Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright

 3DS
User Score
7.8

Generally favorable reviews- based on 528 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 376 out of 528
  2. Mixed: 78 out of 528
  3. Negative: 74 out of 528
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  1. Eiennai
    Feb 22, 2016
    0
    While the gameplay is really great, the removal of mini games, the awful voice acting and the cut dialog makes Fire Emblem Fates story an unenjoyable mess that is not worth your time.
  2. TheOrange91
    Feb 19, 2016
    0
    I picked up Birthright because I heard it plays more like Awakening, which is what I want since I don't like the formula of the older Fire Emblem games. The problem started the instant I got to Chapter 6, the chapter where you have to choose between siding with Nohr, or siding with Hoshido. What I wasn't aware of going in was that, if I wanted to play as Nohr in Birthright, I would have toI picked up Birthright because I heard it plays more like Awakening, which is what I want since I don't like the formula of the older Fire Emblem games. The problem started the instant I got to Chapter 6, the chapter where you have to choose between siding with Nohr, or siding with Hoshido. What I wasn't aware of going in was that, if I wanted to play as Nohr in Birthright, I would have to pay an ADDITIONAL $20 on top of the $40 for the game (and YET ANOTHER $20 if I want to play the "hidden" third route, Revelations). Not only that, but if I want to play as Nohr, I have to play the game using the formula of the older Fire Emblem games, meaning no "grinding" between missions, which is what I bought Birthright to avoid in the first place. I refuse to pay that, and I'm strongly considering returning the game in the morning. This blatant money-grubbing is completely unacceptable, and I really expected better of Nintendo, It's just... all so disappointing. I'm rating this one 0/10 on principal. If you really love Fire Emblem, you'll find the money to burn on this. Everyone else should stay away; this game is corporate greed at its finest.… Expand
  3. GoldenJeans37
    Nov 17, 2019
    3
    Oh dear god this game was stupidly easy, even in the hardest difficulty. Everyone is OP, You can solo the game with Setsuna on lunatic (I did). If you're new to Fire Emblem I'd highly suggest going Echoes or Three Houses.
  4. weskergamer
    Jul 7, 2020
    4
    Fire Emblem has always being a good quality franchise, until this game. I dont really like the Fates "saga", you don't have to play all of them because it's just gonna make you hate the story and Corrin even more. So what's wrong with it? OK so from 30+ characters, there were around only 5 that were actually good, or had a good character development. And Corrin OMG, corrin, she's just oneFire Emblem has always being a good quality franchise, until this game. I dont really like the Fates "saga", you don't have to play all of them because it's just gonna make you hate the story and Corrin even more. So what's wrong with it? OK so from 30+ characters, there were around only 5 that were actually good, or had a good character development. And Corrin OMG, corrin, she's just one thing in one game and one completely different thing on the other. And after you have to experience in the prologue of both games i don't think how can you like the Nohrian family, but the worst part is that you already paid for it so you don't have any more choose than to play as the bad guys or spend $40 more for the other game. This was a so bad decision. But after that do you think the story is the only bad thing? NO, the characters are over sexualize, in Awakening i would only say that Olivia and Tharja are the only ones than can be considered but in this game more than half the cast is. The maps are boring, and the gameplay seems so unbalanced. The only thing i would say is really good are the cutscenes to be honest, but i think at least the first 5 chapter i had some fun so it'll be a 4/10 for me… Expand
  5. ziiachan
    Mar 13, 2016
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Starting the Fire Emblem Fates branch, I picked Conquest for my first gameplay. The game, I assumed, was set to you picking either side as your first gameplay without anything being affected. After finishing that one, I heard a lot of people praising Birthright over Conquest, saying it had better character development and story. So when I finally picked Birthright, I was expecting great things from it. I wasn't going in with clouded thoughts of going against the Nohr side.

    As soon as we side with the Hoshido family, it's become clear our only reason for joining Hoshido is.... because a sword our dad gave us was destroyed by some random person we don't know. We don't try to find out who that is or question our father, that we grew up with. We just drop the family that raised us and go into war to kill our dad ...

    And if it was for the reason of us being blood related, we quickly learn this family ISN'T our birth family either. Our mother came to Hoshido and just married the king, but none of the kids are related to her, except for us. So truly, both families aren't related by blood, but one we grew up with. I questioned this side even more after that.

    As I progressed deeper into the story, I noticed how different our character has become. We went from being naive and caring to all people, to very paranoid and finicky to all people. We suddenly treat our Nohr family like they're strangers, we don't speak as warmly to everyone like we did in the beginning. Maybe I was judging too early at first, but later in the story, we definitely change. So much so that Elise points it out. We preach about wanting to make both families come together without anyone dying, but then threaten to kill Xander if he gets in our way... We exterminate a whole species of werewolves, and then get over it in one second.

    Speaking of getting over death, after we join Hoshido, everyone suddenly stops talking about Mikoto in the story. The side that pressures us greatly about our mother dying when you join Nohr suddenly doesn't bat an eye to Mikoto being dead. Besides that point, I feel like the Hoshido side holds a lot of bland characters as well. Maybe it's just me, but there's so many serious characters that only talk about training or going to meetings. I know we had characters like this in Awakening, and a few on the Nohr side, but it feels like the theme of Hoshido. We only have a few different characters from that theme, like Kaden, Setsuna, Oboro, Orochi, and Hayato.

    I just feel this side is very hard to stomach going through when our Corrin is awful acting, too many of our soldiers are bland (when you judge by personality, not design, people), and the Nohr family sounds like the actual sensible ones compared to Hoshido, the side described as "noble" and "heroes". I feel like there's just too much hypocrisy and irony to this side to enjoy it. Maybe the character development is that we change for the worse on this side, but as much as that is a twist I wouldn't have expected, it doesn't suddenly make this side better.

    The story is what drives this series, so I wanted to focus on it more, but the gameplay is important as well. I don't mind the gameplay, it's still good and like the basic modern FE game. However, with the add on, My Castle, it's even more fun and connecting to our soldiers. I love this feature and hope they continue to include it, as well as the bonding and inviting allies to our tree house feature. Though something I really question is how much money is just nothing to the Hoshido side. This was mentioned within the story as well, how the Nohr kingdom hardly gets money and Hoshido is drowning in it, but I didn't think they'd really make it this easy. No complaints here, but I'm sure some don't like the babying too much.

    Sorry for the completely all over the place review, but I felt like Iike having to share these thoughts. Might not be the right place, but it's something. I guess you can say, in the end, I'm .. FOR NOHR!    … Expand
  6. megabear
    May 21, 2018
    0
    I bought this game due to good reviews. I feel as if I've been duped because it lacks a soul. The story is so generic and bare, and the horrible voice acting sounds just like it's been copied from Pokemon. I may have enjoyed the game if I was 12, but no. I highly recommend against this game.
  7. klkevinkl
    Apr 28, 2016
    0
    Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright is one of three Fates games released. The game follows a prince/princess who was abducted at a young age and now attempts to reconnect with his or her biological family and abandoning the family that he or she has known all their life. Nohr had just given Corrin a sword that literally exploded and was used to attack Hoshido, so Corrin has the common sense toFire Emblem Fates: Birthright is one of three Fates games released. The game follows a prince/princess who was abducted at a young age and now attempts to reconnect with his or her biological family and abandoning the family that he or she has known all their life. Nohr had just given Corrin a sword that literally exploded and was used to attack Hoshido, so Corrin has the common sense to not go back, thus creating conflict with his or her biological family. The problem here is that while Nohr is marked as an evil kingdom with an evil king, the siblings are not evil and are acting out of fear (though they have multiple chances to run away, they never take them).

    One of the good features of the game is the introduction of Phoenix Mode, which is like an easy mode because the only way you can lose is if all your characters die on the same turn. It prevents a single mistake from completely screwing you over considering how many instant kills there are in this game.

    The battles are pretty straightforward with most maps having you walk down some narrow corridor towards your enemies and killing all of them. Sometimes you only have to kill the enemy boss though. The problem is that there are no unique objectives and some battles rely more on luck than strategy. Dragon Veins are able to manipulate the battlefield, but the changes are often undone at the end of the turn. That spike pit the enemy created will always be there and will only hurt the enemy too if you choose to activate the Dragon Vein. There was another where you had a 50% chance to set the entire map on fire and a 50% chance to open up the next section of the map. Pretty stupid function if you ask me. I just used save scumming to get the right one and never touched that map, even for grinding purposes again.

    The biggest problem I had with the game is the forced online feature when online does not even work most of the time. I can access Inbox just fine, but the moment I try to update My Castle or connect to someone else's the game just fails. The problem is that you must go to other people's castles in order to collect the resources needed to upgrade your weapons. Without doing so, the late game is much more difficult due to the lower stat caps, useless specialized weapons, and that you can only get one or two resources from your castle at a time. If they had other means for you to acquire these items, it's not a big problem. However, the only other way you can acquire them is through dumb luck from talking to people with exclamation marks on their head in your castle.    … Expand
  8. emperorbob
    Feb 20, 2016
    2
    If you don't understand Japanese this is what you are stuck with. Localization for these games used to be pretty good, but this....

    Import if possible, or settle for this.
  9. RealSovietDamag
    Feb 24, 2016
    4
    It's solid enough. The writing is lacking in a few areas, and there are some questionable dubs. It's extremely easy, with most enemies not even having a single skill. The map design is slightly better than Awakening. This would be a 7 but they removed a bunch of content from my game because it was "creepy" so I removed a bunch of points from their score because it's ****
  10. Sarna
    Feb 10, 2020
    0
    Fire Emblem Fates is as enjoyable as puking up your spleen. You spend too much time running around an imaginary castle like Hogwarts, and I didn't like the weird drunk guy (his name was Gunther, maybe?). The goo monster dude was funny, but he doesn't excuse the amount of grinding in this game. Azura may be the worst character in FE history--there's absolutely nothing to her supports. NotFire Emblem Fates is as enjoyable as puking up your spleen. You spend too much time running around an imaginary castle like Hogwarts, and I didn't like the weird drunk guy (his name was Gunther, maybe?). The goo monster dude was funny, but he doesn't excuse the amount of grinding in this game. Azura may be the worst character in FE history--there's absolutely nothing to her supports. Not to mention the UGLY graphics. I know the 3DS can do better, especially with the fancy-shmancy games Nintendo has been making recently (Chibi-Robo! Zip Lash comes to mind).

    Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance is as dope as a dingo in a desert. The same can be said for Thracia 776 and Echoes. I even liked the one where Marth was a girl. But not even the fire-breathing sushi waifu can save this putrid pile of pitiable pixels. Given the choice, you're better off spending $40 on cheese whiz; unlike a 3DS cartridge, cheese whiz tastes good on crackers.

    ...Thanks for reading my fake review, F. Keep making quality videos.    … Expand
  11. GoSunMan
    Feb 16, 2020
    1
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. In my opinion this is the worst game in the series even though this was my introduction to fire emblem it's just not as good as the others the games the gameplay is good but the story is the worst in all of fire emblem, it is extremely boring (like the cast) as each map is the same objective (rout the enemy) there's just no verity like the other games and you don't have to try once you get Ryoma. honestly it's a 5 out of ten but they kill off my favorite character in the series (Elise) so 1 out ten if you want to play fates just play conquest it's the best of the three.… Expand

Awards & Rankings

7
#7 Best 3DS Game of 2016
4
#4 Most Discussed 3DS Game of 2016
14
#14 Most Shared 3DS Game of 2016

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
86

Generally favorable reviews - based on 35 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 30 out of 35
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 35
  3. Negative: 0 out of 35
  1. games(TM)
    Jun 26, 2016
    80
    A tough tactical adventure. [Issue#175, p.78]
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  2. NZGamer
    Jun 9, 2016
    90
    If you have a 3DS, Fire Emblem Fates is a must-buy; if you don’t, it’s yet another reason, on top of so many others, to get one. Just be sure you do your research, and stick to Birthright unless you’re absolutely ready for the challenge Conquest has to offer.
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  3. GameOver.gr
    Jun 8, 2016
    95
    Another great addition to the Fire Emblem series, the newest chapter offers amazing visuals, an entirely captivating story and engrossing gameplay. Neither veterans nor newcomers should miss a change for one of the best offerings for the 3DS.
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