Fire Emblem Awakening

Fire Emblem: Awakening (ファイアーエムブレム覚醒, Fire Emblem: Kakusei) is a Japanese tactical role-playing game for the Nintendo 3DS, developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo. The game was released on April 19, 2012, in Japan, February 4, 2013, in North America and April 19, 2013, in Europe. It is the thirteenth game in the Fire Emblem series. It is also the first to take place on two continents, Ylisse and Valm, the future forms of Akaneia and Valentia respectively.

The story follows Prince Chrom of the Halidom of Ylisse and his companions as they struggle during a turbulent era. Players are able to combine the might of nearby allies using Pair Up and enter dual battles using the Dual System to defeat enemies. The traversable world map, last seen in Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, and special skills like Astra from Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn return. This game also features a playable character that can be customized, a feature last seen in Fire Emblem: Shin Monshō no Nazo ~Hikari to Kage no Eiyū~. Just like in the previous game, the player can choose between Classic Mode and Casual Mode.

Release
Fire Emblem: Awakening was announced at Nintendo's 2011 3DS Conference ahead of the 2011 Tokyo Game Show.

On June 6, 2012, directly after the Nintendo 3DS software showcase at E3 2012, president Reggie Fils-Aime from Nintendo of America revealed that the game would be coming to Nintendo of America under the title Fire Emblem: Awakening; this was later confirmed through Nintendo of America's official Twitter account. 

On June 22, 2012, during a Nintendo Direct showcase, it was revealed that the game was set for a 2013 release in America. An American trailer for the game was released on October 25, 2012. In the Nintendo Direct trailer from December 5, 2012, it was confirmed that Fire Emblem: Awakening would be released in North America on February 4, 2013, in Europe on April 19, 2013, and in Australia on April 20, 2013.

GameStop offered an artbook as a pre-order bonus prior to the game's release; this offer was only available in the United States and Canada. The game's Nintendo e-Shop listing was added on January 5, 2013, and it was made available for digital download in the United States and Europe the same day the game was released at retail. The game was not available on the Japanese e-Shop despite availability in the United States and Europe. However, it was later made available for digital download to Japanese consoles on January 30, 2013.

The Demo version of the game became available on the North American eShop on January 17, 2013. It only allows play in Casual Mode, as opposed to Classic Mode, allows for Normal, Hard, and Lunatic difficulties to be selected, and features two chapters from the beginning of the game (Prologue and Chapter 1, skipping the initial Interlude). The demo does not feature Avatar customization in a substantial way; you may only change name, birthdate and emphasized stats, while using the default male Avatar.

New Features

 * Units being able to pair up and engage an enemy and receive bonuses.
 * Characters have a cut in when performing a Critical Attack or activating a Skill.
 * Downloadable content, consisting of maps, episodes, and characters from previous games.
 * Paid downloadable chapters with unlockable characters. Current available characters are:
 * Prince Marth from Fire Emblem: Ankoku Ryū to Hikari no Tsurugi
 * Est from Fire Emblem: Ankoku Ryū to Hikari no Tsurugi
 * Catria from Fire Emblem: Ankoku Ryū to Hikari no Tsurugi
 * Palla from Fire Emblem: Ankoku Ryū to Hikari no Tsurugi
 * Alm from Fire Emblem Gaiden
 * Celica from Fire Emblem Gaiden
 * Seliph from Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War
 * Eldigan from Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War
 * Leif from Fire Emblem: Thracia 776
 * Roy from Fire Emblem: Binding Blade
 * Lyn from Fire Emblem: Rekka no Ken
 * Ephraim from Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones
 * Eirika from Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones
 * Ike from Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance
 * Elincia from Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance
 * Micaiah from Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn.
 * Katarina from Fire Emblem: Shin Monshō no Nazo ~Hikari to Kage no Eiyū~.
 * Free downloadable characters via SpotPass. Available characters are:
 * Prince Marth, Shiida, Ogma, Nabarl, Merric, Nyna, Linde, Minerva, Tiki, Gharnef, and Camus from Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon.
 * Alm, Celica, Clair, Valbar, Clive, Boey, Luthier, Nomah, Deen, and Mycen from Fire Emblem Gaiden.
 * Sigurd, Deirdre, Quan, Ethlyn, Arden, Ayra, Jamke, Raquesis, Lewyn, Arvis, Seliph, Julia, Larcei, Ulster, Arthur, Fee, Ced, Ares, Altena, Julius, Ishtar, and Travant from Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War.
 * Leif, Finn, Nanna, Eyvel, Dagdar, Mareeta, Salem, Olwen, Saias, and Raydrik from Fire Emblem: Thracia 776.
 * Roy, Lilina, Wolt, Shanna, Lugh, Raigh, Cecilia, Sophia, Perceval, Zephiel, and Narcian from Fire Emblem: Binding Blade.
 * Eliwood, Lyn, Hector, Florina, Matthew, Serra, Karel, Nino, Jaffar, Nergal, Ursula, Lloyd, and Linus from Fire Emblem: Rekka no Ken.
 * Ephraim, Eirika, Seth, Moulder, Lute, Amelia, Innes, Marisa, L'Arachel, Lyon, and Selena from Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones.
 * Ike, Elincia, Titania, Soren, Mist, Mia, Zihark, Lucia, Geoffrey, Ashnard, and Petrine from Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance.
 * Micaiah, Sothe, Edward, Leonardo, Brom, Nephenee, Sigrun, Sanaki, Sephiran, The Black Knight, and Oliver from Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn.
 * King Marth, Katarina, Catria, Norne, Etzel, Horace, Malice, Athena, Legion, and Hardin from Fire Emblem: Shin Monshō no Nazo ~Hikari to Kage no Eiyū~.

Characters
See main article: List of characters in Fire Emblem: Awakening

Chapters
See main article: List of chapters in Fire Emblem: Awakening

Classes
See main article: List of classes in Fire Emblem: Awakening

Returning Classes

 * Archer (promotes to Sniper or Bow Knight)
 * Assassin
 * Barbarian (promotes to Warrior or Berserker)
 * Berserker
 * Bow Knight
 * Cavalier (promotes to Paladin or Great Knight)
 * Cleric (promotes to War Cleric or Sage)
 * Dancer
 * Dark Mage (promotes to Dark Knight or Sorcerer)
 * Dread Fighter
 * General
 * Falcon Knight
 * Fighter (promotes to Hero or Warrior)
 * Great Knight
 * Great Lord
 * Hero
 * Knight (promotes to General or Great Knight)
 * Lord (promotes to Great Lord)
 * Mage (promotes to Dark Knight or Sage)
 * Manakete
 * Mercenary (promotes to Hero or Bow Knight)
 * Myrmidon (promotes to Swordmaster or Assassin)
 * Paladin
 * Pegasus Knight (promotes to Dark Flier or Falcon Knight)
 * Priest (promotes to War Monk or Sage)
 * Sage
 * Sniper
 * Sorcerer
 * Swordmaster
 * Thief (promotes to Assassin or Trickster)
 * Troubadour (promotes to Valkyrie or War Cleric)
 * Valkyrie
 * Villager
 * Warrior
 * Wyvern Lord
 * Wyvern Rider (promotes to Wyvern Lord or Griffon Rider)

New Classes

 * Tactician (promotes to Grandmaster)
 * Grandmaster
 * War Cleric
 * War Monk
 * Trickster
 * Taguel
 * Dark Flier
 * Dark Knight
 * Griffon Rider
 * Conqueror
 * Lodestar
 * Bride
 * Dread Fighter

Unplayable Classes

 * Soldier
 * Merchant
 * Revenant
 * Entombed
 * Grima
 * Mirage

Trivia

 * This is the first Fire Emblem title to have a relation to more than one other set of games in the series. The Deadlords and Holy Weapons found in the Jugdral Series appear, and Priam claims to be a descendant of Ike from the Tellius Series.
 * There is glitch with the Voice Language in the American version of the game. Whenever the Voice Language is set for Japanese, soft reseting the game (L+R+Start) oddly causes the voices reset back to English except in Theater Cutscenes. However this can be fixed if the player changes the Language to English then to Japanese again.
 * If the Voice Language is set to Japanese in the American version, when fighting a female Einherjar character, that Einherjar will have the Japanese Voice #1 play. However they will be silent in English.
 * In the demo for Awakening there is an oversight that causes the game to freeze. If a unit obtains Leif's Blade through an Event Tile, then uses Leif's Blade to attempt to obtain a Bullion the game will freeze. This is most likely caused by the data for the Bullion being removed from the demo as it has no use and to reduce file size.