Fire Emblem Fates has proven to be one of the most, if not the most, polarizing game in the entire Fire Emblem franchise. Many of its issues concern its story, characters, in-game content, and localization, and thus is often subject to lots of passionate debates and arguments regarding the merits of its quality.
- While a general consensus has emerged that the overall story is flawed, and most agree overall about what the flaws are (thinly-written and Obviously Evil antagonists, questionable character motivations and writing decisions, information clearly being deliberately hidden from some routes simply so that playing all three is necessary for a complete experience), the story nonetheless inspires a lot of conflict between those who like the fundamental ideas and feel that only the execution is questionable, and those who just dismiss the whole thing as overambitious trash. (The sizable minority who argue story doesn't matter anyway can be safely dismissed as part of a different, series-wide conversation, and the people who like the story unironically generally can't be bothered to fight about it.) It doesn't help that, as the existence of this page demonstrates, the fandom was in general multipolar civil war at the time, and the controversial nature of the story both exposed and deepened a lot of fault lines.
- Within the first camp, there is further division regarding how flawed it is, with takes ranging from "only Conquest really has problems, and the problems are often overstated" to "none of them are without serious flaws." What these flaws are or who's responsible for them is also a common divisor; people have blamed every segment of the team between the writers and (outside of Japan itself) the localizers, and everything from trying to ape the success of the previous title even though many of its story ideas were poor fits (the most commonly-cited example there is the Second Generation characters), to the One Game for the Price of Two story structure, to simply wavering on whether or not to commit to the Grey-and-Gray Morality, especially when one of the two kingdoms in question (and the "good guy" kingdom at that) was strongly Japan-themed.
- Within the second camp, the primary divisors are whether or not the core problem was having very high ambitions for fundamentally weak material or whether it was being too unambitious and just doing some of the same things Fire Emblem always does with a story that could've been more. A second major fault line also existed between those who despise the 3DS era of the series, tended to doomsay about the future of the franchise generally, and saw Fates as just the next step down into watered-down oblivion and those who just saw Fates as a blip on an otherwise steady or upward-trending series trajectory after the Newbie Boom.
- The fact that there are two separate versions of the game, each with its own story, with the other version and a third route both separately available as DLC
, has understandably been controversial. Many argue that each version of the game is different enough from each other version of the game in story and content to justify the split, and, indeed, the two do diverge quicker and more completely than, say, the two routes in Sacred Stones. But just as many see it as paying for something they used to get for free and having the Golden Path locked behind a paywall rather than unlocked by gameplay (beating the other two stories, for instance) didn't help. A common criticism is that the game has been "carved up" into three pieces to be sold separately, with a player needing to spend more than seventy American dollars minimum into the title for the complete experience. In particular, most fans are deeply upset that it appears that key information and plotlines were withheld from both routes in order to play up Revelation as the Golden Path, leaving both feeling somewhat incomplete. This issue only intensified when the overall story of Fates was deemed underwhelming as a whole.- It eventually got worse than this, especially for long-time fans who wanted to 100% the game. Early on, season passes were announced for two waves of DLC maps, making the higher price for Revelation cut even deeper. The worst case by far, however, was the game's Amiibo support. The four Fire Emblem characters that had figures at the time (Marth, Ike, Lucina, and Robin) could be tapped to play a unique map, recruit the character itself, and obtain four unique accessories per figure. Where DLC was always available (at least, until the shutdown of the eShop), these were physical toys produced in a notoriously limited quantity. This was exacerbated by the time Fates released in English in early 2016, when these four hadn't seen a reprint in months and went for nearly three times their MSRP. Unless you were willing to fork over scalper prices, you had to accept that the game was impossible to fully complete, as you'd never have a filled out roster, not to mention the aforementioned wealth of accessories. While most other games relegate Amiibos to an entirely separate mode or a minor extra, FE didn't handle it quite as well. Of course, this is mostly an issue for completionists; the Amiibo units themselves are wholly underwhelming and don't have any supports, rendering them objectively worse than the rest of the cast.
- Phoenix Mode, where beaten allies come back on the same map after a turn. Detractors claim that it goes against the series' strategic nature and unnecessarily cheapens newcomers' first experience with the game when they would have enjoyed a harder mode otherwise. Its defenders argue that the feature is optional and intended for newcomers to the series, often insinuating that those objecting to it are really just unhappy to see new players in their fandom at all.
- The Hotter and Sexier upgrade has become divisive due to incorporating more fanservice than the previous installments. While some do not mind and/or welcome the upgrade, others decry it for taking focus off other aspects of the game and series. While the majority of the women on either side are dressed rather sensibly in this game (i.e, Hinoka does not have the Breast Plate that the Awakening Pegasus Knights had), some of them, Camilla and Charlotte being the biggest offenders, are notorious among the fanbase for their absolutely ridiculous design. The addition of the Maid class quickly became the most polarizing class in the game, with believing this class was created just to pander to the otaku fanbase, increasing the amount of fanservice for the game (the Panty Shot in the finishing move does not help), while defenders argue it's a good class which adds more strategy to the gameplay. Another offender included a costume editor with different "pieces", including swimwear and undergarments for both genders. When said swimwear was Dummied Out for the localization, the base was split on whether it was a needless, but understandable and tolerable removal of gratuitous fanservice, an insulting bowdlerization that gave the international audiences a more incomplete game than Japan, or a ridiculous change that resulted in more prudish members of the cast overreacting ridiculously to being given a simple towel as a present.
- The return of the marriage mechanic with children from Awakening. Issues with the marriage system in the previous game such as immediate marriage, the very wide support pools creating some below-average supports, or Strangled by the Red String return in this game. As for the children, while most of them have been well-received and are well-liked, many issues fall with the implementation of said system. The children being completely optional and having no impact on the plot, as well as the ridiculous justification where the children could fight with their parents due to being placed in an alternate Narnia Time universe immediately after birth, was seen by some as Executive Meddling or yet another example of Pandering to the Base, since they feel that the mechanic was just shoehorned in without any regard to whether adding the second generation fit in with the overarching story.
- The fact that the Avatar can marry both the Hoshidan and the Nohrian siblings, as well as their cousin Azura, has yielded debates on whether it is acceptable because royalty has done so before, it is Values Dissonance, or it hurts the game's message as the Not Blood Related twist justifying the marriages undermines the game's main theme of Thicker Than Water vs Family of Choice.
- The second generation themselves. While most people are in agreement about the story aspects being done worse than in Genealogy and Awakening, the argument comes from the gameplay aspects of them. Some liked that in a game where the generations fight side by side with one another, the children don't relegate their parents to the bench by simply existing, force the first generation to exploit reclassing and grinding to be able to compete with their children, and just like that they are just more customizable units (a feature that was very much appreciated in the following game, Fire Emblem: Three Houses). Others dislike that the second generation are only "Merely" great in a game with so many Game-Breaker units handed out like candy and that they don't feel "rewarded" enough for studying the game and manipulating supports like in Awakening (which actually made developing Game-Breaker characters super easy by merely pairing almost anyone). One thing that is universally agreed on are the seals that instantly boost the second generation characters up so they become instantly usable, as well as a few of their maps and their unique DLC-story.
- Of all gameplay features, none is more divisive than the big one: the Face-Rubbing. When the player visits their room in My Castle, they can invite a member of their army to their room to spend some time together. This takes the form of a minigame similar to Pokémon Amie, where the player character can use the 3DS's touch screen to pet/touch/rub the character's face. The character then talks to you during the game, and their responses depend on their support level with the Avatar. At lower levels, the characters react pretty much how you would expect: a mixture of confusion ("I thought you summoned me to give me orders?") and a general what-the-hell-are-you-doing? attitude. While weird, most fans don't really have a problem with it until you get an S-rank support with that particular character (i.e. get married). At that point, the game pretty much turns into foreplay, complete with a shot of the character kissing you and giving you several innuendo-laden comments. Whether this, in addition to the Hotter and Sexier upgrade in the game, has
ruined the series forever or not is a matter of raging debate. This feature being Dummied Out in international versions has only put things into overdrive. Many detractors of the feature are relieved it was gone and find it being only dummied out a fair compromise for people who really wanted it, while others think that censoring/cutting it is simply pandering to PC Moral Guardians and Media Watchdogs (especially in light of two controversial changes). That the feature is even in the game at all, and to the extent it was, was a source of internal debate that divided the staff similarly. - The localization itself. The base is fractured on whether Treehouse tried their best to make a generally-flawed game better or whether they had adulterated issues by changing features and dialogue in the game. The face-rubbing and swimwear being Dummied Out is arguably the biggest points of contention for the international version.
- A level example, but the Conquest/Revelation version of the Wind Tribe map is somewhat contentious. Many players find it a creative map with interesting mechanics, but some find it to be incredibly annoying, particularly on Hard/Lunatic, where the wind moves all units on the map instead of just the enemies. In short, those who went in expecting a challenge loved it, while a good deal of the annoyance comes from more casual players.
