Probably one of my favorite games. Highly recommend if you like turn-based strategy games. If you care a lot about story though, this game may not be for you. Pros: -Challenging, largely fair gameplay that mostly avoids giving unique advantages to the enemy -Dragon veins give a lot of variety to approaching a chapter -Lunatic mode isn't just stat inflation and slapping a couple OP skills; groups of enemies change as does how they behave -One route has enough content to make a satisfying game on its own -Rework of the pair-up system is welcome and largely well done -Personal skills are a great touch to make even the worst units viable -Classes are no longer gender-locked; opening up options for reclassing units without being so open that you can spec every unit into one overpowered class -Method of gaining access to classes is complex and appropriately restricted behind how you play with a unit in battle -UI is excellent and takes full advantage of dual screens -CG cutscenes look quite amazing given the hardware running it -Music is pretty good -Enemy capture system is fun to play with and offers alternatives if a unit falls too far behind -Large variety in victory conditions -Many maps are designed to discourage turtling and low-manning; much appreciated considering these strategies are a common cheese in FE -The process behind building a good child unit is actually pretty involved and adds replay value Cons: -Nonsensical plot -Plot-wise, child units felt tacked on -Mostly one-note characters -There is one unique enemy advantage that cheapens the final chapters on Lunatic a little bit since it allows debuffs to stack -Extremely poor localization that cuts content -Extra routes cost money -Weapon system makes many weapon types undesireable even though they're traditionally better -Defense stance is a little too broken compared to attack stance
I'm a veteran AC player, and while I like the game it definitely has its issues. A lot of this review is nitpicky, but at the end of the day if you enjoy life sims you will probably like this. It is overall a nice game. Pros: -Almost total control over the layout of your island eventually -More customization options for furniture, clothing and even your character than before -HD graphics are beautiful, the new museum in particular is stunning -The music is great, and has a lot of callbacks to older games in the series -Villagers do a lot more things than they have in previous entries and have better dialogue than they did in NL; Blathers will blather again if you let him -Seasonal events now last more than one day; a relief for those of us who have jobs but don't want to time travel -Extremely large pool of villagers -Certain redundant facilities were cut, like Re-Tail -New storage and inventory system is pretty great; lots of more items stack, storage automatically organizes your things -Tool and outfit rings streamline the UI nicely -Nook Miles give a nice sense of direction when you just want to keep playing the game after doing most of the big tasks for the day -Crafting provides a nice alternative to waiting for items to show up at the store -Outfits are stored in the wand, which saves inventory space -Very relaxing atmosphere Cons: -Touchscreen controls exist for typing, yet are not enabled for pattern creation or inventory use -Items that can stack have wildly varying limits, from 10 for fruit to 99 for weeds -The tutorial is roughly a week long if you don't time travel, and you don't get to listen to hourly themes until this tutortial ends -Autosave system is near pointless because you can still save scum, even detrimental because you can't "save and continue" anymore, leading to short rollbacks at times; Resetti got fired for nothing -Seasonal events are locked behind DRM -Lots of items and facilities considered series staples are out like gyroids and The Roost, as are some of the best additions from NL like the Dream Suite; veterans are instead left to guess whether or not these might return through updates that may or may not be free -Villager dialogue is still relatively toned down if you're a fan of WW or PG -No ability to move the town hall despite being able to move everything else not on the beach -Online functionality is not particularly reliable, while local multiplayer is messy and requires you to stay in the same area instead of just using split screen functionality; also you have to watch a long cutscene every time there's a visitor -No option to disable the smoothing filter applied to patterns -Weapon durability in a series that generally did not have it is aggravating, and having the highest tier be breakable is actually a bit infuriating because it defeats the purpose of the best axe in particular -Tools aren't stored in the tool ring like outfits are in the wand -Islands are tied to console and not cart, meaning you need to pay $300 ($360 if you bought digital like a ****) instead of $60 to have your own if you were hoping to split up your household -The "mayor" returns from NL in all but name, leaving players that come after them left with fewer gameplay options because they can't terraform -Your regular inventory is not automatically organized like storage is -Many items are locked behind crafting -Crafting cannot be done in batches -Making a mistake in a long set of choices in dialogue often means starting from the beginning again; there is usually no option to go back to the previous choice you messed up
