Love CAN Bloom on a Battlefield

Despite the cold, heartless rigidity of grid and number-based combat, Fire Emblem has been able to connect to players through its many colorful characters and their interactions. More than any other game in the series, relationships and romance are truly at the heart of the recently released Awakening, making it the perfect "romantic" game for this Valentine's Day.

[Canary]

...Except it's really nice.

The extent of romance in FEA is basically, "You baked me a pie! It's awful/delicious! Marry me!"

[Snookies12]

Yes, they could have done more with it, but it's amazing when you think about all the different relationships you can form. Pretty much every character can have a relationship with any other (barring just a few). You have to take into consideration just how many teammates you have on that game, and how many outcomes there can be. That's just for the male side of things, I'm wondering how the female aspect is when chosen.

Bottom line, I love what they did with relationships on the battlefield and REALLY hope they continue to expand on it in future titles.

[Canary]

It's not really that amazing. Yes, there's a lot of quantity... but not much quality. Each relationship only really consists of a few lines of dialog, and most of that dialog isn't unique--this is true of all the relationship dialog in the game.

What I'm saying is that, while yes, it does add a lot to the game, it's not technically impressive and doesn't really offer much depth.

It's a great sub-feature, don't get me wrong--but it's just that, a sub-feature. The real meat of the game, the point where they really spent all their time and effort, is the combat system. Not the narrative, not the characters--the combat.

Off the top of my head, I can really only think of one game that offers unique & in-depth relationships between NPCs, and that's Baldur's Gate II... thanks in large part to decades of scripting work by fans.

[Jason143]

This game was amazing. System seller for sure. The bonds you make are touching.

[DebbieDowner]

Try making bonds with real people, haha.

[Jason143]

:P