#just musing on how priams past might have made him think about the future of his own kids

[battlinghurricanes]

Thinking about how Priam wasn't Laomedon's oldest son. How, depending on how many of his brothers were older, he could have had very good reason to believe he'd never become king. How unprepared was he to have that position forced upon him when all the rest of his family was killed? How young and afraid was he when he had to take that on his shoulders in the wake of Heracles saking the city and murdering his father and brothers?

I wonder how that made him raise Hektor. He might have gone to great lengths to ensure he would never have to become king as unprepared and as lost as he did. How much did he train him with the hope that he could prevail, endure, what overcame the city before, that he could survive what no other man of his family did but him?

Was Hektor born before or after Priam took the throne? Was he born to a king with the path to one day take his place already set before him? Or did Priam watch the fate of a son he already knew change to something even Priam himself didn't feel ready for?

[echoedfates-archive]

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Fire Emblem Awakening is actually an excellent game and not the weakest in the series up until that point. Fight me.

Now obviously I have some bias with it being my entry point, but whilst it is obviously different to previous entries, that happens every time the series switches consoles. Does Awakening have its flaws? Of course. All of the games do. Does it fail to achieve what it set out to do? No. Not at all. Actually, it might be one of the best at completing its aims.

I am not saying Awakening is the best game in the series. An easy way to explain what I mean is this: Fates looked amazing pre-release, right? And most of the rp community has at least one Fates muse, so we obviously enjoyed something. But almost all of us can agree that it was a game with a tonne of potential, which it failed to live up to. In terms of ambitions, perhaps IS only wanted to make money, which they very much succeeded at. But I believe there was some ambition there for the story, and it fell flat, hence why so many of us flesh out the concepts and go canon divergent. Good base, but failed to live up to hype.

Awakening, however? The story was never meant to be so complicated and grand. Rather, the team honestly thought this was going to be the last game in the series, and turned it into a celebration of all that came before.

What do I mean? First of all, they used the original protagonist, Marth’s world for the game’s setting, yet kept his story in tact by setting it far in the future. Yet he still turns up in the spiritual sense, through Lucina. It may not be him, but this was a nod to the series’ origins, that veterans would appreciate. And of course, we have Falchion as the main’s lord weapon, and his daughter’s too. We also have the presence of a grown up Tiki, which I’m sure many were wondering what happened to her post FE3/12. They easily could have chosen not to acknowledge her, just as Xane is absent, but she was likely the most popular of the manakete.

Okay, so this stuff may seem obvious for a game set in Archanea, but actually, there’s influence from other games unrelated to Marth’s tale as well. Whilst admittedly still the same world, there is a very obvious aspect taken from Genealogy of the Holy War: babies. I somehow doubt that the almost final game suddenly having a second gen, which hasn’t been seen in a decade and a half, is a coincidence. That concept was unique to FE4 (as 6/7 does not contain an inheritance system between files) and thus was brought into Awakening’s story as a reference. Same with S-supports, though we get actual conversations this time.

The avatar did not originate in Awakening, despite what many claim: Robin was a concept taken from FE12′s Kris, who is also customisable as a player insert. Yes, they aren’t as prevalent in the story as Robin, but it’s the same initial idea. Really, Robin’s presence made the game more accessible to newcomers as we became more involved in the world.

Bouncing off of that, the dev team clearly wanted the experience to be enjoyable for old and new. I’ve not even finished listing off the past game references yet, but as somebody who had never even heard of Fire Emblem prior to 13, I did not feel I was missing out on anything due to not having played previous games. Not only that, we had casual mode. Now I know some people don’t like this. Personally, even on my first, I did not use casual. If classic was something unique to the franchise, why not try it? I ended up loving the permadeath concept. But to compare, I have a friend who also started with Awakening, and she was too scared to try classic. She actually wasn’t a big fan of the gameplay, and entered the series thanks to the characters appealing to her. Without casual, she may never have joined this hell, and that’s true for many. Also, casual is a creation from FE12. Like the avatar. Yeah.

Whilst some complain that Awakening was too easy, they probably played on normal. Yes, we’re missing things like Fog of War (imagine chapter 13 with it i.e. the one where you recruit Henry) and the goal is always rout or defeat the boss, but lunatic provides a genuine challenge. When I did my no reset lunatic run, everyone died. Everyone. Chrom and Robin pretty much had to defeat Grima on their own. 

The maps are simple to read, and that’s a good thing. Yes yes praise FE4 but let’s face it those massive things are not user friendly. Yes, I have played it - I’ve just started the final chapter. I started the game over three years ago so I think that should tell you how much I struggled to get invested thanks to the gameplay. So yes Awakening being simple was a good way to convince newcomers to try the franchise before it gets killed forever, whilst lunatic is there for those who want it.

My last point before I get back to Awakening being a celebration is the support system. It has heavy flaws, but the sheer number of supports (plus DLC conversations!!!) gives more characterisation compared to units from previous games (I forgot who Lex was before I googled him like why can I use the valkyrie staff on this stranger), more akin to what we’re used to from regular rpgs.

OKAY SO MORE PAST GAMES REFERENCES:

Priam. Ike. Yeah he made the continuity weird but hey he’s a 9/10 references and we know how obsessive people get over Ike. Also, his Japanese name is Paris which apparently was Ike’s almost-name? Then there’s the Einherjars who take almost EVERY MAJOR CHARACTER from previous games. There are free ones, and DLC ones. The DLC ones even get to interact with the Awakening cast. Do I really need to explain my point here?

Valm. Alm. I had no clue about that connection until Echoes came out, and actually that’s really cute? They could have kept it as Valentia if they wanted to but instead they directly referenced the ending of Gaiden by having the continent named by the guy who united the people! Okay Celica is there too but both of her names are harder to turn into a location.

We’ve got the archetypes that appear in various games such as Yen’Fey as the Camus (or I’ve seen some mention Mustafa, which is also valid even if he is more minor), there’s Cordelia being a Catria. Frederick is an Oifey rather than a Jagen, and then there’s Stahl/Sully who DIRECTLY REFERENCE Cain and Abel. The list goes on

Owain’s attack names being previous game titles. The 2nd gens’ birthdays being release dates. Anna being recruitable for once!!! Minerva the wyvern being named after Archanea’s Minerva.

The list really does go on. Basically: Awakening is a fantastic ‘final’ game that is chock full of references and gameplay mechanics from previous titles whilst also containing new features (such as pair up). At the same time, it is incredibly welcoming towards newcomers and thus absolutely completes its goal of being a new fan friendly celebration of a two decade old series. It may not be everybody’s favourite, but for the game is supposed to be, it is a GOOD game.