Fire Emblem Awakening is a tactical role-playing game developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 3DS. The game was released in Japan in April 2012 and North America and PAL regions in early 2013. It is an installment of the Fire Emblem series, and the first to be developed for the 3DS. The gameplay, like previous Fire Emblem games, focuses on the tactical movement of characters across a grid-based battlefield and fighting enemy units. Other features include the ability to build and foster relationships between characters to improve their abilities and multiple camera perspectives in battle.
The story is set 2000 years after the events of the original Fire Emblem and Fire Emblem Gaiden and focuses on Chrom, the prince of Ylisse, and his personal army, the "Shepherds". They rescue Robin, an amnesiac Avatar whose name, gender, and appearance can be customized by the player, and who takes on the role of their tactician. Over the course of the story, Chrom's army travels across Ylisse and defends it from undead invaders called the Risen and attacks from the hostile nation of Plegia.
Development of Fire Emblem Awakening began in 2010, with multiple veterans of the Fire Emblem series filling key development roles. Development was handled by Intelligent Systems with supervision from Nintendo. As the series had seen declining sales with previous installments, Awakening was designed as the possible last entry in the series, incorporating elements from all previous Fire Emblem games. Due to the 3DS still being fine-tuned by developers, the team's decisions for content and graphics were made based on what they thought was feasible on the hardware.
Upon release, Fire Emblem Awakening received critical acclaim and strong sales worldwide, with many critics praising its overall presentation, story, cast of characters, new additions to the traditional gameplay and accessibility to newcomers. However, some gameplay options and proposals were met with mixed reception, such as the option to disable permanent character death, colloquially known as permadeath, a staple of the franchise. The game was nominated for multiple awards from video game publications, and is often cited as one of the best games on the 3DS and one of the greatest video games of all time. Its commercial success is also credited with boosting sales for the 3DS and ensuring the continuation of the Fire Emblem series. It was followed by Fire Emblem Fates in 2015.
Gameplay
In Fire Emblem Awakening, the player begins as one of the central characters, a customizable Avatar: while the character's default name is Robin, their name, gender, hair color, features, and voice can all be customized. There are two modes of play: Casual Mode and Classic Mode. In Classic Mode, characters defeated in battle are permanently dead and unable to be used for the rest of the game. Casual Mode enables the player to disable permanent character deaths, with fallen units being restored after the completion of a battle. When Chrom or the Avatar character dies in battle in any mode, the player receives a "Game Over" message and must restart the battle. The game has multiple difficulty levels, with the three standard modes being Normal, Hard and Lunatic; a fourth difficulty level, Lunatic+, is unlocked after completing the game on Lunatic mode. The playing mode and difficulty level are selected at the beginning of a new game.
After the player is given access to a party of characters, they travel across a world map to both new and old locations. The time of day on the world map is synced to the player's time zone and time of day. New locations can contain main story missions as well as side stories, where new characters can be recruited. Previously visited locations have shops where the player can acquire new weapons, and can also contain random enemy skirmishes. Between missions, players can go to a customizable central base called the Barracks, where they can watch scenes between characters and perform various activities. Excluding characters included in downloadable content, the player can recruit forty-nine characters; twenty-eight in the main story and twenty-one in Paralogues. The game features multiple uses of the Nintendo 3DS-exclusive SpotPass and StreetPass functions via the world map. During navigation, the player can encounter other players and interact with them via StreetPass. The player can do battle with a party of up to ten characters from another player's world, with the winner gaining access to the party. Avatars can also be either befriended or defeated in battle, and loaned out to other players using this function.
Battle system
Awakening uses a turn-based tactical role-playing battle system. The terrain is displayed on the top screen of the 3DS, while unit information is displayed on the bottom screen. Before each battle, the player selects a limited number of characters from their roster for use in battle, which can either be controlled manually or through an auto-battle option. Character movement is dictated by a tile-based movement system. During combat, player-controlled sprite characters and enemy units controlled by the game's artificial intelligence (AI) each get one turn where they position their units, with an additional turn being added when unaffiliated AI-controlled units are in the field. Playable characters positioned next to each other in the field will support one-another, granting buffs, and performing actions such as blocking attacks. Two characters can also pair up as a single mobile unit, enabling both to attack at once. As the relationship between characters strengthens, they gain greater bonuses to their strength and effectiveness when paired up in battle. During combat, the perspective switches to a 3D scene between combatants; optional camera angles, including a first-person view through the eyes of playable characters, can be activated using the 3DS stylus.
During battles, characters earn experience points (EXP) through successful actions during battle. Their level raises by one once they earn 100 EXP, and as their level increases their stats increase and they learn new skills. The game includes a character class system, with forty-two classes available in the base game. Each character, including the Avatar, has a starting class, and upon reaching Level 10, they can either upgrade or change their classes using special items called Master Seals and Second Seals. A Master Seal promotes the character's class, improving character stats and giving access to new ability sets or weapons. A Second Seal allows a character to change class, or "reclass", when they are either at Level 10 or have reached their current Advanced Class. Upon reclassing, a character's experience level is reset to Level 1, but they retain their stats and abilities. The classes that most characters can reclass into are limited, but the Avatar is able to reclass into any class available to their gender. Regardless of future changes, characters retain learned skills from earlier classes. A character's class affects both their attack capabilities and their mobility on the battlefield: for example, mages and archers can attack at greater ranges than melee units, mounted units have more powerful attacks than foot units, and flying units have greater mobility and range.
Relationships between characters are built up through Support conversations between chapters. The normal rankings of relationships are C to A, with A standing for a close friendship. For characters of opposing genders, an additional S ranking is available, in which they fall in love, marry and have children. Relationships also have a direct impact during battles, with certain character pairings granting positive effects such as increased mobility or an automatic guarding action. A couple's children can be found and recruited in optional chapters made available by the parent characters' marriage, with their appearance and in-game abilities varying depending on their parents. Most characters have a specific list of units which they can have Support conversations with; the Avatar can build a relationship with all characters, and, depending on their chosen sex, marry any unit from any generation as long as they are not a direct descendant.
Synopsis
Setting and characters The game takes place approximately 2000 years after the events of Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light and Gaiden. In ancient times, the Fell Dragon Grima attempted to destroy the world. To stop Grima, the Divine Dragon Naga chose the ruler of the Halidom of Ylisse, known as the First Exalt. She granted him power through two magical objects, forged from her fangs: Falchion, a sword with the power to slay dragons; and the Fire Emblem, a magical shield. The Exalt struck down Grima, sending it into a long slumber. In the time since then, the continents of Archanea and Valentia became known as Ylisse and Valm.
By the present time, the land of Ylisse is divided between three countries. These are Halidom of Ylisse, which continues to worship Naga and is ruled by Exalt Emmeryn and defended by the Shepherds; the kingdom of Plegia, which worships Grima; and Regna Ferox, a country whose rulers periodically compete for dominance. Fifteen years prior to Awakening, the last Exalt of Ylisse, Emmeryn's father, waged a religious war against Plegia, which greatly damaged both countries and left bitterness on both sides. Ylisse has slowly recovered from the war thanks to Emmeryn's peaceful actions.
Plot After dreaming of killing Chrom, an amnesiac Robin awakens in a field, where Chrom and members of his personal army, the Shepherds, find and take them in. The Avatar joins the Shepherds after exhibiting the qualities of a tactician when they defend a nearby town from Plegian bandits. After gaining an alliance with Regna Ferox, the Shepherds move to fight Plegia's forces and revenant monsters called the Risen, and are aided by a masked man calling himself "Marth". After a confrontation between Plegia and the Shepherds, Validar and his minions almost kill Emmeryn. However, the assassination plot is foiled with aid from "Marth", who has prior knowledge of the event and is revealed to be a woman. Soon after, Plegian forces capture Emmeryn as she goes to parley with King Gangrel, Plegia's ruler, with Gangrel demanding the Fire Emblem in exchange for her life. Though Chrom almost accepts Gangrel's terms, Emmeryn stops him by throwing herself over a cliff, becoming a martyr to both Ylisse and Plegia. Eventually, the Shepherds triumph over Plegia, defeating Gangrel and restoring peace to the continent.