Fire Emblem Awakening Review

Shipping delays notwithstanding, the release of Fire Emblem: Awakening couldn't have come at a more opportune time for me. It's been years since I played a Fire Emblem game. It's also been years since I wrote a review for Catholic Video Gamers (shame, shame on me, I know). As an added bonus, I also get an excuse to brush the dust off my Nintendo 3DS. Trifecta!

                                             

Despite my years-long hiatus from the series, I recognized the game's many features almost instantanously: the rock-paper-scissors weapon mechanic; the (slowly) expendable items; the Final Fantasy-esque class system. These were all features of the first Fire Emblem I played on the Game Boy Advance years ago, and features I am thrilled to say have survived the test of time. Yet I also noticed significant changes and new features to the gameplay, as well. For example, the class system is greatly expanded from its previous incarnations, allowing greater flexibility in character development. There's now multiplayer battles and a plethora of downloadable content. The “tutorials” (if one wants to call them that) are integrated seamlessly so as to allow players familiar with previous Fire Emblem games to quickly immerse themselves into this version without needless hand-holding, while providing for quick, rudimentary lessons for newcomers. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the series' signature gameplay mechanic, permadeath (in which characters that fall in battle can NEVER. COME. BACK!!!!) is now optional in Awakening. Purists may lament this alteration, but neverfear, traditionalists: you can still play the old fashioned way if you want.

Presentation-wise, Awakening is something of a watershed moment for the series. Graphically, the game looks just slightly less impressive than its console brethren; were it not for a few pixelated character models, I'd presume I was playing a Gamecube or Wii game. There's a supplemental first-person camera for the game's battles, and players can re-watch the game's numerous cutscenes – both Fire Emblem firsts. Perhaps the most singularly spectacular element of Awakening, however, is its musical score. It features fewer tracks than most other JRPG soundtracks, but it's a worthy trade-off: Awakening's musical score is the epitome of quality over quantity.

Multiple critics have compared this game, in positive terms, to a Soap Opera. I'm not sure how that makes Awakening different from any other Fire Emblem iteration, or any other SRPG for that matter. In terms of story, Awakening provides the usual JRPG fare: a campaign setting, static characters, and melodramatic plot developments. Without spoiling anything, the plot isn't entirely linear, and it's engaging (though not quite engrossing): there are a few "wow" moments, but they come less frequently (and, perhaps because of their infrequence, seem less contrived) than the Deus Ex Machinas in, say, Downton Abbey. There is a recurring Christ-figure trope that finds a particular resonance by the game's finale, but the nuances of this thematic element are left mostly unexplored. On the whole, Awakening's storyline is fractionally better than the standard JRPG narrative - which isn't saying much, though it is saying something.

Having spent 40+ hours during the past 2-3 weeks completing the game, I can say with surety that Awakening lived us to its name, especially if you're a sedated 3DS fan looking for an excuse to boot up your system. It's not quite the quintessential gaming experience that its metacritic score would suggest it is, but it is nonetheless a well-produced title that represents an organic evolution of a solid gaming franchise. Worth playing.  

Final grade: B

The Belated GOTY Post

2012 has come and gone, but that doesn't mean its too late for a reposting of Adam Shaw's Catholic guide to the best games of 2012. It was originally featured on the Catholic News Service website, but it seems to have been taken down. While the lack of Xenoblade Chronicles makes my heart sink, the inclusion of Kid Icarus: Uprising almost makes up for it. Almost.

Abobo's Big Adventure = Greatest Flash Game Ever.

This isn't a religious topic, other than the fact that I shouted, "THANK YOU GOD!" upon discovering this.

Abobo's Big Adventure.

Sweet mercy this is an incredible game. You control Abobo, who is the iconic boss from the Double Dragon series, and embark on a journey to save his son. The first stage is the first stage from Double Dragon, only you control Abobo and fight a wide variety of NES characters, including Goombas, Donkey Kong, and thugs from Kung Fu. From then, it gets nutty: one level has you swimming through level 2-1 of Super Mario Bros. while eating enemies a la Yoshi, while another puts you in a Zelda-style game.

It truly is a letter of love to any NES fan, and I had such a blast playing this last night.  Parental guidance suggested: it does contain some gross humor and gratuitous violence (eating mermaids can be gruesome), so exercise caution when playing this in front of your children.

Abobo. You are cherished.

Party of Sin: Guilty fun or sacrilege?

I don't mind when people make jokes at the expense of religion. I wouldn't love South Park as much as I do if I got upset over people mocking faith. I even take part in some podcasts where religion gets mocked in sometimes crude ways. But you take it in stride, and know that nine out of ten times, the people mocking it don't actually mean cruel malice towards me or other members of my faith.

I remember a title called Afterlife by LucasArts, a silly Sim-like title in which you take control of Heaven or Hell and try to keep souls in your world occupied and productive. It was real tongue-in-cheek fun because the versions of Heaven and Hell that you controlled were funny caricatures that didn't really resemble our thoughts and beliefs regarding how we spend eternity. Sure, people committed sins to get there, but every religion has it's own set of rights and wrongs.

16 years later, an independent game company called Crankshaft Games has created a PC puzzle platformer called Party of Sin, in which the goal of the game is to take the seven deadly sins, who are actual characters, break out of hell and destroy angels on a quest to take over heaven.

The gameplay reads like an updated version of The Lost Vikings (translation: FUN!), in which each character has it's own strengths and weaknesses, and being able to switch party members at any time. The game definitely has a sense of humor, not unlike Afterlife, and going purely by the trailer, it's not as if you're burning crucifixes or murdering nuns.

Not being able to play the game (just reading the interview) leaves me crippled when it comes to judging if the game crosses any lines. I have to say, I do cringe a bit at the idea of waging war against God's angels in a video game, especially when the leader of the angels in the game is actually named Michael, but then again, I chuckle at Afterlife because it's such a silly stretch, maybe I should have the same attitude with Party of Sin. It looks like an amazing game to play.

Maybe the reason I give Afterlife a pass is because, even though it contains Heaven and Hell, it feels detached from Christianity a bit, while Party of Sin feels more like a game set in the world of my own faith. I think I'd probably feel much better about the game if it gave you the option of playing as the Heaven side of things, as you could probably make an even more interesting platformer with that mechanic in place.

Gun to my head, I'd have to say that it just misses that line of "OMG THIS IS EVIL SACRILEGE!!!!" I'll have to wait for the demo to come out and judge it more fully. Regardless of my opinions, I'm sure Bill Donahue of the Catholic League will go nuts if this game gets any kind of popular rub.

I'd love to get your thoughts in the comment section.

Review a Bad Game Day: Super Noah's Ark 3D

Note: A few months ago, Eric Bailey of nintendolegend.com alerted me to August 8, a new holiday known as "Review a bad game day." The full list of participants is at reviewabadgameday.com. And since we're a Catholic web site, why not get religious with our choice?

Love them or hate them, you have to admire Wisdom Tree for trying their best to get "Christian" games into the market. Which isn't a bad thing: if the original (awful) TMNT can get a release, why not a game based on the Bible? I actually really enjoyed their game Joshua, so to completely goof on them would be dishonest of me.

So in 1994, Wisdom Tree brought us Super Noah's Ark 3D, which is basically a clone of the First-person shooter Wolfenstein 3D. In the latter, your character is trying to escape from a Nazi prison, while the former has you take on the role of Noah and put down an animal uprising.

Yes, on the ark, the animals are getting restless, and you have a slingshot to quell this mutiny.

Pointing out the flaws in this concept is ridiculously easy. I mowed down the exact same goat at least a dozen times, and there's no way that a pair of goats could reproduce that much in the time that Noah was on the Ark. Also, Noah uses a slingshot to give the animals "feed" which instantly puts them to sleep. Those animals are going to wake up soon, and unless Noah never plans to back in that area of the Ark, it's a futile attempt.

Besides, where are his three sons? Shouldn't they be helping out too? Lazy bums.

But yes, this is a video game, and to say that the creators can't use artistic license to make a good game experience would be hogwash on my behalf. So I won't hold those flaws against the game.

Playing through the game courtesy of an emulator (I didn't own an SNES in 1994), I was struck by just how well it played. Since SNA3D is basically a clone of Wolfenstein, the same control options are available: You can use either the gamepad or the SNES mouse. The controls are nearly perfect: there's no lag or delay when you press a button. As a gamer, good controls are something you don't really appreciate until you play a game with broken controls. And for that, I give a tip of my cap to Wisdom Tree for making sure the game controlled flawlessly.

Graphically speaking, for the most part this game has the same quality as Wolfenstein 3D. Here's a comparison of the doors.

Getting these kinds of games to work on the SNES is no small chore, so the 2012 me can't fault either for the horribly pixelated walls, doors and enemies. In both games, enemies at a distance are just a block of shaded pixels. I give Wisdom Tree a pat on the back for making a game as graphically sound as a company with a presumably bigger budget, but iD released Wolfenstein 3D a year earlier, so on that note, you'd think Wisdom Tree could have improved on the graphics.

Where Wolfenstein 3D succeeds graphically are the powerups: they're different colors than the walls. In SNA3D, the first aid kits are the exact same color as the walls, which might cause you to miss a few. There was one instance where the there were three powerups that I originally missed due to their camoflauge.

As far as sound goes, the effects could have been better: The music playing throughout the game sounds pleasant enough, which is important when you only have one track, but some of the grunts sound like someone yelling into a $25 USB headset. The animals make a cute snoring noise when you put them to sleep, so that's great reinforcement when you tell your child playing the game that the animal didn't really die (along with the Zzzzz's coming from their head).

OK, so Wisdom Tree did a decent job on the technical aspects, but is the game fun to play? It's surprisingly enjoyable for 15 minutes. After that, it gets repetitive and yawn-inducing. Problem is, that's the same effect that the other SNES FPS games have on me, so it's not just Wisdom Tree's piece of software that shows it's age.

My huge gripe about the game is that bulls and goats can attack from a distance, but you don't actually see an attack animation, except for your health dwindling down. I hate to make this article a giant Wolfenstein comparison, but in that game, you see the soldiers raising their guns in the air. Here, you just have a bull sitting there looking at you.

Other than that, it's a competent game that will fill a nostalgic FPS thirst if you can get over the cutesy aspect of the game. So why is this a "bad game?"

Because there is nothing innovative about. Fun twist on the storyline, but other than graphics and sound, this is the EXACT same game as Wolfenstein 3D. Wisdom Tree could have added a few fun tweaks and twist to the FPS genre, such as multiplayer, a jump button, melee attacks, and so on. Instead of doing something different, they just played copycat.

Not to go on a rant, but that's the problem with Christian media. So many times we just duplicate successful secular ideas instead of being original and coming up with something new. That's why Busted Halo is the best Christian radio program. That's why Fr. Roderick's podcast is so great to listen to: they try new things and aren't afraid to be different.

SNA3D got the basics right. But a lack of innovation makes this a "bad game." Then again, we in Christian media could stand to learn a thing or two from this title. So we don't make the same mistakes.

My Latest Rantings

...on the newly-launched RantGaming.com. Lemme know what you think!

Beyond the Narrative

Art, if it truly IS art, has an intrinsic value beyond its thematic depiction. Whether it be a painting, a novel, a piece of music, or, yes, a game, there is some way that these various media give (or at least *CAN* give) glory to God. As an amateur critic of gaming, I've often seized on the narrative of a particular game as the reason for its moral worth (or lack thereof), even as I never neglected to critique the technical aspects of a game, as well. But if narratives are the only "real" reason games are worth our time, then we're probably better off sticking to novels. I'm quite convinced that there is some way in which particular game play systems are themselves an art. I've written about this before, and I've cited Ratzinger's "Spirit of the Liturgy" in my defense. I'd like to know what other people think about this. Are gameplay systems themselves an art form?