• The Speed stat, and the Brave weapons, are too powerful. Whilst Fates made some effort to make Brave weapons less significant by featuring fairly hefty defensive reductions for using them, and lowering the Magic and Skill stat for using Lightning, it was not enough for how extreme their benefits are. Similarly, whilst the Wary Fighter skill made Speed meaningless, it still had to be active on a unit being attacked.
• Much like in Fire Emblem Awakening, the full effects of a tile’s terrain is not always adequately explained and can leave a player at a disadvantage as a result.
• MyCastle is too expansive and draws a lot of time out of the actual gameplay.
• The cutscene quality from Fire Emblem Awakening isn’t present for non-boss introductions. The only cutscenes outside of boss introduction and the assassination of Mikoto during the tutorial and its aftermath are in the Conquest and Revelations route, specifically when Corrin ends up in Valla; and Scarlet’s forced death. Compared to Lucina’s arrival in Yllise; Lucina and Chrom’s fighting; and Lucina standing against Grima, Fates did not come even close to matching Awakening’s standards.
• Certain forced character deaths (Kaze’s in Birthright in particular) come out of nowhere which, especially on Classic difficulty, can potentially negatively impact a player’s experience with the game.
• The Birthright route was too similar to Awakening in the amount of grinding that was encouraged.
• A notable chunk of the backstory of Fates is contained in paid DLC, such as how Owain; Inigo; and Severa are also in Fates, as well as Lillith’s relation to Corrin.
• A lot of questions are only answered in the Revelations route, such as where the Invading Army comes from.
• The narrative generally fell flat in a lot of situations, including but not limited to: the magic barrier keeping Nohrians outside of Hoshido; the royal siblings simply allowing Hans to murder innocents in the Conquest route; Lillith’s sacrifice in the Conquest and Birthright route.
• Corrin comes off as too much of a ‘Mary Sue’ character in how most things simply fall into place for them, and because most other characters simply trust them.
• Dragon Veins were not utilised to their full potential, or were just poorly implemented. Most notable in Conquest Chapters 20 and 24.
• Poorly designed gimmicks in Conquest Chapters 19-22 and Birthright’s endgame.
• Support conversations did not always match up with a route’s narrative, and tend towards cringe-worthy interactions – Soleil and Nina in particular.
• The ‘inclusion’ of homosexuality was underwhelming and also extremely debilitating in the Conquest and Revelations routes in particular. Both of the ‘bisexual’ characters, Niles and Rhajat, are also extremely psychopathic; and Soleil (the other bisexual-but-not-really-according-to-the-inability-to-marry-female-Corrin female) who originally had a very good first impression of her sexuality compared to the other two very quickly ran downhill when her first support conversation with whoever her mother is has her flirting with her parent; and pseudo-brags to her father about how many women she’s had tea with.
• The return of children characters and homosexuality, continued from above, means that the player cannot acquire Kana or Nina – both of whom are very capable, and generally superior to at least one of their parents – if a male Corrin marries Niles. As Rhajat is also a child character, and because the children are not tied to the mother (outside of one or two exceptions), the player only misses out on Kana if a female Corin marries her.
• The Paladin and Cavalier skills barely made a difference most of the time.
