LogFAQs > #880570278

Fates Conquest = Echoes > Fates Revelation > Fates Birthright > Awakening

Conquest is tough, but has great maps and Fates in general has some really fun mechanics to toy around with. The writing is terrible, but FE stories are generally pretty mediocre anyway. I like a lot of the units in Conquest at least.

Echoes is just...so close to the perfect FE, but misses the mark in a few small ways. It has the best presentation of any FE to date and is generally a blast, but missing elements like the weapon triangle hold it back just a very little bit. This is probably the best package of the bunch, even if I think Fates (particularly Conquest) has a bit better gameplay simply due to being pretty free in general.

Revelation is more of a game that you play on a meta level if you like Conquest and Birthright, or finish Conquest first and don't want to go back to the easier/more simplistic BR. It's a blast to just mess around with units and pairings, and its map design in later chapters is top notch, even if it recycles a ton in early chapters.

Birthright is basically Awakening+. It's easy and the maps are pretty straightforward. It probably has the best plot of any of the Fates games just because it tries to do the least. The unit designs are decent.

Awakening......I really really loved Awakening when I first beat it. But going back to it, I've kinda started to dislike the map design in particular which really sours the game for me. I also find its cast of characters to be largely forgettable, far moreso than any other FE, aside from a few standouts. I liked its storyline well enough, but I felt like it lacks a lot of balance and refinement to its mechanics that Fates really brought in. It's still a decent enough game in its own right, but it's a bit of a black sheep among the 3DS FEs as I've tried to go back to it, at least for me.
---

Winner of the Third Hacked User Contest.
World's #1 Phoenix Wright fan.