Home » Reviews » Review: Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright
Reviews

Review: Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright

Prior to Fire Emblem Awakening, I was totally disconnected from the Fire Emblem franchise. After playing, I realised it opened a whole new branch of the RPG genre to me in the form of strategy RPGs. Three years later (give or take a thoroughly unwelcome delay for European territories) the next instalment in the franchise has arrived – that is to say the next instalments. Plural.

In our coverage of Fire Emblem Fates, Stevivor will be reviewing the individual versions separately. Expect our reviews of the Conquest and Revelations versions, each coming soon.

Fire Emblem Fates is separated into two versions on launch, with a third version arriving as DLC in the coming weeks. While this sounds like a very Pokémon-esque move, the differences run a little deeper than just which critters (or in this case, combatants) you can ‘catch’. The initial gist of all three versions is the same; your customised avatar (default name Corrin) is a prince or princess of the Hoshido kingdom, stolen away as a child by King Garon of the Nohr kingdom and raised as one of his own children. After a snafu where you disobey his commands, Corrin is sent off on a scouting mission as punishment. Eventually you end up back in the hands of your Hoshido birth family, only for things to come to a head when both families come face to face and force you to choose your side. Who do you love more – your family by history, or your family by blood?

Birthright-2

Birthright is the path ahead of you if you choose to return to your Hoshidan roots. As a result, you’ll be facing up to your adoptive Nohrian family and their army in an attempt to stop the power-hungry King Dad — that is, Garon. Teaming up with your biological siblings and their allies, you’ll take a stand against Nohr to try and restore peace to the world. At first glance, this seems the cut-and-dry ‘right’ choice – with Hoshido’s regions being bright and colourful while Nohr is dark and gloomy, it seems pretty clear they are the good guys.  Thankfully, nothing is so simple – but we’ll get to that in the Conquest review.

The biggest difference between the versions is how they are structured. Birthright is designed to be more friendly to newcomers to the series, with optional side content to the main plot chapters. Challenges are available as you progress, allowing you to grind your character levels and build bonds outside of the main story missions, with extras accessible by scouting out locations around the map. The difficulty overall is slightly lower too, acting as a more welcoming version to those of us not steeped in Fire Emblem’s well-known standard of challenge. Both versions still have the difficulty options present in 2013’s Fire Emblem Awakening, letting you choose between permadeath or a mode where characters revive at the end of the battle to return to the fray. Fates also adds a ‘Phoenix’ mode, where units will revive after a turn in the same battle. Overall it offers a wide selection to customise the level of challenge to your preference – especially welcome if you want to play all three versions and don’t want to grind mercilessly through 27 story chapters three times over, like some reviewers I know.

You may have caught the mention of unit bonds in the above paragraph – and you’d be right, because battlefield romance returns in Fates. As units work together, their compatibility improves, letting them be more effective in combat when stationed in adjacent spaces on the map. Reach the S-Rank of certain combinations and the option to marry becomes available, with combat boons reaching a dangerously effective critical mass. But that’s not all! You’ll also pop out a kid, with battle stats and physical features drawn from both parent units. With the absence of Awakening’s time travel element, you may wonder how these tiny battle babies could possibly mature to a useful (and not morally dubious) age to be thrown into a war. Why, you drop them into a pocket dimension where time passes at a much faster rate! Obviously. Five minutes later, out pops a fully-grown warrior who’s ready to take to the battlefield with Mum and Dad. It’s not weird, don’t worry about it.

Birthright-1

Fates also takes this Support system a step further with certain pairs of male or female characters able to reach an A+ Rank, effectively making them best friends. These units can then inherit each other’s combat class, letting you diversify your army. In a series first, your avatar Corrin can also enter into a same-sex S-Rank relationship. In Birthright, female Corrins can partner with Rhajat, while male Corrins can put a ring on Niles in Conquest. It’s not much – and odd to have one pairing exclusive to each version of the game – but it’s a step in the direction of progress.

Overall, Birthright is the friendliest version of Fire Emblem Fates. You can progress at your own pace, build up your army ahead of time and enjoy the heavily ninja-based units at your disposal. If you plan on playing multiple versions if Fates, it’s probably your best starting point as far as an overall difficulty curve is concerned.

Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright was reviewed using a promotional code on 3DS as provided by the publisher.

 

Review: Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright
8.5 out of 10

The good

  • A good introduction to the series for newcomers.
  • Great art direction.
  • Ninjas aplenty.

The bad

  • Difficulty spikes are more jarring.
  • Challenge maps can get very repetitive.
  • Possibly too many ninjas?

Want to know more about our scoring scale?


This article may contain affiliate links, meaning we could earn a small commission if you click-through and make a purchase. Stevivor is an independent outlet and our journalism is in no way influenced by any advertiser or commercial initiative.

About the author

Matt Gosper

aka Ponk – a Melburnian gay gamer who works with snail mail. Enthusiastically keeping a finger in every pie of the games industry. I'll beat you at Mario Kart, and lose to you in any shooter you can name.