Launch Station: Fire Emblem Awakening

It has been a long long time since we have had a Launch Station.  Seeing this is the first Launch Station of 2013, we start the year out right.  The first big release in February goes to Nintendo and Intelligent Systems with Fire Emblem Awakening.  Well known for the Paper Mario and Advance Wars series here in North America, Intelligent Systems' premier strategy RPG franchise, Fire Emblem, did not reach our shores until late 2003.  Ever since then, it has been a struggle to get Nintendo to localize each game in the series.  The first Fire Emblem game developed from the ground up for the 3DS almost did not see the light of day on this side of the pond.  It is a good thing that Fire Emblem Awakening will soon release in North America as it looks to be the biggest and most polished entry in the series.

At the forefront of every Fire Emblem is the story and Awakening is no exception.  You take control of Chrom, the prince of Ylisse, and his band of soldiers known as Shepherds in a world on the brink of war.  The forces of Plegia, commanded by the Mad King Gangrel, start attacking the borders of Ylisse and it is up to Chrom and the Shepherds to defend their homeland of invading forces.  Everything is not what it seems to be as unholy creatures known only as Risen start appearing out of nowhere.  Along with this new threat comes a masked swordsman who claims to be the legendary hero Marth.  This swordsman's message, that the world is not on the brink of war, but its own destruction.  While the story does take centre stage in Fire Emblem Awakening, you cannot count out the series' iconic turned-based gameplay.  If you played any Fire Emblem game, you will be very familiar with the grid-based moving and rock-paper-scissors combat system.  It may seem very simplistic at first, but the gameplay offers a whole lot of depth that few games can match especially with the new concepts Intelligent Systems has added in Awakening.  A lot of effort has been made in improving Fire Emblem's relationship and support systems.  On the battlefield, pairing up characters or even placing two characters side by side offer stat boosts in combat.  The more you pair characters together, the stronger their relationship gets.  Aside from the increase of stat boosts, some characters may even get married and have children due to these strong relationships.  Other big additions come on the side of online functionality.  At any point in the game, you are able to connect to the Nintendo Network to download items, maps, challenges and even teams to fight.  Also you are able to purchase new map packs that has its own stories and features characters from past Fire Emblem games such as Roy, Lyn and Ike that you are able to recruit to your party.  That is not all Fire Emblem Awakening's online has to offer as you are able to exchange avatars in StreetPass and fight others in local multiplayer.  Fire Emblem Awakening offers plenty of value outside of the epic and long story missions.

As a huge Fire Emblem fan, I have been looking forward to getting my hands on Fire Emblem Awakening since the game was first announced back in 2011.  Thanks to a little blunder by EB Games Canada, I got Fire Emblem Awakening a week early.  So far I have put close to eleven hours into the game and I am only on the seventh chapter.  It is an incredible game that is very to put down.  If you are looking for a game to play on your the 3DS, look no farther than Fire Emblem Awakening.  It is a deep strategy RPG that will keep you occupied from hours on end and a portable experience that is not to be missed.