2012 video game

Fire Emblem Awakening is a tactical role-playing game developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 3DS. The game was released in Japan in April 2012 and North America and PAL regions in early 2013. It is an installment of the Fire Emblem series, and the first to be developed for the 3DS. The gameplay, like previous Fire Emblem games, focuses on the tactical movement of characters across a grid-based battlefield and fighting enemy units. Other features include the ability to build and foster relationships between characters to improve their abilities and multiple camera perspectives in battle.

The story is set 2000 years after the events of the original Fire Emblem and Fire Emblem Gaiden and focuses on Chrom, the prince of Ylisse, and his personal army, the "Shepherds". They rescue Robin, an amnesiac Avatar whose name, gender, and appearance can be customized by the player, and who takes on the role of their tactician. Over the course of the story, Chrom's army travels across Ylisse and defends it from undead invaders called the Risen and attacks from the hostile nation of Plegia.

Development of Fire Emblem Awakening began in 2010, with multiple veterans of the Fire Emblem series filling key development roles. Development was handled by Intelligent Systems with supervision from Nintendo. As the series had seen declining sales with previous installments, Awakening was designed as the possible last entry in the series, incorporating elements from all previous Fire Emblem games. Due to the 3DS still being fine-tuned by developers, the team's decisions for content and graphics were made based on what they thought was feasible on the hardware.

Upon release, Fire Emblem Awakening received critical acclaim and strong sales worldwide, with many critics praising its overall presentation, story, cast of characters, new additions to the traditional gameplay and accessibility to newcomers. However, some gameplay options and proposals were met with mixed reception, such as the option to disable permanent character death, colloquially known as permadeath, a staple of the franchise. The game was nominated for multiple awards from video game publications, and is often cited as one of the best games on the 3DS and one of the greatest video games of all time. Its commercial success is also credited with boosting sales for the 3DS and ensuring the continuation of the Fire Emblem series. It was followed by Fire Emblem Fates in 2015.

Source: Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA.