Game Thoughts: Fire Emblem: Fates

So for Easter I got myself the game bundle for Fire Emblem Fates so I could play both storylines - Birthright and Conquest. One was advertised as being more difficult and focused on strategy, so I figured I might get frustrated with that storyline, but no...if you play both in Casual mode it's no biggy.

Synopsis

The avatar (Corrin) is royalty captured from their home country at a young age and raised with "the enemy" with the conflict growing between the countries Hoshido (clearly Japanese influenced) and Nohr (medieval Europe inspired). Once you find out your true heritage you must decide who you will support: the land of your birth or the family who raised you? Then work for peace and all that nonsense.

Features

The game decided to split the story into two games and you have to buy both to get the whole story, which is lame if you are more story-motivated to play the game. There's also a 3rd game that's supposed to clarify a few things "Revelation".

There is DLC and amiibo stuff and nonesense.

Weapons no longer have a limited number of uses.

The partner, marriage, children system is back. They added bonding time with avatar's chosen spouse. Which just means more work for me...uggggh.

Pros

Again the marriage with children thing I have to highlight that here.
Lovely art and music
Some returning characters for nostalgia.
Easier gameplay compared to Awakening, a lot more accessible.
Empowered female roles.
A huge cast of interesting characters
Lots of pro-family goodness.

Cons

Very sexualized, revealing armor and body-types for female characters
Includes a gay marriage (male in conquest, female in birthright)
A somewhat convoluted timeline, really not sure who was the parent of who, but there is time travel which ruins everything.
Almost an overload of characters.
Ritual suicide (samurai story so...it's expected.)
Personally the cutesie "bonding time" with your spouse is weird to me. Are we having sex? Is that what we're doing? I can't tell! I'm glad I can't tell, but seriously weird and oddly uncomfortable, but I'm uncomfortable with any affection from game characters anyway. I'll have to write about it later or something.
Suggested Incest? I think you can "marry" your blood siblings. Unless there's a story point that means you're not related to EITHER family. (Looking through walkthrough: spoiler not blood related but still very very very weird.)

Conclusion

I think this iteration can be passed over. The gameplay is similar to the last one but it's not super great. The fact you have to buy two games is rough. Personally, I like the Conquest storyline better. (Because personally, I'd feel more loyalty to the people I grew up with.) However, Awakening was a better experience for me.