Saturday, February 16, 2013

Hello, Fire Emblem: Awakening; goodbye, holiday weekend

Guess what our pipe-smoking, shorts-wearing (even in winter) mailman plopped onto our doorstep the other morning? If you guessed a brand new copy of Fire Emblem: Awakening for the 3DS, pat yourself on the back. Don't let your head get too big, though--after all, I basically spoiled the surprise in the headline above.

Anyway, the game's cover art (below) is pretty nifty, don't you think? In person it looks even nicer than it does in the photo below, actually, as the gray/silver background has an appealing shimmer to it.


Fire Emblem: Awakening's cart art is similarly noteworthy thanks to the pixelated reworkings of what I'm guessing are the game's main characters. Yes, I just admitted that I know next-to-nothing about this title at the moment.

Why did I buy it if I know little about it (and if I've never before played a Fire Emblem game)? Because I really liked the looks of the battle scenes that were shown off when it was first announced.

Also, I've long been a fan of tactical RPGs, and this is supposed to be one of the best, so the question really should be: how could I not buy it?


As of now, I've yet to even stick the Fire Emblem: Awakening cartridge into my trusty pink-and-white 3DS XL, but that's only because I'm completely obsessed with Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime right now. (More on that tomorrow or Monday.)

I promise to tear myself away from Rocket Slime sometime today (or maybe tomorrow), though, so expect to hear me gushing--either here or on Twitter--about my experience with Fire Emblem: Awakening shortly. In the meantime, are any of you playing it? If so, what do you think of it so far?

22 comments:

Espiga said...

I looooove Fire Emblem, almost to an unreasonable amount. Unfortunately, my copy has yet to arrive. The release date snuck up on me, and this one has been a lot more popular than I was expecting it to be, so Amazon was sold out instantly. =[


I finally got one ordered though... Wednesday is a long way away.

Zaphod65 said...

I'm not very far into it, but I'm liking it a lot. The team handling the localization did a great job with the dialogue; some of it is hilarious.

It's a shame same-sex couples can't marry in the game. I'll have to content myself with Vaike/Gaius slashfic on Tumblr. lol

Justin Difazzio said...

I'm about seven missions in, not counting DLC and Paralogues...and I'm loving it WAY more than I thought I would. I figured I'd play the demo and be very "meh" about it. But I loved the demo and so I bought the game. So far, the characters are keeping me engrossed, and the leveling system is addictive. I just decided who my first married couple is going to be, so that's providing more incentive to play. It's neat being able to make your own stories a little bit.

Steve Pixel said...

I tried playing the demo, but my main character got killed during the first battle, and it was game over. And this was on casual mode! I didn't see anywhere to save, so I would've had to start all the way over from the beginning. Fuck that! Anyhow, the dialog is a lot more humorous than the GBA one I played, so I'll probably give it a shot when the price drops. I've never seen you write about any SRPGs other than this one, so I'm curious, since you say you're a fan of the genre -- what are your favorites?

miruki said...

Nghh...!! Can't wait for April 19th... ;_;

thegaygamer.com said...

Oh, I forgot about P4G! Wish I could play that myself. Sadly, a Vita isn't in the cards for me at this point. Maybe eventually...

miruki said...

I'm currently totally absorbed by Persona 4 Golden anyway. April 19th is a good date for Fire Emblem for me, I've got enough other games to keep me busy until then.. still, it's probably the game I'm most excited about right now. All those marriage options... 8)

thegaygamer.com said...

Ah, you know what you'll probably find funny? I own both Disgaea and La Pucelle but have barely played them. Actually, I've played a bit of Disgaea, but not La Pucelle.


Also, I've played the first FFTA and really liked it, although not as much as the original. Still, the DS FFTA is on my 'to buy' list, so hopefully I'll pick it up and play it sometime this year.

Steve Pixel said...

Actually 8-4 did the translation for Fire Emblem. In fact they talk about the experience on the latest podcast (February 8th).

thegaygamer.com said...

Oh, interesting! I wonder why that is? Maybe Treehouse is working on AC: New Leaf and others?

apricotsushi said...

I don't think Treehouse does Fire Emblem, generally? I'm not sure, but 8-4 has done at least one other Fire Emblem game, so my impression is that Nintendo doesn't do those games in-house. I'm sure they have their hands full with AC: New Leaf, too ;)

apricotsushi said...

Oh boy! I definitely want a copy of this myself, but I'm torn between finding a physical copy now or waiting until I actually have more time to play it and picking it up then. Normally I wouldn't be too worried, but it seems like they dont' have that many physical copies, so I'm scared it might get hard to find in the future >_<


Can't wait to hear what you think of it!

miruki said...

I hope so! It's really a shiny handheld... I find it far superior to the 3DS (but also far more expensive... yeah..) and P4G is definitely the ultimate version of that game. I'm amazed how much stuff they added to make the game more convenient. When I died for the first time yesterday, after grinding through the two previous dungeons to get some quest items and then completing the third dungeon in one go and epically failing at some random enemy on the last floor... but then you get to restart from the start of the floor and you don't lose any of the items/exp/money either. Yay! :) Did you ever play the PS2 version of P4?

thegaygamer.com said...

How did I not know this before now? Of course, I've never played a Fire Emblem game before now, so why would I know it, right? Anyway, it's good to know the game apparently was in good hands. Now I just have to start playing it :P (Yes, I'm still obsessed with Rocket Slime.)

thegaygamer.com said...

I haven't played *any* version of P4 yet, miruki. Sadly. It's been on my 'to buy' list for ages but ... well, you know how those things go sometimes.

thegaygamer.com said...

Well, Anne, there's always the option of buying the digital version should the physical one be too pricey when you finally getting around to playing the game. Not sure if that helps you all, but that's all I could come up with at the moment.


I haven't yet started playing it, BTW. Like I said in an earlier comment, I'm still obsessed with DQ Heroes: Rocket Slime. I'm nearly at the end of that game, though, so hopefully I'll get to this one tomorrow or, at worst, sometime next week.

Vaatiful said...

Nice find! It's still sold out everywhere by me. They don't expect to get more copies until the end of the month. Hopefully that shipment lasts a while and I can just pick it up with Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon on 3/24.

thegaygamer.com said...

Thanks, Vaatiful! Sorry you have to wait a bit to get your hands on it. And, yes, hopefully the next shipment is of a good size. I'm kind of surprised the first one wasn't bigger than it was, really.

Justin Difazzio said...

Oh, I'm DEFINITELY not into SRPGs. At all. So, I'm hoping that playing this will

thegaygamer.com said...

I didn't know that! So, no FF Tactics for you then? Or Shining Force?


Actually, I'd recommend giving the first two Shining Force games a go if you'd like to try others of this genre.

Alois Wittwer said...

Or you can buy both and be absolutely insane like me.

thegaygamer.com said...

I can't call you insane for that, Alois, as I'm likely to buy both the physical and digital versions of Animal Crossing: New Leaf :P