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.

As I said all game since Fates, which came out in 2016 have been heavily altered in localization, and even before that, 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.

As I said all game since Fates, which came out in 2016 have been heavily altered in localization, and even before that, much of the core identity of the series has changed to be more centered on character relationships and shipping, whit 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 Shepard's" 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.