Fire Emblem: Conquest

I completed Fire Emblem Birthright and jumped right into Conquest.

And I'll admit, this game is far more enjoyable than the last.  Most of all because of the amount of frustration it causes.  Fire Emblem Birthright felt like Awakening in that it was too easy to power your way through the game and ignore strategy.  Conquest will punish you severely for this mentality.

The enemies are tougher.  Your allies are weaker (and slower) When Fire Emblem has succeeded in forcing me to draw the enemy in one at a time and take more than 40 turns to clear a chapter, it has succeed into giving me what I seek.

On top of this boost to challenge, I like the story of Nohr far more.  They are a much more fleshed out nation while their enemies are the stereotypical good guys.  King Garon is obviously evil, and any advisory named Iago deserves the same amount of trust.  But the siblings in this path are much more interesting characters.

We have cold and distant Xander, overprotective and flirty Camilla, Smug and nasty Leo, and Genki Girl Elise. While their opposing siblings were more similar, these ones are not.  and while it may seem that Leo and Xander are similar based on the words I used to describe them, it is just untrue.

Now to the game play itself, chapters return with unusual objectives like the dreaded "survive chapters" and I have also dealt with vast enemy forces with a small force of allies.  These challenges have felt missing to me since Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn.

And the plot takes on the darker undertones that I expect from this series.  Namely an ancient conspiracy and a King who is doing whatever he can to get the main character killed while they are doing work for them.  And difficult is the name of the game in this series.

I cannot wait to see how this game plays out as well as see how part three: Revelations will bring the whole thing together.