I got a 3DS two years ago and basically played Mario 3D Land and nothing else. I tried a couple of other games, but nothing really caught my fancy bits. Then I started hearing all the praise about Fire Emblem Awakening and decided to give it a go. This is one of the most finely crafted, mature, well-developed games that Nintendo has ever put out.
The amount of content, the quality of said content and the overall polish and delivery is outstanding. You'll encounter dozens of characters throughout the adventure and most are very well drawn and interesting. They all interact with each other in and out of battle. For example, if you stand next to an ally during an attack or when defending an attack, you'll get a stat boost. And the more you pair the same two characters together, the stronger their relationship will grow which results in higher stat boosts when pairing up. If you get characters really friendly, they will outright take a bullet (or spear) for the other one. This mechanic really forces you to emotionally invest in your characters, which is why it's so hard to lose them. If you make a stupid mistake and leave a unit undefended, they'll die. Forever. It adds another enormous layer to an already complex game, but it all fits together so well!
I usually resist this type of game because I'm bad at them. Especially with Fire Emblem's well-known mechanic of perma-death - meaning when a character dies during a battle, they're gone forever-ever. The only way to get them back is to hard-reset the 3DS. Or play on baby mode where they don't die forever.
But I flew too close to the sun. I allowed too many characters to die - counting them as casualties of war - and left myself with too few units that were undertrained for a massive battle that is now unwinnable. Hence my propensity to avoid these games.
That's why I'm enjoying the other 3DS game of the summer - Animal Crossing New Leaf.
It's hard to explain Animal Crossing and make it sound interesting. Here's a few ways I've tried to defend myself when telling people I'm playing this masterpiece:
"It's like the Sims, but less stressful."
"You can fish and catch bugs and then sell them to a raccoon for bells OR you can donate them to the musem. Bells are used to pay off your mortgage."
"Collectible hats!"
"Oh! AND it's real time! So if it's Christmas in the real world, your animal friends are celebrating Christmas too!"
Every description sounds like it's the stupidest baby game of all time. Donate bugs to a museum? MORTGAGE?! Why don't you just play a game that throws sand in your face and calls you "Little Debby, Sandy Vagina!"?
But it is so gosh darn addicting. If you have never played an Animal Crossing jam, obviously I am incapable of convincing you as I lack the descriptive ability to sell the game on it's many merits. The best thing I can say about it, is that it's what video games were meant to be: an escape. Playing this game is absolute escapism. There is no stress, there's no losing or winning. Just relaxing. And also paying a mortgage.
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