As I said all game since Fates, which came out in 2016, have been heavily altered in localization, and even in the Japanese versions, much of the core identity of the series has changed to be more centered on character relationships and shipping, with the strategy game taking more of a back seat.
Shadows of Valentina probably was the least adulterated, as it was a remake of an older game, but even it had a lot of easy mode mechanics added. Honestly, your best bet is to go play the old GBA games and fan hacks.
As for the latest entry, Fire Emblem Engage, I haven't played it, but from what I've heard the strategy game part is pretty good, but the writing is the least interesting it's been in a very long time, and many of the S Rank supports were altered in localization so that everyone is just really good friends, a guy who ships girls had his personality watered down to being a "people watcher", and many references to feminity were stripped out.
So again, it's a Fates situation, where a weak Japanese script is damaged further by a meddling translation, as opposed to Awakening where changes to the script are almost all in service of giving the characters distinct "voices", building a tone for the game, and giving flavor to the game.
You might say this is hypocritical to forgive the changes to Awakening, but not Fates or Engage, but the difference is that Awakening was done in good faith as far as I can tell, and far more gently. There's a difference between giving Chrom's Mercenaries the name " The Shepards" in English, and changing a character's whole personality to being obsessed with pickles, or removing entire conversations for a joke, or removing anything hinting at a relationship because heaven forbid seventeen year olds have any sort of sex drive.
Three houses is the one I know least about. I didn't hear too much about it other than that it was well recieved, so it probably wasn't as bad as Fates. Maybe someone else knows the details.
My basic understanding is that there were enough strange changes that didn't add anything to the character to annoy a few diehards, but not enough to go viral like Fates. Many were again around references to anyone's (man or woman) femininity.
I don't know if it was changed from the original, but playing it, there were a few support dialogues that made me raise my eyebrows. The characters Dorothea and Mercedes, who are commoners, would criticize the beliefs of another character called Lorenz, for his beliefs about his role and responsibilities as a noble. The specific way they'd argue against him seemed utterly strange to me; as if someone from the modern day had transplanted their beliefs in the girls' minds about right and wrong, as if they hadn't grown up their entire lives in a feudal society. I haven't heard about this being a case of localization, but maybe it was, because those two conversations just seemed out of place, somehow, in that universe.
But otherwise, I didn't really notice anything blatant, when I was playing the game.
As I said all game since Fates, which came out in 2016, have been heavily altered in localization, and even in the Japanese versions, much of the core identity of the series has changed to be more centered on character relationships and shipping, with the strategy game taking more of a back seat.
Shadows of Valentina probably was the least adulterated, as it was a remake of an older game, but even it had a lot of easy mode mechanics added. Honestly, your best bet is to go play the old GBA games and fan hacks.
As for the latest entry, Fire Emblem Engage, I haven't played it, but from what I've heard the strategy game part is pretty good, but the writing is the least interesting it's been in a very long time, and many of the S Rank supports were altered in localization so that everyone is just really good friends, a guy who ships girls had his personality watered down to being a "people watcher", and many references to feminity were stripped out.
So again, it's a Fates situation, where a weak Japanese script is damaged further by a meddling translation, as opposed to Awakening where changes to the script are almost all in service of giving the characters distinct "voices", building a tone for the game, and giving flavor to the game.
You might say this is hypocritical to forgive the changes to Awakening, but not Fates or Engage, but the difference is that Awakening was done in good faith as far as I can tell, and far more gently. There's a difference between giving Chrom's Mercenaries the name " The Shepards" in English, and changing a character's whole personality to being obsessed with pickles, or removing entire conversations for a joke, or removing anything hinting at a relationship because heaven forbid seventeen year olds have any sort of sex drive.
Was the writing for Three Houses really affected? I got the impression that it was mostly loyal to the base material.
Three houses is the one I know least about. I didn't hear too much about it other than that it was well recieved, so it probably wasn't as bad as Fates. Maybe someone else knows the details.
My basic understanding is that there were enough strange changes that didn't add anything to the character to annoy a few diehards, but not enough to go viral like Fates. Many were again around references to anyone's (man or woman) femininity.
I don't know if it was changed from the original, but playing it, there were a few support dialogues that made me raise my eyebrows. The characters Dorothea and Mercedes, who are commoners, would criticize the beliefs of another character called Lorenz, for his beliefs about his role and responsibilities as a noble. The specific way they'd argue against him seemed utterly strange to me; as if someone from the modern day had transplanted their beliefs in the girls' minds about right and wrong, as if they hadn't grown up their entire lives in a feudal society. I haven't heard about this being a case of localization, but maybe it was, because those two conversations just seemed out of place, somehow, in that universe.
But otherwise, I didn't really notice anything blatant, when I was playing the game.