Fire Emblem: Awakening is a great Strategy Role-Playing game, with a charm that goes way beyond normal strategy games.
But even so, the game at the start feels empty, and lifeless.
The story takes place in a land called Ylisse, in which a great age of peace is about to be broken. The relations with the neighboring nation of Plegia are getting sour, and bandit attacks are starting to rise drastically...
You, the player, find himself right in the middle of all that. Sick with amnesia, remembering only your name, you're fastly recruited to the ranks of "The Shepherds", a group of peace-keepers, leaded by the one and only, Chrom, the emperor's brother, his younger sister, Lissa, and their family guard, Fredrick. Together, you go on a quest to save Ylisse, not knowing about the bigger threat lying beyond...
The story is your usual fantasy tale, with the main focus on the characters themselves more than about the story as a whole. Each character got it's own personality, liking and seeing the interaction of different character on different happenings is really interesting.
Along the way, Chrom and the Player will recruit more and more people into their group, going as far as calling it an army, and the attention given to each character in that army is insane, and seeing the characters bonding together in battle is both a joy to watch and a heart-warming experience thanks to some really good writing and voice-acting. The characters can go as far as marrying each other, which adds them a great deal of bonus stats when paired in battle. But don't think it will stay that way, if you'll be careless.
Having a character die in the middle of a battle means it'll be forever lost, along with any relationships she had to begin with, which makes combat a stressful struggle of keeping all of your characters alive.
It goes even better, when a plot twists makes a "wormhole" in time, making the daughters and sons of the present characters "invading" the present time. Seeing the "fruit of your labor" as a child, a mix of both his father and mothers characteristics and looks, is really a joy I've never had in a video game before, even in the likes of The Sims.
But in that place lies the problems.
Although I think that Fire Emblem: Awakening is a must have for any 3DS player, not much have changed since older games in the series with the combat system. It would be okay, if that wasn't the only thing you ever do in the game. It structure is really linear, making you go from one story mission to the other, with side quests unlocked every few chapters.
And seeing how the story is a mixed bag, being a boring tale of fantasy on one side, and over-the-top time traveling hocus pocus, I can't say I was always as enthusiastic as I am now.
But although its great flaws, the game is still fantastic.
Its original take on "characters management", beautiful visuals, fluid combat system (for a SRPG) and good dialogs make it stand as one of the 3DS "must buy"
And this is why Fire Emblem: Awakening gets a 8 out of 10, a GREAT on my book.