This latest installment in the long-running Fire Emblem series came out just last week in Japan and has been selling out like crazy, surpassing even Awakening in terms of sales. It carries over many features from Fire Emblem: Awakening, and introduces many new changes and additions such as My Castle where you can build up a town, interact with characters in your army, etc.
Fates also comes in two versions, each containing its own full-fledged campaign with significant differences in theme and gameplay. The Conquest edition is tailored towards series veterans, featuring more challenging map design and a linear game progression that demands more resource management. The Birthright edition has more in common with Awakening, featuring a world map where you can revisit previous area. Both versions feature their own unique set of classes to go with the themes of their kingdoms (medieval European weaponry for Conquest/Nohr, Japanese-themed weapons for Birthright/Hoshido).
A localization of the game is estimated to arrive sometime early in 2016.
What are everyone's thoughts on the game? I'm personally very excited about the much-needed rebalancing that has been done to the game mechanics, addressing pretty much every fault of Awakening's gameplay. Weapon triangle has been reworked to include bows and magic, Pair Ups have been broken up into two forms that demand more strategy (in addition to finally making bows useful), Weapon durability has been taken away but now every weapon seems to have some drawback behind its strength. I've also heard the difficulty in general is much better designed, relying less on bloating enemy stats on harder modes and more on clever enemy layouts and skill distribution.
Fates also comes in two versions, each containing its own full-fledged campaign with significant differences in theme and gameplay. The Conquest edition is tailored towards series veterans, featuring more challenging map design and a linear game progression that demands more resource management. The Birthright edition has more in common with Awakening, featuring a world map where you can revisit previous area. Both versions feature their own unique set of classes to go with the themes of their kingdoms (medieval European weaponry for Conquest/Nohr, Japanese-themed weapons for Birthright/Hoshido).
A localization of the game is estimated to arrive sometime early in 2016.
What are everyone's thoughts on the game? I'm personally very excited about the much-needed rebalancing that has been done to the game mechanics, addressing pretty much every fault of Awakening's gameplay. Weapon triangle has been reworked to include bows and magic, Pair Ups have been broken up into two forms that demand more strategy (in addition to finally making bows useful), Weapon durability has been taken away but now every weapon seems to have some drawback behind its strength. I've also heard the difficulty in general is much better designed, relying less on bloating enemy stats on harder modes and more on clever enemy layouts and skill distribution.