Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright

Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright is a fantastic balance of tactical challenge and accessibility. Even after I finished the story, I found myself returning to the battlefield again and again to unlock more conversations between friends and test my army's might against Nohr's finest. I'm addicted to Fire Emblem Fates, and that's fine by me.

Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright polishes the series' time-tested strategy combat and adds intimate, exciting interpersonal relationships.

Vast, gorgeous (and confusingly delivered), Fire Emblem Fates sees Intelligent Systems at the very top of its game.

Fire Emblem Fates is an emotional war game

Fire Emblem Fates smartly revises a quarter-century old battle system and offers ever more reasons to care about your little chess pieces, but neither version does enough to welcome new players.

Birthright takes Awakening's combination of narrative flexibility and tactical strategy and makes it even better

For the foreseeable future, if I'm not reading something, I know what I'll be doing the next time I'm waiting in line.

Birthright is probably the best starting place for newcomers. Not only does it offer unlimited grinding opportunities to beef up your party, but the actual missions mostly consist of easy "rout (kill) the enemy" parameters. The tale is also relatively open and shut, following a traditional storyline from a macro perspective, while keeping the complicated relationships intact. That's not to say it's a waste of time though, as you can still jack up the difficulty and add in permadeath if you want, and you still have to win those battles.

With Fates, the series hasn't frayed under the pressure. Instead, Intelligent Systems has created one of the most narratively ambitious games to hit a Nintendo platform. Fire Emblem Fates lets you explore the value of familial love and friendship, then offers you the option to go back and kill everyone you love, while loving everyone you killed.

While the story can feel like it's dragging at times, it's tough to hold too many grudges against what feels like padding since the core gameplay is so much fun.