Why I Hate Conquest Part 5 - The Finale

Soundtrack: So the next part of the game that I’d like to talk about is the soundtrack. If I thought Awakening’s soundtrack was a tad overrated then this game’s soundtrack is even more so. My big issue is that a few too many tracks sounded either similar or the same to me. The song that Azura sings is pretty good though. That being said, this soundtrack is objectively better than the vast majority of the soundtracks in the series. It’s definitely better than the soundtracks of the GBA games, the Marth games (which includes FE 12 as well) and Thracia 776’s.

                       However, I do think that the soundtrack of Holy War, Radiant Dawn and Awakening have better soundtracks than this game, but that’s just me. I just wish that there would be some epic and memorable boss themes on par with the Black Knight’s theme or Julius’s theme. That being said, I can TOTALLY understand why someone would actually like this soundtrack because there are praiseworthy elements in it. As it stands, I’ll award the soundtrack a….B +

As for other aesthetics:

• I don’t think it’ll be much of a controversial statement that this game’s localization sucks. Personalities were changed for the worse, lines of dialogue got changed for the worse and I honestly am not a fan of the new names. In my opinion:

• Marx > Xander
• Suzukaze > Kaze
• Kazehana > Hana
• Nishiki > Kaden (How the heck did they come up with Kaden?)
• Kamui > Corrin
• Leon > Leo

                      You get the point. I’m not a fan of many of the new names. I’m well aware of the fact that every other Fire Emblem game has made changes to character’s personalities and names but in those other games it makes perfect sense when the explanation is given. Here, it seems a little arbitrary.

• Another major setback for me is the voice acting. This game’s voice acting is a HUGE step backwards from Awakening’s. Say what you will about Awakening’s map design and gimmicky characters, but you have to admit, that voice acting was AWESOME! I felt like each voice actor in the English version fit their character perfectly. Here on the other hand it felt like the voice acting was acceptable at best and awful at it’s worst. For example:
  
  
  
  

• I hated Felicia’s voice acting so much that I deleted my save files for Birthright and Conquest just so I could make a female avatar just so I could listen to Jakob instead. Felicia’s voice is far worse than any of the voices in the Tellius games, which is saying a lot.

• I’m not a fan of Effie’s voice either. It reinforces the “brochick” personality that she unfortunately was given.

• Marx / Xander’s voice is eh. I wish that his voice would have been a little deeper and a little more haughty and arrogant although that could just be me. It wasn’t bad.

• I can totally see why some people think that Camila sounds like a grandma. After seeing someone say that about Camila I always think that whenever I hear her voice. Camila + Death Star rack + Grandma voice = Please get away from me.

• I did not like any of Male Corrin’s voices. He sounds so whiny. Fem!Corrin is better though thankfully.

• Nyx sounds a little too weepy in my opinion. Beruka also sounds a little too high pitched for me.

                             So were there any voices that you liked? Sure.

• Leo / Leon’s voice fit the character really well. So did Elise’s.
• Garon’s voice is perfect for the character
• Azura’s English speaking voice was alright. Her singing voice pales in comparison to the Japanese version, but Azura’s speaking voice fit the character. Good job Rena Strober!  
• Arthur’s voice is totally cheesy, which works for his meme-worthy personality.
• The Awakening characters sounds like Awakening characters.
• Silas’s voice worked.

                         So yeah, the voice acting was definitely not a plus for me. I enjoyed the game more when I turned the volume off, which is not a good sign for the game. By contrast, I LOVED Awakening’s voice acting. I also thought that the cutscene quotes in Fates were a step backwards from the ones in Awakening.

               Speaking of Awakening there’s a frequently stated line that people use about Fates that I want to address. I frequently hear the phrase “well Fates is better than Awakening” being used to mean that Fates is a good game. There’s an issue that I have with this though:

                  Most people who are saying this don’t like Awakening so when they’re saying that Fates is better than Awakening what they’re really saying is “I think this game is better than a different game that I really did not like”. It’s an incredibly low hurdle to jump. It says nothing about how well Fates stands on its own. A lot of people act as if Fates and Awakening are the only games in the Fire Emblem series and they’re not. There are 12 other games that existed before these four games (I’m counting Birthright, Conquest and Revelations as their own separate games) came out. Saying that Fates is better than Awakening says absolutely nothing about how well Fates stands up to the rest of the series. 

                    Another issue that I take with this is that I disagree with it. I realize that I’m probably alone when it comes to this but I honestly enjoyed Awakening far more than I did both Conquest and Birthright and I honestly think Awakening is the better game. I would never argue in a million years that Awakening’s gameplay is better. This is the one category that Fates completely stomps Awakening in. My argument, however, is that Awakening beats Fates in pretty much every other category. Awakening has a better plot than Conquest, the characters are better in my opinion, the voice acting and localization is WAY better, Awakening has better cutscenes and I prefer the Awakening soundtrack over the one in Fates. Feel free to disagree with me here, as I know most of you probably will, but that is how I feel about it.

                   “Oh Grant you’re being way too hard on the game! You’ve done nothing but complain and nitpick this game. It’s not that bad bro.”

                       This is a reaction that I’ve gotten several times from different people, including DRP. However, I could make the argument that you’re being too soft on the game. This game gets an easy pass from a lot of different people because it had better gameplay than Awakening. Some people outright admit that the story sucks, but because Conquest had good gameplay people seem to be more lenient on it’s storytelling flaws whereas if these same people talk about Awakening, they’ll bash it into the ground without a second thought. People somehow got attached to the cast, even though the characters are bland, boring and even worse versions of Awakening characters in some cases. I’ll admit that I didn’t read all of the supports so there maybe some magic support out there that could potentially change mind, but I highly doubt it at this point. 

               This game is a monumental waste of potential. It could have beaten Holy War’s plot but it didn’t. Instead of having the best plot in the series it had the worst one. The characters aren’t even remotely interesting and the voice acting took a massive step backward from Awakening’s. Even though the gameplay came up with a lot of new and wonderful ideas there are a ton of things that I could nitpick this game over in terms of stuff that I outright hated (the stupid RNG, Lunge, the fact that weapon ranks take way too long to grow and several of the game’s chapters along with their Dragon’s Vein gimmicks that didn’t work). This game will probably receive a lot of love and praise and in my opinion most of it is completely undeserved.

                    It makes me wonder how well people would have received this game if it came after a much better game, like the Jugdral or the Tellius games. I’d be willing to bet that most reactions would be more negative, but because it came after a game most people didn’t like, all it had to do was simply be better than Awakening and most people would overhype this game. In terms of gameplay Fates represents two steps forward and in the other categories it represents four steps back. At the end of the day we’re still going backward not forward. Someone has to counterbalance all the undeserved hype and praise that this game gets and even if I’m the only one who feels this way, I will not give Fates my love or loyalty. Screw this game!