Fire Emblem: Awakening coming Feb. 4 2013 to North America - Finally

[farley2k]

Saw the announcement over at Joystiq.

This winter is shaping up to be pretty great with this and Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch coming January.

[farley2k]

And another cool announcement!


A demo on Jan 17th

[davidrobots]

I'm excited. That game comes out on my birthday.

[EddieA]

I played the demo and came away very impressed.  It's hard to tell much about the gameplay, since the demo consists of two tutorial battles, but the presentation is excellent.  The animated cutscenes look great and feature full voice-acting and the in-battle animations and in-engine cutscenes are also really well done.  I also like that they included a casual mode that removes perma-death and lets you save in mid-battle.  I'll definitely be picking this up when it comes out.

[farley2k]

I played the demo and came away very impressed.  It's hard to tell much about the gameplay, since the demo consists of two tutorial battles, but the presentation is excellent.  The animated cutscenes look great and feature full voice-acting and the in-battle animations and in-engine cutscenes are also really well done.  I also like that they included a casual mode that removes perma-death and lets you save in mid-battle.  I'll definitely be picking this up when it comes out.

+1

[EddieA]

Here's a look at the game's character classes.

[farley2k]

The dancer still looks cute, which is good.  I like how the villager carries a log as his weapon.

[Misguided]

I don't recall Fire Emblem having a class system like this...have I just forgotten?

Anybody know if casual mode is available for any difficulty setting?

[farley2k]

I don't recall Fire Emblem having a class system like this...have I just forgotten?

Anybody know if casual mode is available for any difficulty setting?

They always had leveling to a different class; an archer could become a sniper at level 20 etc. but they seem to have more options.

I have no idea about casual mode (but I will in a couple weeks! )

[EddieA]

Anybody know if casual mode is available for any difficulty setting?

Casual mode is selected separately from the difficulty setting, so it should be.

[rittchard]

I don't think I played any of the original games (which is odd since it's one of my favorite genres) but for some reason I'm really excited about this one.  Enjoyed the demo alot, wish it was longer.

[EddieA]

Here are some details about traveling around the world map.

Additionally, each area can have two special events.  For example, you can have two enemy units visit, in which case you’ll have to face two “Boss” units, or you can have an enemy and a merchant visit, in which case you’ll have to protect the merchant from the enemies...This freedom of travel also means that you can visit separate areas unrelated to the story when they open. These lead to Paralogues, which are like side stories.  Most of these come with a recruitable character... Later, you can recruit the children of your married units and the Paralogues are unlocked whenever you marry a couple off.

[EddieA]

It looks like Nintendo underestimated the demand for this game, since Gamestop has stopped taking preorders and Amazon has a warning about delays.  I put my order in at Amazon, so hopefully I'll get it as soon as it comes out.  If anyone else is interested, I'd suggest trying to secure a copy now.

[The Grue]

Just gonna pop into Target the day of and get my copy.

[Misguided]

Anybody know if casual mode is available for any difficulty setting?

Casual mode is selected separately from the difficulty setting, so it should be.

I kind of like the idea of playing on hard/casual, where there's a challenge and you really have to work to win battles, but you aren't punished mercilessly if you don't.

[davidrobots]

Our very own Travis Northrup reviewed this one, and it just went live:

http://gamingtrend.com/game_reviews/fire-emblem-awakening-review/#/vanilla/discussion/embed/?vanilla_discussion_id=0

Based on this review, I'm personally very excited for it. My birthday can't come soon enough.

[farley2k]

Gametrailers review.

Short version.  It is great.

[The Grue]

I assume this will be on the eShop?  I just realized...why would I go to a store to pick this up when I can just download it?

[farley2k]

No good reason if you have the space on an SD card and a fast enough connection. 

Well that isn't totally true.  The other good reason is for resale.  When I am done I can sell it here or take it to a store and get something for it. 

[The Grue]

No good reason if you have the space on an SD card and a fast enough connection. 

Well that isn't totally true.  The other good reason is for resale.  When I am done I can sell it here or take it to a store and get something for it. 

For portable games (Vita and 3DS) I like to trade the trade-in potential for the convenience of carrying all my games around with me.  Not the same for consoles, because I don't have to carry discs.

[davidrobots]

No good reason if you have the space on an SD card and a fast enough connection. 

Well that isn't totally true.  The other good reason is for resale.  When I am done I can sell it here or take it to a store and get something for it. 

For portable games (Vita and 3DS) I like to trade the trade-in potential for the convenience of carrying all my games around with me.  Not the same for consoles, because I don't have to carry discs.

This x 1000

[Misguided]

For portable games (Vita and 3DS) I like to trade the trade-in potential for the convenience of carrying all my games around with me.  Not the same for consoles, because I don't have to carry discs.

I can see that. It's one of the reasons I was drawn to iOS gaming. In fact, I said this a long time ago, but iOS really changed the way I play. I would never switch games before, just play one to death until I was done then move onto the next.

Hey, 3DS XL owners: is the sweet spot for viewing the 3D better than on the original 3DS?

It seemed like it was when I was looking at one at the store. My daughter doesn't have a 3DS yet, but is going to need one for Pokemon, and I'm trying to decide if I should get an XL and give her mine.

[EddieA]

Hey, 3DS XL owners: is the sweet spot for viewing the 3D better than on the original 3DS?

I'd say the exact sweet spot where it looks perfect is about the same, but the XL seems to have a much larger "looks good" window.  Unlike the 3DS, you have to get the XL pretty far off center before the image looks bad.

[EddieA]

The digital version is now available in the eShop.

[The Grue]

The digital version is now available in the eShop.

Yep, went up at 10 PM Mountain time last night.  Set it up for download and it's right there on my 3DS waiting for me this morning.  Plan on digging in sometime today.

[shon]

Downloaded it last night as well and played a couple of missions.  The 3D cutscenes are really good and look awesome.  I'm playing on casual/Hard, I've only played the first fire emblem for about an hour so I'm new to the series and hard is tough.  I had to start over a couple of times because I made some bad movement decisions and this was on the 2nd fight.   

[Bullwinkle]

Guy at Best Buy just told me this was delayed until Spring, which seems odd if people are downloading it.

However, I'm not seeing it available online.

[The Grue]

There are supposedly shortages of the printed game, so that could be why.

The game is pretty great so far.  Already had my first heartbreak on Classic mode where I lost Sumia during the battle she appears because I got greedy going after a unit that had a loot drop.  Ended up losing her and not getting the drop, so definitely wasn't worth it.  Sure, I could reload my save and retry the battle, but that defeats the point of Classic mode, so I immediately saved when the battle was over and made her death stick.

[Autistic Angel]

Guy at Best Buy just told me this was delayed until Spring, which seems odd if people are downloading it.

However, I'm not seeing it available online.

Guy at Best Buy is willfully misinformed.  I just picked my copy up from Best Buy earlier this afternoon and they had no shortage of copies on the shelf.

Shipping delays might account for regional differences, but no, it definitely has not been delayed until spring.

-Autistic Angel

[Bullwinkle]

Guy at Best Buy just told me this was delayed until Spring, which seems odd if people are downloading it.

However, I'm not seeing it available online.

Guy at Best Buy is willfully misinformed.  I just picked my copy up from Best Buy earlier this afternoon and they had no shortage of copies on the shelf.

Shipping delays might account for regional differences, but no, it definitely has not been delayed until spring.

-Autistic Angel

Good to know.  Now that I think about it, I had checked the website ahead of time, and it said it was "Available to pick up".  Normally I call them on this stuff, but this guy is normally unusually bright for a BB employee, and he sounded so confident.

[rittchard]

I had it preordered for pickup at BB but they sent me a message it wasn't available so I just did the download. Anyway absolutely loving everything about the game, really hits the spot for me.  The music, animation, gameplay, characters and interactions are all around fantastic. The only thing I could complain about is the battlefield graphics which seem a bit dated but the battle animations keep this from being a distraction.

[siege]

Definitely an early goty contender for me. Up to Chapter 5 on Normal/Classic and I have no complaints. A must have for fans of the series and it's probably the best one to jump into for newcomers with the addition of a casual mode.

The stylistic choice to having no feet on the characters is odd but it hardly interferes with my enjoyment. Hope this sells well so we continue to get them localized.

[The Grue]

The stylistic choice to having no feet on the characters is odd but it hardly interferes with my enjoyment. Hope this sells well so we continue to get them localized.

When I was looking at the feet, it seemed like they are there, but sink into the ground.  Either way, it is odd.

[farley2k]

Took me three stores but I found it finally.  I know I am old but I like my physical copy.

[Dante Rising]

I usually like to play games like this on hard. But out of curiosity, is it possible to slowly lose characters over time to the point where you no longer have an army strong enough to complete the game? In other words, if my characters continue dying along the storyline arc is there a "critical mass" where I have too few units left to continue?

[The Grue]

I usually like to play games like this on hard. But out of curiosity, is it possible to slowly lose characters over time to the point where you no longer have an army strong enough to complete the game? In other words, if my characters continue dying along the storyline arc is there a "critical mass" where I have too few units left to continue?

You could certainly lose all the story characters, but if you use Spotpass, it is always populating your world with other people's avatar characters which you can recruit into your army, so technically you could do that to replace them all.

[MonkeyFinger]

I picked this game up when it came out because I figured I'd have an interest in it eventually and when I did I wouldn't be able to find it. Heck, I see copies going for over $100 already. Problem was I didn't even own a 3DS, only a lowly DSXL. Well, since now there's enough stuff coming out to peak my interest I picked up a 3DSXL last night and hope to get some time with this tonight.

Now just need to find a home for my old one...

[Gratch]

I've put a couple hours into FE, and while I think I like it, I have a ton of questions.  I'm guessing the answer to most of these will be "it'll get explained later", but figured I'd throw them out there anyways:

1.  Outside of potions, is it possible for a cleric character to heal themselves?  She can heal adjacent units, but not herself...seems strange.
2.  The only way to "recharge" healing spells is to buy them through the shop, correct?
3.  Is there any rhyme or reason to the XP distribution?  Sometimes a character will land a standard attack and get 25 XP, other times it'll be 6.  Sometimes landing a killing blow gives a ton, sometimes it doesn't.  Haven't figured out any pattern to it yet.
4.  I just got the "pair up" mechanic, but it wasn't explained very well.  If I understood correctly, pairing up gives a stat boost to the character designated as the "main" in the pair, but the other gets no XP.  Is that about right?
5.  It always lists two "Heroes" at the end of a battle.  Is there anything (i.e. extra XP, items, etc) associated with this?
6.  Are there random battles?
7.  Do characters have the ability to change classes, or will I be recruiting a huge pool of different class characters who each have a particular use?  (EDIT:  Found this video, which explains the class thing a bit.  How expensive and/or rare are these seals that allow you to switch?)

And the most important question...what happened to everyone's feet?!  

[The Grue]

1.  Outside of potions, is it possible for a cleric character to heal themselves?  She can heal adjacent units, but not herself...seems strange.

Seems about right from what I have seen.  Not sure if later in the game there is maybe a different healing skill, but so far, she cannot heal herself.

2.  The only way to "recharge" healing spells is to buy them through the shop, correct?

That goes for any spell.  You only get so many uses out of spells or weapons, for that matter.  I've gotten an item that allows someone else to repair a weapon, but not seen an equivalent for spells.

3.  Is there any rhyme or reason to the XP distribution?  Sometimes a character will land a standard attack and get 25 XP, other times it'll be 6.  Sometimes landing a killing blow gives a ton, sometimes it doesn't.  Haven't figured out any pattern to it yet.

What you've said so far seems true in that you get more xp for kills than hits, but not sure if maybe you get more xp for crits or something like that?  Not sure on the answer to this one.

4.  I just got the "pair up" mechanic, but it wasn't explained very well.  If I understood correctly, pairing up gives a stat boost to the character designated as the "main" in the pair, but the other gets no XP.  Is that about right?

The other will get xp if they happen to also attack when the main attacks.  Pairing up is pretty crucial in this game as it tends to lead to enemies missing you, you getting extra attacks, the person who is doing the pairing blocking all damage for you, etc.  It's just like when you put units right next to each other, except you get the bonuses.  The downside, as you mentioned, is that other person gets no xp, unless they happen to attack as well.

5.  It always lists two "Heroes" at the end of a battle.  Is there anything (i.e. extra XP, items, etc) associated with this?

I always took it to mean the two people who contributed the most, but not sure you get anything.  Don't know for sure, though.

6.  Are there random battles?

No random battles, meaning that you don't just get put into a battle you didn't ask for, but the game populates the map with people to fight that aren't the main story.  It does this through Spotpass if you have that enabled as well as also putting units out there to fight otherwise.

7.  Do characters have the ability to change classes, or will I be recruiting a huge pool of different class characters who each have a particular use?  (EDIT:  Found this video, which explains the class thing a bit.  How expensive and/or rare are these seals that allow you to switch?)

You use master seals to promote to the advanced version of your class and second seals to change class altogether.  I've seen a couple master seals for sale in shops (when there is an NPC sitting on the shop who seems to be a merchant and offers you some rare goods) and I saw a second seal recently, but can't remember the circumstances.  So, they don't seem to flow like water, for sure.  I'm taking the tact of advancing my guys to 20 and then using master seals to promote them, but that is for max stat gain.  You can certainly just promote them once they get their second class skill and skip all that leveling if you are just wanting to get all their skills as quick as you can.

And the most important question...what happened to everyone's feet?!  

Bizarre, no?

[MonkeyFinger]

I'm wondering why the battlegrounds seem to have a square or two with sparkles on it? Couldn't find a mention of it in the manual.