Awakening vs. Fates vs. Shadows of Valentia: Which is the Best 3DS Fire Emblem Game?

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Story and Characters

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The story of Awakening kicks off when Chrom and Lissa discover the player character, Robin, lying unconscious in a field. With no memory of who they are, Robin eventually joins up with Chrom and the Halidom of Ylisse to oppose the kingdom of Plegia, which worships the evil Fell Dragon. Along the way, there are twists and turns in the story surrounding Robin’s origins and the role they have to play in the events to come.

Awakening’s story is strong because of how memorable its core cast of characters is. Chrom is the courageous and sometimes goofy leader that you can always count on, and Frederick is the serious and stalwart knight that you can poke at every now and then. Robin’s role in the story is also a lot more involved than you might initially think and, depending on who you romance in the game, is a part of some seriously dramatic scenes that will tug at your heartstrings. The Plegia antagonists are actually terrifying as well, and they do a great job of presenting themselves as malicious beings who will stop at nothing to destroy Ylisse. All of this conflict eventually culminates in an insanely epic showdown between the forces of good and evil, made only more memorable because of the bonds you’ve forged with your fellow comrades.

Also, that ending though.

Fire Emblem Fates is a curious set of games. Depending on which version of the game you bought, you start off your story with either Hoshido or Nohr, and your enemies will be your siblings from whichever family you chose to turn your back on. At the end of Birthright and Conquest, you get hints that perhaps there are darker forces at work, and your story isn’t quite over yet. You’ll get closure to your story in Revelation, where the player character and Azura reject both families and strike out on their own.

The overall plot of Fates is engaging, and the payoff in Revelation is definitely worth playing through the two separate campaigns preceding it. However, Fates often feels too much like a game struggling to follow in Awakening’s footsteps. Many characters in Fates feel like reskins of the ones we’ve already seen in Awakening, and there isn’t really a ‘core cast’ to get attached to. The sense of camaraderie in Fates is flimsy at best, causing the game’s plot to lose its weight and brevity at times. The stories of both games are comparable in quality, but overall, Fates feels like the safe sequel that didn’t quite know how to surpass Awakening’s epic tale.

With Shadows of Valentia, the absence of a player avatar and character pairings makes it much easier to focus on the story and plot. Being a remake of Fire Emblem Gaiden, Shadows of Valentia has a very ’90s RPG feel. You’ve got the young male protagonist, all wide-eyed and eager when he finally gets to travel out of his village for the first time, you’ve got the canon love interest in a very typical RPG priestess role, and you have a clan of lovable and archetypal sidekicks that stick with you through the journey. It’s all very textbook.

However, Shadows of Valentia also happens to tell a much darker and grittier story than Awakening and Fates. There’s a war brewing between kingdoms in all three games, but Shadows of Valentia is the only entry that doubles down on the horrors of war, and the hardship it brings to the people. It’s a dramatic story of love, friendship, and death. It can feel cliched at times, but ultimately it works.

Winner: Fire Emblem Awakening. As much as I adore the tone of Shadows of Valentia, it isn’t quite enough to beat out Awakening’s strong cast of characters and its intense story pacing. Awakening has it all: a gripping story, memorable characters you can get attached to, and enough plot twists to keep you up late at night, frantically jabbing at your 3DS screen, wanting to find out what happens next. Heck, just writing about Awakening makes me want to drop everything right now and go play it again for the fourth time.


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Author
Zhiqing Wan
Zhiqing is the Reviews Editor for Twinfinite, and a History graduate from Singapore. She's been in the games media industry for nine years, trawling through showfloors, conferences, and spending a ridiculous amount of time making in-depth spreadsheets for min-max-y RPGs. When she's not singing the praises of Amazon's Kindle as the greatest technological invention of the past two decades, you can probably find her in a FromSoft rabbit hole.