Tag Archive for Review

Three Houses: Famitsu Scores the Game 37/40 & Writer Play Reviews

July 17, 2019 FE Three Houses, News 10 comments

Today, the latest issue of Famitsu was released. The big news is that the magazine gave Three Houses a score of 37/40 [9, ,9, 10, 9]. At the time of writing, the review text is not available, but to be honest it’s rarely important. (Source)

This puts the game as one of the highest scoring FE titles, on par with Echoes, and one point above Mystery of the Emblem, Binding Blade, Awakening and Fates. Of course, if you’re dubious about Famitsu’s reviewing credibility, you have every right to be.

Correction: My brain wasn’t functioning properly for some reason. Three Houses scored higher, not lower than the five four games I mentioned.

In other related news, the new issue of Famitsu also includes a special pre-launch feature for the game. There are 8 pages of summarised information from previous issues of Famitsu (aka nothing new), plus play reports from three of Famitsu’s writers. You can find translations of the latter below.

The Writers

  • Lipsaiton — Played nearly every FE game. Picked the Black Eagles.
  • Professor Tsutsumi — Has been a decade since they last played a FE. Picked the Blue Lions.
  • Godzilla Outa — Completely new to the series. Picked the Golden Deer.

You can really taste the flavour and charm of “FE” in this game!

I’m Lipsaiton, a writer who’s been playing the FE series since the very first game. If you ask me about my gameplay impressions, I feel like the game system has undergone a big change, but the core flavour and charm of the series remains the same.

For this title, from the way the characters heads turn, the visuals have become more realistic. The game system, specifically the way you raise characters has been greatly enhanced. Mechanics, like the way units fight while leading battalions, are really innovative. Since FE Fates, the appearance and game system has changed a lot; could it even still be considered the same kind of game? I thought about this and there are probably many series fans thinking the same. But in the end, these concerns will probably end up being swept away.

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Jedi’s Review of Fire Emblem: Warriors: Japanese Version

October 4, 2017 FE Warriors, News 31 comments

Hello there! I’m Jedi, and I’ve had Fire Emblem Warriors since the Japanese launch. I’ve been a Warriors fan since the early 2000’s starting with Dynasty Warriors 3, all the way to current games such as Dynasty Warriors 8 Xtreme Legends, Samurai Warriors: Spirit Of Sanada, Warrior’s All-Stars and more. I have a vast amount of experience with both Fire Emblem and Warriors games, so I was excited to tackle this game.

Despite all the controversy surrounding Fire Emblem Warriors, it’s turned out much better than I could have hoped in pretty much every department, barring the roster; even the controversial and (to me, unimpressive) roster has merits in terms of supports and interactions.

Lets start from the top with the most important aspect of any Musou: The Gameplay. FEW is probably one of the most fluid and well playing Musou games out of the entire set. As is typical of these games, multitasking is more prevalent than ever in this title. The game feels nice to play in almost every aspect and doesn’t really feel tedious unless you play for an extended period of time, and even then, there’s advanced tech like frame cancels and animation canceling with dodges to keep the boredom away.

May contain some brief spoilers.

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Echoes: Our Review of the Japanese Version

April 21, 2017 FE Echoes, News 51 comments

Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia recently launched in Japan and, over here on Serenes Forest, we’ve been playing and enjoying the game non-stop! To make the wait for the English release more bearable (or less bearable depending on your tolerance), here’s our review of the Japanese version.

 

If you’re reading this, you’re probably a huge Fire Emblem fan and thus already have the game pre-ordered (or are going to buy it ASAP after release). So this review isn’t intended to persuade you or dissuade you from buying the game. Rather, we’ll be looking at the key features of the game and the parts of the game that shine (or don’t).

Caution: This article contains light to medium spoilers.

For the unacquainted, Fire Emblem Echoes is a complete remake of Fire Emblem Gaiden, which came out 25 years ago on the NES, but only in Japan. This means it will be the first time gamers in the West (as well as Chinese and Korean territories) can experience the world of Gaiden, officially anyway.

Back then, like many of Nintendo’s early sequels, Gaiden kept the core gameplay from the first game, but featured a heavy dose of experimentation. Some of these experiments, such as a traversible world map and branched Class Change system, eventually reappeared in newer games, but many other features have remained exclusive to Gaiden.

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