You know, I think I'm the only one here that was ever so slightly disappointed in Awakening.
Don't get me wrong it's fantastic! And I love that it made FE more mainstream. But coming from someone's who's first game was Radiant Dawn, it seemed lacking.
Firstly I think there was way too many "Route the Enemy" scenarios. Secondly, it seemed as if it was way too easy to grind, I love the map but it was better done in SS imo. Lastly, I wish they could have came up with something better for recruiting Whalhart, Gangrel, Priam, etc. than just sticking them on the end of the story.
I don't know why I decide to post this just now but there ya go.
I think everyone around here who has played a game outside of Awakening feels the same.
A bunch of subjective stuff:
Not that the Awakening characters are as bad as people might make them out to be, but generally I liked the faces of Tellius a lot more. They were often interesting-- sometimes silly, but still believable. I'd ride with the Greil Mercenaries over the Shepherds any day of the week. I actually cared about them and felt emotionally engaged... something Awakening did only a few times. Don't get me wrong, i still ;~; when I see how crushed Lissa is over the death of her sister or when Lucina reveals herself to Chrom. A few of the supports were touching as well... But then you get to someone like Soren and wooooow I feel it just thinking about some of their stories compared to the ones in Awakening.
Maps are better in basically any other game. First off, the map design is generally awful. Most of the main game has chapters that are wide open spaces in an outdoor setting... with honestly bare minimal features compared to some of of the other games. No breakable walls, trees to chop down, ballistae, etc. Initial unit placement is stupid, especially in Lunatic; the few features it has, you'll have a hard time taking advantage of because you can't get to them before the enemy does, and you'll kill half of the force with 0 strategic involvement using Pair Up and stuff.
Fire Emblem - Interactive Map Features (besides doors) - Weather - Alternating objectives = Less variety.
Something about the open world in Sacred Stones is better. Aside from having actual side dungeons, being able to fight monsters instead of more humans also has appeal.
Story, in concept, is GREAT. The delivery, however, is bad.
Items: Too much quantity, not enough quality. Rather have fewer weapons with greater contrast, than multiple weapons with like a few points stat difference. For instance, they probably didn't need as many tome tiers; start Thunder at D instead. I'm not the only one who rather have had light magic instead of so many anima tomes.
Skills are stupid in this game. Class-locked skills give them more FLAVOUR. I want Canto. I want bonus crit on all Swordmasters, Snipers and Berserkers. If you want to pick locks, you should either need the right items, or thieves. They should also be able to steal ****. Also skills should have a COST associated with them. It might sound like letting you have any five skills you want adds more variety, but it just makes the decision-process more braindead. You are ****ing kidding me if you think you won't take Galeforce if a unit can have it 100% of the time. With a Capacity system, you have to weigh "Hmm, do I want Ike to have Aether, or Wrath + Resolve? If not him, who will get these?"
A small nit-pick, but the GBA games and Radiant Dawn had better-looking battles. Make animations fun again. Also, character cut-ins for skills is stupid and causes them to lose their novelty when they activate 50-100% of the time.. Should be only for crits or something.
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So on and so forth. Not to say Awakening is bad or anything. It's an amazing game. Sounds great, looks great, I love the characters, it's immensely cool to have a melting pot of all of Fire Emblem's history, DLC is a cool concept, etc. But it has its flaws. It would still probably be at least in my top 5 maybe as far as the series goes for its great value, but I think a lot of the people coming into the series are missing out on the greats. Namely 4, 7-10. I hope people grab 7 or 8 off the eShop. If you want something hard but modern, FE12 Lunatic is ridiculous and you'll love it if you want to suffer.
Jill was my MVP among the Dawn Brigade, also one of my favorite characters of the Tellius games. Being such a strong willed girl, having really sweet supports with Mist in PoR, having a wyvern under her command, and just being a good unit in general made Jill a personal favorite of mine. Outside of the Griel Mercenaries, I was excited to see Jill the most in RD.
Oh, her supports with Mist were great. Also really... really...
So misguided trying to make her father proud. So much pain bottled inside. Little wonder she starts out with such a rough exterior.
