While FE:Awakening is nothing new, it's so well done at what it does that it's a must-play for fantasy strategy gamers.
However, what it does, it does extremely well, and feels very fresh, well polished, and overall is a blast to play.
The good:
* Graphics: The visuals, including 3d use, are very good. 3D character models, 2D artwork, backgrounds, animations, etc. are all very solidly done. (Although everyone in the game world has little stubby feet...?)
* Music/Audio/Voices -- All first rate, a very good musical track, lots of solid voice-over work, and some solid cut-scenes.
* Gameplay -- Again, this is the Fire Emblem we've always known and (maybe) liked: turn based combat, a solid story to steer along your battles, lots of optional battles that make 'grinding' for experience and gear fun, etc. In fact, unless you like 'talk heavy' SRGPs, the long dialog sequences and need to deal with party character friendship development may wear on you (I like it, personally).
The not-so-good:
* Repetition -- While the game does introduce what variety it can, when you get right down to it, most battles are really very much the same. I find as long as I take a break every few days, the game stays fun. The plot's not super creative or compelling, so for me that's not quite enough. You are either going to enjoy the combat, or you'll tire of the game quickly. Certainly, it's not 'grinding' -- each battle has its own strategic elements, but you will find that you'll have a fallback strategy that will work on most levels.
* Equipment management -- Managing your loot is a key part of this game, and unfortunately, it's clunky. You'll spend a lot of time hopping around different screens just to figure out who has what, whether one item is better than the other, what you can/can't equip, etc.
As a whole, again, it's nothing new -- if you haven't liked fantasy turn-based strategy games in the past, this game won't change your mind. If you do like that genre, you'll likely love Awakening.