Marcus Sydney Baltazar

I want to start off by stating I haven't played any of the previous Fire Emblem games and so won't be comparing it to any of the other games in the franchise. There's 4 story routes you can take in the game with each route being different from one another as you pick which side you take. This let's the game have a replayability factor as you don't feel like you've finished the game after having just done the single route. However, as far as the actual main plot goes, it left much to be desired. It felt at times forced, rushed or poorly executed. With the first half of the game in each route being basically the same as the important story altering decision you make having already been done near the beginning of the game you mostly won't be seeing much that is new if you've already experienced one of the other routes. Unfortunately before you even finish your first route you'll probably already be sick of exploration mode as it's essentially just one map for the whole story and for every route. The gimmick of gardening, tea parties and cooking tends to get stale and tedious fairly quickly as there's not much interaction or interesting engagements with the characters during said activities that you'd you'd hope for thus providing some wasted potential to what could've been a more immersive and engaging part of the game rather then something you constantly repeat and do only so to get better stats for the characters so they can perform in combat. As for the combat itself, it doesn't do anything out of the ordinary or unique in my opinion for a turn based strategy game, you either love turn based strategy or you hate it, I for one love it (I recommend Classic mode to make things more interesting). The biggest appeal for the game to me was the cast of characters, they're all unique and lovely with their own story and development as well as the in-depth conversations and relationships with one another making you invested in them and the story and world of which they're a part of. Overall it's a good game but it could've been a great game, I would recommend it to any fan of RPGs to at least play for themselves to try out.