Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore: I swear some of these concerts are using Black Magic.

And no, I don't mean the Blackmagic AV products (yes those are a thing).

Before getting started, I do have to make a quick announcement. Due to the state of the world right now, I've revived a Patreon account to try and ease the blow that is basically the world shutting down due to the Coronavirus. It has affected me pretty hard, due to my main work being Events Operations, so if you do enjoy the work that I do (which should be coming out more consistently due to all the extra free time I have), and you are in a position where you can help, please support me on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/mediaholics), and hopefully, the state of the world isn't like this for too long. If you start seeing an influx of older toys, older shows, movies, games, etc in the coming months from both sites, this is the reason why. Anyway...

Before the development of Fire Emblem Awakening, there have supposedly been talks over at Intelligent Systems on a potential Fire Emblem Game set in the modern world. Bringing the traditional combat system, but replacing swords, bows, and horses with more modern weapons and forms of combat. While some may argue that's what Advanced Wars is for, it turns out modern-day Fire Emblem would end up happening... by turning Fire Emblem into a Persona game. Not the most out-there crossover idea I've heard, as the combat systems between the two games, are similar enough to synergise well, but while this was originally pitched to the world as a crossover between Fire Emblem and Shin Megami Tensei (of which Persona is a spin-off of), by the time people finally got to see the game, what we ended up seeing was... Persona 4 Lite guest staring Edgelord Chrom... The WiiU version of the game is something I purchased but didn't get much of a chance to play it as it was one of the few WiiU games that actually needed both the TV and the Gamepad screens, something that I found hard to explain to people who were used to me playing the WiiU by plugging in a set of headphones to the Gamepad and playing it like a giant Gameboy Advance. So when talk of a Switch port started circulating, I was interested, especially now that my knowledge and experience of Atlus games have grown to be more than just "What's a Persona?". Now that I can actually play it at my own pace, is it any good?

Hyrule Warriors Definitive Edition vs. Fire Emblem Warriors (Switch) vs. Hyrule Warriors Legends

As clickbaity as that sounds, that is basically what this post is going to be, it'll be hard not to compare the Switch release of Hyrule Warriors to the last Warriors game released for Switch (outside of the Japan eshop, no I haven't got any of them, I don't have a Japanese account and haven't looked into how to pay for them, but I will admit I am interested in Warriors Orochi 3), and the 3DS version of Hyrule Warriors (along with the WiiU release by extension). I'll try to keep my bias due to buying this game three times now out of the review though.

Instead of my usual format, I'm going to split this review up into categories and compare from there, starting with the Story (you can check my in-depth thoughts on the stories in my previous reviews of the games), putting the two head to head though, its a fifty-fifty split when you factor both the story, and the delivery of said story. Hyrule Warriors wins on story due to the wider variety of characters and locations at its disposal, and while I like the 2D drawing cutscenes, they're still not used often as the game bounces between CG cinematic cutscenes, narration over basically Jpegs, and narration over the animated 2D drawings. I wish they went for something more consistent. Fire Emblem Warriors though, while the longer, not as entertaining of a story does lose to HW (going forward, HW= Hyrule Warriors, HWL= Hyrule Warriors Legends, HWDE=Hyrule Warriors Definitive Edition and FEW= Fire Emblem Warriors), it has the better delivery of the story thanks to sticking to Fire Emblem's way of delivering stories, CG cinematics and emoting character portraits talking with each other. Granted, most of the dialogue (in the main story, History mode is excluded) is forgettable, it's still more interesting than the narration in HW. So... point to both? Maybe more towards FEW because History Mode's story moments are a lot better in execution compared to the main story, even if there are moments like the mission to unlock Male Corrin, where to win over the trust of your brothers and sisters, you have to go to war with them.

On the subject of History Mode, we might as well go into History Mode from FEW vs Adventure Mode in HW. This is another fifty-fifty split as both have their pros and cons. First of all, to get it out of the way, HW's (the WiiU game) Adventure Mode is the worst of the lot, due to forcing all of the content into the one map, making the map more frustrating to navigate through. Legends had the advantage over the WiiU version due to being able to space the content out more, something that HWDE continues with. Now then, while I haven't finished the game (its been three days at the time of writing, and I've been working on all three), you do unlock the ability to play almost all the Adventure Mode maps as soon as you finish the first mission in Legend Mode. The one map missing being the Rewards Map, due to how you unlock missions in it. Each of the maps now has a difficulty marker on them that hints at the difficulty of the map. Adventure and Great Sea are easy, Master Quest and Master Wind Waker are normal, Twilight and Termina are Hard, and Koholint Island, Grand Travels and Lorule are Hero (hardest difficulty in the game). Alongside spacing out the weapons, the hero unlocks have been spaced out too. By default, you have Link, Impa, Shiek, Lana, Zelda, Ganondorf, Darunia, Ruto, Agitha, Midna, Zant, Fi, Girahim, Cia, Volga, Wizro, and Linkle unlocked. I have heard that you can unlock Toon Link, Tetra and (cause I cannot remember how to spell his last name to save my life), the King of Red Lions when you finish the Wind Waker Epilogue in Legend Mode. The remaining unlockables are split up as such

• Adventure: Young Link, Twili Midna, Skull Kid, Tingle (it also looks like you can unlock the remaining Level 1 weapons)
• Great Sea: Medli, Tetra, King Daphnes (along with the Level 2 weapons)
• Master Quest: Level 3 weapons
• Master Wind Waker: Based on the 3DS version, this will have Medli's Level 2, 3, and 4 Weapon
• Twilight: Level 4 weapons for Zelda, Lana, Agitha, Impa, Link, Ganondorf, Midna, Linkle, Zant, and some characters I haven't unlocked yet
• Termina: The remaining Level 4 weapons for the characters unlocked to this point
• Koholint Island: Marin, Linkle's Level 2, 3 and 4 Boots, and 4+ weapons (weapons introduced in HWL's DLC that have the same power as Level 4 weapons, but have two elements tied to them) for unlocked warriors
• Grand Travels: Toon Zelda, Toon Link's Level 2, 3 and 4 Sand Rod, and more Level 4+ weapons
• Lorule: Ravio, Yuga, and the remaining Level 4+ weapon

All of these maps and the Rewards map also have a series of costumes to unlock for all your warriors, fairy companions to find, Heart pieces/ Heart containers to give your characters more health, fairy clothing, fairy food, and Skulltulas which, based on Legend Mode so far, have not changed locations, but may have changed requirements. With the closest square I can get in Adventure Mode that has Skulltulas on it, the second Skulltula mission has had a requirement change from "Do *x* without losing 4 hearts" to "Do *x* without losing 40% of your health" a far easier challenge I assure you, but one I haven't done yet cause I always do Legend Mode before doing Adventure Mode (except to get my first Fairy). If anyone would be interested in a more detailed guide for the Adventure Mode, please let me know and I will get to work on it.

Why do I bring all of this up? It's because HWDE does beat out FEW in terms of this kind of content. While structurally, FEW does have a better way of handling the missions, because backtracking isn't required (although HWDE allows you to purchase item cards now to help minimize backtracking), the rewards you obtain in History Mode are, overall, not interesting. Most of the time you're getting materials needed to make your characters stronger, which in itself isn't as interesting as finding a Heart Container. What weapons you do get in History Mode I personally found almost useless, and only good for quick money. It's the main reason I never felt the need to finish FEW's History Mode. Score's now one each for the two games.

Characters and Movesets: This is another clear win to HW. Excluding the roster size difference, 31 for HWDE (as the Challenge Mode along with the missions where you play as Gannon and a giant Cucco are back) and 32-34 for FEW (depending on if you view the Male and Female variants on Robin and Corrin as alternate characters), the reason why HW has the advantage is in the weapons. Every single weapon type in Hyrule Warriors has a unique playstyle to it, which not only makes every character feel unique, but even unique when compared to themselves if they have two or more weapons. I said it before and I'll say it again, the biggest problem with FEW is the roster. Aside from it not being a strong representation of the entire Fire Emblem Franchise, a lot of characters share movesets with each other, and some of the unit potentials are locked behind DLC. Leo and Elise have the same moveset, Sakura and Takumi have the same moveset, Rowanand Lianna, I believe Chrom and Lucina share a moveset, Hinoka, Cordelia and Caeda feel like they have the same moveset, and I wouldn't be surprised if some of the DLC characters share movesets too. What's a problem as well is that there are not only missing classes from the game entirely, but characters like Oboro and Azura, the ONLY TWO LANCE USERS WHO DON'T HAVE A PEGASUS AND THEREFORE AREN'T ARCHER FODDER, are locked behind DLC. Armored Knights? Nope. More Creature Stone users other then Tiki? Nope. We don't even really have a bruiser Sword user, further making all the sword users feel similar in nature. Yes, some of the weapons in HW are dumb, I won't deny that for a moment, but its a kind of dumb that I welcome because of the sheer lunacy of it. Hate on the Great Fairy as a weapon all you want, your argument is invalidated by the fact that she can AIRDROP MAJORA'S MOON ONTO ENEMIES OVER AND OVER AGAIN! 2-1 for Hyrule Warriors.

Mechanics and controls. This is a clear win to FEW (when compared to HWDE), due to three things, control mapping, Infinite inventory (as far as I could tell, I never tested it), Bonus XP, and AI level ups. While yes, you can control more than one character in many parts of HWDE, when they aren't being controlled by you, they are as dumb as rocks. FEW has that problem too, but what helps alleviate it is that the AI controlled characters can still level up, be they on their own, or when paired up as a support. This did make character grinding a lot easier, because if you needed to power level, just have them as a support for one of your stronger characters for a while. This and being able to map controls are something I wish they added to HWDE because you need to do a lot more here and after spending hundreds of hours in HWL, it just feels clunky by comparison. Item swapping is a bit of a pace killer for me as in order to get to it, I need to stop moving, move my thumb down to the Directional buttons on the left Joycon, and swap between the items I need. The worse one though is how to use the Fairies. as that's now mapped to pressing the right Analogue stick, something that never feels natural for me, in any game. While there is a degree of customization in the controls, it's limited to two options that mostly change what the ABXY buttons do, I'd rather the option to customize my layout so that I can map things I use more often to easier to access buttons (like swapping Fairy magic and Guard around). Granted, I say all of that as someone who uses Joycon controls, not a Pro controller so your mileage may vary if you use a Pro Controller, but for what I use, it just feels clunky. I miss the touchscreen of HWL, point to FEW for two each.

In terms of looks and sounds, these games are pretty even, as it really just comes down to personal tastes. Both can run at a smooth 60 frames per second (if you so choose in the case of FEW), both games look really bright and vibrant (especially when comparing the WiiU and Switch versions of HW), and the soundtracks for both games are amazing rock covers of songs from each game. Some of my favorites from FEW being Conquest (Flames), Road Taken (Roar), Alight (Hoshidan Wind) and A Dark Fall (Fire). In regards to HW, Eclipse of the Moon, Hammer of Stones, Skyloft, Solidus Cave (Crystal Cave), Eclipse the Sun, Title and Dragon, Molgera, Tal Tal Heights, and the 8 bit inspired version of Overworld Adventure from Spirit Tracks. It comes down to which franchise you like more at the end of the day, so while I cannot objectively say "this game is better in visual appeal and music compared to this one", subjectively, I have more of an attachment to Legend of Zelda then I do Fire Emblem, so subjectively it goes to HW. I won't count it though so its still two apiece.

Finally, value for money, in terms of bang for your buck? When comparing their full prices, HWDE beats out FEW, FEW does still have the season pass after all, while HWDE doesn't. If you haven't played the previous versions of HW, then HWDE is a great way to play the game. THAT BEING SAID THOUGH, what about the people who are double or even triple dipping this game (like me)? Well, I don't think its worth the full price. While this is a way to play everything from the WiiU and 3DS versions of HW, there's not much on top of that so if you have bought the 3DS version and its Season Pass, the only thing you're getting out of this is better looking visuals, the return of Challenge Mode, and two new costumes (one for Link and one for Zelda, both based on Breath of the Wild). HWL had an easier sell, cause while you weren't getting Challenge Mode and the 8-bit weapons, you were getting 5 new characters in the base experience, a new adventure mode map, two new stages based on Wind Waker, including new enemies to fight, two new giant bosses, the Fairy system and other smaller tweaks. Here, its really just the smaller tweaks. While I don't need another Adventure Mode map, it would have been nice to see some more playable characters, or even more costumes. People want Groose and Linebeck in the game, I'd personally like to see Urbosa (the Gerudo Champion from Breath of the Wild), a new weapon and costume for Ruto to let you play as Mipha, a new costume for Darunia to let you play as Daruk, maybe a Revali costume and weapon for Medli. I would have liked a little more as a way of getting people who have played it before to pick it up again. While yes, the Switch version is the better version to get if you haven't played the game at all or since the WiiU version, if you have played the 3DS version, there's not much more on top of it, as such I can't really recommend it for someone who has.

With that said then, if you had to choose one, Hyrule Warriors Definitive Edition is the better game between it and Fire Emblem Warriors, though it's not as one-sided as many like to claim it as. I hope this helps anyone still on the fence about it. If you want to see my reviews of the WiiU and 3DS versions of Hyrule Warriors, along with my review of Fire Emblem Warriors, you can find them here

Hyrule Warriors WiiU: https://mediaholicreviews.blogspot.com.au/2016/03/zelda-week-hyrule-warriors-strength-in.html
Hyrule Warriors 3DS: https://mediaholicreviews.blogspot.com.au/2016/05/addendum-review-hyrule-warriors-legends.html)
Fire Emblem Warriors: (https://mediaholicreviews.blogspot.com.au/2018/02/fire-emblem-warriors-it-was-successful.html)

I think that just about covers it. If I have missed anything, let me know, until then, I'll see you for the Spider-Man homecoming review.

Fire Emblem Warriors: "It was successful" "It was successful" "It was successful", just cause you repeat that, doesn't make it true

Does anyone else think this game was sent out to die? I don't mean that as a hint of what I think of the game, I genuinely mean it. The reason why this game took so long to review was mostly due to the timing of its release, one week before Super Mario Odyssey came out. I didn't actually get the game until the new year, just after they announced that Hyrule Warriors was coming to the Switch. Combine that with Dynasty Warriors 9 being in development around the same time, and the best way to describe its development are things like "rushed", "potentially understaffed" and other similar words and phrases. What also didn't help was how the game was critiqued prior to release due to how it was handling its roster and DLC, and there's a strong chance this game underperformed. Did it deserve to underperform? Well, one way to find out.

Android Triple Hit: Because Blaster can actually do more with his phone now

Pretty on the nose, but yeah that's the reason I haven't done a lot of ios and android games. My iPod touch and phone I got back around 2011, they were out of date, my iPod still is. And before anyone asks, I like dedicated equipment, something designed to do one thing is going to do that one thing better then something designed to do 100 things. I also admit that yes that probably has affected my judgement on these three, I know it has for at least one of them. I ask you hear me out, so that you might be able to see where I'm coming from. As to what those three games are? They are Transformers Earth Wars, Transformers Forged to Fight, and Fire Emblem Heroes. Like with every solo review I do, I will be having images that split up each review so that if you only want to see one, then scroll down until you see the image for the one you want. With that out of the way

Transformers Earth Wars: So this is what its like in between episodes...

The plot for Earth Wars is pretty basic (spoiler, all three of these games have simple plots). The Autobots and Decepticons are fighting on earth, and in order to achieve dominance. To do this, you as the player must build up your base and army, and then use your army to destroy bases of the opposite faction. What's the difference between the factions? Almost nothing in terms of gameplay, the biggest difference being who you have easier access at getting. I sided with the Decepticons, so my base structures have more of a Decepticon look to them, and while I can get Autobots, I have 5 Autobots to around 47 Decepticons. The character selections have been designed as well to make as many characters have the same powers on both sides, which is probably the only reason Octopunch is in the game as he's a clone of Seaspray (look them up, I have to keep moving). The roster itself also has some questionable choices, as I can think of some far more well known characters to go in then the afore mentioned Octopunch, with another being Viper.

Designs themselves, while they try to make them look as close to each other as possible, its a hogpoge of designs from the CHUG era (Classics, Henkei, Universe, Generations. Basically the current size scale) along with Masterpiece/ original generation 1 toy. You've got Megatron who has his Combiner Wars design (granted each of these are tweaked so they aren't one for one) along with the combiner limbs that are in the game as well as the two complete combiners (like I said, I picked cons, so most of my examples are going to be cons). You've then got ones like Bludgeon and Seaspray that have their Hunt for the Decepticons designs back from movie 2, Optimus Prime and Star Sabre who have their Masterpiece designs, though granted Prime's is a little different, borrowing some cues from his combiner wars repaint of Motormaster). It is interesting to see, but what does make it distracting is the model reuse. While some are expected like Nemesis Prime being Optimus like he always is. The afore mentioned Octopunch because Seaspray, along with Slipstream because Windblade, Nightbird because Arcee among maybe more are other examples of it, I can only talk about what I've seen because... well...

All three games covered here are free to play, pay to win, so we have some of my all time favorite mechanics in games including "multiple currencies with the only one you can convert into others being the one you get the least of and the one directly connected to real life money", "timers that mean you might only play a game for 10 minutes before being told "wait or pay", "random number generation that determines what you get and don't get making it harder to get the thing you want, making you want to pay real money" and "no roof for payments before features get unlocked so you can pay every cent you own into a barely rewarding game". Real talk, if you actually do like these mechanics (the lines before meaning to be sarcastic as I absolutely hate them), then you're part of the problem as to why the F2P model is a piece of money grubbing scrap. How does it work here? Well, one part of the game is base construction. You build a base that will get you resources, being Energon, Alloy, both of which are needed for construction and upgrades, and eventually Ore-13, for combiners. You will also, on average, get two crystals daily which will give you power ups to use in battle (more on that later) or low star units. Higher the star count, the stronger the character. If you get a double (which I swear should not be as common as it is), then you can get shards for a crystal that is a star up from the one you get the double of, and other things mainly for powering up units. If you need more of any of these, you need "Cyber Coins", which is the thing you can pay for.

As you build your base, you attack other bases to get boosts in resources, but if you can attack others, others can attack you. I've had 10 people attack me, only successfully two attacks so far. It's very easy to attack, a lot harder to defend because the combat is all automated. You can choose when to use special moves and where units start at, but apart from that, its a cutscene. Considering you need to be online to play this, I'd rather be spending my time with something else now that I've cleared the, at times brutal, campaign to get the combiner lab that I can only use if RNG lets me get the right Constructicons and Combatacons. Moving on!

Transformers Forged to Fight: Transformers goes Street Fighter

"How do we mash up as many continuities as we can into one game?" Apparently the answer was street fighter with micro transactions and a hexagon rock paper scissors mechanic. Ok then...

I admit this is the game I've put the least amount of time into, more due to technicals, in terms of plot, Optimus Prime has crashed onto a planet that is in a state of spacial and temporal flux, bringing characters, both autobot and decepticon to the planet and making them fight each other. To unlock more characters, you go through the same RNG system as Earth Wars, but what makes this one more annoying is the variety. I've only just taken out Starscream again, but for that, I had to fight Movieverse Grindor, Ironhide and Bumblebee, I could have fought Windblade, I did fight Rhinox, and there's more in the game, and probably a lot more to come. I'd be down for some Unicron trillogy love, though that's more transformers general. The character collection is basically the same as what it was for Earth Wars, so I won't dwell on it here.

My issues with the game come down to performance, and controls. This is a fighting game, but the controls don't feel very precise, not very detailed, all the fights I've done so far, and this is coming from someone's who's main experience in fighting games is Super Smash Brothers, I've won by tapping the touch screen at random, overpowering my opponents with speed and luck over skill. What also doesn't help is that my actions could lead to the move I didn't want to do because its a combination of taping, swiping and holding the screen for your light, heavy, ranged, shield, dodge and super move. The game also chugs at times in terms of a solid frame rate. What that rate is, I don't care about, but it does noticeably drop and stutter. I don't know why, it shouldn't, my phone's as up to date as possible in terms of hardware, so it comes off as "optimized for tablets" which makes me wonder why it wasn't, if possible, locked to being just for tablets. Presentation's also pretty bleak. In Earth Wars, the characters had animations during dialogue, whereas here, its still portraits, which does feel like a downgrade by comparison. The art style also goes for a "realistic" approach, in that every colour looks depressingly dark. Was it because of the Beast Wars and Movieverse characters? Regardless, I personally would have preferred a lighter colour pallete. But, to each their own. If they can get the technical side to the game sorted out, I'll give it another try, but until then, if you want a new fighting game, probably not the best place to look if you're into the Street Fighter/ Mortal Kombat/ Tekken ect style.

Fire Emblem Heroes: Chibi powers, activate!

Might as well get this quickly out of the way, as people are going to ask, I didn't get into Super Mario Run, it just didn't hook me.

Fire Emblem Heroes, the third in house Nintendo game on phones, bringing the stratergy from Fire Emblem to the phone. As a short answer to if they did it, I'd say yes. The plot for it is that two kingdoms are traveling to the realms of the main games, from the original Fire Emblem, all the way to Fates, siding with the playable characters from each game. You have the power to summon random heroes, and you're tasked with breaking the contracts of each of the heroes to stop the villain army, or rather one spoiled little kid and her army. From where I stand in it right now, its a veil for the game, and an excuse to get the characters, which to me, is interesting because most of my experience with Fire Emblem is limited to Awakening and Fates (along with Smash, but that goes without saying), so getting a feel for each of these characters, almost all of them I had either forgotten about, or had never heard of before. All of the characters do have English voices too, so for the first time ever, Marth and Roy have an English voice.

I was lucky enough to get her early on, she's one of the strongest in my team right now thanks to her Dragonstone. I also participated in the Easter event, so I do have Bunny Lucina, I just don't want to risk that genie getting out. Will say though that Bunny Lucina is cute, not as rediculous as Chrom or Xander, and not as... expected, as Camilla

The gameplay is as close to Fire Emblem as you can get when taking into account the mobile format. Permadeath's disabled because of the F2P parts of the game (but more on that later), characters only have one weapon to them, and special moves are easier to pull off, but the trade off is a 4v4 environment for combat, and maps limited to the one screen, so what you see in map size is what you get. This takes some getting used to because there's not much safe room to move, and some characters got a nerf for the sake of balance (I liked it when mages didn't need to be a space away to attack), but it is Fire Emblem on a handheld. The F2P model also feels more player friendly here. It might be because I'm not very far into the game, but the play session timer hasn't run out for me yet, orbs that are needed to summon heroes are plentiful, and while I have had double ups, they haven't been as ridiculously common as earth wars where 47/130+ means I keep seeing characters I already have. If we have to have the F2P model, I'd rather a version of it that is player friendly in some form rather then punishing because you haven't paid them everything you own for the sake of that rare item.

I do really like the presentation for the game though. I'm assuming the soundtrack is a mix of original and remixed/ reused songs from past fire emblem games, I cannot confirm that though, but what I do like about it is the new artwork. Each of the character portraits is well done, and their in battle/ overworld chibi sprites are very cute. I'd love to see this style used in the main games for things like FE 2018, as I think its safe to say they're not in Shadows of Valentia or Fire Emblem Warriors.

Hard to do a full summary for each of these games, they may be worth looking into if you're looking for something new to play, but for the next two reviews, what should they be? The strawpoll can be found here http://www.strawpoll.me/12771732 and before I'm asked, Heart Gold and Soul Silver arc will be after these two. I haven't forgotten... Ok I completely forgot about how much time was left in the month, but I'll stick to it.

Fire Emblem Direct Impressions

"Why is this not a podcast?" Well, both Marissa and Marcus have next to know knowledge on Fire Emblem, and CJ on top of that is busy applying to do her Masters course for univercity. Do I have a working knowledge of Fire Emblem? No, but I know more then just playing Super Smash Brothers like Marissa, Marcus and CJ. That's why. These are also primerilly going to be just notes as I'm writing this as soon as the livestream finished.

Opening Impressions: Fire Emblem Fates: "You are the ocean's grey wave"

"You said that Opening Impressions are for TV shows, Fire Emblem isn't a TV show you idiot" And you'd be correct, however, this is something I really want to bring up, at first, quickly, because its not going to get a review for a while. "Then what took you so long you idiot, Fire Emblem Fates came out ages ago." Well I don't have a US 3DS, and we didn't get the game until last Saturday, to which I was at the midnight launch for. So then, assuming you're still around for this category shake up, shall we?

I should say first, no, I don't have the special edition, I have a physical copy of both Birthright, and Conquest. And right of the bat, that is my biggest problem with Fates, and it has been since the announcement. The point of the game is "the choice", after Chapter 7, you will be on one of three sides to the war, and I think locking the choice to the game versions weakens the choice. Now granted, you can buy all three versions on the one game, but that is pricy (though probably not as pricy as my method, I just like having a physical copy when possible).

Before getting into the other thing that would make that moment better, let's actually tackle the plot, or what I know of it so far (currently at chapter 11 (roughly) of Birthright), You take up the role of Corrin, a prince or princess depending on what gender you chose (which to me, I prefer female Corrin's design, so for the rest of this I'll be reffering to Corrin as a woman). her role in the bigger story, is of a grey, for you see, she is Honshido by blood, but was kidnapped and raised in teh kingdom of Nohr. While Honshido is more peaceful, colourful, and heavily based on Japanese culture, Nohr on the other hand, thanks to their King, is more of a war culture, more closely resembling previous Fire Emblem games like Awakening, in comparison. You spend three chapters with your brothers and sisters of Nohr, and then three chapters with your brothers and sisters of Honshido, with Chapter 7 being when you make the decision of which side you fight for.

With the exception to what I said above, about the multiple games, and that they portrey the king as the "big bad guy". That choice is heart wrenching. It's brutal, and after what happened in Chapter 6, its a real feels trip, something the Fire Emblem games are known for (see the death of Chrom in Awakening (no spoilers, its in the prologue of the game) and sacrificing one of your troops in Shadow Dragon (might review that one some other time). I'm almost dreading making having to do the choice another two times, with the worst one possibly being the Revelations "stand alone" option.

What helps with the choice is that Fire Emblem is well known for its strong characters, and Fates is no exception. The brothers and sisters are really interesting, Corrin, like Robbin, has a strong, defined personality, and isn't just a shell for the player. My personal favorite, in terms of personality, from Honshido has to go to Hana, who to me is basically this game's Nowi, not in role, just in charm. I love how she's portreyed in this, and I'm curious as to who I'll meet in Conquest and Revelations, who the stand outs will be there.

I've not had the time to try all the new features, however I have unlocked several of them. Including... that one... Now before I get probably everyone on the internet pissed off in some way, hear me out. I haven't had a reason to use it, I don't want to use it, for two reasons. First, as I said, I'm playing as female Corrin, and I don't want to pet grown men in this, its creepy enough as is for the women. Second, while I love the visuals for this, I love the art style, I don't like the close up 3D models for the characters. They feel amost like they're in an uncanny valley. It might just be me, but I much prefer how expressive their in battle models and 2D portraits are, expecially with the art direction they went with the portraits.

I'll save a full music review for when I review the game, but I will openly state that the full version of the main theme is one of the best songs I've heard from the franchise, and I would even put it up with one of the best video game songs I've heard, period. It's absolutely beautiful, and to me, its one that I would use when I get people asking me "Why do you listen to video game music?". The song itself is called "Lost in thoughts all alone", and seriously, go listen to it. Right now! In fact:

And if you can't see it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENwFAmeWEYk

Yeah, encase it wasn't obvious, I'm loving Fates so far. What issues I have, most of them can be negated as they're still really solid. I wish I didn't have to refer to them as multiple games, just leave them as the one game, but I'm guessing that was a marketing "lets milk this for as much cash as we can" decision, and hopefully not a designer decision. See you on Sunday for the review of Blast Off, the other arm of Bruticus.

Fire Emblem Awakening: Will you help defend their flock?

In one game, they went from a dying franchise, to one of the must have games on the 3DS, and a game that helped and continues to help sell the system. I won't lie, that's an achievement. Now with Fire Emblem Fates released in the US, and a release still unknown here (which gives me time to get the money for the special edition so that I have the three on the one cartridge), let's see the previous game in the series, Fire Emblem: Awakening.

First Impressions: Shin Megami Tensai X Fire Emblem. You sure its not Persona x Fire Emblem?

I’ve got to hand it to the Nintendo Directs, they know how to grab my curiosity when it comes to games. I remember hearing about this game years ago and I, like a lot of others, thought it was a dead project. It wasn’t actually until the end of the trailer, when they gave the name of the game, that I realised what it was. Granted, I’ve got no experience with Shin Megami Tensai and its, very similar, side series Persona. But when the trailer started, I thought it was a Persona game. Everything I saw about  the trailer looked like it was a Persona game (based on what I’ve heard thanks to word of mouth).