Fire Emblem Fates: Revelation Review

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This is one Fire Emblem worth reveling in.

By Meghan Sullivan

Revelation, the excellent third branch in the Fire Emblem Fates story, might be relegated to download-only (unless you own the Special Edition), but it shouldn’t be missed. This entirely unique turn-based tactics campaign is a fantastic trifecta of imaginative battle maps, bountiful and engaging character interactions, and challenging yet accessible combat. Things really take off after a rough start to the story, and great customization and balanced difficulty make it a great investment for anyone who enjoyed Birthright or Conquest and was left hungry for more.

Of Good Character

The best thing about Revelation is how it brings together the casts of both Birthright and Conquest. That’s exciting for three reasons. First, there’s unique and enjoyable character dialogue not found anywhere else. Some of these encounters, like the barbed quips exchanged by the pedantic Leo of Nohr and the prickly Takumi of Hoshido, are downright hilarious. Others are genuinely sweet – my favorite moments involved Princess Sakura shyly conversing with the stoic Prince Xander. It’s easy to fall in love them all – which you can actually do by pairing up constantly and attaining an S rank (the highest available) with an ally of the opposite gender. That not only unlocks steamy romantic dialogue that can cross faction lines, but will give you access to all the children produced from unions in both Conquest and Birthright, adding more useful members to your army.

Another reason to jump for joy over your more diverse cast members is that you now have more ways to build your perfect army. Each unit has specific class abilities as well as a unique personal skill, which makes learning which formerly incompatible Nohr and Hoshido abilities compliment each other a lot of fun. For example, I found great success in pairing Ryoma with Xander, since the latter can steamroll enemies through Ryoma’s Bushido skill, which boots a partner’s attack while decreasing enemy damage. Plus, having them fight alongside each other triggers Attack Stance and Defense Stance, combat features that let adjacent allies dual-attack and parry enemy blows respectively. It’s exciting to watch these two former enemies team up to cut foes down.

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Learning which Nohr and Hoshido abilities compliment each other is a lot of fun.

 The third and final reason to be excited over your windfall of soldiers is how it expands on the already-robust character customization. You can use special seals found in shops or looted in battle to level up a unit’s base class and gain extra perks and abilities, or change their class to something better suited to your style. With soldiers from Nohr and Hoshido in your war party, there are literally dozens of ways create the best army in the world. I used Master Seals to turn my luckless Fighter Arthur into a bone-crushing Berserker, and my snotty bowman Takumi into a powerful sniper. Evolving their job classes didn’t just give them extra stats and abilities, though – by using Arthur’s Strength Rally skill with Takumi’s Quick Draw attack, they could quickly mow down any fool who stood in their way. This made Takumi and Arthur a nice tag team to use in combat, especially after I maxed out their Support rank, which boosts stats and abilities whenever friendly units are next to each other.

A Story Not Quite Told

Revelation’s climactic 30-hour story takes place mostly in the lost land of Valla, which looks like something straight out of a high-fantasy novel with its magical floating islands and crumbling ancient ruins.

 

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The first act feels a bit weak due to a silly plot device

Unifying the two families is a fun concept with some excellent payoff towards the end, as the threads from Birthright and Conquest finally tie together to create a more cohesive whole. Unfortunately, the first act feels a bit weak due to a silly plot device involving a contrived curse and a melodramatic moment shoehorned into the story for the sake of another silly plot device. It soon recovers, though, making up for that weak start with a series of crazy plot twists at the end and genuinely moving character interactions that had me wiping away a tear or two. These special scenes are made even better by fantastic music and excellent art direction that uses sweeping angles and well-timed close-ups on characters’ expressive faces to convey pain, regret, or hope as they fight to protect the world from a corrupt and ruthless being.

It should be noted that Revelation contains spoilers for both Conquest and Birthright, so you might want to finish at least one of those before starting this one. Trust me, it’s worth the wait.

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