Game completed: Fire Emblem Awakening

When my computer died this summer I started playing this game on my 3DS. Before that it was ages since I used my 3DS at all. I learned of this game on Tumblr and people over there in general seemed to love it.

I did too. More twists and turns in a story are hard to find! And when I figured out you could make couples out of all of your companions I spent hours upon hours pairing them up so they'd get to know each other.

Fire Emblem Awakening is a turn-based game with RPG elements. You create a player character to begin with; my character was a female mage. The tutorial starts as an ominous boss battle, which then ends with a story sequence where the main male protagonist, Chrom, dies at the hand of the player character. So without trying to spoil the finer points of the story; after this sequence the player character is awoken in the middle of a field by the very same person he or she just killed. You're taken in and cared for by the group of people who find you in the field; some of them loudly protesting against it. The first town you come to after being rescued is beset by creatures known as the Risen. No one knows where they came from, but there was a mysterious explosion in the sky before. Just after you woke up in the field. The group fights against them and they all realise that you're a really skilled military tactician, so they all agree to bring you back to HQ and have you become a proper part of the group. Here you meet the rest of the main squad and over time you meet a whole lot more people who all join your group.

The first part of the story is all about uncovering a plot against Emmeryn, the queen and Exalt. The fact that the Exalt is in danger is revealed by a mysterious masked figure who calls herself Marth; after the warrior of legend. The group travels to different parts of the country to rally people to help protecting Emmeryn and fight against her enemies. Emmeryn isn't urging anyone to do anything, she's the Exalt, and believes that words alone can change the minds of people. She manages to change people's minds everywhere, except where it counts, and in the end she is murdered, Although the time and location has changed from the future Marth reveals she comes from. War erupts against the enemy who murdered the Exalt. After he's defeated fast-forward two years to the second part.

My character is now married to Chrom and they have a daughter together called Lucina. Marth reveals that she is actually their daughter Lucina come from the future to make sure it doesn't happen. She's from a future full of despair, death and war after the dragon Grima was awoken. She studied the history up until the point where Grima was awakened and decided where to go into the past to change it. A war is now on-going in the West. A conqueror has conquered almost the entirety of the Western continent and his now pushing into the East to continue there. It's revealed by Lucina that the conqueror must be stopped, and together the group charges into the West, where they join up with the resistance and together fight to defeat Walhart and his companions. It's revealed that the player character is the child of the villain you fought in the tutorial and that he has a unnatural, magical influence and power over the player character. He can assert his will and make the PC do whatever he wishes. While the group struggles with this information, they defeat Walhart. and then part three begins.

After they return home they recieve an invitation from said villain, Validar. They decide to go there with a full force hiding in the shadows, fully expecting Validar to backstab them. Which he does. And in the same breath reveals that he's the one who awakens Grima with the help of the Fire Emblem, which is taken from Chrom by the PC under the influence of the villain. They chase after Validar to interrupt the ritual and the scene from the tutorial is played out. However, this scene had been shown to the PC in a dream/vision (the scene from the beginning) and so he/she uses this knowledge to prevent the death and the fight turns in their favour. Validar then reveals that thr PC was born to be the perfect vessel for Grima. The PC refuses and the fight turns in their favour. However, when Validar dies the Grima-possessed version of the PC arrives from the future to complete the ritual and Grima is awakened anyway. Chrom decides to ask the deity Naga for help and she grants them her power and tells them that Grima has a weak spot in the nape of his neck. Naga offers to transport them to Grima's back. She also tells them that if Chrom is the one to deal the final blow, Grima will only go back to sleep for another thousand years, if the PC is the one to deal the final blow, both Grima and the PC will disappear. This is completely the player's choice. I chose to let Chrom deal the final blow, because I had grown too attached to my PC's little family to have it destroyed. The ensuing final battle is on the back of a dragon and it's frickin' epic.

My favourite characters would have to be Olivia, Nowi, Henry and Lissa.

I absolutely loved this game, to the point where I went and got Fire Emblem Fates Birthright just after I finished this game, and because several of the characters from Awakening make appearances in Fire Emblem Warriors I'm also really curious about that game, although Warriors is more hack'n'slash and and not really turn-based like the previous ones. And if you've read my post about Viking: Battle for Asgard you know that hack'n'slash isn't really my forte.