Fire Emblem Awakening: Review

     Fire Emblem Awakening: Review
   Is it a good Nintendo Switch Game?



With numerous releases spread over 20 plus years, you might think that the turn-based tactical combat series Fire Emblem would be impenetrably complex to newcomers by now. However, if you like the idea of shaping your own mini-army of knights and wizards and then going to war across a continent, fighting your way through an epic storyline that crosses generations, with over 50 missions to complete, all beautifully presented and served up with a lovely side-helping of character and comedy, then you shouldn’t let that put you off.

It’s an immensely addictive game and one that can be played for just a single turn - grabbed in a spare couple of minutes - or for hours at a time, at least until the 3DS’s poor ergonomics force you to stop due to hand cramp.

The key to success lies in managing your characters, both on and off the battlefield, to give them the best chance not only to live but also to thrive. As characters rise in level, you get the option to switch them to other classes, for example, take a spell-slinging mage and make him a mounted magic-using knight. However, you must be careful to match the characters own talents with his new classes capabilities. There’s also plenty of weapons and spellbooks to equip your party with, many of which have special effects that will quickly take down certain enemies.

Characters on the battlefield can pair up in one square, with the supporting character giving hefty stat bonuses to the lead character, as well as providing additional strikes and parries in combat. You can pair characters to combine their common strengths - with two armoured warriors becoming near-indestructible - or to offset their weaknesses - a wizard can provide much-needed magical defence for such a warrior.

Whenever a character undertakes action on the battlefield, it increases the strength of the bond between them and the paired character - or characters adjacent to them. As these relationships build you get further bonuses to those characters fighting together; to mark these advancements the characters in question will have a short (and often humorous) conversation. If two characters of the opposite sex reach the top-level ‘S’ level of such a relationship then they will get married!