How Fire Emblem Fates salvaged the Pair Up Mechanic

How Revelations salvaged the Pair Up Mechanic

This week, I managed to get COVID from somewhere, and of course in my bed ridden state, my LOGICAL course of action was to play a strategically complex JRPG. This was one of the trio of games that no one talks about, Fire Emblem Fates: Revelations.

Fire Emblem Fates is a game series known for this weird in-between of Fire Emblem Awakening, the game that saved the franchise, and Fire Emblem Three Houses, the game so story rich even non-Fire Emblem fans got way too into it. The reason I like to call Fire Emblem Three Houses the game that “fixed fate’s mistakes” is for a couple of reasons. First of all, the game's main draw was that there were different paths. The main reason why multiple paths work in a game is that each path matters. However, Revelations, the game I haven't played in the series until now, breaks that rule and has a “true path” that reveals a hidden enemy has been coercing the two sides to fight. The second reason is that Intelligent Systems incorporated a gay marriage system that didn’t work well. Characters can have an A+ relationship with another character. This new support option allows same sex characters to change into a similar class as their A+ support, but there is no additional dialogue, you can still have an S relationship, and (which I found out the hard way) the main character cannot have any A+ relationships (MarkofWisdom). Despite being the only Fire Emblem games that, in theory, gives you polycule options, Fire Emblem Three Houses fixed these issues. Gay marriage between units was allows, as long as the unit likes that character in that way (example, Shamir and Catherine can have an S support, but Shamir only likes Male Byleth that way). In addition, there is no definitive path in Three Houses where all the lords team up to kill TWSiTD, and each path matters and has consequences. However, one thing Fire Emblem Fates does better than Three Houses is the pair up system.

In the 3DS Fire Emblem games, you could “pair up” your units. In Fire Emblem Awakening, this was WAY too overpowered. Paired up units get a stat bonus depending on what class the supporting unit is and the supporting unit has a chance to attack the enemy or protect their partner from attacks. In addition units with S support have a high chance to attack with their spouse AND protect them from attacks. Therefore, there was no reason NOT to pair up all of your units. Seeing this problem, Fire Emblem Fates gave us the best iteration (in my opinion) of the pair up mechanic in any Fire Emblem game thus far. While Three Houses has adjutants, which never worked for me, and Fire Emblem Engage has chain attacks, which has little to no defensive play, Fire Emblem Fates solves that issue with it’s version of Pair Up

Fire Emblem Fates system is like a mix of Fire Emblem Awakening and Fire Emblem Engage. If a unit is next to another unit and is not paired, the secondary unit will be able to attack for half strength and keeps all passive attack triggers (aka, poison strike will trigger, but not lethality). This would seem to work like Fire Emblem Engage where it’s a free for all chain attack fest, if not for the pair up mechanic. Pairing up in Fire Emblem Fates still gives the active unit a bonus based on the passive unit’s class, but also applies a protective bonus. The protecting unit will block all secondary attacks, and for each non-blocked attack from the player or opponent fills 2 out of 8 “shield emblems” on the “shield gauge” Once the shield gauge is full, the next attack from a primary unit will be blocked, no matter what. This makes the player strategize when to attack and what attacks need to be blocked.

Strategically, this should give the player a dilemma of when to pair up and when not to. However based on how Fire Emblem games are made, pairing up is usually the better option. In Fire Emblem, the game throws 2 to 4 times as many units at the player than they have. While Fates has some of the enemy units pair up, it is still a better option to pair up your own units a lot of the time. However, even so, pairing up all of your units creates a lack of attackers on your side, therefore balancing the mechanic. 

While Fire Emblem Revelations continues to throw only the hardest of maps at me, I am glad that I have had a chance to play this game and talk about it from a gameplay standpoint. As I play more of this game, I hope that it can challenge me to think critically, and that I hopefully, will be able to reset less on the maps

If you like strategic Fire Emblem gameplay, quirky characters and don’t care as much for a good story, then I recommend you pick up this game... AFTER THE SAG-AFTRA STRIKE. Fire Emblem Fates was done by Formosa, a struck company. Remember to stay SAG Strong and we'll get though this. Have a great day y’all, and stay tuned for a Trails Through Daybreak article coming next

Sources

“Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest Message Board for 3DS - Gamefaqs.” Can Someone Explain             A+ Rank vs S Rank?, MarkofWisdom, 13 Mar. 2016, 

gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/114533-fire-emblem-fates-                conquest/73435654#:~:text=

A%2B%20just%20lets%20you%20choose,want%20to%20get%20him%20swordfaire. 

“Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest - Ophelia & Soleil Support Conversations.” Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest - Ophelia & Soleil Support Conversations, justonegamr, 19 Mar. 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTMYFnOV520.

“Fire Emblem Fates - Life on the Front Lines: Star-Crossed Royals.” YouTube, Nintendo, 13 

Feb. 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtgvznU4RmI. 

“Nintendo 3DS - Fire Emblem Fates E3 2015 Trailer.” Fire Emblem Fates E3 2015 Trailer, Nintendo, 16 June 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLFB-LtKYuQ.