Thread of justice, defend a game that you love, but is hated

[Deleted member 721]

So as the thread title says, name a game that is generaly hated by the community, but you love and defend it from the haters

My game of choice is

Final Fantasy II

Final Fantasy II is a final fantasy game that i really like, i think its the third thread i create that i talk about it,
https://www.resetera.com/threads/lttp-final-fantasy-ii-psp.38620/
https://www.resetera.com/threads/10-reasons-why-you-should-play-final-fantasy-ii.69887/
quoting myself:
1- Its the first final fantasy to have a developed story, its an addult bittersweet story where death is one of the main themes
2-Final Fantasy 2 has a sequel/expansion, and i think its a good sequel, The secondary characters are further developed and we see how they handle death and sacrifice. It was released with the gba version and got a remake to the psp.
3- The villain is David fucking Bowie
4- gameplay is not bad in the new versions
5- Strong female character in the main group that it's not a white mage since 1988
6- Ricard is cooler than Cain
7- Great OST


8- the box art is a beautiful amano art
9- Its the first final fantasy to have chocobos, cid, dragoons, etc.
without a doubt final fantasy 2 is my favorite final fantasy of the nes era, and its criminaly represented as the worst final fantasy game in final fantasy list threads.

So here's the thread to show the love you have for a game that is hated and to do JUSTICE!

 

[Yoshichan]

DMC2

Every time someone complaints about it, they say "Lucia", "Bad art", "Demon tanks" or "E&I OP". But they never mention the introduction of Bloody Palace, the best Dante, and singel handedly the best OST in the series.

 

[NESpowerhouse]

Sonic Adventure 2 is by far the best 3D Sonic game. You show me one with more content and replayability. My 1000+ hours in the game will prove you otherwise.

Also, Uncharted 1 is my second favorite Uncharted behind 2. That's perhaps the only game in the series that truly feels like one continuous adventure, and it's great to look back and see how much ground you've covered around the island. Most of the other games just felt disjointed by comparison.

 

[Azoor]

Resident Evil 6 is a game that gets a lot of unfair criticism, it had great combat hampered by needless setpieces, you should only play the mercenaries mode of that game to really appreciate the combat.

 

[Mediking]

Mass Effect: Andromeda is so underrated that it's criminal

 

[Ryouji Gunblade]

Golden Sun motherfucking Dark Dawn

-The music is solid
-The art style has evolved
-The new animal people are cooler than the old werewolves
-You get more pirates and one of them joins you
-I like the eclipse concept
-New dungeons look pretty unique
-Summons have better animations
-There are energy black holes everywhere
-I want the damn sequel announcement already

 

[will0wis]

Final Fantasy XIII-2 was the best FF game in the entire PS3/X360 era.

It had really great music, great gameplay/battle mechanics with monster catching, interesting locations, actually likable protagonists and even villains, good boss fights and nice visuals on top of all that. It was great after how bad XIII was and I loved every second of it. It's also the only Final Fantasy game I've ever got the platinum trophy for.

 

[Lant_War]

Sonic Unleashed is one of the best games of the last generation. People hate the Werehog, but you really only need to go through those levels once. The daytime levels are super fun, adrenaline-pumping experiences.

 

[Joeku]

Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days hates you. It doesn't want you to have "fun". It's misery to play at times. And I love it.

I totally understand why people dislike it, however when something so uncompromisingly counter in mood and tone to everything of an era I can't help but respect the decisions that led to it existing.

 

[Last Jon Standing]

Urban Chaos (1999) was a game so ahead of its time I will die defending it. It was a bit undercooked, sure, but there are so many great elements in it that it kinda hurts that it went ignored in history.

For starters, we have a strong black woman as a protagonist, who takes shit from no one but isn't portrayed as a Mary Sue either. The game has a lot of hub areas full of verticality and side quests that you discover by exploring and interacting with other characters. It also has stat attributes you can develop by finding points while exploring. There's a multi-directional combat system full of combos that rely on time-based imputs (which don't work very well, mind you), and most combat scenarios allow you to arrest criminals instead of just killing them. It also lets you drive around, which was kind of a novelty in third person games at the time (UC was released just five months after Driver vame out).

 

[It’s Time To Go]

I will accept every single fault and criticism of Sonic 06 for its glitches and bugs and poorly implemented systems, but I love it so much. Like a lot of mid 2000 sonic that's kinda not great, it oozes with personality and vibrancy, when the sonic gameplay works, it really works, the story is so dumb and goofy I kinda love it, and I love the whole game in fact.

 

[The Unsent]

Just going by the community response than with Metacritic . I don't think Skyward Sword is much worse than Breath of the Wild, it has different strengths, better story, actual good dungeons and bosses, and more memorable musical tracks like Fi's theme and the flying one. I don't know why Zelda games be on different sides nowadays and can't generally have the same strengths.

 

[Syril]

Fuck everyone, I like Star Fox Zero.

Controls can be a legitimate learning curve just everything else that people are okay with or make excuses for.

 

[Shamdeo]

i'm here to support you final fantasy 2 friends

 

[HylianSeven]

Two I can immediately think of:

1. Artifact

It's a legitimately fun card game I still play, marred by bad marketing, messaging, and a questionable business model that made people get frustrated and stop playing. I really enjoy the game, and still play it sometimes when I can (one of the less than 1000 people playing it), but it's community is pretty much dead. Surprisingly even with the low player count, I can STILL find a match quickly. I like the three boards to it, as I also play a ton of Dota. I think it's mechanics are quite neat.

2. Star Fox Zero

I honestly consider it to be the best game in the series. The controls are actually beneficial to it, but I'm also someone that likes the idea of managing multiple things at once like that. The World Ends With You is one of my favorite games of all time, and while the two screen thing isn't implemented as well here as it was there, it definitely does quite well. I totally get why people didn't like this one though and respect that. I personally love the idea of looking between both screens. The walker feels really smooth and fun. For me, probably the biggest issue in the game is the Gyro Wing stages. Those just aren't as fun. The bosses are great. I actually liked the ones that would focus the camera on the boss while you see the side of the Arwing.

 

[Meg Cherry]

DmC is the best Devil May Cry game by several miles, because it actively understands and plays off what an unlikable prick Dante is. Plays beautifully, and has some of the most visually exciting boss battles of the past decade. So, so good.

 

[Deleted member 4037]

Final Fantasy XIII had some fun characters and battle system. Its cool

 

[Deleted member 721]

i'm here to support you final fantasy 2 friends

Click to shrink...

 

[I Wanna Be The Guy]

Watch Dogs is one of the beet games of the generation and the last open world Ubosoft game I loved. It was a fantastic game mechanically, felt so good to play, had great atmosphere and had tons of cool ideas.

 

[ArkhamFantasy]

Aside from the obvious production values that are among the best of its generation, look at how damn good the art style is

Now imagine those production values and art direction, and add one of the best OSTs of the entire series

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39Cg92jbc88

And last but certainly not least, my favorite combat system of the series.

XIII makes the obvious (but correct) decision to ditch random encounters in favor of on field monsters, this has several benefits

-You can pick and choose which fights you want
-Attacking a monster from behind gives you an advantage in battle
-You can avoid battles entirely

The core combat systems take the traditional menu based ATB formula that the series had become known for and mixed it up in a way that made it fresh and even more satisfying. Rather than just physical attacking your way through random encounters that are designed to chip away at your HP/MP over a long period of time, XIII replenishes your HP/MP after every battle and instead chooses to make every random battle something you have to pay at least a little bit of attention to. There are very few battles where you don't paradigm shift at all, and if you get lazy you wont get you 5 star rating which gives you additional rewards after battles.

The paradigm shifts gives the player a fast paced battle where you have to stay on your toes, it's true that you aren't directly in control of every single action that your character takes, but the excellent A.I. does what you want almost every time, i mean if your character is low on HP and you paradigm shift to a medic, its going to heal that character 999/1000 times, how is that any different from manually going into the magic list, selecting cure, and casting it on the character? That's just a slower way of doing it.

The stagger gauge is also an excellent layer of depth, you can choose to focus on ravagers to fill it up and stagger the enmy as quickly as possible, or you can just get the stagger bar up high (which lowers its defense) and keep it there rather than staggering and making the bar reset again, it gives the player something else to think about.

The game also gives players a good variety of choices with its gear, you can turn lightning into a ravager that can raise the stagger bar quickly, or you can bulk up her HP or strength and make her a better commando/medic/sentinal. Each character has their own strengths and weaknesses and exclusive spells/abilities.

Ironically enough, the biggest complaint of the game is it's ultra linear level design, but as i replayed the game this generation, i actually found the pacing refreshing. After every game going open world, it's nice to be able to just get from point A to point B with 5-10 minutes of travel.
It's also worth noting that the game is extremely polished, i've put 150+ hours into the game, got the platinum trophy, and i can't even think of a bug that i ran into.

 

[Brickhunt]

Metroid Prime: Hunters

One of the first, if not the first, portable FPS with online multiplayer and voice chat built in, and surprising robust and fun multiplayer. It can be argued it was a Hero Shooter one decade before it exploded. One of the games in the DS with the best graphics. By all accounts, it should be praised by it's accomplishment.

Instead, Metroid fans all complain about not being a good Metroid game. They wanted a console Metroid Prime experience in a portable, which is fair, but Hunters took the direction it took because it lacked hardware to pull it off. It boils my blood see fans shitting on Tanabe for Sylux, which was harmless as much as the other Hunters. Something about the hunters truly annoys this fanbase, because they are constantly taken as "Tanabe's shitty OCs"

I think what it annoys me the most is people claiming that Metroid cannot ever have multiplayer, and forgetting that Hunters had one and it was a blast. I desperately want it to be remastered or remaked one day, but I know Metroid fans will absolutely shit on it .

 

[SilverArrow20XX]

Good job OP.
I was gonna say Final Fantasy II.
It's easily my favorite NES FF game, and I even like it more than XIII and XV.

It always get a bad rap from people.
The PSP version isn't grindy at at all. In fact, it's one of the least grindy FF games. The stat up system results in your party quickly acclimating to the strength of the fights you're able to actually survive, without overshooting and making you too powerful, so it always feels comfortable.
Then there's the infamous "trap rooms" that people act like destroy the whole game, when they're mild annoyances at worst. I'll take trap rooms over several "mini" dungeons and the asinine level designs from FFIII.

 

[Xeteh]

Click to shrink...

I'm with you. The game is flawed and I get why people ended up bouncing off but I loved it.

 

[gigaslash]

Lightning Returns is the best HD Final Fantasy game. Great gameplay loop, amazing battle system, crazy & fun story, amazing music... Everything about this game is well designed and enjoyable. And Lightning is the best waifu.

 

[ArkhamFantasy]

I'm with you. The game is flawed and I get why people ended up bouncing off but I loved it.

Click to shrink...

 

[Rosa Lilium]

Dragon Age 2
- The NPC party members were super memorable.
- Got away from the "save the world" cliches.
- Friendship/Rivalry system was innovative and something I would have liked to see continue. The rivalry romance was an extremely interesting touch.
- One of the few Bioware games with no busywork filler quests.
- Depending on difficulty, combat can be made to be a fair amount more complex than Origins or Inquisition.

 

[Asbsand]

2018 was not good but Detroit Become Human was Game of the Year and is a brilliant game. Its metascore and frequent arguments I get into for saying it's good, makes it hated imo even though I often see a good amount of praise on Era.

I can fully enjoy a game while knowing the flaws it has, but going into this expecting a Quantic Dream/David Cage game it's what I got, and a really good one at that after the atrocious Beyond: Two Souls.

 

[Deleted member 2620]

Fuck everyone, I like Star Fox Zero.

Controls can be a legitimate learning curve just everything else that people are okay with or make excuses for.

Click to shrink...

I'm with you. Ultimately I had more fun with Zero than the original, 2, or 64.

 

[Leviathan]

Xenoblade Chronicles X is the finest in the series. Most interesting storyline, best soundtrack, and best open world exploration (especially when it's competing with Xenoblade Chronicles 2). That it has only become less respected since Xenoblade Chronicles 2 auto-piloted its way to weird levels of success baffles me.

 

[sn00zer]

Jak 2 is a better game than Jak and Daxter in everyway. First thing ppl point out is Jak 2s open world, which is not great and not something I would defend. However everything else from the platforming, level design, characters, plot, is just leagues better.
Jak 1 has a habit of have really limited interaction with side characters. You get one cutscene of the introducing the get more power cores side mission and one when you complete it. Jak 2 had characters coming in and coming back later based on the things you did. You actually learn to hate the villain, while in Jak1 I have a hard time recalling either primary villain. The platforming is challenging and has some great set pieces especially near the end. The games tone is a tinge too dark, but I think the plot and world justify it enough to not feel out of place.

 

[Deleted member 4260]

I mention this often on this forum but Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts is a masterpiece. The vehicle creator is super deep and the mission design allows for so much creative problem solving. The graphics and music are top notch as well. It's weird to me that the game is as hated as it is.

 

[More_Badass]

Assassins Creed 3 is my favorite of the classic AC games. Most interesting era, best protagonist and most intriguing story, most satisfying combat, the best refinements of the action-stealth approach with tons of tools for both combat and stealth, etc.

 

[Stef]

The trilogy of Xbox 360 JRPGS - The Last Remnant, Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon is criminally underrated.

 

[PerrierChaud]

MGS4 is on par with MGS3 as the best episodes of the series. It's a complex, rich, incredibly stubborn game that refuses to cave in the player's expectations, plus it plays great. Featuring the best final boss fight ever.

 

[WellbornWarrior]

DmC is the best Devil May Cry game by several miles, because it actively understands and plays off what an unlikable prick Dante is. Plays beautifully, and has some of the most visually exciting boss battles of the past decade. So, so good.

Click to shrink...

boothisman.gif

At the very least your statement will be false this friday.

Mine would be Wonderful 101. Those who say it controls bad or it has to many shmup sections are just too bad at playing the game.

 

[GrayFoxPL]

Final Fight Streetwise.

'Potential's good. I'm feeling good about being potentially good."

Everyone and their dog shits on this but I love it.

Under the drab gray graphics is a fun brawler with good and dynamic combat mechanics.

I love the writing in this, the characters, dialogues, ridiculous story, characters, hilarious stuff.
Game always felt too short for me because I was having fun every minute.



I must play through it again soon.

 

[Nintendo]

The Order 1886. One of the highlights of the generation.


Also Watch Dogs 1. One of the best open world games and miles better than WD2.

 

[mrmickfran]

Final Fantasy XIII has an amazing battle system and a phenomenal soundtrack

 

[Ogodei]

Sonic Adventure 2 is by far the best 3D Sonic game. You show me one with more content and replayability. My 1000+ hours in the game will prove you otherwise.

Also, Uncharted 1 is my second favorite Uncharted behind 2. That's perhaps the only game in the series that truly feels like one continuous adventure, and it's great to look back and see how much ground you've covered around the island. Most of the other games just felt disjointed by comparison.

Click to shrink...

 

[chrisypoo]

Street Fighter Ex 3 is actually pretty kick ass. Great music, character models were definitely sub par sure, but the particle effects were pretty cool for the time, and it still has the funnest arcade mode ever to this day. The character custom move thing was rad, the combo potential was fucking nutty, but it just seemed like Noone wanted to give it a fair shot for some reason, and I always thought that was simply because it didn't play like 3D fighters which were becoming incredibly popular at the time. Hell, I remember reading low scores of even SF alpha 3 in some mags at the time, citing that 2D fighters felt antiquated in comparison to 3D. The implication that all fighters should have been playing like Tekken or Virtua Fighter really annoyed me, and it became a widespread perception rather quickly.

Anyway, go play EX3 with an open mind and I promise you'll have fun, just accept that it's not going to play like any 3D Fighter, and it won't even play like Street Fighter; it's completely it's own beast, and its honestly all the better for it.

 

[Detail]

Friday The 13th the game, everyone disliked it from what I can tell and whilst I agree it's incredibly janky, I still loved it because it's probably the best a game has ever done of bringing a classic horror movie character to a game.

PC version is full of cheaters though sadly.

 

[Zukkoyaki]

Watch Dogs 1.

Yes the story is awful, yes it has an a terrible protagonist. But it also has exceptional level design for an open world. It's full of great puzzles and the gang hideouts are extremely well done. You never feel like your choice of play style is discouraged. There are so many ways to approach these encounters! It also has among the best gunplay in any third person open world.

 

[BossAttack]

Dragon Age 2
- The NPC party members were super memorable.
- Got away from the "save the world" cliches.
- Friendship/Rivalry system was innovative and something I would have liked to see continue. The rivalry romance was an extremely interesting touch.
- One of the few Bioware games with no busywork filler quests.
- Depending on difficulty, combat can be made to be a fair amount more complex than Origins or Inquisition.

Click to shrink...

I like you.

 

[galv]

Final Fantasy XIII-2 was the best FF game in the entire PS3/X360 era.

It had really great music, great gameplay/battle mechanics with monster catching, interesting locations, actually likable protagonists and even villains, good boss fights and nice visuals on top of all that. It was great after how bad XIII was and I loved every second of it. It's also the only Final Fantasy game I've ever got the platinum trophy for.

Click to shrink...

thankyou.gif

 

[Much]

This game... sure it has it's problems, but it's one of my favourite AC games. People always complain about Connor and compare him to Ezio, completely forgetting how he had grown up and what he and his people were victims of. Yet people expect him to be a beaming ball of charisma to rival Ezio. AC3 also had some of the series' best villains, with true and well-explained motives. I also loved the setting as well, and understand it's not for everyone. The mission design also isn't perfect, so I can see why people criticise it, but "hate" it is so bizarre to me.

 

[Mikebison]

Dark Souls 2 is the beautiful, underrated black sheep of the family.

It has its problems, but it's bold and brave in a way that 3 isn't, which plays like a best-of game. Don't get me wrong, I really like DS3, but I love 2 as much as 1.

 

[Ravelle]

Aside from the obvious production values that are among the best of its generation, look at how damn good the art style is

Now imagine those production values and art direction, and add one of the best OSTs of the entire series

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39Cg92jbc88

And last but certainly not least, my favorite combat system of the series.

XIII makes the obvious (but correct) decision to ditch random encounters in favor of on field monsters, this has several benefits

-You can pick and choose which fights you want
-Attacking a monster from behind gives you an advantage in battle
-You can avoid battles entirely

The core combat systems take the traditional menu based ATB formula that the series had become known for and mixed it up in a way that made it fresh and even more satisfying. Rather than just physical attacking your way through random encounters that are designed to chip away at your HP/MP over a long period of time, XIII replenishes your HP/MP after every battle and instead chooses to make every random battle something you have to pay at least a little bit of attention to. There are very few battles where you don't paradigm shift at all, and if you get lazy you wont get you 5 star rating which gives you additional rewards after battles.

The paradigm shifts gives the player a fast paced battle where you have to stay on your toes, it's true that you aren't directly in control of every single action that your character takes, but the excellent A.I. does what you want almost every time, i mean if your character is low on HP and you paradigm shift to a medic, its going to heal that character 999/1000 times, how is that any different from manually going into the magic list, selecting cure, and casting it on the character? That's just a slower way of doing it.

The stagger gauge is also an excellent layer of depth, you can choose to focus on ravagers to fill it up and stagger the enmy as quickly as possible, or you can just get the stagger bar up high (which lowers its defense) and keep it there rather than staggering and making the bar reset again, it gives the player something else to think about.

The game also gives players a good variety of choices with its gear, you can turn lightning into a ravager that can raise the stagger bar quickly, or you can bulk up her HP or strength and make her a better commando/medic/sentinal. Each character has their own strengths and weaknesses and exclusive spells/abilities.

Ironically enough, the biggest complaint of the game is it's ultra linear level design, but as i replayed the game this generation, i actually found the pacing refreshing. After every game going open world, it's nice to be able to just get from point A to point B with 5-10 minutes of travel.
It's also worth noting that the game is extremely polished, i've put 150+ hours into the game, got the platinum trophy, and i can't even think of a bug that i ran into.

Click to shrink...

I genuinely loved FF13, slow beginning be damned. I should replay it sometime and play the other two since I bought 13-2 but never put that many hours in to it.

 

[Rckstar]

Aside from the obvious production values that are among the best of its generation, look at how damn good the art style is

Now imagine those production values and art direction, and add one of the best OSTs of the entire series

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39Cg92jbc88

And last but certainly not least, my favorite combat system of the series.

XIII makes the obvious (but correct) decision to ditch random encounters in favor of on field monsters, this has several benefits

-You can pick and choose which fights you want
-Attacking a monster from behind gives you an advantage in battle
-You can avoid battles entirely

The core combat systems take the traditional menu based ATB formula that the series had become known for and mixed it up in a way that made it fresh and even more satisfying. Rather than just physical attacking your way through random encounters that are designed to chip away at your HP/MP over a long period of time, XIII replenishes your HP/MP after every battle and instead chooses to make every random battle something you have to pay at least a little bit of attention to. There are very few battles where you don't paradigm shift at all, and if you get lazy you wont get you 5 star rating which gives you additional rewards after battles.

The paradigm shifts gives the player a fast paced battle where you have to stay on your toes, it's true that you aren't directly in control of every single action that your character takes, but the excellent A.I. does what you want almost every time, i mean if your character is low on HP and you paradigm shift to a medic, its going to heal that character 999/1000 times, how is that any different from manually going into the magic list, selecting cure, and casting it on the character? That's just a slower way of doing it.

The stagger gauge is also an excellent layer of depth, you can choose to focus on ravagers to fill it up and stagger the enmy as quickly as possible, or you can just get the stagger bar up high (which lowers its defense) and keep it there rather than staggering and making the bar reset again, it gives the player something else to think about.

The game also gives players a good variety of choices with its gear, you can turn lightning into a ravager that can raise the stagger bar quickly, or you can bulk up her HP or strength and make her a better commando/medic/sentinal. Each character has their own strengths and weaknesses and exclusive spells/abilities.

Ironically enough, the biggest complaint of the game is it's ultra linear level design, but as i replayed the game this generation, i actually found the pacing refreshing. After every game going open world, it's nice to be able to just get from point A to point B with 5-10 minutes of travel.
It's also worth noting that the game is extremely polished, i've put 150+ hours into the game, got the platinum trophy, and i can't even think of a bug that i ran into.

Click to shrink...

100% with you! My favorite FF game besides 14.

 

[pleaseinsertdisctwo]

Aside from the obvious production values that are among the best of its generation, look at how damn good the art style is

Now imagine those production values and art direction, and add one of the best OSTs of the entire series

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39Cg92jbc88

And last but certainly not least, my favorite combat system of the series.

XIII makes the obvious (but correct) decision to ditch random encounters in favor of on field monsters, this has several benefits

-You can pick and choose which fights you want
-Attacking a monster from behind gives you an advantage in battle
-You can avoid battles entirely

The core combat systems take the traditional menu based ATB formula that the series had become known for and mixed it up in a way that made it fresh and even more satisfying. Rather than just physical attacking your way through random encounters that are designed to chip away at your HP/MP over a long period of time, XIII replenishes your HP/MP after every battle and instead chooses to make every random battle something you have to pay at least a little bit of attention to. There are very few battles where you don't paradigm shift at all, and if you get lazy you wont get you 5 star rating which gives you additional rewards after battles.

The paradigm shifts gives the player a fast paced battle where you have to stay on your toes, it's true that you aren't directly in control of every single action that your character takes, but the excellent A.I. does what you want almost every time, i mean if your character is low on HP and you paradigm shift to a medic, its going to heal that character 999/1000 times, how is that any different from manually going into the magic list, selecting cure, and casting it on the character? That's just a slower way of doing it.

The stagger gauge is also an excellent layer of depth, you can choose to focus on ravagers to fill it up and stagger the enmy as quickly as possible, or you can just get the stagger bar up high (which lowers its defense) and keep it there rather than staggering and making the bar reset again, it gives the player something else to think about.

The game also gives players a good variety of choices with its gear, you can turn lightning into a ravager that can raise the stagger bar quickly, or you can bulk up her HP or strength and make her a better commando/medic/sentinal. Each character has their own strengths and weaknesses and exclusive spells/abilities.

Ironically enough, the biggest complaint of the game is it's ultra linear level design, but as i replayed the game this generation, i actually found the pacing refreshing. After every game going open world, it's nice to be able to just get from point A to point B with 5-10 minutes of travel.
It's also worth noting that the game is extremely polished, i've put 150+ hours into the game, got the platinum trophy, and i can't even think of a bug that i ran into.

Click to shrink...

yesss excellent post

 

[ASaiyan]

Fire Emblem Fates is a great video game, and the greatest entry in the Fire Emblem franchise to-date.

Fire Emblem Fates is a Herculean triumph of games production, pumping out over 90 hours of content and three complete games under the banner of one. Systems-wise, it is an achievement. The simplification of the Weapons Triangle was perfect, and fixed an overcomplication without completely removing strategy (as a certain game that removes it altogether does). The removal of weapon degradation was controversial at first, but in hindsight clearly a welcome change that stopped forcing players to engage in deliberately unstrategic behavior (i.e., using a worse/disadvantageous weapon to "save" another one). Condensing the shops, mission select, and other "between-stages" activity into a single location, that is itself a player-customizable Castle that doubles as a multiplayer fortress, was both liberating and brilliant.

Gameplay-wise, the three campaigns of Fire Emblem Fates provide "something for everyone". Birthright is your "traditional" Fire Emblem experience. Conquest provides the more difficult maps and scenarios that hardcore fans crave. And Revelations offers some of the most wonderfully-unique and innovative map designs in series history.

Character-wise, the characters in Fire Emblem Fates are the best that Intelligent Systems have ever written. It is no surprise to anyone who has played that Fates characters had a pervasive showing in Era's "Best Fire Emblem Character" votes. The characters are full and fleshed-out entities, with complex personalities and backstories, which make them really feel alive, and lead you to care about them and their adventures in a way that only Awakening comes close to.

Story-wise, the storyline of Fire Emblem Fates is much more thought-out, and thematically-rich, then you probably gave it credit for.

[Warning: The following post contains some spoilers for Fire Emblem Fates.]
Fire Emblem Fates is thematically based on Taoism, which it constantly evokes with its imagery of black-on-white, representing the warring kingdoms of Hoshido (lit. "Land of the Stars") and Nohr (lit. "Darkness"). There is literally even a chapter in Conquest simply titled "Black and White".

Fittingly, the main character, Corrin, is a water dragon. Water represents the Tao, the immutable Truth of the universe. And, like the Tao, Corrin is neither this, nor that, but a perfectly flexible and indefinable combination of all. They are "a dragon neither white nor black" (indeed, their outfit is a very meaningful gray), seeking out Peace and the Truth of the world, and, in the true route, successfully unite both Hoshido and Nohr to defeat the true evil. White and black are revealed to be two sides of the same coin, just as in the famous symbol of Taoism, the yin-yang.

Azura (who is called Aqua in Japanese) is another character represented by water, and is your ever-present guide to the Truth. Water floats around her in her dance at the Colosseum, which shines with the Truth and pierces the facade surrounding King Garon. And water is the means by which she crosses over into the hidden kingdom, where the Truth of the world's conflict is brought to light. Even when you choose the two paths of illusion, she calls out to Corrin: "You are the Ocean's Gray Waves, Destined to seek Life Beyond the Shore just out of reach".

In the Revelations route, the true villain of the game is revealed to be the same as every other Fire Emblem game: a mad dragon. In Fire Emblem lore, dragons are awesome beings whose sheer existence is a curse: their power is too much for an intelligent being to handle, and so it slowly destroys them, converting them from a living divinity to "no more than a caged beast". Realizing their fate, many of the dragons opt to take their own lives before it's too late, passing on to the next world and becoming legendary gods. However, some dragons cling to this world because they love humans too much, and for their intemperance pay the ultimate price. Such is the pitiable case of the Fates dragon - who indeed, is revealed in an out-of-game codex to be the father of one of the characters. His obsessive emotion is a violation of Zen (the Japanese form of Buddhism that is heavily based on Taoism), and he is doomed to the karma this sows. However, being himself a Water Dragon, well versed in the Tao, he sees the error of his ways even as he is too weak to prevent them. In his "Song of Prophecy", he "Sees his future self", and laments, "The Rain Falls, But Can't Wash Away the Mud"; he rues the coming day where he will be inexorably Blinded from the Truth, and calls to the keepers of the Water, Corrin and Azura, to do what needs to be done.

One of the most obvious assertions of the theme comes in Chapter 18 of Conquest - the one we referenced earlier, that is titled "Black and White". In it, Archduke Izana of the neutral kingdom of Izumo invites both the Hoshidan and the Nohrian royals to a dinner, just before they are due to start an all-out war to kill each other. While seemingly a bizarre scene, this is actually quite in line with Bushido, the samurai practice of Zen principles. Before a heated battle, samurai would sit down for tea and zazen meditation, and occasionally this even did involve inviting representatives from the enemy camp, who would hours later become targets. This is in keeping with the Zen teaching of "emptiness" (or, at least, the version of the teaching warped by professional killers for their own purposes); man is but an "empty" and fleeting vessel, not possessed inherently of the Truth, and as such is not separable from the ground he walks, nor other persons, nor indeed his enemy. During the predictably-awkward dinner, the Water Dragon Corrin is the only one who sees the Tao, and comments on how similar the two families are despite expressing hatred for each other. Black and white. Two sides, of the same coin.

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk on how Fire Emblem Fates has a much deeper and more meaningful story than you ever give it credit for.

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There are so many reasons to love Fire Emblem Fates; and a hand full of petty ones to loathe it.