I never quite knew what to expect in Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright, but I knew what I wanted. I wanted to destroy my enemies. I wanted my army to trust me, and I wanted them to be happy. And I wanted, perhaps more than anything, to have someone to come home to after each battle, who would murmur to me how much he loved me despite the mess around us.
Birthright--one in a trio of Fire Emblem Fates titles--continues the series' time-tested spin on strategy role-playing games. But is also adds a new layer to interactions between characters that makes things intimate--steamy, even. Mechanically, Birthright is more forgiving than its sister titles Conquest and Revelations, offering players easier access to resources and units as well as more opportunities to grind out experience. As for the narrative, there are some awkward moments and cheap drama that pull you out of the moment, but these are brief and overshadowed by a handful of powerful scenes. Even the melodrama can't keep Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright from being worthy experience.
All Fire Emblem Fates titles have identical opening chapters: your player-created avatar is living with his or her family in the kingdom of Nohr with a loving family. But your not-so-loving father, King Garon, is a demonic despot bent on destroying the neighboring kingdom of Hoshido. After a mission doled out by your father goes wrong, you wind up captured by the Hoshido royal family, who reveal that you are their long-lost sibling who was kidnapped as a child. When your memories return, both your adopted and biological families meet on the battlefield and demand you choose a side. Birthright's story follows what happens when you remain with the latter. Having turned against you, your adopted one will do everything in its power to bring you home or kill you trying. So you set out to amass an entourage and stop the war, collecting new characters and a newfound understanding of who you are along the way.
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