balance and map design unfortunately cannot make up for Fates' generally solid gameplay. This combined with the snorefest of a story made the game almost impossible to finish. Next up, I'd say Awakening because pair up is just a disaster when compared to Attack/Defense stance.

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Best Story: SoV, it has its problems, but in terms of consistency and characters it gets more right then Awakening and especially Fates do. 

Worst Story: Revelation, with Conquest being a very close second. The pointless Anthony arc, the pointless deaths, the bad pacing, the lack of lore for Valla, and a terrible final villain to top it all off just makes it a bad package all around. 

Best gameplay: Conquest, the units and mechanics were better balanced and it has a good set of maps despite a few hiccups here and there, for all of its problems in the story I think Conquest nailed the gameplay the most out of the 3DS games. 

Worst gameplay: Revelation, between the poor unit balance, the terrible gimmicks and poor design that made a sizeable chunk of the maps a slog it's a game that is a struggle to play through. 

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I'd personally rather use the terms favored/less favored, but oh well, here we go.

Best Story: I'm not too big on story, so this one has a little less weight to it than the rest for not really being able to say, but for the sake of answering, I suppose I'll just... Echoe others and go with SoV

Worst Story: Same situation as above. Due to how disjointed the three arcs are, I'd say Awakening. Not to say that I don't like the arcs themselves, but rather that there wasn't enough meat to them to warrant having them in the first place. That, and I don't like how the character focus takes shifts as the story goes along. Often times it feels as though Chrom becomes secondary to Robin as a result, despite being the actual lord of the game.

Best Gameplay: I'm not your average FE player in the sense that I'm not the kind who generally likes strategy simulation, with FE being the sole exception. If I were to do any turn-based combat at all, it'd have to be action oriented with the only amount of variability that I'd go for is whether the attack lands or not. With Gaiden/Echoes, this is honestly the closest thing to it with its sense of exploration via dungeons & villages to a lesser extent, along with the use of combat artes. While not complete, I like being in control of the flow of battle and acting/reacting as necessary. Therefore, SoV wins by a milestone for delivering that experience, in what ways that it can, for being a strategy simulation game that FE is.

Worst Gameplay: In all of my playing [to completion] of FE , I could never actually say that there was any game that I necessarily hate. I liked all of them to some degree. However, when it comes to my willingness to play them again in regards to 3DS, it is Awakening that comes to the bottom of the list. I can not accurately explain why, but after the war with Plegia (which I find to be the best part of the game), I can never bring myself to finish the game. The Valm arc just bores me to play for some reason, CH16 & 17, most particularly.

I think another section should be added in regards to overall experience.

Best Experience: Despite losing out in both of the former categories, Awakening still remains at the top for having the most hours put into it. In this case, it was the littler things that made all the difference here, combined with a steller post-game that made the experience the most enjoyable out of the three at its time. While I didn't play the main game much, practically 90% of my hours spent on the game was replaying the DLC maps; particularly the Einherjar maps, in addition to the Einherjar themselves that attributed to extra grinding for the more challenging maps. On a lesser note, there was the unit gallery, purely for passing the time. They didnt have to include it, but it adds some extra icing to the cake Sure, Awakening is very flawed in many way, but despite this, it truly feels as though the devs went all out in this game. And it shows. I only wish that its successors were given the same treatment.

Worst Experience: This is where I have to draw the hammer on Fates. I still like Fates, but it was a little overwhelming and sometimes even frustrating. Controversies aside, the biggest thing that stands out is the fact that its split into three separate, yet intertwine games,  each with varying experiences. They didn't have to take a note from Pokemon and put it to its extreme.  Granted, the class difference between them I'll gladly take and is partly why I prefer Birthright. Then there's everything else besides the main campaign via My Castle. Aside from the updated logbook with skill acquisition, a lot of it, I found to be personally unnecessary, with the little time that I actually spend in My Castle. It left for an otherwise weak post-game for me (if any at all). Lastly, there's its DLC, which aside from Lost in the Waves (which is somewhat inferior to Future Past), and extra unit classes.... wasn't all that. Overall, while the innovations were nice, there were also other areas that left much to be desired 

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Best Story - I have to give this one to Shadows of Valentia because of its spectacular presentation. Sure, the story itself has it's flaws (Rudolf's Plan and Celica's decisions later in the game), but I can look past that due to the voice acting, music, and general world building.

Best Gameplay - Fates: Conquest, period. It reminds me of the Tellius era of map objectives, specifically Radiant Dawn. Yes, there are some BS chapters in Conquest, but overall it is an amazing experience. I  hope future Fire Emblem titles continue down this road of varied objectives. Rout and Seize are fun, but mix it up every now and then!

Worst Story - I have to give this one to Revelations. While I understand the desire of a "united, happy route," it was pulled off so poorly that the other two paths suffered as a result. I was so thrown off by Revelations I still haven't beaten it to this day. (Conquest gets a dishonorable mention because of what could have been. I expected to transform Nohr from the inside and not be a spineless coward.)

Worst Gameplay - Also had to give this one to Revelations. There were too many gimmicks and the player had to rely on Corrin and the Royals to really get anywhere because everyone else sucks without grinding. I once had grand plans to make an ultimate Revelations file, but I find my time better allocated elsewhere.

* * * * *

Gameplay Thoughts on Shadows of Valentia: I honestly liked Shadows of Valentia because the mechanics were solid (I never played the original Gaiden). The main problem with SoV was the map design. If we looked at the DLC for SoV, specifically the "Rise of the Deliverance," one can see how amazing the game can be if it just had solid map design. I hope to see a sequel or something that improves upon SoV mechanics, but vastly improve on map design, objectives, and enemy layout.

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Best Story: None of the above, I go by cast and I like Fates the most

Best Game play: Conquest by far. I But I like all three routes.

Worst Story: Awakening, I hate the set up, all three arcs dull and some of the worst time traveling story elements. It doesn't help that I don't particularly care for both Chrom and Robin (regardless of gender). 

Worst Game play: Echoes, I found the RPG elements to lacking in comparison to games that are designed to traditional RPGs. More often than not the rewards aren't worth it. The fatigue system to be a waste of programming and the more traditional Fire Emblem elements to be such a tedious chore. Cantors are just obnoxious and with how EXP gain is handled; using them for grinding isn't worth it.

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